Thus, to judge by its immediate effects, the Reformation appears to have
been conducive neither to moral, to social, nor to political progress.
And yet to-day we know that the intellectual movement of which it was
the outcome contained within itself inspiring conceptions of social
justice, political equality, economic freedom, aye, even of religious
toleration and moral purity, unknown to any preceding age, and the full
fruits of which have yet to be harvested to elevate and to bless
mankind.
FOOTNOTES:
[4:1] Luther's _Works_, ed. Walch, viii. 2043: "Erklaerung der Ep. an die
Galater." Quoted by Beard, _The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century_,
p. 163.
[7:1] See Thorold Rogers' _Six Centuries of Work and Wages_, p. 389.
[8:1] See Appendix A.
[10:1] Beard, _loc. cit._ p. 146.
CHAPTER II
THE REFORMATION IN ENGLAND
"It was in the name of faith and religious liberty that, in the
sixteenth century, commenced the movement which, from that epoch,
suspended at times but ever renewed, has been agitating and
exciting the world. The tempest rose first in the human soul: it
struck the Church before it reached the State."--GUIZOT.
In Germany, as we have seen, from a religious and popular, the
Reformation degenerated into a mere scholastic and political movement,
favourable to the pretensions of the ruling and privileged classes,
opposed to the aspirations of the industrial classes, and conducive
neither to moral, social, religious, nor political progress.
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