great leaders as Spener and Francke, led the reaction from orthodoxy toward a more vital religious faith, striving to "bring the heart into the head." Pietism was the first attempt to make Protestantism a people's religion. It made little of dogma, and much of devotion and the inner life. And it gained the most intimate connection with education and the schools.

Over against these religious forces of the period stood the rationalistic movement. Seventeenth century rationalism, English and French in its origins, but thoroughly domiciled in Germany, in a large way forecasts the birth of the modern spirit. Vicit ratio, cessat vetustas.2 Characterized on the one hand by a wonderful advance in scientific research and learning, on the other by the spirit of religious skepticism and free inquiry, it opened a wholly new approach to the worlds of reality and of thought; and of necessity it laid its spell mightily on education, culture, and religion. The Aufklärung of the later eighteenth century and the contemporary naturalistic movement which got its impulse from Rousseau were but outgrowths and variations of the rationalism of the seventeenth century. And, in spite of obvious differences in motive and direction, the new classical revival of the later eighteenth century grew out of the same revolt from traditional authority. Rousseau sought his ideal in nature; Lessing, Goethe, and Winckelmann sought their ideal in classical antiquity; but at bottom the quest was the same.

In the midst of these conflicting forces the new German education came into being. There was an immense expansion of education in the direction of the people; a progressive transfer of control from the church to the state; and a radical revision of studies in the modern interest. In such ways the new scientific and philosophical doctrines found their way to supremacy.

They strove for mastery in the universities, as at Halle, where it was said: "If you go to Halle, you will come back a Pietist or an Atheist." Through their mutual reactions Pietism and Rationalism created the most precious possession of modern learning, the freedom of teaching. And out of the struggle the German university rose to the position of national leadership.

The new ideas also transformed the secondary schools. The Schumann u. Sperber, 42.

'Rein, Encykl. Handb. I. 305.

work of Pietism in Francke's Paedagogium at Halle in the seventeenth century and of the Rousseau propaganda in Basedow's Philanthropinum at Dessau in the later eighteenth are but examples of the way in which the new doctrines got into the schools. Through the enlightenment the German language and literature made for themselves a place in secondary education, and through the New Humanism Greek entered the curriculum. Better methods of instruction grew up. The Realschule began its task of providing a more practical training.

In primary instruction the same conditions prevailed. From Comenius at the beginning of the period to Pestalozzi at the end, German pedagogy was moving strongly toward popular education. Compulsory attendance was introduced. Public maintenance was provided. The training of teachers began to receive attention. School studies slowly became more liberal. All the new forces co-operated in this uplift; but most momentous were the influences that went out from the Pietism of Halle and the democratic theories of Rousseau.

Surrounded by these diverse attractions and repulsions, the religious instruction of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries made its way as best it could. It was the one subject in the curriculum, from the highest schools to the lowest, in which the rivalries and antagonisms of the various parties came into conflic. Neiher Pietism nor Rationalism could let it alone. Each must seek to control the education of the youth in its own interest. Hence, for the whole period, and ever since, the school is the battle-ground of creeds and philosophies.

In defense of the evangelical standards, Pietism plays altogether the leading role. When even before the rise of Pietism, Comenius (1592-1671) held fast to improve conditions and methods, yet the turning-point in religious teaching came with the Pietist revival. Breaking away from the dead intellectualism of the preceding age, Pietism sought new ends in religious education. It strove not so much for knowledge as for character. In the words of the Württemberg school ordinances, 1729: "Schoolas are not to be regarded as a mere preparation for civic life, but as workshops of the Holy Spirit, because the Lord is best served not with skilled people but with pious ones." The great names in the history of

'Rein, Encykl. Handb. II. 71.

Pietism-Spener and Francke-are great also in relation to religious instruction. For many years Spener (1635-1705) labored at Frankfurt, Dresden, and Berlin, to bring better religious teaching into the church and into the schools. Through his sermons, his books, his personal teaching, his new use of confirmation, he wielded a powerful influence in the field. Francke (16631727) left even deeper marks on the existing system. In his work at Halle religion had the first place. "Die Ehre Gottes," he said, "ist der Hauptzweck." "A pint of living faith is worth more than a peck of historical knowledge.' In this spirit he worked, providing for the training of teachers, improving catechetical methods, and striving for more vital teaching in all ways. Divers contemporaries and later leaders worked for the same ends, most important of whom were Huebner (1668-1721) whose use of biblical history marks an epoch in Religionsunterricht, and Mosheim (1694-1755) who improved the method of the catechism. All in all, Pietism rendered an immeasurable service in this matter.

