The origin of the Reformed Church in Germany

Front matter

OF THE

REFORMED CHURCH

IS

Preface

ever, the county of Hanau should have been continued westward until it touched Frankford.) It is also to be remembered that the book was written during the busy duties of a city pastorate, which prevented the writer from making closer researches on, certain points. This work is intended to be a guide book to any who travel in Germany, special pains having been taken to give the exact location of places interesting in Reformed history. The author feels under special obligations to Rev. Prof. Chas. A. Briggs, D. D.,and Rev.Chas. Gillett, of the Union Seminary, New York, for aid in its invaluable library ; also to Rev. Prof. David Demarest, D. D., of the New Brunswick Seminary ; to Rev. Prof. J. H. A. Bomberger, D. D., of Ursinus College, Collegeville, Pa. ; Rev. Prof. J. H. Good, D. D., of Heidelberg Seminary, Tiffin, Ohio, and Rev. Prof. J. H. Dubbs, D. D., of Lancaster, Pa., for aid given in the preparation of the work. He has also added an appendix, entitled the " Reformed World," giving the condition of the Reformed Churches throughout the world at the present time. It is to be hoped that this book will fill a gap in our Reformed Church history, and will stimulate the German Reformed people to greater love for their Church and greater pride in her history.

JAMES I. GOOD.

Philadelphia, Sept. 1, 1887.

Contents

INTRODUCTORY SECTION.

Differences Between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the Sixteenth Century « Page 9

SECTION I.— Preparation of Germany for the Reformed Church 24

SEC. II. — Bucer and his Preparation for the Reformed Church at

Strasburg 28

SEC. III. — Hesse and its Preparation for the Reformed Faith 50

SEC. IV. — Lasco and his Preparation for the Reformed Faith 80

SEC. V.— Melancthon and his Preparation for the Reformed Church.. 108

' CHAPTER II.

The Introduction of the Reformed Faith into the Palatinate 126

SEC. L— The Preparation of the Palatinate for the Reformed Church.. 1 26

SEC. II. — The Authors of the Heidelberg Catechism, Ursinus and

Olevianus 150

SEC. III. — The Heidelberg Catechism and its Composition 170

SEC. IV.— The Defence of the Heidelberg Catechism by Elector Frederick III , , 193

SEC. V.— The Later Life of Elector Frederick III., 1566—1576 216

CHAPTER III. The Origin of the Reformed Church in Western Germany 232

SEC. I. — Elector Lewis and his Persecution of the Reformed in the

SEC. II.— The Introduction of the Reformed Faith into the Wetterau

District 253

SEC. III.— Introduction of the Reformed Faith into Bremen 271

SEC. IV. — Introduction of the Reformed Faith Along the Lower

Rhine 278

SEC. V. — Re-introduction of the Reformed Faith into the Palatinate by Prince Casimir, 1583-92 307

SEC. VI.— Elector Frederick IV. of the Palatinate and his Reign,

1592—1610 315

SEC. VII.— Introduction of the Reformed Faith into Zweibruecken... 323

VIII

CONTENTS.

Chapter IV

Introduction of the Reformed Faith into Central and Eastern Germany 328

SEC. I. — Rise and Fall of Crypto-Calvinism in Saxony 328

SEC. II. — Introduction of the Reformed Faith into Anhalt and Lippe.. 345

SEC. III.— Introduction of the Reformed Faith into Hesse 352

SEC. IV. — Introduction of the Reformed Faith into Brandenberg 366

SEC. V. — Introduction of the Reformed Faith into Liegnitz, Schon-

aicher, &c 383

Chapter V

The Close of the Introduction of the Reformed Church into Germany.. 387

SEC. T. -Elector Frederick V. of the Palatinate. 1610—20 387

SEC. II.— The Synod of Dcrt 393

SEC. III.— Summary 426

SEC. IV. -Conclusion.... 437

APPENDIX. •

The Reformed World Page 459

Index of Dates 489

Index of Names and Places ; 491

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Map of Germany in the Seventeenth Century.

Heidelberg Castle in 1620 Frontispiece.

Marburg in 1620 Page 72

Heidelberg in the Sixteenth Century 128

Zacharias Ursinus 150

Caspar Olevianus 156

Elector Frederick III. of the Palatinate 192

The Episcopal Palace at Augsburg 208

Neustadt 232

Casimirium at Neustadt 240

Herborn 264

Cassel in 1620 352

Berlin in 1680 368

The Synod of Dort 408

INTRODUCTORY SECTION.

