INTRODUCTION. 1. The Order of the Narration must be changed.-§ 2. The History divided into the General and the Particular.- 3. The general History.- 4. The particular History.--5. History of the Reformation. § 1. In narrating the ecclesiastical affairs of modern times, the same order cannot be followed as was pursued in the preceding periods. For the state of the Christian world having undergone a great change in the sixteenth century, and a much greater number of associations than former. ly being found among the flowers of Christ, differing widely in doctrines and institutions, and regulating their conduct by different principles; all the various transactions among professed Christians, can by no means be exhibited in one continued series, and so as to form one well-arranged pic. ture. On the contrary, as the bond of union among Christians was sev cred, their history must be distributed into compartments, corresponding with the division of the Christian world into its principal sects. § 2. Yet many events occurred, which affected the whole Christian world, and the state of religion generally, or were not confined to any par ticular community. And as the knowledge of these general facts, throws much light on the history of the particular communities, as well as on the general state of the Christian world, they ought to be stated separately and by themselves. Hence the work before us will be divided into two principal parts; the one, the general history of the Christian church, and the other, the particular. § 3. The general history will embrace all those facts and occurrences, which may be predicated of the Christian religion as such, or absolutely considered; and which in some sense, affected the whole Christian world, rent unhappily as it was by divisions. Of course, we shall here describe the enlargement of the boundaries of Christendom or their contraction, with. out regard to the particular sects that were instrumental in these changes. Nor shall we omit those institutions and doctrines which were received by all the Christian communities, or by the principal part of them, and which thus produced changes very extensive and general. § 4. In the particular history, we shall take a survey of the several com. munities into which Christians were distributed. And here we may properly make two classes of sects. First, we may consider what occurred in the more ancient communities of Christians, whether in the East, or in the West. Secondly, what occurred in the more recent communities, those that arose after the reformation of both doctrine and discipline in Germany. describing the condition and character of each particular sect, we shall pur. sue as far as practicable, the method pointed out in the general Introduc tion to these Institutes. For according to our conceptions, the less a per. son recedes from this method, the less will he probably omit of what is ne ressary to a full knowledge of the history of each individual community. 5. The most important of all the events that occurred among Christians, after the fifteenth century, nay, the greatest of all events affecting the Christian world since the birth of the Saviour, was that celebrated religious and ecclesiastical revolution called the Reformation. Commencing from small beginnings in Saxony, it not only spread in a short space of time over all Europe, but also affected in no slight degree the other quarters of the globe; and it may be justly regarded as the first and principal cause of alı those great ecclesiastical, and even those civil revolutions and changes, which have rendered the history of the subsequent times quite to the present day so interesting and important. The face of all Europe was changed, after that event; and our own times are experiencing, and future times will experience, both the inestimable advantages that arose from it, and the vast evils to which it gave occasion.(1) The history of such an event therefore, an event from which all others in a measure took their rise, demands a distinct and a prominent place. We now proceed to give a compendious view of the modern history of the Christian church, according to the method here proposed.(2) (1) [See C. Villiers, on the Spirit and Influence of the Reformation; from the French, 1807, 8vo.-Tr.] (2) [Dr. Mosheim still proceeds by centuries. On the sixteenth century, he divides his history into three Sections. I. The history of the Reformation; in four chapters. II. The general history of the church; in a single chapter. III. The particular history of the several sects or communities; in two Parts. Part first embraces the ancient communities; viz., the Latin, and the Greek or Oriental churches, in distinct chapters. Part second includes, in separate chapters, the history of the Lutheran, the Reformed, the Anabaptist or Mennonite, and the Socinian, churches. On the seventeenth century, he makes but two sections. I. The genera. history, in a single chapter. II. The particular history, divided into Parts and Chapters, as in the preceding century; except, that among the modern sects, he assigns distinct chapters to the Arminians, the Quakers, and an additional chapter to ov eral minor sects.