re-actory party, headed by Gardiner and Bonner, were in the ascendency, Latimer lived in great privacy. He was looked upon with jealousy, and closely watched, and finally, on going to London, he was cast into the Tower.

On the accession of Edward VI., he again appeared in public. He devoted himself to preaching and practical works of benevolence. The pulpit was his great power, and by his stirring sermons he did much to rouse a spirit of religious earnestness. On the death of Edward, he and other reformers were arrested. Latimer was put in prison, and examined at Oxford in 1554. After his examination he was transferred to the common jail, where he lay for more than a year. In September, 1555, he was summoned before certain commissioners appointed to sit in judgment upon him and Ridley. He was condemned to be burned. He and Ridley suffered without Bocardo Gate, opposite Balliol College, on October 16, 1555, Latimer exclaiming to his companion: "Be of good comfort, master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day light such a candle, by God's grace, in England, as I trust shall never go out."

Luther.

Luther, Martin, the most prominent of the Protestant reformers of the 16th century, was born at Eisleben, Germany, November 10th, 1483. His father was a miner in humble circumstances; his mother was a woman of exemplary virtue. Shortly after Martin's birth his parents moved to Mansfield, where their son was sent to school. Later he attended school at Madgeburg, and Eisenach. When he had reached his eighteenth year, he entered the university of Erfurt, intending to qualify himself for the legal profession. He completed his studies and took his degree of Master of Arts in 1505, when he was twenty-one years of age. He found the Vulgate in the university library, and was astonished to find more gospels and epistles than he had any knowledge of; he then resolved to devote himself to a spiritual life. He withdrew into the Augustine convent at Erfurt, where he spent the next three years of his life in the study of the Bible and of Augustine. Here he laid the foundation of those doctrinal convictions which strengthened him in his struggle against the papacy. He describes very vividly the spiritual crisis through which he passed, the burden of sin which lay upon him, and the relief he found in the doctrine of the forgiveness of sins through Christ.

In 1507 he was ordained a priest, and in the following year he removed to Wittenberg, and became a teacher in the new university, founded by Frederick of Saxony. At first, he lectured on dialectics. and physics, but his heart was already given to theology, and in 1509 he became a bachelor of theology and commenced lecturing on the Holy Scriptures. His lectures made a great impression, and his views attracted attention. Besides lecturing he began to

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preach, and his sermons reached a wide audience, and produced a powerful influence. Melanchthon said, His words were not born on his lips, but in his soul," and they moved profoundly the souls of all who heard them. In 1510 he was sent on a mission to Rome. He described very vividly what he saw and heard there. He was at that time, as he subsequently said, "A most insane papist."

On his return from Rome he was made a Doctor of the Holy Scriptures, and his career as a reformer may be said to have commenced. The system of indulgences reached a scandalous height. The idea was promulgated that the pope could issue pardons of his own free will, which, being dispensed to the faithful, exonerated them from the consequences of their sins. The sale of these pardons had become an organized part of the papal system. Money was needed in Rome to feed the extravagance of the papal court, and its numerous emissaries sought everywhere to raise funds by the sale of indulgences. John Tetzel, a Dominican friar, established himself at Juterbach, on the border of Saxony. Luther's indignation became irrepressible. He drew up 95 theses on the doctrine of indulgences, which he nailed upon the door of the church at Wittenberg, and which he offered to maintain in the university against all impugners. The general purport of these theses was to deny the pope all right to forgive sins. If the sinner was truly contrite, he received complete forgiveness. The pope's absolution had no value.

This bold step of Luther awakened a widespread excitement. The news spread rapidly far and wide. Tetzel was forced to retreat from the borders of Saxony to Frankford on the Oder, where he drew out and published a set of counter theses, and publicly committed those of Luther to the flames. The students at Wittenberg retaliated by burning Tetzel's theses. Eck entered the debate; he was an able man, and an old friend of Luther's, and the arguments between him and the reformer were vehement.

