“Luther, who characteristically enough began his notorious career with the burning of books, was by no means prepared to accept with patience any Catholic literature that stood in his way. What, nevertheless, made the Lutheran movement a radical revolution was the acceptance of the right of individual freedom of inquiry, a right that was to make each man the authority for his individual views of faith and doctrine against the accepted Catholic principle that the authority for the interpretation of doctrine and for the guidance of faith must rest with the Church.... Luther accepted as authoritative the teaching of the Scriptures, but it was his contention that this teaching could be ascertained by the individual understanding and without the guidance of the Holy Church. This very principle, however, of individual interpretation was almost immediately set to one side by Luther himself. He found that what he propounded as the true Faith could be maintained only through the protection of his faithful from the influence of pernicious literature; and he instituted promptly, to the extent of his own power, a censorship against not only the writings of the Catholics from whom he had broken away, but still more sharply against those of fellow-Protestants whose views of interpretation differed in any manner from his own. Luther became himself the first censor of the Word of God, and set up his individual understanding as a guide not merely for himself but for the misguided who were ready to accept the word of a single man rather than the authority of the Church universal.... Under the divine government, men have been placed in dependence upon each other. It is only through full recognition of this interdependent relation that State and Church can come into existence and can be maintained. No reasonable man will deny for a father the right and the duty to preserve son and daughter from the influence of pernicious companionship. One could more reasonably contend against the authority of the Lord in Heaven to impose upon Adam and Eve in Paradise certain prohibitions. That a still more seriously pernicious influence can be brought about by bad books than even by evil companionship can be denied by no thoughtful man. The evil is none the less because it may be brought about under the name of freedom and enlightenment. No father, with a proper consciousness of his own responsibilities, will permit a son who is still a youth to receive without restriction teachings, whether religious, philosophical, medical, or scientific, which have been shaped for the understanding only of older men.... The father must on his own authority restrict, direct, and select the literature upon which is based the instruction of his children. The authority of the State makes necessary a supervision of the