According to this plan, teachers were to avoid “burdening the children with a _multiplicity of studies_ that were not only unfruitful, but even hurtful.” Again, “The teacher should not burden the children with too many books,” and “it is necessary that the children be divided into classes.” “Three classes, or grades, are recommended,” and the subjects taught should be adapted to the age and condition of the pupil. Thus, avoid too many studies for children and youth; do not put too many books into their hands; group them according to their ability. This “plan” seems to resist the cramming system so universally followed to-day almost as vigorously as it opposed the papal schools of the sixteenth century. [Sidenote: Results, if Luther’s plans fulfilled] A great work was set on foot,—a revolution which was to affect the ages which followed. In the brief space of one man’s life, plans were laid, _especially in the educational work_, which, if carried out by his successors, would have placed Germany in a position to rule the world. Instead of returning to the pit from which she had been dug, her schools and universities might have been models worthy of imitation throughout Europe and in America. Luther died, and Melancthon, his co-laborer, was unable to carry forward the work. Theologians, pastors, ministers, into whose hands the work of the Reformation rightfully fell, _instead of multiplying Christian schools_, and carrying to perfection the methods of instruction introduced by Luther and Melancthon, _passed by the greatest work of the age_, and by internal strifes and theological disputes lost the hard-won battle. The seeds of truth had been sown in _republicanism_ and _Protestantism_, and these two institutions should have been held in Germany. _Education_—CHRISTIAN EDUCATION—alone could hold them there. This was neglected; and as lost children, the two went hand in hand to the Netherlands, to England, and finally to America, in search of a fostering mother,—a pure system of education. The spirit and life so manifest in the teaching of the great Reformers, passed on, leaving Europe with the _form_. A house empty, swept, and garnished does not long so remain. The form was occupied by the spirit of the papacy, and Europe relapsed into a position from which she can be reclaimed only by a renewal of the plans of the sixteenth-century Reformers—a system of CHRISTIAN EDUCATION. XIII THE REACTION AFTER THE EDUCATIONAL REFORMATION [Sidenote: Widespread effects of the Reformation]