Error was rapidly creeping into the church, and it came principally through these schools, as has already been seen. However, truth was not abandoned for error without a struggle. Mosheim says: “The estimation in which human learning should be held was a question on which the Christians were about equally divided. For while many thought that the literature and writings of the Greeks ought to receive attention, _there were others who contended that true piety and religion were endangered by such studies_.”[66] People then, as now, looked to the leaders in the church for guidance; and it was hard, when these studies were popular, for the conscientious to withdraw entirely to what the others called a narrow, limited education. It often led to contention among members of the same church, and often even parents and children failed to agree on the subject. [Sidenote: Wrong methods retained] “But gradually,” continues Mosheim, “the _friends of philosophy and literature acquired the ascendency_. To this issue Origen contributed very much; for having early imbibed the principles of the NEW PLATONISM, _he inauspiciously applied them to theology_, and earnestly recommended them to the numerous youth who attended on his instruction. And the greater the influence of this man, which quickly spread over the whole Christian world, the more readily was his method of explaining the sacred doctrines propagated.” [Sidenote: Origin of the papacy] The days when the papacy should be recognized as the beast of Revelation 13 were fast approaching. Such experiences in the history of education in the Christian church show how rapidly the life of the Master, the Spirit of truth, was giving place to the form of godliness which denied the power thereof. One reading thus the pages of history can not fail to see that the papacy _was formed in the minds of men_, WAS PROPAGATED IN THE SCHOOLS, AND REALLY TOOK BIRTH IN THE EDUCATIONAL SYSTEM THEN DEVELOPED. The political power, which was called upon to help the church, simply carried out at the point of the sword those principles which were developed in the schools. The two streams—paganism and apostate Christianity—united; and in the mad current which flowed from their confluence, men’s souls were lost forever. CHRISTIAN EDUCATION is the pure water of life, clear and sparkling, which flows from the throne of God; but when mingled with the turbid waters of the valley, it is lost sight of, and the current is evil. The part played by Platonic philosophy can not be overlooked. The foundation had already been laid in the third century for the scholasticism of the Middle Ages, and that “noontide of the papacy which was the world’s moral midnight” was fast approaching. X THE PAPACY—AN EDUCATIONAL PROBLEM