Differences Between the Lutheran and Reformed Churches in the Sixteenth Century.

The Reformed Church of Germany has a history. If so, it ought to be told to her English children in their own tongue. The history of the German Reformed Church is a history of persecutions and triumphs. She was a faithful witness to the truth in days of darkness and danger. She was not the least among the Reformed Churches of the sixteenth century, but was a leader in the sacramental Lost of God's elect.

The most interesting part of Reformed Church history is its beginning. To see the light first glimmering through the darkness, to see the struggles to find the truth, to watch her progress through persecution, and her onward march to victory, is the most fascinating page of her church -life. We propose to take up the story of her origin in Germany, and to tell that story simply, but faithfully.

The Reformed Church of Germany was peculiar in her origin. The word Reformed originally meant " reformed" from the Catholic Church — from her abuses and sins. But she was not a Church, reformed 2 from Catholicism, but reformed from Lutheran ism. Id other lands, as in Switzerland, France, Holland, Scotland and England, the Reformed Church was a reforming of the Papal Church. But in Germany Lutheranism had already conquered the land to Protestantism many years before the Reformed Church entered that land. With only one exception (the Church at Emden in North Germany ; and perhaps the Reformed Church of Strasburg, where the people came from Catholicism to the Reformed Church), the whole Reformed Church of Germany came out of the Lutheran Church. It was a reformation of the Lutheran Church, as the Lutheran Church was a reformation of the Romish Church. The Reformed Church, then, was a purer Lutheran ism. It was the entrance of a second Protestantism into Germany. The first protest was at Spire, in 1529, when the Lutheran princes protested against the Catholic decrees of that Diet. And because they protested there, all Evangelicals are called Protestants. The Reformed Church was a second protest uttered as decidedly as the first. Only it was directed against the relics of papacy that were still common in the Lutheran Church of that day. The Reformed Church finally came into official existence at the Diet of Augsburg in 1566, when Elector Frederick III. made his eloquent defence of his Heidelberg Catechism — the second protest. However friendly the Lutheran and Reformed

A REFORM m THE LUTHERAN CHURCH. 11

Churches may be to-day (why should they not be ?) ; yet the careful student of history cannot fail to be impressed with the fact, that the Lutheran Church of the sixteenth century was more bigoted, more intolerant, more sacramentarian and less liberal than the Lutheran Church of the nineteenth century. And so, the founding of the Reformed Church in Germany was a decided, yes in some places an indignant, protest against the sacramentarianism and bigotry of the Lutheran Church. Queen Elizabeth of England, in one of her letters to the different courts of Germany in 1577, speaking of the Reformed Churches, calls them the "ecclesiae reformations" — 'more reformed'' ; implying that the Lutherans were reformed, but the Reformed were more so. The Reformed Church, then, was a reformation of the Lutheran Church of that age.

This history is not intended to be a history of doctrines, but rather a statement of facts. Doctrines are only referred to, as they are interwoven with the places or the events of history. To write a history of the doctrines, as well as of the events, would far exceed the limits of this volume. Certain doctrines, or differences in doctrines will have to be taken for granted. It will be necessary, therefore, at the very beginning to state the differences between the Lutherans and the Reformed of that age, so that we need not waste any time hereafter by continually defining or describing doctrine.

i.— Names of the two Churches.

The name " Lutheran" was not originally applied to the Lutheran Church alone. It was a name given by the Catholics to all Evangelicals, Reformed as well as Lutherans. The Catholics made it a term of reproach ; as if the Lutherans were the followers of a man, while they were the followers of God. So, too, the name "Reformed" was at first a general term for all Evangelicals. It included Lutherans as well as Reformed. But in course of time these two names came to be applied to two great tendencies or divisions in the Church. The name "Lutheran," as the official title of the Lutheran Church, did not appear until the days of the Formula of Concord in 1577, more than half a century after Luther began his reformation. Luther had died and it then became the fashion to glorify his words and works. Andrea and Hunnius then looked on him as a special messenger of God to reveal the doctrines of Christianity. Luther at first had complained of this use of his name by his followers. But his adherents clung to the name and prided themselves on it, forgetting Paul's warning against the naming of sects after individuals as given in 1 Cor. 1 : 12, 13, "Now this I say that every one of you saith I am of Paul, and I of Apollos, and I of Cephas, and I of Christ. Is Christ divided ? Was Paul crucified for you ? or were ye baptized in the name of Paul ?"

