Author Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 Excerpt:... the Reformation." By Francis Aidan Gasquet. London: Nimmo. 1900. 12s. 6cl. net. "Desiderius Erasmus." By Ephraim Emerton. New York and London: Putnams. 1899. 6. "The Peasants'War in Germany, 1525-1526." By E. Belfort Bax. London: Sonnenschein. 1899. 6s. AGREAT change has passed over public opinion on the subject of the Reformation. No doubt a great change was necessary if the historic perspective was to be gained, for the Reformation had been studied through the medium of violent prejudices; at every turn the student's conclusions had been dictated to him in advance by the conditions of his own time or the supposed requirements of Protestant orthodoxy. Within the last century the pendulum has swung far in the opposite direction, and there is now perhaps, some danger that, in certain quarters, the reaction shall proceed too far. We have placed together at the head of this article three books of unequal merit, but all possessed of some merit, which from very different standpoints handle the same theme--the causes of the Reformation. Dom Gasquet is favourably known to the literary world as the apologist of the monasteries, which the ruthless policy of Henry VIII. destroyed. He possesses an agreeable style, a large and curious information, and very definite convictions. He avoids, as a rule, indulging in any severities of criticism, even when he evidently feels strongly, and he is obviously anxious to commend himself to the confidence of his readers as before all things an impartial writer. His thesis--nowhere plainly stated but everywhere implied--is sufficiently simple. The Reformation was from beginning to end an artificial thing. The Mediaeval Church did not deserve it; the people did not want it; and, as a matter of fact, it was a...