Such was the condition of the only religion which then existed in Europe, when Luther commenced his insurrection against the court of Rome.
The task of this reformer naturally divided itself into two parts: the one, critical in respect to the papal religion;—the other, having for its object the establishment of a religion distinct from that which directed the court of Rome.
The first part of the task of Luther could be, and has been, completely performed. By his "Critique of the Court of Rome," Luther has rendered a capital service to civilization: without him the papacy would have totally enslaved the human mind to superstitious ideas, in causing it completely to lose sight of the moral. It is to Luther that we owe the dissolution of a spiritual power, which was no longer in accordance with the state of society. But Luther could not attempt to combat the ultramontane doctrines, without attempting to re-organize the Christian religion itself. It is in this second part of reform, it is in the organic part of his task, that Luther has left much for his successors to do. The Protestant religion, such as Luther conceived it, is nothing but a Christian heresy. Certainly, Luther had reason to say that the court of Rome had quitted the direction given by Jesus to his apostles. Certainly, he had reason to proclaim that the worship and the dogmas established by the popes were not proper to fix the attention of the faithful upon the Christian morality, and that they were calculated to make morality be considered as an accessory of religion. But from these two incontestable truths Luther had no right to conclude that morality ought to be taught to the faithful of his time, in the same manner as it had been by the Fathers of the church to their contemporaries. He had no right to conclude that worship ought to be despoiled of all the charms with which the fine arts could enrich it.
The doctrinal department of the reformation of Luther has been a failure. This reformation is incomplete. It has need of undergoing a reformation itself.
I accuse the Protestants of being heretics under
