The biography of distinguished reformers : and history of the Reformation in the sixteenth century

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CHRISTIAN MONITOR.

PUBLISHED BY THE SOCIETY FOR PROMOTING
CHRISTIAN KNOWLEDGE, PIETY
Ax<f;? ^H^R^TY . .

NEW SERIES— VOL. III.

BOSTON,

SAMUEL G. SIMPKIN8.

1833.

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BIOGRAPHY

OF DISTINGUISHED

REFORMERS,

AND

HISTORY OF THE REIORMATION -
IN THE SIXTKENITH'^^r^^U^Y.

FROM REES'S CYCLOPEDIA.

SAMUEL G. SIMPKIN!

1833. <-

THE NEW YORK

ASTOfl, LENOX AND
TiLOENFOUNDATlON3.

1899

BOSTON:

Samuel N. Dickinson. Printer,

52, Washington Street.

• CONTENTS.

John WicklifFe 7

John Huss 20

Jerome of Prague 45

Martin Luther 62

Ulric Zuingle 141

John Calvin 162

The Reformation 173

CHRISTIAN MONITOR

S. G. SIMPKINS, COURT-ST. BOSTON,

Is now publishing under the direction of
the " Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
Piety, and Charity," a series of books with the above
title. Each volume will be complete of itself, and all
of uniform size and binding, and afforded at a low
price.

The following are already published, and may be had
separately or together.

Vol. I. — The Nature and Design of a Christian
Church. By the late Rev. Joseph LathroP;, D. D.,
of West Springfield, Mass. Fourth Edition. With
Remarks on the Lord's Supper, by another hand.

Vol. II. — Devotional Exercises, Prayers, and Hymns,
more particularly designed for the use of Commu-
nicants, with a short Introduction on the Origin,
Nature, and Obligation of the Lord's Supper.

Vol. III. — The Biography of Distinguished Reform-
ers, and History of the Reformation in the Six-
teenth Century. From Rees's Cyclopedia.

N. B. For the convenience of those who may
not wish every volume of the series, a few copies of
each will be bound without the first title-page, viz. :
Christian Monitor.

JOHN WICKLIFFE.

John Wickliffe, the earliest reformer
of religion from Popery, was born about the
year 1324 in Yorkshire, near the river
Tees, in a parish whence he takes his
name. He was educated at Oxford, first
as a commoner of Queen's college, and
then at Merton college, peculiarly celebrat-
ed at that period for its learned members.
His industry and talents soon raised him to
distinction ; and he is said to have commit-
ted to memory the most abstruse parts of
Aristotle, and to have excelled in his ac-
quaintance with the subtleties of the school
divinity. He was also eminently skilled in
civil and canon law, and in the law of the
land. But the study which led to his fu-
ture fame was that of the Scriptures ; to
which he added a diligent perusal of the
Latin fathers, and of the writings of the
1

8 JOHN WICKl.IFFE.

English divines, Robert Grosthead and
Richard Fitz-Ralph. In his treatise "Of
the Last Age of the Church," at the early
period of the year 1356, he remonstrated *
against some Popish corruptions ; and in
1360 he was active in opposing the en-
croachments of the Mendicant Friars, who
interfered with the jurisdiction and statutes
of the university, and took all opportunities
of enticing the students from the colleges
into their convents. In the following year,
such was the credit he had acquired by his
conduct and writings, he was appointed
master of Baliol college, and was presented
to a living in Lincolnshire. At this time
he was held in such esteem by archbishop
Simon Islip, that in 1365 he constituted
him warden of Canterbury college, which
he had just founded ; but on occasion of
a dispute between the regular and secular
priests, WicklifFe and the three secular fel-
lows were rejected ; and on an appeal to
Rome, the sentence against Wickliffe was
confirmed in 1370. His reputation in the

JOHN WICKLIFFE. \f

university was not at all diminished by his
exclusion. In 1372 he took the degree of
D. D., and read lectures, which gained
him such applause, that whatever he said
was regarded as an oracle. The impos-
tures ot the monks were the objects to
which his first attacks were particularly di-
rected ; and the circumstances of the times
favoured his design. The court of Rome
was now enforcing by menaces its demands
on king Edward III. of the homage and
tribute to the see of Rome, which had been
ingloriously stipulated by king John ; and
the parliament had determined to support
the king in his refusal. A monk appeared
as an advocate on behalf of the claims of
Rome, and Wickliffe's reply caused him to
be favorably regarded at court, and procur-
ed for him the patronage of the king's son,
John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster. In
1374 Wickliffe was joined to an embassy
to Bruges, the object of which was to con-
fer with the papal nuncios concerning the
liberties of the English church, on which

10 JOHN WI(;KLIFr>;.

the usurpations of Rome had made unwar-
rantable encroachments. In the same year
the king presented him to the valuable rec-
tory of Lutterworth, in Leicestershire ; and
in the following year he was installed in a
prebend of the collegiate church of West-
bury, in Gloucestershire. WicklifFe, by
his foreign mission, had an opportunity of
acquainting himself with the corruption and
tyranny of the court of Rome ; and botfe
his lectures and conversations were amph-
fied with invectives against the pope. —
Whilst he defended the authority of the
crown and the privileges of the nobles
against all ecclesiastical encroachments, he
censured vice and corruption in all ranks of
society. This conduct, though it raised his
reputation among the people, excited a host
of enemies, who selected from his writings
nineteen articles, which they deemed heret-
ical, and which, as such, they transmitted
to Gregory XL In 1377 this pontiff re-
turned three bulls addressed to the arch-
bishop of Canterbury and the bishop of

JOHN WICKLIFFE. 11

London, ordering the seizure and imprison-
ment of WicklifFe ; or, if this measure fail-
ed, his citation to the court of Rome ; and
also a requisition to the king and govern-
ment to assist in extirpating the errors
which he had propagated. Edward died
before the bulls arrived ; and the duke of
Lancaster, uncle to the young king, had
great influence in the administration. When
WicklifFe, therefore was cited to appear at
St. Paul's church before the two prelates,
possessing plenitude of power, he thought it
necessary to secure himself by the protec-
tion of that powerful patron. On the ap-
pointed day he appeared at St. Paul's, in
the midst of a vast concourse of people,
and accompanied by the duke of Lancaster,
and lord Henry Percy, earl-marshal. The
bishop of London was very indignant, and
angry words passed between him and the
two lords ; so that the whole assembly was
tumultuous, and nothing was done. Wick-
lifFe afterwards appeared before the two
prelates in Lambeth palace, and delivered
1*

12 JOHN WICKLIFFE.

an explanation of the articles objected
against him. The Londoners, who were
apprehensive that he might be severely
treated, flocked in crowds to the palace ;
and a messenger from the queen forbade
the delegates to proceed to a definite sen-
tence, Gregory soon after died, and his
commission expiring with him Wickliffe es-
caped, but not without a severe illness,
which was the consequence of his anxiety
and fatigue. His spirits, however, were
unbroken, and he was firm in maintaining
opinions which the friars, by all the efforts
of intimidation, urged him to renounce.

Upon his recovery, he presented to the
parhament, in 1379, a paper against the
tyranny and usurpations of Rome ; and he
also drew up some free remarks on the pa-
pal supremacy and infallibility. But his
most effectual attack on the corruption of
religion was his translation of the Bible in-
to English. This occupied many of the
last years of his life, and remains a valua-
ble relic of the age in which it was per-

JOHN WICKLIFFE. 13

formed, and a permanent memorial of the
talents and industry of the person by whom
it was accomplished. By way of prepara-
tion for his bible, he published a treatise
" Of the Truth of the Scripture,", in which,
as well as in a prologue or preface to his
translation, he held, long before any of our
other reformers or advocates for the suffi-
ciency of Scripture, that this is the law of
Christ, and the faith of the church ; that
truth is contained in it ; and that every
disputation which has not its origin thence is
profane. " The truth of the faith," says he,
" shines the more by how much the more
it is known — nor are those heretics to be
heard who fancy that seculars ought not to
know the law of God, but that it is suffi-
cient for them to know what priests and
prelates tell them by word of mouth ; for
the Scripture is the faith of the church, and
the more it is known in an orthodox sense
the better ; therefore, as secular men ought
to know the faith, so it is to be taught men
in whatsoever language is best known to

14 JOHN WICKLIFFE.

them. Besides, since the truth of the
faith is clearer and more exact in the
Scripture than the priests know how to
express it — it seems useful that the faithful
should themselves search out and discover
the sense of the faith, by having the Scrip-
tures in a language which they understand.
The laws which the prelates make are not
to be received as matters of faith ; nor are
we to believe their words or discourses
any farther or otherwise than they are foun-
ded on the Scripture ;" — with much more
to the same purpose, and in the same ad-
mirable strain. In this preface, and sever-
al other publications and treatises still in
manuscript, he reflected severely on the
corruptions of the clergy, condemned the
worship of saints and images, the doctrine
of indulgences, pilgrimages to particular
shrines, and confession ; and also denied
the corporal presence of Christ in the sac-
rament, inveighed against the wanton exer-
cise of the papal power, and opposed the
making of the belief of the Pope's being head

JOHN WICKLIFFE. 3 5

of the church an article of faith and salvation,
censured the celibacy of the clergy, forced
vows of chastity, exposed various errors
and irregularities in the hierarchy and dis-
cipline of the church, and earnestly exhort-
ed all people to the study of the Scriptures.
In his lectures of 1381, he attacked the
Popish doctrine of transubstantiation, con-
cerning which he laid down this fundamental
proposition ; viz : that the substance of
bread and w^ine still remained in the sacra-
mental elements after their consecration,
and that the host is only typically to be
regarded as the body of Christ ; and he
deduced from it sixteen conclusions. This
attack alarmed the church, which regard-
ed transubstantiation as the most sacred
tenet of the Romish religion, and the chan-
cellor of Oxford pronounced a condemna-
tion of these conclusions. Wickliffe ap-
pealed from this sentence to the king ; but
he found himself deserted by his protector,
the duke of Lancaster, who had no further
occasion for his services, or who could not

16 JOHN WICKLIFFE.

avail himself for any political purpose of his
theological discussions. Thus circumstanc-
ed, he found himself in danger; his resolu-
tion failed him, and he humbled himself by
making a confession at Oxford, before the
archbishop and six bishops, with other
clergy, who had already condemned some
of his tenets as erroneous and heretical.
In this confession, he admitted the real
presence of Christ's body in the sacrament,
with some explanations and reasons which
were not satisfactory to his prosecutors.
It has been said that he made a public re-
cantation of the opinions with which he
was charged ; but of this no sufficient evi-
dence appears. The next step in their
proceedings against him w^as a royal letter,
procured by the archbishop, addressed to
the chancellor and proctors, and directing
them to expel from the university and town
of Oxford all who should harbor WicklifFe
or his followers, or hold any communica-
tion with them. These proceedings oblig-
ed him to withdraw, and retire to his rec-

JOHN WICKLIFFE. 17

tory at Lutterworth, where he continued to
preach reformation in religion, and finished
his translation of the Scriptures. Some
have said that king Richard banished him
out of England ; but if that were the case,
it was only a temporary exile, and he re-
turned in safety to Lutterworth. In 1383
he had a paralytic stroke, which furnished
him whh an apology for not appearing at a
citation of pope Urban VL ; and this was
succeeded by a second attack, which ter-
minated his life on tlie last day of Decem-
ber, 1384. His remains, however, did not
escape the vengeance of his enemies many
years after his death ; for the council of
Constance in 1415, not content with con-
demning many propositions in his works, and
declaring that he died an obstinate heretic,
with impotent malignity ordered his bones
to be dug up and thrown upon a dung-hill.
This sentence w^as executed in 1428, in
consequence of a mandate from the Pope,
by Fiemming, bishop of Lincoln, who caus-
ed his remains to be disinterred and burnt,

18 JOHN WICKLIFFE.

and the ashes to be thrown into a brook.
" Thus," says Fuller, the church historian,
in a figurative strain, justified by fact, "this
brook has conveyed his ashes into Avon,
Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow
seas, they into the main ocean ; and thus
the ashes of WicklifFe are the emblem of
his doctrine, which now is dispersed all
the world over." His doctrine not only
survived these impotent attempts to extin-
guish it, but was perpetuated and diffused
by his followers, who w^ere called Lollards;
and " this germ of reformation," as one of
his biographers says, " broke forth into
complete expansion, when the season for
that great change w^as fully come." Of
his general character, it will be sufficient to
say, " that he was confessedly learned for
his age, and w^as an acute reasoner. In
short, notwithstanding certain errors and
imperfections, he may be regarded as a
person of extraordinary merit and qualifica-
tions, who is entitled to honorable remem-
brance from every foe to ecclesiastical

JOHN WICKLIFFE. 19

tyranny and imposture ;" and we may add,
that he advanced principles which have not
yet produced their full effect.

JOHN HUSS.

John Huss, from whom the Hussites
take their name, was born in a Httle village,
called " Hussinez," in Bohemia, about the
year 1376, and lived at Prague, in the uni-
versity of which he was educated, in the
highest reputation, both on account of the
sanctity of his manners, and the purity of
his doctrine. In the year 1396 he took
the degree of M. A., and soon after that of
B. D. In 1400 his abilities and piety had
so far recommended him, that he was cho-
sen confessor to the queen, and eight years
after he was elected rector of the universi-
ty. He was distinguished by his uncom-
mon erudition and eloquence, and perform-
ed at the same time the functions of pro-
fessor of divinity in the university, and of
ordinary pastor in the church of that city.
During the course of these honours he ob-

JOHN HUSS. 21

tained a benefice amply endowed by John
Mullieym, a person of large fortune at
Prague. By the marriage of Ann, sister
of the King of Bohemia, with Richard II.
of England, in 1381, a communication and
intercourse were opened between England
and Bohemia ; and a young Bohemian
nobleman, who had finished his studies in
the university of Prague, spent some time
at Oxford ; and on his return put into the
hands of Huss the writings of WicklifFe.
He adopted the sentiments of WicklifFe,
and the Waldenses ; and in the year 1407
began openly to oppose and preach against
divers errors in doctrine, as well as cor-
ruptions in point of discipline, then reign-
ing in the church. Huss likewise endeav-
oured to the utmost of his power to with-
draw the university of Prague from the
jurisdiction of Gregory XII, whom the
kingdom of Bohemia had hitherto ac-
knovi^ledged as the true and lawful head
of the church. This occasioned a violent
quarrel between the incensed archbishop

22 JOHN HUSS.

of Prague, who was an illiterate man, to
such a degree that he was called " Alpha-
betarius," or the A B C doctor, and who,
without sufficient authority from the Pope,
had committed the works of WicklifFe to
the flames; and the zealous reformer,
which the latter inflamed and augmented
from day to day, by his pathetic exclama-
tions against the court of Rome, and the
corruptions that prevailed among the sa-
cerdotal order. The archbishop, by his
own authority, prohibited Huss from preach-
ing in his chapel of Bethlehem, to which
he had been appointed by Mulheym ; upon
which Huss, as a member of the university,
which held immediately of the Roman see,
appealed to the Pope.

There were other circumstances that
contributed to inflame the resentment of
the clergy against him. He adopted the
philosophical opinions of the Realists, and
vehemently opposed and even persecuted
the Nominalists, whose number and influ-
ence were considerable in the university of

JOHN HUSS. 23

Prague. He also multiplied the number
of his enemies in the year 1408, by pro-
curing, through his great credit, a sentence
in favour of the Bohemians, who disputed
with the Germans concerning the number
of suffrages which their respective nations
were entitled to in all matters that were
carried by election in this university. In
consequence of a decree, obtained in fa-
vour of the former, which restored them
to their constitutional right of three suffra-
ges, usurped by the latter, the Germans
withdrew from Prague, and in the year
1409, founded a new academy at Leip-
sick. This event no sooner happened
than Huss began to inveigh with greater
freedom than he had before done against
the vices and corruptions of the clergy,
and to recommend, in a public manner, the
writings and opinions of Wickliffe, as far as
they related to the papal hierarchy, the
despotism of the court of Rome, and the
corruption of the clergy. Hence an accu-
sation was brought against him, in the year
2*

24 JOHN HUSS.

1410, before the tribunal of John XXIII.
by whom he was solemnly expelled from
the communion of the church. Notwith-
standing this sentence of excommunica-
tion, he proceeded to expose the Romish
church with a fortitude and zeal that were
almost universally applauded.

Some tumuhs having taken place among
the followers of Huss, in which he had no
concern, and which, indeed, he lamented,
and endeavoured to suppress, Winceslaus,
king of Bohemia, banished him from
Prague, upon which he retired to his na-
tive place, and liv^ed there unmolested.
During his retreat at Hussinez he com-
posed his celebrated treatise " Upon the
Church ;" and here he also dated a paper
entitled " The Six Errors ;" which he
fixed on the gates of the chapel at Beth-
lehem. It was levelled against indulgen-
ces, the abuse of excommunication, believ-
ing in the Pope, the unlimited obedience
required by the see of Rome, simony, and
making the body of Christ in the mass.

JOHN HUSS. 25

This eminent man whose piety was
equally sincere and fervent, though his
zeal was perhaps too violent, and his pru-
dence not always circumspect, was sum-
moned to appear before the general council
of Constance, convened in the year 1414 ;
whither princes and prelates, clergy and
laity, regulars and seculars, flocked together
from all parts of Europe. Secured, as he
apprehended from the rage of his enemies
by the safe-conduct granted him by the
emperor Sigismund, for his journey to
Constance, his residence in that place,
and his return to his own country ; John
Huss obeyed the order of the council, and
appeared before it, to demonstrate his in-
nocence, and to prove that the charge of
his having deserted the church of Rome
was entirely groundless. However, his
enemies so far prevailed, that by the most
scandalous breach of public faith, he was
cast into prison, declared a heretic because
he refused to plead guilty against the dic-
tates of his conscience, in obedience to the

26 JOHN HUSS.

council, and burned alive July 6th, 1415 ;
a punishment which he endured with un-
paralleled magnanimity and resignation.

We shall here subjoin some farther in-
teresting particulars relating to the close of
this eminent reformer's life. Whilst his
fate was in suspense, his friends in Bohe-
mia were sufficiently active ; and at length
a petition was sent through the kingdom,
and subscribed by almost the whole body
of the Bohemian nobility and gentry. It
was dated in May, 1415, and was address-
ed to the council of Constance. The first
petition, complaining of the treatment which
he had received, soliciting that a speedy
end might be put to his sufferings by allow-
ing him an audience, having been disregard-
ed, a second and a third were presented,
urging his release, and offering any security
for his appearance. The last petition to
the council was accompanied by another to
the emperor, pressing upon him a regard to
his honor solemnly engaged for the security
of Huss, and imploring his protection and

JOHN HUSS. 27

interest with the council. The emperor in
this case was undoubtedly chargeable with
a most notorious breach of faith ; though
the blame is generally laid, and with some
reasons, upon the council, who directed his
conscience, Huss was at length after re-
peated delays, summoned to appear before
the council ; but as soon as he began to
reply to the first charge, a most indecent and
tumultuous clamour began ; and the disor-
der and noise were so great that he could
not proceed. " In this place," said Huss,
who was the most dispassionate of men,
looking round him, " I hoped to have found
a different treatment." His rebuke increas-
ed the clamour ; and without attempting any
further defence he held his peace. " He
was now confounded," exclaimed the tu-
multuous assembly with seeming triumph,
" silenced, by confession guilty." On the
next day the council resumed its meeting,
and the emperor Sigismund, disgusted and
offended at its preceding conduct, determin-
ed to maintain a more decent behaviour.

28 JOHN HUSS.

The first charge exhibited against Huss
was his denying the real presence. To
which he had only to answer, that he had
always held the true Catholic doctrine,
which was a known fact among his friends,
for he had ever believed transubstantiation.
He was next charged in general with main-
taining the pernicious errors of WicklifFe.
To which he answered, that he had never
held any error which he knew to be such ;
and that he desired nothing more than to
be convinced of any errors into which he
might have inadvertently fallen. Wickliffe's
doctrine of tythes was objected to him,
which he owned he knew not how to re-
fute. He had also expressed himself
against burning the books of WicklifFe, and
he acknowledged that he had spoken against
burning them in the manner practised by
the archbishop of Prague, who condemned
them to the flames without examining them.
He was further charged with saying that he
wished his soul in the same place where
Wickliffe's was. He owned having used

JOHN HUSS. 29

this expression, which afforded matter of
great mirth to his hearers. He was after-
wards charged with sedition, in exciting the
people to take arms against their sovereign,
from which charge he entirely exculpated
himself After the discussion of some other
trifling particulars the council rose, and
Huss was carried back to prison. In his
way thither the emperor turned to him and
told him, that he had given him his safe-
conduct, which he found was more than
was well in his power, that he might have
an opportunity to vindicate his character.
" But depend upon it," said he, " if you
continue obstinate, I will make a fire with
my own hands to burn you rather than you
shall escape." To which address Huss
replied, that he could not charge himself
with holding any opinions obstinately, that
he came thither with joy rather than with
reluctance ; that if any doctrine better than
his own could be laid before him in that
learned assembly, he might see his error
and embrace the truth. Upon again ap-

30 JOHN HUSS.

pearing before the council, not fewer than
forty articles were brought against him. Of
these the chief were extracted from his
books, and some of them by very unfair
deduction.

The following opinions among many
others, which gave offence, were esteem-
ed most criminal : " That there was no ab-
solute necessity for a visible head of the
church, that the church was better govern-
ed in apostolic times without one ; that the
title of holiness was improperly given to
man ; that a wicked Pope could not possibly
be the vicar of Christ, that he denied the
very authority on which he pretended to
act; that liberty of conscience was every
one's natural right ; that ecclesiastical cen-
sures, especially such as touched the life of
man, had no foundation in Scripture ; that
ecclesiastical obedience should have its lim-
its; that no excommunication should deter
the priest from his duty ; that preaching
was as much required from the minister of
religion, as alms-giving from the man of

JOHN HUSS. 31

ability; and that neither of them could hide
his talents in the earth without incurring
the divine displeasure." Paletz and the
Cardinal of Cambray were the chief mana-
gers of this examination.

