of its very existence had well-nigh fled the earth. Nev- ertheless, some fragments of the true leaven still re- mained, sometimes in the Church, and sometimes in small and obscure sects like the Waldenses. A speci- men of the higher and better aspirations cherished by individuals is illustrated in the history of Raymond Lull (see Lully), but the difliculties in their way were in- superable. It need not be denied that the terrible evils of the crusades were in a subsequent period in many re- spects overruled for the good of humanity. But as it does not enter into the scope of providential action to atone for the crimes of men or the errors of Christians, the world and the Church are destined to suffer perpet- ual loss as a result of the milito-missionarv^ fanaticisms of the mediasval Church. What was needed to bring in the light of truth and civilization into the dreary centuries under consideration was the simple, earnest Gospel, accompanied by the pure Word of God, and illus- trated by the lives of its teachers. But a long period was destined to elapse before that most desirable con- summation was to be realized. Indeed, it was only by slow degrees, and through long r.nd painful struggles, that the Church again recovered the apostolic idea of missions.
7. Roman Catholic missions assumed a new and, in some respects, an impro\-ed phase during the 13th and 14th centuries, chiefly through the mendicant and preaching orders of Dominic and Francis d'Assisi. By them a vigorous effort was made to revive the Catholic faith in all the countries of Europe, and even to extend it by peaceful foreign missions among pagans and Mo- hammedans in various parts of Asia and Africa. " Iiv one important respect the founders of those new orders absolutely agreed — in their entire identification with the lowest of mankind. At first amicable, afterwards emu- lous, eventually hostile, they, or rather their orders, ri- valled each other in sinking below poverty into beg- gary. They were to live upon alms; the coarsest im- aginable dress, the hardest fare, the narrowest cell, wa& to keep them down to the level of the humblest. Both the new orders differed in the same manner, and greatly to the advantage of the hierarchical faith, from the old monkish institutions. Their primary object was not the salvation of the indi\-idual monk, but the salvation of others through him. Though, therefore, their rules within their monasteries were strictly and severely mo- nastic, bound by the common vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, seclusion was no part of their discipline. Their business was abroad rather than at home ; their dwelling was not like that of the old Benedictines, or others, in uncultivated swamps and forests of the North, on the dreary Apennines, or the exhausted soil of Italy, in order to subdue their bodies, and occupy their dan- gerously unoccupied time, merely as a secondary conse- quence, to compel the desert into fertile land. Their work was among their fellow-men, in the village, in the town, in the city, in the market, even in the camp. Monastic Christianity would no longer flee the world; it would subjugate it, or win it by gentle violence" (Mil- man, Lat. Christianity, v, 238). But, being monastic still, this form of Christianity lacked the vital elements of evangelical power, and soon ran into fearful excesses. Dominic himself personally took part in the bloody cru- sade against the Albigenses, which ere long was followed by the establishment of the Spanish Inquisition, with' Dominican friars as its generals and chief inquisitors. See Inquisition. The pretext in both cases was the conversion of heretics, for which confiscation, torture, and murder were as relentlessly applied to praying and Bible-reading Christians as to .lews and Moors. Thus the world had still to wait long centuries before the apostolic idea of Christian missions returned to the Church.
V. Modem Missions. — 1. Roman Catholic— Trior to the close of the loth century, the zeal of the Church of Rome had been roused to a" fervid state of excitement by the reported successes of the missionaries of the men-
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dicant orders who had followed in the train of Portu- guese discoveries along the coast of Africa and beyond the Cape of Good Hope to India. At lliat period the New World was discovered, and the fcrandeur of the fields that as a consequence were opened to conquest and adventure intlamed anew the zeal of propagandism. The idea of planting the cross upon the islands and con- tinents of America was deemed sutHcient to justify if not to hallow any violence necessary to subjugate the native idolators. Missionaries sailed in every fleet, and every new discovery was claimed by the Church in the name of some Christian sovereign. About the same period the order of the Jesuits was founded, which by its rapid increase and decisive intiuencc soon rivalled all preceding orders, sending forth its missionaries to India, Cliina, and Japan. See Jesuits. Thus a new and exciting impulse was given to agencies which suc- ceeded in planting Latin Christianity throughout re- gions of vastly greater extent than it had ever before occupiecL
No unprejudiced mind can become acquainted with the vast extent of the missionary operations undertaken and maintained by the missionaries of the Church of Kome during the IGth, 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries without according to the actors in them the meed of high admiration for their devotion and sclf-sacrilice, however he may lament the defects and errors of the system in connection with which they acted, and the low grade of Christian life they promoted.