The Chautauquan, Vol. 05, April 1885

by Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle; Chautauqua Institution

I.—SEVENTY-FIVE QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS ON “SHORT HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.”

1. Q. What is the Reformation? A. It is that great religious and intellectual revolution which marks the boundary line between the Middle Ages and the Modern Period.

2. Q. What was the first aim of the reformers, and which proved a total failure? A. The purification of the church within itself, and by its own servants.

3. Q. What was the next step, and one which succeeded? A. To withdraw from the fold, and establish an independent confession, and a separate ecclesiastical structure.

4. Q. Who planted the first seeds of Protestantism in France? A. The Paris reformers.

5. Q. Who were three prominent Paris reformers? A. D’Ailly, Gerson, and Clémanges.

6. Q. What was the most obvious cause of the failure of the Paris theologians? A. They never withdrew from the Roman Catholic Church, or took steps to establish a separate ecclesiastical organization.

7. Q. How did the Mystics of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries arise? A. As a spiritual reaction against the supremacy of the scholastic philosophy.

8. Q. What was the central scene and native country of the most notable reformatory Mystics? A. Germany.

9. Q. What four names are prominent among the early Mystics of Germany? A. Eckart, Ruysbroek, Suso, and Tauler.

10. Q. Who were the two most notable members of the school of St. Victor? A. Hugo and Richard.

11. Q. What was the chief of important general movements, without connection with prominent characters, in progress to hasten the approach of reform? A. In the field of intellectual progress, was the revival of literature, which took the name of Humanism.

12. Q. In this revival, what were the studies, as distinguished from the theological themes which had long held sway in all the universities and learned circles of Europe? A. They were purely human and literary.

13. Q. Who were three prominent champions of the new Humanism? A. John Reuchlin, of Germany, Erasmus, of Rotterdam, and Thomas More, of England.

14. Q. What three councils were formal acknowledgments, on the part of the Roman Catholic Church, of the evils within its pale, and the necessity of relief from them? A. The councils of Pisa, Kostnitz, and Basel.

15. Q. With what bitter controversy did the fourteenth century open? A. A controversy between the church and the leading civil rulers. It was the old question of authority—whether pope or king was the supreme head.

16. Q. Why was the Avignon papacy popularly called by the Romanists “The Babylonian Captivity?” A. From the light in which it was held as an ecclesiastical calamity, and from its continuance of nearly seventy years—from 1309 to 1377.

17. Q. Although the three councils failed of their prime object, what fact did they reveal to the world? A. The fact that no prospect for reform could exist in any new council.

18. Q. What way was it now clear was the only one open for improvement? A. The independence of the individual reformer.

19. Q. What now became the theater for the Reformation? A. Central Germany.

20. Q. Who responded to the universal aspiration for a leader to guide into new and safe paths? A. Martin Luther.

21. Q. When and where was Luther born? A. In Eisleben, Saxony, November 11, 1483.

22. Q. What wealthy lady befriended Luther in youth, and gave him the advantages of an excellent teacher? A. Ursula Cotta.

23. Q. After finishing his course at the University of Erfurt, what did Luther then do? A. He bade the world farewell, and in 1505 entered the Augustinian cloister as a monk.

24. Q. In 1508 to what place was Luther called as professor? A. To Wittenberg.

25. Q. After two years in Wittenberg to what city did he make a visit? A. Rome.

26. Q. What effect did this visit have upon Luther? A. He took with him, when he left Rome, an abhorrence of the superstition and immorality of the church at its fountainhead, which never left him.

27. Q. In what bill of charges did Luther subsequently arraign the church? A. His ninety-five theses, directed principally against the sale of indulgences.

28. Q. In an “Address to the Nobles of the German People” what did Luther declare which led to his excommunication by the pope? A. That the time had come when Germany ought to cast off allegiance to Rome, to start out on an independent religious and national life, and take care of its own interests.

29. Q. Before what body was Luther summoned, where his doctrines were condemned, and the sentence of ban and double ban pronounced against him? A. The Diet of Worms.

30. Q. To what place was Luther taken for safety after leaving Worms? A. To the Wartburg Castle, where he remained for eight months.

31. Q. About how many separate writings appeared from the pen of Luther? A. About one hundred and twenty, among them a translation of the Bible.

32. Q. To whom did Luther commit the task of formulating a systematic treatment of doctrine? A. To his nearest friend, Melancthon.

33. Q. Of what do the annals of literature and theology not furnish a more beautiful illustration than we find in the case of Luther and Melancthon? A. Of the manner in which a great work can be performed by the combined action of two men.

34. Q. To what were the labors of Melancthon directed, in the great cause of reform? A. To the improvement of the methods of study in the university of Wittenberg. He urged the students to the fountain-heads of truth, and placed before them the Bible as the only source of real knowledge.

