canons of councils were collected, and reconciled with each other and with the decretals of the popes. In this collection all the spurious decretals of the early popes, fabricated in the eighth and ninth centuries, were introduced; and as Gratian entertained very exaggerated notions of the papal authority, this book, which was immediately received as of the highest authority in all the schools of Europe, tended greatly to increase the influence of the popes. The study of canon law became so popular, and led so certainly to advancement in the Church, that theology and the arts were much neglected ; and more than one pope felt himself bound to discourage this exclusive application.

From the twelfth century, the writers of the early fathers and the decrees of councils were little known in the schools, except through the medium of The Book of Sentences or the Decretum. This is allowed by a learned Roman Catholic historian, the Abbé Fleury, who says, that "it was the misfortune of the doctors of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries to know but little of the writings of the fathers, especially the more ancient, and to be deficient in the aids requisite for well understanding them. It is not that their books. were lost; they existed, for we have them still; but the copies were scarce, and hidden in the libraries of the ancient monasteries, where little use was made of them." He adds, that King Louis IX. of France, in the thirteenth century, caused many of them to be transcribed; and that Vincent

A.D. 1260.

A.D. 1130-1182.

of Beauvais made extracts from them, and John of Salisbury cited them frequently: "but," he continues, "this was merely the curiosity of some individuals. The generality of students, and even of doctors, limited themselves to a few books, chiefly those of modern authors, which they understood better than the ancients." "I do not cease to wonder," he continues, "that in such calamitous times, and with such small aid, the doctors so faithfully preserved to us the deposit of tradition with regard to doctrine.” The Abbé Goujet, an

other Roman Catholic divine, confirms this; and observes also, that the study of Scripture "had been extremely neglected" in these ages. "They did not study it even in the schools of theology but with lukewarmness; and often contented themselves with such extracts from it as were found in the writings of some superficial theologian. Hence arose the ignorance of the clergy, and the few defenders which the Church found against heresies. ... At length the study of holy Scripture caused men to escape from this lethargy; men then perceived the crowd of errors and false opinions which had inundated the whole Church, and had nearly choked the good seed." The fallen state of theolo ́gical study at the time of the Reformation may be collected, from the complaints of the faculty of arts in the university of Paris in 1530. "The study of sacred Scripture," they said, "is neglected. The holy Gospels are no longer cited. The authority of St. Chrysostom, St. Cyprian, St. Augustine, and the other fathers, is not employed. Theology has Under such become nothing but a sophistical science." circumstances it was to be expected that erroneous opinions would become more or less prevalent in the Church. The holy Scriptures had been undoubtedly given by God, that "the man of God might be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works ;" and when this divine means of grace and wisdom was neglected, as it certainly was to a considerable degree in these times, it could not be supposed that the same purity of doctrine or of practice should exist as in the primitive ages of the Church.

CHAPTER XXI.

THE FOREIGN REFORMATION.

A.D. 1517-1839.

THE enormous power usurped by the popes, and the abuses in its exercise, at length paved the way for its own subversion, and for the Reformation. Never were its exac

tions and abuses so excessive as in the time of what is called the great schism, from 1369 to 1414, when Europe was divided under the domination of rival popes. The papacy was greatly lowered in public estimation by this division; and France, on one occasion, withdrew itself from the obedience of both popes. The contests which arose between the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basil, in the early part of the fifteenth century, and the popes, in which each party asserted its own infallibility, and its superiority to the other, excited a spirit of inquiry. "The reformation of the Church, in its head and members," was now one of the objects avowed by every considerable council that assembled. Wickliffe had, in the preceding century, declaimed against A.D. 1324-1384. the popes and against several abuses;* and he was closely followed by Huss, and Jerome of Prague: but their opinions were mingled with much that was exceptionable; and they seem to have been unfitted rightly to conduct the mighty work of reformation. The revival of learning, in the fifteenth century, was the great forerunner of improvement. Men now began to study the writings of the fathers, which had only been known at second-hand, from the books of Lombard and Gratian. The introduction of the Greek and Hebrew languages (entirely unknown during the middle ages) rendered

Burnt A.D. 1415 & 1416,

* [More ought to have been said of this great precursor of the Reforma tion. See his very interesting and able Life, by Mr. Le Bas.-AM. ED.]

the study of Scripture in the originals possible; the scholastic writers began to lose their credit with men of education.

A.D. 1517.

At length the Reformation began; but not as it could have been desired; not promoted by the heads of the Church, not regulated by the decrees of councils. An individual monk in Saxony was made the involuntary instrument by which this great work was set on foot. Martin Luther, an Augustinian friar, when he declaimed against the scandalous sale of indulgences by the papal agent Tetzel, had little notion of opposing the papal supremacy, or reforming the Church. He simply rejected with indignation the notion, that by purchasing certain indulgences, the soul was to be freed from torments after death; and reminded men that indulgences were originally nothing more than the remission of canonical penance in this life. When assailed by Eckius and many others with the most furious violence, he was led to further investigation; and he showed, in His conference with Eckius, at Leipsic, that the Roman Church had not originally any supremacy over the universal Church. He, however, testified to the pope his earnest desire for peace, and submitted himself entirely to him: but when Luther declined to retract, without any discussion, whatever Cardinal Cajetan might censure in his doctrine, the pope, notwithstanding his submissive tone, and protestations that he did not intend any separation from the Church, excommunicated him and his favourers, in 1521.

A.D. 1519.

Luther, and his friends Melancthon, Carlostadt, and all who were of the same sentiments, were thus separated from the communion of the pope, and of his adherents in Germany, not voluntarily, or by their own act. They were now, however, able to examine and to speak more freely; and a strong controversy immediately arose, in which the prevalent errors and superstitions were assailed unsparingly; while every effort was made by the Romish party to procure the extirpation and destruction of their opponents. The Lu

theran party were protected by the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, and many other princes and states in Germany; and they continually called for the assembling of a free and general council, to whose decision they offered to submit themselves. In the meantime, various abuses were corrected in the churches of those states, and a temporary system of Church government was established by the Lutherans, which they intended to be replaced by the ordinary episcopal government, when the council had arranged their disputes, and they should be united again to the Church. But Providence forbade the accomplishment of their wishes: an arrangement, which the contending parties had come to in the diet or parliament of Spires, in 1526, and which left the Lutheran states free to regulate their own ecclesiastical affairs until the general council could be called together, was set aside by a new diet at the same place, in which A.D. 1529. all alterations were prohibited by a majority of votes. The Lutheran princes and states entered a PROTEST against this edict, and from this they were termed PROTESTANTS. The term Protestant, therefore, does not properly signify a protest against the errors of the Church of Rome, but against the edict of Spires. It belongs properly to the Lutherans, by whom in fact it is claimed, as being peculiarly their own; while the Church of England has never applied the term to herself, nor ever used it in any of her formularies. In the following year a diet was conA.D. 1530.

vened at Augsburg, by the Emperor Charles V., with the intent of terminating these differences. The Lutheran party here presented their confession of faith, which has since been called the Confession of Augsburg; and which contains a brief summary of the Christian doctrine, together with their objections to the chief errors and superstitions then prevalent. The Confession of Augsburg professes that there is nothing in it "which differs from the Scriptures or the Roman Church." It declares that they "differ concerning no article of faith from the Catholic