ABSTRACT
The religion of the new era found its contrast and its opponents in other rival and hostile religions, which although they were expressly or virtually criticized by it and surpassed by it, counted their own believers and attracted proselytes; they composed important historical realities, answering to certain ideal moments that are forever being repeated. History, which is the history of liberty, proves to be stronger than this doctrine or this programme; it defeats it and forces it to contradict itself in the domain of facts. The Renaissance, which was not an impossible return of pre-Christian antiquity, and the Reformation, likewise not an impossible return of primitive Christianity, mark the internal decadence of Catholicism as a spiritual power; and this decadence did not give place to a regeneration and was not arrested. The same attitude was taken towards Catholicism and the Church as towards everything past and surpassed, an attitude of impartiality, regard, respect, and even reverence.