But Pietism had the defect of its qualities. In aiming at piety it sometimes produced Pietisterei, Schwärmarei, mere empty emotionalism void of all solid content. Therefore Pietism itself led to a fresh reaction, the fruits of which are seen in the rationalistic program of the eighteenth century. With endless variations in detail, Rationalism, Naturalism, Aufklärung, and the rest, are one in their rejection of revealed religion. They stood for "natural religion," "the religion of reason," and so on. They threw away the church doctrines of sin and redemption, but kept the belief in God, immortality, and the moral law. They accepted Jesus as a prophet and magnified his teaching of brotherly love. Goethe called Rousseau's Emile "ein Naturevangelium." What revelation was to the orthodox, and religious experience to the Pietist, that was reason to the disciple of the Aufklärung-the ultimate criterion of truth.

Wherever rationalistic influence was dominant, this position led of necessity to the reconstruction of religious teaching. Thomasius (1655-1728) and Wolff (1679-1754) expounded these doctrines in the universities; Frederick the Great gave the Aufklarung free scope in the Prussian schools; Basedow (1723-1790) Rein, Encykl. Handb. II. 662.

applied the principles of Naturalism to secondary education at Dessau; Rochow (1734-1805) brought the new ways into the Volksschule; and Salzmann (1744-1811) sought the middle ground between faith and reason on which to build. The rationalists taught that "the way to the heart lies through the head;" that in consequence the training of the reason is the chief concern in religious teaching; and that biblical materials must be used only as a means of enlightening the understanding.

In actual instruction these principles worked a revolution. The dogmatic and traditional aspects of Christianity were crowded out; the ethical alone remained. Biblical history was kept as a drill for the understanding, but that was all. The catechetical instruction also was transformed in the spirit of the new philosophy. Everything was dropped which did not commend itself to reason, and revised catachisms were produced to uphold the new standards. In the methodology of religious teaching the "Philanthropinists" and Rationalists carried still further the Socratic principle employed by Mosheim. Memory work still held its place; but it now had to do with the learning of abstract terms and definitions instead of Bible verses and the articles of the Catechism. What the Aufklärung lost in depth and religious fervor it gained in breadth and better methods of teaching. At its worst, it was the most barren intellectualism; at its best, in such leaders as Salzmann and Pestalozzi, while it was less churchly, it was more truly religious and ethical than the traditional orthodoxy. In these better adherents of the school may be seen the spiritual progenitors of the modern liberal Christian position.

VI.

At the beginning of the nineteenth century again the reaction came. The wars of liberation created in the German people a deep sense of moral and spiritual need, and a mighty impulse toward national integrity. The new interest in historical studies set historical religion in a truer perspective. The Romantic movement, rooted back in the traditions of the German past, swept away the strong defenses of the Age of Enlightenment. And thus slowly, out of a vast complex of inheritance and living forces, modern Germany arose.

In part the change worked to the advantage of the national church as well as of the schools. But the educational interests have made the greater gain, and during the century Germany has wrought out her marvellous system of popular education. By reason of its nature and its entanglement with church interests, religious instruction has lagged behind the other studies in the schools. To an amazing extent, in this subject, the mechanical memoriter method of three centuries ago yet remains, "the net result of all the toil," as Paulsen puts it, "being the gabbling of the Catechism and a few Bible texts and hymns, learnt by heart over and over again." In many states of the empire the clerical supervision lives on, the last stronghold of church control.

The situation today tells the story of the long struggle. Three clearly defined parties contend for the mastery in the field-the orthodox-confessional group, clinging tenaciously to its inherited rights and traditions; the liberal-Christian group, seeking the adjustment of religious and moral instruction in the schools with the assured results of modern learning, and the agnostic-positivist group, which aims at the more or less complete elimination of the religious element from school and society. Broadly speaking, the clergy form the strength of the first group; the teachers and liberal theologians, of the second; the Social Democrats, with a strong wing of the teachers, of the third. In the first In the first group the Lutheranism of the Reformation lives on; Romanticism, and the modern spirit have met together; in the third, the more radical wing of the Aufklarung has come unto its

own.

in the second, Pietism,

In the end, religious instruction will be eliminated from the public school and left entirely to the church and the home. But the struggle for adjustment will be long. The Germans are a conservative people. They are attached to their church and its institutions. The change in religious instruction will come, no doubt, as one phase in the advance toward democracy, carrying with it the final separation of church and state.

'Paulsen, German Education, 142.