Church History, Volume 2 (of 3) (part 2 of 3)

Church History, Volume 2 (of 3) (part 2 of 3)

4. =Thomas à Kempis=, formerly Hamerken, was born in A.D. 1380 at Kempen, near Cologne. He was educated at Deventer, and died as sub-prior of the convent of St. Agnes, near Zwoll, in A.D. 1471. To him, and not to the chancellor Gerson, according to the now universally accepted opinion, belongs the world renowned book De Imitatione Christi. Reprinted about five thousand times, oftener than any other book except the Bible, it has been also translated into more languages than any other. Free from all Romish superstition, it is read by Catholics and Protestants, and holds an unrivalled position as a book of devotion. A photographic reproduction of the original edition of A.D. 1441 was published from the autograph MSS. of Thomas, by Ch. Ruelans, London, 1879.[338]

III. The Church and the People.

§ 115A. PUBLIC WORSHIP AND THE RELIGIOUS EDUCATION OF THE PEOPLE.

Preaching in the vernacular was carried on mainly by the Brothers of the Common Life, the mystics, and several heretical sects, e.g. Waldensians, Wiclifites, Hussites, etc.; and stimulated by their example, others began to follow the same practice. The so called Biblia pauperum set forth in pictures the New Testament history with its Old Testament types and prophecies; Bible Histories made known among the people the Scripture stories in a connected form; and, after the introduction of printing, the German Plenaries helped also to spread the knowledge of God’s word by renderings for private use of the principal parts of the service. For the instruction of the people in faith and morals a whole series of Catechisms was constructed after a gradually developed type. The “Dance of Death” in its various forms reminded of the vanity of all earthly pleasures. The spirit of the Reformation was shown during this period in the large number of hymns written in the vernacular. Church music too received a powerful impulse.

§ 115.1. =Fasts and Festivals.=--New =Mary Festivals= were introduced: F. præsentationis M. on 21st Nov. (Lev. xii. 5-8), F. visitationis M. (Luke i. 39-51), on 2nd July. In the 15th century we meet with the festivals of the Seven Pains of Mary, F. Spasmi M., on Friday or Saturday before Palm Sunday. Dominic instituted a rosary festival, F. rosarii M., on 1st Oct., and its general observance was enjoined by Gregory XIII. in A.D. 1571.--The =Veneration of Ann= (§ 57, 2) was introduced into Germany in the second half of the 15th century, but soon rose to a height almost equal to that of Mary.--The =Fasts= of the early Church (§ 56, 7) had, even during the previous period, been greatly relaxed. Now the most special fast days were mere days of abstinence from flesh, while most lavish meals of fish and farinaceous food were indulged in. Papal and episcopal dispensations from fasting were also freely given.

§ 115.2. =Preaching= (§ 104, 1).--To aid and encourage preaching in the language of the people, unskilled preachers were supplied with Vocabularia prædicantium. Surgant, a priest of Basel, wrote, in the end of the 15th century, a treatise on homiletics and catechetics most useful for his age, Manuale Curatorum. In it he showed how Latin sermons might be rendered into the tongue of the people, and urged the duty of hearing sermons. The mendicants were the chief preachers, especially the mystics of the preaching orders, during the 14th century (§ 114), and the Augustinians, particularly their German Observants, during the 15th (§ 112, 5), and next to them, the Franciscans.--The most zealous preacher of his age was the Spanish Dominican =Vincent Ferrér=. In A.D. 1397 he began his unprecedentedly successful preaching tours through Spain, France, Italy, England, Scotland, and Ireland. He died in A.D. 1419. He laboured with special ardour for the conversion of the Jews, of whom he is said to have baptized 35,000. Wherever he went he was venerated as a saint, received with respect by the clergy and prelates, highly honoured by kings and princes, consulted by rich and poor regarding temporal and spiritual things. He was canonized by Calixtus III. in A.D. 1455. Certain Flagellants (§ 116, 3) whom he met in his travels followed him, scourging themselves and singing his penitential songs, but he stopped this when objected to by the Council of Constance. His sermons dealt with the realities of actual life, and called all classes to repent of their sins. Of a similar spirit was the Italian Dominican =Barletta=, who died in A.D. 1480, whose burlesque and scathing satire rendered him the most popular preacher of the day. In his footsteps went the Frenchmen =Maillard= and =Menot=, both Franciscans, and the German priest of Strassburg, =Geiler of Kaisersberg=, quite equal to them in quaint terseness of expression and biting wit. All these were preeminently distinguished for moral earnestness and profound spirituality.[339]

§ 115.3. =The Biblia Pauperum.=--The typological interpretation of the Old Testament history received a fixed and permanent form in the illustrations introduced into the service books and pictures printed on the altars, walls, and windows of churches, etc., during the 12th century. A set of seventeen such picture groups was found at Vienna, of which the middle panels represent the New Testament history, sub gracia, above it an Old Testament type from the period ante legem, and under it one from the period sub lege. This picture series was completed by the =Biblia pauperum=, so called from the saying of Gregory I., that pictures were the poor man’s Bible. Many of the extant MSS., all depending on a common source, date from the 14th and 15th centuries. The illustrations of the New Testament are in the middle, and round about are pictures of the four prophets, with volumes in their hands, on which the appropriate Old Testament prophecies are written. On right and left are Old Testament types. The multiplication of copies of this work by woodcuts and types was one of the first uses to which printing was put.[340]

§ 115.4. =The Bible in the Vernacular.=--The need of =translations of the Bible= into the language of the people, specially urged by the Waldensians and Albigensians, was now widely insisted upon by those of reformatory tendencies (§ 119). On the introduction of printing, about A.D. 1450, an opportunity was afforded of rapidly circulating translations already made in most of the European languages. Before Luther, there were fourteen printed editions of the Bible in High and five in Low German. The translations, made from the Vulgate, were in all practically the same. The translators are unknown. The diction is for the most part clumsy, and the sense often scarcely intelligible. Translations had been made in England by the Wiclifites, and in Bohemia by the Hussites. In France, various renderings of separate books of Scripture were circulated, and a complete French Bible was issued by the confessor of Charles VIII., Jean de Rely, at Paris, in A.D. 1487. Two Italian Bibles were published in Venice, in A.D. 1471, one by the Camaldulite abbot Malherbi, closely following the Vulgate; the other by the humanist Bruccioli, which often falls back on the original text. The latter was highly valued by Italian exiles of the Reformation age. In Spain a Carthusian, Ferreri, attempted a translation, which was printed at Valencia in A.D. 1478. More popular however than these translations were the =Bible Histories=, i.e. free renderings, sometimes contracted, sometimes expanded, of the historical books, especially these of the Old Testament. From A.D. 1470 large and frequent editions were published of the German =Plenaries=, containing at first only the gospels and epistles, afterwards also the Service of the Mass, for all Sundays and festivals and saints’ days, with explanations and directions.

§ 115.5. =Catechisms and Prayer Books.=--Next to preaching, the chief opportunity for imparting religious instruction was confession. Later catechisms drew largely upon the baptismal and confessional services. In the 13th and 14th centuries the decalogue was added, and afterwards the seven deadly sins and the seven principal virtues. Pictures were used to impress the main points on the minds of the people and the youth. The catechetical literature of this period, both in guides for priests and manuals for the people, was written in the vernacular.--During the 15th century there were also numerous so-called Artes moriendi, showing how to die well, in which often earnest piety appeared side by side with the grossest superstition. There were also many prayer books, Hortuli animæ, published, in which the worship of Mary and the saints often overshadowed that of God and Christ, and an extravagant belief in indulgences led to a mechanical view of prayer that was thoroughly pagan.

§ 115.6. =The Dance of Death.=--The fantastic humour of the Middle Ages found dramatic and spectacular expression in the Dance of Death, in which all classes, from the pope and princes to the beggars, in turn converse with death. It was introduced into Germany and France in the beginning of the 14th century, with the view of raising men out of the pleasures and troubles of life. It was called in France the Dance of the Maccabees, because first introduced at that festival. Pictures and verbal descriptions of the Dance of Death were made on walls and doors of churches, around MSS. and woodcuts, where death was generally represented as a skeleton. Hans Holbein the Younger gave the finishing touch to these representations in his Imagines Mortis, the originals of which are in St. Petersburg. In this masterpiece, the idea of a dancing pair is set aside, and in its place forty pictures, afterwards increased to fifty-eight, full of humour and moral earnestness, pourtray the power of death in the earthly life.[341]

§ 115.7. =Hymnology= (§ 104, 10).--The =Latin Church poetry= of the 14th and 15th centuries was far beneath that of the 12th and 13th. Only the mystics, e.g. Thomas à Kempis, still composed some beautiful hymns. We have now however the beginnings of =German= and =Bohemian= hymnology. The German flagellators sang German hymns (§ 116, 3), and so obtained much popular favour. The Hussite movement of the 15th century gave a great impulse to church song. Huss himself earnestly urged the practice of congregational singing in the language of the people, and himself composed Bohemian hymns. The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren were specially productive in this department (§ 119, 8). In many churches, at least on high festivals, German hymns were sung, and in some even at the celebration of mass and other parts of public worship. The spiritual songs of this period were of four kinds: some half German, half Latin; others translations of Latin hymns and sequences; others, original German compositions by monks and minstrels; and adaptations of secular songs to spiritual purposes. In the latter case the original melodies were also retained. Popular forms and melodies for sacred songs were now secured, and these were subsequently appropriated by the Reformers of the 16th century.

§ 115.8. =Church Music= (§ 104, 11).--Great improvements were made in organs by the invention of pedals, etc. =Church music= was also greatly developed by the introduction of harmony and counterpoint. The Dutch were pre-eminent in this department. Ockenheim, founder of the second Dutch school of music, at the end of the 15th century, was the inventor of the canon and the fugue. The greatest composer of this school was Jodocus Pratensis, about A.D. 1500, and next to him may be named the German, Adam of Fulda.

§ 115.9. =Legendary Relics.=--The legend of angels having transferred the house of Mary from Nazareth, in A.D. 1291, to Tersato in Dalmatia, in A.D. 1294 to Reccanati, and finally, in A.D. 1295, to Loretto in Ancona, arose in the 14th century, in connection with the fall of Acre (§ 94, 6) and the overthrow of the last remnants of the kingdom of Jerusalem. When and how the legend arose of the Scala santa at Rome being the marble steps of Pilate’s prætorium, brought there by St. Helena, is unknown.--Even Frederick the Wise, at an enormous cost, brought together 1,010 sacred relics into his new chapel at Wittenberg, a mere look at which secured indulgence for 100 years. In a catalogue of relics in the churches of St. Maurice and Mary Magdalene at Halle, published in A D. 1520, are mentioned a piece of earth, from a field of Damascus, of which God made the first man; a piece from a field at Hebron, where Adam repented; a piece of the body of Isaac; twenty-five fragments of the burning bush of Horeb; specimens of the wilderness manna; six drops of the Virgin’s milk; the finger of the Baptist that pointed to the Lamb of God; the finger of Thomas that touched the wounds of Jesus; a bit of the altar at which John read mass for the Virgin; the stone with which Stephen was killed; a great piece of Paul’s skull; the hose of St. Thomas of Canterbury; the baret of St. Francis, etc. The collection consisted of 8,933 articles, and could afford indulgence for 39,245,100 years and 220 days! Benefit was to be had by contributions to the church, which went into the pocket of the elector-archbishop, Albert of Mainz. The craze for =pilgrimages= was also rife among all classes, old and young, high and low. Signs and wonders and newly discovered relics were regarded as consecrating new places of pilgrimage, and the stories of pilgrims raised the fame of these resorts more and more. In A.D. 1500 Düren, by the possession of a relic of Ann, stolen from Mainz, rapidly rose to first rank. The people of Mainz sought through the pope to recover this valuable property, but he decided in favour of Düren, because God had meanwhile sanctioned the transfer by working many miracles of healing.

§ 115B. NATIONAL LITERATURE AND ECCLESIASTICAL ART.

Toward the close of the 13th century, and throughout the 14th, a national literature, in prose and poetry, sprang up in Italy, which in several respects has close relations to the history of the church. The three Florentines, Dante, Petrarch and Boccaccio, boldly burst through the barriers of traditional usage, which had made Latin the only vehicle for literature and science, and became the creators of a beautiful Italian style; while their example powerfully influenced their own countrymen, and those of other western nations, during the immediately succeeding ages. The exclusive use of the Latin language had produced a uniform hierarchical spirit, and was a restraint to the anti-hierarchical movements of the age after independent national development in church and State. The breaking down of this barrier to progress was an important step. But all the three great men of letters whom we have named were also highly distinguished for their classical culture. They introduced the study of the ancient classics, and were thus the precursors of the humanists. They also presented a united front against the corruptions of the church, against hierarchical pretensions, the greed and moral debasement of the papacy, as well as against the moral and intellectual degradation of the clergy and the monks. Petrarch and Boccaccio too warred against the depraved scholasticism. The Augustan age of German national poetry was contemporary with the age of the Hohenstaufens. It consisted in popular songs, these often of a sacred character. During the 14th century the sacred drama reached the highest point of its development, especially in Germany, England, France, and Spain. The spirit of the Renaissance, which during the 15th century dominated Italian art, made itself felt also in the domain of ecclesiastical architecture and painting.

§ 115.10. =The Italian National Literature.=[342]--=Dante Alighieri=, born at Florence in A.D. 1265, was in A.D. 1302 banished as a Ghibelline from his native city, and died an exile at Ravenna, in A.D. 1321. His boyish love for Beatrice, which after her early death continued to fill his soul to the end of his life, gave him an impulse to a “New Life,” and proved the unfailing source of his poetic inspiration. His studies at Bologna, Padua, and Paris made him an enthusiastic admirer of Thomas, but alongside of his scholastic culture there lay the quick perception of the beautiful, combined with a lively imagination. He was thus able to deal with the burning questions of his day in one of the greatest poetic masterpieces of any age, people, or tongue. His Divina Commedia describes a vision in which the poet is led, first by the hand of Virgil, as the representative of human wisdom, through Hell and Purgatory, then by Beatrice, whose place at times is taken by the German Matilda (§ 107, 2), and finally by St. Bernard, as representatives of revealed religion, through Paradise and the several heavens up to the empyræum, the eternal residence of the triune God. The poet presents his readers with a description of what he saw, and reports his conversations with his guides and the souls of more important personages, most of them shortly before deceased, in which the problems of philosophy, theology, and politics are discussed. His political views, of which he treats ex professo in the three books of his De monarchia, are derived from Aquinas’ theory of the State, but breathe a strong Italian Ghibelline patriotism, so that he places not only Boniface VIII. but also Frederick II. in Hell. In the struggle between the empire and the papacy he stands decidedly on the side of the former. With profound sorrow he bewails the corruption of the church in its head and members, but holds firmly by its confession of faith. And while lashing vigorously the corruptions of monkery, he eulogizes the heavenliness of the lives of Francis and Dominic.[343] =Petrarch=, who died in A.D. 1374, broke away completely from scholasticism, and turned with enthusiasm to classical studies. He combated superstition, e.g. astrology, but also contends against the unbelief of his age, and in his letters and poems lashes with merciless severity the immorality of the papacy and the secularization of the church.[344] In =Boccaccio= again, who died in A.D. 1375, antipathy to scholasticism, monkery, and the hierarchy had reached its utmost stage. He has no anger and denunciation, but only contempt, reproach, and wit to shoot against them. He also makes light of the moral requirements of Christianity and the church, especially the seventh commandment. But in later years he manifested deep penitence for the lascivious writing of his youth, to which he had given reckless and shameless expression in his “Decameron.”

§ 115.11. =The German National Literature.=--The German prose style was greatly ennobled by the mystics (§ 114), and the highest development of German satire against the hierarchy, clergy, and monks was reached by Sebastian Brant, of Strassburg, who wrote in A.D. 1494 his “Ship of Fools.” Among popular preachers John Tauler held the first rank (§ 114, 2). In Strassburg, Geiler of Kaisersberg distinguished himself as an original preacher. His sermons were full of biting wit, keen sarcasm, and humorous expressions, but also of profound earnestness and withering exposures of the sins of the clergy and monks. His best known work is a series of sermons on Brant’s “Ship of Fools,” published in A.D. 1498.

