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[Illustration: MARTIN LUTHER.

WILL^M COLLINS, GLASGOW.]

  HISTORY

  OF

  THE REFORMATION

  IN THE

  SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

  BY
  J. H. MERLE D'AUBIGNE, D.D.

  J'appelle accessoire, l'estat des affaires de ceste vie caduque et
  transitoire. J'appelle principal, le gouvernement spirituel auquel
  reluit souverainement la providence de Dieu.--THEODORE DE BEZE.

  By _accessory_ I mean the state of affairs in this fading and
  transitory life. By principal I mean the spiritual government in
  which the providence of God is sovereignly displayed.

  A NEW TRANSLATION:

  (CONTAINING THE AUTHOR'S LAST IMPROVEMENTS,)

  BY HENRY BEVERIDGE, ESQ. ADVOCATE.




  VOLUME FIRST.


  GLASGOW:
  PUBLISHED BY WILLIAM COLLINS.
  LONDON: R. GROOMBRIDGE AND SONS.
  1845.

  GLASGOW:
  WILLIAM COLLINS AND CO.,
  PRINTERS.




TRANSLATOR'S ADVERTISEMENT.


D'Aubigne's History of the Reformation is so well known and so highly
appreciated as to make it not only unnecessary, but almost
presumptuous, for a mere Translator to say any thing in commendation
of it. The public feeling unquestionably is, that of the works which
have recently appeared, it is one of the most talented, interesting,
important, and seasonable. The mere lapse of time, aided by the active
misrepresentations of the Romish party, had begun to make an
impression in some degree unfavourable to the principles of the
Reformation. This admirable work has again placed these principles in
their true light. By its vivid display of what Rome was and did, it
has impressively reminded us of what she still is, and is prepared to
do. Her great boast is, that she has never changed. If so, she longs
to return to her former course, and will return to it the first moment
that circumstances enable her to do so. Being thus warned, our duty is
plain. We must prepare for the combat; and of all preparations, none
promises to be more effectual than that of thoroughly embuing the
public mind with the facts so graphically delineated, and the
principles so luminously and forcibly expounded in this work of
D'Aubigne.

But, it may be asked, Has not this purpose been effected already, or
at least may it not be effected without the instrumentality of a new
translation?

To this question the Translator answers, _First_, The form of the
present translation and the price at which it is published place the
work within the reach of thousands to whom it might otherwise be a
sealed book. _Second_, While this Translation is the cheapest in
existence, it is also the only one which can, in strict truth, be
regarded as genuine. The edition from which this translation is made
was published in 1842. The date would have been of little consequence
if the work had continued the same; but the fact is, that the edition
of 1842 is not a reprint, but a complete revision of the one which
preceded it. Numerous passages of considerable length and great
importance have been introduced, while others which had, on a careful
examination, been deemed redundant or inaccurate, have been expunged.
Surely, after all the pains which the distinguished author has
expended on the improvement of his work, it is scarcely doing justice
either to him or to the English reader to leave his improvements
unknown. In another respect the present Translation exclusively
contains what is conceived to be a very decided improvement. All the
Notes, the meaning of which is not given in the Text, have been
literally translated. It seemed somewhat absurd while translating
French for the benefit of the English reader, to be at the same time
presenting him with a large number of passages of untranslated Latin.

While the work has been printed in a form to which the most fastidious
cannot object, it has been issued at a price which makes it accessible
to all. The result, it is hoped, will be, that D'Aubigne's History of
the Reformation will obtain a circulation somewhat adequate to its
merits, and by its introduction into every family become what it well
deserves to be--a household book.




CONTENTS.


  BOOK I.

  STATE OF MATTERS BEFORE THE REFORMATION.
                                                                  PAGE


  CHAP. I.

  Christianity--Formation of the Papacy--Unity of the Church--The
         Decretals--Hildebrand--Corruption of Doctrine,             13


  CHAP. II.

  Grace and Works--Pelagianism--Penances--Indulgences--
      Supererogation--Purgatory--Taxation--Jubilee,                 27


  CHAP. III.

  Relics--Easter Merriment--Corruption of the Clergy--A Priest's
        Family--Education--Ignorance,                               34


  CHAP. IV.

  Christianity Imperishable--Opposition to Rome--Frederick the
        Wise--His Character--His Anticipation,                      42


  CHAP. V.

  The Empire--National Character--Switzerland--Italy--Spain--
        Portugal--France--Netherlands--England--Scotland--The
        North--Russia--Poland--Bohemia--Hungary,                    48


  CHAP. VI.

