THE Rev. Mr. PAUL'S LECTURE ON THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY.
Delivered to the Lyttelton Colonists' Society, on the 28th July. From a very early period it seems to have been the practice of the Catholic or Universal Church to concede to the Bishop of Rome the rank of Metropolitan or Primate —not (as Roman Catholic theologians suppose) in virtue of any supremacy derived from St. Peter—but simply because'the imperial city of Rome was at that time the capital of the world. For without venturing to contend, as some Protestant writers have done, that St. Peter never visited Rome at all, —I would nevertheless ascribe to St. Paul rather than to him, the establishment of the first bishopric in that city. And for these reasons —because we have no satisfactory evidence that St. Peter had been at Rome before the time of St. Paul's leaving it in the year of our Lord 58, for if he had been there when.St. Paul wrote his epistle to the Romans in the year 53, his name would hardly have been omitted from the list of members of the Roman Church to whom salutations were sent: or again, if he had been there when St. Paul wrote his four epistles during" his residence at Rome, the name,of his fellow-apostle would certainly have been mentioned among those who sent greetings to the other churches. Now we know that it "was the regular practice of St. Paul, when he left any city where he had founded a church, to commit the superintendence of it to one of the Presbyters,—in other words, to nominate a Bishop to that See; and it seems hardly probable that he should have quitted Rome without arranging the Church there on the plan which he had, as far as we know, invariably adopted in other cities. The ground of the difference between Roman Catholic and Protestant writers with regard to this question seems to be, that, whilst they suppose Linus to have succeeded St. Peter as Bishop of Rome, when that apostle and St. Paul suffered martyrdom in the year 68— we cannot believe that St. Paul would have left the Church of Rome without a Bishop, when he quitted the city in 58. Now, as we have already seen, there exists no proof of St. Peter having visited Rome previously to the departure of St. Paul, but we have the evidence of most of the early writers that Linus, who suffered martyrdom in 68, held his Bishopric eleven or twelve years,, which would show his appointment to have taken place soon after St. Paul's arrival at Rome. Taking all these circumstances into consideration, we may without rashness assume that Linus was consecrated first Bishop of Rome in the year 56 or 57, instead of succeeding St. Peter as second Bishop in the year 68. We are therefore, I think, justified in asserting, that neither as deriving their succession from St. Peter, nor as filling the most ancient of the episcopal thrones (for St. James was consecrated Bishop of Jerusalem in the year of our Lord 32, and Evadius Bishop of Antioch in 46,) —•on neither of these grounds did the Bishops of Rome ever possess, nor for many centuries did they ever think of claiming, any supremacy over the Bishops of other churches. I do not pretend to deny that the chief Ruler of a church, founded by the most distinguished of all the Apostles, and watered by his blood and the blood of his illustrious fellow-labourer St. Peter—a church great, as regarded the number of its members, in proportion to the magnitude of the first city in the world—l do not pretend to deny that the Bishop 61 such a Chinch would receive distinguished honour from the Bishops of mere provincial chinches, and that disputes would be often referred to him for arbitration—but what I would ask you to observe is—that no such absolute power as that claimed by the Pope in the present day, and for a long time previously to the Reformation, was ever claimed by the early Bishops of Rome. So late, indeed, as the sixth century, we find Gregory the Great (the Pope who sent St. Augustine .as a missionary to Britain) speaking of the title of universal Bishop, (assumed by the Patriarch of Constantinople), as an honour which his own predecessors in the See of Home had ever refused, as utterly inconsistent with the ancient discipline. The See of Rome had, no doubt, from a very early period, exercised no inconsiderable influence over the Christian world : but the claim to universal dominion does not seem to have been avowed boldly and undisguisedly until the middle of the eleventh century, when the project of founding a spiritual despotism was perseveriugly and
successfully carried out by Hildebvand, who afterwards assumed the title of Pope Gregory VII.