§ 115.12. =The Sacred Drama= (§ 105, 5).--The poetic merit of most of the German mysteries performed at high festivals is not great. The Laments of Mary however often rose to true poetic heights. Comedy and burlesque too found place especially in connection with Judas, or the exchangers, or the unconverted Magdalene. A priest, Theodoric Schernberg, wrote a play on the fall and repentance of the popess Johanna (§ 82, 6). On Shrove Tuesday plays were performed, in which the clergy and monks were held up to ridicule. Hans Roseuplüt of Nuremberg, about A.D. 1450, was the most famous writer of German Shrovetide plays. In France, about the end of the 14th century, a society of young people of the upper rank was formed, called Enfans sans souci, whose Sotties, buffooneries, in which the church was ridiculed, were in high repute in the cities and at the court. Their most distinguished poet was Pierre Gringoire, who, in the beginning of the 16th century, in the French Chasse du Cerf des Cerfs, parodied the Servus servorum (§ 46, 10), and the church is represented as the old befooled mother. The numerous Italian mysteries were produced mainly by the gifted and cultured sons of Tuscany, who had already developed their native tongue into a beautiful and flexible language. In Spain, during the 15th century, the Autos, partly as Christmas plays and partly as sacramental or passion plays, were based on the ancient mysteries, and in form inclined more to the allegorical moralities.

§ 115.13. =Architecture and Painting= (§ 104, 12, 14)--=Gothic architecture= was the prevailing style in the churches of Germany, France, and England. In Italy, the humanist movement (§ 120, 1) led to the imitation of ancient classical models, and thus the Renaissance style was introduced, which flourished for 300 years. Its real creator was the Florentine Bruneleschi, who won imperishable renown by the grand cupola of the cathedral of Florence. Bramante, died A.D. 1514, marks the transition from the earlier Renaissance of the 15th century to the later of the 16th, at the summit of which stands Michael Angelo, A.D. 1474-1564. After a plan of Bramante Julius II., in A.D. 1506, began the magnificent reconstruction of St. Peter’s at Rome, the execution of which in its gigantic proportions occupied the reigns of twenty popes. It was completed under Urban VIII., in A.D. 1636. This great building, in consequence of the traffic in indulgences, entered on to defray its cost, became the occasion of the loss to the papacy of the half of western Christendom.--Sacred =Statuary=, in the hands of Ghiberti, died A.D. 1455, and Michael Angelo, reached the highest stage of excellence.--Of =Painting=, the Augustan age of which was the 15th century, there were properly four schools. Giotto, who died in A.D. 1336, was founder of the Florentine school, which was specially distinguished by its delineations of sacred history. To it belonged the Dominican Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, who painted only as he prayed, Leonardo da Vinci, Fra Bartolomeo, and Michael Angelo. Then there was the Lombard or Venetian School, at the head of which stands Giovanni Bellini, died A.D. 1516, which turned away from the church and applied itself with its fresh living colouring to the depicting of earthly ideals. Its most eminent representatives were Correggio, died A.D. 1534, and Titian, died A.D. 1576. In the Umbrian school, again, the spirit of St. Francis continued still to breathe. Its greatest master was Raphael of Urbino, the noblest and most renowned of all Christian painters, distinguished also as an architect. The German school had its ablest representatives in the brothers Hubert and John van Eyk, Albert Dürer, and Hans Holbein the Elder.--Continuation § 149, 15.

§ 116. POPULAR MOVEMENTS.

In consequence of the shameful debasement of the papacy and the deep corruption of the clergy and monks, the influence of the church on the moral and religious culture of the people, in spite of the ardent zeal of the homilists and catechists, was upon the whole much less than formerly. Reverence for the church as it stood was indeed tottering, but was not yet completely overthrown. The religious enthusiasm of earlier times was fading away, but occasional phenomena still continued to arise, like St. Bridget and St. Catharine of Siena (§ 112, 4, 8), Claus of Flüe, and the Maid of Orleans. But in order to elevate a John of Nepomuk into a recognised national saint, it was necessary to produce forged legendary stories in post-Reformation times. The market-place tricks of John of Capistrano (§ 112, 3) were of such a kind, that even the papal curia only after a century and a half had passed could venture to adorn him with the halo of saintship. The ever-increasing nuisance of the sale of indulgences smothered religious earnestness and crushed all religious spirit out of the people. But earnestness showed itself again in the reactions of the Beghards and Lollards, or in the explosions of the Flagellants, and spirituality often found rich nourishment in the preaching of the mystics. One current issuing from the widespread Friends of God passed deep into the heart of the German people; another, springing probably from the same source, but with a quite different tendency, appears in the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit. On the other hand, superstition also prevailed, and was all the more dangerous the more it parted with its poetic and naïve character (§ 117, 4). Toward the end of that period however a new era dawned in social life, as well as in national literature. Knighthood paled before gunpowder. The establishment of civic corporations developed a sense of freedom, and introduced a healthy understanding and appreciation of civil liberty. The printing of books began the dissemination of knowledge, and the discovery of America opened to view a new world for trade, colonization, and the spread of Christianity. To the pious heart of the discoverer the extension of Christ’s kingdom proved the most powerful motive to his continued exertions, and from the treasures of the new world he hoped also to obtain the means for conquering again the Holy Sepulchre and the Holy Land.

§ 116.1. =Two National Saints.=--=John of Nepomuk=, of Pomuk in Bohemia, was from A.D. 1380 pastor, then canon, archiepiscopal secretary, and vicar-general of Prague. King Wenzel had him seized, cruelly tortured, and flung over the bridge into the Moldau, because, so runs the legend, he as confessor of the queen sturdily refused to betray the secrets of the confessional, but really because he had roused the king’s anger to the uttermost in a violent controversy between the king’s archbishop, John of Jenzenstein, and the chapter over their election and consecration of an abbot. The confession legend appears first in an Austrian writer of A.D. 1451, who gives it distinctly as a tradition. It is evidently connected with the Taborite rejection of the Catholic doctrine of auricular confession (§ 119, 7). If it be accepted as true, then, seeing that all the older chroniclers ascribe the cruel treatment of this prelate to the share he took in the abbot’s election, it will be necessary to assume two victims of the king’s wrath instead of one. The John Nepomuk of the legend, and the confessor of the queen, was tortured by the king’s command in A.D. 1383; the other, who figures in the old chronicles as archiepiscopal vicar-general, and is simply called John, was tortured in A.D. 1393, and then thrown over the bridge into the Moldau. This latter story appears first in a Bohemian chronicle of A.D. 1541. In the 17th century the Jesuits, in order to deprive the heretical national saint and martyr John Huss of his supremacy by bringing forward another genuine Bohemian, but also a thoroughly Catholic saint, gave currency to the legend, adorned with many additional stories of miracles. Benedict XIII. (§ 164, 1) was just the pope to aid such a device by sanctioning, as he did in A.D. 1729, the canonization of a purely fictitious saint-confessor John Nepomuk. He is patron saint of bridges, whose image in Bohemia, and other strictly Catholic lands, is met with at almost every bridge, and is reverenced as the protector from unjust accusations, as well as the dispenser of rain in seasons of great drought. Although no mention is made of the story about the confessional in the letter of complaint to Rome by Archbishop Jenzenstein, Catholic historians still insist that the confessor’s steadfastness was the real cause, the election of the abbot the ostensible cause, of the martyrdom of A.D. 1393.[345] The need of strengthening the position of the Romish church, in face of the progress of the Swiss Reformation of the 16th century, led also to the elevation of the recluse, =Nicolaus [Nicolas] of Flüe= upon the pedestal of a Swiss national saint. Esteemed even before his birth a saint by reason of signs and wonders, “Brother Claus,” after a long, active life in the world, in his 50th year, the father of ten children, forsook house and home, with the approval of his wife, abstained from all nourishment save that of the sacrament, and died, after spending nineteen years in the wilderness, in A.D. 1487. During this period he was the trusted adviser of all classes upon public and private affairs. He is specially famous as having saved Switzerland, by appearing personally at the Diet of Stanz, in A.D. 1481, stopping the conflict between cities and provinces, which threatened to break up the confederation and bring about civil war, and suggesting the peaceable compromise of the “Agreement of Stanz.” That Brother Claus did assist in securing harmony is a well established fact, but it is also demonstrable that he was not personally present at Stanz. He was beatified by Clement X. in A.D. 1671, but notwithstanding repeated endeavours by his admirers, he has not yet been canonized.

§ 116.2. =The Maid of Orleans, A.D. 1428-1431.=--Joan of Arc was the daughter of a peasant in the village of Domremy, in Champagne. Even in her thirteenth year she thought she saw a peculiar brightness and heard a heavenly voice exhorting her to chastity and piety. She now bound herself by a vow to perpetual virginity. Afterwards the heavenly voices became more frequent, and the brightness took the shape of the archangel Michael, St. Catharine, and other saints, who saluted her as saviour of her fatherland. France was, under the imbecile king Charles VI., and still more after his death, rent by the rival parties of the Armagnacs and Burgundians. The former fought for the rights of the dauphin Charles VII.; the latter supported his mother Isabella and the English king Henry V., who was succeeded in A.D. 1422 by his son Henry VI., then only nine months old. Joan was the enthusiastic supporter of the dauphin. He found himself in A.D. 1428 in the greatest straits. The last bulwark of his might, the city of Orleans, was besieged by the English, and seemed near its fall. Then her voices commanded Joan to relieve Orleans, and to accompany the dauphin to his coronation at Rheims. She now published her call, which had been hitherto kept secret, overcame all difficulties, was recognised as a messenger of heaven, assumed the male attire of a soldier, and placed herself at the head of an enthusiastic crowd. Great success attended the movements of this girl of seventeen years. In the latter campaigns of the war she became the prisoner of Burgundy, who delivered her over to the English. At Rouen she was subjected to an ecclesiastical tribunal, which after four months’ investigation condemned her to the stake as a heretic and sorceress. In view of the fire, her courage failed. Yielding to the persuasion of her confessor, she acknowledged her guilt, and had her sentence commuted to that of imprisonment for life. But eight days later she was led forth to the stake. Her rude keepers had taken away her female attire, and forced her to wear again male garments, and this act to which she was compelled was made a charge against her. She died courageously and piously in A.D. 1431. At the demand of her family, which had been ennobled, a revision of the process against her was made in A.D. 1450, when she was pronounced innocent, and the charges against her false. The endeavour of Dupanloup, Bishop of Orleans, in A.D. 1876, in the name of Catholic France, to have her canonized, was not responded to by the papal curia. The infallible church, that had burnt her as a witch in A.D. 1431, could scarcely give her a place among its saints, even after 450 years had gone.

§ 116.3. =Lollards, Flagellants, and Dancers.=--During a plague at Antwerp in A.D. 1300 the =Lollards= made their appearance, nursing the sick and burying the dead. They spread rapidly over the Netherlands and the bordering German provinces. Like the Beghards however, and for the same reasons, they soon fell under suspicion of heresy, and were subjected to the persecution of the Inquisition, until Gregory XI., in A.D. 1347, again granted them toleration. But the name Lollard still continued to be associated with heresy or hypocrisy (§ 119, 1).[346] The =Flagellant= fraternities, which had sprung up in the 12th century (§ 106, 4), greatly increased during this period, and reached their height during the 14th century. Their influence was greatest during the visitation of the Black Death, A.D. 1348-1350, which cost Europe many millions of lives. Issuing from Hungary, rushing forth with the force of an avalanche, and massing in great numbers on the upper Rhine, they spread over all Germany, Belgium and Holland, Switzerland, England, and Sweden. Entrance into France was refused them at the bidding of the Avignon pope Clement VI. In long rows of penitents, with uncovered head, screaming forth their penitential songs, and with tears streaming down their cheeks, they rushed about lashing their bare backs. They also from city to city and from village to village read aloud a letter of warning, said to have been written by Christ, and brought to the Patriarch of Jerusalem by an angel. This paroxysm lasted for three years. In Lombardy, in A.D. 1399, when famine, pestilence, the Turkish war, and expectation of the end of the world inclined men to such extravagances, the Flagellants made their appearance again, dressed in white robes, and so called Bianchi, Albati. Princes, scholars, and popes, universities and councils sought to check this silly fanaticism, but were not able to suppress it. Many Flagellants were also heretical in their views, spoke of the hierarchy as antichrist, withdrew from the worship of the church, declared the bloody baptism of the scourge the only true sacrament, and died at the stake of the Inquisition.--The =Dancers=, Chorisantes, were a sect closely related to the Flagellants, but their fanaticism seemed more of a pathological than of a religious order. Half naked and crowned with leaves they rushed along the streets and into houses, dancing in a wild, tumultuous manner. They made a great noise in the Rhine Provinces in A.D. 1374 and in A.D. 1418. They were regarded as demoniacs and cured by calling upon St. Vitus.

§ 116.4. =The Friends of God.=--During the 14th century many detachments of mystic sects spread through all Southern Germany, and even from the Netherlands to Hungary and Italy. A powerful religious awakening, with an undertone of contemplative mysticism, was now experienced in the castles of the knights, in the shops of artisans, and in the stalls of traders, as well as in the Beguine houses, the monasteries, and nunneries of the Dominicans and other monkish orders. A great free association was then called forth under the name of “Friends of God” (John xv. 15), whose members maintained personal and epistolary correspondence with one another. The headquarters of this movement were Cologne, Strassburg, and Basel. Its preachers and supporters were mostly Dominicans. They drew their intellectual and spiritual nourishment from the writings of the German mystics. They repudiated all sectarian intentions, carefully observed the rites and ceremonies and attended on the worship of the church, and accepted all its dogmas. But all the greater on this account was their sorrow over the deep decay of religious and moral life, and their lamentations over the corruption of the clergy and hierarchy. Fantastic visionary conceptions, however, derived from the domain of mysticism, were by no means rare among them.

§ 116.5. =Pantheistic Libertine Societies.=--A demoniacally inspired counterpart to the fraternity of the “Friends of God” is found in the sect of the Brothers and Sisters of the Free Spirit. This sect, derived for the most part from the artisan class, may be regarded as carrying out to a consistent development the views of Amalrich of Bena (§ 108, 4). We meet with these in the beginning of the 14th century wandering about, missionarising and agitating in all parts of Southern Germany as well as in Switzerland, while they were particularly numerous in the Rhine Provinces, where Cologne and Strassburg were their main resorts. Often associating with strolling Beghards (§ 98, 12) they are frequently confounded with these. They were communistic libertine pantheists. Every pious man is a Christ, in whom God becomes man. Whatever is done in love is pure. The perfect are free from the law, and cannot sin. The church with her sacraments and institutions is a thorough cheat; purgatory, heaven, and hell are mere figments, the marriage bond contrary to nature, all property is common good, and theft of it allowable. Their secret services ended with immoral orgies. The Inquisition exterminated the sect by sword and stake.--The Adamites in Austria in A.D. 1312 and the Turlupines in the Isle of France showed similar tendencies. In the beginning of the 15th century they reappeared as Homines intelligentiæ at Brussels. In A.D. 1421 the Hussite leader Ziska rooted out the Bohemian Adamites or Picards, who went naked after the pattern of paradise, and had a community of wives. Picard is just a modification of the heretical designation Beghard. They gained a footing in several villages, and built an establishment on a small island in a tributary of the Moldau, from which they made excursions into the surrounding districts, until Ziska put an end to them by conquering the island in A.D. 1421.

§ 117. CHURCH DISCIPLINE.

The reckless and shameless sale of indulgences often made the exercise of church discipline impossible, and the discreditable conduct of the mendicant monks destroyed all respect for the confessional. The scandalous misuse of the ban and interdict had shorn these of much of their terror. Frightful curses were pronounced at Rome every Maundy Thursday against heretics by the solemn reading of the bull In Cœna Domini. The Inquisition was still abundantly occupied with persecuting and burning numerous heretics, and at the end of our period Innocent VIII. carried to the utmost extreme the persecution and burning of witches.

§ 117.1. =Indulgences.=--The scholastic theory of indulgences (§ 106, 2) was authoritatively proclaimed by Clement VI. in A.D. 1343. The reforming councils of the 15th century wished only to prevent them being misused, for the purpose of filling the papal treasury. Sixtus IV., in A.D. 1477, declared that it was allowable to take money for indulgences for the dead, and that their souls might be freed from purgatory. The pert question, why the pope would not rather free all souls at once by the exercise of his sovereign power, was answered by the assertion that the church, in accordance with Divine righteousness, could dispense its grace only discrete et cum moderamine. The institution of the jubilee gave a great impulse to the sale of indulgences. In A.D. 1300 Boniface VIII., at the bidding of an old man, proclaimed a complete indulgence for one hundred years to all Christians who would do penance for fifteen days in the churches of the apostles at Rome, and by this means gathered from day to day 200,000 pilgrims within the walls of the Holy City. Later popes made a jubilee every fiftieth year, then every thirty-third, and finally every twenty-fifth. Instead of appearing personally at Rome, it was enough to pay the cost of such a journey. The nepotism and extravagance of the popes had left an empty exchequer, which this sale of indulgences was intended to fill. The war with the Turks and the building of St. Peter’s gave occasion to repeated indulgence crusades. Traffickers in indulgences in the most barefaced way cried up the quality of their wares; the conditions of repentance and purpose of reformation were scarcely so much as named. Indulgences were even granted beforehand for sins that were contemplated.

