Literature.—White, Eighteen Christian Centuries; Taylor, History of Germany; Draper, Intellectual Development of Europe; Guizot, History of Civilization; Lord, Beacon Lights; Seebohm, The Protestant Revolution; Gasquet, Eve of the Reformation; Spaulding, History of the Reformation; Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire; Morris, Era of the Protestant Revolution; Hurst, History of the Reformation; Lewis, History of Germany; Myers, Mediaeval and Modern History; Schiller, The Thirty Years' War; Hallam, Literary History; Kiddle and Schem, Cyclopaedia of Education; Dyer, Modern Europe; D'Aubigné, History of the Reformation; Yonge, Three Centuries of Modern History; Mombert, Great Lives; Schwickerath, Jesuit Education.
Historical Conditions.—At the beginning of the sixteenth century we find the stage of political, religious, and educational activity transferred from the shores of the Mediterranean to the north of the Alps. We have seen the great work of civilization taken from the Greek and Latin races and committed to the Teutonic race. We have traced the humanistic movement from its birthplace in Italy to Germany, where it found a more congenial atmosphere and a more suitable soil. The world was ripe for a great revolution, which was destined to advance the interests of mankind with gigantic strides.
The invention of printing by Gutenberg, in the middle of the fifteenth century, must be mentioned as the primary material agency in forwarding this advance. It was said of this art that it would "give the deathblow to the superstition of the Middle Ages." It multiplied readers a hundredfold; it stimulated authorship; it revolutionized literature, because it made the preservation and dissemination of thought easy; it was a mighty influence in bringing about universal education, a principle for which the Reformation stood.
Another event of great importance was the discovery of America, which stimulated various European enterprises. Thus, at the beginning of the sixteenth century, the world awakened from its long sleep, and educational enterprise was born anew.
The German Reformation had been preceded by similar movements in other lands. Huss and Jerome of Prague, in Bohemia, Wyclif in England, Zwingli in Switzerland, the Waldenses in Italy, and the Albigenses in France, had raised their voices in solemn protest against clerical abuses,[52] and many of the reformers had paid for their temerity by martyrdom. But the German Reformation, under the leadership of Martin Luther, was destined to exert a mighty influence throughout northern Europe, and to set in motion impulses which were to shape all later history.
The chief rulers of Europe were Frederick the Wise of Saxony, known as Luther's friend, Henry the Eighth of England, Francis the First of France, and Charles the Fifth, king of Spain, Naples, Sicily, and Austria, and afterward emperor of Germany. Leo the Tenth was Pope, and he had great influence in temporal affairs. Emperor Charles the Fifth was the most powerful ruler of this period. Though a foreigner in manners, customs, and sympathy, and unacquainted with the German tongue, he became emperor of Germany by bribing the electors who had a voice in selecting the ruler of that nation. It is said that he paid $1,500,000 to these corrupt electors, besides making many promises of future favors. He was treacherous, and never hesitated to break the most solemn pledges when his interests so demanded. Bayard Taylor says of him, "His election was a crime, from the effects of which Germany did not recover for three hundred years."
Intellectual Conditions.—These, then, were the external conditions which existed at the beginning of the sixteenth century. We have seen that the need of reformation was acknowledged on all sides. There were but few good teachers to be found, even in the Church which had so long been the mother of schools. Education was at such a low ebb, and the advantages offered by the schools were so poor, and of such a doubtful character, that but few persons cared to avail themselves of their privileges. Even the universities failed to educate. Luther says, "Is it not pitiable that a boy has been obliged to study twenty years or longer to learn enough bad Latin to become a priest, and read mass?" Again he says, "Such teachers and masters we have been obliged to have everywhere, who have known nothing themselves, and have been able to teach nothing good or useful."
There was need, then, of reform in education as well as in religion, and Luther took the burden of both upon his shoulders. As an educational reformer, he has earned for himself the world's gratitude. It must be admitted that Luther's main purpose was the reformation of the Church, and that his educational work merely grew out of the need of general intelligence as a necessary adjunct to that work. Of the existing conditions, Compayré well says, "With La Salle and the foundation of the Institute of the Brethren of the Christian Schools, the historian of education recognizes the Catholic origin of primary instruction; in the decrees and laws of the French Revolution, its lay and philosophical origin; but it is to the Protestant Reformation,—to Luther in the sixteenth century, and to Comenius in the seventeenth,—that must be ascribed the honor of having first organized schools for the people. In its origin, the primary school is the child of Protestantism, and its cradle was the Reformation."[53]
LUTHER (1483-1546)
Martin Luther was born at Eisleben, Germany, of poor and humble parents. He was brought up under the rigid discipline of the typical German home, in which the rod was not spared. Upon this point he writes, "My parents' severity made me timid; their sternness and the strict life they led me made me afterward go into a monastery and become a monk. They meant well, but they did not understand the art of adjusting their punishments."