Here, Mill bemoans the lack of strong will among the men of his day, comparing them to the kings of Holy Roman Empire who resisted the Popes. He then goes on to dismiss the Protestant mind-set, which, in the form of Calvinism, he detests. It all comes across as uncomfortably elitist today. The tone can be gauged from the following.

If it be any part of religion to believe that man was made by a good being, it is more consistent with that faith to believe, that this Being gave all human faculties that they might be cultivated and unfolded, not rooted out and consumed, and that he takes delight in every nearer approach made by his creatures to the ideal conception embodied in them, every increase in any of their capabilities of comprehension, of action, or of enjoyment.

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