CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT CHRISTIANITY.
From the time of the completion of the doctrine of the Incarnation,
Christianity steadily advanced towards Paganism. Gradually all the
characteristics of polytheism crept into the Church. Idolatry, embodied
specially in an important doctrine to be mentioned presently, was
embodied generally in the worship of images. The great principle of
local government in religion which distinguished Pagan polytheism
became Christian by the worship of saints. This was soon the chief
feature of ordinary Christianity. To the average Christian the local
saint appeared the representative of heaven, the appointed agent
through whom heavenly blessings were to be obtained. The Christian
doctrine of the soul’s immortality, originally derived from Judaism,
was Paganised into a resemblance to the ideas on the subject which had
vaguely entered into most forms of Paganism. The old belief of the
Jewish Church that dead Christians “slept” until the resurrection had
become heretical by the middle of the third century.[103] The doctrine
of purgatorial penance was introduced into Christianity. For this,
indeed, quite apart from Pagan influence, there was a very good reason.
In the early days of the Church, with the moral influence of Judaism
still strong on it, and the danger of persecution keeping it pure from
unworthy members, probably almost all Christians were fairly good.
Being good, they were fit for heaven or the heavenly reign of Christ;
and so there was no difficulty in making the simple acceptance of
Christianity the test of salvation. But when the Church became popular,
and especially when it became the acknowledged religious system of
the empire, it was plain that a large proportion of its members were
by no means fit for heaven. And yet, with its looser Pagan hold on
morality, it did not care to consign to damnation faithful believers in
its doctrines. The old ideas, latent generally in Paganism, and given
special expression in the mysteries, of penal purification from evil
exactly met the difficulty, and accordingly they were incorporated in
Christianity. As before in the case of the Incarnation, it was the
need of the Church that really created the doctrine; Paganism only
determined its form.
Christianity took all its supernaturalism of evil from Judaism, that
is, from the later developments of Judaism, with hardly the slightest
change. The belief in a chief devil, having subordinates under him, in
hell or some such kind of irrevocable punishment, characterized late
Judaism as much as Christianity. In general, this supernaturalism of
evil was less strongly developed in Pagan religions, or rather, to
speak more precisely, it was a feature of eastern far more than of
western theology. Still Christian Paganism, though mainly western,
had no difficulty in accepting it, and it afterwards became the chief
support of medieval superstition.
The decline and final ruin of the empire of Rome transformed the
outward structure of Christianity. The empire died under the hands
of northern barbarians, but it attained a resurrection in the shape
of the Papal Church. After the separation of the Eastern and Western
Churches, the line of Christian development passed through the latter
alone, the former remaining stagnant in consequence of its union with
political despotism. The free Church of the west, becoming the real
representative of Christianity, gradually embodied in itself all the
attributes of imperial power. The Pope succeeded the Emperor; bishops
succeeded the provincial legates; the religious tyranny of Catholicism
succeeded the political tyranny of Cesarism. The pomp and ceremonial
of the empire were transferred to the Church. The spirit of sensuous
worship latent always in Christian Paganism of course was encouraged
by this, and expressed itself in a complex ritual. But most of all
Catholic imperialism exalted the clergy above the laity.
This exaltation of the clergy was the direct result of the transference
of the imperial power to the Church. The long reign of despotism in the
empire had unfitted the people of it for any approach to freedom. Just
as formerly they had submitted to the material power which had had its
centre in Rome, so now they submitted to the spiritual power which had
its centre in Rome. Only by the slow training of many centuries was
part of the population of Europe prepared for resistance to clerical
tyranny. The Reformation rested on the political development of the
peoples among whom it was successful. The clergy were the guardians,
for good or for evil, of the childhood of the modern world.
The complicated system of sacraments which now arose in Christianity
was largely the expression of priestly power. The distinction made
between clergy and laity in the celebration of the Eucharist showed
this in its clearest form. But most of all the power of absolution gave
the priest an unlimited supremacy. Holding the keys of heaven and of
hell, he was the master of the Christian’s soul. The foundation of this
doctrine, as well as that of the general recognition of an authority
peculiar to the clergy, was laid in the willing reverence felt by
the early Church for the apostles, for the men who had actually seen
its founder. Clerical despotism cannot be ascribed to the spirit of
Paganism as distinguished from the spirit of Judaism. But still, in its
extreme development under the pressure of changes in the Pagan world,
it was a Pagan feature of Christianity.
