Part 12

“In 1514 he was made doctor of philosophy, and then began to teach. He was seventeen years old. The grace and charm that he imparted to his lessons formed the most striking contrast to the tasteless method which the doctors, and above all, the monks, had pursued till then.”

[Sidenote: Melancthon goes to Wittemberg]

Frederick applied to Erasmus and Reuchlin for an instructor for the University of Wittemberg. Melancthon was recommended. Reaching the university, he did not make the most favorable impression on Luther and other professors, “when they saw his youth, his shyness, and diffident manners.” After his opening address, however, Luther and others became his ardent admirers. Luther wrote: “I ask for no other Greek master. But I fear that his delicate frame will be unable to support our mode of living, and that we shall be unable to keep him long on account of the smallness of his salary.”

The spirit of Christianity and of Christian education had drawn two souls together, and the success of the work from this time on depended largely upon this union. Says D’Aubigné: “Melancthon was able to respond to Luther’s affection. He soon found in him a kindness of disposition, a strength of mind, a courage, a discretion, that he had never found till then in any man.... We can not too much admire the goodness and wisdom of God in bringing together two men so different, and yet so necessary to one another. Luther possessed warmth, vigor, and strength; Melancthon clearness, discretion, and mildness. Luther gave energy to Melancthon; Melancthon moderated Luther. They were like substances in a state of positive and negative electricity, which mutually act upon each other. If Luther had been without Melancthon, perhaps the torrent would have overflowed its banks; Melancthon, when Luther was taken from him by death, hesitated, and gave way, even where he should not have yielded.”

Should you question why I thus dwell upon the life and character of Melancthon, I reply, Because from this union of two souls flowed the great educational reform of the sixteenth century. The two did what neither could have done alone; and the study of their lives alone reveals the secret of success in Christian education to-day.

[Sidenote: Melancthon revolutionizes Wittemberg]

It was a notable day to Wittemberg when Melancthon arrived. “The barrenness that scholasticism had cast over education was at an end. A NEW MANNER OF TEACHING AND OF STUDYING BEGAN WITH MELANCTHON. ‘Thanks to him,’ says an illustrious German historian, ‘Wittemberg became the school of the nation.’”

[Sidenote: Papal education dropped]

“The zeal of the teachers [Luther and Melancthon] was soon communicated to the disciples. It was decided to reform the method of instruction. With the electors’ consent, CERTAIN COURSES THAT POSSESSED MERELY SCHOLASTIC IMPORTANCE WERE SUPPRESSED; and at the same time the study of the classics received a fresh impulse. [Remember, however, that this study of the classics was the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures.] THE SCHOOL AT WITTEMBERG WAS TRANSFORMED, AND THE CONTRAST WITH OTHER UNIVERSITIES BECAME DAILY MORE STRIKING.”[125]

[Sidenote: Result of changes]

The results of these changes were no less marvelous than the changes themselves. The author last quoted says: Wittemberg “flourished daily more and more, and was eclipsing all the other schools. A crowd of students flocked thither from all parts of Germany to hear this extraordinary man, whose teaching appeared to open a new era in religion and learning. These youths, who came from every province, halted as soon as they discovered the steeples of Wittemberg in the distance; they raised their hands to heaven, and praised God for having caused the light of truth to shine forth from this city, as from Zion in times of old, and whence it spread even to the most distant countries. A life and activity, till then unknown, animated the university.”

Such a school did not call together a class of students careless in habit and listless in study; for the fare, as before noted, was meager, and there was no great outward display. Those who attended came seeking for truth; and as their souls were filled with spiritual meat, they returned to their homes, “even to the most distant countries,” to spread the truths of Christian education. Luther himself wrote: “Our students here are as busy as ants.” Two thousand students from all parts of Europe thronged the lecture room of Melancthon.

