evolution of philosophy, and that when we have eliminated whatever has
been damaged by contemporary criticism or by subsequent advance, and
have assimilated all that has survived through the ages, we shall find
in our possession not only a record of growth, but the full-grown fruit
itself. This is not the way in which Dr. Flint understands the building
up of his department of knowledge. Instead of showing how far France has
made a way towards the untrodden crest, he describes the many flowery
paths, discovered by the French, which lead elsewhere, and I expect that
in coming volumes it will appear that Hegel and Buckle, Vico and
Ferrari, are scarcely better guides than Laurent or Littre. Fatalism and
retribution, race and nationality, the test of success and of duration,
heredity and the reign of the invincible dead, the widening circle, the
emancipation of the individual, the gradual triumph of the soul over the
body, of mind over matter, reason over will, knowledge over ignorance,
truth over error, right over might, liberty over authority, the law of
progress and perfectibility, the constant intervention of providence,
the sovereignty of the developed conscience--neither these nor other
alluring theories are accepted as more than illusions or half-truths.
Dr. Flint scarcely avails himself of them even for his foundations or
his skeleton framework. His critical faculty, stronger than his gift of
adaptation, levels obstructions and marks the earth with ruin. He is
more anxious to expose the strange unreason of former writers, the
inadequacy of their knowledge, their want of aptitude in induction, than
their services in storing material for the use of successors. The result
is not to be the sifted and verified wisdom of two centuries, but a
future system, to be produced when the rest have failed by an exhaustive
series of vain experiments. We may regret to abandon many brilliant laws
and attractive generalisations that have given light and clearness and
simplicity and symmetry to our thought; but it is certain that Dr. Flint
is a close and powerful reasoner, equipped with satisfying information,
and he establishes his contention that France has not produced a classic
philosophy of history, and is still waiting for its Adam Smith or Jacob
Grimm.
The kindred topic of development recurs repeatedly, as an important
factor in modern science. It is still a confused and unsettled chapter,
and in one place Dr. Flint seems to attribute the idea to Bossuet; in
another he says that it was scarcely entertained in those days by
Protestants, and not at all by Catholics; in a third he implies that its
celebrity in the nineteenth century is owing in the first place to
Lamennais. The passage, taken from Vinet, in which Bossuet speaks of the
development of religion is inaccurately rendered. His words are the same
which, on another page, are rightly translated "the course of
religion"--_la suite de la religion_. Indeed, Bossuet was the most
powerful adversary the theory ever encountered. It was not so alien to
Catholic theology as is here stated, and before the time of Jurieu is
more often found among Catholic than Protestant writers. When it was put
forward, in guarded, dubious, and evasive terms, by Petavius, the
indignation in England was as great as in 1846. The work which contained
it, the most learned that Christian theology had then produced, could
not be reprinted over here, lest it should supply the Socinians with
inconvenient texts. Nelson hints that the great Jesuit may have been a
secret Arian, and Bull stamped upon his theory amid the grateful
applause of Bossuet and his friends. Petavius was not an innovator, for
the idea had long found a home among the Franciscan masters: "Proficit
fides secundum statum communem, quia secundum profectum temporum
efficiebantur homines magis idonei ad percipienda et intelligenda
sacramenta fidei.--Sunt multae conclusiones necessario inclusae in
articulis creditis, sed antequam sunt per Ecclesiam declaratae et
explicatae non oportet quemcumque eas credere. Oportet tamen circa eas
sobrie opinari, ut scilicet homo sit paratus eas tenere pro tempore, pro
quo veritas fuerit declarata." Cardinal Duperron said nearly the same
thing as Petavius a generation before him: "L'Arien trouvera dans sainct
Irenee, Tertullien et autres qui nous sont restez en petit nombre de ces
siecles-la, que le Fils est l'instrument du Pere, que le Pere a commande
au Fils lors qu'il a este question de la creation des choses, que le
