6,9./// 
 
 ^ PRINCETON, N. J. ,^ 
 
 Presented by "e5<7^v^ e^ O . YTA<2-\^Y-\ oV , 
 
 ^Pf^fi"5' M- J. 1810-1872. 
 D Aubigne's "History of the 
 Great Reformation in 
 
1* 
 
D'AUBIGNE'S 
 
 HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 REVIEWED. 
 

 SI 
 
 
^ 
 
 ^. 
 
 IVAUBIGNE^S ^' HISTORY 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GREAT REFORMATION" 
 
 IN 
 
 German}) anb Sroit^erlajj.^ 
 RE VIE WE Df JUN 9 
 
 ^(i 
 
 SL&ieu. 
 
 THE REFORMATION IN GERM 
 EXAMINED 
 
 IM ITS 
 
 INSTRUMENTS, CAUSES, AND MANNER, 
 
 AND IN 1T9 
 
 Inflxtence on Religion, ©ODernmeut, 
 
 LITERATURE, AND GENERAL CIVILIZATION. 
 
 By M. J. SPALDING, D.D. 
 
 Qufecumque dixi de Tuo, Domine, agnoscant et Tui ; si qufe de meo, et Tu ignosce 
 el Tui.— S<. Augustine, 
 
 BALTIMORE: 
 PRINTED AND PUBLISHED BY JOHN MURPHY, 
 
 146 MARKET STREET. 
 
 PITTSBURG: GEORGE Q.UIGLEY. 
 
 1844. 
 
Entered, according to the Act of Congress, in the year one thousand eight hundred 
 and forty-four, by John Mcrphy, in the Clerk -s office, of the District Court of 
 Maryland. 
 
 MURPHY, PRINTER. 
 
EXPLANATION OF THE FRONTISPIECE. 
 
 The device is intended to represent Judas alone, separated from the other apostles, 
 and standing on the side of darkness, as displeased with, and protesting against the 
 Saviour's promise to Peter. He holds the purse which drags him backward to the 
 edge of the precipice from which he is about to fall into the waves of perdition. 
 Beyond him in the distance rises the toiver of opposition to the church, or " the gates 
 of hell"— but, broken, to signify that it cannot prevail. The cloud behind the apos- 
 tles is intended as a veil that shuts from their view the future church of which the 
 promises are now given, and which, itself, dimly appears beyond the cloud just over 
 which is seen the gate of the cross, by which all must enter. This gate leads through 
 u triple tower bearing the triangle, and representing Three in one. The distant 
 temple is a hint at St. Peter's at Rome, and the three embattled fortresses on which 
 it stands, may signify either the laity, priests and bishops, or the three orders of the 
 hierarchy. The two flanking towers, capped with mitres, represent the episcopacy. 
 The Holy Spirit dwells vvithin the church, and imparts his influence to the seven 
 streams which issue from the rock, and flow in a direction contrary to the spirit of 
 the world, watering trees that produce abundance of fruit. These streams arc 
 meant for the sacraments. 
 
^0 t|)f 
 
 Hi Rev. Qr^an-cirj J^ci^ii^ (^t&?i/Uo£, D. 
 
 A ND AS A 
 SLIGHT TRIBUTE OF GRATITUDE FOR FAVORS RECEIVED 
 
 THE AUTHOR 
 
rREFACE 
 
 The following pages were Avritten during intervals snatched 
 from severe missionary labors. Their appearance in the present 
 form^ is at least as much the result of accident as of previous 
 design. The writer had at first merely intended to prepare, for 
 one of our Catholic Magazines, two or three papers, reviewing 
 the late work of M. D'Aubigne on the Reformation. He had 
 made considerable progress in this undertaking, before the idea 
 of writing a book even occurred to his mind. He was, however, 
 subsequently led to adopt this resolution, by the great extent and 
 importance of the subject, and the utter impossibihty, in which 
 he found himself, of doing any thing like justice to it in a few 
 brief essays. These would scarcely have afforded sufficient space 
 to exhibit even a meagre catalogue of M. D'Aubigne's numerous 
 omissions, blunders, and misrepresentations. 
 
 M. D'Aubigne's '^'^ History of the Great Reformation" has 
 been widely circulated throughout the land. The edition which 
 the writer of the present Review has used is the ffteenth ; and 
 it was issued in three thick volumes duodecimo, at a very low 
 price. The book may be found everywhere — in the steam- 
 boat and in the hotel — in the city residence and in the coun- 
 try. The religionists of the day have everywhere hailed its 
 appearance as a perfect God-send. The press and the pulpit 
 have combined to sound its praises. And yet the work is - 
 tissue of niiserable cant and misrepresentation from V'-o*'^^'^^"^ ° 
 

 XVI PREFACE. 
 
 end ! The reviewer hopes to make this appear by undeniable 
 evidence, consisting of facts taken from original documents and 
 other authentic sources. All that he asks of those who have 
 read and admired the work of M. D'Aubigne, is to read also and 
 to examine carefully the evidence which he has endeavored to 
 spread before the community. To the candid of aU denomina- 
 tions, he would beg leave to say: Hear the other side — audi 
 alteram partem. 
 
 The writer has not intended to confine himself to a mere 
 Review of M. D'Aubigne's History. He has designed to write 
 an extended and connected essay on the Protestant reformation 
 in Germany, examining that revolution in the character of the 
 men who brought it about, in its causes and manner, and in its 
 manifold influences on religion, on free government, on litera- 
 ture, and on general civilization. As far as this plan seemed to 
 demand or to allow, he has, as he proceeded, availed himself of 
 the admissions, supphed the omissions, and corrected the false 
 statements of the Protestant historian of the reformation. 
 
 Many of the facts which he has felt it his duty to republish, 
 from all the sources to which he could have access, exhibit 
 painful evidences of human depravity- in those men too, who 
 have been studiously held up as the leaders of God's people, and 
 as the very paragons of perfection. Though the truth of history, 
 and the necessity of doing justice to the reformation, required the 
 publication of many things, which a delicate and fastidious taste 
 would perhaps otherwise have omitted, yet the reviewer is not 
 aware of any intention unnecessarily to shock the prejudices, 
 much less wantonly to wound the feelings of any one. He is 
 deeply persuaded, that Christian charity — the great queen of 
 es — demands of us to have a due regard for the feehngs of 
 others ; v^^^ j^^., jg thoroughly persuaded, that no one was ever 
 
PREFACE. XVll 
 
 yet converted by harsh means, or by abusive language. Charity 
 is, however, not only not incompatible with truth, but it even 
 demands that the whole truth should be told, especially when its 
 concealment would be a cause of error to many, in matters too 
 of most deep and vital importance. 
 
 A full and correct history of the reformation in Germany is, it 
 is believed, a desideratum in our English Catholic literature. The 
 writer of this essay, far from flattering himself that he has 
 supplied this deficiency, has merely wished to awaken attention 
 to the subject. How far he has succeeded, the public will best 
 judge. Conscious of the many imperfections of the work, he 
 could have wished that some one more competent, and more 
 experienced in writing, had engaged in the undertaking. To his 
 brethren of the clergy and laity, many of whom would have been 
 certainly better quahfied than himself for the task, he would say 
 with the old Latin poet : 
 
 " Si quid novisti rectius istis, 
 Candidas iinperti : Si non, his utere mecum." 
 
 Bardstown, Kentucky, 
 
 Feast of Christmas, 1843, 
 
plan of tl)e Het)ietD 
 
 PART I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS 38 
 
 PART II. 
 THE CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION 67 
 
 PART III. 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON RELIfilON 162 
 
 P A R T IV. 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON SOCIETY ' 245 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Introduction 25 
 
 chapter i. 
 The character of the reformers 38 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The character of the reformation — Theory of M. D'Aubigne ex- 
 amined 67 
 
 CHAPTER HI. 
 
 Pretexts for the reformation 75 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 The true causes and manner of the reformation, and the means by 
 which it was effected 91 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 The reformation in Switzerland 123 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Reaction of Catholicity and decline of Protestantism 139 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Influence of the reformation on doctrinal belief. 162 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 Influence of the reformation on morals ; 185 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Influence of the reformation on worship 206 
 
XXII CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Influence of the reformation on the Bible; on Bible reading, and 
 
 biblical studies 220 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Influence of the_ reformation on religious liberty 245 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Influence of the reformation on civil liberty 275 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 The reformation at Geneva, and its influence on civil and religious 
 
 liberty 300 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Influence of the reformation on literature 824 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 Influence of the reformation on civilization 358 
 
 Conclusion 377 
 
ERRATA. 
 
 Owing to the distance of the author's residence from the place of pub- 
 lication, some errors of print were unavoidable. The author, however, 
 takes great pleasure in saying, that, having received by mail corrected 
 proof-sheets embracing 216 pages — from page 25 to page 240 — he was 
 able to discover but few faults, most of them in proper names, or per- 
 haps arising from mistakes in the manuscript. This remarkable cor- 
 rectness is ascribable to the well known accuracy of the publisher, and 
 to the close attention of the friend who kindly superintended the publi- 
 cation. To both the author returns his most sincere thanks ; and he 
 begs leave also to remark, that, had his position allowed him to correct 
 the proof-sheets himself, he would, have been able to make some addi- 
 tions to the text, as well as several corrections in the style and phrase- 
 ology. The following are the chief typographical errors alluded to. 
 
 Page 29, line 27, for modeste read modiste. 
 
 " 66, " 11, " judgment read private judi^menl. 
 
 " 116, " 17, " all sins read all their ain^, 
 
 '< « " 19, " they read the latter. - 
 
 " " first note, for serpent read serpunt. 
 
 " *' last note, third line from bottom, for at read as. 
 
 " 125, line 24, for Glavia read Glaris. 
 
 " 151, " 19, " Fassevin read Posseim. 
 
 " 162, in tlie Sunmiary, for Munger read Munzer. 
 
 " 163, and seq. in title of ch. vii, (or religion read doctrinal betitf. 
 
 " 215, line 16, for preface of read Preface and. 
 
 " 227, " 8, " Brentans read Brentano. 
 
 " 239, " S, " influenced read have influenced. 
 
 " " first note, for fads read faults. 
 
D'AUBIGNE'S 
 HISTOEY OF THE REFORMATION 
 
 REVIEWED. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PRINCIPAL WRITERS ON THE REFORMATION THEIR RESPECTIVE 
 
 CHARACTERS FOR RESEARCH AND VERACITY VIL- 
 
 LERS ROBELOT AUDIN d'aUBIGNE. 
 
 I. History of the great Reformation of the Sixteenth 
 Century in Germany, Switzerland, &c. By J. H. Merle 
 D'Aubigne, President of the Theological School of Geneva, and 
 member of the " Societe Evangelique." 3 vols. 12mo, 15th edition. 
 Robert Carter : N. York, 1843. 
 
 II. History of the Life, Writings, and Doctrines of Mar- 
 tin Luther. By J. M. V. Audin. Translated from the French. 
 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 511. Philadelphia : M. Kelly. 1841. 
 
 III. Influence de la Reformation de Luther, sur la croy- 
 
 ANCE RELIGIEUSE, LA POLITIQUE, ET LE PROGRES DES LUMIERES. 
 
 Par M. Robelot, ancien chanoine de I'Eglise cathedrale de Dijon. 
 A Lyon. 1822. 1 vol. 8vo, pp. 440. (Influence of the reformation 
 of Luther on religious belief, on politics, and on the progress of en- 
 lightenment. By M. Robelot.) 
 
 We have placed these three works at the head of our 
 remarks, because thej all treat of the same great religious 
 revolution, viewed under different aspects. They all pro- 
 pose to exhibit to us the great drama of the sixteenth cen- 
 tury, with its prominent actors, its numerous stirring and 
 startling scenes, and its powerful effect on the great au- 
 dience of the world. Such another drama has not been 
 permitted by heaven, or witnessed by mankind, at any 
 previous period of history. 
 
26 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 The landmarks of faith, hallowed by antiquity, were 
 then violently removed : time-honored institutions were 
 destroyed ; and new ones, exercising various influences 
 on religion, on literature, and on government, were reared 
 in their place. Antiquity was then decried, and innova- 
 tion became the order of the day. The principles of the 
 ancient faith having been unsettled, new doctrines, vary- 
 ing with the private judgment or fancy of each religionist, 
 were zealously promulgated as the revelation of God. A 
 vertigo seems then to have seized upon the minds of men ; 
 and its symptoms are clearly traceable in the constant 
 uncertainty and perpetual changes of religious belief 
 since that period. No portion of history is more worthy 
 of our serious attention, whether w^e consider the interest 
 of the facts which it discloses, or the high considerations 
 which they involve for good or for evil. 
 
 The friends of the religious changes in question have 
 been in the habit of styling the revolution in which they 
 originated — '* the reformation :" and it would have been 
 strange, indeed, if they could not at least have given it 
 a good name. The great body of Christians, who firmly 
 believe that the change of religion was unwarranted and 
 for the worse, have still in general employed the same 
 term; though- the word deformation would more accu- 
 rately express their view of the subject. Of the three 
 writers to whose works we at present invite attention, 
 the first named is a zealous advocate of the reformation ; 
 while the two last are no less zealously opposed to its 
 claims, either to divine origin, or to usefulness in its va- 
 ried influences on mankind. It is not our purpose to 
 give a lengthy review of their respective productions : 
 still we must, as an introduction to our own remarks, say 
 a few words on the general character of each ; and we 
 begin with M. Robelot, the last named. 
 
 At the beginning of the present century, the National 
 Institute of France off'ered a premium for the best essay 
 " on the character and influence of the reformation of 
 
INTRODUCTION. 27 
 
 Luther." About the year 1802, the prize was awarded 
 to a work by Charles Villers, ** on the spirit and influence 
 of the reformation of Luther."* This writer — an infidel 
 in principle — labored hard to prove that the reformation 
 has been beneficial to society, in a literary, political, and 
 religious point of view. His essay was spirited, and 
 adorned with all the graces of rhetoric; and it was per- 
 haps as much to these qualities, as to the cogency of his 
 reasoning, or the soundness of his position, that his work 
 was indebted for the crown which it received. The 
 French Institute had not yet recovered from the vertigo 
 of that most disastrous revolution in France, which had 
 but carried out the principles sustained in that of Luther. 
 Its decision is but another of the many proofs of sympa- 
 thetic feeling among errorists of every varying shade of 
 opinion. The whole French revolution in fact had af- 
 forded numerous evidences of a kindred feeling. Though 
 Catholics were every where proscribed and persecuted, 
 and though Catholic priests in particular were hunted 
 down, and butchered in multitudes ; yet do we never 
 read of one Protestant having been molested, or of one 
 Protestant minister having suffered martyrdom for his 
 faith, during that whole period of wide-spread desolation, 
 of terror, and of bloodshed ! Besides, the French Insti- 
 tute had political motives to subserve. Napoleon, then 
 first consul, was already beginning to set up again the 
 altars which that revolution had desecrated and thrown 
 down. The Institute, jealous of his growing power, 
 wished, by the decision alluded to, to oppose some coun- 
 terpoise to its further increase. 
 
 An unexceptionable and very competent witness, Henry 
 Hallam, a Protestant, pronounces the following opinion 
 on the merits of the work of M. Villers : *' The essay on 
 the influence of the reformation by Villers, which ob- 
 tained a prize from the French Institute, and has been 
 extolled by a very friendly but better informed writer in 
 
 * " Essai Sur I'esprit et influence de la reformation de Luther." 12mo. 
 
28 d'aubigne's bistort reviewed. 
 
 the Biographic Universelle, appears to me the work of a 
 man who had not taken the pains to read any one con- 
 temporary work, or even any compilation which contains 
 many extracts. No wonder that it does not represent, in 
 the slightest degree, the real spirit of the times, or the- 
 tenets of the reformers. Thus, ex. gr., * Luther,' he 
 says, * exposed the abuse of the traffic of indulgences, and 
 the danger of believing that heaven and the remission of 
 all crimes could be bought with mbney ; while a sincere 
 repentance and an amended life were the only means of 
 appeasing divine justice.' (Page 65, Eng. translation.) 
 This at least is not very like Luther's antinomian con- 
 tempt for repentance and amendment of life ; it might 
 come near to the notions of Erasmus."* This is the 
 opinion of a man, as learned as he is judicious, to whose 
 judgment we shall have occasion frequently to appeal in 
 the sequel. 
 
 M. Robelot's work was intended as a refutation of that 
 by Villers. He completed it in 1807; but, owing to 
 various petty vexations from the French police, and from 
 the censors of the press, he was not able to publish it un- 
 til 1822. See his preface, p. xiv. It evidences consid- 
 erable research, is analytical and well reasoned through- 
 out, and, what few works are, it is clear and lucid in its 
 arrangement. The author views the Protestant reforma- 
 tion in its influence on religion, on government, and on 
 literature ; and shows, against the flippant assertions and 
 flimsy arguments of Villers, that, in each of these aspects, 
 it has proved injurious to society. The chief defects of 
 the work are, that it is somewhat wanting in point, and 
 rather meagre in facts. This is especially true of the 
 second part, in which the writer discusses the political 
 bearing of the reformation. Belonging himself, it would 
 seem, to the political school of legitimacy, or ultra royal- 
 
 * Hallam — " Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the xv, xri 
 and xviith Centuries," in 2 vols. 8vo edit. Harper & Brothers : New 
 Fork, 1841. Vol. i, p. 16G, note. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 29 
 
 ism, he labored under great disadvantage in the attempt 
 to prove that the reformation had tended to prevent what, 
 in his view, is the summum bonum of political govern- 
 ment — a fixed and hereditary monarchy. Nothing is 
 more certain, as we shall endeavor hereafter to establish, 
 than that the tendency of that revolution was to crush 
 the democratic principle, and to favor absolute systems 
 of government. But these defects apart, the work of M. 
 Robelot is a valuable contribution to the portion of his- 
 tory of which it professes to treat. Still, we look with 
 great anxiety for the new work on the same subject prom- 
 ised us by M. Audin, at the close of his Life of Luther.* 
 This writer has labored indefatigably and successfully in 
 elucidating the history of the reformation. To qualify him- 
 self for the task, he visited all the libraries of Europe, espe- 
 cially those of France, Switzerland, and Germany. He 
 discovered many works hitherto neglected or unknown. 
 On the theatre of the reformation itself he collected many 
 valuable facts, picked up many incidents rich in interest, 
 and gathered much ancient lore, based on local traditions 
 and public monuments. His two Lives of Luther and 
 Calvin have given to the world the results of these labors. 
 The former has been translated into English by an accom- 
 plished clerical scholar of the United States : and so well 
 does the English dress sit on the French author, that he 
 does not seem ill at ease in his new garb ; even the most 
 fastidious Parisian modeste being judge. His style is live- 
 ly, piquant, and dramatic. In fact almost the only serious 
 fault we have to find with the work, is that the writer 
 sometimes sacrifices the clearness and order of the narra- 
 tive to its dramatic effect. He exhibits Luther in the 
 various scenes of his private and of his public life — in 
 his confidential conversations with his boon companions, 
 while drinking beer with them at the " Black Eagle" of 
 Wittemberg, as well as in his eloquent invectives from 
 
 * Page 511. The work is to be entit'ed : "Sur les influences de 
 Luther." — " On the influence of Luther." 
 
so d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 the pulpit, and his more studied harangues before the 
 diets of the empire. So lively is the picture, that the re- 
 former seems to reappear on the stage of life, and to act 
 over again, before our eyes, the stirring scenes of his 
 great drama. But what we chiefly admire, is the histo- 
 rian's impartiality. He gives us both sides of the ques- 
 tion — the redeeming as well as the odious features of 
 Luther's character : for some virtues the reformer had, 
 even after he began the work of the reformation! 
 
 We wish we could say as much for M. I)'x\ubigne, the 
 first on our list. Impartiality is not certainly a leaf in 
 his historic crown. Finding that he hailed from Geneva, 
 we expected to see him imbued with the deistic spirit 
 which is now so fashionable in that former hot-bed of 
 Calvinism. We guessed that he was either a German 
 naturalist — deist — or at least — what amounts to almost 
 the same thing — a philosopher, according to the modern 
 French school of eclectism, a system which makes it 
 fashionable, especially for the writer of history, to make 
 statements on both sides of every question, with so much 
 skill that it would require a wizard to divine his real 
 meaning, or to define his position ! But he is neither the 
 one nor the other. He is a Protestant of the olden type : 
 there is more of fanaticism than of indifferentism in his 
 complexion. His spirit is worthy that of Luther, though 
 his manner of showing it is a little softened down, to suit 
 modern taste. 
 
 He is a partisan of the most violent stamp. And yet 
 he seeks to mislead his readers in the very first lines of 
 his preface. " The work I have undertaken," be begins, 
 " is not the history of a party. It is the history of one of 
 the greatest revolutions ever effected in human affairs — 
 the history of a mighty impulse communicated to the 
 world three centuries ago — and of which the operation is 
 every where discernible in our own days. The history 
 of the reformation is altogether distinct from the history 
 of Protestantism. In the former all bears the character 
 of a regeneration of human nature, a religious and social 
 
INTRODUCTION. 81 
 
 transformation emanating from God himself. In the latter 
 we see too often a glaring depravation of first princi- 
 ples — the conflict of parties — a sectarian spirit — and the 
 operation of private interests." 
 
 It is very convenient at least to separate the history of 
 the reformation from that of Protestantism : it saves the 
 writer much perplexing labor. But the separation is un- 
 natural and illogical. We cannot judge properly of a 
 cause without witnessing its necessary effects. As well 
 might we undertake to give the natural history of the 
 tree without speaking of its fruits ; or to paint the dread- 
 ful hurricane without alluding to the ruins which it left in 
 its course. It is a divine maxim to judge the tree by its 
 fruits. This principle once admitted, it requires a large 
 amount of credulity to believe that a ** transformation 
 emanated from God "himself," the fruits of which were 
 avowedly *' a depravation of first principles — the conflict 
 of parties — a sectarian spirit — and the operation of pri- 
 vate interests:'' and he might have added : sects innu- 
 merable of every motley hue — endless variations in reli- 
 gious belief — a breaking up of all unity of faith by war- 
 ring creeds — and the loss of all settled belief, with the 
 sacrifice of charity ! These are the natural and neces- 
 sary fruits of the reformation, according to the stern evi- 
 dence of facts. Protestantism is the best and the only 
 authentic commentary on the reformation. 
 
 He exhibits himself the partisan throughout his entire 
 history. On every page he manifests his partiality. Else 
 why does he so incessantly miscolor or suppress facts ? 
 Why does he omit almost every thing that could compro- 
 mise the character of the reformers, or vindicate that of 
 their opponents ? To select a few out of a hundred in- 
 stances, why does he give us only nine of the more odious, 
 out of more than fifty of the Theses, or Propositions, of 
 Tetzel,* while he gives those of Luther entire ? Why 
 does he make the learned and amiable Cardinal Cajetan 
 * Vol. i, pp. 269-70. 
 
32 
 
 appear so supremely ridiculous in his interview with Lu- 
 ther ?* Why does he labor to vindicate Luther and the 
 reformers in every thing, either wholly suppressing their 
 many glaring faults, or maliciously ascribing them to a 
 remnant of '* popish superstition," as when he so gently 
 alludes to the reformer's famous " conference with the 
 devil'.' at the castle of Wartburg, in 1521 ?t Why does 
 he, on the other hand, ascribe all the actions of the popes, 
 and of Catholic prelates, who came into collision with 
 the reformers, to wicked cunning and malicious finesse? 
 Why bring his preconceived theory to bear on every fact 
 of his history? Is all this, and much more that might be 
 alleged, no evidence of partisanship ? If he sought to 
 be really impartial, why rely, for almost all his state- 
 ments, upon the testimony of the most decided parti- 
 sans — of Luther, Melancthon, Mathesius, Seckendorf, 
 and others ? And why suppress even the better half of 
 the testimony of these partial witnesses ? We shall take 
 occasion to supply many of his omissions, as we proceed, 
 as well as to correct many of his misrepresentations. 
 
 His history, as far as it is comprised in the three vol- 
 umes which we have seen, is very incomplete, embracing 
 only the first eight years of the reformation, and closing 
 a few months after the diet of Augsburg, which was held 
 in December, 1525. His style is lively, and his narrative 
 interesting and abounding in incident. It would be per- 
 haps an agreeable romance, but for the insufferable cant 
 with which it is overcharged. What cool assurance in 
 the false statements, repeated usque ad nauseam — that the 
 Catholic church did not know the Gospel, until Luther 
 revealed this hitherto hidden treasure — that she denied 
 the merits of Christ, the necessity of faith and grace for 
 justification — and many other such absurdities ! And 
 yet, upon these unfounded allegations, which he reite- 
 rates without a shadow of evidence, his entire history is 
 based ! He is no partisan, forsooth ! 
 
 * Vol. i, 350 seqq, ] Vol. iii, 40. 
 
INTRODUCTION. S3 
 
 His theory of Christianity is not new. It pursues the 
 same old beaten track of error. He develops it in his 
 preface and in his first book;* and makes all his subse- 
 quent history bend to its maxims. He very conveniently 
 narrows down the whole Christian system to two cardi- 
 nal principles: 1st, perfect equality among Christians, 
 based on the supremacy of private judgment, to the ex- 
 clusion of authoritative teaching ; and, 2d, salvation by 
 faith alone without works, and by grace without human 
 merit. " The church,'* he says, *' was in the beginning a 
 community of brethren. All its members were taught of 
 God ; and each possessed the liberty of drawing for him- 
 self from the fountain of life."t Again : " as soon as 
 salvation was taken out of the hands of God, it fell into 
 the hands of the priests. The latter put themselves in 
 the place of the Lord ; and the souls of men, thirsting 
 for pardon, were no longer taught to look to heaven, but 
 to the church, and especially to its pretended head."| 
 
 Throughout the whole first book he labors to prove 
 that the Catholic church trampled on these two princi- 
 ples. *' Christianity had declined, because the two guid- 
 ing truths of the new covenant had been lost."§ The 
 papacy arose in the " dark" ages by a series of usurpa- 
 tions — the whole church bowed to the tyranny, and fell 
 into fatal error: "the living church retiring by degrees 
 to the lonely sanctuary of a fev/ solitary souls. "[} 
 " Works of penance, substituted for the salvation of God, 
 multiplied in the church from the time of Tertullian to 
 the thirteenth century."^ Tertullian, he tells us, towards 
 the close of the second century had said: "it is neces- 
 sary to change our dress and food, we must put on sack- 
 cloth and ashes, we must renounce all comfort and adorn- 
 ing of the body, and, falling down before the priest, 
 implore the intercession of the brethren."** Rank popery 
 
 * Vol. i, from p. 15 to p. 118. f Vol. i, p. 17. J Vol. i, p. 34, 
 § Vol. i, p. 68. ilVol.i, p. 20. H Vol. i, p. 35. **Ibui. 
 
34 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 even in the second century ! Only think of such things 
 being "necessary" for Protestants of M. D'Aubigne's 
 delicate nerve ! These same works of penance never 
 were fashionable among Protestants: they went out of 
 vogue through the glorious " emancipation of the human 
 mind" by Luther ! He pointed out an easier way to 
 heaven ! 
 
 M. D'Aubigne winds up his long-winded string of as- 
 sertions by these remarkable antitheses, which contain 
 the gist of his theory. *' Popery interposes the church 
 between God and man : Christianity and the reformation 
 bring God and man face to face. Popery separates man 
 from God : the gospel reunites them."* He then brings 
 up, as witnesses of the truth against Rome, all the driv- 
 elling sectaries of the middle ages — Claudius of Turin, 
 Peter de Bruys, Peter Waldo, Wicliffe, and Huss.t He 
 sneers at the Catholic church for teaching ** that the sin- 
 ner is justified by faith and by works :"J and yet St. 
 James teaches the self-same doctrine in almost the same 
 identical words ;§ and for his teaching thus, Luther reck- 
 lessly rejected his Epistle ** as one of straw, and un- 
 worthy of an apostle !" 
 
 In the midst of all his rant, he however occasionally, at 
 lucid intervals, waxes wonderfully liberal. *' But first," 
 says he, "let us do justice to that church of the middle 
 age, which intervened between the age of the apostles 
 and the reformers. The church was still the church, 
 although fallen, and more and more enslaved. (!) In a 
 word, she was at all times the most powerful friend of 
 man. Her hands, though manacled, still dispensed bless- 
 ings. Many eminent servants of Christ diffused through 
 these ages a beneficent light," &c.l| Among these emi- 
 nent servants of God, he names a poor Carthusian monk, 
 brother Martin, who confessed that Christ had redeemed 
 him, and hid away his confession in a box, which was 
 
 * Vol. i, pp. .39-40. ]Yo\.i,i>. 70 seqq. J Vol. i, p. 33. 
 
 § St. James ir, 14-17. 1| Vol. i, p. 40. 
 
INTRODUCTION. 35 
 
 wonderfully discovered on the Slat December, 1776, in 
 taking down the wall of an old convent !*" We could 
 point him to a thousand and one other witnesses in the 
 church of the middle age, who taught this same doctrine, 
 and, along with it, more maxims of piety than M. D'Au- 
 bigne " ever dreamed of in his philosophy," Let him 
 but read Digby's *' Ages of Faith," in five large oc- 
 tavo volumes, which is a tissue of such heavenly maxims 
 borrowed from the middle ages. Let him read the works 
 of Thomas a Kempis, of St. Bernard, of St. Bonaventure, 
 of St. Anselm, of St. Thomas Aquinas, and of others. 
 Luckily, their confessions are not hidden in a box ! And 
 we defy him or any one else to prove that the Catholic 
 church ever taught that man can be saved without faith 
 or without grace. She has invariably taught the precise 
 contrary, against the Pelagian and Semi-Pelagian here- 
 sies, which she has always proscribed. 
 
 Palmer, a Protestant writer, bears the following evi- 
 dence to the faith of the Catholic church on this subject: 
 •* During the period now under consideration (from 1054 
 to the reformation) all the most learned and eminent the- 
 ologians of the western church continued to believe that 
 man cannot merit salvation hy his own works, but that he 
 must place his whole trust and confidence in the mercy of 
 God, and the atonement, merits, and intercession of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ." Compendious Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory, p. 114. N. York, 1841. 
 
 M. D'Aubigne devoutly believes that the reformation 
 was the direct work of God, and that the reformers were 
 chosen instruments of heaven for bringing it about. He 
 is certainly not wanting in faith to believe all this. Pity 
 he did not attempt to show which of the many contra- 
 dictory systems of reform was tlie work of God; or 
 which of the jarring sects, to which that revolution gave 
 rise, carried out the design of God. We apprehend that 
 
 * Vol. i, p. 73. 
 
36 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 God could not sanction contradictions. But we forget — 
 M. D'Aubigne has anticipated this difficulty : he is not 
 writing the history of Protestantism — not he. He pities 
 the " perverseness of the human heart," which led the 
 great Bossuet to write his history ** of the variations of 
 the Protestant churches !" He is too practised to under- 
 take any such thorny work ! Were he to write a volume 
 on each of the Protestant sects, with a separate chapter to 
 give an account of every successive change of belief by 
 each sect, his lifetime would not suffice to complete the 
 history. New volumes and new chapters should be daily 
 added to the work, until at last ** the world would 
 scarcely contain the books that would be written !" 
 ** Calvin was wise for not writing on the Apocalypse ;"* 
 and his disciple, D'Aubigne, shows similar sagacity in 
 not attempting to write the history of Protestantism ! 
 
 We propose to exami ne in a series of chapters whether the 
 reformation was really the work of God ; and whether it 
 has been of real benefit to mankind ? And that our read- 
 ers may the more readily follow our line of argument, we 
 think it better to advise them — though formal divisions 
 are growing unfashionable in this frivolous age — that we 
 shall inquire ; — 
 
 I. Whether the men who brought about the reformation 
 in Germany were such as God could or would have em- 
 ployed to do his work ? 
 
 II. Whether the motives which prompted, and the 
 means which were employed to accomplish that revolution, 
 were such as God could sanction ? 
 
 III. Whether the reformation really effected a reform 
 in religion and in morals ? 
 
 And IV, whether its influence was beneficial to society, 
 by developing the principles of free government, and pro- 
 moting literature and civilization ? 
 
 Our inquiry will be chiefly confined to Germany, Swit- 
 
 * " Calvinus sapuit quia non scripsit in Apocalypsim." Scaliger. 
 
INTRODUCTION. S7 
 
 zerland, and the northern kingdoms of Europe ; and we 
 propose to avail ourselves of the authority of M. D'Au- 
 bigne, and to refute his false statements, as we advance ; 
 so far at least as the train of our remarks may seem to 
 call for, or to warrant. 
 
JPart I. 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 
 
 M. D'Aubigne's opinion — A reformed key — Luther's parents — His 
 early training — A naughty boy — Convents — Being "led to God," 
 and " not led to God" — He enters the Augustinian convent — Aus- 
 terities — A " bread bag" — His faith and scruples — His humility and 
 zeal — Luther a reformer — Grows w^orse — Becomes reckless — His 
 sincerity tested — Saying and unsaying — Misgivings — Tortuous 
 windings — Kovf to spite the Pope — Curious incident — Melanc- 
 thon and his mother — Luther's talents and eloquence — His 
 taste — His courage and fawning — His violence and coarseness — 
 Not excusable by the spirit of his age — His blasphemies — Recrimi- 
 nation — Christian compliments — " Conference with the devil" — 
 Which got the better of the argument — Luther's morality — Table- 
 talk — His sermon on marriage — A Vixen — How to do " mischief to 
 the Pope" — A striking contrast — How to fulfil vows — His marriage 
 — Misgivings — Epigrams and satires — Curious incidents in his last 
 sickness — Death-bed confession — His death — The reformed key 
 used — Character of the other reformers. 
 
 M. D'AuBiGNE compares the reformers to the Apos- 
 tles ;* and his favorite theory is, that the reformation itself 
 was but ** the reappearance of Christianity."t Speaking 
 of the life and character of Luther, he says "the whole 
 reformation was there. "J ** The different phases of this 
 work succeeded each other in the mind of him who was to be 
 the instrument for it, before it was publicly accomplished 
 in the world. The knowledge of the reformation effected 
 in the heart of Luther himself is, in truth, the key to the 
 reformation of the church. "§ 
 
 * B. ii, p. 118, vol. i. t Pref. iv. . J Vol. i, p. 118. § Ibid 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 39 
 
 We will abide by this test. We will examine for a 
 brief space the external form, and the internal structure — 
 the many tortuous turnings and intricate wards of this 
 ** key" of the Protestant reformation ; and we will be en- 
 abled to estimate the character of the latter, — which, as 
 we hope to show, was a '* lock on the understanding" — 
 from the properties of the former. Dropping the figure, 
 we will compare the character of Luther while he contin- 
 ued a Catholic, during the first thirty-four years of his life, 
 with what it subsequently became after he had turned re- 
 former, or for the last twenty-nine years of his life — from 
 1517 to 1546. If we ascertain that his own character un- 
 derwent a change greatly for the worse during the latter 
 period, we will be compelled, by M. D'Aubigne's own 
 rule, to admit that the general tendency of the reforma- 
 tion was evil. 
 
 To facilitate the understanding of our remarks, and to 
 obviate repetition, we here state that Luther was born at 
 Eisleben, in Saxony, on the 10th of November, 148S — 
 that he attended successively the schools of Mansfeld, 
 Magdeburg, and Eisenach, and completed his education 
 in the university of Erfurth — that he was ordained priest in 
 1506, turned reformer in 1517, was married in 1525, and 
 died on the 17th of Feb. 1546, in the 63d year of his age. 
 
 While under the influence of the Catholic church, he 
 was probably a very good man — he was certainly a very 
 bad one after he left the church. His parents were poor, 
 but they seem to have been pious, especially his mother. 
 From an early age, they labored to train him up in sen- 
 timents of piety, as well as to imbue his mind with the 
 elements of learning. ** As soon as he was old enough 
 to receive instruction," says M. D'Aubigne, ** his parents 
 endeavored to communicate to him the knowledge of God, 
 to train him in his fear, and to form him to the practice 
 of the Christian virtues. They applied the utmost care to 
 his earliest domestic education.* He was taught the heads 
 
 ♦D'Aubigne i, 122. 
 
40 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 of the catechism, the ten commandments, the Apostles' 
 creed, the Lord's prayer, some hymns, some forms of 
 prayer, a Latin grammar composed in the fourth century 
 by Donatus ; in a word, all that was studied in the Latin 
 school of Mansfeld."* In the good old Catholic times, 
 then, parents knew their duty to their children, and peo- 
 ple were not so stupidly ignorant after all! 
 
 Luther seems to have been a very naughty boy; for 
 while at school in Mansfeld, ** his master flogged him fif- 
 teen times in one day ;"t and, in his after-life, he was 
 wont to complain of the cruel treatment he received from 
 his parents. " My parents treated me cruelly, so that I 
 became very timid : one day, for a mere trifle, my mother 
 whipped me till the blood came. They truly thought they 
 were doing right; but they had no discernment of charac- 
 ter, which is yet absolutely necessary, that we may know 
 when, on whom, and how, punishment should be in- 
 flicted.":}: His parents acted on the old maxim ; " spare 
 the rod and spoil the child" — and if he was subsequently 
 so much spoiled, even with all the previous training of the 
 rod, what would he have been without its salutary re- 
 straint } 
 
 Though '•' it appears that the child was not yet led to 
 God,"§ still he evinced a great fund of piety. " But even 
 at this early age, the young man of eigliteen did not study 
 merely with a view of cultivating his understanding ; 
 there was within him a serious thoughtfulness, a heart 
 looking upwards, which God gives to those whom he de- 
 signs to make his most zealous servants. Luther felt that 
 he depended entirely on God, — a simple and powerful 
 conviction, which is at once a principle of deep humility, 
 and an incentive to great undertakings. He fervently 
 invoked the Divine blessing upon his labors. Every morn- 
 ing he began the day with prayer ; then he v/ent to church ; 
 
 * D'Aubigne i, p. 123. f Ibid, t Luth. 0pp. Wittemb. xxii, 17S5. 
 §D'Aubigne i, p. 123. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 41 
 
 afterwards he commenced his studies, and he never lost 
 a moment in the course of the day. * To pray well,' he 
 was wont to say, * was the better half of study.' "* This 
 looked a little like being *' led to God." 
 
 On the 17th of August, 1505, he entered into the Au- 
 gustinian convent at Erfurth, being then in the 22d year 
 of his age. He was induced to take this important step 
 by avow he had made to consecrate himself entirely to 
 God, in case of his deliverance from a terrific storm, by 
 which he was overtaken near Erfurth, and in which, ac- 
 cording to one account,! his friend Alexis was stricken 
 dead by lightning at his side. " At length he is with 
 God," says M. D'Aubigne. " His soul is safe. He is now 
 to obtain that holiness he so ardently desired.":{; The 
 monasteries were then not so bad as Protestants would 
 fain represent them. "They often contained Christian 
 virtues" — M, D'Aubigne himself tells us — ** which grew 
 up beneath the shelter of a salutary retirement ; and which 
 if they had been brought forth to view, would have been 
 the admiration of the world. They who possessed these 
 virtues, living only with each other and with God, drew 
 no attention from without, and were often unknown even 
 to the small convent in which they were inclosed — their 
 life was known only to God."§ 
 
 Luther entered the convent with the purest motives, 
 and labored in it to overcome himself by mortification and 
 self-denial, and to acquire humility and all the Christian 
 virtues. *• But it was not to gain the credit of being a 
 great genius that he entered the cloister ; it was to find 
 the aliments of piety to God."ll The monks ** imposed on 
 him the meanest offices." They perhaps wished to hum- 
 ble the doctor of philosophy, and to teach him that his 
 learning did not raise him above his brethren. . . . The for- 
 
 * Mathesius 3, apud D'Aub. i, 130. 
 
 t Discredited, perhaps with reason, by D'Aubigne (ibid. p. 135, note.) 
 t Ibid. p. 136. §Ibid. p. 14G-7. || Ibid- p. 141. 
 
 4* 
 
42 dVubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 mer master of arts was obliged to perform the functions 
 of door-keeper, to open and shut the gates, to wind up the 
 clock, to sweep the church, to clean the rooms. Then, 
 when the poor monk, who was at once porter, sexton, and 
 servant of the cloister, had finished his work — *• cum sac- 
 CO per civitatem^^ — ** with your bag through the town !" 
 cried the brothers ; and, loaded with his bread bag, he was 
 obliged to go through the streets of Erfurth, begging from 
 house to house, and perhaps at the doors of those very 
 persons who had been either his friends or his inferiors. 
 But he bore it all. Inclined from his natural disposition, 
 to devote himself heartily to whatever he undertook, it 
 was with his whole soul that he had become a monk. Be- 
 sides, could he wish to spare the body ? To regard the 
 satisfying of the flesh ? Not thus could he acquire the hu- 
 mility, the holiness he had come to seek within the walls 
 of a cloister."* How does this spirit of self-denial, con- 
 trast with the gross self-indulgence of his subsequent life, 
 when he had thrown off all those antiquated trammels ! 
 Well does his panegyrist remark, that " there was then 
 in Luther little of that which made him in after-life the 
 reformer of the church."! As we shall see, this remark 
 is strikingly true. 
 
 He received ordination with fear and trembling at his 
 own un worthiness. So great was his awe of the holy 
 sacrament, that in a procession at Eisleben, on the feast 
 of Corpus Ckristi, he almost fainted through overpowering 
 reverence for Christ truly present. J He was scrupulous 
 to a fault. He frequently gave way to fits of despondency 
 and melancholy, which were with difiiculty removed. As 
 a panacea for his troubled mind, an aged monk called his 
 attention to that article of the Apostles' creed in which 
 we profejss to believe, " in the forgiveness of sins."§ The 
 humble confidence in our forgiveness through God's mer- 
 
 ♦ Ibid. p. 139. t Ibid. p. 138. % Ibid. p. 157. § Ibid. p. 154. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 43 
 
 cjy which this article is so well calculated to inspire, was 
 afterwards reduced bj the reformer to an absolute and 
 infallible certainty, that his own sins were forgiven. So 
 apt are men to run into extremes, especially those who are 
 addicted to scruples ! When these are removed — as was 
 unhappily the case with Luther — they too often are ex- 
 changed for the opposite extreme of wanton reckless- 
 ness. This remark is a key to the reformer's subsequent 
 life. 
 
 His deep humility caused him to shrink from the office 
 of preaching. It was with great difficulty that Staupitz, 
 his superior, could overcome this reluctance. *' In vain 
 Staupitz entreated him : * No, no,' replied he, * it is no 
 light thing to speak to men in God's stead.' " '* An affect- 
 ing instance of humility in this great reformer of the 
 church,"* adds M. D'Aubigne. He unhappily gave no 
 evidence of any such spirit, after he had turned reformer, 
 as we shall see presently. Had he always preserved this 
 Christian spirit, the peace of the church would in all pro- 
 bability never have been disturbed. 
 
 In 1516, but one year before the commencement of the 
 reformation, Staupitz directed him to make the visitation 
 of the forty convents belonging to the Augustinian Order 
 in Germany.! He discharged this difficult office with 
 singular prudence and zeal. He every where reformed 
 abuses, gave salutary counsels, and animated the monks to 
 the practice of every virtue. A little later, he gave ad- 
 ditional evidence of Christian humility. Having received 
 a new gown from the elector Frederick of Saxony, he 
 thus wrote to Spalatin, the elector's secretary. *' It would 
 be too fine if it were not a prince's gift. I am not wor- 
 thy that any man should think of me, much less a prince, 
 and so noble a prince. Those are most useful to me who 
 think worst of me. Present my thanks to our prince for 
 his favor, but know that I desire neither the praises of thy- 
 
 * Ibid. p. 161. t lb. p. 191, seqq. 
 
44 d'aubigne'8 history reviewed. 
 
 self nor of others : all the praise of man is Tain, the praise 
 that cometh from God being alone true."* 
 
 He was no less zealous and devoted than he was hum- 
 ble. When the plague broke out in Wittemburg, in 1516, 
 his friends advised him to flj from a malady which swept 
 off whole multitudes. Luther answered : *' you advise me 
 to flee — but whither shall I flee ^ I hope the world will 
 not go to pieces, if brother Martin should fall. If the 
 plague spreads, I will send the brethren away in all direc- 
 tions; but for my part, I am placed here : obedience does 
 not allow me to leave the spot, until He who called me 
 hither, shall call me away."t He did not behave thus 
 courageously, when the pest again visited Wittemberg, 
 after he had left the church ; he then stated that the minis- 
 ter of God fulfilled his duty, if he administered the sacra- 
 ments to his flock once or twice in the year; and that it 
 was an intolerable burden to be under the obligation to do 
 more, especially in time of plague! 
 
 Such was Luther before he began the reformation in 
 1517. How changed, alas! was he after this period — heu! 
 quantum mutatus ab illo ! He is no longer the humble 
 monk, the scrupulous priest, the fervent Christian, that 
 he was before! Amidst the storm which he excited, he 
 gradually suffered shipwreck of almost every virtue, and 
 became reckless and depraved — the mere creature of im- 
 pulse, the child of pride, the victim of violent and degra- 
 ding passion ! We trust to make all this appear from cer- 
 tain and undoubted facts, which no one can deny. And 
 the result of our reasoning will be the irresistible conclu- 
 sion, that for him at least, the reformation was a down-hill 
 business : and, according to M. D'Aubigne's test, that this 
 was its general tendency. 
 
 His own deterioration, and the work of the reformation 
 were both gradual — they went hand in hand. He did not 
 
 * Luihni Episiolie edit. Wette. i. 45, 46: apud D'Aubigne i, 195. 
 t Epist. r, 42. 26 Oct. 1516. Apnd D'Aub. i, 194. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 45 
 
 at first seem to aim at any cliange in the doctrines and 
 institutions of the Catholic church : this thought was de- 
 veloped only afterwards. In the 38th, 67th, and 71st of 
 his famous 95 i/ieses published against Tetzel on the 1st 
 of Nov. 1517, he expressly maintained the authority of 
 the Pope, and the Catholic doctrine on indulgences. He 
 professed only to aim at the correction of abuses. 
 
 It is a mooted question, whether jealousy of tlie Domin- 
 ican order, which had been entrusted with the preaching 
 of the indulgences, to the exclusion of his own rival order 
 of the Augustinians, influenced him in his first attack on 
 Tetzel. Such seems to have been the opinion of the en- 
 lightened pontiff Leo X, who, when the controversy was 
 first reported to him, remarked, smiling, "that it was all 
 a mere monkish squabble originating in jealousy."* Such 
 also was the opinion of many other ancient writers. Cer- 
 tain it is that this jealousy, if it did not originate, at least 
 fed and maintained the discussion. Luther's order, with 
 its principal members — Staupitz, Link, Lange, and others 
 —were his warmest advocates ; while the Dominicans — 
 Cajetan, Hochstraet, Eck, and Prierias — were his chief 
 opponents. The Dominican order continued faithful to 
 the church; the Augustinians of Germany abandoned it 
 almost without an exception. 
 
 Had he paused at the proper time, had he con-tinued to 
 leave untouched the venerable landmarks of Catholic 
 faith, and confined himself to the correction of local dis- 
 orders, all Catholics would have applauded his zeal. In- 
 stead of being reckoned with Arius, Pelagius, Wicliffe, 
 and other heresiarchs, he would then have found a niche 
 in the temple of Catholic fame, with an Ambrose and a 
 Gregory VII, and a Bernard ! His great talents, properly 
 regulated, might have been immensely beneficial to the 
 church of God. But, standing on the brink ofapreci- 
 
 * Che coiesie erano invidie fraiesche. Brandelli, a cotemporary Do- 
 minican writer. Hist. Trag. pars 3. 
 
46 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 pice, he became dizzy, and fell; and, like Lucifer of old, 
 he drew after him one-third of the stars of God's kingdom 
 ' on earth ! The old Catholic tree bore some evil fruits of 
 abuses — generally local and unauthorized, as we shall see 
 in the proper place — and, instead of pruning it discreetly 
 and nurturing its growth, he recklessly lopped off all its 
 branches, and even attempted to tear it up by the roots, 
 under the pretext, forsooth, of making it bear fruit ! ! 
 
 The question has often been asked, — was Luther sin- 
 cere ? We have no doubt of his sincerity nor of his piety, 
 until he turned reformer. Perhaps, too, he might have 
 been sincere during the first year or two of his reforma- 
 tive career. God, only, can judge his heart; and it would 
 be rash in us to attempt to fathom, what only He can search 
 with unerring accuracy. Still we have some facts where- 
 on to base a judgment in the matter. There is little 
 doubt that he had some miso-iving-s at first. He himself 
 tells us that '' he trembled to find himself alone against 
 the whole church."* He himself testifies on this subject 
 as follows : ** How often has my conscience disturbed me 1 
 How often have I said to myself: dost thou imagine thy- 
 self wiser than all the rest of mankind ? Barest thou 
 imagine that all mankind has been in error for so long a 
 series of years.''! And again: "I am not so bold as to 
 assert that I have been guided in this affair by God — 
 upon this point I would not wish to undergo the judgment 
 ofGod."t 
 
 He regretted at first, that his Theses had become so pub- 
 lic, and had made so great a stir among the people. ** My 
 design," says he, " was not to make them so public. I 
 wished to discuss the various points comprised in them 
 with some of our associates and neighbors. If they had 
 condemned them, I would have destroyed them ; if they 
 had approved of them, I would have published them."§ 
 
 * " Solus primb eram." 0pp. in Praef. Edit. V/ittenb. 
 
 t 0pp. Lutheri. Germ. Edit. Geneva, vol. ii, fol. 9. J lb. vol.i, 364, 
 
 § Epist. Collect. Wette, I, p. 05. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 4T 
 
 *' He was disturbed and dejected at the thought" — of 
 standing alone against the church — '* doubts which he 
 thought he had overcome, returned to his mind with fresh 
 force. He trembled to think that he had the whole au- 
 thority of the church against him. To withdraw himself 
 from that authority — to resist that voice which nations and 
 ages had humbly obeyed — to set himself in opposition to 
 that church which he had been accustomed from his in- 
 fancy to revere as the mother of the faithful : he, a despi- 
 cable monk — it was an effort beyond human power."* 
 
 Luther himself tells us how he struggled against this 
 feeling — how he lulled to rest that still small voice of con- 
 science within his bosom. " After having triumphed, by 
 means of the Scriptures, over all opposing arguments, I 
 at last overcame, by the grace of Christ (!) with much an- 
 guish, labor, and great difficulty, the only argument that 
 still stopped me, namely, ' /Aa/ / mw5^ hear the church;^ 
 for, from my heart, I honored the church of the Pope as 
 the true church," &/C.t He foresaw the dreadful commo- 
 tions of which he would be the author, and trembled at the 
 thought ! *' I tremble — I shudder at the thought, that I 
 may be an occasion of discord to such mighty princes.":}: 
 Still he recklessly persevered! 
 
 But these scruples were but *' a remnant of popery :" 
 soon he succeeded in lulling his conscience into a fatal 
 security. An awful calm succeeded the storm. The 
 pride of being at the head of a strong party — the praises 
 of the students and professors of the Wittemberg univer- 
 sity — the flattery of friends, and the smiles of the power- 
 ful elector of Saxony — soon quieted the qualms of con- 
 science. The following facts — selected almost at random 
 from a mass of evidence of the same kind — may con- 
 tribute to throw additional light on the question of his 
 sincerity. 
 
 * D'Aubign^ i, 257. f Luth. 0pp. Lat. i, 49. 
 
 J " Inter tantos principes dissidii origo esse valde horreo et iimeo." Ep. i, 93. 
 
48 d'aubigxe's history reviewed. 
 
 On the 30th of May, 1518, Trinity Sunday, he wrote a 
 letter to Leo X, of which the following is the concluding 
 passage : *• Therefore, most holy father, I throw myself 
 at the feet of your holiness, and submit myself to you 
 with all that I have and all that I am. Destroy my cause 
 or espouse it; pronounce either for or against me; take 
 my life or restore it, as you please : I will receive your 
 voice as that of Christ himself, who presides and speaks 
 through you. If I have deserved death, I refuse not to 
 die : the earth is the Lord's and the fulness thereof. 
 May he be praised for ever and ever. May he maintain 
 you to all eternity ! Amen."* The sequel tested the 
 sincerity of this declaration. But even while he was 
 penning it, or very shortly after, he preached from the 
 pulpit of Wittemberg against the power of the pope to ful- 
 minate excommunication, and he was engaged in circu- 
 lating inflammatory tracts breathing the same spirit.! 
 
 In 1519 he had a conference with Miltitz, the papal 
 envoy, to whose perfect satisfaction he arranged every 
 thing, promising to keep silence in future, as to the ques- 
 tions in controversy. The good nuncio embraced him, 
 wept with joy, and invited him to a banquet, at which he 
 loaded him with caresses. While this scene was being 
 acted, Luther, in a private letter to a friend, called him 
 **a deceiver, a liar, who. parted from him with a Judas- 
 like kiss and crocodile tears ;"J and, in another letter, to 
 Spalatin, he wrote : "let me whisper in your ear; I do 
 not know whether the pope is Antichrist, or only his 
 apostle, "§ &c. And yet, at this very time, on the 3d 
 March, 1519, he wrote to the pope in these words: 
 
 * Luth. Epist. vol. i, p. 121. Edit. Wette. 
 
 t " Habui nuper sermonem ad populuni de virtuie excommunicationiSy 
 ubi taxavi obiter tyrannidem et inscitiam sordidissimi illiiis vulgi qffici- 
 alium commissariorum vicariorum," ^c. Epist. ad WencesL Link, Julii, 
 1518. X Epist. Sylvio Egrano, 2 Feb. 1519 
 
 § Epist. Spalatino, 12 Feb. 1519. See Audin, Life of Luther, p. 91, 
 and D'Aubigne ii, 15, 16. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 49 
 
 **Most holy father, I declare it in the presence of God, 
 and of all the world, I never have sought, nor will I ever 
 seek to weaken by force or artifice the power of the Ro- 
 man church or of your holiness. I confess that there is 
 nothing in heaven or earth that should be preferred above 
 that church, save only Jesus Christ the Lord of all."* 
 The same man who wrote this, impugned the primacy of 
 the pope the very same year in the famous discussion 
 with Doctor Eck at Leipsic ! Was he — could he be sin- 
 cere in all this ? But, farther, when on the Sd of Oct. 
 1520, he became acquainted with the bull of Leo X, by 
 which his doctrines were condemned, he wrote these re- 
 markable words : " I will treat it as a forgery, though I 
 know it to be genuine. "t 
 
 The following evidence will greatly aid us in judging 
 of the motives which guided Luther Ln the work of the 
 reformation. What those motives were he surely was 
 the best judge. Let us then see what himself tells us on 
 this subject. In his famous harangue against Karlstadt 
 and the image breakers, delivered from the pulpit of the 
 church of All Saints at Wittemberg, he plainly says that, 
 if his recreant disciples will not take his advice, " he 
 will not hesitate to retract every thing he had either 
 taught or written, and leave them ;" and he adds emphat- 
 ically : ** this I tell you once for all.":j: In an abridged 
 confession of faith, which he drew up for his partisans, he 
 says in a vaunting tone : " I abolished the elevation of the 
 host, to spite the pope ; and I had retained it so long to 
 spite Karlstadt."§ In the new form of service, which he 
 composed as a substitute for the mass, he says in a simi- 
 lar spirit : " if a council were to order the communion to 
 be taken in both kinds, he and his would only take it in 
 one or none ; and would, moreover, curse all those who 
 
 * Epist. i, p. 234, f D'Aubigne ii,. 128. 
 
 X "Non dubitabo funem reducere, et omnium quag aut scrips! aut 
 docui palinodiam canere : hoc vobis dictum esto." Sermo docens abusus 
 non manibus, &c. § Confessio Parva. 
 
 5 
 
50 d'aubione's history reviewed. 
 
 should, in conformity with this decree of the council, 
 communicate in both kinds."* Could the man be sincere 
 who openly boasted of being governed by such motives ? 
 
 We might continue to discuss the question of his sin- 
 cerity, by showing how he said one thing to Cardinal Ca- 
 jetan, and in the diet of Worms in 1521, and other things 
 precisely contradictory to his friends, at the same time : 
 how, before Cajetan, he appealed first to the universities,! 
 then to the pope, better informed, J and subsequently to a 
 general council :§ and how, when all these tribunals had 
 decided against him, he would abide by none of their de- 
 cisions, his reiterated solemn promises to the contrary 
 notwithstanding ! Did the Spirit of God direct him in all 
 these tortuous windings of artful policy ? Do they mani- 
 fest aught of the uprightness of a boasted apostle ? Do 
 they not rather bespeak the wily heresiarch — an Arius, a 
 Nestorius, or a Pelagius ? 
 
 We say nothing at present of his consistency : we 
 speak only of his sincerity and common honesty. No one 
 ever praised his consistency : he was confessedly a mere 
 creature of impulse and of passion, constant in nothing 
 but in his hatred of the pope and of the Catholic church. 
 His inconsistencies would fill a volume, and a mere allu- 
 sion to them would swell this chapter to an unwarrantable 
 length. II 
 
 But there is one incident in the private life of Luther 
 too curious to be passed over in silence. We give it in 
 the words of M. Audin, with his references to cotempo- 
 rary historians. *' After the labors of the day, he would 
 walk with Catharine" — the nun whom he had wedded— 
 *• in the little garden of the convent, near the ponds in 
 
 * Forma Missse. f D'Aubigne i, 357. 
 
 X Id. i, 376. § Id. i, 389, and again, ii, 134. 
 
 II Those who may be curious to investigate this subject will find abun- 
 dant facts in " Audin's Life of Luther." We direct the attention of 
 such to the following pages : 81, 82, 85, 94, 95, 102, 110, 354, 472, 238, 
 239, 240, 291, 312, 397, 398, 410, 430, 511, &c. &c. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 51 
 
 which colored fish were disporting ; and he loved to ex- 
 plain to her the wonders of the creation, and the good- 
 ness of Him who had made it with his hands. One even- 
 ing the stars sparkled with unwonted brightness, and the 
 heavens appeared to be on fire. • Behold what splendor 
 those luminous points emit,' said Catharine to Luther. 
 Luther raised his eyes. * What glorious light,' said he : 
 ' it shines not for us.^ * Why not r' replied Bora ; * have 
 we lost our title to the kingdom of heaven ?' Luther 
 sighed — • Perhaps so,' said he, * because we have aban- 
 doned our state.' ' We ought to return to it, then,' said 
 Catharine. * It is too late — the car is sunk too deeply ^"^ 
 added the doctor. The conversation dropped."* 
 
 We may here be pardoned for making a digression, to 
 relate a somewhat analogous incident of Melancthon, 
 Luther's bosom friend and cherished disciple. Lu- 
 ther was wont to flatter him immoderately, and the 
 grateful disciple repaid him with interest in the same 
 gilded coin. When he had finished his Scholia on the 
 Epistles of St. Paul, Luther said to him, after having 
 read the work : *' What matter is it whether it pleases 
 you or not, if it pleases me ? I tell you that the com- 
 mentaries of Origen and Jerome, compared with yours, 
 are nothing but absurdities."! Melancthon too had his 
 misgivings. " He recalled to his mind the image of his 
 old father, George Schwartzerd, the smith, whose lively 
 faith made him rise often at night to offer up his prayer 
 to God. He thought of the last prayer of his dying mo- 
 ther, who, raising her hands towards him, said: * My 
 son, it is for the last time you see your mother. I am 
 about to die : your turn will one day come, when you 
 must render an account of your actions to your Judge. 
 You know that 1 was a Catholic, and that you have in- 
 duced me to abandon the religion of my fathers. Tell 
 
 * Georg Joanneck — Norma Vilfp. Krans — Ovicul. part ii. Col. 39. 
 Apud Aiuiin, p. 3S2. f Apud Andin, p. 4-!5. 
 
52 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 me now, for God's Bake, in what religion I ought to die.' 
 Melancthon answered : * Mother, the new doctrine is 
 the more convenient ; the other is the more secure.' "* 
 But the gentle and wavering Melancthon was kept in 
 error by the fascination of Luther, who, serpent-like, had 
 coiled himself around his very heart-strings, and held 
 him captive ! 
 
 Luther's intellectual attainments were of a high order. 
 As a popular orator, few surpassed him in ancient or 
 modern times. Nothing could withstand the foamy tor- 
 rent of his eloquence, or resist the effect of his withering 
 invective. " When he preached, the people listened 
 with trembling expectation to the words which fell from 
 his lips. His eye, which seemed to revolve in a fiery 
 orbit — his large and seer-like forehead — his animated 
 figure, especially when much excited — his threatening 
 gesture, his loud voice which thundered on the ear — the 
 spirit of inspiration with which he seemed possessed — all 
 awakened either terror, or ecstatic admiration in his 
 auditory."! 
 
 An excellent judge, Frederick Von Schlegel, passes the 
 following opinion on his mental powers. *' In the first 
 place, it is evident of itself that a man who accomplished 
 so mighty a revolution in the human mind, and in his age, 
 could have been endowed with no common powers of in- 
 tellect, and no ordinary strength of character. Even his 
 writings display an astonishing boldness and energy of 
 thought, united with a spirit of impetuous, passionate, 
 and convulsive enthusiasm. The latter qualities are in- 
 deed not very compatible with a prudent, enlightened, 
 and dispassionate judgment.''^ 
 
 His indefatigable industry and untiring energy brought 
 out all his mental resources. He was restless and dis- 
 quieted : his spirit could never be still, after it had lost 
 
 * ^gidius Albertinus iin 4. Theil des Deutchcn Lust Hauses, v. 143. 
 Apud Audin, p. 447, note. 
 
 t Audin, p. 225. J Philosophy of History, vol. ii, p. 204. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 53 
 
 the peace it once possessed in the bosom of the Catholic 
 church. His mind was not elevated or refined ; it could 
 not appreciate the beauties of art in Rome, which he vis- 
 ited during the splendid pontificate of Leo X. He seems 
 to have gleaned nothing else from his journey to the 
 " eternal city" but a few ** house-wife stories or menda- 
 cious anecdotes."* 
 
 Much has been said of his courage, and of his disregard 
 of danger. That he was bold and daring, we do not pre- 
 tend to deny. It however required but little courage to be 
 bold in his interview with Cajetan, or at the diet of Worms 
 in 1521. With the safe-conduct of the emperor, and the 
 certain protection of the powerful elector of Saxony, he 
 had little to apprehend. Besides, any man might become 
 courageous, at least at times, who had a powerful party to 
 sustain him in every thing. Luther was certainly most 
 courageous where there was least danger. He is alto- 
 gether a different character at the diet of Worms and at 
 Wittemberg. He could hurl defiance at popes, emperors, 
 and princes, when these were far off, and he was out of 
 their reach : but if h« had any thing to fear from them, 
 the scene changed altogether. He became as obsequious 
 and crouching as he had before been bold and reckless. 
 
 How meanly sycophantic was he on all occasions to the 
 elector of Saxony ! We will give one instance of this. 
 When Henry VIII, of England, complained to the elec- 
 tor of Luther's outrageous insults to his royal majesty, 
 the elector barely intimated the fact in a very mild and 
 indirect way to the reformer, without even insinuating the 
 propriety of making any reparation. Luther seized his 
 pen, and indited the following singular amende honorable, 
 •* Most serene king! most illustrious prince ! I should be 
 afraid to address your majesty, when I remember how 
 much I must have offended you in the book which, under 
 the influence of bad advice, rather than of my own feel- 
 
 ♦ See Audin, p. 135, for facts under this head. 
 
54 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 ings, I published against you, through pride and vanity. 
 ... I blush now, and scarcely dare to raise my eyes to 
 you — I, who, by means of these workers of iniquity, have 
 not feared to insult so great a prince — I, who am a worm 
 and corruption, and who only merit contempt and dis- 
 dain. ... If your majesty thinks proper that, in another 
 work, I should recall my words, and glorify your name, 
 vouchsafe to transmit to me your orders. I am ready and 
 full of good will,"* &c. In fact, as we shall hereafter 
 prove, Luther was indebted, in a great measure, to his 
 sycophancy to princes for the success of his pretended 
 reformation. 
 
 His passions were violent, and he seems to have made 
 little effort to govern them. His violence in fact often 
 drove him to the very verge of insanity. His cherished dis- 
 ciple, Melancthon, deplored his furious outbursts of tem- 
 per. ** I tremble when I think of the passions of Luther : 
 they yield not in violence to the passions of Hercules."! 
 The weak and timid disciple had reason to tremble; for 
 he testifies that Luther occasionally inflicted on him per- 
 sonal chastisement.! 
 
 If he thus treated his most intimate friends, what are 
 we to suppose his conduct was towards his opponents 
 and enemies ? In his conferences with Cajetan and Mil- 
 titz, and in his letter to Leo X, as well as in his famous 
 speech at Worms, he acknowledged the violence of his 
 writings. Still, instead of correcting this fault, it seems 
 to have grown with his growth. Hear the manner in 
 which he replies to Tetzel. ** It seems to me, at the 
 sound of these invectives, that I hear a great ass braying 
 at me. I rejoice at it, and should be sorry that such peo- 
 ple should call me a good Christian. "§ 
 
 * 0pp. Lutheri, Tom. ix, p. 234. Cochlasus, p. 156, Ulenberg, p. 
 502. See Audin, p. 300. 
 
 f Melancthon Epist. ad Theodorum. 
 
 X •* j3b ipso colaphos accept" Epist. ad eundem. 
 
 § Luth. 0pp. Leipsic, xvii, 132. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 55 
 
 He exhausts all the epithets of the coarsest ribaldrj 
 against his opponents, no matter how respectable. We 
 cannot pollute our pages with a tithe of his foul language. 
 Behold the spirit that breathes in the following passage, 
 in which he speaks of Emser: ** After a little time I will 
 pray against him ; I will beseech God to render to him 
 according to his works : it is better that he should perish, 
 than that he should continue to blaspheme Christ. I do 
 not wish you to pray for this wretch; pray for us alone."* 
 His adversaries are full of devils : if they die, the devil 
 has strangled them ; " one foams at the mouth ; another 
 has the horns and tail of Satan. This one is clad as 
 Antichrist ; that man changed into block. Oftentimes 
 the same personage, in the same page, is travestied as a 
 mule, a camel, an owl, and a mole."t 
 
 What are we to think of the spirit of the following lan- 
 guage, addressed to an assembly of his disciples. " My 
 brethren, be submissive, and communicate only under one 
 kind. If you do what I say to you, I will he to you a 
 good master ; I will be to you a father, brother, friend. 
 I will obtain graces and privileges from his majesty for 
 you. If you disobey me, I declare that I will become 
 your enemy, and do all the mischief possible to this city.":j: 
 Volumes might be filled with extracts from Luther's writ- 
 ings, replete with the coarsest vulgarity : the specimens 
 we have given are among the mildest. § 
 
 It is usual to excuse this coarseness of Luther by the 
 spirit of the age in which he lived. This is scarcely 
 a valid apology for one who set himself up as a reformer 
 of religion and of morals, and who claimed a divine com- 
 mission to establish a new sj'stem of doctrine. Besides, 
 we look in vain for any such examples of vulgarity among 
 his chief opponents in the Catholic church : Emser, Eck, 
 
 * Epist. ad Nicholas Hausman, 26 April, 1520. 
 t Aud. p. 118. X Table Talk, p. 376. 
 
 § For more instances consult the following pages of Audin, 136, 163, 
 235, 237, 239, 240, 24S, 273, 2S5, 287, 288, 299, &c. &c. 
 
56 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Cajetan, Erasmus, and the great Leo X, were far too re- 
 fined to employ any such weapons. The reformers seemed 
 to claim a special privilege in this way. Let us exhibit 
 a few specimens of the manner in which some of these, 
 who differed from Luther in their doctrinal views, spake 
 of the Saxon reformer. They returned railing for railing. 
 
 ** This man," says one of his cotemporary reformers, 
 ** is absolutely mad. He never ceases to combat truth 
 against all justice, even against the cry of his own con- 
 science.'^* "He is puffed up," says another, ** with 
 pride and arrogance, and is seduced by Satan. "t " Yes," 
 re-echoes another, " the devil is master of Luther to such 
 a degree as to make one believe that he wishes to gain 
 entire possession of him."J 
 
 Luther had said of this last witness, Zuingle, •* that he 
 was possessed not by one, but by a whole troop of devils."^ 
 The church of Zurich returned the compliment, and said 
 of Luther that *'he wrote all his works by the impulse 
 and the dictation of the devil, with whom he had dealing, 
 and who in the struggle seemed to have thrown him by 
 victorious arguments."!! 
 
 This last charge was not without foundation. Luther 
 himself relates his " conference with the devil" in full, 
 and acknowledges, at the close of it, that he was unable 
 t^ answer the arguments of Satan !^ The devil, as was 
 quite natural, argued against the lawfulness of private 
 masses, which Luther feebly defended : and so con- 
 vincing were the reasons of his satanical majesty, that 
 Luther wrote to his intimate friend Melancthon imme- 
 diately after: **I will not again celebrate private masses 
 for ever."** And he faithfully kept his promise ! It was 
 
 • Hospinian. t CEcolampadiu3. J Zuingle. 
 
 § " Non ab uno d?mone obsessum, sed d toloL c iterva." Lib. contra 
 Sacramentarios. |! Contra Confessionem Lutheri, p. Gl. 
 
 f In his treatise dt Missd. privata. See the conference in full in Au- 
 din, p. 181, segq. 
 
 ** '• Sed et ego ampliua non faciam missam privatam in aicrnum" 
 Ad Melaneth. Aug. 1, 1521. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 57 
 
 a favorite saying of his that, " unless we have the devil 
 hanging about our necks, we are but pitiful theologians !"* 
 
 Can we wonder then at this compliment paid him by 
 his brother Protestants of the church of Zurich : " But 
 how strangely does this fellow let himself be carried away 
 by his devils ! How disgusting is his language, and how 
 full are his words of the devil of hell !"t If these say- 
 ings are hard, it is surely not our fault : Luther bore sim- 
 ilar testimony of himself, and of his brother Protestants, 
 who happened to differ from him ; and these did but re- 
 tort on him the same compliments ! We are but the 
 humble witnesses and historians of the conflict. The 
 reformers are certainly unexceptionable witnesses of each 
 other's characters. Is it likely that God selected such 
 instruments to reform his church ? 
 
 Luther's standard of morality was about as high as that 
 of his good breeding. St. Paul tells us that a Christian's 
 " conversation is in heaven :"J Luther's, on the contrary, 
 was not only earthly, but often immoral and revolting in 
 the extreme. He discussed, in all their most disgusting 
 details, subjects which St. Paul would not have so much 
 as " named among Christians. "§ His famous •' Table 
 Talk" is full of such specimens of decency. Wine and 
 women, the pope and the devil, are the principal subjects 
 of which the reformer liked to treat, when alone with his 
 intimate friends, in private and unreserved conversation. 
 For fifteen years — from 1525 to 1540 — he was a nightly 
 visiter to the ** Black Eagle" tavern of Wittemberg, 
 where he met and conversed, over the ale-jug, with his 
 bosom friends, Melancthon, Amsdorf, Aurifaber, Justus 
 Jonas, Lange, Link, and Staupitz. 
 
 * Nisi diabolum habemus collo affixum, nihil nisi speculaiivi theologi 
 sumus." Colloquia Mensalia, fol. 23. See, for more on this subject, an 
 article on " demonology and the reformation," published in the ninth 
 number of the Catholic Cabinet, for January, 1844. 
 
 ■{■ Church of Zurich — Contra Cojifess, Lutheri. 
 
 X Philip, iii, 20. § Ephes. v, 3. 
 
58 d'aubigne's history reviev/ed. 
 
 His disciples carefully collected and published these 
 conversations of their *' beloved master," as so many 
 oracles. Erasmus Albert, one of them, tells us, in a 
 work against Karlstadt, that " these table discourses of 
 the doctor are better than any sermons ;" and Frederick 
 Mecum, another early Lutheran, calls them ** affecting 
 conversations, which ought to be diffused among the peo- 
 ple."* The first editions of the work were published in 
 German and in Latin by Mathesius, Peter Rebstock, and 
 Aurifaber, all zealous disciples of the reformer.t If there 
 was any indiscretion in thus revealingto the world the secret 
 conversations of this *' ale pope of the ' Black Eagle' " 
 with his boon companions, their zeal is alone to blame 
 for the exposure. The " Table Talk," or Tisck Reden, 
 as it is called in German, revealing as it does the heart of 
 Luther in his most unguarded moments, is perhaps the 
 best key to his character. 
 
 We will not soil our pages with extracts from the ** Ta- 
 ble Talk," revealing the moral turpitude of Luther. Those 
 who may doubt the truth of the picture we have drawn, or 
 who may feel a curiosity in such matters, are referred to 
 the work itself — a ponderous folio of 1350 pages, besides 
 an index, which alone would make a volume of considera- 
 ble size.ij: Luther's immorality was not, however, con- 
 fined to private conversations at the Black Eagle : he un- 
 blusiiingly and sacrilegiouslj' exhibited it in the very sanc- 
 tuary of God's holy temple! His '* sermon on matri- 
 mony," delivered in the German language, from the pul- 
 pit of the public church of All Saints at Wittemberg, en- 
 ters into the most revolting details upon a most delicate 
 
 • Apud x\udin, p. 336. 
 
 t The first edition was that of Eisleben, Luther's birth place, in 1566, 
 twenty years after his death. It was speedily followed by others, at 
 Frankfort on the Oder in 1567 and 1571 ; at Jena in 1591 ; at Leipsic 
 in 1G03 and 17C0 ; at Dresden and again at Leipsic in 1723. 
 
 X M. Audin has exhibited copious extracts from the work, p. 3S7, 
 seqq. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 59 
 
 subject. The perusal of that sermon, even in the French 
 language — under the veil of which the translator of M. 
 Audin has wisely thought proper to leave it partially con- 
 cealed — is enough to raise a blush on the cheek of mo- 
 desty ! He preached this sermon in 1521, immediately 
 after his return from the Castle of the Wartburg, where he 
 had held his famous ** conference with the devil ;" and it 
 is worthy of such a master, if indeed the demon himself, 
 who is said to have little gusto for such matters, would 
 not have blushed at the obscenity of his wanton disciple ! 
 
 We may as well remark here, en passant, that it was 
 in this same church, about the same time, that Luther de- 
 livered the withering invective against Karlstadt and some 
 other ultra reformers, who had torn down or defaced the 
 statues and paintings of the church, during his absence 
 at the Wartburg. The following extract from this ora- 
 tion contains a boast characteristic of Luther. ** I have 
 done more mischief to the pope, even while I slept, or 
 was drinking beer with Philip and Amsdorf, than all the 
 princes and emperors put together !"* 
 
 We shudder, while we record the following horrid blas- 
 phemies, taken from his •* Table Talk ;" and we should 
 have refrained from publishing them, had he not set him- 
 self up as a reformer of God's church, and in that garb 
 seduced many. *' May the name of the pope be d' — — d : 
 may his reign be abolished; may his will be restrained ! 
 If I thought that God did not hear my prayer, I woul4 
 address the devil. "t Again : " I owe more to my dear 
 Catharine and to Philip, than to God himself.":|: Finally : 
 ** God has made many mistakes. I would have given him 
 good advice, had I assisted at the creation. I would have 
 made the sun shine incessantly ; the day would have been 
 without end."§ Could human wickedness or temerity 
 have gone farther than this ! 
 
 * 0pp. Lutheri, Tom vii. Chytr, Chron. Sax. p. 247. 
 
 t Table Talk, p. 213, Edit. Eisleben. 
 
 X Ibid. p. 124. § Id. Ed. Frank, part ii, fol. 20. 
 
60 d'aubigxe's history reviewed. 
 
 It is not a little remarkable, that from the date of his 
 "conference with the devil," Luther's moral career was 
 constantly downward ; until at last he reached the lowest 
 grade of infamy, and became utterly steeped in vice. 
 How strongly does his reckless conduct after this period, 
 contrast with his vigils, long prayers, and fasts, while 
 an humble monk in the Catholic church. He himself 
 draws the contrast in his own forcible manner. He tells 
 us that while a Catholic, ** he passed his life in austeri- 
 ties, in watchings, in fasts and praying, in poverty, chas- 
 tity and obedience."* When he had abandoned Catholi- 
 city, he says of himself, that he was no longer able to re- 
 sist the vilest propensities,! and that, *' as it did not de- 
 pend upon him not to be a man, so neither did it depend 
 upon him to be without a woman.":}: His immorality was 
 generally known, and he himself often acknowledged it. 
 ** He was," says Sleidan, a Protestant historian of the 
 time, " so well aware of his immorality, as we are informed 
 by his favorite disciple (Melancthon,) that he wished 
 they would remove him from the office of preaching. "§ 
 In his Table Talk, he often avowed the base passions 
 which raged within him ; but in language much top gross 
 for our pages. He sometimes complained, that *' the Wit- 
 tembergers who supply all the monks with wives, will not 
 give me one.''Il 
 
 Though he had made a solemn vow of chastity ; and 
 though the Holy Scriptures command us to fulfil our 
 vows ;^ yet he married Catharine Bora, a nun bound by 
 similar sacred engagements ! He hesitated long before he 
 took this step, and had some misgivings even •^vhiIe taking 
 it: his conscience did not become wholly seared, until 
 
 * Tom. V. 0pp. Coramentar. in c. i ad Galatas v, 14. 
 t " Carnis me<B indomiice uror magnin ignibus, came, libidine.'" Apud 
 Audin, p. 355. 
 
 X 0pp. Tom. V, fol. 119. Sermo de Mairimonio. 
 § Sleidan, B. ii. An. 1520. || See Meyer— Ehren Gedachiniss, fol. 26. 
 IT Psalm Ixxv, 12. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 61 
 
 some time afterwards ! While at the Wartburg in 1521 — 
 a little before his sutanical interview — he uttered the fol- 
 lowing exclamation of horror, on being shown some theses 
 of his recreant disciple, Karlstadt, in which this man al- 
 lowed wives to priests and monks — " Good heaven ! will 
 our Wittemberg friends allow wives even to monks ! 
 Ah ! at least thej will not make me take a wife."* And 
 again he says : " the friars have of their own accord 
 chosen a life of celibacy — they are therefore not at liberty 
 to withdraw from the obligations they have laid them- 
 selves under."! Three years later, in 1524, he said: 
 " God may change my purpose, if such be his pleasure; 
 but at present I have no thought of taking a wife.":}: 
 
 And yet, but a few short weeks elapsed, and he espou- 
 sed Catharine Bora! That he had some misgivings on 
 the occasion, would appear from these words of his letter 
 to an intimate friend, Wenceslaus Link — ** Away with 
 your scruples : let the Lord be glorified. I have my lit- 
 tle Catharine. I belong to Bora, and am dead" to the 
 world"§ — and to conscience (!). To Koeppe, another boon 
 companion, he wrote : " you know well what has happen- 
 ed to me. lam caught in the snares of a woman. God 
 must have been angry with me and with the world."|| 
 Luther at first felt the degradation to which he had stoop- 
 ed, by violating his sacred vows. In a letter to his inti- 
 mate friend Spalatin', immediately after his marriage, he 
 says, *' that he had made himself so vile and contemptible 
 by these nuptials, that he hopes all the angels will laugh, 
 and all the demons weep !"^ And yet this feeling soon 
 gave way to a conviction, which he expressed in a confi- 
 
 * At mihi non ohlrudeni uxorem. Lib. Epist. ii, p. 40. D'Aubigne 
 iii, 26. t If^^d' P- 3^ ; D'Aubigne, ib p. 26, 27. 
 
 } Epist. ii, p. 570, 30th Nov. 1524. 
 
 § Epist. Tom. ii, p. 245. Wittemb. edit. Seckendorf, 1. i, s. 63, 
 clxxxii. il Ibid. Tom. ii, p. 903. Edit. Altenb. 
 
 IF Epistola Spalatino. " Sic me vilem et contemptura his nuptii? 
 feci, ut angelos ridere, et demones flere sperem." 
 
 6 
 
62 D'ArBIONE's HISTORY RKVILWED. 
 
 dential letter to another friend, " that God himself had 
 inspired him with the thought of marrying that nun — Ca- 
 tharine de Bora! !"* Could infatuation go farther than 
 this ? 
 
 The whole world was astounded or shocked at this con- 
 duct of the Saxon reformer. The Catholics viewed it as 
 open sacrilege : many Protestants were saddened and 
 gcandalized. Among these was Melancthon, who deplo- 
 red this conduct of his master in a letter to Camerarius ; 
 but with singular inconsistency adds : " Wo, however, to 
 him who would reject the doctrine, on account of the sins 
 of the teacher." The accomplished, but wavering Eras- 
 mus, viewed it as but another proof of his caustic remark, 
 •' that the tragedy of the reformation ever terminated in 
 the comedy of marriage." In a letter written on the oc- 
 casion, he says: "this is a singular occurrence; Luther 
 has thrown off the philosopher's cloak, and has just mar- 
 ried a young woman of twenty-six — handsome, well-made, 
 and of'a good family, but who has no dowry, and who for 
 some time had ceased to be a vestal. The nuptials were 
 most auspicious ; for a few days after the hymeneal songs 
 were sung, the bride was delivered ! Luther revels, while 
 a hundred thousand peasants descend to the tomb!"t 
 The circumstance here developed may perhaps explain 
 Luther's haste in the matter. All Germany was aroused 
 by the tidings of Luther's marriage. His opponents, as 
 well as those who were indifferent, laughed at his expense 
 through all the notes of the gamut ! Sonnets, epigrams, 
 satires, epithalamia and caricatures, poured in on his de- 
 voted head like a hail storm, from every quarter: among 
 these, the best perhaps were those of Doctors Emser and 
 Wimpina. The former extemporized an epiihalamium in 
 
 * Epist. Wenceslao Link. 
 + Epist. Danieli Manckis Ulmcnsi. Oct. 6, 1525. This letter of 
 Erasmus has given rise to an animated controversy between the friends 
 and opponents of Luther. Those who may wish to see both sides, are 
 referred to Audio, p. 362, seqq. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMERS. 63 
 
 .Latin verse, and set it to music : *• Farewell ! cowl, prior, 
 guardian, abbot: adieu to all vows: adieu to matins and 
 prayers, fear and shame: adieu to conscience!"* The 
 latter is a wood-cut caricature, exhibiting, in withering 
 and ludicrous contrast, the marriage of Luther and the 
 divine injunction: " Vow ye, and pay to the Lord your 
 God" — Vovete, et reddite Domino Deo tuo.'f 
 
 Luther seems to have retired for a time from the pitiless 
 peltings of the storm—" dead to the world, with his little 
 Catharine" — but he again emerged from solitude, more 
 reckless and violent than ever. As Erasmus remarked, 
 ** marriage had not tamed him !" Indeed, it would seem 
 that " his little Catharine," gave him no U,'tle trouble and 
 annoyance. She sometimes played the part of the scold 
 and the vixen. He used to call her — after the honey-moon 
 of course — '* my master Ketha":}: — poor man ! 
 
 Before he left the Catholic church, he was temperate 
 and abstemious: during the last twenty-one years of his 
 life — from his marriage in 1525 to his death in 1546 — he 
 was much given to the luxuries of the table, and drank 
 beer copiously, if not to excess. Maimbourg and others 
 tell us, that he lost the use of reason at many of the sump- 
 tuous banquets, in which he was wont to revel with his 
 intimate friends ; and Seckendorf, his warmest admirer, 
 admits that " he used food and drink joyfully, and indulg- 
 ed in jokes"§ — even on the eve of bis death. In fact, so 
 
 * Cuculla, vale, capa! 
 Vale prior, custos, abbal 
 Cum obedientia, 
 Cumjubilo. 
 Ite voia, preces, horse. 
 Vale timor cum pudore : 
 Vale conscientia ! &c. 
 
 CocMmis in J d. Luihcri,i6\. lis. 
 t Psalm Ixxv, 12 ; Prot. vers. Ixxvi, 12. The only answer Luther 
 made to Wimpina, was this : " Let the sow gntnt." 
 X " JJomi?nis mens Ketha." 
 ^"Ciboet potn Mlariier usvs est; ei faceins indnhit." Seckendorf, 
 Commentar. de Lutheranismo. 
 
64 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 little was he in the habit of restraining his passions, or of 
 concealing his vices, that they all stood out in bold relief 
 — strong even in death ! 
 
