i4 Swartbmore Xecture.

Luther opposed this and defended the social orderwhich his own time had inherited from the middleages. So that when the German peasants ex-panded the religious revolution to overthrow thesocial and political order, Luther counselledpatience and obedience. This constitutes theinner break and cleavage in the German Reforma-tion. Ever since that time the authoritativeleaders of Protestant Germany , with few excep-tions, have been conservative both in politics andin economics, and this conservatism affords amarked contrast to the Anglo-American world.The background of German history is a defeatedrevolution, that of the Anglo-American history avictorious one ; this difference cuts very deep andits after-effects have lasted right down to thepresent time.

But the anti-democratic attitude of Luther isfounded more deeply than in politics or economics.Luther believed in the bondage of the human will,impotent for good and enslaved to evil, and accord-ingly he termed his treatise " De Servo Arbitrio "his " rightest " work. The " World," a " Devil 'stavern," stands condemned ; life is a chain of per-petual defeats ; evil government is to be borne inpatience as a scourge from God . This is the sourceof the view that allows to the political and economicdomain an independent legitimacy. (Eigengesetz-lichkeit.) The religious man is to avoid the snaresof this region because he has renounced the task ofpenetrating it with his own standards. In thebackground rests that exaggerated emphasis onthe Transcendence of God . The devout man is