Pere et le Fils sont _aliud et aliud_; choses que qui tiendroit
aujourd'huy, que le langage de l'Eglise est plus examine, seroit estime
pour Arien luy-mesme." All this does not serve to supply the pedigree
which Newman found it so difficult to trace. Development, in those days,
was an expedient, an hypothesis, and not even the thing so dear to the
Oxford probabilitarians, a working hypothesis. It was not more
substantial than the gleam in Robinson's farewell to the pilgrims: "I am
very confident that the Lord has more truth yet to break forth out of
His holy word." The reason why it possessed no scientific basis is
explained by Duchesne: "Ce n'est guere avant la seconde moitie du xviie
siecle qu'il devint impossible de soutenir l'authenticite des fausses
decretales, des constitutions apostoliques, des 'Recognitions
Clementines,' du faux Ignace, du pseudo-Dionys et de l'immense fatras
d'oeuvres anonymes ou pseudonymes qui grossissait souvent du tiers ou de
la moitie l'heritage litteraire des auteurs les plus considerables. Qui
aurait pu meme songer a un developpement dogmatique?" That it was
little understood, and lightly and loosely employed, is proved by
Bossuet himself, who alludes to it in one passage as if he did not know
that it was the subversion of his theology: "Quamvis ecclesia omnem
veritatem funditus norit, ex haeresibus tamen discit, ut aiebat magni
nominis Vincentius Lirinensis, aptius, distinctius, clariusque eandem
exponere."
The account of Lamennais suffers from the defect of mixing him up too
much with his early friends. No doubt he owed to them the theory that
carried him through his career, for it may be found in Bonald, and also
in De Maistre, though not, perhaps, in the volumes he had already
published. It was less original than he at first imagined, for the
English divines commonly held it from the seventeenth century, and its
dirge was sung only the other day by the Bishop of Gloucester and
Bristol.[404] A Scottish professor would even be justified in claiming
it for Reid. But of course it was Lamennais who gave it most importance,
in his programme and in his life. And his theory of the common sense,
the theory that we can be certain of truth only by the agreement of
mankind, though vigorously applied to sustain authority in State and
Church, gravitated towards multitudinism, and marked him off from his
associates. When he said _quod semper, quod ubique, quod ab omnibus_, he
was not thinking of the Christian Church, but of Christianity as old as
the creation; and the development he meant led up to the Bible, and
ended at the New Testament instead of beginning there. That is the
theory which he made so famous, which founded his fame and governed his
fate, and to which Dr. Flint's words apply when he speaks of celebrity.
In that sense it is a mistake to connect Lamennais with Moehler and
Newman; and I do not believe that he anticipated their teaching, in
spite of one or two passages which do not, on the face of them, bear
date B.C., and may, no doubt, be quoted for the opposite opinion.
In the same group Dr. Flint represents De Maistre as the teacher of
Savigny, and asserts that there could never be a doubt as to the
liberalism of Chateaubriand. There was none after his expulsion from
office; but there was much reason for doubting in 1815, when he
entreated the king to set bounds to his mercy; in 1819, when he was
contributing to the _Conservateur_; and in 1823, when he executed the
mandate of the absolute monarchs against the Spanish constitution. His
zeal for legitimacy was at all times qualified with liberal elements,
but they never became consistent or acquired the mastery until 1824. De
Maistre and Savigny covered the same ground at one point; they both
subjected the future to the past. This could serve as an argument for
absolutism and theocracy, and on that account was lovely in the eyes of
De Maistre. If it had been an argument the other way he would have cast
it off. Savigny had no such ulterior purpose. His doctrine, that the
living are not their own masters, could serve either cause. He rejected
a mechanical fixity, and held that whatever has been made by process of
growth shall continue to grow and suffer modification. His theory of
continuity has this significance in political science, that it supplied
a basis for conservatism apart from absolutism and compatible with
freedom. And, as he believed that law depends on national tradition and
character, he became indirectly and through friends a founder of the
theory of nationality.
