opportunities of treating points which would be new to our readers.
Perhaps the most suggestive portion is the description of the effects of
Protestantism on the character and condition of the people. The plunder
and oppression of the poor has everywhere followed the plunder of the
Church, which was the guardian and refuge of the poor. The charity of
the Catholic clergy aimed not merely at relieving, but at preventing
poverty. It was their object not only to give alms, but to give to the
lower orders the means of obtaining a livelihood. The Reformation at
once checked alms-giving; so that, Selden says, in places where twenty
pounds a year had been distributed formerly, not a handful of meal was
given away in his time, for the wedded clergy could not afford it. The
confiscation of the lands where thousands had tilled the soil under the
shadow of the monastery or the Church, was followed by a new system of
cultivation, which deprived the peasants of their homes. The sheep, men
said, were the cause of all the woe; and whole towns were pulled down to
make room for them. The prelates of the sixteenth century lament the
decline of charity since the Catholic times; and a divine attributed the
growing selfishness and harshness to the doctrine of justification by
faith. The alteration in the condition of the poor was followed by
severe enactments against vagrancy; and the Protestant legislature,
after creating a proletariate, treated it as a crime. The conversion of
Sunday into a Jewish Sabbath cut off the holiday amusements and soured
the cheerfulness of the population. Music, singing, and dancing, the
favourite relaxation of a contented people, disappeared, and, especially
after the war in the Low Countries, drunkenness began to prevail among a
nation which in earlier times had been reckoned the most sober of
Northern Europe. The institution which introduced these changes has
become a State, not a national Church, whose services are more attended
by the rich than by the poor.
After describing the various parties in the Anglican system, the decay
of its divinity, and the general aversion to theological research,
Doellinger concludes that its dissolution is a question of time. No State
Church can long subsist in modern society which professes the religion
of the minority. Whilst the want of a definite system of doctrine,
allowing every clergyman to be the mouthpiece, not of a church, but of a
party, drives an increasing portion of the people to join the sects
which have a fixed doctrine and allow less independence to their
preachers, the great danger which menaces the Church comes from the
State itself. The progress of dissent and of democracy in the
legislature will make the Church more and more entirely dependent on the
will of the majority, and will drive the best men from the communion of
a servile establishment. The rise and fortunes of Methodism are related
with peculiar predilection by the author, who speaks of John Wesley as
the greatest intellect English Protestantism has produced, next to
Baxter.
The first characteristic of Scottish Presbyterianism is the absence of a
theology. The only considerable divines that have appeared in Scotland
since the Reformation, Leighton and Forbes, were prelates of the
Episcopal Church. Calvinism was unable to produce a theological
literature, in spite of the influence of English writers, of the example
of Holland, and of the great natural intelligence of the Scots. "Their
theology," says a distinguished Lutheran divine, "possesses no system of
Christian ethics." This Doellinger attributes to the strictness with
which they have held to the doctrine of imputation, which is
incompatible with any system of moral theology. In other countries it
was the same; where that doctrine prevailed, there was no ethical
system, and where ethics were cultivated, the doctrine was abandoned.
For a century after Luther, no moral theology was written in Germany.
The first who attempted it, Calixtus, gave up the Lutheran doctrine. The
Dutch historians of Calvinism in the Netherlands record, in like manner,
that there the dread of a collision with the dogma silenced the teaching
of ethics both in literature and at the universities. Accordingly, all
the great Protestant moralists were opposed to the Protestant doctrine
of justification. In Scotland the intellectual lethargy of churchmen is
not confined to the department of ethics; and Presbyterianism only
prolongs its existence by suppressing theological writing, and by
concealing the contradictions which would otherwise bring down on the
clergy the contempt of their flocks.
Whilst Scotland has clung to the original dogma of Calvin, at the price
of complete theological stagnation, the Dutch Church has lost its
primitive orthodoxy in the progress of theological learning. Not one of
the several schools into which the clergy of the Netherlands are divided
has remained faithful to the five articles of the synod of Dortrecht,
which still command so extensive an allegiance in Great Britain and
America. The conservative party, headed by the statesman and historian,
Groen van Prinsterer, who holds fast to the theology which is so closely
interwoven with the history of his country and with the fortunes of the
reigning house, and who invokes the aid of the secular arm in support of
pure Calvinism, is not represented at the universities. For all the
Dutch divines know that the system cannot be revived without sacrificing
the theological activity by which it has been extinguished. The old
confessional writings have lost their authority; and the general synod
of 1854 decided that, "as it is impossible to reconcile all opinions and
wishes, even in the shortest confession, the Church tolerates divergence
from the symbolical books." The only unity, says Groen, consists in
this, that all the preachers are paid out of the same fund. The bulk of
the clergy are Arminians or Socinians. From the spectacle of the Dutch
Church, Dr. Doellinger comes to the following result: first, that without
a code of doctrine laid down in authoritative confessions of faith, the
Church cannot endure; secondly, that the old confessional writings
cannot be maintained, and are universally given up; and thirdly, that it
is impossible to draw up new ones.
