1. The Humiliation of Henry IV.--It was the fourth day on which he had borne the humiliating garb of an affected penitent, and in that sordid raiment he drew near on his bare feet to the more than imperial majesty of the church, and prostrated himself in more than servile deference before the diminutive and emaciated old man, from the terrible glance of whose countenance, we are told, "the eyes of every beholder recoiled as from the lightning." Hunger, cold and nakedness, and shame, had for the moment crushed the gallant spirit of the sufferer. He wept and cried for mercy, again and again renewing his entreaties until he had reached the lowest level of abasement to which his own enfeebled heart or the haughtiness of his great antagonist could depress him. Then, and not till then did the pope condescend to revoke the anathema of the vatican.--Sir J. Stephen's Essays On Ecclesiastical Biography. 2. Influence of Greek Literature on the Fifteenth Century.--The classical school of that period (15th century) inspired its disciples with admiration, not only for the writings of Virgil and Homer, but for the entire frame of ancient society; for its institutions, its opinions, its philosophy, as well as its literature. Antiquity, it must be allowed, whether as regards politics, philosophy, or literature, was greatly superior to the Europe of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. It is not surprisingg, therefore, that it should have exercised so great an influence; that lofty, vigorous, elegant and fastidious minds should have been disgusted with the coarse manners, the confused ideas, the barbarous modes of their own time, and should have devoted themselves with enthusiasm, and almost with veneration, to the study of a state of society at once more regular and more perfect than their own. Thus was formed that school of bold thinkers, which appeared at the commencement of the fifteenth century, and in which prelates, priests and men of learning were united by common sentiment and common pursuits.--Guizot's Hist. Civilization. 3. Luther on Indulgences.--I was compelled in my conscience to expose the scandalous sale of indulgences. I saw some seduced by them into mischievous errors, others tempted into an audacious profaneness. In a word, the proclaiming and selling of pardons proceeded to such an unbounded licentiousness that the holy church and its authorities became subjects of open derision in the public taverns. There was no occasion to excite the hatred of mankind against priests to a greater degree. The avarice and profligacy of the clergy had for many years past kindled the indignation of the laity. Alas! they have not a particle of respect or honor for the priesthood, except what solely arises from fear of punishment.--Luther.