Book 13 — BOOK XIII.

THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526-1529.

I. We have witnessed the commencement, the struggles, the reverses, and the progress of the Reformation; but the conflicts that we have hitherto described have been but partial; we are entering upon a new period,—that of general battles. Spire (1529) and Augsburg (1530) are two names that shine forth with more immortal glory than Marathon, Pavia, or Marengo. Forces that up to the present time were separate, are now uniting into one energetic band; and the power of God is working in these brilliant actions, which open a new era in the history of nations, and communicate an irresistible impulse to mankind. The passage from the middle ages to modern times has arrived.

A great protest is about to be accomplished; and although there have been protestants in the Church from the very beginning of Christianity, since liberty and truth could not be maintained here below, save by protesting continually against despotism and error, Protestantism is about to take a new step. It is about to become a body, and thus attack with greater energy that "mystery of iniquity" which for ages has taken a bodily shape at Rome, in the very temple of God.[2]

TWOFOLD MOVEMENT OF REFORM.

But although we have to treat of protests, it must not however be imagined that the Reformation is a negative work. In every sphere in which anything great is evolved, whether in nature or society, there is a principle of life at work,—a seed that God fertilizes. The Reformation, when it appeared in the sixteenth century, did not, it is true, perform a new work, for a reformation is not a formation; but it turned its face toward the beginnings of Christianity, thither were its steps directed; it seized upon them with adoration, and embraced them with affection. Yet it was not satisfied with this return to primitive times. Laden with its precious burden, it again crossed the interval of ages, and brought back to fallen and lifeless Christendom the sacred fire that was destined to restore it to light and life. In this twofold movement consisted its action and its strength. Afterwards, no doubt, it rejected superannuated forms, and combated error; but this was, so to speak, only the least of its works, and its third movement. Even the protest of which we have to speak had for its end and aim the re-establishment of truth and of life, and was essentially a positive act.

REFORM THE WORK OF GOD.

This powerful and rapid twofold action of reform, by which the apostolic times were re-established at the opening of modern history, proceeded not from man. A reformation is not arbitrarily made, as charters and revolutions are in some countries. A real reformation, prepared during many ages, is the work of the Spirit of God. Before the appointed hour, the greatest geniuses and even the most faithful of God's servants cannot produce it; but when the reforming time is come, when it is God's pleasure to intervene in the affairs of the world, the divine life must clear a passage, and it is able to create of itself the humble instruments by which this life is communicated to the human race. Then, if men are silent, the very stones will cry out.[3]

It is to the protest of Spire (1529) that we are now about to turn our eyes; but the way to this protest was prepared by years of peace, and followed by attempts at concord that we shall have also to describe. Nevertheless the formal establishment of Protestantism remains the great fact that prevails in the history of the Reformation from 1526 to 1529.

The Duke of Brunswick had brought into Germany the threatening message of Charles the Fifth. The Emperor was about to repair from Spain to Rome to come to an understanding with the Pope, and from thence to pass into Germany to constrain the heretics. The last summons was to be addressed to them by the Diet of Spire, 1526.[4] The decisive hour for the Reformation was about to strike.

On the 25th June, 1526, the diet opened. In the instructions, dated at Seville, 23d March, the Emperor ordered that the Church customs should be maintained entire, and called upon the diet to punish those who refused to carry out the edict of Worms,[5] Ferdinand himself was at Spire, and his presence rendered these orders more formidable. Never had the hostility which the Romish partisans entertained against the evangelical princes, appeared in so striking a manner. "The Pharisees," said Spalatin, "pursue Jesus Christ with violent hatred."[6]

PALLADIUM OF REFORM.

Never also had the evangelical princes showed so much hope. Instead of presenting themselves frightened and trembling, like guilty men, they were seen advancing, surrounded by the ministers of the Word, with uplifted heads and cheerful looks. Their first step was to ask for a place of worship. The Bishop of Spire, count-palatine of the Rhine, having indignantly refused this strange request,[7] the princes complained of it as of an injustice, and ordered their ministers to preach daily in the halls of their palaces. An immense crowd from the city and the country, which amounted to many thousands, immediately filled them.[8] In vain on the feast days did Ferdinand, the ultra-montane princes, and the bishops assist in the pomps of the Roman worship in the beautiful cathedral of Spire; the unadorned Word of God, preached in the Protestant vestibules, engrossed the hearers, and the Mass was celebrated in an empty church.[9]

It was not only the ministers, but the knights and the grooms, "mere idiots," who, unable to control their zeal, everywhere extolled the Word of the Lord.[10] All the followers of the evangelical princes wore these letters braided on their right sleeves: V. D. M. I. Æ., that is to say, "The word of the Lord endureth for ever."[11] The same inscription might be read on the escutcheons of the princes, suspended over their hotels. The Word of God—such from this moment was the palladium of the Reform.

This was not all. The Protestants knew that the mere worship was not sufficient: the Landgrave had therefore called upon the Elector to abolish certain "court customs" which dishonoured the Gospel. These two princes had consequently drawn up an order of living which forbade drunkenness, debauchery, and other vicious customs prevalent during a diet.[12]

FIRMNESS OF THE REFORMERS.

Perhaps the Protestant princes sometimes put forward their dissent beyond what prudence would have required. Not only they did not go to Mass, and did not observe the prescribed fasts, but still further, on the meagre days, their attendants were seen publicly bearing dishes of meat and game, destined for their masters' tables, and crossing, says Cochlœus, in the presence of the whole auditory, the halls in which the worship was celebrating. "It was," says this writer, "with the intent of attracting the Catholics by the savour of the meats and of the wines."[13]

The Elector in effect had a numerous court: seven hundred persons formed his retinue. One day he gave a banquet at which twenty-six princes with their gentlemen and councillors were present. They continued playing until a very late hour—ten at night. Everything in Duke John announced the most powerful prince of the empire. The youthful Landgrave of Hesse, full of zeal and knowledge, and in the strength of a first Christian love, made a still deeper impression on those who approached him. He would frequently dispute with the bishops, and thanks to his acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures, he easily stopped their mouths.[14]

This firmness in the friends of the Reformation produced fruits that surpassed their expectation. It was no longer possible to be deceived: the spirit that was manifested in these men was the spirit of the Bible. Everywhere the sceptre was falling from the hands of Rome. "The leaven of Luther," said a zealous Papist, "sets all the people of Germany in a ferment, and foreign nations themselves are agitated by formidable movements."[15]

It was immediately seen how great is the strength of deep convictions. The states that were well disposed towards the Reform, but which had not ventured to give their adhesion publicly, became emboldened. The neutral states, which demanded the repose of the empire, formed the resolution of opposing the edict of Worms, the execution of which would have spread trouble through all Germany, and the Papist states lost their boldness. The bow of the mighty was broken.[16]

PROCEEDINGS OF THE DIET.

Ferdinand did not think proper, at so critical a moment, to communicate to the diet the severe instructions he had received from Seville.[17] He substituted a proposition of a nature to satisfy both parties.

The laymen immediately recovered the influence of which the clergy had dispossessed them. The ecclesiastics resisted a proposal in the college of princes that the diet should occupy itself with church abuses, but their exertions were unavailing. Undoubtedly a non-political assembly would have been preferable to the diet, but it was already something that religious matters were no longer to be regulated solely by the priests.

The deputies from the cities having received communication of this resolution, called for the abolition of every usage contrary to the faith in Jesus Christ. In vain did the bishops exclaim that, instead of abolishing pretended abuses, they would do much better to burn all the books with which Germany had been inundated during the last eight years. "You desire," was the reply, "to bury all wisdom and knowledge."[18] The request of the cities was agreed to,[19] and the diet was divided into committees for the abolition of abuses.

Then was manifested the profound disgust inspired by the priests of Rome. "The clergy," said the deputy from Frankfort, "make a jest of the public good, and look after their own interests only." "The laymen," said the deputy from Duke George, "have the salvation of Christendom much more at heart than the clergy."

THE PAPACY DESCRIBED.

The commissions made their report: people were astonished at it. Never had men spoken out so freely against the pope and the bishops. The commission of the princes, in which the ecclesiastics and the laymen were in equal numbers, proposed a fusion of Popery and Reform. "The Priests would do better to marry," said they, "than to keep women of ill-fame in their houses; every man should be at liberty to communicate under one or both forms; German and Latin may be equally employed in the Lord's Supper and in Baptism; as for the other sacraments, let them be preserved, but let them be administered gratuitously. Finally, let the Word of God be preached according to the interpretation of the Church (this was the demand of Rome), but always explaining Scripture by Scripture" (this was the great principle of the Reformation). Thus the first step was taken towards a national union. Still a few more efforts, and the whole German race would be walking in the direction of the Gospel.

The evangelical Christians, at the sight of this glorious prospect, redoubled their exertions. "Stand fast in the doctrine," said the Elector of Saxony to his councillors.[20] At the same time hawkers in every part of the city were selling Christian pamphlets, short and easy to read, written in Latin and in German, and ornamented with engravings, in which the errors of Rome were vigorously attacked.[21] One of these books was entitled, The Papacy with its Members painted and described by Doctor Luther. In it figured the pope, the cardinal, and then all the religious orders, exceeding sixty, each with their costumes and description in verse. Under the picture of one of these orders were the following lines:

under another:

and under a third:

"Not one of these orders," said Luther to the reader, "thinks either of faith or charity. This one wears the tonsure, the other a hood; this a cloak, that a robe. One is white, another black, a third gray, and a fourth blue. Here is one holding a looking-glass, there one with a pair of scissors. Each has his playthings......Ah! these are the palmer worms, the locusts, the canker-worms, and the caterpillars which, as Joel saith, have eaten up all the earth."[24]

THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.

