V.

corrupt doctrine; were altogether without the true doctrine of justification by faith, and of the remission of sins; made no proper discrimination between the law and the gospel; held heathenish and pharisaical notions concerning prayer to God; and were guilty of manifest idolatry in their masses, and prayers to the dead. He then warns his children against all errors respecting the person of Christ, and subjects connected with that, contrary to the received creeds; and against all hollow and insincere methods of reconciling the doctrines in dispute, by which old errors would be covertly introduced again, and the truth corrupted. Learned men, he says, were to be warned against admitting, under the pretext of peace and public tranquillity, a confused mixture of doctrines. And here he proceeds, "I can truly affirm that I have endeavoured soundly to explain the doctrine of our churches, that it might be rightly understood by younger students, and handed down to posterity. I know, indeed, that it has at times been suspected, that I attempted some things in favour of our adversaries but I call God to witness that I had no wish to favour such persons, but aimed only at correct statements, excluding all ambiguitiesthough many are aware how difficult I found it to attain this. The Confession of Augsburg, it appears, is not sufficiently explicit: with a good design, therefore, I adopted the course pursued in my work on Romans; for I wish to leave no ambiguities; since what is not clear and decisive only produces further disputes.-Nor was it my design to introduce any new dogma, but perspicuously and correctly to explain the catholic doctrine as delivered in our churches; which I judge to have been brought to light in these late years, by the singular goodness of

God, through the instrumentality of Dr. Martin Luther-that thus the church might be purified and restored, which must otherwise have utterly perished. Let us therefore preserve this light as long as possible: and I pray God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to assist the studies and endeavours of pious men, and to preserve his church; and may he, in particular, bless our churches, which have sustained long and severe conflicts for the gospel's sake.

He concludes with the expression of his thanks to all his principal friends and associates, and with prayers for them. It may suffice to specify the notice here taken of Luther. "I return my thanks to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther, first because from him I received the knowledge of the gospel, and next because of his singular kindness shewn to me on a thousand occasions; and I desire my family to regard him as a father. Having found him to be endowed with a distinguished and heroic genius, with many great virtues, and with eminent piety and learning, I have always honoured and loved him, and thought his friendship worthy of the most assiduous cultivation." Such friendships as I here record," he beautifully adds, "I am persuaded are not to be extinguished by death, but will soon be renewed in heaven, where they will be enjoyed to much greater advantage, and yield unspeakably higher delight." 1

The records of such a paper deserve our most implicit confidence, and no one can doubt that he here reads the deliberate and undisguised sentiments of Melancthon's heart. It may be appealed to as explanatory of what may any where else occur, that might be thought to bear a less unequivocal appearance.

1 Pezelii Consil. Melanc. i. 389, &c. Seck. iii. 279.

A. D.

1540.

CHAPTER VI.

the Refor

mation.

MISCELLANEOUS PARTICULARS BELONGING TO

THE PERIOD OF THE PRECEDING CHAPTER.

Progress of IMPORTANT instances have recently occurred of the progress of the reformation; others present themselves to our notice. Eckius and Cochlæus, in their correspondence with cardinal Contarini, bear striking testimony to the extensive and firm establishment which the new Testimony system had obtained in Germany. The former of Eckius; dolefully complains, "That all homage was

March 1540.

withdrawn from the saints; that the miserable souls in purgatory had no longer any prayers offered for them; that the sacred rites of the mass were discontinued; that images were insulted and broken; that the treasures of the church were alienated, the pope and the priesthood held in contempt, and Rome taken for the Babylonish harlot; that celibacy was at an end, and monastic vows were violated. He reproaches the blindness and inertness of those who had not extinguished the conflagration while it was a mere spark-which was the case when he disputed with Carolstadt and Luther at Leipsic. Even the German prelates, he says, now laughed at the wide-spread mischief, and secretly hoped to be delivered by its means from the exactions and impositions which they and of had suffered from the court of Rome."-CochCochlaus. læus, writing from Breslau, about the same time, says: "Our prelates in Germany, whether

through cowardice or despair, sit still, and suffer every where the curtailment of their revenues. The Lutherans, on the contrary, spare neither care, nor labour, nor expence, but devise every means of establishing their sect. They ordain superintendants, a new species of bishops, to whom they give the power of ordaining priests and deacons in their respective districts. They diligently train their youth in the schools in devotion to their own doctrine, and in abhorrence of the papists; and, that they may acquire confidence in preaching to the people, they exercise them in declamations taken from the postils1 of Luther. They assign handsome incomes, drawn from the abolition of the private masses, to their ministers, and to the masters of their schools. This is done here, at Magdeburg, at Hamburg, and throughout almost all Germany where this heresy prevails; so that it will be extremely difficult to eradicate from the minds of men the pestilent evil which has been implanted at school, and cherished in public assemblies, and by the reading of books at home. To God, however, all things are possible!"2

The discerning reader will receive these accounts with great satisfaction, perceiving nothing in them but what bears honourable testimony to the diligence, the piety, and the discretion of the protestants.

A. D. 1540.

The reformation of Magdeburg and Halberstadt with the connivance of the archbishop of Mentz and Magdeburg has been before noticed.3 The proceedings of Halle in the dutchy Reformaof Magdeburg are more particularly recorded. tion of Superstition had been carried even beyond the

1 Expositions of the gospels and epistles.

2 Seck. iii. 271. from Raynaldus, a bigoted continuator of Baronius. Compare iii. 207. 3 Above, p. 257.

Halle :

СНАР.

VI.

ordinary bounds at that place, where the archbishop had previously resided, and where the accumulation of pretended relics was immense. The writer of an account of Halle states, that there were collected in the churches forty-two entire bodies of saints, and portions, as it would seem, of others to the amount of eight thousand one hundred and thirty-three and an official account, published in the year 1520 under the auspices of the archbishop, presents the delineations of more than two hundred costly vases in which the precious relics of Halle were preserved. It would be time ill-bestowed to attempt any enumeration of them: a few specimens only shall be mentioned. Such were a portion of the earth out of which Adam was created; fragments of Noah's ark, of the bodies of the patriarchs and prophets, and of the Virgin Mary's clothing at the time of the miraculous conception; the body of one of the infants slain by Herod, and those of seventeen out of the eleven thousand virgins, whom the ignorance of the times, mistaking the name Undecimilla for undecim millia, had constituted the companions of S. Ursula. Once in the year a public exhibition was made of all these relics, and to those who then " devoutly contemplated them, offering at the same time prayers to God, and giving money to the collegiate church," indulgences were granted extending to a greater number of thousands and millions "of years and of days" than I find it easy to compute.2

1 Melch. Ad. i. 126.

2 "Annorum tricesies novies millenorum millium, ducentorum quadraginta quinque millium, centum et viginti; dierumque ducentorum et viginti, et præterea quadragenarum sexies millies et quingenties millenarum, et insuper quadraginta millium."