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LONDON: PRINTED BY
SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE AND PARLIAMENT STREET
HISTORY
OF
EUROPEAN MORALS
FROM
AUGUSTUS TO CHARLEMAGNE.
BY
WILLIAM EDWARD HARTPOLE LECKY, M.A.
IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. II.
LONDON:
LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
1869.
119390-B
The right of translation is reserved.
CONTENTS
THE SECOND VOLUME.
CHAPTER IV.
FROM CONSTANTINE TO CHARLEMAGNE.
Difference between the moral teaching of a philosophy and that
of a religion
Moral efficacy of the Christian sense of sin
Dark views of human nature not common in the early Church
The penitential system
PAGE
1357
Admirable efficacy of Christianity in eliciting disinterested
enthusiasm
Great purity of the early Christians
12
The promise of the Church for many centuries falsified
General sketch of the moral condition of the Byzantine and
Western Empires
13
4288
9
The question to be examined in this chapter is, the cause of
this comparative failure
18
First Consequence of Christianity, a new Sense of the Sanctity of
Human Life
This sense only very gradually acquired
19
Abortion.-Infanticide.
22
Care of exposed children.-History of foundling hospitals
Aversion to capital punishments
Penal code not lightened by Christianity
Suicide
Second Consequence of Christianity, to teach Universal Brother-
hood
34
37
41
43
44
46-65
Laws concerning slavery
66
The Church discipline and services brought master and slave
together.
70
Charity. Measures of the Pagans for the relief of the poor
Noble enthusiasm of the Christians in the cause of charity
Their exertions when the Empire was subverted
Inadequate place given to this movement in history
78
84
87
90
Two Qualifications to our Admiration of the Charity of the
Church
Theological notions concerning insanity.
History of lunatic asylums
Indiscriminate almsgiving.-The political economy of charity Injudicious charity often beneficial to the donor
History of the modifications of the old views about charity
Beneficial effect of the Church in supplying pure images to the
imagination
Summary of the philanthropic achievements of Christianity
The Growth of Asceticism
Causes of the ascetic movement
Its rapid extension
The Saints of the Desert
General characteristics of their legends.
Astounding penances attributed to the saints.
Miseries and joys of the hermit life.-Dislike to knowledge
Hallucinations
The relations of female devotees with the anchorites
Celibacy was made the primal virtue.-Effects of this upon
moral teaching.
Gloomy hue imparted to religion
Strong assertion of freewill
Depreciation of the qualities that accompany a strong physical
temperament
91
94
96
101
131
Destruction of the domestic virtues.—Inhumanity of saints to
their relations
History of the relations of Christianity to patriotism.
Influence of the latter in hastening the fall of the Empire
Permanent difference between ancient and modern societies in
the matter of patriotism