“ THE HISTORY OF RATIONALISM,”

B y W. E . H. L E C K Y .

S U P P L E M E N T TO “ W A T T S 'S L I T E R A R Y G U ID E ! ' AUGUST, 1893.

“ T h e r e is certainly no change in the history of the last three hundred years more striking, or suggestive of more curious inquiries, than that which has taken place in the estimate of the miraculous. At present nearly all educated men receive an account of a miracle taking place in their own day, with an absolute and even derisive incredulity, which dispenses with all examination of the evidence. Although they may be entirely unable to give a satisfactory explanation of some phenomena that have taken place, they never on that account dream of ascribing them to supernatural agency, such an hypothesis being, as they believe, altogether beyond the range of reasonable discussion. Yet, a few centuries ago, there was no solution to which the mind of a man turned more readily in every perplexity. A miraculous account was then universally accepted as perfectly credible, probable, and ordinary. There was scarcely a village or a church that had not, at some time, been the scene of supernatural interposition. The powers of light and the powers of darkness were regarded as visibly struggling for the mastery. Saintly miracles, supernatural cures, startling judgments, visions, prophecies, and prodigies of every order attested the activity of the one ; while witchcraft and magic, with all their attendant horrors, were the visible manifestations of the other.”

Such is the opening paragraph of the first chapter of the work to a review of the contents of which our second supplement will be devoted.* Of the work itself it is unnecessary to say more than that it is a classic to which every propagandist of Rationalism acknowledges his indebtedness for the light it sheds upon the development of religious thought from the crude dogma and supernaturalism of the past, to the more refined and scientific conceptions of to-day. The surpassing beauty of its diction, together with the splendid array of attested facts, and the vast collection of reference and illustration with which its pages are filled, have established for the work a reputation of which its distinguished author may justly feel proud. Of all the books which deal with the history of the emancipation of the human mind from the shackles of priestcraft and the tyranny of ecclesiasticism, this is, indeed, the most comprehensive and the most trustworthy, the greatest and the best.

The chapter from which we have made the above quotation is the first of three in which Mr. Lecky discusses

T H E D EC L IN IN G S E N S E OF TH E M IRACU LOUS.

It is on the subject of “ Magic and Witchcraft.” He examines the vast department of miracles, which is comprised under the several names of witchcraft, magic, and sorcery. He thinks that the subject has scared}' obtained the position it deserves in the history of opinion, having been too generally treated in the spirit of the antiquarian, as if it belonged entirely to the past, and could have no voice or bearing upon the controversies o f the present. Yet, he adds, for more than fifteen hundred years, it was

* “ The History of Rationalism.” By W. E. II . Lecky. (Long, mans.) 2 vols. ; 1Os.

universally believed that the Bible established, in the clearest manner, the reality of the crime, and that an amount of evidence, so varied and so ample as to preclude the very possibility of doubt, attested its continuance and its prevalence. The clergy denounced it with all the emphasis of authority. The legislators of almost every land enacted laws for its punishment. Acute judges, whose lives were spent in sifting evidence, investigated the question on countless occasions, and condemned the accused. Tens of thousands of victims perished by the most agonising and protracted torments, without exacting the faintest compassion ; and, as they were for the most part extremely ignorant and extremely poor, sectarianism and avarice had but little influence on the subject. Nations that were completely separated by position, by interests, and by character, on this one question were united. In almost every province of Germany, but especially in those where clerical influence predominated, the persecution raged with a fearful intensity. Seven thousand victims were burned at Treves ; six hundred by a single bishop in Bamberg; nine hundred in a single year in the bishopric of Wurtzburg. In France decrees were passed on the subject by the parliaments of Paris, Toulouse, Bordeaux, Rheims, Rouen, Dijon, and Rennes; and they were all followed by a harvest of blood. At Toulouse, the seat of the Holy Inquisition, four hundred persons perished for sorcery at a single execution; and fifty at Douay in a single year. Remy, a judge of Nancy, boasted that he had put to death eight hundred witches in sixteen years. The executions at Paris were almost infinite. The fugitives who escaped to Spain were there seized and burned by the Inquisition. In that country the persecution spread to the smallest towns; and the belief was so deeply rooted in the popular mind that a sorcerer was burnt as late as 17S0. In every country in Europe the persecution of witches raged relentlessly, and the Church strained every nerve to stimulate it. She taught by all her organs that to spare a witch was a direct insult to the Almighty. Almost all the great works that were written in favour of the persecution were written by ecclesiastics; and almost all the lay works on the same side were dedicated to, and sanctioned by, ecclesiastical dignitaries. Ecclesiastical tribunals condemned thousands to death; and countless bishops exerted all their influence to multiply the victims. In a word, says Mr. Lecky, for many centuries it was universally believed that the continued existence of witchcraft formed an integral part of the teaching of the Church, and the persecution that raged throughout Europe was supported by the whole stress of her infallibility. On this subject Protestants and Catholics were united. Luther, when speaking of witchcraft, said : “ I would have no compassion on these witches; I would burn them all.” At the establishment of the Reformation in England an immediate outburst of the persecution was witnessed. In Scotland, where the “ Reformed ” ministers exercised greater influence than in any other country, and where the witch trials fell almost entirely into their hands, the persecution was proportionately atrocious. Glanvil, a priest of the English establishment, is regarded as the ablest defender of the belief. Baxter, the greatest of the Puritans,