of belief in the orthodox doctrine of the Holy Trinity and condemning the Roman Catholic doctrine
of transubstantiation and the mass as idolatrous.^106
The great revolution of legislation began in the Colony of Virginia in 1776, when Episcopacy
was disestablished, and all other churches freed from their disabilities.^107 The change was brought
about by the combined efforts of Thomas Jefferson (the leading statesman of Virginia, and a firm
believer in absolute religious freedom on the ground of philosophic neutrality), and of all dissenting
denominations, especially the Presbyterians, Baptists and Quakers. The other Colonies or States
gradually followed the example, and now there is no State in which religious freedom is not fully
recognized and protected.
The example of the United States exerts a silent, but steady and mighty influence upon
Europe in raising the idea of mere toleration to the higher plane of freedom, in emancipating religion
from the control of civil government, and in proving the advantages of the primitive practice of
ecclesiastical self-support and self-government.
The best legal remedy against persecution and the best guarantee of religious freedom is a
peaceful separation of church and state; the best moral remedy and guarantee is a liberal culture,
a comprehensive view of the many-sidedness of truth, a profound regard for the sacredness of
conscientious conviction, and a broad and deep Christian love as described by the Apostle Paul.
§ 13. Chronological Limits.
The Reformation period begins with Luther’s Theses, a.d. 1517, and ends with the Peace of
Westphalia, a.d. 1648. The last event brought to a close the terrible Thirty Years’ War and secured
a legal existence to the Protestant faith (the Lutheran and Reformed Confession) throughout
Germany.
The year 1648 marks also an important epoch in the history of English and Scotch
Protestantism, namely, the ratification by the Long Parliament of the doctrinal standards of the
Westminster Assembly of Divines (1643 to 1652), which are still in use among the Presbyterian
Churches in England, Scotland, Ireland and the United States.
Within this period of one hundred and thirty-one years there are several minor epochs, and
the dates vary in different countries.
The German Reformation, which is essentially Lutheran, divides itself naturally into four
sub-periods:1. From 1517 to the Augsburg Diet and Augsburg Confession, 1530. 2. From 1530 to
the so-called "Peace of Augsburg," 1555. 3. From 1555 to the "Formula of Concord," 1577, which
completed the Lutheran system of doctrine, or 1580 (when the "Book of Concord" was published
and enforced). 4. From 1580 to the conclusion of the Thirty Years’ War, 1648.
(^106) Comp. Dr. Charles J. Stillé, Religious Tests in Provincial Pennsylvania. A paper read before the, Hist. Soc. of Penna., Nov. 9, 1885.
Philada., 1886. 58 pp. "It is hard to believe," he says, p. 57, "that a man like Franklin, for instance, would at any time have approved of
religious tests for office; yet Franklin’s name is attached over and over again in the Qualification Books to the Declaration of Faith, which
he was forced to make when he entered upon the duties of the various offices which be held. He must have been literally forced to take
such a test; for we find him on the first opportunity, when the people of this commonwealth determined to declare their independence
alike of the Penn family and of the Crown of Great Britain, raising his voice against the imposition of such tests as had been taken during
the Provincial period. Franklin was the president and the ruling spirit of the convention which framed the State Constitution of 1776, and
to his influence has generally been ascribed the very mild form of test which by that instrument was substituted for the old one."
(^107) The act of 1776 was completed by an act of October, 1785. See Hening, Collection of the Laws of Virginia, vol. XII. 84.