[Sidenote: Melancthon’s view of education]

The life and work of those two animating spirits at Wittemberg can not be measured by any earthly standard. Melancthon said: “I apply myself solely to one thing, the defense of letters. By our example we must excite youth to the admiration of learning, and induce them to love it for its own sake, and not for the advantage that they may derive from it. The destruction of learning brings with it the ruin of everything that is good,—religion, morals, and all things human and divine. The better a man is, the greater his ardor in the preservation of learning; for he knows that, of all plagues, ignorance is the most pernicious.” “To neglect the young in our schools is just like taking the spring out of the year. They, indeed, take away the spring from the year who permit the schools to decline, because RELIGION CAN NOT BE MAINTAINED WITHOUT THEM.”

[Sidenote: Melancthon prepared text-books]

Luther had stated that a reform in methods and courses was necessary. Melancthon had assisted in that work. He did still more. Breaking away as they did from the educational system of the universities of the world, and basing instruction upon the Word of God, it became necessary to have new text-books. Melancthon applied himself with great diligence to this duty. He was an arduous student, often arising at three in the morning, and many of his works were written between that hour and the dawn. Besides his Greek and Latin grammars he is the author of works on logic, rhetoric, physics, and ethics. “These works, written in a clear and scientific form, soon became popular, and some of them held their place in the schools for more than a hundred years.”

THE STUDY OF THEOLOGY had been degraded into the pursuit of subtle arguments and idle controversies. Melancthon wrote a work on dogmatic theology, publishing it in 1521. Of this work, Luther wrote: “Whoever wishes to become a theologian now enjoys great advantages; for, first of all, he has the _Bible_, which is so clear that he can read it without difficulty. Then let him read in addition the Loci Communes of Melancthon.... If he has these two things, he is a theologian from whom neither the devil nor heretics shall be able to take away anything.”

[Sidenote: Preparatory schools]

Melancthon’s life was not devoted alone to the education of such students as could attend Wittemberg, nor were his changes of the educational system applicable only to the higher schools and universities. Stump says: “Amid all the distractions and anxieties of this period, Melancthon steadily directed his efforts to the advancement of education and the building up of good Christian schools. During a period covering many years, he found time, in spite of his numerous other engagements, to give elementary instruction to a number of young men who lived with him in his own house. He did this on account of the lamentable lack of suitable PREPARATORY SCHOOLS. He lost no opportunity, however, to provide for this lack, whenever he found it possible to do so.

“In the spring of 1525, with Luther’s help, he reorganized the schools of Eisleben and Magdeburg. He went to Nuremberg, and assisted in the establishment of a gymnasium [high school] in that city; and in the following spring he returned to Nuremberg, and formally opened the school. He delivered an address in Latin, in which he dwelt upon the importance of education, and the credit which the movers in this enterprise deserved. He declared that ... ‘_the cause of true education is the cause of God_.’”[126]

Both church schools and higher schools, those offering instruction for students preparing for the universities, were organized by Melancthon.

[Sidenote: Changes were bitterly opposed]

This work was not allowed to proceed without some bitter attacks from the schoolmen and representatives of papal education. For illustration of this fact, we have the words of D’Aubigné: “The schools, which for five centuries past had domineered over Christendom, far from giving way at the first blow of the Reformer [Luther], rose up haughtily to crush the man who dared pour out upon them the flood of his contempt.” “Doctor Eck, the celebrated professor of Ingolstadt, ... was a doctor of the schools and not of the Bible; well versed in the scholastic writings, but not in the Word of God.... Eck represented the schoolmen.” “Eck was a far more formidable adversary than Tetzel [the vender of indulgences], Prierio, or Hochstraten; the more his work surpassed theirs in learning and in subtlety, the more dangerous it was.”[127] Thus Luther’s most bitter enemies were those who had once been his warm friends, and those who offered the strongest opposition to his work were the teachers in the universities of Germany. Luther was sometimes almost overcome in spirit by the ingratitude shown, and of Doctor Eck he once wrote: “If I did not know Satan’s thoughts, I should be astonished at the fury which has led this man to break off so sweet and so new a friendship, and that, too, without warning me, without writing to me, without saying a single word.”