 His death was in every respect worthy of his life since 
 he had turned reformer. His last words contained a refu- 
 sal to retract his errors, and a declaration that he wished 
 to die as he had lived ! We will give a few incidents con- 
 nected with his last moments. " I am ready to die," he 
 said, ''whenever it shall please God my Saviour; but I 
 would wish to live till Pentecost, that I might stigmatize 
 before the whole world this Roman beast, whom they call 
 the pope, and with him his kingdom." His pains becom- 
 ing very acute, he said one day to his nurse: "I wish 
 there was a Turk here to kill me." Hear how he prays, 
 while suffering: "my sins — death, the devil — give me no 
 rest! What other consolation have I but thy grace, O 
 God ! Ah ! let it not abandon the most miserable of men, 
 the greatest of sinners !" Witness again the spirit of the 
 following characteristic orison : '* O my God ! how I 
 would wish that Erasmus and the Sacramentarians, did for 
 a moment experience the pains that I suffer: then I would 
 become a prophet and foretell their conversion."* 
 
 After the sumptuous feast alluded to above, he gave 
 vent to his humor in the following strain, the subject of 
 which is the devil — his usual hobby: " my dear friends, 
 we cannot die, till we have caught hold of Lucifer by the 
 tail! I saw his back yesterday from the castle turrets. "t 
 The discourse subsequently turned on the study of the 
 Scriptures, and Luther made the following declaration, 
 which is valuable as a death-bed confession. *' It is no 
 trifle to understand the Scriptures. Five years' hard la- 
 bor will be required to understand Virgil's Georgics : 
 twenty years' experience to be master of Cicero's Epistles : 
 and a hundred years' intercourse with the prophets Elias, 
 
 • For more facts of a similar kind, see Aiidin, p. 482, seqq. 
 t Rareburgius, in his MS. Seckendorf. lib. iil, s. 36, cxxxiv. 
 
CHARACTER OF TIIK REFOR.IIKRS. ^5 
 
 Eliseus,John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles, to know 
 the Scriptures ! — Alas! poor human nature !"* And yet 
 the last twenty-nine years of his life had been devoted to 
 the promulgation of the cardinal principle of his new re- 
 ligion — that every one was fully competent to understand 
 the Scriptures by his own private judgment ! Well may 
 we exclaim — ** Alas ! poor human nature !" 
 
 Such was Martin Luther, after he had left the holy 
 Catholic church ! Compare his character then with what 
 it was before that event ; and then apply M. D'Aubigne's 
 test given above, and the conclusion is irresistible — that 
 he was not a chosen instrument in the hands of God for 
 reforming the church, which *' He had purchased with His 
 blootl.'l- Before he left the church, he was, as we have 
 seen, humble, patient, pious, devoted, chaste, scrupulous — 
 afterwards, he was, in every one of these particulars, di- 
 rectly the reverse! Does God choose such instruments 
 to do his work ? Was Moses, was Aaron, were the apos- 
 tles such characters? He, like the apostles, forsooth! 
 They were humbla, chaste, patient, temperate and modest: 
 he was proisd, immoral, impatient and shameless. They 
 had a mission from God, and proved it by miracles: he 
 had not the one, nor did he claim the other; though chal- 
 lenged on the subject, by the Zuinglians and by the Ana- 
 baptists.:]: Therefore God did not send him — and all of 
 M. D'Aubigne's canting theory falls to the ground. What 
 must the "lock" of the reformation be, if Luther's cha- 
 racter be the **key" — which suits its internal structure? 
 
 It would be easy to show, by unquestionable evidence, 
 that the other reformers were not a whit better than Lu- 
 ther. We have seen already what testimony they bore to 
 
 * Floriraond Remond, b. iii, c. ii, fol. 287. Laign, vita Lutheri,fol. 4. 
 
 t Acts XX, 28. 
 
 X See Audin, p. 239. Stiibncr, an Anabaptist, asked him to produce 
 his miracles. He was silent, though a little before, he had made the 
 very same challenge to Karlstadt, and renew«d it afterwards to the 
 Zuinglians ! 
 
 6* 
 
66 d'aubignb's history reviewed. 
 
 the character of each other ; and we shall have occasion to 
 recur to the subject in the sequel of our essay. "The 
 historian, Hume, has truly characterized the reformers 
 as * fanatics and bigots;' but with no less justice might he 
 have added, that they were (with one exception joerAa/35)* 
 the coarsest hypocrites :t men, who, while professing the 
 most high-flown sanctity in their writings, were in their 
 conduct, brutal, selfish and unrestrainable ; who, though 
 pretending, in matters of faith, to adopt reason as their 
 guide, were in all things else, the slaves of the most vul- 
 gar superstition; and who, with the boasted right of judg- 
 ment forever on their lips, passed their lives in a course 
 of mutual recrimination and persecution ; and transmitted 
 the same warfare as an heir-loom to their descendants. Yet, 
 'these be thy Gods,' O Protestantism! — these the coarse 
 idols which heresy has set up in the niches of the saints 
 and fathers of old, and whose names, like those of all for- 
 mer such idols, are worn like brands upon the foreheads 
 of their worshippers.''^ Whoever will read attentively 
 the veridical history of the reformation, will admit the 
 truth of this picture drawn by the great Irish bard. 
 
 * Melancthon. 
 
 t Bucer admits the justice of this reproach. Epist. ad Calvin. 
 } "Travels of an Irish Gentleman," &c. p. 200, 201. Doyle, New 
 York, 1835. 
 
Part II 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHARACTER OF THE REFORMATION- 
 EXAMINED. 
 
 The question stated — M. D'Aubigne's opinion — Mother and daughter — 
 Argumentum ad hominem — Jumping at a conclusion — Second 
 causes — Why Germany was converted — Why Italy and Spain were 
 not— Luther and Mohammed — Reasoning by contraries — Why 
 France continued Catholic. 
 
 We have seen what was the character of the chief in- 
 struments who brought about the reformation in Germany; 
 we are now to examine what was the character of the 
 work itself, and how it was effected. Were the reasons 
 assigned as the great motives for this alleged reform in 
 religion, sufficient to justify it, according to the judgment 
 of impartial men ? Were the means employed for bringing 
 it about such as would lead us to believe, that it was re- 
 ally a change for the better ; and were they such as God 
 would or could have approved and sanctioned ? Finally, 
 weighing these motives and these means, and making all 
 due allowance for the condition of the times, was there 
 any thing very remarkable in the rapid progress of the 
 reformation .? We will endeavor to solve these inquiries 
 in the following chapters. 
 
 M. D'Aubigne devoutly believes, that the reformation 
 was not only sanctioned by God, but that it was directly 
 his work. Let us hear how he discourses on the subject. 
 "Christianity and the reformation are, indeed, the same 
 revolution, but working at different periods, and in dis- 
 
68 d'aubigne*s history reviewed. 
 
 similar circumstances. They differ in secondary features 
 — thev are alike in their first lines, and leading character- 
 istics. The one is the reappearance of the other. The 
 former closes the old order of things — the latter begins 
 the new. Between them is the middle age. One is the 
 parent of the other; and if the daughter is in some re- 
 spects inferior, she has in others, characters altogether 
 peculiar to herself."* In opposition to this flattering 
 theory, we will endeavor to prove that the reformation 
 differs from Christianity, not only " in secondary features," 
 but also "in its first lines and leading characteristics;" 
 and that, if the former was the daughter of the latter, she 
 was a most recreant and degenerate daughter truly, with 
 scarcely one lineament in common with her parent. Ve- 
 rily, she had ** characters altogether peculiar to herself," 
 and she was not only " in some respects,". but in almost 
 every thing, not only " inferior" to, but the direct oppo- 
 site, of her alleged parent! 
 
 According to M. D' Aubigne, one of these '* characters 
 of the reformation peculiar to itself," was "the sudden- 
 ness of its action." He illustrates the rapidity with which 
 the reformation was established, by the figure employed 
 by our blessed Saviour to denote the suddenness of his 
 second comino;: •♦ As the lightninfj; coraeth forth from the 
 west and shineth to the east, so shall also the coming of 
 the Son of man be." ** Christianity," he says, " was one 
 of those revolutions, which was slowly and gradually 
 prepared ;" the reformation, on the contrary, was instan- 
 taneous in its effect: ** a monk speaks — and in half of 
 Europe the power and glory" — of the church of Rome — 
 "crumbles in the dust!"t This rapidity he views as a 
 certain evidence, that the reformation was the work of God. 
 For *' how could an entire people — how could so many 
 nations, have so rapidly performed so difficult a work ? 
 How could such an act of critical judgment,'' on the neces- 
 
 * Preface, p. iv. f Ibid. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMATION. 69 
 
 sity and measure of the reform, "kindle the enthusiasm 
 indispensable to great, and especially to sudden revolu- 
 tions ? But the reformation was a work of a very different 
 kind ; and this, its history will prove. It was the pouring 
 forth anew of that life which Christianity had brought into 
 the world."* 
 
 We trust to make it appear in the sequel, that the ra- 
 pidity with which the reformation was diffused, was the 
 result of " the pouring forth" of a different spirit alto- 
 gether. Meantime, we would beg leave to ask M.D'Au- 
 bigne to answer this argumentum ad hominem. If the 
 suddenness of the reformation be a proof that it was brought 
 about by the *' pouring forth anew of that life which 
 Christianity had brought into the world ;" would not the 
 contrary feature of Christianity — its gradual operation! — 
 be a conclusive evidence, that this system was not the 
 work of God ? And if this argument be not valid, what 
 truth is there in M. D'Aubigne's whole theory ? Would 
 not his reasoning, if reduced to the strict laws of logic, 
 rather prove that the reformation, differing avowedly as 
 it does in an essential feature from Christianity, was not 
 effected by the agency of the Divine Spirit, but was the 
 mere result of violent human passions, which usually 
 bring about sudden revolutions, both in the religious and 
 in the social system ? 
 
 It is curious to trace the farther development of his the- 
 ory. *' Two considerations will account for the rapidity 
 and extent of this revolution. One of these must be sought 
 in God, the other among men. The impulse was given 
 by an unseen hand of power, and the change which took 
 place was the w^ork of God. This will be the conclusion 
 arrived at by every one who considers the subject with im- 
 partiality and attention, and does not rest in a superficial 
 view. But the historian has a farther office to perform — 
 
 * Preface, p. iv. 
 
 t This we merely suppose with M. D'Aubigne, who gives no proof 
 of its truth. 
 
70 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Gofl acts bj second causes. Many circumstances, which 
 have often escaped observation, gradually prepared men 
 for the great transformation of the sixteenth century, so 
 that the human mind was ripe when the hour of its eman- 
 cipation arrived."* Now, we have given no little atten- 
 tion to the subject, and we claim at least as much im- 
 partiality as our historian .of •* the great reformation ;" 
 and yet, for the life of us, we can arrive at no such con- 
 clusion : we have reached one precisely contrary. And 
 the reasons which have forced us to make this inference 
 are so many and so cogent, that we are even under the 
 conviction, that all will agree with us, who *' consider the 
 subject with impartiality and attention, and do not rest in 
 a superficial view." 
 
 In examining the secondary causes, by which God 
 ** gradually prepared men for the great transformation of 
 the sixteenth century," our historian assigns a prominent 
 place to Germany. *' As Judea, the birth-place of our 
 religion, lay in the centre of the ancient world, so Ger- 
 many was situate in the midst of Christian nations. She 
 looked upon the Netherlands, England, France, Switzer- 
 land, Italy, Hungary, Bohemia, Poland, Denmark, and 
 the whole of the. north. It was fit that the principle of 
 life should develop itself in the heart of Europe, that its 
 pulses might circulate through all the arteries of the body 
 the generous blood designed to vivify its members. "t 
 
 He alleges the following most singular reasons why Ger- 
 many was *' ripe" for the reformation : " the Germans had 
 received from Rome that element of modern civilization, 
 the faith. Instruction, legislation — all, save their courage 
 and their weapons, had come to them from the sacerdotal 
 city. Strong tics had from that time attached Germany 
 to the papacy."! Therefore was she *' ripe" for a rup- 
 ture with Rome ! This connexion witli Rome " made the 
 reaction more powerful at the moment of avvakening."§ 
 
 * Preface, p. v. f B"'^!^' '- P- "«• X Tb. pp. 78, 7f». >^ lb. p. 7J>. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMATION. 71 
 
 Again : ** the j:;ospel had never been offered to Germany 
 in its primitive purity; the first missionaries who visited 
 the country gave to it a religion already vitiated in more 
 than one particular. It was a law of the church, a spir- 
 itual discipline, that Boniface and his successors carried 
 to the Trisons, the Saxons and other German nations. 
 Faith in the * good tidings,' that faith which rejoices the 
 heart and makes it free indeed, had remained unknown 
 to them."*' Therefore, when Luther and his brother re- 
 formers announced these ** good tidings" in all their pu- 
 rity for the first time — fraught too with endless variations 
 and contradictions — the Germans were prepared for the 
 *• awakening," and received the Gospel with enthusiasm! ! 
 Truly, M. D'Aubigne loves to reason by contraries, and 
 to startle his readers by palpable absurdities ! 
 
 No less curious is his reason for explaining why the 
 Italians did not receive the " Gospel." " And if the truth 
 was destined to come from the north," he says, *' how could 
 the Italians, so enlightened, of so refined a taste and so- 
 cial habits, so delicate in their own eyes, condescend to 
 receive any thing at the hands of the barbarous Germans } 
 Their pride, in fact, raised between the reformation and 
 themselves a barrier higher than the Alps. But. the 
 very nature of their mental culture was a still greater ob- 
 stacle than the presumption of their hearts. Could men, 
 who admired the elegance of a well cadenced sonnet more 
 than the majestic simplicity of the Scriptures, be a propi- 
 tious soil for the seed of God's word ^ A false civilization 
 is, of all conditions of a nation, that which is most repug- 
 nant to the Gospel. "t Those who have read Roscoe's 
 "Life and pontificate of Leo X," will greatly question 
 the accuracy of this picture of Italian civilization. 
 
 We shall prove in the sequel that before, and during 
 t^^e time of the reformation, Italy did much more than 
 Germany, to evidence her admiration "for the majestic 
 
 * Ibid. p. 73. t Ibid. p. 84. 
 
72 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 simplicity of the Scriptures." At present we will barely 
 remark, that the gist of M. D'x\ubigne's theory consists in 
 the assertion, that Italy was too "enlightened," too "re- 
 fined in taste and social habits," too " delicate in her own 
 eyes," and too *' proud and presumptuous" to receive the 
 "Gospel;" while Germany, being on the contrary less 
 enlightened, less refined, and more corrupt in doctrine and 
 morals, was a more genial soil — just the one, in fact, which 
 was most "ripe" for its reception, and most likely to fos- 
 ter its growth!! We award him cheerfully the whole 
 benefit of this, his speculation on the " preparation of the 
 Gospel." 
 
 To confirm his theory still farther, he thus accounts for 
 the singular fact that Spain did not embrace Protestantism. 
 " Spain possessed, what Italy did not — a serious and noble 
 people, whose religious mind has resisted even the stern 
 trial of the eighteenth century, and of the revolution 
 (French), and maintained itself to our own days. In 
 every age this people has had among its clergy men of 
 piety and learning, and it was sufficiently remote from 
 Rome to throw off without difficulty her yoke. There are 
 few nations wherein one might more reasonably have 
 hope^ for a revival of that primitive Christianity, which 
 Spain had probably received from St. Paul himself. And 
 yet Spain did not then stand up among the nations. She 
 was destined to be an example of that word of the divine 
 wisdom, * the first shall be last.' "* What a pity ! We 
 have little doubt ourselves, that these were precisely 
 among the principal reasons, why Spain did not stand up 
 among "the nations," who revolted against Catholicity in 
 the sixteenth century : and her having passed unscathed 
 through this fiery ordeal, may also serve to explain to us, 
 how she was enabled " to resist even the stern trial of the 
 eighteenth century, and of the revolution." Her people 
 were too "serious and too noble" — their mind was too 
 
 ^ Ibid. p. S5. 
 
CHARACTER OF THE REFORMATION. 73 
 
 "religious" — and their clergy had too much "piety and 
 learning" — to allow them to be carried away by the novel 
 vagaries of Protestantism. 
 
 Among the "various circumstances which conduced to 
 the deplorable result" — of her remaining Catholic, M. 
 D'Aubigne mentions her *' remoteness from Germany,'' 
 the *^ hearV of Europe — "an eager desire after riches" in 
 the new world — the influence of her " powerful clergy" — 
 and her military glory, which had just risen to its zenith, 
 at the conquest of Grenada and the expulsion of the Moors. 
 In reference to this last cause, he asks emphatically : 
 " how could a people who had expelled Mahomet from 
 their noble country, allow Luther to make way in it ?''* 
 This question is at least characteristic ! Was there then, 
 in the ideas of the " serious and noble" Spaniards, so lit- 
 tle difference between Luther and Mohammed ! 
 
 " Few countries," he says, " seemed likely to be bet- 
 ter disposed than France for the reception of the evangel- 
 ical doctrines. Almost all the intellectual and spiritual 
 life of the middle ages was concentrated in her. It might 
 have been said, that the paths were every where trodden 
 for a grand manifestation of the truth. "t Perhaps this 
 preservation of the " intellectual and spiritual life of the 
 middle ages," was a principal reason why France contin- 
 ued Catholic. A little farther on,:j: he says : "the (French) 
 people, of quick feeling, intelligent, and susceptible of 
 generous emotions, were as open, or even more so than 
 other nations, to the truth. It seemed as if the reforma- 
 tion must be, among them, the birth which should crown 
 the travail of several centuries. But the chariot of France, 
 which seemed for so many generations to be advancing to 
 the same goal, suddenly turned at the moment of the re- 
 formation, and took a contrary direction. Such was the 
 will of Him, who rules nations and their kings." We ad- 
 mire his pious resignation to the will of God ! This sen- 
 
 * Ibid. p. 86. I Ibid. | Ibid. p. 87. 
 
74 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 timent will console him for his disappointment : ** that the 
 augury of ages was deceived,"* in regard to France. He 
 adds, in the same pious strain : ** perhaps, if she had re- 
 ceived the Gospel, she might have become too powerful !" 
 
 He winds up his jeremiad with these and similar pas- 
 sages : "France, after having been almost reformed, found 
 herself, in the result, Roman Catholic. The sword of her 
 princes, cast into the scale, caused it to incline in favor 
 of Rome. Alas ! another sword, that of the reformers 
 themselves, ensured the failure of the effort for reforma- 
 tion. The hands that had been accustomed to warlike 
 weapons, ceased to be lifted up in prayer. It is by the 
 blood of its confessors, not by that of its adversaries, that 
 the Gospel triumphs. Blood shed by its defenders, extin- 
 guishes and smothers it."t That is, the reformation 
 sought to establish itself in France by violence and by 
 force, and signally failed ! Elsewhere, as we shall see, it 
 was more successful in the employment of such carnal 
 weapons. But Protestantism obtained sufficient foot-hold 
 in France to do incredible mischief for a century and a 
 half; and it sowed upon her beautiful soil the fatal seeds 
 which, two centuries and a half later, produced the bitter 
 fruits of anarchy, infidelity and bloodshed, during the 
 dreadful ** reign of terror !" 
 
 Such is the theory of M. D'Aubigne: and we now pro- 
 ceed to its refutation, which is no difficult task, as in fact 
 it sufficiently refutes itself. 
 
 • Ibid. t Ibid- 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 
 PRETEXTS FOR THE REFORMATION. 
 
 Usual plea — Abuses greatly exaggerated — Three questions put and 
 answered — Origin of abuses — Free-will unimpaired — Councils to ex- 
 tirpate abuses — Church thwarted by princes and the world — Con- 
 troversy on investitures — Extent of the evil — Sale of indulgences — 
 St. Peter's Church — John Tetzel — His errors greatly exaggerated — 
 Public penance — License to sin — Nature of indulgences — Tetzel 
 rebuked and his conduct disavowed by Rome — Miltitz and Cardinal 
 Cajetan — Kindness thrown away — Luther in tears — Efforts of Rome 
 — Leo X and Adrian VI — Their forbearance censured by Catholic 
 writers — Their tardy severity justified by D'Aubigne — Luther'i 
 real purpose — The proper remedy — The real issue — Nullification — 
 Curing and cutting a throat — Luther's avowal — Admissions of the 
 confession of Augsburg and of Daille — Summing up. 
 
 The most usual plea for the reformation is, that it was 
 necessary for the correction of the abuses which had crept 
 into the Catholic church. These are exaggerated and 
 painted in the most glowing colors, by M. D'Aubigne, 
 and by other writers favorable to the reformation. He 
 dwells with evident complacency on the vices of one or 
 two popes, and of many of the Catholic bishops and 
 clergy, secular and regular, during the fifteenth and six- 
 teenth centuries. He represents the whole church as 
 thoroughly corrupt, and states that, but for the reforma- 
 tion, religion would have perished entirely from the face 
 of the earth ! We have already seen how he compared 
 the reformers, preaching up their new-fangled doctrines 
 among the benighted Roman Catholics of the sixteenth 
 century, to the apostles preaching the Gospel to the Pa- 
 gans of their day ! And how coolly he assured us that the 
 •* reformation was but the re-appearance of Christianity !" 
 We record our solemn protest against the gross injustice 
 of this whole view of the subject. 
 
76 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 But we are asked — " What? do you deny the existence 
 of abuses in the Catholic church ? Do you deny, that those 
 abuses were great and wide spread ? Do you deny, that 
 it was proper, and even necessary to correct them ?" 
 We deny none of these things ; except that there is an 
 implied exaggeration in the second question. W^e admit 
 the existence of the evil complained of, especially about 
 the bep;inning of the sixteenth century ; and we deplore 
 it, as sincerely at least, as do the opponents of the Catho- 
 lic church. A good cause can never suiFer from the truth, 
 and the whole truth. Let genuine history pronounce its 
 verdict as to the real facts of the case ; and we bow to the 
 decision. But what was the origin of the abuses com- 
 plained of .^ what was their extent? and what was the ad- 
 equate and proper remedy for them ? We will endeavor 
 briefly to answer these three questions. 
 
 I. It was not the intention of Christ, nor was it the de- 
 sign of the Christian religion wholly to prevent the possi- 
 bility of abuses. He willed, indeed, that all men sliould 
 embrace his religion, and reduce its holy principles to 
 practice; in which case, there would have been no disor- 
 ders nor abuses on the face of the earth : and the world 
 would have been an earthly paradise, free from all stain 
 of sin. But this state of perfection could not have been 
 effectually brought about, without offering violence to 
 man's free will, which God, in his moral government of 
 the world, has ever wished to leave unimpaired. Religion 
 was offered to mankind with all its saving truths, its holy 
 maxims, its purifying institutions, and its powerful sanc- 
 tions of rewards and punishments in an after life. Suffi- 
 cient grace was also offered to all, to enable them to learn 
 and believe its doctrines, and to reduce to practice its 
 commandments. But no one was compelled to do either. 
 Among the twelve, who were trained under the imme- 
 diate eye of Christ, there was one ** devil." 
 
 Christ himself foresaw and foretold that scandals would 
 come; and contented himself with pronouncing a ** wo on 
 
PRETEXTS FOR THE REFORMATION. 17 
 
 that man bj whom the scandal comefh."* In his king- 
 dom, there was to be cockle, as well as the good wheat, 
 and he willed ** that both should grow until the harvesf't 
 of the general judgment, in which only, the final separa- 
 tion of the good and evil will take place. Nothing is more 
 foreign to the nature of Christ's church, than the proposi- 
 tion, that it was intended only to comprise the elect and 
 the just. The struggle between good and evil — between 
 truth and error — between the powers of heaven and the 
 ** gates of hell" — is to go on until the consummation of 
 the world : and Christ has pledged his solemn word, that 
 ** the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church ;":j: 
 and that he will be with the body of his pastors and teach- 
 ers "all days even to the consummation of the world. "§ 
 
 Abuses existed in all ages of the church, even during 
 her palmiest days. The writings of the earliest fathers — 
 of St. Cyprian, of Tertullian, of St. Ambrose, and St. 
 John Chrysostom — paint them in the most glowing co- 
 lors. The church never approved of them — she could not 
 do so even for a day ; for Christ had solemnly promised 
 to guard her from error. She bore her constant testi- 
 mony against them, and labored without intermission for 
 their removal. Her eighteen general councils — one for 
 each century — and her local ecclesiastical assemblies, 
 almost without number — diocesan, provincial, and na- 
 tional — what are they but evidences of this her constant 
 solicitude, and records of her noble and repeated strug- 
 gles for the extirpation of error and vice ? There is not 
 an error that she has not proscribed ; not a vice or an 
 abuse upon which she has not set the seal of her condem- 
 nation. She was divinely commissioned for this purpose : 
 and well and fully has she discharged the commission ! 
 
 Whenever she was not opposed nor thwarted in her 
 purpose, error and vice disappeared before her, like the 
 
 * Math, xviii, 7. ' t Ibid, xiii, 30. 
 
 t Math, xvi, 18. • § Ibid, xxviii, 20. 
 
78 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 mists before the rising sun. But she had at all times to 
 contend with numerous obstacles. This was particularly 
 the case during the middle ages. The princes of the 
 earth, especially in Germany, sought, during that whole 
 period, to enslave the church, and to make the bishops 
 the mere subservient instruments of their worldly pur- 
 poses and earthly ambition. This they endeavored to 
 effect by making them their vassals, and by claiming a 
 right to confer on them even the insignia of their spirit- 
 ual office. The effect of this last claim was to render the 
 appointment of bishops, as well as the exercise of their 
 spiritual jurisdiction, dependent on the whims of the secu- 
 lar power. The Roman pontiffs maintained an arduous 
 contest, for centuries, with the emperors of Germany and 
 with other princes, against this usurpation. The question 
 of investitures was one of vital consequence — of liberty 
 or slavery for the church. After a protracted struggle 
 the pontiffs succeeded ; but their success was neither so 
 complete nor so permanent as the friends of the church 
 could have wished. Emperors, kings, and princes, espe- 
 cially those of the Germanic body, had still far too much 
 power in the nomination of bishops. 
 
 II. The consequences were most disastrous for the 
 church. LFnworthy bishops were often intruded into the 
 principal sees. The example and the influence of these 
 were frequently baneful to the character of the inferior 
 clergy. Owing to the operation of these causes, the bish- 
 ops and clergy of Germany, many of them, had greatly 
 degenerated, about the beginning of the sixteenth century. 
 Still there were many brilliant exceptions. The evil 
 was by no means so general or so wide-spread as it is 
 usually represented. We are yet free to avow that it is 
 difficult to explain how such large bodies of the clergy 
 abandoned the church in many countries of the north, in 
 any other supposition than that they had sadly degene- 
 rated from primitive fervor. At the bidding of their 
 prince, or at the prompting of their own self-interest. 
 
PRETEXTS FOR THE REFORMATION. 79 
 
 they left that church which they had promised to defend, 
 and at whose altars they had been consecrated ! 
 
 The abuse and alleged sale of indulgences afforded the 
 principal pretext for the first movements of the reforma- 
 tion. The church had always maintained her power to 
 grant indulgences : she never sanctioned, in her official 
 capacity, the abuses which, at some times and in some 
 places, grew out of the exercise of this power. In the 
 early church the canons imposed long and painful public 
 penances on certain grievous transgressions, A canon of 
 the general council of Nice, in 325, had given to the bish- 
 ops a discretionary power to remit the whole or a part of 
 those penances, when the penitent manifested special fer- 
 vor. Other councils made similar enactments. During 
 the middle ages the rigor of the ancient penitential sys- 
 tem was greatly softened down : and the penances them- 
 selves were often commuted into alms or other pious 
 works. 
 
 About the beginning of the sixteenth century Leo X 
 conceived the purpose of erecting in Rome a temple, 
 which should far surpass, in dimensions and magnificence, 
 any thing that the world had ever yet seen. The origina- 
 tion of the plan of St. Peter's church was an idea worthy 
 the mind of that magnificent pontiff; and its erection, 
 which he commenced, is the noblest monument to his 
 fame. To promote an object so splendid, he promulgated 
 a bull, in which he promised ample indulgences to all who 
 would contribute to so laudable an undertaking. And, if 
 there were no other proof of the utility of indulgences, 
 the erection of that splendid temple, mainly due to them, 
 is a monument which would alone suffice to remove every 
 cavil on the subject. No one can enter that church with- 
 out being forcibly impressed with the majesty of God and 
 the grandeur of the Christian religion. His soul becomes 
 *'as colossal as the building itself!'' 
 
 Albert, archbishop of Mayence and Magdeburg, was 
 appointed by the pontiff to carry out the intentions of the 
 
80 d'aubigne-s history reviewed. 
 
 bull in Germany. He nominated John Tetzel, a Domini- 
 can friar, to be the chief preacher of the indulgences. 
 We have no mission to defend the extravagances imputed 
 to this man. To us it appears that much injustice has 
 been done him, and that his errors have been greatly ex- 
 ao-o-erated by his enemies. He seems to have been in the 
 main a good man, with little prudence or discretion. The 
 magnificent terms in which he set forth the utility and 
 efficacy of the indulgences should have been explained, in 
 common justice, according to the well known doctrine 
 and practice of the church on this subject. 
 
 One thing is certain, that the abuses of which he is 
 accused were not authorized by the church or the pontiff. 
 M. D'Aubigne, an unexceptionable witness, tells us as 
 much. He admits that, ** in the pope's bull, something 
 was said of the repentance of the heart and the confession 
 of the lips :" but adds that *' Tetzel and his companions 
 cautiously abstained from all mention of these ; otherwise 
 their coffers might have remained empty ;''* and that this 
 omission was in consequence of instructions from Arch- 
 bishop Albert, *' who forbade them even to mention con- 
 version or contrition. 't And yet, on the same page, he 
 acknowledges that confession, which necessarily presup- 
 poses conversion and contrition of heart, was a prerequi- 
 site to the granting of the indulgence ! *' Confession 
 being gone through (and it was soon despatched), the 
 faithful hastened to the vender."± 
 
 We have strong reason to object to this term "vender :" 
 the granting of the indulgence, even according to the 
 avowedly unauthorized practice of Tetzel, did not justify 
 the idea of a sale or traffic, properly so called. The of- 
 fering made on the occasion was entirely free : those who 
 were unable to contribute any thing, still obtained the 
 boon ; and those who M^ere able, contributed according to 
 their ability or will, no fixed amount being determined. 
 
 • Vol. i, p. 214. t Ibid. p. 215. J Ibid. 
 
PRETEXTS FOR THE REFORMATION. 81 
 
 All that even D'Aubigne asserts on this subject is, that 
 *' an angrj look was cast on those who dared to close their 
 purses."* When Protestant preachers take up collections 
 at the close of their sermons, for the support of themselves, 
 their wives and children^ can it be said with propriety, that 
 they sell their sermons for the amounts thus contributed, 
 even should it happen that those sums more than equalled 
 the value received ? But the questors of indulgences did 
 not go thus far, even according to the showing of our very 
 partial historian. He tells us, *• that the hand that deli- 
 vered the indulgence could not receive the money: that 
 was forbidden under the severest penal ties. ''t 
 
 He even admits, that, notwithstanding the boasted effi- 
 cacy of the indulgences, public penance was still enjoined 
 by Tetzel and his associates, for offences which had given 
 public scandal. " If, among those who pressed into the 
 confessionals, there came one whose crimes had been 
 public, and yet untouched by the civil laws, such person 
 was obliged, first of all, to do public penance.":}: Did this 
 look like patronizing vice ? Was it not rather a salutary 
 restraint on guilt, imposed as a condition for obtaining the 
 indulgence ? The very nature of the indulgence itself, 
 and the conditions always required to obtain it, and set 
 forth in the Bull of Leo X, far from fiivoring sin, or being 
 an incentive to its commission, necessarily precluded both. 
 An indulgence is merely a sequel to the sacrament of pe- 
 nance: it removes only the temporal penalty, which may 
 remain due after the sin itself and the eternal punishment 
 due to it, have been al ready remitted : and, according to 
 its very nature, it cannot take effect, until all grievous 
 sin has been already pardoned through sincere repentance 
 and the sacrament of penance. It offers then, essentially, 
 a most powerful inducement to repentance and amendment 
 of life. 
 
 * Vol. i, p. 216. t Ibid. 
 
 X Ibid. True, he calls this a " wretched mummery," because Pro- 
 testants cannot, or will not, understand or appreciate these works of 
 penance ! These are not to their taste ! 
 
82 d*aubigne'3 history reviewed. 
 
 The acts of Tetzel were officially disavowed by the 
 court of Rome. In 1519, Charles Miltitz, the papal envoy, 
 openly rebuked him for his conduct in the affair of the 
 indulgences; and even charged him with having been the 
 occasion of most of the troubles which during the previous 
 two years had afflicted Germany.* He, however, con- 
 demned the friar unheard, relying chiefly upon the exag- 
 gerated representations of his enemies. He M^ould not 
 even allow the Dominican to defend himself against the 
 grievous charges brought against him by Luther.t Among 
 these was the accusation, that he had uttered horrid blas- 
 phemies against the Blessed Virgin Mary. In a letter to 
 Miltitz, Tetzel indignantly repelled this charge : but the 
 spirit of the monk was broken; and he died soon after, 
 most probably of chagrin. Most writers of impartiality 
 blame the conduct of the papal envoy, who immoderately 
 flattered Luther on the one hand, and sacrificed Tetzel on 
 the other.f His motive, however, was a good one : to 
 conciliate Luther by removing all reasonable causes of 
 complaint, and thus to heal the schism with which he 
 menaced the church of God. 
 
 But Miltitz did not know his man. All conciliation was 
 entirely thrown away on him. The learned and amiable 
 Cardinal Cajetan, a year before, had made the attempt to 
 win him by kindness, in the interview they had at Augs- 
 burg. Luther was affected even unto tears by this good- 
 ness ; and, at the close of the conference, addressed the 
 cardinal nuncio in the following strain : ** I return to you, 
 my father ! . . . I am moved. I have no more fear : my 
 fear is changed into love and filial respect ; you might 
 have employed force, but you have chosen persuasion and 
 charity. Yes, I avow it now — I have been violent and 
 hostile, and have spoken irreverently of the pope. I was 
 provoked to these excesses; but I should have been more 
 
 * D'Aubigne, vol. ii, p. Id. 
 t See Audin, " Life of Luther/' p. 89, 90. | Ibid, 
 
PRETEXTS FOR THE REFORMATION. * 83 
 
 guarded on so serious a question, and, in answering a 
 fool, I should have avoided imitating his folly. I am 
 affected and penitent, and ask for pardon. I will ac- 
 knowledge my repentance to whoever wishes to hear it 
 declared. For the future, I promise you, father, to speak 
 and act otherwise than 1 have done : God will assist me; 
 I will speak no more of indulgences, provided you impose 
 silence on all those who have involved me in these diffi- 
 culties."* He concludes this letter with the followinor 
 sentence : ** I beseech you then, with all humility, to re- 
 port this whole affair to our holy father, Pope Leo X, 
 that the church may decide on what is to be believed, and 
 what is to be rejected."! And yet, but a few weeks later, 
 he published an inflammatory tract, in which he com- 
 plained bitterly of the severity of Cajetan, spoke harshly 
 of the pope, and appealed to a general council .J We 
 have already seen how, while he promised every thing to 
 Miltitz, he laughed, in letters to his private friends, at 
 the ** crocodile tears" and ** Judas-like kiss" of that 
 weak and duped nuncio ! 
 
 The reformation of abuses in the matter of indulgences 
 was but a pretext : the real motives of Luther and his 
 partisans were very different, as the result proved. The 
 pope, through his legates, had done every thing that could 
 have been reasonably asked for the removal of the evils 
 complained of. If the court of Rome was guilty of any 
 fault, it was that of excessive leniency to Luther, and of 
 too great a spirit of conciliation towards his partisans.^ 
 This was especially true of the good Adrian VI, who suc- 
 
 * Apud, Audin, ibid. p. 81. f Ibid. 
 
 } Lutheri Opera, Tom. i, fol. 217. Audin, p. 85, seqq. 
 § Pallavicini censures Leo X for his excessive forbearance with Lu- 
 ther, and for having commissioned Doctor Eck to publish the bull 
 against him in Germany. {Storia del Cone, di Trenio cap. xxv.) Mu- 
 ratori joins in the censures : " Papa Leone che ruminando alii pensieri 
 di gloria mondana, e piu che agli affari della religione agonizante in Ger- 
 mania pensando aL' ingrandimenlo della chiesa Umporale." (Annali, 
 vol. X, p. 145.) Audin ably defendg the pontiff, p. 115. 
 
84 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 ceeded Leo X in the pontificate early in the year 1522. 
 He immediately set about the work of reform with great 
 zeal, both at Rome and in Germany. He took from the 
 questors the power of distributing indulgences. In the 
 diet of Nuremberg, in 1522, he offered, through his le- 
 gate, Cheregat, to reform every abuse.* How were his 
 advances met ? They were repaid by triumphant insult 
 and indignity. The diet, under Lutheran influence, drew 
 up an inflammatory paper containing the famous centum 
 gravamina — or ** hundred grievances" — fraught with un- 
 founded and highly exaggerated charges against Rome. 
 And yet the good pontiff did not return railing for railing. 
 He still promised to do every thing in his power to re- 
 move all causes of reasonable complaint. This pontiff, 
 ** who thought not of evil, and of whom the world was not 
 worthy," according to the testimony of a Protestant his- 
 torian,! died of a broken heart after the return of Chere- 
 gat. All the poor of Rome followed his hearse, and be- 
 wailed him: they said, "our father is dead!" While 
 they passed, the people knelt down and burst into tears. 
 Never had funeral pomp called forth so deep a feeling.J 
 
 What, in fact, could Rome have done, v/hich she did 
 not do to redress every grievance, and to carry out every 
 necessary measure of reform ? Did the reformers ask for 
 forbearance ? Rome was perhaps too forbearing. Did they 
 wish for a spirit of conciliation ? Rome descended from 
 her lofty dignity, and met them half way — and then they 
 rudely repulsed her advances ! Even M. D'Aubigne 
 praises the forbearance of Leo X, and the ** equity of the 
 Romish synod," which prepared the bull against Luther.§ 
 He says : *' in fact, Rome was brought into the necessity 
 of having recourse to measures of stern severity. The 
 gauntlet was thrown down, the combat must be to the 
 death. It was not the abuses of the pontiff's authority, 
 
 * « Neaere Geschichte der Deutcheu, von Karl Ad. Menzel," a Pro- 
 testant. T. 1. Apud Audin, p. 280. 
 
 t Adolph Menzel, supra. Tom. i. p. iii. Apud Audin, p. 282, 
 X Audin, ibid. § Vol. ii, p. 101. 
 
PRETEXTS FOR THE REFORMATION. 85 
 
 that Luther had attacked. At his bidding, the pope was 
 required to descend meekly from his throne, and become 
 again a simple pastor or bishop on the banks of the 
 Tiber !* 
 
 Had Luther sought only the truth, why did he so often 
 consent to preserve silence, if the same obligation were 
 imposed on his adversaries ? Was this conduct worthy 
 the apostle of reform, and the boasted champion of the 
 Gospel in its purity? If he sought only truth, why did he 
 not abide by the decisions of those numerous tribunals, to 
 whose authority he himself had voluntarily appealed, as 
 the arbiters of the matters in dispute.^ Why abuse them 
 so intemperately, for having decided against him? The 
 love of truth and the reform of abuses, were but shallow 
 pretexts ; the successive appeals just alluded to, were but 
 crafty expedients to gain time : the real object was sepa- 
 ration from the church, and the forming of a schismatical 
 party of which he would be the head. 
 
 III. One of the tribunals to which Luther had appealed — 
 the general council of Trent — adopted every measure that 
 discreet zeal could have asked, for the reformation of 
 abuses. By far the larger portion of its decrees are de- 
 voted to the work of reformation. On the subject of in- 
 dulgences, the council employs this emphatic language : 
 " wishing to correct and amend the abuses which have 
 crept into them, and on occcasion of which, this signal 
 name of indulgences is blasphemed by heretics, the holy 
 synod enjoins in general by the present decree, that all 
 wicked traffic for obtaining them, which has been the 
 fruitful cause of many abuses among the Christian people, 
 should be wholly abolished."! The same decree recom- 
 
 * Ibid. p. 97. 
 
 f Sessio XXV. Decret. de Indulg. " Abusus vero, qui in his irrep- 
 serunt, et quorum occasione insigne hoc Indulgentiarum nomen ab 
 haereticis blasphematur, emeiidatos et correctos cupiens, praesenti de- 
 creto gerieraliter statuit, pravos quffistus omnes pro his consequendis, 
 unde plurima in Christiano populo abusuum causa fluxit, omnino abo- 
 lendos esse." 
 
 8 
 
86 d'aubigne's history revie^ved. 
 
 mends great moderation in the granting of indulgences, 
 and directs the bishops throughout the world, to detect 
 and refer all local abuses in the matter to provincial coun- 
 cils to be held every three years, whence they are to be 
 reported to the Roman pontiiF. Could any wiser or greater 
 measure of reform have been reasonably demanded ? 
 Mr. Hallam, a witness whose authority will not be sus- 
 pected, bears testimony to the merit of the Tridentine 
 fathers. After having refuted at some length ** a strange 
 notion that has been started of late years in England, that 
 the Council of Trent made important innovations in the 
 previously established doctrines of the western church: 
 an hypothesis," he says, " so paradoxical in respect to 
 public opinion, and, it must be added, so prodigiously at 
 variance with the known facts of ecclesiastical history, 
 that we cannot but admire the facility with which it has 
 been taken up ;-' he thus continues : " no council ever 
 contained so many persons of eminent learning and ability 
 as that of Trent ; nor is there ground for believing that 
 any other ever investigated the questions before it with so 
 much patience, acuteness, temper, and desire of truth. 
 The early councils, unless they are greatly belied [very 
 probably the case), would not bear comparison in these 
 characteristics. Impartiality and freedom from prejudice 
 no Protestant will attribute to the fathers of Trent ; but 
 where will he produce these qualities in an ecclesiastical 
 synod ? But it may be said, that they had but one lead- 
 ing prejudice (!), that of determining theological faith ac- 
 cording to the tradition of the Catholic church, as handed 
 down to their own age. This one point of authority con- 
 ceded, I am not aware that they can be proved to have 
 decided wrong, or, at least, against all reasonable evi- 
 dence. Let those who have imbibed a different opinion 
 ask themselves, whether they have read Sarpi through 
 with any attention, especially as to those sessions of the 
 Tridentine council which preceded its suspension in 
 
rRKTEXTS FOR THE REFORMATIOX. S7 
 
 1547."* The history of the council of Trent by cardinal 
 Pallavicini, which Hallam acknowledges he never read, 
 would greatly confirm this conclusion. 
 
 AH previous councils, both general and local, had 
 adopted measures for reform, marked with similar wis- 
 dom and zeal. Many of the decrees of the general coun- 
 cil of Constance, in the beginning of the fifteenth century, 
 as well as those of the general council of Basle,t towards 
 the middle of the same century, had been distinguished 
 by the same solicitude. M. D'Aubigne admits this. 
 ** Had not gentler means been tried for ages? Had they 
 not seen council after council convoked with the intention 
 of reforming the church !"J True, he says, without how- 
 ever even the shadow of proof, that " all had been in 
 vain."§ He also asserts against all evidence, that Mar- 
 tin V, who was chosen pontiff in the council of Constance, 
 A. D. 1418, with the express stipulation, that he should 
 carry out the measures of reform commenced by the coun- 
 cil, subsequently refused to redeem his pledge. II But did 
 not this pontiff' convoke councils for the purpose succes- 
 sively at Pavia, Sienna, and Basle ? And was it his fault 
 that his intentions were not fully carried out ? 
 
 The controversy did not turn on the necessity of reform, 
 but on the means best calculated to bring it about. There 
 were two ways of reforming abuses in the church ; the one 
 from within, the other from without — the one by gentle and 
 legal means, the other by lawless violence. The Catholics 
 were in favor of the former, the Protestants of the latter 
 mode. The former wished to remain in the church, which 
 Christ had commanded thein to hear, and to labor therein 
 for the extirpation of abuses ; the latter separated from 
 the church, and covered it with obloquy, against the so- 
 lemn injunction of its divine founder. Were not the 
 
 * " History of Literature," supra citat. vol. i, p. 277, note. 
 t Before it degenerated into a scliismatical conventicle, during the 
 last sessions. 
 
 + Vol. i, p. 104. § Ibid. I! Ibid. p. 5G. 
 
88 
 
 Catholics right ? Had they not the sanction of ages, which, 
 following the precedent set them by the inspired Apostles 
 themselves in the council at Jerusalem, had ever sought 
 to proscribe error and to correct abuses, by legal enact- 
 ments in general or particular councils ? And did not the 
 Protestants, on the contrary, follow the precedent set 
 them by the separatists and heretics of every age of the 
 church ? What difference is there, in the principle, be- 
 tween the Lutherans protesting against the decisions of 
 the council of Trent, in the sixteenth century, and the 
 Arians, against those of the council of Nice, in the fourth. 
 
 Besides, was not reason clearly on the side of the Catho- 
 lics ? Which is the proper way to cure a sick patient; 
 to remain with him, and to administer to him medicine, or 
 to separate from him, and to denounce him for his malady ? 
 Which is the preferable way to repair an edifice ; to re- 
 main within or near it, and to labor patiently to re-estab- 
 lish it in its former strength and beauty, or to leave it and 
 bedaub its walls with mud and slime ? Finally, which 
 would be the better patriot : he who would remain faithful 
 to the republic, and patiently await the progress of legal 
 enactments for the redress of grievances, or he who would 
 nullify the union under pretext of those grievances ? liCt 
 the seal of public reprobation set upon a recent attempt 
 of the kind — in which the principle of disorganization was 
 precisely the same as that which urged the reformers to 
 nullify the unity of the church — answer this question. An 
 old Protestant divine of the church of England, illustrates 
 the evil of separation from the church, under pretext of 
 reforming it, by the following quaint comparison : *' You 
 may cure a throat when it is sorCy but not when it is cut.'^* 
 This is, we suppose, in the style coupe. 
 
 Luther himself avowed the correctness of these princi- 
 ples, about two years after he had commenced his pre- 
 tended reformation. " That the Roman church," he says, 
 
 * South. « Sermons," vol. v, p. 946. Edit. London, 1737. 
 
PRETF.XT3 FOR THE REFORMATION. 89 
 
 •* is more honored by God than all others, is not to be 
 doubted. St. Peter, St. Paul, forty-six popes, some hun- 
 dreds of thousands of martyrs, have laid down their lives 
 in its communion, having overcome hell and the world ; 
 so that the eyes of God rest on the Roman church with 
 special favor. Though now-a-days every thing is in a 
 wretched state, it is no ground for separating from it. On 
 the contrary, the worse things are going, the more should 
 we hold close to it ; for it is not by separation from it that 
 we can make it better. We must not separate from God 
 on account of any work of the devil, nor cease to have fel- 
 lowship with the children of God, who are still abiding in 
 the pale of Rome, on account of the multitude of the un- 
 godly. There is no sin, no amount of evil, which should 
 be permitted to dissolve the bond of charity, or break the 
 unity of the body. For love can do all things, and no- 
 thing is difficult to those who are united."* Sentiments 
 worthy of a Gregorj^ VII, or of a Bernard ! Had he per- 
 severed in them — had he not immediately after substituted 
 a principle of hatred, for that principle of love ** which 
 can do all things-' — the world might never have been 
 cursed with the countless evils of schism ! 
 
 The sentiments of Luther just given were re-echoed by 
 the confession of Augsburg, the official expositor of Lu- 
 theran doctrines. In the conclusion of its exposition of 
 faith, it is freely admitted, that the Roman Catholic 
 church had retained every article of doctrine essential to 
 salvation, and that the abuses which had crept into the old 
 church were unauthorized, and aiforded no sufficient 
 cause for separation. " Such is the abridgment of our faith, 
 in which nothing will be found contrary to Scripture, or 
 to the Catholic church, or even to the Roman church, as 
 far as we can know it from its writers. The dispute turns 
 upon some few abuses, which have been introduced into 
 the churches without any certain authority ; and should 
 
 * Lutheri Opera Lat. torn, xvii, p. 224, Apud D'Aubigne, ii, IS, 19. 
 8* 
 
90 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 there be found some difference, that should be borne with, 
 since it is not necessary that the rites of the church should 
 be every where the same."* Even the Calvinist minister 
 of Charenton, M. Daille, much as he hated the Catholic 
 church, makes a similar avowal. After having enumera- 
 ted those articles of his belief, which he is pleased to call 
 fundamental, he says : " Rome does not call in question 
 the articles which we believe ; it even professes to believe 
 them. Who can deny, even in our day, that Rome admits 
 the necessary articles ?"t Why then separate from her ? 
 Hitherto we have treated of the origin and extent of the 
 evils which afforded the reformers a pretext for the refor- 
 mation ; and we have also endeavored to point out the 
 proper means of effecting reformation — the true method of 
 solving the great problem of the sixteenth century. We 
 will now proceed to examine the means adopted by the 
 reformers for that alleged purpose, and will endeavor 
 through them to account for the rapidity with which the 
 reformation was diffused. 
 
 * Art. xxi. Anno Dom. 1530. Confessio Augustana. 
 t " Institut. Chretiennes," 1. iv, ch. ii, and "LaLoifondee," part. iii. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE TRUE CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION, AND 
 THE MEANS BY WHICH IT WAS EFFECTED. 
 
 Saying of Frederick the great — What we mean to prove — Testimony 
 of Hallam — Doctrines of Luther— Justification without works — Its 
 dreadful consequences avowed — The "slave-will" — Man, a beast 
 with two riders — Dissuasive from celibacy — An easy way to heaven 
 — D'Aubigne's discreet silence — Testimony of the Diet of Worms on 
 Luther's doctrines — An old lady emancipated — Protection of princes 
 — Schlegel's testimony — The reformers flatter princes and pander to 
 their vices — A reformed dispensation — Character of reformed princes 
 — Their cupidity — Fed by Luther — Protestant restitution — Open 
 violence and spoliation — The modus operandi of the reformation — 
 Schlegel again — Abuse of the press — Vituperation and calumny — 
 Policy of Luther's marriage — Apostate monks — Recapitulation — A 
 distinction — The reformation '-'a reappearance of Christianity." 
 
 We believe it was Frederick the Great, of Prussia, who 
 first made the well known remark, *' that pride and ava- 
 rice had caused the reformation in Germany, lawless love 
 in England, and the love of novelty in France." Perhaps 
 the greatest severity of this remark, is its strict historic 
 truth. It, of course, was intended merely to designate 
 the first and most prominent among a variety of other 
 causes. Wm. Cobbett has proved — and no one has yet 
 answered his arguments — that in England, the first cause 
 alluded to above, was powerfully aided by cupidity, 
 which fattened on the rich spoils of the church, and by 
 the reckless pride of ascendancy, which revelled in, and 
 was cemented by, the blood of vast numbers of innocent 
 victims, whose only crime was their conscientious adhe- 
 rence to the religion of their fathers. 
 
 We will present a mass of evidence to prove that in 
 Germany, the reformation, which was commenced in the 
 
9:2 d'aubwsne's history reviewed. 
 
 pride of revolt, was fed and kept alive by avarice and li- 
 centiousness, vv^as propagated bv calumny, by violence, 
 and by pandering to the worst passions, and was consum- 
 mated and rendered permanent by the fostering care of 
 secular princes, without whose protection it would have 
 died away and come to naught. This is strong language ; 
 but it is more than justified by the facts of history : not 
 indeed as those facts have been travestied, miscolored 
 and perverted by such partial writers as M. D'Aubigne; 
 but, as they are clearly set forth by cotemporary historians, 
 and as they appear in the original documents. AVe shall 
 allege only such as are undoubted and clearly established 
 from these sources. 
 
 But before we adduce this evidence, let us see what a 
 very learned and enlightened living Protestant historian 
 thinks on this subject, to the investigation of which he has 
 devoted much labor. Mr. Hal lam gives us the result of 
 his researches in the following passages, which we quote 
 from his latest work. ** Whatever may be the bias of our 
 minds as to the truth of Luther's doctrines, we should be 
 careful, in considering the reformation as a part of the 
 history of mankind, not to be misled by the superficial 
 and ungrounded representations which we sometimes find 
 in modern writers. (M, IVAubigne for example). Such 
 is this, that Luther, struck by the absurdity of the pre- 
 vailing superstitions, was desirous of introducing a more 
 rational system of religion ; or, that he contended for free- 
 dom of inquiry, and the boundless privileges of individual 
 judgment; or, what others have been pleased to suggest, 
 that his zeal for learning and ancient philosophy led him 
 to attack the ignorance of the monks and the crafty policy 
 of the church, which withstood all liberal studies. These 
 notions are merely fallacious refinements, as every man 
 of plain understanding (except M. D\^uhigne) who is ac- 
 quainted with the writings of the early reformers, or has 
 considered their history, must acknowledge."* 
 
 * " History of Literature." Sup. Cit. vol. i, p. 165, sec. 60-61. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 93 
 
 In another place, he has this remarkable passage: *' the 
 adherents to the church of Rome have never failed to cast 
 two reproaches on those who left them : one, that the re- 
 form was brought about by intemperate and calumnious 
 abuse, by outrages of an excited populace, or bj the ty- 
 ranny of princes; the other, that, after stimulating the 
 most ignorant to reject the authority of their church, it 
 instantly withdrew this liberty of judgment, and devoted 
 all who presumed to swerve from the line drawn by law, 
 to virulent obloquy, and sometimes to bonds and death. 
 These reproaches^ it may be a shame to us to own, can 
 he uttered and canjiot he refuted.^^^ After making this 
 painful avowal, he enters upon a labored argument to prove 
 that the reformation could have succeeded by no other 
 means !t 
 
 The reformers, as we have seen, were not content with 
 clamoring for the reform of abuses : they laid violent 
 hands on the sacred deposit of the faith. Like Oza of old, 
 they put forth their hands to the ark of God, mindless of 
 Oza's fate !J Under the plea that the Catholic church had 
 fallen into numerous and fatal doctrinal errors, and that 
 the reformation could not be thorough, without the remo- 
 val of these, they rejected many doctrines which the whole 
 world had hitherto revered as the revelation of God; and 
 substituted in their place new tenets, which they professed 
 to find more conformable to the word of God. This is 
 not the place to examine whether these new doctrines are 
 true ; all that our plan calls for at present, is to inquire 
 what those doctrines were, and what was their practical 
 bearing on the v/ork of the reformation ? Were they real- 
 ly calculated to exercise an influence beneficial to morals 
 and to society? Were they adequate means to reform the 
 church ? As it would be tedious to exhibit even a brief 
 summary of all the contradictory tenets held by the early 
 reformers, or even by the early Lutherans themselves, we 
 
 * Ibid. p. 200, sec. 34. j Ibid. X 2 Kings (or Samuel) vi, 6. 
 
94 
 
 must confine ourselves to those broached and defended 
 by Luther, the " father of the reformation." And we 
 shall state nothing for which we will not exhibit chapter 
 and verse from his own writings.* 
 
 The leading tenet of Luther's doctrine was, a belief in 
 justification by faith alone without works. This is the 
 key to his entire system. Let us hear the modest way in 
 which he asserts this doctrine, one that he always styled 
 •*a fundamental article." "Well, then, I, Doctor Mar- 
 tin Luther, an unworthy evangelist of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ, do confess this article, ' that faith alone without 
 works justifies in the sight of God;' and I declare that, 
 in spite of the emperor of the Romans, the emperor of the 
 Tui ks, the emperor of the Tartars, the emperor of the 
 Persians, the pope, all the cardinals, bishops, priests, 
 monks, nuns, kings, princes, nobles, all the world, and 
 all the devils, it shall stand unshaken for ever ! That, if 
 they will persist in opposing this truth, they will draw 
 upon their heads the flames of hell. This is the true and 
 holy gospel, and the declaration of me. Doctor Luther, 
 according to the light given to me by the Holy Ghost,"t 
 
 This declaration was made in 1531 ; and, according to 
 M. D'Aubigne, who quotes Seckendorf, Luther's most 
 ardent admirer, he received ** this new light of the Holy 
 Ghost" while visiting " Pilate's stair-case"+ in Rome, a 
 few years before he turned reformer. This we apprehend 
 was an after-thought. Certain it is that, to get rid of the 
 conclusive argument against this cardinal doctrine drawn 
 
 • Some of the rao.iern editions of Luther's works have been greatly 
 expurgated by his admirers. We shall quote from the oldest and most 
 authentic editions, those of Wittemberg, of Jena, of Frankfort, of Alten- 
 berg, of Leipsic, and Geneva. That of Wittemberg was put forth by the 
 immediate disciples of Luther. 
 
 t Glossa in Edict. Imperiale. Opera Lat. tom. xx. Apud D'Au- 
 bigne i, 172. 
 
 X Properly called the " scala santa," or " holy stairway ;" from having 
 been once consecrated by the Saviour's footsteps, while he was enter- 
 ing into the pretorium to be judged by Pilate. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 95 
 
 from the Epistle of St. James, he rejected this Epistle 
 *' as one of straw ;" and that, to confirm this doctrine 
 still more, he boldly corrupted the text of St. Paul — 
 (Romans iii, 28) '* for we account a man to be justified 
 by faith v\ithout the works of the law" — by adding the 
 word alone after faif/i: and that, when challenged on the 
 subject, he made this characteristic reply: "So I will — 
 so I order. Let my will stand for a reason."* So much 
 had he this doctrine at heart ! 
 
 He pushed this tenet to the utmost extremes, and 
 boldly avowed all the consequences which logically flowed 
 from it. With him, faith was every thing — works were 
 nothing. On the 1st of August, 1521, he wrote from the 
 Wartburg a letter to Melancthon, from which the follow- 
 ing is an extract: ** Sin, and sin boldly; but let your 
 faith be greater than your sin. It is enough for us, 
 through the riches of the glory of God, to have known the 
 Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. -Sin 
 will not destroy in us the reign of the Lamb, although we 
 were to commit fornication or to kill a thousand times 
 in one day."t In his " Treatise on Christian liberty," 
 which he sent along with a most brutal letter^ to Leo X, 
 in 1520, "as a pledge of his filial piety and love,'' he 
 lays down as doctrines founded on the gospel : ** the in- 
 compatibility of faith with woi ks, which he regarded as so 
 many sins ; the subjection of the creature to the demon, 
 even when he endeavors to escape from him; and his 
 identification with sin, even when he rises towards his 
 Creator — when his hand distributes alms, when his lips 
 
 * " Sic volo — sic jubeo — slat pro ratione voluntas.'" He added : " I 
 wish I had also said, ' without any of the works, oi all laws !' " 
 
 t " Sufficit quod agnovimus per divitias glorise Dei Agnum qui tollit 
 peccatum mundi : ab hoc non avellet nos peccatum etiamsi millies uno 
 die fornicemur aut occidamus." Epist. Melanc. 1 Aug. 1521. Apud 
 Audin, p. 178. 
 
 X See this savage letter in Audin, p. 110, 111. It was written before 
 the papal bull had been issued, shortly after his conference with Mil- 
 titz, in which he had given and received the kiss of peace ! I 
 
96 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 open to pray, or invoke a blessing, and even when he 
 weeps and repents — he sins : * for,' says he, * all that is 
 in us is crime, sin, damnation, and man can do nothing 
 good.' "* On the contrary, sin is not imputed to those 
 who have faith : *' because," says he, *' although I have 
 sinned, Christ who is within me has not sinned : this 
 Christ, in whom I believe, acts, thinks, and lives in me, 
 and alone accomplishes the law."t 
 
 Another cardinal doctrine of Luther's, much akin to 
 this, was the denial of free will, and the assertion that all 
 our actions are the result of stern fatalism. He v/rote a 
 work expressly on " the slave will,"! and carried on a 
 rude controversy with Erasmus on this subject. His 
 principles in this matter are explicitly and openly avowed. 
 According to him, free will is incompatible with the di- 
 vine foreknowledge. *' Let the Christian know, then, 
 that God foresees nothing in a contingent manner ; but 
 that he foresees, proposes, and acts from his eternal and 
 unchangeable will. This is the thunder-stroke which 
 breaks and overturns free will."§ God is thus plainly the 
 author of sin, and Luther shrinks not from the avowal ! 
 He maintains ** that God excites us to sin, and produces 
 sin in us :"|| and that ** God damns some who have not 
 merited this lot, and others before they were born."^ 
 Man's nature, according to him, is thoroughly and radi- 
 cally corrupted : he is a mere automaton. *' Man is like 
 a beast of burden: if God sits in the saddle, he wills and 
 
 * Apud Audin, p. 111. 
 
 t Ibid. See Episiola Lulheriana ad Leonem summum Pontiftcem. 
 Liber de Libertate Christiana. Wittemb. 1520, 4to. 
 
 X " De Servo jlrbiirio,'' in opposition to the usual term, " liberum ar- 
 bitrium." 
 
 § De Servo Arbit. adv. Erasm. Rotcrod. Luth. 0pp. Lat. Jenae, torn. 
 iii, p. 170, seqq, 
 
 II Opera Jenae, iii, 199. Wittemb. tom. vi, fol. 522, 523. '^ Dass 
 Goit die menschcn zur s'unde antreibe, und alle lasier in ihnem icurcke.^' 
 
 II Ibid. Jenae edit, iii, 207— Witt, vi, 534, 535— Altenb. iii, 2l9, 250. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 97 
 
 goes whithersoever God wills ; ... if Sa<an ride him, 
 he wills and goes whither Satan directs : nor is it in his 
 power to determine his rider — the two riders contend for 
 obtaining and possessing him."* This is truly a charac- 
 teristic illustration of a most hideous doctrine! 
 
 Inhisiamous speech at the diet of Worms, in 1521, 
 he expressed his delight at the prospect that his doctrine 
 would produce discord and dissension : " You must know 
 that I have well weighed the dangers that I incur, the 
 displeasure that T cause, and the hatred which my doctrine 
 will excite in this world. I delight to see the word of 
 God bring forth discord and dissension. This is the lot 
 of the Saviour, who says : * I am come not to bring peace 
 but the sword ; I am come to separate the son from the 
 father.' "t Was there ever a more fiendish joy, or a 
 more glaring perversion of God's holy word ? 
 
 He rejected continence with horror, and looked on the 
 law of celibacy as an " awful blindness — a relentless cru- 
 elty of the pope — a diabolical precept — an imposing of an 
 obligation which is impossible to human nature.":]: In 
 1522 he wrote a letter to the knights of the Teutonic 
 order, in which he urged them, by arguments pandering 
 to the basest passions of the human heart, to rid them- 
 selves of this '* diabolical" yoke. We almost shrink 
 from transcribing the following passage from this appeal, 
 which was, alas ! too successful. "My friends, the pre- 
 cept of multiplying is older than that of continence en- 
 joine<l by the councils" (and he should have added, sanc- 
 tioned by the most solemn vows, voluntarily made, the 
 
 * " Sic humana voluntas in medio posiia est ceu jumenium : siinsederit 
 Veils, vuli et vadil sicut vult Deus ; . . . si insederit Satan, rult ct vadit 
 sicut Satan : nee est in ejus arbitrio ad vtrum sessorem currerc, aut eum 
 gucerere, sed ipsi sessores certant ad ipsum obtinendum et possidendum." 
 Opera, Jenae, hi, 176, 177. 
 
 t Apud Aiidiri, p. 163. D'Aubigne, ii, 235. 
 
 X " Perinde facere qui continenier vivere institnunt, ac si quis excre- 
 mcnta vet lotiuin contra natures impetnm retincre vdit.'^ Luther, Contra 
 falsa Edicta Csesaiis, T. ii. 
 9 
 
98 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 binding obligation of which he himself had recognized 
 but one year before*) : " it dates from Adam. It would 
 be better to live in concubinage than in chastity. Chas- 
 tity is an unpardonable sin ; whereas concubinage, with 
 God's assistance, should not make us despair of salva- 
 tion."! 
 
 He rejected in fact every doctrine, and abolished every 
 practice of the Catholic church, which was humbling to 
 human pride, painful to corrupt nature, or which imposed 
 a salutary restraint on the passions. Confession he re- 
 jected, as the " executioner of consciences. "J He es- 
 chewed monastic vows, fasting and abstinence, and pro- 
 scribed good works and free will. In his new-fangled 
 religion, the ministers of God were no longer bound to 
 say mass, or to read the divine office ; this would have 
 been an intolerable burden, incompatible with Christian 
 liberty ! In fact, he was no great advocate for prayer at 
 all — especially for frequent prayer : *' for," he says, ** it 
 is enough to pray once or twice; since God has said * ask 
 and you shall receive;' to continue always in prayer, is 
 to show that we have not faith in God."§ He forgot to 
 mention that Christ had also said : *' pray always and faint 
 not:" and St. Paul, " pray without intermission." 
 
 What, in fine, was left in his new system of Christianity 
 to fulfil those essential conditions of discipleship, which 
 our blessed Lord pointed out, when he said : "if any man 
 will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his 
 cross, and follow me ?"|1 Or to imitate the example of St. 
 Piiul — whose great admirer Luther affected to be — when 
 
 * Supra, p. 61. 
 f " In staht scorfationis vel peccaii, Dei prcssidio ijnploraio, de aaluie 
 non deaperandum." Ad Milites Ord. Teutonici, 0pp. Jenae, torn, ii, p. 
 211-216. 
 
 \ " Comdcniicc carnificina.'" 
 § Letter to Bartholomew Voii Starenburg; 1 Sept., 1523. — Audin 
 p. 208. 
 
 fl Matth. xvi, 24. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 99 
 
 he savs of himself: " I chastise mj body, and bring it in- 
 to subjection, lest perhaps, when I have preached to 
 others, T myself should become reprobate ?"* 
 
 M. D'Aubigne, though he professes to give a very de- 
 tailed history of the reformation, found it corivenienty 
 however, to forget, or at least to pretermit most of the 
 facts related above ; which, however, are essential to the 
 history ! But they did not suit his purpose, which was to 
 persuade the world, that Luther and his associates were 
 new apostles of God, and that the reformation was but 
 "the re-appearance of Christianity!" His whole view, in 
 fact, of Luther's doctrine, and of the entire reformation, 
 is a miserable perversion of history — an ill -contrived ro- 
 mance. His picture is no doubt viewed with delight by 
 those for whose special benefit it was drawn; but it ia 
 false in almost every light and shade ! Else why did he 
 omit so many essential facts ? 
 
 What was the necessary tendency of these new doc- 
 trines of Luther? Were they calculated to effect a reform 
 in morals and religion ? Or was their influence on society 
 essentially evil ? To aid us in answering these questions, 
 we will adduce the evidence of a cotemporary official 
 document of the Germanic empire — an extract from the 
 decree of the Diet of Worms in 1521 — which decree M. 
 D'Aubigne professes to give us entire.t "The Augustine 
 monk, Martin Luther, regardless of our exhortations, has 
 madly attacked the holy church, and attempted to destroy 
 it, by writings full of blasphemy. He has shamefully vili- 
 fied the unalterable law of holy marriage; he has labored 
 to excite the laity to imbrue their hands in the blood of 
 their priests;:}: and, defying all authority, has incessantly 
 excited the people to revolt, schism, war, murder, theft, 
 
 • 1 Corinth, ix, 27. f Vol. ii, p. 261 seqq. 
 
 X The Diet here cites Luther's works; and M. D'Aubigne furnishes 
 the reference to the present works of the reformer.— Luther 0pp. Lat. 
 xvii, 598. 
 
100 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 incendiarism, and the utter destruction of the Christian 
 faith. . . . I n a word, a nd passing ove r many other., £xil 
 intentions, this being, who is no man, but Satan him self, 
 under the semBIanl!B-ofTrtYttnT-TTrXTnonKTiood, has^col- 
 lected in one offensive ma^satrtTie'lv^rs^^ for- 
 
 mer ages, adding his own to the number." Making all 
 proper allowance for the circumstance that this document 
 emanated from a body opposed to Luther, it is still a sat- 
 isfactory proof of the evil tendency of his doctrines. 
 Would the great Charles V, — would the first princes of 
 the empire — in an official document, have stated facts at 
 random, and without sufficient warrant ? They were com- 
 petent v.'itnesses of events passing under their own eyes ; 
 they could scarceh^ be deceived, and they would not have 
 hazarded false statements, which could have been so 
 readily refuted. 
 
 But, if the doctrines of Luther were not adapted to the 
 reformation of the church, they were at least easy and flat- 
 tering to human nature ; and, under these points of view, 
 they were powerful means of rapidly diff"using the pre- 
 tended reformation which was predicated on them. Luther 
 could hope through their instrumentality, to gain over to 
 his party, the wicked of every class in society. To the 
 corrupt among the priests and monks, he held out the 
 inducements of getting rid of the painful duties of their 
 state — of bidding adieu to vigils, to matins and to prayers 
 — and of crowning their apostacy with the blooming gar- 
 lands of hymen I To the unmortified — and these were a 
 very large class — he promised exemption from confession, 
 from fasts and from long prayers. To the proud and pre- 
 sumptuous — and their number was legion — he off'ered the 
 flattering principle of private judgment in matters of reli- 
 gion ; assuring them, that every one, no matter how stupid 
 or ignorant, had an equal right, with the learned, and the 
 talented, to expound the Scriptures for himself. 
 
 How consoling this assurance to the old lady, who, sit- 
 ting in tiic chimney corner, had been hitherto content to 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF TUB REFORMATION. 101 
 
 con her prayers in private — to abide by the decisions of 
 the church, which Christ had commanded her to hear, un- 
 der penalty of being reckoned *' with heathens and publi- 
 cans" — and to leave the thorny paths of theological con- 
 troversy to the more skilful and learned ! She awoke to 
 new life — her eyes sparkled again with the joys of youth — 
 and she burst forth into a canticle of praise to the Lord, 
 for her emancipation from the degrading servitude of po- 
 pery ! And, what bright careers of glory were opened to 
 the ambition of young students in the universities, who, 
 through the new doctrines, could hope to shine in the pul- 
 pit, and to settle themselves advantageously in the world, 
 with their wives and families: and all this without any 
 sacrifice, or any great previous labor in preparing them- 
 selves for the ministry ! Verily, as Melancthon had said 
 to his dying mother: *• the way of the reformers was more 
 convenient' ' — and what mattered it, '* if that of the Catho- 
 lics was more safe!" This was a consideration of minor 
 importance ; or of weight only at the hour of death ! And 
 what thought they of death ? 
 
 But the chief resource of Luther, for establishing and 
 consolidating his new religion, lay in the fostering pro- 
 tection of princes. He understood this, and he accordingly 
 determined to gain them over to his party, by the most 
 immoderate flattery, and by pandering to their worst pas- 
 sions. The great and moderate Frederick Von Schlegel 
 assures us of this. "Luther was by no means an advo- 
 cate for democracy, like Zuinglius and Calvin,* but he 
 asserted the absolute power of princes, though he made 
 his advocacy subservient to his own religious views and 
 projects. It was by such conduct and the influence which 
 he thereby acquired, as well as by the sanction of the civil 
 power, that the reformation was promoted and consoli- 
 dated. W^ithout this. Protestantism would have sunk 
 
 * Wc shall see in the sequel what kind of " advocates for democracy" 
 they were. 
 
 9*^ 
 
102 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 into the lawless anarchy which marked the proceedings of 
 the Hussites, and to which the war of the peasants rapidly 
 tended; and it would have been inevitably suppressed, 
 like all other popular commotions."* The whole history 
 of the reformation proves the justice of these remarks. 
 
 Luther thoroughly understood his true policy in regard 
 to princes, and he never failed to carry it out. Even as 
 late as 1530, when Charles V was about to enter Augs- 
 burg to attend the diet assembled there, he cherished hopes 
 of gaining over this great emperor to his party. In his 
 letters and other writings about this time, he painted 
 Charles V ** as a man of God, an envoy of heaven, a new 
 Augustus, the admiration and delight of the whole world. "t 
 But when the emperor published at that same diet his fa- 
 mous conciliatory decree — by which he merely allowed to 
 the Protestants the free ** enjoyment of their temples and 
 creeds," but enjoined silence on them until the meeting 
 of the general council — the whole scene changed. Charles 
 was no longer **a new Augustus;" but *'heand his coun- 
 sellors were not even men, but* gates of hell' — ^judges 
 who could not judge his cause, and to whom he would not 
 give up a hair of his head."J 
 
 We have already seen how meanly subservient he was 
 on all occasions to his immediate sovereign, the elector of 
 Saxony. This prince was the most powerful protector 
 of the reformation, and, as we shall see, reaped a golden 
 harvest for his protection. But he had another motive 
 for defending Luther and his partisans. Luther and Me- 
 lancthon were the principal professors in his cherished 
 university of Wittemberg; and their great talents had 
 attracted to it vast numbers of youth from all parts of 
 Germany. At the period of the reformation, the univer- 
 sity became the focus of the new doctrines, and the ren- 
 
 ♦ "Philosophy of History," vol. ii, p. 205, G: edit. Appleton 8c Co. 
 N. York, 1841. 
 
 I See the authorities quoted by Audin, p. 440. t Ibid. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 1Q3 
 
 dezvous of all who favored them. The attractive nov- 
 elty, the stirrino; interest, the startling boldness of these 
 new tenets, together with the rude but overpowering elo- 
 quence of Luther, and the winning graces and versatile 
 genius of Melancthon, rendered this university famous 
 throughout Germany. The elector could not but look 
 with complacency on the men who shed such lustre on 
 an institution which he had erected, and the prosperity of 
 which was identified with his own glory. This was one 
 of the reasons which first inclined him to favor Luther. 
 It is not a little remarkable, too, that this same univer- 
 sity of Wittemberg was erected chiefly from the proceeds 
 of those very indulgences, the inveighing against which 
 was the first movement of the reformation ! 
 
 A remarkable instance of Luther's mean subserviency 
 to princes, is the permission which he and his chief parti- 
 zans gave to Philip, landgrave of Hesse, to have two 
 wives at once ! This fact is as astounding as it is un- 
 doubted. Philip had been married for sixteen years to 
 Christiana, daughter of George, duke of Saxony ; and he 
 had already several children. According to Menzel, a 
 Protestant historian, he was '' violent and passionate, un- 
 faithful and superstitious."* But he was a good Lu- 
 theran, nay, one of the most powerful friends of the re- 
 formation ; and he read his Bible incessantly. He be- 
 came enamored of Margaret Saal, a maid of honor to his 
 sister Elizabeth. She proved inexorable, and the land- 
 grave lost his appetite, and was seized with a fit of de- 
 spondency. In this distress, he h^d recourse to his Bi- 
 ble : he opened it at the fifth chapter of Genesis, and, 
 finding that Lamech had had two wives at once, he 
 resolved to imitate his example. 
 
 He however thought it advisable to seek counsel at the 
 hands of the principal reformers. Through Martin Bucer, 
 a learned reformed theologian, and a devoted courtier of 
 
 * Ncucre Gcschichie der Deutchen, torn. i. 
 
104 
 
 his, he proposed his case of conscience to the '* new apos- 
 tles" of VVittemberg. He stated " that he could not ab- 
 stain from fornication, and that lie must expect eternal 
 damnation unless he changed his life : that, when he 
 espoused Christiana, it was not through inclination or 
 love : that the officers of his court and her maids of honor 
 might be examined regarding her temper, her charms, 
 and her love of wine : that he had read in the Old Testa- 
 ment that many holy personages, Abraham, Jacob, David, 
 and Solomon, had many wives, and yet pleased God: 
 and that, finally, he had resolved to renounce his licen- 
 tious habits, which he could not do, unless he could get 
 Margaret for his wife. He. therefore asks Luther and 
 Philip to grant him what he requested." 
 
 The case was plainly and roundly stated ; and the an- 
 swer was no less direct. It was divided into twenty four 
 articles, and was signed by the eight principal reformers 
 of Wittemberg — Luther, Melancthon, Bucer, Anthony 
 Corvin, Adam, L Leningen, J. Vinfert, and D. Melanther. 
 The twenty-first article runs as follows : '* If your high- 
 ness is resolved to marry a second wife, we judge that it 
 should be done privately, as we have said when speaking 
 of the dispensation you have asked for. There should be 
 no one present, but the bride and a few witnesses who 
 are aware of the circumstance, and who would be bound 
 to secrecy, as if under the seal of confession. Thus all 
 opposition and great scandal will be avoided ; for it is 
 not unusual for princes to have concubines, and although 
 the people take scandal at it, the more enlightened will 
 suspect the truth. We ought not to be very anxious 
 about what the world will say, provided the conscience be 
 at rest. Thus we approve of it. Your highness has then, 
 in this writing, our approbation in all the exigencies that 
 may occur, as also the reflections we have made on 
 them." 
 
 The marriage took place on the Sd of March, 1540, in 
 the presence of Melancthon, Bucer, and other theologians. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF TUB RErORMATION, 105 
 
 The marriage contract was drawn up by a Lutheran doc- 
 tor, and duly signed by a notary public. In this instru- 
 ment Philip declares " that he does not take Margaret 
 lightly, or througli contempt of the civil law; but solely 
 for other considerations, and because, without a second 
 wife, he could not live godly, or merit heaven !"* Was 
 there ever a more startling instance of utter depravity 
 and unprincipled sycophancy ! Here, then, is a Protest- 
 ant " indulgence," in the very sense attached to the 
 term by Protestant writers ! And these men claimed to 
 be sent by God to reform the church ! !t 
 
 By such means as these did the reformers secure the 
 protection of princes. What was the character of such 
 of these as espoused the reformation ? Were they men 
 whose lives reflected honor on the new religion, and gave 
 a pledge of the purity of motives which had led to its 
 adoption ? Let us see. In the first place, there was 
 John, elector of Saxony, who, according to Menzel,^ was 
 one of the most gluttonous princes of his age, fond of 
 wine and of good cheer, and whose stomach, overcharged 
 with excessive feeding, was supported by an iron circle. 
 ** He had enriched his sideboard — the best furnished in 
 all Germany — with vessels of all sorts taken from the 
 
 * See the Insirumenium Copulationis Pkilippi landgrave et Margariia 
 de Saal, given in full by Bossiiet, Variations, vol. i. See also Ad. 
 Menzel, a Protestant, torn, ii, pp. 179, 192 ; and Audin, p. 479. 
 
 t Those who wish to see all the documents connected with this dis- 
 graceful proceeding, are referred to Bossuet's " Variations," book vi, 
 and to Bayle's Dictionary, art. Luther. They were kept hidden for a 
 long time, until Charles Lewis, the elector palatine, published them to 
 the world. There is no doubt whatever as to their genuineness. Bayle 
 twits the reformers on their mean subserviency to the landgrave, who, 
 he shrewdly suspects, had thrown out " certain menaces" in case of 
 their refusal to grant the asked-for dispensation ; and made them cer- 
 tain munificent promises in case of their compliance. The latter he 
 fully redeemed ; for after the death of Frederick, elector of Saxony, in 
 1525, he became the great Ajax of the reformation party in Germany, 
 M. D'Aubign^ admits this. 
 
 I Ad. Menzel, Neuere Gcschichic, torn, i, fol. 338. 
 
106 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 refectories of the monasteries, or the sacristies of the 
 churches."* He embraced eagerly a religion wliich had 
 abolished fasting, and which permitted him to indulge his 
 favorite appetite without restraint. Then came the pious 
 and scrupulous Philip, landgrave of Hesse, whose troubled 
 conscience was soothed by the panacea to which we have 
 just alluded. The second pillar of the reformation had 
 inscribed on the clothes of the domestics who served him 
 at table, the initials V. D. M. I. JFi., signifying Verhum 
 Domini manet in seternum — *' the word of the Lord re- 
 maineth for ever !" Lastly came Wolfgang, prince of 
 Anhalt, whose stupid ignorance was proverbial : and 
 "Ernest and Francis Lunenberg, who did not trouble 
 their vassals to pillage the churches, but with their own 
 hands despoiled the tabernacles of their sacred vessel8."t 
 Such were the princes to whose patronage the reformation 
 was indebted for its success and permanency ! 
 
 To secure their protection, which was essential to the 
 triumph of his cause, Luther left no means untried. He 
 recklessly appealed to the worst passions which sway the 
 human bosom. He held out to them, as baits, the rich 
 booty of the Catholic churches and monasteries. He said 
 to them, in a publication entitled Argyrophijax : "You 
 will find out, within a few months, how many hundred 
 thousand gold pieces the monks and that class of men 
 possess within a small portion of your territory. "J He 
 acknowledged, in one of his sermons, " that the church 
 ostensories made many converts to the new gospel. "§ 
 And M. Audin is entirely correct in his caustic remark, 
 *' that the convent spoils resembled the martyrs' blood, 
 
 * Audin, p. 424. f Id. p. 425. 
 
 X " Experiemini intra paucos menses, quot centum aureorummillia unius 
 exigucB ditionis vcstrcB monachi et id genus hominum possideant." Cf. 
 Cochlaeus, p. 149. 
 
 § " Viele sind noch fiiut evangelisch, well es noch Caiholische monstran- 
 zen gibt." Luther Pred. xii, apud Jak. Marx. p. 174, and Menzel, torn, 
 i, pp. 371-9. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATTON. 107 
 
 mentioned bj Tertullian, and brought forth daily new 
 disciples to the reformation."* 
 
 It was cupidity that induced Albert of Brandenburg 
 to apostatize from the Catholic church, *' that he might 
 plunder, with a safe conscience, the country of Prussia, 
 which belonged to the Teutonic order" — of which order 
 he was superior general — ** and which he erected into a 
 hereditary principality."! Francis Von Sickengen was 
 another of these spoilers, who, at the head of twelve thou- 
 sand men, " invaded the archbishopric of Treves, track- 
 ing his path by the blood he shed, the churches he pil- 
 laged, and the licentious excesses of his soldiery.":}: He 
 was but one of those powerful robbers who, according to 
 the testimony of an ancient historian, then converted 
 Germany, once so powerful and noble, into a den of 
 thieves. § The candid Melancthon ** avowed that in the 
 triumph of the reformation the princes looked not to the 
 purity of doctrine, or the propagation of light, to the tri- 
 umph of a creed, or the improvement of morals, but only 
 regarded the profane and miserable interests of this 
 world."!| 
 
 The rich spoils of the Catholic church and of the mon- 
 asteries not only induced many princes of the Germanic 
 body to embrace the reformation, but also caused them to 
 persevere in the cause they had thus espoused. In the 
 famous diet of Augsburg, in 1530, the conciliatory course 
 of Melancthon, who there represented the reformed party, 
 bade fair to heal the rupture, by reconciling the Protest- 
 ants to the Catholic church. But the Catholic theologians 
 insisted on two things: that the married priests should 
 abandon their wives, and that the Protestant princes should 
 
 * P. S45. t Rotteck, p. 93. Apud Audin. Ibid. X Ibid. 
 
 § " Potentissima Germania et nobilissima, sed ea tota nunc unum 
 latrocinium est, et ille inter nobiles gloriosior qui rapacior." Campa- 
 nus ad Freher-Script. German, torn, ii, p. 294, 295. 
 
 II *' Sie beciimmerten sich gar nicht um die lehre, es sie ihnen blosz 
 um die freiheit, und die herrschaft zu thun." Apud Audin, p. 313. 
 
108 D'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 restore the goods of the church upon which they had seized. 
 The former condition would probably have been complied 
 with; but, as Erasmus remarks, "the Lutheran princes 
 would not hear any thing about restitution."* The same 
 insurmountable difficulty interposed when, five years 
 later, Rome made her last effort towards bringing back 
 the Protestant party to the bosom of the Catholic church. 
 The benevolent labors of Cardinal Verger, legate of Paul 
 III, in 1535, might not have proved abortive, but for the 
 indomitable insolence of Luther,t and the refusal of the 
 princes of his party to disgorge their ill-gotten plunder. 
 
