PROTESTANTISM AND THE MIND.
This fixedness of idea, this unanimity of will, this wisdom and
constancy of plan, this progress with a firm step towards a definite
object and end; and, in fine, this admirable unity, acknowledged in
favor of Catholicism by M. Guizot himself, have not been imitated by
Protestantism, either in good or evil. Protestantism, indeed, has not
a single idea, of which it can say: "This is my own." It has attempted
to appropriate to itself the principle of private judgment in matters
of faith; and if several of its opponents have been too willing to
accord it, it was because they were unable to find therein any other
constitutive element; it was also because they felt that Protestantism,
in boasting of having given birth to such a principle, labored to
throw disgrace on itself, like a father who boasts of having unworthy
and depraved sons. It is false, however, that Protestantism produced
this principle of private judgment, since it was itself the offspring
of that principle. That principle, before the Reformation, was formed
in the bosom of all sects; it is the real germ of all errors; in
proclaiming it, Protestants only yielded to a necessity which is common
to all the sects separated from the Church.
There was therein no plan, no foresight, no system. The mere resistance
to the authority of the Church included the necessity of unlimited
private judgment, and the establishment of the understanding as supreme
judge; even had the coryphæi of Protestantism wished from the first to
oppose the consequences and applications of this right, the barrier was
broken, and the torrent could not have been confined.
"The right of examining what we ought to believe," says a celebrated
Protestant, (_Germany_, by Mad. de Staël, part iv. chap. 2), "is the
foundation of Protestantism. The first Reformers did not think thus;
they thought themselves able to place the pillars of Hercules of the
mind according to their own lights; but they were mistaken in hoping to
make those who had rejected all authority of this kind in the Catholic
religion submit to their decisions as infallible." This resistance on
their part proves, that they were not led by any of those ideas, which,
although erroneous, show, in some measure, nobleness and generosity of
heart; and that it is not of them that the human mind can say: "They
have erred, but it was in order to give me more liberty of action."
"The religious revolution of the sixteenth century," says M. Guizot,
"did not understand the true principles of intellectual liberty; it
liberated the human mind, and yet pretended to govern it by law."
But it is in vain for man to struggle against the nature of things:
Protestantism endeavored, without success, to limit the right of
private judgment. It raised its voice against it, and sometimes
appeared to attempt its total destruction; but the right of private
judgment, which was in its own bosom, remained there, developed
itself, and acted there in spite of it. There was no middle course for
Protestantism to adopt: it was compelled either to throw itself into
the arms of authority, and thus acknowledge itself in the wrong, or
else allow the dissolving principle to exert so much influence on its
various sects, as to destroy even the shadow of the religion of Jesus
Christ, and debase Christianity to the rank of a school of philosophy.
The cry of resistance to the authority of the Church once raised, the
fatal results might be easily imagined; it was thus easy to foresee
that that poisoned germ, in its development, must cause the ruin of all
the Christian truths; and what could prevent its rapid development in
a soil where fermentation was so active? Catholics were not wanting to
proclaim loudly the greatness and imminence of the danger; and it must
be allowed that many Protestants foresaw it clearly. No one is ignorant
that the most distinguished men of the sect gave their opinions on
this point, even from the beginning. Men of the greatest talent never
found themselves at ease in Protestantism. They always felt that there
was an immense void in it; this is the reason why they have constantly
inclined either towards irreligion or towards Catholic unity.
