2 40. POSITION OF MOHAMMEDANISM, ETC. 151
Christianity, originated in the desire to wrest the holy land from the followers of " the false prophet," and brought the East in contact with the West. The monarchy and the church of Spain, with their architecture, chivalry, bigotry, and inquisition, emerged from a fierce conflict with the Moors. Even the Reformation in the sixteenth century was com plicated with the Turkish question, which occupied the attention of the diet of Augsburg as much as the Confession of the Evangelical princes and divines. Luther, in one of his most popular hymns, prays for deliverance from " the murdering Pope and Turk," as the two chief enemies of the gospel1; and the Anglican Prayer Book, in the collect for Good Friday, invokes God " to have mercy upon all Turks," as well as upon " Jews, Infidels, and Heretics." 2
The danger for Western Christendom from that quarter has long since passed away ; the " unspeakable " Turk has ceased to be unconquerable, but the Asiatic and a part of the East Euro pean portion of the Greek church are still subject to the despotic rule of the Sultan, whose throne in Constantinople has been for more than four hundred years a standing insult to Christendom.
Mohammedanism then figures as a hostile force, as a real Ishmaelite in church history; it is the only formidable rival which Christianity ever had, the only religion which for a while at least aspired to universal empire.
And yet it is not hostile only. It has not been without bene ficial effect upon Western civilization. It aided in the develop ment of chivalry; it influenced Christian architecture; it stimu lated the study of mathematics, chemistry, medicine (as is indicated by the technical terms : algebra, chemistry, alchemy) ; and the Arabic translations and commentaries on Aristotle by the Spanish
1 " FJrhalt uns, Hcrr, bei deinem Wort,
Und steur* des Papst's und Turken Mord"
2 The words "all Jews, Turks, Infidels, and Heretics," were inserted by the framers of the Prayer Book in the first edition (1547); the rest of the collect 19 translated from the old Latin service. In the middle ages the word " infidel " denoted a Mohammedan. The Mohammedans in turn call Christians, Jews, and all other religionists, "infidels" and "dogs."
152 FOURTH PERIOD. A.D. 590-1049.
Moors laid the philosophical foundation of scholasticism. Even the conquest of Constantinople by the Turks brought an in estimable blessing to the West by driving Greek scholars with the Greek Testament to Italy to inaugurate there the revival of letters which prepared the way for the Protestant Reformation.
Viewed in its relation to the Eastern Church which it robbed of the fairest dominions, Mohammedanism was a well-deserved divine punishment for the unfruitful speculations, bitter conten tions, empty ceremonialism and virtual idolatry which degraded and disgraced the Christianity of the East after the fifth century. The essence of true religion, love to God and to man, was eaten out by rancor and strife, and there was left no power of ultimate resistance to the foreign conqueror. The hatred between the orthodox Eastern church and the Eastern schismatics driven from her communion, and the jealousy between the Greek and Latin churches prevented them from aiding each other in eiforts to arrest the progress of the common foe. The Greeks detested the Latin Filioque as a heresy more deadly than Islam ; while the Latins cared more for the supremacy of the Pope than the triumph of Christianity, and set up during the Crusades a rival hierarchy in the East. Even now Greek and Latin monks in Bethlehem and Jerusalem are apt to fight at Christmas and Eas ter over the cradle and the grave of their common Lord and Redeemer, unless Turkish soldiers keep them in order ! l
But viewed in relation to the heathenism from which it arose or which it converted, Mahommedanism is a vast progress, and
1 Archbishop Trench, /. c. p. 54 : " We can regard Mohammedanism in no other light than as a scourge of God upon a guilty church. He will not give his glory to another. He will not suffer the Creator and the creature to be confounded ; and if those who should have been witnesses for the truth, who had been appointed thereunto, forsake, forget, or deny it, He will raise up wit nesses from quarters the most unlocked for, and will strengthen their hands aud give victory to their arms even against those who bear his name, but have fcrgotten his truth." Similarly Dr. Jessup, L c. p. 14 : " The Mohammedan reli gion arose, in the providence of God, as a scourge to the idolatrous Christianity, and the pagan systems of Asia and Africa — a protest against polytheism, and a preparation for the future conversion to a pure Christianity of the multitude