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 PROTESTANTISM

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PROTESTANTISM

penal towns in Germany are examples in point. The supreme heads and governors were well aware that the principles which had brought down the authority of Rome would equally bring down their own; hence the penal laws everj-where enacted against dissenters from the state religion decreed by the temporal ruler. England, under Henrj- VIII, Eliza- beth, and the Puritans elaborated the most ferocious of all penal codes against Catholics and others un- willing to conform to the established religion.

To sum up: the much-vaunted Protestant prin- ciples only wrought disaster and confusion where they were allowed free play; order was only restored by reverting to something like the old system: symbols of faith imposed by an outside authority and en- forced by the secular arm. Xo bond of union exists between the many national Churches, except their common hatred for "Rome", which is the birth- mark of all, and the trade-mark of manj', even unto our da}-.

\'ll. R.iPIDITT OF PROTEST.\^T PROGRESS Ex-

PL.\ixED. — Before we pass on to the study of con- temporary Protestantism, we will answer a question and solve a difficulty. How is the rapid spread of Protestantism accounted for? Is it not a proof that God was on the side of the Reformers, inspiring, fostering, and crowning their endeavours? Surely, as we consider the growth of early Christianity and its rapid conquest of the Roman Empire, as proofs of its Divine origin, so we should draw the same con- clusion in favour of Protestantism from its rapid spread ui German}- and the northern parts of Europe. In fact the Reformation spread much faster than the Apostohc Church. When the last of the Apostles died, no kingdoms, no vast tracts of lands, were en- tirely Christian; Christianity was still hiding in the catacombs and in out-of-the-way suburbs of heathen towns. Whereas, in a period of similar duration, say seventy years, Protestantism had taken hold of the better part of Germany, Scandinavia, Switzer- land, England, and Scotland. A moment's comsid- eration supplies the solution of this difficulty. Suc- cess Ls not invariably due to intrinsic goodness, nor is failure a certain proof of intrinsic badness. Both largely depend on circumstances: on the means em- ployed, the obstacles in the way, the receptivity of the public. The success of Protestantism, therefore, must itself be tested before it can be used as a test of intrinsic goodness.

The reformator}- movement of the sixteenth cen- tury found the ground well prepared for its reception. The crj' for a thorough reformation of the Church in head and members had been ringing through Europe for a full century; it was justified by the worldly lives of man}- of the clergj', high and low, by abuses in church administration, by money ex- tortions, by the neglect of religious duties reaching far and wide through the body of the faithful. Had Protestantism offered a reform in the sense of amend- ment, probably all the corrupt elements in the Church would have tiu-ned against it, as Jews and pagana turned against Christ and the Apostles. But what the Reformers aimed at was, at least in the first instance, the radical overthrow of the existing Church, and this overthrow was effected by pandering to all the worst instincts of man. A bait was tendered to the seven-headed concupiscence which dwells in ever)' human heart; pride, covetousness, lust, anger, gluttony, envy, sloth, and all their offspring were covered and healed by eiusy trust in God. No good works wore required: the iinmen.se fortune of the Church was tlie prize of apostasy: political and riv ligous independence allure<l the kings and princes: the abolition of tithes, confession, fasting, and other irk.sorae obligations attracted the niiisses. Many persons were deceived into the new religion by out- ward appearances of Catholicism which the innova-

Scandinavian kingdoms. Evidently we need not look for Divine inter\-ention to account for the rapid spread of Protestantism. It would be more plausible to see the finger of God in the stopping of its progress.
 * ors carefully maintained, e. g. in England and the

VIII. Presen-t-d.\t Protest.\xtism. — Theology. — After nearly four centuries of existence. Protestantism in Europe is still the religion of milhons, but it is no more the original Protestantism. It has been, and is, in a perpetual flux: the principle of untrammelled free judgment, or, as it is now called. Subjectivism, has been swaj-ing its adherents to and fro from or- thodox}' to Pietism, from Rationalism to Indifferent- ism. The movement ha.s been most pronounced in intellectual centres, in universities and among theo- logians generally, yet it has spread down to the lowest classes. The modern Ritschl-Harnack school, also called Modernism, has disciples ever}-where and not only among Protestants. For an accurate and ex- haustive sur\-ey of its main lines of thought we re- fer the reader to the Encyclical "Pascendi Dominici Gregis" (8 Sept., 1907), the professed aim of which is to defend the CathoUc Church against Protestant infiltrations. In one point, indeed, the Modernist condemned by Pius X differs from his intellectual brothers: he remains, and wishes to remain, inside the Catholic Church, in order to leaven it with his ideas; the other stands frankly outside, an enemy or a supercilious student of religious evolution. It should also be noted that not every item of the Modernist programme need be traced to the Protes- tant Reformation; for the modern spirit is the dis- tilled residue of many philosophies and many re- ligions : the point is that Protestantism proclaims itself its standard-bearer, and claims credit for its achievements.

Moreover, Modernistic views in philosophy, the- ology, history, criticism, apologetics, church re- form etc., are advocated in nine-tenths of the Prot- estant theological literature in Germany, France, and America, England only shghtly lagging behind. Now, Modernism is at the antipodes of sixteenth- century Protestantism. To use Ritschl's terminol- ogy, it gives new "values" to the old beliefs. Scrip- ture is still spoken of as inspired, but its inspiration is only the impassioned expression of human religious experiences; Christ is the Son of God, but His Son- ship is like that of any other good man; the very ideas of God, religion, Church, sacraments, have lost their old values: they stand for nothing real outside the subject in whose religious life they form a kind of fool's paradise. The fundamental fact of Christ's Resurrection is an historical fact no longer; it is but another freak of the believing mind. Harnack puts the essence of Christianity, that is the whole teach- ing of Christ, into the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man: Christ Himself is no part of the Gospel! Such was not the teaching of the Reformers, Present-day Protestantism, therefore, may be com- pared with Gnosticism. Manichaeism, the Renaissance, eighteenth-century Philosophism, in so far as these were virulent attacks on Christianity, aiming at nothing less than its destruction. It has achieved important victories in a kind of civil war between orthodoxy and unbelief within the Protestant pale; it is no mean enemy at the gate of the CathoUc Church.

IX. PopuL.vR Protest.^xtism. — In Germany, es- pecially in the greater towns. Protestantism, as a positive guide in faith and morals, is rapidly dying out. It has lost all Iiold of the working classes. Its ministers, when not themselves infidels, fold their hands in helpless despair. The old faith Ls but little preached and with little profit. The ministerial energies are turned towards works of charity, foreign missions, polemics against Catholics. Among the English-speaking nations things seem just a little