The  spirit  of  personal  emancipation  was  animated  by  the  subjection
of  the  spiritual  to  the  temporal  power,  which  had  now  taken  place
for  some  time ;  the  late  rightful  guides  of  opinion  and  belief  were
subordinated  to  incompetent  temporal  authorities ;  and  when  the
ancient  intellectual  prerogatives  of  Catholicism  had  passed  into  the
hands  of  kings,  they  could  not  be  regarded  with  the  ancient  venera-
tion, but  must  soon  yield  to  that  passion  for  spiritual  freedom  to
which  the  kings  had  no  objection  as  long  as  it  did  not  interfere  with
material  order.  And  thus  was  Protestantism,  with  its  dogma  of
free  inquiry,  a  mere  sanction  of  the  pre-existing  state  to  which  all
Christian  nations  had  been  tending  for  two  centuries.  Comparing
it  with  the  corresponding  social  state,  we  shall  see  it  to  be  the  ne-
cessary corrective  of  the  temporal  dictatorship,  in  which,  as  we
have  seen,  the  theological  and  military  system  had  merged.  With-
out it  the  temporal  power  would  have  degenerated  into  a  dark  des-
potism, extinguishing  all  intellectual  and  social  vigor  under  the
-^tyranny  of  an  absolute  authority  which  could  naturally  conceive  of
no  other  method  of  mental  discipline  than  forcible  repression.  How-
ever great  the  dangers  of  abuse  of  the  revolutionary  doctrine,  we
can  easily  understand  the  invincible  attachment  of  the  European
peoples  to  it,  when,  amidst  the  consolidation  of  aristocratic  or  regal
absolutism,  it  became  the  organ  of  social  progression.  And,  neg-
ative as  was  its  essential  character,  it  was  the  fitting  and  necessary
preparation  for  the  establishment  of  new  social  elements,  from  its
encouragement  of  the  spirit  of  individuality,  and  the  consequent
development  which  it  caused  of  personal  energy,  whether  industrial,


662  POSITIVE   PHILOSOPHY.
