SPECTATOR'S LIBRARY.

History of the Reformation in Germany. By Leopold Ranke. Second edition. Translated by Sarah Austhr. Volumes I. U Longman and Co. fAAVELA The Crescent and the Cross, or Romance and Realities of Eastern Travel. By Eliot Warburton, Esq. In two volumes °album. Finn" The Collegian's Guide; or Recollections of College Days, setting forth the Advan- tages and Temptations of an University Education. By the Rev.

M.A., College, Oxford Longman end Ca • ST1716110,

Bokhara its AmIr and its People. Translated from the Russian of Khanikoff. By the Baron Clement A. De Bode Madden.

MRS. AUSTIN'S TRANSLATION OF RAMIE'S REFORMATION IN GERMANY.

This work is in some measure a companion to the same author's History of the Popes, where the great contemporary actors of the Reformation were rather neglected ; but its more direct object is to exhibit the com- bined civil and religions circumstances that prepared the way for Luther in Germany ; tracing the political conditions which often roused the national feelings in opposition to the Holy See, and noticing the scholars who had previously stimulated the public mind ; without which prepara- tion Luther might have shared the fate of Huss or Jerome of Prague.

The author has divided his work into three epochs; of which the first contained in the two volumes before us. It commences in 1486, with Maximilian's election as King of the Romans during the lifetime of Iris father ; and terminates with the sack of Rome under Bourbon, and the acquisition of Hungary to the Imperial crown in 1527. Substan- tially, indeed, it is a history of the reign of Maximilian, and of part of the reign of Charles the Fifth, so far as they relate to the Germanic con- stitution, the differences between Germany and the Pope, and the rise and progress of the Reformation. There is, however, an introduction, containing an account of the constitutional history of the Holy Ro- man Empire from the time of Charlemagne; and the author's patriotic feelings have caused him to introduce a variety of particulars touching the services of the German infantry during the Italian wars, that do not altogether fit the scale of his work.

It is the combination of the secular with the religious view which gives the distinctive character to the History of the Reformation in Ger- many. As far as the life and labours of Luther are concerned, there is little if any novelty; and several works have been published in this country that give a fuller if not a better account of both. A similar re- mark may be made upon the general history of Charles the Fifth. The character and value of the work arise from its thorough continuity of ' view. Ranke brings before his reader the close relation of the Emperor to the Pope, and their first alternate struggles for ascendancy : their union in a common interest as soon as the princes, nobles, and cities of the Empire, gained power and enlightenment enough to resist the politi- cal tyranny of the Emperor and the fiscal drains -of the Pope, (for religion was not at first a very active principle)—the manner in which various men shook the enormous faith in the Roman Pontiff, by popularizing the classic*, criticizing the Vulgate, calling attention to the Scriptures in the original tongues, nd satirizing the vices of the clergy, while minds Of another stamp began to moot questions in which the insufficiency of forms, justification by faith, and the necessity of personal effort instead of priestly reliance for salvation—were the real questions agitated, though agitated in good faith towards the Romish Church. By this means, the reader has a larger and completer view of the Reformation in Germany than has perhaps been hitherto attainable unless by original research. The au- thor, however, is so very German' that he leaves out of view the efforts of Wicliff in shaking the English mind, and his operation upon the Con- tinent, and Germany itsel by means of floss and Jerome. These great Reformers are indeed mentioned, but only to be passed over.

Besides the general originality which arises from the author's method of viewing his subject, a striking though quaint character is often imparted to it by his researches among original contemporary documents. In the archives of Frankfort he hunted out ninety-six folio volumes which con- tained the Acts of the Imperial Diets from 1444 to 1613. At Berlin and Dresden he was equally fortunate; and he has bad recourse to other col- lections, besides making free use of contemporary printed books and tracts which hitherto have been almost closed against foreigners by their language. His narrative, especially in events of action, has often an old, simple, chro- nicle-like style, which brings the manners of the age before us. At the sack of Rome by Bourbon, we are led on step by step, as if we accompanied the forces in their assault; and in depicting characters, which he does freely, bake combines a minute personal knowledge with modern acumen and skill. But these qualities are chiefly displayed in narrative : with the tihronicler's style he has the chronicler's mind. He is deficient in grasp ; his larger deductions fall to impress the reader with their magnitude or truth; and his rapid summaries want continuity and vividness. Neither can it be denied that some of his minuter narratives savour too much of the gazette. Even at Rome, though we are led along hie a spectator, we are apt to lose the whole in a succession of particulars. The im- pressive effect of a great artist, such as Hume and Robertson produced by selecting the more terrible incidents, is wanting. 'Yet aeingle touch indicates the atrocities that are left untold. Ranke says the German 'Soldiery were goodnatnred : they would interfere to prevent the Spaniards Sem abusing female children. We may judge of the vice from the virtue.

It is in drawing characters that this author excels himself. In the work before us, as in his History of the Popes, there is a succession of portraits of celebrated men, -sometimes amminthig to biographical notices. In this, as in other points, the author's nationality, or his knowledge, appears. His portraits are more favourable than we have been accus- tomed /4 believe ; especially of Maximffian and his father. Thw are both very striking pictures; as may be seen in this account of Frederick the Third.

A IliriAMOPMER ON A crraose.

