PROGRESS OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 637 



to the scholars a life and an ardor, which they would never have 

 exerted without this continuous stimulation, and so ecclesiastical 

 history got the start of all other sections of historical science. 1 



After all, with many of them the blessing which results from 

 conscientious researches of the truth prevailed over care of con- 

 fessional apologetic. One cannot praise sufficiently the admirable 

 works of the monastic scholars and of the masters of Protestant 

 high schools in France and in the Netherlands during the seventeenth 

 and the first half of the eighteenth century. 2 They have strongly 

 built the layers upon which the scholars of the nineteenth century 

 have erected the edifice under which we take shelter. In a solemn 

 occasion as this one we ought to pay homage to the forefathers, who 

 have founded the greatness of our house. 



The result of the intense controversy between Catholic and 

 Protestant scholarship was quite different from what the opponents 

 looked for. It had illustrated the errors on both sides, the prejudices 

 and the party spirit of both. Unconfessional critique availed itself of 

 this experience. Rationalistic history arose, especially in Protestant 

 countries, in England and Germany. In France the source of religious 

 scholarship was exhausted by the persecution of the Protestants and 

 of the Jansenists, by the gradual weakening of the Gallican Church. 3 

 French philosophy in the eighteenth century disdained to study the 

 past of a religion or of a church which were considered as duly con- 

 victed of error and imposture, and the Roman Church did not care 

 for researches which seemed to be dangerous for her. Since, and 

 till the pontificate of Leo XIII, Catholic countries did not contribute 

 any more to the progress of ecclesiastical history otherwise than on 

 secondary questions of archaeological nature or of local history, or 

 by the work of some freethinkers and some Protestant countrymen. 



1 Historical criticism is really born out of ecclesiastical history. From there 

 it extended into what is called "profane" history. 



2 So we may mention: among the Jesuits, Sirmond, Fronton du Due, Petau, 

 Labbe, the first Bollandists; among the friars of the Oratoire, Jean Morin, 

 Le Cointe, Thomassin, Richard Simon; amongst the Benedictines of St. Maur, 

 Mabillon, d'Ache'ry, Martene, Durand, Montfaucon, Ruinart, etc.; among the 

 men of Port-Royal, Le Nain de Tillemont; the authors of the Gallia Chris- 

 tiana; further on, Elie Du Pin, d'Herbelot, Baluze, etc. And among the 

 masters of the Protestant reformed academies: G. Vossius, Fr. Spanheim, 

 Vitringa, Hottinger (in Switzerland), Louis Cappel, D. Blondel, Jean Daille", 

 Basnage, Leclerc, de Beausobre, Samuel Bochart, etc. We must mention also 

 in England: John Pearson and Usher. In Germany the only scholar, who 

 at the end of the seventeenth century has some qualifications of an historian, 

 is Arnold. He was one of the first who were able to appreciate the historical 

 value of heretics. 



3 Among the Protestants Pierre Bayle, and among the Catholics Huet, Bishop 

 of Avranches, are at the beginning of the eighteenth century the last represent- 

 atives of scholarly trained ecclesiastical historians (with some Benedictine friars, 

 who continued, though with less profit, the work of their predecessors). Bayle 

 and Huet are both anti-dogmatic writers, but with the second skepticism tends 

 to submit reason to the authority of the church; with the first, on the contrary, 

 skepticism inspires toleration and free criticism. Bayle, who died in 1706, is for 

 a good deal a forerunner. 



