LEADERS OF THE REFORMATION

JO S EPH H EN R Y D UBBS ,D . D .

, L L . D .

N "

T H E H E I D E L BE R G PR E S S

PH I L A D E L PH I A ,PA .

PR E FAC E .

The R e format ion o f the S ixteen th Century is the

principa l source o f our civi l and re l igious freedom .

We are l iv ing i n th e era which i t inaugurated,and

are mou lded by i ts in fluence . For th is reason i t

deserves to be s tudied by a l l who are in terested in

th e developmen t o f th e Church and State .

The author has not ventured to wri te a h is tory

of th is eventful period . H e has,however

,made i t

th e subj ect of many l ectures,and of these a series

is here presented . Though th e best au thori ties

have been consul ted and freely quoted,the general

purpose has been popu lar rath er than scholasti c . I t

has not been deemed necessary to burd en the text

wi th proofs and references . O f th e work of the

most distinguished l eaders of th e Reformation no

more than a brief sketch has been attempted but

men of less cel ebri ty h ave been ass igned to the

posi tion which is bel i eved to be thei r due .

I t wi l l be observed that there has been no dispo

si t iou to exal t some men at the expense of others,

and that subj ects of controversy have no t been

prominently presented . I t is bel i eved that calm

and dispassionate study of the l ives of the Reform

ers wil l prove that they were al l pervaded by a

common l i fe ; and that though their errors were

numerous thei r purposes were exal ted . When

these facts are ful ly recogniz ed,prej udice and ex

elusiveness must pass away ; and in the ful l es t

sense of the prophecy,there wil l be one fold and

one Sheph erd .

CO N T E N T S .

I .

THE D A W N OF THE REF O RM A T I O N .

( joH N HUSS ) .

I ntroduction— T he Da rk A ges— Com ing o f the D awn—VValdenses—Conserva tives and L ibera ls— Mystics and H um anis ts— T he S ecularization of the Church . John H uss

,a

n ation a l leader— D isciple of VVycli f f e—T he Baby lonish

Captivity—R eform atory Councils— Pope John XX I I I .

Counci l o f Constance— Citation o f H uss— Condemna tionand de ath—T he H ussite wars .

I I .

THE GL O RY OF THE REF O RM A T I O N .

( M A RTI N L UT H E R ) .

Luther ’s early l ife Education Monastic vows S piritua lstruggles— Journey to R ome— F rederick o f S axony— I n

du lgences T heses Conflicts—Excommunication—Burning of the Bul l— M elancthon Luther a t Worms—T heWartburg Carlstadt Zwickau Prophets Controversywith H enry V I I I .

—Luther ’s marri age—T able T a lk—Persona l ch aracter—A ugsburg Confession— Last years anddeath .

I II .

THE F REE CHURCH I N THE F REE S TATE .

( UL R I C Z W I N GL I

S witzerland the refuge of the oppressed—Mercen ary systemZwingl i ’s Birth—Wi ldh aus—Early training—S chol arshipGl arus— E ins ied len — R el ations to Erasmus— PatriotismP astorate in Zurich —L eo Juda D omestic re l ationsA nabaptists— M arburg Conference— O rganization of the

churches—Battle of Cappel— Zwingl i ’ s death .

vi CONTENT S .

IV.

THE CHURCH UN D ER THE CROS S .

JO H N CALV I N ) .

Geneva— Confederates and M amelukes—Wi l liam F arel Cal

vin ’ s e arly years—Protestantism in F rance —C a lvin ’s Conversion—H is F light T he I nstitutes ’ —M arriage —Laborsin Geneva—S ervetus—T heodore Bel a—D eath of C a lvinT he H uguenots -Guises and Bourbons—Jeanne d ’

A lbret

Col igni—“S t . Bartholomew —H enry of N avarre—E dict

of N antes .

V .

THE S TRUGGLE OF THE CREED S .

( CR A N M E R A N D KNOX ) .

T he O xford R eformers—Pol itica l e lements—H enry V I I I . of

England—T hom as Cranmer—Constrained by roy a l authority

—Under Edward V I .

—R el ations to Continenta l reformers—Common Prayer—M artin Bu cer—O rganization of the

Church—"ueen M ary—R idley and L at imee ranmer’s

death—R eign of El izabeth—Puritans—T heC hurch of S cotl and—Patrick H am ilton—George Wishart—John Knox , theR eformer of S cotland—A captive in F rance—S tudent inGeneva—Conflicts with"ueen Mary of S cotland—D eath of

Knox—A comparison .

VI .

THE T H REEF O L D CORD .

( F R E D E R I CK I I I .,oL E V I A N US , A N D UR S I NUS ) .

H eidelberg—T he P a l atinate of the R h ine—F rancis LambertPhi lip M elancthon—F rederick I I I .

—T he S acramenta l Controversy Erasti anism ”

C aspar O levianu s Zacha ri asUrsinus—T he H eidelberg C atech ism—H eroic defense—T heE lector ’s death—T he C atechism in H ol l and—R evolt of theN etherl ands—Prince of O range—S ynod of D ort—Unionmovements in Germ any—Pietism—I nvasion of the Pa l atinate—T he Gre at M igration—Present state of the church .

LEADERS OF THE REFORMATION

I .

THE D AWN OF THE REFORMATION .

JO H N H US S .

HE Reformation of th e s ixteenth cen tury was

the greates t epoch in modern h istory . To

regard i t as th e work of a singl e man,or of

any defini te body of men,is plainly unhis torical .

We migh t as wel l cal l Napoleon Bonaparte the

cause of th e French Revolution ; or assert that

Abraham Lincoln was the originator of th e civ il

war in America . Like every oth er great h istorical

movement,th e Reformation sprang from obscure

sources in the remote past,and gath ered strength

from innumerabl e tributaries,unti l at l as t i t be

came a mighty flood whose onward flow was irres ist

ibl e .

The period immediately preceding the Reforma

t ion of the s ixteenth century is known as th e M id

dle Ages or more properly,on account o f i ts h is

toric uni ty,as the Middl e Age— [e M aj/en age

“ das Mi tte lal ter ”. I t is so cal l ed because i t is

supposed to stand in the m iddle,between ancien t

and modern h istory . In round numbers,i t extends

for a thousand years from the fifth or sixth centu ry

to the fi fteenth or s ix teen th . Secular h istorians

general ly regard i t as beginning with th e down fal l

of th e western Roman empire in A . D . 476 and

ending wi th the Fa l l of Constantinopl e,th e I nven

t ion of Printing,the D iscovery of America , or

some other importan t even t in the latter part of the

fifteen th century . Eccl esias ti cal wri ters most f re

quently begin wi th Gregory th e Great (abou t'

A . D .

600) and conclude wi th the Reformation . His

tory,we know

,i s an organi c process and i t is im

possibl e to draw an exact l ine of separation between

i ts several periods ; but every age has i ts decided

characteris ti cs,and famil iari ty wi th these is essen

tial to our compreh ension of the d ivine l i fe in i ts

h ighest developments .

The Middle Ages h ave often been termed “ the

dark ages ”

; but i t i s Col eridge , we bel i eve , who

asserts that th ey are “ dark only to those who have

not l igh t enough to read th em ” Light was

always struggl ing wi th darkness . I f i t was a

period of ignorance and depression,i t was also th e

time of great invent ions— of th e beginn ings of

modern l i terature and sci ence ; the period of th e

planting of th e seeds wh ich have sprung up and

brough t forth the flowers and frui t in which we

now rej oice.

In order that we may comprehend al l th is i t i s

necessary to remember that the M iddl e Ages in

el ude two widely contrasted periods . The firs t o f

these,extending to the Crusades (A .D . 1 096) i s th e

j oH N Huss . 9

Period of Destruction ; th e second , whi ch ends

with the Reformation,i s th e period o f R econstrue

t ion . The ch ief events o f th e firs t period are the

m igration of nations,th e ri se o f M ahommedan ism

,

th e repulse o f th e Saracens,th e revival o f th e

Western Roman Emp ire under Char lemagne,the

bu ilding up of monasti c orders,and the establ ish

ment of th e feuda l sys tem . During th is period i t

seemed to be th e purpose o f most men to destroy

as much as they poss ibly cou ld though here and

there a sol itary ru l er,l ike Theodori c or Charle

magne,or an unusual ly intel l igen t abbot or prior

,

made an e ff ort for th e in te l l ectual advancemen t of

h is peopl e . I t was th e power of Chris tian l i fe,

however obscured by supersti tion,that saved th e

world from relapsing i n to absol u te barbarism .

The next four cen turi es— th e period o f Recon

struction— exh ib i t a reaction in favor of law and

order ; the crusades gave bi rth to ch ivalry , modern

languages came into ex is tence,and monarchies

were consol idated . I t was,i n fac t

,the period of

th e Dawn of the R eformation .

We regard the latter period wi th profound interes t

and sympathy,and do not ho ld with those who

suppose that the ch urch of the cen turies imme

diately preceding the Reformation was u tterly

sunken and degraded . I t was the coming of the

dawn when men began to open thei r eyes and re

j oice i n the l igh t . We re fuse to renounce our

I O LEADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

patrimony i n Engl ish l i terature ; we boast that

Chaucer and Spenser,and S hakspeare are ours ,

though they sl eep in a foreign land may we not

wi th equal propri ety c laim a share i n Dan te and

Petrarch,i n Gerson and D ’A illy , i n Colet and

Erasmus"If th e church of modern times hastaken up the bes t l i fe of th e period which preceded

i t,may we not wi th sympatheti c throbb ings feel

the power of that l i fe,as i t beat i n th e hearts of

the men who l ived four hundred years ago"Is i tnot wel l to appreciate the continui ty of Chris t’ s

promise ; and when history recal ls th e l earning ,th e p i ety

,th e sel f-sacrifice of the past

,to exclaim

with rap turous devotion :“ This too

,th ank God

,

i s m ine

We do not look for th e main sources o f th e R e

formation among th e mediaeval sects . These had

no doub t an importan t work to do,as forerunners

of a new era bu t in mos t instances th ey labored

in obscure places,and exerted bu t l i t tl e influence

on the church and the world . Some of them

such as the Cathari,th e Bulgari

,and th e Albi

gemses— were probably h ereti cal . O th ers,l ike the

Waldenses , were comparatively pure in doctrin e

and morals ; but thei r i nfluence was qu iet and

sometimes almost imperceptibl e . Indeed,i t may

be doubted wheth er th e Waldenses,before the days

of th e Reformation,could properly be cal led a sect .

They served th e Lord in secret,and rarely ven

j O H N HUS S . rr

tu red to o ffer a pub l ic protes t . On th is accoun t

they may,perhaps

,be regarded as a grea t secre t

society,whose members recognized each other by

signs,rather than as a rel igious denomination in

th e modern sense of the term . Thei r organizati on

i s said to have been so extens ive that a member

m igh t l eave Piedmont on foot,and

,travel ing

through Switzerland and down the Rhine,cou ld

lodge every nigh t with a broth er of h is fai th un ti l

h e reach ed Holland,whence he cou ld sai l to Eng

land and there be sure of s imilar en tertainment .

That the Waldenses,the Friends of God”

,and

s im ilar organ izations accompl ish ed a great work in

preparing the way for the Reformation we do not

presume to deny but th e rel igious movement of

the six teenth cen tury was too great to be derived

from comparatively obscure sources . I t must be

remembered that i n th e church of Rome i tsel f there

were two d istinct tendenc i es wh ich might have been

termed “ Liberal ” and “ Conservative ”. The

former was represented by th e party of progress

wh ich rej oiced i n th e l igh t that was beginning to

break over the world ; th e l atter was narrow and

bigoted,cl ing ing to a mass of mediaeval lumber

,and

often substi tu ting heathen ish supersti t ions for Chris

t ian fai th .

The Liberal party was al ready on the way that

final ly l ed to the great Reformation . Though i t

m igh t be regarded as includ ing al l who cherished

1 2 LEADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON;

aspirations for a higher l i fe i t was eviden t at a

glance that the views of i ts m embers were nei ther

c l ear nor harmon ious . Among th em were many

di ff eren t groups,or compan ies

,which had l i ttle in

common,except d issatis faction wi th exis ting con

d i tions . Most intel l igen t were th e HUMA N I S T S,

who were ful l of en thusiasm for Greek and Roman

l i terature and art . Many of these were at heart in

fidels,who spoke of “ th e immortal gods ” as

though they actual l y bel i eved in them,and did not

h esi tate to declare th e church an obs tacl e to th e

h igh er deve lopment of civi l ization . At th e oppo

s i te extreme stood th e MYS T I CS—men l ike Master

Eckhart,John Tau ler

,and Thomas a. Kemp is

who had turned away wi th disgus t from the

scholasti c con trovers i es concerning . Nominal ism

and Real ism,holding that p ious contemplation is

better than al l knowledge . That some of them fel l

into pan theism is not to be doubted bu t compared

with the dry teach ings of th e scholast ics their wri t

ings are a beauti ful garden . The au thori t ies of the

church regarded them wi th susp ic ion,bu t as they

rarely taugh t doctrin e i t was difli cu lt to find

grounds for their condemnation .

In one th ing the Liberal is ts agreed,and that was

the necess i ty of a speedy reformation of th e church .

From al l nations th ere wen t up a cry for a ref orma

z‘

z

’

o in capz'

Ze at 772577267 23. That the church had be

come thoroughly secularized was eviden t to all .

j oH N HUS S . r3

The papacy was the prey o f designing I tal i an

princes ; simony was almos t un iversa l— b ishoprics

were bough t and so ld ; monasteries had become

hotbeds of corruption ; and the popu lace wor

sh ipped images under the impress ion that th ey

were a real mani festation of the supernatural beings

wh ich they represented . Agains t al l th i s the Lib

erals protested as decidedly as did the Protes tants

of the succeeding century ; but they were never

ready to take decis ive action . and dreaded above

al l th ings the imputation of heresy . Hence i t

happened,i n more than a s i ngl e i ns tance

,that

when one of their number— more intel l igen t and

adven turous than the rest— advanced more rapidly

than his associates,they were the fi rs t to cry out

“Ho,there"Stop h im"We do not go as far as

th is man goes . He is a heretic

More than one o f the pioneers was condemned at

the instance of men who had been h is earl i er asso

c iates bu t even i n such i nstances th e blood of the

martyrs was th e seed of the church . Where one

fel l a h undred appeared to take h is place and wi th

every onward step the army of progress grew bolder

and more determ ined . They had no thought or

separating from the church of Rome but the t ime

came at las t when they were forced ou t of i t . The

maj ori ty— th e party of reac t ion,th e mediaeval

party— would not y ield an iota to the demands or

progress and the most i ntel l igen t members of the

I 4 LEADERS OF T H E R E F O R M A T Z O N .

church were compel l ed to assume the posi tion of

independen t protes t wh ich final ly gave them th e

name of Protestants . I t i s i n th is great h istorical

movement,rather than in th e obscure sects of the

middle ages,that we seek for the source of our

evangel ical Protestan t Chris tian i ty .

In further i l lustration of our theme we d i rec t

your atten tion to John Huss , th e Reformer and

martyr of Bohemia . I n some respects,i t i s true

,

th e story may prove less in teres t ing than those of

later date There are no legends to relate,l ike

those wh ich elsewhere twine l ike ivy around th e

ru ins of th e past . Least of al l can we expect to be

cheered by the gen ial glow of humor,for the days

were hard and cold . The scene is far d is tant,and

the actors appear bu t ind is t inctly through th e mists

of ages . I t is,i n fac t

,a fearful tragedy that gave

rise to a seri es of wars wh i ch for merci l ess horror

and pure atroci ty are hard ly equal l ed in the h istory

of Europe .

JO H N HUS S was born in the v i l lage of H u ssinecs,

i n Bohem ia . The year of h is birth is not qu i te

certain,d i fferent au thor i t i es varying between 1 369

and 1 373 . He is known to have perished on h is

birthday,July 6

,1 4 1 5 and recent Bohemian wri ters

declare that the year 1 369 has been authenti cated

by researches in the national arch ives as th e year

of his b irth . His forefathers were poor,and i t does

not seem l ikely that th ey had a surname . Unti l

j O H N HUS S . 15

h is 26 th year our h ero cal l ed himsel f John of Huss

inecs,after h is b i rth place bu t h e subsequen tly

dropped the latter part o f th e name,probably for the

sake of euphony . I t was j ust becoming usual to

adopt a surname,and John probably though t that in

such mat ters h is own tas te was the supreme arb i ter.Concerning h is early education l i t tl e is known

bu t i t i s probab le that h e attended the Lati n schoo l

of h is native v i llage . These Latin schools were

conducted by the parish pri es t,and were primari ly

intended to teach boys enough Lati n to enabl e th em

to assi st in serving th e mass . For th is purpose

very l i t tl e was needed,as the pries t h imse l f had

often bu t a vague idea of the mean ing of h is words,

and the peopl e d id not care whether he said sumpsz

'

mzzs or mumpsz'

mu s .

How Huss was prepared for the universi ty we do

not know probably l i ttl e was requ i red,except

some faci l i ty i n reading Latin . He became secre

tary to one of the professors at the un iversi ty of

Prague,and h is ofli ce no doubt included brush ing

coats as wel l as wri ting letters . There are s tori es

concerning his profic i ency wh ich have apparently

been exaggerated,for there is noth ing to show that

h e ever wen t beyond the ordinary curri culum . In

fact,th e records are said to show that h is grade

p laced h im exactly in th e m idd l e of h is class ; so

that h e had no cause to be exa l ted or humi l iated .

In l ater l i fe he is said to have had some knowledge

1 6 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA T I ON.

of Greek and Hebrew bu t th is l earning may have

been acquired by post -graduate study . His man

ners are said to have been natura l l y courteous,and

he soon gained many i nfluential fri ends . Without

being exact ly handsome he had refi'

ned features and

a keen eye ; and h is general appearance conveyed

the impression of being what Westerners call

qu ick on th e trigger”

. Above al l h e possessed

i n a remarkabl e degree the gi ft of eloquence,so that

h is words sounded l ike music and wen t straigh t to

the heart . I t was th is gift that a ttracted th e atten

t ion of h is superiors,and made h im even in his

s tuden t days an i dol o f th e national Bohemian

par ty .

Bohem ia,we know

,i s general ly regarded as one

of th e provinces of Austria ; but i ts peopl e insis t

that i t i s an anci en t kingdom,of vastly more his

tori c importance than the original arch -d‘uchy of

Austria i tsel f. Though Bohemia stretch es west

ward,l ike a great peninsu la between Saxony and

Bavaria,unti l i t almos t reaches th e heart o f Ger

many,it is not real ly a German country . N early

two- th irds of i ts population,which is estimated at

five mil l ions,are of Slavoni c race

,speaking 3 l an

guage which is known as Czech . Here,for more

than a thousand years,th e Teuton and the Sl av

have struggl ed for supremacy,and many are the

battl es wh ich they have fough t wi th sword and pen .

Pol i t i cal l y the Germans have proved stronger than

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1 8 LEADERS O F T H E REFORMA TI ON '

.

forty,i n ful l possession of a l l h is powers— a man

whom a nation was proud to recogn iz e as i ts ch ief.

Many a man,under sim ilar circumstances

,would

have supposed h imsel f to have reached the summi t

of h is ambi tion and migh t th ereafter have taken

h is ol izcm cam d zg7zz°

ca te,l eaving th e management

of the universi ty to th e d eans of th e several facu l

t ies,or

,possibly

,when a vacancy occurred

,watch

ing his chance to be made archbishop of Prague .

Huss,however

,was not of th is type . He was of

an act ive nature ; energeti c and often imprudent ,he seems to have sough t obs tacl es in order to over

come them . Even at th is early date h is p i ety was

conspi cuous . He advised th e s tudents to make the

B ibl e thei r only wade mcczcm and bold ly declared

that he had found in i t many th ings wh ich did not

agree wi th the teach ing of the popes .

The univers i ty of Pragu e was at th is t ime at the

summi t of i ts g lory . I t was th e only univers i ty in

the north of continen tal Eu rope,and was attended

bv several thousand students,some of whom came

from dis tan t England . I ts governmen t was in

many respects pecul iar . The inst i tu tion was d iv i

ded in to four sections,representing fou r countries

Saxony,Poland

,Bavaria

,and Bohemia— and each

section had one vote in th e genera l managemen t .

By th is arrangement the Germans had practi cal ly

three votes— for Poland was regarded as German

and th e Bohemians had bu t one . Suddenly the

j oH N HUS S . 1 9

Emperor W inces lau s,i n th e most arb i trary manner

changed the arrangement,g i ving th ree votes to th e

Bohemians and l eav ing but one to the Germans .

Winceslau s,i t shou ld be remembered

,was both

King o f Bohemia and Emperor o f Germany . In

Germany he had very l i tt le influence ; bu t he rc

sented h is unpopu lari ty and did al l i n h is power to

advance the in terests of h is hered i tary k ingdom .

At h is instance Huss was chosen Rector of th e uni

versi ty,because h e was a l eader of the Czechs ;

and the Germans,therefor e

,regarded h im with i l l

concealed aversion . I t was at th is time that h e

began to express h imsel f concerning the fai th and

practice of the ch urch wi th a degree of boldness

that enabl ed h is enemies to inj ure h im at a vital

poin t . Personal ly h e claimed to be imparti al i n the

pol i t i cal confl i ct ; but h e unconsciously reveal ed

his posi t ion by remarking in one of h is l etters,tha t

h e “ had always preferred a good German to a bad

Bohemian ” The exci temen t aroused on the two

grounds of opposi tion— po l i ti cal and rel igious— be

came so in tense and uncontro l labl e,that before the

close of the first year of h is rectorate the German

professors and students wi thdrew in a body from

the univers i ty of Prague and founded the un iver

sity of Leips ic .

At th is time occurred the change in the theologi c

posi t ion of Huss wh ich determined the character o f

his subsequen t career. Engl i sh s tudents had len t

20 LEADERS O F T H E REFORMA TI ON .

h im the wri tings of John Wycl i ff e,canon of Lut

terworth,who had died i n 1 384 . Some wri ters

assert that they were given h im by h is i nt imate

fri end and subsequen t fel low-martyr,Jerome of

Prague,bu t this appears improbable . I t is certain

that Huss read these books wi th sympathy and en

thu siasm,and that he was converted by them . He

himsel f always asserted that at th e t ime when he

undertook to s tudy the wri t ings of Wycl i ff e th ey

were accompanied by a certificate from the univer

sity of Oxford , to the eff ect that they had been ex

amined and found orthodox ; and there has been

much controversy wheth er the endorsemen t was

genuine or a forgery . As the documen t has been

lost th e question wi l l probably never be settled .

If we had undertaken to d iscuss the career of

Wycl i ff e there would certainly be enough to say ;

bu t our theme admits bu t a few references to “ the

morning-star of the Reformation ”. That he was

one of the greates t men of h is age cannot be

doubted . His learn ing and abi l i ty were beyond al l

d ispute . With undaunted courage he attacked the

corrupt ion of the ch urch o f Rome and gained the

undying hatred of the pri esthood by declaring that

the church had no righ t to hold property that was

devoted solely to secular uses . N eander th inks he

wen t too far in th is direction but i t was ch iefly on

this ground that h e was supported by King Edward

I I I .,who was j ealous of the weal th of th e church .

j O H N I I US S . 2 1

Wycl i ff e ’ s words have a strangely modern sound .

Though he had not grasped the doctrine o f ju s t ification by fai th

,he certain ly recognized the Scri p

tures as the on ly rule of fai th and pract ice . On

the subj ec t o f predestination he at fi rs t fo l lowed St .Augustine

,bu t subsequen tly wen t far beyond h im .

He defined the church as consisting on ly of those

who are predestinated to eterna l l i fe ; and on this

ground h e concluded that the external organizat ion

of the church i s at l east unnecessary . From th is

posi tion there was but a s tep to pub l i c opposi tion,

and Wyc l i ff e d id not hesi tate to tak e i t . Single

handed h e fough t the monastic orders,and roused

the peopl e to devotion for th eir king . Wy c l i ff e

even trained and sen t ou t lay preachers,to preach

the Gospel to the poor . These men were known

as Lo l lards,though th e term had been app l ied to

rel igious peopl e at an earl i er date . Wycl i ff e wasconten t to remain a simpl e parish priest

,and thus

escaped many of the pena l ti es of greatness .

Charges were brough t agains t h im,but they re

mained undecided and he was su ff ered to die i n

peace . Thirty years after his death h is enemies,at

the counci l of Constance,actua l l y succeeded in

securing h is condemnation,and h is poor old bones

were taken from the grave and burnt and the ashes

thrown in to the river Avon . Hence a poet has said

‘

T he Avon to t he Seve rn runs ,And Severn to the sea

And W yclrfl'

e's dust shal l spread abroad

Wide as the wate rs b e .

2 2 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA TI ON .

The work of Wycl i ff e exerted bu t l i ttl e immedi

ate influence ou th e social l i fe of England . I t

l ingered long in obscure places,but i ts power was

broken in a singl e generat ion . Yet,have we not

heard of conflagrat ions where a single burn ing

brand was borne by the storm to some dis tan t p lace

where i t b lazed long after the earl i er flames had

been extingu ished"So the doctri ne of Wycl i ff ewas carried to Bohemia

,taken up by Huss

,and

through h is i nstrumen tal i ty made for a time th e

rel igion of a nation .

The doctrines of Huss do not seem to have varied

from those of Wycl i ff e to any appreciabl e exten t .

He had his Bohemian predecessors,i t is true—men

l ike Matth ias of Janow and John of S tekno— who

had exposed the hypocr isy and wickedness of th e

monks ; bu t these were moral rather than doctri nal

reformers . I t was th e main purpose of Huss to

populariz e th e wri tings of Wy cl i ff e and to preach

the Gospel which they reveal ed . In one of h is ser

mons h e says Bohemians are now declared to be

heretics— that sacred Bohemian nation of which a

proverb declares,

‘ No Bohemian can be a hereti c

Here wi th in th is ci ty,they say there are countless

here ti cs,whom they term Wy clzfi

’

z

’

s ts . As for me I

confess before you that I have read and s tu died the

works of Master Joh n Wycl i ffe,and that I have

learned from them much that is good . Tru ly,not

everyth ing I have read is of the same weigh t wi th

j O H N HUS S . 23

me as the Gospe l,for on ly to th e Holy Scriptures

wil l I main tain such reveren t obed ience ; bu t why

shou ld we not study the books o f Wyc l iffe in

which are wri t ten thousands o f sacred tru ths

Let us seek to become fami l i ar wi th the times in

wh ich Huss l ived and labored,i n order that we may

comprehend his message and his fate . I t was the

period of the deepest humil iat ion of the church .

In 1 309 , Pope C lement V .

,a Frenchman

,had re

moved the seat of the papacy from Rome to

Avignon in France and h e and h is immediate suc

cessors were l i t tl e more than too ls of the French

king. This period is cal l ed “ the Babylon ish cap

t ivi ty because,l ike the captiv i ty of ancien t

Israe l,i t las ted about seventy years . The papal

court became scandalously corrupt,so that i t was

said that when the papacy was removed from Rome

the mora l law was suspended . The only th ing

that can be said in i ts behal f is tha t i t encouraged

l i terature,and that i ts retiremen t to th e beau t iful

land of Provence had a tendency to develop a love

of the beaut ifu l . I t was the age of Petrarch and

Boccaccio,of the beginnings of I tal ian l i terature .

The church at large was,however

,disgusted wi th

the looseness of l i fe which prevai l ed i n Avignon,

and earnestly insisted that the pope shou ld return

to Rome . When John XX I I . was e lected pope he

promised that the fi rst t ime he mounted a beast i t

should be to ride to Rome,bu t he saved his con

24 LEADERS OF T H E R E F O R flI A T I O JV.

science by never mounting a beast . No wonder

that th e popes d id not desi re to l ive in th e c i ty of

St . Peter . I t was torn by contending fact ions the

Orsin i and Colonna fough t pi tched battles in i ts

streets ; and afterwards R i enz i ,“ th e las t of th e

tribunes ”

,actual ly attempted to found a new re

ligion ,and is said to have declared h imsel f “ th e

representat ive and su ccessor of the Holy Spiri t

During these confl i cts R ome had ceased to be a de

sirab l e residence th e sewers had been choked up,

the campan ia had encroach ed on the ci ty,and th e

p lace had become malarious bey ond anyth ing pre

vious ly known . This,we remember was the period

of the great p lague the black death — of which

i n th e y ear 1 348‘

one - th i rd of the peopl e of France

died . Many peopl e regarded a l l th is evil as th e

d irect consequence of th e sins of th e world,of

which th ey esteemed the pope ’s removal from Rome

as the greatest ; and at las t th e complai nts became so

loud that i n 1 37 8 th e pope was constrai ned to re

turn to the holy ci ty . Th is d id not please the

French,who had h i th erto managed th e papacy

pre ttv much as they pleased , and another pope was

i rregularly chosen who reigned i n Avignon . This

m iserabl e condi tion continued for many years,and

sometimes there were no less than three men who

c laimed to be popes,al l cursing and excommun i

cating each other. Some o f th e universi ti es re

fused to acknowledge ei ther claiman t,and demanded

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z6 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA T I ON.

atten tion of th is counc i l was th e d iv ided condi tion

of th e papacy . There were three men who c laimed

to be pope,of whom the most prominen t was Bal

dassare Cossa who reigned under the ti t l e of John

XX I I I . He is said to have been a corsair in his

you th and was certain ly one of the worst of his

l ine That such a man could secure an election

to th e papal chai r i s i n i tse l f an abundan t proof of

the wickedness of the times .

The plans of pope John were at first successful .

His enormous weal th enab l ed h im to purchase the

favor o f cardinals and universi ti es and he did not

doubt that he could con trol a general counci l and

secure recogni ti on as the on ly l egi timate pope . I t

happened,however

,that Ladis laus

,king of Naples

,

who appears to have no fear of ecclesiasti cal digui

t ies,took Rome and drove th e pope ou t of the ci ty .

John ’s wrath knew no bounds,and he actual ly

cal led upon Christ ian princes to condu c t a crusade

agai ns t th e enemy of “ th e Lord ’ s anoin ted ”

,but

no one responded to h is invi tation . In h is despera

t ion h e then appealed to the emperor,Sigismund

,

expressing h is wi ll ingness to submi t the questi on at

issue to a general council,and at th e same time

authoriz ed i ts convocation . The emperor at once

convoked th e counci l,and appointed Constance

,i n

Germany,as th e place of meeting. This did not

sui t pope John at a l l . An I tal ian counci l h e migh t

( 1 ) Th eod oru s N iemiu s . H istoria d e V i ta Johann is XX I I I . ,p . 1 7 .

j O H N Huss . 2 7

have control led,bu t a meeting i n Germany was

more doub t fu l . In th e mean t ime King Ladislaus

d ied,and in th e opinion of th e pope the ch ie f

reason for th e meeting was thus removed . To

make the best of a bad bargian he , however , was

presen t at th e opening of the counci l,though wi th

many misgivings concerning the resu l t . Just as he

entered Constance h is carriage upset in th e snow

and,as h e lay on h is back in the road in a l l th e

sp l endor o f his papal robes,he exclaimed Here

I l ie,i n the name of the devi l"Why had I not

sense enough to remain in Bologna"”The pope ’ s forebodings were not ground less .

At the first meeting of the council he was permitted

to preside but he was soon requested to resign th e

papacy ; and when he refused the counci l sum

mari ly deposed h im and the two other claimants,

and elected a prince of the great Roman house of

Colonna who afterwards resigned under the ti t le of

Martin V . As John sti l l protested the counci l im

prisoned him unti l h e agreed to submi t to i ts

decis ion . He final ly agreed to accept th e second

p lace under the new administrat i on,as dean of the

co l lege of cardinal s .

The council of Constance d id some good work,

bu t i t was mostly in the l ine of disc ip l ine and

morals . In these directions i t went as far as i t was

possib l e to go ; and in th e opinion of some peop l ei t had even committed the sin of sacri l ege by lay

z6 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA T I ON.

atten tion of th is counc i l was th e d ivi ded condi tion

of th e papacy . There were three men who c laimed

to be pope,of whom the most prominent was Bal

dassare Cossa who reigned under the ti tl e of John

XX I I I . He is said to have been a corsai r in his

you th and was certain ly one of the worst of his

l ine That such a man could secure an election

to th e papal chai r is i n i tsel f an abundan t proof of

the wickedness of the times .

