TO the thoughtful student of history there is a remarkable parallel between the gradual increase of spiritual understanding and the opening up of vast territories for settlement by the peoples of Europe since the fourteenth century. In the fourteenth century John Wycliffe, in England, and his followers, the Lollards, attempted to reform the church from within. Wycliffe translated parts of the Scriptures into the English language, but he and his followers were treated as heretics and persecuted. In the early fifteenth century, John Huss, in Bohemia, was burned at the stake (1415) because of his reforming zeal; but his followers continued to agitate against abuses within the church. The Lollards and the Hussites paved the way for the reformation in the early sixteenth century. The Reformed Church was initiated in Germany by Martin Luther in 1517 and was aided by the translation of the complete Bible into English by Coverdale in 1535. Coverdale was also employed by Cromwell to assist in the production of the Great Bible of 1539.
In the midst of this epoch of spiritual inquiry and awakening, Christopher Columbus landed in Cuba in 1492, and in 1498 Vasco da Gama discovered a sea route to India by way of the Cape of Good Hope.
As spiritual understanding rose somewhat above the material beliefs of the Dark Ages, and as ritualism and corruption were repudiated in a measure by advancing Christian thought, discovery of new areas increased, not only in the Americas, but in Australasia and Africa.
