ver of the doctrine or of the saints of the West. Now was divulged
the secret reason of that bitter hatred displayed by the Catholic clergy
to Grecian learning. [Sidenote: Causes of the prevailing dislike of
Greek.] It had sometimes been supposed that the ill-concealed dislike
they had so often shown to the writings of Aristotle was because of the
Arab dress in which his Saracen commentators had presented him; now it
appeared that there was something more important, more profound. It was
a terror of the Greek itself. Very soon the direction toward which
things must inevitably tend became manifest; the modern languages, fast
developing, were making Latin an obsolete tongue, and political events
were giving it a rival--Greek--capable of asserting over it a supremacy;
and not a solitary rival, for to Greek it was clear that Hebrew would
soon be added, bringing with it the charms of a hoary antiquity and the
sinister learning of the Jew. With a quick, a jealous suspicion, the
ecclesiastic soon learned to detect a heretic from his knowledge of
Greek and Hebrew, just as is done in our day from a knowledge of
physical science. The authority of the Vulgate, that corner-stone of the
Italian system, was, in the expectation of Rome, inevitably certain to
be depreciated; and, in truth, judging from the honours of which that
great translation was soon despoiled by the incoming of Greek and
Hebrew, it was declared, not with more emphasis than truth, yet not,
perhaps, without irreverence, that there was a second crucifixion
between two thieves. Long after the times of which we are speaking, the
University of Paris resisted the introduction of Greek into its course
of studies, not because of any dislike to letters, but because of its
anticipated obnoxious bearing on Latin theology.

[Sidenote: Tendency of "The Imitation of Christ."] We can scarcely look
in any direction without observing instances of the wonderful change
taking place in the opinions of men. To that disposition to lean on a
privileged mediating order, once the striking characteristic of all
classes of the laity in Europe, there had succeeded a sentiment of
self-reliance. Of this perhaps mo better proof can be furnished than the
popularity of the work reputed to have been written by Thomas a Kempis,
and entitled "The Imitation of Christ." It is said to have had probably
more readers than any other book except the Bible. Its great celebrity
is a proof how profoundly eccles