a sunny open, remote from the unfathomable depths of mystery and clouds of religious emotion which beset the way of the sincere Catholic and Protestant alike.
The effects of the Protestant secession on the doctrines, organization and practices of the Roman Catholic Church are difficult to estimate, still more so to substantiate. It is clear that the doctrinal conclusions of the council of Trent were largely determined by the necessityThe Catholic Reformation. of condemning Protestant tenets, and that the result of the council was to give the Roman Catholic faith a more precise form than it would otherwise have had. It is much less certain that the disciplinary reforms which the council, following the example of its predecessors, re-enacted, owed anything to Protestantism, unless indeed the council would have shown itself less intolerant in respect to such innovations as the use of the vernacular in the services had this not smacked of evangelicalism. In the matter of the pope's supremacy, the council followed the canon law and Thomas Aquinas, not the decrees of the council of Constance. It prepared the way for the dogmatic formulation of the plenitude of the papal power three centuries later by the council of the Vatican. The Protestants have sometimes taken credit to themselves for the indubitable reforms in the Roman Catholic Church, which by the end of the 16th century had done away with many of the crying abuses against which councils and diets had so long been protesting. But this conservative reformation had begun before Luther's preaching, and might conceivably have followed much the same course had his doctrine never found popular favour or been ratified by the princes.
In conclusion, a word may be said of the place of the Reformation in the history of progress and enlightenment. A “philosopher,” as Gibbon long ago pointed out, who asks from what articles of faith above and against reason the early Reformers enfranchised their followersThe place of the Reformation in the history of progress. will be surprised at their timidity rather than scandalized by their freedom. They remained severely orthodox in the doctrines of the Fathers—the Trinity, the Incarnation, the plenary inspiration of the Bible—and they condemned those who rejected their teachings to a hell whose fires they were not tempted to extenuate. Although they surrendered transubstantiation, the loss of one mystery was amply compensated by the stupendous doctrines of original sin, redemption, faith, grace and predestination upon which they founded their theory of salvation. They ceased to appeal to the Virgin and saints, and to venerate images and relics, procure indulgences and go on pilgrimages, they deprecated the monastic life, and no longer nourished faith by the daily repetition of miracles, but in the witch persecutions their demonology cost the lives of thousands of innocent women. They broke the chain of authority, without, however, recognizing the propriety of toleration. In any attempt to determine the relative importance of Protestant and Catholic countries in promoting modern progress it must not be forgotten that religion is naturally conservative, and that its avowed business has never been to forward scientific research or political reform. Luther and his contemporaries had not in any degree the modern idea of progress, which first becomes conspicuous with Bacon and Descartes, but believed, on the contrary, that the strangling of reason was the most precious of offerings to God. “Freethinker” and “rationalist” have been terms of opprobrium whether used by Protestants or Catholics. The pursuit of salvation does not dominate by any means the whole life and ambition of even ardent believers; statesmen, philosophers, men of letters, scientific investigators and inventors have commonly gone their way regardless of the particular form of Christianity which prevailed in the land in which they lived. The Reformation was, fundamentally, then, but one phase, if the most conspicuous, in the gradual decline of the majestic medieval ecclesiastical State, for this decline has gone on in France, Austria, Spain and Italy, countries in which the Protestant revolt against the ancient Church ended in failure.
