people, but even the crowned heads, had long groaned. All these things concurred to make way for the advancement of the Reformation.

Wickliffe, Huss, Jerome of Prague, and others, had laid the seeds of the Reformation, which Luther nourished with great warmth. The scandalous extolling of indulgences gave the first occasion to all the contradiction that followed between Luther and the church of Rome; in which, if the corruptions and cruelty of the clergy had not been so visible and scandalous, so small a matter could not have produced such a revolution: but any crisis will put ill humours into a ferment.

As Protestants, we are certainly much obliged to Erasmus; yet we are far more obliged, under God, to those great instruments of the Reformation, viz. Luther, Zuinglius, Oecolampadius Bucer, Melancthon, Cranmer, and others. The greatest enemies of Luther cannot deny but that he had eminent qualities; and history affords nothing more surprising than what he has done. For a simple monk to be able to give popery so rude a shock, that there needed but such another, entirely to overthrow the Romish church, is what we cannot sufficiently admire, and marks the hand of Providence conducting the whole. It was said, with reason, that Erasmus, by his railleries, prepared the way for Luther and Simon Fontaine, the popish historian, complained that Erasmus occasionally had done more mischief than Luther, because Luther only opened the door wider, after Erasmus had picked the lock, and half opened it. Notwithstanding all this, says Bayle, there must have been eminent gifts in Luther, to produce such a revolution as he has done.

Martin Luther was born at Isleben, a town in the county of Mansfield, in the circle of Upper Saxony, on the tenth of November, 1483, at nine o'clock at night, being St. Martin's eve, which made his parents name him Martin. His father was called John Luther, or Luder, because he was a refiner of metals; for Luder, in the German language, has that signification. It is agreed that his business was about the mines; and that he was the chief magistrate of the city of Mansfield. His mother's name was Margaret Lindeman, who was remarkable for her piety.

Among the falsehoods which have been published concerning Martin Luther, no regard has been had to probability, or to the rules of the art of slandering. The authors of them have assumed the confidence of those who fully believe that the public will blindly adopt all their stories, however absurd. They have dared to publish, that an incubus begat him; and have even falsified the day of his birth, to frame a scheme of nativity to his disadvantage. Father Maimbourg has been so equitable as to reject this ridiculous story: but Gauricus has made himself contemptible for his astrology.

When Martin Luther was fourteen years of age, he was sent to the public schools at Magdeburg, where he continued one

year, and was then removed to that of Evsenach, where he studied four years. The circumstances of his parents were at that time so very low, and so insufficient to maintain him, that he was forced, as Melchior Adam relates, mendicato vivere pane, to live by begging his bread. When he had finished his grammar studies, he was sent to the famous school at Eysenach in Thuringia, for the sake of being among his mother's relations, where he applied himself very diligently to his books for four years, and began to discover all that force and strength of parts, that acuteness and penetration, that warm and rapid eloquence, which afterwards were attended with such amazing success. In the year 1501, he was entered at the university of Erford or Erfurt, in Thuringia, where he went through a course of philosophy, and was admitted master of arts, in 1503, being then twenty years old. He was soon after made professor of physic, and ethics; but he chiefly applied himself to the study of the civil law, and intended to advance himself to the bar, from which he was diverted by this uncommon accident. As he was walking in the fields with a friend, he was struck by a thunderbolt, which threw him to the ground, and killed his companion: whereupon Luther resolved to withdraw from the world, and enter into the order of the hermits of St. Augustine. He made his profession in the monastery of Erfurt, where he took priest's orders, and celebrated his first mass in the year 1507.

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It is reported that there was an old man in this monastery, with whom Luther had several conferences upon many theological subjects, particularly concerning the article of remission of sins. This article was explained by the old monk to Luther, "that it was the express commandment of God, that every man should believe his sins to be forgiven him in Christ." Luther found this interpretation was confirmed by the testimony of St. Bernard, who says, "that man is freely justified by faith." He then perceived the meaning of St. Paul, when he repeats, we are justified by faith." He consulted the expositions of many writers upon that apostle, and saw through the vanity of those interpretations which he had read before of the schoolmen. He compared the sayings and examples of the prophets and apostles. He also studied the works of St. Augustine; but still consulted the sententiaries, as Gabriel and Camarencis. He likewise read the books of Occam, whose subtilty he preferred before Thomas Aquinas and Scotus.

