as "long enough battled with
a witch called indifference, and has discovered that the battle wherein
one is most likely to be defeated is the battle against nothing." He
therefore urges his friends to ignore the witch and join him in a
determined crusade for a reawakening of the Northern spirit to the
accomplishment of Christian deed.

Grundtvig's hope for a season of quiet and peaceful cooperation with his
friends was, however, soon shattered. In the summer of 1825, a young
professor of theology, H. N. Clausen, published a book entitled: _The
Constitution, Doctrine and Rituals of Catholicism and Protestantism_. As
Prof. Clausen enjoyed a great popularity among his students and, as a
teacher of theology, might influence the course of the Danish church for
many years, Grundtvig was very much interested in what he had to say. He
obtained the book and read it quickly but thoughtfully, underscoring the
points with which he disagreed. And these were numerous. At the very
beginning of the book, he found the author asserting that "the Protestant
theologian, since he need recognize no restriction of his interpretations
by creeds, traditions, or ecclesiastical authorities, is as once
infinitely more free and important than his Catholic colleague. For as
the Protestant church unlike the Catholic possesses no conclusive and
authoritative system of belief either in her creeds or in Scripture, it
devolves upon her trained theologians to set forth what the true
teachings of Christianity really are. "Why, O why!" the professor
exclaims, "should eternal Wisdom have willed revelation to appear in a
form so imperfect? What other purpose, I ask you, can an all-wise
Providence have had with such a plan than to compel the children of man
to recognize that it is only through the exercise of their own, human
intelligence that the revelation of God can be comprehended!"

As Grundtvig mused upon these assertions so expressive of all that he had
denied and fought against, he felt at once that they constituted a
challenge which he could not leave unanswered. He had shortly before
written to a friend: "Since the perverters of Christianity have become so
self-confident that they will not answer any charge against them except
when it is addressed to themselves personally and by name, one may
eventually have to employ that form of attack." And that was the form he
chose to use in his now famous book. _The Reply of the Church to Prof. H.
N. Clausen_.