Besides these opinions, most of which
were proved and acknowledged, he threw
out many things in the course of his exam-
ination which were eagerly laid hold on ;
2:>articularly against the scandalous lives of
the clergy of every denomination ; the open
simony practised among them, their luxury,
lewdness, and ignorance.

Huss having now been examined on all
those articles which the nicest scrutiny into
his books, and the most exact remembrance
of his words could furnish, the cardinal of
Cambray thus accosted him : " Your guilt
hath now been laid before this august as-
sembly with its full force of evidence ; I am
obliged, therefore, to take upon me the dis-
agreeable task of informing you, that only
this alternative is offered to you : either to
abjure these damnable errors, and submit
3

32 JOHN HUSb.

yourself to the council ; in which case these
reverend fathers will deal as gently with
you as possible, or to abide the severe
consequence of an obstinate adherence to
them." To this Huss answered, " that he
had nothing to say, but what he had often
said before ; that he came there not to de-
fend any opinion obstinately ; but with an
earnest desire to see his errors and amend
them ; that many opinions had been laid to
his charge, some of which he had never
maintained, and others, which he had main-
tained, were not yet confuted ; that as in
the first case, he thought it absurd to ab-
jure opinions which were never his ; so in
the second, he was determined to subscribe
nothing against his conscience."

The emperor told him, he saw no diffi-
culty in his renouncing errors which he had
never held. " For myself," said he, "I am
at this moment ready to renounce every
heresy that hath ever existed in the Christian
church : does it therefore follow that I have
been an heretic ?"

JOHN HUSS. 33

Huss respectfully made a distinction be-
tween abjuring errors in general, and ab-
juring errors which had been falsely im-
puted ; and prayed the council to hear
him upon those points which to them
appeared erroneous ; were it only to con-
vince them that he had something to say
for the opinions he maintained. To this
request, however, the council paid no at-
tention.

Here Paletz and De Cassis took an op-
portunity to exculpate themselves of any
appearance of malice in this disagreeable
prosecution. They both entered upon the
task with great unwillingness, and had done
nothing but what their duty required. To
this the cardinal of Cambray added, that
he could sufficiently exculpate them on
that head. They had behaved, he said,
with great humanity, and to his knowledge
might have acted a much severer part.

The emperor observing, that every thing
which the cause would bear, had now beeq

34 JOHN HUSS.

offered, arose from his seat, and thus ad-
dressed himself to the council :

*' You have now heard, reverend fathers,
an ample detail of heresies, not only proved
but confessed ; each of which, unquestiona-
bly, in my judgment, deserveth death. If,
therefore, tlie heretic continueth obstinate
in the maintainance of his opinions, he
must certainly die. And if he should even
abjure them, I should by no means think
it proper to send him again into Bohemia ;
where new opportunities would give him
new spirits, and raise a second commotion
worse than the first. As to the fate, how-
ever, of this unhappy man, be that as it
may hereafter be determined ; at present,
let me only add, that an authentic copy of
the condemned articles should be sent into
Bohemia, as a ground-work for the clergy
there to proceed on ; that heresy may at
length be rooted up, and peace restored
to that distracted country."

The emperor having finished his speech,

JOHN HUSS. 36

it was agreed in the council to allow Huss
a month longer to give in his final answer.
With the utmost difficuhy he had supported
himself through this severe trial. Besides
the malice of his enemies, he had upon
him the paroxysm of a very violent dis-
order. On this last day he was scarcely
able to walk, when he was led from the
council. His consolation in these circum-
stances was a cold and hungry dungeon,
into which he was inhumanly thrust.

His friend, the baron, attended him even
hither, and with every instance of endearing
tenderness, endeavoured to support him.
The suffering martyr wrung his hand ; and
looking round the horrid scene, earnestly
cried out, *' Good God ! this is friendship
indeed !" His keepers soon after put him
in irons ; and none but such as were li-
censed by the council were allowed to see
him.

The generous nature of Sigismund, though
he was not unversed in the artifices of the
cabinet, abhorred a practised fraud. The
3*

36 JOHN III ss.

affair of Huss, amidst all the casuistry of the
council, gave him keen distress ; and he
wished nothing more ardently than to rid
his hands of it with honor. On the other
side, his vanity and his interest engaged
him to appear the defender of the Catholic
cause in Germany. If he suffered Huss
to be put to death, one part of the world
would question his honor ; if he interfered
with a high hand in preserving him, the
other part would question his religion.
The perplexity was great ; from which he
thouglit nothing could relieve him but the
recantation of Huss.

To obtain this he tried every means in
his power. He had already endeavoured
to intimidate him with high language which
he had used, both in the council and in
other places. But this was ineffectual.
He had now recourse to soothing arts.
The form of recantation was offered ; in
which Huss was required only to renounce
those heresies which had been fairly proved.
But he continued still inflexible. Several

JOHN HU5S.

deputations were afterwards sent to liim in
prison ; and bishops, cardinals and princes,
in vain tried their eloquence to persuade
him.

Sigismund, seeing the conclusion to which
this fatal affair was approaching, might prob-
ably have interested himself thus far, as
thinking he had been too condescending to
the council. The flame also, which he saw
kindling in Bohemia, where he had high
expectations, and was willing to preserve
an interest, might alarm him greatly. He
had gone too far, however, to recede, and
knew not how to take Huss out of the hands
of the council, into which he had given him
with so much zeal and devotion.

In the mean time Huss remained master
of his fate, and showed a constancy which
scarce any age hath excelled. He amused
himself, while it was permitted, with writ-
ing letters to his friends, which- were pri-
vately conveyed by the Bohemian lords
who visited him in prison. IMany of these
letters are still extant. The following,

38 JOHN HUSS.

which is the substance of one of them, may-
be a test of that composed piety and ration-
al frame of mind which supported him in
all his sufferings.

" My dear friends, let me take this last
opportunity of exhorting you to trust in
nothing here, but to give yourselves up en-
tirely to the service of God. Well am I
authorized to warn you not to trust in prin-
ces, nor in any child of man, for there is
no help in them. God only remaineth
steadfast. What he promiseth he will un-
doubtedly perform. For myself, on his
gracious promise I rest. Having endeavor-
ed to be his faithful servant, I fear not be-
ing deserted by him. Where I am, says
the gracious Promiser, there shall my ser-
vant be. May the God of heaven preserve
you ! This is probably the last letter I
shall be enabled to write. I have reason
to believe I shall be called upon to-morrow
to answer with my life. Sigismuiid hath
in all things acted deceitfully. I pray God
forgive him ! You have heard in what se-
vere language he hath spoken of me."

JOHN IIUSS. 39

The month, which had been ailowed by
the council, being now expired, a deputa-
tion of four bishops came to receive his
last answer, which was given In the same
language as before.

The sixth of July was appointed for his
condemnation, the scene of which was
opened with extraordinary pomp. In the
morning of that day, the bishops and tem-
poral lords of the council, each in his robes,
assembled in the great church at Constance.
The emperor presided in a chair of state.
When all were seated, Huss was brought
in by a guard. In the middle of the church
a scaffold had been erected ; near which a
table was placed, covered with the vest-
ments of a Romish priest.

After a sermon, in which the preacher
earnestly exhorted his hearers to cut off the
man of sin, the proceedings began. The
articles alleged against him were read aloud ;
as well those which he had, as those which
he had not allowed. This treatment Huss
opposed greatly ; and would gladly, for his

40 JOHN HUSS.

character's sake, have made a distinction :
but finding all endeavors of this kind inef-
fectual, and being indeed plainly told by
the cardinal of Cambray, that no farther
opportunity of answering for himself should
be allowed, he desisted, and falling on his
knees, in a pathetic ejaculation, commend-
ed his cause to Christ.

The articles against him, as form requir-
ed, having been recited, the sentence of his
condemnation was read. The instrument
is tedious : in substance it runs. That John
Huss, being a disciple of Wickliffe, of
damnable memory, whose life he had de-
fended, and whose doctrines he had main-
tained, is adjudged by the council of Con-
stance (his tenets having been first con-
demned) to be an obstinate heretic ; and
as such to be degraded from the office of
a priest ; and cut ofFfrom the holy church."

His sentence having been thus pronounce
ed, he was ordered to put on the priest's
vestments, and ascend the scaffold, accord-
ing to form, where he might speak to the
people ; and, it was hoped, might still have

JOHN HUSS. 41

the grace to retract his errors. But Huss
contented himself with saying once more,
that he knew of no errors which he had to
retract ; that none had been proved upon
him ; and that he would not injure the doc-
trine he had taught, nor the consciences of
those who had heard him, by ascribing to
himself errors, of which he had never been
convinced.

When he came down from the scaffold,
he was received by seven bishops, who were
commissioned to degrade him. The cere-
monies of this business exhibited a very
unchristian scene. The bishops, forming a
circle round him, each adding a curse took
off a part of his attire. When they had
thus stripped him of his sacerdotal vest-
ments, they proceeded to erase his tonsure,
which they did by clipping it into the form
of a cross. Some writers say, that in do-
ing this, they even tore and mangled his
head ; but such stories are unquestionably
the exaggeration of Protestant zeal. Their
last act was to adorn him with a large paper

42 JOHN HUSS.

cap ; on which various and horrid forms of
devils were painted. This cap one of the
bishops put upon his head, wuth this unchris-
tian speech, " Hereby we commit thy soul
to the devil." Huss smiling, observed, "It
was less painful than a crown of thorns."

The ceremony of his degradation being
thus over, the bishops presented him to the
emperor. They had now done, they told
him, all the church allowed. What re-
mained w^as of civil authority. Sigismund
ordered the duke of Bavaria to receive
him, who immediately gave him into the
hands of an officer. This person had or-
ders to see him burned, with every thing he
had about him.

At the gate of the church, a guard of
eight hundred men waited to conduct him
to the place of execution. He was carried
first to the gate of the episcopal palace,
where a pile of wood being kindled, his
books were burned before his face. Huss
smiled at the indignity.

When he came to the stake, he w^as
allowed some time for devotion ; which he

JOHN HUSS. 43

performed in so amimated a manner, that
many of the spectators, who came there
sufficiently prejudiced against him, cried
out, " What this man hath said within doors
we know not, but surely he prayeth like a
Christian."

As he was preparing for the stake, he
was asked whether he chose a confessor ?
He answered in the affirmative, and a priest
was. called. The design was to draw from
him a retraction, without which the priest
said, he durst not confess him. " If that
be your resolution," said Huss, " I must
die without confession : I trust in God I
have no mortal sin to answer for.

He was then tied to the stake with wet
cords, and fastened by a chain round his
body. As the executioners were beginning
to pile the faggots around him, a voice from
the crowd was heard, " Turn him from the
east ; turn him from the east." It seemed
like a voice from heaven. They who con-
ducted the execution, struck at once with
the impropriety, or rather profaneness of
4

44 JOHN HUSS.

what they had done, gave immediate orders
to have him turned due west.

Before fire was brought, the duke of Ba-
varia rode up, and exhorted him once more
to retract his errors. But he still continued
firm. " I have no errors," said he, " to
retract ; I endeavored to preach Christ with
apostolic plainness ; and I am now prepared
to seal my doctrine with my blood."

The faggots being lighted, he recommend-
ed himself into the hands of God, and be-
gan a hymn, which he continued singing,
till the wind drove the flame and smoke
into his face. For some time he was in-
visible. AVhen the rage of the fire had
abated, his body, half consumed, appeared
hanging over the chain ; which, together
with the post, were thrown down, and a
new pile heaped over them. The malice
of his enemies pursued his very remains.
His ashes were gathered up and scattered
in the Rhine, that the very earth might not
feel the4oad of such enormous guilt.

JEROME OF PRAGUE.

Jerome of Prague, so called from the name
of the city in which he was born, devoted his
youth to the pursuit of knowledge, which
he sought after in all the more considerable
cities of Europe; particularly in those of
Prague, Paris, Heidelberg, Cologn, and
Oxford. In the four former universities
he was admitted to the degree of M.A.,
and in one of them to that of D.D. in the
year 1399. At the latter place he became
acquainted with the works of Wickliffe,
many of which he translated into his native
language. Upon his return to Prague, in
the year 1400, he openly avowed himself a
follower of WicklifFe, and became attached
to Huss, who was at the head of the party
in Bohemia, which had espoused the doc-
trines of the British reformer. Jerome,
though superior to Huss in abilities and

46 JEROME OF PRAGUE.

learning, was not so well qualified as the
leader of a party, because, with all his great
and good qualities, he wanted that gentle,
conciliatory temper, for which Huss was
distinguished. They both concurred, how-
ever. In ardent efforts for restraining the
despotism of the papal court, and reform-
ing the licentiousness of the clergy. In the
year 1410 he was invited by the king of
Poland to regulate the university at Cra-
cow ; from Poland he went to Hungary,
in which country he was accused of heresy;
and upon his removal to Vienna he was im-
prisoned on account of his opinions, but ob-
tained his liberty in consequence of the so-
licitation of the university of Prague. As
soon as he heard that his friend Huss was
at Constance, ready to appear before the
Council, he pathetically exhorted him to
maintain a firm and unyielding temper in
this great trial, and strenuously to insist
upon the corrupt state of the clergy, and
the necessity of reformation, assuring him,
at the same time, that if he should receive

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 47

information in Bohemia, that his adversaries
were likely to overpower him, he would
immediately repair to Constance, and give
him every kind of assistance in his power.
Huss earnestly dissuaded him from the ex-
ecution of his purpose, as equally unprofit-
able to him and dangerous to Jerome him-
self; but he was invincible, and arrived at
Constance on the fourth of April, 1415,
about three months before the death of
Huss. Although he entered the town pri-
vately, his visit and the design of it was
soon made public ; and he was informed
by his friends that he could be of no service
to Huss, and that the council, so far from
being disposed to hear him, intended to
seize him. In these circumstances he
thought it most prudent to retire, and ac-
cordingly withdrew to Iberhng, an imperial
town about a mile from Constance. From
this place he addressed a letter to the em-
peror, professing his readiness to appear
before the council, if that prince would
give him a safe-conduct. But Sigismund
4*

48 JEROME OF PRAGUE.

had the honesty to refuse. Jerome then
tried the council, but could obtain no favor-
able answer. In this state of perplexity he
posted papers in all the public places of
Constance avowing himself prepared to ap-
pear at Constance in defence of his char-
acter and doctrine, which had been much
defamed ; and also his resolution to retract
every error that should be proved against
him, on condition that the faith of the coun-
cil might be pledged for his security. As
he received no answer to these papers, he
set out on his return to Bohemia, carrying
with him a certificate signed by several of
the Bohemian nobility then at Constance,
which testified that he used all possible
means, which prudence suggested, in order
to procure a hearing. At a village, upon
the borders of the Black Forest, Jerome
fell by accident into company with some
priests, and a conversation occurring with
reference to the Council of Constance, Je-
rome became warm, and among other se-
vere things he called that assembly the

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 49

"school of the devil," and a "synagogue of
iniquity." The priests incensed by this
language, informed against him to the chief
magistrates, by whom he was arrested and
deHvered into the hands of the duke of
Sultzbach. The duke having Jerome in
custody, v\Tote to the council for directions;
and he was desired to send his prisoner
immediately to Constance. The elector-
palatine then met him, and conducted him,
in triumph to the town ; himself riding on
horseback, with a numerous retinue, who
led Jerome, in fetters, by a long chain, af-
ter him. As soon as he was brought before
the council, the clamor against him became
loud and tumultuous ; and, among others
who disgraced themselves on this occasion,
was John Gerson, chancellor of the univer-
sity of Paris, one of the most learned, as
w^ell as the most knowing men of his time,
but destitute of that candor wdiich usually
attends knowledge. In the chancellor's in-
vective and reproach the rectors of the uni-
versities of Cologn and Hiedelberg concur-

50 JEROME OF PRAGUE.

red ; but Jerome had no opportunity of re-
plying. A thousand voices burst out from
every quarter, " Away with him ! burn him !
burn him !" After an interval of about half
an hour the tumult partly subsided ; and
Jerome, availing himself of a momentary
pause, looked round the assembly with a no-
ble air, and cried out aloud, " Since nothing
can satisfy you but my blood, God's will be
done." He was then carried from the as-
sembly into a dungeon, under the custody
of a guard. Whilst he was ruminating up-
on his approaching fate in this cell, he
heard a voice addressing him in these
words, " Fear not, Jerome, to die in the
cause of that truth, which during thy life,
thou hast defended." " Whosoever thou
art," replied the intrepid prisoner, direct-
ing his eyes to the window from w^hich
the voice seemed to proceed, " who deign-
est to comfort an abject man, I give thee
thanks for thy kind office. I have indeed
lived defending what I thought the truth :
the hardest task yet remains, to die for its

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 51

sake 5 but God I hope will support me
against flesh and blood." The guard was
alarmed, and Maddonwitz, who had render-
ed services to Huss was discovered to be
the offender. This incident was a pretence
for a more severe treatment of Jerome, who
was immediately conveyed to a strong tow-
er, where his hands being tied behind his
neck, he was left to languish in that pain-
ful posture for two days, without any ah-
ment besides bread and water. These se-
verities were inflicted w^ith the design of
forcing him to make a recantation ; and the
illness which they occasioned, in the course
of which he urged the council to allow him
a confessor, affording an opportunity of
pressing him with arguments to this pur-
pose. Jerome, however, remained immove-
able. A similar attempt was made upon
him immediately after the death of Huss ;
but he was still invincible. However,
though he was not to be subdued by the
simple fear of death, imprisonment, chains,
hunger, sickness, and even torture, through

52 JEROME OF PRAGUE.

a succession of many months, was too great
a trial for human nature. Three times he
was brought before the council, and carried
back to the horrors of his dungeon, before
his enemies could prevail against him. At
length he began to waver ; and on the 23d
of September, a fatal day, which he recol-
lected with shame and grief, he read a loud
and ample recantation of all the opinions he
had maintained, couched in words direct-
ed, by the council. In this paper he ac-
knowledged the errors of WicklifFe and
Huss, entirely assented to the condemna-
tion of the latter, and declared himself, in
every article, a firm believer with the
church of Rome. Having thus acted
against his conscience, he retired from the
council with a heavy heart. His chains,
indeed, were taken away ; but the load was
transferred from his body to his mind. —
Vain were the caresses of those about him:
they only mocked his sorrow. His prison
was now indeed a gloomy solitude. The
anguish of his own thoughts had made it

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 53

such. Paletz and Du Cassis, the chief
managers against him, soon perceived this
change ; and they determined to bring him
to a new trial. Several persons, however,
and particularly the cardinals of Cambray
and Florence, objected to a new trial. But
their endeavours were ineffectual, a torrent
of zeal and bigotry bore down all opposi-
tion ; and even the learned Gerson again
disgraced himself by joining the tumultuous
clamour ; with great indecency employing
his pen, as well as his tongue, upon this oc-
casion. This kind of agitation continued
for half a year : so that it was not till May
in the year 1416, when Jerome was called
again before the council. The prospect
afforded him pleasure, and he rejoiced at
an opportunity of acknowledging publicly
that shameful defection, which hung so
heavy upon him. The chief articles alleg-
ed against him were, his adherence to the
errors of Wickliffe — his having had a pic-
ture of that heretic in his chamber, arrayed
in the common ornaments of a saint — his

54 JEROME OF PRAGUE.

counterfeiting the seal of the university of
Oxford in favor of WickUfFe — his despising
the authority of the church after excommu-
nication— and his denial of transubstantia-
tion. Having protested his innocence, and
given a circumstantial detail of his coming
to Constance, and of all that had since be-
fallen him, he raised his voice, and having
expressed himself with some asperity against
his accusers, he told them that he was going
to lay himself more open to them than he
had yet done. He then, with great emo-
tion, declared before the whole assembly,
that the fear of death only had induced him
to retract opinions which from his heart he
maintained ; that he had done injustice to
the memory of those two excellent men,
John Wickliffe and John Huss ; whose ex-
amples he revered, and in whose doctrine
he was determined to die. He concluded
with a severe invective against the clergy ;
the depravity of whose manners, he said, was
now ever} where notorious. His speech
produced a wonderful effect on the whole as-

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 55

sembly ; and many wished that his Hfe
might be saved. His judges, however,
precipitated the passing of sentence ; and
on the same day, or a few days after, he
was condemned for having held the errors
of WicklifFe, and for apostatizing. He was
then immediately delivered over to the civil
power, and, attired with a cap like that
with which Huss had been adorned, he was
led to execution. The post to which he
was chained was hewn into a monstrous
and uncouth figure of Huss, and ornament-
ed into a ridiculous likeness of him. When
the wood began to blaze, he sang a hymn ;
and when the flames scorched him, he was
heard to cry out, " O Lord God ! have mercy
upon me !" and a little afterwards, " Thou
knowest how I have loved the truth." The
wind parting the flames, his body, full of
large blisters, exhibited a dreadful spectacle
to the beholders ; his lips continued still
moving, as if actuated by intense devotion.
During a full quarter of an hour, he discov-
ered the signs, not only of life, but of intel-

66 JEROME OF PRAGUE.

lect. Even his enemies thought the rage
of his judges pursued him too far, when
they saw his wretched coverlet, and the
other miserable garniture of his prison, by
their order, consumed in the fire after him;
and his ashes, as those of Huss had been,
thrown into the Rhine.