The son of a Roman blacksmith, or, according to other authorities, of a petty proprietor in the little town of Soano—he had risen by his talents to the highest offices of the Church, and was eminently qualified by character as well as abilities to act the part of a Reformer. To a rigid firmness of disposition, which no terrors could shake, he united the most saintlike purity of life, and the greatest contempt for the pleasures of the world-, yet he possessed an acquaintance with human nature, which astonished those who believed that such knowledge could only be obtained by a practical familiarity with the crooked by-ways of vice. His notions of the papal power were extravagantly exalted." ." As man," he was wont to say, " consists of soul and body, so do human affairs consist of spiritual and earthly ; and as the body is ruled by the soul, so ought the world to be governed by the Church. The Pope is the successor of the Apostle Peter, to whom the Saviour said " Feed my sheep." Now God having placed all things under the feet of His Son, and Peter being the successor of Christ, and the Pope the successor of St. Peter, it follows that all earthly principalities and powers should be subject to him, who is the representative of God on earth." With such views it was only natural that Hildebrand should employ the influence arising from his position, as confidential adviser of five successive Popes, to increase by every means within his reach the authority o^ the papal See. In the year 1073, he was elected Pope, and commenced his reforms by attacking the simony or corrupt purchasing of ecclesiastical offices (so called from the sin of Simon Magus) which for a long time had prevailed to a fearful extent. Two decrees of general councils were published, forbidding this practice on pain of excommunication. Thus far, Gregory had done good and laudable service to the cause of religion,—but his next measure wis one of a far more questionable character, from the adoption of which even his fearless soul would have shrunk, had not the change which he sought to introduce been in full accordance with the spirit of the age. Hitherto only the monks had devoted themselves to a life of celibacy—the Bishops and secular clergy had been permitted to marry or not as they thought fit—but an unmarried life had long been highly esteemed, as being the most diametrically opposite to the licentious system of the impostor Mahomet, and the most conformable to the model of hei% the Virgin mother of God, whom the Church adored as the highest of glorified saints. Gregory perceived this feeling of the people and profited by it; for his acute mind easily comprehended, that as long as the Bishops and Priests were permitted to marry, they would have interests, independent of the Church : but if he could succeed in enforcing celibacy, those affections which had hitherto been shared by wives and children would be exclusively devoted to their order, to the Pope, and (as he believed, or affected to believe) to heaven. Thus did Gregory seek to lay the foundation of that system, which for nearly eight hundred years has been employed to increase the influence of the Church of Rome at the expense of the happiness, and in some instances, it is to be feared, of the morality of her clergy.
The change, although agreeable enough to the laity, was by no means equally acceptable to the clergy themselves. At Erfurt, in Germany, where the Archbishop of Mainz attempted to read the edict to a Synod of Bishops, there arose such an uproar that his life was in danger —and at Ratisbon and Constance the Bishops of those Sees boldly declared that marriage, which the scripture had pronounced to be honourable in all, could not without sacrilege be prohibited by any authority either ecclesiastical or civil. But Gregory was not so easily to be defeated. Relying on the sympathy of the people, arid the co-operation of the monks, he excommunicated all the secular clergy, and thus compelled them to adopt a rule, which thenceforward became one of the fundamental laws of the Church of Home. The next year Gregory passed a law, forbidding lay patronage. All Bishops were to be elected by* the clergy, and confirmed by the Pope, and the Emperor was no longer to interfere in their appointment. Thus the priesthood formed into a compact body, equally independent of the controul of earthly sovereigns ami the ties of domestic affection, hoped to reign without restraint over
