puted to him. His friends were very reluctant that he should attend the diet, fearing that, in spite of the emperor's safe conduct, he might be seized and put to death by his enemies; but Luther said, "I am lawfully called to appear in that city, and thither will I go, in the name of the Lord, though as many devils as there are tiles on the houses were there combined against me." In this diet Luther firmly refused to retract his doctrines, unless they were proved contrary to the word of God; and being dismissed unhurt, he was presently seized and hid in the castle of Wartburg by his friend the elector of Saxony; for a severe edict had been issued against him by the diet immediately after he had departed. In this solitude Luther began the translation of the Bible into the vernacular language, and composed several books in defence of his doctrines. In 1522 he returned to Wittemburg to check the excesses of Carlostadt, who had broken the images of saints, and was proceeding with reforms indiscreetly and irregularly. Soon after, great part of the Bible was published, and had much effect in promoting the progress of the Reformation throughout Germany. From this time Luther continued to reside at Wittemburg, and was the head of the Reformation in Germany. He composed commentaries on the Bible; was always vehemently opposed to the papal authority, which he regarded as an anti-christian usurpation; and died in 1546, in the sixty-second year of his age.

PHILIP MELANCTHON, a friend of Luther, and who succeeded at his death to the chief influence amongst the Protestant party in Germany, was born in 1495, and was distinguished at an early age by his attainments in every sort of literature; so that, in 1518, when only twenty-three years of age, he was appointed professor of Greek at Wittemburg, where he contracted a close intimacy with Luther, and was A.D. 1519.

converted to his opinions by the disputation which took place betwen Luther and Eckius. Melancthon, in 1520, read lectures on St. Paul's epistles,

which were highly approved by Luther, and printed. He afterwards drew up the Confession of Augsburg, and the Apology or defence of that confession, which became the standards of doctrine among the Lutheran party. He was remarkable for his moderation; was always most desirous that the Church should be re-united; and was ready to make considerable sacrifices in order to attain so desirable an object. He wished the authority of bishops to be preserved, and would even have been contented to allow some authority to the see of Rome: but his views were far too moderate to satisfy the papal party; and the Lutherans had been too severely persecuted to regard them with much favour. Melancthon wrote much in defence of Luther, and against the Romish errors; and died in 1560.

JOHN CALVIN was born in France, in 1509, and studied at the university of Paris. The discipline of the Church at that time was so relaxed, that although he was not in sacred orders, he had been presented successively to three benefices when he was but twenty years old. Having studied the Scriptures, and becoming alive to the errors and superstitions then prevalent, he resolved to relinquish the design of taking holy orders, and to apply himself to the law; on which he resigned his benefices. His studies led him to embrace the doctrines of the Reformation; and a violent persecution arising against all who "were of that way" in France, he was compelled to fly for his life into Switzerland, where, in 1535, he published his Institution,* as an apology for those who were burned for their religion in France. The next year, as he passed through Geneva, the citizens of that town compelled him to be their pastor and professor of divinity; but, in consequence of his resolution to put a stop to the immoralities and factions of that place, by enforcing a rigorous discipline, he was banished from Geneva. He was again recalled in 1541, when he established a form of Church disci

[Namely, a systematic exhibition of religious truth, according to the views of those who were persecuted as heretics.-AM. ED.]

་

pline, and a consistory, invested with power to inflict canonical censures and excommunications, to which the magistrates and people of Geneva promised obedience. Calvin was a vigorous opponent of the common errors and superstitions, and caused Servetus, who blasphemed against the Holy Trinity, to be put to death. He wrote many commentaries on Scripture. His influence was widely extended throughout the reformed communities by his correspondence. Calvin was a man of great genius, considerable learning, and of irreproachable private character; but of a zeal which was too little under the guidance of charity. His position, as the minister of the people at Geneva, was certainly an irregu larity and anomaly, as he had never received holy orders. It was only excusable under the difficulties of the times, when the bishops of the Continent were too generally under the influence of the pope, and the adherents of the Reformation were unjustly cast out of the Church, and treated as heretics. It s seems to have been held by many persons, and not without some grounds of probability, that in such an extreme case, a Christian community might constitute pastors; although we cannot feel certain that divine grace accompanies such ministrations. It was, perhaps, a reliance on the uncovenanted mercies of God, which consoled many pious men in the unavoidable absence of that lawful ordinary ministry, which was instituted by Jesus Christ, and which has continued by successive ordinations in all ages. Calvin died in 1564.

