SKETCH

OF

THE REFORMATION.

INTRODUCTION.

AFTER the ascension of our Saviour, the Apostles and their successors preached the Gospel in various parts of the Roman Empire. Their labors were attended with great success. Converts were made and assemblies of Christians collected in many places. It soon, therefore, became necessary to appoint regular teachers to conduct the worship, to instruct, and to superintend the affairs of the churches. In process of time several of their churches were placed together under the general care of some one person, called a bishop. These officers were, at first, simple and frugal in their habits, mild and limited in the exercise of their authority. But when Christianity was adopted by Constantine as the religion of the Empire, and the number and wealth of the

churches increased, the character of the clergy was greatly changed: they became ambitious, and fond of luxury and dominion.

The bishops of Rome and Constantinople, from their residence in the two largest cities in Europe, acquired great wealth and power, and were consequently regarded as superior to the other ecclesiastics. The former of these dignitaries claimed the supreme power in religious matters. This claim was resisted by the bishop of Constantinople; and thus arose the great quarrel which ended in the division of Christendom into the Roman and Greek churches.

After this schism, the bishops of Rome were reverenced by Western Europe as the heads of the church, and were known by the name of Popes. These popes maintained their right to dominion, on the ground that they were the successors of St. Peter, who suffered martyrdom at Rome, and who, (according to their interpretation of Matthew, xvi. 13-19,) was appointed by Christ to be chief among the Apostles.

Some of the occupants of the papal throne were men of learning and piety; but many of them were crafty and wicked, and took advantage of the ignorance and superstition of the people to increase their power and wealth. They claimed infallibility as the interpreters of Scripthe authority to forgive sins, and the

ture,

right to excuse, whenever they chose, the subjects of any monarch from the fulfilment of their oaths of allegiance. In short, such was the blindness and degradation of men, during the middle ages, that the popes succeeded in obtaining almost unlimited control over the temporal and spiritual affairs of Europe. Kings and emperors knelt at their feet, and bestowed upon them their treasures. All matters of faith were decided by their voice. They were looked upon as the representatives of Christ and the vicegerents of God upon earth. They were supposed to hold the keys of heaven, and to be able by their decrees to consign all who resisted their commands to eternal misery. Their sway was despotic and almost unlimited.

It must not be supposed, however, that this authority was obtained at once, or that it was never called in question. The popes advanced to their lofty station by successive efforts; and when they at last reached it, such corruptions of Christianity and such wickedness in manners prevailed in the church, that the indignation of good men was at times aroused, and endeavours were made to procure a reform. But these noble exertions failed almost entirely, and nothing effectual was done to break the oppressive rod of the Roman Pontiffs, until the commencement of the sixteenth century, when a revolution occurred which put an end to their tyranny over a large part of Christendom.

Previous to this event the foundations of popery seemed to be fixed and firm. Its dominion was acknowledged on the Continent of Europe and in England, Ireland, and Scotland. The people were sitting in the gross darkness of ignorance. Many of the clergy were unable to read or write; some had never seen a Bible, and the larger portion were only partially acquainted with the New Testament. Instead of being faithful preachers of the simple truths of the Gospel, they entertained their hearers with fanciful lives of the Saints and fictitious stories of their wonderful miracles. Instead of being diligent and exemplary pastors, they were abandoned to all kinds of vice, and engaged in selling relics, and in extorting money on various pretences from their wretched flocks. All Europe groaned under this burthen of sin and error. Pure and simple Christianity was unknown; and a corrupt church spread desolation over the land.

In the fifteenth century, events took place which served in some measure to change the degraded condition of Christendom, and to prepare the way for better things. The long night of ignorance began to break away before the gradual revival of learning. Constantinople was conquered by the Turks in 1453; and the learned men who had made that city their residence were forced to seek new homes in Ger

many, France, and Italy. This emigration helped to increase the attention then beginning to be paid to the ancient languages, and to awaken a taste for knowledge. A number of new universities were founded, and many of the princes of Europe became the patrons of learning.

This beneficial change was also in part caused and greatly promoted by the recent discovery of the art of printing. Before the invention of types, the labors of scholars were shut up in manuscripts, and accessible only to the few. The effects, of public debates, then t'e u ual mode of carrying on discussions,, were almost wholly confined to those who were so fortunate as to hear them. But the press opened a new channel of communication between mind and mind, and gave inquirer the ability to spread abroad among the multitude the results of his investigations.

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To the revival of learning and the discovery of the art of printing, we may perhaps add the discovery of America, as another event which contributed to bring about a beneficial change in the condition of Europe. The birth, as it were, of a new world, awakened the curiosity, aroused the enterprise, and excited the ambition of men. Their minds were expanded, and an impulse was given, which extended the boundaries of science and encouraged a spirit of inquiry.