oes not
perceive that, in every race of Europe, all enlightened thinkers,
whether we name Bacon or Descartes, Spinoza or Leibnitz, Goethe or
Mazzini, have adopted and carried forward those principles in their
essence. That they have not proclaimed themselves Protestants unless
they happened to be born Protestants, ought not to arouse his wonder,
any more than that Washington and Heine did not proclaim themselves
Whigs. For Protestantism, when it became dogmatic and stereotyped itself
in sects, ceased to hold any vital relation to the forward movement of
modern thought. The Reformation, in its origin, was, as I have tried to
show, the Northern and Teutonic manifestation of that struggle after
intellectual freedom, which in Italy and France had taken shape as
Renaissance. But Calvinism, Lutheranism, Zwinglianism, and Anglicanism
renounced that struggle only less decidedly than Catholicism; and in
some of their specific phases, in Puritanism for example, they showed
themselves even more antagonistic to liberal culture and progressive
thought than did the Roman Church.

Whatever may be thought about the future of Catholicism (and no prudent
man will utter prophecies upon such matters), there can be no doubt that
the universal mind of the Christian races, whether Catholic or
Protestant, has been profoundly penetrated and permeated with
rationalism, which, springing simultaneously in Reformation and
Renaissance out of humanism, has supplied the spiritual life of the last
four centuries. This has created science in all its branches. This has
stimulated critical and historical curiosity. This has substituted sound
for false methods of inquiry, the love of truth for attachment to
venerable delusion. This has sustained the unconquerable soul of man in
its persistent effort after liberty and its revolt against the tyranny
of priests and princes. At present, civilization seems threatened by
more potent foes than the Roman Church, nor is it likely that these foes
will seek a coalition with Catholicism.

As a final remark upon this topic, it should be pointed out that
Protestantism, in spite of the shortcomings I have indicated, has, on
the whole, been more favorable to intellectual progress than
Catholicism. For Protestantism was never altogether oblivious of its
origin in revolt against unjust spiritual domination, while Catholicism
has steadily maintained its conservative attitude of self-defense by
repression. This suffices to