HENRY CHARLES LEA. xix 



edge. One speaks of his "welcome collection and exposition of 

 important and universally interesting material for church history, 

 grandiose capacity for labor, the use of inclusive and often obscure 

 sources and works of literature," another of the " long and clear 

 paths he has drawn through the masses of fact he has collected." 



The truth is Mr. Lea was a man who keenly resented injustice, 

 was shocked by unnecessary suffering and deplored waste. In eccle- 

 siastical history he found much that seemed to him worthy of con- 

 demnation, and he condemned it often in unsparing terms, blaming 

 freely men whose actions he thought wicked, and institutions which 

 he thought conducive to the perpetuation of injustice and the inflic- 

 tion of undeserved suffering. Those, on the other hand, who look 

 on the dominant influences of the middle ages with especial sym- 

 pathy, or feel called upon to defend the Catholic church from criti- 

 cism, have deeply resented this condemnation. They feel that Mr. 

 Lea has not given the other and pleasanter side of the story, that 

 he has not pointed out the amelioration of society, the consolation 

 to individuals, the gentler and kindlier services of the mediaeval 

 church. Yet in all fairness it is to be remembered that Mr. Lea's 

 studies led him through dark stretches of human history, that the 

 weight of " man's inhumanity to man " must often have pressed 

 heavily upon his spirit, that sympathy with suffering, resentment 

 against injustice, hatred of oppression, and grief over ignorance and 

 prejudice must often have made their appeal rather to the warm 

 emotions of the man than to the cold impartiality of the historian. 

 Which of us could read the sad records of the Inquisition, analyze 

 the motives of men who were a disgrace to the high office of the 

 papacy, describe the work of the visible church through periods from 

 which even the most devout of churchmen turn away sick at heart, 

 and still possess always a judicial calm and a sympathetic spirit? 

 And yet through all his studies Mr. Lea preserved moderate judg- 

 ment, optimism and belief in the essential goodness of human nature. 



Yet it is not the moral judgments expressed in Mr. Lea's writ- 

 ings that have most impressed scholars. It is the mass, solidity and 

 originality of his knowledge, the minuteness of his research, and 

 the extent of his production. The larger works that I have before 

 enumerated amount to seventeen volumes. Several of them have 