35. Q. What five princes of Saxony were devoted friends of the new movement for the liberation of the conscience? A. George, Maurice, Frederick the Wise, John, and John Frederick.

36. Q. Who was the leader of the new movement in Switzerland? A. Ulric Zwingli.

37. Q. Into what did the religious conflict in the eastern cantons of Switzerland grow? A. Into an appeal to arms, that resulted in civil war.

38. Q. What followed the battle of Cappel, where Zwingli was killed? A. The peace of Cappel, which declared that each canton should decide its religion for itself.

39. Q. What name is most prominent in connection with the Reformation in French Switzerland? A. John Calvin.

40. Q. What work did Calvin publish in 1536, which became the doctrinal standard for all the Reformed Churches of the Continent and Great Britain? A. “The Institutes of the Christian Religion.”

41. Q. By what great reformer was the work, left unfinished by Calvin at his death, taken up? A. Beza.

42. Q. In the history of the Reformation, what honor belongs to England? A. That of having discovered the need of a universal religious regeneration in Europe.

43. Q. In whom did the beginnings of reform in England center? A. Wyckliffe, who was born about 1324.

44. Q. What were Wyckliffe’s greatest services to the coming Reformation? A. First, his translation of the New Testament, and afterward the whole Bible, into English.

45. Q. What was a striking feature of the English Reformation, from the outside? A. Its political character.

46. Q. What three names are prominent in the first period of the English Reformation? A. Colet, Sir Thomas More, and Cranmer.

47. Q. What was the most powerful single agency in bringing about the English Reformation? A. The publication of the Bible in the language of the people.

48. Q. What followed the ascension of Mary to the throne of England? A. A violent persecution of the Protestants, during which, it is estimated, about eight hundred persons were burned at the stake.

49. Q. What faith did Elizabeth, the successor of Mary, recognize as national? A. Protestantism.

50. Q. From what sect did the puritan Pilgrims of America come? A. The Brownist sect.

51. Q. Who was the first Protestant leader in Scotland? A. Patrick Hamilton. He suffered martyrdom.

52. Q. Who was the natural successor to Hamilton? A. John Knox. By the time of his death the triumph of the Scotch Reformation was complete.

53. Q. What was the chief aim of the Brothers of the Common Life, a society of the Netherlands, founded in 1384? A. To improve the morals of the people, and looked intently upon a thorough reform.

54. Q. What preparation was there for the Reformation in the Netherlands? A. In no land was there such a complete and popular preparation for the Reformation as in the Netherlands.

55. Q. What character did the Reformation assume in the Netherlands? A. A political character.

56. Q. What order against all sympathy with the Protestant cause was made binding upon the Netherlands? A. The Edict of Worms.

57. Q. Who, of Rotterdam, belongs to the front rank of reformers? A. Erasmus.

58. Q. How alone was Erasmus important as a Reformer? A. As a profound and versatile scholar.

59. Q. What is one of the most unpleasant chapters in the history of the Reformation? A. The unfraternal relationship between Erasmus and Luther.

60. Q. From what did the real danger to the French Protestants come? A. From a firm alliance between the authorities at Rome and the French throne.

61. Q. What were the Protestants in France called? A. Huguenots.

62. Q. What great massacre of the Protestants took place in France on the 24th of August, 1572? A. The Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

63. Q. By whom were the Italians prepared to give hearty credence to the new doctrines of the Reformation? A. Savonarola.

64. Q. What causes led to the failure of the Reformation in the Spanish Peninsula? A. Protestantism was largely a measure of scholars and thinkers, while the persistent energy of the Spanish authorities, reinforced from Rome, made thorough work of suppression.

65. Q. In what was the groundwork of Protestantism in the three Scandinavian countries—Sweden, Denmark, and Norway—already laid? A. In the dissatisfaction of the people with the prevailing order of civil and ecclesiastical government.

66. Q. Into what two Scandinavian countries was the Reformation introduced and formally adopted? A. Sweden and Norway.

67. Q. Who was the great reformer of Bohemia? A. John Huss.

68. Q. As what did his followers afterward become known, under Zinzendorf? A. As the United Brethren.

69. Q. What was the political effect of the Reformation? A. To elevate the people to a thirst for liberty, and a higher and purer citizenship.

70. Q. Of what did the Reformation become the mother? A. Of republics.

71. Q. To what does the American Union owe a large measure of its genesis? A. To the European struggle for reform.

72. Q. What was one of not the least benefits conferred upon the world by the Reformation? A. The promotion of learning.

73. Q. What sprang up throughout Germany, as an immediate fruit of the Reformation? A. Universities.

74. Q. By what celebration have the memories of the Reformation been recently renewed? A. By the celebration on November 11, 1883, of the four hundredth anniversary of the birth of Luther.

75. Q. How was the day observed? A. With becoming festivities in all the Protestant countries of the world.