CHAPTER I THE ORIGIN OF THE REFORMATION CHA I ductory HARACTER, free-will, and the accidents of life CHAP have their place in the corporate existence of the Church as in that of human nature, and the integral constitution of each is capable of great variety and great change, without any destruction of its integrity. The strength and beauty of the human body and An intro. the human mind may be developed or they may analogy be cramped, but in either case the body and the mind still constitute a nature that is human; while it is evident that education, climate, and other physical or moral influences always exercise great power in determining the particular character of nations and of individual persons, both as regards body and mind: so that the strength and beauty of one place or one age may be quite different from that of another. It is also evident that vice, violence, and disease may bring about great moral and physical degeneracy; and that yet it may be possible for the degenerated race or individual to be restored to its normal condition by curative processes and influences from within and from without. But, come what may, the integral constitution of human nature remains under all these influences and changes of A |