[Sidenote: The Saxony school plan]

It was in order to meet the opposition offered by the schoolmen, and to put the Reformation on a firm basis, that Luther and Melancthon formulated the Saxony school plan, and reorganized the German schools.

Stump says: “In the year 1527, Melancthon took part with Luther in the visitation of the schools and churches of Saxony. It was high time for such a step. Affairs were in a wretched condition. In many places no religious instruction was given at all, because there were either no pastors and teachers stationed there, or those who were stationed there were grossly ignorant themselves. The greatest disorder imaginable reigned nearly everywhere.... The financial condition of many of the churches was equally bad.... It was the object of the visitation to bring order out of this chaos. Melancthon was charged with making a beginning in Thuringia. The spiritual distress which he discovered rent his heart, and he often went aside, and wept over what he saw.” “In 1528 Melancthon drew up the ‘Saxony school plan,’ which served as the basis of organization for many schools throughout Germany.”

[Sidenote: Reforms advocated by this plan]

According to this plan, teachers were to avoid “burdening the children with a _multiplicity of studies_ that were not only unfruitful, but even hurtful.” Again, “The teacher should not burden the children with too many books,” and “it is necessary that the children be divided into classes.” “Three classes, or grades, are recommended,” and the subjects taught should be adapted to the age and condition of the pupil. Thus, avoid too many studies for children and youth; do not put too many books into their hands; group them according to their ability. This “plan” seems to resist the cramming system so universally followed to-day almost as vigorously as it opposed the papal schools of the sixteenth century.

[Sidenote: Results, if Luther’s plans fulfilled]

A great work was set on foot,—a revolution which was to affect the ages which followed. In the brief space of one man’s life, plans were laid, _especially in the educational work_, which, if carried out by his successors, would have placed Germany in a position to rule the world. Instead of returning to the pit from which she had been dug, her schools and universities might have been models worthy of imitation throughout Europe and in America. Luther died, and Melancthon, his co-laborer, was unable to carry forward the work. Theologians, pastors, ministers, into whose hands the work of the Reformation rightfully fell, _instead of multiplying Christian schools_, and carrying to perfection the methods of instruction introduced by Luther and Melancthon, _passed by the greatest work of the age_, and by internal strifes and theological disputes lost the hard-won battle. The seeds of truth had been sown in _republicanism_ and _Protestantism_, and these two institutions should have been held in Germany. _Education_—CHRISTIAN EDUCATION—alone could hold them there. This was neglected; and as lost children, the two went hand in hand to the Netherlands, to England, and finally to America, in search of a fostering mother,—a pure system of education. The spirit and life so manifest in the teaching of the great Reformers, passed on, leaving Europe with the _form_. A house empty, swept, and garnished does not long so remain. The form was occupied by the spirit of the papacy, and Europe relapsed into a position from which she can be reclaimed only by a renewal of the plans of the sixteenth-century Reformers—a system of CHRISTIAN EDUCATION.

XIII

THE REACTION AFTER THE EDUCATIONAL REFORMATION

[Sidenote: Widespread effects of the Reformation]

The most momentous event of the world’s history, excepting alone the birth of the Redeemer, was the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Great religious movements have occurred before and since, but they are eclipsed by the brilliancy and far-reaching results of this one. More men have been reached, more lives revolutionized, than by the combined forces of all changes in civil and domestic circles since that time. The fact is, that when the causes of political changes in the modern world are considered, it must be acknowledged by every candid thinker that these changes are due in one way or another to the attitude assumed by the people concerned toward that one Reformation which was set in motion by the Wittemberg monk. Christ had been forgotten, and He came before the world again in the days of Luther.

