ABSTRACT

Christian powers have indeed during the last few hundred years been guilty of most sanguinary wars among themselves, and mere jealousy has proved itself sufficient to prevent them from joining in arms against the Moslem. From quite early days there existed an occasional tendency for larger or smaller numbers of Christians to sever themselves from the main body; and in the eleventh century an extremely important schism took place, the Eastern and Western groups definitely separating. Again in the sixteenth century a very large number of Western Christians severed themselves from the traditionally organised Church, and, taking the name of Protestants, formed a number of independent bodies. From the earliest times Christians have uniformly adopted the starting-point that all men are sinners.