Full resolution (JPEG) - On this page / på denna sida - Pages ...
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
Below is the raw OCR text
from the above scanned image.
Do you see an error? Proofread the page now!
Här nedan syns maskintolkade texten från faksimilbilden ovan.
Ser du något fel? Korrekturläs sidan nu!
This page has never been proofread. / Denna sida har aldrig korrekturlästs.
170 RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY.
Princes, that the Proteftants have not only overtaken them, but got a great way before
them. Whilft the latter made ufe of the liberty which had been procured to their
{chools by the change of their religion, the former fuffered the papal huntfmen to entrap
them under the authority of their unthinking princes; but this was not the cafe in
France, Venice, and other Catholic countries.
It may, 1 think, admit of fome doubt, whether the abolition of the ancient church
government did much more for the happinefs of the people, than it did for their under-
flandings; at leaft in every Proteftant country I pafied through, I heard the ecclefiaftics
complain of the decay of their credit, the narrownels of their circumftances, and the
diforders which were the confequences of them; amongft which, that they moft enu-
merated and complained the moft bitterly of, was the not having a bond of union amongft
themfelves, but every man’s being allowed to be a pope in his own circle. No doubt
but the reformers merited much by improvements they introduced into the ecclefiaftical
police as connected with the civil, I mean by their banifhment of celibacy, fafts, popith
difpenfations and indulgencies; but thefe improvements are confiftent with the exiltence
of the Catholic religion, and have been introduced more or lefs into feveral countries.
The trade of indulgencies is ruined almoft over the whole Catholic world. Even the
Spaniards and Portuguele crufades, formerly the moft productive of all, now bring in
very little to the holy father. For a long time purgatory has only produced the trifling
fums which monks, religious brotherhoods, and other communities, whofe feftivals are
connected with indulgencies, pay for their bulls of foundation ; and this fource of reve-
nue is now almoft dried up; for in moft Catholic countries there are no erections of
new cloyf{ters, nor new fraternities, nor any introduction of new feftivals; on the con-
trary, they are endeavouring as fait as they can to abolifh the old. Indeed it is only to
the ecclefiaftics of the Catholic countries that purgatory is at all produétive; but I have
feen the ecclefiaftics of Proteftant countries ufe artifices to extort money from their peo-
ple particularly the peafants, far more dangerous than purgatory, which, after all, pro-
duced only offerings freely given.
‘The great merit of the reformers confifts in the change which their reformation
made in the morals of-the people: indulgencies, proceffions, feftivals, fafts, and the
like, might have been cut off by the civil power, without its having made any fepara-
tion in the church; but no civil power can at once render a debauched, diffipated peo-
ple induftrious and frugal. Luther, who was not the beft ceconomift himfelf, preached
nothing up fo much as abftinence, frugality, and induftry. The Calvinifts went {till far-
ther ; they taught that the world was a place of torment, and that the true life of man
confifted in the mortification of the flefh. Their catechifm forbad all enjoyments, -and
made a fin of laughter.. A man muit read Swift’s writings to fee how much farther
the Calvinifts went in this point than the Lutherans. It muft be owned, at the fame
time, that this command of abftinence is the caufe why the Calvinifts are every where
richer than the Lutherans; for they are neither more active nor more induftrious
than thefe, but, on the contrary, their melancholy humour, (a confequence of their
education and their manners,) which among the common people in many countries al-
moft borders on ftupidity, renders them heavy at every thing; indeed this is the rea-
fon that they have not done fo much in the arts as either the Lutherans or the Catho-
lics. Iremember to have read in an Englifh Review, an eftimate of the proportion be-
tween the artifts and ingenious men produced by the Puritans or Calvinifts, and thofe
of the eftablifhed church; according to this account, the former ftood to the latter as
one to fix, and yet the diflenters make two fifths of the inhabitants of England.—The
Dutchman lives more carkingly in the midft of his money, than the Catholics and Lu-
therans
<< prev. page << föreg. sida << >> nästa sida >> next page >>