The celebrated Poggio of Florence was
present at the trial of Jerome, and in a let-
ter to his friend Leonard Aretine, has given
an interesting account of it. For the
whole letter we refer to Shepherd's life of
Poggio Bracciolini, and for several extracts
to Gilpin's Life of Jerome. " It was indeed
amazing," says this celebrated writer, " to
hear with what force of expression, with
what fluency of language, and with what
excellent reasoning he answered his adver-
saries ; nor w^as I less struck with the grace-
fulness of his manner ; the dignity of his
action ; and the firmness and constancy of
his whole behaviour." " Here," said Je-
rome, as cited by this writer, standing in
the midst of the assembly, " here is justice ;

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 57

here is equity. Beset by my enemies ; I
am already pronounced a heretic ; I am
condemned, before I am examined. Were
you Gods omnicient, instead of an assembly
of fallible men, you could not act with more
sufficiency. Error is the lot of mortals ;
and you, exalted as you are, are subject to
it. But consider, that the higher you are
exalted, of the more dangerous consequence
are your errors. As for me, I know I am
a wretch below your notice : but at least
consider, that an unjust action, in such an
assembly, will be of dangerous example."
When Jerome was accused of hating and
defaming the holy see, the Pope, the car-
dinals, the prelates, and the whole estate of
the clergy, he stretched out his hands, and
said in a most moving accent, "On which
side, reverend fathers, shall I turn me for
redress ? whom shall I implore ? whose as-
sistance can I expect ? which of you hath
not this malicious charge entirely alienated
from me ? which of you hath it not chang-
ed from a judge into an inveterate enemy ?

68 JEROME OF PRAGUE.

' — It was artfully alleged Indeed ! Though
other parts of their charge were of less mo-
ment, my accusers might well imagine, tliat
if this were fastened on me, it could not fail
of drawing upon me the united indignation
of my judges."

On the third day of this memorable trial,
what had past was recapitulated ; when Je-
rome, having obtained leave, though with
some difficulty, to speak, began his oration
with a prayer to God ; whose divine assist-
ance he pathetically implored. He then
observed, that many excellent men, in the
annals of history, had been oppressed by
false witnesses, and condemned by unjust
judges. Beginning with profane history,
he instanced the death of Socrates, the
captivity of Plato, the banishment of Anax-
agoras, and the unjust sufferings of many
others. He then instanced the many wor-
thies of the Old Testament, in the same
circumstances, Moses, Joshua, Daniel, and
almost all the prophets ; and lastly, those of
the New, John the Baptist, St. Stephen,

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 59

and others, who were condemned as sedi-
tious, profane or immoral men. An unjust
judgment, he said, proceeding from a laic
was bad ; from a priest worse ; still worse
from a college of priests ; and from a gen-
eral council superlatively bad. These
things he spoke with such force and em-
phasis, as kept every one's attention awake.

" The perjured witnesses," said Jerome,
who have appeared against me, have won
their cause ; but let them remember they
have their evidence once more to give be-
fore a tribunal, where falsehood can be no
disguise."

" His voice," says Poggio, " was sweet,
distinct and full : his action every way the
most proper, either to express indignation,
or to raise pity ; though he made no affect-
ed application to the passions of his audi-
ence. Firm and intrepid he stood before
the council ; collected in himself ; and not
only contemning, but seeming even desirous
of death. The greatest character in an-
cient story could not possibly go beyond
5*

60 JEROME OF PRAGUE.

him. If there is any justice in history this
man will be admired by all posterity. I
speak not of his errors : let these rest with
him. What I admired was his learning,
his eloquence, and amazing acuteness.
God knows whether these things were not
the ground-work of his ruin.

" With a cheerful countenance, and more
than Stoical constancy, he met his fate ;
fearing neither death itself, nor the horrible
form in which it appeared. When he came
to the place, he pulled off his upper gar-
ment, and made a short prayer at the stake:
to which he was soon after bound with wet
cords and an iron chain ; and inclosed as
high as his breast with faggots.

" Observing the executioner about to set
fire to the wood behind his back, he cried
out, ' Bring thy torch hither. Perform thy
office before my face. Had I feared death,
I might have avoided it.'

"As the wood began to blaze, he sang
an hymn, which the violence of the flames
scarcely interrupted.

JEROME OF PRAGUE. 61

" Thus died this prodigious man. The
epithet is not extravagant. I was myself
an eye-witness of his whole behaviour.
Whatever his Hfe may have been, his death,
without doubt, is a noble lesson of philos-
ophy."

MARTIN LUTHER.

Martin Luther, in Biography the
celebrated author of the Reformation in
Germany, descended from parents in very
humble circumstances, was born at Eisle-
ben, in Saxony, in the year 1483. He
discovered an early inclination for learn-
ing, and having attained the rudiments of
grammar under his father's roof, he was
sent to school at Magdeburg, where he
continued only about a year, and during
that short period he supported himself, like
many other poor German scholars, by
literally begging his bread. From Magde-
burg he went to Eisenach, in Thuringia,
and distinguished himself in a school of
high reputation, by his diligence and
proficiency. In 1501 he was entered at
the university of Erfurt, and in a very short
time, having a mind superior to the scho-

MARTIN LUTHER, 63

lastic modes of instruction then in use, he
became disgusted with those subtle and
uninstructive sciences. He immediately
applied himself with the greatest ardour
and assiduity to the works of the ancient
Latin writers, such as Cicero, Virgil, Livy,
Sallust, &tc. and such was the success with
which he studied, that he became the ob-
ject of admiration to the whole university.
He took his degree of M. A. when he was
scarcely twenty years of age, and imme-
diately afterwards began to read lectures
on Aristotle's physics, on ethics, and other
branches of philosophy. He began now
to consider the profession which he should
adopt for his support in life, and, by the
persuasion of his friends, he turned his
attention to jurisprudence ; but an accident,
to which he was witness, viz. the death
of a friend by the discharge of a thunder-
cloud, so sensibly affected him, that he
determined to retire from the world into
a convent of the Augustine friars. No en-
treaties on the part of his friends could di-

64 MARTIN LUTHER.

vert him from his plan, which he conceived
to be a duty that he owed to God, and ac-
cordingly assumed the habit of that order.
He now applied himself very diligently to
the study of theology, and turned his mind
so eagerly to the reading of the Latin
bible, which he had met with by accident,
as to excite the most lively emotions of
surprise and astonishment among the
monks, who were little accustomed to de-
rive their notions concerning religion from
that source. Having past a year in the
monastery of Erfurt, he took the vows,
and was in 1507, admitted to priest's
orders. His great and profound learning,
the sanctity of his moral conduct, and his
extensive knowledge of the holy Scriptures,
were generally known and applauded; and
in the following year, Frederick, elector of
Saxony, having lately founded an univer-
sity at Wittemburg, appointed Luther to
the professorship of philosophy, and after-
wards that of divinity. The duties attach-
ed to these officers he discharged with so

MARTIN LUTHER. 65

much ability, and in a method so totally-
different from the usual mechanical and
dull forms of lecturing, that he was crowd-
ed with pupils from all quarters, and was
regarded as the chief ornament of the uni-
versity. In 1510, Luther was sent to
Rome by the monks of his order, to get
some disputes between them and their vicar-
general settled by his holiness the Pope.
While in that city, he made his observa-
tions on the Pope and the government of
the church of Rome ; he examined the
manners of the clergy, which he severely
censured, particularly as to the hasty and
slovenly method which they adopted in
performing divine service. The careless-
ness with which they were accustomed to
offer up their prayers to Almighty God,
he declares excited in his breast senti-
ments of astonishment and horror. As
soon as he had accomplished the object of
his mission he returned to Wittemburg,
where, in 1512, he had the degree of
doctor of divinity conferred upon him, at

66 MARTIN LUTHER.

the expense of Frederick, elector of Sax-
ony, who frequently attended his pulpit
discourses, and was as delighted with his elo-
quence as satisfied with his extraordinary
merits. Luther was, at first, desirous of de-
clining the honour offered him, considering
himself too young for such a distinction,
but his objections were over-ruled, and he
was told " that he must submit to be thus
dignified, inasmuch as the Almighty had
important services to be performed in the
church, and through his instrumentality."
Little did they, who made use of this ex-
pression, whether in a tone of seriousness
or levity, imagine how truly its prophetic
language should be verified, and how ex-
tensively useful his future labours should
be, in clearing away the corruptions that
had almost overwhelmed the Christian
world, as it was then called ; for real
Christianity, as dictated by its meek and
holy founder, was as difficult to be dis-
cerned in the age preceding the great re-
former, as it was among the most barba-

MARTIN LUTHER. 67

rian nations devoted to the superstitions
and idolatry of Greece and Rome.

This great man, almost as soon as he
was created doctor of divinity, felt it in-
cumbent on him to shew that the title and
honour had not been conferred without
reason. He applied himself with all dil-
igence to the duties of the theological chair.
He read lectures on the several books of
the Scriptures. He commented on the
epistle to the Romans and on the book of
Psalms, and his illustrations were so strik-
ing, that, by the thoughtful and the seri-
ous, he was regarded as the harbinger of
a new day ready to break out after a long
night of darkness and ignorance ; and he
led multitudes to think and to reason on
matters of high im|portance who had never
reflected or thought before beyond the con-
cerns of the present world. He opposed,
with a vehemence that could scarcely be
withstood, the errors which had been long
current in the church and the schools, as
truth, shewing that the Scriptures were the
6

68 MARTIN LUTHER.

only test of sound doctrine and practical
morality. He applied himself diligently
to the study of the Scriptures, in their
original languages, and encouraged the
cultivation of these languages in the uni-
versity, as the only sure foundation on
which a proper knowledge of religion
could be built. Luther was a strict dis-
ciphnarian in the college, but he exacted
no more from the young men under his
inspection than he shewed himself an ex-
ample of in his own moral conduct; and
thus, by uniting a practical regard to reli-
gious duties, with an earnest zeal in en-
forcing them upon the minds of others,
he contributed, in an eminent degree, to
raise the university of Wittemburg to a
high degree of reputation, which amply
gratified the elector for his munificence in
founding it. He had himself been early
initiated in the Peripatetic philosophy, then
universally taught in the schools; but his
eyes were soon opened to its numerous
defects and silly subtleties, and while a pro-

MARTIN LUTHER. 69

fessor at Wittemburg, in 1516, he wrote
to Jodocus, a zealous Aristotelian, who
had been his preceptor at Erfurt, stating
at first only his doubts respecting the doc-
trines in which he had been instructed, and
which, in his^^'turn, it was expected he
should teach others. Jodocus, wholly un-
prepared for such remarks made with firm-
ness, mingled with modesty, was highly
incensed against the author of them, and
in his next visit to Urfurt refused to see
him. Luther had not a mind to be in-
timidated : even the respect which he felt
for the instructor of his early years for-
bad him to recede a single step ; he had
set his hands to the plough, and could
not look back; he had embarked in the
cause of reform, and must necessarily ad-
vance, notwithstanding the difficulties that
might be • opposed to him by his dearest
friends. He accordingly wrote a second
letter to Jodocus, in which he gave it as
his decided opinion, grounded upon indis-
putable evidence, that it would be impos-

70 MARTIN LUTHER.

sible to reform the church, without entirely
abohshing the canons and decretals, and
with them the scholastic theology, philoso-
phy, and logic, and instituting others in
their stead.

In early life, Luther, whose comprehen-
sive mind could grasp all objects, had
studied the writings of St. Augustine, Thom-
as Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and other cele-
brated school men ; and in the dispute
concerning Universals, attached himself to
the party of the Nominalists, but maturer
age and reflection instructed him to treat
the whole controversy with contempt. This
has been referred chiefly to his early ac-
quaintance with the ancients, but it was
probably owing rather to that peculiar
strength and ardour of mind which led
him easily to discover the absurdity of the
prevailing modes of reasoning, and of judg-
ing upon theological and philosophical sub-
jects, and to observe with regret and in-
dignation the fatal effects of corrupt phi-
losophy united with ecclesiastical tyranny.

MARTIN LUTHER. 71

Wlien Leo was raised to the papal throne,
he found the revenues of the church exhaust-
ed by the vast projects of his predecessors :
he feh no desire to pursue a system of econ-
omy ; his heart as we have seen, was intent
on aggrandizing his family : to this may
be added his love of splendour, his taste
for pleasure, and his munificence in re-
warding men of genius and merit, all which
involved him in new expenses : in order
to provide a fund for which, he tried every
device that himself and friends could in-
vent, to drain the credulous multitude of
their weahh. Hence the sale of indulgen-
ces, which pretended to convey to the
possessor, either the pardon of his own
sins, or the release of any one, already
dead, in whose happiness he was inter-
ested, from the pains of purgatory. Leo
had not, however, the credit of the inven-
tion of this system; it may be referred
back to the papacy of Urban II, in the
eleventh century, who had contrived the
6*

72 MARTIN LUTHER.

lucrative trade, in order that the Pope
might have the means of recompensing
those who went to join the army of the
crusaders in the Holy Land. They were
afterwards granted to those who, being
unwilling to serve themselves, hired a sol-
dier for that purpose, and in a short time
they were bestowed on such as gave mon-
ey for accomplishing any pious work en-
joined by the holy pontiff.

Julius II had bestowed indulgences on
all who contributed towards building the
church of St. Peter at Rome, which, as
we have seen, was begun while he sat
upon the ^ papal throne, and as Leo was
carrying on that expensive building, his
grant w^as founded on the same pretence.
The right of promulgating these indulgen-
ces in Germany, together with a share in
the profits arising from the sale of them,
was granted to Albert, elector of Mentz,
and archbishop of Magdeburg, who, as his
chief agent for retailing them in Saxony,
employed Tetzel, a^ Dominican friar of

MARTIN LUTHER. 73

licentious morals, who executed his com-
mission with great zeal and success, but
without regard to any principles of pru-
dence or decency. At length the trade
was carried on with so little attention to
the interests of society, that it became a
general wish that some check should be
given to it. Luther was not an inatten-
tive spectator: he beheld, with concern
and indignation, the artifices of those who
sold, and the folly or simplicity of those who
purchased indulgences. Having examined
the subject, and finding that the practice
derived no countenance from the Scrip-
tures, he determined openly to protest
against such scandalous impositions on his
deluded countrymen.

In the year 1517, he attacked, with all
the vehemence in his power, from the pul-
pit, in the great church of Wittemburg, the
vices of those very monks who dared open-
ly to distribute indulgences : he tried their
doctrines by the standard of Scripture, and
exhorted his hearers to look for salvation to

74 5JARTIN LUTHER.

the means appointed by God in his holy
word. The boldness and fervour with which
he uttered his exhortations did not fail to
make a deep and lasting impression on the
people, who, suspecting the delusions to
which they had been long subject, were
ready to join any person, especially one
whose character for integrity stood so high
as Luther's, in throwing off a yoke which
they were scarcely able to endure. Luther
was not content with undeceiving the per-
sons who crowded round his pulpit ; he ad-
vanced with dignity to a higher authority ;
he wrote to Albert, elector of Mentz, and
archbishop of Magdeburg, remonstrating
against the false opinions, as well as the
wicked lives, of the defenders and distribu-
tors of indulgences, entreating him, in a
most supplicatory tone, to exercise the
authority vested in him for correcting
these evils. The archbishop was, how-
ever, too deeply interested in these abuses
to lend a hand in putting an end to them.
In addition to his letter, Luther transmit-

MARTIN LUTHER. 75

ted to the prelate ninety-five theses, which
he had proposed as subjects of inquiry
and disputation, and which he had pubHcly
fixed in a church at Wittemburg, with a
challenge to the learned to oppose on a
given day, either in person or by writing ;
and to the whole he added a solemn pro-
testation of his profound respect for the
apostolic see, and impHcit submission to
its authority. On the appointed day no
person appeared to contest Luther's the-
ses, which rapidly spread all over Germany,
and excited universal admiration of the
boldness which he discovered in venturing
to call in question the papal power and
authority, and to attack the Dominicans,
armed, as they were, with all the terrors
of the inquisitorial authority. The friars
of his own order were delighted with his
invectives against the monks who sold in-
dulgences, and were anxious to see them
exposed to the hatred and scorn of the
people ; and he was secretly encouraged
in his proceedings by his sovereign, the

76 MARTIN LUTHER.

elector of Saxony, who thought they might
contribute to give some check to the ex-
actions of the court of Rome, which the
secular princes had been long unsuccess-
fully endeavouring to oppose. The publi-
cation of Luther's theses brought into the
field many zealous champions in defence
of the holy church, who were less eager
for the dissemination of the truth, than
for the profits which existing abuses af-
forded them, and who accordingly traduced
the character of Luther, endeavouring to
excite the indignation of the clergy and
populace against him. Luther, however,
was not to be terrified by any measures
which his present adversaries could adopt :
he found a large body of the people ad-
hering to his doctrines, and he was content,
in their behalf, to go through evil report
as well as good report : he even went so
far, in a public declaration, as to say, " that
if the Pope and cardinals entertained the
same opinions with his opponents, and set
up any authority against that of Scripture,

MARTIN LUTHER. 77

there could be no doubt but that Rome
was itself the very seat of antichrist, and
that it would be happy for those countries
which should separate themselves from
her."

It does not appear that, at this early pe-
riod, Luther had any intention of setting
himself against the power of the Pope ; he
even wrote a letter to his holiness in the
most respectful terms, shewing the upright-
ness of his intentions, and the justice of the
cause of which he was the advocate. Short-
ly after this, by the incessant representations
of Luther's adversaries, that the heretical
notions he was propagating threatened the
most fatal mischiefs to the interests of the
church, Leo issued an order for his appear-
ing at Rome to justify himself. The judg-
es of his conduct were already appointed
and selected on account of their hostility to
him. The reformer, by means of his own
petitions, and the interference of those
friendly to his cause, was allowed to be
heard at Augsburg, instead of being obliged

78 MARTIN LUTHER,

to travel to Rome. Even here, his avow-
ed enemy, cardinal Cajetan, was appointed
to try the merits of the question. Luther
arrived at Augsburg in the month of Octo-
ber, 1518, and was immediately admitted
into the presence of the cardinal, who, in
their several interviews, would not conde-
scend to argue the matter with a person of
such inferior rank : but, by the mere dic-
tate of authority, required Luther, by virtue
of the apostolic powers with which he was
invested, to retract the opinions which he
had advanced, and to submit, without hesi-
tation, to the judgment of the Pope. Lu-
ther, though for the moment surprised at the
demand of recantation, declared that he
could not, with a safe conscience, renounce
opinions which he believed to be true, nor
should any consideration induce him to do
what would be so base in itself and so of-
fensive to God : still, however, he declared
his readiness to submit to the lawful deter-
mination of the church. He went much
farther : he expressed a willingness to refer

MARTIN LUTHER. 79

the controversy to certain universities which
he named, and promised neither to write
nor preach concerning indulgences, provid-
ed th§ same silence with respect to them
were enjoined on his adversaries. These
offers were rejected by the cardinal, who
peremptorily insisted upon a simple recan-
tation, and, at the same time, forbad the
reformer to enter again into his presence,
unless he came prepared to comply with
what he required. As he had no intention
to submit, he thought it more prudent to
withdraw, which he did in as private a
manner as possible, having first prepared a
formal and solemn appeal from the Pope,
who was then ignorant of his cause, to the
Pope, at a time when he should have re-
ceived more full and explicit information
with respect to it.

The sudden departure of Luther enraged
the papal legate, who wrote to the elector
of Saxony, requiring him to withdraw his
protection from so seditious a person, and
either to send him prisoner to Rome, or to
7

80 MARTIN LUTHER.

banish him from his territories. The elec-
tor refused to comply with either of these
requests, though with many external pro-
fessions of esteem for the cardinal ; hut he
at the same time assured Luther privately,
that he would not desert him. Being thus
ably supported, Luther continued to vindi-
cate his opinions, and he gave a challenge
to all the inquisitors to come and dispute
with him at Wittemburg, promising them
not only a safe-conduct from the elector, but
liberal entertainment, free from all expen-
ses, while they continued at that place.
In the mean time Leo's ambition urged
him to issue a bull, by which he attempted,
by his papal authority, to put an end to the
dispute about indulgences, and in this pub-
lic paper, he magnified, almost without
bounds, the efficacy of indulgences, and
imperiously commanded all Christians to
assent to what he delivered, as the doctrine
of the Holy Catholic Church. Luther was
now satisfied that the storm would speedily
fall upon him, and therefore had recourse

MARTIN LUTHER. 81

to the only expedient left him, to ward off
the effect of papal censures, by appealing
from the pontiff to a general council, which
he maintained to be superior in authority to
the Pope. In January 1519 the emperor
died, which rendered it expedient for the
court of Rome to suspend any direct pro-
ceedings against Luther ; for by this event
the vicariat of that part of Germany, which
is governed by Saxon laws, devolved on
the elector of Saxony, and was executed by
him during the interregnum which preced-
ed the election of the emperor Charles V.
Under the administration of this prince,
Luther enjoyed tranquillity, and his opin-
ions were suffered to take root, and even
to grow up with some degree of strength
and firmness.

Leo now hoped he should be able to
bring back Luther to submission and obe-
dience, without having recour'se to harsh
measures. He accordingly fixed on Charles
Miltitz, a Saxon knight, a person endowed
with much prudence and dexterity, whom

82 MARTIN LUTHER.

he sent into Saxony as his legate, to pre-
sent the elector with a golden consecrated
rose, as a mark of peculiar distinction, and
also to treat with Luther about the means
of reconcihng him to the court of Rome.
Miltitz, by his great address and soothing
manners, and his encomiums on Luther's
character, produced a considerable effect
on his mind, and he made such concessions
as in'oved, that his principles as a reformer
were by no means steadily fixed. He
agreed to observe a profaund silence on the
subject of indulgences, pro-vkied his adver-
saries were bound to the same measures ;
and he wrote a humble and submissive let-
ter to the Pope, acknowledging he had car-
ried his zeal and animosity too far ; aad he
even consented to publish a circular letter,
exhorting his followers and adherents to
reverence and obey the dictates of the Ho-
ly Roman Church.