Frederick III. had accustomed himself, in the course of a kag life, to re- gard the affairs of the world with perfect serenity of mind. His cotemporaries have painted him to us—one while weighing precious stones in a goldsmith's scales; another, with a celestial globe in his hand, discoursing with learned men on the petitions of the stars. He loved to mix metals, convected healing drugs, and, in important crises, predicted the future himself from the aspects of the coa- deflations: he read a man's destiny in his features or in the lines of his hand. He was a believer in the hidden powers that govern nature and fortune. In his youth, his Portuguese wife, with the violent temper and the habitual opinions of a native of the South, urged him, in terms of bitter scorn, to take vengeance for some injury: he only answered, that everything was rewarded, and punished, and avenged, in time. Complaints of the abuses in his courts of justice made little impression on him: he said "things did not go quite right or smooth anywhere?' On one occasion, representations were made to bun by the Princes of the Empire against the influence which he allowed his Councillor Pritschenk to exercise: he replied, "every one of them had his own Prischenk at home." In all the per- plexities of affairs he evinced the same calmness and equanimity. In 1449, when the Cities and Princes, on the eve of war, refused to accept him as a mediator, he was content: he said he would wait till they had burnt each other's houses and destroyed each other's crops; then they would come to him of their own accord, and beg him to bring about a reconciliation between them,—which shortly after haw -tied. The violences and cruelties which his hereditary dominions of Austria tin i ered from King Matthias did not even excite his pity: he said they deserved it; they would not obey him, and therefore they must have a stork as king, like the frogs in the fable. In his own affairs he was more like an observer than a party interested; in all events he saw the rule by which they are governed—the universal, inflexible principle, which after short interruptions invariably recovers its empire. From his youth he had been inured to trouble and adversity. When compelled to yield, he never gave up a point, end always gained the mastery in the end. The maintenance-of his prerogatives was the governing principle of all his actions; the more, because they acquired an ideal value from their connexion with the Imperial dignity. It cost him a long and severe struggle to allow his son to be crowned King of the Romans: Ile wished to take the supreme authority un- divided with him to the grave: in no case would he grant Maximilian any inde- pendent share in the administration of government, but kept him, even after he was King, still as "son of the house"; nor would he ever give him anything bat the Countship of Cilli: "for the rest, he would have time enough." His frugality bordered on avarice; his slowness on inertness; his stubbornness on the most de- termined selfishness: yet all these faults are rescued from vulgarity by high qualities. He had at bottom a sober depth of judgment, a sedate and inflexible honour: the aged Prince, even when a fugitive imploring succour, had a personal bearing which never allowed the majesty of the empire to sink. All his pleasures were characteristic. Once, when he was in Nfirnburg, he had all the children in the city, even the infants who could but just walk, brought to him in the city- ditches; he feasted his eyes on the rising generation, the heirs of the future; then he ordered cakes to be brought and distributed, that the children might remember their old master, whom they had seen, as king as they lived. Occa - sionally, he gave the Princes his friends a feast in his castle. In proportion to his usual extreme frugality was now the magnificence of the entertainment: he kept his guests with him till late in the night, (always his most vivacious time,) when even his wonted taciturnity ceased, and he began to relate the history of his past life, interspersed with strange incidents, decent jests, and wise saws. He looked like a patriarch among the Princes, who were all much ymmger than himself.

LUTIIER!S 'CHILDHOOD-

The habits and manners of that time were generally harsh and rude, and so was his education. Luther relates that his mother once scourged him till the blood came, on account of one miserable nut; that his father had punished him so severely that it was with great difficulty that he could get ever the child's terror and alienation; at school he was dogged fifteen times in one forenoon. He had to earn his bread by singing hymns before the doors of houses, and New Years carols in the villages. Strange, that people should continually exalt and envy the h piness of childhood, in which the only certain foretaste of -coming years is the fteling of the stern necessities of life; in which existence is dependent on foreign help, and the will of another disposes of every day and hour with iron wee! In Luther's case, this period of life was full of terrors.

VisTrE OF INDULGENCES.

It is important to marline what were the advantages which were thus obtained. The plumy indulgence for all, the alleged object of which was to contribute to the completion of the Vatican Basilica, restored the possessor to the grace of-God, and completely exempted him from the punishnrent of purgatory. But there were three other favours to be obtained by further -contributions,---'the right of choosing a father confessor, who could grant absolution in reserved cases, and commute vows which had heen taken into other good works; participation in all prayers, fasts, pilgrimages, and whatever good WAGS were performed in the church militant; lastly, the release of the souls of the departed out of -purgatory. -In order to obtain plenary indulgence, it was necessary not.only to confess Ina to *el contrition; the three others could be obtained without contrition or confession, by money alone. It is in this point of view that Columbus extols the worth of money: "He who possesses it," says he seriously, has the power of transporting souls into Paradise."

A difficulty attends the translation of Rank; from the old German of some of his quotations not very intelligible even to natives and from the peculiarity of German institutions and titles where the usual corresponding term in English would convey an erroneous idea. The first difficulty is met, if it is not conquered, by quoting the original with the trantila- tion • the second by explaining the thing instead of metaphrasing the words. Our extracts furnish an idea of the general style of the trans- lation; which seems to us free and characteristic, reflecting the mead- ne,ss, simplicity, and German mind of the original.