the pope and the next council.’—‘This is a mere subterfuge,’ said the doctors of the Reformation; ‘you want to prevent the discussion, and thus escape from an embarrassing position. You will not enter into the sheepfold by the true door, and you have no care for the sheep of the Saviour.’—‘Alas!’ exclaimed the members and the creatures of the clergy, ‘if the Lutherans have so much boldness, it is because a sacrilegious king shuts his eyes to their insolence, nay even instigates them, and because the infatuated nobles and blameworthy citizens encourage them.’[304] But it was indeed out of the abundance of their hearts that the reformers spoke. [Sidenote: The Two Parties.] Two parties very unlike each other were now brought face to face. The theocratic element had long prevailed in Denmark, and still characterized the party of the bishops. Another principle had appeared in the midst of this people, which characterized the reformers and their adherents. This was the religious element. It is a happiness for a nation when the reign of a theocracy comes to an end; it is on the other hand a misfortune when the religious element is weakened. There are not wanting in a nation minds, and these some of the most distinguished, whose interest is concentrated on secular knowledge and inventions; and we are very far from wishing to exclude this tendency. Experience shows that it may exist in the most Christian souls. But if a people is given up entirely to this industrial propensity, which is so powerful in our day, if they sacrifice to it the interest which they had previously felt in religious life, it is just as if the bones which sustain the whole body were removed from any living animal. This process has been very much recommended in this age by some philosophers. We do not desire, however, to see it carried out in the case either of an individual or a nation.