the whole Christian world. That this formidable body might have a recognised head, Gregory declared that the Pope alone had the power of summoning general councils, proclaiming solemnly as'his reasons for this assumption of absolute power, that the Pope was through God and instead of God on earth. In spite of the disgust which such an assumption naturally produces in every religious mind, one cannot help being struck with the grandeur of a plan which professed to realize the Saviour's prayer that his church might be One even as He and His Father were one. Neither must we forget that to the Catholic Church, down to the period of the Reformation, we owe whatever existed of literature and art, of science and political freedom. It was the labour of monkish architects which reared the glorious cathedrals and minsters of our native England—the patient industry of monkish transcribers, which has preserved for us many a work of classical antiquity which would otherwise be lost. Wherever, in what are generally called the dark eyes, the wayfarer from a foreign land beheld a contented peasantry dwelling in the midst of well-cultivated fields, the fruit-tree bringing forth fruit more abundantly than elsewhere, the valleys standing so thick with corn that they did laugh and sing—there, lie might be sure, the land belonged to the church, in those days the most forbearing and indulgent as well as the most intelligent of landlords. And the obvious cause of this prosperity was the immunity of the Church serf from military service, except in the defence of his patron's property ; whereas the serfs of the Nobles were perpetually being called from their labours to aid their lords in some marauding expedition, or in some bloody feud against a neighbouring Baron. Nor ought we, in common justice, to forget the fact that in the midst of all her corruptions the Church of Rome has ever held the grand articles of the Catholic faith as embodied in the three Creeds. It would also seem that during what is generally considered the most benighted period of Church History, sermons were occasionally delivered, in which the way of salvation was faithfully and distinctly set forth. On Christmas day, in the year 1031, Bardo, Archbishop of Mainz preached before the Emperor Conrad ii. In this sermon, which is still extant, we find no Saint mentioned but those in the Bible, nor is there a word about invoking them. Nothing is said about transubstantiation, or penance, or purgatory, or relics, or images, or indulgences. "In thy sight," he says., quoting the words of the Psalmist, "shall no man living be justified." There is no man that sinneth not. The saints of God may shine—one in simplicity, another in poverty of spirit, another as a peacemaker, another in meekness, another as setting the seal of his blood to the testimony on behalf of the truth ; but whatever the measure of this may be, it is not of them, but of God. Let us, therefore, look only to Jesus, for there is no other name under heaven given unto men, whereby they must be saved." The whole of this sermon shews a familiarity with the scriptures utterly inconsistent with the statements of some of our most popular writers, who have asserted that in the middle ages the most disgraceful ignorance of the Bible existed among all ranks of the clergy. It may fairly indeed be questioned, whether in any sermon of the present day a greater number of texts would be quoted, or a more judicious application of them to the argument be made—than in the sermon of the Archbishop of Mainz in the eleventh century. I mention all these circumstances, not as in the smallest degree questioning the absolute necessity of the Reformation, but simply as an act of justice to a Church, against which the weapons of misrepresentation and calumny have been too frequently employed.
As a compact society the Church of the middle ages was enabled to combine and concentrate her efforts against the common enemy, instead of wasting- her strength in vain attempts to unite the heterogeneous elements of conflicting sects. Was any article of the Catholic faith assailed—a council of the Church was summoned, which published its anathema against the offender. Was any plan suggested for the evangelization of the heathen —the Pope, in the exercise of his absolute authority, could send out missionaries into all lands. All that there was in those days of learning- and scientific knowledge was in the hands of the clergy —by some, at least, of whom (as we have just seen) ihe saving truths of the Gospel were preached faithfully and distinctly. But as we
go on, I hope to shew you, that the advantages of this system were more than counterbalanced by the evils which necessarily resulted from it. If the centralization of Church government enabled its head to carry out his missionary plans on a scale impossible in the present day— let us remember that the fearfully irresponsible power which he possessed, was exercised (as. it must be in all absolute monarchies) at least as often for evil as for good. If the heavy right arm of the Church sometimes descended with crushing force on the teacher of false doctrine — let us remember that it was still more frequently raised to smite those who, in simplicity and godly sincerity were labouring to bring men to the knowledge of the truth. If the Church laboured to maintain the faith once for all delivered to the saints (as we find that faith set forth in the three creeds) —let us not lose sight of the fact, that in the very wantonness of her despotism, she has commanded her children to receive as truths not to be questioned the most fantastic legends of imaginary saints, and to accord their belief to doctrines unsanctioned by scripture, and some of them irreconcileable, as we believe, with the Gospel system revealed to us by God himself.