 After all this, we can scarcely restrain a smile, on hear- 
 ing the lamentations of Luther over the rapacity of the 
 princes of his party, whom he himself had excited to the 
 unholy work of spoliation. " To the d — 1," he cried out 
 in a rage, *' with senators, manor lords, princes, and 
 mighty nobles, who do not leave for the preachers, the 
 priests, the servants of the gospel, wherewith to support 
 their ivives and children J^^X '^^ey were, it seems, more 
 rapacious than even he could have desired. ** They gave, 
 with admirable generosity, the sacred vessels of the secu- 
 larized monastery to the parish priest, provided, however, 
 he had adopted Lutheranism. The rest went to their 
 mistresses, their courtiers, their dogs, and their horses. 
 Some, who were as greedy as the landgrave of Hesse, 
 kept even the habits and sacerdotal vestments, the tapes- 
 tries, the chased silver vases, and the vessels of the sanc- 
 tuary. "§ They would not abide by Luther's rules for 
 the partition of the confiscated property :11 and hence the 
 wrath of the reformer ! 
 
 He indeed occasionally condemned this rapacity in a 
 voice of thunder: he sometimes clothed himself in the 
 
 * " Res propemodum ad concordiam deducta est, nisi quod Lutherani 
 principes nihil audire voluerunt de restituendo." Erasm. Ep. p. 998. 
 
 t For an account of the outrageous conduct of Luther to the legate^ 
 and of the whole negotiation, see Audin, p. 474. seqq. 
 
 ; Table Talk, cited by Jak. Marx, p. 175. § Audin, 346. || lb. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 109 
 
 garb of a messenger of peace, and bewailed the violence 
 and other disorders which he had himself occasioned, and 
 even caused, by his frequent appeals to the passions. 
 But he could not arrest the course of the turbid torrent 
 of passion, which he himself had in the first instance 
 caused to flow. As well might he have labored to turn 
 back the waters of the Rhine ! Had he not, in one of his 
 inflammatory appeals to the princes of the empire, used 
 the following language, ** There is Rome, Romagna, 
 and the duchy of Urbino: there is Bologna, and the 
 states of the church; take them: they belong to you: 
 take, in God's name, what is your own ?"* Had he not 
 threatened them with the wrath of heaven, in case they 
 did not seize on the property of the monasteri.es ?t Had 
 he not, at almost every page of his works, made "a bru- 
 tal appeal against the priests, a maddening shout against 
 the convents — in a word, had he not preached up the sanc- 
 tification of robbery, the canonization of rapine ?"J 
 
 Erasmus bears abundant evidence to the violence which 
 almost every where marked the progress of the reforma- 
 tion. We will give an extract from one of his writ- 
 ings, premising the remark that he was an eye-witness 
 of what he relates, and not at least a violent enemy of the 
 reformers. ** I like to hear Luther say," says he, "that 
 he does not wish to take their revenues from the priests 
 and monks, who have not any other means of support. 
 This is the case probably at Strasburg. But is it so else- 
 where ? Truly it is laughable to say : * we will give food 
 to those who apostatize ; let others starve if they please.' 
 Still more laughable to hear them protest that they do not 
 wish to harm anyone. What! is it no injury to drive 
 away canons from their churches, monks from their monas- 
 teries, and to plunder bishops and abbots? But ' we do 
 not kill!' Why not? Because your victims take the 
 
 * 0pp. edit. Jenfe, torn, viii, fol. 209-2 18. A. D. 1545. 
 t "Gottloss seyen dienigen die diese giiternicht an sich zogen, und 
 sie besser verwendeten, als die inonche. + Audin, p. 349. 
 
 10 
 
110 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 prudent precaution of running away. ' We let our ene- 
 mies live peaceably among us.' Who are your enemies? 
 Are all Catholics ? Do our bishops and priests regard 
 themselves as secure in the midst of you ? If you are so 
 mild and tolerant, wherefore these emigrations, and these 
 multiplied complaints addressed to the throne? . . . But 
 then, why destroy the churches which they built?"* 
 
 It is curious to mark the modus operandi of the reform- 
 ers in doing their godly work of violence and spoliation. 
 We will furnish a few instances out of many. ** At Bre- 
 men, during Lent, the citizens got up a masquerade, in 
 which the popes, the cardinals, and nuns were repre- 
 sented. On the place of public execution they raised a 
 pile, on which all these personifications of Catholicity 
 were thrown, and burnt, amidst shouts of joy. The re- 
 mainder of the day was spent in celebrating, by large 
 libations, the downfall of popery. "t 
 
 " At Zwickau, on Shrove Tuesday, hare-nets were laid 
 on the market-place ; and monks and nuns, hunted by the 
 students, fell into them, and w^ere caught. At a short 
 distance was the statue of St. Francis, tarred and feath- 
 ered!" Tobias Schmidt, the cotemporary historian of 
 this outrage, here exclaims: *• Thus fell, at Zwickau, 
 popery, and thus rose there the pure light of the gospel !":j: 
 He assures us, in the same place, that "a band of citi- 
 zens attacked the convent, whose gates they broke, and, 
 when they had pillaged the chests and the treasures, 
 threw the books about and broke the windows :"§ the 
 town authorities, meantime, standing looking on, with 
 their arms crossed, in perfect composure, without even 
 affecting indignation ! Similar scenes were enacted else- 
 where. •* At Elemberg, the pastor's house was given up 
 
 * " In Pseudo-Evangelicos." Epist. 47, lib. xxxi. London, Flesher. 
 t Arnold, 1. c. th. 2, bd. IG, leap. 6, s. 60. Apud Audin, p. 847. 
 X " Also ist das Pabsthiim abgeschafft und hingegen die evangelische 
 rcine lehre fortegeplanzt worden." Tob. Schmidt, p. 3S6. 
 § Ibid. p. 334. Apud Audin, p. 34S. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. Ill 
 
 for several hours to pillage; and one of the students, who 
 was a conspicuous actor in this scene, which excited the 
 laughter of the mob, clothed himself in priests' vestments, 
 and made his entry on an ass into the church."* 
 
 We must also briefly state the tactics of Luther's great 
 patron, John, elector of Saxony, while gallantly attacking 
 a monastery of poor monks, or a convent of defenceless 
 women. He did not seek to stain his victory with blood ; 
 he sought rather the spoils of war. M. Audin compares 
 him very appropriately to Verres, the rapacious Roman 
 proconsul of Sicily, whom Cicero lashed with his wither- 
 ing invective. *' The proconsul of Sicily was not more 
 ingenious than Duke John of 'Saxony in plundering a 
 monastery. Some days before opening the campaign, he 
 was accustomed to send and demand the register of the 
 house, and then he set out with a brisk detachment of 
 soldiers. They surrounded the monastery ; the abbot was 
 summoned, and the prince, holding the registry in his 
 hand, caused every thing contained in it to be deliv- 
 ered.'-t 
 
 This illustrious example was followed up by the civil 
 authorities at Rosteck, Torgau, and other places. An 
 old chronicle of Torgau, printed in 1524, miuutely de- 
 scribes the revolting particulars of a nocturnal excursion 
 made to the Franciscan convent of the city, by Leonard 
 Koeppe and some other young students, who made an 
 open boast of their cruelty and profligacy on the occa- 
 sion.J At Magdeburg the magistrates resolved to act 
 more humanely. They put a stop to the work of plunder, 
 and allowed the monks to remain quietly in their cells 
 during the rest of their lives; "provided, however, they 
 laid aside the religious habit, and embraced the reforma- 
 
 * See " Das resultat meiner wanderungen," &c. Von Julius Hon- 
 inghaus, p. 339 ; and Audin, ibid. 
 
 t Arnold, loc. cit. th. 2. Bd. 16, kap. 6, 568, cited by Honinghaus, 
 supra. I Arnold, ut supra. 
 
112 
 
 tion:"* and manj of them, alas! preferred apostacj to 
 starvation. Such as would not apostatize were, in most 
 places, driven from their convents, *' were reduced to beg 
 their bread, and were the victims of heartless calumny. 
 They seemed abandoned by all. Art was as ungrateful 
 as mankind : it forgot that it owed its progress to their 
 labors. The people laughed when they saw them pass 
 half naked, and had no word of pity, no sigh of compas- 
 sion, for so many unfortunate creatures. Whither could 
 they go } The roads were not safe ; in those times there 
 were knights who scoured the high-ways and hunted after 
 monks, whom they took pleasure" in making eunuchs 
 " for the greater glory of God !"t 
 
 With all these facts before our eyes, can we wonder at 
 the testimony borne by the diet of Worms, quoted above, 
 as to the character and tendency of the Lutheran doc- 
 trines ? Protestants have acknowledged that the reform- 
 ation was indebted to this violence for its successful es- 
 tablishm'ent in Germany and the countries of the north. 
 We have already seen the testimony of Melancthon. Ju- 
 rieu, the famous Calvinist minister who had the confer- 
 ence with the great Bossuet, acknowledges ** that Geneva, 
 Switzerland, the republics and the free cities, the electors, 
 and the German princes, England, Scotland, Sweden, and 
 Denmark, got rid of popery, and established the reforma- 
 tion, by the aid of the civil power. "J A sweeping admis- 
 sion, truly, as candid as it is clearly founded on the facts 
 of history ! 
 
 The great Frederick Von Schlegel has v/ell observed 
 that " Protestantism was the work of man ; and it appears 
 in no other liglit even in the history which its own disci- 
 ples have drawn of its origin. The partisans of the re- 
 
 * Marcheineke, th. 2, s. 41. Audin, ibid. 
 
 t Ulrich Hutten boasts of this. Epist. ad Lutherum, part ii, p. 128. 
 Cf. Audin, p. 200. 
 
 X Cf. Jak. Marx. " Die Ursachen der Schncllsn verbrcitung der 
 Eeibrmation^" p. 164 ; apud Audin, p. 843. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 113 
 
 formation proclaimed indeed, at the outset, that, if it 
 were more than a human work, it would endure, and that 
 its duration would serve as a proof of its divine origin. 
 But surely no one will consider this an adequate proof, 
 when he reflects that the great Mohammedan heresy, 
 which, more than any other, destroys and obliterates the 
 divine image stamped on the human soul, has stood its 
 ground for full twelve hundred years; though this reli- 
 gion, if it proceed from no worse source, is at best a human 
 work."* 
 
 He says also : " that the reformation was established in 
 Denmark chiefly, though not exclusively, as in Sweden, 
 by the sovereign power: in Iceland its establishment was 
 almost the work of violence. "t True, he indicates the 
 opinion that Protestantism was introduced into other 
 German countries ** by the torrent of popular opinion :''J 
 but we have already seen what kind of a torrent this was, 
 what ruins it left in its course ; how its waters were 
 swollen by the rude eloquence of Luther and his parti- 
 zans ; and how their maddening violence was increased 
 by the lawless passions of the princes who espoused the 
 cause of the reformation ! 
 
 Our summary of the means employed to promote the 
 success of the reformation would be incomplete, without 
 adverting to one other cause which contributed, at least 
 as much as those already named, to produce that effect. 
 We allude to the flagrant abuse of the press, which, 
 during that period, poured forth a torrent of ridicule, in- 
 vective, abuse, misrepresentation, and calumny against 
 the Catholics, flooding all Germany with pestiferous publi- 
 cations. The violence of the pulpit powerfully seconded 
 that of the press. Luther thundered from the pulpit of 
 All Saints at Wittemberg, as well as from those of the 
 other principal cities of Saxony. He lashed, with his 
 burning invectives, popes, bishops, priests, and monks : 
 
 * " Philosophy of History," ii, 218. f Ibid. p. 225. J lb. 224. 
 10* 
 
114 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 wherever his words fell they were a consuming fire. In- 
 defatigable in his exertions, he published book after 
 book, inflammatory pamphlet after inflammatory pamph- 
 let, against the abominations of Rome. His books were 
 eagerly sought after, and as greedily devoured. That 
 " On the Captivity of Babylon," in which he painted the 
 pope as Antichrist, went rapidly through ten editions ! 
 The annual book-fairs at Leipsic and Frankfort never 
 before presented so animated a spectacle, or drove so 
 brisk a business. 
 
 The works of the champions of Catholicity — of Eck, 
 Emser, Prierias, and Hochstraet — found not so ready a 
 sale. They had not the overweening charm of novelty ; 
 they dealt not in such rude denunciations; they were not 
 so replete with ridicule or vulgar conceits ! Even the 
 veteran Erasmus, who had been erewhile styled " the 
 prince of letters," " the star of Germany," " the high- 
 priest of polite literature" — even the witty, and polished, 
 and classical Erasmus could not find purchasers for his 
 Hyperasjndes and other works which he had published, 
 after he had at length consented to enter the lists with 
 Luther ! His glory had faded, and the book-publishers 
 complained of having to keep his works on hand unsold ! 
 
 Many causes contributed to this result. In that period 
 of maddening excitement, nothing suited the popular 
 palate which was not new and startling. The calm and 
 dignified defence of truth, alas ! now grown antiquated 
 and obsolete, could not cope with the exciting character 
 and versatile graces of error. It has been ever so. Per- 
 verse human nature has ever been inclined to relish what 
 is most agreeable to its passions. It more readily believes 
 what is evil than what is good, especially when the former 
 is served up with the winning graces of rhetoric, and sea- 
 soned with sarcasm, ridicule, and denunciation. Besides, 
 the press sent forth the works of the reformers neatly and 
 correctly printed ; whereas those of the Catliolics were 
 often so clumsily executed as to excite ridicule and dis- 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THR REFORMATION. 115 
 
 gust. The principal book sellers had joined the reform 
 party, and many of the apostate monks had exchanged 
 their former occupation of transcribing manuscripts for 
 that of type-compositors and proof-readers in the princi- 
 pal printing establishments. The press thus became al- 
 most wholly subservient to the Protestant party ; and the 
 recreant monks became the most zealous champions of the 
 new opinions. 
 
 A Catholic book which passed through their hands was 
 generally mutilated, or at least printed with great negli- 
 gence. Cochlseus and others complain of this injustice. 
 He says " that the works of Catholics were often so badly 
 printed that they did more service to the Lutheran party 
 than to their own cause ; and that the Frankfort mer- 
 chants openly laughed at their clumsy execution."* 
 
 Froben, the great bookseller of Basle, made a splendid 
 fortune by selling the works of Luther, which he repro- 
 duced in every form, and published at the cheapest rates. 
 In a letter to the reformer, he chuckles with delight over 
 his success : ** All your works are bought up ; I have not 
 ten copies on hand : never did books sell so well."t 
 Erasmus, in a letter to Henry VIII of England, com- 
 plains that " he could find no printer who would dare 
 publish any thing against Luther. Were it against the 
 pope," he adds, " there would be no difficulty.":}: 
 
 The great Bellarmine, who, towards the close of the 
 sixteenth century, undertook the herculean task of refut- 
 ing the works of the .reformers — a task which he executed 
 in a most masterly and triumphant manner — assures us 
 
 *<'£atamen neglectim, ita festinanter et vitiose imprimebant, ut 
 majorem giatiain eo obsequio referrent Lutheranis quam Catholicis. 
 Si quis eorum justiorem Catholicis operam impenderent, hi a caeteris in 
 publicis mercatibus Frankofordise ac alibi, vexabantur et ridebantur, 
 velut papistse et saccrdotura servi." Cochl. p. 58, 59. 
 
 t 0pp. Lutheri, torn, i, p. 3SS, 389. 
 
 + Epist. Erasmi, p. 752. For further particulars, see Audin, p. 337, 
 seqq. 
 
116 d'aubigxe's history reviewed. 
 
 ** that there were few among the Protestant party who 
 did not write something, and that iheir books not only 
 spread like a cancer, but that they were diffused over the 
 land like swarms of locusts.* Books of every size, from 
 the ponderous folio to the humble pamphlet, were scat- 
 tered through Germany on the wings of the press. And 
 what were the weapons which these productions wielded 
 with so great effect ? Were they those of truth and of 
 sound argument ? Or were they those of low abuse, scur- 
 rilous misrepresentation, and open calumny ? If there 
 is any truth in history, the latter were put in requisition 
 much oftener than the former. Catholic doctrines traves- 
 tied and misrepresented — Catholic practices ridiculed — 
 Catholic bishops and priests vilified and openly calumni- 
 ated — these were the means which the reformers em- 
 ployed with so murderous an effect.! 
 
 And though all sins should not in justice be visited on 
 their children in the faith, yet truth compels the avowal 
 that, in these respects at least, they have not proved rec- 
 reant disciples. This is still the panoply of Protestant 
 warfare! We wish from our hearts it were otherwise ! 
 The poet's remark is true both of the first reformers and 
 
 * " Rari sunt apud adversaries qui non aliquid scribunt, quorum libri 
 nori jam ut cancer serpent, sed velut agmina locustarum volitant.** 
 0pp. torn, i, de Controv. in Praefat. 
 
 t To calumny might be added forgery, which was not uncommon 
 in the palmy days of the reformation. In fact, Whitaker, a Protestant 
 parson, says that it was peculiar to the reformed party. We will allude 
 to one notorious instance in Germany. Otho Pack, vice-chancellor of 
 Duke George of Saxony, forged a pretended Catholic plot, which he 
 professed to have learned by prying into the secrets of the duke. His 
 forgery caused the elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse to 
 take up arms, which they however laid down when the falsehoods of 
 this wretch were detected. Yet the forgery, though thus exposed, was 
 greedily seized up, and published all over Germany ; and there are yet 
 several writers who speak of the conspiracy it had fabricated at the 
 league of Passau ! Titus Gates had a predecessor, it seems, in Ger- 
 many, though he far surpassed him in wickedness. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 117 
 
 of their modern disciples, in their writings against the 
 Catholic church : 
 
 " A hideous figure of their face they drew, 
 
 Nor hues nor looks, nor colors true : 
 
 And this grotesque design exposed to public view."* 
 
 We shall make a few specifications, to prove that we 
 have not done injustice to the character of the writings 
 published by the early reformers. One means of attack- 
 ing the character of the Catholics, was that of the Dia- 
 logue, invented by Ulrich von Hutten, one of the most 
 unscrupulous writers of the reform party. It consisted 
 in introducing, with dramatic effect, the various distin- 
 guished men of both sides, the Catholic and the Protest- 
 ant — and letting them speak out their own sentiments. 
 These dialogues were often acted on the stage, with great 
 effect among the populace. The Catholics were traves- 
 tied, and made to appear in the most ridiculous light; 
 while their adversaries were always victorious. Two of 
 these principal scenic representations were designed to 
 ridicule two of the chief champions of Catholicity in Ger- 
 many — Doctors Hochstraet and Eck. The lowest humor 
 — with certain specimens of which we will not dare sullj 
 our pages — was employed against these distinguished 
 divines.t The result was, that they became objects of 
 contempt throughout Germany. This was one way to 
 answer their arguments ! 
 
 Every one, who has glanced at the history of those 
 turbulent times, is familiar with the vulgar legends of the 
 ** Pope-Ass and Monk Calf," published by Melancthon 
 and Luther, and circulated with prodigious effect. The 
 ** Pope-Ass" was extracted from the bottom of the Tiber 
 in 1494; and the "Monk-Calf," was discovered at Fri- 
 
 * Dryden. 
 
 t The curious are referred, for copious extracts from these " dia- 
 logues," to Audin,p. 186, seqq. 
 
118 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 burg, in Misnia, in 1523.* Lucas Kranach, a painter of 
 the time, sculptured this vulgar conceit on wood ; and 
 this illustration accompanied the description of the two 
 monsters. What surprises us most is, that the temperate 
 Melancthon should have lent himself to this low ribaldry, 
 which was then current for wit ! 
 
 Erasmus and other cotemporary writers, openly accused 
 the reformers of gross calumny. The former alleges 
 many facts to justify his charge. *' Those people are 
 profuse of calumnies. They circulated a report of a 
 canon, who complained of not finding Zurich as moral 
 after the preaching of Zuinglius as before. ... In the 
 same spirit of candor they have accused another priest of 
 libertinism, whom I, and all other persons acquainted 
 with him, know to be pure in word and action. They 
 have calumniated the canon because he hates sectaries; 
 and the priest, because, after having manifested an incli- 
 nation to their doctrines, he suddenly abandoned them."t 
 
 We might fill a volume with specimens of the scurril- 
 ous abuse and wicked calumnies of Luther against the 
 popes, bishops, monks, and Catholic priesthood ! We con- 
 sult brevity, and furnish but one or two instances from 
 his Table-Talk, which abounds with such specimens of 
 decency. ** The monks are lineal descendants of Satan. 
 When you wish to paint the devil, mufile him up in a 
 monk's habit."j: Elsewhere he says, ** that the devil 
 strangled Emser,"§ and other Catholic clergymen. 
 
 Luther's marriage was not only a sacrilegious violation 
 of his solemn vows — it was also a master-stroke of policy. 
 Through its influence, he secured the adherence and per- 
 
 * " Interpretatio duorum horribilium monstrorum," he, per Philip- 
 pum Meiancthonem et Martinum Lutherum — inter 0pp. Luth. torn. 
 ii, p. 392. 
 
 j " In Pseudo-Evangelicos," Epist. lib. xxxi, 47. London, Flesher. 
 
 X " Table Talk," p. 109, where he adds : " What a roar of laughter 
 there must be in hell when a monk goes down to it 1" Cf. Audin, p. 
 395, and also p. 393, seqq. § Ibid. 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 119 
 
 severing aid of a whole army of apostate monks, who 
 eagerly followed his example. Until he took this decisive 
 step, marriage among the clergy and monks was viewed 
 with ridicule, if not with abhorrence by the people. 
 After his marriage, it became on the contrary a matter of 
 boast : priests, monks, and nuns hastened to '* the ale-pope 
 of the Black Eagle," to obtain this strange absolution 
 from their vows plighted to heaven : and he received them 
 with open arms, and granted them an *' Indulgence," 
 which never pope had granted before ! Sacrilegious 
 impurity stalked abroad with shameless front throughout 
 Germany. 
 
 The married priests became the most untiring friends of 
 the reform, to which they were indebted for their emanci- 
 pation from popery, and for their loives. We have seen 
 them already in the book shops and the printing presses. 
 Many of them obtained their livelihood, by circulating 
 Lutheran pamphlets through the country.* Others '* took 
 their stand near the church-gates, and often, during the 
 divine offices, exhibited caricatures of the pope and the 
 bishops."! They carried on a relentless war against the 
 pope, con amore ; and it is remarked, that few, if any of 
 these married priests and monks, ever repented, or relent- 
 ed in their opposition against the Catholic church ! Lu- 
 ther thus, by his marriage, raised up a whole army of zea- 
 lous and efficient partisans, whose co-operation powerfully 
 aided the progress of reform.^ 
 
 Such then were some of the principal means adopted 
 by the reformers and their partisans, for carrying out the 
 work of the reformation. Were they such as God could 
 have sanctioned ? Could a cause indebted to such means 
 for its success be from heaven ? On the other hand, con- 
 sidering the corrupt state of society in Germany, at the 
 
 * " Infiriitus jam erat numerus qui victura ex Lutheranis libris quae- 
 ritantes, in speciem bibliopolarum longe lateque per Germaniae provin- 
 cias vagabar.tur." Cochlaeus, p. 58. 
 
 t Ibid. X Cf. Audin, p. 3.37, seq. 
 
130 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 beginning of the sixteenth century, can we wonder at the 
 great success which attended a movement promoted by 
 such means ? We would be suprised, indeed, on the con- 
 trary, if similar success had not attended it, under all the 
 circumstances of the case. 
 
 The distinctive doctrines of the reformation, throwing 
 off the wholesome restraints of the old religion, flattering 
 pride and pandering to passion — the protection of power- 
 ful princes, secured by feeding their cupidity and cater- 
 ing to their basest passions — the furious excitement of the 
 people, fed by maddening appeals from the pulpit and the 
 press, made to revel in works of spoliation and violence— 
 this excitement, lashed into still greater fury by the con- 
 stant employment of ridicule, low raillery, misrepresenta- 
 tion and calumny of every person and of every thing 
 Catholic — and the marriage of many apostate priests and 
 monks, bindi,ng them irrevocably to the new doctrines — 
 can we wonder that all these causes combined — and acting 
 too upon an age and country avowedly depraved — should 
 have produced the effect of rapidly diffusing the soi disant 
 reformation ? 
 
 AVe do not of course mean to imply, that all who em- 
 braced the reformation were corrupt, or led by evil mo- 
 tives : we have no doubt that many were deceived by the 
 specious appearance of piety. This was especially the 
 case with the common people, who often followed the ex- 
 ample and obeyed the teaching of their princes and pas- 
 tors, without taking much trouble to ascertain the right. 
 But we have intended to speak more particularly of the 
 leading actors in the great drama; and to paint the chief 
 parts they played on the stage. 
 
 Much less would we be understood, as indiscriminately 
 and wantonly censuring Protestants of the present day. 
 A broad line of distinction should be drawn between the 
 first teachers and the first disciples of error, and those 
 who have inherited it through a long line of ancestry. The 
 latter might be often Nvithout ;^reat censure, where the for- 
 
CAUSES AND MANNER OF THE REFORMATION. 121 
 
 mer would be wholly Inexcusable. The strong and close 
 meshes which the prejudices of early education have wo- 
 ven around them — the dense and clouded medium, through 
 which they have been accustomed to view the sun of Ca- 
 tholic truth — the strong influence of parental authority 
 and of family ties — and many such causes, combine to 
 keep them in error. Besides, history, which should be a 
 witness of truth, has been polluted in its very sources : 
 and the injustice which its voice has done to the truth, 
 has been accumulating for centuries. But can Protestants 
 of the present day, notwithstanding all these disadvan- 
 tages, hold themselves inexcusable, if they neglect to ex- 
 amine both sides of the question, with all the diligence 
 and attention that so grave a subject demands ? 
 
 To enable them to do this the more easily, was one 
 principal motive that induced us to review the partial and 
 unfounded statements of M. D'Aubigne. If it be thought, 
 that our picture of the causes and manner of the reforma- 
 tion and of the means to which it owed its success, is too 
 dark, we beg leave to refer to the facts and authorities we 
 have alleged. If there be any truth in history, our paint- 
 ing has not been too highly colored. Had we adduced all 
 the evidence bearing on the subject, the coloring might 
 have been still deeper! We had to examine and refute 
 M. D'Aubigne's flippant assertions : that the reformers 
 were chosen instruments of heaven for a divine work ; and 
 that the *' reformation was but the reappearance of Chris- 
 tianity." 
 
 A *' reappearance of Christianity," forsooth! It is from 
 the facts accumulated above, such a ** reappearance," as 
 darkness is of light! Strip the reformation of all that it 
 borrowed from Catholicism — let it appear in its own dis- 
 tinctive character, in all its naked deformity; and it has 
 scarcely one feature in common with early Christianity. 
 Did the apostles preach doctrines which pandered to the 
 passions of mankind ? Did they flatter princes, by oft'ering 
 to them the plunder of their neighbors, and by allowing 
 11 
 
122 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 tliem to have two wives at once, to quiet their troubled 
 conscience ? Did thej employ the weapons of ridicule, sar- 
 casm, and calumny against their adversaries? Did they 
 excite their followers to deeds of lawless violence against 
 the established order of things ? Did they break their so- 
 lemn engagements to heaven ? The reformers did all this 
 and more, as we have shown. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 
 
 '« The spirit that I have seen 
 
 May be a devil ; and the devil hath pow^er 
 
 To assume a pleasing shape."— SAa/ispeare. 
 
 The reformation in Switzerland more radical than that in Germany — 
 Yet like it— Sows dissensions— Zuingle warlike and superstitious — 
 Claims precedency over Luther — Black or white — Precursory distur- 
 bances — Aldermen deciding on faith — How the fortress was en- 
 trenched — Riot and conflagration — Enlightenment — Protestant mar- 
 tyrs — Suppression of the mass — Solemniiy of the reformed worship — 
 Downright paganism — The reformation and matrimony — Zuingle 's 
 marriage and misgivings — Romance among nuns — How to get a hus- 
 band — Perversion of Scripture— St. Paul on celibacy — Recapitulation. 
 
 Before we proceed to examine the manifold influences 
 of the reformation, it may be well briefly to glance at the 
 history of its establishment in Switzerland. M. D'Au- 
 bigne devotes two whole books* to this portion of his his- 
 tory, which, as it concerns his own fatherland, is evidently 
 a favorite topic with him. Our limits will not permit us 
 to follow him through all his tedious and romantic details : 
 we will content ourselves with reviewing some of his lead- 
 ing statements. 
 
 After what we have already said concerning the causes 
 and manner of the reformation in Germany, it will scarcely 
 be necessary to dwell at great length on that of Switzer- 
 land. The one was but a ** reappearance" of the other — 
 to use one of our author's favorite words. The same great 
 features marked both revolutions, with this only difter- 
 ence : that the Swiss was more radical and more thorough, 
 and therefore more to M. D'Aubigne's taste. Like the 
 
 * Book viii, vol. ii, p. 267 to 400 : and book xi, vol. iii, p. 255 to 341. 
 
124 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 German, however, its progress was everywhere signalized 
 by dissensions, civil commotions, rapine, violence and 
 bloodshed. And like the German, it was also indebted 
 for its permanent establishment to the interposition of the 
 civil authorities. Without this, neither revolution would 
 have had either consistency or permanency. M. D'Au- 
 bigne himself bears unwilling testimony to all these facts, 
 though, as usual, he suppresses many things of vital im- 
 portance. We will supply some of his omissions, and 
 avail ourselves of his concessions, as we proceed. 
 
 The reformation found the thirteen Swiss cantons 
 united, and in peace among themselves and with all the 
 world. It sowed disunion among them, and plunged 
 them into a civil war, that threatened rudely to pluck up 
 by the roots the venerable old tree of liberty which, centu- 
 ries before, their Catholic forefathers had planted and 
 watered with their blood ! The shrines sacred to the me- 
 mory of William Tell, Melchtal, and Fiirst, the fathers 
 of Swiss independence, were attempted to be rudely dese- 
 crated : and the altars at which their forefathers had wor- 
 shipped in quietness for ages were recklessly overturned. 
 The consequences of this attempt to subvert the national 
 faith by violence, were most disastrous. The harmony of 
 the old Swiss republic was destroyed, and the angel of 
 peace departed forever from the hills and the valleys of 
 Switzerland ! That this picture is not too highly colored, 
 the following brief summary of facts will prove. 
 
 The four cantons of Zurich, Berne, Schaifhausen, and 
 Basle, which first embraced the reformation, began very 
 soon thereafter to give evidence of their turbulent spirit. 
 They formed a league against the cantons which still re- 
 solved to adhere to the Catholic faith. One article of their 
 alliance forbade any of the confederates to transport pro- 
 visions to the Catholic cantons. Arms were in conse- 
 quence taken up on both sides, and a bloody contest en- 
 sued. Ulrich Zuingle, the father of the reformation in 
 Switzerland, marched with the troops of the Protestant par- 
 
THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 125 
 
 tj, and fell, bravely fighting with them " the battles of the 
 Lord," on the 11th of Oct. 1531 ! Did he in this give any 
 evidence of the apostolic spirit, which M. D'Aubigne as- 
 cribes to him ? Did ever an apostle die on the field of 
 battle, while seeking the lives of his fellow mortals ? He 
 was as superstitious, as he was fierce. The historians of 
 his life tell us, that a little before the battle he was 
 stricken with sad forebodings by the appearance of a 
 comet, which he viewed as portending direful disasters to 
 Zurich, and as announcing his own death ! 
 
 Our author says nothing of all this, which the historians 
 of Switzerland all agree in relating : but in justice to him 
 we must say, that his history does not come down to this 
 period. Perhaps in one of his forthcoming volumes, he 
 may undertake to enlighten us on this subject, and to di- 
 late on his favorite apostle's skill in augury, as well as on 
 his apostolic spirit on the battle field. He, however, fur- 
 nishes us with a little incident which marks the warlike 
 spirit of the Swiss reformer. *' In Zurich itself," he says, 
 " a few worthless persons, instigated to mischief by foreign 
 agency, made an attack on Zuingle in the middle of the 
 night, throwing stones at his house, breaking the windows, 
 and calling aloud for the * red-haired Uli, the vulture of 
 Glavis' — so that Zuingle started from his sleep, and caught 
 up his sword. The action is characteristic of the man."* 
 
 Zuingle was at Zurich what Luther was at Wittem- 
 berg. Each claimed the precedency in the career of the 
 reformation. Mr. Hallam thus notices their respective 
 claims : ** it has been disputed between the advocates of 
 these leaders to which the priority in the race of reform 
 belongs. Zuingle himself declares that in 1516, before he 
 had heard of Luther, he began to preach the Gospel at 
 Zurich, and to warn the people against relying upon hu- 
 man authority, l^ut that is rather ambiguous, and hardly 
 enough to substantiate his claim Like Luther, he 
 
 * Vol. iii, p. 275. 
 11* 
 
126 d'aitbigne's history reviewed. 
 
 had the support of the temporal magistrates, the council 
 of Zurich. Upon the whole, thej proceeded so nearly 
 with equal steps, and were so connected with each other, 
 that it seems difficult to award either any honor of prece- 
 dence."* 
 
 We shall have occasion hereafter to refer at some length 
 to the bitter controversy, which raged between these two 
 boasted apostles. They taught contradictory doctrines : 
 one warmly defended, the other as warmly denied the 
 real presence. Were they both guided by the spirit of 
 God ? Can the Holy Spirit inspire contradictory systems 
 of belief ? If God' was with Luther, he certainly was not 
 with Zuingle; and vice versa. 
 
 By the way, what a pity it is that M. D'Aubigne, while 
 lauding the Swiss reformer to the skies, could not settle 
 the importdint previous question which had so sadly puz- 
 zled Zuingle — whether the spirit which appeared to him 
 in his sleep, and suggested the text of Scripture by which 
 he might disprove the real presence, was black or white? 
 How gently he touches on this passage in the history of 
 Zuingle ! He merely gives vent to his surprise by a note 
 of admiration, that this circumstance should have "given 
 rise to the assertion that the doctrine promulgated by the 
 reformer was delivered to him by the devil !"t Did not 
 the reformer's own account of the vision^ — of which he 
 was certainly the most competent witness — "give rise to 
 the assertion ?" And did not his brother reformers openly 
 make the charge ? 
 
 Zurich was the first city of Switzerland, which was 
 favored with the new Gospel. Our author treats in great 
 detail§ of all the circumstances which attended its intro- 
 duction; and of the preliminary discussions, commotions 
 
 * " History of Literature," si/p. cit. vol. i,p. 163, 4. He cites Gerdes 
 Histor. Evang. Reform. 1, 103. f HI, 272, 3. 
 
 X " Jltcr/uerit an albus nihil memini, somniiim enim nnrro.^' — Ibid. 
 § Vol. iii, p. 238, segq. 
 
THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 127 
 
 and riots, which were its harbingers. We will present a 
 few specimens. Leo Juda, one of the precursors of the 
 "Gospel" arrived in Zurich "about the end of 1522, to 
 take the duty of pastor of St. Peter's church." Soon 
 after his arrival, being at church, he rudely interrupted 
 an Augustinian monk while he was preaching. " Rever- 
 end father Prior," exclaimed Leo, *' listen to me for an 
 instant; and you, my dear fellow citizens, keep your 
 seats — I will speak as becomes a Christian" — and he 
 proceeded to show the unscriptural character of the teach- 
 ing he had just been listening to. A great disturbance 
 ensued in the church. Instantly several persons angrily 
 attacked " the little priest" from Einsidlen (Zuingle). 
 Zuingle, repairing to the council, presented himself before 
 them, and requested permission to give an account of his 
 doctrine, in presence of the bishop's deputies ; — and the 
 council, desiring to terminate the dissensions, convoked a 
 conference for the 29th of January. The news spread 
 rapidly throughout Switzerland."* 
 
 After having given a very lengthy account of the con- 
 ference, which, as might have been anticipated, terminated 
 in nothing, our author thus manifests his joy at the bright- 
 ening prospects of the ** Gospel." *' Every thing was 
 moving forward at Zurich ; men's minds were becoming 
 more enlightened — their hearts more steadfast. The 
 reformation was gaining strength. Zurich was a fortress, 
 in which the new doctrine had entrenched itself, and from 
 within whose enclosure it was ready to pour itself abroad 
 over the whole confederation. "t 
 
 Our historian tells us how the " reformation gained 
 strength," and how " the new doctrine entrenched itself 
 in the fortress" — to say nothing of the "enlightenment," 
 of which we will treat hereafter. The " enlightened" 
 council of Zurich decided in favor of the reformed doc- 
 trines ; and resorted to force in order to suppress the an- 
 
 * Ibid. p. 239. t Ibid. p. 2.51. 
 
128 
 
 cient worship. Only think of a town council, composed of 
 fat aldermen and stupid burgomasters, pronouncing defini- 
 tively on articles of faith ! In reading of their high-handed 
 proceedings, we are forcibly reminded of the wonderful 
 achievements, in a somewhat different genre, of the far- 
 famed governors and burgomasters of New-Amsterdam, 
 as fully set forth by the inimitable Knickerbocker ! 
 The one is about as grotesque as the other. They of 
 Zurich did not, however, belong to the class of Walter, 
 the Doubter : they were perhaps too fat and stupid to 
 doubt. 
 
 Let us see some of the proceedings of this famous board 
 of councilmen at Zurich. "Nor did the council stop here. 
 The relics, which had given occasion to so many super- 
 stitions, were honorably interred. And then, on the fur- 
 ther requisition of the three (reformed) pastors, an edict 
 was issued, decreeing that, inasmuch as God alone ought 
 to be honored, the images should be removed from all the 
 churches of the Canton, and their ornaments applied to 
 the relief of the poor. Accordingly twelve counsellors — 
 one for each tribe — the three pastors, and the city archi- 
 tect, with some smiths, carpenters and masons, visited 
 the several churches; and, having first closed the doors, 
 took down the crosses, obliterated the paintings {the Van- 
 dals!), whitewashed the walls, and carried away the images, 
 to the great joy of the faithful (!) who regarded this pro- 
 ceeding," Bullinger tells us, *' as a glorious act of homage 
 to the true God." In some of the country parishes, the 
 ornaments of the churches were committed to the flames, 
 "to the greater honor and glory of God." Soon after this 
 the organs were suppressed, on account of their connec- 
 tion with many "superstitious observances, and a new 
 form of baptism was established from which every thing 
 unscriptural was carefully excluded."* What enlighten- 
 ment, and taste for music ! 
 
 * Ibid. p. 257.8- 
 
THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 129 
 
 " The triumph of the reformation," our author con- 
 tinues, '-'threw a joyful radiance over the last hours of 
 the burgomaster Roush and his colleague. They had lived 
 long enough ; and they both died within a few days after 
 the restoration of a purer (!) mode of worship."* And 
 such a triumph ! ! Before we proceed to show by what 
 means this " purer mode of worship" was established at 
 Zurich, we will give, from our historian, an instance of a 
 scene of riot and conflagration enacted by the '* faithful" 
 children of the reformation. It details the proceedings 
 of a party, which went out foraging with the bailiff Wirth. 
 
 " The rabble, meanwhile, finding themselves in the 
 neighborhood of the convent of Ittingen, occupied by a 
 community of Carthusians, who were generally believed 
 {by the *faithfuV) to have encouraged the bailiff Am- 
 Berg in his tyranny, entered the building and took pos- 
 session of the refectory. They immediately gave them- 
 selves up to excess, and a scene of riot ensued. In vain 
 did Wirth entreat them to quit the place ; he was in dan- 
 ger of personal ill-treatment among them. His son 
 Adrian had remained outside of the monastery: John 
 entered it, but shocked by what he beheld within, came 
 out immediately. The inebriated peasants proceeded to 
 pillage the cellars and granaries, to break the furniture to 
 pieces and to hum the hooksy\ Again, what enlighten- 
 ment ! 
 
 This is M. D'Aubigne's statement of the affair : but the 
 deputies of the Cantons, found the Wirths guilty, and 
 pronounced sentence of death on them. Our author 
 views them as martyrs, and tells us,:j: in great detail, how 
 cruelly they were ** mocked," how they were '* faithful 
 unto death," and how intrepidly the "father and son" 
 ascended the scaffold ! His whole account is truly affect- 
 ing ! The reformation is welcome to such martyrs. 
 
 He exclaims : "now at length blood had been spilt — 
 
 * Ibid. t Ibid. p. 264-5. % Ibid. p. 266, seqq. 
 
ISO 
 
 innocent blood. Switzerland and the reformation were 
 baptized with the blood of the martyrs. The great enemy 
 of the Gospel had effected his purpose ; but in effecting 
 it, he had struck a mortal blow at his own power. The 
 death of the Wirths was an appointed means of hastening 
 the triumph of the reformation."* ** The reformers of 
 Zurich," he adds, •' had abstained from abolishing the 
 Mass when they suppressed the use of images ; but the 
 moment for doing so seems now to have arrived. "t 
 
 He thus relates the manner in which the Mass w^as 
 suppressed, and the ** purer worship" introduced in its 
 place. *' On the 11th of August, 1525, the three pastors 
 of Zurich, accompanied by Megander, and Oswald and 
 Myconius, presented themselves before the great council, 
 and demanded the re-establishmentof the Lord's Supper. 
 Their discourse was a vv^eighty one, and was listened to 
 with the deepest attention — every one felt how important 
 was the decision which the council \vas called upon to 
 pronounce. The JNIass — that mysterious rite which for 
 three [fifteen) successive centuries had constituted the 
 animating principle in the worship of the Latin Church 
 [and in all churches) — was now to be abrogated — the cor- 
 poreal presence of Christ was to be declared an illusion, 
 and of that illusion the minds of the people were to be 
 dispossessed ; some courage was needed for such a reso- 
 lution as this, and there were individuals in the council 
 who shuddered at so audacious a design."^ 
 
 The grave board of councilmen did not how^ever hesitate 
 long: they made quick work in this most important mat- 
 ter. " The great council w^as convinced by his (Zuingle's) 
 reasoning, and hesitated no longer." (How could they 
 resist his reasonino;, based as it was, on the teachino- of 
 
 ft' ' o 
 
 the spirit, ^/acA; ov white?) "The evangelical doctrine 
 had sunk deep into every heart, and moreover, since the 
 separation from Rome hud taken place, there was a kind 
 
 * Ibid. p. 270. t Ibid. p. 271. % Ibid. 
 
THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND, 151 
 
 of satisfaction felt in making that separation as complete 
 as possible, and digging a gulph, (the reformation was a 
 gulph) as it were, between the reformation and her. The 
 council decreed that the Mass should be abolished, and it 
 was determined that on the following day, which was 
 Maunday Thursday, the Lord's Supper should be cele- 
 brated in conformity with the apostolic model."* This 
 was indeed quick and sweeping work ! 
 
 *' The altars disappeared," he continues ; " some plain 
 tables, covered with the sacramental bread and wine, 
 occupied their places, and a crowd of eager communicants 
 was gathered around them. There was something exceed- 
 ingly solemn in that assemblage."! No doubt it was 
 much more solemn than had been the Catholic worship ! 
 Our author thus describes the ** solemnity." *• The peo- 
 ple then fell on their knees : the bread was carried round 
 on large wooden dishes or platters, and every one broke 
 off a morsel for himself; the wine was distributed in 
 wooden drinking cups; the resemblance to the primitive 
 supper was thought to be the closer. (!) The hearts of 
 those who celebrated this ordinance were affected with 
 alternate emotions of wonder and joy."| Truly there 
 was much to excite both wonder and joy ! This whole 
 description seems to be in the mock heroic style of writing. 
 
 In the same strain is the following passage : ** Such 
 was the progress of the reformation at Zurich. The sim- 
 ple commemoration of our Lord's death caused a fresh 
 overflow " in the church of love to God, and love to the 
 brethren. . . . Zuingle rejoiced at these affecting mani- 
 festations of grace, and returned thanks to God that the 
 Lord's Supper was again working those miracles of cha- 
 rity, which had long since ceased to be displayed in con- 
 nexion with the Sacrifice of the Mass (!) * Our city,' said 
 he, * continues at peace. There is no fraud, no dissen- 
 sion, no envy, no wrangling among us. Where shall we 
 
 * Ibid. p. 272. t Ibid. p. 273. | Ibid. 
 
132 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 discover the cause of this agreement except in the Lord's 
 good pleasure, and the harmlessness and meekness of tiie 
 doctrine we profess ?' " M. D'Aubigne however spoils 
 this beautiful picture, bj the following cruel sentence, 
 which immediately follows: ** charity and unity were 
 there — but not uniformity."* 
 
 To establish this, he refers to certain strange doctrines 
 broached by Zuingle, this same year, 1525, in his famous 
 *• Commentary on true and false religions," addressed to 
 Francis I, king of France. He labors hard to defend the 
 reformer from the charge of Pelagianism, which his asso- 
 ciates in the reformation did not fail to make. But was 
 it honest in him to conceal the notorious fact, that, in this 
 same *' Commentary," Zuingle had placed Theseus, Her- 
 cules, Numa, Scipio, Cato, and other heathen worthies, 
 in heaven among the elect ? This was something worse 
 than Pelagianism — it was downright paganism. Could 
 •* charity and unity" reign in the midst of the fiercest 
 wranglings, of the most bitter civil feuds and dissensions, 
 and amidst the bloodshed of a protracted civil war ? Yet 
 these were the scenes amid which the Swiss reformation 
 revelled ! 
 
 ** Such," then, " was the progress of the reformation at 
 Zurich !" In other places — at Berne and at Basle — its 
 proceedings were marked by similar demonstrations. It 
 was every where the same. Every where, it invoked the 
 civil power, and was established, as at Zurich, by the 
 decisions of boards of councilmen, and was enforced by 
 violence. M. D'Aubigne alleges facts which prove all 
 this; and we deem it unnecessary to repeat them. It 
 would be but telling over the same story. 
 
 CEcolampadius was the chief actor on the reformation 
 stage at Basle. He was a learned and moderate man, the 
 early friend of Erasmus, and, in some respects, the coun- 
 terpart of Mclancthon. The Gospel-light seems to have 
 
 * Ibid. p. 274. 
 
THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 133 
 
 first beamed upon him from the eye of a beautiful young 
 lady, whom, in violation of his solemn vows plighted to 
 heaven, he espoused; "probably," as Erasmus wittily 
 remarked, " to mortify himself!" In the race of matri- 
 mony, at least, he could claim the precedency over his 
 brother reformers. Yet they did not long remain behind. 
 Matrimony was, in all cases, the denouement of the drama 
 which signalized the zeal for reformation. Zuingle him- 
 self, "the priest of Einsidlin," espoused a rich widow. 
 A widow also caught Calvin, a little later. Martin Bucer, 
 another reformer, who figured chiefly in Switzerland, far 
 outstripped any of his fellows in the hymeneal career. lie 
 became the husband of no less than three ladies in succes- 
 sion : and one of them had been already married three 
 times — all too, by a singular run of good luck, in the 
 reformation line! !* 
 
 It is really curiou? to observe, how M. D'Aubigne treats 
 this subject. Speaking of the Swiss reformers, he says: 
 " Several among ihem at this period (1522) returned to 
 the "apostolic usaget (!!!). Xyloclect was already a 
 husband. Zuingle also married about this time. Among 
 the women of Zurich, none was more respected than Anna 
 Reinhardt, widow of Meyer von Knonau, mother of Cer- 
 oid. From Zuingle's coming among them, she had been 
 constant in her attendance on his ministry | she lived near 
 him, and he had remarked her piety, modesty, and mater- 
 nal tenderness. Young Gerold, who had become almost 
 like a son to him, contributed farther to bring about an 
 intimacy with his mother. The trials that had already 
 befallen this Christian woman — whose fate it was to be 
 
 * For a full account of this matter, see " Travels of an Irish gentle- 
 man," ch. xlvi, where the great Irish poet enters into the subject at 
 length ; giving his authorities as he proceeds, and playing off his 
 caustic wit on the hymeneal propensities of the reformers, 
 
 t How very absurd ! Was St. Paul married ? Were any of the apos- 
 tles ever married, except St. Peter, of whose wife the Scripture says 
 nothing after he became an apostle ? She was probably dead. 
 12 
 
134 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 one day more severely tried than any woman whose 
 history is on record — had formed her to a seriousness 
 which gave prominency to her Christian virtues. She was 
 then about thirty-five, and her whole fortune consisted of 
 four hundred florins.* It was on her that Zuingle (ki?id, 
 sympathetic soul) fixed his eyes for a companion for life."t 
 
 Still he had his misgivings at breaking his solemn vows : 
 he ** did not make his marriage public. This was beyond 
 doubt a blameable weakness in one who was in other 
 respects so resolute [reckless?) . The light he and his 
 friends possessed on the subject of celibacy was by no 
 means general. The weak might have been stumbled. "J 
 This last is a new phrase, introduced, we suppose, to 
 unfold a new idea — that the people retained conscience 
 longer than the boasted reformers, who misled them from 
 »• the old paths." 
 
 On this same subject, M. D'Aubigne treats us to some 
 fine touches of romance — \\\?, forte — about nuns who em- 
 braced the reformation, and then immediately, as a neces- 
 sary sequel, got married. We will give a few instances : 
 
 *' At Koningsfeld upon the river Aar, near the castle 
 of Hapsburg, stood a monastery adorned with all the 
 magnificence of the middle ages, and in which reposed the 
 ashes of many of that illustrious house which had so often 
 given an emperor to Germany. To this place the noble 
 families of Switzerland and of Suabia used to send their 
 
 daughters to take the veil The liberty enjoyed in 
 
 this convent had favored the introduction not 
 
 only of the Bible (they had it already, and were obliged 
 to read portions of it daily hy their rule), but the writings 
 of Luther and Zuingle; and soon a new spring of life and 
 joy changed the aspect of its interior !"§ 
 
 A **new spring of life and of joy" was certainly thus 
 opened to the nuns. They soon became tired of retire- 
 
 * A very large sum at that lime, f Vol. ii, p. 383. I Ibid. p. 384, 
 § Vul. iii, p. 2S0, 2S1. 
 
THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 135 
 
 ment and of prayer : they sighed for the flesh-pots of Egypt 
 to which they had bidden adieu — for the *' life and joy" of 
 the world. Margaret Watteville, one of them, wrote a 
 letter* to Zuingle, full of piety and of affection; and de* 
 clared that she expressed not " her own feelings only, but 
 those of all the convent of Koningsfeld who loved the 
 Gospel." 
 
 M. D'Aubigne tells us, that a *' convent into which the 
 light of the Gospel had penetrated with such power, could 
 not long continue to adhere to monastic observances. 
 Margaret Watteville and her sisters, persuaded that they 
 should better serve God in their families than in the clois- 
 ter, solicited permission to leave it."t The council of 
 Berne heard their prayer : the convent " gates were open* 
 ed ; and a short time afterwards, Catharine Bonnsteten 
 {one of the nuns) married William Von Diesbach."J The 
 nun Margaret Watteville was equally fortunate: she 
 *' was about the same time united to Lucius Tscharner 
 of Coira."§ Such was invariably the denouement of the 
 reformation plot. 
 
 Our historian, in fact, views the sacrilegious marriages 
 of the priests and nuns — against their solemn vows freely 
 plighted to God at his holy altar — as the most conclusive 
 proof of the progress of the reformation ! Mark this cu- 
 rious passage : " But it was in vain to attempt to smother 
 the reformation at Berne. It made progress on all sides. 
 The nuns of the convent D'lle had not forgotten Haller's 
 visit. (This was a wretched apostate, who had held im- 
 proper discourse in the convent, which drew upon him a 
 sentence of perpetual banishment from the ' lesser coun- 
 cil' of Berne ; which sentence was however mitigated by 
 the 'grand council,' which. was content with merely re- 
 buking him and his associate reformers, and ordering them 
 to confine themselves in future to their own business and 
 
 * Given in full, Ibid. p. 281, 282. f Ibid. t Ibid. 
 
 § Ibid. p. 285. 
 
136 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 let the convents alone).* * Clara May, (one of the nuns) 
 and many of her friends, pressed in their consciences (!) 
 what to do, wrote to the learned Henry Bullinger. In 
 answer, he said : * St. Paul enjoins young women not to 
 take on them vows, but to marry, instead of living in idle- 
 ness under a false show of piety. (1 Tim. v. 13, 14). 
 Follow Jesus in humility, charity, patience, purity, and 
 kindness.' Clara, looking to heaven for guidance, re- 
 solved to act on the advice, and renounce a manner of life 
 at variance with the word of God (and her own inclinations) 
 — of man's invention — and beset with snares. Her grand- 
 father Bartholomew, who had served for fifty years in the 
 field and council hall, heard with joy of the resolution 
 she had formed. Clara quitted the convent, "t and mar- 
 ried the provost, Nicholas Watteville.± 
 
 What an evidence of piety — "looking to heaven for 
 guidance" — it is — to get married ! And what a perversion 
 of Scripture was that by Henry Bullinger, to induce those 
 to marry, who had taken solemn vows of devoting them- 
 selves wholly to God in a life of chastity ! As this is a 
 pretty good specimen of the manner in which the reformers 
 "wrested the Scriptures to their own perdition, "§ we will 
 give entire the quotation of St. Paul to Timothy, referred 
 toby the "learned Bullinger," including the two previous 
 verses, which he found it convenient not to quote, proba- 
 bly because they would have convicted him of the most 
 glaring perversion of God's holy word. 
 
 1 Timothy, chap, v, verse 11. " But the younger widows 
 shun: for when they have grown wanton in Christ, they 
 will marry ; (this advice the reformers took special care 
 not to follow). 
 
 Verse 12. "Having damnation, because they have made 
 void their first faith, (by violating their vows to God). 
 
 V. 13. ** And withal, being idle, they learn to go about 
 
 ♦ Such at least is the statement of M. D'Aubign6 — iii, p. 279. 
 t Ibid. p. 284. X Ibid. p. 285. § 2 Peter, iii, 16. 
 
THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND. 1S7 
 
 from house to house (as the escaped nuns did at the time 
 of the reformation) : not only idle, but talkers also, and in- 
 quisitive, speaking things which they ought not." 
 
 V. 14. "I will, therefore, that the younger (who had 
 not taken vows) should marry, bear children, be mis- 
 tresses of families, give no occasion to the adversary to 
 speak evil." 
 
 This passage of St. Paul speaks for itself, and needs no 
 commentary. While the reformers were quoting St. Paul, 
 to induce the nuns to escape from their convents and to 
 get married, why did they not also refef to the following 
 texts : 
 
 "But I say to the unmarried and to the widows: it is 
 good for them so to continue, even as I."* 
 
 *' Art thou bound to a wife? Seek not to be loosed. 
 Art thou loosed from a wife ? Seek not a wife.'^^\ 
 
 *' But I would have you to be without solicitude. Tie 
 that is without a wife, is solicitous for the things that be- 
 long to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is 
 with a wife, is solicitous for the things of the world, how 
 he may please his wife : and he is divided."! 
 
 And why did they conceal the following texts, which had 
 special reference to the nuns who, '* having grown wanton 
 in Christ, would marry, having damnation, because they 
 had made void their first faith ?" 
 
 ** And the unmarried woman and the virgin thinketh on 
 the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body 
 and spirit. But she that is married, thinketh on the 
 things of the world, how she may please her husband. 
 Therefore, both he who giveth his virgin in marriage 
 doeth well ; and he that giveth her not, doeth better."§ 
 
 Alas ! the carnal minded reformers understood little of 
 this sublime perfection ! They could not appreciate it. 
 They were satisfied with *' doing well ;" nor did they even 
 
 * I Corinth, vii, S. j l^i^l- v. 27. X I^^id. vv. S2, 33. 
 
 § Ibid. vv. 34, 38. 
 12* 
 
138 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 come up to this standard, any farther, at least, than to 
 get married ! Their case is explained bj St. Paul, in the 
 same epistle from which the above texts are extracted. 
 ** But the sensual man perceiveth not the things that are 
 of the spirit of God: for it is foolishness to him, and he 
 cannot understand: because it is spiritually examined."* 
 We shall here close our remarks on the reformation in 
 Switzerland, which, as we have, we hope, sufficiently 
 shown, pandered to the worst passions, created disturb- 
 ance and civil commotions wherever it appeared, revelled 
 in war and bloodshed, and was finally established by the 
 strong arm of the civil power. We shall hereafter devote a 
 separate chapter to the Calvinistic branch of the reforma- 
 tion established at Geneva. 
 
 * 1 Corinth, ii, 14. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 REACTION OF CATHOLICITY,, AND DECLINE OF PROTESTANTISM. 
 
 Two parallel developments — The brave old ship — Modern Protestant- 
 ism quite powerless — A " thorough godly reformation" needed — 
 Qualities for a reformer — The three days' battle — The puzzle — A 
 thing doomed — Which gained the victory ? — The French revolu- 
 tion — Kanke and Hallam — The rush of waters stayed — Persecution 
 en passant — Protestant spice — The council of Trent — Revival of 
 piety — The Jesuits — Leading causes and practical results — Decline 
 of Protestantism — Apt comparison — What stemmed the current? — 
 Thread of Ariadne — Divine Providence— Reaction of Catholicity — 
 Casaubon and Grotius — Why they were not converted — Ancient and 
 modern Puseyism — Justus Lipsius and Cassander — The inference — 
 Splendid passage of Macauley — Catholicity and enlightenment — The 
 church indestructible — General gravitation to Rome — The circle and 
 its centre. 
 
 No feature in the whole history of the reformation is 
 perhaps more remarkable than that which is presented bv 
 the speedy decline of Protestantism, on the one hand, and 
 the no less rapid reaction of Catholicity on the other. A 
 rapid glance at the history of these two great develop- 
 ments of the two systems of religion will throw much 
 additional light on their respective characters, and will 
 serve to explain to us yet more fully what we have been 
 endeavoring to elucidate thus far — the character, causes, 
 and manner of the reformation. It is a divine maxim to 
 judge the tree by its fruits : and we propose, in the pre- 
 sent chapter, to make a general application of this rule ; 
 reserving, however, more special details on the subject to 
 those which will follow. 
 
 The reformation swept over the world like a violent 
 storm : and it left as many ruins in its course. It threat- 
 ened to overturn every thing, and to carry all before it. 
 So rapid was its work of destruction, that its admirers — 
 
140 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 those " who moved in the whirlwind" — confidently pre- 
 dicted the speedy downfall of the old religion, and the 
 triumphant establishment of the new ones on its ruins. 
 Even many of those who remained steadfast in the an- 
 cient faith, though firmly relying on the solemn promises 
 of Christ, yet trembled not a little for the safety of the 
 church. Jesus seemed to be asleep while the tempest 
 was raging on the sea of the world ; and his disciples, 
 who were in the good old ship of the church tossed on the 
 waves, like their prototypes of the Gospel, ** came to him, 
 and awaked him, saying : ' Lord, save us, we perish.' 
 And Jesus said to them: * Why are ye fearful, O ye of 
 little faith ?' Then rising up, he commanded the winds 
 and the sea, and there came a great calm."* 
 
 Such was precisely the phenomenon presented by the 
 history of the church in the sixteenth century. Soon the 
 storm of the reformation had spent its fury, and settled 
 down into a *' great calm" — the calm of indifferentism 
 and infidelity on the lately troubled sea of Protestantism ; 
 and of peace and security on the broad ocean of Catholi- 
 cism. When men's minds had had time to recover from 
 the exdtement produced by the first movements of the re- 
 formation, they were enabled to estimate more justly the 
 motives and causes of that revolution. The result was, 
 that many enlightened protestants returned to the bosom 
 of the Catholic church ; while others plunged into the 
 vortex of infidelity. Thus Catholicity, far from being 
 extinguished, powerfully reacted. 
 
 Like the sturdy oak of the forest, which, instead of 
 oeing thrown down by the storm, vanquishes its fury, and 
 even sends its roots farther into the earth in consequence 
 of the agitation so also the tree of the church, planted 
 by Christ and watered with his blood and that of his mar- 
 t rs, successfully resisted the violence of the storm of 
 Protestantism, and became, in consequence of it, more 
 
 ' St. Mattli. viii, 24—26. 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. 141 
 
 firmly and solidly fixed in the soil of the world — more 
 strongly '* rooted and founded in charity."* 
 
 Nothing is more certain in history, than this two-fold 
 development. Even M. D'Aubigne, surely an unexcep- 
 tionable witness, admits its entire truth, however he may 
 seek to disguise it by the thin mantle of sophistry .t 
 Speaking of the decline of modern Protestantism, he em- 
 ploys this emphatic language. " But modern Protestant- 
 ism, like old Catholicism (!), is, in itself, a thing from 
 which nothing can be hoped — a thing quite povv^erless. 
 Something very different is necessary to restore to men 
 of our day the energy which saves.'':}: So that, the expe- 
 riment of Protestantism, notwithstanding all the noise it 
 has made in the world, and all its loud boasting about 
 destroying superstition and enlightening mankind, has 
 yet turned out a complete failure, even according to the 
 explicit avowal of its most unscrupulous advocate ! ! It 
 has been " enlightening and saving" the world for full 
 three hundred years ; and in the end it has lost itself, and 
 become " a thing quite powerless, from which nothing 
 can be hoped !" 
 
 A new reformation is necessary to reform the old one, 
 and to impart to it " the energy which saves." M.D'Au- 
 bigne, we presume, is ip be the father of this new " tho- 
 rough-godly" reformation ! We wish him joy of his new 
 apostleship, and hope he may succeed better than his pre- 
 decessors. He has, we humbly think, all the qualities 
 requisite for a reformer, according to the type of the six- 
 teenth century, viz. a smattering of learning, — a sancti- 
 monious air, in which he greatly excels some of his prede- 
 cessors — a skill in sophistry, which has the admirable 
 simplicity of not being always even specious — and, to 
 crown all, an utter recklessness of truth. 
 
 We will here give a passage from our historian, which 
 
 * Epheaians, iii, 17. 
 
 t The mantle of his sophistry is always ihin ; and it requires not the 
 gift of clairvoyance to see through it. % Vol. i. Preface, p. ix. 
 
142 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 has the double merit of exhibiting the gist of his theory 
 on our present subject, and of being a perfect curiosity in 
 its genre. M. D'Aubigne's whole work is, however, we 
 may remark, en passant, a perfect *' cabinet of curiosi- 
 ties" in this way. The passage is found in the third vol- 
 ume of his " History of the Great Reformation." It is 
 an attempt to answer a writer of the Port Royal,* who 
 had compared the struggle of the last three centuries to a 
 battle of three days' duration ; and who had accumulated 
 evidence to prove that the infidel philosophers of France, 
 who brought about the French revolution, had but carried 
 out the principles broached by the reformers. Our author 
 " willingly adopts the comparison, but not the part that is 
 allotted to each of these days." He politely declines re- 
 ceiving the well deserved compliment the Frenchman was 
 paying him, with his most gracious bow. Then follows 
 the curious passage. 
 
 **No, each of those days had its marked and peculiar 
 characteristic. On the first (the sixteenth century) the 
 word of God triumphed, and Rome was defeated; and 
 philosophy, in the person of P^rasmus, shared in the defeat. 
 On the second (the seventeenth century) we admit that 
 Rome, her authority, her discipline, and her doctrine, are 
 again seen on the point of obtaining the victory, through 
 the intrigues of a far-famed society (the Jesuits), and the 
 power of the scaffold, aided by certain leaders of eminent 
 character, and others of lofty genius. The third day, (the 
 eighteenth century) human philosophy arises in all its 
 pride, and finding the battle-field occupied, not by the 
 Gospel, but by Rome, it quickly storms every entrench- 
 ment, and gains an easy conquest. The first day's bat- 
 tle was for God, the second for the priest, and the third 
 for reason — what shall the fourth be ?"t 
 
 Aye, that's the puzzle ! He piously hopes that it will 
 be for "the triumph of him to whom triumph belongs, "J 
 
 * Port Royal, par Sainte Beuve, vol. i,p. 20. f Vol. iii, p. 304. l]j^ 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. 143 
 
 that is, for his own new system of reformation, which is to 
 be but the ** reappearance" of the old. But this is mani- 
 festly hoping against all hope; for modern Protestantism, 
 he confesses, is " a powerless thing.^^ It has settled down 
 into an almost mortal lethargy, in all those countries where 
 it was first established, and where the progress of enlight- 
 enment has laid bare to the world its endless vagaries and 
 ever growing inconsistencies — its hopeless powerlessness. 
 Its tendency is necessarily downward ; it bears in its own 
 bosom the seeds of death ; it must share the fate of all other 
 mere human institutions, and must aiford another verifica- 
 tion of our blessed Saviour's prophetic declaration: "every 
 plant which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be 
 rooted up."* No human eloquence or effort can prevent 
 it from abiding this doom, the seal of which is already, in 
 fact, branded on its forehead, M. D'Aubigne himself being 
 witness! And had he been silent, "the stones would have 
 cried out" — to pronounce this fate ! 
 
 It is needless for us to dwell long in the examination of 
 his theory about the " three days' battle." The triumph 
 which he ascribes to the reformation on the first day was 
 not real — it was scarcely even apparent. Notwithstand- 
 ing the premature shouts of victory by the reformed party, 
 the old church still retained a vast ascendency in point of 
 numbers, of extension, and also, as we shall prove in the 
 sequel, of intelligence. In compensation for her losses on 
 the battle field of Europe, she gained great accessions to 
 her numbers in the East Indies, in Asia, and in the new 
 world, which her navigators had discovered, and her mis- 
 sionaries converted. When a portion of Europe spurned 
 her voice, she "turned to the Gentiles," and waved the 
 banner of her cross in triumph over new worlds. She cer- 
 tainly then gained the advantage, even in the " first day's 
 battle." 
 
 In the second, she was avowedly in the ascendant. 
 During it, she, (o a great extent, retrieved her losses in 
 * St. Matth. XV, 13. 
 
144 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Europe itself. Of course, all the talk about "the in- 
 trigues of a far-famed society and the power of the scaf- 
 fold," is mere palaver. We shall soon prove it to be little 
 better, on unquestionable Protestant authority. As to the 
 scaffold, we hope to show hereafter,* by a mass of evidence 
 which cannot be answered, that it was much oftener 
 erected by those who raised the clamor for the emancipa- 
 tion of thought, than by those who continued to abide in 
 the old church. 
 
 In the third day's battle, Catholicity again triumphed. 
 The French revolution was, in fact, but the "reappear- 
 ance" of the " great reformation," in another and more 
 terrific shape. The French infidels made as much noise 
 about liberty of thought, and inveighed as fiercely against 
 the corruptions of the Catholic church-, as had been done 
 by the reformers two and a half centuries before. The 
 former did little more than catchup the Babel-like sounds 
 of the latter, and re-echo them in a voice of thunder 
 throughout Europe. But this mere human thunder was 
 drowned by the divine thunder of the Vatican ! Rome 
 conquered the daughter, as she had erewhile conquered 
 the mother. If she alone "occupied the battle field," it 
 was because the Protestants had retired from it — had inglo- 
 riously fled, and left Christianity to its fate, in this, its 
 fiercest struggle with infidelity ! Did Protestants win one 
 laurel in that battle field ? Can they count one martyr 
 who fell a victim in that bloody effort to put down Chris- 
 tianity ? The Catholic clergy were massacred in hun- 
 dreds ; they poured out their blood like water, for the de- 
 fence of religion. Did the French infidels attack Pro- 
 testants ? If they did not — and they certainly did not — 
 then how are we to explain this phenomenon, but on the 
 principle of a sympathetic feeling } Men seldom go to bat- 
 tle against their friends and allies. 
 
 To show the rapid decline of Protestantism, after the 
 
 * In chapter x. " On Religious Liberty." 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. 145 
 
 first fifty years of its violent existence; and to unfold the 
 parallel reaction of Catholicism, we had intended to pre- 
 sent a rapid analysis of what a famous living Protestant 
 writer of Germany — Leopold Ranke — has abundantly 
 proved on the subject, in his late •* History of the Papacy 
 during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries."* But 
 Henry Hallam, another eminent living Protestant writer 
 of great research and authority, has anticipated us in our 
 labor. In his History of Literature, already quoted, he fol- 
 lows Ranke, and presents every thing of consequence, 
 bearing on our present subject, which the eminent Ger- 
 man historian had more fully exhibited, as the result of 
 much patient labor and research. Mr. Hallam also adds 
 many things of his own. His work has thus greatly 
 abridged our labor, and we shall do little more than 
 cull from its pages, and put into order what may serve 
 to elucidate the matter in hand. We presume that no 
 impartial man will question our authorities. 
 
 The decline of Protestantism, and the reaction of Ca- 
 tholicism were intimately connected : they went hand in 
 hand. The same causes that explain the one, will in a 
 great measure account for the other ; with perhaps this 
 exception, that Protestantism, like all other mere human 
 institutions, carried within its own bosom an intrinsic 
 principle of dissolution ; whereas Catholicity, on the other 
 hand, had within itself strongly developed the principle of 
 vitality and of permanency. These two opposite features 
 were, in fact, distinctive of the two systems. 
 
 According to Mr. Hallam, Protestantism began to de- 
 cline, and Catholicity to gain ground, shortly after the 
 middle of the sixteenth century. The immediate disci- 
 ples of the reformers, after the death of the latter, soon 
 lost the fierce and v/arlike spirit manifested by those who 
 had first reared the banner of revolt against Rome. The 
 
 * " Histoire de la Papaute pendant les xvi et xvii siecles." Tra- 
 duite de I'AlIemand par M.J. B. Haiber. 4 vols. 8vo. A Paris, 1838. 
 13 
 
146 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 enthusiasm of the first onslaught speedily died away, and 
 the principle of hatred which had originated the reforma- 
 tion, was gradually weakened. A counter principle of 
 love — the very essence of Christianity and of God himself 
 — gradually gained the ascendant in the bosom of those 
 who, in a moment of fierce excitement, had been estranged 
 from the Catholic church. The consequence was that 
 vast bodies of Protestants re-entered its pale. 
 
 Both Ranke and Hallam bear evidence to the truth of 
 these remarks. The latter says : '* This prodigious increase 
 of the Protestant party in Europe after the middle of the 
 century (xvi) did not continue more than a few years. It 
 was checked and fell back, not quite so rapidly or com- 
 pletely as it came on, but so as to leave the antagonist 
 church in perfect security." After a tedious apology for 
 entering on this subject in a history of literature, he pro- 
 poses '* to dwell a little on the leading causes of this retro- 
 grade movement of Protestantism ; a fact," he continues, 
 •'as deserving of explanation as the previous excitement 
 of the reformation itself, though from its more negative 
 character, it has not drawn so much of the attention of 
 mankind. Those who behold the outbreaking of great re- 
 volutions in civil society or in religion, will not easily be- 
 lieve that the rush of waters can be stayed in its course; 
 that a pause of indifference may come on, perhaps very 
 suddenly, or a reaction bring back nearly the same preju- 
 dices anel passions (!) as those which men had renounced. 
 Yet this has occurred not very rarely in the annals of man- 
 kind, and never on a larger scale than in the history of 
 the reformation !"* 
 
 He then proceeds to assign some of the leading causes 
 which, according to his view, " stayed the rush of waters" 
 of the revolution, called by courtesy the reformation. 
 After speaking of the stern policy of Philip II of Spain, 
 and assigning undue prominence to the inquisition, "wiiich 
 
 * "History of Literature," kc. sujj. cli. voLi, p. 272, ?6. 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. 147 
 
 soon extirpated the remains of heresy in Italy and Spain" 
 — into which countries Protestantism never penetrated, at 
 least to any extent, and therefore could not be "extirpa- 
 ted" — he next alludes to the civil wars in France betvi^een 
 the Huguenots and the Catholics, and then comes down 
 to Germany. *'But in Bavaria Albert V, with whom, 
 about 1564, this reaction began, in the Austrian dominions, 
 Rodolph II, in Poland Sigismund III, by shutting up 
 churches, and by discountenancing in all respects their 
 Protestant subjects, contrived to change a party once 
 powerful, into an oppressed sect."* 
 
 We hate persecution, no matter what is made the pre- 
 text for its exercise ; but every candid man must allow 
 that, in resorting to these measures of severity, the Ger- 
 man princes did but repay their " Protestant subjects" in 
 their own coin. If they took from them their churches, 
 it must be borne in mind that those same churches were 
 erected by Catholics to whom they rightfully belonged, and 
 that, in the first effervescence of the reformation they had 
 been seized on violently by the Protestant party. They did 
 but take back bylaw what had been wrested from the rightful 
 owners by lawless violence, and what would not have been 
 otherwise surrendered. If ** they discountenanced their 
 Protestant subjects," it was only after a long and bitter 
 experience of the troubles they had caused, of the riots 
 and conflagrations they had brought about in the abused 
 name of religion, and of the utter fruitlessness of concilia- 
 tory measures. 
 
 Besides, had not the German Protestant princes pro- 
 ceeded with still greater harshness against their Catholic 
 subjects, whose only crime was their calm and inoffensive 
 adherence to the religion of their fathers ? The account 
 was certainly more than balanced, as we shall show more 
 fully hereafter.! These are at least extenuating circum- 
 stances, which a man of Mr. Hallam's moderate principles 
 
 • Ibid. p. 273, ? 7. t Chapter x. 
 
148 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 should not have wholly concealed. But, we presume, he 
 deemed it expedient to add a little Protestant spice in 
 order to season for the palate of his English Protestant 
 readers, the otherwise insipid viands of admissions in fa- 
 vor of Catholicity, which he was serving up for them. 
 
 One leading cause of the reaction of Catholicity, accord- 
 ing to him, was the promulgation and general adoption of 
 the decrees of the council of Trent. *' The decrees of the 
 council of Trent were'received by the spiritual princes of 
 the empire (German) in 1566; * and from this moment,' 
 says the excellent historian who has thrown most light on 
 this subject, * began a new life for the Catholic church in 
 Germany.' "* We heartily concur in the truth of this 
 remark. Divine Providence, which draws good out of 
 evil, wisely brought about the council of Trent, and 
 watched over its long protracted and often interrupted 
 labors till they were brought to a happy termination. 
 This was the only legal, as well as the only adequate re- 
 medy to the evils of the church in the sixteenth century. 
 The Tridentine canons and decrees for reformation, exer- 
 cised a powerful influence throughout Christendom. Faith 
 was every where settled on an immoveable basis, local 
 abuses disappeared, and piety revived. The reformation 
 was the indirect cause of all this good ; and in this point 
 of view, if in few others, it deserves our gratitude. 
 
 The revival of piety, through the influence of the Tri- 
 dentine council, is thus attested by Mr. Hallam. "The 
 reaction could not, however, have been efl*ected by any 
 efforts of the princes against so preponderating a majority 
 as the Protestant churches had obtained, if the principles 
 that originally actuated them had retained their animating 
 influence, or had not been opposed by more effieacious re- 
 sistance. Every method was adopted to revive an attach- 
 ment to the ancient religion, insuperable by the love of 
 novelty, or the power of argument (!). A stricter disci- 
 
 * flank6, ii, p. 46. Hallam, ibid. 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. 149 
 
 pline and subordination were introduced among the clergy : 
 they were early trained in seminaries, apart from the sen- 
 timents and habits, the vices and virtues (!) of the world. 
 The monastic orders resumed their "rigid observances."* 
 
 " But, far above all the rest, the Jesuits were the instru- 
 ments for regaining France and Germany to the church 
 they served. And we are more closely concerned with 
 them here, that they are in this age among the links be- 
 tween religious opinion and literature. We have seen in 
 the last chapter|with what spirit they took the lead in 
 polite letters and classical style ; with what dexterity they 
 made the brightest spirits of the rising generation, which 
 the church had once dreaded and checked (more spice), 
 her most willing and effective instruments. The whole 
 course of liberal studies, however deeply grounded in eru- 
 dition, or embellished by eloquence, took one direction, 
 one perpetual aim — the propagation of the Catholic 
 faith.f .... They knew how to clear their reasoning 
 from scholastic pedantry and tedious quotation for the 
 simple and sincere understandings which they addressed; 
 yet, in the proper field of controversial theology, they 
 wanted nothing of sophistical (!) expertness or of erudition. 
 The weak points of Protestantism they attacked with em- 
 barrassing ingenuity; and the reformed churches did not 
 cease to give them abundant advantages by inconsistency, 
 extravagance, and passion.":]: 
 
 ** At the death of Ignatius Loyola," he continues, "in 
 1556, the order he had founded was divided into thirteen 
 provinces besides the Roman; most of which were in the 
 Spanish peninsula, or its colonies. Ten colleges belonged 
 to Castile, eight to Aragon, and five to Andalusia. Spain 
 was for some time the fruitful mother of the disciples, as 
 she had been of the master. The Jesuits who came to 
 Germany were called ' Spanish priests.' They took pos- 
 
 * Ibid. §8. t Ibid. §9. 
 
 X Ibid. § 10, where he cites Hospiaian, Ranke, and Tiraboschi, the 
 first a declared enemy of the Jesuits. 
 13* 
 
150 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 session of the universities : * they conquered us,' says 
 Ranke, * on our own ground, in our own homes, and strip- 
 ped us of a part of our ov/n country.' This, the acute 
 historian proceeds to say, sprung certainly from the want 
 of understanding among the Protestant theologians, and 
 of sufficient enlargement of mind to tolerate unessential 
 differences. The violent opposition among each other, 
 left a way open to these cunning strangers, who taught a 
 doctrine not open to dispute."* 
 
 He then proceeds to treat of the practical results 
 brought about by these causes. These were a rapid de- 
 clension of Protestantism, and a correspondent increase 
 of Catholicism. ''Protestantism, so late as 1578, might 
 be deemed preponderant in all the Austrian dominions, 
 except the Tyrol.t In the Polish diets, the dissidents, 
 as they were called, met their opponents with vigor and 
 success. The ecclesiastical principalities were full of 
 Protestants ; and even in the chapters some of them might 
 be found. But the contention was unequal, from the dif- 
 ferent character of the parties ; religious zeal and devo- 
 tion (!), which fifty years before had overthrown the an- 
 cient rites in northern Germany, were now more invigo- 
 rating sentiments in those who secured them from farther 
 innovation. In religious struggles, where there is any 
 thing like an equality of forces, the question soon comes to 
 be which party will make the greatest sacrifice for its own 
 faith. And while the Catholic self-devotion had grown 
 far stronger, there was much more of secular cupidity, 
 lukewarmness, and formality in the Lutheran church. 
 In very few years, the effects of this were distinctly vis- 
 ible. The Protestants of the Catholic principalities went 
 back into the bosom of Rome. In the bishoprick of 
 Wartzburg alone, sixty-two thousand converts are said to 
 have been received in the year 1586.":}: 
 
 ** The reaction," he continues a little afterwards, *' was 
 
 * Ibid. p. 274, § U. t Ranke, ii, p. 78. | Ranke, ii, p. 121. 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. 151 
 
 not less conspicuous in other countries. It is asserted 
 * that the Huguenots had already lost more than two- 
 thirds of their number in 1580;'* comparatively, I pre- 
 sume, with twenty years before. And the change in their 
 relative position is manifest from all the histories of this 
 
 period At the close of this period of fifty years 
 
 (A.D. 1600), the mischief done to the old church in its first 
 decennium (from 1550 to 1560) was very nearly repaired ; 
 the proportions of the two religions in Germany coin- 
 cided with those which had existed at the pacification of 
 Passau. The Jesuits, however, had begun to encroach 
 a little on the proper domain of the Lutheran church ; 
 besides private conversions, which, on account of the ri- 
 gor of the laws, not certainly less intolerant than in their 
 own communion, could not be very prominent; they had 
 sometimes hcpes of the Protestant princes, and had once, 
 in 1578, obtained the promise of John, king of Sweden, 
 to' embrace openly the Romish (!) faith, as he had already 
 done in secret to Passevin, an emissary (!) despatched by 
 the pope on this important errand. But the symptoms of 
 an opposition, very formidable in a country which has 
 never allowed its kings to trifle with it {except at the time 
 of the reformation), made this wavering monarch retrace 
 his steps. His successor, Sigismund, went farther, and 
 fell a victim to his zeal, by being expelled from his king- 
 dom."! Here was Protestant toleration ! 
 
 *' This great reaction of the papal (!) religion," he pro- 
 ceeds, *' after the shock it had sustained in the first part 
 of the sixteenth century, ought for ever to restrain that 
 temerity of prediction so frequent in our ears. As wo- 
 men sometimes believe the fashion of last year in dress 
 to be wholly ridiculous, and incapable of being ever again 
 adopted by any one solicitous for her beauty,:}: so those 
 who affect to pronounce on future events are equally con- 
 
 * Ranke, ii, p. 147. f Hallam, ibid. p. 275, § 14. 
 
 X A very apposite eomparison, truly, to illustrate the new religious 
 fashions ! 
 
152 p'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 fident against the possibility of a resurrection of opinions 
 which the majority have for the time ceased to maintain. 
 In the year 1560, every Protestant in Europe doubtless 
 anticipated the overthrow of popery (!); the Catholics 
 could have found little else to warrant hope than their 
 trust in heaven. The late rush of many nations towards 
 democratical opinions has not been so rapid and so gene- 
 ral as the change of religion about that period. It is im- 
 portant and interesting to inquire what stemmed this cur- 
 rent. We readily acknowledge the prudence, firmness, 
 and unity of purpose that, for the most part, distinguished 
 the court of Rome, the obedience of its hierarchy, the 
 severity of intolerant laws, and the searching rigor of the 
 inquisition {more spice) ; the resolute adherence of the 
 great princes of the Catholic faith, the influence of the 
 Jesuits over education : but these either existed before, 
 or would, at least, not have been sufficient to withstand 
 an overwhelming force of opinion. 
 
 " It must he acknowledged that there was a principle of vi- 
 tality in that religion independent of its external strength. 
 By the side of its secular pomp, its relaxation of morali- 
 ty (!), there had always been an intense flame of zeal and 
 devotion. Superstition it might be in the many, fanati- 
 cism in a few ; but both of these imply the qualities 
 which, while they subsist, render a religion indestructi- 
 ble. That revival of an ardent zeal through which the 
 Franciscans had in the thirteenth century, with some 
 good, and much more evil efl*ect (!)j spread a popular en- 
 thusiasm over Europe, was once more displayed in coun- 
 teraction of those new doctrines, that themselves had 
 drawn their life from a similar development of moral 
 emotion."* 
 
 Coming from the source it does, this is truly a valuable 
 avowal. After all the talk, then, about the " downfall of 
 popery" — after all the loud boasting and high pretensions 
 
 * Ibid. p. 275, 276, § 15. 
 
CATHOLIC REACTION ; THE REFORM DECLINES. 153 
 
 of Protestantism — the experiment of three hundred years 
 is beginning to convince all reasonable men of what they 
 should have known before — that the Catholic religion 
 " has a principle of vitality in her," and that she is " in- 
 destructible." It could not be otherwise : Christ him- 
 self had pledged his solemn word that "the gates of hell 
 should not prevail against his church, built on a rock :"* 
 and this simple promise solves the whole mystery which 
 so sadly puzzled Ranke and Hallam. It is the thread of 
 Ariadne, which would have conducted them with security 
 from the tortuous windings of the labyrinth of history. 
 It would have explained to them, among other things, 
 why it is that in all the great emergencies of the church, 
 God has raised up, as instruments to do his high behests, 
 men and institutions just such as the exigency of the 
 times demanded. Thus, for instance, the Franciscans 
 and Dominicans (why did Mr. Hallam omit the latter ?) 
 in the thirteenth century, and the Jesuits and St. Charles 
 Borromeo, to pass over many more illustrious names, in 
 the sixteenth, St. Athanasius in the fourth century, St. 
 Cyril, St. Leo, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine in the 
 fifth, St. Gregory the Great in the end of the sixth, St. 
 Gregory VII in the eleventh, St. Bernard in the twelfth, 
 St. Thomas Aquinas in the thirteenth, and many others 
 in various other ages, all are examples of this providence 
 of God watching over the safety of his church, •* the pil- 
 lar and ground of the truth. "t 
 
 The reaction in favor of the Catholic church continued 
 with redoubled force in the seventeenth century. ** The 
 progress of the latter church" (the Catholic), s^ys Mr. 
 Hallam, •' for the first thirty years of the present (seven- 
 teenth) century, was as striking and uninterrupted as it 
 had been in the final period of the sixteenth. Victory 
 crowned its banners on every side. . . , The nobility, 
 both in France and Germany, who in the last age had 
 
 * St. Matth. xvi, 18. t 1 Timoth.iii, 15. 
 
