The Roman Church was spread over all Italy, Spain,
France, and great part of Germany, and tried to force down all
differences of opinion by cruel and bloody means, caring more for unity
than for truth, and boasting of being the only Catholic Church, instead
of only one branch of it. The Lutheran doctrine was taught in Norway,
Denmark, and many parts of Germany, and the Calvinist teaching gained a
great hold in Holland, Scotland, and on such French as were not Roman
Catholic. The Greek Church meanwhile stood fast through much tribulation
in the Turkish dominions, and had gradually won the whole great Russian
Empire, where, as the people ceased to be barbarous, they became most
devout members of the ancient unchanging Greek Catholic Church.
LESSON XXXIII.
COLONIZATION.
"Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains
of thy habitations; spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy
stakes."--_Isaiah_, liv. 2.
Just as the Reformation was beginning, fresh lands were being found
beyond the Atlantic Ocean, where the knowledge of the Gospel might
reach. Christopher Columbus, a gallant Genoese mariner, and deeply
religious man, was full of the notion that by sailing westwards he might
come round to India, and thence make a way for winning back the Holy
Land.
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