An essay on the spirit and influence of the reformation. ..

Front matter

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ALUMNI LIBRARY,

Part 1. Pag?

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY, .... 1

Sect, I. On the State oftlie Question, - - 13

II. On the Essence of Reformations in general, 13

III. On that of Luther in particular, - - 28

Sketch of the Political, Religious, and Literary State of Europe at the Commencement of the sixteenth century.

I. Politics, - - - - 32

II. Religion, - - - 36

ni. Knowledge, - - - - 40

THE REFORMATION, - .... 43

Sect. IV. Conjectures on what might have happened in Europe, if the Reformation had not taken place. Would the spirit of the Hierarchy have changed i" - - - - 53

PART 11.

Influence of the Reformation.

First head. On the PoUtical Situation of the States of

Sect. I. Of the Church in itself, and in its Political Relations, - ' ' - ' 63 II. On the principal Christian States, - - 70

FIRST POINT OF VIEW.

Internal Situation of the States.

I. Protestant States, - - - ib,

Germany, - - - -77

Denmark, - - - - 83

Sweden, - - - - S4

Switzerland, - - - 85

Holland, .... 89

England, - - - - 91

United States of America, - - 97

IV CONTENTS.

PAGE II, States, the Governments of which did not

embrace the Reform, - - 98

Spain, - - . . if).

SECOXD POINT OF TIEW.

External and Respective Situation of the States of Europe with each other.

System of Equihbrium, ... - 107

First Period, from 1520 to 1556, - - 112

Second Period, from 1556 to 1603, - - ib.

Third Period, from 1603 to 1648, - - 114

Summary recapitulation of the Results of the Reformation

with respect to Politics, - - - - 115

Second head. On tlie Prog-ress of Knowledge, - 118

Sect. I. Results of the Moral Impulse given by the Reformation, - - - - 119 With respect to Liberty of Thought, 120 With respect to the Study of Religion — ancient Languages, Exegesis, Archseologia, History, - - - - 124 W^ith respect to Philosophy — to the Moral

and Political Sciences, - - - 132

With respect to the Mathematical and Physical Sciences, ... 145 With respect to the Belles Lettres, and to

Modern Languages, - - . 147

With respect to the Fine Arts, . 152

Sect. II. Results of the Events whicli have accompanied and followed the Reformation, - 155 Troubles and Wars in tlie Political World-^

Controversies in tlie Theological World, ib. Secret Societies — Free Masons — Rosicru-

cians — Mystics — Illuminati, - 161

Jesuits, Jansenists, &c. . - . 167

Reflection on the Employment of the Ecclesiastical Possessions, - - 176 Summary Recapitulation of the Results of the Reformation, as they relate to the Progress of Knowledge, - - . . 178 Conchision, - . - - 179 Dr. Maclaine's Note on a received Calumny V agaihst the Person and Views of Luther, 184

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY.

The Reformation from Popery is a theme which can never ' grow old. To the scholar, the statesman, and the moralist, as well as to the Christian, it presents an aspect of the most intense interest. The situation in which that great event found Christendom, it is impossible, even at this distance of time, to contemplate without astonishment and horror. Literature was discouraged, as hostile to religion. Free inquiry was utterly interdicted, as dangerous to the plans and interests of a tyrannical priesthood. The rights of private judgment were not only denied, but the exercise of them prohibited. The Holy Scriptures were locked up from the common people. All the avenues to liberal knowledge were, as far as possible, closed. Claims of authority over all rulers and subjects were advanced, which made the haughtiest kings and emperors to tremble. A large part of the wealth of Europe was in the hands of profligate ecclesiastics ; — yet such was the blind devotion of the people, and also of the princes and nobles, that, although they saw the gross abuse of this wealth, they were ready to furnish increasing means of splendour and sensual gratification. Indulgences to commit every kind of iniquity w^ere as publicly sold for money as any other species of merchandise. The lives of the clergy, as well as the body of the people, were not only dissolute, but abominable ; a scandal to religion and an outrage on common decency* The clergy professed celibacy, but generally indulged in the grossest and most unbridled lewdness ; — a lewdness which did not even attempt to save appearances. Of this the evidences were as loathsome as they were enormous. One example will serve at once to illustrate and confirm the meaning 1 here intended. It is stated by grave historians that, at the celebrated Council of Constance, there came to that city to attend its sessions, besides many hundreds of cooks, musicians, barlers, and other ministers to appetite and luxury, at least fifteen hundred common prostitutes, for the open accommodation of the members of the Council ! Nor was this the only sin for which they were distinguished. Their gluttony; their drunkenness ; their avarice, rapacity and ambition ; their incessant struggles for power; and their system of wicked extortion, and imposition on the easy credulity of the people — altogether presented a scene which beggars description !

