Young folks' history of the reformation

Preface

In presenting this little volume to the world, the author has not aimed at bringing forward any new or startling facts of the story of Protestantism. The ground which he has traversed has been often covered by scholars who have given it far greater research and more careful investigation. It is not for the critical reader that these pages are prepared, but to tell plainly and as concisely as possible the stoiy of the great protest.

The publishers in whose hands the book has been placed have desired to give it a new christening, and have presented it under the name of the Reformation. The author wishes to state particularly that, while the great features of the Reformation are touched upon, it is not properly a history of that great period. It is more properly a history of the period, the thoughts and influences which led up to the Reformation, and should be so considered b}' those who read it. The Reformation as such is sufficient in itself for many volumes larger than the present, and could not, by any possibility, be treated in the limited pages which are here presented.

The author wishes also to state that he has made use of material which favored his design, gathering so freely and from so many sources that to enumerate them all would be impossible within the limits of this preface. He wishes especially to mention the services of Mr. Emil

6 Preface.

Schwab, whose kindly assistance during the author's absence in Europe is most heartily appreciated.

It is well known that the principal part of this work appeared in serial form in the Goldeii Rule; and it is only at the suggestion of a host of readers that the author has dared to consent to its publication in its present shape. The work is intended to interest the young in phases of history to which very little attention has thus far been given, and which are left almost unrecognized on the part of the Christian church. Should there be some good resulting from its publication, the author wiii be content. Fred H. Allen.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Growth of Christianity 11

II. Condition of the Church 18

Chapter I. Growth Of Christianity

The history of Protestantism is not simply a history of the Reformation. It is this and more. It surrounds and includes it as the greater always includes the less. Protestantism began earlier than the Reformation, it will continue later. It is not a policy nor a church. It has neither hierarchies, armies nor edicts. It is simply a principle, existing in the bosom of Christianity and with omnipotent and voiceless energy it is charged with the purification of the church. Christianity is not a church, neither is it an empire. It is also a principle which, acting upon men, regenerates society by reforming the hearts of individuals. It leaves man in possession of his individuality and confirms him in it.

You will remember that the growth of Christianity was very rapid during the first three centuries ; its spread was extensive. The Roman nation had extended its power over most of the known world. It dictated laws and customs to many provinces, and the simple word "I am a Roman," was a passport by which men could travel from one end of the kingdom to the other with the dignity of a citizen.

The history of the development of the Papacy as an expression of Christianity, is one of the most wonderful in the world, but we can barely glance at it here. It is hard to imagine a humbler beginning, or a loftier height than that to which it eventually climbed. In its arrogance it became corrupt and that corruption became offensive to those in whose hearts the light of truth burned. There were men whose kindled lamps waxed aDd waned and flitted throughout northern Italy and the plains of southern France. Along the course of the Danube they were sent ; they gleamed upon the Moldau and tinted the pale shores of England ; they shed a glory upon the heathery hills of Scotland, and they burned like a magnificent sun upon the summit of the Alps, warming even the glaciers in their frozen bosoms. Whence came that light ? What was the principle ? Was it purely negative ? It was Protestantism. It was not purely negative.

Protestantism is a creative power. Its plastic influence is all-embracing, adjusting itself to the needs of all peoples, and defying all forms of untruth. It has become the founder of free kingdoms and the mother of pure churches. Its story is a record of the grandest dramas of all time.

The name is very recent, not more than three hundred and fifty years, but the principle is very old. It dates from the Diet of Spires, in 1529, when the Lutheran princes presented to that august bod} T a Protest against the authority of Rome. It created a new world ; disowning the creed of Rome in order that a purer faith and higher law might take its place. The authority, of infallibility gave place to the authority of the Bible. The intellect awoke from its sleep ; human society renewed its youth, and after a half of a thousand years, resumed its march to its high goal.

Growth of Christianity. 15

About the beginning of the second century the Scriptures were translated into the languages of the Roman nation and were attested by the heroic zeal of preachers, and the fiery death of martyrs.

