The most momentous event of the world’s history, excepting alone the birth of the Redeemer, was the Reformation of the sixteenth century. Great religious movements have occurred before and since, but they are eclipsed by the brilliancy and far-reaching results of this one. More men have been reached, more lives revolutionized, than by the combined forces of all changes in civil and domestic circles since that time. The fact is, that when the causes of political changes in the modern world are considered, it must be acknowledged by every candid thinker that these changes are due in one way or another to the attitude assumed by the people concerned toward that one Reformation which was set in motion by the Wittemberg monk. Christ had been forgotten, and He came before the world again in the days of Luther. A few quotations from Ranke show how far the Reformation extended in the brief space of forty years; and since we are dealing with the causes of this rapid spread, it is gratifying to see that this author gives in the most natural way due credit to the influence of the schools. Two things, then, should be noticed in reading these selections; first, the extent of territory covered by Protestant principles; second, the part played by schools and teachers in the conversion of nations. It is about the year 1563. “In the _Scandinavian realms_ they [the Protestants] had established themselves the more impregnably, because there their introduction was coincident with the establishment of new dynasties, and the remodeling of all political institutions. From the very first they were hailed with joy, as though there was in their nature a primitive affinity to the national feelings.” “In the year 1552, the last representatives of Catholicism in _Iceland_ succumbed.” “On the southern shores, too, of the _Baltic_ Lutheranism had achieved complete predominance, at least among the population of German tongue.” In _Poland_ it was said, “A Polish nobleman is not subject to the king; is he to be so to the pope?” In _Hungary_, “Ferdinand I could never force the diet to any resolutions unfavorable to Protestantism.” “Protestantism not only reigned paramount in _northern Germany_, where it had originated, and in those districts of upper Germany where it had always maintained itself, but its grasp had been extended much more widely in every direction.” “In _Wurzburg and Bamberg_ by far the greater part of the nobility and the episcopal functionaries, the magistrates and the burghers of the towns, at least the majority of them, and the bulk of the rural population, had passed over to the reforming party.” In _Bavaria_ “the great majority of the nobility had adopted the Protestant doctrine, and a considerable portion of the towns was decidedly inclined to it.” “Far more than this, however, had been done in _Austria_. The _nobility of that country studied in Wittemberg; all the colleges of the land were filled with Protestants_.”