Had the court of Rome been sufficient-
ly prudent, and accepted this submission
of Luther, and prevented its own cham-

MARTIN LUTHER. 83

pions from engaging in the field of con-
troversy, the cause of the reformation would
have been lost. But the inconsiderate
zeal of some of Luther's opponents, re-
newed the divisions which w^ere so nearly-
healed, and obliged Luther and his follow-
ers to examine deeper into the enormities
which prevailed in the papal hierarchy, as
well as the doctrines of the church. During;
this year a famous controversy was car-
ried on at Leipsic, on the challenge of
Eckius, between himself and Carlostadt,
concerning the freedom of the will, and
at the same time he urged Luther to enter
the lists with him, on the subject of the
Pope's authority and supremacy. The
challenge was accepted, and on the ap-
pointed day the three champions appeared
in the field. The assembly which met to
witness the combat was numerous and
splendid, and each of the combatants con-
ducted himself with great skill and dex-
terity ; in the course of the debate, Luther
no doubt was carried farther than he

84 MARTIN LUTHER.

dreamed of going, led on from one argu-
ment to another : he at length maintained,
that the church of Rome, in the earlier
ages, had never been considered as supe-
rior to other churches, and combated the
pretensions of that church and its bishop,
from the testimony of Scripture, the au-
thority of the fathers, and the most approv-
ed ecclesiastical historians, and even from
the decrees, of the council of Nice, while
the best arguments of his adversary were
derived from the spurious decretals, none
of which could boast of an antiquity equal
to that of four centuries. Hoffman, the
president, refused to declare on which side
victory had fallen, and the question was
referred to the universities of Paris and
Erfurt. Eckius clearly saw that the au-
ditors generally . declared in favour of the
arguments made use of by his adversary,
and from this moment he breathed fury
and revenge against Luther. The latter
had, however, the happiness to know, that
he had convinced the celebrated Philip

MARTIN LUTHER. 85

Melancthon, at that time professor of the
Greek, at the university of Wittemburg,
of the justice of his cause, and he soon
after found a vigorous auxihary in Uhic
Zuingle, a canon of Zurich, in Switzer-
land, whose extensive learning and uncom-
mon sagacity were accompanied with the
utmost intrepidity and resolution. The
party of reformers now was great in the
talents, and illustrious in the characters of
their leaders, who made, at this period,
the utmost efforts to draw* over Erasmus
to their side. The reputation and authori-
ty of this great scholar were of the highest
weight in Europe, as well on account of
his talents as of his strictures upon the
errors of the church, and upon the igno-
rance and vices of the clergy. He had
sown the seeds which Luther cherished
and brought to maturity, but was, however,
too w*ary to entangle himself so deeply in
the dispute as to lead him into any danger.
About this time the universities of Cologn
and Louvain took part against Luther, against

86 MARTIN LUTHER.

whose decrees he immediately wrote with
his usual spirit and intrepidity. Eckius
likewise repaired to Rome, intent on ac-
complishing the ruin of Luther, and he
thought he had performed the deed when,
by his exertions and influence, Pope Leo
assembled the college of cardinals to pre-
pare a sentence against him w^ith such de-
liberation, as it was hoped no exception
could be taken, either with regard to form
or matter.

On the 1 5th of June 1 520, the bull was
issued, in which forty-one propositions, ex-
tracted from Luther's works, were con-
demned as heretical and scandalous, and
all persons were forbidden to read his wri-
tings on pain of excommunication; those
who possessed any of them were com-
manded under severe penalties to commit
them to the flames. Luther himself, if
he did not within sixty days publicly recant
his errors, and burn his books, was pro-
nounced an obstinate heretic, excommu-
nicated, and delivered unto Satan for the

MARTIN LUTHER. 87

destruction of the flesh ; and all secular
princes were required, under pain of in-
curring the same censure, to seize his per-
son, that he might be punished as his
crimes should be found to merit. Short-
sighted priests, and rash bigots, contem-
plated in this sentence the ruin of Luther,
and the termination of those principles
which he had espoused ; but it has proved
fatal only to the church which uttered it,
and to the cause which it was intended to
support. When an account of what had
happened was brought to Luther, he was
neither disconcerted nor intimidated, but
calmly consulted the most proper means
of present defence, and future security.
He appealed a second time to a general
council, and came to the resolution of vol-
untarily renouncing communion with the
church of Rome, and in justification of his
own conduct, which he might well expect
would be every where, though not by all
persons, condemned, he exposed to the
world, without the least disguise or cere-

88 MARTIN LUTHER.

mony, the abominable corruptions and de-
lusions of the papal hierarchy : he went
still farther, and without hesitation declar-
ed, in the most solemn manner, before the
whole world, that the Pope was the predic-
ted " man of sin," the anti-christ set forth
in the writings of the New Testament.
Being now released from all obedience to
the Pope, and setting himself up in opposi-
tion to his power, he declaimed, without
scruple, against his tyranny, and he exhort-
ed all Christian princes to shake off the ig-
nominious yoke which had been so long
imposed on them, but the weight of which
neither they nor their fathers could well
bear. He made it the theme of his joy
and exultation, that he was marked out as
an object of ecclesiastical indignation, be-
cause he had ventured to assert and vindi-
cate the liberty of mankind. Luther pro-
ceeded from works to acts ; Leo had burnt
the books of Luther, and he, by way of re-
turning the compliment, assembled all the
professors and students of the university of

MARTIN LUTHER. 89

WIttembiirg, and with much ceremony, in
the presence of a prodigious multitude of
people of all ranks and orders, committed
to the flames the Pope's bull, and the de-
cretals and canons relating to his supreme
jurisdiction : the example was soon follow-
ed in several cities of Germany. He next
collected from the canon law" some of the
most extravagant propositions with respect
to the omnipotence of the papal power, and
the subordination of all secular jurisdiction
to the authority of the holy see, which he
pubKshed with a commentary, pointing out
the impiety of such tenets, and their evi-
dent tendency to subvert all civil govern-
ment. Within a month after this, a second
bull was issued against him, by which he
was expelled from communion with the
church, for having insulted the majesty, and
disow^ned the supremacy of the Roman
pontiff. The intimidating power of papal
condemnation had now lost its effect in
Germany, and the bull of Leo put his an-
tagonist upon the project of founding a

90 MARTIN LUTHER.

church upon principles directly opposite to
those of Rome, and to establish in it a sys-
tem of doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline,
more consonant with the spirit and precepts
of the gospel.

From this time Luther never ceased to
attack the corruptions of the church of
Rome, and his reasoning made deep im-
pressions upon the minds of the people ;
their respect and reverence for ancient in-
stitutions and doctrines in which they had
been educated were shaken. Students
crowded from all parts of the empire to
Wittemburg, and under Luther, Melanc-
thon, Carlostadt, and other eminent, and,
for the time, truly enlightened professors,
imbibed principles, which, on their return,
they propagated among their countrymen
with zeal and ardour. On the arrival of
Charles V. in Germany, the first act of his
administration was to assemble a diet of the
empire at Worms. This meeting was fixed
for the sixth of January 1521 ; in the cir-
cular letter to the difierent princes, the

MARTIN LUTHER. 91

emperor informed them that the express
purpose of this meeting was to concert
with them the proper measures for check-
ing the progress of those new and danger-
ous opinions, which threatened to disturb
the peace of Germany, and overthrow the
rehgion of their ancestors. At the same
time the Pope gave notice to the elector of
Saxony, of the decree w^hich he had issued
against the heresies of Luther, and request-
ed that he would so far concur with him as
to cause all the writings of Luther to be
publicly burnt, and that he would either
put the author of them to death, or impris-
on him, or at least send him to Rome. He
sent a similar message to Wittemburg, but
neither the elector nor the university paid
any attention to the exhortations of his holi-
ness. To the elector of Saxony Luther
was under infinite obligations, as by him
alone was the emperor prevented from tak-
ing steps which would have been fatal to
the progress of his cause. As soon as the
diet was assembled at Worms the papal
8

92 MARTIN LUTHER,

legates insisted that they were bound, with-
out deliberation, to condemn a man whom
the Pope had already excommunicated as
an obstinate heretic. The emperor in this
was ready to acquiesce, but the elector
again stepped forth in defence of Luther,
and not only prevented the publication of
any unjust edict against him, but insisted
that he ought to have his cause tried by the
canons of the Germanic church, and the
laws of the empire. It was therefore re-
solved, that Luther should be summoned
before the diet, and be allowed a hearing
before any final sentence should be pro-
nounced against him. To protect him
against the violence of his enemies, the
emperor, and all the princes through whose
territories he was to pass, granted him a
safe-conduct, and Charles himself wrote to
require his immediate attendance, renewing,
in the most solemn manner, his assurances
of protection from injury or ill-treatment.
Luther had no sooner received the sum-
mons than he prepared to obey it. Nor

MARTIN LUTHER. 93

could the remonstrances of his friends pre-
vent him from running the risk of being
treated as his books had been already treat-
ed. Some of them anxious for his safety,
reminded him of the fate of the celebrated
Huss under similar circumstances, and pro-
tected by the same security of an imperial
safe-conduct, and filled with solicitude, ad-
vised and entreated him not to rush wan-
tonly into danger. But Luther with calm-
ness and dignity replied, "I am lawfully
called to appear at Worms, and thither
will I go in the name of the most high God,
though as many devils, as there are tiles on
the houses, were combined against me."

On the 16th of April Luther arrived at
Worms, where greater crowds are said to
have assembled to behold him, than had
ever appeared at the emperor's public
entry. While he continued in that city,
he was not only treated with respect, but
his apartments were resorted to by per-
sons of high rank, and by the princes of
the empire. Before the diet he behaved

94 MARTIN LUTHER. *

with becoming respect ; acknowledged that
he had sometimes been carried away by
the ardour of his temper, and that the ve-
hemence of his writings could not always
be justified. While, however, he readily
admitted his errors, he showed no inclina-
tion to renounce a single important prin-
ciple which he had been promulgating, and
he displayed the utmost presence of mind
when he was called on to plead his cause
before the grand assembly, on the 17th
and 18th of April. That his reasonings
should not change the minds of those who
came to condemn, cannot be a matter of
surprize, but when he was called on to
recant, he solemnly declared that he would
neither abandon his principles, nor mate-
rially change his conduct, unless he were
previously convinced, by the Scriptures,
or the force of reasoning, that his senti-
ments were erroneous and his conduct un-
lawful. Enraged at his unbending spirit,
some of the ecclesiastics proposed, not-
withstanding the promises made to the

MARTIN LUTHER. 95

contrary, to avail themselves of the oppor-
tunity of having an enemy in their power,
to deliver the church at once from such
a pestilent heretic. But the members of
the diet and the emperor also refused to
act in a manner that must blast their char-
acter for ever with the world, and Luther
was permitted to depart in safety. Scarce-
ly, however, had he left the city, when,
in the emperor's name, and by the au-
thority of the diet, he was, in a most se-
vere edict, pronounced an obstinate heretic,
a member cut off from the church, deprived
of the privileges which he had enjoyed as
a subject of the empire, and the severest
punishments were denounced against those
who should receive, entertain, or counte-
nance him, either by acts of hospitality, by
conversation, or writing ; and all were re-
quired to concur in seizing his person, as
soon as the term of his safe-conduct expir-
ed. This decree produced scarcely any
effect : the emperor was too much engaged
by the commotions in Spain, and in the
8*

96 MARTIN LUTHER.

wars in Italy and the Low Countries, t©
attend to Luther, and the sovereign princes
who had not been present at the diet, and
who felt for the liberties of the empire,
and the rights of the Germanic church,
treated it with the highest indignation, or
the utmost contempt. Luther was still, to
the elector of Saxony, the object of his
most anxious solicitude ; and the measures
which he adopted at this critical juncture,
eiFectually secured him from the threaten-
ing storm. In consequence of a precon-
certed plan, and, as some historians have
imagined, not without the knowledge of
the emperor, as Luther was on his jour-
ney, near Eisenach, a number of horsemen
in masks rushed out of a wood, and sur-
rounding his company, carried him off
wdth the utmost speed to the castle of War-
tenburg. There the noble-minded elector
ordered him to be supplied with every
thing that he could want, but the place of
his retreat was kept a profound secret.
The sudden disappearance of Luther not

MARTIN LUTHER. 97

only occasioned the most bitter disappoint-
ment to his adversaries, but rendered them
doubly odious to the people of Germany,
who, not knowing what was become of
their leader in reformation, conjectured a
thousand things, till at length they were
ready to give him up as destroyed by the
fury of his enemies. Luther was, however,
living in peace, and in the enjoyment of
whatever was necessary to his well being
and to his amusement ; he was frequently
indulged with the exercise of hunting in
the company of those who had the charge
of him, living in this retirement under the
name of Yonker George. During the
period of his solitude, he translated a
great part of the New Testament into the
German language, wTote and published
tracts in defence of his doctrines, which,
as soon as they were seen, revived and ani-
mated the spirit of his followers, and wrote
frequent letters to his friends ; he had also,
during this period, the satisfaction of know-
ing that his opinions were gaining ground,

98 MARTIN LUTHER.

and that they had already made some pro-
gress in ahnost every city in Saxony.
Luther, weary at length of his retirement,
appeared publicly at Wittemburg, in March
1 522 : this step he took without the elec-
tor's knowledge or consent, but he imme-
diately wrote him a letter to prevent the
possibility of his taking offence, assigning
as a reason, that it was in consequence of
the information which he had received of
the proceedings of Carlostadt, one of his
disciples, who was animated with similar
zeal, but possessed less prudence and mod-
eration than his master. This person, in
the absence of Luther, had attempted to
abolish the use of mass, to remove images
out of the churches, to set aside auricular
confession, the invocation of saints, and in
short had quite changed the doctrine and
discipline of the church at Wittemburg,
all which Luther said was unseasonably
and rashly done. At this time the doc-
trines of the reformer were not known in
France ; and in England, the sovereign,

MARTIN LUTHER. 99

Henry VIII. had made the most vigorous
exertions to prevent them from invading
his reahns : he even undertook to write
them down, in a treatise entitled " Of the
Seven Sacraments," &;c. This work he
presented to Leo X. in October 1521.
The Pope was so well pleased with the
royal attempt to confute the arguments of
Luther, that he complimented him with
the title of " Defender of the Faith."
Whatever respect and reverence Luther
might shew to kings as such, he had none
for the arguments of an antagonist, though
armed with royal authority, and answered
Henry with much severity, treating his
performance in the most contemptuous
manner. Luther now published his trans-
lation of the Scriptures, which produced
sudden, and almost incredible effects on
the people of Germany, and proved more
fatal to the church of Rome than all his
other works. It was read with the utmost
avidity by persons of every rank, who, with
astonishment, discovered how contrary the

M ^51 o

100 MARTIN LUTHER.

precepts of Christ are to the inventions of
his pretended vicegerents, and being in
possession of the rule and standard of faith,
they conceived themselves qualified to
judge of established opinions, and to pro-
nounce when they were conformable to
that standard. About this time several
imperial cities in Germany abolished the
mass, and the other superstitious rites of
popery, and openly embraced the reform-
ed religion. The elector of Brandenburgh,
the dukes of Brunswick and Lunenburg,
and the prince of Anhalt, became avowed
patrons of Luther's opinions, and coun-
tenanced the preaching of them in their
territories. Luther now made open war
with the Pope and bishops, and to render
them as despicable as possible, he wrote
one book against the Pope's bull, and
another against the order falsely called the
order of the bishops. The same year he
wrote to the assembly of the states of Bo-
hemia, in which he assured them that he
was labouring to establish their doctrine

MARTIN LUTHER. 101

in Germany, and exhorted them not to
return to the communion of the church
of Rome. Ferdinand, archduke of Aus-
tria, the emperor's brother, promulgated a
very severe edict against the translation of
the Scriptures, and forbad all the subjects
of his imperial majesty to possess any cop-
ies of it, or of Luther's other works. In
this state of things Leo X. died, and was
succeeded on the papal throne by Adrian
VL who immediately concerted measures
with his cardinals concerning the best
means for stopping the progress of heresy.
The diet of the empire was holden soon
after at Nuremburg, to which Adrian sent
his brief, in w^hich he observes, that he had
heard w4th grief and indignation, that Mar-
tin Luther continued to teach the same
errors, and to publish almost daily books
full of heresies ; that it appeared strange
to him that so large and so religious a na-
tion could be seduced by a wretched apos-
tate friar ; that nothing, however, could be
more pernicious to Christendom, and that

102 MARTIN LUTHER.

he therefore accordingly exhorts them to
use then" utmost endeavours to make Lu-
ther, and the authors of these tumuhs return
to their duty; or, if they refuse and con-
tinue obstinate, to proceed against them
according to the laws of the empire.

The admonitions of his holiness produced
no effect whatever, and the disciples of
Luther advanced in their career with ex-
ultation and triumph. In 1523, Luther
published several pieces ; among these were
some on monastic life, which he attacked
with great severity, and his exhortations,
united with much strong satire, produced
important effects, for soon after nine nuns,
among whom was Catharine de Bore, whom
he afterwards married, eloped from a nun-
nery and came to Wittemburg, an act that
was as highly applauded by the reformer,
as it was condemned by the devotees to the
Roman church. Luther compares the de-
liverance of these nuns from the slavery of
monastic life to that of the souls which
Christ had delivered by his death. This

MARTIN LUTHER. 103

year two of the followers of Luther were
burnt at Brussels, and these were the first
who suffered martyrdom for his cause : and
about the same time that this tragical event
was perpetrated, he wrote a consolatory
letter to three noble ladies at Misnia, who
were banished from the duke of Saxony's
court at Friburg, for reading his books.

On the death of Adrian VI. Clement VII.
who succeeded him, sent a legate to the
diet which was to be held at Nuremberg, to
urge the necessity of a speedy execution of
the edict of Worms : he was unsuccessful
in the object of his mission, and found that
the German princes, in general, were not at
all inimical to the reformation ; he accord-
ingly retired to Ratisbon with the bishops,
and those of the princes who adhered to
the cause of Rome, where they engaged
vigorously to execute the edict of Worms
in their respective dominions. It was in
the course of this year that the controversy
between Erasmus and Luther on the doc-
trine of "free-will" commenced. Eras-
9

104 MARTIN LUTHER.

mus had been long urged to take up his pen
against the reformer, though it was with the
greatest reluctance that he yielded to the
importunities of the Pope and Catholic
princes, suspecting that it would not be
found the best mode of ending the differ-
ences and establishing the peace of the
church. At length he stood forward in
defence of the doctrine of free-will, being
desirous to clear himself from the suspicion
of favouring a cause which he would not
wish to be thought in any way to favour.
His book w^as entitled a " Conference con-
cerning Free-will," which was written with
much moderation, and without personal re-
flections. To soften the anger of Luther,
he says in his preface, "That he ought not
to take it ill that he dissents from his opin-
ions in particular points, as he had allowed
himself the liberty of differing from the
judgment of popes, universities, and doctors
in the church." It was some time before
Luther took up his pen in defence of his
own positions, but his answer was extremely

MARTIN LUTHER. 105

severe : he accused his opponent of " being
careless about religion, and little solicitous
what became of it, provided the world con-
tinued in peace ; and that his notions were
rather philosophical than dictated by Chris-
tian truth." Luther was next engaged in
a controversy with Carlostadt, respecting
the eucharist. Though Luther had re-
nounced the doctrine of " transubstantia-
tion," according to which the bread and
wine were changed by consecration into
the body and blood of Christ, yet he
thought that the partakers of the Lord's
supper received in some mystical way,
with bread and wine, the real body and
blood of Christ. This doctrine obtained
the name of " consubstantiation." Carlos-
tadt, who, as we have seen, was the disci-
ple of Luther, maintained that the body of
Christ was not actually present, but that
the bread and wine were no more than
external signs, or symbols, designed to ex-
cite in the minds of Christians the remem-
brance of the sufferings and death of

106 MARTIN LUTHER.

Christ, and of the benefits which arise from
them. This opinion was universally em-
braced by all the friends of the reforma-
tion in Switzerland, and by a considerable
number of its votaries in Germany, but it
was the commencement of a controversy
that was carried on with much bitterness,
which notwithstanding the endeavours that
were used to reconcile the contending par-
ties, terminated at length in a fatal divis-
ion between those who had embarked
together in the sacred cause of religion
and liberty, and which contributed to re-
tard the progress of the reformation.

In the month of October, 1524, Luther
threw off the monastic habit, which, though
not premeditated and designed, was regard-
ed as a very proper introduction to a step
which he took the following year, viz. his
marriage to Catharine, the person already
referred to, who had eloped from the nun-
nery of Nimptchen, This measure expos-
ed him to much obloquy from his own
friends, as well as from the Catholics, He

MARTIN LUTHER. 107

was even ashamed of it himself, and ac-
knowledged that it made him so despicable,
that he hoped his humiliation would give joy-
to angels, and be a source of vexation to
devils. Melancthon found him so much
afflicted with his past conduct that he wrote
some letters of consolation to him. It was
not, it is said, so much the marriage, as the
circumstances of the time, and the precipi-
tation with which it was done, that occa-
sioned the censures passed upon Luther.
He married suddenly, and at a time when
Germany was groaning under the miseries
of a war which had been occasioned by the
introduction of the new doctrines. Luther
soon recovered from the abasement into
which he had for a season fallen, and then
assumed his former air of intrepidity, and
boldly supported what he had done. " I
took," said he, " a wife, in obedience to
my father's commands, and hastened the
consummation, to prevent impediments, and
stop the tongues of slanderers."

