to the Reformers. "They might, on the contrary," says he, "re-construct the ecclesiastical order, by having recourse to the sovereignty of God's Word, and by re-establishing the rights of the Christian people." This form was the most remote from the Roman hierarchy. Between these two extremes, there were several middle courses. The latter plan was Zwingle's, but the reformer of Zurich had not fully carried it out. He had not called on the Christian people to exercise the sovereignty, and had stopped at the council of two hundred as representing the Church. In Hesse, the Reformed Church was destined to assume this extreme democratic form, which finds more favour in Dr. D'Aubigné's eyes than it does in ours, and which we have therefore allowed him to describe in his own language.

The Diet of Spire was scarcely over when Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, set himself to reforming his hereditary states, and invited thither for that purpose Francis Lambert of Avignon. Lambert posted on the church doors at Marburg one hundred and fifty-eight theses, expressing his opinions on most of the points at issue between the reformers and Rome. A time was appointed for the discussion, and the landgrave, with a company of priests, prelates, knights, nobles, deputies of towns, and others, attended in the principal church on the day fixed. Lambert put forward his views; the papal party were asked to reply, but said this was not the place for replying. They would say no more, and Lambert exclaimed "Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, for he hath visited and redeemed his people."

The discussion lasted for three days, at the end of which "men were selected and commissioned to constitute the Churches of Hesse in accordance with the Word of God." Within three days they executed their commission.

Dr. D'Aubigné gives ample extracts from the "constitution" of this Church or synod. The name of the landgrave does not occur, and the legislation is made to emanate from the Church assembled in the name of the Lord. The first assembly conjures all future synods to avoid multiplied ordinances, "seeing that where orders abound disorder superabounds." The Church can be taught only by the word of its Sovereign Pastor. Whatever pious per son acquainted with Scripture wishes

to teach the Gospel, is not to be prevented, for he is called inwardly of God.

The word bishop often occurs, but care is taken to guard against the word being supposed to mean any thing but "a minister of the word of God.” Each church is to elect its deacons and bishop. The bishops or ministers to be consecrated by three bishops; the deacons by the elders, when bishops are not present. Each church to place its bishop or minister in such circumstances as to exercise hospitality. The power of excommunication to be in the assemblies of the faithful acting with the bishop. Weekly assemblies to be held for the regulation of each church, and annual synods for that of all the churches in the state. Of this synod all the bishops are members, and in addition to these, each church to elect a member as its representative in the synod. Three visitors to be elected yearly, to examine those who have been elected bishops, to confirm them, and to provide for the execution of the decrees of the synod. All this would seem democratic enough, but democracies are despotisms in their way, and the new church of Philip and Lambert was not destined to be an exception. The Germans were unfortunate in the higher order of the clergy regarding themselves as the subjects of Rome, and though they did not resist the movement of the reformers actively, for the most part refusing to participate in its direction. This prevented the experiment so successful in England and in the north of Europe of episcopal churches- the form that after all seems best to express the conception of the primitive Church. In Bohemia, where the bishops refused teachers to the Calixtans, they took the first vagabond priest they found, and Luther wrote to them rather in such circumstances to have every father of a family read the Scriptures for his family and baptize his children himself. He told them that men become priests by election and calling, and directed them to choose such as they thought fittest, and the leading powers among them should then lay hands on them and recommend them to the Church.

Dr. D'Aubigné says that in his advice to the Bohemians, Luther was influenced by the circumstances in which they were. The people, without any assistance from the clergy, were to appoint their pastors, Had there been

any clergy, to them too, he assumes, Luther would have given a voice. In the same way Dr. D'Aubigné thinks that Luther was restricted when forming the constitution of his own Church. He did not give the people a voice, because he could scarcely find any where that Christian people which should have played so great a part in his new constitution. Ignorant men, conceited townspeople, who would not even support their ministers, these were the members of the Church. Now what could be done with such elements?"

