not consciously opposed to art, it shoved it aside as a distraction from
the real business of life. Thus it has come {690} about in Protestant
lands that the public regards art as either a "business" or an
"education." Luther himself loved music above all things and did much to
popularize it,--while Erasmus shuddered at the psalm-singing he heard
from Protestant congregations! Of painting the Reformer spoke with
admiration, but so rarely! What could art be in the life of a man who
was fighting for his soul's salvation? Calvin saw more clearly the
dangers to the soul from the seductions of this world's transitory charm.
Images he thought idolatrous in churches and he said outright: "It would
be a ridiculous and inept imitation of the papists to fancy that we
render God more worthy service in ornamenting our temples and in
employing organs and toys of that sort. While the people are thus
distracted by external things the worship of God is profaned." So it was
that the Puritans chased all blandishments not only from church but from
life, and art came to be looked upon as a bit immoral.

[Sidenote: Counter-Reformation]

But the little finger of the reforming pope was thicker than the
Puritan's loins; where Calvin had chastised with whips Sixtus V chastised
with scorpions. Adrian VI, the first Catholic Reformer after Luther,
could not away with "those idols of the heathen," the ancient statues.
Clement VII for a moment restored the old regime of art and
licentiousness together, having Perino del Vaga paint his bathroom with
scenes from the life of Venus in the manner of Giulio Romano. But the
Council of Trent made severe regulations against nude pictures, in
pursuance of which Daniel da Volterra was appointed to paint breeches on
all the naked figures of Michelangelo's Last Judgment and on similar
paintings. Sixtus V, who could hardly endure the Laocoon and Apollo
Belvidere, was bent on destroying the monuments of heathendom. The ruin
was complete when to her cruel hate the church added {691} her yet more
cruel love. Along came the Jesuits offering, like pedlars, instead of
the good old article a substitute guaranteed by them to be "just as
good," and a great deal cheaper. Painting was sentimentalized and
"moralized" under their tuition; architecture adopted the baroque style,
gaudy and insincere. The church was stuffed with gewgaws and tinsel;
marble was replaced by painted plaster and saintliness by sicklin