Latins should change nothing of their ancient rites, customs, and opinions, hence almost nothing Latin can be found among the Maronites except their attachment to the Romish prelate. Moreover this friendship costs the pontiff dear. For as the Maronites live in extreme poverty under the tyranny of the Mohammedans, the pontiff has to relieve their poverty with his wealth, that their prelate and leading men may have the means of appeasing their cruel masters, supporting their priests, and defraying the expenses of public worship. Nor is the expense small of maintaining the college for Maronites established at Rome by Gregory XIII. in which Syrian youth are imbued with literature and with love to the Romish see. The Maronite church is governed by a patriarch residing at Cannobin on Mount Lebanon, which is a convent of monks of the rule of St. Anthony. He styles himself patriarch of Antioch and always takes the name of Peter, to whose see he claims to be the successor.2 PART II. HISTORY OF MODERN CHURCHES. HISTORY OF THE EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH. 1. ACCORDING to our previous method, we have described the origin and progress of the church which assumes the name of evangelical, from having rescued from oblivion the Gospel, or the doctrine of salvation procured for men solely by the merits of Christ, when smothered in superstition; and which does not reject the appellation of Lutheran, from gratitude to the man who first dissipated the clouds which obscured the Gospel, and taught his followers to place no reliance on themselves or on glorified saints, but to give all their confidence to Christ. Its commencement is to be dated from the time when Leo X. expelled Luther and his adherents from the Romish church [A.D. 1520]. It acquired a stable form and consistency in the year 1530, when the public confession of its faith was presented to the diet at Augsburg. And it finally obtained the rank of a legitimate and independent community in Germany, and was entirely freed from the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff in the year 1552, when of this nation in Syria stand aloof from communion with the Latins, and in the last century not a few of them in Italy itself gave the court of Rome no little trouble. Some of them went over to the Waldenses inhabiting the valleys of Piedmont; others to the number of six hundred, with a bishop and many priests, went over to Corsica, and implored the aid of the republic of Genoa against the violence of the Inquisition. See Cerri, Etat Présent de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 121, 122. I know not what could have excited these Maronites to make such opposition to the Roman pontiff, if they did not dissent at all from his doctrines and decrees; for the Romish church allows them freely to follow the rites and customs and institutions of their fathers. See the Thesaurus Epistol. Crozianus, tom. i. p. 11, &c. [and p. 258, above.-Mur. Maurice of Saxony formed the religious pacification with Charles V. at Passau. 2. According to the opinion of this church, the entire rule for a sound faith and for a holy life is to be drawn exclusively from the inspired books; and it accordingly believes that these books are so plain and so easy to be understood in respect to the way of salvation, that every man who possesses common sense and understands their language can ascertain their meaning without an interpreter. This church has indeed certain books usually called symbolical, in which the principal truths of religion are collected together and perspicuously stated; but these books derive all their authority from the sacred volume, the meaning of which they exhibit; nor may theologians expound them differently from what the divine oracles will permit. The first of these [symbolical] books is the Augsburg Confession, with the Apology. Then follow what are called the Articles of Smalcald; and next the Catechisms of Luther, the larger for adults and persons more advanced in knowledge, and the shorter intended for children. To these, very many add the Formula of Concord, which however some do not receive, yet without any interruption 2 See Petitqueux, Voyage à Cunnobin dans le Mont Liban, in the Noveaux Mémoires des Missions de la Compagnie de Jésus, tome iv. 222, and tome viii. p. 355; La Roque, Voyage de Syrie, tome fi. p. 10; D'Arvienx, Mémoires ou Voyages, tome ii. p. 418, &c. and others. [See Jowett's Christian Researches in Syria, &c. p. 15, &c.-Mur. [On the past history and present condition of these Eastern churches and sects, the fullest and most recent information may be found in Wiggers' Kirchliche Statistik oder Darstellung d. Christ. Kirche nach ihrem gegenwart. ausseren u. inneren Zustande, Hamb. 1842-43, 2 vols. with a continuation to 1846, in the Theolog. Studien und Kritiken, No. 1 for 1848, p. 195, &c. The English reader will I Here consult especially the Notes which Simon has find important information on the same topics in Winannexed to his French translation of the Voyage of gard's Review of the Latest Events and Present State of Jerome Dandini, an Italian Jesuit, to Mount Lebanon, the Church of Christ, Lond. 1845, 12mo, and more rewritten in Italian, Paris, 1685, 12mo. See also Renau-cently in the Appendix to the second volume of Wilson's dot. Historia Patriarchar. Alexandrinor. p. 548. Lands of the Bible, Edin. 1847, 2 vols. 8vo.