BR 146 .S4 1901 ^ 
 
 Selden, Edward Griffin, 1841 
 
 -1904, I 
 
 The story of the Christian I 
 centuries 
 
The Story of the 
 Christian Centuries 
 
 EDWARD GRIFFIN SELDEN, D.D. 
 
 Pastor of the Madison Avenue Reformed Church, 
 Albany, N. Y. 
 
 Fleming H. Revell Company 
 
 Chicago, New York & Toronto 
 Publishers of Evangelical Literature 
 
COPYRIGHT, I9OI, 
 BY FLEMING H. 
 REVELL COMPANY 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 HAP. PAGE 
 
 Map of the Christian Empire of the 
 
 Old World 9 
 
 Personal and Introductory ... 9 
 I. The Apostolic Period, A. D, 30-100. 
 Antecedents of the Christian Church 
 in the Jewish and Gentile worlds. — 
 Wide range of apostolic labors. — Sig- 
 nificant gains. — Assured progress . 14 
 II. Centuries of Persecution, A. D. 100-323. 
 Contest with heathenism. — Church 
 organization. —Christian literature. — 
 Leap from ignominy to imperial adop- 
 tion 36 
 
 III. Fall of the RoiMan Empire, A. D. 323- 
 
 Soo. Supremacy of Christianity in the 
 Roman world. — Development of eccle- 
 siasticism. — Doctrinal controversies. — 
 Rise of Mohammedism. — Christianity 
 among the new nations of Europe. — 
 The Reign of Charlemagne . . 73 
 
 IV. The Middle Ages, A. D. 800-1294. Mis- 
 
 sionary^ enterprise. — The crusades. — 
 Development of nationalities. — Mo- 
 nastic orders. — Scholasticism. — Sacred 
 
6 TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 CHAP, PAGE 
 
 architecture. — Supremacy of the 
 Papacy in Western Europe. — Boniface 
 
 VIII 113 
 
 V, Looking Toward Reformation, A. D. 
 1294-1517. Forces working against the 
 Papacy, and toward Reformation. — 
 Pontifical reigns and (Ecumenical 
 Councils. — The Renaissance. — Inde- 
 pendent thinkers. — Early reformers , 152 
 VI. The Lutheran Reformation, A. D. 
 1 517-1648. Rise and Development 
 of Protestantism on the Continent. — 
 Luther in Germany. — Zwingli in Switz- 
 erland. Calvin in France . . . 188 
 VII. The English Reformation, A. D. 
 1509-1688. Religion at the accession 
 of Henry VIII. — Assertion of national 
 independence. — Development of Puri- 
 tanism to its final triumph in the acces- 
 sion of William and Mary .231 
 VIII. The Modern Era, A. D. 1648-1900. 
 Opening of the New World,— Religion 
 in Europe and America. — Missionary 
 enterprises. — Freedom and breadth of 
 thought. A new age of philosophy, 
 science and social reform . . . 268 
 
The Story of the Christian 
 Centuries 
 
 PERSONAL AND INTRODUCTORY 
 
 The controlling purpose of this book is 
 to give an interesting and connected 
 account of the great movements by which 
 Christian civilization has been developed. 
 Many intelligent people have a vague 
 notion of the course of things. They are 
 familiar with conspicuous names, they are 
 well read as to isolated events, they are 
 not unacquainted with certain important 
 dates and statistics, but there are such breaks 
 in the chain of their facts that they do 
 not hold together. They have lost the 
 sequences of even the most stupendous occur- 
 rences. But in connection with confessed 
 distrust concerning their fragmentary knowl- 
 edge there is often a warmly expressed de- 
 sire to possess a consistent account of the 
 amazing conquest of the world by Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 9 
 
lo THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 There is, of course, no way of making the 
 study of Human History easy; for the mas- 
 tery of any science depends upon the appli- 
 cation of the mental powers with energy and 
 patience. But if one has at the outset an 
 assurance of satisfactory results; of a life- 
 long enrichment of the mind; and of the 
 acquirement of facility in the study of such 
 individuals and events as are constantly be- 
 ing encountered in general literature, there 
 should be sufficient impulse for a manful 
 attempt to develop a historical imagination, 
 and to gain a rational idea of the general 
 lines of progress by which mankind has 
 made advancement. This assurance is con- 
 fidently held out to those who will begin 
 where Christian history begins, and follow 
 the story of the Christian centuries. Many 
 are kept from wrestling with the mighty 
 problems involved because they are lost in 
 the multitude and apparent confusion of 
 names and dates when they attempt special 
 studies, but they may be encouraged to know 
 that there is a traceable line of development. 
 There has been an ascent of man. There 
 has been unbroken advancement from the 
 first, and if its story can be brought within a 
 moderate compass and can be made logically 
 progressive and complete; if great issues can 
 
INTRODUCTORY ii 
 
 be presented as the romance of a race, and 
 great leaders fairly portrayed, men will be 
 inspired to historical study. I have at- 
 tempted, therefore, to make it all read like 
 a story that moves right on from point to 
 point, hoping thus to secure interest in a 
 marvelous tale, and at the same time to out- 
 line the great movements of history. 
 
 In dividing the Christian centuries into 
 Eight Periods I have not taken an accidental 
 or arbitrary number, but have found that a 
 comprehensive course most naturally and 
 simply breaks up into this number of sec- 
 tions. If the study were to be pursued at 
 greater length each period would be readily 
 subdivided; but in passing as lightly as pos- 
 sible over details and minor incidents one 
 almost inevitably strikes into these great 
 divisions or cycles, each of which is nearly 
 on a parity with the others in point of sig- 
 nificance. 
 
 It is needless to say that no attempt has 
 been made to contribute to the scholarship 
 of the world, in the way of original re- 
 search; and yet the hope is indulged that 
 the treatment will not be found to be un- 
 scholarly. There has been faithful study of 
 many different historians and philosophical 
 writers, and it is fair to say that no facts are 
 
12 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 given without a judicial sifting of evidence, 
 and no opinions expressed which have not 
 resulted from a careful weighing of the 
 problems presented. 
 
 Any student of history in this decade is 
 fortunate in the inheritance of much broad 
 and philosophical thinking on the course of 
 human development. The old "drum and 
 fife" histories, which dealt with campaigns 
 and diplomacies, have been supplanted by 
 a very different class of productions. It 
 has at length come to be recognized that the 
 real forces are mental and spiritual, and that 
 revolutions have been delayed or hastened 
 by the prevalence of ideas and sentiments 
 among whole peoples. Guizot was a student 
 of spiritual causes, as is seen in his history 
 in which is set forth the genius and growth 
 of the French people. John Richard Green 
 delighted to trace the underlying forces 
 that shaped the English nation. Hallam 
 was a philosophical student of history, as 
 also was Mr. Froude. All of these histo- 
 rians may have failed of accuracy and some- 
 times even of justness, but their methods 
 and purposes have been true and productive. 
 
 I have not often attempted to quote 
 authorities; but it affords me peculiar satis- 
 faction to acknowledge my great indebted- 
 
INTRODUCTORY 13 
 
 ness to Prof. George P. Fisher, who com- 
 bines all of the qualities of a really great 
 historian; being at once patient in scholar- 
 ship, conspicuously fair in judgment, broad 
 in sympathies, and virile in his treatment of 
 moral issues. 
 
 As already indicated, I have had in mind 
 not a history of the Church; that is, not a 
 history marking the development of an insti- 
 tution, much less of an organization; but the 
 rise of that interesting and comprehensive 
 civilization which has the Church for its or- 
 ganizing center, and which includes all the 
 elements of human society at its best. No 
 such study, however brief and fragmentary, 
 would rightly approach the theme which did 
 not involve "the divine idea that the New 
 Kingdom should not extirpate, but ennoble, 
 the normal activities of human nature, and 
 appropriate whatever is genuine and of 
 durable worth in the culture and civilization 
 of the race." To those words of Professor 
 Fisher, I will only add these from Bishop 
 Brooks: "All the world's history is eccle- 
 siastical history, is the story of the success 
 and failure, the advance and hindrance of 
 the ideal humanity, — the Church of the liv- 
 ing God." 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 
 
 The study of the rise and progress of 
 Christian civilization properly begins with a 
 glance at the condition of the world at the 
 advent of Christ. For no institution, no 
 form of government, no type of social life, 
 is built without a foundation. The basis for 
 Christianity was deeply laid in the fruitful 
 centuries of Jewish nationality and in the 
 outworkings of thought and life under an- 
 cient civilizations. The Apostolic Period, 
 included within the limits of this chapter, 
 covers only the handful of years between 30 
 A. D. and the close of the first century; and 
 is sharply bounded by the public ministry of 
 Christ and the death of the last Apostles. 
 A brief review of the antecedents of the new 
 religion will, however, be necessary to gain 
 a mastery of the situation, and to give a 
 clear understanding of the work which 
 needed to be done, and of the forces by 
 which it was to be accomplished. 
 
 In the Jewish world we shall find a church 
 which for many generations had existence 
 14 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 15 
 
 without formal organization, and then, for a 
 much longer period, persisted in part be- 
 cause of the completeness and elaborateness 
 of its ecclesiastical structure. In the Patri- 
 archal Age the Church was pre-eminently 
 a family affair. It was institutional only so 
 far as the family and the retinue of servants 
 accepted the religious leadership of the 
 father and master. It does not appear that 
 there was any priestly function preformed 
 by this unmitred head, and yet the very life 
 of religion, the trust and the worship of a 
 covenant God, was in the keeping of such 
 men of faith and fidelity as Abraham, Isaac 
 and Jacob. 
 
 As the life of the church passed into the 
 Mosaic dispensation it underwent a distinct 
 modification. The family became a nation, 
 and religious provision was made for a whole 
 people. Hence the elaborate code, or per- 
 haps codes, of authority, prescribing modes 
 of correct living in the home, in the tribe, 
 and in the nation; and the elaboration of a 
 scheme for worship, and for the establish- 
 ment of a proper priesthood. 
 
 After this came the Davidic Period, when 
 the kingdom was focused in a political and 
 religious capital; when a distinct advance 
 had been made in general culture; when a 
 
i6 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 rich liturgy was growing into use in connec- 
 tion with an impressive Temple service, and 
 the increasing influence of the priesthood. 
 This period passed insensibly into that of 
 the Prophets, who were both teachers and 
 reformers; and who watched with spiritual 
 solicitude the habits and devotions of the 
 people, and greatly enriched the literature 
 of the Church through all the ages to come 
 by their contributions to religious thought 
 in the name of a God of holiness and truth. 
 The next phase of the Jewish Church is 
 widely separated in time and in essential 
 characteristics. Some centuries have passed 
 since the last prophetic deliverance, and 
 many events of moment have modified the 
 life of this religious people. The years of 
 captivity have come and gone. The mass of 
 the Chosen People are widely scattered, and 
 over the nation which still centers in Jeru- 
 salem is the controlling hand of the Roman 
 government. The political power is gone; 
 but with liberty of internal life undisturbed 
 the upper ranks of the Jews are sharply 
 divided by the boundaries of sects which 
 have already become traditional and per- 
 sistent. The Pharisees, originally the Puri- 
 tans of the race, are now largely formalists; 
 the Sadducees are a select body distin- 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 17 
 
 guished by culture and skepticism; the Hero- 
 dians are the court party and adherents of 
 the reigning family; the Essenes, who are 
 much less numerous and influential, repre- 
 sent tendencies which have been persistent 
 in the Church toward asceticism; the mass 
 of the people are not formally identified 
 with any party. 
 
 Perhaps more important than this classi- 
 fication of the leading families was the insti- 
 tution of the Synagogue, which had been 
 developed in the land of captivity and 
 brought back to flourish by the side of the 
 Temple, and more widely and more inti- 
 mately to touch the minds of the people by 
 its simpler service. The Synagogue be- 
 longed in part to the formal Church, declar- 
 ing itself by observable methods of worship; 
 but within the Church and within the Tem- 
 ple also, it was an inner church in which was 
 the real vitality of the old religion and the 
 hope of the new. As the outgrowth of many 
 centuries and great experiences, there arose 
 in Palestine in Christ's day a type of char- 
 acter not elsewhere known on earth, but 
 clearly defined in the few choice men and 
 women who have been made to live through 
 the Gospel narratives. Zacharias, the priest 
 of holiness, Simeon and Anna aged saints 
 
i8 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 of the Temple, Elizabeth and Mary, kins- 
 folk according to the flesh and also according 
 to the spirit, are representatives of that inner 
 circle, untouched by formalism and hypoc- 
 risy, but deeply moved upon by the Spirit 
 and truth of Jehovah, upon whose covenant 
 promise they waited. 
 
 Because Judea was "the hearthstone of the 
 whole Jewish race," and because the Tem- 
 ple was the meeting-place of multitudes dur- 
 ing the great festival seasons, vast numbers 
 of these widely-scattered peoples of the old 
 faith came in contact with the religion which 
 stirred the Holy City on a notable Day of 
 Pentecost. It is necessary, therefore, to 
 take into account the multitudes from all 
 parts of the world's wide empire who were 
 converted to Christianity. St. Peter sent 
 his noble epistle to "the Sojourners of the 
 Dispersion," that is, to the body of Jewish 
 Christians scattered all the way from Pontus 
 and Alexandria to the confines of the Parthi- 
 ans and Medes, eastward, and to Rome and 
 the cities of Gaul, westward. The political 
 unity of the Jewish people was gone, but the 
 bands of race and religion held them closer 
 than ever. They had maintained the faith 
 of Israel, protesting against the superstitions 
 and abominations of the Gentiles; now they 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 19 
 
 furnished "great companies" of believers to 
 the new churches of missionary origin. 
 From this people, whose religious history- 
 was a prelude to the story of Christianity, 
 and whose worship betokened the purer type 
 of the later Church, we turn to the church- 
 less world of the Gentiles. Here corruption 
 was deeper and darker, and unpreparedness 
 for the Kingdom much more marked. Their 
 own religions had not led even a "saving 
 remnant" to wait with longing and hope for 
 the Lord's coming, while the Jewish faith 
 had touched lightly indeed the philosophy 
 and the worship of other nations. Judaism 
 was never aggressive. In the early centuries 
 the comparative freedom of the Jews from 
 idolatry had been gained only by seclusion 
 from Gentile peoples. Even after their own 
 monotheism had become impregnable they 
 lacked the enthusiasm for conquest and the 
 devotion for missionary service. The idol- 
 atrous nations, left to themselves, drifted 
 into an extreme of superstition on the one 
 hand, and of skepticism on the other, that 
 left them "without God and without hope 
 in the world," and subject to the wickedness 
 which in inconceivably gross forms had run 
 riot through the earth. It would appear 
 from this, at first glance, that nothing had 
 
20 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 been accomplished through the centuries, 
 outside of the Chosen People, as a prepara- 
 tion for the work of Christianity. Broader 
 and deeper considerations, however, show 
 that even these outside lands were to a cer- 
 tain extent prepared for the advent of Christ, 
 and that contributions had been made of 
 large value to the enrichment of all mankind 
 and to the furtherance of the Gospel. 
 
 In two positive ways great advancement 
 toward the possible establishment of Chris- 
 tianity was manifest. First, the extension 
 of the Roman Empire had brought the most 
 diverse peoples into bonds of unity. Before 
 the close of the first century the rule of the 
 Csesars reached from Britain and Spain on 
 the seaboard to regions beyond the Euphra- 
 tes, and from provinces beyond the Danube 
 on the north to the desert of Africa on the 
 south. All this served to further the spread 
 of Christianity by breaking down "the 
 barriers of national and race antipathy." 
 Besides establishing order and furnishing 
 protection to life this sway of a single gov- 
 ernment tended constantly to evoke a feeling 
 of unity and mutual interest. Again, the 
 spread of Greek culture and speech quick- 
 ened human minds for the apprehension of 
 the new truth. Delays had been many and 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 21 
 
 long, but now the kingdom was destined to 
 move swiftly to conquest. The way was 
 providentially prepared by the intellectual 
 development of the remarkable people occu- 
 pying the Grecian Peninsula; and by their 
 gift of art, philosophy, science and literature 
 to many other nations. The conquests of 
 Alexander in the East had been speedily 
 followed by the adoption of the Greek lan- 
 guage, and cities of culture had become new 
 centers of influence for the cultivation of 
 Hellenic thought and sentiment. 
 
 On the negative side, also, there was prep- 
 aration for the religion of faith and purity. 
 On the one hand the old mythologies had 
 ceased to command the assent of men. 
 Priests could scarcely conceal their amuse- 
 ment at the absurdities of the sacrifices 
 which were still performed, and which were 
 impressive only to the few. On the other 
 hand religion and philosophy as known to 
 the ancients had utterly failed to mold noble 
 characters, or to build a society of stable 
 qualities.. Indeed, the state of morals was 
 so low that observant men fell into despair 
 in contemplating the prevailing baseness and 
 wretchedness. Licentiousness and cruelty 
 had become characteristic, and the old reli- 
 gion tended to inflame rather than to 
 
22 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 quench the mad passions of her devotees. 
 Men seemed to have reached the very climax 
 of wickedness with no saving force in view. 
 
 As Dean Farrar has said: "The epoch 
 which witnessed the early growth of Chris- 
 tianity was an epoch of which the horror 
 and degradation have rarely been equaled, 
 and perhaps never excelled, in the annals of 
 mankind. Were we to form our sole esti- 
 mate of it from the livid picture of its wick- 
 edness, which St. Paul has painted with 
 powerful strokes, we might suppose that we 
 were judging from too lofty a standpoint." 
 But it is not Paul alone who puts a "terrible 
 brand upon the pride of Heathenism, for 
 there are abundant proofs of the abnormal 
 wickedness which accompanied the deca- 
 dence of the ancient civilization." It was 
 an age of "enormous wealth, of unbounded 
 self-indulgence, of coarse and tasteless lux- 
 ury, of hopeless fatalism, of unspeakable sad- 
 ness and weariness." 
 
 Out of the very hopelessness of the pre- 
 vailing conditions had sprung up a sort of 
 blind hope. There were no lower deeps of 
 misery and degradation into which humanity 
 could plunge. Either the race had run its 
 course or redemptive forces were to appear 
 from some unknown quarter. Either human 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 23 
 
 society was a failure and all things had been 
 brought into hopeless confusion, or the gods 
 would interfere for rescue. Thus it was that 
 a certain expectancy of a crisis and a change 
 was, perhaps unconsciously, finding place in 
 men's minds and preparing them to accept 
 the startling announcements of the Gospel. 
 The foundation for the final and universal 
 religion of earth was laid in an incredibly 
 brief period of activity. The public minis- 
 try of Jesus of Nazareth covered scarcely 
 more than three years. For thirty years he 
 was hidden away in an obscure village of 
 Galilee. Suddenly he came forth from this 
 retreat and took up the work which John the 
 Baptist, as his forerunner, had begun by 
 arousing the people of Judea to an unwonted 
 religious zeal. The Christ manifested him- 
 self in manifold ministrations of grace and 
 power, preaching in Jerusalem and in the 
 cities and fields of Galilee, opening to men 
 new conceptions of the Father and of their 
 own divine sonship, establishing a perfect 
 standard for moral and spiritual character, 
 showing kindness and compassion by word 
 and deed, sealing his devotion to the recov- 
 ery of mankind by submission to the mar- 
 tyrdom of the cross, and demonstrating his 
 transcendent authority and might, by con- 
 
24 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 quering death and appearing to the disciples 
 "under circumstances that dispelled the 
 doubts of the most incredulous man among 
 them as to the reality of his resurrection." 
 
 It was but three years since a handful of 
 men, chiefly from the lower walks of life, 
 had been called to the companionship and 
 instruction of the Man of Galilee; but dur- 
 ing that brief period they had become im- 
 bued with his spirit, animated by his views 
 of the Kingdom of God, and established in 
 the sublime faith that the earth had at last 
 found its Redeemer. They met together for 
 some days in a room in the city of Jerusalem, 
 "about a hundred and twenty" in all, cher- 
 ishing sacred memories and waiting for the 
 promised power of the Spirit. They were 
 for the time apart from the world; and were 
 probably lost sight of by those who had pur- 
 sued their Master with murderous malignity. 
 
 The Day of Pentecost, with the usual 
 gathering at Jerusalem of vast numbers of 
 Jewish peoples from every quarter of the 
 earth, had now come. It lay within the 
 divine plan to make this the baptismal-day 
 of the Christian Church. It became evident 
 to the little company of disciples, chastened 
 by sorrow and ripened by prayer, that this 
 was the opportunity for public announce- 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 25 
 
 ment of great facts of which they had been 
 eye-witnesses. At the first stir, word of 
 what was transpiring ran like wildfire, and 
 multitudes were brought together to hear the 
 first Christian preacher, who, filled with the 
 Holy Ghost, was proclaiming with unexam- 
 pled boldness the testimony of God as given 
 through Jesus of Nazareth and calling men 
 to repentance and faith. Minds already 
 rendered alert by the previous teachings of 
 Christ and by the happenings of recent days 
 gave ready attention, and before nightfall 
 "about three thousand souls" were baptized 
 in the faith and loyalty of true discipleship, 
 and a new organization was formed which is 
 yet to make complete its beneficent conquest 
 of the world. 
 
 The extension of Christianity from Jeru- 
 salem and Judea to the regions beyond was 
 accomplished in two ways. It was brought 
 about immediately and naturally by the dis- 
 persion of the Christians, who carried with 
 them the thrilling story of the cross and of 
 the new faith. Many went back from the 
 scenes of Pentecost to gladden their homes 
 with a new message, and with uplifted lives; 
 and many others were scattered abroad by 
 the persecutions which assailed the infant 
 Church. The very effort which designing 
 
26 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 men had made to complete the work of 
 stamping out the new faith which they had 
 supposed successfully accomplished on the 
 night of the crucifixion, was one of the 
 means used in the ordering of Providence 
 for rapidly spreading the good news. The 
 advance of the Kingdom was also steadily 
 pushed by the disciples who within a few 
 weeks had been transformed into Apostles 
 of the Christian faith. Almost immediately 
 they had been called to Samaria, a half-way 
 foreign section, to assist an Evangelist who 
 had begun work at the ancient capital of 
 Israel. A little later, at Joppa, Peter had 
 a vision of the world-wide scope of the 
 Gospel; and at about the same time Saul of 
 Tarsus received and accepted a summons 
 to lay down his opposition to the Nazarene 
 and take up in place of it a commission to 
 preach among the Gentiles the saving grace 
 of God. 
 
 There is nothing on record more provi- 
 dential than the conversion of Paul. He 
 was not absolutely indispensable to the 
 cause of humanity, only the Christ is that; 
 and yet it is well-nigh impossible to think 
 of the early triumphs of the Gospel apart 
 from the services of this man. His gifts by 
 inheritance and early training were all in 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 27 
 
 the direction of an apostolic equipment; and 
 when by a radical conversion the very foun- 
 dations of his character were laid in that of 
 his Master he became at once his chosen 
 messenger. He put aside every other am- 
 bition and became a man with one mas- 
 ter-passion. With limitless energy and 
 unflagging zeal he pushed forward the work. 
 No dangers daunted him, no obstacles 
 checked his enthusiasm, no labors exhausted 
 his devotion, no disappointments clouded 
 his faith. For him to live was Christ. 
 
 It is hardly fair to say that the other 
 apostles were not abundant in labors, even 
 if they fell behind the great missionary to 
 the Gentiles, The apostle John continued 
 through prosecutions and manifold changes 
 to illustrate in the region about Ephesus the 
 love and spirituality of his Master. St. 
 Peter became, by the discipline of years, a 
 saint indeed, and labored by the special 
 "call" of his taste and aptitudes among his 
 countrymen in the east around Babylon. 
 There seems to be substantial truth in the 
 traditions which assign the sphere of 
 Andrew's preaching to Scythia; that of 
 Thomas to Parthia and India; and that of 
 Mark to Alexandria. 
 
 Whatever may have been the details of 
 
28 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 apostolic services, there is no doubt what- 
 ever touching the general fact of the exten- 
 sion of the Kingdom during the first fruitful 
 century of Christianity. It traversed the 
 length and breadth of the empire, from the 
 Pillars of Hercules to the banks of the 
 Indus. A chain of great cities was held 
 fast for a new doctrine, and strong churches 
 were planted in them, which became cen- 
 ters of missionary activities. Before the 
 last of the apostles had passed away the new 
 religion was powerfully organized in Jeru- 
 salem, in Antioch and Ephesus on the 
 Asiatic shore; and in Philippi, Corinth and 
 Rome on the continent of Europe, while in 
 scores of smaller towns churches were formed 
 and active enterprises set on foot. 
 
 This was an amazing accomplishment in 
 the face of a corrupt and indifferent hea- 
 thenism, and of a stubborn and malignant 
 Judaism. But the significance of the 
 achievement is not to be measured by the 
 statistics of converts or even of devoted 
 workers. The Kingdom cometh not by 
 observation. There was little at this period 
 to challenge the attention, much less to 
 awaken the apprehensions of the political 
 leaders of the Empire. If every item of 
 outward progress had been detailed to a 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 29 
 
 Roman official he would have yawned over 
 the tedious recital and scoffed at any predic- 
 tions of the ultimate conquest of the earth. 
 The multitudes still adhered to the heathen 
 religions. Nevertheless the larger fact re- 
 mains, — as we now see it in retrospect, — that 
 Christianity had won a place in the Empire, 
 that it had secured a vantage ground from 
 which the complete conquest was surely to 
 be made. Certain forces had begun to 
 operate which were rapidly becoming irre- 
 sistible. 
 
 It may be a matter of historical interest 
 to make mention of a half-dozen significant 
 gains which at the close of the first century 
 stood to the credit of the new religion. In 
 the first place, the Church had become 
 organized. Compared with the complete 
 institution of to-day it was exceedingly sim- 
 ple, and to the minds of many may seem to 
 have lacked both impressiveness and effec- 
 tiveness. Each community of Christians 
 found a sufficient basis for worship and 
 mutual helpfulness in the growing sense of 
 brotherhood. Without elaborate organiza- 
 tion each "company of believers" became 
 a composite body; while between the differ- 
 ent churches communications were con- 
 stantly passing in a way to emphasize the 
 
30 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 larger unity of all Christians. At first there 
 had oeen merely a great unorganized com- 
 pany of converts at Jerusalem, with smaller 
 groups in outlying towns and cities. Grad- 
 ually a scheme of organization was devised 
 and put into practice, partly under the per- 
 sonal supervision of the apostles and partly 
 in adaptation to circumstances and exigen- 
 cies. The historical book of "The Acts of 
 the Apostles," and also the Epistles, are 
 almost barren of suggestion as to the details 
 of ecclesiastical structure, the Church having 
 evidently been left to adapt itself to the 
 demands of each land and age. With this 
 liberty, but with the necessity upon it of 
 maintaining vigorous life and aggressive 
 activities, it finally built itself up as a vital 
 organism in the midst of human society. 
 
 In connection with its orderly life Chris- 
 tianity established the institution of Lord's 
 Day worship. It is apparent from Paul's 
 letters that during his day the question of 
 Sabbath observance was not settled beyond 
 dispute. "One man esteemeth one day 
 above another; another esteemeth every day 
 alike. Let each man be fully assured in his 
 own mind," he had written to the Romans. 
 But by the end of the century the Jewish 
 Christians had yielded their traditional 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 31 
 
 regard for the Seventh Day, while the Gen- 
 tile converts were being educated to the lov- 
 ing observance of the first day of the week; 
 and the consecration of a memorial day to 
 the Risen Saviour had become characteristic 
 of the Christian Church. 
 
 Another distinct gain, and one of a value 
 too great to be measured, is discovered in 
 the higher standard of character and con- 
 duct which had become established in 
 society. In nothing was the Church more 
 in contrast with the heathen order of things. 
 Shameless disregard for pure sentiments, for 
 manly honor and womanly virtue, had dis- 
 tinguished the civilization which was being 
 displaced. Now came about in every Chris- 
 tian community a reformation of morals 
 which presented a new type of personal 
 character and of family life. The regener- 
 ation of society was shown to be a possibil- 
 ity and new ideas and forces were actively 
 at work to bring this about. 
 
 Christianity, in its adjustment to social con- 
 ditions had taken another long step toward 
 universal dominion. The policy by which 
 alone it could have enjoyed continuous and 
 productive life through the ages, was estab- 
 lished during the first century. If only an 
 ideal condition of things could be tolerated, 
 
32 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 then the new religion must have fallen at 
 the first conflict with ancient institutions. 
 These could not at once be either abolished 
 or reformed. Under the example of the 
 Master and the wise instruction of the 
 apostles, Christianity became tolerant, 
 patient, adaptable; leaving time to elimi- 
 nate wrongs and injustices, and to bring 
 about a more equitable legislation and nobler 
 customs. It was a complex and difficult task 
 which the new religion assumed, — to actually 
 regenerate the world, to modify social rela- 
 tions and to shape governments in the inter- 
 est of fairness and kindness. Only the 
 policy established in the apostolic period 
 could have made the undertaking a hopeful 
 one. By it even slaves of heathen masters 
 were taught to "adorn the doctrine of 
 Christ" by lives of patient faithfulness, and 
 the subjects of usurping kings were urged 
 to obedience and loyalty, in the interest of 
 peace and good order. 
 
 It is too great a thing to be passed over, 
 — that Christianity had already firmly estab- 
 lished in the world the active principle of 
 benevolence. The old world knew no 
 charity. The Jews had their tithing and 
 free-will offerings, but these were mainly 
 devoted to the support of their Temple 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 33 
 
 service, and their charity never went beyond 
 the limits of their own nationality. Among 
 the most cultivated people of heathendom, 
 the sentiment of benevolence was unfelt and 
 its practice unknown. With the introduc- 
 tion of Christianity came a new conception 
 of the mission of man and a new spirit to 
 animate him. During the earliest weeks at 
 Jerusalem after the Pentecostal outpouring 
 a wave of generosity and brotherliness swept 
 over the young Church. It was the spirit 
 of love which was born never to die. The 
 apostles urged upon Paul as he set forth on 
 his missionary journey that which he was 
 himself zealous to do, namely, to "remem- 
 ber the poor." Everywhere his converts 
 responded to his appeals for brotherly help, 
 and before the first generation of Christians 
 had passed away it had become a matter of 
 course to send even across the sea contribu- 
 tions from the favored to the unfortunate. 
 Nothing is more vital to Christianity than 
 the spirit of charity, and certainly nothing 
 is more closely associated with the redemp- 
 tion of the world. And the fact is signifi- 
 cant that the foundation for the present 
 world-wide philanthropy was laid far back 
 in the apostolic century. 
 
 One other achievement of lasting value 
 
34 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 belonging to this earliest period was the 
 accumulation of a body of sacred literature. 
 We have become accustomed to our com- 
 pleted Bible, but when Paul began his mis- 
 sionary journeys the world had a collection 
 of inspired Scriptures no larger than during 
 the reign of the Maccabees. Christ had 
 given the people no writings, and had 
 apparently laid no injunctions upon any man 
 to put into permanent form the story of his 
 life and the record of his teachings. The 
 whole matter was left to take care of itself. 
 It seems a terrible risk to have taken, but 
 by the end of the century the work had been 
 accomplished. By that time the aged and 
 spiritually-minded St. John had written his 
 last message of love, while behind it lay in 
 succession the Gospel memoirs, and the 
 apostolic letters which special circum- 
 stances had called forth during forty years of 
 intense activity in widely separated fields of 
 Christian labor. These writings, produced 
 in answer to immediate wants and unfore- 
 seen emergencies, were certainly the fruitage 
 of the Spirit's influence upon minds already 
 soundly Christian; and the response of the 
 Church to these records and revelations is 
 as profound and tender to-day as when they 
 were compiled in that early century. 
 
THE APOSTOLIC PERIOD 35 
 
 To sum up the achievements of the apos- 
 tolic period we may say that the work of 
 redemption was then well begun. The seed 
 was planted; foundations were laid; organ- 
 ization was being perfected; vital forces had 
 been set in operation. The end could not 
 be doubtful in view of the prevailing power 
 of truth, the vitality of righteousness, the 
 irresistible might of love. Problems were 
 still untouched, numberless difficulties were 
 still in the way, opposition was to prove 
 almost endless, yet the Kingdom had come, 
 and a new day had already begun to dawn. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 
 
 The second period in the development of 
 Christianity is sharply defined. It extends 
 from the death of the last apostle to the 
 conversion of the Emperor Constantine and 
 the consequent change in the relation of 
 the new religion to the state. The Church 
 entered upon this period without the per- 
 sonal guidance and inspiration of those who 
 had been immediately associated with its 
 Founder. As the Twelve had been left 
 alone in the world upon the ascension of 
 their Master, so now the great body of dis- 
 ciples constituting the Church and represent- 
 ing Christ in the world was left without an 
 authoritative source of personal appeal. 
 With multiplying problems of thought and 
 action; with an expanding field and an 
 intensified opposition, the young church 
 increasingly asserted itself as a regenerating 
 force in human society. The first stage had 
 been successfully passed, and the second 
 was opening with the promise born of 
 achievements already remarkable It was 
 36 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 37 
 
 only three-quarters of a century since the 
 close of Christ's ministry, but the Word had 
 been proclaimed in many lands to vast mul- 
 titudes; the great centers of the Empire 
 were already held by strong churches, and 
 the new ideas were silently molding the 
 sentiments of men. At the beginning of 
 this period Christianity had scarcely at- 
 tracted the attention of the Roman officials 
 as a separate religion. During the progress 
 of two centuries it was set upon by the 
 forces of the government under the aroused 
 animosity of emperors and people. At the 
 close of that period it was established as the 
 religion of the Empire. 
 
 It will be worth while, first of all, to note 
 more exactly the extent of Christianity, and 
 the points of vantage it had gained in the 
 great campaign which it was conducting 
 during this period. 
 
 At the end of the third century the Church 
 was not further removed in time from the 
 days of apostolic labor than we, at the be- 
 ginning of the twentieth century, are from 
 the settlements of the English in Massachu- 
 setts Bay, and of the Dutch along the Hud- 
 son. By that time there was a flourishing 
 church at Edessa in the heart of the Meso- 
 potamian valley, counting the king in its 
 
38 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 membership. Beyond this region eastward 
 the Gospel had been effectively preached in 
 Persia, Media, Parthia, and Bactria, cer- 
 tainly in Arabia, and possibly in India. 
 Along the then populous northern shore of 
 Africa was a chain of strong churches, be- 
 ginning at Alexandria on the Nile and 
 extending through Gyrene to Garthage, 
 which was in religious matters, as long be- 
 fore in commerce and arms, a rival of 
 Rome. At Lyons there was a vigorous 
 church, whose leaders were influencing the 
 thought of Christendom. Other points in 
 Gaul had also been occupied. There were 
 likewise outposts of Christianity in Ger- 
 many west of the Rhine, with probably a 
 foothold gained in Britain. The three great 
 rivers along the northern boundaries of the 
 Empire, the Thames, the Rhine and the 
 Danube, were touched by the streams of 
 Christian influence while the shores of the 
 "Great Sea" (The Mediterranean) nowhere 
 failed to respond to the appeals of the new 
 religion. 
 
 It is impossible to calculate with even 
 approximate accuracy the numbers of actual 
 adherents of the church in the various lands; 
 nor would it, indeed, profit greatly to have 
 full statistics of communicants and support- 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 39 
 
 ers. The mere rehearsal of figures gained 
 from missionary reports to-day from India 
 and Japan gives but faint indication of the 
 power and promise of Christianity in those 
 countries. So was it in the Roman Empire 
 at the close of the third century. In an 
 outward way a successful policy had been 
 pursued since the days of St. Paul's wise 
 enterprise; the Christian forces were massed 
 in cities. Christianity held the centers of 
 wide-reaching influence. Antioch was the 
 seat of an immense church, estimated at fifty 
 thousand. Alexandria had been almost 
 entirely captured by the new faith; Rome 
 and Carthage were bulwarks for Christianity 
 against pagan attack; and so the story runs 
 throughout the Empire. 
 
 Moreover, the new religion presented an 
 unbroken front against the divided forces of 
 the enemy. The heathen had many gods 
 and many cults, so that there could be no 
 effective combination of religious forces as 
 opposed to the united adherents of the cause 
 of Christ, and the faith of the one God. 
 Furthermore, there was in Christianity in- 
 herent truth and spiritual power. Within 
 the visible organization were unseen forces 
 which the world could not estimate; but 
 with which it had finally to reckon. 
 
40 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Looking back upon the status of Chris- 
 tianity in the light of this measurement of 
 its advantages it is easy to say, "It could 
 not have failed to conquer the world" ; and 
 yet in our historical study we must take into 
 account the tremendous problem which it 
 was compelled to face all through these 
 early, experimental centuries. The vastness 
 and complexity of the undertaking is under- 
 stood when it is declared to have been noth- 
 ing less than the control of the whole of 
 human life. Not that this was distinctly 
 aimed at by the leaders at the outset. They 
 thought only to make converts and gather 
 them into the churches; they thought to 
 withstand the attacks of hostile classes and 
 to build up the new organization. But the 
 real work which Christianity had to do was 
 deeper, broader and more varied. It set out 
 to be a universal religion, but to become 
 that it must dominate the whole of life — in 
 the individual, in the family, in society, in 
 government, and in the current thoughts and 
 sentiments of men. 
 
 See how much that meant in the second 
 century. The man who was a slave to 
 sensuality must gain purity and self-control; 
 the man who was cruel and heartless must be- 
 come gentle and sympathetic; the man who 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 41 
 
 was untouched by moral claims must become 
 conscientious; the man who was crooked in 
 his dealings must become fair and honest. 
 Yet even so great a task was successfully- 
 undertaken. Of course, faults which to-day 
 would be inexcusable — especially those 
 looking toward vanity or coarseness — were 
 not uncommon; and yet the defenders of 
 Christianity could point to a change in the 
 type of personal character under the influ- 
 ence of the new religion which amounted to 
 a moral Evolution. So far as social life 
 was concerned two tendencies had to be 
 steadfastly resisted; the one being the tend- 
 ency toward seclusion from the world, the 
 other being the tendency toward concession 
 to prevailing customs. It was not so simple 
 a matter to adjust a pure religion to the multi- 
 farious demands of pagan society,and yet this 
 is what Christianity actually succeeded in 
 doing. It neither shut itself into a clois- 
 tered life, nor did it lose character through 
 accommodation to an evil world. In the 
 retrospect it seems an amazing accomplish- 
 ment. At the outset everything was tainted 
 with corruption. The old religion was 
 full of superstitions, empty forms, and de- 
 grading ceremonies; business was often 
 connected with the traffic fostered by idol- 
 
42 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 atry and magic; amusements were cruel or 
 base. 
 
 How could Christianity live in the midst 
 of a social life honeycombed with vice? 
 How maintain the family when a part re- 
 mained heathen? How conduct business or 
 pursue trade in dealing chiefly with pagans? 
 How share in a government which was ad- 
 ministered in connection with superstitious 
 rites? How could a standard radically new 
 be introduced and maintained in the daily 
 friction and unavoidable conflict with ancient 
 prejudices and habits? All of the old could 
 not "be abrogated or abolished without de- 
 stroying the very bonds of society with its 
 institutions and activities. It must needs 
 assimilate much of the old life, transforming 
 it gradually by the new spirit and the 
 higher moral standards. It must infuse new 
 ideas and sentiments which in time would 
 modify the very structure of society. 
 
 To accomplish this Christianity had two 
 revolutionary forces at command — the new 
 idea of God and the new idea of man. The 
 ancient conception of Deity was either in- 
 effective or debasing; but Christianity gave 
 men the idea of a Supreme Being to be wor- 
 shiped with profound reverence; to be loved 
 for his boundless grace; to be trusted for 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 43 
 
 his goodness and wisdom; and to be ap- 
 proached in spiritual and personal fellow- 
 ship. The ancient conception of man either 
 ignored the individual as contemptible or 
 incorporated him into the state for which he 
 was supposed to exist; but Christianity pre- 
 sented him in his dignity as made in the 
 image of God, and in his worth as redeemed 
 by a loving Saviour. The practical bearing 
 of these ideas upon the inner consciousness 
 and the outward activities of men was im- 
 mediate. Society turned from the debasing 
 superstitions of the past and from "the tu- 
 mult of sensual pleasures to which the world 
 was devoted," and before three centuries 
 had passed there was presented a new phase 
 of life and a new promise of development 
 toward good will, refinement, and noble 
 enterprise. 
 
 By the side of the changes which were 
 brought about in the social and political 
 world were others which pertained to the 
 Church. At first its structure was exceed- 
 ingly simple and flexible. As the centuries 
 went by it became more highly organized 
 and more firmly set in its forms of adminis- 
 tration, through changes which may be 
 traced in successive periods. The develop- 
 ment of a formal and elaborate system of 
 
44 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 church government is not to be identified 
 with the advance of Christianity. Never- 
 theless it presents an important phase of the 
 progressive life of the new religion. 
 
 It all came about in the most natural, one 
 might say inevitable, way. For the sake of 
 interior development and outward extension 
 the church was compelled to take on a more 
 and more elaborate organization. It fol- 
 lowed the universal rule of life, the prevail- 
 ing mode of evolution, which is from 
 simplicity to complexity. The details of 
 the process, as in so many other instances, 
 are lost. The first half of this period was 
 apparently not a literary age, and small care 
 seems to have been given to preservation of 
 such records as were made. Undoubtedly, 
 there were two demands for a more perfect 
 organization of Christians in the then com- 
 mon life. On the one hand each individual 
 church would naturally find in the increase 
 of membership, and in its multiplied rela- 
 tions to society, need of officers and com- 
 mittees; and, on the other hand, the various 
 churches would naturally come into corre- 
 spondence with one another for mutual 
 interest, and this would call for the appoint- 
 ment of officials of a wide range of authority. 
 In this process of specialization the clergy 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 45 
 
 became a distinct class set apart from the 
 laity; then from among the clergy certain 
 ones were selected for superintendence of a 
 group of churches. In this way the simple 
 presbyter of the apostolic church became a 
 bishop with the oversight perhaps of a 
 province. Then to the metropolitan bishops 
 was conceded more of influence and author- 
 ity than to those of the country districts. 
 The influence of prevailing methods of civil 
 governments, together with individual am- 
 bitions for official recognition, brought 
 about the evolution of the archbishop. 
 Finally the archbishops at a few great cen- 
 ters, like Antioch, Alexandria and Rome, 
 became primates or patriarchs. 
 
 Before the second century closed great 
 gatherings began to be held for the consider- 
 ation of practical questions affecting the 
 churches everywhere, and there was an 
 inevitable demand for leadership; so the 
 ecclesiastical spirit found development, and 
 the way was opened for the ascendancy of 
 the few, and finally of the one. The Epistle 
 of Clement 96 A. D. has not a word about 
 the bishop of Rome. The Epistles of 
 Ignatius, Bishop of Antioch, 140 A. D., in- 
 sist with tedious iteration on the necessity 
 of order in the churches, to be secured by 
 
46 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 obeying their own bishops. It was not until 
 about 170 A. D. that record was made of the 
 notion that St. Peter was the founder of the 
 church at Rome. Once accepted however, 
 the fact was magnified into importance and 
 dogmatic significance. The claim was 
 maintained that the primacy of Peter among 
 the disciples established that of his succes- 
 sor among the churches. Thus was secured 
 supreme authority for the Bishop of Rome. 
 Together with these hierarchical tenden- 
 cies were others of a ritualistic character. At 
 first the worship of the Lord's Day had been 
 exceedingly simple and spontaneous. From 
 the Epistle of Clement and the Teaching of 
 the Apostles, written about the year 100, we 
 learn that forms of prayer were coming into 
 use, first in connection with the Lord's Sup- 
 per and later as embodied in liturgies which 
 were committed to memory. The simple 
 confession of faith made at the baptism of a 
 convert was at this time expanded into 
 what is now known as the Apostles' Creed, 
 the legend of its composition arising some- 
 what later. Gradually the sermon became 
 developed into a necessary part of the serv- 
 ice, partly as an outgrowth of the exhorta- 
 tion accompanying the Scripture reading, 
 and partly an adaptation of the homily of 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 47 
 
 Grecian philosophers. During this period 
 the Christian Festivals were established, 
 some of them doubtless taking the place of 
 certain heathen celebrations. Easter was 
 the earliest in observance. Epiphany, com- 
 memorating the visit of the magi, was 
 adopted first in the eastern and later in the 
 western Church to symbolize the manifesta- 
 tion of Christ to the Gentiles. Christmas, 
 which was celebrated at the winter solstice, 
 came to be generally observed as the ani- 
 versary of the birth of the Founder of Chris- 
 tianity. 
 
