Note 40 — Chapter XIII · CONCLUSION.

Still, though the principle that found so much favour in Germany in the seventeenth century40—Cuius regio eius religio,—was never adopted by any Muhammadan potentate, it is obvious that the fact of Islam being the state religion could not fail to have had some influence in increasing the number of its adherents. Persons on whom their religious faith sat lightly would be readily influenced by considerations of worldly advantage, and ambition and self-interest would take the place of more laudable motives for conversion. St. Augustine made a similar complaint in the fifth century, that many entered the Christian Church merely because they hoped to gain some temporal advantage thereby: “Quam multi non quaerunt Iesum, nisi ut illis faciat bene secundum tempus! Alius negotium habet, quaerit intercessionem clericorum; alius premitur a potentiore, fugit ad ecclesiam; alius pro se vult interveniri apud eum apud quem parum valet: ille sic, ille sic; impletur quotidie talibus ecclesia.”41