tery, &c. Then began pilgrimages to Rome, for the purchase of these Indulgences, once, twice, thrice, four times in a century. Old men of seventy years sought them there. But soon all were saved the trouble of the journey; Indulgences might be bought in every village. Here was the second principle of original Christianity. The time for Luther had

come.

The author, after a passing word of praise on those few who were faithful in the midst of, and in spite of this corruption, proceeds to show the consequences of this state of things. Theology had become a science of dialectics, of petty distinctions, and foolish questions, as, "Can a dead man say mass?" Religion was horribly corrupt. Ridiculous relics were hawked about by hire, as "the breath of St. Joseph on the glove of Nicodemus," "a feather from the wing of Michael," "the beard of St. Christopher," &c. Priests were mountebanks, Churches were theatres. Erasmus records that a German bishop received in one year a tax from eleven thousand priests who kept mistresses. Pope Alexander VI. was a fit head for such a body.

The attempts made for Reform. Temporal princes, the whole power of the house of Hohensteinfens attempted it, and they were crushed. Genius and learning labored for it. Dante placed the most powerful of the popes in hell, and made Peter curse his successors. Petrarch demanded primitive Christianity, and invoked Charles IV. to restore it. Laurentius Valla attacked the pretensions of the popes. Poets, philosophers, scholars, and painters, cried out upon abuses; but Leo X. patronized, and thus stilled them all. Then the Church itself undertook Reform. The Council of Constance met, the most imposing conclave ever seen, composed of Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops, eighteen hundred Doctors of Divinity, Priests, Emperor, Electors, Dukes, and Ambassadors. It deposed three popes, and burnt John Huss. Martin V. was elected Pope, and contrary to his solemn oath, he then dissolved the Council. God alone could Reform.

The condition of the Papacy at this time seemed secure : its temporal power was established, doubts lurked only among individuals. The education of princes was in the hands of the clergy. The cowl of a monk had attractions, for which even a monarch laid aside his crown. But kings began to discover that temporal, not spiritual power, was the object of the Papa

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cy. Ferdinand, of Arragon, Louis XII., and Maximilian, despised the Pope. The idea prevailed, that the Vicegerent of Christ was a man, and sometimes a very bad man. Even the Scholastic theology concealed, and thus preserved those germs of truth which were to burst forth. The revival of literature from the East, printing, the Mystics, the Vandois, and the feeble resistance of wrong, which had always existed in the Church, prepared the way for Reform. The author then takes a view of Europe, of the circumstances among nobles, scholars, and plebeians, universities and cloisters, castles and workshops, which afforded the weapons of Reform, and then he offers some brilliant sketches of individuals who wielded them. Yet all were deficient. The wisdom of Frederick, the learning of Reuchlin, the talent of Erasmus, the wit and energy of Hütten, the courage of Sickingen, the virtue of Cronberg, were not enough. Luther was needed, and he came.

For the particulars of Luther's life, Melancthon, the John of the Reformation, is the great authority. Book II., pp. 129-247, is upon the "Youth, Conversion, and early Labors of Luther." We will give the facts and principles which it embodies.

Luther was born at Eisleben, on St. Martin's eve, Nov. 10, 1483. He passed his boyhood on the plains of Mansfield, and the banks of the Vipper. His father here established a forge, and became so much respected as to be made a member of the town council. Having a taste for reading, he invited clergymen and schoolmasters to his house and table. Here the future Reformer received his first knowledge. Sent to school very young, he says his parents frequently whipped him, and the schoolmaster, too, often fifteen times in a day. He adds, "It is right to punish children, but at the same time we must love them." His only religious feeling as yet was that of fear at the name of Christ. In 1497, he was sent to the school of the Franciscans, at Madgeburg, accompanied by his play-fellow and friend through life, John Reinecke, studying the humanities, begging his food in the streets, and listening to Andreas Proles, an Augustine provincial, who was urging the Reform of Religion and the Church. A year after, his parents sent him to school at Eisenach. He sang in the streets for a morsel of bread, as poor scholars still do in Germany. A kind family rescued him from starvation; he lived with them and learned music. His father intending him for the law, he was sent in 1501, to Erfurth, the most famous University in Germany. Jodocus, Doc

tor of Eisenach taught the Scholastic Theology. Of course, then Luther studied Occam, Scotus, and Aquinas. He afterwards trembled with rage at the name of Aristotle, taking him for the devil. Then he studied the ancient classics. Melancthon says the whole University admired his genius. He prayed and thought. Hunting in the Library he found a new book, the Bible. Thinking he had seen the whole of the book of truth in the Breviaries, he was overjoyed to find more. After he took his Bachelor's degree, he was brought nigh to death. In 1505, he became Master of Arts, or Doctor in Philosophy. Though preparing for law, he longed for the cloisters. A terrific thunder-storm confirmed his purpose. After a simple feast to his college friends, he leaves his lodgings, taking only a Virgil and a Plautus, on the night of Aug. 17, 1505, and knocks at the door of the Convent of St. Augustine. It closes behind him. His father bitterly remonstrated; but soon after, losing two sons by the plague, he slowly yielded to the change. The monks prided themselves upon their new convert, yet they abused him. They made him door-keeper, clock-winder, church-sweeper, and room-cleaner, and obliged him to beg with a bread-bag at the houses in which he had been a guest. At the intercession of the University, the prior of the Convent freed him from these mean offices; but still Luther had been

