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    THE CHAUTAUQUAN.

  _A MONTHLY MAGAZINE DEVOTED TO THE PROMOTION OF TRUE CULTURE. ORGAN OF
             THE CHAUTAUQUA LITERARY AND SCIENTIFIC CIRCLE._

               VOL. IV.      JANUARY, 1884.      NO. 4.


Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle.

_President_—Lewis Miller, Akron, Ohio.

_Superintendent of Instruction_—Rev. J. H. Vincent, D.D., New Haven,
Conn.

_Counselors_—Rev. Lyman Abbott, D.D.; Rev. J. M. Gibson, D.D.; Bishop
H. W. Warren, D.D.; Prof. W. C. Wilkinson, D.D.

_Office Secretary_—Miss Kate F. Kimball, Plainfield, N. J.

_General Secretary_—Albert M. Martin, Pittsburgh, Pa.




_Transcriber's Note: This table of contents of this periodical was
created for the HTML version to aid the reader._




Contents


                         REQUIRED READING
  German History                                          189
  Extracts from German Literature                         193
  Readings in Physical Science
      IV.—The Sea                                         196
                         SUNDAY READINGS
  [January 6]—On Spiritual Christianity                   198
  [January 13]                                            199
  [January 20]                                            200
  [January 27]                                            200

  Political Economy
      IV. Distribution                                    202
  Readings in Art
      I.—Architecture.—Introduction                       204
  Selections from American Literature
      Fitz Greene Halleck                                 207
      Richard Henry Dana                                  208
      William Cullen Bryant                               208
      Henry Wadsworth Longfellow                          210
  Night                                                   211
  Eccentric Americans                                     211
  The Stork                                               214
  Gardening Among the Chinese                             215
  Eight Centuries With Walter Scott                       216
  Astronomy of the Heavens For January                    218
  Work For Women                                          219
  Ostrich Hunting                                         220
  Christian Missions                                      221
  California                                              222
  Table-Talk of Napoleon Bonaparte                        224
  Early Flowers                                           225
  Botanical Notes                                         227

  C. L. S. C. Work                                        228
  Outline of C. L. S. C. Readings                         228
  Sunbeams from the Circle                                229
  Local Circles                                           230
  C. L. S. C. Round-Table                                 233
  Questions and Answers                                   234
  Chautauqua Normal Class                                 236
  Editor’s Outlook
      The Headquarters of the C. L. S. C.                 238
      Evangelists                                         239
      The New Time Standards                              240
      Père Hyacinthe                                      241
  Editor’s Note-Book                                      241
  C. L. S. C. Notes on Required Readings for January      243
  Notes on Required Readings in “The Chatauquan”          245
  Talk About Books                                        248



REQUIRED READING

FOR THE

_Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle for 1883-4_.

JANUARY.




GERMAN HISTORY.

By REV. W. G. WILLIAMS, A.M.


IV.

The C. L. S. C. student is already aware that it is not pretended
here to write the history of Germany, but properly these are entitled
“Readings in German History.” To write with any degree of fulness or
detail the history of a people which has played so large and important
a part in the modern world, would require more volumes than are the
pages allotted to us. It has been, and still remains the design to
select those events and characters of greatest interest, and which have
had the largest influence upon the current of subsequent history. The
purpose, also constantly in view, has been to stimulate the reader to
further study of the subject, by perusal of the best works accessible
to the reader of English.

In this number no choice is left us but to pass, with only a glance
or two, over the long period from the death of Charlemagne to that
day-dawn of modern history, the Reformation. It is the period in which
the historian traces, successively the beginning, vicissitudes, decay
and extinction of the Carlovingian, Saxon, Franconian and Hohenstauffen
houses. Following these is the great interregnum which precedes the
Reformation. Included in this long stretch of time are what is known as
the “dark ages.” Yet in Germany it was not all darkness, for now and
then a ray of light was visible, prophetic of the rising sun, which
heralded by Huss, appeared in the person and achievements of Martin
Luther. It is about the work and character of the latter personage that
we purpose to make the chief part of this chapter. Especially are we
disposed so to do, now that protestant christendom is celebrating the
four hundredth anniversary of the birth of the great reformer, and all
civilized mankind has its attention called to his bold doctrines and
brave career.

But, before we are prepared for Luther, we must note the change which
has come in the claims and pretensions of the church. The different
attitude which made possible a few centuries later, such a mission
as Luther’s can not better be exhibited than during the reign of the
Franconian Emperor, Henry the Fourth.


HENRY THE FOURTH—HIS SUPPLIANT VISIT TO CANOSSA.

