Cornell University Library BR305 .H26 1865 History of the Christian church during t olln j|fc^1924 029 239 898 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tlie Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http ://www. arch i ve . o rg/detai Is/cu31 924029239898 HISTORY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. A HISTORY OF THE CHEISTIAN CHUECH ij\t '^thxmKtm, CHAELES HAEDWICK, M.A. LATE .FELLOW OF BT CATHABIKB'3 COLLEGE, DIVUflTy LEOTUKERAT EINQ'S COLLE&S, AND CHBISTIAN ADVOCATE TN THE UHITEESITY OF CAMBBIDOE. SECOND EDITION, REVISED BT FEANCIS PEOCTEE, M.A. LATE FELLOW OF ST CATHARINE'B COLLEGE, AND VICAB OF WITTON, NOKFOLK ©ambrilige ana Honlion: MACMILLAN AND CO. laes. 'Goo, lityll boke; be ferfuU and quake for drede For to appere in so hyf preBende : To alle folke that the seen or rede, Submytte thygelfe with homble reverens To be reformed, where men fynde offence ; Mekely reqnerynge, voyde of presomcyoun. Where thou felyst to do correcyoun.' CAMBEIDGB : PKINIED BY C. J. CI/iT, M.A, AT THE CNIVERSITT PBKSS. TO THE REV. G. E. COIl]ElIE,i D.D. HA8I£R OF JESUS COLIiEQE, CAMBBIDOX IS INSCBIBED WITH SENTIMENTS OE OEATITUDB, AFJECTION, AND EESPECT, BY HIS FRIEND AND FORMER PUPIL. PREFACE. The following Chapters are intended as the sequel and companion to ' A History of the Christian Church during the Middle Age.' The author had indulged the hope of giving this new portion to the public at a less distant interval, but found his progress constantly retarded by other duties and engagements. In traversing ground which furnishes so many topics, always full of deep and sometimes melancholy interest to the student of Church-histoiy, he was actuated by the principles which guided him throughout the composition of the previous volume. His earnest wish has been to give the reader a trustworthy version of those stirring incidents which mark the Eeformation-period ; without relinquishing his former claim to characterise particular systems, persons, and events, according to the shades and colours they assume, when contemplated from an English point of view, and by a member of the Church of England. Cambeidge, Fehmary 5, 1856. This second edition is substantially a reprint of the first. Some corrections by the late author and by various friends have been inserted by the Editor. F. P. Caeit, Oct. 1865. CONTENTS. INTKODCCIION . FAOn I — 12 CHAPTER I THB SAXQS SCHOOL OP CHCEOH-EEFORMEES, AND ITS PEOPASATION Germany ....,, Prussia ....... Benniark, Norway, and Iceland Sweden ....... Poland ...... Bohemia and Moravia , . . . , Hungary and Transylvania .... Spajn ....... Italy 13—109 13 — 79 80 — 8r Si— 85 85 — 50 90 — 94 94—97 97 — 100 100 — los 105—109 CHAPTER II. •THE SWISS SCHOOL OF CHUEOH-KEFOEMEES, .AND ITa PEOPAGATION . . . TIO— 164 Switzerland ...... no — 132 France ....... 132 — 142 Scotland ...... 142 — 158 The Netherlands , . . • . 158—164 CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE SAXON AND THE SWISS EEFOEMEKS . 1 65 — 178 CHAPTER IV. THE ENGLISH AND IBISH BEFORMAMON England Ireland 179 — 270 179—263 263 — 270 CHAPTER V. SECTS AND HERESIES ACOOMPANTINft THE NEW MOVEMENT . . . 271 — 296 Rrst Eaoe of Anabaptists .... 273 — 280 Second Kace of Anabaptists, or Mennonites , . 280 — 284 Socinians ...... 284 — 289 Sohwenckfeldians . . . . . 289 — 291 Family of Love ..... 291 — 294 Brownists, or Independents .... 294 — 296 CHAPTER VI. THE COUNTEn-BEFOEMATION Mediating Party Council of Trent Inquisition . . . . . Jesuits ..... 297—337 297—303 303—326 327—329 329—337 . CHAPTER VIL ke'lations OS ba'stbkn and we'stbbn chceohes. 338—346 CONTENTS. XI CHAPTER VIII. FAGB C0N8TITDII0N OF THE CHUKOH, AND ITS HELATIONS TO THE WVIL POWER . . . 347—384 Roman Communion ..... 347 — 355 English Communion ..... 355 — 368 Saxon Communion ' . . . . . 368 — 376 Swiss Communion ..... 376 — 384 CHAPTER IX. BTATE OP INTELLIGENCE AND PIETY . . 385—432 CHAPTER X. GROWTH OP THE CHDROH . . 433 — 448 A HISTOEY OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. That Europe would ere long be shaken by somepuri- inthoduc- fying tempest was the general expectation of far-sighted men at the beginning of the sixteenth century. The o/somemighty scholar who was holding a familiar converse with past ages, or who noted from his cloister the portentous stillness which in spite of prevalent corruptions was pervading all the atmosphere of the Church, agreed in this foreboding with the politician who directed the affairs of nations, and mixed freely in the strifes and turmoils of the world. They could not, it is true, foresee the depth of the convulsion, nor the marvellous rapidity with which it would be pro- pagated, nor the vast upheaving it would cause in every sphere of human thought. Much less could they divine the special nature, of the instruments' whom GoD was shaping for the execution of His purpose. Yet their know- ledge and experience told them that disorders such as they beheld in the administration of the Church had grown ^ The nearest guess, perhaps, was alium modum Altissimus procurabit madeintliefollowingpassage, written nobis quidem pro nunc incognitiim, just before tlie birth of Luther : ' Ec- licet heu ! prse f oribus exigtat, ut ad clesiam per concilium ref ormare non pristinum statum eoolesia redeat :' poterit omnis humana facultas: sed see Middle Age, p. 399, n. 7. K. P. B 2 History of the Christian Church. iNTROBuc- intolerable, and, unless a remedy were soon applied, might • '■ — prove the ruin of the system which had fed them for so many years. mflumcesat A number of converging trains' of influence had been iS'^Si. lately rousing and enlarging the mind of Western Chris- tendom, tt could no longer be subdued by motives, or repressed by fetters, which had once been all-constraining. New importance was attached to individual freedom, and a higher value set on individual souls. The hazy light which floated over the institutions of the Mediaeval period, adding to it much of its dignity, picturesqueness and romance, was giving way to fuller and more rational illu- mination : and as this increased the circle of its power, mankind grew more impatient of authority, and more in- clined to question the traditions of the fathers. Every order of society was stirred : it silently drew up a catalogue of grievances'', and watched its opportunity to clamour for redress. The feelings of the many were exasperated by the scandalous lives of the ecclesiastics. Members of the higher class resented their encroachments, envied their predominance, and thirsted for a part of their superfluous wealth. Those bishops even who, discarding hawks and hounds, were not unwilling to promote the better organiza- tion of their dioceses, felt themselves restrained by the corrupt examples and the arbitrary intermeddling of the ' Middle Age, pp. 445, 446. et Eoolesise mores, qui eo progresBV " A specimen is found in the well- fuerant ut res jam nulli bono mrft, known Centum Grava/mina adversus tolerabilis videretur.' Epiat. lib. XXI. sedem Jiomanam totumque ecclesiasti- ep. 7. Lend. 1642. To the same cum ordinem arrayed before the diet effect 'writes Surius, a contemporary, of Nuremberg in 1522. Erasmus and one of Luther's greatest ene- writing (Dec. 12, 1524) to Duke mies (in Gieseler, 'Vierte Periode,' George of Saxony, who was adverse p. 30, n. 17. Bonn, 1840): 'In ipsis to the Lutherans, did not hesitate to hujus tragcediffi initiis visus est Lu- make this declaration : ' Cum Lu- therus etiam plensque iriris graviius therus aggrederetur hanc fabulam et eruditis non pessimo zelo moveri, [». e. of indulgences], totvx mundus planeque nihil spectare aliud quam Uli magna consensu applausit. . : . Ecclesise reformationem, cujua qui- Susceperat enim optimam causam dam deformes abusus non parum adversus corruptissimos Scholarum male habebant bones omnes.' Reformation Period. 3 popes. While in addition to this general want of con- intuoduc- fidence in the existing state of things, a party of doctrinal reformers was emerging, almost simultaneously, in very different quarters. It consisted of friars, clerics, monks and laymen, all perceiving more distinctly every day, that most of the practical corruptions on the surface of society had sprung from deeper causes than was commonly sup- posed, and therefore, that a reformation to be really effica- cious must commence with acts of daring, not to say of violence, — with rooting up the numerous aftergrowths of error, that had smothered, or at least obscured, the genuine dogmas of the Church. As these convictions graduallv became more definite Two possible ° *^ methods ofcoii- and urgent, it was necessary to inquire respecting tbe ^^^^'^.^''"^ machinery by which they might be carried into effect. Two plans seemed possible : the one involving the co-operation of the pope and hierarchy, and throiigh them extending to the whole of western Christendom ; the other starting from the civil and ecclesiastical authorities- of each particular state or nation, and removing the abuses which especially affected it. According to the first idea, the Roman pontiff^ wielding as of old a spiritual supremacy, might constitute himself the head and leader of the rising movement. Foremost to acknowledge that 'many abominations had for a long time existed even in the holy see, yea, that all ' things had been grievously altered and perverted' ^ he might call together the most able representatives of the Church, inquire more narrowly into the growth of prevail- ing evils, disinter the ancient canons, above all, give new ' This was actually the admission blunders of such men as Bossuet, of Adrian Vl. in 1522. See his who could not shut their eyes to instructions to Francisco Chieragati, the most patent facts of history. in'Rsijnald. Annul. Eccl.a.da,n. 1^22. The language of Adrian is, how- § 66. The abbd Eohrbacher in his ever, a great stumbling-block in recent Hist. Univ. de VEgliae Catko- the way of M. Eohrbacher, owing Uque is unwilling to recognize the to his exalted views of pontifical least corruption in the Mediasval infallibility. See the opening of Liv.- Church, and professes to rectify the Lxxxiv. B2 i History of the Christian Church. iKTROBuc- publicity to the neglected oracles of God, and ascertaining, ^__^__ by the help of sounder scholarship now happily restored, how far the faith and practices of Christendom had swerved from early standards, might exert the remnant of his power in every court of Europe to replace religion on a firmer basis, and to reinvest it with its pristine purity. ifockancfofa H) jf guch a proioct may have fairly been considered tutriingjrom ^ivithin the bounds of possibility when Pius III. ascended the pontifical throne in 1503, the hope of realizing it expired with his brief reign of six and twenty days'. It was agitated, for a while indeed, when Adrian occupied the place of Leo in 1 522 ; yet the ' reforming' pontiff (so he has been styled) had scarcely cherished the magnificent idea when he was also carried prematurely to his graved With these two slight exceptions, we shall find the Roman curia, throughout the first quarter of the sixteenth century, persisting in its resolution to discountenance all change whether we whatever. Conscious though it afterwards became that «So#nw *° reformation of some kind or other was inevitable, it mani- pteju ices, fggted no activity until the slumbers of the Vatican were broken by the prospect of a general revolt. And as the pontiff would not himself institute reformatory measures, so would he not tolerate the schemes of other church- authorities. The ' constitutional' reformers, who inherited the feelings that found expression at Constance and Basle, were no less hateful in his eyes than Hussites or Waldenses. He construed every wish they breathed for the recovery of the Church into designs for circumscribing his jurisdiction, or draining his revenues. In 1460, Pius II. had actually forbidden all endeavours to invoke the aid of councils imder pain of damnation ^ It was therefore not unnatural that many who sighed deeply over the degeneracy of ^ Diillinger, Ch. Hint. VI. 239. Lit. i. c. 27. (i. 59 ed. Courayer), 1; Engl, trans. ' Bullarium, ed, Cooquelines, III. '^ Sarpi, Hist, du ConcUe de Trent, p,t. iii. 97. Reformation Period. o Christendom should gradually lose faith in the pontifical iktroduc- authority, until they welcomed acts and agencies that once '- — - appeared abnormal, vicious and heretical. This gradual loss of confidence was doubtless expedited "/o^i^aSrit by observing the personal demerit of the popes. Never had they, speaking generally, been so unworthy, so flagitious, and so despicable. When Luther was advancing to the highest academical distinction at Erfurt, the throne of St Peter, as men deemed, was still tenanted by Alexander VI.* whose crimes have always staggered the most ardent cham- pions of the papacy. When Luther crossed the Alps in 1511, himself, as he declares', the very 'maddest' of those devotees, he found that Julius IL the reigning ' represen- tative of Christ,' bestowed his interest chiefly on the camp, and led his troops to battle". These charges, it is true, do not apply to Leo X. who was remarkable for the polish of his manners, for his patronage of arts and learning, and the graceful brilliance of his court : yet even he associated with men who ill disguised their infidelity, and though untainted by their vices, played the part of the voluptuous prince, instead of the unworldly prelate'. He could, therefore, only smile or sneer* when he perused the protestations of ' brother Martin' against the impious sale of indulgences. * Middle Age, p. ^6$. EvenOnu- mersum in dogmatibua papse, ut purius (the continuator of Platina), paratissimus f ueriin omnes, si potuis- who thinks that the vices of Alex- sem, occidere, aut ocoidentibua oo- ander were equalled by his virtues, operari et consentire, si papae vel characterizes him in the following una syHaba obedientiam detraota- terma: 'perfidia plusquam Punica, rent:' Luther. 0pp. ed. 1545. 'Praef.' Bffivitia immani, avaritia immensa ac * Waddington, Hist, of the Reform. rapacitate, inexhausta parandi Slio ontJie Continent, I. 58. Lond. 184 1. imperii per fas et nefas libidine. ... ' Onuphrius, as above, p. 369. cf. Mulieribua maxime addictus, ex qui- Eoscoe's apology, in his Life and bus quatuor filios et duas filias tulit,' Pontificate of Leo X., chap. xxiv. etc. Be Vit. Pimtif. p. 360. Colon. ^ According to a contemporary, 1600. Bandello, the epiaoopalnoveli3t(Pref. * ' Sciat [i. e. lector] me fuisse to Novel, xxv.), the pope observed aliquando monachum et papistam ' che Fra Martino fosse un bellissirao insanisdmum, cum istara causam ingegno, e che coteste erano invidie aggressus sum, ita ebrium, ita sub- Fratesche.' 6 History of the Christian Church. ISTRODUC- TION. Further diffi- culties rained by tlieir politi- cal irmgniji- National as oppposed to oecwmenieal refofmaiion : Nor had the popes been willing to promote a general reformation of the Church could they have realized their wishes in the present state of European politics. Their standing, in relation to the civil power, was now no longer what it had been, when their edicts and anathemas found executioners in every province of the west, — when Innocent III. disposed of kingdoms, or when Hildebrand could ter- rify an emperor, and make him toil across the great St Ber- nard in the depth of winter to solicit the papal absolution. The nominal head of Christendom had shrunk at last into a cypher and a shadow. His reanimation was itself one consequence of the religious war that stripped him of the half of his possessions. When Charles and Francis wres- tled for the sovereignty of Europe, Leo was in turn the creature of the stronger party. After witnessing the over- throw of his valiant Swiss at Marignano, he abandoned the imperial cause, and threw himself into the arms of Francis, crying ' Misericordia". So far was he at least from listening to the groans and clamours of his spiritual subjects, that while their remonstrances were growing louder every day, he was occupied with diplomatic arts and specious subterfuges for preserving to himself a wreck of his ancient independence. Whether, then, we have regard to the hereditary preju- dices of their station, to their personal demerits, or their inability to move the leading sovereigns of the west, we find no reason for expecting that reformatory measures would be instituted by the Roman pontiffs. (2) The other course, as we have indicated, was to substitute domestic for oecumenical machinery, to make the reformation of each country a separate concern by laying greater stress upon the principle of nationality, as distin- guished from that of papal universalism. This projectj in addition to the scriptural and patristic arguments alleged 1 Kanke, Popes dmring the. Sixteenth Century, i. 8i, 82. 2nd ed. Lond. 1841. Reformation Period. 7 in its behalf, accorded with the state of public feeling, as introduc- well as with the special circumstances of the times. A — marked tendency in the same direction had in fact been already manifested in proportion as men felt the trans- forming influences of the fifteenth century. We trace it in the 'actions' of the council of Constance, where a deep dis- trust of ultramontane intermeddling prompted the idea of 'vote by nations '^ That idea was afterwards embodied still more fully in the 'Pragmatic Sanction' of Charles VII.^, which formed the bulwark of the ' Galilean Liberties,' and which at one time Maximilian thought of introducing into Germany". He also ventured to express a lively interest in the convocation of the anti-papal synod of Pisa" (1511), stating that as the court of Eonie was backward, he would himself put an end to the delay; and therefore, in his oipacity of 'steward and protector of the Church,' pro- ceeded to convene ' the council of which she was greatly in need". Another striking indication of this forwardness in separate countries under the guidance of the civil power occurred in 1527 during the ' captivity' of the pope. In a treaty then arranged between Henry VIII. and Francis I. it was provided that ' whatsoever by the cardinal of York, assisted by the prelates of England assembled and called together by the authority of the King, should be deter- mined concerning the administration of ecclesiastical affairs in the said kingdom of England... should, the consent of . the king being first had, be decreed and observed:' and corresponding stipulations were inserted in behalf of 'Francis and his clergy". " Middle Age, p. 357. igitur.CEesarOptJme, adesto, vigila; ' Ihid. p. 364. labitur ecolesia, opprimuntur boiii, * 'Banke, Mist, of Ref. in Oermany, impii eflferuntur, meigitur justitia, 1. 2'jo. f nd ed. Lond. 1845. oolitur impietas, surgunt in sinum- " Middle Age, p. 365, n. 11. que reoipiuntur infidelee,' etc.: apud ^ Kanke, ifisci. It was on this Eioher. Hist.^ Concil. lib. iv. Part i: occasion that the prelatss wrote as pp. 121, 122, Colon, 168 1. follows (Nov. 12, ijii): 'Assurge, ' Herbert's Life of Henry VIII, 8 History of the Christian Church. '''™0N^^' ^^ strict accordance with these tendencies, we find thei chief reformers of Germany and England placing them- adc^mbi " selves in close alliance with the secular authority, as that ermany, -^]^iq}^ ought to guide and stimulate the new religious movement. Luther in his bold address' 'to the Christian potentates of the Germanic nation' (June, 1520) urged dis- tinctly that as need required, and as the Roman pontiffs only hindered reformation, the 'secular sword' would be exerted lawfully in redressing grievances by means of what he termed a ' right free council.' He was contemplating, it is probable, the convocation of some body representing all the western churches : yet the principle he advocates would equally in his opinion justify the conduct of a synod whose proceedings were restricted to the German empire, and even to particular states. The English, among whom, in and still more spite of the high-soundiuff legislation of the Tudors, church- UMEngiisU: authority was more clearly and consistently preserved, were taught to associate their reformation with the same idea of nationality. Thus in the preamble to the famous Act of Parliament' relating to appeals (1532-3), which proved the harbinger of more decisive measures, it is de- clared on the authority of ' sundry old authentic histories and chronicles,' that this realm of England is an empire made iip of spiritualty and temporalty, and that it has here been customary, when causes ' of the Law Divine,' or ' of spiritual learning,' come in question, to decide them by con- sulting that ' part of the body politic called the spiritualty, now being usually called the English Church... with out the intermeddling of any exterior person or persons.' And the same principle of action, variously applied, had been adopted in the other states and countries of the west. They all convinced themselves that it was now the first and p. lag. Lond. 1672. The historian ^ Schriften, ed. Waloh, x. 296 sq. lemariss: 'And here certainly began It was written in German for the the taste that our King took of sake of reaching the public ear. governing in chief the clergy.' ^ Stat. 24 Hen. VIII. u. 12. Reformation Feriod. 9 paramount duty of ' every prince to redress his own introduc- realm . . We should remark, indeed, that notwithstanding: qq- ^'bi^'-'t.hommr ' ■ o for a while to casional expressions of impatience and distrust, the project f^^^i'"'''^ of submitting the grievances of the reformers to a body '^o""* fairly representing all the Latin Church, was not abandoned till it grew entirely visionary. Melancthon and his friends affirmed* in 1530, that with regard to most of the disputed points they acted but provisionally. Hermann, the arch- bishop of Cologne, whose 'Consultation' was the work of the same moderate school, looked hopefully as late as 1543 to some conciliar reformation : 'Which thinges nevertheless we set furth to be recejnied and obserued of men commit- ted to our charge, none otherwise than as a beginninge of so holie and necessary a thinge, vntil a general reformacion of congregacions [i. e. churches] be made by the holie em- pire, by a fre and christian council, vniuersall or nationall"'. And even Philip the Magnanimous, who shewed himself peculiarly erratic, and impatient, more than others, of all spiritual authority, evinced a willingness in 1545 to stand by the determinations of such a body, — ' a free, pious and general council'^. As soon, however, as the members of the counter-refor- Reeoncaiauon mation party had recruited their broken forces, and had teas. " ' ^ published the elaborate decrees which are the fruit of their weary conferences at Trent, all hopes of peace, of unity, of reconciliation were utterly extinguished (1563). ^ In the 'Kinges Protestation meKteCoreraZ.TWderti. ii. 577. Lovan. agaynst the Pope,' A.r. 1536 (Fox, 1782. p. io8s, col. 2. ed. 1583), where ■* Ranke, Hist. Reform, iii. 286. this expression occurs, it is observed: ^ Oonsultation, sign. Rr. ii. Lond. 'They that be wisest do dispiyre of i.')47- See also Bucer's kindred lan- a generall councel. Wherfore we ^uageialoLia Seripta Dim Adversaria, think it now best that euery prince p. 25;;. Argentor. 1544. call a councell prouiucial.' Cf. the ^ See, however, C'redner's remarks reasons given at the same time (a.d. on this profession in the ' Vorwort ' 1537) by the Germans, for not con- (p. cov,) prefixed to his recent edition senting to a proposed council to be of the BeformcUio Mcclesim-um Has- held at Mantua. Le Plat, Monu- sice, Giessen, 1852, 10 History of the Christian Church. iNTROfiTTc- A synod, which the Romanist, however unhistorically, held — — to be a representation of the whole Church, having eventually obtained the formal sanction of the pontiff, was calculated to satisfy alike the Galilean and ultramontane theories of infallibility, and therefore claimed the homage of all Chris- tians who recognized the jurisdiction of the Roman see. On the other hand, the different bodies of Reformers also went their way to strengthen their ecclesiastical organiza- tion, and developing the evangelic principles that drove them at the first into collision with the unreformed, gave character and permanency to their system by stereotyping their Confessions and other symbolical books. The breach was thus to all appearance made irreparable. Christendom that had for centuries been parted into East and West resolved itself still further; now presenting to the eye a motley group (we cannot say confederation) of national and local churches. ofCh^Me^^^ Few perhaps of those who thoughtfully examine the dom. modern history of Europe, will question that the great dis- ruptions of the sixteenth century, though highly beneficial as a whole, entailed some formidable evils. The loss of that organic unity which served in by-gone ages as a powerful evidence in aid of Christian truth ; the intermission of fraternal fellowship between communities related to each other not by blood and language merely, but, in some essential points, by creed'; the sad dismemberment of fami- lies; the multiplication of parties, schisms and factions rising out of religious prejudice, and often issuing in reli- gious wars; the growth of mental habits leading either to indifferentism on one side, or to interdicted speculations on the other ; the diffusion of an egotistic, self-complacent and subjective spirit, making light of all ecclesiastical traditions, and exciting controversies whose vibrations are still felt in almost every part of Europe; — these were some of the immediate, and it may be, necessary, accompaniments of Reformation Period. 11 struffffles which then rose between the ancient and modern introduc modes of thought, between the Mediseval and Eeforming - principles. But while confessing and deploring such re- sults, we should, on the other hand, reflect that in the present stage of man's existence, great advantages must generally be purchased by corresponding sacrifices; and that if we fairly balance gain with loss, the Eeformation is to be esteemed among our very choicest blessings. It re- covered what is far inore precious than ecclesiastical unity, — the primitive and Apostolic faith. From it, accordingly, has dated a new era in the moral progress of the Western nations, and the spiritual development of man. It has replaced him in the liberty wherewith Christ had made him free. It has unloosed the trammels that oppressed not only his understanding, but his conscience. It has led to the rejection of that semi-Judaism in thought and feeUng, which however it was overruled for good in training the barbaric nations of the north, was, notwithstanding, a me- lancholy relapse into the servile posture of the Hebrew, as distinguished from the free and filial spirit that should characterize the children of God. Above all, the Reforma- tion vindicated for our Blessed Lord the real headship of the Church, exalting Him as the One source of life and righteousness, and thereby placing saints, and priests, and sacraments, in their true subordination. Personal faith in Him, the Reconstructor of humanity, the living Way unto the Father, was now urged with emphasis unequalled since the age of St Augustine: and this quickening of man's moral consciousness imparted a new stimulus to individual effort. Doubtless many wild exaggerations fol- lowed, and stUl follow, in the track of the great movement, partly owing to the natural waywardness of men, and partly to the irrepressible force of the revulsion caused by hatred of the ancient superstitions; yet, in spite of all such drawbacks, it is manifest that the reformed are, as a TION. 12 History of the Chmstian Church. iNTKODUc- rule, entitled to rank higher than the unreformed com- munities, surpassing these not only in the vigour of their intellectual faculties and their material prosperity, but also in the social, moral, and religious elevation of the people. Exactly where the leaders of the Reformation were true to their first principles, and struggled to pre- serve the middle way in which the doctrine of authority is made consistent with that of individual freedom, in the same proportion we behold their labours crowned with rich and permanent success ; and exactly where the seed they scattered found a peaceful and congenial soil, we re- cognize the most intelligent and manly, the most truthful, upright, and magnanimous people in the world. CHAPTER I. THE SAXON SCHOOL OF GHURCH-REFORMEES, AND ITS PROPAGATION. GERMANY. To understand tlie nature of the Reformation as it rose gekmany. and spread in Germany, we must become familiar with the life of him who was its centre and its chief. Martin Luther, Luther was born at Eisleben, a small town of Saxony, on the 10th of November, 1483. Like Hildebrand, whose reformations constitute another epoch in' the annals of the Christian Church, he issued from the lower strata of society'. A childhood, saddened by the hardness of his lot, and the undue severity of his parents, ended in his transfer at the age of fifteen to the thriving school of Eisenach^, where indigence compelled him not unfrequently to earn his bread by singing carols in the streets and neighbourhood. Yet no privations of this kind, however much they modified his natural temper, could depress the ^ 'lam q. peaaant's son,' he says feld, 'whither his parents removed in his Table Talh, 'my father, my soon after his biith, he was taught, grandfather, and my great grand- among other things, the Creed, the father were genuine peasants (rechte Ten Commandments, and the Lord's Bauem).' Eanke observes that the Prayer, together with the Latin family was from Mohra, a village in G-rammar of Bonatus. The year be- the Thutingian forest, not far from fore (1497) Luther had been sent to a the spot where Boniface, the apostle school of higher rank at Magdeburg, of Germany, first preached the Go- bnt was withdrawn, owing to the spel. Reform. Bk. 11. ch. I. (I. 316.) inability of his parents to maintain Another form of the name was Ltider, him there. At Msenach he had rela- out of which his enemies profess to tives, Vfho contributed slightly to his have extracted .the mystic number support. The best contemporary 666, the designation of the beast in biographies of him are Melanothon's the Apocalypse: cf. Audin, Hist, de Hist, Vit. Martin. LiUher. ed. Hen- la Vie de Martin Luther, i. i, note. mann, 1741, andasecondby Matthe- laris, 1 839. sius, Historien von D. Martin Luthers ' ' 2 In the vElage school of Mans- Anfang, etc. first published in 1565, 14< The Saxon School of Church^Reformers, [chap. GERMANY, buojant energies within him ; and when arrangements had Dmiopmmt ^^^^ made at length (1501), for sending him to the tmirer- o/his dmrae- g^^y ^f Erfurt, the leading features of his character were rapidly developed. In that large and sturdy frame, with appetites of corresponding vehemence, and passions ever calling loudly for restraint, there worked a spirit such as rarely tenantshumanflesh, — commanding, fierce, impetuous, dauntless, and indomitable, while maintaining what he felt to be the cause of truth and righteousness, and yet com- bining with these manlier elements an awful consciousness of his dependence upon God, and childlike singleness of purpose. Of his intellectual eminence a presage had been given at Eisenach, particularly by the force and eloquence of his compositions, both in verse and prose: but the superiority of his talents grew most apparent when, on entering at the university, he soon eclipsed his fellow- students, and astonished his instructors, by the rapidity with which he mastered all the ponderous learning of the schools. It seems that Aristotle, whom he afterwards abhorred', was one of the chief instruments in this evolving of his mental powers. He also read the other standard authors of the age, such as Aquinas", Scotus*, William of Occam*, Gabriel BieP, D'Ailly^ and Gerson'; last of all, proceeding to the investigation, of the Holy Scriptures', ^ In a letter dated May 1 8, 1517 dialectics and physics of the Stagyrite (ed. De Wette, I. £7), he spoke of had been the subject of his first aca- Aristotle as then ou the decline demical lectures, ('descendit paulatim') ; and in 1520 ' &ee Middle Age, pp. 287 sq. he entirely abandoned the Aristotelic ' Ibid. p. ago. theory of substance and accident {De * Ibid. p. 379 and n. 4. Captiv. Bahylon. Eccl. 0pp. II. fol. * lUi. p. 380 and n. 3. 263, b. Jens, 1600). He declared * Ibid. p. 380, n. 4. that the Western Christians were ^ Ibid. p. 384. generally orthodox on the Eucharist, * On his 'discovery' of a copy 'donee coepit Aristotelis simulata of the Latin Bible (1503) in the philosophia in Ecclesia grassari.' At university library at Erfurt, see last, according to Erasmus {Epist. Merle d'Aubign^'s Hist, of the Re- lib. XXII. ep. 99), he denounced the form. 1. 208. Edinb. 1853, and Dr whole of the Aristotelic philosophy Maitland's SarlcAges, p. 469. Lend, as diabolical. Singularly enough the 1844. I.J - and its Propagation. 15 which he studied with the help of the patristic commenta- Germany. tors, more especially of St Augustine. His decided pre- ference for the writings of this saint, a preference which involved considerations of the highest moment in relation to tlie history of Christian dogmas, may be traced in some degree to his initiation, at Erfurt, into the order of Augus- tine-hermits, or friars (1505). The natural bent of Luther's Beeomea a mind was certainly not in the direction of monasticism : /urt, 1505, he was social, cheerful, strongly sensuous, passionately fond of art and music, and himself no mean composer : yet on reaching his twentieth year he gradually became the victim of religious melancholy, which continued to hang over him and clouded all his being, until 1508. His mental agita- tions were peculiarly intense and awful, bordering, it would seem, on actual delirium, when he felt himself impelled into the cloisters of the Augustine convent^ A noviciate of one year gave ample promise of his diligence, humility and devotion. He resolved, with all the vigour of a domi- nant will, that if ascetic practices could open the gates of heaven to any, he for one would enter there'". But not-- withstanding all such brave determinations, his disquietude went on increasing. As the lectures of the schools had failed to satisfy his yearnings after holiness, and could not draw him into closer communing with God, so neither did the self-inflicted torments of his cell. The Reformation that was destined to produce such mighty throes and con- flicts in the whole of Christendom, was now foreshadowed ' He had been brooding over the books, his Virgil and Plautus, betook sudden death of an intimate friend himaelf during the night of Aug. 17, (July, 1505) when he was overtaken 1505, to the place of his reelusion: in the mountains between Mansfeld cf. Waddington, l. 39 sq. and Erfurt by a terrific storm. His ^^ Banke, Seform. I. 319: Audin, feelings were strongly excited by Jlist. de Lvther, I. 88, 8g. His trea- what he deemed the presence "of a tise De Votis Monastids was written wrathful God, and he instantly made about sixteen years after. He there a vow to St Anne, that if he escaped says that he became a recluse h^lf- he would enter a convent. On reach- unwillingly, ' terrore et agone mortis ing Erfurt, he gave a farewell supper subitse oircumvallatus.' to his friends, and retaining only two 16 The Saxon -School of Church-Reformers, [chap. 'migrates to Wittenberg, 1508. in the night-long vigils of the penitent and terror-stricken friar. It is remarkable' that one of his first comforters was an aged inmate of the convent, who with great sim- plicity reminded him of the article of his creed, ' I believe in the remission of sins,' — expounding it in such a way as to bring out more consciously man's personal trust in a gratuitous redemption^ Hence the origin of the peculiar emphasis which Luther uniformly placed upon this doctrine all the rest 'of his life. In 1508 the scene of his activity was changed : John Staupitz, the provincial of his order, and his sympathetic guide, securing his appointment as philosophical lecturer in the university of Wittenberg, which had been founded by the elector Frederic, only six years before. He there took the degree of bachelor of divinity (1509), and hence- forth his chief thoughts were concentrated on the study of the Bible ^ What had most attracted him in it were the '' Melancthon, Se Vit. Luih. ' Jbid. The friar confirmed his interpretation by an extract from St Bernard. One passage in the Pau- line Epistles (Eom. i. 17) caused Luther great perplexity while he was thinking out his doctrine of Justifi- cation. He had been taught to understand tiKaiocrivri Qeov of the 'active' righteousness, in virtue of which God punished sinners ; but he finally held it to mean His 'passive' righteousness, by which the God of mercy justified mankind through faith in Christ. As early as April, 1516, he was engaged in actual war- fare against the scholastic 'opinion,' or rather 'error,' as he adds. See his Letter to George Spenlein (De Wette, I. 16 sq.), where he goes on to exhort his brother-friar in the following terms, and thus proves that his doctrine of Justification was already far developed : ' Igitur, mi dulcis Prater, disce Christum et huno crucifixum: disce Ei cantare et de teipso desperans dioere Ei : Tu, Domine Jesu, es justitia mea, ego autem sum peccatum tuum : Tu as- eumsisti meum, et dedisti mihi tuum: assumsisti quod non eras, et dedisti mihi quod non eram. . . . Igitur non nisi in Illo, per fiducialem despera- tionem tui et operum tuorum pacem invenies. Disce insuper ex Ipso, ut sicut Ipse suscepit te, et peccata tua fecit sua, et suam justitiam fecit tuam. ' ^ In a letter dated March ly, 1509, Luther expressed a wish to enter more systematically on the study of theology, ' ea inquam theologia, quae nucleum uucis et medullam tritici et medullam ossium scrutatur:' ed. De Wette, 1. 6. He took his doc- tor's degree Oct. 19, 15 12, and by that step considered himself bound especially to preach the Word of God: Melancthon, De Vit. Luth. p. 22. He had been ordained priest in 1506. On the circumstances con- nected with his first celebration of mass, see Audin, i. 89, 90. I.J and its Propagation. • 17 epistles of St Paul, with TvLich he now associated* the gisrmani;. anti-Pelagian writings of Augustine, and the sermons of John Tauler°, his fellow-countryman. The hours that were not occupied in preparing his academic lectures, he employed either in preaching to his brother-friars, or in parochial work at Wittenberg*; and during this time his mental conflicts, though still frequent, had considerably abated. One remarkable effect of Luther's growing in- fluence in the university', was the dethronement of scho- lasticism both there and elsewhere. He shewed himself peculiarly hostile to the Mediaeval theories of human merit, and refuted these by 'pointing, like the Baptist, to the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world 'I It is, however, easy to detect in his mind, as in that of St Augustine, his great model, the temporary co-existence of divergent, and, in many cases, heterogeneous elements'*. The Saxon friar clung at first to every thing he found in the existing practice and traditions of the Church: yet, meanwhile he was fostering principles which in their logical results were adverse to the ruling spirit of the Mediaeval system. * Kanke (l. 323, note) has brought ve ecclesiasticee auctoritatis doctorem to light an interesting passage on velit profiteri:' ed. De Wette, I. this subject, 57. In other words, Luther exactly * See Middle Age, pp. 382, 383, reversed the state of things which and n. 8. prevailed in the time of Roger Bacon : ** He also acted for a while as see Middle Age, p. 320, n. 2: In deputy-provincial of the A ugustines the same year (Sept. 4, iji?), he in the absence of Staupitz (Secken- had published a long list of theses, dorfjLib. I. p.2o, col. 1), thusgaining vindicating Augustinianism in its a deeper insight into the state of prac- more stringent form, and insisting, tical religion, as well as manifesting most emphatically on the moral im- great aptitude for matters of busi-. potence of man unquickened by the nesa. Holy Spirit: Loscher'siJe/ormaiioMS- ' HewTites(May 18, J517), 'Theo- acta,, I. 539 sq. logia nostra et S. Augustinus pro- ' See Melanothon's Idfe, as above, spere prooedunt et regnant in nostra p. 12. uuiversitate, Deo operante Mire ° e.p.whenhevisitedRome'1511), fastidiuntur lectiimes sententiarice, nee he tells us in the Table-Talk, that he est, ut quis sibi auditores sperare climbed the Scala Santa on his knees possjt, nisi theologiam hano, id est in order to obtain the plenary indul- Bibliam, aut S. Augustinum, aliuni- . genoe attached to thatact of penance:, R. P. C 18 The Saxon School of Church- Reformers, [chap. GERMANT. It was only when the doctrine of indulgences was prac- tically forced upon him, in its most obnoxious shape, that he began to see the real contrariety between it and his view of justification by faith. The series of propositions attacks m which he posted up, on the 31st of October, 1517, chal- indulgences, lenging 'a disputation for the purpose of explaining the power of indulgences,' evince, as we have seen', a stedfast resolution to assail the very strongholds of scholasticism, — its theory of penances and superabundant merits. In putting forth those ever-memorable questions, where the ' thoughts fly out from his mind like sparks from the iron under the stroke of the hammerV he was more especially stimulated by discovering that some of his own parish- ioners" had gone with the multitude to Jiiterbock, a neigh- bouring town, where Tetzel, the Dominican friar, advertised his wares for sale*. Yet Luther was still very far from contemplating any rupture with the church-authorities. His animadversions were restricted to a class of topics on which several of the schoolmen had expressed themselves with freedom almost equal to his own. He even enter- 'but a voice within him constantly contributionemincistameonjecerint; reproached him, while he did so, deinde, tantas esse has gratias, ut crying, The just shall live by faith.' fiuUum sit adeo magnuni peccatum, ^ Middle Age, p. 441, pp. 460 sq. etiam (ut aiant) si per impossibile " Ranke, Befdrm. 1. 340. quia matreni Dei violasaet, quin ^ See Luther's own statement in possit solvi: item, quod homo per his treatise against Hans Wurst iatas indulgentiaa liber, sit ah omni (1541): Schriften, ed. Waleh, xvil. poena et culpa.' 1703. His earnestness was also ■• Audin's remark on these trana- shewn by the letter he addressed actions has more than hia usual (Oct. 3 1 , 15 1 7) to Albert, archbishop amount of candour : ' C'^tait un m^- ofMagdeburg(DeWette, l.68),where tier honteux dont toute Sme reli- he speaks as follows of the practical- gieuse rougissait pour Tezel, et Ton effect of preaching the indulgences : comprend la colore de Luther contre 'in quibua non adeo accuso prjedi- ce vendeur de choses aaintes,' etc. I. catorum exclamationes, quas non 124. It shotild be also added, that audivi, sed doleo falsissimas intelli- the papal nuncio Miltitz afterwards gentias populi ex illis conceptas, quaa repudiated the extravagance of Tet- vulgo undique jactant, videlicet, quod zel, and censured him with great se- Oredunt infelioes auimse si literas in- verity (Waddington, I. 193). Not- dulgentiarum redemerint, quod aecuri withstanding, the main principle on siut de salute sua ; item, qilod animae which indulgences were based, was re- de purgatorio statini erolent, ubi affirmed by Leo X. (Loacher, xi. 493). I.] dnd its Propagation. 10 tained a hope" that Leo X. would prove his patifon, or at German y. least discountenance the shameless traffic which he laboured to repress. And such a hope is quite accordant with the general tone of Luther's mind: for nothing can be more groundless than the idea that he was actuated by a revolu- tionary spirit, or had aught in common with the vulgar' demagogue. He started with a feeling of the deepest reve- rence for all institutions which he had been taught to view as the depositories of Divine authority*. One of these he recognized in the Latin Church as governed by the pontiffs, and therefore it was only after painful struggles that he lost all faith in their uprightness, and had courage to repudiate their claims. His confidence appears to have been shaken first on noticing the ultra- Roinanism of those who undertook the advocacy of the old abuses. After skirmishing with Tetzel' arid a more respectable ^""'J?!"'"? scholar of the university of Frankfurt-on-the-Oder, Conrad Koch, surnamed Wimpina^ Luther had to meet the formal 'In the Preface to hia works, ed in German about the same period: ■written the year before his death, cf. Seckendorf, Lib. i. p. 26, col. I. he says, 'In iis certus mlhi vide- AsaDominican, he was backed by all bar me hahityiiaia patronwm papam, the influence of his order, so that for cujus fiducia turn fortiter nitebar,' a time the disputation looked like a etc. mere squabble between the black and ° A remarkable instance of this grey friars. It might have been may be seen in the letters which he described far more accurately as a wrote in 1517, when he sent (Oct.31) struggle of the Thomist champions copies of his theses on indulgences of scholasticism and the new gene- to Albert, archbishop of Magdeburg ration, who reverted directly to the (De Wette, l. 67 sq.), and to his own Bible and the earlier Fathers, diocesan, the bishop of Brandenburg. * Wimpina was called in to his The latter conjured him, by his love aid by Tetzel (Jan. 1518), at the for peace, to stop the agitation he suggestion of the archbishop of Ma- was raising, and for a while he hesi- yence, who was also profiting by the tated whether he should recal his sale of the indulgences,- and there- work or not: 'Malo obedire quam fore felt that the .attack from Wit- miracula facere, etiamsi possem.' tenberg was levelled partly at him- Letter to Spalatinus, ed. De Wette, self. , Luther ultimately (Pref. to his I. 71: cf. Waddington, I. 85 sq., Latin works) charged on this prelate Stephen's Eesays in Eccl. Biogr. I, the whole blame of the disruption 313 aq. 2nd ed. that ensued. Wimpina's -Ois^irfa- ' Tetzel's own production (Los- tiones are printed in Liischer, I. 503 cher, 1. 484) is in answer to Luther's sq. He extolled the powers of the two sermons on indulgences, preach- pope (' papa ea, quae fidei sunt, solus C2 20 The Saxon School of Chv/rch^Reformers, [chap. Ech, Prierias, GERMANY, charge of insubordination, brought against him by three ardent champions of the papacy. These were John Mayr Yon Eck, or Eckius', the vice-chancellor of the university of Ingolstadt, who from his eloquence and intellectual culti- vation may be styled the Luther of southern Germany; Sylvester Mazolini di Prierio (Prierias^, a Dominican of Rome, and ' master of the sacred palace ;' and an ignorant and Hochstra- inquisitor Hochstraten', professor of theology at Cologne, and the unblushing advocate of persecution. As the argu- ments which they advanced were ultimately based upon the despotism and virtual omnipotence of the popes, they had necessitated an inquiry on the part of Luther into wider regions than his thoughts had hitherto been travers- ing. At first he shewed his usual reverence for the character and jurisdiction of LeoX.*: but in the spring of 1518, while these feelings were still dominant, we find him drawing a distinction'' between the infallibility of Holy habet determinare'), and even com- mitted himself to the following state- ment (Disp. II. § 17): 'Docendi sunt Christiani, quod Ecolesia multa tenet nt catholicas veritatea, quae tamen sicut nee in canime Biblim, ita nee u, doctorihus anU^iorihits ponuntur.' ^ For his Obelisci, together with the Asterisci, which Luther published in reply to them, see Loscher, III. 333: cf. Seckendorf, Lib. i. p. 30, col. •2. Up to this time they were intimate friends ; but after Eck's criticism had been circulated extensively (as he declared contrary to hia own wishes), he gradually became the chief antago- nist of the reformer. On his high reputation as an academic, seeBanke, He/. I. 444, 445, who adds (p. 449) that he, like Luther, was a peaaant's son. " His production (Dec. 15 17) is entitled Malogus in prwrnrnptuosas M.Luiheri Conclimones : Loscher, n. 1 2 sq. , Seckendorf, p. 3 1 . He defends all the worst extravagances of Tetzel, and in reference to the papal power maintains (i) that the Church of Rome is ' virtualiter ' the Church Catholic, and (2) that the supreme pontiff is ' virtualiter ' the Church of Rome. Luther declares in reply, that he knows of no form in which the church exists 'virtualiter' except a council, repudiating the counter- theory bypointing to the 'monstrous' deeds of pontiffs, such as Julius II. and Boniface VIIL ' Seckendorf, Lib. I. p. 38. * Thus he ends his letter to the pontiff (dated Trinity Sunday, 1518) with the following passage: 'Pro- stratum me pedibus tuis, beatissime Pater, offero, cum omnibus quae sum et habeo. Vivifica, occide, voca, revoca, approba, reproba, ut plaoue- rit: vocem tuam vooem Christi, in te prsesidentis et loquentis, agnos- cam,' etc. : ed. De Wette, i. 122. ^ One of his main positions in answering Prierias is the well-known dictum of St Augustine: 'Ego solis eis libris, qui canonioi appellantur, , hunc honorem deferre didici, ut nul- I.] and its Propagation. 21 Scripture and that of the most able pontiff, and denying gbbmant. to the latter any authority to ' speak from himself alone,' independently of general councils, except inc^eed as the in- terpreter of the decrees which they had promulgated. On the 7th of the following August, Luther was cited to appear in Rome within sixty days, the charge against him now assuming, even in the highest quarters, the more serious form of heresy ° : but owing to the generous inter- position of his friends at Wittenberg', the task of judging him, and thereby crushing the incipient reformation, was com- interview wm mitted to the papal legate in Germany, the cardinal Thomas "■'* "'""■ di Vio'of Gaeta (hence called Cajetanus), who had made himself conspicuous both as a Dominican and a defender of the Smrvma of Aquinas. Luther armed with the safe con- duct of the emperor Maximilian, met his adversary for the first time at Augsburg on the 10th of October^. He was then charged with contradicting a decision of Clement VL lum eorum Soriptorum errasge fir- university: ' Soripsit mihi illustrissi- missime creclam,' etc. (Ep. ad S. mus Princepa, se in causa mea egisse, Hieronym. apud Hieron. 0pp. iv. ut legatus Cajetanus soripseiit ad pt. II. p. 630, ed. Bened.) But he urbem pro mea causa committenda expressed himself more clearly on ad partes : et interim id me debere this head (May, 1518) in his iJesoZa- expectare. Ideo spero ceusuras non twues Disputationum de Yirtute In- Venturas esse. Displioeo autem mul- Uiwrum. Loscher, ii. 183 sq., tis, pluribus, plurimis.' Letter to Seckendorf, Lib. I. pp. 33 — 37. This John Lange, Sept. 9, iSrS; De document, though forwarded to the Wette, i. 141. pope (May 30) and his own diocesan ^ See his letter to Spalatinus of (May 22), was not printed till the this date {jiid. I. 143); his other following August. letters written from Augsburg (pp. * This charge though hinted at be- 145 — i6i) ; Seckendorf, Lib. I. pp. 45 fore was first advanced distinctly in sq., and Banke, I. 428, 429. It was the papal brief of Aug. 27 (Loscber, on this occasion that Staupitz on his II. 437) anddrewfrom him the strong- arrival at Augsburg, partly through est declaration of his catholicity. He fear and partly through affection, had in fact already anticipated it released the friar from his vow of (Aug. 21, 1518): 'Haereticus nun- obedience: of. Waddington, I. 159, quam ero ; errare disputando possum, 160. Luther regarded this as no sed statuere nihil volo, porro nee friendly act, and spoke of it as his opinionibus hominum captivus fieri :' first excommunication. Hisoldsupe- ed.'De Wette, l. 133. rior hesitated for a while, as he ex- ' Luther thus alludes to the inter- pressed it, 'inter Christum etpapam ' cession of the Elector Frederic, who (De Wette, I. 558), and then fiaally seconded the general wish of the abandoned hiih. 22 The Baxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. GSRMANY. respecting the meritorious treasury of the Church ; and, secondly, with holding that faith in the efficacy of sacra- ments is always an essential precondition in order to receive the grace which they communicate, — this latter doctrine being one which the cardinal denounced as altogether novel, though he afterwards expressed his willingness to pass it over, provided Luther would abandon the first of his po- dft^c vera ci/aZaapffinifeniw quoted appears to have been a moderate in the Middle Age as St Augus- mau, was induced to undertake the tine's, was not really his : De Wette, task, but gave it up when the I. 34. 24 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. Disputation with Eck at fjHpzig, 1519. GERMANY, having pushed them, through his want of intellectual balance, to the wildest consequences', grew notorious as an ultra-protestant, and a precursor of the German rationalists ^ He was, however, one of Luther's bosom-friends' when he consented, in the summer of 1519, to hold an amicable dis- putation at Leipzig*, touching the contested doctrines of grace and human freedom. His opponent was no other than the erudite and brilliant Eck, whom we have seen already throwing down his gauntlet in behalf of the in- sulted schoolmen. Providence had so arranged, that at the very time when the electors of the German empire were resolving, by their vote at Frankfurt, to enlarge the vast dominions of Charles V. (June 28), the theological dispu- tants^ had entered in their turn upon a series of questions that were destined to modify even more directly the whole course of European history. Several days indeed were suffered to elapse before the interest of the audience was thoroughly aroused (the controversy in the hands of Carl- stadt having reference chiefly to the Augustinian doctrine® of free-will and other like recondite topics) : but in the morning of July 4, a deep sensation was produced in every quarter of the hall when Luther's thoughtful, resolute, and ' He was banished from Saxony in 1524, partly through Luther's iu- fluence. At Orlamtlnde, a parish connected with the university, he had broached most extraordinary opinions, especially with regard to the obligation of the Mosaic law (Ranke, Bef. II. ■204), and we shall afterwards find him proceeding to still greater lengths. ^ e.g. As early as 1520, 'he en- tertained doubts whether Moses was really the author of the books which bear his name, and whether the Go- spels have come down ila us in their genuine form.' Ihid. n. 20. ' See Luther's letter to him, writ- ten in the spring of 15 19 : De'Wette, I. 249 sq. * It appears that Eck had spoken to Luther on this subject during the diet of Augsburg (15 18), and after agreeing that the disputation should be conducted in the most fiiendly manner, had published a schedule or prospectus containing thirteen theses, in Januaiy 15 19 (Losoher, ill. 210). ^ Their sessions lasted from June 27 to July 16; see Luther's letters, written July 20 and August 15 (De Wette, I. 284 sq., i. 290 sq.), and a full collection of documents in Los- oher, III. 215 sq., III. 292 sq. ^ Carlstadt's great proposition was : ' Omne bonum opus totum est a Deo.' Eck's counter-proposition was : ' Omne opus bonum esse a Deo, sed non totaliter.' I] and its Propagation. 25 care-worn figure ascended the platform, and gave utterance Germany. to convictions hitherto but half developed even to himself. Luther's part He had now reached the flower of manhood, being five and Hom. thirty years of age. Many circumstances had combined to point him out as the reformer of the German churches, and the vision of some sanitary movement', stretching far be- yond the grievances discussed in Mediaeval synods, had been actually presented to his mind : yet at this period there is not the slightest evidence of his intention to stand forward and assume. the office of a leader. The pacification that grew out of his recent interview with the nuncio, added to the public disgrace' of Tetzel, his antagonist, disposed him more particularly to repress or moderate his vehemence : and therefore when he joined the Wittenbergers on their way to the theological tournament at Leipzig, he still thought him- self in full communion with the Latin Church, if not on the most friendly footing with the pontiffs". His impetuous spirit ' Thus ID his ' Responsio' to Prie- rias (15 18), he makes the following statement (Loacher, 11. 301): 'Ec- clesia ihdiget refoimatione, quod non est unius hominis Pontifiois, neo inultorumoardinaliam officium, siout probavit utrumque novissimum con- cilium, sed totius orbia, imo soliua Dei.' He adds, however : ' Tempus autem hujus reformationis novit so- lus lUe, qui condidit tempora.' In 1519, writing to Christopher Scheurl (Feb. 20), he seems to have become more conscious of his mission, and more irreconcilably hostile to the papacy : ' Ssepius dixi, hu(nisque lu- aum ease a me: nrnic tandem seria 'm. Eomanum pontificem et arrogan- tiam Homanam agentur :' De Wette, I. ■230. * See above, p. 18, n. 4. ' " Cf. n. 7. That his feelings con- tinued to be more estranged in the interval appears from other letters ; e.g. writing to Spalatinua, March 13, he lets fall this hint : ' Verso et decreta pontificum, pro mea dispu- tatione, et (in aurem tibi loquor) ne- scio, an papa sit antichristus ipse, vel apostolus ejus.' About a year later, the suspicion here noticed had considerably ripened. He had read the treatise of Laurentius Valla, proving that the ' Donation of Con- stantiue' (see Middle Age, p. 388, n. i) waa a forgery, which so exas- perated him liiat he thought the papacy capable of all enormities : 'Ego sic angor,' he writes to Spa- latinua, vigil. Matthise [Feb. 23], 1520, 'utpropenon dubitem papam esse proprie antichristum ilium, quern vulgata opinione expeotat mundus' (De Wette, i. 420).^ As Eanke, however, well remarks, Luther meant no more by this title than that 'the dootiine of the Church waa corrupted, and must be restored to its original purity:' Meform. I. 457: cf. Audin, i. 259. He still spoke half respectfully of Leo X. consi- dered in his personal capacity, and represented him (Oct. i,ij20), as 'a Daniel in Babylon :' De Wette, i. 498. plea 26 The Saxon School of ChurehrReformers, [chap. GERMANY, had, however, been profoundly stirred, when he discovered " that the points which Eck intended to reopen at this dis- putation included several which Miltitz had promised should not for the present be revived\ The irritation was again increased, when Eck^ in the debate with Carlstadt, animadverted on certain arguments he had himself ad- vanced respecting the nature of the primacy conceded to the Church of Eome''. On this absorbing question, there- ifewprincir fore, tumed the memorable struggle of Julv, 1519. It ended by eliciting from Luther a distinct avowal on the fol- lowing subjects; — that the Latin Church is not exclusively the Church; that Orientals^, who have never recognized the papal monarchy, are not on that account ejected from the pale of Christendom; that the ascendancy at length ob- tained by Roman pontiffs is traceable to no Divine appoint- ment in their favour, but to human laws and institutes; that the directing influence of the Holy Ghost is not of such a kind as to exempt the councils of the Church from possibility of error; and that one of these has erred in fact by censuring Huss, the great Bohemian reformer, some of the articles on which his condemnation rested being truly evangelical*, and borrowed from the works of St Augustine. ■'■ This departure from the terms denying to the papacy its claim of of the pacification seemed to justify 'jus Divinum.' Audin's remark is his own share in the discussion. For therefore not exaggerated: ' Si Lu- instance, in writing to the elector ther triomphe k Leipzig, il n'y a Frederic (iVIarch 13), he says that plus de papaut^... si I'hommel'a fait, he had felt himself bound to remain I'homme pent le defaire.' silent on the disputed topics, so long ^ The importance of this distinc- as the opponents did the same, and tion was manifested soon afterwards, then adds: 'Nun aber Doctor EcUe when Luther (Nov. 7, 15 19), quoted unverwarneter Sach mich also an- the Greeks as an authority for deny- greift, dass er nit mein, sundern der iug that purgatory is to be pressed as ganzen E. K. 0. Universitat zu an article of faith ;' cum Grseci illud Wittenberg Sehand und Unehr su- non oredentes nunquam sint habiti chen vermerkt wird' etc. ob hoc pro hteretiois, nisi apud no- ^ Eck's 1 15th thesis was a denial vissimos hsereticantissimos heereti- of the proposition, 'Komanam Eocle- cantes:' De Wette, I. 367. siam non fuisse superiorem aliis ^0- * Loscher, III. 360. In Feb. 1520, clesiisantetem.poraSylvestri,'which, Luther wrote to Spalatinus (De as Luther wrote (De Wette, 1. 621), Wette, I. 425), that on reading the 'extorted'from him a counter-thesis^ works of Huss, which now reached ij and its Propagation. 27 The mingled horror, indignation, and dismay of the scho- geemant, lastics, who had listened to the statement of these novel Excommvni- truths, evinced that Luther's sin had now become unpar-r«tfier°i52o. donable". Instead of limiting his opposition to the gross excesses of the vendors of indulgences, instead of combat- ing the authority of individual doctors, like Aquinas, he had openly impugned the jurisdiction and decretals of the popes, and gone so far as to question the infallibility of councils. He was accordingly retained in outward union with the pontiffs by a very slender thread; and even that was to be severed, after some delay*, by the condemnatory him from Bohemia, he was amazed at the correspondence of his own views with those of his precursor : ' Ego imprudens [i.e. without being con- scious of it] hucusque omnia Jo- hannis Huss et docui et tenui: do- cnit eadem imprudentia et Johannes Staupits! : breviter sumus omnes Hussitse ignorantes : denique Paulus et Augustinus ad verbum sunt Hus- sitse.' This affinity between his ^dews and those of the Bohemians had iUready furnished matter for a con- troversy between him and Jerome Emser, a Swedish cainonist, who Jectured at Leipzig, and was pre- sent at the great discussion: see De Wette's note, Lwlhera Briefe, i. 337- ^ Immediately after the dispute (Juily 23), Eok addressed a letter to the Elector of gaxony, urging him to resist the errors propagated by Lu- ther, and to burn his books. He also elicited opinions condemnatory of the reformers from the universities of Cologne, Leipzig and Louvain (cf. 4-udin, I. 266 sq.), and finally went to Rome to stir up the pontiff against his old adversary (Waddington, 1. pp. 244, -245). On the 26th of Eeb. 1520, Luther writes to Spalatinus: 'Eccius Eomam ivit impetr?,turus contra me abysses abyssorum.. .Cre- do hominem totum ia furiam versum' (De Wette, I. 421). Wrought upon by his representations, Leo X. ap- pointed Eck his nuncio for carrying out the sentence of excommunication (June IJ, 1520), — an appointment little calculated to allay the aiiinio- eity of the reformers (Eoscoe, Life of Leo X. n. 217, Lond. 1846). The process by which the hull was ma- nufactured, is detailed in Itanke, Re-: form. I. 473 sq. ^ See his letters to the emperor Charles V. (Jan. 15, 1520), to the archbishop Albert (Feb. 4), and to the bishop of Merseburg (Feb. 4), complaining that he could not obtain a fair hearing (De Wette, i. 392 sq.): and especially his famous letter to Leo X. written after Oct. I3> I. 5 '20, in Latin and German : De Wette, I, 497 sq. It is far from cor- responding to Audin's description ('ceuvre brutale, que ni Wiclif, ni Jean Huss, ni j^rdme de Prague, ni Arius, ni Pelage n'auraient os^ trac^:' i. 274), being rather a most eloquent and biting satire on the court of Home, partly concealed un- der professions of deference and re- spect. It was composed immediately after a last interview with Miltitz at Liohtenberg (Oct. 13 ; De Wette, i, 495), where, by invoking the media- tion of Luther's brother-Augustines (Staupitz in the number), he flit- tered himself that he had cemented a reconciliation with the pope. Eck, however, arrived at Leipzig (Oct. 3), with the excommunlcatory bull, while 28 The Saxon School of- Church-Reformers, [chap. GERMANY. buU of Leo, lauDched against him, June 15, 1520, and ■ publicly burnt at Wittenberg in the following December '. otherdoctrinea In addition to these bold opinions on the subject of the reformers, church-authority, at least so far as such authority was absolutely vested in the court of Rome, the Saxon reformers had already been compelled to systematize their teaching with respect to faith, to penitence, to justification and free-will. These doctrines were, in truth, most intimately bound up with their discussions from the very first. De- sirous above all things of exalting Christ" as the Redeemer of the world, they lost no opportunity of preaching free salvation in His name. The eye or hand by which, the blessing of forgiveness is appropriated', they held to be a true and lively faith, communicated supernaturally to the human spirit, acquiescing in the merciful purposes of God, these negotiations were proceeding (De Wette, I. 491); and the result was, that Luther, after wavering for a moment, answered the papal ful- mination in a strain that bordered upon absolute defiance. ^ See Middle Age, p. 442. On Aug. 3, i|2o, his mind was already made up. He wrote as follows to John Voigt, an Augustine friar' in Magdeburg: 'Nihil timemus am- plius, sed jam edo librum vulgarem contra Papam de statu BcclesicB emen- dando; hie papam acerrime traoto, et quasi antichriatum. Orate Do- minum pro me, ut prosit verbum meum Eoolesise suae.' De Wette, I. 475; cf. p. 478. On the 17th of' November he renewed his appeal to a future council, begging the Ger- man states to suspend their condem- nation of him till he had been tried by fair judges, ' et Suripturis dignis- que dooiuuentia oonvictus.' ^ See Luther's remarkable lan- guage cited above, p. 16, n. 2. '^ Thus in Luther's Comment, on the Epist. to the Galatiam, which was in the press as early as May 16, 15 19 (De Wette, i. 274), he writes (on u. 16), in opposition to the 'fides for- mata ' of the schoolmen : ' Fides Christiana non est otiosa qualitas vel vacua siliqua in corde, qua? p6s- sit existere in peccato mortali, donee caritas accedat et earn vivifioet; sed si est vera fides, est qujedam certa fiducia cordis et firmus assensue, quo Christus apprehenditur. Ita ut Christus sit objectum fidei imo non objectum sed, ut sic dicam, in ipsa fide Christus adest...HaiO vera sunt bona opera, quae fluunt ex ista fide et hilaritate cordis concepta, quod gratis habemus remissionem peccatorum per Christum.' In his small treatise, De Libertate Chris- tiana, of which he sent a copy to the pope in 1520, he handles the same topics, asserting that true faith can- not subsist together with works, but explaining this paradox as follows : 'h.e. si per opera quaaounque sunt simuljustificariprffisumas.' Heafter- wards adds in reference to Christian works : ' Bona opera non faciunt bonum virum, sed bonus vir facit bona opera ;' union with Christ being necessary to the production of reij holiness. I.] and its Propagation. 29 and thus, in Augustinian phraseology, ' obtaining what the gebmany, law enjoins.' So strong indeed was their conviction of man's actual and hereditary sinfulness, that language well- nigh failed them in describing his corruption and the im- potence of all his spiritual and moral faculties until they are revivified from heaven. In other words, the Saxon reformers invariably directed their heaviest weapons at the current theories of justification, which ascribed undue im- portance to the human element, or factor, in the process by which man is reconciled to God. But while engaged in Emggeratimt. reasserting principles like these, they were at times be- trayed, especially in early stages of the reformation, into very great onesidedness, and even into serious eiTors*. Fresh from the perusal of the anti-Pelagian writings of Augustine, Luther more than once expressed himself in terms which almost did away with the necessity of re- pentance. His confusion may be further illustrated by the language of certain 'Paradoxes' which he offered to maintain against all comers at Heidelberg' (April 26, 1518). One of these declared that ' free-will after original sin is a mere name' ('res est de solo titulo'), — thus verging far in the direction of fatalism", by representing man as entirely * Thus, in 1524 (Pre/, to the New waa ever modified or retracted : Da- Testamenl), Luther was disposed to vidson's Intr. to New Test. ill. 339. estimate the worth of particular As early as 1520, when reasoning books of the Bible by the prominence against the sacramental character of with which they stated what he extreme unction, he seemed to have deemed the doctrine of Holy Writ. adopted an old suspicion respecting St John's Gospel was ' das einige the Epistle of St James, as though zarte, rechte Hauptevangelium ;' St it were unworthy of the spirit of an Paul's epistles, especially those to apostle : De Captiv.' BcAijlon. Eccl. ; the Komans, Galatians and Ephe- 0pp. II. fol. 284, Jense, i6oo. For sians, together with the first of St this he was severely rebuked by Peter's, were the books that pointed Henry VIII. in the Libellus Megius men to Christ ; in comparison of admrsus Martinum Lutherum hiere- which, therefore, the epistle of St siwrchum, sign, t, i. Lond. 1521 : cf. James might be neglected as an Jjee'a Inspir. of Holy Scrip, p. 435, epistle of straw ('eine rechte stro- Lond. 1854. hemeEpistelgegensieideunSiedoch ° Waddington, 1. 114 sq. keine evangelische Art an ihr hat'). * As early however, as 1527, some It does not appear that this view of the reformers abandoned this so The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. GERMANY. passive under the influence of Divine grace : while others tended to beget a naked antinomianism, by stating that he is not justified who does many works, but he who without any work has much faith in Christ". A mind so resolute, capacious and commanding, soon attracted to itself disciples and auxiliaries. One whom he .B««r(6.i49i): had gained on the occasion just referred to was Martin Bucer^, a Dominican of Alsace, who on displaying more than ordinary talents was sent by his superiors to com- plete his studies in the chief school of the Palatinate. In the following summer (Aug. 25, 1518), he was joined at Wittenberg by a more able and less vacillating colleague, Philip Schwarzerd, or Melancthon, whose congenial spirit, while it freely yielded from the first to Luther's influences, reacted with no inconsiderable force on his instructor, and has left a deep impression on the whole of the Saxon theology. Melancthon sat at Luther's side in the waggon that conveyed the disputants to Leipzig. He was then only two and twenty years of age, having been bom at Bretten, a small town in the Palatinate, on Feb. 16, 1497; yet partly owing to his natural gifts, and partly to the careful lessons of John Reuchlin^ his famous kinsman, he had made such great proficiency in rhetoric, in classical studies, and in Hebrew, as to be the pride and wonder of the university*. The steps by which an earnest scholar of and Melanc- thon (6. 1497) join the Lvr tlteran Ttiove- menu Melancthon^ a character; extreme position, partly owing to a controversy with Erasmus, of which more will be said hereafter'. Sfee the evidence fully stated by Laurence, Bampton Lectures, pp. 248 sq., pp. 282 sq., 3rd ed. : cf. Mohler's Sym- holik, L 43 sq., i'24 sq. Eng. transl. The latter disputant neglects to men- tion that Luther strongly reSom- mended Melancthon'siociCfemmBnes in their corrected form, and thus virtually, at least, retracted his own assertion of an irresistible Divine necessity. ' ' Non ille Justus est qui multum operatur ; sed qui sine opere multum credit in Christum.' ^ Luther makes the following re- ference to him (Feb. 12, 1520), in writing to Spalatinus: 'Habes epi- stolam Bucerianam, fratris vel solius in ista secta [i. e. of the Domini- cans] candidi, et optimse spei juve- nis, qui me Heidelbergie et avide et «impUoiter excepit atque conversatus fuit, dignus amore et fide, sed et spe:' De Wette, i. 412. ' See Middle Age, p. 388, n. 3, and Eanke's Reform. I. 297 — 305. * Luther's notice of him written I.] and its Propagation. 31 this class had passed into the theological standing-ground Germany. of Luther were not long nor arduous. After the disputation of Leipzig, we find him addressing a very temperate ac- count of it to his friend (Ecolampadius (Hausschein), a Franconian, who had also manifested leanings to the new opinions. He next espoused the cause of Luther with much greater warmth in a reply to the emphatic sentence" launched against him by the theological faculty of Paris (April 15, 1521). But the sphere of thought for which csperfnjzy «« « Melancthon shewed the greatest aptitude, was that of sys- tematic theology*, in which indeed it would be difficult to overrate the influence he exerted both upon the mind of Germany, and other European countries. This had been evinced especially by his Loci Communes Rerum Theologi- carum, of which three editions appeared in 1521'. Though considerably modified from time to time, it kept its old position as the text-book of the Lutheran divines, embracing a calm statement of their favourite points of doctrine, and Sept. 9, a fortnight after his arrival, cUiis, vel ab universitatibus, vel a S. is highly interesting : 'Eruditissimus Patribua dissentire, modo a Scrip- et graecanioissimus PhilippuS Melan- tura non dissentiamuB ?' He had thon apud nos Graeoa profitetur, puer already contended for this view (Aug. et adolesCentulus, si astatem con- iSiq) in a small treatise Contra J. sideres, cieterum noster aliquis, si HcJdum: 0pp. ed. Bretschneider, I. varietatem et omnium fere librorum 113. notitiam spectes, tantum valet non " Cf. Eanke, Jteform. I. 458. It solum in utraque lingua, sed utrius- is interesting to notice the terms que linguae eruditioue: Ebrasas quo- with which Luther speaks of him in que non incognitas habet literas.' vmting to Staupitz as early as Oct. DeWette, I. 141. On Jan. 25, 1519, 3, J519: 'Si Christus dignabitur, he was giving lectures in Hebrew : multos ille Martinos praestabit, dia- Jbid.p.ii^. Bollinger (i)ieiBf/on>ia- boh et scholasticce tJieologice potentis- tion,, I. 359 sq. Eegensburg, 185 1) simus hostis: novit illorum nugas has done far more justice to Melano- simul et Christi petram : ideo potens thon than to Luther. poterit. Amen.' De Wette, I. 341, " The title is Advcrsvs ■fwriosum 342. Parisiensium Theologastrorwm Deere- ' ' It was originally a mere ool- tem Philippi Melanthonis pro Lu- lection of the opinions (?) of the apo- thero Apologia : Luther. 0pp. 11. Stle Paul concerning sin, the law and' foL 427 sq. Jenae, 1600. In fol. grace, madfe strictly in accordance 428, b.wehavethisoharacteristicpas- with those severe views to which sage: 'Jam cum'articuli fidei nulli Luther had owed his conversion.' sint, nisi quos praescripsenjnt sacrae Banke, Befarm. 11. 40 : cf. Gieaeler, literae, cur impium est, tel a con- ui. pt. i. p. 100, n, 84. 32 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. GBEMANY.' a foimal vindication of their system in the eyes of Chris- tendom at large. One feature in this work is very notice- able, — viz. the array of scriptural proofs which it exhibits, indicating Melancthon's determination that all arguments and all authority whatever ought to be subordinated to the written Word of God'. But while the master-spirits of the Saxon reformation were proceeding hand in hand with their gigantic enter- prise, 'a perfect model of true friendship,' one of them peculiarly commissioned to abolish errors arid give rise to holier impulses, the other by a calmer and more philo- sophic process, disentangling truth from its perversions, and devising measures for its future conservation, letters of encouragement, and even, promises of active help, came in from various quarters, and from men of very different tem- per. One of these was Ulrich von Hutten", who after dis- tinguishing himself as a contributor to the Epistolce Obscu- ronvm Virorum, the most crushing satire which an age of satirists has levelled at the champions of Mediaeval igno- rance, put forth some dialogues against the crimes of the ecclesiastics, and the scandals of the papal court ^. As many of these libels were, however, calculated to excite political turbulence*, going so far even as to advocate an armed resistance to the church-authorities, both Luther and Ulrich von Hutten [d. 1523). ^ Cf. above, p. 31, n. 5. ^ It has been nsual to rank thia turbulent spirit, half soldier half scholar, with the chief promoters of the Keformation ; but as Seckendorf observes (Lib. T. p. 131, col. 1), the service which he rendered to it was in reality not so great. His works have been colleeted by Munch, Ber- lin, 1 83 1. See Middle Age, p. 388, n. 3, and Hallani's Liter, of Europe, I. 408 sq. Lond. 1840, Eanke (1. 462) mentions a satire which appeared in March, 1520, with the title i)er ab- gekobelte &?c,a\iTpsi,SBing, as bethinks, the Epistolce Ohscwrorwm Virorum. ' These appeared in Is 20, the most envenomed being called Vadiscus or Trias Somana. In the same year (before Sept. 1 1) he wrote to Luther 'se jam et Uteris et armis in tyranni- dem sacerdotalem ruere;' DeWette, I. 486: cf. p. 492. * To such results they actually led in the case of Francis von Sickin- gen, another of the 'reforming' ad- venturei's, who made war upon the archbishop of Trfeves, and was slain while defending one of his castles in 1523. He had more than once urged Luther to confide in his protection: e.^. in 1520. DeWette, 1. 470, 475. i.j and its Propagation. 33 Melancthon openly renounced all friendship with their geemany. authors^. The great battle of the sixteenth century was in its earlier stages to be fought with other weapons. We have seen" how confidently Luther threw himself on the protection of the civil power in 1520, urging in the absence of general councils, a domestic reformation in each state. This German manifesto was succeeded by a work Luther's trea- m Latin which he had composed with the intention of Bibyionisii . . Captivity, justifying his hatred of the schoolmen, and of stining up 1520. the rest of Christendom to follow his example in breaking off the spiritual trammels of the papacy. The famous Prelude on the Babylonish Captivity of the Church, was written in the autumn of 1520. It is everywhere disfigured more than other treatises of Luther by the coarse denun- ciations and unseemly bitterness which characterize too great a portion of the polemical literature of the age'. We Attacks tu . „ , . . T , scholastic doa- may describe it as a vigorous fulmmation against the *»'<«eo/*Ae ,.' . n ^ c^ ' ^ • sacrcum&nts. mediaeval doctrine of the sacraments. Strictly speaking he reduced the number of these holy ordinances from seven to two ('Baptismus et Panis')*; for although he concedes the ° Thus Luther, after correspond- not only in Germany, but in other ing with them (of. DeWette, i. 451, very highly oivihsed countries, was 469), expressed his strong repugnance characterized by a certain coarseness to their scheme (Jan. 16, 1521). He in manners and language, and by a is writing to Spalatinus : 'Quid Hut- total absence of all excessive polish tenus petat, videa. Nollem vi et oaede and ovev-refinement of character.' F. pro Evangelic certari ; ita scripsi ad von SoMegel, Phil, of History, pp. hominem. Verbo victus est mun- 400, 401. Loud. 1847. The asperity dus, Verbo servata est Ecclesia, of his denunciations had somewhat etiam Verbo reparabitur : sed et abated towards the close of his life : Antichristus, ut sine manu >coepit, but in IS'ZO he was ready to defend ita sine manu conteretur per Ver- it, by quoting the example of pro- bum.' /M. p. S43. phets, apostles, and the Lord Himself 6 Above, p. 8. (De Wette, I. 499). ' 'if, at this great distance of * 'Proprie tamen ea sacramenta time, we pick out of the writings of vocari visum est, quse annexis signis this individual many very harsh «x- promissa sunt. CiEtera, quia signis pressions, nay particular words which alligata non sunt, nuda promissa are not only coarse but absolutely sunt. Quo fit, ut si rigide loqm gross, nothing of any moment can volumus, tantum duo sunt in Eccle- be proved or determined by such sia Dei sacramenta, Baptismus et selection. Indeed the age in general, Panis:' O^ip. n. 285 b, Jense, 1600. B. P. D 34 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [cHAP. name of sacrament to absolution' ('poenitentia'), he denies it any outward or visible sign appointed by the Lord Him- self. According to his view the sacrament of Baptism was the only one which had not been seriously corrupted^ in the time of papal despotism. The Eucharist he argued ought to be administered under both kinds, departure from this primitive rule amounting to impiety'. He also entirely repudiated the Thomist view of consecration, and put forth in opposition to scholastic dogmas on the real presence what may be regarded as an outline of the 'Lutheran' theory*. In every portion of the work he lays (as might have been anticipated) an unwonted stress on the necessity of faith, — the precondition or subjective ground without which sacraments are always inefficacious^ The latter name gave great offence to Henry VIII. whose IMellus Re- gius (in reply to Luther) is dated 'quarto Idus Julii,' 152 1: see sign, c. 1. When questioned on this part of his treatise at Worms {0pp. II. fol. 4 1 7), he qualified his language by the clause 'licet non danmem usum et morem in sacramentis Eo- clesise nunc celebratum.' 1 Fol. 260 b. ^ ' Beuedictus Deus et Pater Do- mini nostri Jesu Christi, qui secun- dum divitias miBericbrdise suae saltern hoc unicum Sacramentum servavit in Eoclesia sua illibatum et infcon- taminatum a constitutionibus homi- num:' fol. 270 b. He contended (fol. 571 a) that baptism is 'primum et fundamentum omnium Saoramen- torum,' and according to his royal censor elevated it in such a way as to disparage penance (sign. i. i). 3 Fol. 262 b: cf. fol. 417 a. He does not, however, deny the efficacy of the sacrament, even as adminis- tered under one kind, nor does he recommend the restoration of the cup by force. * e. 5'. 'Esse videlicet verum pan em verumque vinum, in quibus Christi vera caro verusque sanguis non aliter nee minus sit, quam illi [i. e. the Thomists] sub accidentibus suis po- nunt.' At Worms he explained (fol. 417a) that he had not condemned the opposite view absolutely, but had declared it to be no ' article of faith.' In his merciless reply to King Henry VIII. (dated July 15, 1522), he went much further, anddenouncedlhedoc- trine of transubstantiation as impious and blasphemous (ibid. fol. 528 b). ^ Thus with regard to baptism, he argues (fol. 270 b) : 'Nam in hac [i. e. the Divine promise] pendet uni- versa salus nostra; sic autem est observanda, ut fidem exerceamus in ea, prorsus non dubitantes nos esse salvos postquam sumus baptisati. Nam nisi hsec adsit aut paretur fides, nihil prodest baptismus, imo obest, non solum turn cum suscipitur, sed toto post tempore vitse : ' cf . fol. 266 b, where he speaks of the clergy as gene- rally in a most perilous condition, and even as 'idolaters,' for losing sight of the necessity of faith in the Divine promise. Mohler (SymboKk, I. 288 sq. Engl, transl.) maintains the absolute need of this susceptibility in all persons whom the sacraments really benefit, and endeavours to make out that the.Lutherans not only mis- i-j and its Propagation. 35 But another doctrine, more important still in many of GERMANy. its practical relations, was now pushed into unusual promi- nence, — ^the sacerdotal character of all the baptized. He Bis theory of , 1 1 T • ... .. ,. ^ the Christian touched this question, it is true, in other works composed prieathood. about the same period, yet the meaning of it does not seem to have been fully grasped until the prospect of his ex- communication made him look it more directly in the face. He then contended that ordination does not confer an in- delible or distinctive character, that all Christians are the priests of God ; and not this only, but that every official priest is a mere delegate of the congregation, elected by them as their organ, and performing all his ministrations in their name'. He also stated his conviction that neither pope, nor bishop, nor any man whatever, has the least right to impose his constitutions on private Christians, except with their consent'; thus adding new importance' to the lay-element in the Church. The tendency of these opinions accorded so completely Popularity of with the wants and wishes of the public mind m Saxony, that Luther had no immediate cause to feai- the operation represented the Schoolmen (cf.Ranke, the following year that the right of Hef. I. 486, note), but were after- evangelical teaching appertains to wards driven to a virtual readoption all the faithful (Waddington, I. 393, of the medijeval theory, viz. that 394). At Worms, however (Opy. II. ' sacraments confer grace' (pj 295). fol. 418 a, Jenae, 1600), when ques- * He had already touched upon tioned on this point, he somewhat it in his treatise De lAhertate Ghris- modified his language : ' Non autem tiana (of. Waddington's remark, I. omnes habent usum et mmisterium, 156), and more distinctly in his sedsolummodo ordinaii in hacpotes- Address to the Qerman nobles (June, tate.' Henry VIII. 's critique has 1520: Scliriften, ed. Walch, X. ■zpfS great force (sign. i. 2): 'Quaratione sq.). In the latter we have the Christiani omnes sacerdotes. sunt, following inference from I Pet. ii. 5 : eadem etiam ratione reges sunt.' 'Darum ist des Bischofs Weiheu ' Fol. 273 b. He then drawsithia nichts anders, denn als wenn er an sweeping inference : 'Ideo orationes, Statt und Person der ganzen Samm- jejunia, douationes et qusecunque lung einen aus dem Haufen nehme, tandem papa in universis Decretis, die alle gleiche, und ihm lefehl, die- tam multis quam iniquis statuit • et selben Gewalt fur die andern auszu- exigit, prorsus nuUo jure exigit et richten.' statuit, pecoatque in Kbertatem Ec- ' Fol. 282 b. This principle (on clesise toties quoties aliquid borum the carrying out of which see Ranke, attentaverit.' Eef. u. 494) led him to maintain in ' Of. Middle Age, p. 348. 1)2 36 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. GERMANY. Poliqj of Charles V. of the papal bull. As it was promulgated by Eck its able advocate, one town after another rose against it, or perused it with indifference and contempt*. The cause of the reformer was the cause of piety, of learning, and of free- dom; it was also felt to be the cause of Germany^; and when at length the wise elector Frederic' openly became its champion, influenced by the personal character of Lu- ther, and in spite of a profound abhorrence of all heresy, it gained a vantage-ground from which it could not be dislodged by all the engines of the papacy. Had Charles V. been more acquainted with the work- ings of the German mind, it is not likely that the state of his other dominions, and his conflict with the French in Italy, would have allowed him to treat the Lutheran move- ment with a greater measure of forbearance. His present policy was to abstain from every thing that might involve him in. a quarrel with the pope*. To this result conspired the admonitions of Glapio his confessor, and the artifices of Aleander", the learned but unscrupulous nuncio, who took 1 See the evidence collected in Gieseler, III. pt. i. p. 84, n. 65. Still, as Eanke remarks {Reform. I. 477), the arms thus wielded by the pope had not lost all their ancient terrors. ^ 'Eelinquat Eomanoa Germania et revertatur ad primates et episcopos Buos' i^bid. I. 468), is a fair specimen of the state of public feeling. ^ See respecting him the con- temporary life by George Spalatinua, his chaplain {Friedrichs des Weisen Leben), reprinted at Jena, 1851. He first indicated some disposition to screen Luthjer from his enemies, Dec. 8, 1 5 18; but on the 13th of that mouth (DeWette, 1. 195) appears to have bo far vravered that the reformer held himself in readiness to withdraw from the electorate into Trance: ' diasensitque, ne tam cito in Galliam irtm. Adhuc ex- pecto consilium ejus.' It seems that he was finally confirmed in his de- votion to the Lutheran cause by a conversation which he held with Erasmus: Seckendorf, Lib. I. p. 125, col. 2. * On these political questions, see Eanke, Seform. i. 518 sq. 541. In spite, however, of the wish of Charles to gratify the pope, the States of the empire signified their impatience of the temporal power of Leo by draw- ing up a long list of Gravamina: see it in Luther's Sphriften, ed. "Walch, XV. 2058 sq. ^ According to Audio and the school he represents, Aleander was 'un des plus habiles ndgociateurs de r^poque, une des gloires, en meme tempi!, des lettres et de la acience' (Sist de Luther, ' i.' 343) : while others (following Luther himself) d raw a very different picture: Secken- dorf, p. 125, col. I. Glapio acted more the part of a mediator, and I] and its Propagation. 37 part in the execution of the bull of Leo X. Directed by Germany. their influence Charles convoked his first Diet at Worms, and introduced himself to the assembled states on the 28th of January, 1521. As soon as the political business was concluded, Luther, in obedience to the summons of the emperor, determined ° to present himself, and vindicate his cause before his enemies. His progress was a kind of triumph; it elicited the frequent sympathy and acclamations of his countrymen', and even as he entered Worms jDwfter at (April 16), the crowd that flocked together gazed with deep emotion on the simple friar who had dared to call in question the supremacy of Rome. On the following day*, he was conducted to the grand assembly of the em- pire. There we find him reaffirming what he had so often urged on previous occasions, — that unless he were con- ■\T.cted of heresy by texts of Holy Writ, he neither could nor would subscribe a recantation of his doctrines^ After was even suspected of leaning to wards Lutheranism : ibid. pp. 143, 144.; Kauke, Reform, i. 531, 53a. ^ As early as Dec. 21, 1520, and before the imperial summons (Nov. 1%) was communicated to him by Frederic, he writes (De Wette, I. 534): 'Ego vero si vocatus fuero, quantum per me stabit, vel segrotus advehar, si sanus venire non possem.' The elector declined to let him go (p. 542), untU Luther urged him, Jan. 25, 1521. In this letter (p. s 5 2), the reformer expresses a strong desire to prove his own innocence before the Diet ; ' ut omnes in veritate ex- periantur, me hactenus nihil ex temeraria, indellberata et inordinata voluntate, aut propter temporalem et ssecularem honorem et utilitatem, sed, quicquid scripsi et dooui, secun- dum meam conscientiam, juramen- tum, et obligationem ut indignum doctorem sanctse ^cripturse, ' etc. On March 19 (?), in answer to a first summons (dated March 6), that he should _ proceed to WonoS; not for re-examination of the questions at issue, but simply to give or refuse his retractation, he informed the elector (De Wette, I. 575), that such an errand was likely to be altogether bootless. At this time he confidently expected that, in spite of the impe- rial safe-conduct, he should share the fate of Euss. ' Waddington, I. 339. 8 De Wette, l. 587. The best authority for what follows is the Acta printed in Luther's Worlcs, Jense, 1600. n. fol. 411 b, aq.: of. Eanke, Seform. I. 533 sq. ' ' Hie Lutherus : Quando ergo serenissiraa majestas vestra, domina- tionesque vestrae, simplex responsum petunt, dabo illud, neque cornutum, neque dentatum, in hunc raodum: Nisi conviotus fuero testimoniis Scrip, turarum, aut ratlone evidente (nam neque Papce neque condliis soUs credo, cum constet eos eiTasse ssepius, et sibi ipsis contradixisse) victus sum scripturis a me adductis, captaque est conscieutia in verbis Dei, revocars 38 Tlie Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. CERMANY. i7/s retreat at Wartburg, some delay in which the efforts of an intermediate party had been fruitlessly employed to modify his views, he claimed the protection of his passport, and set out immediately on his return to Wittenberg (April 26). Believed by his withdrawal, the adversaries of the refonnation now pro- ceeded to insist on the forcible execution of the papal bull, by which he was condemned. A struggle followed, during which it grew more evident that Aleander and the ultra- montane party, whom he led, were still possessed of their old ascendancy among the princes of the empire'; and eventually, on May the 26th, an edict was extorted from the Diet, proclaiming the imperial ban against Martin Luther as a heretic and outcast from the Church of God. In this sentence every one of his protectors and adherents was equally involved; his writings were prohibited, and a censorship of the press ^ appointed to control the publication both of them and of all kindred works. But Luther was not suffered to expire like Huss, whose course his own had hitherto so strikingly resembled. As he entered the Black Forest on his return from Worms, he was arrested^ by some friendly horsemen, and transferred ueque possum neque volo quidqnam, cum contra couscieutiam agere neque tutum sit neque integrum. Hie stehe ich. Ich Jean nicht anders. Gott helff mi/r. Amen.' Ibid. {ol. 4H a. It was on this occasion that Luther won the good opinion of Philip of Hessen, ■who said, ' If you be right, Sir Doctor, may God help you.' Kanke, Reform, i. 538. ^ It is remarkable, however, that his persecutors despaired of accom- plishing his condemnation, so long as all the members continued at the Diet. To give the edict an authority which it did not possess, they mis- dated it on the 8th instead of the 26th of May: Waddington, i. 367, 368, Pallavaoini, Hist, del Coneilio di Trenti, lib. I. u. 28. The docu- ment itself in its German form is given by Waloh, Luther's Schriften, XV. 2264. The execution of the edict was far from general, many states suppressing it either from sym- pathy with Luther, or through fear of exciting turbulence among the people. ^ In matters theological this cen- sorship was awarded to the bishop in conjunction with the faculty of the Holy Scriptures in the nearest university. " See his own account, dated May 14, in a letter to Spalatinus ; De Wette, III. 7. His disguise appears to have been rendered complete : 'Ita sum hie exutuB vestibus meis et equestribus indutus, oomam et bar- bam nutriens, ut tu me difficile nosses, cum ipse me jamdudum non uoverim.' The constematioii which I-] and its Propagation. 89 by a circuitous route to the secluded castle of Wartburg, Germany. which belonged to his unswerving patron, the elector of Saxony. In the disguise of Junker George, he was enabled to pursue his theological labours", and completed what has ever since been felt to be among his very best productions, — the translation of the New Testament" into the standard dialect of Saxony. His active pen was also keenly oc- cupied in controversial literature^ Perhaps the boldest o{ Writes agaiiui his new essays was the answer to Catharinus', a young »'"' <"''«"■ Thomist and Dominican, who ventured to defend the most extreme opinions on the papal supremacy. In this treatise while vigorously assailing the main position of his adver- sary, Luther did not hesitate to argue that the only notes or characteristics of a christian church are the two sacra- ments. Baptism and the Eucharist, and more especially the Word of God^ He also dedicated separate works to the his disappeaxance caused among his friends and aditiirers is well expressed io a lament of Albert Dilrer, quoted in Gieseler, III. I. p. 95, n. 81. * ' Ego otiosus hio et crapulosus sedeo tota die : Bibliam Graecam et Hebrseam lego. Scribo sermouem vemaoulum de oonfessionis auiicu- laris libertate : Psalterium etiam pro- sequar, et Postillas ubi e Wittem- berga acoepero, quibus opus babeo, inter quae et Magnificat inchoatum expecto.' De Wette, 11. 6. ' The ■ first edition appeared in September, 1522. The translation of the Old Testament was postponed (of. De Wette, II. 123) for a short time, in order that he might consult his literary friends ; but one part of it also appeared in ,1523. The first complete edition of the Lutheran .Bible, including the Apocrypha, was not published till 1534. On the older German versions of the Scrip- tures, see Middle Age, p. 387, n. 7 ; and cf. The Bible in Every Limd, p. 17s, Lond. 1848, and Audin, Sist, de I/uther, i. 496 sq. ° Besides those mentioned in the text, he wrote a fiery Oonfutatio of Latomus, a theologian of Louvain (0pp. II. fol. 379 sq. JenaB, 1600). The epilogue (dated ex Path mo mea, xx Junii, 1521) contains the following passage (fol. 411) : 'Sola enim Biblia mecum sunt, non quod magni apud me pendatur libros ha- bere, Bed quod videndum, an dicta Patrumab adversariobonafideoiten- tur:' cf. De Wette, II. 17 sq. It is dedicated to his friend Justus Jonas, who had joined him at Erfurt, and shared his danger at Worms. Another work (cf. n. 4) was a treatise on ' Private Confession ' ( Von der Beicht), dedicated June 1, 1521, to Sickin- gen, and published in the following August or September (De Wette, 11. 13). The object is to reform, not to abolish, the usage. ' Cf. De Wette, 1. 569, 570, 582. The treatise itself is in bis Works, as above, fol. 350 sq. 8 Fol. 350 b. He had also arrived at the conclusion that the 'syna- gogue of Papists and Thomists ' was hot the Church, but Babylon, 'nisi parvulos et simplioes exceperis.' 40 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [cHAt. GEKMANY. Carlstadt and the tilrra- re/onuers. denunciation of 'private masses", and 'monastic vows"*, the former being in his eye an impious mechanism for ele- vating the clergy, and the latter an invasion of Christian liberty, and one of the impostures by which Satan had propped up the current theory of human merit. The furious vehemence that breathes throughout these treatises, an index of the mental tempest" in the midst of which they were composed, would naturally enkindle a desire in his more zealous followers to eradicate the system which had countenanced such vast and manifold enormities. The great reformer was himself indeed opposed to popular demonstrations which might lead to violent intermeddling with established usages, and so embarrass the civil power-. But he soon found that he had been unconsciously stimu- lating passions which neither he nor his temperate col- leagues were able to control in Wittenberg itself. The leader of these ultra-reformers was Carlstadt. Regardless of all counsels which suggested the propriety of pausing till the multitude could be more thoroughly instructed in ^ 0pp. II. fol. 441 sq. This work, of which the German title is Vom Misshrauch der Messen, was dedi- cated to his brother-friars the Augus- tines of Wittenberg, Nov. i, 1521, but was not published till ' January 1522:' of. DeWette, n. 106 sq. The Augustines had already desisted from the performance of 'private' masses. ^ 0pp. II. fol. 477 b, sq. It was dedicated (Nov. 21, 1521) to his father : cf. De Wette; II. 100 sq. He had some time before made up his mind as to the lawfulness of marriage in the secular clergy, such as Carlstadt ; but the members of religious orders who had bound them- selves by special vows appeared to occupy a different position. He had soon afterwards (March 28, 1522) to deplore irregularities committed by several monks, who acted out his principles : ' Video monaohos nostros multos,' he wrote to John Lange, one of the self-emancipated friars, 'exire nulla causa alia quam qua intraverant, hoc est, ventris et liber- tatis carnalis gratia, per quos Satamas magnwm foetorem in nostri verbi odo- rem bonum excitabit.' ' During his seclusion at Wart- burg, Luther was assaulted by temp- tations to sensuality which he had scarcely known before : see his letters of July 13 and Nov. 4, 1521 (De Wette, II. 21, Hg). So violent also were his mental agitations that, while occupied in preparing his treatise on the abuses of the mass, he believed that he was visited at midnight By the Evil Spirit, and constrained to hold a oohference with him on that subject. Luther himself published anarrative of this interview in 1533 ■ cf. Waddiugton, I. 398, 399 ; Audin, I. 421 sq. I] and its Propagation. 41 GERMANY. the nature of the change proposed, he altered* the eucha- ristic office on his own authority,. aboHshing the custom of previous confession, administering the elements in both kinds, and neglecting most of the usual ceremonies. One important section of the German church who hitherto beheld the march of the reformers with unmingled sym- pathy, had now seen cause to hesitate and tremble for the issue. Their forebodings were increased on learning that Riseo/Ana- the town of Zwickau in Misnia, which had also felt the "* ""'' impulse of the Lutheran movement, was already giving birth to the distempered sect of Anabaptists, whose fanati- cism, it will be noticed' afterwards, imparted a distinctive shape and colour to the history of the times. Exactly when these troubles were assuming their most formidable aspect", Luther reappeared at Wittenberg, (March 7, 1522). He saw that nothing but his own per- Luoua-) sonal influence could restrain or even regulate the torrent ' J cfm- sternaCioit, * See the account io Melanothon's Works, ed. Bretsohneider, i. 512. He had already attempted something of the kind in October, 1521, but did not carry out his plan fully until the next Christmas-day: Hanke, II. 19. ^ See Chapter v. On the sects and heresies accompanying the new move- ment. The genuine representatives of the reformation at Zwickau were Frederic Myoonius, a Franciscan priest, who became associated with Luther in 1518, and a second of his intimatefrienda, NicholasHausmann. " Three of the leading Anabaptists, to escape from the police, took re- fuge in Wittenberg, at the very end of the year 1521. On the first of January, 15'22, Melancthon speaks of them as then present (Worhs, I. 533). He was himself, in the first instance, too favourably disposed towards them (ibid. 1. 5x3: 'Magnis rationibus adducor certe, ut con- temn! eos nolim'). The point to which, after their prophetic gifts, they ventured to assign the chief importance, was a denial of infant baptism ; and Melancthon, perplexed by the paucity of direct scriptural proofs in its behalf, and by the doc- trine of vicarious faith ('fides aliena') which seemed to be involved in the discussion, wrote to Luther at Wart- burg for advice. The reply of the reformer is dated Jan. 13, 1522 (De Wette, n. 124 sq.); and though it did not absolutely denounce the Anabaptistic teachers, it suggested considerations fatal to their claims (in this letter we find early traces of the Lutheran theory respecting the infusion of faith into the soul of the infant candidate for baptism). Carl- stadt, on the contrary, allied himself at once with the prophets of Zwickau, and, sheltered by their oracles, pro- ceeded to the most fanatical lengths (Kanke, II. 24 — 26): Melancthon, in the mean time, seeming paralysed and offering little or no resistance, even while students went away from the university, urging that there was no longer any need of human learning. 42 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. GERMANY, which was threatening to involve his work in the destruc- tion he had planned for mediaeval errors; and therefore in spite ^ of all the anxious fears of Frederic, who had little chance of screening him from the imperial ban, he vowed with characteristic heroism, that, cost him what it might, a vigorous effort must be instantly made to vindicate his teaching. It is highly probable that the intense emotion caused by these disorders at Wittenberg contributed in 'aiweS^mt^' some degree to moderate the whole of his future conduct. tenberg, 1522- jjg jj^d uow discovered that one tendency of the reforming movement which he headed, was to shake men's faith not only in what may be termed erroneous excrescences, but in the body of the truth itself; that intellectual, if not moral, license would readily supervene on the removal of the ancient yoke ; and that accordingly his followers must be guarded from the serious dangers which beset them, ' both upon the right hand and the left. He acted in this spirit when on Sunday, March 9, 1522, he resumed his pastoral duties. Carlstadt was condemned to silence''; the apostles of Anabaptism were dismissed' in very coarse but truthful language; all the customary service was restored, except those passages in the Canon of the mass which plainly -pointed to the notion of material sacrifice; the 1 See hia very spirited letter to neglecta interim vera doctrina Chris- the Elector (March 6, 1522): De tiana, la.00 est, fide et charitate. Nam Wette, II. 137 sq. The importance sua inepta dooendi ratione eo popu- he attached to the present crisis was lum perduxerat, ut sese Christiantim shewn in the following passage : arbitraretur per has res nihili, si utra- ' Alles, was bisher mir zu Leide que specie communioaret, si tangeret gethan ist in dieser Sachen, ist \i. e. the consecrated eleaients], si ybhimpf nnd nichts gewesen. Ich non confiteretur, si imagines fran- woUts auoh, wenn es hatte konnen geret. En malitiam Satanse, utper seyn, mit meinem Leben gem erkauft novam spedem molitus est erigere ad liaben' (p. 138): of. Audin, I. 48isq. rmnam Evangelii:' De Wette, IJ. 2 Luther's own account of this 177; cf. Waddington, II. 11, 12. step (March 30, i.iS'z) is wdrthy of The mystical turn of Carlstadt had especial notice: 'Ego Carolstadium already excited the distrust of his offendi, quod ordinationes suas cas- former colleague. savi, licet doctrinam non damnarim, ^ See Letters of April, ibid. pp. nisi quod displicet in soils oseremoniis 179, 181, and the fuller account of et extemia faciebus laboi-asse eum, Camerarius, Vit. MelanctJwnis, %i^. 