atur and a half later, produced the bitter f anarchy, infidelity, and bloodshed, during the dreadign of terror!" is the theory of D'Aubigné in regard to what we may s designate the philosophy of the Reformation; and we -oceed to its refutation;—which is no difficult task, as it sufficiently refutes itself. ubigné, Book i. p. 87. our second volume, we shall have occasion to prove, we trust by at evidence, that this is strikingly true, and that D'Aubigné is not ng in his appreciation of the unsuccessful effort to thrust the Reforon France. CHAPTER III. PRETEXTS FOR THE REFORMATION. Usual plea-Abuses greatly exaggerated-Three questions put and answered-Origin of abuses-Free-will unimpaired-Councils to extirpate abuses-Church thwarted by princes and the world-Controversy on Investitures-Extent of the evil-Sale of indulgences-St. Peter's ChurchJohn Tetzel-His errors greatly exaggerated-Public penance-License to sin-Nature of indulgences-Tetzel rebuked and his conduct disavowed by Rome-Miltitz and Cardinal Cajetan-Kindness thrown away-Luther in tears-Efforts of Rome-Leo X. and Adrian VI.-Their forbearance censured by Catholic writers—Their tardy severity justified by D'Aubigné -Luther's real purpose-The proper remedy-The real issue-Nullification-"Curing and cutting a throat"-Luther's avowal-Admissions of the confession of Augsburg and of Daillè—Summing up. THE usual plea for the Reformation is, that it was necessary for the correction of the flagrant abuses which had crept into the Catholic Church. These are, of course, greatly exaggerated and are painted in the most glowing colors, by D'Aubigné, and by other writers favorable to the Reformation. He dwells with evident complacency on the vices of one or two Popes, and of some of the Catholic bishops and clergy, both secular and regular, during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. He represents the whole Church as thoroughly corrupt, and states that, but for the efforts of the reformers, religion would have perished entirely from the face of the earth. We have already seen how he compared the reformers, preaching up their new-fangled doctrines among the benighted Roman Catholics of the sixteenth century, to the apostles preaching the gospel to the pagans of their day! And how coolly he assured us that the "Reformation was but the re-appearance of Christianity!" We beg to record our solemn protest against the gross injustice of this entire view of the subject. But we are asked:-What? do you deny the existence of abuses in the Catholic Church? Do you deny, that those (110) abuses were great and wide spread? Do you deny, that it was proper, and even necessary to correct them?-We deny none of these things: except that there is an implied exaggeration in the second question. We admit the existence of the evil complained of, especially about the beginning of the sixteenth century; and we deplore it, as sincerely at least, as do the opponents of the Catholic Church. A good cause can never suffer from candidly avowing the truth, and the whole truth. Let genuine history pronounce its verdict as to the real facts of the case; and we at once bow to the decision. But what was the origin of the abuses complained of? what was their extent? and what was the adequate and proper remedy for them? We will endeavor briefly to answer these three questions, which, we apprehend, go to the root of the matter under discussion. 1. It was not the intention of Christ, nor was it the design of the Christian religion wholly to prevent the possibility of abuses. He willed, indeed, that all men should embrace His religion, and reduce its holy principles to practice; in which case, there would have been no disorders nor abuses on the face of the earth, and the world would have been an earthly paradise, free from all stain of sin. But this state of perfection could not have been effectually brought about, without offering violence to man's free will, which God, in His moral government of the world, has ever wished to leave unimpaired. Religion was freely offered to mankind, with all its saving truths, its holy maxims, its purifying institutions, and its powerful sanctions of rewards and punishments in an afterlife. Sufficient grace was also bounteously proffered to all, to enable them to learn and believe its doctrines, and to observe its commandments. But no one was compelled to do either. Even among the twelve chosen apostles, who were trained under the immediate eye of Christ, there was one “devil.” Christ himself foresaw and distinctly foretold that scandals would come; but He contented himself with pronouncing a woe on that man by whom the scandal cometh."* In His spiritual kingdom, the Church, there was to be cockle, as well as the good wheat, and He willed "that both should grow until the harvest"+ of the general judgment; in which only the final separation of the good and evil will take place. Nothing is more foreign to the nature of Christ's Church, than the proposition that it was intended only to comprise the elect and the just. The struggle between good and evil-between truth and error-between the powers of heaven and the "gates of hell"—is to go on until the consummation of the world: but Christ has pledged His solemn word, that "the gates of hell shall not prevail against His Church;" and that He will be with the body of His pastors and teachers "all days even to the consummation of the world."§ Abuses are accordingly known to have existed in all ages of the Church, even during her palmiest days. The writings of the earliest fathers of St. Cyprian, of Tertullian, of St. Ambrose, and St. John Chrysostom-paint them in the most glowing colors. The Church never approved of them-she could not do so even for a day; for Christ had solemnly promised to guard her, His own beloved and glorious Spouse, "without spot or wrinkle," from falling away from her fidelity by lapsing into or sanctioning error. She bore her constant testimony against them, and labored without intermission for their removal. Her eighteen general councils, one for each century, and her local ecclesiastical assemblies, almost without number-diocesan, provincial, and national,—what are they all but evidences of this her constant solicitude, and records of her noble and repeated struggles for the extirpation of error and vice? There is not an error that she has not proscribed; not a vice nor an abuse upon which she has not set the seal of her condemnation. She was divinely commissioned for this purpose: and well and fully has she discharged the sacred commission. * Math. xviii: 7. Math. xvi: 18. † Ibid., xiii: 30. INVESTITURES-EXTENT OF THE EVIL. 113 Whenever she was not opposed nor thwarted in her heavenly purpose by the wicked ones of the earth, error and vice disappeared before her, like the mist before the rising sun. But she had at all times to contend with numerous, and sometimes, from the human point of view, with seemingly insurmountable obstacles. This was particularly the case during the middle ages. The princes of the earth, especially in Germany, sought, during that whole period, to enslave the Church, and to make the bishops the mere subservient instruments of their worldly purposes and earthly ambition. This they endeavored to effect by making them their vassals, and by claiming a right to confer on them even the INSIGNIA of their spiritual office. The effect of this last claim was to render the appointment of bishops and of the higher clergy, as well as the exercise of their spiritual jurisdiction, but too often dependent on the corrupt policy or mischievous whims of the secular power. The Roman Pontiffs maintained an arduous contest, for centuries, with the emperors of Germany and with other princes, against this glaring and wicked usurpation, fraught as it was with countless evils to the Church, which it attacked in the very fountains of her spiritual power. The question of Investitures was one of vital consequence, of liberty or slavery for the Church. After a protracted struggle the Pontiffs succeeded; but their success was neither so complete nor so permanent as the friends of the Church could have wished. Emperors, kings, and princes, especially those of the Germanic body, had still far too much power in the nomination of bishops and of the clergy.* II. The consequences were most disastrous for the Church. Unworthy bishops were often intruded by the German emperors and princes into the principal sees. The example and the influence of these were frequently baneful to the charac * This, we think, we have already sufficiently established in the Introductory chapter to the present volume. VOL. I.-10 |