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94 REFORMATION AND SPIRITUAL MOVEMENT

should be only historical, and that in whatever vulgar tongue they may be written."*

Connecting these facts with the extensiv circulation of the Scriptures, it may be safely affirmed, that as Luther owed his conversion to Scripture, so to the circulation of Scripture throughout northern Europe the Reformation itself owed its origin and progress. It prospered, in brief, with the study of the Bible.

In ascribing influence to the Bible as one main cause of the Reformation, it is implied that the Reformation itself was to a large extent a spiritual movement; and of this fact we have ample evidence. It is true that men had grown weary of the scholastic theology, and turned to Scripture from curiosity. Many doubted, moreover, the teaching of those whose lives were a scandal to the gospel. But there was, besides, a liking for the spiritual truths which the Reformation embodied. Hallam has remarked, that at the beginning of the eighteenth century, nearly every considerable city even in Italy contained a small band of men who were Protestants at heart. They did not in general abandon the outward profession of the Romish faith, but in opinion they really coincided with Luther. Men of this class were especially numerous in Venice and northern Italy. There might be seen, towards the close of the fifteenth century, Bruccioli, the translator of the Italian

* D'Israeli: "Curiosities of Literature, First Series." Ibid. vol. i. p. 363.

REFORMATION IN ITALY.

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Scriptures, Nardi the historian, the Benedictine Marco of Padua, Contarini, and Valdez; the last, the supposed author of a little treatise on "The Benefits of the Death of Christ," now more justly attributed to his contemporary, Paleario. There, also, might be seen the Englishman, Reginald Pole. These men all sought to stay the corruptions of the church by the revived force of religious convictions, and among the foremost of their doctrines was that doctrine of justification by faith which, as taught by Luther, was at the foundation of the Protestant movement. On this subject, Contarini, afterwards a cardinal, wrote a small tract, which Pole knows not how sufficiently to praise. "Thou hast," he says to him, "brought to light that jewel which the church kept half buried." Pole himself finds that Scripture, in its profound connexion, preaches nothing else, and he congratulates his friend that he should begin the disclosure of "that holy, fruitful, and indispensable truth." From the notification of the Inquisition on the work of Paleario, we gather similar evidence. "This book," they say, "ascribes everything to faith alone, and, forasmuch as that is the very point on which so many prelates and monks stumble, the book has been diffused to an unusual extent."*

On the other hand, the preference of the church for tradition and her rejection of the Scriptures is to be traced to her dislike of the doctrines of the gospel, and her conviction

* Quoted by Ranke, book ii.

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HOW TO KEEP DOWN PROTESTANTISM.

that the Bible condemns many of her practices. All the doctrines and claims for which no fair ground can be discovered in Scripture find in tradition their shelter and home: "nor is there any scheme of oppression, of deceit or cruelty, of ambition, avarice, or superstition, for which some sanctioning tradition may not be drawn from the rubbish of the middle ages." On the suppression of the Bible, therefore, and the maintenance of tradition, everything depended - a a view which happily Romish writers themselves have maintained. In à letter addressed by three bishops to Julius m., on the "most effectual means of establishing and advancing the apostolic see," they give as their crowning piece of advice the following: Finally," they say, "and we have reserved this advice for the last, because it is the most important that we are able in the circumstances to give to your holiness, you must watch with the utmost care, and effect by all means in your power, that only the smallest portion possible of the gospel (above all in the language of the people) be read in the countries subject to your dominion and which acknowledge your power. Let that little suffice which is read in the service of the mass, and let no one be permitted to read more. It is the fact, that so long as men have remained content with this small portion of the Scriptures, so long your interests have prospered and your maxims have prevailed. On the contrary, your authority, both

66

* Dr. Pye Smith.

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temporal and spiritual, has been continually declining from the moment that the common people have usurped a pretended right to read more. Above all, it is that book which, more than any other, has raised against us these agitations and storms which have driven us to the very brink of the pit: and it must be acknowledged that if any person examines it minutely, and then compares separately its contents with what is practised in our churches, he will find very great differences, and will see that our doctrines are not only quite different from what the Scripture teaches, but still further, are often entirely opposed to it. Therefore, from the moment that the people, excited by any one of our learned adversaries, shall have acquired this knowledge, the outcry against us will not cease till all is divulged, and we become the objects of universal hatred. Therefore, those very few writings must be kept from notice, but yet with due caution and exact care, lest the measure should raise against us still greater uproar and disturbance."

This

It

document is dated Bologna, Oct. 20, 1533.* sounds strange to our ears and well nigh incredible. There is no real ground, however, to doubt its genuineness, and it shows that the question of giving the Bible to the people really involved the very existence of the Romish church, and completes the evidence of the spirituality of the movement of the Reformation. It was

*See Dr. P. Smith's Reasons for the Protestant Religion, 1851, p. 47.

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98 THE ANCIENT FAITH AND THE ROMISH.

clearly regarded as a question between evangelical truth and dead ceremonies-between the authority of God and the usurpations of

men.

With these facts before us, we are prepared to estimate the correctness of the statements sometimes set forth by Roman Catholic writers. The church of Rome, they say, holds in all points the ancient faith; as a rule, the Bible is not withheld from the people; they have liberty to read it; to prohibit the Bible is the exception,* nay, more, in most countries the Roman Catholics have been the first to translate the Bible and to circulate it.

These are bold and sweeping assertions, and would be found to be false in fact, did we attempt to test them by the practice of Roman Catholic countries. Primitive Christians, as we have seen, gave the Bible to the people, and exhorted them to read it. Ever since the twelfth century, and even before, it has been the practice of the Romish church to deny the Bible, and to forbid the people to read it. Fenelon has manfully brought together the bulls, ordinances, and decrees in which this prohibition is enforced. Councils, synods, and popes have all concurred in this view; nor is there a single country in Europe where the translation of the Scriptures into the vernacular language, and the perusal of them by the people, has not been authoritatively condemned. Now, the dilemma is obvious; if herein Rome copies

* Charles Butler's Works, vol. iv. p. álì.

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