But if Luther employed the scourges of sarcasm, he also blew the trumpet of the prophets; and this he did in a work entitled The Destruction of Jerusalem. Shedding tears like Jeremiah, he denounced to the German people a ruin like that of the Holy City, if like it they rejected the Gospel.[25] "God has imparted to us all his treasures," exclaimed he; "he became man, he has served us,[26] he died for us, he has risen again, and he has so opened the gates of heaven, that all may enter......The hour of grace is come......The glad tidings are proclaimed......But where is the city, where is the prince that has received them? They insult the Gospel: they draw the sword, and daringly seize God by the beard.[27]......But wait......He will turn round; with one blow will he break their jaws, and all Germany will be but one wide ruin."

These works had a very great sale.[28] It was not only the peasants and townspeople who read them, but nobles also and princes. Leaving the priests alone at the foot of the altar, they threw themselves into the arms of the new Gospel.[29] The necessity of a reform of abuses was proclaimed on the 1st of August by a general committee.

THE INSTRUCTIONS OF SEVILLE.

Then Rome, which had appeared to slumber, awoke. Fanatical priests, monks, ecclesiastical princes, all beset Ferdinand. Cunning, bribery, nothing was spared. Did not Ferdinand possess the instructions of Seville? To refuse their publication was to effect the ruin of the Church and of the empire. Let the voice of Charles oppose its powerful veto to the dizziness that is hurrying Germany along, said they, and Germany will be saved! Ferdinand made up his mind, and at length, on the 3d August, published the decree, drawn up more than four months previously in favour of the edict of Worms.[30]

The persecution was about to begin; the reformers would be thrown into dungeons, and the sword drawn on the banks of the Guadalquivir would pierce at last the bosom of Reform.

The effect of the imperial ordinance was immense. The breaking of an axle-tree does not more violently check the velocity of a railway train. The Elector and the Landgrave announced that they were about to quit the diet, and ordered their attendants to prepare for their departure. At the same time the deputies from the cities drew towards these two princes, and the Reformation appeared on the brink of entering immediately upon a contest with the Pope and Charles the Fifth.

But it was not yet prepared for a general struggle. It was necessary for the tree to send out its roots deeper, before the Almighty unchained the stormy winds against it. A spirit of blindness, similar to that which in former times was sent out upon Saul and Herod,[31] then seized upon the great enemy of the Gospel; and thus was it that Divine Providence saved the reform in its cradle.

CHANGE OF POLICY.

The first movement of trouble was over. The friends of the Gospel began to consider the date of the imperial instructions, and to weigh the new political combinations which seemed to announce to the world the most unlooked-for events. "When the Emperor wrote these letters," said the cities of Upper Germany, "he was on good terms with the Pope, but now everything is changed. It is even asserted that he had told Margaret, his deputy in the Low Countries, to proceed gently with respect to the Gospel. Let us send him a deputation." That was not necessary. Charles had not waited until now to form a different resolution. The course of public affairs, taking a sudden turn, had rushed into an entirely new path. Years of peace were about to be granted to the Reform.

RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PROPOSED.

Clement VII., whom Charles was about to visit, according to the instructions of Seville, in order to receive in Rome itself and from his sacred hands the imperial crown, and in return to give up to the pontiff the Gospel and the Reformation,—Clement VII, seized with a strange infatuation, had suddenly turned against this powerful monarch. The Emperor, unwilling to favour his ambition in every point, had opposed his claims on the states of the Duke of Ferrara. Clement immediately became exasperated, and cried out that Charles wished to enslave the peninsula, but that the time was come for re-establishing the independence of Italy. This great idea of Italian independence, entertained at that period by a few literary men, had not, as now, penetrated the mass of the nation. Clement therefore hastened to have recourse to political combinations. The Pope, the Venetians, and the King of France, who had scarcely recovered his liberty, formed a holy league, of which the King of England was by a bull proclaimed the preserver and protector.[32] In June 1526, the Emperor caused the most favourable propositions to be presented to the Pope; but these advances were ineffectual, and the Duke of Sessa, Charles's ambassador at Rome, returning on horseback from his last audience, placed a court-fool behind him, who, by a thousand monkey tricks, gave the Roman people to understand how they laughed at the projects of the Pope. The latter responded to these bravadoes by a brief, in which he threatened the Emperor with excommunication, and without loss of time pushed his troops into Lombardy, whilst Milan, Florence, and Piedmont declared for the Holy League. Thus was Europe preparing to be avenged for the triumph of Pavia.

Charles did not hesitate. He wheeled to the right as quickly as the Pope had done to the left, and turned abruptly towards the evangelical princes. "Let us suspend the Edict of Worms," wrote he to his brother; "let us bring back Luther's partisans by mildness, and by a good council cause the evangelical truth to triumph." At the same time he demanded that the Elector, the Landgrave, and their allies should march with him against the Turks—or against Italy, for the common good of Christendom.

Ferdinand hesitated. To gain the friendship of the Lutherans was to forfeit that of the other princes. The latter were already beginning to utter violent threats.[33] The Protestants themselves were not very eager to grasp the Emperor's hand. "It is God, God himself, who will save his churches."[34]

What was to be done? The edict of Worms could neither be repealed nor carried into execution.

CRISIS OF THE REFORMATION.

This strange situation led of necessity to the desired solution: religious liberty. The first idea of this occurred to the deputies of the cities. "In one place," said they, "the ancient ceremonies have been preserved; in another they have been abolished; and both think they are right. Let us allow each one to do as he thinks fit, until a council shall re-establish the desired unity by the Word of God." This idea gained favour, and the recess of the diet, dated the 27th August, decreed that a universal, or at least a national free council should be convoked within a year, that they should request the Emperor to return speedily to Germany, and that, until then, each state should behave in its own territory in a manner so as to be able to render an account to God and to the Emperor.[35]

Thus they escaped from their difficulty by a middle course; and this time it was really the true one. Each one maintained his rights, while recognising another's. The diet of 1526 forms an important epoch in history: an ancient power, that of the middle ages, is shaken; a new power, that of modern times, is advancing; religious liberty boldly takes its stand in front of Romish despotism; a lay spirit prevails over the sacerdotal spirit. In this single step there is a complete victory: the cause of the Reform is won.

Yet it was little suspected. Luther, on the morrow of the day on which the recess was published, wrote to a friend: "The diet is sitting at Spire in the German fashion. They drink and gamble, and there is nothing done except that."[36] "Le congrès danse et ne marche pas,"[37] has been said in our days. It is because great things are often transacted under an appearance of frivolity, and because God accomplishes his designs unknown even to those whom he employs as his instruments. In this diet a gravity and love of liberty of conscience were manifested, which are the fruits of Christianity, and which in the sixteenth century had its earliest, if not its most energetic development among the German nations.

Yet Ferdinand still hesitated. Mahomet himself came to the aid of the Gospel. Louis, king of Hungary and Bohemia, drowned at Mohacz on the 29th August, 1526, as he was fleeing from before Soliman II., had bequeathed the crown of these two kingdoms to Ferdinand. But the Duke of Bavaria, the Waywode of Transylvania, and, above all, the terrible Soliman, contested it against him. This was sufficient to occupy Charles's brother: he left Luther, and hastened to dispute the two thrones.

ITALIAN WAR.

II. The Emperor immediately reaped the fruits of his new policy. No longer having his hands tied by Germany, he turned them against Rome. The Reformation had been exalted and the Papacy was to be abased. The blows aimed at its pitiless enemy were about to open a new career to the evangelical work.

Ferdinand, who was detained by his Hungarian affairs, gave the charge of the Italian expedition to Freundsberg, that old general who had patted Luther in a friendly manner on the shoulder as the reformer was about to appear before the diet of Worms.[38] This veteran, observed a contemporary,[39] who "bore in his chivalrous heart God's holy Gospel, well fortified and flanked by a strong wall," pledged his wife's jewels, sent recruiting parties into all the towns of Upper Germany, and owing to the magic idea of a war against the Pope, soon witnessed crowds of soldiers flocking to his standard. "Announce," Charles had said to his brother,—"announce that the army is to march against the Turks; every one will know what Turks are meant."

Thus the mighty Charles, instead of marching with the Pope against the Reform, as he had threatened at Seville, marches with the Reform against the Pope. A few days had sufficed to produce this change of direction: there are few such in history in which the hand of God is more plainly manifested. Charles immediately assumed all the airs of a reformer. On the 17th September, he addressed a manifesto to the Pope,[40] in which he reproaches him for behaving not like the father of the faithful, but like an insolent and haughty man;[41] and declares his astonishment that, being Christ's vicar, he should dare to shed blood to acquire earthly possessions, "which," added he, "is quite contrary to the evangelical doctrine."[42] Luther could not have spoken better. "Let your holiness," continued Charles the Fifth, "return the sword of St. Peter into the scabbard, and convoke a holy and universal council." But the sword was much more to the pontiff's taste than the council. Is not the Papacy, according to the Romish doctors, the source of the two powers? Can it not depose kings, and consequently fight against them?[43] Charles prepared to requite "eye for eye, and tooth for tooth."[44]

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN.

Now began that terrible campaign during which the storm burst on Rome and on the Papacy that had been destined to fall on Germany and the Gospel. By the violence of the blows inflicted on the pontifical city, we may judge of the severity of those that would have dashed in pieces the reformed churches. While we retrace so many scenes of horror, we have constant need of calling to mind that the chastisement of the seven-hilled city had been predicted by the Divine Scriptures.[45]

MARCH ON ROME.

