In 1901, Crapsey published a tractate with the title "The Law of Liberty: The Nature and Limit of Religious Thought." In the tractate, he wrote, "a free thinker has for ages been feared and hated by the officers of the church." Furthermore, a man who "gives himself over entirely" to a sect "no longer asks himself what is true." Crapsey observed that this is the "sad condition" of most of "the Protestant clergy." This was true in his opinion because "theological schools" teach "a fully formulated system of beliefs."