French Protestantism suffered less from the Revolution than the Catholic
Church, and was treated with tenderness, and sometimes with favour. The
dissolution of Continental Protestantism began in France. Before their
expulsion in 1685, the French divines had cast off the yoke of the
Dortrecht articles, and in their exile they afterwards promoted the
decline of Calvinism in the Netherlands. The old Calvinistic tradition
has never been restored, the works of the early writers are forgotten,
no new theological literature has arisen, and the influence of Germany
has borne no considerable fruit. The evangelical party, or Methodists,
as they are called, are accused by the rest of being the cause of their
present melancholy state. The rationalism of the _indifferens_ generally
prevails among the clergy, either in the shape of the naturalism of the
eighteenth century (Coquerel), or in the more advanced form of modern
criticism, as it is carried out by the faculty of Strasburg, with the
aid of German infidelity. Payment by the State and hatred of Catholicism
are the only common marks of French Protestant divines. They have no
doctrine, no discipline, no symbol, no theology. Nobody can define the
principle or the limits of their community.
The Calvinism of Switzerland has been ruined in its doctrine by the
progress of theology, and in its constitution by the progress of
democracy. In Geneva the Church of Calvin fell in the revolutions of
1841 and 1846. The symbolical books are abolished; the doctrine is based
on the Bible; but the right of free inquiry is granted to all; the
ruling body consists of laymen. "The faith of our fathers," says Merle
d'Aubigne, "counts but a small group of adherents amongst us." In the
canton of Vaud, where the whole ecclesiastical power was in the hands of
the Government, the yoke of the democracy became insupportable, and the
excellent writer, Vinet, seceded with 180 ministers out of 250. The
people of Berne are among the most bitter enemies of Catholicism in
Europe. Their fanaticism crushed the Sonderbund; but the recoil drove
them towards infidelity, and hastened the decrease of devotion and of
the influence of the clergy. None of the German Swiss, and few of the
French, retain in its purity the system of Calvin. The unbelief of the
clergy lays the Church open to the attacks of a Caesaro-papistic
democracy. A Swiss Protestant divine said recently: "Only a Church with
a Catholic organisation could have maintained itself without a most
extraordinary descent of the Holy Spirit against the assaults of
Rationalism." "What we want," says another, "in order to have a free
Church, is pastors and flocks; dogs and wolves there are in plenty."
In America it is rare to find people who are openly irreligious. Except
some of the Germans, all Protestants generally admit the truth of
Christianity and the authority of Scripture. But above half of the
American population belongs to no particular sect, and performs no
religious functions. This is the result of the voluntary principle, of
the dominion of the sects, and of the absence of an established Church,
to receive each individual from his birth, to adopt him by baptism, and
to bring him up in the atmosphere of a religious life. The majority of
men will naturally take refuge in indifference and neutrality from the
conflict of opinions, and will persuade themselves that where there are
so many competitors, none can be the lawful spouse. Yet there is a
blessing on everything that is Christian, which can never be entirely
effaced or converted into a curse. Whatever the imperfections of the
form in which it exists, the errors mixed up with it, or the degrading
influence of human passion, Christianity never ceases to work
immeasurable social good. But the great theological characteristic of
American Protestantism is the absence of the notion of the Church. The
prevailing belief is, that in times past there was always a war of
opinions and of parties, that there never was one unbroken vessel, and
that it is necessary, therefore, to put up with fragments, one of which
is nearly as good as another. Sectarianism, it is vaguely supposed, is
the normal condition of religion. Now a sect is, by its very nature,
instinctively adverse to a scientific theology; it feels that it is
short-lived, without a history, and unconnected with the main stream of
ecclesiastical progress, and it is inspired with hatred and with
contempt for the past, for its teaching and its writings. Practically,
sectaries hold that a tradition is the more surely to be rejected the
older it is, and the more valuable in proportion to the lateness of its
origin. As a consequence of the want of roots in the past, and of the
thirst for novelty, the history of those sects which are not sunk in
lethargy consists in sudden transitions to opposite extremes. In the
religious world ill weeds grow apace; and those communities which strike
root, spring up, and extend most rapidly are the least durable and the
least respectable. The sects of Europe were transplanted into America:
but there the impatience of authority, which is the basis of social and
political life, has produced in religion a variety and a multiplicity,
of Which Europe has no experience.
