searched, and books, obnoxious only on account of their doctrines, were seized. Whitgift caused the penal rules on this whole subject to be sharpened, and exercised vigilance in enforcing them. One of the charges against Laud at his impeachment, in 1644, was, that he had suppressed the Geneva Bible, and other books in which popery was attacked. But the managers of the impeachment coupled with this charge the accusation that he had permitted to be introduced and sold works in which Arminian and Roman Catholic opinions were countenanced.1 It was not his suppression of books, but of a particular class of books, which constituted his offense. In the same year, Milton dedicated to Parliament his ringing speech for the Liberty of Unlicensed Printing, the "Areopagitica," which he fitly prefaced by lines from Euripides, beginning:

"This is true liberty, when freeborn men,

Having to advise the public, may speak free,

Which he who can, and will, deserves high praise." 2

But even Milton, it may be observed here, did not carry his doctrine of liberty of conscience so far as to lead him to favor the toleration of the mass and other ceremonies of Roman Catholic worship, which, as being idolatrous, he thought should be forbidden. Parliament, in the Puritan period, passed severe ordinances and laws for the restraint of printing. But the Restoration re

1 Neal, History of the Puritans, ii. 515 seq.

2 One of Milton's arguments is that "the infection, which is from books of controversy in religion," is more dangerous to the learned than to the ignorant; and he refers to the acute Arminius, who "was perverted" by reading "a nameless discourse, written at Delft." It is curious that Milton, as his treatise on Christian Doctrine proves, himself became an Arminian, and an Arian be. sides. When he published "Paradise Lost," in 1667, he had some difficulty ir procuring a license; partly on account of the illustration, in the first book, of the eclipse, that

Perplexes monarchs."

"with fear of change

8 See his Tract, Of True Religion, Heresy, Schism, Toleration, etc. (1673). 4 May, Const. History of England, ii. 104.

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newed the extreme severity of the old enactments, and the Licensing Act placed all printing under the control of the government. Under the judges Scroggs and Jeffries, there was a cruel enforcement of the hateful provisions of this act. It was not until after the Revolution, when Parliament, in 1695, refused to renew this measure, that the censorship of the press was given up by the law of England. There might be continued persecution, through the wide extension given to the law of libel; but there was a gradual progress towards the abolition of all unjust restrictions upon the publication of printed matter. The multiplying of newspapers was a practical assertion of this liberty. Thus it appears that under Protestant institutions, although the freedom of discussion and of the press was not at once attained, although tyrannical laws were framed and executed, the tendency has still been in the direction of an emancipation of the minds of men from this as from other kinds of unjustifiable restraint. That the genius of Protestantism requires this liberty, is now almost universally conceded.

From the latter part of the sixteenth century, education in Catholic countries fell very much into the hands of the Jesuits. Among the members of this society, and among the pupils who were trained by it, there is included a long list of men who are distinguished for services rendered to science and learning. But, generally speaking, it is in mathematics, physical science, and antiquarian research-departments standing in no close relation to their moral and dogmatic system that they have won their eminence. The Jesuit Society has produced acute writers in casuistry and polemical theology such men as Suarez and Bellarmine. But it has accomplished little in the higher walks of literature and philosophy, which require the genial atmosphere of freedom: and the effect of its training, as a rule, has not been to

stimulate and fructify the mind, and to put it on the path of original activity and production.

