Courtefy, and Hofpitality, were the virtues com

mon to them all.

The difpofitions and fentiments which chivalry produced, were fo deeply rooted, that they continued to predominate long after its fpirit had evaporated, and the institution had become an object of neglect and ridicule. Generofity and a love of enterprife, the qualities to which it owed its birth, when once directed to objects that interefted the affections, were not likely to be fhort in their duration, or partial in their effects. The refined affiduities of men naturally directed the attention of women to themfelves, as well as to their admirers; and this circumftance produced a gradual improvement in female education. The men, quitting the formality of the feudal times, and the hyperbolical ftyle of making love, of which many curious inftances may be found in the old romances, became lefs artificial in their compliments, and fofter in their manners. Women became fenfible of the

importance of mental improvement, and of heightening the charms of nature with elegant accomplishments, and the graces of affability and complaifance.

Thus has a great change of manners been effected, by following up a leading principle of the inftitution of chivalry, and giving a confpicuous place to the female fex in the ranks of fociety. The paffion of love, purified by delicacy, has been heightened by the pleafures of fentiment and imagination;

gination; the fphere of converfation has been enlarged and meliorated; it has gained more propriety, more vivacity, more wit, and more variety; focial intercourfe has been divested of formality, and is regulated by the laws of true politeness. It has opened new fources of fatisfaction to the understanding, and afforded new delights to the heart. The merit of the fexes has been raised, they have become better entitled to the efteem of each other; the characters both of men and women have been marked by more amiable qualities, and the ftock of refined pleafures and focial happiness has been very confiderably increased.

VI. The Reformation of Religion.

There is perhaps no occurrence recorded in the annals of mankind, fince the first publication of Christianity, which has had fo confiderable an influence in vindicating the rights of confcience, in liberating the powers of the mind from the tyranny of fuperftition, and in the promotion of general knowledge, as the reformation of religion in the fixteenth century. Previous to this aufpicions event, all Europe bowed beneath the yoke of the Church of Rome, and trembled at the name of her fovereigns. The laws, which were iffued from the Vatican by the Popes, held emperors, kings, and all their fubjects, in the chains of obedience, or rather of flavery; and to refift their authority, or to examine their reafon

ablenefs,

ablenefs, required a vigour of understanding, and an energy of character, of which for many ages few examples were to be found. Waldus in the twelfth century, Wickliff in the fourteenth, and John Hufs, and Jerom of Prague, his friend and difciple, in the fifteenth, had inveighed against the errors of Popery with great boldness, and expofed them with great ingenuity: but their attempts to inftruct the minds of the ignorant and illiterate were premature and ineffectual. Such feeble lights, incapable of difpelling the thick darkness, which enveloped the Church, were foon extinguished at length, however, it was the gracious act of Providence to raife up MARTIN LUTHER, as the chofen inftrument of its aufpicious defigns h

This great Reformer was born of poor parents at Eifleben in Saxony. He received a learned education, and in his youth difcovered great acutenefs and vigour of understanding. He first devoted himfelf to a monaftic life in a convent of Auguftinian friars, and afterward was appointed by Frederic, elector of Saxony, profeffor of philofophy and theology in the new univerfity of Wittemberg. Having found a copy of the Bible, which had long been neglected, in the library of his convent, he abandoned all other purfuits, and

: See Interpreter of Prophecy, vol. ii. p. 41. 4th ed.

i Born 1483, His opinions widely diffused in 1518. Died 1546, aged 63 years.

devoted

devoted himself to the ftudy of the Scriptures. The pure light of revelation beamed upon his mind

he faw that Chriftianity was not to be learned from the writings of the fchoolmen, or the decrees of general councils, but from the authority of the facred Writings alone. An opportunity was foon afforded him of fhewing his zeal for truth, and his ardour for its propagation. The Dominican monks were at that time employed by pope Leo X. to fell indulgences for all offences and crimes, for the purpose of recruiting his exhausted treasury. Luther, with great ftrength of argument, preached against the irregularity of their lives, and the vicious tendency of their doctrines; and he reprefented to the people the extreme danger of relying for falvation on any other means than thofe appointed by the word of God. The more he examined the claims of the Church of Rome to its empire over the reafon and confcience of mankind, the more he afcertained their weaknefs. The difcovery of one error naturally led him to the detection of others; and from refuting the extravagant tenets concerning indulgences, he proceeded to expofe fuch as were maintained refpecting pilgrimages and penances, the interceffion and the worship of faints, the abufes of auricular confeffion, the exiftence of purgatory, and many other doctrines of the fame kind, which have no foundation in Scripture. His arguments made a deep impreffion upon his hearers, and his fame was foon fpread not

only

only through Germany, but various other parts of Europe.

At the fame time that by his fermons he was diffufing the principles of the reformation, and his writings contributed materially to the fame purpose, nothing proved more fatal to the interefts of the Church of Rome, or more fubverfive of its opinions, than his tranflation of the Bible into the German language. The copies of it were rapidly difperfed, and perused with the greatest avidity by perfons of all ranks. They were aftonished at difcovering how contrary the precepts of the great Author of their religion were to the comments and the inventions of thofe, who had fo long pretended to be the faithful interpreters of his Word. Having now in their own hands the genuine rule of faith, they thought themselves qualified to judge of the established opinions, and to pronounce whether they were conformable to the standard of Scripture, qr deviated from it. The advantages which refulted from this tranflation of the Bible, encouraged the advocates for the reformation in other countries to follow this example: and by publishing verfions in their refpective languages, they materially promoted the general caufe.

Luther has been accufed by the catholic writers,

* Robertson's Charles V. vol. ii. p. 113, &c. History of Modern Europe, vol. ii. p. 194, &c. Gilpin's Lives of the Reformers, Burpet's Hiftory of the Reformation.

of