At the first Pope Leo X. took but little heed of the disturbance; he is reported to have said, "Friar Martin is a man of genius, and I do not wish to have him molested." But some of the cardinals saw the character of the movement, which assumed seriousness to the pope, and Luther received a summons to appear at Rome and answer for his theses. His university and the elector interfered, and a legate was sent to Germany to hear and determine the case. The legate would not argue the case, and called upon Luther to retract, but he refused. Negotiations were undertaken by Miltitz, a German and envoy of the pope to the Saxon court. A temporary peace was obtained, but it did not last long.

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In 1520 Luther published his famous address to the Christian Nobles of Germany. This was followed by his treatise On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church." These works powerfully influenced many minds; he not only attacked the abuses of the papacy

and its pretentions to supremacy, but also the doctrinal system of Rome. Germany was convulsed with excitement. Luther was everywhere the hero of the hour. Charles V. had at this time succeeded to the empire, and he convened his first diet of the sovereigns and states at Worms in 1521. An order was issued for the destruction of Luther's books, and he himself was ordered to appeer before the diet. This was above all what he desired-to confess the truth before the assembled powers of Germany. He went to Worms saying: "I will go to Worms though there should be as many devils there as there are tiles on the roofs of the houses." The threats of enemies and anxieties of friends failed to move him. He went, and before the Emperor and princes he gave his reasons in clear, strong and cogent language, first in German and then in Latin. They replied: "We want no reasons, but short answers. Will you recant? Yes or no?" Luther replied, Unless I am convinced by Scripture and reason, I neither can nor dare retract anything, for my conscience is a captive to God's word, and it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. There I take my stand. I can not do otherwise. So help me God. Amen. The Spaniards were for burning him. But he returned in safety; but Frederick of Saxony, fearing that he should not be able much longer to protect himself, had him secretly carried to the castle of Wartburg. There he translated the Bible, and inundated Germany with his writings. He not only attacked the papal authority, but the doctrines of Purgatory, Indulgences, Invocation of Saints, Relics, Confession, the Seven Sacraments, and Transubstantiation.

In 1525 Luther married Katharina von Bora, one of nine nuns, who under his influence had emancipated themselves from their religious vows. This step rejoiced his enemies, and alarmed some of his friends. But it greatly contributed to his happiness. The most interesting glimpses we get of him after this are in connection with his wife and children. Luther's great power lay in his personality. He was, in the depth of his soul, a believer in truth. He was unable to understand such men as Erasmus, who believed and yet doubted. Luther's force was in his wonderful earnestness which made his thoughts real to him; so it was not he who spoke but the truth which thundered from his lips. He was so filled with the truth that he took no credit nor blame for what he said. When the pope excommunicated him, he excommunicated the pope, and the one excommunication seemed as valid as the other. The following is his reply to what he called the bull of Anti-Christ.

"If this bull has been prepared with the knowledge of the pope and cardinals, I, then, by virtue of the power which I received in baptism, making me a child of God and a joint-heir with Christ, counsel you in the Lord that you repent and speedily make an end of these devilish atrocities, of these two daring impieties. Otherwise, with all true servants of Christ, I shall hold your seat to be that of Anti-Christ, possessed by the spirit of evil; and if you

persevere obstinately in your madness, I anathematize you, and give you over, with this your Bill and all your decrees, to Satan."

Luther died February 18, 1546.

Melanchthon.

