Variety of Roman Vestments.
Old-fashioned Anglican Formalism.
Effect of Use and Habit.
The success of what is called “Ritualism” in England has some connection with the increase of formalism, though we ought to remember that the formal spirit attaches itself quite as readily to a plain and simple ceremonial as it does to a splendid and elaborate one. The etiquette about plain black cloth for the masculine evening costume is quite as severe as it would be for coloured velvets and embroidery, whilst the modern white tie is more rigidly formal than the lace cravat of our ancestors; in fact, the simpler the costume the stricter the rule. The dress of French peasants is much more formal, in the sense of being governed by rigid custom, than the far more varied dress of the upper classes. We find formal strictness going with simplicity in the Anglican vestments before the days of ritualism, and extreme liberty of artistic design permitted by the Church of Rome in the ornamentation of mitre, chasuble, and cope. When Leo XIII. received many thousand chasubles as jubilee gifts, it is probable that there were not two of them alike. Again, in matters of usage it is quite as much a form to put incumbent, curate, and clerk in tiers one above another as to assign to them any other places that might be fixed by the ritual. Therefore, between one form and another, one costume and another, there is little difference as to the reality of formalism. The difference is in the degree of attention given to the matter. Just at first, when a more splendid ritual is adopted, as it has been by some Anglican clergymen, the change may be evidence of a formal spirit, but the same splendours would signify little or nothing if they were traditional and familiar.
No Ritualistic Party in France.
Simplicity of French Protestantism.
This marks the difference between England and France with regard to ritual. In England it has recently been a subject of controversy and of conscious attention, whereas in France the instinct that desires it has always been abundantly satisfied by the Church of Rome, so that there has been no thought about it, and there is no such thing as a consciously ritualistic party. The gorgeous Roman ritual is enjoyed by those who have the instinctive need of it, whilst most people, even unbelievers, consider it natural in a great religion. The ultra-simplicity of French Protestantism is certainly not natural. It is an intentional contrast due to the effect of schism; it is dogmatic dissent expressing itself by external dissimilarity.
Chilling Effect of Formalism.
Formalism only Taste.
All varieties of formalism have one quality in common, that the strength they give to religion is not vital, it is only social and external. They have a weakening effect upon faith, even in the faithful. Formalism lowers the temperature, not on one side only, but all round it, like an iceberg floating in the sea. Its disapproval of dissent is accompanied by a chilling want of sympathy with religious earnestness and zeal. Formalism is to faith what etiquette is to affection; it is merely taste, and it is quite as much a violation of taste to have the motives of a really genuine, pious Christian, and avow them (in religious language, “to confess Christ before men”), as it is to abstain from customary ceremonies. In short, formalism is the world with its usages, substituting itself for Jesus and his teaching; it is “good form” set up in the place of enthusiastic loyalty and uncalculating self-devotion.