The student of the history of the Romish church is aware that during
the first five centuries after Christ the pope was vested with little,
if any, other powers or dignities than those which pertained to him
as Bishop of Rome. His subsequent claim to unlimited spiritual and
political sway was then unthought of, much less anywhere advanced.
Even for another five centuries he is only the nominal head of the
church, who is subordinate to the political potentates and dependent
upon them for protection and support in his office. But in the year
1073 succeeded one Gregory VII., to the tiara, who proposed to erect
a spiritual empire which should be wholly absolved from dependency
on kings and princes. His pontificate was one continuous struggle
for the success of his undertaking. Of powerful will, great energy
and shrewdness and with set purpose his administration wrought great
change in the papal office and the relations of the church to European
society. His chief measures by which he sought to compass his design
were the celibacy of the priesthood and the suppression of the then
prevalent custom of simony. The latter bore especially hard on the
German Emperor, much of whose strength lay in the power to appoint the
bishops and to levy assessments upon them when the royal exchequer
was in need. In the year 1075 Gregory proclaimed his law against the
custom, forbidding the sale of all offices of the church, and declaring
that none but the pope might appoint bishops or confer the symbols
of their authority. With an audacity unheard of, and a determination
little anticipated, he sent word to Henry IV., of Germany, demanding
the enforcement of the rule throughout his dominion under penalty of
excommunication. The issue was a joint one, and a crisis inevitable.
No pope had ever assumed such an attitude or used such language to a
German Emperor. Henry was not disposed and resolved not to submit.
So far as a formal disposition of the difficulty was concerned the
case was an easy one. He called the bishops together in a synod
which met at Worms. They proceeded with unanimity to declare Gregory
deposed from his papal office and sent word of their action to Rome.
The pope, who had used every artifice to gain popularity with the
people, was prepared for the contest and answered back with the ban
of excommunication. The emperor might have been able to carry on the
struggle with some hope of success had he been in favor with his own
subjects. But he had alienated the Saxons by his harsh treatment of
them and the indignities heaped upon them; and others of his states
looked upon him with suspicion. Pitted against the ablest foe in
Europe, he found himself without the sympathy and aid of those to whom
alone he could look for help. Meanwhile Gregory was sending his agents
to all the courts of Europe and employing every intrigue to effect the
emperor’s dethronement. In 1076 a convention of princes was called to
meet near Mayence, Henry not being permitted to be present. So heavy
had the papal excommunication fallen by this time that the emperor
sent messengers to this convention offering to submit to their demands
if they would only spare his crown. Gregory was inexorable, and they
adjourned without any reconciliations being effected, to meet in a few
months at Augsburg. Henry now realized the might of the hand that for
centuries had been silently gathering the reins of spiritual power,
only to grasp at last the political supremacy as well. With the burden
of excommunication ready to crush out his imperial scepter he sued for
pardon at any price. The pope had retired for a time to the castle of
Canossa, not far from Parma. Thither went the Franconian Emperor of
Germany to implore the papal forgiveness. He presented himself before
the gate barefoot, clad in a shirt of sack-cloth, and prayed that he
might be received and forgiven as a penitent sinner. But Gregory chose
to prolong the satisfaction he had in witnessing his penitence. So
throughout the whole day, without food, in snow and rain, he stood
begging the pope to receive him. In the same condition and without
avail, he stood the second and the third day. Not until the morning of
the fourth day did the pope admit him, and then his pardon was granted
on conditions which made his crown, for the time, a dependency of the
Bishop of Rome.

But the struggle of the German rulers with popedom was not ended at
Canossa. Henry himself renewed it a few years later with far better
results to his side. The spirit of protestantism was ever alive in some
form in Germany, and, as we have said, was prophetic of him who should
rise in the fifteenth century and dare to protest against the claim of
spiritual supremacy by the autocrat of Rome. From that time till now it
has been a by-phrase with German princes in their conflicts with the
church that they “will not go to Canossa.”


BEFORE THE REFORMATION.

At this time superstition and dense ignorance were widespread. Stories
of magic were constantly told and believed, and the miracles with which
the church offset them were hardly less absurd. Other terrors were
added. Public justice was administered so imperfectly that private and
arbitrary violence took its place; while the tribunals which formerly
sat in the open sunlight before the people now covered themselves with
night and secrecy. “The Holy Feme” sprang up in Westphalia. Originally
a public tribunal of the city, such as is found in Brunswick, and
in other places, it afterward spread far and wide, but in a changed
form. Its members held their sessions in secret and by night. Unknown
messengers of the tribunal summoned the accused. Disguised judges,
volunteer officers, from among “the knowing ones,” gave judgment, often
in wild, desolate places, and often in some ancient seat of justice, as
at the Linden-tree at Dortmund. The sentence was executed, even if the
criminal had not appeared or had made his escape. The dagger, with the
mark of the Feme, found in the dead body, told how surely the avenging
arm had struck in the darkness. It was a fearful time, when justice,
like crime, must walk in disguise.