The plans of pope John were at first successful .

His enormous weal th enab l ed h im to purchase the

favor o f cardinals and univers i ti es and he did not

doub t that he could con trol a general counci l and

secure recogni tion as the on ly l egi timate pope . I t

happened,however

,that Ladis laus

,king of Naples ,

who appears to have no fear of eccl esiasti cal digu i

t ies,took Rome and drove th e pope ou t of the c i ty .

John ’s wrath knew no bounds,and h e actual ly

cal led upon Christian princes to condu ct a crusade

agains t th e enemy of “ th e Lord ’ s anoin ted ”

,but

no one responded to h is invi tation . In h is despera

t ion he then appea led to the emperor,Sigismund

,

expressing h is wi ll ingness to submi t th e questi on at

issue to a general council,and at the same time

authorized i ts convocation . The emperor at once

convoked the counci l,and appointed Constance

,i n

Germany,as th e place of meeting. This did not

sui t pope John at a l l . An I tal ian counc i l h e migh t

( 1 ) Th eodoru s N iem iu s . H istoria d e V i ta Johann is XX I I I . ,p . 1 7 .

j O H N H US S . 2 7

have control led,bu t a meeting i n G ermany was

more doub t fu l . In the mean time King Ladis laus

d ied,and in the opinion o f th e pope the ch ief

reason for th e meeting was thu s removed . To

make th e best o f a bad bargian he , however , was

presen t at th e opening of the counci l,though wi th

many m isgivings concerning the resu l t . Just as he

entered Constance h is carriage upset in the snow

and,as h e lay on h is back in the road in a l l th e

spl endor o f his papa l robes,he exc laimed Here

I l ie,i n the name of the devi l"Why had I not

sense enough to remain i n Bo logna"”

The pope ’ s forebodings were not ground less .

At the fi rs t meeting of the council he was permitted

to preside but he was soon requested to resign th e

papacy ; and when he refused the counci l sum

marily deposed h im and the two other claimants,

and e l ected a prince of the great Roman house of

Colonna who afterwards resigned under the ti tl e of

Martin V . As John sti l l protested the counci l im

prisoned h im unti l h e agreed to submi t to i ts

decis ion . He finally agreed to accept the second

place under the new adminis trat ion,as dean of the

col lege of cardinal s .

The council of Constance did some good work,

bu t i t was mostly in the l ine of disc ipl in e and

morals . In these di rections i t went as far as i t was

possibl e to go ; and in th e opin ion of some people

i t had even commi tted the sin of sacri lege by lay

28 L E A DERS OF T H E REFORMA T I ON .

ing i ts hands on the Lord ’ s anoin ted . For th is

reason,though i t had ventured to change the

externa l organization of th e church,i t wanted al l

the world to know that i ts members were sound in

fai th and doctrine. I t was not a safe tribunal for

any one who was accused of heresy .

Before th is counci l John Huss was ci ted to

appear . He had prev ious ly been condemned by

th e anti -pope,Alexander V . ; but the Bohemians

did not recogn i z e h is authori ty,and

,indeed

,many

of them refused to acknowledge th e authori ty of

any pope . Some of the professors of the univers i ty,

however,tu rned agains t Huss

,because h e said that

th e h ead of the church was not S t . Peter but Chris t

alone .

The Emperor W’

inceslau s had by t h is t ime re

s igned h is offi ce in favor of h is brother S igismund,

who was extremely anxious to gain th e favor of the

Germans and of th e court of Rome . Heavy clouds

were gathering around the Reformer of Bohemia ;but every day h is v i ews o f div ine tru th became

brighter and c learer . He began one of h is books

by say ing :“ Ye should not bu rn the wri tings of

h eretics,but shou ld read them in order that ye

may know what is true ”. The sale of in

’

dulgences

d isgusted his mind,as i t afterwards d id that of

Luth er ; and h e boldly declared that th e church

has no r igh t to sel l i ts treasures of grace,and that

to do so i s to commi t th e s in of S imon the sorcerer .

j O H N HUS S . 29

He was charged wi th disagreeing with the church

on the doctrine of th e Lord ’s Supper,but on this

subj ect he did not go as far as the Re formers o f the

s ixteenth cen tury . I cannot even find that h e in

s is ted on g iving th e cup to the lai ty,which his

fol lowers a fterwards made thei r “S hibboleth

Every day,however

,brought more l igh t

,and noth

ing a ff orded him more pleasure than to take long

j ourneys,preach ing the Gospel dai ly to thousands

of peopl e .

When Huss was ci ted to appear before the coun

cil of Constance he greatly rej oiced . Unacquainted

wi th th e treacherous ways o f southern prel ates,he

hoped for an opportuni ty to declare the truth before the whole of Christendom

,bel i eving in the in

nocence of h is heart that the tru th,as h e was abl e

to present i t,need onlv be h eard to be bel i eved .

The emperor gave him a safe-conduct— a pass

which promised h im protection and securi ty during

h is visi t to Constance . The danger then seemed

reduced to a minimum,and Huss d id not hes i tate

to undertake the j ourney .

I t is true that h e seems to have fel t a premon i

tion of evi l . He made h is will,and wrote a long

letter to h is nephews,to whom he was greatly

attached “ for th is”,h e said

,

“ i s a trying time,

and none should en ter the m inistry but those who

are wi ll i ng to di e for the cause of truth” I t was ,i ndeed

,a cruel

,trying age

,when men were burned

30 LEADERS OF T H E REFORM A TI ON .

at the stake on al l sorts of pretexts . T wo mer

chan ts h ad just been executed in Prague for adul ter

ating some saff ron which they had sold in the mar

ket. On th i s occasion Huss sai d : “ I f I am to be

burned I des ire i t to be for a better cause . I am

wi ll ing to be a martyr i n th e cause of truth

The j ou rney to Constance had al l the appearance

of a triumphal procession . Huss was accompan ied

by four imperial knigh ts and a smal l company of

adherents . As he trave l l ed through Germany he

was great ly surpri sed to find that national prej udices

had for th e time been laid aside,and that at every

town he was wel comed by enthusi ast ic mul ti tudes .

This only shows how heavi ly th e yoke of Rome

rested on the nation,and how earnestly th e world

longed for the day of i ts del iverance .

At Constance the great Bohemian was received

with many marks of distin ction . For a ‘ month

he was free,and he was evid en tl y gain ing influ

ence,when h is enemies proceeded to carry ou t

th e pl ans wh ich they had laid for h is destruction .

The streets were placarded wi th denunciat ions o f

Huss as a h eret ic ; i t was announced that h e was

about to escape ; and in contrad iction to h is safe

conduct he was seiz ed and imprisoned . When he

claimed h is righ ts,he was answered wi th th e hor

ribl e asser tion that i t i s not necessary to keep fai th

wi th heretics . He was brough t before th e counci l

bu t th ere was a general cry of “ Heretic and he

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32 LEADERS OF T H E R E F O R /UA T I O N .

overcome his scrupl es,bu t nothing cou ld shake his

reso lution . His conduc t throughout was calm and

dignified ; not a word of comp laint fel l from his

l ips . On th e 24th of June h is books were pub l icly

burned,and th is

,as Huss wel l understood

,was bu t

a pre lude to h is final condemnation . In a l etter to

h is friends in Prague h e said “ I wri te th is in

prison and in chains,expect ing to -morrow to re

ceive sen tence of death,bu t ful l of hope i n God

that I shal l not swerve from th e tru th,nor abj ure

errors imputed to me by false witnesses” . On the 6 th

of July,1 4 15, th e formal act of condemnation took

place,accompanied by the foo l ish ceremon ies wh ich

were usual on such occas ions . He was arrayed i n

fantasti c garments,solemnly excommunicated

,and

h is sou l forma l ly presented to the devil bu t Huss

l i fted up his eyes to h eaven and said “ I commend

my sou l to i ts Maker and Redeemer ”. Then the

marty r was handed over to th e secular au thori ti es

and led away to be execu ted,whil e th e counci l

went on wi th i ts regular business as i f noth ing had

happened .

The place of execution was by th e road- s ide,a

short d istance from the town of Constance,and i s

now marked by a large stone . Here the v ict im

was ti ed to a s take and th e faggots pi led around

h im . An old peasan t brough t a few sticks and laid

them on the pi le,hoping to gain a heavenly reward

by contribu ti ng to the burning of a heretic . When

/ O H N HUS S . 33

Huss saw th is he sm i l ed,and said O m ac/a s im

Once more urged to recan t,h is on ly

rep ly was “God is my wi tness that I have never

taugh t what fal se witnesses have tes tified against

me . He knows that the great obj ect o f my l i fe was

to convert man from sin . I n the tru th of that

Gospe l which I have wri tten,taugh t

,and preached

I now j oyfu l ly d ie ”

On the fina l scene we shal l not dwe l l . From

the mids t of the gloom and smoke and darkness

there came a singl e cry Kym’

c E lcz'

sozz When

al l was over some one gathered up a handfu l of

ashes and cast them in to the Rh ine .

In the h istory of the church and th e world there

is bu t one scene wh ich is more terribl e than th is

and ye t we remember that those who described i t

had not a word of condemnation for the wicked

men who condemned the righ teous . They l eft i t

al l to God . Shal l we attempt to do otherwise"Such a co lossal crime is i ts own terrific condemna

t ion .

The members of the counci l of Constance no

doubt supposed that they had not only secured

peace to the church but had proc laimed themselves

the guard ians of ancien t orthodoxy . That they

were m istaken need hardly be said . They had not

counted on the wrath of Bohemia,robbed o f her

favori te son . No peopl e had ever before been so

deeply s ti rred,or become so ful ly engrossed by a

34 LEADERS OF T H E REFORM/1 T I ON.

wild des ire for vengeance . Hitherto kings and

nobl es had made war,and th e peopl e had been un

wil l ingly driven to fight th e battles of their l ords .

Now i t was the peopl e who held del iberative

assembl ies and forced th e nobles to l ead them to

battl e . Pries ts who ventured to reflect on the

memory of John Huss were put to death w i th scan t

ceremony,and the imperi al delegates who appeared

before the national counci l were thrown out of the

window. Mul ti tudes that had h i therto cared very

l i ttl e for religious questions now uni ted in demand

ing instan t and complete separation from the church

of Rome . When,one year later

,Jerome of Prague

- who had gone to Constance to be th e counsel and

adviser of John Huss— was al so burned at the stake,

the friends of the martyrs held a meet ing and made

the o ff ering of the cup to the l ai ty in the sacrament

of the eucharist th e badge and purpose of thei r

covenant . On the death of Wenceslaus,i n 1 4 1 9 ,

th e Hussi tes refused to acknowledge S igismund as

h is su ccessor,and chose a nobleman

,named John

Ziska,to be their l eader i n the confl i c t wi th Rome

and th e emp i re .

Ziska was a remarkable,and withal a somewhat

mysterious personage . Not much is known abou t

h im personally,except that h e was very ugly

,had

but one eye and that he could fight . O,how he

could fight I am not fond of war,I deprecate i ts

horrors,bu t i f i t must come

,and in a j us t cause

,I

/O H N HUS S . 35

love a migh ty warrior be fore the Lord . Not once

on ly bu t many times John Ziska wi th h is Tabori tes

beat the emperor,the German pri nces and the cru

sade of the pope . When the Hussi te genera l was

en ti re ly bl i nded he kept on figh ting and beating

his enemies as he had done be fore and i t is said,

on rather doubtfu l authori ty,that when he fe l t that

the end of l i fe was a t hand he gave d irections that

after h is death h is body shou ld be flayed and his

skin stretched over the head of a drum ; so that

when the drum was beat h is voi ce migh t sti l l be

heard in th e th ick of the bat t l e . What a grand

old barbarian h e was

When Ziska died many of h is friends lost cour

age,and a large party which had been c losely at

tached to h im ca l l ed themselves The O rphans ”.

His successor Procopius,who had been a pries t or

monk,however

,showed h imse l f every inch a sol

dier . He conceived the idea of carrying the war

into the enemy ’ s country and swept northern Ger

many wi th the besom of destruction .

Procopius fe l l i n battle,and then came the begin

ning of the end . The Hussi tes were d ivided among

themselves ; one party professed themselves ready

to be reconci led wi th Rome i f they were permi tted

to receive the cup in the Lord ’ s Supper,and were

therefore cal l ed Ca l i x tines,from ca lzlr

,a cup th e

other party were known as Tabori tes,after a moun

tain where they had held thei r earl ies t importan t

36 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA T Z ON .

meeting. These parti es quarre l ed,and now Rom e

saw her opportun i ty . The pope gran ted to Bohe

mia the priv i l ege of receiving th e sacrament i n

both kinds,and thus drove a wedge through the

Hussi te ranks . The Tabori tes s ti l l resis ted,bu t

were u tterly defeated at Bohmisehbrod,i n 1 434 ,

and soon afterwards ceased to be a pol i t i cal party .

Persecutions fol lowed,and many Bohemians found

a refuge in other countries,especial ly in Swi tz er

land . T he Cal ixtines soon accommodated them

selves to the state of aff ai rs and became Roman

Cathol i cs ; the Tabori tes grew weaker and weaker,changed their name to “ Breth ren ”

,and final ly

,

after ex ist ing for many years as the so-cal led h id

den seed ”

,became th e nucleus of the Chris t ian

denomination which is now known as Moravians .

I n the s ixteenth cen tury,when persecution was

most in tense,many Hussi tes j oined the Luth eran

and Reformed churches,and there is sti l l i n Bohemia

a l i ttl e cluster of Protestan t congregations wh ich

claims to be descended from the ancient Hussi tes .

Thus i t may appear as i f th e work of Huss had

reached a weak and impoten t conclusion bu t th is

is a m istake . Huss died for truths which are in

heren t i n the church and i n the hear t of man,

though they were for a t ime suppressed by th e

tremendous power of an establ ish ed system . By

h is death , no l ess than by his l i fe , he shows forth

the truth that Protestantism is not an invention of

[O H N HUS S . 37

th e s ixteen th centu ry,but flows from th e pro found

est l i fe of early Christian i ty . I t may not have been

approved at the Vatican , bu t i t leads back to Cal

vary . The death of Huss was by h is cotempora

r ies regarded as shamefu l,but i t had a g lory o f its

own forWhe the r w i th in the dungeon deep

,

O r in the battle ’ s van ,

T he noblest place f or man to d ieI s whe re h e dies f or man

The Hussi te wars were cruel— almost barbarous—but they were not fai l ures . I t would be easy to

show how in a negative way they made the great

Reformation possible . If Ziska and Procop ius had

not shaken the power of the ch urch and empire,

Lu ther would probably have been burnt at Worms .

We do not bring a rail ing accusation against the

church of Rome . The world has great ly changed

since the days of Huss and Wycl i ff e,and i t would

be folly to treat of the events of thei r l ives as i f

they had happened yesterday . But we venture to

say,that Rome is no less indebted to John Huss

than are th e Protestant churches . He died for

truth and puri ty for freedom of speech and l iberty

of conscience .

“ The blood of th e martyrs i s the

seed of the church ”

; and the precious seed sowed

at Constance,though frost-bi tten

,never d ied ; and

is now bearing the glorious frui t in wh ich the

world rej oi ces.

I I .

THE GL O R Y OF THE REFORMATION .

MA R T I N L UT H E R .

ARTIN LUTHER i s th e represen tative Ger

man of th e s ixteen th cen tury . Withou t

s tudying th e century you cannot under

stand h is career wi thout famil iari ty wi th h is

career you cannot comprehend h is age . He does

not represen t the cl asses bu t the masses . He was

not skil l ed i n the ways of courts ; he had not th e

l i terary cul ture of th e l eaders of th e renaissance ;bu t by the power of consecrated gen i us h e became

the spokesman of the s i l en t m il l ions—t he l eader o f

th e greates t rel igious and social movement in the

history of the world . When we read h is books we

are at first repel led by their pecul iari t i es and then

subdued by thei r power. I t is”,to use thefigure

employed i n anoth er connect ion by the ph ilosopher

Hegel,

“ as i f an archangel were attemp ting to re

produce the melodies of heaven on an imperfect

human ins trument— th e theme is glorious but the

execution is ful l of discords No man of h i s cen

tury was so i n tensel y hated,and h is torians are s ti l l

kep t busy in refu ting the falsehoods of that ly ing

age ; no man in modern h istory has been so

extravagantly praised . Somewhere between these

extremes the truth must be found but our conception of i t wil l at bes t remain one-s ided and incom

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M A R T I N L U THER. 39

ple te . To characteri ze so great a man as Luth er

i s l ike attempting to pain t a picture of Mon t B lanc— th e view tak en may be perfect ly accurate from one

point o f observation bu t i t u tterly fai ls from

another . Possibly we may gain the best conception

of th is remarkabl e man by relating in simpl e words

the s tory of h is l i fe,s triv ing to catch a g l impse

his person now and then as we fo l low him in h is

wonderful career .

Martin Luther was born November roth,1 483 ,

at the vi l lage o f E is l eben in El ec toral Saxony .

His father ’s name was Hans,and h is mother ’ s

maiden name was Gre tha (Margaretha) Ziegl er .1

Lu ther ’ s father was a m iner but belonged to a family

of farmers that had become impoverished . That

the family was once of some importance is -viden t

from the fac t that they had a coat-of -arms which

appears on the old Luther house at Mansfeld,and

also on documents s igned by Martin Lu ther ’s bro

ther Jacob . I t bears a rose and a bow and arrows .

Martin Luther seems never to have used th e coat

of -arms,bu t he u til i zed the rose on h is seal— that

cel ebrated seal whi ch represents a cross resting on

a heart wh ich is i n turn supported by a ful l-blown

rose,and bears an inscript ion which may be trans

latedT he Ch rist ian 's h eart doth rest on rosesWhen i t ben eath the cross reposes

( 1 ) Some writers erroneously allege that her nam e was Lindeman b u t

the latter was in f act the ma iden name of Luthe r ’ s grandmothe r .

40 LEADER S OF T H E REF ORMA TI ON .

A f ew months before the bir th of Martin,th e

eldes t son,Hans Luther

,removed from Mohra

,

where the fam ily had long been settl ed,to th e

l i ttl e v i l lage of E isl eben,and soon after th at event

to Mansfeld,several m il es d istan t

,where he con

ti nned to labor as a m iner . I t was th e old story

the mines were prosperous,th e land was poor

,so

the agricul turis t took a lower soc i al pos i tion to win

h igher wages . Hans Lu th er was,however

,not th e

k ind of man to remain long in such a posi tion wi th

out making an e ffort to improve i t . Very soon we

find him conducting two ovens i n wh ich ores were

roasted— th e elector of Saxony knew him per

sonally and gave him h is confidence —so th at he

gradual ly became a man of substance . He brough t

up a fam ily of seven ch ildren,and l eft an estate of

about $5000 which would now be worth three or fou r

times as much . That was a pre tty good showing

for a poor m iner. In Martin ’ s boyhood the family

was compel l ed to s truggl e wi th in tense poverty .

In h is l ater wri tings h e confesses that h e and Phil ip

M elancthon had studied as trology in the hope of

finding someth ing remarkabl e in the conj unction

of the planets at th e moment of h is b ir th 1 bu t h e

had found noth ing that coul d give h im comfort . 1

He says “ My father was a poor m iner my

mother carri ed al l our wood upon her back , that

she migh t warm and rear us thei r l i fe was one of

( 1 ) Juncker ’s E hrengede chtnzss L u then'

,p . 10 .

[MAR T I N L U THER. 4 1

severe toil and extreme privation ; at the presen t

day—peop l e wou ld hard ly hold ou t long under such

'

ci rcumstances” . I t i s greatly to Luther ’ s credi t

that h e always honored h is paren ts . When he

came to prepare a marriage serv ice for th e Protest

an t churches h e immorta l i zed thei r names by wri t

ing : “Dost thou Hans tak e Gretha to be thy

wedded wi fe ”"Luther had a hard youth and was probably not

easy to manage . He was so fu l l of physical vigor

that l ike an untamed co l t,i t was diffi cu l t to keep

h im in the traces . At school h e te l ls us he was

wh ipped fifteen times ,i n one morn ing. At this

schhd l he l earned to read and wri te,and comm itted

to memory th e Creed,Lord ’s Pray er

,Ten Com

mandmen ts,and some hymns . He real ly gave more

heed to th e teach ing of the miners who told h im

anci en t l egends— possibly about Dr . Faustus,Ti l l

Owl glass,and Reynard th e Fox— and fi l led h is

m ind wi th strange s tori es about witches,cobolds

and hobgobl ins— stories which clung to h im al l h is

l i fe. He d id not appreciate the fact that these

m iners were teach ing h im h is native language . In

those days scholars genera l ly spoke debased Latin,

and many of them,i n their contempt for the speech

of the people,refused to speak German at a l l .

There was,i ndeed

,a k ind of German which had

grown up at the courts,artificial

,i nvolved

,and ful l

of repet i tions but i t was never i n any proper sense

42 LEADERS O F T H E REFORMA TI ON .

the language of th e peopl e . Every val ley i n Ger

many had,however

,i ts pecul iar d ial ect— rude

,

harsh and unpol ished— and neighbors were often

unabl e to unders tand each other ’ s speech . Curi

ou sly enough i t was th e Saxon dialect a lone which

possessed capaci ties for l i terary development,and

in later l i fe Luther u ti l iz ed them to th e u tmost .

In Latin h e was inferior to many of h is cotempo~

raries ; but i n pure id iomati c German h e rose im

measu reably h igher than them al l . Schaff says“ The hardsh ips of Lu ther ’ s you th and th e want of

refined breeding show themselves in h is wri tings

and actions . They l imi ted h is influ encew

ap‘

i p ng

power among th e midd l e and l ower . He was a

manr

of th‘

e’

people and for th e peopl e . He was not

a pol ished d iamond,bu t a rough block cu t ou t from

a grani t e mountain,and wel l fi tted for th e base of a

migh ty structure . He laid the foundation and

others finished th e upper s tori es ”

Luth er ’ s father was ambitious and encouraged

h is son to s tudy,though he did very l i ttl e to assis t

h im . At an early age the boy wen t to school in

Magdeburg and E isenach,and in h is fourteenth

year began to support h imsel f by singing in th e

s treets . The trad i tions of the poor scholars of the

Middle Ages had not yet passed away,and th is

method of securing an education was not d isrepu

tabl e. I t was at E i senach that Ursul a Cotta,the

M AR T I N L UTHER . 43

wi fe o f th e l ead ing merchan t o f th e town,immor

talized herse l f by g iving the boy a seat at her table .

When Luther attended the un iversi ty of Erfurt

he did not seek associates among the humanis ts .

He was no worsh ipper of the Greek s,and was not

attracted by the new heathenism of the renaissance .

From the beginning h e sympath ized more wi th the

scho last ics and mysti cs than with the men o f the

new era . He acqu ired the Latin l anguage to such

a degree that h e could speak and wri te i t wi th

fluency ; bu t he was pain ful ly aware that h is s ty l e

was not Ciceron ian . Greek and Hebrew he neg

lected,and acquired a work ing knowledge of these

languages only when h is l i fe-work rendered i t

necessary . M ed imval ph ilosophy h e s tud ied at a

time when the h umanis ts were d iscarding i t,and

became an expert and powerfu l reasoner . In brief,

h e d id not propose to l ive the l i fe of a recl use,and

s tudi ed those things wh ich he beli eved would prove

use f ul in a publ i c and pol i ti cal career . He took

the degree of Bachelor of Arts wi th cred i t,and in

1 503 was promoted to be a Master of Arts . On th e

latter occasion his friends held a l i tt l e torchl igh t

procession in h is honor,and th is event h e ever

afterwards regarded as the happiest of h is l i fe .

About th is time Lu ther ’ s father,who had now be

come more l iberal , presen ted h im a set of the

Corpu s f an'

s— a seri es of legal volumes which had

cos t h im a great deal of money . He was anxious

44 LEADERS OF T H E R E F O R M A T Z O ZV.

th at h is son should become a lawyer ; for h e had

probably noticed— as has more recen tly been ob

served by others— th at “when Providence distribu tes

the good th ings of th is l i fe,lawyers are pre tty sure

to receive their share ”. For a year or two the son

studied the old Roman law,and there can be no

doubt that i t d i d h im a great deal of good . I t is

hard ly a mere coinc idence that the two leading R e

formers— Luth er and Calvin— were once students

of l aw ; and i t is al together l ikely that even at the

presen t day young theologians wou ld be consider

ably improved by a course of Blackstone .

Hans Luther,at Mansfeld

,was rej oi cing at h is

son ’s progress i n l egal study,when suddenly he

received a message that the young man— at th e age

of twenty-one— had broken away from al l h is

earl i er associations and become a monk . At presen t

we can hardly apprec iate the terribl e nature of such

tidings . The father was a pract i cal man of the

world who had no l ik ing for monks and monkery .

According to the notions of th e age th e son wasnow practi cal ly dead to h is family

,to society

,and

to every hope of earthly happiness . Imag i ne a

father— i f such a th ing could happen wi thout d is

grace—receiving news that a son,who had recently

graduated at col lege,had been condemned to l i fe

long imprisonment,and you can form some idea of

Hans Luther ’s disappointment and grie f . Worst

of a l l,Martin had been persuaded by the monks

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46 LEADERS OF T H E R E F O R M A YI O N .

strange ly mingl ed . That h e was profoundly in

earnes t can not be doubted . He submi tted to

every poss ibl e penance and a lmost s tarved himsel f

to d eath . As he h imse l f said “ If ever a monk

cou ld have got to heaven by monkery,I was that

monk ” Every morn ing he repeated the “ Pater

Noster and the “ Hail Mary ” twenty-five t imes,

rehearsi ng them,as he a fterwards declared

,

“j ust

l ike a parrot After going through h is devot ions

h e worri ed h imsel f because he had not been su ffi

cien tly devout . He cons tan tly reproached himsel f

wi th imaginary transgressions,crying day and

night,l ike Simeon on h is pi l lar : “ Have mercy

,

Lord,and take away my sin ”"In h is extremi ty

he turned to John y ou Staup i tz,the h ead of the

Augustin i an order in Germany— a man of great

l earning and piety,who is general ly regarded as one

of th e Reformers before the Reformat ion ”. This

man became Lu ther ’s sp ir i tual father and did al l

i n h is power to show h im a better way ; though

when the decis ive momen t came h e shrank back

and d ied i n the commun ion of Rome . When L n

th er confessed h is s ins to h im he spoke only of ev i l

thoughts ;“ for ”

,h e said

,

“ th ese are th e root of

th e whol e matter S taup i tz sai d :“You desire

to be wi thou t s i n and yet are fre e from real sin .

These temptations are necessary for you,but for

you only ”.

“ He simpl y mean t ”,says Luther

,

“ that wi thout such temptation I would become

M A R T /N L U THER . 47

proud and haugh ty Later on Lu ther understood

better how to dea l wi th evi l though ts . You can

not preven t evi l though ts”

,he said

,

“ bu t you

musf

t'

ci

ofi

a D l'

ll fe'mf

- "

T ou cannot forb id the b i rds

to fly over your head bu t you can he lp them from

bui lding nests i n your hai r ”

In the un iversi ty l ibrary at Erfurt Luther had for

the fi rs t time seen a compl ete B ibl e . This does not

mean that the B ibl e was abso lute ly a seal ed book,

for i t had been prin ted in Latin and German,and

there were many l earned men who were fami l iar

wi th i ts contents ; bu t to Luther , whose studies had

taken a differen t channel,i ts discovery was a rea l

revelation . I n the conven t he con tinued to study

the sacred book in connection with th e wri tings of

the mysti cs,John Tau ler

,Thomas a Kempis

,and

the unknown author of th e T E colog z'

a Germau z

'

ca .

He also read the wri tings of Erasmus,whom he

recognized as the greates t schol ar of his age,though

he d id not l ike h is h umorous treatment of sacred

th ings . I n a letter,wri tten as early as 1 51 6 , he

expressed the fear that Erasmus had l i tt l e experi

ence of the grace of God .

I t was during this period of tr ia l that th e l igh t

began to break upon Lu ther ’ s troubled sou l . “As

I medi tated day and nigh t”,he says

,

“ upon the

words : ‘ For there in is the righ teousness of God

revealed from fai th to fai th as i t is wri tten,The

j ust shal l l ive by fai th ’

,I perceived that the

48 LEADERS OF TH E REFORMA T I ON.

righ teousness of God i s th at through which th e

j ust man through God ’s goodness l ives— that is to

say f a i th. On th is I fel t as i f I were born again,

and seemed to be en tering through th e open ing

portal s of parad ise

Years passed be fore th is principl e was fu l ly de

veloped . For the presen t Lu th er remained a monk

devou tly attached to Rome,and ready to bel i eve

every med imval fabl e . Staupi tz was,however

,

convinced that h e deserved a broader career than

the conven t a ff orded h im ,and

,i n 1 51 0 , secu red for

h im an opportun i ty of v is i t ing Rome as a repre

sen tat ive of h is order. This,too

,was necessary to

prepare h im for his m ighty work . His mind was

ful l of romanti c ideas concern ing th e eterna l city

and God ’ s v ice-geren t who ruled in Caesar ’ s place .

Rome was to h im,as Jerusalem was to the ancien t

Israe l i t e,th e j oy of the whol e world h e turned to

i t in prayer as th e Mohammedan turns to Mecca .

When he approached the holy ci ty,h e burst forth

i n an enthusiast i c apos troph e ; and i t seemed to

h im as i f th e noble army of martyrs were s tream

ing forth from the sacred gates to bid h im welcome .

He did not dream that he was vis i ting a ci ty where

fai th was dead and heath enism reigned supreme .

In h is enth usiasm h e vis i ted al l th e holy p l aces,

saw all,and bel ieved al l ; but as he ascended th e

Ho ly Stai rcase on h is knees th e words once more

flashed on h is m ind The j ust shall l ive by fai th”.

M A R T /N L U T H ER. 49

I t was not long be fore the devou t young Ger

man was rn ade to fee l tha t his devotion was the

obj ec t of rid icu l e . Ju l i us I I .

— known in h istory

as “ the figh ting pope” — was on the throne a man

of immense ab i l i ty,who cared for noth ing so much

as to advance the temporal power of the papacy .

Not as scandalous as his predecessor,A l exander VI .

,

the Borgia ; not as skepti ca l as h is successor ,Leo X .

,the Med ici h is thoughts were of battl es

,

and h is words breathed blood and desolation . His

great artis t,Michael Angelo

,

” says Mich elet,rep

resents h im conferring h is b l essing on Bo logna l ike

a Jupiter hurl ing thunderbo l ts .

” When he spok eof rel igion at al l i t was with a covert sneer wh ich

rendered h is sinceri ty doub tful . There is a s tory

that one of th e cardinals had insul ted M ichael

Angelo,who took h is revenge by pain ting h im

among th e condemned in his picture of the Last

Judgment in the S istine chapel . The l ikeness was

unmistakabl e and the card inal hastened to the pope

to demand the punishmen t of the presumptuous

artis t . “Wel l"” said Jul i us drily,

“ th e case i s

d i ffi cu l t . I f he had put you in purgatory I migh t

have taken you ou t,by v irtue of my ho ly office ;

but s ince you are in hel l I am afraid you wi l l have

to s tay there no pope ’ s au thori ty extends so far . ”

And there he has remained to th is day .

Michelet says : “ Paganism has ever existed in

Ital y ; there despi te every e ff ort even nature is

50 LEADERS OF TH E R E F O R M A T I O JV.

pagan,and art fol lows natu re

,a gl orious comedy

tricked ou t by Raphael and sung by Arios to .

”

I f ever the essential pagan ism of I tal y was fully

i l lustrated i t was a t th e time of Luth er ’s vis i t to

Rome . Human ism had al ienated the pri ests and

peopl e from the simpl e fai th of Christ , though th ey

were sti l l i ncl ined to attach a sor t of magical

efli cacy to the grand ceremonials of th e church .

Priests th ere were who though t i t very funny to say

in th e mass,a t the momen t of consecration

,Pam

'

s

cs ct pam'

s manebz’

s”

(“ Bread thou art and bread

th ou shal t an d i f they happened to al l ude

to d ivine grace they cal led i t “ th e favor of the im

mortal gods . ” At thei r banquets they freely j oked

concerning matters wh ich Chris tians h ave a lways

regarded with rel igious awe,and irrel igious wi tt i

cisms were greeted wi th the loudes t applause .

