296 ESSAYS AND LETfERS
been but temporary. It is characteristic of relipon — as of all that is really alive— that it is born, develops, grows old, dies and again comes to life, and comes to life ever in forms more perfect than before. After a period of higher development in religion, a period of decrepitude and lifelessness always follows, to be usually succeeded in its turn by a period of regenera- tion, and the establishment of a religious doctrine wiser and clearer than before. Such periods of develo}>- ment, decrepitude, and regeneration have occurred in all religions. In the profound religion of Brahmanism, as soon as it began to grow old and to petrify into fixed and coarse forms not suited to its fundamental meaning, came on one side a renascence of Brah- manism itself, and on the other the lofty teachings of Buddhism, which advanced humanity^s comprehension of its relation to the Infinite. A similar decline occurred in the Greek and Roman religions, and then, following the lowest depths of that decline, appeared Christianity. TTie same thing occurred again with Church-Christianity, which in Byzantium degenerated into idolatry and polytheism. To counterbalance this perverted Christianity there arose, on one hand, the Paulicians,* and on the other (in opposition to the doc- trine of the Trinity and to Mariolatry) came strict Mohammedanism with its fundamental dogma of One God. 'ITie same thing happened again with Papal Mediaeval Christianity, which evoked the Reforma- tion, so that periods when religion weakens in its influence on the majority of men are a necessary con- dition of the life and development of all religions teachings. This occurs because every religious teach- ing in its true meaning, however crude it may be, always establishes a relation between man and the Infinite, which is alike for all men. Every religion regards men as equally insignificant compared to
- The Paulicians were a sect who played a great part in
the history of the Eastern Church (seventh to twelfth centuries). They rejected the Church view of Christ's teaching, and were cruelly persecuted.
