Civilization and Decay 



partly corrected 1 by the study of a much less readable 

 book Mr. Henry C. Lea's work on "The Inquisi- 

 tion." Yet Mr. Adams's description of the English 

 Reformation is very powerful, and has in it a vein 

 of bitter truth ; though on the whole it is perhaps not 

 so well done as his account of the suppression of the 

 Templars in France. If he can be said to have any 

 heroes, the Templars must certainly be numbered 

 among them. 



He is at his best in describing the imaginative 

 man, and especially the imaginative man whose en- 

 ergy manifests itself in the profession of arms. His 

 description of the tremendous change which passed 

 over Europe during the centuries which saw what 

 is commonly called the decay of faith, is especially 

 noteworthy. In no other history are there to be 

 found two sentences which portray more vividly the 

 reasons for the triumph of the great Pope Hilde- 

 brand over the Emperor Henry than these: 



"To Henry's soldiers the world was a vast space 

 peopled by those fantastic beings which are still 

 seen on Gothic towers. These demons obeyed the 

 monk of Rome, and his army, melting from the Em- 

 peror under a nameless horror, left him helpless." 



His account of the contrast between the relations 

 of Philip Augustus and of Philip the Fair with the 

 Church is dramatic in its intensity. To Mr. Adams, 

 Philip the Fair, even more than Henry VIII, is the 

 incarnation of the economic spirit in its conflict with 

 the Church ; and he makes him an even more repul- 