The habits of thought which made possible such beliefs and actions
as these were part of the same movement to which the corruption of
church doctrine and government must also be referred. The perverted
Roman Christianity from which the Reformation was a revolt was not
the Christianity of Charlemagne, nor even that of Hildebrand. Hasty
readers sometimes imagine that the church, for many centuries before
the Reformation, had firmly held the doctrines which Luther rejected.
But, in fact, most of them were recent innovations. Peter the Lombard,
Bishop of Paris in the twelfth century, was the first theologian to
enumerate “the Seven Sacraments,” and Eugene IV., in 1431, was the
first of the popes to proclaim them. The doctrine of transubstantiation
was first embodied in the church confession by the Lateran Council of
November, 1215, the same which first required auricular confession of
all the laity. It was more than a century later before the celibacy of
the clergy and the denial of the sacramental cup to all but priests
became established law, and the idea that the pope is the vicar of
Christ upon earth, and the bearer of divine honors, was accepted. All
these corruptions of the earlier faith were the results of ambition in
the hierarchy, and of gross and sensual modes of thought in the people;
and the same causes led to the rapid development, in the fifteenth
century especially, of the worship of the Virgin Mary, who was honored
with ceremonies and prayers from which Christians of earlier ages would
have shrunk as blasphemous. Nor can the church of the beginning of the
sixteenth century be understood by studying the confession adopted by
the Council of Trent a generation or more afterward. The teachings
and practices which called forth Luther’s protest were far too gross,
when once explained, to bear the examination of sincere friends of
Romanism; who, without knowing it themselves, were greatly influenced,
even in their formal statements of belief, by the controversies of the
Reformation. The value of that great event to the world can not be
comprehended without a knowledge of what it has done for the Catholic
church within its own boundaries.[A]


PREPARING FOR THE REFORMATION.

Prior to the fourteenth century all learning was monopolized by the
church. Its power was exercised to make every branch of knowledge
harmonize itself with the teachings of Catholic Christianity. In
revolt against these shackles arose a few independent spirits who
sought to rest religious doctrine on the foundations of reason to
some degree, at least. Nevertheless, superstitions still clung to
and mingled with all these new studies, and the age did not witness
their separation. The higher intelligence traveled gradually, but very
slowly. The art of printing came to its assistance and proved to be its
strongest auxiliary. To Germany belongs the glory of this invention,
and she can boast no higher service rendered to mankind. The art of
wood-engraving was the preliminary step which led to it. It was soon
employed for pictures of sacred scenes and persons; so that the many
who could neither read nor write had a sort of Bible in their picture
collections. But the grand conception of making movable types, each
bearing a single letter, and composing the words of them, was first
formed by John Gutenberg, of the patrician family of Gänsefleisch, of
Mayence. He was driven from his native city by a disturbance among the
guilds, and went to Strasburg, where he invented the art of printing
about the year 1450. Great trouble was experienced in discovering the
proper material in which to cut the separate letters; neither wood
nor lead answered well. Being short of resources, Gutenberg formed a
partnership with John Faust, also of Mayence. Faust’s assistant, Peter
Schöffer, afterward his son-in-law, a skillful copyist and draughtsman,
discovered the proper alloy for type-metal, and invented printing-ink.
In 1461 appeared the first large book printed in Germany, a handsome
Bible, exhibiting the perfection that the art possessed at its very
origin.

When Adolphus of Nassau captured Mayence in 1462, the workmen skilled
in the art, which had been kept a secret, were scattered through the
world; and by the end of the fifteenth century the principal nations of
Europe, and especially Italy, France, and England, had become rivals
of Germany in prosecuting it. Books had previously been transcribed,
chiefly by monks, upon expensive parchment, and often beautifully
ornamented with elaborate drawings and paintings. They had therefore
been an article of luxury, and confined to the rich. But a book printed
on paper was easily made accessible to all classes, for copies were
so numerous that each could be sold at a low price. Beside books of
devotion, the writings of the Greek and Latin poets, historians and
philosophers, most of which had fallen into oblivion during the Middle
Ages, now gradually obtained wide circulation. After the fall of
Constantinople, and the subjugation of Greece by the Turks, fugitive
Greeks brought the works of their forefathers’ genius to Italy, where
enlightened men had already begun to study them. This branch of
learning, called “the Humanities,” spread from Italy through Germany,
France, England, and other countries, and contributed powerfully to
produce a finer taste and more intelligent habits of thought, such
as put to shame the rude ignorance of the monks. It was the art of
printing that broke down the slavery in which the blind faith of the
church held the human mind; and even the censorship which Rome set up
to oppose it was not able to undo its work.

Just as the convents fell before the art of printing, so did the
castles of the robber knights before the invention of gunpowder. Thus,
at the coming of the Reformation, these degenerate remnants of the
once noble institutions of knighthood were swept away. It is supposed
by many that the knowledge of gunpowder was brought into Europe from
China during the great Mongolian emigration of the thirteenth century,
the Chinese having long possessed it. The Arabs, too, understood how
to make explosive powder, by mixing saltpeter, charcoal, and sulphur.
But all the Eastern makers produced only the fine powder, and the
art of making it in grains seems to have been the device of Berthold
Schwarz, a German monk of the Franciscan order, of Freiburg