228] ANNUAL REGISTER, 1800. 



generally found one or more in the 

 course of every century.* 



A very striking and important 

 exaimple of the means by which, 

 in the hands of Providence, the 

 world is governed, we have in the 

 history of tlie Reformation, to which 

 we may be permitted to refer with- 

 out being thought too digressive, 

 the rather that this grand event 

 was the forerunner, and prepared 

 the way to that general fermenta- 

 tion which burst forth, towards the 

 close of the eighteenth century, in 

 so much political convulsion. 



Had the whole Christian world, 

 at the time when Luther began to 

 preach against indulgences, been 

 devoted to the Roman faith, how- 

 ever absurd the doctrines of the 

 clergy, and however profligate their 

 lives, he could not possibly have 

 met with any considerable success. 

 Such is the power of established 

 authority, and universally received 

 opinion. But the never-ceasing 

 contests between the popes, on the 

 one part, and the emperor with 

 other sovereign princes on the other, 

 diminished of themselves the x-e- 

 verence for the papal jurisdiction, 

 and roused an inquiry into the 

 grounds on which it was established ; 

 an inquiry, which was facilitated by 

 the revival of literature. The dis- 

 coveries of grave theologians, and 

 antiquarians, were followed by the 

 ridicule of wit and humour. Sava- 

 nerola and Wickliff were aided by 

 Dante, Petrarch, and Erasmus — 

 In the beginning of the sixteenth 

 century, the primitive doctrines of 



Christianity had taken root in most 

 countries of Europe. The mate- 

 rials for reformation were collected, 

 and the foundations laid deep, be- 

 fore Luther and Calvin raised and 

 completed the superstructure. The 

 minds of men being thus prepared, 

 the doctrines of the reformers spread 

 far and wide. The reformed religion 

 was adopted and protected by so- 

 vereign states and princes : and, 

 after a war, continued with little 

 interruption for more than a cen- 

 tury, was finally established as the 

 national worship of near the half of 

 Europe, together with the balance 

 of political power, by the peace of 

 Westphalia, in 1648. This peace, 

 which terminated the disputes, reli- 

 gious and civil, between the Ca- 

 tholic powers on the one hand, and 

 the protestant powers on the other, 

 was the greatest event, and that 

 which was most characteristic of the 

 seventeenth century. From the 

 treaty of Westphalia to the middle 

 of the eighteenth century, and up- 

 wards, the spirit that still presided 

 in the great councils of Europe 

 was a jealousy of religious interests 

 and views of political aggrandize- 

 ment. Politicians talked of the ca- 

 tholic and protestant interests; and 

 so late as 1755-6, the great king of 

 Prussia, Frederic IL was called the 

 Protestant Hero. 



As the doctrines of the' Reforma- 

 tion shook the papal throne, which 

 has since fallen, in the course of 

 the seventeenth and eighteenth cen- 

 turies, so the same doctrines, toge- 

 ther with the advancement of lite- 



There is certtinly no necessary connection between human events, and a de- 

 cade of decades. There seems, however, to be some degree of connection between 

 great events, and the time requisite to form, by education, and example, that public 

 opinion and public spirit and passion, out of which great events spring. In a cen- 

 tury there are, on an average, about four distinct generations of men. 