Christianity outgrew itself. Its success set limits to its growth, and the Emperor Domitian in the year ninety-five thinking the whole world was to be lead away by this "Christian superstition," rested from his terrible work of persecution only in his death.

It arose from the ashes, left from Domitian's fires ; it sprang from the blood-stained arena, to triumph over an empire which gloried in having "crushed it. " Dignities and wealth flowed in upon it ; its enemies failed to stay its progress, and in its successes it began to assume a worldly dignity which little resembled the life and character of its founder.

While in the humble sanctuaries, and amidst the fires of pagan persecution it maintained in purity and vigor a simple faith, but it became corrupt and feeble in the gorgeous temples, and worldly dignities which it gathered around it.

From the fourth century its progress was rapid, but in corruption only. The rites and ceremonies ; honors paid to relics and the worship of images began to hide the Bible from the common people, while the leaders were busily engaged in organizing a form of religious government in which all guarantee of liberty was withdrawn, and the clergy usurped supreme authority over the members of what was called the church. Councils assembled to enact canons which were put in the place of the law of faith. The clergy began to affect titles of dignity and to extend their authorit}' to temporal matters. This seemed at first innocent enough, and it was quite agreeable to the people to have their course marked out for them, thus relieving them of personal responsibility.

Temporal disputes between church members were carried to the ministers for settlement, and we are told that the Emperor Constantine made a law confirming all such decisions, and forbidding their review by civil judges. The next fatal step was to model the external polity of the church on the plan of a civil government. The whole Christian world was divided into four great dioceses and over each was set a Patriarch. These men governed all the clergy in their domain, and raised their chairs to thrones. Where once was a brotherhood we now find a hierarchy, with grades of office from the Patriarch's chair down to the lowly state of a simple teacher.

The Bible was of course neglected, the zeal of the clergy spent itself upon rites and ceremonies, and in concentrating all the powers of the church in its external forms and practices. These multiplied until Augustine said they were more grievous than the yoke of the Jewish laws.

The Bishops of Rome began to appear in costly attire. They claimed that as Rome was the seat of the Imperial government, the oldest city, and the fountain of life to the Roman Empire so should it be the head of the church. They spoke with authority to all bishops and demanded obedience from all churches. To them were brought disputes for settlement, and they expected their decisions to be final. The Emperor saluted the Chief Bishop of Rome as Father ; foreign churches sustained him as judge in their disputes ; those who begged for favors extolled his piety ; others affected to follow his customs ; and it is not surprising that his pride, fed by continual incense, continued to grow, till at last the humble presby-

Growth of the Papacy. zy

ter of Rome, from being a vigilant pastor of a single congregation, teaching from house to house, serving the Lord with all humility, raised his seat above his equals, mounted the throne of the patriarch and exercised lordship over the heritage of Christ.

It was a custom among the Eastern churches to follow the Jews in holding the Easter feast on the day of the Jewish passover. The Western churches kept the Sabbath following. Victor, Bishop of Rome, intending to end the controversy, proclaimed himself as sole judge, and commanded all the churches to observe the feast on the same daj r with himself. The churches of the East denying his right to obedience declined to conform, upon which Victor excommunicated them. By refusing to obey a human ordinance they were shut out of the kingdom. This was the first peal of the thunder which was so often to roll from the seven hills. Thus crept in the early twilight upon the morning of the church, a twilight which deepened into a thick darkness and overspread the world later.

The descent of the northern nations through several centuries only deepened the darkness. They changed their country but not their superstitions. They beheld a religion which was served by magnificent cathedrals, imposing rites and powerful prelates, presided over by a priest in whom they found the reputed sanctity, and ghastly authority of their own Druids. These rude warriors who had broken down the throne of the Caesar's, knelt in submission before that of Popes.

