The Catholic revival of which Froude had seen so much at Oxford was still in full swing.
"Nevertheless, we are still a Protestant nation, and the majority of us intend to remain Protestant.

If we are indifferent to our Smithfield and Oxford martyrs, we are not indifferent to the Reformation, and we can join with Germany in paying respect to the memory of a man to whom we also, in part, owe our deliverance.
Without Luther there would have been either no change in England in the sixteenth century, or a change purely political.

Luther's was one of those great individualities which have modelled the history of mankind, and modelled it entirely for good.

He revived and maintained the spirit of piety and reverence in which, and by which alone, real progress is possible." Such was the temper in which Froude set about his task, and which made it a labour of love.

Besides the great public events in Luther's career which are familiar to all, he gave a charming picture of the affectionate father, the genial host, the eloquent, humourous talker whose fragments of conversation, his Tischreden, are in Germany almost as popular as his hymns.