longer the sole or the chief depositories of knowledge The
invention of printing had furnished the assailants of the Church
with a mighty weapon which had been wanting to their
predecessors. The study of the ancient writers, the rapid
development of the powers of the modern languages, the
unprecedented activity which was displayed in every department of
literature, the political state of Europe, the vices of the Roman
court, the exactions of the Roman chancery, the jealousy with
which the wealth and privileges of the clergy were naturally
regarded by laymen, the jealousy with which the Italian
ascendency was naturally regarded by men born on our side of the
Alps, all these things gave to the teachers of the new theology
an advantage which they perfectly understood how to use.

Those who hold that the influence of the Church of Rome in the
dark ages was, on the whole, beneficial to mankind, may yet with
perfect consistency regard the Reformation as an inestimable
blessing. The leading strings, which preserve and uphold the
infant, would impede the fullgrown man. And so the very means by
which the human mind is, in one stage of its progress, supported
and propelled, may, in another stage, be mere hindrances. There
is a season in the life both of an individual and of a society,
at which submission and faith, such as at a later period would be
justly called servility and credulity, are useful qualities. The
child who teachably and undoubtingly listens to the instructions
of his elders is likely to improve rapidly. But the man who
should receive with childlike docility every assertion and dogma
uttered by another man no wiser than himself would become
contemptible. It is the same with communities. The childhood of
the European nations was passed under the tutelage of the clergy.