xii. PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 
Such is a short history of the systems of education in 
force prior to Christianity. With the exception of the 
Hebrew system they were all intended for the classes, and 
the masses of the population were purposely left in ignorance. 
Christ is not often regarded as an educational reformer, 
and yet His teaching of the brotherhood of man and His 
divine message that the ultimate measure of a man is his 
love for his fellowman, completely if slowly revolutionised 
the systems of education. Christ taught no detailed 
system of education of the young, as also He taught no 
system of theology for the adult. He swept aside all 
systems and replaced them by a grand general principle, 
leaving all special cases to be dealt with under that principle 
as they arose. And after many centuries the lesson has 
been absorbed and educational facilities are being provided 
in most Christian countries for all who have the ability to 
assimilate knowledge, instead of being practically confined 
to one class. 
When the Christian religion replaced that of heathen 
Rome, several serious errors were made by those in authority. 
In their zeal for reform they cast out not only a most brutal, 
sensual and corrupt power, but with it much that was good 
and noble. They failed to distinguish between the art and 
learning of the heathen schools and the utter moral depravity 
that existed alongside. All were swept away together’ 
and it took centuries to regain the lost ground. In fact the 
evil seemed to recover its lost ground more quickly than the 
good. 
The early Christians in their school system at first 
contented themselves with giving instruction in Christian 
doctrine—all else was neglected. Even in training for the 
ministry of the Church, little more than Scripture knowledge 
was at first required. National educational systems, if the 
education of one small class can be so called, were thus 
swept away, and were very inadequately replaced. 
The monasticism of the ancient heathens soon took a 
hold on Christianity also, and gave a strong bent to educa- 
tion. Schools sprang up in connection with the monastries 
all over Western Europe, and as the number of dialects far 
exceeded our present number of languages, Latin perforce 
became the language of the scholar. Some of the monastic 
