Beacon Lights of History, Volume 3 part 2: Renaissance and ReformationLord, John
History
Beacon Lights of History, Volume 3 part 2: Renaissance and Reformation
Lord, John
History
Savonarola was a churchman. He was not a fearless theological
doctor, going wherever logic and the Bible carried him. Hence, he
did not stimulate thought and inquiry as Luther did, nor inaugurate
a great revolutionary movement, which would gradually undermine
papal authority and many institutions which the Catholic Church
indorsed. Had he been a great genius, with his progressive
proclivities, he might have headed a rebellion against papal
authority, which upheld doctrines that logically supported the very
evils he denounced. But he was contented to lop off branches; he
did not dig up the roots. Luther went to the roots, as Calvin did;
as Saint Augustine would have done had there been a necessity in
his day, for the theology of Saint Augustine and Calvin is
essentially the same. It was from Saint Augustine that Calvin drew
his inspiration next after Saint Paul. But Savonarola cared very
little for the discussion of doctrines; he probably hated all
theological speculations, all metaphysical divinity. Yet there is
a closer resemblance between doctrines and morals than most people
are aware of. As a man thinketh, so is he. Hence, the reforms of
Savonarola were temporary, and were not widely extended; for he did
not kindle the intelligence of the age, as did Luther and those
associated with him. There can be no great and listing reform
without an appeal to reason, without the assistance of logic,
without conviction. The house that had been swept and garnished
was re-entered by devils, and the last state was worse than the
first. To have effected a radical and lasting reform, Savonarola
should have gone deeper. He should have exposed the foundations on
which the superstructure of sin was built; he should have
undermined them, and appealed to the reason of the world. He did
no such thing. He simply rebuked the evils, which must needs be,
so long as the root of them is left untouched. And so long as his
influence remained, so long as his voice was listened to, he was
mighty in the reforms at which he aimed,--a reformation of the
morals of those to whom he preached. But when his voice was
hushed, the evils he detested returned, since he had not created
those convictions which bind men together in association;
he had not fanned that spirit of inquiry which is hostile to
ecclesiastical despotism, and which, logically projected, would
subvert the papal throne. The reformation of Luther was a grand
protest against spiritual tyranny. It not only aimed at a purer
life, but it opposed the bondage of the Middle Ages, and all the
superstitious and puerilities and fables which were born and
nurtured in that dark and gloomy period and to which the clergy
clung as a means of power or wealth. Luther called out the
intellect of Germany, exalted liberty of conscience, and appealed
to the dignity of reason. He showed the necessity of learning, in
order to unravel and explain the truths of revelation. He made
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