Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume IV.djvu/551

CHRISTIANITY 539 triarch and the Roman pontiff. The bishop of Rome was in the old capital of the empire, and the bishop of Constantinople in the new. The one capital had antiquity on its side, the other the presence of the Christian emperor and his court. When the division of the empire took place, and especially when the Western empire fell and a new Christian empire was established in the West by the Carlovingians, the way was prepared for the complete separation of the Greek and Latin churches, which in the course of time ensued. The new Christian or German empire, called also the holy Roman empire, increased the power of the bishop of Rome in many important respects, but was a check in other respects. The temporal power and au- thority of the pope were in general increased, but, his influence over the clergy in Germany was thereby in point of fact restricted. Both the German church and the Gallican in the course of time had a more or less national char- acter, supported by the emperor of Germany and the king of France, who often arrayed themselves in opposition to Rome. This was the great contest which lasted for centuries. From the 8th century to the llth the founda- tions of the papal system were strengthened. From that time to the end of the 13th century the Roman power steadily ascended till it reached its height. Its most elevated point morally was under the pontificate of Gregory VII. (1073-'85), but physically and outwardly under that of Innocent III. (1198-1216). The higher ecclesiastics were more and more secu- lar ; they were chosen from the families of princes for the sake of bringing them under the influence of the state. The right of investi- ture became an important question between the emperor or king and the bishop of Rome. What the former sought to obtain by the ap- pointment of their favorites, the latter sought to nullify by oaths of allegiance. The emperor relied much on his archbishops, often his own dependants ; the pope diminished their power by making bishops depend more on himself than on their immediate superiors. Thus, while the higher clergy were more intent on the government than on the instruction of the church, the people became ignorant, and a gen- eral deterioration in morals was the conse- quence. For more than a century before the time of Luther there was a wide-spread sense of the need of church reform. The great writers of the age urged its necessity ; the pope admit- ted it ; the emperors authoritatively demanded it; the councils undertook to accomplish it, but all without effect. The motive was one of policy no less than of religious duty; and when the parties came to act together, it was found that their interests clashed, and that they were rather opposed to each other than united in policy. These things, confessed on all hands to be hopelessly bad, were growing worse and worse till the sudden breaking out of the Ger- man reformation. Third period, from the time of the reformation to the present. The seeds of the reformation were sown far back in the darkness of the middle ages. New his- torical investigations are continually bringing to light reformers before the reformation. Be- sides the opposition already referred to, partly of a political and national, and partly of an as- cetic character, there were in England, France, Germany, and Bohemia many discontented individuals who were not satisfied with the character of the church and of its ministers, were weary of the venality of the higher offi- cers and of the general corruption which had crept into sacred places, and longed for a re- turn to what they deemed the Christianity of primitive times. Among these men Wycliffe was the most eminent. His doctrines were conveyed from Oxford to Prague by travelling students. The way for a movement in favor of reformation in the latter place was further- more prepared by two or three distinguished Bohemian preachers, and then Huss appeared upon the stage, followed by Jerome of Prague, and kindled a fire which has never since been extinguished. In Germany sprang up those " reformers before the reformation " de- scribed by Ullmann, who in their retirement exerted a more silent but hardly less effec- tive influence. When Luther, with Herculean strength, and with means not always the most delicately chosen, took up the work of reform, it was in no small degree the state of the pub- lic mind which made his words fly like light- ning from one end of Europe to the other. The broadest distinction, perhaps, between Protestantism and Catholicism, is that the one is Biblical and the other traditionary ; the one maintaining the right of private judgment, the other the paramount authority of the church. The foundation of the former is the Bible alone ; that of the latter tradition, as comprehending the Bible and its canonical authority. Accord- ing to the one theory, the Holy Spirit attends the written word and its ministry ; according to the other, it descends through the church, its ministers and ordinances. With the one, the preaching of the gospel is the principal means of edifying the people ; with the other, the sacraments of the church, various forms of adoration, sacerdotal offices, and ritual obser- vances, are the means employed. With the one, there is no mediator between the soul and Christ, every believer being himself regarded as a priest, and enjoying direct and unrestrict- ed access to God, through Christ alone ; with the other, the Holy Mother and a multitude of departed saints are intercessors for man. Lu- ther and the other reformers put aside all these mediators, in order that Christ might be the only mediator; rejected the authority of tradition, and all institutions and observances depending on it, except those which were tolerated as in- different; substituted preaching for the cere- monies of the church ; and were especially zeal- ous against indulgences, against the mass, and against the authority of the Roman see. They asserted that the Roman church was but a