  State of Theology--Witnesses for the Truth--The Vaudois--
        Wickliffe---Huss--Savonarola--John Wessel--Proles,          58


  CHAP. VII.

  Literature--Dante--Printing--Reuchlin--His Struggle with the
        Dominicans,                                                 71


  CHAP. VIII.

  Erasmus--His Genius--His 'Praise of Folly'--His Greek Testament--
        His Influence--His Failings,                                82


  CHAP. IX.

  The Nobles--Huetten--'Letters of some Obscure Men'--Seckingen--
        Cronberg--Hans Sachs--General Fermentation,                 94


  BOOK II.

  YOUTH, CONVERSION, AND FIRST LABOURS, OF LUTHER.


  CHAP. I.

  Luther--His Parentage--The Paternal Roof--Strict Discipline--
        School--The Shunammite--His Studies--University,           103


  CHAP. II.

  Scholasticism and the Classics--Luther's Piety--His Discovery
        of a Bible--His Sickness--The Thunderstorm--His Entrance
        into a Convent,                                            112


  CHAP. III.

  His Father's Anger--Servile Employments--His Studies--The
        Bible--Hebrew and Greek--His Agony during Mass--Faints,    118


  CHAP. IV.

  Staupitz--His Piety--His Visitation--His Conversation--Presents
        Luther with a Bible--The Old Monk--Luther's Consecration--
        His Call to Wittemberg,                                    126


  CHAP. V.

  The University of Wittemberg--Luther's First Employment--
        Biblical Lectures--Preaching at Wittemberg--The Old
        Chapel,                                                    136


  CHAP. VI.

  Luther's Journey to Rome--A Convent on the Po--Luther's
        Behaviour at Rome--Corruption of the Romish Clergy--
        Prevailing Immorality--Pilate's Staircase,                 140


  CHAP. VII.

  Doctor's Degree--Carlstadt--Luther's Oath--First Views of
        Reformation--The Schoolmen--Spalatin,                      149


  CHAP. VIII.

  'Popular Declamations'--Moral Purity of Luther--Mysticism--
        Spenlein--Justification by Faith--Necessity of Works,      156


  CHAP. IX.

  First Theses--Visit to the Convents--Dresden--Erfurt--Tornator
        Peace and the Cross--Labours--The Plague,                  163


  CHAP. X.

  Luther and the Elector--Duke George--Luther at Court--Dinner
        Emser's Supper,                                            167


  CHAP. XI.

  Theses--Human Nature--Rationalism--Eck--Urban Regius--Luther's
        Modesty,                                                   172


  Book III.

  THE INDULGENCES AND THESES.


  CHAP. I.

  Cortege--Tezel--His Discourse--Sale of Indulgences--Public
        Penance--Letter of Indulgence--Feasting and Debauchery,    180


  CHAP. II.

  The Soul in the Burying-Ground--Shoemaker of Hagenau--Myconius--
        Stratagem--Miner of Schneeberg,                            187


  CHAP. III.

  Leo X--His Necessities--Albert--His Character--Franciscans and
        Dominicans,                                                193


  CHAP. IV.

  Tezel Approaches--Luther in the Confessional--Tezel's Rage--
        Luther's Discourse--The Elector's Dream,                   197


  CHAP. V.

  Luther's Theses--Letter to Albert--Dissemination of the Theses,  203


  CHAP. VI.

  Reuchlin--Erasmus--Flek--Bibra--The Emperor--The Pope--Myconius--
         The Monks--Adelman--An Old Priest--Bishop of Brandenburg--
         Luther's Moving Principle,                                213


  CHAP. VII.

  Tezel's Attack--Luther's Reply--Luther and Spalatin--Study of
        Scripture--Scheurl and Luther--Luther pleads for the
        People--A new Suit,                                        221


  CHAP. VIII.

  Disputation at Frankfort--Tezel's Theses--Knipstrow--Luther's
        Theses burnt--Tezel's Theses burnt,                        227


  CHAP. IX.

  Prierio--His Dialogue--Luther's Reply--Hochstraten--Eck--'The
        Obelisks'--'The Asterisks,'                                235


  CHAP. X.

  Popular Writings--Lord's Prayer--Sermon on Repentance,           244


  CHAP. XI.

  Apprehensions of Luther's Friends--Journey to Heidelberg--
        Bibra--The Palatinate Castle--The Paradoxes--Bucer--
        Brentz--Snepf--The Old Professor,                          249


  BOOK FOURTH.

