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medieval priestcraft and clerical tyranny. Be it remarked, however, that this opposition is not new to our age. The very Middle Ages witnessed a violent opposition to the teaching of religious orders. This was especially the case in the University of Paris, where, in the thirteenth century, a strong rationalistic party, headed by William of Saint-Amour, endeavored to expel the Dominicans and Franciscans from the professorial chair. William's contention was that the religious should not be allowed to teach, but should employ themselves in manual labors, as did the monks in olden times. Then it was that three able pens were employed to defend the religious orders and their work: those of Bonaventure, of Albertus Magnus, and of Thomas Aquinas. St. Thomas wrote his little work: "Against those who attack Religion and the Worship of God",^[1] of which Fleury said that it had always been regarded as the most perfect apology for religious orders. In the second chapter, headed "Whether Religious may teach", and the third, "Whether Religious may be a corporate body of secular teachers", the Saint refutes the objections of William in a most lucid and powerful manner, and sets forth the advantages which the Church and society may derive from teaching by religious orders. He contends that a religious order may be instituted for any work of mercy. As teaching is a work of mercy, a religious order may be founded with the special end of teaching.^[2] And as the common good is to be preferred

1. Contra Impugnantes Dei Cultum et Religionem. Edition of Parma, 1864, vol. XV. Opusculum I. See The Life and Labors of St. Thomas Aquinas, by Roger Bede Vaughan, O. S. B., 1871, vol. I, pp. 625-726.
2. See also Summa Theol., 2., 2., qu. 188, a. 5.