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 crying abuses; and hence ensued, about 1076, a long and tedious contest, called The Contest of Investiture, out of which the Church indeed came forth victorious, but not till after many hard trials. After that there arose heretics who kindled the fire of revolt first against the Ecclesiastical, and then against the Secular authorities; as in France the Albigenses, in Upper Italy the Waldenses, in England the Wickliffites or Lollards, in Bohemia the Hussites. Peace, it is true, was restored to the Church, and men, mighty in words and deeds, as St. Vincent Ferrer (d. 1419) and St. John Capistran (d. 1456), went through the countries of Europe, preaching penance to princes and people. Nevertheless an unholy fire lay hidden under the ashes; feelings of disrespect and hostility to the Church, and a fondness for innovations, had gained ground, and were increased by many other attendant evils. Nothing was wanted for the fatal eruption of this volcano of wickedness and rebellion but an opportunity; and this presented itself in the beginning of the sixteenth century in Germany. Like a contagious disease, this lamentable evil spread abroad; thousands and thousands abandoned the Catholic Church; bloody wars, revolts, and corruption of morals ensued; the most splendid establishments, founded by the piety of former ages, were destroyed, and unspeakable misery was prepared both for time and eternity.

43. Martin Luther, an Augustinian monk and a professor in the University of Wittenberg, a man of an ir-