itself put to flight the errors and prejudices which, in the barbarous ages, had, by arrogance or stealth, assumed the authority of truth. The sciences and the fine arts, which awoke again about this time, and seemed by so long a sleep to have acquired new powers for action, had occasioned a ferment throughout all Europe, which could result in nothing less than a thoroughgoing revolution of the whole system of opinions and principles among its inhabitants. Amid this general ferment, which such means must powerfully have produced, the spirit of those with whom it began, must have acquired a new sense and relish for truth. A stronger desire to gratify this relish, was awakened. The spirit felt itself more free, or at least feit the chains more intolerable that bound it; and therefore itself more eager and courageous to break them. And not only so, but often against its will and against its purpose, the bands, which it was too spiritless to break, finally fell off themselves.

With the languages of the ancient Greeks and Romans, had spread forth anew at least that portion of their spirit which will forever live in their writings. Mighty effects were produced by its influence. It attuned the spirit of the age to freer thought. It prepared the mind for the reception of truth; and, what is still more beneficial, it imparted that noble decision and fire with which truth, to be effective, must be received. The study of the wisdom, the history, and the arts of the ancients, (upon which this age fell at first with all the zeal with which one employs newly discovered faculties or examines newly discovered treasures,) imperceptibly gave another turn to all its conceptions and another direction to its activity, opened a new world to its views, and pointed out to its faculties a sphere of action by which their activity itself must have been still further increased. Thus in less profound silence, not only was the amount of its knowledge increased, but its power of acquiring knowledge. Not only were new objects presented to its eye, but the medium through which it had hitherto seen all things, was quite otherwise polished, and nothing any longer appeared in the light, nothing any longer in the condition, in which it had hitherto been viewed. And now it was inevitable, that the general change must also take hold of the religious system. Illumination of views in matters of belief, was the necessary consequence of the general illumination which spread itself at the commencement of the sixteenth century; but it depended on external circumstances, whether it should continue to spread and operate

only in connexion with this, or whether it should spread more rapidly, and then even lead the way for this, as was actually the fact in the sequel.*

The history before the Reformation most strongly confirms this theory. At the close of the fifteenth century and fully in the beginning of the sixteenth, before Luther was born or had come forward, the illumination consequent on the return of the sciences to the West,† had begun among the more sagacious of all nations. The distinguished men who chiefly contributed to their restoration, received their reward in being the first to learn, by the help of these sciences, to burst the bands by which ignorance and superstition had chained the human soul.‡ The sys

One of the most efficient preparatives to general illumination, was doubtless the revival of the study of the vernacular tongues, which produced the most visible change in the minds of men and in the general communication of ideas. The scholastic chains must almost necessarily have fallen of themselves, as soon as men began to write on theological matters, in German, for the language was not fit for this subtilizing. For men now at once to utter ideas in German, which, for whole centuries, they had been accustomed to think in Latin, to speak in Latin, and to pervert in Latin, this must have made the greatest revolution in the whole system of thought among the men of that age: not to mention, that, by the use of the German and other vernacular languages, the listening public would be endlessly increased; that more might hear and more converse; and that now the whole nakedness of the various dogmas of the Romish court, the proofs of which adhered only to the Vulgate translation, must be disclosed.

When Constantinople was taken by the Turks, 1453, most of her literati, then superior to any in the west of Europe, fled to Italy and other western kingdoms; and wherever they went, the lights of science and literature, already kindled from the torch of the Saracens in Spain, were greatly augmented.-TR.

This influence in most cases was good, but upon not a few persons, it was altogether too violent. The rising light of science, which waked religious reformers in Germany, made deists in Italy. So many infamous men never lived there together as from the conquest of Constantinople to the breaking out of the Reformation; and had not the Platonic philosophy [then just revived in Italy by the Medici, TR.] and its consequent mysticism, a little checked the stream, in this age of Aretin and Pomponatius, [an atheist, born at Mantua, 1462, TR.] the greatest wreck of morals would have been the consequence of this scientific illumination. It would not perhaps be difficult to show how this different effect must have sprung, or at least might spring, from the difference of character and external circumstances; but here is not the place for it.

tem of Romish politics appeared to their eye in its true condition, and it depended on them merely, whether they would further spread the light which presented itself to them. The reason why so many did not do this, is found chiefly in their external circumstances and their character, but from the examples of Gerson, and of Clemengi, of Savonarola and of Wessel,* the attention they excited, the loud approbation they found, and the subsequent effects first manifested from their efforts in the following age, we may venture to conclude for certainty, that before Luther, thousands already believed just what Luther first learnt, step by step, to believe. Not only Wicklif and Huss and their followers, who were at no time completely exterminated, were defenders of the truth which this age had to exhibit, but even in the midst of Italy, in Rome, in the cloisters of all the monastic orders, there were numberless individuals, who for themselves, perhaps without having once heard the name of a Wicklif or a Huss, had long known the errors of the doctrinal system, long perceived the abuses of the Romish power, and had not only sighed over them in silence, but, for at least their own satisfaction, had altered and improved some articles of the system according to their conviction. There were many Staupitzest among all orders, and although only a few came forward openly, who will venture on that account to cast stones at them? Some of these secret, and, if you please, excessively cautious friends of truth, held to those doctrines which were always unadulterated even in the Romish church, and believed they must endure adulterations in secondary things, which they could not attack without putting in jeopardy the main principles. Others operated perhaps in their narrow circle as much as they could, strove against error as they found opportunity, or at least

Gerson, chancellor of the high school at Paris, who played a chief part at the council of Constance. Du Pin published his works at Antwerp, 1706. Opera Nicolai de Clemengis edita a Jo. Lydio, Lugduni Bat. 1613. Vie de Savonarole par Jaq. Juetif, Paris, 1674.

