e whole domain of popedom. Formal _protests_ against the
despotism of the papal church were formulated by the representatives of
certain German principalities and other delegates at a diet or general
council held at Spires A.D. 1529; and the reformers were thenceforth
known as _Protestants_. An independent church was proposed by John,
Elector of Saxony, a constitution for which was prepared at his instance
by Luther and his colleague, Melanchthon. The Protestants were
discordant. Being devoid of divine authority to guide them in matters of
church organization and doctrine, they followed the diverse ways of men,
and were rent within while assailed from without. The Roman church,
confronted by determined opponents, hesitated at no extreme of cruelty.
The court of the Inquisition, which had been established in the latter
part of the fifteenth century under the infamously sacrilegious name of
the "Holy Office," became intoxicated with the lust of barbarous cruelty
in the century of the Reformation, and inflicted indescribable tortures
on persons secretly accused of heresy.

In the early stages of the Reformation instigated by Luther, the king of
England, Henry VIII, declared himself a supporter of the pope, and was
rewarded by a papal bestowal of the distinguishing title "Defender of
the Faith." Within a few years, this same British sovereign was
excommunicated from the Roman church, because of impatient disregard of
the pope's authority in the matter of Henry's desire to divorce Queen
Catherine so that he could marry one of her maids. The British
parliament, in 1534, passed the Act of Supremacy, by which the nation
was declared free from all allegiance to papal authority. By Act of
Parliament the king was made the head of the church within his own
dominions. Thus was born the Church of England, a direct result of the
licentious amours of a debauched and infamous king. With blasphemous
indifference to the absence of divine commission, with no semblance of
priestly succession, an adulterous sovereign created a church, provided
therein a "priesthood" of his own, and proclaimed himself supreme
administrator in all matters spiritual.

With the conflict between Catholicism and Protestantism in Great Britain
the student of history is familiar. Suffice it here to say that the
mutual hatred of the two contending sects, the zeal of their respective
adherents, their professed love of God and devotion to Christ's service,
were chiefl