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pose that Luther excelled, in piety, the generality of his companions, it may be considered a fair representation of the general character of the members of religious orders when the reformation broke out.

Now hear the description, which he gives of himself, after he had commenced reformer :-"I am "burnt," he said, "with the flames of my untamed "flesh; I am mad almost with the rage of lust, "and the desire of women. I, who ought to be "fervent in spirit, am fervent in impurity, in sloth, "&c. Relying on the strong foundation of my

learning, I yield not, in pride, either to the em"peror, prince or devil; no, not to the universé " itself."-What can you say on his allowance of divorce and polygamy, of the permission granted by him, Melancthon, Bucer, and five other ministers, to the prince of Hesse Cassel, to have two wives at the same time ‡?

You also know the strange poetical effusion of Beza,

"Abest Candida,- Beza quid moraris!"

Resp. ad Maled. Regni Angliæ.-I transcribe doctor Fletcher's translation of these three passages. Sermons, vol. 2, p. 116, 117.

+ Tertia ratio divortii est, ubi alter alteri subduxerit, ut debitam benevolentiam persolvere nolit, aut habitare cum renuerit hic opportunum ut maritus dicat: Si tu renueris alter volet: si domina noluerit veniat ancilla. Serm. de Matrimonio, tom. v. 123.

Bossuet, Var. L. VI. The originals of these extraordinary documents, relating to this permission, were first published by a descendant of the prince to whom it was given.

Now, in all the legends, in all the other monkeries, -I use your own words,-which you have so strongly vituperated, is there even one so scandalous, or so likely to corrupt the morals of its readers, as these passages in the works of the acknowledged patriarchs of your church?

XII. 4.

Was the Revival of Letters owing to the Reformation, or materially forwarded by it?

THE great advances, which were made in every branch of literature, both on the Continent and in England, previously to the reformation, are kept in the background by yourself, and most other writers against the roman-catholic religion, so that the generality of readers think, that the revival of polite literature was entirely owing to the reformers; but justice should be done to our catholic ancestors.

Before the first dawn of the reformation, literature, the sciences, and the arts, had found munificent protectors in Nicholas v, Sixtus IV, and more than one Medicean pope; in Besarion, Lionel and Borsus, at Ferrara; in the Viscontis, the Sforsias, and Lewis Morus, at Milan; in the dukes of Urbino; in Alphonsus of Arragon, at Naples; in Mathias Corvinus, in Hungary; in Charles VII, Lewis XII, and Francis I, in France; in James IV, of Scotland; and Henry VIII, of England. Before the end of the fifteenth century, the presses had been worked in thirty-four towns in France; Nicholas v. had founded the

library of the Vatican; Besarion had given his magnificent collection to Venice; and the old and the young had crowded to the Greek school of Emanuel Chrysoloras*. You are not unacquainted with the many ladies, who, in the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries, were illustrious for learning and science; you know that some even filled chairs of professors in the universities of Italy. During the same centuries, literature flourished so much in Germany, that the celebrated Reuchlin was accustomed to say, that "Greece had traversed the Alps, "and settled among his countrymen." Between the years 1403 and 1506, more than ten universities had been founded on German soil; and im. proved courses of literature had been established in Deventer, Kempten, Alkmaar, Munster, Heidleberg, Worms, and various other Teutonic towns. Between the years 1455 and 1536, more than

TWENTY-TWO MILLIONS NINE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-TWO THOUSAND volumes had issued from various presses t; and, long before the name of Luther was heard, Cimabue, the father of the modern school of painting, had produced noble specimens of his art; Brunelleschi had revived, at Florence, the forms of antient architecture; and Dante had produced his Divina Comedia.

Survey the long line of towns in Belgium; those which adorn Lombardy; the many public edifices of

See the Recherches sur les Bibliothèques, p. 82.207. 233, and A. H. L. Heeren's Geschichte der Kunste und der Wissenschaften, seit der Wiederherstellung derselben.

+ Recherches sur les Bibliothèques, p. 180.

magnificent and costly architecture, with which they are filled; the works in marble, gold, silver, iron and bronze, with which they are ornamented ;-how much of these were anterior to LUTHER!

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In England, Roger Bacon had meditated, and Chaucer had sung. Erasmus informs us, that learning triumphed in England, and that the king and the queen, two cardinals, and almost "all the bishops, exerted themselves in promoting "and encouraging it." He mentions," as eminently learned, Linacre, the king's physician; "Cuthbert Trunstal, master of the rolls; Sir "Thomas Moore, of the privy council; Pace, se

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cretary of state; William Mountjoy, the queen's "chamberlain; John Colet, preacher to their majesties;" and " as yet," says Erasmus, "I have

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only mentioned the chief. The court abounds "with such eminent men, that it seems a seat of "the muses, and may vie with any school of philo"sophy, with Athens itself*." All this was anterior to the reformation: I beg leave to add, that Mary of England, Elizabeth, Mary of Scotland, Lady Jane Grey, and the three ladies Seymour, all of whom are celebrated for their learning and accomplishments, received their literary educations in catholic England. How many of the Elizabethan prelates, whose learning you extol, received their education under roman-catholic masters? Then, can it be denied, that the reformation found literature, science and art, diffused over all the southern, and most of the northern territories of Europe ?

* Ad Petrum Bembum, Basileæ, an. 1518.

or that it was then in a very advanced state of cultivation? or that the ardour of the public, for instruction, was very high? or that there was a very strong and very general desire for instruction and improvement?

Surely the progress of it was rather retarded than promoted by the theological disputes, the animosities, the contentions, and the wars, which were occasioned by the reformation.

It is observable, that "Luther and Melancthon, to use the words of Mosheim*, "seemed to set "out with a resolution to banish every species of

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philosophy from the church." Luther wished that the works of Plato, Aristotle, Cicero, and the other antient classics, should be consigned to the flames t. Stock, his disciple, opposed the teaching of the alphabet, lest the distractions, which study occasions, should withhold the mind from God‡: he founded, on this principle, a sect called Abecedarians. "At Strasburg," says Erasmus, in a letter to Melancthon §, "it is publicly taught, that no "science should be cultivated, and that no language,

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except Hebrew, should be taught." I see no reason to suppose, that Luther changed the opinion expressed in the passage which I have cited: Melancthon certainly did, and published his Loci Communes, a philosophical work, greatly esteemed. From this time, letters were generally cultivated by

*Cent. xvi. c. 1, s. 10.

† Ep. ad Nob. Germ. an. 1520.
1 Osiander, Cent. xvi. E. 2.

Ep. 71.-ad Melancthon.

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