 It is interesting to see how in connection 
 with this elaboration of the service of the 
 Church came about the use of consecrated 
 edifices. For the first two centuries almost 
 no special buildings were used; and hence 
 there is scarcely a reference in early liter- 
 ature to the sacredness of the places of wor- 
 ship. It was the custom to secure rooms 
 and halls for gatherings, small or great as 
 the case might be, like the "upper room" 
 where Christ held fellowship and conference 
 with his disciples. Very general use was 
 made of the Basilica which was common in 
 the West. It was the offspring of the 
 Roman civilization and served a purpose not 
 unlike that of our Town-hall or Exchange, a 
 
48 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 place' of public resort and official transac- 
 tions. It contained abroad central aisle for 
 the chance crowd, and two side aisles, with 
 inner rows of columns; one for the male and 
 one for the female appellants. At the end, 
 which was semi-circular in form, was a plat- 
 form or "tribunal" for the judge. It came 
 into general adoption by the churches partly 
 because it'was to be found in all the centers 
 of population and partly because it was 
 adapted to early habits of assemblage in 
 separating the sexes and in furnishing a 
 special place for the clergy and the singers. 
 In a general way, too, it gave expression to 
 the popular life favored by Christianity, in 
 contrast with the exclusiveness of both the 
 Jewish and the Pagan temples. Thus the 
 Basilica gradually became associated with 
 established forms of worship; the solemn 
 beauty of the Gothic cathedral being the ex- 
 pression of the worship of a much later time. 
 To this period belongs the development 
 of two great heresies, one of which plagued 
 the churches for several centuries. The 
 first of these is covered by the general term 
 Gnosticism, the other being known as 
 Ebionism. The Founder of Christianity 
 had declared that it must needs be that 
 offences come. And come they did in 
 
CENTURIES OP PERSECUTION 49 
 
 many an obstacle which the new religion 
 had to surmount, and in a menacing form 
 they came in these two great schemes of 
 thought which arising from a vigorous 
 and self-asserting intellectualism sought to 
 either absorb or overthrow Christianity. 
 Indeed there were three distinct sources of 
 religious philosophy with which Christianity 
 was compelled to have a reckoning in the 
 early centuries. One was characteristically 
 oriental, the second was Grecian, and the 
 third a composite of Hellenism and Judaism, 
 developed in the school of Alexandria. 
 
 The genius of Gnosticism was pride of 
 knowledge, and the boast of its devotee was 
 that in the profundity and breadth of his 
 thinking he held the solution of all the 
 problems of the universe including that of 
 the redemption of mankind. The germ of 
 this self exalting Gnosticism appeared in 
 the Church as early as the time when St. 
 Paul wrote to the Colossians warning them 
 against a "show of wisdom" which lay in 
 philosophy and vain deceit, and which was 
 really "after the traditions of men and the 
 rudiments of the world." It developed into 
 various schools which need not here be de- 
 scribed; but in a general way it may be said 
 to have been given to fanciful speculations 
 
50 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 both Pantheistic and Dualistic. It patron- 
 ized Christianity as a source of knowledge, 
 but treated the writings of the New Testa- 
 ment in the most captious and arbitrary 
 fashion. Its advocates held that Christ was 
 a mere man, but was at the same time the 
 mask for a higher being, the heavenly 
 Christ, who acted through him. They ac- 
 cepted the idea of redemption which they 
 found suggested in the Gospels, but made it 
 consist in the liberation of the psychical na- 
 ture from the entanglement of matter, which 
 they looked upon as essentially evil. 
 
 That branch of the Gnostic school known 
 as Manichaeism, to which Augustine be- 
 longed before his conversion, was perhaps 
 the most prominent and persistent. There 
 was in it only the slightest infusion of Chris- 
 tianity. Its adherents held that the universe 
 was divided into the kingdom of light and 
 the kingdom of darkness; that in human 
 nature these two elements are mingled by 
 the evil work of Satan; and that the spirits 
 of light who work for the redemption of the 
 world have their abode in the sun. The 
 sect was thoroughly organized. It spread 
 throughout the East and into the Western 
 Empire, and lingered on into the middle 
 ages. 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 51 
 
 The Ebionites probably had their origin 
 in a company of Jewish Christians who were 
 first gathered in a town east of the Jordan. 
 Their name, which signifies "the poor," 
 may have been given them in contempt for 
 their condition, or it may have been self- 
 assumed to show their acceptance of the sup- 
 posed standard of Christianity in the 
 primitive Church. They incorporated into 
 their system much that was Christian, but 
 corrupted it in their obstinate devotion to 
 the peculiarities of the Jewish religion. 
 They held to the old covenant, exalted legal 
 righteousness, denied the unique birth of 
 Christ, conceded that the present world be- 
 longs to the devil, and maintained the value 
 of asceticism. Their perversion of Chris- 
 tian teaching, however, disturbed only the 
 Church in Syria. As a distinct sect they do 
 not belong to a later date than the third 
 century. 
 
 Among all these speculative and philo- 
 sophical systems, sometimes dangerously 
 hostile and sometimes far more dangerously 
 friendly to Christianity, the Church held 
 firmly to her own way, magnifying the great 
 facts and the pure life of the Gospel, and 
 refusing to be either absorbed or annihi- 
 lated. 
 
52 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 It was in meeting those perilous philoso- 
 phies and other inimical influences that 
 Christianity developed much of the liter- 
 ature which has survived to modern times. 
 To the second century belongs the priceless 
 work of collecting and preserving the apos- 
 tolic writings. The earliest Gospels were 
 oral, for at first these sacred writings were 
 not considered essential to the life of the 
 churches. One after another the four 
 "memoirs" of the life of Christ were put 
 into written form. The various epistles 
 were all occasional, having been called out 
 by the exigencies of churches scattered all 
 the way from the extreme East to the ex- 
 treme West, and were cherished for a time 
 only in the particular churches to which 
 they had been addressed. By the begin- 
 ning of the second century various manu- 
 scripts were in circulation which could with 
 difficulty be distinguished from genuine 
 apostolic writings. Out of this condition 
 arose the necessity of sifting out and pre- 
 serving the documents which had come from 
 authoritative sources. The process was 
 gradual by which the results were gained 
 which have endured the test of time. At 
 the end of this period no fewer than five 
 books now in the Canon, viz., James, Second 
 
CENTURIES OP PERSECUTION 53 
 
 Peter, Second and Third John, and Revela- 
 tion, were named by Eusebius as "antile- 
 gomena," that is, spoken against; and for a 
 number of decades certain other writings 
 were held to be of doubtful authority. 
 
 Not much of the literature of the second 
 century is extant. Probably literary pro- 
 ductions were not numerous, and many that 
 lived for a time have perished through mul- 
 tiplied vicissitudes. Among the most 
 interesting and valuable of these that survive 
 may be named the Epistle of Clement, sent 
 to the Corinthian Church from Rome about 
 96 A. D., to pacify certain contentions 
 there; the "Teachings of the Twelve Apos- 
 tles," discovered in 1875, which is one of 
 the earliest writings after the days of the 
 apostles, having been probably constructed 
 at the close of the first century. It is a 
 manual of instructions for catechumens, and 
 gives rules for the reception of different 
 classes, with regulations for worship and 
 discipline, together with practical instruc- 
 tion as to Christian conduct. 
 
 "The Epistle to Diognetus" is considered 
 the gem of these early productions. It is 
 poor and spiritless in style, but wide in its 
 scope of doctrine; showing the worthless- 
 ness of idolatry, and exposing the defective- 
 
54 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ness of Jewish worship and customs. At 
 about the same date, not far from the mid- 
 dle of the second century, was sent forth the 
 Epistle to the Philippians, by Polycarp, who 
 in youth sat at the feet of the apostle John, 
 and in his old age gave testimony to his 
 Christian faith by martyrdom. 
 
 A little later than this Aristides wrote the 
 first of a long series of "Apologies," called 
 out by misunderstandings of the spirit and 
 teachings of Christianity. Some were ad- 
 dressed to Emperors and some were de- 
 signed to influence the people whose 
 opposition had grown out of ignorance and 
 bitter prejudice. The best known of these 
 is by Justin Martyr. His personal history 
 is exceedingly interesting and shows a 
 providential training for the defense of 
 Christianity. Probably of Greek extraction, 
 he spent the years of opening manhood first 
 as a Stoic, then as a Pythagorean, and then 
 as a Platonist, in earnest but vain search for 
 the truth about God. At last he was con- 
 verted to Christianity by conversation with 
 a venerable disciple with whom he strolled 
 by the seashore. One of his apologies was 
 addressed to Antoninus Pius, another as 
 vainly to the Roman Senate. 
 
 Some of the ablest writings of the second 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 55 
 
 and third centuries were by members of the 
 famous catechetical school of Alexandria. 
 *^Many influences had combined to make this 
 school a center of learning and philosophy. 
 Within it was developed what we should 
 call a Theological Seminary, for the discus- 
 sion of abstruse points of divinity. The 
 name of Flavins Clement, one of the leaders 
 in Christian thought, has come down to us 
 under the title of "Clement of Alexandria." 
 He was a man of broad culture and catholic 
 temper, an extensive traveler and a pro- 
 found student of philosophy and the ancient 
 classics. Origen who followed him, and 
 who won an even higher place in that illus- 
 trious group of thinkers, was a man of 
 herculean labors and a pioneer in the mazes 
 of "Systematic Theology." As an ex- 
 pounder of Scripture he favored an unpro- 
 ductive and misleading method of allegoriz- 
 ing sacred history; yet his work was of the 
 greatest value in defense of Christianity, 
 especially against the shrewd and scholarly 
 opponent, Celsus. 
 
 In the North African Church was Tertul- 
 lian, born about 160, highly educated in 
 poetry, philosophy and the science of the 
 day and trained to the law. He was con- 
 verted when thirty years of age, and be- 
 
56 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 came a most eminent and prolific writer. 
 Belonging to the Western Church also was 
 Irenaus, who became bishop of Lyons. 
 His birthplace was in the East, where in 
 youth he was a disciple of the aged Poly- 
 carp, but in later years he drifted westward, 
 and from his Gallic bishopric sent out elab- 
 orate confutations of the various heresies 
 which were disturbing the Church. 
 
 At the beginning of this period the weap- 
 ons of literature were in hostile hands, but 
 before its close the Church had brought into 
 its service all kinds of composition known 
 to paganism, and had given abundant 
 demonstrations of a faith which dared to 
 assert itself against every form of philosophy 
 and religion known to the world. 
 
 We are now prepared to trace the devious 
 but upward course by which the Christian 
 Church passed through the ignominy and 
 suffering of two centuries of persecution to 
 final safety and eminence through the con- 
 version of a Roman emperor. 
 
 The persecutions of the early Church had 
 three sources. The smaller number orig- 
 inated in the sheer cruelty of monsters like 
 Nero and Domitian, who vented their bru- 
 tish passions upon an unoffending people. 
 A much larger class were the more or less 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 57 
 
 direct result of popular alarm and hatred. 
 This was the cause of the outbreak under 
 Trajan. Although not formally recognized 
 by the authorities as the ground of hostile 
 attack upon Christians, yet this aversion of 
 the populace was often behind the un- 
 friendly treatment of the new religion. It 
 is difficult for one who knows only the 
 beneficence of Christianity to understand 
 why in any age there should have been rage 
 and bitterness against the adherents of the 
 Nazarene. But in the early centuries each 
 class of citizens found a reason for its 
 antipathy. The high-born Roman, the 
 haughtiest aristocrat the world has seen, had 
 less of hatred than of disgust and contempt. 
 To him the idea of making artisans and even 
 slaves sharers with him in the brotherhood 
 of Christ, in common humanity and dignity 
 of life, was extremely distasteful. The de- 
 mand for tender interest in the common ranks 
 of men was most repulsive to the Stoic, for 
 he was educated in the pride of philosophy 
 and personal achievement. His life-long 
 effort had been to lift himself above the 
 level of the masses. To give them sweet 
 fellowship on any basis seemed to him the 
 annihilation of all the ideals he had learned 
 to cherish. Such writers as Pliny and 
 
58 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Tacitus scarcely considered the new "super- 
 stition" worthy of more than a passing 
 allusion. 
 
 The claim of Christianity to give men 
 ultimate truth concerning the great things 
 of life was to others a grave offence. The 
 possession of assured verity, as against all 
 the speculations and elaborate reasoning of 
 their own philosophers, was a senseless and 
 irritating claim. Still others felt that the 
 new religion was in conflict with the rever- 
 ence due to their ancestors. They said, "Is 
 not the tradition of the fathers the most 
 venerable and best guide to truth? Let us 
 follow the religion which they have handed 
 down, let us adore the gods whom from 
 childhood we have been trained to fear." 
 
 To very many people in the Empire, 
 Christianity was not a religion at all, but 
 sheer atheism. It had no offerings or liba- 
 tions, it had none of the paraphernalia of 
 either the Jewish or pagan religion, hence 
 the very simplicity and purity of its worship 
 misled the undiscerning multitudes. More 
 than this, there were put into circulation 
 stories which, growing by repetition, tended 
 to excite horror and fury. These were of 
 course wicked and groundless scandals, and 
 yet they were widely accepted. They 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 59 
 
 hinted at human sacrifice, at horrid rites and 
 oaths, and wildest orgies. When, there- 
 fore. Christians refused to join in the 
 heathen games they were denounced as 
 gloomy, morose, and unsocial, and as quite 
 capable of all the enormities charged against 
 them. 
 
 A third source of persecution, and the 
 most fruitful and persistent of all, was the 
 supposed political necessities of the state. 
 This reason operated in the minds of em- 
 perors who were sincerely anxious for the 
 good of the Empire. On the part of Chris- 
 tians it was unavoidable that offence of this 
 sort should be given. All public life was 
 interwoven with heathenism, and as Chris- 
 tians withdrew from it they inevitably ran 
 counter to the apparent interests of the 
 state. They avoided military service 
 because the army was compelled to sacrifice 
 to the gods and consult the auspices; and 
 for the same reason they held back from 
 public office. This brought upon them the 
 charge of disloyalty and lack of patriotism, 
 a charge which seemed to be supported by 
 the very nature of their faith. Other reli- 
 gions were national and exclusive, but 
 Christianity was universal and inclusive. 
 When Christians were seen accepting con- 
 
6o THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 verted barbarians as brethren the charge was 
 bitterly made, "You are not Romans at all, 
 you are enemies of the state!" At critical 
 times there were special demands for the sal- 
 utation of the Emperor with divine honors; 
 and when this was of necessity absolutely re- 
 fused by Christians their religion became a 
 political crime and brought them into 
 flagrant defiance of the laws of the Empire. 
 All this caused serious apprehension on the 
 part of patriotic rulers. To them it was 
 simply rebellion against the established 
 order of things, and they were not far- 
 sighted enough to measure the wholesome 
 possibilities of this new regenerating 
 power. 
 
 It is not necessary to note all of the per- 
 secutions through which the church passed 
 in the first three centuries, but some of the 
 more conspicuous of them will suggest the 
 whole story. 
 
 The first occurred scarcely three decades 
 after Pentecost. It brings to mind one of 
 the unsettled questions of history. Under 
 the reign of Nero there happened to be a 
 conflagration which swept through whole 
 sections of the capital. The suspicion of 
 the people rested upon the Emperor as the 
 guilty originator of a catastrophe over which 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 6i 
 
 he gloated, and in which he found a fresh 
 sensation for his jaded sensibilities, and a 
 new outlet for his Satanic cruelty. In their 
 rage the people demanded a victim, and 
 Tacitus is authority for the statement that 
 Nero falsely accused the Christians of the 
 crime. At any rate there followed a very 
 carnival of blood in Rome. Most ingenious 
 methods of torture and death were devised. 
 Christians were tarred and burned at night 
 to satisfy the cruelty of the populace and 
 to delight the still more inhuman Emperor. 
 There is no evidence, however, that the per- 
 secution broke out elsewhere than at Rome. 
 The reign of Trajan a half-century later 
 became a significant landmark in the history 
 of the Church, because his rule for "accusa- 
 tion and punishment" held with slight 
 modifications for nearly two centuries. It 
 all came about in this way: his friend and 
 official representative in the province of 
 Bithynia, the younger Pliny, reported by 
 letter the progress of the "superstition," 
 and the consequent neglect of the heathen 
 temples, and asked for instructions. Trajan 
 replied: "Let them alone unless you are 
 compelled to take note of the matter by 
 reason of personal and public accusation, 
 then compel these Christians to recognize 
 
62 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 the gods or be punished." This, in the 
 year ill, marks the time when by formal 
 decree Christianity became illegal, although 
 it was not strictly by a new statute, but 
 rather by an "injunction to enforce existing 
 laws. It sufficed, however, to define the 
 attitude of the state and to furnish ground 
 for rigorous administration of the law. 
 
 It is not probable that Trajan designed the 
 infliction of injustice and cruelty, but he 
 furnished easy ground for hostile action on 
 the part of men unfriendly to the new reli- 
 gion. Under priestly instigation an accuser 
 had only to make a formal charge against a 
 Christian. The magistrate would then cause 
 the images of the gods and the Emperor to 
 be brought in, and command the accused to 
 sacrifice to them with incense, and curse the 
 name of Christ; which, of course, no real 
 Christian would do. The application of this 
 test brought no wholesale slaughter; yet it 
 made the situation of every Christian fam- 
 ily one of peril and apprehension. A bit of 
 malice on the part of any heathen might at 
 any moment bring disaster. 
 
 The succeeding Emperor, Hadrian, whose 
 reign extended from 117 to 138, was 
 versatile and cultivated, fond of literature, 
 art and of travel. Toward the end of his 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 63 
 
 reign he became moody and at times even 
 cruel. He was a strong adherent of the old 
 religion and the builder of many costly 
 temples; yet holding to the promise of his 
 predecessor, he refused to give way to gen- 
 eral complaints and outcries against Chris- 
 tians, and insisted that they should be 
 persecuted only on personal and definite 
 charges. 
 
 We may pass over the reigns which fol- 
 lowed as being without special significance 
 to the church. At length we come to Mar- 
 cus Aurelius, whose score of years fall be- 
 tween 161 and 180. His personal history 
 and lofty character are of fascinating inter- 
 est, but his reign brought to the church the 
 severest strain to which it had yet been 
 subjected. For this persecution there were 
 two causes. On the one hand the excep- 
 tional patriotism and energy of the Emperor 
 led him to protect the ancient religion and 
 to revive enthusiasm for the state, and, on 
 the other, a combination of disasters aroused 
 the fanatical hatred and fear of the people 
 against the new religion. These calamities 
 were reported from every side of the Em- 
 pire. An army sent against the Parthians 
 came back with the plague, which traversed 
 the entire Empire and from which it never 
 
64 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 recovered. Then followed a terrible 
 famine; and after the pestilence and famine 
 various outbreaks on the frontier. Of these 
 that along the Danube was one of the sever- 
 est Rome ever had to encounter; for then it 
 was that her legions met the first waves of 
 the migration which was destined at last to 
 sweep over the entire West. The populace 
 became I infuriated against the Christians 
 whose impiety was supposed to have brought 
 upon the state the wrath of the gods. 
 
 The reprieve of the church from persecu- 
 tion came through a far less worthy emperor. 
 Commodus, "the ignoble son of a noble 
 father," failed to persecute Christians 
 through sheer indifference to affairs of state. 
 Then followed for scores of years a succes- 
 sion of emperors, for the most part made 
 and unmade by the army, who seldom cared 
 enough about the matter to indulge in active 
 hostility to the new faith. It was not until 
 the middle of the third century, when 
 Christians had so mutliplied that Origen for 
 the first time expressed the belief that the 
 Gospel, by its inherent power and without 
 the intervention of a miracle, would sup- 
 plant the ancient religions, that the pros- 
 perity of the church again enkindled the 
 animosity of its opposers. 
 
CENTURIES OP PERSECUTION 65 
 
 Decius, whose brief reign extended from 
 249 to 251, determined to extirpate Chris- 
 tianity and restore the unity and integrity 
 of the Empire. A revival of the policy of 
 Marcus Aurelius by a like-minded patriot 
 took place, and a systematic attempt was 
 made throughout the provinces to compel 
 Christians to renounce their religion and 
 swear allegiance to that of the Empire. It 
 was a fiery trial of the faith and endurance 
 of the church; but fortunately the terrible 
 reign of Decius was brief and out of its hor- 
 rors came the purified and steadfast rem- 
 nants of the Lord's hosts. 
 
 Then followed, save for the administra- 
 tion of the Decian policy by Emperor 
 Valerian, forty years of almost unbroken 
 rest, giving time for more careful organiza- 
 tion and discipline, and preparing the 
 church at large for its final encounter with 
 the forces of heathenism. 
 
 The last and most awful persecution oc- 
 curred during the reign of Diocletian, 284- 
 305, whose attitude toward Christianity was 
 unhappily changed during the later years of 
 his life. Talented, patriotic, zealous, and, 
 at first, not wholly unfriendly to Christian- 
 ity, his administration gave promise of 
 better things than finally fell to his record. 
 
66 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 By the beginning of the fourth century 
 Christianity had gained not only in extent 
 but in standing, and not a few adherents 
 were high at court and trusted advisers of the 
 Emperor, while his wife and daughter were 
 actual disciples of the Christ. But Christian- 
 ity was not to win its final triumph too easily. 
 There was a party at court composed of 
 heathen priests, who regarded the advance- 
 ment of Christians with the greatest dis- 
 favor, and who shrewdly and persistently 
 influenced the mind of the Emperor in favor 
 of the ancient rites, whose enforcement 
 would enhance their standing in affairs of 
 state. Many years went by without mani- 
 fest effect upon the imperial mind, until 
 about 303, when, through the enfeeblement 
 and indecision of age, the Emperor was in- 
 duced to submit the question of policy to a 
 council in which Galerius, his son-in-law, 
 who inclined toward heathen fanaticism, was 
 influential. Under the tremendous pressure 
 now brought to bear upon him Diocletian 
 finally decided to consult an oracle. The 
 word of the oracle, controlled by heathen 
 priests, could not be doubtful. Christianity 
 was to be checked. The Emperor yielded 
 on the assurance given him by his council- 
 lors that it would not be necessary to shed 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 67 
 
 any blood, as Christians would recant upon 
 the first show of severity. 
 
 Thus the floodgates of an awful persecu- 
 tion were opened wide. The fanatical party 
 had fiercely determined to spare no meas- 
 ures looking toward the actual extirpation 
 of Christianity. At first intimidation was 
 relied upon, but when the persecutors were 
 met by heroism they proceeded to cruelest 
 extremes of torture. Successive edicts were 
 more and more sweeping and exacting. 
 Everywhere went the dread demand, "Sacri- 
 fice to the gods or die," and a reign of terror 
 prevailed far and wide. 
 
 The worst never actually happens, and in 
 305 the Emperor, discouraged and broken, 
 was forced to resign. Galerius succeeded 
 him at the head of affairs in the East, but in 
 the West his rivals were in the ascendancy, 
 and there persecutions were soon at an end. 
 In the East the horrid work went on for 
 some years, making a record of sickening 
 details of tortures and indignities, but the 
 fires of persecution finally burned themselves 
 out. Brute force could not accomplish its 
 end against the steadfastness and heroism of 
 the Christian faith, and even executioners 
 became weary and disgusted with their in- 
 human work. 
 
68 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 The spell of the cross was upon heathen- 
 dom. Oppression and cruelty had wrought 
 their utmost, and the triumph of a pure and 
 gentle religion was now not far away. From 
 his death-bed, to which he had come from a 
 life of debauchery and fanaticism, Galerius, 
 in untold agony of body and mind, issued 
 in the year 311 an edict which reversed the 
 policy of two centuries and put an end to 
 official persecution. It was a plain confes- 
 sion of the impotency of heathenism, and 
 closed with a request for the prayers of 
 Christians for the Emperor and the state! 
 This was not a complete and positive vic- 
 tory for Christianity but that was close at 
 hand. The man had already come on the 
 stage who was to distinguish himself by the 
 great historical act of adopting by imperial 
 edict as the religion of the state the despised 
 and persecuted faith of the Nazarene. 
 
 By far the most significant event in the 
 history of the fourth century was the con- 
 version of a Roman Emperor to Christianity. 
 For good or ill it changed the status of the 
 new religion in the world. After resting for 
 more than two centuries under the ban of 
 the Empire, Christianity found itself sud- 
 denly protected and fostered by royal favor. 
 
 Constantine, the first Christian emperor, 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 69 
 
 was born in 274 of Constantius Chlorus and 
 Helena, a woman of obscure birth but strong 
 character, who became a convert to the new 
 faith and exerted much influence over her 
 son. He grew up to manhood imposing in 
 presence, sagacious in counsel and of ex- 
 traordinary administrative ability. He was 
 from youth trained to military service, and 
 was highly developed in valor and skill as 
 a soldier. This was most fortunate for him, 
 because in the great crisis of his struggle for 
 supremacy he had need of every resource at 
 his command. 
 
 The situation was this. At the death of 
 Galerius four rulers appeared in the field, 
 each governing a separate territory and 
 each preparing for inevitable war with his 
 rivals. Constantine, succeeding to the 
 claims of his father, precipitated the con- 
 test in the West. Maxentius, his nearest 
 enemy, held North Africa and Italy. Con- 
 stantine promptly crossed the Alps with 
 40,000 men against the 125,000 of his op- 
 ponent. It was an adventure of great dar- 
 ing, and he felt the solemnity of his 
 undertaking. It was under pressure of such 
 circumstances that he sought supernatural 
 aid. But to which god should he turn? In 
 the hour of mental conflict and disturbance 
 
70 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 he beheld on the sky above the sinking sun 
 the emblazoned cross, and read these words: 
 "By this sign you conquer " A vision of 
 the night made the meaning even more 
 clear, and his decision more emphatic. He 
 set the sign of the cross on his helmet, and 
 upon the banner of his army, and caused 
 his soldiers to paint it on their shields. 
 Under the talismanic power of this once 
 despised emblem the army marched from 
 victory to victory until in the fierce battle of 
 Milvian Bridge the forces of his rival were 
 completely broken, and Constantine entered 
 Rome in triumph. 
 
 In the East, Licinius triumphed over 
 Maximus and turned to settle the final issue 
 with the conqueror of the West. In 323 he 
 was forced to yield to Constantine, who 
 henceforth became the sole master of the 
 Roman world, and issued edicts establish- 
 ing unrestricted liberty in religious matters 
 on the ground of the sacred right of con- 
 science. 
 
 Two problems are still tantalizing the stu- 
 dent who seeks absolute conviction concern- 
 ing such weighty crises. One question 
 concerns the motives of the Emperor, who 
 has been both lauded to the skies and buried 
 beneath the contempt of historians. How 
 
CENTURIES OF PERSECUTION 71 
 
 far was he genuine, and how far shrewd and 
 calculating? Perhaps the solution of the 
 enigma lies in the statement that he was 
 neither wholly good nor wholly bad. There 
 was in the training of this youth a mixture of 
 heathen superstition and of an imperfectly 
 conceived Christianity. It is extremely 
 doubtful if he had any profound moral and 
 religious experience; and it is not at all un- 
 likely that he shrewdly read in the history 
 of the steady development of Christianity 
 against all opposition hints of the way to 
 future aggrandizement. He certainly was 
 not a hypocrite, and almost as certainly not 
 a saint. He may at first have acted from 
 diplomatic motives, but later, under the in- 
 fluences of Christianity, may have been 
 drawn further and further from heathenism 
 and nearer and nearer to the heart of the 
 pure religion. 
 
 The other question is far-reaching and 
 possibly beyond confident solution. It may 
 thus be stated: Was it on the whole and in 
 the final issue an advantage to Christianity 
 to have been recognized as the religion of 
 the state? Its immediate interests were now 
 the care of the Emperor who permitted only 
 Christian worship in the new capital of the 
 Empire, and who used his personal influ- 
 
72 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ence by various expedients to gain converts. 
 That there were vast accessions to the 
 church is a matter of course; and, what is of 
 more importance, there was entire freedom 
 from the distress of earlier days. But as 
 has been said, "Imperial favor in place of 
 imperial hostility became a new source of 
 peril." It is true that, "Rome, the con- 
 queror of the world, was herself overcome 
 by a band of Christian disciples whose meek 
 but dauntless courage was more than a 
 match for all her power"; but it is also true 
 that the heroic age of the Church had 
 passed, and that the task of molding the 
 moral life of the world was suddenly thrust 
 upon a Christianity which had now become 
 dominant in society and government; and 
 that long centuries were to elapse before its 
 completion. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 THE FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
 The first period closed with the passing of 
 the specially qualified founders of the 
 Church. At the beginning of that which 
 followed there were no indications which 
 the world could recognize of the ultimate 
 ascendancy of Christianity, but before its 
 close it saw the conversion of a Roman 
 emperor and became almost too ready to 
 hail the new religion as the dominant power 
 and to seek the manifest advantages offered 
 to its adherents. 
 
 The third period to which we now come, 
 extending over nearly five hundred years, 
 covers transformations in the political world 
 most intimately related to the welfare of 
 Christianity, and culminates in the crown- 
 ing, in a great cathedral, of a mightier em- 
 peror than Constantine. All the changes of 
 this half-millennium, both external and in- 
 ternal, political, social and ecclesiastical, 
 have the greatest significance. In the year 
 325, in which the previous cycle closed, the 
 Roman Empire was still intact, though its 
 73 
 
74 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 integrity had been sharply attacked, and its 
 perilous weakness fully demonstrated. It 
 was destined to hold together, with more or 
 less consistency, for a few centuries; but at 
 the end of this period the last vestige of it 
 disappeared and imperial claims were made 
 by an emperor of a different race, and from 
 a new capital. 
 
 To follow intelligently the story of the 
 chances and changes which came to the 
 Christian Church, it will be well to divide 
 the period into three distinct parts. Only 
 thus can we avoid confusion among crowded 
 historical details and obtain a clear and 
 helpful impression of the course of events 
 and the tasks, difficulties, and accomplish- 
 ments of Christianity in a time of repeated 
 convulsions throughout the civilized world. 
 
 I. CHRISTIANITY UNDER THE DECAYING 
 ROMAN EMPIRE 
 
 The emperors differed widely from one 
 another in their attitude toward Christianity, 
 and in their influence upon its development. 
 Constantine to the last maintained friendly 
 relations with the religion of his adoption; 
 too close, perhaps, for its best good, for it 
 reaches its highest development when assert- 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 75 
 
 ing its freedom from the direct control of 
 the state. He was bound to make the im- 
 perial power felt in shaping both the doc- 
 trine and polity of the Church. He may 
 have been absolutely sincere in his rever- 
 ence for Christianity and in the belief that 
 he was providentially called to foster it in 
 an age of difficulty and danger; and yet the 
 modifications in the type of character and in 
 the quality of devotion which under his 
 patronage began to manifest themselves 
 within the membership of the Church were 
 not of good augury for the future. 
 
 Constantine died in 337, a dozen years 
 after his accession to power as sole emperor, 
 leaving the empire, as did Marcus Aurelius, 
 to unworthy sons. There were the usual 
 unfraternal quarrels about the division of 
 the Empire; but by means of war and in- 
 trigue Constantius finally established undi- 
 vided sway. At first he held the old pagan 
 faith to be a political peril, and conse- 
 quently persecuted its adherents; develop- 
 ing, unwittingly, martyrs to the dying 
 religion, and demonstrating that splendid 
 reserve of heroism and revolt against 
 tyranny which has so often glorified 
 humanity. Then he became an Arian in 
 the theological divisions of the day, and 
 
76 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 true to his spirit and policy persecuted the 
 orthodox party in the Church. 
 
 In 361 Constantius was succeeded by his 
 disloyal cousin who has come down to us 
 with the undesirable appellation of "J^^^^^ 
 the Apostate." Exactly how just was this 
 epithet it is difficult to decide. At first he 
 professed himself a Christian, but afterward 
 fell into disgust over the disputes and un- 
 worthy deeds of his predecessors and of 
 many who were prominent in ecclesiastical 
 affairs. Perhaps the circumstances of his 
 life afford some justification for his final 
 change of attitude toward Christianity. He 
 had a quick imaginative mind, and was 
 susceptible to influences acting upon him. 
 He was being educated as an ecclesiastic 
 when the jealousy of the Emperor toward 
 him was excited, and he was sent away to 
 pursue his studies in Nicomedea. Here he 
 fell in with a brilliant rhetorician who in- 
 duced him to embrace the ancient faith. 
 Later, during a visit to Athens, he went 
 further in his enthusiasm and conceived the 
 project of restoring the old religion. This 
 was a great disappointment to the Chris- 
 tians; for on coming to the throne instead 
 of supporting the Church he gave all the 
 weight of his influence as Supreme Pontiff 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 77 
 
 to the reviving of the out-worn forms of 
 worship. He did indeed grant toleration to 
 Christianity, but wishing to discredit it he 
 sought to foment trouble through sectarian 
 controversies, even bringing back banished 
 agitators of whom the Church were best 
 freed. He had only two years of imperial 
 influence, but in that time he did not a little 
 to help on the reactionary and divisive 
 movements within the Church. During the 
 following reigns, in both the East and the 
 West, Christianity was recognized as the 
 State Religion, and all political hindrances 
 were put in the way of the old religion, so 
 that it gradually fell out of favor and in 
 time became the "Pagan Religion," that is, 
 the religion of peasants, Christianity having 
 become the controlling factor in all cities. 
 The old religion which had opposed itself to 
 the Church for four centuries had fought its 
 last battle, and never again brought, terror 
 to Christianity. 
 
 The tendencies toward ecclesiasticism 
 which began to manifest themselves even 
 before Christianity gained a lawful place in 
 the state became much more active with the 
 acquisition of freedom and power. The 
 clergy became more and more distinct as a 
 class, not to say as an order in the Church, 
 
78 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 and organization became more highly de- 
 veloped. The bishops assumed to be the 
 successors of the apostles and to act as 
 vehicles for conveying divine grace to Ihe 
 lower orders of the clergy; while from the 
 lowest to the highest the gradations of rank 
 and privilege were sharply defined. The 
 great metropolitan bishops exercised the 
 right of calling synods and of presiding^over 
 ecclesiastical courts. The bishops of the 
 sees of Rome, Constantinople and Jerusalem, 
 as well as of Antioch and Alexandria, took 
 the name of Patriarchs, and finally a sharp 
 rivalry ensued between Constantinople and 
 Rome for supremacy in the Church at large. 
 The Roman bishop had unique advantages 
 in the contest. The presumption in favor 
 of Rome was increased under the tremen- 
 dous influence of the great Leo I., who 
 showed extraordinary administrative ability 
 and rendered timely services during the 
 invasion of Italy by the Huns. At the 
 Council of Chalcedon, in the middle of the 
 fifth century, the claim to the first place 
 was conceded to Rome, and the Emperor, 
 Valentinian III., acknowledged the Roman 
 bishop as the supreme head of the Western 
 Church, granting the claim upon the 
 primacy of St. Peter, and the dignity of the 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 79 
 
 ancient city. For a long time the term 
 "Papa," or "Pope," belonged alike to all 
 bishops, but within a century or two by im- 
 perial decree it came to be exclusively 
 applied to the highest ecclesiastic at Rome. 
 The elaboration of worship also went on 
 under combined influences which inevitably 
 swept away the simplicity and naturalness 
 of earlier days. For two centuries the 
 Church opposed the splendor of pagan wor- 
 ship with its own simplicity; but after the 
 stamp of imperial favor had been given, and 
 the rich and influential came flocking to the 
 once despised standard of the cross, the 
 plain basilica, secured for the use of a 
 Christian congregation, no longer sufficed. 
 The Christians demanded costly temples of 
 their own, with a service richly elaborated 
 to correspond with the new surroundings. 
 Sometimes public buildings or pagan tem- 
 ples were transferred through the munifi- 
 cence of emperors to the uses of the Church, 
 and were consecrated with imposing cer- 
 emonies. Often there was rich interior 
 decoration and symbolism, with the cross 
 made prominent amid settings of precious 
 stones. Upon the walls were depicted 
 Biblical scenes, or the sufferings of holy 
 martrys. Toward the end of the fourth 
 
8o THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 century, very largely to accommodate the 
 multitudes of half-converted heathen who 
 crowded into the Church, images were in- 
 troduced and even made objects of religious 
 adoration. Legends of miraculous healings 
 easily grew in an atmosphere of ignorance 
 and superstition, and as the heroic age 
 passed away veneration for martyrs and 
 "saints" became extravagant. Partially 
 Christianized pagans regarded them very 
 much as before they had looked upon their 
 deified heroes. Their favor and aid were 
 invoked, and relics were depended upon to 
 work desired ends. One who reads the de- 
 tails of corruption in the Church at this time 
 is reminded of the golden calf worship which 
 Jeroboam set up in Israel and which proved 
 itself an idolatrous abomination. Nothing 
 but the inherent power of goodness and 
 spirituality in the gospel saved Christianity 
 from the fate of the mongrel religion of 
 Samaria. 
 
 Two special features of perverted religion 
 came in at this time and have persisted 
 through the centuries. One is the growth 
 of Mariolatry. From the earliest time the 
 memory of the Virgin Mary was naturally 
 and properly held in tender respect, but 
 under prevailing influences, perhaps in part 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 8i 
 
 from the honor paid in the old religion to 
 goddesses, she became an object of rever- 
 ence and formal worship. The second is 
 found in the exaltation of the Lord's Supper 
 to the rank of a sacrifice, offered by a Chris- 
 tian priest and acquiring a special efficacy. 
 It was around the celebration of the 
 Eucharist that ancient liturgies grew up, in- 
 cluding the "Gloria in Excelsis," and the 
 "Te Deum." 
 
 It was during this period that tendencies 
 toward asceticism and monasticism became 
 dominant in various sections of Christen- 
 dom. The movement was false to Chris- 
 tianity. Its influence was unhealthy, 
 unmanly, and in the largest sense unspiri- 
 tual. There is no trace of such a thing in 
 the conduct or teaching of Christ, nor in- 
 deed in the writings of any apostle, and yet 
 it is not wholly inexplicable. For one 
 thing there was a leaning toward such a 
 strained and perverted life in the earlier 
 religions and philosophies, and Christianity 
 simply became an inheritor of these false 
 notions. It was not unknown among the 
 Jews, one sect, the Essenes, having devel- 
 oped asceticism as their distinguishing trait. 
 Among the Buddhists of India it was a pre- 
 dominant characteristic, while the hermits 
 
82 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 of Egypt also magnified the virtue of isola- 
 tion from a world essentially evil. 
 
 Besides, there was a degree of luxury and 
 moral corruption prevalent in society that 
 made it almost impossible for a spiritually- 
 minded man to live with other men in the 
 ordinary fellowships and engagements of 
 life. The experiment of outward separation 
 had not then been proven a futile one. 
 There was a lack of fine and broad intel- 
 ligence concerning the conditions and de- 
 mands of Christianity. So men turned away 
 from the allurements and engagements of 
 an evil and self-destroying world to save 
 their own souls alive and to cultivate their 
 own piety at any cost. It is easy to see 
 how they might have looked outward and 
 upward at the same time; and how they 
 thus missed the real devotion and the noble 
 robustness of a true Christian life. But it is 
 not easy to understand from what a trouble- 
 some world they fled and what a mighty 
 hold the idea of self-humiliation and self- 
 saving had upon the minds of men during 
 this period. It not only touched the unintel- 
 ligent multitudes and fanatical individuals, 
 but it brought under its sway and converted 
 into veritable monks, or at least into sup- 
 porters of the movement, the greatest theo- 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 83 
 
 logians and leaders in the Church, both in 
 the East and in the West. 
 
 As an example we may turn to Anthony, 
 the patron saint of the anchorites, the ideal 
 of the holy hermit weaned from a wicked 
 world. As a lad he showed a reflective 
 habit, which was intensified by the early 
 loss of his parents, and a succession of 
 cares and troubles. As he came to man- 
 hood and began to brood over Christian ex- 
 perience and revelation he misinterpreted 
 Christ's words to the young ruler, and also 
 his injunction to his disciples to take no 
 thought for the morrow, and so was led to 
 part with all of his property. He broke the 
 loving and tender ties which bound him 
 to an only sister, thinking such affection 
 worldly and unholy, and sought the com- 
 panionship of aged ascetics, finally giving 
 himself up to "pious meditations" in a 
 mountain cave. Morbid fancies and pas- 
 sions not unnaturally fastened upon him. 
 These he was compelled to fight without the 
 healthy and absorbing occupations and inter- 
 ests of social life. There seemed no refuge 
 except in retiring into remoter and deeper 
 solitude, although he escaped with difficulty 
 from the increasing number who venerated 
 him for his austerities and supernal piety. 
 
84 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 This tendency to seclusion developed into 
 a system in the institution of the cloister. 
 At first on an island of the Nile a company 
 of like-minded saints organized into classes 
 graded according to piety,' working at sim- 
 ple trades and giving their earnings and 
 benefactions to the poor. It was all a mis- 
 take. They sought merit before God, and, 
 by a poorly disguised system of barter, 
 heavenly rewards. Nothing could have 
 been more untrue to the instincts and de- 
 mands of human life, and few things could 
 have been more hurtful to character. It 
 was a matter of course that there should be 
 violent and morbid reactions, and not infre- 
 quently an unbalancing of mind, with occa- 
 sional outbreaks into wildest excesses. 
 
 In the West the tendency was toward the 
 formal life of monks; rather than that of 
 anchorites, which prevailed in the East, and 
 which the climate favored. Cloisters and 
 settlements were here and there established, 
 sometimes on the basis of noble and aggres- 
 sive work, like the famous monastery at 
 lona, an island off the Scottish coast, from 
 whence devoted Christian workers were 
 sent to the mainland. Occasionally some 
 one arose who condemned the excesses of 
 these orders, or even the orders themselves, 
 
PALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 85 
 
 on the ground that the ordinary Christian 
 life was natural and holy, but their protest 
 being opposed by the great teachers was 
 ineffectual. The false notion prevailed at 
 that time that places and actions were to be 
 sharply distinguished as sacred or secular, 
 and centuries were to pass before the idea 
 became dominant that the whole life of man 
 may be consecrated and pure. 
 
 One of the marked characteristics of this 
 period is found in the doctrinal controversies 
 which occupied the Church for centuries. 
 For the first two hundred years and more 
 there was no "body of doctrine"; no for- 
 mulated articles of belief from which 
 "heresies" could be distinguished. The 
 philosophical side of Christian teaching had 
 not engaged the attention of the Church, 
 and men were content to worship and trust 
 without having determined the exact "na- 
 ture of Christ" or the true "philosophy of 
 the atonement." But after a time many 
 men came into the Church who had been 
 steeped in Greek culture and philosophy, 
 and who by their mental habits were com- 
 pelled to inquire into the foundations of 
 their new faith. They had questions to ask 
 and answers to give. The Gospel story and 
 Gospel doctrine are simple to the mind of a 
 
86 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 child, but in them are deep problems for the 
 philosophic thinker. Curiosity and interest 
 having been aroused endless discussion be- 
 gan, and various schools of theology were 
 developed according to circumstances, or to 
 personal temperament and bent; and so the 
 Church became agitated and even divided 
 because those who had the same faith had 
 not the same philosophy. 
 
 The school at Alexandria, under the 
 powerful leadership of Origen, although 
 characterized by excellent breadth and 
 spirituality, unfortunately adopted the al- 
 legorical method of interpreting Scripture, 
 by which any utterance could be made to 
 mean anything. The school of Antioch, 
 with a more sober and practical spirit, held 
 to the direct and historical method of han- 
 dling the sacred writings. Each of these 
 schools became a center of theological in- 
 fluence; while in the West were developed 
 tendencies quite unlike either of them. As 
 time went on, the "East turned more and 
 more toward speculation, and became ab- 
 sorbed in abstruse questions concerning the 
 Trinity, the Person of Christ, and the nature 
 of the Atonement; while the West, with an 
 evident distaste for the metaphysical sub- 
 tleties of the Orient, was more interested in 
 
FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE 87 
 
 practical inquiries about the working of the 
 human will, the essence of sin, and the ways 
 of grace. 
 