-R. of harmony; because the few things onverted and destroyed; but in some places account of which it is disapproved are of more, in others fewer, in all some traces of minor consequence, and neither add any- them remain. Besides, the civil sovereigns thing to the fundamentals of religion nor are prohibited by the fundamental princidetract from them.1 ples of the religion they profess from violating or changing at their own pleasure the system of religion or anything essential to it, or from legislatively imposing such creeds and rules of life upon the citizens as they may see fit. The boards which in the name of the sovereigns watch over the interests of the church, and direct ecclesiastical affairs, are composed of civil and ecclesiastical jurists, and bear the ancient name of Consistories. The internal regulation of the church is in form intermediate between the Episcopal and the Presbyterian systems, except in Sweden and Denmark, where the ancient form of the church, with its offensive parts lopped off, is retained. For while the Lutherans are persuaded that by divine right there is no difference of rank and prerogatives among the ministers of the Gospel, yet they suppose it to be useful, and indeed necessary to the preservation of union, that some ministers should hold a rank and possess powers superior to others. But in establishing this difference among their ministers, some states are governed more and others less by a regard to the ancient polity of the church. For that which is determined by no divine law may be ordered variously, without any breach of harmony and fraternal intercourse. 3. Concerning ceremonies and forms of public worship, there was at first some dissension in different places. For some wished to retain more and others fewer of the immense multitude of the ancient rites and usages. The latter after the example of the Swiss thought that everything should give way to the ancient Christian simplicity and gravity in religion; the former supposed that some allowance should be made for the weakness and inveterate habits of the people. But as all were agreed that ceremonies depend on human authority, and that there is no obstacle to the existence of diversity as to rites in the churches and countries professing the same religion, this controversy could not long continue. All usages and regulations both public and private, which bore manifest marks of error and superstition, were everywhere rejected; and it was wisely provided that the benefits of public worship should not be subverted by the multitude of ceremonies. In other respects every church was at liberty to retain so many of the ancient usages and rites as were not dangerous, as a regard to places, the laws, the character, and the circumstances of the people seemed to require. And hence down to our time, the Lutheran churches differ much in the number and nature of their public rites; which, so far from being a dishonour to them, is is rather good evidence of their wisdom and moderation.2 4. In the Lutheran church the civil sovereigns possess the supreme power in ecclesiastical affairs. This power is secured to them in part by the very nature of the civil government; and in part, I conceive, it is surrendered to them by the tacit consent of the churches. Yet the ancient rights of Christian communities are not wholly sub On the symbolical books of the Lutheran church and the expounders of them, Köcher treats expressly, in his Bibliotheca Theol. Symbolicæ, p. 114, &c. [See also Walch's Introductio Historica et Theologica in Libros Symbolicos Ecclesia Lutherana, Jena, 1732, 4to, p. 1008.-Mur. [There have been numerous editions of these books by Feuerlinn, Tittmann, and others. Among the fullest and latest may be mentioned Hase, Libri Symbolici Eccles. Evang. Lips. 1827, with ample Prolegomena. It contains the three ancient creeds, the Augsburg Confession, and the Apology for it; the Articles of Smalcald, the larger and smaller catechisms of Luther, the form of Concord, and the Articles of Visitation of 1592. The most recent edition is by Francke, entitled, Libri Symbolici Ecc. Luther. cum See Meisner, De Legibus, lib. iv. art. iv. quæst. iv. p. 662-666; Scherzer's Breviarium Hülsemann Enucleatum, p. 1313-1321. 5. Each country has its own liturgy or form of worship, in accordance with which everything pertaining to the public religious exercises and worship must be ordered and performed. These liturgies are frequently enlarged, amended, and explained, as circumstances and occasions demand, by the decrees and statutes of the sovereigns. Among them all, there is no diversity in regard to things of any considerable magnitude or importance; but in regard to things remote from the essentials of religion or from the rules of faith and practice prescribed in the sacred Scriptures, there is much diversity. Frequent meetings for the worship of God are everywhere held. The services in them consist of sermons, by which the ministers instruct the people and excite them to piety, the reading of the holy Scriptures, prayers and hymns addressed to the Deity, and the administration of the sacraments. The young are not only required to be taught carefully the first principles of religion in the schools, but are publicly trained and advanced in knowledge by the catechetical labours of the ministers. And hence in nearly all the provinces, little books commonly called Catechisms are drawn up by public authority, in which the chief points of religious faith and practice are explained by questions and answers. These the schoolmasters and the ministers follow as guides in their instructions. But as Luther left an excellent little book of this sort, in which the first elements of religion and morality are nervously and lucidly expressed, the instruction of young children throughout the church, very properly commences with this; and the provincial catechisms are merely expositions and amplifications of Luther's shorter catechism, which is one of our symbolical books. 