REVIEW OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. History of the Reformation in Germany. By Leopold Ranke. Second Edition. Translated by Sarah Austin. 8vo. 3 vols. IT has surely often occurred to eaders of Ranke's History of the Popes, that the collections which he had made for that purpose, must include some valuable materials for a history of the Reformation. And this idea would naturally be followed by an apprehension, lest, if they were not employed by himself, their dispersion would prove a serious loss. This fear is now quieted, as he has himself undertaken the task; and thus the reader has not only the benefit of his researches, but also the advantage of his opinions, which cannot be unimportant. Nor is this an afterthought on his part, or even a sudden resolution, but a deliberate purpose; for he says in the Preface, "When I wrote the first part of my History of the Popes, I designedly treated the origin and progress of the Reformation with as much brevity as the subject permitted. I cherished the hope of dedicating more extensive and profound research to this most important event of the history of my country." (p. xii.) In a following paragraph he shows in what light he regarded the subject: "This hope was now abundantly satisfied. Of the new matter which I found, the greater part related, directly or indirectly, to the epoch of the Reformation. At every step I acquired new information as to the circumstances which prepared the politico-religious movement of that time: the phases of our national life, by which it was accelerated; the origin and working of the resistance it encountered." (pp. xii. xiii.) The materials, of course, are of various kinds; for a person who designs to write a politico-religious history requires two classes of them, as, in fact, he has doubled his task. The former class of materials was not wanting. He wished to trace the rise and development of the constitution of the empire through a series (if possible unbroken) of the acts of the Diets; and GENT. MAG. VOL. XXXI. Fortune, as he observes, was so propitious to his wishes, that in 1836 he found in the archives of the city of Frankfurt a collection of the very kind he wished. It consists of ninety-six folio volumes, containing the acts of the Imperial Diets from 1414 to 1613. "At the beginning of the sixteenth century, from which time the practice of reducing public proceedings to writing was introduced, it becomes so rich in new and important materials, that it lays the strong est hold on the attention. There are not only the acts, but reports of the deputies from the cities-the Rathsfreunde-which generally charm by their frankness and simplicity, and often surprise by their sagacity." p. x.) These he inspected down to the year 1551. But "the labours of the electoral and princely colleges were not to be sought for in the records of a city." Accordingly, in 1837, he obtained permission to investigate the Prussian archives at Berlin, and those of Saxony at Dresden, for the affairs of the empire during the times of Maximilian I. and Charles V. These were of great value: the former as containing the records of an electorate; the latter those of a sovereign principality: and, though some of the documents were similar to those he had seen at Frank furt, he found many new ones, which gave him an insight into parts of the subject hitherto obscure. "They throw a completely new light on the character and conduct of such influential princes as Joachim II. of Brandenburg, and still more Maurice of Saxony." (p. xii.) On the more religious part of the question, or the progress of opinion in the Evangelical party, i. e. "the party which declared the Gospel the sole rule of faith," he wished for more accurate information than could be obtained from printed sources; nor was he disappointed. The archives common to the whole Ernestine line of Saxony, deposited at Weimar, which he visited in August 1837, afforded him what he desired. H "Nor can any spot be more full of information on the marked epochs at which this house played so important a part, than the vault in which its archives are preserved. The walls, and the whole interior space, are covered with the rolls of documents relating to the deeds and events of that period. Every note, every draft of an answer, is here preserved. The correspondence between the Elector John Frederic and the Landgrave Philip of Hessen would alone fill a series of printed volumes." (p. xiv.) He conceived the project of making a more extensive research into the archives of Germany; and with that view he consulted the communal archives of the house of Anhalt at Des sau, "which, at the epoch in question, shared the opinions, and followed the example, of that of Saxony." But such local researches he was obliged to forego, as likely to encumber the general nature of the subject; and besides much of this work had been done by others, whose labours he enumerates. "Had I gone into further detail, I should have run the risk of losing sight of the subject as a whole, or, in the necessary lapse of time, of breaking the unity of the conception which had arisen before my mind in the course of my past researches." (p. xvii.) It should not, however, be omitted, that he has made use of a number of records, which he had found when in the pursuit of another subject, in the archives of Vienna, Venice, Rome, and especially Florence. The second edition, too, from which this translation is made, has the advantage of researches and publications which were going on since the first appeared, and of which he has availed himself. Nor has he neglected to introduce some additional matter, which presented itself in Brus sels and in Paris. The original work consists of five volumes, three of which are now before the English public, and the portion which they include reaches to the year 1530. The translator considers it, according to the view expressed to herself by the author, as divided into three epochs, of which the first is contained in the first and second volumes, and the second in the third. A few notes are added, only when absolutely