In the month of November, Freundsberg, at the head of fifteen thousand men, was at the foot of the Alps. The old general, avoiding the military roads, that were well guarded by the enemy, flung himself into a narrow path, over frightful precipices, that a few blows of the mattock would have rendered impassable. The soldiers are forbidden to look behind them; nevertheless their heads turn, their feet slip, and horse and foot fall from time to time down the abyss. In the most difficult passes, the most sure-footed of the infantry lower their long pikes to the right and left of their aged chief, by way of barrier, and Freundsberg advances, clinging to the lansquenet in front, and pushed on by the one behind. In three days the Alps are crossed, and on the 19th November the army reaches the territory of Brescia.

The Constable of Bourbon, who since the death of Pescara was commander-in-chief of the imperial army, had just taken possession of the duchy of Milan. The Emperor having promised him this conquest for a recompense, Bourbon was compelled to remain there some time to consolidate his power. At length, on the 12th February, he and his Spanish troops joined the army of Freundsberg, which was becoming impatient at his delays. The Constable had many men, but no money: he resolved therefore to follow the advice of the Duke of Ferrara, that inveterate enemy of the princes of the Church, and proceed straight to Rome.[46] The whole army received this news with a shout of joy. The Spaniards were filled with a desire of avenging Charles the Fifth, and the Germans were overflowing with hatred against the Pope: all exulted in the hope of receiving their pay and of having their labours richly recompensed at last by the treasures of Christendom that Rome had been accumulating for ages. Their shouts re-echoed beyond the Alps. Every man in Germany thought that the last hour of the Papacy had now come, and prepared to contemplate its fall. "The Emperor's forces are triumphing in Italy," wrote Luther; "the Pope is visited from every quarter. His destruction draweth nigh; his hour and his end are come."[47]

REVOLT OF THE TROOPS.

A few slight advantages gained by the papal soldiers in the kingdom of Naples, led to the conclusion of a truce that was to be ratified by the Pope and by the Emperor. At this news a frightful tumult broke out in the Constable's army. The Spanish troops revolted, compelled him to flee, and pillaged his tent. Then approaching the lansquenets, they began to shout as loudly as they could, the only German words they knew: Lance! lance! money! money![48] These words found an echo in the bosoms of the Imperialists; they were moved in their turn, and also began to cry with all their might: Lance! lance! money! money! Freundsberg beat to muster, and having drawn up the soldiers around him and his principal officers, calmly demanded if he had ever deserted them. All was useless. The old affection which the lansquenets bore to their leader seemed extinct. One chord alone vibrated in their hearts: they must have pay and war. Accordingly, lowering their lances, they presented them, as if they would slay their officers, and again began to shout, "Lance! lance! money! money!"—Freundsberg, whom no army however large had ever frightened! Freundsberg, who was accustomed to say, "the more enemies, the greater the honour," seeing these lansquenets, at whose head he had grown gray, aiming their murderous steel against him, lost all power of utterance, and fell senseless upon a drum, as if struck with a thunderbolt.[49] The strength of the veteran general was broken for ever. But the sight of their dying captain produced on the lansquenets an effect that no speech could have made. All the lances were upraised, and the agitated soldiers retired with downcast eyes. Four days later, Freundsberg recovered his speech. "Forward," said he to the Constable; "God himself will bring us to the mark." Forward! forward! repeated the lansquenets. Bourbon had no other alternative: besides, neither Charles nor Clement would listen to any propositions of peace. Freundsberg was carried to Ferrara, and afterwards to his castle of Mindelheim, where he died after an illness of eighteen months; and on the 18th April, Bourbon took the highroad to Rome, which so many formidable armies coming from the north had already trodden.

THE ASSAULT.

Whilst the storm descending from the Alps was approaching the eternal city, the Pope lost his presence of mind, sent away his troops, and kept only his body-guard. More than thirty thousand Romans, it is true, capable of bearing arms, paraded their bravery in the streets, dragging their long-swords after them, quarrelling and fighting; but these citizens, eager in the pursuit of gain, had little thought of defending the Pope, and desired on the contrary that the magnificent Charles would come and settle in Rome, hoping to derive great profit from his stay.

On the evening of the 5th May Bourbon arrived under the walls of the capital; and he would have begun the assault at that very moment if he had had ladders. On the morning of the 6th the army, concealed by a thick fog which hid their movements,[50] was put in motion, the Spaniards marching to their station above the gate of the Holy Ghost, and the Germans below.[51] The Constable, wishing to encourage his soldiers, seized a scaling-ladder, mounted the wall, and called on them to follow him. At this moment a ball struck him: he fell, and expired an hour after. Such was the end of this unhappy man, a traitor to his king and to his country, and suspected even by his new friends.

His death, far from checking, served only to excite the army. Claudius Seidenstucker, grasping his long sword, first cleared the wall; he was followed by Michael Hartmann, and these two reformed Germans exclaimed that God himself marched before them in the clouds. The gates were opened, the army poured in, the suburbs were taken, and the Pope, surrounded by thirteen cardinals, fled to the Castle of St. Angelo. The Imperialists, at whose head was now the Prince of Orange, offered him peace on condition of his paying three hundred thousand crowns. But Clement, who thought that the Holy League was on the point of delivering him, and who fancied he already saw their leading horsemen, rejected every proposition. After four hours' repose, the attack was renewed, and by an hour after sunset the army was master of all the city. It remained under arms and in good order until midnight, the Spaniards in the Piazza Navona, and the Germans in the Campofiore. At last, seeing no demonstrations either of war or of peace, the soldiers disbanded and ran to pillage.

THE SACK.

Then began the famous "Sack of Rome." The Papacy had for centuries put Christendom in the press. Prebends, annates, jubilees, pilgrimages, ecclesiastical graces,—she had made money of them all. These greedy troops, that for months had lived in wretchedness, determined to make her disgorge. No one was spared, the imperial not more than the ultramontane party, the Ghibellines not more than the Guelfs. Churches, palaces, convents, private houses, basilics, banks, tombs—every thing was pillaged, even to the golden ring that the corpse of Julius II. still wore on its finger. The Spaniards displayed the greatest skill; they scented out and discovered treasures in the most mysterious hiding-places; but the Neapolitans were still more outrageous.[52] "On every side were heard," says Guicciardini, "the piteous shrieks of the Roman women and of the nuns whom the soldiers dragged away by companies to satiate their lust."[53]

GERMAN HUMOURS.

At first the Germans found a certain pleasure in making the Papists feel the weight of their swords. But ere long, happy at finding food and drink, they were more pacific than their allies. It was upon those things which the Romans called "holy" that the anger of the Lutherans was especially discharged. They took away the chalices, the pyxes, the silver remonstrances, and clothed their servants and camp-boys with the sacerdotal garments.[54] The Campofiore was changed into an immense gambling-house. The soldiers brought thither golden vessels and bags full of crowns, staked them upon one throw of the dice, and after losing them, they went in search of others. A certain Simon Baptista, who had foretold the sack of the city, had been thrown into prison by the Pope; the Germans liberated him, and made him drink with them. But, like Jeremiah, he prophesied against all. "Rob, plunder," cried he to his liberators; "you shall however give back all; the money of the soldiers and the gold of the priests will follow the same road."

Nothing pleased the Germans more than to mock the papal court. "Many prelates," says Guicciardini, "were paraded on asses through all the city of Rome."[55] After this procession, the bishops paid their ransom; but they fell into the hands of the Spaniards, who made them pay it a second time.[56]

One day a lansquenet named Guillaume de Sainte Celle, put on the Pope's robes, and placed the triple crown upon his head; others, adorning themselves with the red hats and long robes of the cardinals, surrounded him; and all going in procession upon asses through the streets of the city, arrived at last before the castle of Saint Angelo, where Clement VII. had retired. Here the soldier-cardinals alighted, and lifting up the front of their robes, kissed the feet of the pretended pontiff. The latter drank to the health of Clement VII., the cardinals kneeling did the same, and exclaimed that henceforward they would be pious popes and good cardinals, who would have a care not to excite wars, as all their predecessors had done. They then formed a conclave, and the Pope having announced to his consistory that it was his intention to resign the Papacy, all hands were immediately raised for the election, and they cried out "Luther is Pope! Luther is Pope!"[57] Never had pontiff been proclaimed with such perfect unanimity. Such were the humours of the Germans.

VIOLENCE OF THE SPANIARDS.

The Spaniards did not let them off so easily. Clement VII. had called them "Moors," and had published a plenary, indulgence for whoever should kill any of them. Nothing, therefore, could restrain their fury. These faithful Catholics put the prelates to death in the midst of horrible tortures, destined to extort their treasures from them: they spared neither rank, sex, nor age. It was not until after the sack had lasted ten days, and a booty of ten million golden crowns had been collected, and from five to eight thousand victims had perished, that quiet began to be in some degree restored.

Thus did the pontifical city expire in the midst of a long and cruel pillage, and that splendour with which Rome from the beginning of the sixteenth century had filled the world faded in a few hours. Nothing could preserve this haughty city from chastisement, not even the prayers of its enemies. "I would not have Rome burnt," Luther had exclaimed; "it would be a monstrous deed."[58] The fears of Melancthon were still keener: "I tremble for the libraries," said he, "we know how hateful books are to Mars."[59] But in despite of these wishes of the reformers, the city of Leo X. fell under the judgment of God.

Clement VII., besieged in the castle of Saint Angelo, and fearful that the enemy would blow his asylum into the air with their mines, at last capitulated. He renounced every alliance against Charles the Fifth, and bound himself to remain a prisoner until he had paid the army four hundred thousand ducats. The evangelical Christians gazed with astonishment on this judgment of the Lord. "Such," said they, "is the empire of Jesus Christ, that the Emperor, pursuing Luther on account of the Pope, is constrained to ruin the Pope instead of Luther. All things minister unto the Lord, and turn against his adversaries."[60]

PROFITABLE CALM.

