of Lunenburg, the Landgrave of Hesse, and the Prince of Anhalt, with the deputies of thirteen imperial towns, viz. Strasburg, Ulm. Nuremberg, Constance, Rottingen, Windseim, Memmingen, Nortlingen, Lindaw, Kempten, Heilbron, Wissemburg, and St. Gall, formally and solemnly protested, and declared that they appealed to a General Council; and hence the name of Protestants, by which the followers of Luther have ever since been known. Nor was it confined to them, for it soon after included the Calvinists, and has now of a long time been applied indiscriminately to all the sects of whatever denomination, and in whatever country they may be found, which have separated from the see of Rome; and these form the third grand division of Christians.

RISE, PROGRESS, &c.-The important period which was justly distinguished by the reformation of our religion, is not to be considered as the period when the principles then embraced first made their appearance. No; long, very long, had purity of doctrine and discipline slept beneath the overloaded ornaments and corruptions of the Church of Rome; but there was a time when that Church herself might have boasted of her primitive purity and freedom from error with other Churches of Christ, as far as that expression is compatible with human infirmity: and there never was a time, from the date of her first departure from sound principles, wherein there were not witnesses to the truth, or some, more or less, who withstood the corruptions and depravity of their respective ages, main

tained orthodox and primitive doctrine, and exhibited in their lives the genuine fruits of our most holy faith. The early spirit of reform may be traced through the dark ages, as manifested first by certain churches of Italy and Gaul, which rejected some of the tenets of Popery; afterwards by the Albigenses and Waldenses; and by the Lollards in England; the Hussites in Germany; the Tramontanes in Italy; and the Bohemians, the Lombards, the Turlupins, &c.*

For the rise and history of the reformed religion from 1517, till the diet of Spire in 1529, see the article Lutheranism and Lutherans, below.

At the diet of Augsburg, in the following year, (1530,) a clear statement of the reformed faith, drawn up by Luther and Melancthon, was presented by the Elector of Saxony to Charles V., in behalf of the Protestant members of the empire. It obtained the name of the Confession of Augsburg, and was received as the standard of the Protestant faith in Germany. The same, or next year, the Protestant princes made the famous league of Smalcald, for the mutual defence of their religion, which obliged the emperor to grant the Protestant Lutherans a toleration, till the differences in religion should be settled in a council, which he engaged himself to call in six months. The Protestant party gaining strength every day, instead of being viewed only as a religious sect, as hitherto,

* See Mr. Van Mildert's eighth Sermon at Boyle's Lec

ture.

soon became to be considered as a political body of no small consequence; and having refused the bull for convening a council at Mantua, Charles summoned a general diet at Ratisbon, where a scheme of religion, for reconciling the two parties, was examined and proposed, but without effect. At length, in 1545, the famous Council of Trent was opened, for accommodating the differences in religion; but the Protestants refused to attend or obey a council convoked in the name, and by the authority, of the Pope, and governed by his legates.

The following year Luther died, but the work of reformation which he had begun did not die with him; for though Charles, having concluded a treaty with the Pope for the destruction of the reformed religion and its adherents, assembled troops on all sides, and was at first successful in the field; on Maurice Elector of Saxony's appearing in arms against him, with a force which he was wholly unprepared to resist, he was checked in his career, and the consequences were, the "Religious Peace, concluded at Passau, in Bavaria, in 1552, and the complete security of religious freedom to the Protestant States in Germany, which they have enjoyed ever since.

During the course of these events, the reformed opinions were extending their influence in various other countries: before this time, they were completely adopted in Sweden, and had likewise obtained perfect toleration in Denmark, where they were adopted soon after as the doctrines of the national church.

They were also daily gaining converts in other kingdoms of Europe. They acquired many friends even in Italy.

They privately diffused themselves in Spain, notwithstanding the crowded dungeons and busy flames of the inquisition.

In France they had still more ample success, where their abettors have long been contemptuously termed Huguenots.*

At Geneva, they were firmly established by Calvin; but their principal triumph was in Great Britain. See the articles Lutheranism and Lutherans, and the United Church of England and Ireland,

below.

The Roman Catholics themselves are ready to admit, that the papal doctrines and authority would have soon fallen into ruin in all parts of the world, in consequence of the opposition made to them by Luther and his adherents, had not the force of the secular arm, and the fire of the inquisition been employed to support the tottering edifice. In the

* This appellation was given to the Protestants in France in 1560, and is supposed by some to be derived from a gate in Tours, called Hugon, where they first assembled. According to others, the name is taken from the first words of their original protest, or Confession of faith, Huc nos venimus, &c.-See other supposed derivations of it in Dr. M'Laine's note (d) to Mosheim's Eccles. Hist. v. 4. p. 384. ed. 1806.

Netherlands, particularly, the most grievous persecutions took place; so that, by the Emperor Charles V., upwards of 100,000 were destroyed, while still greater cruelties were exercised upon the people there by his son Philip II. And the formidable ministers of the inquisition put so many to death, and perpetrated such horrid acts of cruelty and oppression in Italy, &c. that most of the reformed consulted their safety by a voluntary exile, while others returned to the religion of Rome, at least in external appearance.

In France, too, the Huguenots were persecuted with unparalleled fury; and though many princes of the blood, and of the first nobility, had embraced their sentiments, yet in no part of the world did the reformers suffer more.

Charles IX., King of France, having inveigled the Protestant leaders to Paris, by a feigned accommodation, and by the most insidious testimonies of favour, above 500 men of rank, and nearly 10,000 persons of inferior condition, were cruelly massacred there, on the eve of the festival of St. Bartholomew, A. D. 1572. Orders were despatched to all the provinces for a similar execution; and Rouen, Lyons, and many other cities, emulated the horrors of the capital, so that about 70,000 Protestants throughout France were butchered, with circumstances of ag

* i. e. In the Netherlands, and other parts of his dominions. This fact is asserted by the correct Grotius, although ridiculously, if not maliciously, misunderstood by Mr. Gibbon.