The St. Louis Republic. [volume] (St. Louis, Mo.) 1888-1919, 1901-04-14
BY GOODWIN SMITH. d. c. l..

"a oOA<D ~ Nl14Is Il. =. II.
The history OF religion during the pas
century may be described as the sequel OF
That dissolution of the medieval faith which
commenced at the Reformation. The vas
process OF disintegraton proceeds by de
grees, IL varied by reactionary effort, and
gives birth to new theories in its course. II
our day the completion Of the process and {
new departure seem to be at hand A sharI
line cannot be drawn across 1t at the be
ginning OF our century, the leaders OF re.
1igious thought in the Seventeenth and
Eighteenth centuries having been to a great
extent its leaders, and their works ths
textbooks OF the century which has Just
passed.
Al the Reformation Professionalism threw
off the yoke of Pope and priest. priestly
control over conscience through the con.
fessional, priestly absolution for sin. and
belief in the magical power of the priest
as consecrator Of the host, besides the wor-
ship of the Virgin and the saints. purga-
tory, relics, pilgrimages and other incidents
l. OF the medieval system. Ostensibly, Prot
"Testantism was founded on freedom OF con-
Sience In the shape of dogmatic creeds and
ordination tests. 1t besides enforced belief
In the plenary inspiration of the Bible, by
which the exercise of private judgment was
narrowly confined. Not for some time did it
even renounce persecution. In grimly Cal
whistle Scotland a boy was hanged for i'm
pugning the doctrine of the Trinity at the
end of the Seventeenth Century. The An
glican Church. suspended by the will Of the
Tudor sorereigns between Catholicism and
Professionalism, oscillated from side to side,
producing by one of its oscillations the great
Civil War. 1t burned heretics in the reign
of James I. Ali the Protestant churches.
except the Baptists, who at first were OBJ
3ects of persecution. fell under the dominion
OF the state, which repaid them for their
submission and support by ~endowments.
ts;nporal privileges and persecution OF dis
sent.
Though Professionalism produced a multi
tude of sects. especially in England at the
time of the Commonwealth, hardly any of
them were free-thinking or skeptical; those
OF any Importance. at all events, were in
some sense dogmatic and were anchored to
the inspiration of the Bible. Nor is it easy
TO convict Hobbies, busbear of the orthordox
as he was, of skepticism OF even of hetero-
GoXy. The expression of heterodox opinions,
Indeed. would have been a violation of his
W principle, which makes religion abso-
lutely an affair of the state. to be regu-
lated by a despotic government, and con-
fines liberty to the recesses of thought. 1t
Is true that in making religion a political
institution. variable at a despot's will, he
covertly denied that It was divine.
Under the Restoration religious thought
and controversy slept. The nation was weary
of those subjects. The liberty for whicn
men then struggled was political. though
with political liberty was bound up religious
celebration. which achieved q partial tri-
Eumph under William III.
The Church of Rome, to meet the storm,
r~eorganized herself at the Council of Trent
on lines practically traced for her by the ,
Jesuit. A comparison Of Suarez with Thorn
as AQuinas shows the change which took
place In spirit as plainly as q comparison
Of the Jesuit's meretricious fame with the
Gothic churches shows the change in re-
ligious taste. Papal autocracy was strength
ened at the expense Of the episcopate and
furnished at once with q guard and a propa-
gandist machinery OF extraordinary power
in the Order OF Loyola- That the plenary
inspiration OF the Bible in the vulgate YER
sion. and including the Apocrypha, should
be reaffrmed was q secondary matter, mas
much as the Church Of Rome holds that II
Is not she who derives her credentials from
Scripture, but Scripture which depends for
the attestation OF its authority upon her.