The most fascinating character of the century whose work has lived on after him and has deeply influenced the after world is Ignatius of Loyola. A Spanish soldier, wounded at the siege of Pamplona by the French in 1521, he had his leg rebroken when it had healed in had position, hearing the awful pain in those pre anaesthetic days, rather than have his pride annoyed by the deformity. During the en faced idleness he read, after exhausting all the romances of chivalry at hand, a life of Christ and lives of various saints, particularly that of Saint Francis of Assisi, and came to the conclusion that life was only worth living when lived in imitation of the God-Man. Amidst many almost incredible difficulties, for more than a dozen years he formed his character by spiritual exercises, took up the study of gram mar in a class with little boys, supported him self by begging as one of the beggar students of the time, and gathered around him at the University of Paris a group of seven men, who in 1534 took their vows with him as members of the Company of Jesus. With true Spanish chivalry, their first object was to win over the Holy Land from the infidels by going to Jerusa lem and converting it. Prevented by war from doing this, they became teachers and mission aries in Italy. Their zeal was so great and yet so reasonable, they were so absolutely unselfish and had a charm that attracted so much atten tion, that they accomplished wonders. The Pope received them with kindness and gave them provisional confirmation of their. rule. Pope Paul III had insisted on limiting the number of religious orders because of abuses that had arisen in them, but after reading Ignatius' rule he declared °the finger of God is here,' gave them the fullest confirmation and in 1543 they were acknowledged as one of the religious orders of the Church.
The Jesuits, thus simply founded, proved to be one of the creations of that great period most far-reaching in influence. By the end of the century they had schools in nearly every country of Europe, with many thousands of pupils. A hundred years later they had some 200.000 pupils. They went as missionaries to China and Japan, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Para guay and Chile, to Farther India and to the North American Indians. They wrote many thdusands of books and their bibliography con tains over 11,000 authors. The list of Bellar mine's works fills 50 pages, double column, one of them published in 54 languages. They were discoverers in astronomy, founders in anthro pology and ethnology, writers on every scien tific topic, and Poggendorff has 500 of them in his 'Biographical Dictionary of Science.' The last prayer of Ignatius was that his order should be persecuted. As Francis Thompson said, °Most singular bequest that a founder ever transmitted, it has been singularly ful filled.° Suppressed by the Pope in 1773, they survived in Russia, were restored in the early 19th century and there are over 20,000 Jesuits in the world now.
The most disputed character of the century is Martin Luther. Lord Acton once declared his life the most difficult problem in historical writing. The movement initiated by him sep arated the Teutonic peoples from the Pope and then made their monarchs the head of both Church and State (Cujus regio ejus religio). There had been unfortunate abuses within the Church and many felt that these could not be corrected without breaking away from Rome. A number of deeply religious people followed Luther out of the Church for this reason. Po litical motives and the confiscation of the prop erty of the Church and of the religious orders helped the movement. Sweden affords a typical example of this. Most of this property had been held in trust for the poor and for education. In the religious conflict which followed, social organization for the benefit of the poor and education suffered severely. Fewer universi ties were founded, the attendance was smaller, intellectual life declined (Erasmus), there was less academic freedom (Paulson). Luther's doctrine of liberty of judgment and personal interpretation of the Scriptures soon led to a multiplication of sects, each bitterly opposed to the others. Calvin in Switzerland and Knox in Scotland are as difficult to estimate properly as Luther. They too gathered round them many of those in their environment most deeply interested in religion. Rev. Dr. Briggs sug gested that there were other and greater re formers in the century than these popular heroes. He mentioned Sir Thomas More, Erasmus and John Von Staupitz as °the three irenic spirits . . . the beacons of the greater ref ormation that was impending.° Luther's move ment began a reaction for sadly needed reform in the Church which was directed by the Coun cil of Trent (1545-63). Henry VIII, after having received the title of Defender of The Faith for writing against Luther, broke with Rome over the affair of Ann Boleyn and be came by act of Parliament the head of the Church as well as of the State. The Anglican Church as such did not come into existence un til under the boy king, Edward VI (1547-53). Queen Mary (1553-58) restored Catholicism. Anglicanism was firmly established by Eliza beth (1558-1603).
The Protestant Reformation undoubtedly brought about a great reawakening of personal religion and aroused the clergy to an ampler sense of their duties in leadership with regard to their flocks. Religion had come to be for a great many people a convention, lacking those personal elements of relationship between man and his Creator which foster the spiritual life. The Renaissance served to set the intellect of Europe rather definitely against religion, though its great leaders were exceptions to this and a profound reawakening of the spiritual life of the people was needed. The movement is too close to us even yet to be properly appreciated in its entire significance though the World War 'has helped to its understanding.