A formal presentation of the closing scenes of purely Greek history is precluded by the foregoing notice of Professor Mahaffy’s work. It may suffice to point out the three subjects most worthy of emphasis. These may well be: 1, the failure of the Greek federations before and after Alexander, owing to jealousies; 2, the extent and the political failure of the work of Alexander, and 3, the Hellenizing of the Mediterranean basin and the lasting benefits accruing therefrom.
European History in the Secondary School
D. C. KNOWLTON, PH.D., Editor.
THE RELIGIOUS WARS.
Some General Considerations.
The long period of struggle which followed the reform movement of the sixteenth century seems of comparatively little importance beside the revolt itself; and yet it offers possibilities of treatment which the secondary teacher cannot well afford to neglect. The modern tendency in text-book writing has been to suppress the details of wars in order to allow for a fuller treatment of other phases of development. Assuming that the teachers of the past generation, and not a few of the present day, have been laying too much emphasis on details of this character, the pendulum has seemed at times to swing too far in the direction of elimination and condensation in the treatment of great epoch making wars. Many an opportunity has thereby been neglected of inculcating great truths which could more easily be exemplified by stories drawn from the battlefield than from less stirring episodes. Wars are often presented in so cursory a fashion as to convey little idea of their real character and significance. They become little less than dry summaries of causes and effects and are stripped altogether of that personal element which is so necessary to the attainment of the best results in history teaching. The possibility of utilizing these struggles as a correlating element has usually been farthest from the thought of the teacher, or at best been but imperfectly realized. The religious wars afford the teacher not only the possibility of vivid biographic treatment, but may serve to bind the closer certain common lines of development peculiar to the Europe of the latter part of the sixteenth century and the first half of the seventeenth century.
Luther and the Beginnings of the Protestant Revolt.
There can be but very little choice of method in the presentation of the facts connected with the beginnings of the Protestant revolt. Luther’s life must be taken up in more or less detail and the attention directed to the various influences with which he came in contact. To secure a proper understanding of the effects of his teachings, the political as well as the religious background of his endeavors must be carefully sketched. Little difficulty will probably be experienced in showing how the Renaissance movement became intimately associated with church reform as it passed the barriers of the Alps and took hold of the more serious-minded Germans. This connection is much easier to establish from the fact that the attention of the class has already been drawn to the part taken by Erasmus in the Renaissance proper. The question will probably arise as to how far the teacher should delve into the more distant past to resurrect the various efforts at reform which marked the earlier centuries. Any opportunity for a résumé of this character should be heartily welcomed, as it serves better than any formal review to test the grasp by the student of the facts already covered. When the teacher is ready to take up the revolt itself, there is apparently but one logical method of securing results, and that is to present Luther’s life in as much detail as time will permit, showing how he felt himself driven by the force of his own logic into a position entirely antagonistic to the Church as it was then established. The parting of the ways is reached with the great scene at Worms. Contrary to his expectations, his protest within the Church had made him not only its avowed enemy, but the founder of a new sect.