Page:History of England (Froude) Vol 10.djvu/140

 1 20 REIGN OF E LIZ ABE Tff. [CH. 5 8. able tlian is obtained in any other historical phenomena, there have followed dissension, animosity, and in later ages bloodshed. Christianity, as a principle of life, has been the most powerful check upon the passions of mankind. Chris- r tianity as a speculative system of opinion has con verted them into monsters of cruelty. Higher than the angels, lower than the demons, these are the two aspects in which the religious man presents himself in all times and countries. The first burst of the Reformation had taken the Catholic Powers by surprise. It had spread like an epidemic from town to town, and nation to nation. No conscientious man could 'pretend that the Church was what it ought to be. Indiscriminate resistance to all change was no longer possible ; and with no clear perception where to stand or where to yield, half the educated world had been swept away by the stream. But the first force had spent itself. The Reformers had quarrelled among themselves ; the Catholics had re- covered heart from their opponents' divisions ; the Coun- cil of Trent had given them ground to stand upon ; and with clear conviction, and a unity of creed and pur- pose, they had set themselves steadily, with voice and pen and sword, to recover their lost ground. The enthusiasm overcame for a time the distinctions of nations and languages. The Englishman, the French- man, the Spaniard, the Italian, the German, remem- bered only that he was a son of the Church, that he had one master the Pope,, and one enemy the heretic