CHAPTER I MODERN CHURCH HISTORY FROM THE POSTING OF LUTHER'S NINETY-FIVE THESES TO THE PREsent Time (1517-1902) LITERATURE Lodge: A History of Modern Europe. An exceedingly valuable collection of the essential general facts of modern European history concisely and clearly expressed. Schwill: History of Modern Europe. A scholarly and valuable short history. Duruy: History of Modern Times. To the superficial History never breaks with itself. reader it often seems that it does. study it always turns out that history is one vast, infinitely complicated, progressive movement. In its long stretches this movement invariably turns out to be a movement upward towards perfection. But perfection is always far ahead in the dim future. What we call the modern period is introduced by several striking personalities, and by tumultuous changes in society. And yet when we seek for exact dates we find that they do not exist. This is shown by the fact that historians do not agree. The division. itself is arbitrary, and is used only for convenience. The historian is not surprised at the appearance of these remarkable phenomena. He has seen them in process of becoming for centuries. And when at last they appear in their tremendous manifestations he says it is only what was to be expected. If men had been less selfish and more sincere, and altruistic, the course of events might have run in a different direction. But they have sinned grievously, and now they have to learn by bitter experience that sin will always be punished even in this world, and sadly enough the innocent are involved. The modern period begins with an upheaval that goes by the name of The Reformation. When The Reformation began it is impossible to say. Its beginnings were microscopic; its development gradual—at first imperceptible. For a long time reformers had comparatively little influence. They were going against the current, and to men less resolute the outlook must have been into hopelessness. On the other hand the hierarchy steadily and rapidly grew in strength, differentiated itself, and finally controlled all life in its various phases-social, political, literary, artistic, as well as religious. But we have also observed the rise of a general hostility to the hierarchy. This opposition became effective only when through the tyranny of the hierarchy the suffering of the world became too great for endurance. It was evident that there must be a radical change or Christendom must perish. The steps in such a process are usually growth, prosperity, ease, luxury, corruption, suffering, discontent, revolution, reformation. When discontent has matured through suffering it always expresses itself through great men. Great men are condensed expressions of universal will at critical periods in history. But they are much more than this. They are persons. They condense into themselves the whole spirit of their times and by the power of their personality give it a new impulse and point out the direction in which it shall move for a long time to come. Great men speak out the thoughts that struggle for expression in the hearts of the unrecorded millions. The motives of these men are sometimes pure, but more frequently mixed. They usually speak better than they know. Many of them would be startled if they could see the consequences that are to flow from their utterances. As a rule they intend to be conservative, but their expressions contain the germs of deep and widespread and far-reaching revolution. Many of these men have already come within our review-Francis of Assisi, Frederick II., Dante, Petrarch, Boccaccio, Marsilio of Padua, Savonarola, Wiclif, Hus. The rising spirit of the preceding centuries found. clear, simple and concise expression, but at the opening of the sixteenth century the pent-up forces of The Reformation were ready to convulse all Europe. It was the same spirit everywhere, but it was to be differently shaped by the various environments arising out of the social and political phenomena of the separate nations, and out of the peculiar mental temperaments of the great leaders. Thus in Germany it will take one form; in German Switzerland another; in French Switzerland another; and in England still another which will differ very widely from those on the Continent. But the conception of reformation once partially realized could not stop in the process of realization at the date-1648—usually given as the close of the period. The new credal statements were not ultimate. They were to serve their day and generation, and then be subject to modification just as the pre-reformation creeds had been modified. And so right on down to our own times, through differences and conflicts, through the anxious care of the conservative, and the recklessness of the radical, reformation has moved steadily on. But through it all the constants of Christian history have remained ever the same, and the faith of the individual Christian has grown clearer and stronger with every passing century. With a purified and clarified Christianity come larger and truer conceptions of the infinite worth of the individual, and consequently the better adjustment of the mutual relations of men in society. Coincident with these great social and religious. movements was the advent of printing and the new discoveries. From the beginning of the sixteenth century a new line of political and ecclesiastical development will demand the increasing attention of the historian-the growth of institutions in America. It will become ever clearer to the student of this period that nothing in history takes place suddenly; that nothing takes place in isolation, but rather always in combination; that The Reformation was not simply a religious movement of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, but rather a world movement, reaching far back into the past and far forward into the future. CHAPTER II THE PERIOD OF THE REFORMATION (1517-1648) LITERATURE Schilling: Quellenbuch zur Geschichte der Neuzeit, pp. 1-173. A very valuable and interesting collection of documents. Vedder: Historical Leaflets. Translations with critical notes from Reformation Documents. The series may be continued indefinitely-of great value. Wace and Buchheim: Luther's Primary Works. Very important. Whitcomb: A Literary Source Book of the German Renaissance. Excellent. Seebohm: The Era of the Protestant Revolution. To the very general Lindsay: The Reformation. reader the latter two volumes will be of the greatest service as placing the emphasis respectively upon the political and religious sides. Babington: The Reformation. A new, popular and valuable work. Spalding: History of the Reformation-Romanist. Balmes: European Civilization. A reply to Guizot's lectures on "The History of Civilization.' Walker: The Reformation. In Ten Epochs. A fresh and interesting statement. Häusser: The Period of the Reformation. |