§ 117.2. =The Inquisition=, since A.D. 1232 under the direction of the Dominicans (§ 109, 2), spread through all European countries during the 14th century. While the papal court resided at Avignon the Inquisition was at its height in =France=, where Waldensians and Albigensians, Beghards and Lollards, Fraticelli and Fanatical Spiritualists, were brought in crowds to the stake and subjected to the most cruel tortures. Bernard Delicieux, a Franciscan, raised his voice, A.D. 1300-1320, against the inhuman cruelty of the inquisitors, and with noble independence and heroic bravery appealed to king and pope against the merciless sacrifice of so many victims. He was shut up for life in a dark dungeon, and fed on bread and water.--In =Germany=, where, from the murder of Conrad of Marburg in A.D. 1233 (§ 109, 3), for almost a century and a half we find no trace of a regularly constituted Inquisition, it made its appearance again in A.D. 1368. During that year Urban V. issued a bull, by which he required that the civil and ecclesiastical authorities of Germany should support with their counsel and influence the two inquisitors who were searching out the heretical Beghards and Beguines (§ 116, 5), and place their prisons at the disposal of the Holy Office, which had still no prison of its own. His successor, Gregory XI., in A.D. 1372 increased the number of inquisitors in Germany to five, one in each of the archdioceses of Mainz, Cologne, Salzburg, Magdeburg, and Bremen; while his successor, Boniface IX., in A.D. 1399 added a sixth for North Germany. But these papal bulls would probably, owing to the disinclination of the Germans to the Inquisition, like the attempts of Gregory IX., never have been put in force, had not Charles IV. (§ 110, 4, 5) taken up the matter with an ardent zeal that even went beyond the intentions of Urban and Gregory. During his second journey to Rome, in A.D. 1369, he issued from Lucca four imperial decrees, and in A.D. 1378 from Treves a fifth, by which he granted to the Inquisition throughout Germany all the rights, powers, and privileges which it had anywhere, and required that all civil and ecclesiastical authorities, under pain of severest penalties and confiscation of all their goods, should support the Inquisition in its search for heretics and in its discovery and burning of all religious writings in the vulgar tongue composed and circulated by laymen or semi-laymen.--The =Spanish Inquisition= was re-established under Ferdinand and Isabella in A.D. 1480, and thoroughly organized by the grand-inquisitor Torquemada, A.D. 1483-1499. One of the first inquisitors appointed by him in A.D. 1484 was an Augustinian, Pedro Arbires, who amid the most unrelenting cruelties performed the duties of his office with such zeal, that in sixteen months many hundreds had perished at the stake; but his fanatical career was ended by his murder at the altar in A.D. 1485. Not only the two who did the deed, but also all their relatives and friends, to the number of two hundred, suspected of complicity in a plot, were burned, while the “martyr” himself was beatified by Alexander VII. in A.D. 1661, and canonized by Pius IX. in A.D. 1867. This terrible tribunal further undertook the persecution of the hated Moors and Jews who had been baptized under compulsion (§ 95, 2, 3), which through numerous confiscations greatly enriched the national exchequer of Spain. This institution reached its highest point under the grand-inquisitor the Cardinal Francis Ximenes, A.D. 1507-1517, under whom 2,536 persons were burnt alive and 1,368 in effigy. The auto da fès, which ended at the stake, were conducted with a horrible pomp. Even those who were acquitted of the charge of heresy were compelled for a long time to wear the san benito, an armless robe with a red cross marked on it before and behind. According to Llorente, who had been general secretary of the Inquisition at Madrid, the Spanish inquisition, down to its suppression by Joseph Buonaparte in A.D. 1808, had executed in person 31,912, burned in effigy 17,659, and subjected to severe punishments 291,456.[347]

§ 117.3. =The Bull “In Cœna Domini.”=--It was customary to repeat from time to time the more important decrees of excommunication, to show that they were still valid. In this way the famous bull In Cœna Domini was gradually constructed. The earliest sketch of it was given by Urban V., who died in A.D. 1370, and it was published in its final form by Urban VIII. in A.D. 1627. It contains a summary of all the rights of the Roman hierarchy, with anathemas against all opposing claims, not only on the part of secular princes and laymen, but also of antipapal councils, and concludes with a solemn excommunication of all heretics, to which Paul V. in A.D. 1610 added Lutherans, Zwinglians, and Calvinists, together with all their sympathisers. Pius V., in A.D. 1567, in a new redaction insisted that it should be read yearly in the Catholic churches of all lands, but could not get this carried out, especially in France and Germany. In A.D. 1770 Clement XIV. forbade its being read.

§ 117.4. =Prosecution of Witches.=--Down to the beginning of the 13th century many churchmen had spoken against the popular superstition regarding sorcery, witchcraft, and compacts with the devil, and a whole series of provincial councils had pronounced such belief to be heathenish, sinful, and heretical. Even in Gratian’s decretal (§ 99, 5) there was a canon which required the clergy to teach the people that witchcraft was a delusion, and belief in it incompatible with the Christian faith. But upon the establishment of the Inquisition in the beginning of the 13th century witchcraft came more and more to occupy the attention of the ecclesiastical authorities. Heresy and sorcery were now regarded as correlates, like two agencies resting on and serviceable to the demoniacal powers, and were therefore treated in the same way as offences to be punished with torture and the stake. The Dominicans, as administrators of the Inquisition, were the most zealous defenders of the belief in witchcraft, whereas the Franciscans generally spoke of it simply as foolish, heathenish, and heretical. Thomas Aquinas included it in his theological system, and Eymerich in his Directorium Inquisitorium (§ 109, 2). Yet witch prosecutions were only occasional incidents during the 14th and 15th centuries, especially in Germany, where clergy and people were adverse to them. But it was quite otherwise after Innocent VIII., on 3rd December, 1484, by his bull Summis desiderantes affectibus, complaining of previous laxity, called attention to the spread of witchcraft in the country, and appointed two inquisitors, Sprenger and Institor, to secure its extermination. These administered their office with such zeal and success, that in A.D. 1489 at Cologne they were able, as the result of their experiences, to publish under the title Malleus maleficarum a complete code for witch prosecutions. From the confessions wrung from their victims by torture and suggestive questions, they obtained a full, dogmatic system of compacts and intrigues with the devil, of Succubis and Incubis, of witch ointment, broomsticks, and ovenforks, of witches’ sabbaths, Walpurgis nights, and flights up chimneys. Soon this illusion spread like an epidemic, and thousands throughout Germany and all other Catholic countries, mostly old women, but also some young maidens, were subjected to the most horrible tortures, and after confession had been extorted, to death by fire. The Malleus accounted for the fact that women and very rarely men were found engaged in such proceedings, by this statement: Dicitur enim femina a feret minus, quia semper minorem habet et servat fidem, et hoc ex natura.--The Reformation of the 16th century made no change in these horrible proceedings, which rather rose to a height during the 17th century. Theologians of all confessions believed in the possibility and reality of compacts with the devil, and regarded this to be as essential to an orthodox creed as belief in the devil’s existence. The jurists and civil judges in Protestant and Catholic countries were no less narrow-minded and superstitious than the theologians. Among Catholics the most celebrated defenders of the witch prosecutions were Jean Bodin (§ 148, 3), Peter Binsfeld, and the Jesuit Mart. Delrio (§ 149, 11). Among Protestant vindicators of these prosecutions may be named the Heidelberg physician Thomas Erastus (§ 144, 1), James I. of England, and the famous criminal lawyer Carpzov of Leipzig. Noble men however were not wanting on both sides who were shrewd and sensible enough to oppose such crude conceptions. In the 16th century we have the physician Weier, who wrote his De præstigiis dæmonorum in A.D. 1563, and in the 17th the Jesuits Tanner and Spee (§ 149, 11; 156, 3), and the Dutch Protestant Bekker (§ 160, 5). The writings of the Halle jurist Thomasius in A.D. 1701, 1704, were the first to tell powerfully in favour of liberal views. In A.D. 1749 a nun of seventy years old was burnt at Würzburg as a witch. In A.D. 1754 a girl of thirteen and in A.D. 1756 one of fourteen years were put to death at Landshut as suspected of witchcraft. In German Switzerland a servant girl at Glarus in A.D. 1782 was the last victim. In bigoted Catholic countries the delusion lasted longer, but prosecutions were seldomer carried the length of judicial murder. In Mexico however, the Alcade Ignacio Castello of San Jacobo on 20th August, 1877, “with consent of the whole population,” burnt five witches alive. Altogether since the issue of the bull of Innocent there have been certainly no less than 300,000 women brought to the stake as witches.

IV. Attempts at Reformation.

§ 118. ATTEMPTED REFORMS IN CHURCH POLITY.

The struggle between imperialism and hierarchism, which is present through the whole course of the Middle Ages, rose to a height in the times of Louis the Bavarian, A.D. 1314-1347 (§ 110, 3, 4), and is of special interest here because of the literary war waged against one another by the rival supporters of the emperor and the pope. It concerns itself first of all only with the questions in debate between the imperial and the sacerdotal parties; but soon on the imperialist side there appeared a reforming tendency, which could not be given effect to without carrying the discussion into a multitude of other departments where reformation was also needed. Of quite another kind was the “reformation of head and members” desired by the great councils of the 15th century. The contention here was based, not so much upon any superiority claimed by the emperor over the pope and by the State over the church, but rather upon the subordination of the pope to the supreme authority of the universal church represented by the œcumenical councils. Yet both agreed in this, that with like energy they attacked the corruption of the papacy, in the one case in the interest of the State, in the other in the interest of the church.

§ 118.1. =The Literary War between Imperialists and Curialists in the 14th Century.=--The literary controversy over the debatable land between church and State was conducted with special vigour in the earlier part of our period, on account of the conflict between Boniface VIII. and Philip the Fair of France (§ 110, 1). The ablest vindicators of the independence of the State were the advocate =Peter Dubois= and the Dominican theologian =John of Paris=. Among their scholars were the men who twenty years later sought refuge from the wrath of Pope John XXII. at the court of Louis the Bavarian at Munich. Of these the most important was the Italian =Marsilius of Padua=. As teacher of theology, philosophy, and medicine at Paris, in A.D. 1324, when the dispute between emperor and pope had reached its height, he composed jointly with his colleague =John of Jandun= in Champagne a Defensor pacis, a civil and ecclesiastical memoir, which, with an insight and clearness very remarkable for that age, developed the evangelical mean of the superiority of the State over the church, and of the empire over the papacy, historically, exegetically, and dogmatically; and for this end established theories of Scripture and tradition, of the tasks and place of the church in the State, of excommunication and persecution of heretics, of liberty of faith and conscience, etc., which even transcend the principles laid down on these points by the Reformation of the 16th century. Both authors accompanied Louis to Italy in A.D. 1326, and there John of Jandun died in A.D. 1328. Marsilius continued with the emperor as his physician, counsellor, and literary defender, and died at Munich between A.D. 1341-1343. In A.D. 1327 John XXII. condemned the Defensor pacis, and Clement VI. pronounced its author the worst heretic of all ages. The book, often reprinted during the 16th century, was first printed at Basel in A.D. 1522.

§ 118.2. Alongside of Marsilius there also stood a goodly array of schismatical Franciscans, with their general, Michael of Cesena, at their head (§ 112, 2), who were like himself refugees at the court of Munich. They persistently contested the heresies of John XXII. in regard to the vision of God (§ 110, 3) and his lax theory of poverty. Their polemic also extended to the whole papal system, and the corruption of church and clergy connected therewith. The most celebrated of them in respect of scientific attainments was =William Occam= (§ 113, 3). His earlier treatises dealt with the pope’s heresies, and only after the Diet of Rhense (§ 110, 4) did he take up the burning questions about church and State. In the comprehensive Dialogus he rejects the infallibility of the pope as decidedly as his temporal sovereignty, and denies the Divine institution of the primacy. Also a German prelate, =Leopold of Bebenburg=, Canon of Würzburg, and from A.D. 1353 Bishop of Bamberg, inspired by genuinely German patriotism, made his appearance in A.D. 1338 as a brave and prudent defender of imperial rights against the assumptions of the papacy.--The ablest of all Marsilius’ opponents was the Spanish Franciscan =Alvarus Pelagius=, who wrote in A.D. 1330 the treatise De planctu ecclesiæ, in which, while sadly complaining of the corruption of the church and clergy, he yet ascribes to the pope as the vicar of Christ unlimited authority over all earthly principalities and powers, and regards him as the fountain of all privileges and laws. A still more thoroughgoing deification of the papacy had appeared a few years earlier in the Summa de potestate ecclesiæ ad Johannem Papam by the Augustinian =Augustinus Triumphus= of Ancona. But neither he nor Pelagius, in view of the manifest contradictions of the pope’s doctrines of poverty (§ 112, 2), dared go the length of maintaining papal infallibility. A German canon of Regensburg, =Conrad of Megensburg=, also took part in the controversy, seeking to vindicate and glorify the papacy.

§ 118.3. =Reforming Councils of the 15th Century.=--The longing for reform during this period found most distinct expression in the councils of Pisa, Constance, and Basel (§ 110, 7-9). The fruitlessness of these endeavours, though they had the sympathy of the people generally, shows that there was something essentially defective in them. The movement had kept itself aloof from all sectaries and separatists, wishing to hold by and reform the presently existing church. But its fault was this, that it insisted only upon a reformation in the head and members, not in the spirit, that it aimed at lopping off the wild growths of the tree, without getting rid of the corrupt sap from which the very same growths would again proceed. Only that which was manifestly unchristian in the pretensions of the hierarchy, the covetousness and greed of the pope, the immorality of the clergy, the depravity and ignorance of the monks, etc.--in short, only abuses in hierarchical constitution and discipline--were dealt with. There was no word about doctrine. The Romish system, in spite of all its perversions, was allowed to stand. The current forms of worship, notwithstanding the introduction of many unevangelical elements and pagan superstitions, were left untouched. It was not seen that what was most important of all was the revival of the preaching of repentance and of justification through Him who is the justifier of the ungodly. And so it happened that at Constance Huss, who had pointed out and followed this way, was sent to the stake, and at Basel the doctrine of the immaculate conception (§ 112, 4) was admitted as a doctrine of the church. It was not merely the election of a new pope opposed to the Reformation that rendered the negotiations at Pisa and Constance utter failures, the wrong principle upon which they proceeded insured a disappointing result.

§ 118.4. =Friends of Reform in France during the 15th Century.=

1. =Peter d’Ailly=, professor and chancellor of the University of Paris, Bishop of Cambray in A.D. 1397 and cardinal in A.D. 1411, was one of the ablest members of the councils of Pisa and Constance. He died in A.D. 1425 as cardinal-legate in Germany. His chief dogmatic treatise, the Quæstiones on the Sentences of the Lombard, occupies the standpoint of Occam. In many of his other works he falls back upon the position of the mystics of St. Victor (§ 102, 4), and recommends with much warmth the diligent study of the Scriptures. His ideas about church reform are centred in the affirmation of the Gallican Liberties, which he had to maintain as a French bishop, but are expressed with the moderation becoming a Roman cardinal. In opposition to Occam and the Spirituals, he founds the temporal sovereignty of the pope on the Donatio Constantini. He also holds by the primacy of the Roman bishop, as firmly established by Scripture. But the πέτρα of Matthew xvi. 18 he understands not of Peter, but of Christ. In this passage therefore no pre-eminence is given to Peter over the other apostles in the potestas ordinis, but by the injunction of John xx., “Feed My sheep,” such pre-eminence is given in the _potestas regiminis_. The œcumenical council, as representative of the whole church, stands superior to the pope as administrative head.

2. d’Ailly’s successor as professor and chancellor was the celebrated =Jean Charlier=, better known from the name of his birthplace near Rheims as =Gerson=. Having denounced the Duke of Burgundy’s murder of the Duke of Orleans, and having thus incurred that prince’s hatred, he withdrew after the Council of Constance into Bavaria. Soon after the duke’s death, in A.D. 1419, he returned to France, and settled at Lyons, where he died in A.D. 1429. Like d’Ailly, Gerson was a decided nominalist, and sought to give new life to scholasticism by combining with it Scripture study and mysticism. He, too, was powerfully influenced by the Victorine mystics, and yet more by Bonaventura He had no appreciation of the speculative element in German mysticism. Gerson was the first French theologian who employed the language of the people, particularly in his smaller practical tracts. He was mainly instrumental in bringing about the Council of Pisa. In the Council of Constance he was one of the most conspicuous figures. Restrained by no personal or official relationship with the curia, he could by speech and writing express himself much more freely than d’Ailly. The principle and means of the reform of the church, in its head and members, was recognised by Gerson in his statement that the highest authority of the church is to be sought not in the pope, but in the œcumenical council. He held however in every point to the Romish system of doctrine. He did indeed unweariedly proclaim the Bible the one norm and source of all Christian knowledge, but he would not allow the reading of it in the vernacular, and regarded all as heretics who did not in the interpretation of it submit unconditionally to the judgment of the church.