ULRIC ZUINGLE was born in Switzerland, in 1484, and studied at Basil and Vienna; after which he received holy orders, and became successively pastor of Glaris, and preacher at the abbey of Einsidlen. Having diligently studied Scripture, the fathers, and schoolmen, he began to see the corruptions so generally prevalent; and he addressed himself, in the first instance, to the bishop of Constance, and the cardinal bishop of Sion, urging them to reform the Swiss churches. Being appointed, in 1519, to the principal church in Zurich,

he declaimed against the sale of indulgences, and against other common errors. Controversies ensued between Zuingle and the vicar-general of the bishop of Constance, who accused him of heresy and sedition to the magistrates of Zurich. Zuingle and his friends declared "that they did not, either in act or intention, separate from the Church." Zuingle was again accused, in 1522 and 1523, by the Romish party, as a heretic; but he overcame his adversaries in controversy; and the magistrates of Zurich decreed that he should not be molested, and that the clergy should preach nothing except what could be proved from holy Scripture. After this, Zuingle and his friends being entirely separated from communion by the Romish party, they effected various reforms and changes in rites; and they became involved in controversy with Luther on the subject of the holy eucharist. Zuingle seems to have fallen into the error of Berengar* on this point; but it was hoped for a long time, that he and his adherents might be brought to a sounder mind. Conferences with this object continued long after his death, which took place in 1531.

CHAPTER XXII.

ON THE BRITISH CHURCHES.

A.D. 1530-1839.

THE Churches of Britain or England had now existed for more than thirteen hundred years. Originally (for six hun dred years) independent of the Roman see, as being beyond the limits of that patriarchate, they had gradually become subject to its jurisdiction. The invasion of Britain by the Saxons, and the subsequent mission of St. Augustine, by Pope Gregory, afforded the opportunity for extending the Roman

[* See notes on pages 78, and 81.-AM. ED.]

A.D. 680.

power; and Augustine was sent the pall, the emblem of au thority, as vicar of the holy see. For many ages, however, we hear little of any exercise of jurisdiction by the popes in England: the English bishops and kings did not permit appeals to Rome. When Wilfrid, bishop of York, appealed against an English synod which had deposed him from his diocese, and obtained a decree in his favour from the pope, that decree was disregarded A.D. 1073. in England. At length, from the time of Gregory VII., the papal jurisdiction was pushed into England, as it was into other countries; legates made frequent visits, held councils, exacted subsidies. Appeals, dispensations, mandates, reserves, annates, bulls, and all the other inconveniences of papal usurpation, followed each other in rapid succession; and for four centuries, no country in Europe suf fered more, and with greater reluctance, than England. But the popes and the kings of England had, after much disputation, made their agreement, and the Church was their prey.

Religion had become deteriorated in England, as well as in the remainder of the western Church. A spirit of opposition to prevailing errors had been excited by Wickliffe; but he and his followers, the Lollards, advocated several erroneous and seditious opinions: they were condemned by the clergy, and persecuted by the state. The Scriptures, however, were translated by Wickliffe; and thus the way was prepared for religious improvement.

The scruples of Henry VIII. as to the lawfulness of his marriage with Catharine, the widow of his elder brother, led ultimately to the removal of the papal power in England, and to the Reformation. Henry in 1526 commenced negotiations with the pope, for the dissolution of his marriage, requesting that the papal dispensation by which it had been contracted might be examined, or declared invalid. But the pope, under the influence of the Emperor Charles V., the nephew of Catharine, protracted the affair, by various expedients, for six years. At length Henry, wearied by the arts