That Lu ther was d isgusted wi th such talk goes

wi thou t say ing . This fact may have been observed

by the Roman eccl esi astics,and they may have

amused themselves in h is presence by making

things appear worse than they real ly were . When

Luther subsequently related stori es concern ing the

morals of Rome wh ich seem to have been derived

from the Decameron of Boccacci o,we are incl i ned

to th ink that the Romans had been practi cing on

h is credu li ty . He was h imsel f ful l o f the ri ches t

humor ; bu t th is was a kind of humor whi ch h e

could not understand . A French wri ter says

[M A R T I N L U THER. S I

Luther qui t ted Rome at th e end o f a fortnigh t,

bearing with h im in to I taly th e condemnation o f

I taly and of the church . In h is rapid and sadden

ing vis i t th e Saxon had seen enough to enabl e h im

to condemn,too l i t tl e to al low h im to comprehend .

And,beyond a doubt

,for a mind preoccupied wi th

th e moral side of Christian i ty,to have discovered

any rel igion i n that wor ld of art,law and po l icy

wh ich consti tu ted I ta ly wou ld have required a

singular e ff ort of ph i losophy .

“ I wou ld not,

”

Luther somewhere says,have missed seeing Rome

for a hundred thousand florins . I should ever have

been uneasy les t I had done inj usti ce to the pope. ”

In 151 2 Luther was cal led to a professorsh ip of

Theology in th e univers i ty which th e E lector Fred

eri ck,surnamed “ The Wise

,

” had founded i n the

town of Wittenberg . He did not desire to accept

th e cal l,bu t Staupi tz persuaded h im . Ten years

later he said “ If I had then known what I know

now,ten horses shou ld not have drawn me in to th is

professorsh ip .

The Elector Frederi ck had founded h is universi ty

on l iberal prin ciples and was very anxious for i ts

prosperi ty . I t was the on ly un iversi ty where an

oath of obedience to the pope was 5not exacted .

The Elector himsel f was a pious Cathol i c,but was

also a friend of hones ty and fair p lay . H aving

taken Luther under h is protection he never with

drew his favor though cur iously enough,he

'

seems

52 LEADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

never to have made h is personal acquaintance,and

possibly never saw h im,excep t on th e memorabl e

occas ion of h is defense at th e d ie t of Worms .

Frederi ck was the most powerfu l prin ce in Ge r

many,and on th e death of Max im i l ian I . he had

been for a time regen t of the empire and had been

o ff ered the imperial crown . He had,however

,de

clined th is dign i ty and had nominated Charles,of

Spain,thus gain ing th e las ting grati tude of that

monarch . I t was th is fac t,together wi th h is ap

parent moderation and impartial i ty,that enabled

Frederi ck to save th e Reformation in Germany . I t

was not unti l th e end of h is l i fe that h e rece ived

the communion in both kinds,and th us decl ared

himsel f a Protes tan t .

For five years Lu ther preached and taugh t at

Wittenberg,bu t there was noth ing to attract special

attention to h is work . His lectures on th e Psalmswere deemed worthy of publ ication he was known

to be a prom ising scholar bu t that was al l . Then

came th e series of events wh ich made h im the

l eader of thousands who had been wai ting for such

a man . These events are so wel l known that we

ven ture to rehearse th em in the briefes t poss ibl e

manner.

Leo X . had become pope— a prince of the house

of Medici— a man of the h ighest cul ture h e could

talk Ciceronian Latin,bu t cared not a straw for re

ligion . He supposed that h is reign would be re

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54 LEADERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

cul t to understand and may easi ly be misrepresented .

The Germans d id not take kindly to i t , and L u ther

sai d h e hardly knew what indulgences were unti l

they were forced upon h is attention . In France

and some other coun tr i es th e sal e of indulgences

was forb idden ; bu t the pope made an agreement

with Albert,prince- archbishop of Magdeburg

,to

sel l them al l over Germany,and th e profi ts were

then to be div ided . A Dominican,John Tetzel

,a

b ig man with a s ten tori an voi ce,traveled i n great

s tate from one town to anoth er,and cal led upon the

peopl e to purchase the pope ’ s i ndulgence,ei ther for

themselves or for th eir deceased fri ends who were

su ff ering the pains of purgatory. The character of

th e man has been much discussed,but I th ink there

can be no doub t th at h e conducted h imself l ike an

ordinary mountebank . Darras,a Roman Cathol ic

h istorian,says : “ He tampered with th e doctrin e

he was sen t to preach .

” When he dropped money

in to th e great chest that was standing at h is s ide,

he is said to have exclaimed

When in the chest the mon ey r ings ,Out of i ts pa in th e spiri t sp rings

There,th ere"I see i t flying

— the soul i s fly ing

ou t of purgatory in to h eaven .

”

Unless Tetzel is greatly bel ied he said worse

things than these . Picturing th e wors t poss i bl e

crimes in the foules t l anguage,he exclaimed

“ Now,i f you have commi tted crim es l ike these

,

M A R T I N L U T H ER. 55

al l you have to do is to purchase an indu lgence .

I f he added the words i f you have from the hear t

repented o f th em ” i t was in an undertone . I t is

even said that he so ld indu l gences for s in s abou t to

be comm itted ; and that wi th such a paper in his

pocket one of h is pen i ten ts robbed h is money -chest .The exci temen t caused by T e tzel

’s preach ing

was intense The churches were empty,for the

peop l e bel i eved that they had found a shorter road

to heaven . The priests denounced Tetz el from th e

al tar the human ists wrote agains t h im in e l egan t

Latin ; but the Dom in ican cared noth ing for their

opposi t ion . Then i t was that Marti n Luther

a fter appea l ing in vain to h is archbishop— oh th e

3 1 5t o f October , 1 51 7 , a ff i xed h is ninety-five theses

to th e church -door in Wittenberg . They were,in

fact,a cha l l enge to the world to discuss the whol e

questi on of indulgences . When you examine them

now th ey appear mi ld y ou must read between the

l ines i f you wou ld u nderstand them . O thers had

said harder th ings against the pope— others had

more clearl y proclaimed what i s now known as

Protestan t doctrine— but this was a publ i c,i t may

be said an ofli cial chal lenge,which even the e l egant

i nfidel pope could not fai l to heed . I t was an act

of supreme bravery,and is very properly regarded

as the beginn ing o f th e German Reformation . He

fired the firs t cannon o f th e war,and “ th e shot

was heard around the world .

”

56 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA TI ON .

The next few years of Luther ’ s l i fe were ocen

p ied by in tense struggles . At firs t the pope was

incl ined to regard the troubl e as of very l i ttl e im

portance . “ I t i s noth ing but a monkish quarrel,

”

he said ;“ Brother Martin is a man of genius— l e t

h im alone When th e confl ic t grew more serious

h e sen t two legates ; fi rs t,Cardinal Cajetan ,

an

I ta l ian,who insis ted on uncondi tional subm ission

then,Charl es de M il ti tz

,a Saxon nobl eman

,who

made h imsel f agreeabl e and induced Luther to

wri te a humble l etter to the pope,i n wh ich h e

agreed to submi t unreserved ly to the decis ion of th e

church on condi tion that h is enemies should let

h im alone . Thus th e whol e troubl e appeared to be

settl ed . Luther’ s enemies,however

,would not l et

him alone and,as he says in one of h is books

,he

was so con st itu ted that he could not decl ine a chal

l enge . Dr . E ek ,of Ingols tadt

,h eld a d isputation

wi th h im at Leipsi c ; and , as is usua l i n such cases ,both sides claimed th e v ictory . Eck was a man of

great l earning,thoroughly fami l iar wi th canon law

,

bu t pompous and pretentious . Luther surprised

h im by refusing to be bound by the decrees of

councils,and fe l l back on the Scriptures as the only

gu ide of fai th and practi ce .

“ Bu t who,

” said Eck,

shall interpret the Scrip tures,i f not th e counci ls"”

Then Luther advanced th e second great principl e o f

the Reformation— th e principl e of private j udg

men t,which has ever s in ce remained i ts most dis-x

M A R T I N L U THER . 57

t inct ive characteris ti c . The controversy now be

came acrimonious and personal th e ora tors insu l ted

each other in the most ou trageous manner,and

Lu th er launched against th e pope his most v iol en t

ph i l ippics .

I t was now fel t that reconci l iation was an impos

s ibility , and th e pope at last launched agains t Lu

ther a bu l l o f excomrn u n icat ion . In earl i er times

this was a terribl e th ing ; i t had deprived i ts vi c tims

of all civ i l and social righ ts i t mean t separation from

Christian peop l e— perhaps starvation and a name

l ess grave . What would Lu ther do now" Hisfriends tremb l ed

,and even th e el ector was in doubt

whether h e cou l d any l onger protec t h im . Then

i t was that Lu ther did what no one could have ah

t icipated— ah act of bo ldness wh i ch for pure auda

ci ty was infin i tely in advance o f th e promulgation

of the n inety-five th eses . He gath ered th e profess

ors who were favorable to h im and the great body

of th e students,bu il t a bonfire

,and— burned the

bul l . We know how students sometimes amuse or

revenge themse lves by burning Ovid or Calcu lus

and to the students at VVi ttenberg i t aff orded great

enjoyment to condemn the pope ’s proclamation to

such a fate . They ran a l l over town to gather me

d imval books— Decrees of Counci ls,Apostol i c Con

st itu tions,Pseudo- Isidorian Decretals— and con

demned them al l to the flames . To the students i t

was probably pure fun ; and yet they could not

58 LEADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

help feel ing that by th is ac t they had cas t defiance

in to th e face of the pope of Rome . The act aecom

plished i ts purpose by i ts very audaci ty . Hence

forth there could be no more temporiz ing ; the

batt l e must now be fough t unti l i t ended in victory

or defeat .

I t was of great advantage to th e Reformation

that Luth er was now associated wi th Phi l ip Melane

thon . The latter was a native o f the Pal atinate ;a nephew of the cel ebrated Reuch l in

,and himsel f

,

next to Erasmus,th e foremos t Greek scholar of his

age. Cal l ed to a professorsh ip i n W'

i t tenberg when

he was bu t twen ty-one years of age,he became

Luther ’ s ch i ef assis tan t and mos t valu ed fri end .

Though never ordained to th e m in istry he became

th e most eminen t th eologian of Germany . A man

of gent l e disposi t ion he exerted h is influence to

moderate the controvers ial fierceness of his col

league . He was,however

,no mere imi tator

,but

had views of h is own which he was not afraid to

defend . Luther wrote,i n 1529 :

“ I prefer the

books of Master Ph i l ippus to my own . I am

rough,boisterous

,and al togeth er warl ike . I am

born to figh t against innumerabl e monsters and

devils . I must remove s tumps and stones,cu t

away this tl es and thorns,and clear th e wild

forests ; but Mas ter Ph i l i ppus comes al ong softly

and gen tly,sowing and watering wi th joy , accord

I VA R T /N L U T h ’E R . 59

ing to the gi fts wh ich God has abundan tly bestowed

upon h im .

“Withou t Luther,says Dr. Scha ff

,

“ th e R e for

mation wou ld never have taken hold o f th e common

peop l e ; without M elanc thon i t wou ld never have

succeeded among th e scholars of Germany .

” Occa

s ionally the two men d id no t perfect ly harmon ize .

“Our doctor,

” said M elancthon,afte r Luther ’s

death,

“ found i t d i ffi cu l t to th ink wel l of any one

who d id not fu l ly agree wi th him .

”

With every confl ic t Luther grew stronger . He

wrote books in wh ich he cal l ed the pope “ Anti

chris t — not persona l ly,as h e was care ful to ex

plain,but as the representat ive of a system . When

reproved for h is v iolence he said,truly enough If

I speak gently they wil l not m ind me .

” He was a

terrib le controvers ial is t,bu t h e was gentl e to th e

fall en . There was withal i n h is natu re a deep

under-curren t of poetry that refreshed and beauti

fied the waste places of l i fe . Where i n al l l i tera

ture can we find an au thor who has sai d so many

orig inal,so many wonderful th ings"His hymns

were wri tten amid intense struggles,bu t even h i s

enem ies cannot deny that for grandeur of d ic tion

and uncond i tional trust in God th ey are unequall ed

in the h istory of song . In al l Chris tian hymno logy

there is nothing grander than the Marsei l laise of th e

Reformation,

E z

’

n f cs tc B u rg .

” He did not always

s tand on the heights o f poeti c inspiration bu t was

60 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA T I ON .

sometimes depressed to the verge of despai r. Then

sudden ly a humorous s tory occurred to h im,and he

burst forth i n l augh ter loud and long. Would not

the bow have snapped i f i t had not been occas ion

al ly u nben t"Luther ’ s appearance before the diet of Worms

concludes th e h eroi c period of h is l i fe . The young

emperor had at l as t,i n 1 52 1 , summoned th e R e

former to appear before the princes and prelates to

give an accoun t of h is doctrin e . He sent h im a

safe-conduct bu t th e world had not forgotten how

in th e case of John Huss a s im ilar documen t had

been d isregarded . To the everlasting honor o f

Charles be i t said that he was n o S igismund . He

was an intense Roman Cathol i c,though wi th a

l ean ing towards a reformation by means of a gen

eral council,bu t he was also a man of honor and

kep t h i s word .

To go to Worms was under th e circumstances a

dangerous matter,though Luther was to a certain

exten t protected by the elector and had some other

influential fri ends in th e diet . On th e way h e

wrote to Spalatin :“ I wi l l go to Worms though

there should be as many devils th ere as th ere are

t i les on the house- tops . Franz von Sickingen

desi red h im to stay at h is castle,near Worms

,

where he would be safe ; but noth ing could turn

h im from his purpose. On th e way to th e D i et,

i t is said,th e cel ebrated general

,George F runds

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62 LEADERS O F T H E REFORMA T I ON.

genera l ly bel i eved that h e was dead . One even ing,

however,a l etter wh ich caused un iversal rej oic ing

was conveyed to Wittenberg . I t was dated at

Patmos and wri tten in Lu th er ’s own u nmis tak

abl e hand . Now “ Patmos,

” we know,was th e

island to wh ich St . John had been ban ished when

he behe ld h is great apocalypse ; and th e use of the

name on th is occasi on appeared to indicate that

Luther was a prisoner at a place where he was per

mit ted to enj oy considerabl e l iberty He had,

indeed,been carri ed away by th e confiden tial

agents of the e lec tor to a cast l e in the Thuringian

forest,called th e Wartburg . Here he was required

to pu t on the armor of a knight,was cal led

Knight George,

” and was supposed to be a rela

t ive of the elec tor. Here i n absolu te sol i tude

Luther continued h is l abors translati ng th e N ew

Testament and doing an immense amount of other

l i terary work . I n h is sol i tude he grew nervous,

and supposed that he was special l y persecu ted bySatan . There is no proof that h e ac tual ly cast h is

ink -s tand at the devi l,but i t is certain that h is

doubts and troubles proj ected themselves as appa

ritions . More than once the great en emy of souls

appeared to h im dur ing the n ight,and he disputed

with h im unti l he trembled . Once the devi l

taunted h im with the fact that h e was a great s in

ner. I knew that long ago,said Lu ther

,tel l

me something new. Chris t has taken my sins upon

M A R T /N L UT H E R . 63

Himsel f and forgiven them lon

your tee th .

”

I am not surprised to read that Lu ther behe ld

appari tions du ring th e period o f h is soj ourn at th e

Wartbu rg. His d ispos i ti on and early training pre

d isposed him to bel i eve that h is confl ic t wi th the

powers of ev i l was personal and he was no doub t

fu l l y prepared for visib l e ind i cat ions o f thei r pres

ence . I f he addressed h is great enemy in language

that appears coarse and u nd ign ified i t must be re

membered that he was but fol lowing th e tradit ions

of the clois ter and of the mediaeval exorcists .N ine mon ths Luther remained at th e VJ artbu rg

then n ews came from Wi ttenberg which wou ld

not su ff er h im .to rest . Protestantism had there

assumed an ul tra form . Car ls tad t,one o f th e

pastors,was preach ing against Luther ’ s doctrine of

the Lord ’ s Supper. According to h is theory Chris t

at th e moment of the insti tu t ion pointed to h is own

body,and said : “This is my body .

” This v iew

which was pecul iarly offensive to Lu ther,was not

accepted by any other reformer,but i t may be re

garded as the beginning of the great Sacramenta

rian controversy . Simul taneously a fanatical sect,

known as “ th e Zwickau prophets” had establ ished

i tsel f i n Wittenberg . They were preach ing strange

doctrines,such as commun i ty of goods

,opposi tion

to civi l government,and th e personal inspiration of

their l eaders . Luther was convinced that if these

g ago . Now gr i nd

64 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA T Z ON .

fanati cs were suflfered to continu e unrebuked his

own work wou ld be irretrievab ly ru ined,and he

,

therefore,immediate ly returned to Wittenberg .

On the way Luther was met at a wayside inn by

two Swiss s tuden ts,one of whom ( John Kessl er) has

l eft a descript ion of h is personal appearance . He

says Wh en I saw Marti n in th e year 1 522 he waspretty stou t

,of uprigh t bearing

,bending more

backwards than forwards,with elevated coun te

nance,and deep black eyes

,sparkl ing and flash ing

l ike a s tar,penetrating to the very soul of th e be

holder. ” Not less than a dozen cotemporary

wri ters have spoken of the wonderful eyes of th e

Reformer,but not a singl e artis t has been able to

ca tch their expression .

When Lu ther re turned to Wittenberg he preached

eigh t days in succession,but by the end of that

time the power of the fanati cs was broken . When

th ey left Wi ttenberg,

” he says,I warned t/zcz

'

r God

not to work any m iracl es agains t my God,and thus

we separated .

” 1

At this period Luther ’s s tar s tood at the zen i th

and h is courage was unbounded . Henry VI II . ,king of England

,wrote a book against h im— the

Defense of the Seven Sacraments ”-for wh ich

the pope rewarded h im wi th th e ti tl e of Defender

of the Fai th .

” I n reply Lu ther read h im such a

lecture as had never before been addressed to

( 1 ) Kos tl l n’s Li f e , ” p . 250 .

M A R T /N L U T H ER. 65

roya l ty . He cal led h im a crowned donkey” and

heaped upon h im the most abusive epi thets .

A fterwards when there was a chance o f gain ing

Henry VII I . for the Reformation,Luther was au x

i ous to make friends,bu t the k ing haughti l y t e

fused . I t was we l l tha t Luther ’ s purpose was not

accomp l ished,for the Engl ish despot got no more

than he deserved,and could not have touched the

Reformer ’ s work wi thou t defiling i t .

I t was in the year 1 525 that the even t occurred

wh ich Luther regarded as the most important i n

h is career. I t was in th e midst of the terrors of

the Peasan t War that h e surprised h is friends by

marrying a poor nun o f nobl e descent,Catharine

y on Bora . He said he did i t “ to please h is father,

to tease the pope,and to vex the devi l . ” His highest

motive was to rescue the ordinance of marriage

from the degradation in to which i t had fal l en,and

to v ind icate the freedom of the evangel ical c l ergy .

I t has been remarked as a curious fact that most

of the Reformers,though themsel ves of h umbl e

extrac tion,chose brides from the nobi l i ty . The

reason is no t far to seek there was in those days

l i ttl e or no cul ture among the women of the humbl e

classes,and educated men natura l ly sough t su itabl e

companions . I do not regard these marriages,as

some have done,as indicating a desi re on the part

( 2 ) S chaff s H istory o f the Christ ian Church,

vol . 6 , p . 397 .

66 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA T I ON.

of the Reformers to s trengthen their posi t ion by

a l l iances wi th the aristocracy .

Luther ’ s marri ed l i fe was excep tionally happy .

His wife was rath er proud , and he pl ayful ly cal led

her My lord Katie .

” A year after h is marriage

he wrote to a friend : “ Catharine,my dear rib

,

salutes you . She is,thanks be to God

,i n excel len t

heal th . She is gentl e and obed ien t beyond my

hopes . I would not exchange my poverty for

the weal th of Croesus . ” When ch i ldren gathered

around his table h is happ iness i ncreased,and

noth ing could be more charming than the l et ters

which he wrote to h is wi f e and children when

absent f rom home .

1

( 1 ) T he f ol low ing letter , wh ich F roude calls the prett iest eve r add ressedb y a f athe r to a ch i ld ,

was w ritten by Luther to h is son Han s , then f ou ry ears old ,

in th e y ear 1530G race and peace in Chr ist , my dea r l i ttle boy . I am pleased to see

t hat thou learn est thy lessons wel l , and pray est diligently . Go on thus , mydea r b oy ,

and when I come home I w il l b r ing you a fin e f a ir ing . I knowo f a p retty del ight f ul ga rden , where are many ch i ldren that have goldf rocks

,and gathe r n ice apples and pea rs

,cherries and plums

,under the

trees,and sing and j ump and are happy ,

they also r ide on fin e l ittle horsesw ith gold br idles and s i lver saddles . I asked th e man who owns thegarden

,who the ch ildren were . H e sa id

,

‘

T hese are the ch ildren who loveto p ray and to lea rn and are good .

’ Then I sa id,D ea r man

,I also have a

son who is called Han s Lu ther . M ay h e not come to th is garden an d eat

such p ret ty apples and pears , and r ide on such fi n e l ittle horses,and playw ith these ch i ldren T he man said

,

‘

I f he l ikes to p ray and to learn , andis pious h e may come to the ga rden , and L ippus and Jost may come also ,and i f they all come toge ther , they shal l have pipes and drum s and lu tesand fid d les , and they shal l dance and shoot w i th the ir cross

“ Then he showed me a smooth lawn in th e garden la id ou t f or dan c ing ,and th ere hung the golden pipes and drum s and cross- .bows Bu t i t wasst il l early , and th e ch ildren had n ot din ed ; there f ore I could n ot wa it f ort he dan ce . 8 0 I sa id

,

‘

D ear si r,I w i l l go stra ight home and w ri te all th is

to my l ittle boy ; but he has an aunt , Lena , that h e must b ring W ith h im .

’

And th e man answered,

‘8 0 it shal l b e ; go and w ri te as you say .

’

There f ore,d ear l i ttle b oy Johnny ,

learn and p ray W i th a good heart ,and tel l L ippus and Jost to d o the same ,and th en you w il l all com e to the

g arden together . And now I commend y ou to A lm ighty God . Give mylove to aun t Lena

,and give her a k iss f or m e . Anno 1530 .

T hy loving f ather ,M A R T I N U S LU T H E R .

M A R T I N L O T H E R . 67

Though Luther was poor h is board was always

adorned wi th guests . Severa l students,to whom

he had given a place at h is tabl e,took notes o f his

conversation and may have abused h is confidence

by pub l ish ing th e strange book whi ch is known as

Luther ’s Tab l e Talk .

” There is much in i t that

we cou ld wish had remained unwri tten but i t a lso

contains many gems o f wisdom and tru th .

We have bu t touched on a few o f the main

events of Lu ther ’s l i fe . There are other occu rren

ces,no less bri ll ian t

,which we mus t pass i n si l ence .

His relations to Zwingl i wil l be considered here

after. His posi tion as a th eologian,a poet

,an

organizer,an educator

,even as a statesman

,would

each demand a separate essay .

There is,however

,another side to the picture

which demands bri ef con templ ation . Luther was

a man,and as such was exposed to the temptations

wh ich are common to humani ty . There are spots

on the sun,and i t would be fol ly to expect immacu

l ate brigh tness ever in th e man whom we have ven

tured to cal l the Glory of the Reformation .

Let us say,firs t of al l

,that we p lace no confidence

in the stori es wh ich reflec t on Lu ther ’ s personal

character. Erasmus was responsibl e for some of

these,but the controversial ists who have u t i l ized

them to the u tmost do not s tate that he afterwards

confessed that he had been misinformed . Every

one of Luther ’ s steps was watched by vigi lant

68 LEADERS O F T H E REFORMA T I ON.

enemies,and i f h e had been gu i l ty of scandalous

conduct i t would at any time have been easy to

prove i t .

The ch ief defect in Luther’ s characte r we con

ceive to have been almos t inseparabl e from h is

gigantic s trength . The wonderful success that

attended h is efforts appears to have graduall y con

vinced h im that h e was righ t and he alone . In his

later years,espec i al ly

,he m igh t almos t have said

I am S ir OracleAnd when I ope my l ips let no dog bark

He had so many opponen ts who sough t the de

struction of every th ing wh ich be regarded as good

and true,that h e included al l wh o di d not agree

with h im inone common condemnation .

To keep the German princes firm in their adhesion

to th e evangel ical cause was no easy matter .Luther was

,th erefore

,almost forced to become a

pol i t i cian,and i t is from this point of v iew that h is

career is l east satisfactory . He resigned th e

governmen t of the church i nto the hands of princes,

and thus l ed th e way to the sys tem— sometimes

cal l ed Cmsarco-papz'

sm which sti l l prevai ls i n Ger

many . During the Peasan t War— though h e

sympath ized wi th the sufferings of th e peopl e— he

preached uncondi tional submission,and even ad

vised that extreme punishmen t shou l d be infl ic ted

ou the rebels— advice which the princes were only

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70 LEADERS O F T H E REFORMA T I ON.

world . May the Lord grant me favorabl e weather

and a happy passage . Amen .

”

By a s trange coincidence Lu ther died at E isl eben,

th e vi l lage of h is b irth . He had gone to that p lace

to settl e a quarrel between th e cou nts of Mansfeld,

to whom,as a native of th e terri tory

,he sti l l

acknowledged a certain all egiance . During the

three weeks wh ich he spen t at E isl eben he aecom

plished th e purpose of his j ourney , preached fou r

t imes,and revised th e eccl es ias tical cons ti tu t ion of

the coun ty of Mansfeld . Then h is strength gave

way,and after an i l lness o f two days h e d ied on the

1 8 th of February,1 546 . His las t words were an

acknowledgment that he d i ed in the fai th which he

had professed and taugh t . His body was taken to

Wi ttenberg i n a me tal l i c coflfin,where i t was in

terred with th e h ighest honors at the foot of the

pulp i t i n th e Castl e chu rch . On h is tomb migh thave been wri tten :

“Here l i es a man who feared

God and God alone .

Our view of the person of Lu th er has necessari ly

been incompl e te . In h is career there are events

which we could wish to have been otherwise bu t

we owe too much to h im to occupy the posi tion of

antagonists . As Heine says : The dwarf who

stands on th e shoulders of the gian t can,i ndeed

,

see further than the giant,especial ly i f he puts on

spectacl es ; bu t for that lofty poin t of in tu i tion we

want the lofty fee l i ng,th e gian t heart

,which we

M A R T I N L O THER. 7 1

can not make our own . In h is personal i ty Lu ther

combines the most co lossal anti theses— th e gloom

of the past wi th the bri l l ian t acti vi ty o f th e future

bu t wi th al l these apparen t contrad ictions h e mus t

forever remain T H E G L O R Y O F T H E R E F OR MA T I O N .

II I .

THE F R EE CHURCH IN THE F R EE STATE .

UL R I C ZWI N GL I .

‘1H E l i t tl e republ i c of Swi tz erland rests l ike a

golden crown on the h ead of th e nations of

Europe . The surpassing grandeur of i ts

scenery is un iversal ly acknowledged . Its mountains

are the h ighest ; i ts va l l eys th e greenes t ; i ts gl a

ciers th e grandes t i ts prospects the most romantic .

Grander st il l to the thoughtful stranger i s th e spec

tacl e of a s imp l e,unpretentious peop l e

,who in the

darkness of the middl e ages solved th e probl em of

sel f-government,and for nearl y six cen turi es have

boldly defended th e righ ts of man .

As you sai l down th e lake of Lucerne— di rectly

opposi te the great cl i ff cal l ed th e M y tenstein ,

which bears in colossal l e tters an inscription in

honor of Fri edrich Sch il ler whose poetry has glori

fied al l that reg ion—you behold the R ii tli,th e

meadow in the fores t where i n th e n igh t of No

vember 1 7 , 1 307 ,“ th e three men

,

” F iirst, S tau ff

acher and Melch thal,each accompan ied by ten men

of his own can ton,sol emnly swore

,with three

fingers upl i fted i n th e name of the Trin i ty , to

defend the freedom of their native land .

1 Within

a few weeks of th is event,according to tradi tion ,

( 1 ) Th is conjurat ion was , in f act , a renewal of “the eternal com

pact , ” estab l ished August 1,1 291 .

UL RI C Z WI N GL I . 7 3

occurred the episode o f Wi l l iam Te l l th e brave

hunter who was compe l l ed by the wicked governor,

Gess l er of Bruneck,to shoot an appl e from the

head of h is son,and who a fterwards buried the

second arrow i n the h eart o f the tyran t . H is tori

ans now discredi t the tal e,but i t i s at l east expres

s ive of th e spiri t o f the forest can tons . On the

first of January,

1 308 , th e Austrian bai l i ff s were

driven out and i t is the boas t o f Switzerland that

th is act of emancipation was accomp l ished wi thout

shedd ing a drop of b lood but two hundred years

passed away be fore independence was actual ly

ach ieved,and near ly one hundred and fi fty more

until the Swiss were formal ly recogn ized as one of the

nations of Europe . During a l l this time they were

almost constant ly at war. At Morgarten 1 600

Swiss defeated nearly Austri ans . On sev

era l occasions they enti ced thei r enem ies into a nar

row vall ey and then ro l l ed down rocks on the heads

of th e invaders . No nation has a more sp lend id

roll of victori es,and Sempach , Laupen , Grauson

and Morat wi l l never be forgotten . You have

heard the story o f Arnold Winckelried —how he

cast h imse l f upon th e l ine of Austrian spears,cry

ing :“ Make way for l iberty l” bu t every confl i ct

was succeeded by another and after every victoryi t m ight have been said

T hus Switzerland aga in was f reeThus d eath made w ay f or l ibe rty .

74 LEADERS OF T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

After many fru i tl ess i nvasions th e tyrants were at

last conv inced that Switzerland cou ld not be con

quered,though they kept on growling at the foot

of th e Alps . The moun tains cons ti tu ted an im

pregnabl e fortress and al l th e power of th e empire

could not d islodge i ts garri son . The wants of the

people were few. On thei r h igh Alp i ne pastures

flocks could safely feed,and th e l akes furnished

abundance of fish . The whol e country migh t be

blockaded,but the Swiss cared l i ttl e for communi

cation wi th other nati ons and could aflford to wai t

un til th e enemy wi thdrew .

I t was bu t natural that Swi tzerland should become

a refuge for th e oppressed and persecu ted . Not only

pol i t ical o ff enders,but those who had ex

’

posed them

selves to ecclesiastical censures were glad to escape

to th e val l eys of th e A lps . The church of Rome

was by law ful ly establ ished but on accoun to f the

pol i t i cal condi tion of th e country i t rarely attempted

to press i ts au thori ty to th e u tmost ex ten t . Excep t

i n the c i t i es th e poverty o f the peopl e was regarded

as an excuse for s imp l ici ty of worsh ip,and the

Swiss actual ly came to d isl ike the spl endor of the

Ital ian ri tual . Even among the pries ts th ere were

many who sympath ized with th e su ff erings of th e

refugees from eccl esiasti cal ty ranny , though they

may not have ventured to accept their doctrines .

I t was not to be supposed that the kings and

nobles of surrounding countries would favorably

O L R I C Z WI N GL I . 75

regard a country in wh ich th ei r au thori ty was so

thorough ly defied . The existence o f the Swiss

l eague was a menace to royal ty,and the ru lers o f

Europe hated i t wi th perfec t hatred . Those o f th e

Swiss who claimed nob l e descen t were con tempt

u ou sly termed“peasant-nobi l i ty

,and were not

permi tted to appear at the imperial court . Among

the German peasants the Swiss were suffi cien t ly

popular ; but i n th e ci ti es and at th e un iversi ti es

the influence o f th e nobil i ty had caused them to be

cord ial ly dis l iked . Without th i s feel ing,we fee l

sure,the Germans would have been more ready to

codperate wi th the Swiss at th e beginning of th e

Reformation,and th eir doctrinal d i ff erences migh t

have been more read il y adj us ted .

The wors t feature i n the social condi tion of th e

Swiss i n the s ix teen th cen tury was due to thei r mi litary sys tem . Every young man was a sold ier

,and

though foreign i nvasions had apparen tly ceased,no

one could tel l how soon they migh t be renewed .

