It tended to destroy the power of self-command, and exposed the master to the baneful influences of flattery.
Such were some of the methods that Torquemada introduced into the Spanish Inquisition, which was to have so baneful an effect upon the whole country.
He was perhaps wanting in firmness of character, and the undue influence exercised over him by unscrupulous ministers, or by the seductions of fairer but no less ambitious votaries of statecraft, led him to make concessions which tarnished the glory of his reign, and were followed by baneful results for the welfare of his empire.
According to Ephraim's biographer, his main motive for providing these hymns set to music was his desire to counteract the baneful effects produced by the heretical hymns of Bardaisan and his son Harmonius, which had enjoyed popularity and been sung among the Edessenes for a century and a half.
In this manner the movement in favour of ending the baneful regime of Leopold II.