3. Nicholas of Clemanges was in A.D. 1393 rector of the University of Paris, but afterwards retired into solitude. He had the profoundest insight into the corruption of the church, and acknowledged Holy Scripture to be the only source of saving truth. From this standpoint he demanded a thorough reform in theological study and the whole constitution of the church.

4. Louis d’Aleman, cardinal and Archbishop of Arles, who died in A.D. 1450, was the most powerful and most eloquent of the anti-papal party at Basel. He was therefore excommunicated by Eugenius IV. At last submitting to the pope, he was restored by Nicholas V. and in A.D. 1527 beatified by Clement VII.

§ 118.5. =Friends of Reform in Germany.=

1. Even before the appearance of the Parisian friends of reform, a German, =Henry of Langenstein=, at Marburg had insisted upon the princes and prelates calling an œcumenical council for putting an end to schism and reforming the church. In a treatise published in A.D. 1381 he gave a sad but only too true picture of the desolate condition of the church. The cloisters he designated prostibula meretricium, cathedral churches speluncæ raptorum et latronum, etc. From A.D. 1363 he taught in Paris, from A.D. 1390 in Vienna, where in A.D. 1397 he died as rector of the university.

2. =Theodorich or Dietrich of Niem= in Westphalia accompanied Gregory XI. from France to Rome as his secretary in A.D. 1377. From A.D. 1395-1399 he was Bishop of Verdun, was probably present at the Council of Pisa, and certainly at that of Constance. He died in this latter place in A.D. 1417. His writings are of great value for the history of the schism and of the councils of Pisa and Constance. His language is simple, strong, and faithful.

3. =Gregory of Heimburg= was present at the Basel Council, in terms of close friendship with Æneas Sylvius, who was then also on the side of reform. He became in A.D. 1433 syndicus at Nuremberg, went to the council at Mantua in A.D. 1459 as envoy of Duke Sigismund of Austria, was banished in A.D. 1460 by his old friend, now Pius II., afterwards led a changeful life, never free from the papal persecutions, and died at Dresden in A.D. 1472. His principal writings on civil and ecclesiastical polity, powerful indictments against the Roman curia inspired by love for his German fatherland, appeared at Frankfort in A.D. 1608 under the title _Scripta nervosa justitiæque plena_.

4. =Jacob of Jüterboyk [Jüterbock]=, who died in A.D. 1465, was first a Cistercian monk in Poland and teacher of theology at Cracow, then Carthusian at Erfurt, and to the end of his life a zealous defender of the positions of the Council of Basel, at which he was present in A.D. 1441. His writings leave untouched the doctrines of the church, but vigorously denounce the political and moral corruption of the papacy and monasticism, the greedy misuse of the sale of indulgences, and insist upon the subordinating of the pope under general councils, and their right even to depose the pontiff. Whoever contests this latter position teaches that Christ has given over the church to a sinful man, like a bridegroom who surrenders his bride to the unrestrained will of a soldier. All possession of property on the part of those in sacred offices is with him an abomination, and unhesitatingly he calls upon the civil power to put an end to this evil.

5. The =Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa= (§ 113, 6) also for a long time was one of the most zealous friends of reform in the Basel Council.

6. =Felix Hemmerlin=, canon at Zürich, was to the end of his life an ardent supporter of the reform measures of the Council of Basel, at which he had been present. As he gave effect to his views in his =official= position, he incurred the hatred and persecution of the inmates of his convent to such an extent, that they laid a plot to murder him in A.D. 1439. His whole life was an almost unbroken series of sufferings and persecutions. These in great part he brought on himself by his zealous support of the reactionary party of the nobles that sided with Austria in opposition to the patriotic revolutionary party that struggled for freedom. Deprived of his revenues and deposed from office, he was imprisoned in A.D. 1454, and died between A.D. 1457-1464 in the prison of the monastery of the Minorites at Lucerne, martyr as much to his political conservatism as to his ecclesiastical reformatory principles. His writings were placed in the Index prohibitorum by the Council of Trent.

7. To this place also belongs the work written in the Swabian dialect, “=The Reformation of the Emperor Sigismund=,” which demands a thoroughgoing and radical reform of the clergy and the secular priests, insisting upon the renunciation of all personal property on the part of the latter, enforcing against prelates, abbots, monasteries, and monks all the reforms of the Basel Council, and making proposals for their execution in the spirit of the Taborites and Hussites. The author is styled in the MSS. Frederick of Landscron, and describes himself as a councillor of Sigismund. The tract was therefore regarded during the 15th and 16th centuries as a work composed under the direction of the emperor, setting forth the principles of reformation attempted at the Basel or Constance Council. According to Böhm its author was the Taborite Reiser (§ 119, 9), who, under the powerful reforming impulse of the Basel Council of A.D. 1435-1437, composed it in A.D. 1438.

§ 118.6. =An Italian Apostate from the Basel Liberal Party.=--=Æneas Sylvius Piccolomini=, born at Siena in A.D. 1405, appeared at Basel, first as secretary of a bishop, then of a cardinal, and finally of the Basel anti-pope Felix V., as a most decided opponent of Eugenius IV., and wrote in A.D. 1439 from this point of view his history of the council. In A.D. 1442 he entered the service of the then neutral Emperor Frederick III., was made Poeta laureatus and imperial councillor, and as such still fought for the independence of the German church. But in A.D. 1445, with all the diplomatic arts which were so abundantly at his disposal, he wrought to secure the subjection of the emperor and German princes under the pope (§ 110, 10). Made bishop of Siena in A.D. 1450, he was raised to the cardinalate by Calixtus III. in A.D. 1456, and two years later ascended the papal throne as Pius II. The lasciviousness of his earlier life is mirrored in his poems, novels, dialogues, dramas, and letters. But as pope, old and weak, he maintained an honourable life, and in a bull of retractation addressed to the University of Cologne exhorted Christendom Æneam rejicite, Pium recipite!

§ 118.7. =Reforms in Church Policy in Spain.=--Notwithstanding the church feeling awakened by the struggle with the Moors, a vigorous opposition to papal pretensions was shown during the 14th century by the Spanish princes, and after the outbreak of the great schism the anti-pope Clement VII., in A.D. 1381, purchased the obedience of the Spanish church by large concessions in regard to appointment to its bishoprics and the removal of the abuses of papal indulgences. The popes, indeed, sought not unsuccessfully to enlist Spain in their favour against the reformatory tendencies of the councils of the 15th century, until =Ferdinand= of Aragon [Arragon], A.D. 1479-1516, and =Isabella= of Castille [Castile], A.D. 1474-1504, who had on account of their zeal for the Catholic cause been entitled by the pontiff himself “their Catholic majesties,” entered so vigorous a protest against papal usurpations, that toward the end of the 15th century the royal supremacy over the Spanish church had won a recognition never accorded to it before. They consistently refused to acknowledge any bishop appointed by the pope, and forced from Sixtus IV. the concession that only Spaniards nominated by the Crown should be eligible for the highest ecclesiastical offices. All papal rescripts were subject to the royal approval, ecclesiastical tribunals were carefully supervised, and appeals from them were allowed to the royal judicatures. The church had also to give ordinary and extraordinary tithes of its goods and revenues for State purposes. The Spanish inquisition (§ 117, 2), thoroughly recognised in A.D. 1483, was more of a civil than an ecclesiastical institution. As the bishops and inquisitors were appointed by the royal edict, the orders of knights (§ 98, 13), by the transference of the grand-mastership to the king, were placed in complete subjection to the Crown; and whether he would or not Alexander VI. was obliged to accord to the royal commission for church and cloister visitation and reform the most absolute authority. But in everything else these rulers were worthy of the name of “Catholics,” for they tolerated in their church only the purely mediæval type of strict orthodoxy. The most distinguished promoter of their reforms in church polity was a Franciscan monk, =Francis Ximenes=, from A.D. 1492 confessor to Isabella, afterwards raised by her to the archbishopric of Toledo, made a Roman cardinal by Alexander VI., and grand-inquisitor of Spain in A.D. 1507. He died in A.D. 1517.

§ 119. EVANGELICAL EFFORTS AT REFORM.

Alongside of the Parisian reformers, but far in advance of them, stand those of the English and Bohemian churches represented by Wiclif and Huss. The reformation aimed at by these two was essentially of the same kind, Wiclif being the more original, while Huss was largely dependent upon his great English precursor. For in personal endowment, speculative power, rich and varied learning, acuteness and wealth of thought, originality and productivity of intellect, the Englishman was head and shoulders above the Bohemian. On the other hand, Huss was far more a man for the people, and he conducted his contention in a sensible, popular, and practical manner. There were also powerful representatives of the reform movement in the Netherlands during this period, who pointed to Scripture and faith in the crucified Saviour as the only radical cure for the corruptions of the church. While Wiclif and Huss attached themselves to the Augustinian theology, the Dutchmen gave themselves to quiet, calm contemplation and the acquirement of practical religious knowledge. In Italy too a reformer appeared of a strongly evangelical spirit, who did not however show the practical sense of those of the Netherlands.

§ 119.1. =Wiclif and the Wiclifites.=--In England the kings and the Parliament had for a long time withstood the oppressive yoke of the papal hierarchy. Men too like John of Salisbury, Robert Grosseteste, Roger Bacon, and Thomas Bradwardine had raised their voices against the inner corruption of the church. =John Wiclif=, a scholar of Bradwardine, was born about A.D. 1320. As fellow of the University of Oxford, he supported in A.D. 1366 the English Crown against the payment of tribute to the papal court then at Avignon, admitted by John Lackland (§ 96, 18), of which payment had now for a long time been refused. This secured him court favour, the title of doctor, and a professorship of theology at Oxford; and in A.D. 1374 he was chosen as member of a commission which was to discuss at Brügge in the Netherlands with the papal envoys the differences that had arisen about the appointing to ecclesiastical offices. After his return he openly spoke and wrote against the papal “antichrist” and his doctrines. Gregory XI. now, in A.D. 1377, condemned nineteen propositions from his writings, but the English court protected him from the strict inquiry and punishment threatened. Meanwhile Wiclif was ever becoming bolder. Under his influence religious societies were formed which sent out travelling preachers of the gospel among the people. By their opponents they were called Lollards (§ 116, 3), a name to which the stigma of heresy was already attached. Wiclif translated for them the Scriptures from the Vulgate into English. The bitterness of his enemies now reached its height. Just then, in A.D. 1381, a rebellion of the oppressed peasants that deluged all England with blood broke out. Its origin has been quite gratuitously assigned to the religious movement. When he had directly repudiated the doctrine of transubstantiation, a synod at London, in A.D. 1382, condemned his writings and his doctrine as heretical, and the university also cast him out. Court and Parliament could only protect his person. He now retired to his rectory at Lutterworth in Leicestershire, where he died on 31st December, 1384.--For five centuries his able writings were left unprinted, to moulder away in the obscurity of libraries. His English works have now been edited by Matthews, London, 1880. Lechler of Leipzig edited Wiclif’s most complete and comprehensive work, the “Trialogus” (Oxford, 1869), in which his whole theological system is developed. Buddensieg of Dresden published the keen antipapal controversial tract, “De Christo et suo adversario Antichristo” (Leipzig, 1880). The Wiclif Society, instituted at the fifth centenary of Wiclif’s death for the purpose of issuing critical editions of his most important works, sent forth as their first performance Buddensieg’s edition of “twenty-six Latin controversial tracts of Wiclif’s from MSS. previously unprinted,” in 2 vols., London, 1883. Among Wiclif’s systematic treatises we are promised editions of the Summa theologiæ, De incarnatione Verbi, De veritate s. Scr., De dominio divino, De ecclesia, De actibus animæ, etc., some by English, some by German editors.--As the principle of all theology and reformation Wiclif consistently affirms the sole authority of Divine revelation in the Holy Scriptures. He has hence been called doctor evangelicus. Anything that cannot be proved from it is a corrupting human invention. Consistently carrying out this principle, he denounced the worship of saints, relics, and images, the use of Latin in public worship, elaborate priestly choir singing, the multiplication of festivals, private masses, extreme unction, and generally all ceremonialism. The Catholic doctrine of indulgence and the sale of indulgences, as well as the ban and the interdict, he pronounced blasphemous; auricular confession he regarded as a forcing of conscience; the power of the keys he explained as conditional, its binding and loosing powerless, except when in accordance with the judgment of Christ. He denied the real presence of the body and blood of Christ in the Lord’s Supper, and affirmed, like Berengar, a spiritual communication thereof, which however he makes dependent, not only on the faith of the receiver, but also on the worthiness of the officiating priest. The doctrine of purgatory he completely rejected, and supported Augustine’s predestinationism against the prevalent semipelagianism. The papacy was antichrist; the pope has his power only from the emperor, not from God. The hierarchical system should be replaced by the apostolic presbyterial constitution. Ordination confers no indelible character; a priest who has fallen into mortal sin cannot dispense the sacrament. Every believer is as such a priest. The State is a representation of Christ, as the God-Man ruler of the universe; the clergy represent only the poor and suffering life of His humanity. Monkery is contrary to nature, etc.--Wiclif’s supporters, many of them belonging to the noblest and most cultured orders, were after his death subjected to violent persecution, which reached its height when the House of Lancaster in the person of Henry IV. ascended the English throne in A.D. 1399. An act of parliament was passed in A.D. 1400 which made death by fire the punishment of the heresy of the Lollards. Among the martyrs which this law brought to the stake was the noble Sir John Oldcastle, who in A.D. 1418 was hung up between two beams in iron chains over a fire and there slowly burnt. The Council of Constance in A.D. 1415 condemned forty-five propositions from Wiclif’s writings, and ordered his bones to be exhumed and scattered abroad. Many germs sown by him continued until the Reformation came.[348]

§ 119.2. =Precursors of the Hussite Movement.=--Owing to its Greek origin (§ 79, 2, 3), the Bohemian church had a certain character of its own and barely tolerated the Roman constitution and ritual. In Bohemia too the Waldensians had numerous supporters during the 13th century. And even before the appearance of Huss three distinguished clergymen in and around Prague by earnest preaching and pastoral work had awakened in many a consciousness of crying abuses in the church.

1. =Conrad of Waldhausen= was a famous preacher when called by Charles IV. to Prague, where after fifteen years’ labour he died in A.D. 1369. Preaching in German, he inveighed against the cupidity, hypocrisy, and immorality of the clergy and monks, against the frauds connected with the worship of images and relics and shrines, and threw back upon his accusers the charge of heresy in his still extant Apologia.

2. More influential than Conrad as a preacher of repentance in Prague was =John Milicz of Cremsier= in Moravia, who died in A.D. 1374. Believing the end of the world near and antichrist already come, he went to Rome in A.D. 1367 to place before Urban V. his scheme of apocalyptic interpretation. Escaping with difficulty from the Inquisition, he returned to Prague, and there applied himself with renewed zeal to the preaching of repentance. His preaching led to the conversion of 200 fallen women, for whom he erected an institution which he called Jerusalem. But the begging friars accused him before Gregory XI. as a heretic. Milicz fearlessly went for examination to Avignon in A.D. 1374, where he soon died before judgment had been passed. The most important of his works is De Antichristo.

3. =Matthias of Janow=, of noble Bohemian descent, died in A.D. 1374, after fourteen years’ work as a preacher and pastor in Prague. His sermons, composed in Bohemian, lashed unsparingly the vices of the clergy and monks, as well as the immorality of the laity, and denounced the worship of images and relics. None of his sermons are extant, but we have various theological treatises of his on the distinguishing of the true faith from the false and the frequent observance of the communion. At a Prague synod of A.D. 1389 he was obliged to retract several of his positions, and especially to grant the propriety of confessing and communicating half-yearly. Janow however, like Conrad and Milicz, did not seriously contest any fundamental point of the doctrine of the church.

