Excerpt from Prospects of the New German ReformationIn the middle ages, two conquering men came forward and reformed the inner, practical life of the Roman Church, and stamped upon its devotion and its ideas of God a character which it has not yet shaken Off. In Dominick and Francis of Assisi we recognise once more the astonishing powers of individualism in vivifying the dormant elements of religious feeling, and moulding generation after generation to one personal pattern. It was the same in after times with the founder of the Jesuits. That wonderful society to this hour bears the impress of the individuality of Ignatius Loyola. The intensity and the profoundly military character of 'his temperament are re¿ected in the whole Jesuit body, and amidst all the varieties of national peculiarities which are exhibited by individual Jesuits.At the Reformation period it is a mere commonplace to point to the part played by a few vehement natures, and to the helplessness of all efforts at reform, where the leadership did not fall into the hands of characters formed to arouse and guide the storms of popular feeling. Without Luther in Germany, without Calvin in France and Switzerland, without Knox in Scotland, where would have been the German, the French, the Swiss, and the Scotch Reformations Granting all that may be said of the prevalence of suicidal Roman scandals, and of the preparation of the popular mind for radical religious changes, it is still true that the leadership fell into the hands of a small number of men of rare personal capacities for the practical ruling of their fellow-creatures.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.