The one writer whom Dr. Flint refuses to criticise, because he too
nearly agrees with him, is Renouvier. Taking this avowal in conjunction
with two or three indiscretions on other pages, we can make a guess, not
at the system itself, which is to console us for so much deviation, but
at its tendency and spirit The fundamental article is belief in divine
government. As Kant beheld God in the firmament of heaven, so too we can
see him in history on earth. Unless a man is determined to be an
atheist, he must acknowledge that the experience of mankind is a
decisive proof in favour of religion. As providence is not absolute, but
reigns over men destined to freedom, its method is manifested in the law
of progress. Here, however, Dr. Flint, in his agreement with Renouvier,
is not eager to fight for his cause, and speaks with a less jubilant
certitude. He is able to conceive that providence may attain its end
without the condition of progress, that the divine scheme would not be
frustrated if the world, governed by omnipotent wisdom, became steadily
worse. Assuming progress as a fact, if not a law, there comes the
question wherein it consists, how it is measured, where is its goal. Not
religion, for the Middle Ages are an epoch of decline. Catholicism has
since lost so much ground as to nullify the theories of Bossuet; whilst
Protestantism never succeeded in France, either after the Reformation,
when it ought to have prevailed, nor after the Revolution, when it ought
not. The failure to establish the Protestant Church on the ruins of the
old _regime_, to which Quinet attributes the breakdown of the
Revolution, and which Napoleon regretted almost in the era of his
concordat, is explained by Mr. Flint on the ground that Protestants were
in a minority. But so they were in and after the wars of religion; and
it is not apparent why a philosopher who does not prefer orthodoxy to
liberty should complain that they achieved nothing better than
toleration. He disproves Bossuet's view by that process of deliverance
from the Church which is the note of recent centuries, and from which
there is no going back. On the future I will not enlarge, because I am
writing at present in the HISTORICAL, not the PROPHETICAL, REVIEW. But
some things were not so clear in France in 1679 as they are now at
Edinburgh. The predominance of Protestant power was not foreseen, except
by those who disputed whether Rome would perish in 1710 or about 1720.
The destined power of science to act upon religion had not been proved
by Newton or Simon. No man was able to forecast the future experience of
America, or to be sure that observations made under the reign of
authority would be confirmed by the reign of freedom.
If the end be not religion, is it morality, humanity, civilisation,
knowledge? In the German chapters of 1874 Dr. Flint was severe upon
Hegel, and refused his notion that the development of liberty is the
soul of history, as crude, one-sided, and misunderstood. He is more
lenient now, and affirms that liberty occupies the final summit, that it
profits by all the good that is in the world, and suffers by all the
evil, that it pervades strife and inspires endeavour, that it is almost,
if not altogether, the sign, and the prize, and the motive in the onward
and upward advance of the race for which Christ was crucified. As that
refined essence which draws sustenance from all good things it is
clearly understood as the product of civilisation, with its complex
problems and scientific appliances, not as the elementary possession of
the noble savage, which has been traced so often to the primeval forest.
On the other hand, if sin not only tends to impair, but does inevitably
impair and hinder it, providence is excluded from its own mysterious
sphere, which, as it is not the suppression of all evil and present
punishment of wrong, should be the conversion of evil into an instrument
to serve the higher purpose. But although Dr. Flint has come very near
to Hegel and Michelet, and seemed about to elevate their teaching to a
higher level and a wider view, he ends by treating it coldly, as a
partial truth requiring supplement, and bids us wait until many more
explorers have recorded their soundings. That, with the trained capacity
for misunderstanding and the smouldering dissent proper to critics, I
might not mislead any reader, or do less than justice to a profound
though indecisive work, I should have wished to piece together the
passages in which the author indicates, somewhat faintly, the promised
but withheld philosophy which will crown his third or fourth volume. Any
one who compares pages 125, 135, 225, 226, 671, will understand better
than I can explain it the view which is the master-key to the book.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote 403: _English Historical Review_, 1895.]
[Footnote 404: [Dr. Ellicott.]]
