by Will Durant
“If you are stronger today than yesterday, it is because of us. What but the Reformation compelled you to reform the Curia, to redeem your clergy from concubinage, to seat men of religion, instead of pagans, in the papal chair? To whom do you owe it that your clergy today have so high a repute for integrity? To the Council of Trent? But to what did you owe the Council of Trent, if not to the Reformation? Without that check your Church might have continued its degeneration from Christianity into paganism until your popes would have been enthroned over an agnostic and epicurean world. Even with the regeneration which we forced upon your Church, the peoples that accept your creed are more negligent of religion, more skeptical of Christianity, than those that adopted the Reformation; compare France with England.
“We have learned to reconcile our piety with the freedom of the mind; and it is our Protestant lands that have seen the greatest flowering of science and philosophy. We hope to adjust our Christianity to the progress of knowledge—but how is this possible to a Church that rejects all the science of the last four centuries?”
Here the humanist enters the argument, and brings both houses down upon his head. “This is the honor and weakness of Protestantism, that it appeals to the intellect, which is always changing; and the strength of Catholicism lies in its refusal to adjust itself to the theories of science, which, in the experience of history, seldom survive the century in which they were born. Catholicism proposes to meet the religious demands of the people, who have barely heard of Copernicus and Darwin, and have never heard of Spinoza and Kant; such people are many and fertile. But how can a religion that speaks to the intellect, and centers around the sermon, adjust itself to an expanding universe in which the planet that claimed to have received God’s Son has become a transitory speck in space, and the species for which He died is but a moment in the phantasmagoria of life? What happens to Protestantism when the Bible that it took as its sole and infallible basis is subjected to a Higher Criticism that turns it from the word of God into the literature of the Hebrews and the transformation of Christ in the mystical theology of Paul?
“The real problem for the modern mind is not between Catholicism and Protestantism, nor between the Reformation and the Renaissance; it is between Christianity and the Enlightenment—that hardly datable era which began in Europe with Francis Bacon, and hitched its hopes to reason, science, and philosophy. As art was the keynote of the Renaissance, and religion the soul of the Reformation, so science and philosophy became the gods of the Enlightenment. From this standpoint the Renaissance was in the direct line of European mental development, and led to the Illumination and Aufklärung; the Reformation was a deviation from that line, a rejection of reason, a reaffirmation of medieval faith.
“And yet, despite its original intolerance, the Reformation rendered two services to the Enlightenment: it broke the authority of dogma, generated a hundred sects that would formerly have died at the stake, and allowed among them such virile debate that reason was finally recognized as the bar before which all sects had to plead their cause unless they were armed with irresistible physical force. In that pleading, that attack and defense, all sects were weakened, all dogmas; and a century after Luther’s exaltation of faith Francis Bacon proclaimed that knowledge is power. In that same seventeenth century thinkers like Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, and Locke offered philosophy as a substitute or basis for religion. In the eighteenth century Helvetius, Holbach, and La Mettrie proclaimed open atheism, and Voltaire was called a bigot because he believed in God, This was the challenge that Christianity faced, in a crisis far more profound than the debate between the Catholic and the Protestant version of the medieval creed. The effort of Christianity to survive Copernicus and Darwin is the basic drama of the last three hundred years. What are the struggles of states and classes beside that Armageddon of the soul?”
And now, as we look back over the meandering narrative of these thousand pages, we perceive that our sympathy can go to all the combatants. We can understand the anger of Luther at Roman corruption and dominance, the reluctance of German princes to see German collections fatten Italy, the resolve of Calvin and Knox to build model moral communities, the desire of Henry VIII for an heir, and for authority in his own realm. But we can understand, too, the hopes of Erasmus for a reform that would not poison Christendom with hatred; and we can feel the dismay of devout Roman prelates like Contarini at the prospective dismemberment of a Church that for centuries had been the nurse and custodian of Western civilization, and was still the strongest bulwark against immorality, chaos, and despair.
Nothing of all these efforts was lost. The individual succumbs, but he does not die if he has left something to mankind. Protestantism, in time, helped to regenerate the moral life of Europe, and the Church purified herself into an organization politically weaker but morally stronger than before. One lesson emerges above the smoke of the battle: a religion is at its best when it must live with competition; it tends to intolerance when and where it is unchallenged and supreme. The greatest gift of the Reformation was to provide Europe and America with that competition of faiths which puts each on its mettle, cautions it to tolerance, and gives to our frail minds the zest and test of freedom.
COURAGE, READER: WE NEAR THE END.
Bibliographical Guide
to editions referred to in the Notes
The letters C, P, J, and R after an author’s name indicate
Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, and rationalist respectively
ABBOTT, G. F. (P), Israel in Europe, London, 1907.
