Internal situation.—The question of the confessions of faith.—M. Stapfer.—M. Samuel Vincent.—The question of the separation of Church and State.—M. Alexandre Vinet.—The Protestant press under the reign of Louis Philippe.—Charitable institutions.—Religious societies. —Admiral Ver-Huell.—Dissenters.—[Page 506-514.]
IX.
Revolution of 1848.—Debates upon the separation of the two powers. —Gathering of the Protestant delegates at Paris.—Synodal assembly of September, 1848.—Schism.—Project of ecclesiastical organization. —Articles of the Constitution respecting the freedom of creeds. —Conclusion.—[Page 515-519.]
INTRODUCTION.
The Reformation of the sixteenth century is the greatest event of modern times. It has remodelled everything in Protestant countries; and has modified almost everything in Roman Catholic countries—religious and moral doctrines, ecclesiastical and civil institutions, the arts and sciences, in such sort that it is impossible to advance a step in the investigation of an idea, or a fact whatsoever, without meeting this immense work face to face. The Reformation marks the starting-point of a new world: God alone knows its development and its end.
It is important to examine how, in the first years of the sixteenth century, it arose out of the intellectual wants and the general conscience, of mankind. It was at the same time the expression of a profound state of uneasiness, the means of a mighty improvement, and the pledge of a progress towards a better future.
The Papacy, without doubt, had rendered more than one service to Christianity in the barbarous ages. It would be unjust to refuse it the honour of having served as a centre of European unity, and of having often made right prevail over brute force. But gradually as the peoples advanced, Rome became less capable of leading them, and when she dared to erect herself as an impassable barrier before the double action of the spirit of God and the spirit of man, she received a wound which, notwithstanding vain appearances, widens from generation to generation.
In matters of belief and of worship, Roman Catholicism had admitted, by ignorance or by design, many of the Pagan elements. Without denying the fundamental dogmas of Christianity, it had disfigured and mutilated them to the extent of rendering them difficult of recognition. It was the world, to say sooth, which, forcing en masse the doors of the Christian church, had borne in with it its demigods under the name of saints, its rites, its feasts, its consecrated spots, its lustral water, its sacerdotal system; everything, in fine, to the very insignia of its priests; so much so that polytheism survived itself, in great measure, under the garb of the religion of Christ.