itself, then dogma has never indeed lost this character,
though it has been radically modified in later times. It is quite as
important to keep in view the tenacity of dogma as its changes, and in
this respect the Protestant way of writing history, which, here as
elsewhere in the history of the Church, is more disposed to attend to
differences than to what is permanent, has much to learn from the
Catholic. But as the Protestant historian, as far possible, judges of
the progress of development in so far as it agrees with the Gospel in
its documentary form, he is still able to shew, with all deference to
that tenacity, that dogma has been so modified and used to the best
advantage by Augustine and Luther, that its Christian character has in
many respects gained, though in other respects it has become further and
further alienated from that character. In proportion as the traditional
system of dogmas lost its stringency it became richer. In proportion as
it was stripped by Augustine and Luther of its apologetic philosophic
tendency, it was more and more filled with Biblical ideas, though, on
the other hand, it became more full of contradictions and less
impressive.

This outlook, however, has already gone beyond the limits fixed for
these introductory paragraphs and must not be pursued further. To treat
_in abstracto_ of the method of the history of dogma in relation to the
discovery, grouping and interpretation of the material is not to be
recommended; for general rules to preserve the ignorant and half
instructed from overlooking the important, and laying hold of what is
not important, cannot be laid down. Certainly everything depends on the
arrangement of the material; for the understanding of history is to find
the rules according to which the phenomena should be grouped, and every
advance in the knowledge of history is inseparable from an accurate
observance of these rules. We must, above all, be on our guard against
preferring one principle at the expense of another in the interpretation
of the origin and aim of particular dogmas. The most diverse factors
have at all times been at work in the formation of dogmas. Next to the
effort to determine the doctrine of religion according to the _finis
religionis_, the blessing of salvation, the following may have been the
most important. (1) The conceptions and sayings contained in the
canonical scriptures. (2) The doctrinal tradition originating in earlier
epochs of the chur