514 EVOLUTION OF MODERN SOCIETY. 



This period is iiiiportaut and signiflcaiit in tlie liistoiy of the evolu- 

 tion of society. Europe now began to sliake oft' the fetters of ignor- 

 ance. From this time onward progress is by leaps and bounds. 

 Certain events contributed much to the general awakening of intelli- 

 gence and inquiry. These were the momentous invention of printing 

 by Gutenberg, of Strasburgj the discovery of America in 14:925 the 

 voyage of Vasco da Gama in 1498, and, latest and greatest, the Eefor- 

 mation of 1517. The Eeformation is our fourth landmark, another of 

 our intellectual revolutions, and this brings us to an interesting and 

 imi)ortant inquiry. We said a little earlier that what was destined to 

 be the greatest inilueuce bequeathed by Rome was Christianity, to 

 which we shall refer generally, since wo are dealing with Europe, as the 

 church. For fifteen hundred years this power had existed, and now 

 it asserted itself. Where during all this age of social darkness was this 

 revolutionizing power 1 Alas! that I have to say it, like many another 

 great and noble ]iower, debased, distorted, prostituted ! That which 

 should have been to society through all this time what the pillar of cloud 

 and fire was to the wandering Israelites, a guide and a support, was a 

 snare and a pitfall. The churcb — religion — was made to serve as a cloak 

 to worldly sin and ambition. For these ends, Avhile attempting to 

 maintain an outward appearance of purity, it fostered superstition and 

 ignorance. Till at last Luther arose, preceded, like the first and great- 

 est of all reformers, Christ, by his forerunner, Erashius. This is the 

 greatest and most significant of all our landmarks. It marks a mighty 

 revolution, fiercer and more thorough than any succeeding ones. It 

 was a mighty stimulus to intellectual growth and social development. 

 Till now it had been the world and the church; from now it was the 

 world with the church. 



A real society can only exist where the rights of every individual 

 member as such are recognized and protected. Nor can this be until 

 the individual has recognized his own position and his own rights. 

 This was what the Eeformation effected. In Britain the despotic reign 

 of Henry VIII, the feeble reign of Edward Vl, the bloody and bigoted 

 reign of Mary, and the beneficial and epoch-marking reign of Elizabeth, 

 all tended indirectly toward this result. The rapid growth of the spirit 

 of liberty, and intolerance of opi)ression in the guise of sovereign care, 

 is markedly manifest in our fifth great landmark and revolution — the 

 overthrow of the monarchy in Britain and the establishment of the 

 commonwealth. We see liere, what we have not seen before this event, 

 a i)Ower of combined action and unity among the people. This was 

 what was required before they could ever hope to cox)e with hereditary 

 individual or oligarchical authority. 



And here let us pause and look back over the rough and stony road 

 we have come along. AVe see from our higher elevation and with our 

 clearer vision the great exi)anse of time covered with the feudal mists 

 of the Middle Ages; yet where we can distinguish anything at all we 



