642 
of several mendicant orders ; the seventy 
years captivity at Avignon; the forty 
years of schism that followed; the rival 
pretensions of two and sometimes three 
popes, whe excommunicated each other; 
the abuse of indulgences ; the exactions 
of all kinds; the intolerance and cru- 
elties of the inguisition: all these 
Taised up enemies te the Roman hier- 
archy—the power which was founded 
solely on opinion, and opinion had now 
begun to be its enemy ! a. 
In fine, a thousand voices were raised 
to invoke a reformation of the church 
both in the head and in the members, 
in faith and in morals. ‘ Three coun- 
cils in immediate succession, those of 
Pisa, Constance, and Basil, had dis- 
covered and probed the wounds of this 
old body. Discontent had become more 
general than ever at the commencement 
of the sixtenth century; and in the very 
midst of this state of things, a young aud 
voluptuous Medicis ascended the pon- 
tifical throne. A friend to the fine arts, 
whence: he expected nothing but cele- 
brity and enjoyment; an artful but a 
presumptuous politician; prepossessed 
with scorn against the grossness of the 
Germans, under which he did not discover 
a profoundness and a virility of character; 
all the energy of which he was destined 
to experience. Leo.X. did not possess 
sufficient vigour to engage with Luther ; 
so that the haughty weakness of the one 
prepared a harvest of success for the in- 
trepid firmness of the other. 
Ill. Knowledge. 
The ignorance brought along’ with 
them by the barbarians of the North, 
secoided by long and civil wars, had al- 
most effaced every trace of mental cul- 
tivation. The little knowledge propa- 
gated during the middle ages existed 
only among the ecclesiastics, and in 
the cloisters, where the study of the Ro- 
man language, which had become that 
of the Roman church, served to keep up 
some communication with the writers of 
ancient Rume. Study was, in a great 
measure, interdicted to the laity, and that 
of the ancient languages was considered 
as a species of idolatry; while the read- 
ing of the Scriptures was wholly pro- 
hibited, : 
“ For any one to read the Bible, with- 
out permission from his superiors, had 
been long considered a crime ; to trans- 
Jate it into the vulgar language, was a 
temerity that called for punishment. An 
universal and impenetrable darkness be- 
came ,the necessary. consequence ; and 
$ 
Retrospect of French Literature—Hisiorys 
the horrible inquisition was invénted, té 
extinguish in blood and tears, every ray 
of that light which might be shed by 
chance onthe bosom of night. But the 
efforts of man cannot always suspend the 
course of nature. The university of 
Paris had already followers and imitators 
wortiy of her, beth in Germany and in 
England. Wirtemberg, where Luther 
and Melancthon were professors, had 
been founded; princes learned to glory 
in being the pretectors of letters; while 
the ancient languages, history and. cri- 
ticism, began to be taught, notwithstand- 
ing the clamours of the partisans of igno- 
rance. Science now started from her 
fetters, and by degrees discovered her 
ancient compact with error. Commerce 
to different countries, and the discovery 
of a new world, had rendered mankind 
predisposed to receive new ideas. The 
art of printing, an incalculable benefit ta 
the human race, had been invented on 
the banks of the Rhine: im another ex- 
tremity af Germany, on the borders of 
the Vistula, Copernicus had reformed 
our knowledge of the heavens, and de= 
veloped truths which the pontifical bulls 
have never since been able to change.” - 
Erasmus of Rotterdam, was at the 
head of those who declared on the side 
of knowledge. Reuchline, a famous 
German  pliilologist, excited a lively 
enthusiasm for the stady of languages, 
particularly the Greek and Hebrew ; but 
he was opposed by the Dominican Hock. _ 
straten, who had obtained an imperial 
edict to burn all Hebrew books, as dee 
structive to the true faith. 
IV. The Reformation. : 
Under this head we are told, that 
Christianity was introduced at different 
times among different nations, and that 
it every where received lucal modificas 
tions, in conformity to the genius of the 
people. On its alteration to the ‘ca- 
tholic faith,” it was changed also in its 
very essence by the innovations of the 
court of Rome, its monks, and theolo- 
gians. The ‘ catholicity” of the present 
day is also different in diferent places ; 
that of Madrid being unlike that of. 
Paris, and that of Rome dissimilar to 
that of Vienna: those varieties all pro- 
ceeding from the varieties in the cha 
racters of the nations. 
‘the luxurv and corruption of the Asi- 
atics, had been transplanted into the 
city of the Casars. There worship be- 
came an object of sense, and religion a 
mythology; pompous ceremonies stp- 
plied the place of simple prayers; while’ 
“secs Sema phe saints, 