154 d'aubigne's history reviewed.. 
 
 been the first to embrace a new faith, became afterwards 
 the first to desert it. Many also of the learned and able 
 Protestants gave evidence of the jeopardy of that cause 
 by their conversion. It is not just, however, to infer that 
 they were merely influenced by this apprehension. Two 
 other causes mainly operated : one, to which we have 
 already alluded, the authority given to the traditions of 
 the church, recorded by the writers called fathers, and 
 with which it was found difficult to reconcile all the Pro- 
 testant creed {any of it); another, the intolerance of the 
 reformed churches, both Lutheran and Calvinistic, which 
 gave as little latitude [less) as that which they had quit- 
 , ted."* 
 
 " The defections," he continues, " from whatever cause, 
 are numerous in the seventeenth century. But two, more 
 eminent than any who actually renounced the Protestant 
 religion, must be owned to have given evident signs of 
 wavering, Casaubon and Grotius. The proofs of this are 
 not founded merely on anecdotes which might be dis- 
 puted, but on their own language.! Casaubon was stag- 
 gered by the study of the fathers, in which (whom) he 
 discovered many things, especially as to the eucharist, 
 which he could not in any manner reconcile with the te- 
 nets of the French Huguenots. Perron used to assail him 
 with arguments he could not parry. If we may believe 
 this cardinal, he was on the point of declaring publicly 
 his conversion, before he accepted the invitation of James I 
 to England : and even while in England, he promoted the 
 Catholic cause more than the world was aware." After 
 a feeble endeavor to impair the validity of this statement 
 of Perron, he adds : *' Yet if Casaubon, as he had much 
 inclination to do, being on ill terms with some in Eng- 
 
 * Vol. ii, p. 30, § 11. 
 
 t In a very lengthy and learned note, he here accumulates evidence 
 from the writings and correspondence of Casaubon, in support of the 
 statement made in the text. He also speaks at length of the labors of 
 the learned Cardinal Perron. 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. J 55 
 
 land, and disliking the country, had returned to France, 
 it seems probable that he would not long have continued 
 in what, according to the principles he had adopted, would 
 appear a schismatical communion."* 
 
 ** Grotius," he says, " was, from the time of his turn- 
 ing his attention to theology, almost as much influenced 
 as Casaubon by primitive authority, and began, even in 
 1614, to commend the Anglican church for the respect it 
 showed, very unlike the rest of the reformed, to that 
 standard.! But the ill usage he sustained at the hands of 
 those who boasted their independence of papal tyran- 
 ny (!); the caresses of the Galilean clergy after he had 
 fixed his residence at Paris ;X the growing dissensions and 
 virulence of the Protestants; the choice that seemed 
 alone to be left in their communion between a fanatical 
 anarchy, disintegrating every thing like a church on the 
 one hand, and a domination of bigoted and vulgar eccle- 
 siastics on the other; made him gradually less and less 
 averse to the comprehensive and majestic unity of the 
 Catholic hierarchy, and more and more willing to concede 
 some point of uncertain doctrine, or some form of ambig- 
 uous expression. This is abundantly perceived, and has 
 been often pointed out, in his Annotations on the Consult- 
 
 » Ibid. 
 
 t Truly, as the wisest of men has said, there is nothing new under 
 the sun. Grotius, Casaubon, and many other learned Protestants, more 
 than two hundred years ago, seem to have taken the identical ground 
 now occupied by the Puseyites in England. This will appear from a 
 perusal of the copious notes of Hallam on their writihgs. (Ibid.) 
 Speaking of the effort of Grotius to extract from the council of Trent 
 a meaning favorable to his own semi-catholic views, he says : " hig 
 aim was to search for subtle interpretations, by which he might pro- 
 fess to believe the words of the church, though conscious that his sense 
 was not that of the imposers. It is needless to say that this is not very 
 ingenuous," &cc. Perhaps the history of Grotius and Casaubon may 
 serve to throw some additional light on the end and aim of the Pusey- 
 te controversy. 
 
 1 It is remarkable that Grotius, persecuted by brother Protestants in 
 Holland, found a peaceful shelter from the storm in Catholic France ! 
 
156 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 ation of Cassander, written in 1641 ; in his Animadver- 
 sions on Rivet, who had censured the former treatise as 
 inclining to poperv ; in the Votum pro Pace Ecclesiastica, 
 and in the Rivetiani Apologetici Discussio ; all which are 
 collected in the fourth volume of the theological works of 
 Grotius. These treatises display a uniform and progress- 
 ive tendency to defend the church of Rome in every thing 
 that can be reckoned essential to her creed ; and in fact 
 he will be found to go farther in this direction than Cas- 
 sander."* 
 
 But, alas ! neither Casaubon nor Grotius ever pene- 
 trated beyond the threshold of the temple of Catholi- 
 city. Though they seem to have had light enough to 
 know and to love the truth, yet were they not worthy of 
 the gift of faith, which is granted to those only who become 
 ** as little children" for Christ's sake. We have already 
 seen by what circumstances the former was prevented 
 from entering the Catholic pale. Of the latter Hallam 
 says : ** Upon a dispassionate examination of all these 
 testimonies, we can hardly deem it an uncertain question 
 whether Grotius," if his life had been prolonged, would 
 have taken the easy leap which still remained; and there is 
 some positive evidence of his design to do so. But, dying 
 on a journey, and in a Protestant country, this avowed 
 declaration (in favor of Catholicity) was never made."t 
 
 It is dangerous to tamper with the proffered grace of 
 heaven, or to put off conversion ! The learned Lipsius 
 went farther; he was faithful to grace, and *' took the 
 easy {not so easy) leap" into the Catholic church. Mr. 
 Hallam tells us that he spent the latter years of his life 
 " in defending legendary miracles, and in waging war 
 against the honored (!) dead of the reformation !":j: This 
 
 * Ibid. p. 32 — 35, § 13. Cassander was a Catholic theologian, who 
 was commissioned by the emperor Ferdinand to write a work to con- 
 ciliate the Protestant party. Many think that, in executing this task, 
 he had, through the best motives no doubt, conceded too much. He' 
 died in 1566, aged 53 years. t Ibid. p. 35, § 16. | Ibid. 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. 157 
 
 was of course intended as an evidence of his Protestant 
 orthodoxy, and as a douceur to English bigotry. This 
 unworthy virulence, however, but enhances the more the 
 value of his previous admissions in favor of Catholicity, 
 which could have been wrung from him only by the stern- 
 est evidence of facts. Justus Lipsius was a prodigy of 
 classical learning and erudition. He became a most ex- 
 emplary Catholic, and died at liOuvain in 1606. 
 
 We have now completed our rapid analysis of the facts 
 connected with the decline of Protestantism on the one 
 hand, and the reaction of Catholicity on the other. We 
 have shown, on unquestionable Protestant authority, the 
 existence and extent of both these parallel developments. 
 Every candid man will easily draw the natural inference 
 from these facts: that Protestantism was a human, and 
 Catholicity a divine institution. We can explain the 
 facts on no other principle. To attempt to explain them 
 on the principles of mere human philosophy is a misera- 
 ble fallacy. If Protestantism was true, it would have 
 conquered and endured ; if Catholicity was false, it must 
 have fallen. 
 
 We will close our remarks on this subject by a splen- 
 did avowal of another living Protestant writer of great 
 eminence — Thomas Babington Macauley — whose testi- 
 mony, though already often quoted, is too apposite to the 
 matter in hand to be here omitted. The passage which 
 we will quote is taken from an article in the Edinburg 
 Review on Ranke's History of the Papacy, another cir- 
 cumstance which entitles it to a place in this chapter. 
 
 *' There is not, and there never was, on this earth, a 
 work so well deserving; of examination as the Roman 
 Catholic Church. The history of that church joins to- 
 gether the two great ages of human civilization. No 
 other institution is left standing which carries the mind 
 back to the times when the smoke of sacrifice rose from 
 th'^ Pantheon ; and when cameleopards and tigers bounded 
 in the Flavian amphitheatre. The proudest royal houses 
 14 
 
158 D attbigne's history reviewed. 
 
 are but of yesterday, when compared with the line of the 
 Roman pontiffs. This line we trace back, in an unbroken 
 series, from the pope who crowned Napoleon in the nine- 
 teenth century, to the pope who crowned Pepin in the 
 eighth; and far beyond the time of Pepin, the august 
 dynasty extends until its origin is lost in the twilight of 
 fable ! {Was the apostolic age " the twilight of fahle?''^) 
 The republic of Venice came next in antiquity. But the 
 republic of Venice was modern when compared with the 
 papacy; and the republic of Venice is gone, and the 
 papacy remains. The papacy remains, not in decay, nor 
 a mere antique, but full of life and youthful vigor. The 
 Catholic church is still sending forth, to the furthest ends 
 of the world, missionaries as zealous as those who landed 
 in Kent with Augustine, and still confronting hostile 
 kings with the same spirit with which she confronted At- 
 tila. The number of her children is greater than in any 
 former age. Her acquisitions in the new world have 
 more than compensated her for what she has lost in the 
 old. Her spiritual ascendency extends over the vast 
 countries which He between the plains of the Missouri 
 and Cape Horn, countries which, a century hence, may 
 not improbably contain a population as large as that which 
 now inhabits Europe. The members of her communion 
 are certainly not fewer than a hundred and fifty millions,* 
 and it will be difficult to show that all the other Chris- 
 tian sects united amount to one hundred and twenty mill- 
 ions.f 
 
 • The number of Catholics in the world has been variously stated. 
 An official statistical account, lately published in Rome, makes the 
 number 160,842,424. Malte Brun estimates it at above 164,000,000 ; 
 and others have stated it at 180 or even 200,000,000. The Roman state- 
 ment is perhaps the most to be relied on. It does not at least exceed ; 
 it may even fall below the mark, in consequence of the probable in- 
 completeness of the returns. 
 
 f This embraces the Greek and oriental churches, and is still doubt- 
 less excessive. The total number of Protestants, including free-think^ 
 era, &,c., 19 not probably over 30,000,000. 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. 159 
 
 Nor do we see any sign which indicates that the term 
 of her long dominion is approaching. She saw the com- 
 mencement of all the governments, and of all the eccle- 
 siastical establishments that now exist in the world; and 
 we feel no assurance that she is not destined to see the 
 end of them all. She was great and respected before the 
 Saxon set foot on Briton — before the Frank had passed 
 the Rhine — when Grecian eloquence still flourished at 
 Antioch — when idols were still worshipped in the Temple 
 of Mecca. And she may still exist in undiminished 
 vigor, when some traveller from New Zealand shall, in 
 the midst of a vast solitude, take his stand on a broken 
 arch of Londoii bridge to sketch the ruins of St. Paul's !" 
 
 Truly splendid testimony to the vitality of the Catholic 
 church, coming, as it does, from the pen of a sworn 
 enemy — of a Scotchman and a Presbyterian ! Speaking 
 of the trite remark that, as the world becomes more en- 
 lightened, it will renounce Catholicity and embrace Pro- 
 testantism, he says : **Yet we see that, during these 250 
 years Protestantism has made no conquests worth speak- 
 ing of. Nay, we believe, that as far as there has been a 
 change, that change has been in favor of the church of 
 Rome. We cannot therefore feel confident that the pro- 
 gress of knowledge will necessarily be fatal to a system, 
 which has, to say the least, stood its ground in spite of 
 the immense progress which knowledge has made since 
 the days of Queen Elizabeth." He a little after adds: 
 **four times since the authority of the church of Rome 
 was established in western Christendom, has the human 
 intellect risen up against her. Twice she remained com- 
 pletely victorious. Twice she came forth from the con- 
 flict bearing the marks of cruel wounds, but with the 
 principle of life still strong within her. When we reflect 
 on the tremendous assaults which she has survived, we 
 find it difiicult to conceive in what way she is to perish !" 
 
 Yes — it must be avowed : the Catholic church is inde- 
 structible, and therefore divine ! You might as well try to 
 
160 D'aUBIGXe's IIISTORV REVIEVv'ED. 
 
 blot out the sun from the heavens, as to extinguish the 
 bright light of the Catholic church on earth ! Clouds may 
 hide for a time the sun's disc from the eye of the behold- 
 er — but the sun is still there, the same as when he shone 
 with his most brilliant light upon us: so also, the clouds 
 of persecution and prejudice may cover for a time the 
 fair face of the church — but the eye of faith penetrates 
 those dark clouds, and assures us, that though partially 
 concealed, she is still there ! And when those clouds 
 clear away, she again shines out with a more brilliant and 
 a more cheering light than ever! He who said : " heaven 
 and earth may pass away, but my words shall not pass 
 away," has also pronounced that " the gates of hell shall 
 not prevail against her." 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable feature in modern society, 
 is the general and manifest reaction of Catholicity through- 
 out the world, and especially in Protestant countries. 
 There seems to be a universal gravitation of all spirits 
 towards Rome !* Germany, the first theatre of the refor- 
 mation, led the way in this awakening. Besides the 
 works of Voight, Hurter and Ranke, which are well 
 known, there are also: the "Universal History" and the 
 ** Journeys of the Popes," by the great Protestant histo- 
 rian John Miiller — the " History of the Princes of the 
 house of Hohenstaufen," by the famous Raumur — the 
 ** History of the Church," and "the History of Italy," 
 by M. Leo — not to mention a host of other wor^s by 
 eminent German Protestant writers of the day — all of 
 which evidence, by their spirit and their justice to the 
 popes and to the old religion, this wonderful resuscita- 
 tion of Catholic feeling in Protestant Germany. Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and the United States even, have partici- 
 pated in this movement. We trust that De Maistre's pro- 
 phetic remark— that when sectarianism should have run 
 
 * See the " Introduction to Ranke's Papaut^" by M. Alexandre de 
 Saint Cheron, page xv, seqq. 
 
CATHOLIC reaction; the reform declines. 161 
 
 through the whole circle of error, it would return again to 
 the great Catholic centre of truth — is on the eve of its 
 fulfilment ! 
 
 What we will now proceed to prove in relation to the 
 manifold influences of tiie reformation, will throw addi- 
 tional light upon the matter we have treated in this chap- 
 ter; and may serve also greatly to explain why it was 
 that, after a brief storm of excitement, Catholicity reacted 
 and Protestantism declined. 
 
 14* 
 
fart III. 
 
 INFLUENCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REFORMATION ON RELIGION. 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON DOCTRINAL BELIEF. 
 
 ** Who would ever have believed that the reformation from the beginning would 
 have attacked morality, dogma, and faith ; or that the seditious genius of a monk 
 could have caused so much disturbance ?" Erasm. {Epist Georgia Dud). 
 
 " As long as words a different sense will bear, 
 And each maybe his own interpreter, 
 Our airy faith will no foundation find, 
 The word's a weathercock for every wind."— Drtden. 
 
 The nature of religion — A golden chain — Question stated — Private 
 judgment — Church authority — As many religions as heads — M. 
 D'Aubigne's theory — Its poetic beauty — Fever of logomachy — " Sons 
 of liberty" — The Eible dissected — A hydra-headed monster — Eras- 
 mus — Curing a lame horse — Luther puzzled — His plaint — His incon- 
 sistency — Missions and miracles — Zuingle's inconsistency — Strange 
 fanaticism — Storck, Mlinger, Karlstadt, and John of Leyden — A new 
 deluge — Retorting the argument — Discussion at the "Black Boar" — 
 Luther and the cobbler — Discussion at Marburg — Luther's avowal — 
 Breaking necks — Melancthon's lament — The inference — Protestant- 
 ism the mother of infidelity — Picture of modern Protestantism in 
 Germany by Schlegel. 
 
 Religion is a divinely established system, which came 
 down from heaven to conduct man thither. By the diso- 
 bedience of Adam, man, originally created upright, fell 
 from grace, and was, as it were, loosed from heaven to 
 which he had been previously bound by the most sacred 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOX. 163 
 
 ties of fellowship. Religion is a golden chain reaching 
 down from heaven to earth, which, according to the ety- 
 mological import of the term, hiyids man again to heaven. 
 And to pursue the illustration a little farther, as the loss 
 of even one link would destroy the integrity of a chain, 
 and would render it useless as a means of binding together 
 distant objects ; so also, the removal of one link from the 
 chain of religion, would destroy its integrity and mar its 
 lofty purpose. These links are united together in three 
 divisions, comprising severally the doctrines revealed by 
 and through Jesus Christ; the moral precepts which he 
 gave; and the sacraments and sacrifice which he instituted. 
 All these are as essentially and as intimately connected 
 together, as are the parts of a chain. " He that oflfendeth 
 in one, is guilty of all :*'* because he rebels against the 
 authority from which the whole emanates. 
 
 Religion then consists of three parts : doctrines to be 
 believed, commandments to be observed, and sacramental 
 and sacrificial ordinances to be received and complied 
 with. The third department partakes of the nature of the 
 other two: being partly doctrinal and partly moral. In 
 other words, the Christian religion embraces, as essential 
 to its very nature and divine purposes, doctrines, morals, 
 and worship: and we propose briefly to examine the influ- 
 ence of the pretended reformation on each of these sepa- 
 rately. Was this influence beneficial .^ Did it really re- 
 form religion, as it purported to do ? M. D'Aubigne tells 
 us : that " the reform saved religion, and with it society."! 
 We shall see hereafter what it did for society; and we 
 will now inquire whether it ** saved religion ?" 
 
 And first, what was its influence on the doctrines of 
 Christianity ? Did it teach them in greater purity, and 
 integrity, or with greater certainty, than the Catholic 
 church had done ? Did it shed on them a clearer or more 
 steady light? Or did it, on the contrary, give out a very 
 
 * St. James ii, 10. t "^"olr ». P- 67. 
 
Ib4 d^'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 doubtful and uncertain light ; leaving the minds of men in 
 perplexity as to the doctrines to be believed ; and per- 
 mitting its disciples " to be tossed to and fro bj every 
 wind of doctrine,'^* on the stormy sea of conflicting hu- 
 man opinions ? We shall see. It will not, however, be 
 necessary to our inquiry, to examine the grounds which 
 establish the truth of the various Catholic, or the falsity 
 of the Protestant doctrines in controversy: all that will 
 be requisite for our purpose, will be an investigation of ihe 
 facts bearing on the question. 
 
 The great distinctive feature of the reformation, was its 
 rejection of church authority, and its assertion of the prin- 
 ciple of private judgment in matters of religion. This is 
 the key of that new system : this the proudest boast of 
 those who aiTected to bring about the '* emancipation of 
 the human mind." This is the cardinal principle of 
 ** Christian liberty," as asserted by Martin Luther, in a 
 special work on the subject : this the means of being res- 
 cued from the degrading " captivity of Babylon. "t The 
 Catholic religion had taught that, in matters of contro- 
 "versy. Christians were bound by the solemn command of 
 Christ, "to hear the church. "± Church authority was 
 the uJtima ratio of controversy, the great means of attain- 
 ing to certainty in what we are to believe and to reject — 
 the bond of union among Christians. Not that the church 
 meant to decide on every controverted point: she only 
 decided where she found sufficient warrant in revelation 
 to guide her with certainty. In other matters — and they 
 were numerous — she wisely abstained from any definition, 
 and allowed her children a reasonable latitude of opinion, 
 provided however they did not either directly or indirectly 
 infringe on the principles of faith. This was hallowed 
 ftnd consecrated ground, Vi'hich was not to be trodden by 
 
 * Ephes. iv, 14. 
 f See the two works of Luther " De Christiana Libertate," an(i 
 <« De Captivitate Babylonica 
 X Matth. xviii, 17. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGION, 165 
 
 the rude foot of controversy. She said to the stormy 
 billows of human opinion : " thus far shall you come, and 
 no farther: and here shall you break your boiling 
 waves!"* 
 
 When the reformers cast off this yoke of church au- 
 thority, and said "they would not serve" any longer, 
 they had no alternative left, but to decide, each one for 
 himself, what was the doctrine of Christ. Private judg- 
 ment was thus substituted for the teaching of the church : 
 human opinion for faith. As men were diflferently con- 
 stituted, they naturally took different views of the reli- 
 gion of Christ. Each one struck out a new system for 
 himself: and soon, instead of the one religion which had 
 been received with reverence for ages, the world beheld 
 the novel spectacle of almost as many religions as there 
 were heads among the Protestant party ! 
 
 M. D'Aubigne's theory on this subject is as curious as it 
 is liberal^ in the modern sense of this term. He thus dis- 
 courses on the diversities of the reformation: "We are 
 about to contemplate the diversities, or, as they have been 
 since called, the variations of the reformation. These 
 diversities are among its most essential characters. Uni- 
 ty in diversity, and diversity in unity, is a law of nature, 
 and also of the church. Truth may be compared to the 
 light of the sun. The light comes from heaven colorless, 
 and ever the same : and yet it takes different hues on 
 earth, varying according to the objects on which it falls. 
 Thus different formularies may sometimes express the 
 same Christian truth, viewed under different aspects. 
 How dull would be this visible creation, if all its bound- 
 less variety of shape and color were to give place to an 
 unbroken uniformity !"t 
 
 * Job xxxviii, 12. " Hue usque venies et non amplius ; et hie con- 
 fringes tumentes fluctus tuos." 
 
 t Vol. iii, p. 285, in the introduction to the eleventh book, in which 
 he treats of the controversies between the partisans of Zuingle and 
 Luther. 
 
l66 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 A beautiful theory truly, and aptly illustrated ! So, 
 then, "the diffeteiU formularies" of Luther, openly as- 
 serting the real presence of Christ in the sacrament, and 
 of Zuingle flatly denying this presence, "both express 
 the same Christian truth viewed under different aspects!" 
 These great champions of Protestantism, as we have seen-, 
 mutually anathematized and denounced each other as 
 children of Satan, on this very ground, and yet, in sooth, 
 they maintained " the same Christian truth under differ- 
 ent aspects!" They plainly contradicted each other on 
 many other important points, and the Wittemberg doctor 
 would consent to hold no communion with him of Zu- 
 rich ;* and yet they maintained "the same Christian 
 truth !" Luther said to Zuingle, who proposed mutual 
 communion, at the close of the famous conference of 
 Marburg, in 1528, " No, no: cursed be the alliance which 
 endangers the truth of God and the salvation of souls. 
 Away v/ith you : you are possessed by a different spirit 
 from ours. But take caret before three years the anger 
 of God will fall on you !"t And yet M. D'Aubigne 
 would have us believe that they agreed as to the sub- 
 stance of "Christian truth!" Verily, he must think 
 others as credulous as he himself seewi^ to be! 
 
 And then, the charming illustration from the light of the 
 sun ! It is almost a pity to spoil its poetical beauty ; though 
 even a poet would lay himself open to the severest criti- 
 cism, were bis figures no more appropriate or true to na- 
 ture. M. D'Aubigne has taken more than even a poetic 
 license. Does the light of the sun, no matter how diversi- 
 fied, reflect contradictory images " of the objects on which 
 it falls?" Is it so very uncertain, as to leave us in doubt, 
 as to the shape and color of external objects ? Does it make 
 us the dupes of constant optical illusions ? The light which 
 
 * In the conference of Marburg. Cl". Autlin, " Life of Luther," p. 
 415, 416. 
 
 t Audin, ibid. See also Luther's Ep. ad Jacobum, praep. Bremens. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGION. 167 
 
 the reformers professed to borrow from heaven did all 
 this. And then, does it fall much short of blasphemy to 
 maintain that God is indifferent as to wliether we believe 
 truth or error ; and that he delights in such a "diversity" 
 of opinions as runs into open contradictions ? And this too, 
 when " his well beloved Son" came on earth " to bear tes- 
 timony to the truth," and laid down his life to seal it with 
 his blood ! And when he also pronounced the declaration : 
 ** he that believeth not shall be condemned ;"* which de- 
 claration referred to the necessity of belief '* in all things 
 whatsoever he had commanded !''t 
 
 The doctrine of private judgment broached by the re- 
 formers, led to endless inconsistencies and contradictions. 
 It was the prolific parent of sects almost innumerable. 
 More than fiftyl of these arose before the death of Luther ! 
 It was natural that it shoukl be so: "these diversities 
 were among the most essential fea<ures of the reforma- 
 tion. "§ The tree was only bearing its natural fruits; 
 and the latter, according to the divine standard, are the 
 best criterion whereby to judge of the former : ♦• by their 
 fruits ye shall know them." "The reformation, which 
 promised to put an end to the reign of disputatious theol- 
 ogy, had, on the contrary, awakened in all minds a fond- 
 ness for dispute, bordering on fanaticism : it was the fever 
 of logomachy, Haifa century before, men indeed dis- 
 puted ; but then the doctrine of the church was not called 
 into question : now however it was attacked on all sides. 
 In each university, and even in every private house, Ger- 
 many saw a pulpit erected for whoever pretended to have 
 received the understanding of the divine word. "|| This fever 
 has continued to rage in the bosom of Protestantism even 
 to the present day: it has not abated in the progress of 
 ages. True, in Germany, and on the continent of Europe, 
 
 * St. Mark, xvi, 16. f The parallel passage in St. Matth. xxviii, 20. 
 \ See Audin, p. 331. § D'Aubign6 ut supra. 
 
 II Audin, ibid. p. 190, 191. 
 
168 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 it has cooled down into a state of mortal apathy, a more 
 dangerous symptom far than the malady which it has super- 
 seded : but elsewhere, it has left the patient in the same 
 restless condition, as erewhile. 
 
 Most of the reformers found in the Bible, that a priest 
 who had made a solemn vow of celibacy to God, might 
 and even ought to break it, by taking a wife. The first 
 who made this consoling discovery, were Bernard of Fel- 
 kirk, abbot of Remberg, and the aged Karlstadt, arch- 
 deacon of Wittemberg. Their discovery was hailed with 
 delight by the lovers of " Christian liberty" throughout 
 Germany. Some went still farther, and maintained, Bible 
 in hand, with Bucer, Capito, Karlstadt and other evange- 
 lists, that marriage was not indissoluble; and that a 
 Christian could dismiss his wife, or even retain her, and 
 take one or more others at the same time, after the exam- 
 ple of the ancient patriarchs. These styled themselves 
 " the sons of liberty" — they should have said lihertinism. 
 
 We shall see, a little later, to what frightful conse- 
 quences these doctrines led ! '* All the hallucinations of 
 a disordered intellect were for a time ascribed to the Holy 
 Ghost. Never had the divine wisdom communicated itself 
 more liberally to the human mind ! The Bible was laid 
 open as an anatomical subject on an operator's table, and 
 every doctor came with his lance in hand — as afterwards 
 did Dumoulin — to anatomize the word of God, and to seek 
 the spirit, which before Luther had escaped the eye of 
 Catholicism. It was an epoch of glosses and commenta- 
 ries, which time has not had the trouble of destroying, 
 for they abounded with absurdity, and fell beneath the 
 weight of ridicule which crushed them at their birth. 
 There were new lights, who came to announce that they 
 had discovered an irresistible argument against the mass, 
 purgatory, and prayers to the saints. This was simply to 
 deny the immortality of the soul."* This startling im- 
 
 * Audin, p. 192. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RliLIGlON. 169 
 
 piety was really maintained in full school at Geneva, by 
 certain " new lights," who came from Wittemberg.* 
 
 From the earliest period of its history, ** the hydra of 
 the reformation had a hundred heads. The anabaptists 
 believed with Mi^inzer, that without a second baptism, 
 man could not be saved. The Karlstadtians preached up 
 polygamy. The Zuinglians rejected the real presence. 
 Osiander taught that God had predestined only the elect. 
 The Majorists taught that works were not necessary for 
 salvation; while the followers of Flaccus accused the 
 Majorists of popery. The Synergists preached up man's 
 liberty. The Ubiquitarians believed, that the humanity 
 of Christ was, like his divinity, omnipresent. Some held 
 original sin to be the nature, the substance, the essence of 
 man ; while others regarded it as a mere mode of his 
 being. All these sects boasted of the Bible, as a suffi- 
 cient rule of faith; they published confessions, composed 
 creeds, and insisted on faith, as a condition of communion. 
 Children of the same father, whom they had severally de- 
 nied, they cursed and proscribed each other : they gave 
 the name of heretic to, and shut the gates of heaven against, 
 all their brethren in revolt, who happened to differ from 
 them."t Other fanatics preached up the community of 
 goods, with Stork and the Anabaptists; others, with the 
 prophets of Alstell, *' the demolition of images, of churches, 
 of chapels, and the adoration of the Lord on high places ;"J 
 and others, the inutility of the law, and of prayer. The 
 feverish spirit of innovation knew no rest; every day 
 brought forth a new sect. And is it not so, even in our 
 own age and country ? 
 
 Erasmus hit off, in his own polished and caustic style, 
 the extravagant inconsistencies of the Protestant rule of 
 
 * " Quidquid de animariim habetur immortalitate, ab antichristo ad 
 statuendam suam culinara excogitatvmi est." Prateolus — Elench. voce 
 Athei, p. 72. See also Bayle's Dictionary, art. Luther. 
 
 t Audin, p. 208, 209. See the authorities he quotes, ibid. note. 
 
 t Idem. p. 331. 
 15 
 
170 ■ d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 faith. "They say: * do philosophy and learning aid us 
 in understanding the holy books ?' I reply : * will igno- 
 rance assist you r' They say : ' of what authority are 
 these councils, in which not perhaps a single member re- 
 ceived the Holy Ghost?' 1 ask in reply : ' is not the gift 
 of God, probably, as rare in your conventicles?' The 
 apostles would not have been believed, had they not proved 
 the -truth of their doctrines by miracles. Among you 
 every individual must be believed on his own word. 
 When the apostles lulled the serpents, healed the infirm, 
 and raised the dead to life, people were forced to believe 
 in them, though they announced incomprehensible myste- 
 ries. Among these doctors, who tell us so many wonder- 
 ful things, is there one who has been able to cure a lame 
 horse? .... Give me miracles. * They are unnecessary : 
 there have been enough of them : the bright light of the 
 Scriptures is not so very clear, since I see so many men 
 wander in the dark. Although we had the spirit of God, 
 how can we be certain that we have the knowledge of his 
 word ? What must I believe, when I see, in the midst of 
 contradictory doctrines, all lay claim to dogmatical infal- 
 libility, and rise up with oracular authority against the 
 doctrines of those who have preceded us ? Is it then likely 
 that during thirteen centuries, God should not have raised 
 up, among the many holy personages he has given to his 
 church, a single one to whom he revealed his doctrine ?"* 
 Luther was often saddened by the defection of his own 
 disciples, as well as grievously puzzled, when they played 
 off on him the same arguments which he had used against 
 the pope. His cherished disciple Mathesius relates the 
 mental anguish he endured, wl-.en, being at the castle of 
 the Wartberg in 1521, he heard of the revolt and strange' 
 doings of Karlstadt at Wittembeig. He yielded to de- 
 jection; he seemed to himself to have been abandoned by 
 God and by men: " his head grew weary, his forehead 
 
 * •' De Libero Arbihio." Diatribe, and Menzel, i, 140. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGION. 171 
 
 burned with the excitement of his mintl, his eye grew 
 dim — and he would open his window" to inhale the 
 breezes of heaven, to cool his fevered soul — then he would 
 again struggle '* to forget the world and his wrongs !"* 
 But all his efforts to quiet his own mind proved inef- 
 fectual : he chafed like a tiger in his cage. At length he 
 resolved, against the advice of his friends, to leave the 
 Wartbnrg, and to show himself in the midst of his recreant 
 disciples at Wittemberg. He harangued them for full 
 two hours on the wickedness of their defection from his 
 standard ; and concluded his burning invective with the 
 following memorable sentence : *' Yes, if the devil himself 
 had entreated me" — to remove the images from the church 
 by violence — " I v/ould have turned a deaf ear to him !"t 
 
 He draws a graphic sketch of his own perplexity in a let- 
 ter to the Christians of Antwerp, written in 1525. We 
 will furnish a few extracts. " The devil has got among you : 
 he daily sends me visiters to knock at my door. One will 
 not hear of baptism ; another rejects the sacrament of the 
 eucharist ; a third teaches that a new world will be created 
 by God before the day of judgment; another, that Christ 
 is not God : in short, one this, another that. There are 
 almost as many creeds as individuals. There is no booby, 
 who, when he dreams, does not believe himself visited by 
 God, and who does not claim the gift of prophecy. I am 
 often visited by these men who claim to be favored by 
 visions, of which they all know more than I do, and which 
 they undertake to teach me. I would be glad they were 
 what they profess to be." 
 
 "No later than yesterday one came to me: *sir, I am 
 sent by God who created heaven and earth;' and then he 
 began to preach as a veritable idiot, that it was the order 
 of God that I should read the books of Moses for him. 
 
 * Ah ! where did you find this commandment of God?' 
 
 * In the Gospel of St. John ?' After he had spoken much, I 
 
 * alathesius. In Vita Lutheri, apnd Audin, p. 209, 
 t See the harxingue in Audin, p. 237, 2>3S. 
 
172 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 said to him: 'friend, come back to-morrow, for I cannot 
 read for you, at one sitting, the books of Moses.' * Good- 
 bye, master; the heavenly Father, who shed his blood for 
 us, will show us the right way through his son Jesus. 
 Amen!' .... While the papacy lasted there were 7io such 
 divisions or dissensions : the strong man peaceably ruled 
 the minds of men ; but now one stronger is come, whoHias 
 vanquished and put him to flight, and the former one 
 storms and wishes not to depart. A spirit of confusion is 
 thus among you, which tempts you, and seeks to withdraw 
 you from the true path." He concludes this strange epis- 
 tle with these characteristic words : ** begone, ye cohort 
 of devils — marked with the character of error: God is a 
 spirit of peace and not of dissension."* 
 
 But Luther could not succeed in exorcising the demons, 
 whom his own principle of private judgment had evoked 
 from the abyss. True, he occasionally made trial of the 
 good old Catholic' specifics for this purpose; but they 
 proved powerless in his bands. Thus, when pressed by 
 the Anabaptists, to prove infant baptism from the Scrip- 
 tures — his only rule of faith — he had recourse to the good 
 old Catholic argument of church authority founded on tra- 
 dition* He appealed to the testimony of St. Augustine 
 and to the teaching of the church during his day. *' But, 
 it is objected," he says, "what if Augustine and those 
 whom you call and believe to be the church, erred in this 
 particular ? But this objection can be easily impugned. If 
 you do not admit the right, (jus) at least will you not ad- 
 mit the fact (factum) of this having been the belief of the 
 church? And to deny that this was the faith of the true 
 and lawful church, I deem most impious. "t 
 
 * " Ein Briefe D. Martin Luther an die Christen zu Antorf." Wit- 
 temberg, 1525, 4to, "Doct. M. Luther Briefe," torn, iii, p. 60. 
 
 t "Objicitur vero : quid si Augustinus, et quos ecclesiam vocas vel 
 esse credis, in hac parte errarint? .... At eadem objectio facile im- 
 pugnabitur. Si non jus, tamen factum proprie credendi inecclesia? 
 Hanc autem confessionem negare esse ecclesice illius verse et legitimae, 
 arbitror impiissimum esse." Epist. Melancthoni, 13 January, 1522. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGION'. 173 
 
 Another argument he eraplojed to refute the Anabap- 
 tists, was that drawn from the necessity of a lawful mission 
 to preach the Gospel, and of miracles to confirm it, when 
 it was not derived through the ordinary channels of the 
 church. In a sermon delivered at Wittemberg against 
 their ''prophets," in 1522, he used this language: "Do 
 you wish to found a new church ? Let us see : who has 
 sent you ? From whom have you received your mission ? 
 As you give testimon^^'of yourselves, we are not at once 
 to believe you, but according to the advice of St. John, we 
 must try you. God has sent no one into this world who 
 was not called by man, or announced by signs — not even 
 excepting his own Son. The prophets derived their title 
 from the law, and from the prophetic order, as we do 
 from men. I do not care for you, if you have only a mere 
 revelation to propose : God would not permit Samuel to 
 speak, except by the authority of hell (!). When the law 
 is to be changed, miracles are necessary. Where are 
 your miracles? What the Jews said to the Lord, we now 
 say to you : * master, we v/ish for a sign.'"* 
 
 Luther often used this argument:! and yet, it might 
 have been retorted with unanswerable force against him- 
 self. And it was retorted by Stiibner and Cellarius, two 
 of the Anabaptist prophets, whom he had attacked. The 
 answer of the Saxon reformer is not recorded :f perhaps 
 he had none to give. According to Erasmus, the re- 
 formers never succeeded even " in curing a lame horse !" 
 Luther himself, somewhat later, acknowledged, that he 
 had never performed any miracles, except that *' he had 
 slapped Satan in the face, and struck the papacy in its 
 core."§ Astonishing miracles truly ! 
 
 * Apud Audin, p. 238. 
 
 t As in lib. iii, c. iv. " Contra Anabaptistas ;" and elsewhere. 
 
 X In his letter to Spalatin, in which he relates his interview with 
 Stubner and Cellarius, Luther is silent on this retort. Epist. Spalatino, 
 12 Ap. 1522. Yet the Anabaptist historians relate it. Cf. Audin, p. 239. 
 
 § See Audin, p. 233, note, for authority for this feat. 
 15* 
 
174 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Luther was not alone, in inconsistently appealing to 
 aro-uments which condemned himself and his own cause. 
 Many of the other principal reformers were driven to the 
 same straits. In order to refute George Blaurock, an Ana- 
 baptist, enthusiast, Zuingle used the following argument: 
 "If we allow every enthusiast or sophist to diffuse among 
 the people all the foolish fancies of his heated imagina- 
 tion, to assemble together disciples and make a sect, we 
 shall see the church of Christ splic up into an infinity of 
 factions, and lose that unity which she has maintained at 
 so great sacrifices. It is necessary then to consult the 
 church, and not to listen to passion or prejudice. The 
 interpretation of Scripture is not the right of individuals, 
 but of the church : she has the keys, and the power of un- 
 locking the treasures of the divine word."* 
 
 Blaurock was not satisfied, as might have been expected, 
 with this appeal to authority. Bullingert tells us, that he 
 answered in a loud voice : " Did not you Sacramentarians 
 break with the pope, without consulting the church which 
 you abandoned — and that too, a church which was not of 
 yesterday ? Is it not lawful for us to abandon your church, 
 which is but a few days old ? Cannot we do what you 
 have done ?" Zuingle was nonplussed. 
 
 We will give a few instances of the strange fanaticism 
 to which this same principle of private judgment naturally 
 led. "We might fill a volume with such examples ; but our 
 limits will permit only a few.J Hear this announcement 
 of Storck in one of his sermons. *' Behold, what I an- 
 nounce to you. God has sent his angel to me during the 
 night, to tell me that I shall sit on the same throne as the 
 archangel Gabriel. Let the impious tremble and the just 
 
 hope It is to me, Storck, that heaven has promised 
 
 the empire of the world. Would you desire to be visited 
 
 * Zuinglius. " De Baptismo," p, 72. 
 t " In Apologia Anabaptist," p. 254. 
 
 X Those who wish to see more are referred to Catrou, Hisioire du 
 Fanaiisme, torn, i ; and to Mesbovius. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGION. 175 
 
 by God ? Prepare your hearts to receive the Holy Spirit. 
 Let there be no pulpit whence to announce the word of 
 God: no priests, no preachers, no exterior worship: let 
 your dress be plain; your food bread and salt; and God 
 will descend upon you." 
 
 Miinzer, another Anabaptist, thus pleaded for the gene- 
 ral division of property : " Ye rich of the earth who keep 
 us in bondage, who have plundered us, give us back our 
 liberty and possessions. It is not only as men that we 
 now demand what has been taken from us : we ask it as 
 Christians. In the primitive church, the apostles divided 
 with their brethren in Jesus Christ the money that was 
 laid at their feet. Give us back the goods you unjustly 
 retain. Unhappy flock of Jesus Christ, how long will you 
 groan in oppression under the yoke of the priest and the 
 magistrate ?" " And then the prophet suddenly fell into 
 an epileptic fit: his hair stood erect; perspiration rolled 
 down his face, and foam issued from his mouth. The 
 people cried out: * silence, God visits his prophet!'"* 
 
 At the termination of his ecstacy, which continued for 
 some minutes, the prophet cried out at the top of his sten- 
 torian voice: *' Eternal God, pour into my soul the trea- 
 sures of thy justice, otherwise I shall renounce thee and 
 thy prophets."! A Lutheran having appealed to the Bible. 
 *'The Bible ? Babe) !" cried Miinzer.J 
 
 What will be thought of this strange conceit of Karl- 
 stadt ? *' One day, Karlstadt was seen running through 
 the streets of Wittemberg with the Bible in his hand, and 
 stopping the passers-by to inquire of them the meaning of 
 difficult passages of the sacred books : * What are you 
 about,' said the Austin friars to him. * Is it not written' 
 — answered the archdeacon — ' that the voice of truth shall 
 be heard from the lips of infants ? I only accomplish the 
 orders of heaven.' "§ Who has not heard of the revolt- 
 
 * Aiidin, p. 231. f Meshovius, p. 4. Catron, sup cit. 
 
 t Ibid. § Ibid 
 
176 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 ing obscenities of John of Leyden, and of the prophets of 
 Munster ? All perpetrated too under the bright new light 
 of the reformation ! Who, in fine, that has even glanced at 
 the history of this period, has not remarked the endless 
 extravagances, the absurd conceits, the astonishing fanati- 
 cism which marked almost every day of its annals ! 
 
 Truly, then "the fountains of the great deep were bro- 
 ken up, and the flood-gates of heaven were opened ;"''^ and 
 a new deluge flooded the earth, more destructive than that 
 which had buoyed up Noah's ark ! For this destroyed only 
 the bodies of men ; that carried away and ruined men's 
 souls. " The flood-gates of heaven" — did we say ? No, 
 the origin of those waters must be sought elsewhere. Lu- 
 ther himself aids us in detecting their source. We have 
 seen above, his opinion on the subject, in his letter to the 
 Christians of Antwerp. And in his subsequent contro- 
 versies with the Sacramentarians, after having spoken of 
 their dissensions among themselves, he said : " this is a 
 great proof that these Sacramento-magists come not from 
 God, but from the devil."t And we have seen how Zu- 
 inglius retorted the compliment on Luther and his refor- 
 mation. 
 
 Cannot we turn this, and all the other arguments em- 
 ployed by the several reformers to refute each other, 
 against all of them ? Cannot we point to the numberless 
 dissensions of Protestants among themselves — dissensions 
 perpetuated a hundred fold unto this day — to prove against 
 them all, that their pretended reformation, which always 
 produced such fruits, is not from that God, •' who is not 
 the God of dissension, but of peace ?" Cannot we ask 
 them, whence they had their mission to reform the church? 
 And if they answer, "from heaven;" ask them again to 
 prove it to us by miracles ? How will they — how can they 
 answer these arguments, which they themselves so often 
 wielded against one another. 
 
 * Genesis vi, 11. 
 
 t "An die Christen zu Reutlingen," 5 January, 1526. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGION. 177 
 
 To illustrate this matter still farther, and to show what 
 spirit originated and perpetuated the dissensions with 
 which early Protestantism was torn into fragments, we 
 will here exhibit a few specimens of the manner in which 
 controversies among the reformers were then conduct- 
 ed. In 1524, Luther went to Jena, where he preached 
 against the "prophets" of the Anabaptists, whose argu- 
 ments had been answered by their brother Protestants 
 with the convincing weapons 'of fire and sword ! Tens of 
 thousands of the vast multitudes, whom these fanatics had 
 misled, had been butchered ; but yet their spirit was not 
 wholly subdued. Karlstadt, then pastor at Jena, feeling 
 himself aggrieved by the violence of Luther's sermon, 
 challeno;ed him to an oral discussion. The challeno;e was 
 accepted, and the tavern of the *• Black Boar," was the 
 place appointed for the meeting. After some preliminary 
 discussion, in which the two " new apostles" indulged in 
 insulting personalities — Karlstadt maintaining that Luther 
 had meant him in his sermon, and Luther calling on him 
 for proof, telling him **if he saw the likeness in the pic- 
 ture, it must have suited him," &c. — the discussion pro- 
 ceeded after this wise : 
 
 Karlstadt. " Well then, I will dispute in public, and I 
 will manifest the truth of God, or my own confusion. 
 
 Luther. Your own folly rather. Doctor. 
 
 Karlstadt. My confusion, which I shall bear for God's 
 glory. 
 
 Luther. And which will fall back on your own shoul- 
 ders. I care little for your menaces. Who fears you ? 
 
 Karlstadt. Whom do I fear } My doctrine is pure ; it 
 comes from God. 
 
 Luther. If it comes from God, why have you not im- 
 parted to others the spirit that made you break the images 
 at Wittemberg ? 
 
 Karlstadt. I was not the only one concerned in that 
 enterprise. It was done after a mature decision of the 
 
178 
 
 senate, and by the co-operation of some of your disciples, 
 who fled in the moment of peril. 
 
 Luther. False, I protest. 
 
 Karlstadt. True, I protest." 
 
 Karlstadt complained a little after, that Luther had 
 condemned him at Wittemberg without previous admo- 
 nition. This Luther flatly contradicted, stating that "he 
 had brought Philip and Pomeranius into his study," for 
 that purpose : hereupon Kaflstadt became enraged, and 
 exclaimed: "if you speak the truth, may the d — il tear 
 me in pieces!" The discussion ended in nothing — as 
 most discussions of the kind do. Luther challenged Karl- 
 stadt to write against him; the latter accepted the chal- 
 lenge : Luther then gave him a gold florin as stake money, 
 and the compact was duly ratified, after the old German 
 fashion, by two overflowing bumpers of ale.* Never had 
 the Black Boar of Jena been so crowded, or witnessed a 
 spectacle of such stirring interest ! And such a spectacle ! 
 
 From Jena Luther proceeded to Orlamunde, \yhere he 
 carried on a spirited controversy, in the presence of the 
 town council, with a cobbler theologian, named Crispin, 
 who had recently learned — thanks to the reformation — 
 how to apply his craft to interpreting, if not mending the 
 Bible! The discussion was long and animated; Crispin 
 supplying his lack of argument by a stentorian voice, and 
 by furious gesticulations. The subject was the lawful- 
 ness of images ; Luther defending, and Crispin objecting ; 
 and both appealing to the Bible. What was most morti- 
 fying to the reformer, the town council sided with the 
 cobbler, and decided against the Wittemberg Doctor ! " so 
 then," said Luther to the council, "you condemn me?" 
 
 "Most assuredly;" cried out Crispin — "you and all 
 who teach what is opposed to God's word." 
 
 " A childish insult," said Luther as he mounted the car. 
 
 One of the chamberlains here caudit hold of his gar- 
 
 * Seo the whole discussion in Audin, p. 322, seqq. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGION. 179 
 
 ments, and said: ''before you go away, master, a word 
 with you on baptism, and the sacrament of the eucharist." 
 *' Have you not my books P" said the monk to him. *' Read 
 them." 
 
 *' I have read them, and my conscience is not satisfied 
 with them;" said the chamberlain. 
 
 ** If any thing displeases you in them write against me ;" 
 said Luther: and he started off. Luther himself relates 
 to us this adventure, and also gives to us the words of 
 awful malediction with which the people greeted him, when 
 he was leaving Orlamunde.* 
 
 But the most interesting discussion of all, was that held 
 at Marburg in 1528, on the subject of the holy sacrament; 
 between Luther, Melancthon, Justus Jonas, and Cruciger, 
 on the one part; and Zuingle, CEcolampadius, Martin Bu- 
 cer and Gaspard Hedio, on the other. Luther contended 
 for the real presence of the body and blood of Christ along 
 with that of the bread and wine; and Zuinglius main- 
 tained a figurative presence, or rather, no presence at all. 
 This point was the greatest subject of contention among 
 the reformers. *' In 1527, Luther counted already no 
 less than eight different interpretations of the text : * this 
 is my hudyP Thirty years afterwards, there were no less 
 than eighty-five !t Rasperger, who wrote at a somewhat 
 later period, reckoned no less than two hundred !:}: A 
 pretty good commentary this, on the principle of private 
 judgment. It must surely be a good rule of faith, since it 
 has thus led to those "diversities," which M. D'Aubigne 
 admires so much.§ 
 
 * 0pp. torn, i, edit. Jen®, fol. 467; edit. Witt, i, 214. Cf. Audin, 
 p. 329. 
 
 -f See Audin, p. 408, note, for an account of the principal interpreta- 
 tions ; most of them singular enough, even for those days of Bible 
 mania. 
 
 I Apud Lieberman, Theologia Dogmat. De Eucharistia. 
 
 § Bellarmine bears evidence that 200 interpretations of the words : — 
 this is my body — had been enumerated in a work published in 1577, 
 Controversise vol. iii, cap. viii, de Eucharist, p. 195. Edit. Venetiis, 
 1721— in 6 vols, folio. 
 
180 d'aubigne's history reviewkd. 
 
 One of Zuingle's chief arguments against the real pre- 
 sence, was the fact, that this doctrine was held by the 
 Catholic church. Luther answered: ** wretched argu- 
 ment! Deny then the Scripture also; for we have re- 
 ceived it too from the pope We must acknowledge 
 
 that there are great mysteries of faith in the papacy; yea, 
 all the truths we have inherited : for it is in popery that 
 we found the true Scriptures, true baptism, the true sa- 
 crament of the altar, the true keys which remit sin, true 
 preaching, the true catechism, which contains the Lord's 
 prayer, the ten commandments — that is true Chris- 
 tianity."* 
 
 Precious avowal, coming as it does, from the father of 
 the reformation — the most inveterate enemy of Rome ! 
 How it contrasts with many of his other declarations ? 
 Why abandon the Catholic church, if it taught all this, 
 and held *' true Christianity ?" " Out of thy own mouth, 
 I judge thee, thou wicked servant!" On another occa- 
 sion, Luther had said : *' had Karlstadt or any other proved 
 to me, five years ago that there was nothing but bread and 
 wine in the sacrament, he would have rendered me great 
 service. It would have been a great blow to the papacy : 
 but it is all in vain ; the text is too plain."! It was per- 
 haps too late : he had already taken his stand, and com- 
 mitted himself on the question. 
 
 The conference on this subject at Marburg, was long 
 and violent : instead of healing, it only widened the breach 
 among the reformers. We can furnish but one extract 
 from the debate. To prove the figurative presence, Zuin- 
 gle had appealed to Ezechiel's wheel, and to the famous 
 text from Exodus, ch. xii : " for it is the phase, that is, the 
 passover of the Lord," which text had been suggested to 
 him by a nocturnal visiter of whom " he could not say 
 
 * 0pp. Lutheri, Jense, fol. 408, 409. 
 
 t Lutheri 0pp. edit. Hall. torn, xv, p. 2448. Meiizel, i, 2(jy, 270. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGION. 181 
 
 whether he was black or white !"* Luther answered : 
 ** the pasch and the wheel are allegorical. I do not mean 
 to dispute with jou about a word. If is means signifies, 
 I appeal to the words of Christ, who says : " this is my 
 body." The devil cannot get out of them (Da Kann der 
 Teufel nichtfiXr). To doubt is to fall from the faith. Why 
 do you not also see a trope in " he ascended into heaven." 
 A God made man, the Word made flesh, a God who suffers 
 — these are all incomprehensible things, which you must 
 however believe under penalty of eternal damnation." 
 
 Zuingle. " You do not prove the matter. I will not 
 permit you to incur the begging of the question. You 
 must change your note (/Ar werdet mir aiideres singen). 
 Do you think that Christ wished to accommodate himself 
 to the ignorant?" 
 
 Luther. ** Do -you then deny it ? * This is a hard say- 
 ing,' muttered the Jews, who spoke of the thing as impos- 
 sible. This passage cannot serve you." 
 
 Zuingle. ** Bah ! it breaks your neck" (Nein JVeinj 
 hricht euch den Hah ab). 
 
 Luther. '* Softly, be not so haughty: you are not in 
 Switzerland, but in Hesse; and necks are not so easily 
 broken here" (Die Hdlse hrechen nicht also),\ 
 
 The wavering, but often candid Melancthon wept bit- 
 terly over the dissensions of early Protestantism. He had 
 not the power to heal the crying evil, nor the courage to 
 abandon the system in which it originated. From many 
 passages of his writings bearing on the subject, we select 
 the following lament, in a confidential letter to a friend. 
 " The Elbe with all its waves could not furnish tears 
 enough to weep over the miseries of the distracted refor- 
 mation.":!: 
 
 * Florimond Remond, and Schlussenburg, in proem. Theolog. Cal- 
 vin. Zuingle's own words have been already quoted. 
 
 t For an account of the entire discussion, taken from Rodolph Collin, 
 an eye and ear witness, see Audin, p. 413, seqq. 
 
 X Epist. lib. ii, Ep. 202. 
 16 
 
182 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 The inextricable confusion of doctrinal beliefs induced 
 by the principle of private judgment, even during the life 
 of the reformers themselves, reminds us of another 
 entanglement extraordinary, inimitably described by 
 Scott: 
 
 " Now, on my faith, this gear is all entangled. 
 Like to the yarn clew of the drowsy knitter. 
 Dragged by the frolic kitten through the cabin, 
 While the good dame sits nodding o'er the fire : 
 Masters attend: 'twill crave some skill to clear it." 
 
 The masters " did attend," Melancthon at their head : 
 but they had not the '* skill which was craved," to clear 
 the entanglement of the reformation, caused by the " frolic 
 kitten" of private judgment! Nor had they the common 
 prudence to muzzle or to confine the bitten which had 
 done such mischief. In this negligence, they ** nodded^' 
 more than Scott's "good dame!" 
 
 Such then were the " diversities" of early Protestan- 
 tism! Such its endless maze of inconsistencies, contra- 
 dictions, and absurdities ! Such the bitter fruits of that 
 tree of revolt which Luther planted in the centre of Ger- 
 many : and which was watered by the blood of the slaugh- 
 tered Anabaptists, of the hundred thousand men who fell 
 in the war of the peasants, and of the countless multitudes, 
 who perished in the thirty years' war ! Such was the in- 
 fluence of the reformation on the doctrines of Christianity ! 
 It found but one faith on the earth; and it created a hun- 
 dred new ones, all contradicting each other ! Before it 
 came, mankind were of " one tongue and of one speech ;" 
 after it had done its work, there was a confusion of 
 tongues on the earth, and men no longer understood each 
 other. Does not St. Paul draw a lively picture of earl j — 
 and even of modern Protestantism — when he speaks of 
 those who are like ** children tossed to and fro, and car- 
 ried about with every wind of doctrine, in the wickedness 
 of men, in craftiness, in which they lie in wait to de- 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON RELIGION. 183 
 
 ceive?"* Could a system which thus divided and unset- 
 tled faith — which produced all these disastrous results, be 
 approved by heaven ? 
 
 Let it not be said, that the reformation did not produce 
 all these bitter consequences. It is fairly responsible for 
 them all. No effect everfoUowedmore necessarily or more 
 immediately, from any cause, than these divisions followed 
 from their first great, and their only cause — private judg- 
 ment, as the only rule of faith. This principle is respon- 
 sible for yet more evil results: it has led, by gradual but 
 by certain steps, to infidelity. History does not tell us 
 of any who made a profession of infidel principles in 
 Christian countries, during the first fifteen ages of the 
 church. And now, what is the state of that portion of the 
 world, which on the continent of Europe professes Pro- 
 testant Christianity ? Infidelity is the order of the day in 
 Germany, and in Switzerland ; the two fatherlands of 
 Protestantism. It is unnecessary to multiply proof on a 
 matter so unquestionable. Even M. D'Aubigne himself 
 admits, that the majority of Protestants have passed over 
 to the standard of rationalism, or the religion of men"t — 
 alias to rank deism. And even where Protestantism still 
 subsists, what is it, but a lifeless tree, the withered 
 branches of which are stirred only by the breath of its own 
 internal dissensions? 
 
 We will conclude this chapter with the picture of Pro- 
 testantism in modern Germany, drawn by the master hand 
 of Frederick Von Schlegel, whose mighty mind, disgusted 
 with the endless mazes of Protestantism, sought refuge 
 within the pale of Catholic unity. He is speaj^ing of the 
 boasted biblical learning of Germany, in which he says 
 *' the true key of interpretation, which sacred tradition 
 alone can furnish, was irretrievably lost, as the sequel has 
 but too well proved !" He then adds : *<this is no where 
 so fully understood, and so deeply felt, as in Protestant 
 
 * Ephesians, iv, 14. t Preface to vol. i, p. 9. 
 
184 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Germany of the present day — Germany, where lies the 
 root of Protestantism, its mighty centre, its all-ruling 
 spirit, and its life-blood — Germany, where, to supply the 
 want of the true spirit of religion, a remedy is sought 
 sometimes in the external forms of liturgy,* sometimes in 
 the pompous apparatus of biblical philology and research, 
 destitute of the true key of interpretation ; sometimes in 
 the empty philosophy of rationalism, and sometimes in the 
 mazes of a mere interior pietism."t 
 
 * He here refers to the ordinances promulgated a few years ago by 
 the king- of Prussia, for the reform of the Liturgy (Protestant.) 
 t Philosophy of History, ii, 207. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 
 
 " This world is fallen on an easier way ; 
 
 This age knows better than to fast and pray."— Dri/<fcn. 
 
 Two methods of investigation — Connexion of doctrines and morals — 
 Salutary influence of Catholic doctrines — Of confession — Objections 
 answered — Of celibacy — Its manifold advantages — Utility of the 
 doctrines of satisfaction and indulgences — Of fasting — Of prayers for 
 the dead — Of communion of saints — Sanctity of marriage — Divorces 
 — Influence of Protestant doctrines — Shocking disorders — Bigamy 
 and polygamy — Mohammedanism — Practical results — Testimonies of 
 Luther, Bucer, Calvin and Melancthon — and of Erasmus — Character 
 of Erasmus — John Reuchlin — Present state of morals in Protestant 
 countries. 
 
 We have seen what was the influence of the reformation 
 on the doctrines of Christianity. We will now briefly 
 examine its influence on morals. Was this beneficial, or 
 was it injurious ? There are two ways to decide this ques- 
 tion : the one by reasoning a priori on the nature and ten- 
 dency of the respective doctrines of Catholicism and of 
 Protestantism; the other, which will greatly confirm the 
 conclusions of the former, by facts showing v/hat was the 
 relative practical influence of both systems. We will 
 employ both these methods of investigation. 
 
 I. Doctrines have a powerful influence on morals. The 
 former enlighten the understanding, the latter guide and 
 direct the movements of the heart and will. These are of 
 themselves mere blind impulses, until light is reflected on 
 them from the understanding. A sound faith then, illu- 
 mining the intellect, is an essential pre -requisite to sound 
 16* 
 
186 d'atjbigne's history reviewed. 
 
 morals, in the individual, as well as in society. True, we 
 are able, bj the exercise of our free will, to shut our eyes 
 to the light, and to continue acting perversely; but this 
 does not disprove the powerful influence, which the un- 
 derstanding enlightened by faith, has over our moral con- 
 duct. 
 
 What was the necessary moral influence of those doc- 
 trines of the Catholic church, which the reformation re- 
 jected ; and what that of those new ones which it substi- 
 tuted in their place ? We speak only, of course, of the 
 distinctive doctrines of both communions ; not of the com- 
 mon ground which they occupy. The reformation re- 
 tained many of the great principles of Christianity, which, 
 according to the testimony of Luther himself, referred to 
 above, it had borrowed from the Catholic church. Among 
 the doctrines, or important points of discipline which the 
 reformation repudiated, the principal were : confession ; 
 the celibacy of the clergy; the doctrine of satisfaction, 
 implied in fasting, purgatory, prayers for the dead, and 
 indulgences ; the honor and invocation of saints ; and the 
 indissoluble sanctity of marriage; to say nothing of the 
 real presence, which the greater portion of Protestants also 
 rejected. We will say a few words on the moral influ- 
 ence of each of these doctrines. We may say of them all 
 in general, that they had a restraining and elevating effect ; 
 that many of them were painful to human nature; and 
 opposed a strong barrier to the passions. 
 
 Even Voltaire admitted the salutary moral influence of 
 confession. He says: *' The enemies of the Catholic 
 church, who opposed an institution so salutary, seem to 
 have taken away from men the greatest possible check to 
 secret offences."* Another infidel, and mortal enemy of 
 Rome — Marmontel — says : " How salutary a preservative 
 for the morals of youth, is the practice and obligation of 
 
 * " Annales de I'Empire, quoted by Kobelot, "Influence," Sec. p. 24, 
 nofe. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 187 
 
 going to confession every month ? The shame attending 
 this humble avowal of the most hidden sins, prevents per- 
 haps the commission of more of them, than all other mo- 
 tives the most holj taken together."* Nothing but stern 
 truth could have drawn such avowals from such men. 
 
 How many crimes, in fact, has not the practice of con- 
 fession prevented or corrected ! How much implacable 
 hatred has it not appeased ! How much restitution of ill- 
 gotten goods, and how much reparation of injured charac- 
 ter, has it not brought about ! How often has it not pre- 
 served giddy youth from confirmed habits of secret and 
 degrading vice ! How much consolation has it not poured 
 into bosoms torn by anguish, or weighed down by sorrow ! 
 What amount of good and salutary advice has it not im- 
 parted ! How often has it not prevented the sinner from 
 being driven to the very verge of despair ! In a word, 
 how much has it not contributed to the preservation of 
 morals in every portion of society, which felt its influence ! 
 
 Tell us not, that confession may be abused by corrupt 
 men — that it has been often made an instrument of unholy 
 ambition in the hands of the priesthood — and that it facili- 
 tates the commission of crime, by its offer of pardon. 
 These objections are all based on unfounded suspicion, or 
 gross misapprehension of the nature of confession. At 
 least the evils complained of are greatly exaggerated, and 
 are not to be put in comparison with the incalculable 
 amount of good, which this institution is calculated to 
 effect, and which it has really done. What good thing is 
 there, which has not been abused ? Has not the Bible 
 itself, abused by wicked men, been a source of incalcula- 
 ble mischief? Has not the church guarded against abuses 
 in the confessional, by the sternest enactments ? One of 
 these takes from the wicked priest all power of absolving 
 an accomplice in crime ; and another requires the peni- 
 
 * '« Mcinoires," torn, i, liv, i. Apud Robelct, ibid. 
 
188 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 tent to denounce the unfaithful minister to the proper au- 
 thorities.* 
 
 And then, how sacred and inviolable has not the seal of 
 confession ever been ? History does not record one single 
 instance of its violation, among hundreds of thousands of 
 priests, in the long lapse of ages !t How can the priest 
 avail himself of the knowledge obtained through confes- 
 sion, in order to exercise political or any other undue in- 
 fluence, when he is bound by the most sacred obligation, 
 sanctioned by the most severe penalties, to make no use 
 whatever of the knowledge thus acquired ? Why reason 
 from mere suppositions and mere possibilities, against 
 the strongest evidences, and the most stubborn facts of 
 history ? 
 
 As to the other objection — that confession encourages 
 the commission of sin — it is as puerile as it is hackneyed. 
 Absurdity is stamped on its very face. What ? is it easier 
 then to commit a sin which you know you have to confess 
 to a fellow man, than it would be to commit the same sin, 
 without feeling any such obligation ? We would not be 
 guilty of an oftence, forsooth, which we believed we could 
 expiate by a mere act of internal repentance, joined with 
 confession to God; and yet we would be encouraged to 
 commit this same offence, if we felt that, in addition to all 
 this, we would be obliged to confess it to a priest ! The 
 objection is predicated on a strange ignorance of human 
 nature. The Catholic church requires, for the remission 
 of sin, all that Protestants demand, and, over and above 
 all this, it requires as essential conditions to pardon, many 
 painful things — confession, restitution, works of peniten- 
 
 * See the two bulls of Benedict XIV on this subject. They be- 
 gin, Sacramentum . and ^postolici. Another enactment to the same 
 effect was made by pope Gregory XV, in the year 1622. See Liguori — 
 «' Homo jlpostolicus'' Tract. XVI, numo. 95, seqq. and numo. 165, seqq. 
 De complice et sollicit. 
 
 t See the testimony of Marmontel to this effect. Memoires, torn. iv. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 189 
 
 tial satisfaction — which Protestants do not require. 
 Wliich system encourages the commission of sin most ? 
 
 The people never could be induced to confess their sins 
 to a married clergy. From the testimony of Burkard, 
 bishop of Worms, it appears that the Catholic population 
 of that city refused to go to confession to those priests, 
 who, stimulated by the principles of the reformation then 
 just commencing, had broken their vows of celibacy by 
 taking wives. Confession and celibacy fell together. A 
 married clergy never can command the respect, which has 
 ever been paid to those who are unmarried. This is gene- 
 rally admitted by Protestants, and even is made a matter 
 of censure against the Catholic clergy, who are accused of 
 having too much influence over their flocks ! The true 
 secret of this influence lies in the greater abstraction from 
 the world — in the greater freedom from worldly solicitude 
 — in the more spiritual character of an unmarried clergy. 
 Does not St. Paul allege these very motives, in the strong 
 appeal he makes in favor of celibacy, in his first epistle to 
 the Corinthians ?* Does he not advise the embracing of 
 this state both by word and example? Can the Catholic 
 church be blamed for having adopted his principles, and 
 acted on his advice ? 
 
 Who can recount the immense advantages of priestly 
 celibacy to society ? Who can tell of all the splendid 
 churches it has erected ; of the hospitals for the sick and 
 the afllicted, it has reared ; of the colleges it has built; of 
 the ignorant it has instructed ; of the noble examples of 
 heroic charity it has given to the world ; and of the Pagan 
 nations it has converted to Christianity ? Catholic Europe 
 is full of noble monuments to religion, to literature and to 
 charity, which an unmarried priesthood has built up. 
 
 To advert briefly to the last consideration named above ; 
 can a married clergy, other things being equal, cope with 
 one that is unmarried, in missionary labors among heathen 
 
 * Chap. vii. Read the whole chapter. 
 
190 D^AUBlGNli's HISTORY REVIEWED. 
 
 nations ? With the incumbrance of their wives and child- 
 ren, can the former be as free in their movements, be as 
 zealous and disinterested ; can they mingle as freel}' with 
 the people, labor as much, or succeed as well, in any re- 
 spect, as the latter? What say the annals of Protestant 
 missionary enterprise on this subject ? Can they point to 
 one single nation or people converted to Christianity by 
 their married preachers, notwithstanding the immense out- 
 lay of money for this purpose, and all the parade that is 
 made on the matter ? True, there are other weighty causes, 
 which have greatly contributed to this signal failure in 
 Protestant missions; but the want of celibacy in their 
 ministers is no doubt one great reason. Some Protestant 
 missionary societies in the U. States are beginning to feel 
 the truth of this remark.* 
 
 The doctrine of satisfaction was another strong Catholic 
 barrier against vice, which the reformation destroyed. 
 The reformers could not appreciate the utility of fasting, 
 of vigils, and of other works of penance, to expiate sin. 
 They had abolished the great sacrifice of the new law ; and 
 they wished also to abolish all those painful observances, 
 which could nourish and keep alive in the soul of the 
 Christian that spirit of sacrifice, which might incline him 
 "to deny himself, to take up his cross and to follow 
 Christ." Both kinds of sacrifice were intimately con- 
 nected ; and they both fell together. The reformers no 
 longer taught their disciples, after the example of St. Paul, 
 *' to chastise their bodies and bring them into subjection," 
 or " to fill up those things that are wanting of the suffer- 
 ings of Christ, in their flesh. "t 
 
 And yet, besides expiating sin, and rendering Christians 
 more conformable to the image of the Saviour and of St. 
 Paul, this doctrine was fraught with incalculable advan- 
 tages to society. To expiate their sins. Catholics of the 
 
 * We shall treat of this subject in greater detail hereafter, 
 t Colossians i, 24. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 191 
 
 olden time not only " chastised their bodies," but they 
 also bestowed abundant alms, and reared splendid institu- 
 tions of learning and of charity. Many of the colleges and 
 hospitals of Europe owe their erection to the operation of 
 this principle. It is quite common to find in the testa- 
 mentary dispositions of their pious founders, this conside- 
 ration expressed in such clauses as this : " for the expiation 
 of my sins." 
 
 We have seen that St. Peter's church and the university 
 of Wittemberg were both indebted for their erection mainly 
 to indulgences, which were predicated on the necessity of 
 satisfaction for sin. These are two instances, out of hun- 
 dreds which might be stated, to show the beneficial influ- 
 ence of this doctrine on society.* Alas ! Charity hath 
 grown cold in those places where this principle hath ceased 
 to exist ! Private interest — a fever for speculation — selfish 
 and sordid avarice — have dried up those deep fountains 
 of Catholic charity, which erewhile irrigated and fertilized 
 the earth ! 
 
 How many are the advantages of fasting! How it ele- 
 vates the mind,t fosters temperance, and teaches us to re- 
 strain the passions, and to subdue the rebellious flesh! 
 *'Like another spring," according to the beautiful com- 
 parison of St. John Chrysostom,:}: ''it renews the spirit, 
 and brings calm and joy to the soul." It also promotes 
 health and conduces to longevity. Who has not remarked 
 the great age to which the anchorites of the desert attained ? 
 Malte Brun informs us, that of one hundred and fifty-two 
 anchorites, who lived in different climates, and in difi*er- 
 ent centuries, the average age was seventy-six years.§ 
 By accustoming us to endure privation, fasting teaches us 
 
 * See " The Ages of Faith" by Kenelm Digby, which is full of such 
 examples. 
 
 t Vitia compriinit, mentem elevat, virixdem largitur et prcemia. — Prsef. 
 ad Missa. 
 
 J St. John Chrysostom — <'De excellentia Jejun." 0pp. T. ii. 
 
 § " Precis de la Geographie" ii, 44. 
 
192 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 to bear patiently the necessary ills of life, and disposes us 
 for great enterprises. In fact it is remarkable, that Moses 
 and Elias did not approach the Deity to receive his special 
 communications, but after the preliminary disposition of 
 long fasting: and that Christ himself " fasted forty days 
 and forty nights," ere he entered on his divine mission of 
 mercy. 
 
 How soothing to the soul is that communion with the 
 departed, which is kept up by the Catholic practice of 
 praying for the dead ? Even the stern Doctor Johnson felt 
 the beauty and the force of this sympathy: he not only 
 defended this practice, but he adopted it himself. He was 
 not satisfied with merely dropping a tear warm from his 
 heart over the grave of his departed mother; but he, at 
 the same time, wafted a fervent prayer to heaven for her 
 repose.* And how elevating and useful, on the other 
 hand, is that constant communion with heaven, which is 
 kept up by the invocation of saints ! It stimulates us, not 
 only to admire their supereminent glory and to implore 
 their aid; but also to imitate their virtues. The ofl&ces 
 of the church keep up a constant round of anniversary 
 celebrations of the virtues and triumphs of these heroes of 
 Christianity; their virtues are thus always kept fresh in 
 the minds of the faithful, who are by this means power- 
 fully stimulated to follow their example. Who does not 
 perceive the beneficial influence of this practice on the 
 morals of society ? 
 
 On the subject of marriage, the Catholic church has 
 never swerved in the least from the stern line of duty. She 
 has ever defended its sanctity and maintained its indisso- 
 lubility. Many of her struggles with princes during 
 the middle ages, were for the vindication of these sacred 
 principles. England was lost to the church, because the 
 unwavering firmness of the church would not permit 
 Henry VIII to repudiate a virtuous wife, and to wed 
 
 * See Bos well's Life of Johnson. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 193 
 
 another more to his royal taste. She has won imperisha- 
 ble honors in this battle field, on which she has nobly and 
 victoriously contended with the army of the passions. 
 
 On this point, as we have seen, the reformers were not 
 so unyielding. They not only allowed two wives to the 
 landgrave of Hesse ; but they permitted divorce for trivial 
 causes ; and some of them even sanctioned polygamy after 
 the example of the patriarchs. What were the effects of 
 their teaching on this subject, we shall see more fully in 
 the sequel. It will suffice here to remark one obvious re- 
 sult of this laxity of doctrine, in regard to the sacredness 
 of the marriage contract. Before the reformation, divorces 
 were almost unheard of; great princes sometimes applied 
 for them, but met with determined resistance and a stern 
 rebuke, on the part of the church. Even at present, in 
 Catholic countries, they are almost unknown. Is it so in 
 those communities where the influence of the reformation 
 has been extensively felt ? Alas ! in these, men seem to 
 have lost sight of the divine injunction : ** What God has 
 united, let not man put asunder." •* Divorces have multi- 
 plied to a frightful extent. In the United States, our 
 legislatures receive annually thousands of petitions for 
 divorce : and what is more deplorable, they usually grant 
 the prayer of the petitioners ! Is not this a lamentable 
 evil, most injurious to society ? Whence does it origi- 
 nate, if not in the weakening of Catholic principles in re- 
 gard to the indissolubility of the marriage contract, by the 
 counter principles broached at the period of the refor- 
 mation ? 
 
 A volume might be written on the salutary influence on 
 society of those distinctive doctrines of the Catholic which 
 Protestants have rejected.t But our limits permitted only 
 the above rapid and imperfect sketch : and we must now 
 
 * Matth. xix, 6. 
 
 I Those who may wish to see more on this subject, are referred to 
 Scotti — Teorcmi di Polilica Christiana — an Italian work in 2 vols.Svo. 
 17 
 
194 
 
 pass on to the inquiry; what was the moral influence of 
 those new doctrines which the reformation introduced ? We 
 have already seen what many of these doctrines were, and 
 we have already been enabled to estimate, in a great 
 measure, their effect on the morals of society. But we 
 will here give some farther details on a subject so in- 
 teresting. 
 
 Luther's famous (infamous !) sermon on marriage, 
 preached in the public church of Wittemberg in 1522, 
 gave great scandal, and was a source of incalculable moral 
 evil throughout Germany. It openly pandered to the 
 basest passions of human nature. It was busily circula- 
 ted and greedily devoured by all classes, among those 
 who were favorable to the reformation. Never was there 
 a grosser specimen of unblushing lubricity : aiid its having 
 been so much relished by the partisans of Luther, is a 
 certain index of a very low standard of morality at that 
 period. But this was not the only specimen of decency 
 given by the " father of the reformation." Many of his let- 
 ters to his private friends are too obscene to be exhibited, 
 even in the original Latin. Yet they had a powerful effect 
 on the morals of the age. Luther openly invited the Ca- 
 tholic priests, monks, and nuns, who had vowed celibacy, 
 to break their vows, which he styled the "bonds of anti- 
 christ." His soul overflowed with joy at the news of each 
 new sacrilegious marriage. He would congratulate the 
 infringer of his vows, " on his having overcome an impure 
 and damnable celibacy," by entering into marriage, which 
 he painted as *' a paradise even in the midst of poverty."* 
 He wrote a work against celibacy and monastic vows, 
 teeming with the strongest appeals to the passions. He 
 openly urged princes to expel by force the religious from 
 their monasteries.f 
 
 * " Paradisum arbitror conjiigium vel summa inopia laborans." 
 Epist. Nicholao Gerbellis, Nov. 1, 1521. 
 
 t See his words quoted by Audin, p. 335, seqq. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 195 
 
 Erasmus, an eye witness, paints the disorders to wliich 
 Luther's epistles, sermons, and works against celibacy, 
 naturally led. He represents certain cities of Germany as 
 swarming with apostate monks, who drank beer to excess, 
 danced and sang in the public streets, and gave into all 
 manner of excesses. He says, "that if they could get 
 enough to eat and a wife, they cared not a straw for any 
 thing else."* *' When they found not wives among the 
 female religious, they sought them in the haunts of vice. 
 What cared they for the priestly benediction ? They mar- 
 ried each other, and celebrated their nuptials by orgies, 
 in which the new married couple generally lost their 
 reason."! 
 
 *' Formerly," says Erasmus, " men quitted their wives 
 for the sake of the gospel ; now-a-days, the gospel flour- 
 ishes most, when a few succeed in marrying wives with 
 rich dowries. "± He caustically remarks, " that (Ecolam- 
 padius had lately married a beautiful young girl, he sus- 
 pects, to mortify his flesh. "§ He also informs us, that 
 these ex-monks, after having become the most zealous 
 partisans of the reformation, subsisted by open robbery of 
 the churches and of their neighbors, indulged to excess in 
 drinking and in games of hazard, and presented a specta- 
 cle of the most revolting licentiousness. || 
 
 Luther had taught that "as in the first da}s of Chris- 
 tianity, the church was forced to exalt virginity among 
 the Pagans, who honored adultery; so, now, when the 
 Lord had made the light of the gospel shine forth, it was 
 necessary to exalt marriage, at the expense of popish celi- 
 bacy. "•[[ The apostate monks eagerly seized on this and 
 
 * Amant viaticum et uxorem : coetera pili non faciunt." Erasmi 
 Epist. p. 637. 
 
 t Audin p. 336, who quotes from Erasmus — loco citaio. 
 
 X " Nunc floret evangeliura, si pauci ducant uxores bene dotatas 
 Erasmi Epist. p. 768. 
 
 § Ibid. p. 632. II Ibid. p. 766. 
 
 II Luther 0pp. torn i, p. 526 seqq. 
 
196 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 similar teachings of the reformer; and the above are some 
 of the disorders which naturally ensued. But even they 
 are not the worst. Bigamy was quite common among them, 
 at least for a time. They defended it too on scriptural 
 grounds. Luther was appealed to on the subject. In his 
 reply, he wavers and hesitates, wishes each individual to 
 be left to the guidance of his own conscience, and con- 
 cludes his letter in these words: " for my part I candidly 
 confess, that I could not prohibit any one, who might wish 
 it, to take many wives at once, nor is this repugnant to the 
 holy scriptures. But there are things lawful, which are 
 not expedient. Bigamy is of the number."* 
 
 Karlstadt went still farther: he wished to make poly- 
 gamy obligatory, or at least entirely permissible to all. 
 He said to Luther: " as neither you, nor I, have found a 
 text in the sacred books against bigamy, let us be biga- 
 mists and trigamists— let us take as many wives as we can 
 maintain. " Increase and multiply. Do you understand ? 
 Accomplish the order of heaven. "t This argument must 
 have had great weight v/ith Luther, as he had maintained 
 that celibacy was impossible, and had brought that very 
 text from Genesis, to prove that marriage was a divine 
 command obligatory on all. By the way, as Luther mar- 
 ried only at the age of forty-two, what are we to think of 
 the purity of his previous life, when he openly maintained 
 such principles as these? They were well calculated, at 
 any rate, to bring down the lofty standard of Christian 
 morality to that of Mohammedanism : and, if they did not 
 bring about this result, we owe no thanks at least to the 
 reformation. How strangely these loose principles of mo- 
 rality contrast with the stern teachings of the Catholic 
 church on marriage ! 
 
 • Epist. ad K. Bruck 13. Janu. 1524. " Ego sane fateor me non 
 posse prohibere si quis velit plures ducere uxores, nee repugnat Sacris 
 Uteris ?" 
 
 t Apud Audin, p. 339. 
 
IXFLUKNCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 197 
 
 II. It was natural to expect, that the influence of such 
 principles as these, as well as of those we developed in 
 another place,* should have been most injurious to public 
 morals. And accordingly we find, from the testimony of 
 the reformers themselves, and of their earliest partisans, 
 that such precisely was the case. Luther himself assures 
 us of this deterioration in public morals. *' The world 
 grows worse and worse, and becomes more wicked every 
 day. Men are now more given to revenge, more avari- 
 cious, more devoid of mercy, less modest, and more incor- 
 rigible; in fine, more wicked than in the papacy.''! In 
 another place he says, speaking to his most intimate friends : 
 *' one thing no less astonishing than scandalous, is to see 
 that, since the pure doctrine of the gospel has been brought 
 to light (!), the world daily goes from bad to worse. ":{: 
 This is not at all astonishing, when we consider the na- 
 ture of that *' pure doctrine." 
 
 He draws this dreadful picture of the morals of his time, 
 after "the pure doctrine had been brought to light." 
 '* The noblemen and the peasants have come to such a 
 pitch, that they boast and proclaim without scruple, that 
 they have only to let themselves be preached at; but that 
 they would prefer being entirely disenthralled from the 
 word of God : and that they would not give a farthing for 
 all our sermons put together. And how are we to lay this 
 to them as a crime, when they make no account of the 
 world to come ? They live as they believe : they are and 
 continue to be sv/ine : they live like swine and they die 
 like real swine. "§ Aurifaber, the disciple and bosom 
 friend of Luther, and the publisher of his Table Talk, 
 tells us, that *' Luther was wont to say, that after the re- 
 velation of his gospel, virtue had become extinct, justice 
 
 * Supra, chap. iii. f Luther in Postilld sup. 1 Dom. Mventus. 
 
 X Idem, Table Talk, fol. 55. 
 § Id. super i, Epist. Corinih. ch. xv. 
 
 17* 
 
198 d'aubigne's history reviewed, 
 
 oppressed, temperance bound with cords, virtue torn in 
 pieces bj the dogs, faith had become wavering, and devotion 
 had been lost."* So notoriously immoral, in fact, were 
 the early Lutherans, that it was then a common saying in 
 Germany, to express a day spent in drinking and debauch : 
 *' hodie Lutheranice vivemus^^ — " to-day we will live like 
 Lutherans."! 
 
 In another place, Luther laments the moral evils of the 
 reformation, in the following characteristic strain. ** I 
 would not be astonished if God should open at length the 
 gates and windows of hell, and snow or hail down (up?) 
 devils, or rain down on our heads fire and brimstone, or 
 bury us in a fiery abyss, as he did Sodom and Gomorrha. 
 Had Sodom and Gomorrha received the gifts which have 
 been granted to us — had they seen our visions and heard 
 our instructions — they would yet be standing. They were 
 a thousand times less culpable than Germany, for they had 
 not heard the word of God from their preachers. And we 
 who have received and heard it — we do nothing but rise 
 up against God. . » . . Since the downfall of popery, and 
 the cessation of its excommunications and spiritual penal- 
 ties, the people have learned to despise the word of God. 
 They care no longer for the churches; they have ceased 
 to fear and to honor God. "J 
 
 Martin Bucer, another of the reformers, bears the fol- 
 lowing explicit testimony on the same subject. ** The 
 greater part of the people seem to have embraced the gos- 
 pel (!), only in order to shake off the yoke of discipline, 
 and the obligation of fasting, penances, &c., which lay upon 
 them in the time of popery, and to live at their pleasure, 
 enjoying their lust and lawless appetite without control. 
 They therefore lend a willing ear to the doctrine that we 
 
 * Aurifaber, fol. 623 ; and Floriraond Rernond, p. 225. 
 t Bened. Morgenstern — Traite de VEglise, p. 221. 
 X Luther Wercke Edit. Altenburg tome iii, p. 519. Reinhard's 
 «' Reformations Predigten," torn iii, p. 445. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 199 
 
 are justified by faith alone, and not by good works, having 
 no relish for them."* The reformers ought to have known 
 what was the real tendency of the new gospel, and they 
 certainly had no motive to exaggerate. 
 
 John Calvin draws a picture not much more flattering of 
 the state of morals, in his branch of the ** glorious refor- 
 mation." He states that even the preachers of the new 
 doctrines were notoriously immoral. *' There remains 
 still a wound more deplorable. The pastors, yes the pas- 
 tors themselves who mount the pulpit .... are at the 
 present time the most shameful examples of waywardness 
 and other vices. Hence their sermons obtain neither more 
 credit nor authority than the fictitious tales uttered on 
 
 the stage by the strolling player I am astonished 
 
 that the women and children do not cover them with mud 
 and filth."t 
 
 Another leading reformer — Pliilip Melancthon — informs 
 us, that those who had joined the standard of the reforma- 
 tion at his day *Miad come to such a pitch of barbarity, 
 that many of them were persuaded that if they fasted one 
 day, they would find themselves dead the night follow- 
 ing."J And another early Protestant, Jacob Andreas, 
 says : " It is certain that God wishes and requires of his 
 servants a grave and Christian discipline ; but it passes 
 with lis as a new papacy, and a new monkery. "§ And 
 no wonder, after all the teaching on the subject of Luther 
 and the other leading reformers ! 
 
 Such then were the moral effects of the reformation, 
 according to the testimony of the reformers themselves. 
 They are surely unexceptionable witnesses in the matter. 
 We might allege a multitude of other authorities to the 
 same effect, from Capito, Sturm, Judith, and other early 
 reformers and leading Protestants ; but those already ad- 
 
 * •' De regno Christi." f Livre — sur les scandales — p. 128. 
 
 X In vi, cap. Mathei. 
 
