ssance begins with
the fourteenth century, the thirteenth is entirely neglected, and a
period that is really one of decadence is proclaimed a triumphant era
of progress, because forsooth the removal from Rome of the Papacy and
the abandonment by some of Christianity itself, gives him an
opportunity to explain, thus from his prejudiced point of view, how
the first stirrings of the Renaissance began. Verily indeed Professor
Draper has written a joke book of history. Everything is along the
same line. It is very rare, indeed, that by some chance he states a
genuine historical truth, and when he does he usually disfigures it in
some way or other. For him the Moors are the source of chivalry, of
respect for women(!), and of the noble sentiment of personal honor.
Everything else that is of any value in Christendom, must be referred
to some source not Christian, lest by any chance religion should seem
to have done any good in the world. _And let us not forget that this
book was taken seriously, and not by the ignorant, but by university
men, college graduates, professors, and teachers in many parts of the
country._

Above all Professor Draper can scarcely be too bitter in his
denunciation of the way that the poor were imposed upon, their
ignorance encouraged, their rights refused, and all opportunities
denied them. All this was due, according to Professor Draper, to the
tyranny of the Church. President Woodrow Wilson, after making a
special study of that subject, suggested in a passage in his book,
which may be found in "The New Freedom," exactly the opposite of this.
He knew something of the subject. Professor Draper was quite sure that
he knew all about it, and that no good could have possibly come out of
the Church. President Wilson's expressions are interesting to those
who do not know them:

"The only reason why government did not suffer dry rot in the Middle
Ages under the aristocratic systems which then prevailed, was that
the men who were efficient instruments of government were drawn from
the Church--from that great Church, that body we now distinguish
from other Church bodies as the Roman Catholic Church. The Roman
Catholic Church then, as now, was a great democracy. There was no
peasant so humble that he might not become a priest, and no priest
so obscure that he might not become a Pope of Christendom, and every
chancellory in Europe was ruled by those learned, trained and
accomplished men--th