Calvin's similar argument. - Calvin in his "Institutes of the Christian Religion" devoted three long sections to proving that the Bible is the instrument of the Christian life. He said:

Let this therefore stand for a certainly persuaded truth, that they whom the Holy Ghost hath inwardly taught do wholly rest upon the Scripture, and that the same Scripture is to be credited for its own sake, and ought not to be made subject to demonstration and reason; but yet the certainty which it getteth among us, it attaineth by the witness of the Holy Ghost. (1: 23.)

Contradictory testimony concerning circulation of Protestant English Bibles. - The actual effect on the reading of the Bible in England of these Lutheran and Calvinistic positions is difficult to determine. On the one hand, we have the following complaint of a reformer in 1539: "Who is there almost that will have a Bible but he must be compelled thereto." On the other hand, we have the following quotation from Green's "Short History of the English Feople," which, in view of the facts about English literature, and the Catholic temper of the English people, and the work of Caxton's printing press in printing romances and other vernacular material, is certainly exaggerated.

England became the people of a book and that book was the Bible. It was as yet the one English book that was familiar to every Englishman; it was read at churches and read at home, and everywhere its words, as it fell on ears which custom had not deadened, kindled a startling enthusiasm. The popularity of the Bible was owing to other causes besides that of religion. The whole prose literature of England, save the forgotten tracts of Wycliffe, has grown up since the translation of the Scriptures by Tyndale (1525) and Coverdale (1535). So far as the nation at large was concerned, no history, no romance, hardly any poetry save the little-known verse of Chaucer, existed in the English tongue when the Bible was ordered to be set up in churches. Sunday after Sunday, day after day, the crowds that gathered around Bonner's Bible in the nave of St. Paul's, or the family group that hung on the words of the Geneva Bible in the devotional exercises at home, were leavened with a new literature. The power of the book over the mass of Englishmen

showed itself in a thousand superficial ways, and in none more conspicuously than in the influence it exerted on ordinary speech. It formed, we must repeat, the whole literature that was practically accessible to ordinary Englishmen. (21: chap. viii.)

The invention of printing and the Reformation developed a new reading public. In the previous chapter it was shown that during the manuscript period in England (before about 1470) the conditions of vernacular literature and the means of disseminating it were such as to furnish little stimulus for the development of a reading public and of vernacular schools. With the development of the art of printing (1423-1480) and the Protestant Reformation, however, came two revolutionary influences. The Reformation, with its emphasis on the Bible and its flood of controversial literature, provided the material and incentive for general reading; the printing press furnished a quick and cheap means of getting the material to the public. The result was revolutionary.

It hardly requires any discussion to appreciate the fact that during the manuscript period books were relatively rare and very valuable. Many examples are available of students or families being considered fortunate if they possessed a very few books. Most of the instruction given in the higher schools was in lecture form, the students depending on their memories or on shorthand or abbreviated notes. Before the invention of printing, manuscripts were so scarce and costly, even in Italy where intellectual life was most active, that their circulation was limited largely to ecclesiastics, the court circles, the literary groups of the cities, and the university faculties.

The most important dates in connection with the invention of printing, according to Cubberley, are the following. (19:134.)

1423 Coster of Haarlem in Holland made the first engraved page. 1438 Gutenberg of Mayence in Germany invented movable types. 1450 Schoeffer and Faust cast first metal type.

1455 Latin Bible printed by Gutenberg and Faust at Mayence. First complete book printed.

1462 Mayence pillaged by Adolph of Nassau and its printers scattered over Europe.

Printing introduced into Italy (1465-1471), France (1469), Switzerland (1470), Holland and Belgium (1473), Spain (1474), England (between 1474 and 1477).