 § Comment, in St. Lucam. ch. xxi, anno 1583, 
 
200 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 duced will prove to the satisfaction of every impartial 
 mind, that the influence of the reformation on morals was 
 most injurious.^ The reformers professed indeed to re- 
 form the church in doctrine and morals : they inveighed 
 against the immorality of the Catholic priesthood, whom 
 they abused beyond measure: they set themselves up as 
 patterns for the world : but they forgot withal to reform 
 themselves and their disciples, They even went *' daily 
 from bad to worse." They were unmindful of the admo- 
 nition of the Saviour : "let him that is without sin among 
 you first cast a stone."t 
 
 Erasmus has well described this change for the worse 
 in the morals of those who embraced the reformation. 
 *' Those whom I had known to be pure, full of candor 
 and simplicity, these same persons have I seen afterwards, 
 when they had gone over to the sect [of the gospellers), 
 begin to speak of girls, flock to games of hazard, throw 
 aside prayer, give themselves up entirely to their interests ; 
 become the most impatient, vindictive, and frivolous ; 
 changed in fact, from men to vipers. I know well what 
 I say.":t^ And again; " I see many Lutherans, but few 
 evangelicals. Look a little at these people, and see 
 whether luxury, avarice and lewdness, do not prevail still 
 more amongst them, than among those whom they detest. 
 Show me one who by means of this gospel is become bet- 
 ter. I will show you very many, who are become worse. 
 Perhaps it has been my bad fortune : but I have seen none 
 who have not become v/orse by their gospel. "§ 
 
 The testimony of Erasmus is above suspicion. Though 
 he continued in the Catholic church, yet he was the early 
 friend of Luther, Melancthon and many other principal 
 reformers, and he had himself contributed not a little — 
 
 * Those who may wish to see more on the subject, are referred to 
 the "Amicable Discussion" by bishop Trevern: vol. i, p. 84 seqq. ; anJ 
 to Audin's "Lives of Luther and Calvin." 
 
 f St. John viii, 7. J Epist. Traciibus Germanicc inferior is. 
 
 ' \ Idem. Epist. Anno 152G. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 201 
 
 perhaps onlj indirectly and unintentionally — to the suc- 
 cess of the pretended reformation. He was a mild, peace- 
 able man, who liked his ease more than any thing else, 
 and sought to please both sides, but succeeded in pleasing 
 neither. He had joined in the outcry against the Catholic 
 priesthood and monks, and had thereby no doubt greatly 
 aided in heightening the excitement against the Catholic 
 church. The proverb was current in Germany : that 
 *• Erasmus had laid the egg, and Luther had hatched it."* 
 This saying perhaps expressed too much ; but yet, like 
 most popular adages, it had some foundation in truth. 
 The famous humanist Reuchlin seems to have been another 
 of those wavering and uncertain characters which can 
 be moulded to almost every thing according to circum- 
 stances. 
 
 For three whole centuries, the reformation has been 
 exerting its moral influence in Germany and northern 
 Europe What have been the practical results of this in- 
 fluence ? What is the present condition of those Protes- 
 tant countries where that influence has been least checked, 
 and most extended and permanent ? We will close this 
 chapter, by presenting a few startling facts on this sub- 
 ject from the works of two recent Protestant travellers, 
 Bremner and Laing. Their authority in the matter will 
 scarcely be questioned by Protestants. Themselves bit- 
 terly prejudiced against the Catholic church, and enamored 
 with the reformation, they merely state what they saw 
 and ascertained, during a long residence in the countries 
 which they describe. 
 
 Of the people of Protestant Norway, Mr. Bremner says : 
 " the Norwegians cannot, with justice, be described as 
 more than * indifferently moral,' for we always found 
 amongst them a greater desire to take advantage of a 
 
 • "Erasmus hat das Ey gelegt, und Luther es ausgebrutet." An old 
 Lutheran painting represented the reformers bearing the ark. and Eras- 
 mus dancing before it with all his might. 
 
202 
 
 stranger than in an}- other part of Europe."* In regard 
 to chastity, he tells us that the statistical returns show 
 that out of every five children which are born, one is ille- 
 gitimate — the same proportion precisely, in this widely 
 scattered and rural population, as in " the densely crowded 
 and corrupted atmosphere of Paris." Mr. Laing con- 
 firms the statement, and tells us of one country parish in 
 particular where, " without a town, or manufacturing es- 
 tablishment, or resort of shipping, or quartering of troops, 
 or other obvious cause," the proportion of illegitimate to 
 legitimate children, in the five years from 1826 to 1830, 
 was one in three.t 
 
 Both these Protestant travellers tell us, moreover, that 
 in Norway the Sunday is the usual day for dances, for 
 theatrical and other public amusements ; and Mr. Laing 
 accounts for this singular fact by the universally received 
 interpretation, in the pure Lutheran church, of the scrip- 
 tural words, •* and the evening and the morning made the 
 first day." Those "pure Lutherans" keep the Sabbath 
 from midday on Saturday to the noon of Sunday ! The 
 Lutheran clergy, they likewise inform us, pay little at- 
 tention to the instruction of the people. In proof of this 
 negligence, they allege the fact that in all Norway there 
 are only three hundred and thirty-six parishes with resi- 
 dent clergymen, who seldom visit their scattered people. 
 They also complain that convicts are there treated more 
 unmercifully than any where else. 
 
 The picture they draw of the present moral condition 
 of Sweden and Denmark is still less flattering. Mr. 
 
 * '< Excursions in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden," &,c. By Robert 
 Bremner. 2 vols. 8vo, London, 1840. 
 
 t The works of Mr, Laing from which we borrow this and the fol- 
 lowing facts, are : " Journal of a Residence in Norway during the years 
 1834, 1835, 1836, made with a view to inquire into the moral and polit- 
 cal economy of the country, and the state of the inhabitants," London, 
 1S36 ; " A Tour in Sweden in 1838," London, 1839 ; and " Notes of a 
 Traveller," London, 1842. These works are all ably noticed in the 
 Dublin Review for May, 1S13. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 203 
 
 Bremner tells us that in the female house of correction at 
 Stockholm, the capital of Sweden, he found thirty-eight 
 prisoners condemned for life, " nearly all of whom had 
 been convicted of the too frequent crime of child murder !" 
 Mr. Laing enters at great length into the subject of 
 Swedish morality. He states, and proves from avouched 
 statistical returns, that Sweden is the most corrupt and 
 demoralized country in Europe, and that Stockholm is 
 the most debased city in the world. Let us see his testi- 
 mony. 
 
 "It is a singular and embarrassing fact that the 
 Swedish nation, isolated from the mass of European peo- 
 ple, and almost entirely agricultural or pastoral, having, 
 in about 3,000,000 of individuals, only 14,925 employed 
 in manufactories, and these not congregated in one or two 
 places, but scattered among 2,037 factories, having no 
 great standing army or navy, no external commerce, no 
 afflux of strangers, no considerable city but one, and 
 having schools and universities in a fair proportion, and a 
 powerful and complete church establishment, undisturbed 
 in its labors by sect or schism, is, notwithstanding, in a 
 more demoralized state than any nation in Europe^ more 
 demoralized even than any equal portion of the dense 
 manufacturing population of Great Britain. This is a 
 very curious fact in moral statistics." 
 
 He proceeds to establish this " curious fact" by un- 
 questionable statistical evidence. From this it appears 
 that, in 1837, 26,275 persons were prosecuted in Sweden 
 for criminal oflfences, of whom 21,262 were convicted, 
 being one to every one hundred and fourteen of the en- 
 tire population accused, and one to every one hundred and 
 forty convicted of crimes of a heinous character. In 
 1836 the number so convicted was one out of one hundred 
 and thirty-four of the whole population. Among the 
 crimes in the rural population, there were twenty-eight 
 cases of murder, ten of child murder, four of poisoning, 
 tliiiteen of bestiality, and nine of violent robbery: and 
 
204 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 the proportion was four-fold greater for the town and city 
 population. England is bad enough ; one would have 
 thought that England could scarcely be surpassed in 
 crime of every description ; but yet in England the pro- 
 portion of the convicted to the entire population is only 
 as one to one thousand and five. The amount of crime in 
 Sweden is thus seven-fold greater than in England ! Is 
 it because there the reformation was more unchecked in 
 its operations ? 
 
 According to Mr. Laing, the proportion of illegitimate 
 to legitimate children for all Sweden, is as one to four- 
 teen ; and for the capital, Stockholm, it is as one to two 
 and three-tenths ! ! In the same city one out of every 
 forty-nine of the inhabitants is annually convicted of 
 some criminal ofience ! ! And, what is more startling 
 yet, Mr. Laing proves that a house of ill- fame was estab- 
 lished, and duly fitted out, in Stockholm, by authority of 
 government ! ! 
 
 When these statements of Mr. Laing appeared, the 
 Swedish government attempted to refute them by a paraph- 
 let published in London. This drew from him a " Re- 
 ply," in which he triumphantly established all the state- 
 ments he had previously made, and exhibited, in the 
 avouched statistics of the year 1838, others still more ap- 
 palling. " The divorces of this year were 147 ; the sui- 
 cides 172. Of the 2,714 children born in Stockholm that 
 year, 1,577 were legitimate, 1,137 illegitimate, making 
 only a balance of 440 chaste mothers out of 2,714, and 
 the proportion of illegitimate to legitimate children, not 
 as one to two and three-tenths, as he had previously 
 stated, but as one to one and a half! !" 
 
 Prussia is another country of Europe in which the re- 
 formation has had unchecked sway for centuries. Mr. 
 Laing discourses of its moral condition as follows — the 
 ** index virtue" of which he speaks is female chastity : 
 *' Will any traveller, will any Prussian say that this in- 
 dex virtue of the moral condition of a people is not lower 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON MORALS. 205 
 
 in Prussia than in almost any part of Europe ? It is no 
 uncommon event in the family of a respectable trades- 
 man of Berlin to find upon his breakfast table a little 
 baby, of which, whoever may be the father, he has no 
 doubt at all about the maternal grand-father. Such acci- 
 dents are so common in the class in which they are least 
 common Math us — the middle class, removed from igno- 
 rance or indigence — that they are regarded but as acci- 
 dents, as youthful indiscretions, not as disgraces affect- 
 ing, as with us, the respectability and happiness of all the 
 kith and kin for a generation." 
 
 In a note, he gives the following statistical facts on this 
 subject: ** In 1837, the number of the females in the 
 Prussian population between the beginning of their six- 
 teenth and the end of their forty-fifth year — that is, within 
 child-bearing age — was 2,983,146; the number of ille- 
 gitimate children born in the same year was 39,501 ; so 
 that one in every seventy-five of the whole of the females 
 of an age to bear children had been the mother of an ille- 
 gitimate child." He adds: "Prince Puckler Muskau 
 (a Prussian) states in one of his late publications (Siidost- 
 licher Bildersaal, 3 Thel. 1841) that the character of the 
 Prussians for honesty stands lower than that of any other 
 of the German populations." 
 
 When we weigh well all these facts, and remember also 
 that from a parliamentary report, made two years ago, it 
 appeared that in Protestant London upwards of 80,000 
 females had forgotten to be virtuous, we will be enabled 
 to estimate properly what has been the moral influence of 
 the reformation. 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 THE INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON PriBLIC WORSHIP. 
 
 General influence of the reformation on worship — Audin's picture of it 
 — Luther rebukes violence — But wavers — Giving life to a skeleton — 
 Taking a leap — Mutilating the sacraments — New system of Judaism 
 — Chasing away the mists — Protestant inconsistencies — A dreary 
 waste — No altars nor sacrifice — A land of mourning — Protestant 
 plaints — And tribute to Catholic worship — A touching anecdote — 
 Continual prayer — Vandalism rebuked — Grandeur of Catholic wor- 
 ship — Churches always open — Protestant worship — The Sabbath 
 day — Getting up a revival — Protestant music ami pra3'er — The pew 
 system — The fashionable religion — The two forms of worship com- 
 pared — St. Peter's church — The fine arts. 
 
 In nothing perhaps was the influence of the reformation 
 more pernicious, than in tlie changes which it caused to be 
 introduced into public worship. It stripped the ancient 
 Catholic service of all its beauty and simple grandeur: 
 it dried up the deep fountains of its melody — hushed its 
 organs, muffled its bells, and put out its lights. It rudely 
 tore away the ornaments of its piiesthood, stripped its 
 altars, and chased away the clouds of its ascending in- 
 cense. It did more. It destroyed the beautiful paintings 
 and sculptures, with which art, paying tribute to religion, 
 had decorated the walls of her churches ; it entirely re- 
 moved those sacred emblems of piety. Tearing them in 
 shreds or breaking them in pieces, it gave them to the 
 flames, and then scattered their ashes to the winds. And, 
 as if these feats of vandalism were not enough to prove its 
 burning zeal for religion, it aimed a mortal blow at the 
 very substance of worship: it abolished the daily sacri- 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON WORSHIP. 207 
 
 fice, removed the altars, and annihilated the priesthood. 
 And then, exhausted with its labors, Protestantism lay 
 down and fell asleep amidst the ruins it had caused !* 
 
 M. Audin gives the following graphic description of 
 the effects of early reformation zeal on public worship. 
 "Throughout the whole of Saxony, no more canticles 
 were heard ; no more incense, no more lights on the al- 
 tars, no more organs combining their melody with the 
 infant's hymn, or sacerdotal anthem. The church walls 
 were bare; the light had no longer to steal throu8;h the 
 painted windows, for they had all been broken, under the 
 pretext that they favored idolatry. The Protestant temple 
 resembled every thing but the house of God. The mag- 
 nificence and poetry of Catholic worship, the loss of which 
 modern Protestants deplore, every where disappeared."! 
 
 Luther at first disapproved of the intemperate zeal of 
 Karlstadt and other hotheaded disciples, who, during his 
 absence from Wittemberg, had abolished the mass, and 
 removed by violence the paintings and statues from the 
 church. Yet his disapproval did not, it would seem, pro- 
 ceed so much from a horror of the act itself, as of the vio- 
 lence which had attended it; and more particularly irom 
 the circumstance, that this innovation had taken place 
 without his having been previously consulted. In his 
 harangue against those new Iconoclasts, he said : "you 
 ought to know that you are to listen to no one but to me. 
 With the help of God, Doctor Martin Luther has advanced 
 first in the new way; the others followed after him : they 
 ought to exhibit the docility of disciples, as their duty is 
 to obey. It is to me that God has revealed his word ; it 
 is out of my mouth that it has proceeded free from all 
 
 stain Was I at such a distance that I could not 
 
 be consulted ? Am I no longer the source of pure doc- 
 
 * «' Le Protestantisme fatigue s'est endormi sur des mines !" Abbe 
 De Larneiinais. 
 
 t Life of Luther, p. 331. 
 
208 d'aubione's history reviewed. 
 
 trine? . . . . It is neither commanded nor prohibited to 
 keep images. I wish that superstition had not introduced 
 them amongst us ; but however, they ought not to be re- 
 moved by tumult."* 
 
 But Luther, however he might deplore, could not curb the 
 destructive spirit of his disciples. He could not prevent 
 them from wielding the weapons himself had placed in their 
 hands. He could not control the storm which he himself 
 had put in motion. The work of destruction went on, till 
 scarce a vestige of the venerable and time honored Catho- 
 lic worship remained behind. He himself was uncertain 
 and wavering, as to the portion of Catholic worship he 
 should retain. The people of Wittemberg murmured, 
 when the chapter of the church of All Saints in that city 
 abolished the mass. Luther restored it : not however as 
 a sacrifice, but as a mere popular symbol. He took from 
 it the oft'ertory and the canon, and all the forms of sacri- 
 fice ; while he retained the elevation of the bread and wine 
 by the priest, the sacerdotal salutation to the assistants, 
 the mixture of water and wine, and the use of the Latin 
 language."! 
 
 To enliven somewhat this mutilated skeleton of the old 
 service, he retained many of the Catholic proses and 
 hymns, uniting with them some compositions of the old 
 German poets. "He himself composed some to replace 
 our hymns and proses, which are precious monuments of 
 the poetry of the early ages of Catholicism. Those sweet 
 and simple melodies which were by turns joyous and aus- 
 tere, gay and melancholy, according to the occasion, were 
 now replaced, in the Protestant churches, by a monotonous 
 drawl. The reformed church thus lost the poems, inspi- 
 rations and symbols of the Catholic muse."J 
 
 The liturgy was not the only subject on which the re- 
 
 * Apud Audin, Ibid. pp. 237, 23S. f Audin,Ibid. p. 333. 
 
 X Ibid. For some beautilul and cbarmin<5 reflections on this subject, 
 see an article "on prayer and prayer-books," in a late number of the 
 Dublin Review. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON WORSHIP. 209 
 
 former hesitated. His whole career in fact is marked with 
 hesitancy and doubt, as to what he should reject, and what 
 he should retain, of the old Catholic institutions. He 
 found himself often in trying and difficult positions. His 
 disciples sought to drag him down the declivity of reform 
 faster than the sturdy monk wished to travel. Some- 
 times he listened to their clamors; sometimes he sternly 
 rebuked them for their too ardent zeal. Hence his per- 
 petual inconsistencies. On the subject of auricular con- 
 fession, he contradicted himself more than once: at times 
 he recognized its divine origin, and proclaimed its great 
 utility to society: again he would call it the invention of 
 Satan, and ** the executioner of consciences."* He be- 
 trayed similar doubts and inconsistencies as to the num- 
 ber of the sacraments instituted by Christ. He stood on 
 the brink of a precipice, and yielded at times to dizziness, 
 ere he took the fatal leap from the summit level of Catho- 
 licity, into the yawning abyss, the boiling and hissing noise 
 of whose troubled waters already grated on his ears ! 
 
 But his disciples were not so scrupulous. They boldly 
 rejected five out of the seven sacraments, and even strip- 
 ped the two they retained — baptism and theLord's Sup- 
 per — of every life giving principle. They did not any 
 longer view them as the channels of grace, through which 
 the waters of life eternal flow into the soul of the Christian. 
 This they rejected with horror as a popish superstition. 
 They denied that the sacraments had, from the design 
 and institution of Christ, any intrinsic efficacy whatever : 
 they were the mere external symbols of a grace, which 
 they were not the instruments for imparting. They were 
 mere signs and figures, lifeless in themselves, and usefu 
 and available, only through and in proportion to the faith 
 and other acts, of the recipient. In fact they were brought 
 down, in every respect, to a level with the ancient Jewish 
 
 * See his Treatise— De ratione confitend!, Tom. >i, edit. Altenb 
 Tom. i, opp. edit. Jena. 
 18* 
 
210 d'audione*s history reviewed. 
 
 types and figures; and like them, they were mere "weak 
 and needy elements."* 
 
 They were even inferior to these, in point of appro- 
 priateness and significancy, as figures. Was not the Jew- 
 ish eating of the paschal lamb ** of one year old and with- 
 out stain," a much more lively and appropriate type of the 
 death of Christ — *' the Lamb of God who takes away the 
 sins of the world" — than the symbols of mere bread and 
 wine ? What aptitude is there, in fact, in bread to be a 
 figure of flesh, or even in wine which is often colorless, to 
 be a figure of blood ? Had Christ intended a mere figure, 
 would be not have selected more appropriate emblems? 
 Did he mean to bring back the Christian religion, which 
 he watered with his own blood, to the mere standard of 
 Judaism — did he mean to lower it even beneath this stan- 
 dard ? Did he institute a religion, the distinguishing ordi- 
 nances of which should be nothing more substantial than 
 the Jewish tropes and figures ? Was it to be still enveloped 
 in that dense mist which had overhung the ark of the cove- 
 nant, and the institutions of the Jewish religion ? Or did 
 he not rise, as '* the Sun of Justice," to chase away 
 those mists which darkened the twilight of the Jewish types, 
 and to usher in the clear, cloudless day of living and 
 breathing realities? 
 
 Luther had retained indeed a belief in the real presence, 
 blended, however, with the palpable absurdity of consub- 
 stantiation, by which he maintained the simultaneous 
 presence of the substances of the bread and wine with the 
 body of Christ. But even the disciples of the reformer 
 have long since rejected this monstrous system. After 
 six different modifications of their creed on the subject, to 
 suit the tastes or to meet the objections of the Sacramen- 
 tarians, they have at length quietly coalesced with their 
 former opponents ; and the doctrine of the real presence 
 has thus grown almost, if not entirely, obsolete among 
 
 * Galatiaiis, iv^ 9. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON WORSHIP. 211 
 
 Protestants.* Thus throughout the land of Protestant- 
 ism this beautiful doctrine, which gives a sublime charac- 
 ter to the Catholic worship, and is a key to all its magni- 
 ficent ceremonials, has been utterly banished. The Pro- 
 testant church and worship are no longer ennobled and 
 vivified by this life-giving presence of the Word made 
 flesh. Christ is banished from his holy temple : he is no 
 longer in the midst " of the children of men," where he 
 ere while delighted to dwell. And Protestantism presents, 
 in its bleak and dreary waste, a sad proof of his absence ! 
 It is a land "of closed churches and hushed bells, of un- 
 lighted altars and unstoled priests !"t 
 
 No — its condition is yet more deplorable. It has not 
 even " unlighted altars:" it has no altars at all. Its 
 altars fell under the same fell stroke which annihilated its 
 sacrifice : *' Sacrifice and oblation is cut off from the 
 house of the Lord ; the priests, the Lord's ministers, 
 have mourned ; the country is destroyed ; the land hath 
 mourned. "J This land of mourning, from which even 
 *' the priests, the Lord's ministers," have been banished, 
 has been reposing for ** many days" "without sacrifice, 
 and without altar, and without ephod, and without thera- 
 phim."§ 
 
 Where is there to be found, in the land of Protestant- 
 ism, that clean oblation foretold by God's holy prophet: 
 *' for from the rising of the sun, even to the going down, 
 my name is great among the gentiles, and in every place 
 there is sacrifice, and there is offered to my name a clean 
 oblation; for my name is great among the gentiles, saith 
 the Lord of hosts ?"|| Where that altar which St. Paul 
 
 * For a full and well written account of these variations of Lutiier- 
 anism on the subject of the eucharist, and for an account of the singular 
 manner of the coalition indicated in the text, see Moore's "Travels of 
 an Irish Gentleman," &,c. p. 202 and p. 193. 
 
 t W. Faber (a Protestant), " Sights and Thoughts in foreign 
 Churches." 
 
 X Joel i, 9, 10. § Ogea iii, 4. || Malachy i, 2. 
 
212 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 assures us the early Christians had: "We have an altar 
 whereof they have no power to eat who serve the taberna- 
 cle ?"* Until Protestantism appeared, with its blighting 
 influence on worship, who ever heard of a religion, Chris- 
 tian, or even pagan, the very essence of which did not 
 consist in an external sacrifice ? In this respect Protest- 
 antism hRS protested against the unanimous voice of man- 
 kind. And we have already seen from ivhoin Luther first 
 learned the reasons for this protest, and how eagerly he 
 seized and acted on them.t 
 
 With the sacrifice, the priesthood, and the altar, fell 
 also the splendid worship with which they were connected. 
 Protestants, even those of Germany, are now beginning 
 to appreciate and to deplore this desecration of God's 
 holy sanctuary, and this desolation of his vineyard ; and 
 their voice of wailing has been re-echoed by the Puseyites 
 in England. We will give a few instances of this splen- 
 did tribute paid, by late Protestant writers in Germany, 
 to the substance and forms of the splendid old Catholic 
 worship. 
 
 Isidore, Count Von Loeben, exclaims : ''Admirable cer- 
 emonial, replete with harmony ! It is the diamond which 
 glitters on the crown of faith ! Whoever has a poetic 
 spirit must feel a tendency to Catholicism !"J Elsewhere 
 he says : ** The Catholic church, with its ever open door, 
 with its undying lamps, with its joyful or mournful strains, 
 its hosannas or its lamentations, its hymns, its masses, its 
 festivals and reminiscences, resembles a mother, who ever 
 holds forth her arms to receive the prodigal child. It is a 
 fountain of sweet water, around which are assembled mul- 
 titudes, to imbibe vigor, health, and life."§ 
 
 Another German Protestant breaks forth into this ex- 
 clamation : " How beautiful is its music ! How it ad- 
 dresses both mind and sense ! Those melodious notes 
 
 * Heb. xiii, 10. f Supra, chap. 1. 
 
 X In his Lotosblitter, 1817. § Ibid. p. 1. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON WORSHIP. 213 
 
 and voices, those canticles which breathe so pure a spirit- 
 uality, those clouds of incense, those chimes which a dis- 
 dainful philosophy condescends to despise — all these 
 please God. Architects and sculptors ! you have acted 
 wisely, and ennobled your art, by raising churches to the 
 Divinity."* 
 
 Another, E. Spindler, thus praises a beautiful custom 
 peculiar to Catholicity : ** It is not only an ancient, but a 
 beautiful custom, to encircle the graves of the dead on the 
 first and second of November. The peasants of the vil- 
 lages hasten to the cemeteries : they kneel by a wooden 
 cross, or other such funeral oinaments. They think on 
 the past, on the shortness of human life. Then the de- 
 parted are crowned with flowers, to signify the life that 
 will never end. The lamp burns to remind us of the light 
 which shall never be obscured !"t 
 
 Another relates the following touching anecdote: *' I 
 saw also a Franciscan kneeling before a fresco painting of 
 Christ on the walls of the cloister, which was admirable 
 for its truth and beauty of expression. On hearing me 
 approach, he rose up. * Father, that is really beautiful.' 
 * Yes ; but the original is still more so,' said the monk, 
 smiling. * Then why make use of a material image in 
 prayer!' 'I see,' said he, ' that you are a Protestant; 
 but do you not see that the arlist modulates and ennobles 
 the fantasies of my own imagination ? Have you not 
 always experienced that this faculty calls up a thousand 
 different forms .^ Permit me to prefer, when there is 
 question of images, the work of a great master to the cre- 
 ation of my own fancy.' I was silent," concludes the 
 writer.:}: 
 
 In one of his works, § Clausen, another Protestant, pays 
 the following willing tribute to the encouragement of con- 
 tinual prayer by the Catholic church: "When a poor 
 
 * Labn. Syst. Theol. p. 205. f Zeitspiegel, 1791. 
 
 X Ch. Fr. D. Schubart— Leben urid Gesinnun^^en— Stuttgart. 1791. 
 
 § P. 790. Apud Audin, p. 331. 
 
214 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 pilgrim, wearied with fatigue, but light of heart, kneels 
 on the altar steps to thank Him M'ho has watched over him 
 during a long and perilous journey ; when a distracted 
 mother comes into the temple to pray for the recovery of 
 her son, whom the physicians have given over; when in 
 the evening, just as the last rays of the sun steal through 
 the stained glass on the figure of a young female engaged 
 in prayer, when the flickering lights of the tapers die 
 away on the pale lips of the clergy, as they chaunt the 
 praises of the Eternal : — tell me, does not Catholicism 
 teach us that life should be one long prayer, that art and 
 science ought to combine to glorify God, and that the 
 church, where so many canticles are simultaneously 
 hymned forth, where devotion puts on all conceivable 
 forms, has a right to our love and respect ?" 
 
 Finally, another thus openly censures the intemperate 
 vandalism of the reformers in destroying the most beauti- 
 ful portions of Catholic worship : ** How blind were our 
 reformers ! While destroying the greater part of the alle- 
 gories of the Catholic church, they believed that they 
 were making war on superstitions ! It was the abuse they 
 ought to have proscribed.''* The famous Novalis in fact 
 says that ** Luther was not acquainted with the spirit of 
 Christianity."! Thus have the children borne testimony 
 against their fathers in the faith !± 
 
 It is related of Frederick II, king of Prussia, that after 
 having assisted at a solemn high mass celebrated in the 
 church of Breslau by cardinal Zinzendorf, he remarked : 
 *' The Calvinists treat God as an inferior, the Lutherans, 
 as an equal; but the Catholics treat him as God." And 
 though this is perhaps too strong an expression of the dif- 
 ference between the Catholic and the Protestant forms of 
 worship ; yet this dift'erence is very great and striking 
 
 * Fessler — Theresia 2, p. 101. 
 
 t " Luther verkannte den geist des Christenthums." 
 X For more testimonies of Protestants on this subject, see Jul. H6- 
 ninghaus " Das Resultat meiner vvanderungen" — Aschalfenburg, 1S35. 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON WORSHIP. 215 
 
 even to the most superficial or prejudiced observer. Who 
 has not been impressed with the grandeur, the solemnity, 
 and the noble dignity of the Catholic ceremonial ? Who 
 has not felt a sentiment of reverence and of awe come over 
 him, when, at the most solemn part of this service, the 
 peal o( the organ ceases, the voice of music is hushed, and, 
 while clouds of incense are ascending, the priests, the 
 ministers and the people fall prostrate in silent prayer be- 
 fore the altar, on which the Lamb is present '* as it were 
 slain ?" Who has not felt a thrill of rapturous emotion, 
 when, after this solemn moment has passed, the music 
 again breaks forth, mingling joyous with solemn notes, and 
 pouring forth a stream of melody on the soul ! Who has not 
 been struck with the pathetic simplicity, the unction, and 
 noble grandeur of the Gregorian chaunt, especially in the 
 preface of the Pater Noster ! And who has not marked 
 the reverent avv^ with which Catholics are wont to assist 
 at the service, as well as the general respect they pay to 
 the church of God ! 
 
 In Catholic countries the church is ever open, inviting 
 the faithful to enter at all hours, and to pour forth their 
 joys or their sorrows before the altar. And in Rome par- 
 ticularly, enter any one of its three hundred and fifty 
 churches at what hour you may, you will always find some 
 persons kneeling, engaged in secret prayer. The Catho- 
 lic worship is not confined to Sundays: it is the business 
 of every daj, and there is accordingly a special service 
 for every day in the year. The constant round of festi- 
 vals presents to the minds of the people, with dramatic 
 effect, the most interesting portions of sacred history, as 
 well as the most striking incidents in the lives of the 
 Blessed Virgin and of the saints : and the necessary result 
 is, to keep these things constantly fresh in the memory. 
 Finally, the Catholic is bound by the law of his church to 
 assist at divine service, and to hear mass every Sunday 
 and festival of the year, and thus he comes constantly 
 under all those strong beneficial influences of his religion. 
 
216 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 And if, notwithstanding all these advantages, he is still 
 recreant to the voice of conscience and of duty, it is surely 
 from no lack of provision for his spiritual culture on the 
 part of the church. She shows herself, in every respect, 
 the tender and solicitous mother. 
 
 Do the multiplied forms of worship introduced by the 
 reformation possess these advantages ; or do they combine 
 these happy influences ? To begin with that last named 
 above : is it not a saddening reflection, that in Protestant 
 countries, no obligation is felt to attend divine service, 
 even on Sundays ^ Take London for an example of this. 
 According to Colquhoun's statistical views of that Pro- 
 testant metropolis, out of nearly fifteen hundred thousand 
 inhabitants, about one-third, or five hundred thousand iiever 
 attend church ; and another third attend it only occa- 
 sionally ! Of the remaining third, who attend regularly, 
 more than half are Roman Catholics. 
 
 True, in our own country the case is somewhat differ- 
 ent: but it is only because here Protestantism has not yet 
 produced, at least to the same extent, the evil fruits of 
 religious indifference and of infidelity, which it has never 
 failed to yield in countries where it has been long estab- 
 lished. But even here it is daily pioducing them more 
 and more; and each succeeding generation will necessa- 
 rily deteriorate. Look at Boston and N. York, where 
 infidelity has already boldly raised its standard. It is 
 only by almost limiting religious service to the Sunday — 
 miscalled the Sabhath — and by continued efforts through 
 the press and the pulpit to keep up even an exaggerated 
 and Jewish feeling of reverence for this da^^ among the 
 people, that any thing like regular attendance on Sunday 
 service is obtained. 
 
 In fact, according to the gloomy ideas attached by cus- 
 tom to the *' Sabbath" day, the people, after having la- 
 bored constantly* through the six days of the week, have 
 no other place of social meeting but at the meeting house; 
 and they have no alternative but to repair thither, or to 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON WORSIIIF. 217 
 
 sit down moodily and inertly at home. And we have no 
 doubt, that it is to these causes, and to the cutting off of 
 all sources of popular amusement, as much at least as to 
 zeal for religious worship, that we are to attribute the fre- 
 quenting of the Protestant places of public service in the 
 United States. 
 
 But is this service in itself inviting or impressive ? Has 
 it any thing in it to stir up the deep fountains of feeling, 
 to call forth the music and poetry of the soul ; to convey 
 salutary instruction, or to awaken lively interest ? We 
 would not speak lightly or irreverently on a subject so 
 grave: but with due deference to the feelings of our dis- 
 sentient brethren, we must express the conviction, that 
 their service is sadly deficient in solemnity, and in feel- 
 ing; and that it possesses not one trait of grandeur or 
 sublimity. It has not one element of poetry or of pathos. 
 Generally cold and lifeless, it becomes warm only by a 
 violent effort, and then it runs into the opposite extreme 
 of intemperate excitement. 
 
 Can its music, with its loud, multiplied and discordant 
 sounds, compare with the grave and solemn melody of the 
 Catholic worship ? Can its long extemporaneous prayers, 
 pronounced by a minister dressed in his every -day attire, 
 and often interrupted by the sharp amens and discordant 
 groans of his hearers, compare, for solemnity and effect, 
 with that which is poured forth by the priest at the altar, 
 robed in the venerable uniform of eighteen hundred years' 
 standing, and which is accompanied by those of the people 
 uttered in the hushed stillness of secret devotion? For 
 our parts, we greatly prefer calm composure and sanctu- 
 ary quietude in the church, to noisy prayer and almost 
 boisterous excitement. The Lord does not usually com- 
 municate himself in the whirlwind, or in the earthquake, 
 or in the raging fire ; but in the breathing of the gentle 
 breeze.* 
 
 * See iii Book of Kin^.^, ch. xix, v. 11, 12. In Prof, version, i Book 
 Kings. 
 
 19 
 
218 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Again, in Catholic countries there is no pew system. 
 The rich and the poor, the prince and the beggar, the re- 
 fined princess and the lowlj peasant girl — kneel side by 
 side on the same pavement, and at the foot of the same 
 altar. There is no distinction there in the house of God. 
 Is it so in Protestant countries ? Has not the pew system, 
 with all its invidious distinctions of rank, with its luxuri- 
 ous and splendidly cushioned seats, more suited for lolling 
 than for prayers, obtained universally wherever Protest- 
 antism has been established ? And has not the natural 
 and necessary effect been, to introduce worldly notions 
 even into the house of God ; and to make church-going a 
 matter of fashion and respectability ? Do not many people 
 inquire, before they embrace a religion, which is the most 
 respectable church ? 
 
 True, in countries where Protestants are most nume- 
 rous. Catholics likewise have often, we humbly think very 
 unfortunately, borrowed the invidious system from their 
 neighbors : but candor will allow, that among them it is 
 not pushed to the same extreme as among Protestants. It 
 is strongly counteracted in its evil tendencies among them 
 by the spirit of their church. 
 
 The Catholic ceremonial has been designed and 
 planned on a grand scale: it exhibits to the best ad- 
 vantage in the largest churches ; it has the most im- 
 pressive and sublime effect in such temples as St. Mary 
 Major's and St. Peter's. The Protestant service, on the 
 contrary, is as contracted in its nature, as it is meager 
 in its details, and cold and unimpressive in its general 
 effect. It is wholly out of place in a very extensive 
 church. In St. Paul's church, in London, it is confined 
 to one segment of the centre aisle : the other portions of 
 the church are utterly useless. So it is in the splendid old 
 cathedrals of England, Ireland, and Scotland, built by our 
 Catholic forefathers on the grand scale of the Catholic 
 worship, but now occupied as Protestant meeting-houses. 
 In the Protectant service every thing is for the ear, and 
 
EFFECTS OF THE REFORM ON WORSHIP. 219 
 
 almost nothing for the eye: in the Catholic, all the senses 
 are addressed, and enchained. 
 
 In nothing does the immense distinction between the 
 Catholic and the Protestant forms of worship appear more 
 strikingly, than in the marked difterence in the structure, 
 beauty, and ornaments of the churches in which they are 
 respectively exhibited. Where, for instance, in the land 
 of Protestantism, will you find one church to compare in 
 beauty and sublimity with St. Peter's at Rome ? It is an 
 architectural monument as old as Protestantism, and much 
 more stable and permanent ! It has seen hundreds of sects 
 arise, create excitement for a day, and then die away ; 
 while itself has continued in unfading beauty — the sub- 
 lime emblem of unchanging and undying Catholicity ! 
 Not one of its stones has started from its place : not one 
 of its pillars has been shaken ; not one of its arches has 
 been broken! It stands up in all the vigor and freshness 
 of youth — a suitable type of the ever blooming and virgin 
 spouse of Christ, " without spot, without wrinkle, without 
 blemish."* Enter its portals, and your soul swells, and 
 becomes *' as colossal as the edifice itself:" you involun- 
 tarily exclaim : ** truly, this is the house of God and the 
 gate of heaven!" The fine arts have here been lavish of 
 their tribute to religion and to God : and they speak 
 silently, but eloquently, of the principles of Christ, of 
 his apostles, and of his saints. Why have these lovely 
 arts been banished from the Protestant churches ? 
 
 To gladden the nations again ? 
 
 O when shall the flame of sweet charity burn. 
 
 To warm the cold bosoms of men ? 
 
 When the angel of vengeance hath sheathed his sword. 
 And his vials have drenched the land : 
 When the pride of the sophist hath bent to the Lord, 
 And trembled beneath his strong hand." 
 
 * Ephesians, chap, v. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON THE EIBLE^, ON BIBLE 
 READING, AND BIBLICAL STUDIES. 
 
 *' By various texts we both uphold our claim, 
 
 Nay, often ground our lilies on the same ; 
 
 After long labors lost and time's expense, 
 
 Both grant the words, and quarrel for the sense. 
 
 Thus all disputes forever must depend, 
 
 For no dumb rule can controversies end."— Drj/ffen. 
 
 " Mark you this, Bassanio : 
 The devil can cite scripture for his purpose." — Shakspeare. 
 
 Protestant boastings — Theory of M. D'Aubigne — Luther finds a Bible 
 — How absurd! — The "chained Bible" — Seckendorf versus D'Au- 
 bigne — The Catholic church and the Bible — The Latin Language — 
 Vernacular versions before Luther's — In Germany — In Italy — In 
 France — In Spain — In England — In Flanders — In Sclavonia — In 
 Sweden — In Iceland — Syriac and Armenian versions — Summary and 
 Inference — Polyglots — Luther's false assertion — Reading the Bible 
 — Fourth rule of the index — A religious vertigo remedied — More 
 harm than good — Present discipline — A common slander — Protestant 
 versions — Mutual compliments — V^ersion of king James — The Doway 
 and Vulgate Bibles — Private interpretation — German Rationalism — 
 Its blasphemies — Rationalism in Geneva. 
 
 Our inquiry into tlie influence of the reformation on 
 religion would be incomplete, without some examination 
 of the extent of this influence on the Bible, and on the 
 general diffusion of Biblical learning;. It is one of the 
 proudest boasts of the reformation, to have rescued the 
 Bible from the obscurity to which the Roman Catholic 
 church had consigned it; to have first translated it into 
 the vernacular tongues; and to have opened its hitherto 
 concealed treasures of heavenly wisdom to the body of the 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 221 
 
 people. These pretensions have been so often and so 
 confidently repeated, as to have passed current for the 
 truth, even with many persons of sincerity and informa- 
 tion. And so firm is the conviction of many, that the 
 Catholic church studiously concealed the sacred writings 
 from the multitude, and that the reformers brought them 
 out " fmm under the bushel" to be a light to the nations ; 
 that it is exceedingly difficult to remove it, even by the 
 sternest facts and the most overwhelming evidence. 
 
 The theory of M. D'Aubigne on this subject is indeed 
 strange, but it has not the merit of novelty. IMany a cre- 
 dulous and drivelling theologaster had often before woven 
 the same tissue of absurd speculation. According to our 
 historian of the reformation, Luther owed his first conver- 
 sion to Christianity to an accidental discovery of the Bible 
 in the Library of the University at Erfurth. '* One day'' 
 (he had been two years at Erfurth, and was twenty years 
 of age) " he was opening the books in the library one after 
 another, in order to read the names of the authors. One 
 which he opened in its turn drew his attention : he, had not 
 seen any thing like it till that hour : he reads the title, it 
 is a Bible, a rare book, zmJcnown at that time! His in- 
 terest is strongly excited: he is filled with astonishment 
 at finding more in this volume than those fragments of the 
 gospels and epistles, which the church has selected to be 
 read to the people in their places of worship every Sunday 
 in the year. Till then he had thought that they were the 
 whole v/ord of God. And here are so many pages, so 
 many chapters, so many books, of which he had no idea ! 
 His heart beats as he holds in his hand all the scripture 
 divinely inspired. With eagerness and indescribable feel- 
 ings he turns over those leaves of the word of God. The 
 first page that arrests his attention, relates the history of 
 Hannah and the young Samuel."* 
 
 He then relates, how the young Luther piously re- 
 
 * Vol. i, p. 131. 
 19* 
 
2^2 " d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 solved to imitate the devotedness of the young Samuel; 
 and continues: *' the Bible that had filled him with such 
 transport was in Latin. He soon returned to the library 
 to find his treasure again. He read and re-read, and then 
 in his surprise and joy went back to read again. The 
 first gleams of a new truth then arose in his mind. Thus 
 has God caused him to find his holy word ! He has now 
 discovered the book of which he is one day to give to his 
 countrymen that admirable translation, in which the Ger- 
 mans for three centuries have read the oracles of God. For 
 the first time, perhaps, this precious volume has been re- 
 moved from the place that it occupied in the library of 
 Erfurth. This book, deposited on the unknown shelves 
 of a dark room, is soon to become the book of life for a 
 whole nation. The reformation lay hid in that Bible."* 
 This was not however the only Bible he had the good 
 fortune to find : for after he had entered the convent of 
 Augustinians at Erfurth, ** he found another Bible fastened 
 by a cha]n."t 
 
 M. D'Aubigne professes to borrow all this fine history 
 from Mathesius, a disciple and an ardent and credulous 
 admirer of liUther, and from M. Adam, another biogra- 
 pher of the reformer. It is a story absurd enough in all 
 conscience, and too clumsily contrived even for a well 
 digested romance. What ? Are we to believe that Luther, 
 at the age of twenty, did not know that there was a Bible, 
 until he chanced to discover one in the library at Erfurth ? 
 And that until then he piously believed, that the whole 
 scriptures were comprised in that choice selection of gos- 
 pels and epistles, read on Sunday and festivals in the 
 church service ? He, too, a young man of great talent and 
 promise, who had successively attended the schools of 
 Mansfeld, Eisenach and Magdeburg, and had already 
 been two years at the university of Erfurth ! Credat Ju- 
 dseus Jlpella ! The thing is utterly incredible, and stamped, 
 
 * Ibid. p. 132. t I'-^id- r- 1^1- 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 223 
 
 with absurdity on its very face. Luther must have been 
 singularly stupid indeed, had he remained thus ignorant. 
 And then the idea intended to be conveyed by the chained 
 Bible ! Would the good monks have enchained it, unless 
 it had been in such demand with the people as to endan- 
 ger its safety .^ In that early stage of the art of printing, 
 all books were much more scarce and more highly prized 
 than at present; and perhaps then, as now, borrowed 
 books were seldoin returned to the owner. 
 
 M. D'Aubigne in the course of his history repeatedly 
 quotes Seckendorf, the biographer and great admirer of 
 Luther. Did he never chance to read in the first book of 
 this writer's "'Commentaries on Lutheranism," a passage 
 in which he states, that three distinct editions of the Bible, 
 translated into German^ were published at Wiftemberg, in 
 1470, 1483, and 1490 : one of them seven years before 
 the birth of Luther, another in the very year of his birth, 
 and a third seven years thereafter?* And all these in the 
 immediate vicinity of Luther's birth place; not to men- 
 tion another edition, which the same author assures us,t 
 was published not far distant, — at Augsburg, in 1518, 
 just one year after Luther had turned reformer, and 
 twelve years before he published his own German version 
 of the Bible ! How could M. D'Aubigne avoid seeing this 
 passage in his own favorite historian for reference : and if 
 he saw it, what are we to think of his honesty in wholly 
 concealing it, and even in stating what is plainly contra- 
 dicted by it — that " the Bible was then an unknown 
 book ;" and that Luther never saw it till his 20th year ? 
 
 The Bible then an unknown book! Who preserved this 
 book during the previous fifteen hundred years ? From 
 whom did the reformers receive it .^ Who kept it safe 
 through all dangers; in the midst of conflagrations, wars, 
 and the torrents of barbarian incursion ? Who copied it 
 
 * Commentarii in Luther. Lib. I, sec. 51. § cxxv. p. 204. 
 t Ibid. 
 
224 d'aubigne's history revievved. 
 
 over and again, before the art of printing ? The Roman 
 Catholic church did all this: and yet she is to be accused 
 of having concealed this book of life from the people ! But 
 for her patient labor, vigilant watchfulness, and maternal 
 solicitude, the Bible miglit have perished with thousands 
 of other books : and yet she, forsooth, was an. enemy of 
 this book, and wished to keep it under a bushel ! She 
 read choice selections from it to her people every Sunday 
 and festival, even according to the avowfd of her bitterest 
 enemy, M. D'Aubigne; and yet she wished to conceal 
 this treasure from the people ! A curious way of conceal- 
 ing it, truly ! 
 
 But perhaps she preserved it in the Latin tongue only, 
 and was opposed to its general circulation in the living 
 languages of Europe. She did no such thing, as we shall 
 presently see ; though even if she had done this, she would 
 not have concealed the Bible from the people. The Latin 
 language continued to be that which was most generally 
 understood, and even spoken in Europe, until the reign 
 of Charlemagne, in the beginning of the ninth century: 
 and even for several centuries afterwards, it continued to 
 be very generally known, while the modern languages 
 were strujro-linfj; into form. At the beo-inning of the six- 
 teenth century, and for a long time afterwards, it was the 
 only language of literature, of theology, of medicine, anti' 
 of legislation. Most of the modern languages of Europe 
 were formed from it, and were so similar to it both in 
 words and in general structure, that the common people 
 of Italy, Spain, Portugal, and even France, could under- 
 stand that mother tongue without great ditFiculty. In 
 Hungary, it had been the common language of the people 
 since the da^'s of king Stephen, in the tenth century. It 
 was taught and studied in every school and college of 
 Christendom, and it was the medium through which most 
 other branches were taught. It was, then, at the time of 
 the reformation, a language which was very commonly un- 
 derstood in Europe. Therefore, even if the Catholic 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 225 
 
 church had given the Bible to the people only in the Latin 
 vuIgate, she would not have concealed it; lior would it 
 have remained "an unknovvn book.*' It is a notorious 
 fact, that one of the first books published after the inven- 
 tion of the art of printing, was the Latin Bible.* 
 
 But it is well ascertained, that long before the reformat 
 tion of Luther, the people of almost every country in Europe 
 had the Bible in their own vernacular tong-ues. In most 
 nations, there was not only one, but there were many dif- 
 ferent versions. 
 
 We begin with Germany, the theatre of the reformation. 
 We have already seen the testimony of Seckendorf on the 
 subject. The Germans had no less than Jive different 
 versions of the scriptures into their own language; of 
 which three were previous to that of Luther in 1530 ; and 
 two were contemporary with, or immediately subsequent 
 to it. The oldest was that made by Ulphilas, bishop of 
 the Meeso- Goths (now Wallachians), as early as the mid- 
 dle of the fourth century .t This version seems to have 
 been used for several centuries by many of the older Go- 
 thic and German Christians. The second version was 
 that into Teutonic ascribed to Charlemagne (beginning 
 of ninth century), probably because it was made by some 
 learned inan under his direction. Besides, there was a 
 very old rhythmical paraphrase of the four gospels, much 
 used in Germany from the time of the first emperor Louis. 
 
 The third German version was a translation from the 
 Latin vulgatebysome person unknown, an edition of which 
 was printed as early as the year 1466: two copies of this 
 edition are still preserved in the senatorial library at licip- 
 sic. Before the appearance of the German Bible of Lu- 
 ther, the version last named had been republished in Ger- 
 many at least sixteen times : once at Strasburg, five times 
 
 * Hallam proves that it was tlie first book printed, probably in the 
 year 1455. — " History of Literature," sup. cit. vol. 1, p. 96. 
 t See Home's Introduction, vol. ii, p. 240-5. 
 
226 d*aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 at Nureraburg, and ten times at Augsburg. These various 
 editions often claimed to be new versions, in consequence 
 of the improvements they professed to have introduced ' 
 into the original version of 146G. This was particularly 
 the case with the edition published at Augsburg in 1477", 
 and also with that at Nuremburg in 1483, which latter 
 was embellished with numerous wood-cuts. 
 
 Thus, before the publication of Luther's translation, 
 there had been in Germany no less than three distinct 
 versions, the last of which had passed through at least 
 seventeen different editions. Add to these the three 
 editions of Wittemberg, and the one at Augsburg, men- 
 tioned by Seckendorf above, and not included in this esti- 
 mate, and we ascertain that the Bible had already been 
 reprinted in the German language no le?s than twenty-one 
 times, before liUther's appeared.* 
 
 In 1534, John Dietemberg published his new German 
 translation from the Latin vulgate at Mayence, under the 
 auspices of the arch-bishop and elector, Albert. It passed 
 through upwards of twenty editions in the course of a hun- 
 dred years, four of which appeared at Mayence, and seven- 
 teen at Cologne. The style of it was somewhat unpolished, 
 but it was esteemed a faithful translation. In 1 537, another 
 Catholic version appeared under the supervision of Doc- 
 tors Emser and Eck, the two learned champions of Catho- 
 
 * These facts, and those that will follow on the same subject, are all 
 established by the learned De Long, in his Bibliotheca Sacra (torn. 1, p. 
 854 seqq. edit. Paris 1723). They are also proved by a Calvin ist writer, 
 David Clement, librarian to the king of Prussia, in his Bihlioiheque 
 Curieuse, &c. (9 vols. 4to. Gottingen 1750). See also Geddes' "Pros- 
 pectus for a New Translation," 4to. p. 103 seqq., and Audin's " Life of 
 Luther," p. 216 seqq. for many of these facts. Also a learned article 
 on the subject in the 2d No. of the Dublin Review, where most of the 
 facts we have alleged, or will allege, are clearly proved. The writer of 
 this paper has however omitted Seckendorf 's statement : and he like- 
 wise supposes that Luther's version appeared only in 1534; whereas 
 from Seckendorf 's detailed account of it, it would seem to have beeu 
 completed in 1530. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 227 
 
 licity against Luther. This version likewise passed 
 through many editions. 
 
 While on the subject of German Bibles, we maj here 
 remark, though it does not come exactly within our present 
 plan, that Gaspar Ulenberg published a new version in 
 1630; and that during the last forty years, several other 
 new versions have appeared in Catholic Germany, of 
 which those of Schwartzel and Brentans are the most 
 popular. 
 
 The facts already stated prove how utterly unfounded 
 and recklessly false is the statement of M. D'Aubigne, 
 that before the reformation " the Bible was an unknown 
 book." They demonstrate triumphantly, that the Catho- 
 lics of Germany were much more zealous in the circula- 
 tion of the scriptures, than the self-styled reformers, with 
 all their boasting and that of their friends. 
 
 But we will pursue this line of argument still farther, 
 and prove, on the unquestionable authorities referred to 
 above, that other Catholic countries were not behind Ger- 
 many in the will to translate the scriptures into the ver- 
 nacular tongues, and to circulate them among the people. 
 In fact, there is not a country in Europe in which the 
 Bible had not been repeatedly translated and published 
 long before the reformation. 
 
 In Italy, there were two versions anterior to that of 
 Luther : that by the Dominican, Jacobus a Voragine, arch- 
 bishop of Genoa, which version, according to the testimony 
 of Sixtus Senensis,* was completed as early as 1290; and 
 that by Nicholas Malermi, a Camalilolese monk, which 
 was first printed at Rome and Venice in the same year, 
 1471; and which had passed through thirteen different edi- 
 tions before the year 1525. This was also reprinted eight 
 times more before the year 1567, with the express permis- 
 sion of the Santo Uffizio. Almost simultaneously with 
 that of Luther, there appeared two other Italian transla- 
 
 * Bibliolheca sacra, Tom. 1, p. 397. 
 
228 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 tlons of the Bible: that by Antonio Bruccioli* in 1532, 
 which in twenty years passed through ^e?i editions ; and 
 that by Santes Marmochino, which was printed at Venice 
 in 1538, 1546, and 1547. 
 
 The oldest French version of the Bible was that byDes 
 Moulins, whose ** Bible Historyal" — almost a complete 
 translation of the Bible — appeared, according to Usher, 
 about the year 1478. A new edition of it, corrected by 
 Rely, bishop of Angers, was published in 1487, and was 
 successively reprinted sixteen different times before the 
 year 1546: four of these editions appeared at Lyons, and 
 twelve at Paris. In 1512, Le Fevre published a new French 
 translation, which passed through many editions. A re- 
 vision of the version was made by the divines of Lou vain, 
 in 1550, and was reprinted in France and Flanders, 
 thirty-nine times before the year 1700. More re- 
 cently, a great variety of new Catholic versions have 
 appeared in France; of which those by De Sacy, Cor- 
 bin, Amelotte, Maralles, Godeau, and liure, are tiie most, 
 celebrated. 
 
 According to Mariana, the great Spanish historian, the 
 Bible was translated into Castilian by order of Alphonso 
 the Wise. The whole Bible was translated into the Va- 
 lencian dialect of the Spanish, in the year 1405, by Boni- 
 face Ferrier, brother of St. Vincent Ferrier. It was 
 printed in 1478, and reprinted in 1515, ivith the formal 
 consent of the Spanish Inquisition. In 1512 the Epistles 
 and Gospels were translated into Spanisli by Ambrosio de 
 Montesma. This work was republished at Antwerp in 
 1544, at Barcelona in 1601 and 1608, and at Madrid in 
 1603 and 1615. 
 
 In England, besides the version by* the venerable Bede 
 in the eighth century, and that partial one of the Psalms 
 
 * It is but fair to say, that tliis version was deemed inaccurate, and 
 was subsequently suppressed by the competent authorities, with the 
 consent of tho author. Marmochino corrected its faults. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 229 
 
 ascribed to Alfred the Great* in the ninth, there was a 
 full translation of the whole Bible into the English of that 
 period, finished about the year 1290, long before the ver- 
 sion of WicklifFe in the fifteenth century. 
 
 In the year 706, Adhelm, first bishop of Salisbury, ac- 
 cording to the testimony of the Protestant biblicist Horn, 
 translated the Psalter into Saxon. At his persuasion also, 
 Egbert, bishop of Lindisfarne, translated the four Gos- 
 pels. In the fourteenth century, a new English version of 
 the whole Bible was made by John de Trevisa. In the 
 year 995, Elfric, archbishop of Canterbury, translated 
 into English the Pentateuch, Joshua, Job, the Judges, 
 Ruth, part of the books of Kings, Esther, and the Macca- 
 bees.t 
 
 The Bible was translated into Flemish, as UsherJ ad- 
 mits, by Jacobus Merland, before the year 1210. Tliis 
 version was printed at Cologne in 1475, and passed 
 through seven new editions before the appearance of Lu- 
 ther's Bible in 1530. The Antwerp edition was repub- 
 lished eight times in the short space of seventeen years. 
 AVithin thirty years there were also published, at Antwerp 
 alone, no less than ten editions of the New Testament 
 tianslated by Cornelius Kendrick in 1524. In the course 
 of the seventeenth century there appeared in Flanders 
 new Catliolic versions by De Wit, Laemput, Schum, and 
 others. All these were repeatedl}' republished. 
 
 A Sclavonian version of the Bible was published at 
 Cracow in the beginning of the sixteenth century. In 
 the fourteenth century the Bible was translated into Swe- 
 dish, by the direction of St. Bridget. According to the 
 testimony of Jonas Arnagrimus, a disciple of the distin- 
 guished Tycho Brahe, a translation of the Bible was made 
 
 * The venerable Bede died in 735, immediately after having finished 
 his translation of St. John's Gospel, which completed his version of the 
 Scriptures. 
 
 t Cf. Bishop Kenrick's " Theologia Dogmatica," vol. i, p. 426. 
 
 X A learned Protestant historian, especially in regard to dates. 
 20 
 
230 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 in Iceland as earlj as 1279. A Bohemian Bible appeared 
 at Prague in 1488, and passed through three other differ- 
 ent editions, at Cutna in 1498, and at Venice in 1506 
 and 1511. 
 
 Finally, to complete this hastj summary of facts, we 
 may here state, as an evidence of the solicitude of Rome 
 for the. dissemination of the Bible, that many editions of 
 Syriac and Arabic Bibles have been printed at Rome and 
 Venice for the use of the oriental churches in communion 
 with the Roman Catholic church. A translation of the 
 Bible into Ethiopic was published at Rome as early as 
 1548. The famous convent of Armenian monks, called 
 Mechiteristi, at Venice, so often visited by travellers, has 
 published exquisitely beautiful versions of the Bible trans- 
 lated into Armenian. 
 
 From this mass of facts— and we have not given all 
 that might be alleged on the subject — it clearly appears 
 that the Catholic church had exhibited a most commenda- 
 ble zeal for the dissemination of the Scriptures among the 
 people, long before the reformation had been heard of. 
 This evidence of stubborn facts demonstrates how very 
 silly are the assertions of those Protestant writers who, 
 with M. D'Aubigne, would fain persuade the world that 
 we are indebted to the reformation for the knowledge and 
 general circulation of the Scriptures. And yet prejudice 
 or drivelling ignorance will probably still continue to 
 re-echo this unfounded assertion. 
 
 Before the appearance of Luther's version, in 1530, 
 there had existed in the diff'erent countries of Europe at 
 least tioentij two different Catholic versions, which, during 
 the seventy years intervening between 1460 and 1530, 
 had passed through at least seventy editions, or one for 
 each year ! ! And, simultaneously with Luther's Bible, 
 there appeared a great number of other Catholic versions, 
 all of which, as well as those previously in existence, 
 were frequently reprinted. And yet, in the face of all 
 these facts, we are still to be told that the Catholic church 
 concealed the Bible ! ! 
 
INTLTJEXCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 231 
 
 While on this subject, we may here remark that, of the 
 four famous Polyglot Bibles, the three most ancient were 
 published by Catholics. That by Cardinal Ximenes was 
 published at Alcala in Spain, in six volumes, folio, in the 
 year 1515, two years before the commencement of the 
 reformation. That of Antwerp was published in 1572, 
 and that of" Paris in 1645; while the latest of all, and 
 the only Protestant one, was published by Walton, in 
 London, only in the year 1658. 
 
 We say nothing of another Polyglot edition of the 
 Psalms, by Giustiniani, an Italian, who seems to have 
 been the first to conceive this splendid idea of illustrating 
 the sacred Scriptures by exhibiting, in parallel columns, 
 the original Hebrew and Greek, with the most ancient 
 and esteemed versions. His labor was, however, never 
 destined to seethe light; his manuscripts were lost in a 
 shipwreck near Leghorn ; and it was reserved to the mag- 
 nificent Ximenes to be the first to carry out this great con- 
 ception. He devoted many of the last years of his brill- 
 iant life to this great work. Valuable manuscripts in 
 Greek and Hebrew were procured in remote places, and 
 at immense expense : Ximenes himself collated them with 
 the assistance of a body of learned men ; and he finally- 
 put the finishing hand to his herculean labor. To him 
 are we indebted for this first great impulse given to bibli- 
 cal criticism and literature. 
 
 It is also worthy of remark that a learned Italian, Ber- 
 nardo de Rossi, towards the close of the last century, by 
 his single, unaided efforts, collected together more valua- 
 ble ancient Greek, and especially Hebrew, manuscripts 
 of the Bible, than Walton had been able to do, with his 
 immense resources and the co-operation of the British 
 and of other governments.* 
 
 It is also proper to state that, besides the version of the 
 Bible into the vernacular tongues of Europe referred to 
 
 * See Geddea' " Prospectus for a new translation," &c. 4to. Also 
 the works of Bernardo de Kossi, wlio died quite recently. 
 
232 D AUBIGNb-S HISTORY REVIEWED. 
 
 above, there were, about the time of the reformation, va- 
 rious Latin versions made bj Catholics immediatelj from 
 the original Hebrew and Greek texts. These were en- 
 tirely distinct from the Latin Vulgate of St. Jerome. 
 The most famous were : — that by Santes Pagninus, pub- 
 lished at Florence and Lyons in 1528, which was a trans- 
 lation from the Hebrew ; and that of the Old Testament 
 by Cardinal Cajetan, which was a literal translation from 
 the Septuagint.* It is also well known that Leo X, to 
 promote biblical learning, established a professorship of 
 Hebrew in Rome, at the very dawn of the reformation. 
 
 Thus every department of biblical study was exten- 
 sively cultivated by the Catholic church, both before and 
 after the commencement of the reformation. Catholic 
 divines labored at least as much, and as successfully, in 
 these studies, as did the reformers, and at a much more 
 early period. Europe was filled with Bibles in almost 
 every language, and especially in Latin and the vernacu- 
 lar tongues. 
 
 With all these facts before us, we will be able to form 
 a correct judgment on the truth of the statement made by 
 Martin Luther himself in his Table Talk. '* Thirty years 
 ago the Bible was an unknown book : the Prophets were 
 not understood ; it was thought that they could not be 
 translated. I was twenty years old before I saw the 
 Scriptures : I thought that there was no other Gospel, no 
 other Epistles than those contained in the Postilla."t 
 He must either have been wondrously ignorant of what 
 was every where passing around him in the world; or he 
 must have wilfully misstated the facts of the case. Either 
 his character for knowledge or for veracity must suffer. 
 
 But we are still told that Catholics did not read the 
 Bible — that they were even prohibited to do so — before 
 the reformation. Who then purchased and read those 
 
 * Geddes, ibid. 
 
 t I'isch Reden, or Table Talk, p. 852, edit. Eislebeu. Apud Audin, 
 p. 390, 391. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 233 
 
 seventy editions of the Bible in the vernacular tongues, 
 which were published before Luther had circulated one 
 copy of his German Bible ? Were they read only by the 
 priests ? But these all knew Latin, and had their Latin 
 Bibles. Think you that booksellers would have published 
 so many editions of a book which was not readily sold, 
 and extensively read ? Would a new edition have been 
 necessary each successive year, during the seventy which 
 preceded the appearance of Luther's Bible, unless each 
 edition, as it appeared, had been eagerly sought and 
 bought up ? Would any of our modern book publishers 
 reprint seventy successive yearly editions of a work which 
 was not generally read ? 
 
 But there was a prohibition by the church to read the 
 Bible. When, where, and by whom was that prohibition 
 made ? The annals of history are wholly silent as to any 
 restriction of the kind having been made, before the fla- 
 grant abuses of the Bible by the reformers and their dis- 
 ciples seemed to require some such regulation. The 
 church had indeed carefully guarded against the circula- 
 tion of inaccurate editions; and the suppression of the 
 Italian version by Bruccioli is an evidence of this wise 
 solicitude. But we no where find evidence of any re- 
 strictive law as to the readingof the Bible in the vernacu- 
 lar versions, until after the council of Trent had closed 
 its sessions in 1563. 
 
 A committee of learned divines, named by the council, 
 drew up a list or index of prohibited books, prefaced by 
 ten general regulations on the reading of them. The 
 fourth rule of the Index permits the reading ** of the 
 Bible translated into the vulgar tongues by Catholic au- 
 thors, to those only to whom the bishop or the inquisitor, 
 with the advice of the parish priests or confessors, shall 
 judge that such reading will prove more profitable unto 
 an increase of faith and piety, than injurious :" and it 
 assigns, as a reason for this restriction, "that experience 
 had made it manifest that the permission to read the Bi- 
 
234 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 ble indiscriminately in the vulgar tongues had, /rowi the 
 rashness of men, done more harm than good."* 
 
 Such a disciplinary regulation was then deemed neces- 
 sary when the landmarks of the ancient faith had been 
 recklessly removed, and the Bible was wantonly per- 
 verted to support a hundred contradictory systems. In 
 that period of religious vertigo, men, " having an appear- 
 ance indeed of piety, but denying the power thereof," 
 were " always learning, and never attaining to the know- 
 ledge of the truth ;"t ** according to their own devices, they 
 heaped up to themselves teachers, having itching ears; 
 and they turned away their hearing from the truth, and 
 were turned to fables :":j: they ** were like children, 
 tossed to and fro, and carried about by every wind of 
 doctrine, in the wickedness of men, in craftiness, by 
 which they lie in wait to deceive :"§ and not understand- 
 ing that in the Scriptures " are some things hard to be 
 understood,'' they " wrested them to their own perdi- 
 tion."|l In this emergency, when the very substance of 
 the faith was endangered, did it not behoove the church, 
 ** which is the church of the living God, the pillar and 
 ground of the truth, "^ to raise her warning voice, and to 
 proclaim from the chair of Peter, with St. Peter himself, 
 that all should *' understand this first, that no prophecy 
 of the Scripture is made by private interpretation ;"** and 
 to re-echo through the religious world, thus shaken to \is 
 base, the solemn command of Christ " to hear the church," 
 under the penalty of being reckoned ** with heathens and 
 publicans .^"tt 
 
 This is precisely what the church did ; and she thought 
 that she was compelled to this course by the sad '* expe- 
 
 * " Cum experiraento manifestura sit, si sacra biblia vulgari lingua 
 passim sine discrimiue permittantur, plus inde, ob hominum temerita- 
 tem, detrimenti quam utilitutis oriri." Kegula IV. 
 
 t 2 Tim. iii, 5—7. \ Ibid, iv, 3, 4. § Ephes. iv, 14. 
 
 II 2 Peter iii, G. IT 1 Tim. iii, 15. ** 2 Peter i, 20. 
 
 ft Matth.xviii, 17. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 235 
 
 rience" of the evil vvoikings of the newly broached prin- 
 ciple of private interpretation. " It was not her fault, 
 but the fault of the times:" the *' rashness of men" 
 perverting the Scriptures of God to their own perdition, 
 was the cause of her enactment restrictins; the readinjr of 
 the Scriptures in the vulgar tongues. The principle of 
 private interpretation, applied to the Scriptures, had evi- 
 dently " done more harm than good;" for, whereas the 
 Bible manifestly contains and teaches but one religion, this 
 principle had extracted from it at least a hundred contra- 
 dictory ones ; and therefore it had obviously done at least 
 ninety-nine times "as much harm as good." So that the 
 reformation is alone to be blamed for this restrictive 
 policy on the part of the Catholic church ; and Protest- 
 ants should be the last persons in the world to reproach 
 to her as a fault, what the "rashness" alone of their 
 fathers in the faith occasioned. 
 
 But the enactment in question, besides not emanating 
 from the council itself, it having been made after the 
 council had closed its sessions, contained a mere disci- 
 plinary regulation, which was not every where received,* 
 and which has long since ceased to be of binding force in 
 any part of the Catholic church. The present discipline 
 requires only *' that the version be approved, and illus- 
 trated by commentaries from the fathers and other Cath- 
 olic writers."! Pope Pius VI, in a letter:}: to Anthony 
 Martini, the translator of the Italian version, now gene- 
 rally used in Italy, praises him for his undertaking, and 
 adds : ** for these (the Scriptures) are the most abundant 
 sources, which ought to he left open to every one, to draw 
 from them purity of morals and of doctrine. "§ 
 
 * '- Sed ea disciplina nou ubique obtinuit." Bp. Kenrick, Theol. 
 Dogmatica, vol. i, p. 429. In this learned and excellent work will be 
 found many valuable Ijicts, of which we have already availed ourselves, 
 and on which we shall occasionally draw in the sequel. f J^^id. 
 
 t Written April 1, 1778. 
 
 § Inserted in frontispiece of the Doway JBibk. 
 
236 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 It is then plainly a slander to assert that the Catholic 
 church forbids the reading of the Scriptures. In the 
 United States, Catholics have published at least as many 
 editions of the Bible as any Protestant sect. These have 
 appeared in every form, from Haydock's splendid folio 
 Bible, in two volumes — an edition unequalled by any 
 Protestant Bible in the country — down to the octavo and 
 duodecimo editions. Several of these have been stereo- 
 typed: and they may be had in every Catholic book store 
 in the country, and may be found in most Catholic fami- 
 lies. In France, the great Bossuet distributed himself no 
 less than fifty thousand copies of the New Testament 
 translated into French by Amelotte."* 
 
 In speaking of the influence of the reformation on bib- 
 lical learning, we must say a few words— our limits wiU 
 allow but few — on the different Protestant versions. 
 These are as numerous, and almost as various, as the 
 sects from which they have emanated. The oldest is that 
 of Luther, in which, as soon as it appeared, the learned 
 Emser detected no less than a thousand glaring faults ! 
 Luther became angry, and raged at this exposure of his 
 work by his learned antagonist, on whom he exhausted 
 his vocabulary of abusive epithets. He said, among other 
 pretty things, that " these popish asses were not able to 
 appreciate his labors."! Yet Seckendorf informs us that, 
 in his cooler moments, he availed himself of Emser's cor- 
 rections, and made many changes in his version.^ 
 
 Still, however, Martin Bucer, a brother reformer, says 
 that •' his falls in translating and explaining the Scrip- 
 tures were manifest and not a few."§ Zuingle, another 
 leading reformer, after having examined it, openly pro- 
 nounced it a corruption of the word of God.[| It has now 
 
 * Robelot, Influence, &c. p. 3S9. 
 
 t Seckendorf, Coram. 1. i, sect. 52, § cxxvii, p. 210. | lb. ^ cxxii. 
 § " Luiheri lapsus in verlcndis ct explanandu Scripturis manifestos esse 
 etnonpaucos." Eucer Dial, contra Melancthon. 
 II See Amicable Discussion, i, 129, note. 
 
INFLITENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. Q.3T 
 
 grown obsolete even iu Gernianj. It is viewed as faulty 
 and insufficient in many respects. In 18S6, many Lu- 
 theran consistories called for its entire revision.* 
 
 We might also show that the translations made by the 
 other leading reformers were not more unexceptionable. 
 Luther returned with interest the compliment which 
 Zuingle had paid to his Bible. *' QEcolampndius and the 
 theologians of Basle made another version; but, accord- 
 ing to the famous Beza, it was impious in many parts : 
 the divines of Basle said the same of Beza's version. In 
 fact, adds Dumoulin, another learned minister, *' he 
 changes in it the text of Scripture ;" and speaking of 
 Calvin's translation, he says that ** Calvin does violence 
 to the letter of the Gospel, which he has changed, making 
 also additions of his own. The ministers of Geneva be- 
 lieved themselves obliged to make an exact version ; but 
 James I, king of England, in his conference at Hampton 
 court, declared that, of all the versions, it was the most 
 wicked and unfaithful."! 
 
 It is very difficult for men who have their own peculiar 
 religious notions to subserve, to translate fairly the sacred 
 text. An example of this is found in the manifestly sec- 
 tarian rendering of the words baptism and baptize, by im- 
 tnersion and immerse^ in the New Testament translated by 
 George Cambell, James Mc'Knight and Philip Doddridge, 
 and now extensively used by the new sect — which is 
 
 * See Audin, p. 215, for many authorities on this subject. Of Lu- 
 ther's version Mr. Hallam says : " The translation of the Old and New 
 Testament by Luther is more renowned for the purity of its German 
 idiom, than for its adherence to the original text. Simon has charged 
 him with ignorance of Hebrew ; and when we consider how late he 
 came to the knowledge of that or the Greek language, and the multi- 
 plicity of his employments, it may be believed that his knowledge of 
 them was far from extensive." Hist. Literat. i, 20L And in a note 
 (ibid.) he says : " It has been as ill spoken of among Calvinists as by 
 the Catholics themselves. St. Aldegonde says it is farther from the 
 Hebrew than any he knows." See Gerdes Hist. Ref. Evang. iii, 60. 
 
 t Bishop Trevern. Amic. Discussion, i, 127, note. All these facts 
 and many more can be easily substantiated. 
 
238 d'aubigne's history reviewep. 
 
 greatly spreading through the western eountrj — called 
 reformers or CambelUtes. We &aj nothing here of the 
 gross perversion of the last verse of St. Matthew's Gospel;, 
 in this version. 
 
 The version of king James, on its first appeararKre irs 
 England, was openly decried by the Protestant ministers, 
 as abounding in gross perversions of the original text.* 
 The necessity of this new translation, was predicated on 
 the notorious corruptions of the sacred text by all the 
 Protestant versions in England during the previous seventy 
 years. The chief of these were; Tyndale's, Mathews/ 
 Cranmer's, and the bishops' Bible.t Here then is an open 
 avowal, that during all this time, when Protestantism wa& 
 in its palmiest days in England, it had not offered to the 
 people the pure word of God I 
 
 And, as we have just seen, king James' version did not 
 ranch mend the matter. It was however repeatedly cor- 
 rected : but even in its amended forms, as now used by 
 most English and American Protestants^, it still abounds 
 with grievous faults- Mr. Ward, in his Errata, has 
 pointed out a great number : though candor compels us to 
 avow, that this writer is not always judicious in his criti- 
 cism, and that he frecjuently insists too much on mere tri- 
 fles. Bishop Kenrick, in his Theology, proves by a re- 
 ference to the original text, as edited even by Protestants, 
 that the modern En-rlish version slill retains at least five 
 
 * After speaking rather di*paragino;Iy of the English style of king 
 James' version, Mr. Hallara very cautiously abstains from veritiiring an 
 opinion on its fidelity, " On the more important question, whether this 
 translation is entirely, or with very trifling exceptions, conformable to 
 the original text, it seems unfit to enter. It is one which is seldom 
 discussed with all the temper and freedom from oblique views which 
 the subject demands, and upon which, for this reason, it is not safe for 
 those who have not had leisure or means to examine for themselves, to 
 take upon trust the testimony of the learned." Hist. Literat. sup. cit. 
 ii, 59. This silence is ominous in a learned English Protestant. 
 
 I For an account of these see Hallam. — Hist. Lit. I, 201. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 239 
 
 or six grievous perversions of the text, in matters too, 
 aifecting doctrine.* 
 
 The English Dovvay version, which is in general use 
 among English and American Catholics, is a translation 
 from the Latin vulgate, which was rendered from the origi- 
 nal Hebrew and Greek by St. Jerome, towards the close 
 of the fourth century. Dating from a time preceding by 
 many hundred years (he religious prejudices which influ- 
 enced Christians for the last three hundred years, the vul- 
 gate is deservedly esteemed for its accuracy and impar- 
 tiality, even by intelligent Protestant writers. St. Jerome 
 had access to many valuable manuscripts which have since 
 perished. Since his time the Hebrew has undergone a 
 revolution by the introduction of the Massorctic points, 
 to supply the place of vowels, which were wanting in the 
 old Hebrew lanii-uaw. 
 
 The distinguished Protestant biblical critic, George 
 Cambell states these advantages of vSt. Jerome's position, 
 and fully admits their force. t He also says of his ver- 
 sion : *' The vulgate ma^'be pronounced on the whole a good 
 and faithful version."^ Another famous modern Protest- 
 ant writer on biblical studies, says of it: '* It is allowed 
 to be in general a faithful translation, and sometimes ex- 
 hibits the sense of Scripture with greater accuracy than 
 the more modern versions The Latin vulgate pre- 
 serves many true readings, where the modern Hebrew 
 copies are corrupted. "§ A v/riter, whose biblical ** Insti- 
 
 * Theologia DogmaUca, vol. 1, p. 427, seqq. Among these facts, the 
 most glciring are these: Matth. xix, 11th, "All men cannot receive this 
 •saying," for "receive not" — Greek, ;)(^cef.ojat : I Coi-inth. vii, 9. "If they 
 cannot contain," for do not contain— Gr. lyupciTivcvTcti ; I Cor. 'ix, 5. 
 " Have we not power to load about a sister, a wife," for a woman, a sis- 
 ter. Gr. uJ'i\<piiv yvvauu.; 1 Cor. xi, 27. — "Eat this bread a7id drink" 
 8cc., for or drink— Gr. i,, k,c. &,c. 
 
 t Dissert, torn. x. p. 354, Amer. edit, apud Bp. Kenrick. — Theol. 
 Dog. i, p. 424. 
 
 X Ibid. p. 358. apud eundem. 
 
 § Home's Introduction, vol. ii, part i, ch. v. § 1, p. 2S1, 202. Apud 
 Bp. Kenrick ibid. p. 423. 
 
240 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 tutes" are often used as a text book in this country, says : 
 "it is in general skilful and faithful, and often gives the 
 sense of Scripture better than modern versions."* 
 
 Thus Protestants did not at least, even according to 
 their own showing, make much of a reformation in the 
 Bible, when they departed from that ** faithful" transla- 
 tion, — the old Latin vulgate ; and gave us in its place their 
 many crude and grossly faulty versions of the Bible. But 
 did they succeed better in expounding, than they had in 
 translating the Bible ? They have at least been prolific 
 in this genre: they have given us almost as many inter- 
 pretations as they have heads. We could scarcely have 
 asked for more variety. 
 
 Nor is the work of improving on the previously ascer- 
 tained meanings of the Bible yet completed : almost every 
 day we hear of learned and intelligent preachers among 
 Protestants, striking new systems out of this good book — 
 they certainly are out of it. One,t by a new method cal- 
 culates to a nicety the very year and day when all pro- 
 phecy is to be fulfilled, and the world is to come to an 
 end: another^ pretending that all Protestant sects have 
 hitherto been in the dark as to the real meaning of the 
 Bible, proposes that all creeds and commentaries be cast 
 to the winds, and that every one hereafter explain it sim- 
 ply as it reads: that is, as he thinks it reads. This last 
 system, though it is based on the real Protestant principle 
 of private interpretation, to the exclusion of all church 
 authority, is one eminenly calculated to multiply sects, 
 and to render confusion worse confounded. 
 
 Let us see in conclusion, what has been the practical 
 operation of this principle of private interpretation, and 
 what the general influence of the reformation on biblical 
 studies in Germany, the first theatre of Protestantism. 
 Has it been salutary or injurious ? It requires but little 
 
 * Gerard Institutes of biblical criticism. § iv, p. 269, 270. Apud 
 eiindem ibid. 
 
 t JMiller. I Alexander Cambell. 
 
IiNFLUENCB OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 241 
 
 acquaintance with the present condition of German Pro- 
 testantism, to be able to pronounce on its character and 
 tendency. Rationalism is there in the ascendant. This 
 system, which is little better than downright Ueism, has 
 frittered away the very substance of Christianity. The 
 inspiration of the Bible itself, the integrity of its canon, 
 the truth of its numerous and clearly attested miracles, 
 the divinity and even the resurrection of Christ, and the 
 existence of grace, and of every thing supernatural in re- 
 ligion — have all fallen before the Juggernaut car of modern 
 German Protestant exegesis — or system of interpretation ! 
 The Rationalists of Germany have left nothing of Christi- 
 anity — not even its skeleton ! They boldly and unblush- 
 ingly proclaim their infidel principles, through the press, 
 from the professor's chair, and the pulpit. And the most 
 learned and distinguished among the present German Pro- 
 testant clergy, have openly embraced this system. Who- 
 ever doubts the entire accuracy of this picture of modern 
 German Protestantism, needs only open the works of 
 Semmler, Damon, Paul, Strauss, Eichorn, Michaelis, 
 15retschneider, Woltman, and others. 
 
 The following extract from the sermons of the Rev. Mr. 
 Rose, a divine of the church of England, and ** Christian 
 advocate of the university of Cambridge," gives a graphic 
 sketch of these German Rationalists. "They are bound 
 by no law, but their own fancies ; some are more and some 
 are less extravagant: but I do them no injustice after this 
 declaration in saying, that the general inclination and 
 tendency of their opinions (more or less forcibly acted on) 
 is this: — that in the New Testament, we shall find only 
 the opinions of Christ and the apostles adapted to the age 
 in which they lived, and not eternal truths; that Christ 
 himself had neither the design nor the power of teaching 
 any system which v/as to endure; that, when he taught 
 any enduring truth, as he occasionally did, it was with- 
 out being aware of its nature ; that the apostles understood 
 still less of real religion ; that the whole doctrine both of 
 21 
 
242 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Christ and the apostles, as it was directed to the Jews 
 alone, so it was gathered from no other source than the 
 Jewish philosophy; that Christ himself erred, and his 
 apostles spread his errors, and that consequently no one 
 of his doctrines is to be received on their authority ; but 
 that, without regard to the authority of the books of Scrip- 
 ture, and their asserted divine origin, each doctrine is to 
 be examined according to the principles of right reason, 
 before it is allowed to be divine." 
 
 We should be endless were we to attempt to give all 
 the extravagances into which these German Protestant 
 divines have indulged : yet we must give a fev/ of the most 
 glaring. Doctor Paul, in his Scripture Commentaries, 
 enters into a labored argument to prove that Christ was 
 not really dead, but that he had merely suffered a fainting 
 fit, from which he was recovered by the admission of fresh 
 air into his sepulchre. He moves heaven and earth to 
 prove that no instance is on record of a man dying on a 
 cross in three hours ! ! He indulges in similar absurdities 
 about the resurrection of Lazarus. 
 
 When Christ is said to have walked on the sea, it is no 
 miracle at all, says Doctor Paul : for the Greek word may 
 mean only that he walked hy the sea, or simply that he 
 swam: and St. Peter's having been on the point of drown- 
 ing, resulted merely from the circumstance that he was 
 not so expert a swimmer as Christ! ! Most of the cures 
 spoken of in the Gospel, the Rationalists explain by the 
 superior skill in medicine, which they have ascertained, 
 our Saviour learned during his infancy, while an exile in 
 Egypt; or they account for them, by Dr. Mesmer's newly 
 invented system of animal magnetism ! 
 
 According to them, St. John did not really write the 
 Gospel ascribed to him; and as for the other three Gos- 
 pels, they are a mere clumsy compilation from a previous 
 common record, the existence of which they have detected, 
 and which they assert was written in the Aramaic lan- 
 guage! ! This discovery, made first by the learned Mi- 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON THE BIBLE. 243 
 
 chaellis, was improved on by Berthold and others, who 
 maintained, that not only the Gospels, but the Epistles of 
 St. Paul and the other Epistles also, are mere faulty trans- 
 lations from the original Aramaic!! Thus, "instead of 
 the good old-fashioned notion, that the New Testament is 
 a collection of works composed by the persons whose 
 names they bear, and who wrote under the immediate in- 
 spiration of the Holy Ghost, we must now believe that the 
 original narrator of the Gospel History was an unknown 
 person ; and that the Gospels and Epistles are merely 
 translations made by some persons whose names are lost, 
 and who betray themselves by several blunders in the 
 work which they undertook."* At least all these expla- 
 nations are riatural enough : and those who maintain them 
 accordingly style themselves naturalistSy as well as Ra- 
 tionalists. 
 
 Such then are the effects — present and palpable — of the 
 reformation on the biblical literature of Germany! The 
 reformation began by vaunting its zeal for the Bible: and 
 it has ended, in the very place of its birth, by rejecting the 
 Bible, and by blaspheming Christ and his religion ! 
 
 Its results have not been more favorable to Christianity 
 in Geneva, another centre of the reformation, and another 
 radiating point of the new Gospel. Hear what the Pro- 
 testant writer Grenus says on this subject. "The minis- 
 ters of Geneva have already passed the unchangeable bar- 
 rier. They have held out the hand of fellowship to deists 
 and to the enemies of the faith. They even blush to make 
 mention, in their catechisms, of original sin, without which 
 the incarnation of the Eternal Word is no longer neces- 
 sary." *' When asked," says Rousseau, "if Jesus Christ 
 is God, they do not dare to answer. When asked, what 
 
 mysteries they admit, tliey still do not dare to answer 
 
 A philosopher casts on them a rapid glance, and penetrates 
 
 * British Critic, July, 1828, See also Dr. Pusey's "Historical In- 
 quiry;" and also Moore's "Travels of an Irish Gentleman," &c. p. 
 186, seqq., where this whole subject is ably and fully elucidated. 
 
244 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 them at once — he sees they are Arians, Socinians."* He 
 wrote from personal observation, made during a residence 
 in Geneva. Recent travellers have confirmed his state- 
 ment. 
 
 The following epigram expresses pretty accurately the 
 tonfession of faith adopted by modern German Protestants, 
 
 •'We now reject eacli m)'stie creeil, 
 To common sense a scandal; 
 We're more enlt<ijhtened — yes indeed, 
 Tlie devil holds the candle!" 
 
