The revival of learning
What the Turk could not do by force of arms, he did in another way. In 1453 Constantinople fell into the hands of the calif, yet this did not affect the strength of the papal hierarchy. But as the Turk came into Greece, Greek art and literature fled to Italy.Here is the attack on the papacy which came from the east. Painter says: “The revival of classical learning, which had its central point in the downfall of Constantinople in 1453, exerted a favorable influence. It opened the literary treasures of Greece and Rome, provided a new culture for the mind, awakened dissatisfaction with the scholastic teaching of the church, and tended to emancipate thought from subjection to ecclesiastical authority.”[110]The taking of Constantinople did still more toward hastening the Reformation. Venice had controlled the commerce of the eastern Mediterranean, but Turkish supremacy in those waters transferred that power to her rival, Genoa, on the other side of Italy; and from this latter center began the search for a western passage to the East Indies which led to the accidental discovery of America.
Greek classics
Again, “The revival of learning was so intimately related to the Reformation, and to the educational advancement dating from that time, that it calls for consideration in some detail. It had its origin in Italy.... Eager scholars from England, France, and Germany satat the feet of Italian masters, in order afterward to bear beyond the Alps the precious seed of the new culture.”[111]However, this Greek culture, or new learning, was nothing more nor less than a revival of the study of Greek paganism. Notwithstanding that fact, a life and enthusiasm attended its study which drew students from the papal universities, and induced men to travel hundreds of miles for the sake of sitting at the feet of masters of the Greek classics.
This was the attempted reform of the papacy made by classic literature. Its results can not but interest us. Painter further says: “The revival of letters produced different results in different countries. Everywhere it contributed to the emancipation of the human mind, but in Italy it tended strongly to paganize its adherents.”
Bear in mind that the classics were attempting to reform the papacy. Here was the result in Italy. Italian schools undoubtedly needed reforming, for the words of Luther describing German schools are applicable to all papal institutions. Of these he said: “What have they been taught in the universities and convents, but to become blockheads?A man has studiedtwenty,fortyyears, and has learned neither Latin nor German.” But as much as reform was needed, Greek classics “in Italy tended strongly to paganize its adherents.” We can not look for the classics, then, to Christianize the Italian papists.
Greek in German schools
But while “in Italy the new learning became a minister of infidelity, in Germany [it became a minister] of religion.” Why this difference? The work of Erasmus, Luther, and Melancthon, as they introduced the study of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures into the German schools, will answer why. The Italians studied the Greek classics for thethought, and it paganized its adherents; the Germans studied the Greek New Testament, translating it into the mother tongue, and it became one of the greatest helps in the spread of the Reformation of the sixteenth century.
So much for the attempted reform by Greek classics. They played their part, but they could not overthrow the papacy; and why should we expect it when papal education was, in the first place, built upon those same classics and the philosophy of Greek writers?
Papacy and Arab education
We now turn to the southern attack upon the papal system. This was also an educational attack. Already we have seen the Arab schools in Spain. Before the eleventh century Christian youth attended these schools, taking across the Pyrenees the science of the Moors. The papacy quailed before this attack, and in order to lessen its force, the sciences of the Arabs were adopted in the papal universities. This, as we have already seen, was done in medicine and mathematics. But again the form was retained without the life. France, because of her jealousy of the Jewish physicians, through the influence of the University of Paris, banished every Jew from her borders. Ascientific attack could not overthrow the papacy.
Science and discovery of America
However, the Moors went quietly on in their scientific discoveries; and when the fall of Constantinople closed the eastern route to the Indian Ocean, and Genoa wanted a western route, Spain was prepared to offer sailors the necessary charts and maps, compasses, and other mariners’ instruments. Her astronomical studies, celestial maps, and measurements of the degrees on the earth’s surface encouragedvoyages both to the south and west, in direct contradiction to the theories of the patristic geographies. When Columbus asked aid at the Spanish court to fit vessels for the tour across the Atlantic, it is strange to note that the wife of the king of Spain, who took from the Moors the keys of Granada, and drove the Arab and his learning out of Europe, was the same woman who pledged her jewels to this man,—a man, who, dependent upon Arabic scientific investigation, discovered a world where those same truths might be planted, and mature untrammeled by papal tyranny. I say this was more than a coincidence. The hand of God was in it; and, as D’Aubigné says: “He prepares slowly and from afar that which he designs to accomplish. He has ages in which to work.”
