himself with artists and musicians and famous literary men. His churches
and chapels are covered with new pictures in which the saints look more
like Greek Gods than is strictly necessary. He divides his time unevenly
between affairs of state and art. The affairs of state take ten percent
of his time. The other ninety percent goes to an active interest in
Roman statues, recently discovered Greek vases, plans for a new summer
home, the rehearsal of a new play. The Archbishops and the Cardinals
follow the example of their Pope. The Bishops try to imitate the
Archbishops. The village priests, however, have remained faithful to
their duties. They keep themselves aloof from the wicked world and
the heathenish love of beauty and pleasure. They stay away from the
monasteries where the monks seem to have forgotten their ancient vows of
simplicity and poverty and live as happily as they dare without causing
too much of a public scandal.

Finally, there are the common people. They are much better off than they
have ever been before. They are more prosperous, they live in better
houses, their children go to better schools, their cities are more
beautiful than before, their firearms have made them the equal of their
old enemies, the robber-barons, who for centuries have levied such heavy
taxes upon their trade. So much for the chief actors in the Reformation.

Now let us see what the Renaissance has done to Europe, and then you
will understand how the revival of learning and art was bound to be
followed by a revival of religious interests. The Renaissance began in
Italy. From there it spread to France. It was not quite successful in
Spain, where five hundred years of warfare with the Moors had made the
people very narrow minded and very fanatical in all religious matters.
The circle had grown wider and wider, but once the Alps had been
crossed, the Renaissance had suffered a change.

The people of northern Europe, living in a very different climate,
had an outlook upon life which contrasted strangely with that of their
southern neighbours. The Italians lived out in the open, under a sunny
sky. It was easy for them to laugh and to sing and to be happy. The
Germans, the Dutch, the English, the Swedes, spent most of their time
indoors, listening to the rain beating on the closed windows of their
comfortable little houses. They did not laugh quite so much. They took
everything more seriously. They were forever conscious of their immo