Time, the best judge of opinions, has confirmed these melancholy
prognostics. Things have now reached such a pass, that those only who
are very ill instructed, or who have a very limited grasp of mind, can
fail to see that the Christian religion, as explained by Protestants,
is nothing more than an opinion--a system made up of a thousand
incoherent parts, and which is degraded to the level of the schools
of philosophy. If Christianity still seems to surpass these schools
in some respects, and preserves some features which cannot be found
in what is the pure invention of the mind of man, it ought not to be
a matter of astonishment. It is owing to that sublimity of doctrine
and that sanctity of morality which, more or less disfigured, always
shines while a trace is preserved of the words of Jesus Christ. But
the feeble light which struggles with darkness after the sun has sunk
below the horizon, cannot be compared to that of day: darkness advances
and spreads; it extinguishes the expiring reflection, and night comes
on. Such is the doctrine of Christianity among Protestants. A glance
at these sects shows us that they are not purely philosophical, but it
shows us at the same time that they have not the characters of true
religion. Christianity has no authority therein; and is there like a
being out of its proper element,--a tree deprived of its roots: its
face is pale and disfigured like that of a corpse. Protestantism talks
of faith, and its fundamental principle destroys it; it endeavors to
exalt the gospel, and its own principle, by subjecting that gospel to
private judgment, weakens its authority. If it speak of the sanctity
and purity of Christian morality, it is reminded that some of its
dissenting sects deny the divinity of Jesus Christ; and that they all
may do so according to the principle on which it rests. The Divinity
of Jesus Christ once doubted, the God-made man is reduced to the rank
of a great philosopher and legislator; He has no longer the authority
necessary to give to His laws the august sanction which renders them
so holy in the eyes of men; He can no longer imprint upon them the
seal which raises them above all human thoughts, and His sublime
instructions cease to be lessons flowing from the lips of uncreated
Wisdom.
If you deprive the human mind of the support of authority of some
kind or other, on what can it depend? Abandoned to its own delirious
dreams, it is forced again into the gloomy paths which led the
philosophers of the ancient schools to chaos. Reason and experience
are here agreed. If you substitute the private judgment of Protestants
for the authority of the Church, all the great questions respecting
God and man remain without solution. All the difficulties are left;
the mind is in darkness, and seeks in vain for a light to guide it in
safety: stunned by the voices of a hundred schools, who dispute without
being able to throw any light on the subject, it relapses into that
state of discouragement and prostration in which Christianity found it,
and from which, with so much exertion, she had withdrawn it. Doubt,
pyrrhonism, and indifference become the lot of the greatest minds; vain
theories, hypothetical systems, and dreams take possession of men of
more moderate abilities; the ignorant are reduced to superstitions and
absurdities.
Of what use, then, would Christianity have been on the earth, and what
would have been the progress of humanity? Happily for the human race,
the Christian religion was not abandoned to the whirlwind of Protestant
sects. In Catholic authority she has found ample means of resisting the
attacks of sophistry and error. What would have become of her without
it? Would the sublimity of her doctrines, the wisdom of her precepts,
the unction of her counsels, have been now any thing more than a
beautiful dream, related in enchanting language by a great philosopher?
Yes, I must repeat, without the authority of the Church there is no
security for faith; the divinity of Jesus Christ becomes a matter
of doubt; His mission is disputed; in fact, the Christian religion
disappears. If she cannot show us her heavenly titles, give us full
certainty that she has come from the bosom of the Eternal, that her
words are those of God Himself, and that He has condescended to appear
on earth for the salvation of men, she has then lost her right to
demand our veneration. Reduced to the level of human ideas, she must,
then, submit to our judgment like other mere opinions; at the tribunal
of philosophy she may endeavor to maintain her doctrines as more or
less reasonable; but she will always be liable to the reproach of
having wished to deceive us, by passing herself off as divine when she
was only human; and in all discussions on the truth of her doctrines,
she will have this fatal presumption against her, viz. that the account
of her origin was an imposture.
Protestants boast of their independence of mind, and reproach the
Catholic religion with violating the most sacred rights, by demanding
a submission which outrages the dignity of man. Here extravagant
declamation about the strength of our understanding is introduced with
good effect; and a few seductive images and expressions, such as "_bold
flights_" and "_glittering wings_," &c., are enough to delude many
readers.