necessary, the plan being that of translation rather than annotation. To secure the reader against errors *Lat. traducere. the blame of this omission will be thrown on the press; but if we could, by any stretch of charity, allow it to be unintentional, what shall we say to the following mistranslation, or rather fabrication, the parent of which has been compelled to acknowledge it (at p. lxxvii), by owning that the words in brackets are not the author's. "Luther arriva à sa [fatale] doctrine de la reconciliation par le Christ sans les œuvres, appuyant [sa dangereuse erreur] de paroles de l'Ecriture Sainte [bien mal comprises par lui et trop vivement adoptées par ses mauvaises passions]." The bracketed portions are the traducer's own additions. The entire passage, including the genuine portion, is as follows:-"But these two remarkable men extricated them selves from this labyrinth by very different paths. Luther arrived at the doctrine of the atonement through Christ wholly independent of works: this afforded him the key to the Scriptures, and became the main prop of his whole system of faith." (Transl. Austin, 1840, vol. i. p. 187, b. ii. c. i.) Here Ranke is contrasting the method which Luther pursued with the very different one adopted by Loyola. Such mistranslation reminds us of the falsifications in the French Testament, published at Bourdeaux in 1686, in which the words "as they ministered unto the Lord” (Acts xiii. 2.) are rendered (or traduced, as Hobbes would have said), comme ils offroyent au Seigneur le sacrifice de la messe!!!" Nor is this the worst specimen of the book that might have been chosen. 66 66 The work now before us, as its title indicates, is specially a History of the Reformation in Germany." It is written with a German mind, and with a choice of topics particularly interest-. ing to Germans; and hence it throws so much light upon the transactions of the empire, as to form an ecclesiastical supplement to the histories of Germany. It opens with a view of the early history of the empire, observing, that," for purposes of discussion or of instruction, it may be possible to sever ecclesiastical from polítical history; in actual life, they are indissolubly connected, or rather forced into an indivisible whole." (p. 1.) The first book, which follows this introduction, is occupied with the attempts to reform the constitution of the empire, 1486-1517; and the early history of Luther and of Charles V. is comprised in the second. We transcribe an eloquent passage from the Introduction, concerning the conflict between the Emperor Henry IV. and Gregory VII. all control? "The life of Henry, from this time till its close, has something in it which reminds us of the antique tragedy, in which the hero sinks, in all the glory of manhood and the fulness of his powers, under an inevitable doom. For what can be more like an overwhelming fate than the power of opinion, which extends its invisible grasp on every side, takes complete possession of the minds of men, and suddenly appears in the field with a force beyond Henry saw the world go over, before his eyes, from the empire to by one of the blind popular impulses which the papacy. An army, brought together led to the Crusades, drove out of Rome the Pope he had placed on the throne: nay, even in his own house he was encountered by hostile opinions. His elder son was infected with the zeal of the bigots by whom he was incited to revolt against his father; the younger was swayed by the influence of the German aristocracy, and, by a union of cunning and violence, compelled his own father to retire. The aged warrior went broken-hearted to his grave." (vol. i. pp. 33, 34.) Concerning the elective imperial dignity, Ranke says, "It is obvious in what a totally different relation the Germans stood to the emperor, who was elevated to this high dignity from amidst themselves, and by their own choice, from that of even the most puissant nobles of other countries to their natural hereditary lord and master. The imperial dignity, stripped of all direct nificancy than that which results from executive power, had indeed no other sigopinion. It gave to law and order their living sanction; to justice its highest authority; to the sovereignties of Germany their position in the world. It had properties which, for that period, were indispensable and sacred. It had a manifest analogy with the papacy, and was bound to it by the most intimate connexion." (pp. 57, 58.) Perhaps this analogy really led to rivalship, and may help to explain the collisions which occasionally ensued. On the opposition raised by the secular powers in the Council of Pisa, &c. the author justly remarks, “it is sufficiently clear that this opposition to Rome had no real practical force." (p. 272.) And yet the public voice was by no means silent, or even low. "Hammerlin, whose books were in those times extensively circulated and eagerly read, exhausted the vocabulary for expressions to paint the cheating and plunder of which the court of Rome was guilty." (Ibid.) The cause of such complaint and opposition proving fruitless, was the grand mistake of directing them against the court instead of the church of Rome. The Reformation could not have taken root, if it had acquiesced in this specious distinction; and it will generally be found that, where its influence has abated, the decline has arisen from making the distinction, and thus losing sight of the true origin of the evils. The sophism "Non causa pro causâ has been abundantly employed by advocates in these disputes, but it has chiefly prevailed from a readiness to be deluded by it. On the religious conviction which prepared the way for Luther's course, he says, "This was exactly the conviction of which his mind stood in need. . . . he gradually emerged from the gloomy idea of a divine justice only to be propitiated by the rigours of penance. He was like a man who after long wanderings has at length found the right path, and, feeling more certain of it at every step, walks boldly and hopefully onward." (p. 222.) This passage deserves to be quoted, even in an imperfect