1] amd its Fropagationj 43 Eucharist was now administered under one or botli kinds gbemany. indifferently ; and it is even noticeable in Luther's teach- ing from the pulpit, that he laid far greater emphasis upon the need of sobriety and Christian charity, as fruits and consequences of justifying faith''. A second cause, however, soon conspired to bring the Peaaanti^ Lutheran doctrmes into fresh discredit. They were taking root* both far and wide, when elements of discord and insubordination, such as we already witnessed in the Bohemian Taborites, broke out into the Peasants' War" (1524). The leaders of this insurrection were tainted by the Anabaptist doctrines recently suppressed at "Wittenberg, and some were probably instigated by the violent ha- rangues of Carlstadt, and other preachers of his school'. * Cf. Eanke, il. 39, 40, Audin, II. 16 sq. ; and eapeciaJIy the oour.se (if sei-mons which Luther preached at this conjuncture on masses, pic- tures, communion in both kinds, and other controverted subjects (of the Eastern Church, his Paraphrases were the means of opening a new era in the history of biblical criticism. What Erasmus plainly wanted was religious depth and fervour, a deficiency that influenced not only the complexion of his scriptural exegesis, but the whole tone of his character. Ardently devoted to the interests of literature, he was unsparing in Clero's edition of his WorJes (from which Jortin's biography was mainly- taken), and Miiller's Leben des Eras- mus von Rotterdam, Hamburg, 1828. lilrasmus had many points of resem- blance to Lauren tins Valla; on whom see Middle Age, p. 388, n. i. ^ Like LaurentiuB Valla, he point- ed out numerous errors in the Vul- gate, and to correct them set about the preparation of his Greek Testa- ment (cf. Middle Age, p. 388, n. 4). The Complutensian Polyglott {ibid. n. 1) manifests the opposite tendency . by altering the Greek text, in some cases at least, so as to make it square with the Vulgate. ° In the Dedication to his Para- phrase on the Epist. of St James (0pp. VII. p. 1 1x5, ed. Le Clerc), he makes the following bold statement : ' Si a solo Thoma [«. e. from Aqui- nas] dissentirem, videri possum in iUum iniquior. Nunc et ab Ambro- sio, et ab Hieronymo et ab Augustino non raro dissentio, sed reverenter; in Thomam etiam candidior quam ut multis bonis et eruditis viris gratura sit: sed banc reverentiam non opi- nor me debere Hugonibus aut Ly- ranis omnibus, etiamsi Lyrano [cf. Middle Age, p. 387] nonnihil debe- mus.' It is worthy of notice, that while the favourite Latin commen- tator of Erasmus was St Jerome, Luther's was St Augustine ('Au- gustino in Soripturis interpretan- dis tantum posthabeo Hieronymum, quantum ipse Augustinum in om- nibus Hieronymo posthabet'): Let- ter in De Wette, l. 40 (dated Oct. 19, 15 16); cf. 1. £2, where Luther adds (March i, 1517), that a, Christian is not truly wise who knows Greek and Hebrew, 'quando et beatus Hiero- nymus quinque Unguis monoglosson Augustinum non adasquarit, licet Erasmo aliter sit longe visum.' -.J ana its I'ropagation. 47 his censures of monastic ignorance and narrow-mindedness, Germany. inelegance and obscurantism: he was also conscious that a swarm of gross abuses' were disfiguring the administration and ritual system, of the Church: he more than once had courage to proclaim the need of some extensive refonna- tion, and even to avow affinity with Luther* : yet as soon as the defences of the papacy, which his own writings under- mined, began to shrink and totter, his timidity and want of earnestness were instantly betrayed ^ We see him parting His growing company" with men like Luther, Melancthon, Zwingli, and Reformers. (Ecolampadius, whom he formerly esteemed the benefactors of their generation, and the harbingers of brighter days; and although his hatred of mere scholasticism continued to be nolessdeep and vehement, itwas eventually overbalanced by the feelings of disgust with which he contemplated the advances of the Lutheran party. The last important ser- vice which he rendered was to strengthen'' the bias of the ' See, for example, his Colloquies advereari, ita celare nonnunquam which appeared in 1522, and of expedit in looo...Quaedani inter se which 24,000 copies were printed in fatentur theologi, quae vulgo non the single year 1527 (Hallam, Lit. expediat eflferri' (Op^.lli. pt. I. 596). of Ewope, I. 490) ; or his Enchiri- , ^ See Waddington's impartial ac- dion Militis Christiani, published as count in ch. xxiii. Erasmus oonti- early as 1503. nued to exchange letters of frigid * Thus he writes to Zwingli (Aug. courtesy with Melancthon after he 31, 1523; Zwingl. 0pp. VII. pt. 1, had altogether broken with Luther. 308, Zurich, 1828): ' Lutherus scrip- His last words respecting himself, BitadCEcolampadium, mihinonmul- written not long before his death tum esse tribuendum in iis, qus sunt at Basle (July 12, 1536), are very Spiritus. Velim hoc ex te disoere, remarkable: ' Lutherana tragcsdia doctissirae Zwingli, quia sit ille Spi- intolerabili iUum oneravit invidia. ritus. Nam videor mihi fere am- Disoerptus est ab utraque parte, nia docuisse, quce docet Lutherus, dum utriquestudet consulere' (76id. nisi quod non tam atrociter, quod- p. 206) : cf. his Epist. lib. XV. ep. 4, que abstiuui a quibusdam aanigma- and Luther's Briefe, I. 525, 526. tibus et paradoxis.' Towards the close of his life he 5 ' Si corrupti mores Romanse wrote a short treatise De ^ardenda ■ curise postulant ingens aliquod ao Ecclesice Ooncordia with a pacific prsesens remedium, certe meum aut object, which elicited a reply from mei similem non est banc provinoiam ' Latomus, of Louvain : see Latom. sibisumere.' He had before stated Opp. fol. 172 sq. Lovan. 1579. His in the same letter to the Cardinal influence in promoting the English Campeggi (Deo. 6, 1520) : ' Siqui- reformation will be noticed below, dem ut veritati nunquam fas est ' The Elector consulted him at 48 The Saxon School -of Church-Reformers, [chap. CoMroversy between him and Luther, 152 i. GERMANY, elector Frederic in favour of their cause (1520). In 1524, however, his neutrality was changing very fast into decided opposition. Little doubt existed on this point after the publication (in September) of his Diatribe de Lihero Arhi- trio^, where he vigorously assailed the new opinions in a quarter felt to be especially open to attack. He left the main positions of the Lutheran School untouched ; he mani- fested no inclination to defend the pride, the profligacy, the impiety of the court of Rome or of the German ecclesias- tics, but exhausted all his learned wit and metaphysical acumen, to disprove the tenet of necessity as advocated in the writings and discourses of the Saxon doctors. The reply of Luther, which appears to have occupied him till the following autumn^, was entitled De Servo Arhitrio." It is throughout distinguished by his characteristic force and vehemence of tone; but argumentatively speaking is a failure. Every cloud of mystery enveloping the questions which he took in hand' continues to hang over them. The doctrine of God's absolute predestination, with its comple- mentary doctrine of absolute reprobation, is restated in the most emphatic terms. The freedom of the human will, in Cologne (Nov. J, 1520), on which occasion Erasmus declared : ' Lu- therus peccavit in duobus, nempe quod tetigit coronam Ponti6cia et ventres monachorum.' On the same occasion he drew up a number of Axiomata (decidedly favourable to Luther), which, to the great annoy- ance of their author,' soon afterwards appeared in print; Luther, 0pp. II. fol. 314 a, Jense, 1600. ' The ostensible cause of his sepa- ration from the reformers was a quarrel with Hutten (of. Luther's letter of Oct. (, 1523; De Wette, ir. 411, 412); but it is plain that other agencies (among the rest, tlie influence of Henry VIII. of Eng- land) impelled him to the composi- tion of the treatise on Free Will. JVhen it was published, he wrote (Sept. 6, 1524) to his royal corre- spondent, ' Jacta est alea.' ^ His own unwillingness to enter on the controversy, as stated in the Preface, may have contributed to this delay: 0pp. m. fol. 161, Jenje, 1603. ^ Some of the mysteries were still further darkened by his own distinc- tions ; c. g. fol. 1 89 b : ' lUudit au- tem sese Diatribe ignorantia sua, dum nihil distinguit inter Deum prsedicatum et absconditum, hoc est inter Verbum Dei et Deum ipsum. Malta facit Deus, qus Verbo suo non ostendit nobis. Multa quoque vult quae Verbo suo non ostendit sese velle. Sic non vult mortem pecoatoris, Verbo scilicet, Yult au- tem illam voluntate ilia imperscru- taiUi.' I-J and its Propagation. 49 any sense, anterior to the infusion of the supernatural gift gebmant. of faith, is quite as positively denied ; and even after such infusion, it is argued, that the spiritual acts of man are not properly and ultimately his, but rather manifestations of some independent energy within him*. The author not- withstanding has declared that by these statements he does not disparage the importance of good works, nor teach that God is in the least degree indifferent to the qualities of human actions. The rejoinder of Erasmus, entitled Hyper- aspistes Diatribes, and put forth immediately afterwards" (Feb. 20, 1526), vtas, characterized by all the vehemence and bitterness of Luther. With it ended, for the present, this interminable controversy; but not until Melancthbn" jfodi/!oaeMm«/' was at least persuaded that far greater caution would be views. necessary in his future disquisitions touching the freedom of the human will, and other kindred subjects. * e.g. ' Obseoro te, an non nostra dicuutur quam rectissime, quae non lecimus quidem noa recepimus vero abaliis? Curigituroperanon diceren- tur nostra, quse donavit nobis Deus , per Spiritum ? An Christum non dice- miis nostrum, quia non fecimus Eum, sed tantum accepimus ?' fol. 194 a. ^ A second book more carefully ■written was published in the foUow- infj year. " Cf. above, p. 29, n. 6. In sub- sequent edition.s of the Loei Com- munes he altered or suppressed the very passages which Luther had , cited triumphantly in his own be- half. The extracts given by G-iese- ler, III. ii. 191 sq. shew a gradual change in the convictions of Slelanc- thon. In J 5 35 he denounces the 'stoical' notion of ^necessity, having learned in the meantime that the human will is a concurring party in the work of salvation, and possesses the power of resistance : ' Deus an- tevertit nos, vocat, movet, adjuvat, sed nos viderimus ne repugnemus. Constat euimpeccatum oririanobis, E. P. non a voluntate Dei.' The edition of 1548 was still more explicit on this point (lUd. p. 223, n. 31). The language there used is constantly quoted afterwards in what was called the 'Synergistic controversy,' (touch- ing the relation in which human li- berty stands to free will), — a fierce discussion stimnlated in 1555 by the treatise of John Pfeffinger, De lA- tero Arbitrio, which was answered by Nicholas Amsdorf. This contro- versy is intimately connected with two others branching out of the same ideas: (i) the Majoristic, com- mencing about 1554, between George Major {a divine of Wittenberg) and Amsdorf, on the question whether good works are necessary to salva- tion (see Gieseler, III. ii. 213 sq.); (2) the controversy between If lacius Illyricus (an ultra-Lutheran) and Victorinus Stregel of Jena (circ. 1560), in which the former argued that original sin is ' quiddam sub- stantiale in horriine,' thus verging far in the direction of Manichseism {Ibid. pp. 253 sq.). E oO 2%e Saxon School of Gkwch-Beformers, [chap. GERMAUr, In the mean while several states of Germany, deter- mined to resist the progress of the new opinions, had con- jeaguM. gtituted a religious league'. Their example was soon followed by negotiations of John" the elector of Saxony, and the landgrave Philip of Hessen', — ^two of the most powerful princes of the empire, and alike devoted to the cause of reformation. The treaty into which they entered is commonly called the ' League of Torgau,' where it was ratified, May 4, 1526, although in truth concluded at Gotha in the previous February*. Other princes, more particularly those of Lower Germany', united in the com- pact, and on the 12th of June they all agreed at Magde- burg to stand by each other with their utmost might, in case they were violently assaulted ' on account of the Word of God or the removal of abuses.' In this temper they DM of Spires, proceeded to the Diet of Spires, which opened a few days afterwards (June 25) with fresh discussions on the state and prospects of the German Church °. So prevalent was the ^ See above, p. 44, u. 3. ' He was more resolute and active in the cause of reformation than his brother (who died May 5, 1525), and began his reign by recommend- ing Luther's Postills to the Saxon clergy, and urging them 'ut Ver- bum Divinum et Evangelium secun- dum verum et Christianum sensum prsedicarent et interpretarentur :' Seckendorf, n. 48, col. 1. ' Luther and he had met at the Diefi of Worms (1521), and in 1534 Melancthon had completed his con- version to the side of the reformers {0pp. ed. Bretschneider, I. 703). * Kanke, Ref. II. 393. ° The treaty was signed by the dukes of Brunswick-Luneberg, the duke of Mecklenburg, the prince of Anhalt and the counts of Mansfield. The imperial city of Magdeburg was also admitted (June 14), and in the following September, Albert, duke of Prussia (formerly grand-master of the Teutonic order) followed their example : Luther's Schriften. ed. Waloh, XVI. 532 sq. The cities of Nuremberg, Strasburg, Augsburg and Ulm sooii afterwards gave in their adhesion. The cause of the allied reformers had been elaborately pleaded just before by Melancthon and other Wittenberg divines, who undertook the task in obedience to the wishes of the Elector of Saxony, and sent their production to the diet of Augsburg (Nov. 1525). They contended (i) that it was lawful to abolish manifest abuses, without the permission, and even in spite, of the episcopal authorities : and (2) that it was lawful to continue the preach- ing of the new doctrines in defiance of the edict of the emperor: Wad- dingtoD, II. 2:3. * See all the Acts in Walch, xvi. 243 sq. and of. Eanke, Ref. 11. ^qj sq. The place of the emperor, who found himself engrossed in the affairs of Italy, and in counteracting the influence of the 'sainte Ligue de I.J and its Propagation. 51 desire among tjie representatives to extirpate ecclesiastical gebmany. abuses, that in spite of vigorous efforts on the part of the clergy present, many salutary changes were recommended by l^he different committees. One of their reports insisted, for example, on the expediency of legalizing the marriage of the clergy, and of permitting the laity in future to com- municate either in one or both kinds. It was proposed, '^^J'J^ "f Jr. jr ' reform. in like manner, that the stringent regulations respecting fasts and confession should henceforth be mitigated, that private masses should be all abolished, and that in the. administration of Baptism and the Eucharist, the Latin a,nd German languages should both of them be used. An order on the subject of preaching which had issued from the Diet of 1523, was now republished with an augmentation savouring also of the Lutheran tenets, viz. that Scripture must be always expounded by Scripture. But these me- morable resolutions of the empire were again defeated by the obstinate adherence' of Charles V. to the established usages of Christendom. At length indeed we see him driven, first, to the abandonment of his design for executing the anti-Lutheran edict of Worms by appealing to the sword, and secondly, compelled to sanction the great prin- ciple of domestic reformation, by tolerating the existing ■forms of worship and belief in single districts of the em- pire*: yet his failure to comply with the predominating Cpgnac' (May 1% 1526), was ocou- He had also charged his oommis- pied by his brother the archduke slonera at the diet to withhold assent Frederic. This prince, although de- from every resolution that ran coun- cidedly opposed to the reformers, ter to established practices : Eaiike, was so alarmed by the rapid pro- iJe/. II. 391, 406. gress of the Turks into the territo- " The words of the Eecess, de- ries of the king of Hungaiy, that rived from the report of a reforma- he did not venture to execute the tory committee and accepted by the rigorous orders of the emperor. archdukeFerdinand, stand thus: 'fiir ' He had issued an admonition sich alsozu leben, zuregierenundzu from Seville (March 23, 1526), to halten, wie ein jeder solchea gegeu certain princes and lords of the em- Gott und Kais. Mt. hoffet und ver- pire, bidding them to remain sted- trauet zu verantworten.' See the fast in the 'old faith,' and to use whole of this important document their influence foruprooting ' heresy. ' in Waloh's iMher, xvi. 266. E a 62 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. (JBKMANT. wishes of this Diet was a very serious evil. It destroyed, perhaps for ever, the religious unity of the German -states, and left the advocates of reformation, in the absence of all synods, to proceed in organizing ecclesiastical constitutions each one for itself ti^iZfrJ^m- '^'^ sooner was this new machinery set in motion, than ing states. political circumstancos tended for a while to favour its development. The emperor had been entangled on the one side in a quarrel with Clement VII,' which terminated in the storming of Kome (May 6, 1527), and the surrender of the pontiff. On the other side, the fall of Louis 11." king of Hungary and Bohemia, in his efforts to withstand the armies of the mighty Ottoman at Mohacz (Aug. 29, 1526), diverted the attention of the archduke Ferdinand (brother and representative of Charles), who trusted to enlarge the honours of the house of Austria by establishing his preten- sions to the vacant thrones. The months consumed in struggles for the gaining of these objects proved a breath- ing time to the reformers^ They argued that the right of adjusting controversies, which was felt to be inherent in ^ The best account in Ranke, Ref. put to death for their opinions : e.g. Bk. IV. oh. iii. The state of feeling a priest named Wagner (Carpeuta- in the army is illustrated by the fol- rius) was burnt" at Munich (Feb. 8, lowing passage: 'Soldiers dressed 1527), and Leonbard Kaiser at as cardinals, with one in the midst Scherding, in the diocese of Passau bearing the triple crown on his head (Aug. 18, 1527). Luther's epistle and personating the pope, rode in to the second of these martyrs (May solemn procession through the city, 20, 1527) is printed in De Wette, surrounded by guards and heralds ; ni. 1 79. The beginning is highly they halted before the castle of characteristic : ' Captus est homo St Angelo, where the mock pope, tuus vetus, mi Leonhaide, sic vo- flourishing a huge drinking-glass, lente et vooante Christo, salratore gave the cardinals his benediction: tuo, qui etiam novum suum honii- they even held a consistory, and nem pro te tuisque peccatis dedit in promised in future to be more manus improborum, ut sanguinis' faithful servants of the Eoman suo te redimeret in fratrem et cohsB- empire : the papal throne they redem vitae aternse.' Sleidan also meant to bestow on Luther:' Ibid. notices the death of two scholars at P- 449._ Cologne in 1529: Reform, p. 121 ^ Ibid. Bk. IV. ch. iv. (Lend. 1689), and other instances ' Individuals among them, how- of persecution are added by Eankfe, ever, were cruelly handled, and even Ref. in. 53 sq. I.J and its Propagation. 53 the whole collective empire, had been now . transferred to oerman y. individual states; and on this ground it was that the Saxon 'visitors*' commenced their task in 1527. The Saxon vist- taiion, 1527. tenderness with which the leaders of it were disposed to handle the traditional usages of Christendom is everywhere apparent. "While proclaiming with their former earnest- ness the doctrine of justification by faith, and thus repu- diating the scholastic theories on human merit, and the efficacy of human ordinances, they laboured to suppress the controversies that still raged respecting minor questions, such as the authority of the pope or prelates generally. It seems to have become the foremost policy of Luther, quite as much as of Melancthon, to subvert the Mediaeval errors by implanting vital truths of Christianity * within the hearts of his fellow-countrymen; and seldom in the history of the Church have labours of this kind been followed by so large a measure of success. The other German states ° in which * Certain visitors were nomi- p. 43, n. 4). On the present occa- nated by the elector to examine sion, it is true, he went aa far as the moral and intellectual condition the utmost verge of moderation by b£ each parish. The Instructions allowing in some cases the adminis- which were sent in their name to tvation of the Eucharist in one kind : every clergyman in Saxony, drawn but even this was quite consistent up by Melancthon with the appro- with his former opinions (cf. above, val of Luther, are very remarkable p. 34, n. 3). (see them in Walch's Luther, X. ° These feelings strongly mani- 1 902 sc[. ; et cf. Seckendorf s ac- f ested at the present juncture, gave count, Lib. 11. sect. xiii. §§ 36, 37). birth to Luther's Catechisms (the Erasmus, struck by the moderation smaller a compendium taken from of these visitors, declares (Bpist. Lib. the larger). They were both writ- XX. ep. 63): 'Indies mitescit febris ten in German, but translated almost Lutherana, adeo ut ipse Lutherus immediately into Latin. See them de singulis propemodum scribat pa- in F. Francke's Mbri Symholici Eccl. linodiam, ac cseteris [i. e. the Zwin- Lutherance, Pars II. pp. 63 — 245, glians and Anabaptists] habeatur ob with the editor's prefatory observa- hoc ipsum hsereticus et delirus.' tions, pp. xv. sq. The general This critique, however, rests on a adoption of them in schools led complete misconception of Luther's to their recognition as ' symbo- principles. Provided institutions lical.' did not run directly counter to the ' " This was universally the case in "Word of God, he was in favour of Lower Germany (Eanke, Ref. 11. retaining them, or at least he viewed S14). A different scheme (as we the retention of them as a matter of shall see hereafter) had been adopted tbmparative indifference (cf. above, by Philip the landgrave of Hessen, 54 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. GERMANY, the Lutheran tenets were adopted trod, with some occasional deviations, in the steps of Saxony. But all of them ere long had cause to tremble for the safety of their institutions when the storms of war passed over, leaving Charles and Ferdinand at liberty again to vindicate the old opinions. A fresh Diet was convoked at mwDiet of Spires' for March 15, 1529. On this occasion the imperial message, breathing anger and intolerance, added to the flames already burning among the adversaries of the Ke- formation, and impelled them to resume more vigorous mieasures. After a sharp struggle the pacific edict ° of the former Diet of Spires (1526), by virtue of which important changes had been consummated in numerous provinces of Germany, was absolutely repealed (April 5) ; and the re- formers, pleading that such revocation violated both the laws of the empire, and the sacred rights of conscience, fearlessly drew up the document' which has obtained for ' Froieaants: them and their posterity the name of Protestants (April 19). The resolutiori which they manifested at this crisis was indeed remarkable, sufficient even to convince the ministers in a kind of synod held at Horn- in future to follow the interpretation berg (Oct. 21, 1^16). The pro- of Holy Scripture that was approved ceedings were materially influenced by the Church, by Francis Lambert, formerly a 'It proceeded from the elector Franciscan at Avignon, whose sym- of Saxony, the marquis of Brandcn- pathies, especially on the doctrine of burg, the duke of Brunswick-Liine- the Eucharist, were strongly. Zwiu- burg, the landgrave of Hessen and glian: aee\Aa Ephlola ad Oolonienses the count of Anhalt. Fourteen of (relating to this synod), Giessse, the cities also joined in this protest : 1730, and the Reformatw Eccleaia- Strasburg, Nuremberg, "Dim, Qpn- rwm HassicB (1526), ed. Credner, stance, Lindau, Memmitigen, Kemp- Giessen, 1852. ten, NordUngen, Heilbronn, Eeut- ^ For the chief transactions with lingen, Issna, St GraU,, Weissen- regard to the refoi-mers see Waloh's burg and Windsheim. In answer- iiiiAer, XVI. 3i5sq. : of . Eanke, iJe/. ing the argument of the imperial Bk. V. ch. V. party with respect to the interpreta- * See above, p. 5?, and n. 8. The tion of the Bible, they contended emperor at the same time pledged that so long as the Church itself himself to call a general council, pr was the subject of dispute, the best at least a national assembly very method of expo,unding hard texts of soon. Anabaptists were to be pu- Scripture was to call in the help of nished by death, and preachers were clearer passages. I] and its Propagation. 00 of Oharles V. that nothing but the convocation of some free germant. council in Germany itself was likely to compose the multi- plying discords. The force, however, of such protests was materially abated by contentions in the camp of the reformers. Post- poning, as before, the fuU consideration of the different causes which produced these subdivisions, it should here be noticed, that a movement, similar at first in spirit to the MaeofZuin- '■ glianism. Lutheran, though of mdependent growth, had risen in the midst of the Helvetic confederacy. Its author was a parish- priest, Huldreich Zwifigli. Instigated, it is possible, by Carlstadt, the evil genius of the Reformation, who after taking refuge* in Basle (1524), assumed a posture of direct hostility to Luther and his school, the Swiss reformer had in 1525 arrived at the conclusion '. that the eucharistic * Before he was compelled to quit Orlamiinde (of. above, p. 24, n. i), Luther paid him a visit, and preach- ed with great vehemence against fanatics of every class (image-break- ers included). He also condemned Carlstadt's teaching on the Eucha- rist, and by the deposit of a piece of gold pledged himself to confute any vindication of it which Carlstadt might publish. The ultra-protestant soon afterwards spoke of Luther in the most contemptuous terms, styl- ing him, 'einen zweyfachen Pa- pisten und Vetter des Antichrists:' Waddington, II. 90. This irritated Luther to write an Epistle to the Sirasbv/rgers (Deo. 15, 1524: De Wette, n. 577); and a short trea- tise Against the Celestial Prophets (Jan. 1525 : Walch, xx. 186 sq.), in. both of which he denounced the sa- cramental theories of his opponent. Carlstadt next apologized^ recant- ed his erroneous tenets, and in the autumn of 1525 returned to Wittenberg. He seems, however, to have fallen back eventually on most of his old positions (? 1528: cf. De WettCj in. 549), and quietly with- drew to Switzerland, where he died, Deo. 24, 1543. The fullest biogra- phy of him is by Fusslin, Frankf. 1776. ^ His views, of which more will be said hereafter, were developed in the De Vera et Falsa Seligione, pub- lished in 1525. He differed in some shades irom Carlstadt and others, but agreed with them substantially. Thus Carlstadt interpreted the words of institution Sciktikws (maintaining that our Lord while pronouncing them pointed to Tfia own body); CEcokmpadius then at Basle gave the literal meaning to iart, but took the predicate t6 aQJ/id /lov figura- tively : while Zwingli construed earl as equivalent to ' symbolizes' (signi- ficat) : cf. Hagenbachj ffist. of Doe- iHnes, II. 296, 297, Edinb. 1852. In the Fidei Satio which he address- ed to Charles V. in 1530 {Confess, in Eccl. Reform, ed. Niemeyer, Lips. 1840, pp. 24 sq.), Zwingli took a somewhat higher ground in speaking of the sacraments, but still denied that the outward and visible sign is ever made the medium for conveying the inward and spiritual grace : cf. 56 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [cHAP. GERMANY, elements are in no respect the media or conductors by which the Body and Blood of Christ are conveyed to the communicant ; or in other words, that ' the sacrament of the altar' being designed to quicken our intellectual apprehen- sion of spiritual things, there is in it ' only bread and wine, and not the very Body and Blood of Christ.' In opposition Lvatefs eonn- to this tenet of the Sacramentarii, Luther^ taught, as one Ur-statements ' . onttie jEttchor of the most Central truths of Christianity, that nothing but the literal acceptation of our Saviour's language was ad- missible. Without defining accurately the manner of the eucharistic Presence, he contended that the Body of the Lord was truly there, and absolutely refused to hold com- munion with all persons who insisted on resolving the words of institution into figures, or who construed them as nothing more than symbolical expressions pointing to the barely commemorative aspect of the Lord's Supper. To Giegeler, m. ii. pp. 154, 1-55, Bonn. 1852. ^ See the germs of the 'Lutheran doctrine above, p. 34, n. 4. He had been strongly tempted at one time to adopt the symbolical interpreta- tion of our Sayiour's language (De Wettc, II. S77), but resisted what he thought would have been fatal to Christianity. His various trea- tises on the Eucharist as well as some by others of his party (e. g, Bugenhagen, Brentz and Sohnepf) will be found in Walch, XX. Bucer, who tried to act as a mediator be- tween the Swiss and Saxon schools on this question, regretted (in 'i 5 3 7), that any one had ever written against Luther, whose original inlpression was that Carlstadt wished to get rid of all 'externals' in religion, and who therefore in opposing him at- tributed too much to >the outward part of the Lord's Supper. Luther was charged with holding the doc- trine of 'impanation,' but repelled the charge by stating that he left the ' manner' of Christ's presence an open question (Walch, XX. 1012). 'Consubstantiation ' is the term more commonly employed to characterize his own theory. In writing to the Swiss, however (Dec. 1, 1537: De Wette, V. 85) he puts the matter thus; 'Wir lassens' gbttlicher AU- machtigkeit befohlen sejm, me sein Leib und Blut im Abendmal uns gegeben werde, wo man aus seinem Befehl zusammen kommt, und sein Einsatzung gehalten wird. Wir denken da keiner Auffahrt und Nie- derfahrt, die da sollt geschehen ; sonde^n wir bleiben schlechts und einfaltiglich bed seinen Worten : das ist mein Leib, das ist meln Blut.' Melanothon's views were, in the fir.it instance, almost as rigorous as those of Luther. In iS'zp he characterized the Zwinglian dogma as ' impium ' (Opp, ed. Bretschneider, i. 1077), but he afterwards approximated more nearly to the standing-ground, of Calvin and an intermediate school, who held at least the virtual Presence of Christ in the Eucharist : of. below, p. 63, n. 6, and Grieaeler, ni. ii. ig6. I] and its Propagation. 57 this divergency, which we shall see hereafter was connected gbbmant. with very different conceptions of other doctrines of the Gospel, must be traced the alienation that grew up between the Saxon theologians (of Northern and Middle Germany), and the Swiss (incliiding also parts of Southern Germany''). The incompatibility of their opinions was peculiarly appa- rent, when the landgrave Philip, anxious either to confirm his own belief respecting the Eucharist, or to strengthen the defences of the Reformation in its threatened conflict with the emperor, secured a meeting of the Protestant chiefs' at Marburg (Oct. 1, 1529). This fruitless conference is on other grounds remark- Confermae qf able, as giving birth to the first series of dogmatic defini- 1529. tions (fifteen in number), on which the Articles and other ^ Especially the towns of Stras- burg and Xnm, the former being chiefly influenced by the moderate teaching of Capito, and in part, of Bucer (see their writings on this subject in Walch's Luther, XX. 445 sq.) ; the latter by that of Conrad Sam. It was in Strasburg, how- ever, that an intermediate party, with slight leanings in the direction of Zwinglianisni, continued to exist ; as we may judge especially from the Oonfessio Tetrapolitana (apud Nie- meyer, pp. 740 — 770), which the reformers of that town, in conjunc- tion with those of Constance, Mem- mingen and Lindau, presented to Charles V. at Augsburg (July 11, 1530). For the definition respect- ing the Eucharist, see ■pp. 760, 761. •' Kanke, Sef. III. 189 sq. These ■princes of tlie Word,' as a contem- porary poet calls them {Ibid. p. 191), included Luther, CEcolampadius, Bu- cer, Zwingli, Melancthon, Schuepf, Brenz, Hedio, Osiander, Justus Jo- nas, Myconius, Jacdbus Sturm (of Strasburg), and others. Zwingli cleared himself from the suspicions which hung over his orthodoxy re- specting the Divinity of our blessed Lord ; he also professed his agree- ment vrith the Wittenbergers on original sin and the effects of bap- tism. It was otherwise when the theologiaiis entered on the fifteenth article of the series before them, that relating to the Eucharist. Both par- ties felt the difference to be funda- mental, and they separated not in- deed without assurances of mutual charity, but with a firm conviction that their principles would not allow them to work together. Cf. Melanc- tbon's account (Opp- ed. Bretschnei- der, I. 1098 sq.), with Zwingli's (apud Hospiniani Hist. Sacramen- ta/ria, II. 77 sq.). Luther despaired of the conference from the first : see his letter to the Landgrave (June 23) in De Wette, III. 473, and others written immediately after the confer- ence {Ibid. pp. 511 sq. 518, 520, 559). One addressed to John Agri- cola (Oct. 12), contains the follow- ing 'Postscript' of Melancthon: 'Valde^ontendenmt ut a nobis fra- tres nominarentur. Vide eorum stultitiam, cum damnent nos, cu- piunt tamen a nobis fratres haberi. Nos uoluimus eis de hac re assentiri. Sic omnino arbitror, si res adhuc Integra esset, non moturos amplius tantam tragoediam.' 58 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. GBRMAN'X. Augsburg Confeasitm^ 1530. symbolical writings of the Lutherans were generally mo- delled. Subscription to the series, as revised and aug- mented at the convent of Schwabach' (Oct. 16, 1529), was made an indispensable condition of membership in the reforming league; and after undergoing, in the hands of Melancthon, further modifications and additions, the seven- teen Schwabach Articles have, for the most part, reappeared in the Confession of Augsburg", presented to Charles V. on the 25th of June, 1530, during the sessions of the Diet in that place. Restrained by the political ascendancy of anti- Lutheran influences", alarmed by aberrations of the Ana- baptists, and discouraged also by the recent failure to appease the scruples of the Swiss, the authors and compilers Ernest, duke of Liineburg ; Philip, landgrave of Hessen [who for the present surmounted his misgivings on the Saoramentarian controversy] ; John Frederic, electoral prince of Saxony ; Francis, duke of Liine- burg ; Wolfgang, prince of Anhalt ; the senate and magistracy of Nu- remberg ; and the senate of Beut- lingen. ^ To this new ascendancy con- tributed the retreat of the Turks, who had pitched their camp before Vienna itself (Sept. 10, ig'ZQ); the pacifica- tion of Italy and the investing of Charles V. (Feb. 24, 1530) with the insignia of the Roman empire at Bologna (see Banke. Ref. Bk. v. ch. vii. viii.) ; but still more the abso- lute refusal of Luther to sanction the active resistance of the Protest- ants, on the ground that their reli- gion ought not even to be defended by appealing to the sword (lUd. III. 101 sq. De Wette, in. 560 sq.). He went so far as to dissuade the elector John (May 22, 1529), from entering into a fresh league witli the landgrave Philip, because such a step would involve religious commu- nion with many persona who were holding fundamental errors (' wider, Gott und das sacramen t ') : De Wettej , in. 455: cf. IV. 23 sq. 1 See the XVII. Schwabach Arti- cles in Walch's Lviher, xvi. 681, 7 78. Their spirit is essentially Lu- theran throughout (cf. Kanke, in. 197). The immediate effect of this test was to exclude the cities of TJlm and Strasburg (cf. above, p. 57, n. 2) from the league; and at a meeting held at Schmalkald (Dec. 1529), the rest of the Oberlanders followed their example. ^ The fullest account of this docu- ment is in Weber's Kritische Gesch, der Augsb. Confess. It is analyzed in Hardwick's Hist, of the Articles, ch. II. The idea of presenting such an apology was suggested by Briick (Pontanus), senior chancellor of the Elector of Saxony (March 14, 1530). He also took part in the work of re- vision, which continued for some time (till May 3 1). That it received during this interval the approbation of Luther, who remained behind at Coburg, is shewn by his note to the elector John (May 15, 1530). He remarks very characteristically, that he was not the man to improve upon it, ' denn ich so sanft und leise nicht treten kan.' When read before the states by Dr Bayer (the junior chan- cellor of Saxony) it bore the signa- tures of John, elector of Saxony; George, markgrave of Brandenburg; I.] and its Propagation. 59 of this manifesto exceeded even their characteristic mode- Germany. ration, both in what they have pretermitted, and in what they have advanced. It consists of two parts, the former having reference to its eharaeter. articles of faith, and proving how very much the Lutherans held in common with the rest of Christendom*; the latter" stating on what scriptural and patristic grounds they had rejected certain errors and abuses. The general tone of this Confession is humble, modest, and apologetic: yet so violent were some of the opponents of the Reformation who had listened to the reading of it, that they urged the emperor to gird on his sword immediately and execute the edict of Worms. Instead of this, however, Charles adopted the advice of the more moderate members' of his party. He directed a committee of divines, then present at Augs- burg, four of whom, Cochlseus, Eck, Wimpina, and Faber, Scholastic con- .11, 1 . » 1 1 . . . /wtation ™ *n- by Hofimeister, an Augustine friar, ticipation of the diet: cf. Melanc- with the title Judiciv/m de Artieulii thon's Works, ed. Bretschneider, rv. Confess. August., quatenus scilicet a 973; Grieseler, iii. i. p. 246, n. 4. CathoUcis admitteiidi sint aut reji- ^ See the extracts in Gieseler, iii. ciendi, Colon. 15S9. 60 The Saxon School of CJmrch-Iieformers, [chap. GERMANY, between the leading theologians' of each party, many of the serious differences on points of doctrine were so far adjusted that the rest appeared to those engaged in it no longer incapable of reconciliation. Such hope, however, weakened by the opposition of the sterner Lutherans, vanished altogether, when Gampeggi'' the papal legate reasserted all the strongest arguments in favour of the jurisdiction of the Eoman Church. Inflamed by his repre- sentations, and more conscious as the interviews proceeded that real harmony was unattainable, the Diet finally issued Bdiot adverse another edict enioining the reformers, at least until a coun- totheLuther- ., , , , ? . . , . arts. cil could OB summoued, to appoint no more married priests, to practise auricular confession with the same minuteness, as in former years, to abstain from mutilations of the Canon of the mass and from all language tending tb disparage ^ The unrefonned were repre- sented by Eok, Wimpina and Coch- Iseus ; the reformed by Melancthon, Brentz and Sohnepf. See the par- ticulars of this attempt at mediation in Walch's Luther, XVI. 1668 aq. and Banke, Ref. m. 306 sq. Me- lancthon, much to his annoyance, was charged with treachery to the cause of the reformers, more espe- cially on account of a concession by which he offered to subject them afresh to the jurisdiction of the bi- shops: of. his letter addressed to Luther (Sept. i, 1530; ed. Bretschn. u. 336) with Luther's letter to him (Sept. n: De Wette, iv. 162, 163). It is plain that the great re- former was vehemently opposed to very many of the concessions. The following are specimens : ' Summa, mihi in totum displicet tractatus de doctrinae concordia, ut quae plane sit impossibilis, nisi Papa velit papatum suum aboleri' (Aug. 26: De Wette, IV. J 47). 'Oro autem ut abrupta actione desinatis cum illis agere, et redeatis. Habent confessionem, ha- bent EvangeUum : si volunt, ad- mittant ; si nolunt, vadaut in locum suum. Wird ein Krieg draus, so werde er draus ; wir haben gnug gebeten tmd gethan' (Sept. 20; De Wette, IV. 171). We may not un- naturally suppose, that these and like expressions wrought a consider- able change in Melancthon. He soon afterwards indeed drew up liis Apo- logy for the Augsburg Confession (the second of the Lutheran symbo- lical books), departing far more freely from the mediaeval modes of thought. See respecting it Francke, Lihri Symb. Eccl. Luth. Proleg. 0. iii. " Eanke, Ref. III. 31 o. His opi- nion seems to have been that the controversy on matters of doctrine was chiefly, if not altogether, verbal (Gieseler, ill. 1. p. 260, n. 22) : while Melancthon assured him (ed. Bretsch. 11. 170), that the reform- ers were continually incurring the hatred of many persons in Germany itself, 'quia Ecclesise Eoraanse dog- mata summa constantia defendimus.' It was on matters affecting the papal supremacy and the constitution of the Church that they ultimately fell off from each other. I.J and its Propagation. 61 private masses, and even to acknowledge that communion gbrmant. in one kind is quite as valid as in both'. A threat was at the same time suspended over them, importing that if they continued firm in their resistance after May 5, 1531, the unreforming states would instantly adopt coercive measures. The necessity of acting still more vigorously in self- defence now led to the formation of the Schmalkaldic League* (March 29, 1531), by which the Protestants bound Measures in themselves for six years to help each other in maintaining the distinctive ground which they had occupied in the Augsburg Confession. They next endeavoured to fortify their position by political alliances with France', and other powers antagonistic to the house of Austria. But their pre- servation at this juncture is mainly traceable to the Otto- mans' who in the summer of 1532 swept over the plains of Hungaiy with two hundred and fifty thousand men, and even climbed into the fastnesses of Styria, where they seem to have shaken for a moment the indomitable heroism of Charles V; himself In order to enlist the arms of every German province in repelling these invaders, he opened fresh negotiations with the Protestants, whom he ultimately ' satisfied by promulgating the religious peace of Nuremberg' p^m^ of 1532. ' Banke, ibid. The Kecess of the ^ Banke, JRef. Bk. vi. ch. vi. diet, which dissolved in November, Miller, Mist. Philosophically lllus- isgo, is given in Waloh, XVI. 1925 sq. trated, III. 19, 20, Lond. 1849. The * The juriata of Wittenberg la- second of these writers has drawn boured to abate the scruples still attention to the fact that Solyman's fult by many of the theologians with hostihty was diverted from the Ger- regard to the lawfulness of resisting man empire soon afterwards by his the emperor, even in self-defence war with Persia, leaving the Pro- (Ranke, Mef. iii. 348). testants again at the mercy of ^ Banke (in his €vi)il Wars and Charles V. Monarchy in France, 1. 198, 199, ' See the account of the negotia- Lond. 1852) observes thattheFrench tions in Sleidan, Ref. pp. 160, 161, monarch was inclined to extend Lond. 1689, and the documents in these negotiations to religious mat- Walch, XTl. 2210 sq. The hollow- ters, and that he had invited Me- ness of the concordat, in so far at lancthon to take part in a free con- least as the anti-reformers were con- gress of theologians, which was only cerned, was visible immediately af- defeated by the vigorous efforts of ter the danger which suggested it the Sorbonne. had been withdravra. 62 The Saxorjb School of GhMrchrReformers, [chap. GERMANY. (July 23, 1532). According, to the terms of thifs first con- cordat, the existing state of things was to continue among those of the reformers who recognized the Confession of Augsburg, till the subjects in dispi^te could be authori- tatively adjusted either in some 'general free council,' or some future diet. After the retreat of Solyman, the emperor attempted by all means to stimulate the reigning pontiff, so as to convoke the synod contemplated in the peace "of Nurem- berg. Although he made little or no progress during the pontificate of Clement VII., Paul III. (elected Oct. 13, 1534) was more willing to start negotiations for this purpose with the Protestants'; and even when hostilities broke out again between the emperor and the French, he so far persisted as to make arrangements for the holding of a synod at Mantua^ (May, 1537). Qn the other hand, the Wittenberg divines could not regard a council constituted in the papal fashion as either ' free ' or ' general,' and ac- cordingly proceeded to restate the doctrines which they felt themselves constrained to vindicate at all hazards, in a formal manifesto entitled the Schmalkdldic Articles", from '^ Clement VII. well knew that aU the terms which he proposed would be rejected : but his successor mani- fested more earnestness and equity (seeMelancthon'sPro9'Js,ed.Bretschu. n. 962 sq.). Luther (June i6, 1532) mentions the earlier 'ArticuH' of the papal and imperial nuncios : ' ...per quos Papa detulit nobis articulos quosdam de concllio celebrando, sci- licet ut agatur in ea re secundum, puura placitum et more priorum con- ciliorum, A. e. in quo damnemur et comburamur, sed verbis lubricis et taU Pontifiee dignis :' De Wette, IV. 454. And we can hardly avoid drawing a conclusion from other passages of his letters (c. g. one writ- ten in the previous April or May, in conjunction with Bugenhagen), that he was now opposed to any conci- liar determination of the subjects in dispute. On his interview with Ver- gerio at Wittenberg, November 7, I53S> see the various accounts in Waddington, in. 189 sq, ^ See the buU in Kaynald. Annal. Eccl. ad an. 1536, § 35. The same pontiff, two years later- (1538), ap- pointed a reformatory commission, which produced the famous Consi- lium delectorum Ca/rdinalium et alio- rum prwlatomm de emenda/nda Ec- clesia, printed in Le Plat's Monmn. Condi. Trident. 11. 596 sq. Lovan. 1782. " This formulary was afterwards adopted as another 'symbolical' , writing of the Lutherans. See an account of its history as well as the work itself, in Francke's Zii. Symb. Eccl. Luth. Part 11. The original I] a/nd its Propagation. m its reception by the members of tbe Protestant League (Feb. 1537). Their opponents at the same time entered into a more formidable confederacy (the 'Holy League'*, as it was called) including Charles V., Ferdinand, the elector of Mayence, the archbishop of Salzburg, the dukes of Bavaria, the duke George of Saxony (to be distinguished from the Elector), and duke Henry of Brunswick; Counting, as they did, however, on the help to be afforded by political adver- saries" of the emperor, and also on the friendship of one section of the .Swiss reformers", they were enabled to GERMANY.. Continued hoatilities. . form of it was written by Luther liimself in German (Dec. 1536), and submitted bybim to bis colleagues (p. vi.). Melancthon signed it only with the following qualification re- specting the pope (p. 40) ; ' De Pon- ' tifice autem statue, si evangelium adniitteret, posse ei, propter pacem et oommunem tranquillitatem Chris- tianorum, qui jam sub ipso sunt, et in posterum sub ipso erunt, supe- rioritatera in episcopos, quam alio- qui babet, jure humane etiam a nobis permitti. ' * The documents in "Walch, xvrt. 4 sq. : of. Leo, Universalgeschichte, III. 157, 158, Halle, 1838. ^ Chiefly that of Francis I. and Henry VIIL the latter of whom, as we shall see hereafter, opened negotiations with the Lutherans, both on diplomatic and religious grounds. ^ Luther himself, as early as Jan. 22, 1531 (De Wette, iv. 216), had manifested a more pacific disposition towards the moderate party of the 'Sacramentaries' represented by Bu- cer (of. above, p. 57, n. 2, lespeoting .their (7on/essio). The four cities where they most abounded bad in 1532 accepted the Augsburg Confession, and by establishing the Concordia Vitebergemis (May, 1536: see Me- lancthon's Works, ed. Bretschn. in. 75 sq)j the two parties were drawn Btill more closely to each other. On this occasion the phraseology re- specting the eucbaristic presence stood as follows : ' Cum pane et vino vere et substantialiter adesse, exhi- beri et sumi Corpus Christi et San- guinem' (at the same time denying the theories both of transubstantia- tion, of 'localinolusiou in the bread,' i. e. impanation, and also of ' any lasting conjunction apart from the use of the sacrament'). In a new edition of the Augsburg Confession in 1540, Melancthon went further still, and altered the authorized ex- pressions, ' quod Corpus et Sanguis Christi vere adsint et distribuantur in coena,' into 'quod cum pane et vino vere exhibeantur Corpus et Sanguis Christi:' Leo, as above, p. 158. That his views never har- monized eniireZy with those of Luther on the subject of the Eucharist, is rendered probable by a statement recently brought to light in liatze- berger's Uandsehr. Qesch. iiber Luther etc. ed. Neudeoker, Jena, 1850, pp. 85, 86, 94. He felt that Luther had written on the mysterious pre- sence ' nimis crasse.' He was him- self content, as he observes {0pp. VII. 343, ed. Bretschn.), with the ' simplicity ' of the words of institu- tion, adding very forcibly : ' Longe est alia ratio sacramentorum ; ut ih ipsa actions Spiritus Sanetns adest iapUsmo et est eificax in baptisaio, sic cum sumitur coena, adest Christus, 64 The Saaoon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. GERMANY, maintain their ground so firmly that fresh overtures were made by Charles to bring about, if possible, some lasting reconciliation. Colloquy of Never since the outbreak of the struggle did reformed 1541. and unreformed approximate so closely as at the Colloquy held in Eatisbon' (1541). The papal legate sent on this occasion was Gaspar Contarini, who on many subjects, more especially the doctrine of justification, had betrayed a leaning towards Protestantism; and as he found himself confronted by Melancthon and others, all of whom evinced unusual readiness to make concessions for the sake of peace, a hope was entertained in almost every quarter, that the raging controversy was about to be composed. They actually arrived at an agreement (May 10), on the state of man before the fall, on free will, original sin, and lastly, on what was felt to be a turning-point in their discussions, on the justification of the sinner": yet here even they per- ceived eventually that deeper sources of division existed in the ordinances and constitution of the Church as governed by the Roman pontiffs. Partly for this reason, and partly because the hotter spirits on both sides could not endure the thought of reconciliation', the proceedings of the Col- loquy were altogether void of fruit. ut sit eiBcax. Nee adest propter stvucted ' as to evade, as far as pos- panem, sed propter sumentem.' sible, the most prominent points of ^ The fuEest collection of the Acts difference.' is that given in Bretschneider's Me- ^ On this subject the collocutors lancthon, IV. 119 sq. The Protestant arrived at the following conclusion : representatives nominated by the ' Knna itaque est at sana doctrina, emperor were Melancthon, Pistoriug, per fidem vivam et efficacem justifi- Nidda and Buoer; their opponents cari pecoatorem. Nam per illam being Eck, Julius Pflug and John Deo grati et accept! sumus propter Gropper. Eck was, however, kept Christum. ..Et sic fide in Christuca in the background by Contarini, re- justifioamur, sen reputamur justi, i.e. .specting whom see Waddington, in. aocepti, per Ipsius merita, non prop.- 311 oq. The basis of the confer- ter nostram dignitatem aut opera.' ence was an essay called the JBook Cardinal Pole, among others, con- 0/ Conccrd, or Interim of Satisbon gratulated Contarini on this unison : (Melancth. iv. 190 sq.), the author see Ranke, Popes, I. 164, 165, by of which is unknown. It consist- Austin, 2nd ed. ed of a string of definitions, so con- ^ Leo, as above, pp. 164 sq. IJ and its Propagation, 65 An instance of the great rapidity with which the new Germany. opinions were diffused in many distant states occurred soon afterwards at Cologne, where Hermann* von Wied, the Hermann prince-archbishop, determined mainly by the arguments Cologne. adduced at Ratisbon, had set on foot a yigorous reforma- tion, and invited Bucer and Melancthon to assist him in the carrying forward of his work I Some kindred measures were advancing in other dioceses, when the sword of perse- cution was again unsheathed by Charles and his adherents. On the 18th of September, 1544, he concluded the peace of Crespy with his rival Francis, which enabled him to concentrate his energies against the Protestants". Their Rennved own divisions also tended to expose them still further to ' his violence. The cordiality of members of their League abated'; and as the controversy of Luther' with the Sacra- .jnentaries broke out afresh in 1544, all hope of gaining positive assistance from the Swiss appeared to be cut off. hostilities. * One of the best accounts of Wm and the reformation which he headed, is in Seckendoi'f, Lib. ill. pp. 435-448. He struggled for some time against the papal ex- communication launched in 1546, but was afterwards deposed, and died in seclusion, Aug. 13, 1552 : Sleidan, Ref. pp. 340 sq. 573, Lond. 1689. ' See Melancthon's letters (0pp. V. 1:2, ed. Bretsch.) on the con- struction of Hermann's Einfaltiges Bedeiiken, etc., 1543, or, as the title stands in the Latin version of 1545, Simplex et Pia Deliberatio, etc. Either the German original, or this Latin version, was also translated into English in 1547, and (more correctly) in 1548. As a form of service it approximated closely to the ' order ' of Nuremberg, composed by Luther in 1533. He was, how- ever, dissatisfied with expressions in the work relating to the Eucharist, supplied, as it appears (Melancthon, aa above) by Bucer ; on the ground B. P. that the author had avoided clear statements touching the real pre- sence ; 'von der Substanz (i.e. of the Eucharist) mummelt ea, dass man nicht soU vernehmen, was ,er davon halte in aller Masse :' De Wette, V. 708. ^ According to this treaty, the French were also pledged to assist in 'restoring the ancient religion and the unity of the Church.' Sleidan, as before, p. 336. ' e.g. Maurice, duJce of Saxony, having quarrelled with the elector (cf. Luther's letter of April 7, 1542, in De Wette, v. 456) seceded from the League, although promising to act with members of it io defence of their religion. ' His wrath expressed itself in what' Melancthon was constrained to call 'atrocissimum soriptum,' — the Kurzes Behenntniss vom Abendmahl (Walch, XX. 2195 sq.), where he speaks of the Zwinglian party as 'soul-destroyers and heretics:' cf. Waddiugton, m. 227, 228. 66 The Saxon' School of Church-Reformers, [chap. OEEMAST. Opening of the Council of Trent. T>eatK of Lutlier. J7eligious War. The Eomish party were moreover stimulated at this junc- ture by the convocation (Nov. 19, 1544) of the long ex- pected counciP, which met at Trent in the following year; so that although another fruitless Colloquy was opened at Ratisbon^ (Jan. 27, 1546), it grew apparent that the ani' mosity of the imperial faction must ere long find vent in bloodshed. Luther" breathed his last at Eisleben, Feb. 18, 1546, the victim of a grievous malady that poured fresh drops of bitterness into the feelings of dissatisfaction and disgust with which he contemplated the present aspect of eccle- siastical affairs, particularly the development of Zwin- glianism, and the encroachment of secular ideas into the province of religion. He held his principles, however, with unshaken earnestness, and found in them the conso- lations that sustained his drooping spirit, and the strength that finally enabled her to wing her way into a happier sphere of being. By his death at this new epoch in the German reformation he was spared from witnessing the horrors of the struggle known as the Schmalkaldic War*. It was in truth a fresh crusade, the Roman pontiff granting plenary indulgences to all who might assist in the extirpa- tion of the Lutheran ' heresy.' The proximate issues of ^ See below, on The Counter-re- formation, chap. VI. ^ Tbeleadingchampionof theanti- reformers was Goohteus, who, after the death of Eok (Feb. 1543), had succeeded to his place. On the other side. Major and Bucer were the principal speakers. A Verissima Re- latio of the proceedings, which lasted till March 20, was pubUshed imme- diately afterwards at Ingolstadt, by order of Charles V. ^ Dbllinger (Die Beformaiian, I, 349 sq.) has ransacked his letters for the sake of adding to the stock of evidence as to the wretchedness of his later years. Andin, with still greater spite, has written three chap- ters on his ' chagrins et souffrances,' his 't'etitations et doutes,' and finally, on his ' derniers moments' (capp. xxii.-xxiv.) For a more truthful representation, see the documents in Walch, xxr. 274 sq. and Moh- nike's collection entitled Doctor Mar- tin ImtJiers Lebensende (written by eye-witnesses), Stralsund, 1817. Some additional light is thrown up? on this as well as other portions of the life of Luther by Eatzeberger's \ Gesch. iiber J/uthev und seine Zeit, — written by an intimate friend, and recently edited in its genuine form by Neudecker, Jena, T850. ■* See Sleidan, Mef. Bks. XVIII. XIX : Leo, as above, pp. 1 75 sq. I,] and its Propagation. 67 the war were soon determined by the sanguinary defeat of ^obrmaxy. the Protestants at Miihlberg (April 24, .1547), where John Frederic, the elector of Saxony, on whose prudence, zeal, and courage they had long depended, fell into the hands of Charles V. Inflexibly attached to his opinions ° he beheld his throne in the possession of his cousin Maurice, who had sided with the other party, while the emperor, for a season, had become the undisputed lord of Germany. The jea- lousy, however, that arose between him and the pope, conduced materially to the protection of the Protestants. Charles himself had, in the mean while, grown dissatisfied Suspension •11 T CI •ifm-rr ii tf&^OouncH. With the proceedings oi the council oi irent. He contended that instead of rushing at once into anathemas against doctrinal aberrations, it should in the first place have ad- dressed itself to the correction of practical abuses", even if in so doing it had trenched on the more extreme pretensions of the pontiff. On the contrary, Paul III. who was alarmed' by the gigantic growth of the imperial power, foreboded that some of his own prerogatives might also be assailed, if not entirely wrested from his grasp. Under the influence, therefore, of such motives, he availed himself of a pretext afforded by the spread of some contagious disease, in order to transfer the council from Trent to Bologna (March 11, .1547), where he trusted that the emperor would not be able to bias the proceedings. On hearing of this transfer, Charles resented what he thought a fresh indignity*, ' He had succeeded his father who, accordingly, made his peace John, who died immediately after (June 19, 1S47), but was detained a thepeace of Nuremberg (1532). His prisoner (/6id. pp. 432.. 433; Leo, life was now spared at the intercesr p. 183). A fuller account of the sion of the elector of Brandenburg, whole proceedings is given by Eom- who remained neutral (Sleidan, pp. mel, in hi3 Philipp.derGrossmuthige. 427, 428), but he was, notwithstand- " Sarpi, Histidu Concile de Trent, ing, compelled to renounce all claim I. '247, Amsterdam,a75i. to the electoral dignity, both for ' JKd.yp. 387,388. himself and his children. Maurice, * He sent orders that the repre- who replaced him (cf. above, p. 65, sentatives opposed to this transfer of n. 7), used his influence with Charles th« council, chiefly Spaniards and to beg off the landgrave of Hessen, others of his dwn subjects, should F 2 68 The Saxon School of Church-Meformers, [chap. OEHMANY. The, Interim Aii^ustanumj 1548. demanded that the representatives should all immediately revert to their old position in the Tyrol, and during the protracted negotiations^ on this subject, and the consequent abeyance of synodic action, gave the Protestants an oppor- tunity of recovering from their recent consternation. When all hopes of healing the divisions of the empire by the agency of general councils faded every day, a different project was suggested for that purpose. By an order issued at the Diet of Augsburg (May 15, 1548), ^e Pro- testants were directed to adopt a new formulary of belief and worship, drawn up at the command of Charles, by John Agricola, an old reformer and preacher at the court of Brandenburg, and two moderate prelates of the counter- reformation party''. This provisional arrangement, intended to expire when questions it concerned could be authorita- tively handled in a council of the Western Church, was termed the Interim, or Interim Augiostanum. Its tone and character were highly favourable to the Mediaeval notions', and as such it naturally proved distasteful to the great majority of Protestants. The emperor, it is true, endea- voured to facilitate their recognition of it, by prescribing (June 14) a Formula Reformationis* to the other party, his intention being to correct the most obnoxious class of remain at Trent till they received further instructions : Sarpi, I. 488. 1 Ibid. I. 502 sq. To fortify him- self, the pope had in the meanwhile concluded a fresh treaty with Henry II. of France. Ibid. pp. 499, 500. ^ See Gieseler's account of its ori- gin and composition, in. i. p. 342, u. I. Bucer was fetched from Stras- burg to Augsburg with the hope of gaining his sanction to the scheme (Sleidan, as before, p. 454). This, however, he declined to give, not- withstanding the importunity of the elector of Brandenburg, who was anxious to effect a reconciliation. (Ibid. p. 458). ' Printed in 1548, both in the German original and a Latin ver- sion. It is now most accessible in Bieclc's Das drey f ache Interim, Leip- zig, 1721. Sleidan (pp. 458, 459), furnishes a summary of its con- tents. The two chief concessions which it made to the Reformers were the legalizing, for the present, of the marriages of such ecclesiastics as had alreaSy taken wives, and the toleration of commimion in both, kinds. ^ Printed several times, and (as Gieseler observes), with some addi- tions of 1559, in Goldast's Comtit, Imper. 11. 325 sq, > 1.] and its Propagation, 69 practical abuses. But while these projects found a general geemant. acceptance in the non-reforming dioceses of the empire, the pope, as if desirous of adding to the complications and anomalies of the age, now raised his voice in condemnation of the scheme, alleging that Charles had overstepped his province in thus meddling with ecclesiastical affairs'. In the mean time, though the Interim was not without its advocates, particularly in Southern Germany, it roused a stormy opposition in some districts of the north . The stricter Lutherans always viewed it in the light of an ungodly compromise : they went so far indeed as to with- hold communion from members of their body who were tainted by the slightest contact with it. Illustrations of this firmness soon occurred, especially in Saxony, where Maurice the elector, while he did not absolutely reject the ^Ae interim T ' 1 1 '11 .Tpi«T. Lipsii rise, Interim, endeavoured, with the aid of his divines, to modify and n^ effect. its operation' in such a way as to preserve the essence of the Lutheran doctrines, although associated with many of the ritual Institutions handed down from the Middle Ages. A conforming party thus grew up in "Wittenberg under the guidance of Melancthon. From the disposition they evinced to treat one large cycle of ecclesiastical ordinances as indifferent or non-essential" (dBiaij>opa), their controversy ° It wag even imputed to him ' Maurice aesembled a committee among other things, that the new of divines and others at Meissen manifesto contained doctrines at va- (July i). I'resh meetings were af- liance with decrees of the suspended terwards convened until Deo. 22, council, on grave questions like jus- when the Interim I/ipsknise was ac- tifioation and the authority of the oepted in the electorate of Saxony, pope (Baynald. Armal. Eccl. ad an. It is printed in Bieck, as above, n. 3. 1548, § 62 ; of. Saipi, l. 531). ' Thus at the conference of July ° Sleidan, as before, pp. 460, 461 : l, mentioned in the previous note, Grieseler, III. i. 356-360. Many of the theologians made the following the leading divines {e.g. Musculus, statement : 'Si in rebus istis adia- Brentz, Osiander) were now driven phoris bono consilio eorum, quibus put of the conforming states, and gubernatio Ecclesiarum commissa sought a shelter in ccnmtries to est, aliquid deliberatum fuerit, quod which the Interim did not reach, ad concinnitatem aliquam ritunm, or where it was resisted by the et ad bonam disciplinam faciat, in i^rotestants, hoc concordiee et bono ordiui non, 70 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap: o Eli MANY, with the other Lutherans' was entitled 'Adiaphoristic.' They form the earliest representatives of that gentler, and, on some occasions, over-pliant class of thinkers, who by preaching peace, allaying discords, and reducihg irregulari- ties, have exercised a very powerful influence on the spirit of the German reformation. The death of Paul III. (Nov. 10, 1549), presented a more favourable opportunity for trying to obtain a lasting settlement of the disputed dogmas. In pursuance of his object Charles prevailed on the new pontiff, Julius III., to re-establish'' the council of Trent (May 1, 1551). On this Denpening (jf the Ct'Undl of T,-ait. deerinras. Nam de rebus per se me- diis non volunais guicqua/m rixari, quod ad externum attinet umm.' In replying (April i6, 1549), to a letter adriresBed to him by the consistory of Hamburg (0pp. ed. Bretsohn. vil. 367) on this question, Melancthon explains himself at length, and with his usual moderation. ^ This party was headed by Via,- cius Illyrious, the Wittenberg pro- fessor of Hebrew, who, having asso- ciated at Magdeburg with others of the same school, denounced the pre- sent teaching of Melancthon as a departure from the purity of the Lutheran creed. The controversy lasted for several years, and in September 1556, we find Melanc- thon writing to Flaciua (Opp.vill. 841)-, and offering for the sake of unity to confess that he was in the wrong : ' Fateor etiaxa hac in re a me peccatum esse, et a Deo veniam peto, quod non piocul fugl insidiosas iilas deliberationes,' The 'Phihp- pists' and ' Flacianists, ' however, long continued to represent distinct shades of Lutheranism, the former predomi- nating in the university of Witten- berg, the latter in that of Jena. The~ spirit of Melancthon as distinguislied from that of Luther is also traceable in Osiander, the reformer of Nurem- berg, who on being expelled from thence during the ascendancy of the Interim, was ajjpointed to a profes- sorship in Prussia at Kbnigsberg. He there pub'.isbed two disputations, one of which, on the doctrine of justification, reaffirmed the views propounded by some of the older mystics, who had laid especial stress on holiness as the result of the inhabi- tation Of Christ in all the faithful : e.g. ' Fides est justificans, cumtamen. non fides, sed Chiistus fide compre- hensus justificet Justitia ilia, quam fide apprehendimus, est jus- titia Dei, non tantum quia Deo est aocepta, sed quia revera justitia Dei. ...Haeo justitia non confertur cui- quam, nisi priua ei remissa fuerint peccata per sanguinem Christi. ... Glacie frigidiora docent, nos tantum propter remissionem peocatoruni reputari justos, et non etiam propter justitiam Christi per fidem in nobis inhabitantis.' A controversy on these topics continued to rage for some years after the death of Osian- der (Oct. 17, 1552): see Gieseler, III. ii. pp. 27s sq. " Sarpi, I. 542 sq. The Protestant princes on being asked to submit to its decisions, would only consent on these conditions, (i) that subjects already determined at Trent should be re-opened, (3) that the theologians of the Confession of Augsburg should be not only heard in self-defence, but should have the right of voting, (3) that the pope should not be, the president, and should submit to the I] and its Propagation, 71 occasion also many of the Protestant communities were Germany. stimulated to draw up confessions of their faith, the prin- Lutheran cipal being the Gonfemo Saxonica', an expanded form of that delivered to the emperor at Augsburg in 1530, and the Confessio Virtembergensis*, a document of kindred origin, and actually submitted to the council Jan. 24, 1552. It seems, however, that the critical moment when the Protestants were in great danger of compromising their independence and of undergoing reabsorption into the dominant system of belief, was destined to behold their triumph and to set them free for ages. The elector Maurice, who in earlier life had been the pf^^^l"^^ cause of their depression, suddenly took the field in their behalf* (March, 1552). Allied with France and favoured by a fresh irruption of the Turks, the Protestants were ultimately enabled to extort from Charles and Ferdinand the memorable peace concluded in the Diet of Augsburg" council like other persons {Ihid. p. 55-t)- - <* Printed in the Append, to Pranoke's Lib. Symb. Bed. I/ather. pp. 6g sq. Melancthon, who com- posed it, states in his Preface, that it was meant simply as a 'repetition' of the Augsburg Formulary. * In Le Plat, Monum. Condi. Tri- dent. IV. 420 sq. On its presentation see Sarpi, ii. 104. The ambassadors of the elector of Saxony were intro- duced to the council on the same occasion (Ibid. p. 102) ; and certain of the Protestant theologians soon afterwards started for the Tyrol to vindicate their doctrines (Ibid. p. 1 1 2 ; Sleidan, pp. 529, 530). ° His ostensible object was the liberation of his father-in-law, the landgrave of Hessen, who was still unrighteously detained in captivity (cf. above, p. 67, n. 5). On the struggle which ensued, see Leo, as before, pp. 1S6 sq., and Sleidan, bks. XXIV. XXV. The prelates all dispersed from Trent on hearing that Augsburg had fallen into the hands of Maurice (Sleidan, p. 547). Charles V. himself, who was an invalid at Innsbruck, escaped with difficulty across the Alps, accompanieji by his brother king Ferdinand (Ibid, p. 560). He first, however, set the ex-elector, John Fredeiic, at Hberty, and after the treaty of Fassau (Aug. 2, 1552) the landgrave Philip was also released (76^(2. p. 573). Maurice in the following year (July 9) was killed in battle while fighting against the margrave of Brandenburg, who would not be a party to the late pacification. His place was supplied by his brother Augustus. 6 Sleidan, pp. 620 sq. ; see also the documents adduced or pointed out in Gieseler, ni. i. pp. 372 sq., and Leo's remarks on the decree, pp. 190 eq. Charles V., disgusted with this termination of the struggle, resigned his honours in the foUowing year, — the empire in favour of Fer- dinand, his own kingdom in favour of his son Philip Il.y^^nd withdrew GERMANY. Settlment of the Conirth versy. 72 The Saxon School of Chwrch-Reformers, [chap. (Sept. 25, 1555). It was there ruled that every land- proprietor should have the liberty of choosing between the 'old religion' and the 'new,' so far as this had been embodied in the Augsburg Confession ; while his tenants and dependents, in conformity with the prevailing modes of thought, were all expected to abide by his decision and to follow closely in his steps. The two great parties in the German empire, having thus obtained a sort of equilibrium, were content for the remainder of the century to regard each other with comparative respect and outward toleration. Feelings of this kind were strengthened when the crown of Charles was placed, in spite of papal opposition, on the head of his brother Ferdinand' (March 8, 1558) ; for the new emperor, though always personally addicted to the unreformed opinions" was in later years restrained not only by the spread of Lutheranism in many of his own terri- tories ^ but still more by his continued misunderstanding with the pontiff. The same policy was cordially adopted by his son and successor Maximilian II. (1564 — 1576), who in his youth at least had shewn considerable predi- lection for some portions of the Protestant belief It is plain, however, that towards the close of his administration, the efforts of the new army of papal volunteers*, the Order to a convent in Estremadura, where, however, till his death (Sept. ■21, 155^)1 i>s manifested all his ancient zeal against the Beformation : see Stirling's Cloister-Idfe of Charles Y., 2nd ed. Two years later, when his presence was no longer absolutely needed to restrain and guide the counsels of the Saxon Protestants, expired Melancthon (April 19, 1560). '■ The pope was offended on account of the ' religious peace ' against which indeed he had protested, and on that account declined to crown the new emperor. Hence the establishment of the principle, that personal coro- nation by the pope was not requisite : see Miller, Mist, philos. considered, HI. 1 3 1, 3rd ed. ' Yet even with regard to matters of religion he was far more inde- pendent than the papal court : e. g. he favoured the concession of the cup to the laity, clerical marriage, and the use of the vernacular in part of the church-service : of. Leo, PP- 3", 342- ' 76id. p. 325: cf.Eaupach, .EWdit- tertes Evangel. Oesterreich, I. 31 sq. * See below chap vi. on ' tke Counter-reformation ' for some ac- count of this new order, and its rapid progress in counterworldng the' reformers. I.] , and its Propagation. 73 of the Jesuits (founded in 1540), had so far succeeded in germanv. many quarters, that symptoms of a counter-reformation commemie- grew distinctly visible. The long and peaceful reign oi reaction. Rudolph II. (1576 — 1612), whose education had been guided by the Jesuits, was still further marked by these reactions. While the Lutheran doctors" were disputing with each other, or with followers of the school of Calvin, on the very deepest mysteries of Holy Writ ; while they were fortifying their conclusions on these topics by the publication in 1577 of what they termed the Formula of Concord^, their disciples were excluded step by step from hamlets, towns and districts', where not many years before they had outnumbered their opponents. Ancient jealousies were thus revived, and quarrels, hitherto but half-composed, exasperated and extended, till the seeds of envy, hatred and fanaticism, disseminated with the largest hand in every part of continental Europe, sprouted forth into that crop of human misery and carnage which appals us in the history of the Thirty Years' War' (1618—1648). Before proceeding to indicate the various steps by which the Lutheran doctrines were diffused and ultimately established in very distant countries, it is desirable to pause a moment and sketch their progress through the several states, which in the sixteenth century constituted the Ger- manic empire. The soil in which those doctrines were first planted. Reformation and from which indeed they drew their principal support, Saxony: ' Allusion hag been made above to ' The aim and structure of this several controversies (pp. 49, 69, 70), document, the last of the Luthe- eapecially to that respecting the ran 'symbolical books,' virill also Presence of Christ in the Eucharist be most fitly considered in Chap^ (pp. 56, 65). On some new phases of III. the latter, and also on the numerous ' Leo, pp. 330 sq., Clieseler, iii. points where the disciples of Luther i. pp. 403 sq. and Calvin were opposed, see below, ^ See the first book of Schiller's Chap. III. masterly narrative. Loud. 1847. 74 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. GERMANY. iv. Ducal Saxoiiy : in Hessen ; in Bavarian Jirnnden- was the electorate of Saxony, including* in the period now before us Osterland^ and Thuringia, together with parts of Misnia and Franconia. All their leading towns were rapidly awakened and illuminated by the university of Wittenberg; and as early as the Saxon Visitation' of 1527 the people had been for the most part Lutheranized. . Saxony was thus ready to become a refuge and asylum for the persecuted Protestants of other countrieSj who also would naturally be strengthened in their faith by personal conferences with the religious chieftains*. Ducal Saxony, however, did not yield to the reformation-movement until 1539, when George, who corresponded with Erasmus, but continued all his life the bitter enemy of Luther, was succeeded'' by his brother, the evangelical duke Henry? Leipzig, Dresden and other influential towns were then converted, and the union of the duchy and electorate under Maurice tended to decide the triumph of the new opinions. From Saxony the agitation spread into the neighbour- ing states of Philip, landgrave of Hessen, whom we have already seen" promoting its extension with characteristic ardour. The university which he inaugurated at Marburg was the center of all his operations, and after two years they may be said to have been completed by the ' synod' held at Homberg (Oct. 21, 1526). In the Franconian or Bavarian principalities of Bran- denburg' the progress of the reformation was obstructed ''■ Seckendorf, Lib. M. p. loi, col. 1. ^ Its chief towns were Jena, Alten- burg and Zwickau. ^ Above, p. 53. * See Eanke, Bef. 11. 89. He mentions the following more distin- guished refugees: Eberlin, Stiefel, Strauss, Seehofer, Ibach from Frank- furt ; Bugenhagen from Pomerania ; Kauxdorf from Magdeburg, Mus- tajus from Halberstadt. s It, is observable that when duke George became convinced of the importance of the Lutheran move- ment and its growth among his sub- jects, he endeavoured, chiefly through the help of George Wizel (above, p. 45> ^- S)i 'o occupy a middle place between reformed and unrefonned» Seckendorf, Lib. m. pp. 208 sq. « Above, pp. so, 57. ' Kanke, Jief. ii. 506 sq. His" chief advisers were Hans von Schwar- zenberg and George "Vogler (the chanoellbr). I.] and its Propagation. 75 for a time by the unfriendly bearing of the markgrave Germany. Casimir. He died, however, in the Hungarian campaign, and his brother George succeeding to his inheritance, com- mended and established the doctrines of Luther in the provincial diet of Anspach (March 1, 1528). His name is accordingly found appended to the Augsburg Confession^ On the contrary, some years elapsed before the reformation was publicly accepted in the Electorate of Brandenburg^ '^ Electoral , , . ° Brand&nbutg: The wife of Joachim I. by reason of her leaning to the new opinions was forced to leave her home and seek a shelter in Saxony. Her son, however (Joachim II.), fol- lowed in her steps ; and with the co-operation of the bishop of Brandenburg, Matthias von Jagon, who proclaimed him- self a convert^ lost no time in urging all his subjects to cast off the papal yoke (1539). Liineburg, a still more northern principality, had thrown in Luneburg: itself into the cause of Luther as early as 1527 ; the ducal edict of that year having, in conformity with the voice of the diet of Scharnebeck'", enforced an evangelic style of preaching, while it left the ritual of the church compara- tively undisturbed. MecklenbuTjEc, Holstein, and Pomerania, had preceded" and other mr- Liineburg, in their adhesion to the Lutherans, and a prince ' Above, p. 58, n. i. lichen Grlauben, nicht abgefallen ' Seokendorf, Lib. III. pp. 234 aq, dasa wir alle Rotten vnd Secten, ^ Eanke, iJe/: II. 514, sij. The Zvnnglianer,Schwenci!feldiarner,Wie^ dukes of Liineburg (as we saw, p. 58, derteuffer, vnd wie sie mehr Namen n. 2) subscribed the Augsburg Con- haben mogen, so dem Wort Gottes, fession ; and as a specimen of the vnd vnseref Christliohen Confession earnestness with which they adhered zu wieder, vemierffen, vnd vns allein to it, the following passage is ex- zu dera reinen vnuerfelschten Wort traoted from the 'Vorrede' of their Gottes, venniige angeregter Christ- Kirchen-Ordmmg, put forth by the lioher Augspurgischer Confession, in authority of Julius, duke of Bruns- alien Artickeln bekennen:' p. x. wick and Luneburg in 1569, and Hannover, 1853. reaffirmed in 1615: '...dasa es ein ^^ &eeW\gger'aKirehenge3ch.MecJc- iifFeutlieh Gezeugniss seyn sol, dass Imbwgs, Parohim, 1840. The chief wir naoh abtrettung von den Bapst- preachers were Sliiter and Wiillena. ischenlrrthttmbenvudMiasbreuchen, Holstein, though belonging to the von dem alten, rechten, warhafftigen, German empire, had been influenced Apostolisohen, Gatjiolisohen, Christ- ojiisflythrough the medium of Schles-i 76 The Saxon- School of CJmrch-Reformers, [CHAP. In Wurtemr buri) : avd in the Palatinate : GEEMANT. of Anhalt, counting on the hearty acquiescence of his people, actually subscribed the Augsburg Confession in 1530'. In 1535, a second group of minor states were animated by enough of zeal and courage to declare themselves ad- herents of the Schmalkaldic League". Of these the most important was Wiirtemburg, where duke Henry entered vigorously upon the work of reformation in 1534^ Another great accession to the ranks of Lutheranism was Frederic, the elector Palatine, who had for many years indeed encouraged the diffusion of the new opinions, but hesitated in his formal abjuration of the Roman pontiff till 1546. In the case of the Palatinate, however, as in that of some few others mentioned in the present summary, the ultimate character of the established creed was rather Swiss than Saxon, and as such will be considered after- wards*. The duchy of Bavaria^ and even districts of Austria Proper ° (Styria, Camiola and Carinthia), felt the quicken- ing impulses communicated at this period to the central members of the German empire, though in them the civil power was always adverse to the Lutheran movement, and therefore at the close of the sixteenth century it was effectually counteracted. in Bavaria and Austria: wig, on both of which see Miinter, KircheageBch. von Danemark, in. 562 sq. With regard to Fomerania, where a begiuning was made ia Treptow by Bugenhagen as early as 1520, see Medem, Oeich. der Ein- fukrung der evangel. Lekre in Pom- mem, Greifgwald, 1837. 1 Ibid. ^ Seckendorf gives the list, Lib. III. p. 98. It includes two dukes of Pomerania, two princes of Anhalt, and count William of Nassau. ^ See Hartmann,(?cscA.(ie»"iJe/orTO. im, WiJivtemherg, Stuttgart, 1 835 . The principal agents wei:eBrentz, Schnepf, . and Bl^aren. Some other states were not decisively impressed till 1542; e. 51. the duchy of Brunswick, the county-palatine of Neuburg, and the duchy of Clevea: see Gieseler, III. i. pp. 31Q, 320: to which the markgravate of Baden may be added. *• See Chapter in. ' Gieseler, in. i, p. 401, n. 15. Against this province, which already possessed a stronghold of Romanism in the university of Ingolstadt, were directed the first energies of the Jesuits on their counter-reforma- tion. ' Cf. above, p. 72. I-] and its Propagation. 77 Yet other countries, lying on the different outskirts of Germany. the empire, took their place among the earliest and most zealous champions in the cause of reformation. For ex- ample, in the province of East Friesland, Lutheran opinions in Bast ■Li'-ip-irti iiTip Friesland: had in 1519 begun to generate a strong and healthy ler- mentation, -which enlarged its compass till with scarcely any struggle it penetrated almost every corner and pos- sessed itself of nearly every parish' (1527). Silesia, in like manner, was peculiarly docile and sus- oMd in snesia. ceptible. The bishop of Breslau, John Thurson, who died in 1520, had been a regular correspondent of Erasmus, and had also extended his admiration to the Wittenberg re-- former*. During the episcopate of his successor (Jacob of Saltza), who inherited his genial spirit, one of Luther's pupils, named John Hess', availed himself of his position as a leading parish-priest at Breslau (1523), and after a few years was able to secure the peaceful triumph of the new religion. This gigantic progress'" in all classes of society, Rnd seasms af almost every quarter of the empire, is alone explainable '^^°''"^'- on the hypothesis that men were thirsting for instruction which they could no longer find among the priests and ' Kanke, Kef. il. 515, 516. In confessionof faith almost entirely on the year 1528, the East Frieslanders 'Swiss' principles, which gave great had already published a full con- offence to numbers of his flock, and fession of faith. Ibid. The final also to his 'Lutheran' correspond- organization of the reformers was ents. Kraainski, Sef. in Poland, I. much indebted to the Polish eocle- 251 sq. Loud. 1838. siastic Laski (or, as he was often ' Luther wrote a consolatory letter called, John & Lasoo), who having to him in the year of his death : been shaken by an interview with Waddington, II. 74. Zwingli in 1524, abandoned all his ' Eanke, iJe/. II. Siysq. dignities at home (1537), and settled ■"• Some idea can be formed of this at Eraden, the capital of Friesland. rapiditybyreflecting that in the years From 1543 to 1548, when the opera- 1523 and 1524, the principles of the tiona of the Interim (above, p. 68) reformation had been generally wel- drove him thence (finally in 1550 to corned in large and distant towns like England), he had taken a prominent Frankfurt-on-the-Main, Magdeburg, part in regulating the ecclesiastical TJlm, Strasburg, Hall (in Swabia), affairs of the East Frieslanders. Nuremberg, Hamburg, Bremen, and During thiaintervalhedrew up anew Stettin: seeGieseler,iii.i.pp.i22-i25. 78 TAe Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [CHAP. GEllMANY. Hfect of Luther's writings : of Melanc- ihon's lec- tures : prelates of their neighbourhood. Unhallowed motives may have sometimes mingled ,with religious in impelling them to recognize the Lutheran dogmas, and occasionally selfish, base or worldly considerations may have swayed them altogether : yet when due allowance has been made on all these grounds the solemn fact remains indisputable, — that a spirit of devotion far exceeding aught that we can trace in previous centuries had now diffused itself in Germany, and that its yearnings found their only satisfaction in the views of Christianity propounded by the Wittenberg reformers. Nothing had more powerfully contributed to this result ■ than Luther's own productions. He had every quality of thought, of feeling and of style, that characterises authors who are destined to impress and elevate the multitude : he was homely, practical, and always perfectly intelligible ; while the cogency of his arguments, the force and elo- quence of his appeals, and his convulsive earnestness, elec- trified in almost equal measure both his readers and his hearers. It has been calculated that in one year (1523) as many as 183 books were published in his name\ A second agency by which the new opinions were extensively circu- lated were the thoughtful lectures of Melancthon. Witten- berg had grown into a kind of literary metropolis, and in the crowd of students who frequented the class-room of its chief professor might be seen not only Germans of all countries, from the Baltic to the Tyrol, but Poles, Hun- garians, Transylvanians, Bohemians, Danes, French, Eng- lish, and even Greeks and Italians I Still it may be ' Panzer, as quoted by Eanke, • Ref. II. go, gi. In addition to these works of Luther, 215 were published in 1523 by other per-sons in favour of the reformation, while not more than 20 can be enumerated on the opposite side. From the same year are dated the first Lutheran 'hymns,' which produced an immense effect. Art also was enlisted in the same service. After Lucas Cranach went to live at Wittenberg, woodcuts of his more polemical pictures were fre- quently inserted in Luther's works. ^ See the interesting revelation in Ratzeberger, Eandachr. Gesch. ilbev I/uther, etc. ed, Neudecker, Jena, 1S50, p. 80, I.J ■ and its Propagation. 79 doutted if the masses would have been so speedily pro- (Jermany. pitiated in favour of the new opinions, had not other agents emanating from a different quarter added an especial impulse. These were members of the mendicant brother- "'"'^Z "'5 hoods, whom pontiff after pontiff' had invested with that 'tinermus. freedom of speech and elasticity of organization which con- verted them into the aptest instruments for aiding to de- throne their patron. Immediately after the promulgation of the edict of Worms, we find a host of itinerant friars *, Dominicans, Augustine.s, and, most of all perhaps, Fran- ciscans, ardently declaiming in the cause of Luther: the only effect of their expulsion from one town or village being to scatter seeds of Protestantism in many others far and wide. Such desultory efforts were at length, however, superseded and .forbidden when the different states, as we have seen^, completed each one for itself the organization of their new religious systems, and thus checked the me- nacing preponderance of democratical ideas which the course of Luther's niovement had been tending to produce. It is impossible to ascertain exactly, or to state in genera] terms, how far the ' old religion' kept its ground in those parts of Germany where both the government and a majority of the people had accepted Lutheranism. Still if we may argue from the application of one single test, — ^the measure of resistance offered to the Interim, — the reforma- tion must have always been more deeply rooted in the north than in the south. * Middle Age, pp. 249 sq. diua Meehler, Eberlin of GUnzbiirg, * The Augustines of Misnia and Henry of Kettenbaoh and Stephen Thnringia, many of whom were Lur Kempen. The Dominicans had an ther's personal friends, were the first able representative in Buoer : of. to join his party, and we soon hear above, p. 30. The , Oarmelites,' or of zealous Augustines preaching at fourth order of friars, yielded Eck's Magdeburg, Osnabriick, Antwerp, favourite pupil, Urban Regius (Ko- Batisbon, Nuremberg and other dis.- nig) ; while from the order of the tant places (of, Banke, Sef. 11. 74). PrcemansiratenM -issued one of the OfthemoredistinguishedJ Peter G-oniondzki (G-onesius) openly asserted this heresy, combin- ing it with a. denial of infant bap- tism, which he also treated as a 'development' (p. 347). Others (many of them foreigners) followed in his steps (pp. 350 sq.) The 'Swiss' sqhool of reformers solemnly con- demned these errors in 1563 (p. 359), but still their authors (called Pino- zovians irom the town of Pinczow where they flourished) were able to keep their ground. A few years later they divided among themselves, one party advocating 'Arianisrti,' the other naked 'Sooinianism.' Fauii- tu3 Sooinus, nephew of Laelius, set- tled in Cracow (1579). ^"^^ errors were embodied in tlie Rakovian Ca- techism composed by Smalcius and Hoskorzewski, and published first in Polish (1605): Jbid. 11. 357 sq. ^ On its great importance as a school, see, as before, pp. 380 sq. It was, however, abolished in 1638, and in 1658 the Socinians were expelled Irom Poland by an edict of the diet. * At the synod of Kozminek (1555): Ibid. I. 342, 343. 94 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. POLAND, there was still no cordial sympathy between the Saxon and the Swiss reformers. The divergences, which we shall trace at length hereafter in their fundamental prin- ciples, were fatal to all schemes for binding them together. As early as 1578 the Lutherans of Lithuania, who as Ger- mans had a strong affection for the Augsburg definitions, laboured hard to dissolve' the union of Sandomir. Other machinations countenanced by eminent divines in Germany were set on foot with the same object, and although the spirit of dissension was occasionally checked^ and softened, it could never be extinguished. The chief energy of both these parties was expended in unseemly acrimony, instead of wrestling with the errors of the anti-Trinitarian on the one side or the Komanist on the otherl BOHEMIA AND MORAVIA. The close affinity between the principles* of Huss and Luther would naturally promote an interchange of friendly offices among the schools which they had founded. Some of the Calixtines or Utraquisfcs who maintained a separate existence, notwithstanding the occasional absorption of members of their confraternity into the Latin Church ^ had opened a correspondence with the Wittenbergers as early as 1519 ; and although their doctrines did not seem entirely unexceptionable, Luther offered them the right ^ Ibid. II. 77. atThornin 1645. (Ibid. n. 245 sq. : ^ As by the synod of Vlodislav Niemeyer, pp. 669 sq.): butthetheo- mentioned in p. 93, n. 8. Several of logical faculty of Wittenberg dia- the fresh discussions had reference to suaded the Lutheran nobles of Po- the way in which the outward and land from taking part in it, on the inward parts of sacraments are con- ground that the Confessions of the neoted with each other. Ibid. 11. two great parties were incompa- 83 sq. tible. ^ One of the last attempts to draw ■• See above, p. 26 and n. 4 : an(l them more nearly to each other was Middle Age, p. 440, u, 5. in the Colloquium Oharitativvm held * Middle Age, pp. 438 sq. !•] and its Propagation. hand of Christian fellowship". He had still, however, no sympathy with 'Picards' (the Moravians, or United Bre-. thren), stamping them as little better than heretics on account of their theory touching the manner of Christ's presence in the Eucharist' (1520). But two years later he saw cause to moderate his condemnation of them', and finally assisted in completing what he deemed the minor imperfections of their creed. In 1532 they published with the sanction of himself and other Wittenberg divines a formal statement of their tenets ° in the shape of an Apo- logy/ addressed to George, markgrave of Brandenburg, which was followed in 1535 by the presentation of a regular Confession of faith to Ferdinand, king of Bohemia". So decided were the leanings of this country in favour of the Reformation, that in 1546 an army of volunteers BOHEMIA AN1> MOBAVIA. * Eauke mentions notwithstand- ing, that the more rigorous section of them were hostile to Luther in 1526, when Ferdinand, on his elec- tion to the throne of Bohemia, gave full efficacy to the Cormpactata, (see Middle Age, p. 439, n. 8). Still the number of the Lutheranized Calix- tines was very considerable, and one effect of the reformation was to draw them far more closely to the Bre- thren. Some of them eventually united themselves with the Swiss Confession. See the extracts in Gie- seler. tii. pt. i. pp. 444, 445. ' Middle Age, p. 439, n. 1 1, and Lu- ther's Schriften, XIX. 554 sq., where he speaks of these Brethren as hetero- dox on other points as well ('ethohe mehr Ketzerstttok haben'): cf. also XIX. 1593 sq. ^ The following characteristic pas- sage occurs in a letter to Spalatinus (July 4, 152-2; DeWette, 11. 217): ' Picardi apud me legates habuerunt, de fide sua consulentes. Inveni ferme omnia sana, nisi quod obsoura phrasi et barbara utuntur pro Scrip- turae phrasi. Deinde quae me mo- vent, sunt, quod, parvulorum bap- tismum nuUius fidei et fructus asse- ruut, et tamen eos baptisant [cf. Middle Age, p. 316, n. 2], et rebap- tisant ad se venieutes ex nostris; deinde septem saoramenta ponuiit. If am coelibatus sacerdotalis inter eos placet, cum nou necessarium faciant, sed liberum. Adeo nusquam est in orbe puritas Evangelii. An et fidei et operura sanam habeant sententiam , nondum liquet, valde enim dubitd: de Eucbaristia nihil falsum video, nisi fallant verbis, sic nee de bap- tismo.' ' To this Luther himself wrote a. preface (Walch, XIV. 306). On its literary history, see Niemeyer, Confess, Eecl. Reform. Prsef. pp. xxxvi. sq., and Grieseler, iii. pt. i. 440, n. 4. '" Printed in Niemeyer, as above, pp. 771 sq. Subsequently (1542), a deputation of them visited Luther, and completed this religious alliance. They were headed by George Israel, a pastor of great eminence, who after- wards, while in Poland, contributed largely to the establishment of the Consensu Sendomiriensis : see above, p. 93- 96 The Saxon Scliool of CUiurch^Reformers, [chap. BOHEMIA arrayed themselves upon the side of the elector of Saxony MOHAYiA. g^g ^g embarked in the Schmalkaldic war". Accordingly, the overthrow of the Protestants entailed on them a series of most bitter persecutions. All who recognized the title 'Brethren' were ejected from Bohemia by a royal edict (May 4, 1548), and to the number of a thousand souls pro- ceeded through Poland and Silesia in quest of the asylum granted them by Albert, duke of Prussia^ In the mean- time a majority of the Calixtines who were not included in this persecution grew dissatisfied with the imperfect freedom* which had been conceded to their forefathers, They determined to assume the standing-ground of Pro- testants, in spite of vigorous efforts of the Jesuits* who attempted by all possible means to isolate them^ with the hope of thus facilitating their ' conversion'. In conform- ity with precedents already shewn in Poland °, they now effected a religious union with the remnant of Bohemian Brethren, presenting the Confession" by which it had been ratified to Maximilian II. in 1575, and subsequently in 1608 to Kudolph II. But although the pressure of political difficulties occasionally enabled them to wring concessions' from the imperial government, the influence of the counter-reformation party, and especially the machi- nations of the Jesuits, prevailed ere long in banishing every one of them who had the courage to avow his principles ^ See above, p. 66. ' In the Consensus Sendomirimsis : " Above, p. 8i, n. 5. above, p. 93. ' The Compaciata, na above, p. 95, " Printed In Niemeyer, as above, n. 6. pp. Sipsq. The subscription to tlie * These had entered the country Bpistola bedicatoria is as follows : as early as 1552; see Balbinus, de 'Barones, Nobiles, Pragenses, etre- Mebm BoJiem. Lib. v. 0. 12, and liquaj civitates omnium trium Sta- The Reformation and Anti-Reforma- tuum regni Bohemici sub utraque tion in Bohemia (anonymous), (Lond. communioautium ;' the three Estates 1845). I- 73 sq. The College called being the Saxons, Swiss and Bobe- the ' Clementinum ' was organized mian Brethren : ct TheSeformaiion, for them by the learned Canisius. &c. in Bohemia, i. 105 sq. At first they captivated the people 7 gg ^ perfect religious equality by professing that their main object was granted them in 1609, but the was to teach the sciences gratis, grant was soon rescinded. I.J and its Propagation. 97" (1627). The author of this sentence was Ferdinand II.°, Bohemia who with equal rigour extirpated Protestantism, wherever m obayia. he was able, from the rest of his dominions. HUNGARY AND TRANSYLVANIA. Partly owing to the links of intercommunication fur- nished by ' Waldenses", or in later times Bohemian brethren, partly to the force of national sympathy among the nume- rous Saxon colonists who had been planted for some years in Hungary and Transylvania, both of these distant regions felt the impulse of the Lutheran movement at a very early stage". In spite of bloody persecutions instigated by the members of the hierarchy, the reformers were enabled to gain complete ascendancy in several towns and districts". Many of the youths who flocked for education to the German universities had found their way to Wittenberg", and nearly all of them on their return attempted to diffuse the principles which they had learned from Luther and his colleagues '°. After the defeat and death of Louis II. of Hungary in 1526", the right of succession was vigorously ' See Schiller, Thirty Tears' War, into Transylvania as early as 1521 : pp. 60 sq. Lond. 1847 ; and in ^nd in the same year, George Sz^k- greater detail, The Reformation &o. miry, archbishop of GrSSn, ordered a I. 256 sq. His plana condemnation of similar books to be ■were formed in early life, while he read from the pulpits of th& principal was a pupil of the Jesuits at Ingol- churches of Hungary {Ibid, p, 33). stadt. Severe edicts were also issued against ' About 1315 we find as many as Lutheranism in T523 and 1525, by 80,000 Waldenaes in Hungary t ffist. theinfluenceof otherprelates: seeEi- of the Protestamt Church in ffun- hini, Memorabilia Augustanw Confes- gary, translated by Craig (Lond. sionisinRegjioSungarice, eto.i.iosq^. 1854), p. 16. Their descendants in " Amongotherconvertswasqueen Upper Hungary, Transylvania, Mol- Mary, who had yielded to the argu- davia and Wallachia, were called ments of her chaplain, John Henkel, Ilnsates, and their numbers were in Hist, of Prot. Church in Jlwngary, «aiE probability augmented by the p. 30. As usual, the preaching friars followers of Huss {Ibid. pp. 18 sq.), were efficient auxiliaries {/fiitZ. p. 36). with whom they had a manifest af- ^^ See the list, as hefore, p. 38. finity. ^' To them is due the foundation " Merchants of Hermannstadt of the flourishing High-school at imported some of Luther's books, CEdenberg (/6icZ. pp. 71, 95). which they purchased at Leipsicfair, ^* See above, p. 52. B.P. H 98 The Saxon School of Chwch-Refomiera, [chap. H™G^RT disputed' by Ferdinand I. and John Z^polya, voyvode of ™ania!'' Transylvania, both of whom endeavoured to secure the co- operation of the bishops by denouncing the promoters of reUgious change'. But favoured by the long continuance of the civil war and the comparative impunity which it afforded, Lutheran tenets never ceased to root themselves more deeply in all quarters and in minds of every class. In Hermannstadt and other towns of Transylvania where the monks had clamoured for the execution of the penal edicts, they were driven from their cloisters and threatened with death itself if they persisted in refusing to 'live according to the Gospel '^ One of the more active propa- gandists in that region was John Honter*, who on his return from Switzerland in 1533 established a printing- office at Cronstadt, and by it as well as by his exhortations from the pulpit laboured to disseminate the new opinions. In the meantime Hungary was profiting by the discourses of Matthew Devay"^, a favourite pupil of the Wittenberg reformers. He published in 1533 a Magyar translation of the Epistles of, St PauP, which was followed three years later by a version of the Gospels ; and in other ways con- tributed effectually to the enlightenment and moral exalta- tion of his countrymen. It seems that in the early part of the unbroken reign of Ferdinand (1540 — 1564), this influential reformer (called 'the Luther of Hungary') ■■ Eanke, Ref. ii. 476 sq. Among " Gieseler, m. pt. i. p. 463 : Hist. the supporters of Ferdinand wag of Prot, Church in Hungatry, p. Peter Per^nyi, the first reforming Sg. magnate in Hungary. Ilnd. p. 479. ' Ibid. pp. 50 sq. He was more ' HiU. of Prot. Churoh in Hun- than once imprisoned before his se- gary, pp. 42 sq. Ferdinand, in his cond visit to Wittenberg (1536) and edict given at Ofen, Aug. 20, i^'i'j, his ultimate establishment in the complains that even Anabaptists and district between the Eaab and the Sacramentarians (Zwinglians) were Balaton lake (1^37). gaining ground. ^ Ibid. p. 52. The whole of the ^ lUd. p. 49. The monks and New Testament appeared soon after- nuns either left the place, or laid wards in Magyar (Ibid. pp. 58, 59), aside the dress of their order in eight and in Croatian as early as 156a (lUd. p. 77). J;J and its Propagation. 99 abandoned his original views' respecting tlie nature of the ^'''JJS^^'' Presence in the Eucharist, and joined the standard of the '^amI^" Swiss (circ. 1544). Chiefly in consequence of his defection, all the, miserable, altercations, we have traced elsewhere, had reiappeared among his converts. The arguments of .Lutheran polemics on the one hand, and the fulminations of the diet of Presburg on the other, strove in vain to check the : innovations of the 'Sacramentarians'", A rupture between the two Confessions grew inevitable; and after the middle of the sixteenth century, if we except the German residents, a great majority of the Hungarian reformers had evinced their bias for the Calvinistic dogmas. Their Gon- fessio Gzengerina' (drawn up at Csenger in 1557 or 1558) is strongly marked by suqh peculiarities, while in 1566 .they openly united themselves with Switzerland". It was different in the province of Transylvania, where Saxons formed the chief ingredient of the population. After the death of John Z^polya (1540), his widow mainly through the favour of the Turks succeeded in establishing the claims of her son who was a minor; and on finding that the reformation-party had become politically superior to ' He had cordially accepted the more fiercely at the synod of Tarczal Aijgsburg Confession In 1536: IHd. {Ibid. pp. So, 81), and later in the Another of the waverers was the century instigated the Wittenbergera count Francis von Reva, who oorre- to expel from their University no lees spondedwith Luther on this matter, than twenty -five Hungarian students and received his reply dated Wit- who would not sign the Formula Con- tenberg, Aug. 4, 1539 : Ibid. pp. 56, cordisB(cf. above, p.73) : Ibid. p. 107. 57. In proof of different tendencies * They were as usual classed with five of the leading cities of Upper Anabaptists ; see Eibini, on the diet Hungary on this side of the Theiss of Presburg, I. 70. were ready to avow theirold devotion ' Printed in Niemeyer, pp. 539 to Lutheranism, by drawing up (in sq. On the mistakes of Bossuet 1549) the Confessio Pentapolitoma, respecting it, see Niemeyer's Pref. which is a mere extract from the p. Ixix. It is still the common Con- Augsburg, as modified by Melauc- fession of the Reformed Hungarians, thon. It is printed at length in i" The Helvetic Confession which Eibini, as above, 1. p. 78 sq. The theynow embraced, had been printed earlier synod of Brdbd held in 154S, at Torgau in 1556, and was already ia claimed by both parties : Hiat. of laid before a convention of ministers Prat. Chweh in Hunga/ry, pp. 61, atD^br^osin, in 1558: Prot. Chwrch 6t. In 1563 party-spirit raged even in Himgwry, pp. 69, 85, H2 100 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. ■HUNGABY their adversaries, granted like religious privileges to that TRANSYL- VANIA. class of them who recognized the Augsburg Confession' -(1557). Similar, concessions v\rere at length extended to the Transylvanian followers of the Swiss. Nor was the toleration of the prince John Sigismund restricted to these three varieties of ' orthodox ' Christianity. He afterwards included among ' authorized religions' that propounded by the anti-Trinitarians of Poland^, who on failing to esta- blish their principles in Hungary" retired into Transyl- vania*, and infected nearly all the inhabitants of Clausen- burg. Accordingly, as soon as the Jesuits were let loose on this divided province, under the patronage of Stephen Bathori" king of Poland (1579), they began to reap con- siderable harvests, and would probably have been still more successful, had they not been forcibly expelled' by a decree of December 16, 1588. Their efforts at the same conjunc- ture were especially concentrated on the neighbouring states of Hungary ', and with the old results. SPAIN. It was natural that a movement which convulsed the wTiole of Germany' should be transmitted to the other ■• The following extract from the royal edict ig given by Gieseler from Benko'a Transsilvania (Vindebon. 