 Some great names have come down the 
 centuries and are being constantly met with 
 by readers of the present generation — such 
 as Athanasius and Cyril of Alexandria, 
 Eusebius of Caesarea, the two Gregories and 
 Basil of Cappadocia. Of these some were 
 philosophers, some orators and some states- 
 men. John Chrysostom was known as the 
 golden-mouthed orator of Constantinople. 
 Ambrose of Milan, of the same period, 
 namely, the last half of the fourth century, 
 was one of the powerful leaders of the 
 Church. A Roman, trained for the bar, he 
 was the prefect at Milan when he was raised 
 by acclamation to the throne of an arch- 
 bishop, in which exalted position he ex- 
 hibited both wisdom and energy. Jerome, 
 who belonged to the same age, was learned 
 in the literature of both the Greeks and 
 Romans, and produced in his cell in Bethle- 
 hem the Latin version of the Bible known 
 as the "Vulgate." Augustine, his contem- 
 porary, exerted a more widespread and last- 
 ing influence on the theology of both the 
 Catholic and Reformed churches than any 
 thinker since the days of St. Paul. His 
 
SS THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 personal history is full of startling features. 
 His father was a pagan of low and vulgar 
 life, but his mother was a woman of distin- 
 guished Christian piety. The son passed 
 through all the stages that lay between the 
 extremes occupied by his parents. In 
 youth he was put under the rhetorical train- 
 ing so magnified in the esteem of the day, 
 and was also thoroughly grounded in 
 heathen philosophy. Later he became de- 
 voted to the Manichaeans, in whose doctrine 
 he encountered an infusion of Christianity. 
 For a time he was charmed with Neo-Pla- 
 tonism, but it failed to give full satisfaction, 
 and finally, after a young manhood some- 
 what lax in morals, judged from a Christian 
 standpoint, and devoted to unspiritual 
 philosophizing, at the age of thirty-three he 
 was soundly converted. Coming into the 
 Church through the profoundest experience 
 of sin and grace, holding fast to convictions 
 which never wavered, maturing and conse- 
 crating the habits of philosophizing in which 
 he had been trained, he was fitted to become 
 the great theologian of the West. It is to 
 be gratefully recognized that with unsur- 
 passed earnestness, with wide learning and 
 the highest rhetorical skill, he devoted all 
 his powers and acquisitions to the defense 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 89 
 
 and exposition of the gospel of grace 
 And yet one is compelled to follow with re- 
 gret in the troubled history of succeeding 
 centuries the bias of his teaching toward 
 practical and speculative errors. To him 
 was due the one-sided magnifying of Predes- 
 tination as against Freeagency in man; the 
 domination of the Roman See; the doctrine 
 of Purgatory, the possible damnation of un- 
 baptized infants, and certain grotesque 
 features of the doctrine of the Resurrection. 
 This all illustrates the enormous difficulties 
 encountered and overcome by Christianity, 
 not only in the perverted sentiments and 
 practices of the heathen ages, but also in 
 the crude and mistaken philosophies of the 
 day. 
 
 It may be of interest to briefly character- 
 ize the three great controversies of the 
 period. The first concerned the Divinity of 
 Christ, and the Trinity, the second had to 
 do with the two natures involved in the 
 Person of Christ, the third occupied itself 
 with the question of the balance of truth 
 between Divine and Human Agency in Sin 
 and Salvation. Each was passed upon by 
 an oecumenical council 
 
 The first controversy was precipitated by 
 Arius, a Presbyter of Alexandria, a man 
 
90 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 serious in character, austere in disposition, 
 and keen in intellect. He found a solution 
 of the problem of the Trinity by presenting 
 Christ as a created being, exalted indeed to 
 the highest rank and the agent of creation, 
 yet himself derived from the Everlasting 
 Father. After fierce agitation and sharp 
 division Constantine thought to restore 
 unity by means of the decision of a general 
 council, which he proceeded to call at 
 Nicaea to consider the question at issue. In 
 the year 325 three hundred and eighteen 
 bishops, mostly from the East, came to- 
 gether in solemn conclave. The proceed- 
 ings were opened by the Emperor in person, 
 who entered "in all the majesty of his im- 
 perial state." It was a vain exhortation, 
 however, that he gave to the assembled 
 bishops, to strive for unity and harmony, for 
 at once the controversy between the tall, 
 ascetic, and nervous Arius, and the young 
 arch-deacon Athanasius, who though not 
 yet thirty was the champion of the extreme 
 doctrine opposed to that of the heretic, 
 broke out. There were three distinct parties 
 in the Council, among which the members, 
 with their fine shadings of belief were di- 
 vided. As all the world knows, the decision 
 went with the Athanasian party. Very 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 91 
 
 many would have preferred a deliverance 
 declaring that Christ had like essence with 
 the Father, a statement which would have 
 been acceptable to Arius, and might have 
 satisfied the orthodox; but, as usual in 
 times of controversy, the issue was pressed 
 to the sharpest definition of differences. 
 The authoritative utterance went forth at- 
 tended by severe penalties threatened 
 against those who differed from the form of 
 Christianity now acknowledged by the Em- 
 pire; but the result was not such as the vic- 
 torious party looked for. The controversy 
 continued, with no little bitterness on both 
 sides, and led to not a few banishments. 
 After a half-century of discussion, with vary- 
 ing tides, the Nicene theology came to per- 
 manent ascendancy and has never been 
 seriously disturbed, though the evil fruitage 
 of bitter contention was abundant in many 
 lands for many centuries. 
 
 The second problem was introduced by 
 the theorizing of Apollinaris, Bishop of 
 Laodicea, who interpreted the expression, 
 "The Word became flesh," to mean that the 
 Logos took the place of the rational human 
 soul in the man Christ Jesus. In the Alex- 
 andrian view the two natures of Christ were 
 unified in the predominance of the Divine, 
 
92 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 while in the Antiochian theory the two 
 natures remained distinct, the human will 
 having free and independent action. In- 
 stead of allowing time and open discussion 
 to determine probabilities in the case, the 
 controversy was continued in bitterness; 
 and anathemas and counter - anathemas 
 filled the air. It was to settle this dispute 
 that the General Council of Ephesus was 
 called in 431. It is probable that the 
 methods by which it was organized and 
 managed were little in harmony with the 
 ethics of the Master, the mysteries of whose 
 being were under discussion. There were 
 two different meetings with two different 
 results; but in the end the banishment of 
 Nestorius was secured, and through him 
 was developed in the Orient an heretical 
 branch of the Church which has continued 
 even to the present day. 
 
 The third controversy was mainly West- 
 ern and concerned itself not so much with 
 the nature of the divine as of the human 
 personality. Pelagius, a British monk, 
 came to Rome in the last decade of the 
 fourth century. He was serious, strict in 
 morals, and clear in understanding. The 
 prevailing laxity which he observed even in 
 the clergy offended his sense of Christian 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 93 
 
 morality. Casting about for an explanation 
 of the inconsistencies he put the blame upon 
 the doctrine of man's helplessness. Out of 
 his own experience in the vigorous resist- 
 ance of evil he came to oppose the prevail- 
 ing belief in man's helplessness and utter 
 dependence upon grace divine. Augustine 
 held his ground against him and out of the 
 controversy two distinct systems of doctrine 
 about sin, freedom, recovery and grace 
 arose. Each school magnified a truth, but 
 by the controversy the two combatants were, 
 as always happens, driven farther and 
 farther apart. Augustine held that Adam 
 had free will until he sinned as federal* head 
 of the race, when the will of man came into 
 perpetual bondage to evil, from which it 
 could be released only by sovereign grace. 
 Pelagius said that we sin only in imitation 
 of Adam, and that the human will is as free 
 as ever in every act of life. 
 
 The synod of Carthage, 412, excommuni- 
 cated Coelestius, the friend and supporter of 
 Pelagius, for heresy. But a few years later 
 two synods in Palestine, before which as- 
 semblies Pelagius appeared in person, 
 acquitted him of the charge. So back and 
 forth rolled the tide of battle, with various 
 decisions and excommunications and shad- 
 
94 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ings of doctrine. Gregory, surnamed "the 
 Theologian," who presided over the Council 
 of Constantinople, 381, said he had never 
 known a synod that did not aggravate the 
 evils which it undertook to remedy. Car- 
 dinal Newman, an admirer of oecumenical 
 councils, said fifteen hundred years later, 
 that there was nothing to boast of in behalf 
 of the fathers who composed the councils, 
 taken individually, for they appeared as an 
 antagonistic host in a battle, rather than as 
 shepherds of their people. 
 
 It must be acknowledged that in general 
 there was a falling off in the grade of moral 
 and religious life during this period — and 
 no wonder. When Christianity became the 
 fashionable and favored religion of the 
 Empire, self-indulgent people crowded into 
 the church. The new adherents easily ac- 
 cepted the formalities of a religious life, bap- 
 tism, ceremonies, church attendance and 
 alms-giving. The result was two most 
 undersirable extremes of conduct; on the 
 one hand great laxity of morals; on the 
 other a "ghostly and unearthly asceticism." 
 The Church would have dealt much more 
 effectively with problems of character if it 
 had been left to itself, but emperors and 
 state officials intermeddled, sometimes 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 95 
 
 patronizing and sometimes bullying the 
 Church, and always corrupting its purity 
 with touches of worldlines or insincerity. 
 
 There were, however, notable instances of 
 firm and brave adherence to the highest 
 standards even against kings who had pro- 
 fessed Christianity. Upon one notable 
 occasion Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, com- 
 pelled the Emperor Theodosius to do sever- 
 est penance for a massacre in Thessalonica; 
 although the order had been given in retalia- 
 tion for the murder of a military governor. 
 
 Upon another occasion Athanasius, emu- 
 lating the example of John the Baptist in 
 restraining a ruler from bad deeds, ad- 
 dressed Constantine as he passed on horse- 
 back through the streets of Constantinople, 
 and the haughty spirit of the Emperor was 
 awed by the courage and eloquence of the 
 bishop. 
 
 To the Emperor Julian, Basil Bishop of 
 Caesarea, sent a severe reply to an imperial 
 threat; afterward undauntedly facing a com- 
 mission and later still the Emperor himself. 
 
 II. MOHAMMEDANISM, THE BITTER FOE 
 OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 It is an amazing thing that a nation of 
 wandering Arabs should have set out for 
 
96 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 the conquest of the world, and a greater 
 wonder than they should have been so nearly 
 successful. The unheralded upshooting of a 
 new religion had its characteristics in "the 
 genius and passionate fanaticism of Moham- 
 med." The author of this new religion was 
 born at Mecca in 572. His early life was 
 obscure, but his marriage at twenty-eight 
 with Kadija, a wealthy widow, relieved him 
 of worldly care, gave him leisure for con- 
 templation, and furnished him some inspi- 
 ration. He was sincerely shocked by the 
 religious indifference and degeneracy of his 
 countrymen. Judaism and Christianity had 
 both penetrated this region, but had become 
 debased in doctrine and worn out in spirit- 
 ual power. It was not, however, until Mo- 
 hammed had reached the age of forty that 
 he began to have, as he believed, or pre- 
 tended to believe, intimations as to his 
 divine mission. These visions may have 
 been the result of hysteria and epilepsy to 
 which he was subject. At first he was 
 inclined to attribute them to the work of an 
 evil spirit, but his wife overruled his doubts 
 and persuaded him that he was in receipt of 
 revelations from God. At last he began to 
 make the announcement, "There is one 
 God, and Mohammed is his prophet," and 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 97 
 
 the new faith which was styled "Islam," 
 signifying resignation to the divine will, was 
 launched upon the sea of human life. 
 
 Mohammed was persecuted by a powerful 
 prince, and, being compelled to flee in 622 
 A. D., the date of his flight from Mecca 
 came to be celebrated as the Hegira, and 
 from it the Mohammedan calendar is still 
 reckoned. His personal power was great. 
 His commanding presence, eloquent speech, 
 pleasing manners and his enthusiasm as a 
 teacher made him a political leader and 
 religious reformer in the city of Medina. 
 He succeeded at last in winning the favor 
 of the Arab tribes, and in 630 re-entered 
 Mecca; and before the two remaining years 
 of his life had passed he had succeeded in 
 destroying idolatry. These last two years 
 were filled with preparations for an expedi- 
 tion against the Greeks, in hope of execut- 
 ing his commission to abolish idolatry from 
 all the lands of earth. 
 
 Mohammed was a strange mixture of high 
 devotion to the will of God, and of craft, 
 fierceness and cruelty in furthering his own 
 purposes. The doctrine and ordinances of 
 his religion are preserved in the Koran, 
 which is a record of the revelations which 
 came to him through the angel Gabriel, and 
 
98 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 which his followers accept as the Word of 
 God. It contains no original ideas, but is 
 a mongrel collection of sayings from Rab- 
 binical literature, apocryphal gospels, and 
 other sources. Its central and majestic 
 truth is the doctrine of monotheism, which 
 was borrowed from the Jews, but the doc- 
 trine of holiness is obscured. Its portraiture 
 of God's omnipotence and resistless energy 
 leads to the most extreme fatalism. The 
 torments of idolators in hades and the joys 
 of the faithful in a sensual paradise are de- 
 picted with graphic realism. 
 
 Mohammed was succeeded in leadership 
 by caliphs who combined the usual func- 
 tions of emperor and pope. Absolutism of 
 government and fury for conquest secured 
 a rapid spread of dominion for the Mos- 
 lems. The heathen, apostates, and schis- 
 matics were given the choice, — "The Koran 
 and tribute, or death." Arabian armies 
 went forth full of unquenchable fanaticism 
 and of zeal for plunder. Equally to the 
 living victor and the slain were assured the 
 joys of a tempting paradise, and no man 
 spared himself. The sweep of these con- 
 quering hosts passes belief. By 637 Jeru- 
 salem and Damascus had fallen to them. 
 Africa was next invaded and conquered, 
 
FALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE 99 
 
 and Persia followed in the fatal order. By 
 the next century advances had been made 
 along the north of Africa, and thence into 
 Spain, which in eight years was subjected 
 to the rule of Islam. 
 
 The Pyrenees did not stay the armies of 
 the Caliph, and about 725 an immense train 
 passed the mountain barriers and began to 
 ravage the cities and fields of southern 
 Gaul, and to threaten religion and civiliza- 
 tion just as they were beginning to manifest 
 development upon the basis of Roman cul- 
 ture and German virility. It is almost im- 
 possible to exaggerate the significance of 
 the issue to which the two rival religions 
 and types of civilization were brought by 
 this invasion of Western Europe. The ad- 
 vance from far away Arabia had been un- 
 checked, and now there was opposed to the 
 deathly march of the Moslems only scat- 
 tered and disunited forces of the various 
 peoples who had settled in different sections 
 west of the Rhine, but had never fused into 
 one nationality. It is to the immortal 
 credit of Charles Martel that he succeeded 
 in rallying the discordant elements of Eu- 
 rope in united and determined resistance to 
 the Saracenic invasion. It was on the plains 
 between Tours and Poitiers that Charles 
 
looTHE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 marshaled his warriors and saved Europe by 
 the total defeat and rout of the confident 
 host, the fragments of which he drove back 
 across the Pyrenees. Spain was to suffer 
 for centuries from Moorish occupation; but 
 the northern countries in which the progress- 
 ive civilization of Christianity and sound 
 culture was to be worked out were saved 
 from the hopeless blight of Mohammed- 
 anism. 
 
 III. CHRISTIANITY AMONG THE NEW NATIONS 
 OF EUROPE 
 
 During a considerable part of the period 
 under consideration assaults were being 
 made upon the ancient Roman Empire by 
 emigrant peoples from the north. They 
 beat upon the outer lines of defense during 
 the troubled years of Marcus Aurelius. In 
 the following centuries the storm raged with 
 greater fury against the breakwaters of the 
 whole northern boundary. Hordes of fierce 
 and barbarous peoples were restlessly push- 
 ing southward and westward from an appar- 
 ently inexhaustible source in the ill-defined 
 region beyond the limits of the Empire. A 
 thousand years before there had been a sim- 
 ilar outpouring from these same lands, and 
 a downward movement into the peninsulas 
 
PALL OP THE ROMAN EMPIRE loi 
 
 of Greece, Italy and Spain, where were 
 formed in the long process of time nations 
 whose civilization was to enrich mankind for 
 all ages. 
 
 Now came a second flood of these rude 
 tribes, bent on pillage or occupation. Their 
 previous history has been forever lost. 
 These barbaric tribes, coming now for the 
 first time upon the arena of historic nations, 
 comprised Goths and Vandals, Ostrogoths, 
 Franks and Burgundians. Although evi- 
 dently of a common racial origin, they had 
 few political or social bonds, and centuries 
 were required to weld them into unity of 
 nationality. Some causes must, however, 
 have acted alike upon them to bring about 
 such expeditions and migrations. 
 
 It was a time of great peril, and the gains 
 which had been made in respect to civiliza- 
 tion and religion were in danger of being 
 swept away. In the turmoil of barbarian 
 inroads the old political lines were broken, 
 the old social conditions were destroyed, 
 and the religion which had just made con- 
 quest of the Roman Empire was put to new 
 straits. How could Christianity survive 
 the wreck of ancient institutions and the 
 successive influxes of warrior tribes? The 
 once flourishing churches of the Orient be- 
 
I02 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 came weakened and forceless under the 
 Ottoman invasion. What could save the 
 churches of the West when overrun by the 
 untamed people that were sweeping across 
 the Rhine and the Danube? When the ram- 
 parts to the north should give way, what 
 could prevent the complete inundation of 
 Christian lands by a tide of barbarism? 
 
 The power of a deeply-founded civiliza- 
 tion, backed by a pure and deathless reli- 
 gion, gave the final mastery to the forces of 
 the Kingdom. This is the secret of the 
 victory for the best element of human so- 
 ciety, as seen in the gradual process by 
 which the Western Empire was overthrown. 
 Time was the ally of Christianity, which 
 thus found opportunity to work itself out in 
 the regeneration of the new races. At first 
 there were marauding incursions of greater 
 or less extent, bringing more or less of dis- 
 turbance and loss. Then large bodies 
 pushed through the ancient lines and found 
 settlement, for a while recognizing Rome, 
 and even enlisting in her weakened and scat- 
 tered armies. Finally came the inexhaust- 
 ible stream of invaders, spoiling rich 
 cities, occupying fertile lands, and making 
 havoc of society. 
 
 It was a gigantic task that Christianity 
 
PALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 103 
 
 unfalteringly assumed, to mold the lives of 
 these rude peoples into forms of beauty and 
 good order. As it had succeeded in trans- 
 forming the Empire into whose heathenism 
 it entered, so it hopefully girded itself for 
 this new and more difficult undertaking. It 
 believed itself capable of infusing a new 
 spirit into the barbarians and molding their 
 ideas and sentiments according to standards 
 of righteousness. By this time the Church 
 had become an organized force, multitudes 
 were enrolled in its membership, institu- 
 tions of religion were matured, and able 
 men were in positions of authority and in- 
 fluence. Moreover, aggressive missionary 
 work was being done; and before the sack- 
 ing of Rome the Gothic tribes had learned 
 from devoted preachers who sought them 
 out in their northern forests something about 
 the religion of Christ. 
 
 In some respects there was at first a direct 
 advantage to Christianity from the work of 
 these iconoclastic invaders. It was as 
 early as 410 A. D. when the gates of Rome 
 yielded to Alaric, and the ancient heathen- 
 ism of the Empire had not quite lost its 
 hold upon society. When the Eternal City 
 was sacked the shrines of the ancient reli- 
 gion were pillaged, and patrician families 
 
104THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 who were the chief supporters of the decay- 
 ing faith were scattered or destroyed. This 
 gave the death blow to paganism, which in 
 the face of a dominant Christianity had per- 
 sisted so long. 
 
 For two centuries there were constant in- 
 roads from these loosely confederated na- 
 tions, especially across the Rhine into Gaul 
 and on into Spain. They divided and sub- 
 divided the conquered territory among them- 
 selves, thus separating it from the rest of 
 the Empire. These invaders were without 
 rights save those of conquest, and yet they 
 had in them, as history has demonstrated, 
 the fundamental elements of a stable Chris- 
 tian civilization. They proved themselves 
 capable of assimilating in time the learning 
 and the religion already developed by the 
 Greeks and Romans. 
 
 At this point came a crisis in the affairs 
 of men, a turning point in the interests of 
 humanity, when the earlier invaders of Ger- 
 manic stock successfully resisted the inva- 
 sion of their newly-acquired lands by a 
 people more barbaric than ever they had 
 been and far less susceptible to civilization. 
 At Chalons, in one of the "decisive bat- 
 tles of the world," the Huns under Attila 
 were, at the middle point of the fifth cen- 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 105 
 
 tury, turned back from their attempt to 
 possess themselves of Gaul and Spain. It 
 is not clear by what influences they had been 
 induced to undertake this ambitious expe- 
 dition. It may have been upon the appeal 
 of the Emperor's jealous sister; it may have 
 been upon an ill-advised invitation to assist 
 in the conquest of Northern Africa; it may 
 have been merely the restlessness and am- 
 bition of the remarkable leader of the Hun- 
 nish host. After crossing the Rhine their 
 ruthlessness aroused against them all the 
 forces at the command of both Gaul and 
 Rome. For the last time the armies of the 
 Empire were to do service for the ancient 
 civilization, as, in union with the Gallic 
 forces, under the combined leadership of 
 Aetius and Theodoric, they met the vast 
 army of Attila, numbering possibly 700,000, 
 and defeated them in one of the most im- 
 portant contests recorded in history. 
 
 In tracing the work of Christianity among 
 the new nations of Europe we come first of 
 all to ancient Britain. It was during the 
 incursions of the Vandals, in 410 A. D., 
 that Roman troops were withdrawn from 
 the British isles, leaving the Christian civili- 
 zation which had been fostered there at the 
 mercy of the rude Picts and Scots who in- 
 
I06THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 vaded Britain from the north. About 450 
 came the Angles and Saxons, driving the 
 inhabitants into Cornwall and Wales and for 
 generations subjecting the island to Teu- 
 tonic heathenism. About 600 the Angles 
 and Saxons were reached from Rome by 
 Gregory, who, while an abbot, had noted 
 with interest fair slaves of their race in the 
 market-place, and who on becoming pope 
 sent the abbot Augustine with numerous fol- 
 lowers to convert the English. Two hun- 
 dred years after the withdrawal of the Ro- 
 man legions, came these legions of the 
 Cross, and established themselves in Kent. 
 Won by the simple, unselfish life of the 
 monks. King Ethelbert gave Augustine a 
 residence where he was made the first 
 "Archbishop of Canterbury." 
 
 The next generation found as firm a sup- 
 porter in the north, in King Edwin of 
 Northumbria, who had married a daughter 
 of Ethelbert. 
 
 It was about 450 A. D. that Ireland re- 
 ceived Christianity through the labors of 
 Patricius, the "St. Patrick" of a later day. 
 He was born a little south of the Clyde, of 
 Christian parents, and was himself converted 
 when only a lad. In youth he was carried 
 off by pirates to Ireland and put to humble 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 107 
 
 service in tending sheep. Having been 
 preserved in many adventures he felt him- 
 self called in a vision of the night to carry 
 the Gospel co the land of his captivity. He 
 went to the people among whom as a lad 
 he had been a slave, gathered them in open 
 fields and preached with such sincerity as to 
 touch the hearts of both peasants and chiefs. 
 Though not himself a learned man, Patricius 
 succeeded in establishing cloisters as cen- 
 ters of learning and piety, so that |^his in- 
 fluence was felt for centuries even in remote 
 parts of Europe. 
 
 Germany proved a hard field to conquer. 
 To break down the reverential worship of 
 the Germanic peoples for the gods of their 
 fathers, to soften their fierce hearts; and to 
 accomplish this through the agency of 
 ecclesiastics representing a foreign power, 
 was a task of supreme difficulty. Yet Chris- 
 tianity not only made rapid strides among 
 the German people, it found in them assim- 
 ilative qualities and elements rare among 
 the men of degenerate Rome. There was 
 in them an independence, courage, faithful- 
 ness and purity most unlike the type of 
 character encountered in the Empire; and 
 which under the touch of a pure religion de- 
 veloped into character of noble proportions. 
 
loSTHE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 It was within the bounds of ancient Gaul 
 that Christianity was to find its early devel- 
 opment in the molding of a new empire. 
 About 500 A. D., Clovis, King of the 
 Franks, was converted to Christianity, or at 
 least to its formal adoption and support. 
 His wife, Clotide, was already a Christian, 
 and was making appeals in behalf of her 
 religion to her royal husband. Before a 
 decisive battle the King vowed if victory 
 were granted to him, to worship the God of 
 the Christians. It was after he returned vic- 
 torious from battle that the famous baptism 
 of the King and three thousand warriors 
 occurred. Of course Clovis was still a bar- 
 barian at heart, and was only slightly re- 
 strained from ambition and cruelty, yet his 
 influence was favorable to the spread of 
 Christianity. The church of Gaul lent him 
 support, and the Franks became dominant 
 with their Catholic faith, as against that of 
 the Burgundians, which strongly inclined 
 to Arianism. 
 
 All through the fifth and sixth centuries 
 Christianity was contending for mastery 
 over these new peoples, who, with all their 
 half-tamed rudeness, never failed to mani- 
 fest force and capacity. Although coming 
 out of rough antecedents, they recognized 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 109 
 
 the finer phases of personal character and 
 felt the moral force of the Christian Church. 
 Yet their hereditary habits put religion to a 
 constant strain, and it is not surprising that 
 for a time the standard of church life and 
 even of the ministry should have fallen. 
 According to the ideals prevailing at the 
 present time the Christianity of this trou- 
 blous period was scarcely more than nom- 
 inal. It was by a very gradual process that 
 spiritual truths and moral demands came 
 at last to supplant the crude polytheistic 
 notions which had held these tribes for gen- 
 erations, and displaced their cruelty and 
 superstition with faith and gentleness. The 
 wonder is that even after the lapse of many 
 generations the spirituality and purity of 
 Christianity should have won against such 
 tremendous odds. 
 
 As we come toward the close of this pe- 
 riod, the details of which cannot here be 
 given, we note the same alliance of Church 
 and state which was encountered at the 
 adoption of Christianity by Emperor Con- 
 stantine. For a long time there had been 
 more or less confusing of the function of 
 Church and state in the new lands. In 
 Gaul, Britain, and Germany the political 
 sovereign was always inclined to encroach 
 
no THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 upon the province of the Church, making 
 laws and appointments which should have 
 been left to the ecclesiastical authorities. 
 In the final and dramatic issue which is to be 
 recorded, it is an open question whether the 
 cause of Christianity made a gain or suffered 
 a loss. It is certain that for a century the 
 power of the Papacy was increasing through- 
 out the West. It grew by reason of the per- 
 sonal strength and wisdom of the bishops; 
 by the zealous activities of missionaries; 
 and was possibly strengthened by the alli- 
 ance made with Pepin, the powerful King of 
 the Franks. Gregory III., the Pope of this 
 period, proved himself a man of great 
 strength of character, and an official of 
 shrewdness and power. A devout monk, he 
 had been gradually advanced to the papal 
 throne, where he continued earnest in the 
 cause of morality and fervent in personal 
 piety; checking heresies, suppressing dis- 
 orders, and bringing the Church of the West 
 into close relation to the authorities at 
 Rome. For the sake of strengthening the 
 papal influence in the distant regions of the 
 West he made a compact with Pepin, who 
 had sought the moral support of the Church. 
 In 752 A. D., through the apostolic legate, 
 Boniface, Pepin was anointed and crowned 
 
FALL OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE iii 
 
 King. This was the beginning of the papal 
 claim for dominion in temporal affairs, a 
 claim immensely strengthened through the 
 crowning of his son, the far more powerful 
 and famous Charlemagne. All this was in 
 accordance with ideas coming into prom- 
 inence and destined to play a leading part 
 in the historic drama of succeeding cen- 
 turies. It was held that the Kingdom of 
 God manifested itself in two directions, 
 toward spiritual dominion through the Pope, 
 toward temporal dominion through the Em- 
 pire, and that, therefore, all the affairs of 
 human society were the concern of the 
 official representatives of the Kingdom. 
 
 When a serious insurrection occurred in 
 Italy which nearly cost Pope Leo III. his 
 life, he fled over the Alps to take refuge in 
 the court of the Prankish monarch. There 
 a request was made by the Pope that Char- 
 lemagne come to Rome to reestablish order; 
 and it was at the invitation also of the Pope 
 that a vast body of the people were assem- 
 bled to welcome him in the Basilica of St. 
 Peter. Thus was an opportunity furnished 
 for merging the two great co-ordinate pow- 
 ers, the Church and the state, which had 
 before this been only partially and indefina- 
 bly joined. It was in the midst of the sol- 
 
112 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 emn services of this famous Christmas Day 
 in the year 800 A. D. that the Pope, acting 
 as the head of the Church and as represen- 
 tative of the Roman people, suddenly 
 advanced and placed a crown upon the head 
 of Emperor Charlemagne amid the plaudits 
 of the populace, thus solemnly binding to- 
 gether two distinct powers which have never 
 yet found harmony of action in any genera- 
 tion or in any land. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 THE MIDDLE AGES 
 
 The fourth period, like the one last under 
 review covers almost exactly five hundred 
 years namely from the beginning of the 
 ninth to the close of the fourteenth century. 
 These five hundred years constitute the so- 
 called "Middle Ages," intervening as they 
 do between two distinct types of govern- 
 ment and civilization. It cannot be claimed 
 that this period is marked by indisputable 
 boundaries, although its general character- 
 istics are unmistakable. Students of history 
 may differ in the matter of a century or two 
 in establishing the limits of this transitional 
 period, and yet be in substantial agreement 
 as to the distinctive conditions of society 
 and government and as to the peculiar lines 
 of advancement in civilization. One cannot 
 be far out of the way in saying that the 
 influence of the Western Roman Empire 
 continued up to the crowning of Charle- 
 magne on that memorable Christmas Day in 
 the year 800 and that by 1300 there had 
 come to be an outlook toward modern 
 113 
 
114 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 nationalities and modern types of civiliza- 
 tion. The road had been long and rough 
 yet the majestic march of progress never 
 halted, and slowly but surely "the old order 
 changed, giving place to new." Through 
 crises in which the interests of civilization 
 trembled in the balance mankind entered 
 another cycle of development. 
 
 The characteristics of the Roman world 
 are readily noted. The elements which 
 were shaping and controlling society to its 
 advantage came out of the culture of the 
 Greeks, out of their high intellectual life 
 with its philosophy, art and literature, and 
 also out of the splendid institutions devel- 
 oped by the Romans, who possessed a gen- 
 ius for law, order and administration. The 
 combined contributions of these two kindred 
 nations did not furnish all the elements need- 
 ful for the development of personal charac- 
 ter and social life, and yet they did 
 establish regularity and co-ordination, and 
 secured a grade of social life which was 
 demonstrably higher and more stable than 
 that attained by other ancient people. When 
 the influences which had made Greece and 
 Rome were in a measure lost to the world, 
 in place of order came widespread disorder 
 and social perils without number. It was a 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 115 
 
 protracted period, broken, changeful, uncer- 
 tain, with everything of value to mankind, 
 — social order, government, intellectual life, 
 morals and religion, — at stake. But it was 
 not unproductive. New forces were con- 
 stantly coming into play, and as old ideas 
 died out new ones were born. Outworn 
 institutions were overwhelmed and buried 
 from sight, but new organizations of better 
 adaptability to a new order of things were 
 devised. At last came, with the apparent 
 suddenness always attending the final stages 
 of development. Modern Civilization, — 
 with its common characteristics in France, 
 Germany, England and elsewhere, — a civili- 
 zation which has had centuries of continu- 
 ance and unfolding. 
 
 This period is not infrequently termed 
 the "Dark Ages," and with evident pro- 
 priety if only it be remembered that through 
 its hours of deepest shadow the world moves 
 toward a new day. There is no such thing 
 as absolute darkness. Far up in the heav- 
 ens light dwells eternal, and some rays 
 struggle through the murkiest atmosphere 
 earth ever knows. There have been no cen- 
 turies of human history utterly devoid of 
 present illumination and of the promise of 
 better things to come. But relatively the 
 
II6THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 middle ages were gloomy enough. The 
 whole period was dark, distressful, doubtful. 
 There was a turning and overturning until 
 chaos threatened to reign triumphant. 
 There was such a manifest destructiveness 
 in the barbarian occupation of lands once 
 held by the legions of Rome, there was such 
 a mingling of discordant elements in so- 
 ciety, human life and property were in such 
 constant peril, learning was so conspicuously 
 wanting and religion at such a low ebb, that 
 the eye sweeps over these stretches of time 
 in what seems at first a vain search for 
 points of light and signs of promise. 
 
 It must have been difficult for the noblest 
 and most aspiring in these troublous times 
 to gain a broad outlook for the progress of 
 mankind. There was but a meager basis 
 for nationality with its strongly centered life 
 and its grand appeals to patriotic devotion. 
 The bonds which could hold various peo- 
 ples in common interest and friendliness 
 were few and feeble. There was a lack of 
 the fundamental medium of intercourse be- 
 tween people, for even language was in a 
 "state of flux." In all the southern coun- 
 tries of Europe there were for generations 
 intermediate and changeful forms of speech. 
 The Roman soldiers and colonists had set- 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 117 
 
 tied in various sections, bringing with them 
 their Latin tongue, which was strong enough 
 to prevail as the basis of Italian, Spanish 
 and French. But from time to time there 
 came in the invading nations from beyond 
 the Rhine with their rude barbarian dialects. 
 It took centuries to weld into composite but 
 unified language these varied elements of 
 speech, and meanwhile there was no vernac- 
 ular common to the many, much less one 
 capable of expressing refined and ennobling 
 thoughts and sentiments. Literature for a 
 considerable period was lacking. That 
 which had been developed in Greece and 
 Rome was no longer available, and the new 
 harvest had yet to be garnered. 
 
 It was an age of general and gross igno- 
 rance. Yet it was a period presenting fasci- 
 nating problems to the student of history; 
 and the striking contrasts here and there 
 displayed account for its fruitfulness in pro- 
 ducing the elements of a broader and higher 
 civilization than men had before known. 
 It becomes more and more clear that much 
 of greatest moment to humanity was being 
 wrought out, and that the way was being 
 prepared for solid and lasting gains. Pro- 
 fessor Fisher in a notable passage character- 
 izes this period thus: "One is struck with 
 
II8THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 the strong contrasts that present themselves 
 in every province of life, and lend to it a 
 picturesque character. By the side of the 
 brilliant attire of the prince and the bishop, 
 we see the coarse frock of the monk and the 
 rags of the peasant. In the vicinity of the 
 mighty cathedral, whose spires rise above 
 the tallest trees of the forest, are the mean 
 dwelling of the mechanic and the peasant's 
 miserable hovel. Associated with mail-clad 
 knights, whose trade is war and whose de- 
 light is in combat, are men whose sacred 
 vocation forbids the use of force altogether. 
 Through lands overspread with deeds of vio- 
 ence, the lonely wayfarer with the staff and 
 badge of a pilgrim passes unharmed and in 
 safety. In sight of castles about whose 
 walls fierce battles rage, are the church and 
 the monastery, within the precincts of 
 which quiet reigns, and all violence is 
 branded as sacrilege. There is a like con- 
 trast when we look at the inmost spirit and 
 temper of different classes. On the one 
 hand there is flagrant wickedness, the very 
 thought of which excites horror. On the 
 other hand we meet with examples of sanc- 
 tity that command in the most enlightened 
 days the deepest reverence of all who value 
 Christian excellence." 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 119 
 
 In order to gain impressions as clear as 
 possible concerning the developments of 
 this period it will be well to consider in 
 turn several topics of interest. 
 
 I. POLITICAL CHANGES 
 
 From one point of view there is a marked 
 difference between the secular and the 
 sacred elements of human life. It is quite 
 possible to be deeply interested in the 
 former and indifferent to the latter. Yet in 
 studying the general advance of mankind 
 one must recognize that although easily dis- 
 tinguished from each other the two lines of 
 development often coincide. In the wid- 
 est outlook human life is one. Society is a 
 unit, and it moves along a single path. 
 History cannot concern itself with either 
 phase of social evolution without giving 
 consideration to the other. We cannot un- 
 derstand the rise and progress of Christian 
 civilization without following the story of 
 these centuries in both branches of human 
 conduct. The sublime onward movement 
 of society has always been along the par- 
 allel lines of political and moral achieve- 
 ment. 
 
 The political changes through which Eng- 
 land passed during this period produced 
 
I20THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 effects which have been woven into the 
 warp and woof of her composite national 
 life. For two centuries there was a succes- 
 sion of Saxon monarchs, broken only by 
 three short reigns of Danish kings. When 
 we find Egbert of Wessex in 828 A. D. unit- 
 ing the kingdoms of the old Heptarchy we 
 catch the earliest glimpse of nationality 
 north of the Channel. Then came the 
 memorable Norman Conquest, in 1066 A. 
 D., and a new royal line beginning with 
 William the Conqueror. The Plantagenets, 
 who followed, held the throne for two and 
 a half centuries. In the course of the few 
 centuries that followed, many plots were 
 hatched and conflicts waged, but long before 
 that period came to an end the unity of Eng- 
 land had been put beyond peradventure. 
 
 At the beginning of this period the terri- 
 torial limits of France were more sharply 
 defined than those of any other section of 
 the great empire over which Charlemagne 
 had been crowned, yet even here all was 
 not settled. Doubtless Charlemagne him- 
 self fancied the work of nation building 
 fairly completed at the end of his long and 
 efficient reign. If so, he was woefully mis- 
 taken. A succession of men of like calibre 
 with himself, able in device and execution 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 121 
 
 on the scale of a continent, might have 
 resisted the inevitable tendencies toward 
 disintegration, — but he had no fit successor; 
 and on both sides of the Rhine changes 
 were destined to follow rapidly. His own 
 work fairly entitles him to the term "Great," 
 which has been accorded to the few leaders 
 in human affairs who have manifestly 
 directed the course of history. He was 
 "Great" not merely in the measure of his 
 plans and ambitions, but in the scope of his 
 actual accomplishments. He ranks by vir- 
 tue of his achievements with Alexander and 
 Caesar. His conceptions of the mission to 
 which he had been called had a grandeur 
 which was matched only by his restless 
 activity in behalf of a breadth of empire and 
 a type of civilization which should be of 
 lasting benefit to mankind. He not only 
 led armies with skill and daring; but estab- 
 lished schools and libraries for the spread of 
 learning; improved the currency and in 
 other ways aided commerce; promoted the 
 cultivation of the land; harmonized the 
 Roman and the barbarian codes of law; 
 organized the army on a stable foundation; 
 and established a naval force for the pro- 
 tection of the coast. 
 
 Charlemagne was immediately followed 
 
122 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 by his son Louis the Debonair, good natured 
 and pious, a delightful type of the Chris- 
 tian gentleman, not lacking in wit and train- 
 ing, or in courage, but of quite too kindly a 
 disposition and of too sensitive a conscience 
 to thoroughly master and control the con- 
 flicting elements of the age in which he 
 lived. Only men of rugged character and 
 iron wills, like Charles Martel and Pepin, 
 could have carried on the enterprise which 
 Charlemagne laid down. The Frankish- 
 Roman Empire which the genius of his 
 father had built into seeming unity was too 
 unwieldy for the hands of Louis the Gentle, 
 and his whole life was given to sad and 
 profitless struggles with his three undutiful 
 sons whom he had too generously associated 
 in rulership with himself. Out of it all 
 came not only sorrow to the Emperor, but 
 confusion and dismemberment to the Em- 
 pire. First the sons took up arms against a 
 father of whom they were not worthy, com- 
 pelling him to abdicate his throne, and 
 breaking his heart by their unfilial harsh- 
 ness; and then turned their arms against 
 each other and brought about a partition of 
 the Empire. Within two centuries the de- 
 scendants of Charlemagne had sunk into 
 insignificance. 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 123 
 
 For long years thereafter France could 
 scarcely be said to possess a national his- 
 tory. The land was so divided and subdi- 
 vided between different princes and tribes 
 that the spirit of unity hardly existed. It 
 was "Burgundy," "Normandy," ''Aqui- 
 taine," and so on to the end of the list, the 
 vassals having small relationship to the 
 crown, and each great baron being absorbed 
 in the maintenance of his own independ- 
 ence. It was not until the reign of Louis 
 VII., in the middle of the twelfth century, 
 that the monarchy of France began to re- 
 cover its power. It was during the two cen- 
 turies of disorder that followed the death of 
 Louis the Debonair that the ages became so 
 profoundly "dark." This was a time of 
 political chaos and social perturbation. In 
 the breaking up of the Empire of Charle- 
 magne barbarism triumphed, and all lines of 
 development seemed hopelessly checked. 
 Europe suffered from repeated inroads of 
 predatory bands, the Arabs harassing the 
 land from the south, the Slavic tribes from 
 the east, and the Norsemen from the north. 
 The rule of the Carlovingians developed 
 neither strength nor dignity. 
 
 The vigorous work of Louis VII., whose 
 individual sovereignty covered more than 
 
124 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 forty years, was followed by that of his son, 
 Philip Augustus, and his grandson, Louis 
 VIII.; they in turn preparing the way for 
 fifty years of splendid service to the nation 
 and to mankind by Louis IX., admirable 
 king and true saint. 
 
 The political history of Germany during 
 this period is properly comprised under 
 that of the Holy Roman Empire. It was 
 ruled over by emperors who claimed as 
 representatives of the ancient Roman Em- 
 pire to be in rightful authority over all the 
 nations of western and central Europe. 
 They applied the term "Holy" to their 
 administrations as political sovereigns on 
 the ground of the interdependence of state 
 and Church which was sealed at the corona- 
 tion of Charlemagne in the Basilica of St. 
 Peter at Rome. By the treaty of partition 
 entered into between the sons of Louis the 
 Debonair the Carlovingian dynasty con- 
 tinued in the eastern part of Charlemagne's 
 vast empire. In the course of a century or 
 two the limits and characteristics of the 
 Holy Roman Empire became fairly well 
 defined, though neither in territory nor 
 function was there entire freedom from dis- 
 pute. In theory there were two sovereigns 
 who could not come into conflict, since they 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 125 
 
 were simply the two-fold expression of the 
 one kingdom of God. According to this 
 construction, "God had set the Pope over 
 the spiritual interests of the Church, and 
 the Emperor over its temporal affairs. The 
 Pope was to so guide and rule men's souls 
 that they should attain to eternal life; the 
 Emperor was to so govern their outward 
 relations that their spiritual life should be 
 most effectively promoted. The harmo- 
 nious co-operation of these two great world- 
 rulers, each in his own sphere, was to bring 
 in the kingdom of God on earth. It was a 
 beautiful thought, to which the practices of 
 both emperors and pope often presented a 
 sad contrast." 
 
 In spite of imperfections of character and 
 faults of rulership on the part of both sets 
 of potentates involved in this compact, the 
 progress of Germany through these centu- 
 ries was steadily toward distinct nationality 
 and autonomy. At the beginning of this 
 period, notwithstanding the apparent domi- 
 nation of Charlemagne, the territory of the 
 Rhine was divided between the minor 
 nationalities of the Thuringians, Franks, 
 Saxons, Bavarians, and others. Through 
 the passing centuries the German nation 
 grew by a union of those separate national- 
 
126 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ities under a succession of emperors, the 
 Saxon line holding the ascendency for about 
 a hundred years from the beginning of the 
 tenth century, the Franconian and Swabian 
 lines taking turns for a somewhat similar 
 period, the house of Hapsburg being on the 
 throne at the close of the thirteenth century. 
 
 II. PHASES OF CHRISTIANITY 
 
 At no time during this long and distress- 
 ful period did Christianity cease to be a 
 vital force, though some of its manifesta- 
 tions and activities seem to us of a later 
 day, crude, mistaken, and wasteful. Doubt- 
 less there was a lack of breadth and far- 
 sightedness, but coherence and energy of 
 some sort were never wanting. 
 
 There never failed some measure of direct 
 and positive work on the part of men who 
 had accepted a commission to evangelize 
 the world. The word of the Gospel was 
 carried here and there by adventurous trav- 
 elers, by members of conquering armies, and 
 by missionary monks. Before this period 
 closed Germany and England had both 
 become predominantly Christian. Chris- 
 tianity was introduced into Denmark by 
 efforts of Louis the Debonair, and under 
 favor of Canute, the conqueror of England. 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 127 
 
 From here it was pushed over to the coast 
 of Sweden, captive youth having been won 
 and instructed that they might carry back 
 the message to their countrymen. Thence 
 it spread to Norway, and even to Iceland 
 and Greenland. In none of these countries 
 was the movement a swift one. The early 
 ideas of all these people were crude in the 
 extreme, the "new god" being worshiped 
 for a time together with the older ones. 
 But in the course of decades and half-cen- 
 turies their notions became more exact, their 
 moral standards more worthy and their re- 
 ligious life more pronounced. 
 
 The Bulgarians coming into Europe from 
 Central Asia adopted the Slavic language 
 and customs and thus shut themselves out 
 from the religious teachings of Germany and 
 Rome. They were, however. Christianized 
 from Constantinople and became connected 
 with the Eastern Church. 
 
