[Footnote 181: Crudelitatisne tu esse ac non clementiae potius, pietatisque putas? (_Resp. ad Ep. Casauboni_, 1612, p. 118).] [Footnote 182: Quae res uti Catholicae Religioni sublevandae opportuna, ita maxime jucunda Gregorio accidit (_Hist. Pontif. Gregori XIII._, p. 30).] [Footnote 183: _Histoire d'Orleans_, pp. 421, 424.] [Footnote 184: Germain to Bretagne, Rome, Dec. 24, 1685; Valery, _Corresp. de Mabillon_, i. 192.] [Footnote 185: Du Molinet, _Hist. S. Pont. per Numismata_, 1679, 93; Buorranni, _Numismata Pontificum_, i. 336.] [Footnote 186: _Annali d'Italia_ ad ann. 1572.] [Footnote 187: Si huviera respirado mas tiempo, huviera dado a entender al mundo, que avia Rey en la Francia, y Dios en Israel (_Vida de S. Francisco De Borja_, 446).] [Footnote 188: _Vita di Sisto V._, i. 119.] [Footnote 189: Quo demum res evaderent, si Regibus non esset integrum, in rebelles, subditos, quietisque publicae turbatores animadvertere? (_Apparatus Eruditionis_, vii. 503; Piatti, _Storia de' Pontefici XI._, p. 271).] [Footnote 190: Per le notizie che ricevette della cessata strage (Moroni, _Dizionario di Erudizione Ecclesiastica_, xxxii. 298).] [Footnote 191: [1868.]] [Footnote 192: _Kirchengeschichte_, iii. 211.] V THE PROTESTANT THEORY OF PERSECUTION[193] The manner in which Religion influences State policy is more easily ascertained in the case of Protestantism than in that of the Catholic Church: for whilst the expression of Catholic doctrines is authoritative and unvarying, the great social problems did not all arise at once, and have at various times received different solutions. The reformers failed to construct a complete and harmonious code of doctrine; but they were compelled to supplement the new theology by a body of new rules for the guidance of their followers in those innumerable questions with regard to which the practice of the Church had grown out of the experience of ages. And although the dogmatic system of Protestantism was not completed in their time, yet the Protestant spirit animated them in greater purity and force than it did any later generation. Now, when a religion is applied to the social and political sphere, its general spirit must be considered, rather than its particular precepts. So that in studying the points of this application in the case of Protestantism, we may consult the writings of the reformers with greater confidence than we could do for an exposition of Protestant theology; and accept them as a greater authority, because they agree more entirely among themselves. We can be more sure that we have the true Protestant opinion in a political or social question on which all the reformers are agreed, than in a theological question on which they differ; for the concurrent opinion must be founded on an element common to all, and therefore essential. If it should further appear that this opinion was injurious to their actual interests, and maintained at a sacrifice to themselves,