Melanchthon, Philip, Luther's fellow laborer in the Reformation, was born February 16, 1407, at Bretten, in the grand duchy of Baden. He was educated at the university of Heidelberg, where he took the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy in 1512. In the same year he went to Tubingen, and studied theology, took the degree of Master, and in 1514 gave lectures on the Aristotelian philosophy and the classics. About this time he published a Greek grammar. In 1518 he was appoined professor of the Greek language and literature in Wittenberg. He soon decided in favor of the Reformation, and brought to the aid of Luther great attainments in learning, great acuteness in dialectics and exegesis, a remarkable power both of clear thinking and of clearly expressing his thoughts; and a gentleness and moderation that most advantageously tempered Luther's vehemence. In 1521 he published his first great Protestant work on dogmatic theology. It passed through more than fifty editions. In 1541 he went to Ratisbon to conduct the cause of the Protestants in the conference there. But the influence of the papal legate counteracted all his efforts for a peaceful accommodation, and his own party were much dissatisfied on account of the concessions which he made. After Luther's death Melanchthon lost in some measure the confidence of some of the Protestants, by those concessions to the Roman Catholics which his anxiety for peace led him to make; whilst the zealous Lutherans were no less displeased because of his approximation to the doctrine of Calvin on the Lord's supper. He died at Wittenberg, April 19, 1560. Melanchthon was admired as a public teacher. He was essentially a theologian and a scholar.

Neander.

Neander, Johann August Wilhelm, the ecclesiastical historian, was born at Gottingen, Germany, of Jewish parentage. His name prior to baptism was David Mendel. In 1806 he publicly renounced Judaism, and was baptized, adopting, in allusion to the religious change which he had experienced, the name of Neander (Gr. neos, new; aner, a man) and taking his Christian names from several of his friends. His sisters and brothers, and later his mother also, followed his example. He received his early education at the Johanneum in Hamburg. Early his lofty and pure genius began to show itself. He studied theology at Halle, with ardor and success, and concluded his academic course at his native town of Gottingen. In 1812 he was appointed professor of theology at Heidelberg

university; and in the following year was called to the newly established university of Berlin as professor of church history. Here he labored till his death, July 14, 1850. Neander enjoyed immense celebrity as a lecturer; students flocked to him from all parts of Germany, and from distant Protestant countries. His religious character was of a noble Christian type. He was ardently and profoundly devotional, sympathetic, glad hearted, profusely benevolent, and void of selfishness; he inspired universal reverence and was, by the sanctity of his life, a more powerful argument on behalf of Christianity, than by his writings. He was much loved by his students. He gave to the poorer ones tickets to his lectures and supplied them with clothes and money. He contributed much to missionary, Bible, and other benevolent societies. It is believed that he contributed to the overthrow of anti-historical rationalism on one side, and dead formalism on the other more than any other man, from both of which the religious life of Germany had long suffered.

Ridley.

Ridley, Nicholas, one of the most noted leaders of the Reformation in England, was a native of Northumberland, born about the beginning of the sixteenth century. He was educated at the foundation school of Newcastle-upon-Tyne; and subsequently at Pembroke hall, Cambridge. He became a fellow of this college in 1524, and ultimately president of it. The spirit of the Reformation had already begun to penetrate the universities both of Oxford and Cambridge. Tyndale and Bilney had taught the new doctrines at Cambridge; and Ridley, Cranmer, and Latimer, all students of this college, about the same period, had caught something of the spirit of the Reformation. Ridley made a tour on the continent of Europe, and encountered some of the most active reformers; and after three years' absence, he returned, with his principles firmly settled in favor of the Reformation, He became proctor to the university of Cambridge, and in this capacity protested against the claims of the papal see to supreme jurisdiction in England. He was also chosen public orator and, under the patronage of his friend Cromer, was advanced first to one of the king's chaplains, and then, in 1547, he was nominated bishop of Rochester. He distinguished himself by his vehement denunciation of the idolatrous use of images and of holy water, very soon became one of the most prominent, and remained one of the most consistent and inflexible supporters of the reformed doctrines. On the deprivation of Bonner under Edward VI. he became bishop of London. He assisted Cranmer in the preparation of the 39 articles of Protestants. On the death of Edward VI. he warmly espoused the unfortunate cause of Lady Jane Grey; and on its speedy failure, and the accession of Mary, his known connection with it, and his activity in the