The History of the Christian Church. By Philip Schaff, D.D.
(T. and T. Clark, Edinburgh.)—The volume now before us (divided, for convenience' sake, into two parts) deals with an important part of the great subject indicated by the title,--i.e., the German Reformation. The first part takes us as far as the famous appearance of Luther before the Diet of Worms. The scene is described with much vigour, and with a scrupulous reference to authorities. The celebrated saying, " Here I am : I cannot do otherwise : God help me, Amen !" is critically dis- cussed, with the conclusion that the probability is in favour of its genuineness. The second volume opens with an account of Luther's residence in the Wartburg, covering a period of eleven months, and fertile of good work,—for there he translated the New Testament. The outside details of his life are curious, for he had to pose as a knight, and was reminded, when he wished to carry a book about with him, that " a knight and a scholar were different beings." Then follow, among other events, the Peasants' War, Luther's marriage—(some curious details are given, amongst them a wedding-gift of twenty golden guilders from Archbishop Albrecht)—the controversy with Zwingli, and the Diet and Confession of Augsburg. Dr. Schaff then gives us an estimate of the Reformer's character, for he thinks that this time was the highest point of his greatness :- " With all his faults, he is the greatest man that Germany produced, and one of the very greatest in history. Melanchthon, who knew him best, and suffered most from his imperious temper, called him the Elijah of Protestantism, and compared him to the Apostle Paul. And indeed, in his religious experience and theo- logical standpoint, he strongly resembles the Apostle of the Gentiles—though at a considerable distance—more strongly than any schoolman or father. He roused by his trumpet-voice the Church from her slumber; he broke the yoke of Papal tyranny; he reconquered Christian freedom; he reopened the fountain of God's holy Word to all the people, and directed the Christians to Christ, their only Master."
Our readers may possibly think this encomium too high for the man who sanctioned the bigamy of the Landgrave Philip ; but they should read Dr. Schaff's candid and scrupulously honest book.
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