Nor  can  it  be  alleged,  either  on  religious  or  national  grounds,  that  any
unjustifiable  measures  were  resorted  to  to  effect  this  change.
Independently  of  all  the  more  precise  articles  of  the  protestant  creed,
which  were  gradually  constructed  and  accepted,  the  essence  of  the  religious
movement  lay  in  this, — that  the  spirit  of  Christianity,  so  deeply  implanted
in  the  German  mind,  had  been,  bv  degrees,  ripened  to  a  consciousness  of
its  own  independence  of  all  accidental  forms  ;  had  gone  back  to  its  original
source, — to  those  records  which  directly  proclaim  the  eternal  covenant
of  the  Godhead  with  the  human  race, — and  had  there  become  confident
in  its  own  truth,  and  resolute  to  reject  all  untenable  theories  and  subjugat-
ing claims.
No  one  could  shut  his  eyes  to  the  peril  impending  over  the  whole  existing
order  of  things  in  the  nation,  from  a  departure  from  those  established
ecclesiastical  forms  which  had  such  mighty  influence  over  domestic  as
well  as  public  life.  We  have,  however,  seen  with  what  care  all  destructive
elements  were  rejected,  with  how  much  self-control  every  violent  change
was  avoided,  and  how  patiently  every  question  was  still  left  to  the  decision
of  the  empire.
Let  it  not  be  objected  that  discord  had  already  arisen,  and  that,  as  we
have  remarked,  action  was  encountered  by  re-action ;  no  momentous
crisis  in  the  life  of  a  great  nation  was  ever  unaccompanied  by  this  stormy
shock  of  conflicting  opinions.  The  important  point  is,  that  the  divisions
should  not  have  sufficient  power  to  overthrow  the  paramount  and  acknow-
ledged supremacy  of  the  principle  of  unity.
Such  was  the  tendency  of  affairs  in  Germany  in  the  year  1524.