Against this monstrous system of corruption and oppression no one Vv-as allowed to whisper a syllable. Every avenue by which truth might enter was closed and carefully guarded. If an}^ one began to hint the least dissatisfaction with z.viy doctrine or practice of the Church, and to propose reformation, in any form, he was immediately stigmatized as a " heretic ;" and, if he did not consult his safety by flight, was immured in prison, or committed to the flames, and his property transferred to the coffers of his persecutors.

In this deplorable state of things. Christian doctrine, in anything like its simple and Scriptural character, was nearly banished from the Church. Christianity, instead of being found as its Master left it, a pure, vital, holy, and sanctifying system, was perverted into a disgusting round of outw^ard observances, superstitions, and idolatry. Instead of the only living and true God, the great body of those who called themselves Christians, worshipped images, the workmanship of men's hands. Instead of a divine enthroned Saviour, they adored the bread and wine in the eucharist. Instead of the Sacred Oracles as a rule of faith and practice, the commandments of men were set up. Instead of the Bible, the bulls of Popes, and the collections of Canon Law were substituted. Instead of the authority of Christ, and his inspired apostles, the miserable legends, the vain traditions, and the despotic will of wretched pontiffs, who are represented, by the gravest historians, as monsters, or rather " devils" than men, decided everything-. The sacred volume was little read, and less understood. The character of Christ was much talked of, but totally misrepresented. The "blood of Christ," and the "merits of Christ," were phrases in every one's mouth; but nothing more than solemn mockery was made of either. While the terms "mercy" and " grace" were loudly chanted, the most unblushing system of self-righteousness was everywhere not only held, but avowed and gloried in ; and the blessed Saviour, though holy, harmless, and undefiled, openly made " the minister of sin." In short, the most gloomy superstition, the most unrelenting spiritual tyranny, and the most revolting moral profligacy formed the essential character of that system which the Reformers w^ere happily made instrumental in removing from a large portion of Christendom.

The editors of the " Christian Observer," w^ell known as members and warm friends of the established Church of England, when speaking on this subject, make the following just and weighty remarks :

"Another principle, strong enough to be called a passion in the w^hole band of Reformers, was that of proclaiming to mankind the doctrine oi justification by faith in the merits of Jesus Christ.

" Some modern writers are fond of representing the Reformation as a mere effort on the part of the Reformers to shake off the burden of papal ceremonies. But it ought rather to be contemplated as the re-assertion of this grand principle, the establishment of which was sure to level to the ground all the gingerbread fabric of cerem_onies which the Church of Rome had substituted in its place. The image of Dagon must fall when the Ark of God is introduced. It was not the mere desire to abolish ceremonies that influenced the Reformers ; for a ceremonial religion is better than none. But it was to substitute the Saviour for real or fancied saints ; it was to elevate Him to the throne which they had so long usurped. It was to teach men to " glory," not in themselves, or in canonized men or bones, but in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, that they lived and died. The Reformation is ever to be considered as the triumph of principle over force ; and of the particular principle of justification by grace, through faith in a crucified Redeemer, over every device which priestcraft, or pride, or superstition, had conceived for propitiating an offended God. We are convinced that a vast majority of the errors in religion may be traced to that unremitting and indefatigable desire of the natural mind to do without Christ. In this respect, Popery is to be considered, not as the mere chance-religion of a country or an age; — as a church accidentally founded and cemented by the labours or arts of a few cardinals and pontiffs. It is to be considered as the real antichrist, the religion of human nature ; as the great confederation of mankind to get rid of Christ: as an organized effort to substitute a sort of gilded machinery for that grand pillar of salvation, pardon by the free grace of God, and through the atoning blood of his Son. It was to such a confederation, then, deeply intrenched and guarded by its rich temporalities, and invested by its mere age with a factitious sanctity, that Zuingle and his brethren opposed themselves. Carried by the grace of God, and the force of this their master-principle, through every obstacle, they triumphed, in defiance of the strength of their enemies, and even of their own deficiencies, and built up that Church which is the mother of us all."*

In another volume of the same valuable work, the following just and strong views are exhibited.