The Bible has been withdrawn. In the pulpit, fable has usurped the place of truth. The silent eloquence of hoi}- lives has ceased, and superstition, like a cloud, has quenched the light of the church.

Chapter II. Condition Of The Church

From the sixth century Christianity was a mongrel system, made up of Pagan rites, northern superstitions with Christian traditions and observances.

The inward power of religion was lost, and men tried to supply its place by outward form. Ignorance predominated and learning was the exception among the clergy.

The main qualifications of the clerg}^ were that they "be able to read well, sing the matins, know the Lord's Pra} T er, psalter, and forms of exorcism." Gregory the Great was ignorant of Greek, and Baronius tells us that ''few in the sixth century were skilled in both Latin and Greek." It would seem incredible, but we have undoubted authority for the statement, that an archbishop of Mainz, lighting upon a Bible and looking into it, expressed himself thus : "Of a truth I do not know what book this is, but I perceive even-thing in it is against us."

The path downward is always trod with ever accelerating velocity ; the case of the Church appears no exception to the rule. In the early days of Christianity lamps were left burning in the subterranean crypts where the Church buried her martyred children ; assemblies met for worship in church-yards and catacombs, as places offering the greatest safety, and the Lord's Supper was celebrated in the midst of graves. It became usual to pray that the dead might be partakers in the first resurrection,

CONSTANTINE.

Co?idition of the Church. 21

and gradually prayers for the dead, regarded their deliverance from purgatory, and finally, pra} T ers to the dead, regarding their intercession in behalf of the living, came by natural sequence.

Soon the remoteness of the saints could not be tolerated ; men craved a close, tangible relation to the objects of their worship, and this the leaders sought to supply. By the grand structures which marked the prosperhVv of the Church, the gorgeous vestments, and pompous ritual, there was a cultivation of the sensuous nature of man through the eye and the feelings. Pictured representations of that which was beyond the line of vision, became necessary. Then paintings were added ; images disfigured the walls, and corpses polluted the floors and vaults of churches. The relics of martyrs were exhumed, blood and bones and ashes were preserved, and the wildest notions of miraculous cures, supernatural preservations, and unheard of powers ascribed to them. Not less true than stinging was the remark that "When the Church had golden chalices she had wooden Priests.''

The Church had now come to a point from which she could not retreat. She must go on and meet the consequences of her alliances. In the principle of external and ritualistic worship, she had become impregnated with an element alien to her spirit and antagonistic to her truth ; that from which, in fact, all the great systems that covered the earth before Christianity had sprung. The principle could not be extirpated. Its course must be run, perish, and pass away. Man seemed unable to receive the Gospel in all its greatness. Its simplicity appalled him. His heart was too narrow to take in the largeness of God's gift of eternal life through grace. He could not realize that gifts so boundless were without money and without price. He thus reasoned that conditions were necessary, and priesthood was quick to present qualifications. The early centuries present us a Gospel hardly recognizable through the fogs of the Patristic age, as that which Christ and the apostles left without a cloud dimming its radiance. The light waned gradually as men journeyed further from its source, it continued, but with shorn glory and diminished power. The desire to introduce the element of merit on the part of men, and the element of condition on the side of God, opened the door for pagan principles to creep into the church. Worship, from being a spontaneous joy, an expression of the soul's emotion, came to be a " rite" akin to Jewish formalism and Greek mythology. A rite in which couched a certain amount of human merit, which could be bought and sold. Worship was then transformed into a sacrifice, in which expiation and purification had place ; a teaching ministry became a sacrificing priesthood.

But it it is well to note the successive steps which lay between the humble pastor, and the mitred king. We have noted the decay of doctrine and of individual faith, and have hinted that this was fundamental to the rise and final assumption of the papacy. The Church forgot what was before her and suffered herself to become enveloped by what has been called an after growth of Greek philosophy and pagan idolatry. As I have intimated, the clergy assumed the position of a caste, claimed powers superior to the lanyy, called themselves mediators between God and man, and channels of grace. Thus there arose a class, standing between the Divine and the human natures, assuming to mediate between them, but wearing characteristics which convince us that the} T were made much "lower than the angels." Before the time of Constantine the polity of the Church became consolidated, and the empire was nominally Christian. In 311, when Constantine as-

Condition of the Church. 23

cencled the throne, the Church was a recognized body in the State but distinct from it.

