(8) The Reformation. Martin Luther (A.D. From the eighth century to the middle of the eleventh, the German people became evangelized and gave full promise of their future large place in universal Christian thought and life. At the end of the Middle Ages the Saxon and the Latin Church confronted each other. The Latin represented the past ; the Saxon, the future and the permanent. The force which destroyed the old and strong Roman conditions was titanic. The Saxon hammer was irresistible. The Germans of the North were kinsmen to the Saxons and Angles of Britain. Wycliffe and Luther were from a common cradle of Teutonic honesty and liberty.
Protestantism was an oak of young and vigor ous growth in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, but its roots lay deep in the soil of the twelfth and the intervening centuries. Among those whose work directly contributed to the Re formation are, in France: Hugo (1097-1141) and Richard (died 1173), both of St. Victor, Peter d' Ailly (1350-1425), John Charlier Gerson (1363 1429) and Nicholas Clemanges (1360-1440) ; in Germany Master Eckart (died about 1328). John Tauler (1290-1361), and Henry Suso (1295-1365) ; in the Netherlands, John Ruys broek (1293-1381) and John of Goch (1401-1475) : in Bohemia, John Huss (1373-1415) and Jerome of Prague (died 1416) ; in England, John Wycliffe (born about 1315) ; and, in Italy, Jerome Savona rola (died 1498).
The Reformation had two characteristics—one national, with all the individuality of race and land that might be expected; the other cosmopol itan, having general fibre and color, always the same, whatever the country or people, from Nor way to the Alps, and from Transylvania to the Bay of Biscay. The Reformation has proved to be the chief turning-point in modern history. It is that great religious and intellectual revolution which marks the boundary line between the Mid dle Ages and the Modern Period.
The call for regeneration was deep and loud. Superstition had become interwoven with the pure doctrine of the gospel. The morals of the clergy, from the papacy down to the humblest monks, had become currupt. The highest ecclesiastical offices were reached by vicious means. The com mon people were purposely kept in ignorance.
Against these evils, ruinous at once to intellect and soul, the Reformers made their bold protest, and called upon the people to rally to their stand ard. Their aim was, at first, a purification of the Church within itself and by its own servants. This proved a total failure. The next step was to with draw from the fold and establish an independent confession and a separate ecclesiastical structure.
This succeeded; and the result is that vast and ag gressive sisterhood of Protestant Churches which exists to-day in all the advanced countries of the world.
All the Teutonic nations had been ripening for the great eccelsiastical revolt, and Central Ger many now became the theater for the Reforma tion. The popular mind was so fully ready that the only great need now was a man of sufficient courage, ability and singleness of purpose to be come the representative of his generation. Luther responded to the universal aspirations for a leader to guide surely and safely into the new paths.
Martin Luther was born in Eislcben, Saxony, November 12, t483, and died in the same place February 18, t546. His father was a miner of humble tastes and scanty means. His mother used to carry on her back the wood necessary for the comfort of the humble home. In this son were the calm judgment, the solid sense, and the sturdy valor of the colder blond of the North. But with these was blended the current of a gen tle. cheerful and tuneful nature, a sympathetic and social feeling, which stood him in good stead in his later struggles.
He was educated at Magdcberg. Eisenach, and the University of Erfurt, and in 15(38 he entered upon his great career as a professor in the Uni versity of Wittenberg. On October 31, t517, he nailed his Theses to the door of the Schlosskirche of Wittenberg, and then began the storm which lasted until the day of his death.
(9) The Reformation in England. (A. D. 1509-1 603.) To England belongs the ho., or of having discovered the need of a universal religious regeneration in Europe. The beginnings of reform centered in Wycliffe, a student and afterwards a professor in Ox ford. His first position of hostility to the prevail ing doctrines was his denunciation of the mendi cant monks, who went up and down the land, ex torting money from the people, and preaching against learning and progress in every form. He became master of Canterbury Hall, the Christ College of a later day. The Pope issued a bull in zno to eject 'Wycliffe, who replied in a ringing tract. Edward l l I, the king. took up the cause of Wycliffe. who was appointed a royal chaplain and rector of Lutterworth Wycliffe gained a clearer view of the corruptions of the Church and preached boldly against them. Twice he was tried and escaped, yet not without being forbidden to preach and write. But he continued to hurl an athemas against willful pope and deluded priests. He died a natural death at Lutterworth.