Nor can it be doubted that England then could bear comparison with other countries at the same time. For on the Continent, in Roman Catholic lands, though some of the worst ecclesiastical abuses had been reformed, and the morals of the clergy had improved, and the Inquisition had been checked, yet the chief activities of religious thought, and the main business of education, had fallen almost entirely into the hands of Jesuits. From the orthodoxy of Protestant kingdoms and states there had been brushed off very much of the dew of its youth. The Lutheran and Reformed Churches of Germany had lost their "first love," and had become much more the conservators of a cold, dogmatic Christianity than the warm-hearted disciples of the Living Word. They kept their eyes open for the detection of heterodoxy, and they assailed one another sharply for slight deviations from certain standards which had been handed down by their fathers, but they had declined in spirituality and devotion.[470] They guarded the stones of the altar, but they let the fire die down to a few red ashes. Theological learning abounded, pastoral diligence of a certain description extensively obtained, but Evangelical fervour had declined, and the revival of piety under Spener did not commence until after the Restoration in England had taken place. The religion of the Commonwealth found scarcely a parallel at that time in Europe.[471] [Illustration] CHAPTER XVI. The Religious State of our Colonial Empire forms an essential part of our Ecclesiastical History. Early English colonization was, doubtless, stained with avarice and cruelty, but it is a thorough mistake to suppose that all who engaged in that great enterprise were reckless adventurers. Men of just and generous dispositions took part in the wonderful work; and the corner stones of our dependent empire were laid with the forms, and to some extent, in the very spirit of religion. Ecclesiastical ties were from the beginning entwined with those which were political around these daughters of England; and the double relation plainly appears in our national records during the period of the Long Parliament, and under the Protectorate of Oliver Cromwell. Some reference to the preceding state of the Colonies, with regard to religion, is requisite as an introduction to what we have to relate of the Colonial policy of the Commonwealth in this respect.