III. And in truth the Reform needed some years of repose that it might increase and gain strength; and it could not enjoy peace, unless its great enemies were at war with each other. The madness of Clement VII. was as it were the lightning-conductor of the Reformation, and the ruin of Rome built up the Gospel. It was not only a few months' gain; from 1526 to 1529 there was a calm in Germany by which the Reformation profited to organize and extend itself. A constitution was now to be given to the renovated Church.

The papal yoke having been broken, the ecclesiastical order required to be reestablished. It was impossible to restore their ancient jurisdiction to the bishops; for these continental prelates maintained that they were, in an especial manner, the Pope's servants. A new state of things was therefore called for, under pain of seeing the Church fall into anarchy. Provision was made for it. It was then that the evangelic nations separated definitely from that despotic dominion which had for ages kept all the West in bondage.

Already on two occasions the diet had wished to make the reform of the Church a national work; the Emperor, the Pope, and a few princes were opposed to it; the Diet of Spire had therefore resigned to each state the task that it could not accomplish itself.

But what constitution were they about to substitute for the papal hierarchy?

They could, while suppressing the Pope, preserve the Episcopal order: it was the form most approximate to that which was on the point of being destroyed.

They might, on the contrary, reconstruct the ecclesiastical order, by having recourse to the sovereignty of God's Word, and by re-establishing the rights of the christian people. This form was the most remote from the Roman hierarchy. Between these two extremes there were several middle courses.

PHILIP OF HESSE.

The latter plan was Zwingle's; but the reformer of Zurich had not fully carried it out. He had not called upon the christian people to exercise the sovereignty, and had stopped at the council of two hundred as representing the Church.[61]

The step before which Zwingle had hesitated might be taken, and it was so. A prince did not shrink from what had alarmed even republics. Evangelical Germany, at the moment in which she began to try her hand on ecclesiastical constitutions, began with that which trenched the deepest on the papal monarchy.

It was not, however, from Germany that such a system could proceed. If the aristocratic England was destined to cling to the episcopal form, the docile Germany was destined the rather to stop in a governmental medium. The democratic extreme issued from Switzerland and France. One of Calvin's predecessors then hoisted that flag which the powerful arm of the Genevese Reformer was to lift again in after-years and plant in France, Switzerland, Holland, Scotland, and even in England, whence it was a century later to cross the Atlantic and summon North America to take its rank among the nations.

None of the evangelical princes was so enterprising as Philip of Hesse, who has been compared to Philip of Macedon in subtlety, and to his son Alexander in courage. Philip comprehended that religion was at length acquiring its due importance; and far from opposing the great development that was agitating the people, he put himself in harmony with the new ideas.

The morning-star had risen for Hesse almost at the same time as for Saxony. In 1517, when Luther was preaching in Wittemberg the gratuitous remission of sins, men and women were seen in Marburg repairing secretly to one of the ditches of the city, and there, near a solitary loophole, listening to the words that issued from within, and that preached doctrines of consolation through the bars. It was the voice of the Franciscan, James Limburg, who having declared that, for fifteen centuries, the priests had falsified the Gospel of Christ, had been thrown into this gloomy dungeon. These mysterious assemblies lasted a fortnight. On a sudden the voice ceased; these lonely meetings had been discovered, and the Franciscan, torn from his cell, had been hurried away across the Lahnberg towards some unknown spot. Not far from the Ziegenberg, some weeping citizens of Marburg came up with him, and hastily snatching aside the canvass that covered his car, they asked him, "Whither are you going?" "Where God wills," calmly replied the friar.[62] There was no more talk of him, and it is not known what became of him. These disappearances are usual in the Papacy.

Scarcely had Philip prevailed in the Diet of Spire, when he resolved on devoting himself to the Reformation of his hereditary states.

Lambert's Paradoxes.

His resolute character made him incline towards the Swiss reform: it was not therefore one of the moderates that he required. He had formed a connexion at Spire with James Sturm, the deputy from Strasburg, who spoke to him of Francis Lambert of Avignon, who was then at Strasburg. Of a pleasing exterior and decided character, Lambert added to the fire of the South the perseverance of the North. He was the first in France to throw off the cowl, and he had never since then ceased to call for a radical reform in the Church. "Formerly," said he, "when I was a hypocrite, I lived in abundance; now I consume frugally my daily bread with my small family;[63] but I had rather be poor in Christ's kingdom, than possess abundance of gold in the dissolute dwellings of the Pope." The Landgrave saw that Lambert was such a man as he required, and invited him to his court.

Lambert, desiring to prepare the reform of Hesse, drew up one hundred and fifty-eight theses, which he entitled "paradoxes," and posted them, according to the custom of the times, on the church doors.

Friends and enemies immediately crowded round them. Some Roman catholics would have torn them down, but the reformed townspeople kept watch, and holding a synod in the public square, discussed, developed, proved these propositions, and ridiculed the anger of the Papists.

FRIAR BONIFACE.

A young priest, Boniface Dornemann, full of self-conceit, whom the bishop, on the day of his consecration, had extolled above Paul for his learning, and above the Virgin for his chastity, finding himself too short to reach Lambert's placard, had borrowed a stool, and surrounded by a numerous audience, had begun to read the propositions aloud.[64]

"All that is deformed, ought to be reformed. The Word of God alone teaches us what ought to be so, and all reform that is effected otherwise is vain."[65]

This was the first thesis. "Hem!" said the young priest, "I shall not attack that." He continued.

"It belongs to the Church to judge on matters of faith. Now the Church is the congregation of those who are united by the same spirit, the same faith, the same God, the same Mediator, the same Word, by which alone they are governed, and in which alone they have life."[66]

"I cannot attack that proposition," said the priest.[67] He continued reading from his stool.

"The Word is the true key. The kingdom of heaven is open to him who believes the Word, and shut against him who believes it not. Whoever, therefore, truly possesses the Word of God, has the power of the keys. All other keys, all the decrees of the councils and popes, and all the rules of the monks, are valueless."

Friar Boniface shook his head and continued.

DISPUTATION AT HOMBURG.

"Since the priesthood of the Law has been abolished, Christ is the only immortal and eternal priest, and he does not, like men, need a successor. Neither the Bishop of Rome nor any other person in the world is his representative here below. But all Christians, since the commencement of the Church, have been and are participators in his priesthood."

This proposition smelt of heresy. Dornemann, however, was not discouraged; and whether it was from weakness of mind, or from the dawning of light, at each proposition that did not too much shock his prejudices, he failed not to repeat: "Certainly, I shall not attack that one!" The people listened in astonishment, when one of them,—whether he was a fanatical Romanist, a fanatical Reformer, or a mischievous wag, I cannot tell—tired of these continual repetitions, exclaimed: "Get down, you knave, who cannot find a word to impugn." Then rudely pulling the stool from under him, he threw the unfortunate clerk flat in the mud.[68]

On the 21st October, at seven in the morning, the gates of the principal church of Homburg were thrown open, and the prelates, abbots, priests, counts, knights, and deputies of the towns, entered in succession, and in the midst of them was Philip, in his quality of first member of the Church.

After Lambert had explained and proved his theses, he added: "Let him stand forth who has anything to say against them." There was at first a profound silence; but at length Nicholas Ferber, superior of the Franciscans of Marburg, who in 1524, applying to Rome's favourite argument, had entreated the Landgrave to employ the sword against the heretics, began to speak with drooping head, and downcast eyes; but as he invoked Augustin, Peter Lombard, and other doctors to his assistance, the Landgrave observed to him: "Do not put forward the wavering opinions of men, but the Word of God, which alone fortifies and strengthens our hearts." The Franciscan sat down in confusion, saying: "This is not the place for replying." The disputation, however, recommenced, and Lambert, showing all the fire of the South, so astonished his adversary, that the superior, alarmed at what he called "thunders of blasphemy and lightnings of impiety,"[69] sat down again, observing a second time, "This is not the place for replying."

TRIUMPH OF THE GOSPEL IN HESSE.

In vain did the Chancellor Feige declare to him that each man had the right of maintaining his opinion with full liberty; in vain did the Landgrave himself exclaim that the Church was sighing after truth: silence had become Rome's refuge. "I will defend the doctrine of purgatory," a priest had said prior to the discussion; "I will attack the paradoxes under the sixth head (on the true priesthood)," had said another;[70] and a third had exclaimed, "I will overthrow those under the tenth head (on images);" but now they were all dumb.

Upon this Lambert, clasping his hands, exclaimed with Zacharias: Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people.

After three days of discussion, which had been a continual triumph for the evangelical doctrine, men were selected and commissioned to constitute the churches of Hesse in accordance with the Word of God. They were more than three days occupied in the task, and then their new constitution was published in the name of the synod.

The first ecclesiastical constitution produced by the Reformation should have a place in history, so much the more as it was then set forward as a model for the new Churches of Christendom.[71]

CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH.

The autonomy or self-government of the Church is its fundamental principle: it is from the Church, from its representatives assembled in the name of the Lord, that this legislation emanates; there is no mention in the prologue either of state or of Landgrave.[72] Philip, content with having broken for himself and for his people the yoke of a foreign priest, had no desire to put himself in his place, and was satisfied with an external superintendence, necessary for the maintenance of order.

