It is everywhere conceded that the forces which brought about the change in the religious life of Northern Europe that we call the Reformation were much more complex than was formerly supposed. No one now thinks of attributing results so widespread and permanent to restored emphasis on a single neglected doctrine, or to the personal influence of a few divinely commissioned men. However important to the movement Luther and his colleagues may have been, their importance is seen to lie chiefly in the fact that they embodied convictions and hopes that had been gradually developing in Teutonic Christendom. The modern student of the origins of the Reformation is not so much concerned with the lives of the Reformers as with the influences which made the Reformation possible. This is a much more difficult and a much more fascinating subject.