ABSTRACT
THE philosopher, says a great historian, may indulge in the pleasing task of portraying Religion as she descended whiterobed from Heaven; it is the melancholy duty of the historian to show how she has been maltreated by men, and her immaculate garments torn and spotted by human passion. The early annals of the Protestant, as of the Apostolic Church, are full of difficulty and dissension. After the peace of Nuremberg had given the Protestants a firm position against the Roman Catholics, the main energies of the reformers were applied to fighting each other and dealing with the numerous contrarieties which arose in their own folds.
