ste, the first Protestants
were entangled in their own scruples, and awed by the words of Jesus
in the institution of the sacrament. Luther maintained a corporeal, and
Calvin a real, presence of Christ in the eucharist; and the opinion
of Zuinglius, that it is no more than a spiritual communion, a simple
memorial, has slowly prevailed in the reformed churches. [33] But the
loss of one mystery was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines of
original sin, redemption, faith, grace, and predestination, which have
been strained from the epistles of St. Paul. These subtile questions had
most assuredly been prepared by the fathers and schoolmen; but the final
improvement and popular use may be attributed to the first reformers,
who enforced them as the absolute and essential terms of salvation.
Hitherto the weight of supernatural belief inclines against the
Protestants; and many a sober Christian would rather admit that a wafer
is God, than that God is a cruel and capricious tyrant.

[Footnote 32: The opinions and proceedings of the reformers are exposed
in the second part of the general history of Mosheim; but the balance,
which he has held with so clear an eye, and so steady a hand, begins to
incline in favor of his Lutheran brethren.]

[Footnote 33: Under Edward VI. our reformation was more bold and
perfect, but in the fundamental articles of the church of England,
a strong and explicit declaration against the real presence was
obliterated in the original copy, to please the people or the Lutherans,
or Queen Elizabeth, (Burnet's History of the Reformation, vol. ii. p.
82, 128, 302.)]

Yet the services of Luther and his rivals are solid and important; and
the philosopher must own his obligations to these fearless enthusiasts.
[34] I. By their hands the lofty fabric of superstition, from the abuse
of indulgences to the intercesson of the Virgin, has been levelled
with the ground. Myriads of both sexes of the monastic profession were
restored to the liberty and labors of social life. A hierarchy of saints
and angels, of imperfect and subordinate deities, were stripped of their
temporal power, and reduced to the enjoyment of celestial happiness;
their images and relics were banished from the church; and the credulity
of the people was no longer nourished with the daily repetition of
miracles and visions. The imitation of Paganism was supplied by a pure
and spiritual worship of prayer and thanksgiving, the most worthy
of