Science and the Reformation
While scientific knowledge could not overthrow the papacy, it had its part to play along with the classics. When men were spiritually dead, and the Word of God was hidden, minds were freed from papal thraldom by the work of the scientist and the classical student. Bear in mind, however, that the classics helped only as they offered the Scriptures; and science helped only as it opened men’sminds to the reception of the truths of God’s Word. Mighty forces were at work: the earth itself must be moved, and the fulcrum whereon rested the lever by which it was to be turned in its orbit was the throne of God, and theWord of the Eternal was the moving power. Men, weak in themselves but resolute in purpose, were the instruments in the hand of God to accomplish a task which ages had waited for, and principalities and powers in heavenly places had longed to see.
Reformation and education
The Reformation was not the work of a year, nor yet of one man, even in Germany. It was the gradual work of a system of education, and that system was the same as had formerly been given to Israel, as had been exemplified and amplified in the life of Christ, and was at the time of the Reformation to be revealed, little by little, as men’s minds, long darkened by oppression, were able to grasp it.
Forerunners of the Reformation
Agricola, known as the father of German humanism, was one of the earliest reformers, and his attitude as a teacher and his expressions concerning education prove the fact that the Reformation began in the educational institutions. This man was for a time“a pupil of Thomas à Kempis; he passed several years at the university of Louvain; subsequently he studied at Paris, and afterward in Italy,” so that he was well acquainted with the institutions of the day. He became a teacher at Heidelberg. At the age of forty-one he began the study of Hebrew, in order to read the Hebrew Bible.
Agricola’s ideas of the school
He was urged to take charge of a school at Antwerp, but refused, expressing his opinion of the school in this advice sent to the authorities: “It is necessary to exercise the greatest care in choosing a director for your school. Take neither a theologian nor a so-called rhetorician, who thinks he is able to speak of everything without understanding anything of eloquence. Such people make in school the same figure, according to the Greek proverb, that a dog does in a bath. It is necessary to seek a man resembling the phœnix of Achilles; that is, who knows how to teach, to speak, and to act at the same time.If you know such a man, get him at any price; for the matter involves the future of your children, whose tender youth receives with the same susceptibility the impress of good and of bad examples.”
Recognizes errors of papal system
His ideas concerning methods were as clear as those expressed on the subject of schools and the character of the teacher. He was evidently able to see things in advance of his age, and in the spirit of a seer can truthfully be classed with the forerunners of the Reformation. In another letter he writes: “Whoever wishes to study with success must exercise himself in these three things: in getting clear views of a subject; in fixing in his memory what he has understood; and in producing something from his own resources.” Each of the three things specified cuts directly across the methods employed in papal schools, and which were so necessary to the stability of that hierarchy. This was the beginning of the Reformation as seen in education.
Thought versus mere form
One more quotation from Agricola’s letter emphasizes the thought that schools were then conducted where dry form and abstract memory work were giving place to thought,—original thought. “It is necessary,” he says, “to exercise one’s self in composition; when we have produced nothing, what we have learned remains dead. The knowledgethat we acquire ought to be like seed sown in the earth, germinating and bearing fruit.”[112]
Reuchlin advises teaching the Bible
Reuchlin, one of Melancthon’s teachers, recognized the best means of winning opponents to the truth, and said: “The best way to convert the Israelites would be to establish two professors of the Hebrew language in each university, who should teach the theologians to read the Bible in Hebrew, and thus refute the Jewish doctors.” The fact that such a position exposed Reuchlin to violent opposition from the monks and papal teachers shows that he rightly divined the remedy for papal oppression; and it is significant of an approaching reformation when he thus recommends that the Bible be placed in the universities for study by theologians.