 The Moravians had a romantic history 
 which is of special interest in view of their 
 later distinguished service to the world. 
 After being won to Christianity from Con- 
 stantinople their country was overrun by a 
 horde of Magyar^ from barbaric Asia. For 
 a long time a fierce struggle was maintained 
 between Christianity and the rude heathen- 
 
128 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ism of their conquerors, but out of it the 
 purer religion came at last triumphant. 
 Largely through two noble princes Chris- 
 tianity spread from what now became 
 Bohemia into Poland, where it became 
 the state religion, under the jurisdiction of 
 Rome. 
 
 In Christianizing Prussia a characteristic 
 method of the times was adopted, which is 
 strongly depicted in "The Deluge," a his- 
 torical novel of great power, by Sienkiewicz. 
 In the thirteenth century an order of military 
 knights, known as "Brethren of the Sword," 
 subdued Lavonia to Christianity by force of 
 arms, and uniting with a similar order of 
 German knights brought Prussia also into 
 subjection. 
 
 The work among the Slavic people was 
 slow and fluctuating, owing largely to differ- 
 ences of language. The real conquest of the 
 Russians was finally made about the year 
 1000 A. D. by missionaries from Constan- 
 tinople, the famous King Vladimir having 
 been deeply impressed by the magnificence 
 of St. Sophia. Russia has continued to this 
 day in connection with the Eastern Church. 
 
 In Spain there was more or less friction 
 between Mohammedans and Christians for 
 centuries. Within the Church itself were 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 129 
 
 two parties, one seeking martyrdom and 
 advocating bold and provocative conduct; 
 the other holding it better to live quiet, 
 unobtrusive lives, trusting to the inherent 
 winsomeness and expansiveness of Chris- 
 tianity. About the middle of the eighth 
 century a great outbreak and general perse- 
 cution was threatened, but the Council of 
 Cordova forbade Christians to appear before 
 magistrates to confess the faith unless com- 
 pelled by judicial procedure. So the ex- 
 citement died out, and a fair degree of 
 religious freedom was enjoyed until the 
 Moorish power was finally broken, near the 
 close of the eleventh century, by the Cid, 
 the greatest warrior produced out of the 
 long struggle between Christian and Moslem. 
 Various efforts at evangelization were 
 made in the far East by the heretical Nes- 
 torians belonging to the Church in Persia, 
 but the Tartar tribes proved wild and in- 
 tractable. The Mongolian religion, with 
 its assertions of one Almighty Creator, 
 held them for a while against both Chris- 
 tianity'and Mohammedanism, but finally two 
 separate empires were established, one in 
 Persia, where Mohammedanism triumphed, 
 and one centering in Pekin, where, strange 
 to say, Christianity prevailed. It was 
 
i3oTHE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 through the efforts of a devoted missionary 
 who wisely sought to convert and train the 
 children, that Christianity gained a foot- 
 hold in China in this remote century. For 
 eleven years his work was uninterrupted, 
 and his hope of developing qualified native 
 teachers and preachers rested upon a good 
 foundation. He had won adherents and 
 had translated the New Testament into the 
 Tartar language, when a Chinese insurrec- 
 tion overwhelmed the community, dissipat- 
 ing the infant forces and postponing the 
 Christianizing of this great empire for six 
 or seven centuries. 
 
 The Crusades could have taken place only 
 in such an age as this, — an age of ignorance 
 and superstition, of suppressed energies, of 
 deep devotion and chivalry. The first Cru- 
 sade went out from France and Northern 
 Italy, in the closing years of the eleventh 
 century. It was urged on the ground that 
 Christian pilgrims to Jerusalem had been 
 slain by Turks, and was preached and finally 
 led by Peter the Hermit, "an eloquent and 
 meager-visaged pilgrim," who everywhere 
 aroused Christians to resent and avenge the 
 wrongs of their brethren. Pope Urban II., 
 who also embraced the cause, appealed to 
 every human passion, granting absolution 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 131 
 
 and promises of blessedness hereafter to all 
 participants. The offers of reward added 
 to a body of sincere devotees a host of crim- 
 inals set free for the service, and also of 
 adventurers who were moved by the hope of 
 booty. The disorderly mob marching 
 through Bulgaria filled the country with 
 robbery and murder, and were in turn 
 slaughtered by thousands upon the uprising 
 of the inhabitants. The remnant reached 
 Constantinople, but were nearly all destroyed 
 in their march through Asia Minor. A 
 hundred thousand men had already perished 
 when the Duke of Lorraine, the famous 
 Godfrey de Bouillon, marched toward Con- 
 stantinople with a host of well-appointed 
 knights. With various adventures and 
 countless sufferings this army appeared 
 before the walls of Jerusalem, carried it by 
 storm and wreaked vengeance on both Sar- 
 acens and Jews. A new kingdom was set 
 up on the plan of western feudalism. But 
 it was necessary to sustain many encounters 
 with infidels, and as the years went by the 
 condition of the kingdom at the Holy City 
 became exceedingly precarious. 
 
 The second Crusade was instituted by the 
 kings of Germany and France in 1147, being 
 stirred up by St. Bernard, abbot of Clair- 
 
132 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 vaux, in the hope of saving the Holy Sepul- 
 chre from the hands of the infidels, the 
 powerful Sultan of Mosul having taken 
 Edessa and threatened Jerusalem. Bernard 
 succeeded in arousing slumbering zeal for 
 religion by his fiery eloquence and pious 
 enthusiasm, but the ultimate result was 
 untold hardship and sacrifice and the loss of 
 countless lives. It was a vast blunder on 
 the part of a really noble and useful man. 
 
 The third Crusade came forty years later 
 when Jerusalem had fallen into the hands of 
 Saladin. Frederick I. of Germany, Philip 
 of France, and Richard of England went in 
 joint expedition to the rescue of the Holy 
 City. "From the southernmost point of 
 Italy to the rude mountains of Scandinavia" 
 streamed forth armed bands toward Pales- 
 tine. The cost of the enterprise was great 
 in treasure, sufferings and human lives, on 
 both sides, and the result was a truce by 
 which residence on the sea coast from Tyre 
 to Joppa and access to the holy places were 
 secured to the Christians. 
 
 The fourth Crusade was undertaken in 
 1204 by knights of France and Italy who 
 were lured eastward by hope of material 
 gains, and who succeeded in dividing among 
 themselves the spoils of the Byzantine King- 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 133 
 
 dom; but the expedition was without results 
 so far as Jerusalem was concerned. 
 
 The fifth Crusade is famous as having 
 been undertaken by Frederick II. of Ger- 
 many while under the ban of excommunica- 
 tion from the Pope, Gregory IX. It 
 terminated in a favorable treaty with the 
 Saracens. The Pope, who had forbidden 
 Christian warriors to follow the Emperor, 
 now fulminated a decree of excommunica- 
 tion against the city and the holy sepulchre, 
 so that Frederick was compelled to place 
 upon his own head the crown of Jerusalem 
 without the solemnity of a mass. On his 
 return there ensued a protracted contest in 
 Germany between the imperial and papal 
 forces, which ended in the withdrawal of the 
 ban and the bestowal of the papal benedic- 
 tion upon Frederick. 
 
 The last two Crusades were led by the 
 devoted but mistaken Louis IX., the only 
 sainted ruler that ever sat upon the throne 
 of France. The results were of smallest 
 consequence, beyond the contribution of 
 thousands of bodies to the soil of Syria, 
 which "for two hundred years had been 
 drenched by the blood of so many millions." 
 
 The Crusades were costly beyond estimate 
 in treasure and in human lives, and seem to 
 
134 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 modern thought irrational and even unchris- 
 tian. Yet they served a great purpose in 
 advancing the cause of civilization in a rude 
 and unprogressive age. While they moved 
 many to gloomy fanaticism, they yet 
 awakened multitudes to religious zeal, be- 
 sides adding to the treasure and prestige of 
 the Church. Indirectly they opened the 
 minds of men to cultivation through ac- 
 quaintance with foreign lands and the arts 
 and sciences of other peoples. The knightly 
 class was doubtless ennobled ,by the roman- 
 tic aims which called them forth in a spirit 
 of chivalry and devotion to the Cross. But 
 what was of still greater importance, a free 
 peasantry arose out of liberties won at such 
 great sacrifice, and new lines of trade and 
 commerce were opened for the ultimate 
 enrichment of many towns and cities of the 
 West. 
 
 This period is marked by the develop- 
 ment of several great orders of monks. The 
 tendencies toward a monastic life had de- 
 clared themselves ten centuries before, but 
 circumstances favored the highest develop- 
 ment of such organizations during the mid- 
 dle ages. Often they originated in true 
 piety and pure zeal for religion and service 
 to humanity. There was a combined pres- 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 135 
 
 sure from ambition for spiritual culture, and 
 from the manifest needs of the people in a 
 rough and tumultuous age. Men retired 
 from the enjoyments and engagements of 
 ordinary life, subjecting themselves to strict- 
 est rules, and giving their daily ministra- 
 tions to the ignorant who needed instruction 
 and exhortation and to the sick and desti- 
 tute who suffered from the lack of bodily 
 comforts. 
 
 Among these orders were the Dominicans, 
 who braved many hardships for the poor, 
 winning by their self-denying labors im- 
 mense popularity throughout Italy, Spain, 
 France and Germany, and finally forcing 
 their way into the great universities of 
 Bologna, Paris and Oxford. X Side by side 
 with them grew up the order of the Fran- 
 ciscans, whose members went out to conquer 
 the world for Christ by kindly service and 
 the simple preaching of the Gospel. At 
 first they were full of the enthusiasm and 
 mysticism of their founder, but in the end, 
 as with the Dominicans, the order becom- 
 ing possessed of great wealth, relaxed the 
 rigid rules of early days, and came under 
 the domination of ambitious men whose 
 purposes were remote from the devotion and 
 piety suggested by the life of their Master. 
 
136 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Belonging to these times and to this order 
 of religious life there are two notable char- 
 acters which illustrate the sincerity and 
 benevolence of true Christianity even in 
 such an age as this. 
 
 The first of these, who has come to be 
 known as St. Bernard, or "Bernard of 
 Clairvaux," was one of the most remarkable 
 men of his time. He was born in 1091 A. 
 D., near Dijon, of a family distinguished 
 for bravery, justice, and kindness to the 
 poor. His father was a knight and a vassal 
 of the Duke of Burgundy; his mother, a 
 woman of strong religious character, had 
 great influence over her son. A thoughtful 
 youth, at the age of twenty-two he joined 
 the Cistercians, along with thirty compan- 
 ions, including four of his brothers. He 
 began preaching with such tremendous 
 effectiveness that, "Mothers hid their sons, 
 wives their husbands, and companions their 
 friends, lest they should be led away cap- 
 tive by his persuasive eloquence." The 
 Cistercian monastery of Citeaux had at- 
 tracted his attention by its reported austeri- 
 ties, and he there entered into severest 
 self-subjection, abstaining from food, giving 
 himself to menial service, and spending 
 hours in devotion. The monastery grew in 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 137 
 
 numbers and wealth, and within a few years 
 he was sent out to found in a wild, secluded 
 valley the monastery of Clairvaux with 
 which his name will be forever associated. 
 His life was fruitful in literary and ecclesias- 
 tical activities. He was incessantly en- 
 gaged in preaching and correspondence, and 
 became in some respects the most influential 
 man of his age. 
 
 A century later, namely, in 1 182 A. D., 
 was born a man of different antecedents and 
 gifts, who also became the founder of a 
 great monastic order. Francis of Assisi, 
 who has been, as justly as any man, canon- 
 ized by the Church, was the son of a rich 
 merchant in a village of northern Italy. 
 His father would gladly have trained him to 
 the pursuits of trade. Through the years 
 of youth and early manhood he was the 
 head of a club of gay companions, and was 
 as reckless as any. There was in him, how- 
 ever, with all his frivolity, an undercurrent 
 of seriousness and upward impulses which 
 he could not suppress. A severe sickness 
 was followed by a pronounced transforma- 
 tion of character and life, with an ever 
 deepening sincerity, devoutness and humil- 
 ity. He parted with every worldly posses- 
 sion, gave himself to meditation, austerities 
 
138 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 and to the devoted care of the sick and 
 needy. He drew about him a band of 
 earnest followers, whom he sent out two by- 
 two as preachers of repentance, wearing 
 coarse gray tunics, literally without money, 
 and cheerfully accepting the meanest lodg- 
 ings and the simplest food. In 1209, by 
 consent of the Pope, he formed an order 
 upon vows of chastity, poverty and obe- 
 dience, with no purpose to retire from the 
 world, but to enter it and make conquest of 
 it for Christ. Its peculiarity was its con- 
 tinual poverty, for not only could no friar 
 hold property, but possessions were also for- 
 bidden to monasteries. 
 
 Scholasticism tended to break up the men- 
 tal stagnation of the dark ages, and although 
 it would be out of place and unproductive 
 in this modern period, it was full of energy 
 and fruitfulness in the twelfth and thirteenth 
 centuries. It sprang in part out of sources 
 of learning to which European people had 
 finally gained access, and in part out of the 
 awakening of mental activities incidental 
 to a progressive social and religious life. 
 The learning of the Arabic schools of Spain, 
 especially in mathematics, astronomy and 
 medicine; and the imperishable literature of 
 ancient Greece became the inheritance of 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 139 
 
 the western mind through the new inter- 
 course of nations. At the same time men 
 of religious power were inclined to apply 
 reason to theology by way of systematizing 
 and vindicating it. The motto of Scholas- 
 ticism was, "Faith seeking knowledge," 
 and its standing declaration was that phi- 
 losophy is the handmaid of religion; and 
 that it is capable of demonstrating the 
 reasonableness of convictions derived from 
 other sources. Working along these lines 
 the schoolmen were active in study and 
 debate, and added not a little to the stock 
 of human thought. Some of them mani- 
 fested great acuteness and dialectic skill. 
 The older universities at Athens, Alexan- 
 dria and Constantinople had passed away, 
 but under the auspices of the Church and 
 the favor of monarchs new schools were 
 built up. The University of Paris, "Mother 
 of Universities," grew up in the twelfth cen- 
 tury, gradually broadening its course from 
 theology to include the liberal arts, medicine 
 and law. Not long after was founded the 
 University of Oxford. It was at such cen- 
 ters of learning that doctors of scholastic 
 divinity lectured to throngs of eager lis- 
 teners. 
 
 Earnest men like Thomas Aquinas, Duns 
 
I40THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Scotus and Anselm, discussed such themes 
 as the Being of God, the Incarnation, the 
 Trinity, the Relation of Faith to Reason. 
 There was an indulgence in refinements and 
 abstruseness distasteful to modern thinkers, 
 and sometimes a literalness of interpretation 
 absurd and barren; still they enunciated 
 some germinal thoughts which were to find 
 development in later ages. For instance, 
 as against the hard and judicial theories 
 of the atonement, Abelard suggested the 
 "moral view" of Christ's work as a manifes- 
 tation of divine mercy fitted to melt the 
 heart of the sinner and win him to a saved 
 life. Out of the mazes of thought came also 
 the scholastic doctrine of "Justification" as 
 being primarily the "infusion of personal 
 righteousness," or the making man in him- 
 self holy according to the first demand of 
 moral law. In the same way emphasis was 
 laid on the need of a "living faith," by 
 which the soul is knit to God in fellowship 
 with Christ, — as distinguished from a merely 
 formal or intellectual credence. 
 
 It was almost a matter of course that the 
 schoolmen should in an age of crudeness fall 
 into errors; and, indeed, some of their 
 errors have plagued the Church ever since; 
 such errors, for instance, as the efficacy of 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 141 
 
 baptism, transubstantiation, the miraculous 
 effect of the mass, plenary indulgences from 
 special acts, extreme unction for the dying, 
 and the moral worth of celibacy. 
 
 In spite, however, of such errors of thought 
 the ranks of scholastics furnished some shin- 
 ing examples of Christian character and 
 demonstrate the vitality of religion even in 
 so rude an age. One of the earliest was 
 Anselm, born in Lombardy in 1033. He 
 was tenderly nurtured by a pious mother, but 
 the harshness of an unchristian father drove 
 him from home. He became a monk in 
 Normandy, and at the age of sixty reluc- 
 tantly accepted the Archbishopric of Can- 
 terbury, England. He was distinguished 
 for mildness of temper, inflexibility of con- 
 science and for addiction to profound medi- 
 tations, which he would not forego even on 
 enforced travels. He died in 1109. 
 
 Abelard, of romantic history, born in 1079, 
 presents a character both strong and win- 
 some. Educated in the schools of Paris, he 
 became established there as a teacher at the 
 age of thirty-six, and won to his lectures 
 crowds of enthusiastic young men. His 
 course was interrupted by a passionate 
 attachment to the young Heloise, who 
 returned his devoted affection. The mar- 
 
142 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 riage was kept a secret lest his ecclesiastic 
 preferment should be hindered. A little 
 later he was brutally attacked by Fulbert, 
 the uncle of Heloise, and was driven out to 
 a solitary cabin in a retired place where 
 multitudes of students flocked to him. 
 Heloise was compelled to take the veil, and 
 Abelard, after some years in a monastery in 
 Brittany, returned at the age of sixty to 
 resume his work at Paris, as a teacher. 
 
 He maintained a high character and a 
 broad standard of thought, but was finally 
 banished for alleged heresies. In the 
 famous monastery of Clugny, on the borders 
 of Burgundy, the poor hunted man found a 
 refuge. A year afterward, namely, in 1142, 
 he died at the neighboring priory of St. 
 Marcellus. The bones of Abelard and the 
 ill-fated Heloise rest in a common tomb in 
 the Cemetery of Pere la Chaise, in Paris. 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, born near Naples in 
 1225, was another man of lofty character and 
 attainments for the age in which he lived. 
 He studied at Cologne, and afterwards 
 taught there, as well as at Paris and Bologna. 
 His most important work, "the Sum of All 
 Theology," is still cherished by the Cath- 
 olic Church as the greatest of theological 
 teachings. All his lectures and even every 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 143 
 
 bit of writing was begun with prayer, and in 
 Hours of perplexity he made sincere appli- 
 cation to God for light. 
 
 A little later (1235) was born on the Island 
 of Majorca, Raymond Lull, a scientific 
 scholar, a profound theologian, a man of 
 extensive travel, of abounding labors and of 
 devoted piety. Although all his life he 
 had maintained vigorous opposition to the 
 pantheistic philosophy which had come 
 down from the schools of the Saracens, he 
 labored with unwearied zeal for the conver- 
 sion of the Saracens themselves and finally 
 fell a victim to a fanatical mob in Algiers, 
 whither he had gone on his apostolic mis- 
 sion. 
 
 It is interesting to find developing out of 
 this period of limitations and confusions, 
 but of vital faith, the sublime architecture 
 of the Church. Under necessity for greater 
 space two arms were thrown out from the 
 nave of the basilica, and so unwittingly the 
 ground-plan a cross was made. Then came 
 the uplifting of the roof for height and 
 beauty, appearing as Byzantine in the East, 
 and Romanesque in the West, and in north- 
 ern Europe developing into the Norman 
 ornamented arch of which Durham Cathe- 
 dral furnishes an example. Finally, toward 
 
144 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 the close of the twelfth century the Gothic 
 type with its pointed arch was matured, 
 within a hundred years reaching its fullest 
 excellence in delicacy and majesty. Great 
 cathedrals were begun in Northern France, 
 Great Britain, and Germany, some of which 
 were not to be finished for many centuries. 
 Upon these vast buildings not only kings 
 and nobles lavished their gifts, but the peo- 
 ple also their multiplied offerings, making 
 possible these sublime undertakings. The 
 marvel of beauty and sublimity in these 
 Christian temples is set forth in a descrip- 
 tive passage from the pen of Cardinal New- 
 man: "The fair form of Christianity rose up 
 and grew and expanded like a beautiful 
 pageant, from north to south; it was majes- 
 tic, solemn, bright, it was beautiful and 
 pleasant, it was soothing to the griefs, it 
 was indulgent to the hopes of man; it was 
 at once a teaching and a worship; it had a 
 dogma, a mystery, a ritual of its own; it 
 had a hierarchical form. A brotherhood of 
 holy pastors, with mitre and crosses, and 
 uplifted hand, walked forth and blessed and 
 ruled a joyful people. The crucifix headed 
 the procession, and simple monks were there 
 with hearts in prayer, and sweet chants 
 resounded, and the holy Latin tongue was 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 145 
 
 heard, and boys came forth in white, swing- 
 ing censers, and the fragrant cloud arose, 
 and mass was sung, and the saints were in- 
 voked; and day after day, and in the still 
 night, and over the woody hills and in the 
 quiet plains, as constantly as sun and moon 
 and stars go forth in heaven, so regular and 
 solemn was the stately march of blessed 
 services on earth, high festival and gorgeous 
 procession and soothing dirge and passing 
 bell, and the familiar evening call to 
 prayer." 
 
 The development of Church architecture 
 was in accordance with the maturing of ec- 
 clesiastic tendencies. Some of the great 
 movements of this period originated apart 
 from priestly inspirations, yet all the time 
 there was immense activity within the 
 organized Church. Through the centuries 
 there was a persistent, calculating, power- 
 ful effort to make the Church dominant in 
 the personal, social and political affairs of 
 all Europe. Some of those who came to 
 the papal throne were weak and wicked; not 
 a few were shrewd and forceful; a smaller 
 number were sincere and devoted. On the 
 whole there was much to mar the record of 
 formal Christianity, much that was fright- 
 fully out of keeping with the character and 
 
146 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 methods of the Master. But the sad chap- 
 ters have been written, and must be read by 
 any one who would understand the drift and 
 the struggles of this and of later periods. 
 
 In return for his defense of Church insti- 
 tutions popes gave Charlemagne their oaths 
 of allegiance, and accepted from him ad- 
 monitions as to duty, and even instruction 
 as to doctrine — always keeping in abeyance, 
 however, schemes for ecclesiastical aggran- 
 dizement. The successors of the great 
 Emperor, though attempting to exercise the 
 same influence in church affairs, had weaker 
 hands, and the Pontiffs took advantage of 
 every disorder to assert their own independ- 
 ence, and even to meddle with imperial 
 politics and with the administration of jus- 
 tice; their authority often defying that of 
 the secular courts. At the same time the 
 appeal of various emperors to papal sanction 
 for some personal advantage tended to for- 
 tify their claims to jurisdiction in temporal 
 affairs. 
 
 ^The whole movement of the age, con- 
 scious and/ unconscious, was toward papal 
 supremacy. Pious people hoped for much 
 from the authority of the Church, as ex- 
 pressed through its official head. Espe- 
 cially did they look to it to subdue factious 
 
" THE MIDDLE AGES 147 
 
 disturbers. Attempts were therefore made 
 to build up in the minds of men a reverence 
 for its divinely constituted organization. 
 Editors of ecclesiastical laws strove to add 
 the dignity and authority of ancient tradi- 
 tion to the claims by which the successor of 
 St. Peter held his high office. Some of the 
 forgeries were clumsy and stand self-con- 
 victed by their patent anachronisms; but 
 that was an uncritical age, and the docu- 
 ments passed for the time unchallenged. 
 Their whole aim was to establish the priest- 
 hood as supreme and as free from secular 
 control; and to this end there was set forth 
 in these forged decretals a system of graded 
 orders, — priests, bishops and metropolitans, 
 — up to the Primate, without whose sanction 
 no verdict could stand. The most ambi- 
 tious claims of scheming pontiffs were set 
 forth in spurious letters and decrees, to 
 which the venerated names of early bishops 
 were attached. 
 
 At the same time the influence of the 
 clergy was greatly enhanced on the political 
 side by reason of the feudal system of which 
 many ecclesiastics took advantage. Bish- 
 ops were made counts and dukes, and so 
 were enabled to exercise within their dio- 
 ceses the privileges and powers of secular 
 
148 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 lords, and were occasionally as guilty as 
 they of violence and intrigue. 
 
 At times the Pope came into open conflict 
 with the emperor, and not unfrequently the 
 result was the humiliation of the supreme 
 Pontiff; yet in great crises success generally 
 rested with the representative of the Church. 
 Henry IV. of Germany was compelled to 
 cross the Alps to Canossa in dead of winter, 
 and in the garb of a penitent appeal for 
 clemency at the feet of Gregory VII. A 
 hundred years later the great Frederick I. 
 was forced to bow at the feet of Pope Alex- 
 ander, to be raised from the ground only by 
 permission of the gracious Pontiff. The 
 struggle of Frederick II. to subjugate the 
 Pope, overthrow the whole hierarchical sys- 
 tem and bring the Church back to the sim- 
 plicity of the apostles, — as he put it, — was 
 fierce and prolonged; but he was too far in 
 advance of an age in which the idea pre- 
 vailed that the Church must be a world- 
 power, and his efforts were fruitless. The 
 Pope pushed the implacable warfare not 
 only up to the death of the monarch who 
 had been the "wonder of the world," but 
 also against the son who succeeded him. 
 All the popes accepted the argument which 
 gave them authority in temporal matters. 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 149 
 
 They reasoned that if as successors of St. 
 Peter they had the power of the "keys of 
 heaven" very much more had they the 
 right to administer earthly affairs, and so 
 they asserted in broadest terms the claims 
 of Rome to subordinate all secular interests 
 to her jurisdiction. In the motives of the 
 various pontiffs there was a mixture of craft, 
 hardness and pride, with much sincere de- 
 votion to an institution which stood for right 
 and religion. Innocent III., "the greatest 
 in the long line of popes," in whose reign 
 the papacy reached the very summit of its 
 power, maintained that the "crowns of kings 
 and the destinies of nations were lodged by 
 divine decree" in the hands of the Pope. 
 ■^ As at the adoption of Christianity by Con- 
 stantine, and at the crowning of Charle- 
 magne in the basilica at Rome, this period, 
 which closed in the acknowledgment of 
 papal supremacy, presents a peculiar prob- 
 lem to the student of history. Was it to 
 the advantage or disadvantage of Christian 
 civilization that there should have been such 
 a centralization of power in the Roman 
 Church? 
 
 On the unfavorable side it is to be said 
 that the system put human nature to too 
 great a strain, the very best of the popes 
 
ISO THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 becoming proud, autocratic and persistent. 
 It is to be recognized also that the oppor- 
 tunities for gaining wealth and influence 
 tempted bad men to scheme for office, and 
 having secured it to abuse it scandalously. 
 And, further, it seriously disturbed the free 
 and independent action of responsible offi- 
 cials in the city and state. 
 
 On the favorable side are two results most 
 difficult to secure in such a broken condi- 
 tion as prevailed throughout Europe, but 
 which were the actual products of this huge 
 ecclesiastical system; they were unity in 
 the Church, and social stability. The times 
 were troublous for all institutions, and it is 
 possible that if the Church had been divided 
 into separate national branches it might 
 have been submerged beneath political 
 contentions and national changes. The 
 strength and steadiness of so great a body 
 proved its safety, and tided it over to more 
 settled times. This is the conclusion of 
 Guizot, a philosophical student of history 
 and a Protestant. "If Christianity had been 
 no more than a belief, a sentiment, an indi- 
 vidual conviction, it would have sunk amidst 
 the dissolution of the Empire and the inva- 
 sion of barbarians." This was certainly its 
 fate in Asia and North Africa, where it was 
 
THE MIDDLE AGES 151 
 
 swept under by the tide of Mohammedanism 
 "A society strongly organized and strongly 
 governed was indispensable" to a success- 
 ful struggle against repeated disasters. "It 
 was the Church that saved Christianity, it 
 was the Church with, its institutions, its 
 magistrates and its power that became the 
 bond, the medium and principle of civiliza- 
 tion between the Roman and the Teutonic 
 worlds." 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 LOOKING TOWARD REFORMATION 
 
 Writing of the unsettled condition of 
 society during the middle ages Guizot says: 
 "It was the barbarian epoch; it was the 
 chaos of all elements, the infancy of all sys- 
 tems, a universal turmoil in which even strife 
 was not permanent and systematic." To 
 an observer going back from our own fruit- 
 ful century it was the day of misrule and of 
 perversion. The Christianity which ought 
 to have been dominant for good appeared 
 outwardly in the supremacy of a huge eccle- 
 siastical organization, itself overtopped by a 
 ruthless potentate. In every struggle up to 
 the close of the thirteenth century the 
 papacy had been successful. Fearful con- 
 tests had been waged even within the lines 
 of the Holy Roman Empire, and in every 
 instance the issue had been to the seeming 
 advantage of the Pope. Henry IV. and 
 Frederick I. and II. had been worthy and 
 powerful emperors, but after persistent oppo- 
 sition to ecclesiastical demands from Rome 
 they had in turn to cross the Alps and kneel 
 152 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 153 
 
 as suppliants for forgiveness and absolution. 
 But at the beginning of the fourteenth cen- 
 tury we discover the play of new forces in 
 society, all adverse to the papal domination, 
 and favorable to freedom and development 
 in both Church and state. 
 
 Physicians of the present enlightened age 
 depend upon the vis medicatrix iiaturce^ ask- 
 ing only that life may be prolonged while 
 the operation of the natural forces makes 
 for recovery. So in the composite life of 
 humanity there are vital forces which in the 
 slow process of time, work toward convales- 
 cence. In the healing of society, not even 
 is careful nursing required, for however 
 deep-seated the disease preying upon social 
 life, it will ultimately exhaust itself, and in 
 due time the process of repair will begin. 
 This is a beneficent provision of nature. 
 As the marred tree throws out new tissues 
 to protect itself from the waste of vital sap; 
 as the wounded animal recovers uncared for 
 in his forest lair; as a human being mends 
 at the turn of the fever, so society, wounded 
 by cruel oppressions and poisoned by in- 
 fluences morally impure waits for a passing 
 crisis and then enters on the path of recov- 
 ery. 
 
 During the centuries that intervened be- 
 
154 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 tween the earlier order of things, under the 
 Grecian and Roman types of government 
 and civilization and the new order of things 
 when modern ideas began to prevail, there 
 were gigantic wrongs and abuses. But as 
 we come to the close of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury we are conscious that they have nearly 
 run their course, that mankind is beginning 
 to recognize the causes of evil, and to strug- 
 gle toward a freer and healthier condition 
 of social life. 
 
 An illustration of this natural process of 
 regeneration is found in the collapse of 
 feudalism. In its conflict with the rights of 
 kings and the claims of popes it suffered 
 many a defeat, giving way at last before the 
 political progress of the whole common- 
 wealth, and the growing manhood of those 
 who had been dependants of the castle-lord. 
 This occurred again and again when a king 
 overstepped his bounds and struck at the 
 rights of the governed; as, for instance, 
 when the barons of England wrung the 
 Magna Charta from the tyrant John. 
 
 It is precisely this natural process which 
 the student of history follows with delight 
 from the end of the thirteenth to the begin- 
 ning of the sixteenth century, when the 
 result has become no longer doubtful. Dur- 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 155 
 
 ing this fascinating period latent forces and 
 hidden movements come to light, and we 
 discover that even while evil and designing 
 men were congratulating themselves on the 
 success of their schemes for the completer 
 subjection of the masses, the minds, con- 
 sciences and hearts of the so-called lower 
 orders were really being quickened for the 
 overthrow of the evil system by virtue of 
 which their oppressors were in power. All 
 these outworkings of human society were as 
 normal as the unfolding of a flower or the 
 evolution of a higher type of animal life. 
 
 There was, for instance, a growing spirit 
 of nationality which was quite at variance 
 with the Pope's assumed right to interfere 
 in the affairs of people living hundreds of 
 leagues from Rome. Government became 
 more and more centralized, and the process 
 by which since the beginning of time great 
 nations have been built around a central 
 authority went on beyond the English Chan- 
 nel and on both sides of the Rhine. This 
 sense of autonomy grew with the develop- 
 ment of a new idea of monarchy. The 
 division of the territory among feudal lords 
 had proved to be greatly to the disadvantage 
 of the people, and they were becoming more 
 and more ready to acknowledge the King 
 
iS6 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 and uphold his authority. Now, as we shall 
 see, the King and the Pope did not readily- 
 come to terms. There was an irrepressible 
 conflict between them which in many lands 
 lessened the papal sway, and in one great 
 nation issued in an irrepressible schism with 
 the Romish hierarchy. 
 
 There were certain other developments 
 which in subtle ways tended to undermine 
 the power of the Pontiff. Owing to the 
 growth of cities and the swiftly moving cur- 
 rents of municipal life society was not so 
 easily influenced by papal bans and pro- 
 scriptions; upspringing commerce aroused 
 the energies and diverted the sentiments of 
 many from the exercises of religion which 
 the Church, often with hard and selfish cal- 
 culation, had turned to her own account. 
 Personal independence was developed, also, 
 by the great increase of intelligence, and the 
 awakening of all the faculties by which men 
 give free and bold consideration to the prob- 
 lems of life and to the rights of humanity. 
 
 The story of this period flows on without 
 interruption. The character and conduct 
 of the popes tended more and more to 
 awaken shame, calling the attention of great 
 leaders to the inconsistency of such lives 
 with the claims of the Gospel of Christ, and 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 157 
 
 spreading distrust more and more widely 
 among the people. At the same time, in 
 blind folly, ecclesiastic leaders rushed into 
 fruitless controversies with political powers. 
 The fourteenth century opens with Boniface 
 VIII. newly come to office and inclined like 
 Gregory VII. and Innocent III. to make the 
 Church absolute in all the affairs of man- 
 kind. He was ready to manipulate political 
 forces everywhere in order to further his 
 own schemes for the aggrandizement of the 
 Church of Rome. He meddled with affairs 
 in Sicily, and interfered in the dispute be- 
 tween Philip the Fair of France and Edward 
 I. of England, but succeeded only in arous- 
 ing opposition. He attempted to compel 
 recognition by cutting off sources of revenue, 
 forbidding the taxation of ecclesiastics. 
 Philip resisted the attack on his kingly 
 authority, and retorted with an edict for- 
 bidding the exportation of gold and silver 
 from his realm without the royal sanction, 
 while in Edward's kingdom protection was 
 withdrawn from the clergy who obeyed the 
 Pope's demand, bringing them speedily to 
 terms. Changing front, Boniface acted for 
 the time simply as an unofficial individual, 
 and attempted to arbitrate between the two 
 kings; but Philip was dissatisfied with the 
 
158 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 award and consequently received at his court 
 princes of Italy who were in hostility to the 
 Pope, being sustained in every movement 
 by able lawyers, who resisted the encroach- 
 ments of the papacy and buttressed the 
 crown in its prerogatives. 
 
 After four years had passed Boniface 
 found new ground for a fierce attack on the 
 French monarch, and issued a decree that 
 made salvation depend on the belief that 
 every one is subject to the Pope. The clergy 
 of France were summoned to Rome to sit 
 in judgment on the rebellious King. The 
 days of humiliation for earthly potentates, 
 however, were over, and Philip promptly 
 retaliated by forbidding them to leave his 
 realm, and later by sending messengers to 
 heap insults upon the Pope. The utter fail- 
 ure of all his efforts to subjugate these kings 
 of earth to his sway brought to the aged 
 Pontiff the deepest chagrin, and did not a 
 little to hasten his death. His whole admin- 
 istration had been a pitiable failure, and 
 gave rise and currency to the epigram: "He 
 came in like a fox, reigned like a lion, and 
 died like a dog." 
 
 This was more than a personal failure, for 
 it stirred up the learned everywhere to con- 
 sider the whole question of the relation of 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 159 
 
 the Church to the state; and while the 
 supremacy of the Pope was maintained by 
 rigid churchmen, the notion was gaining 
 adherents that the spiritual and temporal 
 powers are distinct and independent, each 
 alike being ordained of God, and that the 
 king therefore has in civil matters no supe- 
 rior. Dante wrote in defence of the rule of 
 one for the good of the many, maintaining 
 that in order to enjoy peace, justice, liberty, 
 men must unite under a monarch. To this 
 end the Pope ought to limit his prerogatives 
 to the guidance of men's souls, leaving to 
 emperors the exclusive concern for temporal 
 affairs. The book naturally had the great- 
 est influence in Italy, but it provoked earn- 
 est discussion elsewhere, especially in 
 Germany, where the foundation of civil 
 authority was under consideration. 
 
 In the reign of the second successor from 
 Boniface VIII. we come to an event of mo- 
 ment. The new Pope forsook Rome for 
 Avignon, on the borders of France, and be- 
 gan what, because of this foreign residence, 
 became known as "The Babylonian Cap- 
 tivity." From this time the prestige of the 
 papacy declined as rapidly as it had risen, 
 for in its new habitation it became really 
 enslaved to France and was administered in 
 
i6o THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 her interests. Pope Clement V. stood out 
 before all Europe as the embodiment of 
 degrading subserviency. With reference to 
 elections and political movements in Ger- 
 many, England and other Catholic countries, 
 he was bold and aggressive, but toward 
 France, his master, he was cringing and 
 abject. 
 
 After Clement came John XXII., who had 
 no end of troubles, both political and eccle- 
 siastical. He came into conflict with the 
 King of Bavaria, whom he anathematized; 
 and then had his bans laughed at in Ger- 
 many, and disregarded by the electors whom 
 he had summoned with highest papal author- 
 ity to depose the King and elect a successor. 
 At the same time he was in open rupture 
 with the Franciscans, who, with all their 
 mistakes and limitations, were representa- 
 tives of a pure and benevolent type of Chris- 
 tianity, and were generally held in highest 
 esteem. The result of this contest was a 
 treatise by one of the greatest Franciscan 
 scholars of the age, in which it was declared 
 that the unity of the Church is to be found 
 in Christ and not in any single primate, and 
 it is added that the only infallibility in 
 matters of faith and morals is to be found in 
 the Holy Scriptures. 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION i6i 
 
 Other powerful writings were called out 
 in which were given a history of papal pre- 
 tensions and a repudiation of the claims so 
 long made for temporal jurisdiction. The 
 supreme authority of the state was set forth, 
 as constituted by the whole body of citizens. 
 They were affirmed to have the power to 
 elect their own ruler and to summon their 
 own council for the determination of diffi- 
 cult questions. The sole function of the 
 priesthood was defined to be the teaching 
 of the truths of Scripture, and the adminis- 
 tration of the sacraments; and the preten- 
 sions of those self-styled successors to the 
 supremacy of Peter were set over against the 
 simplicity of the Church of the apostles. 
 The world is not startled to-day by such 
 ideas, but at that time they were not only 
 new but revolutionary. They were scat- 
 tered as seed from the hand of the sower, to 
 lodge in the minds of men, and in due time 
 to bring forth an abundant harvest. 
 
 The successors of John at Avignon contin- 
 ued his policy of undisguised hostility to 
 the various political parties in Germany and 
 to religious thinkers everywhere. They 
 raised revenues by extortion and usurpa- 
 tion, and thereby maintained their courts 
 in luxury and profligacy, as is vividly de- 
 
i62 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 picted by so observant an eye-witness as 
 Petrarch. 
 
 Across the channel there was growing up 
 a spirit of resistance to the papacy, which 
 was naturally increased by its marked sub- 
 serviency to the interests of France. Ed- 
 ward III., one of the noblest of English 
 sovereigns, issued two significant edicts, the 
 first being to the effect that it devolved 
 upon the king to fill Church offices, and the 
 second declaring that his subjects were 
 not to make direct appeal to any foreign 
 tribunal in any matter which fell under 
 the king's jurisdiction. These notable de- 
 crees put the Pope to great straits, inas- 
 much as his ally, the King of France, was 
 unable to furnish him support and pro- 
 tection. 
 
 The so-called Babylonian captivity lasted, 
 as the Jewish one had done, about seventy 
 years. In 1377 the Pope returned to Rome, 
 where in the following years his successor. 
 Urban VI., was elected. Urban at once broke 
 with France by refusing to betake himself 
 to Avignon; whereupon the college of car- 
 dinals at Anagni elected a new pope, declar- 
 ing the election of Urban invalidated on 
 account of violence. Now begins the story 
 of an absurd, not to say disgraceful, divi- 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 163 
 
 sion of the infallible authority of the head of 
 the Roman Church, for Urban immediately 
 created a new college of twenty-eight car- 
 dinals, making confusion worse confounded. 
 The appeal to the various powers of Europe 
 in these schismatic divisions was made not 
 to the sense of justice, but rather to the 
 political feelings of the various European 
 powers, by which alone their attitude was 
 determined. Germany, Italy, England and 
 Flanders sided with Urban, while France, 
 Scotland and Spain supported the Pope of 
 the second election. 
 
 The schism went on from year to year, 
 from decade to decade, to the unspeakable 
 shame of the Roman Church. There were 
 two claimants for the transmitted supremacy 
 of St. Peter, each assuming to be clothed 
 with absolute and righteous authority and 
 each bitterly hostile to the other. In course 
 of time each pope had a worthy successor, 
 and a new generation became the inheritor 
 of trouble and scandal. Various efforts 
 were made to heal the breach. The great 
 university of Paris undertook to devise some 
 way out of the embarrassment, but in vain. 
 Each pope, with the backing of his own col- 
 lege of cardinals, professed to be conscien- 
 tiously convinced of the righteousness of 
 
i64 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 his cause and therefore unable to make con- 
 cessions. 
 
 When matters could become no worse a 
 general council was summoned, which met 
 at Pisa in March, 1409. It represented 
 most of the catholic countries. Its first 
 work was to depose the schismatic popes 
 and unite the rival colleges of cardinals. 
 Many in the council wished to reform the 
 church "in head and members," in order to 
 put an end to ecclesiastical corruption and 
 the abuse of papal power; but the majority- 
 had been educated to the idea of papal 
 supremacy and questioned the right of the 
 Council to go further in the matter of reform 
 except under the leadership of a new pope. 
 The conservative party was supported by 
 many of the cardinals, who feared that the 
 movement would become revolutionary. 
 Accordingly an election was held as the 
 first legitimate step toward the needed re- 
 forms, but no sooner was the new Pope in 
 office, than he was beset by a horde of claim- 
 ants for the benefices at his disposal. Re- 
 garding these gifts as the legitimate spoils 
 of office, he rejoiced in the distribution of 
 favors, and kept putting off the reform 
 party until a great opportunity was lost. In 
 consequence of this failure at reform things 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 165 
 
 ran on in the old way for another century. 
 A few important concessions were indeed 
 made, and some specious promises went 
 upon record, but the Council was dissolved 
 without opportunity for mature deliberation 
 on the terrible exigencies of the time. 
 
 Moreover, absurd as it may appear, the 
 old schism went on without a break, save 
 that now instead of two rival popes there 
 were three. The new Pope, who had been 
 chosen to head a reform movement, fell 
 under the influence of a cardinal who had 
 begun life as a pirate, and who had only so 
 far reformed as to wear the red hat. This 
 prince of schemers succeeded at last, though 
 with as great a number of crimes laid to his 
 charge as to that of any successor, in plac- 
 ing himself in the seat originally vacated by 
 the martyrdom of the apostle Peter. 
 
 With all his hardihood this new Pope, 
 John XXIII., could not maintain absolute 
 control against conflicting forces, and was 
 compelled to yield to the demand for 
 another general Council, which, however, he 
 planned to control in his own interests. 
 The Council was one of note. It met at 
 Constance, November, 1414. Earnest men 
 in its membership were eager to put an 
 instant end to the schism and the scandals 
 
i66 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 of the Church, and toward this conclusion 
 came no small pressure from the work of 
 such leaders of thought as John Wyclif 
 among the dead, and John Hus among the 
 living. The Council was protracted from 
 the fall of 1414 to the spring of 1418, and 
 was "the most brilliant and imposing of the 
 ecclesiastical assemblies of the middle ages." 
 There were hosts of bishops, doctors, and 
 jurists, besides an unexampled array of 
 sovereigns and nobles. To these constit- 
 uent elements of the great body were added 
 not fewer than fifty thousand people drawn 
 by various motives to the city to witness the 
 proceedings. 
 
 The pirate Pope, the latest claimant for 
 pontifical honors, thought to secure first of 
 all a confirmation of the Pisa Council, held 
 five years before, which deposed his two 
 rivals, and then to occupy the time of the 
 Council with consideration of the dangerous 
 heresies of Hus and Wyclif, thus baffling 
 any serious attempts at reform. He failed 
 ignominiously. His plans fell to the ground, 
 and he became a terrified fugitive. In a 
 few months he was solemnly deposed from 
 office. Not long after this, one of his rivals 
 gave up the struggle and resigned, leaving 
 only the obstinate Benedict as Pope de facto. 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 167 
 
 The Council made fruitless efforts to nego- 
 tiate with the incumbent, but ended by a 
 formal deposition, thus bringing to a close 
 a schism which had perplexed and disgraced 
 the Church for thirty years. 
 