So miserably had the corruptions and inventions of men disfigured the Church at the beginning" of the sixteenth century, that it would have been difficult for one of the Apostles, had he been permitted to revisit the earth, to recognize in her that simple and holy society of believers for which the Lord of Life took upon Him the form of a servant, and died in agony upon the cross. The essential articles of the Catholic faith, although never formally abandoned, had been grievously overlaid by a mass of unauthoritative traditions and legends, the study of which seems in many instances to have superseded fhat of the Scripture itself to a very considerable extent. The Sermons of this period were for the most part mere recommendations of the errors and abuses which prevailed in the Church. In many places and at particular seasons their professed object was to excite the merriment of the congregation. During- what was called the Easter revel, for instance, one preacher would amuse his hearers by crying "cuckoo;" another would gabble like a goose: a third would throw his cowl over a layman's bead and haul him blindfold about the Church ; whilst a fourth would relate a legend, invented for the nonce, of the Apostle Peter, a jolly reveller, so ran the tale, who, after drinking his fill at a tavern, used to escape payment of the reckoning by some trick of low knavery. " Christ" says one of the historians of the Reformation " was described as a stem judge, who would damn as many as neglected to obtain the intercession of the saints, of whom the Popes were continually making fresh batches. They also taught that heaven was to be bought by good works, and that the man who had not himself performed a sufficient number of them to ensure his salvation, might make up the deficiency by purchasing from those who had more than they wanted. On the other hand, he who thought lightly of these works and died in his obstinacy, must go to hell, or at least into purgatory; and burn and broil there until he or some one in his stead had done sufficient penance. Pilgrimages too, were so much in fashion, that there Avere almost as many of them to be performed as there are mountains, valleys, forests and trees in the world. One of the most strenuous opponents of the Reformation, Cardinal Bellarinine is forced to acknowledge that " a few years before the breaking out of the Lutheran and Calvinis tic heresies, there existed, according to the testimony of contemporary writers, no strictness in the spiritual courts,no discipline with regard to morals, no acquisition of Christian knowledge, no respect for sacred things ; in short there was hardly a vestige of religion remaining, and Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux, acknowledges that most of the preachers of that day discoursed only of indulgences, pilgrimages and alms to the monks, and made things quite indifferent the groundwork of piety. Such was the state of the Church when one appeared wlwsej undaunted courage, fervent zeal, and strong though coarse mind, well qualified him to act the part of a reformer. Doctor Martin Luther was in his thirty-fourth year when the Reformation began. He was born at Eisleben on the 10th "of November, 1483, and was barely six months old, when his father, a miner, went to settle with his family iii the town of Mansfeld. Luther never souo-ht to conceal the humility of his birth. "My pa-
rents" lie'says in one of his letters "were poor folks; my father was a woodcutter, and my poor mother, his faithful helpmate, used to carry the wood on her shoulders, that she might earn something to support us little ones." In 1501, he entered at the University of Erfurt, and in 1503 took the degree of Master of Arts. At this period of his life, he happened to discover in the University Library a Latin bible, which he studied with great eagerness. A severe illness seems first to have turned his mind towards the plan, which he afterwards put in execution of becoming a monk: but he continued to study the law until another providential escape led him to doubt whether a life which God had thus mercifully spared ought not to be devoted exclusively to the service of Him to whom he owed it. On a beautiful evening in the autumn of 1504, Luther, and a young fellow student, named Alexis, had strolled together towards a woody hill, which, lies at a short distance from the town of Erfurt: so absorbed were they in their conversation that they hardly observed a gathering storm until the growling of distant thunder, and the patter of heavy rain-drops on the dry leaves warned them to seek shelter. They were within a few paces of the town, when a flash of lightning struck both Alexis and Luther to the ground, where they lay for several minutes without sense or motion. A. melancholy event, which happened soon after this second escape from death, confirmed his resolutions of becoming- a student of theology. His chamber-fellow, Alexis,had gone one evening to join a convivial party of students: Luther, to whom this sort of society was always distasteful sat alone waiting for his friend's return. Hour after hour wore