 If Luther may be credited, (he old gentleman — Luther 
 called him a genlleman — -"held the candle" at the birth; 
 and we see no reason why he should not hold it at the 
 funeral of German Protestantism ! 
 
 * "Lottres de la MontasTRe/* 
 
JPart IV. 
 
 INFLUENCE 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REFORMATION ON SOCIETY. 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 
 
 Stating the question — Two aspects — Professions — M. D'Aubign^'s 
 theory — " Combating" ad libiium — Diversities and sects — Inconsist- 
 ency — Early Protestant intolerance — The mother and her recreant 
 daughter — Facts on persecution of each other by early Protestants — 
 Of Karlstadt — Luther- the cause of it— Persecution of Anabaptists — 
 Synod at Hamburg — Luther's letter — Zuingle — The drowned Jew — 
 Calvinistic intolerance — Persecution of Catholics — Diet of Spires 
 — Name of Protestant — A stubborn truth — Strange casuistry — Con- 
 vention at Smalkalde — Inquisition and St. Bartholomew's day — The 
 Michelade, a set-ofF — Union of church and state — A bear's embrace — 
 Hallam's testimony — Parallel between Catholic and Protestant coun- 
 tries. 
 
 We have seen what was the influence of the boasted 
 reformation on religion : we are now to examine how it 
 affected the interests of this world. Among these, liberty 
 is the one which is perhaps dearest to the human heart. 
 The very name excites a thrill, and stirs the deepest feel- 
 ings of the soul. Did the reformation promote liberty ? 
 Did it break the fetters of political bondage, and did it 
 favor freedom of conscience ? Were those who came 
 within the range of its influence rendered more free, 
 either religious! j or politically, than they had been before? 
 21* 
 
246 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 The question presents two aspects ; and we begin with 
 that which is religious, both because this involves higher 
 interests, and because it forms the natural point of transi- 
 tion from the merely religious and spiritual to the merely 
 pecular and temporal influence of the reformation. Re- 
 ligious liberty guarantees to every man the right to wor- 
 ship God according to the dictates of his conscience, 
 without thereby incurring any civil penalties or disabili- 
 ties whatever. Did tlie reformation secure this ? We 
 shall see. A summary collection of the facts of history 
 bearing on the subject will settle the question. 
 
 The reformation indeed boasted much on this subject. 
 It professed to free n^ankind from the degrading yoke 
 of the papacy, and to restore to them their Christian lib- 
 erty. Men v/ere told that they who professed the old re- 
 ligion were groaning under a worse tlian Babylonian cap- 
 tivity, and that those wiio would rally under the banner 
 of reform would be brought back into the land of Israel, 
 there to worship in freedom and in peace near the Sion of 
 God. The pope was Antichrist : the church was ruth- 
 lessly trampled under foot by his ministers ; the liberties 
 of the world were crushed. And mankind were invited 
 to arise in their strength, to break their chains, and to be 
 free ! The restraining influence of church authority was 
 ta be spurned as wliolly incompatible with freedom, and 
 each one was to be guided solely by his own private judg- 
 ment in matters of religion. 
 
 The Germans were told of the grievances they had to 
 endure in ages past from the court of Rome. Angry pas- 
 sions, once excited by long forgotten controversies be- 
 tween the Germanic empire and the Roman pontiffs, were 
 called up again from the abyss in which they had slum- 
 bered for centuries; and the Germans were implored, in 
 the talismanic name of liberty, to break off all connection 
 with Rome for ever. In case they would do this, the 
 reformation promised that they should realize the bright- 
 est visions of freedom. 
 
INFLUENCB OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 247 
 
 Such was tlie specious theory of the reformation ; such 
 the boasting speculation of Protestant writers generally. 
 M. Guizot, in his Lectures on Civilization in Modern 
 Europe, asserts that through the reformation was brought 
 about ** the emancipation of the human mind." Accord- 
 ing to M. D'Aubigne, the Catholic church had utterly 
 destroyed all human liberty. *' But as a besieging army 
 day by day contracts its lines, compelling the garrison to 
 confine their movements within the narrow enclosure of 
 the fortress, and at last obliging it to surrender at discre- 
 tion, just so the liierarchy, from age to age, and almost 
 from year to year, has gone on restricting the liberty 
 allowed for a time to the human mind, until at last, by 
 successive encroachments, there remained no liberty at 
 all. That which was to be believed, loved, or done, was 
 regulated and decreed in the courts of the Roman chan- 
 cery. The faithful were relieved from the trouble of ex- 
 amining, reflecting, and combating ; all they had to do 
 was to repeat the formularies that had been taught them."* 
 
 This is all, to say the least, an absurd exaggeration, a 
 grotesque romance, not even borrowed from real life. 
 What! were men tiien, for fifteen hundred years, mere 
 automatons ? Did the obedience to the decisions of the 
 church stifle all rational liberty ? Had not Christ en- 
 joined this obedience on all under penalty of being ranked 
 with heathens and publicans ?t Did Christ and the apos- 
 tles leave it free to men to decide, by their private judg- 
 ment, whether they would receive or reject the doctrines 
 they taught ? And in enjoining obedience on all, with 
 the menace of eternal damnation to him that would not 
 believe,:}: did they crush all liberty? Might not our his- 
 torian also taunt their practice with being inimical to free- 
 dom, on the ground that it " relieved the faithful from the 
 trouble of examininjr, reflectino;, and combating.^" 
 
 In what consists the ditference between the authorita- 
 
 * D'Anbpgne, iii, 237. f Matth. xviii. X Markxvi. 
 
248 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 tive teaching of the first body of Christ's ministers, the 
 apostles and that of the body of pastors who, by divine 
 commission, succeeded them in the office of preaching, 
 teaching, and baptizing, and who, in the discharge of 
 these sacred duties, were promised the divine assistance 
 *'aU days, even to the consummation of the world?"* 
 And if the latter was opposed to rational liberty, why 
 was not the former ? Besides, we learn, for the first 
 time, that the Rom.an chancery decided on articles of 
 faith : we had always thought that this was the exclusive 
 province of general councils, and, when these were not 
 in session, of Roman pontiffs with the acquiescence of the 
 body of bishops dispersed over the world. We had also 
 thought that even these did not always decide on contro- 
 verted points, but only in cases in which the teaching of 
 revelation was clear and explicit ; and that, in other mat- 
 ters, they wisely allowed a reasonable latitude of opinion. 
 But M. D'Aubigne would have us believe that Roman 
 Catholics are bound hand and foot, body and soul, and 
 that they are not allowed even to reflect ! 
 
 They were certainly not allowed to "combat:" this 
 was the special privilege of the reformed party. The old 
 church wisely ordained that all the " combating" should 
 take place, if at all, without her pale : she would permit 
 no wrangling nor sects within her bosom. It is indeed 
 curious to observe how M. D'Aubigne boasts of this privi- 
 lege of wrangling among discordant sects as the very 
 quintessence of Christian liberty ! This precious liberty 
 could not be enjoyed so long as a recognition of the prin- 
 ciple of church authority held the religious world in uni- 
 ty; the reformers therefore determined to burst this bond- 
 age of union, and to assert their freedom to " combat" ad 
 libitum ! 
 
 *'The reformation," he says, *'in restoring liberty to 
 the church, must therefore restore to it its orig-inal diver- 
 
 * Matth. xxviii. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 249 
 
 sity (I), and people it with families united by the great 
 features of resemblance derived from their common head, 
 but varying in secondary features, and reminding us of 
 the varieties inherent in human nature. Perhaps it might 
 have been desirable that this diversity should have been 
 allowed to subsist in the universal church without leadins: 
 to sectarian divisions; and yet we must remember that 
 sects are only the expression of this diversity."* Humil- 
 iating avowal ! Sects are therefore as essential features 
 in Protestantism, as are the "diversities'' of whicii they 
 are but the expression ! And all this is essential to that 
 Chiistian liberty for which the Avorld is indebted to the 
 *' glorious reformation !" St. Paul, a competent authori- 
 ty, reckons sects and dissensions with murders and drunk- 
 enness ; and says of all of them that " they who do such 
 things shall not obtain the kingdom of God."t Thus, 
 according to our historian, an essential feature of Chris- 
 tian liberty, is an essential bar to entrance into the king- 
 dom of heaven ! The reformation is welcome to all the 
 merit of having originated such a system of liberty ! As 
 well might its panegyrist have claimed for it, as essential 
 to the liberty which it brought into the world, a license 
 for murders and drunkenness. 
 
 A little fiirther on, he thus glories in the shame of Pro- 
 testantism. *' True it is, that human passion found an 
 entrance into these discussions [among Protestant sects), 
 but while deploring such minglingsof evil, Protestantism, 
 far from seeking to disguise the diversity, publishes and 
 proclaims it. Its path to unity is indeed long and difficult, 
 but the unity it proposes is real.^^t Real in what ? Is 
 there one common ground of unity which Protestantism 
 has not recklessly trodden down and rendered desolate ? 
 Truly its path to unity *' has been long and difficult." Dur- 
 ing three luindred years, this tortuous path has been seen 
 winding in more than a hundred different directions, and 
 it has not yet led the weary wanderer to unity ! 
 
 * Ibid.p. 2:]S. t Gallatians V, 20, 21. | Ibid. p. 238. 
 
250 d'aubione's history reviewed. 
 
 It has done precisely the contrary. It is a strange path 
 to unity, truly, wliich has always led to disunion. "Di- 
 versities and sects" have multiplied, and grown with the 
 growth of Protestantism : they are avowedly its " essen- 
 tial features." There is scarcely one saving truth of reve- 
 lation which Protestantism, in its ever downward career, 
 has not frittered av/ay. And yet we are to be told, that 
 *' the unity which it proposed was real." If such was the 
 case, it certainly never carried into effect what it had 
 proposed. 
 
 The only principle of unity possible among Protestants, 
 is an agreement to disagree. But we are prepared to 
 prove, that they were not disposed to meet even on this 
 slippery ground of union. One would have thought, that 
 when the reformation emancipated its disciples from the 
 duty of obedience to Rome, and proclaimed the principle of 
 private judgment as the broad basis — the magna charta — 
 of the new system of Christian liberty, that it would at 
 least have guaranteed to them freedom of thought and 
 judgment in matters of religion. Surely after having in- 
 dignantly rejected the principle of church authority, as 
 incompatible with liberty, Protestantism would not attempt 
 to enthrone again this self same principle, and to impose 
 it as an obligation on its own followers. 
 
 Yet this course, absurd and inconsistent as it was on 
 the very face of it, was the very one adopted, without an 
 exception, by the numerous sects to which the reformation 
 gave birth ! If there be any truth in history, the reformers 
 themselves were the most intolerant of men, not only 
 towards the Catholic church, but towards each other. 
 They could not brook dissent from the crude notions on 
 religion which they had broached. Men might protest 
 against the decisions of the Catholic church; but wo to 
 them, if, following their own private judgment, they dared 
 protest against the self-constituted authority of the new- 
 fangled Protestant sects. We have already given many 
 proofs of this : but we here beg leave to submit the follow- 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 251 
 
 ing additional facts. And we will allege little but Pro- 
 testant authority, and the testimony of the reformers 
 themselves. 
 
 Mr. Roscoe, whose pen has so glowingly depicted the 
 bright literary age of Leo X, justly censures *' the severity 
 with which Luther treated those, who unfortunately hap- 
 pened to believe too much on the one hand, or too little 
 on the other, and could not walk steadily on the hair- 
 breadth line which he had presented." He also makes 
 this appropriate remark on the same feature of inconsis- 
 tency : "whilst Luther was engaged in his opposition to 
 the church of Rome, he asserted the right of private judg- 
 ment with the confidence and courage of a martyr. But no 
 sooner had he freed his followers from the chains of papal 
 domination, than he forged others in many respects equally 
 intolerable ; and it was the employment of his latter years, 
 to counteract the beneficial effects produced by his former 
 labors."* 
 
 The tyrannical and intolerant character of Luther, the 
 father of the reformation, is in fact admitted by all can- 
 did Protestants. We have already seen the testimony 
 which his most favored disciple, Melancthon, bears to his 
 brutal conduct even towards himself, whenever he timidly 
 ventured to differ from him in opinion. The vile state of 
 bondage in which the fierce reformer held his meek disci- 
 ple is thus graphically painted in a confidential letter of 
 Melancthon to his friend Camerarius: ** I am in a state of 
 servitude, as if I were in the cave of the Cyclops: and 
 often do I think of making my escape."! Even Dr. 
 Sturges, a most inveterate enemy of Rome, grants that 
 "Luther was, in his manners and writings, coarse, pre- 
 suming, and impetuous.":!: 
 
 The other reformers were little better than Luther in 
 regard to charity and toleration. The Protestant bishop 
 
 * "Life and Pontificate of Leo X," 4 vols. 8vo. 
 I Epist. ad Camerarium. 
 X Reflections on Popci y. 
 
253 d'aubicne's history reviewed. 
 
 Warburton, ^Ives the following character of all of them. 
 "The other reformers, such as Luther, Calvin, and their 
 followers, understood so little in what true Christianity 
 consisted, that thej carried with them into the reformed 
 churches, that very spirit of persecution (!) which had 
 driven them from the church of Rome."* As we shall 
 soon see, the recreant daughters of Rome far outstripped 
 their mother in intolerance. We have already proved, that 
 it was not persecution, but other causes altogether, which 
 drove them from Rome, and consummated their schism. 
 Rome had indeed been inflexible on the subject of doc- 
 trines, upon which she could allow no compromise ; but 
 she proceeded towards the reformers with so much mild- 
 ness and moderation, as to have secured the admiration of 
 even M. D'Aubigne, whose testimony on the subject we 
 have already given. So far was she from persecuting them, 
 that many Catholic writers have blamed as excessive and 
 injudicious, the mildness of her pontiffs, and especially of 
 Leo X, and Adrian VL 
 
 From an early period of its history, the reformation was 
 disgraced with the crime of persecution for conscience' 
 sake. The oldest branch of it, the Lutheran, not only 
 fiercely denounced, and even sometimes excluded from 
 salvation, the reformed or Calvinistic branch; but it also 
 endeavored to check by violence the fierce discord which 
 rao-ed within its own bosom. A learned Lutheran profes- 
 sor, Dr. Fecht, gives it as the opinion of his sect, '* that 
 all but Lutherans, and certainly all the reformed Calvin- 
 ists were excluded from salvation.'-f The Lutheran 
 Strigel was imprisoned for three years by his brother reli- 
 gionists, for maintaining that man was not merely passive 
 in the work of his conversion. Hardenburg was banished 
 from Saxony for having been guilty of some leaning to- 
 wards the Calvinistic doctrines on the eucharist. Shortly 
 
 * Notes on Pope's Essay on Criticism. 
 
 t See Dr. Pusey's " Historical Inquiry," sup. cit. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 253 
 
 after Luther's death, the Lutherans were divided into 
 two great sects, the ultra Lutherans and the Melanctho- 
 nians, who mutually denounced each other, and even re- 
 fused to unite in the rites of communion and burial. So 
 far was the intolerance sjrowing out of this controversy 
 carried, that Peucer, Melancthon's son-in-law, was impri- 
 soned for ten years, for having espoused the party of his 
 fiither-in-law : and Cracau, another Lutheran, was plied 
 with the torture for a similar offence ! Besides these two 
 great Lutheran sects, there were also the Flaccianists and 
 the Strigelians — the Osiandrians and the Stancarians — 
 and many others, who persecuted each other with relent- 
 less fury. Lutheranism was thus, from its very birth, a 
 prey to the fiercest dissensions. Verily, they claimed 
 and exercised the liberty of " combating," so essential, 
 according to M. D'Aubigne, to the Protestant theory of 
 religious liberty.* 
 
 The first who dared question the infallibility of Luther 
 was the first to feel the heavy weight of his intolerant 
 vengeance. Andrew Bodenstein, more generally known 
 by the name of Karlstadt, could not agree with him as to 
 the lawfulness of images, on the real presence, on infant 
 baptism, and on some other topics. He had reached dif- 
 ferent conclusions, by following his own private judgment 
 in expounding the Scriptures. During Luther's absence 
 from Wittemberg, he had sought to make proselytes to his 
 new opinions in the very citadel of the reformation. Lu- 
 ther caused him to be driven from Wittemberg, and hunted 
 him down with implacable resentment, driving him from 
 city to city of Germany; till at last the unfortunate vic- 
 tim of his intolerance expired a miserable outcast at Basle 
 in Switzerland. 
 
 When Karlstadt first left Wittemberg, he fled to Orla- 
 munde, a city of Saxony, in which he succeeded by in- 
 
 * For more on this subject, see the authorities quoted by Moore. — 
 "Travels of an Irish Gentleman," p. 172, seqq., and 192, seqq. 
 
 22 
 
254 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 trigue in obtaining the place of pastor. Luther followed 
 him thither; and finding, as we have already seen, that he 
 could not succeed in having him ejected from the city by 
 popular clamor, he prevailed on his powerful patron, the 
 Elector of Saxony, to banish him from Saxony. Karlstadt 
 received the sentence of his condemnation with a heavy 
 heart : ** he looked on Luther as the author of his disgrace, 
 and filled Germany with his complaints and lamentations. 
 He wrote a farewell letter to his friends at Orlamunde. 
 The bells were tolled, and the letter read in the presence 
 of the sorrowing church. It was signed : ' Andrew Bo- 
 denstein, expelled by Luther, unconvicted, and without 
 even a hearing.'"* 
 
 It is in vain for M. D'Aubigne, whose words we have 
 just cited, to pretend that this persecution of Karlstadt 
 was not brought about by Luther.t The testimony of 
 Karlstadt, and of all Germany, to the sympathy of which 
 he appealed, as well as the voice of all history, is against 
 this hypothesis. So certain was it, that he owed his suf- 
 ferings to the influence of Luther with the Elector of 
 Saxony, that, when wearied of his wanderings from city 
 to city, he sought repose for his gray hairs in his native 
 Saxony, he had only to invoke the sympathy of Luther. 
 The sternness of the Saxon monk relented : he permitted 
 Karlstadt to return to the neighborhood of Wittemberg; 
 but only on condition that he should retract his errors, 
 and cease to preach. | Karlstadt joyfully accepted the 
 humiliating conditions: he resided for some time *' in a 
 kind of domestic exile at Remberg and Bergwitz — two 
 small villages, whence he could just see the steeples of Wit- 
 temberg. "§ But he soon forgot his promise : he abandoned 
 the agricultural pursuits in which he had been engaged, 
 
 * D'Aubigne iii, 170. He cites Luther's Epist. ii, 558, edit, de Wette. 
 t Ibid. 
 
 X Gustavus Pfizer — ^'Martin Lutlier's Leiben," UJenberg — and Ad. 
 Menzel — "Neuere Geschichtc der Deutchen'' 1, 2G9. 
 § Audin, p. 419. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. Q55 
 
 and, Bible in hand, sought again to disseminate his doc- 
 trines. Luther's spirit of intolerance was again aroused; 
 and again was Karlstadt banished, never more to return 
 to Wittemberg ! 
 
 There were two other Lutheran theologians who shared 
 his fate: Krautwald and Schwenkfeld, who were likewise 
 forced to quit Saxonj for having rebelled against the au- 
 thority of the Saxon monk. In a letter to these compan- 
 ions in misfortune, Karlstadt draws a lively picture of the 
 distress to wliich he had been reduced by the intolerance 
 of Luther: " I shall soon be forced," says he, "to sell 
 all, in order to support myself — my clothes, my delf, all 
 my furniture. No one takes pity on me; and I fear that 
 both I and my child shall perish with hunger."* He also 
 addressed a long letter of complaint against Luther, to 
 Briick, the Chancellor of Saxony :t but it was all unavail- 
 ing: Luther was omnipotent at court, and Karlstadt 
 perished in exile. Why does M. D'Aubigne conceal all 
 these important facts ? We are not astonished at it : his 
 whole history is of the same unfair and partial character 
 throughout. In fact, our chief object in writing this re- 
 view is to supply his manifold omissions. 
 
 The cruel persecutions of the Anabaptists is another 
 dark page in the history of the reformation. To be sure, 
 these sectarists taught many things subversive of all social 
 order: such as polygamy and disobedience to all consti- 
 tuted authority. But their chief crimes, in the eyes of 
 Luther and the reformers, were their rejection of Luther's 
 authority, their pretensions to supernatural lights, and 
 their protest against infant baptism, and baptism by any 
 other mode than immersion. A little before the meeting 
 of the Diet at Augsburg in 15S4, Rothmann, one of their 
 principal prophets, had openly announced his principles 
 in the streets of the city. The people were captivated by 
 his bold eloquence, aud seduced by the novelty of his doc- 
 
 ♦ Apud Audin, p. 420. t l^id. 
 
256 
 
 trines. In vain did the preachers of reform attempt to 
 argue with this enthusiast, who claimed immediate inspi- 
 ration from heaven. The people cried out, in triumph ; 
 *' answer Rothmann: Catholics, Lutherans, Zuinglians — 
 Tou are all in the way of perdition. The only path to 
 heaven is that pointed out by our master: whoever walks 
 not in it, will be involved in eternal darkness."* 
 
 But the Lutherans did not think proper to answer his 
 arguments. Both he and the Zuinglians had prepared a 
 confession of faith to be presented to the Diet. Luther 
 and Melancthon succeeded by their influence in prevent- 
 ino; them from beino- even heard at the Diet. The former 
 wrote to the latter from Coburg in a tone of triumph : "that 
 all was decided ; that the doctrine of Zuingle and of 
 Rothmann was diabolical ; and that these sowers of discord, 
 these ravenous wolves, who devastated the fold of Christ, 
 should be banished."! At that same Diet, the Lutherans 
 Fought for themselves, not only liberty of conscience, but 
 churches to worship in, and all the privileges of citizen- 
 ship; and still they would not allow their adversaries even 
 to be heard ! And yet, as M. Audin well remarks, " Roth- 
 mann at Augsburg, was precisely wliat Luther had been 
 at Worms''^ 
 
 The Lutherans carried out their intolerant principles 
 in regard to the Anabaptists. On the 7th of August, 1536, 
 a synod was convened at Hamburg, to which deputies 
 were sent by all the cities who had separated from Rome. 
 The chief object of the meeting was to devise means for 
 exterminating the Anabaptists. Not one voice was raised 
 in their favor. Even Melancthon, whom M. Audin styles 
 ** the Fenelon of the reformation," voted for inflicting the 
 punishment of death on every Anabaptist v. ho would re- 
 main obstinate in his errors, or would dare return from 
 
 * See Catrou — Histoire de PAnabaptisme, and Audin, p. 4C9. 
 t Apiid Audin, Ibid. See the authorities he quotes. Ibid, 
 t P. 4C0. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 257 
 
 the place of banishment to which the magistrates might 
 transport him. Fenelon would not have been thus intol- 
 erant. "The ministers of Ulm demanded that heresy 
 should be extinguished by fire and sword. Those of Augs- 
 burg said : ' if we have not yet sent any Anabaptist to the 
 gibbet, we have at least branded their cheeks with red 
 iron.' Those of Tubingen cried out * mercy for the poor 
 Anabaptists, who are seduced by their leaders; but death 
 to the ministers of this sect. The chancellor showed 
 himself much more tolerant: he wished that the Anabap- 
 tists should be imprisoned, where by dint of hard usage, 
 they might be converted."* 
 
 From the Synod emanated a decree, from which we will 
 present the following extract, as a specimen of Lutheran 
 intolerance officially proclaimed. *' Whoever rejects in- 
 fant baptism — whoever transgresses the orders of the 
 magistrates — whoever preaches against taxes — whoever 
 teaches the community of goods — whoever usurps the 
 priesthood — whoever holds unlawful assemblies — whoever 
 sins against faith — shall he punished ivith death. ... As 
 for the simple people who have not preached, or adminis- 
 tered baptism, but who were seduced to permit themselves 
 to frequent the assemblies of the heretics, if they do not 
 wish to renounce Anabaptism, they shall be scourged, 
 punished with perpetual exile, and even with death, if they 
 return three times to the place whence they have been ex- 
 pelled."! 
 
 Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, professed to have some 
 scruples of conscience (!) on the severity of this decree: he 
 consulted Luther on the subject. The monk answered 
 him in a letter dated from VVittemberg, the Monday after 
 Pentecost of the same year. He openly defends persecu- 
 tion on Scriptural grounds : " whoever denies the doctrines 
 
 * Catrou ut supra 11 v. 1, p, 224, seqq., and Audin, p. 464. 
 t Ibid. See also Gastius, p. 363, seqq. Menzel ut supra, and Me- 
 shovius, 1. V, cap. xv, xviii, seqq., &,c. 
 22* 
 
258 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 of our faith — aje, even one article vvliich rests on the 
 Scripture, or the authority of the universal teaching of the 
 church (!), must be punished severely. He must be treated 
 not only as a heretic, but also as a blasphemer of the holy 
 name of God. It is not necessary to lose time in disputes 
 with such people: they are to be condemned as impious 
 blasphemers." Towards the close of his letter, speaking 
 of a false teacher, he says : "drive him away, as an apostle 
 of hell : and if he does not flee, deliver him up as a sedi- 
 tious man to the executioner."* The Landgrave's scruples 
 were quieted, and Luther's advice was acted on. 
 
 Such then were the tender mercies of the reformation ! 
 Such the notions of the reformers on religiousiiberty ! How 
 diflferent from those specious principles of universal liberty 
 by which they had allured multitudes to their standard ! 
 
 The other reformers were not a whit better than Luther 
 in regard to toleration. M. D'Aubigne himself says, that 
 at Zurich fourteen men and seven women " were impri- 
 soned on an allowance of bread and water in the heretics' 
 tower. "t True, he says, that this was done "in spite of 
 Zuingle's entreaties ;"± but he gives no authority what- 
 ever for this statement. We know that Zuingle was 
 almost omnipotent at Zurich, which was to Switzerland, 
 what Wittemberg was to Germany. Had he reciUij wished 
 it, he might surely have prevented this cruelty. He had 
 indeed complained of Luther's intolerance, when he was 
 the victim of it. In a German work published at Zurich 
 in 1526, he had used this language in regard to the course 
 pursued by Luther and his party : "see then, how these 
 men, who owe all to the Word, would wish now to close 
 the mouths of their opponents, who are at the same time 
 their fellow Christians. They cry out that we are here- 
 tics, and that we should not be listened to. They pro- 
 scribe our books, and denounce us to the magistrates."§ 
 
 * Lulh. Comment, in Psal. 71. 0pp. Jenas torn, v, p. 147. Apud 
 Audin, p. 465. 
 
 t ni, 307. X Ibid. ^ Apud Audin, p. 411. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELICTOUS LIBERTY. 259 
 
 But when his star culminated, he was as fierce a bigot, 
 and as intolerant a tyrant as those brother reformers whom 
 he thus denounced. Did lie not die on tlie field of battle, 
 fighting for his peculiar ideas of reform ? And did not 
 the Protestants of Geneva throw the poor Anabaptists 
 into the Rhine, enclosed in sacks, and jeer them at the 
 same time by the inhuman taunt, " that they were merely 
 baptizing tliem by their own favorite method of im- 
 mersion."* 
 
 This reminds us of a curious passage in the history of 
 early Lutheranism, which we will here give on the autho- 
 rity of Florimond Remond, almost a cotemporary histo- 
 rian.! Franz Yon Sickengen, the chief actor in the 
 scene we are about to present, was a disciple of Luther 
 who had dedicated to him his treatise on confession, 
 written at tiie Wartburg, in 1521. "One day Franz 
 was going from Frankfort to Mayence sur le Meine. A 
 Jew entered the boat with whom Franz began to dispute. 
 As he was not able to convince him by argument, he took 
 him by the middle of the body, and threw him into tlie 
 river; for Franz was a man of extraordinary strength. 
 Holding his victim suspended over the water by the hair, 
 tlie following dialogue took place: 'Acknowledge Jesus 
 Christ, or I will drown you.' 'I acknowledge him to 
 be my Saviour: O dear master, do not harm me!' * Say 
 that you wish to be baptized.' * Yes, in the name of the 
 Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.' Then 
 Franz took some water, which he poured on the head of 
 the Jew, while at the same time he pronounced the sacra- 
 mental words : ' I baptize thee in the name of the Father, 
 and of the S«>n, and of the Holy Ghost.' The poor Isra- 
 elite nov/ made a great effort to rise : he clung to the boat, 
 
 * For this, and for many similar facts, see the authorities quoted by 
 the Rev. John Hughes— now the distinguished bishop of New-York— 
 in his oral discussion with Rev. Mr. Breckenridge, who did not answer 
 them. We intend to give chiefly those facts which did not fall within 
 the scope of that discussion. 
 
 t " Huttenus delarvatus," p. 405. Apud Audin, p. 200. 
 
260 d'aubigxe's history reviewed. 
 
 believins: that the time of his deliverance had arrived. The 
 knight however struck him on the head with his guantlet, 
 saying, ' go to heaven, there is one soul more for paradise. 
 Were I to draw the wretch out of the water, he would 
 deny Christ, and go to the devil.' Luther on this occa- 
 sion praised the zeal of Franz ! 
 
 The Calvinists were at least equally intolerant with the 
 Lutherans. When the former gained the ascendency in a 
 portion of Germany in which the latter had before been 
 predominant, they roused up the people against the sons 
 of the devil — which is the name they gave the Lutherans. 
 They drove them from their posts, of which they took 
 possession. * What a melancholy thing ! More than a 
 thousand Lutheran ministers were proscribed, ivith their 
 wives and children, and reduced to beg the bread of cha- 
 rity,' says Olearius.* Calvinism could not tolerate Lu- 
 theranism. It had appealed to prince Casimir, and ex- 
 pressed its petition in two Latin verses, in which the 
 prince was left to choose, in extinguishing the rival creed, 
 between the sword, the wheel, water, the rope, or fire ! 
 
 O Casimire potens, servos expelle Lutheri : 
 Ense, rota, ponto, funibus, igne neca."t 
 
 So inflexible were the early reformers and their disci- 
 ples on the subject of persecution, that even the emperor 
 of Germany and the authority of the whole Germanic 
 body could not restrain their bitter intolerance against all 
 who had ventured to differ from their ideas of reform. 
 Protestants were resolved to persecute each other, though 
 a Catholic power — the highest in the empire — interposed 
 and commanded peace. The diet of Nuremberg, in 1532, 
 had proclaimed a religious amnesty throughout Germany. 
 It wished to pour oil on the boiling waves of controversy, 
 
 * D. J. Olearius— "In den mehr als 200 Irrthiimer der Calvinisten," 
 t Salzer — " In seinem Lutherischera Gegen-Bericht" — Art. iv, p. 
 385. Schlosser — " In dcr wahrheit," 8cc. ch. vi, p. 73. Hist., Aug. Con- 
 fess, fol. 20G, 207, 274, 275. Apud Audin, p. 330. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 261 
 
 in order to still them: but the waves would not be qui- 
 eted. The heads of the reformed party met at Cadan in 
 the following year, and resolved to exclude from the 
 peace published by the diet the Sacramentarians, the Ana- 
 baptists, and other heterodox (7ioi Lutheran) sects, whom 
 they declared they would not tolerate nor suffer to remain 
 in the country.* 
 
 If Protestants thus ruthlessly persecuted each other, 
 we might naturally suppose that they were not more in- 
 dulgent towards the Catholics. We have already proved 
 that the reformation was mainly indebted for its suc- 
 cess to systematic persecution of the Catholic church. 
 Wherever it made its appearance its progress was marked 
 by deeds of violence. Like a tornado, it swept every 
 thing before it ; and you might as easily trace its course 
 by the ruins it left behind. Churches broken open and 
 desecrated ; altars stripped of their ornaments or pulled 
 down ; paintings and statues destroyed ; the monasteries 
 entered by mobs and pillaged of their effects; Catholic 
 priests and monks openly insulted and maltreated; the 
 property of the churches and monasteries seized on by 
 violence, after having been often pillaged and plundered : 
 these were some of the ruins which the reformation 
 caused — these the sad trophies which it erected to cele- 
 brate its triumphs over the Catholic religion ! 
 
 In most places the Catholic worsliip was abolished, 
 either by open violence, or by the high-handed tyranny of 
 the secular princes who had embraced the reform. In 
 vain did Luther in his cooler moments protest against 
 these deeds of violence ; he himself, as we have seen, had 
 evoked the storm, and he could not calm it; probably he 
 did not ever seriously wish this, for generally his language 
 to Ids followers had breathed nothing but violence. This 
 we have already shown. 
 
 It is a/emarkable fact, as certain as it is striking, that 
 
 •* See Robelot— Influence de la Reformation de Luther, p. 71. 
 
262 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 the reformers derived their very name of Protestants from 
 this same unquenchable spirit of intolerance! The diet 
 of Spires in 1529 had made an effort to put a stop to the 
 deeds of violence bj which the reformation had desolated 
 Germany. It had published a decree, which, among other 
 things of less importance, enjoined that the decree of the 
 diet of Worms in 1521 should be observed in those places 
 where it had been already received ; that where it had not 
 been received, and the ancient religion had been changed 
 in despite of it, things sliould continue in statu quo till 
 the meeting of a general council, which was to decide on 
 the matters in controversy ; that the celebration of the 
 holy sacrifice of the mass should be every where free ; 
 and that the princes of the empire should mutually ob- 
 serve peace, and should not molest each other on the 
 score of religion.* 
 
 In other words, the diet decreed that both Catholics 
 and the reformed party should enjoy freedom of worship, 
 and that neither should molest the other. Had the re- 
 formers been really the advocates of religious liberty, 
 the}' could have asked no more. But they desired some- 
 thing else : their notions of Christian liberty were more 
 enlarged. They desired freedom to pull down the Cath- 
 olic altars, and to abolish the Catholic worship wherever 
 they had the power to do so. Hence, they met imme- 
 diately after the diet, and protested against its most equi- 
 table decree as "contrary to the truth of the gospel. "t 
 And hence their name of Protestants: a name which 
 stamped on their foreheads a brand of intolerance, of 
 which they were not ashamed ! 
 
 A volume might be filled with undoubted facts proving 
 the intolerant spirit of the early Protestants of the va- 
 rious nations of Europe against the Catholics. Wherever 
 they had the power, they persecuted by civil disabilities 
 
 * See Sleidan — ad annum 1529, lib. vi. Also Natalis Alexander, 
 Hist. Ecclesiastica, torn, i.x:, fol. 97, edit. V^enitiis, 177S; and Lingard, 
 History of England— Henry VIII ; and Audin, p. 2S9. \ Ibid. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 263 
 
 and corporal punishments; and where they had not the 
 power, they excited disturbance and persecuted by slan- 
 der. We know of no exception to this remark. Un- 
 palatable as it may appear, it is triumphantly establish- 
 ed by facts ; and we are not free to change the records 
 of history to pander to an over delicate and vitiated taste. 
 Out of a mass of evidence bearing on the subject, we will 
 select some of the more prominent facts. 
 
 We have already alluded to the overture for peace 
 made by the Catholics in the diet of Nuremberg, held in 
 1532. How was it received by the Lutherans? They 
 rejected it with indignation, not only in the assembly at 
 Cadan, but also through their organ, Urbanus Regius. 
 Hear his language : *' We must either have peace with 
 the papists — that is, we must suffer the destruction of our 
 faith, our rights, our life, and die as sinners — or we must 
 have peace with Christ, that is to say, be hated by our 
 enemies, and live by faith. Which shall we choose ? 
 The rage of the devil, the hostility of the world, a strug- 
 gle with antichrist, or the protection of heaven, and life 
 through Christ?''* 
 
 Luther openly defended the violence by which the 
 Catholic worship had been suppressed, and the monaste- 
 ries seized upon and secularized. He was consulted on 
 the subject, and this was his reply : *' It is said that no 
 violence should be used for conscience' sake; and yet 
 have not our princes driven away the monks from their 
 asylum ? Yes : we must not oblige any one to- believe 
 our doctrine ; we have never done violence to the con- 
 sciences of others (!) ; but it would be a crime not to pre- 
 vent our doctrine from being profaned. To remove scan- 
 dal is not to force the conscience. I cannot force a rosue 
 to be honest, but I can prevent him from stealing. A 
 prince cannot constrain a highway robber to confess the 
 Lord, butyel he has a gallows for malefiictors." Strange 
 casuistry ! Curious theory of religious liberty ! 
 * Seckeiidorf — " Comment, de Luth." lib. iii, p. 22. 
 
264 d''aubigne*3 history reviewed. 
 
 He continues: *' Thus, when our princes were not cer- 
 tain that the monastic life and private masses were an 
 offence to God, thej would have^^sinned had thev closed 
 the convents; but after they have been enlightened, and 
 have seen that the cloister and the mass are an insult to 
 the Deity, they would have been culpable had they not 
 employed the power they had received to proscribe them.^^* 
 
 In the f;imous convention at Sinalkald, in 1536, the 
 Protestant party decided on a recourse to arms to defend 
 themselves, that is, to be enabled to carry out their plan 
 of establishing the reformation by violence on the ruins 
 of Catholic institutions. They proclaimed that ** it was 
 an error to believe that they ought to tolerate among them 
 those who opposed the reform. "t In an imperial citation 
 addressed to the citizens of Donauvvert in 1605, they are 
 reproached with having driven from their city, as atro- 
 cious malefactors,! those of their fellow citizens who had 
 espoused Catholics, or embraced the Catholic religion. § 
 Again, at a session of the famous congress of Westphalia, 
 in March, 1647, Trautmansdorf openly accused the Pro- 
 testant party of having driven Catholic laymen from their 
 dominions, after having confiscated their property ."[| 
 
 This spirit of persecution has been perpetuated, with 
 some modifications, even to the present day. Erasmus 
 had remarked of Luther that his savage nature had not 
 been softened even by the blandishments of matrimony; 
 and we may remark that the fierce intolerance of the early 
 reformation has not been much mitigated by the growing 
 refinement of the age ! 
 
 Even as late as the battle of Jena, in 1806, Catholics 
 could not own property in Saxony, nor hold public of- 
 fices, nor enjoy any of the rights of citizenship.^ This 
 was also the case in Prussia; and even in our own day, 
 have we not seen a venerable octogenarian, the archbishop 
 
 *Luth. 0pp. edit. Wittemb.ix, 455. f See Robelot ut sup. p. 71. 
 
 X Jtrocissime delinquentes. § Ibid. || Ibid. 72. IT lb. 70. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBKRTY. 265 
 
 of Cologne, violently dra^gecl from his palace by a band 
 of soldiers, in the dead hour of night, and confined for 
 years in a stale prison, by order of the king of Prussia, 
 and all this fur no other offence than that his conscience 
 did not allow him to subscribe to the religious creed of 
 his royal master? 
 
 In the imperial city of Frankfort sur le Meine, Catho- 
 lics were not eligible to any municipal offices. Even as 
 late as the 20th of October, 1814, no others than Luther- 
 ans of the confession of Augsburg were eligible to any 
 civil office in the free city of Hamburg.* In Sweden it 
 is strictly forbidden for any Protestant to embrace the 
 Catholic reliiiion, though Catholics are encouraged to be- 
 come Protestants. No Catholic can there hold any office 
 of trust or emolument. The same intolerant laws are in 
 force in Denmark and Norv/ay. 
 
 In these last named kingdoms, religious persecution, in 
 one form or other, has continued even to the present day. 
 In many of the other Protestant kingdoms of Germany, 
 the penal laws against Catholics were softened down 
 after the famous congress of Vienna, in 1815, had settled 
 the general peace of Europe. Yet the refinement of 
 modern civilization has not been able wholly to exorcise 
 the demon of intolerance. It still exists, to a greater or 
 less extent, in every Protestant country of Europe. 
 
 But the other day, when the Roman pontiff* nominated 
 a bishop to attend to the spiritual wants of a large body 
 of Catholics living in the kingdom of Denmark, the go- 
 vernment organ at Copenhagen republished an old law of 
 the kingdom, which made it a capital offence for a Catho- 
 lic clergyman or bishop to cross the border ! When the 
 celebrated M. De Haller embraced the Catholic religion, 
 in 1821, the grand council of Berne, in Switzerland, had 
 his name stricken from the list of its members, and re- 
 vived the old law of the canton by which no Catholic is 
 eligible to ofiice.t 
 
 * See apricl Robelot, ibid. f Ibid. 
 
 23 
 
266 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 In one word, not to multiply facts, Protestants have 
 been guilty of persecution in every country of Europe 
 where they have had the power, not only against the Cath- 
 olic church, but against each other : and their intolerance, 
 though greatly mitigated, is yet even at this day far from 
 being extinct. 
 
 Catholics also, we must admit, have frequently perse- 
 cuted ; and, far from justifying them for so doing, we sin- 
 cerely condemn them for their conduct, [t was justified 
 by no law of their church ; it was wholly at variance with 
 the mild teachings of the Christian religion. Yet every 
 impartial person must allow that the circumstances under 
 which Catholics persecuted were not so aggravated, nor so 
 wholly without excuse, as those under which they were 
 persecuted by Protestants. They were on the defensive, 
 while these were in almost every instance the first ag- 
 gressors. They did but repel violence by violence, when 
 their property, their altars, and all they held sacred, were 
 rudely invaded by the new religionists, under pretext of 
 reform. Their acts of severity were often deemed neces- 
 sary measures of precaution against the deeds of lawless 
 violence which every where marked the progress of re- 
 form. They did but seek the privilege of retaining qui- 
 etly the religion of their fathers, which the reformers 
 would fain have wrested from them by violence. They 
 were the older, and they were in possession.* Could it 
 be expected that they would yield without a struggle 
 all that they held most dear and most sacred ? These 
 were extenuatina; circumstances, which, though they did 
 not justify their intolerance, yet greatly mitigated its 
 malice, while the reformers could allege no such pretext. 
 Much has been written about the Spanish inquisition, 
 and the massacre of St. Bartholomew's day. We justify 
 
 * In the Synod of Dort in 1618, the Gomarists used" this very argu- 
 ment to justify their persecution of their brother Protestants, the Armi- 
 nians. — Sess. xvii. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 267 
 
 neither. To the former we have devoted a separate 
 essay ;* for the latter we have an ample set-ofFin the ter- 
 rible massacres of the Catholics, perpetrated in various 
 parts of France, and especially in that at Nismes, on the 
 feast of St. Michael, in 1566. This dreadful micheladey 
 as it is called by the French historians, was as tragical at 
 least as the massacre at Paris on St. Bartholomew's day 
 in 1571, five years later. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, and one that does infinite credit 
 to the clergy and Catholics of Nismes, that when the or- 
 der for massacreing the Protestants of that city arrived 
 from Paris, a few^ays after the tragedy of St. Bartholo- 
 mew's day, the Catholics of the city, with M. Villars, 
 the vicar general of the diocess, at their head, repaired in 
 a body to the governor, and petitioned for a suspension of 
 the execution until the French monarch could be properly 
 enlightened on the subject. The interposition was success- 
 ful. Charles IX, in his cooler moments, revoked the ini- 
 quitous decree, and conceived sentiments more just and 
 Christian. Thus the Protestants of Nismes, who had but 
 five years before cruelly butchered their Catholic fellow 
 citizens, were saved from destruction ! And thus were 
 the Catholics avenged !t Similar interpositions, with 
 similar success, were made by the Catholic clergy and 
 people in other cities of France.:}: 
 
 Perhaps the most remarkable feature in the Protestant 
 governments of Europe is the union in them of church 
 and state. This unhallowed union began at the period of 
 the reformation ; and it subsists even to this day. In 
 Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and England, the 
 king is at the same time the head of the state and of the 
 
 * See the Essay on the Spanish Inquisition, published in the U. States 
 Catholic Magazine, August No., 1843. 
 
 t See Robelot sup. c'li. p. 75, note, 
 
 % See Lingard's excellent Essay on the Massacre of St. Bartholo- 
 mew, and his triumphant reply to the strictures of the Edinburg Re- 
 view, in liis History of England — Elizabeth. 
 
268 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 church established by law. It is his province to regulate 
 every thing connected with the preaching of the word, 
 the administration of the sacraments, and the appointment 
 of bishops and pastors. Even in those cantons of Swit- 
 zerland in which the reformation obtained a footino-, the 
 legislative councils claim to this day a right to interfere 
 in spiritual matters; and the Catholics of Argovia and 
 other cantons have very recently felt the smart of their 
 intolerant interference. 
 
 Every body knows the high-handed measures by which 
 the late king of Prussia, but a few years ago, souglit to 
 unite into one '* national church of Prussia" the two con- 
 flicting parties of religionists in his kingdom, the Luther- 
 ans and the Calvinists. This political manoeuvre, to 
 effect by force a compromise between two warring sects, 
 displeased them both, as might have been expected; and 
 many of the ejected ministers of both parties, but espe- 
 cially of the Lutheran, sought shelter from the storm on 
 our shores. The success of the attempt made by the court 
 of Berlin on the religious liberties of Prussia, proves con- 
 clusively, that there at least the church is but the creature 
 of the state — meanly subservient to all its high behests. 
 
 Every one also knows, that the persecution of the Ca- 
 tholics of Belgium by the Protestant government of Hol- 
 land led to the recent declaration of independence by the 
 former government: and that a^ter the declaration had 
 been made good, the Belgians elected a Protestant, prince 
 Leopold, for their sovereign. Can the annals of Protest- 
 antism aftbrd an example of liberality like this ? At least, 
 we have never heard of a Protestant community volunta- 
 rily choosing a Catholic sovereign. 
 
 If the reformation was favorable to religious liberty, 
 why, we ask, did it bring about a union of church and 
 state in every country where it was established ? Why 
 did it every where persecute ? It is curious to trace the 
 origin of this mean subserviency of the Protestant sects to 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 269 
 
 the princes, who caused them to be introduced into their 
 states. 
 
 The reformers preached up freedom from the alleged 
 tyranny of Rome : the people were seduced by this flatter- 
 ing appeal to their natural aversion to restraint; and the 
 reformation was effected in the manner which we have 
 endeavored to unfold. Once freed from the authority of 
 Rome, the reformers threw themselves and their partisans, 
 for protection, into the arms of the secular princes who 
 had espoused their cause ; and these gave them a bear's 
 embrace. They had escaped from an imaginary, and they 
 now fell into a real bondage. They had gone out of the 
 dark land of Egypt, and had returned from the captivity 
 of Babylon : but in the land of promise into which they 
 led their exulting hosts of disenthralled disciples, they 
 found other Pharaohs and other Nabuchadonosors, who 
 lorded it over them with a rod of iron. " And the last 
 state of these men was made worse than the first."* 
 
 Luther soon perceived, that the only means of stemming 
 the torrent of innovation, which he had let loose on the 
 world, was to give unlimited power to princes in spiritual 
 matters. Melancthon earnestly labored to retain the order 
 of bishop ; but his unrelenting master could not brook this 
 odious remnant of the papacy. The result was, as Me- 
 lancthon had foreseen, that for them he substituted other 
 bishops armed with the power of the sword. These were 
 not so scrupulous as had been their Catholic predecessors 
 in the episcopal office. After having seized and embezzled 
 the property of the church, they reigned supreme in church 
 and state. They interfered in the minutest aifairs of church 
 government. It was by the importunities of the pious and 
 scrupulous liandgrave of Hesse, that Luther was induced, 
 against his inclination, to suppress the elevation of the 
 Host in the mass.t Thus, as M. Audin well remarks, 
 " the reformation which was ushered into Germany by its 
 
 * St. Mattli. xii, 45. \ Jak. Marx, sup. cit. p. 177, 
 
2r0 d'aubigneVs history reviewes. 
 
 apostles as a means of forcing the people from the sacer- 
 dotal yoke, created a Pagan monstrositj — hierophant and 
 magistrate — who with one arm regulated the state, and 
 with the other, the church."* 
 
 This usurpation of Protestant princes was legalized, 
 and became a settled matter of state policy, at the con- 
 gress of Westphalia in 1648. This congress recognized 
 in the Protestant princes of Germany the jus riformandi^ 
 or the right to reform the churches existing within their 
 dominions, according to their own judgment and good 
 pleasure.! Thus, after a protracted struggle of more than 
 a hundred years, during which oceans of blood had been 
 poured out in the sacred name of liberty. Protestantism 
 sunk exhausted — a degraded slave — in the murderous em- 
 brace of earthly princes ! It was bound hand and foot, 
 and could not move, but by the permission of its remorsie- 
 less master! 
 
 The reformers were themselves the sole cause of this 
 unhappy result. They had Battered princes, and had 
 courted the union, to which may be fairly traced the ser- 
 vile degradation of the sects they founded. They had 
 invoked the power of the sword, not only against Catholic?, 
 but also against their brother religionists, who dared op- 
 pose their schemes of refoimation. They had proclaimed, 
 that the right of suppressing heresy "belonged only to 
 princes, who alone could mow down the cockle with the 
 sword. "J At the general assembly of the Protestant 
 party at Hamburg in 1536, the deputies of Lunenburg 
 had said : " the magistrate has the power of life and death 
 over the heretics. "§ 
 
 Luther himself, in his defence of the enactments of this 
 assembly, addressed to the Landgrave of Hesse, || had laid 
 down this principle: "If then there takes place between 
 
 * P. 34T. t Jak. Marx— Ibid. 
 
 X Ott. ad annum, 1536. Gaatius, sup. cit. p. 365. Audin, p. 463. 
 
 § Ott. Ibid. p. m. tl Keferrsd to above, p. 25S. 
 
INFLrPNCE OF THE REFORM OX RELIGIOUS LI BERT V. 371 
 
 Catholics and sectaries, one of those discussions in which 
 each combatant advances with a text, it is the dutj of the 
 nmagistrate to take cognizance of the dispute, and to im- 
 pose silence on those M'hose doctrine does not accord with 
 the holy books." Could he blame princes for using the 
 power which he himself vested in them ? 
 
 The history of the union of church and state in Saxonj, 
 will throw some light on its subsequent establishment in 
 other Protestant countries. It was to meet the wishes 
 and to carry out the suggestions of Luther, that John, 
 elector of Saxony — naturally a weak and effeminate prince 
 — first interfered in the affairs of the church. After he 
 had entered, however, on his new spiritual functions, his 
 ardent zeal carried him farther than the monk had barsained 
 for. *' He determined to free himself from the domination 
 of the clergy (Protestant) ; and for that purpose found that 
 the most efficacious means was to apply at once the reform- 
 ing theories of Luther to the organization of parishes. A 
 commission of ecclesiastics and laymen was accordingly 
 named by the elector, who were charged to visit and ad- 
 minister the ditVerent districts. It was a real revolution. 
 The church lost even its name : it was turned into a Pa^an 
 temple."* 
 
 Let us also see what is the opinion of Mr. Hallam on the 
 influence of the reformation on religious liberty. He surely 
 is not prejudiced against the reformers, as we have had 
 occasion to see ; and his opinion must therefore be of great 
 weight in the matter. We have already given some ex- 
 tracts from his latest work, bearing at least indirectly on 
 the present subject. We add the following passages. 
 
 " It is often said that the essential principle of Protest- 
 antism, and that for which the struggle was made, was 
 something different from all we have mentioned; a per- 
 petual freedom from all authority in religious belief, or 
 what goes by the name of the right of private judgment. 
 
 * Aadiii, p. 353. 
 
272 p'aubigne's history reviewf.d. 
 
 But, to look more nearly at what occurred, this perma- 
 nent independence was not much asserted, and still less 
 acted upon. The reformation was a change of masters; a 
 voluntary one no doubt, in those who had any choice ; and, 
 in this sense, an exercise, for the time, of iheir personal 
 judgment. But no one having gone over to the confession 
 of Augsburg or that of Zurich, was deemed at liberty to 
 modify these creeds at his pleasure. He might of course 
 become an Anabaptist or an Arian ; but he was not the 
 less a heretic in doing so than if he had continued in the 
 church of Rome. By what light a Protestant was to steer, 
 might he a problem, luhich at that time, as eve?- since, it would 
 perplex a theologian to decide : but in practice, the law of 
 the land which established one exclusive mode of faith, 
 was the only safe, as, in ordinary circumstances, it was, 
 upon the whole, the most eligible guide."* 
 
 In another place, speaking of the causes wliich brought 
 about the decline of Protestantism and the reaction of Ca- 
 tholicity, he says: "we ought to reckon also among the 
 principal causes of this change, those perpetual disputes, 
 those irreconcilable animosities, that bigotry, above all, 
 and persecuting spirit, which were exhibited in the Lu- 
 theran and Calvinistic churches. Each began with a com- 
 mon principle — the necessity of an orthodox faith. But 
 this orthodoxy evidently meant nothing more than their 
 own belief as opposed to that of their adversaries ; a belief 
 acknowledged to be fallible, yet maintained as certain; 
 rejecting authority in one breath, and appealing to it in the 
 next, and claiming to rest on sure proofs of reason and 
 Scripture, which their opponents were ready with just 
 as much confidence, to invalidate. "t 
 
 In conclusion, we may observe, that in regard to tolera- 
 tion, the Catholic countries of Europe at the present time 
 compare advantageously with those which have been eu" 
 lightened by the reformation for the last three hundred 
 
 ? (« History of Literature," &c. vol, 1, p. 200. f Ibid, i, 278. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 273 
 
 years. There is not one Catholic government of Europe 
 which now persecutes for conscience' sake: and on the 
 other hand, there is scarcely one Protestant government, 
 which does not persecute, in one form or other, even at 
 this day! We have already seen what is the present 
 policy of the latter, in regard to toleration. Our asser- 
 tion in^ regard to the former, can be easily substan- 
 tiated. 
 
 Belgium is Catholic, and Belgium has a Protestant 
 king, allows equal political rights to Protestants with 
 Catholics, and is at the same time, perhaps, the freest 
 monarchy in Europe. The inquisition has been long 
 since abolished in Spain and Portugal, and these no 
 longer persecute dissenters. France is Catholic, and 
 France not only does not persecute, but she protects 
 the Protestant religion, and pays its ministers, even 
 more than she allows to the Catholic clergy — which is 
 but equitable, as those have their wives and families to 
 support! The present leading minister of state in France 
 is a Calvinist, M. Guizot! 
 
 Bavaria is Catholic; and Bavaria allows equal civil 
 rights to Protestants as to Catholics. Hungary is Catho- 
 lic ; and Hungary does the same. Austria is Catholic; 
 and Austria adopts the same equitable policy. Bohemia 
 is Catholic ; and Bohemia imitates the example of the 
 other Catholic states. Italy is Catholic; and Protestants 
 have places of worship and public cemeteries at the very 
 gates of the eternal city itself! So far is this tolera- 
 tion carried, that but a few years since, a parson of 
 the church of England, delivered a course of lectures 
 against popery at Rome itself; and Dr. Wiseman an- 
 swered them. 
 
 Poland — poor bleeding and crushed Poland, i^?a5 Catho- 
 lic to its very heart's core ; and Poland was never sullied 
 with perj^ecution ! Ireland was ever Catholic; and Ireland 
 never persecuted, though she had it in her power to do so 
 at three different times ' Finally, it v/as the Catholic lord 
 
274 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Baltimore, and the Catholic colonists of Marjland, who 
 in 1648 first proclaimed on these shores the great princi- 
 ple of universal toleration, while the Puritans were perse- 
 cuting in New England, and the Episcopalians in Vir- 
 ginia!* 
 
 * See Bancroft's History of the United States, vol. 1, Maryland. 
 About the same time, or perhaps a few years previous, Roger Williams, 
 driven into the wilderness by the Puritans of Massachusetts, established 
 the colony of Rhode Island, the charter of which granted free toleration, 
 from which, however, the Catholics were in all probability excluded ? 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 
 
 "The most striking effect of the first preaching of the reformation was that it 
 appealed to the ignorant; and though political liberty* * cannot be reckoned the 
 aim of those who introduced it, yet there predominated tliat revolutionary spirit 
 which loves to witness destruction for its own sake, and that intoxicated self- 
 confidence which renders folly mischievous." — Hallam.* 
 
 Puifing — Theory of government — Political liberty — Four things guar- 
 antied — Pursuit of happiness — The popes and liberty — Rights of 
 property — Use made of confiscated church property — The Attila of 
 the reformation — Par nobile fratrum — Spoliation of Catholics — Con- 
 tempt of testamentary dispositions — The^ws manuale abolished — And 
 restored — Disregard of life — And crushing of popular liberty — The 
 war of the peasants — Two charges made good — Grievances of the 
 peasants — Drowned in blood — Luther's agency — Halting between 
 two extremes — Result — Absolute despotism — Swiss cantons — M. 
 D'Aubigne puzzled — Liberty, a mountain nymph — The old mother 
 of republics — Security to character — Recapitulation. 
 
 The friends of the reformation have been in the habit 
 of boasting, that to it we are indebted for all the free insti- 
 tutions we now enjo}^ Before it, there was nothing in the 
 world but slavery on the one hand, and reckless despotism 
 on the other : after it, came liberty and free governments. 
 In school-boj orations and Fourth-of-Julj speeches; in 
 sermons from the pulpit and in effusions from the press; 
 this assertion has been reiterated over and again with so 
 much confidence, that many persons of sincerity and in- 
 tellia:ence have viev/ed it as founded in fact. To such we 
 would beg leave to present the following brief summary of 
 facts bearing on the subject. Let them read both sides; 
 and then will they be able to form an enlightened judgment. 
 
 * " History of Literature," vol. i, p. 192. 
 
275 D*AUBIGNF/S HISTORY REVIEWED. 
 
 M. D'Aubigne asserts roundly : ** the reformation saved 
 religion, and with it society."* We liave already seen 
 what it did for religion : we will now examine what it did 
 for society. Did it really save society ; or was society 
 saved in spite of it? To narrow down the ground of the 
 inquiry; did it really contribute by its influence to check 
 political despotism, and to protect the rights of the peo- 
 ple ? Or, in other words, did it develop the democratic 
 principle, and originate free institutions ? Were we to de- 
 cide according to the measure of its boasting, it certainly 
 did this and much more. It had liberty forever on its 
 lips : it loudly proclaimed that one great object of its mis- 
 sion was to free mankind from a degrading servitude, both 
 religious and political. But was its practice in accordance 
 with its loudly boasting theory ? We shall see. 
 
 Political liberty guarantees security to life, to property, 
 to character, and to the pursuit of happiness: and it docs 
 this with the least possible restraint on personal freedom. 
 The greater the security to those objects, and the less the 
 restraint on individual liberty, the more free and perfect 
 is the system of government. A well regulated democ- 
 i-acy — where the people can bear it — best corresponds with 
 this theory, and is therefore, with the condition just named, 
 the best of all possible forms of government. And the 
 nearer others approximate to this standard, the more do 
 they verge to perfection. Such are the principles of our 
 political creed : and by them we will judge of the influence 
 of the reformation on free government. Did this religious 
 revolution provide greater security to life, property, honor 
 and the pursuit of happiness, with less restraint to indivi- 
 dual liberty than had previously existed ? If it did, then 
 was its influence favorable to liberty; if not, then, how- 
 ever its advocates may boast, its influence w^as decidedly 
 hostile to true democracy. We will abide this test, 
 which, we are sure, our adversaries will not be disposed 
 to reject. 
 
 * Vol. i, p. 6T. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. ^^77 
 
 1. We will begin vvilli tlie object of government last 
 named — security to men in tlie ])uisuit of happint'ss. No 
 government is free, which does not guaranty tliis. The 
 liighest, the most noble, and the only sure way of pursuing 
 happiness, is by the path of religion. Witliout this, there 
 is, and can be, no real or permanent happiness, either in 
 this world, or in the next. This, we think, will be admit- 
 ted by all who are imbued with the principles of Christi- 
 anity. Now, there is manifestly no freedom in this ex- 
 alted pursuit, without the guarantee of religious liberty. 
 Hence, a system — which sapped the very foundations of 
 religious liberty, could not guaranty one of the greatest 
 objects of all free governments — security in the pursuit of 
 happiness. We have already proved, that the reformation 
 did not secure religious freedom : and therefore, the infer- 
 ence is irresistible, that it did not tend to promote free 
 government. 
 
 We will pursue this line of argument a little farther. 
 The reformation cast off the religious yoke of the Pontiffs 
 and of the Catholic church ; and wore, instead thereof, 
 rivetted on its neck, that of the princes who espoused its 
 cause. Was the exchange favorable to liberty } Did the 
 union of church and state which necessarily ensued, se- 
 cure to Protestants in Germany a greater amount of free- 
 dom than they had heretofore enjoyed ? The pope was 
 far off, and he generally interposed his authority only in 
 spiritual matters, or in great emergencies of the state : the 
 princes, who succeeded to his authority, were present, and 
 interfered in every thing, both in church and state — they 
 were in fact supreme in both. When they chose to play 
 the tyrant, who was to oppose their will .^ 
 
 The reformed party were powerless : they had given up 
 themselves, bound hand and foot, into the power of their 
 princes. The voice of the Roman pontiffs, which had ere- 
 while thundered from the Vatican, and stricken terror into 
 the heart of tyranny, was now also powerless : the reformers 
 themselves had drowned that voice in the maddening cla- 
 24 
 
276 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 raor of their opposition. What resource had they left to 
 meet and repel tyranny? They had themselves, of their 
 own accord, rendered powerless the only arm which could 
 protect them, or redress their grievances. 
 
 The time has gone by, for men of sense and intelligence 
 to clamor against the tyranny of the Roman pontiffs. Pro- 
 testants themselves are beginning to view these much 
 abused men in a more favorable light than they did here- 
 tofore. They no longer paint them as the unmitigated 
 tyrants who lorded it over the world for their own selfish 
 purposes and unhallowed ambition ; but as the saviours of 
 Europe, and the protectors of its political rights trodden 
 in the dust by tyrants. Such Protestant writers as Gui- 
 zot, Voigt, Hurter, Ranke, Newman, Pusey and Bancroft, 
 have done justice to the popes : at least they have meted 
 out to them a portion of justice. 
 
 The last named, says, speaking of Pope Alexand r Ilf, 
 who lived A. D. 1167: " True to the spirit of his office, 
 which during the supremacy of brute force in the middle 
 age, made of the chief minister of religion the tribune of 
 the people and the guardian of the oppressed, had written, 
 * that nature having made no slaves, all men have an equal 
 right to liberty.' "* We might quote many similar ac- 
 knowledgments made by Protestant writers : but the fact 
 we have asserted will scarcely be questioned, and we refer 
 to the works of the writers mentioned above — passim. 
 
 Nothing is, in fact, more certain than that the popes of 
 the middle ages labored assiduously to maintain the righta 
 of the people against the tyranny of their princes. When- 
 ever they struck a blow, it was generally aimed at tyranny, 
 and calculated to raise up the lower orders in the scale of 
 society. The oppressed of every natiim found a willing 
 and a powerful advocate in Rome. When the Roman 
 pontiffs threw around the people the broad shield of their 
 protection, it was more effectual towards their defence 
 
 * Historv of he United States, vol. 1, p. 163. 
 
INFLUEiVCa OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 279 
 
 against the tyranny which had ground them in the dust, 
 than had been the eagles which had perched on the Roman 
 standard of old. For Germany particularly, the deposing 
 power, claimed by the popes of the middle ages, was a 
 broad aegis thrown around the liberties of its people. 
 When was that power ever exercised, but in behalf of the 
 poor, the crushed, and the bleeding? 
 
 What would have become of the liberties of Europe in 
 that period of anarchy and tyranny, but for its exercise ? 
 No other authority was available : because no other voice 
 would have been heard or respected, amidst the general 
 din of war and the confusion of the times. And by de- 
 stroying that authority, the reformers broke down the most 
 effectual barrier against tyranny, and destroyed the great- 
 est security to popular rights. 
 
 2. But perhaps the reformation provided greater secu- 
 rity for the rights of property, than had been made in the 
 good old Catholic times ? — We have seen how the Protest- 
 ant princes seized upon and alienated the vast property 
 of the Catholic church. They diverted it from its legiti- 
 mate channels, and generally embezzled it for their ovvn 
 private uses. Neither the public treasury nor the people 
 profited much by this sacrilegious invasion of church 
 property. 
 
 True, the Protestant princes, who became the heads of 
 the reformed churches, promised, in some places, to em- 
 ploy at least a portion of this immense property thus seized 
 on by violence, for the establishment of public schools and 
 hospitals. But this promise was never carried into effect, 
 at least to any great extent. Thus, in Sweden, a great 
 portion of the church property was given to the nobles, 
 as a reward for their co-operation with the monarch, Gus- 
 tavus Yasa, in carrying out his favorite project of reform : 
 another large portion was annexed to the crown ; and the 
 miserable remnant was doled out with a niggardly hand 
 for the support of the Episcopal body — which was there 
 retained — of the inferior clergy, and of the charitable and 
 
280 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 literary institutions.* In Denmark, the monarch and the 
 nobility shared the spoils.! 
 
 In Germany, the avarice of the nobility swallowed up 
 almost every thing, which had escaped the grasp of the 
 perjured monks, or the pillage of the infuriated mobs. We 
 have already seen, how Luther himself lashed them with 
 his withering eloquence for their avarice, which had left 
 almost nothing of the ample patrimony of the church, for 
 the support of the reformed preachers and their wives. 
 We shall see in the sequel, how he rebnked their parsi- 
 mony, in not erecting and supporting public schools. 
 
 The ejected Catholic monks and clergy were reduced 
 to beggary, and had no alternative left, but to starve, or 
 to obtain a livelihood at the price of apostacy. Alas ! too 
 many of them adopted the latter course ! John Hurd, a 
 counsellor of the Elector of Saxony, whose authority is 
 cited by Luther in his appeal against the avarice of the 
 princes, asserts that the Protestant r.obility had squan- 
 dered in licentiousness, not only the goods of the monas- 
 teries on which they had seized, but also their own patri- 
 mony4 
 
 Many of these marauding princes were not content with 
 the pillage of the church property within their own terri- 
 tory, but sallied forth with an armed band to devastate 
 that of their neighbors. We have already adverted to the 
 memorable exploits of many German princes in this way, 
 and have seen how g;allantly their armed bands put to 
 flight whole troops of cowled monks and helpless women, 
 in order to seize on their property ! We have seen the 
 excursion of the apostate Albert of Brandenburg, at the 
 head often thousand armed men, into the territory' of the 
 prince Bishop of Treves. 
 
 This man, viewed by M. D'Aubigne as a saint, but more 
 properly called ** the Attila of the reformation, "§ estab- 
 
 * See Robelot, sup. cit. p. 177. f Ibid. 
 
 X Ibi.l. p. 17«. § Ibid, p 20G. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 281 
 
 lished a temporal principality, and laid the foundation of 
 the present kingdom of Prussia, by his successful invasion 
 of the property of others. He not only appropriated to 
 his own private use the vast property belonging to the 
 Teutonic Order, of which he was the general ; but he also, 
 by the same lawless means, annexed to his territory all 
 eastern Prussia. He was as treacherous and unprincipled, 
 as he was avaricious and lawless. To promote the pur- 
 poses of his ambition, he passed from the camp of Henry 
 II, to that of the Catholic Charles V; and though the 
 treaty of Passan had guaranteed to the Lutherans of the 
 Confession of Augsburg the free exercise of their religion, 
 he, at the head of his troops, ravaged the territories of the 
 Protestant princes — thus recklessly sacrificing friends 
 and enemies ! The reformation is welcome to all the cre- 
 dit its cause may derive from such saints as he and the 
 Landgrave of Hesse — par nobile fratrum ! 
 
 Bayle says to the reformed party, with caustic truth: 
 *' You forget every thing, when it is question of your in- 
 teiests."* The League of Smalkald, noticed above, had 
 for one of its principal objects to protest against the deci- 
 sions of the imperial courts, which had not granted entire 
 liberty to the Protestant princes to pillage at will the pro- 
 perty of the Catholics. It is a remarkable fact, that most 
 of the criminal prosecutions commenced in this court were 
 directed against the lawless violence of the Protestant no- 
 bility, and especially of the noted Landgrave of Hessef. 
 Catholics could not be secure in their property, and even 
 the protection of the emperor was unavailing for this pur- 
 pose, in those times of lawless depredation. 
 
 And be it remembered, that Catholics still formed the 
 great body of the Germanic empire. Thus the reforma- 
 tion succeeded in depriving to a great extent of their most 
 sacred rights, the majority of the people. Was this course 
 favorably to liberty, which is a mere name, without secu- 
 
 * (Euvres, torn, ii, p. 621. La Haye, 1727. 
 t See Robelot, ut supra, p. 205, note. 
 24* 
 
282 D aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 ritj to property ? The truth seems to be, that the reformed 
 party were so much attached to libert}^, that they wished 
 to monopolize it, and have it all for themselves ! 
 
 But perhaps the most mischievous influence of the re- 
 formation on the rights of property, was its reckless disre- 
 gard of testamentary dispositions. The property which 
 the Protestant princes seized on and alienated, had been, 
 most of it, accumulated by charitable bequests, made for 
 special church and charitable purposes, by men on their 
 death-beds. What right had the reformed party to inter- 
 fere with these testamentary dispositions } What right had 
 they to divert the property thus created, from the channels 
 in which the abiding Catholic feeling of respect for the 
 dead had caused it to flow fur centuries ? What right had 
 they above all to squander, and to appropriate to their own 
 unhallowed purposes, wealth that had been hitherto ap- 
 plied, by the express will of those who had bequeathed it, 
 to religious and charitable objects ? 
 
 And what security was there any longer left for the 
 rights of propertjs when even the sanctity of last wills 
 and testaments was thus recklessl}'- disregarded ? Had 
 those charitable men of the good old Catholic times arisen 
 from their tombs, how they would have rebuked this sac- 
 rilegious alienation of the property they had left ! True, 
 some stop was put to this unhallowed sequestration of 
 church property by the treaty of 1555, in which such 
 property was declared sacred, and last wills inviolable;* 
 and Robertson, the historian of Charles V, tells us, that 
 the Protestant princes themselves at this treaty, after 
 having at first opposed the article which checked their 
 lawless violence, withdrew at length their objections, and 
 acquiesced in its equity;* but the mischief had already 
 been done, and they had already fattened on the spoils of 
 the church. 
 
 But for the tumults caused by the reformation, the rights 
 
 * History of Cliarles V, 1. xi Cited by Robelot, p. 181. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 283 
 
 of property would, in all probability, have been perma- 
 nently settled throughout Germany, at the close of the 
 fifteenth century. The frequent depredations committed 
 by the feudal chieftains of the middle ages on the property 
 of each other and of their vassals, were effectually checked 
 by the emperor Maximilian in an imperial law passed in 
 1495. This law of the empire abolished altogether what 
 was called the jus mamiale — or the right claimed by many 
 lawless feudal sovereigns to take by force whatever they 
 could lay their hands on; and it established an imperial 
 court of adjudication, in which all points of contested ju- 
 risdiction were to be definitively settled, and all grievances 
 from violations of the law to be redressed. Germany en- 
 joyed a profound peace for many years after the enactment 
 of this wise law: men breathed more freely; might and 
 right were no loger synonymous terms; the rights of pro- 
 perty were re-established.* 
 
 But this peace was, alas ! of but short duration. It was 
 a calm which preceded an awful storm. The violent 
 preaching of Luther against emperors, princes and bishops, 
 aroused again into full activity the dormant passions of the 
 lower orders. Hence the dreadful war of the peasants, 
 with all its appalling horrors, its effusion of blood, and the 
 desolation with which it aflflicted Germany. Seven years 
 only had elapsed since the commencement of the reforma- 
 tion ; and the confusion of the middle ages returned : the 
 rights of property, of life, and of liberty were again ruth- 
 lessly trampled under foot with impunity. The years 
 1 524 and 1 525 were awful years for Germany. The princes 
 of the empire availed themselves of the general disorder, 
 to commit all manner of excesses. No man's property, or 
 liberty, or life was any longer safe. The tree planted by 
 Luther at Wittemberg was bearing its bitter first fruits ! 
 
 3. The history of this war of the peasants sheds so much 
 additional light upon the influence of the reformation on 
 
 * For a luminous view of this, see Robelot, u1 fivp. p. 200, 201. 
 
284 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 the rights of the lower orders and the liberty of the people, 
 that we will be pardoned for dwelling on it at some length. 
 Our limits will however allow o?ily a brief summary of the 
 more prominent facts, and a rapid sketch of the leading 
 features of that eventful struo-o-le It will be seen that 
 the reformation provided no security either for personal 
 liberty or for life itself. 
 
 We deliberately charge on the reformation two things: 
 lit, that it stimulated the peasants to revolt; and 2dly, 
 that it used its powerful influence to crush that revolt by 
 force, and to drown the voice of the poor peasants, crying 
 out for redress of grievances, in their blood ! The result 
 of the rebellion, thus stifled in blood, was a weakening of 
 the democratic principle, and a streno;theningof the arm of 
 power. At the close of the dreadful struggle, liberty lay 
 crushed and bleeding, and despotism, armed with all its 
 iion terrors, was triumphant. We hope to make good 
 these assertions byfmdeniable facts and unexceptionable 
 evidence. 
 
 The Protestant historian of Germany, Adolphus Menzel, 
 candidly admits that Luther's doctrines were calculated 
 to sow the seeds of sedition among the lower orders.* The 
 violent appeal he had made against the emperor and the 
 princes of the empire, at the close of the Diet of Nurem- 
 berg in 152i2 — two years before t\^e revolt of the peasants 
 — was in fact nothing ^else but an open call to rebellion.f 
 His words fell like burning coals on the inflammatory ma- 
 terials which then abounded in Germany. The standard 
 of revolt was every where raised : and on it was inscribed 
 the talismanic word, liberty. Far from wishing to extin- 
 guish it, Luther fanned the flame with his breath. When 
 the insurrectionary movements were reaching his own 
 Saxony, he addressed a pamphlet to the German nobility, 
 in which he sided with the peasants, and openly charged 
 the princes with being the cause of the revolt. 
 
 * "Neuere Geschichte der Deutschen" — Tom. 1. p. 169. 
 t See extracts from tliis writing in Audin, p. 285, seqq. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 285 
 
 He cried out : *' On you rests the responsibility of these 
 tumults and seditions; on you, princes and lords, on you 
 especially, blind bishops and senseless priests and monks ! 
 You, who persist in making yourselves fools, and opposing 
 the Gospel, although you know that it will triumph, and 
 that you shall not prevail. How do you govern ? You 
 only know how to oppress, to destroy, and to plunder, for 
 the purpose of maintaining your pomp and pride. The 
 people and the poor have got enough of you. The sword 
 is raised over your heads, and yet you believe yourselves 
 so firmly seated, that you cannot be overthrown.*** My 
 good sirs, it is not merely the peasants who rise up against 
 you ; it is God himself who comes to chastise your ty- 
 ranny. A drunken man must have a bed of straw; a 
 peasant will require something softer. Go not to war with 
 them ; you do not know how the affair will terminate."* 
 
 This v/as an appeal worthy of an apostle of liberty — it 
 was seized up with avidity by Mianzer and the other leaders 
 of the revolt: all Germany was in arms. How soon did 
 Luther change his note, and preach up the extermination 
 of these same peasants by fire and sword ! Before we show 
 this however, we must first see what were the principal 
 grievances of which the peasants complained, and what 
 were their demands. 
 
 There is no doubt, that there was much fanaticism, and 
 much extravagance in their whole insurrectionary move- 
 ment: but there is as little doubt, that most of their 
 claims were founded in strict justice. Chrystopher Schapp- 
 ler, a Swiss priest, drew up their manifesto, in which they 
 demanded, among other things of less moment : " that they 
 should pay tithes only in corn — that they should no longer 
 be treated as slaves, since the blood of Jesus had redeemed 
 them — that they should be allowed to fish and to fowl, 
 since God had given them, in the person of Adam, domin- 
 ion over the fishes of the sea and the fowls of the air — that 
 
 * See Audin, p. 309, 310. 
 
286 
 
 they might cut in the orest, wood for fuel and for build- 
 ing — that the labor should be diminished — that they should 
 be permitted to possess landed property — that the taxes 
 should not exceed the value of the property — that the tri- 
 bute to the nobles, after the death of a father of a family, 
 might be abolished, so that his widow and orphans might 
 not be reduced to beggary — and finally, that if these griev- 
 ances were not well founded, they might be disproved 
 from the Word of God."* 
 
 How was this declaration of grievances met by the re- 
 formed party ? If they were really the friends of liberty, 
 they would at once have recognized the justice of most of 
 these demands, and would have urged the princes to grant 
 them. At least consistency, if not justice, required that 
 Luther should have adopted this course. And yet he — 
 the same Luther, whom we have just heard rebuking the 
 tyranny of the princes, and justifying, nay, stimulating the 
 peasants in their revolt — the very same man now changed 
 his tactics, and loudly clamored for the blood of the pea- 
 sants ! He met their challenge, in which they had trium- 
 phantly appealed to the Scriptures for their justification, 
 and wrote a labored treatise to prove, from the Word of 
 God, that they were in the wrong ! 
 
 In this reply to their statement of grievances, he said : 
 ** I know that Satan, under pretext of the Gospel, conceals 
 among you many men of a cruel heart, who incessantly 
 calumniate me; (was this the reason why he abandoned 
 their cause?). But I despise them : I do not dread their 
 rage. You tell me that you will triumph; that you are 
 invincible. But cannot God, who destroyed Sodom, 
 overcome you ? You have taken up the sword ; you shall 
 perish by the sword. In res'sting your magistrates, you 
 resist Jesus Christ." 
 
 He then goes on to answer from the Scriptures their 
 
 * Catron — Histoire du Fanatistne, torn. 1. Menzel, torn. 1, apnd 
 Audin, p. 311, 312. See also Robertson's Charles V, in one vol. 8vo. 
 American edit. p. 205, 206. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 1^7 
 
 demands, one bj one. Bible in hand, he defends tithes 
 and even the enslaving; of the poor peasants, who had de- 
 manded to be free ! " Vou wish to emancipate yourselves 
 from slavery: but slavery is as old as the world. Abra- 
 ham had slaves, and St. Paul establishes rules for those 
 whom the laws of nations reduced to that state." As if 
 conscious of his own treachery and utter inconsistency, 
 he winds up his reply with these words: "on reading my 
 letter, you will shout and exclaim, that Luther has become 
 the courtier of princes : but before you reject, at least ex- 
 amine my advice. Above all, listen not to the voice of 
 those new prophets who delude you. I know them."* 
 
 What a change ! As Luther had anticipated, the pea- 
 sants accused him, with justice, of perficTy to them, and of 
 mean sycophancy to princes. To prove tlie former, MiJn- 
 zer read to the assembled multitudes an extract from 
 Luther's violent appeal against " the ecclesiastical order 
 falsely so called,''! in which he had said : " Wait my lord 
 bishops, yea, rather imps of the devil; Doctor Martin 
 Luther, will read for you a bull, which will make your 
 ears tingle. This is the Lutheran bull — whoever will aid 
 with his arms, his fortune, or his life, to devastate the 
 bishops and the episcopal hierarchy, is a good son of God, 
 a true Christian, and observes the commandments of the 
 Lord." 
 
 In his answer to Prierias, which it appears Miinzer had 
 not seen, he had employed this terrible language : " If we 
 hang robbers on the gallows, decapitate murderers, and 
 burn heretics, why should we not wash our hands in the 
 blood of those sons of perdition, those cardinals, those 
 popes, those serpents of Rome, and of Sodom, who defile 
 the church of God ?":|: 
 
 Luther's interposition came too late: and it lost all its 
 
 * A pud Audin, p. 312,313. 
 
 t "Contra falso nominatum ordinera ecclesiasticura." Luth. 0pp. 
 ed. Wittemb. ii, fol. 120, seqq. 
 
 X Osiander (a Protestant) Cent. 161, Sec. p. 109. Audin, p. 213. 
 
288 
 
 force by its manifest treachery and inconsistency with his 
 previous declarations. The struggle went on ; the hostile 
 armies met on the memorable field of Frankhausen : the 
 confederated princes were triumphant, and the peasants 
 were butchered like sheep. Their prophet Miinzer fell 
 mortally wounded : he embraced again the Catholic faith, 
 and to his last breath accused Luther of having been the 
 cause of all his misfortunes!* 
 
 **Such," says M. Audin, " was the end of the war of 
 the peasants. In the short time in which they were per- 
 mitted to afflict gociety, it is estimated that more than a 
 hundred thousand men fell on the field of battle, seven 
 cities were dismantled, fifty monasteries razed to the 
 ground, and three churches burned — not to mention the 
 immense treasures of painting and sculpture, of stained 
 glass and of beautifully written manuscripts — which were 
 annihilated. Had they triumphed, Germany would have 
 relapsed into barbarism ; literature, arts, poetry, morality, 
 faith, and authority, would have been buried under the 
 same ruin. The rebellion which Luther had caused, was 
 the daughter of disobedience: her father, however, knew 
 how to chastise her. If there was innocent blood shed, 
 let it be on his head. * For,' says the reformer 'it is I 
 who have shed it, by order of God; and whoever has 
 perished in this combat, has lost both soul and body, and 
 is eternally damned.' "t 
 
 The voice of history proclaims, that Luther was the 
 cause of the insurrection of the peasants, and of their sub- 
 sequent slaughter. Protestant cotemporary historians 
 have accused him of all this. Osiander says : ** poor pea- 
 sants, whom Luther flattered and caressed, while they 
 were content with attacking the bishops and the clergy ! 
 But when the revolt assumed another aspect, and the in- 
 
 * For a graphic description of this whole struggle, see Audin, 
 315, seqq. 
 
 t Tisch Reden, edit. Eisleb. p. 276. Lath. 0pp. edit. Jenae. Tom. 
 iii, fol. 130. Audin, p. 318. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 289 
 
 surgents mocked at his bull, and threatened him and his 
 princes — (hen appeared another bull, in which he preached 
 up the slaughter of tlie peasants as if thej were so many 
 sheep. And when thej were killed, how, think you, did 
 he celebrate their funeral ? By marrying a nun !" This 
 reminils us of Erasmus' beautiful remark given above, that 
 while Luther was revelling at his nuptials, " a hundred 
 thousand peasants were descending to the tomb!" 
 
 Hospinian, another Protestant writer, says, addressing 
 Luther: *' It is you who excited the peasants to revolt."* 
 Memno Simon, another Protestant, asserts the same thing.t 
 Cochlaeus, a Catholic historian of the time, estimates the 
 number of the slaughtered peasants at 150,000 ; and says : 
 **0n the day of judgment, Mi^inzer and his peasants will 
 cry out before God and his angels, 'vengeance on Lu- 
 ther!' "J 
 
 And have we not heard Luther himself boldly avowing 
 his agency in the whole transaction, and even boasting of 
 it, with a kind of fiendish exultation ? Had he not recom- 
 mended the princes to have no pity on the peasants, and 
 threatened them v/ith the indignation of God, if they 
 poured oil on their bleeding wounds .^§ Had he not saiid : 
 *' give the peasants oats; and if they grow strong-headed, 
 give them the stick and the cannon ball ?"|| 
 
 Such then were the tender mercies of the reformation ! 
 Such its regard for the lower orders ! Such its political 
 code! The poor peasants first stimulated to take up arms 
 to secure their freedom, and then butchered by tens of 
 thousands ! In their tomb was buried whatever of liberty 
 remained in Germany. The princes became omnipotent : 
 the revolt once crushed, no one dared any longer to raise 
 his voice in defence of freedom ! 
 
 * " Historia Sacramentar." pars 2, fol. 200. 
 t Lib. de cruce. 
 
 X Cochlaeus — Defensio Ducis Georgii, p, 63, edit. Ingolstadt, an. 
 1545, in 4to. 
 § Epist. Nich. Amsdorf, 30 Mali, 1525. 
 II Epist. to Ruhel, edit-, de Wette. torn, ii, p. 669. 
 25 
 
290 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 The reformation had halted for a brief space between 
 two dreadful extremes: that of absolute and uncontrolled 
 despotism on the one hand, and that of dreadful anarchy 
 on the other. It at first favored the latter, but soon it 
 threw the whole weight of its powerful influence into the 
 scales of the former. The result has been, what might 
 have been expected, absolute despotism and union of 
 church and state in every country of Germany, where the 
 reformation obtained a footing ! Had the reformers been 
 really the friends of humanity and of liberty; had they 
 urged the princes to redress the just grievances of the 
 peasants; the issue of that struggle would have been very 
 different. The lower orders would have been raised in 
 the scale of society, and free institutions, which have not 
 blessed Germany since the reformation, would have been 
 raised on a solid and permanent basis. 
 
