But the monk cruelly deceived himself. His
self-inflicted tortures developed within his soul an unnatural piety, "a
piety," says White, "that became visionary and introspective, a theology
of black clouds and lightning and thunder, a superstitious religion
based on dreams and saint's bones." True penitence consists in high and
holy purposes, in pure and unselfish living, and not in disfigurements
and in misery. Dreariness and fear are not the proper manifestations of
that perfect love which casteth out fear.
The influence of monasticism upon the doctrine of atonement for sin
was, in many respects, prejudicial to the best interests of religion.
The monks are largely responsible for the theory that sin can be atoned
for by pecuniary gifts. It may be said that they did not ignore true
feelings of repentance, of which the gold was merely a tangible
expression, but the notion widely prevailed that the prayers of the
monks, purchased by temporal gifts, secured the forgiveness of the
transgressor. The worship of saints, pilgrimages to shrines, and
reverence for bones and other relics, were assiduously encouraged.
Thus the monkish conception of salvation and of the means by which it is
to be obtained were at variance with any reasonable interpretation of
the Scriptures and the dictates of human reason. "It measured virtue,"
says Schaff, "by the quantity of outward exercises, instead of the
quality of the inward disposition, and disseminated self-righteousness
and an anxious, legal, and mechanical religion[K].
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