. Energy in the world of modern politics is not the product
of the devotional spirit dominant on the continent of Europe. That
spirit in its time saved the Church, for it fostered submission when
the temptation was to revolt.

"The exaggeration," says the Exposition, "of personal authority on
the part of Protestants brought about in the Church its greater
restraint, in order that her divine authority might have its
legitimate exercise and exert its salutary influence. The errors and
evils of the times [the Reformation era] sprang from an unbridled
personal independence, which could only be counteracted by habits of
increased personal dependence. _Contraria contrariis curantur._ The
defence of the Church and the salvation of the soul were [under these
circumstances] ordinarily secured at the expense, necessarily, of
those virtues which properly go to make up the strength of Christian
manhood. The gain was the maintenance and victory of divine truth,
and the salvation of the soul. The loss was a certain falling off in
energy, resulting in decreased action in the natural order. The
former was a permanent and inestimable gain. The latter was a
temporary and not irreparable loss."

The passive virtues, fostered under an overruling Providence for the
defence of threatened external authority in religion, and producing
admirable effects of uniformity, discipline, and obedience, served
well in the politics of the Reformation and post-Reformation eras,
when nearly all governments were absolute monarchies; but the present
governments are republics or constitutional monarchies, and are
supposed to be ruled by the citizens themselves. This demands
individual initiative, active personal exertion and direct
interference in public affairs. Vigilant and courageous voters rule
the nations. Therefore, without injury to entire obedience, the
active virtues in both the natural and supernatural orders must be
mainly cultivated; in the first order everything that makes for
self-reliance, and in the second the interior guidance of the Holy
Spirit in the individual soul. This, the Exposition maintains, is the
way out of present difficulties. That it is the Providential way out,
is shown by most striking evidence: the diversion of the
anti-Catholic forces from the attack against authority to one against
the most elementary principles of religion--God, conscience, and
immortality; the drift of Anglo-Saxon and Teutonic minds of a
religious cast