That admiration, however, was purely personal, and did not affect in any degree the staunchness of Froude's principles.

In 1883 Protestant Germany celebrated the four hundredth anniversary of Luther's birth, and Froude wrote for the occasion a short biography of the rebellious monk who changed the history of the world.

He founded on the larger Life by Julius Koestlin, which had then just appeared, this little book makes no pretence to original learning or research.

It is a polemical pamphlet by a master of English, and a fervent admirer of the illustrious Martin.

"When the German states revolted against the Roman hierarchy," says Froude in his Preface, "we in England revolted also," and Luther's name was as familiar as Bunyan's to the Protestant Churches of England.