whether past,
present, or future!3 This brazen but authorized charlatan boasted
that "he had saved more souls from hell by the sale of indulgences
than St. Peter had converted to Christianity by his preaching." He
also said that "even if any one had ravished the Mother of God he
could sell him a pardon for it!" The soul of Martin Luther took
fire. The consequence to which a hundred combining causes
contributed was the Protestant Reformation. This great movement
produced, in relation to our subject, three important results. It
noticeably modified the practice and the popular preaching of the
Roman Catholic Church.

1 Ullmann, Reformatoren vor der Reformation.

2 Epist. CCCLXIII. ad Orientalis Francia Clerum et Populum.

3 D'Aubigne, Hist. Reformation, book iii.

The dogmas of the Romanist theology remained as they were before.
But a marked change took place in the public conduct of the papal
functionaries. Morality was made more prominent, and mere
ritualism less obtrusive. Comparatively speaking, an emphasis was
taken from ecclesiastic confession and indulgence, and laid upon
ethical obedience and piety. The Council of Trent, held at this
time, says, in its decree concerning indulgences, "In granting
indulgences, the Church desires that moderation be observed, lest,
by excessive facility, ecclesiastical discipline be enervated."
Imposture became more cautious, threats less frequent and less
terrible; the teeth of persecution were somewhat blunted; miracles
grew rarer; the insufferable glare of purgatory and hell faded,
and the open traffic in forgiveness of sins, or the compounding
for deficiencies, diminished. But among the more ignorant papal
multitudes the mediaval superstition holds its place still in all
its virulence and grossness. "Heaven and hell are as much a part
of the Italian's geography as the Adriatic and the Apennines; the
Queen of Heaven looks on the streets as clear as the morning star;
and the souls in purgatory are more readily present to conception
than the political prisoners immured in the dungeons of Venice."

A second consequence of the Reformation is seen in the numerous
dissenting sects to which its issues gave rise. The chief
peculiarities of the Protestant doctrines of the future life are
embodied in the four leading denominations commonly known as
Lutheran, Calvinistic, Unitarian, and Universalist. Each of these
includes a number of subordinate parties bearing distinctive
names, (s