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THE REFORMATION.

1. Ir was from causes seemingly fortuitous, and from a source very inconsiderable, that all the mighty effects of the reformation flowed. Leo X., when raised to the papal throne, found the revenues of the church exhausted by the vast projects of his two ambitious predecessors, Alexander VI. and Julius II. His own temper, naturally liberal and enterprising, rendered him incapable of that severe and patient economy which the situation of his finances required. On the contrary, his schemes for aggrandizing the family of Medici, his love of splendor, his taste for pleasure, and his magnificence in rewarding men of genius, involved him daily in new expenses; in order to provide a fund for which, he tried every device, that the fertile invention of priests had fallen on, to drain the credulous multitude of their wealth. Among others, he had recourse to a sale of Indulgences.

2. According to the doctrine of the church of Rome, all the good works of the saints, over and above those which are necessary towards their own justification, are deposited, together with the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, in one inexhaustible treasury. The keys of this were committed to St. Peter, and to his successors the popes, who open it at pleasure, and by transferring a portion of this superabundant merit to any particular person, for a sum of money, may convey to him, either the pardon of his own sins, or release, for any one in whose happiness he is interested, from the pains of purgatory. Such indulgences were first invented in the eleventh century, by Urban II. as a recompense for those who went in person upon the meritorious enterprise of conquering the Holy Land. They were afterwards granted to those who hired a soldier for that purpose; and, in process of time, were bestowed on such as gave money for accomplishing any pious work, enjoined by the pope. Julius II. had bestowed indulgences on all who contributed towards building the church of St. Peter at Rome; and as Leo was carrying on that magnificent and expensive fabric, his grant was founded on the same pretence.

What method did Leo X. adopt to replenish his exhausted treasury?-When were the Indulgences first invented, and by whom?— Who was the principal person employed in disposing of Indulgences in Saxony?

3. Tetzel, a Dominican Friar, of licentious morals, but of an active spirit, was the principal person employed in retailing these indulgences in Saxony. He, assisted by the monks of his order, executed the commission with zeal and success, but with little discretion and decency; and though by magnifying excessively the benefit of their indulgences, and by disposing of them at a very low price, they carried on, for some time, an extensive and lucrative traffic among the credulous and the ignorant, the extravagance of the assertions, as well as the irregularities in their conduct, came at last to give general offence. The princes and nobles were irritated at seeing their vassals drained of so much wealth, in order to replenish the treasury of a profuse pontiff. Men of piety regretted the delusion of the people, who, being taught to rely for the pardon of their sins on the indulgences which they purchased, did not think it incumbent on them either to study the doctrines taught by genuine Christianity, or to practise the duties which it enjoins. Even the most unthinking were shocked at the scandalous behavior of Tetzel and his associates, who often squandered in drunkenness, gaming, and low debauchery, those sums which were piously bestowed in hopes of obtaining eternal happiness; and all began to wish that some check were given to this commerce, no less detrimental to society than destructive to religion.

4. Such was the favourable juncture, and so disposed were the minds of his countrymen to listen to his discourses, when Martin Luther first began to call in question the efficacy of indulgences, and to declaim against the vicious lives and false doctrines of the persons employed in promulgating them. He soon acquired great reputation, not only for his piety, but for his love of knowledge, and his unwearied ap plication to study. The great progress he made in his study of the Scriptures, augmented so much the fame both of his sanctity and his learning, that Frederic, elector of Saxony, having founded an university at Wittemberg, on the Elbe, the place of his residence, Luther was chosen first to teach philosophy, and afterwards theology there; and discharged both offices in such a manner that he was deemed the chief ornament of that society.

Who was the particular friend and patron of Martin Luther?

5. And from the pulpit, in the great church at Wittemberg, he inveighed against the irregularities and vices of the monks who published indulgences; he ventured to examine the doctrines which they taught, and pointed out to the people the danger of relying for salvation upon any other means than those appointed by God in his word. The boldness and novelty of these opinions drew great attention, and being recommended by the authority of Luther's personal character, and delivered with a popular and persuasive eloquence, they made a deep impression on the minds of his hearers. Meanwhile these novelties in Luther's doctrines, which interested all Germany, excited little attention and no alarm in the court of Rome. Leo, fond of elegant and refined pleasures, intent upon great schemes of policy, a stranger to theological controversies, and apt to despise them, regarded with the utmost indifference the operations of an obscure friar, who, in the heart of Germany, carried on a scholastic disputation in a barbarous style. Little did he apprehend, or Luther himself dream, that the effects of this quarrel would be so fatal to the papal see.