 It required no small energy to bring this 
 to pass; but still there was reserved sufficient 
 force to deal rigorously with the heretics of 
 Bohemia. Hus came at their call, under 
 the safe conduct of Emperor Sigismund, and 
 with assurances that he would be given a 
 fair hearing against all accusers. It has sel- 
 dom been considered necessary to keep faith 
 with heretics; the promises of fair dealing 
 went for nothing, and Hus was compelled 
 to await in prison the issue of the mock trial. 
 The Council had some difficulty in hitting 
 upon just the statement of Hus which would 
 furnish plausible ground for condemnation, 
 but at last they planted themselves on his 
 denial of supreme authority to the Church, 
 although he had supported his views with 
 reverent appeals to the Scriptures. The 
 reform party might go so far as to dethrone 
 a pope who disgraced his office, but they 
 still stood firmly by the doctrine of hier- 
 archical authority. The climax was reached 
 when with mob-like violence, in strong con- 
 trast with the noble serenity of their victim, 
 
i68 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 the Council condemned Hus to be burnt at 
 the stake. 
 
 Returning to the regular business in hand, 
 the Council proceeded to the election of a 
 pope whose solitary grandeur was to make 
 good that of his three co-ordinate predeces- 
 sors. The somewhat prolonged process 
 resulted in the elevation to high office of an 
 Italian, Martin V., who was speedily found 
 to be strenuous in maintaining the suprem- 
 acy of papal authority and in combating all 
 attempts at reform of abuses. It remained, 
 therefore, for the Council to pass some res- 
 olutions, and to adjourn with the conviction 
 established in the minds of all earnest men 
 that the attempt had been on the whole a 
 stupendous failure, and that deeper and 
 more radical work was needed for the real 
 purification of the Church. 
 
 The new Pope sought, with some show of 
 success, to regain prerogatives in France 
 and in the Roman states, but altogether 
 failed in England. In Bohemia he found 
 that the Hussite movement, in spite of the 
 leader's martyrdom, had gained considerable 
 headway, a powerful party going even fur- 
 ther than Hus, in demanding full com- 
 munion for the laity, denying transubstan- 
 tiation, and rejecting any authority which 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 169 
 
 claimed superiority to that of Scripture. 
 Opposition had carried their enthusiasm 
 over to fanaticism, making them stubborn 
 in resistance to popery. 
 
 As usual in such cases, Bohemia was 
 ravaged with war; but the heretics remained 
 unsubdued. The fruitlessness of persecu- 
 tion led to the calling of the Council of 
 Basel. The Bohemians were invited to a 
 free discussion, and thus was secured by 
 guile what violence had failed to win; for 
 the discussion resulted in certain concessions 
 on the part of the Church, which unhappily 
 divided the Bohemians into two fiercely 
 antagonistic parties on the question of ac- 
 cepting these compromises. The Council 
 having thus thrown into the hostile camp an 
 apple of discord, continued its own exis- 
 tence for some years with violent dissentions 
 and in conflict with the Pope, dissolving at 
 last in 1449, ^o t^^ immense relief of all 
 parties concerned. 
 
 The Jubilee Year, 1450, found Rome 
 crowded by bands of holy pilgrims. On 
 the papal throne sat Nicholas V., aged 
 and broken, but full of plans for strengthen- 
 ing the pontifical authority in Rome and 
 throughout the lands of the Church. He 
 had erected fortresses here and there; had 
 
170 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 collected a vast number of manuscripts 
 (founding indeed the Vatican Library); and 
 had attempted in various ways to make 
 Rome the missionary of culture to Europe; 
 hoping by the combination of force and 
 learning to regain the prestige of the hier- 
 archy. ^ But Rome was unappreciative and 
 broke out into open rebellion; while in the 
 East Constantinople, his hoped-for ally, fell 
 into the hands of the unspeakable Turk; so 
 that all his projects for giving strength and 
 stability to the papal power came to naught, 
 leaving him only two years of embittered 
 life. 
 
 Succeeding popes made attempts in the 
 same direction, but the moral force of the 
 papacy was no longer potent. It had been 
 too long fatally untrue to its trust. Rival 
 kings and princes refused to harmonize their 
 differences at its bidding, and the infidel 
 invader threatened the borders of Christen- 
 dom without arousing the ardor of resistance 
 and the union of sentiments displayed in 
 the days of the Crusades. Religious feel- 
 ings and motives had ceased to have sway 
 over the hearts of men, and the high officials 
 of the Church were unwilling to recover 
 ground in the only possible way, by repent- 
 ance and genuine reform. 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 171 
 
 Sixtus IV., who came to the throne with 
 the beginning of the last third of the cen- 
 tury, recognized the weakness of the papacy, 
 but like his predecessors failed to give it 
 moral grandeur and righteous influence, con- 
 tenting himself with fierce endeavors to add 
 to the material resources of the Church, 
 and to enrich relatives and personal friends. 
 The result of his policy was a dozen years 
 of contentions, bickerings and warfare, end- 
 ing only with his death, which was hastened 
 by the failure of his undertakings. 
 
 The dozen succeeding years under the mis- 
 named Innocent VIII. were, by reason of 
 trickery and truckling, years of peace for 
 Italy, but of unprofitableness for the Church. 
 He was succeeded by Cardinal Borgia, of 
 unsavory fame, who became Pope with the 
 title of Alexander VI. He went back to 
 Sixtus for his policy, and succeeded in 
 reducing the papacy to the level of the 
 other Italian principalities, while he demon- 
 strated his willingness to barter the welfare 
 of the country for his own advantage and 
 the exaltation of the Borgia family. The 
 new century, which was to be marked with 
 the most significant event since the coming 
 of Christ, opened with this man still on the 
 throne, disgracing even its bad record with 
 
172 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 a personal character and a sensual court 
 which were alike held in general horror. 
 
 The incumbents of the papal chair for the 
 following years showed no improvement on 
 the Borgia type. The attention of the 
 Pontiff was given to ceaseless intrigue, 
 diplomacy, and warfare, now with this Power 
 and now with that. Florence, Venice, 
 Milan, and Naples of the Italian states; 
 France, Spain, England and Germany of 
 the great powers were all involved in turn, 
 and poor Italy was subject to the depreda- 
 tions of one invader after another. In 1506 
 A. D., nearly at the end of this period, 
 Julius II. laid the foundation of St. Peter's 
 church and summoned Michael Angelo to 
 decorate the walls of the Sistine Chapel with 
 frescoes, and Raphael to immortalize with 
 his genius the walls of the Vatican. The 
 autocratic Pope was, at least, a patron of 
 the arts; but the cardinals, wearied with his 
 warfare and worn out by his belligerent 
 temper, turned at his death to the son of 
 Lorenzo the Magnificent, mild of temper 
 and fond of music, art and literature. He 
 had been made cardinal at the tender age 
 of thirteen, and now, at thirty-seven, was 
 exalted to highest office as Leo X. He was 
 happily free from the evil devices of his 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 173 
 
 immediate predecessors, but was devoted to 
 unreligious studies, to hunting, and to pag- 
 eants. Of him it was wittily said that his 
 learning and fine tastes would have made of 
 him a perfect pope, — if he had combined 
 with these attainments some knowledge of 
 religious matters and some inclination to 
 piety. 
 
 The period antecedent to the Reformation 
 closes with this Pope at Rome; with Henry 
 VIII. in England, and Wolsey just raised to 
 the Cardinalate; with Francis I., young and 
 ambitious, upon the throne of France; with 
 Germany under Emperor Maximilian vainly 
 endeavoring to quiet the peasants, whose 
 hardships almost goaded them to despair, 
 and to harmonize the jealous, conflicting 
 princes; with the Turk pressing upon the 
 borders of this central nation, and with the 
 whole European world on the verge of the 
 greatest outbreak which had ever threatened 
 the organization of the Church. 
 
 We have followed the significant events 
 in the history of the Church for the two 
 centuries preceding the Lutheran Reforma- 
 tion, but our understanding of the influences 
 which led to that mighty movement will 
 not be complete without emphasizing two of 
 the greatest factors in this mighty upheaval. 
 
174 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 The first of these is covered by the historical 
 term, the "Revival of Learning," and the 
 second by the names of a half dozen great 
 leaders of thought. 
 
 To turn first, then, to the intellectual side 
 of this nascent period of reform, we have 
 to note the conditions which prevailed in the 
 dark and turbulent ages from which the 
 world was just escaping. It is difficult to 
 realize the stagnation of mind lasting 
 through centuries, when not only were 
 books and current publications wanting, but 
 even the foundation of literature, language 
 itself. This was a time when tlte speech of 
 Greece and Rome had passed out of use, 
 and all the earlier literature had been lost to 
 mankind. The incoming Teutonic tribes 
 were of speech rude and widely diverse. 
 For generations the new forms of the Ro- 
 mance languages had been in process of 
 development, but were too crude and too 
 changeful for high service. But by the 
 beginning of the fourteenth century the new 
 national languages were taking shape, and 
 a literature was coming into existence and 
 serving as the vehicle of fresh thinking in 
 civil and religious matters, and of vigorous 
 attacks upon the worldliness and corruption 
 of the clergy. Thus for the first time in 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 175 
 
 many centuries men of like minds in differ- 
 ent sections were put into free communica- 
 tion with one another, and were helping to 
 build a public sentiment, a free conscience, 
 and independent reasoning. Latent forces 
 were brought into play, giving men quick- 
 ened sensibilities, and lofty standards. 
 Naturally, under such impulses, individuals 
 of special powers of mind were stimulated 
 to high thinking and literary production. 
 Poets of fine feeling and delicate discrim- 
 ination, like Chaucer in England and Dante 
 and Petrarch in Italy, caught the ear of the 
 people with their rhymes. Along with wit 
 and fancy went also earnest exposition of 
 the inalienable rights and growing demands 
 of society, and scathing attacks on the vices 
 and petty tyrannies of every rank of the 
 clergy. Under such encouragement and 
 enlightenment the people dared to think, 
 and as the new movement broadened and 
 deepened, the foundations of an oppressive 
 ecclesiasticism were slowly sapped. 
 
 This period is well described as a revival 
 of learning. The interest in thought and 
 learning became widespread and enthusias- 
 tic. Men were delighted to throw off the 
 ignorance and superstition which had hung 
 about them so long, and to indulge in clearer 
 
176 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ideas and freer sentiments. They began to 
 ransack all the monasteries of the West for 
 manuscripts of ancient poets and philos- 
 ophers. Further, the encroachments of the 
 Turk in the East drove many Greek scholars 
 westward, and these became teachers in the 
 schools of Italy; which schools in turn 
 came to be a secondary source of scholars 
 and enthusiastic missionaries in this new 
 movement of mental and spiritual awaken- 
 ing. The interest became contagious, men 
 everywhere acquired a passion for learning, 
 while princes rivaled each other as patrons 
 of art and founders of libraries. 
 
 Just at this critical point, to swell the ris- 
 ing tide of interest in philosophy and liter- 
 ature, came the invention of printing, and 
 with its rapid development a great multipli- 
 cation of books, especially those that aided 
 in the study of language. The effect upon 
 the religious life was direct and immediate. 
 Men were at once brought into contact with 
 the Scriptures and with the writers of the 
 early Church. Comparison was inevitable 
 between the simplicity and purity of the 
 apostolic teachings and the manners and 
 morals of the clergy of the day. Multitudes 
 in every land of Europe were thus prepared 
 by enlarged information, clearer processes 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 177 
 
 of reasoning, and quickened consciences for 
 a revolt from the grossness and the tyranny 
 of the Roman Church. 
 
 We turn now, in a brief study of a few 
 great and independent thinkers, to the sec- 
 ond set of influences making for reform. 
 
 The very earliest of these pioneers of re- 
 form is William of Occam. He was born 
 at Surrey, England, in 1270, and lived an 
 active intellectual life for more than three 
 score years and ten. He is to be ranked 
 with the schoolmen by his methods of phi- 
 losophy, and by his share in their faults of 
 triviality, prolixity and formalism; yet his 
 influence was felt by Wyclif, and his mem- 
 ory was gratefully cherished by Martin 
 Luther. As lecturer in the University of 
 Paris, he was known as the "Invincible Doc- 
 tor"; and there he became the animating 
 spirit of a group of able men. He was the 
 earnest advocate of poverty and simplicity 
 of life as against the luxury of the papal 
 court, and upheld the independence of the 
 state against the Church, and of its claims 
 to papal infallibility. 
 
 Of an entirely different type of thought 
 and labor, but next in the order of time, was 
 Tauler the Mystic. He is the representa- 
 tive of a class of men who, however extrav- 
 
178 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 agant on one side and limited on another, 
 have stood for the unseen workings of the 
 Spirit and the truth in the hearts and minds 
 of men. To the credit of the mystics it 
 must be said that they resisted the bondage 
 and formalism of the ecclesiastical system 
 which held all Europe in its power, while 
 they had no contention against the formal 
 doctrines of the Church. They went to an 
 extreme in neglecting the body for the 
 spirit and refusing to exercise common 
 sense in important affairs, but they made a 
 noble and valuable protest against outward 
 exercises which had been over-magnified,, 
 and demonstrated the essential worth of 
 spiritual things. 
 
 It was the grey dawn of the Reformation, 
 but not only was the tint of day on the east- 
 ern sky, the mystics, in their own fashion, 
 and despite some blunderings, were hasten- 
 ing its coming. 
 
 Tauler was born in 1290 A. D., of wealthy 
 parents. At eighteen he gave himself to a 
 religious life, which at that time always 
 meant leaving the pursuits and enjoyments 
 of life and joining some order of monks. 
 Not long after this he sought Paris, which 
 was then the center of learning, especially 
 of the scholastic type. Here he was taught 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 179 
 
 the objectivity of Christianity, a thing to be 
 studied in its observable phases entirely 
 outside of one's own experiences. Human 
 sympathies were not much stirred by 
 thoughts of God and the Christ. The divine 
 nature was looked at very much as now we 
 gaze at the sun, and observe the changes of 
 the moon. 
 
 Although this was the prevailing method 
 of consideration applied to religious mat- 
 ters, it failed to satisfy the deeper cravings 
 of Tauler's heart. His longing was for life, 
 not logic, and he hungered for spiritual 
 realities. At last he came back to Strass- 
 burg to take up work as a preaching friar, 
 and happening to fall in with one who was 
 opening the Scriptures in their simplicity to 
 the people, he was greatly influenced, and 
 was drawn away from the subtleties of the 
 schools and toward a genuine piety. Under 
 this experience the conviction grew upon 
 him that rites, observances and speculations 
 do not constitute the true life of man; which 
 is found alone in the affections of the heart 
 and in the sanctified will. New thoughts 
 came to him of the reality and nearness of 
 God, and a new development of personal 
 character was the result. It is not necessary 
 to follow even the few details of Tauler's 
 
i8o THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 life which have been rescued from oblivion. 
 It is enough to mark the spirit of genuine 
 religion and of free action which manifested 
 itself in him. That he should brave the ban 
 of the Pope and that he should work with- 
 out fear or reserve through the horrors of the 
 Black Plague which took twenty-five mil- 
 lions out of Europe, demonstrated that the 
 greatest thing in religion is to find the living 
 God, and the greatest thing in life is to love 
 one's neighbors as one's self. One enriched 
 by this experience could not be subservient 
 to the Roman hierarchy. 
 
 Next in order of time and far in advance 
 of his age was John Wyclif, whose life 
 covered the sixty years between 1324 A. D. 
 and 1384 A. D. He was the most remarka- 
 ble and influential of all the pre-Reforma- 
 tion leaders. Educated at Oxford, he be- 
 came a part of the teaching force there, and 
 rose through successive positions to be doc- 
 tor of theology. As a thinker he was both 
 clear and bold; discerning errors which had 
 developed on every side and ruthlessly ex- 
 posing them. On the one hand he attacked 
 the fatally wrong doctrine of the excellence 
 of poverty for its own sake, a doctrine which 
 was the foundation stone of all the monkish 
 orders. On the other hand, as against the 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION i8i 
 
 encroachments of the papacy, he cham- 
 pioned the civil and political rights of the 
 King and parliament. He was protected by 
 great nobles, with John of Gaunt at their 
 head, while going on to teach that papal 
 decrees were without authority save from 
 agreement with the teachings of Scripture. 
 He even struck at all the "multiplied ranks 
 of the priesthood," popes, cardinals, patri- 
 archs, holding to the simplicity of organiza- 
 tion in the early Church. He reasoned 
 against such abuses as were connected with 
 auricular confession, extreme unction, and 
 over-elaboration of church worship, crown- 
 ing the work of his fruitful life by giving to 
 the people the Bible in their own vernac- 
 ular, and insisting on their right to read it 
 for themselves. 
 
 Wyclif was a hundred years too early to 
 inaugurate a national movement for imme- 
 diate reform, although there were lacking in 
 him no elements of greatness or heroism. 
 But he did needful service as a forerunner 
 of reformers who were to come in the full- 
 ness of time. He laid the foundation for 
 the great movement of the following cen- 
 tury. He planted in English minds, and 
 indeed scattered broadcast all over Europe, 
 seed thoughts and germinant principles cal- 
 
i82 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 culated to enkindle the minds of men and to 
 quicken them to zeal for purity and freedom. 
 The lineal descendant of Wyclif in reli- 
 gious thought and life was John Hus of Bo- 
 hemia, whose martyrdom occurred in 
 connection with the General Council at 
 Constance, a hundred years before the con- 
 version of Martin Luther. The noble Em- 
 peror, Charles IV., had given protection to 
 a number of men who had made bold attack 
 upon the vices of the clergy and the people, 
 and had maintained the supremacy of the 
 Bible and the Holy Spirit in religious mat- 
 ter. As this new party rose to power, John 
 Hus appeared at its head. At thirty-three 
 he was appointed Chapel Preacher, and a 
 little later was made rector of the University 
 at Prague, and there in self-defence "made 
 appeal from the Pope poorly informed to the 
 Pope better informed." But when he went 
 on to attack the unscriptural practices of the 
 Church and to repeat the teachings of 
 Wyclif, there was hurled at him not merely 
 an interdict but the papal ban of excom- 
 munication. He was persuaded by the Em- 
 peror to go into exile for the sake of peace; 
 but from his retirement he sent letters to 
 his people; displaying less acuteness than 
 Wyclif, but not less zeal for practical right- 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 183 
 
 eousness. It was after two years of exile 
 that he went under the safe conduct of Sigis- 
 mund to Constance, and, as it proved, to a 
 noble martyrdom. Cruel and untimely as 
 his death was, in the judgment of history, 
 yet it led to the enshrining of his personal 
 character in the world's esteem, and to the 
 intensifying of his appeals for the true prin- 
 ciples of a free religious life. 
 
 In another land was born, not long after 
 the death of Hus (viz., in 1452 A. D.),. 
 another forerunner of the Reformation, 
 whose devoted work and heroic death 
 opened the way for better things in both 
 national and Church life. Savonarola, the 
 Florentine reformer, was less devoted to the 
 modification of doctrine than to the purifi- 
 cation of civic, ecclesiastical, and personal 
 morals. His start in life had fortunately 
 not been in the way of training for orders. 
 It was while pursuing the study of medicine 
 that he had become alarmed and disgusted at 
 the prevailing wickedness, and had entered 
 the ranks of Dominican monks. His first 
 attempts at preaching in Florence at the age 
 of thirty had small influence on the tide of 
 luxury in the gay city. But as he grew in 
 earnestness of conviction and in power of 
 appeal he discarded the methods of the 
 
i84 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 school and thundered in the mighty tones 
 of a prophet. At last the city was moved, 
 and the Cathedral was often crowded with 
 intent listeners. In the year of his martyr- 
 dom he was made head of St. Mark's Con- 
 vent, and his influence was so increased as 
 to alarm the Medici against whose protec- 
 tion of immoralities he hurled his invec- 
 tives. His administration of the convent 
 and his counsels and prayers at the bedside 
 of the dying Lorenzo are dramatically set 
 forth by George Eliot in her matchless 
 Romola. Savonarola interested himself in 
 the minutest affairs of the state, and after 
 the overthrow of the power of the Medici 
 urged the adoption of a democratic consti- 
 tution; and really brought about a new order 
 of civic and social life. 
 
 But the infamous Corsair Pope was natu- 
 rally out of sympathy with such a reformer; 
 and when he found it impossible to pur- 
 chase his silence by the bribe of a cardinal's 
 hat or to quiet him by threats, he resorted 
 to excommunication; which, indeed, Savona- 
 rola boldly repudiated. There was but one 
 thing left for a tyrannical pontiff to do, and 
 that the usual one of securing the speedy 
 death of his opposer. He first brought 
 about the discredit of the preacher and 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 185 
 
 secured his imprisonment. A little later 
 followed the farce of a trial, unjust condem- 
 nation, the gibbet and the flames, with the 
 scattering of his ashes upon the waters of 
 the Arno. As so often happens, from such 
 deeds of unholy violence, there was a return 
 after many days, and a harvest was gathered 
 in which wickedness could find no delight. 
 
 These five glorious reformers all died in 
 faith, not having received the expected re- 
 forms, but having greeted them from afar, 
 with the cherished assurance that what was 
 denied to their sight would become reality 
 to other eyes. 
 
 The sixth upon the list of great workers in 
 this period lived to see the outbreak of the 
 great revolution of religious life in the 
 Church. Erasmus was born at Rotterdam 
 in 1455 A. D., but began his active work on 
 the other side of the Channel. When John 
 Colet, son of the Lord Mayor of London, 
 came back from Italy, where the revival of 
 learning bore its earliest fruits, he gave in 
 the English metropolis a series of lectures 
 on the Epistles of St. Paul, in which he dis- 
 carded the artificial methods in vogue and 
 set forth the simple teachings of the great 
 apostle in clear and forceful language. 
 Among his hearers, sitting beside Thomas 
 
i86 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 More, was a young stranger from Holland. 
 It marks one of the leadings of Providence 
 that this fine Dutch scholar should have been 
 driven from his native land for such instruc- 
 tion and such personal fellowship. It was 
 thus in England that Erasmus found his 
 awakening, and before he left her shores he 
 sent forth his "Praise of Folly," to be read 
 by thousands who sympathized with his keen 
 ridicule of the evils so rife in society and 
 the Church. From London he went to 
 Basel; where, under civil protection he 
 worked at an edition of the Greek Testa- 
 ment, and at a translation of it into Latin. 
 He also prepared editions of the great 
 fathers of the Church, thus opening to the 
 men of that generation the fundamental 
 truths of Christianity and the history of its 
 development. 
 
 His splendid scholarship was devoted to 
 the enlightenment of the world, and espe- 
 cially to the presentation of the Scriptures to 
 the people in their own tongue. At the 
 same time, in lighter vein, but with great 
 effectiveness, he held up to ridicule idleness, 
 illiteracy, self-indulgence, useless austeri- 
 ties, and other abuses of the age. He was 
 sincerely devoted to his mission, which 
 was to replace superstition, dogmatism and 
 
TOWARD REFORMATION 187 
 
 bigotry with culture and liberality of spirit, 
 and thereby to establish a type of Chris- 
 tianity simpler and purer than he had found 
 in the world. 
 
 Long before his life work was finished he 
 witnessed the outbreak of a great revolution, 
 many features of which were abhorrent to 
 his taste. His quiet scholarly habits had 
 unfitted him for participation in a stormy 
 contest for liberty of thought and life, or 
 even for personal sympathy with men who 
 were giving themselves in heroic devotion 
 to the great conflict. He desired reforma- 
 tion without disruption, and hoped to bring 
 about radical improvements without dis- 
 membering the historical Church. But he 
 builded far better than he knew, and helped 
 on the movement which he deplored, but 
 which was unquestionably the method nec- 
 essary for the achievement of liberty from 
 the thraldom of a corrupt hierarchy. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE LUTHERAN REFORMATION 
 
 We are now stepping over the threshold 
 of the modern era. As the life work of 
 Christ gives an unmistakable line of division 
 between the old and the new, so does the 
 great transforming movement of the six- 
 teenth century. Tracing the story from the 
 earlier ages, coming up to the Reformation 
 from the further side, we find the religious 
 awakening at once astounding and natural. 
 One is shocked by the overthrow of a power 
 which had continued for more than a thou- 
 sand years. At the same time, that men 
 should finally open their eyes to vast evils 
 and arouse themselves for their suppression 
 seems quite inevitable. When the darkness, 
 confusion and stagnation of the Middle 
 Ages gave way before the Revival of Learn- 
 ing, which brought with it mental quicken- 
 ing and a great enkindling of human energies, 
 the cruel restrictions which had so long 
 checked the development of a pure religious 
 life among the people of all papal lands 
 were necessarily broken through, and great 
 i88 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 189 
 
 changes rapidly took place which for the 
 first time made a fundamental and wide- 
 spread renovation a possibility. 
 
 Great states were growing into conscious- 
 ness of strength and of personal rights. 
 Monarchs were raising peasant armies to 
 destroy the remaining power of the feudal 
 nobility; and at the same time the peasants 
 themselves with new weapons of warfare in 
 their hands were recognizing their own 
 manhood as potent against both lords and 
 kings. The ancient philosophies were being 
 widely studied in the rapidly multiplying 
 books of the new age; the bold declarations 
 and lofty standards of great masters of both 
 political and religious science were becom- 
 ing public property; the brilliant discoveries 
 of a new world across the seas were elec- 
 trifying the older nations and thrilling them 
 with larger conceptions of life. 
 
 The conditions were in a general way 
 highly favorable for the action of specific 
 influences, and for successful leadership on 
 the part of great men. 
 
 The causes of the revolution are not 
 always traceable, for there are deep under- 
 currents of thought and feeling which no eye 
 can follow; but the sources of many potent 
 influences are beyond question. The Ref- 
 
ipoTHE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ormation was not, as some astrologers of 
 the day declared, due "to a certain uncom- 
 mon and malignant position of the stars 
 which scattered the spirit of giddiness and 
 innovation over the world." It was not 
 characterized by "giddiness," but by clear- 
 ness and profundity of thinking. For the 
 first time in centuries men were aroused in 
 feeling and untrammeled in reasoning. The 
 causes which the student of history has to 
 seek are those which brought about this 
 novel condition in the world's life. The 
 people had been supine under priestly domi- 
 nation; they were so no longer. They had 
 tolerated gravest wrongs against the name 
 of Christ and against their own interests, 
 but now they were becoming intolerant of 
 injustice and oppression. 
 
 The leaders of the movement went for- 
 ward only one step at a time. It would 
 have appalled them, possibly have daunted 
 them, if at the very outset they could have 
 looked down the vista of centuries and have 
 marked the full effect of their words and 
 deeds. It was enough for them to act at 
 each critical moment according to the high 
 behest of reason and conscience. They 
 were moved by manful and religious con- 
 victions, and therefore played the hero at 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 191 
 
 every crisis. It was neither to their credit 
 nor discredit that the times were ripe for 
 revolution. The mighty fabric of the hier- 
 archy of Rome was tottering to its fall. 
 The slightest push sufficed to send it over. 
 Material had been collecting which was like 
 tinder waiting for the spark; the spark fell 
 and the flames broke forth in a widespread 
 conflagration. 
 
 The Reformation was not, as Roman 
 Catholic writers would fain have us believe, 
 the work of infidels or fanatics. The initial 
 impulse which determined the direction of 
 affairs came from men of profoundest reli- 
 gious faith, and the movement itself was 
 the united effort of thousands of men and 
 women who longed for pure and noble liv- 
 ing. The controlling motives sprang from 
 religious feeling. There were doubtless 
 instances of proclaimed scepticism, there 
 were others where liberty ran into license; 
 but these phases were subordinate and not 
 characteristic. Men had been unconsciously 
 repelled from the standards of moral and 
 religious life set by popes and priests, and 
 were waiting with an unrecognized yearning 
 for faith and spirituality. When there came 
 an appeal to break away from the thraldom 
 of a false rulership and take to themselves 
 
192 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 high prerogatives as the children of God 
 they answered it and grew into stalwart 
 Christian faith and heroism. 
 
 There had been as good reason for such a 
 movement five centuries before, but then 
 the land slept in darkness, whereas now there 
 was a flood of light breaking in. In Wyclif, 
 Hus and Savonarola there was clear vision 
 and daring leadership but the people were 
 not prepared to follow. Now, for the first 
 time, all conditions were favorable for a 
 great awakening, and for a widespread and 
 unfaltering struggle for religious freedom 
 and purity. The real Gospel had become 
 infused into the minds of the people, and 
 mighty as was the institution which held 
 the right of entrance into the path toward 
 the living and loving God, they would no 
 longer be kept in check. They had at first 
 no notion of overturning this institution. 
 Their eyes were not even fixed upon it. 
 They simply saw the goal of religious life 
 and liberty, and pressed steadily toward it 
 without measuring the sacrifice and peril 
 demanded for the successful prosecution of 
 their holy purpose. 
 
 It was a movement among the masses 
 first, and peculiarly among the common peo- 
 ple of Germany; but both its origin and its 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 193 
 
 course must be traced to the leaders of the 
 day. The leaders were leagues in advance 
 of the people. They were better informed, 
 bolder and clearer in their thinking; they 
 saw the significance and magnitude of the 
 issue, and so became to their fellow men 
 interpreters of the truth and inspirers to 
 heroic action. 
 
 The reformation had different phases. It 
 was a movement affecting beliefs, rites, the 
 ecclesiastical organizations of the Church, 
 and indeed the whole mode of Christian liv- 
 ing. It marked also the beginning of a new 
 era in culture and civilization. At the 
 same time it was political, affecting the 
 motives of sovereigns and the fortune of na- 
 tions. 
 
 In studying this movement we naturally 
 turn, first of all, to Germany, where the 
 conditions were all favorable. That it 
 should have affected Germany more deeply 
 than the other nations of Europe is easily 
 explained. On the one hand, as Hegel has 
 set forth, while other maritime nations were 
 going out to America and the Indies in wild 
 quest of riches and the dominion of lands, 
 Luther was opening up new realms of 
 thought to a seriously minded people. On 
 the other hand, Leo X., son of Lorenzo the 
 
194 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Magnificent, occupied with his hunting and 
 pageants, and with his pursuit of culture 
 and art, was not greatly disturbed at reports 
 from Saxony. "It is only a squabble of 
 monks," he said, and he was content with 
 an attempt through Cardinal Cajetan, his 
 legate, to reduce the most refractory monk 
 among them to terms. But the emissary of 
 the Pope met at Augsburg a very different 
 man from the picture in the mind of Leo 
 With him he had no success. 
 
 To sum up the favorable points in the 
 situation, there was provision for the move- 
 ment in the thoughtfulness and earnestness 
 of the people, in the temporary preoccupa- 
 tion of the Pope, in the diversion of the 
 emperor's attention, in the favor of a great 
 prince, and in the work of Martin Luther. 
 The element furnished by the great leader 
 is so important that it will be well to recall 
 the story of his life and work. Luther be- 
 longs to the limited number of truly great 
 men. As Bayard Taylor has expressed it, 
 he was "One of the creative spirits of the 
 race," "a man of great intuition," "the 
 only protestant leader whose heart was as 
 large as his brain." Professor Fisher says 
 that "Martin Luther was the unquestiona- 
 ble hero of the Reformation," and "that his 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 195 
 
 dauntless determination was the rallying 
 point for multitudes." 
 
 Martin Luther was born at Eisleben, in 
 November, 1483 A. D. His father was a 
 miner of the higher type. He was strictly 
 trained in moral and religious matters, and 
 in due time became a monk. It was the 
 sale of indulgences by Tetzel, near Witten- 
 berg, in 15 17 A. D., that stirred Luther first 
 to preach against a custom so infamous and 
 then to write his celebrated theses in defense 
 of his position. These "indulgences" were 
 commutations of penance which were given 
 upon payment of money. The right to issue 
 them was the exclusive prerogative of the 
 Pope. At first they covered the remission 
 of the punishment of souls in purgatory, 
 but afterward, according to Martin Luther, 
 they secured the remission of present pen- 
 alties. Theoretically, contrition was re- 
 quired of the recipient of an indulgence, yet 
 it generally appeared to the people a straight 
 out bargain with the Pope as absolver. 
 
 The famous theses of Luther denied the 
 right or power of the Pope to remove other 
 penalties than those imposed by himself, 
 and declared that his power never reached 
 beyond death. The theses were, according 
 to the custom of medieval universities, only 
 
196 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 propositions propounded for academic de- 
 bate. They stirred up a commotion, far 
 beyond their author's calculation. Through- 
 out all Germany, the hawkers of indulgences 
 were driven to defense and discussion. 
 Froude declares the date of the posting of 
 the theses, October 31st, 1517, "the most 
 memorable day in modern European his- 
 tory." Was it an easy thing to put them 
 upon the door of the Castle Church of 
 Wittenberg? We listen to Luther's own 
 words. "In what straits my soul was con- 
 fined during the first of the following year; 
 to what submissions I descended; nay, in 
 what despair I was all but involved can be 
 little conceived. . . . Indeed, at that time 
 I had a much stronger reverence for the 
 Pontifical Church and a much deeper convic- 
 tion that it was the true church than had my 
 opponents who were loudly extolling it." 
 
 Meanwhile Luther was forced into public 
 debate with Doctor John Eck, a theological 
 opponent. He had been summoned to 
 Augsburg to meet Cardinal Cajetan. He 
 went under safe-conduct of Emperor Maxi- 
 milian, but in expectation of death. How 
 much hung in the balance! Being young, 
 diffident and modest, Luther was prepared 
 to yield much if only the Cardinal would be 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 197 
 
 moderate in his exactions and generous in 
 his concessions. But wickedness overdid 
 itself. Cajetan was scornful. And why 
 not to a poor monk! Goaded in this way, 
 Luther would not retract unless he were sat- 
 isfactorily answered from Scripture. No 
 agreement was reached, and the return to 
 Wittenberg was accomplished in safety. In 
 
 1519 A. D. came the Leipzig disputation 
 before Duke George. Luther again faced 
 his old opponent, Doctor John Eck. Luther 
 had much knowledge of the Scriptures, of 
 the Fathers of the Church, and of Church 
 history, upon which to draw. He now saw 
 whither his contention was leading, and for 
 this reason the event was of the utmost sig- 
 nificance to the reformer. He found the 
 doctrine of sovereign grace, to which he had 
 anchored, incompatible with the whole round 
 of medieval ceremonial life. He saw now 
 that he was breaking with Rome. And all 
 Germany saw it, too. 
 
 His opponents, alive to the significant 
 situation, pressed for a papal bull. Eck 
 came with it, condemning forty-one of 
 Luther's theses. On the loth of December, 
 
 1520 A. D., Luther solemnly burned a copy 
 of it. It was deliberately done. Marching' 
 at the head of a procession of professors and 
 
198 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 students to the market place, where a bon- 
 fire had been made, to which one of the pro- 
 fessors 'applied a light, Luther threw the 
 papal bull upon the flames. It is said that 
 he afterward confessed to have trembled 
 before the deed, but declared that when it 
 was done he was better pleased with it than 
 with any act of his life. Unbounded proof 
 he gave of his cool and determined bravery. 
 Knowing the danger, he did not flinch. 
 
 We come next to the famous Diet of 
 Worms, called in April, 1521 A. D., by 
 Emperor Charles, upon appeal from Pope 
 Leo, in order that Luther might be put 
 under the ban of the Empire, as he already 
 was under that of the Pope. The German 
 Princes, partly from a love of fair play, and 
 partly to emphasize their political independ- 
 ence of the Pope, urged the Emperor not 
 to condemn Luther unheard; and thus came 
 about his summons to the Diet to answer 
 for himself. On the way to the Diet Luther 
 was greeted by enthusiastic supporters, the 
 University of Erfurt going out in a body to 
 salute him. But occasional voices warned 
 him of the insecurity of the Emperor's safe- 
 conduct. It was in reply to these words of 
 warning that he made the famous utterance: 
 "Yes, they burned Hus, but not the truth 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 199 
 
 with him. I will go on though as many 
 devils were aiming at me as there are tiles 
 on the roofs." 
 
 To Luther the Diet was an imposing spec- 
 tacle. It included the highest temporal, 
 social and spiritual powers of the nation. 
 When, therefore, it was demanded of him: 
 "Do you retract?" the peasant's son was for 
 the moment overawed and asked for time. 
 After a night of prayer and of quiet thought 
 he recovered himself. Daylight found him 
 fresh, courageous, collected, his own splen- 
 did master and theirs. 
 
 He divided his address into three parts. 
 First, there were simple gospel truths ac- 
 cepted by all. Secondly, there were violent 
 words against particular persons, which 
 were faulty, and required modification. 
 Thirdly, there were declarations against 
 papal laws and customs which had tried all 
 Christendom. These he would not retract. 
 In a clear, strong voice he gave them utter- 
 ance, first in Latin, and then in German. 
 Upon further and brutal challenge by Doctor 
 Eck he spoke the immortal words: "Here 
 stand I, I cannot do otherwise. God help 
 me." It was as Froude declared: "One of 
 the finest scenes in history." It is perpetu- 
 ated by the impressive group of bronze fig- 
 
200 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ures surrounding the sturdy form of Luther 
 in the City of Worms. 
 
 The battle raged all day, and by torch- 
 light in the evening, but the hearts of the 
 laymen were touched by the courage of the 
 man on trial, and would permit no violence. 
 Luther was ordered home by the Elector 
 until the Diet should decide upon the case. 
 It became evident that the majority would 
 pronounce for his death, and Luther was 
 saved only by a ruse on the part of the Elec- 
 tor. He was set upon while passing through 
 the Thuringian forest by an armed party and 
 carried off to Wartburg Castle. The secret 
 was well kept. Luther had disappeared and 
 was in exile ten months. At the castle he 
 passed as Ritter George, a captive knight. 
 This was the most picturesque incident of 
 his life. While in this retreat he dropped 
 the monk's gown, donned the dress of a 
 gentleman, suffered his beard to grow, wore 
 a sword, and was treated as a distinguished 
 guest. He rode and hunted as he liked, but 
 worked with energy on a translation of the 
 Bible into the German vernacular. 
 
 Luther had both wisdom and steadiness. 
 While in retirement at Wartburg, his col- 
 league, Carldstadt, who had opened the de- 
 bate at Leipzig, was the cause of grave 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 201 
 
 disturbances at Wittenberg by his assaults 
 on the rites and ordinances of the church. 
 The trouble was increased by certain en- 
 thusiasts who claimed inspiration, and 
 prophesied a great social convulsion. 
 Luther, with his good sense, saw at once 
 the danger of an outburst of fanaticism, 
 which would destroy all that had been 
 gained. Unmindful of his personal peril, 
 and of the urgent warnings of his protector, 
 he returned at once to Wittenberg. In a 
 few powerful sermons he pled for Christian 
 moderation and had the satisfaction of see- 
 ing the commotion subside. He did not, 
 however, go back to his asylum, but con- 
 tinued at Wittenberg, working without ces- 
 sation as preacher and teacher. Twenty 
 years more of life remained to him but vic- 
 tory had already been won. He continued 
 as director of the great movement now under 
 full head, counseling peace as against the 
 Peasants' War, showing confidence in the 
 truth and occupying himself with preaching 
 and conferences to the end of life. 
 
 Luther took a bold stand for home-life. 
 It was "as brave a step to marry a runaway 
 nun as to burn the papal bull." He had 
 counseled the clergy to marry, and was 
 naturally commended to set the example to 
 
202 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 others who were hesitating. As a monk, he 
 had been under vows of celibacy, but he had 
 ceased to believe in monasticism, and had 
 repudiated the vows of the order. When, 
 therefore, he was settled as Professor at the 
 University of Wittenberg, he was ready for 
 a home of his own. Catharine Von Bora, 
 sixteen years younger than himself, had 
 been a nun in a distant convent. Detesting 
 the life, she, with a half dozen others, had 
 gladly welcomed the release which Luther 
 secured for them. She was a simple, active, 
 sensible woman, and thoroughly conse- 
 crated. With her Luther settled down to a 
 busy, useful life, and was quietly happy in 
 his home, a pleasant, roomy building on the 
 banks of the Elbe. 
 
 But in spite of domestic happiness, Luther 
 grew tired of the battle of life. It seemed 
 to him as if the world itself must also be 
 worn out and near its end. When but little 
 past three score years, he wrote to a friend 
 calling himself, "old, spent, worn, weary, 
 cold, and almost sightless." He makes 
 one think of "Paul, the aged," writing at 
 the same time of life from captivity in 
 Rome. 
 
 The great reformer died on a chance visit 
 to Eisleben, his birth-place, in the winter of 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 203 
 
 1546, A. D. His body was carried back to 
 Wittenberg with an armed escort of cavalry, 
 the church bells tolling in the villages by 
 the way; the company being followed along 
 the route by thousands of mourners. At 
 last, the worn-out frame was laid at rest in 
 front of the pulpit of the Castle Church, on 
 the doors of which his theses had been 
 posted thirty years before. 
 
 His last days had been full of weariness 
 and despondency. He mourned over the 
 wickedness and frivolity which he saw about 
 him. He had become more rigid in his dog- 
 matism with advancing age and ill-health, 
 and on account of theological differences 
 had even fallen out of sympathy with his 
 beloved Melanchthon, who, by the way, ap- 
 proached much more nearly the modern 
 position on important questions than did 
 he, and who persisted in his affection and 
 respect for the heroic reformer. No human 
 life or character is without defects. It was 
 impossible for a rugged nature like that of 
 Luther ^o develop in days of storm and 
 stress the qualities of gentleness and self- 
 restraint or that broad and sweet charity 
 which is ideal. The basis of his character, 
 however, was firm and true, the purpose of 
 his life noble and conscientious; therefore, 
 
204 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 in spite of faults and limitations, his great 
 powers could be brought into service for a 
 noble cause. Both Melanchthon and Erasmus 
 were his superiors in traits and attainments 
 which we prize, but neither could have fur- 
 nished impulse and guidance for the stupen- 
 dous movement which then convulsed the 
 world. Luther was the leader par excel- 
 lence, born for the hour, and for the vast 
 undertaking. Dr. Dollinger, of the Old 
 Catholics, a life-long opponent of Protes- 
 tantism, recognized and freely admitted his 
 rare powers. "He had complete compre- 
 hension of the German nature," he says. 
 "The heart and mind of his people was in 
 his hand like a lyre in the hand of a musi- 
 cian. His eloquence was irresistible, sweep- 
 ing everything before it. Even those 
 Germans who abhor him as the principal 
 heretic and seducer of the nation, cannot 
 escape; they must discourse with his words 
 and think with his thoughts." 
 
 The opportunity for Luther and his con- 
 freres to work out the undertaking was fur- 
 nished in part, as already suggested, by the 
 occupation of the Emperor, Charles V, in 
 other affairs, and by the constant and varied 
 pressure upon him from two quarters, 
 Francis I. and the Popes. Indeed, in Ger- 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 205 
 
 many, as in every other land, the religious 
 movement was hindered or favored, almost 
 to the point of deciding its fate, by the drift 
 of political fortunes. 
 
 Emperor Charles would have attempted 
 the suppression of the Lutherans had he not 
 been so continually involved in intrigues 
 and conflicts with Francis for possessions in 
 Italy, and also in setting affairs to rights in 
 Spain, the other half of his imperial domain. 
 It was doubtless providential that he was 
 thus compelled to leave Germany to take 
 care of itself. Therefore, although Luther 
 was legally an outlaw, being under a ban 
 pushed through on the last day of the Diet 
 at Worms, and also under the formal con- 
 demnation of the Church, he was safe under 
 the protection of the Elector of Saxony. 
 
 In the absence of the Emperor on his 
 political missions, the Government was in 
 the hands of a Council of the Regency. 
 The nobles composing this Council hap- 
 pened to be personally favorable to reform, 
 and at the same time alive to the danger of 
 thwarting the people, and so refused to carry 
 out the edict determined against Luther at 
 the Diet. They even went so far as to 
 reply to the Pope, who was urging the exe- 
 cution of the edict, with a list of a hundred 
 
2o6 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 grievances which Germany had to allege 
 against the Court of Rome. The Protes- 
 tants were helped, not long after, by the 
 League of Torgau, composed of princes 
 favorable to the Reformation. Soon the 
 Pope made alliance with Francis I. to check 
 the power of the German Emperor, and 
 Charles was obliged to reverse his attitude 
 toward the Lutherans for a time, even seek- 
 ing their support. The result of it all was 
 an imperial decree recognizing their legal 
 existence, and furnishing a great landmark 
 in the history of the Reformation. 
 
 Another turn of political affairs set the 
 Emperor free. He at once made a treaty 
 with the Pope and issued an edict forbidding 
 the progress of reform. The protest of 
 Elector John, with some friendly princes 
 and fourteen allied cities, gave the name of 
 Protestant to the Lutheran cause at the Diet 
 of Spires, 1529. 
 
