...the wonderful works of God!" The ruling thought of the
pre-reformation period was not more the maintenance of one
Holy Roman Church than of one Holy Roman Empire, each of which
was to comprehend all Christendom. The language of the Roman
Church and Empire was the sacred language in comparison with
which the languages of men's common speech were reckoned
common and unclean. The coming-in of the Reformation was the
awakening of individual life, by enforcing the sense of each
man's direct responsibility to God; but it was equally the
quickening of a true national life. In the light of the new
era, the realization of the promise of the oneness of the
Church was no longer to be sought in the universal dominance
of a hierarchical corporation; nor was the "mystery"
proclaimed by Paul, that "the nations were fellow-heirs and of
one body," to be fulfilled in the subjugation of all nations
to a central potentate. According to the spirit of the
Reformation, the One Church was to be, not a corporation, but
a communion - the communion of saints; and the unity of mankind,
in its many nations, was to be a unity of the spirit in the
bond of mutual peace.
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