It is manifest that the three hundred fathers who assembled in council at Nice in 325 had no idea that Rome was the recognized head. Later, under Leo the Great, a forward step was taken, and by an imperial manifesto of Valentinian III. the Bishop of Rome was proclaimed as Rector of the whole Church. The mysterious and subtle influence which seems indigenous to the soil on which his chair was placed, aided powerfully the claims of the Roman Bishop. The reverence and awe with which men regarded the " Mistress of the World," gathered around his person. In an age of factions and strifes, the e} T es of the contending parties were naturally turned to the pastor on the banks of the Tiber. In giving his advice he was careful to register it as an acknowledgment of his superiority, and on future occasions to make it the basis of new and higher claims.

Constantine built and named after himself a splendid city on the Bosphorus, and to it removed the seat of Empire. This enhanced the power of the Papal Chair. It removed from its side the only one in the nation by whom the Pope was eclipsed, and left him the first man in the old capitol of the world. The emperor had departed, but the memory of countless victories and ages of dominion still remained. The contest for precedence so long waged between the five great patriarchates, Antioch, Jerusalem, Alexandria, Constantinople, and Rome, was now restricted to two. The city on the Bosphorus, being the home of the emperor, gave to that patriarch-. ate special dignit} r , but the city on the Tiber wielded a mysterious and potent charm over the hearts of men as she does to this day. It was her prestige which won the day, and an imperial edict by Phocas in

606, decreed the pre-eminence of the Roman Bishop forever.

But the time has come when the empire must crumble away, and the Seven Hills will no longer dictate laws to the world. The wave of barbarianism rolling from the North, sweeping away society and crushing thrones, will surely shatter the power of the Church. But no, it breaks harmlessly at the feet of Rome's bishop. The rude vandalism which had remorselessly overturned dynasties and blotted out great nations»left his power untouched and his seat unshaken.

It was in the very hour when all stable social orders were perishing around him, that the Pope laid broad and deep the foundations of a triple empire which might remain immovable for all time. He cast himself upon a mightier wave of revolution, which if successful, would lift him above an} T dignities an emperor might heap upon him. What one gave, another might take away. It did not suit the Pope to hold his office by so uncertain a tenure. He hastened to place his supremac} T where no future decree of emperor or king, no lapse of 3*ears, no shock of revolution, could overturn it. He claimed to rest it upon a Divine foundation ; to be not merely chiefbishop, but the successor of Peter, the prince of Apostles and the vicar of Christ.

With the assertion of this dogma, the Papacy was essentially completed, but not practically. It had to wait the fall development of the vicarship which was not until Gregory VII. But here was the embr} T o of that empire which bears two swords and wears a triple crown. Heretofore the Fisher of Galilee had sat only in the throne of the Caesars. Hereafter he is to sit in the throne of God.

In the eighth century there came a moment of supreme

Claim of the Popes. 25

peril to Rome. The victorious Saracens had overrun the south of France and threatened to descend into Italy and replace the cross with the crescent. The Lombards in the north had burst the barriers of the Appenines and were brandishing their swords at the gates of Rome.

In his extremity the Pope turned his e}-es toward France. The intrepid Charles Martel came to the rescue and in 732 drove back the Saracens, while Pepin his son, who had seized the throne, needed the papal sanction to his act of usurpation, so hastened at once against the Lombards. When he had vanquished their towns he laid the kej^s of their gates on the altar of St. Peter and thereby laid the foundation of the Pope's temporal sovereignt}^.

