History of the Protestants of France, from the commencement of the Reformation to the present time

by G. de Félice

PHILIP EDW. BARNES, ESQ., B.A., F.L.S.,

OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, BARRISTER-AT-LAW.

LONDON:

GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & CO., FARRINGDON STREET.

1853.

TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE.

The reason of the translation of this book, is the same that actuated the Author of the original work,—not the glorification of a particular creed, but the inculcation of a lesson from the pages of history, whereby the reader may learn the expediency, as well as wisdom and justness, of the great maxim, that the fullest religious liberty is the right of all men. The illustration of this principle, so little truly recognised, yet happens in the present case, to bear against the members of the Roman Catholic Church: but all creeds and every sect may usefully perpend the moral of the narrative. To preach the duty of toleration to the members of the Reformed communions, whose chief dogma is the right of private judgment, might seem a supererogatory labour, did we not know how, in time, the best of causes may become corrupted by the mingling of the passions, until the fair tree is stifled under the baneful embrace of the insidious parasite. The necessity, then, of a frequent recurrence to first principles is obvious; and in no case can this necessity be so strong as in religious matters. To dissent from a dominant creed, has been hitherto to draw down persecution; and persecution will assuredly kindle a retaliative spirit of dogmatical oppression in the persecuted, unless these last continually bear in mind that the very ground of their difference was, in the outset, the privilege of thinking for themselves. Let us, then, guard ourselves against this error, still more deserving of reprobation in Protestants than in Romanists; and let these finally convince themselves how futile it is to struggle against the onward progress of the human mind, daily absorbing more essentially the Christian spirit, and thereby strengthening to the task of social improvement under the advancing banner of mental independence.

If history is philosophy teaching by examples, a work that shall contribute in any degree to elucidate our views respecting the men and manners of past ages, will certainly be received as a desirable contribution to the general stock of knowledge. But at a period when Europe is yet throbbing with the repressed, not extinguished, throes of an almost universal convulsion, a narrative of the events of an often deeply-disturbed period, frequently offering somewhat similar features, must prove more than ordinarily acceptable. It is true, that a hasty glance at the passing history of European politics fills us with only a confused sentiment of conflicting forces, that seem to attract and repel the special atoms hither and thither with restless disorder; yet an attentive examination will not fail to show us that, influencing each vortex, and dominating over every other power, are the two antagonists that since the time of Luther have found a more equal battle-field,—the spirit of Reform, and the spirit of the Papacy. The nature of the struggle, in which the human race is engaged, is in the main the same now as when the Augustine monk of Wittenberg first reared the standard of the Reformation. In the organic revolts of every community of men, the actual principle contended for is that of freedom of thought, and the real foes are the partisans of priestly domination. Through all ages the sacerdotal order have ever been the avowed or hidden opponents of all authority that does not originate with themselves, and the inveterate obstinacy the Roman hierarchy has displayed in promoting and establishing the supremacy of the Papal Church springs, as the unbroken tale of the Holy See demonstrates, from the determination to grasp at the most absolute temporal power. Claiming to be “lords over God’s heritage,” they deny all right of self-action, and only tolerate kings themselves as the tools of the universal despotism, to which they aspire. Even the enlightened and excellent men in their own ranks have been the foremost persecuted, and perhaps the most striking condemnation of the governmental system of the Papal Church is, that nearly all the great ecclesiastical reformers have been originally Romish priests themselves. If the bishop of Rome were only a spiritual head of a simple church organization, who can doubt that the great mass of the (Roman) Catholic clergy would gain immensely by the change, both in outward moral authority and internal discipline?