literary aspect of the question was lost sight of in the religious. The
heart spoke forth its terror at the idea of losing its most sacred hope,
the object of its deepest trust, an historic Saviour. The alarm had not
been anticipated by the author of the attack. He is described by a hostile
critic(826) as a "young man full of candour, of sweetness, and modesty, of
a spirit almost mystical, and as it were saddened by the disturbance which
had been occasioned." But he became a martyr for his act, and an outcast
from the sympathy of religious men. Unable to exercise his singular gifts
of teaching in any professorship, he has continued to write from time to
time literary monographs of more defiant tone; proofs of his ability, but
vehicles for the expression of his opinions. (37)

The effect on the different theological critics throughout Germany, both
friendly and hostile, was so remarkable, that the year 1835, in which the
book was published, is as memorable in theology as the year 1848 in
politics. The work carried criticism and philosophy to its farthest
limits, and demanded from theologians of all classes a thorough
reconsideration of the subject of the _origines_ of Christianity.(827) The
ablest theologians either wrote in refutation of it, or reconsidered their
own opinions by the light of its criticisms. (38) The alarm at the loss of
the historic basis of Christianity created a strong reaction in favour of
the Lutheran orthodoxy, the commencement of which has already been
named;(828) and gave the death-blow, not only to the Hegelian school, but
almost to the passion for ontological speculation in Germany. While some
thus assumed a churchly and conservative aspect, others outstripped
Strauss, and, uniting with French positivism, advanced into utter
pantheism and materialism.

The Hegelian party, to which Strauss belonged, and which would fain have
been excused from this _reductio ad absurdum_ of its principles,(829)
became split into sections through the various attempts made to parry the
blow, and reconstruct their system on the philosophical side. The critical
tendency had now too found a home, by means of Strauss's work, among the
Hegelians; and this led to the creation of a new school of historical
criticism to be hereafter described, which arose in Strauss's own
university of Tuebingen.(830)

We have now explained the circumstances attending the change which closed
the second and introduced the third period in