edly in a practical reform, causes, should give way before a calmer, a more discerning, a more comprehensive analysis. I desire only to insist on facts now generally admitted by impartial investigators. The services of Medieval Catholicism should, as we have seen, be no longer ignored. Neither must its corruptions be denied. The state of the Church of Christ in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries was such as to demand renovation both in its theory and in its Undoubt practice. Let us think only of its immorality, its evitable as simony, its superstitions. We have already seen that the evils which then afflicted Religion were in many ways the historical consequences of the circumstances under which Christianity had taken possession of the world; the treasure of a Divine Faith poured into earthen vessels. These evils had grown with the growth of the Church: in some doctrinal accretions they touched its vitality nearly; yet without being inherent in the essential principles of the teachings of Christ. Their removal or amendment could be effected only by practical reforms of a nature to eradicate the immorality of the times, more especially in the case of the clergy. But these reforms depended ultimately for their through a authoritative reception on a reconstitution of Chris but only possible purgation of doc trine. 1 Comp. Döllinger, The Church and Churches, Introd.; and Lectt. on Re-union of the Churches. The necessity of the Reformation is sufficiently shown by the impotence of the General Councils of the fifteenth century to abolish abuses. The episcopal system was wholly subject to Papal domination; a fact which told unhappily on the course of the subsequent movements. tian doctrine. Had the Reformation been only a moral advance;' an improvement of life and manners; as some have preferred to regard it, and as at its outset it undoubtedly seemed to its precursors; practical changes would have sufficed. It was, however, not so; the causes of the movement lay deeper; the spiritual element of disturbance was of more account than the moral; and in this fact and in its gradual superiority over all opposition lies the guarantee of continuous religious regeneration, and so of the permanence itself of Christianity. Had the results of the Reformation been solely of a Hence moral character, the ultimate interests of the Reli- spiritual gion of Christ might indeed have been imperilled. The chief cause of the existing corruption lay in the distortion of doctrine through human additions and human institutions. Where, then, stood the remedy, and what led to its adoption? It consisted in a re-examination of the Religion itself; of the traditional developments and actually existing system by the moral and by the spiritual sense of the age. If it survived the test, it was once more testing the a truly movement, persis tency of the prin 1 The moral movement which preceded the actual outburst of the Reformation (which may be considered to have formally commenced ciples of with the Papal Bull, Ersurge Domine (June 15, 1520), rejecting Christianity. Luther's propositions and excommunicating him ;) can hardly be distinguished from the religious revival which accompanied it. This exhibited itself in simple apostolical preaching; in fraternities for the encouragement of piety and good works, for the circulation of the Scriptures, and the like. Hagenbach (Vorlesungen, I. 18) points out the importance of assigning an historical commencement to the Reformation. This he identifies with Luther's Thesis at Wittenberg (1517). replaced in its native purity and dignity, as the fulfilment and crown of the aspirations of the soul of man. Such, accordingly, was the character of the witness rendered by this, the most important religious crisis in modern history, to the perSpiritual petuity of the Christian Faith. The Christianity of of Catholi-Catholicism had in the main become, (not of course cism. to all, or indeed to the highest natures,) an objec declension tive law, an external ordinance, a compendium of statutes,' as well in spiritual beliefs as on its moral side. Good and wholesome influences were still abiding in it, but trammelled and overlaid by secular corruptions. There was needed, then, a resumption of its first claims on man's intelligence and spiritual apprehension. The Religion must be seen again to be what it really is: not a set of formula for action or belief; not a visible Theocracy implicated and involved in political embarrassments by an assumption of temporal power; but rather a personal instinct of love and gratitude, based, indeed, on eternal facts of human interest; the out 1 Comp. Ullmann, u. s., II. 617; or, as M. Comte has happily expressed it, "too much of an institution, too little of a spirit." It encouraged learning, but sacerdotally; industry, but through guilds; chivalry, through military orders, &c. 2 "Protestantism, as compared with the other two great Church parties of Christendom, rests content neither with a mere intellectual appropriation of Christianity, whether in a speculative form or in a recollective form that faces a traditional doctrine; nor with a mere subjection of the will to a dogmatic or even practical Church law."— Dorner, Hist. of Prot. Th., I. 5, ed. Clark. See Ullmann, Reformers, II. 618. port of the tion come of a living faith, acting powerfully to regenerate and sanctify man's heart, transforming, as a new Divine element of life, the character of individuals and nations. No doubt, this true Christian Real imspirit manifests itself as a moral law and doctrine in Reformaagreement with its nature. But its appeal is to a higher consciousness, both as to Reconciliation with God and Sanctification, than belongs to the performance of moral duties; and rests more truly on an assurance of facts which are bound up with the mysteries of the Faith. Such was the real import of a struggle which had been maturing through many generations. Its obscured by its hisincidents have often been treated as though they torical were the simple effects of circumstance. In this view Gospel light first streamed from Boleyn's eyes. Men fought, as it appeared, for a mere dogma:1 and one, too, on which the more moderate thinkers on either side were practically agreed. But the true issues of the conflict lay deep in the constitu 1 Luther's language as to Justification by Faith is well known. It is the "articulus stantis et cadentis ecclesiæ. De hoc articulo cedere, aut aliquid contra illum largiri nemo piorum potest, etiamsi cœlum et terra et omnia corruant. Nam in hoc articulo sita sunt omnia, quæ contra diabolum et mundum universum in totâ vitâ nostrâ testamur et agimus." See Art. Smule. 305, and Form. Concordiæ, 683. Yet no attempt at a definition of this article of faith had descended from the Fathers. Melancthon, Bucer, and others, moderated the expressions of Luther. The Tridentine Fathers considered that all Luther's errors were based on his view of Justification.- Sarpi, Hist., II. p. 178. See Bp. Browne on the XXXIX. Articles, p. 285. On the first reception of the doctrine by the Catholics of Italy, see Ranke, Popes, II. i. 1. character and narrowed. tion of human nature, and involved the destinies of Christianity itself. A fresh recognition of the work of Christ for man, obscured as to its spiritual efficacy by a blank ceremonial belief, was necessary to secure the renewing of a right relation between Himself and His Church, "the blessed company of all faithful souls." A type of such a doctrinal recognition was sought and found in Justification by Faith only; and belief in it was strengthened, if not suggested, by an examination Practical of the witness of Holy Writ. Its application in most in practice involved differences, not indeed in themselves insurmountable; yet which have hitherto proved fruitful of dissension and schism. Such are a denial of sacerdotal mediation; a low estimate of ecclesiastical authority; a widely varying interpretation of the Sacraments of the Gospel; a wholly altered relation to the historical Church of Christendom. To these must be added, as fresh sources of embarrassment, the admixture of secular interests; together with imperfections of knowledge and character on the part of the leading Reformers.2 results the tractable. 1 More properly, Fides sola justificat; sed fides non est solitaria; i. e. in the words of Augustine (De Fid. et Op., c. xiv.), “sequuntur opera bona justificatum: non præcedunt justificandum." "Luther," says Chillingworth (Rel. Prot., VI. 73), "was a man of a vehement spirit, and very often what he took in hand he did not do it, but overdo it. He that will justify all his speeches, especially such as he wrote in heat of opposition, I believe will have work enough." See Sir W. Hamilton's strictures (Discussions, 491-506). "If there have been any wilful and gross errors, not so much in opinion as in fact (sacrilege too often pretending to reform superstition), that is the crime of the Reformers, not of the Reformation; and they are long |