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447 APPENDIX IV THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGION ON GREEKS AND MOSLEMS RESPECTIVELY In reading the contemporary authors of the period between the Latin and the Moslem conquests the following questions suggest themselves : What was the influence of the Orthodox Church upon the people of the capital and of the empire ? What was it& value as a national ethical force ? and how did its influence as such a force compare with that of Islam ? Before attempting a reply to these questions certain facts must be noted. It must be remembered that the empire was composed of many races and languages. In the Balkan penin- sula alone there were always at least half a dozen races with as many different forms of speech. In Asia Minor the component elements of the population were even still more numerous. The Church largely aided the State in the endeavour to keep these divergent elements under the rule of the empire. Her special task was to change the various races into Christians. But even when this task was completed to the extent of causing them all to profess Christianity they retained their racial characteristics and traditions. These characteristics, though widely various, may be classified in two categories. In other words, it may be said that among all the different populations of the empire there were two streams of tendency : the Hellenic and the Asiatic. The tendency and influence of each were markedly present in the church from the first days of the empire and continued until 1453. Greek influence left an indelible impress upon the Orthodox Church. But while it influenced the other races of the empire, the Greeks themselves fell to some extent under the Asiatic influence. Greek tendency was always to make of Christianity a philosophy rather than a religion. The opposite tendency, which I have called Asiatic and which corresponds fairly well to what Matthew Arnold called Hebraic, had less enduring results upon the popula- tion but was nevertheless constantly present. The two tendencies were constantly striving one against the other within the Church.