" Popery may be termed, in few words, a system of paganized Christianity. Every religious institution of paganism had a tendency to chain down the understandings of its votaries to visible and corporeal objects; to distract their attention between a vast variety of such objects ; and thus to keep their minds from aspiring to just conceptions of the Creator, and their hearts from rendering to him the fear, love, and homage which are his due. This was the general effect produced upon mankind by all the lying vanities of the gentile world — their demi-gods, their deified heroes, their local and

INTRODUCTORY ESSAY. O

household divinities, their temples, auguries, and oracles. After the establishment of Christianity throughout the Roman empire, much of the leaven of heathenism still prevailed. Its spirit was gradually transfused into all the doctrines, institutions, and ceremonies of our holy religion; and being powerfully aided by the general corruption of human nature, and by the ignorance and barbarism of those dark ages which followed the irruption of the Northern conquerors, it succeeded eventually in building up that fabric of superstition and unscriptural theology which was, at length, formally consecrated by the Council of Trent."*

It was against this enormous system of antichristian darkness, profligacy, and tyranny that the Reformers felt themselves called upon to wage war. And, accordingly, the benefit which they were enabled, by the grace of God, to confer upon their generation, and, indeed, on the Church and the world in all succeeding ages, was by no means of a confined or narrow character. Literature, science, civil liberty, and good morals were all essentially promoted by that great moral miracle which we denominate the Reform.ation, no less than the disenthralment and the reign of the gospel. While it electrified and convulsed, it, at the same time, enlightened and purified a large portion of Europe.

I have called this event a moral miracle. And, truly, when we consider, on the one hand, the strong and deep-rooted prejudices which were almost universally prevalent, when the Reformers went forth to their work ; the wealth, power, and interest which were leagued against them ; the deep and almost invincible authority which the force of habit, and of inveterate usurpation had imparted to the corrupt opinions' and practices of the times; and the consequent formidable danger attending any attempt to shttke that authority, and to demolish the unhallowed fabric which it had built up ; and when we reflect, on the other hand, upon the seemingly acci-

Vol. XXIII. p. 135. 1* dental causes from which the Reformation originated ; and the apparently inconsiderable means by which it was carried on, contrasted with its irresistible progress, and its mighty results, — ^results in which the Church and the world yet rejoice,— we cannot but see abundant reason for wonder, gratitude and praise. That thick darkness which had been so long brooding over the nations was in a great degree dissipated. The human mind, which had been for ages, as tame and passive as if it had been formed to believe whatever it was ordered to believe, and to bear whatever an unprincipled and tyrannical priesthood thought proper to lay upon it; was unexpectedly roused, became conscious of its dignity and rights, and disdainful of the yoke of mere authority. The fetters with which men had been bound for ages were, extensively, broken. The rights of private judgment began to be understood and asserted. The religious freedom which now began to dawn upon the nations gave a new impulse to literature and science ; and, on the other hand, the lights and the emancipation of literature imparted a favourable influence to the study and the reign of a sound theology. In short, we may say, that human society, in all its relations and interests, was benefited by the event of which we speak to an extent which it is not easy to estimate, and which is daily unfolding itself more and more.