The Reformed Church was not so limited as the

THE NAMES LUTHERAN AND REFORMED. 13

Lutheran, in the number of her names. She had several names. Her first distinctive name was Sacramentarian or Zwinglian. This was a name of reproach given by the Lutherans, because the Reformed seemed to them to make so much of the sacrament and so little of Christ in the Lord's supper ; (the Reformed did not believe in the external presence of Christ at the supper.) The next name given to the Reformed was the name "Reformed." This name was at first given to all Evangelicals who aimed to reform the abuses of the Catholic Church. But it was first used as the official title of the Reformed branch of Churches in the province of Nassau in Germany in 1578, then in Anhalt, the Palatinate and Bremen. It was used by them, either to emphatically define their position against high Lutheranism, or with the intention of a more thorough reformation than the Lutheran Church had made. But still the old use of the name Reformed continued even as late as 1581, when in the "Harmony of the Orthodox and Reformed Confessions" it is still used in its broad sense ; for that Harmony of Reformed creeds includes in it the Augsburg and Wurtemberg Confessions, which were Lutheran.

The third name given to the Reformed was the name " Calvinist." Westphal and Hesshuss, the Lutheran zealots, invented this name, so as to cast reproach on the Reformed. They wanted to suggest, (as Calvin was a Frenchman, not a German,) that the Reformed faith was a foreign, strange faith to the Germans, and had no right to enter Germany. But the Reformed of Germany seemed to have preferred the name Reformed to Calvinist. They did not care to name themselves after any particular person. They did not want to have the foreign origin of their faith continually hinted at by the name Calvinist. There was, however, this difference in the use of this name ; that while in Eastern Germany, where they were among hostile Lutherans, the Reformed seldom used the name Calvinist, in Western Germany the name is much oftener used, and pride was taken in its use. Such names as are now sometimes given to the Reformed, as Reformed-Lutherans or Lutheran-Reformed, only reveal the ignorance of those who use them. There never was a Reformed-Lutheran or a Lutheran-Reformed Church officially so designated. The Reformed Church was always distinct from the Lutheran Church, and it emphasized its distinctness and separation. It was as much distinct from the Lutheran as are the Presbyterian or Episcopal Churches of to-day.

— Doctrines.

Let us now notice the difference in doctrine between the Reformed and Lutherans of Germany as they appeared in the sixteenth century. There were three main differences in doctrine, mode of worship and govern-

DIFFERENCE IN DOCTRINE.

merit. Out of these three, two other differences grew a little later.

The first and most important distinction between them was in the doctrine of the sacraments. The Lutherans were higher on the sacraments than the Reformed — higher both on baptism, as well as the Lord's supper.* The Lutherans generally held that unbaptized infants were unregenerated ; and there was, to say the least, the greatest doubt whether they were saved. The Reformed generally held to infant salvation. But the most important difference was in the Lord's supper. This feast of peace has, alas, been made the bone of contention. The Lutherans held to Christ's presence in the elements, while the Reformed held to His presence at the supper, although not necessarily in the elements. The Lutherans held to a bodily presence, the Reformed to a spiritual presence. The Lutherans believed that Christ's body and blood were intimately united with the bread and wine — "in, with and under" the bread and wine. The Reformed were ready to grant that Christ was received 6 with' the elements, but not 'in' and ' under' them. As the Lutherans believed that Christ's body and blood were mysteriously united with

*The Lutherans held that baptism was a means of regeneration, concurrent with the sacramental act and hence necessary to salvation. The Reformed held that baptism was a sign and seal of regeneration ; concurrent, or preceding, or succeeding regeneration according to God's free pleasure. — Schaff.

the elements, they also believed He was received through the mouth with the bread and wine. This doctrine was called oral raanducation. The Reformed denied this doctrine as savoring of cannibalism ; and held that Christ was not received through the mouth, but that He was received spiritually by faith. And also, since the Lutherans believed in this union of Christ's body and blood with the elements, they believed that all who received the communion, whether worthy or unworthy, received Christ and were blessed. The Reformed declared that only those who received it through faith received Christ ; all others receiving it only to their condemnation.