A most important distinctly Pagan doctrine was connected with this idea
of clerical sanctity. I have already referred to the belief of the
early Church that the body and blood of Christ were really present in
the elements of the Eucharist. It is quite clear from the language of
St. Paul that this belief in the real presence was not a belief that
the elements were actually changed into Christ’s body and blood.[104]
By the faith of the communicant the sacrament was accomplished, and
without faith it had no existence. The Eucharist was evidently then
regarded as a constantly recurring sacrament of the once offered
sacrifice of Christ’s death, which it commemorated and declared until
he came again. That this was an exceedingly delicate doctrine which
could be easily misinterpreted is obvious. It naturally developed into
a grosser form when Paganism, with its leaning towards idolatry, became
paramount in the Church. The elements were then formally consecrated,
and were regarded as the actual flesh and blood of Christ. As his body,
they were laid on the altar and made an object of worship. This, of
course, was simple idolatry. United with the dogma of the Incarnation,
it enabled the Christian to adore God as visibly present in a material
shape. The doctrine was connected with the exaltation of the clergy,
as the power of consecration was confined to them. Thus the sacrament
of the Eucharist became the sacrifice of the mass. The elements being
actually changed into his flesh and blood, Christ was again made a
victim; his sacrificial death was repeated as often as the ceremony;
and so the Jewish dogma of the Atonement was linked with ideas utterly
antagonistic to Judaism.[105]
The deification of the Virgin Mary was another wholly Pagan development
of Christianity. Female divinities were common in Pagan polytheism,
and female saints replaced them in Christian Paganism. After Christ,
as man, had been made the God of Christianity, this tendency to give
both sexes divine representatives produced the exaltation of the Virgin
as his female correlative. She became the goddess of Christianity,
the real third person of the Trinity, as Feuerbach calls her.[106] As
mother and wife of God, she satisfied the human instincts of Pagan
religion; and so the Church ultimately put all heavenly power into her
hands. The asceticism of later Christianity at the same time created
the dogma of her perpetual virginity. At last, as a divine being, she
was encircled with an atmosphere of miraculous privilege even from
before her birth.
The most striking feature of Pagan Christianity, monasticism, was due
to a variety of causes. In part it had its origin in the personal
character of Christ. His insistence on inward purity was not far
removed from asceticism. But though monastic asceticism may have had
some of its roots in later developments of Judaism, it was foreign
to Judaism as a whole. Judaism was remarkable for its clearness and
balance; it pushed nothing too far. Monasticism in reality was chiefly
derived from eastern Paganism, from the tendency towards asceticism
so common in Oriental religions. The same tendency produced another
important effect on western Christianity, namely, the celibacy of the
regular clergy. When this became an accepted doctrine, the finishing
touch was given to clerical power. Henceforth the Roman Church was the
most highly organized ecclesiastical system the world has ever seen.
With no recognized interests outside his calling, every priest belonged
body and soul to a vast disciplined mass which moved and acted like
one man.
Thus highly organized, the Church plunged into the darkest period of
the Middle Ages. For the evils of this period Christianity cannot
fairly be held responsible, except in so far as it contributed to the
ruin of the Roman empire. Throughout it, on the whole, the Church
was a centre of light, keeping alive the embers of civilization, and
softening the barbarous tendencies of the time. But in passing through
it Christianity suffered fearfully. The ignorance and harshness and
corruption of the age were stamped ineffaceably upon it. And this was
inevitable. In every civilized country at almost every time there are
sure to be two forms of the general religion, one popular, the other
that of the more educated classes. The popular religion, resting on
ignorance, is always a mere superstition; the other religion, kept
clear by partial knowledge from offensive crudities, is the recognized
form. But during the worst period of the Middle Ages there was no
such distinction; all religion was popular; even the highest classes
were hopelessly lost in superstition. The gloom of this superstition,
the shadow of the wretchedness of the age, left a lasting mark on
Christianity. The terror of life was transferred to death; death was
associated with the most repulsive images, and closely connected with
hell. The fear of hell became the motive power of religion; to escape
hell was to the Christian the end of life.[107] The superstitious
elements from which Christianity is now struggling to release itself
were mainly developed in its passage through this period.
During it the moral corruption of Christianity was enormous. The Church
laid stress, not on righteous conduct, but on orthodox thinking.
Heresy was irremediably damnable, but crimes and sins could be easily
compounded for. The immorality of the clergy, due partly to the general
corruption of the time, and partly to their legal celibacy, was closely
connected with the toleration of sin shown in the action of the Church.
Rotten itself, the ecclesiastical power was ever ready, in return for
material benefits, to open the gates of heaven to secular sinners.
The whole course of medieval Christianity was a progress towards the
doctrine of indulgences which immediately provoked the Reformation.
The moral decline of Christianity was the mark of its progress towards
Paganism. It receded further from its original basis in Judaism as its
dogmas became more complex and its hold on morality more uncertain.
