The two buildings typify most aptly the ages to which they belong:  the contrast between them is as the gulf between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance.  Step back in thought to the twelfth century, and we find civilization struggling for its very existence.  Few careers were possible.  Above all was the soldier, ruthlessly spreading murder and desolation, and expecting no mercy when his own turn came; in the middle were the merchant and the craftsman, relying on strong city walls and union with their fellows, and the lawyer building up a system, and profiting when men fell out; underneath was the peasant, pitiably dependent on others.  On all sides was bestial cruelty and reckless ignorance:  the overmastering care of life to find shelter and protection.  How strong, how luxuriously strong seemed that tower, with so few apertures to admit the enemy and the pursuer! once inside, who would wish to stir abroad?  For the man who would think or study there was only one way of life, to become sacrosanct in the direct service of God.  The Church, with splendid ideals before it, was exerting itself to crush barbarism, and its forts were garrisoned by men of spirit, whose courage was not that of the destroyer.  In the monasteries, if anywhere, was to be found that peace which the world cannot give, the life of contemplation, in which can be felt the hunger and thirst after knowledge.

By the middle of the sixteenth century the scene has changed.  Much blood has flowed through the arches of time; and now the conqueror has learnt from the Church to be merciful, from nascent science to be strong.  He can spread peace wherever his sword reaches; and fear that of old ruled all under the sun, now can walk only in dark places.  Walls no longer bring comfort, and soon they are to be thrown down to make way for the broad streets which will carry the movement outwards; and, most significant change, the country house with ’its gardens and its gallant walks’ takes the place of the grange.  From the thraldom of terror what an escape, to light, air, freedom, activity!  The gates of joy are opened, the private citizen learns to live, to follow choice not necessity, to give the reins to his spirit and take hold on the gifts that Nature spreads before him.

In the pursuit of peace, human progress has lain in the enlargement of the units of government capable of holding together; from villages to towns, from towns to provinces, from provinces to nations.  The last step had been the achievement of the Middle Ages, though even by the end of the fifteenth century it was not yet complete:  the twentieth century finds us reaching forward to a new advance.  We have spoken of Erasmus’ efforts to bring back peace from her exile, of the experiences of his youth when Holland had wept for her children.  In 1517, when he wrote his ’Complaint of Peace cast forth from all lands’, he was a man and one of Charles’ councillors; but Holland was still weeping and refusing