 At the Diet of Augsburg, 1530, the Em- 
 peror recently crowned at Bologna by the 
 Pope, as head of the Holy Roman Empire, 
 determined to make some arrangement to 
 restore unity to the Church. But the 
 Protestants were equally resolved on putting 
 forward their "Confession," drawn up by 
 Melanchthon, defining the essential tenets of 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 207 
 
 the reformers. The efforts at compromise 
 were therefore unsuccessful. The Protestant 
 princes, and certain imperial cities of South 
 Germany united in the famous League of 
 Smalcald, to resist the arbitrary proceedings 
 of the Emperor. The League strengthened 
 itself by alliance with France, Denmark and 
 Bavaria, and the result was the Peace of 
 Nuremburg, 1532, which provided that re- 
 ligious affairs should be left in statu quo 
 until arranged by a new Diet for general 
 council. 
 
 For ten years after the Peace of Nurem- 
 burg, Charles, being too closely occupied 
 with wars with Francis I, and with the 
 Turks, to disturb the Protestants, nothing 
 appeared to check the rapid progiress of the 
 Reformation. Protestantism was estab- 
 lished in the heart of South Germany, while 
 the area embraced by the Smalcald League 
 was extended by the accession of princes 
 and cities, making a party sufficiently power- 
 ful to incline the Emperor toward religious 
 toleraticM. 
 
 All might have gone well but for divisions 
 among the Protestants themselves. Princes 
 and cities became jealous of one another and 
 contentions arose. While thus weakened 
 by internal dissensions they found the Em- 
 
2o8 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 peror^ who had been freed by the temporary- 
 settlement of his warlike affairs, renewing 
 attempts, both open and concealed, to sup- 
 press the Reformation. So it came about 
 that the years which followed the death of 
 Luther, saw intricate conflicts on German 
 soil. The German people, angry at finding 
 their country held by armies from Spain and 
 Italy, were, with difficulty, brought to sub- 
 mission in South Germany, while, in the 
 Northern States, the resistance was fierce 
 and prolonged. The result appeared in the 
 Augsburg Diet of 1555, where a religious 
 peace was concluded, granting toleration 
 and certain rights under the princes. In 
 spite of appearances, however, the seeds 
 were sown of a strife, which, for genera- 
 tions, was to distract the land. Charles, 
 himself, dissatisfied with the proceedings, 
 refused to have part in them, and, after- 
 ward, in the days of retirement, in the Con- 
 vent of Yuste, expressed regret at having 
 "allowed the man who had stirred up all the 
 commotion to depart in peace from the Diet 
 of Worms." 
 
 Of the continental countries to be studied, 
 the next in time, if not in interest, is 
 Switzerland. During the fifteen years be- 
 tween the posting of the theses of Luther 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 209 
 
 and the Peace of Nuremburg, a similar 
 movement was going on in ancient Helvetia 
 affecting not only the rites of the Church, 
 but the social and political life of Swiss 
 Communities. The movement was due to 
 Ulrich Zwingli, son of the magistrate of 
 the village of Wildhaus, less than a year 
 younger than the German Reformer. As a 
 youth, bright-minded and eager for knowl- 
 edge, he took advantage of excellent oppor- 
 tunities for study at Vienna and Basel. He 
 entered the priesthood, and at Glarus, his 
 first charge, he became a close student of 
 the Greek Testament of Erasmus, even copy- 
 ing out the Epistles of St. Paul, in order to 
 take them about with him and commit them 
 to memory. From his youth his patriotism 
 was intense, and he was greatly distressed 
 at the lack of zeal for their own country 
 displayed by the Swiss mercenary soldiers, 
 and at the vice and lawlessness which they 
 brought back from their campaigns. 
 
 His first approach to a break with the 
 Pope came, as in the case of Luther, from 
 his preaching against the sale of indul- 
 gences. This happened in 15 18. In the 
 same year he was called to the Cathedral 
 Church at Zurich, and a little later he re- 
 fused longer to receive a pension from the 
 
310 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Pope, and declared against all foreign en- 
 tanglements. He turned more and more 
 from the authority of the Church to that of 
 the Scriptures, and, in his sincere reverence 
 for the Word became the leader of a quiet 
 but thorough-going religious revolution. 
 Engaging and forceful in his personality, he 
 was learned, upright, fearless and eloquent. 
 Before long he obtained from the town 
 council of Zurich permission for priests to 
 preach what they found in Scripture, and, 
 in 1523, successfully defended sixty-seven 
 propositions, assailing all the characteristics 
 of the Roman Catholic system. In the fol- 
 lowing year, he secured a decree forbidding 
 the use of images, and the sacrifice of the 
 mass. Being far less conservative than 
 Luther, he even organized an independent 
 church with representative laymen in office. 
 Whatever smacked of superstition was dis- 
 carded, and, yet, all was done in an orderly 
 manner and with the full support of the 
 public authorities. All medieval features 
 were abolished. Celibacy was put aside, 
 and Zwingli himself was happily married. 
 Withal, it was a wholesome religious move- 
 ment, giving great uplift to the life of the 
 community. Zwingli's views were broad 
 and intelligent. He taught that Christ died 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 211 
 
 for the entire race; he considered original 
 sin disorder rather than guilt; he denied the 
 objective presence of Christ in the sacrament 
 of The Lord's Supper. 
 
 From Zurich, the reform movement spread 
 to Bern, and then to Basel and Schaff- 
 hausen, going everywhere, not merely in 
 the interest of a free and regenerate religious 
 life, but also of the body politic. The 
 movement was more rapid and steady than 
 in Germany; first, because Zwingli's mind 
 more swiftly and freely took in new ideas; 
 and, secondly, because the Reformation in 
 Switzerland was overlooked by the author- 
 ities of the Church until it had really be- 
 come a fait accompli. Dark days were, 
 however, before the Protestants, for at last 
 the Catholic party was aroused. In 1531, 
 the Forest cantons went in armed force 
 against Zurich, and among the slain in the 
 battle near the city was Zwingli, acting as 
 Chaplain. Terms of peace followed, but 
 these were humiliating and depressing to the 
 Protestanl^ cause. 
 
 The sway of the Reformation in Scandi- 
 navia depended not a little upon political 
 chances and changes. The fortunes of 
 Denmark, Norway and Sweden had been 
 united in a compact of union since the end 
 
212 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 of the fourteenth century. Christian II., 
 who was on the throne at the time of the 
 outbreak in Germany, was detested for 
 treachery, and came to merited downfall in 
 1523. His successor, Frederick I. took oath 
 to grant no toleration to the Lutherans but 
 within three years the reform movement had 
 made such headway as to secure recognition 
 from the king and to win the favor of nobles 
 who were hoping to gain possession of the 
 riches of the Church. Within a year the 
 Diet had ordained that there should be reli- 
 gious toleration for Lutherans and that the 
 prelates should look to the King and not to 
 the Pope for ratification of their election. 
 Under such support Protestantism naturally 
 gained speedy ascendancy. 
 
 There were times when the parties in 
 Church and State were in conflict from 
 various motives. Upon the death of Fred- 
 erick the clergy asserted themselves; the 
 deposed king. Christian II., sought rein- 
 statement; while in the important city of 
 Liibeck the democracy arose under the im- 
 pulse of the new teaching. The election 
 of Christian III., son of Frederick, was 
 brought about; with the result that the 
 interests of Protestantism were supported 
 vigorously in Denmark and in Norway. In 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 213 
 
 Sweden there was an uprising under Gus- 
 tavus Vasa, who favored Lutheranism less 
 from a deep religious conviction than from 
 a desire to overthrow the ecclesiastical aris- 
 tocracy. He elevated Lutherans to high 
 office in Church and State, and at a crisis in 
 1527 resolved, for the sake of absolutely 
 needed revenue, to confiscate the wealth of 
 the Church. He pushed the measure 
 through the Diet, together with a grant to 
 preachers to proclaim the pure word of God. 
 Protestantism had been set up by legal proc- 
 ess to suit the purposes of the king, but it 
 soon found favor with the people, and, be- 
 fore the century closed, the Augsburg 
 Protestant Confession had been accepted as 
 the creed of the National Church. 
 
 Of the Reformation in Spain and Italy, 
 little need be said in a general study of the 
 European movement. Some individual 
 minds were stirred by the new views, but 
 the fire was always stamped out before it 
 could become a conflagration. In Italy, the 
 papacy war^ a national institution to which 
 many clung with patriotic pride. Not a few 
 powerful men held offices of honor emolu- 
 ment, and were firmly attached by interest 
 or loyalty to the old order of things. 
 Furthermore, two institutions came into ex- 
 
214 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 istence in both of these countries which had 
 immense influence in checking every dis- 
 coverable beginning of Protestantism. These 
 were the Inquisition, which was organized 
 after the Council of Trent, on the model of 
 the Spanish Inquisition, which had been de- 
 vised by Ferdinand and Isabella to discover 
 and punish the Jewish converts who returned 
 to their former faith, and the Society of 
 Jesus, founded by Loyola and propagated 
 with zeal in both countries. 
 
 The story of the inhuman persecutions in 
 the Netherlands, of the matchless courage 
 of the people, and of the high-minded 
 leadership of their princes, has gone out 
 into all the world. The general intelli- 
 gence of every class in Holland made that 
 country peculiarly open to the reform move- 
 ment, influences from which poured into it 
 from both Germany and France. A Jesuit 
 historian has declared that the Rhine and 
 the Meuse brought no more water to the 
 low countries than they did religious conta- 
 gion; the one from Luther and the other 
 from Calvin. Charles V., whose authority 
 reached to the North Sea, issued edicts of 
 suppression, though, on the whole, he was 
 fairly considerate to the end of his reign. 
 But his son, the fanatical Philip II., sue- 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 215 
 
 ceeding him on the throne of Spain, pushed 
 to the extreme every measure for the ob- 
 literation of both civil and religious liberty 
 in the Belgic provinces. It was declared 
 heretical for a layman even to read the 
 Bible, and every incentive was offered to 
 base men to act as informers. Then fol- 
 lowed days too dark for belief; save for the 
 darker ones which were to follow. For 
 multitudes there was beheading, burning, or 
 burying alive. Infuriated mobs, blind to the 
 dictates of reason, retaliated by breaking 
 into Cathedrals and Churches, destroying 
 pictures and images, thus giving excuse for 
 even severer measures. That almost impos- 
 sible fiend, the Duke of Alva, was sent to 
 the Low countries as representative of his 
 royal master, whom he over-matched in 
 craft and cruelty, staying not his hand from 
 the slaughter of multitudes and of the 
 noblest. Out of the struggle were produced 
 men of sincerity, devotion, courage and 
 good statesmanship, whose fame will never 
 die; men l^Jce Egmont, and Horn and Wil- 
 liam, the Hero of Orange. One after an- 
 other, even to the greatest among them, 
 perished by execution or assassination; yet, 
 their work was finally accomplished, and, by 
 1579, the seven Northern Provinces had 
 
2i6 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 formed the Utrecht Union, which was the 
 germ of the Dutch Republic. Philip III., 
 of Spain, was compelled to make a truce 
 with the Union, the independence of which 
 was secured in 1648 by the Peace of West- 
 phalia. 
 
 In France, there were two movements 
 looking toward reform before the rise of 
 Protestantism. One of these originated 
 three centuries earlier, when, in Southern 
 France the Waldenses flourished in peace 
 until an evil day saw them nearly extermi- 
 nated by fierce persecution. The other 
 came one century before the Reformation, 
 when, in the German Council of Constance 
 and Basel, earnest men sought a modifica- 
 tion of the corrupt administration of the 
 church. In the sixteenth century the 
 awakening came through the literary men 
 whom Francis I. brought from Italy to orna- 
 ment his Court. Poets, artists and scholars 
 enticed by the munificence of the brilliant 
 king, promoted a revival of learning, and 
 discredited the theology of medieval times. 
 To Jaques Lefevre is due the title of 
 "Father of the French Reformation," be- 
 cause his commentaries on the Psalms and 
 the Epistles of Paul, about 15 10, clearly 
 taught the doctrine of justification by faith 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 217 
 
 and the supremacy of the Bible. He looked 
 for the coming of the kingdom and said to 
 Farel, who became a leader in France and 
 Switzerland five years before Luther posted 
 the theses at Wittenberg, "God will reno- 
 vate the world and you will be a witness of 
 it." 
 
 The learned were giving open minds to 
 his teachings when word came of the stir- 
 rings in Saxony, whereupon the Doctors of 
 the Sorbonne became alarmed. Heresy was 
 at once stigmatized by the faculty, and pun- 
 ished by the Parliament as an offence 
 against the State; and the leaders of the 
 new thought were crushed or banished. 
 Protestantism had powerful friends, but the 
 movement encountered persistent opposition 
 from the queen-mother and the chancellor. 
 Francis vacillated. His love of learning in- 
 clined him to freedom of thought, but he 
 was opposed to any reform which would 
 overthrow the Roman Catholic system, and 
 he had no sympathy with attacks on the 
 Sacrament. ^ He shrank from a religious 
 division of his kingdom, holding to the old 
 motto, "One king, one law, one faith." 
 
 Strong influences from both sides were 
 brought to bear upon him. The Landgrave 
 of Hesse came to negotiate in person in be- 
 
2i8 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 half of Protestantism, while the papal party 
 used all possible methods to sustain their 
 cause. It was the rash- act of over-zealous 
 reformers that finally turned Francis against 
 the Protestants. These enthusiasts enraged 
 the people and offended the king by posting 
 the city, and even the royal bed-chamber, 
 with placards denouncing the mass. Forth- 
 with Francis joined in solemn religious 
 processions, and gave his consent to the 
 burning of heretics, claiming that they were 
 fanatical and seditious. He became less 
 and less tolerant, and refused to save the 
 Waldenses from massacre. As a result of 
 this course within a few years of his death, 
 the country was plunged into civil war and 
 became "the frightful theatre of the battle 
 of sects and nations." 
 
 The work of the Re-formation in France is 
 associated with the name of John Calvin. 
 As Professor Fisher has said: "To the 
 major part of even Calvinists he was never 
 more than a bloodless abstraction," yet his 
 influence was enormous. Having been born 
 only eight years before the posting of the 
 theses at Wittenberg he was contemporary 
 with the second generation of reformers, 
 coming into prominence after Luther's work 
 in Germany had become firmly established 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 219 
 
 and Zwingli had crowned his labors in 
 Switzerland by heroic death on the battle- 
 field. His youth was free from hardship, 
 his father being a man of ample income and 
 of social standing. His education was of a 
 high order. For a while he looked toward 
 the priesthood; and later, upon a change of 
 plans by his ambitious father, toward the 
 profession of a jurist. He attained marked 
 excellence in legal studies, but at this very 
 time, under the influence of a relative who 
 was the first Protestant translator of the 
 Bible into French, he began to direct his 
 attention to Scripture. His Greek pro- 
 fessor, somewhat earlier than this,, had 
 guided him in the study of the New Testa- 
 ment in the original. His conversion was a 
 sudden and deep experience, in which he 
 felt on one hand, the awful holiness of God, 
 and, on the other, the iniquity of his own 
 sinful soul. Penances failed him, and he 
 could only throw himself on the mercy of 
 God. ^ 
 
 Somewhat against his inclinations he be- 
 came, on returning to Paris, the recognized 
 leader of the Protestants, and the guide of 
 those who sought religious counsel and in- 
 struction. Before long a persecution arose 
 which drove him out of the city, to find in 
 
230 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Basel the shelter and the seclusion which he 
 prized. It was here that, for the sake of 
 appeasing the fury of Francis I. against the 
 Protestants he wrote his famous "Institutes 
 of the Christian Religion," containing an 
 introductory appeal to the king, full of force 
 and eloquence amazing in a man of twenty- 
 seven. 
 
 In outward circumstances, training, and 
 personal characteristics, Calvin was most un- 
 like the German leader; and his writings, 
 while of marked effect, are as far r&moved 
 in power of popular impression from those 
 of Luther. It was the genius and the pas- 
 sion of the German Reformer to give the 
 Bible to the people in the simplest forms of 
 peasant speech, while the exact scholarship 
 and patrician culture of Calvin made the 
 "Institutes," both in French and Latin, a 
 distinct contribution to literature, and a 
 source of immediate influence upon the edu- 
 cated classes of society. His logical and 
 well-trained mind worked with such accuracy 
 that his opinions underwent no change with 
 passing years, and the revised and enlarged 
 editions of his great work preserved to the 
 last the identity of his earlier teachings. 
 His theology was of the Augustinian order, 
 rather than of the Clementine and Alexan- 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 221 
 
 drian type which colors the thought of to- 
 day. He had magnified God in his own 
 experience of conversion, and in his system 
 of theological truths he gave dominant place 
 to the sovereignty of Him who rules above 
 human weakness and sin, and who has 
 reasons both wise and good for actions 
 which are inscrutable to man. 
 
 Calvin, having come to his conclusions 
 with care and reflection, thereafter held 
 them with such intensity of conviction as to 
 render him impatient of dissent. It is said 
 that even his friendly personal letters were 
 marked by a censorious tone, not easily con- 
 doned. His irritability was doubtless much 
 intensified by physical disorders and by 
 crowding cares; so that, to use his own ex- 
 pression, "the wild beasts of his anger" 
 raged beyond control. Yet, the sincere 
 self-sacrifice of his life and his devotion to 
 the interests of Church and State were so 
 manifest that after his death the Senate of 
 Geneva, whi^h had constantly witnessed his 
 disinterestedness and fearlessness, spoke of 
 "the majesty" of his character. 
 
 The story of Calvin's life is now inter- 
 woven with that of the Reformation in 
 Switzerland, — which we laid down at the 
 death of Zwingli. The Forest cantons drove 
 
222 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Protestantism out of many districts but it 
 maintained itself in Zurich, Basel, Bern, 
 and later was established in Geneva by vote 
 of the citizens. The movement in the latter 
 city went to what now seems to us an ex- 
 treme; all church festivals, except Sunday, 
 being abolished, together with various 
 amusements, such as dancing and masquer- 
 ades. The people were compelled to take 
 a solemn oath to live according to the rule 
 of the Gospel. Such discipline was too 
 severe for a pleasure-loving people; and it 
 naturally resulted in discontent and in a 
 reaction of feeling. A strong party arose 
 clamoring for the old order of things, and 
 Geneva was torn by intestine strife. 
 
 Through Farel, an ardent reformer, Calvin 
 was led to greater extremes and was drawn 
 into the thickest of these contentions. The 
 people were forbidden to wear ornaments of 
 any kind, or to engage in obnoxious sports. 
 Many retaliated with bitter hatred, and the 
 conflict ended in the banishment of Calvin 
 from the city. 
 
 He came back, however, to end his days 
 there, held in honor by the authorities, and 
 working effectively for a new order of 
 things. Church and State were united. 
 The rules of the Church were enforced by 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 223 
 
 temporal penalties; moral censorship was 
 exercised over every person in the city; high 
 and low, rich and poor, being alike brought 
 under inflexible laws. The respect of the 
 citizens gave Calvin not only great influence 
 in ecclesiastical affairs but in the framing 
 of civil legislation. Influenced less by his 
 legal studies than by Hebrew legislation and 
 by his own severity of disposition, innocent 
 amusements came in for penalties as well as 
 offences of a much graver sort. Such strin- 
 gent regulations brought at length their nat- 
 ural fruitage in disaffection and in a long 
 and bitter contest. 
 
 The idea of the broad function of the 
 State prevailed universally in this century, 
 and heresy was held a crime to be punished 
 by the civil authorities. Under this condi- 
 tion of things occurred the famous case of 
 Servetus, a Spaniard, of an inquisitive turn 
 of mind, much given to natural sciences as 
 well as to theological speculation. A book 
 which cqntained pantheistic notions came 
 under examination and, although it had 
 been published anonymously, caused his 
 arrest and conviction. At his trial he de- 
 fended his opinions not only acridly but 
 with violent denunciation, caricaturing the 
 doctrine of the Trinity in a way considered 
 
224 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 dangerous and blasphemous by his hearers, 
 and unnecessarily irritating them by his 
 contemptuous tone. The result of the trial 
 would have been the same in any land of 
 Europe. It is probable that Calvin ex- 
 pected, with good ground from the previous 
 course of Servetus, that the condemned man 
 would retract his errors; but when he did 
 not, and went to the stake, Bullinger, the 
 successor of Zwingli, and even the gentle- 
 spirited Melanchthon, shared in the general 
 opinion of reformers that no other course 
 could have been taken. 
 
 Calvin had his faults and limitations, 
 some traceable to the temper and the no- 
 tions of the times in which he lived, some to 
 his disordered physical condition and over- 
 taxed nervous system, and some to the 
 human frailty for which we all need broad 
 charity. Yet his labors were nobly inspired 
 and his influence was widely extended. As 
 years went on men flocked to him at Geneva 
 from all quarters of Europe, and on his list 
 of correspondents were "monarchs, princes, 
 nobles and theologians." Before his eyes 
 closed on earthly scenes they rested upon 
 firmly-rooted institutions of learning upon a 
 peaceful city, and upon a people lenient 
 to his old time imperiousness, regardful 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 225 
 
 of his sincerity and appreciative of the 
 splendid services rendered to Church and 
 State. The verdict of history is certainly 
 against the minute supervision which the 
 Church attempted to maintain over details 
 of conduct; and which abridged individual 
 liberty, and excited bitter opposition. At 
 the same time it is being more and more 
 widely acknowledged that the principles 
 which underlay Calvin's system have been 
 a powerful factor in developing independ- 
 ence within the Church, and civic liberty 
 outside of it. Wherever Calvinism spread, 
 in England, Scotland, Holland and France, 
 men learned to defend their rights against 
 the tyranny of civil rulers. 
 
 The results in France have yet to be 
 rapidly sketched. Francis* son, Henry H., 
 was no friend of Protestantism. Yet, in 
 spite of royal opposition, the burning of 
 people and books, the movement spread so 
 that by 1558 there were two thousand places 
 of worship. A general synod was secretly 
 held in Paris where a Calvanistic confes- 
 sion of faith and a Presbyterian form of 
 church government were adopted. This de- 
 velopment so aroused the king that he con- 
 cluded a humiliating peace with Spain in 
 order to use his army at home; but his 
 
226 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 death in a tournament arrested the threat- 
 ened persecution. The succession of his 
 son, Francis, a boy of sixteen, weak in 
 body and mind, gave scope to various 
 political schemes on the part of the crafty 
 queen-mother, Catharine De Medici, and 
 the Duke of Guise and Cardinal Lorraine, 
 uncles of the widowed queen, Mary Stuart. 
 The Protestants had become a powerful 
 political party, with princes and nobles 
 among their leaders. Such were the King 
 of Navarre, the prince of Conde and Ad- 
 miral Coligni; the first of these being bril- 
 liant but unreliable, the second, primarily a 
 soldier; the third one of the heroes of 
 French history, able, sagacious, pure and 
 of earnest piety. These princes united to 
 protect the young king from his untrust- 
 worthy advisers; and by using the forces of 
 Protestantism and making a show of bold- 
 ness they hoped to save the country from 
 civil war. They were not wholly successful; 
 yet more liberal terms were granted to the 
 Huguenots, as the party now came to be 
 called. This aroused the Guises to set on 
 foot shrewd plots, and to institute rigorous 
 measures to crush the Protestant leaders, 
 but before this came to actual accomplish- 
 ment the young king died and a second 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 237 
 
 time a reprieve was granted to the party of 
 reform. 
 
 During the minority of Charles IX., a 
 greater degree of tolerance was exercised 
 and Protestantism flourished among all 
 classes of society. But at a great confer- 
 ence comprised of notables from both 
 parties, held in 1561, there was a failure to 
 reach terms of agreement, and the hopes 
 which had been cherished of a religious 
 union were dispelled; even the Edict of 
 Saint Germain, of the following year, ac- 
 complished nothing on account of the 
 bigotry and fierceness of the Catholic party. 
 The wanton massacre of innocent Hugue- 
 nots by the soldiers of the Duke of Guise 
 aroused Protestants everywhere in France, 
 and plunged the country into a succession of 
 civil wars which ended only with the acces- 
 sion to the throne of Henry IV. 
 
 In these wars the Huguenots acted mainly 
 in self-defence and took up arms chiefly for 
 the protection of those who were being 
 wantonly persecuted, even Coligni enlisting 
 with reluctance and in answer to the tears 
 and entreaties of his wife. It is unnecessary 
 to recount all the incidents of the struggle, 
 or to record all the plots and counter-plots, 
 all the betrayals, and all the heroisms. The 
 
228 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 stream of events was not like a slow-moving 
 tide, but like a turbulent stream that often 
 turns on itself, and only after dashing over 
 the rocks that obstruct its course finally 
 reaches the sea. The event destined forever 
 to outrank all others in horror and infamy 
 was the notorious massacre of August 24th, 
 1572. So alarmed by the ascendancy which 
 the noble Coligni, by the grandeur of his 
 character, had gained over the king, Cath- 
 arine, the queen-mother, instigated the 
 Guises and others to plot his assassination. 
 The first attempt resulted only in a wound, 
 but nothing daunted, the conspirators now 
 filled the mind of the king with frightful 
 stories of Protestant plots for his overthrow, 
 and finally persuaded him to sign the death 
 warrant of Coligni. "Then," in frantic 
 tones, Charles cried, "let not a Huguenot 
 live to reproach me for the perfidy of such a 
 deed." They took him at his word and the 
 work of blood began on the evening before 
 "St. Bartholomew's Day," and ended with 
 the slaughter of two thousand in Paris, and 
 more than twenty thousand throughout 
 France. The report of the massacre was 
 greeted in Rome by the Te Deum, and in 
 Madrid with shouts of joy. 
 
 In all other countries, both Catholic and 
 
LUTHERAN REFORMATION 229 
 
 Protestant, the atrocity was regarded with 
 horror. Liberal Catholics advocated tolera- 
 tion, and Henry HI., in 1576, two years 
 after his inauguration, granted complete re- 
 ligious freedom outside of Paris. But, 
 under pressure of the Guise faction, this 
 policy was abandoned, and again the wars 
 went on until the succession of Henry 
 IV., 1589. The king, to secure the consent 
 of the Catholics, and avoid bloodshed, 
 adopted by an act of outward conformity 
 the religion of Rome, but inwardly kept his 
 views unchanged and adhered to his purpose 
 to protect the Protestants. Nine years 
 later, in 1598, came the famous Edict of 
 Nantes, by which the Huguenots secured 
 some measures of that religious freedom for 
 which they had maintained such an heroic 
 struggle, several fortified cities being left 
 in their hands as a guarantee for their 
 security. 
 
 The interruption of the reform movement 
 which at oi^e time seemed about to sweep 
 over all Europe was due in part to the wars 
 of religion, in part to divisions between the 
 Protestants themselves on theological ques- 
 tions; in part, to a wholesome change in the 
 Catholic church in respect both to moral 
 improvement and a deepening of real reli- 
 
230THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 gious zeal within that body, and in part to 
 its freedom from internal divisions and 
 consequent swiftness and strength of efforts 
 for defense and aggression. For these 
 reasons the organized movement of reform 
 was shut into narrower bounds and accom- 
 plished less than had been hoped from it. 
 
 The Reformation is historically traceable 
 throughout its whole course, from the 
 earliest inception to a fairly definite con- 
 clusion. It lies between the beginning of 
 the sixteenth and the middle of the sev- 
 enteenth centuries, so far as the life of 
 the event is concerned. It had, like all 
 historical events, a limited career, but as 
 Guizot remarks, it has a hold upon the 
 past and all the future. In this aspect it 
 has no bounds save those of the develop- 
 ment of the human race. It may be said, 
 therefore, of the Reformation, that while it 
 culminated in the Peace of Westphalia, in 
 1648, its influence went on working silent 
 and unobserved changes in men's thinking 
 and in their mutual relations in Church and 
 State. The process is not yet complete and 
 will not be until pure religion and perfect 
 liberty shall be established throughout the 
 whole world. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE ENGLISH REFORMATION 
 
 The religious reformation of England oc- 
 cupied nearly the same period as the refor- 
 mation in continental lands; but it has 
 features all its own. Indeed its course and 
 characteristics are so very unlike those per- 
 taining to the revolution across the channel 
 as to require study by themselves. The 
 movement was both political and religious. 
 The rupture between England and Rome 
 was made in an issue between the sovereign 
 of a State and the sovereign of a Church; 
 but that rupture had both antecedents and 
 sequences. Slower to awake, the English 
 Reformation was more fundamental and 
 thorough than that which was reshaping the 
 religious life of Western Europe. Although 
 more than a decade went by after Luther 
 began his agitations before England showed 
 signs of laying aside loyal obedience to the 
 Pope, there had been for generations, a 
 strong, though silent current setting in the 
 direction of freedom and enlightenment, 
 and destined in the end to accomplish more 
 231 
 
232 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 than was signalized by the Treaty of West- 
 phalia. The movement was to ripen into 
 Puritanism. 
 
 Puritanism was the reformation of the 
 Reformation. It was the second stage of 
 that distinctive movement. It was an ad- 
 vanced chapter in the book that tells of the 
 making over of the Christian Church after 
 the convulsions of the early centuries and 
 the stagnation of the middle ages. The 
 theater of the first Reformation was the con- 
 tinent, that of the second was the island 
 
 fk kingdom of Britain. The first movement 
 was fundamental. It resulted in throwing 
 off the incubus of popery and priestcraft 
 making possible individualism and faith; 
 but in course of time it spent itself. The 
 problem was too complex to be completely 
 worked out in one field or in a single age. 
 Disturbing elements and tendencies at 
 length came in and the great spiritual forces 
 which had given it power were dissipated. 
 The reformation was unfinished. It crystal- 
 lized too soon and needed to be broken up 
 by a second revolution. 
 
 r^ This later overturning in the interest of 
 liberty and righteousness, was much more 
 protracted than was the Lutheran reforma- 
 tion, and fortunately, the whole movement 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 233 
 
 from inception to completion can be traced 
 more clearly through the centuries. But it 
 can be fairly understood only by those who 
 are willing to exercise patience in the study 
 of a condition of society, church and state, 
 painfully unlike our own. Hasty prejudice 
 and censorious criticism are alike unfitted to 
 lay bare the whole truth. We must go back 
 to the study of earlier and cruder times with 
 sympathy and enthusiasm, forgetting the 
 acquirements of our own generation and 
 walking in generous friendship with men 
 who were doing their best under limitations 
 and complications of which we may never 
 have dreamed. 
 
 If we are willing to do this we can put 
 ourselves in the way of a far better under- 
 standing of the Puritans than could their 
 contemporaries in the reign of Charles II. 
 We can get perspective and proportion, 
 light and shade. We can appreciate diffi- 
 culties and weigh tendencies, we can dis- 
 count failujes and honor motives; we can 
 exercise pity and generous consideration for 
 those who wrought out at great sacrifice the 
 advantages which we have inherited. We 
 go back in thought, from a time of civil and 
 personal liberty and of religious freedom, 
 from an age of general intelligence and 
 
234 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 prosperity, of secure peace, of prevalent 
 good will, from a generation that at least 
 makes a boast of tolerance and hopefulness, 
 to a time when all these things were con- 
 spicuously wanting. We go back to ages of 
 ignorance, prejudice, bigotry, of despotisms 
 and oppressions, of cruel imprisonments and 
 tortures, to times of moral corruption when 
 life was tainted in the home, in social 
 gatherings, even in the so-called Christian 
 church; when the head of the Church was a 
 royal libertine; the bishops idle, luxurious, 
 and subservient; the clergy vicious and 
 uneducated; the rich covetous and oppress- 
 ive; when superstition clung to the simplest 
 offices of religion and hypocrisy lurked 
 beneath priestly vestments. We have 
 been too much out of sympathy with the 
 stern Puritan who clung with stupid and 
 obstinate conscientiousness to moral and re- 
 ligious tenets often unlovely or insignificant; 
 but now we see that he was made severe and 
 unrelenting by the times in which he lived. 
 He was compelled to set his face like a flint 
 against customs which were irretrievably 
 evil. There was for him as a conscientious 
 and earnest man no possible compromise, 
 no half-way grounds, no concessions, no 
 relaxations. He was as one who pulls his 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 235 
 
 boat against a mighty current. If he 
 dawdled at the oars he drifted with the tide of 
 evil. The Puritan was under compulsion to 
 be zealous and unrelenting, leaving the gen- 
 tlenesses and the amenities of life to a day 
 whose dawning was not for his weary eyes 
 to see. 
 
 The name was invented and first applied 
 during the reign of Elizabeth, but the move- 
 ment which was then christened Puritanism 
 began in time more remote in protests and 
 struggles against enforced limitations in the 
 exercise of religion. It has often been re- 
 ferred to as if it were a convulsion of human 
 nature, an outburst in social and religious 
 life, a startling phenomenon of a certain 
 period of English history. On the contrary 
 it made its approach by insensible steps, 
 finally, it came to a culmination, and after a 
 time it passed away. The bud was formed, 
 the flower blossomed, then the withered 
 petals fell to the ground. 
 
 Be it rememBered that the form of Chris- 
 tianity introduced into England, in the days 
 of Gregory the Great, bore the stamp of 
 Rome. At the very first it was marked by 
 superstition, formalism, external authority. 
 Yet under the efficient reign of good King 
 Alfred there was an appreciable gain in 
 
236 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 intelligence and manliness. Alfred com- 
 plained that not a priest south of the 
 Thames could translate Latin or Greek into 
 his mother-tongue, and he gave himself to 
 the task of lifting the ideals of the people, 
 by educating their leaders. Schools were 
 established, and the University of Oxford 
 was founded. After his death something 
 of a reaction set in, and under the baleful 
 influence of St. Dunstan the period follow- 
 ing was characterized by superstition and low 
 spirituality. In a couple of centuries Wil- 
 liam of Normandy brought into play new 
 forces which, on the whole, worked for a 
 higher civilization and against papal influ- 
 ences. But when he passed from the stage 
 there sprang up "a crop of more pliable 
 kings" whom the popes could use. Among 
 these was King John, the weakest and basest 
 tool of the papacy. 
 
 ^It is not until we come to Edward III. 
 (1327-1377), one of the most vigorous and 
 statesmanlike of English sovereigns, that we 
 find any active resistance to the tyranny of 
 Rome. It was during his reign that Wyclif 
 began his preparatory work for the great 
 reformation which was to follow two centuries 
 later. He has been aptly called "the father 
 of dissent from Rome and the progenitor of 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 237 
 
 the Puritans." From him came "the first 
 breath of healthy doctrine that had passed 
 over England for many a weary day." 
 Well versed in the philosophy and learning 
 of the day he became the discoverer of a 
 new moral world. His translation of the 
 Bible from priestly Latin into vernacular 
 English gave the people access to vital 
 truths without the intervention of a priest. 
 
 The awakening the popular mind to new 
 thoughts and standards, which he accom- 
 plished, was the inauguration of that great 
 movement which culminated in the glorious 
 revolution under the Prince of Orange three 
 centuries and a half later. 
 
 Ten years after the death of Wyclif Lol- 
 lardism, the fruit of the preaching by his 
 "Poor Priests," threatened to overturn the 
 Ueligious life of England. In this humble 
 democratic movement we find the first recog- 
 nition of a minister as qualified for his office 
 by virtue of the Scriptures and without 
 dependence on Rome or Councils. The 
 movement touched all classes, the plough- 
 men, the grim-visaged men-at-arms, and the 
 nobles of the court. It is true that persecu- 
 tion under the heavy hand of the foreign 
 oppressor held it somewhat in check, but 
 the principles which had come from Wye- 
 
238 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 lif's Bible were scattered far and wide, in 
 spite of all attempts at suppression. The 
 enemies of progress might wreak their im- 
 potent rage upon the disinterred body of 
 the reformer and scatter his ashes upon the 
 moving waters but that would only symbolize 
 the spreading of the truths he had incul- 
 cated. As the quaint Fuller has put it — 
 "Swift hath conveyed his ashes into Avon, 
 Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow 
 seas, they into the main ocean. And thus 
 the ashes of Wyclif are the emblem of his 
 doctine, which now is dispersed all the world 
 over." 
 
 Thus we come in our hasty review to the 
 beginning of the sixteenth century and the 
 significant reign of Henry VIII. The door 
 now opens upon modern history. As Boling- 
 broke declared: "In this new era all those 
 events happened which have produced so 
 vast a change in the customs and interests 
 of European nations, and in the whole 
 policy, ecclesiastical and civil, of these 
 parts of the world." The great movement 
 which we are endeavoring to trace was inti- 
 mately connected with all the events which 
 mark the quickening of the human mind and 
 the enlargement of human enterprise, j Now 
 came the invention of printing, the peopling 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 239 
 
 of new lands, the development of new com- 
 mercial undertakings, the dispersion of 
 learned men, the spread of revolutionary- 
 ideas. In England a host of men were 
 quickened by the teachings of Luther and 
 Zwingli and longed for a reformation of 
 the religious life. Latimer, at Cambridge, 
 maintained that the Bible should always be 
 read in the vernacular. Closely following 
 him were the two illustrious scholars, Ridley 
 and Cranmer, both of whom insisted upon 
 the supreme authority of the mind. The 
 revolution which they inaugurated would 
 have come a score of years earlier but for 
 the tremendous influence of Cardinal Wol- 
 sey, who, as the determined enemy of the 
 Reformation, controlled England in the 
 interest of his unscrupulous master and the 
 Pope. At last, personal questions separated 
 Henry from the papacy, making him curse 
 Pontiff and Cardinals, and barricade Eng- 
 land against Rome. Whereas, hitherto, all 
 protests against the errors of the Roman 
 church had been met "with frowns and frets, 
 with fire and faggot," the way was now open 
 for free-minded lovers of a simple Bible re- 
 ligion to take their stand against priestcraft. 
 The best part of the whole movement was 
 the opening of the Scriptures to many 
 
240 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 minds, for the royal proclamation of 1537 
 declared in favor of the English Bible, thus 
 giving the truth of God free course into 
 minds hitherto dull and unspiritual. Those 
 who came under the power of the Bible 
 maintained the struggle for liberty of 
 thought and conscience. D'Aubigny rec- 
 ognized this source of new life and hope, 
 declaring that: "The Reformation in Eng- 
 land to an even greater extent than that of 
 the continent was effected by the Word of 
 God." There were no commanding leaders 
 like Luther, Calvin or Zwingli, but the 
 Bible, itself widely circulated, accomplished 
 the work of spiritual reformation. 
 
 It is easy now to see the blunder made by 
 the English Reformers in continuing to ac- 
 knowledge the king as head of the church. We 
 readily exclaim: Why should a church which 
 claims a divine master as its head be made 
 dependent on royal assent! If it has the 
 higher leadership and is endowed with the 
 prerogative of free conscience why submit 
 itself to the whims of an impulsive and 
 erratic sovereign! But the times were not 
 ripe for such advanced doctrine, and Henry 
 took the place in the church once held by 
 the expelled Pope, and hence the whole 
 enterprise of working out purity and sim- 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 241 
 
 plicity became a complicated one. Convo- 
 cations composed of members more or less 
 servile and conscienceless, were called by 
 royal mandate; and every deliverance was 
 in a measure tainted by the baleful influ- 
 ence of men inclined either to papacy or 
 irreligion. There could be no general har- 
 mony. I Two parties of radically opposed 
 factions were gradually developed; one 
 party holding hard and fast by the old ways, 
 the other eager to achieve a more complete 
 reformation. Hot debates were always in 
 order, usually ending in a compromise of 
 radical differences, in which "Popery and 
 Protestantism kissed each other." Scrip- 
 ture and the early creeds were, however, 
 recognized, and the doctrine of justification 
 by faith asserted; but the existence of pur- 
 gatory was not denied, auricular confession 
 was tolerated, and the use of images of the 
 saints for certain specified purposes was per- 
 mitted. Although much was gained, seeds 
 of trouble were left in the soil to germinate 
 for a future harvest time. Neither party 
 could be satisfied. The problem had not 
 been fully solved. Reformers were dis- 
 tressed over the papist ingredients remain- 
 ing in the confessions; while the Romanists 
 treated the articles which bore the royal 
 
242 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 sanction with undisguised contempt and 
 scouted the ecclesiastical supremacy of the 
 new Head of the Church. Meanwhile, there 
 was, of course, confusion and contradiction 
 in the preaching of the pulpits, some con- 
 tinuing in the old papistic doctrine and 
 interpretation, others proclaiming a simpler 
 and more spiritual way. So it went on 
 through the long reign of Henry, the royal 
 influence turning more and more toward 
 popish methods, and affording occasion for 
 a deeper and more radical work on behalf of 
 religious liberty. 
 
 The reign which followed became a 
 ^''memorable one, for in it began a movement 
 for non-conformity to the established order 
 of worship, which afterward proved to be 
 the very seed-germ of Puritanism. The 
 king was but a boy of ten at his coronation, 
 and at his death, in 1553, had lived but six- 
 teen years. The real direction of affairs 
 must have come from the power behind the 
 throne, and fortunately this was in favor of 
 the Protestant enterprises. Some articles 
 of oppression passed during the later years 
 of his father were reversed, exiles were 
 brought back, and worthy men exalted. 
 Special provision was also made for a 
 higher order of preaching throughout the 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 243 
 
 kingdom, and a new Service Book was 
 introduced for church worship. All might 
 have gone well and the advance toward a 
 better state of things might have been signal 
 but for the attempt to enforce these changes 
 by harsh legislation. No other doctrines 
 could be preached; no other Book of Service 
 could be used; no word could be uttered 
 even by way of criticism, save on pain of 
 fine and imprisonment. It has been well 
 said that "these enactments present the sad- 
 dest and most illogical of farces — a Protes- 
 tant Inquisition." The advocate of the free 
 gospel had turned persecutor, only to fail 
 dismally. Not even the Bible can be forced 
 into unwilling hands; the best of prayer- 
 books cannot be made an aid to devotion 
 under threats and penalties. "Nothing 
 prejudices like compulsion." The thumb- 
 screw and the stocks never made converts. 
 It is no wonder, therefore, that though 
 Cranmer and his supporters were zealous 
 against the flagrant evils of Romanism, they 
 succeeded only in driving into revolt those 
 who would otherwise have been cordially 
 acquiescent. There was not a Protestant in 
 the land who would not have applauded the 
 changes which had been introduced, if only 
 their free judgment had been respected. 
 
244 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 The half dozen years of the reign of Ed- 
 ward VI. were fruitful in beginnings only, 
 and when his early, and, perhaps, untimely, 
 death, opened the way for Mary to ascend 
 the throne "a vile fk>od of popery swept 
 over England." It will not be necessary to 
 chronicle the horrors of her bloody reign, 
 the darkest and dreariest in English history. 
 She came into power giving uncounted 
 promises to create no disturbances, but from 
 the first, under the influence of her husband, 
 Philip of Spain, her heart was pledged to 
 the Romish motto, "No faith to be kept 
 with heretics," and to that secret pledge she 
 was unflinchingly true. Protestant pulpits 
 were shackled, popish bishops were exalted. 
 Both parliament and the Convocation of 
 Clergy were packed with servile tools, and 
 England was reconciled to Rome. Intoler- 
 ance without a gleam of charity brooded 
 over all her councils. The prisons were 
 crammed with the victims of religious in- 
 tolerance, and Smithfield regained the ter- 
 rors in which it had been clothed in the 
 days of Lollardism. Yet, strange to say. 
 Protestantism lost nothing. As Hallan as- 
 serts: "A sort of instinctive reasoning 
 taught the people that the truth of a reli- 
 gion begins to be very suspicious when it 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 245 
 
 stands in need of prisons and scaffolds to 
 eke out its evidences." The reign of blood 
 created in many breasts Protestant convic- 
 tions; and, so it came about that the Puri- 
 tanism which had been born in the favor of 
 Edward flourished in spite of the ruthless- 
 ness of ruthless Mary. 
 
 The death of the queen, in 1558, set 
 Rome aghast; raised the hopes of the Re- 
 formers, and delighted the refugees with 
 the prospects of speedy return. England 
 awoke as from a nightmare, and the terror 
 of the hour of darkness was dissipated, for 
 the scepter had come to the hands of Eliza- 
 beth, an avowed Protestant. The nation did 
 well to rejoice, for the contrast of the reign 
 of the new queen with that of her popish 
 sister was amazing so far as all that pertains 
 to prosperity and good order were con- 
 cerned. The clear-minded and imperious 
 daughter of Henry was an impossible sub- 
 ject for Rome. 
 
