At Turin he took the degree of D. D. In 1509 he published his work entitled "Praise of Folly," to expose all kinds of fools, especially those who flourished in the church, not sparing the pope. For a short time he was professor of Greek at Oxford. In 1514 he returned to the Continent and resided chiefly at Basel, where he died, July 12th, 1536. Erasmus' extensive learning was equaled by his brilliant wit. He was no hero and he knew it. He frankly confessed that "he had no inclination to die for the sake of the truth." Luther, in whom the soul and courage of Paul seemed to be revived, overwhelmed him with reproaches for his cowardice in regard to the Reformation. He was a scholar and a critic, and he was honest enough to abstain from denouncing the opinions of Luther, though he disapproved of his violent language. But his services in the cause of science were great and lasting, and his writings are still esteemed for their classical style. He prepared the earliest edition of the Greek Testament. His "Colloquia" is a masterpiece. It contains satirical onslaughts on monks, cloister life, festivals, pilgrimages, etc.

Fox.

Fox, George, the originator of the society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, was born at Drayton, in Leicestershire, England, in 1624. At an early age he was employed in keeping sheep. Subsequently he was apprenticed to a country shoemaker. When about nineteen years of age, his religious impressions produced such a strong conviction in him that he believed himself to be the subject of a special divine call. He wandered solitarily through the country, absorbed in spiritual reveries. He finally adopted the career of an itinerant religious reformer. In attending religious meetings he did not scruple to interrupt the services when conducted by persons whom he believed not to be genuine Christians. His first efforts at proselytism were made at Manchester in 1648. This caused great excitement, and he was imprisoned as a disturber of the peace. His leading doctrines were the futility of learning for the work of the ministry, the presence of Christ in the heart as the "inner light," superseding all other lights, and of trying men's opinions by the Holy Spirit, and not by the Scriptures. He exhorted the people in public places to forsake all vicious practices, drunkenness, swearing, etc., and to cultivate the Christian graces. He had a winning manner, and by his extreme earnestness made many converts. In 1669 he married the widow of judge Fell. then went to America, where he spent two years in propagating his views with much success. On his return to England in 1673, he was imprisoned in Worcester jail for terrifying the king's subjects. On his release he visited several countries, always persuading men to listen to the voice of Christ within them. He died in London, January 13, 1691. Fox was not a man of broad and philo

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sophic genius; he did not enrich the world with the multitude of his thoughts; in fact, there is conspicuous poverty of intellect and sentiment manifested in his writings, but the earnestness and clearness with which one great truth of Christianity was realized, imparted a power and efficacy to his words that genius itself might envy. His doctrine of the universal" inner light" was his one great theme. In relation to peace as opposed to war, Fox was ahead of the time. There is a growing sentiment, in the church and state, opposed to war for acquiring territory, or for the settlement of international differences. The method employed by William Penn with the Indians in the settlement of Pennsylvania, made those savages friends who continued many years.

Hamilton.

Hamilton, Patrick, one of the prominent Scottish reformers, was born at Glasgow, in 1504. He was educated at the university of Paris, and took his degree in 1520. He settled in St. Andrews in 1523, and quietly pursued his theological studies. In 1526 he announced his views in favor of the Reformation; this drew the attention of archbishop Beaton who, early in 1527, made inquisition into the grounds of the rumor against him, and decided that he was holding views repugnant to the faith. In the following year he was put on trial, and declared to be worthy of death. In the meantime Hamilton had fled to Germany, where he became familiar with Luther and Melancthon, and thus his Protestant education became complete. After six months he returned to his native country, and openly preached the gospel. Later he was summoned to answer before Beaton to a charge of heresy, on the last day of February, and the result, in spite of his luminous and unanswerable arguments, was that Hamilton was condemned for divers heresies and detestable opinions. He was deprived of all dignities and benefices in the church, and delivered over to the secular power to be punished. The warrant of the secular power must have been already secured, for on the same day, on the morning of which he was tried, he was consigned to the stake in front of the gate of St. Salvador's college. He died as he lived, a humble, earnest, herioc

man.