1778): 'Ecclesias quoque Hungari- cas in religion e cum Saxonibus idem sentientes regina sub patrooinium re- cipit, et ministris illarum justos pro- ventus integre reddi et administrari mandaturam ae promittit.' ^ See above, p. 92 ; and of. Paget'a ffimgary and Transylvania, 11. 502, Lend. 1839. * Eibini, as before, 1. 204 sq. * An Italian, Blandvater, was their chief, and a synod held at Wardein openly repudiated the doctrine of the ■Holy Trinity : Hist. ofProt. Church i» Hungary, p. 86. ^ See above, p. 92, n. t. * Hist, of Prot. Oh. in Hungary, p. 104. ' Ibid. pp. loi sq. According to the same authority (p. 73) when their extraordinary remedies began to be applied, ' only three families of the magnates adhered still to the pope. The nobility were nearly all reform- ed, and the people were, thirty to one, attached to the new doctiine.' In like manner we find Paul Borr nemisze {al. Bornemissa), bishop of Weisaenburg in Transylvania, quit- ting the country in 1556, on ac- count of the almost universal preva- lence of antl-Komish doctrines : Ibid. p. 6g. I-] and its Propagation. 101 territories of the emperor Charles V. In Spain, moreover, strong predispositions" in favour of the Reformation had existed for some time anterior to the breach between the pope and Luther, partly owing to the scandalous corrup- tions of the Spanish Church^, and partly to disgust excited by the Inquisition", which had there put forth its most malignant energies. Accordingly, we find the writings" of the Saxon friar translated and distributed in the Penin- sula as early as the date of his excommunication; papal briefs admonishing the state-authorities to check the new opinions on the threshold, and the watchful eye of the inquisitor-general superintending their repression ^^ Ifor a while, however, all such measures proved entirely ineffec- tual. Headed by two brotherg, Juan'^ and Alfonso" de ' Even Balmez, Protestantism and Catholicity, o. xxxvii. Engl, trans., admits the existence of this feeling as well as the rapid spread of Luther- anism. See the evidence cblleoted by De Castro, Spanish Protestants, passim, Lend. 1851, and M'Crie, Hist, of the Reform, in Spain, Edinb. 1829. ' See Middle Age, p. 374. " See Llorente, Historia critiea de la Inifmsicion. In its earlier form ifit Middle Age, p. 31 1, n. 1 1), it had suppressed the Cathari of Spain, but was even more terrible when re-esta- blished in Castile (1478), for the pur- pose of detecting jews {Ibid. p. 344 : Prescott's Ferdinand and Isabella, ch. vil). On the outbreak of the Lutheran reformation (1521), the pope was under the necessity of revoking the mitigation of its severi- ties, which he had before determined upon at the request of the Cortes: Kanke, Sef. I. 526. " M'Crie, pp. 123, 124. These volumes, which included the Cormr mentary on the Oalatians, appear to have been supplied through An- twerp. '* De Castro, pp. 16, 17. " Juan deVald^s was a juriscon- sult highly esteemed by the emperor. He became secretary to the Spanish viceroy at Naples, where he also made numerous disciples, and died in 1540 {Ibid. pp. 17, 18). For a list of his writings, see Ibid. pp. 23. 24. The first in the series is entitled Tratado utilisimo del Bemejido de Jesucristo: cf. below, p. 107, n, 6. M'Crie (pp. 142 sq.) points out the mystical turn of his writings, which may be attributable to his acquaint- ance with the works of John Tauler, whom Luther also strongly admired : cf. above, p. 17. " De Castro, pp. 25 sq. Alfonso was for some years secretary to the high chancellor of Charles V. : but there is great confusion between the acts and writings of the two brothers: Ibid. p. 26, M'Crie, p. 141, note. In a contemporary account of the diet of Augsburg (1530) in Walch's Lu- ther, XVI. 912, mention is made of an Alphonsus 'Kais. Maj. Hispa- nischer Canzlar,' who inforTned Me- lancthon in a friendly spirit that hia countrymen were taught to regard the Lutherans as no better than infi- dels. The charges formally adduced by the inquisitora may be seen in Llorente. 102 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. SPAIN. Vald^s, the reforming school increased from day to day in ~ numbers and importance. It had representatives among' the retinue of Charles V. himself; and both in Seville and Valladolid the crowd of earnest Lutherans was so gi'eat that cells could hardly be at last procured for their incar- ceration. Seville owed its knowledge of the Lutheran doctrines to a native of Andalucia, Kodrigo de Valero', who suddenly abandoned a life of idle gaiety and dissipa- tion, and devoted himself entirely to the study of the holy Scriptures and the interpretation of them to all per- sons who came within his reach ^ He afterwards evinced the depth of his convictions by adhering to this course in spite of the Inquisitors, by whom he was eventually shut up in a monastery at San Lucar (1541). The most famous of his converts was doctor Juan Gil (Egidius), whose academical distinctions' induced the emperor to nominate him for the valuable bishopric of Tortosa (1550). His affection for Valero had not, however, escaped the eye of the Inquisitors. He was, accordingly, accused of Luther- anism, and lodged in prison till he had expressed his willingness to make a public abjuration* of some points alleged against him (Aug. 21, 1552). But even this mear sure did not satisfy his persecutors, who restrained him from the exercise of all his ministerial duties, and con- demned him to the dungeons of the ' Holy Office.' When ^ De Castro, pp. 26 sq. M'Crie, the office of magistral canon (cMef pp. 146 sq. preacher) in the cathedral at Seville ' ' Whether he had any other in 1537. Valero advised him to means of instruction [than the Vul- abandon the scholastic authors, and gate], or what these were, must give himself exclusively to the study remain a secret ; but it is certain of the Bible. Respecting his more that he was led to form a system of distinguished coadjutors, see M'Crie, doctrine not diflFerent from that of pp. 154 sq., pp. 206 sq. the reformers of Germany, and to ^ See De Castro, pp. 34 sq. who lay the foundations of a church in throws new light on this subject. Seville, which was Lutheran in all The applications for the vacant see the main articlesof its belief:' M'Crie, ofTortosa furnish M'Crie with ample P- I47- materials for reflecting at large on ' De Castro, pp. 30 sq. He was the 'duplicity, the selfishness and educated at AlcaU, and promoted to the servility of the clergy ' (p. 163). I.] and its Propagation. 103 he finally regained his liberty (1555) he settled at Valla- spain. dolid. Some of the inhabitants of that city were devoted to the Reformation', and until his death in the following year, Egidius had the courage to avow himself a member of the Lutheran confraternity. Another of their leading pastors was Domingo d© Eojas", a Dominican of noble birth, who circulated the productions of the Wittenberg divines, and also added to them many kindred writings of his own. By his exertions Agustin Cazalla', one of the court-preachers, who had been converted to the Lutheran creed while travelling in Germany, took up his residence at Valladolid ; and favoured by his talents and authority the new opinions were diffused not only there, but in the neighbouring towns and villages*. Cazalla was,, however, wanting in the courage of the Christian martyr: at the scaffold^, with the 'sambenito' on his shoulders, he expressed a strong desire of reconciliation with the Church, and thus obtained a partial commutation of his sentence. It was on discovering the extensive propagation of the . Lutheran doctrines that the efforts of the ' Holy Office' were now directed with redoubled zeal to the repression of all heresies and innovations. Charles V.'", from his seclusion at Yuste, was continually advocating this repressive policy ; and when his sou Philip 11. returned from England on the death of Mary Tudor, it grew ob.vious, that the days of ^ It seems to have been planted pp. ■226 sq. His. confessor, in early there by Franoiaoo- de San Boman, a life was the same Carranza.. At first native of Burgos, who had spent his he was an active, opponent, of the early years in Flanders (De Castro, Lutherans both, in Germany; and p. 40, M'Crie, pp. 1 70 sq.). He learn- Flanders., ed to reverence Luther while resident * M'Crie, p. 'i^i. at Bremen, and finally died a martyr's ^ De Castro> p. 96. He was al- death (oirc. 1545) at ValladoUd. lowed to be strangled and then burnt, ^ De Castro, pp. 1 14 sq. M'Crie, instead of being burnt alive pp. 225 sq. H e was educated by 1° De Castro, pp. 84, 85 : cf. Stir- Carranza, the future archbishop of ling's Cloister Life of Charles V., Toledo, respecting whom see below, from which it appears that he never p. 104, n. 4. manifested the slightest inclination ' De Castro, pp. 93 sq. M'Crie, to relent. SPAIN. 104 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. Spanish Protestantism were numbered*. Philip has been termed the 'Nero of Spain'". His dark and saturnine fanaticism displayed itself in guiding the machinery of the Inquisition and extracting pleasure from the torment of his victims. Informations, arrests and autos-de-fe were multi- plied^, the sufferers being almost universally addicted to the principles of Luther ^ and embracing men and women of all ranks. In 1570 the work of extermination was com- pleted. Before that date, however, many of the Spanish Protestants had found a quiet resting-place in other countries, in Germany, in Switzerland, in France, in the Netherlands, and more especially in England^. Francisco de Enzinas ^ The Inquisitors had reserved a large number of Protestantu, in order that' their execution might signalize his return. He was accordingly present Tvith his court at an auto held in Valladolid, Oct. 8, 1559, where many illustrious prisoners suf- fered at the stake (De Castro, pp. no sq.). ' Ibid. p. 1 20, where the parallel is drawn at length: of. Schiller's por- trait, Revolt of the Netherlands, I. 391, 39^, Lond. 1847. De Castro (oh. XXII.) endeavours to make out that the unnatural hatred of Philip to his son, Don Carlos, originated in the prince's tenderness for Lutheranism. 3 See M'Crie, pp. 239 — 336. ^ On the charge of Lutheranisni brought against Carranza, archbishop of Toledo, see De Castro, oh. IX.- XII. This prelate had already dis- tinguished himself in England by preaching down the Reformation, and also at the council of Trent : but the occurrence of Lutheran phrase- ology in his Commentaries on the Christian Catechism, printed at An- twerp in 1558, excited the suspicions of the Inquisition, and the hatred of his enemies, one of whom was the learned Melchior Cano. On the other hand, the Catechism obtained the approbation of certain deputies ap- pointed to examine it by the Council of Trent: but their report was not ratified by the whole of that assem- bly. To escape from the violence of the Inquisition, Carranza next ap- pealed to Pius IV., who in spite of the murmurs of Philip, took the case into his own hands. Difficulties were, however, constantly thrown in the way of a decision tUl the acces- sion of Gregory XIII., who ruled that the Spanish primate had drawn 'bad doctrine from many condemned heretics, such as Luther, CEcolam- padius, Melancthon,' &c., and called upon him to abjure the errors con- tained in sixteen propositions (Ibid. pp. jSijiSi). Carranza read theabju- ration provided for him, and died soon afterwards at Eome (May 2, 1576). See the Vida de Bart. Carranza, written by Salazar de Mendoza, a work which was kept back by the Inquisition, and published at last in 1788. He evidently believed that the prosecution of Carranza was sug- gested by the policy of Philip II., or the rival hatred of Valdez. The pro- positions, which he was made to ab- jure, cannot be found in his suspect- ed Catechismo. « SeeM'Crie,p.347. Theyformcd a congregation in London during the reign of Elizabeth (p. 367); their pastor, after 1568, being Antonio del Corro (Corranus), whose orthodoxy I.] and its Propagation. 105 (otherwise called Dryander°)was an example of this class, spain. He had pursued his studies in the university of Louvain'j ' where excited by the biblical writings of Erasmus, he pre- pared a Castilian version of the New Testament, which was published at Antwerp in 1543. For some time he had cultivated the friendship of Melancthon, and on being charged with heresy at Brussels escaped to Wittenberg, In 1548 he found his way to England, where the interest of archbishop Cranmer', to whom he was strongly recom- mended, soon installed him in the professorship of Greek at Cambridge. ITALY. The inability of the Reformation to strike its roots in Southern Europe was still further illustrated by its rise and fall in every part of Italy. When Luther called in question the established theories of human merit, the lite- rature of that country had been for some years contracting a most sceptical and anti-christian tone°: but at the close of the reign of Leo X. the symptoms of improvement were becoming visible. A club, or confraternity, of devout scholars'", to the number of fifty persons, and including Gaspar Contarini, Sadoleti, Giberto and Caraffa, all of whom were afterwards advanced to the rank of cardinal, was suspected (p. 37'2) : cf. Parker's known (p. 189), informa us that on Correspondence, ed. P. S. p. 340, n. i, July 19, 1548, Dryander was already and p. 476. in London, where he was preparing * Eczma = 'ever-green oak.' De to take part in a religious conference: Enzinas was accordingly styled Du Hardwiok's Hist, of the Articles, p. Chesne by French writers, and Dry- 72, n. 2 : 2nd ed. On June J, 1549, ander by himself and others. we find him sending a Latin coin- ' De Castro, pp. 37 sq., M'Crie, pendium of the Prayer-Book to pp. t88 sq. He had two distin- BuUinger (Onginal Letters, ed. P. S. guished brothers, Juan and Jayme, p. 350, Camb. 1846), and complaining both of whom were like himself of some parts of that formulary, devoted to Lutheranism. Theformer " Middle Age, p. 378, n. i ; p. 381 : was put to death by the Eomau Waddington, Reform. I. 57 sq. Inquisition. _ ^'' Kanke, Hist, of Popes, I. 13S 8 M'Crie, p. 197. John Laski, or sq. Lond. 1841. k Lasco, to -whom he was previously 106 The Saxon School of Church-Reformers, [chap. was organized at Rome itself, under the designation ' Ora- "tory of Divine Love.' There is indeed no evidence of a direct connexion between this body and the Liitheran movement'; but the fundamental doctrine of the Witten- berg reformer, that of jiistification by faith in Christ, was also the inspiring principle of Contarini and his friends. In the political troubles that befel the rest of Italy soon afterwards, one section of them had retired to Yenice, where the spirit of devotion which hitherto animated them was strengthened by continued intercourse. Of fresh accessions to their body, none were more distinguished by their zeal and piety than Reginald Pole the English refugee^, and Brucioli, the author of a new Italian version of the Holy Scriptures'. They had also an aUy in cardinal Morone*, archbishop of Modena : while similar principles were zealously diffused at Naples by the Spanish secretary Juan de Vald&°, who died in 1540. It was out of this evangelic movement that a very influential treatise on the Benefit of ' Luther's works, however, as well the jewel which the Church kept aa those of Melaucthon, Bucer and half concealed' (Ranke, Popes, I. Zwingli, were circulated in Italy at 138); and Plaminio, another of their an early period, and read with great circle, stated the same doctrine ex- avidity; M'Crie's ffist. of Reform. actly in the style of Luther {Ibid, in Italy, pp. 34 sq. Bdinb. 1827. p. 139). For Contarini's approximation to the ' M 'Crie, Ref. in Italy, pp. 54 sq. Lutherans ^t Katisbon, see above, The New Testament appeared in p. 64 and n. z. His own works 1530, and the remaining books in have on this account suffered fre- 1532. queut mutilations: e.g. his treatise ^ See an account of him in Schel- I)e Justificatione (cf. Banke, Ibid. p. horn's Am(gnitcUes Literari(E, xn. 537 206, note), and his treatise Dc Poies- sq. In 1557 he was imprisoned by tate Poniificis (of, Twysden, Vind. of order of Paul IV., and certain Arti- Chwrch of England, p. 144, n. S, cUs brought against him proving his Camb. 1847). tendency towards Lutheranism. Ao- ° He had visited Padua ('the cording ta the third of the series Athens of Europe') as early as 1519,, (Ibid. p. 56S), 'dixit Concilium Tri- aud had thus become acquainted with dentinum quoad articulum justifioa- many of the Italian literati: see tionis esse retractandum,' and aocord- VhUvpa's Life of Pole. With regard ing to the eighth, 'tenuit, opera nos- to Contarini's teaching on the doc- tra, quantumonnque in gratia Dei trine of justification, Pole declared facta, non esse meritoria.' that his friend had 'brought to light " Qf. above, p. iQi, n. 13. I.] and its Propagation. 107 Christ's Death had issued in 1543. By whomsoever written* italt. it secured the powerful patronage of Morone', and must henceforth have contributed to the dissemination of a healthier spirit, not indeed identical with Luther's, but presenting very strong analogies to it. When the Inquisitor at length arose to counteract the spread of ' Lutheranism,' in Italy, as many as forty thousand copies of this work, either in the original or in translations, fell into his hands. But meanwhile other forms of thought', directly, bor- rowed from the writings of the Wittenberg and Swiss divines, had gained extensive currency in districts lying far beyond the Alps. We find reformers taking shelter in the duchy of Ferrara', and even welcomed at the court. At Modena, Locarno, Milan, Lucca, Mantua, Siena, and still more at Naples'", Luther had his correspondents and auxiliaries ''. Bologna in like manner, notwithstanding its position in the Papal States, excited the congratulations of Martin Bucer'" on the zeal and numbers of the converts : while in all the leading towns of the republic of Venice", ^ The Italian original of this very ^ Cf. M'Grie's classification, pp. scarce work has been just reprinted 165, 166. (1855) with a learned JntrodiKtion' ^ Calvin himself was one of these by Mr Churchill Babington. The (cire. 1535), and exercised great iu- author was probably Aonio Paleario fluence over the mind of the duchess : (della Paglia), a friend of Pole, Fla- M'Crie, JRcf. in Italy, p. 70. minio and others of that school. ^^ See the evidence collected by He was at last apprehended by the Gieseler, III. i. p. 498, n. 16. Inquisitors, and committed to the ^' M'Crie, pp. 75 sq. jflames at Rome (1570). The Span- ^^ Ibid. p. 83. ish form of the treatise Del Benefido ^' Ibid. pp. 89 sq. As early as di Giesu, Ohristo Grocifisso, referred 1528 Luther wrote (De Wette, iii. to above (p. loi, n. 13), was in all 289): ' Lsetus audio de Veuetis qus probability one of the numerous scribis, quod Verbum Dei receperint.' translations of it, and may have been See also Original Letters, ed. P. S. due to ' un monaco di San Severino pp. 357, 3,58. From the Venetian in Napoli, discepolo del Valdes,' territory sprung Matteo Flacio (Fla- which explains tlie language of the ciuslllyricus, alsocaJIedPrancowitz), Inquisitors cited by Ranke, Popes, the chief compiler of the Catdlogus I. 141, note. Testium Veritatis (cf. Middle Age, p. •' Ranke, Ibid. The same charge 400, n. 2), and the Centuries Mag- is brought against Morone in the debwrgenses (see Dowling, . Siudy of proceedings mentioned above, u, 4. Ecd, Hist. pp. 105 sq.). He became 108 The Saxon School. of Church-Reformers, [chap. ITALY, owing partly to the anti- Romish spirit that prevailed, and partly to the thriving commerce that expanded her intelli- gence, and laid her open to suggestions from the neigh- bouring countries, 'Lutheranism' had won a series of brilliant victories (1530 — 1542). Two of its most active propagators in Italy at large were Bernardino Ochino' a capuchin, of small acquirements, but unwearying in devotion to the cause he had embraced; and Pietro Martire Ver- migli", a canon-regular of the order of St Augustine and a very able scholar. The sermons of Ochino, who remained in outward communion with the Church, were interrupted (1542) by a message questioning his orthodoxy, and citing him before the Roman tribunals ; on which he fled across the mountains tp Geneva. Martyr was ere long compelled to follow his fexample, seeking an asylum at Zurich and Strasburg; and after various fortunes both the exiles^ went to England (1547), and became the guests of archbishop Cranmer. All the lamentable feuds which had divided the a pupil of Melancthon, but was af- preserved {Archceologia, xxi. 471), terwards violently opposed to him; were paid by the privy couaciJ. cf. above, p. 70, n. i. Another of Ochino, who had obtained a prebend the Venetian reformers was Pierpa- at Canterbury (May 9, 1548), writes olo Vergerio, bishop of Capo d'Istria, from London (July 17, 1548) toMus- who after serving as papal legate in cuius of Augsburg, denouncing the Germany (above, p. 62, n. i), seceded ' abominable Interim :' Original Let- to the Protestants in 1548, diffused tera, ed. P. S. p. 335. Peter Mar- their principles in the Grisons, and tyr was made professor of divinity died at Tubingen in 1565 (M'Crie, at Oxford in 1549: but both of them PP- 378, 379). His brother Giovanni retreated on the accession of queen Batista Vergerio, bishop of Pola, Mary, establishing themselves even- also joined the Reformation {Ibid. tually at Ziirioh (M'Crie, p. 383). p. 137). There, however, Ochino was charged ^ See M'Crie, pp. 108 sq. with advocating anti^Trinitarianism ^ Ibid. pp. 117 sq. He was called and polygamy (Ibid. pp. 391 sq.), Vermigli, to distinguish him from a and after ineffectual attempts to find second Peter Martyr, a Milanese of a shelter in other countries, died in Anghiera (hence Anglerius), who Moravia (1564). Another of his spent the greater part of his life at fellow-countrymen, Jerome Zanchi, the court of Madrid. On the re- who was on the point of joining him former see Schmidt's Vie de Pierre and Martyr on their visit to England Martyr Vermigli, Strasburg, 1835. {Ibid. p. 403), distinguished himself ^ See Strype's Cranmer, 11. 153, by his opposition to these errors, and n.°; ed. E. H. S. Their travelling by the general sobriety of his theo- expenses, of which a curious bill is logical views {Ibid. pp. 390, 405). ^■J and its Propagation. 109 camp of the Reformers in other districts reproduced them- selves ill Italy*, where anti-Trinitarianism, as we encoun- tered it in Poland', threatened to be also rife^ But few disciples, either of the orthodox or heterodox, were able to survive the barbarous malice of the Inquisition'. ITALY. * Ibid. pp. 138 sq. The Italians, as a body, were most favourable to the Swiss. ^ Above, pp. 92, 93. « M'Crie, pp. 149 sq., pp. 385 sq. On the Socini (Lselius and Faustus), with whom Ochino was allied at Zurich, see below. Chap. v. , ' See M'Crie's fifth chapter, on 'the Suppression of the Reformation in Italy.' The leader of the counter- movement, which began in 1542, was Cardinal Caraifa, afterwards Paul IV., whose nephew, Caraocioli, son of the marquis of Vico, was one of the most eminent of the Italian re- formers. [chap. CHAPTER II. TEE SWISS SCHOOL OF CHUEGH-REFORMERS, AND ITS PROPAGATION. SWITZERLAND. SWITZEE- LAND. Barly career of Zwingli (6. 1484). As Luther stands unrivalled in the group of worthies who conducted what is termed the Saxon Reformation, Zwingli's figure is originally foremost in the kindred struggles of the Swiss. He was bom* on New Year's day, 1484, and was thus Luther's junior only by seven weeks. His father was the leading man of Wildhaus, a parish in the Toggenburg, where, high above the level of the lake of Zurich, he retained the simple dignity and truthfulness that characterized the Swiss of olden times, before they were so commonly attracted from their native pastures to decide the battles of adjacent states". Huldreich Zwingli, being destined for the priesthood, sought his elementary education at Basle and Berne, and after studying phi- losophy for two years at the university of Vienna, com- menced his theological course at Basle under the care of Thomas Wyttenbach, a teacher justly held in very high repute'. At the early age of twenty-two, Zwingli was ^ On the boyhood and early train- ing of Zwingli, see Schuler's Bul- dreich Zwingli, Ziirioh, 1819. The best contemporary Life of hira is by Oswald Myconius, the reforming preacher, who died at Basle in i^'i. It is reprinted in Staudlin's Archiv filr Kirchengesch. Vol. I. " Their services were especially solicited by the pope on one side, and the French on the other. Hence arose the custom of pensions by which a French party had acquired gene- ral ascendancy in Switzerland at the beginning of the sixteenth century : Eanke, Ref. ill. 65, 66. ^ He belonged to the same scliool as Erasmus, and besides inspiring II. J The Swiss School of Chwoh-Reformers, Sc. Ill appointed priest of Glarus (1506). He carried with him bwnz^r- into his seclusion a passionate love of letters, and especially of that untrodden field of literature which was exciting the tastes. profoundest admiration of the age, — the classical remains of Greece and Rome. To these he long devoted his chief interest; for although not unacquainted with the writings of the Middle Ages, scholasticism had never any charm for him, and exercised but little influence on his mental train- ing. Thus while Luther undervalued the wisdom of the heathen poets and philosophers, Zwingli venerated them as gifted with an almost supernatural inspiration*. At the same time other traits no less distinctive in his character were strongly brought to light. Zwingli was ^^^f ^""^ from first to last a genuine republican, not only by the accident of birth in the Helvetic confederacy, but as it seemed by an original instinct of his nature. Hence we find the pastor of Glarus busily engaged in politics, com- posing patriotic allegories ° in denunciation of 'the foreign- ers,' taking the field with his courageous flock, and even present at the battle of Marignano, where his countrymen at last succumbed beneath the chivalry of France (1515). But in the meanwhile an important change was passing Becomes a ■ T T itrin ^y Student Of the over the complexion of his private studies. In 1513 he saie. applied himself with characteristic ardour to the cultivation of the Greek language ^ and accepting the principles of his pxtpils with a love of classical deles, horrendos, idololatras et Epi- literature, excited them against the curi de grege porcoa Sanctorum coetui more extravagant of the Mediaeval adrmmeravit:' sign. S. notions. Zwingli says (Opja.m. 544, ^ These were entitled Der Lahy- ed. Schuler) that he learned from rinth, and Fdbelgedicht vom Ochsen ■Wyttenbaoh ' solam Christi mortem und etUchen Thieren, written in 1 5 lo. pretiumesseremissionispeocatorum.' ^ 'Coepi prsedicare Evangelium,' ^ Ranlie, in. 63. Walter (Gual- he writes in 1523, 'antequam Lut ther), his son-in-law, whose Apology theri nomen unquam audivissem. for him was prefixed to the edition Atque in eum usum ante decern of his works wliich appeared ill 1545, annoa operam^ dedi Oracanids lite-^ has to answer tlie following charge ris, ut ex fontitms doctrinam Christi among others: 'Qnosdam ex Ethni- haurire possem :' 0pp. (ed. Gual- corum numero, homines impios, oru- ther. 1545), I. fol. 38 a. He did not 112 The Swiss School of Cfiurch-Reformers, [chap. SWITZER- LAND. Zwingli con- trasted with Luther. exegesis then advocated by Erasmus, resolved that the Bible, and especially the New Testanaent-in the original, should be in future his great touchstone for determining the nature and the limits of religious truth. In all this process, notwithstanding some analogies, the course of Zwingli had- diverged considerably from that of the Wit- tenberg reformer. Luther, as we saw, was forced into collision with the church-authorities by an internal pressure of the conscience, a profound and overwhelming impulse of his moral sensibilities. Though disciplined to habits of submission, and by nature indisposed to break away from the traditions of the past, he was nevertheless unable to repress the storm of holy indignation that arose within him on beholding the practical substitution of man's righteous- ness for Christ's ^ of justification by the law for justification by faith. But if this error had been once corrected, Luther's quarrel with the dominant school of theologians would in all probability have ceased. Zwingli, on the contrary^, had no such reverence for the Church, and no such bond of union with antiquity. His thoughts were for the most part circumscribed within his native mountains, and con- centrated on the parish where his lot was cast. That joyous heart, of which his cheerful countenance^ was the unfailing index, had been well-nigh unacquainted with the spiritual tempests in which Luther learned to fathom the abyss of human depravity, and tested the victorious power of faith : and therefore what the Saxon friar undertook as the result of holy impulses and spiritual intuitions, the Swiss clergy- iudeed condemn the reading of the Fathers, himself studying Origen, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine and Chryaostom, and, like Erasmus, feel- ing a strong preference for Jerome's commentaries. Still he spoke of brighter days not far distant when Christians would value nothing but the Word of God (' ut neque Hiero- nymus neque cseteri, sed sola Scrip- tura Divina apud Christianos in pretio sit futura. :') Ibid. i. fol. 37 b. ' Cf. above, p. 43, n. 4. ^ Eanke, Eef. in. 96. ' ' Ingenio amoenus et ore jueun- dus supra quam diei possit erat,' is the description of Oswald Mycouius. He had also a fine musical taste. II.] and its Pro'pagation. 113 man was rather aiming to achieve by the employment of switzer- his critical and reasoning faculties. He rose at length to controvert established usages and dogmas of the Church, because he had not found them in his careful study of the Greek Testament. The Swiss reformer had thus many points in common BUfriend- with Erasmus, and accordingly as soon as the literary sramiua. chieftain came to Basle in 1514, frequent communications* passed between them. ' There is nothing,' wrote Zwingli, ' of which I am prouder than to have seen Erasmus.' But in 1516 he began to manifest far greater boldness than his learned correspondent °. Having been transferred to Ein- siedeln* in the autumn of that year, he laboured to divert his people' from the grosser forms of image- worship and ^}^^ rgmn- other like corruptions, and even wrote to his diocesan, the bishop of Constance, urging the necessity of minor reforma- tions. Two years later he was appointed to a preachership in the collegiate church of Zurich (Jan. 1, 1519) where he found a more appropriate arena for his eloquence, and where his force" of character at once exalted him to the .{position he retained during the rest of his life. His efforts had at this period a three-fold tendency, — to vindicate the absolute supremacy of Holy Scripture, and establish what * See, for instance, 'EtTStSim JEpist. district ('Eremitorium') was chiefly Lib. XXXI. ep. 52. caused by the hatred of the French ^ Erasmus was, however, the chief party in Glarus: cf. p. 1 10, n. 2 : but agent in determining his course: it must have conduced to the develop- 0pp. I. fol. 55 b, ed. Gualther. He ment of Zwingli's principles by secur- had learned from a poem of his ing him more leisure for reading and friend that Christ was the true reflection. According to a letter of 'Patron' of the sinner and the help- Capito (quoted in Middle Age, p. less. ' Hunc enim vidi unicum esse 44a, n. j), he was then meditating thesaurum pii pectoris, quin 'ccepi ona plan 'de pontifice dejiciendo.' soriptis Bibliorum sacrorum vete- ' Waddington, 11. 271, 272. In rumquepatrumdiligentiusintendere, a, passage cited by Gieseler (in. i. certius quiddam ex his de divorum p. 139, n. 29) he declares that as intercessione venaturus. In Bibliis early as this period (1517) he plainly Sacris plane nihil reperi. Apudquoa- told the cardinal of Sltten (Sion) dam veterum de ea re inveni, apud ' dass das ganze Papstthum einen alios nihil.' schleohten (5rund hahe, ulid das all- ^ His removal to this ^onelier weg mit gwaltiger heiliger Gschrift.' E. P. ' I 1 l-i The Swiss School of Church-Reformers, [chap. SWITZER- LAND. J-^stablishes himself at Zurich, 1519. he deemed a juster method of interpretation' ; to purify the morals' of the citizens; and to recall the Swiss confedera- tion to those principles of independence on which it had been founded. In the spring of 1519 some correspondence took place between the Ziirichers and Leo X. respecting a Franciscan friar" who had ventured to reopen the dis- graceful traffic that drew forth the animadversions of Luther in 1517. The obnoxious agent was immediately withdrawn, and so amicably, that the Swiss reformer, who directed the resistance of his fellow-townsmen, still con- tinued to enjoy a pension given him by the pope*. In the following year, however, his harangues at Ziirich had in- duced the cantonal authorities to publish a decree enjoining that pastors should h,enceforth have perfect liberty to preach all doctrines that could claim the warrant of the '' Instead of preaching exclusively from the select passages of Holy Scrip- ture contained in the ' Leotionarlum, ' heexpounded whole books, beginning ■with St. Matthew ('idque .absque humanis commentationibus ex solia fontibus SoripturiE Sacrae'): 0pp. I. fol. 37 b, ed. G-ualther. In his Ar- chiteUs (an apologetic treatise, dated Aug. 23, 15^2), he mentions the order in which the other books were taken, and gives his reasons for adopting it: Ibid. i. fol. 132b. ^ His friend Oswald Myconius {Ad Sacerdotes Hdveiim, Tiguri, 1524, pp. :, 6) enlarges on the moral and spiritual improvements he effected; and his own personal character, which after early youth had been most exemplary (cf. 0pp. I. fol. 227 a), added force to his exhorta- tions. ' See, respecting this 'Tetzel of Switzerland,' Waddington, Ref. 11. 272, 273. One of his earliest oppo- nents was BuUinger, dean of Brem- garten, whose son Henry became distinguished as a Swiss reformer, and has left an account of the circum- stances in his Uist. of the Beformation (reaching to 1532) : ed. J. J. Hettin- ger, I. 17 sq. From this period Zwingli was suspected of 'Luther- anism' (cf. 0pp. I. 37 b sq. ed. Gual- ther), although he seems to have proceeded very independently: above, p. Ill, n. 6. He wrote, for instance, in 1523 {0pp. I. 38 a): 'Neo ignore Lutherum multa adhuo dare infirr mis, nbi aliter posset, in quHms ei non subsoribo, ut in sermone De decern Leprosis audio (non enim legi) • eum aliquid tribuere confessioni au- ricular!,' etc. * It amounted to 50 gulden, and was granted, ostensibly at least, to encourage him in the prosecution of his studies: but one object of his patron may have been political, viz. to command the services of such a man in the struggle of the papacy against the French. He openly resigned it in 1520. His importance , was felt to be so great that even after the Keformation was fairly commenced pope Adrian wrote him a cajoling letter (Jan. 23, 1523) pre- served in Bullinger (as above), I. 83, The same feeling bad induced the legate (15 18) to appoint him as one of the acolyth-chaplains of the pope: see Waddington, 11. 278. II.] a7id its IVopagation. lie svvit?;er- LAND. Holy Scriptures, and thus threatening to precipitate a crisis very near at hand^ The fermentation spread from day to day in all the orders of society. Accordingly, in 1522, a for- mal charge was made against the innovators" by the bishop of Constance, and substantiated before the chief authorities of the canton, but without eliciting a favourable answer. We may ascertain the very quick development of the sis rapid retormmg tenets at this epoch from the Sixty-Seven Arti- and success, cles'', or propositions, which Zwingli offered to maintain before the senate and people of Ziirich as early as January 1523. His triumph, in the estimation of his audience, was complete, since all the main positions he advanced were absolutely undisputed^ Acting on the principle that every , Christian congregation- and community is competent to regulate its own affairs ^ the men of Zurich afterwards proceeded with a large amount of unanimity to place " Eanke, JRef. in. 73. ^ Many of the Ziliiehefs violated the rule of fasting in the Lent of 1522, whicli was the original cause of the bishop's interference. Zwingli's letter giving an account of the cir- cumstances is printed in the new (and still imperfect) edition of his works (:il. 7 sq.) He next justified the conduct of the innovators in a vernacular treatise entitled Von, Er- hiesen und Fryheit der Spysen, and very soon afterwards (of. D'Aubign^'s note JRef. II. 533, Edinb. 1853) broke through the law of celibacy by marry- ing a widow of Zurich, Anna Kein- hardt ; not, however, making his marriage public till April, 1524. This fact throws light upon the move- meat which he headed in the summer of 1522, for the sake of inducing the Diet and the bishop of Constance to legalize the marriage of priests : see his Works, 1. fol. nosq. ed. Gualther. ' Printed both in German and Latin by Niemeyer, lAbr. Synib. pp. 3 sq. In the July of the same year he published, also in German, a very copious exposition of those Articles, which was rendered into Latin by his school-fellow and ardent coad- jutor, Leo Judse (0pp. I. fol. 3 — fol. log, ed. Gualther). * His chief opponent was John Faber, the vicar-general of the bishop of Constance, and originally favour- able to the Reformation, but now a ■\-igorous advocate of Medisevalism ; see, for instance, a philippic of Justus Jonas (Tiguri, 1523) entitled Adver^ siis Joannem Constant. Yicarium, scortationis patronum, etc. Several members of religious orders had also begun to assail Zwingli as early as 1519, and were not silenced until their foundations were converted into schools (1524). ^ See Eanke, kef. III. 79 sq. The inhabitants of the canton were pre- pared for these changes by the dis- courses of Zwingli, of the abbot of Cappel and of Conrad Schmid, and still more by Zwingli's Brevis et Christiana in Evangelicam, docirinam Isagoge (Opp. I. fol. 264 sq. ed. Gual- ther), written originally in German- Swiss (1523), and circulated by the authority of the canton, 12 116 The Swiss School of GhUrch-Reformers, [chap. s^iTZEE- themselves beyond the jurisdiction of the bishap (Oct. 28), LAND and organize a system of church-government in accordance with the new convictions. The obvious effect of their pro- ceedings was revolutionary. While the Saxon doctors were content with the removal of such practices as ministered to superstition or were calculated to obscure the memory of Christ, the Zwinglians soon became persuaded that ritual of all kinds was adverse to the freedom and simplicity of the Gospel \ interfered with rather than promoted the edi- fication of the worshipper, and therefore ought to be cur- tailed at least in every one of those particulars which 'have no ground or warrant in God's Word'^ The leading characteristics of the Mediaeval system, which, after its theory of human merit, had most excited the hostility of Zwingli, were the use of images and the established doc- trine of the Mass'. He dedicated a separate treatise' to the latter of these topics, examining the structure of the Eucharistic office, and evincing his desire to see it utterly abolished, rather than amended or recast. A vigorous ad- versary of these changes had to be encountered in the bishop of Constance °, who endeavoured to regain his hold upon the Ziirichers in 1524; but those whom he addressed were deaf to his expostulations, as well as to remonstrances that issued from the other cantons". Zwingli had, in truth, become the oracle of the whole community. ^ e. g. Zwingli makes the following ^ Hence the simplification, amount- statement in the Ratio Fidei, art- ing almost to the annihilation, of dressed to Charles V. in 1530 (Nie- their ancient liturgy: see Daniel's meyer, p. 31): 'Credo cerimoniag, Codex Liturg. Feci. Reform. 7to\eg. quae neque per superstitionem fidei pp. 5 sq., and the formularies -which nequeverboI)eioontrari8esunt(2W(m- heprints. At Easter, 1525, asEanke guam hujusmodi nescio an quce in- also remarks (ill. 88), the mass was veniardur) per charitatem tolerari, do- reduced to ' a regular love-feast.' nee lucifer magis ao magis allucescat, ^ These points were especially con- posse,' etc. , Ebrard {Das Dogma vom sidered in the Isagoge, above men- heiligen Abendmahl, Frankf. 1846, tioned, fol. 274 b sq. II. 58 sq.) has endeavoured to defend * De Canone Missce Epichiresis Zwingli against the charge of revolu- (dated Oct. 9, 1523); lb. fol. 175 b sq. tiouizing the ritual system. Calvin, ^ Waddington, Ref. 11. 303, 304. it is urged, was the real culprit. ^ The most decided antagonists II.] and its Propagation. 117 Meanwhile a kindred agitation was proceeding in the switzee- LAND. most enlightened spot of Switzerland, — the university and town of Basle'. Its chief author was John Hausschein, or dtZ (^ilsai (Ecolampadius, whom we saw in correspondence with Me- /ormaMim ae lancthon as early as the disputation of Leipzig ^ On the recommendation of Capito', another of his friends, he was advanced in 1515 to a preachership in the cathedral of Basle, and numbered in the brilliant circle of divines and scholars who rejoiced in the society of Erasmus". This position he exchanged in 1518 for another preachership at Augsburg", but on finding it beyond his powers, he modestly retreated to a convent at Altenmiinster in the diocese of Freisingen (April 23, 1520). At first he was resolved to spend his days in private study and devotion'", but the preference he had learned to cherish for the doc- trines of the Wittenberg reformers made him more and more an object of suspicion '^ and eventually induced him to revisit Basle (Nov. 16, 1522). He now proceeded, after his re-establishment in the university, to place himself in close relationship with Zwingli'*, who was making rapid were those of Luoern, Freyburg and in his reformatory eflforts by Hedio, Zug {Ibid. pp. 295 sq.) who also migrated to Strasburg. ' The fuUeat account is given by i" Erasmus taught him 'to seek for J. J. Herzog, Das Leben Johannis nothing but Christ in the holy Scrip- (Elcolampads und die Reformation turea' (Herzog, I. 121), and while der Kirche zu Basel, Basel, 1843. preparing the first edition of the * Above, p. 31: Herzog, I. 107. JS'ew Testament, employed him in " Herzog, I. n8. Wolfgang Ca- comparing the quotations there made pito himself had quietly sown the with the Hebrew original (/iid. no), seeds of Reformation in Basle, where ^^ Ibid. i. 132 sq. he became professor of divinity. He ^^ Ibid, I. 143 sq. afterwards belonged to the inter- '' The general tone of his sermons mediate school of Strasburg (cf. was in favour of the Lutherans, and above, p. 57, n. 2, and Jung's Gesch. a treatise adverse to the pra,ctice of derSeform. der Kirche in Strasbv/rg, compulsory confession {Ibid. i. 175) I. 86 sq.), where he died in 1541. added to the indignation of his In 1537 he dedicated a treatise en- brother-monks. In April 1522 (some titled Mesponsum de Missa, Matri- time after his flight), we find him monio et jure Magistratus in religione with Francis von Siokingen at Ebem- to Henry VIII. of England, on which burg, where he continued preaching see archbishop Cranraer's letter to the reformed opinions till Novem- the author in Cranmer's Works, ed, ber. Jeiikyns,!. 192. Capito was backed " /iid. pp. 212 sq. 118 The Swiss School of Church-Reformers, [CHAP. SWITZER- LAND. and Berne. Disputation at Baden, 1526. strides in the adjoining canton. For some time the work - of reformation at Basle was thwarted by the opposition of the bishop and one party of the academics. It advanced, however, in the senate*, who not only recognized the principle that CEcolampadius was at liberty to preach whatsoever was commanded, or repudiate whatsoever was condemned, in Holy Scripture, but permitted disputations ' to be held in which a number of the Mediaeval tenets were openly impugned (1523, 1524). A similar tendency of public feeling was soon afterwards betrayed at Berne', whose citizens at first regarded Luther and his waitings with distaste approaching to abhorrence. Softened by the eloquence of Sebastian Meyer and Berchtold Haller, many of them were prepared to follow in the steps of Zurich, when a demonstration of the anti-reforming party, planned by Eck, the indefatigable foe of Luther, was arranged at a general assembly of the Swiss cantons to be held in Baden* (May 16, 1526). The object of the chief promoters was to counteract the power of Zwingli. He, however, did not answer' to the challenge; and accordingly the principal burden" of the disputation was imposed on CEcolampadius, who contested the established doctrines of transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass, the intercession of the Virgin and the saints, the use of images and purgatory. Eck was no less ener- getic on the other side, defending his positions with great ^ Hid. pp. 280 nq. At this period (152^) Wycliffe's Trialogus (see Mid- dle Age, p. 415) was published at Basle, and could not fail to make a deep impression. 2 Herzog, i. ^234 sq. One of the reforming challengers was 'William Farel, a French exile, of whom more will be heard hereafter : seep. 123. " See Kuhn's Eeformatoren Berns in XVI. Jakrhundert, Bern, 1828. * Herzog, 11. 4-20. The invita- tion proceeded from the diet of Lu- cern (March 33): BuUinger, as above, I- 337- ° He had been warned that his life was in danfter (Opp. ed. Sohuler, VII. 483): cf. Waddington, 11. 313. See his allusions to the Disputation {Opp. II. fol. 114, ed. Gualther) and various tracts and letters on the sub- ject {Ibid. fol. 565 — ^fol; 601). * One of his chief coadjutors was Haller of Berne (Herzog, 11. 10) ; while Eck was supported by John Faber (above, p. 115, n. 8). II- J and its Propagation^ 119 learning and acumen; and after eight and twenty days, the switzeb- audience being strongly in his favour, a decree, subscribed '— by nine out of the twelve cantons who recognized the meeting, was drawn up in condemnation of the Zwinglian movement. Still in spite, of this very serious check, the reformation was, in the course of the three following years, iestablished by 'various agencies not only in AppenzelL -^^scendancy of ,. -I-,- 1 ^ the reformers JVLuhlhausen, Biel, Schaffhausen, Constance, St Gall, «"'«w m ' 1 m ■ cantons. blarus and Toggenburg, but also in the haughty state of Berne, and finally in Basle'. Of the five cantons where it was resisted no less vigorously, the principal was Lucerne, from which a bosom-friend of Zwingli, Oswald Myconius*', had been forcibly expelled (1522). In April 1529, their hatred of the reformation urged them to conclude a treaty with the house of Austria, and the bitter conflict* that ensued could only be decided in the sanguinary field of Cappel, where Zwingli, true to all his patriotic and military principles, was left among the slain" (Oct. 11, 1531). Before this crisis in the fortunes of his country he had learned to systematize the doctrines of the early Swiss reformers, more especially in his well-digested Commentary on True and False Iteligion^\ which appeared in 1525 to ' On the political rivalries con- mately succeeded CEcolampadius at tributing to the success of the Re- Basle. formation in those cantons, see " See Kanke's full account, Bk. Ranke, Kef. ill. 107, 108. The VI. oh. n. ly. Bernese were considerably influenced ^^ ' He was found dying by two by a disputation (the counterpart common soldiers, who exhorted him of that held at Baden), which was to confess himself to a priest, or as opened on the 7th of January, 1528; it already seemed too late for that, cf. Waddington, 11. 331 sq. Halleu at least to receive the blessed Virgin was the chief representative of the and the saints into his heart. He Reformers, but was reinforced by made no answer, and only shook his Zwingli, (Ecolampadius and a host head ; they did not know who he of other theologians (Herzog, II. 62). was; they thought him some obscure Buoer was among them. After a "stubborn heretic," and gave him a feeble resistance the ten Theses JBer- death-stroke.' Ibid. p. 406. nenses (Niemeyer, p. 15) were accepted " Opjp. 11. fol. 158 b — fol. ■24^b: by the vast assemblage as portions ed. Gualther. It is a system of of the future creed of the community. theology arranged under twenty- ^ Above, p. 110, n. i. He ulti- nine heads, and is said to have been 120 The Swiss School of Church-Reformers, [chap. ZwivqKs doctrinal aberrations. swiTZER- the delight of his disciples. Notwithstanding all the heavy charges' brought against him then and afterwards, it seems impossible to convict him of departure from the central verities of Christianity, such as the Incarnation, the Atonement, the Personality of the Holy Spirit, and other tenets of that class. But with respect to the con- dition of the human subject, and the application to him of the means vouchsafed for his recovery, Zwingli was at variance with all other branches of the Christian Church. Hfe modified the doctrine of original sin^ to make it har- monize with the rest of his theological system. Deeply conscious of the absolute sovereignty of God', he shrank from every form of thought and practice that appeared to be resolvable into the worship of the creature, and in this way had been driven to disparage all external agencies Ris theory of and media instituted for the culture of the human spirit, the sacror , i • i i i rr ^ t ments. and as such entitled to respect and reverence. Zwinglt was persuaded that the grace of God is always given to man immediately, without the intervention of church, or composed in fulfilment of a promise he had made 'multis trans Alpes doctis piisque hominibus, quorum nonnulli multa mecum de plerisque fidei rebus coram contulerant.' ^ e.p'. at Marburg he had to satisfy the Lutherans respecting his belief in the divinity of our blessed Lord (above, p. 57, n. 3), and Walter (Gualther) in the elaborate Apology prefixed to his works, was under the necessity of repelling the charge of Nestorianism which some had bro ugh t against him (sign. 7 5). ^ See his Declaraiio de Peccato Orininali: 0pp. n. fol. lis b sq. He did not deny that the contagion, whatever it might be, extended to all (of. his Eeply to Eck's Propo- sitiones, Ibid. 11. fol. 578 b): but maintained that its damnatory effect was certainly removed in the case of such children as were bom of believ- ing parents, and probably in the case of others. Walter, his apologist, writing after the doctrine of ori- ginal sin had been restated in the most rigorous form by Calvin (Instit. lib. HI. c. •23), is anxious to reduce the amount of divergency as far as possible (sign, e 3^. But see Zwin- gli's own defence: 0pp. 11. 89 b, 90 sq. His notions on this subject were closely connected with difficul- ties relating to infant baptism and the salvability of the heathen: cf. Laurence, Bam/pton Led. pp. 295 sq. Oxf. 1838. ^ See Herzog, T. 317. With this conviction is to be associated his doctrine of predestination (see his Salio Fidei, in Niemeyer, p. 19), which he derived rather 'from the nature of Gtod than of man, and which in fact bordered on the heathen view of a philosophical necessity: cf. Hagenbach, 11. 260, Edinb. 1852. n.] and its Propagation. 121 priest or sacrament. He therefore lield that Baptism' was no means of grace, but merely the external badge of mem- bership in a community, the sign that he was formally devoted to the service of Christ, or the certificate of spiritual life, which if at all imparted, was imparted independently of the material element. Prolonged discussions with the Anabaptists' who had found their way to Switzerland^ as early as 1525 had only tended to develope these ideas, and consequently it is difficult to screen their author from the charge of insincerity when he accepted Luther's definition' at the conference of Marburg (1529). The same conception of the sacraments was even more explicitly avowed when Zwingli turned to the examination of the Eucharist*. As SWITZER- LAND. " He wrote a formal treatise De Baptismo (0pp. n. 56 b sq.), and bandied the subject in many otber places, e. g. in the De Vera et Falsa Eeligione (Ibid. fol. 199 sq.). In tbe first he writes ' Baptismus foede- ris vel pacti signum est, nbn in hunc finem institutum, ut eutn qui bapti- zari solet justum efficiat vel fidem baptizati confirmet. Jmpossibile enim est ut res aliqua externa fidem hominis internam confirmet et etabiliat' (fol. f>3b.) '■ See especially his Elenchus con- tra Catoibaptistas, u, fol. 7 sq. He thought that the defence of infant baptism was much simplified by dis- sociating it from all idea of remission of sins (cf. ti. Ill b), and thus repre- sented thebaptisra ordained byChrist as standing on the same level with John's baptism (11. 74, 200). " Herzog has given interesting accounts of their conferences with CEcolampadius at Basle: l. 301 sq. II. 7S sq. ' Zwingli there signed the follow- ing statement (Seckendorf, Lib. 11. p. 138, col. i) : ' Baptismuru esse sacramentiim ad fidem a Deo insti- tutum et prseceptum, non nvdum signum aut tesseram professionis Ghristlanae, sed et ojius Dei, in quo fides nostra requiritur et per quam regenerarnur.' For this and other reasons Luther was persuaded that the Swiss reformer bad acted dis- honestly: cf. Dyer, Life of John Calvin, p. 181. Lond. 1850. * ' Nihil ergo eorum, quse externa sunt, fidem firmare vel nos in ilia certiiires rSddere potest. Quod idem simili ratione de Eucharistia quoque, vel Ccena Domini pronunciamus :' 0pp. n. 63 b. Cf. above, p. 55, n. 5, and Zwingli, De Vera et Falsa Religione (11. fol. 202 — fol. 216). In this treatise he refers (fol. 209 a) to WycliflFe and the Waldenses as also holding the opinion that 'e3t'= 'sig- nificat' in the words of institution: and some of his recent biographers (cf. Gieseler, III. i. p. 192, n. 27) assert that even while at Glarua he was acquainted with their writings, and also with the work of Katramu (Middle Age, p. 180). He certainly implies at the opening of the pre- sent section that he had arrived at his new theory some time before he published it to the world. CEco- lampadius, who adopted substan- tially the same view as the result of his discussions with the Anabaptists (Herzog, I. 320 sq. : 11. 93—1 rj, 222 sq.), e.xpounded it with so much' 122 The Swiss School of Church-Reformers, [chap. SWITZER- LA^D. Continuation of liis work. he dissociated all idea of spiritual blessing from the act of baptism, so the consecrated Bread and Wine had in his theory no more than a mnemonic office, putting him in mind of Christ and of his union with a christian body, but inoperative altogether beyond the province of the intel- lect. This theory, at first elaborated by the criticism of the sacred text, was afterwards supported by recondite specu- lations on the nature of the Saviour's glorified humanity'. Like Carlstadt, he contended that the Body of Christ being now locally in heaven cannot be 'really' distributed to faithful souls on earth: which drew from Luther", now become the furious enemy of both, the counter-argument, that the humanity of Christ in virtue of its union with the Godhead is exalted far above all natural existences, and being thus no longer fettered by the sublunary conditions of time and space may be communicated in and by the eucharistic elements. The fall of Zwingli, instantly succeeded as it was by the demise of CEcolampadius', seemed at first the death- critical ability that Erasmus, writing ti) Pirkheimer (.Tune 5, 1526), said he would himself have regarded it with favour 'nisi obstaret consensus Ecolesiae.' He supposed, however, that the doctrine of the Swiss did not exclude the idea of a spiritual, or virtual presence of Christ ('modo adsit in syinbolis gratia spiritualis'): and Walter, the apologist of Zwingli, is anxious to establish, the same con- struction ('Verum Christ! Corpus credimus in Goena sacramentaliter et spiritnaliter edi, a religiosa fideli et mncta mente:' Prsef. sign. S 5). If Zwingli ever held this view of 'spi- ritual manducation,' he must have embraced, or developed it, only a short time before his death. The passage of his writings most in favour of it has been referred to above, p. 55, n- 5. 1 See, for instance, the chapter 'DeAUoeosibus duarum Naturarum in Christo,' in his Exegesis Eucharis- Hce Negotii ad Ma/rtinum Luiherum (T527); 0pp. ir. fol. 351 b sq. '' See, for instance, his Grosses JBehenntniss (Walch, XX. 11 80 sq.), where he denounces the Zwinglian hypothesis as absolutely 'diabolical ' and as a frealc of the unsanctified reason of its author : cf. below, Chap, m. on later phases of this contro- versy. 3 He died at Basle Nov. 24, 1531. In the October of the previous year he had been visited by a deputation of "VValdenses, who were desirous of knovring more about the Keforma-' tion : see Herzog's Somanische Wal- denseT, pp. 333-376, Halle, 1853. Among other things (Ecolarapadius told them that the Swiss reformers attached less importance to the Apo- calypse, the second and third epistles of St. John, the second of St. Peter, and the Epistle of St. Jude, than to II.] and its Propagation, 123 blow of their party: but ere long the vigorous efforts of switzer- two able followers, Henry BuUiuger and Oswald Myconius, '- — — were successful" in replacing it to some extent upon its former basis. Fresh auxiliaries were also unexpectedly arriving. Hitherto the reformation had penetrated those cantons only which were peopled by the German-speaking Swiss: but in the year preceding the death of Zwingli a profound impression had been made at Neufch^tel by William Farel', a Frenchman, who proceeded with the wauam same impulsive zeal and eloquence to rouse theslumbering spirits of Geneva. He had actually succeeded in compass- ing the overthrow of papal power" (Aug. 26, 1535), when a second of his countrymen, the doctor who was afterwards to give an appellation to no inconsiderable party in the Western Church, appeared on the same arena. the other writings of the Sacred Canon. ^ On the vicissitudes which it had to encounter, see Hess, Lebemgesch. Bullingers, Zurich, 1828 sq. Bul- linger afterwards enjoyed a high reputation arnong some of the Eng- lish Keformers, partly owing to the generosity with which he had enter- tained the Marian refugees at Ziirich, and partly on account of his anti- Bomish and anti- Lutheran writings. Many of his communications on these subjects will be found in the Zurich Letters and the Original Letters pub- lished by the Parker Soo. ^ He was a native of Gap, in DaupliinS (b. 1489), and on being expelled from France by the denun- ciations of the Sorbonne, he went to Basle (of. above, p. 118, n. 2), and afterwards diffused the principles of the Reformation as far as Moutiers (in Savoy). The fullest life of him is by Kirohhofer, Zurich, 1831: of. Hanke's Civil Wars and Monar- chy in France, i, 205 sq. Lond. 1852. ^ The nature of the constitution of Geneva facilitated this result. It was formed of three distinct powers, ( I ) that of the prince-bishop, who was non-resident, (2) that of the duke of Savoy, who had acquired the vice-regency, (3) that of the bur- gesses, who at this period were gene- rally republican in their tendencies, and as such had cultivated thefriend- ship of the Swiss, espeSially of Berne, in order to counterbalance the en- croachments, of the bishop and the duke (Gaberel, I{ist. de VEglise de Genive, i. 62, Genfeve, 1853). Farel, on arriving there (1532), produced credentials with which the Bernese had furnished him, and although he was expelled in the Srat instance, he returned under the same protection at the end of the following year (1533)1 *nd accompanied by Viret and Froment, pushed the reforma- tion with the greatest vigour. At length, after considerable turbulence, the council of Two Hundred pub- lished an order proclaiming the adop- tion of the reformed religion based upon the Gospel (Gaberel, I. 162^ 168). 124 The Swiss School of Church- Reformers, [chap. SWITZER- LAND. John Calvin (6. 1508). Johu Chauvin, Cauvin or Calvinus', was a Picard born at Noyon, July 10, 1509, his father being one of the notaries in the ecclesiastical court of that place, and secre- tary to the bishop. At the age of fourteen he indicated a precocious aptitude for classics, dialectics and philosophy, under the tuition of Marthurin Cordier (Corderius) at the High-School of Paris, and subsequently entered the uni- Tersities of Orleans and Bourges, in both of which he also studied jurisprudence with singular devotion and success'^ His mind, however, had already been directed to the higher fields of theological investigation ^ and on the death of his father he not only gave himself entirely to these studies, but cast in his lot -with an obscure and straggling confraternity at Paris who were bent on expe- diting reformations in the Church. Yet, notwithstanding the acuteneas of his moral instincts and the general severity of his character*, Calvin proved himself deficient in that Christian heroism^ which is everywhere conspicuous in the history of the Wittenberg reformer. When the prospects ' Three Lives of Calvin, written from different standing-points, are (i) by Henry (aGerman evangelical), Hamburg, 1835-1844, (2) by Audin (a French ultra-montanist), Paris, 184I, and (3) by Dyer, our impartial f ellow-countryman, Lond. 1850. The most favourable of his earlier bio- graphers was Beza, hie disciple and successor at Geneva. ^ Attheageof twenty-onethe Uni- versity of Orleans invited him to give his judgment touching the divorce of Henry VIII. (Dyer, p. 8). He pronounced against the lawfulness of marriage with a brother's widow. * He was originally destined for holy orders, and his father accord- ingly secured him a chaplaincy in the cathedral of Noyon before he was twelve years old. Somewhat later (in iS'zy, when Calvin was eighteen) he was presented to a living, for although not of age to be ordained. he had received the tonsure, and was thug thought capable of holding it, and even of preaching occasionally {Ibid. p. 7). One of these prefer- ments he afterwards sold, to the disgust of Audin (i. 63). He traced his own ' conversion' to a sudden call of God (see the account in his Pre- face to the Comment, on the Psalms) : but we may fairly suppose that it was accelerated by his intercourse at Bourges with Melohior Wolmar, the German professor of Greek : Dyer, p.Q. * Thus at school he never joined in the amusements, and much less the follies of the other boys, and even reprimanded them with severity ('severus omnium in suis eodalibus censor,' according to Beza). ' In the Preface above cited he confesses: 'Ego qui natura timido, molli et pusillu animo me esse confi- teor.' II.] and its Propagation. 125 of his party had been darkened in the French metropolis, switzer- chiefly through the violence and indiscretion ° of the — members, he fled with some of his companions to Basle (Oct. ]534). It was there, in the society of Bucer, Capito and other Bis insututio, kindred spirits, that he finished the original draft' of the ^^^^' Institutio Ghristianm Religionis, ere long advanced to the position of a text-book for the Calvinists in every part of Europe. In it, as finally expanded and revised, they found a masterly statement of their views of Christianity. The work is divided into four books, the first relating to our knowledge of God as the Creator ; the second to our know- ledge of Him as the Kedeemer; the third to the conditions on which man receives the grace of Christ, and the effects that follow such reception ; and the fourth to the external media and supports by which he is invited to the Christian community, and afterwards retained in his connexion with it. In handling these great questions at the age of twenty- seven, the author shews that he had already* gi-asped the leading thoughts that enter into the construction of the system of theology with which his name has ever been associated; for all his bold conceptions of original sin, election', reprobation, church-polity, corrective discipline, and even his peculiar doctrine of the sacraments, are there consistently advanced, although it may be not completely balanced, rounded, and matured. « On the posting up of anti-papal ' One of the minor changes in placards at Paris (Oct. 18, 1534) by subsequent editions was the with- some of the more intemperate re- drawal of passages that spoke, as formers, see Dyer, pp. 29 sq. he believed, too freely in favour of ' The oldest Latin edition now religious toleration (Dyer, p. 34). extant is dedicated to Francis I., and ^ Arohbp. Laurence seems to over- in a copy before the present writer, state his case when he endeavours thededicatory letterbearsdate 'Baai- to shew (Bampton Lectures, pp. 347 less, Calend. Auguati, an. 1536' [not sq. Oxf. 1838) that Calvin's original 1 6 35]. but Henry (followed by Dyer) idea of election differed from his makes it probable that the JnstituUo later : cf. Dyer, as above, p. 34, iad already appeared in French. note. 126 The Swiss School of Church-Reformers, [chap. swiTZEE- In all this treatise, more especially if we compare it — — — — with Melancthon's Loci Gommv/nes, we discern not only uty and specur the effect produced on Calvin by his legal education, but the workmgs ot an independent mmd. With him begins the second generation of reformers. While accepting most of the conclusions of Erasmus and the Wittenberg divines, he could by no means view them as indisputable. A course of laborious study concentrated on the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures had been spent in verifying those con- clusions, in determining the place of single doctrines in relation to the rest, and binding all of them together in a modern Summa Theologice. The speculative and dictatorial element in Calvin's genius had betrayed itself in his con- tempt for the dogmatical decisions of the Church, and his presumptuous undervaluing of the terminology, if not the Ifmeme"'^ doctrines, of the ancient creeds'. There was accordingly a special fitness in the theatre on which he had been called to act'^; for as the civil constitution of Geneva had been recently subverted, the principles of government which he adduced were calculated to attract republican sympathies ^ He was accused of Ariatiism as Tritheists, Arians or Socinians. His early as 1536 (Dyer, pp. 68 sq.), own appeal was to the Catechismus and Lutheran writers {e.g. Gerhard, Genevensis, of which he was himself Loci Theolog.ll. 1431 sq. Jena, 1635) the author; see it in Niemeyer, pp. stigmatized the 'Calviniani' mostse- 126 sq. verely. Bp. Bull has also vehemently ^ After his'departure from Basle impeached his orthodoxy on the sams (perhaps at the close of i£35),he had subjects, because he had spoken of visited Ferrara (see above, p. 107, the Nicene prelates as 'fanatici,' n. 9), and also his native town (Dyer, and characterized expressions like p. 36). It was then his intention to 'Deum de Deo, Lumen de Lumine,' settle at Basle or Strasburg, but etc. as mere fia.TTo\oyia. : Defensio owing to the wars between France Fidei Nicwnie, Sect. IV. cap. i. § 8 and the emperor, he was compelled (p. '255, ed. 1703). Still his writings to adopt the circuitous route through and conduct seem to prove that Savoy and Geneva. On reaching although he disparaged the terms the latter place (towards the end of 'Trinity' and 'Person,' and would August, 1536: cf. Gaberel, Hist, de not subscribe to the three Creeds upon VEglise de Geneve, i. 202), Farel in the ground that to impose them on a moment of so-called inspiration, the conscience of individuals is an threatened him with the curse of act of tyranny (Dyer, p. 70), it would heaven, if he refused to share the be unjust to rank him either with task of carrying out the reformation. II.] and its Propagation. 127 by giving laymen fresh importance in the administration of switzrr- church-affairs, while, on the other hand, he carried with him a body of religious doctrine that controlled and even captivated for the moment by its novelty, compactness and concinnity of form. At first, however, the extreme severity' of the Cal- ^^f£^«'"2' vinistic discipline was more than his new flock would 1538. tolerate. Both Farel and himself were banished (May 22, 1538), after they had fully carried out their principles and also planted them securely in Lausanne*. Their chief crimes" were that they resisted the magistrates of the republic, who would fain have brought some features of their ritual into harmony with that of Berne, and ulti- mately refused to administer the Holy Communion to the Genevese until the city manifested a more docile spirit, and was purged from its more scandalous corruptions. Calvin now betook himself to Strasburg, where he was advanced to a professorship of theology, and where he also acted as the pastor of the French congregation. At the same time he established more intimate relations with the German Protestants, especially^ with Bucer and ' e. g. The preachers quoting i Sfc. Lausanne, Strasburg, 1 8,^6. Peter iii. .3, would not allow the ^ See Dyer, pp. 79 sq. Gaherel, adorning of brides ' plioatura oapil- I. ^iS sq. A synod held at Lau- lornm' (Ranke, Civil Wars &c. in sanne in mid-lent 1538, was adverse France, 1. •214, note). Graver sub- to Calvin and Farel, who thereupon jeets of contention immediately arose carried their appeal in person to (Dyer, pp. 74 sq.), and it is probable another meeting of Swiss reformers, from a MS. Vie de Farel (Ranke, as held at Zurich (April 29). A recon- bsfore), that Anabaptists circulated ciliation was here effected between immoral principles, thus aggravating the rival ministers of Berne and the licentiousness of the Genevese. Geneva, but in spite of the remon- The subsequent struggles of Calvin strances of the Bernese ambassadors with the 'Patriots' of Geneva, as they addressed to the council S. ■which his own convictions were matured, had naturally adopted the French Confession as the basis of his work '. He thereby fixed the Calvinistic principles^ in Holland. In the mean time Granvella could not be induced to mitigate the rigours of his administration ; the number of the disaffected was accordingly increased, atrocious perse- cutions not unfrequently embittering the feelings of the nobles', while they ultimately goaded others into overt acts of lawlessness and rapine*. The leaders of the movement were now ready to accept the contumelious name of ' Gueux'^, entered into a confederacy" for checking the ad- vances of the Inquisition (1566), met in public for the celebration of their worship, and only waited till a favour- able opportunity occurred for breaking off the heavy yoke ^ Brandt, I. 142. The original French draft of the Confession was examined and revised by Adrian Saravia and others. In 1566 it was more solemnly accepted in a synod of the reformers held at Antwerp, wherq the celebrated Francis Junius (Du Jon) appears to have been employed in criticizing it. ' Never- theless,' adds Brandt, 'the Dutch reformed skreened themselves some- times behind the Ausburgian Con- fession, because it was not so dis- agreeable at court as the French or Calvinian, since the latter sect was supposed to be more addicted to tumults and uproars than the Lu- theran.' ^ The organization of the Church on the Genevan model was not, however, accomplished till 1573: see Brandt, I. 308. In the follow- ing year the first provincial synod held at Dort enjoined that the Ifeidelberg Catechism, which is also Calvinistic in its character, should be taught in all churches jointly with the JSelgic Confession: Ibid. p. 311. In 1577 appeared a body of canons and ecclesiastical laws, which are printed in Brandt, Ibid. I. 318 eq. ' It was in 1563 when the Prince of Orange and the counts Egmont and Horn all ventured to remon- strate against the policy of Gran- vella. In the following year they effected his removal (Brandt, i. 145) without destroying his influence. At this time, however, they had not openly espoused the cause of the reformers, but seem to have cherished a project for uniting the hostile reli- gious parties, chiefly by the aid of the learned and conciliatory George Cassander, a native of Flanders, who died in 1566 {Ibid. p. 146: cf. above, p. 88, n. i). Philip II. answered ti^is proposal by sending peremptory o/ders (1565) for the execution of the canons recently framed at Trent (Brandt, p. 153). * On the iconoclastic tumults of 1566, see Brandt, I. 191 sq., and compare the apology of the reform- ing party, Ibid. p. 258. " See Schiller, i. 495 sq. Brandt, I. 167. , The word which may have been corrupted from the Dutch 'guits' is retained in French, and signifies 'beggar.' ' Brandt, I. 162. It was formed in the house of Philip van Mamix (Feb. 26, 1566). ir.j and its Propagation. 163 of the oppressor. But their patience was exhausted during nbthee- the administration of the duke of Alva, who appeared • among them at the head of a Spanish army, and proceeded with the work of violence and bloodshed. It was in the midst* of these terrible disasters that William prince of Orange openly espoused the cause of Protestantism', or rather that of civil and intellectual freedom. Aided by a host of coadjutors, none of whom excelled the ever-active Philip van Mamix", lord of St Aldegonde, he took the field in 1568. At first the heroism of their party was inef- fectual, but in 1579 it had so far prospered in its desperate struggle as to consummate the independence of Holland by rending the seven northern provinces from their connexion with the other ten. In those perhaps the Protestant doc- trines harmonizing more completely with the wants and genius of the people, had been more disseminated from the very first ; and it is certain that towards the close of the century they had become predominant ° in every quarter, chiefly owing to the foundation of the University of Ley- den", and of other educational establishments in which the new opinions were exclusively maintained. ' Still he does not appear to have the Romish religion was formally been actuated by strong religious, con- interdicted in Holland: Brandt, i. viotions. 'He defended the rights of 377. the Protestants, rather than their '^'' One of its first luminaries was opinions, against Spanish oppression; Adrian Saravia, the bosom-friend of not their faith, but their wrongs had Hooker, who was appointed to the made him their brother :' SchUler, i. professorship of divinity in 1582, but 408. afterwards compelled to throw him- ^ Oa this eminent person and his self on the protection of the English times, see Wilhelm Broes, Filip van Church, owing to his strong convic- Jl/orjiia;, Amsterdam, 1840, and three tions respecting episcopacy, which recent articles in the Revue des Deux he put forth, in opposition to Beza, Mondes, 1854, Tome vi. pp. 471 sq. in his J)e diversis Oradibus Minisiro- One of his more distinguished pub- rum Evangelii (0pp. ed. 161 1). A lications is entitled Tableaux des second luminary was Francis Junius Differens de la Religion (La iBochelle, (above, n. i), who after distinguish- 1601), where he examines the argu- ing himself as a biblical scholar at ments adduced by the two great Heidelberg,becamedivinityprofessor parties of the day in favour of their at Leyden in j 592 : see the autobio- lespective creeds. giaphyprefixedto his IFbrfa, Geneva, ' As early as 1581 the exercise of 1613. M 2 lG4i The Swiss School of Chureh-Meformers. [chap. ii. KiiTTjET)- The other provinces might have also followed their — — — '■ — example, had not a future Spanish general, the duke of Parma, laboured to divert the movement', by enlarging the political rights of the inhabitants on the express con- dition that they should henceforth enlist with him in* coun- teracting the advance of misbelievers. Traces of reaction accordingly grew more visible from day to day until the efforts of the Jesuits finally succeeded in re-establishing the papacy not only at Toumay, Lisle, and many other places on the French border, but in districts where the opposite party had once threatened to preponderate, — the rich and populous cities of Flanders and Brabant. 1 SeethecouventionmadeatArraa see Brandt, I. 403 sq. Carte, ffist. (May 17, 1579), in Dumont, Om-ps of England, m. 598 sq. Thiis he JInirersel Diplomatique, v. pt. I. 350. who proved himself at home, aooord- On the murder of the prince of ing to Fuller, the 'patron-general of Orange (July lo,- 1584), the sove- the non-subscribers,' insisted while reignty of the Netherlands was offer- in Holland on the most rigorous ed by his disconcerted party first to adherence to the Belgio Confes- the king of France, and next to eion: Brandt, T. 405. He was re- Queen Elizabeth. Although the called in 1588 (Ibid. p. 423), the latter would not accept the proffered year when English politicians were dignity, she sent auxiliaries in 1586 relieved from the necessity of enter- under the Earl of Leicester, who soou ing into alliances with foreign Pro- obtained enormous influence even in testants by the defeat of the Inviu- the conduct of ecclesiastical affairs : cible Armada. CHAPTER III. CONFLICTS BETWEEN THE SAXON AND THE SWISS REFORMERS The progress of the continental Reformation, to say no- thing for the present' of the various shades of Anabaptism and of other wild and revolutionary sects, developed two OTand types of Christian doctrine, both of which, in all their tw< mat <^ _ -jr ... schools of leading characteristics, have been transmitted from that conti,uhtai period to our own. They ai'e conveniently distinguished as the Saxon and the Swiss, or in more technical phraseology, as 'Lutheran' or Protestant and ' Calvinistic' or Reformed. The earlier struggle of the schools embodying these varie- ties of faith, of feeling and of worship, has been noted in the previous chapters, and in tracing their propagation through' the different states of Europe, many an instance of unseemly altercation and collision were presented to our view. For example, when their founders were reluctantly drawn together at Marburg (1529), for the purpose of ad- justing, as far as might be, the divergencies in their respective confessions, Luther was persuaded more and more that the two schools were actuated by a very different spirit", and that reconciliation was impossible. * ' Ihr habt einen andern Geist ala Dogma vom heiligen Ahend/mahl, ii. wir:' cf. Daniel's OodexIMurg. Eccl. 311 sq. Franoof. 1846), whose work, Reform. Proleg. p. 3, Lips. 1851. however, as Kahnis (Die Lehre vom On the whole history of this impor- Aiendmahle, p. 340, Leipzig, 1851) tant Conference, see Schmitt's work, complains, is not so much a history entitled J). the Palatinate. Perhaps there is no country where the Eeformation gained a footing that experienced so many alternations of worship and be- lief.^ In sixty years it twice adopted Lutheran tenets and twice relinquished them for the conclusions of the Genevese reformer. We have seen* that, notwithstanding the dif- fusion of reforming modes of thought, the Koman pontiff was not actually dethroned in the Palatinate till 1546. The agents then employed were, for the most part, in alliance with Melancthon; and accordingly his modified opinions on the Eucharist and other subjects, as expressed in the Confessio Variata, had obtained a general currency. Being himself a native of the district, he was much re- spected in the university of Heidelberg which he visited in 1557, and thereby strengthened" the impression which the fame of his piety and writings had produced. But in the following year, the ultra-Lutherans who misconstrued his unwillingness to speak distinctly on the Eucharistic ^ Above, p. 99. these changea, which were all effected ^ Above, p. 90. With respect to arbitrarily by the civil power, the Poland, see p. 91, n. 7, pp. 93, Calviniatic teachers that were given 94, and for a specimen of the state to the elector Frederic IV., at the of feeling in the northern states of age of nine years, ' were ordered, if Germany, p. 75, n. 10, where the necessary, to drive the Lutheran word 'Zwinglianer' is meant to heresy out of the soul of their pupil designatetbe Swiss school in general. with blows.' ^ Schiller, Thirty Yeais' War, p. * Above, p. 76: of. Ebrard, U.577. 37, Lond. 1847. After the last of f Ebrard, n. 580. III.] and the Swiss Reformers. 173 question, repeated the attempts to undermine his influence^ Loud in their assertions that the orthodoxy and integrity of the Keformation were in danger, they prevailed in gaining the ear of Otho Henry the new elector (1556- 1559), and on the arrival of Heshus, whom he nominated general-superintendent of the Church in the Palatinate, the old materials of controversy were all lighted up afresh'. The ' Crypto-Calvinist ' selected for attack was one of the deacons of Heidelberg, William Klewitz (Klebitius). There is perhaps nothing in the earlier phases of the quarrel, sickening as they often are, that matches the extreme acerbity of the present combatants ; and Frederic III., who succeeded Otho in 1559, exerting what was now an ordi- nary stretch of the prerogative, endeavoured to suppress the furious agitation by displacing both the leaders, and enjoining silence on the rest. He afterwards proceeded to Triumph of evince a bias for the ritual and dogmatic system oi the viniam. Calvinists, although discarding not a few of the more start- ling peculiarities^ developed by the writers of that school. ^ They seem to have been insti- One of the princes who subscribed gated more especially by the pro- this pacificatory document was Chris- peedinga of a Conference held at topher, duke of Wiirteniberg ; but Frankfurt in 1558, when stung by as if to shew that he believed it con- the reproaches of the anti-reforma- demnatory ofZwinglians andCalvin- tion party, the Protestant princes de- ists, he proceeded to banish them termined to publish a decree (March from his territories. At the same 18), enjoining all persons to hold fast time the Elector, John Frederic of by the Augsburg Confession, and at Saxony, placed himself at the head the same time adding determinations of the extreme Lutherans, and pub- on certain points then controverted. lished a Confutatio (Jena, 1S59) °^ Eespecting the Eucharist it is de- the chief 'corruptelse' and sectarians creed, 'daSB in dieser, des Herrn of his age, including both the 'Syn- ChristijOrdnung seines Abendmals er ergistic ' or ' free-will ' party and the wahrhsiftig, lebendig, wesentlich und Zwinglians. gegeuwartig say, auch mit Brod und ^ On a contemporary dispute at "VVein, also von ihm georduet, uns Bremen, between Timann (above, p. Christen sein Leib und Blut za easen 17 1, n.i i) andHardenberg, a Crypto, und zu trinken gegeben, und bezeuget Calvinist, and its connexion with the .hiermit, dass wir seine' Gliedmassen present troubles, see Ebrard, n.' 582 seyen, applicirt uns sich selbst und sq. Melancthon died iu^ the midst seine gnadige Verheissung, und of this ' rabies theologorum' (April wirkt in uns :' see Melancthon's 19, 1560). Worlcs, ed. Bretschn. is. 489 sq. ^ Ibid. pp. 598 sq. 174 Conflicts between the Saxon [chap. Furiiier vicia- the Gonfessio Vaviata^. nitudes, *' Fresh dir vergenmes between tlie two rival schools: Under his auspices the Heidelberg, or Palatine Cate- chism, so deeply cherished and so widely circulated by the moderate Calvinists of later times', was given to the public. The compilers of it were Olevianus and Ursinus, the former symbolizing with the doctor of Geneva, the latter with Melancthon. They availed themselves of the existing catechisms, especially of one arranged by Calvin for the members of his flock, and of a second which had been constructed by John Laski in 1553. Yet notwithstanding these affinities the work has steered away as far as possible from speculative topics, while in its exposition of the Eucharist it has retained the middle place marked out by In the following reign, however, which commenced in 1576, these changes were as suddenly reversed by the establishment of ultra-Lutheran tenets. Ministers suspected of a leaning either to the modified principles of Melancthon, or still more to Calvinism, were very roughly handled, being driven from their parishes, and even chased across the frontiers. The persecution raged till 1582, when Frederic IV., the new elector, deter- mined to fetch back the exiles, and revive the interdicted usages and doctrines. Calvinism, in its most rigorous form, was subsequently taught from every pulpit; and at the outbreak of the Thirty Years' War, the south of Germany exhibited the shocking spectacle of Lutherans and Re- formed recoiling from each other, in the hour of need, with hatred scarcely less implacable than that which animated both of them in the hostility they bore to Rome'. For, as the century advanced, these two great parties found their principles diverging more and more, and even ^ It is said to combine ' I'intiiiiit^ de Luther, la clail;^ de Melancthon, et le feu de Calvin :' Thomas, La Confesiion ffelvStique, p. 113: see it (German and Latin) in Niemeyer, pp. 390 sq., with the editor's Prof. pp. Ivii sq. The compilers seem to have followed the order of the Epi- stle to the Komans, omitting cb. ix.-xi. ^ Memeyer, pp. 409-411; Bbrard, pp. 604 sq. ' Schiller, Thirty Tears' War, p. 38. iii.j and the tiwiss Reformers. l^o threatening to result in a complete antagonism. Postponing \ox the present the investigation of their numerous liturgical differences, which nevertheless had been produced in a considerable measure by their different conceptions of the Eucharist ^ we may observe again that they regarded the most central dogma of the Incarnation from two distant points of view*. The Lutherans, to establish their peculiar respecting oie ideas 01 ubiquity, had dwelt with special emphasis upon the union of Divine and human in the Person of the Christ ; the Calvinists, in order to evade the force of such an argument, as uniformly placed, a greater stress on the distinctness of the Natures. Thus the former were exposed to charges of Eutychianism ; the latter of a tendency in the direction of Nestorianism. But though such formidable ac- cusations frequently recurred, they were outnumbered by a second class of controversies, relating either to Calvin's Predetuna- . tion; dogma of predestination abstractedly considered, or to its effect in traversing the sacramental tenets" advocated by himself and members of his party. Melancthon who on other points has been suspected of sCpproximating closely to the Genevese reformers, was on this entirely at variance with them''. And the opposition which he offered accord- ingly to the Consensus Tigurinus was perpetuated and intensified by the more rigorous followers of Luther. So and tiw. beat- long indeed as Calvin seemed to take his stand in the »pri Symiul. Eccl. Lutheranm, Pars iii. Appenil. p. iig). The following are speci- mens of the tenets thei-e censured ; 'Non omnes, qui aqua baptizantur, consequi eo ipso gratiam Christi aut donum &dei, sed tantum electos. . . . Electos et regenitos non posse fidem et Spiritum Sanctum amittere aut damnari, quamvis omnisgenerisgran- dia peccata et flagitia committant.' ^ One of the last persecutions inflicted by the ultra-Lutherans oc- curred in Saxony itself ( 1 5 74) . The prince elector Augustus had been induced chiefly by the arguments nf Peucer, son-in-law of Melancthon, to adopt the Calvinistic statements respecting the Eucharistio presence, which were formally accepted by the ' Consensus Dresdensis ' (Oct. 1571). As soon, however, as the 'Crypto- Calvinists' expressed themselves more plainly in their Exegesis perspicua Controversice de Coena Domini {li'n), many of their leaders were imprison- ed, and others had to seek for safety inflight: see Gieseler, 111. ii. p. 267. inj and the Swiss Reformers. 177 Controversies which then raged in many quarters, most of all in the distracted Church of the Palatinate, were pouring rancour into these deplorable divisions ; and it was accord- ingly made obvious that, unless some measures were devised for settling the more prominent and irritating questions of the day, the mighty system raised by Luther and his coadjutors was in danger of exploding. Three persons now came forward to superintend the work of pacification'. They were Andrea, chancellor of the university of Tii- bingen, Chemnitz, the most able theologian in the north of Germany and ecclesiastical superintendent of Brunswick, and Chytrseus, a professor in the university of Rostock. After several interruptions they completed their task at Bergen near Magdeburg in 1577, from which circumstance the Formula of Concord has been termed the 'Book of Bergen.' It consists of two parts, (1) the 'Epitome' or outline of the Christian faith, according to the views of Lutheran orthodoxy, and (2) the ' Solida Declaratio,' a lucid and elaborate exposition of the former. In this trea- tise, coloured as it is by all the disputations^ of the period. After theae reverses, 'Philippism,' or catethetruthagainstFlaoiusIUyrions ' Crypto-CalviniBm,' waa principally (above, p. 49, n. 6) ; the asoond, De found in the Palatinate, in Nassau, Libera Arbitrio, againat the Syner- and in Anhalt. The principles which gistic party (above, p. 49, n. 6) and it continued to avow are stated at others, who appeared to swerve in length (1579) in the Repetitio An- the direction of Pelagianism ; the haUina (Niemeyer, pp. 612 sq.), third, De Jmatitia fidei coram Deo, 'extruota super fundamentum S. against Oaiander and his school Literarum, juxta consensum totius (above, p. 70, n. i) ; the fourth, De_ orthodoxse antiquitatis, ,et scholas- iojiis OjaeriJ™, with reference to the ticorum sinceriorum, cum quibus Majoristic controversy (above, p. 49, consentit et Lutherus, ubi hunc locum n. 6) ; the seventh, De Ocena Domini, [i.e. respecting tbe hypostatic union] against the Saoramentarii (Zwingli, ex professo et solide tractat.' Calvin and the rest) ; the eighth, De 3 See Ajiton'a Oesch.derConcordim- Persona Chrisii, against the same ; formel, Leipzig; 1779, and Pranoke's the eleventh, De celema Prwdesti- Prcef. to the third part of the Libri natione et Ekctione Dei, against the Symbolid Eccl. Luther., where the same (the object being to establish a. work is printed at length. distinction between the praescience * Thus of the eleven chapters con- of God and His predestination, and tained in the 'Epitome,' the first, to affirm the cowdifa'onai character of DePeccatoOriginis,iamea,n\, to Y'mdi- the Divine decrees). To which is K. P. N 178 Conflicts between the Saxon, &c. [chap. hi. we behold the full development of Lutheran tenets under a scholastic and coherent shape, not only as they stand contrasted with Tridentine Komanism and Anabaptism of every hue, but also as distinguished from the characteristic features simultaneously brought out in the productions of the Swiss reformers. The Booh of Concord, where the various symbolical writings of the Saxon school had been combined in 1580, was not indeed accepted with absolute unanimity in all the states and churches which continued to revere the memory of Luther'. Still the principles con- solidated in the formulary of this period will be found to have exercised a very general sway in Lutheran commu- nities at the conclusion of the sixteenth century. added, in the form of an Appen- it excited in the several atatea of dix, a condemnation of heresies and Germany maybe inferred partlyfrom sects which had never embraced the the names of the subscribers (Francke, Augsburg Confession, — Anabaptists, m. pp. ig sq.), and partly from evi- Schwenkfeldians, new Arians, and dence collected in Gieseler, III. ii. Antitrinitarians. pp. 302 sq. An illustration of the ^ E. g. The Formula of Concord way iil which it was regarded by the was not received in Denmark, see reforming party in the Netherlands, Munter, iii. 304, note. The feelings is furnished by Brandt, I. 364, 365. CHAPTER IV. TEE ENGLISH AND IBISH REFOBMATION. ENGLAND. In 1521 tlie English monarch forwarded to Rome a copy bngland. of the treatise he had just completed in refutation of Bmry viii. 'Martin Luther the heresiarch'". On this occasion. Clerk, the envoy ^ who presented the sumptuous manuscript to Leo X. expatiated on the perfect orthodoxy of his country- men and their entire devotion to the Ronaan pontiff; — little dreaming that in the course of the next thirty years an era fatal to the old opinions would have dawned on every shire of England as on other parts of Western Christendom, and least of all anticipating that one of the prime movers in the changes then accomplished would be Henry VIII. ^ Above, p. 33, n. 8: cf. Audin's narrative in his Hist, de Henri VIII. I. 259 sq. Paris, 1847. '-Tlie zeal of the monarch was inflamed and his arguments supported by the leading prelates of the day. Thus Fisher bp. of Rochester preachedat St Paul's (May 12, 1521) 'again y" pernicious doctryn of Martin Luther;' his ser- mon professing to have been 'made by y° assyngneraeut of y' moost re- uerend fader in God y° lord Thomas cardinal of York '[i.e. Wolsey]. Two years later appeared the same pre- late'smoreelaboi-atedefence of Henry Till, entitled Adseriioriis LutJierance Cimjktatio, and also PoW^el's Pro- imgndculwm, the title of which cha- racterises Luther as an infamous friar and a notorious 'Wioklifist.' On subsequent passages between the two chief antagonists, Henry VIII. and Luther, see Waddington, n. 107 sq. ' In 1523 we find him superintend- ing the diocese of Bath (see God-, win De Prcesulihus Anglice, p. 387, Cantab. 1 743) ; and afterwards among the prelates who subscribed the Eng- lish Articles of 1536. His ' Oratio ' before the pope is prefixed to the original edition of the lAhellus Re- gi/ua. Tor other proofs that England was supposed to be uncontaminated by heresy as late as 1528, see above, p. 144, n. I. N2 180 The English aiid Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND, himself, who in return for his chivalrous vindication of the schoolmen had been dubbed 'Defender of the Faith". LoUardiem There is good reasons^ for concluding that throughout i^J'sZuvs." ^ the dark and troublous period called the ' wars of the roses,' a few scattered seeds of LoUardism continued to bear fruit in the remoter parts of England ; nor after the accession of Henry VII., when the authorities in Church and State obtained more leisure for pursuing their repres- sive policy, could the beginnings of a better life infused into society by Wycliffe and his colleagues be entirely trodden out°. It is remarkable, however, that the rise, the progress, and the final triumphs of the English Reform- ation, were not sensibly affected by his principles. They may have, doubtless, given birth to certain undercun-ents of religious feeling which predisposed one fraction of the English people to accept the new opinions : the circulation also of the "WjclifiBte versions of Holy Scripture, and ^ Seethe bull of Leo X. by which by the LoUarda to themselves from i this title was conferred (Oct. 1 1, Cor. xiv. 38 : see Peoock's Bepressor 1521) in Wilkins, Ooncil. III. 693. of overmuch blaming of the Cleirffif, The title itself, however, was not Part I. ch. xi. p. 53, ed, Babington, new, having been applied to previous in Chronicles and Memorials, die. kings, e.g. to Henry IV. (1411); Among other grounds on which they Ibid. in. 334. suffered the following is very notioe- ^ The fullest, if not always the able: SSome for reading the Scrip- fairest and most critical, account is tures or treatises of Scripture in that of Fox, Boohe of Martyrs, pp. English ; some for hearing the same 658 sq. Lond. 1583. Many of his read.' Fox maintains that all these examples in the reign of Henry VI. victims were uninfluenced by the are taken from the diocese of Nor- writings of the Wittenberg reformer wich. (p. 819). See other evidence of the •* Thus in 1485 several persons same purport in Burnet's .ffi««. o/ and OcfAoSone (1534) is under of. the account in Buniet, l. 1 3 sq., the necessity of declaring ib his who is mistaken, however, where he Preface that the document is 'nat says that the abbot published a book put forthe to bynde any of our most ('mistavant un lieu d'un ddcret' is gracious souerayguelorde the kynges the language of the Zaw Report to subiectes.' ' For the clergy of this which the historian himself refers). reahne (whome comenly we have 182 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND. Secondly, the higher standards of intelligence and piety- prevailing in the English universities', especially among that class of students who imbibed the literary tastes and with them the reformatory spirit propagated by Erasmus. Thirdly, the direct influence which had been exerted by the circulation in England of Lutheran tracts' and other publications tending to produce analogous results. Tiieir modes 0/ The first of these three causes would naturally operate most in the immediate atmosphere of the court. It was, however, by no means restricted to that narrow circle : it affected also a large knot of bishops', who, while they opet'ation. vaed to call the ehurche, or the spi- ritaltie) without thassent of y" kynges hyghues, the nobilite and comens of this reahne haue newer had, ne yet haue, any iuste and lawful power to make any constitu- tions or lawes ouer any of our sayde soueraygne lorde the kynges sub- iectes.' This translator neverthe- less declares himself an adversary of the 'new leruing lately spron- gen.' ^ Erasmus himself visited Oxford as early as 1497, where he made the acquaintance of Colet, Linacer, Sir Thomas More and others. He sub- sequently became the Lady Marga- ret professor of divinity and also professor of Greek at Cambridge, under the auspices of Fisher, presi- dent of Queens' College (1505-1 508), and bishop of Ttoche3ter(i504- 1 535) . Another Cambridge worthy was George Stafford, whose lectures in divinity had produced a mighty change in the course of study pur- sued by Latimer : see the account prefixed to Latimer's Remains, p. xxvii. ed. P. S. " As early as 1510 Polydore Ver- gil mentions the importation of a great number of ' Lutheran books ' (Hist. Angl. Lib. xxvil. p. 57: this part of the work is misplaced in the Leyden edition of 1651). In 1521 Cardinal Wolsey issued a mandate ' de extradendis M. Lutheri libris ;' see Wilkins, Condi, in. 690 sq. and Audin, itist. de Senri VIII. i. 275. Other proceedings of the same kind were instituted in 1526, and one of Wolsey's latest admonitions to his royal master was 'on God's name, that he have a vigilant eye to de- presse this newe sorte of Lutherans :' Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, p. 272, newed. Lond. 1852. ' The bishops with the exception of Fisher acquiesced in all the eai-lier changes brought about under Henry VJII. ' In the words of Pugin, Earnest A ddress on the Establishment of the Hierarchy (Loni. 1851), 'the remonstrance' of Fisher was 'un- supported by his colleagues ' (p. 2), and ' a catholic nation ' was ' be- trayed by a corrupted catholic hier- archy.' Some of them evinced no ordinary share of zeal and learning in defence of their new opinions. See, for instance, Bp. Gardiner's 'oration '(1535) De Vera Ohedientia (in Brown's Fasciculm, 11. 802 sq. : of. Maitland's Essays on the Reform- ation, No. xvii. No. xviii. respect- ing the Preface), and Bp. Tonstall's remarkable seiTaon against the papal supremacy (1539), reprinted in 1823. The former of these prelates very stoutly defends the title 'suramum in terris caput Ecclesiae Anglicanse' as applied to Henry VIII., laying rv.] The English and Irish Reformation. 183 » abandoned their belief in the papal supremacy almost bnqland. without a scruple, could see nothing to amend in other dogmas authorized, or commonly advocated, in the whole of Western Christendom. The second cause was felt es- pecially among the thoughtful and more earnest class of academics*, whose extended knowledge of antiquity had strengthened their distaste for mere scholasticism, had widened the horizon of their theological studies, and im- pelled them to more sedulous investigation of the Bible and the Early Fathers. Such pursuits, however, had not seriously weakened their attachment to the hierarchy, the service-books, or ritual institutions of the English Church. The third of these causes, harmonizing it would seem with trains of thought and feeling already generated by the Lollard movement, *was more popular in its form and sometimes threatened to be democratic in its growth and operation. It would act most beneficially indeed so long as it gave prominence to sacred truths which had been grievously displaced or half-forgotten during the inertness of the Middle Ages ; but its balance was destroyed, and therefore it became the parent of disorder and confusion, when it afterwards endeavoured to effect the violent eradi- cation of whatever had been associated in the public mind with superstitions and abuses. Out of these threefold agencies, combined as they f^™j(^^"', have been and modified through combination, rose the chm^ioT^ complex structure known as the 'Reformed Church oi^^aiMnd. England,' whose eventful history has therefore ever since special stress however, (p. 8io), on of the Schoolmen (cf. Luther's me- the phrase in terris, and also on the thod, above, p. 17, n. 7)- He was also epithet Anglicance. thoroughly Erasmian in his advocacy * Above, p. 187,11. I. At the close of the Greek language; and Henry of the i5tU century, Dean Colet, VIII. rendered valuable service to whose life by Knight presents an ex- the same cause by a mandate which cellent picture of this class of minds, he transmitted to Oxford in 1 5 19: revived the practice of lecturing at see Warton, Engl. Poetry, III. 5, 6, Oxford on Holy Scripture instead Lond. 1840. 184 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. exhibited the operation of various elements, instinct with life and spirit, but imperfectly adapted and attempered to each other. The Eeformers based their work upon the principle that Christian nations, and consequently national churches, do not owe allegiance, as a matter of Divine right, to any foreign potentate whatever' ; — ^thus recover- ing'' on the one side the idea of royal supremacy as it was exercised of old by men like Constantino, Justinian or Charlemagne, and on the other side maintaining the com- petency of domestic synods to correct all deviations from the ancient faith which may exist within the limits of their own jurisdiction. The Eeformers, in the second place, secured the oneness of the Modem with the Mediaeval church of England by preserving the continuity of its or- ganization, by unbroken ties of holy orders, by innumerable traditions of thought and sentiment, of faith, of feeling and of ritual, such especially as the Prayer Book has retained in common with the service-books of other churches. In the third place, the Reformers openly directed their appeal to the intelligence and reasoning powers no less than to the conscience of the individual churchman, affirming the necessity of personal faith in God and personal fellowship ' See above, p. 8. archiepiscopum .... Quemadmodum ^ Gardiner in hia De Vera Obedi- itaque lis auo quisque munere fun- entia (Brown, II. 808) has many gena, non detrahere sibi invicem, striking observations on this point : sed auxiliari videtur, sic quod Apo- e. g, ' Nam quemadmodum apud ju- stolis, et qui in eorum locUm succe- risoonsultos, ut loquuntur ipsi, juris- duut, regimen Ecolesiee commissum diotionea interdum variae ab eodem reperitur, id quod antea a Deo prin- manantea non se invicem perimunt, cipibuscommi8aumest,haudquaquaia sed mutuis auxiliis consistentes con- tollitur.' He afterwards asks (p. currunt. Sic quod Apostolis et iis, 811): 'Quoties autem legimus caa- qui in eorum locum suocedunt, re- sas hsereseos apud Csesares et prin-' gimen Eccleaiae committitur, nulla cipea agitatas, ipaorumque examine in parte id quod ante a Deo princir disoussas fuiase? Si antiquas retro pibus commissum eat, toUere, minu- principum leges excutiemus, quam eieve cedaeatur. Neque minor sane multas reperiemus ad religionem et est parochi cura parochiaoorum, Ecclesiam pertinentes ipsorum re- quod curare etiam debet epiaeopus, gum juasu et autoritate lataa, pro- nee episcopi juriadiotio ideo nulla mulgatas, acdemandatasexecutioni?' putetur, quod superiorem agnoseat IV.] The English and Irish Reformation, 185 with Christ, the new Man from heaven, insisting on the bnglanb. right of each who has been gifted with the critical faculty to ascertain the real basis of his creed, and thus connecting a revival of religion with the growth of intellectual freedom and the onward march of man and of society, The Reformation in this country did not spring, like Proximate the analogous events of Germany and Switzerland, from movement. any single leader, though it also was considerably affected in its earlier stages by the force of one great impulse. To understand the proximate causes of the change, we must revert to a collision that commenced in 1527 between the English monarch and the pontiff touching the Romish doctrine of divorce °. The eldest son of Henry VIL, prince Arthur, was married Nov. 14, 1501, to Catharine, daughter of FerdiuE^nd king of Spain. The prince*, however, died in the following April, and his thrifty father, unwilling to restore the dowry of so great an heiress, succeeded in pro- curing a bull of dispensation"^ from pope Julius II. (Dec. 26, 1503) for the sake of marrying Catharine to his other son, the future Henry VIII. The parties were accordingly Marriage of affianced, and their nuptials ultimately solemnized (June ^"^ ^ The following extract is taken reason but because hys holy father- from a MS. Apology for king Henry hed woulde not graunte hym the Till,, written in 1547 ^7 William licence of the new mariage.' Quoted Thomas: 'For, incontinently after in the new edition of Cavendish, Campegio's departure [Oct. 1529], Zife of Wolsey, p. 14.