6. As to holy days, in addition to the weekly day sacred to the memory of the Saviour's resurrection, the Lutheran church celebrates all the days which the piety of former ages consecrated to those distinguished events on which depends the divine authority of the Christian religion. And that it might not offend the weak, it has retained some of those festivals which superstition rather than religion appears to have created. Some communities likewise observe religiously the days anciently devoted to the ambassadors of Jesus Christ or to the Apostles. The ancient regulation which has come down to us from the earliest age of the church, of excluding the ungodly from the communion, the Lutheran church at first endeavoured to purify from abuses and corruptions and to restore to its primitive purity. And in this [sixteenth] century no one opposed the wise and temperate use of this power by the ministers of our church. But in process of time it gradually became so little used, that at the present day scarcely a vestige of it in most places can be discovered. This change is to be ascribed in part to the fault of the ministers, some of whom have not unfrequently perverted an institution in itself most useful to the gratification of their own resentments, while others either from ignorance or indiscretion have erred in the application of it; in part also to the counsels of certain individuals, who conceived that for ministers to have the power of excluding offenders from church communion, was injurious to the interests of the state and to the authority of the magistrates; and lastly, in part to the innate propensity of mankind to unrestrained freedom. This restraint upon wickedness being removed, it is not strange that the 1 Such, for example, are the nativity, death, resurrectlon, and ascension of the Son of God, the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles on the day of Pentecost, &c.- Macl. morals of the Lutherans should have become corrupted, and that a multitude of persons living in open transgressions should everywhere lift up their heads. 7. The prosperous and adverse events in the progress of the Lutheran church, since the full establishment of its liberties and independence, may be stated in a few words. Its growth and increase have been already stated; nor could it easily, after what is called the religious peace, go on to enlarge its borders. Towards the close of the century, Gebhard, count of Truchsess and archbishop of Cologne, was disposed to unite with this [or rather with the Reformed] church; and having married, he attempted the religious reformation of his territories. But he failed in his great design, which was repugnant to the famous Ecclesiastical Reservation among the articles of the religious peace; and he was obliged to resign his electoral dignity and his archbishopric. Neither on the other hand could its enemies greatly disturb the peace and prosperity of the church. Yet it was apparent from various indications, that a new war upon them was secretly plotted, and that the principal object aimed at was to annul the peace of Passau confirmed at Augsburg, and to cause the Protestants to be declared public enemies. Among others, Francis Burckhard sufficiently manifested such a disposition in his celebrated work De Autonomia, written 2 See Köhler's Diss. de Gebhardo Truchsessio, and the authors he cites. Add Ludewig's Reliquæ Manuscriptor. tom. v. p. 393, &c. Unschuldige Nachrichten A.D. 1748, p. 484. [Gebhard was of Truchsess in Waldburg. After his change of faith he married, privately at first, Agnes, countess of Mansfield? and he allowed the Protestants the free use of their religion, yet with the proviso that the rights of the archiepis copal see should remain inviolate. But the chapter at the head of which was Frederick of Sachsenlauenburg, refused obedience to him in the year 1583; and they were supported in their disobedience by the Spaniards. On the other hand, Gebhard obtained the promise of assistance from the Protestants assembled at Heilbron and Worms; yet only the elector palatine, John CasiReformed religion, and the contention between the mir, fulfilled the promise. For Gebhard was of the Reformed and the Lutherans was then carried to a great height, otherwise probably this business would have had a very different termination. The chapter applied to pope Gregory XIII. and having obtained the deposition of their archbishop, made choice of prince Ernest of Bavaria, who was already bishop of Freysingen, Hildesheim, and Liege. The archbishop indeed sought to support himself. But Augusand needed the aid of the imperial court in the affair tus, elector of Saxony, hated the Reformed too bitterly of the Henneberg inheritance too much, to be disposed to aid the archbishop; and John Casimir, who was lead out all his formes, for fear of being abandoned by threatened with the ban of the empire, dared not the other Protestant princes and becoming a prey to the Spanish and Bavarian army. Gebhard was therefore compelled, as he would not accept the terms proposed in the congross at Frankfort, to retire from the territory of the archbishopric, and he died in Hollard, A.D. 1601.