2. The beginnings of the Reformation and its first
disciples.
The Reformation was finally to exercise a profound influence
upon the sentiments and moral ideas of a great proportion of
mankind. Modest in its beginnings,
it was at first a simple struggle against the abuses of the
clergy, and, from a practical point of view, a return to the
prescriptions of the Gospel. It never constituted, as has been
claimed, an aspiration towards freedom of thought. Calvin was as
intolerant as Robespierre, and all the theorists of the age
considered that the religion of subjects must be that of the
prince who governed them. Indeed in every country where the
Reformation was established the sovereign replaced the Pope of
Rome, with the same rights and the same powers.
In France, in default of publicity and means of
communication, the new faith spread slowly enough at first. It
was about 1520 that Luther recruited a few adepts, and only
towards 1535 was the new belief sufficiently widespread for men
to consider it necessary to burn its disciples.
In conformity with a well-known psychological law, these
executions merely favoured the propagation of the Reformation.
Its first followers included priests and magistrates, but were
principally obscure artisans. Their conversion was effected
almost exclusively by mental contagion and suggestion.
As soon as a new belief extends itself, we see grouped
round it many persons who are indifferent to the belief, but who
find in it a pretext or opportunity for gratifying their passions
or their greed. This phenomenon was observed at the time of the
Reformation in many countries, notably in Germany and in England.
Luther having taught that the clergy had no need of wealth, the
German lords found many merits in a faith which enabled them to
seize upon the goods of the Church. Henry VIII. enriched himself
by a similar operation. Sovereigns who were often molested by
the Pope could as a rule only look favourably upon a doctrine
which added religious powers to their political powers and made
each of them a Pope. Far from diminishing the absolutism of
rulers, the Reformation only exaggerated it.