About this period Luther lost by death
9*

108 MARTIN LUTHER.

his friend, and the fast friend of the refor-
mation, Frederick, elector of Saxony ; but
the blow was less sensibly felt, as he was
succeeded by his brother John, a more
avowed and zealous, but less able, patron
of Luther and his doctrines. Frederick had
been a kind of mediator between the Ro-
man pontiff and the reformers of Wittem-
burg, and had always entertained the hope
of restoring peace, in the church, and of so
reconciling the contending parties, as to
prevent a separation either in point of ec-
clesiastical jurisdiction or religious commu-
nion : hence, though rather favorable to the
innovations of Luther, he took no pains to
introduce any change into the churches of
his own dominions, nor to subject them to
his jurisdiction. But his successor acted
very differently ; he ordered a body of laws
relating to the form of ecclesiastical govern-
ment, the method of public worship, the
rank, offices, and revenues of the priest-
hood, and other matters of that nature, to
be drawn up by Luther and Melancthon,

MARTIN LUTHER. 109

which he afterwards promulgated through-
out his dominions. The example of this
prince was followed by all the other princes
and states of Germany, who renounced the
papal supremacy and jurisdiction. The
Lutherans were now threatened with a
grievous persecution, which the public trou-
bles of Europe only prevented from being
carried into execution : they, on the other
hand, were not negligent in taking effectual
measures for defending themselves against
the superstition and violence of their adver-
saries, and formed the plan of a confedera-
cy for that prudent purpose.

In June 1526, a diet of the empire was
held at Spires, at which Ferdinand, the em-
peror's brother, presided, Charles being
fully occupied with the troubles in Spain
and Italy. When the state of religion came
before the assembly, the emperor's ambas-
sadors used their utmost endeavours to ob-
tain a resolution, that all disputes about re-
ligion should be suppressed, and that the
sentence which had been pronounced at

110 MARTIN LUTHER.

Worms against Luther and his followers
should be put into rigorous execution, but
it was agreed, that they could not execute
that sentence, nor come to any determina-
tion with respect to the doctrines by which
it had been occasioned, before the whole
matter w^as submitted to the cognizance of
a general council, lawfully assembled. An
address to the emperor was unanimously
agreed on, beseeching him to assemble,
without delay, a free and general council;
and it was also resolved, that in the mean
time, the princes and states of the empire
should, in their respective dominions, be at
liberty to manage ecclesiastical matters in
the manner which they should think expe-
dient ; yet so as to be able to give an ac-
count of their administration to God and the
emperor. This was a resolution the most
favorable to the cause of Lutheranism ; and
several potentates, whom the dread of per-
secution had hitherto prevented from de-
claring for the reformation, being now de-
livered from their restraint, renounced pub-

MARTIN LUTHER. Ill

licly the superstition of Rome, and intro-
duced among them the same form of reli-
gious worship, and the same system of
doctrine, which had been received in Sax-
ony. Luther and his fellow labourers, in the
mean time, by their writings, their instruc-
tions, their admonitions, and their councils,
were carrying on their great cause with a
spirit suitable to the importance and great-
ness of their undertaking. But this en-
couraging state of affairs w^as not of long
duration : the emperor began to take meas-
ures for the recovery of those prerogatives
which had been snatched from his prede-
cessors, and which w^ere necessary to the
promotion of his ambitious schemes. For
this purpose he regarded it as necessary to
suppress opinions which might form new
bonds of confederacy among the princes of
the empire, and unite them by ties stronger
and more sacred than any political connec-
tion. He accordingly resolved to employ
all the means in his power for the full es-
tablishment of the religion of which he was

112 MARTIN LUTHER.

regarded the natural protector ; considering
this as the instrument by which he could
extend his civil authority. He appointed,
for this purpose, a diet of the empire to be
held at Spires, in the spring of 1529, for
the express purpose of taking into consider-
ation the state of religion. In that diet
the archduke Ferdinand presided, and had
the address to procure a majority approv-
ing a decree, which declared it unlawful to
introduce any change in the doctrine, disci-
pline, or worship of the established religion,
before the determination of a general coun-
cil were known. This decree was exceed-
ingly revolting to the elector of Saxony,
and other princes, as well as to the depu-
ties of fourteen imperial cities, who, in a
body, when they found their arguments and
remonstrances of no avail, entered their
solemn protest against it, on the 19th of
April 1529, and appealed to the emperor
and a future council. On this account
they were distinguished by the name of
Protestants, v/hich, from this period, has

MARTIN LUTHER. 113

applied to all sects of whatever denomina-
tion which have separated themselves from
the Roman church. The protesting prin-
ces sent embassies to the emperor, which
were ill received ; and in answer to one of
them, they received an account that he
was determined to come into Germany,
with a view^ to terminate, in a diet to be
held at Augsburg, in June 1530, the reli-
gious disputes which had produced so many
and grievous divisions in the empire. —
Charles had many consultations with Pope
Clement VII. concerning the most effectual
means for that purpose.

In these interviews the emperor insist-
ed, in the most urgent manner, on the ne-
cessity of assembling a general council :
to this his holiness was a decided enemy,
because he had learnt from history that
general councils were factious, ungoverna-
ble, and slow in their operations ; and he
contended that the surest way was for the
emperor to do his duty, in supporting the
authority of the church, and in employing

114 MARTIN LUTHER.

all his power in executing speedy ven-
geance on the obstinate heretical factions,
who dared to call in question the authority
of the holy Roman see. Charles was still
for mild and conciliatory measures, but
promised if these should prove ineffectual,
that then he would employ the weight of
his authority in reducing the rebellious to
implicit obedience. In his journey to
Augsburg he had full opportunity of know-
ing the sentiments of the people, and, from
his own observation, he was satisfied that
severity ought not to be attempted until
other measures proved ineffectual : he
therefore called on the elector of Saxony
to obtain from Luther, and other eminent
divines, a written explication of their reli-
gious system, and an explicit avowal of
the several points in which they differed
from the church of Rome. Luther deliv-
ered to the elector at Torgaw seventeen
articles, called "The articles of Torgaw,"
which were deemed by him a proper de-
claration of the sentiments of the reformed.

MARTIN LUTHER. 115

By others they were not thought sufficient-
ly open, and Melancthon was desired to
give an account of the same, who, with a
due respect to the sentiments of Luther,
expressed his opinions, and set forth his
doctrine, with the greatest elegance and
perspicuity, and in terms as Httle offensive
as possible to their opponents. Such was
the origin of the creed, celebrated in his-
tory as " The confession of Augsburg."
In June 1530, the diet was opened:
and in a few days, the Protestants, who
had adopted the opinions of Zuingle, de-
livered their confession, drawn up by Mar-
tin Bucer. A refutation of this was un-
dertaken by Faber, Eckius, and Cochlaeus,
which was read pubHcly in the diet; and
the unlimited submission of the Protes-
tants to the doctrines contained in it was
required by the emperor. Instead, how-
ever, of yielding obedience to the imperial
command, they demanded a copy of the
paper, in order that they might have an
opportunity of demonstrating more fully
10

116 MARTIN LUTHER.

its extreme insufficiency and weakness.
This request was refused, and there was
now no prospect of a reconcihation. The
emperor next attempted to bring over to
his views the princes who had been some
time the patrons of the new doctrines : but
however desirous they might be of obHg-
ing the emperor, they would not make sac-
rifices to him of their integrity, and, in a
firm tone, refused to abandon what they
deemed the cause of God, for the sake of
any earthly acquisition. The emperor,
disappointed and exceedingly vexed, re-
solved to take vigorous measures for as-
serting the authority and doctrines of the
established church, and enforcing the sub-
mission of heretics. He accordingly con-
demned the peculiar tenets held by the
Protestants, forbidding any person to pro-
tect or even tolerate such as taught them,
enjoining a strict observance of the estab-
lished rites, and prohibiting any further in-
novation under severe penalties. This
decree, which was regarded as a prelude

MARTIN LUTHER. 117

to the most violent persecution, convinced
the Protestants that the emperor .was re-
solved on their destruction ; and the dread
of the calamities which were ready to fall
on the church oppressed the spirit of Me-
lancthon, who resigned himself to a set-
tled melancholy. Luther, however, was
not at all disheartened, and used his ut-
most efforts to keep up the spirits of those
who were willing to give way ; being as-
sured that their personal safety, as well as
success, depended wholly on union. In
pursuance of this opinion, they assembled
in 1530, first at Smalcalde, and afterwards
at Frankfort, where they formed a solemn
alliance and confederacy, with the resolu-
tion of defending vigorously their religion
and liberties against the dangers with which
they were threatened by the edict of Augs-
burg. They invited the kings of England,
France, and Denmark, to join in the con-
federacy ; and, by their negociations, se-
cured powerful protection and assistance,
in case of necessity. Luther was at first

118 MARTIN LUTHER.

averse from this confederacy, dreading the
calamities which it might produce. In this
state of things, the elector palatine and the
elector of Mentz offered their mediation,
and endeavoured to reconcile the contend-
ing princes ; and, in a short time, negoci-
ations were carried on, that finally pro-
duced a pacification, the terms of which
were agreed upon at Nuremburg, and sol-
emnly ratified in the diet at Ratisbon, Au-
gust, 3d, 1532. By this treaty, the Prot-
estant princes, engaged to assist the empe-
ror with all their forces,, in resisting the
invasion of the Turks ; and it was stipu-
lated that universal peace should be estab-
lished in Germany, until the meeting of a
general council, the convocation of which
the emperor was to endeavour to procure
within six months ; that no person should
be molested on account of religion ; that
a stop should be put to all processes begun
by the imperial chamber against the Prot-
estants ; and that the sentences already
passed to their detriment should be declar-
ed void.

MARTIN LUTHER, 119

Luther now had the satisfaction and
happiness of seeing one of the chief obsta-
cles to the undisguised profession of his
opinions removed ; and henceforth he might
sit down and contemplate the mighty work
which he had accomplished : his disciples
and followers, the Protestants of Germany,
who had hitherto been regarded only as a
religious sect, came to be considered as a
political body of some consequence. The
emperor, in conformity to the stipulations
of the truce lately concluded, applied to
the Pope for a general council : but Cle-
ment threw a multitude of obstacles in the
way to prevent it ; and when he foun-d that
to be impossible, he insisted that the meet-
ing should be held in Italy, but the Prot-
estants contended for it in Germany. The
latter insisted that all matters in dispute
should be determined by the words of
Scripture alone ; the Pope asserted that the
decrees of the church and the opinions of
the fathers were of equal authority. They
required a free council, in which the di-
10*

120 MARTIN LUTHER.

vines, commissioned by different churches,
should be allowed a voice ; he aimed at
modelling the council in such a manner as
would render it entirely dependent on his
pleasure. Above all, the Protestants thought
it unreasonable that they should bind them-
selves to submit to the decrees of a coun-
cil, before they knew on what principles
those decrees were founded, by what per-
sons they were to be pronounced, and what
forms of proceeding they would observe.
The Pope maintained it would be unne-
cessary to call a council, unless those who
demanded it previously declared their reso-
lution to acquiesce in its decrees. The
meeting was accordingly postponed during
the pontificate of Clement VII.

In 1533 Luther wrote a consolatory
epistle to some persons who had suffered
hardships for adhering to the Augsburg
confession of faith, in which he says, "The
devil is the host, and the world is his inn ;
so that wherever you come, you will be
sure to find this ugly host." He had also

MARTIN LUTHER. 121

about this time, a terrible controversy
with George, duke of Saxony, who had
such an aversion to the doctrines promul-
gated by Luther, that he obliged his sub-
jects to take an oath that they would never
embrace them. At Leipsic there were
found sixty or seventy persons, who could
not be restrained within the boundaries of
the established creed, and it was discover-
ed that they had consulted Luther about it;
upon which the duke complained to the
elector, that Luther had not only abused
his person, but had preached up rebellion
among his subjects. Luther refuted the
accusation, by proving that he had been so
far from stirring up his subjects against him,
on the score of religion, that he had exhort-
ed them ra.ther to undergo the greatest
hardships, and even suffer themselves to be
banished. In the following year, the bible,
translated by Luther into the German, was
first printed, with the privilege of the elec-
tor ; and it was published the year after.
He likewise gave to the world a book against

122 MARTIN LUTHER.

masses, and the consecration of priests, in
which he relates a conference which he
had with the devil upon those points : for it
is a circumstance worthy of observation,
that in the whole history of this great man,
he never had any conflicts of any kind, but
the devil was always his antagonist. In
1535 the new Pope Paul III. was applied
to for a general council ; and in the hope of
preventing it, he appointed Mantua as the
proper place. To this some of the Catholic
sovereigns, and all the German Protestants,
strongly objected ; being fully persuaded
that, in such a council, nothing would be
concluded but what would be agreeable to
the sentiments and ambition of the pontiff;
and they demanded the performance of the
emperor's promise, that they should have a
council in Germany. At the same time,
that they might not be taken by surprise,
they desired Luther to draw up a summary
of their doctrine, in order to present it to
the assembled bishops, if it should be re-
quired of them. This summary, which

MARTIN LUTHER. ] 23

was distinguished by the name of" The
articles of Smalcalde," from the place at
which they were assembled, is generally
joined with the creeds and confessions of
the Lutheran church. While our reformer
was busily engaged in this work, he was
seized with a grievous and very painful dis-
ease, a fit of the stone and obstruction of
the urine, which continued so long as to
give his friends serious apprehensions for
his life. In the midst of his agonies, and
after eleven days' torture, without the small-
est relief, he set out, contrary to the advice
of his friends, on his return home. The
motion of the carriage, which it was expect-
ed would prove fatal to him, was the cause
of removing the evil under which he was
labouring. In the year 1538, as a general
assembly seemed impracticable, the Pope,
that he might not seem to neglect that de-
gree of reformation which was unquestion-
ably within his power, deputed a certain
number of cardinals and bishops, with full
authority, to inquire into the abuses and

124 MARTIN LUTHER.

corruptions of the Roman court, and to
propose the most effectual method of re-
moving them. It was intended to do as
little as possible, still a multitude of enormi-
ties were unveiled, an account of which
w^as soon transmitted into Germany, much
to the satisfaction of the Protestants there.
This investigation, partial as it was, proved
the necessity of a reformation in the head
as well as the members of the church ; and
it even pointed out many of the corruptions
against which Luther had remonstrated with
the greatest vehemence. It was, however,
intended only as a farce, and as such Lu-
ther treated it ; and to ridicule it more
strongly, he caused a caricature to be
drawn, in which was represented the Pope
seated on a high throne, some cardinals
about him with foxes' tails, with which they
were brushing off the dust on all sides.
Luther published, about the same time, "A
Confutation of the pretended Grant of Con-
stantine to Sylvester, bishop of Rome ; and
also some Letters of John Huss, written

MARTIN LUTHER. 125

from his Prison at Constance, to the Bohe-
mians." On the death of George duke of
Saxony, the succession devolved on his
brother Henry, who was zealously attached
to the Protestant religion, and who, not-
withstanding a clause in his brother's will,
by which he bequeathed all his territories
to the emperor and the king of the Romans,
should Henry make any attempt to intro-
duce innovations, immediately invited Lu-
ther and some other Protestant divines to
Leipsic. By their aid and advice he quick-
ly overturned the whole system of Popish
rites and doctrines, and established the full
exercise of the reformed religion, with the
universal applause of his subjects, who had
long wished for this change. By this rev-
olution, the whole of Saxony was brought
within the Protestant pale.

Luther was incessantly employed, till
his death, in promoting the cause of which
he was the great founder. In the year
1546, he, in company with Melancthon,
paid a visit to his own country, which he

126 MARTIN LUTHER.

had not seen before for many years, and he
returned in safety ; but in a short time
after, he was called thither by the earls of
Mansfeldt, to compose some differences
which had arisen about their boundaries.
Though he had not been accustomed to
such kind of business, yet he would not re-
fuse the service which he might be able to
render by his advice and authority. On
this occasion he met with a splendid recep-
tion, used his best endeavours to settle the
matters in dispute, and sometimes officiat-
ed in the church ; but the state of his health
was so precarious, that it was feared every
great effort would prove fatal to him. His
last public service was in the church, where
he was seized with a violent inflammation in
the stomach. His natural intrepidity did
not forsake him ; and his last conversation
with his friends was concerning the happi-
ness reserved for good men in a future life.
On the morning of the 12th of February
1546, being awaked from a sound sleep by
his disorder, and perceiving his end to be

MARTIN LUTHER. 127

approaching, he commended his spirit into
the hands of God, and quietly departed this
Hfe at the age of sixty-three. He did not
forget his cause even in his dying moments,
but admonished those about him to pray to
God for the propagation of the gospel;
" because," said he, " the council of Trent,
which has sat once or twice, and the Pope,
will devise strange things against it." Im-
mediately after his decease, the body was
put into a leaden coffin, and carried with
funeral pomp to the church at Eisleben,
when Dr. Jonas preached a sermon, on the
occasion. The earls of Mansfeldt request-
ed that his body might be interred in their
territories, but the elector of Saxony insist-
ed upon his being brought back to Wittem-
burg which was accordingly done, and he
was buried there with greater pomp than
had been known to have accompanied the
funeral of any private man. Princes, earls,
nobles, and students without number, attend-
ed the procession, and Melancthon deliver-
ed a funeral discourse. He left several
11

128 MARTIN LUTHER.

children by his wife Catharine de Bore.
Innumerable were the calumnies invented
by his enemies respecting his death, his
principles, and his conduct, which it is
needless to repeat, as they have been am-
ply refuted by the most respectable histo-
rians. The zeal and madness of the Pa-
pists against their formidable antagonist,
who had shaken to the foundation the pil-
lars of their faith, did not cease with his
death. They urged the emperor Charles
V. while with his army at Wittemburg, to
cause the monument erected to his memory
to be demoHshed, and his bones to be dug
up and burnt with every indignity ; but the
mind of Charles was superior to such child-
ish and malignant acts, and he instantly for-
bad that any insult should be offered to his
tomb, or his remains, upon pain of death.
" I have," said the emperor, " nothing far-
ther to do with Luther : he is henceforth
subject to another jurisdiction it is not law-
ful for me to usurp. Know, that I make
not war with the dead, but with the living,

MARTIN LUTHER. 129

who are still in arms against me." We
cannot bring this article to a close, without
referring to the testimonies of the learned
and the wise, respecting the character of
Luther, who introduced, not into Germany-
only, but into the world, a new and most
important era, and whose name can never
be forgotten while any thing of principle
remains that is deserving of remembrance.
It must not be overlooked, that the grand
and leading doctrine of Lutheranism, and
that on which the permanent foundation of
the reformed religion was laid, is the right
of private judgment in matters of religion.
To this, as we have seen, he was at all
times ready to devote his talents, his char-
acter, and his life ; and, says the biographer
of Leo X. " the great and imperishable
merit of the reformer consists in his having
demonstrated it by such arguments, as
neither the efforts of his adversaries, nor
his own subsequent conduct, have been
able either to confute or invalidate." In
passing judgment upon the characters of

130 MARTIN LUTHER.

men, says Robertson, we ought to try them
by the principles and maxims of their own
age, and not by those of another : for
although virtue and vice are at all times
the same, manners and customs are contin-
ually varying. Some parts of Luther's be-
haviour, which to us appear most culpable,
gave no disgust to his contemporaries. It
was even by some of those qualities, which
we are now apt to blame, that he was fitted
for accomplishing the great work in which
he embarked.

Luther himself was sensible of defects,
which he pathetically acknowledges in an
address to the reader of his works : " I
intreat you," says he, "to read my wri-
tings with cool consideration, and even
with much pity. I wish you to know that
when I began the affair of indulgences, I
was a monk, and a most mad papist. So
intoxicated was I, and drenched in papal
dogmas, that I would have been most ready
at all times •to murder, or assist in mur-
dering, any person who should utter a syl-

MARTIN LUTHER. 131

lable against the Pope. I was always
earnest in defending doctrines I professed.
I went seriously to work, as one who had
a horrible dread of the day of judgment,
and who from his inmost soul was anxious
for salvation. You will find, therefore, in
my earher writings, with how much humiH-
ty, on many occasions, I gave up consid-
erable points to the Pope, which I now de-
test as blasphemous and abominable in the
highest degree. This error my slanderers
may call inconsistency ; but you, my pious
readers, will have the kindness to make
some allowance, on account of the times,
and my own inexperience. I stood abso-
lutely alone at first, and certainly was very
unlearned, and very unfit to undertake mat-
ters of such vast importance. It was by
accident, not willingly or by design, that
I fell into those violent disputes. God is
my witness."

" Martin Luther, resenting, an affront put
on his order, began to preach against abus-
es in the sale of indulgences, and being
11*

132 MARTIN LUTHER.

naturally of a fiery temper, and provoked
by opposition, he proceeded even to des-
cry indulgences themselves, and was thence
carried, by the heat of dispute, to question
the authority of the Pope. Still, as he
enlarged his reading, in order to support
these tenets, he discovered some new abuse
or error in the church of Rome, and find-
ing his opinions greedily hearkened to, he
promulgated them by writing, discourse,
sermons, conference, and daily increased
the number of his disciples. All Saxony^
all Germany, all Europe, were in a little
time filled with the voice of this daring
innovator ; and men, roused from that
lethargy in which they had so long slept,
began to call in question the most ancient
and received opinions. The elector of
Saxony, favourable to Luther's doctrine,
protected him from the violence of the
papal jurisdiction : the republic of Zurich
even reformed their church according to
the new model: many sovereigns of the
empire, and the imperial edict itself, shew-

MARTIN LUTHER. 133

ed a favourable disposition towards it : and
Luther, a man naturally inflexible, vehe-
ment, and opinionative, was become inca-
pable, either from promises of advance-
ment or terrors of severity, to relinquish
a sect of which he himself w as the founder,
and which brought him a glory superior
to all others, the glory of dictating the reli-
gious faith and principles of multitudes."

