Page:Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire vol 6 (1897).djvu/146

 126 THE DECLINE AND FALL blood of Christ, is a tenet that may defy the power of argument and pleasantry ; but, instead of consultincr the evidence of their senses, of their sight, their feeling, and their taste, the first Protestants were entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the words of Jesus in the institution of the sacrament, Luther maintained a corporeal, and Calvin a real, presence of Christ in the eucharist ; and the opinion of Zuinglius, that it is no more than a spiritual communion, a simple memorial, has slowly pre- vailed in the reformed churches.*" But the loss of one mystery was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines of original sin, redemption, faith, grace, and predestination, which have been strained from the epistles of St. Paul. These subtle questions had most assuredly been prepared by the fathers and schoolmen ; but the final improvement and popular use may be attributed to the first reformers, who enforced them as the abso- lute and essential terms of salvation. Hitherto the weight of supernatural belief inclines against the Protestants ; and many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer is God, than that God is a cruel and capricious tjTant. Yet the services of Luther and his rival are solid and im- portant ; and the philosopher must own his obligations to these fearless enthusiasts.*^ L By their hands the lofty fabric of superstition, from the abuse of indulgences to the intercession of the Virgin, has been lev^elled with the ground. MTiads of both sexes of the monastic profession were restored to the liberty and labours of social life. An hierarchy of saints and angels, of imperfect and subordinate deities, were stripped of their temporal power, and reduced to the enjoyment of celestial happiness ; their images and relics were banished from the church ; and the credulity of the people was no longer nourished with the daily repetition of miracles and visions. The imitation of Paganism was supplied by a pure and spiritual worship of prayer and thanksgiving, the most worthy of man, the least unworthy of the Deity. It only remains to observe whether such sublime simplicity be consistent with popular devotion ; whether the vulgar, in the absence of all visible objects, will ■"* Under Edward VI. our reformation was more bold and perfect : but in the fundamental articles of the church of England a strong and explicit declaration against the real presence was obliterated in the original copy, to please the people, or the Lutherans, or Queen Elizabeth (Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p. 82, 128, 302). ■" " Had it not been for such men as Luther and myself," said the fanatic Whiston to Halley the philosopher, "you would now be kneeling before an image of St. Winifred.''