There is a rift in the clouds, and ere long the sun will appear. But “men loved darkness rather than light.” Why?
Erasmus
Erasmus, recognized by all as a reformer, did his work by the publication of the New Testament in Greek. “The work was undertaken in the interests of a purer Christianity.”“It is my desire,” he said, “to lead back that cold dispute about words called theology to its real fountain. Would to God that this work may bear as much fruit to Christianity as it has cost me toil and application.” Here was a direct thrust at the study of dialectics in the universities. The meaningless disputes which constituted the course in theology was, by Erasmus, to be replaced by the living word of God. The Reformation drew nearer, and the papacy shuddered at the prospect. Gradually the Spirit was returning, and this is seen more and more as we take up the life of Luther. The highway had been cleared by such forerunners as have already been mentioned.
Protestantism fosters education
“The fundamental principles of Protestantism are favorable to education,” says Painter.[113]“With the Scriptures and his conscience for guides, every man is elevated to the freedom and dignity of ordering his own religious life. The feeling of individual responsibility is awakened, and the spirit of inquiry fostered. Intelligence becomes a necessity.The Bible must be studied; teachers must be provided;schools must be established.Protestantism becomes the mother of popular education.”
Again the same author says: “It [Christianity] does not withdraw man from the ordinary callings and relations of life; it makes him a steward of God in the world, and exalts his daily labors in the household, in the schoolroom, in the workshop, on the farm, into a divine service. The Protestant view restores nature, as a subject of investigation, to its rights. The whole circle of knowledge—whatever is elevating, whatever prepares for useful living—is held in honor.Primary and secondary schoolsare encouraged; the best methods of instruction, based upon a study of man’s nature and not upon the interests of the church, are sought out. Protestantism is a friend of universal learning.” One French scholar says: “The Reformation contracted the obligation of placing everyone in a condition to save himself by reading and studying the Bible. Instruction became then the first of the duties of charity; and all who had charge of souls, from the father of a family to the sovereign of the state, were called upon ... to favor popular education.[114]”
Luther an educator
It is no wonder, then, that much of Luther’s time and ambition was spent in the cause of education. “The necessities of the Reformation gave Luther,” says Painter, “an intense interest in education. The schools of the time, already inadequate in number and defective in method, were crippled during the early stages of the Reformation by the excited and unsettled condition of society. A new generation was growing up without education.The establishment of schools became a necessary measure for the success and permanence of the Reformation.The appeal had been made to the Word of God, and it was necessary to teach the masses to read it. Preachers and teachers were needed for the promulgation and defense of the gospel.... As early as 1524, Luther made an appeal of marvelous energy to the authorities of the German cities for the establishment of schools. If we consider its pioneer character, in connection with its statement of principles and admirable recommendations, the address must be regarded the most important educational treatise ever written.”[115]God had trained him for his position.
Luther’s plea for schools
Here are the words of the Reformer. Judge for yourselves if they should not voice the sentiment of every true Protestant to-day! “He wrote,” says D’Aubigné, “to the councilors of all the cities of Germany, calling upon them to found Christian schools.” “Dear sirs,” said Luther, “we annually expend so much money on arquebuses, roads, and dikes, why should we not spend a little to give one or two schoolmasters to our poor children? God stands at the door and knocks; blessed are we if we open to him! Now the Word of God abounds. O my dear Germans, buy, buy, while the market is open before your houses. The Word of God and His grace are like a shower that falls and passes away. It was among the Jews; but it passed away, and now they have it no longer. Paul carried it into Greece; but in that country also it has passed away, and the Turk reigns there now. It came to Rome and the Latin empire; but there also it has passed away, and Rome now has the pope. O Germans, do not expect to have this Word forever. The contempt that is shown to it will drive it away. For this reason let him who desires to possess it lay hold of it and keep it.
