1 1 6 Contemporary Evolution. 



the anti-Christian revolutions of the eighteenth and nine- 

 teenth centuries, the same unvarying process of steadily 

 increasing conquest has been, is, and will be incessantly 

 going on, and this in spite of superficial appearances to 

 the contrary. As to the first of these events (the sixteenth 

 century revolt), the spread of the faith in the new world 

 compensated for its restriction in the old, while its very 

 restriction was the occasion of the more complete develop- 

 ment of the faith in the area which retained it, where it 

 became more intensely and consciously held. As to the 

 second event, its wonderfully invigorating actions on those 

 who remain Christians in France, Italy, Switzerland, and 

 Germany, is before our eyes to-day. 



" The manifest religious changes of the sixteenth century 

 will ultimately turn out to have been really to the 

 Church's advantage. Before then, the Church contained 

 a mass of latent heresy and infidelity, while now the 

 religious bodies external to the Church contain a mass of 

 latent orthodoxy. 



" This is especially the case amongst English-speaking 

 Christians. The noble anti-Erastian passion of the sturdy 

 Puritans, and their honest zeal against what they believed 

 to be idolatry, were essentially most Catholic, as was also 

 the heartfelt piety of the evangelican protest against the 

 cold formalism of the established clergy of that time. 

 The marvellous growth of high church views has re- 

 sulted in a forest of new spires, in schools, convents, and 