 One of the most famous Protestant historians of the day, 
 M. Guizot, the present minister of France, tells us, in his 
 "Lectures on Civilization in Modern Europe;" **that 
 the emancipation of the human mind, [by the reformation!) 
 and absolute monarchy triumphed simultaneously through- 
 out Europe."* All who have but glanced at the political 
 history of Europe in the sixteenth century, must at once 
 see the truth of this remark. In the Protestant kingdoms 
 of Europe, the rule suffers no exception: in all of them, 
 absolute monarchy, in its most consolidated and despotic 
 form, dates precisely from the period of the reformation. 
 
 Witness Prussia, Denmark, Sweden, and, we may add, 
 England : for it is certain, that for one hundred and fifty 
 years following the reformation in England, the liberties 
 of the people were crushed ; the privileges secured by the 
 Catholic magna charta were wantonly trampled under 
 foot; and royal prerogative swallowed up every other ele- 
 ment of government. It was only at the period of the re- 
 volution in 1688, that the principles oi magna cAartawere 
 
 * P. 300 of Lectures, Sic. American edit. 1 vol. 12mo. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 291 
 
 again feebly asserted, and partially restored to their pro- 
 per influence in the government.* 
 
 In Catholic countries, the necessity of strong measures 
 of precaution against the seditions and tumults occasioned 
 by the reformation in every place where it had made its 
 appearance, tended powerfully to strengthen the arm of 
 the executive : and in the general ferment of the times, 
 the people willingly resigned most of the civil privileges 
 they had enjoyed during the middle ages, in order, by in- 
 creasing the power of their rulers, the more effectually to 
 stem the torrent of innovation, and to avert the threatened 
 evils of anarchy. Thus the political tendency of the re- 
 formation, both directly and indirectly, favored the intro- 
 duction of absolute systems of government throughout 
 Europe. 
 
 And thus do we owe to that "glorious reformation," the 
 despotic governments, the vast standing armies, and we 
 may add, the immense public debts and the burdensome 
 taxation, of most of the European governments ! M. Gui- 
 zot's assertion is well founded, both in the principles of 
 political philosophy, and in the facts of history. We may 
 however remark, that it was a strange "emancipation of 
 the human mind" truly, which thus avowedly led to the 
 " triumph of absolute monarchy throughout Europe !" 
 
 It would seem that Switzerland at least was an excep- 
 tion to M. Guizot's sweeping assertion ; as absolute mon- 
 archy never was established in its cantons, even after the 
 reformation ! But the reader of Swiss history will not fail 
 to observe that wherever Protestantism was established in 
 that country, there the democratic principle was weak- 
 ened, the legislative councils unduly interfered in spiritual 
 matters, and despotism thus often triumphed in the much 
 abused name of liberty. Those cantons of Switzerland 
 are the freest which have remained faithful to the Catho- 
 
 * See an able essay on this subject in Nos. xv, xviii, xix, of the 
 Dublin Review, "on arbitrary power, Popery, Protestantism;" repub- 
 lished in a neat 12mo. volume by M. Fithian, Philadelphia, 1842, p. 251. 
 
293 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 lie religion. In them, you read of no persecution of Pro- 
 testants for conscience' sake, of no attempts to unite church 
 and state, and of little departure in any respect, from the 
 original Catholic charter of Swiss liberties. 
 
 It is a remarkable fact, that the three cantons which first 
 asserted Swiss liberty — those of Schweitz, Uri and Unter- 
 wald — have all continued faithful to the Catholic church ; 
 as well as to the good old principles of democracy bequeathed 
 to them by the Catholic founders of their republic, Wil- 
 liam Tell, Furst and Melchtal. It was under these re- 
 nowned leaders, that the troops of the three cantons just 
 named fought, 1S09, the memorable battle of Morgarten, 
 which drove the Austrians from Switzerland, and caused 
 the banner of Swiss independence to float triumphant over 
 a people, as free as the air which stirred its expansive folds ! 
 
 M. D'Aubigne admits, and is sadly puzzled to account 
 for, this stern adherence of the oldest and freest Swiss 
 cantons to the Catholic faith. He explains it, by appeal- 
 ing to the inscrutable ways of the providence of God! 
 **But if the Helvetic towns," he says "open and accessi- 
 ble to ameliorations, were likely to be drawn early within 
 the current of the reformation, the case was very different 
 with the mountain districts. It might have been thought 
 that these communities, more simple and energetic than 
 their confederates in the towns, would have embraced 
 with ardor a doctrine, of which the characteristics were 
 simplicity and force ; but He who said — ' at that time two 
 men shall be in the field, the one shall be taken and the 
 other left' — saw fit to leave these mountaineers, while he 
 took the men of the plain. Perhaps an attentive observer 
 might havfi discerned some symptoms of the difference, 
 which was about to manifest itself between the people of 
 the town and the hills. Ihielligence had not penetrated 
 to those heights. Those cantons which had founded Swiss 
 liberty, proud of the part they had played in the grand 
 struggle for independence, were not disposed to be tamely 
 instructed by their younger brethren of the plain. Why, 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 293 
 
 they might ask, should they change the faith in which they 
 had expelled the Austrians, and which had consecrated 
 by altars all the scenes of their triumphs ? Their priests 
 were the only enlightened guides to whom they could ap- 
 ply ; their worship and their festivals were occupation and 
 diversion for their tranquil lives, and enlivened the silence 
 of their peaceful retreats. They continued closed against 
 religious innovations."* 
 
 Sure enough : why should they change the religion 
 which had sealed their dear liberties with its divine sanc- 
 tion, and the principles and the worship of which were 
 so closely interwoven with their most cherished reminis- 
 cences } *' Intelligence had not penetrated to those 
 heights," forsooth ! They were not sufficiently enlightened 
 to perceive, — what no one has yet perceived — that the 
 seditions and tumults which every where marked the pro- 
 gress of the reformation, were favorable to liberty! They 
 may bless the day, in which tliey took the resolution to 
 adhere to the faith of their patriotic forefathers : and, from 
 their mountain heights, amidst " their peaceful retreats," 
 they may look down with proud complacency on their 
 "brethren of the plain" torn by civil factions and reli- 
 gious dissensions — persecuting and proscribing each other 
 — all in consequence of their having had the "intelli- 
 gence" to embrace the "glorious reformation!" 
 
 John Quincy Adams, the " old man eloquent," has 
 offered a more plausible solution of the difficulty which so 
 sadly puzzled the mind of M. D'Aubigne. In a recent 
 speech at Buffalo, he said that "liberty was a mountain 
 nymph," who loved always to breathe the purest air, and 
 to dwell in the most lofty situations, nearest to heaven ! 
 The old Swiss cantons had an instinctive feeling of the 
 truth of this beautiful and poetic thought. They loved 
 liberty, and therefore they remained Catholic !t 
 
 • Vol. 1, p. 82, 83. 
 
 f In the next chapter, we will show the political thraldom of Geneva 
 under Calrin. 
 25* 
 
294 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Did our space permit, we might here show what were 
 the political opinions of the various Catholic States of 
 Europe, adopted under the influence of the Catholic 
 church, for centuries before the reformation was heard of. 
 We might prove, that the Catholic church was the mother 
 of republics; and that, long before the reformation, every 
 important principle of free government — popular repre- 
 sentation, trial by jury, exemption from taxation without 
 the consent of the governed, habeas corpus, and the great 
 fundamental principle, that all power emanates from the 
 people — were generally recognized and firmly established. 
 "We might show, how almost every one of these sacred 
 principles was successfully trampled on and abolished by 
 that very reformation, which is forever boasting its advo- 
 cacy of free principles! But this field is so ample, and 
 withal so interesting, that we have deemed it advisable to 
 devote a special essay to the elucidation of the varied ob- 
 jects of interest it opens to the view.* By comparing the 
 political state of Europe in the good old Catholic times, 
 with what it subsequently became, after the reformation 
 ■had done its work, the reader will be best enabled to as- 
 certain and appreciate the influence of this latter revolu- 
 tion on civil liberty. 
 
 4. Enough has, however, been already established to en- 
 able the impartial reader to form an enlightened judgment 
 on the political influence of the reformation. We have seen, 
 that with liberty forever on its lips, it really trampled un- 
 der foot almost every element of popular government: 
 that it weakened, and in many cases for a long time, en- 
 tirely destroyed all security to life, to property, and to 
 the pursuit of happiness: and that withal, it imposed the 
 intolerable yoke of absolute despotism, with union of 
 church and state, on the necks of its disciples ! And all 
 this, after men had been seduced to its banner, by the 
 enticing name of liberty which they read inscribed thereon ! 
 
 * See the essay " On the Influence of Catholicity on Civil Liberty." 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 295 
 
 We have not yet alluded to the influence of the reforma- 
 tion on one other essential element of free government — 
 security to character. Did the reformation provide more 
 ample security to this — the dearest perhaps of all human 
 rights, than had been ensured during the Catholic times ? 
 
 The reformation, as we have already shown, created 
 dissensions and sowed distrust among those who had been 
 hitherto united as brothers. It split up the religious world, 
 till then ''one sheepfold under one shepherd," into a hun- 
 dred warring sects. These carried on bitter controversies 
 with each other, and all united in fiercely denouncing those 
 who continued faithful to the religion of their forefathers. 
 Acrimonious denunciation, and personal recrimination, 
 with the most scurrilous abuse, were the order of the day 
 under the new state of things. The arms of ridicule, 
 caricature, misrepresentation and open calumny were 
 constantly used, in the hallowed name of the religion of 
 peace and love ! No man's character was then secure, 
 especially if he had the independence to adhere to the 
 ancient faith, and to call in question the infallibility of the 
 new dogmatizers. Does not every one recognize at once 
 the truth of this picture ? And is it not true, to a great 
 extent, even at the present day ? What security then, 
 we ask, did the reformation provide for character ^ 
 
 Thus, the reformation trampled in the dust, every im- 
 portant object of free government — security to life, to 
 character, to property, to the pursuit of happiness, to per- 
 sonal liberty ! And yet we are still to be told, that to it 
 we are indebted for all the liberty we possess ! Truly ! if 
 liberty was still preserved in some places, and if "society 
 was saved" from barbarism, it was rather in sj}ite, than in 
 consequence, of the reformation ! 
 
 In farther confirmation of what has been already ad- 
 vanced in this and the preceding chapters, we will here 
 briefly give the testimony of the two recent Protestant 
 travellers referred to above — Bremiier and Laing — in re- 
 gard to the present condition of civil and religious liberty 
 
296 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 in northern Europe, which has been for three centuries 
 under Protestant influence. 
 
 Mr. Bremner assures us that the king of Denmark is 
 ** the most uncontrolled sovereign in Europe. We have 
 looked for," he adds, ** but can find no single check to the 
 power of the king of Denmark. Laws, property, taxes, 
 all are at the mercy of his tyranny or caprice." The 
 Danes boast much of theliberationof the peasants in 1660: 
 but Mr. Bremner says, "that this was not a liberation of 
 any class in the kingdom, but the more complete subjuga- 
 tion of all classes to the crown ; and that the peasants re- 
 mained and still remain in many parts of Denmark little 
 better than serfs."* 
 
 Mr. Laing confirms this statement. This is his remarka- 
 ble language; "it is one of the most remarkable circum- 
 stances in modern history, that about the middle of the 
 seventeenth century, when all other countries were ad- 
 vancing towards constitutional arrangements of some kind 
 or other, for the security of civil and religious liberty, 
 Denmark by a formal act of her states or Diet, abrogated 
 even that shadow of a constitution, and invested her sove- 
 reigns with full despotic power to make and execute law, 
 without any check or control on their absolute authority. 
 Lord Molesworth, who wTote an account of Denmark in 
 1692, thirty-two years after this singular transaction, 
 makes the curious observation — • that in the Roman Catho- 
 lic religion there is a resisting principle to absolute civil 
 power, from the division of authority with the heads of the 
 church at Rome ; but in the North, the Lutheran church 
 is entirely subservient to the civil power, and the whole 
 of the Northern people of Protestant countries, have lost 
 their liberties ever since they changed their religion for a 
 better.'' .... * The blind obedience which is destructive 
 of natural liberty, is, he conceives, more firmly established 
 
 * In the work cited above, chap. viii. — See Dublin Review for 
 May, 1843. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 297" 
 
 in the Northern kingdoms bj the entire and sole depen- 
 dence of the clergy upon the prince, without the inter- 
 ference of any spiritual superior, as that of the Pope 
 among Romanists (!), than in the countries which remained 
 Catholic.'"* 
 
 This observation of Lord Molesworth is clearly grounded 
 in history; and Mr. Laing confirms its truth in his work 
 on Sweden. He says: "the Swede has no freedom of 
 mind, no power of dissent in religious opinion from the 
 established church; because although toleration nominally 
 exists, a man not baptized, confirmed and instructed by 
 the clergyman of the establishment, could not communi- 
 cate in the established church, and could not marry, or 
 hold office, or exercise any act of majority as a citizen — 
 would, in fact, be an outlaw !" 
 
 He then goes on to prove that there is in Sweden a most 
 rigid form of inquisition, which annually, even at this day, 
 severely punishes from forty to fifty persons for alleged 
 offences against religion. " The crime of * mockery of the 
 public service of God, or contemptuous behaviour during 
 the same,' " he says, *' is the first in the rubrick of the se- 
 cond class of crimes : that is, it comes after murder, blas- 
 phemy, sodomy, but before perjury, forgery, or theft. It 
 is, evidently, a very undefined crime, but is visited with 
 punishment in chains for various terms of years, as a crime 
 against the church establishment. Between 1830 and 1 836, 
 not fewer than two hundred and forty -two persons have 
 been condemned to chains for this crime in Sweden. Who 
 will say, that the Inquisition was abolished by Luther's 
 reformation ? It has only been incorporated v/ith the state 
 in Lutheran countries, and exercised by the church through 
 the ecclesiastical department of government in the civil 
 courts, instead of in the church courts. The thing itself 
 remains in vigor ; Lord Molesworth was right when he 
 said, that the whole of the Northern people of Lutheran 
 
 * Work cited above, chap. viii. 
 
298 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 countries had lost their liberties ever since they changed 
 their religion for a better." (worse?) 
 
 In Sweden, and in fact in all Northern Europe, the 
 lower orders are little better than slaves. The servant 
 may be cudgelled by his master, and no matter how bar- 
 barously he be treated, provided he be neither killed nor 
 maimed, he has no legal recourse. Mr. Laing tells us as 
 much. ** The servant has no right of action on the master 
 for personal maltreatment, and during his time of service 
 has no more rights than a slave." " These people," he 
 adds, " are trained to obedience, and in that class, to con- 
 sider nothing their own but what is left to them by the 
 clergy and the government, to whom, in the first place, 
 their labors, time, and property must belong. A country 
 in this state, wants the very foundation on which civil 
 liberty must stand — a sense of independence and property 
 among the people." 
 
 He sums up his remarks on the political and religious 
 condition of Sweden as follows : — " Such a state of laws 
 and institutions in a country, reduces the people as moral 
 beings to the state of a soldiery, who, if they fulfil their 
 regimental duties and military regulations, consider them- 
 selves absolved from all other restraints on conduct. This 
 is the condition of the Swedish people. The mass of the 
 nation is in a state of pupilage, living like soldiers in a 
 regiment, under classes or oligarchies of privileged bodies 
 — the public functionaries, clergy, nobility, owners of 
 estate exempt from taxation, and incorporated traders ex- 
 empt from competition. Under this pressure in Sweden 
 upon industry, property, liberty, free opinion and free will, 
 education is but a source of amusement, or of speculation 
 in science, without influence on private morals, or public 
 aftairs; and religion, a superstitious observance of church 
 days, forms and ordinances, with a blind veneration for 
 the clergy," &c. 
 
 The politico-religious condition of Prussia is not a whit 
 more flattering. The serf system continued to prevail in 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVIL LIBERTY. 299 
 
 this kingdom up to the beginning of the present century; 
 and Mr. Laing assures us, that "the condition of these 
 born -serfs" — the great body of the people — ** was very- 
 similar to that of the negro slaves on the West India es- 
 tate during the apprenticeship term, before their final 
 emancipation." 
 
 He proves that the so much vaunted system of common 
 school education in Prussia, is little more than a powerful 
 state engine to enslave the people. "This educational 
 system is in fact, from the cradle to the grave, nothing 
 but a deception, a delusion put upon the noblest principle 
 of human nature — the desire for intellectual development 
 —a deception practised for the paltry political end of 
 rearing the individual to be part and parcel of an artifi- 
 cial system of despotic government, of training him to be 
 either its instrument or its slave, according to his social 
 station." 
 
 He demonstrates the utter political degradation of Prus- 
 sia, by enlarging upon the apathy with which the royal 
 fusion of the two Protestant sects into one by the late king 
 of Prussia, was viewed by the mass of the population. He 
 proves at length that the Prussian is, in every respect, the 
 veriest slave — bound hand and foot by government. 
 
 Such then has been, from unexceptionable Protestant 
 testimony, the practical influence of the reformation on 
 civil and religious liberty in those countries where that 
 influence has been least checked, and longest exercised ! ! 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE REFORMATION AT GENEVA, AND ITS INFLUENCE ON CIVIL AND 
 RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 
 
 Character of Calvinism — Reviewing in advance — Protestant iiistorians 
 — The " Registers" — M. Audin — Calvin's character — Luther and 
 Calvin compared — Early liberties of Geneva — The " Libertines" — 
 Blue laws — Spy-system — Persecution — Death of Gruet — Burning of 
 Servetus — Hallam's testimony — Morals of Calvin — His zeal — His 
 complicated diseases — His last will — His awful death and mysterious 
 burial — A douceur — The inference. 
 
 The second greater branch of the reformation was that 
 established at Geneva bj John Calvin. Of all the reform- 
 ers, he was perhaps the most acute, learned, and talented. 
 And he has succeeded, better than any of them, in impres- 
 sing his own stern and morose character on the sect he 
 founded. Geneva was the centre of his operations, as 
 Wittemberg was of those of Luther, and Zurich, of those 
 of Zuingle. Starting from Geneva, Calvinism soon spread 
 through Switzerland, and extended to France, Holland, 
 Scotland and England; and even on the soil of Germany 
 itself, it was soon able to dispute the supremacy with the 
 sect there established by Luther. 
 
 We have deferred till now our account of the origin and 
 progress of Calvinism, because we intend to view it chiefly 
 in its bearing on the subjects treated of in the two previous 
 chapters — civil and religious liberty. Besides, in point 
 of time, it is posterior to the branches of the reformation 
 established by Luther and Zuingle. M. D'Aubigne's 
 
GENEVAN REFORM ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. 501 
 
 History of *' the great reformation," does not embrace 
 that of Calvinism : he merely gives us a few incidents in 
 the childhood and early youth* of the Genevan reformer ;t 
 together with a brief account of the early labors of the- 
 minister Farel, Calvin's predecessor at Geneva. As, how- 
 ever, the next volume "^of this work, if it ever appear, will 
 probably enter on this subject in full, we may be allowed 
 to anticipate somewhat, and by an honest hibernianism, to 
 review it in advance. 
 
 Much additional light has been lately shed on the his- 
 tory of early Calvinism. Protestant as well as Catholic 
 historians have labored with great success in this field. 
 Among the former, we mention as the most distinguished, 
 Galiffe, Gaberel, and Fazy. These three learned Protest- 
 ants have all contributed greatly to elucidate the history 
 of Geneva in the sixteenth century. The last named, M. 
 Fazy, published in 1838 at Geneva, his " Essay on the 
 History of the Genevan Republic, "J in which he enlarges 
 on the influence of Calvinism on the destinies of the 
 republic. The work of Gaberel, entitled " Calvin at 
 Geneva,"§ enters more directly into the subject, and fur- 
 nishes additional details. 
 
 But, for ability, and research into the history of early 
 Calvinism, they are both perhaps surpassed by M. Galiffe. 
 His three volumes of " Genealogical Notices of Genevan 
 Families, "11 unfold much of the secret history of Geneva 
 under the theocracy of Calvin. He has ferreted out and 
 published to the world the famous ** Registers" of the Gen- 
 evan consistory and council during the sixteenth century. 
 These had been long lost to the world. The friends of 
 
 * He takes special care, however, not to allude to a certain passage 
 in Calvin's youth, of which hereafter. 
 
 t Book xii, at the end of the third volume. 
 
 \ " Essai d'un precis de I'Histoire de la Rep. Genevaise," 2 vols. 8vo. 
 § " Calvin a Geneve," 8vo. 1836. 
 
 II " Notices Genealogiques sur ies Families Genevaises," 3 vols. 
 1831, 1836. 
 26 
 
302 d'axjbigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Calvin had carefully concealed them, out of respect to 
 their father in the faith. 
 
 When quite recently, M. Vemet requested the Gene- 
 van secretary of state, M . Chapeau rouge, to communicate 
 to him the order of proceedings touching Servetus, the 
 council of state, to whom the matter was referred, refused 
 to grant the request. However, M. Calandrini, the Syn- 
 dic of Geneva, answered, that *' the conduct of Calvin and 
 the council in that affair were such, that they wished to 
 bury it in deep oblivion."* But thanks to the indefatiga- 
 ble researches of Galiffe, and to the growing indifference 
 of the ministers of Geneva for the memory of Calvin, those 
 long hidden records of the political and religious history 
 of Geneva during Calvin's life-time, have been at length 
 revealed to the world. A Protestant has thus removed 
 the dark veil which has hung over the cradle of Calvinism 
 for centuries ! 
 
 M. Audin, in his late *' Life of Calvin, "t has availed 
 himself of the labors of all his predecessors in this inter- 
 esting branch of religious history. He qualified himself 
 for his task by much patient labor and research. He as- 
 sures us that there was not a library of any note in France 
 or Germany which he did not visit.:}: In his travels, 
 he discovered many letters of Calvin hitherto unpublished. 
 Among these is his famous letter to Farel, which he found 
 in the hand-writing of Calvin himself, in the royal library 
 at Paris.§ The publication of this letter — which is of un- 
 doubted genuinenessll — has shed much additional light on 
 the agency of Calvin in compassing the death of Servetus. 
 
 In what we will say on the history of the reformation at 
 Geneva, we shall follow all these authors. INIore particu- 
 
 * The letter of the Syndic is published in full by Galiffe in his "No- 
 tices" sup. cit. 
 
 t "Histoire de la Vie, des Ouvrages et des Doctrines de Calvin" — 
 ParM. Audin, auteurde "I'Histoirede Luther," — 2 vols. 8vo. Paris, 1843. 
 
 X Introduction, p. 19. § Published in full, vol. ii, p. 313, seqq. 
 
 II See Hallam—" Hist, of Literature," vol. 1, p, 280.— Note. 
 
GENEVAN REFORM ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. 303 
 
 larly will we avail ourselves of the facts disclosed by M. 
 Audin. Our plan does not of course require, nor will the 
 limits of one chapter permit, any very lengthy details on 
 the history of early Calvinism. The character of this 
 branch of the "great reformation," is, in fact, nearly the 
 same as that of those of Wittemberg and Zurich, of which 
 we have already treated at some length. Similar means 
 were also adopted to bring it about. Its effects on society, 
 as we shall endeavor to show, were also nearly the same.* 
 
 John Calvin was born at Noyon, in France, on the 10th 
 of July, 1509, and he died at Geneva, on the 19th of May, 
 1564, in the fifty-fifth year of his age. The first feature 
 that strikes us in his character is his untiring industry 
 and restless activity. Whether we view him as a student 
 frequenting the schools at Paris — as a minister at Geneva, 
 concerting with the ministers Farel and Froment his plans 
 for carrying out the reformation — as an exile at Stras- 
 burg, intermeddling with the affairs of German diets and 
 German reformers — or, after his return to Geneva from 
 the exile into which his restlessness had driven him — 
 throughout his whole life, in fact, he is the same busy, in- 
 triguing, restless character. He was never asleep at his 
 post ; he was always on the alert ; he toiled day and night 
 in carrying out his plans. 
 
 He was as cool and calculating as he was active. He 
 seldom failed to put down an enemy — and every oppo- 
 nent was his enemy — because he could seldom be taken at 
 a disadvantage. His vigilance detected their plans, and 
 his prompt activity thwarted them. Though very irrita- 
 ble, and inexorable in his anger, yet his passion did not 
 cloud his understanding, nor hinder the carrying out of 
 
 * Those who may wish to see a full history of Calvinism in its various 
 workings in different countries of Europe, are referred to the " Oral 
 Discussion" between Rev. Messrs. Hughes and Breckenridge — 2d QxLcst. 
 The former has anatomized Calvinism with all the sang froid and skill 
 of a Dupuytren or a Dudley : while the latter quietly looked on, in dis- 
 respectful silence !^ 
 
304 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 his deliberate purpose. In temperament he was cold and 
 repulsive — even sour and morose. He mingled little with 
 others, and was as reserved in his conversations as he was 
 fond of retirement and study. 
 
 If he had any heart, he never gave evidence of the fact 
 by the manifestation of feeling. At the death of his first 
 and only child, he shed not one tear. In a letter to the 
 minister Viret, he coldly informed him of the fact, and 
 invited him to pay him a visit at Strasburg, telling him, as 
 an inducement to come, *that they could enjoy them- 
 selves, and talk together for half a day.'* He never man- 
 ifested the least sympathy for those in distress, though in 
 many cases he was himself the cause of their sufferings. 
 Thus, when Servetus, on hearing that he was condemned 
 to the stake, gave way to his feelings in a burst of agony 
 and tears, Calvin mocked at his distress by writing to one 
 of his friends that * he bellowed after the manner of a 
 Spaniard — mercy, inercy.^i 
 
 Thus also, when Castalio, one of the most excellent 
 men and accomplished scholars of his age, was on the 
 very verge of starvation at Berne, whither he had re- 
 paired to escape Calvin's persecution at Geneva, the re- 
 former had the cold-heartedness to remind him that he 
 had fed at his table in Strasburg; and, to do away with 
 the effect of Castalio's arguments, which he found it dif- 
 ficult to answer, he accused him of theft ! To the first 
 charge Castalio answered, *I lodged with you, it is true, 
 about a week .... but I paid you for what I had eaten. 
 How cordially you and Beza hate me. 'J The charge of 
 theft he indignantly repelled as follows : *And who told 
 you that ? Your spies have deceived you. Reduced to 
 the most frightful misery .... I took a hook, and went 
 to gather the wood which floated upon the Rhine, which 
 
 * See Audin, Vie de Calvin, vol. i, p. 351, note, for Calvin's words. 
 t " Ut tantum Hispanico more reboaret : 3Iisencordia, misericor- 
 dia /" Ibid. vol. ii, p. 304. 
 
 X Castalio— Defensio, pp. 26, 40. Apud Audin, ibid. vol. ii, p. 239. 
 
GENEYAN REFORM ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. 305 
 
 belonged to no one, and which I fished up, and burnt 
 afterwards at my house to warm myself. Do you call 
 this theft?'* Castalio, thus hunted down by his inexora- 
 ble enemy, literally died of hunger while struggling to 
 maintain, by his learning, a wife and eight children. But 
 he had had the misfortune to differ with Calvin on pre- 
 destination while at Geneva, and the boldness to reprove 
 him and his colleagues with an intolerant spirit. * Paul,' 
 he had told them, * chastised himself, you torment others. 't 
 
 Calvin's personal appearance was an index to his 
 character. He was of middle height, of a lean and sup- 
 ple figure, with a contracted chest, with the veins of his 
 neck full and prominent, his mouth well made and large, 
 his lips bluish, his forehead expanded, bony, and fur- 
 rowed with wrinkles, his eye restless, and, when he was 
 excited, darting fire. His ceaseless labors caused him to 
 become prematurely gra}', and gave him a pale and ca- 
 daverous aspect. He was a man from whose appearance 
 YOU would expect little that was not the result of hard 
 labor. 
 
 What a contrast between him and Luther! Luther, 
 a creature of impulse, a portly ex-friar, fond of good 
 cheer, and never more at home than when conversing: 
 with boon companions at the Black Eagle tavern : Cal- 
 vin, meagre, silent, and morose, shut up within himself, 
 chilling all with his reserve — all head and no heart. In 
 the pulpit the difference was most marked. Luther spoke 
 extemporaneously, and, without method or choice of 
 words, bore all before him by a torrent of passionate in- 
 vective and boisterous declamation. Calvin was cold and 
 unimpassioned, his diction was pure and polished, his 
 thoughts clear and precise, and his whole manner calcu- 
 lated to make a more deep and lasting impression on his 
 hearers. Calvin's was the eloquence of the head, Lu- 
 ther's of the heart. 
 
 * Defens. p. 12, ibid. p. 248. f Ibid- P- 234. 
 
306 d'aubigne'b history reviewed. 
 
 But they agreed in one thing — thej both crushed tne 
 liberties of the people in the countries which were the re- 
 spective theatres of their labors. Their profession of 
 breaking the bonds of religious slavery, and of securing 
 political freedom to the people, was all talk. It is too 
 late in the day to hold them up as the champions of popu- 
 lar rights. The effect of the reformation, both at Wit- 
 temberg and at Geneva, was to weaken the democratic 
 principle; in both places the rights of the lower orders 
 were trampled under foot. In Germany Luther conjured 
 up a storm which he could not control. We have al- 
 ready shown how he first stirred up the people to revolt, 
 and then clamored for their blood, and how he succeeded 
 in destroying their liberties. 
 
 Calvin also crushed the liberties of the people, but in 
 a more insidious manner : he robbed them of their free- 
 dom in the name of liberty. A foreigner, he insinuated 
 himself into Geneva, and, serpent-like, coiled himself 
 around the very heart of the republic which had adopted 
 him ; nor did he relax his hold so long as he lived. He 
 thus stung the bosom which had warmed him. That this 
 language is not too strong, the following plain statement 
 of facts will show. 
 
 The cantons of Switzerland formed one of the many 
 republics of the middle ages. They owed all their liber- 
 ties, and their very existence as a distinct government, to 
 Catholics in Catholic times. William Tell, Melchtal, 
 and Furst were the fathers of Swiss liberty. In 1307 
 was fought by these heroes the famous battle of Morgar- 
 ten, which drove the Austrians from Switzerland, and 
 secured Swiss independence. The bishops of Geneva 
 had been its greatest benefactors. They had more than 
 once protected the rights of the city against the aggres- 
 sions of the dukes of Savoy themselves. One of them — 
 Adhemar Fabri — as early as 1387, had written out the 
 laws and privileges of the city; and the book was vene- 
 rated as containing the magna charta of Genevan liber- 
 
GENEVAN REFORM ITS INFLUKNCB ON LIBERTY. S07 
 
 ties. Those laws provided that the citizens had the sole 
 right of inflicting capital punishment ; that none should 
 be tortured without the consent of the people; that, from 
 the rising to the setting of the sun, the citizens were the 
 sole guardians of the city; and that no agent of the duke 
 or bishop could exercise any power during that time, and 
 that the citizens alone had the right to elect their burgo- 
 masters.* 
 
 Calvin trampled every one of these privileges in the 
 dust. At the instigation of the ministers Farel and Fro- 
 ment, Geneva had already cast off the mild yoke of her 
 episcopal court. Instead of it, she was doomed to wear, 
 riveted on her neck, the iron yoke of Calvin's consistory. 
 This spiritual court of Calvin's devising gradually mo- 
 nopolized all power in Geneva. The hitherto free coun- 
 cil of the burgomasters became a mere tool in its hands. 
 With its appliances of preachers, elders, and spies, it 
 penetrated every where, and struck terror into every 
 bosom. The pulpit was then a powerful instrument in 
 the hands of the police. Every one trembled at the de- 
 nunciation of the ministers, for it was sure to be followed 
 by ulterior consequences. 
 
 Whoever will read M. Audin's book, and the Protest- 
 ant historians referred to above, must be convinced of the 
 truth of these remarks. Our limits will not allow co- 
 pious details : we must confine ourselves to some of the 
 more prominent facts which support the statement just 
 made. 
 
 In the beginning of the sixteenth century, Geneva was 
 the great commercial heart of Europe. Occupying a cen- 
 tral position between Italy, Germany, and France, it was 
 a common mart for the goods of each. The enterprising 
 flocked there from all parts of Europe. It was also a city 
 
 * Hottinger, Hist, des Eglises de la Suisse ; Audin, vol. ii, p. 15. 
 Those laws are written in the quaint old Latin of that period, and pre- 
 sent a strange mixture of the old Savoyard Patois with the classical 
 Latin. 
 
508 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 of refuge for all the uneasy and restless spirits who, for 
 religious or political intrigues, had been forced to leave 
 their own country. The population of Geneva was, in 
 consequence, of a most motley character. Calvin was 
 among the many French refugees who took shelter there. 
 Before his arrival, the reformation had been already 
 effected by the agency of Farel and Fremont. Its course 
 had been marked, as elsewhere, by pillage of the churches, 
 by seizure of church property, by destruction of works of 
 art, by robbery and sacrilege, and by massacres. You 
 might have traced it, by its effects, as you could have 
 traced the march of an army of Huns in the fifth century. 
 La Soeur Jeanne de Jussie, a nun of St. Clare, an eye- 
 witness of these horrors, and a sufferer by them, has left 
 a most graphic description of them, and M. Audin has 
 given us an abstract of her interesting work.* 
 
 Such was the state of things when Calvin came to Ge- 
 neva. Among its citizens, the meclianics and common 
 laborers formed a numerous class. These constituted a 
 distinct political party, who viewed with an evil eye the 
 ascendancy acquired by Calvin and the other foreign 
 refugees. Calvin could not brook them, and styled them 
 sneeringly the party of the ' Libertines.' And the his- 
 tory of his protracted and bitter contest with them forms 
 the matter of many long chapters in M. Audin's book.t 
 The high-priest at Geneva could not bear them, because, 
 in their evening-parties,! they took the unwarrantable 
 liberty of laughing at him — at his cadaverous figure, his 
 withered hands, and his nasal twang in the pulpit; and 
 they had even gone so far as to call him ' le renard 
 Franqois,^ or * the French fox.^ 
 
 Besides, they had the unpardonable effrontery to drink 
 healths, to dance, and otherwise amuse themselves when 
 the labors of the day were over. Calvin's sour and mo- 
 
 * Vol. i, p. 195 to 215. 
 t Chapters i, vi, vUi, and xv of vol. ii. X Audin, vol. i\, p. 13, seq. 
 
GENEVAN REFORM — ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. S09 
 
 rose temperament could ill brook this cheerfulness, and 
 especially those sallies at his expense. Besides, he was 
 troubled with the asthma, and was subject to vertigo and 
 headach. And what right had tliose vulgar clowns to 
 shock his nerves, or to disturb his sleep ? What right 
 had thej to their old and long-cherished national amuse- 
 ments, if it was in the least displeasing to the humor of 
 this splenetic stranger ? What right had they to sing, or 
 to laugh at his peculiarities ? If it was not downright 
 blasphemy, as the minister more than once intimated from 
 the pulpit, it was at least very impolite in them not to 
 wear longer faces, at least while he was in the city. 
 
 Calvin determined to put down the " Libertines ;" and, 
 to effect his purpose, he procured the enactment of a body 
 of laws, of which we will give a few specimens. They 
 show us what was the spirit, and what the modus operandi 
 of Calvinism at its birth. " They punished with impris- 
 onment the lady who arranged her hair with too much 
 coquetry (the ministers ivere to judge), and even her 
 chambermaid who assisted at her toilet ; the merchant 
 who played at cards, the peasant who spoke too harshly 
 to his beast, and the citizen who had not extinguished his 
 lamp at the hour appointed by law."* ** Men were for- 
 bidden to dance with women, or to wear figured hose, or 
 flowered breeches."! " Three tanners were put in prison 
 for three days, on bread and water, for having eaten at 
 breakfast three dozen pieces of pastry, which was great 
 dissoluteness."^ *' They forbade any one to have a cross, 
 or any other badge of popery." "A merchant who sold 
 wafers marked with a cross was fined sixty sols, and his 
 wafers were cast into the fire as scandalous."§ 
 
 Wo to him who did not uncover at the approach of 
 Calvin ; he was fined. Wo to him that gave him a flat 
 contradiction ; he was brought before the consistory, and 
 
 * Audin, vol. ii, p. 12. 
 
 t libid. p. 1.38, from Register of Geneva, 1522, July 14. 
 
 X Ibid. Register, 13th February, 1558. § Ibid. p. ir»» 
 
510 D- AUBIGNE S HISTORY REVIEWED. 
 
 Tnenaced with excommunication.* Wo to the girl that 
 presented herself to be married with a bunch of flowers in 
 her bonnet, if her chastity was suspected b_y the consist- 
 ory. Wo to him who danced on the day of his marriage : 
 he was imprisoned for three days. Wo to the young 
 married lady if she wore shoes according to the present 
 fashion of Berne : she was publicly reprimanded."! 
 
 The Calvinistic legislation regulated even the num- 
 ber of plates which should appear on the table of the rich, 
 and the quality of butter to be sold, &c."j: *' All were 
 ordered to eat meat on Fridays and Saturdays, under pen- 
 alty of imprisonment ; and the night-watch was ordered 
 to proclaim that no one should make slashed doublets or 
 hose, or wear them hereafter under penalty of sixty sols."§ 
 ** Chapuis was put in prison for having persisted in call- 
 ing his child Claude, although the minister wished to call 
 him Abraham. He had said that, rather than do this, he 
 would keep his child fifteen years without baptism. || He 
 was kept in prison four days." " One day a relation pre- 
 sented himself at the altar with a young girl of Nantes 
 to be married. The minister, Abel Poupin, asked him: 
 Will you be faithful to your wife ? The bridegroom, in- 
 stead of answering yes, only inclined his head. Hence 
 great tumult among the assistants. He was sent to 
 prison, obliged to ask pardon of the young lady's uncle, 
 and condemned to bread and water. "^ 
 
 We might multiply facts of the kind, to exhibit the na- 
 ture of early Calvinistic legislation. It was blue enough 
 in all conscience; and the pious legislators who enacted 
 the blue laws of Connecticut could at least boast prece- 
 dent, if not common sense, for their enactments. The 
 above, however, are but scraps of Genevese legislation 
 under Calvin's theocracy. To understand the spirit of 
 
 * Ibid. Register, 31st Dec. 1543. 
 
 t Reglement de Police, 29th July, 1549, ibid. J Ibid. 
 
 § Register, 16th April, 1.543 ; Audin, vol. ii, p. 185. 
 
 II Register, 1546 ; ibid. IT Ibid. p. 1S6. 
 
GENEVAN REFORM ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. Sll 
 
 his laws, in all its length and breadth, you must read the 
 criminal prosecutions of Berthellier, Gruet, Gentilis, Bol- 
 sec, Ami Perrin, Francis Favre, and Servetus, copious 
 portions of which are spread before us by M. Audin from 
 the original documents. We may have occasion to refer 
 to some of these a little later. 
 
 To ferret out and punish the infractors of these laws, 
 Calvin established a regular system of espionage. ** He 
 kept in his pay secret informers, in order to learn the se- 
 crets of families."* "Besides these, there was another 
 band of spies, the elders, recognized by law, who could 
 penetrate once a week into the most mysterious sanctu- 
 ary of domestic life, in order to report to the consistory 
 what they might see and hear."t *' In one single year 
 the consistory instituted more than two hundred prosecu- 
 tions for blasphemy, calumny, obscene language, lechery, 
 insults to Calvin, offences against the ministers, and at- 
 tempts against the French exiles. "J The liberties of the 
 city were crushed, and every one trembled for his life ! 
 The spies whom Calvin employed were chiefly from 
 among the most degraded of the French refugees ; and 
 this odious practice was carried to such length that the 
 citizens trembled at the approach of one of these sinister 
 individuals. 
 
 A curious instance of the 7nodus operandi of these mis- 
 creants is found from the Register§ of Geneva. " Master 
 Raymond, a spy, was passing by the bridge, when he 
 heard a voice saying ' go to the devil P " *' Who is that," 
 asked Raymond of Dominie Clement, who was present. 
 Dominie answered, *' tis a girl who is wishing the ' Renard,' 
 or * Fox,' at the devil." Raymond thought the man meant 
 to insult him : *' You are a fox yourself," says he to Do- 
 minie, who answered, *• I am as good a man as you are, 
 and have not at least been banished from my country." 
 
 * Audin, vol. ii, 149. t Ibid. p. 150. 
 
 I Ibid. § Register, 3 Sep. 1547. 
 
512 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Dominie was denounced to the consistory, which sharply 
 reproved him. On his wishing to justify himself, Calvin 
 silenced him, saying, ** hush, you have blasphemed against 
 God in saying ' I have not been banished.' "* 
 
 M. Audin furnishes us with a number of such facts. — 
 Every enemy of Calvin was closely watched, and could 
 scarcely escape being denounced. Wo to him that smiled 
 while Calvin was preaching, even though he treated his 
 hearers as " letchers, blasphemers and dogs." *' Three 
 persons who had smiled at a sermon of Calvin, on seeing 
 a man fall from his chair asleep, were denounced, con- 
 demned to three daysof imprisonment on bread and water, 
 and to beg pardon. "t These spies laid snares for the sim- 
 ple. They asked a Norman who was going to Montpellier, 
 whether he intended to change his religion." The Nor- 
 man replied, — " I dont think the church is so narrowly 
 bounded, as to hang from the girdle of M. Calvin," He 
 was denounced and banished ! J 
 
 Talk of the Spanish Inquisition after this ! And yet 
 these are not the darkest shades of the picture. Far from 
 it. They are mere bagatelles, compared to the horrible 
 facts developed in the criminal prosecutions alluded to 
 above. Whoever opposed Calvin, in religion or politics, 
 was hunted down and his blood sought at his instigation. 
 He never forgave a personal injury. In regard to his ene- 
 mies, he was as watchful as a tiger preparing to pounce on 
 its prey — and as treacherous! This is strong language; 
 but it is more than justified by the official records of Ge- 
 neva. We will present a few of the most striking facts, 
 regretting that the limits of one chapter will not allow of 
 more details. 
 
 How sanguinary is the spirit breathed in this extract of 
 his letter to the Marquis de Pouet: "Do not hesitate to 
 rid the country of those fanatical fellows, (faquins) who 
 in their conversation seek to excite the people against us, 
 
 * See Audin, vol. 2, p. 167. \ Audin 2, 171. % Ibid. 2, 179. 
 
GENEVAN REFORM ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. 513 
 
 who blacken our conduct, and would fain make our belief 
 pass as a revery : such monsters ought to be strangled, as I 
 did, 171 the execution 0/ Michael Servetus, the Spaniard.^^* 
 His vindictive conduct towards Pierre Ameaux, a member 
 of the Genevan Council of twenty-five, is a fit commen- 
 tary on this sentiment. At a sujDper, this man, inflamed 
 with wine, had said some hard things of Calvin. At his 
 table another man, Henry de la Mar, had also said, amidst 
 the general applause of the guests : " that Calvin was a 
 spiteful and vindictive man, who never pardoned any one, 
 against vjhom he had a grudge.'^'' — The next morning, 
 Ameaux was cited before the Council, where he excused 
 himself on the ground that he was excited with wine. 
 The Council fined him thirty thalers — a large sum at that 
 time. " On hearing of this sentence, Calvin arose, donned 
 his doctor's dress, and escorted by the ministers and el- 
 ders, penetrated into the hall of the Council, demanded 
 justice in the name of that God whom Pierre Ameaux had 
 outraged, in the name of the morals he had sullied, and of 
 the laws he had violated ; and declared that he would quit 
 Geneva, if the man were not compelled to make the amende 
 honoralle — a public apology, bareheaded, at the city Ho- 
 tel," and in two other public places ! The Council yielded ; 
 and " the next day. Ameaux, half naked, with a torch in 
 his hand, accused himself in a loud voice of having know- 
 ingly and wickedly offended God, and begged pardon of 
 his fellovv-citizens."t What is to be thought of a man, 
 who could thus crush a penitent and stricken enemy ! Had 
 he the spirit of that God who '* would not break the 
 bruised reed ?" 
 
 Henry !a Mar, the other culprit, did not escape. He 
 was dogged by Texier, one of Calvin's spies, who extracted 
 from his lips under an oath of secrecy, some words disre- 
 spectful to his master. Texier came running to Calvin 
 
 * Ibid. p. 172. 
 t See the whole account, from original documents, in Audin, vol. ii, 
 p. ISl, seq., where also a number of similar facts are recounted. 
 27 
 
314 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 with the news, saying that he did not think himself bound 
 by his oath, when the public good required the disclosure. 
 "Calvin accused La Mar, caused him to lose his situa- 
 tion, and had him condemned to prison for three days. 
 The judges assigned as their reason, *' that he had blamed 
 M. Calvin !"* 
 
 Of a similar character was the prosecution, at the in- 
 stance of Calvin, of Francis Favre, a veteran soldier of 
 the republic and a counsellor of the city. He had been 
 at a wedding where they had danced all the evening, and 
 where he was accused by one of Calvin's spies of having 
 used seditious language. Among the ten specifications 
 against him, were several things he had said against Cal- 
 vin ; and the last and most grievous was, that he had, on 
 being conducted to prison, cried out — "Lilerty! Liberty 11 
 I would give a thousand dollars to have a General Coun- 
 cil 1" (of the Burgomasters.) He v/as sentenced to beg 
 pardon publicly. The veteran refused; he was sent to 
 prison for three weeks, and was then liberated only at the 
 instance of a deputation from Berne !t 
 
 Calvin also sought the life of Ami Perrin, the captain 
 general of Geneva. Perrin's wife had been guilty of 
 dancing on the territory of Berne. Calvin sought to en- 
 trap Perrin by means of M egret, one of his hired spies. 
 This miscreant denounced Perrin before the council ; and 
 he was in consequence thrown into prison — Calvin thirsted 
 for his blood. But the people loved Perrin. Tlie council 
 of the two hundred assembled to try him for his life. A 
 reaction took place — Perrin was about to be liberated, and 
 Megret was openly denounced ! At this juncture, Calvin 
 entered the council hall — the people received him with 
 cries of " death to Calvin !" Calvin waved his hand, ad- 
 dressed them, calmed their fury; but barely succeeded by 
 his eloquence in saving his own life !J 
 
 * Ibid. p. 184. t Ibid. p. 189, seq. 
 
 X Ibid. p. 196, seq. By his influence, Calvin however succeeded in 
 having Perrin afterwards tried, when, tliough his life was spared, he 
 was deprived of t]ae place of captain-general ; ibid. p. 197, seq. 
 
GENEVAN REFORM ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. Sl5 
 
 In reading these details, we are forcibly reminded of 
 Marat and Robespierre, haranguing the Jacobin clubs du- 
 ring '* the reign of terror." In fact, Calvin's reign in 
 Geneva, was truly a reign of terror; and if during it, as 
 much blood did not flow as during the French Revolution, 
 it was not surely kis fault! He combined the cruelty of 
 Danton and Robespierre, with the eloquence of Marat and 
 Mirabeau, though he was much cooler, and therefore more 
 successful than any of them. 
 
 Who will not detest the cold-blooded cruelty with which 
 he hunted down and compassed the death of poor Gruet, the 
 poet?* He was accused of having affixed a placard on 
 Calvin's pulpit at St. Peter's church, in which the refor- 
 mer was severely handled. He was apprehended and his 
 papers were seized. Among these, consisting of nothing 
 but loose sheets, v/ere found some scraps of poetry and 
 other fugitive pieces, which were tortured into heresy 
 and treason. He was plied with the torture by Calvin's 
 creature, Colladon, every day for a whole month. They 
 wished him to implicate Favre or Perriu ; but though he 
 cried out in agony of torture : *' finish me, I beseech you 
 — I am dying;" he remained fiiin, and would not accuse 
 them. The council pronounced sentence of death on him. 
 Among the charges against him, the principal were : ** that 
 he had endeavored to ruin the authority of the consistory 
 — that he had menaced the ministers, and spoken ill of 
 Calvin — aud that he had conspired with tlie king of France 
 against the safety of Calvin and of the state. "t Gruet 
 died on the scaffold, but Calvin was not yet satisfied. He 
 wished that his writings should be condemned, and he 
 himself drew up a long form of condemnation of them, 
 which was approved by the council. ± Calvin alone is 
 responsible for the blood of Gruet; it yet cries aloud to 
 heaven against him ! 
 
 * He was not poet enough to excite much envy, f Aud. p. 200, seq, 
 i This document, found at Berne in the handwriting of Calvin, is 
 given in full by M. Audin, ibid. p. 244, seq. 
 
316 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 We might exhibit similar atrocities in his persecution of 
 Bolsec,* of Gentilis, of Berthillier,t and of others. But 
 we are heart-sick of these horrors, and must hasten on to 
 a conclusion. Yet we cannot wholly pass over the case 
 of Servetus, to which M. Audin devotes two whole chap- 
 ters ::|: and upon which he sheds much additional light. We 
 will state only a few prominent facts in this sad affair. 
 1st. Servetus was burnt on the 27th of October, 1553 ; 
 and as early as 1546, seven years before, Calvin had 
 thirsted fur his blood, as appears from these words, taken 
 from his famous letter to Farel, written in that year : *' If 
 he (Servetus) come here {io Geneva), and my authority be 
 considered, I will not permit him to escape with his 
 life."§ 2d. Pursuing this blood-thirsty purpose, he had 
 denounced Servetus to the police of Lyons, where he then 
 was. And when he (Servetus) had fled to Vienne, he 
 very narrowly escaped — probably with the connivance of 
 the Catholic clergy of Vienne — ^from the prison to which 
 he had been consigned, at the instigation of officers sent 
 in ^quest of him in consequence of his denunciation at 
 Lyons. II 3d. When Servetus, fleeing from his enemies, 
 passed through Geneva, Calvin denounced him and had 
 him arrested, against all the laws of God and man.^ For 
 Servetus was a stranger, only passing through Geneva ;■••* 
 and he was not responsible to the Genevan tribunals for 
 a crime which he had not committed within the Genevan 
 territory ; and this, even supposing heresy to be a crime 
 punishable by the civil laws, which it is not. 
 
 4th. Though Servetus was a poor stranger, and begged 
 for counsel to defend him, that right, not denied to the 
 meanest culprit, was refused him at the instance of Cal- 
 
 * See Audin, vol. ii, p. 245, seq. t Ibid. p. 347, seq. 
 
 X Chapters xii and xiii of vol. ii, p. 258 to 324. 
 ^ See the letter in full, vol. ii, 314, seq. || Aud. vol. ii, 285, seq. 
 
 IT Ibid. p. 287, seq. 
 ** Bancroft assigns this same reason : " Servetus did but desiie leave 
 to continue Ins journey." Hist. U. States, vol. i, p. 455. 
 
GENEVAN REFORr.I ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. 517 
 
 vin.* 5th. After Servetus had lain in prison five weeks, 
 a victim of disease and devoured by vermin, he wrote to 
 the council, stating his situation, and begging for a change 
 of linen. The council wished to grant his request, but 
 Calvin opposed it, and succeeded ! Three other letters 
 written during the following week from prison, in which 
 Servetus begged for counsel, and asked that the charges 
 against him should be specified and made known to him, 
 were answered by silence.t 6th. When, on the morn- 
 ing of his execution, Servetus sent for Calvin, and begged 
 his pardon, if he had offended him, Calvin answered him 
 with cold-hearted crueltj.J We have seen above how he 
 insulted his tears. 7th. The heartless cruelty of the 
 minister Farel, who accompanied Servetus to execution, 
 is enough to make one's blood run cold at the bare read- 
 ing of it.§ 8th. The year after the execution of Servetus, 
 in 1554, Calvin published his famous work '• de Hereticis 
 Puniendis,^'' in which he justified the whole proceeding by 
 the authority of Scripture ! W^as this man sent to reform 
 the church of God ? He was worse than the caliph of 
 Geneva, as M. Audin calls him — he was a very Nero ! - 
 Gibbon has well said of this transaction: **I am more 
 deeply scandalized at the single execution of Servetus 
 than at the hecatombs {not true) which have blazed at 
 auto dafes of Spain and Portugal." 
 
 Mr. Hallam gives the following account of the burning 
 of Servetus. "Servetus having, in 1553, publislied at 
 Vienne, in Dauphine, a new treatise, called Christianismi 
 Restitutio, and escaping from thence, as he vainly hoped, 
 to the Protestant city of Geneva, became a victim to the 
 bigotry of the magistrates, insiigaied by Calvin, ivho had 
 acquired an immense ascendency over that repid)Uc.''\] And 
 in a note^ he brings abundant proof of this, alleging, 
 among other things, tlie famous letter of Calvin to Farel, 
 
 * Audin, vol. ii, p. 297. f Ibid. p. 2.9.0, seq. 
 
 X See the whole conversation, ibid. p. 305. § Ibid. p. .304, seq. 
 
 II " Histoiy of Liierature," vol. i, p. 280. ^ Ibid. 
 
 27* 
 
S18 d'aubigne'S history reviewed. 
 
 "published," he says, "by Witenbogart [a Protestant) In 
 an ecclesiastical history, written in Dutch." In the same 
 note he says : " Servetus, in fact, was burned not so much 
 for his heresies, as for some personal offence he had seve- 
 ral years before given to Calvin. . . . Servetus had, in 
 some printed letters, charged Calvin with many errors, 
 which seems to have exasperated the great (!) reformer'^s 
 temper, so as to make him resolve on what he afterwards 
 executed." 
 
 " The death of Servetus," he continues, " has perhaps 
 as many circumstances of aggravation as any execution 
 for heresy that ever took place. One of these, and among 
 the most striking, is that he was not the subject of Ge- 
 neva, nor domiciled in the city, nor had the Chrislianismi 
 Restitutio been published there, but at Yienne. Accord- 
 ing to our laws, and those, I believe, of most civilized 
 nations, he was not amenable to the tribunals of the re- 
 public."* 
 
 He concludes the entire account with this sweeping 
 accusation against all the early reformers in regard to in- 
 tolerance: "Thus, in the second period of the reforma- 
 tion, those ominous symptoms which had appeared in its 
 earliest stage, disunion, virulence, bigotry, intolerance, 
 far from yielding to any benignant influence, grew more 
 inveterate and incurable. "t 
 
 We think that the above facts make good our assertion, 
 that Calvin crushed the liberties of Geneva — political and 
 religious. The following fact may serve to show us how 
 sincere was his zeal for the salvation of souls. The 
 plague broke out at Geneva in 1543. The ministers from 
 the pulpit recommended prayer once a week to avert the 
 scourge, and they appointed the Sunday week next fol- 
 lowing as the day for administering the sacrament of the 
 Lord's supper with the same intent !J The plague con- 
 tinued, and the ministers hid themselves, though hun- 
 
 * Ibid. t Ibid. p. 281. % Register, &c., Audin, ii, 16. 
 
GENEVAN REFORM — ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. SI 9 
 
 dreds were calling on them for spiritual succor in tlieir 
 dying moments ! The hospital was crowded with the 
 dying. The council of state called on the ministers to 
 send one of their Jiumber to assist the dyin^ at the hos- 
 pital, from v/hich duty, however, they wished **to exempt 
 M. Calvin, because the church had need of him !" The 
 ministers met with Calvin, and agreed to decide by lot 
 who was to go. One only, M. Geneston, offered to go, if 
 the lot fell on him ! The others ** confessed that God 
 had not yet given them grace to have the strength and 
 courage to go to the hospital!" And "it was resolved 
 to pray to God to give them more courage for the future."* 
 The result was that no one went to the hospital, except 
 Chatillon, a young French poet, and another Frenchman, 
 who fell a victim to the disease. Were these men true 
 shepherds, or were they mercenaries ? The answer may 
 be found in St. John's Gospel, chapter 10. 
 
 Calvin's morals have been discussed on both sides. 
 Beza and his other friends have held him up as a model 
 of perfection; others, with Bolsec, have represented him 
 as a monster of iniquity. The story of his having been 
 guilty of a crime of nameless turpitude at Noyon, though 
 denied by his friends, yet rests upon very respectable au- 
 thority. Bolsec, a cotemporary writer, relates it as cer- 
 tain. Before his work appeared, it had been mentioned 
 by Surius in 1558, by Turbes, who lived in the reign of 
 Francis I, by Simon Fontana in 1557, by Stapleton in 
 1558, by LaVacquerie in 1560-1, by De Mouchi in 1562, 
 by Du Preau in 1567, and by Whitaker before 1570.t 
 M. Galiffe, a Protestant, who had examined most tho- 
 roughly the archives of Geneva, uses this plain language : 
 *' The history of many of the reformer's colleagues is 
 very scandalous, the details of which cannot enter into a 
 work designed for both sexes.":]: The same writer tells 
 
 * Ibid. Register of Council. f V^ol. ii, p. 256. Note. 
 
 X Galiffe, Notices, torn, iii, p. 381. Note. 
 
320 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 us " that most of the facts related by the physician of 
 Lyons (Bolsec) are^ perfectly true."* 
 
 In the introduction to the third volume of his "iVoifiVes," 
 M. Galiffe bears this testimony to the state of morals at 
 Geneva in Calvin's time : *' I will show to those who 
 imagine that the reformer had done nothing that is not 
 good, our Registers covered with entries of illegitimate 
 children — (they Vv^ere exposed at all the corners of the 
 city and country) — -with prosecutions hideous for their 
 obscenity — with wills in which fathers and mothers accuse 
 their own children not only of errors, but of crimes — with 
 transactions before notaries public between young girls 
 and their paramours, who gave them, in the presence of 
 their relatives, means of supporting "their illegitimate off- 
 spring — with multitudes of forced marriages, where the 
 delinquents were conducted from prison to the church — 
 with mothers who abandoned their infants at the hospital, 
 while they were living in abundance with a second hus- 
 band — with whole bundles of processes between brothers 
 —with multitudes (literally heaps, tas) of secret denun- 
 ciations : and all this in the generation nourished by the 
 mystic manna of Calvin !"t 
 
 Truly, if the " Registers" prove all this, we may con- 
 clude that Calvin stamped his own image upon his gene- 
 ration — and especially his heartlessness. 
 
 The accounts of the circumstances attending the last 
 sickness and death of Calvin are various. His disciple 
 Beza, who wrote his life, represents his death as worthy 
 of an apostle and of a saint. Yet he himself, as we shall 
 see, furnishes us with some particulars which would make 
 us doubt the truth of this picture. The diseases which 
 led to his dissolution were many and complicated. In a 
 letter to the physicians of Montpelier, written a short 
 time before his death, Calvin gives a full account of the 
 maladies with which he was tormented. Among these, 
 
 * Ibid. p. 457, noU. Audin,ii, 2C7. f P^?*? 15,apud Aud. ii, 174. 
 
GENEVAN REFORM ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. 321 
 
 he mentions "the dropsy, the stone, the gravel, cholics, 
 hemorrhoids, internal hemorrhages, quartan fever, cramps, 
 spasmodic contractions of the muscles from the foot to 
 the knee, and, during the whole summer, a frightful neu- 
 ralgia or nervous affection. "* 
 
 His malady increasing, he dictated his last will and 
 testament on the 26th of April, 1564. The greater part 
 of this curious instrument is devoted to a defence of his 
 conduct and motives throughout life !t He '' protests that 
 he has endeavored, according to the measure of grace 
 given to him, to teach with purity the word of God, as 
 well in his sermons as in his writings, and to expound 
 faithfully the Holy Scriptures. And that, in all the dis- 
 putes which he had had with the enemies of truth, he had 
 employed neither chicanery nor sophistry, but had pro- 
 ceeded roundly [rondement) to maintain the quarrel of 
 God." In disposing of his effects, towards the close of 
 his will, he thus speaks of his nephew: *' As to my 
 nephew David . . because he has been light and volatile, 
 I leave him only twenty-five crowns {ecus) as a chastise- 
 ment." 
 
 On the morning of the 2rth of May, at 8 o'clock, he 
 breathed his last, after having passed a night of horrible 
 agony. The circumstances of his death and burial were 
 hidden and mysterious. His body was immediately cov- 
 ered, and his funeral was hastened : it took place at 2 
 o'clock in the evening of the same day. Beza,J his fa- 
 vorite disciple, thus writes on the subject: " There were 
 many strangers come from a distance, who wished greatly 
 to see him, although he was dead, and made instance to 
 that effect. . . But, to obviate all calumnies, he was put 
 into the coffin at 8 o'clock in the morning, and at 2 o'clock 
 in the evening w^as carried in the ordinary manner, as he 
 himself had directed, to the common cemetery, called 
 
 * See his letter in full, Audin, vol. ii, p. 452, seq. 
 t It is given in full by Audin, ibid. p. 456, seq. X Vie do Calvin. 
 
322 d'aubigne's history reviewep. 
 
 * Plein Palais,' without any pomp or parade, where he 
 lies at the present day, awaiting the resurrection." The 
 *' calumnies" to which Beza refers were probably the 
 public rumors spread through the city regarding the man- 
 ner of the reformer's death. *'It was said that every 
 one had been prohibited from entering into his chamber, 
 because the body of the deceased bore traces of a desperate 
 struggle with death, and of a premature decomposition, 
 in which the eye would have seen either visible signs of 
 the divine vengeance, or marks of a shameful disease ; 
 and that in consequence a black veil was hastily thrown 
 over the face of the corpse, and that he was interred be- 
 fore the rumor of his death had spread through the city. 
 So fearful were his friends of indiscreet looks !"* 
 
 The mystery was however penetrated by Haren, a 
 young student who had visited Geneva to take lessons 
 from Calvin. He penetrated into the chamber of the 
 dying man, and has furnished the following evidence of 
 what he saw on the occasion. And we beg our readers to 
 bear in mind that he was no enemy, but a partisan of Cal- 
 vin, and that his testimony was wholly voluntary. " Cal- 
 vin, ending his life in despair, died of a most shameful and 
 disgusting disease, which God has threatened to rebellious 
 and accursed reprobates, having been first tortured in the 
 most excruciating manner, and consumed, to which fact I 
 can testify most certainly, for I, being present, saw with 
 these eyes his most sad and tragical death." [Exiium et 
 exitium.)\ 
 
 In thus presenting to our readers an imperfect sum- 
 mary of facts, many of them extracted from the public 
 and official acts of the Genevan council and consistory in 
 the sixteenth century, we would not be understood as 
 wishing to reflect upon the character or conduct of the 
 
 f Ibid. p. 464, seq. 
 t Johannes Harennius, apud Pctrum Cutzemnn. We have endeavored 
 to give above a literal translation of his testimony, of which the original 
 is in Latin. 
 
GENEVAN REFORM ITS INFLUENCE ON LIBERTY. 323 
 
 present professors of Calvinistic doctrines, many of whom 
 are men estimable for their civic virtues. It is not our 
 fault that the truth of history will not warrant a better 
 character of Calvin. He was the most subtle, the most 
 untiring, and perhaps the most able enemy of the Catho- 
 lic church. He played a public and conspicuous part in 
 the great reUgioso-jJoIiiico drama of the sixteenth centu- 
 ry; he was the founder of a sect more distinguished than 
 any other, perhaps, for its inveterate opposition to Catho- 
 licity. Under these circumstances, his life, acts, and 
 whole character, are surely public property; and truth 
 and justice required that they should be given to the pub- 
 lic. This is precisely whatM. Audin, and the Protestant 
 historians of Geneva, Galiffe and Gaberel, have lately 
 done; and, treading in their footsteps, we have only 
 given a brief abstiact of the result of their labors. If 
 even one of those who have been seduced from the "faith, 
 once delivered to the saints," by the example or teaching 
 of Calvin, should be induced seriously to reconsider the 
 subject, we shall be fully recompensed for our labor. 
 
 Among the many proofs that the Catholic church is the 
 church of Christ, not the least striking is the fact vouched 
 for by authentic history, that all those who have left her 
 bosom, and established religious sects, were men of very 
 doubtful or of notoriously wicked and immoral charac- 
 ters. It is contrary to the order of God's providence to 
 have selected men of this stamp, as the reformers of his 
 church. This would derogate from his sanctity, and 
 would reflect upon a religion which could be established, 
 or reformed, by such instruments. This principle being 
 once admitted, the inference from it is obvious. When- 
 ever a change in religion — call it reformation, or what 
 you v/ill — has been eftected by men not remarkable for 
 their sanctity, the fact is of itself strong presumptive evi- 
 dence that the change is not from God. If the men who 
 effected it were notoriously flagitious, as most of the soi 
 disant reformers of the sixteenth century were, then the 
 presumption grows into a moral certainty. 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON LITERATURE. 
 
 " The march of intellect ! what know we now 
 Of moral, or of thought and sentiment, 
 Which was not linown three hundred years ago? 
 It is an empty boast, a vain conceit 
 Of folly, ignorance, and base intent." 
 
 Light and darkness — Boast of M. D'Aubigne — Two sets of barbarians 
 — Catholic and Protestant art — The " painter of the reformation" — 
 Two witnesses against D'Aubigne — Schlegel — Hallam — " Bellowing 
 in bad Latin" — Testimony of Erasmus — Destruction of monaste- 
 ries — Literary drought — Luther's plaint — Awful desolation — An 
 "iron padlock"— Early Protestant schools — M. D'Aubigne's omis- 
 sions — Burning zeal — Light and flame — Zeal for ignorance — Burning 
 of libraries — Rothman and Omar — Disputatious theology — Its prac- 
 tical results — Morbid taste — The Stagirite — Mutual distrust — Case 
 of Galileo — Liberty of the press — Old and new style — Religious 
 wars — Anecdote of Reuchlin — Italy pre-eminent — Plaint of Leib- 
 nitz — Revival of letters — A shallow sophism — A parallel — Great 
 inventions— Literary ages — Protestant testimony — Common schools. 
 
 It is one of the proudest boasts of the reformation that 
 it gave a powerful impulse to literature and the arts. 
 Before it, the world was sunk in utter darkness, religious 
 and literary; after it, all was light and refinement. Be- 
 fore it, society remained stationary ; after it, all was pro- 
 gression and improvement. But for the reformation, we 
 would still have been immersed in worse than Egyptian 
 darkness ; we would have had neither science nor litera- 
 ture ! 
 
 Such is the proudly boasting theory sustained by many 
 superficial admirers of the reformation. We are not at 
 all surprised to hear M. D'Aubigne singing the same old 
 song which had been chaunted already usque ad nauseajn, 
 by those of his predecessors among Protestant historians. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. S25 
 
 who had sought to cater for vulgar prejudice. He gravely 
 asserts " that the reformation not only communicated a 
 mighty impulse to literature, but served to elevate the 
 arts, although Protestantism has often been reproached as 
 their enemy,"* He laments that *' many Protestants 
 have willingly taken up and borne this reproach."! Af- 
 ter devoting three pages to a tissue of highflown asser- 
 tions and of special pleading to prove the ** reproach 
 unmerited," he winds up in this triumphant strain : " Thus 
 every thing progressed— arts, literature, purity of worship, 
 and the minds of prince and people. "J If the reforma- 
 tion caused " the arts and literature" to progress no ffister 
 nor better than it did "the purity of worship, and the 
 minds of prince and people," we greatly fear, from the 
 many stubborn facts already adduced to elucidate the 
 character of this latter progression, that the former was 
 not rapid, nor even real. 
 
 The reformation favorable to the fine arts ! As well 
 might you assert that a conflagration is beneficial to a city 
 which it consumes, or that the incursions of the northern 
 barbarians, in the fifth and sixth centuries, were favora- 
 ble to architecture, painting, sculpture, and the other fine 
 arts. Wherever the reformation appeared, it pillaged, 
 defaced, and often burnt churches and monasteries; it 
 broke up and destroyed statues and paintings ; and it 
 often burnt whole libraries. Its ruthless vandalism spared 
 none of the glories of the old Catholic art. Whatever 
 was connected with the Catholic worship, or could serve 
 as a memorial of old Catholic piety, was wantonly de- 
 stroyed. 
 
 The armies of Goths and Vandals who overran Italy 
 and sacked Rome fourteen centuries ago, did not manifest 
 a more ruthless and destructive spirit than did the Lu- 
 theran army of the constable Bourbon, in their wanton 
 pillage of Rome after the battle of Pavia in 1525. *' Rome 
 
 ♦ Vol. iii, p. 190. t Ibid. | Ibid. p. 192. 
 
 28 
 
526 d'attbigne's history reviewed. 
 
 had been taken and pillaged by the constable Bourbon : 
 his army, which was composed in good part of Lutherans, 
 had filled the holy city with abominations. The soldiers 
 of this prince had changed the basilica of St. Peter into a 
 stable, and given papal bulls as litter to their horses. . , . 
 They burned even the grass, and sold the ears of their 
 prisoners for their weight in gold. The eternal city 
 would have been destroyed, had not God cast on it an 
 eye of pity. He made use of the pestilence, which this 
 horde of barbarians had spread on its journey, to banish 
 them from Italy."* 
 
 Even the splendid creations of the genius of a Raphael, 
 and of an Angelo, were not sacred in the eyes of this new 
 northern horde. True, all this destruction took place in 
 time of war; but its horrors had been increased tenfold 
 by the religious fanaticism to which the reformation had 
 given rise. We shall have occasion to prove, in the se- 
 quel, that similar enormities were perpetrated in time of 
 peace, and under the sole pretext of religious zeal. 
 
 Thus the reformation destroyed many of the noblest 
 works of art : what did it build up in their place? Did 
 it produce architects like Fontana, Julio Romano, Bra- 
 mante, Michael Angelo, and Bernini ? Did it rear edi- 
 fices to compare with those splendid Gothic piles scat- 
 tered over Europe by the genius of Catholic architecture 
 in the middle ages ? or any thing that could vie with St. 
 Peter's church at Rome ? Did it substitute higher or no- 
 bler melody for the sublime Catholic music which it had 
 proscribed ? Did it give birth to painters and sculptors 
 who could vie v/ith Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, the two 
 Caracci, Domenichino, Paul Veronese, Raphael, or An- 
 gelo ? 
 
 M. D'Aubigne boasts of the pictorial skill of Lucas 
 Kranach, Holbein, and Albert Durer.f We do not ques- 
 
 * Aiulin, Life of Luther, p. 289, who quotes Guicciardini — Sacco di 
 Romay Cochlaeus, De Marillac, and Maimboiirg, 1. i. t III, 192. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. SSf 
 
 tion the genius of the last two : but they learned their art 
 and caught its inspiration in Catholic times. Their pen- 
 cils were only occasionally employed on Protestant sub- 
 jects. They were great artists before the reformation 
 began, and they continued to be pre-eminent in their pro- 
 fession in spite, rather than in consequence, of its influ- 
 ence. As for Lucas Kranach, whom our author triumph- 
 antly styles ** the painter of the reformation," he excelled 
 chiefly in caricatures, in painting pope-asses and monk- 
 calves, popes surrounded by a troop of demons, and priests 
 and monks in all possible ridiculous garbs and attitudes. 
 He was truly *' the painter of the reformation," one just 
 adapted to his subject; and the reformation is heartily 
 welcome to all the credit it may have derived from his 
 eminence. 
 
 To show what was the influence of the reformation on 
 literature in general, we will adduce the testimony of two 
 distinguished writers of the present century, against 
 whose authority the flippant assertions of M. D'Aubigne 
 will not weigh a feather with any enlightened or impartial 
 man. Frederick Von Schlegel and Henry Hallam have 
 both investigated this subject thoroughly, and have given 
 to the world the result of their inquiry. The former 
 may be styled the giant of modern literature: he has 
 given a powerful impulse to learning and to Christian 
 philosophy in Germany, and throughout the world. A 
 German himself, and proud of his national literature, he 
 has examined the subject of which we are treating in all 
 its bearings. Though his great mind had escaped from 
 the vagaries and endless variations of Protestantism in 
 which he was raised, and sought repose in the bosom of 
 Catholic unity, yet it was as free from undue prejudice 
 as it was indefatigable in the inquiry after truth. We 
 have seen already how greatly he admired the genius of 
 Luther, in whose mind, however, he detected a tincture of 
 insanity. In his writings, he speaks of the reformation 
 always with calmness and dignified impartiality ; some- 
 
328 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 times even with praise of the good it may at least inci- 
 dentally have occasioned. 
 
 Hallam is a Protestant, who, though generally impar- 
 tial and accurate in his statements, is still sometimes be- 
 trayed into error by his ill concealed hostility to the 
 Catholic church. He has just published a History of Lit- 
 erature during the sixteenth century, and the two imme- 
 diately preceding and following. The plan of this work 
 necessarily called for a thorough investigation of the sub- 
 ject of our present chapter ; and he has given his opinion 
 of the literary influence of the reformation with clearness 
 and force. We make these remarks to show that both 
 the witnesses whom w^e are about to bring up against M. 
 H'Aubigne's theory, are weighty and unexceptionable. 
 
 Schlegel very properly designates the epoch of the 
 reformation as the barbaro-polemic. *' A third epoch now 
 arose, which, from the general spirit of the age, and the 
 tone of the writino;s which exerted a commandino- influ- 
 ence over the times, cannot be otherwise designated than 
 as the era of harhaj'o -polemic eloquence. This rude po- 
 lemic spirit — which had its origin in the reformation, and 
 in that concussion of faith, and, consequently, of all 
 thought and of all science, which Protestantism occa- 
 sioned — continued, down to the end of the seventeenth 
 century, to prevail in the controversial writings and philo- 
 sophic speculations both of Germany and England. This 
 spirit was not incompatible with a sort of deep mystical 
 sensibility, and a certain original boldness of thought and 
 expression, such, for instance, as Luther's writings dis- 
 play ; yet we cannot at all regard in a favorable light the 
 general spirit of that intellectual epoch, or consider it as 
 one by any means adapted to the intellectual exigencies 
 of that age."* 
 
 He concludes his lecture on this epoch in the following 
 words of just indignation: ''When we hear the middle 
 
 * " Philosophy of History," vol. ii, p. 210, 211, edit, xit supra. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. Si29 
 
 age called barbarous, we should remember that that epi- 
 thet applies with far greater force to the truly barbarous 
 era of the reformation, and of the religious M'ars which 
 that event produced, and which continued down to the 
 period when a sort of moral and political pacification was 
 re-established, apparently at least, in society and the 
 human mind.''* 
 
 Hallam gives his opinion in still more explicit language. 
 He says : "Nor, again, is there any foundation for ima- 
 gining that Luther was concerned for the interests of lit- 
 erature. None had he himself, save theological ; nor are 
 there, as I apprehend, .many allusions to profane studies, 
 or any proof of his regard to them, in all his works. On 
 the contrary, it is probable that both the principles of this 
 great (!) founder of the reformation, and the natural tend- 
 ency of so intense an application to theological contro- 
 versy, checked for a time the progress of philological and 
 philosophical literature on this side the Alps."t 
 
 A little further on, he thus speaks on the general lite- 
 rary influence of the reformation : '* The first effects of 
 the great religious schism in Germany were not favorable 
 to classical literature. An all-absorbing subject left nei- 
 ther relish nor leisure for human studies. Those who had 
 made the greatest advances in learning were themselves 
 generally involved in theological controversy, and, in 
 some countries, had to encounter either personal suffering 
 on account of their opinions, or, at least, the jealousy of 
 a church (Protestant ?) that hated the advance of know- 
 ledge. The knowledge of Greek and Hebrew was always 
 liable to the suspicion of heterodoxy. In Italy, where 
 classical literature was the chief object, this dread of 
 learnino; could not subsist. But few learned much of 
 Greek in these parts of Europe without some reference to 
 
 * Ibid. p. 216. 
 t "Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the fifteenth, six- 
 teenth, and seventeenth centuries," in 2 vols. 8vo, vol. i, p. lf!5, edit. 
 Harper & Brother?, N. York, 1841. 
 28* 
 
330 d'aubigne's history rkviewfd. 
 
 theology, especially to the grarnmatical interpretation of 
 the Scriptures. In those parts which embraced the re- 
 formation, a still more threatening danger arose from the 
 intemperate fanaticism of its adherents. Men who inter- 
 preted the Scripture by the Spirit could not think human 
 learning of much value in religion ; and they were as lit- 
 tle likely to perceive any other advantage it could pos- 
 sess. There seemed, indeed, a considerable peril that, 
 through the authority of Carlostadt, or even of Luther, 
 the lessons of Crocus and Mossellanus would be totally 
 forgotten. And this would very probably have been the 
 case if one man, Melancthon, had not perceived the ne- 
 cessity of preserving human learning as a bulwark to the- 
 ology itself, against the wild waves of enthusiasm.''* 
 
 In another place he asserts that "the most striking 
 effect of the first preaching of the reformation was that it 
 appealed to the ignorant."t He gives the following char- 
 acter of Luther's writings : "But from the Latin works 
 of Luther few readers, I believe, will rise without disap- 
 pointment. Their intemperance, their coarseness, their 
 inelegance, their scurrility, their wild -paradoxes, that 
 menace the foundations of religious morality, are not 
 compensated, so far at least as my slight acquaintance 
 with them extends, by much strength or acuteness, and 
 still less by any impressive eloquence. Some of his 
 treatises, and we may instance his reply to Henry VIII, 
 or the book against * the falsely named order of bishops,' 
 can be described as little else than bellowing in bad Latin. 
 Neither of these books displays, so far as I can judge, 
 any striking ability." 
 
 " It is not to be imagined," he continues, "that a man 
 of his vivid parts fails to perceive an advantage in that 
 close grappling, sentence by sentence, with an adversary, 
 which fills most of his controversial writings : and in 
 scornful irony he had no superior. His epistle to Eras- 
 
 * Ibid. p. 181, § 19. t Ibid. p. 192, § 12. 
 
INFLUENCE OF TUB REFORM ON LITERATURE. 331 
 
 mus, prefixed to his treatise Be servo arbitrio, is bitterly 
 insolent in terms as civil as he could use. But the clear 
 and comprehensive line of argument which enlightens the 
 reader's understanding and resolves his difficulties, is 
 always wanting. An unbounded dogmatism, resting on 
 the infallibility, practically speaking, of his own judg- 
 ment, pervades his writings ; no indulgence is shown, no 
 pause allowed to the hesitating ; whatever stands in the 
 way of his decisions — the fathers of the church, the 
 schoolmen and philosophers, the canons and councils — 
 is swept away in a current of impetuous declamation : 
 and, as every thing contained in Scripture, according to 
 Luther, is easy to be understood, and can only be under- 
 stood in his sense, every deviation from his doctrine in- 
 curs the anathema of perdition. Jerome, he says, far 
 from being rightly canonized, must, but for some special 
 grace, have been damned for his interpretation of St. 
 Paul's Epistle to the Romans. That the Zuinglians, as 
 well as the whole church of Rome, and the Anabaptists, 
 were shut out by their tenets from salvation, is more than 
 insinuated in numerous passages of Luther's writings. 
 Yet he had passed himself through several changes of 
 opinion. In 1518, he rejected auricular confession; in 
 1520, it was both useful and necessary; not long after- 
 wards, it was again laid aside. I have found it impossi- 
 ble to understand or to reconcile his tenets concerning 
 faith and works, &c."* 
 
 We might rest the whole case on the authority of the 
 two learned witnesses just named : but we will proceed 
 to show that their opinion is correct, because founded on 
 the facts of history, and on the testimony of writers co- 
 temporary with the reformation itself. Erasmus was the 
 most distinguished literary character of Germany in the 
 sixteenth century. He was an eye-witness of the earlier 
 scenes in the great drama of the reformation. He will 
 
 * Ibid. p. 197, 198, § 26. 
 
S32 d'aubigne's history revie^ved. 
 
 scarcely be suspected, when it Is known that he was the 
 ifitimate friend and correspondent of Melancthon and of 
 other leading reformers, to whose party he was charged 
 with leaning. He was certainly a competent judge of the 
 literary influence of the reformation, and he was not dis- 
 posed to undervalue that influence, even after his rupture 
 with Luther. 
 
 The reformation had been enlightening the world for 
 about ten years, when Erasmus wrote : " Wherever Lu- 
 theranism reigns, there literature utterly perishes."* In 
 the same year, 1528, he employed the following language 
 in one of his letters : ** 1 dislike these gospellers on many 
 accounts, but chiefly because, through their agency, lite- 
 rature every where languishes, disappears, lies drooping, 
 and perishes : and yet, without learning, what is a man's 
 life ? They love good cheer and a wife; for other things 
 they care not a straw."t In a letter to Melancthon, he 
 states that **at Strasburg the Protestant party had pub- 
 licly taught, in 1524, that it was not right to cultivate 
 any science, and that no language should be studied ex- 
 cept the Hebrew. '-J 
 
 These grave charges of Erasmus were never answered, 
 because they were, it would seem, too clearly founded in 
 truth to admit of a reply. Had not Luther himself, the 
 founder of the reformation, in his appeal to the German 
 nobility, as early as 1520, openly taught that the works 
 of Plato, Cicero, Aristotle, and of all the ancients, should 
 be burnt, and that the time which was not devoted to the 
 study of the Scriptures should be employed in manual 
 labor ?§ And we shall soon see that many of Luther's 
 
 * " Ubicumque reejnat Lutheranismus, ibi literarum est interitus.' 
 Epist. rnvi, anno 1528. Apud Hallam ut sup. vol. i, p. 165. 
 
 f « Evangelicos istos, cum raultis aliis, turn hoc nomine praecipue 
 odi, quod per eos uhique languent, fugiunt, jacent, intereunt bona lit- 
 erae, sine quibus quid est hominum vita ? Amant viaticum et uxorem ; 
 csetera pili non faciunt." Epis. dccccxlvi, eod. anno. Apud Hallam, 
 i, 165. t Epist. 714 ad Melancthoncm. 
 
 § Epist. " ad nobiles Germanicsc,"" anno 1520. See Kobelot, p. 358. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. 333 
 
 disciples took him at his word, and that tlie early history 
 of the reformation more than justifies the accusations of 
 Erasmus. 
 
 One of the first effects of the reformation in Germany 
 was the secularization and destruction of the monasteries, 
 and the expulsion of the bishops from their sees. This 
 measure of violence was most disastrous to literature. 
 In Catholic times there were flourishing schools estab- 
 lished in all the principal monasteries, as well as near all 
 the Cathedral and many of the parochial churches. Lite- 
 rature had been ever cultivated under the shadow of the 
 Catholic church. Popes and councils, almost without 
 number, had, during the middle ages, enforced the obli- 
 gation of establishing such schools throughout Christen- 
 dom.* In those Catholic institutions, reared in Catholic 
 times, and by the express injunction of the Catholic 
 church, all the distinguished men of Germany in the six- 
 teenth century had been educated: Reuchlin, Erasmus, 
 Luther, Melancthon, (Ecolampadius, Bucer, Eck, Emser, 
 Zuingle, and others. The reformation was thus indebted 
 to them for all its leading champions. 
 
 When the monasteries were destroyed, and the cathe- 
 dral churches desecrated and dismantled, all those flour- 
 ishing schools were abolished : and the funds for their 
 support, accumulated by the liberality of previous ages, 
 were devoured by the avarice of the reformation party. 
 Hundreds of flourishing colleges and academies of learn- 
 ing were thus destroyed at one fell swoop. No wonder 
 "literature drooped and perished wherever Lutheranism 
 reigned !" The fountains of Catholic learning, ever open 
 and flowing by the side of the Catholic church and mon- 
 astery, having been thus suddenly dried up, all Germany 
 was made desolate with a literary drought and sterility. 
 Did the reformation, during the first fifty years of its his- 
 
 * See many proofs of this assertion accumulated in an article in the 
 Catholic Cabinet of St. Louis, number for December, 1843. 
 
SS4 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 torj, give birth to even one great literary character, if we 
 except those who had been reared under Catholic aus- 
 pices ? If it did, we have yet to learn his name and 
 local habitation.* 
 
 Luther himself was appalled at the extent of the deso- 
 lation which his ov/n recklessness had caused. In his own 
 characteristic style, he poured forth a plaintive jeremiad, 
 mingled with bitter invective and reproach against the 
 leaders of the Protestant party. He lashed without mercy 
 the avarice of the princes, who, after having devoured the 
 substance of the church and the funds of the Catholic 
 schools, closed their purses, and refused to contribute to 
 the erection of establishments to replace those they had 
 thus wantonly annihilated. "Others," he says, "close 
 their hands, and refuse to provide for their pastor and 
 preacher, and even to support them. If Germany will 
 act thus, I am ashamed to be one of her children, and to 
 speak her language : and if I were permitted to impose 
 silence on my conscience (!), I would call in the pope, 
 and assist him and his minions to forge new chains for us, 
 to subject us to new tortures, and to injure us more than 
 before.'' 
 
