DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0027
I]
THE AGE OF ALBRECHT DURER.
9
compelled, since the Reformation, to take her place, de facto,
as one amongst an ever increasing multitude of religious bodies,
each claiming for itself the more or less exclusive possession of
the truth. Questions of religion must be answered for each
man by himself; it is no longer possible to hope for a general
agreement upon such subjects.
The Reformation therefore, as has been said, inverted the
preceding order of things. From the point of view of Religion
it was destructive ; from the point of view of Learning it was
constructive. It subjected the Church ; it emancipated the
Intellect. The Subjection of the Church was accomplished
by an angry revolt. The Emancipation of the Intellect was
wrought by a silent change. The religious revolution is a
flaring portent in the sky of history; the intellectual change
must be sought for and traced out by detailed inspection of the
writings and art of the time. The great principle of Free-
thought and the laws of scientific investigation are the ultimate
products of the intellectual change of front called the Rena-
scence. Silently they have grown up even as the change that
made their growth possible came in silence, through the sure
and unbroken advance which had been taking place in the
bosom of Europe, from the days when our wild forefathers
dashed in their ignorance out of the German forests against
the crumbling defences of Rome and swept the civilization of
antiquity away.
Between the destructive effect of the Reformation north and
south of the Alps there was this difference. In Germany
religious forms were destroyed ; in Italy the forms were left
but the spirit was annihilated. Germany remained a religious
country ; Italy became irreligious. With Germany we are alone
concerned. The Reformation arose there as a protest and a
rebellion against the immorality and ignorance of the clergy
and the corruption and oppression of the Roman curia. As
long as it was confined within these limits it was supported by
the best men in the country. All the early Humanists, all the
enlightened Princes, all the thoughtful merchants, burghers, and
artists united to struggle for freedom of thought and inde-
pendence from ecclesiastical interference in political life. But
when the demagogue Reformers came to the front and enlisted
THE AGE OF ALBRECHT DURER.
9
compelled, since the Reformation, to take her place, de facto,
as one amongst an ever increasing multitude of religious bodies,
each claiming for itself the more or less exclusive possession of
the truth. Questions of religion must be answered for each
man by himself; it is no longer possible to hope for a general
agreement upon such subjects.
The Reformation therefore, as has been said, inverted the
preceding order of things. From the point of view of Religion
it was destructive ; from the point of view of Learning it was
constructive. It subjected the Church ; it emancipated the
Intellect. The Subjection of the Church was accomplished
by an angry revolt. The Emancipation of the Intellect was
wrought by a silent change. The religious revolution is a
flaring portent in the sky of history; the intellectual change
must be sought for and traced out by detailed inspection of the
writings and art of the time. The great principle of Free-
thought and the laws of scientific investigation are the ultimate
products of the intellectual change of front called the Rena-
scence. Silently they have grown up even as the change that
made their growth possible came in silence, through the sure
and unbroken advance which had been taking place in the
bosom of Europe, from the days when our wild forefathers
dashed in their ignorance out of the German forests against
the crumbling defences of Rome and swept the civilization of
antiquity away.
Between the destructive effect of the Reformation north and
south of the Alps there was this difference. In Germany
religious forms were destroyed ; in Italy the forms were left
but the spirit was annihilated. Germany remained a religious
country ; Italy became irreligious. With Germany we are alone
concerned. The Reformation arose there as a protest and a
rebellion against the immorality and ignorance of the clergy
and the corruption and oppression of the Roman curia. As
long as it was confined within these limits it was supported by
the best men in the country. All the early Humanists, all the
enlightened Princes, all the thoughtful merchants, burghers, and
artists united to struggle for freedom of thought and inde-
pendence from ecclesiastical interference in political life. But
when the demagogue Reformers came to the front and enlisted