The second difference between them was in their cultus or manner of worship. The Reformed Church services were simpler than the Lutheran. The Lutheran was the high Church, the Reformed the low Church of Germany. The Lutherans emphasized the ceremonial, the Reformed the spiritual. In baptism the Lutherans retained in most places the Catholic rite of exorcism, or blowing away of the devil at baptism. And when the Formula of Concord was adopted, exorcism became the shibboleth of the high Lutherans. The Reformed put baptismal fonts out of the churches and went so far in their simplicity as often to use nothing but a wooden bowl. At the Lord's Supper the Lutherans retained the wafers of the Catholic Church, while the Re-

DIFFERENCE IN CUSTOM.

formed used bread, after the Scriptural mode. The Reformed used common plates and cups at the communion, so as to emphasize their simplicity ; sometimes even going so far as to use only wooden plates and cups at the sacrament. Altars they would not allow in their churches. Almost the first act in introducing a Reformed church, was to put away the altars of the Lutherans. Ursinus' opposition to altars is shown in his letter to Crato about Morenberg, who had dared to put away an altar from his church. "God knows," says Ursinus, "I hope that no damage shall come to him for the effort, yes, much more that all altars in the world might be extirpated, since we have now a single altar, our Intercessor in Heaven, who, as He is our Priest, is also our altar.* As a result of their lower views on the sacraments, the Reformed Church service was much freer, less ritualistic and liturgical than the Lutheran. The Reformed did not use the Pericopes, or Scripture lessons for each Sabbath, in their churches. " Zwingli departed from the time-honored use of the Scripture lessons, and connectedly explained whole books of the Bible, while on this as on other points Luther adhered to the ancient custom. "f

The Reformed Church of Germany followed Zwingli's and Calvin's example. The Lutheran church was

*Crato, of Krafftheirn, page 256. fHagenbach II., 13.

the church of the pericopes, the Reformed of the whole Bible. Henry* says, " In the Lutheran church, the pericopes have been retained, they have vanished from the Reformed church, and with them all marks of the ecclesiastical year." The Reformed ministers seem to have been careless about any special dress for the pulpit. " Farel once preached at Rive, wearing no robes but preaching in ordinary citizen's dress. This was the general custom of the reformers of the Reformed Church. "f The Reformed Church never believed in the special priesthood of the ministry, she believed in the priesthood of all believers.

The Reformed churches closed organs, stopped the ringing of church bells, and, in their intense opposition to papal superstitions, refused funeral services at the grave, lest they might seem to be prayers for the dead. Thus it is easy to see that the Reformed Church service was simpler than the Lutheran and more Scriptural, also. As D'Aubigne has well observed : Luther aimed to put away from the churches only what was contrary to the word of God ; Zwingli aimed to have nothing in them that was not authorized by the word of God.

*Life of Calvin I., 418. fHagenbach II., 203.

DIFFERENCE IN CUSTOM.

There were also several minor differences, which reveal the papal influence still lingering in the Lutheran Church of that day, and which also reveal the Scriptural influence on the Reformed. The Lutherans, in the Lord's Prayer, retained the form of the Catholic 1 Pater Noster/ saying ' Vater Unser/ i father our/ The Reformed repeated it as it is in the Bible, ' Unser Vater/ ' our father/* They also differed in another clause of the Lord's Prayer. The Lutherans translated the clause " deliver us from evil," following Augustine and the Latin in doing so. This is like the English version of the Lord's Prayer. The Reformed, following the Greek, translated it ' deliver us from the evil one/ — the devil. In the ten commandments, the Lutherans also retained the Catholic division, while the Reformed gave the Scriptural division. The Lutherans united the first two commandments into one ; and then, to make their number ten, divided the last commandment on coveting into two commandments. But this division of the last commandment is contrary to Paul's words against covetousness, where he alludes to it as one command. This union of the first and second commandment served to make the command , against images less conspicuous. The result was, that images were left in the Lutheran churches, while they were put out of the Reformed.

*Dr. Schaff observes, that this is considered by some farmers in Eastern Pennsylvania as the only difference between the Lutherans and the Reformed.

The Catholics had designedly made this division of the ten commandments, so as to allow the use of images in their churches. The Lutherans did not retain it for that reason, but merely as a relic of Romanism. But it had an unfortunate influence on the Lutheran Church, as it made her careless in allowing pictures or other papal relics to remain in their churches. The Lutherans allowed pictures, statues, crucifixes, &c, in the church. The Reformed cleansed their churches of all pictures, crucifixes, even crosses. These differences may seem small ones to us at this distant day. But the laity cling to customs rather than to doctrines. The introduction of bread instead of wafers at the Lord's supper, and the putting away of pictures by the Reformed, led to great bitterness, and sometimes even to riots, as at Marburg and Berlin.

