Читать книгу Essentials in Church History - Joseph Fielding Smith - Страница 42

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Not content with absolute dominion over the spiritual and temporal affairs of the people, this papal kingdom attempted the exercise of authority also over the consciences of men. Especially was this so during the dark ages, when this power was at the zenith of its glory. This exercise of authority extended also far into the day when the light of religious freedom commenced to break forth, during the period known as the revival of learning. Previous to this revival, as we have seen, the language of learning was the Latin tongue. The people were helplessly dependent upon their priests for all instruction in scientific as well as religious thought. The few copies of the Bible extant were guarded by the clergy, and the scriptures were not accessible to the common people, and since they could neither read nor write, and in very few instances understood Latin, they would have been helpless even with the Bible in their hands. Under these conditions it is not to be wondered at that the poor people of those benighted countries of Europe, credulous and filled with superstitious fear, were ready to accept almost anything that was made known to them, in doctrine or deed, by unscrupulous priests.