BRAR

OF THE

ERSTVY

SIXTEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES.

duct which made many Christian hearts deplore that the dearly-bought faith of their fathers seemed to be abandoned, now that the excitement of persecution for conscience' sake was removed.

But Providence here, as at all times, brought good out of evil. Indifference paved the way for toleration of, and a freer intercourse between, different religious parties; and left men of kindred mind, though in different spheres of action, to edify and build up the spiritual life of the Church. In this respect even the antichristian philosophy of Frederick the Great of Prussia, was, no less than his policy, overruled for good; while the clear philosophical mind of the Emperor Joseph II. recognised the grand principles of freedom of conscience, and thus, under the fostering influence of toleration, evangelical Protestantism acquired a more ethical character. Thus, though indifference produced great evils, not only to individuals but to the Church, the injury was lessened, though not compensated, by the advances made to juster views of both civil and religious liberty. An important step was at this time taken in regard to the outward constitution of the Church; the theological oppoIsition which had for some time been made to the territorial system, gained ground, and forced it into another transition state, called the collegiate system, of whom Chancellor Pfaff of Tübingen was the founder, and, by which, church and state came to be regarded as two, intimately connected, but yet separate institutions, united by one common chief in the person of the sovereign. This modified form of church and state connexion was not, however, universally adopted; and both systems continued to exist in different parts of Germany.

The freedom of inquiry, and the progress of mental cultivation, which operated during the reign of Frederick the Great so favourably in all departments of science, were of more equivocal service to Christianity: for while they fostered theological research and extirpated many a prejudice and not a few lingering superstitions, they opened the door to that spirit of free-thinking which had already obtained firm footing both in England and

France, and the infidel literature, more especially of the latter country, began to exercise a wide-spread and baneful influence on the educated portion of German, more particularly of Prussian society. Against this species of irreligion, which more than every other flatters the pride of understanding, so dear to the unrenewed mind, nothing but the pure, warm faith of the Gospel could contend with any hope of success; and the gracious Governor of the world made use of the very boldness with which the peculiar doctrines of Christianity were attacked, to rouse the slumbering energies of numbers in their defence, who might have opposed a less flagrant infidelity with more lukewarmness. Philosophic inquiry and historic research had at last established the fact, that the doctrines of the Church and of the Bible were far from being necessarily synonymous; and the care now bestowed on Biblical criticism, called forth by the necessity of combating antagonist views, soon placed rationalism and supernaturalism in the strongest and most uncompromising opposition. And while the admiration of the philosophy of Kant produced an unhappy revolution in the views of a vast number of theologians, the warm glow of scriptural piety and reverence for God's revealed word which Dr. Philip Spener had, in the previous century, been honoured to awaken so powerfully among his countrymen still lived in many a heart, still breathed in his writings, especially in his devotional songs (that to-thishour cherished legacy to the Lutheran Church); and the naked boldness with which Rationalism now raised its head, called forth, both from individuals and in the schools, vigorous efforts to restore Bible Christianity to its ancient and well-grounded pre-eminence. Both systems, it is true, gave birth to a vast variety of opinions, each of which found adherents; and some aimed at the impossible accomplishment of an amalgamation of the antagonist principles. So true it is, that there is nothing new under the sun; the liberalism of the present day is but an echo of its predecessor of a hundred years ago. But the conflict was not only productive of a higher development of the human intellect, but the spirit of evangelical Protestantism,

severing the ore from the dross, learned to use the logical weapons forged for its destruction, in demonstrating the dogmas. of the Christian faith, and went on noiselessly, but surely, to build up the spiritual edifice of the Church, on the basis of irreversible, because Divine, authority.

CHAPTER II.

STATE OF RELIGION IN GERMANY DURING THE EIGHTEENTH

CENTURY.

Frederick the Great-His Character-His Opposition to Papal Supremacy-Pope Benedict VIII.—Pope Clement XIII.-Hontheim's Work on the Legitimate Power of the Pope-Its Effect-Pope Clement's Bull for the Suppression of the Jesuits-His DeathCardinal Braschi elected Pope-The Emperor Joseph II.-His Reform-The Toleration Edict-Its Amendment by the Papists -The Pope's Indignation, and unsuccessful Visit to the Emperor - Modifications of the Act of Toleration-Professor EybelDiscord among the Heads of the Papacy—The Ems Punctation -The French Revolution-Buonaparte-His Negociations with Pius VII.—The Congress of Vienna-Attempt to form a German Catholic Church-Restoration of the Jesuits.

WHEN Frederick the Great ascended the throne of Prussia, all Germany was overrun by a species of Gallic mania, which, mingling in the minutest details of social life, gave a strangely anomalous and unnatural character to her society. This epoch, which has been denominated "the period of enlightenment," and shook in its results all Europe to its centre, gave rise to theories partaking more of the nature of the ignis fatuus than of" the day-spring from on high," which led, in Germany, as elsewhere, to a restless desire for change, a preference of innovation for its own sake, and a hankering after foreign habits, manners, and opinions, however irrational, irreligious, or even

immoral these might be. France, even long before attaining to that acme of revolutionary madness, which threw off all authority, whether political or ecclesiastical, and trampled not only on the throne and the altar as their outward insignias, but abolished the most sacred sanctions of revealed, and even the dictates of natural religion, had become familiar with the philosophical cant which pronounces all religious profession to be either despicable superstition, or still viler priestcraft. And these sentiments, of which Voltaire was the apostle in France, were, through the instrumentality of Frederick the Great, widely spread, and unhappily greedily adopted throughout Germany.

Gifted by nature with a keen and searching spirit, a powerful understanding, and an indomitable will, Frederick was well fitted to wield the sceptre, independent of all religious coercion, and might have exercised a most beneficial influence on the ecclesiastical, as well as political, destinies of his country, had his clear, penetrating genius been guided and sanctified by the implanting of pure Gospel doctrine in his heart. But, unhappily, the education he received was calculated to produce the very opposite effect. His father, Frederick William I., while wholly devoid of all high mental qualities, incapable of relishing literary or scientific pursuits, indulging even to excess in gross and vulgar pleasures, and disgusted with his son's preference for intellectual occupations which he himself could not appreciate, was, withal, a rigid observer of the outward forms and ceremonials of religion, and enforced their performance with as much military sternness as he was wont to exhibit in all his domestic arrangements and paternal requirements; and hence, though professing correct scriptural sentiments, and even careful to provide for his son's instruction in the same, though carefully avoiding whatever could be construed into an approval of Romanism, there was neither warmth nor reality in his own religion, and consequently his precepts and example necessarily proved injurious to the growth of evangelical principles in the mind of a son, whose personal sufferings, moreover, from his father's tyranny, were themselves sufficient to