tremendous influence in spite of prevailing standards; could not
but shed rays of light and warmth in the midst of the surrounding
darkness. Although men's ideas of the church became perverted, they
could not entirely lose sight of the great Founder of the church, and
they could not escape the conviction that the record of the founding
of that church was given in the writings of the New Testament and that
these writings were worthy of peculiar veneration. Perhaps this is
the main reason why the learning of antiquity was chiefly preserved in
monasteries and churches. There were ecclesiastics in all these
ages who were acquainted with the Scriptures in Latin, and this
acquaintance tended to preserve the knowledge of Jesus the Christ as
portrayed in the original gospel records. The history of that epoch
proves that there were men who loved the Lord more than priestly forms
and ceremonial observances. John Wyclif, Jerome of Prague, John Huss,
and others experienced that deeper longing for personal relationship
with Christ, and they proclaimed the gospel of Christ in a manner that
could not be understood by the hierarchy of their times.

[Sidenote: Classical learning]

Jesus was indeed the Christ of God. The light which shone forth from
his presence could not be totally obscured, and the moral power and
influence of his life and teaching could not be destroyed. The revival
of classical learning restored the Greek Testament to western Europe
and attracted the attention of students and learned men in all the
monasteries and universities. While the hierarchy insisted on the
exclusive right to interpret the Scriptures, the simple reading of
these wonderful records could not but create new conceptions of truth
which no clerical prohibition could banish. Life was springing up in
the midst of death.