physical, ethical or political, once firmly established, change but
slowly; the universal tendency is tenaciously to cling to them despite
all evidence to the contrary. Still men's views do change with their
intellectual development, as newly discovered facts and newly accepted
ideas come into conflict with old opinions, and force them to reconsider
the evidence on which these latter were based. Prior to the Reformation,
many such conceptions and beliefs, at one time holding undisputed
dominion over the human mind, had been called into question, their
authority challenged, undermined, and weakened, and they had commenced
to yield pride of place to others more in accordance with increased
knowledge of nature and of life. The revival of classical learning,
geographical and astronomical discoveries, and more especially, perhaps,
the invention and rapid spread of the art of printing, had all conspired
to give an unparalleled impetus to intellectual development,--and the
Reformation was, in truth, the outward manifestation in the religious
world of this development.

Prior to the Reformation, wherever a man might turn his steps in Western
Europe, he found himself confronted with what was proudly termed the
Universal Church: one hierarchy, one faith, one form of worship, in
which the officiating priests were assumed to be the indispensable
mediators between God and man, everywhere confronted him. Religion was
then much more intimately blended with the life of man than it is now;
and on all matters of religion, Western Europe seemed to present a
united front and to be impervious to change. Appearances, however, are
proverbially deceitful. Beneath this apparent uniformity and general
conformity, there lurked countless forces, spiritual, intellectual,
social and political, making for change. Dissent and dissatisfaction,
with myriads of tiny teeth, had undermined and weakened the stately
columns that upheld the imposing structure of the Universal Church. Even