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 exactions 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 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 the study of Scrip

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

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, in 1517, 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 shewed, in his conference with Eckius, in 1519, 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.

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 Lutheran 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 1529, in which 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 (1530) a diet was convened 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 Church, but only omit some abuses." "There is no design," they said, "to deprive the bishops of their authority; but this only is sought, that the Gospel be permitted to be purely taught, and a few observances be relaxed."

Notwithstanding this moderation, the diet, by order of the emperor, condemned the Protestants, and ordered them to submit themselves to the pope. They were then obliged to confederate in their own defence, in the league of Smalcald, and by this means they obtained toleration from the emperor. Various controversies and conferences afterwards took place between the opposed parties, especially in 1541, at Ratisbon, when many of the points of difference were removed, and both parties, including the papal nuncio, were in great hopes of an entire agreement.

The Protestants had continued their appeal to a free general council from the year 1520; but the pope, who had usurped for some centuries past the privilege of assembling such councils, refused to do so in the present instance, except in places where there was no security for the safety of the Protestants. The pope at length fixed on Trent as the place of meeting; and when the Protestants objected to it on various grounds, the emperor and pope conspired to crush them by force. Accordingly, Charles V. declared war against them, and overthrew them in the battle of Muhlberg, in 1547. In the mean time, the council of Trent had met in 1545; and

having decided several points in controversy in the absence of the Protestants, had been prorogued in 1547. The emperor, therefore, being unable to compel the Protestants to send deputies, was obliged to be satisfied with issuing a formulary of faith and discipline, called The Interim; in which the chief points permitted to the Lutherans were the marriage of the clergy, and the use of the cup in the sacrament. When the council again assembled, in 1551, the Protestants were compelled to send deputies there; but when they required that the articles already decided by forty or fifty bishops at Trent should be re-examined, they were not listened to. They were consequently obliged to withdraw from the council, and to retain their own observances, without any hope of reconciliation with the Church. They were enabled to maintain their religious liberty by the advantages gained over the emperor by the Elector Maurice of Saxony, in 1552, which led to the pacification of Passau, by which the religion and liberties of the Protestants were secured from further molestation.

In the meantime, the Reformation, as established by Luther and Melancthon, spread itself widely. Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, together with a great part of Germany, embraced it. Monasteries were suppressed; purgatory, indulgences, invocation of saints, worship of pictures and relics, flagellations, communion in one kind only, rosaries, scapularies, and a number of other errors and superstitions, disappeared. The Scriptures were translated afresh, and read by all the people. Divine service was celebrated in a known language, and sermons were frequently delivered. Episcopacy was Episcopacy was never rejected by the Lutherans; they even retain the form of that ecclesiastical government in several countries, and it is said that their bishops in Sweden are validly ordained.