10 PROLOGUE I 



the other hand, if the infallibility of the Bible 

 was rested on that of a " primitive Church/' the 

 admission that the " Church " was formerly 

 ID fallible was awkward in the extreme for those 

 who denied its present infallibility. Moreover, no 

 sooner was the Protestant principle applied to 

 practice, than it became evident that even an 

 infallible text, when manipulated by private 

 judgment, will impartially countenance contra- 

 dictory deductions ; and furnish forth creeds and 

 confessions as diverse as the quality and the 

 information of the intellects which exercise, and 

 the prejudices and passions which sway, such 

 judgments. Every sect, confident in the deriva- 

 tive infallibility of its wire-drawing of infallible 

 materials, was ready to supply its contingent of 

 martyrs ; and to enable history, once more, to 

 illustrate the truth, that steadfastness under 

 persecution says much for the sincerity and still 

 more for the tenacity, of the believer, but very 

 little for the objective truth of that which he 

 believes. No martyrs have sealed their faith 

 with their blood more steadfastly than the 

 Anabaptists. 



Last, but not least, the Protestant principle 

 contained within itself the germs of the destruc- 

 tion of the finality, which the Lutheran, Calvin- 

 istic, and other Protestant Churches fondly 

 imagined they had reached. Since their creeds 

 were professedly based on the canonical Scriptures, 



