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tioned the ecclesiastical system under which such practices were possible. But terrible as were the evils which polluted the Church of Rome, we must not forget that nearly all the Christians in Europe-the holiest and the best-were then members of it, believing it to be the one true Church, and many had arisen at different times to testify against its corruptions. Such were Wycliffe, Huss, and Savonarola.

A crisis came in 1517, when the monk Tetzel traversed Germany to sell indulgences, that funds might be raised for rebuilding St. Peter's church. They were no new things, though Tetzel attributed fresh virtues to them. Everywhere he preached that their purchasers were freed not only from penance but from sin, and that guilt of the blackest dye could thus be removed. This blasphemous pretence, that the forgiveness of God could be bought and sold, roused Martin Luther to begin a contest which led to mighty results.

He was then about thirty-four years of age, having been born at Eisleben, in Saxony, in 1483. His father, a poor but upright man, struggled hard to make his son a scholar, and Luther studied diligently, though often in great poverty. While at the university of Erfurt, he lighted upon a Bible which he read with thrilling interest; for it was his strongest desire to know and do the will of God. Longing to win eternal life at any cost, he resolved to become a monk; but he found by sad experience that the convent doors could not shut out his perplexities. In vain he tried austerities and penances, and his health so gave way beneath the mental struggle that he looked the shadow of his former self. In this state of mind the words of a gifted ecclesiastic of high rank, and of a poor simple-minded monk, bidding him seek forgiveness from God through Christ, came to him like messages from heaven.

A little later he visited Rome, and, though Alexander VI. was no longer pontiff, the prevailing worldliness and irreligion shocked him inexpressibly.

Seven years after, when he was a doctor of divinity at Wittemberg, Tetzel appeared with his indulgences, and Luther could not keep silence; so he wrote a paper, setting forth in plain words how false and useless they were, and affixed his protest to the church door. He then thought only of reform, for he was still a dutiful son of Rome, though soon to be cast out from her communion.

In 1520 the Pope issued a bull, or edict, threatening Luther with excommunication, unless within sixty days he retracted the heretical opinions in his published works. For reply he publicly burnt the bull outside the walls of Wittemberg, in the presence of a vast and wondering throng. He was then summoned to Worms by Charles V., to appear before the diet, or general assembly of the German princes, and a safe conduct was granted to him, But his friends feared that he might be seized and put to death by his enraged enemies; and indeed the emperor was pressed to commit this villany, but he remembered that his kingly word had been passed.

During Luther's journey people everywhere flocked to see the monk who thus went forth to withstand, single-handed, the powers of Church and State. On the second and most eventful day of his appearance at the diet, even he quailed for a moment, and in an agony of shrinking appealed to God for help. But he stood calmly before the august gathering of his crowned and mitred judges, and spoke clearly and at considerable length, saying that if he were convinced that his views were erroneous he would at once withdraw them, but while he believed them to be true, that was impossible. Then, while the torch-light flashed on the listening faces of the men in whose power he was for life or death, he finished his defence with words which peal through the distance of 300 years like a trumpet blast, "Here I stand, I can do no otherwise. God help me! Amen!" "Thus, like some Alpine summit, Calm in the light of heaven,

While round its agitated base

Dark thunder-clouds are driven :

In peace, though 'sieged by tempests,

'Midst tumult, yet at rest;

There stood the man whom Rome hath curst,
But whom his Lord hath blest!

What boots her wrath ?-the banner
Of Christ has been unfurled,
And a poor Saxon monk becomes
The hero of a world!"

Luther was by no means faultless; he was often betrayed by his vehemence into intolerance, and into coarse violence of language,-those common failings of his day. But few have a better title to be called great. Unselfish, true, strong-willed, and warm-hearted, he was one of those really brave men who fear none save God, but fear Him with all their hearts. He ever rebuked the oppressor, ever sided with the oppressed. We see him hearty and genial among his friends, or weeping in bitter sorrow by the death-bed of his little daughter; and ever the same Luther until that last hour when those faithful hands were folded in their well-earned rest.

We have not space here even for the names of half the illustrious men who took part in the religious struggle of the 16th century, but a few must have a brief notice. Among them was the gentle, gifted scholar, Melancthon, Luther's beloved helper; and Erasmus, one of the chiefest intellectual lights of the age.

The Swiss reformer, Ulrich Zwingle, was born a few months after Luther, and to him also the study of the Bible brought fresh light; while the crowning iniquity of the sale of indulgences decided his future attitude towards the Church of Rome. He was an upright, noble-minded, magnanimous man, of much learning, and some of his views were simpler and broader than those of Luther.

In Switzerland there were fewer hindrances to free discussion than in most other countries; and Zwingle's

own canton of Zurich was the first to embrace the reformed faith. But soon the progress of the new doctrines excited the anger of those cantons which adhered to the old creed, and discussions arose which ended in war.

Luther had steadily asserted that it would ill become the Church to adopt the weapons of earthly warfare; but, unhappily, Zwingle thought otherwise, and, though broken-hearted at the position of affairs, believed it to be his duty to aid in the defence of Zurich. He felt that he was going to his death, but for him it had no terrors; and in 1531 he fell, pierced with many wounds, on the fatal field of Cappel, his last words being, "They may indeed kill the body, but they cannot kill the soul."

In 1509, while Luther and Zwingle were yet unknown to the world, John Calvin was born in France. Naturally timid, shy, and studious, he early showed that for what he believed to be truth he would be as bold as a lion. Whatever we may think of that stern theology which goes by his name, the dauntlessness, sincerity, and earnestness of this great reformer are as conspicuous as his talents and achievements; whether we see him a wandering exile, or in power and influence at Geneva, the city with which he is mainly associated.

The blot on his career, deeply to be deplored, is his prominent share in putting Servetus to death for his heresies. That strange, unworthy genius was condemned to be burnt by the Roman Catholic authorities at Vienne, but made his escape. When he came to Geneva, Calvin took the lead in having him sentenced to death; though he struggled hard, but in vain, to have its form altered to one less terrible.

It is clear that he was satisfied that he was right in thus acting, and that others of the reformers agreed with him; for then the large majority of persons thought it as due to punish heresy as murder. We may take the lesson to heart as one still needed to remind us—although it is no longer the fashion to kill heretics-that however

false a religious doctrine may be, God has given no commission to erring men to cause any to suffer in body or estate for errors of belief.

Long before old age, disease had laid a mortal grasp upon the frail, slight form of Calvin, which had been but little spared by the never-resting spirit which it served. In 1564 the members of the Consistory at Geneva wrote against his name in their register, “He went to God on the 27th of May in this year."

Meanwhile the attempt of Charles V. to overthrow the Protestant party led to hostilities in Germany; but he was obliged to concede religious liberty, afterwards solemnly confirmed at the Diet of Augsburg, in 1555, by the declaration called "The Peace of Religion." In 1618 the disputes between the two parties led to the Thirty Years' War. In it fell the noble Gustavus of Sweden, the "Lion of the North." It filled Germany with ruin and misery indescribable, and cost her about twelve million lives. It was closed by the peace of Westphalia, in 1648, which established religious equality.

Questions.-Who was Luther? For what is he chiefly famous ? Give a short account of his life. What other men took a leading part in the Reformation?

THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND.

As on the continent of Europe, so in England, the way had long been preparing for the Reformation of the 16th century. The apostolic Wycliffe had fulfilled his sacred mission through his lowly life, protected by the powerful John of Gaunt. Like Luther, he translated the Bible into his mother tongue, so that the unlearned could read it for themselves. He died in 1384, just 100 years before the birth of Luther; but his teaching

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