The C. L. S. C. student is already aware that it is not pretended
here to write the history of Germany, but properly these are entitled
“Readings in German History.” To write with any degree of fulness or
detail the history of a people which has played so large and important
a part in the modern world, would require more volumes than are the
pages allotted to us. It has been, and still remains the design to
select those events and characters of greatest interest, and which have
had the largest influence upon the current of subsequent history. The
purpose, also constantly in view, has been to stimulate the reader to
further study of the subject, by perusal of the best works accessible
to the reader of English.
In this number no choice is left us but to pass, with only a glance
or two, over the long period from the death of Charlemagne to that
day-dawn of modern history, the Reformation. It is the period in which
the historian traces, successively the beginning, vicissitudes, decay
and extinction of the Carlovingian, Saxon, Franconian and Hohenstauffen
houses. Following these is the great interregnum which precedes the
Reformation. Included in this long stretch of time are what is known as
the “dark ages.” Yet in Germany it was not all darkness, for now and
then a ray of light was visible, prophetic of the rising sun, which
heralded by Huss, appeared in the person and achievements of Martin
Luther. It is about the work and character of the latter personage that
we purpose to make the chief part of this chapter. Especially are we
disposed so to do, now that protestant christendom is celebrating the
four hundredth anniversary of the birth of the great reformer, and all
civilized mankind has its attention called to his bold doctrines and
brave career.
But, before we are prepared for Luther, we must note the change which
has come in the claims and pretensions of the church. The different
attitude which made possible a few centuries later, such a mission
as Luther’s can not better be exhibited than during the reign of the
Franconian Emperor, Henry the Fourth.