From these facts D'Aubigné argues that Luther would, if it were possible for him, have established his Church on a more popular foundation than that on which it rested; that he regarded the princes as the representatives of the "people" and their natural guardians; that this guardianship was, in Luther's view, to be but provisional; "the faithful being then in minority, they had need of a guardian; but the era of the Church's majority might arrive, and with it would come its emancipation." Dr. D'Aubigné would have done more and better had he forborne speculations of this kind, for which we do not think there is the slightest ground whatever. There is a sense of the words in which government is an evil, and this Luther did not forbear to say at the proper times and seasons; but the passages we have already quoted from Luther show that no anticipations of the kind which Dr. D'Aubigné imputes to him came within the compass of his thoughts or his wishes. He does not seem to have had the slightest wish to introduce any thing like the church government of Lambert or Zwingle. We have to complain that in Dr. D'Aubigné's anxiety to be all things to all men, we miss every now and then the sharp and distinguishing outlines that in a work such as he has undertaken are above all things to be desired. We seek for accurate and distinct statements of fact, and we find instead of this, some stray sentiment or moralization equally true at all times and in all circumstances. We can understand how this has arisen, as we believe that much of this history was first delivered in the form of lectures; and an audience, however constituted, finds relief from thought in this kind of display from the lecturer-but what is gratifying to the hearer of a discourse is regarded impatiently by a

reader. In the case before us, there is no reason whatever to think, as Dr. D'Aubigné impliedly suggests, that Luther abstractedly preferred a more democratic constitution of the Church than circumstances allowed him to attempt. While nothing can be more reasonable than that Dr. D'Aubigné should express his own preference of the basis on which the Presbyterian Churches rest, language should not have been used which would lead his readers to think that Luther's views and Dr. D'Aubigne's on Church government were coincident.

Luther's difficulty was the want of aid from the higher orders of the Church. They were against him. The parish priests were ignorant-but for the most part were unlikely to disturb any regulation that might be introduced by the state. As to a Christian "people"

the element assumed in all presbyterian plans of church governmentLuther was too honest a man to deceive himself into the belief that such existed-"Alas," said he, "they have abandoned their papistry, and they

scoff at all that we can teach." In his "German Mass" he had already expressed his opinion of the impossibility of constituting a Church in Saxony on the system of Lambert. "The real evangelical assemblies do not take place pell-mell, admitting persons of every sort, but they are formed of serious Christians who confess the gospel by their words, and by their lives, and in the midst of whom we may reprove and excommunicate according to the rule of Christ Jesus. I cannot institute such assemblies for I have no one to place in them." (Neque enim habeo qui sint idonei." De Missa Germ.) Luther's experience of popular assemblies was such as to lead him to discourage and distrust them. While he was personally the most fearless of men, he appears also to have been one of the wisest; and his resistance to what he regarded as the usurped authority of Rome was in the spirit of a man feeling that this resistance was commanded by his allegiance to the civil power under which he was placed. It is honourable to the more recent Roman Catholic writers of Germany, that they acknowledge this. Luther everywhere inculcates obedience to the powers of the state. "It is," said he [two years before the period of which we are speaking], "the secular authority and the nobles who ought to put

their hand to the work. That which is done by the regular powers cannot he regarded as sedition." He counsels his followers "to spread the Gospel by every means of argument-and what then will become of pope, bishops, cardinals, priests, monks, nuns, bells, church-towers, masses, vigils, cassocks, capes, tonsures, beads, statutes, and the whole of the papal nuisance? It will have disappeared like smoke." He bids them not spare the hardened rogues "with whom they have to deal in argument but as for the men of simple minds whom they have chained down in the bonds of their false doctrine, you must observe quite a different treatment towards them. You must disengage them by degrees. You must give them a reason for every thing you do, and thus fit them for freedom as you are emancipating them.'

Soon after the diet (October, 1526), Luther pressed on the Elector the necessity of a visitation of the Churches in his dominions. In this letter he does not assume the mad notion that the people will for themselves desire pastors or schools. Where education is most wanted, there will the people least feel the want. "It is your duty," writes Luther to the Elector, "to regulate those things. On the papal order being abolished, the duty devolves on you. No other can, no other ought. As the guardian of youth and of those who cannot take care of themselves, you should compel your subjects, who desire neither pastors or schools, to receive those means of grace, as they are compelled to work on the roads, or bridges, and such like services." Luther's opinion, then, as in ours, the voluntary principle would not go far to support the institutions necessary for the education or the civilization of a people. A commission was appointed to visit the Churches, and in the spirit of the passages from Luther which we have cited, Melancthon wrote to one of the inspectors :-" All the old ceremonies that you can preserve, pray do so. Do not innovate much, for every innovation is injurious to the people." The Latin liturgy was retained, a few hymns in German being introduced. The communion in one kind for those who scrupled to take it in both; confession was still allowed; many saints' days; the sacred vest

