ations of Strasbourg are equally
strong and extensive; but they assumed formerly a more picturesque, if not
a more powerful aspect.[204]

There are _seven parishes_; of which four are catholic, and three
protestant. This brings me to lay before you a brief outline of the rise
and progress of PROTESTANTISM in this place. Yet, as a preliminary remark,
and as connected with our mutual antiquarian pursuits, you are to know
that, besides parish churches, there were formerly _fourteen convents_,
exclusively of chapelries. All these are minutely detailed in the recent
work of M. Hermann,[205] from which indeed I have gleaned the chief of the
foregoing particulars. A great many of these convents were suppressed in
the sixteenth century, upon the establishment of the protestant religion.

But for a brief outline of the rise and progress of this establishment. It
must indeed be brief; but if so, it shall at least be clear and faithful.
The forerunner of Luther (in my opinion) was JOHN GEYLER; a man of singular
intrepidity of head and heart. He was a very extraordinary genius,
unquestionably; and the works which he has bequeathed to posterity evince
the variety of his attainments. Geyler preached boldly in the cathedral
against the lax manners and doubtful morality of the clergy. He exhorted
the magistrates to do their duty, and predicted that there must be an
alteration of religious worship ere the general morals of the community
could be amended. They preserve a stone chair or pulpit, of very curious
workmanship, but which had nearly been destroyed during the Revolution, in
which Geyler used to deliver his lectures. He died in 1510; and within a
dozen years after his death the doctrines of LUTHER, were sedulously
inculcated. The ground had been well prepared for such seed. The court of
Rome looked on with uneasiness; and the Pope sent a legate to Strasbourg in
1522, to vent his anathemas, and to raise a strong party against the growth
of this new heresy--as it was called. At this time, the reformed doctrine
was even taught in the cathedral; and, a more remarkable thing to strike
the common people, the RECTOR of the church of St. Thomas (the second
religious establishment of importance, after that of the cathedral)
VENTURED TO MARRY! He was applauded both by the common people and by many
of the more respectable families. His example was followed: and the
religious of both sexes were allowed to leave their establishments, to go
wh