CHfliCH HISTORY 



tory ; the new art and learning of the Renais- 

 Himce ; the awakening' of the spirit of nationality ; 

 and the widespread longing of the poor for re- 

 dress from the exactions of priests and nobles 

 had prepared men's minds for that great move- 

 ment in the 10th century, which issued in the 

 Protestant churches and in the division of the 

 whole of western Christendom into two hostile 

 camps down to the present day. Luther, Zwingli, 

 Melanchthon, and Calvin were its greatest leaders. 

 The Hi forma lion called forth a thousand changes 

 in human existence. As it passed from country to 

 country in all northern Europe, it broke the cloister- 

 vow, abolished celibacy, confiscated the property of 

 the Church, founded secular schools for the people, 

 stripped the clergy of their privileges ; and the 

 philanthropic duties and the tasks of civilisation, 

 which for centuries had been incumbent on the 

 servants of the Church, it gradually transferred to 

 the state and the community. Where it triumphed, 

 and even where it was successfully resisted, there 

 was no sphere of life in which its influence was not 

 felt. The communistic movement of the Anabap- 

 tists, which had been developed in the midst of the 

 religious perplexities of Germany, was crushed in 

 the ruins of Munster in 1535, and with the death of 

 ' this prodigal child of the Reformation ' passed away 

 the premature political socialism of the Reformation 

 period. The aims of the Papacy, all centred on its 

 political interests, were wholly irreconcilable with 

 the Reformers' doctrine of the priesthood of all 

 believers and the sole authority of Scripture in 

 matters of faith. The political and humanistic 

 period of the Papacy was succeeded by a regime 

 of passionate zeal, under which every nerve was 

 strained to win back the territories which had 

 shaken off the Roman yoke. The resolutions of 

 the Council of Trent (1545-63), subscribed by 255 

 prelates, separated for ever the Protestant and 

 Catholic churches, and obtained in the latter the 

 authority of a symbolical book. 



The Counter- Reformation, led everywhere by the 

 Jesuits, and favoured in Germany by the Peace of 

 Augsburg ( 1555 ), went on with great success till the 

 middle of the 17th century. It began in Bavaria 

 in 1563, and quickly spread over southern Germany. 

 But it was in France that the revived Roman Catho- 

 licism of the 16th century won its first great victory. 

 The number of the 'Religionnaires' or 'Huguenots' 

 in France had, in 1558, amounted to 400,000. From 

 the massacre at Vassy by Francois of Guise in 1562 

 to the Massacre of St Bartholomew ( August 23-24, 

 1572), four religious wars had lacerated France, 

 and during the reign of Henry III. there were yet 

 five of these desolating civil wars. The crafty see- 

 saw policy of Popes Sixtus V., Gregory XIV., and 

 Clement VIII. secured every advantage afforded by 

 the vicissitudes of the conflict, and it was not till 

 after Henry IV. had gone over to Roman Catholicism 

 that the pope in 1595 recognised him as the king of 

 France. Liberty of conscience was extended to the 

 French Protestants by the Edict of Nantes in 1598. 

 From 1555 the ecclesiastical position of each German 

 territory was dependent on the religious convictions 

 of its ruler, and the members of the Lutheran Church 

 had political equality with ' the old religion ; ' but 

 the exclusion of the Reformed from that provision 

 led to the isolation of Lutheranism from the great 

 struggles of Protestantism in France, the Nether- 

 lands, and England. The principle cuius regio, ejus 

 religio, by which subjects should follow the con- 

 fession of their rulers, unavoidably led, in the 

 political condition of Germany in the 16th and 

 17th centuries, to the breaking up of the Lutheran 

 Church into a number of small national churches, 

 and confused the development of Lutheran the- 

 ology with the dynastic and family interests of 

 the several courts. Stability was only attained 



after the fearful struggle of the Thirty Years' War, 

 when, at the Peace of Westphalia, Catholics and 

 Protestants agreed to recognise each other's right 

 to existence. The excellences of the Lutheran 

 Church were the depth and power of it- ascetic 

 elements and its religious literature, especially ita 

 hymns, the noble expression of German mysticism. 

 But the continuation and political maintenance 

 of the Reformation has been mainly the work 

 of the Reformed or Calvinistic churches. ' In a 

 time,' says Hiiusser, 'when, of all the creations 

 to the Reformation, Europe presented nowhere 

 else any solid or lasting bulwark, the little 

 Genevan state of Calvin sent out year after year 

 its apostles into the world, and was the most 

 dreaded foe of Rome, when nowhere else was 

 there any resistance to her might.' In the 

 Lutheran Church many of the Romish ceremonies 

 were retained, and congregational organisation 

 was neglected ; whereas in the Reformed churches 

 the congregations were organised on a democratic 

 basis, that had nothing akin to the traditional 

 principles of monarchical power. ' With the pas- 

 sive resistance of Luther men could not counter- 

 act the Caraflas, the Philips, and the Stuarts ; 

 that needed a school prepared for war to the 

 knife ; the only such school was Calvin's, and it 

 everywhere took up the glove in France, in the 

 Netherlands, in Scotland, and in England.' 

 Lutheranism has been established in Scandinavia 

 and the countries along the Baltic, while the 

 Reformed Church, which has throughout evinced 

 a more radical character than the Lutheran, has 

 especially prevailed in South Germany, Switzerland, 

 France, the Netherlands, and Scotland. 



In England, Edward VI., the successor of Henry 

 VIII. who had been recognised by the parliament 

 in 1534 as ' the only supreme head in erthe of the 

 Churche of England ' with the help of Cranmer, 

 Latimer, and Ridley, completed the Reformation. 

 The Common Prayer-book was introduced, and a 

 confession of faith in 42 articles drawn up as the 

 standard of the church's doctrine. After a period 

 of persecution under Mary, the Anglican Church 

 was established under Elizabeth in the closest 

 union with the state. By Elizabeth all ecclesi- 

 astical disobedience was regarded as treasonable, 

 and the legislation of her later years was directed 

 against those who took offence at the ritual and 

 the hierarchy, and were known as Nonconform- 

 ists. English Puritanism (which may be dated 

 from 1567, when its adherents began to separate 

 from the Established Church ) was at first only an 

 opposition to the ceremonial elements which the 

 Church of England still retained after its separa- 

 tion from Rome. The principle of Puritanism was 

 reformation through the members of the church 

 itself, as opposed to reformation originating with 

 the crown. It aimed at the overthrow of the 

 episcopal system, and the establishment of a strict 

 system of discipline in the spirit of Calvin. Under 

 Charles I. the Puritans were severely persecuted, 

 and many of them emigrated to America, and were 

 the early settlers of New England. English 

 Puritanism in alliance with Scottish Presbyterian- 

 ism gained in the Great Rebellion a complete 

 victory over the monarchy, but in England the 

 fruits of the victory fell to the Independents, who 

 were the most consistent section of the party. The 

 Synod of Dort in Holland (1618-19), which was 

 regarded as an oecumenical council of the churches 

 of the Calvinistic Reformation, had decided the 

 controversy between the Arminians and Calvinists 

 entirely in favour of the latter. The Westminster 

 Assembly (1643-49), called by the Long Parlia- 

 ment, drew up the confession of the Puritans, 

 which is closely akin to the resolutions of Dort, 

 and is still the standard in the churches ot Soov- 



