File:History of the Christian church from its origin to the present time (1879) (14773487735).jpg

Identifier: historyofchristi00blac (find matches)
Title: History of the Christian church from its origin to the present time
Year: 1879 (1870s)
Authors: Blackburn, Wm. M. (William Maxwell), 1828-1898
Subjects: Church history
Publisher: Cincinnati : Walden and Stowe New York : Phillips and Hunt
Contributing Library: New York Public Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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evisible Church had been Romanized and papalized; yet in or about it there hadbeen the invisible Church of God, consisting of all true believers and worshipersthrough all ages. (2) An organic, in the purer dissenters from Romanism, suchas the Culdees, Albigenses, and Waldenses. Hence a vigorous effort to con-struct for them a historical succession from the days of Columba, Ambrose, andeven Constantine. It is an act of justice to vindicate the character of thosewhom the apostate Church of Rome stigmatized and persecuted as heretics andschismatics, says Dr. Cunningham (Hist. Theology, I, p. 449), who does not relyupon a visible and official succession. But such a history must rest, throughmany misty centuries, upon slender traditions, meager facts, and large infer-ences. Those who rely upon it to prove the continuity of the true and visibleChurch are entitled to their theory, their arguments, and their satisfaction.Most Protestants lay stress upon the spiritual continuity of the Church.
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THE DIET OF WORMS. 397 Chapter XVII. THE L U THER AN REFORM A TION.lSSl-1600. Two astonishing facts were before Europe: a pope hadfailed with his ban upon a monk; the excommunicated monkwas to be heard in his own defense before an emperor. Theseare notable marks in the progress of liberty. The days ofCanossa are gone. The papacy is thrown into the shade.Charles V is given a peculiar position in Church affairs; theybecome intricate, and involved in politics and wars. We nowlimit ourselves to those events which bear most directly uponthe deliverance of the reform from Romanism, from politicalrevolution, from fanaticism, and from dissolution. I. The Diet of Wonns (1521) was a human affair; yet itwas divinely ordered to bring out Luthers independence, andthe sympathy of Germany for him ; to make the Lutherancause a definite power; to separate it from Roman rule andimperial patronage; and to create a reformed Church. Lutherstwelve days ride to the old city of diets was a test of thepopular

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