Huss.

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Huss, John, of Bohemia, was born in 1371 at Hussinetz. studied at the university of Prague, and took his degree of Master of Arts in 1396; he began to lecture publicly in 1398. In 1402 he became preacher in the Bethlehem chapel in Prague, and labored with great earnestness for the instruction of the people. He was greatly esteemed by the common people and by the students; whilst confessor to queen Sophia he obtained access to the court. At this

time he became acquainted with the writings of Wycliffe, which exercised a great influence over him. The monks and clergy were his violent enemies, for he denounced their corruption with great boldness. Archbishop Sbinko burned the writings of Wylciffe in 1410 in compliance with an order of Pope Alexander V., and complained to the pope of Huss as a Wycliffite. He was summoned to Rome, but did not go, and the combined influence of the people, the court, and the university, compelled the archbishop to remove a prohibition which he had issued against his preaching.

In 1412 Pope John XXIII. published a bull of indulgences to raise funds to carry forward a crusade against Ladislaus, the excommunicated king of Naples, whose kingdom the pope claimed to belong to the papacy. Huss boldly raised his voice against the whole procedure as unchristian, and Jerome of Prague also condemned, in the strongest manner, both the bull and the venders of indulgences. In 1413 a charge was issued against Huss; he appealed from the pope to general council and to Christ, and wrote a book, "On the Church" in which he condemned the abuses of the papacy, and denied the conditional supremacy of the Roman pontiff. Thinking himself no longer safe in Prague, he retired to his native place where he preached the gospel with great power. In 1414 he was summoned to the general council at Constance on a charge of heresy. He went under the protection of king Wenceslaus, and a safe-conduct from the emperor Sigismund. He reached Constance on November 3rd, and was apprehended on he 28th, in spite of the remonstrance of the Bohemian and Polish nobles. His trial was conducted with little regard to the appearance of equity. July 6, 1415, thirty-nine charges were exhibited against him; some he acknowledged, others he denied. Being required to recant his alleged errors, he refused to do so until they were proved to be errors. He and his writings were condemned to the fire, and his ashes thrown into the Rhine.

Jerome.

Jerome of Prague, the companion of John Huss, was born in the last half of the fourteenth century. After attending the university of his native town, he continued his studies at Paris, Cologne, Oxford, and Heidelberg, and in 1399 took out his degree of Master of Arts and Bachelor of Theology. His reputation for learning was so great that his advice was asked by Ladislaus II., king of Poland, with respect to the founding of the university of Cracow in 1410; and Sigismund, king of Hungary, invited him to preach before him at Buda. He entered with his whole soul into the contest carried on by his friend Huss against the abuses of the hierarchy and the profligacy of the clergy. His zeal carried him too far; he publicly trampled the relics under his feet, committed to prison the monks who did not share his opinions, and even ordered one of

them to be thrown into the Maldau. When Huss was arrested at Constance he hastened to defend him; but receiving no satisfactory answer to a letter in which he demanded a safe-conduct from the council, he returned to go to Prague, but was arrested at Hirschau, in April, 1415, by the order of the auke of Sulzbach anu conveyed in chains to Constance. Here he was cast into a dungeon, and placed on trial. After some months of imprisonment he recanted his opinions, but subsequently abjured his recantation with horror, and went to the stake with great firmness. He was burned alive, May 30, 1416.

Knox.

