Excerpt from Studies Church History: The Rise of the Temporal Power Benefit of Clergy Excommunication If in this I have appeared to dwell too exclusively on the faults and wrong-doing of the church, it has arisen from no lack of appreciation of the services rendered to humanity by the organization which in all ages has assumed for itself the monopoly of the heritage of Christ. Yet if we ask what would have been the condition of the world if that organization had not succeeded in bearing the ark of Christianity through the wilderness of the first fifteen centuries, in summing up the benefits which man has derived through the church, we may also not unreasonably inquire how much greater would have been our advance in all that renders us worthy of the precepts of the Gospel had that. Church always been true to its moment ous trust. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.