tuted, they were not to be despised; but the elders of the churches of the Brethren were to see whether, in some way, a union might not be effected with them. In case they were found to hold the fundamental articles of the Christian faith, they were to be obeyed and listened to as teachers. If in this respect they did not agree with the Brethren, they were not to be contemned, but treated with kindness, both that the purity of faith might be preserved, and themselves brought to the enjoyment of clearer light. "Finally," say they, "we recognize no multitude or assembly, however numerous, as the church catholic, that is, as containing the entire number of believers, so that outside of it are none of God's elect; but wherever the sole catholic Christian faith is kept in truth, according to God's word, in whatever part of Christendom, there is the holy catholic church, out of whose communion there is no hope of salvation." CHAPTER XX. REFORMATION IN GERMANY. THE BRETHREN. GERMAN DEMAND FOR REFORM. ECCLESIASTICAL IMPOSITIONS. EXTORTION. — - 1517-1602. FOR a whole century the Taborites and the United Brethren-as the followers of Huss-had borne their testimony against the apostasy and errors of the Roman Catholic church. Their enemies had persecuted them with calumny and violence. Pen and sword had been employed against them without scruple. The harshest measures had been adopted to shake their constancy. Beyond their own neighborhoods they were known by the odious name of Picards. In all Germany there was scarcely to be found an individual who had any proper acquaintance with their character or doctrines. But their revolt against the dominant hierarchy was now to be justified in a most striking manner. They were to find whole nations unconsciously arraying themselves upon their side. Germany, from the days of the council of Constance, had been indignantly demanding reform; but her cry had been smothered. Instead of meeting the demand, the hierarchy only became more hopelessly corrupt, until the evil was no longer to be borne. An earlier reformation might have been less radical, but ecclesiastical authority and interested opposition had resisted and turned back the current of popular feeling, until now, become resistless, it broke over all restraint. Luther came forward, the exponent of long suppressed convictions, the champion of a purer Christianity, the leader in the cause of reform; and the Brethren, who had long waited and watched for the appearance of one to whom they could extend the hand of fellowship, greeted him, ere yet his prejudices against them had given way, as a fellowlaborer in their own great work. Tardily, but surely, the career of Huss and the bold views he had put forth were vindicated from that very direction from which the bitterest hostility against him had proceeded. Germany had been taxed and plundered and abused, till her patience was exhausted. As the noble gave up his broad forests to the tramp of beasts, that he might himself enjoy the pleasures of the chase, so papal avarice seemed to hold Germany in reserve as the huntingground of ecclesiastical extortion. The Germans had been a patient people. They had borne the yoke of Rome long and well. They CH. XX.] GROSS IMPOSITIONS. 579 had complained and submitted, till it seemed their habit. The grossest impositions, the most absurd dogmas, and the coolest impudence of ecclesiastical assumption, had failed to produce revolt. Rome felt that she might venture further. There was yet "in the lowest deep" of her avarice, "a lower deep" of unscrupulous and unblushing audacity. Alexander VI., whose unnatural vices and monstrous crimes had so eclipsed those of John XXIII. that the latter appeared almost as a saint by his side, had done all it was possible to do to make the Papal See odious to Christendom. His successor, Leo X., while patronizing ancient and modern art, surrounded himself with the splendors of the old Roman mythology, with heathen deities, and all the forms of polished licentiousness. The immense expense occasioned by the erection of St. Peter's at Rome, drained Germany and even Europe of its wealth, and an avaricious ingenuity was set at work to invent new methods of extortion, or wring new tribute from exhausted provinces. Novel taxes were imposed. Forms of penance were multiplied. The periodical recurrence of the jubilee at Rome was reduced successively from one hundred, to fifty, thirty-three, and finally twenty-five years. Millions of money were poured into the papal treasury; but the cry was still heard, "Give, give." The system of indulgences was subjected to a new process of development. It was elaborately drawn out, and shaped by chancery rules. Absolution was made a matter of traffic. Bills of exchange on the court of heaven might be had on demand, for the premium in money. Scarce a sin could be imagined-scarce a crime ever known in the realm of the actual or ideal-but had its price. In political intrigue and treachery, papal artifice won the palm over every competitor. The difference between the papal and secular courts seemed to be merely that the latter could not dissolve the obliga tion of their own oaths. The depravity of the church was such that good men shuddered to think of it. Everywhere it was to be met. The heart was diseased, and the whole body suffered. When the pope was a devil incarnate, it is not strange that prelates and priests copied from the model. Hypocrites and idlers abounded. Nobles were elevated to bishopricks, and used the vast revenues of the church to revel in wanton luxury. The priests were proverbially ignorant, brutal, and drunken. But one in ten-by a concession of the popes-was required to study. The obligations of celibacy were unscrupulously eluded. The wealthy priests had poor vicars in their pay, who for the merest pittance discharged the drudgery of visitation, preaching, and clerical duty. The disorders of the monasteries and convents equalled those which had provoked in Bohemia the vengeance of Zisca. The wealthy abbots vied with the powerful secular lords. As to the monks, John of Goch said at Mechlin, that "they did what the devil was ashamed to think." The abuses of the church in respect to relics were in some instances so ridiculous as to disarm indignation. 'Menzel's Germany, ii. 220. |