t parallel to the
sanity of classic Greece as compared with the flabbiness of Hellenistic
times.

In the New Testament, itself, there are many evidences of the
acceptance of a dualistic view of the world. Satan is the Prince of
this World. We have already pointed out that the writers of the
gospels think of Jesus as casting out demons which have infested the
bodies of men and women and made them sick. Yet, strange to say, we
are told that not a sparrow falls to the ground without God's consent.

This dualistic strand of thinking dominated during {156} the Middle
Ages. The world is given over to the devil for him to work his will
upon it. Here we have both a cause and an effect of the pessimism of
the times. For the early Christians, society was corrupt and filled
with abominations; the only sure way to achieve salvation was to flee
from its lure to deserts and monasteries, there to purge the soul of
fleshly desires. No one has painted the situation more keenly and
unflinchingly than Anatole France in _Thais_. Humanity was sick. A
strong wave of asceticism spread from the East to the West and carried
with it doctrines based on the metaphysical extension of the contrast
between light and darkness, good and evil. Matter is evil in its very
nature and leagues itself with those instincts in the soul which come
from its contamination with flesh. The taint of original sin is
deepened by the grossness of the material out of which man's earthly
tabernacle is made. The body with its passions plays double traitor to
the soul. Only by prayer, purification, fasting, and the grace of God
can the son of corruption save his soul alive for the heavenly kingdom
among the stars.

The number of mythical elements woven into this ascetic dualism is
striking. Woman was the temptress most to be feared; the daughters of
Eve were considered the most powerful instruments Satan had at his
command. It was even debated whether she had a soul. It was even
whispered that a woman guarded the gates of Hell. Again, Satan was
pictured as a demon leading the unwary astray by the desires of this
world. Ethics was an affair of external fighting for the souls of men.
The whole setting was mythical and supernaturalistic and full of
picture-thinking.

{157}

We have already referred to the doctrine of original sin. This
doctrine was taken up by St. Augustine who had been a Manichean.
Pauline theology, Augustinianism, and Manicheism hav