form, to show that the author has fairly identified himself with Luther's doctrine. Nor will Luther's opposition to indulgences appear so factious as some would regard it, when they learn that in 1513 Cardinal Ximenes had opposed the attempt to introduce the sale of indulgences into Spain. In 1517 he made professions of devotion to the Pope; "but he added, as to the tenths, it must first be seen how they were to be applied." (p. 332.) And yet, as Ranke asks, "Who could be a more zealous Catholic than Ximenes ?" It is especially important to learn Ranke's views on the breaking up of monachism, which accompanied the Reformation : "On a careful examination I do not find, however, that love of the world, or any licentious desire to be freed from the restraints of the convent, had much effect in producing these resolutions; at all events, in the most conspicuous cases, where motives have been recorded by contemporaries, they were always the result of a profound conviction; in some gradually developed, in others suddenly forced on the mind, sometimes by a striking passage in the Bible. Many did not leave the convent of their own accord, but were driven out of it; others, though of a peaceful nature themselves, found their abode between the narrow walls embittered by the frequent disputes which arose out of the state of men's minds. The mendicant friars felt disgust at their own trade; one of them, a Franciscan, entered a smithy at Nürnberg with his alms-box in his hand, and was asked by the master why he did not rather earn his bread by the work of his hands the robust monk immediately threw off his habit and became a journeyman smith, sending back his cowl and box to the convent." (vol. ii. p. 81.) This passage is a valuable one; but the disputes which arose within the convent, need not to be limited to the state of men's minds at that time. The author of "The Natural History of Enthusiasm" observes, that the treatise "De Imitatione," abounds "with indications of the petty persecutions to which a spiritual monk was exposed among his brethren." (p. 252, note, 6th edition.) If this was the case in the days of Kempis, matters were rather worse than better in the next century. Of the Elector Frederick, we are told that "Although not remarkable for popular and accessible manners, he had a sincere affection for the people. He once paid back the poll-tax which had been levied when the purpose to which it was to be applied was abandoned." (ib. p. 29.) During the absence of the Emperor Charles in Flanders in 1521, a circumstance happened which showed that his the safe conduct given to Luther was mind had rapidly deteriorated, since observed (perhaps compulsorily ?) on his part. ration arrived from the emperor, that he had given the safe conduct without reflection, and that it could not be supposed that the Bishop of Würzburg had violated a real imperial safe conduct." (pp. 44, 45.) Charles, then, was not reluctant to blush with his predecessor Sigismund. And, whatever may be the value of his reported conversations at St. Juste, there can be no doubt that his episcopal biographer, Sandoval, has truly represented his mind in relating him to have said that he did wrong in sparing Luther on the ground of his own safe conduct, "because he was not bound to keep his promise to that heretic." (Historia del Emperador Carlos V. p. 829; M'Crie's Spain, p. 248.) Of the celebrated artist, Albert Durer, Ranke says: "The most perfect perhaps of all his works-the Evangelists Mark and John, and the Apostles Peter and Paul-were produced under the impressions of these times. There exist studies for these pictures with the date 1523: they reflect the image suggested by Scripture (now rendered accessible to new views), of the wisdom, devotedness, and energy of the first witnesses of the Christian church. Vigour and grandeur of conception manifest themselves in every feature." (p. 96.) 66 Among the religious changes which took place, that of the abrogation of the power of the confessional was not the least important. People were even dissuaded from too nice a pondering over particular sins, as tending to stimulate the desires anew, or to produce despair." (p. 105.) There is a world of psychological knowledge in the first of these reasons." * The death of Zwingli, armed as he was for his own defence, has been severely commented upon but audi alteram partem. In 1523, "Cardinal Lang had found it necessary to bring six troops of veteran soldiers into Salzburg. He himself rode at their head *The poet Ovid, who was a good my thologist, indeed theologian, if we may use the word, saw the worship of paganism in that light in which reflecting minds now see "the odious abuses of the confessional," as Ranke distinctly terms them : Quis locus est templis augustior? hæc quoque vitet, In culpam si qua est ingeniosa suam. Tristium, ii. 287. habited in a red slashed surcoat, under which glittered a polished cuirass, and grasping his marshal's baton; and they compelled the corporation to sign fresh declarations of submission." (p. 178.) In his account of the sack of Rome Ranke mentions the superior humanity of the German soldiers, who we may infer were Lutherans, as the Spaniards forbade them to mock at the priests. An inquiry into the authorship of the "Sacco di Roma" is promised in the future Appendix. (pp. 448, 449.) He more than once reminds his readers "how the first dissolution of convents originated in the high Catholic party," so that "Luther said the papist Junkers were in this respect more Lutheran than the Lutherans themselves." (p. 499.) On the marriage of ecclesiastics, he remarks that "The body of married clergy became a nursery for the learned professions and civil offices; the centre of a cultivated middle class. It is to the greater care which the tranquillity of a country life enables parents to bestow on the educa tion of their children, and which the dignity of their calling in some measure imposed upon the country clergy, that Germany owes some of its most distinguished men." (p. 503.) He thus contradicts a common prejudice on the nature of church and state: |