A second distinctive feature in this constitution is its simplicity both of government and worship. The assembly conjures all future synods not to load the Churches with a multitude of ordinances, "seeing that where orders abound, disorder superabounds." They would not even continue the organs in the churches, because, said they, "men should understand what they hear."[73] The more the human mind has been bent in one direction, the more violent is the reaction in the contrary direction when it is unbent. The Church passed at that time from the extreme of symbols to that of simplicity. These are the principal features of this constitution:—

"The Church can only be taught and governed by the Word of its Sovereign Pastor. Whoever has recourse to any other word shall be deposed and excommunicated.[74]

"Every pious man, learned in the Word of God, whatever be his condition, may be elected bishop if he desire it, for he is called inwardly of God.[75]

"Let no one believe that by a bishop we understand anything else than a simple minister of the Word of God.[76]

"The ministers are servants, and consequently they ought not to be lords, princes, or governors.

CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH—BISHOPS.

"Let the faithful assemble and choose their bishops and deacons. Each church should elect its own pastor.[77]

"Let those who are elected bishops be consecrated to their office by the imposition of the hands of three bishops; and as for the deacons, if there are no ministers present, let them receive the laying on of hands from the elders of the Church.[78]

"If a bishop causes any scandal to the Church by his effeminacy, or by the splendour of his garments, or by the levity of his conduct, and if, on being warned, he persists, let him be deposed by the Church.[79]

"Let each church place its bishop in a condition to live with his family, and to be hospitable, as St. Paul enjoins; but let the bishops exact nothing for their casual duties.[80]

"On every Sunday let there be in some suitable place an assembly of all the men who are in the number of the saints, to regulate with the bishop, according to God's Word, all the affairs of the Church, and to excommunicate whoever gives occasion of scandal to the Church; for the Church of Christ has never existed without exercising the power of excommunication.[81]

"As a weekly assembly is necessary for the direction of the particular churches, so a general synod should be held annually for the direction of all the churches in the country.[82]

TWO ELEMENTS IN THE CHURCH.

"All the pastors are its natural members; but each church shall further elect from its body a man full of the Spirit and of faith, to whom it shall intrust powers for all that is in the jurisdiction of the synod.[83]

"Three visiters shall be elected yearly, with commission to go through all the churches, to examine those who have been elected bishops, to confirm those who have been approved of, and to provide for the execution of the decrees of the synod."

It will no doubt be found that this first evangelical constitution went in some points to the extreme of ecclesiastical democracy; but certain institutions had crept in that were capable of increase and of changing its nature. Six superintendents for life were afterwards substituted for these annual visiters (who, according to the primitive institution, might be simple members of the church); and, as has been remarked,[84] the encroachments, whether of these superintendents or of the state, gradually paralyzed the activity and independence of the churches of Hesse. This constitution fared as did that of the Abbé Sièyes, in the year 8, which, being destined to be republican, served through the influence of Napoleon Bonaparte to establish the despotism of the Empire.

It was not the less a remarkable work. Romish doctors have reproached the Reformation for making the Church a too interior institution.[85] In effect, the Reformation and Popery recognise two elements in the Church,—the one exterior, the other interior; but while Popery gives precedence to the former, the Reformation assigns it to the latter. If however it be a reproach against the Reformation for having an inward Church only, and for not creating an external one, the remarkable constitution of which we have just exhibited a few features, will save us the trouble of reply. The exterior ecclesiastical order, which then sprung from the very heart of the Reformation, is far more perfect than that of Popery.

LUTHER ON THE MINISTRY.

One great question presented itself: Will these principles be adopted by all the Churches of the Reformation?

Everything seemed to indicate as much. The most pious men thought at that time that the ecclesiastical power proceeded from the members of the Church. By withdrawing from the hierarchical extreme, they flung themselves into a democratical one. Luther himself had professed this doctrine as early as 1523. The Calixtins of Bohemia, on seeing the bishops of their country refuse them ministers, had gone so far as to take the first vagabond priest. "If you have no other means of procuring pastors," wrote Luther to them, "rather do without them, and let each head of a family read the Gospel in his own house, and baptise his children, sighing after the sacrament of the altar as the Jews at Babylon did for Jerusalem.[86] The consecration of the Pope creates priests—not of God, but of the devil, ordained solely to trample Jesus Christ under foot, to bring his sacrifice to naught, and to sell imaginary holocausts to the world in his name.[87] Men become ministers only by election and calling, and that ought to be effected in the following manner:—

"First, seek God by prayer;[88] then being assembled together with all those whose hearts God has touched, choose in the Lord's name him or them whom you shall have acknowledged to be fitted for this ministry. After that, let the chief men among you lay their hands on them, and recommend them to the people and to the Church."[89]

ORGANIZATION OF THE CHURCH.

Luther, in thus calling upon the people alone to nominate their pastors, submitted to the necessities of the times. It was requisite to constitute the ministry; but the ministry having no existence, it could not then have the legitimate part that belongs to it in the choice of God's ministers.

But another necessity, proceeding in like manner from the state of affairs, was to incline Luther to deviate from the principles he had laid down.

The German Reformation can hardly be said to have begun with the lower classes, as in Switzerland and France; and Luther could scarcely find anywhere that christian people, which should have played so great a part in his new constitution. Ignorant men, conceited townspeople, who would not even maintain their ministers—these were the members of the Church. Now what could be done with such elements?

But if the people were indifferent, the princes were not so. They stood in the foremost rank of the battle, and sat on the first bench in the council. The democratic organization was therefore compelled to give way to an organization conformable to the civil government. The Church is composed of Christians, and they are taken wherever they are found—high or low. It was particularly in high stations that Luther found them. He admitted the princes as representatives of the people; and henceforward the influence of the state became one of the principal elements in the constitution of the evangelical Church.

In the mind of the Reformer, this guardianship of the princes was only to be provisional. The faithful being then in minority, they had need of a guardian; but the era of the Church's majority might arrive, and with it would come its emancipation.

LUTHER'S LETTER TO THE ELECTOR.

We may admit that this recourse to the civil power was at that time necessary, but we cannot deny that it was also a source of difficulties. We will point out only one. When Protestantism became an affair of governments and nations, it ceased to be universal. The new spirit was capable of creating a new earth. But instead of opening new roads, and of purposing the regeneration of all Christendom, and the conversion of the whole world, the Protestants sought to settle themselves as comfortably as possible in a few German duchies. This timidity, which has been called prudence, did immense injury to the Reformation.

The organizing power being once discovered, the Reformers thought of organization, and Luther applied to the task; for although he was in an especial manner an assailant and Calvin an organizer, these two qualities, as necessary to the reformers of the Church as to the founders of empires, were not wanting in either of these great servants of God.

It was necessary to compose a new ministry, for most of the priests who had quitted the Papacy were content to receive the watchword of Reform without having personally experienced the sanctifying virtue of the Truth. There was even one parish in which the priest preached the Gospel in his principal church, and sang mass in its succursal.[90] But something more was wanting: a Christian people had to be created. "Alas!" said Luther of some of the adherents of the Reform, "they have abandoned their Romish doctrines and rites, and they scoff at ours."[91]

GERMAN MASS.

Luther did not shrink from before this double necessity; and he made provision for it. Understanding that a general visitation of the churches was necessary, he addressed the Elector on this subject, on the 22d October 1526. "Your highness, in your quality of guardian of youth, and of all those who know not how to take care of themselves," said he, "should compel the inhabitants, who desire neither pastors nor schools, to receive these means of grace, as they are compelled to work on the roads, on bridges, and such like services.[92] The papal order being abolished, it is your duty to regulate these things; no other person cares about them, no other can, and no other ought to do so. Commission, therefore, four persons to visit all the country; let two of them inquire into the tithes and church property; and let two take charge of the doctrine, schools, churches, and pastors." We naturally ask, on reading these words, if the church which was formed in the first century, without the support of princes, could not in the sixteenth be reformed without them?

Luther was not content with soliciting in writing the intervention of the prince. He was indignant at seeing the courtiers, who in the time of the Elector Frederick had shown themselves the inveterate enemies of the Reformation, rushing now, "sporting, laughing, skipping," as he said, on the spoils of the Church. Accordingly, at the end of this year, the Elector having come to Wittemberg, the Reformer repaired immediately to the palace, made his complaint to the prince-electoral, whom he met at the gate, then without caring about those who stopped him, made his way by force into his father's bedchamber, and addressing this prince, who was surprised at so unexpected a visit, begged him to remedy the evils of the Church. The visitation of the churches was resolved upon, and Melancthon was commissioned to draw up the necessary instructions.

In 1526, Luther had published his "German Mass," by which he signified the order of church service in general. "The real evangelical assemblies," he said, "do not take place publicly, pellmell, admitting people of every sort;[93] but they are formed of serious Christians, who confess the Gospel by their words and by their lives,[94] and in the midst of whom we may reprove and excommunicate, according to the rule of Christ Jesus.[95] I cannot institute such assemblies, for I have no one to place in them;[96] but if the thing becomes possible, I shall not be wanting in this duty."

MELANCTHON'S INSTRUCTIONS.

It was also with a conviction that he must give the Church, not the best form of worship imaginable, but the best possible, that Melancthon laboured at his Instructions.

The German Reformation at that time tacked about, as it were. If Lambert in Hesse had gone to the extreme of a democratical system, Melancthon in Saxony was approximating the contrary extreme of traditional principles. A conservative principle was substituted for a reforming one. Melancthon wrote to one of the inspectors:[97] "All the old ceremonies that you can preserve, pray do so.[98] Do not innovate much, for every innovation is injurious to the people."[99]

They retained, therefore, the Latin liturgy, a few German hymns being mingled with it;[100] the communion in one kind for those only who scrupled from habit to take it in both; a confession made to the priest without being in any way obligatory; many saints' days, the sacred vestments,[101] and other rites, "in which," said Melancthon, "there is no harm, whatever Zwingle may say."[102] And at the same time they set forth with reserve the doctrines of the Reformation.