*

In

ments- "There is no harm in them," writes Melancthon, "whatever Zwingle may say." Both Rome and the Reformers were scandalized-" Call you this reformation ?" exclaimed the more zealous of Luther's disciples. "Our cause is betrayed." The Romanists exulted at what they called Luther's inconsistency. His old antagonist, Cochlæus, taking a leaf from Luther's own book, assailed him with caricature. And Luther himself was exhibited as the seven-headed beast which has served to symbolize so many empires and princes. A monk's cowl covered without concealing seven frightful faces, each with different features; all were represented as uttering words the most contradictory. They were at fierce war with each other; and under the print -a companion for some of Luther's own popular exhibitions of Antichristwere the words, "Monstrosus ille Germaniæ partus, Lutherus Septiceps."

Dr. D'Aubigné tells us that the Elector was surprised at the moderation of Melancthon, and communicated to Luther his plan of reform. The plan had probably been before arranged between him and Melancthon; at all events he approved of it, making a few slight and unimportant changes, and Ecclesiastical Commissioners were appointed, in accordance with these rather low church views. A number of dissolute priests were removed; church property was ascertained, and secured for the maintenance of public worship in the first place, and then for public purposes; convents were suppressed; uniformity of instruction provided for, by ordering Luther's larger and smaller catechisms to be every where taught. The pastors of great towns were commissioned, under the name of superintendents, to watch over the churches and schools in their vicinage; and the celibacy of the clergy was abolished. One of the princes where the reform was carried on, wrote to Ferdinand, that these acts were done rightfully; "for I have been appointed by God the ruler over these people, and this compels me to guard not only their temporal, but their spiritual welfare."

In the Catholic states there was equal anxiety to guard against the doctrines of the Reformers; and D'Aubigné has his tales of martyrdom to

† Michelet.

relate. Meanwhile Charles and the Pope had settled their differences, and the condition of their peace, or its inevitable consequence, was their joint effort to extirpate heresy.

A diet was convoked to meet at Spire, in February, 1529. To the reformers it was a time of ominous import; and perhaps when we remember the superstitions, unconnected with religion, which then blended with the feeling of the bravest, it may be worth while, in a deeper view than as giving a mere picture of the manners of the time, to state what Luther tells in one of his letters, of a great gulf of light (chasma) illuminating the whole nocturnal heavens. "What that forebodes," said he, "God only knows." There were earthquakes at Carinthia, and lightning had split the tower of St. Mark, at Venice. Astrologers peeped and muttered. "The quartiles of Saturn and Jupiter, and the general position of the stars, was ominous. The waters of the Elbe rolled thick and stormy, and stones fell from the roofs of churches. All these things,' exclaimed the terrified Melancthon, 'affect me deeply.'

There were signs of less doubtful interpretation; and the aspects of King Ferdinand and the papal princes foreboded evil. After a vain effort for the peaceable restoration of the old order of things in the states where the reformation had made way, with some doubtful toleration for the reformers, the diet decreed that the states should continue to obey the decree of Worms against Luther, and interdicted all further innovations. Dr. D'Aubigne gives a minute account of the memorable protest against this decree which gave to the reformers their name of Protestants. The Reformation, as far as it had gone, had been already recognized as legal by the Diets of Nuremberg and Spire. A return to the old state of things would have been now a revolution.