away, until at last exhausted by long ■watching, he had just fallen into an uneasy slumber, when a loud knocking at the door roused him. Heavy steps were heard on the outside, and a low murmuring of voices, which seemed to forebode some terrible disaster: with a trembling hand Luther undid the fastenings of his door, and the first object that met his eyes was the pale, cold, bloody corpse of the friend who had left him a few hours before. Whether Alexis fell by~the hand of an assassin, or in one of those foolish and wicked duels, which were then, even more than in the present day, the pest and disgrace of the German universities, was never clearly ascertained : but the effect of this terrible scene on the mind of Luther is recorded in his own words. " It was not willingly, or of mine own pleasure that I became a monk; but when I saw myself surrounded by the horror and anguish of death, I vowed a forced and extorted vow." On the 22nd July, 1505, Luther entered the Augustine convent at Erfurt; the policy of themonkowas to accustom their novices to blind obedience from the moment of their entrance into the convent, and to this end tasks were imposed on them, which were always irksome and not unfrequently degrading. " Cum sacco per civitatem," through the town with your bag, was the rough command the morning after his arrival—it is by begging, not studying, that the convent is enriched." Happily for Luther, the University of Erfurt considered it an insult to their body, that one of their graduates should be sent into the streets with a beggar's wallet; and made such forcible remonstrances to the Prior on the subject that the novice was thenceforth excused from this degrading duty. At length the period of his noviciate b'einjr ended, Luther assumed the habit of a monk^ and on the fourth Sunday after Easter, in the year 1507, celebrated his first mass in the Church of the Augustines. Luther now gave himself up to the study of the Scriptures, comparing them with the writings of the fathers, and correcting many hitherto erroneous interpretations of them. In the year 1508, he was invited to fill the chair of philosophy at the University of Wittenberg, and on the 9th of March, he appeared on a stage, where some of the most important scenes of his future life were to be enacted. At a later period he visited Rome, where the Pope of that day, Julius 11., was making active preparations 'for a war with France. "It would have been lost labour," says one of his biographers, " for Luther to have spoken of grace, and the inefficacy of works to this war-like Pontiff, who besieged cities in person ; or to his cardinals, who were afraid to read the bible lest it should spoil the style of their Latinity."
After a very short star Luther quitted Koine in disgust. "For 100,000 florins," he says in one of his letters, UI would not have missed visiting Home. I should have been uaeusv lest
I had done injustice to the Pope." Meanwhile the course of events was rapidly tending1 towards a crisis in the affairs of the Chinch. Leo X, an enthusiastic admirer and patron of the fine arts, but entirely without religious prin-ciple,-wished to leave behind him a monument which should perpetuate his name to the remotest posterity. Notwithstanding the enormous revenue which they derived from the taxes levied on the faithful of all countries, the profligate expenditure of the Popes had almost exhausted the treasury, and Leo was aware that some new mode of raising money must be devised, if he proposed to erect a building worthy of his own greatness, and the reputation of the famous Michael Angelo Buonarrotti, who bad prepared a plan of the work. Ever since the evacuation of Palestine by the Crusaders, the Pope had decreed that every person who performed a pilgrimage to Rome during the year of Jubilee, should obtain the same indulgence which would have been granted to him, if he had personally visited the Holy Sepulchre at Jerusalem. But as only a few persons comparatively could visit Eome, a plan was devised by which all who had sufficient worldly wealth might purchase indulgences from the Pope. At first these indulgences were nothing more than the remission of penance for sins by which the Christian community was scandalized, but the horrible doctrine began at length to be introduced, that exemption from the fires of purgatory might also be purchased. The traffic in these imfulgencies was intrusted to the mendicant friars, who went about offering their goods fur sale with the most unblushing effrontery. In Germany, one Tetzel, a Dominican monk, a man of infamous character, but not without reputation as a preacher, was selected as a fit person to be employed in the discreditable task of cajoling his simple-minded countrymen. Amonothe devices employed by this artful monk to attract customers, one of the most successful ■was. the exhibition of a picture representing poor souls tormented by the devil in purgatory", with this inscription— Wenn das G-old im Kastea Elingt, Die Seele ous dem Feafeaer springt. When in the box thfi cash doth ring, The soul from out the fire doth spring. (To be continued.)