Dr. Campbell, in his lectures in Eccle-
siastical History, has rendered our reform-
er his testimony of respect and gratitude ;
but as this is conveyed in sentiments and
language but little different from the obser-
vations of Dr. Robertson, we shall extract
the account from the latter rather than the
former : " As he was raised up by Provi-
dence to be the author of one of the great-
est and most interesting revolutions in his-
tory, there is not any person, perhaps,
whose character had been drawn with such
opposite colours. In his own age, one par-
ty, struck w^ith horror and inflamed with
rage, when they saw with what a daring

134 MARTIN LUTHER.

hand he overturned every thing which they
held to be sacred, or vakied as beneficial,
imputed to him not only all the defects
and vices of a man, but the qualities of a
demon. The other, warmed with admira-
tion and gratitude, which they thought he
merited as the restorer of light and liberty
to the Christian church, ascribed to him
perfections above the condition of humanity,
and viewed all his actions with a venera-
tion, bordering on that which should be
paid only to those who are guided by the
immediate inspiration of heaven. It is his
own conduct, not the undistinguishing cen-
sure, or the exaggerated praise of his con-
temporaries, that ought to regulate the opin-
ions of the present age concerning him.
Zeal for what he regarded as truth, un-
daunted intrepidity to maintain his own
system, abiHties, both natural and acquired,
to defend his principles, and unwearied in-
dustry in propagating them, are virtues
which shine conspicuously in every part
of his behaviour, that even his enemies

MARTIN LUTHER. 135

must allow him to have possessed them
in an eminent degree. To these may be
added, with equal justice, such purity, and
even austerity of manners, as became one
who assumed the character of a reformer ;
such sanctity of Kfe as suited the doctrine
which he delivered, and such perfect dis-
interestedness as affords no slight presump-
tion of his sincerity. Superior to all sel-
fish considerations,, a stranger to all the
elegancies of life, and despising its pleas-
ures, he left the honours and emoluments
of the church to his disciples, remaining
satisfied himself in his original state of pro-
fessor of the university, and pastor of the
town of Wittemburg, with the moderate
appointments annexed to each. His ex-
traordinary qualities were allayed with no
inconsiderable mixture of human frailty,
and human passions. These, however,
were of a nature, that they cannot be im-
puted to malevolence or corruption of heart,
but seem to have taken their rise from the
same source with many of his virtues.

136 MARTIN LUTHER.

Accustomed himself to consider every thing
as subordinate to truth, he expected the
same deference for it from other men ; and,
without making any allowances for their
timidity or prejudices, he poured forth
against such as disappointed him in this
particular, a torrent of invective and abuse.
Regardless of any distinction of rank or
character when his doctrines were attack-
ed, he chastised all his adversaries indis-
criminately, with the same rough hand ;
neither the royal dignity of Henry VIII.
nor the eminent learning and abihties of
Erasmus, screened them from the same
gross abuse with which he treated Tetzel
or Eckius. To rouse mankind, when sunk
in ignorance and superstition, and to en-
counter the rage of bigotry armed with
power, required the utmost vehemence of
zeal, as well as a temper daring to excess.
A gentle call would neither have reached,
nor have excited those to whom it must
have been addressed. A spirit more amia-
ble but less vigorous than Luther's would

MARTIN LUTHER. 137

have shrunk back from dangers which he
braved and surmounted. Towards the
close of Luther's life, though without any-
perceptible diminution of his zeal and abili-
ties, the infirmities of his temper increased
upon him, so that he grew^ daily more pee-
vish, more irascible, and more impatient
of contradiction. Having lived to be a
witness of his own amazing success ; to
see a great part of Europe embrace his
doctrines, and to shake the foundation of
papal Rome, before which the mightiest
monarchs had trembled, he discovered, on
some occasions, symptoms of vanity and
self-applause. He must have been, in-
deed, more than man, if, upon contempla-
ting all that he actually accompHshed, he
had never felt any sentiment of this kind
rising in his breast." There is yet another
testimony to the life and labours of this
great man that we cannot omit :

" Martin Luther's life," says bishop At-
terbury, " was a continual warfare ; he
was engaged against the united forces of

138 MARTIN LUTHER.

the papal world, and he stood the shock
of them bravely, both with courage and
success. He was a man certainly of high
endowments of mind and great virtues :
he had a vast understanding which raised
him to a pitch of learning unknown to the
age in which he lived ; his knowledge in
Scripture was admirable, his elocution man-
ly, and his way of reasoning with all the
subtilty that these plain truths he delivered
would bear, his thoughts were bent al-
ways on great designs, and he had a reso-
lution fitted to go through with them, and
the assurance of his mind was not to be
shaken or surprised, and that Tta^grjcia of
his (for I know not what else to call it)
before the diet of Worms, was such as
might have become the days of the apos-
tles. His life was holy, and, when he
had leisure for retirement, severe ; his vir-
tues active chiefly, and homilitical, and not
those lazy sullen ones of the cloister. He
had no ambition but in the service of God ;
for other things, neither his enjoyment nor

MARTIN LUTHER. 139

wishes ever went higher than the bare
conveniences of living. He was of a tem-
per particularly averse to covetousness,
or any base sin, and charitable even to a
fault, without respect to his own occasions.
If, among this crowd of virtues, a failing
crept in, we must remember that an apos-
tle himself had not been irreproachable ;
if, in the body of his doctrine, one flaw
is to be seen, yet the greatest lights of the
church, and in the purest times of it, were,
we know, not exact in all their opinions.
Upon the whole, we have certainly great
reason to break out in the phrase of the
prophet and say, " How beautiful, upon
the mountains, are the feet of him that
bringeth glad tidings." Gibbon, speaking
of the effects produced by the exertions of
Luther and his contemporaries, says, " The
philosopher must own his obligations to
these fearless enthusiasts. 1. By their
hands the lofty fabric of superstition, from
the abuse of indulgences to the interces-
sion of the Virgin, has been levelled with
12

140 MARTIN LUTHER.

the ground. Myriads of both sexes of
the monastic profession were restored to
liberty and the labours of social life. 2.
The chain of authority was broken which
restrains the bigot from thinking as he
pleases, and the slave from speaking as he
thinks. The Popes, fathers, and councils
•were no longer the supreme and infallible
judges of the world ; and each Christian
was taught to acknowledge no law but the
Scriptures, no interpreter but his own con-

ULRIC ZUINGLE.

Ulric Zuingle, in Biography, the Swiss
Reformer, was born January 1, 1484, at
the village of Wildhausen, in the county
of Tockenburg ; and having discovered in
his youth a studious disposition, was in-
tended by his father for the church. Ac-
cordingly he was sent for education first
to Basil, and then to Berne, where attempts
were made to fix him in the convent of the
Dominicans ; but in order to prevent their
taking effect, his father removed him to the
university of Vienna, which was then in
high reputation. Returning from thence to
Basil, he was chosen classical tutor in his
eighteenth year, where he made very con-
siderable advances in knowledge, and par-
ticularly in that of the profession to which
he was destined, whilst he taught others ;
availing himself of the lectures of Thomas

142 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

Wyttembach, who, without renouncing the
system of the schools, allowed his pupils to
think freely for themselves. After a resi-
dence of about four years at Basil, Zuingle
took the degree of M. A., and being chosen
pastor of Glarus, was ordained by the bishop
of Constance. Having commenced a course
of liberal inquiry, he indefatigably pursued
it, critically examining the New Testament
as the directory of his faith, and consulting
a variety of writers who had incurred the
censure of the church of Rome. The
consequence of this mode of study was a
discovery of the deviation of the ecclesias-
tical system, generally adopted and estab-
lished, from that of Christianity, both in
doctrine and practice. But he was slow in
publishing the theological sentiments which
he had imbibed, and for ten years pursued
a course of practical instruction at Glarus,
which secured to him the respect and af-
fection of his parishioners, so that the
bigotted clergy could not succeed in their
attempts to do him injury. From Glarus

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 143

he removed to the celebrated abbey of
Einsidhii, where he accepted the office of
preacher, and where he had an opportunity
of associatmg with persons of learning, and
of contributing to the education of candid-
ates for the ministry. Whilst he was at
Glarus he exposed several superstitions of
the church of Rome ; and at Einsidlin he
gained additional reputation by preaching
against vows, pilgrimages, and offerings.
Here he employed his influence so effect-
ually, that he ordered the inscription over
the abbey-gate, " Here plenary remission
of sins is obtained," to be effaced, and the
relics to be buried ; and, among other rules
which he established in a convent of females
under his direction, he introduced one for
obliging the nuns to read lessons in the
New Testament, instead of reciting their
hours. He was also intrepid and zealous
in propagating rational sentiments of reH-
gion, and with this view he availed himself
of a public occasion, when a crowd w^as
assembled, to deliver a sermon designed to
12^

144 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

shew that no superior sanctity resided in
any place so as to confer peculiar merit on
vows addressed from it, but that their ac-
ceptance depended upon the purity of the
heart and life of the worshipper. Declara-
tions of this kind, whilst they gained the
approbation of some of his auditors, excited
the indignation of others, and alarmed the
monks of this and neighbouring convents.
Although he w^as regarded with jealousy
and terror by those whose interest led them
to oppose reformation, he was so much re-
spected, that his ecclesiastical superiors
manifested no displeasure against him ; and
by his correspondence with Erasmus, Gla-
reanus, Hedio, Rhenanus, and other learned
persons, he established a reputation which
enabled him to encourage liberal studies.
In 1518, he was invited to occupy the
vacant post of preacher in the cathedral of
Zurich, and before he was installed he
announced his proposed plan of preaching,
which differed from that which had been
before practised, and which gave him an

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 145

opportunity of explaining the books of the
New Testament in an uninterrupted series,
without regard to texts that were marked
for each Sunday and Saint's-day in the
year. This plan was approved by the ma-
jority of the chapter, and drew together a
crowded auditory, who expressed in high
terms their admiration of the preacher. A
circumstance occurred which afforded him
a complete victory over an emissary of Pope
Leo X., who was employed in the sale of
indulgences, insomuch that he was obliged
to quit the city and retire into Italy.

Some writers, especially among the Cath-
oHcs, have referred the origin of the refor-
mation, and of the opposition of both Zuin-
gle and Luther to the papal authority, to
the disputes about indulgences ; but, al-
though this quarrel might have contributed
to the promotion of it, the people were pre-
viously prepared for the event by the
preaching and conduct of Zuingle, and by
the judgment and prudence with which he
had planned and pursued his measure for

146 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

this purpose. Luther proceeded very slow-
ly to that exemption from the prejudices of
education, which Zuingle, by the force of
an adventurous genius, and an uncommon
degree of knowledge, and penetration, easi-
ly got rid of. And we learn from the most
authentic records of history, that he had ex-
plained the Scriptures to the people, and
called in question the authority and supre-
macy of the Pope, before the name of Lu-
ther was known in Switzerland. In pro-
cess of time, after Luther had taken up
arms against Rome, Zuingle, being then
minister of the chief church in Zurich, con-
curred with him ; preaching openly against
indulgences, then against the intercession of
the saints, then against the mass, the hierar-
chy, the vows of celibacy of the clergy, absti-
nence from flesh, and also many things
which Luther was disposed to treat with
toleration and indulgence ; such as images,
altars, wax-tapers, the form of exorcism,
and private confession, he. Zuingle at
an early period of his ministry, had declar-

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 147

ed his decided disapprobation of all wars,
excepting those that were undertaken for
the defence of the country ; and such was
the influence of his opinion, that the canton
of Zurich refused to concur with the other
cantons, in a subsidiary treaty with the
French king. The result of his arguments
and remonstrances to this effect was a law
passed by the assembly of the canton in
1522, abolishing all alliances and subsidies
for the term of twenty-five years. He la-
boured at the same time to enforce a regard
to the rules of the gospel in preference to
the respect that was generally manifested to
those of ecclesiastical discipline. Accord-
ingly he defended those persons who had
been denounced to the magistrate for in-
fringing on the " fast of Lent" without a
dispensation ; and published on this occa-
sion his treatise " On the Observation of
Lent," which contained some free opinions
on the obligation of fasting and keeping
particular days. When the bishop of Con-
stance remonstrated against his proceeding,

148 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

and endeavoured by his charge and letters
to excite apprehensions among the people,
and in the council and chapter of Zurich,
that he would spread through Switzerland
such a flame as Luther had kindled in
Germany, Zuingle obtained permission to
reply; and composed a tract to prove
that the gospel alone is authority from
which there is no appeal, and that the de-
cisions of the church are binding only inas-
much as they are founded on Scriptures.
When the bishop of Constance had pre-
vailed with the deputies of the Helvetic
diet to order the arrest of a pastor accused
of preaching the " new doctrine," Zuin-
gle, who had now adopted and openly
avowed the principles of the reformation,
addressed to the heads of the cantons, in
his own name and that of his friend, a
summary of his doctrine, annexing an in-
treaty that they would allow liberty for the
preaching of the gospel. In a conference
before the deputies of the bishop of Con-
stance, in the presence of the great coun-

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 149

cil of Zurich, helcl in 1523, Zuingle gave
an account of his doctrine ; and the col-
loquy terminated in the following declara-
tion of the council: "That Zuingle, having
been neither convicted of heresy, nor re-
futed, should continue to preach the gospel
as he had already done ; that the pastors
of Zurich and its territory should rest their
discourses on the words of Scripture alone ;
and that both parties should abstain from
all personal reflections." Zuingle, having
been thus supported by the magistrates,
and having obtained a public sanction of
the principles of the reformation in this
canton, has been charged, both by Catho-
lics and Protestants, with allowing to the
secular power an undue degree of au-
thority in ecclesiastical matters; however
it has been urged in his defence, that he
did not intend to transfer to government
the absolute power over consciences claim-
ed by the Popes ; but that, for the preserva-
tion of order and tranquility, he thought
that the depositories of lawful authority

150 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

ought to have a share in the direction of
ecclesiastical affairs. Zuingle, though thus
supported, proceeded with caution in pro-
moting alterations in the ceremonies and
modes of pubhc worship, and was princi-
pally anxious to lay a proper foundation of
change by enlightening the understanding
and convincing the judgment of the people.
When some zealous reformists instigated a
mob to pull down a crucifix that had been
erected at the gate of the city, and the cul-
prits were brought before the council to be
tried and punished, Zuingle interposed ;
and whilst he vindicated the offenders from
the charge of sacrilege, he gave it as his
opinion, that they deserved some punish-
ment for having pulled down the crucifix
without the authority of the magistracy.
This dispute led to a general colloquy,
which was held in October 1523 ; and the
result was, that all the culprits except Hot-
tinger their ring-leader, and the person who
had actually committed the offence, were
set at liberty ; but Hottinger was banished

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 151

from the canton for two years; and he was
afterwards put to death for heresy, in con-
sequence of a sentence pronounced by the
deputies of seven cantons at Lucerne, not-
withstanding the intercession of Zurich.
The question of the ceKbacy of the clergy
was agitated in these colloquies, and though
no decisive opinion was given by the coun-
cil, several clergynrien married, and among
them was Zuingle himself, who had ex-
pressed his sentiments against the question,
at the age of forty. In 1524, the council
of Zurich proceeded to the reformation of
public worship according to the plan pro-
posed by Zuingle. They began with caus-
ing all pictures and statues to be removed
by those whose ancestors had consecrated
them ; and of these several were destroyed.
These measures occasioned alarm and com-
l^laint in the other cantons ; and acts of hos-
tility were meditated. Without entering
into a detail of the various circumstances
that occurred on one side and on the other,
we shall content ourselves with observing,
13

152 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

that fanaticism and bigotry were engaged in
opposition to each other, and produced in
Switzerland effects similar to those that
have attended innovation and reformation
in other countries. At Zurich, the total
subversion of the Romish worship was ac-
comphshed, by prohibiting processions and
other ceremonies, and by the aboHtion of
the sacrifice of the mass. The latter event
took place by the activity of Zuingle in
1525 ; and on Easter Sunday the Lord's
Supper was celebrated according to his
idea of this rite, which was that of a merely
commemorative and symbolical service.
Our reformer displayed in another instance
a disinterested spirit, which reflects great
honor on his memory. Although he was
one of the canons who composed the
chapter of the cathedral, and this body
was independent of the council, and pos-
sessed its own jurisdiction and property,
he prevailed with the majority of his col-
leagues to consecrate the large revenues
of the chapter to establishments for public

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 153

instruction, and to transfer its temporal
power to the government. In the con-
duct of this event he manifested no less
wisdom and moderation than disinterested-
ness; for the chapter charged itself with
the payment of as many pastors as were
necessary for the public worship of the
city, to which service those canons who
were capable of service were devoted.
Those who were old and infirm were allow-
ed to preserve their benefices for life ; and
their revenues, as they became vacant, were
to be employed in founding professorships
for lectures, to which admission was to be
gratuitous. These liberal conditions were
religiously observed, and the regulations
thus framed are still continued at Zurich.
The orders of mendicants, and other reli-
gious houses, were abolished ; and their
revenues were appropriated to the support
of hospitals, and other charitable institutions,
as the old members dropped off. Zuingle
was afterwards commissioned to organize a
system of public instruction, in which he
displayed a cultivated and liberal mind.

154 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

The reputation which Zuingle had ac-
quired, and the success which had crown-
ed his plans and labours in the cause of re-
formation, were not sufficient to secure him
against the prejudices of fanatics, and the
hostile attacks of malignity. Attempts
were made to associate him with Munzer^
one of the leaders of the Anabaptists ; but
he happily avoided the snare that was laid
for him, and instead of taking part in those
violences which called forth the interposition
of the civil power, and which terminated in
the death of one of the persons concerned,
he did all that lay in his power to prevent
them ; and though he could not preserve
the Hfe of one disturber of the public peace^
he composed the tumult occasioned by the
intemperate zeal of others. Notwithstand-
ing the singular prudence and moderation
which influenced his whole conduct, his
reputation excited envy, and a conspiracy
was formed against his life. Under the
protection of the magistracy of Zurich he
w^as safe ; but his enemies insidiously pro-
posed a conference at Baden, in Argovia.

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 155

His friends, however, were not unapprised
of his danger, and well knowing that the
cantons were actuated by inveterate hos-
tility against his person as well as his doc-
trines, they would not consent to his leav-
ing Zurich. At the conference, which he
prudently declined to attend, enmity was
avowed both against him and his adherents.
Some of the cantons, however, withheld
their concurrence ; and this was particularly
the case with respect to the canton of Berne.
In this canton the reformation had made
considerable progress, so that in 1527 sev-
eral of its municipalities addressed the sen-
ate for the abolition of the mass, and the
introduction of the form of worship estab-
lished at Zurich. The reformers at Berne
summoned a convocation, to which the
clergy of the other Helvetic states, and the
neighbouring bishops, were invited. Zuin-
gle's attendance was also requested ; and
he thought it his duty to appear in that as-
sembly, professedly convened for the ad-
vancement of the reformation. Haller was
13*

156 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

the leader of the partj in this canton, and
in connection with Zuingle and other coad-
jutors the cause to which they were devot-
ed obtained a complete triumph ; so that
the grand council of that canton fully adopt-
ed the measures of that of Zurich. Upon
this, five of the cantons which were attach-
ed to the old religion, entered into a solemn
engagement not to suffer the doctrines of
Zuingle and Luther to be preached among
them. At length the hostilities that subsist-
ed between the Catholic and reformed can-
tons were amicably terminated by the trea-
ty of Cappel, in 1529. The animosity,
however, between these cantons was not
extinguished. It broke out again with
greater violence than ever ; and the senate
of Zurich has been charged with the first
aggression, by arbitrary acts in favour of
the reformed preachers in the common
bailiages. Its project of secularizing the
abbey of St. Gall, which belonged to the
Helvetic confederacy, was a greater griev-
ance ; and on the other hand, the five asso-

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 157

ciated Catholic cantons refused to concur
with the others in expelHng the Spaniards
from the Vakehne, and persecuted the re-
formed in their jurisdictions with the great-
est severity. The sufferers sought the pro-
tection of Zurich, and the eloquence of
Zuingle was employed in recommending
their case to the senate. The breach
widened, and a majority of the Protestants
agreed in stopping the transit of provisions
to the five cantons, which depended upon
foreign suppHes. Zuingle in vain remon-
strated against this cruel act ; and the five
cantons took up arms, and having published
a manifesto, marched into the field in Octo-
ber 1531. A detachment was ordered to
prevent the junction of the forces of Berne
with those of Zurich, and the main body
advanced towards Cappel. This intelli-
gence alarmed the people of Zurich ; and
they could only spare seven hundred men
for the relief of their countrymen at Cap-
pel. Zuingle was appointed to accompany
them. A battle ensued ; and though the

158 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

Zurichers, animated by his exhortations, de-
fended themseh^es vaHantly, they at length
were compelled to yield to superiority of
numbers, and were entirely routed. Some
died at their posts ; others fled ; and Zuin-
gle received a mortal wound at the com-
mencement of the action, and fell senseless
to the ground. As soon as he had recov-
ered sufficiently to raise himself up, he
crossed his arms on his breast, and lifted
his languid eyes to heaven. In this con-
dition he was found by some Catholic sol-
diers, who, without knowing him, offered
to bring a confessor; but as he made a
sign of refusal, the soldiers exhorted him
to recommend his soul to the holy virgin.
On a second refusal, one of them furiously
exclaimed, " Die then, obstinate heretic !"
and pierced him through with a sword.
His body was found on the next day, and
the celebrity of his name drew together a
great crowd of spectators. One of these,
who had been his colleague at Zurich,
after intently gazing on his face, thus ex-

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 159

pressed his feelings : " Whatever may have
been thy faith, I am sure thou wert always
sincere, and that thou lovedst thy country.
May God take thy soul to his mercy I"
Among the savage herd some voices ex-
claimed, " Let us burn his accursed re-
mains !" The proposal was applauded ;
a military tribunal ordered the execution,
and the ashes of Zuingle, were scattered
to the wind. Thus, at the age of 47, he
terminated a glorious career by an event
deeply lamented by all the friends of the
reformation, and occasioning triumph to
the partisans of the Romish church.

