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The noted historians of Europe, in describing the
conditions, manners, politics, learning and culture, in
all their aspects, of early, medieval and modern times,
unanimously record that during the ten centuries constituting
the Middle Ages, from the beginning of the
sixth century of the Christian era till the close of the
fifteenth, Europe was in every respect and to an extreme
degree, barbaric and dark. The principal cause of
this was that the monks, referred to by European peoples
as spiritual and religious leaders, had given up the
abiding glory that comes from obedience to the sacred
commandments and heavenly teachings of the Gospel,
and had joined forces with the presumptuous and tyrannical
rulers of the temporal governments of those
times. They had turned their eyes away from everlasting
glory, and were devoting all their efforts to the
furtherance of their mutual worldly interests and passing
and perishable advantages. Ultimately things
reached a point where the masses were hopeless prisoners
in the hands of these two groups, and all this