What is this, again (on p. 427), of Catholic “contempt for the intelligence and mental dignity of the common man”? If there is one conspicuous contrast between your elementary, half-educated, pseudo-scientific, “modern thought” and the Catholic Church, it is the contempt of the former for the common man, and the fact that the latter is based entirely upon the common man. The former—pseudo-science—is for ever trying to prevent the common man from getting a drink, marrying, having children, running his own house, living his own life, criticizing the mandarins of politics or of sham statistics; the latter—the Catholic Church—lives its whole life by consulting and realizing the common man. To attack the Catholic Church as being too subservient to the common man might be understandable; to attack it as contemptuous of the common man shows a complete ignorance of its character.
It is in the same spirit that we have (upon p. 429) the remark that the Catholic Church was, in the Middle Ages, “heading to its destruction.” It is not destroyed. Really, I do assure you, Mr. Wells, the Catholic Church is not yet destroyed. Will you not believe me? Must I give you proof? It is arduous collecting proofs of the obvious.
It is in the same spirit that he says of Wycliffe that he was a much abler man than St. Dominic.
Now I am sure Mr. Wells has never read a word of either. If he will read anything proceeding from St. Dominic and anything proceeding from Wycliffe, and put them side by side, I shall be content. He might as well say that Proust was a greater writer than Molière.
It is in the same spirit that he tells us Wycliffe translated the Bible into English “in order that people should judge between the Church and himself,” not knowing that a vernacular translation of the Bible existed in French, in German, in Bohemian, and even (probably, or certainly) in the newly-coalesced English tongue.
It is in the same spirit that he postulates “organized dogma” as in conflict with the “quickening intelligence and courage of mankind.” How can intelligence act upon any problem without resulting in organized dogma? How else did intelligence act on the problems of Astronomy? Is there no dogma to-day on the rotation of the earth? What on earth has “courage” to do with lack of dogma? Where is the courage in nourishing mere doubt in a woolly brain?
CHAPTER XIV
THE REFORMATION
As we approach the break in Christian Unity, generally called the “Reformation,” I look with interest at Mr. Wells’s work to see whether his combined intelligence and instruction will stand the strain.
He writes, of course, as a local and intensely Protestant man who has lost the doctrine of his immediate ancestry, but preserved most of their catchwords and all their odd isolated philosophy. Nevertheless, his mind is alert, his intelligence, as always, conspicuously sincere, and his power of visualization quite exceptional.
Therefore, I hoped that he would, when he came to this critical test, rise superior in some degree to his limitations. But he has not done so. On the contrary, he has failed here more conspicuously than in any other department of his work with which I have hitherto had to deal. And the reason is this, that he is here right up against the Thing that distracts him: the Faith.