Calvinism a life-system - pagina 200

CALVINISM AND ART.

196

proceed to account

in the case, I

convinced that this

fully

for this conviction.

First then the aesthetic

carried

to

development of divine worship

those ideal heights of which the Parthenon

and the Pantheon,

the

Sophia and Saint Peter

Saint

are the stone-embroidered witnesses,

lower

that is

stage,

only possible at

is

which the same form of religion

in

imposed upon a whole nation, both by prince and In that case every difference of spiritual expres-

priest.

sion

fuses

this

union

one mode of symbolical worship, and

into

of the masses, under the leadership of the

and the

magistrate

clergy, furnishes the possibility of

defraying the immense expense of such colossal struct-

and of ornamenting and decorating them.

ures,

however, of a progressive development of the nations,

case,

when

Religion

graduates

conscious

life,

of worship

matured

it

split

rises to that

higher plain where

symbolical

the

the unity of the

into

the

clearly-

and thereby necessitates both the division

into

religion

though slowly,

also

from

dianship. In the

and

character-traits

individual

masses, it

In the

many from 1

forms, and the emancipation of all

sacerdotal and political guar-

6th century Europe was approaching,

this

higher level of spiritual development,

was not Lutheranism with

its

subjection of the

whole nation to the religion of the prince, but Calvinism with

its

profound conception of religious

initiated the transition.

nism has made

its

liberty,

In every country

appearance,

it

which

where Calvi-

has led to a multiformity

of life-tendencies, in has broken the power of the State within

has

the

domain of

made an end

religion,

and to a great extent

of sacerdotalism.

As

a result of this^

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