" No other text of Scripture--save perhaps
one--has caused the shedding of so much innocent blood.
As we look over the history of the Middle Ages, we do,
indeed, see another growth from which one might hope much; for
there were two great streams of influence in the Church, and
never were two powers more unlike each other.
On one side was the spirit of Christianity, as it proceeded
from the heart and mind of its blessed Founder, immensely
powerful in aiding the evolution of religious thought and effort,
and especially of provision for the relief of suffering by
religious asylums and tender care. Nothing better expresses this
than the touching words inscribed upon a great medieval
hospital, "_Christo in pauperibus suis_." But on the other side
was the theological theory--proceeding, as we have seen, from the
survival of ancient superstitions, and sustained by constant
reference to the texts in our sacred books--that many, and
probably most, of the insane were possessed by the devil or in
league with him, and that the cruel treatment of lunatics was
simply punishment of the devil and his minions.
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