Let the human mind enjoy all its rights; let it boast of possessing
that spark of divinity called the intellect; let it pass over all
nature in triumph, observing all the beings by which it is surrounded,
and congratulate itself on its own immense superiority, in the midst
of the wonders with which it has known how to embellish its abode;
let it point out, as proofs of its strength and grandeur, the changes
which are everywhere worked by its presence; by its intellectual
force and boldness it has acquired the complete mastery over nature.
Let us acknowledge the dignity and elevation of our minds to show
our gratitude to our Creator, but let us not forget our weakness and
defects. Why should we deceive ourselves by fancying that we know what
we are really ignorant of? Why forget the inconstancy and variableness
of our minds, and conceal the fact, that with respect to many things,
even of those with which we are supposed to be acquainted, we have but
confused ideas? How delusive is our knowledge, and what exaggerated
notions we have of our progress in information? Does not one day
contradict what another had affirmed? Time runs its course, laughs at
our predictions, destroys our plans, and clearly shows how vain are our
projects.
What have those geniuses who have descended to the foundations of
science, and risen by the boldest flights to the loftiest speculations,
told us? After having reached the utmost limits of the space which it
is permitted to the human mind to range over,--after having trodden the
most secret paths of science, and sailed on the vast ocean of moral
and physical nature, the greatest minds of all ages have returned
dissatisfied with the results. They have seen a beautiful illusion
appear before their eyes,--the brilliant image which enchanted them
has vanished; when they thought they were about to enter a region
of light, they have found themselves surrounded with darkness, and
they have viewed with affright the extent of their ignorance. It is
for this reason that the greatest minds have so little confidence
in the strength of the human intellect, although they cannot but be
fully aware that they are superior to other men. The sciences, in the
profound observation of Pascal, have two extremes which meet each
other: the first is, the pure natural state of ignorance in which men
are at their birth; the other extreme is, that at which great minds
arrive when, having reached the utmost extent of human knowledge, they
find that they know nothing, and that they are still in the same state
of ignorance as at first. (_Pensées_, 1 partie, art. 6.)
Catholicism says to man, "Thy intellect is weak, thou hast need of a
guide in many things." Protestantism says to him, "Thou art surrounded
by light, walk as thou wilt; thou canst not have a better guide than
thyself." Which of the two religions is most in accordance with the
lessons of the highest philosophy?
It is not, therefore, surprising that the greatest minds among
Protestants have all felt a certain tendency towards Catholicism, and
have seen the wisdom of subjecting the human mind, in some things,
to the decision of an infallible authority. Indeed, if an authority
can be found uniting in its origin, its duration, its doctrines, and
its conduct, all the characteristics of divinity, why should the mind
refuse to submit to her; and what has it to gain by wandering, at the
mercy of its illusions, on the most serious subjects, in paths where it
only meets with recollections of errors, with warnings and delusions?
If the human mind has conceived too great an esteem for itself, let
it study its own history, in order to see and understand how little
security is to be found in its own strength. Abounding in systems,
inexhaustible in subtilties; as ready in conceiving a project as
incapable of maintaining it; full of ideas which arise, agitate, and
destroy each other, like the insects which abound in lakes; now raising
itself on the wings of sublime inspiration, and now creeping like a
reptile on the face of the earth; as able and willing to destroy the
works of others, as it is impotent to construct any durable ones of
its own; urged on by the violence of passion, swollen with pride,
confounded by the infinite variety of objects which present themselves
to it; confused by so many false lights and so many deceptive
appearances, the human mind, when left entirely to itself, resembles
those brilliant meteors which dart at random through the immensity of
the heavens, assume a thousand eccentric forms, send forth a thousand
sparks, dazzle for a moment by their fantastic splendour, and disappear
without leaving even a reflected light to illuminate the darkness.
Behold the history of man's knowledge! In that immense and confused
heap of truth, error, sublimity, absurdity, wisdom, and folly, are
collected the proofs of my assertions, and to that do I refer any one
who may be inclined to accuse me of having overcharged the picture.[7]