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THE INFLUENCE OF CHRISTIANITY. 141
which the lights of the Christian Church manifested in
regard to the intellectual creations of the Greeks and
Romans* the one-sidedness which moved them to confine
their choice of material to what had been transmitted
through Jewish and Christian channels, and the tendency to
disparage the civilization acquired in ancient times, gave to
these literary productions a very prejudiced character and
make it clear to us why enlightened contemporaries, not
affected by religious bias, were able to discern in them
no sign of progress in the intellectual development of
man.
If the struggle between the Christian training and that of
the Ancients had been decided with the weapons of the
intellect the. superiority of the latter must have been
proved: but it was soon transferred to the fields of political
power where the victory falls to the strongest. When the
Christians, after having for centuries been persecuted by
the heathen, at length obtained dominion in the state, they
on their side began to oppress their former oppressors.
Eagerly labouring to dig up the roots which attached man­
kind to the heathen past, they attacked the system of
teaching resting upon the study of the ancients, and endea­
voured so to modify it in accordance with their way of
thinking that it should assume a form compatible with
Christian dogma. Failing in this they employed force
and abolished the teaching-institutions. By an edict of
JUSTINIAN' of the year 529 the schools of philosophy at
Athens and Alexandria were closed. The last of the Greek
philosophers abandoned their homes and sought protection
and freedom for thought in foreign lands. In Constantinople
and other places, especially in the countries of the west,
the temples of the Muses were transformed into Christian
schools in which the study of religion was the predominant
feature. The priests took over the direction of education
and became the representatives of knowledge. To them
* Archiv. f. Geschichte u. Literatur; herausg. v. F. C. SCHLOSSER U. BERCHT
i, S. 253 et seq.