THE GREATEST ILLUSION 53 



Crusades, about which we need do no more than quote 

 Milman's verdict : " No barbarian, no infidel, no Saracen, 

 ever perpetrated such wanton and cold-blooded atrocities of 

 cruelty as the warriors of the Cross of Christ." To this period 

 also belongs the Albigensian war, in which to quote Milman 

 again "the great eternal principles of justice, the faith of 

 treaties, common humanity," were trampled under foot as 

 never before in the history of war. The immoralities of the 

 Popes, the licentiousness of the clergy, and the vicious 

 character of indulgences and other Church practices : these 

 are matters over which the apologist may linger, urging that 

 the Vicars of Christ could not be expected to rise too far above 

 the level of Christians in general. The apology is fatal to 

 the Christian assumption, but not even this futility can be 

 advanced to cover the abominations of the Inquisition. In 

 France, in Germany, but most of all in Spain, the Inquisition 

 cast the shadow of death over innumerable homes ; it was a 

 malignant growth that thrust itself through every fibre of the 

 social organism, and carried untold agonies and fears with it. 

 Since the war we have been surfeited with the tale of German 

 atrocities ; its monotony wearies us. Let it be remembered 

 that the Inquisition was far more subtle and comprehensive 

 in its cruelty and slaughter. The Roman Church has been 

 silent before the calculated crimes of Germany ; does it recollect 

 too vividly its own past? 



The rise of Protestantism is commonly regarded as a 

 movement of humane enlightenment ; but, besides inten- 

 sifying the bitterness of sectarian warfare, it failed to produce 

 leaders who realized the virtues of toleration. With few 

 exceptions all the leaders were in favour of persecution. 

 They, and their followers for generation after generation, 

 joined with the Roman Catholics in the attempt to suppress 

 all knowledge and speculation which threatened the dogmas 

 of Christianity. Whatever may be claimed on behalf of 

 either Church, no one dares to assert that they fed the lamp 

 of science for the illumination of the world. Professor 

 White's assertion that Christianity "arrested the normal 

 development of the physical sciences for over 1,500 years " 

 is supported by the record of scientific history from Pliny to 

 Darwin. And the long relentless persecution of opinion 

 was, it may be observed, a direct result of the assumption 

 that Christianity embodied a perfect and complete guide to 

 the soul of man. 



" Let the dead past bury its dead." This is a convenient 