Under these circumstances the cantonal govern

ments conceived th e idea of h ir ing ou t thei r sol

d iers as mercenaries to foreign powers,wi th th e

cond i tion that th ey migh t be recal l ed when the

safety of the fatherland demanded i t . Swiss com

pan ies were , therefore , often arrayed on opposi te

s ides,and brother fough t agains t brother.

In th is way th e Swiss acquired the reputation of

being mercenary and avari cious,though no one

76 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA T I ON .

doubted th eir bravery . The wors t feature of the

system was that the young Swiss were apt to be

moral ly ru ined i n foreign lands . They brough t

home vices that spread l ike a canker in thei r native

val l eys . Agains t th is moral evi l the Swiss R efor

mation was at firs t partial ly directed,and the move

ment thus b ecame pol i ti cal as wel l as eccl esiasti cal .

The Swiss Reformation was a drama that con

si s ted of two d is tinct acts . I t was synth eti c rather

than analy ti c. No singl e teacher commanded the

transcendent influence of th e great Saxon reformer

but in each act there was a leading character who

impressed h is persona l i ty on his cotemporari es,and

who has exerted an influence through al l succeed

i ng ages . The leaders i n th e success ive stages of

th e Swiss Reformation were Zwingl i and Calvin .

UL R I C ZWI N GL I , th e h ero of th e first act , was born

at Wildhaus on the I s t of January,

1 484; His

native v i l lage is s i tuated in what was then the inde

penden t coun ty of Toggenburg,but i s now

included in the canton of St . Gal l . I t s tands at

th e h ead of a mountain vall ey wh ich ex tends far

in to th e A lps . The ground is not wel l su i ted for

agricul tu re,bu t there i s exce l len t pasturage . No

doubt,th e presen t i nhabi tan ts would not hes i tate

to con fess that their ou tlook is better than thei r

i ncome .

Ulric was the th ird (some say th e youngest) of afam ily of ten children . His father and grandfather

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78 LEADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

though the hem of His garmen t glorified th e moun

tains,while we hear the words that were spoken to

th e prophet Isaiah :‘ Ho ly

,holy

,holy

,Lord God

of Sabaoth . All th e earth i s ful l of Thy glory

Ulri c was but nine years old when he was given

i n charge of h is uncl e Bartholomew Zw ingl i , wh o

was dean of VVesen . Unde__r_ h is direction h e

rece ived the best education wh ich the age aff orded .

The cel ebrated Lupulus was h is teacher,and as he

h imsel f said,he l earned to speak Latin more flu

ently than h e spoke h is mother tongue . He als o

l earned to play al l the musical i nstruments wh ich

were then known . The study of Greek he pursued

with great enthusiasm,and actual ly commi tted th e

greater part o f the N ew Testamen t to memory in

the original . After thorough prel iminary tra ining

he took a course at the univers i ty of Vienna .

Here,after the fash ion of th e times

,he translated

h is name into Cogi tanus ; but i t was only a stu

dent ’ s notion,and h e had sense enough to give i t

up after he l eft th e insti tu tion . Then he became a

tutor in the Latin school at Basel,at the same t ime

attend ing the l ectures of Thomas Wyttenbach, acelebrated teacher of the universi ty

,who was th e

most effective i ns trument in preparing the way for

the Reformation in Swi tzerland . In one of h is l ec

tu res th is professor said :“ The t ime is at hand

when th e anc i en t fai th shal l be restored according

to th e word of God .

’

Indulgences are a Roman

UL RI C Z WI N GL I . 79

delusion,and the death o f Chris t is the on ly ransom

for our s ins .

At an early age Zwingl i was recognized as one o f

the foremost scho lars in Swi tzerland . H e was,how

ever,no scholastic rec luse

,but a strong and ener

geti c man of the world . The on ly portrai t i n ex

is tence dates from a later period , when li nes of

though t and trouble had begun to appear upon h is

forehead . I t was pain ted by a local artist,and is

rather a poor a ff ai r bu t i t confi rms th e statement

of cotemporaries that Zwi ng l i was a t th is t ime a

model of manly beau ty . Tal l er than most of his

coun trymen,he was as strong as a Greek athl ete

and as bold as a l ion . He was fami l iar wi th the

cus toms of the upper classes,and at first s igh t h is

manner appeared somewhat haugh ty but when he

opened h is l ips he drew al l men to h im,for h is

eloquence was i rresis tible . He entered the priest

hood,apparen tly without the spiri tual confl i c t

through wh ich Luther was ca l led to pass ; and i t

seems to have been h is purpose to devote h is l i fe

ch iefly to classi cal l earn ing. In 1 506 he became

pastor of a Church i n Gl arus,where h e remained

ten years,the idol of his peopl e . There was no

pretence of extraordinary p i e ty,bu t he was em i

u en t ly truthful . In h is boyhood he had wri t ten in

h is d iary :“ Truth i s the highes t v irtu e ; lying is

worse than Steal ing .

” He had no secrets,and i t

seemed as i f every one who gazed into h is c l ear

80 LEADERS O F T H E R E F O l f A T I O N .

blue eyes could behold the depths of h is sou l .Twice during th is period he accompan i ed Swiss

troops to I tal y as a chaplain . Here he saw the

wickedness that pervaded the l and,and by h is own

confess ion was for a t ime carri ed away by th e pre

vai l ing flood of luxury and l icentiousness . He

caused no scandal,and was regarded as more moral

than his associates ; but , curiousl y enough , th e

un iversal i ty of wickedness roused h im to a sense o f

imminent danger . About the same t ime he found

an ancient copy of th e mass-book and to h is great

surprise discovered that a few centuries ear l i er i t

had been usual to give bread and wine to communi

cants,instead of bread a lone .

“ Can the church,

”

he asked h imsel f,

“ whi ch cl aims to be unchange

ab l e and ye t makes such al terati ons in i ts l i turgy

possess the fundamen tal el emen t of truth"” In

bri ef th e con templation of these e l ements directed

him to the real s ignificance o f th e Scrip tures with

whose let ter h e was a l ready so fami l iar. The pope

had gran ted h im a pens ion so that he migh t devote

h imsel f en ti rely to c lassi cal s tudy bu t the au thors

of Greece and Rome had los t thei r z es t,the praises

o f men seemed utter van i ty,and l ike another

Moses he renounced th e pl easures of the world to

devote h is l i fe to the del iverance of h is peopl e . In

later years th e tongue of slander d id not venture to

impugn the s inceri ty of h is motives nor the puri ty

of h is l i fe . Even Audin,the most bi t ter o f Roman

UL RI C Z I V/N GL I . 8 1

Catho l i c con troversia l is ts,who unj ust ly accuses th e

other re formers o f a lack of s inceri ty,confesses that

Zwingl i was thorough ly hones t .

In 151 6 Zwingl i became parish pries t of th e

great conven t of E ins ied len ,th e cen ter o f Romanism

in Switzerland . Th is was regarded as a p lace o f

specia l hol iness . Over the portal was the in script ion “Here is comp lete forgiveness for al l possi

b l e transgressions . ” The conven t i tsel f is said to

have been founded in the ten th cen tury by S t .

Meinrad,a reputed an cestor of the great house o f

Hohenzo l lern . I t con tained a statue of the Virgi n

Mary wh ich was said to be m iracu lous,and more

than a hundred thousand pilgrims came annua l l y

to worsh ip at i ts shrine . The abbot,Conrad

y on Rechberg,was an excel l ent old man who

l onged for the reformation of th e church . He

was th e younger son of a nobl e house,and had

been forced into the convent to make room for the

advancemen t of others . Now that he had become

a great personage h is relatives sued for h is favor,

but he turned them away and gave h is goods to

chari ty . When reproved for refusing to say mass,

he said : “ E i ther the host is my God or i t is not .

If i t is my God I am unworthy to look upon h im,

much less to touch h im ; i f i t is not my God I wil l

not l end mysel f to th e d issemination of error .

Under the patronage of th is man,Zwingl i began

to preach the Gospel to the pi lgrims of E ins iedlen .

LEADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

"

He told them that the blessed Virgin wou ld h er\sel f repudiate the worsh ip of her image , and that

Chris t alone can save the world . Thousands of

pi lgrims received th e word wi th rej oi cing,and

returned to their homes bearing the message of a

newly-found Gospel .

Whil e thus engaged Zwingl i appeal ed earnes tly

to th e au thorit ies of the church of Rome to make

way for th e progress o f the tru th . We have

records of h is pi teous pl eadings,in th e early part

of 1 51 7 , wi th Card inal S chinner, th e B ishop of

Constan ce,and others

,assuring them that i f th e

church did not wel come th e Gospel i t would make

way for i tsel f. Ins tead of accept ing th is advice the

h ierarchy commi tted th e blunder— the crime— of

attempting to bribe the fearl ess h eral d of the truth .

When the papal l egate was asked what Zwingl im igh t hope to gain i f he took the s ide of the pope

,

he repl i ed :“ He migh t have anyth ing he asked

for short of the papal crown i tsel f. ” When Zwingl i

was call ed to the ch i ef pastorate of the cathedral

church of Zurich,i t was not i n ignorance of his

posi tion bu t because he was already recognized as

the l eader of th e Swiss Reformation .

The question concern ing the relative priori ty of

the German and Swiss reform ers has frequen tly

been asked bu t is of l i tt l e real importance . We

may bel ieve Zwingl i when h e says that he preached

the Gospel in 151 6 as purely as he ever did in l ater

UL R I C Z WI NGL I . 8 3

years,bu t so d id many o f h is associates . The

R e formation in S w itz erland proceeded more qu ietlythan in Germany ; there was no great even t to in

augura te i t,l ik e th e na il ing of th e theSésT o

‘

i'

t he .

church -door at Wittenberg . Saxony and Switzer

land were 1n'

those days Widel y separated,and there

is no room to doub t that Zwingl i and Lu ther never

knew of each other ’ s existence unti l long after th e

most importan t s teps had been taken . Zwin g l i

recognized Erasmus as i ii s chiefi leader and teacher ,m

thou

b

gh m in l ater l i fe the ir paths parted . He was

incl ined to th e\

H umanis ts ; Luther to the Mysti cs .

Z w1ngli*5

‘

movemen t was at firs t mainly d isciplin

ary Lu ther was above al l things a th eo logian .

Goebel says : “ The German Reformation began

s imul taneously and independently at the oppos i te

extreme of German l i fe and cul ture— at th e S lavo

n ian boundary and at the foot of th e Alps— and

thence spread unt i l i t met at th e Rh ine,th e center

of German ic l i fe .

” 1

I t cou ld not be otherwise than that the sys tem

and organ ization of the church in Germany and

Switzer land should di f fer wide ly . In Germany the

church was under th e control of princes who for

mal ly assumed the o ffi ce of bishop . The Swiss had

no l ove for bishops and were not even enthusiasti c

in their attachment to the emperor. Zwing l i said

( 1 ) Geschzchte des chrxstlz’

cben L eben s , 1 , p . 275.

84 LEADERS OF T H E R E F O R M A T I O ZV.

The empire and th e papacy,both come from

Rome”— he wished the world was wel l rid of both

o f them . I t may,indeed

,be said that even i n

Swi tzerland th e church was governed by the state

i n a manner that would prove o ff ensive to modern

Americans bu t i t should be remembered that the

state was i tsel f th e creat ion o f the peop l e . After

th e Reformation th e Swiss chose their own pastors,

whil e those of Germany were appointed by the gov

ernmen t . The organ ization of th e Swiss church

was,therefore

,thoroughly popular

,and we have i n

Swi tze rl and -thefi rs t a example D fM -the f ree.chprch_in

O n his th irty-six th birthday ( Jan . 1,

1 51 9)Zwingl i took charge of the cath edral church of

Zurich . He proved h imsel f a fai th ful pas tor,for

whom noth ing was too ins ignificant to claim his

cordial sympathy . This was especial l y apparen t i n

1 51 9 , during th e prevalence of th e great p lague.

He had gone to th e mineral springs at Pfaffers on

accoun t of impaired heal th,but when the plagu e

broke out noth ing cou ld keep h im from h is post .

During that dreadfu l summer 2500 peopl e di ed i n

Zuri ch alone,and Zwingl i was almost alon e in

m in istering to th e dying and i n burying the dead .

At las t h e was h imsel f seiz ed by the pesti l ence,and

i t was at one time bel i eved that h e could not re

cover. During h is i l lness he composed a beaut i ful

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86 LEADERS OF T H E REFORMA T I ON .

what k ind of singing was i t"I t was noth ing bu tthe s ing-song of the mass

,of wh ich Pope Leo was

so ashamed that he seriously considered th e pro

priety of ordering th e serv ice to be reci ted in a

n atural tone of voi ce . I t was not u nti l th e nex t

generation that Pal estri na i n troduced th e reforms

which al l i ed music to th e servi ce of th e church of

Rome . There were in those days no hymns i n th e

vernacular— even the grand old Latin hymns were

merely mumbled in a perfunc tory fash ion . The

nearest approach to th e modern hymn may,pos

s ibly , be found in th e curious macaron i c compo

s itions known as s ckZz'

ca’cr

,o f which th e fol low

ing stanza addressed to th e Virgin,i s a favorab l e

exampl e

A ve man'

s s tella—S ta r of the s ea

T u verbz’

D ez’

cellar—Glory to theeD ez

’

ma ter a lma—God thou d idst bear ,T u w

’

rtu tumpalma—V i rgin most f a ir . ”

The voice of song was for some t ime si len t in th e

Swiss churches but there i s evidence to show that

a version of the Psalms was in course of prepara

t ion when Zwingl i d ied .

As for the organ i t was a very d i ff eren t aHair

from the queen of the ins trumen ts wi th wh ich we

are acquain ted . I t took th irteen men to tread the

bel lows of the organ in th e church at Zurich ; i t

was played with the fis ts and made a noise l ike a

modern steam cal l i ope . In th e next generation

O L R I C Z WI N GL 8 7

th e organ was perfected and i t is no doub t to be re

gret ted that i t was banish ed by Zwingl i , for such

was the power o f prej ud ice once establ ished tha t

i t was not un ti l th e presen t cen tury that the ci ty o f

Berne al lowed the use of the organ in i ts parish

churches .

In his l i terary labors Zwingl i was great ly aided

by Leo Juda,h is o ld friend and schoo lmate who

had become h is assistant in Zurich . This man was

the son of a pri es t in A l sace mi ld and reti ring in

dispos i t ion,but a wonderfu l l i terary worker . His

relation to Zwingl i was very much l ike that o f

M elancthon to Luth er and o f Beza to Calvin . I t

was supposed from his curious name that he must

be a Jewish convert,but th is was a mistake . Juda

h imse l f supposed that one of h is remote ancestors

must have been a Jew,but th e fact could not be

establ ished . He translated th e Old Testament into

Latin,and was the ch ief translator of the German

version of the Scriptures wh ich appeared in Zurich

in 1 530 ,four years be fore th e publ icat ion o f

Luther ’ s complete trans lation . He al so composed

many minor works and assisted Zwingl i i n al l h is

labors .

As for Zwingl i h imse l f,i n the short space of

twelve years he produced eigh ty German and fif ty

n ine Latin books,not to mention two posthumous

volumes . During the D isputation of Baden,i t i s

said,he did not go to bed for six weeks . He was

88 LEADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

not permi tted to appear personal ly at the contro

versy , because the Cathol i cs insisted that h is won

derf u l eloquence gave th e evangel i cal party an nu

fair advantage ;T but O ecolampad iu s , o f Basel , was

Zwingl i ’ s represen tative,and at n igh t the delegates

journeyed secre tly to Zurich to rece ive instructions .

Sometimes the nervous s train became so i ntense

that Zwingl i cri ed out Now l eave me,all of you

,

I must play the l ute .

” Then for a whi le sweet

s train s of musi c were h eard,bu t when the troubl ed

spiri t was sooth ed,th e del egates were call ed in to

the room,and the work wen t on .

During th is t ime Zwingl i ’ s wife was kep t busy

preparing a co l lat ion for h er midnigh t guests .

Concern ing her personal characteris ti cs l i t tl e is

known,bu t i t i s eviden t that sh e sought to do her

duty as a pastor ’s wi fe . The story of her marriage

to Zwingl i i s unusually in teres ting. She had been

a poor girl of good fami ly,i n tel l ectual and bean

t i ful . A young nobl eman,Meyer von Knonau

,

had loved and married h er ; but h is proud f ath er

refused to recogn iz e the un ion,and the youth ful

bridegroom was forced to seek servi ce in foreign

lands,where h e d ied l eaving one son

,Gerold

,a

pledge of h is i l l-fated love . The beau ti fu l boy

drew al l hearts to h im,and even h is ol d grand

( 1 ) Some w ri ters assert that the au thorit ies of Z u rich did n ot perm itZ w ingli to go to Baden because i t had become known tha t h is en em ies hadf ormed a plan to assassina te h im .

UL RI C Z lV/N GL I . 89

father,when he behe ld him

,opened wide h is arms .

The young widow and her son were now recognized

by thei r re lat ives,and Gero ld was happy . To th is

boy Zwing l i was irresis tibly attrac ted and for h im

h e drew up rules o f education wh ich were l ong

afterwards observed in th e Swiss school s . I t was

the boy who introduced Zwing l i to h is moth er,and

in due time sh e became his fai th fu l he lp-mate .

Though her labors were mainl y domesti c sh e held

women ’s meetings and taugh t the poor to sew .

Four ch i ldren bl essed her second marriage . The

eldest daugh ter,Regu la

,used to say in later years

that the most she remembered concerni ng her father

was that in the evening h e p layed the lute and

j oined with her mother in singing spiri tua l songs of

his own composi tion . The family li fe was earnes t

and sol emn . There was none of th e table- talk that

has rendered the home- l i fe of Luther so in teres ting

to subsequent generati ons .

During the twelve years which Zwingl i spen t i n

Zuri ch he was almost constan tl y engaged in rel igious

controversy . His confl i cts wi th th e Roman Cath

olics were in his j udgment less violen t than others

i n wh ich h e was subsequen tly engaged . When the

monk Samson- another Tetzel— came to Zurich,a

f ew sermons by Zwingl i i nduced h im to drive away

towards I taly “ i n a wagon drawn by three horses

and loaded with go ld .

” The sal e of indu lgences in

Swi tzerland was a mere ep isode,not an epoch as i t

90 LEADERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

had been in Germany . There were extreme Cath

olics who were b i tterly opposed to Zwingl i ’ s meth

ods,and h is l i fe was several times attemp ted bu t

i t seemed as i f Rome had for th e tim e been par

alyzed . I t took some time before th e old man of

the Vatican could pul l on h is boots .

Accord ing to Zwingl i ’s own statements his d is

pu tations with th e Romanists were but ch i ld’ s pl ay

compared with h is con tes ts wi th th e Anabaptis ts.

We have already met wi th th ese peop l e i n Wi ttenberg ; now th ey came to Swi tz er land for th e pur

pose of set t ing up th eir new Jerusal em . M ii nzer

and Carls tad t were there wi th th e avowed in ten tion

of figh ting Zwingl i . Carlstad t after a wh il e sobered

down bu t M iinzer,wi th h is l earn ing and fanatical

en thusiasm,was a dreadful antagonist . Aecom

panying these leaders was a mul t i tude of u nedu

cated fanati cs,dressed in pecu l iar garment s

,and

march ing through th e streets,crying aloud Woe

Woe Woe unto Zuri ch “ For a time,

” says

Ebrard,

“ i t seemed as i f th e whol e evangel ical

church of Switz erland had gone over to the Ana

bap t ists and Zwingl i was l eft to figh t them single

handed .

I t migh t natu ral ly be supposed that the ques tion

of in fant baptism was the main subj ect of d iscus

s ion but a l l au thori ti es agree that th is was in fac t

a m inor matter —a sort o f badge of d istinction that

did not real ly touch the main ques tions at i ssue.

UL R I C Z WI N GL I . 9 1

The fact is that th ese en thusiasts taugh t that God ’ s

peop l e must a lways expect to be l ed by d ivine in

spi ration— th at the teach ings o f the B ible need to

be suppl emented by constan t reve lat ions . The way

was thus openedi

f or al l sorts o f fanati cs who be

l ieved or pretended that thei r extravagan t utter

auces were d ivin e ly inspired . The l eaders were in

some instances po l i ti ca l adven turers who emp loyed

the credu l i ty o f the ir fo l lowers for the ir persona l

advantage . They were extreme soc ial is ts who an

nounced the establ ishmen t of a new Israel ; and

that they would rather have attemp ted to found i t i n

Swi tzerland than in Germany goes wi thou t say ing .

They cal l ed Zwingl i “ th e grea t dragon ”and

would know him by no other name . Once,i n

1 525, a great mul ti tude of these peopl e came rush

ing into th e [caf e"a’e ville

,shou ting

,

“Rej oice,t e

j oi ce Jerusalem,

” and demanding the adhesion of

Zuri ch to the truth . The counc i l ca l l ed a meeting

in th e cathedral,and Zwingl i was requi red to meet

them in debate . When the wi l d crowd saw the

great Protestan t l eader they hesi tated,and for some

time none o f them had a word to say . At last a

rude,ignorant peasan t rose and said Zwingl i

,I

adj ure thee,by the l iving God

,to tel l m e but a

singl e word of tru th .

” Quick as a flash Zwingl i

repl ied : “ I wi l l do that . I tel l th ee that thou art

one o f th e most ignorant and rebel l ious coun try

bumpkins in al l Switzerland .

”

92 LEADERS OF TH E REFORM A T I ON.

The controversy soon began in a more serious

manner,and continued three days ; but then the

power of th e Anabap ti s ts was broken . Several of

thei r l eaders subsequently engaged in pol i ti cal con

spiracies , and rendering themselves amenable to

the laws were execu ted at Zuri ch . Zwingl i had

been accused of sanction ing these ex treme meas

ures but his most rel iabl e b iographers (Chris toflfel

,

Grobe,and Schaf f) i nsis t that h e counsel led more

l en i en t action . There can,however

,be no doub t

that the strong stand taken by th e ci ty counci l o f

Zurich saved Switzerl and from becoming the center

of th e Peasant War.

Zwingl i ’ s meeting wi th Luth er at Marburg,in

1 529, has frequen tly been represented as th e occa

s ion wh ich separated th e two great churches of the

Reformation . Far from th is being th e case i t may

confidently be a ffi rmed that i t brought them'

nearer

together than they were ever before or afterwards .

Up to th is t ime the Pro tes tants o f Germany had

been intense ly prej ud i ced against Zwingl i and the

Swiss . Many peopl e bel i eved that th ey den i ed th e

Trini ty and that they secretly worshipped Moham

med . Luther knew better than th is ; bu t h e wasbit terly opposed to the Swiss because they d id not

ful ly agree wi th h im concerning the nature of the

person of Chris t and of th e sacraments . To him

the Lord ’ s Supper was in a pre-eminen t degree the

sanctum sanctorum of worsh ip ; and i ts shech inah

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94 LEADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

to al i enate th e princes of Germany on whose pro

tection th ey so greatly depended .

The Reformers met at Marburg on the firs t day

of O ctober,1529. The fac ts of the meeting are

wel l known and i t is hardly necessary to relate

them i n detai l . First there was a discussion be

tween Lu ther and O ecolampad iu s , and another be

tween Zwingl i and M elancthon,and i t was unex

pected ly found th at these teachers were more nearly

agreed than any one had imagined . I t was when

Zwingl i and Lu ther were brough t together to d is

cuss th e sacramen ts that the disagreement became

eviden t. Luther took a p i ece of chalk and wrote

on th e tabl e ° “This is my body,

” and a t every

turn of the argumen t h e poin ted to'

th e words .

Zwing l i proved h imsel f an abl e debater and kep t

h is temper throughou t . He was extremely cour

teou s— perhaps a l i ttl e too much so— a l i tt le con

descend ing,in fact b ut taking al l togeth er i t was

decidedly the most gen tl emanly discuss ion of th e

period of the Reformation . I t was far too bri ef ;for a dangerous d isease— th e sweating sickness

had broken ou t i n Marburg,and both parti es were

anxious to l eave the town .

At the conclusion of the conference Lu ther,at

Ph il ip ’ s reques t,drew up articl es of agreement

,

wh ich were s igned by al l th e reformers . You wi l l

find thei r signatures reproduced in f ac sz

’

mz

'

le i n

S chaff ’s l ates t vol ume. This au thor says : “ In

UL R I C Z WI N GL I . 95

fourteen ou t o f fi fteen artic l es th ey agreed fu l ly,

and even i n the fi fteen th they agreed in the prin

c ipal part , name ly , th e spiri tua l presen ce and

f rui tion of Christ ’ s body and blood,di ffering on ly

in regard to corpora l presence and ora l manduca

tion,which th e one denied and th e other asserted .

”

“ Even on th is poin t,

” says Oswald M ycon iu s ,

Zwingl i ’s friend and b iographer,I fee l convinced

that the two men did not fu l ly understand each

other. “ Zwingl i,with h is rat iona l i z ing mind

,

cou ld not understand that from Luther ’ s po in t o f

v i ew there is a sacramenta l eating which is not

physi cal nor carna l . Luther d id not give cred i t to

Zwingl i for bel i ev ing that spiri tua l communication

is real and true . ”

Considering th e fact th at both reformers s igned

the art i c l es i t is not easy to see why Lu th er refused

to give Zwingl i th e righ t hand of fe l lowsh ip,

though he p l eaded for i t wi th tears He said

Ye have a d i f ferent spiri t from ou rs ; and there

can be no doub t that i t was the spi r i t,rather than

the l etter,i n wh ich th ey ch iefly disagreed . I t must

not be understood that there was any lack of soc ial

courtesy . Luther wrote,immediately after the con

ference : “We have become good friends and wi l l

hel p each other ” N i ne years later h e wrote to

Bu l l inger that h e had found Zwingl i a most exce l

len t man ( D ir Optz'

mzcs) , th ough in the nex t year heonce more attacked the Sacramentarians . ”

96 LEADERS OF T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

M elancthon,however

,remained fai th ful to the

Marburg agreement to th e end of h is l i fe .

The pecu l iar sp i ri t of the Swiss churches became

apparen t in th ei r organ ization . Lu ther had,in~

deed,pl eaded for the freedom of th e churches ; bu t

th e princes a t once assumed con trol,and the

churches of the several coun tr ies were governed by

a bureau or Consis torium,

” as one of the depart

ments of the civi l service . In Switz erland , as we

have seen,th e l egislature also assumed supreme

d i rection but i t was i tsel f a popular body,and th e

organization was e f f ected i n accordance with the

wi l l of the peopl e . I t was Zwingl i who firs t appoin ted laymen to offi ce in the church ; i t was he

who co'

nvened the earl i es t Protes tan t synod . Cal

v in,i t is true

,receives greater cred i t i n the matter

of organization,bu t h e was simply work ing in th e

same l in e . May I venture to rem ind you that i t

was th e strong popular organizat ion of the R e

formed church es that enabled them to defend th em

selves successful ly in days of persecu tion"In abroader sense i t may be said

,that i t is i n the coun

tries whi ch fo l lowed th e exampl e of Switzerland

that we find the grandes t mani fes tat ions o f sel f

sacrifice in th e cause of civ i l l iberty . Ho l land de

rived her ideals from Switzerland,and our own

coun try would hard ly have assumed i ts presen t

form of government i f Hol land and Swi tz erl and had

not l ed th e way . The congregational meeting led

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98 LEADERS OF T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

After the battle Zwing l i was found by the enemy

lying on the field . He was sti l l conscious but

unab l e to speak . To a question,wheth er be de

sired the services of a pri est h e repl ied by a nega

t ive gesture. Then a soldier recognized h im,and

Captain V okinger of Uri , ki l l ed him wi th h is

sword . A Cathol i c pries t,named S chdnbrunner

,

who had been one of Zwingl i ’s ch ie f opponen ts,

burs t in to tears as h e passed the body,and ex

claimed Whatever may have been thy fai th ,thou has been an honest patriot. May God forgive

hy sins .The fanati cs and mercenari es d id not even spare

he dead . They decreed that Zwingl i ’s body shou ld

be quartered for treason and then burned for heresy

and the barbarous sentence was execu ted by the

sheri ff of Luzerne . But what did i t matter"Theycould not ki l l th e soul .

The death of the Protestan t leader spread terror

and gloom. There is a poem Frau Zwingl i ’s

Lamen t —which speaks of th e inexpressib l e griefof Zwingl i ’ s wife. Her husband was dead

,and

Gerol d her son,and

,i t is said

,more than a dozen

of her nearest relatives . Zwingl i l eft no property,

excep t a few books and a l i ttl e furni tu re,and h is

family was en tirely desti tu te . Then i t was that

h is successor in the pas torate,Henry Bul l inger

,

came to the rescue ; he and h is wi fe received the

O I . R I C Z WI N GL 1 . 95,

widow and the fatherless and cared for them u n t1

their support was no longer needed .

Zwingl i does not belong to a singl e branch of the

Church of Christ . The re l igious movemen t in

which he was so prominent extended to many coun

tries,and gave b irth to a seri es o f national R e

formed churches . His dying words have proved a

prophecy that is abundantly fu lfi l led . From an

early period the chosen embl em of the Re formed

churches has been the burn ing bu sh which Moses

saw on Horeb . I t has been frequently enve loped

by the flames of persecution,but i t is sti l l green

and flou rish ing. The external form may change,

bu t the i nner l ife no fire can burn,no flood can

drown . They may ki ll the body,but they can not

ki l l th e sou l .

IV .

T H E CHURCH UNDER T H E CROSS .

JOH N CA L V I N .

HE ci ty of Geneva was in the s ixteen th century

sometimes termed “ th e Protes tan t Rome .

”

Though the term was very properly repudia ted

by P rotestan ts there was a poin t o f V i ew fromwhich i t was not en ti rely u ndeserved . Like the

anci ent capi ta l of the Caesars,Geneva was recog

n ized as the mee ting-p lace of national i ti es . Si tu

ated i n what is now the sou th -western corner of

Switzerland,with in a few hours j ou rney of the

French fronti er,and almost as near to I taly

,i ts

geograph ical posi t ion,no less than the diversified

character of its population,rendered i t espec ia l ly

wel l su i ted to be the center of a rel igious move

ment embracing many nations.

Surely there is no more beauti fu l place in al l the

world . Standing on both s ides of the r1ver Rhone

where its turbu l en t flood pours forth from Lake

Leman—wi th in s igh t of the snow-clad summi t of

Mont Blane— it is a ci ty of which Luther migh t

have said “ If i t were not for s in I should deligh t

to dwell forever in th is Paradise .

”

For th is pearl of the Alps neighbori ng princes

had struggled for generations. O riginal ly the c i ty

had been jointly governed by a bishop an d a count

of the empire . On th is account th e coat-of -arms

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1 02 LEADERS O F T H E R E F O R M A T I O ZV.

canton but as an all i ed d is tri ct ez'

a zug ewaaa’ter

O rt.” Thes e new pol i t ical relat ions negatively

prepared the way for th e in troduction of the

R eformation in i ts Swiss form . I t i s true that the

p i oneers were Frenchmen,but they labored under

the patronag e of the Swiss churches .

During the years immediately succeed ing the

death of Zwingl i the churches of German Switzer

land had been greatly discouraged ; but the losses

resul tant from the battl e of Cappel were more than

retri eved by the conversion of the French cantons

of Vaud,Neu f chatel and Geneva . The pioneer in

this work was Wil l i am Farel,who was vigorous ly

seconded by Peter V iretu s .

Farel has been termed “ The E l ij ah of th e French

Reformation .

