Excerpt from A Popular History of Germany, From the Earliest Period to the Present Day, Vol. 4The attack on the Pope was made, not by prince or emperor, but by the people. It was the national spirit which discovered the press in the year 1435. What enor inous power lay in the printing-press was first clearly seen when the German people were struggling to be free. Germany, in her pupilage, had received her religion and education in forms derived from the Romanic nations, from these nations came the hierarchy, these nations had brought Germany under the yoke of the Church of Rome. It was necessary to become freed from this foreign power. The German spirit awoke again, and was filled with the old love for battle against everything which sought to check its freedom.One of the most powerful agencies hostile to the existing ecclesiastical arrange ments was the revival of classical culture in the West. This was caused undesignedly by the Ottoman Turks, who conquered Constantinople in 1453 and buried the corpse of the Greek empire. The scholars of Greece ¿ed to Italy with the treasures of Greek antiquity. Classical studies awoke, and passed from Italy to Germany. By welcoming these classical studies the German universities became what they ought. To have always been - centres of light, diffusers of the higher education, preparers of the Reformation by which the German mind began to free itself from the hierarchy and which is united with the great name of Luther.The Reformation and the introduction of the spirit of the New Age into the world, at first among the peoples and states of German descent, is a genuine Ger man work. It bears everywhere the German stamp. It could not have arisen except on German soil.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.