 •' Formerly," he continues, " when we were the slaves 
 of Satan, when we profaned the blood of Christ, all 
 purses were open. Money could be procured for endow- 
 ing churches, for raising seminaries, for maintaining su- 
 perstitions. Then nothing was spared to put children in 
 the cloister, to send them to school ; but nov/, when we 
 must raise pious academies, and endow the church of Je- 
 sus Christ — endow, did I say, no, but assist in preserving 
 her, for it is the Lord who has founded this church, and 
 who watches over her — now that we know the divine 
 word, and that we have learned to honor the word of our 
 Martyr-God, the purses are closed with iron padlocks ! 
 
 * The first that we know of are Scaliger, Casaiibon, and Grotius, 
 who flouished a hundred years after the beginning of the reformation, 
 the two last of whom were almost Catholics. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITEllAIURE. 335 
 
 No one wishes to give any thing ! The children arc ne- 
 glected, and no one teaches them to serve God, to vene- 
 rate the blood of Jesus, while Ihey are joyfully immolated 
 to mammon.* The blood of Jesus is trampled under foot ! 
 And these are Christians! No schools! no cloisters! 
 * The grass is withered, and the flower is fallen,' (Isaiah.) 
 Now-a-days, when these carnal men are secure from the 
 apprehensions of seeing their sons abandon them, and their 
 daughters enter the convent, deprived of their patrimo- 
 nies, there is no one who cultivates the understanding of 
 children ! ' What would they learn,' say they, * when 
 they are to be neither priests nor monks ?' " 
 
 He made a strong appeal to the Protestant princes of 
 Germany to induce them to found schools and academies. 
 He told them that it was " their duty to oblige the cities 
 and villages to raise schools, found masterships, and sup- 
 port pastors, as they are bound to make bridges and roads, 
 and to raise public edifices. I would wish, if possible," 
 he adds, "to leave these men without preacher and pas- 
 tor, and let them live like swine. There is no longer any 
 fear or love of God among them. After throwing off the 
 yoke of the pope, every one wishes to live as he pleases. 
 But it is the dut}^ of all, especially of the prince, to bring 
 up youth in the fear and love of the Lord, and to provide 
 them with teachers and pastors. If the old people care 
 not for these things, let them go to the d — 1. But it would 
 be a shame for the government to let the youth wallow in 
 the mire of ignorance and vice."t 
 
 This attempt to compel the people to support, by heavy 
 taxation, institutions which had been reared and main- 
 tained by Catholic charity hitherto, seems to have been 
 little acceptable either to princes or people. Luther's 
 voice, which had been omnipotent when it preached up 
 
 * See Ad. Menzel, (a Protestant,) ut supra, torn, i, p. 231. 
 t Luther, Werke, edit. Altenberg, torn, iii, 519. Reinhardt— 5a;7i/n^ 
 liche- Reformations predigten, torn. iii. p, 445. 
 
336 d'aubigne's history reviewkd. 
 
 destruction and spoliation, now fell powerless, when it 
 was at length raised to enforce the necessity of liberal 
 contribution for the rearing of institutions to replace 
 those which had been wantonly destroyed. When his 
 eloquence filled men's pockets, it was eflfectual for per- 
 suasion : when it was employed to empty them, it was a 
 different matter altogether : the purses of his hearers 
 were closed with "the iron padlock" which he himself 
 had constructed ! 
 
 Few and feeble were the efforts made by early Protest- 
 antism to rear schools and colleges. Erasmus bears evi- 
 dence to their utter failure even when they were made. 
 " These gospellers also hate me," he says, *' because I 
 said that their gospel cooled down the love of literature. 
 In reply, they point to NiJremberg, where the professors 
 of polite literature are liberally rewarded. Be it so : 
 but if you ask the inhabitants, they will tell you that 
 these professors have few scholars, and that the masters 
 are as indisposed to teach, as the students to learn ; so 
 that the scholars, no less than the professors, will have to 
 be paid for their attendance. I know not what will result 
 from all these city and village schools; hitherto I have not 
 met with any one who profited by them."* 
 
 It is curious to observe how M. D'Aubigne passes over 
 altogether, or how very delicately he alludes to these stub- 
 born facts in reference to the literary tendency of the 
 reformation. They did not suit his taste, and did not come 
 within the scope of his history ! He speaks with great 
 praise of the effort made by Luther to have schools es- 
 tablished throughout Germany by law ; but he carefully 
 refrains from telling his readers of the literary desolation 
 which Luther so strongly deplored, though himself had 
 brought it about ! He omits entirely, or strives to palliate 
 the destructive spirit of early Protestantism, which, with 
 
 * " In Pseudo-Evangelicos." Epist. xlvii, lib. xxxi, edit. London, 
 Flesher. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. SS7 
 
 more than Vandalic furj, swept away from the face of the 
 earth schools and academies, and burnt monasteries and 
 libraries, both public and private. A volume might be 
 filled with instances of this violence: we will select a 
 few by way of supplying somewhat the manifold omissions 
 of our romantic historian. 
 
 When on his way to the diet of Worms, in 1521, Lu- 
 ther passed through the town of Erfurth, in the Augus- 
 tinian convent of which place he had passed many years 
 of his early life. The people received him with open 
 arms. He made a most inflammatory harangue in the 
 parish church, where he was wont to preach of old ; and 
 so great was the effect of his eloquence, that *' a few 
 weeks after his departure, the populace made a furious 
 attack on the residence of the canons, and destroyed 
 every thing they met with— Z>ooA;5, images, paintings, fur- 
 niture, beds, the feathers of which fell, like a thick snow, 
 on the streets, and obscured for a moment the brightness 
 of the day."* 
 
 This was but one out of a hundred examples of similar 
 outrage, enacted not only under the eyes of Luther, but 
 often with his connivance and consent. The work of 
 destruction went on, until there was scarcely left in all 
 Protestant Germany one of the many splendid monu- 
 ments reared by the old Catholic literature and art. 
 *' Those illuminated manuscripts — those ancient cruci- 
 fixes, carved in wood and ivory — those episcopal rings, 
 the gifts of popes and emperors — those rich vestments, 
 painted glass, gold and silver ciboria — in a word, all the 
 relics of the middle ages, which are exhibited in the rich 
 museums of Germany, were in great part the property of 
 the convents. To get possession of them, the monks 
 were secularized. After three centuries, nothing better 
 calculated to give us an idea of German art at that period 
 has been thought of, than to exhibit the remains of those 
 
 * JLutheri 0pp. torn, i, fol. 704, edit. Altenb. Apud Audin, p. 158. 
 29 
 
SS8 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 whom the reformers robbed when living, and calumniated 
 when dead !"* And yet these are but a miserable rem- 
 nant of those vast literary and artistic treasures which 
 the reformation utterly destroyed ! 
 
 In Switzerland,! as elsewhere, violence was the order 
 of the day. The reformation triumphed amidst the 
 ruins with which it had strewn the earth ! ** Zuingle as- 
 cended the pulpit, and declaimed against images, which, 
 he said, were condemned by the law of Moses and the 
 gospel, as this latter did not revoke the command of the 
 Hebrew legislator. Not only were paintings and statues 
 mutilated and destroyed wherever the reformation gained 
 partisans, but the flames were fed by the manuscripts in 
 which generations of monks had, in the solitude of their 
 cloisters, endeavored to represent, in colors that time 
 could not eiface, the principal scenes of human redemp- 
 tion. Even in private houses the hammer's stroke fell on 
 those painted windows which modern art endeavors un- 
 successfully to revive ":j: • 
 
 M. D'Aubigne furnishes us with a curious instance of 
 this destructive fanaticism at Zurich. The hero of the 
 story is Thomas Plater, whom he eulogizes to the skies, 
 though he feebly disapproves of his conduct in the inci- 
 dent in which he was the actor. *' The light of the gos- 
 pel quickly found its way to his heart (!). One morning, 
 when it was very cold, and fuel was wanted to heat the 
 school -room stove, which it was his office to tend, he said 
 to himself: * Why need I be at a loss for wood when 
 there are so many idols in the church ?' The church was 
 then empty, though Zuingle was expected to preach (!), 
 and -the bells were already ringing to summon the con- 
 gregation. Plater entered with a noiseless step, grappled 
 an image of St. John, which stood over one of the altars, 
 carried it off, and thrust it into the stove, saying, as he 
 
 * Audin, p. 36-5. 
 t See the chapter on the reformation in Switzerland. 
 X Idem, ibid. p. 204. See also Erasmus, lib. xix, epist. iv. 
 
INFLUENCE OF TUB REFORM ON LITERATURE. 339 
 
 did SO, * Down with thee, for in thou must go.* Cer- 
 tainly neither Mjconius nor Zuingle would have ap- 
 plauded such an act."*" What! when "the light of the 
 gospel had found its way to his heart!" Who could 
 blame him for following that light, and even for kindling 
 it into a flame ? 
 
 Our author also informs us of the fanatical hatred of 
 learning by Karlstadt and the prophets who headed the 
 revolt of the peasants. ** But soon after this, Karlstadt 
 went to still greater lengths; he began to pour contempt 
 upon human learning ; and the students heard their aged 
 tutor advising them, from his rostrum, to return to their 
 homes, and resume the spade, or follow the plough, and 
 cultivate the earth, because man was to eat bread in the 
 sv/eat of his brow ! George Mohr, master of the boys' 
 school at Wittemberg, carried away by a similar madness, 
 called from his window to the burghers outside to come 
 and remove their children. Where indeed was the use of 
 their continuing their studies, since Storck and Sti^ibner 
 had never been at the university, and yet were prophets ? 
 A mechanic was just as well, nay, perhaps better quali- 
 fied than all the divines in the world, to preach the gos- 
 pel !"t 
 
 Who can calculate the mischief these doctrines did to 
 literature ? Who can estimate the literary treasures 
 which were annihilated in the bloody war of the peasants, 
 led on by men who openly avowed their hostility to all 
 human learning ? In their ravages of Germany, before 
 their revolt was finally stifled in their own blood, they 
 had enacted scenes which would have put to the blush 
 the Gothic armies of old ! 
 
 Another class of fanatics, the Anabaptists, to whose 
 fanaticism the principles of the reformation had mani- 
 festly led, were no less inimical to learning. Having 
 seized on the city of Munster, from which they had ex- 
 
 * Vol. iii, p. 253. f Ibid. p. 61. 
 
S40 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 pelled the prince bishop, thej issued an order to devas- 
 tate the churches, which was accordingly done. They 
 then went farther. In the mad intoxication of triumph, 
 **a manifesto, published by Rothmann, decided that as 
 there was only one book necessary to salvation, the bible, 
 all others should be burned, as useless or dan":erous. Two 
 hours afterwards, the library of Rudolph Langius, consist- 
 ing almost entirely of Greek and Latin manuscripts, perish- 
 ed in the flames."-^ The Caliph Omar, for a similar reason, 
 had ordered the great library of Alexandria to be burned, 
 A. D. 632! A fine example truly, faithfully followed! 
 
 But it was not merely by acts of violence that the re- 
 formation injured the cause of literature; it brought into 
 action many other influences highly prejudicial to the pro- 
 gress of learning. We shall briefly advert to some of the 
 principal of these, and will begin with that already re- 
 ferred to by Mr. Hallam. 
 
 The reformation fevered the minds of men with reli- 
 gious controversy. It drew off" the votaries of literature 
 from the academic groves and the Pierian springs, into 
 the arid and thorny paths of disputatious theology. 
 Though many of the theological disputants, who appeared 
 on the arena at the period of the reformation, obtained 
 great credit for themselves and their cause by their writ- 
 ings, yet it is certain, that the literary world, at least, 
 would have been more benefited, had they devoted their 
 mental energies to the prosecution of scientific studies. 
 There is no doubt, that from this cause, the ranks of the 
 literati, both among Catholics and Protestants, were 
 greatly thinned; and that in consequence the ardor for 
 literary pursuits greatly cooled. Had the world continued 
 in unity, and had no acrimonious controversies arisen, 
 such men as Luther, Bucer, Melancthon, Eck, Emser, 
 and Bellarmine, might have contributed very greatly to 
 the progress of letters. 
 
 * See Hiatoire des JnabapHsies, par Catron, Liv. ii ; and A.udin p. 460. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. S41 
 
 To show how this cause practically operated to the 
 detriment of literature, we will furnish a few facts, se- 
 lected almost at random from many of the same kind. 
 We have seen how the fanaticism of the Anabaptists 
 destroyed letters and burnt an extensive library in the 
 city of Munster. Tt is curious to trace the beginning of 
 this fanaticism, and to mark its influence on literature in 
 that city. Before the appearance of Luther, Munster en- 
 joyed peace and tranquillit}^ and cultivated learning with 
 great success. Shortly after the commencement of the 
 reformation, the scene changed altogether. 
 
 *' It suddenly became," says M. Audin, "a city of 
 trouble and disorder — was restless and uneasy under its 
 obscurity, and aspired to be the rival of Wittemberg. It 
 was a rich and commercial city, and had cultivated litera- 
 ture with success. Its University had merited the atten- 
 tion of the literary v/orld. It loved antiquity, especially 
 Greece, whose poets it published and elucidated. This 
 was the passion until the disciples of Luther entered its 
 gates, when this demi-classic city — half Greek and half 
 Latin, by its morals and instincts — involved itself in the- 
 ological disputes, and abandoned the study of Cicero and 
 Homer, to become interpreter of the sacreil volume. It 
 is needless to say, that it found in these inspired writings 
 many things that our fathers never dreamed of. Then all 
 the classic divinities abandoned Munster, as the swallows 
 fly away in winter, only that they -did not intend to return. 
 In their place, an acrimonious and punctilious theology 
 destroyed the peace of scholars, masters, and people. 
 The revolutionary progress of sectarians is always the 
 same."* 
 
 Whoever will read attentively the histor}'' of the refor- 
 mation, will be struck with the truth of this last remark 
 of ]M. Audin. In almost every city of Germany where 
 the reformation made its appearance, it produced, to a 
 
 * Audin " Life of Lutlier,*' p. 453. 
 29* 
 
342 
 
 greater or less extent, the same disastrous revolution in 
 literary taste, which it effected in Munster. 
 
 Even Charles Villers, one of the most unscrupulous 
 advocates of the reformation, admits that "the attention 
 of the literary world was turned away, for more than a 
 century (after the reformation) unto miserable disputes 
 about dogmas and confessions of faith.''* Controversy 
 was not only carried on between the champions of Catho- 
 licity, and of Protestantism, but it raged violently in the 
 bosom of the reformation party. Men, who might have 
 been of immense service to the republic of letters, wasted 
 their energies in sectarian contentions. For more than 
 six years a violent dispute was carried on between the 
 Lutherans and Calvinists on the subject of the Eucharist, 
 and at the close of it, they were more widely separated 
 than ever. Leibnitz tells us, that a single controversy 
 between two Protestant divines of Leipsic, on the peremp- 
 tory period of repentance, gave rise to more than fifty 
 treatises in Latin and German.t 
 
 The eagerness for religious controversy among the 
 earlier Protestants of Germany, forcibly reminds us of 
 the picture which St. Gregory of Nyssa draws of a similar 
 rage of disputation on the subject of the Trinity, among 
 the sectarians of Constantinople under the Emperor Theo- 
 dosius the Great. "If you wish to change a piece of 
 money,'- says he, ** you are first entertained with a long 
 discourse on the difference of the Son who is born, and of 
 the Son who is not born. If you ask the price of bread, 
 you are answered, * that the Father is greater, and that the 
 Son is less :' and if you ask, when will the bath be w^arm ? 
 you are seriously assured, * that the Son was created.' "± 
 
 It is a singular fact, that notwithstanding the invectives 
 of Luther against the philosophy of Aristotle, it was still 
 retained in most of the Protestant Universities of Ger- 
 
 * "Essai sur I'Influence," &c. ut mp. p. 276. 
 t " Commercii Epist. Leibnitziani, Selecta Speciraina — Hanoveroe. 
 1805, Epist. xcv. X Apud Kobrlot, p. 390, .s?/jt). cii. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. S43 
 
 many, and even made the standard of disputation. Me- 
 lanctlion published commentaries on the writings of the 
 Stagirite, and the authority of the latter was greatly 
 respected by the German Protestant Universities, as late 
 as the close of the eighteenth century. Ramus was re- 
 fused a professorship at Geneva, because he would not 
 adopt the philosophy of Aristotle, which was still taught 
 in this cradle of Calvinism.* While Protestant Germany 
 was thus sternly upholding the system of philosophy, 
 M'hich Luther had decried and endeavored to banish from 
 Christendom, the new school of the Platonic philosopliy 
 was established in Italy, under the auspices of the Me- 
 dici. All the invectives of the reformers against the 
 subtle disputations of the schoolmen, who had adopted 
 the Aristotelian philosophy, thus fell back on the heads of 
 their own party. 
 
 The mutual distrust and suspicion, which the reforma- 
 tion sowed in the minds of men, constituted another seri- 
 ous obstacle to the progress of letters. Competition and 
 emulation often elicit talent and promote improvement; 
 but when this feeling degenerates into a suspicious jea- 
 lousy, and mutual hatred, it greatly retards advancement 
 in learning. Whatever new systems of literature or of 
 philosophy were broached by one religious party, were 
 often rejected, through a mere spirit of opposition, by the 
 other. When mankind were united in religious faith, 
 they worked in unison for the promotion of learning : 
 when they were split up into religious parties, they mutu- 
 ally thwarted and hindered each other. The endless varia- 
 tions and vagaries of protestantism, on the one hand, led 
 to a skepticism, which sneered at every system which 
 savored of antiquity, no matter how well grounded; and 
 the cautious dread of innovation by the Catholic churcli, 
 on the other hand, caused her sometimes to view with 
 suspicion, at least for a time, new systems of philosophy 
 
 * Beza, Epist. xxxvi, p. 202. Apucl Robelot, p. 362. 
 
344 
 
 which were sustained by respectable, if not conclusive 
 arguments. An example of the former feeling — of skep- 
 ticism — is given by the French philosopher Maupertuis, 
 who tells us that it required a half century to satisfy the 
 learned as to the truth of the principle of attraction, 
 which was at first viewed as reviving a feature of the 
 occult sciences, so extensively cultivated in previous cen- 
 turies.* 
 
 A remarkable instance of the dread of innovation on 
 the part of the Catholic church, is presented by the well 
 known case of Galileo. The wanton abuse of the scrip- 
 tures, for the support of a thousand conflicting opinions, 
 by the disciples of the reformation, had rendered every 
 species of innovation, which was attempted to be proved 
 by their authority, an object of apprehension on the part 
 of Rome. It may be confitlently asserted, that, but for 
 the reformation, and for the attempt by Galileo to prove 
 his system, not merely as a specious theory, but as incon- 
 testably true, by the authority of the written word, he 
 would never have been molested. 
 
 Some time before Galileo, Cardinal Nicholas de Cusa 
 had openly defended the system of Philolaus and Pytha- 
 goras, on the motion of the earth ; and no one then 
 thought of opposing his theory on religious grounds. 
 Nearly a century before Galileo, Nicholas Copernicus, a 
 Catholic priest, had advocated the same theory : and he 
 was not only not opposed, but Pope Paul Illt approved 
 of the dedication to himself of his great v/ork "on the 
 revolutions of the heavenly bodies. "J How are we then 
 to explain that a system, v/hich was thus openly maintained 
 
 * Apiid Robelot, p. 355. 
 
 |- A copy of the original work of Copernicus is preserved in the Bri- 
 tish Museum. It was printed at Ki'iremberg, by John Petreius, at the 
 expense of Card'i Nicholas Schomber;^, the Cardinal of Capua. In the 
 bef^lnnin^ of the volume is printed a laudatory letter of the Cardinal to 
 Copernicus, dated Rome, 1st of November, I-jSO, 
 
 X " De Orbium Ccelestium Revolutionibus." rollo— 1543, p. 196. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. S45 
 
 for nearly a century, by cardinals and priests, at Rome 
 itself, where Copernicus had been professor of Astrono- 
 my — and all this, without any opposition — was afterwards 
 viewed with suspicion, when too warmly advocated by 
 Galileo ? 
 
 Th« reason is manifest : the wanton abuse of the scrip- 
 tures by the partisans of the reformation had made Rome 
 suspicious of every thing which savored of novelty. Am- 
 bitious rivals, whom the literary fame of Galileo had 
 eclipsed, had also represented his system in an odious and 
 false light to the Roman Court: they had painted it as 
 opposed to the scriptures, to the testimony of which Gali- 
 leo on the other hand as confidently appealed. The 
 wholeissue was thus made on scriptural grounds. Rome 
 took the alarm, and, without precisely condemning the 
 system of Galileo as false, enjoined silence on the dispu- 
 tants. Galileo remained in Rome from February to July, 
 1633, a space of more than five months, during which 
 time he resided at the spacious palace of his special friend, 
 the Tuscan Ambassador, who was his surety during the 
 trial. For only four days at most, even according to the 
 testimony of Mr. Drinkwater, his Protestant historian, he 
 was in nominal confinement ; being " honorably lodged 
 in the apartments of the fiscal of the Inquisition."* 
 
 The reckless abuse of the scripture, by the reformation, 
 and the distrust thereby occasioned, are thus alone respon- 
 sible for this temporary check to scientific improvement 
 in the person of Galileo. But, on the other hand, as an 
 offset to the case of the Italian philosopher, did not the 
 Protestant astronomer, Tycho Brahe, invent, on scriptural 
 grounds, a system, at variance with the Copernican, and 
 now universally rejected, though then popular among 
 Protestants ? And was not his great disciple Kepler, as 
 well as himself, persecuted by Protestants, for his valua- 
 ble discoveries in Astronomy ? 
 
 * Drinkwater— Life of Galileo, p. 53, and p. 64. 
 
346 d'aueignb's hktory reviewed. 
 
 The authority of an unexceptionable witness, Mr. Hal- 
 1am, greatly confirms the view just taken of the case of 
 Galileo. He says : *' For eighty years, it has been said, 
 this theory of the earth's motion had been maintained, 
 without censure; and it could only be the greater bold- 
 ness of Galileo in its assertion wliich drew down upon him 
 the notice of the church.''* In a note,t he disproves the 
 assertion of Drink water — " that Galileo did not endeavor 
 to prove his system compatible with Scripture ;" and adds : 
 "it seems, in fact, to have been this over desire to prove 
 his theory orthodox, which incensed the church against it. 
 See an extraordinary article on this subject in the eighth 
 number of the Dublin Review. "J Guicciardini, an ardent 
 disciple of Galileo, in a letter dated March 4th, 1616, 
 says, '* that he had demanded of the Pope and the Holy 
 Office to declare the system of Copernicus founded on the 
 Bible." At Rome, Galileo was treated most kindly by 
 the Pope and the Cardinals, as he himself testifies in a 
 letter to his disciple Receneri, written in 1633. Il 
 
 The restrictions on the liberty of the press were 
 also often injurious to the progress of learning. Protes- 
 tant governments in Europe have been, and are even at 
 this day, deserving of at least as much censure on this 
 subject as those of Catholic countries. The supposed 
 necessity for a censorship of the press, frequently origin- 
 ated in the wanton abuse of it by those who had adopted 
 the principles of the reformation. But for the mutual 
 distrust which this revolution caused to arise in the minds 
 of men, the press would have been free, or at least much 
 less restricted than it really was. We read of little or 
 no restriction on the liberty of the press, until some time 
 after the reformation ; though the art of printing had been 
 
 * « History of Literature," ii, 2i8. f Ibid. p. 249. 
 
 X See also the article Sciences Humainex in Bergier's Dictionary 
 which sheds much light on this whole transaction. 
 
 11 Published in the <« Mercure de France," July 17, 1784. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. Q47 
 
 in successful operation for more than half a century. 
 Thus the reformation is fairly chargeable, at least in a 
 great measure, with having originated that very censor- 
 ship of the press, which is so often the burden of the in- 
 vectives of its partisan^ against the Catholic church. 
 
 But perhaps the most singular instance of the obstacles 
 thrown in the way of literary improvement by the refor- 
 mation, is that furnished by the obstinate resistance of the 
 Protestant governments of Europe, to the change in the 
 Calendar adopted by Pope Gregory XIII, in the year 
 1582. The correction of the Calendar was founded on 
 the clearest and most incontestable principles of Astrono- 
 my ; and yet, solely because the improvement emanated 
 from Rome, England refused to adopt it for 170 years, 
 until 1752 ; Sweden adopted the new style, a year later, 
 in 1753, and the German states, the cradle of the refor- 
 mation, only in 1776 ! As a distinguished writer has 
 caustically remarked, the Protestant potentates preferred 
 " warring with the stars, to agreeing with the Pope !" 
 
 The long and bloody religious wars, which the reforma- 
 tion caused, or at least occasioned in Germany, were 
 another very serious hindrance to the progress of learn- 
 ing. These wars continued at intervals for nearly 150 
 years, until the great treaty of Westphalia in 1648; and 
 they filled all Germany with wide-spread desolation. 
 The war of extermination against the peasants — the 
 bloody war against the Anabaptists — the wars of Charles 
 V, and the Protestant princes of Germany — and finally, 
 the awful thirty years' war — from 1618 to 1648 — ^between 
 the Catholic party headed by the house of Austria, and 
 the Protestant party led on chiefly by the Kings of Swe- 
 den — made all Germany a scene of turmoil, confusion and 
 bloodshed. How many of the monuments of ancient 
 literature and art were swept away during all this bloody 
 strife! How many cities were desolated, libraries burnt, 
 and men of eminence slain ! In the midst of a bloody 
 civil war, with danger constantly at their very door, men 
 
348 d'aubignk's history reviewed. 
 
 had neither leisure nor inclination to apply to literary 
 pursuits. Apollo courts peace: he seldom wears laurels 
 stained with blood. 
 
 We may safely affirm, that, for the reasons hitherto 
 alleged, and more particularly the last, the reformation 
 retarded the literary progress of Germany for at least a 
 century. Any one will be convinced of this, who will 
 compare the literary history of Germany in the beginning 
 of the sixteenth, with what it was in the seventeenth, and 
 the beginning of the eighteenth century. At the dawn 
 of the reformation, German literature v/as in a most pro- 
 mising condition. Greek, Latin and Hebrew learning 
 had revived, and were beginning to be cultivated with 
 success. Reuchlin, Budaeus and Erasmus had filled Ger- 
 many with literary glory. 
 
 An anecdote of Reuchlin, related by M. D'Aubigne, 
 may serve to give us some idea of the extent to which 
 Greek literature was then carried in Germany. In 1498 
 — twenty years before the reformation — he was sent to 
 Rome as ambassador from the electoral court of Saxony. 
 "An illustrious Greek, Argyropylos, was explaining in 
 that metropolis, to a numerous auditory, the wondeiful 
 progress his nation had formerly made in literature. The 
 learned ambassador went with his suite to the room where 
 the master was teaching, and on his entrance saluted him, 
 and lamented the misery of Greece, then languishing 
 under Turkish despotism. The astonished Greek asked 
 the German : * whence come you, and do you understand 
 Greek?' Reuchlin replied : * I am a German, and am not 
 quite ignorant of your language.' At the request of Ar- 
 gyropylos, he read and explained a passage of Thucjdides, 
 which the professor happened to have before him; upon 
 which Argyropylos cried out in grief and astonishment: 
 ' alas ! alas ! Greece cast out and fugitive, is gone to hide 
 herself beyond the Alps!'"* Had Argyrop^'los visited 
 
 *Vol. i, p. 96. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. 549 
 
 Germany a century later, he would probably have found 
 that ** fugitive Greece which had hid herself beyond the 
 Alps," had been ruthlessly driven from her shelter in 
 Germany, by the myrmidons of the reformation ! 
 
 At the commencement of the reformation, many Ger- 
 man princes were liberal patrons of learning. Amon"- 
 these, the most conspicuous, were the Emperor Maximi- 
 lian ; Frederick, Elector of Saxony, who founded the 
 University of Wittemberg in J 502; Joachim, Elector of 
 Brandenburg, who established the University of Frank- 
 fort on the Oder, in 1506 ; Albert, Archbishop of Mentz ; 
 and George, Duke of Saxony.* But the troubles occa- 
 sioned by the doctrines of the reformers, caused the Ger- 
 man princes to turn their attention more to camps and 
 battlefields, than to the seats of learning and the patron- 
 age of learned men. 
 
 Italy had led the way in literary improvement. Hal- 
 lam says : *' the difference in point of learning between 
 Italy and England was at least that of a century : that is, 
 the former was more advanced in knowledge of ancient 
 literature in 1400 than the latter was in 1500. "t In 
 another place, speaking of the relative encouragement of 
 literature by Italy and Germany, he has this remarkable 
 passage: "Italy was then (in the beginning of the six- 
 teenth century), and perhaps, has been ever smce, the soil 
 where literature, if it has not always most flourished, has 
 stood highest in general estimation. "J This avowal is 
 the more precious as coming from a Protestant, and an 
 Englishman. 
 
 Speaking of the history of literature from the year 1520 
 to 1550, he pays this just tribute to the literary ascendency 
 of Italy: *' Italy, the genial soil where the literature of 
 antiquity had been first cultivated, still retained her su- 
 periority in the fine perception of its beauties, and in the 
 
 * See Hallam — History of Literature, Sec. siip. cit. i, 159. 
 t Ibid. p. 145, § 8. X Ibid. p. 159, § 48. 
 
 50 
 
350 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 power of retracing them bj spirited imitation. It was 
 the land of taste and sensibility; never surely more so, 
 than in the age of Raphael as well as Ariosto.''* 
 
 Literary societies for the promotion of learning were 
 formed much later in Germany than in Italy and France. 
 It was only in 1617, that the *' fruitful society," the first 
 that ever existed in Germany, was established at Weimar.t 
 The example of Italy would have been in all probability 
 much sooner followed, had not the reformation engaged 
 the public attention in other pursuits. The spirit of 
 Reuchlin and of Erasmus had disappeared: their refined 
 taste was superseded by that which Schlegel so happily 
 designates the barlaro-poleinic ; and the result was the 
 retarding of literary improvement in the manner we have 
 stated. 
 
 From the dawn of the reformation to the reign of Fre- 
 derick the Great — a period of more than two hundred 
 vears — Get many was behind the other principal countries 
 of Europe in learning: it required full two hundred years 
 for her to recover from the rude shock her literature had 
 received from the hands of the reformers! In 1715, the 
 great Leibnitz feelingly deplored this literary desolation 
 of his country. J He says in another place, that the relish 
 for philosophical pursuits was so rare in Germany, "that 
 he could not find any person in his country, who had a 
 taste for philosophy and mathematics, and with whom he 
 could converse."§ Even as late as 1808, M. Jacobi, 
 another Protestant writer, draws a frightful picture of the 
 moral and literary condition of the German Protestant 
 Universities during his time.H 
 
 It is very common to find it boldly asserted from the 
 pulpit and through the press, that the revival of letters in 
 
 * Ibid. p. 173, § 1. t Idem. vol. ii, p. 172. 
 
 X See his letter to M. Bignon, 22d June, 1715 — Commercii Epist. 
 Leibnitz. Selecta Specimina — sup. cit. Epist. xciv. 
 
 § Letter to M. de Beauval — ibid. Ep. xxv. 
 [1 See his testimony in Robelot, p. 421, 422. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. 351 
 
 Europe was brought about bj the reformation! Nothing 
 could be more unfounded in fact, and more utterly absurd, 
 than this assertion. To Italy, under the fostering protec- 
 tion of her Medici, her Gonzagas, her Estes, and her 
 Popes, and more especially Nicholas V and Leo X, do 
 we in a great measure owe the revival of learning in Eu- 
 rope. All persons of any information admit this. Ros- 
 coe, an English Protestant, has written an extensive work 
 to do honor to the pontificate of Leo X, which he proves 
 to have been the golden age of learning.* Hallam also 
 pays a splendid tribute to this second Augustan age of 
 literature.! A light then shot up in Italy — in Rome its 
 brightness was most dazzling — which illumined the whole 
 world ! Nor was it the first time that Rome had led the 
 way in improvement and civilization ! 
 
 The impulse having been thus powerfully given, all Eu- 
 rope was rapidly advancing in learning. The progress 
 was steady and healthy. On a sudden, the storm of the 
 reformation broke in upon the tranquillity of Europe, 
 which was peacefully and calml}^ engaged in literary pur- 
 suits. The result was almost the same as that of a vio- 
 lent and long continued storm on a beautiful garden, fra- 
 grant with flowers and rich in fruits. The fruits of pre- 
 vious toil were rudely shaken down ere they had become 
 mature ; the flowers were blighted ; and the garden was 
 changed into a desert I If literature was still preserved, 
 it was in spite of the reformation ! 
 
 The usual argument of those who maintain that the 
 reformation was the cause of the literary resurrection of 
 Europe, is founded on a comparison of the condition of 
 Europe before, with what it became, after the reformation. 
 Literature was in a more flourishing condition after, than 
 lefore the sixteenth century : therefore, the reformation 
 caused the change for the better. Never was there a more 
 
 * Roscoe— Life and Pontificate of Leo X, mp. cit. 
 t Vol. i, p. 148, seqq. See also Aiidin, Life of Luther, p. 124, seqq. 
 
352 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 shallow sopliism. It belongs to the category: post hoc, 
 ergo propter hoc* To estimate the literary influence of 
 the reformation aright, we should compare the literary 
 state of Europe before the reformation, with what it would 
 have been afterwards, if the reformation had not inter- 
 vened : or more properly ; we should compare the progress 
 which Europe really made after the reformation, especially 
 in Protestant countries, with what it would have made, 
 but for the reformation. Abiding by this test, we fear- 
 lessly assert, on the authority of the facts and evidence 
 above adduced, that the literary influence of the reforma- 
 tion was most disastrous. 
 
 We do not pretend to deny that Protestantism has pro- 
 duced many illustrious literary characters. Catholicism 
 has produced at least as great men, and many more of 
 them. Galileo and La Place may compare advantageously 
 with Huygens and Newton : and Copernicus far outshines 
 Tycho Brahe. The latter, though a Protestant, was en- 
 couraged chiefly by Catholic potentates of Germany. 
 Among philosophers, if Bacon and Descartes were weighed 
 in the balance, the latter would probably preponderate. 
 It would lead us too far, to continue this comparison 
 through all its details. But we may ask, whether the an- 
 nals of Protestant literature can produce brighter names 
 than Cardinal Ximenes, Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Her- 
 rera and Calderon in Spain ; Bossuet, Fenelon, Racine, 
 Moliere and Legendre, in France ; Raphael, Michael 
 Angelo, Vida, Tasso, Muratori, Tiraboschi, Boscovitch, 
 and a countless host of others in Italy; Frederick von 
 Schlegel, Moeller, and Gorres in Germany ; and Pope, 
 Dryden, and Lingard and Moore, in England and Ireland ? 
 These are but a few, selected almost at random, from the 
 long list of Catholic literati. 
 
 In regard to inventions of great and permanent utility 
 
 * ** Afler this ; therefore on accovnt of this." Never was a therefore 
 more misapplied. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. 553 
 
 to mankind, a far greater number was made by Catholics 
 than by Protestants. The mariner's compass, gun pow- 
 der, the art of printing, clocks and watches, as well as 
 steamboat navigation,* were all invented bv Catholics. 
 To them also belongs the glory of having discovered Ame- 
 rica, and of having first doubled the Cape of Good Hope, 
 and discovered the Indies. The microscope, the teles- 
 cope, the thermometer, the barometer, were all invented 
 by Catholics. The chief great discoveries in astronomy — 
 that of Jupiter's satellites, of spots in the sun, and of the 
 four new planets or asteroids — were all made by Catholics. 
 Modern poetry was first cultivated successfully in Italy by 
 Dante and Petrarch; and Blair admits, that in historical 
 writing the Italians excel all other people. 
 
 The paper on which we write, the use of window glass 
 and the art of staining it, the weaving of cloth, the art of 
 enamelling on ivory and metals, the discovery of stone 
 coal, the sciences of galvanism and mineralogy ; and many 
 other improvements were introduced by Catholics : most 
 of them in the **dark" ages ! Ai^d it may he confidently 
 asserted, on the faith of genuine history, that during the 
 three hundred years preceding the reformation, more great 
 and important inventions were made, than during the three 
 hundred centuries succeeding that revolution ! And yet, 
 we are to be told, that sve owe all our literature and im- 
 provement to the reformation ! 
 
 We may here also remark, that the two great epochs of 
 modern literature — that of Leo X and of Louis XIV — 
 both occurred in Catholic countries and under Catholic 
 auspices. The age of Frederick the Great, in Germany, 
 was nearly allied in character with that which immediately 
 followed it under the influence of the infidels of France: 
 
 * Blasco de Garay, a Spaniard, made the first successful experiment 
 in steam navigation, in the harbor of Barcelona, in the year 1543. 
 Eighty-five years later, Brancas followed up the discovery in Italy. 
 See " A Year in Spain" by an American Protestant, vol. i, p. 47, seq. 
 Note.- Edit New York, 1830. 
 30* 
 
554 
 
 while the literary glories of Queen Ann's reign in England, 
 were equalled, if they were not surpassed, bj those of the 
 Age of Ferdinand and Isabella, in Spain. 
 
 We will conclude this chapter, already long enough, 
 with a few extracts from modern Protestant writers, bear- 
 ing on our present subject. The first will be from Black- 
 wood's Magazine, a print remarkable for its great ability, 
 and for its bitter hostility to the Catholic church. Mark 
 how the writer speaks of the influence of the reformation 
 on literature. 
 
 *• The pontificate of Leo X, commenced in 1513. His 
 patronage of literature is too well known to be long dwelt 
 on ; yet, during his life, literature was fated to receive 
 the severest check ivhich it had yet received. This was oc- 
 casioned hy the reformation, whose dawn, while it shed 
 light (! !) upon the regions of theology, looked frowningly 
 on those of profane learning. In fact, the all-important 
 controversy then at issue, so thoroughly engrossed the 
 minds of men, as to divert them, for a while, from other 
 studies. The quick eye of Erasmus perceived this, and 
 casting down the weapons of theological strife, which he 
 l»ad grasped in the enthusiasm of the first onset, he left 
 the field, exclaiming in atone of heartfelt anguish — * Ubi- 
 cumque regnat Luther anismns, ibi literarum est inier- 
 itus'' — ' wherever Lutheranism prevails, there learning 
 perishes.' "* The writer then gives other quotations 
 from Erasmus and Hal lam, which we have cited above. 
 This testimony of an enemy is unexceptionable and con- 
 clusive. 
 
 Our second Protestant witness is William Cobbett, whom 
 we cite, not so much for the weight of his personal authority, 
 as for the important facts he alleges, and which have 
 never been disproved, probably because they could not be 
 called in question. He makes an elaborate comparison, 
 in regard to literature, between Protestant England, and 
 
 * P. 465. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. 555 
 
 Catholic France and Italy. His parallel embraces one 
 hundred and eighty-seven years, from 1600 to-178r. His 
 authority for the statement he makes, is a Protestant work, 
 universally read in England — the "Universal Historical, 
 Critical, and Bibliographic Dictionary." Though our 
 business is chiefly with Germany, yet the facts which we 
 will now disclose in regard to England, will tend not a 
 little to throw light on the general literary tendency of 
 the reformation. England has boasted more perhaps than 
 any other Protestant country, of her superior enlighten- 
 ment and refinement: and if it appear on indubitable 
 Protestant authority, that even she must yield the literary 
 palm to Catholic France and Italy, we may readily infer, 
 what is, relatively to these last named states, the literary 
 excellence of Germany and of other Protestant countries. 
 The authority from which Cobbett derives the following 
 table allowed a place on its pages only to great and dis- 
 tino-uished names. The fio;ures in the table denote the 
 number of writers in each country who have excelled in 
 the respective branches opposite which their names are 
 placed. 
 
 England. France. Italy. 
 
 Writers on Law 6 51 9 
 
 Mathematicians 17 52 15 
 
 Physicians and Surgeons.. . 13 72 21 
 
 Writers on Natural History 6 S3 11 
 
 Historians 21 139 22 
 
 Dramatic Writers 19 66 6 
 
 Grammarians 7 42 2 
 
 Poets 38 157 34 
 
 Painters 5 64 44 
 
 Total 132 676 164 
 
 The reader may make his own comments on this state- 
 ment, from which it appears that " ignorant" Italy during 
 the period in question produced thirty-two more writers 
 of eminence in the nine chief departments of literature, 
 than proudly boasting England ; and that France pro- 
 duced considerably more than five times the number ! 
 Figures cannot mislead, and facts are stubborn things ! 
 
356 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 It is a very common charge against the Catholic church 
 that she keeps her people in ignorance ; and to prove tliis 
 accusation, an appeal is made to the condition of Catholic 
 countries, in which, it is said, the common people are not 
 educated. Let us see what a living author, and an unex- 
 ceptionable witness, because a Protestant and a Scotch- 
 man, says upon this very subject. He relates, too, what 
 he himself saw and had full opportunities of examining. 
 We allude to Laing, whose " Notes of a Traveller" have 
 just appeared. 
 
 He says : *' In Catholic Germany, in France, and even 
 in Italy, the education of the common people in reading, 
 writing, arithmetic, music, manners, and morals, is at 
 least as generally diffused and as faithfully promoted by 
 the clerical body as in Scotland. It is by their own ad- 
 vance, and not by keeping back the advance of the peo- 
 ple, that the popish priesthood of the present day seek to 
 keep ahead of the intellectual progress of the community 
 in Catholic lands: and they might perhaps retort on our 
 Presbyterian clergy, and ask if they too are in their coun- 
 tries at the head of the intellectual movement of the age ? 
 Education is in reality not only not repressed, but is en- 
 couraged by the popish (!) church, and is^ mighty instru- 
 ment in its hands, and ably used. In every street in 
 Rome, for instance, there are, at short distances, public 
 primary schools for the education of the children of the 
 lower and middle classes in the neighborhood. Rome, 
 with a population of 158,678 souls, Ijas three hundred 
 and seventy-two* primary schools, with four hundred and 
 eighty-two teachers, and fourteen thousand children at- 
 tending them. Has Edinburg so many schools for the 
 
 * This number is perhaps somewhat below the mark. According to 
 the Cracas, or Roman Almanac for 1834, Rome then had three hundred 
 and eighty-one free schools ; and we presume the number has not since 
 decreased, as we know the population has been steadily increasing. 
 Many of these schools are supported by private charity, while those of 
 Protestant countries are maintained only by burdensome taxation. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON LITERATURE. 357 
 
 instruction of those classes ? I doubt it. Berlin, with 
 a population about double that of Rome, has only two 
 hundred and sixty-four schools. Rome has also her uni- 
 versity, with an average attendance of six hundred and 
 sixty students : and the papal states, with a population of 
 two and a half millions, contain seven universities. Prus- 
 sia, with a population of fourteen millions, has but seven." 
 The value of this splendid testimony is greatlv en- 
 hanced when we reflect that Scotland and Prussia are the 
 boasted lands of common schools. Protestants, it would 
 seem, can hoast more on what they have done for litera- 
 ture ; but Catholics can do more without making any 
 great parade.* 
 
 * For more on this subject, and especially on what Catholics have 
 done for literature, see an article on " Literature and the Arts in the 
 Middle Ages," in the Catholic Cabinet for November, 1843. Also an 
 article in the December number of the same " on Schools and Univer- 
 sities in the Middle Ages ;" and another in the January number (1844) 
 of the U. S. Catholic Magazine, in answer to the question, " What 
 have the Catholic clergy and monks done for literature ?" We had at 
 first resolved to republish, in an appendix to the present work, all these 
 essays, as well as some others to which we have made reference ; but 
 'the fear of swelling this volume to too great a size has prevented the 
 execution of our original intention 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 INFLUENCE OF THE REFORMATION ON CIVILIZATION. 
 
 Definition- -Religion, the basis — Reclaiming from barbarism — British 
 East India possessions — Catholic and Protestant conquests — Protest- 
 ant missions — Sandwich Islands — The mother of civilization — The 
 ark amid the deluge — Rome converts the nations — Early German 
 civilization — Mohammedanism — The crusades — The popes — Luther 
 and the Turks — Luther retracts — Religious wars in Germany — Thirty 
 years' war — General peace— Disturbed by the reformation — Compar- 
 ison between Protestant and Catholic countries. 
 
 To civilize, according to lexicographers; is " to reclaim 
 from a state of savageness and brutality." According to 
 its more common acceptation, however, the word civiliza- 
 tion implies more than a mere reclaiming from barbarism. 
 It embraces, as its more prominent constituent elements, 
 enlightenment of the public mind, good government con-'' 
 ducted on liberal principles, a certain refinement in pub- 
 lic taste and manners, and a gentleness and polish in so- 
 cial intercourse. The more fully these elements are 
 developed together, the higher the state of civilization. 
 
 There can be no doubt that religion lies at the basis of 
 all true civilization. A mere glance at the past history 
 and present condition of the world must satisfy any im- 
 partial man of this truth. Those countries only have 
 been blessed with a high degree of civilization which have 
 been visited b\ the Christian religion. Those which have 
 not had this visitation, or which have rejected it, are in a 
 state of barbarism, or at least of semi-barbarism. If Eu- 
 rope is more highly civilized than any other quarter of 
 the globe, it is precisely because she has been more fully 
 under the humanizing influence of Christianity. If Af- 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVILIZATION. 359 
 
 rica is the lowest in the scale, it is because her people 
 have been least acted on by this influence. 
 
 Asia occupies an intermediate ground between barba- 
 rism on the one hand, and a state of semi- civilization on 
 the other. That portion of her population which has 
 never received the Christian religion, still continues in' a 
 state of unmitigated barbarism. That portion which 
 once received, but has since in a great measure lost sight 
 of or rejected the doctrines of Christianity, may in general 
 be pronounced to be in a state but half-civilized. No 
 more striking proof of the soundness of these remarks 
 can perhaps be given, than the incontestable fact that all 
 western Asia, embracing Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, By- 
 thinia, Mesopotamia, and Armenia, and which was, during 
 the early a^es of Christianity, in a higli state of civiliza- 
 tion, has since sunk into a state of semi-barbarism, when 
 Christianity had been either extinguished or paralyzed in 
 its influence by Mohammedanism. Constantinople, An- 
 tioch, and Ephesus, once the centres of civilization, and 
 the radiating points of learning, are now the seats of bar- 
 barism — all their laurels withered, and all their glory 
 fled, perhaps for ever ! Egypt and northern Africa were 
 also, during the first ages of the church, far advanced in 
 civilized life. But what is their ^jondition now, and 
 what has it been for many centuries, since the overthrow 
 of Christian institutions by those of Islamism ? The 
 dark night of barbarism still broods heavily over them, 
 though a cheering twilight of dawn is beginning to brighten 
 in Algeria. And, in Europe, those countries precisely 
 have advanced the least in civilization which — as Russia 
 and other more northern nations — have been less fully 
 and powerfully acted on by the principles of the Christian 
 religion. 
 
 From the facts already established in the previous chap- 
 ters, we may easily gather what was the influence of the 
 reformation on these two leading elements of civilization — 
 free government and literary enlightenment. We think 
 
S60 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 that every impartial man who will take the trouble to 
 weigh well the evidence already accumulated on those 
 subjects, will come to the conclusion that, as far at least 
 as these are concerned, the influence of the reformation 
 was most injurious. We would not, however, be under- 
 stood as denying that Protestantism subsequently exer- 
 cised, at least occasionally and to some extent, a benefi- 
 cial influence on the progress of society. We freely 
 admit that Protestants have done something for this ad- 
 vancement of humanity : but we maintain that Catholics 
 have done much more, and that, without the reformation, 
 the world would have advanced much more rapidly in 
 civilization than it has done with its co-operation. 
 
 To begin wiih the first idea implied by the term — a 
 reclaiming from barbarism, what nation or neople, we 
 would ask, has Protestantism ever reclaimed irom a bar- 
 barous to a civilized condition ? What nation, or even 
 considerable portion of a nation, has it ever converted 
 from heathenism to Christianity ? It has caused many 
 to abandon the old system of religion, and to embrace its 
 own crude and new-fangled notions : but we have yet to 
 learn that it has brought one heathen people into the 
 Christian fold. Many barbarous nations and tribes have 
 been crushed or exterminated by the onward march of its 
 own peculiar system of civilization;- but not one, so far 
 as our information extends, has been converted to Chris- 
 tianity, or even ameliorated in social condition, through 
 its agency. 
 
 And yet Protestantism has had ample power in its 
 hands for this purpose, as well as ample verge for its ope- 
 rations. With her almost unbounded power by sea and 
 by land, England, to say nothing of other Protestant 
 governments, might have, it would seem, converted whole 
 nations to Christianity, and thereby reclaimed them from 
 barbarism. With her vast power and influence in the 
 East Indies, she might have at least made an effort to 
 bring the immense nations, with their tens of millions of 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVILIZATION. oGl 
 
 inhabitants, which there acknowledge her sway, into the 
 ample fold of Christian civilization. But what has she 
 done ? Has she ameliorated the civil condition of the 
 seventy millions whom she holds in political thraldom in 
 the east ? Has she even made an effort, in her political 
 capacity, to bring about this result ? Has the inhuman 
 car of Juggernaut ceased to crush its numerous victims? 
 or have the obscene and wicked rites of paganism van- 
 ished before her influence ? 
 
 She has indeed crushed or exterminated whole tribes 
 by her arms, or ground them in the dust by her tyranny, 
 and empoverished them by her exactions ! She has done 
 much to render Christian civilization odious in their eyes : 
 she has done little or nothing to render it amiable or at- 
 tractive. A lust of power and of money has been the 
 great guiding, all-absorbing principle of her policy: and 
 its effects are visible in the yet deeper and deeper degra- 
 dation of the millions who unwillingly bow beneath her 
 yoke. It is deemed unnecessary to multiply proofs to 
 establish what must be apparent to every one who has 
 even glanced at the history of the conquests and policy 
 of England in her East India possessions. Her own 
 writers and the official acts of parliament have pro- 
 claimed these iniquities to the world : and no one will be 
 so skeptical as to question their truth, or to deny their 
 enormity. 
 
 Happily, such has not been the case with Catholic con- 
 quests among barbarous nations. The first thing always 
 thought of by Catholic sovereigns who established their 
 power in heathen lands, was to introduce Christianity 
 among the tribes whom they had subdued, and to bring 
 about, through its agency, their gradual civilization. The 
 Catholic missionary always accompanied the leader of 
 Catholic maritime discovery and conquest, to soften down 
 the horrors of war, to pour oil into the wounds of the 
 vanquished people, and to direct their attention to sub- 
 lime visions of civilization, of religion, of heaven. The 
 
362 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 cross was always reared by the side of the banner of con- 
 quest. And the result has been that wherever Catholic 
 conquest has extended, there religion has been also estab- 
 lished, and, through it, civilization has been introduced. 
 
 Whoever will read attentively the annals of Spanish 
 and Portuguese voyages of discovery and conquest in 
 America and the Indies, will be convinced of the entire 
 truth of this remark. Our countryman, Washington 
 Irving,* has done ample justice to this subject; and we 
 confidently appeal to the evidence his magic pen has 
 spread before the world, for a triumphant proof of our 
 assertion. Our attention is often directed, with a sneer 
 of triumph, to the inferior political condition of Spanish 
 America: but those who employ this silly argument, and 
 boast of their own superior civilization and refinement, 
 do not reflect, or would not have us reflect, that, whereas 
 the Spaniards and Portuguese settled down and intermar- 
 ried with the aborigines, and used every effort to civilize 
 them, in which they have partially succeeded; we in 
 North America, with all our boasted superiority, have 
 circumvented, goaded into war, driven from place to 
 place, and finally almost exterminated the poor Indians, 
 the original proprietors of our soil.t Protestantism is 
 heartily welcome to all the laurels of civilization it has 
 won in this field. 
 
 It is rather a remarkable coincidence that, in the very 
 first year of the reformation, 1517, the first expedition of 
 the Spaniards for the conquest of Mexico — that under 
 Cordova — was undertaken. Two years later, in 1519, 
 Hernando Cortes undertook the expedition which achieved 
 the conquest of Mexico. On his standard was the motto : 
 
 * In his "Life of Columbus," 2 vols. 8vo. New York, J831. See 
 the evidence he alleges on our present subject, accumulated in a Re- 
 view of Webster's Bunker Hill Speech, published in the Catholic Cab- 
 inet of St. Louis, October, 1843. 
 
 t See Bancroft's testimonies and other evidences on the subject, col- 
 lected ibid. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVILIZATION. 363 
 
 *'Amiciy cnicem sequamufy et in hoc signo vincemus^^-^ 
 *' Friends, let us follow the cross, and under this banner 
 shall we conquer." According to the account of the 
 Spanish missionaries who accompanied this expedition of 
 Cortes, six millions of Mexicans were received into the 
 Catholic church by baptism during the years intervening 
 between 1524 and 1540, the very period in which the 
 reformation was progressing most rapidly in Europe. It 
 is highly probable that, by this remarkable stroke of Di- 
 vine Providence, the Catholic church thus gained at least 
 as many new disciples in Spanish America alone, as she 
 lost old ones in Europe through the reformation !* 
 
 We must admit that Protestants have made great efforts 
 to convert heathen nations. Millions of money have been 
 liberally bestowed for this benevolent purpose. Large 
 bodies of missionaries, with their wives and families, have 
 been annually sent out by Bible and other Protestant 
 societies, to evangelize and civilize heathen lands. Not 
 only their expenses have been liberally paid, but they 
 have had handsome salaries, and often princely establish- 
 ments. But what have they done, with all the money 
 that has been thus expended, and all the parade that has 
 been made, on the subject ? 
 
 Quid 
 
 Hie faciei tanio dignum promissor hiaiu? 
 
 Have they converted 07ie nation to Christianity ? If 
 they have, history is silent as to its locality.! Much was 
 once said about the conversion of the Sandwich islands by 
 American Protestant missionaries : but this has all turned 
 out, like other similar schemes of conversion, a miserable 
 failure. The first effect of Protestant civilization in those 
 
 * See article Despatches of Hernando Cortes, in the North American 
 Review for October, 1843. 
 
 t See most abundant evidence, chiefly from Protestants themselves, 
 in Dr. Wiseman's " Lectures on the Catholic Religion," 2 vols. 12mo. 
 vol. i, lect. vi. 
 
364 
 
 islands was a reduction of the native population bj more 
 than one half: the next was the enriching of the mission- 
 aries themselves, a very usual occurrence, by the way, 
 and one which exhibits the chief advantage of those mission- 
 ary enterprises : the third was a most disgraceful perse- 
 cution of brother Christian missionaries, so much so that 
 a Catholic potentate felt him.self called on to interfere ; 
 and the last effect seems to have been an almost total 
 abandonment of the whole undertaking.* . A distinguished 
 modern writer! has well remarked that the Protestant 
 sects have been ever doomed to sterility since their di- 
 vorce from the only true spouse of Christ — the Catholic 
 church. 
 
 On the other hand, what has the Catholic church done 
 for civilization ? AVhat nations has she converted to 
 Christianity ? We may answer the question by asking 
 another. What nation or people is there, of all those on 
 the face of the earth who have entered the Christian fold, 
 which she has not been mainly instrumental in converting 
 and civilizing } Is there even one? What says faithful 
 history on the subject ? 
 
 During the first four centuries of Christianity, the prin- 
 cipal nations of Europe, as well as many of those of Asia 
 and Africa, had been converted by missionaries sent 
 either directly by Rome, or at least in communion and 
 acting in concert with the Roman see. The cross of 
 Christ had been borne in triumph to the most remote ex- 
 tremities of the Roman empire, which embraced all Eu- 
 rope and a great portion of Asia and Africa. It had been 
 planted even in the midst of people who were beyond the 
 boundaries of the vast territory ruled by Rome. As early 
 as the close of the second century, St. Irenseus, bishop of 
 Lyons, could say in triumph that many barbarous nations 
 in Germany and elsewhere, over whose heads the Roman 
 
 * Ibid. See also the late Catholic papers pass»?i. 
 t Count De Maistre — Du Pape, vol. ii. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVILIZATION. 565 
 
 eagle had never floated, had already received the gospel, 
 although thej were unlettered and unacquainted with the 
 uses of paper and ink, TertuUian, a writer who flour- 
 ished in the beginning of the third century, could also 
 say, in a defence of Christianity addressed to the Roman 
 emperor and senate, that Christians had already filled the 
 villages, the towns, the cities, the castles, and the armies 
 of the Roman empire, and that they had left only the 
 temples of paganism to their idolatrous persecutors ! 
 
 In the fifth and sixth centuries, a deluge of barbarism 
 overwhelmed the Roman empire of the west, which was 
 already fast verging to its final downfall. The ancient 
 Roman civilization was buried under its turbid waters. 
 The ark of the church alone rode in safety the angry 
 flood : and when its waters had subsided, the tenants of 
 this ark, as had been done by those of its prototype of 
 old, repeopled the earth. In it were preserved, together 
 with Christianity, the seeds of a new civilization, more 
 refined and elevated by far than that which had been 
 swept from the face of the earth. These were scattered 
 broadcast over the soil of the world: the church watered 
 them with the tears of her maternal solicitude, and, when 
 they had sprung up, she nurtured the plants and brought 
 them to maturity. Thus to her alone is due the credit of 
 having rescued the world from barbarism, and of having 
 again carefully collected and skilfully put together the 
 scattered elements of the new civilization. All modern 
 improvement dates back to this era, as certainly and as 
 necessarily as does the present existence and extension 
 of the human race to the epoch of the deluge. We owe 
 as much to the church as to Noah's ark. 
 
 The hordes of the north, who had trodden in the dust 
 the Roman empire as well as Christianity, which was 
 grafted thereon, entered themselves, one by one, into the 
 ample fold of the church. The fierce conquerors willingly 
 bowed their necks to receive the yoke of the conquered ! 
 Christianity thus triumphed, like her divine Founder, by 
 
366 d'aitbigne's history reviewed. 
 
 being seemingly conquered for a time. It is not a little 
 remarkable, too, that all the nations of the north were 
 converted bv missionaries sent by Rome. 
 
 Ireland was the first to enter into the Christian fold : 
 and she became subsequently a principal instrument in 
 the hands of Providence for converting the other northern 
 nations. She had never bent beneath the oppressive 
 weight of the Roman power, nor had she been instrumen- 
 tal in effecting the downfall of the Roman empire. Yet 
 was she the first nation of the north that assumed the 
 sweet yoke of Christ. In the beginning of the fifth cen- 
 tury, A. D. 430, Pope Celestine I sent St. Patrick into 
 Ireland, and St. Palladius into Scotland. Towards the 
 close of the same century, in 496, St. Remigius baptized 
 at Rheims, King Clovis and three thousand officers of his 
 army, thus laying the foundation of Christianity in France. 
 
 Near the close of the sixth century, A.D. 591, Pope 
 St. Gregory the Great sent St. Augustine and his forty 
 companions into England. These converted the kingdom 
 of Kent, and soon all England followed the example. lu 
 the seventh century, St. Kilian, sent by Pope Conon, 
 preached the gospel in Franconia ; St. Swidbert and 
 others evangelized Friesland, Brabant, Holland, and 
 lower Germany; and St. Rupert became the apostle of 
 Bohemia. In the eighth century, St. Boniface, sent by 
 Pope Gregory II, 719, converted the Hessians, Thurin- 
 gians, and Bavarians, and suffered martyrdom at length 
 in Friesland, in 755^ with fifty-two of his companions. 
 Saints Corbinian, Willibrord, and Vigilius were his co- 
 operators in the apostleship. 
 
 In the ninth century, St. Adalbert converted Prussia: 
 and St. Ludger became the apostle of Saxony and West- 
 phalia, and died bishop of Miinster. In the same age, St. 
 Anscarius, archbishop of Hamburg and Bremen, preached 
 the gospel to the Danes, and planted Christianity in 
 Sweden, about the year 830. About the same period, the 
 two brothers, Saints Methodius and Cyril, with the sane- 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVILIZATION. 2G7 
 
 tion of Pope John VIII, converted the Sclavonians, the 
 Russians, and the Moravians, and also Michael, king; of 
 the Bulgarians. In the tenth century, the faith was ex- 
 tended into Muscovy, Denmark, Gothland, Sweden, and 
 Poland. The Normans, with their king, Roland, were 
 converted in 912; and the Hungarians, with their king, 
 St. Stephen, embraced Christianity about the year 1002.* 
 
 Thus all the nations of Europe were successively con- 
 verted to Christianity by the agency of the Roman Cath- 
 olic church, and by missionaries sent by Rome. Their 
 civilization was a necessary sequel to their conversion. 
 They were indebted for both to Rome, This was espe- 
 cially true in relation to the German nations. We have 
 seen above the avowal of M. D'Aubigne himself on this 
 subject. As M. Audin well remarks, •' it was religion 
 that had softened the savage manners of its inhabitants, 
 cleared its forests, peopled its solitudes, and aided in 
 throwing off the yoke of the Romans. Whatever poetry, 
 music, or intellectual culture it possessed when Luther 
 appeared, it owed to its ancient bishops. The feudal 
 tree had first flourished on its soil. It had its electors, 
 dukes, barons, who were often bishops or archbishops. Of 
 all the European states, it was the one in which the influ- 
 ence of the papacy had been most vividly^felt."! 
 
 He might have added that whatever of liberty it pos- 
 sessed, it had also derived from Rome. She had abol- 
 ished the serf system, had opened sanctuaries for the 
 oppressed, had proscribed the trial by ordeal, and had 
 substituted for it a more rational system of judicature. 
 She had purified and elevated the old German jurispru- 
 dence by the provisions of her canon law ; and, by de- 
 claring the oppressed and crushed subject free from the 
 obligation of his oath of allegiance to the oppressor, she 
 had broken his bonds, and taught him his political rights* 
 
 * See Church Historians, /jassnn. 
 J Life of Luther, sxip. cit. p. 343, 344. 
 
368 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 In a word, Rome was, for Germany more especially, the 
 centre of civilization, and tlie point from which enlight- 
 enment radiated throughout her territory. 
 
 The deluge of barbarian invasion having subsided, and 
 the barbarians tliemselves having been converted to Chris- 
 tianity, a new and most appalling danger threatened Eu- 
 ropean civilization, nay, the independence and the very 
 existence of Europe. The Mohammedan imposture, com- 
 mencing at Mecca in the year 622, had rapidly overspread 
 a great part of Asia and Africa, and had penetrated into 
 Europe, through Spain, as early as the year 711. In the 
 east it menaced Constantinople, the capital of the Greek 
 empire ; in the south and west it threatened more nearly 
 European independence. Masters of northern Africa, 
 of Spain, and of the Mediterranean, the followers of Mo- 
 hammed were ready to penetrate into Europe on all sides, 
 with the scimitar in one hand, and the Koran in the other. 
 The consequences of their successful incursion would 
 have been, what they had been every where else, the ruin 
 of literature and liberty, the destruction of Christianity 
 and civilization, and wide-spread ruin and desolation. 
 Wherever they had penetrated, they had blighted every 
 flower, and plucked every fruit of the existing civiliza- 
 tion. The once flourishing provinces of Asia and Africa, 
 which had been forced to wear their iron yoke, riveted 
 on their necks, had relapsed into a state of barbarism, 
 from which, alas ! they are not yet recovered. 
 
 In this emergency, what saved European civilization 
 and independence ? What agency kept off the impend- 
 ing storm ? The church and the Roman pontiifs. The 
 latter, by their influence, succeeded in arousing Europe 
 from its letliargy, and in awakening her to a lively sense 
 of the threatened danger. They persuaded Christians to 
 bury their private feuds, to be united as one man, and to 
 rally in their united strength for the defence of the cross 
 against the invading hosts marshalled under the crescent. 
 Long and fiercely raged the struggle — Christianity, civil- 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVILIZATION. SG9 
 
 ization, enlightenment and liberty, and the cross, on tlie 
 one hand, and Mohammedanism, barbarism, ignorance, 
 despotism, and the crescent, on the other. 
 
 The first check given to Mohammedan conquest was in 
 the famous victory gained over the followers of the cres- 
 cent by Charles Martel, at the head of the French chiv- 
 alry, near Tours, in l^'l. The closing events of the pro- 
 tracted struggle were equally glorious for the Christian 
 cause. The battle of Lepanto, in 1571, crippled the 
 energies of the Turks, by destroying their whole fleet, 
 and the relief of Vienna, besieged by the Turkish army 
 in 1683, by the brave Sobieski, at the head of his thirty 
 thousand Poles, drove the Mohammedans from Europe, 
 and cut off all hopes of any farther European conquests 
 by their armies. 
 
 The popes were the very soul of all Christian enter- 
 prises for repelling Turkish invasion. It was they who 
 first conceived that master-stroke of policy which, through 
 the crusades, carried the war into the enemies' country, 
 and for centuries gave them enough to do at home, with- 
 out thinking of foreign conquests. It was they who 
 united Europe, for the first time, in one great cause. It 
 was Pope St. Pius V who deserved the chief credit of the 
 signal victory at Lepanto. 
 
 . It was they who ennobled chivalry, and consecrated 
 valor, for the defence of Christian Europe. It was they 
 who nerved for battle the arms of the brave knights of 
 Rhodes and Malta, and inspired the heroism of the Hun- 
 niades, of the Scanderbergs, of the Cids, of the Bouil- 
 lons, and the Tancreds, and of others, who won imperish- 
 able laurels in that struggle. But for their exertions, and 
 the blessings of that God who had promised that " the 
 gates of hell should not prevail against his church built 
 on a rock," Europe would in every human probability 
 have become, what Asia and Africa have Jong been, a 
 mere degraded province of a colossal Mohammedan em- 
 
S70 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 pire, which would have bestrode the earth, crushing be- 
 neath its weight every principle of civilization ! 
 
 Did the reformation win any laurels in this contest ? 
 Did it strike one blow for the independence of Europe 
 against the Turks, who, when it first appeared, were at 
 the very zenith of their power, and were assuming the 
 most threatening attitude against Europe ? We will give 
 a few facts which will show the spirit of early Protestant- 
 ism on the subject. 
 
 Among the articles which Luther obstinately refused 
 to retract at the diet of Worms, in 1521, was this strange 
 and impious paradox : *' that to war against the Turks is 
 to oppose God !"* In his fierce invective against the 
 conciliatory decree which emanated from the diet of Nu- 
 remberg in 1524, he thus castigates the princes who had 
 composed diat diet : ** Christians, I beg of you, raise your 
 hands, and pray for these blind princes, with whom hea- 
 ven punishes us in its wrath. Give not alms against the 
 Turk, who is a thousand times wiser and more pious than 
 our princes. What success can such fools, who rebel 
 against Christ and despise his word, hope in the war 
 against the Turks .^"t 
 
 This warning was directed against the decree of the 
 Diet, which, alarmed by the menacing attitude of the 
 sublime Porte, *' had demanded and voted subsidies for the 
 war against the Turks. The Catholics contributed, the 
 Protestants refused ; but the contributions of the Catho- 
 lics were not sufficient to arrest the progress of Soliman. 
 At the head of two hundred thousand men, he advanced 
 into Hungary, and on the 26th of September, 1529, he 
 was about to plant his ladders against the walls of Vienna. 
 
 * " Praeiiari adversus Turcas est repugnare Deo." Assertio arlicu- 
 lorum per Leonem damnatorum. 0pp. Lutheri, torn, ii, p. 3. Audin, 
 p. 174. 
 
 t Luther Werke, ch. xv, p. 2, 712. Adolph Menzel, torn, i, p. 155 
 seq. Apud Audin, p. 2S6. See also Cochlasus in Acta Lutheri, folio 
 116. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVILIZATION. 371 
 
 This cowardly abandonment of their brethren is an inef- 
 faceable stain on the Protestant party. At the approacli 
 of the enemy, who threatened the cross of Christ, all dis- 
 union should have ceased. The countfy was in danger; 
 the Christian name was on the point of being blotted out 
 from Germany; and Islamism would have triumphed, had 
 there not been brave hearts behind the walls which the 
 treachery of their brethren had laid bare. Honor then to 
 those valiant chiefs, Philip Count Palatine, Nicholas von 
 Salm, William von Regendorf, and that population of 
 aged men, of women, and of children, who, although suf- 
 fering from famine, sickness and pestilence — for all seemed 
 united to overwhelm them — did not despair, but drove 
 back to Constantinople the army of Soliman. After God, 
 they owed their success to their valor; for the Emperor, 
 the empire, and the princes had abandoned them. Luther 
 had cried aloud * peace to the Turks ;' and his voice was 
 more powerful than the cry of their weeping country, and 
 of the cross of Christ. The reader must judge between 
 the reformed and the Catholics, and say, in what veins 
 Christian blood flowed."* 
 
 Subsequently indeed, when the danger was passed, and 
 Luther had little to apprehend from the Emperor or the 
 Catholic party, he retracted his wild paradoxes, and ceased 
 to be the apologist of the Turks. But who thanked him 
 for this tardy and compulsory advocacy of European inde- 
 pendence against Turkish invasion ^ All that it demon- 
 strated was his own utter inconsistency in the whole 
 affair, in which he did but act out his general character, — 
 as a mere creature of impulse and of passion. 
 
 Erasmus thus twits the Protestant party on their con- 
 duct in the matter : " But you seem to forget that you re- 
 fused to give Charles V, and Ferdinand, the subsidies ne- 
 cessary for the war against the Turks, according to the 
 doctrine of Luther, who now however condescends to re- 
 
 * Audin, p. 289, 290. 
 
372 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 tract ! Have not the gospellers advanced tlie startling 
 proposition, ' that it is better to fight for the unbaptized^ 
 than for the baptized, Turk,' that is, for the Emperor ? Is 
 it not truly ridiculous?"* It was something more than 
 " ridiculous" — which was the strongest epithet the Bata- 
 vian philosopher could employ — it was utterly treacher- 
 ous and lamentable; and if European civilization was 
 still saved, and European independence preserved, we 
 certainly owe no thanks to the reformation ! If we are 
 still free ; if we are not ground down by Turkish tyranny ; 
 if we bow to the cro^ instead of the crescent ; we owe 
 no gratitude for these results to the Protestant party ! 
 Their sympathies were manifestly Mohammedan ; they 
 would have rejoiced at the ascendency of Islamism, pro- 
 vided the Pope and his adherents could have been crushed 
 and annihilated ! They shared in none of the laurels won 
 for European independence and civilization, at Lepanto, 
 under the walls of Vienna, in Hungary, in Poland, in Al- 
 bania, or at Rhodes and Malta ^ Their chivalry could not 
 be awakened, nor their sympathies stirred up by any such 
 brilliant achievements 1 And yet M. D'Aubigne gravely 
 assures us, that "the reformation saved religion, and 
 through it society ?"t Deliver us from such a *' salvation !" 
 We have already said something on the character of the 
 bloody civil wars with which the reformation desolated 
 Germany. We compared the multitude of devastating 
 armies, which it let loose on Europe, to those which had 
 desolated her fair provinces in the fifth and sixth centu- 
 ries. This parallel is not exaggerated : it is founded on 
 the sad records of history. In reading of the dreadfuJ 
 tragedies enacted in the war of the peasants and of the 
 Anabaptists, in the Thirty Years' War, we are forcibly 
 reminded of the devastations which the early northmen 
 left in their course. Especially does the parallel hold 
 
 * "In Pseudo-Evangelicos" Epist. 47, Lib. xxxi.— Edit, of London, 
 Flesher. t Vol. i, p. 67, sup. ciiai. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVILIZATION. 373 
 
 good, in respect to the ravaging of Italy and Rome by the 
 Lutheran troops under the Constable Bourbon, referred 
 to above. Miinzer, Storck and Stiibner strongly remind 
 us of Attila, Totila, and Genseric. All were, if not *' the 
 scourges of God," at least, in another sense, the scourges 
 oj man and of society. They were all tierce wild animals 
 let loose for a time to devastate the blooming garden of 
 European civilization. 
 
 The following address ofMiinzerto his associates in 
 rebellion, we give as one out of the many similar speci- 
 mens of the infuriate vandalism of the sixteenth century. 
 •' Ave you then asleep, my brethren ! Come to the fight, 
 the fight of heroes. All Frankonia has risen up : the 
 Master will now show himself: the wicked shall fall. At 
 Fulda, in Easter week, foiir pestiferous churches were 
 destroyed. The peasants of Klegan have taken up arms. 
 Although you were but three confessors of Jesus, you 
 would not have to fear a hundred thousand enemies. 
 Draw, draw, draw — now is the time: the impious shall be 
 chased like dogs. No mercy for those atheists : they will 
 beset you ; they will blubber like children — but spare 
 them not. It is the command of God by Moses (v. 7). — 
 Draw, draw, draw— the fire burns ; let not the blood grow 
 cold on your sword-blades. Pink, pank, on the anvil of 
 Nimrod: let the towers fall under your stroke. Draw, 
 draw, draw — now is the day: God leads you on ; follow 
 Him."* 
 
 Schiller, a Protestant, has most graphically painted the 
 horrors of the Thirty Years' War, and the desolation 
 which it occasioned in Germany. The master mind of 
 Schlegel thus traces its effects on civilization : *' Never 
 was there a religious war so widely extended and so com- 
 plicated in its operations, so protracted in its duration, 
 and entailing misery on so many generations. That pe- 
 riod of thirty years' havoc, in which the earZy civilization, 
 
 * Luther Werke— Edit. Altenburg, iii vol. p. 134. Menzel, p. 200-2. 
 32 
 
374 
 
 and the noblest energies of Germany were destroyed, forms 
 in history the great wall of separation between the ancient 
 Germany, which in the middle age was the most powerful, 
 flourishing, and wealthy country in Europe ; and the new 
 Germany of recent and happier times, which is now gradu- 
 ally recovering from her longexhaustion and general deso- 
 lation ; and is rising again into light and life from the 
 sepulchral darkness — the night of death, to which her 
 ancient disputes had consigned her."* Tt required full 
 two centuries for Germany to recover from the blow to 
 her civilization, dealt her by the ruthless reformation! 
 Even JM. Villers, the champion laureate of the reforma- 
 tion, is compelled to admit, that " the Thirty Years' War 
 left Germany in a sort of stupor — in a barbarism almost 
 total."t 
 
 From the fiicts hitherto alleged, the reader will be en- 
 abled to judge what was the relative influence on civiliza- 
 tion of early Catholicism and of the reformation. He 
 will also be able to gather the more immediate influence 
 of the latter revolution on civilization in Germany — its 
 cradle and first theatre of action. To estimate this influ- 
 ence, however, more nearly and more correctly, we must 
 see what was the condition of Germany in regard to civi- 
 lization before, and what it became immediately after, the 
 reformation. 
 
 Before it, a general peace reigned : the elements of 
 civilized life were all in a state of healthy growth and of 
 rapid development : every thing bade fair for a very high 
 state of refinement and civilization. For the development 
 of these, peace is as necessary, as it is for the cultivation 
 of letters. M. D'Aubigne himself speaks of the great 
 advantages to civilization of the general peace secured to 
 Germany in 1496, by the wise policy of the Emperor Maxi- 
 milian. *' For a long time," he says, *' the numerous 
 
 * "Philosophy of History," vol. ii, p. 232, American Edit, 
 t " Essai sur i'esprit et I'influence de la reform, de Luther," p. 274. 
 Apud Robelot, p. 392. 
 
INFLUENCE OF THE REFORM ON CIVILIZATION. S75 
 
 members of the Germanic body had labored to disturb 
 each other. Nothing had been seen but confusions, quar- 
 rels, wars incessantly breaking out between neighbors, 
 cities and chiefs. Maximilian had laid a solid basis of 
 public order, by instituting the Imperial Chamber ap- 
 pointed to settle all differences between the States. The 
 Germans, after so many confusions and anxieties, saw a 
 new era of safety and repose. The condition of affairs 
 powerfully contributed to harmonize the public mind. It 
 was now possible in the cities and peaceful valleys of 
 Germany to seek and adopt ameliorations, which discord 
 might have banished.'*'*' 
 
 He continues, with not a little simpUciitj : "we may 
 add, that it is in the bosom of peace, that the Gospel loves 
 most to gain its blessed victories."! He means this of 
 course for the *' gospel" of Luther — but did not this same 
 "gospel," break in, with its accents of discord, and its 
 fierce spirit of feud and bloodshed, upon the general peace, 
 secured to Germany by a Catholic potentate, in Catholic 
 times ? Did it not by its truculent war-cry, mar the lovely 
 beauty of their peaceful scene .^ Did it not ruthlessly rend 
 with dissension that " public mind" which before so beau- 
 tifully '* harmonized ?" Did it not evoke from the abyss 
 that fell spirit of "discord," which "banished from the 
 cities and peaceful valleys of Germany," all relish for 
 " seeking and adopting ameliorations" in the social condi- 
 tion ? Did it not, for more than a century, tear and deso- 
 late society with civil feuds and bloody wars } And is 
 it not supremely ridiculous, as Erasmus says, to hear men 
 of sense thus uttering absurdities which they themselves 
 supply evidence for refuting? From the principles laid 
 down by M. D'Aubigne, it is intuitively evident, that the 
 reformation of Luther was highly injurious in its influence 
 on the progress of civilization. 
 . What have been the great results of Protestant and of 
 
 * Vol. i, p. 76, 77. t Ibid. 
 
376 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 Catholic influence on modern civilization ? What is the 
 present relative social condition of Catholic and of Pro- 
 testant countries in Europe ? In some respects, we are 
 free to avow, the latter are far in advance of the former. 
 They have adopted with more eagerness, and carried out 
 with more success, what may be called the utilitarian sys- 
 tem, which in fact owes its origin to the reformation. 
 They excel in commerce and speculation, in which they 
 have greatly outwitted their more simple — perhaps because 
 more honest neighbors. They far excel in stock-jobbing, 
 and in all the mysteries of the *' Exchange." They sur- 
 pass in banking, and have issued many more notes *' pro- 
 mising to pay," than their neighbors : though these latter, 
 especially in Spain, seldom fail to pay without any ** pro- 
 mises" to that effect ; nor have they ever been known to 
 redeem' their pledges by bankruptcy or repudiation — an 
 easy modern method to pay old debts ! 
 
 Protestant countries have also published more books on 
 political economy and '* the wealth of nations :" they 
 have also excelled in manufactures and in machinery. 
 But the modern utilitarian plan of conducting the latter, 
 in England more particularly, has contributed not a little 
 to empoverish and debase the lower orders of the people — 
 which, however, according to the doctrine of that most 
 fashionable theory, is not at all opposed to the ** wealth 
 of nations ;" for this is entirely compatible with the gen- 
 eral poverty of the masses ! 
 
 But in enlightenment of mind, and in gentleness of 
 manners — in the general features and in the suavity of 
 social intercourse — do Protestant countries in Europe — 
 for we wish not here to speak of our own country, which 
 is not strictly Protestant — really surpass Catholic nations? 
 We think not. We believe the balance would rather in- 
 cline in favor of the latter. AVe have shown, that in 
 point of general learning and enlightenment. Catholic 
 countries compare most advantageously with those that 
 are Protestant. This we think we have established on 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 unexceptionable Protestant authority. In point of refine- 
 ment and polish of manners, Catholic France is avowedlj' 
 in advance of all other nations. The Spanish gentleman 
 is perhaps the noblest and best type of elevated human 
 nature. The warm-hearted, courteous, and refined po- 
 liteness of Italy and Ireland, compares most favorably 
 with the coldness and the blunt selfishness of Germany 
 and England. 
 
 In a word, the South of Europe, which has continued 
 under Catholic influence, will suffer nothing by being 
 brought into comparison, in regard to all the features of re- 
 fined intercourse, with the cold, calculating North, which 
 has, to a great extent, embraced the doctrines of the re- 
 formation. Though not illumined with the new "north- 
 ern light" which has fitfully shone on the minds of the 
 Protestants, for three centuries, they are still, to say the 
 least, as enlightened, as polished, as refined, and as highly 
 civilized, as their more fortunate neighbors. The steady 
 old light of Catholicism, which shed its blessed rays on 
 their forefathers, has been luminous enough to guide their 
 path ! 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 We have now completed our task ; how well, the 
 public will best judge. We have examined the principal 
 false statements of M. D'Aubigne ; and, in doing so, we 
 have also glanced occasionally at his frequent inconsisten- 
 cies and absurdities. To have followed him in detail 
 throughout his tedious history — to have convicted him of 
 unfair or false statements on almost every page — to have 
 unmasked his hypocrisy and laid bare his contradictions- 
 would have imposed on us an almost endless labor. Yet 
 this would have been less difficult perhaps than the task 
 we have performed. For it is much easier to grapple with 
 32* 
 
378 d'aubigne's history reviewed. 
 
 an adversary, page by page, and sentence by sentence ; 
 than to cull out from his pages, and to refute, such general 
 misstatements as are of most importance, and as cover the 
 whole ground of the controversy. The former method is 
 a kind of light skirmishing ; the latter is a more serious 
 and weighty species of warfare. 
 
 We hope that, when another cheap edition of M. D'Au- 
 bigne's *' history of the great reformation" will appear, 
 in three volumes duodecimo, this Review %i it — which 
 will make a volume to match — will be also republished, 
 as the fourth of the series. This is the highest object of 
 our ambition. The readers would then, at least, have an 
 opportunity of seeing both sides of a very important 
 question, involving their interests for time and eternity ! 
 
 Though we have been compelled to allege strong facts 
 and to use plain language, yet we hope we have carefully 
 abstained from employing any epithets unnecessarily harsh 
 or offensive. God is our witness, that we have not meant 
 wantonly to wound the feelings of any one. Deeply as 
 we feel, and sincerely as we deplore, the evils of which 
 the reformation has been the cause — the unsettling of 
 faith, the numberless sects, the bitter and acrimonious 
 disputes, and the consequent rending of society into 
 warring elements — yet do we feel convinced, that all 
 these crying evils, which originated in a spirit of hatred 
 and revolt, can be healed only by the contrary principle 
 of love and charity. 
 
 Fain would we pour oil on the bleeding wounds of a di- 
 vided and lacerated Christianity. Fain would we contri- 
 bute our humble mite to bind up those wounds, and to 
 bring back that charming religious harmony which once 
 blessed the world. The bitter experience of three centu- 
 ries has proved, that a re-union among Christians cannot 
 be brought about, but by a return to the bosom of the 
 Catholic church, of those who, in an evil hour for them- 
 selves and for the world, strayed from its pale. It is only 
 in the "old paths," hallowed by the footsteps of martyrs, 
 
CONCLUSION. 279 
 
 of saints and of virgins, that perfect peace and security 
 can be found. To all the lovers of unity, we would then 
 say in the words of God's plaintive prophet: "Thus saith 
 the Lord : stand ye on the ways, and see, and ask for the 
 old paths, which is the good way, and walk ye in it; and 
 you shall find refreshment to your souls."* 
 
 " Refreshment" and peace can be found no where else. 
 All other expedients for re-establishing religious union on 
 a solid basis, have been tried in vain. It is only in com- 
 munion with the Chair of Peter — the rock on which Christ 
 built His church — that Christians can be secured in unity 
 and peace. 
 
 " That no lambkin might wander in error benighted. 
 
 But homeward the true path may hold, 
 The Redeemer ordained that in one faith united. 
 
 One Shepherd shall govern the fold." 
 
 * Jeremiah vi, 16. 
 
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 Good Articles, Low Prices, and Puncti'ality may be relied on. 
 
 A GENERAL ASSORTMENT OF 
 
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 KEPT CONSTANTLY ON HAND. 
 
 LIST OF CATHOLIC BOOKS PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE AS ABOVE. 
 
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 A REVIEW OF D'AUBIGNE'S HISTORY OF THE REFORM- 
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3 LIST OF CHEAP CATHOLIC BOOKS 
 
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 have no hesitation in saying that it is by far ike cheapest work yet of- 
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 DAILY EXERCISES : a very neat little miniature Prayer Book, con- 
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 WARD'S TREE OF LIFE, or the Church of Christ. This 
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PUBLISHED AND FOR SALE BY JOHN MURPHY. 5 
 
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 List of Works published in the Cabinet Library. 
 
 These will be followed in regular succession, by other works of 
 similar character. 
 No. 1. MARIA, OR Confidence in God, ultimately rewarded. 
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 53 
 
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