heological
disputes,--how barren it is needless to say; all physical activity had
been occupied in destroying or in protecting life. "There were indeed,"
says Buckle,[35] "many priests and many warriors, many sermons and many
battles. But, on the other hand, there was neither trade, nor commerce,
nor manufactures; there was no science, no literature; the useful arts
were entirely unknown; and even the highest ranks of society were
unacquainted, not only with the most ordinary comforts, but with the
commonest decencies of civilized life." But the New Learning dealt
with secular subjects, and aimed at material welfare. At Antwerp, says
More:

"Vpon a certayne daye, when I hadde herde the diuine seruice in our
Ladies Churche, which is the fayrest, the most gorgeous and curious
churche of buyldyng in all the Citie, and also the most frequented
of people, and the seruice beynge doone, was readye to go home to
my lodgynge, I chaunced to espye this foresayde Peter talkynge with
a certayne Straunger, a man well stricken in age, with a blacke
sonneburned face, a longe bearde, and a cloke cast homly about his
shoulders, whome, by his fauoure and apparell furthwith I iudged to
bee a mariner."[36]

This was the fictitious personage whose travels had led him to the
distant island of Utopia, and who described to Sir Thomas the nature of
its government. Europe for fifteen centuries had been under the control
of the clergy, and what had been the result? Where was the progress?
How much had the barbarism of one century differed from that of the
last? But in Utopia there was no priesthood. Men had a simple faith.
They "were persuaded that it is not in a man's power to believe what he
list," and when they met in public worship it was to hold such services
that all might freely join in them. Religion in Utopia was left to the
individual conscience. War was considered an unmitigated evil, and
never undertaken except in the extremest necessity. The people of
Utopia, therefore, not being exclusively occupied, on the one hand,
with discussing their religion and enforcing it on others, or, on the
other hand, with violating all its teachings, were able to think of
other things. How to make the best laws for the government of the
commonwealth; how to deal with crime, with labor; how to promote the
highest condition of general well-being, as regarded the public health,
public education, the comfort and cleanli