If a good layman might barely shoulder his way through the strait and narrow gate, the highest graces and heavenly rewards were vouchsafed to the faithful monk.

All this grated harshly on the minds of the generations that began to find life glorious and happy, not evil but good.
[Sidenote: Worship of saints] Third, the worship of the saints, which had once been a stepping-stone to higher things, was now widely regarded as a stumbling-block.

Though far from a scientific conception of natural law, many men had become sufficiently monistic in their philosophy to see in the current hagiolatry a sort of polytheism.

Erasmus freely drew the parallel between the saints and the heathen deities, and he and others scourged the grossly materialistic form which this worship often took.

If we may believe him, fugitive nuns prayed for help in hiding their sin; merchants for a rich haul; gamblers for luck; and prostitutes for generous {29} patrons.