[976] ‘Le parlement de Paris discutait l'édit sur les protestans. Vingt ans plus tôt, combien une telle résolution n'eût-elle pas agité et divisé les esprits? En 1787, on ne s'étonnait que d'une chose: c'était qu'il pût y avoir une discussion sur des principes évidens.’ Lacretelle, XVIIIe Siècle, vol. iii. pp. 342, 343. In 1776, Malesherbes, who was then minister, wished to secure nearly the same privileges for the Protestants, but was prevented from doing so. Dutens, Mémoires, vol. ii. pp. 56–58. Dutens was himself concerned in the negotiation.
[977] Henry II. used to refer to this title, by way of justifying his persecution of the Protestants (Ranke's Civil Wars in France, vol. i. p. 241); and great account was made of it by that exemplary prince, Louis XV. Soulavie, Règne de Louis XVI, vol. i. p. 155. The French antiquaries trace it back to Pepin, the father of Charlemagne. Barrington's Observations on the Statutes, p. 168.
[978] The Prince de Montbarey, who was educated by the Jesuits about 1740, says, that, in their schools, the greatest attention was paid to pupils intended for the church; while the abilities of those destined for secular professions were neglected. See this statement, which, coming from such a quarter, is very remarkable, in Mémoires de Montbarey, vol. i. pp. 12, 13. Montbarey, so far from being prejudiced against the Jesuits, ascribes the Revolution to their overthrow. Ibid. vol. iii. p. 94. For other evidence of the exclusive and unsecular character of their education in the eighteenth century, see Schlosser's Eighteenth Century, vol. iv. pp. 29, 30, 245.
[979] See some singular observations in Parr's first sermon on faith and morals (Parr's Works, vol. vi. p. 598), where we are told that, in the management of the feud between Calvinists and Arminians, ‘the steadiness of defence should be proportionate to the impetuosity of assault;’ unnecessary advice, so far as his own profession is concerned. However, the Mohammedan theologians are said to have been even keener than the Christians on the subject. See Troyer's Discourse on the Dabistan, vol. i. p. cxxxv.; an important work on the Asiatic religions.
[980] Neander (Hist. of the Church, vol. iv. p. 105) finds the germ of the Pelagian controversy in the dispute between Athanasius and Apollinaris. Compare, respecting its origin, a note in Milman's Hist. of Christianity, 1840, vol. iii. pp. 270, 271.
[981] No writer I have met with, has stated so fairly and clearly the theological boundaries of these doctrines, as Göthe. Wahrheit und Dichtung, in Werke, vol. ii. part ii. p. 200, Stuttgart, 1837.
[982] Compare Butler's Mem. of the Catholics, vol. iii. p. 224; Copleston on Necessity and Predestination, pp. 25, 26; Mosheim's Eccles. History, vol. ii. p. 254.
[983] Hence the theory of indulgences, constructed by the Church of Rome with perfect consistency, and against which most of the Protestant arguments are illogical.
[984] This seems to be the natural tendency, and has been observed by Neander in his instructive account of the Gnostics, History of the Church, vol. ii. p. 121: ‘The custom with such sects to attach themselves to some celebrated name or other of antiquity.’
[985] The Dutch church was the first which adopted, as an article of faith, the doctrine of election held at Geneva. Mosheim's Eccles. History, vol. ii. p. 112. See also, on this doctrine in the Netherlands, Sinclair's Corresp. vol. ii. p. 199; Coventry's Speech in 1672, in Parl. Hist. vol. iv. p. 537; and Stäudlin, Gesch. der theolog. Wissenschaften, vol. i. p. 262: ‘In den Niederlanden wurde der Calvinische Lehrbegriff zuerst in eine scholastische Form gebracht.’