The attentive observer of human affairs, however, will perceive, that rich as were the services of the Reformers, and great as are, undoubtedly, the obligations we owe them — the all-wise and almight}?^ King of Zion had been preparing the way for their ministry, and its results, for a considerable time before they appeared. A variety of circumstances con-- tributed to this happy effect. The impolitic and ferocious violence of some of the Popes in the fifteenth, and beginning of the sixteenth centuries ; the openly profligate lives of some others of these high functionaries, the abominable licentiousness which generally characterized their court and capital; — the shockingly corrupt manners of the clergy everywhere ;. the gross ignorance, and shameless effrontery of the several orders of Mendicants; the seventy years " Babylonish captivity," as it v/as called, at Avignon ; — the grand Western Schism, of forty years continuance, which followed it, in which two and sometimes three Popes appeared, abusing and excommunicating each other, — loading each other with the most revolting insults, and reproaching each other, and not unjustly, with the most degrading vices — the grievous papal exactions of every kind, and especially the profligate system of INDULGENCES, that monstrous abuse of the most monstrous of all usurped powers ; the intolerance and cruelty of the Inquisition ; and the grievous wounds inflicted on the cause of truth and decorum by the ferocious wars carried on by some of the monastic orders, more especially by the Dominicans and Franciscans, among themselves. Surely, all these, which the writer of the important work before us strongly depicts, are quite sufficient to account for the hatred and contempt which appeared to be lurking in the breasts of so many at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The friends of the papacy, at the opening of the century, thought that all was not only tranquil, but safe. But it was only the portentous calm which precedes the heaving earthquake. The only wonder is that the explosion had not occurred years before ; that the superstitious reverence of the people had not much sooner given place to a settled abhorrence and indignation, prompting them to rise as one man and throw off their chains.

At length, however, the time, even the " set time to favour Zion" had come. The Papal fabric, built up and cemented by the superstitions and the prejudices of ages, was destined, with respect to a large portion of Europe, to be prostrated in the dust. Instruments were raised up for the accomplishment of the work ; and means apparently insufllicient were made to prevail, with a power, and to an extent, which those whose instrumentality was employed, were by no means prepared to anticipate.

Every Christian owes it to himself, to his Master, and to tjie Church of God to study this great Revolution, in its rise,

8 INTRODITCTORY ESSAY.

progress, instruments, establishment, and immeasm-able effects. We are too apt to forget the toil, the dangers, and the privations which our fathers of the Reformation underwent, in securing those privileges in which we still rejoice. Few portions of history can be better adapted to instruct in truth, to animate in duty, and to excite Christians to be " followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises."

I do not forget that many who glory in the name of " Protestant," appear to have but little sympathy with those noble-minded Christian heroes who braved all the terrors of martyrdom for the sake of delivering the Church from the thraldom of error and superstition under which she had so long groaned. Some of these appear to imagine that, although the corruptions of the Papacy, as they were then exhibited, were such as fully to justify the Reformers in all that they said and did for their removal, yet that the character of the Romish Church has essentially altered since that time, and is now a system, if not entirely harmless, at least little adapted to inspire apprehension in the mind of an enlightened and liberal Christian.

This view of the subject I believe to be entirely erroneous. The system of Romanism is, in its nature, spirit, and purposes, precisely what it was when Luther, Melancthon, Calvin, and Cranmer, went forth in the name of the Lord, and lifted up their banner against her. She has not abated "one jot or tittle" of either her t5^rannical claims, or her pestiferous corruptions. Lideed, considering the essential nature of her claims, they cannot be either mitigated or altered without being totally abandoned. That this has never been done, we have evidence of the most conclusive kind on every side.

The following remarks on this subject, in a work lately published, by the Rev. John Scott, a pious divine of the Church of England, and a son of the venerable Dr. Thomas Scott, author of a well known Commentary on the Bible, are worthy of the attention of those Protestants who imagine that all desire to examine and refute the claims of Romanists at the present day, are unnecessary if not improper.

" Does either piety or charity require us to keep any measures with that system, which, laying hold of God's best gift to the human race, the religion of Jesus Christ, converted it through successive centuries, into the very reverse of all for which it was designed ; making it the instrument of darkness instead of light; of impurity instead of holiness; of tyranny, both spiritual and civil, instead of freedom ; and even of renewed idolatry, instead of the pure and spiritual worship, which was to have subverted superstition, and banished all false religion from among men. Surely, in consistence with the most perfect good-will even to its votaries, we may desire to see such a system consumed by the spirit of the Lord's mouth, and destroyed by the brightness of his coming." Yes, whatever indulgence we may be desirous of extending to the professors of the Roman Catholic religion, (and let them have every indulgence, every privilege that they can enjoy consistently with the common safety,) 3ret let us never forget what popery ivas^ and is essentially in itself, and what it will ever show itself to be in proportion as it is enabled to act freel}?^, and to display its true character. It is one of the fashionable and threatening errors of the present day, that, in their zeal to show themselves liberal, and candid, and indulgent toward Roman Catholics, men are aptto soften down, and lose sight of the enormities, doctrinal and practical, of the papal system. Persecution, it is true, is a crime to which our fallen nature is prone, and into which all parties have, in different degrees, fallen ; but let us not on that ground, with affected philosophy, but with real indolence and indiscrimination, and in defiance of all historic verity, pretend that popery stands, in this respect, on the same footing with other religious systems. No : persecution is inherent in the