6. The solicitations, however, of Luther's adversaries, who were exasperated to a high degree by the boldness with which he animadverted on their writings, together with the surprising progress which his opinions made in different parts of Germany, roused at last the attention of the court of Rome, and obliged Leo to take measures for the security of the church against an attack that now appeared too serious to be despised. For this end, he summoned Luther to appear at Rome, within sixty days, before the auditor of the chamber, and the inquisitor-general, Prierias, whom he empowered jointly to examine his doctrines, and to decide concerning them. He wrote, at the same time, to the elector of Saxony, beseeching him not to protect a man whose heretical and profane tenets were so shocking to pious ears; and enjoined the provincial of the Augustinians to check, by his authority, the rashness of an arrogant monk, which brought disgrace upon the order of St. Augustine, and gave offence and disturbance to the whole church.

7. Nor did this spirit of opposition to the doctrines and usurpations of the Romish church break out in Saxony alone; an attack no less violent, and occasioned by the same cause, was made upon them about this time in Switzerland.

The Franciscans being entrusted with the promulgation of indulgences in that country, executed their commission with the same indiscretion and rapaciousness which had rendered the Dominicans so odious in Germany. They proceeded, nevertheless, with uninterrupted success, till they arrived at Zurich. There Zuinglius, a man not inferior to Luther himself in zeal and intrepidity, ventured to oppose them; and being animated with a republican boldness, and free from those restraints which subjection to the will of a prince imposed on a German reformer, he advanced with more daring and rapid steps, to overturn the whole fabric of the established religion. The appearance of such a vigorous auxiliary, and the progress which he made, was, at first, matter of great joy to Luther. On the other hand, the decrees of the universities of Cologne and Louvain, which pronounced his opinions to be erroneous, afforded a great cause of triumph to his adversaries.

8. But the undaunted spirit of Luther acquired additional fortitude from every instance of opposition; and pushing on his inquiries and attacks from one doctrine to another, he began to shake the firmest foundations on which the wealth or power of the church were established. Leo came at last to be convinced, that all hopes of reclaiming him by forbearance were vain; several prelates of great wisdom exclaimed no less than Luther's personal adversaries, against the pope's unprecedented lenity, in permitting an incorrigible heretic, who during three years had been endeavoring to subvert every thing sacred and venerable, still to remain within the bosom of the church; the dignity of the papal see rendered the most vigorous proceedings necessary; the new emperor, it was hoped, would support its authority; nor did it seem probable, that the elector of Saxony would so far forget his usual caution as to set himself in opposition to their united power.

9. The college of cardinals was often assembled, in order to prepare the sentence with due deliberation; and the ablest canonists were consulted how it might be expressed with unexceptionable formality. At last, on the 15th of June, 1520, the bull, so fatal to the church of Rome, was issued.

Who was a powerful advocate for the Reformation in Switzerland?---When was the bull of excommunication passed upon Luther

Forty-one propositions, extracted out of Luther's works, are therein condemned as heretical, scandalous, and offensive to pious ears; all persons are forbidden to read his writings, upon pain of excommunication; such as had any of them in their custody are commanded to commit them to the flames; he himself, if he did not, within sixty days, publicly recant his errors, and burn his books, is pronounced an obstinate heretic; is excommunicated, and delivered unto Satan for the destruction of his flesh; and all secular princes are required, under pain of incurring the same censure, to seize his person, that he might be punished as his crimes deserved.

10. This sentence, which he had for some time expected, did not disconcert or intimidate Luther. He boldly declared the pope to be that man of sin, or antichrist, whose appearance is foretold in the New Testament; he declaimed against his tyranny and usurpations, with greater violence than ever; he exhorted all Christian princes to shake off such an ignominious yoke; and boasted of his own happiness in being marked out as the object of ecclesiastical indignation, because he had ventured to assert the liberty of mankind. Nor did he confine his expressions of contempt for the papal power to words alone; Leo having, in the execution of the bull, appointed Luther's books to be burnt at Rome, he, by way of retaliation, assembled all the professors and students in the university at Wittemberg, and, with great pomp, in presence of a vast multitude of spectators, cast the volumes of the canon law, together with the bull of excommunication, into the flames; and his example was imitated in several cities in Germany.

11. Wickliff, in the middle of the fourteenth century, by an attack on the doctrines of transubstantiation, indulgences, and auricular confession, and still more by a translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular tongue, had prepared the people of England for a revolution in religious opinions; but his professed followers were not numerous. Had it not been for the intemperate passions of Henry VIII., the progress of reformation in this country would have been far less rapid. This prince being excommunicated by the pope for

What did Luther do with this bull of excommunication ?-Who prepared the minds of the people in England for the Reformation?What did Wickliff do?-What caused Henry VIII. to declare him. self and the English church independent of the see of Rome?

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