APPENDIX
By the kindness of the Abbot Gasquet we are enabled to supplement the
Bibliography of Acton's writings published by the Royal Historical
Society with the following additional items:--
In _The Rambler_, 1858
April--Burke.
July--[With Simpson] Mr. Buckle's Thesis and Method.
Short Reviews.
August--Mr. Buckle's Philosophy of History.
October--Theiner's _Documents inedits relatifs aux affaires religieuses
de France 1790-1800_, pp. 265-267.
December--The Count de Montalembert, pp. 421-428 and note, 432.
Carlyle's _History of Frederick the Great_, vols. i. and
ii. p. 429.
1859
January--Political Thoughts on the Church.
February--The Catholic Press.
September--Contemporary Events.
1860
September--National Defence.
Irish Education in Current Events.
1862
Correspondence.
The Danger of the Physical Sciences.
INDEX
Abbot, Archbishop, and Father Paul, 432
Abbott, Dr., on Bacon and Machiavelli, 228
Absolutism, causes contributing to, 288
impulse given to, by teaching of Machiavelli, 41
inherently present in France, 237-40
and the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 121
the old, its most revolutionary act, 275
sanction of, 433
Absolutists, eighteenth century, their care solely for the State, 273
_Acta Sanctorum_ authority on the inception and early growth of the
Inquisition, 554
Acton, Lord--
Character and characteristics of--
Absolutism detested by, xxxi, xxxiv
admiration of, for George Eliot and for Gladstone, basis of, xxiii
Catholicism of, xii-xiv, xix, xx, xxvii, xxviii;
attitude of, to doctrine of Papal Infallibility, xxv, xxvi;
reality of his faith, xviii _et seq._
ideals cherished by, document embodying, xxxviii-ix;
need of directing ideals practised by, xxii, xxiv
individualistic tendencies of, xxviii
intense individuality of, xvi
objection of, to doctrine of moral relativity, xxxii, xxxiii
personality of, as exhibited in present volume, xii;
greatness of, xxii, xxxvii, xxxviii
severity of his judgments, xxv, xxvii
Literary activity and tastes of--
contributions of, to periodicals, light thrown by, on his erudition
and critical faculty, ix
_History of Liberty_ projected by, xxxv
as leader-writer, ix
preference of, for matter rather than manner in literature, xxii
literary activity, three chief periods in, xii-xiv
writings of, planned, xxxv, xxxvi;
and completed, ix _et passim_;
why comparatively few, xxxv-vii;
qualities in, iv, x, xvi;
instance of, xi;
the real inspiration of, and of his life, xxi;
style of, xxxiv _et seq._
origin, birth, and environment of, xiv, xviii, xix, xxxiii
political errors of, xxviii _et seq._;
on freedom, xxxi;
on Liberalism, xxv, xxx
on Stahl, 391
Adams, J.Q., on the Christian faith, 585
denying the influence of the pilgrims on the American Revolution, 584
despondency of, as to American constitution, 579
discriminating between American and French Revolutions, 580
on Hamilton, 582
Adams, the younger, 578
Addison, J., inconsistent ideas of, regarding liberty, 53
Address of the Bishops at Rome, Wiseman's draft, the facts
concerning, 444-5;
attacks on, of the _Patrie_, 439, 443, 444, 445;
Wiseman's reply, _and see Home and Foreign Review_
Ahrens, _cited_ on national government, 227
Alamanni, forecasting the Huguenot massacres, 109
Albertus Magnus, 557
Albigenses, how dealt with by Montfort, 556
why persecuted, 168
Aldobrandini, Cardinal Hippolyto, _see_ Clement VIII.