Knox, John, the great Scottish reformer, was born in 1505, in a suburb of Haddington, called Gilford Gate. He received his early education at the grammar school of Haddington, and in the year 1521 went to the university of Glasgow. He was there a pupil under Major and soon distinguished himself as a disputant in scholastic theology. He was ordained about 1530; shortly after which he went to St. Andrews as a teacher. His attachment to the Romish church is supposed to have been shaken chiefly by the study of the Fathers, about 1535; but he did not openly profess himself a Protestant till about 1543. He was degraded from his orders, and being in danger of assassination, took refuge with Douglass of Longniddry, and remained there until 1545. After Wishart's seizure and death, Knox withdrew for a while again into retirement. He would fain have clung to the martyr Wishart and share his fate, but the latter would not have it so. "Nay," he said, "return to cairns or pupils, and God bless you; one is sufficient for a sacrifice." On May 29, 1546, Cardinal Beaton was murdered in his castle, from the window of which he had contemplatd the sufferings of the martyr Wishart. Then the castle at St. Andrews became the temporary stronghold of the reforming interest. Here the great gifts of Knox as a preacher were first discovered; the parish church of St. Andrews resounded with his indignant voice, denouncing the errors of papacy. His career at this time, however, was soon cut short by the surrender of the fortress, and his imprisonment in the French galleys. For two years he remained a prisoner, and underwent many deprivations. When liberated, he departed to England, where he resided four years (1549-54,) a time of great and fruitful activity. He was appointed one of the chaplains of Edward VI., and was on intimate intercourse with the English reformers. He was much engaged in preaching in New Castle and Berwick. At the latter place he was married.

The accession of Mary drove him and others to the Continent. On returning, he settled at Frankfort on the Main, and took a part in certain disputes as to the use of King Edward's service book in the congregation of English Protestants. In 1555 he made a short visit to Scotland, and encouraged the reformers there. From thence

he retired to Geneva, where he was pastor of a congregation for three years.

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Recalled to Scotland in May, 1559, he entered upon his triumphant course as a reformer. The heads of the party assembled at Perth. There the pent-up enthusiasm which had been long collecting was roused into furious action by a sermon of Knox on the idolatry of the mass and of image worship. A riot ensued. The rascal multitude," as Knox called them, broke all bounds and destroyed the churches and monasteries. Similar disturbances followed at Sterling, Lindores, St. Andrews, and elsewhere. The flame of religious revolution was kindled throughout the country. length the assistance of queen Elizabeth and the death of the queen-regent of Scotland, brought matters to a crisis; a truce was proclaimed, and a free parliament summoned to settle differences, which met in August, 1560, and resulted in the overthrow of the -old religion and the establishment of the reformed kirk in Scotland. In 1561, on account of the well known devotion to the Romish church of Mary, queen of Scotland, the Reformation was retarded. The more moderate Protestant party tried to govern the country in the queen's name. But Knox was unyielding, which was manifested in his sermons and prayers. This produced a temporary alienation in the ranks of the Protestants, and caused Knox to retire in comparative privacy from 1563 to 1565. But the marriage of the queen with Bothwell, her defeat and imprisonment, brought Knox again into the field. Further reforms were effected by the Parliament under the regency of Murray, and Knox seemed at length to see his great work accomplished. But Murray's assassination, and the confusion and discord which sprung out of it, plunged the reformer in profound grief. Weary of the world, on November 24, 1572, he quietly fell asleep.

Latimer.

Latimer, Hugh, one of the most distinguished of the English reformers, was born at Thurcaston, in Leicestershire, in the year 1490. He was educated at Cambridge, and he said, I was as obstinate a papist as any in England." But very soon he became a zealous preacher of the reformed doctrines. His zeal strongly excited the papists against him. The dispute about Henry VIII's marriage with Catharine of Aragon brought Latimer more into notice. He was one of the divines appointed by the university of Cambridge to examine as to its lawfulness, and declared on the king's side. This secured the king's favor, and he was appointed one of his chaplains, and received a living in Wiltshire. In 1535 he was appointed bishop of Worcester, and at the opening of the convocation on June 9, 1536, he preached two very powerful and impressive sermons urging the necessity of reform. He was an eminently practical reformer. At the close of Henry's reign and while the