older, taking its stand upon the primitive historical basis of Christianity. Then again, in the course
of controversy with Rome, Protestantism found it desirable and necessary to wrest from its opponent
not only the scriptural argument, but also the historical, and to turn it as far as possible to the side
of the evangelical cause. For the Protestants could never deny that the true Church of Christ is built
on a rock, and has the promise of indestructible permanence. Finally, the Reformation, by, liberating
the mind from the yoke of a despotic ecclesiastical authority, gave an entirely new impulse, directly
or indirectly to free investigation in every department, and produced that historical criticism which
claims to clear fact from the accretions of fiction, and to bring out the truth, the whole truth, and
nothing but the truth, of history. Of course this criticism may run to the extreme of rationalism and
scepticism, which oppose the authority of the apostles and of Christ himself; as it actually did for
a time, especially in Germany. But the abuse of free investigation proves nothing against the right
use of it; and is to be regarded only as a temporary aberration, from which all sound minds will
return to a due appreciation of history, as a truly rational unfolding of the plan of redemption, and
a standing witness for the all-ruling providence of God, and the divine character of the Christian
religion.
(a) German, Swiss, and Dutch historians.
Protestant church historiography has thus far flourished most on German soil. A patient and
painstaking industry and conscientious love of truth and justice qualify German scholars for the
mining operations of research which bring forth the raw material for the manufacturer; while French
and English historians know best how to utilize and popularize the material for the general reader.
The following are the principal works:
Matthias Flacius(d 1575), surnamed Illyricus, a zealous Lutheran, and an unsparing enemy
of Papists, Calvinists, and Melancthonians, heads the list of Protestant historians with his great
Eccelesiastica Historia Novi Testamenti, commonly called Centuriae Magdeburgenses(Basle,
1560–’74), covering thirteen centuries of the Christian era in as many folio volumes. He began the
work in Magdeburg, in connection with ten other, scholars of like Spirit and zeal, and in the face
of innumerable difficulties, for the purpose of exposing the corruptions and, errors of the papacy,
and of proving the doctrines of the Lutheran Reformation orthodox by the "witnesses of the truth"
in all ages. The tone is therefore controversial throughout, and quite as partial as that of the Annals
of Baronius on the papal side. The style is tasteless and repulsive, but the amount of persevering
labor, the immense, though ill-digested and unwieldy mass of material, and the boldness of the
criticism, are imposing and astonishing. The "Centuries" broke the path of free historical study,
and are the first general church history deserving of the name. They introduced also a new method.
They divide the material by centuries, and each century by a uniform Procrustean scheme of not
less than sixteen rubrics: "de loco et propagatione ecclesiae; de persecutione et tranquillitate
ecclesiae; de doctrina; de haeresibus; de ceremoniis; de politia; de schismatibus; de conciliis; de
vitis episcoporum; de haereticis; de martyribus; de miraculis et prodigiis; de rebus Judaicis; de aliis
religionibus; de mutationibus politicis." This plan destroys all symmetry, and occasions wearisome
diffuseness and repetition. Yet, in spite of its mechanical uniformity and stiffness, it is more scientific
than the annalistic or chronicle method, and, with material improvements and considerable
curtailment of rubrics, it has been followed to this day.
The Swiss, J. H. Hottinger (d. 1667), in his Historia Ecclesiastica N. Testamenti(Zurich,
1655–’67, 9 vols. fol.), furnished a Reformed counterpart to the Magdeburg Centuries. It is lessA.D. 1-100.