In all Protestant lands, the universal diffusion of the Bible in the vernacular tongues, has proved an instrument of culture of inestimable value. Apart from its direct religious influence, the Bible has carried into the households, even of the humblest classes, a most effective means of mental stimulation and instruction. By its history, poetry, ethics, theology, it has expanded the intellect of common men, and roused them to reflection on themes of the highest moment. The scene which Burns depicts in "The Cotter's Saturday Night" suggests not only the religious power of the Bible in the homes of the poor, but also its elevating and inspiring influence within the entire sphere of mental action. The Church of Rome has never, by a general prohibition, interdicted the use of the Bible to the laity; but it has done little to promote it. On the contrary, the ten Rules relating to the censorship of books, which emanated from the Council of Trent, impose severe restrictions upon the circulation and reading of the Scriptures in the vernacular languages. "Inasmuch," they say, "as it is manifest from experience, that if the Holy Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue, be indiscriminately allowed to every one, the temerity of men will cause more evil than good to arise from it; it is, on this point, referred to the judgment of the bishops or inquisitors, who may, by the advice of the priest or confessor, permit the reading of the Bible, translated into the vulgar tongue by Catholic authors, to those persons whose faith and piety, they apprehend, will be augmented, and not injured by it; and this permission they must have in writing. But if any one shall have the presumpticn to read or possess it without such written permission he shall not receive absolution until he have first delivered up such Bible to the ordinary. Booksellers, how ever, who shall sell, or otherwise dispose of Bibles in the

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vulgar tongue, to persons not having such permission shall forfeit the value of the books, to be applied by the bishop to some pious use; and be subjected to such other penalties as the bishop shall judge proper, according to the quality of the offense. But regulars shall neither read nor purchase such Bibles without a special license from their superiors." This rule fairly indicates the policy of the Church of Rome since the Tridentine Council. This policy had its origin after the movements of the laity, in Romanic countries, in the twelfth century, against ecclesiastical abuses, when the Waldenses and other sects resorted to the Bible, and encouraged the reading of it. In England the opposition to Wickliffe had a similar effect in leading the authorities of the Church to discountenance the use of the Bible in the vulgar tongue. The Jansenists, Arnauld and his associates, advocated a more free reading of the Scriptures by the laity; but they were combated on this point, as on other peculiarities of their system. Even in recent times fulminations have been sent forth from the Vatican against Bible societies; and this hostility is not only directed against translations made by Protestants, but against the unrestricted circulation of any versions in the language of the people. Back of all these rules and prohibitions, however, there is another formidable hindrance in the way of the general reading of the Bible among Roman Catholic laymen. It arises from the doctrine that they are incapable of interpreting it. In the early ages of the Church, the Scriptures were rendered into the languages of the tribes to whom the Gospel was carried. The Fathers were not opposed to the reading of them by the people. Even as late as Gregory I. they recommend it. But the practice began to fall into disuse in consequence of the prevalent belief that laymen are incompetent to un

1 App. i. ad Concil. Trid De libris prohib. Reg. iv. The rules are trans ated by Mendham, The Literary Policy of the Church of Rome, p. 63 seq

derstand it - incapable of deciphering its meaning for themselves. Protestant teachers, on the contrary, have declared that the Bible is intelligible to plain men, and have universally inculcated upon all the obligation tc read it habitually. The English version and the transla tion of Luther have entered into the intellectual life of the nations to which they severally belong, with an exciting and transforming energy, the wholesome effect and full extent of which it is impossible to estimate. To say nothing of a strictly religious influence, if we could subtract from the German mind the effect, regarded only from an intellectual point of view, of Luther's Bible, and do the same in the case of our version in its relation to the English-speaking race, how incalculable would be the loss!

The effect of the Reformation upon literature in England is generally understood. The age of Elizabeth, the era of Spenser and Raleigh, of Bacon and Shakespeare, was the period in which the ferment caused by the Reformation was at its height, and when Protestantism established its supremacy over the English mind. That Protestantism was a life-giving element in the atmosphere in which the eminent authors of that and of the following ages drew their inspiration, admits of no reasonable doubt. We have only to imagine that the reign of Mary and her religious system had continued through the sixteenth century, and we shall appreciate the indispensable part which Protestantism took in the creation of that great literary epoch. The great writers of the Eliza♥ethan period have been called “men of the Renaissance, not men of the Reformation."1 A brilliant French author has even grouped them together under the title of the "Pagan Renaissance." 2 It is quite true that they derived their materials largely from the poets and novelsts of Italy; that the influence of the Italian culture is 1 Matthew Arnold, Schools and Universities on the Continent, p. 154. Taine, History of English Literature, i. 143 seq.