§ 119.3. =John Huss of Hussinecz= in Bohemia, born A.D. 1369, was Bachelor of Theology at Prague, in A.D. 1394, Master of Liberal Arts in A.D. 1396, became public teacher in the university in A.D. 1398, was ordained priest in A.D. 1400, undertook a pastorate in A.D. 1402 in the Bethlehem chapel, where he had to preach in the Bohemian language, was chosen confessor of Queen Sophia in A.D. 1403, and was soon afterwards made synodal preacher by the new archbishop, Sbynko of Hasenburg. Till then he had in pious humility accepted all the doctrines of the Romish Church, and even in A.D. 1392 he offered his last four groschen for an indulgence, so that for a long time dry bread was his only nourishment. But about A.D. 1402 he reached an important crisis in his life through the study of Wiclif’s theological works.--Bohemians who had studied in Oxford brought with them Wiclif’s philosophical works, and in A.D. 1348 the discussion on realism and nominalism broke out in Prague. The Bohemians generally sided with Wiclif for realism; the Germans with the nominalists (§ 113, 3). This helped to prepare an entrance for Wiclif’s theological writings into Bohemia. Of the national party which favoured Wiclif’s philosophy and theology, Huss was soon recognised as a leader. A university decree of A.D. 1403 condemned forty-five propositions from Wiclif’s works as heretical, and forbade their promulgation in lectures or sermons. Huss however was still highly esteemed by Archbishop Sbynko. In A.D. 1405 he appointed Huss, with other three scholars, a commission to investigate a reputed miracle at Wilsnack, where on the altar of a ruined church three blood-red coloured hosts were said to have been found. Huss pronounced the miracle a cheat, and proved in a tract that the blood of Christ glorified can only be invisibly present in the sacrament of the altar. The archbishop approved this tract, and forbade all pilgrimages to the spot. He also took no offence at Huss for uttering Wiclifite doctrine in his synod sermon. Only when, in A.D. 1408, the clergy of his diocese complained that Huss by his preaching made the priests contemptible before the people, did he deprive him of his function as synod preacher. When the majority of cardinals at Leghorn in A.D. 1408 took steps to put an end to the schism, king Wenzel determined to remain neutral, and demanded the assent of the university as well as the clergy of his realm. But only the Bohemian members of the university agreed, while the rest, along with the archbishop, supported Gregory XII. Sbynko keenly resented the revolt of the Bohemians, and forbade Huss as their spokesman to preach within his diocese. Huss paid no attention to the prohibition, but secured a royal injunction, that henceforth in the university Bohemians should have three votes and foreigners only one. The foreigners then withdrew, and founded the University of Leipzig in A.D. 1409. Huss was made first rector of the newly organized University of Prague; but the very fact of his great popularity in Bohemia caused him to be profoundly hated in other lands.[349]

§ 119.4. The archbishop escaped prosecution only by unreservedly condemning the doctrines of Wiclif, burning his books, and prohibiting all lectures upon them. Huss and his friends appealed to John XXIII., but this did not prevent the archbishop burning in his palace yard about two hundred Wiclifite books that had previously escaped his search. For this he was hooted in the streets, and compelled by the courts of law to pay the value of the books destroyed. John XXIII. cited Huss to appear at Rome. King, nobles, magistrates, and university sided with him; but the papal commission condemned him when he did not appear, and the archbishop pronounced anathema against him and the interdict against Prague (A.D. 1411). Huss appealed to the œcumenical council, and continued to preach. The court forced the archbishop to become reconciled with Huss, and to admit his orthodoxy. Sbynko reported to the pope that Bohemia was free from heresy. He soon afterwards died. The pope himself was the cause of a complete breach, by having an indulgence preached in Bohemia in A.D. 1412 for a crusade against Ladislaus of Naples, the powerful adherent of Gregory XII. Huss opposed this by word and writing, and in a public disputation maintained that the pope had no right to grant such indulgence. His most stanch supporter was a Bohemian knight, Jerome of Prague, who had studied at Oxford, and returned in A.D. 1402 an enthusiastic adherent of Wiclif’s doctrines. Their addresses produced an immense impression, and two days later their disorderly followers, to throw contempt on the papal party, had the bull of indulgence paraded through the streets, on the breast of a public prostitute, representing the whore of Babylon, and then cast into the flames. But many old friends now withdrew from Huss and joined his opponents. The papal curia thundered against him and his followers the great excommunication, with its terrible curses. Wherever he resided that place was put under interdict. But Huss appealed to the one righteous Judge, Jesus Christ. At the wish of the king he left the city, and sought the protection of various noble patrons, from whose castles he went forth diligently preaching round about. He spread his views all over the country by controversial and doctrinal treatises in Latin and Bohemian, as well as by an extensive correspondence with his friends and followers. Thus the trouble and turmoil grew from day to day, and all the king’s efforts to restore peace were in vain.

§ 119.5. The Roman emperor Sigismund summoned Huss to attend the Council of Constance (§ 110, 7), and promised him a safe-conduct. Though not yet in possession of this latter, which he only got at Constance, trusting to the righteousness of his cause, for which he was quite willing to die a martyr’s death, he started for Constance on 11th October, A.D. 1414, reaching his destination on 3rd November. On 28th November he was sentenced to imprisonment at a private conference of the cardinals, on the pretended charge of an attempt at flight, first in the Dominican cloister, then in the bishop’s castle of Gottlieben, where he was put in chains, finally in the Franciscan cloister. Sigismund, who had not been forewarned when he was cast into prison, ordered his release; but the council convinced him that Huss, arraigned as a heretic before a general council, was beyond the reach of civil protection. His bitterest enemies and accusers were two Bohemians, Michael of Deutschbrod and Stephan of Palecz. The latter extracted forty-two points for accusations from his writings, which Huss from his prison retracted. D’Ailly and Gerson were both against him. The brave knight John of Chlum stood faithfully by him as a comforter to the last. For almost seven months was he harassed by private examinations, in which, notwithstanding his decided repudiation of many of them, he was charged with all imaginable Wiclifite heresies. The result was the renewed condemnation of those forty-five propositions from Wiclif’s writings, which had been condemned A.D. 1408 by the University of Prague. At last, on 5th June, A.D. 1415, he was for the first time granted a public trial, but the tumult at the sitting was so great that he was prevented from saying a single word. Even on the two following days of the trial he could do little more than make a vain protest against being falsely charged with errors, and declare his willingness to be better instructed from God’s word. The humility and gentleness of his demeanour, as well as the enthusiasm and believing joyfulness which he displayed, won for him many hearts even outside of the council. All possible motives were urged to induce him to submit. Sigismund so exhorted him, with the threat that if he did not he would withdraw his protection. The third and last day of trial was 8th June, A.D. 1415, and judgment was pronounced in the cathedral church on the 6th July. After high mass had been celebrated, a bishop mounted the pulpit and preached on Romans vi. 6. He addressed Sigismund, who was present, “By destroying this heretic, thou shalt obtain an undying name to all ensuing generations.” Once again called upon to recant, Huss repeated his previous protests, appealed to the promise of a safe-conduct, which made Sigismund wince and blush, and kneeling down prayed to God for his enemies and unjust judges. Then seven bishops dressed him in priestly robes in order to strip him of them one after another amid solemn execrations. Then they put on him a high pyramidal hat, painted with figures of devils, and bearing the inscription, Hæresiarcha, and uttered the words, “We give thy soul to the devil.” He replied: “I commend it into the hands of our Saviour Jesus Christ.” On that same day he was given over by Sigismund to Louis Count-palatine of the Rhine, and by him to the Constance magistrates, and led to the stake. Amid prayer and praise he expired, joyfully, courageously, and confidently, showing himself worthy to rank among the martyrs who in the best times of Christianity had sealed their Christian confession with their blood. His ashes were scattered on the Rhine. The later Hussites, in accordance with an old Christian custom (§ 39, 5), celebrated the day of his death as the dies natalis of the holy martyr John Huss.--=Jerome of Prague= had gone unasked to Constance. When he saw that his longer stay would not help his friend, but only involve himself in his fate, he left the city; but was seized on the way, and taken back in chains in April, A.D. 1415. During a severe half-year’s imprisonment, and wearied with the importunities of his judges, he agreed to recant, and to acquiesce in the sentence of Huss. But he was not trusted, and after as before his recantation he was kept in close confinement. Then his courage revived. He demanded a public trial before the whole council, which was at last granted him in May, A.D. 1416. There he solemnly and formally retracted his previous retractation with a believer’s confidence and a martyr’s joy. On May 30th, A.D. 1416, he, too, died at the stake, joyfully and courageously as Huss had done. The Florentine humanist Poggio, who was present, has given enthusiastic expression in a still extant letter to his admiration at the heroic spirit of the martyr.

§ 119.6. In all his departures from Romish doctrine Huss was dependent upon Wiclif, not only for the matter, but even for the modes of expression. He did not however separate himself quite so far from the Church doctrines as his English master. He firmly maintained the doctrine of transubstantiation; he was also inclined to withhold the cup from the laity; and, though he sought salvation only from the Saviour crucified for us, he did not refuse to give any place to works in the justification of the sinner, and even invocation of the saints he did not wholly condemn. While he energetically protested against the corruption of the clergy, he never denied that the sacrament might be efficaciously administered by an unworthy priest. In everything else however he was in thorough agreement with the English reformer. The most complete exposition of his doctrine is found in the Tractatus de ecclesia of A.D. 1413. Augustine’s doctrine of predestination is its foundation. He distinguishes from the church as a visible human institution the idea of the church as the true body of Christ, embracing all elected in Christ to blessedness from eternity. Its one and only head is Christ: not Peter, not the pope; for this church is no monster with two heads. Originally and according to Christ’s appointment the bishop of Rome was no more than the other bishops. The donation of Constantine first gave him power and dignity over the rest. As the church in the beginning could exist without a pope, so the church unto the end can exist without one. The Christian can obey the pope only where his commands and doctrines agree with those of Christ. In matters of faith Holy Scripture is the only authority. Fathers, councils, and popes may err, and have erred; only the word of God is infallible.--That this liberal reforming Council of Constance, with a Gerson at its head, should have sentenced such a man to death is not to be wondered at when we rightly consider how matters stood. His hateful realism seemed to the nominalistic fathers of the council the source of all conceivable heresies. It had even been maintained that realism consistently carried out would give a fourth person to the Godhead. His devotion to the national interests of Bohemia in the University of Prague had excited German national feeling against him. And, further, the council, which was concerned only with outward reforms, had little sympathy with the evangelical tone of his spirit and doctrine. Besides this, Huss had placed himself between the swords of two contending parties. The hierarchical party wished, in order to strike terror into their opponents, to show by an example that the church had still the power to burn heretics; and the liberal party refused to this object of papal hate all protection, lest they should endanger the cause of reformation by incurring a suspicion of sympathy with heresy.--The prophecy said to have been uttered by Huss in his last moments, “To-day you burn a goose (this being the meaning of Huss in Slavonian), but from its ashes will arise a swan (Luther’s coat of arms), which you will not be able to burn,” was unknown to his contemporaries. Probably it originated in the Reformation age from the appeals of both martyrs to the judgment of God and history. Huss had often declared that instead of the weak goose there would come powerful eagles and falcons.[350]

§ 119.7. =Calixtines and Taborites.=--During the imprisonment of their leader the Hussite party was headed by Jacob of Misa, pastor of St. Michael’s church in Prague. With consent of Huss he introduced the use of the cup by the laity and rejected the jejunium eucharisticum as opposed to Matthew xxvi. 26. This led to an interchange of controversial tracts between Prague and Constance on the withholding of the cup. The council decreed that whoever disobeys the Church on this point is to be punished as a heretic. This decree, followed by the execution of Huss, roused Bohemia to the uttermost. King Wenceslaw died in A.D. 1419 in the midst of national excitement, and the estates refused to crown his brother Sigismund, “the word-breaker.” Now arose a civil war, A.D. 1420-1436, characterized by cruelties on both sides rarely equalled. At the head of the Hussites, who had built on the brow of a steep hill the strong fortress Tabor, was the one-eyed, afterwards blind, =John Ziska of Trocznov=. The crusading armies sent against the Hussites were one after another destroyed; but the gentle spirit of Huss had no place among most of his followers. The two parties became more and more embittered toward one another. The aristocratic =Calixtines= (calix, cup) or Utraquists (sub utraque), at whose head was Bishop Rokycana of Prague, declared that they would be satisfied if the Catholic church would concede to them four articles:

1. Communion under both kinds;

2. Preaching of the pure gospel in the vulgar tongue;

3. Strict discipline among the clergy; and

4. Renunciation by the clergy of church property.

On the other hand, the =Taborites= would have no reconciliation with the Romish church, regarding as fundamentally corrupt in doctrine and worship whatever is not found in Scripture, and passing over into violent fanaticism, iconoclasm, etc. After Ziska’s death of the plague in A.D. 1424, the majority of the Taborites elected Procopius the Great as his successor. A small party that regarded no man worthy of succeeding the great Ziska, refused him allegiance, and styled themselves Orphans. They were the most fanatical of all.--Meanwhile the Council of Basel had met (§ 110, 8) and after long fruitless negotiations it was resolved in A.D. 1433 that 300 Hussite deputies should appear at Basel. After a fifty days’ disputation the four Calixtine articles with certain modifications were accepted by the council. On the basis of this =Basel Compact= the Calixtines returned to the Romish church. The Taborites regarded this as shameful treason to the cause of truth, and continued the conflict. But in A.D. 1434 they were utterly annihilated at Böhmischbrod, not far from Prague. In the Treaty of Iglau in A.D. 1436 Sigismund swore to observe the compact, and was recognised as king. But the concessions sworn to by church and state were more and more restricted and ultimately ignored. Sigismund died in A.D. 1437. In place of his son-in-law, Albert II., the Utraquists set up a rival king in the person of the thirteen year old Polish prince Casimir; but Albert died in A.D. 1439. His son, Ladislaus, born after his father’s death, had, in George Podiebrad, a Calixtine tutor. After he had grown up in A.D. 1453, he walked in his grandfather’s footsteps, and died in A.D. 1457. The Calixtines now elected Podiebrad king, as a firm supporter of the compact. Pius II. recognised him in the hope that he would aid him in his projected war against the Turks. When this hope was disappointed he cancelled the compact, in A.D. 1462. Paul II. put the king under him, and had a crusade preached against him. Podiebrad however still held his ground. He died in A.D. 1471. His successor, Wladislaw II., a Polish prince, though a zealous Catholic, was obliged to confirm anew to the Calixtines at the Diet of Cuttenberg, in A.D. 1485, all their rights and liberties. Yet they could not maintain themselves as an independent community. Those of them who did not join the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren gradually during the 16th century became thoroughly amalgamated with the Catholic church.

§ 119.8. =The Bohemian and Moravian Brethren.=--George Podiebrad took Tabor in A.D. 1453, and scattered the last remnants of the Taborites. Joining with the evangelical Friends of God, they received from the king a castle, where, under the leadership of the local pastor, Michael of Bradacz, they formed a Unitas fratrum, and called themselves Bohemian and Moravian Brethren. But in A.D. 1461 Podiebrad withdrew his favour, and confiscated their goods. They fled into the woods, and met for worship in caves. In A.D. 1467 the most distinguished of the Bohemian and Moravian Brethren met in a Bohemian village, Shota, with the German Waldensians, and chose three brethren by lot as priests, who were ordained by Michael and a Waldensian priest. But when the validity of their ordination was disputed, Michael went to the Waldensian bishop Stephen, got from him episcopal consecration, and then again ordained the three chosen at Shota, one, Matthias of Conewald, as bishop, the other two as priests. This led Rokycana to persecute them all the more bitterly. They increased their numbers however, by receiving the remnants of the Waldensians and many Utraquists, until by the beginning of the 16th century they had four hundred congregations in Bohemia and Moravia. Under Wladislaw II. persecution was stopped from A.D. 1475, but was renewed with great violence in A.D. 1503. They sent in A.D. 1511 a confession of faith to Erasmus (§ 120, 6), with the request that he would give his opinion about it; which he however, fearing to be compromised thereby, declined to do. After the death of Bishop Matthias, in A.D. 1500, a dislike of monarchy led to the appointment of four Seniors instead of one bishop, two for Bohemia and two for Moravia. The most important and influential of these was Luke of Prague, who died in A.D. 1518, rightly regarded as the second founder of the union. He impressed a character upon the brotherhood essentially distinct in respect of constitution and doctrine from the Lutheran Reformation.--Continuation § 139, 19.

