History of the Catholic Church, vol 1 | Page 6

in France, and of
Febronianism and Josephism in the Empire, led of necessity to conflicts
between Rome and the Catholic sovereigns of Europe, conflicts in
which, unfortunately, many of the bishops, influenced by mistaken
notions of loyalty and patriotism, took the side of their own sovereigns.
As a result, absolute rule was established throughout Europe; the rights
of the people to any voice in government were trampled upon, and the
rules became more despotic than the old Roman Emperors had been
even in their two-fold capacity of civil ruler and high priest.
Meanwhile, the principle of private judgment had produced its logical
effects. Many of Luther's followers, even in his own lifetime, had been
induced to reject doctrines accepted by their master, but, after his death,
when the influence of Tradition and of authority had become weaker,
Lutheranism was reduced to a dogmatic chaos. By the application of
the principle of private judgment, certain leaders began to call in
question, not merely individual doctrines, but even the very
foundations of Christianity, and, in a short time, Atheism and
Naturalism were recognised as the hall-mark of education and good
breeding.
The civil rulers even in Catholic countries took no very active steps to
curb the activity of the anti-Christian writers and philosophers, partly
because they themselves were not unaffected by the spirit of irreligion,
and partly also because they were not sorry to see popular resentment

diverted from their own excesses by being directed against the Church.
But, in a short time, they realised, when it was too late, that the
overthrow of religious authority carries with it as a rule the overthrow
of civil authority also, and that the attempt to combine the two
principles of private judgment and of royal supremacy must lead of
necessity to revolution.
* * * * *
I wish to express my sincere thanks to the many friends who have
assisted me, and particularly to the Very Rev. Thomas O'Donnell, C.M.,
President, All Hallows College. My special thanks are due also to the
Rev. Patrick O'Neill (Limerick), who relieved me of much anxiety by
undertaking the difficult task of compiling the Index.
James MacCaffrey.
St. Patrick's College, Maynooth, Feast of the Immaculate Conception.

HISTORY OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
From the Renaissance to the French Revolution


CHAPTER I
CAUSES OF THE REFORMATION
(a) The Renaissance.
Baudrillart, /The Catholic Church, The Renaissance, and Protestantism
(Tr.)/, 1908 (chap. i.-iii.). Guirard, /L'Eglise et les Origines de la
Renaissance/, 1902. Burckhardt, /Die Cultur der Renaissance in Italien/,
11 auf., 1913 (Eng. Trans. by Middlemore, 1878). A Baumgartner, S.J.,
/Geschichte der Weltiteratur/, vol. iv., 1900. /The Cambridge Modern
History/, vol. i. (/The Renaissance/, 1902). Stone, /The Reformation
and Renaissance/, 1904. Janssen, /Geschichte des deutschen Volkes/,
1887 (Eng. Trans. by Mitchell and Christie, London, 1896 sqq.). Pastor,
/Geschichte der Papste im Zeitalter der Renaissance/, Freiburg, 1886
sqq. (Eng. Trans. by Antrobus, London, 1891 sqq.). Muntz, /La
Renaissance en Italie et en France a l'epoque de Charles VIII./, 1885.

Gasquet, /The Eve of the Reformation/. Mourret, /La Renaissance et la
Reforme/, 1912.
The great intellectual revival, that followed upon the successful issue of
the struggle for freedom waged by Gregory VII. and his successors,
reached the zenith of its glory in the thirteenth century. Scholasticism,
as expounded by men like Alexander of Hales, Albert the Great, Roger
Bacon, St. Bonaventure, and St. Thomas, and illustrated by a wealth of
material drawn alike from the Scriptures, the writings of the Fathers,
the wisdom of Pagan philosophers, and the conclusions of natural
science, was alone deemed worthy of serious attention. Classical
studies either were neglected entirely even in the centres of learning, or
were followed merely for the assistance they might render in the
solution of the philosophical and theological problems, that engaged
men's minds in an age when Christian faith reigned supreme.
The Catholic Church, indeed, had never been hostile to classical studies,
nor unmindful of their value, as a means of developing the powers of
the human mind, and of securing both breadth of view and beauty of
expression. Some few teachers here and there, alarmed by the danger of
corrupting Christian youth by bringing it into contact with Pagan ideals,
raised their voices in protest, but the majority of the early Fathers
disregarded these warnings as harmful and unnecessary. Origen, St.
Clement of Alexandria, St. Gregory of Nazianzen, St. Basil, and St.
Jerome, while not ignoring the dangers of such studies, recommended
them warmly to their students, and in the spirit of these great leaders
the Catholic Church strove always to combine classical culture and
Christian education.
With the fall of the Empire, consequent upon its invasion by the
barbarian hordes, classical studies were banished to some extent to the
Western Isles, Ireland and Britain, from which they were transplanted