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063 - 32 Retrospect · Short History of the Christian Church

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  Speaker 1: Part two, Chapter thirty two of Short History of the
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  Speaker 1: Christian Church by John Fletcher Hurst. This LibriVox recording is
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  Speaker 1: in the public domain. Chapter thirty two retrospect. The condition
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  Speaker 1: of the European Church at the close of the medieval
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  Speaker 1: period was in marked contrast with that at the beginning.
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  Speaker 1: The uncertainty as to whether Christianity could adapt itself to
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  Speaker 1: the universal spiritual needs of Europe was now solved. The
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  Speaker 1: East and the West changed places. The East, overridden by
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  Speaker 1: internal divisions and trampled by the Saracen conquerors, passed into
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  Speaker 1: an oblivion which has lasted until modern times and has
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  Speaker 1: been only in part relieved by the rise of the
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  Speaker 1: Russo Greek Church. Had the Eastern Church adhered to Orthodox
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  Speaker 1: standards and preserved its spiritual unity, it is not at
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  Speaker 1: all likely that its vast territory would have been overrun
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  Speaker 1: by the Saracens. On the contrary, there is every reason
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  Speaker 1: to believe that from Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria and
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  Speaker 1: other centers, the whole of India, China, Japan and other
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  Speaker 1: Oriental countries would have been evangelized many centuries ago, instead
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  Speaker 1: of just now becoming great mission fields for Western Christianity
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  Speaker 1: to rescue from paganism. The transfer of universal interests to
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  Speaker 1: the Western Church was complete. At the close of the
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  Speaker 1: Middle Ages. No questions were asked of the Eastern patriarchs.
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  Speaker 1: Rome held the power in its own hands until a
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  Speaker 1: stronger force, the Reformation appeared in Germany. The stages of
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  Speaker 1: progress are well defined. From the eighth century to the
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  Speaker 1: middle of the eleventh the German peoples became evangelized and
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  Speaker 1: gave full promise of their future large place in universal
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  Speaker 1: Christian thought and life. From the middle of the eleventh
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  Speaker 1: century to the thirteenth the papacy grew into enormous proportions.
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  Speaker 1: There never floated before the mind of Julius Caesar or
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  Speaker 1: Trajan a larger empire than that to which Gregory the
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  Speaker 1: Seventh and other occupants of the Roman Sea aspired. The
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  Speaker 1: Saxon and the Latin Christian at the end of the
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  Speaker 1: Middle Ages confronted each other. The Latin represented the past,
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  Speaker 1: the Saxon the future and the permanent. The force which
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  Speaker 1: destroyed the old and strong Roman conditions was Titanic. The
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  Speaker 1: Saxon hammer was irresistible. The Germans of the north were kinsmen,
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  Speaker 1: to the Saxons and the angles of Britain. Why Cliff
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  Speaker 1: and Luther were from a common cradle of Teutonic honesty
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  Speaker 1: and liberty. The Roman conquest of Britain was political. The
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  Speaker 1: spiritual conqueror in all later history was still the Saxon.
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  Speaker 1: Every triumph of religion and liberty in the England of
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  Speaker 1: modern times can be traced back to the Teutonic element
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  Speaker 1: in the English race. In the great advance of modern peoples,
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  Speaker 1: the Latin is inferior to the Saxon in all spiritual upbuilding.
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  Speaker 1: The sad moral condition of South America, Mexico, Spain, Italy,
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  Speaker 1: and the Jesuit missions in India and other Eastern countries
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  Speaker 1: is a striking proof of what the world would be
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  Speaker 1: today had not the Saxon been at the head of
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  Speaker 1: the world's greatest affairs. The tree must be tested by
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  Speaker 1: its fruits. We have only to examine the map of
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  Speaker 1: the conquests of the Saxon Christian and compare it with
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  Speaker 1: that of the Latin Christian in order to see where
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  Speaker 1: the honor of all great modern advancement belongs. End of
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  Speaker 1: Chapter thirty two, end of Part two