²Part of the information concerning Roman Catholic missions in this article has been furnish by Prof. John T. Creagh.

³   In combating the legalistic element in medieval Roman Catholic teaching and in the radical religious parties of the early Reformation time, Luther allowed himself to use language in disparagement of the Mosaic law so strong and unqualified as to give great encouragement to those that were eager for fleshly freedom. A few sentences should be quoted: “Christ is not harsh, severe, biting as Moses. . . . Therefore, away with Moses forever, who shall not terrify deluded hearts.” Again: “The gospel is heavenly and divine, the law earthly and human; the righteousness of the gospel is just as distinct from that of the law as heaven from earth, as light from darkness. The gospel is light and day, the law darkness and night.” In his polemic “against the Heavenly Prophets” (Erl. ed., xxix. 150) he says: “We will take our stand on the right ground and say that these sin-teachers and Mosaic prophets shall leave us unconfounded by Moses; we will neither see nor hear Moses. How does this please you, dear revolutionists? And we say further that all such Mosaic teachers [i.e., the Zwickau prophets] deny the gospel, banish Christ, and overthrow the whole New Testament. I speak now as a Christian and for Christians, since Moses was given to the Jewish people alone and has nothing to do with us Gentiles and Christians. We have our gospel and New Testament; if they will prove from this that pictures are to be done away with, we will gladly follow them. But if they wish by means of Moses to make Jews of us, we will not suffer it.” Of course, he did not mean utterly to repudiate Moses, but rather by a tour de force to repudiate what he considered an unauthorized use of Moses.
   (A. H. N.)

⁴   The more important of Agricola’s eighteen propositions are: i. Repentance is to be taught not from the decalogue or any law of Moses, but from the suffering and death of the Son through the gospel. ii. For Christ says in the last chapter of Luke: “Thus it behooved Christ to die and in this manner to enter into his glory, that repentance and remission of sins might be preached in his name.” iii. And Christ, in John, says that the Spirit, not the law, convicts the world of sin. iv. The last discourse of Christ teaches the same thing: “Go, preach the gospel to every creature.” vii. Without anything whatever the Holy Spirit is given and men are justified: this thing [the law] is not necessary to be taught either for the beginning, the middle, or the end of justification. viii. But the Holy Spirit having been given of old is also given perpetually, and men are justified without the law through the gospel concerning Christ alone. xiii. Wherefore, for conserving purity of doctrine we must resist those who teach that the gospel is not to be preached except to those who have been crushed and made contrite through the law. xvi. The law only convicts of sin and that, too, without the Holy Spirit; therefore it convicts unto damnation. xvii. But there is need of a doctrine that not only with great efficacy condemns, but also at the same time saves: but that is the gospel, which teaches conjointly repentance and remission of sins. xviii. For the gospel of Christ teaches the wrath from heaven and at the same time the justice of God, Rom. i. For it is the preaching of repentance joined to a promise which reason does not naturally apprehend, but which comes through divine revelation.
   Luther added to these acknowledged articles of Agricola several other statements of doubtful authenticity which Agricola was supposed to have made: The law is not worthy to be called the word of God. Art thou a harlot, a knave, an adulterer, or any other sort of sinner if thou believest thou art in the way of salvation. The decalogue belongs to the town hall, and not to the pulpit. All who go about with Moses must go to the devil. To the gallows with Moses! To hear the word and live accordingly is the consequence of the law. To hear the word and feel it in the heart is the proper consequence of the gospel. Peter knew nothing about Christian freedom. His declaration “making your calling sure through good works” is good for nothing. As soon as thou thinkest it must go thus and so in Christendom, everybody is to be refined, honorable, discreet, holy, and chaste, thou hast already prostituted the gospel. Agricola disowned the most manifestly immoral of these propositions, and there is no reason to believe that he practised or approved of the immorality that seems involved in his teachings.
   A. H. N.

⁵It is Thomas Arnold, if any one, who must be regarded as the pioneer of free theology in England. . . . He was the first to show to his countrymen the possibility, and to make the demand, that the Bible should be read with honest human eyes, without the spectacles of orthodox dogmatic presuppositions, and that it can, at the same time be revered with Christian piety and made truly productive in moral life. He was the first who dared to leave on one side the traditional phraseology of the High-churchmen and the Evangelicals, and to look upon Christianity, not as a sacred treasure of the Churches and the sects, but as a divine beneficent power for every believer; not as a dead heritage from the past, but as a living spiritual power for the moral advancement of individuals and nations in the present. . . . He showed how classical and general historical studies may be pursued in the light of the moral ideas of Christianity, and how, on the other hand, a free and clear way of looking at things may be obtained by means of wide historical knowledge, and then applied to the interpretation of the Bible and the solution of current ecclesiastical questions. Thus he began to pull down the wall of separation which had out off the religious life of his fellow countrymen, with their sects and Churches and rigid theological formulas and usages, from the general life and pursuits of the nation. It is also clear as day that, if longer life had been granted him, the result of the further prosecution of his historical studies . . . would have been further insight and courage to apply his historical and critical principles to the Bible. At all events, his work was subsequently further prosecuted in this direction by his friends and pupils.—Pfleiderer, The Development of Theology in Germany since Kant and its Progress in Great Britain since 1825 (London, 1890), 367–368.

⁶He visited Massachusetts 23 times after 1791 . . . the state of New York 56 times, New Jersey 62 times, Pennsylvania 78 times, Delaware 33 times, Maryland 80 times, North Carolina 63 times, South Carolina 46 times, Virginia 84 times, Tennessee and Georgia each 20 times, and other states or territories with corresponding frequency. In his unparalleled career he preached about 16,500 sermons, or at least one a day, and traveled about 270,000 miles, or 6,000 a year, presiding in no lees than 224 annual conferences, and ordaining more than 4,000 preachers.--Janes, p. 5. When he came to America the Methodists numbered 10 preachers and 600 members; when he died, after forty-five years of work, they had 695 preachers and 214,235 members.