ABRAHAMS, ISRAEL (J), Chapters on Jewish Literature, Phila., 1899.
ABRAHAMS, ISRAEL (J), Jewish Life in the Middle Ages, Phila., 1896.
ABRAM, A., English Life and Manners in the Later Middle Ages, London, 1913.
ACTON, JOHN E., LORD (C), Lectures on Modern History, London, 1950.
ADAMS, BROOKS (P), Law of Civilization and Decay, N. Y., 1921.
ADDISON, JULIA, Arts and Crafts in the Middle Ages, Boston, 1908.
AGRICOLA, G., De re metallica, tr. Herbert and Lou Hoover, London, 1912.
ALLEN, J. W. (P), History of Political Thought in the Sixteenth Century, London, 1951.
ALLEN, P. S. (P), The Age of Erasmus, Oxford, 1914.
ALTAMIRA, R., History of Spanish Civilization, London, 1930.
AMEER ALI, SYED, Short History of the Saracens, London, 1934.
ARCINIEGAS, GERMAN, AMERIGO and the New World, N. Y., 1955.
ARETINO, PIETRO, Works: Dialogues, N. Y., 1926.
ARMSTRONG, EDWARD (P), The Emperor Charles V, 2v., London, 1910.
ARNOLD, SIR THOS., and GUILLAUME, ALFRED, Legacy of Islam, Oxford, 1931.
ARNOLD, SIR THOS., Painting in Islam, Oxford, 1928.
ARNOLD, SIR THOS., The Preaching of Islam, N. Y., 1913.
ASCHAM, ROGER, The Scholemaster, London, 1863.
ASHLEY, W. J., Introd. to English Economic History, 2v., N. Y., 1894 f.
BACON, FRANCIS, Philosophical Works, ed. J. M. Robinson, London, 1905.
BACON, FRANCIS, Works, ed. Spedding, Ellis, and Heath, 6v., London, 1870.
BAEDEKER, KARL, Belgique et Hollande, Paris, 1910.
BAEDEKER, KARL, Munich, N. Y., 1950.
BAINTON, ROLAND (P), Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther, N. Y., 1950.
BAINTON, ROLAND (P), Hunted Heretic: The Life of Michael Servetus, Boston, 1953.
BAINTON, ROLAND (P), The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century, Boston, 1953.
BAKELESS, JOHN, The Tragicall History of Christopher Marlowe, Harvard, 1942,
BALDASS, LUDWIG VON, Hans Memling, Vienna, 1942,
BALDASS, LUDWIG VON, Jan van Eyck, Phaidon Press.
BARNES, H. E., Economic History of the Western World, N. Y., 1942.
BARON, S. W. (J), Social and Religious History of the Jews, 3V., N. Y., 1937.
BATIFFOL, L., The Century of the Renaissance, N. Y., 1935.
BAX, BELFORT, German Society at the Close of the Middle Ages, London, 1894.
BAX, BELFORT, The Peasants’ War in Germany, London, 1899.
BEARD, CHAS. (P), Martin Luther and the Reformation, London, 1896.
BEARD, CHAS. (P), The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in Relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge, London, 1885.
BEARD, MIRIAM, History of the Business Man, N. Y., 1938.
BEAZLEY, C. R., Prince Henry the Navigator, London, 1901.
BEBEL, AUGUST, Woman under Socialism, N. Y., 1923.
BEER, M., Social Struggles in the Middle Ages, London, 1924.
BELL, GERTRUDE, Poems from the Divan of Hafiz, London, 1928.
BELLOC, H.(C), How the Reformation Happened, London, 1950.
BEUF, CARLO, Cesare Borgia, Oxford, 1942.
BLOK, P. J., History of the People of the United Netherlands, 3v., N. Y., 1898.
BLOMFIELD, SIR R., History of French Architecture from the Reign of Charles VIII till the death of Mazarin, 2v., London, 1911.
BLOMFIELD, SIR R., Short History of Renaissance Architecture in England, 1500-1800, London, 1893.
BOCK, ELFRIED, Geschichte der Graphischen Kunst, Berlin, 1930.
BOER, T. J. DE, History of Philosophy in Islam, London, 1903.
BOISSONNADE, P., Life and Work in Medieval Europe, N. Y., 1927.
BOND, FRANCIS, Westminster Abbey, London, 1909.
BOYD, CATHERINE, The French Renaissance, Boston Museum of Fine Arts.
BRANTÔME, SIEGNEUR DE, The Lives of Gallant Ladies, London, 1943.
BRIFFAULT, ROBERT, The Mothers, 3v., N. Y., 1927.
BROWNE, EDWARD, A Literary History of Persia, 4v., Cambridge, England, 1929 f.
BRUNETIÈRE, Ferdinand, Manual of the History of French Literature, N. Y., 1898.