“Busy yourselves with the children; for many parents are like ostriches, they are hardened toward their little ones, and, satisfied with having laid the egg, they care nothing for it afterward.... The true wealth of a city, its safety, and its strength, is to have many learned, serious, worthy, well-educated citizens. And whom must we blame, because there are so few at present, except your magistrates who have allowed your youth to grow up like trees in a forest?”[116]
D’Aubigné says truly: “It was not the public worship alone that the Reformation was ordained to change. The school was early placed beside the church, and these two great institutions, so powerful to regenerate the nations, were equally reanimated by it.It was by a close alliance with learning that the Reformation entered into the world; in the hour of its triumph it did not forget its ally.”[117]Luther “felt that to strengthen the Reformationit was requisite to work on the young, to improve the schools, and to propagate throughout Christendom the knowledge necessary for a profound study of the Holy Scriptures.This was one of the results.”[118]
Schools strengthen the church
Painter, describing the educational work of the great Reformer, says: “With Luther, education was not an end in itself, but a means to more effective service in church and state. If people or rulers neglect the education of the young, they inflict an injury upon both the church and state;they becomeenemies of God and man; they advance the cause of Satan, and bring down upon themselves the curse of heaven. This is the fundamental thought that underlies all Luther’s writings upon education.”[119]
Schools not appreciated
Luther expresses his views briefly in these words: “The common man does think that he is under obligation to God and the world to send his son to school. Everyone thinks that he is free to bring up his son as he pleases, no matter what becomes of God’s word and command. Yea, even our rulers act as if they were exempt from the divine command. No one thinks that God has earnestly willed and commanded that children be brought up to his praise and work—a thing thatcan not be done without schools. On thecontrary, everyonehastens with his children after worldly gain.” Luther’s words ringing down the centuries must be echoed by all true Protestants to-day. Where are the men with the courage of educational reformers?
Luther’s educational plans
“Luther did not concern himself about the education of the clergy only, it was his desire that knowledge should not be confined to the church; he proposed extending it to the laity, who hitherto had been deprived of it.... He emancipated learning from the hands of the priests, who had monopolized it, like those of Egypt in times of old, and put it within the reach of all.”[120]Luther grasped with wonderful clearness the real meaning of Christian education, and there is scarcely a phase of it which he has left untouched.
Luther’s methods a model
“If we survey,” says Dittes, “the pedagogy of Luther in all its extent, and imagine it fully realized in practice, what a splendid picture the schools and education of the sixteenth century would present! We should have courses of study, text-books, teachers, methods, principles, and modesof discipline, schools and school regulations, that could serve as models for our own age.”
Luther’s ideals of teachers
The Reformer writes: “Where would preachers, lawyers, and physicians come from if the liberal arts were not taught? From this source must they all come. This, I say, no one can ever sufficiently remunerate the industrious and pious teacher that faithfully educates.... Yet people shamefully despise this calling among us, as if it were nothing, and at the same time they pretend to be Christians! If I were obliged to leave off preaching and other duties, there is no office I would rather have than that of school-teacher; for I know that this work is, with preaching, the most useful, greatest, and best; and I do not know which of the two is to be preferred. For it is difficult to make old dogs docile, and old rogues pious, yet that is what the ministry works at, and must work at in great part, in vain; but young trees, although some may break, are more easily bent and trained. Therefore, let it be one ofthe highest virtues on earth faithfully to educate the children of others who neglect it themselves.”[121]
Germany established schools
Germany was aroused. “In 1525 he was commissioned by the Duke of Mansfield to establish two schools in his native town, ... one for the primary and the other for secondary instruction.” They were not conducted after the manner of papal schools, differing only in the fact that the teacher was a Protestant. “Both in the course of study and in the methods of instruction these schools become models after which many others were fashioned.... In a few years the Protestant portion of Germany was supplied with schools. They were still defective, ... but, at the same time, they were greatly superior to any that had preceded them. Though no complete system of popular instruction was established, the foundation for it was laid. To this great result, Luther contributed more than any other man of his time; andthis fact makes him the leading educational reformer of the sixteenth century.”[122]
No compromise
The changes wrought by Luther were not mere superficial, formal changes; but as the Reformation, as a religious movement, struck a death-blow to the papacy,viewed as an educational movement, it is found to have cut directly across the established methods of popular education. It meant a change in thecourses, a different idea ofgraduation, a change intext-books, inmethods of teaching,methods of study, andcharacter of the teachers.