-Schl. [See also Ranke's Popes of Rome, vol. i. p. 76, and 115, &c.-R. UU in 1586; and also John Pistorius in his calamities were fresh in their recollection, Reasons by which James marquis of which led them to the greater solicitude Baden professed to be influenced in aban- to prevent their recurrence; and to condoning the Lutheran party. These writers fess the truth, there was at that day more and others of the like character commonly zeal for religion among men of distinction assail the religious peace as being an ini- and high rank than at the present day. quitous and unjust thing, because extorted Hence the confederacy for the defence of by force and arms, and made without the religion, which had been formed among the knowledge and against the pleasure of the German princes and of which the elector Roman pontiff, and therefore null and of Saxony was the head, was peculiarly void; they also attempted to demonstrate, strong and efficient; and foreigners, espefrom the falsification or change of the cially the kings of Sweden and Denmark, Augsburg Confession, of which they say were invited to afford it their support. Melancthon was the father, that the Pro- And as all were sensible that the church testants have forfeited the rights conferred could not exist and prosper, unless its on them by that peace. The latter of teachers were educated men, nor unless litethese charges gave occasion in this century rature and science everywhere flourished, and the following to many books and dis- hence nearly all the princes set themselves cussions, by which our theologians placed to oppose the strongest barriers against it beyond all doubt that this Confession ignorance, the mother of superstition. had been kept inviolate and entire, and Their zeal in this matter is evinced by the that the Lutherans had not swerved from it new universities founded at Jena, Helmin the least. But none felt more severely stadt, and Altorf, and among the Reformed the implacable hatred of the papists against at Franeker, Leyden, and other places; the new religion (as they call that of the also by the reform and adaptation of the old Lutherans) than those followers of this universities to the state and necessities of a system who lived in countries subject to purer church, by the numerous inferior princes adhering to the Romish religion; schools opened in nearly all the cities, and especially the Lutherans in the Aus- and by the salaries, ample for those times, trian dominions, who at the close of this given to literary and scientific men, as century lost the greatest part of their reli- well as the high honours and privileges gious liberties.3 conferred upon them. The expense of these salutary measures was defrayed for the most part out of the property which the piety of preceding ages had devoted to churches, to convents of monks and canons, and to other pious uses. 8. While the adherents of the Roman pontiff were thus plotting the destruction of the Lutherans by force and stratagems, the latter omitted nothing which might contribute in any way to strengthen and establish their own church. Their recent 1 See Salig's Geschichte der Augsburgischen Confes sion, vol. i. book iv. c. iii. p. 767. 2 Here Salig especially may be consulted, ubi supra, vol. i. It must be admitted that Melancthon did alter the Augsburg Confession in some places. It is also certain that in the year 1555 he introduced into the Saxon churches, in which his influence at the time' was very great, a form of the Confession very different from its original one. But the Lutheran church [in general] never approved this rashness or imprudence of Melancthon; nor was his altered Confession ever admitted to a place among the symbolical books. [Melancthon doubtless looked upon the Confession as his own production, which he had a right to correct and improve; and he altered in particular the tenth article which treats of the Lord's Supper, from a love of peace 9. Hence almost every branch of human science and knowledge was cultivated and improved. All who aspired to the sacred office were required to study Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, and in these languages it is well known great men appeared among the Lutherans. History was greatly advanced by Melancthon, John Cario, David Chytræus, Reinerus Reineccius, and others. Of ecclesiastical history in particular Matthias Flacius may properly be called the father; for he and his associates by composing that immortal work, the Magdeburg Centuries, threw immense light on the history of the Christians, which before was involved in darkness and mixed up with innumerable fables. With him is to be joined Martin Chemnitz, to whose Examination of the Council of Trent the history of religious opinons is more indebted than many at this day are aware. history of literature and philosophy, the Hound; but those of his own community called him art of criticism, antiquities, and other the Second Apostle of the Germans. See Versuch kindred studies, were indeed less attended Ito; yet beginnings were made in them, and an honest desire to bring the Protestants into a closer union with each other, so that they might oppose their common enemies with their united strength. But his good designs were followed by bad consequences.