BRYCE, JAMES, The Holy Roman Empire, N. Y., 1921.
BUCKLE, HENRY T., History of Civilization in England, 4v., N. Y., 1913.
BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR IRANIAN ART AND ARCHAEOLOGY, N. Y., 1938.
BURCKHARDT, JACOB, Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy, London, 1914.
BURKE, U. R., History of Spain, 2v., London, 1940.
BURNET, GILBERT, History of the Reformation of the Church of England, 2v., London, 1841.
BURTON, R. F., The Jew, the Gypsy, and El Islam, Chicago, 1898.
BURY, J. B. (R), History of Freedom of Thought, N. Y., n.d.
BURY, J. B. (R), History of the Later Roman Empire, 2v., London, 1923.
CALVERT, A. F., Cordova, London, 1907.
CALVERT, A. F., Moorish Remains in Spain, N. Y., 1906.
CALVIN, JOHN (P), Institutes of the Christian Religion, 2v., Phila., 1928.
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF ENGLISH LITERATURE, 14v., N. Y., 1910 f.
CAMBRIDGE HISTORY OF POLAND, 2V., Cambridge, England, 1950.
CAMBRIDGE MEDIEVAL HISTORY, 8v., N. Y., 1924 f.
CAMBRIDGE MODERN HISTORY, 12V., N. Y., 1907 f.
CAMÖES, LUIZ DE, Lusiads, tr. Leonard Bacon, N. Y., 1950.
CAMPBELL, THOS., Life and Times of Petrarch, 2v., London, 1843,
CAMPBELL, THOS. (C), The Jesuits, N. Y., 1921.
CARLYLE, R. W., History of Medieval Political Theory in the West, 6v., Edinburgh, 1928 f.
CARLYLE, THOS. (P), Heroes and Hero Worship, in Works, N. Y., 1901.
CARPENTER, EDWARD (R), Pagan and Christian Creeds, N. Y., 1920,
CARTER, THOS., The Invention of Printing in China, and Its Spread Westward, N. Y., 1925.
CASTIGLIONI, ARTURO, History of Medicine, N. Y., 1941.
CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA, N. Y., 1912.
CELLINI, BENVENUTO, Autobiography, tr. Symonds, N. Y., 1948.
CHAMBERS, E. K., The Medieval Stage, 2v., Oxford, 1903.
CHAPIRO, JOSÉ, Erasmus and Our Struggle for Peace, Boston, 1950.
CHAPMAN, CHAS., History of Spain, N. Y., 1930.
CHENEY, EDWARD, The Dawn of a New Era, N. Y., 1936.
CHENEY, SHELDON, A World History of Art, N. Y., 1937.
CLAPHAM, J. H., and POWER, EILEEN, Cambridge Economic History of Europe, Cambridge, England, 1944.
CLAVIJO, GONZALEZ DE, Embassy to Tamerlane, N. Y., 1928.
COKER, F. W., Readings in Political Philosophy, N. Y., 1938.
COMINES, PHILIPPE DE, Memoirs, 2v., London, 1900.
CONWAY, SIR MARTIN, The Van Eycks and Their Followers, N. Y., 1921,
COPERNICUS, N., Commentariolus, in Rosen, Three Copernican Treatises.
COULTON, G. G. (P), Art and the Reformation, N. Y., 1925.
COULTON, G. G. (P), The Black Death, N. Y., 1930.
COULTON, G. G. (P), Chaucer and His England, London, 1921.
COULTON, G. G. (P), Five Centuries of Religion, 3v., Cambridge, England, 1923.
COULTON, G. G. (P), From St. Francis to Dante, a tr. of the Chronicle of Salimbene, London, 1908.
COULTON, G. G. (P), Inquisition and Liberty, London, 1938.
COULTON, G. G. (P), Life in the Middle Ages, 4v., Cambridge, England, 1930.
COULTON, G. G. (P), Medieval Panorama, N. Y., 1944.
COULTON, G. G. (P), The Medieval Scene, Cambridge, England, 1930.
COULTON, G. G. (P), The Medieval Village, Cambridge, England, 1925.
COULTON, G. G. (P), Social Life in Britain from the Conquest to the Reformation, Cambridge, England, 1938.
CRAVEN, THOS., A Treasury of Art Masterpieces, N. Y., 1952.
CREASY, E. S., History of the Ottoman Turks, London, 1878.
CREIGHTON, MANDELL (P), Cardinal Wolsey, London, 1888.
CREIGHTON, MANDELL (P), History of the Papacy during the Reformation, 5v., London, 1882 f.
CRUMP, C. G., and JACOB, E. F., The Legacy of the Middle Ages, Oxford, 1926.