Later still Charlemagne subdued the Lombards and on visiting Rome in 774 ceded to the Pope the territory of the conquered tribes. "In this way Peter obtained his patrimony, the Church her dowry, and the Pope his triple crown."

Chapter III. Supremacy Of The Pope

You will remember that Charlemagne had appeared, at the throne of St Peter. The first time he ascends the stairs of the Basilica it is to lay the foundation of the temporal sovereignity of the popes. A second time he presents himself lord of all the nations which form the empire of the west, and of Rome itself. He kneels before Leo III, who invests with the imperial title, him who already possesed the power, and the brow of the son of Pepin bears the diadem once worn by the Roman emperors.

But this was not enough. Some recourse to acts of an extraordinary kind became necessary. There appeared an astounding document beariug date from the fourth century, though lying in darkness until 776. The bishop, having become a crowned monarch, was not content, he must become a king of kings. Supremacy — sole, absolute and unlimited must be his.

The famous document which appeared nearly four hundred years after the coronation of Charlemange was called the "donation."

The legend which we are expected to believe informs us that Constantine found Sylvester in a monastry on Mount Socrate, and having mounted him on a mule walked at the bridle rein all the way to Rome and there placed Sylvester upon the papal throne.

But this was only the beginning of princely gifts, as the following extract from the deed will show: —

CHARLEMAGNE IN THE PALACE.

The Famous Document. 29

u We attribute to the See of Peter all the dignity, all the glory, all the authority of imperial power. We give to Sylvester and his successors our palace of the Lateran, we give him our crown, our mitre, our diadem, our vestments, we transfer to him our imperial dignity ; we bestow on him in free gift, the city of Rome, and all the western cities of Italy. To cede precedence to him we divest ourselves of our authority and withdraw from Rome, transferring the seat of our empire to Byzantium ; inasmuch as it is not proper that an earthly emperor should preserve the least authority where God hath established the head of His religion."

We certainly admire that modesty which withheld this document from the world for nearly four hundred years : and we also admire the policy of selecting the darkness of the eighth century as the fittest time for its publication. Unfortunately, to quote it is to destroy it. Constantine is made to speak in the vernacular of the eighth century while living in the fourth. During more than six hundred years Rome impressively cited this deed of gift, permitted none to question its genuineness, and burned those who declined to believe it.

Then appeared the false decretals of Isidore ; a collection of pretended decrees of popes, in which ancient bishops, contemporary with Tacitus and Tertullian, were made to speak in the barbarous Latin of the ninth century. The burden of this compilation was pontificial supremacy. It was the clumsiest but most successful of all those forgeries which emanated from the "native home of inventions and falsification of documents." Nicholas drew from its stores the means by which to prop up and extend the fabric of his power. It became the foundation of the canon law, and yet the exposure of the fraud has not shaken the system.

jo Yoimg People s History of Protestantism.

The vices and crimes which were grafted upon the successes of the church suspended for a time the effect of these decretals.

The Papacy*, having gained admission to the table of kings, celebrated its triumph b}' shameful orgies. "She became intoxicated, her senses were lost in wild revellings." About this time tradition places upon the papal throne an abandoned woman ; but let us hide the shame of even legendaiy facts. At last Rome became a wild theatre of disorder. The Counts of Tuscany, in 1033, placed upon the chair of St. Peter a boy of twelve, brought up in debauchery ; who continued even upon the pontifical seat his shameful and degrading vices.

The emperors of Germany, assuming the paramount right, purged Rome with the sword ; drew the triple crown from the mire, and placed it upon the heads of men of their own choosing. They created and deposed ta will.

But the power of the popes is maturing slowly and silently. It will rise from humiliation and place a heavy foot upon the princes of earth. There lacks yet one grade of power to complete and crown this stupendous institution. Spiritual supremacy- had been achieved in tlie seventh century ; temporal sovereignty in the eighth ; and now there yet remains only temporal supremacy to raise the pope supreme above kings, as he now is above peoples ; that achieved, and he holds a jurisdiction which arrogates all powers, absorbs all rights, and spurns all limits.

