drain on the country, of absolutely no benefit to themselves or to
others. Professor Draper wrote: [Footnote 65]

[Footnote 65: Page 267.]

"While thus the higher clergy secured every political appointment
worth having, and abbots vied with counts, in the herds of slaves
they possessed--some, it is said, owned not fewer than twenty
thousand--begging friars pervaded society in all directions, picking
up a share of what still remained to the poor. There was a vast body
of non-producers, living in idleness and owning a foreign
allegiance, who were subsisting on the fruits of the toil of the
laborers. It could not be otherwise than that small farms should be
unceasingly merged into the larger estates; that the poor should
steadily become poorer; that society far from improving, should
exhibit a continually increasing demoralization."

As a commentary on this, read the following paragraph from Mr. Ralph
Adams Cram's book on "The Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain," in which he
describes what the monasteries actually did for the people. Mr. Cram
has made a special study of the subject in connection with the
magnificent architecture which these medieval monks developed, and
which he would like to have our people appreciate and emulate.
Professor Draper is much more positive, but Mr. Cram is much more
convincing. [Footnote 66]

[Footnote 66: _The Ruined Abbeys of Great Britain_. New York: The
Churchman Co., 1905, p. 458.]

"At the height of monastic glory the religious houses were actually
the chief centres of industry and civilization, and around them grew
up the eager villages, many of which now exist, even though their
impulse and original inspiration have long since departed. Of
course, the possessions of the abbey reached far away from the walls
in every direction, including many farms even at a great distance,
for the abbeys were then the great landowners, and beneficent
landlords they were as well; even in their last days, for we have
many records of the cruelty and hardships that came to {506} the
tenants the moment the stolen lands came into the hands of laymen."

Or, almost better still, read the following paragraph from an address
at the summer meeting of the State Board of Agriculture of
Massachusetts, delivered by Dr. Henry Goodell, the President of the
Massachusetts Agricultural College, on the general subject of the
influence of the monks in agriculture:

"Agricult