^, liond. i8i2. the kjmge assailed in conscience of * That the marriage was never ac- his first divorced matrimonye, both tually consummated is urged by E0.1 by the law of God, and also by the man-catholic historians; e.g. Audin, publique consent of the whole church Sist. de JETenri VIII. I. 53, of England, and hys barons and hys * Reprinted in Audin, I. 543, commons, preceded unto his second 544. The ostensible object of the matrymonye, without further bribe pope was to cement a union between or Bute unto the pope, so that Cle- the kingdoms of Spain and England, ment seyng hys lyne broken, and But for some cause or other Henry the fish escaped with the hooke or VII. afterwards changed his mind, bayte, like a mad ragyng dog vomited and before the prince was old enough his fulminaoions, and by consisto- to ratify the contract, forced him lial sentence excommunicated both to declare against it. The marriage kynge and country ; affimiyng that was accordingly suspended till the the kynge began to rebell against deathof Henry VII., which occaiTed the Bomayne see, for none other April 21, 1509. 186 The English and Irish Reformation^ [cHAP. ENGLAND. ' Project qf divorce: 3, 1509), soon after the accession of the royal bridegroom to the throne of his ancestors (April 22). One daughter, Mary, bom on the 18th of Feb. 1516, was the sole surviving issue of the union ; and either for this cause alone, or as combined with others', it was rumoured in the summer of 1527 that Henry had become dissatisfied with his position, and intended to divulge his scruples to the pontiff in the hope of obtaining an immediate divorce. The tedious negociations that ensued were still further complicated by manoeuvres of cardinal Wolsey'' on the one side and of Catharine's imperial nephew Charles V. upon the other. But Henry had at length the satisfaction of ascertaining that his case would be adjudged in London, Wolsey and another legate, the cardinal Campeggio^ being the ap- pointed arbitrators. After fresh evasions and delays, both Catharine and himself appeared in open court* at the ^ Many persona, as Dodd remarks {Ohwch Hist. ed. Tierney, I. 176, Lond. 1839), believed that Anne Boleyn, whom Henry afterwards married, 'stood behind the curtain all the while;' but the same writer proceeds to state that in his opinion other motives had 'concurred to carry on the divorce.' Wolsey is very often charged with being the real instigator of it (see Turner, Modem Hist, of England, II. 146 sq. Lond. 1828, and the note in p. 118 of Cavendish, Life of Cwrd. Wolsey, Lond. 1852); while Cardinal Pole unhesitatingly affirms that the idea was originally suggested to Henry by certain obscure divines whom Anne Boleyn sent to him for that purpose: cf. Audin, i. 387. The spirit in which Henry commenced the process may perhaps be more truly gathered from the answer he addressed to Clerk, bishop of Bath: 'The bull is good or it is naught. If it be naught let it be so declared ; and if it be good, it shall never be broken by no ways for me.' Tur- ner, Ibid. p. 162. " Whatever may have been Wol- sey's first impressions, a long letter which he wrote Deo. 5, I5'27, con- tains the strongest arguments that could be urged in favour of the di- vorce (see it in Burnet, ' Records,' Vol. I. Ko. III. Lond. 1681). Partly through his efforts and partly through those of Gardiner who went to Rome upon the same business, the pope was actually induced to pronounce the marriage with Catharine invalid (July 23, 1528); though his dread of the emperor soon afterwards con- strained him to repudiate the bull: cf. Turner, i. 223, 257, on the one side, witli Audin, 1. 456, on the other. ' Henry had in 1524 conferred on him the bishopric of Salisbury (God- win, De Prcesvlihus, p. 353, Cantab. '743) ; and on other grounds it was expected by the courtiers that his judgment would be favourable. He arrived in England at the close of September, 1528. * See the fuU and interesting report in Stow's .^ nnato, pp. S40sq. Lond. 1631. The King's principal advo- cate was Sampson, afterwards bishop IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 187 Louse of the Black Friars, June 21, 1529. It was now England. currently reported that some regular sentence of divorce was on the eve of publication, yet Charles V., who had been lately master of the papal city^ and had forced the pontiff to surrender at discretion, was strong enough to bring about a fresh suspension of the trial till the follow- iuuuun. ing October, and in the mean time Catharine had received express permission from Clement VII. to carry her appeal to Eome^ The spirit of the English monarch was by nature vehe- ment and boisterous, fieiy and impatient of control. He had preserved, however, a large amount of moderation' during the years already wasted in the prosecution of his object, yet no sooner did he hear of the last formidable obstruction than the storm of his displeasure burst, and lighted irretrievably upon the head of the favourite, Wol- fm of sey . it IS a remarkable symptom ot the times that m disgracing this imperious and unprincipled ecclesiastic, Henry VIII. had the boldness to employ a weapon which nf Chichester, and author in 153S of work will be found, 'Appendix,' No. a short treatise De Vera Ohedientia xix. the bull of Clement (March 7, Segi prcEstanda (in Brown's Fasdc. iS.^o), forbidding Henry to contract II. 820). On the side of Catharine, a second marriage, until the first the leaders were Fisher, bishop of shall have been judicially and pro- Kochester, and doctors Standish and perly annulled, as also No. xxxiv. Kidley, the last being uncle of the the definitive bull (March 23, 1534) great reformer (Cavendish, Zife of declaring the original marriage to be Wolsey, p. 127, Lond. 1852). The valid. archbishop, Warham, who had ori- ' E.g. at the outset of the nego- ginally objected to the marriage, ciations he declared that having had yielded when the dispensation was patience for eighteen years, he would issued, and afterwards inclined to ' stay yet four or five more.' Turner, the wde of Catharine. n. 162. ' Above, p. 52. Clement at this * See Cavendish, lAfe of Wolsey, conjuncture earnestly implored the pp. 158 sq. Lond. 1852. Although help of Henry VIII., but the latter his property was confiscated, he was excused himsdf upon the ground that left in possession of the sees of York the war between the emperor and the and Winchester, a small fraction of pope was 'not for the faith, but for his enormous church-preferment : see temporal possessions.' Turner, 11. Herbert's Life of Henry VIII. p. 104, note. 57, Lond. 1672. ' Dodd, 1. 196, note. In the same 188 The English and Irish Reformation, [CBAP. ENGLAND, Jliss of Cranmer. had been provided to his hands among the ancient sta- tutes of the realm, — one of the acts of Prcermmire^, which required that no papal bull should be executed in England till the royal licence was obtained; whereas the lawyers in conducting the impeachment most unscrupulously con- tended that the cardinal in exercising his legatine func- tions had omitted to obtain such licence, and had therefore placed himself within the range of a tremendous penalty. A progress made by Henry at this juncture was the 'means of introducing to his notice the most learned, sober and devoted agent whom the providence of God was raising up for the direction of the English Church at a most critical period of its history. Thomas Cranmer" was born at Aslacton in Nottinghamshire, July 2, 1489. At the age of fourteen he proceeded to Jesus College, Cam- bridge, where after passing through the ordinary course of study^ he applied himself in 1519* to a closer examination 1 Stat. i6 Eich. II. c. 5, in Ste- phens' £ccl. Statutes, l. 89 sq. The effect of the enactment {Ibid, p. 94, n. i) was to put the persona attainted in a writ of prtsmMnvre out of the King's protection, thus disabling them from having any action or remedy by the King's law or the King's writs, andconfiseating all their lands and tenements, goods and chat- tels to the Crown. In the present case, however, Wolsey was provided with the King's licence under the great seal, and therefore one main charge of his accusers fell entirely to the ground (Cavendish, p. 196). He was at last detected in a treasonable correspondence with foreign states (Turner, 11. 297), and died on his way to London, Nov. 29, 1530. ' See Strype's Memorials of Arch- ip. Crammer (ed. E. H. S.), O^f- 1848-1854, and Le Bas, lAfe of Archhp Cranmer, Lond. 1833. ' According to Strype, he was ' hursled in the grossest kind of so- phistry, logic, philosophy moral and natural: not in tbe text of the old philosophers, but chiefly in the dark riddles of Duns, and other subtile questionists.' In 1511 he seems to have formed his first acquaintance with the writings of Erasmus (p. 3). * Long before this date (circ. 15x4) he married, and forfeited his fellow- ship at Jesus College, to which he had been elected in 15 12, He was restored, however, on the death of his wife, which occurred within one year afterwards. On graduating in divinity, he was made 'prEelector theologicus' of his college. Some additional light is throwmipon Cran- mer's boyhood by the narrative of his secretary, Ralph Morice, used oc- casionally by Strype, and of which an extract is printed in the British Maga- zine, VoLxxxvi. pp. 165-169. Much of the archbishop's diffidence and timidity is traceable to 'a marveUoua severe and cruell schoolmaster.' IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 189 of Holy Scripture, and advanced to the degree of doctor ENaLAND. of divinity in 1523. When Henry, five years later, had determined to consult the principal universities at home and on the continent^ in order that he might if possible be armed with verdicts in his favour, Cambridge was included in the list, and Craumer's name among the doctors chosen to discuss the problem. He did not, however, join in the bu opinion a • 1-1 c 1 •■ 1 touching tlie proceedmgs owmg to his absence from the university : but divorce. in 1529 on meeting Gardiner and others of the royal retinue at Waltham Abbey' he expressed himself so clearly on the subjects uppermost in the mind of all, both canonists and courtiers, that Henry was induced to «send for him' and ultimately acted on his counsels. These were that the final adjudication of the controversy should be guided by the verdicts of the uidversities, without submitting it afresh to the chicanery of pontiffs like Clement VII. The Cam- " Cavendish, Life of Wolsey, pp. 119, 1 20 J who adda that 'diverse commissioners were incontinent ap- pointed to this matter, who were divided as some to Oxonforde, some to Cambridge, some to Lovaine, some to Paris, some to Orleaunce, some to Bononye, and some to Padway, and so forthe.' Eight of these foreign determinations, bearing date 1529 and 1530, are printed in Burnet, 'Records,' Vol. II. No. XXXIV.: of. Dodd, I. 200 sq. Turner, II. 1 74, note, on the question as to whether any of the universities were blinded by bribes. * Le Baa, I. 32. For documents relating to the decisions of the Eng- lish Universities, see Burnet, 'Ke- cords,' Vol. III. No. XVI. and Dodd, I. 369 sq. ' See the printed- account ofMo- riee, as above, p. 167. After in- forming us that ' Dr Stephens [Gar- diner], the King's secretary, and Dr Fox, almosyner to the King,' were 'the great and only chief doers of the King's said cause at that time,' he adds that they and Cranmer were 'of old acquaintance, and meeting together the first night at supper, had familiar talk concerning the Uni- versity of Cambridge, and so enter- ing into further communication, they debated among themselves that great and weighty cause of the King's divorcement.' * Strype, I. 6. Cranmer was now consigned to the hospitalityof Thomas Boleyn, earl of Wiltshire, a distin- guished scholar and correspondent of Erasmus, and father of Anne Boleyn, the next queen of Henry. He there com.posed his earliest trea- tise on the great question of the day, contending that marriage with a brother's widow is contrary to the law of God. The work, however, appears to be lost : see Dr Jenkyns' Pref. to his edition of Cranmer'a Remains, p. viii. Oxf. 1833. Owing to his services on this occasion, he was appointed king's chaplain, and archdeacon of Taunton: while the pope, in compliment to his master,- selected him for the office of ' peni- tentiary-general' of England. 190 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND. Cranmer b^ eomes arch' hishop: bridge doctor then proceeded to develope his ideas on the papal supremacy, concluding that in cases like the present where the dispensation was believed to be at variance with the word of God, and the decisions of Councils and Fa- thers, it must be treated as completely null and void. He next consented to appear as one of the advocates of this principle at Rome itself \ where he resided with the king's ambassador in 1530 for the sake of mastering the repug- nance, or of quieting the apprehensions of the pope. The death of archbishop Warham, which occurred Au- gust 23, 1532, resulted in Cranmer's elevation to the primacy of England. At first indeed he hesitated'', owing partly to his constitutional diffidence and partly to his foresight of the dangers that were thickening on his path ; but on the 30th of March, 1533, he was consecrated at "Westminster. Soon afterwards (May 23) he ventured to assert the independence of the English Church more - plainly by pronouncing that the marriage of Henry with Catharine of Aragon had been invaUd from the very first ^ 1 Strype, 1. 17 sq. In July, 1532, we find him at Nuremberg (Secken- dorf, lib. III. p. 41, col. 1) labouring to win over the Lutheran princes who had hitherto been adverse to the project of his royal master (Le Eas, I. 40, 41). '■' Strype, I. 31 sq. Le Bas, I. 51 sq. ; cf. 1}odd, I. 212 sq. Before his consecration, where, according to the Mediaeval form, he had to take an oath of fidelity to the pontiff, he stated in the most public manner under what limitations he recognized thejurisdiotion of theRoraan Church. See the documents in Strype, 1. Append, No. v. sq. One of the limitations stood as follows : ' Et quod non intendo per hujusmodi juramentum aut juramenta, quovis- modo me obligare, quominus libere loqui, oonsulere, et consentire valeam, in omnibus et singulis, reformatio- nem religionis Christianse, guber- nationem Ecclesise Anglicanse, aut- preerogativam coronse ejusdem, rei- publicseve commoditatem, quoquo- modo conoernentibus,' etc. : cf. Gar- diner's view of the same oath, Dc Vera Obedientia, p. 819. * See the sentence in Wi'kins, III. 759. Henry had been already married privately to Anne Boleyn, (Jan. 25, 1533). Cranmer was not present at the ceremony (see Stiype, I. 35, n.™), but on the 28th of May he gave sentence in confirmation of the marriage. The fact that the princess Elizabeth was born on the 7th of the following September has naturally created a presumption ad- verse to the character of the new queen. For examples of the state of public feeling when the marriage was announced, see Original Letters, ed, Ellis, II. 41 sq. Lond. 1825. iv.j 'j.h,e Mi'nglisfi and Irish Reformation, 191 These symptoms of hostility to Rome had been accom- England. panied by a series of parliamentary enactments ^ which not ' only forbade the payment of annates to the pope, and all hreaoh with appeal to his tribunals, but in 1534 entirely extirpated his °™*' jurisdiction with regard to other matters. We have seen that long before this rupture numerous indications had been given of Henry's purpose to curtail as far as possible the privileges of the ecclesiastics', and the stirring circumstances in which he had been placed would naturally suggest the thought of dealing a still heavier Depression qf blow. Accordingly we find him ready to maintain as early as 1531 and during the primacy of Warham°, that all the members of the English priesthood in admitting the claims of Wolsey to the exercise of legatine functions had so acted as to have incurred the penalty of Praemunire. This penalty, however, with his characteristic insincerity, the monarch now proposed to mitigate' on the payment of exorbitant fines and with the understanding that his ecclesiastical supremacy should in future be more plainly recognized by all orders and estates of Englishmen. In furtherance of the latter object he assumed the title 'sole T^^^"^ protector and supreme head of the Church'^ But mem- Head, hers of Convocation who manifested very slight reluctance * Stat. 23 Hen. VIII. c. 20 (a.d. pregsions, and have pointed out oases 1531); 24 Hen. VIII. u. 12 (a. D. where the King was called 'chef '53^); 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, c. 21 terriendel'esglise,' 'chef-protecteur,' (A.D. 1533). arid the like. See Twysden, Vindi- ' Above, p. i8i, n. 7. cation of the Church, pp. 125 sq. ' On Warham's opinion touching Such titles were, however, open to the royal supremacy, see Strype, I. objections on the score of profanity; 29, 30. and with regard to that of ' supreme ' See Burnet, l. 106 sq., Dodd, l. head,' queen Elizabeth formally dis- 232 sq. The province of Canterbury claimed it, substituting for it 'su- paid £100,000, and that of York, preme governor:' cf. Article xxxvii. £18,840. of 1562 with Article xxxvi. of 1552, ' Kings were in olden times not and see Zurich Letters, ed. P. iS. i. unfrequently spoken of as 'patroni' 24,33- Archbp. Parker ((7o»T«spo»<^ of the Church. The writers in behalf ence, p. 479) still •' feared the pre- ofthe 'Gallican Liberties' have espe- rogative was not so great as Cecil's oiaJly drawn attention to such ex- pen had given it her.' 192 The English and Irish Reformation. [CHA.f. ENGLAND, with regard to other changes -would not tamely acquiesce at once in this exorbitant demand of Henry. The subject was repeatedly discussed in the southern provihce (1531), and after a debate of three days> it was. determined that the title ' Supreme head on earth of the Church of England' could only be accepted with the limiting condition ' so far as may be consistent with the Law of Christ'^ (' quantum Moiifledrdor per Christi legem licet'). The act of Parliament*, how- Church and ever, by which this title was secured to Henry VIIL, in ninl power, . , j ' 1533, materially determined the future conduct and com- plexion of 4he English Reformation. It vested in the , crown one class of rights and functions which the Roman pontiff and his agents had previously usurped, though not indeed without continual murmurs, expostulations and re- buffs. Ecclesiastics were constrained in future to acknow- ledge the ultimate jurisdiction of domestic courts': they were to recognize no earthly sovereign, master, or superior, ' See Burnet, i. 112, 113, and licet' had teen fraudulently sup- Dodd, p. 234, with the editor's note. The acknowledgment of the title thus * PolydoreVer^l, the Italian, who modified was made in the convo- was then archdeacon of Wells (Angl. cation of Canterbury, March 2 2, and ffist. lib. xxvil. p. 86 *, Lugd. Batav. in that ,of York, May 4, 1531. 165 1), refers to these changes in the Fitzherbert, Coke and other lawyers following words : ' Interea habetur maintain that the enactment passed concilium Londini, in quo Ecolesia at this juncture (1534: Stat. 26 Hen. Anglicana formam potestatis nullis VIIT. c. i) to confirm Henry's view ante temporibus visam induit. Hen- of the royal supremacy, was but ricus enim rex caput ipsius Ecclesise declaratory of the old common law constituitur, eiqne ob id munus primi of England: seeBramhall, Just Vin- fructus omnium sacerdotiorumvacan- dication, Works, I. 151, 152, Oxf. tium ac eorundem decimse quotannis 1842. And that the subversion of perpetusBassignantur[26Hen.VIII. all church-authority was not contem- c. 3]. Item causarum modus poni- plated, is obvious from the fact that tur, ut reus primo provocare deberet the oath of supremacy was now taken ad episcopum, deinde ad archiepiaco- by Fisher of Rochester, and in all pum, et postremo ad ipsum regem probability by Reginald Pole. [i. e. in Chancery, or to a Court of ^ This is the celebrated Act known Delegates appointed by the King, as the 'Submission of the Clergy,' Stat. 25 Hen. YIII. c. 19, § 4]; (i. e. their submitting to be prose- quo sic In ulla administratione reruni, outed under the prcemunire) : see quae ad Ecclesiam pertinerent, Ro- Stat. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19 ; in which mani pontificis auctoritate minime it is observable that the limiting opus foret,' clause 'quantum per Christi legeni IV.J Xtie JUngksh and Irish Reformation. 193 beyond the confines of the English monarchy : they were England. disabled from meeting in their convocations, or provincial synods, until the metropolitans who summoned them ob- tained a special licence from the crown*. It is indeed unquestionable that Henry VIII. although he fortified his chief positions by adducing precedents from Mediaeval history, was nevertheless outstripping all his English predecessors, and was bent on stretching the royal prerogative as far as ever he was able^ The plainest indication of this tendency was given when he appointed Thomas Cromwell, a politician trained under the eye of Wolsey, to be his own vice-gerent, or vicar-general, in ec- clesiastical matters (1535). Still in 1534: when the extra- Thechangenot ... T n 1 • iubverswecf vagant pretensions oi the papacy were openly called m synodal question and submitted to the test of Holy Scripture, actioru * On the early records of the Con- vocation, see Middle Age, p. 259, n. 8, and Lathbury'a Ilist. of the Convocation, 2nd ed. Anterior to 1533 (i. e. to the passing of the Stat. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19), the archbishop of each province codld assemble his provincial synod at his pleasure, the sovereign also having the right to summon both provinces by a royal writ. The latter was indeed thought by some to be an infringement of the liberty of the Church (see an example belonging to the fourteenth century in Carte, Silt, of England, II. 333), but stiU the mandates of the ^king were continually issued. In 1533 it was determined (i) that convo- cation can only be assembled by the king's writ ; (2) that before proceed- ing to 'attempt, alledge, claim, or put in urte, or enact, promulge or execute any new canons, constitu- tions, ordinance provincial or other,' an additional licencemustbeobtained from the crown ; (3) that such canons and constitutions must be formally sanctioned by the same authority. 5 Thus in the Stat. 26 Hen. VIII. c. r, the parliament empowered him to visit, repress and reform 'all such E. P. errors, heresies, abuses, offences, con- tempts, and enormities, whatsoever they be, which by any manner spi- ritual authority or jwrisdiction ought or may lawfully be reformed,' &c. Visitors (like the ' Missi ' of Charle- magne) were appointed under this act. and during their visitation the bishops were restrained from the exercise of ecclesiastical jurisdiction (see the document in Wilkins, III. 797). At the same time Commis- sions were issued by the king to some of the bishops, possibly to all, em- powering them to exercise jurisdic- tion within their dioceses : one of many illustrations of the temporary confusion produced in men's minds respecting the nature, source and limits of spiritual and secular autho- rity: cf. Cranmer's Worhs, ed. Jen- kyns, II. loi, 102. Two years later {Stat. 28 Hen, VIII. c. 10) the ' oath of supremacy' was drawn up, and all officers, civil and ecclesiastical, the clergy at their ordination, and mem- bers of the universities about to graduate, were compelled to take it, under pain of treason: cf. the ex- panded form of the oath in Stat. 35 Hen. VIII. u. I. § xi. O 194. The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENOLAND. Reformation atjirst con- Jined to the re- jection qfthe papacy. Henry was inclined to pay more deference to the English convocations than the English parliament ; regarding the inquiry as ecclesiastical or spiritual, and therefore being anxious to secure the co-operation not only of the church- legislature, but of all the other institutions which were thought to represent that branch of 'the body politic' called 'the spiritualty". Actuated by such feelings he consulted both the southern and northern convocation, the universities, the cathedral chapters, and the conventual establishments, all of which with only a few dissentient" voices answered, that the Roman pontiff was not autho- rized by Holy Scripture in putting forth bis claim to juris- diction within the realm of England ^ In 1534, however, the Eeformation was still barely dawning on the country. Those who led the anti-papal movement had no very clear intention of proceeding further, so as to remove the mass of errors and abuses handed down from the Middle Age. The first act of Parliament ' concerning restraint of pay- ments' to the see of Rome, declares^ that 'our said sove- ' See the extract given above, p. 8. ^ One of these dissentients was the venerable Fisher, bp. of Rochester, who was beheaded soon afterwards (June 22, 1535) upon a charge of high treason. His main crime was that he refused to be sworn to an oath in conformity with Stai. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 22, binding him to maintain the succession of Ann Bo- leyn's children, and thereby declaring the absolute nullity of Henry's mar- riage with Catharine of Aragon . The next victim of that act was Sir Thomas More, beheaded July 6, 1535. See Burnet, I. '155 sq., Audin, II. 126-180, Turner, ir. 370 sq. Both of them, as we know from one of Cranmer's letters, written in their behalf (Strype, I. 339, 340), were willing to be sworn to the oath it- self, but would not accept the pre- amble. ■* See the documents in Wilkins, III. 748 sq. Eymer's Fcedera, &c. XIV. 487 sq. ed. 1728. Hall, the chronicler, in speaking of these enact- ments and decrees, gives utterance to a feeling which must have been very general: 'By the which,' he says, ' the pope, with all hia college, of cardinals, with all their pardons and indulgences, was utterly abo- lished out of this realm. God be everlastingly praised therefore;' cf. Dodd's method of accounting for the acquiescence of the English people, I- 243, 244. * Stat. 23 Hen. VIII. c. 20: cf. 25 Hen. VIII. V. 21, § xix. where it is affirmed that the country had no intention ' to decline or vary from the congregation of Christ's Church, in any things concerning the very- articles of the Catholic faith of Chris- tendom. ' The same feelings are more largely expressed in bp. Tonstall's letter to Pole (dated July 13, 1536: Burnet, Vol. iii. 'Records,' No. IV.] The English and Irish Reformation, 195 reign the king and all his natural subjects, as well spiritual ejtgland. as temporal/ continued to be ' as obedient, devout, catholic and humble children of God and holy Church as any people be within any realm christened;' and for several years after this enactment few and fitful are the auguries of reformation visible in that quarter. The archbishop, it is true, had himself broken through the law enforcing clerical celibacy, and had married for his second wife (1532) the niece of Osiander, the distinguished Lutheran of Nurem- berg''; yet little or no evidence exists to prove that when the papal supremacy was abolished either he' or any of the king's advisers were contemplating deeper changes in the ecclesiastical system of the realm. The alienation of Erasmus' from the continental reformers must have also Operated powerfully among his friends in England, coun- teracting numerous tendencies to reformation which he may have excited there, and more especially augmenting the distrust of Lutheran principles. A party favourable to such changes did, however, grar Rise of a lu- dually emerge and rise into importance. The same year ''^ ° ^"'^ "" that witnessed the commencement of Henry's negotiations Lil.), with reference to the cardinal's the Alter, and hoMethe of this poynte hiirsh and unscrupulous treatise, De muste [most] after the opynion of Unitate Ecdesiastica (lizi) ; on the CBoolampadious' [above, pp. 1 1 7 sq.]: history of which, see Schelhorn, Original Letters, ed. Ellis, 11, 40, Amcenitates Mist. Eccl. I. 11-190, Lond. 1825. Many of Frith's writ- Francof. 1737. ings were published in Vol. ill. of ° See above, p. 190, n. i, and Le the WorTcs of the English and Scotch Bas, I. 47. In 1534 he privately Reformers, ed. Russell, Lond. 1829. sent for her to England, where she He also distinguished himself by his remained tUl 1539. denunoiationsofthereceived doctrine ' For example, Cranmer partici- of purgatory in reply to Sir Thomas pated in the condemnation of John More's Supplication of the poor silly Frith, who was burnt at Smithfield, souls puling out of Purgatory, which July 4, 1533. 'His said opynyon,' in its itira, was an answer to the wi-ites the archbishop (June 17), 'ys lampoon entitled, 2%c ^^itp^Kcafe'on 0/ of suche nature that he thoughte it t/wAp'^'ars by Simon Fish (reprinted, not necessary to be beleved as an from Fox, in Dodd's Gh. Hist, II, Article of our faythe, that ther ya 4IQ sq.) the very oorporall presence of Christe ' See above, pp. 47 sq. ■ within the Oste and Sacramente of 02 196 The English and Irish Reformation. [CHAP. ENGLAND, with the pontiff (1527) was marked by the appearance of a small cluster of students at Oxford ^ fascinated by the German theology. They seem to have been principally inmates of Corpus Christi College, which may therefore be regarded as the cradle of the new generation of reformers. At Cambridge also men like Thomas Bilney", who was charged with LoUardism and burnt in 1532, betrayed a gi'owing predilection for the new opinions. One character- istic of this party was their wish to see the study of the Bible generally revived : and on the appearance of Tyn- cireid%tim of dale's version' of the New Testament, notwithstanding all tliebmptwes- . i i n • n ■ i n i attempts to put it down , the lermentation which had hitherto existed chiefly in the Universities was rapidly diffused through all classes of society. It is remarkable that one of the first overtures made by Henry to the German princes, who upon the basis of the Confession of Augsburg had entered into an alliance known as the Schmalkaldic league, occurred in the eventful year of 1534. His main object was undoubtedly political, yet by inviting ■•The predilection for Luthertoism yZo, from the Worms edition of 1516. was no where shewn more strongly * E.g. A royal proclamation was ' than in the Cardinal's College, and issued in 1530 'for dampmng of particularly by the members who erronious bokes and heresies and had been received into it from Cam- prohibitinge the havinge of Holy bridge [of. Le Bas, Life of Oranmer, Scripture translated into the vulgar I. 30]. Among these members, John tonges of Englische, !Frenche or Clark had a right of claiming the Duohe,' etc. (printed in Notes and precedence:' FiddeSjityeo/Caj-dmai Queries, ist S. VII. pp. 422, 423). Wolsey, p. 416, Lond. 1724. They Before this date, however, constant studied Luther's own books. efforts had been made to suppress a.11 * The fullest account of him is by copies of Tyndale's translation (Fox, Fox, pp. 998 sq. ed. 1583. Bilney p. 1077). Of the first edition (1525) seems to have exerted great influence which contained 3000 copies, only on the training of bishop Latimer, one is at present known to exist, and also of archbishop Parker. He But from that time until the year was first prosecuted for heresy in 161 1, when our authorized version J527, before Tonstall, then bishopof was put forth, no less than 278 edi- London, but escaped by recanting. tions of the Bible and New Testa- ^ See above, p. 160, n. 2. His ment in English issued from the translation, of which two Gospels press : Bihle of Every Land, p. 163. appeared at Hamburg in 1524, is ^ Strype, Eccl. Memor. I. 225- lepr'mteiin Bsugster'a English ffexa- 228, Lond. 1721. IV.] The English and Irish Reformation: 197 Melancthon more than once to England", he manifested a kngland. less warlike disposition than his previous fulminations would have led us to expect. In the same year also Cranmer actually prevailed upon the convocation of Canter- bury to join him in requesting that Henry would authorize an English version' of the Bible for general distribution, — one example where the various lines of thought, the Medi- aeval and Reforming, promised to converge and harmonize more fully. But in order that the future course of our inquiry may Anabaptism. be cleared and simplified, it must be carefully remembered that in England, as in continental states, a revolutionary party had been fostered in the very shadow of the Reform- ation, They are distinguished for the most part by their general name of Anabaptists \ Many of their tenets coin- ' 'Ego jam alteris Uteris in An- gliam vocor,' writes Melancthon in March, 1534: 0pp. ed. Bretsch. li. 708. See other exemplifications of this friendly feeling in Laurence, Bann,pt. Lect. Serm. i. n, 3 : and cf. Eatzeber- ger'a' contemporaneous Hmidschrift Gesch. Tiber Luther, &c. pp. 79, 80, Jena, 1850. ^ Le Baa, I. 106: and, on future translations, see Anderson, Annals of the English Bible, Loud. 1S45. The archbishop divided Tjndale's translation of the New Testament into nine or ten parts, distributing these among the bishops for correc- tion, andreceivingfavourable answers from most of them, Gardiner in the number. On the other hand, Stokes- ley, bishop of London, who had already shewn his anti-reformation bias, refused to make his contribution on the ground that the reading of the Scriptures was injurious to the laity; it 'doth nothing else but infect them with heresy.' The court perhaps shared this feeling, since Oranmer's design appears for the present to have miscarried. The whole Bible in English was, how- ever, privately published by Cover- dale in the following year (1535). In the June of 1536, the Convocation repeated their request to Henry, and in 1537 we find Cranmer presenting to the monarch with his approbation an English Bible ' of a new trans- lation and a new print,' usually en- titled Matthew's Bible, but in reality the work of Tyndale, Coyerdale and Rogers. Two years later (1539) *^'' same version considerably revised was issued with an able. Preface by Cramner himself, and is therefore commonly known as 'Cranmer's,' or 'The Great Bible.' This publi- cation was fully sanctioijed by the crown, but in 154.2, when the antii reformation party obtained a fresh ascendancy at court, an act of Par- liament was passed {34 and 35 Hen. VIII. 0. l), interdicting the perusal of the New Testament in English to women and artificers, 'prentices, jour- neymen, serving men of the degree of yeomen or under, husbandmen and labourers. ' Traces of them in England occur as early as 1536. In 1538 a royal commission was directed against them (Oct, i: Wilkins, III. 536), and Stow (p. 576) mentions the cap- 198 The English and Irish Reformation. [CHAP. ENGLAND, cide with extreme positions of the Lollards, and it is con- sequently hard to say, in the ease of England, how far the startling eccentricities that meet us at the very outbreak of the Reformation were of native growth, or were imported by the Anabaptist refugees from Germany and the Nether- lands. As early as 1536 the southern convocation^ which assembled on the 9th of June, had found it necessary First »:r!es of to deal with this class ^ of questions among others. The manifesto then authorized may be regarded as the starting- point of the English Reformation, and is certainly a faithful index of the sentiments that actuated the more zealous and intelligent members of the Church. It is entitled Articles to stahlyshe christen quietnes and unitie ainonge us, and to avoyde contentious opinions^. After much discussion*, managed on the one side by the primate and on the other by Stokesley bishop of London, Henry himself through his vice-gerent interposing not a few suggestions^ a com- promise appears to have been effected between the two great parties in the house; for with the almost solitary ture and execution (Nov. if) of of the Articles, Appendix I. ' Dutch Anabaptists.' At a later * There is great uncertainty as to period of the reign of Henry, and in -whether the debate reportedin Fox, that of Edward, swarms of them pp. 1182 sq. took place on this crossed the^ channel, ' evil disposed occasion or in the following year people' affirming 'that England is (iS37)- Baker, Notes on Burnet (oi at this day the harbour for all infi- which extracts are printed in the delity :' see a letter of Sir Thomas British Magazine, xxxvi. 1 79), is of Chamberlayne, d&ted Brussels, June opinionthatthemeeting there alluded 7) '65'; in "filer's England under to was a mere 'convention of bishops adv). VI. &e. I. 379, 380. and divines,' intrusted with the pre- 1 Latimer, installed in the see of paration of the Institution of a Chris- Worcester (Aug. 20, 1535), now tiomMan. Ales or Alane (see above, appears among the leading prelates p. 145, n. 4), who took part in the favourable to reformation (of. above, proceedings till silenced by Cranmer p. 185, n. i). He preached the (Fox, p. 1 184), published an account sermon at the opening of the Con- ofhis discussion with Stokesley. The vocation (Sermons, pp. 33 sq. ed. title is On the auctorite of the Word P. S.) by the appointment of Cran- of God, against the Bishop of London, iner. said by the translator to have been ' See the list of 'mala dogmata' the work of 'Alexander Alane Scot' in Wilkina, iii. 804. (there is a, copy in the Bodleian ^ Reprinted, with collations of the Library), different texts, in Hardwick's Hist. ° Hardwick, as above, pp. 39-41* IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 199 exception of Gardiner, bishop of Winchester, the leading England. representatives in convocation eventually subscribed the formulary^ The names of Lee, archbishop of York, and Tonstall, bishop of Durham, are also included in the list as third and fifth subscribers. It is, however, next to cer- tain, that the northern province, where the great majority of the people were averse to all dogmatic changes, and even to the abolition of the papal monarchy', had not assented to the Articles of 1536. On the contrary, some of the bolder malcontents, both priests and laymen, hearing that ' several bishops had made a change in the funda- mental doctrines,' laboured to excite an insurrection, which could only be appeased by announcing that such alterations were regularly effected; and by exhibiting the autograph subscriptions of the church-authorities I This document, if we consider it as a whole, retained character o.r the animus of the Middle Ages. Some indeed of the ob- lary. jectors noticed that allusion had been only made to three sacraments', viz. baptism, penance, and the eucharist'": yet ^ A facsimile of the signatures is at one time so formidable as to make prefixed to Vol. 1. of Dodd's Ch. Henry think of reuniting himself JiMt. ed. Tierney. Cromwell, aa with Borne (Ibid. p. 474, n. 2l). the representative of Henry, is the On their dispersion in the spring of first subscriber. 1537; very many of the leaders were ' Wilkins, III. 812 : Strype's Eccl. put to death (Dodd, I. 266, 267), I. 247, 248, Lond. 1721. including the three abbots of Foun-' ' Hardwick, as above, p. 50. The tains, Gervaux and Bivaux. agitation in Lincolnshire may have ° Hall's Chron. fol. 228, ed. 1583. been exasperated by bp. Longland's On the proba"ble reasons which made mandate (Wilkins, HI. 829) enjoining the Convocation abstain at this time the clergy to avoid controversial from definitions respecting the four topics, and to preach four times a subordinate 'sacraments,' see Jen- year, 'secundum Artioulos, qui'nuper kyns, Pref. to Cranmer's Wbris, pp. per serenissimam regiam majestatem, xvi. xvii. ac totiim hwjua regni Anglue oleri in ^^ Cranmer's 'judgment of. the Eu- Canvocatione sua sanclti f uere.' On oharist ' was further indicated in 1537 earlier symptoms of rebellion in the by his strong disapprobation of a North, see Turner, II. 296, 297. work on the subject presented to him The Yorkshire and Cumberlanil rebels by the Swiss scholar, Joachim Va- who were headed by Bobert Aske dianus. The doctrine it maintained and others, called their movement was Zwinglian : see Cranmer's letter ' an holy and blessed pilgrimage,' or to the author, Original Letters, ed. 'the pilgrimage of grace,' and were P. S. p. 13. After praising ZwingU 200 The English and Irish Reformation. [CHAP. ENGLAND, these are all handled precisely in the Mediseral fashion. ' ~ Touching the doctrine of justification', which appears to have been already made a subject of dispute, the synod has attempted to preserve a middle course, between the Lutheran hypothesis on one side, and those schoolmen who refused to sever the idea of remission of sins from that of Christian holiness or renovation. In the second division of the formulary, consisting also of five articles, the judgment of the Church is added with respect to what are there entitled ' laudable ceremonies.' It includes a brief discus- sion of the reverence paid to images, the invocation of saints, and also of the doctrine of purgatory, which was now beginning to encounter a determined opposition from the more advanced reformers''. The result however was, that these traditions were in substance and effect to be perpetuated, after the more flagrant and blasphemous abuses of them had been carefully pruned away. suppresHon of Among the signatures appended to these Ten Articles imisesf'""^ were found the names of certain abbots and priors, who may be regarded as the last examples of a race devoted to and CEoolampadius, so far as they logici; but he fails to observe how had assisted in correcting 'papistical the following part of the sentence, and sophistical errors and abuses,' he 'that is to say, owe perfect renovation adds :' I wish that they had confined in Christ,' betrays the touch of themselves within these limits, and another school of theologians, not trodden down the wheat together * See above, p. 195, n. 6, respect- with the tares ; that is, had not at ing Frith. Latimer also in his con- the same time done violence to the vocation sermon (p. 50) has some authority of the ancient doctors and caustic sentences against those 'that chief writers in the Church of Christ.' begot and brought forth our old an- ^ Nicholson, of Southwark, who cient purgatory pick-purse.' The printed 'Lutheran' works, put forth, sermon is indeed one of the best in 1536, a 'Treaty se of Justification commentaries on the Articles put by Faith only.' In the same year forth immediately afterwards, and it Buoer's Metaphrasis (on the Epistle is manifest that the preacher if he to the Romans) was dedicated to had been permitted would have ad- archbp. Cranmer with a eulogistic vanced far less cautiously than some preface (Argentorat. 1536). Archbp. of his brother prelates. Very simi- Laurence has pointed out (Bampt. lar enormities were brought to light Led. p. 201, Oxf. 1838) that the as far back as 1511 in the famous definition in Art. v. of 1536 is bor- convocation sermon of Dean Colet: rowed from Melancthon's Loci Theo- see Knight's Life 0/ Oolet, pp. 289 sq. IV.] The EnglisK and Irish Reformation. 201 annihilation. The work had been commenced by Wolsey", who, under the protection of papal as well as royal li- cences, dissolved no less than thirty religious foundations, chiefly for the putpose of endowing colleges at Oxford and at Ipswich. Hints of more extensive confiscation, which had been thrown out by this unscrapulous minister, were not lost on his impoverished and rapacious master. Crom- well, in his capacity of vicar-general, undertook a visita- tion of all the monasteries in 1535 : and as many charges of shameless immorality were brought against the inmates, more especially of the smaller houses, an act of parliament* was passed in 1535 transferring such of them to the crown as were not above the annual value of £200. The larger houses were at this time mentioned honourably, as if they had continued to fulfil the purpose of their institution : yet ENGLAND. ' Herbert's Life of Henry VIII. pp. 146, 147. The best materials for a history of the series of confisca- tions that ensued are in Three chap- ters of Letters relaxing to the sup- pression of Monasteries, Lend. Gaond. Soc. 1843: cf. Dodd, I. 251-294. In 1532 Henry had obtained a bull from the pope for the erection of six new bishoprics to be endowed by the suppression of religious houses (Bur- net, I. 121), and ten years later five additional sees were founded at Ches- ter, Gloucester, Peterborough, Bris- tol and Oxford : see Stat. 34 and 35 Hen. VIII. c. 17, §iii. Westminster was to be added to the list, and Thomas Thirleby was actually con- secrated bishop, Deo. 9, 1540; but the foundation was soon afterwards deemed unnecessary. This, however, was a small fraction of Henry's sqbeme, as we find from the draft of a bill preserved in the Letters just cited, pp. 263, 264, where he con- templated the erection of nine addi- tional bishoprics. He also converted fourteen abbeys and priories into cathedral and collegiate churches, placing a dean and chapter- in each. These were Canterbury, Rochester, Westminster, Winchester, Bristol, Gloucester, Worcester, Chester, Bur- ton-on-Trent, Carlisle, Durham, Thornton, Peterborough and Ely, hence entitled 'of the new founda- tion.' Another of his projects (JHd. p. 262) as corrected in his own handwriting was to devote the spoils of the monasteries to religious, cha- ritable, and literary uses, that ' Godes worde myght the better be sett forthe, chyldreu broght up in lemyiug, clerces nuryshyd in the universities, olde servantes decayd to have lyfynges, allmeshousys for pour folke to be sustaynyd in, redera off Greoe, Ebrew, and Latyne to have good stypende ' &c. &c. But the ' great spoiler ' was a, ' small restorer.' * 27 Hen. VIII. 0. 28. The num- ber of religious houses now dissolved was 376, their annual revenue about £37,000. In this case, however, the grantees, or purchasers of the sup- pressed convents, were bound to keep hospitality there as in former times. 202 The English and Irish Reformation. [CHAP. ENGLAND, in the brief interval of four years they also were discorpo- rated and dissolved', their treasures thrown into the royal coffers, and their lands all parcelled out among the friends of Cromwell, or the tools and favourites of the court. A few voices, bishop Latimer's^ among the rest, were raised in deprecation of these sweeping measures, to secure, if possible, that some of the religious houses might be spared, and dedicated to pious uses. Advania)^(he In the mean while reformation, as distinguished from such wanton acts of demolition, had effected some mea- surable progress by the putting forth of the Bishops' Boole ■or 'Institution of a Christen Man'^ drawn up by a com- mittee of prelates and divines in 1537. It comprises an ex- position of the Apostles' Creed, the Seven Sacraments, the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Ave Maria, and also of the much-contested doctrines of justification and purgatory. The compilers at the same time felt them- selves under the necessity of discussing other points to which the novel aspect and position of the English church their relation imparted great significance. They contended, for example, cimreh. that the fabric of the papal monarchy was altogether human ; that its growth was traceable partly to the favour and indulgence of the Roman emperors, and partly to am- bitious artifices of the popes themselves ; that just as men originally made and sanctioned it, so might they, if occa- sion should arise, withdraw from it their confidence, and 1 Stat. 31 Hen. VIII. o. 13. By important alteration in the political this enactment the total number of constitution of England : see Miller, suppressed monasteries was aug- Hist. phil. illus. Ill, 218. mented to 645, the yearly income of ' Remains, p. 411, ed. P. S. So which together with that of colleges, far from relenting in this particular, chantries and other establishments the English monarch by act of par- alao dissolved, was not much less liament 37 Hen. VIII. e. 4 secured than £160,000, a sum exceeding the that the few remaining chantries and third part of all the ecclesiastical even the colleges for learning should revenues of the kingdom. Twenty- be placed at his disposal, seven mitred abbots were by the ^ Printed in Formularies of Faith same change excluded from the pwt forth hy authority during the house of Lords, thus effecting an reign of Henry VJII. Oxf. 1825. IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 203 thus reoccTipy the ground on which all Christians must have England. stood anterior to the Middle Ages. It was, nevertheless, admitted in this formulary, that the Roman church' was not unchristian, but that in connexion with other national and independent communities it entered into the formation of the universal brotherhood, which Holy Scripture terms the Church. Allusion has been made already ° to the friendlier dis-S^lir/T- position manifested by Henry and the leading members of "'*™"*' his council in reference to the progress of the Lutheran movement. In the December of 1535 two envoys °, bishop Fox and doctor Heath, whom he dispatched to Saxony, had interviews on matters of religion with some of the more influential of the Wittenbergers'. This discussion was prolonged into the following April ; and although the disputants were still unable to agree entirely, their nego- tiations were reopened under favourable auspices in 1538. On the last occasion three German delegates were sent across to England* (May 12). Many conferences took place by order of Henry VIII. himself, the doctrines of the English church being represented by a select committee of divines. The most pacific member of this body was the primate, J^ow/rustrated. whose convictions with regard to many, if not most of the disputed points, approximated' to the views maintained * See especially pp. 55 aq. The this requirement Henry objected moderation of this statement is re- ' unless certain things in their Con- markable as compared with the fession and Apology should by their atrocious bull of excommunication familiar conferences be mitigate.' launched by Paul III. Aug. 30, 1535 Luther and Melancthon were both (Wilkins, III. 792 sq. ; of. Turner, present at interviews held in Witten- n. 469). berg during .January 1 536, Ibid. III. ' Above, p. ig6. 26: cf. iir. 104, n. 2. ^ See Strype, Ecd. Mem. 1. 225 sq. ' Respecting them and the fruit ' Two of these were Pontanus of the negotiations that ensued, see (see above, p. 58, n. 2), and Francis Hardwick's Hist, of the Articles, pp^ Burckart (Melancthon's Works, ed. 56 sq. Bret'soh. ir. 108), who insisted on * See his letter of Aug. 23, 1538, subscription to the Confession of written a short time before the re- Augsburg as a preliminary to the turn of the German 'Orators,' in his admission- of the English moiiaroh Works, ed. Jenkyns, I. 263, 264. into the Sohmalkaldic League. To 204 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND. Slight reac* tion. headed hy Gardiner. by the disciples of Luther and Melancthon. In the end, however, he was unsupported by his episcopal colleagues, who, mainly owing to the influence of Gardiner' and TonstalP, clung with great tenacity to some ' abuses' which were most obnoxious to the German envoys. It was indeed quite obvious that Henry for the, present had resolved to countenance no further relaxations either in the ritual or dogmatic system of the Church. A brief period of reaction' was commencing. The negotiations with the German envoys, to say nothing of the prejudices raised in many quarters by the dissolution of the monasteries and by other acts of violence, had thrown fresh light on the essential contrariety between some aspects of the 'old' and 'new learning'*; and bishop Gardiner was not the man to over- look the slightest reflux of the tide, nor waste an oppor- tunity that promised to advance the interests of his party. This able ecclesiastic had invariably opposed the Witten- berg reformers, his antipathy increasing rather than abating after his return from diplomatic missions on the continent, by which he had obtained a clearer insight into the de- ^ Gardiner had consistently op- posed the negotiations throughout: Strype, £ccZ.itf em.l. Append. No.LXV. ^ See the 'King's Answer,' written with Tonstall's help, to the German ambassadors on the taking away of the chalice, against private masses, on the celibacy of the clergy, ^c, in the Addenda of Burnet, I. No. viir. (pp. 347-.^6o)- * This reaction may be said to have culminated (1543) in the Stat. 34 and 35 Hen. VIII. c. 1, enjoining that recourse must be had to the catholic and apostolic church for the decision of controversies, denouncing Tyndale's 'false translation' of tlie Bible, restricting the use of the New Testament in English to one class of the community (above, p. 197, n. 7), and abolishing all books that com- prised any matter of Christian reli- gion. Articles of Faith, or Holy Scripture, contrary to the doctrine set forth sithence A. D. 1540, or to be set forth by the king. The influence of the same reactionary school is visible in The Necessary Doctrine and Erudition for any Christian Man (also printed in Formularies of Faith, Oxf. 1825). It is a revised edition of the Bishops' Booh, above, p. 202, sanctioned by Convocation and en- joined by royal mandate. * These became the recognized expressions for characterizing the 'Mediaeval' and 'Reforming' parties: e. g. Cranmer ( WorJes, I. 375, ed. Jenkyns) speaks of 'the best learned men reputed within this realm, some favouring the old, some the new learning, as they term it (where indeed that which they call the old is the new, and .that which they call the new is indeed the old)'. IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 205 velopment of Protestantism. Content with the extrusion englawti. of the Eoman pontiff °, he adhered on other subjects to the ' dogmas of the stricter class of schoolmen ; and accordingly, as soon as he beheld the growth in England of religious novelties that threatened to produce a revolution in the church-establishment, his energies were all employed', and often most unscrupulously misdirected' to evade, postpone ' or counterwork a movement which he dreaded. It is probable' that the ascendancy at court of Gardiner and others like him led to the enactment of the statute of the 'Six Articles"' (1539), 'for the abolishing of diversity of opinions ;' or in different words, for punishing with death, and otherwise, all persons who might dare to call in question some of the more startling of the Mediaeval dog- mas. Cranmer" argued boldly, but in vain, against ih.Q ciu!ched,iu,w- passing of this brutal measure : still its operation seems to mer! " ^ Above," p. 182, n. 3 : to which may be added a vigorous sermon preached on the papal supremacy in the following reign (1548). Gardiner becamemasterof Trinity Hall, Cam- bridge, as early as 1525, and held the office till 1549. In 1538, seven years after his elevation to the see of Win- chester, he was elected chancellor of the University (see Godwin, De Pr(B- sidibus, p. 237, and notes). ^ A good example of his contro- versial powers is furnished by his Declaration (against George Joye : cf . Maitland's Essays on the Reforma- tion, pp. 4Sq.), Lond. 1546. ' See, for instance, the barbarous torture and death of lady Ann As- kew (Asoough) which he instigated in 1545: Fox, pp. 1234 sq. ed. 1583. John Bale also published an account of her examination, Mar- burg, 1546. ' Strype's Crammer, I. 160. The king was displeased with Crantoer and others of his school (according to Strype) ' because they could not be brought to give their consent in the parliament that the king should have all the monasteries suppressed to his own sole use.' The charge recently brought against Cranmer to the effect that he among other courtiers sought to enrich his family by the spoils of the church, is fully examined in Mr Massingberd's Bng- lish Meformation, Append. E, 2nd ed. s 31 Hen. VIII. c. 14. The Arti- cles were first 'resolved by the Con- vocation.' They enforce a belief (i) in the physical change of the eucha- ristic elements, (2) in the doctrine of concomitance, or the non-necessity of communion in both kinds, (3) the sinfulness of marriage after receiving the order of priesthood, (4) the ab- solute obligation of vows of chastity, &c., (5) the scripturalness and effi- cacy of private masses, (6) the neces- sity of auricular confession {i. e. com- pulsory). J" Herbert's Idfe of ffenry YIII. p. 512: see also Mr Soudamore's vindication of Cranmer on this sub- ject: Bngland and Earn, p. 255, Lond. 1855. 206 The English and Irish Reformation. [CHAP. ENGLAND, have been checked^, in part at least, as early as the fol- lowing year. Indeed the moral greatness of the primate shewed itself in nothing more conspicuously than in the charm which he exerted on the boisterous and intractable nature of his sovereign. Notwithstanding the malignant arts of Gardiner his rival, the archbishop never lost ^ his hold on the affections of the English court ; and to the in- fluence that he wielded there we must ascribe the public o/'pTO^rm"^* traces of a Eeformation-spirit which occur at no distant intervals until the close of the present reign. For instance, in 1541 and 1542 we find^ him superintending a revision of the Service-books and advocating the general use of Homilies for the instruction both of 'ignorant preachers' and their flocks. In 1544 a Litany* appeared in English * Maitland's Essays, as above, No. xit. ' See, for example, Strype'a Gran- mer, j. 261 sq. * Strype, Eccl. Mem. Bk. I. ch. 50. In a session of the southern convoca- tion (March 3, 1541: WilUins, III. S61, 862) it was decreed that the 'Use' of Sarum should in future be observed by all clerics in the pro- vince of Canterbury. Immediately afterwards (1541) appeared a new edition of the ' Pars Estivalis' of the Sarum Breviary, entitled 'Porti- forium...nouiter impressum et a plurimis purgatum mendis' (Libr. Queens' Coll. Canib. K, 17, 28). In 1542 the archbishop notified the king's pleasure (Feb. 21: Wilkius, Jii. 863) 'that all mass-books, anti- phoners, portuises [breviaries] in the Church of England should be newly examined, corrected, reformed..,' and that after ejecting ' superstitious orations, collects, versicles,'&c. their place should be supplied by services 'made out of the Scriptures and other authentic doctors.' Portions of the Bible in English were also ordered to be read. And it is further Inanifest from the proceedings of Convocation in 1547 (Ibid. iv. 15, 16), that new service-books had been actually prepared by order of that body during the reign of Henry VIII. Homilies of some kind or other appear to have been also drawn up and submitted to the Con- vocation of Canterbury. Such per- haps were the Fostils on the Epistles and Gospels, edited and in part com- posed by Richard Taverner (1540), clerk of the Signet to the king (ed. Cardwell, 1841). Two of these PosiiZs have reappeared in the authorized Homilies for the Passion and the Resurrection. The Lutheran ten- dencies of the editor were shewn as early as 1536, when at Cromwell's order he translated the 'Augsburg Confession ' and the ' Apology ' for it, 'whiche booke,' he says (fol. 2) 'after the judgement and censure of all indifferent, wyse and lerned men is as fruitful! and as clerkly composed as euer booke was' &c. * The basis of this formulary, which is almost identical with the present Litany, was furnished by a Mediaeval English Prymer (see Middle Age, p. 450), some additional hints being drawn apparently from IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 207 under the same auspices ; and as it was expressly meant by England. the compilers to direct and elevate the public worship of the Church, they must have recognized in its establishment the triumph of one fundamental principle on which the Reformation was to be conducted, viz. the use of ' such a. tongue as the people understandeth.' It is true that efforts of this kind were often neutralized in practice by the oppo- sition or inertness of the anti-reformation school, yet all of them were clearly pointing onwards in the same direction, and were thus preparing the way for deeper changes, — • changes that could only be effected when a kindlier spirit had begun to breathe in the immediate neighbourhood of the throne. Edward VI., the child of Henry's third wife, Jane Sey- Political mour, was acknowledged king of England, Jan. 28, 1547, under JEdward' when only nine years old. Although his natural gifts^ were such as to exalt him far above the ordinary conditions of childhood, he must always have been swayed in a con- siderable measure by his guardians and advisers. Two of these were his maternal uncle Seymour^ duke of Somerset ° Hermann's 'Consultation' (above, bishop of Durham, both of whom p. 63, n. 5, and of. Procter, On the like the other prelates, took out Prayer- Booh, pp. 253 sq. In the royal commissions, as in the reign King's Primer set forth (1545) by of Henry VIII. (above, p. 193, Henry 'and his clergy to be taught, n. 5), empowering them to exer- learned and read, and none other to cise coactive jurisdiction in all be used throughout all his domi- causes cognizable, by the spiritual nions,' the Litany was also inoorpo- courts. The practice was however rated. See the Three Primers, ed. immediately afterwards disoonti- Buxtbn, Oxf. 1834, and Maskell's mied. dissertation, prefixed to Vol. II. of ^ Seymour, then earl of Hertford, theilfoM«me»taiJrtuaKa, Lend. 1846. was declared ' Proteotor.of the king's ^ See the sketch in Lodge's Por- realms and governor of his person' traits, I. 169 sq. Lond. 1849. Ex- on the ist of Feb. 1547, and in the tracts are there given from the pri- following month became ' master of vate Journal of Edward. On the all the deliberations of the council, general character of his education, and in effect the sole director of the see Strype's Life of Sir John Cheke affairs of the kingdom:' Carte, m. (one of his first tutors), best edi- 204. It was owing chiefly to his tion, Oxford, 1820. The. council influence that objections urged by of regency included Cranraer, arch- the princess Mary, as well as by bishop of Canterbury, and Tonstall, Gardiner, Bonner and TonstaU, iu. 208 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND, ('the Protector'), and Dudley, duke of Northumberland, ■whose struggles for ascendancy indeed are one great feature in the political annals of his reign. By the mysterious falP of the Protector and his execution (Jan. 22, 1552), the youthful monarch was eventually transferred into the hands of Northumberland, a statesman -who employed his talents chiefly in the aggrandizing of himself : and by thjB marriage of his son Guildford Dudley to Jane Grey^ the great-grand- daughter of Henry VII. (May, 1553) obtained the sanc- tion of his royal master to a visionary pi'oject for diverting the succession to the crown" in favour of his own con- nexions. state of par- gyt while projocts of this kind were occupying the Church. minds of English politicians, a far mightier agitation had begun to heave within the bosom of the Church. At the accession of king Edward, it was manifest that the eccle- siastics, whom his father had in vain^ attempted to unite by legislative pressure, consisted of two great parties, one of which (the Mediaeval) as represented by Gardiner", the hope of arresting all immediate ^ Ibid. pp. 230 sq. Edward's change, were absolutely overruled. health had already begun to fail in See, for instance, the royal Injunc- the spring of 1552. Uans of 1547, in Wilkins, IV. 3-8, ^ A written agreement, determin- by which, among other important ing Jane's succession and displacing regulations, a threat was suspended the two princesses, Mary and Eliza- over all persona who ' let (i. e. pre- beth, was signed by nineteen lords vented) the reading of the Word of of the council and five judges. Cran- God in English.' mer who at first objected, was even- ^ See Turner, Modern, Hist. III. tually brought over and, subscribed c8i sq. Somerset appears to_ have among the rest (cf. Strype's Cran- been an ultra-reformer on principle, mer, Bk. III. ch. i). A legal deed while Northumberland made use of was afterwards drawn up, to which religious war-cries chiefly to subserve the young king attached his signa- his private schemes, and ultimately ture (June 21) fourteen days before avowed himself in favour of the his death: Turner, Jbid. pp. 333, Mediffival system : see Strype's C^i-am- 334. Queen Jane was accordingly mer, Append, to Bk. in. No. LXXIII. proclaimed July 10, 1553: seethe (ill. 462) where he warns the people notes in Nicolas, Litera/ry Remains just before his execution (Aug. 22, of Lady Jane Grey, Lond. 1825. '553) against ' thes sedycyouse and * See the remarkable speech ad- lewde preachers that have opened dressed to them not long before his the booke and knowe not how to death in Stow, Anmales, p. 590. .shuttyt.' ^ This prelate had fallen under the IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 209 bishop of Winchester, was adverse to all further changes ; enclakd. while the members of the other (the Reforming) party were as anxious to move freely onwards and complete the work they had inaugurated in the former reign. This second class, however, must be carefully subdivided. Laying out of the question a multitude of revolutionary spirits. Ana- baptists and other sectaries who started up afresh at the beginning of the new reign ^ , the party in the Church that favoured progress was composed of elements in some de- gree at variance with each other. One active section of the Affinities wi ii church-reformers, constituting what may be entitled the *''" '^""*'' first race of Puritans, embraced opinions such as we have sketched in those parts of Switzerland' in which the prin- ciples of Zwingli and (Ecolampadius had taken root.^ They bore the general name of ' Sacramentaries ;' and some of their brother-reformers, both here and on the continent, did not scruple to place them in the same class with Anabaptists'. displeasure of Henry VIII., and Ma name was accordingly not included in the council of regency. When the vo^aX Injunctions of T547 (above, p. 207, n. 6) appeared, Gardiner be- .oame refractory and was committed to the Fleet, Sept. 25, where he re- mained tilljan. 7 of the foUowingyear (Carte, m. 2 1 4). He was ultimately deposed for non- conformity, Feb. 14, T5fi, Bonner bp. of London hav- ing already shared the same fate, Sept. 21, 1549 (cf. Turner's remarks, HI. 316, 317). Another influential leader of the anti-reformation party was cardinal Pole, whose quarrel with his relative Henry VIII. on the divorce-question had compelled him to live on the continent. Tur- ner (ill. 2;4 sq.) charges him with instigating a formidable insurrection that occurred in 1549 ; but cf. Dodd, II. 25, note. Cranmer's elaborate. Answer to the Fifteen Articles of the Rthels is printed in Strype, Vol. 11. App. No. XL. " Hardwick's Hist, of the Ar- R. P. pp. 89 sq. On the various shades of Anabaptism, and also on the ' Family of Love,' see below, chap. V. ' See above, pp. iij sq. Calvin does not appear to have been gene- rally known in England until the close of Henry's reign. A list of books prohibited in 1542 as given by Burnet, Vol. I. 'Records,' p. 257 (ed. 1681), is augmented by Baker (Brit. Mag. xxxvi. 395), and in the latter catalogue we find The LytelL Tretyse in Frensche ofy Soper of the Z/orde made by Oallviyn, and also The Wm'hs euery one of Callwyn. 8 Thus in the Postils edited by Taverner (above, p. 206, n. 3) we have the following passage: 'Beyng ones admonyshed of my errour, I wol not obstinately defend the same, but submy t my selfe to the iudge • inent of the churohe which I wold hartely wyshe that other wold do the same. Then these diuerse sectes of Anabaptistes, of Sacramentaries, and of other heretiques shulde not thus 210 The English aiid Irish Reformation. [CHAP. ENGLAND. and Saxon Tlieology. Crcmmer's viewa at this period. On the other hand, the more conservative theologians of this country manifested a growing bias for the Saxon as distinguished from the Swiss theology. During the first two years of Edward VI., archbishop Cranmer may himself perhaps be termed the leader of this school. He was never, it is true, a servile follower of the Wittenberg divines'. The vigour of his reasoning faculties secured a large amount of independence to the measures he adopted : his exalted station in the Church and his profound respect for the decisions of antiquity had equal force in urging him to modify the wilder and more democratic tendencies of Lutheranism : yet, in so far as he had points of contact on doctrinal questions with the reformers out of England, Cranmer was at first disposed to side most -cordially with it. No better illustration of this leaning can be offered than a treatise published with his sanction in 1548, and commonly entitled Cranmer's Catechism''. It is for the swarme abrode. Then shuld the christen church be in much more quiet then it is:' p. 229. (Of. the particulars furnished at this period by the letters of Kichard Hillea to Bullinger, Original Zetters, ed. P. S. pp. 208, 221, 266). In like manner the first statute of the new reign, I Edw. VI. c. 1, contains heavy cen- sures of all persons who ' unreve- I'ently speak against the blessed sa- crament in sermons, preachings,... rhimea, songs, plays or jests,' (cf. Lamb's Collection of Zetters, &o. p. 85, Lond. 1838), proceeding at the same time to legalize communion under both kinds in conformity with a unanimous decree of convocation (Dec. 2, 1547 : Strype's Cranmer, IT. 37). Carte (ill. 219) sees a fur- ther proof of the ' moderation ' of the English Church in a proviso there inserted, declaring that this change is 'not to be construed to the condemning of the usage of any church in foreign countries.' ^ Richard Hilles (a Zwingliaii) in writing to Bullinger, June 4, 1549, was able to report that the prelates seemed, ' for the present at least, to be acting rightly;' and then^adds, with a spice of sarcasm, 'for the pre- servation of the public peace, they afford no offence to the Lutherans, pay attention to your very learned German divines, submit their judg- ment to them and also retain some popish ceremonies :' Original Zetters, ed. P. S. p. 266. _ , ^ A short instruction into Christian Religion, Oxf. 1839. The Latin form of the Catechism is also printed in the same volume: of. Kocher's Ca- tech. Gesch. der Reform. Kirchen, pp. 61 sq., Jena, 1756. The chief Eng- lish variations in the work are an additional discourse against the wor- shipping of images (of. the Manda- tum in Wilkins, iv. 22), and an exhortation to prayer. In Cran- mer's dedication of it to Edw. TI. (also printed in his Worlcs, ed. Jen- kyns, I. 326-329) he expresses his anxiety to have the youth of Eng- iv.j The Mnglisk and Irish Reformation. 211 most part borrowed from a German catechism, and through bngland. the medium of a Latin version made in 1539 by Justus Jonas the elder, one of Luther's bosom-friends. The sacred topics there discussed embrace the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, the Decalogue and the doctrine of the Sacraments, all of which are handled in the characteristic manner of the Wittenbergers. For example, the first and second com- mandments are consolidated into one ; penance or absolu- tion is still regarded as an evangelical sacrament ; while the expressions bearing on the nature of the Eucharistic presence leave no doubt that Cranmer and his friends were not unwilling to accept the Lutheran hypothesis'. The same desire to cleave as far as might be to existing Publication of usages and other traditions of the past, was shewn in the ' proceedings instituted, or more strictly recommenced*, on the accession of king Edward, for the authorizing of Homi- lies^ to be read in churches every Sunday, and also for translating, expurgating and recasting the various service- books^ of Sarum, Lincoln, York and Bangor, so as to land 'brought up and tended in the IV. 4), directing the clergy to provide truth of God's holy Word.' 'within three months after this visi- ^ The only apparent symptom of tation, one book of the whole Bible, misgiving is one that has been no- of the largest volume in English ; ticed by Le Bas (I. 312) where the and within one twelve-months next English speaks of our ' receiving ' after the said visitation, the Para- the body and blood of Christ, the pArasis of Erasmus also in English Latin of the ' presence ;' but this upon the Gospels ;' both of these variation might really have been ao- being set up in churches for the use cidental. of the parishioners. * Above, p. 206, n. 3. " Bichard HiUes makes the fol- ^TheFirstSoohof£rom{lies{twelYe lowing comment (June 4, 1549) with in number) appeared in 1547. Three regard to the prevailing animus of at least, including that Of the Salva- those who arranged the new Com- tion of Mankind, or Justification, raunion OfiBoe : ' We have an uni- appear to have been written by form celebration of the Eucharist Cranmer himself, while those ' Of throughout the whole kingdom, but the Misery of all Mankind,' and ' Of after the manner of the Nuremberg Christian Love and Charity,' were churches and some of those in Sax- the work of Bp. Bonner and his chap- ony ; for they do not yet feel inclined lain: see Pre/, to the Cambridge to adopt your rites [i.e. of the Swiss] edition, 1850, p. xi. The same pur- respecting the administration of the poses would be subserved by the sacraments:' Original Letiei-s, ed. royal InjvMctions of 1547 (WUkins, P. S. p. 266, p2 212 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND, compile one 'use' that should in future be the vehicle of gradual worship to all members of the English Church. The Qm/prayer- whole of these proceedings were conducted under the gene- ^°°^' ral direction of archbishop Cranmer ; still as he was only- one of a select committee to whom the task of redistribution and revision was consigned, his influence may, or even must, have been considerably modified by the suggestions of the other members'. Their first production was an English Order of the Communion'^, which in 1548 was grafted on the Latin office for the Mass ; and it is noticeable that some few elements of the additional service have been borrowed from the well-known ' Consultation' of Hermann, archbishop of Cologne, compiled in 1543 with the assist- ance of Bucer and Melancthon. But this meagi-e and in- congruous form of service was only tentative, being ere long superseded and eclipsed by the appearance of the noblest monument of piety, of prudence and of learning, which the sixteenth century constructed, viz. the ' Book of Common Prayer.' Materials for some work like it which had been brought together during the reign of Henry VIII. were reproduced" in 1547 at the request of the lower house of convocation (Nov. 22) ; and after a protracted conference held at Windsor in the summer of 1548, the arduous task of the committee seems to have been completed. They ^ Some of these ' notable learned issued with the hope of checking men' were Day bp. of Chichester, some of the hotter .spirits: of. Proc- Goodryke bp. of Ely, Skyp bp. of ter, pp. 325 sq., where the paraUel Hereford, Holbeaoh bp. of Lincoln, passages of Hermann will be found Kidley bp. of Eochester, Thirleby at length. bp. of Westminster [seeabove, p. 201, ^ See above, p. 206, n. 3. While n. 3], May dean of St Paul's, Tay- the work of revision was proceeding, lor dean (afterwards bp.) of Lincoln, it was found necessary to repress a Haines, dean of Exeter, Robertson number of liturguial innovations ; afterwards dean of Durham, Redman see, for instance, 'A proclamation master of Trinity College, Cambridge, , against those that do innovate, alter, and Cox afterwards bp. of Ely: see or leave down, any rite or ceremonie Procter On the Prayer-Booh, p. 23, in the church of their private autho- n, 2. rity' &c. Wilkins, IV. 2 1 . Preachers ' Printed in Wilkins, iv. 11 sq. in like manner were restrained or together with a sober proclamation silenced: Ibid. p. 2j. IV.J The English and Irish Reformation. 213 agreed, with few exceptions*, in recommending the First England. Prayer Book of Edward VI., which was accordingly sub- mitted for approval to the convocation and the parliament", and ultimately used in almost every parish of the king's dominions^, 'England, Wales, Calais and the marches oi Further the same' (Whitsunday, June 9, 1549). Before the date of cranmers IT' ' 1 111 nn 1*1 ^^^^ °f ^^ its publication an important change had been effected in the Eucimrii-t. views of Cranmer touching the vexed question of the Eu- charist, ^a question which, as we have seen, was underlying all the controversies of the Reformation-period. Hitherto the English primate had maintained in a most public and coercive form' that, after the consecration of the elements, the outward and inward parts of the sacrament are so iden- tified, that all who receive the one are thereby made par- takers of the other, yet with the invariable proviso that the faithless and impenitent receive a curse and not a blessing. But as early as December, 1548, when a discussion was * Dodd, whose list of commis- sioners is somewhat dififerent from, the one above quoted, contends (ll. 2 8 sq.) that the minority of the bishops were opposed to the revision. He seems to attribute its general adop- tion to the fact that the Prayer- Book carried ' a pretty good face and varied very little, only in cer- tain omissions, from the Latin Liturgy.' ^ Thus in rebuking Bonner, bishop of London, for his negligence, and charging him to ' see to the better setting out of the Servioe-Book with- in his diocese,' the king's council remindhim (July 23, 1549) that 'after great and serious debating and long conference of the bishops and other grave and well-learned men in the Holy Scripture, one uniform Order for common prayers and administra- tion of the sacraments hath been, and is most godly set forth, not only by the common agreement and full assent of the nobility and commons of the late session of our late parlia- ment, but also by the like assent of the bishops in the said parliament, and of all other the learned men of this our realm in their synods and convocations provincial:' Wilkins, IV. 35. After such testimony it is quite amazing to find a writer like Mr R. A. Wilberforce {Principles of Church Authority, p.' 264, 2nd ed.) declaring that the statements respecting the convocational autho- rity of the Prayer-Book ' are so loose and vague as to prove nothing.' 6 The 'Act for Uniformity of Service,' &c. was passed Jan. 15, 1.549 {not 1548): see Stat. 2 andr 3 Edw. VL c. I. ' See, for instance, his opinion touching the proceedings against Lambert, 'a Sacramentary,' and others, in Le Bas, i. 1 82 sq., and his strong censure of Zwingli, above, p. 199, n. 10. One of the earliest proofs of his departure from the mediaeval tenets respecting the eacnficial cha- racter of the Eucharist, is found in the (Queries concerning the Mass (at the beginning of 1548): Worlcs, II. 17S sq., ed. Jenkyna, 214 The English and Irish Reformation. [CHAP. ENGLAND, held upoD. the subject anterior to the passing of Edward's Act of Uniformity (Jan. 15, 1549), he appears to have receded far from this position ^ and to have adopted the hypothesis of a virtual as distinguished from a local presence of Christ's glorified humanity, in close resemblance to that section of the Swiss reformers who had acquiesced in Cal- rddiey on tu vin's method of explaining the mysterious Presence. In tion. this view concurred the able and devoted Nicholas Ridley, who had acted for some time as chaplain to the archbishop^, and was now promoted to the see of Rochester (Sept. 4, 1547). Yet neither of them, as we may conclude with cer- tainty from their adoption of the First Edwardine Prayer- Book, was inclined to question that the Body and Blood of Christ were in some way or other communicated to the faithful in connexion with the eucharistic elements'. The ^ The following account of this important disputation is given by Bartholomew Traheron in a letter addressed to BuUinger and dated London, Dec. 31, 1548; 'On the 14th of December, if I mistake not, a, disputation was held at London concerning the Eucharist, in the presence ('in oonsessu') of almost all the nobility of England. The argu- ment was sharply contested by the bishops. The archbishop of Can- terbury, contrary to general expecta- tion, most openly, iirmly, and learn- edly maintained your opinions upon the subject' [i.e. the Swiss opinion in its modified form and as about lo be restated in the Consensus Tigu- rinus of 1549]. The same writer goes on to mention that the bishop of Kochester (Ridley), who had re- jected the dogma of transubstantia- tion as early as 1545, on reading the work of Ratramn (Middle Age, p. 180), defended the same position, and that the result was a ' bril- liant victory of the truth.' But the bias of Traheron is discernible in the next sentence where he adds, that 'it is all over with Zutheranism' ('video plane actum de Lutherau- ismo ') ; and it is even probable that he misunderstood some parts of the disputation, for in a hurried post- script appended to his letter by John ab Ulmis we read, ' The foolish bi- shops have made a marvellous recan- tation.' ^ See Gloucester Ridley's Life of Ridley, Lond. 1763; and cf. the notes in Wordsworth's Eccl. Bio- graphy, Vol. III. I sq. ' E. g. Ridley states the matter thus (in his Brief Declaration of the Lord's Supper, Works, ed. P. S. pp. 10, 11): 'The controversy no doubt which at this day troubleth the Church (wherein any mean [i. e. moderately] learned man, either old or new, doth stand in) is not, whe- ther the holy sacrament of the body and blood of Christ is no better than a piece of common bread, or no ; or whether the Lord's table is no more to be regarded than the table of any earthly man ; or whether it is but a bare sign or figure of Christ and no- thing else, or no. For all do grant that St Paul's words do require that the bread which we break is the partaking of the body of Christ,' &c. IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 215 animus of that Service-book* was primitive and even medi- englaxd. seval ; very much of the material was drawn directly from the older Offices, and in the portions where new elements of thought are visible, the sources which supplied them were the Breviary of cardinal Quignon", recommended by pope Paul III., and still more the Consultation of archbishop Hermann of Cologne. For instance, the baptismal office was indebted very largely to this formulary, and through it to one of Luther's compilations", made as early as 1523. Such peculiarities, however, proved offensive to one DissaUsfae- -*■ ' -^ _ Ufm with tfi£ party in the Church of England. They manifested what Prayer-Book. was held to be unjustifiable tenderness for 'Popery,' and countenanced, in some degree, those ' Lutheran' rites and tenets', which by the e_xtreme reformers began to be esteemed of kindred origin. The fall of Somerset', at the same conjuncture, tending to revive the hopes of Gardiner and other Mediaevalists, conduced ere long to the advance- ment of the same party; for the vigorous measures taken by the CounciP to defeat the machinations and reduce the ^ It is printed in parallel columns iirdfievos eirl /j,^p KuvffTavTiov SiaTrii- ■with the later versions of the Prayer- pas xpKrrtai'ifeu' inreKpivaro' iwi Si Book, in Keeling's itterj'itB -BWia»- 'IovKmvov yopyis SXXijk iipa'aieTo' ■ idea; Lond. 1 842. Kal avBis neT& 'lovXiavbv xp^<^ri,avil;eiv ^ His reformed Breviary was first ^6e\6' pl\pas yb,p eauTAi' ■n-prji'Tj irpb printed in 1536. In the title it t^s iriJXijs roO eiiKT7)piov otKOV, ira.- professes among other things to be Tijcror^ /te, i^ba, rd &\ai rb aval- 'ex sacra et oanonica Scriptura... Cranmer, whose irresolution had grown offensive to North- England. umberland*, appears . to have remained in comparative msgrent ,.TT Ti'j>'n 111 • influence at seclusion, Jlooper and his tnends were loudly pressing on court. the court ° the absolute necessity of further and more sweep- ing changes. It was owing in no small measure to his representations that the ardour shewn already in abolishing images" and other ' monuments of idolatry,' was now directed to convert the altars into tables', at the same time changing the position of these latter in such a way as to destroy ' the Removal nf • i-ii 111P ■ r> jTi-i Stone-altars. lalse persuasion which the people had of sacrifices. Bishop Eidley, now translated to the see of London (April 1, 1550), had himself conspired with Hooper in the prosecution of this object^; but a different class of controversies being opened" on the designation of Hooper to the bishopric of * See above, p. 148, n. 3. ^ His seven Sermons on Jonas 'made and uttered before the king's Majesty and his most honourable Council,' -were printed in 1550: Early Writings, pp. 431 sq. At the same time Buroher, one of his ad- mirers, wrote to Bullinger (Dec. 28, 1550) : 'Hooper is striving to effect an entire purification of the Church from the very.foundation :' Original Letters, p. 674. * One of Edward's Injunctions in 1547 (Wilkins, IV. 7) required the removal and extinction of 'all shrines, covering of shrines, all tables, can- dlesticks, trindles or rolls of wax, pictures, paintings, and all other monuments of feigned miracles, pil- grimages, idolatry and superstition; so that there remain no memory of the same in walls, glass-windows,' &c. This mandate was reiterated early in the next year, Feb. 21, '547 (=1548): (Ibid. 22). Gardi- ner's view of the matter may be seen in his Letter to Ridley (June 10, 1549) J Ridley's Works, Append. IV. ed. P. S. ' See his fourth Sermon, as above, p. 488. 'As long,' he contended, 'as the altars remain, both the ignorant people and the ignorant and evil- persuaded priest will dream always of sacrifice.' s Thus Hooper himself writes to Bullinger (March 27, 1550) : 'There has lately been appointed a new bishop of London, a pious and learned man, if only his new dignity do not change his conduct. He will, I hope, destroy the altars of Baal, as he did heretofore in his church when he was bishop of Rochester. I can scarcely express to you, my very dear friend, under what diffi- culties and dangers we are labour- ing and struggling that the idol of the mass may be thrown out ;' Ori- ginal Letters, p. 79: cf. a previous letter, p. 72. For Ridley's Injunc- tions (1550), see his Worlcs, pp. 319 sq. His great objects were to secure unifoi-mity and to turn the simple 'from the old superstitious opinions of the popish mass.' He also pub- lished 'reasons why the Lord's Board should rather be after the form of a table than of an altar;' Ibid. pp. 321-324 : cf. Heylin,ffis<. of Reform. ed. Robertson, I. 201 sq. ' Stiype has a long chapter {Me- moritth of Cranmer, Bk. 11. ch. xvii.) on 'Hoper's troubles :'cf the reform- 218 Th& English and Irish Reformation. [CHAP. Vestm/int- cotitroversy. objections to ah early series of Articles. Gloucester, it was felt that some restraint must be imposed upon his revolutionary tendencies. The bishop of London argued ' most urgently and pertinaciously' in favour of the mediaeval vestments, while the bishop-designate as perti- naciously refused to wear them till he was eventually com- mitted to the Fleet by the authority of the Privy Coun- cil (Jan. 27, 1551). The feud was, however, suspended for the present by Hooper's nominal compliance'', and his consecration followed on the 4:th of March, 1551. But this controversy on the number, shape and colour of the clerical vestments, did not furnish the only source of bickering and recrimination. It is now established' that before the close of 1549, a series of Articles of Eeligion had been drawn up and circulated by archbishop Cranmer for the purpose of testing the orthodoxy of all preachers and lecturers in divinity. Three of these Hooper deemed exceptionable, when they were offered to him for subscrip- tion in the spring of 1550^ He objected to the first er's own account in a letter to Bul- linger(Aug. i, 1551): Orlg. Let. p. 91. ^ 'Upon a letter from the arch- bishop of Canterbury, that Mr Ho- per cannot be brought to any con- formity, but rather persevering in his obstinacy coveteth to prescribe or- ders and necessary laws of his head; it was agreed that he, should be com- mitted to the Fleet:' MSS. Council Book, quoted in Strype's Cranmer (ed. E. H. S.), II. 2 1 7, n. ^ The arch- bishop had previously spoken against him (he writes Orir/. Let. p. 81), ' with' great severity on account of my having censured the form of the oath' (meaning the adjuration 'by God, the saints and the holy Go- spels'). ^ His own expressions are remark- able: 'As the Lord has put an end to this controversy, I do not think it worth while to violate the sepul- chre of this unhappy tragedy.' Orig. Let. p. 91. Richard Hilles in writ- ing from London March 22, 1551, informs Bullinger that Hooper had 'yielded up his opinion and judg- ment' on certain 'matters of indif- ference,' and had preached in the Lent of that yea,r 'hS,bited in the scarlet episcopal gown ' \i. e. chimere], some of the bystanders approving, others condemning the costume: Ibid. p. 271. ' See Hooper's letter to Bullin- ger Dec. 27, 1549, Orig. Let. p. 7'. This statement is repeated p. 76, where he also speaks of the arch- bishop and five bishops as ' favour- able to the cause of Christ,' and holding 'right opinions' on the Eu- charist. * He was nominated to the bi- shopric of Gloucester May 15, 1550, and on the 28th of the same month Mieronius gives an account of his exceptions in writing to Bullinger from London. He adds, 'what will be the result, I do not know :' Orig. Lett. p. 563. IV.J The English and Irish Reformation. 219 because it made use of the expression ' sacraments confer England. grace'^, which he would fain have altered into 'seal' or 'testify to' the communication of grace: the second, because it exacted absolute conformity to the Book of Common Prayer °; and the third, because by it he was required to signify his approbation of the EngHsh Or- dinal'. A different class of agencies meanwhile contributed to -^rrimi of , foreign ■ stimulate the feelmgs of dissatisfaction that gave birth to refugus. animadversions of this nature. The Interim * of 1548 and other causes had driven from their homes a multitude of foreign Protestants, who after ascertaining the propitious turn that church-affairs were taking in most parts of Eng- land, hastened to avail themselves of Cranmer's hospitality. Three of the more eminent ° of these refugees were Laski, Bucer and Peter Martyr, all of whom, in various measures ^ See above, p. 130, 11. i,p. 176,11. i, which shew the source and nature of his scruples. It is remarkable, that although the phrase ' conferre gra- tiam' is not used in the present English Articles with reference to the sacraments, it does occur in the Seads of Religion (a series of twenty- four articles compiled by Parker and hisfriendsin 1559: Strype's Annals, I. 216, 217). We there find 'Bap- tisma et Eucharistiam, quihus con- feriur gratia rite aumentibus.' And Hooper himself (singularly enough) in one of his Later Writings, p. 45, employs the same phraseology : ' they {i,e. sacraments) are such signs as do exhibit and give the thing that they signify indeed.' * Alluding, of course, to the First Book of Edward VI. which was peculiarly distasteful to him. 'I am so much offended with that Book, and that not without abundant rea- son' are his words in writing to BuUinger, March 27, IS5°. ' that if it be not corrected, I neither can nor will communicate with the Church in the administration of the Supper:' Original Letters, p. 79. ' In the letter just quoted he de- clares that he had brought forward many objections against the form of Ordination, 'on which account,' he adds^ ' I have incurred no small hostility :' p. 81. The work had only just been completed (Eeb. 28, '549 = '55°) ^y * committee of bishops and others, and was not in- deed appended to the Book of Com- mon R:ayer until 1552 {Stat. 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. I, § 5). * Above, pp. 68, 69. ^ Other influential foreigners with ' Swiss ' leanings, were Dryan- der (above, pp. I04, 105), and Oohino (above, p. 108). On the contrary Paul Fagius (Phagius), promoted to the Hebrew professorship at Cam- bridge, where he died (Nov. 1 5, 1 549), and Peter Alexander, whom the primate employed as one of his secre- taries, held 'Lutheran' principles like those of Bucer: cf. Strype's Oran/mev, Bk. 11. ch. xiii. and notes in the E. H. S. edition (ii. 143, 144). 220 The English and Irish Reformation. [cHAP. Pe&iliar (I'piaioim of tlicir leaders. and in different connexions, we have seen advancing the reformatory movements of the age. While Laski' was per- mitted to officiate as the superintendent of the French, Belgian, Italian and German Protestants, who celebrated their religious worship^ in the metropolis (1550), Bucer was appointed to the theological chair at Cambridge (154:9), and Martyr to the corresponding post at Oxford. (1549). As might have been predicted, these three scholars now disseminated the peculiar modes of thought and feeling which they had imported from the continent, agreeing in their estimate of many subjects then contested, and in others manifesting all their characteristic varieties. For instance, Bucer was a moderate 'Lutheran,' and as such decided in his opposition to the school of Hooper^, and the advocate of loftier views respecting the Eucharist ^ Martyr, on the contrary, had always sided with the Swiss in their comparative depreciation of the sacraments", and after- '^ Above, p. 77, n. 7. Laski'e first visit to England in September, 1548, lasted six moiitlis. He returned in the spring of 1550 and commenced his ministerial labours in the follow- ing July. " See the king's letters patent (July 24, 1550) authorizing their as- sembly and appointing a 'superin- tendens ' and four ' ministri, ' who were to be allowed ' suos libere et quiete frui, gaudere, uti, et exeroere ritus et ceremonias suas proprias, et disoiplinam eoolesiasticam propriara et peouliarem :' Wilkins, IV. 65 ; of. Original Letters, pp. 567 sq., from which we learn that Ridley was a strong opponent of this scheme, while Cranmer favoured it. ^ Thus Burcher writes to BuUin- ger, Dec. 28, 1550, while the contro- versy about tlie vestments and other topics was stiU pending: 'Hooper lias John k Lasco and a few others on his side ; but against him many adversaries, among whom is Bucer ; who, if he possessed as much influ- ence now as he formerly did among us, it would have been all over with Hooper's preferment, for he would never have been made bishop ;' Ori- ginal Letters, p. 675. ■* See above, p. 166, p. 1. Bur- cher writing (May 30, 1549) soon after the arrival of Bucer and Fagius prays that they may not 'pervert' thearchblshop,'nor make him worse.' Orig. Let. p. 652. It is also worth noting that Bucer adhered to the expression ' conferre gratiam ' (cf. above, p. 219, n. 5) which he uses Scripta Anglicana, p. 477. ^ Strype, Cranmer, Bk. II. oh. xiv. gives a full account of Martyr's; disputation on the Eucharist at Ox-:, ford. May, 1549. His own report, ■with an epistle to the reader, was published immediately afterwards, and in recounting the nature of the struggle to Bucer (June 15), he ex- pressed his fear lest the German pro- fessor should condemn the positions he had there advanced (Hid. Vol. II. p. 164). The bishops, in 1550, would not .allow his treatise on the Eucharist to be circulated in Eng^ IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 221 wards evinced his strong antipathy to the Confession of EiraiiAND. Augsburg*: while Laski, whose predilections and aversions, so far as we can gather, coincided on the whole with those of Peter Martyr and the Swiss divines, had shewn himself more tolerant of others, if not absolutely in favour of re- union with the moderate section of the Lutherans'. Owing to these various causes, partly to the spirit which Revision of had been diffused by Hooper and his followers, partly to Prayer-Book: religious scruples ventilated in the writings and disputations of continental refugees, the Prayer-Book had been scarcely put in circulation, when attempts were made to subject it to fresh examination and revision. It is possible that some promoters of the scheme were influenced chiefly by the fact that here and there a non-reforming clergyman' would seek to justify his preaching on the Euchai-ist, if not on other subjects, by adducing in his favour the authority of the Prayer-Book. They were anxious, therefore, to pro- protabu cure the introduction of s^ich changes as would simplify that step. their controversy with the Medisevalist; and both the tone and wording of the Act' of Parliament, by which their criti- cism was ultimately sanctioned, harmonize with this con- struction of the motives then prevailing. Still of those who lish (Orig. Let. p. 561). In 1552 The fifth Beotion begins: 'Because (June 14), he wrote an important there hath arisen in the use and ex- letter to Bullinger informing hia eroise of the aforesaid Common- correspondent that the doctrine of service in the Church heretofore set the sacraments was then exciting forth, divers doubts for the fashion great controversy in the Church of and manner of the ministration of England, many persons hesitating the same, rather by the curiosity of ' an gratia ccmferatur per sacra- the minister and mistakers, than of menta:' see remarks upon it, as any other worthy cause; therefore, edited in 1850, in a Letter to the Rev. as well for the more plain and mani- W. Ooode (the editor) by Mr Mas- fest explanation hereof, as for the Bingberd, Lond. 1850. more perfection of the said order of ° Above, p. 170, n. 4. Common Service, in some places ' Above, p. 171. where it is necessary to make the ^ Such appears to have been part same praj-ers and fashion of service of Gardiner's poHoy : see Cranmer's more earnest and fit to stir Chiistian Works, ed. Jenkyns, III. 93, 99, and people to the true honouring of Al- other places. mighty God,' &c. ^ Stat. 5 and 6 Edw. VI. c. I. 222 The English and Irish Reformation. [CHAP. ENGLAND, welcomed the revision of the Prayer-Book, many persons were unquestionably actuated by dislike of what was plainly stated in the older offices and rubrics. In the southern convocation of 1550 \ doubts were uttered as to the propriety of retaining so many holy-days"; indications were not wanting of antipathy to some of the mediaeval vestments, or the postures and the place of the officiating minister; while other representatives appear to have criti- cized the general structure of the Eucharistic office, and to have animadverted on the form of words employed in the distribution of the elements. Unhappily the records of the English convocation at this crisis were found most meagre and imperfect, even by those who had the opportunity of consulting them before the disastrous conflagration of St Paul's in 1666; but the few scattered notices of what occurred in 1550 serve to throw some gleams of light upon Reluctance of the course adopted afterwards. The lower house of con- iion. vocation was reluctant' to proceed with a revision of the Prayer-Book. On the contrary, the court and more espe- cially the king himself^ were urgent in demanding it. ^Heylin,!. 227, 238, ed. Robertson. sion.' 'Sejlin, Ibid. -p. '228. The acts of the Convocation, he ob- ^ The feelings of Edward or his serves, wereinhis timeveryimperfect. chief advisers may be gathered from " Some of these had been abro- the following extract. It occurs in gated in 1536, on the ground that a letter of Peter Martyr to Bucer 'the nomber was so exoessyvely (dated Jan. 10, 155 1), in Strype'a growen, and yet dayly more and Crammer, Append. LXI. (11. 663); moie by mens devocyon, yea rather ' Conclusum jam est in hoc eovum snperstioyon was like further to en- colloquio, quemadtoodum mihi re- crease.' By the Stat. 5 and 6 Edw. tulit reverendissimus \i.e. Cranmer] VI. c. 3, where a special list was ut muUa immiitentur. Sed quaenam authorized, it is enacted that 'none ilia sint, quae consenserint emendan- other day shall be kept and com- da, neque ipse mihi exposuit, neque manded to be kept holy-day, or to ego de illo qucerere ausus sum, Ve- abstain from lawful bodily labour.' rum hoe non me parura recreat. See the notes in Stephens, Eccl. Stat. quod mihi D. Checus indicavit ; si !• 333 sq. noluei'mt ipsi, ait, efficere, ut quse " 'Answer was made, that they mutanda sint mutentur, rca; per sesp- had not yet sufficiently considered sum, id faciet : et cum ad parliamen- of the points proposed, but that they turn ventum fuerit, ipse suae majes- ■would give their lordships some ac- tatis authoritatem iuterponet.' count thereof in the following ses- IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 223 The fiery sermons of John Knox°, and the obtrusive letters England. of Calvin^, represented in the strongest colours that the ^ Service-Book, as it then stood, was so deeply penetrated by the taint of Popery, that the genuine worship of God was not only darkened, but well-nigh destroyed : while congregations of foreign Protestants' exhibiting a nuder and more simple ritual, where the practice of kneeling, for example, at the Eucharist was discontinued', must have commiae« «/ generated a desire in sympathetic minds for corresponding usages. The pressure of these feelings expedited the nomi- nation of a committee of divines, with Cranmer at their head, to undertake the work in question. Some of the proceedings opened in the autumn of 1550, and Bucer and Martyr were desired to criticize the first Prayer-Book. They forwarded their 'censixres" to the primate early in ^ See above, p. 148. 8 His first letter, written on the appearance of the Order of the Com- mvmion (1548) which Coverdale translated both into German and Latin, was addressed to Somerset Oct. 23, 1548 (Epist. pp. 39 sq. ad calo. 0pp. IX. Amstelod. 1667 : Henry, Leben Oalvins, 11. App. pp. '26 sq.). After reflecting on the 'ora{io pro defunctis,' he adds : 'Sed obstat inviotum illud argumentum, nempe 'coenam Domiui rem adeo sacrosanctam esse, ut ullis hominum additamentis earn conspurcare sit nefas.' Calvin afterwards wrote to the kihg and council (April 10, 155 1), urging them ' to proceed,' and sub- sequently warned the primate against the corruptions still remaining in the Prayer-Book (Ibid. p. 61). ' Some of these (in London) were under the supervision of Laski, see above, p. 220. 11. 2. About the close of 1550 appeared the Forma ac ratio tota ecclestastici Ministerii which he made use of in public worship (of. above, p. 161, n. g). Another congregation of foreigners was tole- rated at Glastonbury, where many artisans who fled from Strasburg to escape the operation of the Interim had settled in 1550. (Strype's Crcm- mer, rt. 286 sq.) Their minister was Valerandus PoUanua (Pollen or Pullain), who published in self-de- fence a Lvtwrgia Sacra, sen Situs Ministerii in ecclesia Peregrinorum etc. (London, Peb. 23, 1551 = 1552). Both it and the Lilurgia Peregrino- rum, Francofordim (ed. 1555) appear to be cognate (if not identical) trans- lations from the reformed services of Strasburg. ^ See Strype's Cranmer, 11. 279, 280; Heylin, I. 225. ^ Strype, 11. 200 sq., 307 sq., 346 sq. Bucer died in Cambridge, on the 28th of February, 1551 : see Orig. Lett. pp. 490, 495 : De Oiitu M. Suceri epistolw duce, Lond. 1551 ; cf. Lamb's Collection of Letters &a. p. 155. His Censura super libra Sacrorum...ad petitionem II. Archi- episcopi Cantuariensis ... conscripta, printed among his Scripta Anglicana (Basil. 1577) is dated Jan. 5, 1551. On the Latin versions employed by these two reviewers, who did not understand English, see Procter, On the Prayer-Boole, pp. 65, 66. 224 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND. January, 1551 ; and throughout this year, especially to- wards its close, repeated traces of discussion on the doc- trine of the Eucharist^ continue to be visible : and even after the passing of the second Act of Uniformity (April 6, 1552), by which compliance with the regulations of the new Prayer-Book was exacted from all clergymen, additio- nal obstacles were thrown into the way of its publication". It finally came into use Nov. 1, 1552, when Eidley ofii- ciated at St Paul's cathedral. Natim of the Many of the changes that resulted from the criticism of ciaiijies- ^j^g revisers may be traced directly to the animadversions offered by that school in England who had sympathized with bishop Hooper and admired the worship of the French and German refugees. The vestments, for example, were in future to be simplified; the formula of exorcism and other usages connected with the administration of baptism and the visitation of the sick were discontinued; and al- though some hints of great and lasting value were bor- rowed^ from the service-books then used in congregations of the foreigners, the committee do not seem to have been actuated in the choice of these by any servile deference^ either to the Saxon or the Swiss divines. With reference to some indeed of the disputed questions" no concession could ^ Strype's Oranmer, II. 354 eq. Daily Service and of reciting the ^ Some of the ultra-reformera Decalogue in the OfiSce for the Holy {e.g. Knox, above, p. 148, n. 4) were Communion : of. Procter, pp. 45 so vehemently opposed to the prac- sq. tioe of kneeling at the reception * See the language of Martyr, of the eucharistio elements, that above,p.222,n.4,andcf. theextraots nearly six months after the book was adduced by Laurence, BampionLect. sanctioned in parliament the ooun- pp. 246, 247, Ox. 183S. oil stopped the publication of it ^ It was during the eventful spring for the purpose of appending an and summer of 1552 that doubts explanatory Declaration to the Com- arose in some quarters whether grace munion-Servioe. Ontheafter-history be really communicated through the of this Declaration, see Procter, p. 57, sacraments (see above, p. 220, n. 5), n. 2 ; p. 140. and whether infants are regenerateil * More especially, the idea of in- before baptism or not. Peter Martyr sorting the Introductory Sentences, himself was in favour of modifying the Exhortation, the Confession and the formulaiies so as to express tie ■ Absolution at the beginning of the views he held in common with Calvin, IV.J The JbJnglish and Irish Reformation. 