has been represented in so
great a variety of lights as the Reformation. {381} It has been called
a revolt of the laity against the clergy, or of the Teutonic races
against the Italians, or of the kingdoms of Europe against the
universal monarchy of the popes. Some have seen in it only a burst of
long-repressed anger at the luxury of the prelates and the manifold
abuses of the ecclesiastical system; others a renewal of the youth of
the church by a return to primitive forms of doctrine. All these,
indeed, to some extent it was; but it was also something more profound,
and fraught with mightier consequences than any of them. It was in its
essence the assertion of the principle of individuality--that is to
say, of true spiritual freedom."

The primary nature of the Reformation was, first, a return to primitive
belief and purity of worship. This was accompanied by a protest
against the vices and the abuses of the church and of formalism in
practice. It was also an open revolt against the authority of the
church, authority not only in constitution and administration but in
spiritual affairs. According to Bryce, "true spiritual freedom" was
the prime motive in the religious revolution. And Guizot, in his
chapter on the Reformation, clusters all statements around a single
idea, the idea that it was freedom of the mind in religious belief and
practice which was the chief purpose of the Reformation.[3] But the
immediate causes of the precipitation of the Reformation may be stated
as follows:

_First_.--The great and continued attack on the unreasonableness of the
Roman Catholic Church, caused by the great mental awakening which had
taken place everywhere in Europe, the persistent and shameless
profligacy of the clergy and the various monastic orders and sects, the
dissolute and rapacious character of many of the popes, and the
imperial attitude of the entire papacy.

_Second_.--We may consider as another cause the influence of the art of
printing, which scattered the Bible over the land, so that it could be
read by a large number of people, who were thus incited to independent
belief.

{382}

_Finally_.--It may be said that the sale of indulgences, and
particularly the pretensions of many of the agents of the pope as to
their power to release from the bondage of sin, created intense disgust
and hatred of the church, and caused the outbreak of the Reformation.[4]

_Luther Was the Hero of the Reformation in Germa