he new one, in which man is subject to no other
mortal, but only to the plain words of the Bible and to the judge in his
own breast? If we prefer this mansion, which stands open to every one
whose heart the old one oppresses, to the ruinous one of former days----"

"Yet," interrupted Wolf, "you must say to yourselves that you leave
behind in the old one much which the new one lacks, no matter with how
many good things you may equip it. The history of our religion and its
development does not belong to your new home--only to the old one."

"We stand upon it as every newer thing rests on the older," replied
Erasmus eagerly. "What we cast aside and refuse to take into the new home
with us is not the holy faith, but merely its deformity, abasement, and
falsification."

"Call it so," replied Wolf calmly. "I have heard others name and
interpret differently what you probably have in mind while using these
harsh epithets. But is it not the old house, and that alone, in which the
martyrs shed their blood for Christianity? Where did it fulfil its lofty
task of saturating the heart of mankind with love, softening the customs
of rude pagans, clearing away forests, transforming barren wastes into
cultivated fields, planting the cross on chapels and churches, summoning
men with the consecrated voice of the bell to the sermon which proclaims
love and peace? Where did it open the doors of the school which prepares
the intellect to satisfy its true destiny, and first qualifies man to
become the image of God? By the old mansion this country, covered with
marshes, moors; and impenetrable forests, was rendered what it now is;
from it proceeded that fostering of science and the arts of which as yet
I have seen little in your circles."

"Give us time," cried the theologian, "and perhaps in our home their
flowering will attain an unsurpassed richness of development. With what
loose bonds the humanists are still united to you!"

"And the finest intellect of all, the great scholar whose name you bear,
though he deemed many things in our old home deserving of improvement,
remained with us until his death. Jesus Christ is one, and so his Church
must also remain. The only question is, What the Saviour still is to you
Protestants, what he is to you, my friend?"

"Before how many saints, and many another whom your Church desires to
honour, do you bow the knee?" Erasmus fervidly answered; "but we do so
only to the august Trinity. And do you wish