INTRODUCTION.

To those persons who are adequately impressed with the advantages resulting from the glorious Reformation, a brief sketch of its history will not fail to prove interesting. Nor will the lessons of practical, wisdom which such a subject affords, be overlooked by the intelligent reader, who will so distinguish principles, and discriminate character, as to derive ample improvement from the varied scene which may pass in review before him.

Dark and dreary as was the night of superstition, during which, luxurious priests revelled in wanton profligacy; its termination, decreed by Infinite Goodness, slumbered not. The means by which the reign of spiritual tyranny was to be overthrown, did not indeed form the subject of prophesy; nor could the most penetrating mind have developed their certain issue. The indignation of individuals excited by particular abuses, appears however to have proved essentially useful in demolishing the hoary pile of corruption; as in the instances of Wickliffe,

and of Luther in particular. Disgusted with the shameless profligacy of the Mendicant orders, and with the conduct of the Popes their patrons, Wickliffe threw off all restraint, and despising the superstition of the times, exhorted the laity to study the scriptures, which he translated into English.

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Persecution against reputed heretics, now raged with tremendous fury. John Huss, and Jerome of Prague, men of exalted piety, and considerable distinction in Bohemia, had made themselves many enemies among the clergy, by their disinterested and spirited remonstrances, Huss, in particular, had exasperated the see of Rome, by his attempts to detach the university of Prague from the papal jurisdiction of Gregory XII. Summoned to Summoned to appear before the council of Constance, and furnished with a safe conduct from the Emperor Sigismund; the process against him was precipitated with all the ardour of ecclesiastical zeal. On the 6th day of July 1415, he was led to the fatal pile, where he suffered death with an heroic constancy, worthy of the cause which he had espoused.

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Prompted by a generous solicitude to support his persecuted friend, Jerome hastened to the council. Terrified, however, by the prospect.

of a cruel death, he was induced to make some concessions; but soon recovering his fortitude, he professed anew the opinions which he had for a moment abandoned, and illustrated their sublime efficacy in the flames, in which he expired on the 30th of May 1416.

The principles of these heroic men, immortal as their spirits, survived the flames which had destroyed their bodies; nor was the cry from under the altar unheard. Their blood proved indeed the seed of the church," and produced the fruits, of which Britons now sộ richly partake.

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The dawn of the sixteenth century, serene and mild, predicted a day of tranquillity; nor had the Roman pontiffs, apparently, any cause to apprehend those storms which were about to burst upon them. The Waldenses, Albigenses, and Beghards, together with the Bohemians, were vanquished, though unsubdued." strong man armed kept his goods in peace, little suspecting that a stronger than he was about to dispossess him. The causes, however, which contributed to the overthrow of Antichrist, were various and irresistible. Amongst these, the revival of learning in Europe, and the sudden appearance of a number of men of genius, served like so many constellations to

cheer and illumine the night of ignorance and of superstition. The colloquies of Erasmus in particular, as they contained a great deal of pungent satire against the monks, excited their warmest indignation, and induced them to say that "Erasmus laid the egg, which Luther hatched." The operation of learning in counteracting abuses sanctioned by antiquity, was, however, very gradual, as it had to contend, not only with the ignorance which identifies the utility of a custom with its antiquity, and thus consecrates abuses; but, also with a legislative authority, ever upon the alert against every thing exploded under the name of innovation, possessed also of affluence to bribe, and power to punish.

Julius II. dying in the year 1512, he was succeeded in 1513, by Leo X. of the family de Medici. Leo, though of a milder disposition than his predecessor, was equally indifferent about the interests of real religion. A man of letters, and a man of pleasure, his time was divided between conversation with men of letters, and pleasure; though the latter engrossed, by far the larger proportion. He was remarkable for prodigality, luxury, and imprudence, nor has this holy father escaped the charge of impiety and atheism. He is not, however, to be accused of neglecting the object so dear