225 be drawn from the commissioners, because tbey felt that England. relaxation where the voice of Scripture and Antiquity was .unequivocal would have involved a dereliction of their sacred trust. The only office in which change of doctrine seems to be at all discernible is that which had peculiarly excited the displeasure of one section of the Church, — the office for the Holy Communion. Nor is it probable that variations would have been there adopted, if the structure had not been repugnant to the new convictions of the prin- cipal revisers. We have seen the primate gradually aban- ,^™™^''* doning his former tenets with respect to the nature of the ^^ansf* Euchai-isti'C presence, even at the time when he was actively engaged in the construction of the First Prayer-Book. Frequent conversations with John Laski°, and prolonged examination of Scriptural. and patristic authorities, had ultimately induced him to look with favour on the ' Calvi- nistic' hypothesis; and when, in 1550, he came down into the lists to wrestle with the champions' of the Mediaeval vis. that baptism was no more than the visible seal of blessings already imparted to the children of believers, or in a still higher sense, to the elect ; but he goes on to mention that no litUe displeasure v as excited against him because in this view he 'alto- gether dissented from Augustine.' * See above, p. 171, n. g; and Jenkyns's Pref. to his editioij of Cranmer, pp. Ijcxix. sq., where it is shewn that Cranmer's abandonment of 'Lutheranism' in this particular was completed at the beginning of 1550. The very deep interest which the question was then exciting ma- nifested itself not only in disputa- tions such as those above mentioned (p. 223), but in the closets of the pripcipal scholars of the day. Thus Dr John Kedman^ master of Tri- • nity College, Cambridge, who had taken part in compiling the First Frayer-Bpok, stated x>n his death- Hed (Nov. 1551), that 'he had studied of that matter \i. e. transub- E. P. stantiation] this -xii. yeres, and did find that TeiftuUian, Irenseus and Origen did playnly write contrary to it, and in other ancient writers it was not taught nor maynteyned.' Thomas Lever the author of this ac- count (printed in British Magazine, XXXVI. 402, 403 : cf. Strype's Oran- mer, II. 358 sq.) goes on to say that Mr Yonge, distinguished by his zeal for Medisevalism, and who ' was aforetime as redy and willinge to have died for the Transub. of the sacrament as for Christ's Incarna- oon,' now purposed ' to take deliber- acon, and to studye after a more indifferent sort, to ground his judg- ment better then upon a common consent of manye, that have borne y" name of y° church.' ' ffis Defence of the true and ca- tholic doctrine of the sacrament of the body and blood of our Saviour Christ is among his Works, ed.. Jeukyns, 11. 275 sq. He had pro- bably in his eye Bishpp Fisher's 226 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND, dogma, it was obvious that his principles, in this particular at least, had reached their full development (1550). As Cranmer had devoted long anfl patient study to the Eucha- ristic controversy, so he v?rote upon it with no ordinary power and precision. Still his treatises being from the nature of the case destructive and polemical^ it is easier to determine how much he had repudiated than how much he was prepared to welcome and retain. He vigorously denounces four positions", (1) that after the consecration of the elements there is no other substance remaining but the substance of Christ's flesh and blood ; (2) that the very natural flesh and blood of Christ, which suffered for us on the cross and ascended into heaven, is also really, substan- tially, corporally and naturally, in or under the accidents of bread and wine; (3) that evil and ungodly men receive the very body and blood of Christ ; and (4) that Christ is offered daily in the mass for the remission of sins, and that the merits of His passion are thereby distributed to the communicants. He argued' that Christ is figuratively in the bread and wine, and spiritually in them that worthily eat and drink the bread and wine ; but, on the other hand, treatise De Eucha/riitia contra Jo- phamaitis impeti solet, published at han. (Ecolampadivm, but still more Paris in 1552, under the name of Gardiner's Detection of the DeviVs Marcus Antonius Constantius, a Sophistrie, published in 1546. The divine of Louvain. Cranmer was archbishop's work was answered preparing a second rpply just before (i) by Smythe, late regiua professor the death of Edward YI. (Jenkyns a of Divinity at Oxford, who had writ- Ptef. p. xcvii.). ten two works on the controversy as ^ ' What,' he asks in the preface early aa 1546, and (i) by Gardiner to Ma Defence (n. 289), 'whatavail- himself in his Explication and As- eth it to take away beads, pardons, sertion of tJietriie Catholic Faith touch- pilgrimages and such other like po- ing the most blessed Sacrament of the pery, so long as two chief roots Altar {i$$i). Cranmer no w replied, remain unpulled up ?' These 'roots in his Answer unto a crafty and so- of the weeds,' are the doctrine of phistical caviUation devised iy StC' transubstantiation and 'the sacrifice phen Gardynef late hishop of Win- and oblation of Christ made by the Chester, &c. (ed. Jenkyns, lir. 25 sq. ), priest for the salvation of the quick which was followed by Gardiner' ■< and dead.' rejoinder in Latin, Confutatio Oav'd- ^ Worhs, ed. Jenkyns, il. 308 sq. lationum, quihus sacrosanctum Eucha- ' Ibid, p. 401, hsticB sacramentum ab im^is Ca- IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. , 227 contended that our blessed Lord is really, carnally and England. corporally in heaven alone, from whence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. Throughout these controversies Cranmer uniformly maintained that his belief* was grounded on the Word of God ('wherein can be no error y, and confirmed by thq unanim_ous testimony of the Primitive Church. His reve- rence for the Holy Bible and the witness of Antiquity is visible indeed where some expressions which escaped him in the heat of controversy, have departed from the language of the ancient standards. Thus when he objected to the phrase 'real presence '°, it is obvious from the context that his animadversions were directed against the notion of a merely physical and organic presence'; when he speaks as though the elements were simply figures of an absent Saviour, quickening men's belief in Him and symbolizing His flesh and blood, there is no lack of passages in which the Eucharist is also represented as the means by which ^ Thus in the very title of hia De- face; Ibid. nr. 3. fence, he adds, ' grounded and sta- ^ For example, in the Preface to blished upon God's most holy Word his Defence, p. 289 and elsewhere, and approved by the consent of the ' Perhaps Bp. Ridley, who had ma- most ancient doctors of the Church.' terially influenced the development Towards the close of the same work of Cranmer's ideas on this question, he distinguishes between the verdict ia one of the best expositors of his of the Apostles and Primitive Fa- meaning. In the ' last examination thers and the 'new devices' which before the commissioners' (Ridley's the writers of the Middle Ages in- Wm-hs, ed. P. S. p. 274), there ia a troduced, adding (p. 463) with re- debate respecting this use of the spect to the Communion OfiSce in word 'real.' Ridley's conclusion is the English Prayer-Book (i. e. the as follows : ' I answer, that in the First Book of Edward YI.): 'Thanks sacrament of the altar is the natural be to the eternal God, the manner of body and blood of Christ mre et the Holy Communion, which is now realiter, indeed and really, for spi- set forth within this realm, is agree- rituaUy, by grace and efficacy ; for able with the institution of Christ, so every worthy receiver receiveth with St Paul, and with the old pri- the very true body of Christ. But mitive and apostolic Church.' See if you mean really and indeed, so also his remarkable appeal, with that thereby you would include a reference to his teaching on this and lively and a moveable body under other subjects, uttered just before the forms of bread and wine, then, hia death. Ibid. IV. 1 26. . in that sense, is not Christ's body ia ° Answer to Richard Smythe's Pre- the sacrament really and indeed.' Q 2 228 The English and Irish Reformatidh. [chap. ENGLAND, some vast and supernatural blessing is communicated to the spirit' of the faithful recipient. wodificatiun Such was probablv the. state of mind in which the of tm Co7nmu~ ^ . nion-smice. archbishop and some of his more active coadjutors now resolved to modify the structure of the Eucharistic office in the first Edwardine' Prayer-Book. They approached the task allotted to them under strong excitement, not indeed persuaded that the office then in use was absolutely" un- justifiable, but prompted by a gradual modification of their own feelings and ideas to alter some particulars which gave a handle to objections on the one side, and offended scru- ples on the other. And the changes ultimately brought about are found to correspond with this construction. To say nothing of the less material additions, substitutions and suppressions, the new office omitted the formal invocation ■ (eTTt'/cXT^crt?) of tiie Holy Ghost upon the elements, converted ' ThuB at the opening of his Defence he has in his mind the aberrations of a party by whom the Eucharist 'hath been very lightly esteemed, or rather contemned and despised, as a thing oi small or of none eiJect' (p. 292), as well as of the opposite party by whom that holy institution was 'abused.' In p. 306, he asks: 'What thing then can be more comfortable to us than to eat this meat and drink this drink ? "Whereby Christ certifieth us, that we be spiritually and truly fed and nourished by Him, and that we dwell in Him, and He in us. Can this be showed unto us more plainly than when He saith himself, He that eateth me, shall live by me ! Where- fore whosoever doth not contemn the everlasting life, how can ie but highly esteem this sacrament ?' In pp. 437, 438 it is affirmed, 'Foras- much as the bread and wine in the Lord's Supper do represent .unto us the very body and blood of our Sa- viour Christ, by His own institution and ordinance ; therefore, although He sit in heaven at His Father's right hand, yet should we come to this mystical bread and wine with faith, reverence, purity and fear, ns we should do, if we should come to see and receive Christ Himself sen- sibly present. For unto the faithful, Christ is at His own holy table pre- sent with His mighty Spirit and grace, and is of them more fruitfully received than if corporally tliey should receive Him bodily present... And they that come otherwise to this holy table, they come unworthily, and do not eat and djink Christ's flesh and blood, but eat and drink their own damnation ; because they do not duly consider Christ's very flesh and blood which be offered there spiritually to be eaten and drunken, but despising Christ's most holy Sapper, do come thereto as it were to other common meats and drinks, without regard to the Lord'< body, which is the spiritual meat ui that table.' _ " See Cranmer's language just cited, p. 227, n. 4: and of. above, p. 222. iv.J The English and Irish Refor'rhation. 229 the prayer of oblation into a thanksgiving, and replaced England. the ancient words made use of. at the delivery of the ele- ments, ' The Body of our Lord' Jesus Christ,' &c. by ' Take and eat this in remembrance that Christ died for thee.' In the last example, the old formula was quite compatible with a belief in transubstantiation : the new formula, on the contrary, was made consistent even with the lax hypo- thesis of Zwingli. Yet the 'Tarious modifications thus effected wrought no very serious changes in the character of the Prayer-Book. It was still, in all its leading features and in the great bulk of its materials, an accumulation of ancient wisdom, a bequest of ancient piety: it was the form of words and bond of faith uniting English worshippers with saints and martyrs of antiquity ; it was ' the Primitive Church speaking to thei generations of these latter days". -^ • Allusion has been made already to a series of Articles^ Oewmi cm- which Cranmer had begun to use m his own province as .•?'<»»<'»• early as 1549. A test of this description had become more needful in proportion sts the growth of the Eeforming party excited deadlier opposition, and as members of it were themselves developing eccentric institutions and irregular modes of action. The Prayer-Book, it is true, supplied one valuable test of orthodoxy, and one powerful instru- ment for steadying the belief as well as guiding the devo- tions of the English people: but in order to secure an adequate amount of harmony in preachers, lecturers and others similarly occupiedj the want of something more concise in shape and definite in phraseology was felt by many of the English prelates. There is reason to believe that such a manifesto would have been regularly autho- rized soon after the accession of King Edward, had not Cranmer' cherished an idea of drawing the continental ' Professor Blunt's i'oMr /Sfef moras, from the Privy Council: see the pp. p5 sq. Camb. 1850. royal order for subscription in Wil- * Above, p. 218. These were pos- kins, iv. 63. sibly the same as the string of Arti- ^ The credit of the plan, how- cles sent to Gardiner (July 8, 1550), ever, seems to be Melanothon's : see 230 T]ie English and Irish -Reformation. [ohap. ENGLAND, Protestaiits together, and uniting them in one communion ■ with the English Church. This fusion was in truth attemptedS in some measure, as early as 1538, when cer- tain Lutherans were invited to discuss the controversies o£ the day with a select committee of English prelates and divines, and on the subsequent revivaP of the scheme the Articles drawn up on that occasion might have furnished a convenient basis for the conferences. Melancthon, who. was then the medium of communication, was also requested^ to attend the, congress of 1548. He seems, however, to have treated the idea as visionary and impracticable, owing probably to the experience he had gathered after sharing in the failures of like projects on the continent. For Cran- mer did not limit his invitations to one school of theolo- gians^ Bucer, Fagius, Martyr, Laski, Dryander, Calvin and BuUinger were all solicited to aid in the adjustment of disputed questions, more especially of that which in the- Laurence, Bampt. Lectures, pp. 222 sq. ^ See above, p. 203. ^ Melancthon wrote in favour of it to Henry VIII. March 26, 1539, and ag.nin in 1542 expressing him- self as follows on this last occasion: 'Quod autem ssepe optavi, ut ali- quando auctoritate seu regum, sen aliorum piorum principum, convocati viri docti de coniroversiis omnibus liiere coUoquereatur, et relinquerent posteris firniam et perspiouam doc- trinara, idem adhuc opto.' See other evidence to the same effect in Lau- rence, as above, pp. 224 sq. ^ Cianmer in writing to John Laski (July 4, 1 548 : 'Works, ed. Jenkj'ns, I. 330) urges him to bring Melancthon with him ('si ullo modo fieri potent'): and a letter written to Melancthon himself (Feb. 10, 1549- '55°: l^A. I. 337) repeats the invitation : ' Multi enim pii doe- tique viri partim ex Italia [e. g. Mar- tyr and Ochiuo], partim ex Germania \e. g. Bucer and Fagius] ad nos con- venerunt et plnres quotidie expecta- mus, cujus ecclesis3 chorum si ipse tua proesentia omare et augere non gravaberis, baud scio qua ratione gloriam Dei magis illustrare poteris.' As late as March 27, 1552, the same point is pressed in another letter of great interest (Ihid. I. 348) from which we learn that the 'causa saoramentaria ' was still agitated, and that BuUinger had been invited. ^ See Laski's letter to Harden- berg (July 19, 1548) of which an extract is printed in Jenkyns's Gran- mer, i. 330 n. °. Cranmer himself, writing to Laski in the same month (as above, n. 3), gives the following account of his motives in planning the conference, and of his wishes with respect to the management of it : ' Cupimus nostris eoclesiis veram de Deo doctrinam proponere, nee volumus cotburnos facere aut ambi- guitatibus ludere; sed semota omni prudentia camis, veram perspicuam, saorarum literarum normse oonveni- entem doctrinse formam ad posteros transmittere, ' etc. iv.J The English and Irish Reformation. 231 Eeformation-period was tlie source of many others, — ^the England,, doctrine of the Eucharist. Occasional notices importing that such a conference, Compilation , . . , . . of the Articles though postponed from time to time, had not entirely of Religion. vanished from men's thoughts are traceable'" until the spring of 1553. Yet long before this date effectual mea- sures had been taken by the English primate and his friends to remedy the inconvenience that resulted from the want of some authorized Confession. It is also most remarkable that notwithstanding the decided bias of one party in favour of the Swiss divines, the model chosen for the guidance of the compilers was a Lutheran document, the celebrated Confession drawn up at Augsburg in 1 530, or rather a string of Articles ° derived from it, with sundry adaptations and expansions, during the visit of the Lutheran envoys in 1538. Accordingly, the animus of the English series published in 1553 is found to be accordant in the main' with Saxon rather than with Swiss theology. The obiect of archbishop Cranmer, who had been iai- -^nimue of tiie mally instructed by the court in 1551 to undertake the framing, or at least re-casting^ of this manifesto, was to ' The last trace occurs in a letter compiled in 155' *i"J iSS'i ^^^ been from Cranmer to Calvin (dated March already circulated by individual bi- 20> 1552 = 1553): TToria, I. 346. shops on their own authority. Such 8 The 'Thirteen Articles' of 15 38 may have been Cranmer's series of are reprinted in Hardvf ick's Hist, of which mention is made above, p. ■! 1 8. the Articles, Append. 11.: cf. pp. 61 SuohwereunquestionablytheArticles sq. of the same work. used by Hooper in visiting his dio- ' The chief exception is in the ceses, as we know from the 'iJesjiow- 29th Article of the series ('Of the sio venerabilium sacerdotum Henrid Lordes Supper'), where the id^a of Joliffe et Sgberti Jonson, sub protes- a'reall and bodilie presence (as thei tatione facta, ad illoB Articulos Jo- terme it) of Christes flesbeand blonde' annis Hoperi, episcopi Vigorni^ no- is rejected. Still even here it is re- men gerentie' eic, published atAnt- markable that the authorized series werp, 1564. Out of nineteen Arti- did not like Hooper's (below, n. 8), cles animadverted upon by the pre- proceed to the formal rejection of bendaries in 1552, ten coincide with ' any manor of corporaU, or locall the Latin Articles authorized in the presence of Christ in, under, or with following year : cf. the English Ar- the bread and wine.' tides in Hnoper's iater Writings, ed. 8 It is now almost certain that a P. S. pp. 120 sq. series of Articles analogous to those 232 The English and Irish ReformaUon. [chap. ENGL vNP. bring about, if possible, 'a godly concord in certain matters of religion.' The Church of England, we have seen already, was divided into angry factions. Gardiner and his allies, exasperated by the quick development of reform- ing principles, no less than by the arbitrary deprivation of members of their party \ were devoted even more entirely to the Mediaeval doctrines. Ridley, and some others like him, manifested their sobriety by counterworking this reaction on the one side, and allaying the immoderate vehemence^ of the extreme reformers; while a motley group of Anabaptists^, openly impugning the most central verities of Holy Scripture, and even substituting the distempered ravings of their own imagination for the oracles which it delivers, threatened to produce an utter revolution both in faith and worship. Hence the order, form and colour of the Forty-two Articles, which after they were made to undergo successive modifications^ at the hands of Cranmer ^ Keapecting Gardiner himself and reprobated by Hooper, and even Bonner, see above, p. 208, n. 5. Daj' from the Latin version of the Arti- of Chichester and Heath of Worces- cles as they stood in Oct. \$ii: ter had also been imprisoned on the see the collation in Hardwick's Hist, same charge of non-conformity : but p. .^04. the deprivation of Tonstall, bishop ' That these and other sectaries of Durham, not unfriendly to a (of whom more will be said in Chap, moderate reformation, was both v.) continued to increase during the harsh and ill-advised. It is asorib- reign of Edward VI. is obvious not able to the rapacity of the duke only from such startling narratives of Northumberland, who hoped to as that of Martin Micronius (Aug. profit by the spoils of the bishop- 14, 1551: Original Letters, p. 574)1' ric. See Massingberd, Engliah Be- but the royal commission of Jan. i8„ foi'mation, pp. 393, 394, inA ed., 1551 (Wilkins; iv. 66) and other and Robertson's note on HeyEn, r. evidence of the same kind. 290. ^ On the •znd of May, 1552, we " See, for instance, his remarks find the royal Council asking of the on Knox, above, p. 14Q, u. 6. But primate whether the Artie&s 'deli- one of the best means of ascertaining vered to the bishops' in the previous the degree of restraint exerted on year 'had been set forth by any the ultra-reformers is supplied by public authority' (Strype's Oranmer, Hooper's English Articles (above, II. 366), referring perhaps to a de- p. '231, n. 8) as compared with the sign of submitting them to the con- authorized series. The same cautious vocation which was dissolved just spirit must have dictated the with- before (April 16). Having been re- drawal of the phrase 'prayers for them turned by the Council to the arch- that are departed out of this world ' bishop, he sent a revised copy of from the list of scholastic figments them to Cheke and Cecil (Ibid. Ap- IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 233 and his coadjutors, and also of some other scholars and bnglasd. divines, were finally remitted to the royal Council Nov. 24, Death of Ed- 1552. The work continued in their custody until the following March, when at the meeting of ■ the southern convocation, it seems to have been formally submitted °, to the upper, if not also to the lower house, and ordered to be generally circulated in the month of May". But ere the country-clergymen could be induced to welcome this manifesto, its effect was nullified by the untimely death of Edward, who expired on the 6th of July, 1553, before he had completed his sixteenth year. Among his last ' memorials" he charged the country to persist in its adherence to the principles of the Reformation, at the same time urging the importance of organizing the ecclesiastical system more efficiently, and enjoining for this purpose the completion of a new code of laws^ to which the industry of certain commissioners was devoted Concurrently with the arrange- ment and revision of the Forty-two Articles. Yet after a brief interval, during which the sceptre had pend. Ixvi.). In the following month 'to compile such ecclesiastical laws six of the royal chaplains including as should be thought by him, his Knox (above, p. 148), reported on council and them, convenient to be them to the Council : and the last practised in all the spiritual courts corrections of Cranmer were made of the realm.' No such body, how- between Nov. 20 and 24 in the same ever, seems to have existed until year (Strype's Cranmer, App. Ixiv.). Nov. 11, 1551, when a smaller com- ^ On this vexed questiofi, see mittee was nominated, consisting of Hardwick's Mist. pp. 106-112. The Cranmer, Peter Martyr and six convocation was actually summoned others : see Wilkins, iv. 69 and to meet March 19, 1552 = 1553, and, Cardwell's P«/. pp. vii. viii. Still, its sessions continued until April I. as their work was not completed ^ This is stated in the first edition within the year^ mentioned in tie (English and a separate work) printed Act of 1549, the hope of gaining for by Grafton 'mense Junii, 1553,' with it the sanction of the legislature was the title Articles agreed on by the deferredand ultimately defeated. Its bishops and other learned men in the present worth arises from the fact synod at London, &c. that ' including within it matters of ' Strype's Cranmer, II. 435. doctrine as well as discipline, it may ' The Reformatio Legum Ecelesias- be considered as exhibiting the ma- ticanim (ed. CardweU, Oxf. 1850) ture sentiments of archbishop Cran- originated in the Stat. 3 arid 4 Edw. mer and" the avowed constitution of VI. c. II, which empowered the the Church of England at that pe- king to appoint' thirty-two persons riod.' CardweU, p. 10. 23i The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND. AceeeHmmf Mary. CtyttTiier-re- formation. been forced into the pure and guileless hands of Lady Jane GreyS the reformation-party was exposed to a suc- cession of calamities, and even ran the risk of perishing entirely. The new queen, Mary, had inherited from Catharine of Ai-agon a cordial hatred of religious inno- vations. She had also been harshly treated in the previous reign ^ and consequently her accession was an augury of good to all the Medisevalists, announcing that the triumph of their party was at hand. On the meeting of parliament Oct. 5, 1553, four days after the queen's coronation, the proceedings opened with high-mass in Latin*; while the convocation of the southern province, with Weston as the prolocutor, lost no time in re-affirming the scholastic theory of transubstantiation*. The facility with which the members of this body now reverted to their old position, or at least repudiated some of the more sweeping changes of the former reign, appears to prove that as those changes grew in number and in violence, a vigorous reaction had been working in the soul of the community. It should be also borne in mind, that when the convocation met, the leading prelates^ favourable to the Reformation, had ^ Above, p. 208. " See Turner, Modem ffist. III. 318 sq. When she was examined before the Council (March 18, 1551 = 1552) and expressed her resohition. to adhere to her convictions, Ed- ward VI. made the following entry in his journal : ' Here was declared, how long I had suffered her mass in hope of her reconciliation ; and how, now being no hope, which I per- ceived by her letters, except I saw some short amendment, I could not bear it.' ^ Dodd, II. 56. In a contempo- rary .4 cfonojiis^ion to the Bishoppet of Winchester, London and others (dated Oct. I, 1553 and probably by Bale) we find a notice of similar restora- tions: 'Boner hath set up agayne in Panics Salesburi latin portace [the Sarum Breviary], wherof the lai men vnderstandeth no word, and God knoeth no more do the greater parte of the portas-patterers:' sign. A iii (copy in Camb. Univ. Lib. AB, 13, ]). * Wilkins, iv. 88. Dodd, 11. 58, note. The five members of the lower house who dared to controvert the decision of theassembly were Haddon, dean of Exeter, Philpott, archdeacon of Winchester, Philips, dean of Ro- chester, Aylmer, archdeacon of Stow, and Cheney, archdeacon of Hereford. ^ Coverdale of Exeter and Hooper of Gloucester were first silenced (in August) by the arbitrary fiat of the council, and then imprisoned. La- timer, Crammer, Kidley, Holgate of York, and Farrer of St David's shared the same fate, and as the re$t jv.j The Jb'nglish and Irish Reformation. 235 been arrested on the charge of treasonable practices, while bngland. others had absconded here and there in order to avoid the same treatment. The reformers were accordingly paralysed by fear and overwhelmed by dark forebodings. But although the Mediaeval rites and doctrines were thus re- introduced by the dictation of the civil power °, without provoking any serious struggle, it was not so manifest that England would compose a quarrel with the papacy', which had now lasted twenty years. The queen on her accession felt herself obliged to use the title 'head of the church,' and Gardiner, the life and mainspring of the anti-reformers, had contributed as much as any other prelate to the inde- pendence of his country. But a mediator whose religious liewnionvM. ■"• , . ... . ° the see of principles and social position fitted him to smoothe away Ji^me- obstructions, and to reconcile conflicting interests, was then living at a monastery on the borders of the Lago di Guarda. This was Cardinal Pole^ who after corresponding with the of the prelates either absconded or ment would not assent to the recosf- conformed, Taylor of Lincoln and nition of the papal authority. The Harley of Hereford were the only following is a specimen of her rea- members of the Eeformation -party soning: ' Itaque veremur ne, perti- in the House of Lords at the begin- nacius quam desideraremns, insistant ning of October, and they both were et urgeant, ut titulum supremi ca- deprived and died soon afterwards. pitis ecclesiae continuemus et assu- ° Mary's absolutism in these par- mamus : quod si fiat, habeo quod ticulars was certainly not less em- respondeam et exeusem, nempe, me phatic than that of her father and semperprofessamvetererareligionem, brother. See, for example her in- in ea fuisse edoetam et enutritam, structions to Bonner (March 4, 1554) in eo velle perseverare usque ad ulti- in Wilkins, IV. 88 sq., where among mum vitse spatium ; nos nihil contra other things she orders ' that by the oonscientiam posse eonsentire ; titu- bishop of the diocese an uniform lum ilium non convenire regi' etc. doctrine be set forth by Homilies, or In a subsequent letter (Nov. is, otherwise, for the good instruction 1553) "'^^ hints that her subjects as and teaching of all people ; and that then disposed would rather take the the said bishop and other persons life of Pole than suffer him to enter aforesaid, do compel the parishioners the kingdom as papal legate, ' tan- to come to their several churches turn abest nt vel auctoritatem aut and there devoutly to hear Divine obedientiam debitam ecelesiae et sedi SoiTvice, as of reason they ought.' apostolic^ sint approbaturi et recog- ' Mary herself (whose letter to nituri,'etc. Ibid. p. cm. ' Eole of Oct. 28, 1553, is reprinted " See above, p. 106, p. 208, n. 5, in Dodd, Append, xx.) expresses her Phillips' Life of Reginald Pole, 2nd persuasion that the existing parlia- ed. Lond. 1767, and Neve's jlnmoti- 236 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND. .yUicy. queen and others on the prospect of their re-absorption in the Church of Rome, had ventured across the channel, November 20, 1554. On his arrival,. Gardiner and the rest had all determined to abandon their old convictions on the subject of the papal monarchy. A formal recon- ciliation^ was accordingly produced in parliament, and subsequently in both houses of convocation, Pole com- paring England to the prodigal son, who having wasted all her substance, was at length returning to her Father's house, — to what he deemed the center of ecclesiastical unity provided in the see of Rome. It is remarkable that one of the first petitions^ in the lower house of the new convocation (1554) prayed for the destruction of the ' pestilent book of Thomas Cranmer made against the most blessed sacrament of the alter,' and of other works composed in favour of the recent changes. Gardiner was now indeed as eloquent in his eulogies of popery as he had once been vehement in the denunciation of it. Re-established as the chancellor of the university of Cambridge, he insisted on the application of new tests^ by which he might exclude those members who abetted the reforming principles. Nor was the zeal of Gardiner and his faction limited to arguments and tests of doctrine. At the ground that the bishops were manifesting a 'godlie forwardness... in the restitution of this noble church of England to her pristine state and unitie of Christ's church, which now of late years hath been grievously, infected with heresies, perverse and Bchismaticall doctrine sowne abroad . in this reahne by evil preachers, to the great loss and danger of many soules.' ^ See the list of Articles forward- ed by him (April i, 1555) in Wil- kins, IV. 127, 128, and on the sub- scriptions of the Senate, cf.^ Lamb's Collection of Letters, &c. pp. 172 sq; Lend. 1838. versions upon it, Oxf . 1 766. Turner has also a good chapter (Bk. 11. ch. xiii.) on Mary's earlier ecclesiastical measures". 1 Dodd, n. 62 sq. The cardinal referred especially to the destruction of the religious houses and the con- fiscation of church-property. Yet, in order to secure the allegiance of the spoliators the pope was under the necessity of confirming them in their possession of tlie abbey and chantry-lands. See the bull of Julius III. (June 28, 1554) in Wilkins, IV. 102, and Stat, i and 2 FhU. and Mary, c. 8. ^ Wilkins, IV. gg sq. The peti- tioners urge this point and others on IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 237 the very opening of the new reign, the foreign refugees England. were ordered to 'avoid the realm' within twenty- four days ' upon pain of most grievous j)unishment by imprisonment and forfeiture, and confiscation of all their goods and move- ables '^ The same determination to establish uniformity of faith and worship led to the extrusion of a multitude of Englishmen belonging to all ranks and orders of society, and numbering it is said as many as eight hundred souls °. One section of them fled to Switzerland, "where they were FUgu vf some ^ HeformeTS. hospitably entertained at Basle, ArraUj Ziirich and Geneva, while the rest obtained a like asylum at Wesel, Emden, Strasburg and Frankfurt, Common sufferings failed, how^ ever, to unite these bands of exiles, or subdue the elements of jangling and repulsion which had threatened to dissever their community at home. The more extreme reformers, liberated from .episcopal jurisdiction, were resolved on their establishment at Frankfurt' (1554:) to modify, if not to * Wilkina, IV. 93. To this order the misfortunes of Laski and his Meods are traceable (see above, p. 170). Utenhovius (above, p. 161, n. g) in his Simplex et fidelis nar- ratio de institwta ac demum disdpala Bdgmrwm, alioru/mgue peregrinorum in Anglia, tcclesia, etc. (BasiL 1560^, thus alludes to their extrusion : ' Pa- pismus per sororem suani Mariam. . . reduoitur, aut potius retraiiitur, tanta celeritate et crudeUtate, ut ministe- rium uostrum publioe amplius cum salute eoojesite obire integrum non esset,' p. 20, 6 Heylin, II. 171, 175. Mr Mas- singberd (Engl. Reform, p. 423, 2nd ed.), relying on Spanish authoritie.i, appears to make the total number of exiles far greater. He speaks of 'a cause for which three hundred per- sons gave their bodies to be bumedj and no fewer than thirty thousand endured exile and the spoiling pf their goods.' Several Spanish writ- ers, e. g. Kibadenejra {Mist. Eccl. de inghilterra, lib. II. c. 17) and Sa- lazar de Mendoza (Vida cfe Bart. Carransa, p. 28) mention thirty thousand ; but this number includes many foreigners who had found re- fuge in England, and also those that were reconciled by penances. The prodigious number of persons dealt with in different ways by the Inqui- sition, ,or by a system like the In- quisition, while the theories of pei- secution had influence, would be in- credible, if it were not so well at- tested as it is. Some of the princi- pal English .refugees were bishops Coverdale (rescued from the flames by the intercession of the king of Denmark), Poynet, Barlow, Scory and Bale, five deans, four archdea- cons, together with a large number of the clergy who became distin- guished in the following reign ; e. g, Grindal, Sandys, Jewel, Pilkington, Nowel, Whittingham, Lawrence Humphrey and J(^n JFox: see the list in Strype's Cranmer, iii. 38, 39. ^ The original authority is A brief Discourse 0/ the Troubles at Frank- 238 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND, supcrsedc, the English Prayer-Book, on the ground that even after the elaborate revision of it, made only two years before, it had remained 'a huge volume of ceremonies' and was still debased by frequent dregs and vestiges of popery. ' Troubles of The scruples of these disaffected spirits were increased bv Calvin's censure' of the Prayer-Book. Knox became their favourite minister^; and it is probable that he would have acquired still greater influence, had he not been forcibly restrained' on the arrival of dean Cox (March 13, 1555), an able champion of the English formularies. The chief authors of the agitation now retreated to Geneva : yet the controversy they had opened, or at least exasperated, when they stigmatized the Liturgy as ' superstitious, unpure and unperfect,' never ceased to rankle in men's minds, until one party of the exiles whom they had infected, reproduced their accusations in this country. But while minor troubles were perplexing many an earnest refugee at Frankfurt and elsewhere, the leaders whom he left in England had been called to undergo a sharper trial, and to water their abun- dant labours with their blood. The zeal of Mary in fhe cause of Rome was ere long fired into fanaticism by her Commence- ment of per- secution in England, fort (published in 1575, and reprinted in 1846 by Petheram). The author wag either Whitehead or Whitting- ham, more probably the latter: of. Heylin, n. 1 76 sq., and Dyer's Life of Calvin, pp. 421 sq. Sandys, Grindal, Haddon and other exUes then at Strasburg remonstrated (Nov. 23, 1554) with the innovators (2Vom6&s, p. xxii. ed. 1575), but in vain. ' A description of the Liturgy was drawn up in Latin by Knox, Whit- tingham and other ultra-reformers, and sent to Geneva at the close of ISS4- Calvin's answer 'somewhat resembling the Delphic oracles' (Twysden, ViTuiication, p. 156) is dated Jan. 18, 1555. He writes (Epist. a Sespoma, p. 98) : 'In An- glicana Liturgia, qualem describitis; multas video fuisse tolerabiles in- eptias. His duobus verbis exprimo, nou fuisse earn piultatem quae op- tanda f uerat ; quae tamen primo sta- tim die corrigi non poterant vitia, quum nulla subesset manifesta im- pietas, ferenda ad tempus fuisse... Quid slbi velint, iiescio, quos fcecis papisticae reliquiae tantopere delec- taut.' ^ Above, p. 149. ^ On the representations of Cox, the senate of Frankfurt ordered all the English residents to conform to the Prayer Book: on which the mal- contents retired, some, as John Fox, to Basle, and the main body with John Knox to Geneva, where (as Heylin expresses it, II. 182), 'they rejected the whole frame and fabric of the Beformation made in England.' IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 239 marriage with a gloomy bigot, Philip II. of Spain ^ (July 25, 1554). She had moreover been provoked by the disloyal virulence of the extreme reformers'', and on one occasion had been made to tremble for her safety by an insurrection of the populace under Wyatt, whose chief war-cries were destruction to the pontiff and confusion to the Spanish match °. Yet provocations of this kind will never be allowed to palliate the dark atrocities' by which they were succeeded. During ENGLAND. ^ See above, pp. 104, i6r. The first intimation of a wiab to extermi- nate the reformers appeared in the discussions of the Council in the fol- lowing October : see Tiemey's note on Dodd, 11. 101. On May 24, •555 («<>' IS54 as in Wilkins, iv. 102), the king and queen required Bonner to go forward with the per- secutions, and even Pole, amiable as he was in private life, ' authorized, encouraged and commanded them.' See Turner, Modem Hisk. ni. 456 sq., and the constitutions drawn up in the Convocation of Canterbury (Jan. 1558: Wilkins, IV. 155 sq.) where the bishops of Lincoln and Ely were ordered to hold a yearly inqui- sition in the Universities and to execute the barbarous constitution of archbp. Arundel 'De Hsereticis.' Pole moreover issued an express commission for the same purposes (March 28, 1558; Wilkins, iv. 173). Gardiner's death on the 12th Nov. 155S1 prevented him from joining in the later atrocities : but his loss was more than supplied by the Spanish ecclesiastic, Carranza (above, p. 104, n. 4), whom Philip sent before him into England for the purpose of as- sisting in the work of extermination, and who became in fact soon after- wards confessor to the queen : Mas- singberd, p. 430. ' On Knox's Blast and other writ- mgs in favour of rebellion, see above, p. 148, n. 5, and p. 149. Some 'ho- nest dtizens,' so Fox terms them, ■prayed in public that 'God would either turn the queen's heart from idolatry or shorten her days,' a form of prayer which was specially repro- bated in Slat. I and 2 Phil, and Mary, c. 9. The laxity of principle that characterizes ' Puritan politics ' dur- ing the reign of Mary and the fresh ascendancy of 'antichrist' is merci- lessly exposed in Dr Maitland's Essays on the Reform, pp. 85-195. The violence of the language em- ployed in prayers, such for instance as a man like Becon addressed to the Almighty, has few parallels in the literature of any period : e.g. ' That thy blessed worde may haue the more free pasaag, take away from vs those Idolatrus Massmongers, those idle latyne Mumblers, those shauen Madianites, those Lordly loy- terers, those Wolues, those Theues, Kobbers, and Murtherars, which do nothyng elles than poyson thy flooke, whom thy most dere Sonne purchased withe hys most Precious dere hearte bloode' &c. Jbid. p. 194. How dif- ferent the spirit shewn by Ridley in a letter written just before his mar- tyrdom ! He breathes the following prayer in passing for the happy de- livery of the queen who was sup- posed to be nearto her confinement, — 'partum reginee quem Deus pro sui nominis gloria dignietur bene illi fortunare' (Works, ed. P. S. p. 394). " Turner, III. 425 sq., Dodd, 11. 88 sq., where the question as to Elizabeth's implication in these movements is discussed. 'Tierney (note on Dodd, n. 103) is himself appalled by the recital of them. ' New commissions,' he says. 240 The English and Irish Reformation. [CHAP. . ENGLAND, the next four years as many as two hundred and eighty eight persons of all ranks and orders, perished at the stake, the greater part for their abandonment of Medisevalism and their adherence to the doctrine of the English Keformation'. Martyrdoms. Four of tlieso Were bishops, Hooper, Farrer, Ridley and Latimer, all of whom confronted the devouring flames with earnestness and heroism worthy of the noblest cause (1555). Another, of the leading victims his tormentors had deter- mined to reserve until the spring of the following year. But Cranmer did not emulate the constancy" which sig- nalizes nearly all the English martyrs of that period. From the day' when standing in his prison-tower at Ox- ford, he witnessed the immolation of his chief companions, Ridley and Latimer (Oct. 16), we notice that his mental vigour had been almost paralysed. A series of disgraceful artifices on the part of his assailants finally extracted from him the most abject recantation of his principles, particu- larly of his writings on the Eucharist in which he most of all departed from the Mediaeval Church ; yet when he saw 'were issued, new barbarities were enacted, and a monument of infamy was erected, which, even at the dis-' tance of three centuries, cannot be regarded without horror.' Still it must be borne in mind that these persecutions were confined to the Southern and Midland counties. The North was almost entirely exempt, owing to the clemency of Heath, archbp. of York, and Tonstall, bishop of Durham. ^ The numbers Tary slightly, but 288 is the aggregate obtained by Cecil (Lord Burghley); Turner, ni. 453, n. 16. Fox, whose list is ana- lyzed by Dr Maitland (pp. 576 sq.) makes the number 277. The first victim was Eogers who was burnt a,s early as Feb. 4, ISSS- On t}ie state of religious feeling that prevailed among these sufferers, see The Let- ters of the Martyrs, collected by C«- verdale in 1564, and reprinted at London, 1837. ^ When urged to flee on the ac- cession of Mary, he boldly answeri d that he would hold his ground: 'Con- stantia usus Christiano praesule dig- na, vita constitui potiua quam regno, hoc in tempore cedere:' Godwiu, De Prcesulihus, p. 141, Cantab. 1743. ^ For the particulars of his firsc condemnation as a heretic (April 20, 1554)1 see Strype, Cranmer, iii. \ii sq. Nearly one year and a half elapsed anterior to his final trial be- fore the commissioners of the pope and the queen (Sept. 12, 1555): see Strype, Ihid. pp. 209 sq. On the 4th of Dec. sentence of deprivation was issued against him at Kome, and executed at Oxford Feb. 14, 1556. Before parting with his crosier he appealed to a General Council. One of the best narratives of what fnl- Jowed is in Le Baa, Life of Cranraiir, II. 228 sq. IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 2 41 that nothing but his blood -would satisfy the malice of the England. persecutor, all his manliness of soul appears to have re-^ turned. His execution (March 21, 1556), -which some had hoped, -while it -was consummating his own ignominy, might prove the death-blo-w of his party, had very different con- sequences. It evinced that notwithstanding his deplorable relapses he had never entirely lost his hold upon the truths -which he had lived to vindicate, and thus the lustre of Cran- mer's memory was in part retrieved amid 'the fires of his martyrdom.' The morning after this tragedy -was per- petrated at Oxford had been chosen for the consecration of Reginald P.ole to the archbishopric of Canterbury. Pole did not ho-wever long enjoy his dignities ^ expiring on the 18th of November, 1558 ; and -what is still more noticed by the annalists of the time, bis royal mistress also breathed her last not many hours before him (Nov. 17)^, and at the early age of forty-three. Had Mary and her counsellors abstained from perse- p™^°^^?,^ cution it is' not unlikely that their principles -would have been permanently re-established in all parts of England. The impetuous zeal -with -which the Reformation -was hurried on during the last years of her predecessor, alienated the affections of one thoughtful class of Englishmen -who concurred in many of the earlier changes. And the conduct of the cardinal himself had on the -whole been tending to reconcile this party to the older forms of -worship and belief. He understood their wants, and sympathized -with * One of these, the office of lega- leged for his suspension was, the tus ^ latere, -was taken from him by firm determination of the pontiff to Paul IV., with whom he had been repress all quasi-Lutheran tenden- placed in competition for the pope- cies like those which had appeared dom. Another legate, cardinal Peyto, in the 'Oratory of Divine Love,' of was appointed in his stead (June which Pole was formerly a member: 20, 1557) to the annoyance and dis- see above, p. io6; Heylin, n. 195, gust of Mary, yet when Peyto died 215, 216, and Turner, III. 475, 476. in the following spring, Pole was ^ Stow, Annates, p. 634, says, reinstated. One of the reasons al- ' the same day.' E. P. R . 242 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap: ENGLAND, many of their wishes \ On the doctrine of man's justifica- tion, for example, he was occupying ground analogous^ to that which Luther endeavoured to reclaim from the en- croachments of the schoolmen. Yet the policy of Mary's government, which seemed to grow more harsh and merci- less in proportion to the number of its victims^, had defeated the great objects of the counter-reformation party. It was also currently believed that such despotic cruelty was largely owing to the readmission of the pontiff, or sugges- tions of the Spaniards who held office in the court; and therefore the whole nation seemed to breathe more freely when the news was circulated that the princess Elizabeth, whose former detention in the Tower^ had excited their condolence, was securely placed upon the throne. Early Elizabeth, now twenty-five years of age, was the Tneatatres of ' j j o ' Biuabeth. daughter of Anne Boleyn, alid as such her fortunes had been long associated with victories and reverses of the great religious movement. For some time, however, she delayed to manifest her predilections. All the mediaeval rites ° were celebrated on the day of her coronation (Jan. 12, 1559) , and Cecil, who immediately became her prin- cipal adviser, had himself occasionally conformed to the established worship in the previous reign. Their efforts were at first directed to the mitigation of i-eligious acrimony*. '^ For example, in tlie legatine Eobertson's note in his edition of synod which he held (Deo. i6, 15S5) it Heylin, IE. 260, with respect to Gar- was ordered that the New Testament diner's hostility, should be translated into English ^ On her own conformity during (Wilkins, IV. 132): cfhis ReformMio the reign of her sister, see Heylin, j-ra^Jiffi (1556), Rom. 1^62, passim. II. 261; Dodd, n.- 119. As early, ^ See above, p. 64, n. 2; p. 106, ■ however, as Christmas Day {1558) II. 2. she had ordered Oglethorpe, bishop ^ Thus at Canterbury itself five of Carlisle, not to elevate the host persons were burnt alive on the loth in her presence: Heylin, 11. 272, of November, a week before the and note. The same bishop offid- death of Pole. ated at her coronation, his brother- * Singularly enough, she seems to prelates declining to recognize her have owed her safety, in part at least, title. to the policy of Philip r MUler, Hist. ^ The new state-council contained phil. illust. III. 226, 230. Cf. Mr a mixture of reformed and unre- lY.] The English and Irish Reformation. 243 With this object all the pulpits of the kingdom were reduced to silence'; party names were interdicted; warn- ings were addressed to those who on the one side favoured ' superstition,' and to those who on the other were inclined to laxity, or disregarded holy things'. But in the spring of 1559 it grew apparent that Elizabeth was determined at all risks" to brave the indignation of the pontiff", even while foreseeing that the powers whom he had rallied in the hope of conquering the world afresh, might all be turned against her. In resisting such a foe, she counted not only on her personal popularity, but on the deep repug- KNOLAND. formed, the latter preponderating: see Camden, AnnaUs, pp.. i, 3, Lugd. Batav. id^S, and Turner, ni. 507, n. 45. Yet Cecil and Ba- con were the most intimate ad- visers. ' Tlie royal order is dated Dec. ■27) 1558 (Wilkins, Tf. 180). It • proves that the Keformers were again ■emerging from their concealment ; and the same is visible in the records of the southern convocation, when the lower house (Feh. 1558 = 1559), hy way of protest reaffirmed the old opinions. Ibid. p. 179. 8 See Bacon's speech at the meet- ing of parliament, Jan. 25, i;59> ™ P'Ewes, Journals, &o. p. 12. " An important 'Device for Alter- ation of Religion, in the first year of Queen Elizabeth,' is printed in Bur- net, 'Records,' Part II. Bk. III. No. I. The dangers likely to ensue are stated and discussed with great calmness, apparently by Cecil and Sir Thomas Smith. The first of them runs as follows: 'The bishop of Rome, all that he may, will be incensed, he will excommunicate the Queen's highness, interdict the realm, and give it in prey to aE princes that will enter upon it; and stir them up to it by all manner of means.' The sixth is more remarkable as shewing how thoroughly these states- men realized the difficulties of the position: 'Many such aa would gladly have alteration from the Church of Eome, when they sHall see peradvepture that some old cere- monies be left still, for that [because] their doctrine, which they embrace, is not allowed and commanded only and allother abolished and disproved, shall be discontented and call the alteration n cloaJc'd Pa/pi^ry, or a mingle-mangle' (p. 328, ed. 1683). In the solution of this latter diffi- culty he foreshadows the whole 01) urseoftheir administration (p. 330), 'Better it were that they [the ultra- reformers] did suffer, than her high- ness and commonwealth shdtfld shake or be in danger; and to this they must well take heed that draw the Book,' [meaning probably the revi- sion of the Prayer-Book]. ^'' She announced the fact of her accession to the pope as well as to the other continental ■ potentates. But Paul IV. replied. that. she was illegitimate, that by ascending the throne without his sanction she had insulted the authority of the aposto- lic see, &o. Heylin, II. 268, Dodd, II. 120 with Tierney's note. The natural result was that she instantly ordered Carne, the English ambas- sador, to return from Rome: and when Pius IV. manifested a more concihatory spirit two years later, (see Ch. Butler's HiMorical Memoi/rs of the Catholics, i. 152, 153) the golden opportunity had passed. E2 244 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. Ee-ealailish- Tnent of the royal ewpre- macy. ENGLAND. nancG felt by many of her subjects to reunion with the Roman see. The first proceedings^ of the legislature, though some were strongly adverse to the papal claims, provoked no formidable opposition, if we except the bill in which it was proposed to reinvest the crown with the ecclesiastical supremacy" enjoyed by Henry VIII. and Edward. The proposal was, however, finally accepted, in spite of numerous scruples', rising from a total misconception of its purport and effect. The same measure made it lawful to the queen and her successors to constitute ecclesiastical commissions' Definition of for Correcting and repressing every kind of schism and ""*^' misbelief provided always that nothing should from hence- forth be accounted' heresy, but what had been so adjudged ' by the authority of the canonical Scriptures, or by the first four general councils or any of them, or by any other general council wherein the same was declared heresy by the express and plain words of the said canonical Scrip- tures, or such as hereafter shall be ordered, judged or determined to be heresy by the high court of parliament ^ E.g. Stat. I Eliz. c. ,^,'for recog- nition of the Queen's highness to the imperial crown of the realm,' and I Eliz. 0. 4, ' for the restitution of the first-fruits to the crown' (above, p. 192, n. 3) : Mary having relin- quished her claim to these latter. 2 &tat. I Eliz. c. I. The title is very remarkable : 'An Act to restore to the crown the ancient jurisdiction over tlie estate ecclesis^stical and spiritual, and abolishing all foreign powers repugnant to the same.' In Caudrey's case (Coke's 5th Report, p. 8), it was contended that this was not a statute introductory of a new law, but declaratory of the old, ' which,' as Mr Stephens remarks {Eccl. Stat. I. 353), 'is true with re- gard to a general right of jurisdiction in the crown over the state ecclesi- astical : but it does not apply to the entire statute.' ' Elizabeth tried to soften these by laying aside the title ' Supreme Head' (above, p. 191, n. 8), and still more pointedly in the Injunclions which she issued during the same year (Card well's Documentary An- nals, I. 200). It was there declared that she did not challenge any more authority than 'under God, to have the sovereignty and rale over all manner of persons born within these her realms,' which is still further ex- plained in Art. XXXVII. as modi- fied in 1562. The oath of supre- macy, however, as enjoined in sect. xix. of this enactment was refused by all the Marian bishops, except Kitchen of Llandaflf. See Heylin, 11. 293, 294 on their deprivation and future treatment. Bonner was the only prelate who experienced any thing like undue severity. * Sect, xviii. and sect, xxxvi.' iv.J Ttie UngLish, and, Irish Reformation. 245 of this realm, witli the assent of the clergy in their convo- England. cation.' The next important measure was an act for legalizing TMmza- the Book of Common Prayer, and for establishing religious Prayer-Book. uniformity' in all parts of England. Changes ° were, how- ever, introduced into that formulary, partly for the sake of adding to the ceremonial' which had been considerably reduced in the later years of Edward, and still more with the intention of correcting errors not unlikelyto be prompted by his second Prayer-Book, with respect to the specific nature of Christ's presence in the Eucharist*. The predilections of the court, as manifested in the^e Ciaracter<^ 1 ' . arekbp. changes, were still further shewn by nominating Matthew ■Po»'*«»'- Parker for the new archbishop of Canterbury. Elected by the chapter of that cathedral (Aug. 1, 1559), and regularly*" consecrated at Lambeth on the ITlh of the followinsr s Stat. I Eliz. c. 2. The Pream- ble refers to the act of Mary's ' par- liaraent by which the Prayer-Book had been taken away, to the great decay of the due honour of God, and discomfort to the professors of the truth of Christ's religion.' In sect, xiv. all persons, 'having no lawful or reasonable excuse to be absent,' are enjoined 'to resort to their parish church or chapel accustomed... and then and there to abide orderly and soberly during the time of the com- mon prayer, preaching, or other ser- vice of God,' under certain penalties. " See Procter, pp. 54 sq. A dis- putation was held at Westminster March 30, 1559, in order to prepare the way for the introduction of the reformed service-book, which was ordered to be used on 'the feast of the nativity of St John Baptist' (June 24): see the particulars in Cardwell's Conferences, ch. I. 11. ' By Stat. I Eliz. I. c. -i, sect, xxv.', the 'ornaments of the church and of the ministers thereof,' were re- stored as in 2nd year of Edw. VI. ' The sentences employed at the distribution of the elements (above, p. 22q) by the two Edwardine Prayer- Books were now combined j 'lest, under the colour of rejecting a car- nal, they might be thought also to deny such a real presence as was defended in the writings of the an- cient Fathers:' Heylin, I. 2S7. For the same reason the 'Declaration on Kneeling' (above, p. 224, n. 2) was dropped, much to the discontent of some reformers : see Zurich Letters, I. 180, ed. P. S. : and of. Ibid. p. " On the 'Nag's-Head' fable and other objections to the 'succession' of the English bishops, see Le Cou- rayer, Validity of the Ordinations of the Ehglish, new ed. Oxf. 1844. The consecrators of Parker were Barlow, Scory, Coverdale and Hodgkin (suf- fragan of Bedford). On his biogra- phy in general, see Strype's Life of Parherr and his own Correspondence recently printed by the Parker So- ciety. 246 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLA?fD. December, he proceeded with a happy mixture* of pru- dence, gentleness and firmness to reorganize the body over' which he had been summoned to preside. He shewed himself the great conservative spirit of the English Reforma- tion^, sheltering many a treasure from the general wreck of ancient literature entailed by the destruction of the monasteries, and importing the same thoughts and feelings into his arrangements for securing the stability of religion. Parker had remained in England during the reign of Mary. He was, therefore, less addicted than some others whom he styles ' Germaiiical natures' ^, to the models of religious worship they had studied on the continent. His enemies indeed have censured him as little better than a Lutheran^ owing to the views he held on controverted subjects, more especially on the doctrine of the sacraments. Yet he was Lutheran only in so far as Luther had revived the doctrine of the Early Church, and ' followed the examples of the ancient and worthy Fathers '°. 1 It ig curious to notice how the where he says that this was the case Eomanist Dorman, in his Disproufe with respect to the Eucharist : fol. of M. Nowellea Reproufe (Antwerp, 52 a: and in Heads -of Doclrine 1565) acknowledges that Parker, (above, p. 219, n. 5), he revived the Guest (of Eochester), and Chey nie expression ' oonferre gratiam ' (30 ob- (of Gloucester) were men 'in all re- noxious to the Calvinists) in describ- spectes (heresye set aparte) worthy ing the efficacy of both the sacra- tobeare the office oflf true bishoppes ments. Together with Cox of Ely in Christes churche' (fol. 103 b). he defended the use of a crucifix He also adds that Parker was nick- or cross, in the Queen's chapel : named 'Matthewe mealmouthe, ' a see Zurich Letters, i. 67, 68, II. 41, 'Lincewolsy bishoppe,' &c. The 43. queen also thought him on some 00- ^ See Parker's Correspondence, p. casions 'too soft and easy,' while iii: cf. his last will in Strype's divers of his brethren {Correspond- Life, Append. No. u. Another scho- ence, p. 173) noted him 'too shaip lar of like mind was Edmund Geste andtooearnestinmoderation, which,' (Guest), who having remained in he adds, 'toward them I have used England during the Marian troubles, and will still do, till mediocrity shall was promoted to the see of Eochester be received amongst us.' (Jan. 1559 = 'S6o)j ^id afterwards to ^ His opinion of men like Knox that of Salisbury. On him devolved is cited above, p. 150, n. 1 : cf. his the principal burden of revising the Cm-respondence, p. 434. , Prayer-Book, owing to Parker's ill- ^ Correspond. -p. lig. ■. ness. See his i?/e, by H. G. Diig- * See Dorman, 2)isproiy%, as above, , dale, Lond. 1840, where his Treatise, iv.j The Mfiglish cmd Irish Beformatiort. 2^7 The new primate was, however, scarcely seated on his England. throne at Canterbury, when the troubles that were destined i-ac religious to embarrass all the rest of his career, began to peep above IfThTmiUa. the surface. The exiles who had hastened home on hear- ing that the storm of persecution was exhausted by the death of Mary, were in many cases ° strongly tinctured by the characteristic doctrines of the Swiss. The violence of ultra-Lutherans'' in the north of Germany had driven many of them into the arms of BuUinger and Calvin. Accordingly, when the earliest manifesto' of this party was drawn up in the spring of 1559, to answer the ' vain bruits of the lying Papists,' they could boast that its com- pilers ' had not departed in the slightest degree from the Confession of Ziirich'." But although these Articles were mainly in accordance with the formulary of 1552, they do not appear to have been satisfactory either to the English primate or the court ; for in the same year a totally different list" (eleven in number) was published by authority, and againste the prevee Masse in the ieJiaJfe the principal topics. The article on and furtheraunce of the mooste holye predestination (§ 3) is much fuller ; Oomm/unyon (Lond, 1548), and other that on justification is almost entirely pieces, are reprinted. Paxker must new; while prefixed to the articles have also found a zealous fellow- on 'the civil magistrate' (§§ 2o-2'2) worker in Alley, bp. of Exeter, who is an earnest disavowal of any sym- took an active part in the synod of pathy with books like that of Knox 1563. His opinions may be gathered (above, p. 149). Sandys, in writing from The Poore Man's Librarie, a to Parker, April 30, 1559, mentions large collection of theological mis- thattheauthorsofthisseries intended cellanies, Lond. 1565. to publish their work 'so soon as the * The chief exceptions seem to parliament is ended,' adding, 'I wish- have been those (like Young, after- that we had your hand unto it: ' wards archbishop of York) who took Burnet, 'Records,' Part II. Book, refuge at Wesel: see Soames, Elisa- in. No. 11. The entire document is hethan Religious History, pp. 20, 21. still araongthe MSS of Corpus Chr. Lond. 1839. ColLCamb. No. cxxi. § 20. Parker ' On the persecution of Laski and alludes to it in his Correspondence, his friends, see above, p. 170 : and p. 66, and as late as 1566, applies to , the con temporary narrative of Uten- Cecil for the manuscript (/itd. p. 290). hoviua, as above, p. 237, n. 4. ' So Jewel writes to Peter Martyr * Some account of it is given by April 28, 15S9: Zurich Letters, 1. 21. Strype (Annals, I. 115, ed. 1725). " Printed in Wilkins, IV. 195 sq., It professes to adliere very closely and Hardwick's Hist, of the Articles, to the Edwardine Articles of 155.2, Append. No. IV. It must have and does so in discussing many of been published at the very end of 248 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND, appointed to be ' holden of all parsons, vicars and curates,' Their speeuia- in attestation of their general agreement -with each other. leo ogy. rpj^^ former series entered somewhat largely on a class of speculative topics' "which had been discussed indeed by all successive ages of the Church remarkable for intellectual activity, viz. the truth of God's fore-knowledge and the ground of His predestination, as those doctrines bear upon the parallel truths of human freedom and of moral respon- sibility. In the reign of Henry VIII. such questions had been very warmly agitated'^ here as well as on the conti- nent: they also taxed the spirit of the Marian martyr', while in hourly expectation of his summons to the stake: but at the opening of the new reign, after many of the refugees had learned to systematize their tenets by con- tinued intercourse with leading Swiss divines, the con- troversy on predestination and the points immediately connected with it had begun to occupy a central place in 1559, since Parker was not conse- p. e. make consistent with] our choyse crated till Deo. 17. and free wyll as to deuise how a ' Strype, Annals, I. 116, where, camell shulde passe through the eye however, the whole of the Article on of an nedle without makyng the Predestination is not printed. The nedles eye bygger or the camell lesse ; compilers lay great stress upon this yet that is impossible for man is doctrine, adducing the authority of not impossible for God.' St Augustine to the same effect, yet ^ See Laurence, Authentic Dom- freely admit the dangers which may ments relating to the Predestinwrian follow from one-sided apprehension Controversy, Oxf. 1819. The priaon- of it, and concede that ' in this our ers in the King's Bench disagreeing con'upt age, ' it ought to be handled on the doctrine, one of them, Brad- 'sparely and circumspectly.' ford, prepared a statement which he ^ See especially bp. Gardiner, Be- submitted to Cranmer, Ridley and claration (against George Joye), fol. Latimer, then imprisoned at Oxford, xxxix. and pa^m. In fol. Ixxiiii. Kidley alone seems to have replied he vnites : ' The true teaohynge of to the inquirers, but his ' godly and Christes Churohe abhorreth neces- comfortable treatise,' as Coverdale sitie, and yet worshyppeth for moost terms it, is no longer extant. Trame- certayne truthes Goddes prouidence, diately afterwards, he wrote to Brad- election, and predestinacion, whereby ford : ' Sir, in those matters I am we be jtaughte that God is auctor of so fearful that I dare not speak far- al our helth, welth and saluacion, ther, yea almost none otherwise than the cyrcumstaunce of which workyng the text doth, as it were, lead me in God in his election and predes- by the hand :' Works, ed. P. S. p. tinacion, althoughe it be as impos- 368. sible for mans wit to frame with IV.j The English and Irish Reformation. 249 their theology, and even threatened here and there to England. swallow up all other Christian doctrines*. On the contrary, the Articles of 1559 abstained from ^««'»''»» *i"l subsequently made himself peculiarly obnoxious to the Puritans (Ibid. 198). On Grindal 's further reasons for compliance see Strype's Idfe of Grindal, p. 135. ' The rapidity of thLq develop- ment is seen in a joint-communica- tion of the two archbishops Parker and Sandys (1573), where they de- clare that 'in the platform set down by these new builders we evidently see the spoliation of the patrimony of Christ, 3.popular state to be sought. The end will be ruin to religion and confusion to our country. ' 25-l< -The English and Irish 'Reformation. [CHAP. ENGLAND. Puritans refused to countenance the public worship, and ' at last departed altogether from the communion of the Church^ (1567). Origin of Meanwhile the opposite (or 'Romanizing') party had limna'nism. been thrown into a similar agitation, and resolved to follow the example of the early Puritans. A section of the Marian ecclesiastics, it is true, had already been deprived^ on their declining to accept the oath of supremacy or sanction the new Prayer-Book (1559) ; but the great body of them still adhered to their positions, either from self-interest or higher motives, until 1570. In that year originated the Anglo- Koman schism. The pontiff (Pius V.) had hitherto re- strained his indignation in the hope of winning back the Queen and her advisers by a gentler process, but his. patience was at length exhausted. A bull of excommuni- cation' was posted on the gates of London-house, denouncing vengeance on Elizabeth, and commanding all her subjects to violate their oaths of allegiance, under pain of sharing in the like anathemas. In connexion with this wrathful manifesto, a rebellion* was again fomented in the northern ^ See Haweia' Skelches of the Re- dated in the two copies. It was formation, p. i8g, a,adZunc/iLetters, really issued April 27, 1570. Tlie I. 201. following is among the charges ^ On the bishops, see above, p. 244, brought against Elizabeth: 'libros n. 3 : and Parker's address to them manifestam heeresim continentes toto (March 26, 1560): Corresp. p. iii. regno proponi, impia mysteria et The entire number who ceased to instituta ad Calvini prsescriptum a minister was one hundred and eighty se suscepta et observata etiam a nine: Str^'pe's Annals, I. 171, 172, siibditia servari mandavit.' Camden Dodd, II. Append. No. xliv. : cf. goes onto say (p. 186) that this buH Zurich Letters, I. 66. Some with- was obnoxious to the more sober drew to the continent, especially to 'Poutiiicii,' ' qui prius privatim sua Louvain, while others who norai- sacra intra parietes satis secure co- nally conformed appear to have read lueruut, vel reoepta in Ecclesia An- tlie services at church, and said glicana sacra sine couscientias soni- mass in private houses : Eishtou, the pulo adire non recusarant.' On the coutinuator of Sanders, De Origine general question of the schism pro- ac progressu ScMsmatis Anglicani, duced in 1570, see Fulwood's Roma p. 292, Colon. 1585. Euit, Append, pp. 314-318, Camb. 3 Printed in WUkins, IV. 260,261, 1847. and Camden's Annales, pp. 183 eq. * The best account is that of Stow> Lugd. Batav. 1625; but differently Annales, pp. 663 sq. rv.] The English and Iridk xiejormation. 253 shires of England: priests and Jesuits" educated on the England. continent, especially at Douay°, were sent over in gi'eat numbei's with the twofold object of exciting political troubles and disseminating the peculiar dogmas of Tri- dentine Romanism. Accordingly the English statesmen were disposed henceforth to handle them more roughly'. Some indeed of those who cherished an affection for the .old learning gradually accepted the principles of the Re- formers, and their reabsorption would perhaps have been facilitated if the English Church had not been torn by scandalous divisions^. For the patience of the rulers both in Church and State continued to be largely taxed by the advances of refractory spirits, who, although they did not openly abandon the established worship nor reject the definitions of Christian doctrine promulgated in the Articles, were drifting more and more from their original position. Shielded, in some ineasure, by the profligate earl of pm/msqfthe Furif-aiia, ^ As early as 1568 the members loinew (above, p. 140), complains of this order had begun to infest the (Sept. 11, 1573) of being 'bitten Church of England under the dis- with a viperous generation of trai- guise of Puritanical ministers, their tors, papists, and I fear of some objects being to divide and so to domestic hidden scorpions.' Exe- conquer: see the case of Thomas cutions were, however, almost un- Heath as taken from the register of known till after this date. They the see of Rochester, in Dugdale's became more frequent on the disoo- Life of Edin. Geste, pp. 46, 47. very of Babington's plot for the as- ^ On the Eomish ' Colleges found- sassination of queen Elizabeth (Carte, ed abroad,' see Dodd, Part rv. Art. III. 600 sq.), which also led to the III. From the continuator of San- execution of her rival, Mary queen ders we learn that before 1585 as of Scots (1587). In the following many as 300 ' seminary priests' had year a heavier blow was inflicted on been supplied by the establishments the Romanists by the destruction of at Douay and Rome for ' missionary' Philip's grand. Armada, which aimed work in England. Many of these at nothing less than the subjugation Anglo-Romanists had been distin- of England for the pope, guished members of the English ^ Thus archbishop Parker, in universities, e. g. Harding (Jewel's deploring the Komeward tendencies antagonist), Stapleton (author of of certain persons in 1572, was of the Promptuarium Catholimm), and opinion that the change was brought cardinal Allen, the mainspring of about in part at least, ' by the dis- the movement (Soames, pp. 92 sq.). ordered preachings and writings of ^ Thus Burghley writing soon after some Puritans, who will never be at the horrid massacre of St Bartho- a point :' Con-espond. p. 392. 256 The English and Irish Reformation. [cHAP. Leicester', and despairing, as they urged, that reforaaation would originate in high quarters, theyput forward a sarcastic Admonition to the Parliament'' (1572) ; in which among denunciations of the Pray er-Book^ and the hierarchy^ they proceeded to recommend the institution of a new church, whose 'holy discipline' should copy the presbyterian mo- dels then exhibited in Scotland and Geneva. Two great champions who had measured swords already in the pulpits, schools, and lecture-rooms of Cambridge, now stood for- ward to assail and to defend the English Church, , its government, its service-books, and general organization. These were Thomas Cartwright' and John Whitgift*, the latter being urged to undertake the office, and assisted in discharging it, by Archbishop Parker', whom he ultimately ^ See above, p. 164, n. i. His in- tense dislike of the archbishop is shewn in Parker's Correspond, p. 473. 2 The first Admonition, written chiefly by John Field and Thomas Wilcox, appeared in 1572 after the Parliament was prorogued. In ii letter of Beza's appended to it, the Genevese reformer insisted on the importanoe of pure ' discipline ' as well as pure doctrine. •* The ritual portion of it is de- nounced throughout, and even the body of the work is stigmatized as 'that prescripte Order of seruioe made out of the masse-booke, ' sign. A. iiij. ed. I57'2. Hence the origin of Puritan substitutes for the Prayer- Book, on which see Procter, pp. 83 sq. ^ The bishops are declared to be the 'cheefe cause of baokewardnesse and of all breache and dissention,' sign. A. They are also told that their 'kingdom must dovrne, hold they neuer so hard.' = Gartwright (the T. C. of Hooker) became fellow of St John's College in 1560, and of Trinity College three years later. In 1570- he was ap- pointed to the Margaret professor-. ship, but deprived in the following year when Whitgift was vice-chan- cellor. In 1573 he wrote his Replie to Whitgift's Answere to the Admo- nition, which is printed at length in Whitgift's Defense (1574). In 1575 and 1577 Cartwright proceeded with the controversy in his Second Replie. He was now absent from England, at Geneva and elsewhere, till 1585, when on venturing home he expe- rienced many acts of kindness from his former adversary, then arch- bishop of Canterbury. ^ See Stiype's Life of Whitgift, which together with his Lives of Parker and Grindal is full of mate- rials for the history of this critical period. ' Soaraes, p. 174. Parker died soon afterwards. May 17, 1575, so hateful to the Puritans that, under the Commonwealth, colonel Scott one of the regicides converted the chapel at Lambeth where he was buried 'into a hall or dancing-room.' His remains were also exhumed, the leaden cofRn sold, and the bones buried in a dunghill : Ibid. p. 306, note. TV.J The English and Irish Reformation. 257 succeeded in the primacy of England (1583). Cartwright's England. violence suggested similar attacks', and Whitgift's bold defence of his position was the means of rallying some of the dispirited ecclesiastics and opening the eyes of all to the insidious and volcanic agencies by which they were surrounded '. The principles involved in these disputes on church- ^"rtin \ ^ ^ '■ Marrrdate organization and church-ritual were most clearly brought eontmversy. to light in what is called the 'Martin Marprelate' contro- versy", which originated in a series of scurrilous libels (1588), where the queen, the bishops, and the rest of the conform- ing clergy, were assailed with every kind of contumely. It was in the House of Commons that the advocates Pwrucmicai tendencies of of sweeping changes found their principal supporters "»« ParUa-. during the reign of Elizabeth. There as early as 1570" 8 ]S. g. the famous Book of Disci- pline (1589) by Walter Travera, who was for some time Hooker's coad- jutor at the Temple and his theolo- gical opponent. " The great pvoduction on that side of the controversy is Bancroft's sermon preached at St Paul's cross in Feb. 1588= 1589. In it he main- tained that bishops were as an order superior to priests and deacons, that they governed by Divine appoint- ment, and that to deny these truths was to deny a portion of the Chris- tian faith. On the effect produced by it see Heylin's Hist, of Presbyter. p. 284. i» Several of the tracts produced by these discussions have been reprinted by Petheram. Respecting others see Maskell's History of the Martin Mar- prelate controversy, Lond. 1845. The question as to the authorship of the tracts is stiU undetermined. Penry, Throgmorton, XJdal and Fenner are qommoiily said to have taken an active part. That many of the Pu- ritans sympathized with them is plain from the treatises themselves : Maskell, pp. 216 sq. ; cf. Marsden, Early Puritans, pp. 198 sq. on the R. P. other side. In Bishop Cooper's Ad- monition to the People of England (a sober reply to the earlier pamphlets, ■which appeared iu 1589) the wide diflFusion of their principles is equally manifest: 'Who seeth not in these dayes, that hee who can most bit- terly iuueigh against Bishops and Preachers, that can most boldely blaze their discredites, that can most vncharitably slaunder their lines and doings, thinketh of himselfe, and is esteemed of othei', as the most zealous and earnestfurtherer oftheGospel,'p. 2 : cf. the Eoyal proclamation (Feb. 1 3, 1588= 1589), in Wilkins, iv. 340, and Bacon's Worjcs, in. 135 sq. ed. 1765. 11 See Strype's Annals, II. 6i sq., Hardwick's Sist. of the Articles, p. 151. The Queen had in 1566 expressed her determination to resist such intei-meddling (cf . Parker's Cor- respond, p. 291); and in the slight modifications of the Articles made by Convocation in 1571, no refer- ence was made to the proceedings in the House of Commons, nor even to the act of 13 Eliz. c. 12, by which subscription to that formulary was exacted from all candidates for holy orders. 258 The English and Irish Reformation, [chap. ENGLAND, bold attempts were made to modify the offices of the Church, and even to reject those Articles of Eeligion that sanctioned the Homilies, the Ordinal and the eccle- siastical ' traditions.' The restraining of the Queen's pre- rogative was commonly associated in men's thoughts with the advancement of the Puritanic interest, and hence it is most probable that half-compliance with their scruples was covertly intended by the framers of, the celebrated act of Parliament requiring 'ministers of the church to be of sound religion". Under Grindal, who succeeded Parker in the primacy (1575), the relaxation of church-discipline was most deplorable^ either owing to his latent sympathy with Puritanism or the excessive gentleness of his disposi- whitgift's Hq^l. Whitgift was accordingly compelled to act with an and its' effects, amount of firmness that too often wore the aspect of severity. He enforced subscription' to the Articles and also to the Prayer-Book : he revived the court of High Commission^ as it had been instituted in the first year of queen Elizabeth : he carried out the mandates of the crown for checking the irregular action of ministers and other 1 This is the act referred to in the previous note : of. ffist. of the Arti- cles, pp. 149, 226 sq. The Puritans construed it in such a manner as to exempt themselves from one class of Articles, swearing to those ' which only concern the confession of the true faith and the doctrine of the sacraments :' but the Convocation of the same date required subscription equally to the entire series. ^ Fuller, who is certainly not in- clined to press severely on Grindal, complains of his extreme laxity towards the close of his life : Ch. Hist. Bk. IX. p. 1 38. Parkhurst, bishop of Norwich, was another illus- tration of the same spirit. Cecil writes of him to Parker as early as Aug. 12, 1561 : he 'is blamed even of tbe best sort for his remissness in ordering his clergy. He winketh at schismatics and Anabaptists, as I am informed. Surely I see great variety in ministration. A surplice may not be borne here. And the ministers follow the folly of the people, calling it charity to feed their fond humour. Oh, my lord, what shall become of this time?' Parker's Correspond, p. 149. Yet similar complaints were stiU uttered in 1593 by Bancroft in his Survey of the pretended Holy Discipline, p. 249, Lond. 1593: ^ See the Articles touching preach-, ers, &c. (1584) in Wilkins, IV. 307, and on the archbishop's difficulties his letter (May 9, 1584) to Sir Christopher Hatton, in Nicolas's Life of Hatton, pp. 371, 372, Lond.- 1847. _ . ^ Martin Marprelate's indignation at this step may be seen in MaskeU , as above, pp. 143 sq. IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 259 members of the Church who met together periodically ' for enoland. the exercise called prophesying". By this vigorous course of policy, pursued for many years, he was enabled to rescue the Church of England from the yoke of 'the pretended holy discipline.' More than once indeed, the current both of theological literature and popular feeling had been turned in the direction of Geneva; but when Bancroft was advanced to the archbishopric of Canterbury in 1604, the apprehensions caused by such a tendency were calmed and dissipated. That important section of the Church who viewed episcopacy as divinely ordered and as therefore absolutely binding on all Christians, had obtained a fresh predominance, which, notwithstanding many con- flicts and reverses, they preserved throughout the follow- ing century. . Amid the ' disciplinarian' troubles which had led to Doctrinal this result, the special dogmas of the English Church were u:sof(he brought less frequently* on the arena of polemical discus- v«noa. sion. It is obvious that the type of the theology prevailing in the Universities and thence diffused into the country- parishes, was strorigly Augustinian, owing either to the deference which the Latin Church had always yielded to the great doctor of Hippo, or in many cases to the influence exercised by continental theologians, who in spite of all their independence were deeply tinctured by the Augustinian spirit. BuUinger' and Calvin may be cited as examples of ^ Elizabeth's prohibition of these i6o, 224, 326, Marsden, pp. 104 sq. preachings and prayer-meetings is ^ Bp. Carleton in his &:omma(io?i dated May 7, 1577: Wilkins, IV. (cf. Bp. Montague's 4^pcai!), pp. 8, 289. Many of the bishops (e.g. ill, Lend; 1616, and other writers Grindal and Parkhurst) had for- of more recent times (c. g. Marsden, meriy recommended such 'exercises.' pp. 205 sq.) have very much over- But although they might in some stated their case when they maintain instances lead to the edification and that no quarrel was moved ' against instruction of the audience, they the doctrine of our Church' during were easily convertible into occasions the Elizabethan period, for assailing the established usages ' His 'Augustinianism,' however, of the church and for reflecting on was in form much milder than that the government: see Soames, pp. of Calvin: above, p. 175, n. 7. S2 260 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND, the latter class ; and the onesidedness^ which characterizes some of their conceptions of Christian doctrine was betrayed by not a few of their disciples in this country. That one- sidedness, indeed, although not entirely irreconcileable with our own Articles of Eeligion, was continually abated here by the unspeculative tone and unpolemical statements of the Liturgy, — a species of corrective, which if felt at all, was far less operative in other communities ; and therefore as long as men embraced the Prayer-Book cordially, their theological opinions were less likely to be marked by those extravagancies'' of thought and feeling which had grown Puritanic Ob- too general on the continent. But, on the other hand, it ^I'mmliaries. should be recollectod that many of the earliest race of Puritans abhorred the teaching of the Prayer-Book. In their Admonition it is said to be ' full of abominations,' one passage of the Ordinal they branded as 'ridiculous and blasphemous,' and even that portion of the Church's mind which is transmitted in the Articles, they did not think above suspicion. Some, for instance, were considered 'lame' or mutilated', others 'eyther too sparely or else too darkely set downe'*. As in the Prayer-Book they ob- jected to the supplication that ' all men may be saved'", so in the Articles- they sighed for more distinct assertions of their favourite dogma, that all Christians added to the number of the elect, on falling into sin, must of necessity be rescued from the consequences of their fall". In spite, ' See above, pp. 130, 175, 176. of the Article on the Lord's Supper. ^ That such extravagancies did George Withers in writing to the find their way into England is plain, prince elector Palatine (before 1567) however, from the passages collected remarks : ' I will not touch upon the in Heylin's Hist. Quinqu-Articul. doctrine of our church, which, though e.g. Part III. ch. xvii. § 4. The stern- sound in most respects, is however est advocate of them was William lame iriothers:' ZurichLeiters, 11. 162. Perkins, whose ' Armilla Anrea, ^ Cf. Whitgift's remarks upon this containing the order of the causes of passage in liis Answere, pp. -zpS, salvation and damnation,' appeared 299, Lond. 157-!. in 1593. = See Whitgift's Defense, p. 739> . ^ See above, p. 250, 11. 2 on the Lond. 1574. feelings excited by the mod.fication ^ The authors of the Seconde Ad- IV.] The Ungtisli and Irish ReformatioW. 261 however, of these scruples not unfrequently repeated, it is England. certain that the public formularies were thought by a EngUA majority of English churchmen to be reconcileable with ""'"""'• the Institutio of Calvin', which accordingly became a sort of oracle and text-book for the students in the Universities. The same is true of Bullinger's productions, more especially the Decades, which as late as 1586 were recommended* by the southern convocation with the hope of facilitating the preparation of young curates who were still unlicensed to preach. Even Whitgift himself and his more active coad- jutors, though sympathizing more with St Augustine than with any of the modern divines", were strongly adverse to those views of Christianity which represented all mankind as equally embraced within the circle of God's love and pity, which insisted on some kind of freedom in the human monition, p. 43, Lond. 1573, after ..denouncing some of the bishops for their tyranny and ' flat heresie in the sacrament,' add that 'some be sus- pected of the heresy of Pelagius.' 'For the first, that is, concerning the sacrament, the bishops are no- toriously knowne which erre in it, and for free-will not onely they are suspected, but others also. And in- deede the booke of the Articles of Christian religion speaketh very daungerously of falling from grace,' etc. This objection to the sixteenth Article frequently recurs. ' Hence the name 'Calvino-pa- pistffi,' which the non-conforming Puritans applied to other church- men L Stapletoil, Promptuar. Cathol. Part I. p. 285, Part III. p. 116, Colon. 1594. On the vast authority of Calvin see Hooker's ironical note on A Christian Letter (Works, r. 139, D. 33, Oxf. 1 841), where he ends by asking ' Doe we not daily see that men are accused of heresie for hold- ing that which the Fathers held, and that they neuer are cleere, if they find not somewhat in Calvin to jus- tify themselues. ' s 'Every minister having cure, and being under the degrees of mas- ter of arts, and bachelors of law, and not licensed to be a public preacher, shall before the second day of Feb- ruary next provide a Bible, and Bul- linger's Decads in Latin or English and a paper book,' etc. Wilkins, IT. 371. ' That there was no dispositioi; to accept every thing that bore the name of either Calvin or Luther, is seen from Whitgift's letter to the canons of Lincoln (June 29, 1590), where he blames the dean of that establishment (Griffin) for using lan- guage which appeared to attribute actual sinfulness to Christ, although (he same language might be found in 'Luther, Calvin and some others,' whom, the primate and his colleague add, ' we also in our judgments do therefore mislike :' Nicolas's Life of Hatton, p. 487. Whitgift on a dif- ferent occasion stated that ' the doc- trine of the Church of England did in no respect depend upon them.' Strype's Whitgift, pp. 441, Lond. 1718. 262 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. ENGLAND: Commence- Tnent of reaction. will as necessary to the constitution of a moral agent, and urged the possibility of spiritual suicide in those who had once become partakers of regenerating grace. The Lambeth Articles^ approved by the Archbishop on the 20th of November, 1595, are rigorous statements of the very opposite conclusions. Yet the changes which this for- mulary underwent ^ as well as the resistance it eventually encountered'', furnish proofs that England was produc- ing a new race of scholars and divines, who, in propor- tion as they disengaged themselves from foreign ties and modem influences, proceeded more directly to the .source of sacred literature, and raised their ' scheme of divinity upon the noble foundations of the Fathers, the Councils, and the ecclesiastical historians '^ Before the expiration of the sixteenth centuiy. Hooker had completed his immortal treatise Of the Laws of Eccle- ^ This manifesto is ultimately "traceable to a controversy at Cam- bridge between Whitaker, the reguis professor of divinity and Baron (Ba- re) the Lady Margaret professor : the latter of whom was compelled to ■withdraw for teaching amonff other things, that ' Christ died sufBciently for all,' and maintaining that the denial of this doctrine is contrary to the Articles : see Hard wick's Hist. ch. vii. The ulterior question Cw fructixs mortis Ohrisli ad omnes A dami posteros non perveniat, is discussed by Baro in another tract {Oamb. Univ. MSS. Gg. I. 29, fol. 46 b sq.). ' SeeHardwick as above, Append. V. Expressions in the original di-aft which were 'ad mentem Calvini' were changed into others 'ad men- tem Augustini.' Hutton, archbishop of York, who suggested an alteration in Art. VI. observed that as it stood it was opposed to St Augustine, who did not consider that the 'regene- rate ' or 'justified ' were necessarily the ' elect :' ' Eeprobi quidem vocati, justificati, per lavacrum regeneratio- nis renovati sunt, et tamen exeunt.' Strype's Whitgift, p. 461. Hooker's view of the Lambeth Articles may be seen in his WorTcs, I. p. cii. and elsewhere ; Saravia's in Strype's Whitgiftji'k.. IV. Append, xxiv. ; and Andrewes', in his Miner WorJca, pp. 294 sq., Oxf. 1846. ^ They never obtained a synodioal sanction in this country, and even Whitgift instructed the university of Cambridge to regard them as 'the private judgments ' of the compilers: Strype, p. 462. * The expression of Young, bishop of Rochester, in i6oo, when he or- dained the future archbishop Laud : see Le Bas, Life of Laud, p. 6, Lond. 1836. Men were in truth becoming sick of those 'compendiums and ab- breviatures' which had been fashion- able for a time in the universities, — a ' course of sums and commen- teries, ' which in the words of Ba- c"on {Worlcs, I. 126, ed. 1765) 'is that which doth infallibly make the body of sciences more immense in quantity and more base in sub- stance. ' IV.] The English and Irish Reformation. 263 siastical Polity, in which the choice thoughts and language England. and the masterly arguments are scarcely more impressive than the spirit of humility and reverence which is breathed in every chapter. Overal had now succeeded Whitaker at , Cambridge, where without materially receding from the principles of St Augustine, or exposing himself to the re- proach of semi-Pelagianism, he advocated doctrines virtually extruded from the Calvinistic system ; while Andrewes, not inferior in the depth and area of his learning, nor the lustre of his piety, to any worthies of the bygone generation, had become the champion of the English priesthood and the favourite preacher at the court. The spirit of destruction which in the second quarter of the century effected wonders in condemning creature worship, in up- rooting theories of human merit, and expelling popery, was now at length succeeded by a deeper, calmer, more construc- tive spirit, — one whose mission, while it counteracted errors on the right hand and the left, was more especially to vindi- cate and prove the catholicity of the Church". IRELAND. It is remarkable that a country which had been psten- sibly at least deprived of its political independence by the force of papal instruments, should afterwards become ex- travagant in its devotion to the pontiffs. At the expiration ^ This twofold aspect of the Church Folge davon in eine sehwankeude of England and the middle place Mitte zwischen Katholicismus und which it has occupied between the Protestantismus gerieth, indem sie Mediseval ajid the merely Protestant bald die heil. Sdirift als alleinige systems, has occasioned some per- Quelle der Lehre anerkanute, bald plexity to our continental neighbours auch der Tradition der altem Kirche both Bomanist and Beformed. Thus eingesetzgebendesAnsehen zuzuges- Gieseler (ill. ii. p. 26) : 'So bildete tehen sich genothigt sah :' cf. Moh- sich die englische Episcopalkirche, ler's SyTithoUh, 11. 132 (Eng. Trans.), welche sich von den Irrthtimern where he speaks of 'internal self- der romischen Kirche trennen, aber contradiction ' as ' carried to the das cathoUsche Priesterthum nicht extremest pitch.' fahren lassen woUte, und welche in 264! The English cmd Irish Reformation. [chap. IRELAND, of nearly four centuries from the conquest under Henry II., English monarchs still continued to govern with the title 'lords' of Ireland. But in 154:1 this title was exchanged for ' King,' in order to assert the plenary jurisdiction of the dominant country, and obliterate all traces of connexion with the Church of Kome. For after Henry VIII. had consummated his quarrel with the pontiff in 1534, he lost no time in causing every part of his dominions to recognize his own ecclesiastical supremacy. This recognition was formally completed by the Irish parliament^ in 1537, but one large section of the clergy, instigated by messages from the pope^, and headed by a,rchbishop Cromer of Armagh,' determined to resist the operation of the measure. On the other hand, Henry VIII. secured to himself an energetic fellow- worker, by the nomination of George Browne', provincial of the English Augustine friars, to the see of Dublin (March, 1535). Instead, however, of attempting the enlightenment of Ireland through the medium of the native language, it was now the obvious policy of the government to Anglicize the country^, by directing that spiritual promotions should be given only to such as could speak English, and that English should be taught in all the parish-schools ^ The ignorance of the people, which is 1 Stat. 28 Hen. VIII. o. 6 fire- the life of George Browne, printed land]. ThePreamblebegins: 'Where in The Phenix, I. 120 sq., Lond. divers good and wholesome laws and 1707. statutes be made and established * Mant's ITist. Of the Church of within the realm of England for the Ireland, I. 123, Lond. 1841. adnuUing and utter taking away of ° Archbp. Browne's Letter to appeales in cases spiritual from the Cromwell (Sept. 6, 1535), Ibid. Bishop of Borne and see apostolike,' p. 115. The same animus is shewn &c. in the phrase ' Chv/rch of England ° The agents of the pontiff also and Ireland,' which began to be stimulated some of the disaffected used in 1538: 7W. p. 145. Gt Stat. chieftains to recover the importance i Edw. VI. u. i, § 7, which enjoins of their families by rising in behalf that the communion shall be admi- of the papal claims. nistered 'under both kinds' to ' the ^ See the Seformation of the people within the Ghwrch of England Chv/rch in Ireland . . .set fmthe in and Ireland.' IV. J The J^nglish and Irish Reformation. 265 said to have been extreme, would hardly be corrected by Ireland. such projects, while on the other hand their nationality was wounded more and more. Throughout the reign of Henry VIII. the ecclesiastical affairs of Ireland observed the same general course which we have noticed in the sister- country. Certain images and relics' that ministered to superstition were banished from the churches. Monasteries' were dissolved in spite of earnest representations pointing out the benefits which they conferred on almost every order of society. But on the accession of Edward VI. ho progress in the way of spiritual and moral reformation is distinctly visible. A new Irish primate, DowdalP, who had been appointed in 1543, was secretly devoted to the papacy, and adverse to all chang'es both in dogma and in ritual. His influence, it is true, was somewhat counteracted by the efforts of archbishop Browne, and when the viceroy, Antony St'Leger, in a meeting of ecclesiastics held at Dublin (March 1, 1551), enjoined the use of the First Edwardine Prayer-Book, on the ground^ that it was ' the Liturgy and prayers of the Church trans- lated into our mother-tongue,' one section of the bishops acquiesced in the arrangement. The new service" wag ^ Ibid. I. i'25, 141. ^ See the royal order in Maut, I. ' The first onslaught was made in 195. John ah Ulmis writing from 1537. Stat. 28 Hen. VIII. c. 16 England (May ig, 1551: Original [Ireland]: see the particulars in Letters, p. 433, ed. P. S.) was pro- Mant, I. 15,5 sq. bably influenced by the appearance ^ Primate Cromer died March 15, of this order when he spoke as fol- 1543. Por some account of his sue- lows: 'With respect to the Irish; cessor see James Ware, Hist, of the Welsh, Manksmen, and those of Irish Bishops, in Vol. I. of his Hist. Jersey and Holy Isle, you must and Antiq. pp, gi sq., Dublin, 1 764. have the same persuasion of them as Dowdall, although professing to be of the English, namely, that all these somewhat in favour of the reforma- islands entertain right opinions as to tion, was afterwards deprived for religion.' non-conformity, Oct. 20, 1551, and i" A copy of the Prayer-Book as the primatial jurisdiction transferred thus authorised for the use of the to the see of Dublin. The new arch- Irish Church is in the Library of bishop of Armagh was Hugh Good- Emmanuel College, Cambridge. The acre (consecrated Peb. -i, 15 S3);- but second Prayer-Book of Edward VI, he died six months after. 'does not appear to have been or- 266 The English and Irish Reformation. [chap. IRELAND, accordingly celebrated for the first time at Dublin (Easter-day, 1551) in 'Christ-Church' cathedral. During the same year instructions had been also given for render- ing the whole Prayer-Book into Irish ^; but this reasonable plan, which might hereafter have produced a deeper change in the religious history of Ireland, was defeated for some cause or other. One of the foremost champions in the ranks of the reformers was John Bale^ originally a Carmelite friar whom Edward VI. promoted to the see of Ossory, and who was consecrated Feb. 2, 1553. His bold and ener- getic operations' were, however, speedily interrupted by the death of his royal patron, an event which, as we saw above, reversed the sweeping measures contemplated on both sides of the channel. Mary's policy in Ireland, as in England, was directed to the restoration of the papal monarchy^; and with it rose again the ritual and doctrinal system of the Middle Ages. Where the progress made by the reformers had been slight and superficial, there was hardly any symptom of resistance to the counter-reforma- dered for the observance of the Irish fixed to his Select Worhs, ed. P. S. Church during the short period that 1849. the king survived its enactment.' '* See his ©"wn account in the Voca- Mant, I. 2 5 8. eyon of John Bale to the hishoprich ^ Ibid. p. 204. The difficulties in 0/ Osiorie, printed in the Harleian respect of language were felt to be so Miscellany, vi. 437 sq. great that arrangements were made * This restoration was effected in at the same time for translating the Ireland by the Slat. 3 and 4 Phil. Prayer-Book into Latin for the use and Mary, c. 8 [Ireland], 'repeal- of those ecclesiastics and others who ing statutes and provisions made did not understand English ; see against the see apostoliok of Rome, Original Letters and Papers (con- sithence the twentieth year of king nected with the Irish Reformation), Henry the Eighth, and also for the ed. Shirley, pp. 47, 48, Lond. 185 1. establishment of spiritual and eo- The same project was revived in clesiastical possessions and here- the second year of Elizabeth, it ditaments conveyed to the laity.' being alleged that the Irish Ian- Two years before (1554) the re- guage was difficult to print and that stored primate Dowdall, acting un- few persons could read the Irish der a royal commission, deprived the characters : Stat. 2 Eliz. c. 2, a. xv. archbishop of Dublin together with [Ireland]. three other prelates favourable to ^ See the biographical notice pre- the Eeformation ; Mant, I. 235, 236. iv.j The A'nglish and Irish Reformation. 267 tion: and in the reign of Elizabetli, -wLile the commis- Ireland. sioners whom she appointed to examine the spiritual con- dition of the English dioceses" were eaaabled to report most hopefully, the news transmitted from the sister-island' gave but little satisfaction to the government. It is remarkable, however, that notwithstanding the general disaffection of the clergy, only two'' out of the whole number of the Irish prelates openly refused to acquiesce in the Elizabethan reformation. By the influence of this body, the enact- ments of their English colleagues were synodically accepted^ in 1560, so that the connexion which had been already formed between the two Churches was now rendered still more intimate. For several years after the accession of Elizabeth it was the custom even of the Eomish party' to frequent the services of the Church : but active emissaries of the pontiff soon endeavoured to reduce this number of conformists ; and when Pius V. had launched his damnatory bull" in 1570, secessions from the Church became more frequent, and the bias of the Irish more decidedly in favour of the ' old' opinions. Many of the ultra-papists did not scruple to negotiate a union with the king of Spain" in " See Jewel's Works, ed. Jelf, vm. ('Ireland also will be very difficultly 128 sq. stayed in the obedience, by reason ° Thus the lord deputy, the Earl of the clergy that is so addicted to of Sussex, writes to Ceoi^ July ■22, Home'): Burnet, 'Records,' Bk. in. 1562: 'Our relygyon is so abused, No. t. as the papysts rejoyce, the newters ' Palmer, Treatise on the Chwrch, do not myslike changes, and the fewe I. 425, 3rd ed. ; Mant, I. 278. zelouse professors lamente the lacke ' Ekington, ii/e of JJ/ssAer, p. 42, of pyete. The pepell withowt dys- Lond. 1 848, the reference being to ciplyne, utterly voyde of relygyon, the synodal recognition of the Eng. come to divine servyce as to a May lish Prayer-Book, game. The mynysters for dishaby- ' Mant, I. 159. lite and gredynes be bad in contempt ; ^^ Above, p. 254. and the wyse fere more the impieti ^^ Thus in 1568 the titular bishops of the lieentiouse professers than the of Cashel and Emly were sent by superstityon of the erronyouse pa- certain confederated rebels to the pists:' Original Letters (relating to pope and Philip II. of Spain, im- Ireland), edited by Shirley, pp. 117, ploring help against Elizabeth: 118, Lond. 1851. The diflSculties of Mant, I. 286. Another of the chief the Irish problem had already been agents of the Eomish party was presented to Elizabeth's advisers Kiohard Creagh, a native of Limer 2GS The Unglish and Irish Reformation. [chap. IRELAND, order to promote the re-establishment of Mediaeval tenets. Their schism was thus promoted by the growth of principles that led to civil insubordination, and that ere long issued not unfrequently in acts of absolute rebellion. The Irish Church had meanwhile been enfeebled like its English sister by domestic quarrels and perplexities. The new primate, Adam Loftus (Lofthowse), consecrated in March, 1563, and transferred to Dublin in 1567, was actuated by the strong antipathies^ which we have noticed in Elizabethan prelates of the dominant country: and the impulse thus communicated by him in the course of his long and active administration gave the Irish reformers the severe and somewhat Puritanic character, which they retained until the following century. In one respect their system differed widely from the English: for while the latter had endeavoured to fence in the truths which had been vindicated, by compiling the Thirty-nine Articles of Religion, and exacting subscription from all candidates for holy orders, the short series of eleven Articles^ drawn up by Parker in 1559 continued to pass current as a test of riok, who is said to have returned preacheres, only for this, that they f rom the continent 'non sine libera- will not be lyke the papistes, the lissima Pii Pont. Max. [i. e. Pius V.] professed ministers of Sathan and munifioentia, ut et oves suas in Hy- Antichrist, in auperstioioua and berniaetruculentissimoruraluporum wicked order of apparell and out- ac lesenae faueibus everteret, atque ward sheawe.' He then begs Cecil eis oflBciose ao pie praeesset.' Roth, to 'remove and quight take awaye .4 nafecto, quoted in Palmer, as above, all the monuments, tokenes and I. 4-28. At the close of the sixteenth leavings of papistrye; for as longe as I century O'Neal, earl of Tyrone, any of them remaynes, there re- headed a most formidable rebellion maynes also occasion of relapes unto in which he was supplied with funds the abolishyd superstikion of Anti^ by the court of Spain, and instigated christ:' Original Letters, ed. Sliirley, by the indulgences and benedictions pp. 2l4sq. Brady, bishop of Meatb, of the pontiff, who moreover sent him appears to have taken the other a consecrated plume composed of side in the oontroversyi He thus what was gravely termed the fea- reflects on the primate in a letter thers of the Phoenix: Mant, I. 186. addressed to Cecil (Sept. 14, 1566: ^ Thus he writes to Cecil (July Jbid. p. 272): 'If he sale I haue 16, 1565) in the following urgent drawen backward, I onlie saie againa terms; '0 what inconvenience were he huth dr&v/en to fast forviard.' it to thrust owt of ther livings and ' See above p. 247. ministery so many godly and learnid iv.J The English and Irish Reformation. 