§ 119.9. =The Waldensians.=

1. The range of the missionary enterprise of the =Lombard-German Waldensians= was widely extended during the 14th century. At the close of that period it stretched “from western Switzerland across the southern borders of the empire, from the upper and middle Rhine along the Main and through Franconia into Thuringia, from Bohemia up to Brandenburg and Pomerania, and with its last advances reached to Prussia, Poland, Silesia, Hungary, Transylvania, and Galicia.” The anonymous writer of Passau, about A.D. 1260 or 1316, reports from his own knowledge of numerous “Leonists,” who in forty-two communities, with a bishop at Einzinspach, in the diocese of Passau, were in his time the subject of inquisitorial interference, and in theory and practice bore all the characteristic marks of the Lombard Leonists. The same applies to the Austrian Waldensians, of whose persecution in A.D. 1391 we have an account by Peter of Pilichdorf. We may also with equal confidence pronounce the Winkelers, so called from holding their services in secret corners, who about this time appeared in Bavaria, Franconia, Swabia, and the Rhine Provinces, to be Waldensians of the same Lombard type. Their confessors, Winkelers in the narrower sense, were itinerant, celibate, and without fixed abode, carrying on missionary work, and administering the sacrament of penance to their adherents. Although, in order to avoid the attentions of the Inquisition, they took part in the Catholic services, and in case of need confessed to Catholic priests, they were nevertheless traced about A.D. 1400 to Strassburg. Thirty-two of them were thrown into prison, and induced under torture to confess. The Dominicans insisted that they should be immediately burned, but the council was satisfied with banishing them from the city. At a later period the Hussites obtained an influence over them. One of their most notable apostles at this time was Fr. Reiser of Swabia. In his travels he went to Bohemia, attached himself to the Hussites there, received from them priestly ordination, and in A.D. 1433 accompanied their representatives to the Basel Council. Then Procopius procured him a call to a pastorate in the little Bohemian town of Landscron, which, however, he soon abandoned. Encouraged by the reformatory tendency of the council, he now remained for a long time in Basel, then conducted missionary work in Germany, at first on his own account, afterwards at the head of a Taborite mission of twelve agents, in which position he styled himself _Fridericus Dei gratia Episcopus fidelium in Romana ecclesia Constantini donationem spernentium_. At last, in A.D. 1457, he went to Strassburg, with the intention of there ending his days in peace. But soon after his arrival he was apprehended, and in A.D. 1458, along with his faithful follower, Anna Weiler, put to death at the stake.--On the Waldensians in German Switzerland, and the Inquisition’s oft repeated interference with them, Ochsenbein gives a full report, drawn from original documents, specially full in regard to the great Inquisition trial at Freiburg, in A.D. 1430, consisting of ninety-nine wearisome and detailed examinations. Subsequently terrible persecutions, aiming at their extermination, became still more frequent in Switzerland. Also the Swiss Waldensians already bore unmistakable marks of having been influenced by the Hussites. Finally, Wattenbach has made interesting communications regarding the Waldensians in Pomerania and Brandenburg, based upon a manuscript once in the possession of Flacius, but afterwards supposed to have been lost, discovered again in the Wolfenbüttel library in A.D. 1884, though in a very defective form, which contains the original reports of 443 prosecutions for heresy in Pomerania, Brandenburg, and Thuringia. By far the greatest number of these trials were conducted between A.D. 1373 and 1394, by the Cœlestine provincial Peter, appointed inquisitor by the pope. From A.D. 1383 Stettin was the centre of his inquisitorial activity, and on the conclusion of his work he could boast that during the last two years he had converted to the Catholic faith more than 1,000 Waldensians. The victims of the Inquisition belonged almost exclusively to the peasant and artisan classes. Their objectionable doctrines and opinions are essentially almost the same as those of their ancestors of the 13th century. Although equally with their predecessors they abhorred the practice of the Catholic church, and declared all swearing and slaughter to be mortal sin, they yet in great part, and as it seems even without the application of torture, were persuaded to abjure their heresy, and incurred nothing more than a light penance. They did this, perhaps, only in the hope that their indulgent confessors would absolve them from their sin. The last protocols bring us down to A.D. 1458. Since a great number of these heretics were found again in Brandenburg, the elector caused one of their most distinguished leaders, the tailor Matthew Hagen, and three of his disciples to be taken prisoners to Berlin, and commissioned the Bishop of Brandenburg to investigate the case; but owing to his sickness this duty devolved upon John Cannemann, professor and doctor of theology. The elector was himself present at the trial. The investigation showed that the Waldensians of Brandenburg had evidently been influenced in their opinions by the Bohemian Taborites, and that they were constantly in close communion with them, and Hagen confessed that he had been there ordained by Fr. Ryss or Reiser to the clerical office. When Hagen persistently refused to retract, he was delivered over to the civil authorities for punishment, and was by them executed, probably at the stake. His three companions abjured their heresy, and on submitting to church discipline and wearing clothes marked with the sign of the cross, were pardoned. Cannemann then proceeded to Angermünde, where in the city and surrounding country crowds of such heretics resided; and there he succeeded without great difficulty in bringing them to abjure their errors and accept the Catholic confession.--The Waldensians in Bohemia and Moravia quite voluntarily amalgamated with the “_United Brethren_” there. The remnants of the German and Swiss Waldensians may have attached themselves to the Reformation of the 16th century, but probably for the most part to the Protestant sects of that age, some joining Schwenkfeld, and still more going with the Anabaptists, to whom they were essentially much more closely related than to Luther or Zwingli.--As to the ultimate fate of the Lombard Waldensians themselves, we know nothing. Probably many of them sought escape from the persecutions which raged against them among the French Waldensians in the valleys of Piedmont.

§ 119.9A.

2. The remnants of the =French Waldensians= and their lay adherents down to the beginning of the 14th century had for the most part settled in the remote and little cultivated valleys on both sides of the Cottian Alps. This settlement, which bore the character of an assembly as well as that of an isolation, now rendered indispensable the organization of an independent congregational order, such as had never been attempted before. In the arrangements of this community, not only was the question of clerical rank simplified by the combination of the order of bishop or majoralis with that of the presbyter, to which combined office was given the honourable designation of “barbe,” uncle, and instead of the hitherto annual tenure of this office was introduced a life tenure, but also to the laity was assigned a share in the church government at their synod meetings. A bull of John XXII., of A.D. 1332, informs us that then in the Piedmontese valleys _ita creverunt et multiplicati sunt hæretici, præcipue de secta Waldensium, quod frequenter congregationes per modum capitali facere inibi præsumpserunt, in quibus aliquando 500 Valdenses fuerunt insimul congregati_; yet certainly not merely clergy, as among the earlier congregations on the yearly tenure. The great, yea, extraordinarily great, number of the Waldensians in the Piedmontese valleys is proved by this, that from thence, since A.D. 1340, flourishing colonies of Waldensians were transplanted into Calabria and Apulia with the connivance of the larger proprietors in those parts. Those who had settled on the western side, in the province of Dauphiné, succumbed completely in A.D. 1545 to the oft repeated persecutions. The colonies of southern Italy, however, seem long to have led a quiet and little disturbed life under the protection of the territorial princes, until their adoption of Protestant views called down upon them the attention of the Inquisition, and led to their utter extermination in A.D. 1561. On the other hand, the Waldensians of Piedmont, in spite of continuous oppression and frequently renewed persecution, maintained their existence down to the present day. When in the beginning of the 15th century their residence came under the sway of the Duke of Savoy, the persecutions began, and lasted down to A.D. 1477, when a crusade for their extermination was summoned by Innocent VIII., which ended in the utter rout of the crusading army by Savoy and France. They had now a long period of repose, till their adoption of Protestant views in the 16th century anew awakened against them the horrors of persecution. In this time of rest brotherly intercourse was cultivated between the Waldensian groups and the Bohemian Brethren, who had hitherto maintained relations only with the German Waldensians. This movement originated with the Bohemians. Even at an earlier date, these, inspired by the wish to seek abroad what they could not obtain at home, namely, communion with a church free from Romish corruptions, had made a voyage of discovery in the east, which yielded no result. Now, in A.D. 1497, they determined to make another similar search, under the leadership of Luke of Prague, in the primitive haunts of the Waldensians in France and Italy. The deputies went forth, beginning with the south of France, and the remnants of the French communities in their settlements among the Piedmontese Alps. More detailed reports of their intercourse with these no longer exist, but it cannot be doubted that there was a mutual interchange of religious writings. It is a question therefore that has been much discussed as to which party was the chief gainer by this interchange. But it can now be no longer questioned that the Waldensians, as those who were far less advanced in the direction of the evangelical reformation, learnt much from the Bohemians, and by transferring it into their own literature, secured it as their permanent property.

§ 119.10. =The Dutch Reformers= sprang mostly from the Brothers of the Common Life (§ 112, 9).

1. =John Pupper of Goch= in Cleves, prior of a cloister founded by him at Mecheln, died A.D. 1475. His works show him to have been a man of deep spirituality. Love, which leads to the true freedom of sons of God, is the material, the sole authority of Scripture is the formal, principle of his theology, which rests on a purely Augustinian foundation. He contends against the doctrine of righteousness by works, the meritoriousness of vows, etc.

2. =John Ruchrath of Wesel=, professor in Erfurt, afterwards preacher at Mainz and Worms, died in A.D. 1481. On the basis of a strictly Augustinian theology he opposed the papal systems of anathemas and indulgences, and preached powerfully salvation by Jesus Christ only. For the church doctrine of transubstantiation he substituted one of impanation. He spiritualized the doctrine of the church. Against the ecclesiastical injunction of fasts, he wrote De jejunio; against indulgences, De indulgentiis; against the hierarchy, De potestate ecclesiastica. The Dominicans of Mainz accused and condemned him as a heretic in A.D. 1479. The old man, bent down with age and sickness, was forced to recant, and to burn his writings, and was sentenced to imprisonment for life in a monastery.

3. =John Wessel= of Gröningen was a scholar of the Brothers of the Common Life at Zwoll, where Thomas à Kempis exerted a powerful influence over him. He taught in Cologne, Lyons, Paris, and Heidelberg, and then retired to the cloister of Agnes Mount, near Zwoll, where he died in A.D. 1489. His friends called him Lux mundi. Scholastic dialectics, mystical depths, and rich classical culture were in him united with a clear and accurate knowledge of science. Luther says of him: “Had I read Wessel before, my enemies would have said, Luther has taken everything from Wessel, so thoroughly do our ideas agree.” His views are in harmony with Luther’s, especially in what he teaches of Holy Scripture, the universal priesthood of Christians, indulgence, repentance, faith, and justification. He taught that not only popes but even councils may err and have erred; excommunication has merely outward efficacy, indulgence has to do only with ecclesiastical penalties, and God alone can forgive sins; our justification rests on Christ’s righteousness and God’s free grace. Purgatory meant for him nothing more than the intermediate position between earthly imperfection and heavenly perfection, which is attained only through various stages. The protection of powerful friends saved him from the persecution of the Inquisition. Many of his works were destroyed by the diligence of the mendicant friars. The most important of his extant writings is the Farrago, a collection of short treatises.[351]

4. The priest of Rostock, =Nicholas Russ=, in the end of the 15th century, deserves honourable mention alongside of these Dutchmen. Living in intimate relations with Bohemian Waldensians, he was subjected to many indignities, and died a fugitive in Livonia. He wrote in the Dutch language a tract against the hierarchy, indulgences, worship of saints and relics, etc., which was translated into German by Flacius. A copy of it was found in Rostock library in A.D. 1850. It is entitled, “Of the Rope or of the Three Strings.” The rope that will raise man from the depths of his corruption must be made up of the three strings, faith, hope, and love. These three strings are described in succession, and so the book forms a complete compendium of Christian faith and life, with a sharp polemic against the debased church doctrine and morals of the age.

§ 119.11. =An Italian Reformer.=--=Jerome Savonarola=, born A.D. 1452, monk and from A.D. 1481 prior of the Dominican cloister of San Marco in Florence, was from A.D. 1489 in high repute in that city as an eloquent and passionate preacher of repentance, with even reckless boldness declaiming against the depravity of clergy and laity, princes and people. With his whole soul a Dominican, and as such an enthusiastic admirer of Thomas, practising rigid self-discipline by fasts and flagellations, he was led by the study of Augustine and Scripture to a pure and profound knowledge of the evangelical doctrine of salvation, which he sought, not in the merits and intercession of the saints, nor in the performance of good works, but only in the grace of God and justification through faith in the crucified Saviour of sinners. But with this he combined a prophetic-apocalyptic theory, according to which he thought himself called and fitted by Divine inspiration, like the prophets of the Old Testament, to grapple with the political problems of the age. And, in fact, he made many a hardened sinner tremble by revealing contemplated secret sins, and many of his political prophecies seem to have been fulfilled with surprising accuracy. Thus he prophesied the death of Innocent VIII. in A.D. 1492, and proclaimed the speedy overthrow of the house of the Medici in Florence, as well as the punishment of other Italian tyrants and the thorough reformation of the church by a foreign king crossing the Alps with a powerful army. And lo, in the following year, the king of France, Charles VIII., crossed the Alps to enforce his claims upon Naples and force from the pope recognition of the Basel reforms; the Medici were banished from Florence, and Naples unresistingly fell into the hands of the French. Thus the ascetic monk of San Marco became the man of the people, who now began with ruthless energy to carry out, not only moral and religious reformatory notions, but also his political ideal of a democratic kingdom of God. In vain did Alexander VI. seek by offer of a cardinal’s hat to win over the demagogical prophet and reformer; he only replied, “I desire no other red hat than that coloured by the blood of martyrdom.” In vain did the pope insist that he should appear before him at Rome; in vain did he forbid him the pulpit, from which he so powerfully moved the people. An attempt to restore the Medici also failed. At the carnival in A.D. 1497 Savonarola proved the supremacy of his influence over the people by persuading them, instead of the usual buffoonery, to make a bonfire of the articles of luxury and vanity. But already the political movements were turning out unfavourably, and his utterances were beginning to lose their reputation as true prophecies. Charles VIII. had been compelled to quit Italy in A.D. 1495, and Savonarola’s assurances of his speedy return were still unfulfilled. Popular favour vacillated, while the nobles and the libertine youth were roused to the utmost bitterness against him. The Franciscans, as members of a rival order, were his sworn enemies. The papal ban was pronounced against him in A.D. 1497, and the city was put under the interdict. A monk of his cloister, Fra Domenico Pescia, offered to pass the ordeal of fire in behalf of his master, if any of his opponents would submit to the same trial. A Franciscan declared himself ready to do so, and all arrangements were made. But when Domenico insisted upon taking with him a consecrated host, the trial did not come off, to the great disappointment of a people devotedly fond of shows. A fanatical mob took the prophet prisoner. His bitterest enemies were his judges, who, after torture had extorted from him a confession of false prophecy most repugnant to his inmost convictions, condemned him to death by fire as a deceiver of the people and a heretic. On 23rd May, A.D. 1498, he was, along with Domenico and another monk, hung upon a gallows and then burned. The believing joy with which he endured death deepened the reverence of an ever-increasing band of adherents, who proclaimed him saint and martyr. His portrait in the cell once occupied by him, painted by Fra Bartolomeo, surrounded with the halo of a saint, shows the veneration in which he was held by his generation and by his order. His numerous sermons represent to us his burning oratory. His chief work is his Triumphus crucis of A.D. 1497, an eloquent and thoughtful vindication of Christianity against the half pagan scepticism of the Renaissance, then dominant in Florence and at the court. An exposition of the 51st Psalm, written in prison and not completed, works out, with a clearness and precision never before attained, the doctrine of justification by faith. It was on this account republished by Luther in A.D. 1523.[352]

§ 120. THE REVIVAL OF LEARNING.

The classical literature of Greek, and especially of Roman, antiquity was during the Middle Ages in the West by no means so completely unknown and unstudied as is commonly supposed. Rulers like Charlemagne, Charles the Bald, Alfred the Great, and the German Ottos encouraged its study. Such scholars as Erigena, Gerbert, Barnard Sylvester, John of Salisbury, Roger Bacon, etc., were relatively well acquainted with it. Moorish learning from Spain and intercourse with Byzantine scholars spread classical culture during the 12th and 13th centuries, and the Hohenstaufen rulers were its eager and liberal patrons. In the 14th century the founders of a national Italian literature, Dante, Petrarch, and Boccaccio, earnestly cultivated and encouraged classical studies. But an extraordinary revival of interest in such pursuits took place during the 15th century. The meeting of Greeks and Italians at the Council of Florence in A.D. 1439 (§ 67, 6) gave the first impulse, while the Turkish invasion and the downfall of Constantinople in A.D. 1453 gave it the finishing touch. Immense numbers of Byzantine scholars fled to Italy, and were accorded an enthusiastic reception at the Vatican and in the houses of the Medici. With the aid of printing, invented about A.D. 1450, the treasures of classical antiquity were made accessible to all. From the time of this immigration, too, classical studies took an altogether new direction. During the Middle Ages they were made almost exclusively to subserve ecclesiastical and theological ends, but now they were conducted in a thoroughly independent spirit, for the purpose of universal human culture. This “humanism” emancipated itself from the service of the church, assumed toward Christianity for the most part an attitude of lofty indifference, and often lost itself in a vain worship of pagan antiquity. Faith was mocked at as well as superstition; sacred history and Greek mythology were treated alike. The youths of all European countries, thirsting for knowledge, crossed the Alps, to draw from the fresh springs of the Italian academies, and took home with them the new ideas, transplanting into distant lands in a modified form the libertinism of the new paganism that had now over-run Italy.