Alessandria, Cardinal of, Michielli Bonelli, Legate of Pius V. mission of,
to Spain, Portugal, and France, 112;
his famous companion, 113;
his ostensible purpose, its failure, information given to, on the
forthcoming massacre, 113-14
after the St. Bartholomew 140
Alfonso, King of Aragon, proscription by, of heretics, 558
Alva, Duke of, Catherine de' Medici's message to, on the massacres, 122
failure of, in the Low Countries, 103
judgment of, on the St. Bartholomew, 124
letter of, on the St. Bartholomew. 108 & _note_
ordered to slay all Huguenot prisoners, 141-2
America, colonists of, opposition of Lords Chatham and Camden to, 55
early settlers in, Catholic and Protestant, contrasted action as to
religious liberty, 187
doctrine of rights of man, originated from, 55
United States, democracy in, 64
government, based on Burke's political philosophy, 56;
how the value of this foundation was negatived, 56
humour in, 579
national institutions of, attitude to, of Americans of to-day, not
that of the founders, 579
place of, in political science, 578
presidency of Monroe, "the era of good feeling," 56
progress of democracy in, 84
religion in, Doellinger on, 339-40
representation in, defect concerning, 579
_American Commonwealth The_, by James Bryce, _review_, 575
American Constitution, Hamilton's position regarding, 581;
its development due to Marshall, _ib._
how cemented, 579
government, confederate scheme of, 577
Judge Cooley on, 580
liberty, Judge Cooley on, 580
revolution, the abstract revolution in perfection, 586
no point of comparison between it and the French, 580
not inspired by the beliefs of the Pilgrim Fathers, 584-5
spirit of, 580, 587
Americans, attitude of the best towards politics, 578
Anabaptists, destructive tendency of their teaching, 157, 169, 171, 174,
175, 178, 185;
and its effect on Luther, 155
intolerance of, 171-2
views of reformers as to their toleration, 157, 164, 167, 176
Andreae. Lutheran divine, on the Huguenots, 145
Angelis, de Cardinal, manager of elections to Commission on Dogma, 529
President of Vatican Council, 534
Anglicanism, appreciation of Doellinger for some exponents of, 395
and growth of other sects, 334-7
progress of, 329-32
Anjou, Confession of, on the St. Bartholomew, 107
Anjou, Duke of (_see also_ Henry III.), and the crown of Poland, 105,
120, 144
schemes for marriage of, with Queen Elizabeth, 105
guilt of, for the St. Bartholomew, 110
orders of, for Huguenot massacre in his lands, 119
Annalists, method of, compared with that of scientific historians, 233
Antiquity, authority of State excessive in, 4
of liberty proved by recent historians, 5
Antonelli, Cardinal, advice of, to Bonnechose, 529
discussion of Infallibilty by Vatican Council, denied by, 518-19
on temporal power of Papacy, 414
Apologists for the Massacre of St. Bartholomew, 147-8
Apology of Confession of Augsburg on excommunication, 158
Arianism among the Teutonic tribes, 199
suggested, of Petavius, and why, 592
Aristides and democracy, 68
Aristocracy, destruction of, in the Reign of Terror, 262
early eighteenth-century, 273-4
government by, advocated by Pythagoras, 21;
government by, danger of, 20
Roman, struggle with plebeians, 13, 14
Aristotle on class interests, 69
estimation of, by Doellinger, 406
_Ethics_ of, democracy condemned by, 71
_Politics_ of, 22, 79;
makes concession to democracy, 72
saying of, reflecting the illiberal sentiments of his age, 18
Arles, Council of, and the Count of Toulouse, 565
Arnaud and the saying, "God knows His own," 567
Arnauld, 429
Arnim, Baron, influence of, at Vatican Council, 506
interview of, with Doellinger, 426
Arnold of Brescia, 559
Arragon, constructive science of its people, 557
heresy in (1230), 556;
lead of the country in persecution, 557
Artists, method of, compared with that of scientific historians, 233
Ascoli, Cecco d', fate of, 564-5
Ashburton, Lady, 382
Asoka (Buddhist king), first to proclaim and establish representative
government, 26