CUNNINGHAM, WM., Growth of English History and Commerce, Cambridge, England, 1896.
CUST, LIONEL, The Paintings and Drawings of Albrecht Dürer, London, 1897.
D’ALTON, E. A. (C), History of Ireland, 6v., Dublin, n.d.
D’ARCY, M. C. (C), Thomas Aquinas, London, 1930.
DAVID, MAURICE (J), Who Was Columbus?, N. Y., 1933.
DAVIS, F. H., The Persian Mystics: Jami, N. Y., 1908.
DE VAUX, BARON CARRA, Les penseurs de l’Islam, 5V., Paris, 1921 f.
DE WULF, MAURICE (C), History of Medieval Philosophy, 2V., London, 1925.
DE WULF, MAURICE (C), Philosophy and Civilization in the Middle Ages, Princeton, 1922.
DIAZ DEL CASTILLO, BERNAL, True History of the Conquest of Mexico, N. Y., 1938.
DIEHL, CHAS., Manuel d’art Byzantin, Paris, 1910.
DIEULAFOY, MARCEL, Art in Spain and Portugal, N. Y., 1913.
DIMAND, M. S., Guide to an Exhibition of Islamic Miniature Painting, N. Y., 1933.
DIMAND, M. S., Handbook of Muhammadan Art, N. Y., 1944.
DIMIER, L., French Painting in the Sixteenth Century, London, 1904.
DIVALD, KORNEL, Old Hungarian Art, Oxford, 1931.
DOMANOVSZKY, SANDOR, et al., Magyar Muvelodestortenet (History of Hungarian Civilization), 3v., Budapest.
D’ORLIAC, JEHANNE, The Lady of Beauty: Agnes Sorel, Phila., 1931.
D’ORLIAC, JEHANNE, The Moon Mistress: Diane de Poitiers, Phila., 1930.
DOUGHTY, CHAS ., Travels in Arabia Deserta, 2v., N. Y., 1923.
DOZY, REINHART, Spanish Islam, N. Y., 1913.
DRAPER, J. W. (R), History of the Intellectual Development of Europe, 2v., N. Y., 1876.
DUBNOW, S. M. (J), History of the Jews in Russia and Poland, 3v., Phila., 1916.
DUHEM, PIERRE, Études sur Léonard de Vinci, 3v., Paris, 1906 f.
ECKARDT, HANS VON, Russia, N. Y., 1932.
EINSTEIN, ALFRED, The Italian Madrigal, 3v., Princeton, 1949.
EINSTEIN, LEWIS, The Italian Renaissance in England, N. Y., 1935.
ELLIS, HAVELOCK, The Soul of Spain, Boston, 1937.
ELYOT, SIR THOS., The Boke Named The Governour, Everyman’s Library,
EMERTON, EPHRAIM, The Defensor Paris of Marsiglio of Padua, Harvard, 1920.
ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, 14th ed. un
less otherwise specified.
ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW, London.
ERASMUS, D., Colloquies, 2v., London, 1878.
ERASMUS, D., Education of a Christian Prince, N. Y., 1936.
ERASMUS, D., Epistles, 3v., London, 1901.
ERASMUS, D., In Praise of Folly, N. Y., Brentano, n.d.
FAGUET, ÉMILE, Literary History of France, N. Y., 1907.
FERRARA, ORESTES, The Borgia Pope, Alexander VI, N. Y., 1940.
FIGGIS, J. N. (P), From Gerson to Grotius, Cambridge, England, 1916.
FINKELSTEIN, LOUIS (P), ed., The Jews: Their History, Culture, and Religion, 2v., N. Y., 1949.
FOSDICK, H. E., Great Voices of the Reformation, N. Y., 1952.
FOXE, JOHN, Acts and Monuments (Book of Martyrs), 8v., London, 1841.
FRANCE, ANATOLE (R), Life of Joan of Arc, 3v., London, 1925.
FRANCE, ANATOLE (R), Rabelais, N. Y., 1928.
FRANCKE, KUNO, History of German Literature as Determined by Social Forces, N. Y., 1901.
FREEMAN, E. A. (P), Historical Essays, First Series, London, 1896.
FRIEDELL, EGON (R), Cultural History of the Modern Age, N. Y., 1930.
FRIEDLÄNDER, LUDWIG, Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire, 4v., London, 1928.
FROISSART, SIR JOHN, Chronicles, Everyman’s Library.
FROISSART, SIR JOHN, Chronicles, 2v., London, 1848. All references are to this edition unless otherwise stated.
FROUDE, J. A. (P), The Divorce of Catherine of Aragon, N. Y., 1881.
FROUDE, J. A. (P), Lectures on the Council of Trent, N. Y., 1896.
FROUDE, J. A. (P), Life and Letters of Erasmus, N. Y., 1894.