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REFORMATION. 



through the reformation. This broke the fetters 

 in which i lie hierarchy had bound the human mind; 

 w rested from the clergy the abused monopoly of 

 knowledge ; established and protected freedom of 

 thought and the liberty of the press ; awakened a 

 spirit of investigation and a love of learning, and 

 opened to criticism, in all branches of knowledge, 

 a boundless field. Among the first promoters of it, 

 there were some men, who loved tranquillity, that, 

 like Erasmus, remained ostensibly attached to the 

 ancient church; but their principles, their exertions, 

 the spirit of their works, showed beyond dispute 

 that tiiey really belonged to the Protestant party. 

 The principle of freedom from human authority, 

 pronounced by the reformation, opened the way to 

 all scientific improvement. The Bible being now 

 acknowledged as the only rule of faith, it became 

 the duty of every theologian to understand the 

 Greek and Hebrew text. This naturally led the 

 Protestants to an acquaintance with the language 

 of Homer and Plato, which Reuchlin had first re- 

 commended to the Germans, and to the cultivation 

 of Oriental literature, of which none but the Jews 

 and Arabs then knew any thing. A multitude of 

 old Latin and Greek manuscripts, which till then 

 had been not at all, or but partially understood, 

 were brought to light from- the dusty libraries of 

 the abolished convents and by the critical diligence, 

 mostly of the Protestant literati, were made capable 

 of being generally used. Science sprung into new 

 existence, with the freshness and strength of youth, 

 when Melanchthon, who had become wiser and 

 better for his studies, and the bold and industrious 

 Calvin, were the teachers of Germany and France. 

 This effect of the reformation appears strikingly 

 from the fact, that before its commencement the 

 south of Germany was superior in literary refine-' 

 ment to the north ; and half a century later, when 

 Protestantism had fixed its seat in the north, the 

 reverse was the case ; and, from that period, the 

 Protestant countries of Europe have far outstripped 

 the Catholic in intellectual cultivation. 



The influence of the reformation on the arts was 

 less happy. It removed the images from the 

 churches, and deprived the masses of their drama- 

 tic and musical attractions. It repressed the pre- 

 dominance of imagination, and restored to reason 

 its rights. It taught men to prefer the good to the 

 beautiful, and to feel a dignity in despising those 

 means of excitement which operate through the 

 senses, and to abstain from outward splendour. 

 This severity to the arts, which cut off their con- 

 nexion with religion, and robbed them of that share 

 of public veneration which they had received from 

 Catholicism, met with its punishment in the decline 

 of the fine arts among the Protestants. This was 

 particularly the case with the Calvinistic or Re- 

 formed party; for the Lutherans retained many 

 paintings in their churches and always celebrated 

 their festivals with music. On the other hand, Pro- 

 testantism inspired a love of devotional poetry, and 

 was favourable to eloquence, as it made the sermon 

 the chief part, the very soul, of public worship, 

 and, by the introduct ; on of the vernacular tongues 

 into the liturgy, gave them a dignity which had an 

 important influence on the national literature of the 

 people under its sway. The useful arts were great- 

 ly promoted by t.ie reformation. It aroused a 

 spirit of seriousness, accuracy and perseverance; 

 it promoted commerce and public prosperity; and 

 England, the north of Germany, and Switzerland, 

 have shown that, in this respect, no Catholic nation 

 can compare with them. 



The most visible consequences of the reforma- 

 tion, and those long since most fully acknowledged 



in history, are those which relate to politico. The 

 church was no longer independent of, but became, 

 incorporated with, and merged in the state. Th 

 reformers had no political object in view; but tiieir 

 work first attained a political importance and direc- 

 tion on account of the zeal of its great enemy for 

 worldly dominion. A large proportion of those 

 abuses of the ancient religious usages in which 

 all ranks, including even well-disposed clergymen, 

 found a motive to urge the reformation of the 

 church rested on the political encroachments and 

 avaricious demands of the popes. On them, not 

 the clergy only, but the nations and princes, were 

 made dependent ; to them they were obliged to pay 

 enormous tributes, under various pretexts, increas- 

 ed from age to age. Their influence extended to a 

 great part of the administration of public justice, 

 in consequence of the ever-augmenting extent of 

 the episcopal jurisdiction, and the power which the 

 papal legates assumed to the injury of the bishops. 

 Hence the princes were perpetually interrupted in 

 the exercise of their authority by the church, which 

 firmed, as it were, a state within the state. The 

 kings of France alone were able to maintain a po- 

 sition of honourable independence. The mass of 

 the people was oppressed; in the administration of 

 government, arbitrary rule and personal authority 

 every where prevailed over legal order. In the 

 nobility, there was a spirit of rudeness and violence, 

 which led them continually to violate the rights of 

 the other classes. No wonder that, under these 

 circumstances, the magic name of evangelical free 

 dom immediately awakened thoughts of civil liber- 

 ty, and became to the suffering people a signal for 

 insurrection. Still, however, the guilt of having 

 occasioned the peasants' war can as little be charged 

 to the reformers, who expressly discountenanced 

 such excesses, and laboured both by word and deed 

 to check them, as the foolish struggle of the Ana- 

 baptists against all civil order. Wherever the re- 

 formers, in their advance, impinged on the relations 

 of civil life or of established rights, they went to 

 work with a moderation which gained for them the 

 confidence of governors and princes. The Swiss 

 reformers, indeed, were far bolder than those of 

 Wittenberg; they were favoured with republican gov- 

 ernments, and acted with the consent of the rulers. 

 The course of the reformation in Protestant Ger- 

 many, and Switzerland generally, was this: The 

 communities, particularly in the cities, negotiated 

 with their rulers according to their own consciences 

 and the advice of the reformers. The princes con- 

 curred in their plans, and established institutions 

 accordingly. In Prussia, Sweden, Denmark, Eng- 

 land, and those German states which carne over later, 

 the princes made changes of their ovn accord, and 

 the people found themselves sinking gradually into 

 the new forms imposed upon them. Where the go- 

 vernment continued Catholic, the friends of the new 

 doctrines exercised their worship in secrecy and si- 

 lence. The reformation liberated the princes from all 

 the obligations and grievances which their depen- 

 dence on a foreign spiritual power had imposed on 

 them. They now obtained for themselves the episco- 

 pal privileges which had once limited their authority; 

 and the instruments of power, which had formerly 

 served the church, came, as far as Protestantism 

 permitted their use, into their hands. Ttie return 

 of the clergy to civil society increased the number 

 of their subjects, and various causes augmented 

 their resources and the prosperity of their people 

 beyond computation. These were the acquisition 

 of the church estates, which had come under their 

 power, or, as in the case of the abolished convents, 

 into their possession ; the cessation of the vast 