learning what the Church was. He took the name of Augustine, whom he studied, and began the Bible in the original. So hard did he study, as to omit the prescribed prayers. Pricked in conscience, he had recourse to fastings, macerations, and watchings. "I was a devout monk, and followed the rules of my order so strictly, that I cannot tell you all." He does not find in the tranquillity of the cloister the peace which he seeks. He knows not as yet the will of God. The monks

directed him to good works. "But what works can come from a heart like mine?" Here, and in this situation, he was found by Staupitz, the friend of the Elector Frederick of Saxony, founder of the University of Wittemberg, and Vicar-General of the Augustines, a good man who had passed through experiences similar to Luther's. They understood each other. Staupitz prescribed to him a repentance based upon the love, and not the wrath of God; to make the Bible his chief study, the same time giving him one. Luther was overjoyed. He loved Paul's Epistles, and St. Augustine. Still the work on his mind. was but begun. He was still depressed, troubled by the doc

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trine of Election, and brought near the grave, in the second year of his convent life. An old brother monk, in his sick cell, read the words, "I believe in the forgiveness of sins." Luther revived and was happy. He sent for his father, not yet wholly reconciled to him, to attend on his consecration as a priest. He came and fixed the day, Sunday, May 2, 1507, and gave him twenty florins. Jerome of Brandenburg, officiating, gave Luther the cup, saying, "receive the power of offering sacrifice for the living and the dead." Luther listened calmly, but shuddered when he afterwards remembered that he had then usurped the office of Christ. "That the earth

did not then swallow us both up, was an instance of the patience and long-suffering of the Lord." After his consecration, he began to journey about the environs to preach. Staupitz, who corresponded with him, spoke to Frederick, who, in 1508, appointed him Professor at Wittemberg. Still a monk, he went to the convent of the Augustines, and taught unwillingly physics and dialectics from Aristotle. He longed to study and teach that true Theology, "which seeks the kernel of the nut, the pulp of the wheat, the marrow of the bone." Still he learned the errors of the schools. He studied the Bible in the original; applied for the degree of Bachelor in Theology, and obtained it in 1509. Every day he discoursed on the Bible, beginning with the Psalms, and then "the Romans." His favorite words, as expressing the sentiment which formed his heart, and through life moulded his teachings, were, "The just shall live by faith." His new mode of instruction brought crowds around him. Staupitz insisted upon his preaching in the church of the Augustines; it was but a humble shed, "the stable

in which Christ was born." Deep seriousness and unction distinguished his preaching. The council of Wittemberg then chose him their preacher in the city church. Even Frederick once came to hear him. In 1510, or 1511, he was sent by his order on a mission to Rome. Rome! in his fancy still the seat of perfect holiness. Crossing the Alps, he was entertained at a Benedictine convent, on the Po. With a revenue of thirty-six thousand ducats, it devoted a third to its table, a third to its buildings, and the remainder to other expenses. Marble, silk, and luxury of every kind, astonished the poor German monk, whose food had been dry bread and herrings. Friday came; the table was loaded with viands. "The Church and the Pope forbid such things," says Luther. After this, the

porter gave him a hint of danger if he remained. At Bologna, he was dangerously sick; some speak of poison at the convent. Still hoping better things of Rome, as he approached it he said, "Holy Rome, I salute thee." He too moralized among the ruins of the Imperial City. Here had come that Epistle which said "The just shall live by faith." Not Leo X., as some German historians have said, but the warlike Julius II. was then Pope. The illusions of the monk were not dispelled, when he saw the ignorance, levity, dissoluteness, the contempt of sacred things, and the traffic in holiness which disgraced the city of Christ's Vicegerent. He went from church to chapel, and believed their marvellous stories. He even regretted, that his parents were not dead, that he might deliver them from purgatory by his masses. He celebrated that service with gravity, and was shocked at the indecent haste, with which some priests performed it seven times to his once. One said to him, Quick, quick, send our Lady her Son back speedily," — alluding to Transubstantiation. His office of envoy procured him invitations from distinguished ecclesiastics. He found them equally corrupt, telling indecent tales at table, laughing at the Pope, and the mass. He took lessons in Hebrew; and when he returned in grief and anger to Wittemberg, he said he would not have missed seeing Rome for a hundred thousand florins. By the instrumentality of the Elector and Staupitz, the degree of D. D. was conferred upon him, October 19, 1512, by his future opponent Bodenstein. Then he espoused his well-beloved Holy Scriptures. The Reformation dates from his oath to defend them. First, he attacked the schoolmen, and began to correspond and take part with Erasmus, Reuchlin, and Hütten. Then he became intimate with Spalatin, the secretary and chaplain and relic-hunter of Frederick. Luther was consulted by the Elector, as to the burning of some Jews' books. He advised an overthrow of their own idols. Then he preached his Sermons on the Ten Commandments, which have been preserved. They make faith the great doctrine. He was thus far a faithful observer and defender of the established discipline; but sought to fix in the hearts of all he influenced the doctrine, that sin is freely pardoned through faith in the death of God's Son. He wrote the doctrine to his friend, the monk Spenlein, and he was distressed that it did not appear more plainly in the works of Erasmus. His first disputation, in which he maintained Theses, but darkly aimed against existing errors,