A History of the Reformation (Vol. 1 of 2)

The whole of Luther’s religious history, from his entrance into the convent at Erfurt to the publication of the Augsburg Confession, shows that the movement of which he was the...

When Germany emerged from the social revolution in the end of 1525, it soon became apparent that the religious question remained unsettled, and was dividing the country into two...

Rome had done its utmost to get rid of Luther by ecclesiastical measures, and had failed. If he was to be overthrown, if the new religious movement and the national uprising whi...

The real roots of the spiritual life of Luther and of the other Reformers ought to be sought for in the family and in the popular religious life of the times. It is the duty of...

The movement called the Renaissance, in its widest extent, may be described as the transition from the mediæval to the modern world. All our present conceptions of life and thou...

It has been already said that the times of the Renaissance were a period of transition in the social as well as in the intellectual condition of the peoples of Europe. The econo...

say what it is, and it is not properly understood by the people; it cannot be the merits of Christ and of His saints, because these act of themselves and quite apart from the in...

When the Italian Humanism seemed about to become a mere revival of ancient Paganism, with its accompaniments of a cynical sensualism on the one hand, and the blindest trust in t...

Reformation had been attempted in various ways. Learned ecclesiastical Jurists had sought to bring it about in the fifteenth century by what was called _Conciliar Reform_. The s...

During the period of the Reformation a small portion of the world belonged to Christendom, and of that only a part was affected, either really or nominally, by the movement. The...

The imperial edict issued against Luther at the Diet of Worms could scarcely have been stronger than it was,(315) and yet, like many another edict of Emperor and Diet, it was wh...

The primary and cardinal doctrine, which was the foundation of everything, was the spiritual priesthood of all believers. This, he believed, implied that preaching, dispensing t...

The long struggle between the Mediæval Church and the Mediæval Empire, between the priest and the warrior,(2) ended, in the earlier half of the thirteenth century, in the overth...

The practice of _Indulgences_ pervaded the whole penitential system of the later mediæval Church, and had done so from the beginning of the thirteenth century. Its beginnings go...

The influence of Luther went far beyond Germany. It was felt in England, France, Scotland, Holland, Poland, and Scandinavia. England went her own peculiar way; France, Holland,...

conflict with the Lutheran Creed in the Thirty-eight Articles of 1563; she kept crosses and lights on the altar of her chapel in Lutheran fashion. When the Pope first drafted a...

§ 1. The Reformation did not take its rise from a Criticism of Doctrines. § 2. The universal Priesthood of Believers. § 3. Justification by Faith. § 4. Holy Scripture. § 5. The...

Augsburg, 1555. § 1. The Diet of Speyer, 1526. § 2. The Protest. § 3. Luther and Zwingli. § 4. The Marburg Colloquy. § 5. The Emperor in Germany. § 6. The Diet of Augsburg 1530....

§ 1. The Transition from the Mediæval to the Modern World. § 2. The Revival of Literature and Art. § 3. Its earlier relation to Christianity. § 4. The Brethren of the Common Lot...

§ 1. The Roman Nuncio Aleander. § 2. The Emperor Charles V. § 3. In the City of Worms. § 4. Luther in Worms. § 5. Luther’s first Appearance before the Diet of Worms. § 6. Luther...

§ 1. Towns and Trade. § 2. Geographical Discoveries and the beginning of a World Trade. § 3. Increase in Wealth and luxurious Living. § 4. The Condition of the Peasantry. § 5. E...

§ 1. The continued spread of Lutheran Teaching. § 2. The beginnings of Division in Germany. § 3. The Peasants’ War. § 4. The Twelve Articles. § 5. The Suppression of the Revolt....

Indulgences. § 1. Why Luther was successful as the Leader in a Reformation. § 2. Luther’s Youth and Education. § 3. Luther in the Erfurt Convent. § 4. Luther’s early Life in Wit...

Diet of Worms. § 1. The Theory and Practice of Indulgences in the Sixteenth Century. § 2. Luther’s Theses. § 3. The Leipzig Disputation. § 4. The Three Treatises. § 5. The Papal...

Reformation. § 1. Devotion of Germany to the Roman Church. § 2. Preaching. § 3. Church Festivals. § 4. The Family Religious Life. § 5. A superstitious Religion based on Fear. §...

the Church can only refer to the living; death dissolves them; what the Pope can do for souls in Purgatory is by prayer, not by jurisdiction or the power of the keys.