History of the German People from the First Authentic Annals to the Present Time (Volume 6) - Softcover
Inhaltsangabe
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. 1916. Excerpt: ... Ill ORIGIN OF GERMAN PROTESTANTISM AND OF THE AUSTRIAN STATES LUTHER'S Reformation had long before. reached a point where its separation from the political powers of the nation became absolutely necessary. The clumsy machinery of the empire's representatives had not yet led to a decision, but the stirring events of the knightly, and particularly the agrarian, revolution reminded one vividly that it was necessary to find a protecting roof for the gospel, which should operate in the world and have its effect upon the world. The state's immense importance was shown by the fact that without it even the naturally free human enterprise had no safe foundation. There were few men of action whose inmost thoughts kept them as far from public affairs as Luther, and who supported with such warmth the perfect independence of the individual in religious matters. Perhaps he soon became puzzled in the realization of his ideals because, in spite of his fine notion about the reorganization of social life, he had the highest respect for the state and its workings, but lacked sufficient knowledge. Thus he was 185 swept into the steadily advancing movement which, since the fifteenth century, had striven to bring the Church's supremacy into the power of the territorial state, with other attributes of sovereignty. Doellinger said: "Luther was able to found a religion but not a church." Nevertheless he appeared in the later decades of his life as the compelled founder of churches and ecclesiastical master of the largest part of Germany. He was no longer the national hero of earlier years, and it may be easily understood that the struggle with work which was not in keeping with his genial disposition made him discouraged and embittered. It is all the more creditable to him that h...
Die Inhaltsangabe kann sich auf eine andere Ausgabe dieses Titels beziehen.
