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 PROTESTANTISM

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PROTESTANTISM

merely explanations of, the Word of God, the further question arises, amid the many explanations, more or less at variance with each other given by the dif- ferent sects of Protestantism, who is to decide which is the true one? Their professed object being to secure uniformity, the experience of three hundred years has proved to us what may not have been fore- seen by their originators, that they have had a dia- metrically opposite result, and have been productive not of union but of variance" (Diet, of Sects, Here- sies, etc.", London, 1886, s. v. Protestant Confes- sions of Faith).

By pinning private judgment to the Bible the Re- formers started a book religion, i. e. a religion of which, theoretically, the law of faith and conduct is contained in a written document without method, without authority, without an authorized inter- preter. The collection of books called "the Bible" is not a methodical code of faith and morals; if it be separated from the stream of tradition which asserts its Divine inspiration, it has no special authority, and, in the hands of private interpreters, its meaning is easily twisted to suit every private mind. Our modern laws, elaborated by modern minds for modern requirements, are daily obscured and diverted from their object by interested pleaders: judges are an absolute necessity for their right interpretation and application, and unless we say that religion is but a personal concern, that coherent religious bodies or churches are superfluous, we must admit that judges of faith and morals are as necessary to them as judges of civil law are to States. And that is another reason why private judgment, though upheld in theory, has not been carried out in practice. As a matter of fact, all Protestant denominations are under con- stituted authorities, be they called priest or presby- ters, elders or ministers, pastors or presidents. Not- withstanding the contradiction between the freedom they proclaim and the obedience they exact, their rule has often been tyrannical to a degree, especially in Calvinistic communities. Thus in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries there was no more priest- ridden country in the world than Presbyterian Scot- land. A book-religion has, moreover, another draw- back. Its devotees can draw devotion from it only as fetish worshippers draw it from their idol, viz. by firmly believing in its hidden spirit. Remove belief in Divine inspiration from the sacred books, and what remains may be regarded as simply a human document of religious illusion or even of fraud. Now, in the course of centuries, private judg- ment has partly succeeded Ln taking the spirit out of the Bible, leaving little else than the letter, for critics, high and low, to discuss without any spiritual advantage.

V. "Justification by Faith Alone" in Prac- tice. — This principle bears upon conduct, unlike free judgment, which bears on faith. It is not sub- ject to the same limitations, for its practical applica- tion requires less mental capacity; its working can- not be tested by anyone; it is strictly personal and internal, thus escaping such violent conflicts with community or state as would lead to repression. On the other hand, as it evades coercion, lends itself to practical application at every step in man's life, and favours man's inclination to evil by rendering a so- called "conversion" ludicrously easy, its baneful influence on morals is manifest. Add to justification by faith alone the doctrines of jircdcsliiiatioM (o heaven or hell regardless of man's actiims, and the slavery of the human will, and it seems inconceivable that any good action at all couki result from such be- liefs. As a matter of history, |)ul)lic morality did at oiu'c deteriorate to an appalling degree wherever Protestantism was introduced. Not to mention the robberies of Church goods, brutal treatment meted out to the clergy, secular and regular, who remained

faithful, and the horrors of so many wars of religion, we have Luther's own testimony as to the evil re- sults of his teaching (see Janssen, "History of the German People", Eng. tr., vol. V, London and St. Louis, 1908, 274-83, where each quotation is docu- mented by a reference to Luther's works as published by de Wette).

VI. Advent of a New Order: C^saropapism. — A similar picture of religious and moral degradation may easily be drawn from contemporary Protestant writers for all countries after the first introduction of Protestantism. It could not be otherwise. The immense fermentation caused by the introduction of subversive principles into the life of a people nat- urally brings to the surface and shows in its utmost ugliness all that is brutal in human nature. But only for a time. The ferment exhausts itself, the fer- mentation subsides, and order reappears, possibly under new forms. The new form of social and re- ligious order, which is the residue of the great Protes- tant upheaval in Europe, is territorial or State Re- ligion — an order based on the religious supremacy of the temporal ruler, in contradistinction to the old order in which the temporal ruler took an oath of obedience to the Church. For the right understand- ing of Protestantism it is necessary to describe the genesis of this far-reaching change.

Luther's first reformatory attempts were radically democratic. He sought to benefit the people at large by curtailing the powers of both Church and State. The German princes', to him, were "usually the big- gest fools or the worst scoundrels on earth". In 1.523 he wrote: "The people will not, cannot, shall not endure your tyranny and oppression any longer. The world is not now what it was formerly, when you could chase and drive the people like game". This manifesto, addressed to the poorer masses, was taken up by Franz von Sickingen, a Knight of the Empire, who entered the field in execution of its threats. His object was two-fold: to strengthen the political power of the knights — the inferior nobility — against the princes, and to open the road to the new Gospel by overthrowing the bishops. His enterprise had, how- ever, the opposite result. The knights were beaten; they lost what influence they had possessed, and the princes were proportionately strengthened. The rising of the peasants likewise turned to the advan- tage of the princes: the fearful slaughter of Franken- hausen (1525) left the princes without an enemy and the new Gospel without its natural defenders. The victorious princes used their augmented power en- tirely for their own advantage, in opposition to the authority of the emperor and the freedom of the na- tion ; the new Gospel was also to be made subservient to this end, and this by the help of Luther himself.

After the failure of the revolution, Luther and Me- lanchthon began to proclaim the doctrine of the rulers' unlimited power over their subjects. Their dissolving principles had, within less than ten years, destroyed the existing order, but were unable to knit together its debris into a new system. So the secular powers were called on for help; the Church was placed at the service of the State, its authority, its wealth, its institutions all passed into the hands of kings, princes, and town magistrates. The one dis- carded Pope of Rome was replaced by scores of popes at home. These, "to strengthen themselves by al- liances for the promulgation of the Gospel", banded together williin the limits of the fierman Empire and made ('iimimkiii cause against the emperor. From this time forward the progress of Protestantism is on political rather than on religious lines; the ])eople are not claiHimring for innovations, but the rulers find their advantage in being suiiremc bishojjs, and by force, or cunning, or both irapose tlii' yoke of the new Gospelonlheirsubjects. Denmark, Sweden, Norway, England, and all the small principalities and im-