The Refutation of All Heresies

I avail myself of a little spare space to add, from Michelet’s friend, E. Quinet, the passage to which I have made a reference on p. 156. Let me say, however, that Quinet and Michelet are specimens of that intellectual revolt against Roman dogma which is all but universal in Europe in our day, and of which the history of M. Renan is a melancholy exposition. To Quinet, with all his faults, belongs the credit of having more thoroughly understood than any theological writer the absolute revolution created by the Council of Trent; and he justly remarks that the Jesuits showed their address “in making this revolution, without anywhere speaking of it.” Hence a dull world has not observed it. Contrasting this pseudo-council with the free councils of antiquity, M. Quinet says: “The Council of Trent has not its roots in all nations; it does not assemble about it the representatives of all nations…omni plebe adstante, according to the ancient formula…The East and the North are, almost equally, wanting; and this is why the king of France refused it the title of a council.” He quotes noble passages from Bossuet.