In 1508, the university of Wittenberg, in the duchy of Saxony, was established under the direction of Staupitius, whose good opinion of Luther occasioned him to send for him from Erfurt to Wittenberg, where he taught philosophy; and his lectures were attended by Mellarstad, and many other wise and learned men. He expounded the logic and philosophy of Aristotle in the schools; and began to examine the old theology, in the churches.

Mellarstad usually said, that Luther was of such a wonderful spirit, and of such ingenious parts, as to give apparent signification that he would introduce a more compendious, easy, and familiar manner of teaching; as also alter and abolish the order that was then used.

In the year 1512, he was sent to Rome, to take up some controversies which happened among his order; and he conducted himself so well as to obtain the character of a prudent man. This is represented to have happened before he came to Wittenberg; which is a mistake: for it was three years after he was at that university. The occasion was this: Seven convents of the Augustines quarrelled with their vicar-general, and Luther was chosen by the monks to maintain their cause at Rome. He was of an active spirit; a bold declaimer; was endued with a most firm and steady temper, and had a prodigious share of natural courage, which nothing could break or daunt. In short, he suc ceeded in his business, for which he was made doctor and professor of divinity, upon his return to Wittenberg. At Rome he saw the Pope and the court, and had an opportunity also of observing the manners of the clergy, whose hasty, superficial, and impious way of celebrating mass, he has severely noted. "I performed mass," says he, "at Rome; I saw it also performed by others, but in such a manner, that I never think of it without the utmost horror." He often spoke afterwards of his journey to Rome, and used to say, that "He would not but have made "it, for a thousand florins." A monkish poet himself, upon the view of the barefaced iniquity of the Pope's pretended holy city, could not help singing:

"Vivere qui cupitis sanctè, discedite Româ;
"Omnia cùm liceant, non licet esse bonum.

If you would live righteously, keep clear of Rome: For though her priests can license every thing else, they allow of nothing good."

The degree of doctor was forced upon him, against his will, by Staupitius, who said to him, "that God had many things to bring to pass in his church by him." These words were carelessly spoken; yet they proved true, like many other predictions before a great change. Luther was graduated doctor at the expense of Frederic, elector of Saxony, who "had heard him preach, well understood the quietness of his spirit, diligentiy considered the vehemency of his words, and had in singular admiration those profound matters which in his sermon he ripely and exactly explained."

After this, he began to expound the epistle to the Romans, and the Psalms; where he shewed the difference between the law and the gospel. He refuted the error that was then predominant in schools and sermons; that men may merit remission of sins by their own proper works. As John Baptist demonstrated the

Lamb of God which took away the sins of the world; so Luther, shining in the church as a bright star after an obscure sky, expressly shewed that sins are freely remitted for the love of the Son of God, and that we ought faithfully to embrace this bountiful gift.

His life was correspondent to his profession; and these happy beginnings of such important matters procured him great authority. However, he attempted no alteration in the ceremonies of religion, and interfered with no doubtful opinions; but contented himself with opening and declaring the doctrine of repentance, of remission of sins, of faith, and of true comfort in times of adversity. His doctrine was generally approved by the learned, who conceived high pleasure to behold Jesus Christ, the prophets, and apostles, to emerge into the light, out of darkness, whereby they began to understand the difference between the law and the gospel, between spiritual righteousness and civil things; which certainly could not have been found in Aquinas, Scotus, and other schoolmen. Erasmus revived learning, while Luther was teaching divinity at Wittenberg. The former brought the monks' barbarous and sophistical doctrine into contempt by his elegant work: which induced Luther to study the Greek and Hebrew languages, that, by drawing the doctrine from the very fountains, he might pass his judgment with more authority.

