on the Pentateuch and the other on the prophets;
and two on the New Testament. His command was, that they should all read
the Scriptures, as far as they could, in the same languages in which the
prophets and apostles had written. Many of the universities had no other
professors of theology than exegetical lecturers. The languages of the
Bible were diligently studied, and great progress was made in their
scientific understanding.

But after the rise of the long and exciting controversies of which we
have spoken, the death-blow was given to Scriptural interpretation. The
method of theological study was to spend the first year in learning what
is orthodox. The second was occupied in obtaining a knowledge of
controversies; the third was devoted to the Scriptures, a more intimate
knowledge of controversial literature, and the scholastics. One day in
the week was spent with the Fathers, Church Councils, and moral
theology. The later years were chiefly consumed in controversial
practice, as a preparation for the great arena. Francke as truthfully
described these times as his own when he said: "Youths are sent to the
universities with a moderate knowledge of Latin; but of Greek and
especially of Hebrew they have next to none. And it would even then have
been well, if what had been neglected before had been made up in the
universities. There, however, most are borne, as by a torrent, with the
multitude; they flock to logical, metaphysical, ethical, polemical,
physical, pneumatical lectures and what not; treating least of all those
things whose benefit is most permanent in their future office,
especially deferring, and at last neglecting, the study of the sacred
languages."

But while there were many evidences of religious torpor there were none
more marked and unmistakable than the preaching of that time. The pulpit
being an invariable index of the state of the national heart, it was not
less the case during the present period. The preaching was of the most
formal and methodical texture. It assumed a rhetorical and poetical
appearance; the people calling it the _Italian style_. Petrarch had
given shape to Italian thought, and through his influence Germany became
sated with poetic imagery and overwrought fancy. Sagittarius founded a
stipend for the preaching of a yearly sermon in the University Church
"which should be more a practical illustration of Christian doctrine
than of _lofty speech_." Emblematical sermons were sometime