Printing of Latin and Greek books; Caxton an exception. This practical development of printing came during the period of the revival of classical study (one phase of the Renaissance) and was greatly stimulated and helped by it. The demand for printed editions of classical authors was so great as to make printing profitable. Many of the most famous printing establishments of Europe, such as the Aldine Press at Venice and the press of Froben at Basel, Germany, devoted themselves exclusively to printing Latin and Greek books. Caxton's press in England (1475-1492) is an exception to this tendency. It printed about one hundred works, most of which were in English. The list of Caxton's publications is the best representation of the popular reading interests of the period. It included Chaucer's "Canterbury Tales” (printed 1478), Chaucer's translation of the "Consolations of Philosophy" by Boëthius (printed 1479), "The Chronicles of England" (printed 1480), poems by Lydgate (printed 1481), by Gower (printed 1483), and translations of many romances and tales from the French. In one of his prefaces Caxton speaks of these romances as adapted to "all virtuous young noble gentlemen and women." His reading public was doubtless composed of the nobles and middle-class merchants.

Pamphlets of Reformation stimulated popular reading. — The Reformation gave even a greater stimulus to the circulation of printed books than did the revival of classical study. Luther's writings "achieved a larger popularity and exercised a more far-reaching influence than could be claimed for any books of the [sixteenth] century." (4: 216, Vol. II.)

The Protestant reformers originated the pamphlet as a cheap and convenient method of reaching the people. This

was followed by the Flügelschriften, or flyleaf literature, comprising sermons or tracts of two or four pages. These were sold by peddlers in the market places of the towns and villages and from farmhouse to farmhouse. Of Luther's pamphlet, entitled an “Address to the Nobles of Germany" (1520), five thousand copies were sold in five days. Of the pamphlet containing his controversial address against Eck (1519), fourteen hundred copies were sold in two days at the Frankfort Fair. The Catholics used the same means, although not so extensively. Some of the best examples of this controversial literature in English are found in the somewhat larger works of Sir Thomas More written in defense of the Catholic position against the writings of Luther and Tyndale, which were gaining an alarming circulation in England. More wrote about a half dozen such defensive treatises in English between 1523 and 1535.

Luther's German Bible the foundation of literary German. Luther's translation of the New Testament into High German was published in 1522. The first printed German Bible had been issued by Catholics at Nuremberg in 1483, but was in a dialect that assured it very slight circulation. Luther's work was the result of a long and careful effort to put the Scriptures into a German dialect that would be understood by many people. In this he was successful, and his Bible became the foundation of modern literary German. Thousands of copies of his translation were sold in a few years. The translation of the Old Testament consumed many years, and the first edition of the entire Scriptures in one volume was published in 1534. (4: 233, Vol. II.) Putnam says that the effect of the Reformation was to bring into existence a new vernacular-reading public. While this statement, perhaps, is too strong, it is certainly true that the theories and controversies of the Reformation furnished a much stronger social stimulus for learning to read than had existed before. This increased interest in reading the controversial religious

literature as well as the Bible developed sometimes and in some places a new interest in the establishment of elementary schools, to which we will now turn.

Effect of Reformation on actual establishment of elementary schools in Germany. Classical schools to train leaders overshadowed elementary schools. — It is an evident corollary of the Reformation principle, "every one should be able to read the Scriptures," that adequate instruction should be provided to train children to read. Yet, in actual practice, this necessity was overshadowed by the need of training religious leaders who knew the classical languages, and the earliest efforts of the German reformers were devoted to establishing systems of Latin schools.

In "Dr. Martin Luther's Address to the Mayors and Councilmen of all the Towns of Germany, calling upon them to establish and sustain Christian Schools, A. D. 1524," Luther's chief emphasis was placed on the necessity of studying the classical languages as follows:

Now, since the gospel is so dear to us, let us hold fast to the languages. Nor should it be in vain to us that God has caused His Scriptures to be written in two languages only, the Old Testament in the Hebrew, and the New Testament in the Greek. These languages God has not despised, but has chosen them for His word, to the exclusion of all others; and we too ought therefore to honor them above all others.

For they are the scabbard, in which the sword of the spirit is sheathed; they are the casket, in which the jewel is enshrined. (4: 432, Vol. II.)

Luther believed it to be the right and duty of rulers to establish schools for training leaders and to compel parents to send their children to these schools. This belief is expressed in the following quotation:

I hold it to be incumbent on those in authority to command their subjects to keep their children at school; for it is, beyond doubt, their duty to ensure the permanence of the above-named offices and positions, so that preachers, jurists, curates, scribes, physicians, schoolmasters, and the like may not fail from among us; for we cannot do without them. If they have the right to command their subjects, the able-bodied among