udition they were ahead of their age.
When we confine our attention to such brilliant centers as Wittenberg and
Zurich, and to such illustrious names as those of Luther and Melanchthon,
of Zwingle and OEcolampadius, we are apt to be told, these were the leaders
of the movement, and we should naturally expect in them prodigious power
and vast acquisitions; but the subordinates were not like these. Well, we
turn to the obscure theater of Sweden, and the humble names of Olaf and
Laurentius Petri--from the masters to the disciples--what do we find?...
Scholars and theologians; men who have thoroughly mastered the whole
system of gospel truth, and who win an easy victory over the sophists of
the schools and the dignitaries of Rome."(360)

As the result of this disputation, the king of Sweden accepted the
Protestant faith, and not long afterward the national assembly declared in
its favor. The New Testament had been translated by Olaf Petri into the
Swedish language, and at the desire of the king the two brothers undertook
the translation of the whole Bible. Thus for the first time the people of
Sweden received the word of God in their native tongue. It was ordered by
the Diet that throughout the kingdom, ministers should explain the
Scriptures, and that the children in the schools should be taught to read
the Bible.

Steadily and surely the darkness of ignorance and superstition was
dispelled by the blessed light of the gospel. Freed from Romish
oppression, the nation attained to a strength and greatness it had never
before reached. Sweden became one of the bulwarks of Protestantism. A
century later, at a time of sorest peril, this small and hitherto feeble
nation--the only one in Europe that dared lend a helping hand--came to the
deliverance of Germany in the terrible struggles of the Thirty Years' War.
All Northern Europe seemed about to be brought again under the tyranny of
Rome. It was the armies of Sweden that enabled Germany to turn the tide of
popish success, to win toleration for the Protestants,--Calvinists as well
as Lutherans,--and to restore liberty of conscience to those countries that
had accepted the Reformation.

14. LATER ENGLISH REFORMERS.

[Illustration: Chapter header.]

While Luther was opening a closed Bible to the people of Germany, Tyndale
was impelled by the Spirit of God to do the same for England. Wycliffe's
Bible had been translated from the Latin text, which con