  LUTHER BEFORE THE LEGATE.


  CHAP. I.

  'Solutions'--Leo X--Luther to the Bishop--To the Pope--To
        the Vicar-General--Rovere to the Elector--Discourse on
        Excommunication,                                           258


  CHAP. II.

  Diet of Augsburg--The Emperor to the Pope--Luther cited to
        Rome--Luther's Peace--Intercession of the University--
        Papal Brief--The Pope to the Elector,                      266


  CHAP. III.

  Schwarzerd--His Wife--Philip Melancthon--His Genius--His
        Studies--Call to Wittemberg--Leipsic--Parallel between
        Luther and Melancthon--Education,                          273


  CHAP. IV.

  Luther and Staupitz--Order to Appear--Luther's Departure for
        Augsburg--Weimar--Nuremberg,                               280


  CHAP. V.

  Arrival at Augsburg--De Vio--Serra-Longa--Safe-Conduct--Luther
        to Melancthon,                                             285


  CHAP. VI.

  First Appearance--Conditions of Rome--Propositions to Retract--
        Luther's Reply--Impressions on both Sides--Arrival of
        Staupitz,                                                  293


  CHAP. VII.

  Communication to the Legate--Second Appearance--Luther's
        Declaration--The Legate's Reply--The Legate's Volubility--
        Luther's Request,                                          299


  CHAP. VIII.

  Third Appearance--Treasury of Indulgences--Humble Request--
        Legate's Rage--Luther Retires,                             303


  CHAP. IX.

  De Vio and Staupitz--Staupitz and Luther--Luther and Spalatin
        Communion--Departure of Staupitz and Link--Luther to
        Cajetan--Luther's Departure--Appeal to the Pope,           307


  CHAP. X.

  Luther's Flight--Luther's Wish--The Legate to the Elector--The
        Elector to the Legate--Prosperity of the University,       316


  CHAP. XI.

  Thoughts of Departure--Adieus to the Church--Critical Moment--
        Luther's Courage--Discontentment at Rome--Papal Bull--
        Appeal to a Council,                                       321




PREFACE TO THE LAST EDITION.


My purpose is not to write the history of a party, but that of one of
the greatest revolutions which has taken place among men--the history
of a mighty impulse which was given to the world three centuries ago,
and the influence of which is still, in our day, every where
perceived. The history of the Reformation is different from the
history of Protestantism. In the former, every thing bears testimony
to a revival of human nature, to a transformation, social and
religious, emanating from God. In the latter are too often seen a
remarkable degeneracy from primitive principles, party intrigue, a
sectarian spirit, and the impress of petty private feelings. The
history of Protestantism might interest none but Protestants; the
history of the Reformation is for all Christians, or rather all men.

The historian has a choice in the field in which he is to labour. He
may describe the great events which change the face of a people, or
the face of the world; or he may narrate the calm and progressive
course, whether of a nation, the Church, or mankind, which usually
follows great social changes. Both fields of history are highly
important; but the preference, in point of interest, seems due to
those epochs which, under the name of Revolutions, introduce a nation
or society at large to a new era and a new life.

Such a transformation I have attempted to describe with very humble
powers, hoping that the beauty of the subject will compensate for my
want of ability. In styling it a _Revolution_, I give it a name which
in our day is in discredit with many, who almost confound it with
_revolt_. This is a mistake. A revolution is a change which takes
place in the world's affairs. It is something new evolved (_revolvo_)
from the bosom of humanity; and, indeed, before the end of the last
century, the term was oftener used in a good than a bad sense. They
spoke of "a happy," a "marvellous" revolution. The Reformation being a
re-establishment of the principles of primitive Christianity, is the
opposite of a revolt. For that which behoved to revive it was a
regenerating--for that which must always subsist, a conservative
movement. Christianity and the Reformation, while establishing the
grand principle that all souls are equal in the sight of God, and
overthrowing the usurpations of a haughty priesthood, which presumed
to place itself between the Creator and his creature, lay it down as a
fundamental principle of social order, that all power is of God, and
cry aloud to all, "Love your brethren, fear God, honour the king."

