The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1901-04-14
. HE history of religion during the

Il of the medieval faith which
commenced at the Reformation
The vast process of disintsgration pro-
ceeds by degrees. is varied by reaction
airy effort, and gives birth to new theor-
les in its course. In our day the compile
ton of the process and new departure
seem to be at hand A sharp line cannot
be drawn across it at the beginning OF
our century. the leaders Of religious
thought in the seventeenth and eighteenth
centuries having been to a great extent
its leaders, ard their works the text books
of the century which has just passed.
At 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
worship OF the Virgin, and the saints,
purgatory, relics. pilgrimages, and other
incidents of the medieval system. Osten-
sibly, Professionalism was founded on free
dom of conscience and the right of pri-
yate Judgment. In reality. it retained
Church authority over conscience in the
shape OF dogmatic creeds and ordination
plenary inspiration of the Bible, by which
the exercise of private judgment was
narrowly confined. Not for some time
did II even renounce persecution. In
Erimly Calvinistic Scotland a boy was
hanged for impugning the doctrine of
the Trinity at the end of the seventeenth
century. The Anglican Church. suspend
ed by the will of the Tudor sovereigns
between Catholicism and Professionalism,
oscillated from side 10 side. producing by
one of its oscillations the great civil war.
1t burned heretics in the reign of James
]. All the Protestant Churches except the
Baptists. who at first were objects of
persecution, fell under the dominion of
the State, which repaid them for their
submission and support by endowments
temporal privileges and persecution OF
dissent
Enough Professionalism produced a null
titude Of sects, especially In England at
the time Of the Commonwealth, hardly
any of them were free-thlnking or skepti-
cal; 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. bugbear
or even OF heterodoxy. The expression Of
heterodoN opinions, indeed, would have
been q violation of his own principle.
which makes religion absolutely an affair
OF the State, to be regulated by despotic
Government and confines liberty to the
recesses of thought. 1t is true that In
making religion a political institution. va
riable at a despot's will, he covertly de-
MED that it was divine
Under the Restoration religious thought
and controversy slept. The nation was
weary of those subjects. The liberty for
which men then struggled was political
though with political liberty was bound
UP religious liberation, which achieved Il
partial triumph under William III.
The Church of Rome. TO meet the storm,
reorganized herself at the Council of
Trent on lines practically traced for her
by the Jesuit. A comparison of Suarez
with Thomas Aquinas shows the change
which took place In spirit as plainly as a
of the Jesuits meretricous
fame with the Gothic churches shows the
change in religious taste. Papal autoeracy
was strengthened at the expense of the
Episcopate. and furnished at once with a
power in the Order of Logo |
Ia That the plenary inspiration of the |
Bible in the Vulgate version, and includ- |
Ing the Apocrypha, should be reaffirmed |
was secondary matter, inasmuch as the |
Church of Rome holds that fl is rot she |
who derives her credentials from Scrip |
ture, but Scripture which depends for the |
attestation Of its authority upon her. She !
now allied herself more closely than before |
with the Catholic kings. with Philip III, |
and afterward with Louis XIV, who paid |
her for her support of political absolu- |
tism by sanguinary persecution of here
tics. She hereby parted with her Hide |
branoic supremacy over the Powers of the |
world. though she did not, like the An |
gliean Church, recognize the divine |
right OF kings. All the liberal and peace
making movements which had been set |
on foot or were afterward set on foot, |
within her pale. such as the oratory of |
Divine Love. which held Justification by !
faith and wished to compromise with the |
Protestants. were effeetually put down. |
when it appeared, with its |
half Calvinistic theory of Grace, shared |
the same fate. Gallicanism afterward.
having nationality TO back It. was more
successful. But It brought 10 freedom of |
conscience; It was merely a repartition of
The despotic power over conscience be-
ween the King and the Pope
In Spain, and for the most part in Italy.
Rome, by the aid of the Jesuit and the
Inquisition, completely succeeded in kill
ing free thought. In France. where there
was no Inquisition. her triumph was not
30 complete. She succeeded only In driv-
ing free thought into DISCUSSES and sub
terfuges. The Commonwealth of Holland
lid France and the world in general the
immense service of affording q printing
house for free thought which was on the
confines Of France, but beyond the reach
IF the French Government. Descartes,
without directly assailing the faith Of the
Church. planted In her face the standard
If thorough-going reason and entitled
himself to place in the Index. Growing
and love Of pleasure brought |
with them laxity of belief ana impatience
II priestly control. The authority of the
clergy was impaired by their scandalous
wealth and vice, which at the same time
Enhanced the odium of their prosecuting
tyranny. At last came Voltaire Diderot.
he Encyclopedia, and Rousseau. With
literary cieverness unmatched and an in
genius for subtle attack. com
Dined with a winning philanthropy. Vol
aire converted and drew into the work OF
demolition. TO them suicidal. the thrones
n Louis XIV. OF rather OF the Pompadour,
II Catherine. and Frederick The influence
extended even to Spain. where Amanda,
and TO Portugal, where Pombai reigned
fhe Pope was constrained to dissolve the