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Reformed Churches. This reactionary tendency, in the form of an emancipation from a dogmatic yoke, was carried, in the eighteenth century, far beyond its original aim. The reformatory movement, being negative, became revolutionary. With this there was connected a new epoch in the general progress of nations. The culture which had grown up under the rule of the Church, sought to make itself independent. Reason, striving after emancipation from the thraldom in which it had been held by the despotical power of the Church, revolted; and Christian doctrine was obliged to enter into a new conflict with this opposing element; but, inasmuch as Christian doctrine was possessed of a more powerful principle, it could successfully withstand the danger. The conflict served to purify it from the disturbing admixture of human elements, and to bring to view the harmony of everything purely human with that which is divine. Thus there arose, especially in Germany, a period, which began with Semler, of the breaking up of previous beliefs; but this critical process was a sifting and a preparation for a new creation, which emanated predominantly from Schleiermacher. This, also, could develop itself only in a renewed conflict with Rationalism : and in this conflict we at the present time are engaged."1

The multiplying of sects under Protestantism has frequently formed the matter of a grave objection to it. In the first generation of the Reformers, the hope of a restoration of ecclesiastical unity, by means of a general council, was not given up. For a considerable period, Protestants aimed to reform the national churches, with the aim and expectation of preserving their integrity. The design was to abolish abuses and to reconstitute the creed, polity, and ritual, in conformity with their own ideas. But in some countries-in France, for example -they found themselves in a minority, and unable to ac

1 Dogmengeschichte, i. 23, 24.

complish their end. Liberty for them to exist, and mutual toleration between the two great divisions of the sundered Church, was the most that could be hoped for. But in Protestant countries, divisions arose which proved irreconcilable. Thus in England, the difference as to the form which the Reformation ought to take, separated Protestants into two opposing camps. Then other parties appeared, who were convinced of the unrighteousness or impolicy of establishments, whatever might be the ecclesiastical system which it was proposed to render national by a connection with the State. Sects have multiplied in Protestant countries in a manner which the early Reformers did not anticipate. On this subject of denominational or sectarian divisions, it may be said with truth, that disunion of this sort is better than a leaden uniformity, the effect of blind obedience to ecclesiastical superiors, of the stagnation of religious thought, or of coercion. Disagreement in opinion is a penalty of intellectual activity, to which it is well to submit where the alternative is either of the evils just mentioned. It may also be said with truth, that within the pale of the Church of Rome there have been conflicts of parties and a wrangling of disputants, which are scarcely less conspicuous than the like phenomena on the Protestant side. The vehement and prolonged warfare of dogmatic schools and of religious orders, of Scotists and Thomists, of Jansenists and Jesuits, of Dominicans and Molinists, make the annals of Catholicism resound with the din of controversy. That these debates, often pushed to the point of angry contention, have been prejudicial to the interests of Christian piety, will not be questioned. At the same time, it must be conceded that the Protestant faith has been weakened within Protestant lands, and in the presence of Roman Catholics, and of the heathen nations, by the manifestations of a sectarian spirit, and by the very existence of so many diverse, and often antagonistic, de

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nominations. The first great conflict between the Lutherans and the Zwinglians, operated to retard the progress of the Reformation. The impression was made, especially upon timid and cautious minds, that no certainty with regard to religious truth could be attained, if the authority of the Church of Rome were discarded. As other divisions followed, and in some cases, on minor questions of doctrine, which yet were made the occasion of new ecclesiastical organizations, this argument of the adversaries of Protestantism was urged with an increased effect. The "variations of Protestants" were depicted in such a way as to inspire the feeling, that to renounce the old Church was to embark on a tempestuous sea, with no star to guide one's path. When we consider, from a historic point of view, the sectarian divisions of Protestantism, we find that they arose generally from the spirit of intolerance, and the spirit of faction; two tempers of feeling which have an identical root, since both grow out of a disposition to push to an extreme, even to the point of exclusion and separation, religious opinions which may be the property of an individual or of a class, but are not fundamental to the Christian faith. Protestants, having rejected the external criteria of a true Church, on which Roman Catholics insist, have sometimes hastily inferred a moral right on the part of any number of Christians to found new Church associations at their pleasure. This has actually been done, with little insight into the design of the visible Church and into its nature as a counterpart of the Church invisible. Coupled with this propensity to divide and to establish new communions, there has appeared a tendency to overlook the proper function of the Church, and to stretch the jurisdiction of the several bodies thus formed over the individuals who belong to them, in matters both of opinion and practice, to an extent not warranted by the principles of Christianity. Protestantism has sometimes given rise to an ecclesiasti

