REFORMATION

An important era in political and ecclesiastical history, when the doctrines and usages of the Romish church, then dominant throughout the western states of Christen dom, were first succe fully called in question. This event is commonly dated from the year 1517, when Luther began to oppose the pope and condemned the sale of indulgences. Mosheim a igns to it the date 1520, when Luther was excommunicated. Prior to the Reformation, the pope claimed of divine right, and exercised, absolute authority over the whole Christian church, with the exception of those states and provinces in which the Eastern or Greek church was established. Not only was his authority regarded as supreme on Bubjects of doctrine and discipline, but his decisions were considered as infallible; and whoever ventured to question or gainsay them was treated as a heretic, and was liable b) such canonical censures and temporal penalties as the canon law determined. Of course, the exercise of private judgment in religious and ecclesiastical matters, or the right of the people to peruse the sacred volume, was peremptorily denied. Nothing, therefore, could be more absolute than was the government of the Christian church under the see of Rome. His holine , also, laid claim to supremacy even in temporal things throughout the wide range of his religious authority; though the exercise of this supremacy was not always REFORMATION. quietly submitted to; nay, was sometimes resisted with succe . He regarded all parts of the world not inhabited by Christians as uninhabited, and gave full power to those Christians who might occupy them to mak^ war on the inhabitants; and the countries, if conquered, were parcelled out according to his sovereign pleasure. But while the absolutism claimed by the Roman pontiff was calculated to arouse jealousy and opposition, which, indeed, it did, in some degree, in different places and at various times, these feelings were greatly increased by several other causes: such as the immoral lives of the clergy; the facilities by which their immoralities were pardoned; the exorbitant wealth of the church; the great personal immunities of ecclesiastics, and their encroachments on the jurisdiction of the laity. These and similar circumstances, which the invention of tlie art of printing and the revival of learning had tended more thoroughly and widely to disclose, gradually prepared the public mind for that reformation of religion of which in this article we intend briefly to give an account. Without minutely mentioning the frequent, but comparatively feeble opposition, to which the absolutism in the government of the church had, in various periods, given rise, it may suffice here to confine ourselves to an account of that course of opposition, in the 16th century, which terminated in the Reformation. According to the doctrine of the Romish church, all the good works of the saints, over and above those nece ary for their own justification, are deposited, together with the infinite merits of Jesus Christ, in one inexhaustible treasury. The keys of this treasury were committed to St. Peter, and his succe ors the popes, who may 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 a release for any one in whose happine he is interested from the pains of purgatory. Hence the origin (which took place in the llth century) of the sale of indulgences. Pope Leo X., under the pretence of raising contributions towards building the church of St. Peter at Rome, granted, in 1517, the right of promulgating those indulgences in Germany, together with a share in the profits arising from the sale of them, to the archbishop of Magdeburg, who, as his chief agent for retail, ing them in Saxony, employed Tetzel, a Dominican friar, of di olute morals, but of great activity and energy of character. Tetzel, a isted by the monks of his order, executed the commi ion with great zeal, but with little discretion or decency; and, by disposing of them at a very low price, carried on for some time an extensive and lucrative traffic among the credulous and ignorant. The princes and nobles were irritated at seeing their va als drained of their wealth to replenish the treasury of a profuse pontiff. Men of piety regretted equally the corruptions of the church and the delusions of the people. Even the most unthinking were shocked at the scandalous behaviour of Tetzel and his a ociates. But it was reserved to Martin Luther, formerly a monk of the Augustine order, and at that time profe or of theology at Wittenberg, effectually to expose the artifices of those who sold, and the simplicity of those who bought indulgences, and to shake the foundations of the papal see itself. What were the motives which first induced this distinguished person to oppose this traffic cannot now be ascertained. Phe traffic was not a novelty, as it had been practised throughout Christen dom for several centuries. Some writers have imagined, though with what justice is not evident, that his opposition was founded in jealousy, because this gainful trade had not been conferred on the August in i ans, to whom he belonged, but on the Do mini cans, a rival order. But, whatever were his motives, his opposition at first was confined simply to the sale of indulgences. His memorable theses, ninety five in number, against this practice were affixed to the doors of the cathedral of Wittenberg, 31st October, 1517; while from the pulpit he inveighed bitterly against the irregularities and vices of the monks who published indulgences, as well as against the abuse itself. The sentiments contained in his theses he proposed not as points fully established, or of undoubted certainty, but merely as subjects of inquiry and disputation: he apix)inted a day on which the learned were invited to impugn them, either in person or by writing; and to the whole he subjoined solemn protestations of his high respect for the. apostolic see, and of his implicit obedience to its authority. No opponent appeared at the time prefixed. Meanwhile the theses spread over Germany with astonishing rapidity; they were everywhere read with the greatest avidity; and all admired the boldne of the man who had ventured to attack the plenitude of papal power. Meanwhile Tetzel, in opposition to Luther, published counter-theses at Frankfort on the Oder; Eckius, a celebrated divine of Augsburg, endeavoured to refute Luther's notions; and Prier i as, a Dominican friar, master of the sacred palace and inquisitor-general, wrote against him with uncompromising virulence. But this [s. 1043]