The times dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1903-1914, 1908-04-27
/, Great American
Historians Of To-Day
ny w. =. DoDD, rH. ID,
Observation-Disclosures College.
Henry Charles Len. Work and
Writings.

4 .
Henry Charles Leafs Work ant
Writings.
Most southerners OF good education
and OF influential stavon in life bare.
~ know the name OF the Nestor OF
American historlans--Hcnry Charlie.
Lea. OF Philadelphia. So busy haveo on.
people been and so unostentatious is
Mr.. Lea that tic opportunity for nc.
luaintance has hardly offered. A mod.
est student. with simple tastes. living
apart from the great busy and cor.
rupt city OF which he Is a citizen
ayorse to advertisement and with rare
| moro than fifty years sought tn know
the raison d'etre OF the Catholic Church
It's manner OF life, Its methods OF deal.
Ing with It's members, It's strange fas-
cination for millions OF mankind In
all ages. His volumes have come iron,
tile press at almost regular Intervals
during the last four decades, and not
one OF them has been lacking In any
OF the elements which make a great
book-profound scholarship. dignity
OF style, penetration, fairness and
Studies in Church History'' "Sn-
perstition and Force "sacerdotnl
Celbacy." "The Expulsion OF the
Moors from SPAIN THE Papal
Penitentiary," "Auricular Confession
The Inquisition OF the Middle Ages
and The Spanish NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
stout volumes, not less than 10.o0n
pages! No American has ever shown
such a vast knowledge OF European
history and institutions. and few Euro
peans have equaled him in intelligent,
falr-minded discussion OF the Catholic
Church. Neither Ludwig Pastor nor
Leopold won Ranke, OF germany. have
surpassed him. America ought indeed
to be proud OF her great scholar and
historian.
Mr.. Lea was born In Philadelphia in
the year 1895. He came OF a family OF
publishers, and early interested himself
In books. Like Darwin and Huxley, the
great intellectual leaders OF the nine
tenth century. he became enamored
OF nature, and about 1850 he was An
authority on conchology But before
our terrible Civil War began he had
already dipped deep into the lore Of
European history. His interests rap
idly crystallized around Mother Church.
then regainng It's hold on European
mind and thought from which the
French Revolution and Napoleon I. had
divorced 1t. 1t was the time when,
after revolution and reaction and revo-
luton again, the Roman Popes were
lighting the italian nationalist move
ment and threatening to consolidate
Italy under the aegis OF clerical au-
thority.
Catholic writer's and members of tho
papal hierarchy have never loved tho
greatest living Protestant historian OF
the church. and the reason is not diff
ficult to discover. Mr.. Lea lays bare In
his mastery accounts OF the church's
no IA 80
part bribery tand corruption have
played in building up the most power
full religious institution on earth.
Not bound fast to Protestant ira
dition. Mr.. Lea nevertheless shows
and cannot avoid showing how
true was Martin Luther's great
Indictment. But this Is far from the
authors purpose; II Is not as an apollo
glst for any system of thought or for
any creed or no creed that he works and
writes. Indeed. no true historian can
defend anything or any man. Apollo
getics has been the weakness OF most
American writer's on religious and
moral questions.
That the Roman Church deliberately
fals!fied the text OF the Bible is not
shown; but that its leaders so twisted
the sayings OF Christ as to justify papal
usurpation and episcopal tyranny can
not be gainsaid. The great hordes Of
the North were ignorant, superstitious
and warlike. The Catholic missionaries
adapted themselves to the requirements
OF Ignorance and superstition In order
to win votaries. The superstitions
of the Germans were therefore incor-
porated into the teachings and practices
CT the church. The bloodthirsty Franks
were encouraged in their terrible pas
70 all I,
Arian Christians, whom Rome hated.
Superstition and force early became
primal elements in the upbuilding OF the
church. Mr.. Lea shows that they re-
NAMED important factors In church
government; that an institution rooted
and grounded in ct1icanery and plausi-
bility would not likely depart from
such practices II 1t later became neces-
sary to destroy rivals or enemies.
In the magnificent section OF Mr..
LEAFS work called the "1nquisition OF
the Middle Ages''-three large vol
umes-the reader cannot escape the
of Jesus, the Jew, which Ernest
Renan portrays SO beautifully in
his Life of@ Christ" has been
the slender basis upon which the
most arrant tyranny known to hui
man history was made to stand The
Roman Church before the Clugny re-
form purified 1t to an extent. was a
remarkably hideous institution to which
nevertheless millions Of men adhered
most devoutly. But the Roman Church
to which the Western world adhered In
1900 was equally bad, though contain
ing, OF course, elements Of good
more Instructive work however, for
American, especially Southern readers
is the last instalment OF N1r. Lea's
T,rltings,, his "1nquisition Of Spain"
This institution. founded during the
halcyon days of Ferdinand and Isabella,
was intended to weld all the popula-
tons of Spain into a single faith, to
bring the motley peoples of the then
disunited peninsula under the spreading
roof of Rome There was hardly voice
raised in opposition to the movement
Why should not the unworthy Jew and
tho degenerate Moor be compelled to
give up his faith? And OF course all
spaniards should be forced to conform
to the standard of faith so beautifully
eyemplif!ed in the life OF the great
Queen.
1t was indeed Matchmaking work
that OF the 1nquisition-and right we'll
did the monarchs and ruling classes
lend a hand, Rich Jews were given
~. IL. ANAA tNIf u.