THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
it proclaimed the independence of secular morality from the traditional transcendent ethical theories of the Middle Ages, and produced a 4. Influence sharp-cut expression of individualism. of the Re- But the leaders in the Renaissance naissance. lacked system; they were inclined to skepticism and anarchy and represented an exclusive and aristocratic type of thought. Through its great representative Machiavelli, the Renaissance exercised strong influence over Hobbes and his critics. The ethical analysis of the Renaissance with its dependence on a psychological treatment of ethics is of importance, but on the whole the ethical ideas of the Renaissance had slight impelling power and were too esthetic in character to admit of wide application. In this way the influence of the Renaissance remained indirect and of minor importance.
Of really decisive importance was Protestant ethics in the particular form assumed by it in the Reformed Church in Geneva, France, Holland, and England, where the supremacy of the 5. Impor- Calvinistic system of predestination tance of worked out a complete civil order. Reformed It recognized political, economic, and Protestant social elements, but its science was Ethics. theology, while it left art altogether out of account. The law of nature was made identical with the revealed law; the State was to aid the Church to advance pure teaching and establish a civil life corresponding to Christian ideals. On the one hand, there was the external discipline keeping citizens in subjection to those ideals and, on the other hand, the so-called " guardianship of both tables " by which civil discipline and the purity of church teaching were maintained, a combination of the law of nature and the proclamation of salvation. Calvin's position on this point was much more thoroughgoing than Luther's, who left to the State a large sphere of activity for its natural functions and assigned to it considerable control in Church administration (see Polity, IV., § 2). Calvin provided for a theocracy by which the demands and forms of civil life should be brought into harmony with the exact standards of Christian ethics, proclaimed by an independently organized Church acting as the interpreter of the Bible. The various elements of Calvinistic theology, its theory of predestination and grace, were brought into practical application in the life of the individual and the State. But the political conception of Calvinism was aristocratic. It thought of the Church as the fellowship of the predestinated who were to bear sway over the whole sphere of life; the Bible in all its details was the standard of ethical conduct, not simply a source of grace and guide to penitence. Calvinism was not content with the small sphere of Lutheranism in directing the moral conduct and ethical aspirations of the individual citizen, it attacked also directly the control of important ecclesiastical functions by the State authorities. The State indeed was bound to maintain order and execute law, and also by divine and natural right it had to maintain Biblical truth and Scriptural ordinances within its territory. If it failed to do this
the society of the elect had the right of revolt, and this right was exercised in the wars of the Huguenots and of the Netherland Reformers. The Christian people were sovereign, and the Christian democracy was the supreme court of appeal. This was a very different principle from the Lutheran conservatism with its principles of practical passive obedience and its inconsistent distinction between the Church with its guidance of the individual and the State with its right- to carry out measures of general utility. With Calvin Church and State worked together to establish the Scriptural social order. So one of the crucial stages in the spiritual development of modern times is reformed teaching and practise in ethics and politics and in the construction of state and society. (Cf. M. Schneckenburger, Vergleichende Darstellung des lutherischen und reformierten Lehrbegriffes, Stuttgart, 1855; Elster, Calvin als Staatsmann, Gesetzgeber und Nationalokonom, in Jahrbucher fur Nationalbkonomie und Statistik, 1878; W. Walker, John Calvin, chap, x., New York, 1906.)
This system found realization in England on a
different ground from that in any other country, for
there was a monarchy struggling for absolutism, a
church catholicizing in tendency, both
6. English set over against a parliamentary sys- Ethics tem standing for the rights of the peo- Under pie and a popular demand for a purely
Puritanism, spiritual ecclesiastical system. As a result there came about a dissolution of the old historical constitution. Cromwell and his army did away with that compromise with historical institutions which prevailed on the continent, and proceeded to the erection of a real Christian state on a revolutionary basis. Scotch and French Huguenot influences combined with the theory of the rights of the people and natural law to make up Puritanism. The most radical religious ideas, the desire for autonomy, the claim for toleration, the separation of the Church from the State, found a home in Cromwell's army. Some of these ideas are due to continental influences, to the Anabaptists, and others. A considerable mystical element was also present among the armed supporters of the Commonwealth. They were desirous of a certain amount of freedom in dogma and worship, but their moral idea was meant to be strictly and absolutely maintained. So far as Christian society went Church and State had a common aim, the erection of a Christian commonwealth where the pious minority would be in control. The new system was to be built on the basis of specific English traditions, and it held to the old English idea of the rights and duties of a Christian state. Its special marks are religious and ecclesiastical autonomy, sovereignty of the people, puritanical strict morality, a continental policy based on uniting the Protestants and opposing Roman Catholics, popularizing and Christianizing law and justice. The experiment lasted only a short time and failed because of its impracticability, since it not only destroyed the existing church organization but also conflicted with the rights and interests of individuals. The gains made by the Commonwealth could be maintained in succeeding periods only by treating the