Whilst these are the fruits of religious liberty and ecclesiastical
independence among a people generally educated, the Danish monarchy
exhibits unity of faith strictly maintained by keeping the people under
the absolute control of the upper class, on whose behalf the Reformation
was introduced, and in a state of ignorance corresponding to their
oppression. Care was taken that they should not obtain religious
instruction, and in the beginning of the eighteenth century the
celebrated Bishop Pontoppidan says, "an almost heathen blindness
pervades the land." About the same time the Norwegian prelates declared,
in a petition to the King of Denmark: "If we except a few children of
God, there is only this difference between us and our heathen ancestors,
that we bear the name of Christians." The Danish Church has given no
signs of life, and has shown no desire for independence since the
Reformation; and in return for this submissiveness, the Government
suppressed every tendency towards dissent. Things were not altered when
the tyranny of the nobles gave way to the tyranny of the crown; but when
the revolution of 1848 had given the State a democratic basis, its
confessional character was abrogated, and whilst Lutheranism was
declared the national religion, conformity was no longer exacted. The
king is still the head of the Church, and is the only man in Denmark who
must be a Lutheran. No form of ecclesiastical government suitable to the
new order of things has yet been devised, and the majority prefer to
remain in the present provisional state, subject to the will of a
Parliament, not one member of which need belong to the Church which it
governs. Among the clergy, those who are not Rationalists follow the
lead of Grundtvig. During many years this able man has conducted an
incessant resistance against the progress of unbelief and of the German
influence, and against the Lutheran system, the royal supremacy, and the
parochial constitution. Not unlike the Tractarians, he desires the
liberty of establishing a system which shall exclude Lutheranism,
Rationalism, and Erastianism; and he has united in his school nearly all
who profess positive Christianity in Denmark. In Copenhagen, out of
150,000 inhabitants, only 6000 go regularly to church. In Altona, there
is but one church for 45,000 people. In Schleswig the churches are few
and empty. "The great evil," says a Schleswig divine, "is not the
oppression which falls on the German tongue, but the irreligion and
consequent demoralisation which Denmark has imported into Schleswig. A
moral and religious tone is the exception, not the rule, among the
Danish clergy."
The theological literature of Sweden consists almost entirely of
translations from the German. The clergy, by renouncing study, have
escaped Rationalism, and remain faithful to the Lutheran system. The
king is supreme in spirituals, and the Diet discusses and determines
religious questions. The clergy, as one of the estates, has great
political influence, but no ecclesiastical independence. No other
Protestant clergy possesses equal privileges or less freedom. It is
usual for the minister after the sermon to read out a number of trivial
local announcements, sometimes half an hour long; and in a late Assembly
the majority of the bishops pronounced in favour of retaining this
custom, as none but old women and children would come to church for the
service alone.
In no other country in Europe is the strict Lutheran system preached but
in Sweden. The doctrine is preserved, but religion is dead, and the
Church is as silent and as peaceful as the churchyard. The Church is
richly endowed; there are great universities, and Swedes are among the
foremost in almost every branch of science, but no Swedish writer has
ever done anything for religious thought. The example of Denmark and its
Rationalist clergy brought home to them the consequences of theological
study. In one place the old system has been preserved, like a frail and
delicate curiosity, by excluding the air of scientific inquiry, whilst
in the other Lutheranism is decomposing under its influence. In Norway,
where the clergy have no political representation, religious liberty was
established in 1844.
Throughout the north of Europe the helpless decline of Protestantism is
betrayed by the numerical disproportion of preachers to the people.
Norway, with a population of 1,500,000, thinly scattered over a very
large territory, has 485 parishes, with an average of 3600 souls apiece.
But the clergy are pluralists, and as many as five parishes are often
united under a single incumbent. Holstein has only 192 preachers for an
almost exclusively Lutheran population of 544,000. In Schleswig many
parishes have been deserted because they were too poor to maintain a
clergyman's family. Sometimes there are only two ministers for 13,000
persons. In the Baltic provinces the proportion is one to 4394. In this
way the people have to bear the burden of a clergy with families to
support.