” He was a Frenchman of noble de

scen t who had been converted by L efevre desEtapl es

,

“ th e father of Protestan tism in France. ”

In his youth,Farel tel ls us

,he had be en “more

pop ish than the pope but when he became a

Protes tant he did i t wi th al l his h eart. D riven

from F rance he became a trave l ing evangelis t who

did more to break way for the Gospe l than any

other of h is cotemporari es . His associates de

scribe h im as a perfec t firebrand . O ecolampad iu s ,the reformer of Basel

,warned h im that h is miss ion

was “ to preach the Gospe l and not to curse the

pope. ” Fare l migh t have retorted in the words of

L avengro :“Go to"Go to

,old man"D id you

j O H N CA I . I’

I N . 1 o3

ever hear the pope cu rse"” E ven Zwingl i warnedh im that h is l i fe was too precious to be sacrificed

by acts of imprudence . Fare l,however

,was not

the man to take advice on such a subj ect . He

went straight on and accompl ished what the world

accounted impossib i l i t ies . To Geneva he wen t on

h is - own respons ib i l i ty,rented a house

,and in i t

preached to al l who came . One day,on the street

,

he met a pries t carrying rel ics in his en thusiasm

he took them away from him by force and threw

them in to th e river. This is but an exampl e of his

violent methods,and we are hard ly su rprised to

l earn that he was k i cked and bu ff e ted,and final l y

thrown out of the ci ty . In a few days he re turned,

armed wi th letters o f recommendation from Bern,

and began to preach wi th redoubl ed energy and

power. Such en thusiasm was irresis tible and on

the -

a7 th of August , 1 535, the Great Council of

Geneva formal ly in troduced the Reformation,and

the ci ti zens p ledged themselves to l ive in accord

ance wi th the precepts of the Gospe l . The mass

was abo l ished and forb idden ; images and relies

were removed from the churches . A school was

f ounded which afterwards grew into an important

l i terary ins ti tuti on . Daily sermons were preached

in the principal churches the communion after the

simpl e manner of Zurich was ordered to be ce le

brated four times a year. A l l shops were c losed on

Sunday ; and disci pl ine was so m inute that i t even

1 04 LEADERS O F TH E REFORMA T I ON.

pres cribed how brides shou ld wear thei r hair.These str ic t regulations aroused opposi tion

,and

there was great confusion throughou t the ci ty .

In the midst of the prevai l i ng disorder,i n the

latter part of Augu st,1 536 , John Calvin arrived i n

Geneva. He was on h is way to Basel,where he

proposed to devote h imse l f to humanist i c stud ies,

and took lodgings at an inn for a single night . He

supposed h imse l f unknown,but was recogn ized by

an acquaintance,Lou is du Til l et

,who at once con

veyed the news to Farel . With almost prophetic

i ns i gh t the latter appreciated the fact that the man

and the hour had come,and immediately sough t

the stranger at h is inn . With al l the earnestness

of h is nature Farel exhorted h im to take charge of

the work in Geneva . Calvin shrank back ; he

des i red to l ive a qu ie t l i fe in the midst of the storms

of the age . When Farel f ound that he - could

adcomplish noth ing by way of en treaty he burst

forth in words of the sternest reproof. He threat

ened Calvi n wi th the curse of Almighty if

he preferred h is personal conven ience to the wOrk

of the Lord—declaring that h e would h imsel f be

his accuser at th e bar of j udgment . Calvin— that

cold,unimpressive man— confesses that he was

terrified by the words of the stern evange l ist ; he

fel t “ as i f God Himself had stretched forth His

hand to hold h im there .

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1 06 LEADER S O F T H E REF OR M A T I ON.

cellen t education , s tudy ing success ive ly at th e lead

ing French universi t i es , O rleans , Bourges , and

Paris . From his favori te teacher , Cordatus , he acqu ired so thorough a know ledge of Lati n that he

has been termed the best Latin ist sin ce Cicero. ”

His fel low- s tuden ts s aid h e was “ al l Logic and

Latin and in the absence of the regular pro fessors he was frequently cal led upon to give ins truct ion in these branches . He bore the reputation of

being stern and cri ti cal,and h is companions nick

named him “ the accusative case . ” With a l l th ishe was not des t i tute of devoted fri ends who re

mained attached to h im to the end of l i fe. One of

his teachers was Me l ch ior Wolmar,a German

,who

was a decided Protes tant , bu t whether he exerted

any direct i nfluence on Calvin ’ s convicti ons is notcertainly known .

The rel igious cond i ti on of France was at thistime confu sed and discouraging . There was muchProtestan t feel ing but no general organization.

D’A ubigne i s no doubt righ t I n saying that theFrench Reformation was

,i n part at l east

,of indi

genous origin . The church of France had alwaysi nsi sted on Gal l ican l iberti es

,and had produced

some of the most em inent of the so- cal l ed “ R e

formers before the Reformation . Here such men

as John Gerson,Pierre D ’

A illy , and the abbo ts “ o fS t.

"

V ictor had l i fted up‘ their voices in beha l f of

j O H N CA L V I N . I 07

the righ teousness to wh ich their age had become a

s tranger. They had never forgotten the days of

Phi l i p le Be l,when the pope dwe l t in Avignon and

the k ings of France dictated the pol icy of the papal

court. To the peopl e o f France the exal ted pre

tensions of th e Roman curia appeared absurd and

the h igher classes,at l east

,simply refused to sub

mit to the tyranny which was e lsewhere so oppres

s ive . I t became the fash ion to rid icul e pries ts and

monks,and the l i terature of the times is fi l led to

overflowing wi th stories of thei r stupidi ty and

lewdness . As early as 1 51 2 Lefevre des Etaples

began to de l iver sledge-hammer blows against the

h i erarchy . Bricou net,bishop of Meaux

,and other

prelates,rej oiced for a time in what they regarded

as the dawning of a new era . A t first i t seemed as

i f a l l France would accept the Re formation . The

king ’ s sis ter,Margaret of Navarre

,became the

patron of Protestants,and most of the l eading

nobil i ty declared themselves in their favor. Young

men of the h ighest rank paraded the streets sing

ing‘

vProtestan t psalms,and ladies of the court

sough t ou t the obscure meeting-places of theHuguenots to hear the word of God . For a whil e

i t was bel ieved that the k i ng h imse l f wou ld take

the side of the Reformers— he despised the priests

and hated the mach inations of the I tal ian party ;bu t Francis I . appears to have been almost desti

tu te of re l igious impu lses . His stronges t passion

1 08 LEADERS O F TH E R E F O R M A T I O JV.

was h is des ire for the aggrandiz emen t of th e royal

power ; and nex t to that a longing to be avenged

on those of the great nobil i ty who had stood i n the

way of his ambi tion . When,therefore

,the Sor

boune,i n 1 52 1 , issued a decl aration against th e

doctrin e of Luther,and i t became evident that the

French peopl e would not generall y accep t the

Reformation,he issued an edi ct forbidding the

practice of new forms of rel igion . At th is time he

uttered h is famous dictum : U% 7 02, an 102, an

f oz'

” “ One k ing,one law

,one fai th .

” To a

modern observer i t seems as i f th e king had chosen

the occasion to gain the support o f the common

peopl e i n h is confl i ct wi th th e great nobles of the

realm .

I The Protestan ts could not safely contrad i c t a

royal proclamation ; bu t some of themvery foolishly prin ted placards denouncing the mass

,and

one of these was found affixed to the door of the

king’ s bed- chamber. The ki ng was now thor

oughly alarmed,and th e pope ’ s l egate found i t easy

to persuade h im that the introduction of new forms

of fai th must necessari l y involve a change in the

royal dynas ty. The influence of h is sister could no

longer restrain him,and at h is d irection seven Pro

tes tants were executed under c ircumstances of th e

most revol ting cruel ty .

lA f ter th is even t the cause of Protestan tism in

France was greatly depressed . Many of the Pro

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1 1 0 LEADERS O F T H E REF OR M A T I ON.

to move the king to clemency ; but there is noth

ing in the book to ind icate that th is was the

author ’s intention . I ts undeniable learning,how

ever,gained h im the respect of the educated classes

,

and thus prepared the way for h is subsequen t work.

In October,1 533 , th e publ i c rup ture occurred.

An eminent physician,N i cholas Cop

,had been

elected rector o f th e universi ty of Paris ; and as he

was not ski ll ed in l i terary composi tion he induced

Calvin to assi st h im in prepari ng h is i naugural

address . Calvin made i t a pl ea for the reformation

of th e church,and

,perhaps unin tent ional ly inserted

doctrinal statemen ts which were deemed obj ec tion

able The authorsh ip of the address was d iscov

ered,and both Calvin and Cop were forced to flee

for their l ives. There is a tradi tion that Cal vin

was aided by his fri ends to escape through a win

dow,and that he fled from Paris disguised as a v ine

dresser,with a hoe upon h is shoulder. For three

years Calvi n was a wandering evangel ist. For

some time he was protec ted by Margaret of N a

varre,bu t was final ly compe l l ed to seek a refuge in

Normandy,where he is said to have h id himsel f in

a cave which is sti l l cal led Calvin ’s cave. ” F i

nally he escaped to Basel,where he was kind ly re

ceived .f ‘Here

,after some minor l i terary labor he

p ubl ished,in 1536 , th e Latin ed i tion of h is great

work,

“ The Ins ti tu tes of the Ch ris tian Rel igion .

”

The French edi tion d id not appear u nti l 1 54 1

I OHN CA L V I N . I 1 1

This was th e greates t theolog ical work o f i ts age ,

perhaps o f any age . As the composition o f a young

man o f twen ty -si x i t was marvel lous . Most won

derfu l o f al l i s th e fac t that though Calvin pub

lished many ed i tions o f his book , and made con

stan t addi tions,he seems never to have changed h is

mind in a singl e particu lar.

The rul ing principl e of Calvin ’s “ Insti tu tes,

as

th eir author expressed i t,was “ the u tter des tru c

tion o f human glory that God migh t be al l i n al l . ”

This princip le,as he deve loped i t

, gave rise to the

system which is known as“ Ca lvin ism

,

” though in

ordinary usage the term is not a lways properly

app l ied . Predestination,i t need hard ly be said

,i s

but a part of Calvi nism,and i t may perhaps be

termed the featu re wh ich was origina l ly l east dis

t inctive. On this subj ect there was no seri ous d isa

greement among the early ref ormers,and even the

church of Rome d i d not condemn the Protes tan t

doctri ne wh i le Ca lvin l ived . In this respect i t was

the spiri t of Augustin e that rul ed the Reformation .

On the continent of Europe i t is Ca lvin ’s doctrine

of th e sacramen ts wh ich is most general ly known

as Calvin ism .

”

* rom a li terary point of V i ew the“ Insti tutes ”

were a marve l . “Two men,

” i t has been said,

“ formed th e modern French language—John Calvin and Fran cois Rabe lais : th e one a Ch ris tian

Stoi c . th e other a heathen Ep i curean the one rep

1 1 2 LEADERS O F T H E R EF ORM 'A T I ON.

resenting disc ipl ine bordering on tyrrany , the other

l iberty running in to l i cense. ” 1 Concern ing the

publ i cati on of th e “ Insti tu tes Michele t remarks :I f th e act was bold no less so was the s tyle. The

French language was then an unknown tongue ;yet here

,twenty years after Comines

,th irty years

bef ore Montaigne,we have already the langu age of

Rousseau , h is power if not h is charm . But the

most form idabl e attribu te of the vol ume is i ts nenetrating clearness , its bril l iance—of s teel rather

than of si lver a blade wh ich sh ines bu t cuts . One

sees that the l igh t comes from with in,from the

depth of the conscience— from a sp i ri t rigorously

convinced,of wh ich logi c is th e food . One feels

that the author gives noth ing to appearance— that

he labors to find a so l id argument upon which h e

can l ive and,i f need be

,die . ”

It was th is wonderful book that l ed F are l to

recognize i ts author as the one man who could save

Geneva . Calvin had been on a visi t to the pious

duchess of Ferrara when he rece ived his wonderf ul

cal l . Following that cal l h e buil t up a social order

wh ich had been en ti rely broken down . It was an

immense work,and he was at every step compel led

to contend wi th vigilan t and unscrupulous enemies,

but he proved h imsel f equa l to th e occasion . He be

came ch ief pastor and preached earnestly agains t ex

isting abuses , but for a time i t seemed as if his eff orts

must remain frui tl ess . The wickedness of th e

( 1 ) S cha ff’s H istory o f the Ch rist ian Chu rch

,

”

7 , p . 266 .

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1 1 2 LEADERS OF T H E R E F O R JWA T I O N .

resen ting discipl i ne bordering on tyrrany , the other

l iberty running in to l i cense . ” 1 Concern ing the

publ icati on of th e “ Insti tu tes ” Michele t remarks :I f the act was hold no l ess so was the style. The

French language was then an unknown tongue ;yet here

,twen ty years after Comines

,thirt y years

bef ore Montaigne , we have already the langu age of

Rousseau , h is power i f not hi s charm . But the

most form idabl e attribu te of the vo l ume is i ts D en

etrating clearness , i ts bri l l iance— of s teel rather

than of si lver a blade wh ich sh ines bu t cuts . One

sees th at the l igh t comes from with in,from the

depth of the conscience—from a spi ri t rigorouslyconvinced

,of which logic is the food . One fee ls

that the author gives noth ing to appearance— that

he labors to find a so l id argument upon which hecan l ive and

,i f need be

,die . ”

It was th is wonderfu l book that l ed F are l to

recogniz e i ts author as th e one man who could save

Geneva . Calvi n had been on a visi t to the p ious

duchess of Ferrara when he rece ived his wonderf ul

cal l . Following that cal l h e buil t up a soci al order

wh i ch had been enti rely broken down . I t was an

immense work,and he was at every step compe l led

to contend wi th vigi lan t and unscrupulous enemies,

but he proved h imsel f equa l to the occasion . He hecame ch ief pas tor and preach ed earnes tly against ex

isting abuses , bu t for a time i t seemed as i f h is ef f orts

must remain frui tless . The wickedness of th e

( 1 ) S chaf f’

s H istory o f the Ch rist ian Chu rch,

”7 , p . 266 .

/ O H N CA L V I N . 1 1 3

peop l e became so great that Calvin and h is coad

ju tors refused to adminis ter th e Lord’s Supper nu

t i l there were s igns of repentance . Pers isting i n

thei r refusal,though th reatened with death

,they

final ly left the ci ty,saying :

“ I t is better to serve

God than man .

”

Calvin found a refuge in Strasburg where for two

years he ministered to a congregat ion o f fifteen

hundred French refugees . At th is time he was

married to I delette d e Bure,and for n ine years sh e

was h is fai th ful helpmeet . They had a son who

d ied in infancy,and a few years later the mother

also wen t to rest . I t is not true that her stern hus

band remained unimpressed by these affl i c tions .There is plen ty o f evidence to prove that h is sor

row was sincere and profound ; and to th i s on e

sweet memory he remained fai thful to the end of

l i fe .

I t is a wonderful fact that Geneva,after having

driven Calvin away,i n th ree years cal led h im back .

The a ff ai rs of the ci ty had been going on from bad

to worse,unti l absolute ru in was close at hand . I n

vain the counci l u rged Calvin to return,but be de

clined unti l a number of Reformed ci t ies urged h im

to hasten to th e rescue Then,i n 1 54 1 , he t e

turned to Geneva,with the ful l understanding that

h is plans of discipl ine were to be carried ou t .

From this time forth no king in Europe exercised

so much power as d id John Ca lvin . This power

1 1 4 LEADERS OF T H E R E F O R fl/A T I O N .

was a l together moral i t was not that of a tyrant .He had no ofli cial pos i tion except that of a simple

pas tor. His annual salary was on ly 250 fran cs ,w i th a plain house wh i ch is s ti l l s tand ing in th e

Rue des Chanoin es,and to th is the counci l occa

s ionally added a gi ft of cloth for a n ew coat . Like

11 th e reformers h e cared noth ing for money ; he

had higher purposes than to accumulate weal th,

and at the time o f h is death h is whole estate

amoun ted to less than two hundred dol lars i n our

presen t money . And yet th is poor,unpretentious

man for nearly th i rty years con trol led the most

important currents i n th e rel igi ous i f not in the

pol i t i cal l i fe of Europe . Though he was in bad

heal th,and

,i t v as said “ l ooked l ike a ghost

,

” he

sometimes for long periods preached every day,

taugh t theology,wrote books

,and was actively

engaged in d irecting the affai rs of church and sta te.

Cranmer sough t h is advi ce wi th reference to th e

organ ization of th e church of England . In Hol

land h is l et ters made men strong to battl e for th eir

rights . Far away,i n Poland

,Bohemia

,and Hun

gary h is person was revered and h is ins truction

accepted . In Scotl and h is influence was para

mount ; for , as a recent b iographer says , John

Knox was another Calv in .

” In France the fore

most of th e no bi l i ty recogn ized him as thei r leader

and instructor . Perhaps i t was in Geneva i tsel f

that h is au thori ty was most frequently resisted bu t

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I I 6 LEADERS OF T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

be enforced . The peopl e were greatly exc i ted,not

on ly in Geneva,but throughou t Europe

,and noth

ing woul d satisfy them but the infl i c tion of the

severest punishmen t . Servetus was accord ingly

burned at the s take on the 2 7 th of October , 1 553 .

Concerning this pain fu l subj ec t th e American

E ncyclopmdia very properly says“ The execution

was in accordance wi th the laws of al l th e Euro

pean states at that period . I t was th e inher i ted

sp iri t of the t imes,and not the power of Calv in

,

that burned Servetus . The penal ty was cruel ; i t

i s indefens ible ; i t was even at that t ime impol i t ic.

Nei th er civil nor rel igious l iberty was at that time

understood ; s t i l l l ess was there any sharp distinc

t ion made between them . That analysis was th e

fru i t of time,and of th e seed wh ich Calv in was at

that time sowing in Geneva.

Calv in is frequentl y described as a cold,s tern

man who had l i ttl e room in h is nature for those

t ender aff ecti ons wh ich are the solace of l i fe . No

doubt h e was a fierce controversi al is t,but i f h e was

so cold and unrespons ive,why was i t that some of

the nob l est spiri ts of th e age loved h im with more

than fi l ial aff ect ion"Theodore Beza was a bri l l ian tpoet . He had been a curled and pampered darl ing

of society —he came to Geneva arrayed i n fine l inen

and reeking wi th unguents— yet i t needed but an

intervi ew wi th Ca lvin to bring h im to his knees .

From that momen t he became the assoc iate and

"O H N CA L VI N . 1 I 7

ass istan t of that s tern preacher o f righ teousness

h is most intimate friend ; his b iographer and suc

cessor. Nor was Beza a lone in su ch in timate aff ect ion . What was i t that induced Clement Marot

,

the court-poet,to l eave th e servi ce of royal ty to

translate psalms at Calvin ’ s di rection"What poten t influence caused M elanc thon to say that “ he

wished he cou ld l ay h is weary head on Calvin ’s

fai th fu l heart and d ie there"” How was i t that

the l ight hearted duchess,Renee of Ferrara

,and

the more quiet bu t not l ess worldly Margare t o f

Angou leme,turned from a career of fash ionab l e

dissipation to l isten humbly to that sol emn man"Why was i t that the great nob l es of France— Bour

bon, Chat tilon ,

Rohan,Soubise

,Montmorency

learned to regard Ca lvin wi th al l th e aflfection of

sons"I t i s said that “ Calvin never sl ep t

,and i t is no

doubt true,as Beza says

,that “ many a nigh t h e

d id not sleep,and many a day he had no t ime to

look up to the blessed sun . Utterly worn out he

died i n h is 54th year , on the 2 7 th of May , 1564.

He was buried in the publ ic cemetery,and in ac

cordance with hi s dying reques t no monument was

erected over h is grave .

Calvin ’ s l i fe was that o f a theologian and scholar

i t contained bu t few of th e romanti c el ements on

wh ich biographers del igh t to dwe l l . He le ft no

descendants to preserve the memorials of h is great

1 1 8 LEADERS OF T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

ness ; no church to bear h is name and yet i t i s not

too much to say that th e most potent influences i n

modern his tory may be traced to h is grand person

al i ty . More completely than in th e case of any

oth er Reformer has the biography of th e l eader be

come obscure as the sphere o f h is influence ex

tended .

To relate the h is tory of “ th e church under the

cross” would requ ire many volumes . As Calvin

was,however

,i n a pre-eminen t degree the leader of

the Reformation in France,though he was person

al ly a residen t of Geneva,a brief sketch of the for

tunes of French Calvin ism may no t be inappro

priate .

As we have already seen th ere were,as early as

1 524 , l i ttl e compan ies of Protestan ts here and

there in France,who met i n secret to read the word

of God . At a later date these “ societi es ” stood in

the most in timate relat ions wi th the church of

Geneva ; and many of th ei r members undertook

long and dangerous j ourneys to th e Swiss ci ti es

to receive th e Holy Communion . There was,how

ever,no regular church organ izat ion unti l 1555

when a nobl eman,named La F erriére

,declared in

a secre t meeting that h e woul d under no circum

stances su ff er h is ch ild to be bap tiz ed in accordance

wi th th e ceremonies of the Roman ri te,at the same

t ime demanding th e election of a pastor. After

fast ing and prayer a yo ung theologian,named La

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1 20 L EADERS O F T H E R E F O R M A T I O ZV.

I n 1 559 Guido de Brés , pastor of“ th e church of

th e Rose- tree at R vssel ,” composed the Belgi c Con

f ession and in I 566 that confessi on was adopted

by a synod at Antwerp . The Wa l loon and N ether

land church es were most in timately rel ated to those

of France,and they mutually sustained and com

forted each other whil e they remained under th e

cross .

I t was from th e beginn ing th e misfortune o f

French Protes tan tism to be involved in pol i t i cs .

The old nob i l i ty were mainly on the Protes tan t

s ide,and th e k ing sough t to humb l e them by

attack ing th eir rel igion . In their fortified castles

the nobl es for a t ime defied th e royal power ; bu t

with th e assistance of th e church of Rome the k ing

grew stronger,and the power of th e r

'obility was

proportionately decreased . The great majori ty of

th e peopl e took th e s ide of th e k ing ; and'

where

Huguenots of humbl e s tation coul d not be pro

tected by th e nobles they became the obj ec t o f bi t

ter and unrel enting persecution .

In sketch ing th e s tory of the Huguenots we

must confine ourselves to th e commonplaces of h is

tory. After the death of Francis I . ,i t wi l l be re

membered,his son

,Henry I I .

,ascended th e throne

bu t during his reign D iana o f Poi ti ers was th e

ac tual ru l er of France"His l egi t imate queen,

Cathar ine de . I ed ici,was content to remain in th e

background,subtl e I tal ian as she was . After th e

j O l J /V CA L VI N. 1 2 1

death of the k i ng th e throne was he ld for a few

years by each o f his three sons— Francis I L,

Charl es IX .

,and Henry I I I . —but during al l th is

period thei r mother,Catharine de Medici

,hel d

supreme power. Unless she is great ly ca lumniated

she was one o f the most wi cked women that ever

l ived ; and i t i s be l i eved by some h istorians that

two,at least

,of her roya l sons were murdered at her

instigation,because they sough t to f ree themselves

from her control .

I t was not easy for Cathar ine to ho ld her posi

t ion ; for i t seemed probabl e that the roya l house

of Valois would soon become extinct,and the great

famil ies of th e realm were a l ready contending for

the succession . Let a few of these pass across the

stage in the persons of th ei r l ead ing representatives .

N ext to the royal house stood the princes of th e

House of Bourbon,descended from Robert of Cler

mont,six th son of Louis IX . (St . Louis) who i n

A . D . 1 27 2 had married Beatrix , the h ei ress of the

barony of Bourbon . The head of the house at th is

t ime was Antoine de Bourbon,who by h is marriage

wi th Jeanne d ’A lbret had become king of Navarre .

He had become a Protestan t,but was so weak and

vaci l lating that h e inj ured the religion which h e

professed to defend . More earnest and sincere was

h is younger brother,Louis

,Prince of Condé— a ty pi

cal ch i ld of th e South though gay,gal lant

,and fond

of pl easure,he was ch ivalrous ly honorable and de

1 2 2 L EADERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

voted ly attached to the cause wh ich h e had espoused .

t en days of troubl e came he fough t wi th heroi c

valor when h is enemies oficered bribes he simply

laughed a t them . A t last h is enemies became too

s trong for h im,and after the battle of Jarnac

,i n

wh ich he was taken prisoner,he was treacherousl y

assass inated .

Grandes t of al l th e house of Bourbon was j eanne

d ’A lbret,queen of Navarre

,th e h eroine of Rochel le

,

the mother of Henry IV . She i t was who when

her son was s ti l l i n h is minori ty assumed command

of th e Huguenot forces and l ed them to vi ctory .

When Catharin e told her that to gain the kingdom

of France for h er son i t was her du ty to be recon

ci l ed wi th Rome,sh e exclaimed wi th pass ionate

vehemence : “ Madame,i f a t th is moment I held

my son and a l l th e k ingdoms of the wor ld together,

I wou ld hurl th em to the bottom of the sea,

‘ rather

than imperi l th e salvation of my soul . ”

The Guise famil y assumed to be the po l i t ical

l eaders o f th e Roman Cathol ics of France . Their

father,Claude

,firs t duke of Guise

,was th e fi fth

son of René,duke of Lorraine . He had entered

France during th e reign of Francis I .

,and had per

formed prodigies of valor as a French general .

One of his daugh ters was the mother of Mary ,Queen of Scots . “ S ix stalwart sons grew up

around h im,sharers of h is fanati cism

,his ambi tion

,

h is tal en ts and his success . Two of them became

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1 24 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

version . Surely M ichelet is right when de declares

that Col ign i was the greates t convert that John

Calvi n ever made .

In thei r ex treme fanati c i sm the Guises began to

exterminate the Protes tants wi th fire and sword,

and the latter were forced to engage in a war of

sel f-defense . At th e conjuration of Amboise,i n

1 560 , th e pol i tical and rel igious el emen ts of the

Huguenot cause were welded toge ther. Calvin di d

not approve of th e al l iance,and warned his f ri ends

that “ those who take up th e sword shal l perish by

the sword .

” Summoned to appear before th e king

Beza said Sire,i t i s tru e that i t i s th e lot of the

church of God,in whose name I speak to endure

blows and not to s trike them bu t may i t also

pl ease you to remember that i t is an anvi l that has

worn out many hammers . ”

We shal l not tel l th e story of th e wars wh ich for

th e n ex t decade devastated France . There came at

last a season when i t seemed as i f th e main obj ec ts

o f the Huguenots had been accompl ished . Colign i

and his coadj utors had been everywhere V ic torious .

By the treaty of St . Germain th e Huguenots were

granted four towns— among them La Rochell e

which they were to hold and garrison as a p l edge of

good fai th . To cemen t the treaty Catharine de

Medic i arranged that her beauti ful but worthless

daugh ter,Margueri te o f Valois

,should be given i n

marriage to Henry,th e young king of Navarre

,and

j O H N CA L V I N . 1 25

al l the great nobl es were invited to come to Paris to

share in the festivi ties .

I t is hard ly necessary to speak a t length o f th e

i l l - fated a l l iance which i s known as the B loody

Wedding . The massacre o f St . Bartho lomew

wh ich immediately succeeded i t was declared by

Queen El i zabeth of England to have been “ the

most atrocious act committed by men since th e

crucifixion of Chris t . ” The chief actor in the

tragedy was,of course

,Catharine de Medici

,th e

evil genius of that evil age . Most recen t h istorians

say that she was impl i cated wi th th e duke of Guise

i n a plot to assassinate Col igni,who had advised

the king to emancipate h imse l f from h is mother ’s

contro l . The murder was attempted but failed ;the admiral was wounded but not ki l led . The ex

ci temen t was intense,and i t became eviden t that

th e instigators of the crime would be d iscovered .

In thei r desperation th e ch ief conspirators persuaded

the king that he was h imsel f to be the v ict im of a

great Huguenot conspiracy,and that v igorous

measures must be taken to ward off th e threaten ing

danger. At first th e king refused to l is ten to these

accusations ; bu t at las t h e petulantly exclaimed

Well,i f i t must be so

,ki l l them al l Let no one

be l eft to reproach me wi th th is deed .

” This was

enough for the queen-mother. O rders were secretly

given to th e sold iers and to the l eaders of the papa l

party . At midnigh t,on the 24th o f August , 1 57 2 ,

1 26 L BADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

the great hell o f St . Germain l ’ A u xerrois rang the

alarm ; th e king’s sol d iers began th e massacre by

murdering the Huguenot l eaders in th eir lodgings,

and i t was easy to give a h in t o f what was going

on to the gathering crowd that was only too ready

to assist in slay ing th e h elpl ess Protestants . Any

one who knows th e m u d d le of Paris n eed not be

surprised at th e resul t . That fearfu l monster,

loosed from i ts chains,had tasted blood

,and

,as on

many more recen t occasions,i t seemed as i f i ts

fearfu l lus t could never be g lutted . O ther ci ti es

fol l owed th e exampl e of Paris . and th irty thousand—som e say a hundred thousand— of th e bes t men

and women in France were ru th l essly sacrificed . In

many places,however

,th e royal mandate was not

obeyed . At Lisi eux,for instance

,th e Roman )

Cathol i c bishop gath ered the Huguenots into h is"palace and protected th em from the fury of th e

mob . Rochell e and Sancerre closed thei r gates,

and i t soon became evident that as a means of des

troying th e Huguenots the massacre had proved a

fai lure . On i ts firs t ann iversary th e Reformed

chu rches of Fran ce hel d a synod at Montauban,at

which a formal demand was made upon th e court to

punish th e murderers and to reverse th e a ttainder

against Col igni . No wonder that Catharine ex

claimed :“ I f Condé were l iving

,and were h ere

wi th fifty thousand men,his demands would no t be

hal f so bold .

” The Huguenots had,however

,su f

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1 28 L EADERS OF T H E R E F O R /WA T I O N .

soldi er,so spl endid ly expressed in Macaulay ’s wel l

known bal lad on “The Batt l e of Ivry .

”

The momen t of triumph was,however

,th e be

ginn ing of Huguenot decl ine . Henry of Navarre,

who had proved that h e possessed th e heroism of

h is mother,now exh ibi ted th e weakness of his

father. Like th e image which the king of Babylon

beheld in h is dream h is head was of fine gold,bu t

hi s feet were partly of i ron and partly of clay .

He renounced Protes tan tism,after su ccess ful ly

figh ting i ts battles,on th e ground that h is ac t

would bring peace to h is d istracted country . Paris,

i t was said,would never accep t a Huguenot king

,

and Henry h imsel f is sa id to have flippan tly declared

that Pari s was “worth a mass . ” I t i s,however

,

by no means certain that he cou ld not have at

tained his pol i t i cal ends wi thou t v iol ence to h is

conscience . His great rivals had passed away , and

after another victory th e cap i tal would probably

have received h im,Huguenot as h e was . Paris

always kisses th e hand that smi tes her,i f only i t

sm ites hard enough .

I t is certa in that by th is ac t of apostasy Henry

IV . al i enated the aflections of the bes t part of h is

people . He los t th e confidence of th e Protestan ts

without thereby securing th e fai th ful al l egiance of

the Cathol ics,and final ly fel l by the dagger of a

fanati c of the fai th wh ich he had assumed .

j O H N CA L V I N . 1 29

During his reign Henry IV . d id a l l in h is power

to re l ieve th e un fortunate po l i t i ca l and socia l con

di tion o f his former associates . The Edi c t of

Nantes,which h e issued i n 1598 , secured them

to l eration for nearly a century ; bu t i t was bare

to leration,and i t was under h is immediate suc

cessor that R i che l i eu in troduced th e po l i cy o f

repression wh ich in 1 685 cu lminated in the revoca

tion of the ed ic t . Lou is X IV . appears to have

imagined that the Huguenots would yi eld at once

to h is royal wi l l and when they re fused to sacri

flee their fai th and conscience his persecut ing rage

knew no bounds . In the region o f the Cevennes

the persecu ted peopl e rose in sel f- defense,and for

ten years kep t up an u nequal contest i n whi ch

they performed prodigies of valor. The su fferings

of the Cevennois were,however

,terrific . Four

hundred towns and V i l lages were reduced to ashes

and the coun try for twenty l eagues was l eft a desert .

Though the Protes tants were forbidden to leave

France mu l t i tudes su cceeded in making th eir es

cape . Wherever they went th ey bore wi th them

artist i c cu l ture and the love of l iberty .

Protestan tism i n France survived the dragonades ,though i t was not un ti l th e time of the Revol ution

that i t emerged en ti rely from the shadow of th e

cross . In other countri es the ex iled Huguenots

achieved the honor that was den ied them in thei r

fatherland . They laid the foundations of the great

1 28 L EADERS O F T H E R E F O R ZWA T I O N .

soldi er,so spl endid ly expressed in Macau lay ’s wel l

known bal lad on “The Batt l e of Ivry .

”

The momen t of triumph was,however

,th e be

ginn ing of Huguenot decl ine . Henry of Navarre,

who had proved that h e possessed th e heroism of

h is mother,now exh ibi ted th e weakness of his

father. Like the image which the king of Babylon

beheld in h is dream h is head was of fine gold,bu t

hi s feet were partly of i ron and partly of clay .