Value of nature study
He was perhaps the first of the reformers to recognize the value of nature study. He once said: “We are at the dawn of a new era; for we are beginning to recover the knowledge of the external world that we have lost since the fall of Adam. Erasmus is indifferent to it; he does not care to know how fruit is developed from the germ. But by the grace of God, we already recognize in the most delicate flower the wonders of divine goodness and the omnipotence of God. We see in His creatures the power of His word. He commanded, and the thing stood fast. See that force display itself in the stone of a peach. It is very hard, and the germ that it incloses is very tender; but, when the moment has come, the stone must open to let out the young plant that God calls into life.”[123]It may at first seem strange that the bold, brave man who aroused the world by his thesesnailed to the church door, should have a character to which the gentleness of nature made such a strong appeal. But Luther was a true preacher in that he was a teacher. What wonder that his work was enduring! It stands close beside the life-work of his Master, Jesus,—the Teacher sent of God.
Melancthon, Luther’s companion in education
Before carrying the work of Luther further, it is necessary to introduce a new character, born, it would seem, at a moment when his special mental qualities were most needed and fitted by heaven to stand by Luther’s side as an aid and as a comfort in the mighty storm through which he must pass. I refer to Melancthon; God chose him as ateacher, and imparted to him, in a wonderful degree, that gift of the Spirit. A few extracts from D’Aubigné will show clearly how he was guided into the paths of the Reformation, there to become one of the greatest workers for that cause.
He was born in 1497; hence, when Luther began his work in 1517, Melancthon was a youth of twenty. “He was remarkable for the excellence of his understanding, and his facility in learningand explaining what he had learnt.” “Melancthon at twelve years of age went to the University of Heidelberg, ... and took his bachelor’s degree at fourteen.” “In 1512, Reuchlin [the reformer referred to on a previous page] invited him to Tubingen.... The Holy Scriptures especially engaged his attention.... Rejecting the empty systems of the schoolmen, he adhered to the plain word of the gospel.”[124]
Erasmus wrote: “I entertain the most distinguished and splendid expectations of Melancthon. God grant that this young man may long survive us. He will entirely eclipse Erasmus.”
Melancthon teaches
“In 1514 he was made doctor of philosophy, and then began to teach. He was seventeen years old. The grace and charm that he imparted to his lessons formed the most striking contrast to the tasteless method which the doctors, and above all, the monks, had pursued till then.”
Melancthon goes to Wittemberg
Frederick applied to Erasmus and Reuchlin for an instructor for the University of Wittemberg. Melancthon was recommended. Reaching the university, he did not make the most favorable impression onLuther and other professors, “when they saw his youth, his shyness, and diffident manners.” After his opening address, however, Luther and others became his ardent admirers. Luther wrote: “I ask for no other Greek master. But I fear that his delicate frame will be unable to support our mode of living, and that we shall be unable to keep him long on account of the smallness of his salary.”
The spirit of Christianity and of Christian education had drawn two souls together, and the success of the work from this time on depended largely upon this union. Says D’Aubigné: “Melancthon was able to respond to Luther’s affection. He soon found in him a kindness of disposition, a strength of mind, a courage, a discretion, that he had never found till then in any man.... We can not too much admire the goodness and wisdom of God in bringing together two men so different, and yet so necessary to one another. Luther possessed warmth, vigor, and strength; Melancthon clearness, discretion, and mildness. Luther gave energy to Melancthon; Melancthon moderated Luther. They were like substances in a state of positive and negative electricity, which mutuallyact upon each other. If Luther had been without Melancthon, perhaps the torrent would have overflowed its banks; Melancthon, when Luther was taken from him by death, hesitated, and gave way, even where he should not have yielded.”