VERY principles AND CONSTITUTION OF THE RoMISH ChURCH :

— She has been in this, as in so many other respects, " the mother of abominations to the earth." If other professedly Christian bodies long retained the persecuting spirit, it was mainly because thej^ found it so difficult wholly to eradicate the seeds of instruction which they had received from her hand ; and while they have undoubtedly been occasionally stained with the blood of those who dissented from them, SHE HAS BEEN EVEN STEEPED IN IT — in the Strong language of Scripture prophecy, drunk with the blood of the saints and THE MARTYRS OF Jesus. And the testimony which has fallen in my way, from the pen of her sanctioned and remunerated advocate, Pallavidni^ to her unaltered and unalterable principles, however she may, from policy, suffer her unaccredited members for a time to deviate from them, or even to deny them — is so striking, that I cannot but here transcribe it. " The whole of our faith," he says, " rests upon one indivisible article, viz : the infallible authority of the Church. The moment^ therefore^ we give up any part ivhatever^ ilieiohole falls ; for what admits not of being divided, must evidently stand entire, or fall entire^*

The truth is, as long as the Romish Church continues to maintain the universal supremacy and infallibility of the Pope ; as long as she openly teaches the antichristian doctrine of merits, and sanctions the unhallowed traffic in indulgences ; as long as she represents heaven as a part of the domain, so to speak, of St. Peter, to be parcelled out, and made over to men for money, just as the avarice or the caprice of the Pope and his emissaries may dictate ; as long as she maintains transubstantiation, auricular confession, penance, the celibacy of the clergy, the worship of images, prayers to the saints, and for the dead ; especially as long as she locks up the Scriptures from the common people, and obliges them to take both the contents and the meaning of the word of God, as she herself chooses to deal it out to them ; as long as she " binds heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lays them on men's shoulders, while she herself refuses to touch them with one of her fing-ers" — she cannot cease to be Anti-

Scott's History of the Church of Christ, I. 228, 229.

CHRIST — Babylon the great — the mother of harlots and

ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH."

If we wish to know what the papacy really is, let us contemplate the system in those countries where it is armed with power, and where its spirit is acted out. Let us go to Spain, to Portugal, and to a few other portions of Europe, where the reins are, without restraint, entirely in popish hands. There we shall find the reign of superstition wonderful, nay incredible, to those who have not seen it; the moral jprofligacy not only of the people, but of the clergy also, perfectly scandalous ; and the spiritual tyranny over the consciences, and indeed over all the rights and privileges of men clothed with a gloom and a terror of which we, in this land of liberty, cannot even conceive. Such, however, difficult as many Protestants find to believe it, is the native spirit of Romanism ; and such, undoubtedly, would be the spirit acted out in our own country, if the character of our government, and the state of society admitted of such enormous abuse. Those who, for a moment, doubt this, must be as blind to the facts daily attested by the voice of travellers, as they are to all the instructions of authentic, unquestionable history.

Yet there are those serious Protestants who cannot be persuaded that there is anything dangerous in the character of Romanism ! That it is an erroneous system, they acknowledge ; but imagine that its errors are of a very harmless nature I And hence they disapprove of all preaching and writing against that system. They can hear Romish priests preach in favour of their highest and most offensive claims, without one feeling of revolt. But if a Protestant divine undertake to defend his religion against the denunciations of the Romanists, and to expose the antichristian and profligate errors of " the man of sin," he must expect to be censured by many as a "persecutor!" Let such read with seriousness and care the following work; and if they are not convinced of their mistake, we may consider their case as hopeless !

