07-05-2026, 09:05 AM
II. Proteus was a fabulous being who could assume all appearances, and thereby elude all research and attacks.
Proteus is the real type of what is Protestantism. One is at a loss how to define it; it is almost impossible to lay one's hands upon it. It appears under different forms at Paris and at London, in Geneva, and in Berlin, at Berne, or at New York. Aye more, it varies in every ward of a city, in every church, in the head of every minister, and, we may say it, in the mind of every Protestant. Here it teaches, says, and believes what elsewhere it denied, point blank: yet it is Protestantism everywhere.
What is, then, Protestantism?
Is it a religion? — No, it is only a collection of sects.
Is it a Church, or a conglomeration of Churches? — No, Protestantism is the individual.
Is it an institution? — No, it is a rebellion.
Is it an instruction? — No, it is a negation.
Protestantism protests; it goes no farther. The name is merely a negation; and this explains why the name has lasted for three hundred years, albeit the changes of Protestantism are numberless. Protestantism being only a renunciation of the ancient Christian Faith, the less it believes, the more it will protest, and the more will it prove true to its name. Its name becomes truer every day it shall live, to the last moment of the existence of Protestantism; then it will die like the cancer, which is extinguished with the last bit of the flesh it has devoured.
Nevertheless, the fable tells us that Proteus was caught at last. Let us try to do the same, and surprise Protestantism under its thousand forms. Let us try to unmask it, and thus forearm the Christian, around whom it lays its snares.
Proteus is the real type of what is Protestantism. One is at a loss how to define it; it is almost impossible to lay one's hands upon it. It appears under different forms at Paris and at London, in Geneva, and in Berlin, at Berne, or at New York. Aye more, it varies in every ward of a city, in every church, in the head of every minister, and, we may say it, in the mind of every Protestant. Here it teaches, says, and believes what elsewhere it denied, point blank: yet it is Protestantism everywhere.
What is, then, Protestantism?
Is it a religion? — No, it is only a collection of sects.
Is it a Church, or a conglomeration of Churches? — No, Protestantism is the individual.
Is it an institution? — No, it is a rebellion.
Is it an instruction? — No, it is a negation.
Protestantism protests; it goes no farther. The name is merely a negation; and this explains why the name has lasted for three hundred years, albeit the changes of Protestantism are numberless. Protestantism being only a renunciation of the ancient Christian Faith, the less it believes, the more it will protest, and the more will it prove true to its name. Its name becomes truer every day it shall live, to the last moment of the existence of Protestantism; then it will die like the cancer, which is extinguished with the last bit of the flesh it has devoured.
Nevertheless, the fable tells us that Proteus was caught at last. Let us try to do the same, and surprise Protestantism under its thousand forms. Let us try to unmask it, and thus forearm the Christian, around whom it lays its snares.
"So let us be confident, let us not be unprepared, let us not be outflanked, let us be wise, vigilant, fighting against those who are trying to tear the faith out of our souls and morality out of our hearts, so that we may remain Catholics, remain united to the Blessed Virgin Mary, remain united to the Roman Catholic Church, remain faithful children of the Church."- Abp. Lefebvre