Page:Three introductory lectures on the study of ecclesiastical history.djvu/80

72 wield the power of Church and State, of universities and of armies alike, was tolerant to a degree which his humbler followers were incapable of imitating or understanding.

It is difficult to express the deference due to these considerations, without placing them below or above their just estimate. But they form too obvious, too important,—I may add, too consoling an inference from the course of ecclesiastical events, to be omitted altogether. Let us receive the fact both as an encouragement and as a caution. Whatever other charges may be brought against the history of Christendom, and however much it may have embraced within or alongside of itself sallies of wild sectarianism, yet it cannot fairly be called the history of Fanaticism, or even of Enthusiasm. Grey hairs, and high station, and long experience, whether of individuals or of communities, have their own peculiar claims to respect. The movement of the Church to perfection has in it an element of solidity, of permanence, and of prudence, as well as of fluctuation, and progress, and zeal.

But yet, further, even when we consider more deeply the darker points in our general view, a sense of unity emerges from the midst of disunion, a sense of success from the midst of failure. Errors and truths which we are apt to ascribe to special sects, churches, individuals, will often be seen to belong really to characters and principles which