bodies believe and affirm. It will, however, affirm in totality what they affirm in part; it will believe all that they admit, but it will believe a great deal more besides.

This fundamental notion of the Ideal of Catholicism has been thus expressed by Le Maistre in his 'Letter to a Protestant Lady:'-"It is now," he says, "eighteen hundred and nine years that a Catholic Church has been in the world, and has always believed what it believes now. Your doctors will tell you a thousand times that we have innovated; but if we have innovated, it seems strange that it needs such long books to demonstrate it; whereas to prove that you have varied-and you are only of yesterday-no trouble is needed.

“But let us consider an epoch anterior to all the schisms that now divide the world. At the commencement of the tenth century, there was but one faith in Europe. Consider this faith as an assemblage of positive dogmas:-the Unity of God, the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Real Presence, &c.; and to simplify our idea, let us suppose the number of positive dogmas to amount to fifty. The Greek Church, having denied the procession of the Holy Ghost and the Supremacy of the Pope,1 has therefore only fortyeight points of belief; thus, you see, we believe all that she believes, although she denies two things that we hold. Your sixteenth century sects pushed matters much further and denied a host of other dogmas; but those which they retained are common to us. Finally, the Catholic religion includes all that the sects believe,—this is incontestable.

"The sects, be they what they may, are not religions, they

1 I shall shew in another chapter that this is a mistake of Le Maistre, the dogma of the Supremacy of the Pope is a Negation, not a Positive assertion; it is a negation of the equal authority of others.

are negations, that is to say, they are nothing in themselves, for directly they affirm anything they are Catholic.

"It follows as a consequence of the most perfect certainty, that the Catholic who passes into a sect, apostatizes veritably, for he changes his belief, by denying to-day what he believed yesterday: but the sectary who passes into the Church abdicates no dogma, he denies nothing that he believed; on the contrary, he begins to believe what previously he had denied.

"He that passes out of a Christian sect into the Mother Church is not required to renounce any dogma, but only to avow that beside the dogmas which he believed, and which we believe every whit as truly as he, there are other verities of which he was ignorant, but which nevertheless exist."

Let us illustrate this truth in the same way that we illustrated it in reference to philosophy.

Catholicism proclaims the union of the divine and human natures in Christ. Arianism appeared, and, abandoning more or less completely the first of these two terms, it reproduced the second alone. What did Arianism affirm? The humanity of Christ. Catholicism equally affirms this, it believes all that Arianism believed. What did Arianism add to that article of faith? A negation of the first term, i.e.-Nothing.

Catholicism proclaims the co-existence of grace and freewill, that is to say of divine and human action, the first the initiative of the second, as the Increate is necessarily the origin of the create. Pelagianism started up and left on one side, more or less formally, the first of these two terms, and reproduced the second alone. What did it affirm? The existence of human liberty. Catholicism had affirmed it long before and believed in all that Pelagianism held.

What then did Pelagianism add to this article of belief? A negation of the first term, i.e.-Nothing.

Catholicism proclaims the double necessity of faith and good works. Luther arose, and omitting the second of these two points, admitted the former alone. What did he affirm? The necessity of faith. Catholicism has insisted on this with unchanging voice. What did Luther add? A negation of the second point, i.e.—Nothing.

Finally Catholicism proclaims the Sacraments, the Eucharistic Sacrifice, the Real Presence, &c. Protestants reject these; in other terms they substitute for them simple negations, which are nothing.

As every heretical or schismatical sect retains this or that verity which suits it, to the exclusion of other truths, and as this process takes place from a thousand different points of view, it is sufficient to add together the articles separately admitted by these communions, mutually antagonistic, to arrive at the sum of all Catholic verities.

Also, it is sufficient to strike out the points which each rejects, or to subtract them from the total, to arrive at zero, and thus to shew that there is no one phase of truth which they do not deny.

In the first case they conclude directly for Catholicism, which is the entirety of which they are the fragments, in the second they conclude indirectly, by shewing that outside of Catholicism is nothing but a process of disintegration of all belief.

CHAPTER XI

PROTESTANTISM

MEPHISTOPHELES: "The spirit I that evermore divides."-GOETHE'S "FAUST."

The affirmation of self and of God two duties-Medieval Catholicism

affirmed God but neglected the affirmation of self-Protestantism the affirmation of self-Division and opposition the source of all misery and error-Distinction not division-Christian ethics consist in the affirmation of distinctions without division and opposition-The distinction of God and His relations by meditation, prayer, and worship-Luther denied these modes of affirming God—The affirmation of ourselves depends on our affirmation of God—Immorality the division between higher and lower natures-Duty to our neighbours consists in recognition of their rights and non-interference with their liberties-The negation of moral duty by Luther-He was disposed to sanction adultery-The evil of opposing religion to morality-Calvin denied free-will and therefore denied duty-The reformers denied the holiness of God-The system of negation and division carried on-Deification of negation-Opposition of the Church to God-Comte-Neo-Hegelian opposition of man to man—and negation of the Absolute-Subjective Christ opposed to historical Christ—and negation of the reality of the personal Christ—The Protestant spirit one of universal negation and opposition-it has opposed all truths, religions, and philosophies, scientific and aesthetical.

REATION is the manifestation of Love, the Incarnation

CRES

is the perfection of that manifestation, the link between God and man is therefore love.

Man's function being to affirm himself and to affirm God, love and reason have in him their proper offices. By reason

he asserts his own individuality, by love he declares God and maintains his connexion with Him, and through Him with all other men.

The exaggeration of love is the confusion of relations, the negation of diversity.

The exaggeration of reason is the opposition of relations, the negation of unity.

The rock on which Roman Catholicism has struck has been the exaggeration of love. Protestantism has gone to pieces on the negation of unity.

In its concentration of attention on God, in its passionate devotion to Him, in its reiteration of His existence, as all in all, attesting Him in humanity as the basis of charity, in science as the basis of truth, in art as the Ideal of perfect beauty, in morals as the source of virtue, Romanism has exhibited a tendency to forget individual man. It has bidden each man dissolve his personality in God, and disappear as an entity, that God may be all in all. "I am all and you are nothing," Christ is supposed to have said to S. Catharine of Sienna in one of her revelations. That was the practical maxim of the Medieval Church,-the negation of self before God; and this has been the cause of the self-devotion and selfsacrifice of so many millions of ecstatics and ascetics.

In its concentration of attention on self, in its declaration of the infallibility of private judgment, Protestantism has ended in atheism. It has broken the link connecting man with man, and the fracture of that link has been the negation of the Absolute and the deification by each man of his own opinion.

If Catholicism be the principle of inclusion, Protestantism is the principle of exclusion. The first is the system of conciliation of all verities, the second is the opposition of all verities to their mutual exclusion.