It is but right to confess the dominion of facts and circumstances upon these ecclesiastical organizations; but there is a dominion which rises higher still—that of the Word of God.

Perhaps what Melancthon did was all that could be effected at that time: but it was necessary for the work to be one day resumed and re-established on its primitive plan, and this was Calvin's glory.

DISAFFECTION.

A cry of astonishment was heard both from the camp of Rome and from that of the Reformation. "Our cause is betrayed," exclaimed some of the evangelical Christians: "the liberty is taken away that Jesus Christ had given us."[103]

On their part the Ultramontanists triumphed in Melancthon's moderation: they called it a retractation, and took advantage of it to insult the Reform. Cochlœus published a "horrible" engraving, as he styles it himself, in which, from beneath the same hood was seen issuing a seven-headed monster representing Luther. Each of these heads had different features, and all, uttering together the most frightful and contradictory words, kept disputing, tearing, and devouring each other.[104]

The astonished Elector resolved to communicate Melancthon's paper to Luther. But never did the Reformer's respect for his friend show itself in a more striking manner. He only made one or two unimportant additions to this plan, and sent it back accompanied with the highest eulogiums. The Romanists said that the tiger caught in a net was licking the hands that clipped his talons. But it was not so. Luther knew that the aim of Melancthon's labours was to strengthen the very soul of the Reformation in all the churches of Saxony. That was sufficient for him. He thought besides, that in every thing there must be a transition; and being justly convinced that his friend was more than himself a man of transition, he frankly accepted his views.

The general visitation began. Luther in Saxony, Spalatin in the districts of Altenburg and Zwickau, Melancthon in Thuringia, and Thuring in Franconia, with ecclesiastical deputies and several lay colleagues, commenced the work in October and November 1528.

IMPORTANT RESULTS.

They purified the clergy by dismissing every priest of scandalous life;[105] they assigned a portion of the church property to the maintenance of public worship, and they placed the remainder beyond the reach of plunder; they continued the suppression of the convents; they established everywhere unity of instruction; and "Luther's greater and smaller catechisms," which appeared in 1529, contributed more perhaps than any other writings to propagate throughout the new churches the ancient faith of the Apostles; they commissioned the pastors of the great towns, under the title of superintendents, to watch over the churches and the schools; they maintained the abolition of celibacy; and the ministers of the Word, become husbands and fathers, formed the germ of a third estate, whence in after-years were diffused in all ranks of society learning, activity, and light. This is one of the truest causes of the intellectual and moral superiority that indisputably distinguishes the evangelical nations.

The organization of the churches in Saxony, notwithstanding its imperfections, produced for that time at least the most important results. This was because the Word of God prevailed; and because, wherever this Word exercises its power, secondary errors and abuses are paralyzed. The very discretion that was employed proceeded in reality from a good principle. The reformers, unlike the enthusiasts, did not utterly reject an institution because it was corrupted. They did not say, for example: "The sacraments are disfigured, let us do without them! the ministry is corrupt, let us reject it!"—but they rejected the abuse, and restored the use. This prudence is the mark of a work of God; and if Luther sometimes permitted the chaff to remain along with the wheat, Calvin appeared later, and more thoroughly purged the Christian threshing-floor.

THE REFORMATION ADVANCES.

The organization which was at that time accomplishing in Saxony, exerted a strong reaction on all the German empire, and the doctrine of the Gospel advanced with gigantic strides. The design of God in turning aside from the reformed states of Germany, the thunderbolt that he caused to fall upon the seven-hilled city, was clearly manifest. Never were years more usefully employed; and it was not only to framing a constitution that the Reformation devoted itself, it was also to extend its doctrine.

The duchies of Luneburg and Brunswick, many of the most important imperial cities, as Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, Strasburg, Gottingen, Gosslar, Nordhausen, Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg, removed the tapers from the chapels, and substituted in their place the brighter torch of the Word of God.

In vain did the frightened canons allege the authority of the Church. "The authority of the Church," replied Kempe and Zechenhagen, the reformer of Hamburg, "cannot be acknowledged unless the Church herself obeys her pastor Jesus Christ."[106] Pomeranus visited many places to put a finishing hand to the Reform.

In Franconia, the Margrave George of Brandenburg, having reformed Anspach and Bayreuth, wrote to his ancient protector, Ferdinand of Austria, who had knit his brows on hearing of his reforming proceedings: "I have done this by God's order; for he commands princes to take care not only of the bodies of their subjects, but also of their souls."[107]

In East Friesland, on new-year's day, 1527, a Dominican named Resius, having put on his hood,[108] ascended the pulpit at Noorden, and declared himself ready to maintain certain theses according to the tenor of the Gospel. Having silenced the Abbot of Noorden by the soundness of his arguments, Resius took off his cowl, laid it on the pulpit, and was received in the nave by the acclamations of the faithful. Ere long the whole of Friesland laid aside the uniform of Popery, as Resius had done.

A PIOUS PRINCESS.

At Berlin, Elizabeth, electress of Brandenburg, having read Luther's works, felt a desire to receive the Lord's supper in conformity with Christ's institution: a minister secretly administered it at the festival of Easter, 1528; but one of her children informed the Elector. Joachim was greatly exasperated, and ordered his wife to keep her room for several days;[109] it was even said that he intended to shut her up.[110] This princess, being deprived of all religious support, and mistrusting the perfidious manœuvres of the Romish priests, resolved to escape by flight; and she claimed the assistance of her brother, Christian II. of Denmark, who was then residing at Torgau. Taking advantage of a dark night, she quitted the castle in a peasant's dress, and got into a rude country-waggon that was waiting for her at the gate of the city. Elizabeth urged on the driver, when, in a bad road, the wain broke down. The electress, hastily unfastening a handkerchief she wore round her head, flung it to the man, who employed it in repairing the damage, and ere long Elizabeth arrived at Torgau. "If I should expose you to any risk," said she to her uncle, the Elector of Saxony, "I am ready to go wherever Providence may guide me." But John assigned her a residence in the castle of Lichtenberg, on the Elbe, near Wittemberg. Without taking upon us to approve of Elizabeth's flight, let us acknowledge the good that God's Providence drew from it. This amiable lady, who lived at Lichtenberg, in the study of His word, seldom appearing at court, frequently going to hear Luther's sermons, and exercising a salutary influence over her children, who sometimes had permission to see her, was the first of those pious princesses whom the house of Brandenburg has counted, and even still counts, among its members.

At the same time, Holstein, Sleswick, and Silesia decided in favour of the Reformation: and Hungary, as well as Bohemia, saw the number of its adherents increase.

EDICT OF OFEN.

In every place, instead of a hierarchy seeking its righteousness in the works of man, its glory in external pomp, its strength in a material power, the Church of the Apostles reappeared, humble as in primitive times, and like the ancient Christians, looking for its righteousness, its glory, and its power solely in the blood of Christ and in the Word of God.[111]

IV. All these triumphs of the Gospel could not pass unperceived; there was a powerful reaction, and until political circumstances should permit a grand attack upon the Reformation on the very soil where it was established, and of persecuting it by means of diets, and if necessary by armies, they began to persecute in detail in the Romish countries with tortures and the scaffold.

On the 20th August, 1527, King Ferdinand, by the Edict of Ofen in Hungary, published a tariff of crimes and penalties, in which he threatened death by the sword, by fire, or by water,[112] against whoever should say that Mary was a woman like other women; or partake of the sacrament in an heretical manner; or consecrate the bread and wine, not being a Romish priest; and further, in the second case, the house in which the sacrament should have been administered was to be confiscated or rased to the ground.

Such was not the legislation of Luther. Link having asked him if it were lawful for the magistrate to put the false prophets to death, meaning the Sacramentarians, whose doctrines Luther attacked with so much force,[113] the Reformer replied: "I am slow whenever life is concerned, even if the offender is exceedingly guilty.[114] I can by no means admit that the false teachers should be put to death;[115] it is sufficient to remove them." For ages the Romish Church has bathed in blood. Luther was the first to profess the great principles of humanity and religious liberty.

PERSECUTIONS—WINKLER AND CARPENTER.

They sometimes had recourse to more expeditious proceedings than the scaffold itself. George Winkler, pastor of Halle, having been summoned before Archbishop Albert in the spring of 1527, for having administered the sacrament in both kinds, had been acquitted. As this minister was returning home along an unfrequented road in the midst of the woods, he was suddenly attacked by a number of horsemen, who murdered him, and immediately fled through the thickets without taking anything from his person.[116] "The world," exclaimed Luther, "is a cavern of assassins under the command of the devil; an inn, whose landlord is a brigand, and which bears this sign, Lies and Murder; and none are more readily murdered therein than those who proclaim Jesus Christ."

At Munich George Carpenter was led to the scaffold for having denied that the baptism of water is able by its own virtue to save a man. "When you are thrown into the fire," said some of his brethren, "give us a sign by which we may know that you persevere in the faith."—"As long as I can open my mouth, I will confess the name of the Lord Jesus."[117] The executioner stretched him on a ladder, tied a small bag of gunpowder round his neck, and then flung him into the flames. Carpenter immediately cried out, "Jesus! Jesus!" and the executioner having turned him again and again with his hooks, the martyr several times repeated the word Jesus, and expired.

PERSECUTIONS—KEYSER.

