The clerical character being too generally what we have now described, the moral condition of the laity may be inferred. While so many of the priests were regardless of justice, truth, and purity, it would be unreasonable to look for much virtue among the people. There was a general regard paid to the forms of religion, but there was shown as general a disregard of its principles and spirit. Hallowed rites were associated with immoral practices; deeds of injustice and cruelty were prefaced by acts of devotion; the vilest characters breathed forth their aspirations to the Deity, and the virgin; and multitudes were punctilious in their observance of the ritual of the church, who were totally ignorant of the truths and duties of Christianity. This forms a state of society the most fearful. It was the condition of the Jews in the time of Isaiah, and the language of God to them, by the mouth of the prophet, applied with equal force to a large number of the religionists of the middle ages: "To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the Lord: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts: and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he goats. Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with: it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth; they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them."