Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... BOOK III. ENDEAVOURS TO RENDER THE REFORMATION NATIONAL AND COMPLETE. 1521--1525. The peculiar character and form which the Latin church had gradually assumed gave rise, as we have already seen, to the necessity for its reform; --a reform demanded by the state of the world, and prepared by the national tendencies of the German mind, the advancement of learning, and the divergencies of theological opinion. We have likewise remarked how the abuse of the traffic in indulgences, and the disputes to which it gave birth, led, without design or premeditation on the part of any concerned, to a violent outbreak of opposition. While we regard this as inevitable, we cannot proceed further without pausing to make some observations on its extreme danger. For every member and every interest of society is enlinked with the whole established order of things which forms at once its base and its shelter; if once the vital powers which animate this mass are thrown into conflict, who can say where the victorious assailants will find a check, or whether every thing will not be overwhelmed in common ruin? No institution could be more exposed to this danger than the papacy, which had for centuries exercised so mighty an influence over the whole existence of the European nations. The established order of things in Europe was, in fact, the same militarysacerdotal state which had arisen in the eighth and ninth centuries, and, notwithstanding all the changes that had been introduced, had always remained essentially the same--compounded of the same fundamental elements. Nay, even those very changes had generally been favourable to the sacerdotal element, whose commanding position had enabled it to pervade every form of public and private life, every vein of...