The complexity of doctrine encouraged the decline in morality,
religious attention being drawn by it from practical conduct to the
consideration of nice points of theology. A reaction against this
tendency was inevitable. Christianity had shared in the descent of
European civilization, and when European civilization began to ascend,
Christianity had to ascend along with it. But the reaction, as it was
against a corruption which was inextricably linked with the Paganism of
the Church, could not fail to oppose itself to Paganism, that is, to
recoil back to Judaism. And this is the explanation of the Reformation.
It was the revival of Judaism in Christianity. As the revival of Jewish
Christianity, it was sure to occur sooner or later; once the thought
and knowledge of Europe awakened from their medieval slumber, the
revolt against Paganism was bound to begin. The renewal of intellectual
life involved the renewal of moral life. The restored conscience of
Europe would protest first against the later corruptions of Pagan
Christianity; but these were inseparably connected with earlier ones,
and so step by step reformers would have to ascend along the line,
until at last they would find themselves the champions of Jewish
Christianity, contending against the forces of Paganism.
Thus the great schism which the Reformation caused in Christianity was
inevitable from the first. Paganism could not be eradicated by the
revival of Judaism. The more ignorant and backward races were sure to
cling to it in opposition to the progressive spirit which revolted
from it. The schism in Christianity was as inevitable as the schism
which it occasioned in Judaism, the necessity of which was shown in
our second chapter. And just as the expansion of Judaism which Christ
made a practical success was in its main features quite independent of
the influence of his personal character, so the main features of the
Reformation were determined apart from the personal influence of the
Reformers.
From the time of the Reformation Jewish and Pagan Christianity stood
side by side. Protestantism revived the principles of the early Church;
Catholicism retained the principles of Paganism. Within the lifetime of
Luther the change was accomplished. He himself, because he assailed one
immoral doctrine of the corrupt Roman Church, was forced to travel back
along fourteen centuries of religious development.
Of course Protestantism cannot be exactly the same as the religion
of the Jewish Church. Just as Pagan Christianity was compelled to
retain Jewish dogmas, so Protestantism was compelled to retain Pagan
dogmas. It had nothing to rest on except the Canon of Scripture, and
part of the New Testament is Pagan in spirit. Accordingly, the dogmas
of earlier Paganism, which were developed while it was still mixed
with Judaism in the Church, were preserved in Protestantism. It kept,
for instance, the great Pagan dogma of the Incarnation. Still, so far
as general principle is concerned, Protestantism fairly represents
Judaism, and Catholicism Paganism in Christianity. This is evident if
they are fully compared with each other.
The Pagan character of Catholicism has already been shown. As
Catholicism—and this term covers more than the Roman Church—has
retained all the doctrines which we have examined as representative
of Paganism in Christianity, this is obvious. Similarly the non-Pagan
character of Protestantism is clear from its rejection of all the
later of these doctrines, from the worship of saints to the immaculate
conception. Its Jewish character must be shown by a reference to the
principles of our comparison of Judaism and Paganism.
The chief distinctive doctrine of Protestantism is justification
by faith alone. That in this it resembles Jewish Christianity, a
glance at St. Paul’s epistles is sufficient to show. It is also
plain that this doctrine is closely connected with the great Jewish
dogma of the Atonement. According to it, sins are washed away by the
blood of Christ, the victim offered to God. But the benefits of the
sacrifice are obtained solely by faith; the merits of the Christian
cannot enhance its value. Still more closely, however, is the
doctrine connected with the feature distinctive of Protestantism as
of Judaism, its loftier conception of God. This, as was pointed out
in our last chapter, is the peculiarity of monotheism, and it shows
the monotheistic character of Protestantism. Catholicism, having
inherited polytheistic ideas from Paganism, naturally recognizes the
value of man’s good works. In the saints whom he worships the Catholic
sees beings who, though they were once fallible like himself, have
yet obtained heavenly authority; and, as he is thus conscious of no
important difference between his divinities and himself, he is not
disposed to underestimate the worth of his virtue.
As a necessary consequence of its distinctive doctrine, Protestantism
is characterized by humility. It depresses human excellence and
heightens the sense of sin. In this it develops what were, as we saw
before, the essential tendencies of Judaism. And, curiously enough, the
phenomenon which appeared in Judaism—theological humility more than
counterbalanced by exclusive pride—appears also in the extreme forms
of Protestantism. The religion of the Puritans was ultra-Protestant in
its insistence on the utter sinfulness of human nature and the need
of faith; and yet no class of men were ever prouder than they. Like
the Jews, they felt their pride as the people, the elect of God, who
were honoured by him above the rest of mankind. The same phenomenon
can be observed at the present day among the extreme Evangelical sects
which keep the far frontier of Protestantism. In them we also find
theoretically religious humility, and practically the most intense
religious pride. And, indeed, both in these sects and in Puritanism
we see Protestantism fully developed in its likeness to its parent
Judaism, with the harshness and exclusiveness of Judaism thinly veiled
under a nominal Christianity.