At Landsberg nine persons were consigned to the flames, and at Munich twenty-nine were thrown into the water. At Scherding, Leonard Keyser, a friend and disciple of Luther, having been condemned by the bishop, had his head shaved, and being dressed in a smock-frock, was placed on horseback. As the executioners were cursing and swearing, because they could not disentangle the ropes with which he was to be bound, he said to them mildly: "Dear friends, your bonds are not necessary; my Lord Christ has already bound me." When he drew near the stake, Keyser looked at the crowd and exclaimed: "Behold the harvest! O Master, send forth thy labourers!" He then ascended the scaffold and said: "O Jesu, save me! I am thine." These were his last words.[118] "Who am I, a wordy preacher," exclaimed Luther, when he received the news of his death, "in comparison with this great doer?"[119]

Thus, the Reformation manifested by such striking works the truth that it had come to re-establish; namely, that faith is not, as Rome maintains, an historical, vain, dead knowledge,[120] but a lively faith, the work of the Holy Ghost, the channel by which Christ fills the heart with new desires and with new affections, the true worship of the living God.

These martyrdoms filled Germany with horror, and gloomy forebodings descended from the thrones among the ranks of the people. Around the domestic hearth, in the long winter evenings, the conversation wholly turned on prisons, tortures, scaffolds, and martyrs; and the slightest noise alarmed the old men, women, and children. These narratives gained strength from mouth to mouth; the rumour of a universal conspiracy against the Gospel spread through all the Empire. Its adversaries, taking advantage of this terror, announced with a mysterious air that they must look during this year (1528) for some decisive measure against the Reform.[121] One scoundrel resolved to profit by this state of mind to satisfy his avarice.

PACK'S FORGERY.

No blows are more terrible to a cause than those which it inflicts upon itself. The Reformation, seized with a dizziness, was on the verge of self-destruction. There is a spirit of error that conspires against the cause of truth, beguiling by subtlety;[122] the Reformation was about to experience its attacks, and to stagger under the most formidable assault,—perturbation of thought, and estrangement from the ways of wisdom and of truth.

Otho of Pack, vice-chancellor to Duke George of Saxony, was a crafty and dissipated man,[123] who took advantage of his office, and had recourse to all sorts of practices to procure money. The Duke having on one occasion sent him to the Diet of Nuremberg as his representative, the Bishop of Merseburg confided to him his contribution towards the imperial government. The Bishop having been afterwards called upon for this money, Pack declared that he had paid it to a citizen of Nuremberg, whose seal and signature he produced. This paper was a forgery; Pack himself was the author of it.[124] This wretch, however, put an impudent face on the matter, and as he was not convicted, he preserved the confidence of his master. Erelong an opportunity presented itself of exercising his criminal talent on a larger scale.

No one entertained greater suspicions with regard to the Papists than the Landgrave of Hesse. Young, susceptible, and restless, he was always on the alert. In the month of February 1528, Pack happening to be at Cassel to assist Philip in some difficult business, the Landgrave imparted to him his fears. If any one could have had any knowledge of the designs of the Papists, it must have been the vice-chancellor, one of the greatest enemies to the Reform. The crafty Pack heaved a sigh, bent down his eyes, and was silent. Philip immediately became uneasy, entreated him, and promised to do nothing that would injure the Duke. Then, Pack as if he had allowed an important secret to be torn from him with regret, confessed that a league against the Lutherans had been concluded at Breslau on the Wednesday following Jubilate Sunday, 12th May 1527; and engaged to procure the original of this act for the Landgrave, who offered him for this service a remuneration of ten thousand florins. This was the greatest transaction that this wretched man had ever undertaken; but it tended to nothing less than the utter overthrow of the Empire.

The Landgrave was amazed: he restrained himself, however, wishing to see the act with his own eyes before informing his allies. He therefore repaired to Dresden. "I cannot," said Pack, "furnish you with the original: the Duke always carries it about his person to read it to other princes whom he hopes to gain over. Recently at Leipsic, he showed it to Duke Henry of Brunswick. But here is a copy made by his highness's order." The Landgrave took the document, which bore all the marks of the most perfect authenticity. It was crossed by a cord of black silk, and fastened at both ends by the seal of the ducal chancery.[125] Above was an impression from the ring Duke George always wore on his finger, with the three quarterings that Philip had so often seen; at the top, the coronet, and at the bottom, the two lions. He has no more doubts as to its authenticity. But how can we describe his indignation as he read this guilty document? King Ferdinand, the Electors of Mentz and of Brandenburg, Duke George of Saxony, the Dukes of Bavaria, the Bishops of Salzburg, Wurtzburg, and Bamberg, have entered into a coalition to call upon the Elector of Saxony to deliver up the arch-heretic Luther, with all the apostate priests, monks, and nuns, and to re-establish the ancient worship. If he make default, his states are to be invaded, and this prince and his descendants are to be for ever dispossessed. The same measure was next to be applied to the Landgrave, only ("it was your father-in-law, Duke George," said Pack to Philip, "who got this clause inserted") his states shall be restored to him in consideration of his youth, if he becomes fully reconciled to the Holy Church. The document stated moreover the contingents of men and money to be provided by the confederates, and the share they were to have in the spoils of these two heretical princes.[126]

Many circumstances tended to confirm the authenticity of this paper. Ferdinand, Joachim of Brandenburg, and George of Saxony, had in fact met at Breslau on the day indicated, and an evangelical prince, the Margrave George, had seen Joachim leave Ferdinand's apartments, holding in his hand a large parchment to which several seals were attached. The agitated Landgrave caused a copy to be taken of this document, promised secrecy for a time, paid Pack four thousand florins, and engaged to make up the sum agreed upon, if he would procure him the original. And then, wishing to prevent the storm, he hastened to Weimar to inform the Elector of this unprecedented conspiracy.

"I have seen," said he to John and his son, "nay more—I have had in my hands, a duplicate of this horrible treaty. Signatures, seals—nothing was wanting.[127] Here is a copy, and I bind myself to place the original before your eyes. The most frightful danger threatens us—ourselves, our faithful subjects, and the Word of God."

ADVICE OF THE REFORMERS.

The Elector had no reason to doubt the account the Landgrave had just given him: he was stunned, confounded, and overpowered. The promptest measures alone could avert such unheard of disasters: everything must be risked to extricate them from certain destruction. The impetuous Philip breathed fire and flames;[128] his plan of defence was already prepared. He presented it, and in the first moment of consternation he carried the consent of his ally, as it were by assault. On the 9th March 1528, the two princes agreed to employ all their forces to defend themselves, and even to take the offensive, and to sacrifice life, honour, rank, subjects, and states, to preserve the Word of God. The Dukes of Prussia, Mecklenburg, Luneburg, and Pomerania, the Kings of Denmark and Poland, and the Margrave of Brandenburg, were to be invited to enter into this alliance. Six hundred thousand florins were destined for the expenses of the war; and to procure them, they would raise loans, pledge their cities, and sell the offerings in the churches.[129] They had already begun to raise a powerful army.[130] The Landgrave set out in person for Nuremberg and Anspach. The alarm was general in those countries; the commotion was felt throughout all Germany,[131] and even beyond it. John Zapolya, King of Hungary, at that time a refugee at Cracow, promised a hundred thousand florins to raise an army, and twenty thousand florins a month for its maintenance. Thus a spirit of error was misleading the princes; if it should carry away the Reformers also, the destruction of the Reformation was not far distant.

But God was watching over them. Supported on the rock of the Word, Melancthon and Luther replied: "It is written, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God." As soon as these two men whom the danger threatened (for it was they who were to be delivered up to the papal power) saw the youthful Landgrave drawing the sword, and the aged Elector himself putting his hand on the hilt, they uttered a cry, and this cry, which was heard in heaven, saved the Reform.

Luther, Pomeranus, and Melancthon immediately forwarded the following advice to the Elector: "Above all things, let not the attack proceed from our side, and let no blood be shed through our fault. Let us wait for the enemy, and seek after peace. Send an ambassador to the Emperor to make him acquainted with this hateful plot."

LUTHER'S PACIFIC COUNSEL.

Thus it was that the faith of the children of God, which is so despised by politicians, conducted them aright, at the very moment when the diplomatists were going astray. The Elector and his son declared to the Landgrave that they would not assume the offensive. Philip was in amazement. "Are not the preparations of the Papists worthy an attack?" asked he.[132] "What! we will threaten war, and yet not make it! We will inflame the hatred of our antagonists, and leave them time to prepare their forces! No, no; forward! It is thus we shall secure the means of an honourable peace."——"If the Landgrave desires to begin the war," replied the Reformer, "the Elector is not obliged to observe the treaty; for we must obey God rather than men. God and the right are above every alliance. Let us beware of painting the devil on our doors, and inviting him as godfather.[133] But if the Landgrave is attacked, the Elector ought to go to his assistance; for it is God's will that we preserve our faith." This advice which the Reformers gave, cost them dear. Never did man, condemned to the torture, endure a punishment like theirs. The fears excited by the Landgrave were succeeded by the terrors inspired by the Papist princes. This cruel trial left them in great distress. "I am worn away with sorrow," cried Melancthon; "and this anguish puts me to the most horrible torture.[134] The issue," added he, "will be found on our knees before God."[135]

The Elector, drawn in different directions by the theologians and the politicians, at last took a middle course: he resolved to assemble an army, "but only," said he, "to obtain peace." Philip of Hesse at length gave way, and forthwith sent copies of the famous treaty to Duke George, to the Dukes of Bavaria, and to the Emperor's representatives, calling upon them to renounce such cruel designs. "I would rather have a limb cut off," said he to his father-in-law, "than know you to be a member of such an alliance."

SURPRISE OF THE PAPIST PRINCES.