§ 120.1. =Italian Humanists.=--Italy was the cradle of humanism, the Greeks who settled there (§ 62, 1, 2), its fathers. The first Greek who appeared as a teacher in Italy was Emmanuel Chrysoloras, in A.D. 1396. After the Council of Florence, =Bessarion= and =Gemisthus Pletho= settled there, both ardent adherents of the Platonic philosophy, for which they created an enthusiasm throughout all Italy. From A.D. 1453 Greek littérateurs came in crowds. From their schools classical culture and pagan ideas spread through the land. This paganism penetrated even the highest ranks of the hierarchy. =Leo X.=[353] is credited with saying, “How many fables about Christ have been used by us and ours through all these centuries is very well known.” It may not be literally authentic, but it accurately expresses the spirit of the papal court. Leo’s private secretary, Cardinal =Bembo=, gave a mythological version of Christianity in classical Latin. Christ he styled “Minerva sprung from the head of Jupiter,” the Holy Spirit “the breath of the celestial Zephyr,” and repentance was with him a Deos superosque manesque placare. Even during the council of Florence Pletho had expressed the opinion that Christianity would soon develop into a universal religion not far removed from classical paganism; and when Pletho died, Bessarion comforted his sons by saying that the deceased had ascended into the pure heavenly spheres, and had joined the Olympic gods in mystic Bacchus dances. In the halls of the Medici there flourished a new Platonic school, which put Plato’s philosophy above Christianity. Alongside of it arose a new peripatetic school, whose representative, =Peter Pompanazzo [Pomponazzo]=, who died A.D. 1526, openly declared that from the philosophical point of view the immortality of the soul is more than doubtful. The celebrated Florentine statesman and historian =Macchiavelli=,[354] who died A.D. 1527, taught the princes of Italy in his “Prince,” in direct contradiction to Dante’s idealistic “Monarchia,” a realistic polity which was completely emancipated from Christianity and every system of morality, and presented the monster Cæsar Borgia (§ 110, 12) as a pattern of an energetic prince, consistently labouring for the end he had in view. Looseness of morals went hand in hand with laxity in religion. Obscene poems and pictures circulated among the humanists, and their practice was not behind their theory. Poggio’s lewd facetiæ, as well as Boccadelli’s indecent epigrams, fascinated the cultured Christian world as much by their lascivious contents as by their classical style. From the dialogues of Laurentius Valla on lust and the true good, which were meant to extol the superiority of Christian morals over those of the Epicureans and Stoics, comes the saying that the Greek courtesans were more in favour than the Christian nuns. The highly gifted poet, Pietro Aretino, in his poetical prose writings reached the utmost pitch of obscenity. He was called “the divine Aretino,” and not only Charles V. and Francis I. honoured him with presents and pensions, but also Leo X., Clement VIII., and even Paul III. showed him their esteem and favour. In their published works the Italian humanists generally ignored rather than contested the church and its doctrines and morality. But =Laurentius Valla=, who died A.D. 1457, ventured in his Adnotationes in N.T. freely to find fault with and correct the Vulgate. He did even more, for he pronounced the Donation of Constantine (§ 87, 4) a forgery, and poured forth bitter invectives against the cupidity of the papacy. He also denied the genuineness of the correspondence of Christ with Abgarus [Abgar] (§ 13, 2), as well as that of the Areopagite writings (§ 47, 11) and questioned if the Apostles’ Creed was the work of the apostles (§ 35, 2). The Inquisition sought to get hold of him, but Nicholas V. (§ 110, 10) frustrated the attempt and showed him kindness. With all his classical culture, however, Valla retained no small reverence for Christianity. In a still higher degree is this true of =John Picus=, Prince of =Mirandola=, the phœnix of that age, celebrated as a miracle of learning and culture, who united in himself all the nobler strivings of the present and the past. When a youth of twenty-one he nailed up at Rome nine hundred theses from all departments of knowledge. The proposed disputation did not then come off, because many of those theses gave rise to charges of heresy, from which he was cleared only by Alexander VI. in A.D. 1493. The combination of all sciences and the reconciliation of all systems of philosophy among themselves and with revelation on the basis of the Cabbala was the main point in his endeavours. He has wrought out this idea in his Heptaplus, in which, by means of a sevenfold sense of Scripture, he succeeds in deducing all the wisdom of the world from the first chapter of Genesis. He died in A.D. 1494, in the thirty-first year of his age. In the last year of his life, renouncing the world and its glory, he set himself with all his powers to the study of Scripture, and meant to go from land to land preaching the Cross of Christ. His intentions were frustrated by death. His saying is a very characteristic one: Philosophia veritatem quærit, theologia invenit, religio possidet.

§ 120.2. =German Humanism.=--The home of German humanism was the University of =Erfurt=, founded A.D. 1392. At the Councils of Constance and Basel Erfurt, next to Paris, manifested the greatest zeal for the reformation of head and members, and continued to pursue this course during the twenty years’ activity of John of Wesel (§ 119, 10). About A.D. 1460 the first representatives of humanism made their appearance there, a German Luder and a Florentine Publicius. From their school went forth among others Rudolph of Langen, who carried the new light into the schools of Westphalia, and John of Dalberg, afterwards Bishop of Worms. When these two had left Erfurt, =Maternus Pistorius= headed the humanist movement. Crowds of enthusiastic scholars from all parts of Germany gathered around him. As men of poetic tastes, who appreciated the ancient classics, they maintained excellent relations with the representatives of scholasticism. But in A.D. 1504 Busch, a violent revolutionist, appearing at Erfurt, demanded the destruction of the old scholastic text-books, and thus produced an absolute breach between the two tendencies. Maternus retired, and =Mutian=, an old Erfurt student, assumed the leadership in Gotha. Erfurt and Gotha were kept associated by a lively intercourse between the students resident at these two places. Mutian had no literary ambitions, and firmly declined a call to the new University of Wittenberg. All the more powerfully he inspired his contemporaries. His bitter opposition to hierarchism and scholasticism was expressed in keen satires. On retiring from public life, he devoted himself to the study of Holy Scripture and the Fathers. Shortly before his death he wrote down this as his confession of faith: Multa scit rusticus, quæ philosophus ignorat; Christus vero pro nobis mortuus est, qui est vita nostra, quod certissime credo. The leadership passed over to Eoban Hesse. The members of the society joined the party of Luther, with the exception of Crotus Rubianus. =Ulrich von Hutten= was one of the followers of Mutian, a knight of a noble Franconian family, inspired with ardent patriotism and love of freedom, who gave his whole life to battle against pedantry, monkery, and intolerance. Escaping in A.D. 1504 from Fulda, where he was being trained for the priesthood, he studied at Erfurt, fought in Maximilian’s army with the sword, in Mutian’s and Reuchlin’s ranks with the pen, and after the fall of Sickingen became a homeless wanderer, until he died in want, in A.D. 1523, on Ufenan, an island in the Lake of Zürich.[355]

§ 120.3. Next to Erfurt, =Heidelberg=, founded in A.D. 1386, afforded a congenial home for humanist studies. The most brilliant representative of humanism there was =Rudolph Agricola=, an admirer and disciple of À. Kempis and Wessel. His fame rests more on the reports of those who knew him personally than on any writings left behind by him. His pupils mostly joined the Reformation.--The University of =Wittenberg=, founded by Frederick the Wise in A.D. 1502, was the nursery of a wise and moderate humanism. Humanist studies also found an entrance into Freiburg, founded in A.D. 1455, into =Tübingen=, founded in A.D. 1477, where for a long time Reuchlin taught, and into =Ingolstadt=, founded in A.D. 1472, where the Duke of Bavaria spared no efforts to attract the most distinguished humanists. Conrad Celtes, a pupil of Agricola, taught at Ingolstadt until his removal to Vienna in A.D. 1497. Eck and Rhegius, too, were among its ablest alumni. As a bitter opponent of Luther, Eck gave the university a most pronounced anti-reformation character; whereas Rhegius preached the gospel in Augsburg, and spent his life in the service of the Reformation. Reuchlin also taught for a time in Ingolstadt, and the patriotism and reformatory tendencies of Aventinus the Bavarian historian received there the first powerful impulse. At =Nuremberg= the humanists found a welcome in the home of the learned, wealthy, and noble Councillor Pirkheimer. In Reuchlin’s controversy with the scholars of Cologne he showed himself an eager apologist, and headed the party of Reuchlin. He greeted Luther’s appearance with enthusiasm, and entertained the reformer at his own house on his return from the discussion with Cajetan (§ 122, 3), on account of which Eck made the papal bull against Luther tell also against him. What he regarded as Luther’s violence, however, soon estranged him, while the cloister life of his three sisters and three daughters presented to him a picture of Catholicism in its noblest and purest form. His eldest sister, Christas, abbess of the Clara convent at Nuremburg [Nuremberg], one of the noblest and most cultured women of the 16th century, had a powerful influence over him. He died in A.D. 1530.

§ 120.4. =John Reuchlin=, born in A.D. 1455 at Pforzheim, went to the celebrated school at Schlettstadt in Alsace, studied at Freiburg, Paris, Basel, and Orleans, taught law in Tübingen, and travelled repeatedly in Italy with Eberhard the Bearded of Württemberg. After Eberhard’s death he went to the court of the Elector-palatine Philip, and along with D’Alberg [Dalberg] did much for the reputation of the University of Heidelberg. Afterwards he was for eleven years president of the Swabian court of justiciary at Tübingen. When in A.D. 1513 the seat of this court was removed to Augsburg he retired to Stuttgart, was called in A.D. 1519 by William of Bavaria to Ingolstadt as professor of Greek and Hebrew. On the outbreak of the plague at Ingolstadt in A.D. 1520, he accepted a call back to Tübingen, where he died in A.D. 1522. He never gave in his adhesion to the reforming ideas of Luther. He left unanswered a letter from the reformer in A.D. 1518. But as a promoter of every scientific endeavour, especially in connection with the study of the original text of the O.T., Reuchlin had won imperishable renown. He was well entitled to conclude his Rudimenta linguæ Hebraicæ of A.D. 1506 with Horace’s words, Stat monumentum aëre perennino, for that book has been the basis of all Christian Hebrew philology.[356] He also discussed the difficult subject of Hebrew accents in a special treatise, De Acc. et Orthogr. Hebr. 11. iii, and the secret doctrines of the Jews in his De arte Cabbalistica. He offered to instruct any Jew who wished it in the doctrines of Christianity, and also to care for his temporal affairs. His attention to rabbinical studies involved him in a controversy which spread his fame over all Europe. A baptized Jew, Pfefferkorn, in Cologne in A.D. 1507 exhibited a neophyte’s zeal by writing bitter invectives against the Jews, and in A.D. 1509 called upon the Emperor Maximilian to have all rabbinical writings burnt because of the blasphemies against Christ which they contained. The emperor asked the opinion of the universities of Mainz, Cologne, Erfurt, and Heidelberg, as well as of Reuchlin and the Cologne inquisitor Hoogstraten. Erfurt and Heidelberg gave a qualified, Reuchlin an unqualified answer in opposition to the proposal. The openly abusive Jewish writings, e.g. the notorious Toledoth Jeschu, he would indeed condemn, but all other books, e.g. the Talmud, the Cabbala, the biblical glosses and commentaries, books of sermons, prayers, and sacred songs, as well as all philosophical, scientific, poetic, and satirical writings of the Jews, he was prepared unconditionally to defend. Pfefferkorn contended against him passionately in his “Handspiegel” of A.D. 1511, to which Reuchlin replied in his “Augenspiegel.” The theological faculty of Cologne, mostly Dominicans, pronounced forty-three statements in the “Augenspiegel” heretical, and demanded its suppression. Reuchlin now gave free vent to his passion, and in his Defensio c. calumniatores suos Colonienses denounced his opponents as goats, swine, and children of the devil. Hoogstraten had him cited before a heresy tribunal. Reuchlin did not appear, but appealed to Pope Leo X. (A.D. 1513). A commission appointed by Leo met at Spires in A.D. 1514, and declared him not guilty of heresy, found Hoogstraten liable in the costs of the process, which was enforced with hearty satisfaction by Franz von Sickingen in A.D. 1519. But meanwhile Hoogstraten had made a personal explanation of his affairs at Rome, and had won over the influential magister sacri palatii, Sylvester Prierias (§ 122, 2), who got the pope in A.D. 1520 to annul the judgment and to condemn Reuchlin to pay the costs and observe eternal silence. The men of Cologne triumphed, but in the public opinion of Germany Reuchlin was regarded as the true victor.

§ 120.5. A multitude of vigorous and powerful pens were now in motion on behalf of Reuchlin. In the autumn of A.D. 1515 appeared the first book of the =Epistolæ obscurorum virorum=, which pretended to be the correspondence of a friend with the Cologne teacher Ortuinus Gratius of Deventer. In the most delicious monkish Latin the secret affairs of the mendicant monks and their hatred of Reuchlin were set forth, so that even the Dominicans, according to Erasmus, for a time regarded the correspondence as genuine. All the more overwhelming was the ridicule which fell upon them throughout all Europe. The mendicants indeed obtained from Leo a bull against the writers of the book, but this only increased its circulation. The authors remained unknown; but there is no doubt they belonged to the Mutian party. Justus Jonas, a member of that guild, affirms that Crotus Rubianus had a principal hand in its composition. The idea of it was probably suggested by Mutian himself. Ulrich von Hutten repudiated any share in it, and on internal and external grounds this is more than probable. Busch, Urban, Petrejus, and Eoban Hesse most likely contributed to it. In order to keep up the deception, Venice was given as the place of publication, the name of the famous Aldus Manutius, the papal publisher of Venice, was put upon the title, and a pseudo-papal imprimatur was attached. The second book was issued in A.D. 1517 by Frobenius in Basel. The monkish party published as a counterblast Lamentationes obscurorum virorum at Cologne in A.D. 1518, but the lame and forced wit of the book marked it at once as a ridiculous failure. The monks and schoolmen were once and for ever morally annihilated.[357]

§ 120.6. =Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam= was the most brilliant of all the humanists, not only of Germany, but also of all Europe. Born in A.D. 1465, he was educated by the Brothers of the Common Life at Deventer and Herzogenbusch, and afterwards forced by his relatives to enter a monastery in A.D. 1486. In A.D. 1491 he was relieved from the monastic restraints by the Bishop of Cambray, and sent to finish his studies at Paris. He visited England in A.D. 1497, in the company of young Englishmen to whom he had been tutor. There the humanist theologian Colet of Oxford exerted over him a wholesome influence that told upon his whole future life. After spending a year and a half in England, he passed the next six years, sometimes in France, sometimes in the Netherlands; was in Italy from A.D. 1507 till A.D. 1510; then again for five years in England, for most of that time teaching Greek at Cambridge; then other six years in the Netherlands; and at last, in A.D. 1521, he settled with his publisher Frobenius in Basel, where he enjoyed intercourse with the greatest scholars of the day, and maintained an extensive correspondence. He refused every offer of official appointment, even the rank of cardinal, but in reality held undisputed sway as king in the world of letters. He did much for the advancement of classical studies, and in various ways promoted the Protestant Reformation. The faults of the scholastic method in the study of theology he unsparingly exposed, while the misdeeds of the clergy and the ignorance and sloth of the monks afforded materials for his merciless satires. The heathenish spirit of many of the humanists, as well as the turbulent and revolutionary procedure of Ulrich von Hutten, was quite distasteful to him; but his Pelagianising tendencies also prevented him from appreciating the true character of the gospel. He desired a reformation of the Church, but he had not the reformer’s depth of religious emotion, world-conquering faith, self-denying love, and heroic preparation for martyrdom. He was much too fond of a genial literary life, and his perception of the corruption of the church was much too superficial, so that he sought reformation rather by human culture than by the Divine power of the gospel. When the Reformation conquered at Basel in A.D. 1529, Erasmus withdrew to Freiburg. He returned to Basel in A.D. 1536 for conference with Frobenius, and died there under suspicion of heresy without the sacraments of the church. His friends the monks at an earlier period, on the occasion of a false report of his death, had said in their barbarous Latin that he died “sine lux, sine crux, sine Deus.” The most important of his works are his critical and exegetical treatises on the N.T. The first edition of his Greek N.T., with Latin translation, short notes, and three introductory sections, was published in A.D. 1516. In the second edition of A.D. 1519, one of these introductory sections, Ratio veræ theologiæ, appeared in a greatly extended form; and from A.D. 1522 it was issued separately, and passed through several editions. Scarcely less important were his paraphrases of all the biblical books except the Apocalypse, begun in A.D. 1517. He did much service too by his editions of the Fathers. On his polemic with Luther see § 125, 3. His Ecclesiastes s. concionator evangelicus of A.D. 1535 is a treatise on homiletics admirable of its kind. In his “Praise of Folly” (Ἐγκώμιον μωρίας, s. Laus stultitiæ) of A.D. 1511, dedicated to his friend Sir Thomas More, he overwhelms with ridicule the schoolmen, as well as the monks and the clergy; and in his “Colloquies” of A.D. 1518, by which he hoped to make boys latiniores et meliores, he let no opportunity pass of reproaching the monks, the clergy, and the forms of worship which he regarded as superstitious. Also his Adagia of A.D. 1500 had afforded him abundant scope for the same sort of thing. A piety of the purest and noblest type, derived from the schools of the Brothers of the Common Life, and from intercourse with Colet, breathes through his Enchiridion militis christiani of A.D. 1502.[358]--Continuation § 123, 3.

