Page:Three introductory lectures on the study of ecclesiastical history.djvu/79

III.] diffused among small circles, have always been resisted by the robust sense of the universal Church. It is not, as a general rule, the larger, but the lesser, congregations of Christendom, that have imposed the most minute and petty restrictions on opinion and practice. Whilst the Imperial, venerable, orthodox Church of the whole East is content to repose on the short Creed of the Nicene Fathers, the little Church and State of Brunswick, under the auspices of Duke Julius, requires, or did require till recently, from its ministers a stringent subscription, not only to the three Creeds, the Augsburg Confession, the Apology for the Confession, and the Smalcaldic Articles, but to all that is contained in all the works of Luther, in all the works of Melancthon, in all the works of Chemnitz.

In fact, the higher and wider is the sweep of vision, the more difficult is it to stumble at trifles, and make mountains out of mole-hills. Power, no doubt, is often frightfully abused, whether in the hands of ecclesiastics or of laymen; but to both, if there be any nobleness of character on which to work, it brings far more moderation and largeness of heart than is attainable by even better men in inferior stations. It was the charity and the wisdom of the Popes which protected the Jews in the middle ages against the fanatical attacks of individual zealots. The royal heart of the young King Edward was softer than the mercies even of a gentle prelate. Oliver Cromwell, when he came to