The surprise of the German courts, when they read this document, is beyond description. Duke George immediately replied to the Landgrave that he had allowed himself to be deceived by unmeaning absurdities; that he who pretended to have seen the original of this act was an infamous liar, and an incorrigible scoundrel; and that he called upon the Landgrave to give up his authority, or else it might well be thought that he was himself the inventor of this impudent fabrication. King Ferdinand, the Elector of Brandenburg, and all the pretended conspirators made similar replies.

Philip of Hesse saw that he had been deceived;[136] his confusion was only exceeded by his anger. He had therefore himself justified the accusations of his adversaries who called him a hot-headed young man, and had compromised to the highest degree the cause of the Reformation and that of his people. He said afterwards, "If that had not happened, it would no more happen now. Nothing that I have done in all my life has caused me greater vexation."

Pack fled in alarm to the Landgrave, who caused him to be arrested; and envoys from the several princes whom this scoundrel had compromised met at Cassel, and proceeded to examine him. He maintained that the original act of the alliance had really existed in the Dresden archives. In the following year the Landgrave banished him from Hesse, showing by this action that he did not fear him. Pack was afterwards discovered in Belgium; and at the demand of Duke George, who had never shown any pity towards him, he was seized, tortured, and finally beheaded.

The Landgrave was unwilling to have taken up arms to no purpose. The archbishop-elector of Mentz was compelled, on the 11th June, 1528, to renounce in the camp of Herzkirchen all spiritual jurisdiction in Saxony and Hesse.[137] This was no small advantage.

PACK'S SCHEME NOT IMPROBABLE.

Scarcely had the arms been laid aside, before Luther took up his pen, and began a war of another kind. "Impious princes may deny this alliance as long as they please," wrote he to Link; "I am very certain that it is not a chimera. These insatiable leeches will take no repose until they see the whole of Germany flowing with blood."[138] This idea of Luther's was the one generally entertained. "The document presented to the Landgrave may be," it was said, "Pack's invention; but all this fabric of lies is founded on some truth. If the alliance has not been concluded, it has been conceived."[139]

Melancholy were the results of this affair. It inspired division in the bosom of the Reformation, and fanned the hatred between the two parties.[140] The sparks from the piles of Keyser, Winckler, Carpenter, and so many other martyrs, added strength to the fire that was already threatening to set the empire in flames. It was under such critical circumstances, and with such menacing dispositions, that the famous Diet of Spire was opened in March 1529. The Empire and the Papacy were in reality preparing to annihilate the Reformation, although in a manner different from what Pack had pretended. It was still to be learnt whether there would be found in the revived Church more vital strength than there had been in so many sects that Rome had easily crushed. Happily the faith had increased, and the constitution given to the Church had imparted greater power to its adherents. All were resolved on defending a doctrine so pure, and a church government so superior to that of Popery. During three years of tranquillity, the Gospel tree had struck its roots deep; and if the storm should burst, it would now be able to brave it.

ALLIANCE BETWEEN CHARLES AND CLEMENT.

V. The sack of Rome, by exasperating the adherents of the Papacy, had given arms to all the enemies of Charles V. The French army under Lautrec had forced the imperial army, enervated by the delights of a new Capua, to hide itself within the walls of Naples. Doria, at the head of his Genoese galleys, had destroyed the Spanish fleet, and all the imperial power seemed drawing to an end in Italy. But Doria suddenly declared for the Emperor; pestilence carried off Lautrec and half of his troops; and Charles, suffering only from alarm, had again grasped the power with a firm resolution to unite henceforward closely with the Pontiff, whose humiliation had nearly cost him so dear. On his side Clement VII., hearing the Italians reproach him for his illegitimate birth, and even refuse him the title of Pope, said aloud, that he would rather be the Emperor's groom than the sport of his people. On the 29th June, 1528, a peace between the heads of the Empire and of the Church was concluded at Barcelona, based on the destruction of heresy; and in November a diet was convoked to meet at Spire on the 21st February, 1529. Charles was resolved to endeavour at first to destroy the Reform by a federal vote; but if this vote did not suffice, to employ his whole power against it. The road being thus traced out, they were about to commence operations.

Germany felt the seriousness of the position. Mournful omens filled every mind. About the middle of January, a great light had suddenly dispersed the darkness of the night.[141] "What that forebodes," exclaimed Luther, "God only knows!" At the beginning of April there was a rumour of an earthquake that had engulfed castles, cities, and whole districts in Carinthia and Istria, and split the tower of St. Mark at Venice into four parts. "If that is true," said the Reformer, "these prodigies are the forerunners of the day of Jesus Christ."[142] The astrologers declared that the aspect of the quartiles of Saturn and Jupiter, and the general position of the stars, was ominous.[143] The waters of the Elbe rolled thick and stormy, and stones fell from the roofs of churches. "All these things," exclaimed the terrified Melancthon, "excite me deeply."[144]

OMENS.

The letters of convocation issued by the imperial government agreed but too well with these prodigies. The Emperor, writing from Toledo to the Elector, accused him of sedition and revolt. Alarming whispers passed from mouth to mouth that were sufficient to cause the fall of the weak. Duke Henry of Mecklenburg and the Elector-palatine hastily returned to the side of Popery.

Never had the sacerdotal party appeared in the diet in such numbers, or so powerful and decided.[145] On the 5th March, Ferdinand, the president of the diet, after him the Dukes of Bavaria, and lastly the ecclesiastical Electors of Mentz and Treves, had entered the gates of Spire surrounded by a numerous armed escort.[146] On the 13th March, the Elector of Saxony arrived, attended only by Melancthon and Agricola. But Philip of Hesse, faithful to his character, entered the city on the 18th March to the sound of trumpets, and with two hundred horsemen.

The divergence of men's minds soon became manifest. A Papist did not meet an Evangelical in the street without casting angry glances upon him, and secretly threatening him with perfidious machinations.[147] The Elector-palatine passed the Saxons without appearing to know them;[148] and although John of Saxony was the most important of the electors, none of the chiefs of the opposite party visited him. Grouped around their tables, the Roman-catholic princes seemed absorbed in games of hazard.[149]

HOSTILITY OF THE PAPISTS.

But erelong they gave positive marks of their hostile disposition. The Elector and the Landgrave were prohibited from having the Gospel preached in their mansions. It was even asserted at this early period that John was about to be turned out of Spire, and deprived of his electorate.[150] "We are the execration and the sweepings of the world," said Melancthon; "but Christ will look down on his poor people, and will preserve them."[151] In truth God was with the witnesses to his Word. The people of Spire thirsted for the Gospel, and the Elector wrote to his son on Palm Sunday: "About eight thousand persons were present to-day in my chapel at morning and evening worship."

The Roman party now quickened their proceedings: their plan was simple but energetic. It was necessary to put down the religious liberty that had existed for more than three years, and for that purpose they must abrogate the decree of 1526, and revive that of 1521.

On the 15th March the imperial commissaries announced to the diet that the last resolution of Spire, which left each state free to act in conformity with the inspirations of its conscience, having given rise to great disorders, the Emperor had annulled it by virtue of his supreme power. This arbitrary act, and which had no precedent in the Empire, as well as the despotic tone with which it was accompanied, filled the evangelical Christians with indignation and alarm. "Christ," exclaimed Sturm, "has again fallen into the hands of Caiaphas and Pilate."[152]

RESOLUTIONS OF THE DIET.

A commission was charged to examine the imperial proposition. The Archbishop of Salzburg, Faber, and Eck, that is to say, the most violent enemies of the Reformation, were among its members. "The Turks are better than the Lutherans," said Faber, "for the Turks observe fast-days and the Lutherans violate them.[153] If we must choose between the Holy Scriptures of God and the old errors of the Church, we should reject the former."[154] "Every day in full assembly Faber casts some new stone against the Gospellers," says Melancthon.[155] "Oh, what an Iliad I should have to compose," added he, "if I were to report all these blasphemies!"

The priests called for the execution of the Edict of Worms, 1521, and the evangelical members of the commission, among whom were the Elector of Saxony and Sturm, demanded on the contrary the maintenance of the Edict of Spire, 1526. The latter thus remained within the bounds of legality, whilst their adversaries were driven to coups d'état. In fact, a new order of things having been legally established in the Empire, no one could infringe it; and if the diet presumed to destroy by force what had been constitutionally established three years before, the evangelical states had the right of opposing it. The majority of the commission felt that the re-establishment of the ancient order of things would be a revolution no less complete than the Reformation itself. How could they subject anew to Rome and to her clergy those nations in whose bosom the Word of God had been so richly spread abroad? For this reason, equally rejecting the demands of the priests and of the Evangelicals, the majority came to a resolution on the 24th March that every religious innovation should continue to be interdicted in the places where the Edict of Worms had been carried out; and that in those where the people had deviated from it, and where they could not conform to it without danger of revolt, they should at least effect no new reform, they should touch upon no controverted point, they should not oppose the celebration of the Mass, they should permit no Roman catholic to embrace Lutheranism,[156] they should not decline the Episcopal jurisdiction, and should tolerate no Anabaptists or Sacramentarians. The status-quo and no proselytism—such were the essentials of this resolution.

THE REFORMATION IN DANGER.

The majority no longer voted as in 1526: the wind had turned against the Gospel. Accordingly this proposition, after having been delayed a few days by the festival of Easter, was laid before the diet on the 6th April, and passed on the 7th.[157]

If it became a law, the Reformation could neither be extended into those places where as yet it was unknown, nor be established on solid foundations in those where it already existed. The re-establishment of the Romish hierarchy, stipulated in the proposition, would infallibly bring back the ancient abuses; and the least deviation from so vexatious an ordinance would easily furnish the Romanists with a pretext for completing the destruction of a work already so violently shaken.