ledge were at the best under strong suspicion of 
heresy.  I need not quote the obvious names.  But 
there were certain bodies of people who did carry 
on the old knowledge, mostly by oral tradition, and 
who were perforce tolerated to a certain extent, 
because even the little knowledge that they did 
possess was so exceedingly useful.  The best way to 
make armour, or to build Cathedrals, or to heal 
sickness would enable the Christian to get ahead of 
his friends.  Therefore, although conscience evidently 
demanded the maximum amount of persecution 
compatible with the existence of villains, the Jews 
and the Arabs were at least allowed to live.  Besides, 
the Arabs saw to that themselves. 
But no one was better aware than the Pope 
that knowledge was power.  For all he know, and he 
probably knew that he did not know much, the 
Jews and the Arabs might get together and overturn 
the whole construction of society.  Had he not in his 
own records the very best example of such a 
catastrophe ? 
There is a large number of excellent people, 
possessed of even less that the minimum amount of 
brains required to grease a gimlet, who are always 
boring us with the bogey of the Jew-Bolshevist 
peril.  But as most of them are Roman Catholic 
and unaware that Rome is laughing in its sleeve 
at them, they conveniently ignore what should be—
if they realised it—their best argument.  What was 
the ultimate cause of the destruction of the great 
civilization of Rome ?  What corrupted the spirit 
of a people unconquerable in arms ?  What but 
the spread of the slave morality of the Jewish 
communists of the period ?  If you will take your