THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
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originating with English Methodists, at first exercised little influence on Vinet; but all these factors were at work within him, and during an almost fatal illness in 1823, his entire point of view was changed, and he resolved to devote his life to Christ in thanksgiving for redemption.
The year 1823-24 marked the beginning of Vinet’s literary activity as well as of his new religious life, and in his first contribution to the journal of the Paris society for Christian morals he advanced the view that ethics can not be divorced from dogma. A specific turn was given his energies by the law which, on May 20, 1824, officially sanctioned intolerance in the canton of Vaud, and in his pamphlet Du respect des opinions he set forth the kernel of all the theories he was subsequently to advance on religious liberty. In 1826 he was enabled to give wider currency to his views by winning the Lambrecht prize of 2,000 francs offered by the Paris society for Christian morals with his Mémoire en Saveur de la liberté des cultes, thus establishing a reputation with the leading French Protestants as a thinker and author. In the following years the opposition to which dissenters were exposed in Vaud led Vinet to write much on freedom and conscience, his attitude even causing him to be involved in a suit, resulting in a nominal fine and suspension from all ecclesiastical functions in his canton for a year. The liberal revolution in Vaud in Dec., 1830, gave his energies a fresh impulse, though he was unable to secure the proclamation of religious liberty, to say nothing of the separation of Church and State. Meanwhile Vinet had been appointed associate professor at Basel. His critical essays first appeared in the Protestant Le Semeur of Paris, a number of them being reprinted under the title of Hssais de philosophie morale et de morale religieuse (Paris, 1837). During this period, moreover, it was customary for the professor of literature at Basel to preach frequently in the French church, and in this capacity Vinet won the highest praise. His sermons, carefully revised and characterized at once by classic form and by a union of warmth and culture, were issued under the title of Discours sur quelques sujets religieux (Paris, 1831; Eng. transl. of parts of this work and of his Nouveaux discours, Christian Philosophy, London, 1846), their themes being dogmatic and apologetic. In the uprising that led to the separation of the city of Basel from its territory, Vinet was made a member of the committee to inform the general public of the condition of affairs in Basel, and was entrusted with a diplomatic mission to Lausanne. In return for these services, a new chair of French literature and rhetoric was founded for him in the university.
In 1837 he accepted a call to the Academy of Lausanne as professor of theology; and during this
period of his life passed through a crisis
Life at which resulted in an ever-increasing Lausanne. opposition to the theology of the Rével, with its intellectualism and antinomianism. This change of position found full expression in his Nouveaux discours sur quelques sujets religieux (Paris, 1841). Soon after settling in Lausanne, Vinet, as a member of the committee
Career at Basel.
on church reorganization, found opportunity for practical activity in behalf of his ideals, especially for voluntary admission of members to the Church and for the inclusion of laymen in ecclesiastical government. He advocated the retention of the Helvetic Confession, but the laws governing the Church, adopted in 1839, were so repugnant that he resigned, a year later, from the clergy of Vaud. These experiencts seem to have confirmed Vinet in his insistence on the separation of Church and State, and in his Hssai sur la manifestation des convictions religieuses et sur la séparation de Véglise et de V état (Paris, 1842; Eng. transl., Essay on the Profession of Personal Religious Conviction, . . . London, 1843) he wrote a classic on this theme. Nevertheless, he remained a simple member of the national Church; nor was he induced even by his position as professor of practical theology to make a propaganda for his theories. In 1845 the situation changed, and the February revolution in Vaud resulted in intense opposition to Protestantism in every form. When, therefore, the government, instead of heeding Vinet’s demand for liberty of worship in the reorganization, repressed such liberty still more, he resigned his theological professorship in 1846. A consequence of this revolution was the Free Church in Vaud, though it would be incorrect to regard Vinet as its founder, even though he were the author of the concept of the freedom and dignity which were its due. Vinet approved the course of the 150 clergy who left the national church rather than obey the State in its attempt to make them recommend the new constitution to their congregations, and accorded them his warmest sympathy; he also set forth the principle unconsciously adopted by them, that the freedom of the Church can be won only by complete separation from the State, in his anonymous Considérations présentées a Messrs. les démissionaires. His activity as a publicist in articles for the periodical and daily press and in pamphlets now increased, the ripest of his productions of this type being his Du socialisme considéré dans son principe (Geneva, 1846). Vinet naturally joined the Free Church which was soon founded, often preaching for its congregations and acting as a member of the committee on organization. He devoted much thought to the preparation of a confession of faith in which he sought to avoid all theological subtleties and polemics. He continued his activity to the last months of his life, delivering private lectures on practical and exegetical subjects. Whether appearing as the apostle of the separation of Church and State, as the critic and historian of French literature, or as the Christian thinker, Vinet was, first and foremost, an apologist, ever seeking to reconcile the modern spirit with the Gospel. Holding, as he did, that the high-
Significance est element in man is conscience, and as a Writer. that this is the seat of reason, the instrument of religious feeling, compul-
sion in matters of religion would naturally be violence to conscience. While, moreover, the individual is, in a sense, higher than the social organism, which is made for man, “ society forms a field for the activity of the individual, affords scope for the exercise of his virtues, and sets up a barrier to