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ESSAYS ON LIBERTY

the formal principle of Protestantism, belongs to Catholics; and there is no actual Catholic dogma \vhich may not lose all that is objectionable to Protestants by the trans- forming process of development. 1 The errors of Dr. Frohschammer in these passages are not exclusively his 0\\1n. He has only drawn certain con- clusions from premisses which are very commonly received. Nothing is more usual than to confound religious truth with the voice of ecclesiastical authority. Dr. Frohschammer, having fallen into this vulgar mistake, argues that because the authority is fallible the truth must be uncertain. M'any Catholics attribute to theological opinions which have pre- vailed for centuries without reproach a sacredness nearly approaching that which belongs to articles of faith: Dr. Frohschammer extends to defined dogmas the liability to change which belongs to opinions that yet await a final and conclusive investigation. Thousands of zealous men are persuaded that a conflict may arise between defined doctrines of the Church and conclusions which are certain according to all the tests of science: Dr. F rohschammer adopts this vie\v, and argues that none of the decisions of the Church are final, and that consequently in such a case they must give way. Lastly, uninstructed men com- monly impute to historical and natural science the un- certainty which is inseparable from pure speculation: Dr. Frohschammer accepts the equality, but claims for metaphysics the same certainty and independence which those sciences possess. Having begun his course in company with many who have exactly opposite ends in view, Dr. Frohschammer, in a recent tract on the union of the Churches, entirely separates himself from the Catholic Church in his theory of development. He had received the impulse to his new system from the opposition of those whom he considered the advocates of an excessive uniformity and the enemies of progess, and their contradiction has driven him to a point \vhere he entirely sacrifices unity to change. He now affirms that our Lord desired no unity or perfect t Wiedervereilligung der .Katholiken und Protestanten. pp, 26. 35,