" In the character of Zuingle," says one
of his biographers, " there appears to have
been united all that makes a man amiable
in private society, with the firmness, ar-
dour, and intrepidity that are indispensa-
ble in executing the great task of refor-
mation. By nature mild, his earnestness
was the result of his sense of the impor-
tance of the cause he engaged in to the
best interests of mankind, not of a dog-

160 ULRIC ZUINGLE.

matic or dictatorial spirit. His views were
large and generous, and his opinions rose
above the narrow scale of sect or party.
It was no small proof of liberality in that
age that he ventured to assert his belief
of the final happiness of virtuous heathens,
and of all good men who act up to the laws
engraven on their consciences. His tem-
per was cheerful and social, somewhat hasty,
but incapable of harbouring resentment, or
indulging envy and jealousy. As a reform-
er he was original ; for he had proceeded
far in emancipating himself from the su-
perstitions of Rome by the strength of his
own judgment, and had begun to commu-
nicate the light to others, whilst Luther
still retained almost the whole of the Ro-
mish system, and long before Calvin was
known in the world. He was more learn-
ed and more moderate than the first of
these divines, and more humane and kind-
hearted than the last. He wrote many
works of utility in their day ; and the re-
form, of which he was the author, still

ULRIC ZUINGLE. 161

subsists unchanged among a people distin-
guished by their morals and mental cuhi-

JOHN CALVIN.

John Calvin, in Biography, an emi-
nent reformer, entitled on account of his
talents and character, as well as his pecu-
liar activity and zeal, to the second rank
of celebrity among those who contributed
to rescue the Christian church from the
errors and superstitions of Popery, was
born of an obscure family, named Cauvin,
at Noyon, in Picardy, in 1509. As he
was originally designed for the church, he
obtained at an early age a benefice in the
cathedral church of his native place, and
also the cure of Pont-1' Eveque. Having
pursued the study of polite literature for
some time at Paris, where he distinguished
himself by his proficiency, and where he
also acquired a predilection in favour of
the new opinions in religion, from a study
of the Scriptures, recommended to him by

JOHN CALVIN. 163

Robert Olivetan, he determined to change
his professional destination ; and apphed
to the study of the civil law, first at Or-
leans, and afterwards at Bourges. The
Scriptures were likewise the objects of his
particular attention ; the more he acquaint-
ed himself with these purest sources of
theological knowledge, the more was he
confirmed in the opinions he had adopted ;
and his attachment to them was strength-
ened by intercourse Avith Melchior Wol-
mar, a German professor of the Greek
language at Bourges. Upon his father's
death he was obliged to return to Noyon,
where he resigned his ecclesiastical bene-
fices 5 and soon after removing to Paris,
he pubhshed, in 1532, an eloquent Latin
commentary on Seneca's treatise " De
Clementia," on clemency. In the title of
this book he latinized his name Cauvin
into Calvinus, whence he afterwards as-
sumed his common appellation of Calvin.
His attachment to the reformation being
now generally known, he was under a
14

164 JOHN CALVIN.

necessity of suddenly quitting Paris, and
of retiring to Angouleme, where he obtain-
ed a subsistence by teaching Greek. Here
he was admitted into the house of Lewis
du Tillet, canon of the church, whom he
had proselyted to the reformed religion ;
and during his residence in this place he
wrote the greatest part of his " Institute."
Notwithstanding some degree of protection
which was afforded him by the queen of
Navarre, he thought it most prudent to
leave France, and in 1534 he withdrew
to Basil, and in the following year pub-
lished his celebrated work, entitled " In-
stitutes of the Christian Religion." The
design of this work was to exhibit a just
view of the principles of the reformed, and
to prevent their being confounded with the
Anabaptists and other enthusiasts. It was
addressed to Francis I, by a dedicatory
epistle, which is much applauded as the
finest specimen of modern latinity, and
which was intended to soften the unrelent-
ing fury of that prince against the Protes-

JOHN CALVIN. 165

tants. This work has been always much
admired by persons of similar sentiments,
for the elegance of its style, the perspicuity
of its method, and the force of its reason-
ing. It passed through several editions,
which were successively enlarged and im-
proved ; it was translated by Calvin into
French ; and versions of it w^ere made in
all the principal modern languages. To
some editions is prefixed the device of a
flaming sword, with the motto, " Non veni
mittere pacem sed gladium ;" i. e. " I
came not to send peace but a sword."
After the publication of this work, Calvin
went to Italy for the purpose of visiting the
duchess of Ferrara, who was a convert to
the reformed religion, and who received
him with great kindness. On his return
to France, he proposed to pursue his
journey to Strasburgh or Basil ; but being
obliged, on account of the war that then
prevailed, to pass through the territories
of the duchy of Savoy, he took Geneva
in his way ; and being urged by the pres-

166 JOHN CALVIN.

sing solicitation of Farel, Viret, and other
zealous reformers, to settle in that city,
he accepted the offices of preacher and
professor of divinity, which were confer-
red upon him with the consent of the peo-
ple, by the consistory and magistrates.
This settlement took place in 1536. In
the following year he began to display his
arbitrary spirit, by obliging all the people
to swear solemnly to a body of doctrines,
which also contained a renunciation of Po-
pery ; and by refusing to celebrate the
Lord's supper, till certain irregularities
that subsisted in the church at Geneva
were rectified. He also declared, that he
could not submit to the regulations which
had been lately made by the Synod of the
canton of Berne, and which required the
use of unleavened bread in the eucharist,
the baptismal fonts which had been remov-
ed out of the churches, and the feasts,
which had been abolished, to be restored
at Geneva. This occasioned a conflict,
which terminated in an order of the assem-

JOHxV CALVIN. 167

bly of the people, summoned by the syn-
dics, that Calvin, Farel, and another minis-
ter, should leave the city within two days.
Calvin retired to Strasburgh, where he was
allowed to found a church according to his
own model. There he married a wife 5
and published his " Commentary upon the
Epistle to the Romans." During his ab-
sence, his friends at Geneva were very
anxious for his return ; and they at length
prevailed, so that he arrived thither in Sep-
tember, 1541. After his re-settlement he
began with establishing a form of ecclesi-
astical discipline, and a consistorial juris-
diction, invested with full powers to inflict
all kinds of censures and canonical punish-
ments, as far as excommunication. This
establishment was much disapproved by
several persons, who expressed their ap-
prehensions, that papal tyranny would soon
be revived. Calvin, however, was inflexi-
ble ; and on all occasions asserted the
rights of the consistory, of which he was
perpetual president, as he also was of the
14^

168 JOHN CALVIN.

assembly of the clergy. But fully appris-
ed of the exorbitant power which accrued
from this office, he advised, on his death-
bed, that no person should again be in-
vested with such authority ; and after his
time the office of president ceased to be
perpetual.

Such was the extent of Calvin's ambi-
tion and views, that he formed a project
of making the republic of Geneva the
mother and seminary of all the reformed
churches, as Wittemburg was of the Luth-
eran. From hence ministers were to be
deputed to diffiase and support the Protes-
tant cause throughout the world. Here
he designed to originate an uniform model
of doctrine and discipline ', and Geneva
was to be, as it were, the " Rome " of
Protestantism. His plan was pursued with
vigour and perseverance. An academy
was instituted in this city, to which his own
talents and learning, and those of his col-
league Beza, and of other eminent persons,
attached a degree of reputation that attract-

JOHN CALVIN. 169

ed students from all countries where the
reformation had taken root. The success
of Calvin in his project was so great, that
the Presbyterian model of church govern-
ment gradually held a kind of divided em-
pire with the Lutheran and Protestant epis-
copalian. When Calvin had formed and
estabHshed his system of doctrine and
church government, he was too tenacious
of his own opinion, and too arbitrary in
the exercise of his authority, to allow any
deviation or opposition among those to
whom his influence extended. Of this
unamiable peculiarity of his character, and
that which entails the greatest disgrace on
his memory, was his treatment of Servetus.
Whilst he was passing through Geneva, in
order to seek an asylum in Italy from the
persecution of Roman CathoHcs, he was
apprehended at the instigation of Calvin,
tried on a charge of blasphemy, condemn-
ed, and committed to the flames. The
mere statement of this fact is sufficient to
expose it ; and no apology can be devised

ITO JOHN CALVIN.

to extenuate it, but such as arises from
the intolerant spirit which generally pre-
vailed, and which, for many ages, it was
thought not only lawful but laudable to
exercise against persons who were deemed
to hold unscriptural and heretical opinions,
conceived to be inconsistent wdth the unity
of the church, and the safety of the civil
state.

The course of Calvin's life comprehend-
ed a great variety of pastoral cares and
literary labours ; and it was terminated by
sickness and labour at comparatively an
early period, in May, 1564, as he was
nearly completing his 55th year. The
character of this learned and active re-
former has been grossly calumniated by
bigots of various descriptions ; and more
especially by those of the church of Rome.
But it is justly observed by a liberal and
candid biographer, that, whilst his morals,
in the ordinary sense of the term, appear
to have been irreproachable, his chief faults
consisted in a resemblance to those un-

JOHN CALVIN. 171

charitable persons who have censured and
traduced him. His extraordinary talents
have been acknowledged by the most emi-
nent persons of his age ; and they were
such as would have rendered him a dis-
tinguished scholar, if his attention had not
been wholly, or at least principally, devoted
to theological studies and ecclesiastical oc-
cupations. His writings are numerous.
Besides his " Institute," he pubhshed learn-
ed commentaries upon most of the books
of the New Testament, and upon the
prophets in the Old. He refrained from
commenting on the book of Revelation,
much to his praise, according to the judg-
ment of Scaliger and Bodin, because he
thought it impenetrably obscure, and of
dubious authority. Many zealous beUev-
ers were offended by his applying to the
temporal circumstances of the Jews several
ancient prophecies that have been thought
to refer to the Messiah, and to furnish ar-
guments in confirmation of the Christian
cause. In this respect, however, he thought

172 JOHN CALVIN.

for himself, and escaped the odium of ser-
vile attachment to generally received opin-
ions. To his other more elaborate works
he added many controversial pieces ; and
all his treatises were collected in 1560, in
9 vols, folio. His opinions, which are now
better known than his writings, have been
the subjects of innumerable controversies*

THE

REFORMATION.

The reformation of religion, called, by
way of eminence, the Reformation, was
begun by the elector of Saxony, at the
solicitation of Luther, about the beginning
of the sixteenth century. There were
many circumstances which concurred at
this time to bring about that happy refor-
mation in religion, which rescued one part
of Europe from the papal yoke, mitigated
its rigour in the other, and produced a
revolution in the sentiments of mankind,
the greatest as well as the most beneficial
that has happened since the publication
of Christianity. We shall here observe,
that the same corruptions in the church of
Rome which Luther condemned, had been
attacked long before his appearance, and
the same opinions which he propagated
had been published in different places, and

174 REFORMATION.

supported by the same arguments. Wal-
dus in the 12th century, WicklifFe in the
Mth, and Huss in the 15th, had inveighed
against the errors of Popery with great
boldness, and confuted them with more
ingenuity and learning than could have
been expected in those illiterate ages in
which they flourished. But all these pre-
mature attempts towards a reformation
proved abortive. Many powerful causes
contributed to facilitate Luther's progress,
w^hich either did not exist, or did not oper-
ate with full force in their days : the prin-
cipal of these we shall here enumerate.
The long and scandalous schism which
divided the church, during the latter part
of the 14th, and the beginning of the 15th
centuries, had a great effect in diminishing
the veneration with which the world had
been accustomed to view the papal dignity.
The proceedings of the councils of Con-
stance and Basil spread this disrespect for
the Romish see still wider, and by their
bold exertion of authority in deposing and

REFORMATION. 175

electing Popes, taught the world that there
was in the church a jurisdiction superior
even to the papal power, which they had
long believed to be supreme. The wound
given on that occasion to the .papal authori-
ty was scarcely healed, when the pontifi-
cates of Alexander VI. and Julius II. both
able princes, but detestable ecclesiastics,
raised new scandal in Christendom. Be-
sides, many of the dignified clergy, secular
as well as regular, neglected the duties of
their office, and indulged themselves, with-
out reserve, in all the vices to which great
wealth and idleness naturally give birth ;
and gross ignorance and low debauchery
rendered the inferior clergy as contempti-
ble as the others w^ere odious. So that
we find, long before the 16th century, that
many authors of reputation give such de-
scription of the dissolute morals of the
clergy, as seems almost incredible in the
present age. The scandal of those crimes,
which very generally prevailed, was great-
ly increased by the facility with which such
15

176 REFORMATION.

as committed them obtained pardon. The
exorbitant wealth of the church, the vast
personal immunities of ecclesiastics, and
their encroachments on the jurisdiction of
the laity, and their various devices to se-
cure their usurpations, created much dis-
satisfaction among the people, and disposed
them to pay particular attention to the in-
vectives of Luther. Besides these causes
of his rapid progress, we may also reckon
the invention of the art of printing, about
half a century before his time, the revival
of learning at the same period, and the bold
spirit of inquiry which it excited in Eu-
rope 5 so that many were prepared to em-
brace his doctrines, who did not really wish
success to his undertaking. In the wri-
tings of Reuchlin Hutten and the other
revivers of learning in Germany, the cor-
ruptions of the church of Rome are cen-
sured with an acrimony of style little infe-
rior to that of Luther himself. The rail-
lery and oblique censures of Erasmus in
particular, upon the errors of the church,

REFORMATION. 177

as well as upon the ignorance and vices
of the clergy, prepared the way for Luth-
er's invectives and more direct attacks.
To all which we may add, that the theo-
logical doctrines of Popery were so repug-
nant to the spirit of Christianity, and so
destitute of any foundation in reason, in
the w^ord of God, or in the practice of the
church, that this circumstance combined
in favouring the progress of Luther's opin-
ions, and in weakening the resistance of
his adversaries.

The rise of the reformation in Switzer-
land was at least as early as in Germany;
for Ulric Zuingle had, in the year 1516,
begun to explain the Scriptures to the peo-
ple, and to censure, though with great
prudence and moderation, the errors of a
corrupt church. He had very noble and
extensive ideas of a general reformation,
at the time when Luther retained almost
the whole system of Popery, indulgences
excepted ; and he had actually called in
question the authority and supremacy of

178 REFORMATION.

the Pope, before the name of Luther was
known in that country. In the year 1524,
Nuremburg, Frankfort, Hamburg, and sev-
eral other chles in Germany, of the first
rank, openly embraced the reformed reli-
gion, and by the authority of their magis-
trates abolished the mass, and the other
superstitious rites of Popery. The elec-
tor of Brandenburgh, Saxony, the marquis
of the landgrave of Hesse, the dukes of
Brunswick and Lunenburg, and prince of
Anhalt, became avowed patrons of Luth-
er's opinions, and countenanced the preach-
ing of them among their subjects. The
reformers derived great advantage from the
transactions of the diet at Nuremburg,
which presented to the Pope a catalogue
of a hundred grievances, which the empire
imputed to the iniquitous dominion of the
papal see. The progress of the reforma-
tion in Germany was likewise promoted
by the proceedings of the diet held at Spire,
in the years 1526. and 1529.

REFORMATION. 179

During these transactions in Germany,
the dawn of truth arose upon other nations.
The light of the reformation spread itself
far and wide ; and almost all the Europe-
an states welcomed its salutary beams, and
exulted in the prospect of an approaching
deliverance from the yoke of superstition
and spiritual despotism. Some of the
most considerable provinces of Europe had
already broke their chains, and openly
withdrawn themselves from the discipline
of Rome and the jurisdiction of its pontiff.
The reformed religion was propagated ia
Sweden, soon after Luther's rupture with
Rome, by Olaus Petri, one of his disciples,
who was countenanced and encouraged by
the valiant and public-spirited prince Gus-
tavus Vasa Ericson, to whose firmness and
magnanimity it was owing, that from the
year 1527 the papal empire in Sweden
was entirely overturned, and Gustavus de-
clared head of the church. The light of
the reformation w^as also received in Den-
mark so early as the year 1521, in conse-
15*

180 REFORMATION.

quence of the ardent desire discovered by
Christian or Christiern II. lor purposes
of mere ambition, of having his disciples
instructed in the doctrines of Luther. His
successor Frederic, duke of Holstein and
Silesia, contributed greatly to the progress
of the reformation, by his successful at-
tempts in favour of religious liberty, at the
assembly of states that was held at Oden-
see, in the year 1527, when he procured
the publication of the famous edict which
declared every subject of Denmark free, '
either to adhere to the tenets of the church
of Rome, or to embrace the doctrine of
Luther ; that no person should be molest-
ed on account of his religion ; that a royal
protection should be granted to the Luth-
erans ; and that ecclesiastics of every order
should be allowed to marry. But the hon-
our of accomplishing this glorious work
was reserved for Christiern III. a prince
equally distinguished by his piety and pru-
dence. The rehgious doctrine, discipline,
and worship of this kingdom, were settled

REFORMATION. 181

according to a plan laid down by Bugen-
hagius. And the assembly of the states
at Odensee, in 1539, gave a solemn sanc-
tion to all these transactions, and thus the
work of reformation was brought to perfec-
tion in Denmark.

In the same year the reformation was
estabhshed in every part of Saxony. Upon
the death of George, duke of Saxony, who
was an inveterate enemy to the reforma-
tion, the succession fell to his brother Hen-
ry, whose attachment to the Protestant
religion surpassed, if possible, that of his
predecessor to Popery. Henry invited
some Protestant divines, and among them
Luther himself, to Leipsic ; and by their
advice and assistance, he learned, in a few
weeks, the whole system of ancient rites,
estabhshing the full exercise of the Prot-
estant religion, with the universal applause
of his subjects, who had long wished for
this change, which the obstinacy of their
former duke had alone prevented. This
revolution delivered the Protestants from

182 REFORMATION.

the danger to which they were exposed by-
having an inveterate enemy settled in the
middle of their territories; and their do-
minions now extended in a great and
almost unbroken line from the shore of
the Baltic to the banks of the Rhine.

In France, the auspicious patronage of
Margaret, queen of Navarre, sister to Fran-
cis I. encouraged several pious and learned
men, whose religious sentiments were the
same with her own, to propagate the prin-
ciples of the reformation, and even to erect
several Protestant churches in that king-
dom. It appears, that, so early as the
year 1523, there were many, and even
persons of rank, and some of the episcopal
order, who had conceived the utmost aver-
sion both against the doctrine and tyranny
of Rome. But the wavering and incon-
sistent conduct of Francis I. rendered the
situation of the Protestants in this country,
always precarious, often distressed. Upon
the whole, we may observe, that, before
the diet of Augsburg, the doctrine of Luth-

REFORMATION. 183

er had made considerable, though perhaps
a secret, progress in Spain, Hungary, Bo-
hemia, Britian, Poland, and the Nether-
lands, and had, in all these countries,
many friends, of whom several repaired
to Wittemburg to improve their knowledge,
and enlarge their views under such an emi-
nent master. At this diet, held in 1530,
the Augsburg or Augustine confession was
presented to the emperor Charles V. and
after many debates between the friends of
liberty and the votaries of Rome, the lat-
ter prevailed ; and the diet in compliance
with the opinion and remonstrances of
Campeggio, the papal nuncio, issued a
decree, condemning most of the peculiar
tenets held by the Protestants ; forbidding
any person to protect or tolerate those who
taught them ; enjoining a strict observance
of the established rites ; and prohibiting
any farther innovation, under severe penal-
ties. Those who refused to obey this de-
cree were declared incapable of acting as
judges, or of appearing as parties in the

1S4 REFORMATION.

imperial chamber, the supreme court of
judicature in the emph-e. The Protes-
tants, alarmed at the severity of the decree,
assembled at Smalcald, and concluded a
league of mutual defence against all aggres-
sors, bv which they formed the Protestant
states of the empire into one regular body :
and they resolved to apply to the kings of
England, France, and Denmark, to im-
plore them to assist and patronize this new
confederacy. After various negociations
between the emperor and the Protestant
princes, terms of pacification were agreed
upon at Nuremburg, and ratified solemnly
in the diet of Ratisbon, in the year 1532.
In tliis treaty it was stipulated, that univer-
sal peace be estabhshed in Gerniany, until
the meeting of a general council, the con-
vocation of which, within six months, the
emperor shall endeavour to procure; that
no person be molested on account of reh-
gion ; that a stop be put to all processes
begun by the imperial chamber against
Protestants ; and the sentences already

REFORMATION. 185

passed to their detriment be declared void.
On their part, the Protestants engaged to
assist the emperor with all their forces in
resisting the invasion of the Turks. Thus
the Protestants, by their firmness, unanimi-
ty, and dexterity in availing themselves of
the emperpr's situation, obtained terms
which amounted almost to a toleration of
their religion. But neither the emperor
nor the Pope were disposed to abide by
the unbiased sense of a general council,
assembled, as the Protestants wished, with-
in the limit of the empire, but determined
to decide their religious debates by the
force of arms. After many evasions and
delays, it was proposed, in the year 1545,
to assemble a council at Trent, which was
vigorously opposed by the Protestants.
The emperor and the Pope had mutually
agreed to destroy all who should dare to
oppose this council. The meeting of that
assembly was to serve as a signal for their
taking arms ; and accordingly its delibera-
tions were scarcely begun, in the year

186 REFORMATION.

1546, when the Protestants perceived un-
doubted marks of a formidable union to
overwhelm and crush them by one blow.
The fathers, assembled in the council of
Trent, promulgated their decrees ; and the
Protestant princes in the diet of Ratisbon
protested against their authority ) and were,
in consequence of this, proscribed by the
emperor, who raised an army to reduce
them to obedience. Thus commenced the
war of Smalcald, which was prosecuted
with various success on both sides, till, in
the year 1552, Charles was surprised at
Inspruck by Maurice of Saxony, and was
constrained to conclude at Passau the
famous treaty of pacification, with the
Protestants, which is considered by those
of Germany as the basis of their religious
liberty; and to promise in six months
to assemble a diet, in which all the
tumults and dissentions, that had been oc-
casioned by a variety of sentiments in reli-
gious matters, should be entirely removed.
This diet, though not assembled at the

REFORMATION. l87

Stipulated time, met, however, at Augs-
burg, in the year 1555, and terminated
those deplorable scenes of bloodshed, deso-
lation, and discord, that had so long afflict-
ed both church and state by that religious
2Jeace, as it is commonly called, which
secured to the Protestants the free exer-
cise of their religion, and established this
inestimable liberty upon the firmest foun-
dations. For, after various debates, the
following memorable acts were passed;
that the Protestants who follow^ed the con-
fession of Augsburg, should for the future
be considered as entirely exempted from
the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, and
from the authority and superintendence of
the bishops ; that they were left at perfect
liberty to enact laws for themselves, rela-
ting to their religious sentiments, discipline,
and w^orshlp ; that all the inhabitants of
the German empire should be allowed to
judge for themselves in religious matters,
and to join themselves to that church
whose doctrine and worship they thought
16

188 REFORMATION.

the purest and most consonant to the spirit
of Christianity ; and that all those, who
should injure or persecute any person un-
der religious pretexts, and on account of
their opinions, should be declared, and
proceeded against, as pubhc enemies of
the empire, invaders of its liberty, and dis-
turbers of its peace.