269 Irish orthodoxy, having been put in circulation for that purpose by the deputy and the bishops in 1566, when it Was ordered to be read by all incumbents ' at their posses- sion-taking, and twice every year afterwards' ^ The want of some closer and more comprehensive test was never satisfied until the Dublin Convocation of 1615 put forth a longer series of Articles*, although the formulary of the sister-island may have been occasionally adopted by indi- vidual prelates. When efforts were eventually made to prosecute the Irish reformation more independently of England, it is obvious that the general theology of the Irish Church was very strongly Augustinian, if not absolutely Calvinistic in its character. The Lambeth Articles, in which those ten- dencies had reached their highest point in England, were accepted by the Dublin Convocation of 1615, and engrafted on the new formulary °. The most gifted advocate of such opinions" was a nephew of the Irish primate, James TJssher, who in critical acumen and in general scholarship was second to no worthy of the times in which he flourished. At the early age pf nineteen he was deemed a match for one of the most learned Jesuits who assailed the doctrines of the Reformation, and when he was at length promoted to the chair of theology in the newly founded college at Dublin', his fame went on increasing, and his principles were rapidly diffused am'ong the clergymen of Ireland. 'The series hag been reprinted iustlfjing faith and the sanctifying from the original edition in JElring- spirit of God, is not extinguished, ton'sZi/e of Ussher, App. pp. xxiii.sq. nor vanisheth away in the regenerate, * See 'Rxriwick's Mist, of the Ar- either finally or totally,' while the tieles, oh, viii. corrected Lambeth proposition says, ° Even the modifications intro- 'non evanescit in electis.' duced into the Lambeth series for ^ See Elrington's Life of Ussher, the sake of presendng the Augusti- accompanying the new edition of his nian distinction between the grace Worhs. of regeneration and the grace of ' The building, after many obsta- perseverance are dropt in tiie Irish cles, was commenced March 1 3, formulary. Thus it is maintained 1591 ( = 1592), and James Ussher (Art. XXXVIII.) that 'a true liuely was one of the first three scholars: 270 The English and Irish Reformation, [chap. iv. IRELAND. Nothing can however be more unsatisfactory than the picture' of religion and its ministers presented to us at the death of queen Elizabeth. Among the crowd of evils under which the country laboured, we may mention that the plan for printing the New Testament in the vernacular language was not realized' till 1602, while the translation of the Prayer-Book, though completed at an earlier date, obtained no public sanction, and was therefore very seldom if ever used. In such a state of mal-administration it is scarcely matter of surprise that Bacon found the Irish people so degraded; 'blood, incontinency, and theft' being ' not the lapses of particular persons, but the very laws of the nation,' and presenting what he deemed insuperable barriers to the progress of ' religion reformed.' Mant, 1. 320. The first provost after bishop of Ossory, was murdered in the h6norary appointment of arch- his own house, while engaged in the bishop Loftus was Hooker's antago- prosecution of the work (Mait, I. nist, Walter Travers. 29-1). The prelate who eventually 1 Spenser, the author of the Faerie carried it through the press was Queene, in his View of the State of Daniel or O'Donnell, archbishop of Ireland (written about 1595) reflects Tuam. Among other hints given by in the strongest terms both on clergy Bacon for the advancement of piety and people : and Sir Francis Bacon, he mentions 'the recontinuing and referring to the same period in his replenishing the college begun at Considerations touching the Queen's Dublin, the placing of good men to service in Ireland, gives the same be bishops in the sees there, and the verdict. taking care of the versions of Bibles " The translation was suggested and catechisms and other books of as early as 1571, when queen Eliza- instruction into the Irish language;' beth provided a printing press and a Works, III. 215, Lond. 1765. fount of Irish types. In 1585 Walsh, CHAPTEE V. SECTS AND HERESIES ACCOMPANYING THE NEW MOVEMENT. The seeds of scepticism, of disbelief, and speculative feeb- 11 11 1 THINKERS, licence, nad been scattered here and, there as early as the ■ fourteenth century by William of Occam and that class of schoolmen who embraced the 'nominalistic' principles as modified in some of his productions'. At the middle of the following century a stronger impulse was communicated in the same direction by the literati of southern Europe", owing partly to the feverish thirst which had been there excited for the works of Greek philosophers, and partly to a predilection felt in several quarters for the wild and mystic Cabbala of the Jews. No sooner, therefore, was the pressure of the papal yoke abated ° than multitudes of free-thinkers, who had hitherto been yielding a hollow and occasional compliance with the ritual institutions of the Church, began to ventilate their theories more publicly, and even went so far as to establish independent organiza- tions, with the hope of leavening the whole of western ffC, p. Slg. f eprehendam philoaopMEe studium. . . * Ibid. p. sSt. John Sturmius, sed sic ae res habet, ut nisi divinitatis in a scarce epistle 'Ad Cardinales cognitio praemonstratrix, mens ipsa Delectos' (Argentor. 1538), sign. D, hominis errans et vaga ad loca spi- ■2, makes the following complaint on nosa deviaque deducatiir.' this subject: 'Nam quid potest ibi ^ 'The dam, which for so many synoerum dici ubi pro religione super- centuries had repelled human under- stitio, pro Divina sapientia hominum standing from truth, was too sud- philosophia, pro Christo Socrates, denly torn away, for the outbreaking pro sacris Scripturis Ariatoteles atque torrent not to overflow its appointed Plato in Ecclesiam irruperunt. Ne- channel.' SchiUer, Sist. of Revolt of , que hseo ita intelligi velim, quasi' the Netherlands, p. 382, Loud. 1S47. 272 Sects and Heresies accompanying [cHAP. TiuNKERS Christendom. Their fundamental tenet was the self-suffi- ciency of human reason, or the right of private Christians to determine, each one for himself, the course to be pursued in all religious matters : little or no deference being paid to formularies, creeds, and immemorial usages of the Church, nor even to the voice of Holy Scripture, where its oracles appeared at variance with those inspirations which were held to flow directly from the source of light and wisdom to the individual spirit. The promoter of such lawless speculations, it is true, was frequently excited, in the first instance, by the Ke- formation-movement. He accompanied it so long as it accorded with his notions, or held forth a prospect of complete emancipation from authority; but when he ascer- tained its real character, especially the strong determination it continued to evince in favour of the absolute supremacy of an objective revelation, as distinguished from his dreamy self-reliance, and onesided spiritualism, he seems to have been immediately converted into one of its implacable opponents: while the leaders of the movement, although differing from each other on some minor topics, uniformly^ "^ See, for instance, Luther's beha- sowen his good sede, began the deuill viour on the appearance of Anabap- to sowe the cockell and darnell, I tism, above, pp. 41, 42. The inno- mean the pestilent seote of anabap- vatora were at first treated with more tistes, whose frutes did sodeinly tenderness in Switzerland (above, p. appere to the great slander of Christes 121); yet Zwingli afterwards wrote Euangill, and to the grief of many vehemently agaiast them in his godly heartes:' Answer to a great Elenchus contra Catdbaptistas, and nomber of blasphemous cauillations 'BuWmgevin'bisAdversiis omniaOata- (1560), p. 408. While Ridley in a baptistarum prava Dogmata, ed. Ti- letter to Bradford, not long before g^i", 1535. The former is even said his martyrdom, supplies the follow- to have nrged the magistrates of jng additional testimony : 'Whereas Zurich to punish them capitally you write of the outrageous rule that (using the expression 'Qui iterum Satan, our ghostly enemy, beareth mergit, mergatur ;' see Brandt, Hist. abroad in the world, whereby he of Reform, in Low Countries, I. 58). stirreth and raiseth up so pestilent Hooper in like manner was an ener- and heinous heresies, as some to deny getio opponent of them (above, p. the blessed Trinity, some the divinity 216, c. 3). The denunciations of of our Saviour Christ, some the John Knox are no less clear and divinity of the Holy (irhost, some frequent : 'Sone after that God had the baptism of infants, some' original •J the New Movement, 273 saw in him the special instrument of Satan for corrupting, thwarting, and discrediting the work which tliey were straining every nerve to carry out. ANA- BAPTISTS. FIRST RACE OF ANABAPTISTS. The great majority of these revolutionary spirits were at first distinguished by the general name of Anabaptists", owing to the prominence they gave to their denial of the Church's teaching on the efficacy of infant-baptism^, and their consequent reiteration of the sacred rite in cases where it was administered in childhood. But this feature of their system can hardly be regarded as its principal characteristic. The first race of Anabaptists who sprang up, as we have seen, while Luther was concealed at Wartburg (1521), under the guidance of an obscure draper sin, and to be infected with the errors of the Pelagians, and to re- baptize those that have been bap- tized with Christ's baptism already; alas, Sir, this doth declare this time and these days to be wicked indeed !' Works, p. 367, ed. P. S. ^ So general was the term that John Gastius, whose work De Ana- haptista/rum, Exordia etc. appeared at Basle in 1546, makes mention of seven distinct sects (pp. 496 sq.). 3 Cf. above, p. 41, n. 6. We see from evidence there adduced how difficult the question of infant-bap- tism appeared at first sight even to one of the most thoughtful of the Eeformers. Zwingli also confesses (Werhe, ir. i. ■245, new ed.) that for some time before he wrote (1525), he had been the victim of like misgiv- ings: cf. above, p. in, n. 5. Bucer even seems to have felt at one period that infant-baptism might be placed among the ' res non-necessariie' {Scrip- ta Duo Adversana, pp. 142, 145, Ar- gentorati, 1544); but afterwards when pressed by his opponent he main- E. P. tained the following ground (p. 248) : ' Baptisma infantium et ab Aposto- lis acceptum fuit, ut vetustissimi Patres aflRrmant, et certo couclu- ditur ex Scripturis' eic. It should also be remembered that some of the sectaries themselves estimated the effects of baptism very highly when it was administered to conscious and believing subjects : see Der Wieder- taufer Lehr und Gehiimniss aus heil, Schrift widerlefft, duroh Justum Me- nium (1530) in Luther's Works, Wit- tenberg ed. II. 292, and Mohler'a Symholik, II. 162, Lond. 1843. Schenkel in like manner (Das We- sen des Protestaniismus, i. 462 sq., Schaffhausen, 1846) adduces extracts to shew that Servetua held the most ultra-Mediaeval opinions in this mat- ter. Still their general leaning was in the very opposite direction : sa- craments being treated as 'nothyng els than outward sygnes of our pro- fession and felowship, as the badges of capitaines be in warre.' Her- mann's Consultation, sign, t, viii. Lond. 1547. 274 Sects and Heresies accompanying [chap. ANA- of Zwickau, named Glaus (Nicholas) Storch, were animated BAPTliSTS \ ' / L by a deep conviction that the kingdom of Christ would be ere long established visibly on earth, and that the subjects of it, guided by a light within them, would be all ex- empted from human laws and human magistrates, and even raised above the elementary stages of religious knowledge furnished by the holy Scriptures. Thus, apart from minor aberrations which this picture served to stimulate, the Anabaptist opened his career with three main principles of action. Placing himself in the position' of the Israelites of old, he laboured to subvert existing institutions for the sake of realising his visions of a Millennial kingdom. In anticipation of that kingdom he subordinated the written Word of God to inspirations of the individual preacher I And as one example of his disregard for old traditions he rejected infant-baptism on the ground that it was quite superfluous, if not utterly absurd. The Peasants' war' which broke on many parts of Germany in 1526 afforded an example of the way in which these principles might be applied. But long before a check was given to their extravagancies in that district, the fermentation they produced had spread on every side, and roused the indignation both of civil and ecclesiastical authorities*. The emissaries of Anabaptism had already 1 Eanke, Seform. in. 566, who kraftig'), and therefore that men are shews that the idea of introducing to be taught only by the Spirit : see the millennial reign hy force was Melancthon's Works, ed. Bretschn. adopted gradually. The imagina- i. 534. This belief in a continu- tions of the Anabaptists would be ous inspiration of the same hind as stimulated by the version of the He- that vouchsafed to the founders of brew prophets, which appeared un- Christianity induced Nicholas Storch der the auspices of Hetzer and Jo- to appoint twelve apostles from hannes Denk as early as 1527, i.e. among his own followers, some being five years before Luther's version ofhisown trade. The more intelligent was completed. of that number were Marcus Stub. ^ The insufficiency of the Bible ner and Martin Cellarius, students was one of the first points agitated from Wittenberg : always, of course, by the prophets of Zwickau (Ranke, excepting the erratic Carlstadt. II. 22), their reasons being that the ^ Above, pp. 43, 44. written word was inefficacious {'un- ^ Eanke, m, 570 sq. v.] - the New Movement. 275 found their way to Switzerland" in 1525, and in Sweden ana- •; . ' BAPTISTS. had created serious disturbances as early as the autumn of 1524^ It was not, however, tiU a party of them rose in Holland, when they were established in the town of Munster', that the ultimate tendencies of their opinions were fully brought to light. At the beginning of 1534 that city swarmed with Anabaptists, and so formidable was their influence that in the month of February they possessed themselves of the supreme power by substituting for the old authorities a number of their own fraternity, chiefly peasants and unlettered artisans. Such of the inhabitants of Munster as demurred to these proceedings and afterwards refused to abjure their baptism were ruth- lessly ejected in the depth of winter, every street re- echoing the fanatic cry, ' Out with the ungodly.' But the bishop of Munster, aided by some neighbouring princes, instantly resolved to strike a blow for the recovery of his jurisdiction. The city was beleaguered on all sides (May, 1534); while John Bockhold of Leyden, an adventurer who had gradually been elevated at the instigation of Anabaptist 'prophets' to the rank of 'king of Sion' in- spired his frantic followers with a hope that God would signally interpose for the confusion of their enemies. This hope, howevei", was eventually disappointed. The fortifica- tions of the town were stormed on the 24th of June, 1535; an awful carnage followed, and many leaders of the revo- lution shared the fate of their king, being tortured to death with red-hot pincers in the market-place of Munster. It is worthy of remark that in the rescue of the city from ^ Above, p. 12 1. a disciple and colleague of Thomas " Geijer, Hut. of the Swedes, by Mttntzer : above, p. 44, n. i. Turner, p. 112. The two emissaries ' On the troubles that ensued see wereKnipperdoUing, afterwards one Brandt, Reform, i. 61 sq. ; Eanke, of the leaders of the sanguinary fa- III. 573 sq. ; and Jochmus, natics of Munster, where hia bones der Kirchen-reformation su Miinster are still kept in an iron cage in the und ihres Untergangs dv/rch die Wie- church-tower, and Melohior Eink, dertaufer, Munster, 1S25. T 2 276 Sects atid Heresies accompanying [chap. ANA- their dominion, Keformer and Komanist were fighting side BAPTISTS. ... ^1-1 11- oo by side, — a fact which tended m some measure to promote a better understanding between the two Confessions, or at least to shew the strong aversion of the Lutheran states to Anabaptist doctrines. These doctrines had in truth assumed the most flagi- tious character. They may have been advocated here and there by simple-hearted Christians, who, captivated by the bright ideal of a Christian Church which filled the earliest dreams of Anabaptism, yielded their assent to its erroneous dogmas, without plunging into all the depths of immo- rality^; but the influence of that system on the many was disastrous and disgusting. It became, as modified by John of Leyden, a revolting compound of fanaticism and sen- suality. The Bible was the only book there tolerated, and that on the condition that the orthodox intei-pretation must be sought exclusively among the Anabaptist 'pro- phets'^ All who were admitted to the 'true baptism' had every thing in common. They were incorporated into a fraternity that was to constitute the germ of the Millennial kingdom; and in their monarch they accordingly beheld the representative of God Himself, the lord of all the earth. Yet these exalted visions had no power to check the outburst of the basest and the coarsest passions ^ On the contrary, they served to madden and intoxicate their subjects. The abolition of all oaths and vows resulted in a general disregard of social and domestic obligations, and the union of depravity and bloodshed which appals us in the history of the Munster Anabaptists has scarcely any equal in the registers of human crime. One result of their suppression in that city was the ^ Thus in the Layman's Guide of Wameably and died liravely for the John Anastasius (Biandt, I. pg), the articles which they believed to be writer while deploring the errors of divine.' the Anabapti-sts, allows that even in, ^ Eanke, nr. 583. Holland, ' some of them lived un- • ^ Ibid. 587 sq. v-J the New Movement 277 gradual. abatement of their vehemence in preaching doc- trines adverse to the general order of society. But in the meanwhile their feverish and unbridled speculations, vary-- ing often from each other, and related only by the wild confusion of ideas common to the great majority, had forced them into more direct coUision with the central dogmas of the Church. Some of. their extravagancies are most apparent as we trace the progress of the English reformation, which after the catastrophe of Munster, had begun to be affected by the Anabaptist leaven*: but- they meet us also more or less in every district of the continent in which the same religious spirit was fermenting. Guided by their special hatred of all Liitheran tenets, one class of Anabaptists, argued strongly for the freedom of the human wiU, rejected the doctrines of original sin° and the atone- ment, and even urged the competence of man to earn his ANA- BAPTISTS. ^ See above, p. 197, and n. 8. The proclamation of 1538 adverts to their heresies in general terras ; but two years later (see Stat. 32 Hen. VIII. c. 49, § 11) the following points are specified as held by per- sons then excluded from the king's pardon : ' That infants ought not to' be baptised, and if they be baptised they ought to be rebaptised when they com to lawf ull age : That it is not leafuU for a Christen man to beare office or rule in the Commen Welth: That no mans lawes ought to be obeyed: That it is not leaf ull for a Christen man to take an othe before any judge ; That Christe toke no bodily substatnce of our blessed lady: That Synners aftre baptisms cannot be restored by repentaunce : That every manor of Death, with the tyme and houre thereof, is so certainely prescribed, appointed and dfetermyned to euery man of God, that ; neither any prince by his sworde can altre it, ne any man by his owne wilfulnes prevent or chaunge it: That aU things be common and ijothing severall.' Owing to this rigorous policy of Henry VIII., the Anabaptists made sihall progress in the country during his reign: but on the accession of Edward, they a- 'Ibounded in the south of England, more especially in Kent and Essex : Oriffinal Letters, ed. P. S. p. 87. On the character of their tenets, see Hooper's letter (June 25, 1549), IWd. pp. 65, 66 : and Lewis, Bist. of the Rise and Progress of Anabaptism,' in England, Lond. 1738. ° In addition to the authorities cited above, p. 272, n. i, and p. 273, n. 2, see Hermann's Consultation, Lond. 1547, sign, t, iiii. sq. Writ- ing of the Anabaptists he says ; ' Bi- cause they admitte not original sinne, they also refuse the baptisme of chyldren, and in as muche as in them lyeth, they drawe awaye the mosta parte of men from God and eternall saluation:' sign, t, vii; cf. v, ii. In like manner the eighth of the Eiiglish Articles of 1552 complains 'that the Anabaptistes doe now a dales renue' the heresy of Pelagiua. See also the Meformatio Legum Ecdesiasticarum, De Hseresibus, c. 7, Oxon, 1850, ' 278 Sects and Heresies accompanying [chap. ANA- own salvation by a course of virtuous living \ They BAPTISTS. •' o J assailed the common formula by which salvation was attri- buted to 'faith only''''. They rejected all the sterner views of God's predestination : they believed in the defectibility of Divine grace". The agitation of these questions seems to have propelled another section of the Anabaptists into the denial of our blessed Lord's divinity*, — a phase of misbelief which will be noticed more at length hereafter. In the former party the prevailing tone "of thought was strongly rationalistic : but a second school was more in- clined to mysticism. They started from a deep conviction that humanity was now degenerate and corrupt, but argued' that as the taint of evil is restricted to the ' flesh,' it cannot penetrate into the betterand more spiritual province of man's being. In spite however of these dualistic distinctions, they felt that harmony can be effected between the two compo- nent elements of human nature. The task of bringing it about they allotted to the Saviour : and as it would seem, in order to secure that He should Himself be altogether sinless, they maintained that His humanity was peculiar', not consisting of flesh and blood which He derived from ' One of the stoutest advocates of He had never lost his unity with this view was Johannes Denk, a God: He was a Saviour of His peo- young and learned Anabaptist, whose pie, for He was the forerunner of all doctrines were diffused in two or those who would be saved. This three years in the Rhine-district, in was the meaning of the words, that Switzerland, in Franconia, in Swa- all should be saved by Christ.' bia, and even as far as Moravia: see ^ Mohler, on this account, wel- an article by Heberle, in the Studien comes them as to some extent a- und Kritihen, 1855, 4tes Heft, pp. mong his own fellow-workers in 817 sq. As Kanke had already ob- demolishing Lutheranism : SywhoWc, served {Reform, iir. 5,59), ' the basis n. 165, Eugl. transl. of his doctrine is, that God is love; ' See a forcible statement of their which, he said, flesh and blood reasons in John Knox's Amwer to could never have understood, had a great nomher of blasphemous Ga- it not been embodied in certain hu- uUlations, &o. (1560), pp. 236sq. man beings, who might be called ' * The followers of Johannes Denk divine men, or the children of God. may be quoted as examples : see But in one of them, love was su- above, n. i. premely exemplified :— :in Jesus of ^ E^nke, ni. 563. Nazareth. He had never stumbled " See for instance, Hooper's trea- iu the path marked out by God:, tise (1549), entitled A Lesson of the V.J ths JSew Movement. 279 the substance of the Virgin. Their views respecting pre- destination were most rigorous', and they even pleaded - that a man who is indeed regenerate ° is exempted from the possibility of sinning, and remains the temple of the Holy Ghost whatever be the quality of his outward actions. One or both these schools were also ' universalists' °, i.e. contended for the restoration of all things, and even for the ultimate conversion of the evil spirit. Others advocated" the materialistic notion that souls will sleep throughout the interval between death and judgment. Others went so far" as to defend polygamy, as well as the community of goods, impugned the lawfulness of oaths and warfare, and denied the jurisdiction of the civil magistrate. Their un- worthy speculations touching the authority of the Bible, the nature and efficacy of the sacraments, the office of the ANA- BAPTISTS. Incarnation of Christ, Later Writ- ings, ed. P. a., where this Docetio view is refuted. Joan of Kent was burnt for liolding it (May 2, 1550). The heresy is thus stated in the Re- formcUio Legum Eccl. 0. 5 ; ' Alii eum sic Deum judicant ut hominem non agnoacant, et de corpore mi- gantur de coelo divinitus assumpto, et in virginis uterum lapso, quod tanquam in transitu per Mariaiu quasi per canaiem aut fistulam prse- terfluxerit.' ' 'They maintain a fatal neces- sity, and that beyond and besides that will of His, which He has re- vealed to us in the Scriptures, God hath another will by which He al- together acts under some kind of necessity.' Original Zetters, ed. P. S. pp. 65, 66. ^ See, for instance, the proposi- tions maintained by Champneys in Strype'a Cranmer, n. g2, 93, ed. E. H. S. Augsburg Confession, Part I. Art. XII. and Reform. Leg. Eccl., de Haeresibus, c. 9. The natural consequence of this tenet was * anti- nomianism.' To shew the great va- riety of strange opinions that now agitated the Chtirch, it is stated in the same chapter of the Refonnatio Legwm that other Anabaptists held an opposite view, viz. that sin after baptism, or regeneration, is possible, and when committed, absolutely un- pardonable. ■ ' ' Nee minor est illorum amentia, qui periculosam Originis hasresim in hac Eetate nostra rursus excitant; nimirum omnes homines (quantum- cunque sceleribus se contaminave- rint) salutem ad extremum consecu- turos cum definite tempore a justi- tia divina poenas de admissis flagitiis luerint.' Reform. Leg. c. xi. They sought to establish their theory on the terminability of future punish- ment partly by referring to abstract ideas of God and partly by broach- ing new interpretations of the word ' eternal ' and other scriptural phra- seology. See Heberle's article, above cited, pp. 826 sq. In p. 830, note, the arguments are summed up as follows: 'Grott kiinne und moge nicht ewig ziirneu ; so heisse em,g nicht immerwahrend, sondem lang.' 1" Reform,. Leg. c. xii. ^^ lUd. Oi xiii. — XV. 280 Sects and Heresies mdompfmymg [chap. MENNON- Church, the jurisdiction of the clergy, and all species of ecclesiastical discipline, we gather with sufficient clearness from the facts adverted to above. In short, if Anabaptism had prevailed, it would have reared its throne upon the ruins of all ancient institutions, and have trampled under foot the Word of God itself. SECOND RACE OF ANABAPTISTS, OR MENNONITES. Eee long, however, a new body of extreme reformers issued from obscurity, and occupied a prominent place in the commotions of the period. Unlike the earlier race of Anabaptists, they possessed a single leader, a more uniform and definite system of opinions, and an organisation more coherent and compact. Their founder was a clergyman of Wittmarsum in Friesland, named Menno Symons or Simonis, who, after devoting a considerable time to the study of the New Testafnent\ and the works of the Keformers, abandoned his pastoral duties at the age of forty (1536), and Became the founder of a sect in Holland over whom he continued to preside till June 13, 1561. Although his followers have in vain attempted to estabhsh their antiquity^ and independence of the Anabaptists proper, it must be at once conceded that the principles of the sect are free from nearly all the dark fanaticism which 1 Among other lives of him there gezinden'= Dippers, is one by a, preacher of the Men- " Thus Schjn {Dedmctio, c. l) nonite community, Menno Symunis wishes to connect them with the •t, von B. K. Koosen, Leip- early Christians, who are said to have zig, 1848. The best sources for their rejected infant-baptism 'exinstitu- general history are found in Schyn's tione Domini nostri Jesu Christi, Sist. Christianorvm, qui in Belgio exemplisque Apostolorum,' and also r,Am- with the Waldenses. The resem- stelodami, 1733; the same writer's blance in the latter case is not en- ffist.Mennon.plemorDeductio,i'j2g; tirely destitute of point: see Middle and Menno's Works (in Dutch), col- Age, p. 316, n. -z, and for Peter of leoted in 1646. After 1570 the Bruis, Ibid. p. 312, u. i. Dutch name f oy the ^ect yfap ' Doops- V.J the Mew Movement. 281 stains the records of the older party. The chimeras, rising mennon out of their belief in a Millennium, were gradually exploded ; and so far from advocating the idea of a continuous ' in- spiration,' the Mennonites had grown notorious for their strict and even servile deference to the phraseology of the Bible. Menno, while distinguished for his zeal and indus- ' try was far less cultivated than some other leaders of the period, and the practical bent of his own mind induced . him to disparage human learning, to ridicule ' the wisdom of the worldlings,' and especially to throw aside a large proportion' of the theological terminology then current in the schools". It was impossible, however, for^this system to maintain its ground, unless provided with some formal statement of the doctrines it was aiming to disseminate. Accordingly, in Menno's life-time, he contrasted portions of his own teaching with the corresponding dogmas of the Komish and Eeformed communities*; and after his death the 'Confession of Waterland' drawn up in 1580 by two Mennonite preachers, Eis and Gerard, was accepted in many questions as the public test of orthodoxy ^ It com- mences with a vague expression of belief in the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and Incarnation, and then determines ^ See Menno's Worhs, pp. 666 in violation of the letter of the Bi- sq., and other passages quoted in ble, to adopt the washing of the Gieseler, III. ii. p. 94, n. 8. !For brethren's feet as an indispensable example, they were opposed to all ceremony, and to reject infant- definitions respecting die Holy Tri- baptism as both ' superstitious and nity, and to such words as i->r6aTacris antichristian :' see Menno's Works, and ' Persona.' The same aversion p. 882. to dogmatic statements, couched in * The treatise was entitled Tan phraseology not found in the holy Art reehte Ohristen geloove, and ap- Scriptnre, is still manifest even after peared in ISS6. The Lutherans he they had been compelled to publish a charges with holding that faith is confession of their faith (1580): cf. alone necessary to salvation, and Sohyn, Deduclio, p. 82, where such with gross departures from the mo- words as i/jLooiaios are repudiated, ral law: the English and Zwinglians ''quia sacra Scriptura ea haud novit, with serious errors respecting the et periculosum est de Deo aliis ao Incarnation, with teaching that there Soripturse verbis loqui.' A similar are 'two Sons in Christ.' feeUng urged them to denounce the ^ The Latin form in Schyh, ffisj. use of oaths &c., which they thought Christianorwm, etc. pp. 1 72 sq. ITES, 282 Sects and Heresies accompanying [chap. MEMTON- that the guilt of Adam has not been transmitted to his progeny, although some taint of sinfulness was through his fall ingrained into the several members of the human species, so as to disturb, without destroying, the equili- brium of the will'. The death of Christ is viewed as a propitiatory sacrifice, of which the benefits extend to all mankind without exception, he only failing in the end to profit by it, who through wilfulness refuses to embrace the offered mercy, and so dies incorrigible I The faith which in their system constituted the subjective ground of pardon and justification, is a faith that ' worketh by love,' — a faith that leads men to participate in that true righteousness, which Christ, through the co-operation of the Holy Spirit, will infuse into the Christian sou^. Of such members, and of such alone, the Church of God consists, according to its proper definition*. It is also capable of being recog- nised by certain visible badges or mnemonic actions, called the sacraments, in respect of which Menno's language is in harmony with that of Zwingli and the earlier Swiss reformers ^ Owing to his theory of original sin, no place was left for infant-baptism ; but the ostensible ground on which that usage was at first rejected both by him and by his followers is said to be, the absence of direct and une- quivocal warrants in the writings of the New Testament'. Unlike the more fanatic race of Anabaptists, who considered that every Christian was entitled to assume the functions ^ This appears to be the right in- ante jacta mundi fundament'a de- terpretation of Art. IV. and Art. v. crevit, ut regni et glorise coelestis when taken together : of . Mohler, il. partioipes evaderent.' i8i, 182. ' Art. XX., Art. xxi. The differ- ^ Art. VII. The following extract enoe, at least in phraseology, be- will shew the nature of their tenets tween the Mennonite and the Lu- on the Divine decrees : ' Omnes, qui theran is here complete : of. above, poenitentes et credentes gratiosum p. 281, n. 4. istud Dei in Christo beneEcium ad- * Art. xxiv. mittunt- aut accipiunt, atque in ea >> See Art. xxx. sq., and above, peraeveraut, sunt et manent per ejus pp. 1 20 sq. niisericordiam electi, dequibusDeus ' Above, p. 281, n. 3. V.J tlie New Movement. 283 of a teacher, Menno entrusted the government of the sys- menson- tem he had founded to a regular ministry, with strict • injunctions that the several ordinances they prescribed should always be deducible from the letter of the Word of God'. But the connexion of Menno's principles with those of Anabaptism is betrayed at least in one particular, — ^in his speculations touching the nature of the civil and spiritual authorities, ,and their relation to each other. He taught obedience ^ it is true, to every officer of state in all things not actually prohibited by the Word of God ; but so adverse in his eye were civil functions to the genius of the Gospel, and so incompatible with a belief in the reality of that spiritual kingdom- which our Lord has constituted in the Church, that earnest Christians, he contended, could not with a safe conscience undertake the duties of the secular functionary, and were more especially precluded from engaging in all kinds of war. The Mennonites' were broken, during the lifetime of their founder into two parties, (1) the Waterlanders, or 'coarse' Mennonites, who afterwards became the leading sect, and flourished in that district of North Holland whence ^ 'In hac sua sancta Ecclesia discipulos ant sequaces suos ad re- Christus ordinavit Miuisterium galem, ducalem, vel aliam Tocavit... Evangelicum, nempe doctrinam Ver- Bed passim ab eo (cui voce e cceIo bi Divini, usum sacrorum Sacra- audita auscultandum erat) vocantur Uentorum, curamque pauperum, ut ad imitationem inermis ejus vitse et et Miniatros ad perfungendum istis vestigia oruoem f erentia ; et in quo ministeriis : atque insuper exeroitium nihil minus apparuit, quam mun- fratemsB allooutionis, punitionis eb danum regnum, potestas et gladius. tandem amotionis eorum, qui in im- Hisoe omnibus igitur exacte perpen- pcenitentia perseverant: quse ordi- sis (atque insuper, non pauoa cum natioues in Verbo Dei conceptse so- munere potestatis poKticae conjuncta* lummodo juxta sensum ejusdem Ver- esse, ut bellum gerere, hostibus bi exequendsB sunt.' Art. XXV. bona et vitam eripere etc. quae vitae ^ Art. XXXVII. After stating that Christianorum, qui mundo mortui we must pray for those in authority, esse debent, aut male aut plane non and pay taxes &o. without murmur- conveniunt), hinc a talibus ofSciis ing, the article proceeds: 'Potesta- et administrationibus nos subduci- temhano politioam Dominus Jesus mus.' in regno suo spirituali, Ecclesia Novi ' The authorities for the subse- Testamenti, non instituit, uequ^e hano quent history of the Mennonites are offioiis Boolesiae su£e adjunxit: nequa- as above, p.,280, n. i. 284 Sects and Heresies accompanying [chap. sociNtANs. their name has been derived, and (2) tlie ' refined' Mennon-, ites who were chiefly Flemings, Frieslanders, and Ger- mans; each of these again comprising a separate confrater- nity. They were all for some years exposed to sharp and sanguinary persecutions, chiefly owing to their reputed connexion with the earlier race of Anabaptists: but in Holland most of them were able to elicit some favours from William, prince of Orange, and ultimately obtained a formal toleration in 1626. A few offshoots of the sect are also traceable in other regions, in Switzerland, in the Palatinate, and even in Moravia, from whence, after being roughly handled, they were all extruded by Ferdinand II. in 1 622, and driven into Hungary and Transylvania. SOCI NIANS. The same initial impulse, that gave birth to all the varied and conflicting forms of Anabaptism, stimulated somewhat different tendencies in persons whom we may consider the precursors of ■ the Unitarians, or Socinians. They constitute the rationalistic party of that stirring epoch. What the Anabaptist had been anxious to effect by the remodelling of social life, the Antitrinitarian for the most part dreamed of doing by the expurgation of theology'. ^ See Treohael's works Vie prates- the circumstauces of the birth. Soci- tantischen Antitrinitarier (ist Book, nianism, as modified by the Socini, including Servetus and his predeoes- came from Italy, where long before sors, Heidelberg, 1839 : 2nd Book, the outbreak of the Lutheran move«. extending as far as the elder Soci- ment, scepticism and infideUty had nus, Heidelberg, 1844). Mohler been most rife: see above, p. 105. (SymboUJc, 11, 322) contends with Zanchi, himself an Italian (above, justice that Socinianism 'bequeathed p. 108, n. 3) complained to Bulhnger, to a later period the work of its own when writing from Chiavenna, of consummation, namely, the entire the heterodoxy of his countrymen- abandonment of those elements of on these subjects, and used to say, supernaturalism, which in its origin 'Hispania [the birth-place of Ser' ithadnot wholly rejected:' but when vetus] gaUinas peperit, Italia fovet he urges that Socinianism itself is a ova, nos jam pipientes puUos audi- legitimate product of the Reforma- mus :' quoted in Gieseler, III. ii. p. 62) tion, he forgets, the real parent and u. 6, v.] ' the New Movement. 285 Devoted in some cases to the study of the pagan writers, and socinians. exulting in the consciousness of intellectual freedom, he either overleapt or trampled underfoot those ancient boun- daries by which the supernatural elements of Christianity were fenced from the intrusions of irreverent criticism. At first, however, some of the promoters of the heresy were actuated by reasons which contained a very large admixture of the Anabaptist spirit. John Denk'', whose writings more than those of any other person influenced the development of the rationalistic phase of Anabaptism, had impugned the doctrine of the Holy Trinity and laboured to establish a belief in the simple manhood of our blessed Saviour. Others, who were also ranked with Anabaptists, pushed their speculations into the same mysterious provinces, adopting' in one case the misbelief of Arius, in a second of Sabellius, in a third of Photinus. Among the earliest works in which the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was openly assailed is the De Trinitatis Erroribus of an Aragonese physician named Servede* (Servetus), which appeared in 1531. Its author had accompanied Charles V. to Italy in 1529, and in the following year took up his residence at Basle, where he allied himself with the Reformers. The notions which he there elaborated spread in many quarters, and more especially infected a consider- able number of persons in Lombardy', all of whom were dissatisfied with the present aspects of religion, and anxious to reform the Church by striking at the root of creeds and catechisms, as well as by repudiating infant-baptism and the current views on justification. Of these misbelievers the greater part, including Bernardino Ochino', were gradually ^ Above, p. i 78, n. i. Hetzer, one ' Treohsel, Bk. Ii. p. 391. The of Denk's associates, espoused the doctrines rejected by these Antitri- same tenets and was executed in nitarians were said to hare been im- 1529 at Constance. ported into Christianity 'perphilo- ^ Trechsel, as above, Bk. I. § r. sophos Graeoos.' * See references, as above, p. .128, ° Above, p. 108, n. 3, and Xrech- n. 4. sel, Bk. rt. pp. 221 sq. 286 Sects and Heresies accompanying [chap. sociNiANs. ejected by the Inquisition, and betaking themselves to Switzerland procured a shelter in the Grisons, at Ziirich, and also at Geneva', in which town Servetus after many- wanderings^ was at last committed to the flames upon a charge of blasphemy (Oct 27, 1553). Meanwhile a fresh asylum was discovered by the leading spirits of this school in some of the chief towns of Poland. A literary club', of which the president was an Italian, Lismanini, provincial of the order of Franciscans, seems to have been the first arena where the doctrine of the Holy Trinity was openly called in question, and the agitations thus occasioned were aggravated during the visit of another Italian, Lselius Soci- nus^, in 1551. But the latter had suggested rather than avowed the heresy with which his name was afterwards associated, leaving his nephew, Faust us Socinus^ who set- tled at Cracow in 1579, to fix the special character of the Unitarian creed, to harmonise discordant views with refer- ence to the nature and the offices of Christ, and thus by ' A community of Antitrinitarians Genevse, 1567. began to form in Geneva as early as ^ Above, p. 90, n. 6, and p. 92, 1543, which was the year when the n. 4. Inquisition instituted its first pro- ^ He wag a native of Siena, but ceedings against them: Trechsel, fled from Italy in 1547. He after- Bk. II. p. 280. wards travelled in Switzerland, " After leaving Basle be travelled Trance, England and Belgium, and in France under the name of Mi- was in Poland during part of the chael de Villeneuve, settling at last year 1551 and again in 1558. His in Vienne, where he published (1553) chief residency however was at Zii- bis Christianismi Restitutio : totius rich, where he managed to conceal eccledce apostoUcce ad ma Umina his heretical opinions, and died May vocatio etc. This work abounds in 14, 1562. wild and impious speculations, and " He survived till 1604. See the exposed the author to the officers of short ZAfe by a Polish knight, Przyp- the Inquisition, from whom, how- covins, prefixed to the WorJca of ever, he escaped and fled for refuge Paustus Socinus (in two volumes, to Geneva. A similar execution folio), Irenopoli, 1656 ; and Toul- took place at Berne in 1566, when rain's Memoirs of the Life, Character, John Valentinus Gentilis was be- ifcc. of Famtiis Soeinus, jjond. il'jj.^ headed for uttering Antitrinitarian The expulsion of the entire sect from doctiines. See the contemporary Poland in 1658 and the 'establish- narrative of Benedict Aretius, en- ment ' of Socinianism in Transylva- tltled Valent. Gentilis justo capitis nia, have been noticed already, p. 93, fupplicio Bernce affecti brevis hisloria, n. 5, and p. 100. y.j iiie l\ew Movement 287 giving to their system a colder tone and a more critical sooinians. direction, to separate it altogether from the feverish agita- tions of the day. Among the principal characteristics of Socinianism, as represented in his works and those of his immediate fol- lowers', we notice the comparatively high position there awarded to the teaching of the Bible''. Some inaccuracies they granted may have crept into it here and there, but only with respect to smaller matters which in no degree abate its paramount authority'. Yet this admission in the judgment of Socinians was compatible with a denial of our blessed Lord's divinity. They looked upon Him as a man,, although as it was acknowledged, not a mere man, seeing that He was conceived by the Holy Ghost, and therefore may be called, and is, the Son of God*. Before entering on His public labours. He was thought to have been elevated into the immediate ■ presence of God Him- self, in order that He might be there invested with autho- rity ; and as the high reward of the obedience which He shewed in His capacity of Pattern-man, of Teacher, and of Legislator, He was finally admitted to a share of the ^ Their writings are all collected sed tota ex voluntate Dei pendeai, et in the Bihliotheca Fratrum Polono- ex ipsius patefactione.' rum, guos Unitarios vacant, Irenop. * Thus with regard to the al- 1656. That which approaches most leged discrepancies in the Gospels, nearly to the character of a symbo- Socinus wrote as follows {De Aucto- lical hookas the Racmian Oatechiam ; ritate S. Scriptures, Opp.i.i6T , col. i): al)ove,p.g3, andToulmiii,pp. 358sq. 'Dioo igitur, quod attiuet ad repug- "! For example, Faustua Socinus nantias aut diversitates, quse in declares (0pp. ll. 362) that he re- Novi Testamenti scriptis invenian- garded ' God only as his Instructor, tur, nullam esse, quae aut non vide- and the sacred Scriptures as his only atur quidem vera, sed tamen non guide :' see other passages to the sit, aut non in re sit parvi, seu po- same effect in Toulmin, pp. 162 sq. tins nuUius momenti.' The authority of the Bible as a ge- ^ See for instance, the chapter of nuine revelation is also strongly af- the Racovian Catechism, ' De Cogni- firmed in his (unfinished) Zectiones tioneChristi.'where examples will be Sacrce; 0pp. I. 290, col. 2, where he found of that shallow and in many even urges that ' reason ' can hardly cases violent criticism, by which the be adduced in opposition to Divine principal texts declaring our Sa- truths, ' cum Christiana religio non viour's pre-existence and Divine na- humanse rationi uUo paoto innitatur, tare are explained away. 288 Sects and Heresies accompanying [chap. sociNiAsrs. Divine sovereignty, and made in one sense equal with the Father. For this reason we may fairly be required' to offer Christ a secondary kind of adoration, provided only that it never trenches on the worship which we pay to God Himself. Socinus in like manner denied the person- ality and proper Godhead of the Holy Spirit, and betrayed inadequate conceptions touching the nature and efficacy of Divine grace. Original sin^ had not been recognised in the construction of his system : neither did he view the death of Christ as in any way condticing to the re-establish- ment of those relations between God and man which are subverted by iniquity. Christ, it is conceded, by virtue of His bright example urges men to acts of self-denial and the practice of repentance, and by His powerful interces- sion helps them to subdue the evil tendencies of their nature ; but every trace ^ of mediation and satisfaction being thus obliterated, the justification of the sinner is ascribed to a forensic act of God, by which He graciously remits the penal consequences of transgression to all persons who from faith in Christ as the Eevealer have fulfilled the precepts of the moral law*. The teaching of Socinus on many kindred questions, (such, for instance, as the doctrine of the sacraments'^) may be inferred from what is known ^ The strong convictions of Soci- teach us how to die and to confirm nus on this point are fully stated in the promise of God to man, asks his controversy with a section of his the question : ' Nonne est etiam ali- foUowers who were distinguished as qua alia mortis Christi causa!' To the ' Non adorantes :' see the Dispw- which the answer is, 'NuUaprorsus: taiio inter F. S. et Christianum etsi nunc vulgo Christiani sentiunt, Franchen, de Jionore Christi (0pp. II. Christum morte sua nobis salutem 767 sq. ; cf. Toulmin, pp. 332, 333), meruisse, et pro pecoatis nostria ple- and more especially De Jesii Christi narie eatisfecisse, quEe sententia fal- invocatione etc., a disputation be- lax est, et erronea, et admodum per- tween Socinus and Francis David, niciosa:' cf. Toulmin, pp. t78sq. superintendent of the Unitarians in ^ See Mohler's investigation of Transylvania (0pp. II. 709 sq.). this point (11. 340, 341), where he ^ 0pp. II. 540, 541. _ rejoices to find Socinus refuting 'the 3 Thus the Racovian Catechism Protestant doctrine on faith and in cap. viii. ('De Morte Christi') works.' after pointing out how the death of ^ See his treatise De Ecclesia, 0pp. Christ was necessary in order to i, 350, 351. v.] the Few Movement. 289 already of his system. In one respect he seems to have schwenck- . . FELDIANS. originated a theory widely different from that of the ratio nalistic school of Anabaptists, whom at other times he fol- lowed. He affirmed the ultimate annihilation of the damned; whereas they commonly explained" the word ' eternal' in such a manner as to warrant a belief in the corrigibility and therefore in the actual restoration of all created beings. SCHWENCKFELDIANS. The founder of this sect of mystics was Caspar Schwenckfeld', a Silesian noble, born in 1490. At the earliest outbreak of the Reformation, he allied himself with Lutheranism, contributing to the success which it exr perienced. in his neighbourhood. His mind, however, was, ill-balanced, hasty and fanatical; and perplexed by the por- tentous aspects of the Eucharistic controversy which opened in 1525, he fancied that the true solution of the mystery" involved in our. Saviour's language was communicated to himself by a particular revelation. According to his view the sacraments are not media or conductors by which God imparts to man the supernatural gifts of grace ; but, on the contrary, these gifts come down into the soul of the regenerate immediately, or rather spring up in it, owing to the inhabitation of the Word of God, who therefore can dispense with' the external Word contained in holy 8 Atovep. 279, "• 9* stitution,' he made toCto the predi- ' See J. Wigand, De SchmencTcfd- cate ('what bread i3, that is my diimo, Lipsiae, 1587, and Erbkam, Body, viz. food'). Gexch. der protestant Sektm in Zeit- ' He declares that the 'ahnightj alter der Reformation, Hamburg, eternal Word proceeds out o£ the 1848 pp. 357 sq. mouth of God directly and immedi- 8 Erbkam, p. 360, where an ac- ately, and not through the Scripture, count is given of his intercourse with external Word, sacrament or any Luther and Bugenhagen at Witten- other created thing ('kreaturlich- berg on the sacramental question. keif) in earth or heaven:' see the His own leanings were then, in the German original in Gieseler, III. ii. direction of Zwinglianism, for in his p. 104, n. 5. He rejected the Lu- interpretation of the 'words of in- theran view of justiEcatipn on, the E. P. U 290 Sects and Heresies accompanying [chap. scHWENCK- Scripture, as well as -with all other species of 'creaturely' intervention. The root of these notions lay in wild and- half-docetic views respecting the Incarnation of our blessed Lord. Schwenckfeld, it is true, defended himself against the imputation of denying the humanity entirely ; but he nevertheless persisted in affirming that the flesh of Christ is not the flesh of a created being'; that the mortal nature He inherited from His Virgin-mother was only the transient form assumed by a humanity which came from heaven, and had its origin in God the Father ; and that in His present state of glorification. His whole being is so deified, that even the human nature is properly Divine, though not confounded altogether with the Godhead^. Christ, the Logos, having thus entered into the line of humanity, and invested it with an ineffable glory, is the life and sustenance of all regenerate spirits, dwells in them con- tinually, becomes to them the root of righteousness, and so prepares them for a full participation of the Divine essence and perfections. Although the author of these transcendental tenets had numerous followers in Silesia, he was himself compelled to quit the country in 1528. We next find him consorting with various sections of the Anabaptists', and occasionally with Swiss Reformers; yet none of them appear to have entirely satisfied his theory of religion. About the year 1540, when same grouBd, as too historical, rest- CcmUlations, &c. pp. 405 sq. ing too much on promises cortained ^ See Corner's investigation of in a cold and lifeless document: Ibid. this dogma in his Entvii^hlungs-geach. p. 109, n. 10. Bp. Alley was pro- der Lehre von der Person ChriaH, p^. hably referring to this peculiarity 207 sq. Stuttgart, J 839, and Hahn's when he spoke of ' Swinokf eldians Schwenchfeldii sententia de Chriiti and other fantastioall heades, which Persona, Vratislav. [Breslau], 1847. do depraue the holye Scripture:' ' His own explanations may be Poors Man's Librarie, I. 171, a, seen in hia Confession, of which ex- Lond. 1565: cf. John Knox's. ic- tracts are printed in Gieseler, as count of his interview with an Ana- above pp. 104 — 108. ■baptist in London 'the winter before ' Ranke (Seform. III. 563) thinks the death of king Edward : ' Answer it highly probable that Schwenck- to a great nomber of blasphemous feld's influence contributed largely to y.J the New Movement 291 tte chief positions he had occupied were understood by the family of Reformers, Schwenckfeld was denounced as a Eutychian heretic*; and in spite of all the sympathy which he exacted here and there by his unblemished life and earnestness of purpose, these denunciations were continually repeated' after his death, which took place on the 10th of December, 1562. FAMILY OF LOVE- A COARSER species of fanaticism is traceable to one David George ^ or Joris, a native of Delft in Holland, who was born as early as 1501. In 1536 he made himself conspicuous by laying claim to special revelations, and attempting to com- pose the differences which separated the two branches of Dutch Anabaptism'; and soon afterwards proceeded with untiling diligence to organise a system of his own. Three ■ years later he was driven out of East Eriesland, and ulti- mately to Basle, where, assuming a new name, he passed, until his death, in 1556, as one of the Eeformers, The the development of the more mysti- nerate can fulfil the ■whole law, that cal forms of Anabaptism (see above, a Church cannot exist without active pp. 278, 2 79), according to which the power of excommunication, and that body of Christ was not created, but ministers cannot officiate rightly ' derived from heaven. And it is oer- who are not truly renovated, just tain that Melchior Hoffmann, who and pious. i leaded this party until his imprison- * See the Historia vitce, doctrines ment at Strasburg (1533), acknow- ac rervm gesta/rwm Damd. Oeorgii K ledged Schwenckfeld as hiscoadjutor. hceresiarchiE, by Nicolas Blesdyk, his ■f * See, fpr instance, Melancthon'a son-in-law, Deventr. 1642, and a iWoris, ed. Bretachn. IX. 324 sq. still earlier -ti/'e (German and Latin) In the Kirchen-Ordnung of Brans- composed in 1559 'durchdenEector wick (cited above, p. 75, n. 10) the und die Universitat einer loblichen 'Schwenckfeldianer' are denounced Stadt Basel.' His name was perpe- with other misbelievers. tuated in Davidistce and Damdians, ' Thus their errors are solemnly of which the former occurs in the repudiated in the Appendix to the Formula Goncordim (Fraucke, Libri (ed. 1555), and the latter in Beoon's %mbol. Ecel. Luther. Part in. pp. Works, ed P. S. p. 415. A more '114, 215). In addition to the points contemptuous title of the sect was above mentioned, they were charged 'Davists.' with holding that a man truly rege- « ' Brandt, Seform. I. 74 sq. TJ2 292 Sects and Heresies accompanying [chap. FAMILY OF main peculiarity of this adventurer consisted' in affirming - that he was the second David, in whom as the Messiah, born after the Spirit, ancient prophecy would reach its true accomplishment. The Word of God, he argued, was in him exhibited with all its spirituality ; and therefore he was sent into the world to raise men out of their subjec- tion to the introductory ceconomies, such as had been instituted under the Old and New Testaments : and thus securing for his followers a complete emancipation from every phase of legalism, he preached a new and higher dispensation which was to be characterised by perfect right- eousness and perfect love. But long before the death of David George, the principles of these Libertines, as they were now occasionally styled, had found a second advocate in Henry Niclas, or Nicholas, born at Amsterdam. Quitting his birthplace in 1533, he fled, on the suppression of the Munster Anabaptists, to Emden in West Friesland, where he undertook, in a series of fantastic publications, to combat all existing varieties of religion^, whether Romish or Reformed, and thus establish what he termed the Family of Love". ^ His works are all in Dutch (the the seoonde the Papistes, the third principal being 2" Wonderhoeck, pub- Mourtin Lvther, y" fourth y" Ana- lished in 1542, and again, with ad- iaptists: and passing these daungers ditions, in 1550): see extracts and they may be of the familie, else not : references in Gieseler, III. ii. p. 54, this is testified by a man of credite, n. g. On his 'life and doings,' see one Adrian Gisling, who did read Tke Displaying of an horrMe sect of the same in a Dutche booke' &c. grosse and wicked Seretigues, nam- Kogers, Ibid. A iiii. b. ing themselues the Family of Loue, 3 One of those which rendered &o. by J. K. [John Rogers], Lond. him notorious was entitled Ewange- 1579, sign. A iiii. sq. Hum Regni, the Gospel and ioyfull '■' 'Henrie gaue himselfe to writ- message of the kingdome. See the ing of booUes, which he put in print, large extracts from it in Kuewstub's especially one among the rest,' which Confutation of monstroiis omd hor- was the chiefe, called The glasse of rible heresies, taught by H. N. and iHghteousnes the lesse: for he com- embraced of a number, who call piled two bookes of that title, where- themselues the Familie of Loue, Lon- in he certifieth his Familie of loue, don, 1579. Another work 'trans- that they must passe foure most ter- lated out of Base Almain ' and circu- rible castels ful of combersome ene- lated in England, was the 'Memo- mies, before they come to th6 house ralilia Opera Dei: oertaine wonder- of loue : the first is John Caluine, • full Works of God which hapned to LOVK. v.] the New Movement 293 After the Low Countries*, England was the theatre in family of which this sect appears to have obtained the greatest num- - ber of adherents. As early as 1552 it gained a footing in Kent", and notwithstanding the strenuous efforts of Cran- mer and the royal Council, was extensively propagated in some other districts. In the reign of Mary, traces of it were detected in the town of Colchester °, in the Isle of Ely, and in various districts of the Eastern Counties ; and more than once during the reign of Elizabeth' it threatened to diffuse itself va. all parts of England, culminating about the year 1579. The main positions of the sect as modified by Henry Niclas were substantially the same as those already noticed. It shewed itself a compound of principles derived from the more mystical schools of Anabaptism and of the most sweeping Antinomianism. Relying on a series of special revelations, the Familists explained away the 'letter of the Bible;' affirming, for example^ that the birth of Christ ' of the Virgin Mary out of the seed of David,' H. N. even from his youth,' &o , conventicles of this familie of love, 'published [without date] by Tobias, and into what number they are a Fellow Elder with H. N. in the groiyn, my heart reweth to speake,' Houshold of Love.' &c. : of. Parker's Correspondence, ed. * See Brandt, Seform. I. 105. P. S. pp. 61, 321, and Stowe's ' Strype's Cranmer, 11. 410, ed. Chron. p. 679, the latter of whom E. H. S. narrates 'the disclosing of Dutch • See the remarkable narrative of Anabaptists.' William Wilkinson entitled, A Con- ' See the form of abjuration in futaiion of certaine Articles deliuered Wilkins, iv. 296. The numerous mto the Familye of Lam, wUh the points contested by the Familists ex/position of TheophUvx. a mpposed may be inferred from the running Mlder in the sayd Famdye vpon the titles in Wilkinson's Omifutation (see same Articles, Lond. 1579, ftS- iii. sq. n. 6). 'No Church,' ' No Truth,' [For the use of this and other scarce 'No Baptisme,' ' No Ministrie,' 'Of tracts relating to the Familists, the uniting into God,' 'Blasphemy,' present writer is indebted to Dr ' H. N. Da[vid] Ge[orge] his schol- Corrie, Master of Jesus College, ler,' 'H. N. an heretique,' 'No Cambridge.] learning,' 'H. N. must be beleued,' 'For a royal proclamation 'against ' Eeuelations,' 'Of Shrift,' 'Gospel the Sectaries of the Family of Love' a literal seruice,' ' Scripture learned,' bearing date Oct. 3, 1580, see Wil- 'Keligiori dissembled,' 'Libertie to kins,iv.297. 'In many shires of this sinne," 'Libertines,' 'Lyfe proveth our oountrie', writes Rogers (Pref. not Keligion,' 'TriaU by Scripture,' A. iii. b), 'there are meetings and ' Heretickes punished.' 294 Sects and Heresies accompanying [chap. BRowNisTs. means only the promulgation of ' pure doctrine out of the seed of love.' Although the conduct of some members was apparently correct and irreproachable^, 'divers fell into gross and enormous practices; pretending in excuse thereof that they could, without evil, commit the same act which was sin in another to do'^ On this account espe- cially they were exposed to the tribunals of the bishops and the civil magistracy, and in the course of the next generation the sect appears to have gradually died out I BROWNISTS, OR INDEPENDENTS. Egbert Browne^ although he did not graduate in Cambridge, was a member of Corpus Christi College. There, attracted by the zeal and talents of Thomas Cart- wright, he allied himself with the earlier race of English Puritans, and swelled the clamour they were raising -against the liturgy, the ritual and the organisation of the Church'. As early as 1571, the founder of the Brownists, then domestic chaplain to the duke of Norfolk, refused to sign those Articles of "Religion" which related to public ' This is reluctantly admitted, for however, many germs of truth among example, by Wilkinson, in his Epis' the mystics of the sixteenth century, tie Dedicatorie ; and in ' the judge- ' One of their last assailants was ment of a godly learned man, W. C.,' Henry More, in his Mystery oflni- prefixed to Knewstub's work (ag 2»feale, I. 379, 389, booke of common praier is no better 545 sq. then a peepe of swines flesh, and ^ See, among other evidence, a abomination to the Lord.' 'That ye controversy between Prancis John- say the greatest minister hath no son, a Brownist, and H. Jacob. Ja- more power to binde ot loose the cob's chief work is entitled A defence least member, then the said member of the churches and ministery of Eng- hath to binde or loose him ; and so Zande, Middlebourg, 1599. Johnson with the Swinckfeldians, destroy the published an answer in the following ' whole power of the ministry :' of. year. In George Gyflbrd's Short Egerton Papers (ed. Lond, Camd. Beply vnto the last printed books of Soc. 1840) pp. 166 sq. CHAPTER VI. THE COUNTS B-REFOBMATIOF. While some who had originallv embraced the principles mediating 1 • 11 PARTY. 'of Luther were disposed to push them into scandalous con- sequences, and while others used them as a cloak of heresy and a pretext for the wildest innovations, a different party, hovering on the opposite borders of the Reformation-move- ment, shewed a very keen desire to check the progress of confusion, and if possible to re-establish concord in those quarters where the central facts and verities of Christianity were held alike by all the combatants. At' the head of this mediating school* was Desiderius urasmusand Erasmus, whom we saw" allied with the Saxon and Swiss Reformers in the opening stages of their work, but after- wards recoiling from many of their positions and evincing no wish to break entirely from the Mediaeval system. The plan of reconciliation he propounded was of course pro- visional, designed to terminate as soon as the prevailing doubts could be authoritatively settled by the convocation of a council fairly representing all branches of the Western Church. Till then at least he pleaded for much greater latitude in points of doctrine^; he recommended the * See Tabaraud's ffist. critique dei an epistle written ' ad J. Carondi- prcjets formSs depuis trois cents ans letum, archiep. Panonnitanum ' as pour la rSunion des Communions far back as 1522 (Epist. Lib. xxviir. ChrStiermes (Paris, 1824), oh. ix. Ep. 8) : ' Imo hoc denram est erudi- " Above, p. 47, and n. 6. The tionis theologicse, nihil ultra qnam treatise there referred to seems to aacris Uteris proditum est definire, have been his commentary on the verum id quod proditum est bona 83rd Psalm, which he dedicated un- fide dispensare. Multa problemata der the title Be amabili Ecclesim nunc rejioiuntur ad synodum oIkou- Concordia Liber. Tabaraud, p. ■zSS. iieviK^p : multo magis convenieliat 8 He dwells on the same topic in qusestiones ejusmodi in illud rejicere 298 The Coimter-Beforrmtion. [chap. MEjR^ATiNG curtailment of those rites and usages whicli gave offence to the Reformers and ministered to superstition; but was, notwithstanding, anxious at all hazards to reduce the vehe- mence of controversy .and preserve intact the visible unity of Christendom. wisd: Another of these moderators was George WizeP (Vice- lius), who as early as 1525 ofiBciated as a Lutheran pastor, but abandoned his calling at the end of six years, appa- rently through apprehension lest some branches of the 'new learning', and more especially the doctrine of justification as stated by the Wittenbergers, might issue in licentious- ness of life and civil anarchy. In 1533 he published^ his Methodus concordice ecclesiasticce, and subsequently in 1564 his chief sug- a kindred work entitled Via Reqia. His obiect was to bring about a general pacification, by recalling men to the more earnest study of the Bible and the earlier Fathers, in- stead of Mediseval class-books then current in the schools'; by using the vulgar tongue in public worship ; by reduc- ing the number of private masses ; by reforming the whole system of indulgences; by forbidding all direct addresses tempus, cum sublato speculo et eenig- multi tragicum hoc et immane ss- mate videbimus Deum de facie.' culum acceptum feruut. Nam si ^ See Neauder's Oomment. de G. modern! theologi priaoa theologia Yicelio, Berol. 1839. content! esse quam recentem exco- ^ Tabaraud, pp. 295 sq. Both gitare malmssent, vix fuiaset tot these treatises (with others by the haeresibus pressa Eoclesia. Carere same writer) are reprinted in Browu's ea absque detrimento potest multis Fasciculus, 11. 703 sq. In his Ad- vooum inanitatibus, quas saaculis hortatio ad Gondlium {Ibid. p. 783), aliquot praeter necessitatem invenit he expresses a hope that the schism monastica atque acadenuca soientia, will be quickly healed : ' Nee diffi- et inventas imprudenter ingessit quo- do facile reduci posse, s! amputentnr rundam fastns, adeo ut carnificinee modo superstitiosa, !nut!lia, pern!- simul et gehentise tradatur oyibnla ciosa, immodica, idque dolenter ma- Christ!, quas lUas non certo cred!- gis, quam inimice. Audio undique derit. Suaserim itaque sobrietatem qu! percupiant redire, si non ita de- iis, qu! e scholis supersunt. Ineant teiTerent odiosa offendicula.' obsecro cum animo suo rationem, ^ Thus he commences his Metho- quam minime Christians profession! dm ConcordicB (in Brown, p. 75^) as congruat, non solum novum docendi follows : ' Eoclesia contra ooncedat genus invehere, verum etiam nova aliquid parti, in excussione dogma- quaedam docere quae uescivit anti- tum, quae vocant soholastica, quibus quitas.' VI.J The Counter-Reformation, 29& to the saints; by expurgating tlie legenda; and in other mediating ways conciliating the moderate party of Reformers, so as — to attract them into union with the system from which they had been deeply alienated, if not forcibly expelled. But one of the most active, candid, and intelligent advocates of reconciliation was George Cassander'', bom in casmnder. •the Low Countries (1515). To this object he devoted his whole life, in spite of the continual animadversions which his writings had elicited from both the parties whom he wished to mollify and reimite. His principal work was undertaken at the request of the emperor Fer- dinand II., who, finding himself comparatively independ- ent of the Papal court', attempted to propitiate his Lutheran subjects in the closing year of his reign (1564:). With this object he employed Cassander, then engaged at Duis- burg on a similar errand °, to dra^ up a summary of Christian doctrine, in the order of the Augsburg Confes- sion, so as to mark those articles in which there was a pro- spect of agreement. Hence the famous Consultatio de Arti- culis Religionis inter Catholicos et Protestantes controversis, where Cassander, resting' on the Holy Scriptures as the * Tabaraud, p. 299. Cassander's controversise ortsB sint, quarum in collected Works, of which many had iia divinis Uteris non tarn certa et been condemned at the council of aperta explioatio reperiebatur. Quare Trent, were published inParis, 1616. semper neoesse fuit ad oonsensum 5 Above, p. 72. univeraalem vetustissimai-uiu Ecole- 6 While the guest of William, siarum, tanquam ad publicum et duke of CleYes, he examined the firmissimum testimonium vivse apo- whole question of infant-baptism, stolicse doctrinae et verae scriptorum with especial reference to the argu- apostolioorum inteUigentise provo- ' ments of the Anabaptists. See two care, quod et hodie usu venire vide- treatises on this subject in his IFbrfe, mus...Elucet autem hoc publicum pp. ,703 — 779. EcclesisB testimonium maxime in iis 7 ' Divina dcriptura, tanquam cer- scriptoribus atque scriptis, quae fuer- tissima qusedam regula, veteres in nnt ab setate Constantini usque ad controversiis, quae statim post Apo- eetatem Leonis, vel etiam Gregorii.' stolorum discessum extiterant, diju- Prcef. The same principles had been dicandis usi sunt: sed ssepe in his already (1561) enunciated in his contentionibus evenit, ut de sensu et De Officio pit Viri in hoc EcclesicB intelligentia harum divinarum , liter- Dissidio, which being published ano- axum non conveniret, ac non paucse nymously was attacked by Calvin on 300 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. MEDIATING basis of belief, and reverting td the Fathers of the first six centuries for the exposition of all doubtful texts, proposes to relinquish the erratic speculations of later theologians, together with those portions of the liturgy and discipline of the Church that swerved from ancient models. He next suggests the application of his general principle to many of the topics then dividing Christians from each other, and* even dares to ask for a considerable limitation of the func- tions exercised by Roman pontiffs^. cantartni. In addition to these formal measures for securing the unity of Western Christendom, there had always been a party, who, without being fully conscious either of their opposition to the Mediaeval tenets or their close approxima- tion to the ground of the Reformers, acted for a while as moderators between the two great bodies in collision. Of these we saw a bright example in Gaspar Contarinil Lasting benefits resulted from his efforts at the Colloquy of Ratisbon, and his conciliatory spirit was shared by a large circle of acquaintance, embracing among others Reginald John Ferns. Pole. To their writings may be added those of John Wild* the supposition that its author was BeaudouiD(Baldainus),thecelebrated lawyer. ^ In noticing this point, Tabaraud re- marks (pp. 304, 305) : 'Parmi les abua manifestos qui avoient servi de pr^- texte au schisme, et qui contiibuoient k Ventretenir, on doit niettre en pre- miere ligne la puissance exorbitante du pape, port^ k cette ^poque h. un exc^a, qui faisoit g^mir les bons ca- tholiques.' Other mediators are men- tioned by this writer, among the rest Beatus Khcnanus, and later in the century Martin Fum^e. A work of different character, but purport- ing to aim at the same results, was the De Strategematibwa ScUance in Religionw Negotio, by a native of Trent, Aconzio (Acontius), who re- linquished Romanism in 1J57, and taking refuge in £ngland dedicated his production to queen Elizabeth (1565). He outraged his patrons, however, by the extreme 'liberalism' of his suggestions, and was excom- municated by Grrindal on suspicion of ' anabaptistical and Arian' ten- dencies. Strype's lAfe of Grindal, p. 45, Lond. 1710. ^ Above, pp. 64, 105, 106. He also assisted in drawing up a reformatory scheme in 1538 : see above, p. 62, n. 2. ^ See Dieterich, Dissert. Histor. de Joamne Fero, monachu el concio- naiore Mogvmtino, teste veritatis Evan- gelicce, Altorf. 1723, and (the conti- nuatorof) Fleury, Hist. Eccl. liv. CL. ch. Ixviii. ; the latter of whom ob- serves : ' Quelques-uns de ses traitez ont ^t^ corrompus par les Protest- ants, et ses ouvrages n'ont pas ^te agr^ables k. la congregation de VIn- dese.' On the 16th of June, 1559, vi.J The Cownter-Reformation. 301 (or Ferus), a learned Franciscan who expired at Mayence mediating Sept. 3, 1554:. His sermons, and still more his numerous exegetical treatises, all savour strongly of the Lutheran spirit ; or they rather shew that he was able to return by independent processes to fountains from which many of the Lutheran tenets were immediately derived. While points of contact were thus multiplied in one ^"§^^Zr^ direction, other theologians who had no sympathy what- '""' *''* ''**'• ever with the Lutheran movement were stimulated by it to withdraw the more extravagant positions of the school- men, and assist in the diffusion of intelligence and the promotion of administrative reforms. Confronted by ar- dent preachers of the 'new learning,' the champions of scholasticism looked out for engines of defence analogous to those by which they were assaulted. Eck, at the suggestion of Campeggi, aimed to counteract the influence of Melancthon's Xoci Gommwnes by putting forth in 1525 a rival publication, entitled Loci Communes contra Hwreti- cos\ Emser, who was also conspicuous for his hatred of the Lutherans, undertook in 1527 a new translation of the Bible' into 'German, with the hope of satisfying wants expressed in every quarter : while vernacular treatises, such as that of Berthold", bishop of Chiemsee, which appeared his Commentary on St Matthew was tion party obtained another German suppressed by order of the doctors of Bible (based upon the Vulgate) the Sorbonne, (Ibid. liv. CLIV. oh. liii.) from the pen of Dietenberger, a Do- 'parcequ'il contenoit beaucoup d'er- minioan of Mayence; and in 1537, reurs, et mSme des heresies.' Eck issued his translation, following * First printed, and dedicated to the Vulgate for the Old Testament, Henry VIII. of England in 1525, and Eraser's Lutheran version for i.e. four years after the correspond- the New: being prompted, as he ing worl£ of Melancthon. A fourth says in the Preface, solely by a wish edition enlarged and amended ap- to counteract 'viele falsohe Dol- • peared at Tubingen in 1527, and was metschungen.' especially directed 'adversus Lu- " The title is Tewtsche Theohgey theranos.' (reprinted at Munich, 1852). It was 5 Cf. Audin, Eut. de Lviher, i. probably meant to rival the medi- 493 sq. ; Waddington, Reform. II. aeval treatise Eyn teutsch Tlieologia, 19 sq. It was very little more than which Luther edited at the very a fraudulent reprint of Luther's ver- outbreals of the Reformation : see Bion. In 1534 the counter-reforma- Middle Age, p. 383, n. 12. 302 The Counter-Reformation., [chap. MBBiATiNG in 1528, evince the clear determination of some prelates to keep pace •with the necessities of the age, and furnish "vvhat they deemed the best corrective of those doctrines which the Wittenbergers were disseminating in all quarters through the agency of the press. ^mt^aauS" The Same determination was in other provinces com- mem?*™ ^^ biued with strenuous efforts to remove at least a portion of ayno . ^j^^ gross abuses in the manners of the clergy and their general administration of church-affairs, — abuses which had proved so scandalous to laymen, and had given to the Keformer his chief pretext for opening an assault on the ecclesiastical system. This necessity, as we have seen, was felt occasionally by popes themselves \ and councils in like manner entered here and there upon the same course of action. Thus, a provincial synod of Sens, held at Paris (1528), and most violent in its condemnation of Luther- anism'', confesses the existence of corruptions^ Some restraints are placed upon the dress and conduct of eccle- siastics; ministers and people are charged to be decorous in the celebration of public worship ; images of a lascivious or unscriptural character are interdicted, and the credulity of those who thirsted for new miracles rebuked. All music adverse to devotion is excluded from the churches, and directions given in order to secure the better execution of parochial ministrations, as well as more exemplary and efficient preachers*. Similar injunctions were promulgated ^ Above, p. 3, p. 62, n. 2. ' See the 'Decreta morum,' as ^ e.g. 'Unum illud Tidemus in above, 465 sq. primis hactenus observatum ab iis, * §xxxvi., where it ia significantly qui propagandis hseresibus animum added : ' Quod si eecus fecerint, aut intenderint, ut ea sibi dicenda pu- si populum more acurrarum vilissi- tent, quBB maxime plaoitura videan- morum, dum ridiculas et aniles fa- tur ; quo prurientes multitudinis au- bulas recitant, ad risus cachinna- res demuloeant, et a severioribus pa- tionesque excitaverint : aut, quod trum avertant institutis. Hac ra- detenus est, si prselatis Ecclesise, tione Mahometica quondam pestis principibus, sacerdotibuaque detrax- invaluit. Hoc aucupio Lutherus,' erint, ac tandem populum ab obedi- ete. Labbe, xiv. 455. entia superiorum retraxerint, eum- yi.] The Counter-Reformation. 303 at the same period by the French clergy assembled in the MBDiATiifa council of Bourges". But a council gathered in 1536 by '—■ Hermann, archbishop of Cologne, -vvho himself, as we have seen, became eventually a convert to the Lutheran doc- trines, was exclusively devoted to the reformation of the clergy and the disciplinary system of the Church ^ In eveiy part of them we may discern how great had been the pressure of the times', and how considerable was the fraction even of those adhering to distinctive doctrines of the Mediaeval Church, who had been elevated by the moral agitations of that epoch, and made alive to the necessity of promoting domestic reformations in each country. But these measures, instituted here and there in separate f^^cTitatim'*^ provinces of Christendom, and with a view to the redress •^^^J'^''' of local grievances, were aU at length compounded into one grand effort by the convocation of the Council of Trent. Here it is that the machinery was provided for working out the counter-reformation; here it is that aU the Churches in communion with Rome determined the last development of their principles, and where the canons and decrees were demqne ab solntione deoimarum ao Sanctorum tam inoulte ao tam negli- alioruni, ad quse jure divino et po- genti judioio consciiptse, lit nee auo- sitivo aunt omnes obatrioti, abaliena- toritatem habere videantur, neo gra- verint; nos volumus tales tam in- vitatem. Deo itaque auctore, de- eptos et pemiciosos concionatores ab que consilio capituli nostri, ac theo- offioio prsedicationis suapendi,' etc. logorum, aliorumque piorum viro- ' Labbe, xiv. 426 aq. rum reformationem breviariorum me- ' Ibid. 484 aq. ditabimur:' Pars n. c. 6; cf. c. n. ' Among other atriking proofs of This project for revising the Breviary this, the clergy are incited (Pars 11. was elsewhere carried out in the e. 5) to the constant reading of the same year by cardinal Quignon, who Bible ('nunquam a manibua eorum publiahed under the authority of liber legis, hoc est Biblia, depona- Clement VII. the first edition of his tvir'). Then follows a promise to Bremwriv/m, Eomance Curice, ex sacra undertake the revision of the Bre- et camonica Scripiwa, necnon Sane- viaiy. ' Nam cum olim a Sanctis- iorum Mstoriis summa vigilantia de- simia patribus institutum sit, ut cerptis, accurate digeitum: cf. above, solas ScriptursB sacrse in Ecclesia p. 215. Part vi. of the above ooun- recitarentur, nescimus qua incuria cil, contains in twenty-aeven chap- acciderit, ut in earum locum succes- tera, the temperate directions of serint alia cum his neutiquam com- Hermann and the other prelates for paranda, atque interim historise the due 'ministration of the Word.' 304 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. Length of the delay.. COUNCIL OP framed, which fastened on those Churches their peculiar characteristics, and stereotyped their aberrations from the primitive and apostolic faith. The convocation of a general council had been long demanded in all parts of western Christendom \ But the pontiffs, either entangled in political affairs, or trembling lest the scenes of Basle and Constance might be re-enacted under less favourable circumstances, and their own pre- rogatives impugned with even greater freedom, suffered all the most critical years of the controversy to expire without acceding to the urgent wishes of their subjects. The bull of Paul III., convoking'such a synod and fixing its precise locality, was only promulgated May 22, 1542, and even then, as new' obstacles continued to emerge in various quarters, the first session was not actually held until the 13th of December, 1545, two months before the death of the great Wittenberg reformer, and soon after the massacre of four thousand Vaudois ^, who had ventured to express their sympathy with the reforming movement. As soon as the proceedings opened', it was obvious Discordant elements at Trent. ^ See above, p. 9 and n. 3, p. 62, The project, for convening a council to be held at Mantua (May 23, 1537) being found abortive, the pope was induced to convene another at Vi- cenza (May, 1538): but not a single prelate came. Jealousies that now sprang up between the pope and emperor (above, p. 67), stopped all further progress till May, 1542, when the results of the first colloquy of Batisbon (above, p. 64), alarmed the papal consistory (cf. Eanke, Popes, I. ■201 note) and led to more serious negociations. The bull on the authority of which actual pro- ceedings were taken, is dated Nov. 19, 1544. On the general history of those proceedings, see Sarpi [a^. Pietro Soave Polano], Sistnria del Concilio Ti'identino (translated into French, with critical and other notes, by Courayer, Amsterdam, 1751); and Pallavicini's Isloria del Oondlio di Trento, best edition, Roma, 1665. Ranke, Popes, in. 304 sq. has a valuable 'Criticism of Sarpi and PaUavicini.' The best edition of the Decrees themselves is in the J/ibri Symbolici Eccl. Oatholica, ed. Streitwolf and Klener, Gottingae, 1846. ^ Above, p. 134, and Sarpi, I. 209, ed. Courayer. ' The Gallican bishops, for exam- ple, seconded by Spaniards and a few Italians, proposed at the outset to modify the title of the Council by adding the words ' Ecclesiam uni- versam representans,' after the prece- dents of Basle and Constance (Sarpi, I. 241). At the fourth session there was a hot contest between the Fran- ciscans and Dominicans on the 'im- maculate conception' of the Virgin: Ibid. pp. 313 sq. VI.] 2%e Counter-Reformation. 805 that the representatives, though mostly Italians, tv^ere men cottncil oe sr ) o . . TBBNT. of different schools : and all the early s'ession-s witnessed to the difl&culty they experienced in coming to a definite agreement on questions of the day. At length, however, it was ruled ^ that in choosing their terminology, a charita- ble regard should be always had to the discordant senti- ments of both parties, and that certain questions should thus continue open, in order that the whole energy of the council might be concentrated on the various forms of misbelief which they were more especially engaged in controverting. It was also ruled, after many struggles, Ord^of-p^-o- that questions of faith and practical reforms connected with them, should be discussed concurrently. Hence the ulti- mate form of the transactions issued by this council. The decrees on doctrine appear either as dogmatic treatises ('Doctrinse'), or as short and pithy propositions ('Canones'). The former often represent the Romish doctrine with con- siderable fulness ; the latter are denunciations of all classes of opponents : while intermixed with both of these we find a number of ' Decreta de Reformatione,' i. e. ordinances relating to the ritual, discipline, and general organisation of the Churches in communion with the Roman pontiff. The chief promoters' of the council, anxious to make AwHiorttynf ^ . .. . , Saripture and their work as full and systematic as possible, commenced tradition. the more important business by determining the canon of Holy Scripture. This subject was accordingly opened at a congress held Feb. 22, 1546, and two decrees relating to it promulgated at the fourth session (April 8). It was ■* Ibid. II. 30. This resolution Maroellus Cervinus, and the cardi- was prompted by a violent dispute nal-deaoon, Reginald Pole, who how- o£ the Franciscans and Dominicans ever did not rejoin the Council in respecting the manner of our Lord's 1546, on the plea of ill health : cf. Presence in the Eucharist. Ranke, Popes, i. 208, 209, and note. = These were, of course, the papal The pope's instructions to these le- legates cardinal John del Monte gates may be seen at large in Eay- (JterwardspopeJuliu3lII.),thecar- naldus, AnnaZ. Eccl. ad an. 1545, dinal-priest of Santa Croce, named § 47- E. P. ^ 306 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. COUNCIL OF tlien decided^ by a vast majority of the representatives (between sixty and seventy in number) that unwritten traditions, which have been either received from the mouth of Christ Himself, or from the impulse of the Holy Spirit, and continuously transmitted in the Church, are all to be accepted with respect and veneration equal to that which other Christians claim for Holy Scripture. On proceeding to a kindred topic, that respecting the several books which form the Canon, there was less unanimity; some' desiring that no catalogue whatever should be published, others that distinctions should be drawn between canonical and deutero-canonical writings, while a third party, which eventually prevailed, contended for the importance of publishing a list of books, but were averse to the proposed distinctions. ■•■ ' . . . . perspioiensqua hatio veri- tatem et disciplinam contineri in libris soriptis, et sine scripto tradi- tionibus, quEe ab ipisius Christi ore ab Apostolis aoceptEu, aut ab ipsis Apostolis, Spiritu Sancto dictante, quasi per raanus traditse, ad nos us- que pervenerunt ; orthodoxoruni pa- trum exempla secuta, omnea libros tain Teteris, quam novi Testamenti, cum utriusque unus Deus eit auctor ; neonon traditiones ipsas, turn ad fidem, turn ad mores pertinentea, tamquam vel ore tenus a Christo, vel a Spiritu Sancto diotatas, et con- tiuua successione in Ecclesia Catho- lica conservatas, pari pietatis afFectu ac reverentia susoipit et veneratur. ' For a Lutheran refutation of this ar- ticle, see the elaborate work of Chem- nitz, Exwmen Concilii Tridmtini, Part. I. pp. 5 — 96, Franoof. 1578. One of the few opponents of it in the synod was Nachianti (Naclantus), bishop of Chiozza, who went so far as to affirm that the placing of Scrip- ture and traditions on the same level was impious ; see Sarpi, I. 293, to- gether with Courayer's note, and Mendham's Memoirs of the Council of Trent, pp. gg, 60, Lond. 1834. ^ Sarpi, I. 263, 267. At the same time was published a Becretum de editions et usu sacrorum librorum, as- serting the 'authenticity' of the Vul- gate version, correctly printed (cf. Mendham, p. 67) ; ' et ut nemo illam rejicere quovia prsetextu audeat vel prsesumat.' Then follows a warning against all new interpretations and all doctrines of development, 'ut nemo suse prudentiae innixus, in re- bus fidei, et morum ad sedificationem dootrinse Christiana pertinentium, sacram Soripturam ad suos sensua contorquens, contra eura sensum, quern tenuit, et tenet aancta mater Eocleaia, cujus est judicare de vero senau, et interpretatione Soriptura- rum sanctarum, aut etiam contra unanimem consensum patrum, ipsam Soripturam sanctam interpretari au- deat ; etiamsi hujusmodi interpreta- tiones nullo umquam tempore in luoem edendse forent.' The lame at- tempts of Mohler to reconcile this decree with any freedom of inquiry or any scientific exegesis of the Bible may be seen in his SymboUh, II. 60 sq. ; of. Sarpi, i. 274 — 276. VI.] The CovMter-Reformation, 807 This two-fold edict, whicli on its appearance seems to council of TRENT have startled all the Christian world, the pontiff' in the ^ number, may be said to have determined the character of ^Ssi^:°"' all future business : and the ultra-montane prelates, flushed with their successes, lost no time in handling the chief dogmas in respect of which Reformers were unanimous in their belief that the Scholastics had departed from the Holy- Scriptures and were swerving fast in the direction of Pelagianism. These were the dogmas of original sin and justification. The decree relating to the former was read in the fifth session (June 17). Instead* of laying down a full and scientific exposition of the doctrine which, it was discovered, the feelings of the present meeting could not bear, the prelates confined themselves to the publication of five anathemas, stating what original sin is not. Four of these are levelled at the tenets of- Anabaptists or extra- vagant Reformers; while the last condemns the doctrines of the Saxon school, according to which sin is not entirely extirpated by the grace of baptism, but only ' shaven, or not imputed'^. The subject of justification, which had been the source mJustijica- of many earlier controversies at this period, was encum- bered by far greater difficulties. It therefore occupied the synod until Jan. 13, 1547, when an elaborate decree was promulgated, in sixteen chapters and thirty-three canons; all of them plainly tending to exaggerate the human ele- ment or factor in the process of salvation, and one in particular anathematizing those who might demur to the ' Sarpi, I. 286. See Chenmitz, Eoeamien, 'De reliquiis ■' Cf. Mohler'a apology, I. 66, 67. pecoati originalis,' Part. i. pp. 103 ^ 'Si quis per Jesu Christi TJo- sq. The Council grants, however, mini nostri gratiam, quae in baptis- that there is in the regenerate a con- mate confertur, reatum originalis cupiscence (or 'fomea'), inclining peccati remitti negat, aut etiam as- to sin, but not sinful. On the con- sent, non tolli totum id, quod veram nexion of this decree with the dogma et propriam peccati rationem habet, of the Immaculate Conception, see sed illud dicit tantum radi, aut non Sarpi, I. 312 sq., Pallavicini, Lib. imputari; anathema sit.' Sesa.T. §5. vil. 0. 7, X2 308 -The Covnter-Reformation. [chap. COUNCIL OF assertion, that the good works of the justified man, as TRENT ' o 1/ '. wrought by him through the help of God and the merit of Jesus Christ, do truly deserve increase of grace and eternal life\ According to the Tridentine doctors, faith is the beginning, root and basis of justification, and is essen- tial to all further progress ; yet it only becomes efficacious, when love has been conjoined with it, as the animating and plastic principle. Justification in like manner has two aspects, one negative, the other positive: it is both for- giveness of sins and sanctificationl By it the union of the will of man with all forms of evil is annihilated, so that righteousness becomes inherent in the soul of the believer, who can by the grace of God fulfil the law, and be restored to the original freedom of humanity. As the Spirit 0^ Christ has been transfused into his spirit, he feels himself entitled to pass onward from the thought of some initial righteousness, gratuitously imputed to him, and reposes on a conviction that he will be at last accepted and rewarded, because the righteousness of Christ is so appropriated as to produce in him a righteousness which he can truly call his own, ^ Sess. VI. can. xxxii. The next divinaa retiibuenda sit bonis operi- csinonpublishestheanathemaagamat bus.' On the other hand, the Coun- all who think that this tenet dero- oil was far from sanctioning the no- gates in any measure from ' the tion that man is at all able of him- glory of God or the merits of Jesus self to reach the state of justification Christ our Lord :' see also cap. viii. ' sine prsevenienti Spiritus Sancti in- where an explanation is offered of spiratione :' see Can. I. II. lit. the phrase 'justificari gratis.' Chem- ^ ' Quamquam euim nemo possit nitz (Part. I. p. 205), makes the esse Justus, nisi cui merita passionis following true remark respecting this Domini nostri Jesu Christi commu- theory of human merit : ' Concilium nioantur : id tamen in hac impii jua- igitur Tridentinum dioit, bona rena- tificatione fit, dum ejusdem sanotis- toruni opera vere promereri vitam sims passionis raerito per Spiritum Eetemam. Atque ita simplioiter re- SanotumcaritasDeidiffunditurincor- petunt et stabiliunt scholasticorum dibus eorum, qui justificantur, atque commenta de merito condigni ; quod ipsis iuhseret : unde in ipsa justifioa- ; soiUcet renatorum opera in hao vita tione cum remisaione peocatorum hsBC in charitate facta, ex condigno me- omnia simul iufusa aooipit homo per reauturi vitam seternam : hoc est, Jesum Chi-iatura, cui inseritur, fidem, quod vita sterna ex debito juatitise spem et caritatem :' cap. vii. VI.J The Counter-Reformation. . 309 On the contrary, some . influential members of the council of TRENT council', approximating closely to the tenets of the Lu-- — '— theran, drew, as he did, very sharp distinctions between aJ^ee" imperfect righteousness inwrought into the human spirit, and that perfect righteousness which is freely attributed to man in virtue of his incorporation into Christ, the second Adam. This party was, however, silenced by a large majority, while the leaders of the Keformation-movement, who had anxiously observed the course of the proceedings, were horror-struck by the denunciations of their favourite dogma. It was also ruled ^ on the same occasion that no living man may presume to rank himself among the number of those who have been predestinated to eternal life, in such a way at least as to infer his impeccability or the certainty of his recovering from the consequence of any sin he may commit; and further ° that the grace of justifi- cation is lost not only by open infidelity where faith itself has perished, but also by each act of deadly sin. The prelates next determined to treat upon the doctrine Discussions of the sacraments, in order as before to meet objections menu. urged by the Eeformers against the number, nature, and effect of those ordinances. Thirty canons ° were accordingly ^ On the various discussions, all who, as general of the Augustine- of which turned in reality, upon the friars, had no love for the Wit- truth or falsehood of opinions held tenberg deserter, shewed a strong by men like Gaspar Contarinii see leaning to the same side (Ilid. p. Sarpi, I. 335 sq. From the account of 205). Laurentius Pratanus written on the * Cap. xii., this clause however spot (among Le Plat's Momim. ad being added: 'nam, nisi ex speciali hist. Oondl. Trident, spectant. VII. revelatione, soiri non potest, quos pt. I(. p. 21), we learn that some of Deus sibi elegerit.' The tenderness the representatives extolled 'the vir- of the Council in speaking of predes- tue of faith' in a wonderful manner, tination is explained by the oircuiu- espeoially Eiohard Pates, formerly stance that many of the leading bishop of Worcester (on whom, see representatives were strongly Au- Godwin, De Prcemlibus, p. 470), gustinian in their views. See an ac- and the Neapolitan-hishop of Cava. count of the warm discussions on Pole also warned the assembly not this subject in Sarpi, I. 367 sq. to reject an opinion simply because ^ Cap. xv. it was held by Luther (Ranke, "■ Of these, thirteen relate to sa- Popes, I. 204) : and even Seripando, craments in general, (which are de- 310 Tlie Count&r-Reformation. [chap. Disciplinary reforms. COUNCIL OF compiled and read at the seventh session (March 3) : TllENT. , ^ -" but the labours oi the representatives had not extended far beyond the questions relating to baptism and confirma- tion when reports of a contagious disease afforded a con- venient pretext for translating the council to Bologna^ (March 11). Before this time, however, something was effected in the cause of reformation^, agreeably to principles laid down at the commencement of the business. The need of such reforms was shewn to be most urgent by representatives of the imperial party; and several of the Spaniards whom we shall hereafter see defending the inherent rights of bishops did not hesitate to speak most freely on these topics, and even to reflect on the dictation of the Eoman pontiff and his legates". But, owing to the dexterity of the latter, clared to be seven in number and no more) : fourteen to baptism ; and tliree to confirmation. The sixth of the first series is as follows : ' Si quis dixerit sacramenta novae legis non continere gratiam quam signifi- cant ; aut gratiam ipaam non ponen- tibus obicemnonoonferre; quasi signa taiitum externa sint acceptseperfidem gratise, vel justitise, et notae quaedam Christianas professionis, quibus apud homines discemuntur fideles ab infi- delibus ; anathema sit :' of. above, p. 130, n. i; Chemnitz, Exa/men, 'De Opere operato,' Part. n. pp. 24 sq., and Mohler, Synib. i. 288 sq. Another canon of the series (§ xi.) denounces those who aflSrm that the intention of the minister ('inten- tionem saltern faciendi, quod facit eoolesia') is not required for the effi- cacy of the sacrament: cf. Chem- nitz, as above, pp. 30 sq., and for the disputes to which this canon gave rise in the council, see Sarpi, I. 430 sq. 1 Above, p. 67. The 'Bulla fa- cultatis' fFeb. 22, 1547), is reprinted in LibriSymJt.Eccl. Oatliol. ed. Streit- wolf, n. 43, 44 ; but there is little doubt respecting the insincerity of the pontiff: see Mendham, as before, p. 119, and p. 121, note. ^ The opening sentences of the first 'DecretumdeEeformatione' de- serve notice : ' Eadem sacrosancta synodus, eisdem prassidentibus, et apostolicse sedis legatis, ad resiitu- endam collapsam admodum eeclesuis- iicam disdplinam, depravatosque in clero et populo Christiauo mores emendandos se accingere volens, ab iis, qui majoribus eoelesiis praesunt, iuitium censuit esse sumendum. In- tegritas enim praesidentium salus est subditorum.' Liir. Symh. Eccl. Oath. II. 30. ^ The very important letters and papers of Vargas, a doctor of law, who attended the council in be- half of the emperor, furnish curious matter in illustration of this point as of many others. See respecting them Mendham's Memoirs of the Council of Trent, p. 144, note. Var- gas complains bitterly of the papal legates, and declares that the main- spring of all the business was at Kome : ' A titulo de dirigir, los le- gados del papa se applican todo el VI.] The Counter-Reformation, 311 and the vast preponderance of Italians in the synod, all council oy T ■ PI ■ 1 ■ ■, ■, T n TRENT. discussions ot this class were so guided or diverted as to save the grandeur of the papacy*. The non-residence of bishops, one of the main sources to which the heresies and other evils of the age were not unfrequently ascribed, was made the subject of a decree in the sixth session (Jan. 13) ; and just before the transfer of the council a series of new; regulations was drawn up in condemnation of pluralities, episcopal and otherwise, and with a, view to the correction of abuses and anomalies in the general administration of the Church. Many of the prelates', satisfied already that the more ^^^f^^f important business of the council was all planned at Eome, were strongly adverse to a project of translation, which would bring them nearer to the pontiff, and in obedience to the wishes of the emperor continued to withhold their sanction °. It also happened that the quarrel between these potentates was more and more embittered during the next few years. Partly therefore to intimidate the pope, and partly to extinguish feuds now raging in all districts of the German empire, Charles V. determined to put forth cQncilio assi : y ninguna cosa se haze, verum non est, quia concilium hoc ni propone, ni disoute, ni difine, Bino legitime congregatum omnia potest lo que alios quieren, segun el orden in his, quae sibi a Sua Sanctilate de- que de Roma tienen, j cada hora se mandata sunt, in aliis autem nihil les embia. Loa prelados que el papa potest. ..In his autem quae Conoi- tenia aqui salariados no lo podian lium non potest, et proprie speotant negar, y se dolian dello con los otros ad pontificem, asserunt legati, se pa- hombres pios:' ed. Le Vassor, p. IJ, ratissimos futures mediatores, ut Sua Amsterdam, 1699. Sanctitas ea concedat, quae a Sua * Thus the Preface to the second Sanctitate petuntur :' in Raynald. 'Deoretum de Kefonnatione ' ends Amnal. Eccl. ad an. 1547, § 31. with the significant clause: 'Salva ^ A brief account of all the 'fa- semper in omnibus sedis apostolicse thers ' who had taken part in the auotoritate.' The account of Mas- proceedings up to this time, is given sarello, secretary of the CouncQ (see in the Lihri Symb. Eccl. Caihol,, as Mendham, Pref. ix. x.) is to the before, II. 50 sq. same eflfect. Writing on the 8th of ^ About one third of the prelates Feb. 1547, ^^ observes : Sed id im- actually remained at Trent for some primis attendendum est, quod, licet months, and negotiations were open- aliqui dixerint, quod Concilium non ed with the pontiff in order, if pos- potest facere reformationem...hoc sible, to bring the council back. 312 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. Sesvmpiion COUNCIL OF a scheme of mediation called the Interim Auqustanuw} on TRENT. . . , , — his own authority (May, 1548) : while the king of France, who from political rivalry espoused the quarrel of the Roman curia, was no less desirous^ of producing a con- siderable circumscription of the ultra-papal claims. The Council of Trent continued in a state of absolute suspension till March 14, 1551, when the new pontiff Julius III., himself employed as chief legate in the former business of the meeting, made arrangements' for its re- establishment at Trent; and the proceedings were accord- ingly resumed, at this time with the full concurrence of the emperor, although in spite of angry protests from the king of France ^ who threatened even to convoke a national synod. The first important subject which occupied the re- presentatives was the mysterious and much-contested doc- trine of the Eucharist. In reference thereto it was finally decided at the thirteenth session (Oct. 11, 1551), that after the consecration of the elements, our Lord Jesus Christ, very God and very man, is verily, really and substantially contained under the species of bread and wine'; that each Drcrp.e on the Eucharist: 1 See above, p. 68. ^ His instructions to the French ambassadors at Bologna (Aug. 12, 1547) are printed in Le Plat, Mo- num. III. 647 sq. ' See the 'Bulla Eesumptionis ' in lAbr. Symb. Eccl. Oath. 11. 59 sq. * A misunderstanding had arisen between Henry II. of France and Julius with reference to the duchy of Parma. Accordingly, Amyot was dispatched to Trent in order to pro- test against the whole proceedings of the ' convention.' The letters which he bore denied that the council was general, and therefore urged that , neither the king nor his people would be bound by its decisions : ' imo vero se testari palam ao denimtiare, ad eadem se remedia ac prsesidia de- scensurum, si necesse videretur, qui- bus majores sui, Francorum reges, in re consimili causaque uti consue- vissent ; nee sibi quidquam antiquius fore, secundum fidei ac religionis in- tegritatem, libertate et incolumitate Ecclesise GaUicse.' See the whole document in Le Plat, IV. 241. This threat appears to have molUfied the pontiff: Sarpi, 11. 