DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.6914#0035
INTRODUCTION" OF CHRISTIANITY.
3
^ itli this review the history of ecclesiastical architecture is inseparably
onnected ; for it originated with the religion which united so many institutions;
ccommodated, at different periods, and in various forms, many successive
establishments ; it was created and raised by the prejudices of one age; increased
improved by the zeal and craft of another; and spoiled and mutilated by the
fanaticism of a third.
As a necessary preliminary to the succeeding chapters illustrative of Eccle-
siastical Architecture, it has been considered useful and essentially necessary to
e ore the reader a concise account of the origin, progress, and effects of th
•gion to which that architecture was devoted, the particular institutions which
occasioned its successive improvement, and the customs, rites, and economy to
which the whole was adapted.
In estimating the benefits produced by tbe introduction of the Christian religion
into Britain, we are not so much to regard the immediate effects of that event, as the
oundation thereby laid for the moral amelioration of subsequent ages. For many
centuries, its advantages were slowly unfolded ; yet in spite of the impediments
created by priestcraft and superstition, its humanizing influence progressively
prevailed ; until the reformation, at length, more fully developed the purity of
those doctrines which yet remain unknown to a large portion of mankind, and are
but imperfectly understood by the remainder. In this age and country, we seldom
mistake credulity for faith, or allow to mere corporeal austerities and mortifications
that veneration which is due to superior virtue,—the infallible and only mark
°f genuine piety. We are therefore enabled at the present day to appreciate the
curient stories of the purity and simplicity of morals and worship among the
primitive British Christians, which existed only in the imagination of enthusiastic
wnters of subsequent ages. When ignorant men engage in divine contemplations,
^ey fall inevitably into superstition; they behold in the Deity, only a tyrant,
e ighting in ^e miseries and privations of his subjects; they imagine his laws
med purposely for the condemnation of his creatures, and they seek to appease
um by various sacrifices, which differ in barbarity according to the manners and
customs of different societies. Human victims form the horrid propitiation of some
worshippers ; while others seek to appease heaven by the slaughter of sheep and
xen- Cruel and unnatural torments, self-inflicted, and the renunciation of every
ar y blessing, are by another species of fanatics considered the most certain.
means of averting divine wrath.
3
^ itli this review the history of ecclesiastical architecture is inseparably
onnected ; for it originated with the religion which united so many institutions;
ccommodated, at different periods, and in various forms, many successive
establishments ; it was created and raised by the prejudices of one age; increased
improved by the zeal and craft of another; and spoiled and mutilated by the
fanaticism of a third.
As a necessary preliminary to the succeeding chapters illustrative of Eccle-
siastical Architecture, it has been considered useful and essentially necessary to
e ore the reader a concise account of the origin, progress, and effects of th
•gion to which that architecture was devoted, the particular institutions which
occasioned its successive improvement, and the customs, rites, and economy to
which the whole was adapted.
In estimating the benefits produced by tbe introduction of the Christian religion
into Britain, we are not so much to regard the immediate effects of that event, as the
oundation thereby laid for the moral amelioration of subsequent ages. For many
centuries, its advantages were slowly unfolded ; yet in spite of the impediments
created by priestcraft and superstition, its humanizing influence progressively
prevailed ; until the reformation, at length, more fully developed the purity of
those doctrines which yet remain unknown to a large portion of mankind, and are
but imperfectly understood by the remainder. In this age and country, we seldom
mistake credulity for faith, or allow to mere corporeal austerities and mortifications
that veneration which is due to superior virtue,—the infallible and only mark
°f genuine piety. We are therefore enabled at the present day to appreciate the
curient stories of the purity and simplicity of morals and worship among the
primitive British Christians, which existed only in the imagination of enthusiastic
wnters of subsequent ages. When ignorant men engage in divine contemplations,
^ey fall inevitably into superstition; they behold in the Deity, only a tyrant,
e ighting in ^e miseries and privations of his subjects; they imagine his laws
med purposely for the condemnation of his creatures, and they seek to appease
um by various sacrifices, which differ in barbarity according to the manners and
customs of different societies. Human victims form the horrid propitiation of some
worshippers ; while others seek to appease heaven by the slaughter of sheep and
xen- Cruel and unnatural torments, self-inflicted, and the renunciation of every
ar y blessing, are by another species of fanatics considered the most certain.
means of averting divine wrath.