Melanchthon exerted an influence upon the educational progress of Germany in various ways. First of all, he was an able teacher, whose instruction was largely attended. Two thousand students, from all parts of Europe, thronged his lecture-room at Wittenberg, and bore away the precious seed both of the gospel and of ancient learning. His personal relations with students were peculiarly cordial. He welcomed them to his home, and gave them individual encouragement and aid. "I can truthfully affirm," he says, "that I love all the students with a fatherly affection, and feel the greatest solicitude for their welfare." Many of the leading educators of Protestant Germany, among whom may be mentioned Camerarius, Michael Neander, and Trotzendorf, were once his students. He contributed to the advancement of learning by his text-books. Besides a Greek and a Latin grammar, he published works on logic, ethics, rhetoric, and physics, and prepared annotated editions of the principal ancient classics. These works, written in a clear and scientific form, soon became popular, and some of them held their place in the schools for more than a hundred years. To him we are indebted for the well-known definition, "Grammar is the science of speaking and writing correctly."

To Melanchthon belongs the honor of having produced the first work on dogmatic theology in the Protestant Church. It appeared in 1521, and is known as the Loci Communes. Luther set a high estimate upon this work. "Whoever wishes to become a theologian now," he says, "enjoys great advantages; for, first of all, he has the Bible, which is so clear that he can read it without difficulty. Then let him read in addition

the Loci Communes of Melanchthon; let him read them diligently and well, that he may impress them upon his mind. If he has these two things, he is a theologian, from whom neither the devil nor heretics shall be able to take away anything. To him the whole field of theology lies open, so that he is able to read anything he pleases after that with edification."

In 1528 Melanchthon drew up the "Saxony School Plan," which served as the basis of organization for many schools throughout Germany. Among other things, he says: "There are now many abuses in the schools. In order that the young may be properly taught, we have prepared this form: First, the teachers should see to it that the children learn only Latin, not German, or Greek, or Hebrew, as some have hitherto done, burdening the children with a multiplicity of studies that were not only unfruitful, but even hurtful. It is also plain that such teachers do not consider the good of the children, but take up so many studies for the sake of repu tation. Secondly, the teacher should not burden the children with too many books, and should, in every way, avoid multiplicity in his instruction. Thirdly, it is necessary that the children be divided into classes." Three classes or grades are recommended. In the first, reading, writing, music, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer were to be taught; in the second, Latin grammar and the easier Latin authors, in connection with continued religious instruction; in the third, Latin grammar was completed, the more difficult Latin authors were taken up, and versification, rhetoric, and logic were introduced. Latin, at length, became the language of daily intercourse.

(c.) ZWINGLI AND CALVIN.

A few words must suffice for the other leading reformers. Zwingli and Calvin both appreciated the importance of education, and contributed directly to its advancement. The ecclesiastical polity which Calvin established in Geneva, in 1541, provided teachers to give instruction in the ancient languages. As early as 1524, the same year that Luther made his appeal to the authorities of the German cities, Zwingli published a little work on teaching, which exhibits a considerable degree of pedagogical knowledge, and contains some valuable suggestions. As with all the reformers, religious instruction is made prominent. "Although it is not in human power," he says, " to bring the heart of man to believe in God, even with an eloquence greater than that of Pericles; and, although our heavenly Father alone, who draws us to himself, can accomplish that work, yet faith, as Paul teaches, comes by hearing, namely, the hearing of the Word of God. Therefore, we must seek to instill faith in youth by the clearest and commonest words from the mouth of God, at the same time praying that He who alone begets faith would enlighten him whom we instruct. It also seems to me not discordant with the teaching of Christ, if we lead the young through visible things to the knowledge of God, placing before their eyes the beauties of the whole world, and showing them under the mutations of Nature the immutable Being who holds the manifold world in such admirable order. Then we may lead them to see that it is not possible for Him, who has so wisely and beautifully ordered all things, to neglect the work of his

hands, since even among men we blame the father who does not watch over and provide for his household. Thus will the young understand that the providence of God is over all things, and orders all things without growing weary. If the human spirit has once been properly instructed in this way, it can never fall into undue anxiety or hurtful lusts; for it then knows that all things are to be obtained from God, and that it would be an offense to desire from him anything unworthy."

4. ABSTRACT THEOLOGICAL EDUCATION (1550-1700).

After the Reformation, the stream of history broadens and deepens. Various influences, often in conflict with one another, control the course of events. During the period extending from the middle of the sixteenth to the beginning of the eighteenth century, three leading tendencies are apparent in education. These may be characterized as the theological, the humanistic, and the practical. As the theological tendency, however, maintained an ascendency over the others in the schools, it is allowed to give name to the period. The humanistic tendency, which was not very marked, was an echo from the revival of learning. The practical tendency was a reaction against the sterile learning cultivated by theology and humanism.

The period under discussion was one of extraordinary theological activity. A large share of the intellectual strength of the age was turned to theology. Every phase of religious truth, particularly in its doctrinal and speculative aspects, was brought under inves

tigation. Theology was elevated into a science, and doctrinal systems were developed with logical precision, and extended to trifling subtilties. "Theology was most fully developed," says Kurtz, in speaking of the seventeenth century, "and reared like a mighty Gothic dome with astonishing acuteness, harmonious in its minutest parts, and firmly knit together as a whole. But the tendency to an extremely subtile development and precise definition of doctrines, which sprang from the controversies of the preceding century, became continually more one-sided. Hence, it called into existence a dialectic scholasticism, which was in no way inferior to that of the most flourishing period of the middle ages, either in the greatness or minuteness of the careful and acute development of its scientific form, or in the full and accurate exhibition of its religious contents."

But this great effort to reduce the whole body of religious truth to an infallible logical statement was attended with unfortunate results. Theologians became bigoted and intolerant. In their efforts to give Christian doctrine a scientific form, they lost its spirit. Losing its earlier freedom and life, Protestantism degenerated in large measure into what has been called "dead orthodoxy." The intellectual apprehension of elaborate creeds was made the basis of Christian fellowship. Christian life counted for little, and the Protestant world broke up into opposing factions. Says Kurtz, who is disposed to apologize for this period as far as possible: "Like mediæval scholasticism, in its concern for logic theology almost lost vitality. Orthodoxy degenerated into orthodoxism; externally, not only discerning essential diver aities, but disregarding the broad basis of a common