The Reformation differs essentially from the revolutions of antiquity,
and from the greater part of those of modern times. In these,
political changes are in question, and the object is to establish or
overthrow the ascendancy of one, or it may be of many. The love of
truth, of holiness, and eternity, was the simple, yet powerful, spring
by which our Reformation was effected. It marks a step which human
nature has taken in advance. In fact, if man, instead of pursuing only
material, temporal, earthly interests, proposes to himself a higher
aim, aspiring to immaterial and immortal blessings, he advances and
makes progress. The Reformation is one of the brightest days of this
glorious advance. It is a pledge that the new struggle, which is now
being decided, will terminate in favour of truth, with a triumph still
more pure, spiritual, and splendid.

Christianity and the Reformation are the two greatest revolutions on
record. Unlike the different political movements of which we read,
they took place not in one nation merely, but in several nations, and
their effects must be felt to the end of the world.

Christianity and the Reformation are the same revolution, effected at
different times, and under different circumstances. They vary in
secondary features, but are identical in their primary and principal
lineaments. The one is a repetition of the other. The one ended the
old, the other began the new world; the middle ages lie between. The
one gave birth to the other, and if, in some respects, the daughter
bears marks of inferiority, she on the other hand has her own peculiar
properties.

One of these is the rapidity of her action. The great revolutions
which have issued in the fall of a monarchy, and the change of a whole
political system, or which have thrown the human mind on a new course
of development, were slowly and gradually prepared. The old power had
long been undermined, and its principal buttresses had one after
another disappeared. It was so on the introduction of Christianity.
But the Reformation is seen, at the first glance, to present a
different aspect. The Church of Rome appears, under Leo X, in all its
power and glory. A monk speaks, and over the half of Europe this power
and glory crumble away, thus reminding us of the words in which the
Son of God announces his second advent: "As the lightning cometh out
of the east, and shineth even unto the west, so shall also the coming
of the Son of man be." (Matth., xxiv, 27.)

This rapidity is inexplicable to those who see, in this great event,
only a _reform_, and regard it as simply an act of criticism, which
consisted in making a choice among doctrines, discarding some,
retaining others, and arranging those retained, so as to form them
into a new system.

How could a whole nation, how could several nations, have so quickly
performed an operation so laborious? How could this critical
examination have kindled that fire of enthusiasm which is essential to
great, and, above all, to rapid revolutions? The Reformation, as its
history will show, was altogether different. It was a new effusion of
the life which Christianity brought into the world. It was the triumph
of the greatest of doctrines, that which animates those who embrace it
with the purest and strongest enthusiasm--the doctrine of faith, the
doctrine of grace. Had the Reformation been what many Catholics and
many Protestants in our day imagine,--had it been that negative system
of negative reason, which childishly rejects whatever displeases it,
and loses sight of the great ideas and great truths of Christianity,
it had never passed the narrow limits of an academy, a cloister, or a
cell. It had nothing in common with what is generally understood by
Protestantism. Far from being a worn-out, emaciated body, it rose up
like a man of might and fire.

Two considerations explain the rapidity and the extent of this
revolution. The one must be sought in God, the other among men. The
impulse was given by a mighty and invisible hand, and the change
effected was a Divine work. This is the conclusion at which an
impartial and attentive observer, who stops not at the surface,
necessarily arrives. But the historian's task is not finished; for God
works by second causes. A variety of circumstances, many of them
unperceived, gradually prepared men for the great transformation of
the sixteenth century, and, accordingly, the human mind was ripe when
the hour of its emancipation pealed.

The task of the historian is to combine these two great elements in
the picture which he presents, and this has been attempted in the
present history. We shall be easily understood, when we come to trace
the second causes which contributed to the Reformation, but some
perhaps will not understand us so well, and will even be tempted to
tax us with superstition, when we attribute the accomplishment of the
work to God. The idea, however, is particularly dear to us. This
history, as indicated by the inscription on its title-page, places in
front and over its head the simple and prolific principle, GOD IN
HISTORY. But this principle being generally neglected, and sometimes
disputed, it seems necessary to expound our views with regard to it,
and thereby justify the method which we have seen it proper to adopt.

History cannot, in our day, be that lifeless series of events which
the greater part of previous historians deemed it sufficient to
enumerate. It is now understood that in history as in man are two
elements, matter and spirit. Our great historians, unable to satisfy
themselves with a detail of facts, constituting only a barren
chronicle, have sought for a principle of life to animate the
materials of past ages.

Some have borrowed this principle from art, aiming at vivid, faithful,
and graphic description, and endeavouring to make their narrative live
with the life of the events themselves.

Others have applied to philosophy for the spirit which should give
fruit to their labours. To facts they have united speculative views,
instructive lessons, political and philosophical truths, enlivening
their narrative by the language which they have made it speak, and the
ideas which it has enabled them to suggest.

