The conspiracy, hatched at that time, to ignore history, which in practice meant the Middle Ages, had not been generally found out when Mr. Chesterton began to write. Certainly he knew there must have been something right about centuries whose architectural remains were admired by every class of mind. He was absolutely certain that people who were capable of an intensely significant use of colours, whose dress was as many-hued as the walls and windows of their churches, could not be as black as they were painted. Now Mr. Chesterton has never written a book to praise the Middle Ages, but he has written books to praise and explain the life of St. Francis and the thought of Aquinas.