He renounced Protes tan tism,after su ccess ful ly

figh ting i ts battles,on th e ground that h is act

would bring peace to h is distracted country . Paris,

i t was said,would never accept a Huguenot k ing

,

and Henry h imsel f is sa id to have flippan tly declared

that Paris was “worth a mass . ” I t ' i s,however

,

by no means certain that he cou ld not have at

tained his pol i t i cal ends wi thou t v1olence to h is

consc i ence . His great rivals had passed away , and

after another victory th e cap i tal would probably

have received h im,Huguenot as h e was . Paris

always kisses th e hand that smi tes her,i f only i t

smi tes hard enough .

I t is certa in that by th is ac t of apostasy Henry

IV . al i enated the a ff ections of the bes t part of h is

people . He los t th e confidence of th e Protes tan ts

withou t th ereby securing th e fai th ful al l egiance o f

the Cathol ics,and final ly fel l by the dagger of a

fanati c of the fai th wh ich he had assumed .

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1 30 L EADERS OF T H E R E F O R JVA T I ON .

ness of Prussia they rendered prosperous th e

manufactures of England . In Ameri ca they proved

excel l en t p ioneers,and their descendan ts have been

among our foremost c i t i zens . With Mrs . S igou r

ney,who has been termed th eir Amer ican l aureate

,

we may pray

On a l l who bea rThe ir name or l ineage may the ir man tle restTha t fi rmness f or the t ruth , that calm con ten tWith s imple pleasu res

,that unswerving trust

I n toi l , advers ity , and death , wh ich castSuch health f ul leaven ’m id the elemen tsThat peopled the n ew world .

”

T H O M A S C R A N M E R

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1 32 L EADERS OF T H E R E F O R JII A T I ON .

men of gen ius o f their age,who d irected th e

though t and the emotions of the peop l e . Pol i t ical

el ements were subordinated to those which were

purely rel igious ; and even i n France th e secular

s truggl e was due to an unholy al l iance wh ich re

su lted i n the humil iation of th e church . I n Eng

land,on th e o ther hand

,the posi t ions of the re l ig

ions and pol i t i cal elements were reversed . The

Reformation was preceded by a great pol i ti cal

movemen t— a bold s troke for national au tonomy

which in th e Providence of God opened th e way

for sp i r i tua l del iverance. I t was the al l -pervading

influence of royal ty— the repress ive powe r of secu larauthori ty— that for a time forced the rel igious l eaders

in to the background,and compelled th em to labor

in comparative obscuri ty .

Henry VII I .,who ascended the Engl ish throne in

1 509 , was for some t ime the most popular pri‘

nce in

Europe . His father,Henry VII . —popularly known

as Harry Tudor —though the recogniz ed represen t

ativ e o f th e house of Lancaster,had been in fact a

so ld ier of fortune whose cl aim to the throne was

based on conques t. To strengthen h is defective

ti tl e he had not only secured recogn i t ion by the

pope,bu t had married El i zabeth

,the heiress of th e

house of York . I t was not,however

,un ti l th e

nex t generat ion that th e nation fe l t confiden t that

the claims of the rival hou ses were settl ed,and

Henry VIII . was the personal pledge of peace .

CRA NM ER AND KNOX. 1 33

Henry VII . had been a sh rewd man . Narrow

minded and venia l— avaricious and merci less— he

yet mani fested extraord inary sk i l l i n the establ ish

men t o f h is dynasty . H aving two sons,the e ldest

,

Arthur,was of course expected to become h is suc

cessor 011 th e throne ; but what to do wi th the

younger son,Henry

,was a di ffi cu l t ques tion .

Younger sons have always been th e terrors of dynas

ties and i n this case the e lder brother was in men

tal and physi cal s treng th greatly excel l ed by the

younger . I t was not l ikely that Henry would be

p ermanently satisfied with a subord inate posi tion,

and who could tel l whether the confl i cts o f the

brothers m igh t not resu l t in a new War of th e

Roses"Under these circumstances the king conceived th e idea of educating Henry for the church .

In th is way he hoped to remove h im from the

sphere of act ive pol i tics— for who had ever heard

of a pries t who became a pretender to a throne"And if th e k ing shou ld finally succeed in e l evating

h im to the posi t ion o f archb ishop of Canterbury,

migh t he not hope to rule th e church of England

in the person o f h is son"Henry was accordinglysen t to schoo l and became an excel l en t scholar

mani festing special ap t i tude for theologica l s tudy

and there i s no reason to doub t that he was in later

days th e real au thor of the works whi ch bear h is

name .

1 34 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

Having thus,as h e supposed

,provided for his

second son,th e king proceeded to negotiate a mar

riage for Arthur. Money was the firs t considera

t ion,and he accord ing ly made appl i cation for th e

hand of one of th e daugh ters of Ferdinand of Spain,

who was the rich es t monarch i n Europe . The

covetous heart o f the king of England rej o iced

when the negotiations proved successful and th e

firs t remi ttance of Spanish doubloons was poured

i nto h is treasury . In those days young folks had

l i ttl e to say i n su ch matters,and Cather in e vainly

protested wh en she was sent to what sh e regarded

as a land of barbarians . On th e 1 4 th of November ,1 50 1 , she was married to Pri nce Arthur, who was

but fi fteen years old . Less than four months after

th e marriage her husband died of consump tion and

Catherine was left a widow .

The state of aff airs was now material l y changed .

In j une , 1 502 , Henry assumed th e ti t l e of Prince of

Wales,and was decl ared hei r to the kingdom . Bu t

what was to be done with the dowager princess

Catherine of Arragon,who was now decidedly a

’e

imp"The king of Spain i nsis ted that h is daughter ’ s dowry must be returned

,and that she mus t

annually receive a share of the revenues of th e

principal i ty of Wales . As Ferdinand was strong

enough to enforce h is claim,th e king of England

at firs t saw no way ou t of the d i ff i cu l ty,excep t to

refund the dowry and i f there was anvthing which

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1 34 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

Having thus,as h e supposed

,provided for his

second son,th e king proceeded to negotiate a mar

riage for Arthu r. Money was the firs t considera

t ion,and he accord ing ly made appl i cation for th e

hand of one of th e daugh ters of Ferdinand of Spain,

who was the riches t monarch i n Europe . The

covetous heart o f the king of Engl and rej o i ced

when the negotiations proved successful and the

firs t remi ttance of Spanish doubloons was poured

i nto h is treasury . In those days young folks had

l i ttl e to say i n su ch matters,and Cather in e vainly

protested when she was sent to what she regarded

as a land of barbarians . On th e 1 4 th of November ,1 50 1 , she was married to Pri nce Arthur , who was

but fi fteen years old . Less than four months after

th e marriage her husband died of consump tion and

Catherine was left a widow .

The state of af fairs was now material ly changed .

In j une , 1502 , Henry assumed th e ti tl e of Prince of

Wales,and was decl ared hei r to the kingdom . Bu t

what was to be done with the dowager princess

Catherine of Arragon,who was now dec idedly O

’e

imp"The king of Spain ins is ted that h is daughter ’ s dowry must be returned

,and that she mus t

annually receive a share of the revenues of th e

principal i ty of Wales . As Ferdinand was strong

enough to enforce h is claim,th e king of Eng land

at firs t saw no way ou t of the d i fficu l ty,except to

refund the dowry and i f there was any th ing which

CRA NM ER A N D KNOX. 1 35

he detested i t was to pay debts . A t las t he con

ceived the bo ld expedien t o f marrying th e princess

to h is younger son . I t was in d i rec t opposi tion to

th e canonical law for a man to marry h is deceased

broth er ’ s wi fe ; but i t was insis ted that Arthur’ s

marriage had been mere ly formal,and the pope was

persuaded to gran t a d ispensation . Prince Henry

formal ly pro tested ; but the miserabl e a ff ai r was

carried on to i ts appoin ted conc lusion .

For twen ty years Henry and Catherine l ived

together wi thou t scandal,bu t thev had l i t tl e i n

common . Henry was ambi tious and tyrann ical ;Catherin e haugh ty

,i f not melancholy

,and ex

tremely devou t a fter the Spanish fash ion . They

had several ch i ldren,bu t thev d ied in infancy

,ex

cept one sick ly princess,Mary . There can be l i ttl e

doubt that the k ing convinced h imsel f that h is

marriage was inces tuous,on the ground that th e

pope had transcended his au thori ty in gran ting a

dispensation for marriage wi th a deceased brother ’s

wi fe . After he met Anne Bol eyn,th e daugh ter of

the earl of Wi l tsh ire,his convictions on th is sub

ject were decided ly s trengthened , and soon after

ward began the proceedings for a d ivorce from

Catherine which const i tu te one of the most u n

pl easant pages in Engl ish h istory . Popes were in

those days incl ined to be subservien t to crowned

heads and i f Catherine had been a princess o f in

f erior degree i t may perhaps be taken for granted

1 36 L EADERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

that Cl ement would have acceded to Henry ’ s wishes

wi thout de lay ; but she was an infan ta of Spain ,and the aun t o f th e emperor

,Charles V .

,who

breathed threaten ings and s laugh ter i f the decree

of d ivorce should be granted . No wonder that

Macaulay pi ties the pope who stood between the

fiend and the flood . A fter al l,Spain and Germany

were more powerful than England,and th e papa l

decree was wi thhe ld . Henry,however

,was not a

man whose purposes could be crossed wi th im

pun ity . Cardinal Wol sey , h is prime minister ,l ived in roya l state whi l e h e aided h is master i n his

e ff orts to secure th e d ivorce,but when h e ventured

to remonstrate he fe l l . Thomas Cromwe l l was ad

vanced to h igh station for advising the king to de

clare h imsel f supreme head of th e Church of Eng

land and i t was main ly through h is influence th at

the monas ti c sys tem was abrogated bu t at las t h e

too became a victim of th e tyran t ’ s wrath .

Henry VII I . had no love for Protes tan tism . To

the end of h is l i fe h is views on mos t doctrinal

qu estions were th e same as when h e wrote h is book

agains t Lu ther . I t was h is purpose to preserve the

anci ent sys tem in i ts m inutes t parti culars,with the

s ingl e exception that i n the church,no less than i n

th e s tate,he recogniz ed no h igh er au thori ty than

h is own . By the act of supremacy he was recog

n ized as the head of the Church of England,and

interference wi th h is prerogative was construed as

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1 38 L EADERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

the king,with th e two card inal s

,reti red to VValt

ham,and i t so happened that two of h is ch i ef coun

s ellors,Fox and Gard iner

,lodged at Mr. Cressy

’s

house whi l e Cranmer was there . The th ree guests

were ol d col lege fri ends and natural ly discussed th e

ch ief top i c o f the day and Cranmer remarked

that i f the u niversi t i es and l awyers should decide

that marriage wi th a deceased brother ’ s widow was

i l l egal,notwi thstandi ng the pope ’s d ispensation

,

the d ivorce m igh t be granted by th e ord inary eccl e

s ias t ical courts,without appeal ing to Rome . When

th is Opin ion was reported to th e king h e is said to

have exclaimed I wil l see th is man . Let h im be

sen t for ou t of hand The man,I trow

,has th e

righ t sow by th e ear .

At h is firs t in tervi ew with the king Cranmer was

ordered to lay as ide al l o ther bus iness and to devote

h imse l f en tirely to the matter of th e d ivorce From

th is time his advan cemen t was rapid . He was suc

cess ively sen t on m issions to the pope and emperor ,but accompl ish ed l i ttl e . On h is way

,however

,he

met several o f th e Protes tan t princes ; and at

Nuremberg was marr ied to a n i ece of th e cel

ebrated theologian O s iander. There can be no

doub t that even at th is time h is sen timents were

decidedly favorabl e to the Protestan ts,but h e had

to s ing low i n th e king ’s presence . It was whi l e

h e was in Germany that he was nominated arch

bishop of Canterbury,and i t became necessary to

CR A N M E /t’ AND KN OX. 1 39

keep h is marriage a pro found secret . Indeed,for a

long time th e archbis l10p’s fami ly remained in

obscuri ty ; and there is a somewhat doub tfu l s tory

that when trave l ing he conveyed h is wi fe in a

chest,whi ch 011 one occasion a stupid porter upset

and thus led to the d iscovery o f th e inmate,who

cal l ed lusti ly for help .

That Cranmer did not desi re th e o ffi ce o f arch

bishop may wel l be be l i eved . I t involved great

respons ib i l i t i es and a braver man migh t we l l have

hes i tated before h e assumed them . The wi l l o f the

king,was

,however

,practi cal l y i rres is tibl e and

Cranmer yielded wi thout l oud murmurings . He

may,indeed

,have regarded i t preferab l e to run the

risk of losing h is head as archbishop than to lose

i t for re fusing to accep t th e o ffice . I t was known

at Rome that Cranmer was favorabl e to th e d ivorce,

bu t the pope y ielded to th e king ’s importun i ty and

th e consecration was speedi ly authorized . The

pecu l i ar posi tion of the new archbishop is indicated

by the fact that before h is consecrat ion he made a

protest that the oath of obed ience to the pope was to

be taken by him mere ly as a matter of form,and

that i t should not bind him to anyth ing against th e

k ing,or prevent h im from reforming any th ing that

h e found amiss i n th e church of England . He also

took an oath to th e k ing renouncing al l grants

from the pope that migh t be prej ud icial to h is

h ighness .

1 40 L EADERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

Cranmer appears to have regarded h imsel f as

s imply an ins trumen t of th e k ing ’s wi l l . To h im

the doctrine of royal supremacy was fundamental .

No fanati ca l Romanis t ever regarded the papacy

wi th greater reverence than that wh i ch he fel t for

royal ty . The king was to h im th e visibl e repre

sen tative of the d ivine presence , and there was no

room for d iv ided al legiance on the part of h is sub

jects . That th e king could do wrong was hardly

conceivabl e ; bu t at a l l even ts i t was h e who was

responsibl e for th e fai th and conduct of h is peopl e,

and the ind ividual who presumed to oppose his

private opin ions to th e royal decree was gu i l ty of

heresy and treason . I t was in fact th e theory

whi ch was subsequen tl y systemati cal ly presen ted

by Hobbes in hi s “ Leviathan,

” and whi ch l ed to

the long confl i c ts between the king and parl iament,

final ly resu l ting i n th e fal l of the royal house of

S tuart .

That Cranmer was not of the stu ff of which

heroes are made wi l l be read ily acknowledged ; bu t

a hero wou l d in those days have been strangely out

of place in the posi ti on wh ich he occupied . His

torians have treated h im with scant courtesy,and

there can be no doubt that h e had to take great

l eaps and turn sharp corners to keep up wi th h is

royal master ; but we think they have general ly

fail ed to recognize th e exten t to whi ch unquestion

ing obedience to th e k ing had become wi th h im a

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1 42 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

I t was l ess dangerous to attack the archbishop than

to cri ti cize th e king,and th e former was natural ly

made the ch ief targets of the opponents of the

roya l po l i cy . I f he had ven tured to in terfere wi th

the accompl ishment of the king ’s purposes h is l i fe

would,of course

,have been forfei ted ; and i t is

marve l lous that during al l these try ing years h e

was ab l e to re tain h is master ’ s confidence .

There i s ev idence that i n h is ofli cial acts Cran

mer was cons tan tl y constrained by royal au thori ty.

When,i n 1 535, queen Ann Bol eyn was arrested

and sen t to th e tower,her ol d chaplain th e arch

bishop was ordered to come up from the coun try to

Lambeth to hold h imsel f in read i ness ti l l further

i n timation was made of the k ing ’ s pleasure . He

was in fact virtual ly a prisoner unti l i t became

eviden t that h e would o ffi cial ly annu l th e mon

arch ’s second marriage .

To fol low th e publ ic career of Cranmer i n al l i ts

parti cu lars is beyond our purpose . We recogn iz e

h i s weakness and have no des i re to become h is

apol ogis t . In h is purely eccl esias tical relations he

appears,however

,i n a l igh t which is al together

more favorabl e . I t is eviden t that h e thorough ly

appreciated th e evils that oppressed Chr is tendom

and l abored earnes tl y for their removal . His the

ology,i t is true

,was not so decided ly Protes tan t as

i t afterwards became,but he s teadily pursued th e

pol i cy wh i ch has assoc iated h is name wi th the

CKA N M E K AND KNOX. 1 43,

deve lopment o f the R e formation i n England . He

promoted the circu lati on o f th e B ibl e in the ver

h acu lar,and procured an order

,in 1 538 , that a copy

of the Scriptures shou ld be p laced i n every church

in a conven ien t place for read ing . He a lso began

h is labors in the revis ion o f th e ri tual of the church,

and translated the German Catech ism o f Justus

Jonas,known as Cranmer

’s Catech ism

,which

,how

ever,was not publ ished un t i l after the death of

King Henry .

A t last,on the 2 8 th of January , 1 547 , the tyran t

of England di ed . Cranmer was wi th h im in h is

last i l lness,and after h is death read masses for th e

repose o f his soul . From our presen t standpoin t i t

i s d i ffi cu l t to form a proper conception of Henry

VIII . “ In some of h is acts,

” says S ir James

Mackintosh,

“ he approaches as nearl y to the

standard of perfec t wickedness as the infirmities

of human nature wi l l al low .

” Yet on the other

hand i t must be acknowledged that h e was the mos t

l earned prince of h is age and th at h e possessed a

certain personal magnetism which attracted men of

al l classes to his service and secu red their u nques

t ion ing obedience . During h is reign Eng land

grew stronger,and h is opposi t ion to Rome gave

room for the development of the new l i fe wh ich re

veal ed i tsel f i n the reigns of h is successors . When

he died the way was open for the estab l ishmen t of

the Protes tan t church of England .

1 44 L EA DERS O F T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

On the death of Henry VIII . th e su ccession de

volved on h is son Edward VI . who was bu t ten

years o f age . Cranmer was named in the royal

tes tamen t as one of the council to govern th e realm

during th e young king ’ s minori ty but i t does not

appear that h e exerted much influence in secular

matters . The government was actual ly in th e

hands of the duk e of Somerset,and

,as in the

former reign,Cranmer was conten t to fol low when

he migh t h ave led . At the coronat ion of the young

king he took out a n ew commission to d ischarge his

archepiscopa l funct ions,acknowledging in a publ i c

address that al l jurisdiction,eccl esiasti cal and seen

l ar a l ike,emanated from th e sovereign .

In the mean time the Reformation was develop

ing in a way that must have fi l l ed Cranmer wi th

anxiety . He saw that the time for agreat change

had come,and he h imsel f recognized i ts necessi ty .

In doctrin e h e agreed in a general way wi th th e

reformers of th e Cont inent but as regards organ i

zation and discipl in e h e was unwil l ing to depart

from the ancien t precedents of the realm . He was

fond of the splendor of anc ien t ceremonials,and

was de termined at al l h azards to main tain the clos

est connect ion between the church and civi l gov

ernmen t . Cranmer i s often cal led the firs t Protes t

an t archbishop of England,but i f th is term is ad

mi tted i t must be wi th many qual ifications .

Protestantism,as we understand i t

,was in Germany

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1 46 L E A DERS O F T H E REF O RM A T I ON.

candles on Candl emas,and the use o f ash es on Ash

‘vV ednesday . The removal of images from the

churches,which had been previously ordered

,was

a lso insis ted on,much to the wrath of Stephen

Gard iner,bishop of W

'

inchester,the ables t man of

the ol d conservative party ; bu t R i dley and old

Hugh”Latimer preached against these helps to de

votion wi th so much fire and enthusiasm that

even the royal au thori ty would hardly have sufi ced

to keep th em there .

The church of England,as i t appeared in th e

reign of Edward VI .,was undoubtedly to some ex

ten t of th e nature of a comprom ise . The leaders

were general l y desi rous of assim ilating the church

to the Reformed church es of the Continent,and

every doctrinal expression was decidedly Protestan t

a l arge party,on th e other hand

,insis ted that the

peculiari ti es of the anc i en t church must be scrupu

lou sly preserved . The ep iscopal offi ce held so prom

inen t a p lace in the civ i l order that th e governmen t

desired that i t should be retained . Calvin and Bul

l inger were consul ted on th e subj ect,and nei th er

obj ected to the ep i scopal form of governmen t,bu t

advised that the rel igious servi ces should be “ cl ean

and without pomp .

” When Hooper was,i n 1 550 ,

appoin ted bishop of Glouces ter h e obj ected to

wearing th e robes ; bu t Bul l inger advised h im to

accommodate h imsel f i n such minor matters to th e

pol i cy of the governmen t . John Knox,of Scot

CRANM ER A N D KNOX. 1 47

land,was o ff ered an Engl i sh b i shopric

,but he was

o f s terner mould than those who accepted these so

ca l led ad z’

ap/zora and dec l i ned the o ffi ce .

Cranmer’s re lations to the Con tinenta l reformers

gradual ly became in timate . A t fi rst he was strongly

attracted by the wri tings o f Lu ther,bu t al l attempts

to negotiate terms o f union wi th the German Pro

tes tan ts proved unsuccessfu l i n consequence of th e

prej udice of the king and many o f th e b ishops .

At a later period Cranmer entered into an in timate

correspondence wi th the Swiss d ivines,and in the

sacramental controversy the church of England was

recogni zed as stand ing on the Reformed s ide . In

1536 , j ust after the king’ s marriage to Jane Sey

mour,Cranmer had been introduced by Prof.

Simon Grynaeus,of Strasburg,

to Henry Bul l inger,

the successor of Zwingl i as an tistes,or ch ief-pastor

of the church of Zuri ch . In the same year Cran

mer sen t t o Zurich three young Engl ishmen,John

Butler,Wil l i am Woodrufl

”

,and N i cholas Partridge ,

for the purpose of s tudying theology and becoming

acquainted wi th the Swiss churches . They re

mained there more than a year and on thei r return

to Eng land were accompanied by Rudolph Gua l ter,

who afterwards married Zwingl i ’ s daughter,Regu la

,

and became the th ird antistes of the church o f Z n

ri ch . In the succeed ing reign th e king sen t

Christopher Mont to Zurich wi th a letter to Bul l

inger in wh ich he des ired a cl oser union between

1 48 L EADERS O F T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

th e churches of Engl and and Switzerland and in

according to Pestalozzi,th e Swiss churches

were o ffi cial ly informed that th e church of England

had accepted the Reformed doctrin e of the Lord ’ s

Supper . Soon afterwards Cranmer inv i ted a num

ber of eminen t Reformed theolog ians to settl e in

England to give advice to th e king ’s counci l con

cerning the reformation of th e church . Among

these were Martin Bucer, Peter Marty r , F agin;

Och ino,A ’L asco, and other dis tinguished men .

Seme of these men were actively engaged in th e

preparation of th e Book of Common Prayer,and

all of them exerted an importan t influen ce in the

development of th e Reformation in England . F or

th is work Bu cer was especial l y we l l prepared , hav

ing in 1 54 1 assis ted Herman V .

,archbishop of

Cologne,who proposed to in troduce the Reforma

t ion into h is d iocese wi thou t making greater changes

i n the government and ri tual of th e church than

were absolu tely necessary . The movement,how

ever,had proved unsuccessful and th e good arch

b ishop was compel l ed to res ign h is offi ce. In Eng

land Bu cer’s prel im inary l i tu rgical s tudies proved

of great value . The Engl ish ri tual was founded

on the old missal of Sarum,but i t was modified

and improved according to the necessi t i es of the

t imes,and th e resul t was an order of worsh ip which

for dign i ty and excel l ence of styl e has hardly an

equal among the l i turgies of the church .

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150 L EADERS OF T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

reaction wh ich was sure to come with the accession

of Mary,and partly perhaps by the personal pecu

liarity which could refuse noth ing to a crowned

head,h e con trad icted h is former acti on by whi ch

the order of succession had been establ ish ed .

Engl i sh ideas of l egi timacy were too strong to be

ov reome,and by approving th e king ’s testament

Cranmer seal ed h is fa te . Mary,the daugh ter o f

Cath erin e of Arragon,had l i ttl e d i ffi cu l ty in secu r

ing th e throne,and Lady Jane

,who agains t her

wi l l had been declared queen of England was,after

a nominal reign of n ine days,commi tted to th e

tower. There,after th e fai lure of th e second at

tempt in her favor,sh e d ied on the scaf f o ld .

I t can hardly be supposed that Queen Mary ever

i n tended to spare Cranmer,whom she

.

regarded as

mainly instrumental in securing her father’ s

d ivorce and th us afli xing a stain to her own legit i

macy . I t is true,indeed

,that when he was con

demned for treason for hav ing caused Lady Jane to

be procl aimed,Queen Mary refused to au thoriz e his

execution ; bu t h e was kep t i n pri son , and h is

o ffi ce was declared forfei ted . I t is plain that h is

enem ies proposed to infl i c t a punishmen t more

terri bl e th an an ordinary execution on pol i ti cal

grounds .

Cranmer remained i n prison,whil e h is fri ends

R i d l ey and Latimer were conveyed to thei r pl ace

of martyrdom,wi thout hav ing been gran ted an op

CR A N /l/E R AND KNOX. 151

portu n ity o f de fending themse lves against thei r

accusers . Thei r heroism in th is trying hour has

l eft i ts e ff ect on a l l subsequen t generations

F or thus sa id aged Lat imer1 ta rry b y the stak e ,

N ot t rust ing in my ow n weak hea rt ,Bu t for the Sav iou r ’ s sak e .

W hy speak o f l i f e or death to me

\V hos e day s are b u t a span"Ou r crown is yonde r—R idley ,

see"Be strong and play the man I

God helping , such a torch th is d ay\V e

’ 1l 11g11 t on E ngl ish land ,That R om e

,w i th a ll her ca rd ina ls

Shal l never q uench the brand .

During h is imprisonment th e weaknesses o f

Cranmer’s character becam e pain fu l ly apparen t.

His enemies almos t seem to have played with h im— sun1mon ing h im to Rome when he was i n prison ,and then condemning h im for con tumaciousness ;hold ing ou t de lus ive hopes of pardon

,and thus ih

du cing him to recan t h is former teach ings . He

signed no l ess than six documents i n wh ich he re

pu d iated Protestant ism ,urging al l h eretics to re

tu rn to the u n itv of the church . His enemies had

planned a crowning act of triumph . I t was de

termined that h e mus t die,bu t be fore h is final con

demnat ion he was requ ired to make a pub l i c con

f ession ; but at las t h e turned upon h is enemies ,retracted h is former statements

,and declared his

firm adherence to the Protestan t fai th . At the

same time he declared that inasmuch as h is hand

1 52 L EADERS OF T H E R E F O R JII A T I O ZV.

had off ended in wri ting con trary to th e convic tions

of his heart ; i t should be the first to su ff er ; and

when he was chained to the stak e,and the fire be

gan to burn near h im,he th rust h is right hand in to

th e flame,exc laiming “ This hand hath o ff ended .

”

The death of Cranmer was th e signa l for th e

fl igh t of al l decided Protestan ts who could find

thei r way ou t of England . Zurich was crowded

wi th Engl ish re fugees,and th e Swiss were some

t imes pu t to great s trai ts i n entertain ing them .

After the refugees returned to England,Bishops

Parkhurst,Jewel l

,and Horn sen t gi fts of s il ver

plate in recogn i tion of th e kindness of the Swiss

churches . There was a tendency to min imiz e d i f

f erences and even to th is day con t inental writers

genera l ly recognize th e church o f England as one

of the R eformed churches .

“The Angl ican,that

is,th e Eng l ish church

,

” says Sti l l ing,

“ i s - d ifler

en t from the rest of the R e formed church only in

th is,that i t has an episcopal form of government .

Are th e Swedish and Danish church es not Lutheran

because th ey have bishops"Does the garment

make th e man

During the reign of Marv every e ffort was made

to restore England to Roman obedience . Cardinal

Pole became Cranmer’s successor in th e see of

Canterbury ; bu t B ishops Gard iner and Bonner

were,we suppose

,ch iefly responsibl e for the so

cal led “ Marian persecutions . ” The queen was not

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1 54 L E A DERS OF TH E REFORM A T J ON .

been educated under Protestan t influences,bu t dur

ing th e reign of Mary she had kept her h ead on

h er shoulders by pro fess ing her sister ’ s creed . She

was the bes t educated woman in Eng land,and nu

doubtedly sympathi zed wi th th e sp i ri t of progress

which was bes t represen ted by the Protes tan t

Reformation ; bu t sh e also l oved th e sp l endor of

th e ancien t church and desi red to preserve i ts ri tual .

There are wri ters who bel ieve that i f th e pope of

Rome had prompt ly acknowledged E l izabeth as

queen of England a sch ism migh t have been

avoided ; bu t th is is hardly probabl e. E l izabeth

was too much l ike h er father to have been satisfied

wi th au v posi tion i nferior to that of supreme

governor of th e church of England .

The queen had carefu l ly studied th e re l igious

qu est ions of the age,and possessed the gi ft of ex

press ing hersel f i n aphoristi c language,which cre

ated th e impression of extraord inary wisdom and

yet l eft her practi cally uncommitted to any d is tinc

t ive v iew. Take,for instance

,her cel ebrated u tter

ance on the Lord ’ s Supper

Ch rist was the word that spake i tH e took the bread and brake i tAnd what H is word d id make itThat I bel ieve ,

and take it ."

The age of El i zabeth can hardly be regarded as

i n the h ighes t sense re l igious . I t was a splendid

epoch in l i terary history ; th e age , we remember,

CR A NH EK A N D KNOX. 1 55

of the great poets,Spenser

,Jonson

,and Shaks

peare ; o f great th ink ers l ike Bacon and Si r Thomas

Browne ; of e l egan t courti ers and men o f le tters ,l ike S ir Ph i l i p S idney and Sir Wa l ter Ra l eigh

yes,even of great theo log ians l ike “ the jud icious

Hooker ; bu t a fter al l i t had more of the spi ri t o f

the renaissance than of th e R eformation . I t was

an age hosti l e to the papacy,but for a wh i l e th is

sen timen t was hardly separabl e from hatred o f

Spain . I t has been said that th e Roman church

i n England “ committed su icide .

” The phrase

must be unders tood to mean that i t took a course

wh ich inev i tably led to i ts destruction . I t cer

tainly encouraged treason and welcomed th e Ar

mada . I f i t had not been for a few Roman Cathol ic nobl emen who supported the queen in her con

flict with Spain,Romanism wou ld probably have

been no longer tolerated i n Eng land .

The acceptance of the 39 ar t icles had been a

declaration of the fac t that the ch urch of England

was decidedly Protestant ; bu t the re turn of the

Marian exi les was the signal for the beginning of a

confli c t wi th in th e church . These men brough t

with them an intense dis l ike for ceremonials and

vestments,and poss ibly a stronger and more earnes t

fai th than was general i n England,where th e

church was regarded by many as“ a branch of th e

c ivi l service .

” The governmen t endeavored to

compel th em to submi t to the es tabl ish ed order,but

156 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

as they refused to conform they became non-con

formists . Thomas Cartwright,a professor of the

o logy,was their most eminen t man but for some

time they remained unorganized,and to such

prelates as Parker and Jewel l thei r protests d id not

seem to be of great importance . I t was not unti l

the nex t reign that th is movement deve loped i nto

Puri tanism,which has sometimes been cal led “ the

second Reformation .

” To consider the h is tory of

the wonderfu l series of even ts wh ich i t incl udes

would be a fascinat ing undertaking but i t does not

l i e with in the field of our presen t s tudy .

I t is in th e k ingdom north of the Tweed that,at

th is period,we behol d the greatest changes . These

changes were,i ndeed

,pol i t ical as wel l as rel igious ;

but those of the former character were ch iefly im

portan t as preparing the way for th e latter.

Scotland has been so glorified by wri te rs of

romance,tha t those who derive their impress ions

from Sir Wa l ter Scott,not to speak of Jan e Porter

and Grace Aguil ar,are ap t to suppose that i t was

before the Reformation a land of chivalry more

splendid than Normandy or Provence. Minu te

examination would h ard ly confirm th is impression .

The fact is that the country was wild and u ncu lti

vated,and i t was th e las t in western Europe to be

touched by the glories of the renaissance . The

peopl e were d ivided i nto many c lans , or tribes ,which were frequen tly at war and amid the strug

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158 L EADERS OF TH E REFORM A T I ON .

That the church of Scotland was be fore the Ref

ormation i n a depressed cond i tion wi l l hardly be

deni ed . Greek was not taugh t anywhere i n Scot

land,and the Scriptures were practi cal ly unknown .