Should you question why I thus dwell upon the life and character of Melancthon, I reply, Because from this union of two souls flowed the great educational reform of the sixteenth century. The two did what neither could have done alone; and the study of their lives alone reveals the secret of success in Christian education to-day.
Melancthon revolutionizes Wittemberg
It was a notable day to Wittemberg when Melancthon arrived. “The barrenness that scholasticism had cast over education was at an end.A new manner of teaching and of studying began with Melancthon.‘Thanks to him,’ says an illustrious German historian, ‘Wittemberg became the school of the nation.’”
Papal education dropped
“The zeal of the teachers [Luther and Melancthon] was soon communicated to the disciples. It was decided to reform the method of instruction. With the electors’ consent,certain courses thatpossessed merely scholastic importance were suppressed; and at the same time the study of the classics received a fresh impulse. [Remember, however, that this study of the classics was the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures.]The school at Wittemberg was transformed, and the contrast with other universities became daily more striking.”[125]
Result of changes
The results of these changes were no less marvelous than the changes themselves. The author last quoted says: Wittemberg “flourished daily more and more, and was eclipsing all the other schools. A crowd of students flocked thither from all parts of Germany to hear this extraordinary man, whose teaching appeared to open a new era in religion and learning. These youths, who came from every province, halted as soon as they discovered the steeples of Wittemberg in the distance; they raised their hands to heaven, and praised God for having caused the light of truth to shine forth from this city, as from Zion in times of old, and whence it spread even to the most distant countries. A life and activity, till then unknown, animated the university.”
Such a school did not call together a class of students careless in habit and listless in study; for the fare, as before noted, was meager, and there was no great outward display. Those who attended came seeking for truth; and as their souls were filled with spiritual meat, they returned to their homes, “even to the most distant countries,” to spread the truths of Christian education. Luther himself wrote: “Our students here are as busy as ants.” Two thousand students from all parts of Europe thronged the lecture room of Melancthon.
Melancthon’s view of education
The life and work of those two animating spirits at Wittemberg can not be measured by any earthly standard. Melancthon said: “I apply myself solely to one thing, the defense of letters. By our example we must excite youth to the admiration of learning, and induce them to love it for its own sake, and not for the advantage that they may derive from it. The destruction of learning brings with it the ruin of everything that is good,—religion, morals, and all things human and divine. The better a man is, the greater his ardor in the preservation of learning; for he knows that, ofall plagues, ignorance is the most pernicious.” “To neglect the young in our schools is just like taking the spring out of the year. They, indeed, take away the spring from the year who permit the schools to decline, becausereligion can not be maintained without them.”
Melancthon prepared text-books
Luther had stated that a reform in methods and courses was necessary. Melancthon had assisted in that work. He did still more. Breaking away as they did from the educational system of the universities of the world, and basing instruction upon the Word of God, it became necessary to have new text-books. Melancthon applied himself with great diligence to this duty. He was an arduous student, often arising at three in the morning, and many of his works were written between that hour and the dawn. Besides his Greek and Latin grammars he is the author of works on logic, rhetoric, physics, and ethics. “These works, written in a clear and scientific form, soon became popular, and some of them held their place in the schools for more than a hundred years.”
The Study of Theologyhad been degraded into the pursuit of subtle arguments and idle controversies.Melancthon wrote a work on dogmatic theology, publishing it in 1521. Of this work, Luther wrote: “Whoever wishes to become a theologian now enjoys great advantages; for, first of all, he has theBible, which is so clear that he can read it without difficulty. Then let him read in addition the Loci Communes of Melancthon.... If he has these two things, he is a theologian from whom neither the devil nor heretics shall be able to take away anything.”
