Sometimes the latter stream quite pollutes the former, sometimes they flow side by side, perfectly distinguishable, as in Aztec ethical piety, compared with the bloody Aztec ritualism.

Like the Mosaic Law, under the sedulous care of the sacerdotal orders it ripened into a most burdensome ritualism.

So they separated from the Established Church, and became what were called Nonconformists,having not only disgust of the decent ritualism of the Church, but great wrath for the bishops and hierarchy and spiritual courts.

The chief rival of Christianity was Judaism, which was represented in Northern as in Southern Arabia by strong colonies of Jews, who made proselytes, although their strict ritualism was uncongenial to the Arab temperament which preferred conversion to Christianity (naturally only as a matter of form).