CHAPTER XXXVIII.

RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS IN THEMSELVES.

Conduct of Protestantism with respect to religious institutions--Whether these institutions have been of importance in history--Sophism on the subject of the real origin of religious institutions--Their correct definition--Of association among the early faithful--The faithful dispersed in the deserts--Relations between the Papacy and religious institutions--Of an essential want of the human heart--Of Christian pensiveness--Of the need of associations for the practice of perfection--Of vows--A vow is the most perfect act of liberty--True notion of liberty, 219