We now come to turbulent and tempestuous times between the reformed and the Romanists. The monks loudly complained of Erasmus, whose bold and free censures of their pious grimaces and superstitious devotions, had opened the way for Luther. Erasmus, as they used to say, "Laid the egg, and Luther hatched it." The ridiculous Maimbourg tells us, that the catholic church enjoyed a sweet peace in the sixteenth century, and held the Pope in profound veneration, till Luther raised commotions: a story which was only fit to be told to boys and girls at Paris. It is hard to name two persons, who were more generally, and more deservedly abhorred, than Alexander VI. and Julius II.; and as to Leo X., all the world knows that he sat very loose to religion and morality.

The year 1517, was the 356th from the reformation of religion in France by the Waldenses; the 146th from the first confutation of popish errors in England by John Wickliffe; the 116th from the ministry of John Huss, who opposed the errors of popery in Bohemia; and the 36th year from the condemnation of John de Wesalia, who taught at Worms.

The papal power was re-established, and carried farther than ever. All the western world, except the Waldenses* in France,

The rise of the Waldenses was from Waldus, or Valdo, a man of eminence and property at Lyons in France, about the year 1160. He was brought to seriousness by the sudden death of one of his friends; and, having some learning, he read the scriptures, probably in the vulgate translation, which he ren

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and a few Hussites in Bohemia, having embraced the communion, and submitted to the authority of Rome; when all of a sudden, and from a most inconsiderable accident, as it might seem, a strange discontent arose, which ended in the revolt of great part of Europe; and the Pope, who might, just before, have been considered in all the meridian of his glory, was in danger of losing all. The divine providence delights to accomplish the greatest purposes by the smallest means, that the hand of God might appear rather than the hand of man, and the great Governor of the universe have all the glory.

Leo X. succeeded Julius II. in 1513. He was of the rich and powerful family of the Medici of Florence, naturally proud and lofty. But it is also said, that he was of a courteous disposition, very generous to men of learning and integrity; and would, if he had been tolerably well skilled in divinity, or shewn any regard to piety, although but feigned, have passed for a very good Pope. The magnificent church of St. Peter was begun by Julius II., and required very large sums to finish; but Leo was desirous of having it completed, notwithstanding he had contracted many debts before his pontificate, and the treasure of the apostolic chamber was exhausted. To bear the great expense of finishing that superb edifice, Leo found himself obliged to have recourse to some extraordinary means for raising money; which he was advised, by cardinal Pucci, to do by selling indulgences; as the court of Rome, upon several occasions, had formerly experienced to her advantage in raising troops and money against the Turks. Leo, therefore, in 1517, published general indulgences throughout all Europe, in favour of those who would contribute any sum to the building of St. Peter's.

dered into French, and expounded to others. This alarmed the clergy, who threatened him with excommunication, if he persisted; but he, persuaded of the truth and utility of what he had done, regarded not men, but God. He was, therefore, driven out of the city,with his friends and followers,who were stripped of their property, for which reason they were called not only Waldenses, but the poor of Lyons, having nothing but the scanty subsistence which they could pick up on the mountains of Savoy, where they remained for several ages. They were joined by some men of learning, who hated the clergy, and maintained that the bishop of Rome, and the priests, had corrupted the holy scriptures by their tenets and glosses. They paid no tithes, made no offerings, observed no festivals, and celebrated no fasts: they believed that prayers for the dead were useless and superstitious; they denied the authority of priests, and despised confession. They led pure and holy lives, and asserted that they only were the true church, and that the church of Rome was a prostitute, which taught an infinite number of errors. The Romish priests called the Waldenses, heretics; and their priests, who were called Barbes, were persecuted. But their posterity now inhabit the valleys of Piedmont, called the Vaudois. Peter Gilles, minister of the reformed church of La Tour, in the vale of Lucerne, composed, by order of his superiors, an ecclesiastical history of the churches of the Vaudois, and published it at Geneva in 1644: and Claudius Seysselius, archbishop of Turin, wrote a Treatise against the Vaudois, with the hopes of converting them to popery.