A. D. 1290 to 1361.
Man's religion, like himself, combines the seen and temporal with the unseen and eternal. The soul, or spirit, or unseen reality of religion, is something entirely distinct from the visible form in which it is embodied. The two may exist apart, but the normal condition is that of combination in balance, and harmony, and mutual helpfulness. Religion may exist only as a corpse; and it may exist only as a disembodied spirit. There may be only the visible appearance, the phenomena of churches, and dogmas, and sacraments, and sermons, without any interior and spiritual reality. There have been, as we know, not only individuals, but whole communities and long ages, in which this has been the case, when religion has been like the fair shell of a nut in which the kernel has completely decayed. And, on the other hand, there may be religion which takes on little or no visible manifestation, no church, no human ministry, no formulated creed, no sacraments, nothing save the spiritual intercourse between man and his God.—"Some Heretics of Yesterday,"
