IN THE REAR-VIEW MIRROR: The Reformation

J.D. Mackie, A History of Scotland

(Middlesex: Penguin Books, Ltd.; 1969), p. 142.

‘The Reformation was both an extension of the Renaissance and a reaction from it.

On the one hand the spirit of criticism bore hard upon an institution whose practice differed so far from its theory; no longer could spiritual satisfaction be obtained from the assurance that outward adherence to the precepts of the Church guaranteed salvation to the soul.

On the other hand, the questing spirit recoiled from the bold rationalism of some Italians and a few Germans; it sought security in a return to the practices of God’s people of long ago, to the principles of the living Jesus, and of the true Church which he left behind him. It found the truth that it sought in the Bible.

The Reformation therefore had two aspects, a negative or critical side, and a positive side, in every country which it touched.

‘It took varying forms in varying lands and in none of them was it confined to the simple issue of religion; every where its operation was conditioned by questions of politics and economics.

Yet, while due account of these elements is taken, emphasis must be laid on the fact, too much forgotten nowadays, that religion was the Leitmotiv ; men do not give their bodies to be burnt save for a thing of the first importance.’

**************************************