It will be perceived that this work was a Prize Essay, to which this award was adjudged by the National Institute of France. The author was Charles Francis Dominic de Vil- LERS, a native of France. He was born at Belchen, in Lorraine, in the year 1764. He became a lieutenant of artillery at the age of eighteen; but in the revolution he joined the prince of Conde at Triers, in consequence of which, on the failure of the royal cause, he was obliged to seek an asylum in Germany. After repeated removals, he settled at Lubec, Vv^here he wrote several valuable and popular works, particularly this " Essay on the Influence of the Reformation by Luther." He was afterwards professor of philosophy in the University of Gottingen ; but was deprived of the ofSce on the restoration of peace. He obtained, however, a pension from the Hanoverian government, and was made a knight of the polar star by the king of Sweden. He died in 1815.

As Mons. Villers was not an ecclesiastic ; as the National Institute, when the prize was adjudged to his Essay, was very far from being under any ecclesiastical thraldom ; and as the award was made in the midst of a predominant Roman Catholic population, we cannot imagine that there was any temptation to indulge in gratuitous bitterness respecting the subject of it, or to venture on any misstatement of facts. It has generally received, from competent judges, high commendation, and will well reward an attentive perusal. In regard to the opinions expressed by the writer in the various parts of his work, I cannot be supposed to vouch for them all. But it strikes me as an important work, ably executed, the general tendency of which is highly salutary.

Princeton. Jane 2Uh, 1833.

Vir.I.£RS' ESSAY.

PART I.

GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS.

SECT. I.

On the State of the Question.

If, during any of the centuries which preceded the sixteenth, and while no opposition had been raised against the supremacy of the Roman pontiffs, a learned assembly had been desirous of calculating the results of a schism, of a contrary opinion to that of Rome, the question would doubtless have been framed thus : " What are the evils and the scandal with which the church has been afflicted, on account of such an impious and pernicious doctrine ]" At this time, when several respectable nations have separated from the Romish church ; when the intimate connection by which all Europe is united has convinced Christians of that persuasion, that others are as virtuous, as well regulated, as enlightened as themselves, the question must necessarily assume another form. An assembly of philosophers, in the bosom of France, restored to the Catholic worship, proposes to ascertain the influence of Luther's reformation on the state of European society, on the progress of knowledge. This change in language implies a great one in opinion ; and, in this point of view, the question may be said to answer itself.

As the institute have not added any explanatory outline to the question, the following considerations, the intention of which is to determine the object and the latitute of the answer, will not appear misplaced.

By a superficial observer, it may be thought that a religious revolution should only exercise its influence on matters connected with religion ; on the worship and the disci- 2 line of the church : but long before Luther's reformation, the church and the state were so assimilated in every political body in Europe; their rights and their constitutions were so blended, that one of them could not be convulsed without the other experiencing- the shock. The church, which had universally formed a state within a state, had carried its usurpations over the latter so far, that it threatened to swallow it up. All Europe was for a length of time in danger of yielding to the dominion of an absolute theocracy. The emperors of the new empire of the west, who saved it from that destiny, afterwards menaced it with the project of an universal monarchy. The kings of France, England, Sweden, and Denmark, the princes and free cities of Germany and Italy offered only a partial and alternate opposition to the pretensions of either of the competitors. A new impulse ; a new and powerful tie, which united the oppressed against both the oppressors at the same time ; an event which awakened every passion ; the love of liberty ; a religious and political fanaticism, which augmented the power of princes in a tenfold degree, by exalting the people, which, in short, offered to the leaders both independence and the rich prey of the spoils of the clergy ; such an event, I say, must, in such a period, have produced an universal agitation in Europe. The systems of the modern states were shook by it to their foundations. During the long and grievous struggle which followed, everything acquired a different form, and a different establishment. A new political order arose from the ferment and general confusion : the different elements of which it was composed, long agitated by contending forces, yielding, at length, to the laws of gravitation of the moral world, took the places in it assigned to them by their respective weights, but which, in most instances, were not those they had formerly occupied. A new series of ideas also arose from this conflict of opinions ; men dared to think, to reason, to examine those things which, before, required only a blind submission. Thus a simple attack on ecclesiastical discipline produced a considerable change in the political situation of the states of Europe, and in the morals of its inhabitants. The institute was therefore inspired with the true spirit of history in encouraging the solution of the problem which it has so ably proposed. It is honourable to a writer tD be called upon to treat of religion and politics, the two cardinal points of human life, before such an assemlsly. One of the first fruits of true liberty is the power of discussing these important objects without restraint, and the country where this privilege is exercised must incontrovertibly be free.