The most brilliant and important part of this chapter is devoted to the
state of Protestantism in the author's native country. He speaks with
the greatest authority and effect when he comes near home, describes the
opinions of men who have been his rivals in literature, or his
adversaries in controversy, and touches on discussions which his own
writings have influenced. There is a difference also in the tone. When
he speaks of the state of other countries, with which he has made
himself acquainted as a traveller, or through the writings of others, he
preserves the calmness and objectivity of a historian, and adds few
reflections to the simple description of facts. But in approaching the
scenes and the thoughts of his own country, the interests and the most
immediate occupations of his own life, the familiarity of long
experience gives greater confidence, warmth, and vigour to his touch;
the historian gives way to the divine, and the narrative sometimes
slides into theology. Besides the position of the author, the
difference of the subject justifies a change in the treatment. The
examination of Protestantism in the rest of the world pointed with
monotonous uniformity to a single conclusion. Everywhere there was the
same spectacle and the same alternative: either religion sacrificed to
the advancement of learning, or learning relinquished for the
preservation of religion. Everywhere the same antagonism between
intellectual progress and fidelity to the fundamental doctrines of
Protestantism: either religion has become stark and stagnant in States
which protect unity by the proscription of knowledge, or the progress of
thought and inquiry has undermined belief in the Protestant system, and
driven its professors from one untenable position to another, or the
ascendency of the sectarian spirit has been equally fatal to its
dogmatic integrity and to its intellectual development. But in the home
of the Reformation a league has been concluded in our time between
theology and religion, and many schools of Protestant divines are
labouring, with a vast expenditure of ability and learning, to devise,
or to restore, with the aid of theological science, a system of positive
Christianity. Into this great scene of intellectual exertion and
doctrinal confusion the leading adversary of Protestantism in Germany
conducts his readers, not without sympathy for the high aims which
inspire the movement, but with the almost triumphant security which
belongs to a Church possessing an acknowledged authority, a definite
organisation, and a system brought down by tradition from the apostolic
age. Passing by the schools of infidelity, which have no bearing on the
topic of his work, he addresses himself to the believing Protestantism
of Germany, and considers its efforts to obtain a position which may
enable it to resist unbelief without involving submission to the Church.
The character of Luther separates the German Protestants from those of
other countries. His was the master-spirit, in whom his contemporaries
beheld the incarnation of the genius of their nation. In the strong
lineaments of his character they recognised, in heroic proportions, the
reflection of their own; and thus his name has survived, not merely as
that of a great man, the mightiest of his age, but as the type of a
whole period in the history of the German people, the centre of a new
world of ideas, the personification of those religious and ethical
opinions which the country followed, and whose influence even their
adversaries could not escape. His writings have long ceased to be
popular, and are read only as monuments of history; but the memory of
his person has not yet grown dim. His name is still a power in his own
country, and from its magic the Protestant doctrine derives a portion of
its life. In other countries men dislike to be described by the name of
the founder of their religious system, but in Germany and Sweden there
are thousands who are proud of the name of Lutheran.
The results of his system prevail in the more influential and
intelligent classes, and penetrate the mass of the modern literature of
Germany. The Reformation had introduced the notion that Christianity was
a failure, and had brought far more suffering than blessings on mankind;
and the consequences of that movement were not calculated to impress
educated men with the belief that things were changed for the better, or
that the reformers had achieved the work in which the Apostles were
unsuccessful. Thus an atmosphere of unbelief and of contempt for
everything Christian gradually arose, and Paganism appeared more
cheerful, more human, and more poetical than the repulsive Galilean
doctrine of holiness and privation. This spirit still governs the
educated class. Christianity is abominated both in life and in
literature, even under the form of believing Protestantism.
In Germany theological study and the Lutheran system subsisted for two
centuries together. The controversies that arose from time to time
developed the theory, but brought out by degrees its inward
contradictions. The danger of biblical studies was well understood, and
the Scriptures were almost universally excluded from the universities in
the seventeenth century; but in the middle of the eighteenth Bengel
revived the study of the Bible, and the dissolution of the Lutheran
doctrine began. The rise of historical learning hastened the process.
Frederic the Great says of himself, that the notion that the history of
the Church is a drama, conducted by rogues and hypocrites, at the
expense of the deceived masses, was the real cause of his contempt for
the Christian religion. The Lutheran theology taught, that after the
Apostolic age God withdrew from the Church, and abandoned to the devil
the office which, according to the Gospel, was reserved for the Holy
Spirit. This diabolical millennium lasted till the appearance of Luther.
As soon, therefore, as the reverence for the symbolical books began to
wane, the belief in the divine foundation departed with the belief in
the divine guidance of the Church, and the root was judged by the stem,
the beginning by the continuation. As research went on, unfettered now
by the authorities of the sixteenth century, the clergy became
Rationalists, and stone after stone of the temple was carried away by
its own priests. The infidelity which at the same time flourished in
France, did not, on the whole, infect the priesthood. But in Germany it
was the divines who destroyed religion, the pastors who impelled their
flocks to renounce the Christian faith.