Both methods doubtless are good, and should be employed within certain
limits. But there is another source to which, above all others, it is
necessary to apply for the spirit and life of the past--I mean
Religion. History should be made to live with its own proper life. God
is this life. God must be acknowledged--God proclaimed--in history.
The history of the world should purport to be annals of the government
of the Supreme King.

I have descended into the field to which the narratives of our
historians invited me, and there seen the actions of men and of states
in energetic development and violent collision: of the clang of arms,
I have heard more than I can tell; but no where have I been shown the
majestic form of the Judge who sits umpire of the combat.

And yet in all the movements of nations, there is a living principle
which emanates from God. God is present on the vast stage on which the
generations of men successively appear. True! He is there a God
invisible; but if the profane multitude pass carelessly by, because He
is concealed, profound intellects, spirits which feel a longing for
the principle of their existence, seek him with so much the more
earnestness, and are not satisfied until they are prostrated before
Him. And their enquiries are magnificently rewarded. For, from the
heights which they must reach in order to meet with God, the history
of the world, instead of exhibiting to them, as to the ignorant crowd,
a confused chaos, is seen like a majestic temple, on which the
invisible hand of God himself is at work, and which, from humanity, as
the rock on which it is founded, is rising up to his glory.

Shall we not see God in those great phenomena, those great personages,
those great states, which rise, and suddenly, so to speak, spring from
the dust of the earth, giving to human life a new impulse, form, and
destiny? Shall not we see Him in those great heroes who start up in
society, at particular epochs, displaying an activity and a power
beyond the ordinary limits of man, and around whom individuals and
nations come without hesitation, and group themselves as around a
higher and mysterious nature? Who flung forward into space those
comets of gigantic form and fiery tail, which only appear at long
intervals, shedding on the superstitious herd of mortals either plenty
and gladness, or pestilence and terror? Who, if not God?... Alexander
seeks his origin in the abodes of Divinity; and in the most
irreligious age there is no great renown which strives not to connect
itself in some way with heaven.

And do not those revolutions, which cast down dynasties, or even whole
kingdoms into the dust; those huge wrecks which we fall in with in the
midst of the sands; those majestic ruins which the field of humanity
presents, do not those cry loud enough, God in History? Gibbon,
sitting amid the wrecks of the Capitol, and contemplating the
venerable ruins, acknowledges the intervention of a higher power. He
sees, he feels it, and in vain would turn away from it. This spectre
of a mysterious power reappears behind each ruin, and he conceives the
idea of describing its influence in the history of the disorganisation,
the decline and fall of this Roman power, which had subjugated the
nations. This powerful hand, which a man of distinguished genius, one,
however, who had not bent the knee before Jesus Christ, perceives
athwart scattered fragments of the tomb of Romulus, reliefs of Marcus
Aurelius, busts of Cicero and Virgil, statues of Caesar and Augustus,
trophies of Trajan, and steeds of Pompey, shall not we discover amid
all ruins, and recognise as the hand of our God?

Strange! this interposition of God in human affairs, which even Pagans
had recognised, men reared amid the grand ideas of Christianity treat
as superstition.

The name which Grecian antiquity gave to the Sovereign God, shows us
that it had received primitive revelations of this great truth of a
God, the source of history, and of the life of nations. It called him
_Zeus_,[1] that is to say, He who gives _life_ to all that lives, to
individuals and nations. To his altars kings and subjects come to take
their oaths, and from his mysterious inspirations Minos and other
legislators pretend to have received their laws. Nay more, this great
truth is figured by one of the most beautiful myths of Pagan
antiquity. Even Mythology might teach the sages of our day. This is a
fact which it may be worth while to establish; perhaps there are
individuals who will oppose fewer prejudices to the lessons of
Paganism than to those of Christianity. This Zeus, then, this
Sovereign God, this Eternal Spirit, the principle of life, is father
of Clio, the Muse of History, whose mother is Mnemosyne or Memory.
Thus, according to antiquity, history unites a celestial to a
terrestrial nature. She is daughter of God and man. But, alas! the
short-sighted wisdom of our boasted days is far below those heights of
Pagan wisdom. History has been robbed of her divine parent, and now an
illegitimate child, a bold adventurer, she roams the world, not well
knowing whence she comes, or whither she goes.

  [1] From _zao_, I live.

