



Produced by Josep Cols Canals, Les Galloway and the Online
Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
file was produced from images generously made available
by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)







    PROTESTANTISM

    AND

    CATHOLICITY

    COMPARED IN THEIR

    EFFECTS ON THE CIVILIZATION OF EUROPE.


    WRITTEN IN SPANISH

    BY THE REV. J. BALMES.

    TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH.

    Second Edition.


    BALTIMORE:
    PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY & CO.
    No. 178 MARKET STREET.
    PITTSBURG: GEORGE QUIGLEY.
    _Sold by Booksellers generally._
    1851.


 ENTERED, according to the Act of Congress, in the year eighteen
 hundred and fifty, by JOHN MURPHY & CO., in the Clerk's Office of the
 District Court of Maryland.




AUTHOR'S PREFACE.


Among the many and important evils which have been the necessary
result of the profound revolutions of modern times, there appears a
good extremely valuable to science, and which will probably have a
beneficial influence on the human race,--I mean the love of studies
having for their object man and society. The shocks have been so rude,
that the earth has, as it were, opened under our feet; and the human
mind, which, full of pride and haughtiness, but lately advanced on a
triumphal car amid acclamations and cries of victory, has been alarmed
and stopped in its career. Absorbed by an important thought, overcome
by a profound reflection, it has asked itself, "What am I? whence do I
come? what is my destination?" Religious questions have regained their
high importance; and when they might have been supposed to have been
scattered by the breath of indifference, or almost annihilated by the
astonishing development of material interests, by the progress of the
natural and exact sciences, by the continually increasing ardour of
political debates,--we have seen that, so far from having been stifled
by the immense weight which seemed to have overwhelmed them, they have
reappeared on a sudden in all their magnitude, in their gigantic form,
predominant over society, and reaching from the heavens to the abyss.

This disposition of men's minds naturally drew their attention to the
religious revolution of the sixteenth century; it was natural that they
should ask what this revolution had done to promote the interests of
humanity. Unhappily, great mistakes have been made in this inquiry.
Either because they have looked at the facts through the distorted
medium of sectarian prejudice, or because they have only considered
them superficially, men have arrived at the conclusion, that the
reformers of the sixteenth century conferred a signal benefit on the
nations of Europe, by contributing to the development of science, of
the arts, of human liberty, and of every thing which is comprised in
the word _civilization_.

What do history and philosophy say on this subject? How has man,
either individually or collectively, considered in a religious,
social, political, or literary point of view, been benefited by the
reform of the sixteenth century? Did Europe, under the exclusive
influence of Catholicity, pursue a prosperous career? Did Catholicity
impose a single fetter on the movements of civilization? This is the
examination which I propose to make in this work. Every age has its
peculiar wants; and it is much to be wished that all Catholic writers
were convinced, that the complete examination of these questions is
one of the most urgent necessities of the times in which we live.
Bellarmine and Bossuet have done what was required for their times; we
ought to do the same for ours. I am fully aware of the immense extent
of the questions I have adverted to, and I do not flatter myself that I
shall be able to elucidate them as they deserve; but, however this may
be, I promise to enter on my task with the courage which is inspired
by a love of truth; and when my strength shall be exhausted, I shall
sit down with tranquillity of mind, in expectation that another, more
vigorous than myself, will carry into effect so important an enterprise.




PREFACE TO THE AMERICAN EDITION.


The work of Balmes on the comparative influence of Protestantism
and Catholicity on European civilization, which is now presented to
the American public, was written in Spanish, and won for the author
among his own countrymen a very high reputation. A French edition
was published simultaneously with the Spanish, and the work has
since been translated into the Italian and English languages, and
been widely circulated as one of the most learned productions of the
age, and most admirably suited to the exigencies of our times. When
Protestantism could no longer maintain its position in the field of
theology, compelling its votaries by its endless variations to espouse
open infidelity, or to fall back upon the ancient church, it adopted
a new mode of defence, in pointing to its pretended achievements as
the liberator of the human mind, the friend of civil