instrument, on the other exalts her to sainthood or execrates her as
the chief impediment to holiness. Common sense, sanity of judgment,
acceptance of things as they are, resolution to ameliorate the evils
and to utilise the goods of life, seem everywhere deficient. Men are
obstinate in misconception of their proper aims, wasting their
energies upon shadows instead of holding fast by realities, waiting
for a future whereof they know nothing, in lieu of mastering and
economising the present. The largest and most serious undertakings of
united Europe in this period--the Crusades--are based upon a radical
mistake. "Why seek ye the living among the dead? Behold, He is not
here, but risen!" With these words ringing in their ears, the nations
flock to Palestine and pour their blood forth for an empty sepulchre.
The one Emperor who attains the object of Christendom by rational
means is excommunicated for his success. Frederick II. returns from
the Holy Land a ruined man because he made a compact useful to his
Christian subjects with the Chief of Islam.




II.


Such are some of the stereotyped ideas which crowd our mind when we
reflect upon the Middle Ages. They are certainly one-sided. Drawn for
the most part from the study of monastic literature, exaggerated by
that reaction against medievalism which the Renaissance initiated,
they must be regarded as inadequate to represent the whole truth. At
no one period between the fall of the Roman Empire and the close of
the thirteenth century was the mental atmosphere of Europe so