Preparatory schools
Melancthon’s life was not devoted alone to the education of such students as could attend Wittemberg, nor were his changes of the educational system applicable only to the higher schools and universities. Stump says: “Amid all the distractions and anxieties of this period, Melancthon steadily directed his efforts to the advancement of education and the building up of good Christian schools. During a period covering many years, he found time, in spite of his numerous other engagements, to give elementary instruction to a number of young men who lived with him in his own house. He did this on account of the lamentable lack of suitablepreparatory schools. He lost no opportunity,however, to provide for this lack, whenever he found it possible to do so.
“In the spring of 1525, with Luther’s help, he reorganized the schools of Eisleben and Magdeburg. He went to Nuremberg, and assisted in the establishment of a gymnasium [high school] in that city; and in the following spring he returned to Nuremberg, and formally opened the school. He delivered an address in Latin, in which he dwelt upon the importance of education, and the credit which the movers in this enterprise deserved. He declared that ... ‘the cause of true education is the cause of God.’”[126]
Both church schools and higher schools, those offering instruction for students preparing for the universities, were organized by Melancthon.
Changes were bitterly opposed
This work was not allowed to proceed without some bitter attacks from the schoolmen and representatives of papal education. For illustration of this fact, we have the words of D’Aubigné: “The schools, which for five centuries past had domineered over Christendom, far from giving way at the first blow of the Reformer [Luther], rose up haughtily to crush the man who dared pour out upon them theflood of his contempt.” “Doctor Eck, the celebrated professor of Ingolstadt, ... was a doctor of the schools and not of the Bible; well versed in the scholastic writings, but not in the Word of God.... Eck represented the schoolmen.” “Eck was a far more formidable adversary than Tetzel [the vender of indulgences], Prierio, or Hochstraten; the more his work surpassed theirs in learning and in subtlety, the more dangerous it was.”[127]Thus Luther’s most bitter enemies were those who had once been his warm friends, and those who offered the strongest opposition to his work were the teachers in the universities of Germany. Luther was sometimes almost overcome in spirit by the ingratitude shown, and of Doctor Eck he once wrote: “If I did not know Satan’s thoughts, I should be astonished at the fury which has led this man to break off so sweet and so new a friendship, and that, too, without warning me, without writing to me, without saying a single word.”
The Saxony school plan
It was in order to meet the opposition offered by the schoolmen, and to put the Reformation on a firm basis, that Luther and Melancthon formulated the Saxony school plan, and reorganized the German schools.
Stump says: “In the year 1527, Melancthon took part with Luther in the visitation of the schools and churches of Saxony. It was high time for such a step. Affairs were in a wretched condition. In many places no religious instruction was given at all, because there were either no pastors and teachers stationed there, or those who were stationed there were grossly ignorant themselves. The greatest disorder imaginable reigned nearly everywhere.... The financial condition of many of the churches was equally bad.... It was the object of the visitation to bring order out of this chaos. Melancthon was charged with making a beginning in Thuringia. The spiritual distress which he discovered rent his heart, and he often went aside, and wept over what he saw.” “In 1528 Melancthon drew up the ‘Saxony school plan,’ which served as the basis of organization for many schools throughout Germany.”
Reforms advocated by this plan
According to this plan, teachers were to avoid “burdening the children with amultiplicity of studiesthat were not only unfruitful, but even hurtful.” Again, “The teacher should not burden the children with too many books,” and “it is necessary that thechildren be divided into classes.” “Three classes, or grades, are recommended,” and the subjects taught should be adapted to the age and condition of the pupil. Thus, avoid too many studies for children and youth; do not put too many books into their hands; group them according to their ability. This “plan” seems to resist the cramming system so universally followed to-day almost as vigorously as it opposed the papal schools of the sixteenth century.