-Schl. 3 See Raupach's Evangelisches Oesterreich, vol. 1. p. 152, &c. vol. ii. p. 287, &c. [This was attributed especially to the influence of the Jesuits, who found At Vienna, Peter Canisius rendered himself very conspicuous; and on account of his great pains to hunt out heretics and drive them to the fold of the church, ready access to the Austrian and Bavarian courts. the Austrian Protestants called him the Austrian einer neuen Geschichte des Jesuiterordens, vol. i. p. 372, 407, 468, and vol. ii. in various places.-Schl. The which excited those who came after to to Aristotle, thought it best to go directly prosecute successfully these pleasing pur- to the fountain and to expound the Stagysuits. Eloquence, especially in Latin, both rite himself to the students in philosophy. prose and poetic, was pursued by great Others, perceiving that the Jesuits and numbers, and by those worthy of compari- other advocates for the Roman pontiffs son with the best Latin writers; which is made use of the barbarous terms and the proof that genius for erudition and lite-subtleties of the old scholastics in order to rature was not wanting in this age, but confound the Protestants, thought it would that it was the circumstances and troubles be advantageous to the church, for her of the times which prevented genius from attaining the highest excellence in every species of learning. Philip Melancthon, the common teacher of the whole Lutheran church, by his instructions, his example, and his influence, enkindled the ardour of all those who acquired fame in the pursuit of literature and the liberal arts; nor did scarcely an individual of those who prosecuted either divine or human knowledge venture to depart from the method of this great man. Next to him, Joachim Camerarius, a doctor of Leipsic, took great pains to perfect and to bring into repute all branches of learning, and especially the belles-lettres. 10. Philosophy met with various fortune among the Lutherans. At first, both Luther and Melancthon seemed to discard all philosophy. And if this was a fault in them, it is chargeable upon the doctors of the schools, who had abused their barbarous method of philosophising as well as the precepts of Aristotle, to pervert and obscure exceedingly both human and divine knowledge. Soon however these reformers found that philosophy was indispensably necessary to restrain the licentiousness of the imagination, and to defend the territories of religion. Hence Melancthon explained nearly all the branches of philosophy in concise treatises written in a neat and perspicuous style; and these treatises were for many years read and expounded in the schools and universities. Melanc. thon may not improperly be called an eclectic philosopher. For while in many things he followed Aristotle, or did not utterly despise the old philosophy of the schools, he at the same time drew much from his own genius, and likewise borrowed some things from the doctrines of the Platonics and Stoics. 11. But this simple mode of philosophising devised by Melancthon did not long bear exclusive sway. For some acute and subtle men, perceiving that Melancthon assigned the first rank among philosophers 1 See Heumann's Acts of the Philosophers, written in German, art. ii. par. x. p. 579, &c.; Ab Elswich, Dissert. de Fatis Aristotelis in Scholis Protestantium, which he has prefixed to Jo. Launoi, De Fortuna Aristotelis in Acad. Parisiensi, sec. viii. p. 15, sec. xiii. p. 36, &c. young men also to be initiated in the mysteries of the Aristotelico-scholastic philosophy. Hence near the close of the century there had arisen three philosophical sects, the Melancthonian, the Aristotelian, and the Scholastic. The first gradually decayed, the other two insensibly became united, and at length got possession of all the professional chairs. But the followers of Peter Ramus sharply attacked them in several countries, and not always without success; and at last, after various contests, they were obliged to retire from the schools.2 12. The same fate was afterwards experienced by the Fire Philosophers (Philosophi ex igne), or the Paracelsists and the other men of like character, who wished to abolish altogether the peripatetic philosophy, and to introduce their own into the universities in place of it. At the close of the century, this sect had many cloquent patrons and friends in most of the countries of Europe, who endeavoured by their writings and their actions to procure glory and renown to this kind of wisdom. In England, Robert à Fluctibus or Fludd, a man of uncommon genius, adorned and illustrated this philosophy by extensive writings, which to this day find readers and admirers. 2 Ab Elswich, De Fatis Aristotelis in Scholis Protes tantium, sec. xxi. p. 54, &c.; Walch's Historia Logices, The most zealous adherents of Luther, who imitated him in hating Hence Aristotle, nearly all took the side of Ramus. the Aristotelians and the Ramists, and it frequently contest originated from Ramism.-Schl. 3 See Wood's Athena Oxoniens. vol. i. p. 610, and Hist. et Antiq. Acad. Oxon. lib. ii. p. 390; Gassendi's examination of Fludd's philosophy, an ingenious and learned performance, in his Opp. tom. iii. p. 259, &c. [Fludd's appropriate work is entitled, Historia Macrocosmi et Microcosmi, Oppenh. 1617, 1619, 2 vols. folio;. |