PROTESTANTISM AND REPUBLICANISM, BORN OF THE REFORMATION, NOURISHED BY SCHOOLS.—As if lifted from the bosom of the deep by the mighty hand of God, America stood forth to receive the principles of religious and civil freedom born of the Reformation on German soil. To the German government was first offered the opportunity of developing to the full the reform movement. This full and complete development would have meant religious liberty for all, and a government by the people,—Protestantism and republicanism. These two systems go hand in hand, and are more closely connected than any other principles in existence. The death of one means the death of the other, for the same life-blood nourishes both. Germany started well. There were to be found princes, liberal in mind and government, who accepted the new religion, and stood by the Reformers through all their storm-tossed career. God had raised up these men for the time and place, as surely as he called Nebuchadnezzar, or appointed a work for Cyrus. Protestantism was firmly rooted, and, as we have already seen, during the first forty years of its existence, so strong was its vitality that men and nations bowed before it. The early Reformers, especially Luther and Melancthon, connected the movement with the fountain of life when they introduced a system of Christian education. And previous chapters make plain the truth that the life of the entire movement in its twofold aspect—Protestantism and republicanism—depended upon a right educational system. When the mass of German youth sat at the feet of German teachers, and those teachers were true to the principles of Christian education, Roman influence dwindled, and her very life was threatened. It was then that the papacy itself took up the subject of education, and by the work of the Jesuits succeeded in killing the Reform in Germany,—indeed, in all Europe. “A day of great intellectual darkness has been shown to be favorable to the success of popery. It will yet be demonstrated that a day of great intellectual light is equally favorable for its success.” [Sidenote: Protestantism killed by Jesuit schools] The Jesuits planted schools of their own in the shadow of Protestant schools; they entered Protestant schools as teachers; they sucked the life-blood from the young child, and it faded and died. The principles of the Reformation found honest hearts in the Netherlands. The Dutch took up the question of education; but the Jesuits were again on the track, and, as Ranke says, “They gradually carried their point.” The Reformation crossed the Channel, to find the hearts of Englishmen longing for greater freedom. Lollardism, started by Wyclif two hundred years earlier, sprang anew into life in the hearts of the Puritans, until, in the reign of Henry VIII, more than one half of the English population was Protestant. Finally the Commonwealth was established. [Sidenote: England loses her golden opportunity]