EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



he is to worship God. It has, indeed, required 

 three centuries of discussion, since Luther's time, 

 to unfold all the logical implications of Protest- 

 antism. The theory of life which it contained 

 was too lofty to be thoroughly and consistently 

 understood, even by those who first conceived 

 it distinctly enough to be willing to fight for it ; 

 and most Protestant churches have practically 

 retained fragments here and there of the old 

 Romanist and quasi-pagan assumption of cor- 

 porate responsibility. The struggle of the Pro- 

 testant world, however, has, in the main, been 

 a struggle in behalf of the principle of individ- 

 ual responsibility, and in general the most en- 

 ergetic Protestants have been found on the side 

 of absolute freedom in politics, which always 

 means absolute freedom in religion sooner or 

 later. It was the intensely Protestant Puritans 

 who overthrew the last attempts at tyranny on 

 the part of English kings, both in England and 

 in America. 



It would not be correct, therefore, to describe 

 Protestantism any more than it would be 

 correct to describe Christianity as a system 

 of doctrines. To point to any particular doc- 

 trines held in common by all Protestants would 

 be as difficult as to point to any particular doc- 

 trines held in common by all Christians. Viewed 

 in the light of its own historic genesis, Protest- 

 antism may be described as that kind of reli- 

 242 