At one o f th e early re l igi ous controvers i es,i t i s

said,the monks refused to l is ten to c i tations from

the N ew Testamen t . We do not want any th ing

new,

” they excl aimed,

“ th e O l d Testamen t is

good enough for us as i t has been for our fathers . ”

The news of th e German Reformat ion had

reach ed Scotland at an early day . In those days

Scotchmen travel led al l over Europe as dealers in

smal l wares,so that i n Germany every peddler was

call ed a Scot . These men brough t home the news

of evangel ical l iberty,and the message found a

warm response in the hearts of those coun try

peopl e who sti l l preserved the tradi tions of the

Culdees— the ancien t Chris tians who had been th e

teachers of Scotland before the supremacy of Rome.

As early as 1525 th e Scotch parl iament i ssued a

proclamation against th e Lutheran heresy— forbid

d ing the people to speak about i t,and permi tting

the priests to mention i ts name only when they

proposed to refu te i t . Persecuti ons soon began,

and Patrick Hamilton,a relative o f the royal house

,

was burned a t th e s take . The blood o f th e mar

tyrs proved th e seed of th e church,and wi th every

martyrdom the power of the h ierarchy decreased .

The grandest,the nobl es t

,of the early martyrs was

JOHN KNOX

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1 6o L EADERS O F T H E REF ORM A T I ON .

at a later date,

“ had more force and power than a

hu ndred trumpets . ” Betrayed in to the power of

h is enemies,he was carried to France and con

demned to the gal l eys . According to recen t researches i t appears that th e d iscip l ine was i n h is

case somewhat relaxed,for h e did some l i terary

work during h is imprisonment ; but there is no

reason to doub t that,l ike others of h is fai th

,he was

sometimes chai ned to an oar of th e governmen t

vesse l i n which he was confined . Tyranny never

devised imprisonmen t more Oppress ive than this .The form of the vessels

,i t has been said

,di ff ered

but l i t tl e from th e type adopted by the ancien t

Romans in their confl i cts wi th th e Carthagin ians .There were two banks of oars

,by which the vessel

was prope l l ed,and to every oar a slave was chained .

Between them stood th e taskmas ter,

'

with a long

lash,which he brough t down on th e shoulders of

the slave whose arm grew weary or who paused to

speak a word . Ordinari ly th ere was th e si l ence of

the grave,but at t imes nature coul d 110 longer be

restrained ; and , accompanied by the sound of the

lash— wi th quivering flesh and wi th blood s tream

ing over the deck— th e enslaved Huguenots sang

their favori te psalm :“Why do th e heathen rage

and the peopl e imagine a vain th ing

The eighteen months which John Knox spent i n

the gall eys were an importan t part of h is educa

tion . I f h e became sterner than the other Reform

CR A N /I I E R A N D KNOX. 1 6 1

ers— more uncompromis ing in h is rej ec t ion o f evcry

rag o f papa l splendor —can we wonder at i t a fter

the train ing which he had received in the gal l eys"

How Knox escaped from th is dread fu l imprison

ment i s no t qu i te cl ear . I t has been suggested

that he was d ischarged on the personal request o f

the young king o f E ngland but i t is l ike ly enough

that after the marriage o f Mary of Scot land to the

dauph in of France th e French court no longer

dreaded h is influence and let h im go . Knox went

to England and during the reign of Edward labored

with voice and pen,hold ing at one time th e posi

t ion of chaplain to the king. D r . Lorimer main

tains that he was the fi rs t to substi tu te the use o f

common bread for “ wafer-breads” i n the Lord ’s

Supper —a practi ce wh ich was afterwards au thor

ized by th e king. He was consu l ted i n th e prepa

rat ion of the formularies of the church of England

and a book of forty -five arti cles of rel igion,from

which th e th irty-n ine art icl es were afterward de

rived,was submitted to h im for his opin ion . The

king desired to make h im bishop of Rochester ;bu t Knox h imsel f s tates that h e was unwill ing to

accept even the modified formu laries of the Eng

l ish church,regarding them as lead ing to Roman

ism,though he was favorable to an ofl

‘ice sim i lar

to the bishop ’ s . ”

When Mary became queen Knox went to the

continent,and i n 1554 met for the firs t time

,at

1 62 L EADERS O F T H E REF ORM A T I ON .

Geneva,John Calvin

,whom he made i n a l l th ings

his spiri tual guide .

“ In other places,

” h e wrote,

“ I confess that Chris t is truly preach ed,but no

where else have I found rel igion and manners so

truly reformed .

” Though near ly fifty years old

Knox became a schol ar i n Calv in ’s schoo l,and

wi th great humil i ty s tudied Greek in company wi th

boys who were not vet ou t of their teens . In the

mean time he wrote abou t a dozen books,or pamph

l ets,and preached for a l i ttl e congregation of Eng

l ish refugees wh ich wi th di ffi cul ty provided h im

wi th th e means of subsis tence .

I t is plain enough that the fi ery disposi tion of Knox

gave the Swiss reformers some troub le . Bull inger

reported to Calvin h is cau tious repli es on su ch

questions as “ whether a female can ru l e a kingdom

by d ivine righ t,and transfer the righ t to her hus

band,

” and “ to wh ich party must god ly persons

attach themselves in a case of a rel igious nobil i ty

resis ting an idolatrous sovereign .

” A book wh ich

Knox wrote at th is time,bu t which had better have

remained unwri t ten,was enti t led “ The Firs t B las t

o f th e Trumpet Against th e Monstrous Regiment

of Women .

” The book was anonymous,but the

iden ti ty of the author could not be conceal ed and

i t was for th is publ icat ion that Queen El izabeth

forbade h im to set foot on Engl ish soi l . Knox

afterwards wrote : My Firs t Blas t hath blown

from me al l my friends in England .

”

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1 64 L EADERS O F T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

than many royal procl amations . By his tremen

dous earnes tness h e uni ted a turbulen t nobi l i ty and

an uneducated peop l e,fi l l i ng al l c lasses wi th inex

t ingu ishable hatred for everyth ing that reminded

them of Rome .

Mary Stuart was more closely al l i ed to France

than to Scotland . Her mother had been a daugh

ter of the great house of Guise,and from that fam

i ly she may be supposed to have derived h er per

sonal beau ty as wel l as h er rel igious fanati cism .- A t

th e court of her first husband,Francis I I .

,sh e had

practi ced th e superficial accompl ishments which

added so greatl y to h er fasc inations ; but she had

also breathed an air that was reeking wi th assass i

nation . That she could be devout after th e fash ion

wh ich sh e had been taugh t wi l l h ardly be ques

t ioned by those who have s tudied her profound and

poeti cal rel ig i ous u tterances bu t she fail ed to ap

preciate th e fact that even royal personages must be

obedi en t to th e moral law .

I t i s not necessary to en ter m inutely into the h is

tory of Mary ’s unfortunate reign . The qu estion o f

her gui l t or innocence of the crimes charged

against her i s s t i l l d ebated and with regard to her

compl i ci ty in the murder of h er second husband,

Henry Darnley,we can hard ly claim to know more

than the great h istorian Ranke,who says that after

twenty years ’ study of th e subj ect h e sti l l remains

undec ided . That sh e was greatl y s inned agains t

CR ANM ER A N D KNOX. 1 65

cannot be doub ted no crowned head had ever been

compe l l ed to endure so many ind igni ties . The

murder of R i z z io in her presence may have seemed

a crime that cried for vengeance . We may hope

that sh e was not accessory to the murder o f Darn

l ey ; but i t i s certain that immediate ly afterwards

she showed great favor to James Hepburn,ear l of

Bothwel l,who was genera l ly regarded as th e mur

derer,and that wi th in three months sh e married

h im . I t is claimed that she d id th is under com

pulsion but the peopl e of Scotland were d isgusted,

as wel l th ey migh t be , and the natural resu l t was

c ivi l war.

Her party having been defeated at Langside,

May 1 3 , 1 568 , Queen Mary very fool ish ly fled to

England,to place herse l f under th e protecti on of

El izabeth . The latter regarded her as h er chi ef

r ival,and is said to have expressed her pu rpose in

the stanza

T he daughter o f debate,

W ho discord st il l dot h sow,

S hal l reap no ga in whe re f orme r ruleHath taught st il l peace to grow .

”

For more than eigh teen years Mary was im

prisoned,and final ly she was condemned and ex

ecu ted . However guil ty Mary may have been i t is

certain that no Engl ish court had authori ty to try

and condemn the queen of Scotland .

1 66 L EADERS O F T H E R EF ORM A T I ON.

After th e fligh t of the queen there was in Scot

land a period of confusion and viol ence . Agains t

th e protest o f Knox and h is coadju tors th e nobles

appropriated the property of th e church,as they

had done i n England ; they secured th e appoint

men t of so-ca l l ed “ Tu lchan bishops” who turned

over to their patrons the revenues of their sees .

The later years of the great Re former were there

fore clouded wi th sorrow ; bu t after al l h e suc

ceeded i n moulding th e church accord ing to the

i deal of Geneva,so that i t became more compl etely

than any other national church th e church of Ca l

vin . Stern and stri c t as the Scotch ideal may ap

pear to foreigners there can be no question as to the

glorious exampl es of earnest pi ety wh ich i t h as pro

du ced .

Though the Protes tan t churches of England and

Scotland d i ff ered in governmen t and cu ltu s _ f rom

the beginn ing i t was not unti l th e seventeenth cen

tury that they were arrayed agains t each other i n

violen t confl i ct. The frequen t attemp ts of Engl ish

monarchs after the union of the kingdoms to ex

tend Engl ish forms of government and service to

the Scotch churches produced O pposi tion wh ich

in tensified pecul iar i t i es that had previously received

comparative ly l i ttl e attention . In th e Reformed

churches of the continen t local di fferences in organ

izat ion are bu t l igh tly regarded and men of great

intel l igence find i t diflficu lt to appreciate th e import

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1 68 L EADERS O F T H E REFORM A T TO N .

was another Calv in,says a recen t German

biographer,

“ l ess scholarly and profound than h is

mode l,bu t persona l ly bolder and more eloquent . ”

Though h is rel igious antagonists have represented

him as fierce and contentious , i t has been remarked

that h e never came in to vio lent conflic t wi th any

minister of the Reformed ch urch of Scotland .

During the confl i cts under the later Stuarts h is

memory was attacked on grounds wh ich now ap

pear frivolous,not to say contempt ibl e . I t was said

that he was a fanati c bu t how cou ld that trifl ing

and degenerate age pass j udgment on a strong man

who had consecrated al l h is powers to th e pursu i t

of a grand idea l"I t was decl ared that he was apol i ti c ian

,as i f i n those days any l eader on ei th er

s ide had not been a pol it i ci an . The imputation

that h e was rude i n appearance and marin er i s per

haps best answered by M cCrie when he inqu ires in

Scrip tural language What went ye out for to see"A man clothed in soft raiment"Behold

,th ey that

wear soft raiment are i n ki ngs ’ houses . That

Knox was lacking i n some of th e ameni ties of l i fe

may be true enough ; but i t i s also tru e that to

have given the Scotch Re formation a l eader who

was mi l d and conci l iatory would have been to send

a ch ild to fight a gian t.

Cranmer and Knox I Could any names be men

t ioned that wou ld represent men more d i ff erent in

temperamen t and natural incl ination"The one a

CR A N H EK A N D KNOX. 1 69

courtier,th e other a popu lar champion ; yet each

i n h is own way pe forming his appoin ted work .

Between these l im i ts every variety o f though t and

action migh t find a place . Can there be anywhere

a better i l l us trat ion of th e fact that the spiri t of the

great Re formation was not local or l im ited,but as

broad as humani ty i tsel f"Above a l l

,th ese decided di fferences reveal th e

fundamental tru ths that the i nstruments of Provi

dence are not chosen on grounds that are eviden t to

human understand ing,and that th e s trength of God

is made perfect i n the weakness o f men .

VI .

THE THREEFOLD CORD .

F R E DE R I CK 1 11 . on T H E PA L A T I N A T E ,

O L E V I A N US , A N D UR S I N US .

THREEFOLD cord is not quickly broken .

At Heidelberg in the Palatinate a cord was

twined which though often severely tested

has retained i ts strength . One of the strands was

taken from Zurich and another from Geneva bu t

the th ird was thoroughly German,and from th e

latter the whol e received i ts d is tinct ive charac ter.All th is becomes evident in th e development of th e

Reformed churches of Germany and Hol land,and

no l ess i n th e fortunes of their ch ief confession of

fai th,th e Heidelberg Catech ism .

The Palatinate of the Rhine was in’

th e days of

the Reformation the riches t prov ince i n Germany,

and i ts el ector was a king i n al l but name. His

capi tal was Heide lberg,whose un ivers i ty was the

ch ief glory of al l that region . By a pol i tical

arrangement the elector also rul ed the Upper Pala

tinate—now a Bavarian prov ince— bu t i t i s withthe Lower Palatinate or Rheinpfal z” that we are

at presen t ch iefly concerned . Though i ts name

has d isappeared from the map of Europe,the Pala

tinate i s s ti l l popularly recogni z ed as the heart o f

Germany and i t is easy to see that on account of

i ts geograph ical posi t ion,i f for no other reason

,i t

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F R EDERI CK I I I .,O L E Vl / I N US

,UR S /N US . 1 7 1

must necessari ly have become the thea ter o f impor

tan t events in the period o f th e Re formation .

The e l ectors o f th e Pa latinate were s lower than

thei r neighbors in accepting the doctri nes o f the

Re formation . A t firs t th ey had been under Aus

trian influence ; and a t a later period they were

terrified by the Peasan t War. I t was,however

,i n

Heide lberg that Luther had gained one o f his

earl ies t successes for at a disputation he ld in that

ci ty i n 151 8 he had secured the adherence o f Bucer,Brenz

,and S chnepfiu s .

In 1520 the German knigh ts declared in favor of

Lu ther and S ickingen’s cast l e of Ebernburg

,near

Worms,became a refuge for the oppressed . As

early as 1 52 2 S ickingen’s chaplain

,O ecolampad iu s ,

not only preached in German,which was then very

unusual,bu t also read in the vernacular the Scrip

ture passages wh ich appeared in the l i turgy .

“ This,

” says Goebel,

“ was then as surpris ing as

i t wou ld be i f a German pastor shou ld now under

take to read them in A fter the

death of Sick ingen,i n 1 523 , there was a reaction ,

and for some years th e Palat inate remained attached

to Rome .

In the mean time neighboring dis tri c ts had made

rap id progress . Phi l i p o f Hesse had been an early

fri end of Luther,and main ly through the influ

ence of i ts ru l er h is principal i ty soon became dec i

dedly Protes tan t . I t wi l l be remembered that i t

1 7 2 L EADERS O F T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

was by h is negotiation that Luther and Zwingl i

were brough t together at Marburg,and that he

subsequen tly became an in timate friend of Zwingl i .

The man whom Phil ip au thoriz ed to reorgan ize

the Hessian churches on a Protestan t basis was

Francis Lambert,of Avignon . Lambert had been

a celebrated preacher in th e Roman Cathol i c church

of the Sou th of France,bu t came into communi

cation wi th th e Waldenses and was influenced by

them . Having ven tured to read th e wri tings of

Lu ther he was compel l ed to flee,and after many

perils found a refuge in Zurich . Subsequently he

v isi ted Luther a t Wi ttenberg and accep ted th e

Lu theran fai th . He was not a controversial is t,bu t

occupied a posi tion as nearly as possibl e h al f-way

between th e two reformers . He proposed to give

the church es a l iberal const i tu tion,l ike that wh ich

prevai l ed in Swi tz erland ; but th is th e s ecular

au thori ties would not allow. The landgrave Phi l ip,

however,sustained Lambert

,and d id al l in h is

power to d is courage controversy on the sacramental

question . Even on h is deathbed he exacted a pro

mise from h is sons to remain fai thful to th e articl es

o f agreement between th e Lu therans and Reformed

which Bucer and M elancthon had prepared . In

th is way th e churches of Hesse and several adj acen t

d istri cts assumed an i ren ic character wh ich was as

far as possibl e removed from the fierce dogmatism

of Saxony . They held,i n fact

,to the m ild Luth

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1 74 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

op inion . He eviden tly bel ieved th at h i s defini tion

of the doctrine wou ld find acceptance wi th the

Roman Catho l i cs,and that th e part ies would in

th is way be drawn more closely together. The

Reformed,against whom the condemnatory clause

was d irected,were at th at t ime few in number ;

and though f our Reformed ci ties in th e sou th of

Germany ventu red to presen t to th e diet a separate

con fession of their doctrine,i t was en ti rely ignored .

M elancthon was greatly disappointed that th e

Augsburg Confessi on did not l ead to the resul t

which he so greatly desi red . For four years h e remained hop ing against hope ; but th en relu ctan tly

acknowledged that reun ion wi th Rome was impos

sibl e. He now became especial ly anxious to pre

serve the uni ty of Protestantism,and held many

con ferences wi th th e l eaders o f the Reformed move

ment . In 1 536 , i n conj unction wi th Bu cer,he

drew up the arti cl es of the so-cal l ed Wittenberg

Union and in 1 540 changed the 1 0th articl e of the

Augsburg Confession,by omi tt ing the condemna

tory clause and otherwise al tering the l anguage,so

that i t migh t no longer be obj ect ionable to the R e

formed chu rch . The latter act was by the z ealots

of h is own church regarded as unpardonabl e treason,

and after th e death of Luther th e feel ing against

h im became intense . Philipism” was declared to

be as bad as Calvin ism . Minor points of di ff erence

between Luther and M elancthon were sough t out

F R EDER I CK O L E I'

I A N US,UR S /N US . 1 75

and made th e occasion o f b i tter controversies .

M elancthon’s fri ends were deposed and banished

for trivia l reasons,and th e ex trem ists d id not hesi

tate to say that they wou ld not res t unti l th ey had

driven M elancthon ou t of Germany . In th is pur

pose they were foi l ed,for he had powerfu l fri ends

and large secti ons of the church remained closely

attached to h im ; bu t i t i s not surpris ing that h e

prayed to be d el ivered from “ the wrath of th e theo

logians,

” and that,a short time before h is d eath he

even seriously proposed to go to Pa lestine,to spend

h is remaining days in the ce l l at Beth l ehem once

occupied by St . Jerome .

I t was in th e c losing years of M elancthon ’s l i fe

that th e Palatinate accepted the Re formation . In

1 546 th e aged elector Frederick I I . , fee l ing con

vinced that th is great popu lar movemen t was no

l onger to be resisted,in troduced the ecclesiastical

order wh ich M elancthon had prepared for M ecklen

burg. His successor,O tho Henry O ttheinrich”

)wen t a s tep further and declared h is adherence to

the Augsburg Confession “ as explained by Melane

thon .

” He was an en l igh tened prince and a mu

n ificen t patron o f th e Un iversi ty o f Heidelberg .

On h is death with ou t ch i ldren,i n 1 559 , th e e lecto

ral d ign i ty passed to h is cousin,Frederi ck I I I .

,

popu larly surnamed the Pious .

The biography of th is exce l lent prince is more

than ord inari ly interes ting. He was born at Sim

1 76 L EADERS O F T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

mern on the 1 4th of February , 1 51 5. His father,

John I I .,who was a man of cul ture

,ruled over the

smal l possess ions of th e house of S immern . He

was a Roman Cathol ic,though i t is said that on h is

death -bed h e accepted the Protes tan t fai th . The

son was careful ly trained i n al l th e accompl ish

ments wh ich were deemed su i tabl e to h is pos i t ion .

In h is early youth he served at the courts o f th e

card inal of Lorraine and the b ishop of Liege,and

l ike other earnest men of h is day,was greatly d is

gusted by the conduct of eccl esiastics in h igh

stati on . No one seems to know wi th certain ty

under what c i rcumstances he became a Protes tant,

but i t has been supposed that h e was converted by

John A ’L ascofi

< His wi fe— a daughter of Mar

grave Cas im ir of Brandenburg— had been educated

in the Lu theran fai th,and probab ly exerted some

influence i n th is d irection . I t is certain that as

early as 1 546 he became a decided Protes tan t.

Frederick ’s early career d id not di f fer greatly

from that of others of h is rank and station . He

was amb i t i ous of m i l i tary d is tinction,and when

only eighteen years of age led a company of so l

*John A ’

L asco (or D e Lasky ) was born at Wa rsaw ,Poland , in 1499 , and

died January 13 , 1560 . H e belonged to a dist inguished f am ily ,and was

h imsel f a b ishop of the R oman Cathol ic chu rch . Having been convertedto Protestant ism—ma in ly th rough the influen ce of Z wingl i -he res igned h isb ishopric and devoted h is l i f e to p reach ing the Gospel . F rom 1550 to 1553

he was super intendent o f the chu rches o f th e R e f ugees in London , bu t fledon the access ion of M ary ,

and endu red many p rivat ions . H e is regardedas the ch ie f organ ize r of the R e f ormed chu rch in the northern countries ofE u rope .

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1 7 8 L E A DERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

confl i ct was in fact a revival of the old sacramental

con troversy,bu t i t became even more vio l en t than

i t had been in th e days of Luther.

Frederi ck II I . had j ust en tered upon the govern

men t of th e Palat inate when h e found himsel f i n

the mids t of th e s torm . His predecessor had ap

poin ted to th e ofl’

i ce of general superintendent

T ileman H eshu siu s,who was a vio l ent con trover

s ialist . In denouncing the Calvin ists he boldly

accused th em of being at hear t Mohammedans,who

were merely wai ting for a Turkish victory to cas t

ofl their d isgu ise and enl is t under the banner of the

prophet.

Such accusations natural l y d id not remain u n

answered . Klebi tz,th e most eloquent preacher in

Heidelberg,was an ex treme Calvin is t who seems to

have rejoiced to engage in a controversy wi th th e

more cel ebrated H eshu siu s . He was as viol en t and

abusive as h is an tagonist,and between th em they

soon had al l Heidelberg in a blaz e . The elector

Frederi ck was greatly troubl ed,for i n those days

theological controvers i es were as violent,and often

as dangerous to the state,as the fiercest pol i t i cal

confli cts of more modern times . At firs t h e issued

a proclamation in whi ch h e appeal ed to the theolo

gians to abstain from controversy and to d evote

their time to the spiri tual edifieation of th e peopl e .

As he had said on a prev ious occasion,he could

see no reason why Christians who agree in essen

F REDER I CK I I I .

,O L E V I A N US

,UR S I N US . 1 79

t ials shou ld engage i n b i tter con troversy concern

ing minor matters,thus p lacing a sword in the

hands o f thei r enemies and even in those o f th e

devi l h imsel f. ”

As m igh t have been expected,the e l ector ’s pro

clamation remained unheeded . In fact,th e on ly

eviden t resu l t was to turn both con testants against

their ruler,whom they ventured to denounce for

interfering i n mat ters wh i ch d id not con cern him .

As a las t resort th e e lector,i n accordance wi th the

advice of M elancthon,ban ished both H eshu s iu s

and Kleb i tz from the Palatinate .

I t was hoped that th is wou ld be the concl us ion

of the confl ic t,bu t i t proved to be no more than a

beginning . I t became evid ent that th e mediating

posi tion of M elancthon cou ld no longer be main

tained,and in 1 559 th e el ector publ i cly declared

his adherence to the doctrin e of the Reformed

church . I t was a bold step and there can be no

doubt of th e genu ineness of his convictions . He

had earnestly s tudi ed the questions at issue,and

when he had reached a con c lusion h e did not hesi

tate to accep t th e consequences wh ich i t i nvo lved .

At fi rst s igh t i t migh t appear as i f the change

had not been very importan t . A German wri ter

says : “ He (Frederi ck) had s imply crossed the almost imperceptibl e l ine wh ich separated M elanc

thon ian ism from the mi ldest form of Calvinism .

”

His cotemporaries,however

,were not disposed to

1 86 L EADERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

take th is view o f h is transi ti on . The princes de

clared the act an in f ringmen t of th e terms of the

Peace o f Augsburg th e theo logians of the str icter

Lu theran type denounced i t as treason to evangel i

cal tru th . Soon all Germany was in a blaze,and

the pious elector appeared to stand alone i n the

m idst of the fi re .

At th is period th e atti tude of th e prince was pos

i tively heroic . Even his f amily d isagreed wi th

h im ; and h is wife , who subsequentl y became h is

fai th fu l coadj utor in th e work of reformation,ap

peal ed to the ru lers of neighboring provinces to

exer t their influence i n restrain ing her husband

from taking what sh e supposed to be a fatal s tep .

The peopl e general ly bel i eved that Frederi ck would

be deprived of his e lectorate and migh t poss ibly be

put to death . On one occasion several princes met

at S tuttgart for th e purpose of formulating charges

agains t h im ; but for some unknown reason they

adj ourned wi thou t taking posi t ive action .

In the face of al l th is opposi t ion the elector re

mained calm and serene. At all t imes ready to

su ff er for what h e bel i eved to be the truth,his free

and joyous nature enabl ed h im to tri umph over d i f

ficu lties which might to others have appeared ih

surmoun tabl e . I n 1 560 he removed from the

churches the furni ture wh i ch had remained in them

since Roman Catho l ic days,and directed th e ser

v ices to be condu c ted after the manner of the R e

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1 8 2 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

committed . These men were O levianu s and Ursi

nus,one of whom was bu t twen ty -s ix and the

other twenty-eigh t years of age . The el ector

manifested great powers of d iscernmen t i n sel ect

ing th em for the work of preparing a catech ism

that would not on ly fai thfu l l y represen t the fai th

of the Reformed church,bu t might serve as a

means of convey ing i ts precious truths to subse

quen t generations . Togeth er th ey produced a

work wh ich has ever since been regarded as th e

crown and glory of the Reformed church .

CA SPA R O L E V I A N US ( 1535—1 587) was a native ofthe anc ien t c i ty of Treves . The family name

,wh ich

was properly Von der O lewig,was derived from a

suburb of the c i ty i n wh ich the fami l y res ided .

There were two sons,one of whom stud i ed medi

cine and the other law . The latter,after passing

through th e schools of h is native coun try,was sen t

to France and successively stud ied at Paris and

Bourges . I t i s remarkab l e that h is career closely

resembled that of John Calvin,whom he greatly ad

mired . He studied law bu t devoted much time to

reading the Scriptures,and secre tl y connected h im

sel f wi th a Protestant congregation,though with

out immediately and comp le te ly consecrating h is

heart and l i fe to the cause of truth . The decis ive

even t of h is l i fe,as he always declared

,occurred

when he almost l os t h is l i fe i n attempting to save

a son of the elector of th e Palat inate who was acc i

F R E D E R /CK UR S /N US 1 83

denta l ly drowned in the O ron river . In the momen t

of the greates t danger h e vowed tha t i f God shou ld

save h is l i fe he wou ld consecrate i t en ti re ly to the

conversion o f h is native land . In this vow he was

afterwards confirmed by the admoni tions of the

venerable Fare l,a t Lausanne . A fter receiv ing the

degree o f doctor o f laws he vis i ted Geneva and

Zurich and then returned to h is native ci ty . Here

he taugh t Latin,but at th e same time used every

opportuni ty to preach the Gospe l and for the lat

ter reason was arres ted and cast in to prison . R e

l eased th rough the poten t in tercess ion of th e e lector

Frederick,he wen t to Heide lberg

,where he was at

firs t pro fessor of theo logy and subsequently pas tor

of the principa l church of the ci ty . Though the

elector genera l ly took h is own way,i n re l igious as

we l l as in secular matters,O levianu s became his

mos t in t imate friend,and his influence in the gen

eral organi zation of th e church was p lainly apparent .

He was a spl end id orator and a master of German

style. The part wh ich h e took in the composi tion

of the Heide lberg Catech ism was probably less im

portan t than that o f Ursinus,but traces of h is hand

are everywhere vis ibl e . To him have been ascribed

the decided ly Calvin isti c elements of th e book and

what is said concerning Christian discip l ine i s

almost certain ly derived from h im,as i ts substance

may be found i n h is previous wri tings . As long

as the e l ector l ived,O levianu s remained h is most

1 84 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

devoted assistan t bu t afterwards he wen t to Her

born,where h e died on th e 1 5th of March , 1 587 .

On h is deathbed he was asked wheth er he was cer

tain of salvation,and h e repl i ed

that is,Most certain .

ZA CH A R I A S UR S I N US ( 1 534—1583) was a native ofBreslau

,i n Siles ia . The fami ly name was orig inal ly

Von Baer,bu t h is father

,who was dean of St .

Magdal en ’ s church,had Latin i zed i t according to

the fash ion of the times . The son was unusual ly

talen ted and s tudied ph ilosophy and mathematics

when he was a mere ch i ld . At sixteen h e was sen t

to the un iversi ty of Wittenberg,where M elancthon

was,after th e death of Luther

,th e rul ing sp i ri t .

Here he s tud i ed th eo logy and h is extraord inary

analy ti c power soon at tracted atten tion . Melane

thon dec lared h im his favori te pup il,and did not

hesi tate to say that h is wri tings were unusual ly

bril l i ant . On th e death of that great man there

was a reaction i n favor of h igh Lutheran ism ; and

th e favorite d iscipl es o f M elancthon were s ingled

ou t for persecuti on . Ursinus,who was of a qu iet

,

contemplative disposi tion,determined to wi thdraw

from the scene of confli c t. When one of h is

uncles ask ed him whi ther h e was going he repl i ed“ I f my dear Master Phil ip were l i ving I would

never leave h im ; but now that he has departed I

shal l go to Zuri ch .

” In Swi tzerland he stud ied

the wri tings o f Calvin and others,and accepted

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1 86 L EADERS OF T H E R E F O R M A T TO N .

general tone is i ren i c and concil ia tory,th ough i t

contains several po lemi c questions which are be

lieved to have been inserted at th e express com

mand of th e e l ector,i f th ey were not actual ly com

posed by him . The eigh t i eth quest ion,which de

clares the Roman mass to be “ an accursed idol

atry,

” was inserted into the second edi tion,and has

been supposed to have been in some degree a coun

ter-blas t on the part of the e l ec tor to the fulmina

t ions of th e counci l of Tren t .

The later years of Ursinus were comparative ly

uneven tful . He was recognized as a theologian of

the h ighes t order,and i t became h is chie f duty to

explai n and defend th e catech ism . After Fred

eri ck ’ s death,i n 1576 , he was removed from his

professorsh ip at Heidelberg ; and though h e was

o ff ered a similar posi t ion in his nati ve ci ty,he pre

ferred to become a teacher in a theologi cal school

wh ich the elector ’ s second son,John Cas imir

,had

founded at N eustad t. Here he labored for five

years,and d i ed on th e 6th of March

,1 583 , i n h is

f orty-nin th year. On h is monument was pl aced an

inscript ion wh ich cal l ed h im “ a great theologian,

a conqueror of heresi es concerning th e person of

Christ and the Lord ’ s Supper,mighty with word

and pen,an acu te ph i losopher

,a wise man

,and a

stern instructor of youth .

”

I t has been the fate of th e Heidelberg Catech ism

to be ex travagan tly praised by i ts friends and as

F REDER I CK O L E V /A N US,UR S /N O S . 1 87

fiercely denounced by i ts enemies . Immediate ly after

i ts publ i cation,in 1563 , i t was formal ly approved by

Bu l l inger and the church o f Zuri ch and the bonds

wh ich connected the Palatinate wi th Swi tzerland

were thereby streng thened . From that day to this

i t has been the mos t general ly accep ted con fession

of the Reformed church,and i ts exce l lencies as an

exposi t ion o f Reformed doctrin e have been almost

un iversa l ly recognized . Max Goebe l says : “The

Heidelberg Catechism may be regarded as the

flower and frui t o f th e en ti re German and French

reformation i t has Lutheran earnestness,Melane

thon ian cl earness,Zwingl ian simp l i ci ty

,and Cal

v inis t ic fire,a l l h armoniously blended and there

fore notwi thstanding many defects and hardnesses,

i t has been,togeth er wi th th e Augsburg Con fession

of 1 540 , th e on ly common con fessi on and doctrinal

standard of th e enti re German Reformed church

from the Palat inate to the Netherlands,and to

Brandenburg and Prussia .