 For fifty years Protestantism was to have 
 assured protection, and yet Puritanism was 
 to find its development not through good 
 fortunes and royal favors, but only by fight- 
 ing its way toward power and privilege. 
 Elizabeth would go as far as the most ultra 
 Protestant in the matter of revolt against 
 
246 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 popish interference with civil and religious 
 affairs, but not one step in advance in other 
 directions. There should be a well-ordered 
 English church, subject in its government to 
 her own dictation; but, that church could 
 have no modification and no rival. When, 
 therefore, the religious enactments of Mary 
 had been repealed, the exiles brought back, 
 and some new regulations issued for church 
 service, the final limit had been reached, and 
 Elizabeth set herself with hard and bitter 
 heart against any further attempts at reform. 
 She gloried in her ecclesiastical supremacy, 
 and her temper brooked no contradiction. 
 To her mind Puritanism was a "specially 
 impudent innovation" tending to sap the 
 very foundation of the church. Like her 
 father, she indulged in vast assumptions of 
 authority, and, in her arrogance, was im- 
 patient of any hint of independent thinking, 
 on the part of others, even in matters least 
 essential. She would tolerate no ministers 
 in her pulpits who differed from her in 
 opinion, and those who opposed her royal 
 will she would not allow to depart in peace. 
 Her bondage extended to every appoint- 
 ment, and to every official action. There 
 could be no synod or convention of repre- 
 sentatives of the people convened to regulate 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 247 
 
 matters of common interest. There could 
 be no convocation of clergy save as assem- 
 bled by royal command; nor could they then 
 transact any business save by particular war- 
 rant. 
 
 In her attitude toward ecclesiastical affairs 
 Elizabeth had but one end in view — the 
 preservation of peace and the upbuilding of 
 the authority of the crown. She is usually 
 described as a Lutheran of moderate type, 
 but John Richard Green declares that "no 
 woman ever lived who was so totally desti- 
 tute of the sentiment of religion." So far 
 as her personal convictions were concerned, 
 the theological beliefs and controversies 
 which swayed others left her intellectual and 
 moral life untouched; but for the sake of 
 unity throughout the kingdom she de- 
 manded conformity, overriding the con- 
 science and judgment of her subjects in 
 utter indifference to the religious scruples 
 upon which she trampled. 
 
 The immediate result of this severity was 
 to scatter over the continent men of learning 
 and high character, especially ministers of 
 the prohibited faith. They sought out cen- 
 ters of religious thought in the cities of Ger- 
 many, Switzerland, and France. In due 
 time they came back or wrote to friends and 
 
248 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 thus the freest and most advanced ideas of 
 the Reformation were planted in English 
 soil. 
 
 So it came about that whether the ruler 
 was Papist or Protestant, Puritanism grew 
 apace. The people became more and more 
 intelligent, thoughtful and independent, 
 and were less easily harried into conformity 
 to any established order of worship. The 
 universities of Oxford and Cambridge, the 
 great metropolis, and even the country at 
 large, began to lean toward Puritanism. 
 There was no open uprising in behalf of the 
 movement which had now been christened 
 by its historical and immortal name, but the 
 leavening process went on in spite of all op- 
 position. The press multiplied books and 
 pamphlets and the new ideas were sown 
 broadcast. The people with Saxon love of 
 fair play, and with awakened intelligence 
 were beginning to say, "If the bishops did 
 not fear discussion they would not padlock 
 free speech." So they opened their ears to 
 the new doctrines of a complete reformation. 
 
 Furthermore, some of the measures for 
 suppression worked in unlooked-for ways, in 
 the interest of Puritanism. Ministers who 
 had been dismissed from court were taken 
 as private tutors into families of the middle 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 249 
 
 class and of the gentry. Here protected 
 from oppression they did not fail to imbue 
 many minds with hatred for tyranny, and 
 with passion for political and religious lib- 
 erty. 
 
 It is to be noted, however, that the Puri- 
 tans in Elizabeth's time were not Dissenters, 
 they were not even Presbyterians. They 
 belonged to the English church, and there 
 they proposed to stay. All they asked was the 
 complete reform of that church. At first, 
 even the most advanced among them were 
 non-conformists only in respect to deviation 
 from some prescribed regulations in the per- 
 formance of public worship. They did not 
 ask for liberty to withdraw from the national 
 church, but only for liberty within the 
 church, to which they fondly clung, to wor- 
 ship according to their own ideas of Chris- 
 tian simplicity and purity. As to the 
 principle of national authority in church 
 matters, that was not a grievance save as it 
 came in conflict with conscientious ways of 
 thinking. The party which went so far as 
 to desire a break with the national church, 
 adopting as a motto, "Reformation without 
 tarrying," became known as "Separatists." 
 
 These broke away from the more con- 
 servative Puritans and stood out for a prin- 
 
250 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ciple of their own, the independence of the 
 individual church, and finally wrought out 
 their scheme of church government as Pil- 
 grims upon the New England shores. The 
 greater number of the reformers, however, 
 continued as Puritans, in a definite party, 
 committed to the national church, but refus- 
 ing to accept regulations which they con- 
 sidered dangerously defiling. This gave 
 ground for the sarcasm of the bishops who 
 sneered at them as over-zealous for purity, 
 and hated them as branded "Puritans." 
 
 The Tudors were followed by the Stuarts, 
 and the movement which had steadily grown 
 since the brief reign of Edward VI. con- 
 tinued to flourish under the new dynasty 
 which it was destined at last to overthrow. 
 It will not be needful to detail the histories 
 of the four kings who had yet to play their 
 parts before the great revolution. Not one 
 of them had a respectable character, enter- 
 tained an honest purpose, or did a creditable 
 deed. They have been called "the Bour- 
 bons of British politics," and like their 
 namesakes across the channel lived only to 
 see and hate what they could not prevent, 
 wasting their impotent rage upon the irre- 
 sistible movement of human society toward 
 true liberty. 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 251 
 
 When James I., the son of poor Mary 
 Stuart, came to England the Puritans were 
 jubilant. He had been bred a strict Presby- 
 terian and stood pledged to the best type of 
 Protestantism by many an oath. But the 
 Puritans had reckoned without their host. 
 The more James knew of Puritanism the less 
 he liked it. On close acquaintance it 
 smacked to him of republicanism; for was it 
 not always casting eyes toward civil liberty 
 and indulging in criticisms that did not 
 spare even royal tenets. So James gave his 
 right hand to the bishops, and honored 
 Puritanism by deserting it. This vainest of 
 men, and most pedantic of kings was bound 
 to have his own way in religious as well as 
 political matters, so he insisted on arguing 
 in the imperative mood, believing that a 
 command was better than a syllogism, and 
 forbidding any indulgence in non-con- 
 formity. "I will have one doctrine," he 
 declared, "and one discipline, one religion 
 in substance and ceremony." He went still 
 further and cried, "I will make the Puritan 
 party conform or I will harry them out of 
 the land." In a speech before Parliament 
 he referred to "the sect called Puritan" as 
 "insufferable in any well-governed common- 
 wealth." So he adopted measures of sup- 
 
252 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 pression. Non-conforming clergymen were 
 silenced, imprisoned, or exiled; ecclesias- 
 tical censorship of the press was exercised; 
 the importation of foreign books was hin- 
 dered, yet by all these repressive measures 
 he succeeded only in giving a more vigorous 
 life to the party he held in contempt. 
 
 When the lines of battle were drawn, the 
 monarch, with the state church were on one 
 side, the Puritan clergy and the people on 
 the other, with Parliament standing between, 
 yet steadily drifting toward the side of 
 political and religious liberty. 
 
 The first Charles succeeded the first James, 
 but he was merely a second Stuart, with no 
 new qualities of value to society. He was 
 an improvement on his father only in respect 
 to personal living, being orderly and chaste. 
 In political action he was governed by the 
 sole idea of absolutism. He utterly failed 
 to read the portents of his time, or to mark 
 the drift of public opinion. In affairs of 
 government he stood unflinchingly against 
 Parliament, and, in religious matters cher- 
 ished the deepest aversion to Puritanism. 
 Inflated with arrogance and pride he main- 
 tained a hopeless conflict with the mighty 
 force of popular sentiment represented by 
 Parliament, and, with the mightier force of 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 253 
 
 a great religious reformation. With the 
 tyrannical and despicable Laud in control of 
 ecclesiastical affairs he continued to the bit- 
 ter end in a mad crusade against the liberties 
 and sentiments of a people daily becoming 
 more intelligent and independent. An open 
 rupture was inevitable, and the reader of 
 English history is scarcely surprised to 
 come upon the unique chapter which records 
 not only the dethronement but the execution 
 of an English king. 
 
 This catastrophe could never have been 
 brought about, even by the genius of Oliver 
 Cromwell, had it not been for the tremendous 
 force of the moral uprising of the people 
 under the impulses which Puritanism had 
 fostered. The ideas which weregerminant in 
 the days of Edward III. and Wyclif, which 
 had begun to have life in the short reign of 
 Edward VI., which were developed and 
 publicly named in the time of Elizabeth, 
 which endured the contemptuous opposition 
 of two Stuart kings, at last asserted them- 
 selves in the indignant rejection of Charles 
 I., and in the elevation to a Protectorship of 
 the realm of a sturdy yeoman, who had 
 passed from the House of Commons to the 
 head of a victorious army. 
 
 The rule of Cromwell, however, lacked 
 
254 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 popularity and was not destined to enjoy a 
 long life. It was strong and successful so 
 far as the maintenance of order and freedom 
 from oppression were concerned. It gained 
 and held the respect of the nation, and for 
 that matter, of all Europe; yet, the Protector 
 was often compelled to resort to the arbi- 
 trary and unconstitutional exercise of power, 
 and, in spite of unquestioned integrity and 
 splendid statesmanship, he failed to main- 
 tain himself at the height of popular favor. 
 Between the Cavaliers and the Roundheads 
 was a mass of people adhering steadfastly 
 to neither party, sometimes remaining 
 neutral and sometimes swaying to the one 
 side or to the other. When they inclined 
 toward the Puritans they made the victories 
 of Cromwell possible; when they supported 
 the Royalists Charles II. was recalled from 
 exile and introduced into Whitehall with all 
 England shouting welcome to the new king. 
 This was a step backward; darkening days 
 came again, and the mutterings of another 
 storm were heard in still unreformed Eng- 
 land. Charles was a fool, a weakling, and a 
 bigot, "an infidel when well, a Romanist 
 when sick." The papists bestirred them- 
 selves under encouragement from the king's 
 vacillating attitude; the high church party 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 255 
 
 pressed to the front and the Puritans were 
 crowded out of pulpits and public offices. 
 The hand of iron and blood began to show 
 itself again. Many were banished from the 
 realm; half of those that remained were out- 
 lawed, and under the reign of terror that 
 ensued men of piety and free conscience 
 were secure in possession of neither home 
 nor life. It was the story of the catacombs 
 over again, and Puritans met by stealth and 
 under pitiful perils in "dark alleys, upper 
 garrets, and in midnight forests. 
 
 In 1685 Charles died and his brother, 
 James II., came to the throne. The char- 
 acteristics of the new king were bigotry and 
 absolutism. In personal character he was 
 vicious; in temper, always despotic; a liar 
 when it suited him; vindictive and cruel 
 when the mask was thrown off. Such a ruler 
 was sure to march fast toward dethronement 
 in so late a century. With "a despotism 
 bolder than that of Elizabeth and meaner 
 than that of Charles," he could not fail to 
 set all parties against him, whether in high 
 church circles or in Puritan ranks. 
 
 There would have been an even speedier 
 revolution had not England had in prospect 
 the succession of Mary, daughter of James, 
 who was educated a Protestant and was the 
 
256 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 wife of William, Prince of Orange. The 
 report of the birth of a son to the queen, 
 though not really credited, so inflamed all 
 parties, Whigs, Tories, Churchmen and 
 Puritans, that the king was forced to abdi- 
 cate in favor of his daughter and her hus- 
 band. All parties united in inviting to the 
 English throne the most remarkable man of 
 the epoch, thoughtful, simple, dignified, "an 
 able captain, a wise statesman, a tolerant 
 Christian." 
 
 Without bloodshed a new dynasty was set 
 up; the glorious revolution of 1688 became 
 an accomplished fact; temporal and reli- 
 gious liberty were secured, and the mission 
 of the Puritans, as a party, came to an end. 
 
 Even so rapid a review of the religious 
 history of England awakens its own sugges- 
 tions regarding the philosophy of the great 
 events which marked the course of things. 
 Yet, it may be well to put into definite form 
 the ruling ideas which determined actions so 
 utterly abhorrent to the sentiments of our 
 own age 
 
 In the first place, men. Papists and Puri- 
 tans alike, labored during all these troubled 
 centuries under the mistaken notion that it 
 is the province of the state to manage the 
 affairs of the church. This was the source 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 257 
 
 of endless oppressions and complications, 
 and much abuse of power by unprincipled 
 rulers. Such wrongs are persistent, for new 
 ideas come slowly. There is an heredity of 
 false notions, like those which made slavery 
 so long a possibility; which transmitted the 
 doctrine of the "divine right of kings"; 
 which still countenances the selfish use of 
 wealth; and which gave government a right 
 to dictate in the realm of ethics and reli- 
 gion, as well as in civil affairs. The Roman 
 church had always meddled with statecraft, 
 and, when the English reformation took 
 place there was merely a transference of 
 sovereignty in such matters from the Pope 
 to the King. The bishops who inaugurated 
 that revolution had been brought up in this 
 doctrine, and, as a matter of course, carried 
 over their allegiance to the new authority. 
 What they rejoiced in was that the cathe- 
 drals which had echoed to the chanting of 
 the mass, now resounded to the worship of 
 the Service Book. It probably never oc- 
 curred to Elizabeth, that, in questions of re- 
 ligion anymore than in questions of politics, 
 the people had any right to think and act 
 for themselves. The English church was a 
 national church. It had been formed under 
 a civil code, by the sanction of the king, 
 
2S8 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 and, up to the days of William and Mary, it 
 was expected that the civil government 
 would attend to the administration of its 
 affairs. 
 
 Although they were fundamentally wrong 
 in their conception of the function of gov- 
 ernment, the error was not easy to detect. 
 Generation after generation, the theory had 
 prevailed that the best government was the 
 most obtrusive, and, in this particular, the 
 Puritans were not greatly in advance of their 
 time. Like the Jews of old, they were in 
 religion nationalists to the core. They held 
 that a Christian nation is a Christian church; 
 and this false idea was translated to the new 
 England across the seas, and, for a century 
 and more, interfered with the development 
 of both civil and religious order. The 
 Puritan notion was not liberty, as now 
 understood, but only reform. They were 
 not initiatory or revolutionary, for they 
 never denied the rights of government in the 
 church; they were only urgent to have the 
 government permit them, and compel all 
 others, to walk in ways of simplicity and 
 purity. 
 
 Another prevailing idea and favorite bat- 
 tle-cry was "Conformity." Difference of 
 belief and custom was the bug-bear which 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 259 
 
 frightened kings, bishops, and presbyters, 
 into spasms. If it were not so painfully- 
 pathetic it would be laughable in the ex- 
 treme to look upon men, great and small, in 
 throes of terror over the inevitable differ- 
 ences of human minds about incidental mat- 
 ters; when, in things fundamental, they 
 were all agreed. It was universally held 
 that God was to be worshiped, and that the 
 Bible was the book of divine truth, but the 
 rulers were not content so long as in the 
 minutest details men failed of conformity. 
 The idea of tolerating variance of opinion, 
 in charity and confidence, was as remote 
 from the age as the use of electricity for 
 light and power. Men who for the right to 
 exercise private judgment suffered imprison- 
 ment and faced death, were either too timid 
 or too narrow to grant the same right in turn 
 to men who differed from them. Most 
 strange to relate, the very men who proved 
 themselves heroes for the maintenance of 
 their own faith, counted tolerance of differ- 
 ing opinions in others a culpable weakness. 
 They were under an evil spell. Each man 
 was bound to discover the right, and then he 
 was equally bound to force his convictions 
 on every other man. 
 
 A third notion as baleful, and more sense- 
 
26o THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 less, was the idea that physical force could 
 be successfully used to change or modify 
 intellectual convictions. Stubborn adher- 
 ence to this error opened a fountain of 
 blood which flowed continuously for four or 
 five centuries. The inconsistency of such 
 reasoning seems to have scarcely crossed 
 men's minds. Tyrants persecuted according 
 to the measure of their cruelty, and martyrs 
 suffered according to the degree of their 
 heroism. At times the land was full of 
 darkened homes, the air rent with cries of 
 horror, the fields wet with the blood of 
 saints, but there was no effective protest 
 against the unreason of such acts of bar- 
 barity. The only question was as to 
 whether the attempts were misplaced, 
 whether force was being used on the right 
 side. 
 
 Under Henry VIII. lives were counted 
 cheap enough, but even under the better 
 reign of his son, Edward, conformity was 
 enforced by pains and penalties. Many op- 
 pressive statutes were repealed, but the 
 Roman clergy who refused to accept Protes- 
 tantism were pitilessly thrown into prison. 
 In Mary's reign Protestants multiplied 
 under the cruelties which she sanctioned; 
 but the logic of it was not seen, and the last 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 261 
 
 days of her terrible reign were the darkest 
 of all. The liturgy adopted in the reign of 
 Elizabeth was intelligible and admirable, but 
 it occurred to no one that what had been 
 hailed with delight by many ought to be 
 allowed to win its own way by its moral 
 worth and spiritual beauty. It must be 
 forced at once upon all by such penalties as 
 the exigency of the case might demand. 
 
 The same appeal to force was made in 
 small matters as in large. Nothing was too 
 unessential to constitute a heresy, and to 
 call for the use of force. About the middle 
 of the sixteenth century an unhappy woman 
 was left in prison a whole year for the 
 offence of holding a peculiar notion con- 
 cerning the mode of incarnation; which, as 
 a fact, she seems not to have denied. At 
 the end of that time neither Cranmer nor 
 Ridley having been able to win her mind to 
 their view, she went to the stake without 
 protest from them, they being willing in 
 their turn to pass through the same fiery 
 torture for opinions which they had thought 
 fit to adopt. It mattered not what personal 
 worth lay behind the heresy; the sweetest 
 disposition, the most upright living went for 
 nothing; nobody could be trusted whose 
 opinions were wrong, — that is to say, wrong 
 
262 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 in the eyes of those who had the power 
 to employ force. Bishop Hooper, who 
 suffered a distressful death in 1555, is de- 
 scribed as the most apostolic of men, a man 
 who in an age of almost universal covetous- 
 ness not only lived simply but gave away 
 most of his income. Rowland Taylor, whom 
 the fiery chariot of marytyrdom bore aloft 
 in the same year, was proclaimed, "a right 
 perfect divine, of warm heart, simple man- 
 ners, touching humility and holy zeal.'* 
 But the shame of using cruel force against 
 men of such character and kindly service 
 seems not to have occurred to any one. It 
 was a hard age. Ideas of gentleness, 
 patience, and fair dealing had absolutely 
 no place in men's minds. The premises 
 had been accepted once for all that heresy 
 must be crushed at any cost, and that force 
 was the natural means to be employed. 
 
 When we make up our verdict on the 
 merits and the faults of the Puritans it be- 
 hooves us to exercise the charity and fair- 
 ness which were foreign to their age, but are 
 the priceless property of our own. We 
 mention with hesitation and almost apolo- 
 getic tone the faults which to our finer 
 senses of things are so glaring. They 
 lacked gentleness and compassion; they 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 263 
 
 were wanting in joyousness and their lives 
 were pitifully barren of amenities; they 
 failed to discriminate between things hope- 
 lessfy bad and things redeemable by a pure 
 heart; they ignored the natural demand of 
 the mind for beauty; and they trampled 
 upon the instinct for recreation and 
 pleasure. In a word, they had no adapt- 
 ability. They knew not how to yield to a 
 whim or to modify a custom. They were 
 hard and unbending, and so developed no 
 traits of loveliness. They were too severe 
 toward themselves and too rigid in their 
 judgment of others. For all these faults 
 they stand condemned. Their sentence 
 has gone out through all the earth. Their 
 sins were such as men are slow to forgive 
 and slower still to forget. 
 
 On the other hand, taking into account 
 the conditions of their age, — their merits 
 are as easily noted as their faults and more 
 gratefully held up to view. First of all, 
 and let it be written in letters of gold, we 
 record their sturdy moral sense. They had 
 a sensitive conscience, and to what they 
 deemed to be right they were devoted for 
 life and in death. Nor did they act under 
 the fostering influence of public opinion and 
 chaste customs, but often in the face of a 
 
264 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 sneering and frowning world that laughed at 
 their scruples and hated them for the re- 
 buke of its vileness. It is difficult, if not 
 actually impossible, for men of this age, 
 when virtue is exalted, when chastness and 
 honesty are demanded by pulpit and press, 
 when good men and pure women uphold 
 the loftiest moral standards, to conceive of 
 the universal and awful corruptions against 
 which the Puritans protested. In the reign 
 of Edward VI., when Puritanism was born, 
 the morals and manners of the people were 
 almost universally bad. The higher classes 
 were insatiably covetous, grasping at public 
 lands and hoarding gold, while in the lower 
 ranks, crime of all sorts stalked abroad 
 brazen and unpunished. The court of Eliza- 
 beth was full of epicures and atheists. 
 Half the churches, even in London, were 
 without preaching; social conference meet- 
 ings were suppressed; alehouses abounded; 
 gaming and frivolity were the order of the 
 day. Sundays were devoted to plays and 
 rude sports, and, when Parliament passed a 
 bill for a more reverent use of the Sabbath, 
 Elizabeth refused to sign it, not tolerating 
 any interference with religious matters. 
 James was willing to enlist the natural 
 levity of the human heart in his battle 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 265 
 
 against Puritanism, and issued a proclama- 
 tion encouraging on Sunday such "lawful 
 sports" as dancing, archery, vaulting or 
 May games. Macaulay says of the times of 
 Charles: "Then came the days never to be 
 recalled without a blush, days of servitude, 
 sensuality and gigantic vices." The Puri- 
 tans are justly accused of severity in morals, 
 but the brighter world of to-day ought not to 
 stint its admiration for men who could, in 
 the face of customs honored by king and 
 court, and against tendencies which char- 
 acterized society, stand unflinchingly for 
 honesty and cleanness, for true and sturdy 
 manhood, sweet and pure womanhood. 
 
 Quite in keeping with their moral sense 
 was their soulful energy. While others were 
 dawdling away their days, while leaders in 
 church and state were intoxicated with am- 
 bition and pleasure, they found something to 
 live for. Their's was "the strenuous mood." 
 There were mighty reforms to be pushed 
 through, there were vital problems to be set- 
 tled, there were evils to be overcome, there 
 were advantages to be won for the good 
 of society, and with uncompromising zeal 
 and unfaltering courage they gave them- 
 selves to their accomplishment. They met 
 with constant opposition, and encountered 
 
266 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 difificulties without number. It was no holi- 
 day affair to live Christianly on any day 
 from Edward VI. to James II. But the 
 energy of the Puritans was unflagging. 
 Eager, bold, aggressive, they were reform- 
 ers not by the king's behest, not in formal 
 compliance with changed fashions, but be- 
 cause their own hearts and minds were 
 enlisted in the work. They would not cease 
 to be intense and energetic in their striving 
 until church and society had been carefully 
 reformed, until simplicity and purity had 
 become the universal rule of life. 
 
 Puritanism, as an organized party, and 
 a recognized force among men, has, for two 
 centuries been only a matter of history. It 
 is inconceivable that conditions of human 
 society should ever again give birth and de- 
 velopment to such a movement. We have 
 passed beyond such measures as were then 
 adopted for the reform of church and state. 
 But some things that pertain to the essence 
 of Puritanism are of perpetual value to 
 human society, and of eternal fitness to hu- 
 man character. Men ought forever to be ear- 
 nest and devoted in their adherence to the 
 right; clear-headed and persistent in han- 
 dling problems of government and religion. 
 They ought to go yet further, further perhaps 
 
ENGLISH REFORMATION 267 
 
 than was possible to men of the earlier cen- 
 turies, and to clear thinking and earnest 
 action they should add not only love of lib- 
 erty, deep charity and broad toleration, but 
 also an appreciation of beauty and the in- 
 nocent joy of living. Thus they will build 
 worthily on foundations which heroes have 
 laid; thus they will reap rich harvests for 
 which martyrs sowed the seed. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE MODERN ERA 
 
 The proper measurement of the present is 
 by the past. More often we bring it into 
 comparison with the future. That is to say, 
 we test the present by our ideal of the state, 
 of the church, and of personal character. This 
 method has the advantage of making us dis- 
 contented with the progress already made and 
 eager for improvement. And this is well, 
 for absolute contentment would mean arrest 
 of progress; it would mean stagnation. On 
 the other hand, the cure for discouragement 
 and pessimism lies in contrasting the present 
 with earlier stages of development. When 
 we come to the study of prevailing condi- 
 tions by a long and hard path leading through 
 crude and dark ages, we recognize with grati- 
 tude and courage the immeasurable advan- 
 tages of the days in which we live. 
 
 The period under consideration covers two 
 centuries and a half, and is packed with 
 interesting and significant incidents. Events 
 crowd upon one another; and the'r record 
 is indefinitely more comprehensive and 
 268 
 
THE MODERN ERA 269 
 
 exact than in earlier times. The only feasi- 
 ble method of painting the characteristics 
 of this section of human history is to ignore 
 details and present an outline with the sa- 
 lient points as clearly indicated as possible. 
 
 By the middle of the seventeenth century 
 political and religious lines were quite defi- 
 nitely settled. The Reformation was estab- 
 lished on the continent and in England 
 beyond the possibility of overthrow, and the 
 process of nation building had gone far 
 enough to indicate the boundaries which 
 seem likely to endure the test of time. 
 
 Perhaps the most significant event in the 
 modern era was the peopling of the New 
 World and the maturing of the spirit of na- 
 tionality in that northern continent. The 
 discovery of America was made at the close 
 of the fifteenth century, but wide and stormy 
 seas shut it out from occupation for a hun- 
 dred and fifty years. At the close of that 
 period by virtue of oppression at home, the 
 awakening of new energies and new dreams 
 of conquest, the enterprise of settlement in 
 the new lands began to be pushed with vigor, 
 and to results of great moment to all the 
 peoples of earth. 
 
 The Spaniards took possession of the 
 southern coasts; the French of the northern. 
 
270 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Both were strongly Catholic and monar- 
 chical. The middle section with a climate 
 favorable for an enterprising people, with 
 varied resources in soil and minerals, with 
 excellent harbors and navigable rivers, with 
 possibilities of wide empire and unlimited 
 development of wealth, was colonized by 
 the Protestant nations of northern Europe 
 and above all by Anglo-Saxons. In New 
 England, were laid the foundations of a 
 vigorous and expansive civilization in the 
 establishment on the Massachusetts coast of 
 the Puritans and Pilgrims. On the territory 
 of Old England these two parties had dif- 
 fered not a little in characteristics and prac- 
 tical purposes. There the Puritans held to 
 the old church and a state religion. The 
 Pilgrims were more radical and as "Sepa- 
 ratists" would have reform "without tarry- 
 ing," crossing first the channel and then the 
 ocean in search of a land of freedom. But 
 once together on the soil of a new continent, 
 breathing air untainted by oppressive tradi- 
 tions, they speedily came to one mind in 
 important matters. The Puritan emigrants 
 did not forget their "dear mother church." 
 They brought with them ministers fully 
 ordained; some of them like Higginson, 
 Cotton and Hooker, being men of distinc- 
 
THE MODERN ERA 271 
 
 tion, but on the shores of the new world they 
 organized an ecclesiastical system in close 
 resemblance to that which the parishioners 
 and followers of the open-minded Robinson 
 had already instituted in the Plymouth 
 colony. It was an age of change, and move- 
 ments toward a new order of things were 
 rapidly and harmoniously executed. Some 
 serious mistakes were made; as for instance, 
 the limiting of political suffrage to church 
 members. They were often hampered by 
 the crudeness of society, but they were un- 
 doubtedly moved by high religious consider- 
 ations, and always acted nobly if not wisely. 
 They were legislating for "a commonwealth 
 yet to be settled," not for one already ma- 
 tured, and, under the pressure not only of 
 local exigencies, but of ideas at that time 
 of universal prevalence, they bound the 
 state to the church, and mingled functions 
 that are better exercised in independence of 
 each other. Yet, in spite of narrowness and 
 blunders the development of the new civili- 
 zation was in the direction of strength and 
 freedom. 
 
 By 1640 no fewer than 20,000 Englishmen 
 had come to the various colonies of New 
 England; including eighty ordained minis- 
 ters, of whom more than half were graduates 
 
272 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 of Cambridge and Oxford. This accounts 
 in part for the fact that education received 
 almost as great attention as religion. 
 Already the foundation of Harvard Col- 
 lege had been laid, with grammar and com- 
 mon schools begun in both Massachusetts 
 and Connecticut. These would seem crude 
 enough in comparison with the perfected 
 institutions which distinguish the twentieth 
 century, but they were of immense value to 
 the infant colonies, and of even greater 
 significance with reference to the develop- 
 ment of later periods. They indicated cer- 
 tain ambitions and tendencies which then, 
 as now, were only limited by the bound- 
 aries of a growing nation. 
 
 Without upheavals or revolutions the 
 changes in the religious life of Continental 
 Europe during the modern period followed 
 chiefly lines already established. 
 
 The reforms in Austria during the last 
 quarter of the eighteenth century constitute 
 one of the fascinating "might have beens" 
 of history. Joseph II., 1781, issued an 
 Edict of Toleration, and followed it up by 
 important legislative acts looking toward 
 the complete independence of the govern- 
 ment in external matters, and the reducing 
 of the jurisdiction of the Pope to the low- 
 
THE MODERN ERA 273 
 
 est limits. In the controversy with Pope 
 Pius VI. which followed, the Emperor was 
 on the point of imitating the example of 
 Henry VIII., of England, and breaking 
 once for all with Rome, but was dissuaded 
 by counselors whom he regarded as sincere 
 and sagacious. If a deeper spirit of reli- 
 gious fervor had been abroad, as in the days 
 of Luther, a revolution of incalculable sig- 
 nificance might have been accomplished; 
 but the temper of the nation was too light 
 and skeptical for such a profound modifica- 
 tion of relationships as the astute Emperor 
 had in mind. 
 
 In the religious history of Germany dur- 
 ing the eighteenth century an exalted place, 
 if not the very highest, must be accorded to 
 the Moravians. They were the inheritors 
 of the ideas and purposes of the Hussites of 
 the fifteenth century. They cherished the 
 spirit of Christianity in simplicity and 
 fidelity. The leader in this movement, a 
 movement which indeed has not yet lost its 
 moral and spiritual force, was Count Zinzen- 
 dorf, who belonged to an old and wealthy 
 family of Saxony. In the course of his 
 education he had come under deep religious 
 influences which determined his character 
 and bent of purpose. Though forced for a 
 
274 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 while to the study of law he found his way 
 into the ministry, finally becoming an or- 
 dained bishop. He had no ambition to 
 establish a new sect but only to intensify 
 spiritual life within the national church. 
 He sought to infuse into it new warmth 
 and a deeper religious sentiment. His 
 missionary zeal matched his love for sim- 
 plicity and purity; and, partly by his own 
 labors in Holland, England and America, 
 and partly by the organization of which he 
 was the moving spirit Gospel messengers 
 were sent into all quarters of the globe. 
 
 Sweden made a distinct contribution to 
 religious history in the gift to the world of 
 Swedenborg, the son of a Lutheran bishop, 
 who studied at the University of Upsala 
 and became widely influential as a unique 
 thinker and writer. Although not formally 
 accepted as a leader in religious thought by 
 a majority in any community, he impreg- 
 nated with his ideas a large body of follow- 
 ers; and in no small degree modified the 
 thought of the whole Christian world. 
 Emanuel Swedenborg had his first vision of 
 Christ when he was past fifty years of age. 
 He had enjoyed rare advantages in the 
 cultivation of his splendid powers, and was 
 already a scientist of wide research, and of 
 
THE MODERN ERA 275 
 
 literary productiveness. The contemplative 
 habits of his youth brought forth large 
 fruitage in the last thirty years of his long 
 life. He must be credited with sincerity in 
 believing himself the chosen recipient of 
 revelations; and, whatever may have been 
 his hallucination, he seems to have im- 
 pressed men with the genuineness of his 
 communications with angels, and even with 
 the Lord himself. The genius of his re- 
 ligious system is found in his doctrine of 
 analogies. The outer world corresponds to 
 the inner being of man, as, indeed, the 
 whole visible universe does with the invisible 
 realm. Following this principle of inter- 
 pretation it was natural for Swedenborg to 
 find in the Bible three distinct meanings. 
 One lies in the literal report of facts, the 
 second is beneath the surface in occult 
 allusions to spiritual realities of the king- 
 dom, the third is heavenly and pertains to 
 the Lord himself. There is no denial of 
 Christianity, and no rejection of any of its 
 moral precepts, although there is a some- 
 what significant modification of some of the 
 doctrines; as, for instance, of the atone- 
 ment and the resurrection. The Sweden- 
 borgian church came into existence in 1771 
 and, acting upon the promise of a new 
 
276 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 heaven and new earth, assumed the name 
 which it still bears, the "New Jerusalem 
 Church." 
 
 In France, the most significant phase of 
 the religious situation was persistent perse- 
 cution of the Huguenots, and their final 
 expulsion, — to the irretrievable loss of the 
 country. After the death of Mazarin, Louis 
 XIV., moved by a tormenting conscience 
 and instigated by Catholic advisers, perse- 
 cuted the Huguenots with unbearable cruel- 
 ties and oppression, so that within three 
 years not fewer than 50,000 families fled the 
 country. In 1685 the Edict of Nantes, 
 which had stood as the charter of liberty 
 for Protestants, was revoked and more than a 
 quarter of a million escaped from France in 
 spite of all hindrances placed in their way, 
 impoverishing their own country and enrich- 
 ing England, Holland and America, so that 
 Voltaire could say, "the French are as 
 widely dispersed as the Jews." 
 
 An event of great significance in the 
 eighteenth century was the temporary and 
 apparent overthrow of Jesuitism. Its begin- 
 nings had been, in spite of serious and almost 
 fatal misconception of the genius of Chris- 
 tianity, sincere and earnest. But with the 
 passing of the centuries, it had become 
 
THE MODERN ERA 277 
 
 widely diverted from those original aims 
 which had almost justified its right to exist. 
 It had become ambitious for numbers of con- 
 verts on the mission fields, which led to a 
 fatal lowering of the standard of moral re- 
 quirements; ambitious for power, which led 
 to interference in the politics of nearly every 
 government of Europe to the serious disturb- 
 ance of people and rulers; ambitious for 
 wealth, which led it to give time and energy 
 if not unholy shrewdness to the development 
 of commerce in its own interests. By the 
 middle of the eighteenth century the society 
 had succeeded in arousing against itself the 
 deep-seated enmity of widely separated 
 classes, so that it had no support in any 
 against the antipathy of the others. The 
 people distrusted it, kings feared and hated 
 it, and the Popes, after long contentions 
 against its methods, reluctantly concluded 
 that it was hopelessly bad. The result of 
 this widespread distrust and opposition was 
 repeated edicts which suppressed it tem- 
 porarily not only in the Catholic lands of 
 Europe and America, but even on its mission 
 fields. 
 
 Religious development was much more 
 marked in England than on the continent. 
 Certain phases of moral life and of philo- 
 
278 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 sophical and theological thinking were ap- 
 parently no more hopeful there than 
 elsewhere; there was, however, a deeper 
 undercurrent of religious feeling, a far more 
 powerful revival of faith, a more pronounced 
 aggressiveness, and a profounder revolt alike 
 from skepticism and formalism in England 
 than in any other country. It is to be re- 
 membered that the eighteenth century was 
 one of free thought. Men rejoiced to be 
 liberated from tyranny and superstition and 
 hailed their day as one of brilliant promise. 
 The new-found liberty led in the end to in- 
 telligence and fervor, but there was, for a 
 time, sad lack of religious sincerity and zeal. 
 Partly in consequence of theological differ- 
 ences and disputes men turned against 
 creeds and ecclesiastical requirements. The 
 intellectual activity of the period was 
 notable, but its brilliancy cannot blind us to 
 its sophistry and shallowness. France was 
 the source of much of the thought and senti- 
 ment which prevailed throughout Europe. 
 It was the period in which Voltaire, by the 
 peculiar fascination of his literary style, 
 greatly influenced men. Abundant excuses 
 may be found for his temper toward a reli- 
 gion which was grotesquely presented to 
 him in the ecclesiastic system of his day; 
 
THE MODERN ERA 279 
 
 nevertheless, the deleterious effects of his 
 own misjudgments must be acknowledged 
 and deplored. A biographer has said of 
 him that "he missed the peculiar emotions 
 of holiness," that "he had no ear for the 
 finer vibrations of the spiritual voice." 
 Such a man could not fail to misinterpret 
 Scripture, indeed, it is not unaccountable 
 that he should have been moved by "vehe- 
 ment and blinding antipathy" to the Chris- 
 tian faith. Voltaire was followed by the 
 "Encyclopedists," under the leadership of 
 Diderot and D'Alembert, men of versatile 
 talents and extensive learning, who labored 
 with prodigious industry to disseminate the 
 most advanced and revolutionary opinions 
 of the time. 
 
 Running parallel with this destructive 
 work of brilliant writers in France was that 
 of the Deistic controversialists, who, for 
 more than a century, influenced English 
 thinking. The avowed purpose of men of 
 this school of thought was to sweep away 
 superstition; their actual influence far out- 
 stripped this laudable aim. They made 
 bold to acknowledge the Being of God, but 
 they robbed him of personality and ap- 
 proachableness. They vehemently denied 
 the possibility of revelation and miracles, 
 
28o THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 not seldom resorting to insinuation and 
 sarcasm in treating the evidences upon 
 which Christian believers built their faith. 
 Against the earlier theories strongly pre- 
 sented by Lord Herbert and Thomas 
 Hobbes, the famous philosopher John 
 Locke vainly developed his logical system. 
 While maintaining the right of free inquiry 
 and the duty of toleration he urged the 
 "Reasonableness of Christianity" in a 
 treatise which still commands profound re- 
 spect. His powerful appeal failed to check 
 the course of skeptical thinking. The cen- 
 tury which followed, the eighteenth, was 
 characterized by the nationalistic and de- 
 structive writings of such men as Lord 
 Bolingbroke and David Hume, of acknowl- 
 edged ability and of proclaimed hostility to 
 religious belief, and the historian Gibbon, 
 whose method was "to sap a creed with 
 solemn sneer " 
 
 In spite of the "mocking disbelief coupled 
 with profligacy," which made the higher 
 circles of society in England, in that cen- 
 tury, indifferent to the nobler aspirations 
 and enterprises of men, the period is not to 
 be viewed as altogether unproductive of 
 thoughts and influences which tended toward 
 the advancement of civilization. The an- 
 
THE MODERN ERA 281 
 
 nals of the time record the discoveries of Sir 
 Isaac Newton, the literary work of Addison 
 and Johnson, the magnificent oratory of 
 Burke and Pitt. It is on the ethical and 
 religious side that the age was deplorable. 
 During the greater part of the century, in 
 both higher and lower ranks of society, 
 there was a lamentable deficiency in purity, 
 earnestness and faith. It is this condition 
 of morals which makes so significant the 
 inauguration of a social and religious move- 
 ment, the influence of which is still unspent. 
 It would be difficult to overestimate the 
 immediate and permanent influence for good 
 to the whole world, morally and religiously, 
 of the great revival of the eighteenth cen- 
 tury in England, out of which came the un- 
 premeditated organization of a new sect; for 
 in Methodism there was an uprising and on- 
 moving tide of religious life which brought 
 recovery and renovation not only to Eng- 
 land but ultimately, and, in a certain degree, 
 to many other lands. The Methodist Re- 
 vival came about in part by way of reaction 
 against the skepticism and immorality which 
 distinguished this century. Among the 
 higher classes infidelity had been passion- 
 ately espoused. Dean Swift, who had 
 climbed to high position in the church, 
 
282 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 through political influence, wrote: "Hardly 
 one in a hundred among our people of 
 quality or gentry appears to act by any prin- 
 ciple of religion, nor is the case much better 
 with the vulgar.** About the middle of the 
 century Bishop Butler declared that it had 
 come to be taken for granted that Chris- 
 tianity was not even a matter of inquiry, but 
 was looked upon as fictitious. Many polit- 
 ical leaders, like Walpole, were guilty of 
 unblushing immoralities; while among the 
 lower classes lawlessness was prevalent. 
 
 Over against this religious skepticism and 
 wickedness was set a style of preaching for 
 the most part conventional. Stilted ele- 
 gance had taken the place of unadorned 
 simplicity. It was the rarest thing to find a 
 preacher who dealt with the crying needs of 
 the age, and the real sources of remedy. 
 The Bible was uniformly treated in an 
 apologetic tone; and, as Johnson put it: 
 "the apostles were tried regularly once a 
 week on the charge of having committed 
 forgery.*' There were no convictions of 
 religious truth and no enkindling appeals. 
 What was needed was a new breath of life, 
 and, fortunately, this was about to be sup- 
 plied. 
 
 The awakening came chiefly through John 
 
THE MODERN ERA 283 
 
 Wesley and his immediate helpers. The 
 story need not be given in detail for it has 
 been long familiar to the world, but it is in- 
 teresting to note how persistent is religious 
 life, and how the fire of truth is communi- 
 cated by touch of one soul upon another. 
 According to the confession of Wesley, the 
 truth by which his own spiritual life was 
 quickened, was found in the writings of 
 William Law, the English mystic, to whom, 
 therefore, belongs the honor of leading the 
 way to this spiritual awakening. Whereso- 
 ever Law, himself, caught the spark of 
 heavenly fire he communicated it to not a 
 few, whom he induced to do their first 
 earnest thinking on religion. He believed 
 in personal fellowship with God, and in the 
 attainment of oneness with God in moral 
 character, and set the example of his teach- 
 ing in holy living. 
 
 Out of his writings came the earliest in- 
 spiration to John Wesley, but later formative 
 influences came from the Moravians, some 
 of whom he met during a voyage to America 
 and others two years later on his return to 
 London. Martin Luther also contributed to 
 the making of Wesley, for it was while Wes- 
 ley was listening to the readings of the 
 preface to Luther's Commentary on the 
 
284 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Epistle to the Romans that words about a 
 free salvation awakened within him a feel- 
 ing of joyful assurance of sins forgiven. 
 Immediately upon this experience he began 
 to preach in the city of London, and in the 
 regions around, with unwonted fire and 
 unexampled effectiveness. His brother 
 Charles was equally advanced in the new 
 life. Within the year George Whitfield, 
 who, at college, had been associated with the 
 brothers, began to preach in the open fields, 
 with such pathos and tenderness that "tears 
 might be seen forming white gutters" down 
 cheeks blackened by the dust of the mines 
 There was no thought of forming a new 
 religious sect. As is well known, John 
 Wesley was born and was ordained and even 
 died in fellowship with the church of Eng- 
 land, sadly deploring tendencies already 
 bringing about a separation from the na- 
 tional church. Every schism in the Chris- 
 tian church is to be regretted and this one 
 none the less because it was inevitable. It is 
 always unwise to put new wine into old 
 wine skins, for the old wine skins are sure 
 to be ruptured by the fermentation of new 
 life. The established church was too inert 
 to respond to such zeai, and too self-con- 
 tented to rise to the height of spiritual 
 
THE MODERN ERA 285 
 
 privilege opening to it. But the enthusiasm 
 for aggressive work among all classes re- 
 fused to subside. The result was the out- 
 growth of a new system of church organiza- 
 tion which now fills the earth; and the 
 development of a spirit of earnestness 
 which continues to leaven all denominations 
 within the bounds of Christendom. 
 
 When we turn to our own country to study 
 the leading phases of religious life we come 
 at once upon an almost unaccountable de- 
 lusion, namely, the belief in witchcraft. In 
 the American mind witchcraft is often so 
 closely associated with certain absurdities, 
 and tragedies in connection with the Salem 
 trials that its long and wide prevalence is 
 overlooked. Sporadic as it may seem, it 
 was, in truth, a lineal descendant of the 
 magical wonders and mysteries of the 
 Orient. By the early Christians strange 
 phenomena were unhesitatingly attributed 
 to the agency of demons. From the sixth 
 to the twelfth century less of persecution ap- 
 pears against those who were believed to be 
 possessed of satanic power simply because 
 of belief in the defensive value of talismans. 
 Yet, from that time there was a gradual in- 
 crease of the delusion up to its climax at the 
 close of the seventeenth century. 
 