Again, Protestantism resembles Judaism in its higher morality.
Protestants as a whole are certainly more moral than Catholics as
a whole. At first sight this seems remarkable, as morality is not
encouraged by the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone.
But, as a matter of fact, the priestly absolution of Catholicism is
a much more immoral doctrine. In practice, as might be expected, the
belief in justification by faith alone does less mischief than the
belief that sins can be got rid of by a visit to the nearest church.
Of course, in addition to this, the higher theology of Protestantism
favours morality, just as the higher theology of Judaism did. So far as
it is purer and more rational than Catholicism, it naturally is more
moral, and allies itself less easily with ignorance and animalism.
Protestantism, too, is like Judaism in having for its basis a written
revelation. The Bible is to Protestants what the law and the prophets
were to Jews. This feature of Protestantism is obviously connected with
its depreciation of human excellence. It makes men simply vessels for
the reception of a finished system of religious truth. Catholicism, on
the other hand, by its assertion of a continuously inspired Church,
which in every generation may develop new dogmas, plainly assigns a
higher position in religion to man.
As regards simplicity of thought and worship, there is clearly the same
opposition between Protestantism and Catholicism that there was between
Judaism and Paganism. Catholicism is remarkable more than Protestantism
for complexity of doctrine and sensuousness in worship. We will now
consider how far this opposition shows itself in their treatment of the
great dogmas which nominally are common to them both.
The Atonement being the chief Jewish dogma of Christianity, we should
expect it to be more prominent in Protestantism than in Catholicism.
And this is strictly the case. Catholicism lays no stress on the
doctrine. In a very able work by Mr. S. Baring-Gould, which presents
the religion of Catholicism in its truest form, the Atonement is made
simply symbolical, and the death of Christ is regarded as hardly
necessary to his work.[108] Protestantism, on the other hand, makes
the Atonement its primary dogma. “The blood of Jesus,” is its central
cry. It links the dogma with its distinctive doctrine; justification
by faith in the reconciling death of Christ is the essence of its
theology, and sums up its multitudinous preaching.
We also find the great Pagan dogma of Christianity, the Incarnation,
more prominent in Catholicism than in Protestantism. That God became
man is the central assertion of Catholicism, on which it bases its
higher estimation of human dignity. This can plainly be seen in the
work last referred to, where the Incarnation is regarded as the
condition of theistic religion.[109] But it is still more evident
in the tendency of Catholic theology to exalt the divinity at the
expense of the humanity of Christ, for manifestly the doctrine of the
Incarnation is expanded and made more important in proportion as the
difference between it and the original Jewish belief in the simple
humanity of Christ is increased. The Athanasian Creed is thoroughly
Catholic, and its definition of the nature of Christ involves the
destruction of his human personality. Catholic theologians have boldly
adopted this conclusion, and assert that his personality is wholly
divine.[110] Instinctively the Catholic always thinks of Christ as God.
Protestantism, on the contrary, never dwells on the Incarnation. The
extreme Evangelical sects, in which its principles are fully developed,
are perpetually drifting towards Unitarianism. But, as in the case
of Catholicism, its interpretation of the doctrine best reveals its
tendencies. It exalts the humanity at the expense of the divinity of
Christ. It holds him up as an example in a manner which implies his
human personality. Instinctively the Protestant always thinks of Christ
as man.
In their treatment of the Eucharist the respective characteristics of
Catholicism and Protestantism are also evident. We have already seen
the Paganism of the Catholic doctrine of the real presence. Equally the
two Protestant doctrines show the influence of Judaism on Christianity.
The first, the Evangelical doctrine, which allows the Eucharist no
sacramental value, and makes it simply a commemoration of the sacrament
which accompanied the sacrifice of Christ’s death, was probably the
belief of the Jewish Church at its very beginning; the second, and more
general one, which asserts the real presence, but only in a spiritual
sense through the faith of the communicant, we know to have been the
belief of the later Jewish Church in the time of St. Paul. If it were
not for the pressure of Catholicism, it is likely that the second would
be the doctrine of all forms of Protestantism. But when Catholics have
so exaggerated the real presence, Protestants, by a natural reaction,
are tempted to deny it altogether.
Thus the two systems of religion which Christianity seemed to unite
have plainly parted again. The Judaism in which it was born, and the
Paganism in which it reached its maturity, stand once more side by
side. And not merely does Christianity reveal so manifestly that great
opposing forces met in its history, but in reality every important
feature of the long course of development which has been the subject
of our survey, is recorded as clearly in its present structure as
the chief conditions of the past evolution which has produced it are
recorded in the structure of an animal organism.