Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T20:24:18.050Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

7 - Whiggism, Liberalism and Christianity I

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 December 2009

Maurice Cowling
Affiliation:
Peterhouse, Cambridge
Get access

Summary

It was in some sense fortunate … for the Church of England that the Reformation in this country was effected by men who cared little about religion. And, in the same manner, it was fortunate for our civil government that the Revolution was in a great measure effected by men who cared little about their political principles.

(T. B. Macaulay, Hallam's Constitutional History, in Edinburgh Review, September 1828, reprinted in Lady Trevelyan, ed., Miscellaneous Works of Lord Macaulay, 1880, Vol. IV, p. 274)

It is always … important to trace the direction in which the spirit of self-sacrifice is moving … Celibacy, voluntary poverty and voluntary subjection, were the three … subjects which Giotto painted over the high altar of Assisi as the distinctive characteristics of the saint … All of them have now lost their power … The spirit of self-sacrifice still exists, but it is to be sought in other fields – in a boundless philanthropy growing out of affections that are common to all religions, and above all in the sphere of politics. Liberty and not theology is the enthusiasm of the nineteenth century.

(W. E. H. Lecky, History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe, 1865, 1910 edn, pp. 224–5)

The Peace Treaty is bad, thoroughly bad, but its badness is due … as much to the failure of the peoples as to the failure of their leaders at the Conference … I have been long from home, far away from the base which I have to rely on. […]

Type
Chapter
Information
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2001

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure [email protected] is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×