A third difference between the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches lay in their church government. Luther did not give so much attention to organization as did the reformers of the Reformed Church. The Reformed had a splendid set of organizers in Calvin, Lasco, Lambert and Olevianus. The Lutheran Church was aristocratic — the government of princes, the Reformed Church democratic — the government of the ministry and people. The Lutheran Churches were generally governed by superintendents, who were appointed by the princes of the land. The Reformed

DIFFERENCE IN GOVERNMENT.

Churches were governed by the ministry and elders, chosen by the people. And the Reformed organization was much more complete. It had a regular gradation of church-courts. First came the presbytery in the congregation, consisting of the pastor and elders of the Church. Above it, in regular order, were the church-courts of Classis, Synod and General Synod. In some of the states of Germany, this pure presbyterian government was, to some extent, modified by a compromise between the Lutheran and Reformed customs, in the appointment of a consistory. The consistory was like the Lutheran form of government, as its members were appointed by the prince. But it was like the Reformed, as the prince left the entire control of the Church to the consistory, and separated its jurisdiction from the administration of civil law. These were the three main differences between the Lutheran and the Reformed Churches, in the early days of the reformation. But gradually, as time passed on, two other differences began to reveal themselves, until they became distinctive doctrines of each Church.

The first of them was the doctrine of Predestination. At first all the reformers were predestinarians. The Romanists had so emphasized man's good works as necessary to salvation, that the reformers went to the other extreme, and emphasized God's grace and sovereignty as the only source of salvation. Melanchthon in the

Lutheran Church, finally retired from the high predestinarian position, and carried the Lutheran Church with him. While on the other hand, Calvin progressed in it, until he formulated the doctrine for the Reformed Church. The doctrinal dissensions of the first half century, at the beginning of the reformation, were about the Lord's supper ; for the next half century, they were mainly about predestination. It is, however, to be remembered, that the Reformed Church of Germany, while accepting Calvinism, never officially declared for the doctrine of reprobation nor for a limited atonement. It is true, these views were largely held by her ministers at that time, but they were not expressed by her symbols. Her creed, the Heidelberg Catechism, adopts election and universal atonement.

Another difference between the two Churches became apparent in course of time — the doctrine of ubiquity. Ubiquity was the logical outcome of Lutheranism, as predestination was of Calvinism. The doctrine of ubiquity is, that the human body of Christ is everywhere present. This was logically necessary, so as to explain the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord's supper. As the Lutherans held that Christ's body was present whenever the Lord's supper was celebrated ; and as the Lord's supper was celebrated in many places at the same time, it was logically necessary that Christ's body should be present in many places at one time. So they held

INDIGENOUS TO GERMANY.

that Christ's humanity was omnipresent like his divinity. But the Reformed rebelled at this monstrous doctrine of ubiquity. Indeed it was the publication of this doctrine of ubiquity, in the Formula of Concord, that drove many of the princes of Germany over to the Reformed faith. By thus becoming Reformed, these German Churches protested against any intermingling of the two natures of Christ. Anything that confuses the two natures of Christ, or breaks down the distinction between them, or savors of Eutychianism, is not Reformed. The very existence of the Reformed Church in Germany is an evidence of her opposition to, and hatred of, this doctrine.

CHAPTER I.— SECTION I. Preparation of Germany for the Reformed Church

The Reformed Church of Germany is partly indigenous, and partly foreign, in its origin. On the one hand, she was the outgrowth of the spirit and genius of the German people. The Germans were a liberty-loving race. They did not bow themselves meekly, either to the Roman empire or to the Roman Church. So when the spirit of reformation appeared in the sixteenth century, the Germans were ripe for casting off the yoke of Romanism. Now this intense love for freedom, and this self-reliance on the part of the Germans, led many of them to prefer the Reformed Church to the Lutheran. For the Reformed Church was the Church of freedom. Her government allows freedom of action and fosters self-government through her elders and synods. And therefore many of these liberty -loving Germans drifted over to the Reformed faith.

Again, the Germans were a simple-hearted folk. There has always been a peculiar simplicity about German piety. This love of simplicity naturally led them toward the Reformed Church, whose religious faith and manner of worship was more simple than the Lutheran.

