Causes Leading up to the Reformation

CAUSES LEADING UP TO THE REFOR- MATION,* BY LESTER MANGUM.

I.

In this day of research, we are not content with mere results; we seek also to discover causes. Simply knowing that an accident

*This interesting historical lecture was delivered by the author before the class in oratory of the Brigham Young Academy, of which he was a member during the semester just closed. Other examples in expository composition, by other students, on a variety of attractive subjects, are promised the readers of the Era who have been kept in view by the writers of these articles. "The subjects," says Prof. N. L. Nelson, in a prefatory note to the editors, "have been chosen in consonance with the following principles of choice, (See Preaching and Public Speaking, pp. 135 to 176,) viz.: "I. — In order that a theme may be suitable to a congregation, it must be (1) interesting, (2) timely, and (3) in keeping with the intelligence addressed. "II. —In order that a speaker may make the most of a theme, it

must (1) be of special interest to him, (2) command his implicit faith, and (3) must not be above his powers. "III. —In order that a subject may be appropriate in itself, it must

(1) have unity, (2) not be too broad, (3) must be fresh, and (4) must be clear. "With these ten points it will be well for every young speaker to become as familiar as with his fingers. Let him think about them till he feels the force of each and he will not fail in time to become an interesting and forceful speaker. Nor are they of benefit to any one kind of composition alone. They apply as well to the description, the story, the address, the oration, as to the essay, the lecture, and the sermon." Editors.

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has happened makes us none the better prepared to avoid a similar catastrophe in the future. Realizing this fact, men set to work tracing the scource of all events that tell for good or evil. Only by such a course are experience and history of use to man. With this thought in mind let us, in our humble way, survey briefly a few of the principal facts in the history of the Christian church up to the time of Constantine, and contrast them with the after history that we may better understand the causes leading up to the Reformation. Great changes in the history of the world never take place without causing intense suffering. "It is the law of humanity that all new life shall be born in pain." The birth of Christianity instead of being an exception gives the one undeniable proof of the law—the seal of Divinity itself. When we consider the persecutions of the early Christian church, we think its growth remarkable, nay, we almost wonder how it endured. Persecution became so bitter that secret services were necessary; and in order to secure these, secret signs and passwords were devised, the Greek work Ikthus being one of the first used. It signified "fish," and was universally given as the sign of the faith among early believers. Its initials, taken in order, stood for Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Savior. Later the word gave place to the object, and a small fish worn as an ornament, was a token to all Christians that the wearer was one of their faith. At length secret service in their homes became impossible^ and the saints took refuge in the catacombs of Rome. With the increase in the secrecy of the Christians, the alarm and suspicions of the Roman government naturally kept pace, and so persecution became more and more pronounced. Thus it happened that ere long life became confined so exclusively to the catacombs that these grim caverns were virtually the home, the school, and the church of the early believers. On the walls, pictures were drawn, s5mibolical of what was worshiped. Afterward the nature of these symbols was forgotten, and the people worshiped the symbols themselves rather than that for which they stood. This was the beginning of image worship which was in after years to prove so harmful to Christianity.

282 IMPROVEMENT ERA.

During all this time Christians were being put to death by thousands. Have you ever stopped to think how fast the converts must have come to fill the places of those killed and imprisoned? In after years when the Apostles were no more, and tradition was the only evidence of their having had direct communion with God, what was the strong principle that still drew countless numbers to its ranks? You will answer, "It was the Spirit of God which testified to man of its divinity." Yes, that was and is essential, but can not "the invisible things of God be made manifest through the visible?" We are agreed on that, so let us have an example. The one I have in mind presents a strong contrast.' It .was the

strength of that contrast which made it so effective then. To show that contrast, it will hardly be necessary for me to go into details of pagan life. You know that caste was everything in the church as elsewhere. The rich ignored the poor, the strong oppressed the weak; wealth and station in life were everything. The desire for social equality is inherent in man. The pagan is no exception. Which then of the Christian tenets would most strongly appeal to the weak and downtrodden? I say it was that of the common brotherhood of man. By advancing this idea, I do not wish you to infer that I consider the whisperings of the Spirit of minor importance in the great work of conversion then enacted. It was theii, .is now, and will ever be, the one essential to man's conversion. But this doctrine of common brotherhood would appeal not The Christians asserted only to men's feelings but to their reason. that the law came from God. The law was to the pagans, the highest embodiment of justice; surely then the ChristianGod was just. They could make no such claim for their pagan gods, so they renounced them and accepted a better. Thus the ranks continued to grow; and, as persecution was their only worldly legacy, their circles harbored no hypocrites; Christians were Christians because the world was nothing to them when compared with their most holy faith. "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church," and so numerous had been the martyrs, that when Constantine came to the throne in the forepart of the fourth century, the Christian

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element had become so strong that it was well worth the emperor's bidding for. During 1600 years the world has sung the praises of the first Christian emperor. Modern historians challenge his right to much that has been claimed for him. They even go so far as to assert that Christianity was merely a political lever in his hands. Whether their charge can be maintained or not, the facts are undisputable that he led an immoral life, and that the purity of the church suffered from the contact. There is, however, one proof that he had some faith in the ordinance of baptism, and hence in the church. It was taught, then as now, that baptism washed away all sins. Constantine did not wish to change the order of his living very much, still, he wished to leave this world as free from sin as possible, so he postponed being baptized till a few days before his death. But we are anticipating. Let us return to the church at the time of his accession. Christian and fugitive had been synonymous. Now all was to be changed. Constantine declared Christianity the state religion, and those who fed upon the emperor's favor changed their religious garments in a twinkling. The movement did not stop here; there were lower orders still who knew how to court favor, and they followed their master's example. We might add that the example has been followed to a greater or less degree ever since, as the history of the religious wars of Europe will prove. Such a wholesale conversion to everything but the principles of Christianity could not but prove harmful and demoralizing to the church. Church authority now became centered in the emperor who still retained the title Pontifex Maximus, the mortal whom the pagan gods most delighted to honor. He thus stood at the head of the two systems, and was practically absolute in each. Bishoprics and other high places in the church were filled by men with no other qualification than the support of the emperor. Church appointments partook more of a political than of a religious nature. Church and state were united and the church became all powerful in a political sense, but lost, on the other hand, the very essence of her being — her purity. {Concluded in the next number.')