”

In a general way the tone of the Heidelberg

Catech ism was i renic bu t i t must not be supposed

that i ts authors expected i t to be accepted wi thou t

con troversy . They were in th e mids t of one of the

greates t confl i cts in the h istory of the church and

i t was but natural that they should endeavor to j us

t i fy th ei r posi t ion . On several points which were

at the time mos t vio len tly discussed we cou ld wish

that they had expressed themselves difl"eren t ly but

1 88 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

the fact that they were thorough ly honest has never

been cal led into question . I t was,however

,to these

points that th e attacks of their enemies were

especial l y d irected,and th e confl ic t became more

i ntense than ever.

In 1 566 the emperor Maximil i an I I . ci ted the

elector Frederick to appear before the diet at Augs

burg ; and the summons was general ly be l i eved to

be equivalen t to h is condemnation . His broth er,

R i chard of Simmern,was greatly alarmed

,and

warned h im that i t would be safer not to attend th e

d iet bu t h e wrote in rep ly ° “ I confide in my dear

and fai th ful Father in heaven,trusting that He wil l

employ me as an instrumen t o f His omn ipotence to

decl are His name in these l atter days,not only i n

word bu t a lso in deed,to th e holy emp ire of th e

German nation,as my dear brother- in-l aw

,the late

elec tor duke John Frederick of Saxony,also - d id

and though I am not so bold as to compare mysel f

i n in tel l ectual strength wi th the departed el ector,I

know that the same God who preserved h im in the

know ledge of His ho ly Gospel is s ti l l l iv ing and

migh ty,and that He wil l preserve me

,a poor weak

man,through the power of His Holy Spiri t

,even

though i t should cost my blood ; and i f i t should

pl ease my God and Father to grant me th is honor,

I could never be su fficiently thankful,whether i n

th is world or in th e world to come .

”

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1 88 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

the fact that th ey were thoroughly honest has never

been cal l ed into question . I t was,however

,to these

points that th e attacks of their enemies were

especial ly d i rected,and th e confl ic t became more

i ntense than ever.

In 1566 the emperor Maximil i an I I . c i ted the

elector Frederick to appear before the diet at Augs

burg ; and the summons was general ly bel i eved to

be equ ivalen t to h is condemnation . His brother,

R i chard of Simmern,was greatly alarmed

,and

warned h im that i t would be safer not to attend the

d iet bu t h e wrote in reply : “ I confide in my dear

and fai th fu l Father in heaven,trusting that He wil l

employ me as an instrumen t o f His omn ipotence to

decl are His name in these latter days,not only i n

word bu t also in deed,to th e holy emp i re of th e

German nation,as my dear brother- in-l aw

,th e late

elector duke John Frederick of Saxony,also d id

and though I am not so bold as to compare mysel f

i n in tel l ectual strength wi th the departed el ector,I

know that the same God who preserved h im in the

knowledge of His holy Gospel is s t i l l l iving and

migh ty,and that He wil l preserve me

,a poor weak

man,through the power of His Holy Spiri t

,even

though i t should cost my blood ; and i f i t should

please my God and Father to grant me th is honor,

I could never be su ffi ciently thankful,whether i n

th is world or in th e world to come .

”

F REDER I CK I I I .,O L E V /A N US

,H R S /N US . 1 89

The appearance o f the e lector be fore the d iet o f

Augsburg was an act o f the h ighes t courage .

Though he was supreme in h is own province he

was supposed to be powerless i n the presence o f the

emperor and the assembled princes . A t first he

seemed to have 110 fri ends,and i t was proposed to

exc lude h im from the terms of th e treaty o f Augs

burg,un l ess h e signed a compl ete recantation o f

his re l igious vi ews . In Heide l berg i t was reported

that h e had been arrested and executed . I t soon,

however,became eviden t that th e earnestness and

u naflected piety of the elector was making a pro

found impression ; and th is e ff ect was increased

by severa l exce l l en t sermons preached by his chap

lain . F inal ly the emperor formulated a decree

commanding Frederick to abstain from i n troducing“ Calvinis ti c novel ties

,and requ iring him to re

s tore to the Roman church th e property o f certain

convents wh ich had been al ienated by the civi l

power . During th e d iscuss ion of th is decree th e

el ector was required to absen t h imself from the as

sembly ; bu t after i ts adoption he re- entered the

hal l,fol lowed by h is son

,John Casim ir

,whom he

cal led h is “ spiri tual armor-bearer,

” th e latter bear

i ng the B ibl e and the Augsburg Confession . On

th is oacas ion he o ff ered the memorab le defense in

wh ich he declared that he was not concerned for“ a cap fu l l of flesh — by which he mean t h is own

head— bu t for the salvat ion of his sou l . He said

1 90 L EADERS OF T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

that he d id not know whether h e cou ld properly be

cal l ed a Calv inis t , for he had never read the works

of Calvin but he was wi l l ing to stand by h is cate

chism,wh ich contained the substance of his fai th

and was so thoroughly fortified by proofs from the

Scriptures that i t could not be refuted .

The h eroism and devotion of th e el ector were

unmistakable,and the assmbly was deeply im

pressed . A fter adj ournment Augus tus of Saxony

put h is hand on h is shoulder and said “ Fri tz,

thou art more pious than the whole of us 1” The

Margrave of Baden also said to th e assembled

princes : “Why troubl e ye the el ector"He hasmore p i ety than al l o f us pu t toge ther. ” Violent

measures were now ou t of the question and a mild

resol ution was adopted in wh ich i t was decl ared

that the elector was in fu l l accordance with the

Augsburg Confess ion in the arti cl e of j ustification

by fai th,which had caused th e sch ism in the church

,

and in many other articl es,bu t d id not ful ly accep t

the articl e concerning the Lord ’ s Supper. N ever

theless,as h e had indicated h is wil l ingness to yi eld

to proofs taken from the word of God,th ey ( the

princes) would i n due time seek to convince h im ofh is error. In the mean time they “ had no desire

to oppress the el ector of th e Palatinate and others

who migh t vary from the confession in one or more

art i cles,and thus to increase the su ff er ings of the

confessors of Christ . ”

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1 92 L EADERS O F T H E R E F O R I II A T I O N .

During th e latter years of the elector Frederick

i t was h is ch ief affl i c tion that h is eldest son,Louis

,

whom he had made h is represen tat ive in the Upper

Palatinate,had become a l i enated through th e in

flu ence of th e h igh Lutheran party , and was v io

len tly opposed to the re f orms which h is father had

i n troduced . I n h is own way th e son was a devou t

man but i t is an i l l ustrat ion of the controvers ial

character of the times that h e refused to see h is

father on h is death -bed,for fear that the l atter

m igh t make him promise to l eave th e organization

of th e church unchanged . When the elector Fred

erick fe l t that h is end was approach ing he issued

an address to h is peopl e in which he said “ I have

l ived long enough for you and for th e church,and

am now summoned to a better l i fe. I h ave done

my bes t for the church,bu t have accompl ished

l i t tl e . God,who can do al l th i ngs

,and who

_cared

for His church before I was born,l ives and reigns

in Heaven ; He wi l l no t l eave you orphans , nor

suflfer the prayers and tears wh ich I have o ffered for

my successors and the church to remain wi thou t a

b lessing.

” At the end of h is l i fe he exclaimed I

have been detained here long enough through th e

prayers of God ’s peopl e ; i t i s t im e that my l i fe

should come to an end and I be gathered in to the

true rest wi th my Saviour. ” He died in h is six ty

firs t year . Among the con fessors of the sixteen th

century there is none who deserves a more exal ted

F REDER I CK I I I . ,O L E V/A N US

,UR S /N US . 1 93

place than Frederick I I I .

,e lector o f the Pa latinate .

To trace the h is tory of the Re formed church of

the Pa latinate after the death o f Frederick i s be

yond our present pu rpose . I t may be said i n a

genera l way that Lou is IV . sough t in every possible

way to undo h is father ’s work . His reign of seven

years was,however

,al l too brie f to enabl e h im to

accomp l ish h is purpose and when he died,l eaving

an infant son,h is brother

,John Casim ir

,who became

ruler ad at once adopted a di ff erent po l i cy

The young prince was educated in the Re formed

church,which remained for many years estab l i shed

by law .

After the Pa latinate had led the way a number o f

German ci ties and prin cipal i t i es accepted th e R e

formed confessions . This was due to the continu

ance of th e sacramental controvery i n the Lu theran

church . I t was a period in which theologians

reigned,and though many of them were men o f

th e h ighest order of abi l i ty,they mani fes ted a spiri t

as contentious as that of the secu lar rulers . Though

almost constant ly engaged in confl i c ts among them

selves,the Lutheran leaders were

,at l east

,fair ly

agreed in thei r antagonism to Calvin ism . The

Crypto-Ca lvin ists,or secret Calvin is ts

,were driven

out of Saxony,and several of them were actual l y

executed . At las t the l eading theologians of Ger

many met at the monastery of Bergen , near M agde

burg,and on the 2 8 th of May

,157 7 , adopted a con

1 94 L EADERS O F T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

f ession of fai th wh i ch was cal led th e “ Form of

Concord .

” I t was,indeed

,in tended to promote

concord,bu t only among high -Lutherans . From

their poin t of vi ew i t was a work of th e h ighest

order and there can be no doubt that for profund

i ty of though t and acu ten ess of observation i t holds

the foremost place among the confessions of Ger

many . I t was not,however

,a book for th e peopl e

and th e spir i t engendered by the conten tions of the

schools is plainly apparen t. There was evidently

no incl ination to concil iate th e milder party,who

were offensively termed Sacramentarians,

” and

s ix teen separate arti cles were devoted to the re f u

tation of thei r doctr ines . Natura l ly enough,al l

th is l ed to renewed controversy,and th e Form of

Concord” was frequently cal led a “ form of d is

cord .

” One by one a considerabl e number of German c i ti es and principal i t i es wh i ch had h i therto

hel d to the milder form of Lutheranism passed over

to the Reformed church . Nassau led the way,in

1 578 , and Bremen , H anan,Anhal t

,Lippe

,and part

o f Hesse fol lowed in rap id success i on . The el ector,

John Sigismund of Brandenburg , from whom the

presen t imperial family of Germany is descended,

d id not make th e change unti l 1 6 1 3 and wi th h is

transi t ion the sch ism may be said to have been com

pleted . The Lu th erans remained,of course

,by far

the larger and more importan t body ; bu t the R e

formed church became the l ead ing eccl es ias tical

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1 96 L E A DERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

fai l ed to prepare th e way for a reformation in faith

and practice ; and last of al l appeared Erasmus o f

Rotterdam,who whi l e he attacked th e corrup t ion

of Rome with keenes t satire directed th e peopl e to

h igher ideals o f the true,the beau ti ful

,and the

good .

When Luther began the German reformation he

found many coadj u tors i n Hol land . In 1 523 \two

young Augustin ians,Henry Voes and John Esch

,

were burned in th e publ ic square of Antwerp for

the ir adhesion to evangel i cal tru th . They had th e

sympathy of the peopl e,and when they were led

away to execution the crowd at the windows and

on th e house- tops call ed to them to be fai th ful to

the Gospel . In th e flames th e martyrs responsively

sang the Te Deum unti l thei r voices were hushed

in death . In memory of these su ff erers Luther

composed one of h is most beauti fu l hymns .

During the earl ier y ears of the Reformation no

formal confession of fai th was adop ted by th e Pro

testan ts of Hol land . Gradual ly,however

,the

princ ipl es of Calv in and A ’L asco became predom

and in th is way the church acquired an in

del ibl e character. In 1 559 , as we hav e seen , Guido

de Bres composed the Be lgic con fess ion ; and in

1 565 twenty nobl emen formed a covenan t to res ist

T he earl iest Protestan t con f ession of f a ith in the D utch language waspubl ished by A ’

L asco in 1550. Though not f ormal ly adopted , it was extens ively c irculated .

FREDERI CK I I I . ,O L E V I A N US

,( I R S /N US . 1 97

the Spanish inquisi tion . In 1 566 th e Heidelberg

Catech ism was accepted by the synod o f Antwerp

as “ a form accord ing to the fai th in 1 568 i t was

recommended for use in al l churches speak ing the

Dutch language . Six years later th is advice hecame a formal decree . Final ly

,at th e great synod

o f Dort,in 1 6 1 8

,th e catech ism was declared to be

‘ accordant in al l respects to the word of God .

”

That the Heidelberg Catech ism was so speed ily

adopted in Ho l land was due i n great measure to the

influence of the elec tor Frederick of th e Palatinate

and of h is chaplain,Peter D athenus . The latter

,

who was a native o f Hol land,was the firs t to trans

late th e catech ism in to the Dutch language,and by

direction of the el ector Frederi ck,he he ld synods

a long the lower Rhine and on the border of Hol

land . At the time of th e greates t persecution,i n

1 568 , th e delegates of the Dutch churches crossed

the l ine and held an important synod on German

terri tory in the ci ty of Wesel,under the presidency

of Peter D athenu s .

The courage and pers istence of the Reformed

church of Ho l land during th e terribl e persecu tions

of the Spanish rule is one of the marvels of h istory.

At the beginning of the Reformation the s ixteen

provinces,known by the col l ective name of th e

Neth erl ands,Low Countries or Holland

,had been

regarded as the most precious possession o f th e

Spanish crown .

“The who l e country,

” says a

1 98 L EADERS O F T H E REFORM A T I ON.

Spanish wri ter,seemed to make only a single ci ty

,

prosperous communi ti es so pressed upon each

oth er. ”

The Netherlands had come to Charles V . by in

heri tance,and he therefore regarded them as i n a

pecul iar sense his personal possess ion . In Germany

the princes were so powerful th at h e d id not ventu re

to in terfere wi th their rel igious pol i cy . In Hol

l and,on th e other hand

,he was from th e beginning

a persecutor,and th e vi c tims of h is bigotry were

numbered by thousands . He was,however

,i n

some respects an in tel l igen t monarch,and in h is

manner th ere was a blu ff genial i ty wh ich rendered

h im popu lar . He had favored th e Flemish mer

chants by open ing ou tl ets for their commerce,and

was careful to respec t the chartered privil eges of

thei r ci ti es . Under su ch circumstances the perse

cu ted Protestan ts were compel led to su ff er in

si l ence. I t would have been fol ly to res is t when

th e oppressor was the most popular of rul ers .

With the access ion of h is son,Phil ip I I .

,all th is

was changed . The Flemish nobi l i ty lost their cred i t

a t court,and every importan t o ffi ce was given to a

Spanish grandee . The ancien t 'charters were d isre

garded and th e weal th of the N etherlands was

given over to Span ish cup id i ty . Ph il ip has been

cal led “ th e incarnation of rel igious bigotry,and

to arres t the progress of the new doc trines h e estab

lished four new bishoprics wh ich he endowed at

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200 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM ’A T I ON.

was espec ial ly su i ted to carry out the purposes of

h is master . He was cruel by sys tem and never

mani fes ted the l east sympathy with h is V i ctims .

Even at th e death o f h is only son he d id not ex

hibi t th e s l ightes t emotion . Death,

” he said,

“ is

an every-day matter,and a wise man wil l not su ff er

h imsel f to be aflected by i t He immediately es

tablished an exceptional court wh ich became known

as “ the tribuna l of b lood .

” The l eading nobles

were invi ted to a conference,and counts Egmon t

and Horn,who unsuspect ingly appeared

,were ar

res ted and execu ted . Will iam of Orange had also

been inv ited,bu t he excused h imsel f and retired to

h is principal i ty. No wonder that Cardinal Gran

vell e exc laimed on a subsequen t occasion “ If the

duke o f Alva has not captured the Si len t One he

has accomp l ished noth ing.

”

In accordance wi th h is master ’s instruc t ions th e

pol i cy of the duke of Alva was stern and merciless .

During th e six years in wh ich he rul ed th e Nether

lands,i t i s said

,e igh teen thousand persons were

execu ted,th i rty thousand were deprived of their

goods,and one hundred thousand left the country.

This destruct ive pol icy did not,however

,aecom

plish i ts purpose for at the moment when the duke

bel ieved h e had utterly crushed th e ci ty of Brussels

th e news arrived that the “ Beggars” had taken

Briel,and that the north ern provinces were in arms .

Thus began a struggl e wh ich las ted,wi th many in

F REDE RI CK I I I . ,O L E V I A N US

,UR S /N US . 20 1

termiss ions,for eigh ty years

,and was enti re ly con

c luded on ly when,i n 1 648 , other na t ions compe l led

Spain to recogni ze the independence of the Dutch

republ i c . I t was,on the part of th e Ho l landers

,

one o f th e grandes t and mos t heroic confl icts in the

h istory o f th e world .

For a brief period the southern provinces were

active i n thei r opposi tion to “ the Spanish fury

but as they were mainly Cathol i c th ey fe l l back

under the power o f Spain,and subsequent ly re

mained dependencies of various powers un ti l they

were final ly incorp orated into the kingdom of Bel

g ium .

The success of th e northern provinces was due

in great measure to th e wisdom and endurance of

th ei r l eader Will iam of Orange . He be longed to a

family,original l y German

,that was establ ished at

many places in Europe . He was born at Nassau

in Germany and therefore preferred to be cal led

Will iam of Nassau . His principal i ty was a small

d istri c t wh ich had original ly belonged to Burgundy,

but had not ye t been swallowed up by France,

though surrounded by French terri tory . His

estates i n the N eth erlands were,however

,worth far

more than h is l i ttl e principal i ty . He is ca l l ed“ the sil ent

,

” not from his taci tu rni ty,for he was

pleasant and ta l kative,but because he showed ex

traordinary wisdom in keep ing h is own counsel .

Great in reverses— l ike Co l ign i,whose daughter h e

202 L EADERS O F T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

had married—none knew better than he how toprofi t by th e l east success . Surrounded by sp ies

,

he kept h is own counsel ; accused by enemies of

crimes of wh ich h e was innocen t,he bore al l his

trials with ca lmness and in s i lence . The foremos t

general s i n Europe attacked h im at the head of

Spanish armies,but they su cceeded only in pro

longing the existing struggle . Though ful ly aware

that he was in constan t danger of assassination h e

walked through th e streets of Dutch ci t ies,and

l istened to th e grievances of th e peopl e . He was

even then cal led “ th e father of h is country and

to th is day h is memory is cherished with fi l ial afiec

t ion .

Phil ip o ff ered a reward of twen ty-five thousand

gold crowns and a paten t of nobi l i ty to any one

who should ki ll the prince of Orange,and at las t

he succeeded in h is wicked purpose. A Burg un

d ian,named Bal thasar Gerard

,had gained th e con

fidence of the prince,bu t seiz ed the firs t oppor

tun i ty to assassinate h im as h e was coming down

the stairwav of his palace at Del ft ( July 1 0,

His las t though ts turned towards th e su ff erings of

h is countrymen .

“ Lord have p i ty on my soul,

”

he prayed,

“ and on th is poor peop l e .

” The murd erer was arrested and executed

,bu t Phil ip kept

h is promise and h is hei rs received the reward of th e

crime .

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204 L EADERS OF T H E REFORM A T I ON.

one or two of the m inor German states,accepted

the invitation . The k ing of France,however

,for

bade the attendance of French delegates ; and

James I . of England,sent five representatives of

the establ ished church of England,bu t refused to

permi t the attendance of delegates from the chu rch

of Scotland . The canons,or decrees

,adop ted by

th e synod of Dort are,however

,regarded as the

best represen tation of what is known as th e Cal

vin istic system,and for th e church of Holland they

became normal . In Germany they were no t so

favorably received,and Frederick Will iam

,th e

great elector o f Brandenburg,ac tual ly went so far

as to declare them “ an appl e of d iscord,

” and to

forbid their promulgation i n h is domin ions . The

Heidelberg Catech ism,however

,remained a com

mon bond of un ion for the churches of'

Germanv

and Hol land .

I t has been said that the confess ions o f the R e

formed church are al l variations of a s ingl e theme,

and that their d i ff erences depend upon th e ex tent t o

which the Augustinian and Calvin is tic princ iples

were carried ou t. They d id not necessari ly l ead to

disagreement . The atten tion of the churches o f

Germany and Holland was d irected to d i ff eren t as

peets o f the truth,bu t they met in Chris t at th e

cen tre .

In the Palatinate,especial ly

,th e Reformed were

brough t i nto i nt imate relations wi th th e Luth

FREDER I CK I I I . , O L E V I A N US ,UR S /N U S . 205

erans,and i t began to be be l ieved tha t the

d i ff erences between the churches were no t irrecon

cilable . They were made to suffer together,and i t

was but natura l that th ey shou ld become more

c losely al l i ed . For nearly a cen tury the cou n trv

was trodden under the feet o f contending armies,

and the faires t coun try in Europe became almost a

wilderness . The e l ectoral house changed its rel ig ion

no less than four times in as many reigns,and those

who were not wil l ing to f ol low thei r ru lers in thei r

tergiversation were relentless ly oppressed .

In the mean time the church of Rome was using

every poss ibl e means to recover i ts lost ground . By

the terms of th e cel ebrated “ secret arti c l e” of the

treaty of Westphal ia,1 648 , the imperia l govern

men t pl edged i tse l f to maintai n Roman Cathol i c

worsh ip wherever there were peopl e who desired i t

and troops of Jesu i ts traversed the val ley of the

Rhine,seeking claimants for the emperor ’ s bounty .

Under such condi tions d issension among Protest

an ts must have proved utterly d isastrous .

In the mean time there grew up in the Reformed

church a school of theology which was devout rather

than polem ic . I t cared less for decrees than for

covenan ts,and sough t to be bib l i cal rather than

scholas tic . Cocceju s , a native of Bremen , was re

garded as i ts founder,bu t h e h imsel f declared that

he had derived h is theo logy from the wri tings of

O levianu s . He was fol lowed by a long l in e of dis

206 L EADERS OF T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

tingu ished teachers—such as Bu rmann, Wits ins ,

Lampe and V itringa— whose names and labors are

sti l l gratefu l ly remembered . Under th e influence

of their teach ings the inc l ination towards Christian

union which,ever s ince the days of Zwingl i

,has

characteriz ed the Reformed church,was revived

and extended .

The great rel igious movemen t known as Piet ism

may be said to have resu l ted in th e transformation

o f th e German churches . I ts ch ief l eader,Phi l ip

Jacob Spener,was a Lutheran

,bu t he had many

coadj utors in the Reformed church,among whom

Theodore Un tereyck was perhaps the most promi

nent . I t is true,of course

,that the term Pietist

has been greatly misused— bei ng commonly ap

pl i ed to fanatical sectarians who should rather be

cal l ed Mysti cs— but in a more extended sense i t may

properl y be empl oyed as a general term for al l .who,

during the great rel igious revival of th e seven teen th

and eigh teen th cen turi es devoted themselves to the

cu l tivat ion of the inner l i fe . In 1 69 1 th e P ietis ts

founded th e universi ty of Hall e,and many R e

formed as wel l as Lutheran preachers were educated

there . As a natural resul t o f their preach ing the

ch urch began to regard personal rel igious exper

ience as of more importance than rigid adherence

to doctrinal symbols . I t was a period of rel igious

en thusi asm,and gave b i rth to a mul ti tude of sacred

poets,among whom

,i n th e Reformed church

,may

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208 L EADERS OF T H E REF ORM A T I ON.

There are stil l some groups o f chu rches which re

gard themselves as dis tinct ively Reformed,and

these are,of course

,closely attached to their ancien t

confess ions .

In Switzerland and Hol land th e Reformed church

is by law es tabl ished . I t is wel l organ iz ed i n

France and Austria-Hungary,and has scat tered

congregations in other lands . In America there

are two R eformed churches,th e one of Dutch and

th e other of German origin . Altogether th e num

ber of adheren ts of the Reformed confess ion is not

l ess than ten mi l l i ons . Though i t has been ac

counted one of th e minor branches of Protestan t

ism,i ts h istory cl early i l lustrates the truth that “ a

threefo ld cord i s not quickly broken ” N0 other

denomination of Christ ians has endured such dread

ful persecu tions and i ts continu ed existence is one

of th e wonders of h istory . Among its chosen emhlems have been the burning bush

,th e l i l y among

the thorns,th e sh ip driven by th e winds and th e

anchor turned heavenward . The appropriateness

of these emblems cannot be doubted but we prefer

to them al l the device on th e seal o f an ancien t

church— a ris ing sun,with the motto “ After

Darkness cometh Ligh t . ”

I N D EX.

A’

L asco ,1 76 ,

185,196 . Bul l inge r

,H enry , 97 , 98 ,

147 ,

A lva,Duke o f

,199

- 200 . 162 .

A n abaptists , 90 .

A lbert o f Magdeburg , 54 .

A lexander V .,pope

,28 .

A lexander V I . ,pope

, 49 .

A nge lo ,M ich ael , 49 .

A ntwerp ,1 20

,196 , 197 .

A lbigenses , 10 .

A nci llon ,105.

A rm ini ans , 203 .

A vignon ,23 , 107 .

A ugsburg Confession,69 , 1 73 .

A ugustine ,20 .

Ba rtholomew, S t . ,

1 25- 1 2 7 .

Baume,Pierre d e l a

,101 .

B l ack D eath,

”24 .

Brandenburg,John S igismund

o f,194 .

Brandenburg ,F rederick Wil l

i am of,204 .

Brenz,1 7 1 .

Beggars,T he

,

”199 .

Bricou net , 107 .

Bohemi a,16

,1 8 .

B0hmischbrod , 36 .

Boleyn ,A nne

,135, 142 .

Bologn a , 2 7 .

Bonn ivard ,107 .

Bora,Ca th arine von

,65.

Bothwe l l , Earl of , 1 65.

Bourbon , 1 2 1 .

Bu cer , 148 , 1 7 1 .

Bulgari,10 .

Campeggio ,13 7 .

Cranmer,1 14 ,

137- 152 .

Caje tan , 56 .

Cal ixtines, 35.

Calvin,John

,100

,103

- 1 18,162 .

Cauvin, Gera rd

,105.

Charlem agne, 9 .

Cath arine of A rragon,134

- 14 1 .

Ca th a rine d e Med ici,1 20- 1 26 .

Ch arles I I I ., S avoy ,

10 1 .

Ch arles I X . ,F rance

,1 2 1 .

Charles V ., Germ any ,

198 .

Chati l lon,1 23 .

C appel , battle of, 96 , 97 .

C arlstadt , 63 , 90 .

Cartright,T hom as

,156 .

C lement V . ,pope

,23 , 1 36 .

Czechs,16

,19 .

Cevennes , 1 29 .

Ch il lon,10 1 .

Cocceju s , 205.

Colet,10

,1 3 1 .

Col ign i,1 23

- 1 2 7 , 20 1 .

Colonn a , 24 , 2 7 .

Cossa,26 .

Constance,2 1

,25, 26 , 29 , 30 , 32

38 .

Corda tus , 105.

Cross,Church under the

,109 .

Cop ,N ichol as

,1 10 .

Conde , L ouis of , 1 2 1 , 1 26 .

Cotta, Ursu la , 42 .

2 1 0 I NDEX .

Cromwel l , T homas,1 36 , 1 37 .

Conservatives,1 1 .

Crusades, 8 .

Crypto-Ca lvinists,1 93 .

D’

A illy ,10

,106 .

D’A lbret

,Jeanne

,1 2 1

,1 2 2 .

D ante,10 .

D arnley ,H enry ,

164 .

D athenu s,Peter

,1 97 .

D eBu re,I d elette

,1 1 3 .

D ort, S ynod of

,203 .

Erasmus,10

, 47 , 67 , 83 .

Erastus,T homas

,18 1 .

Eckhart,M aster

,1 2 .

E ck ,John

, 56 .

Edward I I I .,England

,20 .

E dward V I .,145, 146 , 149 .

E idgenossen , 10 1 , 109 .

E insied len , 8 1 .

Eisleben, 39 , 40 , 70 .

Eisen ach , 42 .

El izabeth of England,1 25, 154 .

Erfurt, 43 , 45, 47 .

Esch,John

,196 .

Evange l ica l church,207 .

F agi ns , 148 .

F rancis I .,F rance

,107 , 1 20 .

F rancis I I . ,1 2 1 .

F arel,Wil l i am

,102 - 104 .

F erdin and, S p ain ,

1 34 .

F errara,D uchess of

,1 1 2

,1 1 7 .

F rederick the Wise,

”

51 .

F rederick “the P ious

,575- 1 93 .

F riends o f God ,

”1 1 .

F orm of Concord,1 94 .

F ru ndsberg ,George

,60 .

Glarus , 79 .

Geneva,100- 1 19 .

Gerson,10

,25, 106 .

Granvelle, C ardinal , 200 .

Gregory the Gre at , 8 .

Grey ,Lady J ane ,

149 .

Gom arists,203 .

Gou d imel,1 2 7 .

Gryn aeus , 147 .

Gua lter , R udolph ,147 .

Guido d e Bres,1 20

,1 96 .

H amilton,Patrick

,158 .

H eidelberg,1 7 1 .

H eidelberg Catechism,1 8 1 - 197 .

H enry F rance,1 20 .

H enry I I I .,F rance

,1 2 1 .

H enry I V .,F rance ,

1 2 2 - 1 29 .

H enry V I L ,England

,1 32 ,

1 33 .

H enry V I I I ., E ngland , 64 ,

144 .

H erman V . ,of Cologne

,148 .

H eshu siu s,1 77 , 1 79 .

H idden S eed ,

”

36 .

H ol land, 96 , 1 95

- 204 .

H uguenots , 107 , 109 , 1 20 , 1 2 7

H umanists,1 2

,83 , 1 3 1 .

H uss,John

, 7—34 .

H utten, Ulrich von

,69 .

I nstitutes,Ca lvin ’ s

,1 1 1 .

I vry ,battle of

,1 2 7 .

J anow,M atth i as of

,2 2 .

J arn ac,b a ttle of

,1 2 2 .

John C asimir , 1 86 , 1 89 , 1 93 .

John XX I I . ,pope

,23 .

John XX I I I . ,pope

,26 .

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Pole, C ardinal , 152 .

Procopius, 35.

R abel ais,1 2 7 .

R amée,Pierré, 1 2 7 .

R echberg,Conrad von

,8 1 .

R ea l ism,1 2 .

R eform atory Councils , 25.

R euchl in, 38 .

R ichel ieu,1 29.

R idley ,Bishop ,

150 .

R ienzi,24 .

R ochel le,1 24 , 1 26.

S acramentarians, 93 , 95.

S amson , 89 .

S ancerre , 1 26 .

S cotl and , 156 .

S chinner,Cardi nal

,82 .

S choenbrunner,c.7 .

S eneca,109 .

S erve tus , 1 15- 1 1 6 .

S hakspeare , 10 .

S igi smund , Emperor , 28 , 60 .

S immern,1 77 .

S ickingen , 69 , 1 7 1 .

S omerset,144 .

S orbonne,108 .

S pal atin,60 .

S pener , 206 .

S penser,1 0 .

S tekno ,2 2 .

S t . Peter ’ s church, 53 .

S taupitz , 46 , 48 , 51 .

S ti l l ing , 207 .

S trasburg ,1 13 .

S t . Germ an,1 24 .

S t . V ictor,106 .

S witzerl and, 7 2 -76 , 96 .

T aborites, 35.

T au ler,John

,1 2

, 47 .

T able T a lk,

” 67

T el l , Wi l l i am , 73 .

T ersteegen ,207 .

T etzel,John

, 54-

55.

T heodoric, 9

T il let , Louis du ,104

T ulch an b ishops,166

Untereyck ,T heodore

,206 .

Ursinus,Zachari as

,1 84 , 185.

V iretu s,Peter

,25.

V oes , H enry ,1 96

V ok inger , Captain , 97Waldenses

,10

,1 1

,195.

Wal loons,1 20

Wartburg,62 -63 .

Wessel, Gans f ort , 195.

Westphal,1 7 7 .

Wildhaus, 76 .

W inckelried, 73 .

W inceslau s,Emperor

,1 7 , 19 , 2

34

Wish art, George , 159 .

Wittenberg, 55, 57 , 62

-64 .

Walmar,Melchoir

,106

Wolsey , Cardina l , 1 36 .

Worms,D iet of

,60

Wy cl iff e , 20-23 , 37 , 13 1 .

Wyttenbach ,T hom as

, 78 .

Ziska,John

, 34-35.

Zwickau Prophets,63 .

Zwingl i, Ulric , 76-99 , 102 , 1 7 2 .

Zwingl i,Bartholomew

, 78 .

Zwingl i,R egul a

,89 , 14 7 .

Zurich,84 , 90 ,

147 .

Zurich Consensus,1 77 .