A few quotations from Ranke show how far the Reformation extended in the brief space of forty years; and since we are dealing with the causes of this rapid spread, it is gratifying to see that this author gives in the most natural way due credit to the influence of the schools. Two things, then, should be noticed in reading these selections; first, the extent of territory covered by Protestant principles; second, the part played by schools and teachers in the conversion of nations. It is about the year 1563.

“In the _Scandinavian realms_ they [the Protestants] had established themselves the more impregnably, because there their introduction was coincident with the establishment of new dynasties, and the remodeling of all political institutions. From the very first they were hailed with joy, as though there was in their nature a primitive affinity to the national feelings.”

“In the year 1552, the last representatives of Catholicism in _Iceland_ succumbed.”

“On the southern shores, too, of the _Baltic_ Lutheranism had achieved complete predominance, at least among the population of German tongue.”

In _Poland_ it was said, “A Polish nobleman is not subject to the king; is he to be so to the pope?”

In _Hungary_, “Ferdinand I could never force the diet to any resolutions unfavorable to Protestantism.”

“Protestantism not only reigned paramount in _northern Germany_, where it had originated, and in those districts of upper Germany where it had always maintained itself, but its grasp had been extended much more widely in every direction.”

“In _Wurzburg and Bamberg_ by far the greater part of the nobility and the episcopal functionaries, the magistrates and the burghers of the towns, at least the majority of them, and the bulk of the rural population, had passed over to the reforming party.”

In _Bavaria_ “the great majority of the nobility had adopted the Protestant doctrine, and a considerable portion of the towns was decidedly inclined to it.”

“Far more than this, however, had been done in _Austria_. The _nobility of that country studied in Wittemberg; all the colleges of the land were filled with Protestants_.”

We are not surprised, therefore, to read that “it was said to be ascertained that not more, perhaps, than the thirtieth part of the population remained Catholic: _step by step, a national constitution unfolded itself, formed upon the principles of Protestantism_.” “In the _Rauris_, and the _Gastein_, in _St. Veit_, _Tamsweg_, and _Radstadt_, the inhabitants loudly demanded the sacramental cup, and this being refused [in order to compel them to remain Catholic], they ceased altogether to attend the sacrament. _They withheld their children, too, from the_ [Catholic] _schools_.”

“The _Rhenish nobility_ had early embraced Protestantism.... In all the towns there existed already a Protestant party.... _The inhabitants of Mainz, too, did not hesitate to send their children_ to Protestant schools. In short, from west to east, and from north to south, throughout all Germany, Protestantism had unquestionably the preponderance.”

[Sidenote: Accomplished by education]

“The Protestant notions extended their vivifying energies to the most remote and most forgotten corners of Europe. What an immense domain had they conquered within the space of forty years! From Iceland to the Pyrenees, from Finland to the heights of the Italian Alps. Even beyond the latter mountains opinions analogous had once, as we are aware, prevailed. _Protestantism embraced the whole range of the Latin church._ It had laid hold of a vast majority of the higher classes, and of the minds that took part in public life; whole nations clung to it with enthusiasm, and states had been remodeled by it. This is the more deserving of our wonder, inasmuch as Protestantism was by no means a mere antithesis, a negation of the papacy, or an emancipation from its rule; it was in the highest degree positive, a renovation of Christian notions and principles, that sway human life even to the profoundest mysteries of the soul.”[128] Notice again that this was due to the educational ideas propagated by Protestants, and the reason why the papacy was so fast losing its foothold was because it had not yet learned that this Reformation, _which began in schools, and was carried forward by Christian schools, must be defeated in schools and by teachers_. For forty years Protestants had the right of way in education, and the results were stupendous.