The Sister of George TlL—The official journal of Copenhagen gives an interesting document, hitherto unpublished, the original of which is in the secret archives of the State of Copenhagen. It is the letter which Queen Caroline Matilda, wife of Christian VII., King of Denmark, wrote during her exile, and on the day of her death, to her brother, George 111. of England. The letter is as follows :— " •'Sire, —In the solemn hour of death I address myself to you, my royal brother, in order to manifest to you my feelings of gratitude for the kindness you have shown me dining my life, and particularly during my long misfortunes. I die willingly, for there is nothing to bind me to this world—neither my youth (she was then in her 23rd year) nor the enjoyments which might sooner or later be my portion. Besides, can life have any charms for a woman who is removed from air those whom she loves and cherishes—her husband, her children, her brothers and sisters ? I, who am a Queen, and the issue of a royal race, I have led the most wretched life, and I furnish to the world a fresh example that a crown and a sceptre cannot protect those who wear them from the greatest misfortunes. I declare that I am innocent, and this declaration I write with a trembling hand, bathed with the cold sweat of death. lam innocent. The God whom I invoke, who created me, and who will soon judge me, is a witness of my innocence. I humbly implore Him that He will, after my death, convince the world that I have never merited any of the terrible accusations by which my cowardly enemies have sought to blacken my "character, tarnish my reputation, and trample under foot my royal dignity. Sire, believe your living- sister* a queen, and, what is still niore, a Christian, who with fear and horror would turn her eyes towards the next world if her last confession were a falsehood. Be assured I die with pleasure, for the wretched regard death as a blessing. But what is more painful to me even then th« agonies of death, is that none of the persons whom I love are near my death bed to give me a last adieu, to console me by a look at" compassion, ami to close my eyes. Nevertheless I am not alone. God, the only witness oi my innocence, sees me at this moment, when, ly-
ing on my solitary couch, I am a prey to the most excruciating agonies. My guardian angel watches over me ; he will soon conduct me where. I may in quiet pray for my well-beloved, and ever for my executioner. Adieu, my royal brother; may heaven load you with its blessings, as well as my husband, my children, England, Denmark, and the whole world. I supplicate you to allow my body to be laid in the tomb of my ancestors, and now receive the last adieu of your unfortunate sister. " Caroline Matilda. " Celle (Hanover), May 10, 1775."
Death by Deowning.—We are sorry to record the death by drowning of Mr. T. Hansboro, late second mate of the " Stag. From what we have been able to learn, it appears that deceased was out sailing in a boat belonging to Mr. Soulby, and that while engaged in getting the boat about, the boom of one of the sails struck deceased and knocked him overboard. Every exertion was made by those on board to save deceased, but without effect.— Wellington Spectator. Newspaper at New Plymouth.—We have pleasure in stating that an addition to the periodical press is about to be made by the publication of a journal to be called the Taranaki Herald, which, we anticipate, will shortly appear, as a press, type, and printing materials have just been sent from Auckland for the purpose.
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Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 85, 21 August 1852, Page 8
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4,988THE Rev. Mr. PAUL'S LECTURE ON THE REFORMATION IN GERMANY. Lyttelton Times, Volume II, Issue 85, 21 August 1852, Page 8
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