In the year 1533, Henry VIII., king of
England, who, in the beginning of these
troubles, had opposed the doctrine and
views of Luther with the utmost vehe-
mence, partly because he had spoken with,
contempt of Thomas Aquinas, the king's
favourite author, having sued for a divorce
from Catharine of Arragon, his brother's
widow, at the court of Rome, for almost
six years, during which period Clement
VII. negociated, promised, retracted, and
concluded nothing, determined to apply
to another tribunal for that decree which
he had unsuccessfully solicited at Rome.
Cranmer, archbishop of Canterbury, by
a sentence founded on the authority of

REFORMATION. 189

universities, doctors, and rabbies, who had
been consulted with respect to the point,
annulled the king's marriage with Catha-
rine ; and Anne Boleyn, whose charms
had captivated the king, was acknowledg-
ed as queen of England. Clement, appre-
hensive lest England would revolt from the
holy see, determined to give Henry such
satisfaction as might still retain him within
the bosom of the church. But the vio-
lence of the cardinals precipitated him, in
1534, to issue a bull rescinding Cranmer's
sentence, confirming Henry's marriage with
Catharine, and declaring him excommu-
nicated, if, within a time specified, he did
not abandon the wife he had taken, and
return to her whom he had deserted. En-
raged at this unexpected decree, Henry
kept no longer any measures with the court
of Rome ; his subjects seconded his resent-
ment; an act of parliament was passed,
abolishing the papal power and jurisdiction
in England ; by another the king was de-
clared supreme head of the church, and

190 REFORMATION.

all the authority of which the Popes were
deprived was vested in him : the monas-
terieSf were suppressed, and their revenues
applied to other purposes.

The people had been gradually prepared
for this great innovation. Each succeed-
ing session of parliament had made some
retrenchment from the power and profits
of the Roman pontiff. Care had been
taken, during some years, to teach the
nation that a general council was much
superior to a Pope. But now a bishop
preached every Sunday at Paul's Cross,
in order to inculcate the doctrine, that the
Pope was entitled to no authority at all
beyond his own diocese.

The laws passed during this session
(1534) sufficiently evince, that the king
was determined not to surrender any part
of his assumed prerogative. All payments
made to the apostolic chamber; all pro-
visions, bulls, dispensations, were abolished :
monasteries were to be subjected to the
regulation and government of the king

REFORMATION. 191

alone : the law for punishing heretics was
moderated : the ordinary was prohibited
from imprisoning or trying any person upon
suspicion alone, without presentment by
ten lawful witnesses : and it was declared
that to speak against the Pope's authority
was no heresy ; bishops were to be ap-
pointed by a conge d^ elire from the crown,
or, in case of the dean and chapter's refu-
sal, by letters patent ; and no recourse was
to be had to Rome for palls, bulls, or pro-
visions. Carripeggio and Ghinucci, two
Italians, were deprived of the bishoprics
of Salisbury and Worcester, which they
had hitherto enjoyed : the law which had
been formerly made against paying annats,
or first fruits, but which had been left in
the king's power to suspend or enforce,
was finally established : and a submission
which was exacted two years before from
the clergy, and which had been obtained
with great difficuhy, received this session
the sanction of parKament. In this sub-
mission, the clergy acknowledged that con-
16*

192 REFORMATION.

vocations ought to be assembled by the
king's authority only : they promised to
enact no new canons without his consent :
and they agreed that he should appoint 32
commissioners, in order to examine the
old canons, and abrogate such as should
be found prejudicial to his royal preroga-
tive. An appeal was also allowed from
the bishop's court to the king in chancery.
But the most important act passed this ses-
sion, was that which regulated the suc-
cession to the crown : the marriage of the
king with Catharine was declared unlawful,
void, and of no effect : the primate's sen-
tence annulling it was ratified ; and the
marriage with queen Anne was established
and confirmed. The crown was appointed
to descend to the issue of this marriage,
and failing there, to the king's heirs for
ever. An oath was likewise enjoined to
be taken in favour of this order of succes-
sion, under the penalty of imprisonment
during the king's pleasure, and forfeiture
of goods and chattels : and all slander

REFORMATION. 193

against the king, queen, or their issue, was
subjected to the penalty of misprison of
treason. These sev^eral acts, so contempt-
uous towards the Pope, and so destructive
of his authority, were passed at the very
time that Clement pronounced his hasty
sentence against the king. The king found
his ecclesiastical subjects as compliant as
the laity. The convocation ordered that
the act against appeals to Rome, together
with the king's appeal from the Pope to a
general council, should be affixed to all
the doors of all the churches in the king-
dom ; and they voted that the bishop of
Rome had, by the laws of God, no more
jurisdiction in England than any other for-
eign bishop : and that the authority which
he and his predecessors had there exer-
cised, was only by usurpation, and by the
sufferance of EngHsh princes. The bish-
ops went so far in their complaisance, that
they took out new commissions from the
crovvn, in which all their spiritual and epis-
copal authority was expressly affirmed to

194 REFORMATION*

be derived ultimately from the civil magis-
trate, and to be entirely dependant on his
good pleasure.

Henry, however, with the caprice pecu-
liar to his character, continued to defend
the doctrines of the Romish church as
fiercely as he attacked their jurisdiction.
He alternately persecuted the Protestants
for rejecting the former, and the CathoHcs
for acknowledging the latter.

Nothing more forwarded the first pro-
gress of the reformers, than the offer which
they made, of submitting all religious doc-
trines to private judgment, and the sum-
mons given every one to examine the
principles formerly imposed upon them.
And what can be more just and reasona-
ble ? and yet the multitude, says Mr.
Hume, were totally unquaHfied for this un-
dertaking, though they were highly pleased
with it. They fancied that they were
exercising their judgment, while they op-
posed to the prejudices of ancient authority
more powerful prejudices of another kind.

REFORMATION. 195

The novelty itself of the doctrines; and
the pleasure of an imaginary triumph in
dispute ; the fervent zeal of the reformed
preachers ; their patience, and even alac-
rity, in suiFering persecution, death, and
torments ; a disgust at the restraints of the
old rehgion ; an indignation against the
tyranny and interested spirit of the eccle-
siastics : — these motives, says the same
historian, whilst, as some may imagine, he
is depreciating the principles of the refor-
mation, were prevalent with the people ;
and by such considerations were men so
generally induced, during that age, to throw
off the religion of their ancestors. In pro-
portion, says the same author, as the. prac-
tice of submitting religion to private judg-
ment was acceptable to the people, it ap-
peared, in some respects, dangerous to the
rights of sovereigns, and seemed to destroy
that implicit obedience on which the au-
thority of the civil magistrate is chiefly
founded. When some Englishmen, such
were Tindal, Jove, Constantine, and oth-

J 96 REFORMATION.

ers, retired to Antwerp, through fear of
the exertion of the king's authority, they
employed themselves in writing English
books against the corruptions of the church
of Rome ; against images, relics, and pil-
grims; and they excited the curiosity of
men with regard to that question, which
is the most important in theology, the
terms of acceptance with the Supreme
Being. These books, having been secretly
conveyed to England, began to make con-
verts every where ; but it was a translation
of the Scriptures by Tindal that was es-
teemed the most dangerous to the estab-
lished faith. Against Wolsey, a favourite
minister of Henry VIII., it was one article
of impeachment, that, by his connivance,
he had encouraged the growth of heresy,
and that he had protected and acquitted
some notorious oiFenders. Wolsey was
succeeded in the office of chancellor by
Sir Thomas More, who, irritated by po-
lemics, became so superstition sly attached
to the ancient faith, that few inquisitors

REFORMATION. 197

have been guilty of greater violence in
their prosecution of heresy. Several per-
sons were not only brought into the courts
for heretical offences, such as teaching their
children the Lord's prayer in EngHsh, for
reading the New Testament in that lan-
guage, or for speaking against pilgrimages;
and others were charged with the capital
offences of harbouring persecuted preach-
ers, neglecting the fasts of the church, and
declaiming against the vices of the clergy.
Some were tried, condemned, and com-
mitted to the flames. Notwithstanding the
inconsistent conduct of Henry, his subjects
having been encouraged by his example,
to break some of their fetters, were so im-
patient to shake off all that remained, that
in the following reign, under his son Ed-
ward VL, with the general applause of the
nation, a total separation was made from
the church of Rome in articles of doctrine,
as well as in matters of discipline and ju-
risdiction. In 1553, his death retarded
the progress of the reformation; and his

198 REFORMATION.

sister Mary, who succeeded him, imposed
anew the arbitrary laws and tyrannical
yoke of Rome upon the people of England.
But the execution of a great number of
persons, who were burnt for the Protes-
tant faith in five years of her persecuting
and bloody reign, so alienated the people
from Popery, that queen Elizabeth, her
sister, found it no hard matter to deliver
her subjects from the bondage of Rome,
and to establish that form of rehgious doc-
trine and ecclesiastical government, which
still subsists in England.

The seeds of the reformation were very
early sown in Scotland, by several noble-
men of that nation, who had resided in
Germany during the religious disputes that
divided the empire. The first and most
eminent opposer of the Papal jurisdiction
was John Knox, a disciple of Calvin, who
set out from Geneva for Scotland in 1559,
and in a little while prevailed with the
greatest part of the Scotch nation entirely
to abandon the superstitions of Rome, and

REFORMATION, 199

to aim at nothing less than the total extir-
pation of Popery. In the following year,
viz. 1560, the parliament ratified a con-
fession of faith, agreeable to the new doc-
trines, and passing a statute against the
mass, not only abolished it in all the church-
es, but enacted, that whoever, any where,
either officiated in it, or was present at it,
should be chastised, for the first offence,
with confiscation of goods, and corporal
punishment, at the discretion of the magis-
trate ; for the second with banishment ;
and for the third, with loss of life. A law*
was also voted for abolishing the Papal
jurisdiction in Scotland ; the Presbyterian
form of discipline was settled, leaving only
at first some shadow of authority to cer-
tain ecclesiastics, whom they called super-
intendents. From that period to the pres-
ent times the form of doctrine, worship,
and discipline, that had been estabhshed
at Geneva by the ministry of Calvin, has
been maintained in Scotland with invinci-
ble obstinacy and zeal ; and every attempt
17

200 REFORMATION.

to introduce, into thai kingdom, the riles
and STOvemment of the church of England,
has proved impotent and imsuccessful.

The cause of the reformation in Ireland
underwent the same vicissitudes that had
attended it in England. "When Hemy
V Jll., after the abohtion of the Papal au-
tbority. was declared supreme head of the
church of England, George Brown, a
native of England, and a monk of the Au-
eustin order, whom that monarch had crea-
ted, in the year 1535, archbishop of Dub-
lin, began to act with the utmost vigour,
in consequence of this change in the hier-
archy. He purged the churches of his
diocese from superstition in all its forms,
pulled down images, destroyed relics, abol-
ished absurd and idolatrous rites, and. by
the influence as well as authority he had
in Ireland, caused the king's supremacy
to be acknowledged in that nation. Henry
showed soon after, that this supremacy was
not a vain title ; for he banished the monks
out of that kingdom, confiscated their rev-

REFORMATION. 201

enues, and destroyed their convents. In
the reign of Edward \^. farther progress
was made in the reformation, but the ac-
cession of ]Mary retarded it, in conse-
quence of which Brown and other Pro-
testant bishops were deprived of their dig-
nities in the church. When Ehzabeth
ascended the throne, the Irish were again
obliged to submit to the form of worship
and discipKne estabhshed in England.

The reformation had not been long es-
tabhshed in Britain, when the Belgic prov-
inces, united by a respectable confederacy
which still subsists, withdrew from their
spiritual allegiance to the Roman pontiff.
The means w^hich Philip II. kmg of Spain
used to obstruct the reformation, promoted
it: the nobility formed themselves into an
association, in the year 1566, and roused
the people ; who, under tlie heroic conduct
of William of Nassau, prince of Orange,
seconded by the succours of England and
France, delivered this state from the Span-
ish yoke : in consequence of which the

^02 REFORMATION.

reformed religion, as it was professed in
Switzerland, was established in the United
Provinces; and, at the same time, an uni-
versal toleration granted to those whose
religious sentiments were of a different
nature, whether they retained the faith of
Rome, or embraced the reformation in
another form, provided that they made no
attempts against the authority of the gov-
ernment, or the tranquillity of the public.

Whilst Mr. Hume attributes the quick
and surprising progress of the reformation
in part to the late invention of printing,
and revival of learning, he denies that rea-
son had any considerable share in opening
men's eyes with regard to the impostures
of the Romish church ; alleging that phi-
losophy had made little progress, at least
not till long after the period of the refor-
mation, and that no instance occurs in
which argument has ever been able to free
the people from that enormous load of
absurdity with which superstition has every
where overwhelmed them : to which he

REFORMATION. 203

adds, that the rapid advance of the Lu-
theran doctrine, and the violence with which
it was embraced, proved sufficiently that
it owed not its success to reason and re-
flection. The art of printing, and the
revival of learning, he says, forwarded its
progress in another manner. By means
of that art, the books of Luther and his
sectaries, full of vehemence, declamation,
and a rude eloquence, were propagated
more quickly, and in greater numbers.
The minds of men, somewhat awakened
from a profound sleep of so many centuries,
were prepared for every novelty, and scru-
pled less to tread in any unusual path
which was opened to them. And as copies
of the Scriptures, and other ancient monu-
ments of the Christian faith, became more
common, men perceived the innovations
which were introduced after the first cen-
tury ; and though argument and reasoning
could not give conviction, an historical
fact, well supported, was able to make
impression on their understandings. As

204 REFORMATION.

the ecclesiastics would not agree to pos-
sess their privileges, though ancient and
prior to almost every political establishment
in Europe, as matters of civil right, which
time might render valid, but appealed still
to a divine right, they thus tempted men to
look to their primitive charter, which, with
little difficulty, they could perceive to be
defective in truth and authenticity. Be-
sides, Luther and his followers, not satis-
fied with opposing the pretended divinity
of the Romish church, and displaying the
temporal inconveniences of that establish-
ment, proceeded to treat the religion of
their ancestors as abominable, detestable,
and damnable ; foretold by sacred writ
itself as the source of all wickedness and
pollution. They denominated the Pope
antichrist, called his communion the scarlet
whore, and gave to Rome the appellation
of Babylon ; expressions which, however
applied, were to be found in Scripture, and
which were better calculated to operate on
the multitude than the most solid argu-

REFORMATION. 205

ments. Excited by contest and persecu-
tion on the one hand, by success' and ap-
plause on the other, many of the reformers
carried to the greatest extremities their
opposition to the church of Rome ; and
in contradiction to the multiphed super-
stitions with which that communion was
loaded, they adopted an enthusiastic strain
of devotion, which admitted of no observ-
ances, rites, or ceremonies, but placed all
merit in a mysterious species of faith, in
inward vision, rapture, and ecstacy. The
new sectaries, seized with this spirit, were
indefatigable in the propagation of their
doctrine, and set at defiance all the anathe-
mas and punishments with which the Ro-
man pontliF endeavoured to overwhelm
them.

Thus, ill terms which appear to us too
disparaging, does our historian describe the
origin and progress of the reformation ; nor
does he pay due respect to the principles
on which it was founded, and to the char-
acter of the persons who were the principal

206 REFORMATION.

agents in accomplishing it. We are ready-
to acknowledge, that the collateral circum-
stances above recited rendered its advances
more rapid and more extensive ; but we
cannot allow that it did not owe much of
its success to reason and reflection. But
whatever may be our opinion of the prima-
ry causes that produced it, its influence on
the minds and manners of mankind, on the
state of society in general, and on the in-
terests of liberty, religion and virtue, has
been eminently and extensively beneficial.
Luther had no sooner began to attack the
papal supremacy, than the charm which
had bound mankind for so many ages, was
broken at once. The human mind, which
had long continued as tame and passive, as
if it had been taught to beheve whatever
was taught, and to bear whatever was im-
posed, roused of a sudden, and became in-
quisitive, mutinous, and disdainful of the
yoke to which it had hitherto submitted.
The reformation, wherever it was received,
increased that bold and innovating spirit to

REFOEMATION. 207

which it owed its birth. Men who had the
courage to overturn a system, supported by
every thing which can command respect or
reverence, were not to be overawed by any
authority, how great or venerable soever.
After having been accustomed to consider
themselves as judges of the most important
doctrines in rehgion, to examine these free-
ly, and to reject without scruple, what ap-
peared to them erroneous, it was natural
for them to turn the same daring and in-
quisitive eye to government, and to think of
rectifying whatever disorders or imperfec-
tions were discovered there. As religious
abuses had been reformed in several places
without the permission of the magistrate, it
was an easy transition to attempt the redress
of political grievances in the same manner.
But though the spirit of innovation, that
was excited and promoted by the reforma-
tion, might in some instances prove the oc-
casion of turbulence and tumult, the good
that eventually accrued from its operation
far exceeded the partial and temporary evil
18

208 REFORMATION.

that resulted from it. The prevalence of
this spirit was so general, that it must have
been excited by causes that were natural,
and of powerful efficacy ; and the conse-
quences that flowed from them must have
been as important and interesting as the
causes that have produced them. The
kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, England
and Scotland, and almost one half of Ger-
many, threw off their allegiance to the
pope, abolished his jurisdiction within their
territories, and gave the sanction of law to
modes of discipline and systems of doc-
trine, which were not only independent of
his power, but hostile to it. Nor was this
spirit of innovation confined to those coun-
tries which openly revolted from the pope ;
it spread through all Europe, and broke
out in every part of it with various degrees
of violence. It penetrated early into France
and made such rapid progress, that the
number of converts to the opinions of the
reformers was so great, their zeal" so enter-
prising, and the abiHties of their leaders so

RErORMAtlON. 20^

distinguished, that they soon ventured to
contend for superiority with the established
church, and were sometimes on the point
of obtaining it. In all the provinces of Ger-
many which continued to acknowledge the
papal supremacy, as well as in the Low
Countries, the Protestant doctrines were
secretly taught, and had gained so many
proselytes, that they were ripe for revolt,
and were restrained merely by the dread of
their rulers from imitating the example of
their neighbours, and asserting their inde-
pendence : hence in Spain and Italy, symp-
toms of the same disposition to shake off
the yoke appeared. The pretensions of the
Pope to infallible knowledge and supreme
power were treated by many persons of
eminent learning and abilities with such
scorn, or impunged with such vehemence,
that the most vigilant attention of the civil
magistrate, the highest strains of pontifical
authority, and all the rigour of inquisitorial
jurisdiction, were requisite to check or ex-
tinguish it. The defection of so many op-

210 REFORMATION.

ulent and powerful kingdoms from the papal
see was a fatal blow to its grandeur and
power, and produced a very considerable
dimunition of its revenues. It likewise
obliged the Roman pontiiFs to adopt a dif-
ferent system of conduct towards the na-
tions which continued to recognize their
jurisdiction, and to govern them by new
maxims, and with a milder spirit. They
became afraid of venturing upon such ex-
ertion of their authority as might alarm
or exasperate their subjects, and excite
them to a new revolt. Hence it happens,
that the Popes, from the era of the
reformation, have ruled rather by address
and management than by authority. They
have been obliged not only to accommo-
date themselves to the notions of their ad-
herents, but to pay some regard to the
prejudices of their enemies. In process
of time, and before the convulsions which
have lately agitated Europe, they sunk
almost to a level with the other petty

REFORMATION. 211

princes of Italy ; and they hardly retain any
shadow of the temporal powers which they
anciently possessed. Nevertheless whilst
the reformation had been fatal to the power
of the Popes, it has contributed to improve
the church of Rome both in science and
in morals. Many motives have arisen out
of the reformation, and the existence of
two rival churches, which have served to
engage the Catholic clergy to apply them-
selves to the study of useful science, and
to pay a strict attention to the manners of
their clergy. In those countries where
the members of the two churches have
mingled freely with each other, or have
carried on any considerable intercourse,
either commercial or literary, an extraor-
dinary alteration in the ideas, as well as in
the morals, of the Popish ecclesiastics is
manifest. The beneficial influence of the
reformation has not only been felt by the
clergy, and the inferior members of the
Roman Catholic church; but it has ex-

212 REFORMATION.

tended to the see of Rome, and to tlie
sovereign pontiffs themselves, whose char-
acter, at a later period, has been very dif-
ferent from that of several of their prede-
cessors. Many of them have been con-
spicuous for the virtues becoming their high
station ; and by their humanity, their love
of literature, and their moderation, have
made some atonement to mankind for the
crimes of those who in former times oc-
cupied their places. Thus the reformation
has eminently contributed to increase puri-
ty of manners, to diffuse science, and to
inspire humanity. With the progress of
the reformation we may also connect a
variety of other important benefits, both to
individuals and to society ; and as they
pertain to the investigation of truth and the
improvement of science, to the promotion
of liberty both civil and religious, to the
diffusion of knowledge and virtue, and to
the advancement of the best interests of
mankind. But the details of the advan-

REFORMATION. 213

tages resulting from the reformation to
nations and private persons, to religion in
general, and genuine Christianity in par-
ticular, would far exceed the limits to
which we are confined.

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