- THE CONTROVERSY ABOUT FEMALE RULE.
WHEN first the idea became widely spread among men that the
Word of God, instead of being truly the foundation of all
existing institutions, was rather a stone which the builders
had rejected, it was but natural that the consequent havoc
among received opinions should be accompanied by the
generation of many new and lively hopes for the future.
Somewhat as in the early days of the French Revolution, men
must have looked for an immediate and universal improvement
in their condition. Christianity, up to that time, had been
somewhat of a failure politically. The reason was now
obvious, the capital flaw was detected, the sickness of the
body politic traced at last to its efficient cause. It was
only necessary to put the Bible thoroughly into practice, to
set themselves strenuously to realise in life the Holy
Commonwealth, and all abuses and iniquities would surely pass
away. Thus, in a pageant played at Geneva in the year 1523,
the world was represented as a sick man at the end of his
wits for help, to whom his doctor recommends Lutheran
specifics. (1) The Reformers themselves had set their
affections in a different world, and professed to look for
the finished result of their endeavours on the other side of
death. They took no interest in politics as such; they even
condemned political action as Antichristian: notably, Luther
in the case of the Peasants' War.
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