of the greatest Popes not only
in the century in which he lived, but as distinguished as only a
comparatively small number have been among the successors of Peter.
Though he ascended the Papal throne at the age of seventy, the next
twenty years were full of work of all kinds, and John's wonderful
capacity for work stamps him as one of the great men of all time. It
is a well-known rule, constantly kept in mind by Catholic students of
history, that the Popes against whom the most objections are urged by
non-Catholic historians are practically always found, on close and
sympathetic study, to be striking examples of men who at least labored
to accomplish much. As a rule, they strove to correct abuses, and as a
consequence made bitter enemies, who left behind them {143} many
contemporary expressions of disapproval. Any contemporary authority is
somehow supposed to be infallible. We forget, when a man tries to do
good he is likely to meet with bitter opposition from many. If their
expressions are taken seriously by historians who write with the
purpose of finding just as little good and just as much evil as
possible in a particular character, the resulting appreciation is
likely to be rather far from the truth. If some of the criticisms of
our present President are only preserved long enough, how easy it will
be for a future historian who may have the purpose of showing how much
of evil began as the result of his policy, to find material on which
to build up his thesis. Men who do nothing make no enemies and also
make no mistakes. Fortunately, however, doing things is its own
justification.

John XXII. had had eminent opportunities for the acquisition of an
education as thorough, and a culture as broad, as any that might be
afforded even by our educational opportunities at the present time. He
had been many years at the University of Paris; he had traveled in
England, a rare occurrence in those days, and had spent most of his
time while there at Oxford; he had also passed several years in Italy
and was familiar with educational conditions down there. He certainly
did more for education than any man of his generation. He had the
greatest of opportunities, but it cannot but be said that he took
them, very wonderfully. There are very few in all the history of
education who have insisted as he on the important principles of the
necessity for careful training, for the maintenance of high standards
in examination and degree-givin