But this divinity of Pagan antiquity is only a dim reflection, a
flickering shadow of the Eternal Jehovah. The true God whom the
Hebrews worship, sees meet to imprint it on the minds of all nations
that he reigns perpetually on the earth, and for this purpose gives,
if I may so express it, a bodily form to this reign in the midst of
Israel. A visible Theocracy behoved for once to exist on the earth,
that it might incessantly recall the invisible Theocracy which will
govern the world for ever.

And what lustre does not the great truth--God in History--receive from
the Christian Dispensation? Who is Jesus Christ, if he be not God in
History? It was the discovery of Jesus Christ that gave John Mueller,
the prince of modern historians, his knowledge of history. "The
Gospel," he says, "is the fulfilment of all hopes, the finishing point
of all philosophy, the explanation of all revolutions, the key to all
the apparent contradictions of the physical and moral world; in short,
life and immortality. Ever since I knew the Saviour, I see all things
clearly; with him there is no difficulty which I cannot solve."[2]

  [2] Letter to Charles Bonnet.

So speaks this great historian; and, in truth, is not the fact of
God's appearance in human nature the key-stone of the arch, the
mysterious knot which binds up all the things of earth, and attaches
them to heaven? There is a birth of God in the history of the world,
and shall God not be in history? Jesus Christ is the true God in the
history of men. The very meanness of his appearance proves it. When
man wishes to erect a shade or shelter on the earth, you may expect
preparations, materials, scaffolding, workmen, tools, trenches,
rubbish. But God, when he is pleased to do it, takes the smallest
seed, which a new-born babe could have clasped in its feeble hand,
deposits it in the bosom of the earth, and, from this grain, at first
imperceptible, produces the immense tree under which the families of
the earth recline. To do great things by imperceptible means is the
law of God.

In Jesus Christ this law receives its most magnificent fulfilment. Of
Christianity, which has now taken possession of the portals of
nations, which is, at this moment, reigning or wandering over all the
tribes of the earth from the rising to the setting sun, and which
incredulous philosophy herself is obliged to acknowledge as the
spiritual and social law of the world--of this Christianity, (the
greatest thing under the vault of heaven, nay, in the boundless
immensity of Creation,) what was the commencement? An infant born in
the smallest town of the most despised nation of the earth--an infant
whose mother had not what the poorest and most wretched female in any
one of our cities has, a room for birth--an infant born in a stable
and laid in a manger!... There, O God, I behold and I adore Thee!

The Reformation knew this law of God, and felt she had a call to
accomplish it. The idea that God is in history was often brought
forward by the Reformers. In particular, we find it on one occasion
expressed by Luther, under one of those grotesque and familiar, yet
not undignified figures which he was fond of employing in order to be
understood by the people. "The world," said he one day at table among
his friends; "the world is a vast and magnificent game at cards,
consisting of emperors, kings, and princes. For several ages the pope
has beaten the emperors, princes, and kings, who stooped and fell
under him. Then our Lord God came and dealt the cards, taking to
himself the smallest, [Luther,] and with it has beaten the pope, who
beat the kings of the earth.... God used it as his ace. 'He hath put
down the mighty from their seats, and exalted them of low degree,'
says Mary." (Luke, i, 52.)

The period whose history I am desirous to trace, is important with
reference to the present time. Man, on feeling his weakness, is
usually disposed to seek for aid in the institutions which he sees
existing around him, or in devices, the offspring of his own
imagination. The history of the Reformation shows that nothing new is
done with what is old, and that if, according to our Saviour's
expression, there must be new vessels for new wine, there must also be
new wine for new vessels. It directs man to God, the sole actor in
history--to that divine Word--always ancient, from the eternity of the
truths which it contains--always new, by the regenerating influence
which it exerts, which three centuries ago purified society, restoring
faith in God to those whom superstition had enfeebled; and which, at
all epochs in the world's history, is the source from which salvation
proceeds.

It is singular to see a great number of individuals under the
agitation produced by a vague longing for some fixed belief, actually
applying to old Catholicism. In one sense, the movement is natural.
Religion being so little known, they imagine the only place to find it
is where they see it painted, in large characters, on a banner, which
age makes respectable. We say not that every kind of Catholicism is
incapable of giving man what he wants. Our belief is, that a
distinction should be carefully drawn between Catholicism and the
Papacy. The Papacy we hold to be an erroneous and destructive system;
but we are far from confounding Catholicism with it. How many
respectable men, how many true Christians has not the Catholic Church
contained! What immense services did not Catholicism render to