Before terminating its career it will crush beneath its iron heel thrones and nations, and masking the ambition of Lucifer into a dissimulation as profound, it will vault the thrones of monarchs into the seat of God. This is its ambition.

HENRY IV. SUING FOR FORGIVENESS.

Gregory VII. jj

In the year 1073 the Papal chair was filled by the greatest of all Popes, Gregor3 T VII, the noted Hildebrand, He lived in one idea, the founding of a Theocracy, of which the pope as vicar of Christ should be the head. The traditions of Rome's universal dominion haunted his imagination and filled his dreams. Ambitious beyond all who had preceded him, he claimed that the reign of the pope was but another name for the reign of God. He would emancipate the churchfrom all subjection to empire. He promulgated the maxims of the decretals, "The Popes name is the chief name in the world." "It is lawful for him to depose emperors." "His decision is to be withstood by none but it is lawful for him to annul those of all men.'

He broke the ancient ties existing between churches and their pastors with royal authority, only to bind them to his throne at which he chained kings, priests and people alike. The Pope must become a universal monarch if he would stand in the place of Christ. It was Rome that every priest should fear ; in her alone was all his hope. All nations should tremble at the thunderbolts hurled by this Jupiter by the Tiber. This was the gauge which Hildebrand threw at the feet of the kings and nations of this world, for no less dominion was embraced in this pontifical supremacy. The strife was long and often bloody. Yet for a time Hildebrand tasted the luxury of wielding more than mortal power. It was a gleam of light along the Rhine lighting up the awful darkness of the tempest he had raised.

He saw Henry IV. of Germany whom he had smitten with excommunication, barefooted and clothed in sackcloth, waiting three days and nights at his castle gates, amidst the winter snow drifts, sueing for forgiveness.

But for a moment did Hildebrand stand upon this dazzling height ; the vanquished became the victor and

Gregoiy died in exile on the promontory of Salerno. But to his successors the project was left and b} T arms and anathe mas the world was frell-nigh reduced to the sceptre of papal authorny.

For nearly two hundred years the dismal work went on. The stricken field, the empty throne, the city sacked, and countries bathed in blood ; these are their tearful record.

Rome was again mistress of the world. Kings were her vassals. Hilderbrand's idea was fully realized. It was the noon of the Papac}' but the midnight of the nations.

Innocent III appointed all Bishops ; summoned to his tribunal all causes, from the affairs of kingdoms to private concerns; claimed all nations as his fiefs, allmonarchs as his vassals ; launched the curse of Rome against all who withstood him, and prohibited the reading of the H0I3- Scriptures b}~ the people.

Here is something out of the ordinary course. A succession of the ablest worldly rulers which have appeared, "they carried their enterprise as much higher above the vast schemes of other potentates as their ostensible means of achieving it iell below theirs."

The}' took the Gospel as a basis and built thereon a colossal fabric, while eveiy line and letter repudiated and condemned the structure. The}' imposed it upon the world without an army or a fleet, they bent the necks of people and haughty conquerors alike. They persuaded monarchs to rally their armies in defence of a power which they could hardly but foresee, would crush them ; they held the forces of earth and the thunders of heaven in their hands, and through successive centuries they pressed on without once meeting a serious check or repulse. The administration of 130 popes, through 700

Divinity of the Papacy. jj

years lost not an inch of conquered ground, and these successes have always been interpreted into a proof of the divinity of the papacy.

But has this distinction been fairly won ?

Rome has always been swimming with the tide . The evils and passions of men,which it was her mission to curb she has fostered into strength, and has been borne to power on the foul current which she herself created. Her path has lain amidst battle, blood-shed and confusion. Xever wholly false, never quite forgotten of God, yet ministering to her own glory, by "edicts of servile councils and forgeries of hireling priests, and arms of craven monarchs, and the thunderbolts of excommunications. These are the victories which constitute her gloiw.