History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, Volume 1Longmans, Green, 1887 |
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Agobard ancient anthropomorphism appears arguments Augustine Averroes baptism beauty belief Catholic Catholicism cause century character Christ Christian Church Church of Rome civilisation clergy conception condemned controversy credulity crime curious death Deity Descartes Devil direct Divine doctrine dogmatic early ecclesiastical England eternal Europe evidence evidential school evil exercised existence extremely faith Fathers Gnostics Greek habits of thought Hist human idolatry images imagination influence intellectual intense Justin Martyr laws lycanthropy magic Manichæans manifest mankind ment middle ages mind miracles modes of thought moral movement nations natural never opinions pagan painting passion period persecution phenomena philosophy probably produced Protestant Protestantism punishment rationalistic realised reason Reformation regarded religion religious religious terrorism represented Roman Rome saints Satan scepticism sense sorcery soul spirit suffering supernatural superstition tendency terrorism Tertullian theologians theology tion torture truth universal witchcraft witches worship writers
Popular passages
Page 383 - The visible church which is also catholic or universal under the gospel, (not confined to one nation as before under the law,) consists of all those throughout the world, that profess the true religion, together with their children ; and is the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ, the house and family of God, out of which there is no ordinary possibility of salvation.
Page 102 - It may please your grace to understand that witches and sorcerers within these few last years are marvellously increased within your grace's realm. Your grace's subjects pine away, even unto the death ; their colour fadeth, their flesh rotteth, their speech is benumbed, their senses are bereft. I pray God they never practise further than upon the subject.
Page 123 - It is true likewise, that the English in general, and indeed most of the men of learning in Europe, have given up all accounts of witches and apparitions, as mere old wives
Page 255 - The external appearance of an old cathedral cannot be but displeasing to the eye of every man, who has any idea of propriety and proportion, even though he may be ignorant of architecture as a science; and the long slender spire puts one in mind of a criminal impaled, with a sharp stake rising up through his shoulder.
Page 116 - ... disbelief that arose entirely from a strong sense of its antecedent improbability. All who were opposed to the orthodox faith united in discrediting witchcraft. They laughed at it, as palpably absurd, as involving the most grotesque and ludicrous conceptions, as so essentially incredible that it would be a waste of time to examine it. This spirit had arisen since the Restoration, although the laws were still in force, and although little or no direct reasoning had been brought to bear upon the...
Page 186 - ... stream of an almost boundless benevolence, and to include all the sections of humanity in the circle of an intense and efficacious sympathy; if it be true Christianity to destroy or weaken the barriers which had separated class from class and nation from nation, to free war from its harshest elements, and to make a consciousness of essential equality and of a genuine fraternity dominate over all accidental differences; if it be. above all, true Christianity to cultivate a...
Page 310 - ... that Fishers, and men using the trade of living by fishing in the sea, may thereby the rather be set on work, and that by eating of fish much flesh shall be saved and increased...
Page 137 - Yet it is probable that no class of victims endured sufferings so unalloyed and so intense. Not for them the wild fanaticism that nerves the soul against danger, and almost steels the body against torments. Not for them the assurance of a glorious eternity, that has made the martyr look with exultation on the rising flame as on the Elijah's chariot that is to bear his soul to heaven. Not for them the solace of lamenting friends, or the consciousness that their memories would be cherished and honoured...
Page 387 - The human will is like a beast of burden. If God mounts it, it wishes and goes as God wills; if Satan mounts it, it wishes and goes as Satan wills. Nor can it choose the rider it would prefer, or betake itself to him, but it is the riders who contend for its possession.
Page vi - Europe, that the success of any opinion depended much less upon the force of its arguments, or upon the ability of its advocates, than upon the predisposition of society to receive it, and that that predisposition resulted from the intellectual type of the age.