THE POSITIVE DOCTRINES OF PROTESTANTISM REPUGNANT TO THE INSTINCT OF
CIVILIZATION.
The best proof of the extreme weakness of Protestantism, considered
as a body of doctrine, is the little influence which its positive
doctrines have exercised in European civilization. I call its positive
doctrines those which it attempts to establish as its own; and I
distinguish them thus from its other doctrines, which I call negative,
because they are nothing but the negation of authority. The latter
found favor on account of their conformity with the inconstancy and
changeableness of the human mind; but the others, which have not the
same means of success, have all disappeared with their authors, and are
now plunged in oblivion. The only part of Christianity which has been
preserved among Protestants, is that which was necessary to prevent
European civilization from losing among them its nature and character;
and this is the reason why the doctrines which had too direct a
tendency to alter the nature of this civilization have been repudiated,
we should rather say, despised by it.
There is a circumstance here well worthy of attention, and which has
not perhaps been noticed, viz. the fate of the doctrine held by the
first reformers with respect to free-will. It is well known that one
of the first and most important errors of Luther and Calvin consisted
in denying free-will. We find this fatal doctrine professed in the
works which they have left us. Does it not seem that this doctrine
ought to have preserved its credit among the Protestants, and that they
ought to have fiercely maintained it, since such is commonly the case
with errors which serve as a nucleus in the formation of a sect? It
seems, also, that Protestantism being widely spread, and deeply rooted
in several countries of Europe, this fatalist doctrine ought to have
exercised a strong influence on the legislation of Protestant nations.
Wonderful as it is, such has not been the case; European moralists have
despised it; legislation has not adopted it as a basis; civilization
has not allowed itself to be directed by a principle which sapped all
the foundations of morality, and which, if once applied to morals and
laws, would have substituted for European civilization and dignity the
barbarism and debasement of Mahometanism.
There is no doubt that this fatal doctrine has perverted some
individuals; it has been adopted by sects more or less numerous; and
it cannot be denied that it has affected the morality of some nations.
But it is also certain, that, in the generality of the great human
family, governments, tribunals, administration, legislation, science,
and morals, have not listened to this horrible doctrine of Luther,--a
doctrine which strips man of his free will, which makes God the author
of sin, which charges the Creator with the responsibility of all the
crimes of His creatures, and represents Him as a tyrant, by affirming
that His precepts are impossible; a doctrine which monstrously
confounds the ideas of good and evil, and removes all stimulus to good
deeds, by teaching that faith is sufficient for salvation, and that all
the good works of the just are only sins.
Public opinion, good sense, and morality here side with Catholicity.
Those even who in theory embrace these fatal religious doctrines,
usually reject them in practice; this is because Catholic instruction
on these important points has made so deep an impression on them;
because so strong an instinct of civilization has been communicated
to European society by the Catholic religion. Thus the Church, by
repudiating the destructive errors taught by Protestantism, preserved
society from being debased by these fatalist doctrines. The Church
formed a barrier against the despotism which is enthroned wherever the
sense of dignity is lost; she was a fence against the demoralization
which always spreads whenever men think themselves bound by blind
necessity, as by an iron chain; she also freed the human mind from
the state of abjection into which it falls whenever it thinks itself
deprived of the government of its own conduct, and of the power of
influencing the course of events. In condemning those errors of Luther,
which were the bond of Protestantism at its birth, the Pope raised
the alarm against an irruption of barbarism into the order of ideas;
he saved morality, laws, public order, and society; the Vatican, by
securing the noble sentiment of liberty in the sanctuary of conscience,
preserved the dignity of man; by struggling against Protestant ideas,
by defending the sacred deposit confided to it by its Divine Master,
the Roman See became the tutelary divinity of future civilization.
Reflect on these great truths, understand them thoroughly, you who
speak of religious disputes with cold indifference, with apparent
mockery and pity, as if they were only scholastic puerilities. Nations
_do not live on bread alone_; they live also on ideas, on maxims,
which, converted into spiritual aliment, give them greatness, strength,
and energy, or, on the contrary, weaken them, reduce them, and condemn
them to stupidity. Look over the face of the globe, examine the periods
of human history, compare times with times, and nations with nations,
and you will see that the Church, by giving so much importance to the
preservation of these transcendent truths, by accepting no compromise
on this point, has understood and realized better than any other
teacher, the elevated and salutary maxim, that truth ought to reign in
the world; that on the order of ideas depends the order of events, and
that when these great problems are called in question, the destinies of
humanity are involved.
Let us recapitulate what we have said; the essential principle of
Protestantism is one of destruction; this is the cause of its incessant
variations, of its dissolution and annihilation. As a particular
religion it no longer exists, for it has no peculiar faith, no positive
character, no government, nothing that is essential to form an
existence; Protestantism is only a negative. If there is any thing to
be found in it of a positive nature, it is nothing more than vestiges
and ruins; all is without force, without action, without the spirit of
life. It cannot show an edifice raised by its own hands; it cannot,
like Catholicity, stand in the midst of its vast works and say, "These
are mine." Protestantism can only sit down on a heap of ruins, and say
with truth, "I have made this pile."
As long as sectarian fanaticism lasted, as long as this flame,
enkindled by furious declamation, was kept alive by unhappy
circumstances, Protestantism showed a certain degree of force, which,
although it was not the sign of vigorous life, at least indicated
the convulsive energy of delirium. But that period has passed, the
action of time has dispersed the elements that fed the flame, and
none of the attempts which have been made to give to the Reformation
the character of a work of God, have been able to conceal the fact
that it was the work of human passions. Let us not be deceived by the
efforts which are now being made; what is acting under our eyes is
not living Protestantism, it is the operation of false philosophy,
perhaps of policy, sometimes of sordid interest disguised under the
name of policy. Every one knows how powerful Protestantism was in
exciting disturbances and causing disunion. It is on this account that
evil-minded men search in the bed of this exhausted torrent for some
remains of its impure waters, and knowing them to contain a deadly
poison, present them to the unsuspecting in a golden cup.
But it is in vain for weak man to struggle against the arm of the
Almighty, God will not abandon His work. Notwithstanding all his
attempts to deface the work of God, man cannot blot out the eternal
characters which distinguish truth from error. Truth in itself is
strong and robust: as it is the ensemble of the relations which unite
things together, it is strongly connected with them, and cannot be
separated either by the efforts of man or by the revolution of time.
Error, on the contrary, the lying image of the great ties which bind
together the compact mass of the universe, stretches over its usurped
domain like those dead branches of the forest which, devoid of sap,
afford neither freshness nor verdure, and only serve to impede the
advance of the traveller.
Confiding men, do not allow yourselves to be seduced by brilliant
appearances, pompous discourse, or false activity. Truth is open,
modest, without suspicion, because it is pure and strong; error is
hypocritical and ostentatious, because it is false and weak. Truth
resembles a woman of real beauty, who, conscious of her charms,
despises the affectation of ornament; error, on the contrary, paints
and ornaments herself, because she is ugly, without expression,
without grace, without dignity. Perhaps you may be pleased with its
laborious activity. Know, then, that it has no strength but when it
is the rallying cry of a faction; then, indeed, it is rapid in action
and fertile in violent measures. It is like the meteor which explodes
and vanishes, leaving behind it nothing but darkness, death, and
destruction; truth, on the contrary, like the sun, sends forth its
bright and steady beams, fertilizes with its genial warmth, and sheds
on every side life, joy, and beauty.