-Tr.] ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY. SECTION I. HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION. ARRANGEMENT OF THIS SECTION. THE history of the Reformation is too extensive, to be comprehended in one unbroken narrative, without wearying the learner. For the conve nience therefore of such as are just entering on the study of church history and to aid their memories, we shall divide this section into four parts [or chapters]. The FIRST will describe the state of the Christian church at the commencement of the Reformation. The SECOND will detail the history of the incipient Reformation, till the presentation of the Augsburg Confession to the emperor. The THIRD will continue the history from that period, till the commence. ment of the war of Smalcald. The FOURTH will carry it down to the peace granted to the friends of the Reformation, A.D. 1555.-This distribution arises naturally from the his tory itself.(1) (1) The historians of the Reformation, as well the primary as the secondary, and both. e general and the particular, are enumerated by Phil. Fred. Hane, (who is himself to be ranked among the better writers on this subject), in his Historia sacrorum a B. Luthero emendatorum, part i., cap. i., p. 1, &c., and by Jo. A b. Fabricius, in his Centifolium Lutheranum, pt. ii., cap. 187, p. 863, [also by Walch, Biblioth. Theol., tom. iii., p. 618]. The principal of these historians must be consulted, by those who de sire proof of what we shall briefly relate in this section. For it would be needless, to be repeating every moment the names of Sleidan, Seckendorf, and the others, who stand pre-eminent in this branch of history. CHAPTER I. 1. At the Beginning of the Century, all was tranquil.-2. Complaints against the Pontiffs and the Clergy, were ineffectual.-3. Revival of Learning.- 4. The Pontiffs Alexander VI. and Pius III.-§ 5. Julius II.- 6. The Council of Pisa.- § 7. Leo X.- 8. Avarice of the Pontiffs.- 9. They are inferior to Councils.- 10. Corruption of the inferior Clergy.-11. State of the Monks.- 12. The Dominicans. 13. State of the Universities and of Learning. 14. Theology.- 15. Liberty to dispute about Religion.- 16. The public Religion.-§ 17. Misera ble Condition of the People.-◊ 18. A Reformation desired.-§ 19. The Mystics. §. 1. WHEN the century began, no danger seemed to threaten the pon. tiffs. For those grievous commotions, which had been raised in the pre- ceding centuries by the Waldenses, the Albigenses, the Beghards, and others, and afterwards by the Bohemians, had been suppressed and extin- guished by the sword and by crafty management. The Waldenses who survived in the valleys of Piedmont, fared hard, and had few resources; and their utmost wish was, that they might transmit as an inheritance to their posterity, that obscure corner of Europe which lies between the Alps and the Pyrenees. Those Bohemians who were displeased with the Romish doctrines, from their want of power and their ignorance, could attempt nothing; and therefore, were rather despised than feared. § 2. Complaints indeed were uttered, not only by private persons but by the most powerful sovereigns, and by whole nations, against the haughty domination of the Roman pontiffs, the frauds, the violence, the avarice, and the injustice of the court of Rome, the insolence, the tyranny, and the ex- tortion of the papal legates, the crimes, the ignorance, and the extreme profligacy of the priests of all orders, and of the monks, and finally of the un- righteous severity and the partiality of the Romish laws; and desires were now publicly expressed, as had been the case in generations long gone by, that there might be a Reformation of the church, in its head and in its mem- bers, and that the subject might be taken up in some general council. (1) But these complaints the pontiff's could safely set at defiance. For the authors of them entertained no doubts of the supreme power of the sovereign pon- tiffs in matters of religion; nor did they themselves go about the work they so much desired, but concluded to wait for relief either from Rome itself or from a council. Yet it was manifest, that so long as the power of the pon- tiffs remained inviolate, the opulence and the corruptions of the church and of the clergy could not be diminished in any considerable degree. (1) These accusations have been collected in great abundance, by the most learned wri- ing the wrongs done by the pontiffs and the clergy, are exhibited by Jac. Fred. Georgius, |