PREPARATION FOR REFORMED CHURCH. 25

For these reasons the Reformed faith is indigenous to German soil — an outgrowth of German character and life. Strasbnrg, Emden, Palatinate, Bremen, Hesse, grew into the Reformed Church because of its symplicity. The Augsburg Interim of 1548 had opened the eyes of German Protestants to the dangers still lurking in many of their forms of worship, which were relics of papacy, but retained by the Lutheran Church. And this made them the more ready for the simpler ritual of the Reformed Church.

But in other respects, the German Reformed faith was foreign in its origin. It came to Germany from the outside. The birth place of the Reformed faith was Switzerland : and it came into Germany from Switzerland, France, and Holland. Those who suggested, and who also organized the Reformed Church to the Germans, were mainly foreigners, as Lasco of Poland, Lambert of France, and others.

The relation between these two causes of the Reformed faith, the one external, the other internal, may be stated thus : that while the German people were naturally inclined toward the freedom and simplicity of the Reformed Church, the Reformed faith came to them at a peculiar juncture of affairs — at a crisis, when the high Lutherans drove the Melancthonians out of their ranks. Then, when the princes were tired of the madness of theologians, and the people weary of hearing 3 polemics instead of the gospel, in the pulpit, then, just then, the Reformed faith came in to gather up the discontented German christians into its bosom and give them rest.

There were four different movements that prepared the way for the introduction of the Reformed faith. The Reformed Church was officially recognized by the German government for the first time at the Diet of Augsburg, in 1566, when Elector Frederick III. of the Palatinate took his stand as a member of the Reformed Church. The conversion of this, the leading Elector of Germany, arrested the attention of all Germany, and gave prominence and permanence to the Reformed faith. The Palatinate, with Heidelberg as its capital, became the centre of Reformed influence all over the land. But before the Palatinate became Reformed, there were four distinct movements, which prepared the way.

The first city in Germany to feel the influence of Reformed doctrines was Strasburg, under Bucer and Capito. Strasburg was finally lost to the Reformed faith, as it went over to Lutheranism. But the influence of Bucer the reformer, and John Sturm the teacher, left a deep impression on Germany.

The next land to tend toward the Reformed faith was Hesse. Landgrave Phillip of Hesse, by his friendship with Zwingli and Bucer, by the introduction of

PREPARATION FOR REFORMED CHURCH. 27

synods into his land, sowed the seed, which, however, did not harvest until nearly a century later, when Landgrave Maurice finally went over to the Reformed Church. But Hesse, with its Marburg Conference of 1529, made a deep impression on Germany, in favor of the Reformed Church.

The third place, where the Reformed Church gained a foothold, was at Emden in North Germany. This was the first purely Reformed Church in Germany, the Reformed doctrines being introduced as early as 1526, by Aportanus. It was the only German Church that came directly from Romanism into the Reformed faith. The influence of the Church at Emden was made greater by the coming of John A. Lasco, the Polish reformer. Emden became a refuge for the persecuted Reformed of all lands, and her foreign Reformed Churches opened the eyes of the Germans to the reality and beauty of the Reformed faith.

The last cause was not a local one, but a mental one — a tendency of thought, in many parts of Germany. It was Melancthonianism. The adherents of Melancthon ? s liberal views prepared the way for our faith. Melancthon himself never was Reformed ; but his influence finally became a tendency in that direction.

We will take up these four different causes for the Reformed Church in their order.

CHAPTER I. — SECTION II.

Bncer and his Preparation for the Reformed Church at Strasburg.

Strasburg was one of the most flourishing and liberal of the free cities of Germany. Being a free city, the gospel soon found a free and hearty reception among its citizens. From the flat plain, in which it lies, its tall cathedral spire can be seen for many miles around. Like its church spire, Strasburg became a finger pointing heavenward, exerting a wide influence on western and southern Germany. Matthew Zell introduced the evangelical doctrines into Strasburg. It is a remarkable fact that the cathedral, now so given to Romish rites, was the birth place of the gospel for that city. Luther's brave conduct at the Diet of Worms, not far away, made a deep impression on all western Germany ; and Luther's writings, scattered abroad, were read in Strasburg. Zell in 1521 began preaching the evangelical faith, by expounding the epistle to the Romans. He first preached them in the chapel of St Lawrence, one of the side chapels of the cathedral. But as the chapel became too small, he began to preach in the great auditorium of the cathedral. And, as the Romish bishop locked the great