[Sidenote: Protestant schools winning everywhere]

Ranke says: “Protestant opinions had triumphed in the universities and educational establishments. Those old champions of Catholicism [the teachers] who had withstood Luther were dead, or in advanced years: young men capable of supplying their places had not yet arisen. Twenty years had elapsed in Vienna _since a single student of the university_ had taken priest’s orders. Even in Ingoldstadt, pre-eminently Catholic as it was, _no competent candidates of the faculty of theology presented themselves to fill the places that had hitherto been always occupied by ecclesiastics_. The city of Cologne founded an endowed school; but when all the arrangements for it had been made, it was found that the regent was a Protestant. Cardinal Otto Truchess established a new university in his city of Dillingen, _with the express design of resisting the progress of Protestantism_. The credit of this institution was maintained for some years by a few distinguished Spanish theologians; but as soon as these left it, NOT A SINGLE SCHOLAR COULD BE FOUND IN ALL GERMANY TO SUCCEED TO THEIR PLACES, and even these were likewise filled with Protestants. ABOUT THIS PERIOD THE TEACHERS IN GERMANY WERE ALL, almost without exception, Protestants. THE WHOLE BODY OF THE RISING GENERATION SAT AT THEIR FEET, and imbibed a hatred of the pope with the first rudiments of learning.”[129]

[Sidenote: Success of Reformation due to schools]

Stress is not laid on their hatred of the pope, but on the fact that the rising generation sat at the feet of Protestant teachers throughout Germany; that parents withheld their children from the papal school, even though it might be necessary in so doing to send them from home to be educated; and finally, that the papacy was dying, and Protestantism was spreading through the work of the schools. Would that those schools might have retained their pristine purity and simplicity. No power on earth could then have retarded the progress of Protestantism, and instead of only modifying the history of many countries, it would eventually have swept from the earth all forms of tyranny, both civil and religious, for it breathed the freedom of the gospel, and no oppression could stand before it. It is as impossible to withstand pure Christian education as it is to withstand Christ, whose power is its life and strength.

[Sidenote: Protestants failed to recognize its strength]

It is with a pang that one is forced to trace in this movement that oft-repeated chapter in the history of mankind. As the leader of Israel was allowed to view the promised land from the top of Pisgah, but must there lay aside his armor and sleep the sleep of death because of a departure from right principles, so Protestantism, through its schools, looked across Jordan, but failed to maintain the principle of faith which could at the crucial moment command the waters to part.

[Sidenote: Education by faith lost]

One reason for the decline is thus stated by Painter: “In their efforts to give Christian doctrine a scientific form [that is, to formulate it], _they lost its spirit_. _LOSING ITS EARLY FREEDOM AND LIFE, Protestantism degenerated in a large measure into what has been called ‘DEAD ORTHODOXY._’ ... _Christian life_ counted for little, and the Protestant world broke up into opposing factions. Says Kurtz, who is disposed to apologize for this period as far as possible: ‘Like medieval scholasticism, in its concern for logic, theology almost lost vitality. Orthodoxy degenerated into orthodoxism; _externally_, not only discerning essential diversities, but disregarding the broad basis of a common faith, and running into odious and unrestrained controversy; _internally, holding to the form_ of pure doctrine, but neglecting cordially to embrace it and to live consistently with it.’”[130]

[Sidenote: Scholasticism killed Protestant schools]

How narrow the line between truth and error! How easy for those who had been given to eat of the tree of life to turn to the tree of knowledge of good and evil! What a pity that Protestant educators could not remain true to their trust! When on the eve of success, they turned to the old paths, and “called into existence a dialectic scholasticism which was in no way inferior to that of the most flourishing period of the Middle Ages.”[131] Papal principles are papal, whether advocated by Catholics or Protestants; having left the fountain of the pure waters of faith, they turned to the only other accessible source of knowledge—the pagan world. That system of education introduced by Luther and Melancthon, founded upon the _Holy Scriptures_, and through them viewing the sciences, mathematics, and literature, using the latter only as a means of illustrating God’s Word, was replaced by the _scholasticism of the Middle Ages_. One involuntarily asks, “How many times, O Israel, wilt thou return into Egypt?”

[Sidenote: Form took the place of life]