6. ^ Cap. i. Courayer (on Sarpi, 11. 46) remarks on this chapter : ' Si par ces termes rSellement et mlistan- tiellement le Concile n'a voulu ^tablir qu'une pr&enoe effective et veritable, sans en ddtennlner la manifere ; c'est la doctrine de I'Antiquit^, et plu- sieurs Protestans I'ont reconnu aveo sincerity. Mais si par le terme de presence substantielle on a voulu nous faire entendre une presence corpo- relle et organigue, c'est ce que ,ni la raison ni I'autorit^ ne nous permet- tent de oroire.' That the latter was VI..] The Oounter-Reformation. 313 element contains the same as botli together do ; that in the cotrNciTi of consecration of these elementSj there is a conversion of the whole substance of the bread into the substance of Christ's body, and a conversion of the whole substance of the wine into the substance of His blood, so as to justify the use of the term ' transubstantiation ;' that the highest form of worship (' Latria ') is therefore rendered by the faithful to the sacrament of the altar. With respect to the commu- nicants it is decided that no man who is conscious of deadly sin should, approach the holy Eucharist without previous confession and absolution; and that while even the impenitent receive Christ sacramentally, and those who communicate in will receive Him spiritually, the highest order of communicant is he who receives both sacrament- ally and spiritually, in faith, and will, and act". This decree, extending to eight chapters, is accompanied by eleven canons, which anathematise' the- Lutheran and Calvinistic tenets, as well as the more lax hypothesis of Zwingli and the aberrations of Anabaptism. The next subject treated by the prelates under the "» PeMnce. head of Christian doctrine refers to 'the sacrament of penance.' It is maintained (Nov. 25, 1551) that this ordinance was instituted by our Lord Himself; that in its nature and design it is distinct from baptism; that it is composed of three parts or acts, contrition, confession, and the view intended by the ruling spi- qui ita se prius probant et instruunt, rits of the Council is obvioua from ut vestefm nuptialem induti, ad divi- the language of the Catechismus nam banc mensam aooedant :' cap. Romanus, which they authorised by viii. anticipation. It is there stated (Part. ' Thus the first 'canon ' classes II. u. iv. qu. 27), 'Jam vero boo together all those who affirm that loco etiam aPastoiibua explieandum Christ is only present 'in signo vol est, non solum verum Christ! corpus, figura [the Zwinglian hypothesis] et quidquid ad veram corporis ra- aut virtute' [the Calvinistic hypothe- tionem pertinet, veluti ossa et nervos, sis] : and in 'caijon ir.' all those who sed etiam totum Christum in hoc demur to the idea of any physical Sacramento contineri.' change in the elements without de- ^ ' Tertios porro sacramentaliter nying the real presence [the Luthev- simul et spiritaliter; hi autem sunt, art hypothesis]: of. can. vur. 314 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. cotfNOiL OF absolution ; that in it the priest is empowered to exercise the functions of a judged allotting to the sinner special acts of prayer and mortification, in the hope that he may thus regain the purity communicated to him at his bap- tism; and further that the outward part or sign of the sacrament is contained in words by which the sentence of absolution is pronounced. It had been previously deter- mined'' that contrition, which is necessary to the efficacy of this sacrament, consists of inward sorrow and abhorrence of the sin committed; yet that even the imperfect stage of it, which the scholastics termed attrition, as arising merely from the natural sense of shame or servile dread of punishment, may, where it operates in excluding the wish to sin, be welcomed as a gift of God, and may 'dispose' the sinner to obtain forgiveness through the sacrament of penanced It is also granted that satisfaction^ or those penalties for sin imposed on the offender by himself or by the priest in order to avert its temporal consequence, is only made availing through the satisfaction of Christ from whom ' all our sufficiency proceeds '^ After leveUing ^ Cap. vi. Some further light is tentise perse ad justifioationem per- thrown upon this office by the ninth ducere peccatorem nequeat, tamen 'canon:' 'Si quis dixerit, absolu- eum ad Dei gratiam in Sacramento tionem sacramentalem aacerdotis non poenitentise impetrandam disponit.' esse actum judicialem, sed nudum The same chapter repels as oalum- ministerium pronuntiandi vel decla- nious the accusation that ' Catholic randi remissa esse peccata confitenti ; writers ' have ever taught ' sacramen- modo tantum credat se esse absolu- tum ptenitentiae absque bono motu turn; aut sacerdos non serio, sed joco st«saj>ic»i4M»n. gratiam conferre.' The absolvat ; aut dixerit, non requiri improvement of the tone of Komish confessionem pc^nitentis, ut sacerdos theologians with reference to 'attri- ipsumabsolverepossit; anathemasit.' tion' is conceded by Chemnitz : Part See Courayer's note on Sarpi, IL 65. n. p. 207. ^ Cap. iv. * Cap. viii. ; yet even here we no- ' '...declarat non solum non fa- tice the old disposition to place man's cere hominem hypocritam, et magis sufferings in the same line with peccatorem, verum etiam donum Christ's, and lose sight of the distinc- Dei esse, et Spiritue Sancti impul- tion between suffering from the con- sum, non adhue quidem inhabitantis, sequence of sin and suffering in the Bed tantum moventis, quo poenitens cause of Christ : ' Accedit ad haec, adjutus viam sibi ad justitiani parat. quod, dum satisfaciendo patimur pro Et quamvis sine Sacramento poeni- peccatis, Christi Jesu, quo pro pec- VI.] The Covrnter-Jteformation. 315 a fresh series of anathemas, fifteen" in number, at all ooitncil ou TRENT. persons who venture to dispute the truth of any of these '■— positions, the sacrament of extreme unction is defined in Extreme three chapters and protected by another list of correspond- ing fulminations. At the fifteenth session (Jan. 25, 1552), where the doc- e^mlpro- tors had intended to adjudicate upon the ' sacrifice of the *«*'»"**• mass' and the 'sacrament of orders,' the course of proceed- ing was changed to allow a hearing to certain envoys from Maurice of Saxony and the duke of Wiirtemberg, who had appeared at Trent, to plead the cause of Lutheranism before the members of the council". They spoke most freely on some points of reformation, to the great delight of the more timid representatives'; but the sudden out- break of the war in Germany, and the continual altercations that arose between the imperial and the papal authorities, induced the legates to procure a fresh suspension of the business: which accordingly took place on the 28th oi^^^J^^^P^ April, 1 552. In this second period of the council, as in C'om!m«- that already noticed, a few questions of administrative re- form had been discussed and carried, the principal relating to the rights, the functions and the jurisdiction of bishops. oatis nostris satisfecit, ex quo omnia ' Thus Yargas (as translated by noBtris suffioientia est, oonformes effi- Le Vassor, Lettres et MSmoirea, p. oimur ; certibsimam quoque inde ar- 468) has the following notice of rham habentes, quod si oompatimur them, Jan. 24, 1552: ' Les envoiez et conglorifioabimur.' du duo Maurice de Saxe, et ceux du ^ One of the most unblushing is due de Virtemberg ont dit aujourd'- the sixth: 'Si quia negaverit, con- hui fort au long en pleine congr^- fessionem sacramentalem vel insti- gation oe que nous n'osona pas dire tutam, vel ad salutem necessariam nousmesmes aur le chapitre de la esse jure divino: aut dixerit, modam reformation' etc. The legates had, secrete confitendi soU sacerdoti, quem however, been instructed beforehand Eoolesia Catholica ah initio semper by the pontiff to prevent all freah observavit, et observat, aJienum esse discussion of doctrines (Mendham, ab institutione et mandate Christi, p. 159), and when the Wurtemberg et inventum esse humanum : ana- ambassadors remonstrated on the thema sit.' unfairness of subjecting their creed 8 See above, p. 71, and Libri to merely papal judges, they were Symb. Eccl. Oathol. 11, 87 sq. for the only met by renewed demands of 'safe conduct.' submission. ' (Ihid. pp. 160, 161.) 316 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. COUNCIL OF On the death of pope Julius III. the choice of the car- dinals lighted on Marcellus II.', from whose character all friends of reformation were prepared to augur that a limit would be placed, in his pontificate, to the abuses and dis- tractions by which the Church of Kome was grievously af- flicted. Marcellus died, however, on the twenty-second day charnder and after his election, leaving the tiara to a very different owner, jiolicy of pope «... -, . ^ Paul ir. one who from his vigorous intellect, the general severity of his rule, and his intractable temper, revived the picture of those earlier pontiffs, who had founded and cemented the towering edifice of Eoman despotism. Paul IV. was always actuated by hatred of the German emperor", whom he regarded as the patron of heretics and the opposer of Italy. Political events, however, soon compelled him to renounce his thought of vengeance', but only left him greater liberty for indulging his second passion, which was to restore the Eoman curia to its old predominance among the western potentates. Caraffa, it is true, had little or no faith in diets, colloquies, or general councils ^ He, therefore, aimed at compassing his object either by acts of autocratic violence, or by adding to the outward pomp and decency of worship, ^ See Eanke, Popes, l. •284 sq. legatesMp (above, p. 241, u. 4), for He was the cardinal of Santa Crooe, similar reasons, the second legate at the opening of ' Eanke, Popes, I. 3 10. the Council of Trent. * When the necessity of consult- ^ Jbid, p. 291. The house of ing a general council was suggested Caraffa from which he sprang had to him, he was transported with always sided with the French party rage, and would not endure the against the Spanish and Germans, thought of discussing religious ques- and, in addition to this feudal hatred, tions, ' in the midst of the Luther- Paul IV. believed that the growth ans,' adding: 'Que c'^toit une chose of Protestantism was mainly due to fort inutile. d'envoyer dans les mon- the conduct of Charles V., who fa- tagnes une soixantaine d'ev^ques voured them out of jealousy to him- des moins habiles, et une quarant- self. When Charles retired to the aine de dooteurs des inoina iolair^s, convent, in 1556, the pontiff was comme on avoit fait d^ja deux fois, somewhat relieved : yet his violent et de croire que ces gens-lk fusaent and domineering temper continued plus propres pour reformer le monde, to be always visible. For instance, que le vicaire de Jesus-Ohrist assists he imprisoned cardinal Morone on a de I'avis de tons les oardinaux q\ii charge of heresy (above, p. 106, n. 4), sont les oolonnes de toute la Chr^- and deprived cardinal Pole of his tient^,' &c. Sarpi, II. 153. VI.J The Counter-Reformation. 317 or correcting some administrative abuses that came under cofncil of . ° TKENT. his immediate notice. This pontiff breathed his last on — ; the 18th of August, 1559 ; and as his death was followed by twnqfthe fresh clamours of the Romish states demanding the comple- tion of the works inaugurated by the recent council, the next pontiff, Pius IV., from policy as well as principle became alive to the importance of yielding to the public voiced Accordingly, after a suspension often years, a council naming itself CECumenical again assembled at Trent, Jan. 18, 1562. But the proceedings of this body had lost their former s^m interest in the eyes of the spectators and dissentients. It accepi is true 'safe conducts '° were extensively offered to the continental Protestants; our queen Elizabeth', and even the tzar of Muscovy himself^ were urged to send their delegates and share in the deliberations ; yet as neither Pius nor his chief advisers ever dreamed of proposing to reopen those discussions which had ended, through one- sided advocacy, in a sweeping censure of the Reformation and its champions, we shall scarcely wonder that these in- vitations were disregarded by the whole body of Reformers. Elizabeth of England took her place among the multitude of Christians in east and west, who then and afterwards repudiated the authority of the council as neither holy, free, nor general. Its future course indeed had only an occasional reference to matters lying beyond the jurisdic- tion of the pontiff. The great bulk of medieval doctrines as recast or vindicated in the earlier sittings of the conclave 5 Seethe 'Bulla Celebrationis' in pressing his regret and amazement Libr. Symb. Eccl. Oath. ll. 95 sq., that the English had decKned to and Eanke, Popes, 1. 334. Pius IV. send an ambassador to Trent. Cf. seems to have acted on the advice the reasons alleged by the Princes or at the impulse of his nephew, 'of the Augsburg Confession' in Carlo Borromeo. Le Plat, Monmi. IV. 57: [arohbp. ^ Libr. Sytrib. 11. 103 sq. Parker's] Qodly and necessarye Ad- 1 See Le Bas, ii/e of Bishop monition of the Decrees and Oanoris JewcZ, pp. 113 sq., and Jewel's ^^4- of the Counsel of Trent, London, stola ad D. Scipionem (Works, IV. 1564: and Geddes, The OowncU of 1093 sq. ed. P. S.). Soipio was a Trent no free asseiMy,'London,i6g'j. Venetian who wrote to Jewel, ex- ^ Sarpi, n. 207. 318 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. couNciii OF had during the interval of ten years been commonly accepted by the counter-reformation party \ struggu mfhe It was, however, made apparent when the prelates reas- episcopaey. sembledthat the task of settling the dogmatic points remain- ing open, but still more of framing rules of discipline that might possess an absolute and universal authority, was beset with most gigantic difficulties. As soon as ever the proceed- ings were resumed'', the Spanish section of the representa- tives contended that bishops are not simply nominees or vicars of the pope, but that episcopal authority no less than papal rests on a divine appointment; thereby impugning, half unconsciously, the very foundation of that autocratic system which had been • gradually consolidated in western Chris- tendom since the days of Hildebrand and Innocent III.' Amid the agitation of these questions envoys came from Ferdinand, the emperor, to press for changes equally dis- tasteful in some quarters, and especially to members of the Roman curia. He resolved to second the general wish of Eefmmsmg- his own Subjects, by suggesting* that the nomination of empa-or. the cardinals should be reformed in order to secure the appointment of more exemplary pontiffs. He insisted on the desirableness of administering the cup to laymen, of '^ Eanke, Popes, l. 335 and note. Divmum shonld be conceded to any '■^ The first resistance of the Spa- save their master: and the article niards was offered to the phrase which gave rise to the contest waS 'proponentibus legatis ac praesiden- for the present withdrawn. Seethe tibus,' at the reading of a decree for disputes at length in Sarpi, II. 286 the continuation of the council (Jan. sq., .328: and cf. Mendham, pp. 18, 1562). The archbishop of Gra- 248 sq. nada (Guerrero) headed this oppo- •* ' This assertion [of the original sition: see Sarpi, II. 261. On the authority of bishops] struck at the I ith of March twelve articles of re- very root of the whole ecclesiastical form were submitted for examina- system. The independence of the in- tion, when the same prelate opened ferior authorities of the church, the question whether residence was which the popes bad so carefully binding on bishops by the Divine laboured to keep down, must have law. He affirmed that it was so, on been restored by the development of the ground that episcopacy is a Di- this principle.' Eanke, Popes, 1. 337. vine institution. The papal legates, * See the propositions in Le Plat, on the contrary, dreaded nothing Monum. v. 264 sq., and Ranke's re- more than that claims to the jvs marks on them, Ibid. p. 33S, note. VI.] The Gounter-Reformation, 319 permitting priests to marry, of relaxing the laws on fasting, council of of erecting schools, of purifying the breviary and other '■ — service-books, of circulating more intelligible catechisms, and of reforming convents. When the cardinal of Lorraine appeared at the head of the French prelates he supported these Germanic propositions', pleading more especially for communion in both kinds : and therefore had the principle of ' vote by nations' been adopted at this juncture, it is not unlikely that the Romish system would have undergone considerable changes. Still we must remember that the Spaniards, though distinguished by their antirpapal bold- ness and their clear convictions on the subject of episcopacy, united with Italians in denying the propriety of all conces- sions to the moderate school of the Reformers, and that both in the numerical preponderance of the papal parti- sans, and in their diplomatic artifices, the Roman curia still preserved abundant means for warding off the blow by which its independence had been threatened. When the council proved peculiarly intractable ° when The pope Jias ■^ •*■ '^ recov/rsetojyi-t- the. position of affairs looked almost desperate, and no other ««« wgotia- expedient was at hand for quieting a turbulent section of the doctors there assembled, the pontiff sought relief in private negotiations'", with the emperor, with Philip II. of Spain, and also with the family of Guise who then directed nearly all the counsels of the French monarch. So very 5 See the Memoi/re in Le Plat, IV. fathers of the church, -whom no pope S62;Sarpi, n. 322, 357, 519 aq. To had appointed, the Italians broke add to the confusion, the "Spaniards forth in a general outcry, insisted on and French reopened the old quarrel his departure, and talked of ana- as to the supremacy of a general thenaa and heresy. The Spaniards council, and the duty of the pontiif retaliated the anathema on them, himself to bow to its decisions. Sometimeff mobs assembled, shout- 6 ' The Erench jested about the ing Spain ! Italy ! Blood flowed in Holy Ghost being brought to Trent the streets, and on the ground con- in a knapsack. The Italians talked secrated to peace. ' Eanke, Popes, I. of Spanish eruptions and French 340; Mendham, pp. 251, 252. Owing diseases, by which all the faithful to this riotous spirit no session could were visited in turn. AVhen the hi- be held from Sept. 17, 1562, until shop of Cadiz said, that there had July 15, 1563. been renowned bishops, aye, and ' Eahke, JUd. pp. 344 sq. '320 The Counter-Reformation. [CHAP. their effect. cotTNcii, OF skilful were these fresh manoeuvres, that without conceding TRENT. . ° aught by which the papal power would be materially abridged, the several courts were soon induced to interpose and check the zeal of their own representatives. As soon as this had been effected'' the more trying business of the council was resumed, and brought to a more amicable close. Tn reference even to the question of episcopacy^, the Span- ish bishops ultimately yielded, only with the understanding that the words of the decree should be so chosen as to leave them at liberty to reproduce their arguments at any future time. Similar adroitness was exhibited in stifling or re- straining fresh discussions, while the members of the council finally proceeded in the same spirit to deliberate on theu- definitions of Christian doctrine. The question touching the propriety of administering the eucharist in both kinds' had been warmly discussed and ^ Morone, who had been the pope's agent in mollifying the emperor, left Innsbruoli, June 25, 1563, after a visit of nearly two months. ^ The revised form of the seventh canon as introduced Oct. 30, 1562, was as follows : ' Si quis dixerit, non fuisse a Chriato Domino institutum, ut essent in Ecclesia catholica epi- scopi, ac eos, cum in partem sollici- tudinia a Pontifice Eomano, ejus in terris Vioario, assumuntur, non esse veros et legitimes episcgpos, preshy- teris superiores, et eadem dignitate eademque potestate non potiri, quam ad hsao usque tempera obtinueruut : anathema sit.' Mendhamj p. 248, note. To this the arohbisLiop of Granada and others wished to add a clause, affirming that the episcopate was of Divine right. The pope had endeavoured to parry this blow, by declaringthat 'bishops held the prin- cipal place in the church, but in dependence upon the pope.' This, however, did not satisfy the cham- pions of episcopacy, who remained immoveable until July, 1563; and in the end, the canon was pared down and resolved into the two fol- lowing ('De Ordine,' can. vil. vni.), so as to evade the question touching the Divine institution of bishops and their absolute dependence on, the pope ; 'Si quis dixerit, episcopos non esse presbyteris superiores; vel non habere potestatem conflrmandi et ordinandi; vel earn, quam habent, illis esse cum presbyteris oommunem: vel ordines ab ipsis collates sine populi vel potestatis sascularis con- sensu aut vocatione irritos esse ; aut eos, qui neo ab ecclesiastica et canonioa potestate rite ordinati nee missi sunt, sed aliunde veniunt, le- gitimes esse verbi et sacramentorum ministros; anathema sit. Si quis dixerit, episcopos qui auctoritate Komani pontificis assumuntur, non esse legitimes et veros episcopos, sed figmentum hominum ; anathema sit.' The vagueness and ambiguity of this language elicited the special praise of the Jesuit Lainez: Mendham, p. 262 : cf. above, p. 304, n. 3. ^ The 'Dootrina de communion e sub utraque specie, et parvulerum' wasissuedJuly 16, 1562 ; butwhether Yl.] The Counter-Reformation, 321 absolutely closed on the eve of the twenty-second session, coitncil of (Sept. 16, 1562), when the majority voted that it should be left for the pope to act therein as he judged best. On the following day (Sept. 17) the council promulgated its deci- J3e<»-<« on «;« sion with reference to the sacrifice of the mass: contending uaas: among other things, that as the same Jesus Christ, who once offered Himself upon the cross, is there contained, and immolated without shedding of blood ('incruente') in the Christian sacrifice, this latter is truly propitiatory, and that by it we obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need ^ It was also ruled that masses may be offered not only for the sins and wants of Christians while on earth, but also for those who having departed this life are stUl in need of purification. At the same time numerous regulations were drawn up, providing for a better celebration of this sacrifice, and in other ways contributing to bring about more decency and reverence in public worship^. The discussion of the 'sacrament of orders,' which came next in point of time, occasioned, as we saw*, the most in- temperate controversies. At last, however, a decree was pro- m Orders: mulgated (July 15, 1563) affirming the reality of a visible priesthood which consists of different grades, and has been gifted with peculiar and indelible characteristics. Bishops, it was also granted, are in some respect successors of the chalice might in certain cases be illustrated by the third (of nine) conceded, was still a subject of dia- 'canons,' which as usual follow the cussion: see Sarpi, il. 339 sq., and decree: ' Si quis dixerit, missffi sacri- the ' Decretum super petitione con- ficium tantum esse laudis, et gratia- cessionis calicis ' in Zi6. Symb. Eocl. rum actionis, aut nudam commemo- Cath. r. 84. ' rationem sacrificii in cruce peracti, * Cap. ii. where it is added : 'Una non autem propitiatorium ; vel soli enim eademque est hostia, idem nunc prodesse sumenti ; neque pro vivis offerens sacerdotum ministerio, qui et defunotis, pi-o peccatis, pceriis, aeipsum tunc in cruce obtulit, sola satisfactionibus, et aliis necessita- offerendi ratione diversa. Cujus qui- tibus offerri debere : anathema sit.' dem oblationia, cruentae, inquam, ^ gee the 'Decretum de obserran- fructus per hanc incruentam uber- dis et evitandis in celebratione mis- rime percipiuntur : tantum abest, ut sse,' Lihri Symb. Eccl. Oathol. i. 82 iUi per hanc quovis modo derogetur.' sq. The meaning of this decree is further ^ pp. 318, ^lo. B.P. Y 322 Tlie Cmmter-Reformation. [chap. COUNCIL OF apostles', and as such they occupy a chief place in the . — orders of the hierarchy, are superior to priests, and exe- cute specific functions, as ordination and confirmation. The four dogmatic chapters bearing on these topics are accompanied by eight canons, where anathemas are hurled at many of the continental theories with reference to the nature of the ministerial office and the need of ordination^ A different series of resolutions, which ap- peared at the same time, promoted additional reforms among the bishops and clergy ^ Some of those indeed were miserably insufficient in the eyes of the ' reforming ' states, especially the French'', whose ambassador spoke as usual with the greatest freedom on the subject; but their protests being ultimately overruled, the legates once again resolved to expedite the business of the council, and avert, if possible, all future outbreaks of rebellion. ouUiitrimmy: In the 24!th session (Nov. 11) a decree was issued on the subject of marriage, which, it is alleged on the author- ity of 'universal tradition' should be ranked among 'the sacraments of the new law,' while fresh anathemas were pronounced on various misbelievers, and especially in condemnation of those who objected to the compulsory celibacy of regulars and ecclesiastics". ^ Cap. iv. : ' Proinde aaorosanota sed ofEoium tantum, et nudum min- Synodus declarat, praeter oeteros eo- isteriura prsedioandi evangelium ; vel clesiasticoa gradus, episcopos, qui in cos, qui non praedioant, prorsus non Apostoloruin locum suooesserunt, ad esse sacerdotes ; anathema sit ;' can. huno hierarchicum ordinem prseoipue 1. of. Chemnitz, Examen, Part. li. perfcinere;' evading the question, pp. 239, 240. however, touching the mode in -which ' Libri SymJ). Eccl. Cathol. II. 119 authority has been transmitted to sq. them. . 4 Sarpi (n. 558 sq.) gives a full ^ One has been cited above, p. 320, account of their 'Articles of Ee- n. 2. Another runs in this wise : formation ' submitted to the council 'Si quis dixerit, non esse in Novo at the beginning of 1563, and also Testamento saoerdotium visibile et of the protestation of i)u Ferrier externum; vel non esse potestatem (iii. 118 sq.), and its consequences aliquam consecrandi et offerendi (pp. i^gsq.). verum corpus et sanguinem Domini, 6 • g; q^jg dixerit, clerioos in sacris et pecoata remittendi et retinendi ; ordinibus coustitutos, vel regulares, yi.] The Ummf-Meformatiom, 323 The last session was opened Dec. 3, and on that and cottncil of TRENT. the follo-yv^ing day the body of Romish doctrine may be ^aid to haye been perfected. Decrees were published on p«rfl;a«or3/, respecting purgatpry, the ipvocation of saints, the worship sST^- '^ qi images and relics, and the granting of indulgences. Of purgatory almost nothing is defined', except that such a state or place exists, and that the souls detained therein are really aided by the suffrages .of the faithful and the sacrifice of the mass. The invocation of saints is justified upon the ground that holy men departed continue to offer up petitions for us, and that it is good and useful to desire their sympathy and ask them for the benefit of their intercessions''. Images, , those doctors argued, ought to receive due veneration; not because, they haye any divinity or virtue in them, but because by honouring them, the honour is reflected or transmitted from them to those beings whom they represent: while pardons or indulgences. are justified, and said to have been always granted, because the Church originally received the power of so acting from Jesus Christ Himself, and because indulgences must •prove highly serviceable to the Christian. .Yet with refer- ence to all these controverted topics', considerable care is casti tatem solemniter professes, posse ooinquinatum ingredltur. ' matrimonium contrahere, contrac- ' 'Illos, vero,' it is added, 'qui tumque validum esse, son obstante negant sanctos, sterna felicitate in lege ecclesiastica, vel voto ; et oppo- ocelo fruentes, inyocandos esse ; aut situm nil aliud esse, quam damnare qui asserunt, vel illos pro 'hominibus matrimonium ; posseque omnes con- non orare ; vel eorum, ut pro nobis trahere matrimonium, qui non sen- etiam singulis orent, invocationem tiunt secastitatia, etiamsieam vove- esse idololatriara ; vel pugnare cum rint, habere donum ; anathema sit ; verbo Dei, adversarique honori unius cum Deus id recte petentibus non mediatoris Dei et hominum Jesu deneget, nee patiatur nos supra id, Chiisti ; vel stultum esse, in coelo quod possumus, tentari:' can. IX. regnantibus voce, vel mente suppli- * The Oaiechismus Romanus (Part. care ; impie aentire :' of. Chemnitz, I. cap. VI. qu. 3) supplies the defici- Examen, Part. ii. p. 136 ,sq. ency as foEows: 'Prseterea est pur- ^ Thus with regard to indnlgencea gatorius ignis, quo piorum animce the decree continues : 'Abusus vero, ad definitum tempua cruciatce ex- qui in his irrepserunt, et quorum oc- piantur, ut eis in aetemam patriam oasione insigne hoc indulgentiarum ingressus patere poasit, in quam nihil nomen ab hsereticia blaspheniatur, T 2 324 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. *'°5!?i"i o^ manifested by the council to banish some of the more TRENT. ■' . . — scandalous practices which had been frequent, if not general, in the period just preceding. The only point in which the The. papii Vehement protests of Reformers were entirely inefficacious, touched.'' was the absolute supremacy of the Roman pontiff. That, although the limitation of it had been foremost in the thoughts of many persons by whom ijhe council was promoted, is not sensibly reduced in any one of the decrees \ On the contrary, the life of Christendom, so far as it depended on the see of Rome, was thereby made to centre more and more completely in the person, will, and wishes of the popes. The oscillations of that mediating party, who were anxious in the early stages of the Reform- ation to profit by the zeal and learning of such men as Luther, were seldom visible after the promulgation of the rigorous edicts fabricated in the middle of the sixteenth Practical r.'- century. Still these edicts wrought a multitude of changes which imparted new vitality to the administrative system of the Romish Church. Discipline was often re-established in the diocese, the convent, and the parish. Pluralities were all emendates et correctos cupiens, prse- special provision (o. xxi.) was in- senti decreto generaliter statuit, pra- serted with the same object : ' Pos- - V03 qusestus omnes pro his conse- tremo sancta synodus, omnia et sin- quendis, unde plurima in Christiano gula, sub quibuscumque clausulis et populo abusuum causa iluxit, omnino verbis, quse de morum ref ormatione aboTendos esse. Ceteros vero, qui ex atqueecclesiasticadisoiplina, tarn sub superstitione, ignorantia, irreveren- fel. reo. Paulo III. ac Julio III. tia, aut aliunde quomodooumque , quam sub beatissimo Pic IV., ponti- provenerunt ; cum ob multipUces ficibus maximis, in hoc sacro conoilio locorum et provinciarum apud quas statuta sunt, declarat, ita decreta hi committuntur corruptelas com- f uisse, ut in his mlva semper aVjCtori- mode nequeant speoialiter prohibi ri, taa sedis apostoUcce et fit, et ease in- mandat omnibus episcopis, ut dili- telljgatur.' Libr. Symb. Eccl, Oathol. genter quisque hujusmodi abusus 11.214. The feelings of the majority ecclesise suae culligat, eosque in prima were further shewn by committing synodo provinciali referat, etc. :' cf. to the pontiff the formation of a Chemnitz, Part. III. pp. 43 sq. One Catalogus Librorum prohibitorum, more decree was added on the same the preparation of a Catechism (the occasion, ' De delectu ciborum, jeju- CatecMsmus Sorrumus, which appear- nils et diebus festis.' ed under his auspices in 1566), and ' See above, p. 3 1 1, n. 4. On the the purification of the Breviary and last day but one of the meetings a Miasal: of. Mendham, pp. 320 sq. VI.] The Counter-Reformation. 325 discountenanced; appeals and dispensations made less fre- coxjncil of quent and practicable. A higher class of seminaries was '■ — established for the moral and intellectual training of the clergy; stricter rules were now drawn up for the direction of their lives and ministrations ; while the articles of faith", to be hereafter pressed upon the conscience of the pastor and expounded to his flock, were often less erratic, impious and revolting, than the speculations of some Mediaeval doctors'. Before quitting Trent, the members of the council^ in one cmHrmaHm body formally affixed their signatures to the official acts. inga. On that occasion the number amounted to two hundred and fifty-five, of whom four were papal legates, two cardi- nals, three patriarchs, twenty-five archbishops, one hun- dred and sixty-eight bishops, thirty-nine proctors of absen- tees, seven abbots, and seven generals of religious orders. Nothing will more satisfactorily evince the party-bias un- der which the whole of the proceedings were conducted, than the fact that of this number one hundred and eighty- nine were Italians, some of them mere creatures, not to say stipendiaries, of the Roman curia. On the 6th of Janu- ary, 1564, the decrees of the council were confirmed by a papal instrument", which gave the only sanction that ' A short summary of this was reaction.' furnished by what is often called the * See the subscriptions in Zibr. Creed of Pius IV., or 'Forma Jura- >Siymio?.ii.220sq., and abrief account menti Professiorm Fidei, a cathe- of the 'fathers,' 'orators' (ambassa- dralibus et superioribus ecclesiia, vel dors), and divines, who took part in beneficiis curam animarum habenti- some or all of the proceedings during bus, et locis Regularium et Militia- this last period of the council, Ibid. rum praeficiendls, observanda :' in pp. 224 sq. Jdbr. Symb. Eccl. Oathol. 1. 98 — ° Ibid. pp. 232 sq. ; of. Sarpi, ill. I op. 203 sq. This 'bulla confirmationis ' ^ 'I hold it,' says Eanke (Seform. absolutely inhibits all private inter- I. 268, note), 'to be the fundamental pretations of the synodal acts, and error of Mohler's Symbolik, that he reserves the privileges of sole ex- considers the dogma of the council positor to the Bomish see : ' Ad of Trent as the doctrine from which vitandum prseterea perversionem et the Protestants seceded; whilst it is confusionem, qua oriri posset,, si much nearer the truth to say, that unicuique lieeret, prout ei liberet, in itself produced Protestantism by a decreta ooncilii oommeutarios et in- S26 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. COUNCIL OF was wantinff to render the decisions valid in the eyes of TRENT. *= •' those who recognised the infallibility of the pontiff. Bat although a large majority of Christians in the Komish communion were thus obliged to acquiesce in all the edicts of this synod, it was found distasteful in some quarters, and has never yet been: able to command a plenary obedi- ence from the Galileans of France'. Beginning In executing the mandates of the pope and his Triden- "againirFr^ tine doctors. Several prelates of the age displayed no ordi- testantism. ii'-n-i i -ii nary zeal and vigilance, and reaped on every side a harvest of 'conversions.' Fof example, six provincial councils'* held at Milan under Carlo Borromeo', between the yesirs 1565 and 1582, abound with indications of the new and better spirit which had periQeated many dioceses id com- munion with the Roman pontiff. Yet the brilliant victories of the counter-refoTination party are frequently ascribable to different agencies. These were, first, the Inquisitioii, and secondly, the order of the Jesuits. At the time when they were both called into existence and proceeded at all hazards to repel and counterwork the enemies of Rome, the -pope was actitally dethroned in more than half of Europe. The various provinces of Scandinavia and Great Britain were entirely lost^ a large majority of the Germanic states, who terpi-etafiones suas edert : aposfolica aut exeoutionis aliove qusesito colore, auctoritate inhibeiHus omnibus, tain statuere. Si ciii vero in res aliquid eoolesiastiois persouis, cujusoumque obscurius dictum et statutum fuisse, sint ordinis, conditionis et graidua, eamque ob causam ihterpretatione quam laicis, qnocumque honore ac , aut decisione aliqua egere visum potestate praeditia, praelatis quidem fuerit; ascendat ad locum, quern sub interdipti ingreasus eoclesite, aliis t)ominus elegit, ad sedem videKoet Tero, quicunque fuerint, sub excom- appstolicam, cmnimn fidelium magis- munidationis latse aententiEe poeliis, tram, oujus auotoritatem etiam ipsa ne quis sine audtOritate nostra aii- sancta synodus tam reverenter ag- deat uUos oommentarios, gldssas, iidvit.' annotationes, scbolia, ullumve om- ^ See Courayer's IHscov/rs ffisto- nine interpretationia genua super' rique on ttis subject, at the end of ipsius couciiii deoretis quooumque Sarpi, iii. 235 — 243. mode edere, aut quidquam quodiiin- * Labbe, xv. 242, 337, 365, 408, que nomine, etialm sub prsetextu ^56, •jo6. tuajoria dedietoruih coriroboratidiiis ' See ab6'7e, pp. 131, 132. vi.J The Counter-Reformation. 327 had been influenced exclusively by Wittenberg divines, iNauisi- and very many of tbe Swiss cantons, roused by emissaries from Ziirich on the one side and Geneva on the other, had declared themselves uncompromising foes of Mediaeval ^ tenets; in Ireland, in Bohemia and Moravia, in Poland, Hungary, and Transylvania, nay, the Netherlands and France itself, the same discordant elements were now every- where at work, and threatened to produce an utter abnega- tion of the papal supremacy. We have seen already how these elements were Modijieanons counteracted and suppressed in Spain*, in Italy' and tim. other provinces of Europe^, where popes and emperors had full sway, and dared to execute the ancient edicts' for exterminating schism and misbelief It was pope Paul IV., while yet a cardinal, whose ardour led to the erection of a fresh tribunal for the whole world, analo- gous to that which had consumed so many holocausts of Moors and Jews and Protestants in the peninsula of Spain, The bull' which authorised this institution was published July 21, 154:2. The immediate consequence in Italy was a general reign of terror, in the midst of which a * Above, pp. loi, 104. state, degree, order, condition, and ^ Above, pp. 108, log. pre-eminence, and to punish them, ^ Above, pp. 160, 161. On the and confiscate their goods: to depute occasional reappearance of liiquisi- a procurator-fiscal, notary and other tors in Germany and France at the officials necessary to the aforesaid early stages of the Reformation, see affair : to degrade and deliver over Limborch, Hist, of the Inquisition, to the secular court by any prelate Bk. I. ch. xxviii., Lond. 1731. deputed by them, the secular and 7 See Middle Age, p. 311, and n. regular clergy in holy orders: to J I. curb opposers, to call in the assist- 8 Six cardinals (of whom the fu- ance of the secular arm, and to do ture pontiff, Paul IV. was one) were everything else that should be neces- then made inquisitors-general 'in sary: to substitute everywhere In- all Christian nations whatsoever.' quisitors, with the same or a limited The following is the substance of power : to take cognizance of appeals their instructions as abridged by from Other Inquisitors to them : to Limborch (lUd. ch. xxix.: Vol. I. cite, forbid and absolve, in the court p. 151): 'To proceed without the and out of it, simply or condition- ordinaries, against all hereticks, and ally, from all ecclesiastical sentence.^, suspected of heresy, and their accom- censures and punishments, aJl that plices and abettors, of whatever should appeal to them.' 328 The Counter-Reformation. [chap. iNQUMi- large band of academics and reformers fled and sought a home beyond the Alps, especially in Switzerland. Hence a leading principle of the Inquisitor was that ' to heretics, and especially to Calvinists, no toleration must be granted' '. When cardinal Caraffa was himself exalted to the papal chair (1555), the rigours of the Inquisition were, if possi- ble, intensified^ To him is also due the publication of a fuller Index librorum prohibitormn' (1559), by which he hoped that he should be enabled to dry up the main sources of heretical pravity, if he could not stifle every whisper which was raised against the pontiff and the schoolmen. In a constitution^ of Pius V. (1566), a fresh demand was made of absolute obedience to the mandates of the Inquisitor-general: princes, judges, and all secular magistrates, were earnestly implored to lend their help, and, under the succeeding popes', the organisation of this merciless tribunal was still more developed, and treatises' drawn up for the instruction of the various ofiicials now employed in carrying out its sanguinary objects. Yet the ^ See Caraffa's rules in Kanke, dium, si in unum collati fuissent, Popes, 1. 112, 213. apparere posset. Nnlla enim fuit " His peremptory buE of March bibliotheoa vel privata vel publica, I, 1559, is printed at length in Eay- quae fuerit immunis ab ea clade), ac nald. Annal. Eccl. ad an. i,';59, § 14. non prope exinanita.' See more on — Another proof of his ' disposition these subjects in Mendham's Lite- was shewn in the establishment of rary Policy of the Chwrch of Rome, the festival of San Cominico in ho- &c., ^nd ed. Lond. 1830 : and amo- nour of the great Inquisitor (Banke, dern apology for the Inquisition in Ibid. I. 314): cf. above, p. 316, n. ■2. Balmez, Protestantism and Catholi- ' The first of these Indices ap- city, c. xxxvi., Eng. transl. peared in 1549, under the auspices * Xiimhoich, Ibid. I, 152, 153. of the papal legate at Venice; Joh. ' Ibid, pp. 153 sq. della Casa : but its effects wSre ' Two of these were the Light of slight compared with those produced the Inquisition, by Bernard of Como, by the edict of Paul IV, See it with annotations by Francis Pegna with notes among the Worhs of Ver- (Rom. 1584), and in the following gerius (I. 236). The immediate con- year Eymeric's Directory of the In- sequences of it are thus described by quisitors, with the commentaries of a contemporary, Natalis Comes, Pegna. Other works relating to the quoted by Gieseler, in. i. p; Si°i subject will be found in a collection n. 35 : ' Tanta concremata est omnis entitled Tractatiu Illustrium Juris- generis hbrorum ubique oopia et consultorum de Criminalibus Inqui- multitude, ut Trojanum prope incen- sitionia, Venet. 1584. yi.] The Counter-Reformation. 329 harshness and inhumanity of these measures often issued Jesuits. in their own defeat. A few southern states of Christendom alone accepted the intervention of the *Holy OfiSce;' the rest excluding it either from religious principle, or from a dread lest the atrocities which it perpetrated should pro- voke a general rising of their subjects and imperil the established forms of faith and worship. Meanwhile, however, the current of the Eeformation was retarded, and occasionally reversed, by the untiring efforts of the Jesuits. The founder of this body, it is true, iimaims Loy- himself took part in the remodelUng of the Inquisition', but the principles oii which his followers acted were per- suasive and pacific. Ignatius Loyola' (Inigo Lopez de Recalde), the youngest scion of a noble Spanish house, was bom in the province of Guipuscoa (1491), and educated at the court of Ferdinand the Catholic. Though not un- tainted by the vices of his age and station, Ignatius, even in his early manhood, and when thirsting for the reputa- tion of the perfect soldier, gave some passing intimations of his future destiny ^ By nature ardent; visionary, and romantic, all these tendencies were strengthened and de- veloped during a long illness caused by wounds which he received in defending Pampeluna against the French in 1521. The tales of chivalry, by which his youthful imagi- nation had been fired, were then exchanged for the Legmda Aurea, and other writings more or less distinguished by the same phantastic spirit. Stimulated by the glowing Aw cont;<»-«io». and unworldly pictures there presented, he resolved to dedicate himself in future to the service of religion, and emulate the deeds of Christ, St Francis, and St Dominic". 7 Banke, Popei, i. 2 1 1. 'He actually composed a romance ' See the earliest Lives of him in of chivalry, th^ hero of which was the Acta Sanctorum, Jul. Tom. vil. the first Apostle : Banke, Popes, 1. pp. 634 sq. ; and cf. Is. Taylor's 182. Zoyolaamd Jesuitism in its Budimenis, '"' ' Aderat interim diirina miseri- Lond. 1849, and Busz, JHe Gesell- cordia, quae ex lectione recenti his schaft Jesu, Mainz, 1853. cogitationibus alias subjiciehat, Cum 330 The GOunter-Re/ormation. [cHAP. JESUITS. Accordingly on his recovery he tore himself away from s,ll ~ his kindred and associates; he visited the hermits in the solitudes of Montserrat; on the eve of the Annunciation, ' 1522, he suspended his lance and shield before a wonder- working image of the Virgin', abandoning thereby a tem- poral for a spiritual knighthood; and as he was more and more convinced of the enormity of moral evil, his austerities . became more rigorous, and his self-reproaches more em- phatic and enduring. Yet unlike the Wittenberg reformer, who was then secluded also, in the castle of Wartburg, Igna- tius Loyola had only a slender knowledge of the Scriptures; he had never been distinctly pointed to the way of recon- ciliation with God, nor to the real source of spiritual man- liness and grace. When consolation came at last, its origin was in a series of reveries and visions^ where, as he be- lieved, the very deepest mystery of the Christian faith was sensibly revealed to him, and so imprinted on the soul that enim vitam Cbristi domini nostri ac and his host whose metropolis lay sanctorum legferet, tum apud se co- at Babylon. Thirty days are devot- gitabat, secumque ita colligebat : ed to the performance of these Sxer- Quid si ego hoc agerem, quod fecit cises, in order that the spirit may be beatus Francisous ? Quid si hoc, thus thoroughly concentrated on it* quod beatus Dominicus V Acta an- self, and the religious fancy stimn- tiquissima, as above, § 2. lated to higher measures of ecstatic ' ^ AU this was conceived in the contemplation. The work, however, spirit of ancient chivalry : ' Itaque is comparatively speaking unenthu- statuit ad arma sua (ut inter milite^ siastic, which has led to the hjpd'' dicitur) vigilias agere tota nocte una thesis that the first draft of IgnatitiB neque sedens neque jacens, sed vicis- Loyola was materially altered in sub- sim stans et flexus genua ante altare sequent revisions. Dominse nostrse Montis Serrati, ubi ^ Thus at Manrisa, where he re- vestimenta sua deponere statuerat, peated the ascetic practices in which et Christi arma indaere' etc. : Ibid. he engaged at Montserrat, ' he stood §17. To this period it is usual to fixed on the steps of San Dominico refe* the composition of his extra- and wept aloud : for he thought ill ordinary Exercitia Spmtualia (often that moment the mystery of the Holy printed), the idea of which was sug- Trinity was visibly revealed to him. gested by a simUSir work of Garcia The whole day he spoke of nothing de Cisneros (Kanke, Popes, I. 232, else.' Ibid. i. 188. A similar vision note). The Exercises occasionally with similar effects appeared to thd breathe the same military spirit, abbot Balph of Fountains : see Dug- Christ and His host encamped at dale, Motlast, V. 304, new ed. Jenlaalenb, being opposed to Satan Vl.] • The Counter-EeformaUon. 331 neither life nor death could afterwards obliterate the image, jesuits. nor disturb the secret current of his joy. After wandering in this mood as far as Jerusalem. FormaUm<(f a ft tznrw •j.lici 1 • 1 • c ""**J/ "f *J"'" (1523), m the hope of there acceleratmg the conversion of fUtmi kmgiite. infidels, Ignatius went to Barcelona, Alcala, and finally to Paris (1528), where he thought to qualify himself for more efficient public teaching by a regular course of study. Such a course, however, proved distasteful to him^, and instead of falling cordially into the habits of the university, he la- boured with no orditiary tact to spread his own enthusiastic and ascetic principles among the more able of his fellow students. Two whom he especially influenced^ were Faber, a Savoyard, and Xavier, a native of Navarre, and in their society it was that, in a cell of the college of St Barbara at Paris, he siiggested and discussed the first idea of the 'Company of Jesus '°. When matured', their chivalrous project was to sacrifice their lives in absolute poverty at Jerusalem for the conversion of the Saracens, and the edifi- cation of Christians; or should obstacles arise and frustrate this intention, they vowed to place themselves unreservedly at the disposal of the pope for any kind of service he thought proper to enjoin. ' ' Quoties audiebat magistmm hood Of the members. 'Plaouit om- praelegentem, tarn multis intertur- nibus,' writes one of the biographers babatur spiritualibus rebus, ut au- of Ignatius Loyola {Acta Sand. Jul. dire attente non posset.' Acta anti- Tom. vn. p. 471), 'ut a militari quissima, § 82. This eccentricity, vooabulo Societas Jesu (suis enim which in Spain exposed him to the cohortibus milites, quas vulgo Sooi- suspicion of 'Lutheranism,'-was still etates seu Compagnias appellant, ab objectionable in the eyes of the au- ipsis fere ducibus nomen indunt) ap- thorities. He completed his college peUaretur.' course, however, learning Latin, gra- ' In 1534, the year when the pa- duating in philosophy, and studying pal supremacy was destroyed in Eng- theology under ^the care of the Do- land, Ignatius and his party met in minicans. the oryJ>t of the church of Mont- * SeeEanke'sdesCription, asabove, martre^ on the feast of the Assump- pp. 192 sq. Excepting Faber all the tion, and after receiving the Euohar- earliest converts were Spaniards, e.g. ist from Faber, already a priest, Salmeron, Lainez and Bobadilla. bound themselves together by a so- ' The name (in Spanish, Compania lemn oath and completed their dedi- de Jesus) when first chosen, was de- cation to the service of Christ and of signed to mark the spiritual knight- the Virgin. 332 The Counter-Reformation. . [chap. JgsPiTs. In the beginning of 1537, we find Ignatius Loyola with Change in iu eight of his Companions at Venice', ready to embark upon their eastern pilgrimage. But the outbreak of hostilities between the Turks and Venetians made it necessary to abandon their idea of labouring in Palestine. Meanwhile they associated themselves with Caraffa, who had lately taken part in founding the confraternity of Theatins^, and, entering into priest's orders, opened their sacred warfare in the bold and indefatigable spirit of their leader, by preach- ing penitence and practising such acts of self-renunciation as were then almost unknown in the voluptuous towns of Lombardy and central Italy. In 1 543, the new order re- ceived the unconditional approbation of the pontiff'. He saw in it the aptest instrument which that age supplied for warding off the bold aggressions on his own supremacy*. ^ There the members of the nas- cent order remained a year, working in parties of three each, for the con- version of profligates. ' This order, which arose iu 1524, under the auspices of Gaetano da Thiene and Caraffa, was intended to meet the cry for some thorough re- formation of the clergy: see Helyot, Higt. des Ordres Seligieux, iv. 76 sq. The members were priests bound by monastic vows, and pledged to the duties of preaching, administration of the sacraments, and visiting the sick. Many of their sermons were delivered iu the open air. The Bar- nabites, founded at Milan in 15.^0, were a kindred order : Helyot, Ibid. IV. 106 sq., Paris, 1792. ' See the various documents in, lAttercB apostolicce, quibws Institutio, Confirmatio ct vana Privilegia conti- nmiur Sodetatis Jesu, Antverp, 1635. As early as Sept. 27, 1540, the pon- tiff confirmed the rules of the order, but limited the number of members to sixty. Of these, Ignatius was elected president, or general, with the most arbitrary powers, so that the fortune, person, and conscience of the whole fraternity were placed in his hands, and the one principle of action in the Jesuit was simple And unreasoningobedienoe. Asoneofthis order boasted in the following cen- tury : ' Volvitur et revolvitur homi- uis unius nutu Societatis uniTersae tanta moles, moveri facilis, difficilis commoveri' (quoted in Gieseler, in. ii. p. 603, n. 1). * Thus in the Formula Vivendi of the order, as approved by the pope (lAtterw apoatol., as above, pp. 9 sq.), the general statement of obedience to him, as the 'Vicar of Christ' is heightened by the following passage ; ' Ad majorem tamen nostras Societa- tis humilitatem [self-surrender and the suppression of all human instincts being among its first principles], ac perfectam uniuscujusque mortifi- cationero, et voluntatum nostrarum abnegationem summopere conducere judicavimus, dnguloa nos ultra illud commune vincalum speciali voto as- tringi, ita ut quidquid modemus et alii Bomani Pontifices pro tempore existentes jusserint, ad profectum animarum et fidei propagationem pertinens, et ad quascunque provin- cias nos mittere voluerint, sine ulla tergiversatione aut excusatione, il- I, the VI.] The Oourder-Reformation. 333 The Jesuits by their rules were secularized far more than jesuits. any of their predecessors. They were liberated from offices characteristica of common worship, which not only absorbed the time o{<^f^^<><*'y- a conventual order, but seriously impaired the force and freedom of its action on the world around it : while their zeal was uniformly directed to three objects made impera- tive by the moral agitations of that epoch, — plain and earnest preaching, the work of guiding and relieving con- sciences by means of the confessional, and most of all the superintending of educational establishments and otherwise securing the affections and co-operation of the young". Of all the marvels that distinguish the Reformation- /toropt>f absolutism f- ^ qf the crovm. monarch and the pope: — a measure which directly tended to depress the clergy, just as, in former times, their exalta- tion sprang occasionally from the wish of sovereigns to use them in correcting the aggressive power of feudalism, and so to balance them against the lay-lords. In France, where the Pragmatic Sanction was superseded by the Concordat in 1516°, the pope recovered the supreme ecclesiastical legislation and some portion of his old revenues : while the equivalent of the crown enabled Francis I. to make gigantic strides in humbling the French ecclesiastics, and threatened to reduce them into absolute subjection. His kingdom reckoned at that time ten archbishoprics, eighty-three bishoprics, five hundred and twenty-seven abbacies, to all of which the sovereign, by this new Concordat, won the almost unrestricted power of nomination °. And the same sithen the Crjsten faith the kings of sarem, adhaeret G-allo: quum aentit England wer subgiet to th' empire. Galium sibi fore guperlurem deficit But the crown of England is an ad Caesarem : atque hseo omnia agit empire off hitselff mych bettyr then sub titulo Christi et pacia'.' now the empire of Kome : for which ^ See Middle Age, p. 364. cauae your Grace werith a close ^ Ranke, Civil Wars and Mo- crown.' Original Letters, ed. Ellis, iia/rchy in France, i. 125, 126. To I. 136, Lond. 1825. shew the utter thraldom of the * Above, p. 6. Zwingli had no- French Church at this period, it is tioed this fact and charged the pope recorded that in the following reign with being at the bottom of all the the king's mistress, the duchess of wars between France and the em- Valentinois, held in her own hands peror {0pp. i. 776, ed. Gualther) : the distribution of all ecclesiastical ' Quum videt sibi imiuinere Cse- benefices {Ibid. 1. 230). B. P. A A 354 Constitution of the Church [CHAP. ROMAN unscrupulous disregard of the domestic liberties of the ■ Church, and the distribution of its revenues, will be found to characterise the papal policy in other countries dtiring the first half of the sixteenth century. Adrian VI., for instance, went so far as to grant the dukes of Bavaria' one- fifth of all the revenues of the Church in their territories, and even sanctioned their exercise of some important branches of spiritual jurisdiction. In 1534, when Europe was beginning to cry out most loudly for some reformation of abuses, Clement VII. is reported to have given in com- mendam to his cousin cardinal de' Medici all the ben.efices of the whole world that might fall vacant during the next six months, with a permission to appropriate the fruits of them to his own usel Charles V., in like manner', when his coffers were exhausted, armed himself with papal licences, in order that he ,might seize on some of the reve- nues of the Church ; but left the work of spoliation to his son, Philip II. At length, indeed, the pontiffs receded from the more extravagant positions, in virtue of which they justified their ancient intermeddling with the temporalities of foreign churches; but only to inflict still heavier blows upon the The Jesuits, monarchs of all f uture ages. The Jesuits, who were straining S^(^ati/° every nerve to reinvest their patron with absolute supremacy in Christendom, determined to oppose the new reactions in favour of the royal power, by arguing that it stands on ground completely different from the papal. The latter, it ' Eanke, Hef. II. 174, 175. pp. 201, 202), and the lay-impro- ^ Saipi, I. 451: cf. Courayer'a priators were confirmed in tiieir note. Even if there be considerable possession of the churoh-lands by a exaggeration in this account, we bull of Julius III. (above, p. 236, have abundant evidence of the fa- n. i). In France as late as the cility with which the popes either pontificate of Pius V., he authoristd alienated church-property them- spoliations, which brought a million selves, or winked at the alienation and a half of livres to the treasury, of it by others. The suppression of Eanke, Popes, ir. 66. ' monasteries in England was first 3 Herbert's Life of Benry Till. made under papal sanction (above, p. 588, Lond. 1672. \ 111.J and its relations to the Civil Power. 355 was urged, is due to an original Divine appointment; while boman the secular authority is only derived from God by an indirect process, — ^through the medium of society^ The people were thus held to be the ultimate source of temporal jurisdiction, and the true depository of the right of govern- ment. In other words, the progi-ess of democracy was stimulated under the very shadow of the papal monarchy, and by its boldest champions; in order that the civil power might be more readily subordinated to the spiritual, and the sovereign pontiff be enthroned at an immeasurable height above all other functionaries. ENGLISH COMMUNION. In all countries that threw off the Roman yoke, there was at first some vacillation and uncertainty respecting the minister of ordination, the court of ultimate appeal in spiritual matters, and the general constitution of the Church ^ Whereas the former tendency had been to raise the hierarchy above the jurisdiction of the crown, the present by the natural vehemence of reaction was to render the secular principle itself predominant, and make the * See the discussion of this subject their minds.' What they aimed in Balmez, Protestantism and 0 o idem on Church on the pre-existing republicanism'. He started eimKh-orgmi- ^ . • . . . sation. from the ground, that sovereignty, in spiritual as in tem- poral matters, is vested in the civic authorities of each community ('gemeinde'), and that all which Holy Scrip- ture teaches of the Church is predicable of small societies like it. From this community, as represented in the Grand Council, is derived the power to minister in sacred things ; fbr Zwingli was soon driven by the rise of Anabaptism to insist upon the absolute necessity of some external call ''. Like others of the Reforming party, be argued in favour of each congregation electing its own minister : yet, in order to restrain plebeian and fanatic spirits, he would have the, chief management, or initiative of such elections, commit- ted to persons of learning and experience ; and the issue was, that a veto only remained in the hands of the " See Lavater, J}e riUbw et msli- Ages : ' Qaia enim ignorat omnium tntisEcd. Tigurince, i559,andRanke, fere ecolesiarum et pastorum electio- JJe/. III. 79, 80. The second of these nem penes episoopos illos mitratos writers draws attention (p. 77) to et fastu turgidos?' Plebeian elec- the early intercourse which took tions, however, seemed unadvisable,. place between Zwingli and Lam- and he accordingly added (fol. 54 a) ; faert, the founder of the Hessian 'Divinse ergo ordinationi et iiistitu- polity. tioni pristinse nihil perinde consen- ' (9pp. II. fol. £» sq. ed. Grualther. taneum videtm', quam si- universa On foL 53b he proceeds to the ques- fidelis alicujas populi ecclesia simul tion respecting the appointment of cum doctis aliquot piisque episcopis ministers. The freedom of election, vel aUis viris fidehbus et rerum lie says, was lost during the Middle peritis pastorem aliquem deligatV 378 Constitution of the Church [CHAP. SWISS populace. Hence the church-organisation of Zurich, as COMMUNION. ^ ^ „ . . 1 • i_ regulated under th« eye m Zwaugli, was popular, without becoming absolutely democratic : it contained a blending of the old episcopal constitution', or more strictly speaking, elements akin to those of the Lutheran consistory, while professing to derive all power from the concurrence of the people. The character and position of its framer would alone suggest the inference, that he acted uniformly in correspondence with the secular authorities : indeed, the Church and State of Ziirich were, to his mind, nothing but two different aspects of the same institution". An opposite tendency, however, shewed itself ere long in that part of Switzerland where Calvin's influence grew predominant. If fully and consistently carried out, his prin- ciples would have resulted in the establishment of a theo- cracy, or would, at least, have elevated^ the spiritual above Calvin and the Genevan polity. ^ See Ebrard's eulogy of it, in Das Dogma vom heil. Ahendmahl, II. 63, note. Still it is indisputable that Zwingli had no wish to elevate the ministers above their jilocks; for he always denied to the former the right of excommunication, assigning that prerogative to the civil magis- trate, as the organ by which the wishes of the community were carried into effect. Accordingly the church at large was considered as ultimately the excommunicator. CEcolampadius* endeavoured to establish a different principle at Basle when he proposed to vest the power of excommuni- cation in the ministers, but was forced to abandon his scheme soon afterwards (see Herzog, Dag Leben Joh. (Ecolampads, n. 192 sq., Basel, 1843). At the close of his life, how- ever, Zwingli had somewhat modi- fied his ideas. Hesuppoaed, in 1530, that the civil magistracy might fail in its duties, and then the Church was at liberty to resume the right of excommunication: 'Ob aber die Obcrkeiteu ihr Amt nit thuu wel- tind, alsdann mogind die gineinen Xilchen sich ihres Gwalts ouch gebruchen mit dem Bann, damit die Ejlchen rein und ungeargeret bliebe:' quoted in Gieseler, III. ii. p. 382, n. 42. ' Thus, for example, he writes in his treatise De Eachariitia in 1525 (Ibid. p. 380, u. 39^ : ' Ita enim fac- tum est, ut quicquid Diacosii [the Grand Council of the canton] cum Verbi ministris ordinarent, jam du- dum in animis fidelium ordinatum esset. Denique Senatum Diacosior rum adivimus, ut EcclesiEe totius nomine, quod usua postularet, fieri juberent, quo tempestive omnia et cum decoro agerentur...Sio utimur Tiguri Diacosioram Senatu, quae summa est potestas, Ecclesiae vice.' ^ The spirit of Calvinism, in this single particular resembles that of Bomanism, while the Lutheran, Zwinglian, and to some extent, the Anglican polities, all savour of By zantinism. In his Imtitutio, lib. IV. c. II, § 4, Calvin writes as follows: 'Non magistt-atus, si pius est, exi- VIII. J and its relations to the Civil Power. 379 the secular magistrate ; for, while accepting the protection of oommuIPion the latter, Calvinism denied his right to intermeddle other- wise in the administration of church-affairs. The novel insti- tutions of Geneva were cradled in the midst of revolution : anarchy prevailed in every quarter of the new republic; and the relaxation of morals, especially in the chief town and its vicinity, had reached a fearful and flagitious height. It was under these circumstances* that Calvin entered on the work of Reformation. He laboured to produce in men a deeper reverence for religious acts and persons, to make them conscious of the mystic union that subsists among all true believers, and especially to invest the doctrine of the visible Church with new significance, on the ground that it is instituted, not as auy mere conventional establishment, but for the training and maturing of human souls in faith and holines^^ The government of this Church, the guardian- ship and definition of its doctrines, and the administration of corrective discipline, the Genevese reformer placed entirely in the hands of ministers, associated with certain lay- elders", who were chosen to represent the various congregations. mere se volet communi filiorum Dei * See Hooker's narrative, prefixed subjectione, eujus non postrema pars to the Ecclesiastical Polity; 'The est, Ecclesise ex Verbo Dei judicanti reason,' he says, 'which moved Calvin 86 ;8ubjicere : tan turn abest nt judi- herein to be so earnest, was, as Beza ciura illud toUere debeat.. .Impe- himself testifieth, " For that he saw rator bonus intra Ecclesiam, non how needful these bridles were, to Bupra Ecclesiam est.' In the pre- put in the jaws of that city"' (i. 13S, vious section he draws the sharpest ed. Keble). distinction between ecclesiastical and ^ Although Mohler thinks the civil power, but insists on the im- Genevese reformers 'inexhaustible in portance of their harmonious co* their own self-contradiction,' he does operation: 'Sic conjunctse debent Calvin justice in this particular (i. esse operse, ut altera sit adjumento 126, 127). alteri, non impedimento.' The Ge- " 'Duoautemsunt [i.e. of church- nevan reformers were thus the deadly offices] quse perpetuo manent, gu- enemies of Eraatianism (see above, bernatio et cura pauperum. Guber- p. 356, n. i) : and indeed one of natores fuisse existimo seniores ex the first assailants of Erastus him- plebe delectos, qui censurse morum self, was Calvin's colleague and sue- et exercendse disciplinae una onm cesser, Theodore Beza, whose tract episcopls prseessent.' Instil, lib. iv. De vera excommunicatione et Chris- 0. 3, § 8. The care of the poor was tiano Presbyterio appeared in 1590. entrusted to deacons {lUd. § g), who 380 Constitution of the Church [cHAP. cosotSn^i w ^°^ them he claimed both legislative and judicial functions, on the ground that such functions had been exercised by the Church in primitive and apostolic times. The ministers in Calvin's system were nominally elected by the peoples and ordained by the presbyteryl They were aJI of equal rank and jurisdiction, such equality being, as he contended, in strict accordance with the verdict of Holy Scripture, in which the officers of the Church, whom Christ designed to be perpetual^, are all represented as occupying the same level, and invested with the same authority. The judgment of an assemblage of these pas- tors, or church-synod, was esteemed so highly*, that regular synodic action was of the very essence of the Cal- vinistic system. It was determined', that the first judica- tory should consist of twelve lay-elders and six ministers, Calvin himself contriving always to occupy the presidential chair. To this body, known as the Consistory, was entrusted thua became permanent 'church- quas in UBum totiiia ecclesiae Bunt officers.' institata. Nam impositionem ma- ^ After insisting on the requisite nuum, qua ecclealse xuinistri in suum conditions in those who are to be muuus initiantur, ut non invUua either ' episcopi,' deacons, or lay- potior vocari sacramentum, ita inter elders, he adds (ibid. § IS): 'Habe- ordiuaria sacramenta non numero.' raus ergo, esse hano ex Yerbo Dei Ibid. lib. IV. c. 14, § 20. legitimam miniatri Tocationem, ubi ' See his distinctions, Instit. lib. ex populi consensu et approbatione IV. c. 3, § i. In § 8 he adds signifi- creantur qui visi fuei-jnt idonei. cantly : ' CEeterum quod episcopos et Prseease autem eleotioni debere alios presbyteros et pastores et ministros paatorea, ne quid vel per levitatem, promisoue vooavi, qui Ecclesias re- vel per mala studia, vel per tumul- gunt, id feci ex Scriptiurse usu, quse turn a multitudine peccetur.' The vocabula ista confundit: quicunque practical result, however, was, that enim "Verbi ministerio funguntur, iis pastors were elected by their col- titulum episcoporum tribuit.' leagues, the people retaining a veto: * 'Nos oerte libenter concedimus, whUethe secular authority was allow- ai quo de dogmate incidat discep- ed to interpose in their confirmation, tatio, nullum esse nee melius neo and also deputed two of four com- certius remedium, quam si verorum miasioners, who inspected them and episcoporum synodus oonveniat, ubi theirproceedinga every year. controversum dogma excutiatur.' ^ Ordination was so important in Ibid. lib. IV. u. g, § 13. Calvin's view as to become qua^i- = See the Ordonnances eecUsias- sacramental : ' Sacramenta duo in- tiques de I'iglise de Gen&ve (published stituta, quibus nunc Christiana Ec- in J 541), in Eichter's Kirchen-ord- clesia utitur. Loquor autem de iis, nitngen, as before, I. 342 sq. VIII.] and its relations to the Civil Power. 381 the direction of religious and moral life in the whole com- swrss munity, together with the right of excommunication. Its — ! ' proceedings, based on theocratic notions, most of which had been derived from the Old Testament, were uniformly characterised by great severity^; for Calvin, who was virtu- ally the head and spirit of the whole system, determined, above all things, to restore the ancient discipline of the Church, and in particular to exclude notorious sinners from that service which he held to be the crowning act of evangelic worship, — the reception of the Eucharist. The unrelenting sternness of his administration led, as Depression of the cioil power. we have seen , to his temporary banishment ; and, on his return, he had to struggle with a multitude of ' Libertines', who were continually goaded and embarrassed by the heavy yoke which he imposed. One section of them at- tempted to carry an appeal from the decisions of the Consistory to the council of Two Hundred, in which the temporal supremacy was lodged. But Calvin had suiH- cient influence to repress these outbreaks of rebellion; He contended that, in spiritual things, the Council was it- self amenable to the Word of Christ, and that His Word was most authoritatively interpreted by members of the * See for example, Dyer's Life of one another, were permitted at their Calvin, pp. 144 sq. Banks {Civil sittings.- No indulgence was known Wars, o- impulse to the arts and sciences. The agitations, in the midst of which it flourished, interfered with the repose of students, or, converting some into ecclesiastical polemics, made them concentrate their chief attention on the primi- tive records of the Church, — the Fathers, Councils, Canon- ists, and Historians. We accordingly meet with few, if any, classical scholars in the latter half of the century, who proved themselves a match either in eradition or in ele- gance for giants like Erasmus, Ludovicus Vives, or Jean Bud^ (Budseus). Italy itself, ysrhich formed the cradle where the literature of ancient Greece had been revived, " Few writers question the reality ' DoUinger {Die Reformation, i. of. this change; but Balmez, in his 418 sq.) has consequently some Protestantism and Catholicity com^ .reason on his side when he infers pared, has laboured to establish that from evidence there collected, that Europe suffered grievously even in the Eeformation was not so exclu- its moral and social relations from sively the friend of literature as some the progress of the Lutheran move- have represented. ' It is generally ment. His main positions are, that believed,' aa.ja'WeiTton (Engl. Poetry, European civilisation had reached iir. 13, ed. 1840), 'that the reforma- all the development that was possible tion of religion in England, the most for it before the rise of Protestant- happy and important event in our ism ; that Protestantism ' pei-verted annals, was immediately succeeded the course of civilisation, and so pro- by a flourishing state of letters. But duced immense evils; and that all this was by no means the case:' cf. the progress, or apparent progress, Hallam, Lk. of Europe, I. 464 sq., whic^. has since been effected, is Lond. 1840, andRoscqe'sii/e p/2,eo made; in spite of Protestantism! X. II. 237 sq., Lond. 1846. Ii.P. CC 386 On the State of [CHAP. could hardly boast of one Hellenist at tlie close of the present period \ Nor can this declension be ascribed entirely to the bar- barous intermeddling of the ' Holy Office' and the conse- quent flight of scholars from the southern to the porthern states of Europe. England'', which had often furnished an asylum to such fugitives, was, generally speaking, in the same condition. The decline of taste is indicated most of all by the degenerate character of the Latinity, and the undue attention commonly bestowed on the less cultivated authors ; while Greek, which at the opening of the six- teenth century, had, in spite of its alleged connexion with heretical doctrines', captivated a large class of students, now receded for a time and fell into comparative oblivion. ^ Eanke, Popes, I. 493. 'It is true,' he writes, 'that another Aldus Manutius appeared at Borne, and that he was professor of eloquence ; but neither hia Greek nor his Latin could win admirers.' In other Euro- pean countries some progress was visible in the second half of the cen- tury; as the names of Henry Ste- phanas (Estienne), Joseph Scaliger and Isaac Casaubon will sufficiently indicate. ^ See Warton, ag above, pp. 14, 15. On p. 16 we have the following evidence from the founder of Trinity College, Oxford: 'He [cardinal Pole] advyses me to order the Greeke to be more taught there than I have provyded. This purpose I well lyke : but I fear the tymes will not hear it now. I remember when I was a young scholler at Eton [ciro. 1520], the Greeke tonge was growing apace ; the studie of which is now a-late much deeaid.' Luther himself re- gretted this unreasonable neglect of classical authors: of. Blunt, jReform, in England, p. 104, 6th ed. ' Priests in their confessions of young scholars, used to caution them against learning Greek: 'Cave a Graecis ne fias hEereticus;' And Eras- mus, who mentions this and other like facts, had the greatest difficulties in obtaining currency at Cambridge for his edition of the Greek Testa- ment. On the other hand, the fol- lowing picture of a French savant, DuchStel (Castellanus), will both exhibit the voracity of students at this period, and the fastidiousness of their taste : ' Duch^tel retrouva, dans I'emploi de lecteur, les loisirs qu'il avait eus h Bale lorsqu'il remplissait les fonctions de correcteur dans I'im- primerie de Froben. II les consacra, ii'eu laissant rien perdre, k relire les anciens auteurs latins et grecs et k se perf ectionner dans toutes les etudes. Suivant le conseil de Platon, qui recommande aux gens studieux de ne remplir leur estomac qu'une fois par jour, il mangeait, I, huit heures du matin, un morceau de pain, ne buvait h, ce repas qu'un verre de vin, et dtnait k cinq heures. II donnait trois ou quatre heures au sommeil, et le reste de ses nuits au travail. Le matin, il ^tudiait les philosophes et les math^maticiena ; dans I'aprfea- midi, lea historiens et les poetes. Pour ses etudes nocturnes, il r^ser- vait la Bible, qu'il lisait en h^breu durant deux heures, et lea interptfetes iA.j Intelligence and Piety. ^87 These facts, however, cannot, in the present instance, ThudeeUneno T- J J 1 i< • 1 1 • moqf Off inM- ^be regaraed. as the omens oi returning barbansni nor symp- leawd deaew- toms of intellectual poverty and weakness. Men's thoughts were feverishly intent on moral and religious, to the disre- gard of literary and scholastic questions. Yearnings were excited in their spirits, which could find no satisfaction in the cloudy reveries of Christian Platonism, nor in the frigid reasonings of Aristotle : and it was only when the Reformation was established, when the controversies it provoked were losing their original freshness and intense attraction, that the study of the pagan authors was more generally resumed, and sacred images replaced more freely* by conceptions borrowed from the Greek mythology, or the writings of philosophers who shed imperishable lustre on the speculations of the ancient world. The Reformation, itself one product of the intellectual ii'eea oj soma . -16 inaral revolu- enlightenment, which sprang up m the former period , um. was in turn the parent of a moral, social, and religious revolution. It allied itself, indeed, with the great Biblical movement of the age preceding ; but, as the necessities of the case required, its progress rather coincided -with the practical and mystical, than with the critical direction of that movement". When Luther burst the fetters that once held him in complete subjection to the papacy, the western Church was lamentably fallen : it was ignorant, disordered, , and demoralised. So deeply rooted was this feeling in the hearts of men, that numbers who had little or no personal affection for the author of Protestantism regarded his first onslaught with unqualified, approbation'. du Nouveau Testament, entre lea- ' See Middle Age, pp. 386, 387. quels il pr^f^rait saint J&5me, trou- " ' Der Zusammensohluss jener vamt que saint Auguatin est mi sophiste biblisoh-praktiscben uud dieser mys- de maweais goUt, qui ne salt pas trop tischen . Bichtung ist das schopfe- sagrammaire.' Haur&u, i^rarapoM 1°' riache Prinzip der Reformation ge- et sa Gowr, pp. 219, 220, Paris, 1855. yioTierL\'l)oriier:,Entwicklungsgesch. * See Warton, III. 396 sq. on der Lehre von der Person Christi, 11. what he terms the 'fresh inundation 453, Berlin, 1853. of classical pedantry.' ' Above, p. 2, n. a. C C2 388 On the State of [chap. Eeforms of some kind of other were felt to be imperatively- needed, and the sanguine therefore hoped that Luther was himself the man whom Providence had now commissioned for restoring to the Church of God her ancient character- Testimony of istics. ' Bcforo the rise of the Lutheran and Calvinistic "*' heresy/ is the confession of the prince of Romish controver- sialists ', ' according to the testimony of persons then alive, there was almost an utter abandonment of equity in the ecclesiastical courts ; in morals there was no discipline, in sacred literature no erudition, in Divine things no reverence. Religion was on the point of vanishing from the earth.' And similar witness had been borne already by another and of Barth. polemic who was struggling to resist the onward march of the Reformers; 'I have frequently avowed,' he writes^ Latomus. ^ Bsllarmin. Concio xxviii. ; 0pp. VI. 296, Colon. i6i7;of. above, p. 3,11.3. ^ Barthol. Latomus, in his con- troversy with Buoer, printed in Bu- cer's Scripta Duo Adversaria, Argen- torat. 1544, p. 27. It was not unnatural for Bucer to draw the following inference from such ad- missions (p. 216): 'Non docetur ergo neque regitur a Spiritu Sancto vestra Ecclesia, hoc est, ooetus ves- trorum prffilatonim, qui novas illas et peregrinas invexerunt dootrinaa atque ceremonias. Cf. above, p. 351, n. 3, where many of the preva- lent coiTuptions are traced by the Roman cardinals to the excessive laxity and ignorance of ecclesiastics. Duchlltel (the French scholar men. tioned above, p. 386, n. 3) was de- terred from entering into holy orders by the same causes : ' Non semel mihi ingenue confessus est,' writes hi^ biographer {Ibid. p. 218, note), ' ut, si suo genio obsequi sibi inte- grum fuisset, sagatam quam togatam vitam, ;militarem quam ecclesias- ticam, TO qua plerosqiie fere orrmes jUtgitiose versari vid^at, sequi malu- isset.' And Luther's Preface to his Catechismvs Minor pro pa/rochis et coTieionatoribics tells the same dia- trfessing tale : 'Miserabilis ilia facie.s, quam proximo, quum Visitatorem agerem [a.d. 1527], vidi, me ad edendum hunc cateehismum sim- phcissime et brevissime tractatum coegit. Deum immortalem ! quan- tam calamitatem ibi vidi: vulgus, prsesertim autem illud, quod in agris vivit, item plerique paroohi, adeo nullam Christianse doctrinse cogni- tionem habent, ut dieere etiam pu- deat. Et tarnen omnea sancto illo Christi nomine appellantur, et nobis- cum communibus utuntur sacramen- tis, quum Orationem Dominicam, symboluni Apostolioum et Deca- logum non modo non intelligant, aed ne verba quidem referre possint. Quid multis moror? nihil omnino a bestiis differunt. Jam autem quum Evangelium passim doceatur, illi vel maxime Christianorum hbertate fruuntur (TJnd nun das Evangelium kommen ist, dennoch fein gelehret ha;ben, aller Freiheit meisteiiich zu missbrauchen). Quid hie Christo respondebitis, episcopi, quibus ilia cura est divinitus demandata? Vol enim estis, guibus vel solis ilia CTvria- tiaruereligionisealamitas dehetti/r etc.:' in Francke's Zibr.' Symbol, Ecd. Lutheran. Part n. p. 63. IX. J Intelligence and. Piety, 389 ' that the discipline of the Church is ruined ; that morals are corrupted; that the Hves of great men and of the clergy are defiled by licence, by avarice, by ambition; that learning is utterly neglected, or else pursued only in a sordid and godless spirit, which is the reason why our pulpits are now filled by such ignorant, absurd, and silly preachers, I have complained also more than once thatj the cure of souls is disregarded ; that parishes are aban- doned ; that the great aim now is to get possession of sinecure benefices ; and that there is no end of calumnious lawsuits and disgraceful traffickings in order to obtain admission to the priesthood. Accordingly from these evils greater still have issued, and do issue. Feuds have risen in the Church amounting almost to barbarity, religion is corrupted, ignorance of the iGrospel is most rife, the ancient discipline is relaxed, all strength of principle is gone, and conduct is grown impious : there is contempt of God, con- tempt of magistrates, abhorrence of the priests ; and, in a word, the mass of crimes and vices is so huge that, in our day, we find the burden almost intolerable,' In such a state of morals and religious intelligence, it cmmquent seemed to be the foremost duty of each Christian pastor 'to reverting to the impress again upon his flock the alphabet of the Gospel, Apostoiu rather than to follow in the wake of timorous and half- hearted chieftains like Erasmus, with a hope that the diffusion of politer literature would issue in the spiritual exaltation of society. The chief aim accordingly was to preach what the apostles and evangelists had preached &% first, to Jew and Gentile, Greek and Eoman, — 'Jesus Christ, and Him as crucified.' This verity became to all Reformers the substance of their choicest homilies, the centre, life and marrow of their theological system*. The ' Thu3, for example, Oswald My- 'Prsedioare enim Evangelium, quid conius urged in his address A d Sacer- aliud est quam praedioare Christum dotes BdvelicB- {Tigxai, 1524, p. ^o).; pro salute nostra crucifixum.? Quern 390 On the State of [chap. Preaching of Christ the image of the Crucified was ever printed on their hearts': by it they stirred their audience to a deeper hatred of sin^ and warmed in them an earnest and abiding love of the Almighty. "While the general tendency of thought had been among the Orientals to lay stress on the Prophetic character of Christ, to worship Him as the great source of supernatu- ral light and wisdom ; while the Latins of the Middle Age, adored Him chiefly as the King, incarnate, crucified, and risen, as the Sovereign and the Judge whose visible domi- nion coincided with the limits of the papal monarchy, new aspects of His character grew more familiar at the time of the Reformation. In asserting the malignity of evil and the moral impotence of man regarded in himself, the leaders of that movement pointed more distinctly and more uniformly to the Priest, the Substitute, the Reconciling- Victim. Thus the Wittenberg Reformer had been driven, through despair of his own efforts, to cry out as early as 1516''':, gi populo sic prjesoripsisaent, nou potuisseut certe vel de meritis ope- rum, vel de satiafactionibus, vel de intercessione sanctoinim dicere. Ex missa non fecissent sacrificium. Idola in templa Cbristianorum nuuquam intrusksent : nihil inunutassent de lis quae Christus statuit.' 1 See the fine passage in the Eng- hshSomUies, ■p'p. 4i5sq., Camb.1850. The vicarioiis nature of Christ's me- diation is illustrated as follows in the same document (p. 487) ; ' For upon Him, He [God the Father} put our sins, upon Him He made our ransom : Him He made the mean betwixt us and Himself, whose mediation was so acceptable to God the Father, through His profound and perfect obedience, that He took His act for a full satisfaction of our disobe- dience and rebellion, whose right- eousness He took to weigh against our sins, whose redemption He would have stand against our damna- tion.' ^ Above, p. 16, n. 2. In 1531 we find botiti him and Melancthon stat- ing their convictions on this subject with remarkable clearness (Melano- thon's Works, II. 501 sq.). The latter writes (to Brentz) : ' Ideo non dilectio, quae est impletio legis, justi- ficat, sed sola fides, non quia est perfectio quaedam in nobis, sed tan- tum quia apprehendit Christum; justi sumus non propter dilectionem, non propter legis impletionem, non propter novitatem nostram, etsi sint dona Spiritus Sancti, sed propter Christum, et Huuo tantum fide appre- hendimus.' While Luther adds a postscript: 'Et ego soleo, mi Brenti, ut hanc rem melius capiam, sic ima- ginari, quasi nulla sit in corde meo qualitas, quae fides vel caritas voce- tur, sed in loco ipsorum pono ipsum Christum et dico: Haec est jnstitiat mea; Ipse est qualitas et formalis, ut vocant, justitia mea, ut sic me liberem ab intuitu legis et operum ; imo et ab intuitu objectivi istius Christi, qui vel doctor vel donator intelligitur ; sed volo Ipsum mihi esse donum et doctrinam per se, ut omnia in Ipso habeam,' IX.J Intelligence and Jfiety. 891 * Thou, Lord Jesus, art my Righteousness, but I am Thy sin : Thou hast taken mine, and given me Thine :' confes- sions which may be regarded as the prelude and epitome of all his future teaching on the justification of the sinner. Zwingli, notwithstanding the divergencies in his mode of training, and the difference in his natural temperament, had started from the same profound conviction. ' The death of Christ, and that alone,' he argued, 'is the price paid for the remission of sins". In other words, the sharp distinction thus established between the righteousness of God and man, between the salutary work done in us and the salutary work done for us, was a leading characteristic of Reformed- theology. It was not, indeed, alleged that previous generations as ths sou lit 111- ^ t ^^ ■ ■ 11 MeMator. had been wholly ignorant oi such distinctions, or had ever ventured openly to impugn the doctrine of gratuitous jus- tification by faith in Christ 1 Yet the Reformers were unanimous in believing thatj if not denied, this verity had, in later times, been so grievously displaced and so com- pletely pushed into the back-ground, as to exercise far less than its original influence on the life and character of churchmen. They felt that a large group of human and- angelic mediators had been practically interposed between the worshipper and Christ Himself. They had experienced how ideas of superabundant merit in. the saint and his ' See above, p. 1 1 1, n. 3. In faotio, turn sanctorum omnium, sive like manner he declares (Fidd Satio, in terra sive in coslis degeutiuni, de in Niemeyer, p. 19)': 'Scio nuUam bonitate et misericordia Dei expiatio aliam esse expiaudorum soelerum aut interoessio.' l^ostiam quam Christum, nam ne * See, for instance, Cranmer's Paulus quidem pro nobis est cruoi- Notes and AutTiorities on Justification, fixus: nullum aliud pignus divinse Miscellaneous Writings, ed. P. S. bonitatis et clementise oertivft esse pp. 203 sq. In the Homily Of ac indubitatius, nihil enim seque Salvatitm, he writes to the same firmum ao Deua est : et non est effect : 'And after this wise, to be aliud nomen sub sole in quo nos justified only by this true and lively oporteat. salvos fieri quam Jesu faith in Christ, speaketh all the old Christi. Eelinquuntur ergo hie cum and ancient authors, both Greeks operumnostrorumjustifioatioet satis- and Latins' (p. 23, Camb. 1850). 392 'On the State of ' [chap. prevailing intercession, had so filled the spirit of the desti- tute and the sin-stricken, that Christ was virtually excluded, and His mediating sacrifice constructively denied. The blessed Virgin, and a multitude of others whom the popular imagination had located in the heavenly palace, were thuS either exalted into rivalry with the King of saints Himself, or made to intercept His glory from the worshipper. But in countries where the principles of the Reformation were adopted, all created mediators were dethroned, disparaged; or forgotten. Saints and priests and sacraments became at once subsidiary and ministerial ; a wall of partition, which had separated Christ from the believers, and reduced them all into the servile state of Hebrews, was now broken down afresh ; and in the consciousness of spiritual freedom which this thought of a gratuitous mercy had inspired, all notions of sufficiency, of human merit, of an adequate or a ' superfluous satisfaction, were utterly rejected. The 'ancient writers and best expositors' had taught that Christ alone is 'the Author and Giver of remission of sins, justice, life and eternal salvation to all believers ; which thing,' it was contended, ' is so proper and peculiar unto Him, that no part or portion thereof may be, in any respect, imparted unto others without manifest sacrilege and blasphemy '\ A second feature of the ' new learning' was haxdly less religion: remarkable when traced into its practical consequences. The Reformation insisted, with unwonted emphasis, upon the fact, that man's religion is a personal concern ; that his future destiny will be determined by the issues of a judg- ment which must bring him face to face with God, the Searcher of all spirits ; and that he will not only be there ^ Bp Woolton's Christian Manual, ranee, but should easily perceive the p. 5, ed. P. S. 1 851: of. Zwingli'a truth, as well of this point of doc- language, above, p. 113, n. 5. 'Oh!' trine, as of all the rest. For there says the English Homilist (p. 3^8), doth the Holy Ghost plainly teach 'that all meu would studiously read us, that Christ is our only Mediator and search the Scriptures. Then and Intercessor with God, and that should they not be drowned in igno- we must seek and run to no other.' Persmial IX.J Intelligence and Piety, 393 dealt with as an isolated individual responsible for all his faculties of soul and body, but that his condition will be rendered irreversible by death, which fixes an eternal gulf between the iustified and the condemned ^ So lono; how injiuenced as men continued to believe in purgatory, the most careless purgatory; trusted that, even if impenitent when he died, he might be corrigible hereafter, and might pass eventually into the circles of the blessed ; that the offerings of survivors might really turn to his advantage ; and therefore that he need not be deterred from his unholy habits by the prospect of the worm that never dieth, and the fire unquenchable. It is true, the doctors of the Mediaeval church' had. drawn distinctions between the temporal and eternal con^ sequences of sin, and had sometimes impressed on their disciples the idea that purgatory wa^ reserved for none, ex- cept that section of Christians) who, though justified, had not at death entirely liquidated the debt of penance which had been entailed by their misdoings; but so lax and scan^ dalous was their theory with respect to the conditions on which eternal consequences of sin may be remitted, that a multitude of churchmen were still satisfied with vague professions of regret or passionate self-reproaches on their death-bed, trusting for the rest to the effects of prayers '^^^p^ and offerings made in their behalf by others, to grants of ' E. g. Latimer declares in his 4th ence : ' Let these and such other sermon before Edw. VI. {Sermcms, places be sufficient to take away the p. 162, ed. P. S.) ; 'There is but two gross error of purgatory out of our states, if we be once gone. There is heads ; neither let us dream any more no change. . . .There are but two that the souls of the dead are any- states, the state of salvation and th§ thing at all holpen by our prayers; state of damnation. There is no but, as the Scripture teaoheth us, repentance after this life, but if he • let us think that the soul of man, die in the state of damnation, he passing out of the body, goeth ' shall rise in the same : yea, though straightways either to heaven; or he have a whole monkery to sing for else to hell, whereof the one needeth him, he shall have his final sentence no prayer, and the other is without when he dieth.' The Homilist, in redemption ' (p. 539). like manner, after quoting passages ^ See Middle Age, pp. 331, 457, from the Fathers, urges the same 458, 2nd edition, thought on the attention of hiB audi- 394 On the State of [chap. indulgences, and, most of all, to special masses duly cele- brated by the chantry-priests. It may be also granted, that the council of Trent' did something to remedy this flagrant evil, by publishing more accurate definitions respecting penance : yet the source of the disorder was unhealed. The re-assertion of a purgatorial fire", from which escape may be facilitated by vicarious services, was ever tempting man to postpone the settlement of his account with God to an indefinite future; or in cases where the standard of I'eligious earnestness rose higher, the ideas from which that dogma sprang were tending to produce a habit of mind in which the Christian rather studies to propitiate a Master, or disarm, an angry and avenging Judge, than to be active from a principle of gratitude, holy from a love of holiness, unworldly from an aspiration to be Christ-like. The de- vout Reformer, on the contrary, looked up to God as to a reconciled Father. Conscious on the one hand, that he could never satisfy Divine justice by his self-inflicted tor- ments, and that, on the other hand, no fellow-mortal could be substituted in his place or alter the relationship in which he stood to the Almighty at the hour of dissolution, he took refuge in the hope set before him in the Gospel, he put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and by his incorporation into the New Man from heaven, he found 'wisdom and. righteousness and sanctification and redemption.' Sacerdotal But this principle of personal faith in Christ the Medi- aiithebap- ator, was, in the system of continental Reformers, closely interwoven with a second, — the .sacerdotal character of every Christian. Luther so exalted the benefits of bap- tism^ as to recognise in it the special agent by which God 1 Above, p. 314, and n. 3. Captivity of tJie Church, he expressed " See above, p. 3^3, n. 6. himself with great emphasis on this ^ Even where he was most vehe- subject (of. above, p. 34, n. 2): ment in his denunciations of papal ty- 'Baptism! sacramentum, etiam quo- ranuy and mechanical forms of wor- ad signum, nou esse momentaneum ship, in his Prelude on the Babylonish aliquod negotium, sed perpetuum. Used: IX.] Intelligence and Piety. 395 imparts His choicest blessings and invests the human soul ■with new and nobler characteristics. From that time for- •ward the baptised is consecrated to the Christian priest- hood, and is entitled to all privileges that flow from union with God in Christ. He is taught of God, his body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, and he alone is truly ' spiritual.' «» stated by ' We have,' the potentates of Germany are reminded'', ' we have one baptism and one faith, and that is it which con- stitutes us spiritual persons. The unction, the tonsure, the ordiaation, the consecration conferred by a bishop or a pope may make a hypocrite, but never a spiritual man, "We are all alike consecrated priests at our baptism, as St Peter says. Ye are priests and kings; and if that con- secration by God were not upon us, the unction of the pope could never constitute a priest. If ten brothers, sons of a Licet enim usvia ejua subito transeat, tameD res ipsa significata durat usque ad mortem, imo reaurreotionem in novisaimo die' (0pp. ii. fol. 273 a, Jense, 1600). . . .'Nunquam fit bap- tismua irritus, donee desperans re- dire ad salutem uolueris i aberrare quidem poteris ad tempus a signo, Bed non ideo irritum est signum. Ita aemel es baptisatus sacramen- taliter, sed semper baptisandus fide, 8empermoriendum,seiiiperqueyiven- dum' (fol. 273 b). . . .'Hauogloriam libertatis uostree, et banc scientiam baptismi esse hodie captivam, cui possumua referre acoeptum, quam imi tyrannidi Komanipontificis? qui, ut F^;8torem primum decet, , unus omnium maxime debuit esse prse- dicator et assertor hujus libertatis et scientisB, siout Paulus,' etc, . . .'Quia dedit ei potestatem captivandse buju» nostrse libertatis, per baptismum nobis donatse ?' (Ibid.) * See the whole of thia remark- able (German) tract, in Waloh's edi- tion of his Works, x. 296 sq. It is Luther's first assault on the despotic 'walla' built up by 'Romanists,' to keep the temporal ruler and his sub- jects under the direction of the spi- ritualty; and the main object is to depress the papal power by shewing that all Christians without exception, if true to their sacred calling artf alike 'spiritual' men. He repeated his assertions in the tract, De imti- tuendis ministris Ecclesice (cf. above, p. 368, n. i): e.g. 'Sacerdos nam- que in Novo prajsertim Testamento non fit, aed nascitur, non ordinatur, sed oreatur. Nascitur vero non car- nis, aed Spiritus nativitate, nempe ex aqua et Spiritu in lavacro regene- rationia. Suntque prorsus omnea Christiani sacerdotea, et omnes sacer- dotes sunt Christiani. . . .Porrohanc sequelam esse fidelem et probam: Christus est sacerdos, ergo Christiani aunt sacerdotes, patet ex Psal. xxii., Narrabo nomen tuum fratribus meis. Et rursua, Unxit te Deua, Deus tuus,, oleo prae participibus tuis. Quod fratres ejus sumus, non nisi nati-ra- tate nova sumua. Quare et sacer- dotes aumua, aicut et ipse ; filii, sicut et ipse ; reges, aicut et ipse. Fecit enim nos cum ipso conaedere in ooelestibus, ut conaortea et cohaeredes ejus simus, in quo et cum quo omnia nobis donata sunt' (0pp. II. 548 b, 549 a, Jense, ;i6oo). 396 On the State of [chap. king, and, having equal rights to the inheritance, should choose one from among them to administer the kingdom for them, they -would all be kings, but one alone the minister of their common power. So is it in the Church.' Impelled by this conviction, scandalised by the mal-prac- tices of clergymen and monks, and, at the same time, smarting under the severe denunciations of the pontiff, the Wittenberg reformer made no effort to distinguish' clearly Sin Afa""^' between the rights and privileges which constitute the sacerdotal character of Christians generally, and the au- thority transmitted from our blessed Lord Himself to one special order of Christians who officiate in His name, and for the edification of His people. Luther seems indeed to have convinced himself -that these two ideas are utterly incompatible. He was unable to perceive that, in the Hebrew church, the priesthood was, in one sense, granted to the whole community; they were 'a kingdom of priests,' and yet the Aaronic ministrations were not thereby super- seded, — ^which at least was calculated to suggest the pos- sibility of analogous institutions in the Christian Church itself. A bright, but vague ideal had possessed the ardent imagination of Luther and his followers. They trusted that the time had come when Christians, rescued from the papal tyranny, would be capable of larger measures of self-government than were hitherto enjoyed, that worldli- ness and self-indulgence, hypocrisy, irreverence, and eccle- siastical ambition, would be banished from the midst of them, that the Church would re-appear in its true character as a holy and a happy brotherhood, where all the members find their pleasure in offering up spiritual sacrifices accept- able to God by Jesus Christ. We saw that as the Reformation proceeded", this vague and transcendental theory of the Church was considerably , ■^ Cf. Mr Derwent Coleridge's Senn. X. * Scriptural Character- of ike Church, ' Aboye, pp. 369, 372, 377. IX.] Intelligence and Piety. S97 modified on the continent, and in England it had never many advocates or admirers. The recognition of all Chris- fcatim^tht tians, as exalted by their fellowship with Christ to be both <'<'*''*«■ kings and priests to God, was there associated with firm belief in the Divine appointment and authority of the mi- nisterial office'. The faithful were instructed to obey their spiritual pastors and masters, not as officers whom they had chosen for their representatives, but who were placed over them by the Lord, and gifted with specific powers and privileges in virtue of their ordination. ' For example, Craniner's Cate- cJiism of 1548 (respecting which see above, p. 210) contains the following passage on this subject: 'After Ohristes aseention the apostelles gaue authoritie to other godly and holye men to minyster G-ods worde, and cUefely in those places wher ther wer Christen men alredy, whiche lacked preachers, and the apostles theim seines could rot longer abide with them. For the apostles dyd walke abrod into diuerse partes of the worlde, and did studye to plant the gospel in many places. Wherefore wher they foimde godly men, and mete to preache Gods worde, they layed their handes vpon them, and gaue them the Holy Gost, as they theimselues receaued of Christ the same Holy Gost, to execute this office. And they that were so ordeyned were in dede, and also were called, the ministers of God, as the apostles theimselues were, as Paule sayeth vnto Tymothy. And so the minis- tration of Gods worde (which out Lord Jesus Christ hymselfe dyd first institute) was deryued from the apo- stles vnto other after theim, by im- position of handes and gyuynge the Holy Ghost, from the apostles tyme to our dayes. And this was the con- secration, ordres, and vnction of the apostles, wherbythey, at thebegyn- nynge, made byshopes and pryestes; and this shall continewe in the churche euen to the worldes ende. And what soeuer rite or oeremonye hath ben added more than this, com-, meth of mannes ordinaunce and po- licye, and is not commaunded hj Goddes worde. Wherefore, good children, you shall gyue due reue- rence and honour to the ministers of the churche, and shal not meanely or lyghtly esterae them in the execu- tion of their office, but you shall take them for Gods ministers, and the messengers of our Lorde Jesus Christe. For Christ himselfe saieth in the gospel. He that heareth you, heareth me. And he that dyspiseth you, dyspiseth me. Wherefore, good children, you shal stedfastly beleue , al those thinges, whiohe suche mi- nisters shall speake vnto you from the mouth and by the commaunde- ment of our Lorde Jesus Christ. And what sceuer they do to you, as when they baptyse yon, when they gyue you absolution, and dystri- bute to you the bodye and bloude of our Lord Jesus Christe, these you shall so esteme as yf Christe hym- selfe, in his awne person dyd speake and minister vnto you... And on the other ayde, you shall take good hede and beware of false andpriuy e preach- ers, whiche pryuely crepe into cities, and preache in corners, hanyng none authoritie, nor being called to this office. For Christe is not present with such prechers, and therefore dothe not the Holy Gost worke by their preching,' etc.: pp. ig6, 197. On Cranmer's vacillation respecting the minister of ordination in 1540, and his subsequent firmness, see Mr Harington's Succession of Bishops in the Ohwrch of Englamd. 398 On the State of [chap. Effect Qf ths But neither in this country, nor in continental Europe, Beformalion i • i. i i ■ > j? i upon riiorais: was the promulgation of the ' new learning at once lol- lowed by results which satisfied the ardent wishes of its friends, and silenced the ungenerous cavils of its enemies. That some improvement was visible in the morals of the populace is confidently stated by one class of writers^: yet the measure of it did not correspond^, in the opinion of reforming chieftains, to the vast importance of the truths now rescued from oblivion. What constituted the strength of the Reformers constituted also the peculiar weakness of their cause. They gave unwonted prominence to a class of doctrines which, if fairly apprehended, must result in the formation of a high and noble character; but doctrines, at the same time, easily capable of distortion and perversion. Thus the advocate of the 'new learning' was driven to confess' that 'many lip-gospellers and protestants have commonly in their mouths Jesus Christ, His Gospel and faith, and yet so live that the name of Christ and His Gospel is evil spoken of '...'Most part of mortal men,' he added ^, ' now-a-days, have no regard at all of temperance and sobriety, but give themselves to rioting and surfeiting, and run headlong into all kind of mischief, having no fear of God before their eyes : they follow their filthy lusts, they snatch, they steal, they swear and forswear, they He, they deceive, and, to be short, do all things saving that which is lawful. And yet, in the mean time, they will needs be accounted Christians, ^and gospellers, and earnest favourers of true religion.' ' It happened now, as when the 1 S.g. Oswald Myoonius, Ad Sa- the worse: 'Der Teufel fahret nun cerdoies Hdvetiae, pp. 5 sq., Tiguri, mit Haufen unter die Leute, dass 1524. _ sie unter dem hellen Lichte des ^ It is plain from Luther's writ- Evangelii sind geiziger, listiger, vor- ings that he expected great results theiliacher, unbarmherziger, unziioh' and was bitterly disappointed. See tiger, freoher und aorger, denn unter tlie admissions collected by DoDin- demPapstthum:' Werke, ed. Walch, ger, Die Reformation, i. 318 sq., xill. 19. 