History of Protestantism in the Netherlands - James Aitken Wylie

orders an affair of so much mystic pomp. "This,"
the canons add, "we think sufficient, seeing that the
ancient ceremonies are degenerated into
abominable institutions," and they might have
added, had failed to guard the purity of the
priesthood.[1]
In these canons we see at least an earnest desire
evinced on the part of the civil authorities of
Holland to secure learned and pious men for its
pulpits, and to provide guarantees, so far as human
foresight and arrangement could do so, against the
indolent and unfaithful discharge of the office on
the part of those entrusted with it. And in this they
showed a wise care. The heart of a Protestant State
is its Church, and the heart of a Church is its pulpit,
and the centuries which have elapsed since the era
of the Reformation furnish us with more than one
example, that so long as the pulpit retains its purity,
the Church will preserve her vigour; and while the
Church preserves her vigour, the commonwealth
will continue to flourish; and that, on the other
hand, when languor invades the pulpit, corruption
sets-in in the Church, and from the Church the
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