Some regard it as a thinly disguised statement of a creed; others, as a novel pure and simple; others, as a campaign document (in the broadest sense); others, as no novel at all, but a dramatic sort of confession.

The Jesuits have had it put on the _Index_; the Christian Democrats have accepted it as their gospel: yet Jesuits and Christian Democrats both profess to be Catholics.

Such a divergence of opinion proves conclusively that the book possesses unusual power and that it is many-sided.

Instead of pitching upon one of these views as right and declaring all the rest to be wrong, it is more profitable to try to discover in the book itself what grounds each class of critics finds to justify its particular and exclusive verdict.
On the face of it what does the book say?
This is what it says: That Piero Maironi, a man of the world, cultivated far beyond his kind, after having had a vehement love-affair is stricken with remorse, "experiences religion," becomes penitent, is filled with a strange zeal--an ineffable comfort--and devotes himself, body, heart, and soul to the worship of God and the succour of his fellow-men.

As Benedetto, the lay brother, he serves the peasant populations among the Sabine hills, or moves on his errands of hope and mercy among the poor of Rome.