412 sq. On one occasion Luther 3 BpWoolton, Cknstian Manual, went so far as to declare that, morally p. 23, ed. P. S. speaking, the change had been for * Ibid. pp. 141, 142. IX.] Intelligence and Piety. 39& central truths of Christianity were promulsfated at the first : lawuimeu of men turned the grace of God into lasciviousness, and, tessants. boasting of emancipation from the ancient yoke, converted their abandonment of popery into pretexts for unchristian living °. In some cases, doubtless, -the exaggeration ° of the Eeformers, in establishing their favourite dogmas, led to a one-sided apprehension of religious truth. The doctrine of gratuitous redemption and the efficacy of faith were some- times urged with such exclusive vehemence as to do away ' Thus Erasmus writes (1523) iu his bitter Spongia adversus Sutteni- cas Adspergines (of. above, p. 48, n. i) : ' Sunt quidam indocti, nullius judicii, vitse impurse,. pbtrectatores, pervicaces, intractabiles, sic addicti liUtbero, ut nee seiant, nee servent quod Lutherus dooet. Tantum Evangelium habent in ore, negligunt preces et sacra, vescuntur quibus Ubet, et maledicunt Romano Ponti- fici : sic Lutherani sunt.' Luther himself draws a like picture in 1529, but lays the blame on his predeces- sors (De Wette, III. 424): 'Miser- rima est ubique faoies eoclesiarum, rusticis nihil disoentibus, nihil soien- tlbus, nihil orantibus, nihil agentibus, nisi quod libertaie ahutnmiur, noa confitentes, non communicantes, ac si religione in Mum liierifacti swnt: sic enim papistioa neglexerunt, nostra contemnunt, ut hoiTendum sit epi- scoporum papisticorum administra- tionem considerare.' Or, to take an- other instance, we. find the primate of Sweden writing in the following terms (1553 : in Gieseler, ni. i. 486): 'Habemus hoc sseoulo, gratia Dei singulari, purum Ejus verbum et lucem Bvangelii clarissimam, qua illuminati a tenebris Papistarum liberamur, in fideque salvifica con- servamur, servientes Deo juxta pate- factam Ejus voluntatem. Sed, proh ! dolorj multi nostratium hoc minirae considerantes vix audire purum Ver- bum Deigestiunt; tantum abest, ut ■vitam suam juxta idem verbum in- Btituant. . . .Reliqui fructum nullum, praedicatoEvangelio, ostendunt, licet ejuspreedicationevideanturdelectari: verum (quod "magis dolendum eat) mih libertaie Evomgelii lioentiam pec- candi studiosius sectantur multi, quasi finis prsedicati EvangeUi sit, eaque libertas Christiana, ut llceat homini Ghristiano, adhuc peccatori, agere quae lubet.' On the ' relaxa- tion of morals' in England, see Blunt, Reform, pp. 156, 157, 6th ed. ; Haweis, Reform, (from the contemporary pulpit), pp. 127 — 164; although it ^ould be added, that many of the same, and even greater vices had been fearfully pre- valent anterior to the Eeformation. Abundant evidence of this wiU be f oundin VneSermones declamaii coram alma VrmterHtate Cantalrrigiend, by Stephen Baron, a provincial of the Minorites, and confessor to Henry VIII. They were published, ciro. 1520, several years before the rup- ture with the papacy. ^ Cf. above, pp. 29, 48)^ 49. Au- din (Hist, de la Vie deMa/rtin Luther, 1. 264), who is desirous of proving that the success of the Reformers was due to the laxity of their teach- ing, parades the following extract from a contemporary letter: 'Neo enim vult Lutherus quemquam de actionibus suis admi^diim anxium esse, siquidem ad salutem et a;ter- nitatem promerendam fidem et san- guinem Christi suffioere. Lasciviant igitur homines, obsonentur, pergrse- centur in Venerem, in c^des, Ja rapinas, ut Ubet, efierantur.' 400 On the State of [chap. with the necessity of holiness. Luther's doctrine of the Church was plainly calculated to engender self-assertion; and this, in ordinary minds, would often pass into an over- weening self-conceit, if not into presumption, arrogance and carnal self-complacency. The guidance of the Christian pastor was rejected, not, as in the former age, because the secularity of his spirit and his stolid ignorance both ren- dered him contemptible, but because it was concluded from the theory of the universal priesthood, that the power of judging and displacing teachers was inherent in all Chris- tians. luformed doc- In the great" maiority, however, the neglect of holy triMofgood, ."_,'' ^ / ,. i i / worics. living was m absolute defiance of the sermons and example of the chief Reformers. 'We mean nothing less,' they pleaded' 'than to reject or take away good works and honest actions.' They would hear no longer, it is true, ' of beads, of lady psalters and rosaries, of fifteen O's, of St Bernard's verses, of St Agathe's letters, of purgatory, of masses satisfactory ; of stations and jubilees, of feigned relics, of hallowed beads, bells, bread, water, palms, can- dles, fire, and such other; of superstitious fastings, of fra- ternities or brotherhoods, of pardons, with such like mer^ chandise ;' all these having been ' so esteemed and abused to the great prejudice of God's glory and commandments, that they were made most high and holy things, whereby to attain to the everlasting life, or remission of sin'^. But the depreciation of such observances and institutions, which were held to be commandments of men, had not unfre- quently imparted greater emphasis to exhortations of Re- formers in behalf of God's commandments. These, they urged, were followed from a principle of faith, haye been ordained ' as the right trade and pathway unto heaven"; ^ Woolton, Christian Manual, p. mon of Good Works,' p. 58. 32. . ^ Ibid. p. 60, ^ Homilies, ' 3rd part of the Ser- IX.] Int'elUgenCe and Piety. 401 obedience to these was the criterion by *which genuine Christians might be known, and on the measure and degree of that obedience would depend, the measure and degree of future blessedness^ Erasmus appears to have forgotten statements of this cm^esHm. kind when he imputed moral laxity to some of the Ee^ formers", and ascribed the rapid victories of theit cause to the indulgent doctrines which it sanctioned. Even with i-egard to the disuse of the confessional, his charges are considerably exaggerated. Luther ^ on the continent, and Latimer', in England, were decidedly in favour of the practice of confession, provided only it did not embrace * E.g. in the ApdlogiA Confessionis, cap. III. Art. VI. (Franoke, Part i. p. 96) it is declared : ' Talia opera vituperarfe, confeasionem doetriMSB, ofiSoia caritatis, mortificationes caruis, profecto esset vituperare extemam regnS Christi inter homines politiam. Atque hie addimus etiam de prsemiis ft da Inetitb. Socemus operibus fidelium pi'oposita et promissa esse priEmla. Dooeraus bona opera meri- toiia esse, uon remissionis pecca- torum, gratise aut justificationis (hsRC enim tantum fide conseq^uiraul:), .sed aliorum prEemiotum corporaJium et spiritualium in hac vita et post hafto vitam, quia Paulus inquit: TJnusquisque recipiet metcedem j uxta suum laborem. Brunt igitur dis- similia. prsmia propter dissinules labores.' ^ Cf. Audin, as above, i. 264. Tlie only point where read ground for censure is discoverable, related to the way in which some continental Keformers spoke of matrimony. Carlstadt, supposing that the Mosaic law was valid on that subject, seems to have advised a man to marry two wives (Kanke, Sef. II. 204): and as late as 1539, Luther, Melanothon, Bucer and others, took part in a reply to the petition of Philip, landgrave of Hessen, by which they connived at his secret cohabitation with a concubine, under the title of a lawful E. P. wife, while his true wife was still living: cf. Bossuet, Variations, liv. vi. c^. 2 — 10. ^ Tholuck thus alludes to the opinion of the Wittenberg Beformer (Predigten Hiber das Augsburgisehs GlaiStmsbehenntniss, p. 198, Halle, 1850) : ' Diese Beichte und Abso- lution, wo Priester und Sunder sich alleiu gegeitUberstehen, und liber ihnen kein anderes Auge, als das Auge Gottes, diese Beichte, von der Luther schreibt: "Wenn tausend und abertausend Welten mein waren, BO wollte ioh alle lieber verlieren, denn das ich wollte dieser Beichte das geiingste Stuoklein eines aus der Kirche kommeu la«sen," — die est gefallenl' " After reflecting on the practice of the 'papists,' who required a par- ticular enumeration of sins, Latimet proceeds as follows (Bemaims, p. i8o, ed. P. S.): 'But to speak of right and true confession, I would to G-od it were kept in England ; for it is a good thing. And those which find themselves grieved in conscience might go to a learned man [of. p. 13, where it is 'some godly min- ister'], and there fetch of him com- fort of the Word of God, and so to come to a quiet conscience . . . And surely it grieveth me much that such confessions are not kept in England, &o.' V D I) 403 On the State of [chap. minute descriptions of particular failings, and was limited to urgent cases, wliere the conscience was oppressed by, special difficulties. As soon, however, as confession ceased to be compulsory, the influence of the priesthood was pro- portionally diminished. The proud and profligate, the careless, worldly and rapacious, on the sudden abolition of ancient checks, were seen in their true colours ; while the growth of spiritual freedom and the copious circulation of religious knowledge, rendered such direction less desirable, in the case of ordinary Christians. study of the This convictiou, that all members of the Church were free, had access to the oracles of God, and were invested with the right of ascertaining the true basis of their belief,, had generated even in the laity an ardent and insatiable longing for ecclesiastical literature. To gratify this thirst, they had recourse to Holy Scripture, which, both in the original and in translations, now began to be difi'used in every quarter with astonishing rapidity, Erasmus, who conducted the biblical as well as literary movements of the age, commences a new period in the history of sacred scholarship'. Following freely in the steps of Laurentius Valla and emulating the zeal of Jacques Leffevre, the patri- arch of French reformers, he directed his critical acumen to the elucidation of the sacred text with a sagacity and independence hitherto but rarely witnessed in the schools and cloisters of western Christendom. After the publicar tion of his Greek Testament and Paraphrases, a number of more earnest followers caught his literary spirit, and pro- ceeded with the work he had inaugurated. Luther" and ^ See above, p. 46, and Davidson's principles by registering the various Sacred Sermenetitics, pp. 1 82 sq. readings in his margin. Erasmus's edition of the Greek Tes- 2 Luther expressed his contempt tament was at length eclipsed by the for allegories and for Dionysius the labours of Eobert Stephanus (Esti- Areopagite ('plus Platonisans quani enue), who printed three editions in Christianisans') ataveryearlyperiod; 1546, 1549 P'Dd 155°. andendeavour- 0pp. 11. fol. 282 a, Jen^, 1600. ed to establish a text on more critical About the same time (1521) here- IX.] Intelligence and Piety. 403 Melancthon, Zwingli and BuUinger, Calvin, Beza, and Castellio, all accepted, in a greater or less degree, the sober, critical, and grammatical methods of interpretation which he ventured to revive. Some of -his principles of exegesis were also shared at the beginning of the century by cardinal Cajetanus", and subsequently by the Jesuit Maldonatus*, so that henceforth the study of the sacred text was prosecuted more successfully among the Roman- ists as well as the Reformed. Hebrew, at the same time, had been gradually admitted to a place in the affections of the learned theologian ^ It was no longer associated with over-fondness for the Jews' j and in the noble outbreak of enthusiasm that possessed a multitude of the Reformers, all who had the leisure and the means recurred directly to the fountains' of the Old as well as of the New Testament. The masses were, however, indebted of necessity to Translations vernacular translations. These accordingly sprang up in tures. °'^^' every country which had felt the genial impulse of the Reformation^ As soon as Luther's version of the New jeoted the theory of a four-fold sense * Oommmtarii in IV. Evangelistas, in Holy Scripture, 'quadrigamillam Pont-k-Mousson, 1596: cf. Simon, sensuum Scripturae, literalem, tropo- p. 61S. logicum,allegc)riouin,etanagogioum.' ^ On the history of the printed 'Nonne impiissimum est,' he adds textof the Old Testament, see David- (Ibid.iol. 243 b), 'sic partiri Scrip- son, £iW. CWiimsm, 1. 137 sq., Ediab. turas, ut literse neque fidem neque 1852. mores neque spemtribuas, sedsolam " See Middle Age, p. 388, n. 3. historiam jam inutilem V — alluding ' Thus the Jj'lorentine, Petrucoio to the mediaeval couplet ; XTbaldini, who visited this country • ' Litera gesta docet, quid credas Alle- in the reign of Edward VI., remarks goria, of the English people : ' The rich Moralis quid agas, quo tendas Ana- cause their sons and daughters to gogia.' learn Latin, Greek and Hebrew; for '. The freedom of this scholar (who since this storm of heresy has in- died in 1534) amounted sometimes vaded the land, they hold it useful to irreverent license. In that respect to read the Scriptures in the original Tie far exceeded Luther (cf. above, tongue:' Eaumer, £tsi. o/«Ae xvitU p. 29, n. 4), and was attacked and xvnth centuries, illustrated by severely by Ambrosius Catharinus, original documents, n. 74, Lond. one of Luther's antagonists : cf. 1835 : cf. Oswald Myconius, Ad Simon, Sist. Critique des principaux Sacerdotes Selvetice, p. 19. Vommentateurs, p. 537, llotterdam, * See Hallam's Lit. of Europe, i. 1693, S^S ?1-> "• 137. 1381 Lond. 1840,,, D D 2 4()-t On the State of [chap. Testament was circulated in Northern and Middle Oer- many, it caused a vast vibration in all ranks and orders of society. In the language of a strenuous adversary", ' even shoemakers and women read it with feverish eagerness, committed parts of it to memory, and carried the volume about with them in their bosoms.' Boys are said, in like manner, to have been so devoted to the study of it, that they often quoted texts with greater ease than ' theologians of thirty years' standing.' An equal measure of enthusiasm was afterwards excited in all parts of England. Men had not indeed been wholly ignorant" of the facts of sacrfed history, nor of the leading doctrines of the Gospel: but the prospect of exchanging human and derived for hea- venly streams of knowledge, and the spiritual satisfaction, which had flowed from deep acquaintance with ' the true and lively Word of God contained in holy Scriptures,' gave an impulse hitherto unprecedented to the circulation of religious literature'. The times, moreover, had so far 1 Cochlseus, J)e Actis et Scriptis yocitatant, superaddentes etiam ron- M. Lutheri, ad annum 1522, fol. 50 cVios et oachinnos immodestissime.' b. He adds : ' At jam dudum per- See a disputation between this writer suaserat Luthenis turbis suis, nullis and Alexander Ales, which appear^ dictis habendsi.m esse fidem, nisi quae in 1533 with the title, 4m expediat ex sacris literis proferrentur. Id- hnds legere Novi Teitanienti libros ■circo reputabantur catholici ab illis lingud ■vemacwld? (oopyin the Camb. ignari scripturaruni, etiamsi erudi- Univ. Libr. AB, 13, 5). tissimi essent theologi. Quinetiam '-^ See Middle Age, pp. 450 aq. palam aliquando coram multitudine ^ Above, p. 196, n.4; p. I97> D. 7. contradicebant eis laici aliqui, tan- tidal in the 'Preface vnto the Kinges quam mera pro concione dixeriut Maiestie' (Edw. VI. J, prefixed to mendacia aut figmenta hominum.' hh edition oi The first tome or volume Speaking of the new generation of of the Paraphrases of Erasmus{isii), theological students, he continues: alludes to the reaction against the 'Quod si quis novitatibus eorum reading of the Bible in English, which contradiceret, raox praetendebant had occurred during the later years lectionem G-rseeam vel Hebraioam, of Henry VIII., and congratulates aut aliquem ex vetustissimis auc- his successor as 'the faythful Josias, toiibus, et confestim plenis convitio- in whose tyme the bookeof the lawe mm plaustris invebebantur in Grse- is found out in the house of the carum et Hebraicarum literarum Lord, and by the King's injunction ignaros theologos, quos odiose so- read in the hearing of all the people.' phistas, asino.?, porcos, animalia According to him, 'As the ■Binnower Tentris, et inutilia pohdera terras pourgeth the chaffe from the corn?, is.j Intelligence and Piety. 405 altered that the price of Tyndale's version of the New Testament, which first appeared in 1525, was forty-fold less than that of Wycliffe a century before ^ Yet in all countries where the holy Scriptures were thus '^Jj^i^jti^^ freely circulated, such publicity entailed, as might have been ^''''"■ expected from the nature of the fermentation, a fresh crop of feuds and controversies. To say nothing of unseemly brawlings and contentions prevalent in the ecclesiastical order, laymen were so far interested and excited by the struggles between the ' old' and ' new learning,' that almost every house was jjow divided in opinion, while the taverns echoed with religious war-cries, and irreverent disputations. ' I am very sorie to know and heare,' says Henry VIII. ^ at the close of his reign, ' how unreverently that most precious Jewell the Word of God is disputed, rimed, sung and jan- gled in every ale-house and taverne, contrary to the true, meaning and doctrine of the same.' A spirit had, in fact, been raised, which, if perverted, would impel the ignorant and self-conceited to assume a right, of judging in all mat- ters of faith, would sow the seeds of an ecclesiastical revo- lution, and ultimately precipitate the fiery, sanguine, and ili-balanced reader of the Bible into every species of fana- ticism. We saw this melancholy result in the projection of lawless and distempered sects who followed closely in the track of the Reformers. The same remark is applicable to other products of the The Press. and the boulter tiyeth out the branne Against Brawling and Contention, p. from the nieale; so hath Erasmus 13S, we have a graphic picture of scoured out of all the Dootours and the strifes then raging in England commentaries vpou Scriptures, the with reference to certain questions, dregges whiohe through the faulte not so much pertaining to edification of the times or places, in whiche as to vainrglory. The taunts thrown those writers lined, had setled itselfe out were such as the following: 'He emong the pure and fyne suhstaunce.' is a Pharisee, he is a gospeller, he is ■* Blunt. Reform, in England, p. of the new sort, he is of the old faith, 100 6th ed. he is a new-broached brother, he is ' Stow's Annales, p. 590, Lond. a good catholic father, he is a papist, 1631 : cf. above, n. i. In the Homily he is an heretic' 406 On the State of [chap. press. This instrument had been as cordially' used on one side, as it was suspected and disparaged on the other. While the Romanist attempted, not in vain, to strangle it" by means of the Index and Inquisition, the Reformer ■welcomed it as one of God's best gifts, and as the aptest and m ost powerful handmaid of the Gospel. The number of Lutheran publications, we have seen', was really prodigious. Bibles, commentaries, sermons, hymns, and catechisms, a learned and elaborate history* of the Church, regarded from the standing'ground of Luther, swai-ms of popular tracts, the work of writers thoroughly in earnest and passion- ately devoted to the cause they had espoused ; these all com- bined with formal treatises on vexed questions of the period, were transmitting the distinctive doctrines of the Reforma- tion into regions far. beyond the personal influence of their authors. Nor were such the only kind of publications which contributed to its success. Ballads, pasquils, satires, ribalds full of pungent humour and sarcastic virulence, effected quite ^ E. g. Justus Jonas writes in his ses, Ceremonias, Gubernationem, philippic Advenus Joannem Faibnim Sohismata, Synodos, Personas, Mira- ...pro conjugio sacerdotali (Tiguri, cula, Martyria, Eeligiones extra 1523):. ..'in quern potissimum uaura Eoolesiam, et statum Imperii politi- Deiis in hoc sseculorum 6ne, in his cum attinet, secundum singulas Cen- novissimis diebus Typographies divi- turias perspicuo ordine complectens num artificium protulit. Vides lin- &o. : in thirteen volumes, folio, each guas, Grseoam, Latinam, Hebrai- embracing one century, Basil, 1559 cam, breviter omne eruditionis genus — 1574. One of the chief contribu- servire Evangelic :' sign. A iii, b. tors was Matthias Flaoius Illyricns He then adds triumphantly: ' Elimi- (above, p. 107, n. 13). To the Cata- nata est barbaries, profligati e theo- logus Testium o? the same writer John logorum soholis sophists, asseritur Fox was largely indebted for mate- quotidie magis ac magis syncera rials in compiling Actes and Monu- Theologia et puritas Evangelii.' mentes of Christian Martyrs and ^ See above, pp. 107, 328. . Matters ecclesiasticall, of which the 3 Above, p. 78. firstedition is dated 1563. The great * This was the work commonly workoflUyricus and his friends gave known as the Magdeburg Centuries, rise to the Annates Ecclesiastici of the extensive character of which is Caesar Baronius, a member of the indicated by the title of the original Oratory, which appeared at Bome, edition: EcclesifisHca Historia, inte- 1588 — 1637, for the purpose of coun- gram Eoclesiee Christi ideam, quan- teracting the effects of the il/asrdeStwj turn ad Locum, Propagationem, Centimes: see Dowling, Introd. to Tranquillitatem, Doctrinam, Hsere- Eccl. Hist. p. 123. IX.] Intelligence and Piety. 407 as much as the homily and the prayer-book. Erasmus^ himself opened these attacks as early as 1500, to the joy of all who -were disgusted with the ancient reign of ignorance and immorality; and his imitators, during the next fifty years, were almost innumerable^ The tone, however, oi Abitsm qf the such publications gradually became more scurrilous and offensive. They decried the Roman pontiffs, it is true, with irresistible audacity: they poured abundant ridicule on errors, foibles, and absurdities of the Mediaeval period : but even if we make considerable allowance for the greater coarseness of the generation in which these missiles were projected, the violence and levity of their spuit, and the ribaldiy, approaching to profaneness'', which they some- times manifested in discussing the most sacred topics, must have rather tended to generate contempt for all sacred things and persons, than promoted the spiritual and moral elevation of the reader. It should also be observed that, as the sixteenth century advanced, the circulation of god- ^ ' The lively Colloquies of Eras- speaking of the genuine Beformers, mus, which exposed the superstitious he adds (p. 2^6) : ' There were, at practices of the papists, with much the same time, other partisans of . humour, and in pure Latinity, made the Eeformation, very noisy and more protestants than the ten tomes very numerous, of quite a different of John Calvin:' Warton, Engl.Poe- spirit, whom, to say the, least, they try. III. 8, Lond. 1840. Koger As- did not keep at a proper distance, cham, on the other hand, when or repudiate with sufficiently marked noticing the importation of foreign detestation. I mean those who used literature into England remarks : a jeering scoffing humour, to turn ' Ten Sermons at Paules Crosse doe the ministers and the services of reli- not so much good for moouing men gion into ridicule, — men who em- to true doctrine, as one of these ployed themselves in raising a laugh [Italian] bookes does harme with against popery, at whatever expense, inticing men to ill living .... More and in providing for the eyes and papists bemade by your merry bookes ears of even the rude multitude who of Italy than by your earnest bookes could not read, gross and profane of Louvain:' /iirf. p. 37?.. See As- pictures, jests, songs, interludes, — cham's Sckolemaster, ed. Mayor, pp. all in short that could nurse the 80 8[. self-conceit of folly, and agitate igno- « See, for instance, above, p. 32, ranee into rebellion against its spi- p. 200 n. 8. ritual pastors and teachers.' For a ? Dr Maitland has called attention specimen of the ballads against the to this aspect of the great religious Eeformation, see Strype's Cranmer, movement in his Essays on the Re- Append. No. XGIX. formation, No. xi— No., xiv. After 408 On the State of [chap. less and immoral books became enormous, satisfying the most ardent friends of Reformation, that the benefits aris- ing from the press were not unmixed with serious, though, it might be, unavoidable calamities^ Sermons. But Owing to the cost of books, and the comparative ignorance of the multitude, the press did not contribute so directly to the triumphs of the 'new learning,' as the oral admonitions and denunciations of Reformers. The lecture- room effected much^ : the pulpit more. Throughout th&, Mediaeval period, preaching had grown less and less fre^ quent, and the quality of the sermons more insipid and unspirituaP. But when Luther's manly voice was heard at Wittenberg, and when his Postills, which united to a singular extent, the qualities of vigour, fervour, and simplicity*, were rapidly dispersed and reproduced in every province where the Lutheran theology had been accepted, it was felt that a new era was commencing, and that powerful springs of action had been touched in many a bosom which was hither- to estranged from God, or was at least impervious to the higher and more spiritual doctrines of the Gospel. In this respect, as in many others, the counter-reformation party ^ Thus, Edward Topsell preaching ^ See above, p. 78. at the close of Elizabeth's reign, has ' Middle Age, pp. 452, 453, echoed the complaints of previoas * It is interesting to observe what writers : ' We have heresy and bias- was Luther's own idea of good ser- pheiny and paganism and bawdiy mons, Eatzeberger (Handschrift. committed to the press, to be com- Gesck, p. 87, Jena, 1850) has pre- mended in print: there is no Italian served an anecdote where the great tale so scurrilous, or fable so odious, reformer delicately reflects on Bucer or action so abominable, but some for preaching only to the learned : have adventured to defend it:* in 'Aber wann ieh uf dieCantzeltrete, Haweis, Sketches of the Seformation, so sehe ich was ich fur Zuhorer habe, p. 148, Lond. 1844. Ascham {The denen predige ich, was sie vorstehen Scholemaster, pp. 81, 82, ed. Mayor, konnen;daudiemeistereunterihnen 1863) shews, however, that in the sind arme leyen und sclilechte Wen- times of ' Papistrie,' such books as den ' [the aboriginal inhabitants of Morte Arthur, full of 'mans slaughter the district]. He goes on to compare and bolde bawdrye,' had been by far simple and natural discourses to a the most popular. 'Iknowe,' hecon- mother's milk, which weeping chil- tinues, ' when God's Bible was ba- dreu always prefer to syrups and nished the Court, and Morte Arthiire other sweetmeats. reoeiued into the Princes chamber.' iA.j inteiLigence and Piety. 409 were themselves vastly benefited by the example of their enemies". They grew more conscious that the older class of sermons would no longer satisfy their audience, and a n&w race of preachers was accordingly produced, especially among religious orders", the Jesuits, the Theatines, the Barnabites, and the Oratorians,, who were then established in the hope of remedying the past neglect and utter world- liness of ordinary ecclesiastics. The number and the length' of sermons at this period importanee of shews the deep conviction which men had as to the might and efficacy of the agent. A few of the more eminent Re- formers, such as Hooper, Gilpin, and Jewel, are said to have preached once, or even twice a day : some of the parochial clergy were no less energetic : and where the Friar proved unfavourable to the ' new learning,' itinerant preachers corresponding to him in the main, were dis- patched into remoter districts, to occupy the places of the ancient 'limitors". Laymen* also, who possessed an ade- quate amount of learning and sobriety were, on apply- ing for a licence, occasionally permitted to go forth on the same errands, till at length, by all these agencies, ' See above, p. 302, n. 4; p. 303, 88, where he mentions that the pastor n. 7. In the 'Praefatio' to the Caie- of Wittenberg (Bugenhagen) always chismus Romanus it is stated : 'At preached more than one, often more vero, cum hsee Divini Verbi prsedi- than two hours, catio nunquam intermitti in Eccle^ ^ See MrHaweis' chapter on 'the sia debeat, turn certe hoc tempore itinerant preachers:' Sketches of the majori studio et pietate elaborandum Beformation, pp. 84 — 108. Two of est, nt Sana et incorrupta doctrina, themoreinterestingcharactersamong tamquam pabulo vitse, fideles nutri- them were Gilpin and Bradford. On amtur et oqnfirmentur.' A fair speci- the latter high praise was bestow- men of these controversial sermons ed by his contemporaries: 'In this is supplied in Stapleton's Prom- preaching office, for the space of three ptuanum. CathoUcwm, ad instruc- years, how faithfully Bradford walk- tionem concionatorum contra hm-eticos ed, how diligently he laboured, many nostri temporis, Colon. 1594. parts of England can testify. Sharply 8 Above, p. 332 and n. 2. On he opened and reproved sin, sweetly Philip of Neri, who founded the he preached Christ crucified, pithily 'Congregatio Oratorii' in 1564, see he impugned heresies and errors, 4cta Sanctorum, Mali, Tom. vi. pp. earnestly he persuaded to godly life :' 460 sq. I'>^<^- PP- 92, 93- ^ Cf. Eatzeberger, as before, p. ' ibid, pp, 102, 103. 410 On the State of [chap. the prominent doctrines of the Eeformation were most fully known, if not sincerely cherished, and consistently obeyed. standard of The troubles of the asre, as we have seen, were not pro- clfrieal educa- . . o ' ± tion. pitious to the growth of general literature. This cause had most seriously affected not a few of the educational estab- lishments designed for training Christian scholars, and the ministers of religion. The English mind was in particular unsettled by the frequent alternations of the public faith and worship ^ The unscrupulous seizure of church-pro- perty, and the menace that was constantly suspended over the revenues of colleges and universities, had there tended to discourage many a student who was hoping to advance his fortune by attaining academical distinctions ^ It was somewhat different in communities of continental reformers. Conventual property had been applied, at least in Saxony and Wurtemberg, to literary and religious purposes ^ and several flourishing universities sprang up to vindicate the ' Warton, lir. 14 eq. preaching in the reign of Edward, ^ ' The common ecclesiastical pre- ' look at the two wells of this realm, ferments were so much diminished Oxford and Cambridge: they are by the seizure and alienation of im- almost dried up :' one reason being propriations [of. above, pp. 366, that noblemen rewarded 'servants 367], in the late depredations of the with livings appointed for theGospel' Church, and which continued to be (Haweis, p. 59). Thomas Lever at carried on with the same spirit of the same period utters similar com- rapaoity in the reign of Elizabeth, plaints touching the state of Cam- that few persons were regularly bred bridge, his own university : 'There to the Church, or, in other words, was in the houses belonging to the received a learned education:' Ihid. University of Cambridge two hun- p. 18. The writer mentions, for ex- dred students of divinity, many very ample, that 'about 1563 there were well learned, which be now all clean only two divines, and those of higher gone, bouse and man, young toward rank, the president of Magdalen col- scholars and old fatherly doctors, not lege and the dean of Christ Church, one of them left' (Ibid. p. 61). The who were capable of preaching the impropriators were also, in his mind, public sermons before the University the cause of this declension, 'great of Oxford.' And archbishop Parker thieves which murder, spoil and de- (Correspond. ed. P. S. p. 370) found stroy the flocks of Christ' (p. 63). See it difficult in 1570 to meet with any other cuiious. information touching divine at Carp bridge, able and will- the condition of.the clergy at; this pe- ing to fill the office of Lady Mar- riodinthePrc/.totheBnglishversion garet's professor. 'Look,' cried ofBullinger's i)ecades, ed. P. S. 1849. Bernard Gilpin, an Oxford-man, ^ Gieseler, III. ii. pp. 425, 426. IX- J Intelligence and Piety. 411 Eeformation from the charges it incurred m certain quar- ters,— of lowering the standard of sacred literature. Still it must be granted that a large proportion of pastors in the sixteenth century, in reformed as well as unreformed communions, were ill-educated, drawing their meagre stock of knowledge, not from the original sources, but from text- books, commentaries, and compendiums of such modem divines, as Eck and Helchior Canus on the one side, or Melancthon, BuUinger, and Calvin on the other. Although the dissolution of religious houses involved SchooU: not only the temporary depression of sacred literature in general, but the loss of the monastic schools, that second loss was neither so wide nor grievous as might appear at the first glance. Such institutions had, for many years, been rapidly declining; and when Erasmus opened his un- sparing warfare on the monks and friars, in whom he saw the natural enemies of elegance and erudition, it was felt that other establishments must be constructed for commu- nicating secular and sacred knowledge, and reduced into more perfect harmony with modern wants, and the in- creased capacities of the age. Accordingly more grammar- schools had been erected and endowed in England during n^ormed, the thirty years preceding the Reformation than in three centuries before ^ In Germany also, the first wish of those who headed the reforming movement was to institute a far larger number of town and village schools. They bore in mind a hint of Gerson^ that the 'reformation of the Church, to be effectual, must begin at the children.' Luther" had proceeded in this spirit as early as 1524. He * Knight, Life of Cola, pp. lOO De Wette, ll. 504, 505) his words Sq. , Lond. 1 7^4 : where it is remark- are : 'Caeterum ofo, apud tuos urgeas ed 'This noble impulse of Christian causamistamjuventulisirstitueudBB. charity in the founding of grammai- Video enim Evangelio impendere schools, was one of the Providential maximam ruinam, neglectu eduoan- ways and means for bringing about dae pueritise. Ees ista omnium maxi- the blessed Reformation.' me necessaria est :' of. above, p. 376. * Middle Age, p. 447, n. 9. Hooper, at a later period, presses the ^ In writing to Strauss ^pril 45 : same point in England (Early Writ- 412 On the State of [chap. then urged the subject of religious' education on the notice of the magistrates in every part of Germany, imploring them to devote a number of pious imposts, which had for- merly been levied on their people, to the general diffusion of sacred knowledge among the poor. 'Our system,' he contended", after dwelling on the social advantages of the Reformation, ' is so much improved, that more may now be learned in three years, than could hitherto be found in all the schools and cloisters.' 'Herewith,' concludes the author, 'I commend you all to God's grace, that He may soften and inflame your hearts, to the end that ye may earnestly take charge of the poor, miserable, and neglected youth, and, by God's help, instruct and aid them towards a holy and Christian ordering of the German people, in body and soul, with all fulness and overflowing, to the praise and honour of God the Father, through Jesus Christ our Saviour.' and Romish. But the annals of this period everywhere attest that the Reformers, anxiously devoted as they were to the in- struction of the young, had to encounter a most formidable inffs, p. 508, ed. P. S.): 'I would like- p. 319. wise pray and admonish the magis- ^ The idea of disjoining secular trates to see the schools better main- and religions education had not 00- tained : for the lack of them shall curred to any class of the Eeformers. bring blindness into this Church of All the schoolmasters in England, England again.' The): ' Sed proth pudor, si considerentur altaria multis in eoelesiis, inuenientur ibi tobalee [altaj-oloth3]sordidissime,pulueribua et stercoribas vel anium vel murium plene : corporalia vero nigra et fetu- lenta, indumentaque sacerdotalia lacerata ; et cuncta, ut sit dioam, rieturpata. IScclesiastici quoque viri, Christiani ministri, a potentibus et popularibus contemptui habentur etc. . . .Quot insuper scurrilia verba, amtopatioTies omissionesque in ora- tionibus et JDimno ofieio /' And the same humiliating view is satirically presented in the Colyn Cloute of John Skelton, poet-laureate in the early years of Henry VIII., and himself for some time a parochial clergyman. The whole poem (ed. Dyce, I. 311 — 360) is a fearless onslaught on corrup- tions then prevalent in the Church, friars and bishops included: c. g. 'And howe whan ye gj'ue orders In your prouinciall borders, As at Sitientes [the first word of the Introit of the Mass for Passion Sunday] Some are insufficientes, _, Some parufn aapienUs, 414 On the IState of [chap. earliest dawn of Reformation, the excessive levity and irreverence, the pride, extortion and unchastity of those who should have been ensamples to their flock, were ren- dering the parochial clergy, in too many cases, a legitimate object of suspicion, and exposing them -to satire, hatred, and contempt. When Luther visited Eome in 1511, his mortification was intense on finding hims^f associated with monks and clerics who had so little regard for decency, that even the most solemn offices of worship were cele- brated with contemptuous haste, and made the subject of profane caricatures \ This frightful blasphemy produced a similar effect upon the spirit of Erasmus^; and when the pope was ultimately constrained to undertake some refor- mation of the Churches subject to his jurisdiction, the committee of inquiry ventured to report^ that most of the prevailing scandals were attributable to the irreverence of the clergy, and to the contempt with which the sacerdotal order was too commonly regarded. ^iSerof"" ^^ *^^ other hand, it is quite obvious from the records* of the sixteenth century, that the Reformation was unable to effect s\iVi instantaneous change in these particulars. It Some niJdl mieUigentes, I speke not nowe of all Some valde negligentes, But the moost part in gmerall.' Some nullum sensum habentes, ^ Waddington, Reform. I. 59, 60. But bestiall and vntaught ; ^ See the extract from his letter, But whan thei haue ones caught in Middle Age, p. 378, ii. i, where Dominus vobiscum by the hede, he declares that he was himself au Than renne they in euery stede ear-witness. [place], ' Above, p. 351, n. 3. God wot, with dronken noUes * See abundant evidence from the [heads] ; contemporary pulpit collected in Ha- Yet take they cure of soules, weis, pp. 63 sq. One of these pas- And woteth neuer what thei rede, sages may be taken as a summary Paternoster, Ave, nor Crede ; of the whole : ' The churches are full Construe not worth a whystle of Jeroboam priests — I mean the Nether Gospell nor Pystle ; very refuse of the people, in whom Theyr mattyns madly sayde, is no manner of worthiness, but such N othynge deUoutly prayde ; as their greedy Latrones, Patrones Theyr lemynge is so small, I would say, allow of — I mean their Theyr pry mes and houres fall worthy paying for it; and then a And lepe out of theyr lyppes quare impedit against the bishop that , Lyke sawdust or drye chippes. shall deny him institution' (p. 72), IX.] Intelligence and Piety. 415 produced a bright succession of noble-liearted pastors who retained their Christian fervour and integrity amid a crooked and rapacious generation : yet, regarded as a whole, the ministers of Reformed communities, though less obnoxious to the censures and abhorrence of their flocks, continued to be worldly-minded, and as such were held in general dis- repute. England, for example, still abounded with plural- ists°, who fattened on the fruits of three or more benefices. Absentees' were thus made nuiherous in the same propor- tion. Many of the lay-patrons whose property was charged with the support of the extruded monks, in order to save their pensions', had installed them in the parish-churches, for the ministry of which they were unqualified: whUe numbers of the smaller benefices were held by incumbents^ whose ignorance was only exceeded by their want of earn- estness and sympathy with their parishioners. Generally speaking, therefore, the social position of ordinary ecclesi- astics was lamentablv depressed. As in the period iust cieHcai mar- ** -^ * •' riuf/en. 5 Among other evidence we find for three or fourscore years, their Fagius and Buoer writing with con- statutes appointing but onlie twenty- giderable bittemeas on this subject one. Where for repafations is al- to their continental friends (Giese- lowed yerlie a hundred pounds, there ler, III. ii. pp. 19, 20). The former nothyng done. No residence kept; observes: 'Interim tamen habent noaocompts; the prebendaries turn- magnas, multas et pingues pras- ing all to their oune gayne ; which bendas, et sunt niagni domini : when 1 go about to reforme in my satis esse putant, in oonvivijs et visitation, can take no place, because coUoauiis posse aliquid de Evan- they are confederate together, and gelio nugari, captiosas et ouriosas the losses their oune. Three of them quEestiunculas movere, cui vitio are unlearned, and the fourth un- video Anglicam gentem admodum zealous. Breeflie the city is decaed obnoxiam.' l>y them, and Grod's truth solan- 6 The following extract from a deryd.' Queen Elizabeth and her letter of Oglethorpe, bishop of Car- Times (original letters), ed. Wright, lisle, to Cecil, written in 1563, is I. 149, Loud. 1838. one specimen of the disastrous con- ' Thus Bucer complains (as above sequences: 'By the absence of the n. s): 'Et primores quidem regni Seane of Carlill, Mr Doctor Smyth, paultis parochiis prsefeoerunt eos, qui their churche goeth to decay : their in ccenobiis fuerunt, ut pensione eis wodes almost destroide, a great persolyenda se liberarent, qui sunt parte of the livings under color indoctissimi, et ad sacrum ministe- conveyed to their kynsmen, them- rium ineptissimi :' of. Blunt's Ke- Belves takyng the profitts, and that form. p. 163. 416 On the State of [chap. preceding the Reformation, their character was lowered in the eyes of laymen by concubinage and unchastity, so now they felt themselves degraded, in a different form, by ill- assorted alliances. Marriage with ecclesiastics was long deemed censurable, or at least equivocal', and hence the fear of rejection in the higher circles of society impelled the clergyman to seek companionship in quarters where the female mind was wanting in delicacy, elevation and intelligence. Some tokens of improvement had, however, grown more visible in England with the progress of the siKteenth century. The clerics had more frequently gradu- ated at the universities, and were less wretched in their social status. The lay-impropriators, having found at length that ministers who are inordinately poor are often, in the same proportion, noisy and disaffected, were less open to the charge of arrogance and rapacity. Popular contempt had also been succeeded by a greater measure of respect and reverence. The number of pluralists and non- residents was considerably diminished ; and if the force of Whitgift's administration ° had not been weakened by in- ternal discord, and resisted by the scruples of the Puritanic faction, it is not unlikely that the clerics of the Church of England would have risen at once into the social rank, and been invested with the influence, which they ultimately attained. But while the issues of the Reformation were thus ''■ Of. Haweis, p. 77, who remarks (Haweia, pp. 306, 307). The num- with justice, "The queen grossly in- ber of parishes in both piovinces suited the primate's wife, after ac- was then 8806; the number of ec- cepting her hospitality ; her neigh- cleaiastios doubly beneficed, 801 ; hours at "Worcester behaved in the the number of persons licensed same way to the wife of bishop to preach 4,793. The same table Sandys. The wife of a martyred informs us how many of the pa- bishop was living at the time in ex- rishes were 'impropriate,' and bow treme poverty.' many of the clergy wore non- ^ A statistical return from the graduates. The aggrfgate number different dioceses of England and of Recusants (Romisb and Re- Wales in 1603 enables us to speak formed) in both provinces was with some precision on this subject 87,014. IX.] Intelligence andt Piety. 4ir favourable as a whole, to the diffusion of a higher order oi character of intelligence ; while, in spite of serious drawbacks and reverses, which had been entailed on the great movement by the scandals and immorality of the times preceding, it was elevating the standard of religion, banishing a'multitude of abject superstitions', and expanding all the faculties and enei-gies of man, its operation, in a different province of his being, was no less powerful and remarkable. It changed the character of his devotion, making worship far more simple, rational, and profound, and, at the same time, fur- nishing the worshipper of ordinary intelligence with a num- ber of fresh auxiliaries, superior both in tone and matter to the manuals of the former age. The Mediaeval 'Horee' was converted into the Reformed 'Orarium'^: and of other Eng- Hsh books, which had been given to the public prior to 1595, ihore than eighty are classified under the general head of ' Praiers'^ Some of these collections of devotional exercises ^ Many of these, however, lingered both in the Reformed and unre- formed communities. A belief in witchcraft, for example, still pre- vailed in almost every quarter. See a vast collection of charms &c. in Reginald Scot's Discoverie of Witch- craft, Lond. 1584 : the collector, however, himself denying that the Evil Spirit has any power to con- trol the course of natui'e. Both the Romanist and Reformer seemed anxious now and then to elicit a knowledge of the unseen, and a cor- roboration of the truth of their spe- cial doctrines, from persons who were held to be under the tyranny of Satan: see on the one side Snlly's Mimoires (iv. 498 sq., Paris, 1827), where a Jesuit is the questioner, and on the other, The ende and last con- fession of mother Waterhouse (1566), who, to the satisfaction of her prose- cutors, acknowledged that Satan would not allow her to pray ' in En- glyshe but at all times in Laten.' Several of the London ministers; in B. P. like manner, were deluded in 1574 by ' a maid which counterfeited her- self to be possessed 'by the devil:' cf. Parker's letter to Cecil in Queen, Elizabeth and her Times, as above, I. 509. The terrors, generally ex- cited by the approach of 1588, 'the year of marvels,' 'the grand cli- macteric of the world,' are sketched in Smedley's Reform, in France, 11. 229 sq. * See on this subject Mr Clay's ' Preface' to the Elizabethan Private Prayers, ed. P. S. ^ Preface to Bull's Christian Prayers and Holy Meditations '(ed. P. S.), p. iv. ; which is a favourable specimen of that class of writings. Many of the Prayers are from the older English Primers, others from the Exbitationes animi in Deum of Ludovious Vives, translated and en- larged by Bradford. A fair specimen of practical and devotional theology in England is, A Progress of Piety, by John Norden (ed. P. S.), au Elizabethan layman. EK 4fl8 , On tue /state of HJUAi-. embrace nearly all the states, conditions, and emergencies of human life. The same spirit was also strongly manifested in numerous volumes of sacred poetry that issued from the English press in the Elizabethan periods Hymns and metrical psalms had now, indeed, become the popular vehi- cles of private and public worship ; the new impulse being given by the courtier Clement Marot^ whose embellished version of parts of the Psalter, after winning for itself the patronage of the French aristocracy, was eagerly adopted, in 1553, by Calvin, for the public worship of the Genevese, and even grew into a model for religious versifiers in some other countries'. But the primary aim and leading ele- ment of public worship at this period was instruction in the principles of Christianity, rather than aesthetic and unreasoning devotion. The prayers were now translated into tongues ' understanded of the people;' and the place of the officiating minister was, at the same time, so regu-. lated, that the worshippers might listen to the supplications which he offered, and intelligently follow him throughout the services ^ The generation had gone bj'', when it was deemed enough for Christians to be present at a solemn and imposing spectacle. The clergyman was now the leader of the people, not their agent or their substitute. In some, indeed, of the extreme reformers, there was cause for ap- prehensions of an opposite character. The principle of ^ Warton remarks {Engl. Poetry, Prayer-Book, pp. 1 74 sq. in. 403, ed. 1840) that 'more poetry * Thus, in ihe Reform. Eccl.Hassim was written in the single reign of {1^26), p. 9, ed. Credner, it is en- Elizabeth than in the two preceding joined with this object that public centuries.' Of this no inconsiderable worship shall not be celebrated in proportion was religious: see speci- the choir, but in the body of the mens in the two parts of Sacred church ; yet in the English Prayer- Poet/ry, published by the Park. Soc. Book of 1552, notwithstanding Bu- in 1845, and Warton, III. 146 sq. cer's dislike of Chancels, the service ^ Warton, Ibid. in. 142. Beza was to be conducted in that part of took part in the completion of the the church, chapel or chancel where work, when the whole Psalter was the people may best hear; and in published at Strasburg in 1545. '559, in 'the accustomed place... ex- . ^ On the English versions, see cept it shall be otherwise determined Warton, m. 146 — 163 ; and Procter, by the ordinary.' IX. J Intelligence and Piety. 419 reverence had been so far shaken, and. the gratification of their thirst for homiletic teaching was so far predominant, that offices of worship now began to be relatively dis- paraged': yet, until the close of the sixteenth century, all communities of Christians retained at least the rudiments of a liturgic form of service, or, in other words, were not dependent solely on extemporaneous effusions of the indi- vidual minister. In the Swiss communion, and still more amonjj the -^to* ani mre- -n -,. ■, -T^ . , -.- ' monies in the Jinglish Puritans who sympathised entirely with the doc- Swiss cmimu- tors of Scotland and Geneva, the leaning was in the direc- tion of extreme simplicity, or rather nudity, of ceremonial". The ear, and not the eye, was recognised as the great channel of religious edification. . An idea had been im- bibed and fostered, half-consciously in many instances, that grace being always communicated from God directly to the human spirit, we are not to look for it in connexion with earthly media, and therefore that outward rites, except for purposes of order and decorum, are to be eschewed as hindrances and clogs, instead of being welcomed as so many handmaids and incentives to devotion. Guided by this sweeping principle, and recoiling from all contact with the ancient services which they had felt to be in many ways unscriptural and unedifying, Zwingli and the German- speaking Swiss reduced the ceremonial worship of the sanctuary as far as possible, retaining 'a few simple and moderate rites, in perfect harmony with Holy Scripture". ' Lord Bacon {OfChurcJi, Contro- use of Liturgies and forms of Divina verms, Works, lii. 145, Lond. 1765) service, although the house of God saw reason to complain of these ex- be denominated of the principal, travagances: 'We see wheresoever, domm orationis, a house of prayer, in a manner, they find in the Scrip- and not a house of preaching,' &c. : tares the Word spoken of, they cf. Hooker, Ecol. Pol. Bk. v. ch. expound it of preaching : they have XXI. sq., and an account of the made it, in a manner, of the essence Puritan substitHt2s for the Prayer, of the sacrament of the Lord's Book in Procter, pp. 83 sq. Supper to have a sermon precedent: ° See above, p. 116, n. i. they have, in a sort, annihilated the 7 The foEowing extract from the . EE2 420 On the iState of [CHAP. They drew up a new form of baptism ^ and anxious, above all things, to extrude the thought of sacrifice from the Eu- charist, proceeded to replace the Mediseval ordinances by a love-feast^, pleading the example of the primitive Christians. Pictures of all kinds were banished from the Churches, on the ground that they were 'idols,' or had ministered to 'idolatry.' Organs too were silenced, in 1527, from a notion that the use of them could be no longer reconciled with apostolic practice''. cimrci-music. Past abuses may have, doubtless, tended to propel men, by the force of natural revulsion, into this excessive scrupulosity: for it was now felt, in various parts of Christendom, that church-music, such, at least, as had been current in the previous age, was so fantastic and so void of feeling, as to be no longer compatible with genuine second Helvetic Confession (in Nie- meyer, pp. 530, 531) is a good specimen of their line of argument ; ' Veteri populo tradit« sunt quon- dam oasremouise, ut pajdagogia quae- dam, iia qui sub lege veluti sub piedagogo et tutore quodam custo- diebantur, sed, adveniente Christo liberatore, legeqiie sublata, fideles sub lege amplius non sumus (Rom. viii.), disparueruntque cseremoniEe. . . . Pioinde Judaismum videremur reduoere et restituere, si in ecclesia Christi, ad morem veteris ecolesise, cseremonias ritusque multiplicare- mua. . . .Quanto magis accedit cu- mulo rituum in Ecclesia, tan to magis d.etrahiturnontantumlibertatiCbris- tiauK, sed et Christo et ejus iidei: dum vulgus ea quserit in ritibus, q'use qusereret in solo Dei filio Christo per Mem. Sufficiunt itaque piis pauci, moderati, simplices, nee alieni a Verbo Dei ritus.' The same feeling prompted Zwingli to deprejiate the special observance of the Lord's day: 'Fidelis enira dominus est efcsabbati:' 0pp. I. 332, ed. 1829. Luther, on the other hand, advo- cated such observance, but treated the festival as one of human or eccle- siastical institution : 'non est im- niutanda temere haec innoxia vete- rum coDsuetudo jam recepta.' See the whole exposition in his Catechism. Major, Part I. Prsecept. III. ^ See the earliest form drawn up by Leo Judee (1523) in Daniel's Codex Litmrg. Eccl. Reform,, pp. 1 06 sq., and Zwingli's own form (1525), Ibid. pp. 112 sq. ^ Above, p. 1 1 6, n. 2. Hence his followers boasted that while the Lutherans with their German mass, their German psalms, their church- music and old ceremonies, were intro- ducing a new phase of popery, ('zu eines niiwen oder veranderten Babst- thums Anfang angericht'), Zwingli had abohshed all such things, 'die ersten Kilchen wieder ze bringen:' quoted in Gies^ler, m. i. p. 167, n, 93,- ^ See passages in Daniel, as ajbove,^. Fraf. p. 1 8. Oswald Myconius, in lilse manner, had asked some years before: 'Organa vero, quid aliud quam hominum mentes jam in Deum erectaa dementant?' Ad SacerdoUa Uehetiai, p. 16, Tiguri, 1524 : see also the Eeforrriatio Eccl. HassicB, p.- 7. IX.] Intelligence and Piety. 421 devotion. In the Roman church itself, the choral services ■were on the very point of being interdicted.^ owing to this scandalous vitiation of the art of music, when the genius of Palestriria rescued it from its degeneracy, and made it one of the most powerful and pathetic instruments for height- ening the tone of worship. But the sternness and severity of Swiss reformers could not tolerate the use of artistic auxiliaries. The singing, even of metrical hymns, was long unsanctioned in the ordinary congregations of Zurich °: the conviction there being, that Christians meet together only for the purposes of prayer and preaching. These, with public confession of sins which followed after the sermon, and with occasional administration of the Eucharist, which took place at separate congregations six times in the year^, completed the monotonous cycle of their public worship. When, however, the main characteristics of the Church of Zurich were afterwards transmitted to Geneva'', the ser- vices, in the latter place, were somewhat more diversified : for, in the Calvinistic provinces of Switzerland, as well as * Eanke, Popes, l. 509, s 10 : cf. legitimamque habent, cantum autem above, p. 302. One member of the nullum habent, oondemnari non de- commission nominated by Pius IV. bent. Non enira eanendi commodi- to determine whether music was to tatem omnes habent eoclesiae. Ac be permitted in the churches or not, certum est, ex testimoniis vetustatis, was Carlo Borromeo ; the choral ser- ut cantua usum fuisse vetustis.simum vice as then performed seeming more in oiientalibus eeclesiis, ita serp calculated ' k chatouiUer les oreilles tandem receptum esse ab occiden- qu'h. flever I'esprit k Dieu i' G-odeau, talibue.' Vie de S. Charles Borromeo, p. 120. ^ See Lavater, as before, p. 215. 5 'Morem cantandi multis de Before these solemnities he adds (p. causis Ecclesia Tigurina non recepit, 5 2), ' habentur sermones ad populum tempus saoris destinatum ocetibus de dignitate et usu Eucharistiae ; duntaxat auscultation! Verbi Dei et item quo pacto se quisque ad per- precibus impendens ;' Lavater (as cipiendas saoras has epulas prsepa- before, p. 377, n. 6), p. 42. At the rare debeat.' date however of the second Helvetic ' See Les Ordonnances EccUsica- Confession (1562), the use of music tiques de VEglise de Geneve (1541), was contemplated, or not absolutely jn Eichter, Kirchen-ordnungen, ^ 1. condemned : ' Cantus, quem Gre- 342 sq. The holy Communion was goriamm, nuncupant, plurima habet then administered four times a year, absurda: undo rejectus est merito .a on the Sunday after Christmas, at nostris et pluribus eeclesiis. Si ee- Easter, on W hitsunday, and the first clesise sunt, quse orationem fidelem Sunday in September. i22 On the State of [chap. in France, in Scotland, and the Netherlands, although organs had been silenced \ several hymns in metre ^ were appointed to be sung at every congregation. The same ideas, we saw above, are traceable in all the Hessian churches at an early period ; they eventually predominated also in the troubled towns of the Palatinate. momes'iw'rir Meanwhile, a very different spirit had pervaded all the nira" '^""'"'"' Lutheran regulations for conducting public worship. ' On ceremonies/ wrote Melancthon^ 'Zwingli has expressed himself in the true Swiss fashion, that is, most barbarously in wishing to have them all abolished.' The Saxons also, it is true, were adverse to those rites of Mediaevalism which clashed with the express injunctions of Holy Scrip- ture ; but, wherever any usage of the Church was free from such objection^, they as uniformly pleaded either for its absolute adoption in their own services, or at least for its suspension in the catalogue of things indifferent. Hence the aspect of their public worship, at the death of Luther, bore in Saxony, at least, a strong resemblance to the system of the Middle Ages°. Pictures, organs, altars, ^ Of. Daniel, as before, pp. 18-22. studeret et corrigere, Eeformati '^ Above, p. 418: and Eicliter, i. [i. e. Zwingliana and Calvinista] ab- 347. olere geatirent et obliterare, ne odor * Wori;s, ir. 193, ed. Bretsohn. quidem ejus relinqueretur.' Prcef. He was referring to the passage in as above, pp. 3, 4. Zwingli's Satio Fidei, quoted above, ^ The following is Luther's own p. 116, n. I. version of the matter, inApril, 1541 * Above, p. 43, 11. 4. Daniel, ad- (Be "Wette, v. 340) : 'Es sind, Gott- mitting that Luther has indulged in lob, unsere Kirchen in den Neutra- violent phraseology with reference libus so zugerioht, dass ein Laie to many of the church-traditions, oder Walh oder Spanier, der unsere shews that such extravagances were Predigt nicht verstehen konnte, only occasional and inoperative : wenn er sahe unser Messe, Chor, ' Sed qaas Latherus, effervesoena in Orgeln, Glocken, Casein, etc., wiirde dicendo, stomacho ssepe ir'acundia- er miissin sagen, es ware ein recht que vehementius ebuUiit, in Cinglio papstiscJi Kirche, und Isein Unter- ao Calvino oircumspectio et accurata schied oder gar wenig gegen die, so consideratio excogitavit, snbtilis et sieselbsuntereioanderhaben.' Gie- f ligida argumentatio probavit, per- seler, ■ who quotes this passage (ilL acre judicium pronuntiavit. Quibus ii. p. 402, n. 20), traces the future causis factum est, ut Lutherus cul- modiiications in the service partly turn Eomanum longa eonsuetudine to the Adiaphoristio controversy coriuptum et depravatum reformare (abO'Ve, pp. 69, 70). IX.] ~ Intelligence and Piety. 423 and vestments, were generally retained'. The new Bap- tismal Office' on the one side, and the German Mass-book* ' on the other, were avowedly nothing more than simplifica- tions and corrections of corresponding Latin services, with which the Saxon populace had been familiar from their childhood. As one instance of this predilection for the usages of former times, the elevation' of the Eucharist was not itself relinquished till 1543. Luther also was constant in his advocacy of music, painting, and architecture, not only as considered in themselves, but in their application to religious objects. 'I am not one of those,' he writes^", ' who fancy that the Gospel has superseded or placed its ban upon the fine arts, whatever some misguided spirits may have represented. Gn the contrary, I would fain see all the arts, and music more especially, devoted to the sef- ' vice of Him who has given and created them.' In Lutheran churches, a distinction had been clearly drawn between the homiletic and liturgic parts of public worship, and exalted views there taken of the Presence in the Holy Communion led to the continual celebration of it, and invested all the ritual adjuncts of the service with peculiar dignity". A similar remark is applicable to ^ These peculiarities did not es- befolilen hat, aein zu gedenken. cape tlie keen eye of bishop Gardiner. Pann gleichwie das Sacrament wird Speaking of images, he writes in a leiblich aufgehaben, und dooh drun- letter to Kidley: ' Wherein Luther ter Christua Leib und Blut nicht (that pulled away all other regard wird gesehen, also wUrd durch das to them) strove stoutly, and ob- Wort der Predigt seiner gedacht tained, as I have seen in divers of und erhaben, dazu mit Bmpfahung the churches in Germany of his des Sacraments bekannt und hooh- reforraation, that they should (as geehrt.' On the final reasons for they do) still stand;' Bidley'a WorTcs, the change, see Melancthon's, letter ed. P. S. pp. 496, 497- (J"°« '8. '544): Woi'hs, v. 420. 7 See above, p. ■215. '" World, ed. Walch, x. 1723: and 8 Priuted from the first edition cf. Daniel, Codex Litwrij. Ecd. Lu- in Eichter's Kirchen-ordnungen, i. therance, Pref. pp. 14, 15. 2 J gn. '^ See the Deutsche Messe, passim. " In the Deutsche Messe the reason In addition to double service every alleged for retaiuing it is ' dass es day, three services were provided oq feiu mit dem deutschen Sanctus the Sunday, the holy Communion stimmet und bedelit, dass Cliristus being always celebrated at the second. 424 On the State of [chap. another class of regulations. In Switzerland, although ecclesiastical festivals were nominally observed ^ regard was seldom had by preachers, in their choice of subjects, to the order of the Christian seasons : while the Lutheran church conformed, almost punctiliously, to old arrange- ments", moderating, it is true, the number of festivities, but clinging to the cycle of epistles and gospels, and adapt- ing sermons then delivered to the thoughts which had been naturally suggested by the fresh recurrence of parti- cular celebrations. Mites and cere- It is, howevor, in the service-books of England, that Mngiarui. the old materials of public worship, and the usages of ancient Christendom, have been most delicately Criticised, and most extensively preserved. The various offices of the Church were then translated into the vernacular lan- guage; doctrines, inconsistent with the Word of God and the received interpretation of antiquity, were carefully weeded out ; some points of ritual which had proved offen- sive to the English taste ^, as being too luxuriant or too ^ Daniel, Cod. Lit. Ecd. Reform. ant, ab laudabili antiquorum con- Prsef. pp. 23 — 26. The number was suetudine :' Daniel, Ecd. Luther. gradually reduced to five or six festi- Preef. pp. 18, rg, where a full ac- vals in honour of our blessed Lord. count is added of the Lutheran ^ ' Aocepit igitur ut pretiosum holy days and seasons. KEi/iiJXiop ab antiqua ecclesia annum ^ While thus modifying the oere- ecclesiasticum, ita tamen ut et de- monial worship of England, the minueretur festivitatum numerus ao compilers of the Prayer- Book state rescinderetur, quae originem suam et expressly, 'In these our doings we quasi sedem non haberent in Scrip- condemn no other nations, nor pre- turffi sacrse historia sed in apoory- scribe any thing but to our own phis et Legendis. Porro laudanda people only: For we think it con- est doctriuse perpetuitas et constan- venient, that every country should tia, quae conspioitur in veterum use such ceremonies as they shall Pericoparum oomprobatione. Nam think best to the setting forth of annus ecclesiae cum pericopis suis God's honour and gloiy, and to the tarn arete cohseret, ut alterum sine reducing of the people to a most altero vix manere et perseverare perfect and godly living, without possit ; dein apud Lutheranos peri- error or superstition ; and that they copa adjung^tfestivitati suae auctori- should put awaj' other things, which tatem et fidem, ne &ypaij)oyt\Aea.tm. from time to time they perceive to Non recedit denique Lutheri eccle- be most abused, as in men's ordi- sia, nisi articuli fidei qui vocantur nances it often chanceth diversely in primarii ao fundamentales alia jube- divers countries.' ix.J Intelligence and Piety. 4125 histrionic, were reduced into sobriety ; expressions, capable of superstitious or profane meanings, were corrected, and replaced by others more conducive to religious fervour and the edification of the multitude: yet no wish was mani- fested to renounce communion with past ages by repu- diating hymns and creeds and prayers, the chastened collect and impassioned litany, of our forefathers in Christ. Such of them as needed reformation were reformed and expur- gated; they were not contemned, anathematised, and cast away. The gloomy and severe, the overscrupulous and re- volutionary spirits were reminded in a Preface, found in all editions of the Prayer-Book, that some degree of ceremonial is absolutely necessary : ' and if they think much, that any of the old do remain, and would rather have all devised anew, then such men granting some ceremonies convenient to be had, surely where the old may be well used, there they cannot reasonably reprove the old, only for their age, with- out bewraying of their own folly '^ In the earlier stages of the Eeformation, the prevailing Modificatimis Y ' sr '^ mthe reiyn of ■ modes of thought, with reference to the Mediaeval usages, Edwmn. resembled what we have remarked in Lutheran communi- ties^, and the bulk of the English people, conscious of the close affinity between the old and new ritual, cheerfully conformed to the doctrinal modifications then established'. But when Hooper had returned from his retreat in Zurich ', * Cf. Hooker, Eccl. Pol. V. xxviii. urged in condemnation of the chief § I, who remarks, in meeting the retbrraers hy the Zwinglian party: charge that our Liturgy is too near see above, p. 210, u. i; p. 211, n. 6; the Papists', and too different from p. 215, n. 7. that of other reformed churches: ^ See Dodd's account, Ch. Hist. 'Where Eome keepeth that which II. 28 sq. is ancienter and better, others whom ' Above, p. 216. In an Epistle, we much more affect leaving, it for dated Sept. 6, 15 Jo, and prefixed to newer and changing it for worse ; his Sermons wpon Jonas, ' Early Writ- we had rather follow the perfections ings,' P. S. p. 440, after urging the of them whom we like not, than in king and his council not to be terri- defects resemble them whom we fied by the prospect of 'sedition love.' and tumults,' he proceeds: 'Most ^ This relationship, indeed, -was gracious king and noble councillors, 4S6 On the State of [chap. fascinated by the Zwinglian usages, and when misgivings of a similar kind were freely ventilated in the neigh- bourhood of the court^ and, under certain modifications, infused into the mind of some of those ecclesiastical digni- taries who were ardently devoted to the cause of reformat- tion, the ruling spirit was considerably changed. Fresh projects were devised in order to accomplish a more thorough simplification of ptiblic worship, and 'the result was a revision of the English service-books. No dispo- sition, it is true, was manifested by the prelates to reduce the English ritual into conformity with the Helvetic : such'a step would have involved an utter discerption of it, or rather its annihilation ; but the growth of scruples, touching the propriety of particular features in the office for the Holy Communion, impelled one section of the church-authorities to countenance the project of revision. It is highly proba- ble, that some of the continental refugees,, who symbolised more fully with the Swiss than with the Saxon theologians, may have stimulated this new measured It is also. pro- bable, that the forms of worship^ they now celebrated in London, may have here and there supplied a model for the ' imitation of their English neighbours. But, however this as ye have taken away the mass two preachers were respectively of- from the people, so take from them fered the bishoprics of Gloucester ' her feathers also, the altar, vest- and Kochester : cf . above, pp. 217, ments and such like as apparelled 218, where attention is directed (p. her; and let the holy communion 218, n. i) to Cranmers iaflexibility be decked with the holy ceremonies in opposition to Hooper. ■ that the high and wise Priest, Christ, ^ See above, pp. 219, 223. decked and apparelled her in iirst ^ See above, p. 223, n. 7; 'Com- of all.' If the bishops should prove . paratively little of the Prayer-Book,' refractory, he recommended the as Professor Blunt observed, 'is of royal council to 'do with them as the date of the Reformation itself: the mariners did with Jonas' (p. for though some foreign Liturgies of .442). the day did certainly supply a con- ^ Hooper preached the sermons tingent — these, however, be it ob- above mentioned before the king served, not themselves compiled irre- and council on the "Wednesdays spectively of the older ones — still during Lent in 1550; Ponet (Poy- the staple of the Prayer-Book was net) preaching on the Pridays. ancient, most ancient, lost in anti- ■ When the course was finished the quity :' Sermons, p. 95, Camb. 1850. tx.J Intelligence and Piety. 427 may be, a series of long discussions and delays resulted in the authorising of the second Prayer-Book of king Ed- ward, by which the aspect of public worship was materially altered through the further pruning of the ceremonial. The church-walls, the windows and the niches, had been purged already ■ of all figures which were held to favour super- stition or idolatry*; many 'ornaments'^ had been defaced; some crosses had. been broken down; the shrines contain- ing relics had been plundered, and vessels for the celebra- tion of the mass abstracted by unauthorised rapacity", or surrendered to the crown. The stone-altars' also, thus dis- mantled, had been subsequently replaced by wooden struc- tures, standing table-wise, and sometimes actually trans- ferred, like a domestic table, into the body of the church^ But on the appearance of the new service-books, the changes went still further. All the Mediaeval vestments were authoritatively proscribed, with the exception of * Above, p. 217, n. 6. ' that bore an ill-will to the Eeforma- ^ Brokes (BroUya), intruding bp. tion might give out, to render it the of Grloucester, who preached before more odious. But certain it is, that Queen Mary in 1553, alluded to what it now became more or less practised he considered a general decay of . all the nation over, to sell or take religious feeling, and attributed it to away cbahees, crosses of silver, bells ' the defacing of chnrchea, in spoil- and other ornaments.' He then gives ing their goods and ornaments, the a letter (April 30, 1548) from the breakingdowri altars, throwing down council to the archbishop requiring crosses, casting out of images, the him to inhibit the practice, bumirig of tried holy relics... change ' Above, p. 217. Eidley's exhor- in siltars, change in placing, change in tation was that, 'for the sake of gesture, change in apparel' (quoted godly unity, the curates, church- by Haweis, p. 115). wardens and questmen, should set * ' Besides the profanation of up the Lord's board after the form churches,'' writes Strype {Crammer, of an honest table, decently covered, II. viii. pp. 89, 90, ed. E. H. S.), in such place of the quire or chancel 'there prevailed another evil, relat- as shall be thought most meet by ia" also to churches, viz. that the their discretion and agreement, so utensils and ornaments of these sa- that the ministers with the eommu- ored places were spoiled, embezzled, nioants may have their place sepa- and made away, partly by the church- rated from the rest of the people; wardens and partly by other pa- and to take down and abolish all rishioners. Whether the cause were, other by-altars' or tables :' TFoi'is, p. that they would do that themselves, 320, ed. P. S. which they imagined would ere long ^ See Maitland, Reformation,^^. be done by others, viz. robbing of 303 sq. churches; which it may be, those 428 On the State of [chap. a surplice for the priest, and a rochet for the bishop at the Holy Communion ; while the place of the minister, who before officiated always in the choir, was now to be determined by the size and other circumstances of the church, at the discretion of the ordinary. As might have been anticipated from the previous state of feeling, the ex- treme Reformers were in the habit of overstraining these concessions. Chancels' they regarded with peculiar aver- sion. The white vestment'' seemed irreconcilable with apostolical simplicity, and they accordingly varied from the rubric, by occasionally substituting in its place their ordinary gown' at the celebration of the Lord's supper. ' Bread, wine, a table, and a fair table-cloth'^, were all that Hooper and his party were desirous of preserving; their object being to retain 'the perfection of Christ's institution,' and to do nothing which ' had not God's Word to bear it". In the reign of Mary, which had for a time been checking the development of these ideas, all things were Restorations reduced, as far as possible, into their former places : while both. the elevation of Elizabeth, to the throne was calculated to ^ Buoer and Hooper, much as they * Speaking of the outward prepa- had been opposed on other subjects, ration of the minister, Hooper de- were agreed on this: see the Cen- clares (Ibid. p. 534): 'If he have mra, c. i, in Buoer'g Scripta.Angli- bread, wine, a table and a fairtable- cana, p. 457. Hooper's theory is as cloth, let him not be solicitous nor follows (Early Writings, pp. 491, careful for the rest, seeing they be 492) : 'But this I would wish that no things brought in by Christ, but the magistrates should put both the by the popes ; unto whom, if the preacher, minister and the people in king's majesty and his honourable one place, and shut up the partition council have good conscience, they called ,the chancel, that separateth must be restored again. And great the congregation of Christ one from shanie it is for a noble king, em- the other, as though the veil and peror, or magistrate, contrary unto partition of the temple in the old God's Word, to detain and keep law yet should remain in the Church ; from the devil or his minister any where, indeed, all figures, and types of their goods or treasure, as the ended in Christ.' candles, vestments, . crosses, altars ! ^ Ibid. p. 479, where the preacher J'or if they be kept in the Church ■ adds : ' It is rather the habit and as things indifferent, at length they vesture of Aaron and the gentiles will be maintained as things necea- than of the ministers of Christ.' sary.' ^ See Haweis, p. 116. ^ Ibid. p. 335,. IX.] Intelligence and Biety. 429 produce a mixed effect on the appearance of the English churches, and the character of public worship. Her chief advisers manifested little or no sympathy with continental theologians, or at least in ritual matters, as in doctrine, sided rather with the Lutheran" than the Swiss Reformers. Hence, although the interdicts of Edward were re-issued so as to displace a large majority of the altars, .and eject all images and paintings that were deemed propitious to the reign of superstition, the old vestments' were now authorised afresh and other changes introduced, which plainly indicate a leaning towards the position assumed by the Reformers in the iirst Edwardine Prayer-Book. Yet, .owing to the scruples generated in the school oi Permamneeof Hooper, and still more to new antipathies which some of «a« hngush ChxtTeh. the Marian exiles had brought back with them from Switz- ' erland, the English Church continued to be torn by hostile factions', which allowed her little rest for the remainder of the century.. On the one side, public worship was conducted so as to exhibit principles like those of Parker, * Above, pp. 247, 249, 25 1. 8 ' Desoeuderant Angli in partes: ' Cf. above, p. 252, and n. i. The aliis cordi erat, ut, servata aposto- Elizabethan Puritans at first ob- licae ecolesise atqiie Anglicanse co- jected most to 'the cap, the surplice hserentia et antique disciplinse virtu- and the tippet,' the use of which tibus recte sestimatis, Anglja Chris- alone appears to have been pressed tiana, non in Romana sed in catho- by the authorities : but all the other lica religione constanter perseveraret ; ■ vestments were equally prescribed alii in^petum suum convertebant in in the new edition of the Prayer- majormn instituta totamque An- Eook and the Act of Uniformity. gliam Calvino vindicare studebant.' Hence in An Answere for the Tyme, Daniel, Codex Liturg. Bccl. Reform. put forth in 1566, [copy, with other p. 295.' He then adds in a note: kindred tracts, in the Camb. Univ. 'Quo factum est ut Anglicana Ec- Lib. G, VI. 84] the writer sums up clesia, Eebeccfe consimilis, in utero his grievances as follows : ' Cope, ferat prolem gemellam, sed valde surplese, staich-bread [wafers], gos- disparem atque pugnacem. Et ne- pelers, pistlers, kneling at commu- cessitate quadam versabatur in oou- nion, crossing at baptisrae, baptisme tvoversia ac oontentione usque dum of [by] women, cap, tippet and eveutumhabueritvaticinium: "Duas gowne : lUm; by authoritie of par- gentes in utero tuo et duo populi liament, albes, alters, vestments, ex ventre tuo dividentur, popu.us- &c. these few things are more then que populum superabit et major msiy well be borne.' serviet minori."' 430. On the State of Lchap. Whitgift, Hooker, and Saravia ; on the other, it was made to harmonise with the ideas of AVhittingham, of Cart- wright, and of Walter Travers. Here the feeling was, that innovations had been carried to the iitmost verge of Christian prudence : there, that all which had been hitherto accomplished should be welcomed only as the starting-point of more decisive measures, or, in other words, the Reforma- tion must itself be thoroughly reformed. The disposition, on the one side, was to commune freely with the past, to recognise the visible continuity of the Church as an organic system, even where its life was paralysed by grievous errors and corruptions, and to estimate alike the excellencies and demerits of our Christian predecessors in a large and generous spirit, from a consciousness that, where the tares had been most thickly scattered, wheat continued to grow up among them, and repay the culture of the Husbandman. Whereas, the rival theory of the Church denied this visible continuity, or, at the most, concluded that religion had for ages found its only shelter from the violence of Anti- christ, in the recesses of some Alpine valley, or the bosom of some persecuted sect, — conclusions which impressed their author with the deepest hatred of all Mediaeval forms of worship as connected in his mind with the ascendancy of anti-christian influences. On the one side it was felt that church-authority, at least as to its spiritual properties, had been transmitted through a line of bishops, who* were therefore specially entrusted with the exposition of Christian truth, as well as with the conservation of Chris- tian order : on the other, such authority was held to be the voluntary gift of each congregation ; and accordingly the favourite model of government was that which left no room for prelates, by investing all the ministers with equal rank and jurisdiction. Like differences are often traceable in their mode of handling some of the more vital principles IX.] Intelligence and Piety. 431 of Christianity, though these divergencies were never marked so strongly in the sixteenth as in the following century. With lax ideas respecting the dogmatic state- ments of the oecumenical councils, such as we have seen in Zwingli and in Calvin also, grew a tendency to in- novate upon the ancient terminology of the Church in speaking even of the Holy Trinity, and the Incarnation of our blessed Lord; while the profound relationship which many of the opposite school had traced between this latter doctrine, rightly apprehended, and the orthodox view respecting the efficacy of the sacraments, was over- looked, if not entirely contradicted, in the writings of the English Puritans. But notwithstanding these intellectual conflicts and this busy strife of tongues, itself, with all its melancholy consequences, a plain index of reviving thought, of man- liness and Christian fervour, truth, in the more personal and practical bearings of it, went victoriously upon its mission : it continued to exalt, invigorate, and humanise : it furnished nurture to a multitude of thirsting spirits ; it was ever the support, the joy, the solace of the simple- hearted and uncontroversial. Many a parish in the dis- tant nooks of England, which had never been disturbed by vestment-troubles, nor the boisterous sermons of some disaffected churchman, was administered by pastors who^e prime object was the edification of the souls committed to their keeping, and the glory of the Lord, to whom they must hereafter give account of all their Christian talents. Many a church, despite the outbreaks of irreverence on the one side, or the vestiges of superstition on the other, had been cleansed and garnished with affectionate care, and won the praises of the passing traveller by the chas- tened beauty of its ornaments. And many a household, tended by such pastors, and excited in the way of holiness 432 On the State of inteiugence and Jr'iety. ICHa.^. ix. by worshipping in such well-ordered sanctuaries, became the favourite haunt of angels, and the centre of religious blessing to the neighbourhood : their sons grew up like the young plants, their daughters were like polished cor- ners of the temple. CHAPTER X. GROWTH OF THE CHURCH. Those agencies wliich operated so powerfully in narrowing pamuy of the field of general study had prevented the expansion of **"*""*■ the Church of Christ beyond her ancient limits. There was now indeed a keener and more stirring sense of the importance of the Gospel, and the vastness of the human family for whose illumination it was promulgated : but the Tarious sections of the western Church were so completely occupied until the middle of the sixteenth century with their own domestic conflicts, with promoting the purifica- tion of their doctrine or establishing fresh bulwarks for their self-defence, that nearly all the missions of this period were ' home-missions/ instead of being aimed at the conversion of the heathen. The miserable remnant of the Jews who lingered in Jews. the Spanish peninsula, were subjected, as in the former period \ to most brutal persecutions: and in Germany the hatred of their race was no less deep and universal, being stimulated, more especially^ by machinations of the rude Dominicans at Cologne I The menacing attitude of the Turks was, on the con- Twrks. trary, a source of daily terror to the western potentates', and the necessity of wrestling with their armies on the 1 See Middlettige, pp. 343, 344. the Jews had deviated from the Old * The members of this order, Testament, which the emperor was satirized so mercilessly in the Epi- fully entitled to do, since their na- stolm Obscurorum Virormn, had even tion had formally acknowledged be- the ingenuity to invent a legal fore the judgment-seat of Pilate the authority for their persecution of authority of the imperial m^esty of the Jews. 'They declared that i't Home:' Eanke, Reform. I. aoo. was necessary to examine how far * See aboye, p. 338. E. P. P F 4'Si Growth oj the Uhurch. LCHAP. battle-fields of Europe had precluded all endeavours to subdue them by the peaceful weapons of the Gospel. Pious men were rather bent on praying for their ruin and con- fusion*. The sole exception to this warlike policy is foundin the alliance for a while cemented betweenFrancis I., 'the most Christian' monarch, and the sultan Soliman, the Magnificent; but its object was avowedly politicaP, intended to promote the balance of power or complicate the quarrel with the German emperor; and accordingly, so far from leading to the extension of Christianity, it might itself be properly regarded as one symptom of religious in- differentism. The followers of Islam had also, notwith- standing the terrific outbreaks of fanaticism among them- selves', as well as their habitual hatred of the Christians, shewn occasional tendencies to modify the stem traditions of their sanguinary forefathers. 'Akur"' "^ -^* *^® court of Atbar, who presided over the Muham- madan empire in the north of Hindustan, from 1555 to ^ThuSjin theEnglishii'ormof 1566, becauae they keep the Emperor oo- above cited, we have the following cupied, and thereby confer greater specimen : ' The Turk goeth about to security upon other potentates.' In set up, to extol, and to magnify that Eanke's CivU Wars &c. in France, ■wicked monster and damned soul I. 144, 145, Lond. 1852. 'If,' reflects Mahumet, above Thy dearly beloved the historian, 'a new epoch had once Son Jesus Christ, whom we in heart been marked by the fa,ct that Philip believe, and with mouth confess to the Fair [Middle Age, p. 272] ex- be our only Saviour and Redeemer. ploded the institutions in which all AVherefore awake, Lord our God Christendom had united for the con- and heavenly Father, and with Thy quest of the Holy Land, it was fatherly and merciful countenance a second great step in the same look upon us Thy children, and aU course when Francis I. even entered such Christiana as are now by those into alliance with the very power most cruel enemies invaded and whose hostility was in the highest assaulted : overthrow and destroy degree dangerous to Christendom.' Thine and our enemies,' &c. p. 535. ■* Thus the Sultan Selim, who ^ Thus, in speaking to the Vene- headed the Sunnitetfaction, whether tian ambassador, in 1535, Francis Turkishsubjects or otherwise, opened gave the following account of his his war against the Persians, who policy: 'I cannot deny that I wish are of the opposite faction (Shiites), to see the Turk appear powerful at by causing all the members of this sea; not that I am pleased with the latter party, within his territories, advantages they obtain, for they are to be put to death in one day : unbelievers and we Christians, but Banke, Meform. i. 249. X.] .Orovjth of the Ghwrch. 435 1605, appear the representatives* of nearly all the known religions of that age, — Jews, Christians, Brahmans, and Parsees, as well as both sections of Mussulmans, the Sun- nites, and the Shiites. Yet none of these varieties of human thought could, either singly or compounded^ satisfy the speculative mind of the Mogul. His 'philosophical' advisers were triumphant; who persuaded him that Deism, represented with as much of nudity as the weakness of mankind could bear, is the religion, which alone commends itself to reason and the purer instincts of humanity; while ' the means of attaining, to future bliss are comprised in the following virtues: liberality, forgiveness and for- bearance, chastity, devotion, temperance,, fortitude, gentle- ness, politeness, acting so as to please God and not man, and resignation to the wiU of God". Akbar ulti- mately assumed the title" of 'God's vicegerent,' the 'Apo- stle and perfect Messenger;' but although the system ■* See the interesting paper by Captadn: Kennedy, entitled Nvtiee re- ifeeting the EeUgdan introduced into Jndia by the Emperor Ahbwr, among the Transactions of the lAievarg So- ciety of Bombay, II. '242 sq, Lond. 1820; and Manouchi's account of Akbar in his History of the Great Mogul. It is almost certain that this emperor was at one time strongly impressed in favour of the Gospel, as presented to him by Jesuit mis- sionaries (Hough's' Bist. of Chris- tianity m India, 11. 271 sq. Lond, 1839) '■ ""1* ^^^^ wavering for some years, he resolved to set on foot a Gomposite religion of which he should himself be the acknowledged head. 'My people,' he says (Ibid. p. 276), 'are a strange medley of Muham- madans,. Idolaters and Christians. I am resolved to bring them all to one opinion. I wiU join the baptism of the one, and the circumcision of the other, to the worship of Brahma. I will retain the metempsychosis, plurality of wives, and the worship of Jesus Christ. Thus compound- ing my religion of those points' which are most agreeable to the professors of the respective sects, I shall be able to form them into one entire flock, of which I myself .shall be leader and head.' ^ Akbaic's advocate in one of the- dialogues, above cited, n. 4, ar- gued in favour of this simple creed, from the diversities and contradict tions observable in the various sys- tems of theology. 'When the reli- gion of one prophet has been em- braced, and when the worship of God and the knowledge of truth has been established, according to his doctrine, another prophet arises who divulges a new doctrine and new pre- cepts. Hence mankind become per- plexed, and they know not whether to consider the irst prophet a liar, or to oonoludethatreligions must change after certain periods of time. But truth is immutable, and admits of no variation or inconsistency' (p. 257)< « Ibid. pp. 254, 259- F F 2 436 Grouith of the Church. [CHAP. which' he organised could boast of numerous followers during his own lifetime, it soon withered when Islamism was again acknowledged as the religion of the state : and after the lapse of fifty years, no trace of it was visible*. ciiHatianity Some earlier agitations" that sprang up in other realms of heathenism had synchronised still more remarkably with the reforming movement of the west; yet none of them was, in the least degree, attributable to Christian im- pulses. The Church, however, was not without her native congregations even in the distant towns and villages of India. To pass over the remains of the Nestorian and Latin missions^ which had once held out the promise of evangelising every corner of that dark and populous region, there was still the confraternity known as ' Christians of • Christians of St. Thomas'^, whoso settlements extended for 120 Indian lomas. jj^-jgg beiQTjy Qoa,, on the coast of Malabar, and inland as far as the southernmost extremity of Hindustan : another settlement surviving on the opposite coast, at St. Thomas's Mount, in the neighbourhood of Madras. This venerable church, retaining its connexion with the Nestorian patriarch of Mosul, and numbering two hundred thousand souls, ex- cited the amazement of the Portuguese discoverers who had left the Tagus, in 1502, on a commercial enterprise. But other feelings afterwards succeeded, when the Portu- guese were able to assume an attitude of independence, and converted Goa into the metropolis of their extensive em- ^ Ibid. p. 267. 'It cannot be together Muhammadans and Hin- doubted,' says Kennedy, ' that its dus, see Cunningham's Hist, of the failure was occasioned principally by Si&ks, Loud. 1849. that pertinacity with which the Mu- ^ See Middle Age, pp. 233 — hammadans and Hindus have at all 735. times resisted every innovation in * lUd. p. 30, and Hough's Hist. their respective religions.' of Christianity in India, I. 32 sq. * On the composite religion which On the kindred incroachments of the Baba Nanuk now established in the Portuguese in Abyssinia, see Middle Punjab, with the hope of binding Age, p. 339, n. 14. ^•] Browth of the Church. 437 pire. Instead of propagating Christianity among the hea- then natives, the archbishop of Goa determined to correct the errors of the 'church of Malabar'.^ and, most of all, to place it in subjection to the Eoman pontiff. A sharp strug- conflict jle now ensued ; but, after the bishop of the Indian Chris- ■'^*™*' tians had been cajoled into obedience, and then ' forcibly 3xtruded from his see, the council of Diamper* (Udiam- poor), in 1599, completed, for a time at least, their ' recon- ciliation' -with the papacy. A multitude of their ancient ivritings were then committed to the flames'; the Syriac service-books were all remodelled in accordance with Ro- man usages; their canon of the New Testament Scriptures, [litherto defective', was completed by the same authority; ' The first assault was made in ■545 by a Franciscan of the name )f Vincent, whose chief policy was ;o educate some 'Syrian' priests in lis own doctrines and so influence ;hecommunity(Hough, I. 247). This ittempt failed, however, and was not •epeated for some years, at the end of ifhiob the Jesuit missionaries oircura- rented Mar Joseph, the 'Syrian' ]ishop. He was then sent to Borne n triumph and there consecrated ifreah to the see of Angamale: but 'ailing in his engagements with the jontiff he was apprehended in com- pliance with an order of pope Kub V. Jan. 15, 1567) and shipped oflf to Portugal {Ibid. p. ■260). ' See G-eddes, Hist, of the Church, )/ Malaia/r with the acts and decrees if the Synod of Diamper, Lond. 1694, md Hough, as above, 11. r — 132, ivith the documents in Appendix A. Some of the chief points in which ;he 'Syrians' of Malabar had pre- ifiously differed from their Komish Invaders were the following: They •ejected the papal supremacy and laid allegiance to the " patriarch .of Babylon (Mosul). They condemned ;he adoration of images, but vene- rated the symbol of the cross. They jad not heard of masses for the dead, of purgatory, or of extreme unction. They repudiated auricular confession, and the constrained celi- bacy of ecclesiastics.. They regarded the eucharist as an oblation, and solemnly offered the elements upon the altar, yet, as one of their assail- ants urged, 'their books contained enormous errors against this holy sacrament, errors that shew that the heretics of our own time [i. e. the European Reformers], who have revived all the ancient heresies and forgotten errors, derived their doc- trines from this source ' (Hough,' 11. 14). They held three sacraments, — ranking orders with baptism and the Eucharist. But whether they were Nestorian in their tenets re- specting the Person of our blessed Lord is far from certain. Bucha- nan, Christicm Resea/rchea in Asia" p: 126, maintains that their descen- dants at least are orthodox on this subject. ' Hough, n. 72. ' The second epistle of St Peter, the second and third of St John, the epistle of St Jude, and the Apo- calypse were wanting in their Syriac version : see Geddes, as above, p. 135, where other less important variatioiis- are noticed. 438 Qrowih of the amrch. [chap. and, until the middle of the following century, when the Portuguese had, in their turn, been humbled and ex- cluded by the Dutch, the 'Christians of St. Thomas' were all constrained to recognise the jurisdiction of the Latins. At that crisis, however, we are told one half of them fell back into their ancient isolation. Mii-sion-work Meanwhile a vigorous effort had been made by worthier 1. . misr, missionaries of the Eoman church, assisted by the greatest maritime power of Europe, to carry the religion of the cross into remoter strongholds both of Brahmanism and Buddhism. This great project dated from the land))ng of Francis Xavier', at Goa, on the 6th of May, 154:2. The friend and first disciple of Ignatius Loyola, aid like him strongly tinged with old ideas of chivalry and self-devotion, the ardent Jesuit soon exchanged his residence in Portugal, to which he was invited by king John III, for distant fields of missionary labour ; in the hope of gathering mil- lions of his fellow-men into. the fold of Christ, and of the Roman church. His apostolic tenderness, his zeal, his heroism, his abundant labours, sufferings, and success, in the discharge of his adventurous calling, earned for him the title of 'Apostle of the Indies.' Many of the narratives respecting him are, it is true, most grievously disfigured, either by the fraud or the credulity of their compilers^: but when due allowance has been made for fable and exaggera- tion, the career of Xavier stands almost unparalleled' in the history of Christian missions. On reaching Goa, he dis- covered that religion was already at the lowest ebb among the Portuguese settlers, many of whom had virtually aban- 1 See Tursellinug, De Vita Fr. of Christianity in India, Bk. li. Xaverii, qui primus e Societ. Jeau in ch. iii. India et Japonia eoamgeliv/m, propa- ^ For instance, on the stupendous gavit, Rom. 1594: Bouhours, Vie de miracles attributed to him, but not S. Franfois Xa/vier, reprinted at mentioned in bis own coiTespond- Ijouvain, 1822; Lettres de F. Xa- ence, see Grant's Missions to the vier, Bruxelles, 1838: Hpugh, Hist. Seathen, Append. No. xxi. X.J -Growth of the Church. . 439 doaed their profession, and sunk down into the heathen level of impurity and license'. Xavier, therefore, with the sanction of the bishop, opened his crusade by preaching the necessity of reformation to the European Christians. After spending a portion of each day in visits to the hos- pitals and prisons, where his earnest and unselfish spirit won the heart of every inmate, his practice was to walk through the streets of Goa with a bell in his hand, im- ploring all the fathers of families, for the love of God, to send their children and their slaves to him for catechetical instruction : and such wonderful effects were thfls produced by his impulsive fervour, that a change was soon apparent in the conduct of the whole population, more especially the young ^ When Xavier had devoted six months to the promo- tion of these objects, and had meanwhile gained a meagre knowledge of one or two Indian languages, he started on his earliest mission to the Paravars, — a miserable people, ammr/ v agencies at work in England, 181, 182; effects on literature, 385 sq. ; on morals, 398 sq. Refugees (English), during the Marian trou^ bles, 237, and n. 5 Eegius (Urban), 79, n. 4 Reinhaed, 82, n. t Ricoi (Jesuit), his missionary labours, 443 RiDliET (bp.), dislike of Knox, 149, n, 6; on the Eucharist, 214, and n. 1, 3 ; on stone- altars, 217; opposed to the foreign 9an- gregations in London, 220, n. 2 ; on the 'real presence,' 227, n. 7; on predesti- nation, 248, n. 3; on Anabaptism, 272, n. 1 ; hia moderation, 232 ; 239, n. 5 • death, 240 RoGEBS, 240, n. I Rojas (Domingo de), 103 Romanism (Anglo), oiigin of, 254 Romanism (Irish), 267, and n. 1 1 Rome, church and bishop of, opposed to reformation by synods, 4 ; character and position of the popes at the outbreak of the Reformation, 5> 6 ; claims of, unmodi- fied by the Reformers, 347, and by the Council of Trent, 348, 349 ; relations of the pope to the Emperor and other mo- narchs, 352, 3S4 Rough (Eowght, John), 147, n. 9 Rudolph II. (emperor), 73 Russia, church of, 338, and n. 3; 344 — 346; establishment of the Eussian patri- archate, 345 ; Lutheran interlopers, 344, n-3 S. Sacramentwrii, 56 ; 63, n. 6 ; 98, n. 2 ; ^ ; 177, n. 4; 209, and n. 8; 213 Sales (Franjois de), 132 Saltza (Jacob von), 77 Sampson (bp.), 186, n. 4 Samfsok (dean), 252, n. 2 H H 458 Index. Sahdys (archbp.), 237, »• Si 6; 247, n. 8; 25'; n- 5; 253, n. 7 Saba VIA (Adrian), 162, n. i; 163, u. 10; 262, 11. u. Saxony (ducal), reformed, 74 Saxony (electoral), visitation of, 53, 369; settlement of the reformation, 74 Schmalkaldic Articles, 62 , Schinalka,;dio League, 61; 203, n. 7; 249, n. Schmalkaldic War, 66, 96 Schools, 411 — 413 Schwabach Articles, 58, and n. i SoHWENCKFELD (Caspar), founder of a sect, 289; its principles, 289, 290; 296, u. 3 ScoBTt (bp.), 237, n. S ; 245, u. 9. Scotland, reformation in, 142 — 158; rela- tions with France, 143; and England, 145; church-pojity of, 382—384 Seaton (Alex.), 145, n. 4 Seminary priests, 255, n. 6 Seeipakdo, 309, n. 3 Sebvetcs, 128, n. 4; 285, 286 Service- Books (English), reformed, 206, n. 3 ; 211, 212; destruction of the nnreformed, 215, n. 9; Sarum Use restored, 234, n. 3 ; ritual changes in, 424 sq. SiCKENGEN (F. von), 32, n. 4; 117, n. 13 SiGisMnND(Augu3tus,ofPoland),9i,aiidn.7 SiGiSMUKD III. (of Poland), 92, 343 Silesia, reformation in, 77 Skelton (John), 413, n. 4 Smith (Sir Thomas), 243, n. 9. Smtihe (Dr), 225, 11. 7 Socinianism, early traces in Poland, 92— 94 ; general account of, 284 — 289 Sorbonne, (ooUegeof), 31, 133, and n. 9 Spain, Keformation in, 100 — 105 Spires, reformatory diet of (1526), 50, 51 ; new diet of (1529), 54 Spotswood (John), 154, n. 2 STArFOED (George), 182, n. i Staupitz (John), 16; 21, n. 8 Stephen (Bathori, of Poland), 92, and n. 1 ; ioo> 345 Stokbsley (bp.),,ig7, n. 7; 198 Stoech (Nicholas), 274 SlEEGEL (Victorinus), 49, n. 6 Stdemius (John), 134, n. s; 271, n. 4 Submission of the Clergy, 192, n. 2 Superintendents, substituted for bishops, 84, 154, and n. i, 4; 220, and n. -i Supremacy, royal, meaning of in England^ 191— 193, 244, 357—360 Sweden, reformed, 85 — 90 Switzerland, reformation in, no— 132 Synergistic Controversy, 49, n. 6; 177, u. 4 Synods, diocesan, their advantages, 351, u. 5 ; 363, u. 6 ; Calvinistic, 380, 382 T. Tausen (John), 83 Tavebnee (Richard), 206, n. 3 ; 209, n. 8 Tatloe (bp.), 234, n. 5. Testament, (see Bible). Tetzbl, 18; 19, n. 7 Theatins, order of, 332, and n. 2 Thielebt (Thomas, bp.), 201, n. 3 Tliomas, St, Christians of, 436 Thuesok (John), 77 . Tohstaxl (bp.), on the imperial rights of England, 352, n. 3; hia collision with Knox, 148, n. I ; his sermon against the pope, 182, n. 3 ; letter to Pole, 194, n. 4 ; subscribes the Articles of 1536, 199; op- poses the German envoys, 204, and n. 2 ; his deprivation, 232, 11. i; no persecutor, 239, n. 7 Tbaheeon (Barthol.), 214, n. i Transylvania, reformation in, 97 — 100; growth of Socinianism, 100; 288, n. i Teavees (Walter), 257, n. 8; 269, n. 7 Trent, Council of, 66, 67, 70 ; its vast im- portance, 303 ; discordant elements in, 304, 305 ; order of proceedings, 305 ; de- cree on Scripture and Tradition, 305, 306 ; on original sin, 307; on justification, 307, 308; conflicting views, 309, and n. 3; council transferred to Bologna, 310; suspension, 311, 312; business resumed, 312; decree on the Eucharist, 312, 313; on Penance, 313, 314; on extreme XJnc- Index. 459 tion, 314; arrival of German Protestants, 315; fresh suspension, 315, 316; third convocation, 317; previous disciplinary reforms, 310, 311, 315 ; struggle respect- ing the Divine right of episcopacy, 318, 321, 322; and practical reforms, 318, 3^41 35' ; decree on the sacrifice of the Mass, 321 ; on Matrimony, 322 ; on Pur- gatory, &o., 323; papal monarchy un- touched, 324 ; 325, n. 5 ; signatures to the Acts of the Council, 325 Turks, 50, n,6; 52; 58, n. 3; 6i,n.6; 71, 338, 433, 434 Tykdaib (Wm.), version of the Bible, 160, n. 2 ; ig6, and n. 4 U. Ultramontanism, 349 Uniates, 343,344 Universities, 410 fssHEB (James), 269 Utekhovius (John), 161, n. 9; 237, n. 4 V. Vadiands (Joachim), 199, n. 10 Valdbb, ioi, and n. 13, 14; 106; 107, n.6 Valero (Eodrigo de), 102 "Vakgas, 310, u. 3 Yasa (Gustavus), 81, n. 9; 85 sq. Yaudois (see Waldenaes). Ybbgeeio, 62, n. I ; 107, n. 13 Yestment controversy, 218, 253 Yestments, 427, 428; 429, n. 7 Yioars, 367 Vulgate, Tridentine decree respecting, 306, u. 2 W. Waldenses, 97, and n. 9; 122, n. 3; 134; 280, n. 2 Wallachia, refoi-mation in, 339, n. 4 Walsh (bp.), 270, n. 2 Wakham (archbp.), 186, u. 4; 190 Waterlanders, 283 Westfal (Joachim), 170 Weston, 234 Whitakeb (Dr), 262, n. i Whitqifi (archbp.), 256; the vigour of his administration, 258, 416 ; character of his theology, 261, and n. 9 W^hittingham, 237, n. 6; 238, n. i Wild (see Ferus). WiMPiNA, 19, 20, 59 WisHAKT (George), 147, and n. 5, 6 Witchcraft, 417, n. 3 WiTHBBB (George), 251, n. 6 WiZEL (Wioelius), 45, n. S;'74, u. s; his attempts at mediation, 298 Wolmee (Melohior), 124, n. 3 WoLSEY (cardinal), 179, u. 2; 182, u. 2 ; 186, n. I ; 187, 201 Wurtemberg, reformed, 76 Wtatt, 239 Wtoliffe, 118, n. 1 Wiiienbaoh, no, n. 3 X. Xavieb (Jesuit), 331 ; his missionary la- bours, 438 — 442 Year of Mwnds, 417, n. 3 Young (archbp.), ^25, n. 6; 247, u. 6 Z. Zanchi, 108, n. 3 Zwingli, on the Eucharist, 55, and n. 5 ; character and writings, 1 10 — 122 ; friend- ship with Erasmus, 113; diverges from Luther, 112; 114, n. 3; marries, 115, n. 6; establishes the Swiss reformation, 116; his main principles, 116, 119 — 122 ; his ideas on church-constitution, 368, 377, 378; on church-ritual, 419, 420 a^MBEIDGE: PEISIED AT THE UNIVERSITV PRESS.