Bibliography.—Reference is made here mainly to works dealing with the Reformation as a whole. Only recent books are mentioned, since the older works have been largely superseded owing to modern critical investigations: Thomas M. Lindsay, A History of the Reformation, 2 vols. (1906–7), the best general treatment; The Cambridge Modern History, vol. i. (1902), chaps. xviii. and xix., vol. ii. (1909), “ The Reformation,” and vol. iii. (1905), “The Wars of Religion,” with very full bibliographies; M. Creighton, History of the Papacy during the Reformation, 6 vols. (new ed. 1899–1901). from a Catholic standpoint: L. Pastor, Geschichte der Päpste seit dem Ausgang des Mittelalters (1891 sqq., especially vol. iv. in two parts, 1906–7, and vol. v., 1909). This is in course of publication and is being translated into English (8 vols. have appeared, 1891–1908, covering the period 1305–1521); J. Janssen, History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages, 12 vols., 1896–1907, corresponding to vols. i.–vi. of the German original, in 8 vols., edited by Pastor, 1897–1904. This is the standard Catholic treatment of the Reformation, and is being supplemented by a series of monographs, Ergänzungen zu Janssens Geschichte des deutschen Volkes, which have been appearing since 1898 and correspond with the Protestant Schriften des Vereins für Reformationsgeschichte (1883 sqq.). P. von Bezold, Geschichte der deutschen Reformation (1890), an excellent illustrated account; E. Troeltsch, Protestantisches Christentum und Kirche der Neuzeit, in the series “ Kultur der Gegenwart," Teil i. Abt. 4, i. Hälfte, 1905; Charles Beard, The Reformation of the Sixteenth Century in its Relation to Modern Thought and Knowledge (The Hibbert Lectures for 1883), and by the same, Martin Luther, vol. i. (no more published; 1889); A. Harnack, History of Dogma (trans. from the 3rd German edition, vol. vii., 1900); A. E. Berger, Die Kulturaufgaben der Reformation (2nd ed., 1908); Thudichum, Papsttum und Reformation (1903); “Janus,” The Pope and the Council (1869), by Döllinger and others, a suggestive if not wholly accurate sketch of the papal claims; W. Maurenbrecher, Geschichte der Katholischen Reformation, vol. i. (no more published) (1880); J. Haller, Papsttum und Kirchenreform, vol. i. (1903) relates to the 14th century; J. Köstlin, Martin Luther, sein Leben und seine Schriften, new edition by Kawerau, 2 vols., 1903, the most useful life of Luther; H. Denifle, Luther und Luthertum, 2 vols. (1904–6), a bitter but learned arraignment of Luther by a distinguished Dominican scholar. H. Boehner, Luther im Lichte der neueren Forschungen (1906), brief and suggestive. First Principles of the Reformation, the Three Primary Works of Dr Martin Luther, edited by Wace and Buchheim,—an English translation of the famous pamphlets of 1520. (J. H. R.*)
REFORMATORY SCHOOL, an institution for the industrial training of juvenile offenders, in which they are lodged, clothed and fed, as well as taught. They are to be distinguished from “industrial schools,” which are institutions for potential and not actual delinquents. To reformatory schools in England are sent juveniles up to the age of sixteen who have been convicted of an offence punishable with penal servitude or imprisonment. The order is made by the court before which they are tried; the limit of detention is the age of nineteen. Reformatory schools are regulated by the Children Act 1908, which repealed the Reformatory Schools Act 1866, as amended by acts of 1872, 1874, 1891, 1893, 1899 and 1901. See further Juvenile Offenders.
REFORMED CHURCHES, the name assumed by those Protestant bodies who adopted the tenets of Zwingli (and later of Calvin), as distinguished from those of the Lutheran or Evangelical divines. They are accordingly often spoken of as the Calvinistic Churches, Protestant being sometimes used as a synonym for Lutheran. The great difference is in the attitude towards the Lord's Supper, the Reformed or Calvinistic Churches repudiating not only transubstantiation but also the Lutheran consubstantiation. They also reject the use of crucifixes and other symbols and ceremonies retained by the Lutherans.
Full details of these divergences are given in M. Schneckenburger, Vergleichende Darstellung des lutherischen and reformierten Lehrbegriffs (Stuttgart, 1855); G. B. Winer, Comparative Darstellung (Berlin, 1866; Eng. tr., Edinburgh, 1873). See also Reformation; Presbyterianism; Cameronians.
REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA, until 1867 called officially
“The Reformed Protestant Dutch Church in North
America,” and still popularly called the Dutch Reformed
Church, an American Calvinist church, originating with the
Settlers from Holland in New York, New Jersey and Delaware,
the first permanent settlers of the Reformed faith in the New
World. Their earliest settlements were at Manhattan, Wallabout
and Fort Orange (now Albany), where the West India
Company formally established the Reformed Church of Holland.