cal tyranny as unjustifiable as that which is charged upon Rome. In some cases, the rights of the individual count for little against the claims, or even the whims of the particular religious community in which he is enrolled, and to which he pays allegiance. But within the bosom of the Protestant bodies there are constantly at work, with a growing efficiency, forces adverse to schism and separation, and in favor of the restoration of a Christian unity, which, springing out of common convictions with regard to essential truth, and animated by the spirit of charity, shall soften the antagonism of sects, and diminish, if not obliterate, their points of diversity. This irenical tendency seems prophetic of a new stage in the development of Protestantism, when freedom and union, liberty and order, shall be found compatible.1

1 In the first age of the Reformation, Protestants were not in a situation to establish missions among the heathen. Apart from other circumstances, the dominion of the sea was in the hands of the Catholic powers. In the seventeenth century, for a long time, Protestants were too busy in defending their faith, in Europe, to think of enterprises abroad. But the English settlements in New England had for a part of their design the conversion of the Indians. The name of John Eliot has a high place in missionary biography. The Dutch, in the seventeenth century, did much missionary work among their settlements in the East; sometimes in a too sectarian spirit and with too great a desire to swell the number of nominal adherents. Cromwell formed a scheme for a society for the diffusion of Protestant Christianity over the globe. In the last century and in the present, Protestant missions have been prosecuted by different religious bodies with zeal and success. The Catholic counter-reformation was attended with great exertions for the propagation of the Catholic faith among the heathen. The Orders were especially prominent in this work. In South America and Mexico, in India, China, and Japan, their efforts were untiring. The record of Jesuit missions among the North American Indians presents examples of self-denying fortitude almost without a parallel. (See Parkman's admirable work, The Jesuits in North America.) In the East, Xavier labored with an irresistible earnestness. His career (1542-1552) was remarkable. Multitudes of the heathen consented to receive baptism at his hands. Nobili in India, Ricci in China, and other missionaries followed his example. The Congregatio de propaganda fide was established in 1622. But the religious Orders fell into conflict with one another. The excessive accommodation of the Jesuits to heathen customs was sternly resisted by the Franciscans and Dominicans, and finally condemned at Rome. In Japan, the Jesuits rendered themselves politically obnoxious, and were driven out. The permanent results of the Roman Catholic missions since the Reformation, considering

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It is a distinctive characteristic of Protestantism, that it does not assume to be unerring in its interpretations of divine revelation, or in its understanding of Christian ethics. Much less does it pretend that its disciples are impeccable in practical conduct. This capacity of intellectual and moral progress leaves the Protestant free, while adhering to the essential principles of the Reformation, to criticise the doings of those in past times who have professed them, to modify their opinions on points where they are seen to have been erroneous, and to advance in a hopeful spirit towards a future in which religious truth shall be seen in a clearer light, and be more consistently applied in the lives of men.

The true relation of Christianity to culture, Protestantism, despite many inconsistencies and errors, has not failed to discern. Christianity was the religion of humanity in every just sense of the term. It not only abolished all national antipathies; broke down the wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, which had been necessary in the planting of true religion: it obliterated, also, the line of separation between religion and the varied activities and provinces of human life. Rules gave way to principles; the letter of commandments to the spirit of a new life. The disciple was not to avoid the world, but only the evil in it. Religion was not to be something apart, but rather a leaven to permeate all things. St. Paul took up phrases of heathen poets and Stoic philosophers, and gave them a new setting. Christianity was to assimilate everything not alien to its own essence. It came not to trample on any genuine products of the human mind or expressions of human nature, in literature, art, or social life, but

the number of their nominal converts, are not such as to inspire confidence in the methods in which they were prosecuted. Xavier describes the course he took -how, for example, he made Christians of ten thousand in a month. See H. J. Coleridge, Life and Letters of St. Francis Xavier (1872), i. 280. On the Catholic missions, see Ranke, History of the Popes, ii. 503. Gieseler, IV. i. 3, c. iii. § 61; Iv. ii. 2, c. ii.