Assassination, _see also_ Murder and Regicide
Catherine de' Medici's plan, inspired by member of Council of Trent, 216
expediency of, view of Swedish bishops, 217
as a political weapon, 213-14
religious, considered expedient, 325
the reward of heresy, a doctrine of the Church in Middle Ages, 216
Athenagoras _cited_, 70
Athenians, character of, 11
Athens, constitution of, rapid decline in career of, 11;
revision of, provided for by Solon with good results, 7, 8
democracy of, 66;
tyranny manifested by, 12
government by consent superseded government by compulsion, under Solon, 7
laws of, revised by Solon, 6
political equality at, 68
Republic of, causes of ruin of, 70
death of Socrates crowning act of guilt of, 12
reform in, came too late, 12, 13
Aubigne, Merle d', and the charge against the Bordeaux clergy, 127 _note_
Auger, Edmond, S.J., and the Bordeaux massacres, 127
Augsburg, Confession of, axiom concerning importance of, in Luther's
system of politics, 159
Apology of, on excommunication, 158
Austria, Concordat in, its failure, 292
opposition to Vatican politics in, and to the Council, 503, 506
policy of repression in, after Waterloo, 283
representation of, on Vatican Council, 509
Austria, Don Juan of, and the victory of Lepanto, 104;
effect of, marred by Charles IX., 105
Austrian Empire, nationalities in, 295, 296;
why substantial, one of the most perfect States, 298
Austrian power in Italy, effect of, on nationality, 287
rule in Italy, error of, 285
Authorities, use made of, revealing qualities of historians, 235
Authority of the Church questioned through Frohschammer's
excommunication, 477-8
Authority, supreme, of the Church, 192;
attitude of _Home and Foreign Review_ towards, 482-91
Avaux, D', view of expedient political massacre, 218
Avignon, removal of the Papacy to, 370;
strife between, and the Franciscans, 552
Ayamonte, Spanish Ambassador to Paris, 123
Baader, F.X. von, estimate of, by Doellinger and Martensen, 376;
work of, 377;
father-in-law of Lasaulx, 405
Schelling's coolness to, 381
Baboeuf, proclaimer of Communism, 273
Bach, administration of, in Austria, 283
Bacon, Francis, 562
advocate of passive obedience to kings, 48
modern attacks on, 377
on bookish politicians, 575
on St. Thomas Aquinas, 37
influence of Machiavelli on, 228
_cited_ on political justification, 220
Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 44
Baden (1862), nationality in, 295
Baglioni, family of, models for Machiavelli, 212
Bain, T., interpreter of Locke, 220
Ballanche and liberal Catholicism, 588
Ballerini, influence on Doellinger, 387
Balmez, classed as Ultramontane, 451
Baltimore, synod of, and Infallibility, 499
Baluze, 559
Barbarians, the, become instrument of the Church by introducing single
system of law, 244
Barberini, Cardinal, on reason for condemning De Thou's History, 147
Baronius, 379, 429;
Doellinger's study of, 387
Barrot, O., opposed to universal suffrage, 590
Barrow, Isaac, Doellinger's Roman antidote to, 387
Basel, Church government at, under OEcolampadius, 176
Baudrillart, cited on Machiavelli's universality, 226
Baumgarten, Crusius, on political expediency, 230
works of, esteemed by Doellinger, 381
Baur, Ferdinand, on historical facts, 385
work of, estimated by Doellinger, 381, 404
Bavaria, Catholic stronghold (1572), 103
Baxter, Richard, 416
Bayle, Pierre, _cited_ on Servetus, 185
Bayonne, conference of, massacre of St. Bartholomew the outcome of,
108, 109 & _note_, 124
Beaconsfield, Earl of, story of, 551;
view of Doellinger on, 391
Beauville, bearer to Rome of news of the St. Bartholomew, 132-3
Beccaria, on importance of success as result of action, 223
Belgian revolution, causes united in, 284
Belgium, representation of, on Vatican Council, 507
vigorous growth of municipal liberties in, 38
Bellarmine, Cardinal, deceived by hierarchical fictions, 420
"Bellum Haereticorum pax est Ecclesiae," maxim utilised by Polish
bishops, 103
Benedict XIV., Pope, 148
scholarship under, 387