We have exceeded the limits which we proposed to ourselves when we commenced this paper, and cannot accompany our author further at present. His book is one deserving of very high praise. His power of bringing before us the scenes of those old iron days, in which the great battle of liberty was won alike for all

men of all creeds, in pictures as distinct as those of Scott or Michelet, is altogether unequalled by any other writer who has undertaken the history of the Reformation. We think that in stating the doctrines which were the subject of contest, the very words of original documents ought to have been given more often than they are, and that there should be an appendix of such state papers as the Protest of Spire, and the more important decrees of the several diets. Without these, it is not always easy to understand the precise position of parties; and it seems to us important to show that at the different stages of the contest the states which received the Reformation were not only morally justified, but were legally in the right. In the case of the electorate of Saxony, where Luther did not act except in concurrence with the civil power, we think there can be no reasonable doubt of this. We conclude our present remarks with a striking passage from Dr. D'Aubigné :—

It

"The Reformation had by the protest of Spire, taken a bodily form. was Luther alone who had said No at the Diet of Worms: but churches and

ministers, princes and people, said No at the Diet of Spire.

"In no country had superstition, scholasticism, hierarchy, and popery, been so powerful as among the Germanic nations. These simple and candid people had humbly bent their neck to the yoke that came from the banks of the Tiber. But there was in them a depth, a life, a need of interior liof God, might render them the most berty, which, sanctified by the Word energetic organs of Christian truth. It was from them that was destined to emanate the reaction against that material, external, and legal system, which had taken the place of Christianity; it was they who were called to shatter in pieces the skeleton which had been substituted for the spirit and the life, and restore to the heart of Christendom, ossified by the hierarchy, the generous beatings of which it had been deprived for so many ages. The Universal Church will never forget the debt it owes to the princes of Spire and to Luther."

In a future number we shall probably return to this interesting book.

A.

We have always, even before an opportunity was afforded us of making his acquaintance, had a sort of leaning towards the Bursch. He bore what in the days of boyhood we were wont to deem a fabled existence; there was to us an inexplicable charm in all his wild adventures; there was a beautiful and poetical halo of romance floating around him. We saw him with slashed doublet, long hair, and open collar, with his sword and his trusty dog, and no proud knight of olden time ever possessed half the charm with which we invested him.

That romance is now, in some degree, dissipated-such visions usually fade into thin air when we have known the realities; and though we cannot regard the student now as a personage possessing the concentration of all the graces which ever adorned the flower of chivalry, yet we cannot, for the life of us, help feeling a strong affection for him still. Since those days, when he was to us but as the undefined and fanciful creation of the brain, we have, with him, heard the chimes at midnight, we have tasted of his hospitality, and felt from his hand the hearty grasp of a warm-hearted friend, and, must we confess it, we love him even for his very foibles; they are not many, but such as they are, have not failed to become a source of painful misrepresentation to the ignorant tourist and the Cockney scribe; they have been made known to the public through the medium of dull compilations, which lay undue stress upon all the weak points of his character, discuss learnedly the terms and the rules of his amusements; but fail altogether in communicating to the reader a single touch of his real nature.

The student life of Germany has its rough and eccentric side but it has also many, many points of excellence, from which we might derive a useful lesson. In the free atmosphere of his

university, despite all the useless learning he acquires, all that knowledge of beer and of the schlager, which must so soon afterwards be laid aside. The Bursch learns one thing-he learns to deport himself as a man; he acquires all the virtues of a manly character; he acquires the love of truth and the contempt of danger; he learns how to despise alike the selfishness of the world, and the meaness of insincerity.

If we were called upon to choose an epithet which would convey a just idea of the character and temperament of the German student, we should not be at much loss, for there is a word in his own language, which completely answers our purpose. The Bursch is essentially, and every bit of him a "freundlicher man," which means not only a friendly, but a good, hearty, cordial, lusty sort of fellow, that would stand by one through thick and thin, and is wholly divested of any species of affectation or pretence; in fact, we cannot avoid the conclusion, that a good specimen of his genus would be

"Just the man for Galway."

Some hasty sketches of our student friends, written for amusement, and for the purpose of recalling a few pleasant recollections, having been received by the public with much more favour than the manner of their performance could at all warrant, we cannot but suppose that the subject itself possesses an attraction in the eyes of our readers, too strong to be altogether diminished by any style, however unfinished, or by any pen, however feeble; and we have, therefore, come to the conclusion, that a few more of our recollections of the habits and manners of the students may not prove unacceptable to the reader, who has a fancy for comparing the manner of life at the greatest of the continental universities, with what he knows of similar institutions at home, and