286 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 To our cool and critical view of such 
 things, founded upon inductive science and 
 common sense, it seems incredible that only 
 two hundred years ago men and women were 
 put to death by individual fury and by judi- 
 cial processes for the crime of witchcraft, 
 and yet, previous to the outbreak in the 
 Massachusetts colony it is supposed that not 
 fewer than 30,000 in England, 75,000 in 
 France and 100,000 in Germany came to 
 their death in this way. It was generally held 
 that spirits of an evil character had com- 
 munion with human beings who yielded to 
 their malign influences, and who became, 
 therefore, worthy of the severest penalties. 
 Not only are some of the ablest ministers in 
 old and new England on record in defense 
 of the doctrine of devils and witchcraft; but 
 also philosophers like Glenvile, who was 
 one of the earliest members of the Royal 
 Society; physicians like Sir Thomas Browne; 
 scholars like Ralph Cudworth; and jurists 
 like Blackstone; and all that at so late a 
 date as 1765. The process of recovery was 
 gradual. Free thought and aroused intelli- 
 gence dispersed this cruel and morbid ob- 
 session and, by the beginning of the 
 following century, the delusion had utterly 
 vanished. 
 
THE MODERN ERA 28; 
 
 While Methodism was developing in Eng- 
 land, religious movements on the western 
 side of the Atlantic were leavening and 
 modifying the life of the churches. The 
 intense zeal of Jonathan Edwards at North- 
 ampton produced the profoundest effects in 
 the time of "the Great Awakening." Addi- 
 tions to the churches were numerous from 
 all classes of the community. In New Jer- 
 sey revivals of great power succeeded one 
 another, in large measure through the elo- 
 quence of Whitfield, who was then on his 
 second visit to America. Doubtless, there 
 were many extravagances connected with 
 these movements, and they were often foiled 
 by disappointing reactions, yet the Christian 
 life of the country was made more fervent 
 and productive by this earnest and genuine 
 interest in vital religion. 
 
 The growth of religious sects in the United 
 States from the time of the Revolution was 
 marked, although attended with a loss of 
 support from the public treasury. Doubt- 
 less, there had been undercurrents setting in 
 this direction before the war of revolution, 
 but that struggle was productive of new zeal 
 for the liberation of conscience and new 
 impulses toward denominational activity. 
 There lingered some statutory restrictions 
 
288 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 upon the Baptists in New England and 
 upon Roman Catholics outside of Maryland 
 and a few other states, but these were destined 
 to be removed. Patrick Henry, Jefferson 
 and Madison were among the earliest advo- 
 cates of entire religious freedom. When the 
 constitution of the Federal Government 
 came to be formed one article provided that 
 "no religious test shall ever be required as 
 a qualification for any office of public trust 
 in the United States,'* and, to make assur- 
 ance doubly sure, the first amendment added 
 a provision that "congress shall make no 
 law respecting an establishment of religion 
 or prohibiting the free exercise thereof." 
 There have been important renderings from 
 the Supreme Court to the effect that "gen- 
 eral Christianity," as distinguished from the 
 tenets of any particular sect, is a part of the 
 common law of the nation, in the sense that 
 the Christian religion cannot be wantonly 
 assailed. So far as the state is concerned 
 all religious organizations, all Christians, 
 and, indeed, all non-Christians of every 
 shade of belief or denial, are granted full 
 protection and absolute freedom within the 
 bounds of good citizenship. 
 
 Under this wide liberty Christianity has 
 steadily grown in numbers, in resources, in 
 
THE MODERN ERA 289 
 
 intelligence, and in the excellence of the 
 personal character of its adherents. Every 
 denomination has, within the last century, 
 recorded substantial advancement. The 
 Roman Catholics at the close of the Revolu- 
 tion numbered less than 20,000, but to-day 
 their communicants probably exceed eight 
 millions. The Methodist church was then 
 just beginning to exist as an organization, 
 but after the lapse of a century it leads the 
 list of Protestant sects with nearly six mil- 
 lions as a grand total of membership, gath- 
 ered from its thirteen branches. The 
 Baptists, who at that time had made only a 
 hundred years of history and were just be- 
 ginning to claim a place among the religious 
 forces of the country, have crowded hard 
 upon the Methodists with a membership of 
 more than four millions. Then, in order of 
 dimensions, come the Presbyterians, Luther- 
 ans, Congregationalists and Episcopalians, 
 with a number of denominations following, 
 respectable for strength of organization and 
 high standards of thought and life. 
 
 Looking over the whole population of the 
 world we find that not far from one-third of 
 humanity is to be set down as under the 
 general influence of Christianity; the pro- 
 portion being about four hundred million 
 
290 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 Christians to eight hundred millions of other 
 religions. Yet, no statistics can give a just 
 estimate of the potency of Christianity to- 
 day. One must take into consideration the 
 immense and significant changes in condi- 
 tion and outlook which have taken place 
 since Christianity struggled for recognition 
 in that great empire which for three centu- 
 ries held it in contempt, or, for that matter, 
 since the Reformation gave itjreedom from 
 the oppression of a corrupt and tyrannous 
 hierarchy. Never was Christianity so free 
 as now to develop according to its own 
 genius, to assert itself by beneficient influ- 
 ence upon individual lives, and on the mass 
 of society, and to extend itself at home and 
 abroad by aggressive measures. The ma- 
 chinery has been devised and constructed 
 for the propagation of Christian sentiments 
 in all parts of the world. The educational 
 institutions which are under the auspices of 
 religion are varied and countless; its liter- 
 ature rich m exposition of Christian prin- 
 ciples is not only immense but constantly 
 increasing; means and measures for the 
 spread of religion on every continent are 
 highly developed; while the Bible has been 
 translated into almost every known language 
 and dialect. Moreover, the idea of aggres- 
 
THE MODERN ERA 291 
 
 siveness is more and more taking possession 
 of the Christian world, and may be regarded 
 as, in some respects, the most characteristic 
 feature of the religious life of the present 
 century. 
 
 This brings us to the history of Christian 
 missionary enterprise. The missions of the 
 Roman Catholics have been pushed forward 
 in every century with greater or less zeal and 
 effect. Their methods have always been 
 defective from a Protestant point of view, in 
 that they seem to have aimed at little more 
 than the superficial expression of Christian- 
 ity. Under the Jesuits there have often been 
 fatal accommodations to the low standards 
 of morals prevailing in heathen com- 
 munities. Nevertheless a noble army of 
 Roman Catholic missionaries have exhibited 
 pure devotion and unexcelled heroism. 
 Among South Sea Islanders; in the heart of 
 the Dark Continent; among the teeming 
 millions of China; from the coast of India 
 to the mountains they have worked as- 
 siduously; and in the face of discomfort, 
 torture and death have displayed unshrink- 
 ing fortitude. 
 
 Among Protestants one finds the most 
 effective missionary service and the bright- 
 est instances of enthusiasm for the evangeli- 
 
292 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 zation of the world. Missionary zeal did 
 not declare itself at once upon the escape of 
 the Church from the domination of Rome. 
 Missionary activity was suspended a century 
 before the Reformation. At best it had 
 been sporadic, depending largely upon the 
 zeal of the Pope or the devotion of indi- 
 viduals like St. Patricius and St. Columba. 
 Sometimes the methods employed were ex- 
 ceedingly faulty, as, for instance, when 
 military knights made conquest of Prussia 
 and Poland; and when princes, with more 
 zeal than piety or knowledge, put political 
 constraint upon their subjects. At the time 
 of the Reformation the Oriental lands and 
 North Africa had been for a century under 
 the sway of Islam, while some of the coun- 
 tries of Europe were only nominally Chris- 
 tian. 
 
 The Reformed churches were at first occu- 
 pied with their own exigencies; and their 
 missionary zeal was almost exclusively ex- 
 pended upon converting Catholics to the 
 Protestant faith, and in securing greater lib- 
 erty and more complete organization. 
 Moreover, some of the leaders, including 
 Luther himself, looked for the immediate 
 "second coming" of the Lord, and seeing 
 the end so near at hand felt small considera- 
 
THE MODERN ERA 293 
 
 tion for the unconverted heathen. This was 
 a sad legacy to the Lutheran Church, for 
 when a century later any one suggested the 
 formation of a special society for extending 
 the benefits of the Gospel, his plans were 
 rejected as a "dream" and all such expendi- 
 tures of effort were looked upon as a waste, 
 as indeed nothing short of casting "the holy 
 things of God before dogs and swine." 
 But Christianity is for the world, it is the 
 ultimate religion for all mankind, and a re- 
 turn to the missionary aggressiveness of the 
 first century was inevitable. 
 
 The missionary movement which places 
 the present time above any since apostolic 
 days, began to declare itself near the close 
 of the eighteenth century. There were 
 active forces and favorable conditions widely 
 manifesting themselves, showing that the 
 fullness of time had come for a mighty at- 
 tack upon the entrenched heathenism of the 
 world. During the middle ages there had 
 been too much ignorance and confusion for 
 vast missionary undertakings. Social and 
 political disturbances had made organization 
 for continuous work through incorporated 
 societies out of the question. Then followed 
 centuries of absorption in political and re- 
 ligious strife. Great problems which occu- 
 
294 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 pied the attention and engaged the energies 
 of Christians had to be worked out. But 
 toward the close of the eighteenth century 
 there was a renewal of evangelical religion 
 and a quickening of human sympathies. As 
 always, in art, philosophy, politics or reli- 
 gion there were choice and fiery spirits who 
 went in advance of the masses, inspiring them 
 and leading them on with clear thinking and 
 undaunted zeal. These had caught the 
 secret of Christian love and energy. While 
 they mused the fire burned in their own 
 souls and prepared them for leadership. 
 
 Among the first and greatest of these mis- 
 sionary leaders was William Carey, of undy- 
 ing fame, the son of a Northamptonshire 
 schoolmaster. He was compelled to acquire 
 an education through hindrances that would 
 have discouraged one less eager for knowl- 
 edge and usefulness. When he became a 
 pastor he urged upon his brother ministers 
 the project which had taken such hold upon 
 his own heart — to give the blessed Gospel to 
 the people who sat in the region of the 
 shadow of death. At last he went himself 
 to India, devoting himself to work, and for 
 years, by word and example, stirring up 
 others to interest themselves in the world's 
 redemption. 
 
THE MODERN ERA 295 
 
 In America the earliest foreign missionary- 
 efforts were made in 1810. These originated 
 in a group of students at Williams College, 
 who afterwards helped each other at An- 
 dover Seminary to shape the enterprise, and 
 to present it to men of greater age and influ- 
 ence for their support. Missionary under- 
 takings have not been limited to any 
 denomination of Christians nor to any land 
 of Christendom. Methodists, Baptists, 
 Congregationalists, Presbyterians, High and 
 Low Church Episcopalians, have vied with 
 one another in zeal and generosity. Amer- 
 ica and England have been foremost in the 
 work, but Germany, France, the Nether- 
 lands and other Continental nations have 
 also furnished men and money for vast 
 undertakings. There are now not fewer 
 than one hundred kindred societies working 
 together in harmony to win the lost nations 
 of the world to the Kingdom of God. In 
 the prosecution of their noble work they 
 ,have encountered difficulties simply enor- 
 mous; language, customs, prejudices, have 
 all stood in their way, but all these obstacles 
 have been surmounted, and to-day there are 
 12,000 Christian missionaries against fewer 
 than 1,000 a half century ago; and probably 
 not fewer than 5,000,000 Christian converts 
 
2g6 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 in heathen lands, with an ever increasing 
 ratio of progress. 
 
 There exists no considerable people on 
 the face of the globe in this first decade of 
 the twentieth century among whom the 
 Gospel is not being preached with develop- 
 ing power. It is true that hundreds of mil- 
 lions yet remain in savagery, or in the 
 gloom of twilight revelations, but no people 
 has been found to be beyond the subduing 
 and quickening power of the gospel, and the 
 prospect is a glowing one that another cen- 
 tury will bring the majority of the human 
 race under the direct power of Christianity. 
 
 The story of the Roman Catholic church 
 in Europe during the last two centuries is 
 one of constant fluctuation. There have 
 been times when members of that com- 
 munion were under political disability, as 
 in England until the formal repeal of an 
 ordinance against them, about 1830. Some- 
 times the very existence of the church has 
 been threatened, as during the outbreak of 
 the French revolution; and, later, under the 
 repressive edicts of Napoleon I.; and some- 
 times its power has been seriously curtailed, 
 as it was by the secularization of the ecclesi- 
 astical states of Germany, and by the abol- 
 ishing of cloisters early in this century; but 
 
THE MODERN ERA 297 
 
 on the whole this great organization has 
 quite held its own against all influences, 
 political and religious, and perhaps never 
 did it give better promise of indefinite con- 
 tinuance than at the present time. 
 
 During the last half century two remark- 
 able dogmas were established in the Roman 
 church, in spite of the urgent opposition of 
 scholarly and influential men of her own 
 communion. In 1854 Pius IX. gathered a 
 large company of ecclesiastics atJRome, and, 
 acting upon his own responsibility without 
 the concurrence of a council, promulgated 
 the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of 
 the Virgin Mary, which had long been under 
 discussion among the doctors of the church. 
 In 1870, at an Oecumenical Council at 
 Rome, the same Pope and his party, against 
 strong and persistent opposition, made a 
 declaration of Papal Infallibility. The 
 minority opposed to the measure was large, 
 but, for fear of schism, they at last yielded 
 and the Council confirmed the dogma. 
 
 In nothing is the modern period more re- 
 markable than in the development of reli- 
 gious liberty. The heritage of freedom has 
 come to be by most minds accepted as a 
 matter of course, but it is not to be forgot- 
 ten that it has been bought with bitter strug- 
 
298 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 gles. Intolerance was long in disappearing. 
 Oliver Cromwell was one of the first to urge 
 the absurdity of demanding liberty and not 
 giving it, and he declared that he would not 
 suffer one Christian to trample upon the 
 rights of another. Yet even under the Com- 
 monwealth Roman Catholics were excluded 
 from the privilege of voting, and holding 
 office; and the use of the Prayer-Book was 
 forbidden. There was no party that, having 
 the reins of power given to it, would have 
 done better. The advanced views of an in- 
 dividual like Sir Henry Vane, for instance, 
 were acceptable to no body of men in the 
 kingdom. 
 
 All through the eighteenth century there 
 was a wavering in respect to legislation and 
 practice. The Toleration Act was nominally 
 in force, and yet even with the united efforts 
 of Whigs and Latitudinarian Churchmen it 
 was nearly impossible under the most favor- 
 able circumstances to legalize and sustain a 
 policy of comprehension. By the Test Act, 
 and various minor provisions, both Non- 
 conformists and Roman Catholics were 
 placed under disabilities, and even when a 
 connivance at the invasion of restrictive laws 
 had become the established rule. Parliament 
 shrank from the broad assertion of religious 
 
THE MODERN ERA 299 
 
 liberty, as the right of British subjects, and 
 as the fixed policy of the State. Progress 
 however there was, halting and unsteady, in 
 the redress of one grievance after another, 
 but it required a whole century of agitation 
 to fully establish religious liberty. 
 
 The men who strove against oppression in 
 England did not measure the significance of 
 their struggle so far as general liberty of 
 conscience is concerned. The idea and 
 spirit of universal toleration did not possess 
 them, and therefore they did not bring it 
 with them to New England, where instances 
 of intolerance were by no means wanting. 
 
 The most noted case of the suppression of 
 an independent thinker occurred in connec- 
 tion with Roger Williams. After graduat- 
 ing from Cambridge, he took orders in the 
 Church of England, but within five years 
 had become in turn Puritan, Separatist and 
 a Pilgrim to the shores of Massachusetts 
 Bay. Successively engaged in preaching at 
 Boston, Plymouth and Salem, he everywhere 
 indulged in outspoken dissent from ecclesi- 
 astical or political procedure which dis- 
 pleased him. The colonists had crossed the 
 sea for the sake of their religious convic- 
 tions, but they knew not how patiently to 
 bear with "diverse singular opinions," and. 
 
300 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 although a man of force, integrity and kind- 
 liness, who proved himself able to found 
 and govern a State in spite of towering diffi- 
 culties, Williams was summarily banished 
 from the Massachusetts juisdiction. 
 
 Another instance is found in the excom- 
 munication and banishment of the famous, 
 not to say infamous, "Mrs. Ann Hutchin- 
 son," who brought with her from England a 
 very active mind and a very free tongue, 
 and who evidently excited sincere alarm in 
 the minds of many leaders of the colony 
 because of her free handling of some of the 
 doctrines of the church, and because of her 
 unrestrained criticism of the ministry. Her 
 influence undoubtedly tended toward law- 
 lessness and disruption. 
 
 Still another instance is found in the 
 treatment of the Massachusetts Quakers. 
 Many of the early disciples of Fox failed 
 to exemplify that quietude and meekness 
 which is now their characteristic and which 
 was always properly connected with their 
 doctrine of non-resistance. They were not 
 seldom grotesque in behavior, and fanat- 
 ically extravagant in the views which they 
 proclaimed. They were condemned by the 
 the General Court in 1657 as blasphemers 
 against God, seditious and disturbers of 
 
THE MODERN ERA 301 
 
 society. Some of the measures passed for 
 their repression were unjust and cruel as 
 well as ineffectual; but it is to be remem- 
 bered that in their half-insane enthusiasm 
 they were guilty of startling antics. 
 
 More or less of intolerance was mani- 
 fested in all the colonies of New England, 
 among the Dutch in New Netherlands, in 
 Virginia among the Episcopalians, and in 
 Maryland where the Catholics predominated. 
 But there was one colony, destined to be- 
 come the Key-Stone State, where tolerance 
 prevailed. The Quaker William Penn hav- 
 ing obtained a large grant of land in 1681 
 from Charles II. came to this country seek- 
 ing to provide an asylum for persecuted 
 Christians of his own faith. He gave free- 
 dom and equality of rights in all matters of 
 religion to all people; while by his fair deal- 
 ing with the Indians he laid the foundation 
 for a peace which was never marred by an 
 outrage against the savages, nor by a single 
 outbreak on their part. 
 
 Theology has been working itself out, but 
 not to final conclusions. Indeed that can 
 never be on earth, yet, comparatively speak- 
 ing, we have reached completeness and bal- 
 ance of doctrines. These good results have 
 been attained by the operation of forces 
 
302 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 acting together from opposite directions 
 upon the same object. Contributions to 
 truth have been made by Calvinism and 
 Arminianism, by advocates of Inability and 
 Natural Ability, by adherents of the Gov- 
 ernmental and the Moral theories of the 
 atonement; by Natural Theology and 
 Revealed Religion, and by lovers of sim- 
 plicity and of elaboration in forms of wor- 
 ship. 
 
 We have conserved the elements of truth 
 in mysticism, pantheism and humanitarian- 
 ism, and have incorporated them all into 
 general thought. The same is true of what- 
 ever was best in the reaction toward Uni- 
 tarianism and Universalism from too severe 
 dogmatism. Much yet remains to be 
 gained in the way of penetration and com- 
 prehension, and much toward the perfecting 
 of Christian charity and liberality, but we 
 are now in the way that leads to the at- 
 tainment of these things. 
 
 The twentieth century inherits a con- 
 troversy concerning the value of historical 
 criticism in the study of the structure of the 
 Bible. Many are content to accept the writ- 
 ten word according to the traditional views, 
 magnifying the work of inspiration in shap- 
 ing every part of it and deprecating as de- 
 
THE MODERN ERA 303 
 
 structive every attempt to analyze its 
 contents with a view to determining its per- 
 sonal and local characteristics. Many who 
 devote themselves to this study are both 
 profound in scholarship and reverence, and 
 sincerely believe that the book will open it- 
 self to men more richly and helpfully as it is 
 better understood, both on the human and 
 the divine side. 
 
 So far as practical reforms are concerned 
 changes of immeasurable import have come 
 about, sometimes by convulsion, more often 
 by orderly evolution. The total effect of 
 these changes has been such a modification 
 of society as to make within the circle of 
 the most highly civilized lands, a new world. 
 Slavery has been forever abolished from 
 Christendom. This institution, although 
 hoary with antiquity, is so illogical and in- 
 human, that being once free from it we stand 
 aghast at its enormity. It was too deeply 
 rooted in the sentiments and customs of the 
 race to be wholly extirpated by the Mosaic 
 legislation which was compelled to content 
 itself with the restriction and important 
 modification of existing wrongs. Christian- 
 ity found it no longer in vogue among the 
 people of Israel, but, strongly entrenched 
 everywhere else throughout the Roman Em- 
 
304 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 pire. To have attempted its abolition by an 
 authoritative fiat would have been a fool- 
 hardy act. Every principle of Christ's own 
 life and teaching was adverse to this 
 iniquitous institution but, as in the case of 
 so many flagrant wrongs, lying within the 
 province of the state. He waited with divine 
 patience for its overthrow by a process of 
 education and reform. By the middle of 
 the eighteenth century the English people 
 began to awaken to a sense of its moral 
 enormity, and individuals were not wanting 
 with convictions and the courage of utter- 
 ance. The nineteenth century was, never- 
 theless, on the wane before a great convul- 
 sion brought the system to a perpetual end 
 in the English-speaking world. Since the 
 banishment of this evil from our own country 
 the emancipation of bondmen and serfs has 
 followed in Russia and Brazil, and now the 
 inhuman custom hides itself within the 
 bounds of the darkest continents. 
 
 The duel, an evil of smaller proportions 
 and yet almost as manifestly unchristian, is 
 dying a lingering death. A false code of 
 social honor prevailed for a long period 
 binding one who was challenged to mortal 
 combat to accept the issue, and compelling 
 men to resent even a fancied insult by a 
 
THE MODERN ERA 305 
 
 challenge. Not only have lives of great 
 value to the world been sacrificed on this 
 Moloch, but the very framework of society 
 itself has been disturbed, and the moral 
 sentiments have been perverted. This cus- 
 tom at length has been generally abolished, 
 partly by legislation and partly by the in- 
 crease of enlightenment. 
 
 The struggle for the suppression of lot- 
 teries of both open and obscure forms is still 
 in progress. Ground for encouragement is 
 found in the fact that the evil character of 
 all ventures by which money is gained with- 
 out due compensation in productive labor 
 has been set forth alike in the general judg- 
 ment of men, and in the legislative action 
 of nearly every civilized government. 
 
 Perhaps the same declaration ought to be 
 made regarding the evil of intemperance. 
 The century opens with the saloon still 
 firmly established. But the wrongs inflicted 
 by this institution upon individuals and the 
 peril ^which it brings to society have been 
 made so conspicuous, and such ceaseless 
 warfare is being waged against it by legisla- 
 tion and by the best influences of the day, 
 that the final issue cannot be doubtful. 
 
 As to public morals, immense gain has 
 been made in the creation of a sentiment as 
 
3o6 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 wide as Christendom against drunkenness, 
 and immorality of every kind. One has to 
 go back but few decades to encounter a pre- 
 vailing concession to the personal habits of 
 men of eminence in government and society. 
 It was held that the public could rightfully 
 concern itself only with conduct that 
 directly violated the obligations of public 
 service. To-day evil living is not merely 
 accounted a disgrace for a man in high posi- 
 tion, but is rapidly becoming a bar to such 
 offices as lie within the range of popular 
 suffrage. There have also been great im- 
 provements in the morals of the community. 
 The tokens of advance in the good order of 
 cities can only be appreciated by recalling 
 periods of disorder from which the civilized 
 world has escaped. Within the limits of a 
 lifetime the night has been a cover for deeds 
 of shame and violence. Many influences 
 have combined to banish crimes that once 
 entrenched themselves in the purlieus of 
 every metropolis. Night no longer protects 
 criminals. The flash of the electric light 
 opens every alley to inspection. There is a 
 better and ever-improving system of police 
 patrol, while by the uplift of the masses 
 the majority of men have become home- 
 keeping and orderly. ' 
 
THE MODERN ERA 307 
 
 No student of our times can imagine for a 
 moment that the work of reform is finished. 
 Evil still exists and wrongs against indi- 
 viduals and classes are still perpetrated. 
 Social science is still crude and the "labor 
 movement" is still in its infancy. But, on 
 the other hand, he would be dull or un- 
 grateful who did not thankfully acknowledge 
 the advancement of human society in all 
 things that touch the mental, moral and 
 physical welfare of mankind. Whereas, 
 once the great mass of the people were 
 beneath the level of sufficiency and decency, 
 the vast majority are now living in comfort 
 and hope; and whereas once there prevailed 
 ignorance and superstition darkening the 
 lives of the many, we now mark the small 
 percentage of the illiterate, and smile at 
 superstitions which were once cruelly reg- 
 nant. 
 
 It is not enough to note the changes which 
 have been wrought in the way of the modi- 
 fication of laws and customs which condition 
 society; it is necessary, also, to take into 
 account the ideas which have become im- 
 planted in the minds of men, and which, by 
 the highest law of development, are bound 
 to germinate. 
 
 In religion, the idea of the fatherhood of 
 
3o8 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 God is governing the minds of men. Some 
 are still struggling with a different notion 
 of deity, transmitted from gloomier ages 
 when men were bred to the notion of 
 monarchy and absolutism in both state and 
 church. But it is safe to say that religious 
 thinking must now be based on this funda- 
 mental truth, that God by the inmost law of 
 his being and in his relation to those who 
 have life from him, is an everlasting Father. 
 Out of this basic truth has at last sprung 
 the conception of the common brotherhood 
 of the race. The phrase "universal brother- 
 hood," is becoming a truism and the idea 
 is rooting itself in Christian consciousness. 
 From this arises, of necessity, not only a 
 wider philanthropy and a more genuine sym- 
 pathy, but a sense of the inherent dignity 
 and worth of the meanest individual. There 
 is being recognized a potency for good in 
 every child in God's great family. With 
 this better appreciation of the individual 
 there is rapidly developing an idea of the 
 common good, and the regnancy of social 
 motives. Because every human unit is of 
 dignity and value, society, which is the 
 organization into the unity of public life of 
 the aggregate of human units, is of supreme 
 worth, and whatever practice or pursuit 
 
THE MODERN ERA 309 
 
 militates against the general interests of 
 society must therefore stand condemned. 
 
 Thus has come about the gradual annihila- 
 tion of another notion which has held place 
 for centuries, and has wrought much wrong. 
 There is now no "divine right of kings," — 
 except the right to be noble, and to do serv- 
 ice for humanity according to the oppor- 
 tunities of life, — and that is the divine right 
 of every man. All government is for the 
 people; and for the highest good of all the 
 people. Public office is a public trust. 
 
 Among the other results of a truer sense 
 of the Divine Character and of individual 
 worth is to be reckoned a new sensibility to 
 human pain. Up to the most recent times, 
 men have been phenomenally indifferent to 
 the suffering of their fellow men. They did 
 not put themselves in the place of the unfor- 
 tunate and the wretched, and their sym- 
 pathies were untouched. The idea that 
 suffering and want must be as far as possible 
 avoided or alleviated, now rules throughout 
 the civilized world. There is an aversion to 
 cruelty in both its positive and negative 
 forms. The days of physical torture have 
 forever gone by; they have, indeed, become 
 one of the incredible records of history. 
 Prison reform is a hundred years old, and 
 
3IO THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 still the good work goes on. The dirt and 
 disease, the shame and cruelty which John 
 Howard and. Elizabeth Fry found in every 
 prison of Europe have been largely ban- 
 ished, and the whole trend of penal science 
 is not only toward cleanliness and health, 
 but also toward the recovery of manhood 
 and citizenship. Sensibility to human 
 suffering has developed into a positive 
 enthusiasm for humanity; as is evinced in 
 the most varied and intense efforts to re- 
 lieve and uplift men. The philanthropic 
 schemes of the day are numberless, and em- 
 brace both the temporal comfort and the 
 higher welfare of all classes and conditions 
 of men. 
 
 But all the gain has not been merely on 
 the side of the unfortunate; the idea of the 
 wholesomeness of life prevails, to the advan- 
 tage of the most favored. This is in strik- 
 ing contrast with sad blunders made by 
 ascetics of earlier days, cramping and warp- 
 ing human life, not only by forcing men to 
 adopt a distinctive career of poverty and 
 privation in monasteries, but robbing all 
 who aimed at the cultivation of piety of the 
 natural buoyancy and freedom of living. 
 Now, all of life is seen to be beautiful, noble 
 and ennobling if the heart be only pure and 
 
THE MODERN ERA 311 
 
 kind and the face uplifted in trust and aspira- 
 tion toward God. 
 
 The process of redemption still goes on. 
 Wide reaches are yet to be covered, for 
 there are wrongs to be righted and gains to 
 be made. Inequalities of property and 
 privilege breed discontent. Problems as 
 intricate and difficult as any in the past 
 must be solved before social order reaches 
 perfection and finality. But, while many 
 endure hardship and some are disheartened, 
 the noblest are sharing Victor Hugo's "irre- 
 pressible ardor to ameliorate the lot of all 
 who suffer." Sin and sorrow still abound, 
 but there is a force in the world of inex- 
 haustible energy and persistence which 
 works toward social regeneration. Chris- 
 tianity has established itself. It is the ulti- 
 mate religion and to the end will furnish the 
 loftiest ideals for the individual and for 
 society. Fulfilling its heaven - appointed 
 mission, it is ever adapting itself to the 
 circumstances of men under changing social 
 conditions. At every stage of advancement, 
 from the lowest to the highest, it will be 
 found true of it, as Goethe, in one of his 
 conversations with Eckermann, said: "Let 
 mental culture continually increase, let the 
 natural sciences grow, broadening and deep- 
 
312 THE CHRISTIAN CENTURIES 
 
 ening in their progress, let the human mind 
 expand as it will, — beyond the elevation and 
 moral culture of Christianity, as it gleams 
 and shines forth in the Gospels, men will 
 never advance." 
 
INDEX 
 
 Abelard, 140, 141. 
 
 Accommodation to pre- 
 vailing standards, 32. 
 
 Addison, 280. 
 
 Alaric, 104. 
 
 Alexander VI., 171. 
 
 Alexandria, School of, 
 55, 86. 
 
 Alfred, The Great, 235. 
 
 Alva, Duke of, 215. 
 
 Ambrose, of Milan, 87, 
 95. 
 
 Anagni, 162. 
 
 Anthony, Patron Saint 
 of Anchorites, 83. 
 
 Antioch, School of, 86. 
 
 Anselm, 141, 
 
 Apostolic period, 14, 21, 
 
 23. 
 
 Rapid advance, 28. 
 
 Apostles, their various 
 fields, 27. 
 
 "Apologies," 54. 
 
 Apollinaris, 91. 
 
 Aquinas, Thomas, 140, 
 142. 
 
 Aristides, First of Apolo- 
 gists, 54. 
 
 Arius, 90. 
 
 Arianism, 90. 
 
 Asceticism, 81. 
 
 Assisi, St. Francis of, 137. 
 
 Athanasius, 87, 95. 
 
 Attila, 105. 
 
 Augpistine, St., the theo- 
 logian, 88, 89, 93. 
 
 Augustine, missionary 
 abbot, 105. 
 
 Augsburg, 194, 206, 208. 
 
 Austria, Reforms in re- 
 ligion, 272. 
 
 Avignon, 162. 
 
 • ' Babylonian captivity, ' ' 
 
 The, 159. 
 Basil, of Cappadocia, 87, 
 
 95. 
 Basel, Council of, 169. 
 Benevolence, Introduced 
 
 by Christianity, 32, 33. 
 Bernard, St., 132, 136. 
 Black Plague, 180. 
 Bouillon, Godfrey de,i3i. 
 Boniface, Legate to 
 
 Pepin III., III. 
 Boniface VIII., 157. 
 Britain, christianized, 
 
 105. 
 Bulgarians, 127. 
 
 Canon of Scripture, 34, 
 
 35, 52. 
 Carthage, Council of, 93. 
 Carlstadt, 200. 
 Catherine Von Bora, nun 
 
 who married Luther, 
 
 202. 
 Calvin, John, 218. 
 Catharine de Medici, 226, 
 
 228. 
 Canossa, 148. 
 Cajetan, Cardinal, 194, 
 
 196. 
 
 313 
 
314 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Carey, William, 294. 
 Cavaliers, 254. 
 Church, early organiza- 
 tion, 29, 45, 46. 
 
 Moral character, 31. 
 Charity, 33. 
 Christianity, extent of in 
 third century, 37, 39. 
 Task undertaken, 40, 
 
 42, 103. 
 Revolutionaryforces, 
 
 42, 44- 
 At decay of Empire, 
 
 74. 
 Among new nations, 
 
 lOI. 
 
 Edifices, 47, 143. 
 Chalcedon, Council of, 
 
 78. 
 Chrysostom, John, 87. 
 Chalons, Decisive battle, 
 
 105. 
 Church and state, 109, 
 
 146, 149- 
 Charlemagne, 11 1, 120. 
 China, early missionary 
 
 triumphs, 130. 
 Charles Martel, 100. 
 Charles, Emperor, 198, 
 
 204, 214. 
 Charles IX. of France, 
 
 226. 
 Charles I. of England, 
 
 252. 
 Charles II. of England, 
 
 254. 
 Christian II. III. of 
 
 Sweden, 211, 212. 
 Clairvaux, 137. 
 Clement V., 160. 
 Clement, "Epistles of," 
 
 53. 
 
 Clement, Flavius "of 
 
 Alexandria," 55. 
 Clovis, King of Franks, 
 
 108. 
 Clotide, wife of Clovis, 
 
 108. 
 Commodus, 64. 
 Constantine, 68, 76. 
 Constantius, 76. 
 Constance, Council of, 
 
 165. 
 Constantinople, Council 
 
 of, 94. 
 Cordova, Council of, 129. 
 Coligni, Admiral, 226, 
 
 228. 
 Cond6, Prince, 226. 
 "Conformity," 259. 
 Crusades, 130, 134. 
 Cromwell, Oliver, 253, 
 
 298. 
 Cyril of Alexandria, 87. 
 
 Dark Ages, The, 113. 
 Dante, 159. 
 Decius, 64, 67. 
 Denmark, christianized, 
 127. 
 Reformation in, 211. 
 "Deists," The, 279. 
 Diognetus, Epistles of, 
 
 53. 
 Dissenters, 249. 
 Dominicans, 135. 
 Duelling, 304. 
 
 Ebionism, 51. 
 
 Eck, Dr. John, opponent 
 of Luther, 196, 197, 199. 
 
 Edifices of early Chris- 
 tianity, 47, 48, 143. 
 
 Edwin, King of North- 
 umbria, 106. 
 
INDEX 
 
 315 
 
 Edward I. of England, 
 
 157. 
 Edward III. of England, 
 
 162, 236. 
 Edward VI. of England, 
 
 242, 244. 
 Edwards, Jonathan, 287. 
 Education, in early New 
 
 England, 272, 
 Egbert, King of Wessex, 
 
 120. 
 Egmont, 215. 
 Eisleben, birthplace of 
 
 Luther, 195, 202. 
 England, in the Middle 
 
 Ages, 120. 
 
 Reformation, 231. 
 Elizabeth, of England, 
 
 245. 
 Encyclopedists, The, 279. 
 Ephesus, Council of, 92. 
 Erasmus, 185, 204. 
 Erfurt, University of, 
 
 198. 
 Eusebius, of Caesarea, 87. 
 
 Farel, Leader in French 
 Reformation, 217, 222. 
 France, in the Middle 
 Ages, 120. 
 
 Reformation, 216, 
 
 225. 
 In eighteenth cen- 
 tury, 276. 
 Frederick I. of Germany, 
 
 132. 
 Frederick 11. of Ger- 
 many, 148. 
 Francis, St., of Assisi, 
 
 137- 
 Franciscans, 160. 
 Francis I., 173, 216. 
 
 Galerius, 67, 68. 
 Gaul, christianized, 108. 
 Gaunt, John of, 181. 
 George, Duke, patron of 
 
 Luther, 197. 
 Germany, christianized, 
 
 107. 
 Beginning of nation- 
 ality, 124. 
 Reformation, 193. 
 In eighteenth cen- 
 tury, 273. 
 Gibbon, the historian, 
 
 280. 
 Goths, loi. 
 
 Gothic architecture, 143. 
 Godfrey de Bouillon, 131. 
 Greek culture, 21, 176. 
 Gregory, St. , ' 'the Theo- 
 logian," 94, 
 Gregory, Pope, sending 
 
 missionary to Saxons, 
 
 106, 235, 
 Gregory III., no. 
 Gregory VII., 157. 
 Gregory IX., Pope, of 
 
 Fifth Crusade, 133. 
 Gnosticism, 48, 50. 
 Guise, Dukes of, 227. 
 Gustavus Vasa, 212. 
 
 Hadrian, 62. 
 
 Heathenism of first cen- 
 tury, 21, 22. 
 
 Hejira, of Mohammed, 9 7. 
 
 Heloise, 142. 
 
 Henry IV. of Germany, 
 148. 
 
 Henry II. of France, 225. 
 
 Henry III. of France, 
 228. 
 
 Henry IV. of France, 229. 
 
3i6 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Henry VIII. of England, 
 
 173, 238. 
 Heresies, 48. 
 Herbert, Lord, 280. 
 Hobbes, Thomas, 280. 
 Hierarchical tendencies, 
 
 46, 77, 156. 
 Hooper, Bishop, 262. 
 Hoi}'- Roman Empire, 
 
 124. 
 Hume, David, 280. 
 Huguenots, 227. 
 Huns, 104. 
 Hus, John, 166, 182. 
 Hutchinson, Mrs. Ann, 
 
 300. 
 
 Indulgences, 195. 
 Inquisition, 214. 
 Institutes of Calvin, 220. 
 Innocent III., 157. 
 Innocent VIII., 171. 
 lona, 84. 
 Irenaeus, 56. 
 Italy, Reformation in, 
 213. 
 
 James I. of England, 
 
 251. 
 James II. of England, 
 
 255. 
 Jerome, St., 87. 
 Jesuitism, 276. 
 Jewish Church, 15-20. 
 Joseph II. of Austria, 
 
 272. 
 John XXII., 160, 165. 
 Julian, the Apostate, 76. 
 Julius II., 172. 
 Justin Martyr, 54. 
 
 Koran, The, 98. 
 
 Language of the new 
 nations, 117. 
 
 Latimer, 239. 
 
 Laud, Archbishop, 253 
 
 Law, William, 283. 
 
 Leo I., 78. 
 
 Leo III., III. 
 
 Leo X., 173, 193. 
 
 Literature, Early, 53. 
 
 Locke, John, 280. 
 
 Lollardism, 237. 
 
 Lefevre, Jacques, "Father 
 of French Reforma- 
 tion," 216. 
 
 Lotteries, 305. 
 
 Lord's Day, 30. 
 
 Lord's Supper, 81. 
 
 Louis le Debonair, 122. 
 
 Louis VII., 123. 
 
 Louis IX., 124. 
 
 Lorraine, Duke of, 131. 
 
 Loyola, 214. 
 
 Lorenzo, the Magnifi- 
 cent, 172. 
 
 Lucinius, 70. 
 
 Lull, Raymond, 143. 
 
 Luther, Martin, 194. 
 
 Marcus Aurelius, 63, 64. 
 
 Mariolatry, 80. 
 
 Martin V., 168. 
 
 Mary of England, 
 "Bloody Mary," 244. 
 
 Mary of England, Wil- 
 liam and Mary, 256. 
 
 Maxentius, 69. 
 
 Maximilian, Emperor of 
 Germany, 173. 
 
 Mecca, 97. 
 
 Medici, Catharine de,226. 
 
 Melancthon, Philip, 203, 
 204, 206. 
 
INDEX 
 
 317 
 
 Methodism, 281. 
 Michael Angelo, 172. 
 Middle Ages, The, 113, 
 Missionary enterprise of 
 
 nineteenth century, 
 
 291, 296. 
 Mohammedanism, its 
 
 rise, 96. 
 
 Development, 98. 
 Modern era, 268. 
 Monasticism, 81, 134. 
 Moravians, 127, 273. 
 More, Sir Thomas, 186. 
 Modem civilization, 115. 
 Morals, public, improved, 
 
 306. 
 
 Nantes, Edict of, 229. 
 
 Nationality, the growth 
 of, 155. 
 
 Navarre, King of, 226. 
 
 Nero, author of first per- 
 secution, 56, 60. 
 
 Netherlands, Reforma- 
 tion in the, 214. 
 
 Nestorius, 92. 
 
 Newton, Sir Isaac, 280. 
 
 Newman, Cardinal, on 
 Councils, 94. 
 On Gothic architec- 
 ture, 144. 
 
 Nicaea. Council of, 90, 
 
 91. 
 Nicholas V., 169. 
 Norman Conquest, 120. 
 Norway, christianized, 
 
 127. 
 Reformation in, 211. 
 Nuremburg, Peace of, 
 
 207. 
 
 Occam, William of, 177. 
 
 Origen, of Alexandria 
 
 55. 
 Ostrogoths, loi. 
 
 Patriarchal literature, 53. 
 Patricius, St. Patrick, 
 
 106. 
 Paul, St., Conversion of, 
 
 26. 
 Pelagius, 72. 
 Pepin, Alliance with 
 
 Gregory III., iii. 
 Penn, William, 301. 
 Persecutions, The Cen- 
 turies of, 36. 
 Three sources of, 57, 
 60. 
 Persia, in the Middle 
 
 Ages, 129. 
 Peter the Hermit, 130. 
 Philip the Fair of France, 
 
 157- 
 Philip II. of France 
 
 (Third Crusade), 132. 
 Philip II. of Spain, 214. 
 Pilgrims, 270. 
 Pisa, Council of, 164. 
 Pius IV., Pope, 297. 
 Plymouth Colony, 271. 
 Pope, Origin of name and 
 
 office, 79. 
 Polycarp, Epistle to Phil- 
 
 ippians, 54. 
 Poland, christianized, 
 
 128. 
 Prussia, christianized, 
 
 128. 
 Purgatory, 89. 
 Puritanism, 232, 246, 248, 
 
 257, 264. 
 
 Quakers, The, 300. 
 
3i8 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Reformation, The, Look- 
 ing toward it, 152. 
 The Lutheran, 188 
 
 Religion in the Constitu- 
 tion, 288. 
 
 Religious Statistics, 289. 
 
 Revival of learning, 174. 
 
 Richard, Coeur de Lion, 
 132. 
 
 "Ritter George," Martin 
 Luther at Wartburg, 
 200. 
 
 Roman Empire, Extent 
 and unity of the, 20. 
 The fall of the, 73. 
 104. 
 
 Roman Catholics, of 
 eighteenth century, 
 289, 296. 
 
 Roundheads, 254. 
 
 Russia, christianized, 128. 
 
 Saint Bartholomew's 
 Day, 228. 
 
 Saint Germain, 227. 
 
 Saint Dunstan, 236. 
 
 Saladin, 132. 
 
 Savonarola, 183. 
 
 Scholasticism, 138. 
 
 Scotus, Duns, 140. 
 
 Servetus, 223, 
 
 Sigismund, Emperor, 
 167. 
 
 Sixtus IV., 171. 
 
 Smalcald, League of, 207. 
 
 Sorbonne, The, 217. 
 
 Slavery Abolished, 303. 
 
 Spain, In the Middle 
 Ages, 129. 
 
 Reformation in, 213. 
 
 Stuart, Kings of Eng- 
 land, 250. 
 
 Sweden, Reformation in, 
 211. 
 
 In eighteenth cen- 
 tury, 274, 
 Swedenborg, 274. 
 Synagogue, 17. 
 
 Tauler, The Mystic, 178. 
 Teaching of the Twelve 
 
 Apostles, 53. 
 Temperance, Cause of, 
 
 305- 
 
 Tetzel, sale of Indul- 
 gences, 195. 
 
 Theodoric, 105. 
 
 Theses, of Luther, 195. 
 
 Thomas Aquinas, 140, 
 142. 
 
 Torgau, League of, 206. 
 
 Trajan, Rule for perse- 
 cutions, 61, 62. 
 
 Turtullian, 55. 
 
 Urban II., 130. 
 Urban VI., 162. 
 Utrecht, Union of, 215. 
 
 Vandals, loi. 
 
 Von Bora, Catharine, nun 
 
 who married Luther, 
 
 202. 
 Voltaire, 278. 
 Vulgate, The, 87. 
 
 Wartburg, Castle of, 200. 
 Wesley, John. 282. 
 Wesley, Charles, 284. 
 Westphalia, Peace of, 
 
 216, 230. 
 Williams, Roger, 299. 
 Witchcraft, 285. 
 
INDEX 
 
 319 
 
 Wittenberg, 195, 196. 
 William of Orange, 215. 
 William the Conqueror, 
 
 236. 
 William, Prince of 
 
 Orange, "William and 
 
 Mary," 256. 
 Whitefield, George, 284. 
 
 Wolsey, Cardinal, 239. 
 Worms, Diet of, 198. 
 Wyclif, 166, i8o, 236. 
 
 Zinzendorf, of Moravia, 
 
 273. 
 Zurich, 210, 
 Zwingli, Ulrich, 209, 
 
'7^ ' » -f-^ 
 
 BW901 .546 
 
 The story of the Christian centuries, 
 
 Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library 
 
 1 1012 00015 7414 
 

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