John Wessel, otherwise called Basilius Frisius and also Lux Mundi, a distinguished theologian of the 15th century. He complained of the scholastic theology, was indignant at the abuse of papal power, and set up almost the same principles respecting indulgences, purgatory, and the merit of works, which Luther afterwards maintained. His works were printed together at Groningen, 1614, and a collection of his smaller theological papers, by Arn. Vargellanus, under he title, Wesseli Groningensis, Farrago rerum theologicarum, Wit. 1521.

John Staupitz, abbot of Saltzburg, died in 1524. — TR.

followed quietly their own conviction, without making a bustle about it; only the scene of their operation was too small for them to be generally noticed, and the seed which they scattered sprung up only in secret, like seed of the most of the good among us, without betraying the hand that had sowed it. Others, again, on the score of conscience, believed that they must operate only indirectly and silently, because they were firmly persuaded that direct attacks on the Romish chair, would not only effect nothing, but would certainly injure the cause of truth. So thought the most enlightened among all nations. So thought their leader Erasmus. And according to the experience of more than a century, according to innumerable examples which they had before them, and even according to all the external circumstances which could then be contemplated, they had in fact no small cause so to think. But it is quite certain, that Erasmus had no less insight into the faults of the Romish system, no less knowledge of its defective spots, even no less inclination to expose them, and no less zeal to correct them, than the warmest of our reformers. In private, in the circle of his confidential friends, in the ear of a Frobonius, he certainly poured forth more than Luther in the ear of an Amsdorf or a Bugenhagen. But that politic, that prudent man, measuring each step by its probable consequences, then also not sufficiently decided, and too anxious for his fame and his ease, always saw that there might be more danger in an open rupture, than good to arise from it. A gradual preparation for the general illumination, influence upon the people of the higher order down to the lower, this he regarded as a far safer means, and held it his duty to contribute to it all in his power. This duty Erasmus performed faithfully enough, and he at least ought not to be condemned for acting on a different conviction from that of Luther. His letters show what he thought, on every page, and posterity must do him the justice to own, that he, the enemy of Luther, performed a vast deal of preparatory work for Luther.*

* What Erasmus thought and taught, need not here be adduced. But as to what he thought in particular of the business of a reformer, and of the reformation, whether a man may be properly bound, under all circumstances, with equal zeal to impart to the world his convictions on matters of religion, and in case of necessity, to obtrude them, on these points, he may here produce his own confession. "Should I tell you," he writes to one of his most confidential friends, "by whom and in what ways I have been urged to join in Luther's

But not only did the character, the timidity, and the indecision of those who learnt the truth before Luther, longer delay business, by what arts some endeavored to allure, and by what odium some endeavored to impel me, then might you perceive how much dissensions disgust me. But my resolution is fixed, and will remain so forever, to be torn limb from limb, rather than foment discord, especially in matters of faith. Many who favor Luther, cantingly abuse the passage, 'I came not to send peace, but a sword.' Although I think I see that there are some things received in the church, which might be changed to the great benefit of religion, yet nothing pleases me which is done by such a tumult." Epp. L. I. ep. 2. To Luther himself, he writes: "I keep myself free, as I may, that I may better serve the cause of reviving literature. And it appears to me that greater benefit will accrue from civil modesty than from violence. Thus Christ brought the world into subjection to himself. Thus Paul abolished the Jewish law, bringing all to allegory." Epp. L. VI. ep. 5. Still more openly does he show his principles, in a letter to Campegius, Epp. L. XIV. ep. 1: "Although it is never lawful to oppose the truth, yet it is expedient sometimes to conceal it on occasion. But it is always of prime importance to inquire, how you may bring it forward in good time, conveniently, and aptly. Among themselves, theologians acknowledge some things which it would not be expedient to divulge to the people. If the corrupt morals of the Romish court require a great and present remedy, certainly it does not belong to me or those like me, to assume the province. I prefer the present state of human affairs, whatever it is, rather than that new tumults should be excited, which very often end differently from what was expected. I never was and never shall be knowingly the master of error, nor shall I ever be the leader or the associate in any tumult. Let others affect martyrdom; I do not think myself worthy of that honor." Nearly in the same manner, he writes, Epp. L. XVI. ep. 13: “I know any thing is rather to be borne, than that the general state of the world should be changed for the worse. I know it is the part of piety sometimes to conceal the truth; and that it should not be brought forward on every occasion, nor before every company, nor in every manner, nor the whole of it every where. Nor has it escaped any scholar, that some things have been received, either by gradual and surreptitious custom, or by the glossing of modern lawyers, or by the rash definitions of the scholastics, or finally by the cunning and arts of princes, which might better be rescinded: but it was the part of theological prudence, thus to attempt a cure, lest, by being badly attempted, instead of removing, it should increase the disease, and hasten death." These were the sentiments which Erasmus followed; and it will be no easy task even to show that they were erroneous, when one has read his defence of them in his letter to J. Jonas, Epp. XVII. ep. 18.