Results, if Luther’s plans fulfilled
A great work was set on foot,—a revolution which was to affect the ages which followed. In the brief space of one man’s life, plans were laid,especially in the educational work, which, if carried out by his successors, would have placed Germany in a position to rule the world. Instead of returning to the pit from which she had been dug, her schools and universities might have been models worthy of imitation throughout Europe and in America. Luther died, and Melancthon, his co-laborer, was unable to carry forward the work. Theologians, pastors, ministers, into whose hands the work of the Reformation rightfully fell,instead of multiplying Christian schools, and carrying toperfection the methods of instruction introduced by Luther and Melancthon,passed by the greatest work of the age, and by internal strifes and theological disputes lost the hard-won battle. The seeds of truth had been sown inrepublicanismandProtestantism, and these two institutions should have been held in Germany.Education—Christian education—alone could hold them there. This was neglected; and as lost children, the two went hand in hand to the Netherlands, to England, and finally to America, in search of a fostering mother,—a pure system of education. The spirit and life so manifest in the teaching of the great Reformers, passed on, leaving Europe with theform. A house empty, swept, and garnished does not long so remain. The form was occupied by the spirit of the papacy, and Europe relapsed into a position from which she can be reclaimed only by a renewal of the plans of the sixteenth-century Reformers—a system ofChristian education.
Widespread effects of the Reformation
The most momentous event of the world’s history, excepting alone the birth of the Redeemer, was the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Great religious movements have occurred before and since, but they are eclipsed by the brilliancy and far-reaching results of this one. More men have been reached, more lives revolutionized, than by the combined forces of all changes in civil and domestic circles since that time. The fact is, that when the causes of political changes in the modern world are considered, it must be acknowledged by every candid thinker that these changes are due in one way or another to the attitude assumed by the people concerned toward that one Reformation which was set in motion by the Wittemberg monk. Christ had been forgotten, and He came before the world again in the days of Luther.
A few quotations from Ranke show how far the Reformation extended in the brief space of forty years; and since we are dealing with the causes of this rapid spread, it is gratifying to see that this author gives in the most natural way due credit to the influence of the schools. Two things, then, should be noticed in reading these selections; first, the extent of territory covered by Protestant principles; second, the part played by schools and teachers in the conversion of nations. It is about the year 1563.
“In theScandinavian realmsthey [the Protestants] had established themselves the more impregnably, because there their introduction was coincident with the establishment of new dynasties, and the remodeling of all political institutions. From the very first they were hailed with joy, as though there was in their nature a primitive affinity to the national feelings.”
“In the year 1552, the last representatives of Catholicism inIcelandsuccumbed.”
“On the southern shores, too, of theBalticLutheranism had achieved complete predominance, at least among the population of German tongue.”
InPolandit was said, “A Polish nobleman is not subject to the king; is he to be so to the pope?”
InHungary, “Ferdinand I could never force the diet to any resolutions unfavorable to Protestantism.”
“Protestantism not only reigned paramount innorthern Germany, where it had originated, and in those districts of upper Germany where it had always maintained itself, but its grasp had been extended much more widely in every direction.”
“InWurzburg and Bambergby far the greater part of the nobility and the episcopal functionaries, the magistrates and the burghers of the towns, at least the majority of them, and the bulk of the rural population, had passed over to the reforming party.”
InBavaria“the great majority of the nobility had adopted the Protestant doctrine, and a considerable portion of the towns was decidedly inclined to it.”
“Far more than this, however, had been done inAustria. Thenobility of that country studied in Wittemberg; all the colleges of the land were filled with Protestants.”
We are not surprised, therefore, to read that “it was said to be ascertained that not more, perhaps, than the thirtieth part of the population remained Catholic:step by step, a national constitution unfolded itself, formed upon the principles of Protestantism.” “In theRauris, and theGastein, inSt. Veit,Tamsweg, andRadstadt, the inhabitants loudly demanded the sacramental cup, and this being refused [in order to compel them to remain Catholic], they ceased altogether to attend the sacrament.They withheld their children, too, from the[Catholic]schools.”
“TheRhenish nobilityhad early embraced Protestantism.... In all the towns there existed already a Protestant party....The inhabitants of Mainz, too, did not hesitate to send their childrento Protestant schools. In short, from west to east, and from north to south, throughout all Germany, Protestantism had unquestionably the preponderance.”