§ 120.7. =Humanism in England.=--In England we meet with two men in the end of the 15th century, closely related to Erasmus, of supreme influence as humanists in urging the claims of reform within the Catholic church. =John Colet= in A.D. 1496 returned to England after a long sojourn in Italy, where he had obtained, not only humanistic culture, but also, through contact with Savonarola and Mirandola, a powerful religious impulse. He then began, at Oxford, his lectures on the Pauline epistles, in which he abandoned the scholastic method and returned to the study of Scripture and the Fathers. There, in A.D. 1498, he attached himself closely to Erasmus and to young Thomas More, who was studying in that place. In A.D. 1505 Colet was made doctor and Dean of St. Paul’s, in which position he expounded with great success whole biblical books and large portions of others in his sermons. After his father’s death in A.D. 1510, he applied his great wealth to the founding of a grammar school at St. Paul’s for the instruction of more than 150 boys in classical, biblical, and patristic literature. A convocation of English bishops in A.D. 1512, to devise means for rooting out heresy (§ 119, 1), gave him the opportunity in his opening sermon to speak plainly to the assembled bishops. He told them that reform of their own order was the best way to protect the church against the incursion of heretics. This aroused the bitter wrath of the old, bigoted Bishop Fitzjames of London, who disliked him exceedingly on account of his reforming tendencies and his pastoral and educational activity. But the archbishop, Warham of Canterbury, repelled the bishop’s fanatical charge of heresy as well as King Henry’s suspicions in regard to the political sympathies of the simple, pious man. Colet died in A.D. 1519.--=Thomas More=, born in A.D. 1480, was recommended to the king by Cardinal Wolsey, and rose from step to step until in A.D. 1529 he succeeded his patron as Lord Chancellor of England. In bonds of closest intimacy with Colet and Erasmus, More also shared in their desires for reform, but applied himself, in accordance with his civil and official position, more to the social and political than to the ecclesiastical aspects of the question. His most comprehensive contribution is found in his famous satire, “Utopia,” of A.D. 1516, in which he sets forth his views as to the natural and rational organization of all social and political relations of life in contrast to the corrupt institutions of existing states. The religious side of this utopian paradise is pure deism, public worship being restricted to the use of what is common to all religions, and peculiarities of particular religions are relegated to special or private services. We cannot however from this draw any conclusion as to his own religious beliefs. More continued to the end a zealous Catholic and a strict ascetic, and was a man of a singularly noble and steadfast character. In the controversy between the king and Luther (§ 125, 3) he supported the king, and as chancellor he wrote, in direct contradiction to the principles of religious toleration commended in his “Utopia,” with venomous bitterness against the adherents of the anti-Catholic reformation. But he decidedly refused to acquiesce in the king’s divorce; and when Henry quarrelled with the pope in A.D. 1532 and began to carry out reforms in a Cæsaro-papistic manner (§ 139, 4), he resigned his offices, firmly refused to acknowledge the royal supremacy over the English church, and, after a long and severe imprisonment, was beheaded in A.D. 1535.[359]

§ 120.8. =Humanism in France and Spain.=--In =France= humanist studies were kept for a time in the background by the world-wide reputation of the University of Paris and its Sorbonne. But a change took place when the young king Francis I., A.D. 1515-1547, became the patron and promoter of humanism. One of its most famous representatives was =Budæus [Buddæus]=, royal librarian, who aided in founding a college for the cultivation of science free from the shackles of scholasticism, and exposed the corruptions of the papacy and the clergy. But much as he sympathized with the spirit of the Reformation, he shrank from any open breach with the Catholic church. He died in A.D. 1540. His like-minded contemporary, =Faber Stapulensis=, as a teacher of classical literature at Paris gathered crowds of pupils around him, and from A.D. 1507 applied himself almost exclusively to biblical exegetical studies. He criticised and corrected the corrupt text of the Vulgate, commented on the Greek text of the gospels and apostolic epistles, and on account of this, as well as by reason of a critical dissertation on Mary Magdalene of A.D. 1521, was condemned by the Sorbonne. Francis I. and his sister Margaret of Orleans protected him from further persecution. Also his former pupil, William Briçonnet, Bishop of Meaux, who was eagerly endeavouring to restore morality and piety among his clergy, appointed him his vicar-general, and gave him an opportunity to bring out his French translation of the New Testament from the Vulgate in A.D. 1523, which was followed by a translation of the Old Testament and a French commentary on the pericopes of the Sundays and festivals. As Faber here represented the Scriptures as the only rule of faith for all Christians, and taught that man is justified not by his works, but only by faith in the grace of God in Christ, the Sorbonne charged him with the Lutheran heresy, and Parliament, during the king’s imprisonment in Spain (§ 126, 5) in A.D. 1525, appointed a commission to search out and suppress heresy in the diocese of Meaux. Faber’s books were condemned to the flames, but he himself, threatened with the stake, escaped by flight to Strassburg. After his return the king provided for him a safe retreat at Blois, where he wrought at his translation of the Old Testament, which he completed in A.D. 1528. He spent his last years at Nérac, the residence of his patroness Margaret, now Queen of Navarre, where he died in A.D. 1536 in his 86th year. Though at heart estranged from the Catholic church, he never formally forsook it.--In =Spain= Cardinal Ximenes (§ 118, 7) acted as the Mæcenas of humanist studies. The most distinguished Spanish humanist was =Anton of Lebrija=, professor at Salamanca, a fellow labourer with Ximenes on the Complutensian Polyglott, and protected by him from the Inquisition, which would have called him to account for his criticism of the Vulgate. He died in A.D. 1522.

§ 120.9. =Humanism and the Reformation of the Sixteenth Century.=--Humanists, in common with the reformers, inveighed against the debased scholasticism as well as against the superstition of the age. They did so however on very different grounds, and conducted their warfare by very different methods. While the reformers employed the word of God, and strove after the salvation of the soul, the humanists employed wit and sarcasm, and sought after the temporal well-being of men. Hence the reaction of the despised scholasticism and the contemned monasticism against humanism was often in the right. A reformation of the church by humanism alone would have been a return to naked paganism. But, on the other hand, classical studies afforded men who desired a genuine reformation of the church a rich, linguistic, philosophical, and scientific culture, without which, as applied to researches in church history, the exposition of Scripture, and the revision of doctrine, the reforms of the sixteenth century could hardly have been carried out in a comprehensive and satisfactory manner. The most permanent advantage won for the church and theology by the revival of learning was the removal of =Holy Scripture= from under the bushel, and giving it again its rightful place as the lamp of the church. It pointed back from the Vulgate, of which since A.D. 1500, some ninety-eight printed editions had appeared, to the original text, condemned the allegorical method of exposition, awakened an appreciation of the grammatical and historical system of interpretation, afforded scientific apparatus by its philological studies, and by issuing printed Bibles secured the spread of the original text. From the time of the invention of printing the Jews were active in printing the Old Testament. From A.D. 1502 a number of Christian scholars, under the presidency of Ximenes, wrought at Alcala at the great Complutensian Polyglott, published in A.D. 1520. It contained the Hebrew and Greek texts, the Targums, the LXX., and the Vulgate, as well as a Latin translation of the LXX. and of the Targums, with a much-needed grammatical and lexical apparatus. Daniel Bomberg of Antwerp published at Venice various editions of the Old Testament, some with, some without, rabbinical commentaries. His assistants were Felix Pratensis, a learned Jew; and Jacob ben Chaijim, a rabbi of Tunis. As the costly Complutensian Polyglott was available only to a few, Erasmus did great service by his handy edition of the Greek New Testament, notwithstanding its serious critical deficiencies. Erasmus himself brought out five successive editions, but very soon more than thirty impressions were exhausted.

THIRD DIVISION.

History of the Development of the Church under Modern European Forms of Civilization.

§ 121. CHARACTER AND DISTRIBUTION OF MODERN CHURCH HISTORY.

In the Reformation of the sixteenth century the intelligence of Germany, which had hitherto been under the training and tutelage of the Romish church, reached maturity by the application of the formal and material principles of Protestantism,--the sole normative authority of Scripture, and justification by faith alone without works of merit. It emancipated itself from its schoolmaster, who, for selfish ends, had made and still continued to make strenuous efforts to check every movement towards independence, every endeavour after ecclesiastical, theological, and scientific freedom, every struggle after evangelical reform. Yet this emancipation was not completely effected in all the purely German nationalities, much less among those Romanic and Slavonic peoples which had bowed their necks to the papal hierarchy. The Romish church of the Reformation not only adhered to the form and content of its former unevangelical constitution, but also still further developed and formally elaborated its creed in the same unevangelical direction, and the result was a split in the western church into an Evangelical Protestant and a Roman Catholic church. Then again the principles of the Reformation were set forth in different ways, and Protestantism branched off into two divisions, the Lutheran and the Reformed. Besides these three new western churches and the one old eastern church, which all rested upon the common œcumenical basis of the old Catholic church, a variety of sects sprang out of them. Through these greater and lesser divisions, modern church history, where, with some advantages and some disadvantages, one church is pitted against another, possesses a character entirely different from the church history of earlier times.

Modern church history naturally falls into four divisions. The distinguishing characteristic of each is found partly in the opposition of particular churches to one another, partly in the antagonism of faith and unbelief. The transition from one to another corresponds generally with the boundaries of the centuries. The =sixteenth century= forms the Reformation period, in which the new Protestantism, parted from the old Roman Catholicism, cast off the deformatory elements which had attached themselves to it, and developed for itself a system of doctrine, worship, and constitution; while the Roman Catholic church, from the middle of the century, set to work upon a counter-Reformation, by which it succeeded in large measure in reconquering the field that had been lost. The =seventeenth century= was characterized on the Protestant side as the age of orthodoxy, in which confessionalism obtained undivided supremacy, deteriorating however in doctrine and life into a frigid formalism, which called forth the movement of Pietism as a corrective; but, on the Roman Catholic side, it was characterized as a period of continued successful restoration. In the =eighteenth century= begins the struggle against the dominant church and the prevailing conceptions of Christianity in the forms of deism, naturalism, and rationalism within both the Protestant and Catholic churches. The fourth division embraces the =nineteenth century=. The newly awakened faith strives vigorously with rationalism, and then, on the Protestant side, splits into unionism and confessionalism; while, on the Roman Catholic side, it makes its fullest development in a zealous ultramontanism. But rationalism again renews its youth under the cloak of science, and alongside of it appears a more undisguised unbelief in the distinctly antichristian forms of pantheism, materialism, and communism, which seeks to annihilate everything Christian in church and state, in science and faith, in social and political life.

FIRST SECTION.

CHURCH HISTORY OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY.

I. The Reformation.[360]

§ 122. THE BEGINNINGS OF THE WITTENBERG REFORMATION.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century everything seemed to combine in favour of those reforming endeavours which had been held back during the Middle Ages. There was a lively perception of the corruptions of the church, a deep and universal yearning after reformation, the scientific apparatus necessary for its accomplishment, a pope, Leo X., careless and indolent; a trafficker in indulgences, Tetzel, stupidly bold and shameless; a noble, pious, and able prince, Frederick the Wise (§ 123, 9), to act as protector of the new creed; an emperor, Charles V. (§ 123, 5), powerful and hostile enough to kindle the purifying fire of tribulation, but too much occupied with political entanglements to be able to indulge in reckless and violent oppression. There were also thousands of other persons, circumstances, and relations helping, strengthening, and furthering the work. And now, at the right hour, in the fittest place, and with the most suitable surroundings, a religious genius, in the person of Luther, appeared as the reformer, with the rarest combination of qualities of head and heart, character and will, to engage upon that great work for which Providence had so marvellously qualified him. This mighty undertaking was begun by ninety-five simple theses, which he nailed to the door of the church of Wittenberg, and the Leipzig Disputation marked the first important crisis in its history.

§ 122.1. =Luther’s Years of Preparation.=--Martin Luther, a miner’s son, was born on November 10th, A.D. 1483. His childhood was passed under severe parental control and amid pinching poverty, and he went to school at Mansfeld, whither his parents had migrated; then at Magdeburg, where, among the Brothers of the Common Life, he had mainly to secure his own support as a singing boy upon the streets; and afterwards at Eisenach, where Madame Ursula Cotta, moved by his beautiful voice and earnest entreaty, took him into her house. In A.D. 1501 he entered on the study of jurisprudence at Erfurt (§ 120, 2), took the degree of bachelor in A.D. 1502, and that of master in A.D. 1505. During a fearful thunderstorm, which overtook him as he travelled home, he was driven by terror to vow that he would become a monk, impressed as he was by the sudden death of an unnamed friend which had taken place shortly before. On the 17th July, A.D. 1505, he entered the Augustinian convent at Erfurt. In deep concern about his soul’s salvation, he sought by monkish asceticism, fasting, prayer, and penances to satisfy his conscience, but the inward struggles only grew stronger. An old monk proclaimed to the weary inquirer, almost fainting under the anxiety of spirit and self-imposed tortures, the comforting declaration of the creed, “I believe in the forgiveness of sins.” Still more powerful in directing him proved the conversation of his noble superior, John Staupitz (§ 112, 6). He showed him the way of true repentance and faith in the Saviour crucified not for painted sins. Following his advice, Luther diligently studied the Bible, together with, of his own accord, Augustine’s writings. In A.D. 1507 he was ordained priest, and in A.D. 1508 Staupitz promoted him to the University of Wittenberg, founded in A.D. 1502, where he lectured on the “Dialectics” and “Physics” of Aristotle; and in A.D. 1509 he was made Baccalaureus biblicus. In the autumn of the same year he went again, probably by Staupitz’ advice, to Erfurt, until, a year and a half afterwards, he obtained a definite settlement at Wittenberg. Highly important for his subsequent development was the journey which, in A.D. 1511, he took to Rome in the interests of his order. On the first view of the holy city, he sank upon his knees, and with his hands raised to heaven cried out, “I greet thee, holy Rome.” But he withdrew utterly disgusted with the godless frivolity and immorality which he witnessed among the clergy on every side, and dissatisfied with the externalism of the penitential exercises which he had undertaken. During his whole journey the Scripture sounded in his ear, “The just shall live by his faith.” It was a voice of God in his soul, which at last carried the blessed peace of God into his wounded spirit. After his return, in A.D. 1512, Staupitz gave him no rest until he took the degree of doctor of divinity; and now he gave lectures in the university on Holy Scripture, and afterwards preached in the city church of Wittenberg. He applied himself more and more, by the help of Augustine, to the study of Scripture and its fundamental doctrine of justification by faith alone. About this time too he was powerfully influenced by Tauler’s mysticism and the “Deutsche Theologie,” of which he published an edition in A.D. 1516.

§ 122.2. =Luther’s Theses of A.D. 1517.=--The æsthetic and luxurious pope Leo X. (§ 110, 14), avowedly for the building of St. Peter’s, really to fill his own empty coffers, had proclaimed a general indulgence. Germany was divided between three indulgence commissions. The elector-cardinal Albert of Mainz, archbishop of Magdeburg, and brother of Elector Joachim of Brandenburg, undertook the direction of the commission for his archiepiscopal province, for which he was to receive half the proceeds for the payment of his debts. The most shameless of the traffickers in indulgences employed by him was the Leipzig Dominican prior, John Tetzel. This man had been sentenced at Innsbrück to be drowned for adultery, but on the intercession of the Elector of Saxony had his sentence commuted to imprisonment for life. He now was taken from his prison in order to do this piece of work for Albert. With great success he went from place to place, and offered his wares for sale, proclaiming their virtues in the public market with unparalleled audacity. He went to Jüterbock, in the vicinity of Wittenberg, where he attracted crowds of purchasers from all around. Luther discovered in the confessional the corrupting influence of such procedure, and on the afternoon of All Saints’ Day, =October 31st, A.D. 1517=, he nailed on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg ninety-five theses, explaining the meaning of the indulgence. Although they were directed not so much against the principle of indulgences as against their misunderstanding and abuse, they comprehended the real germ of the Reformation movement, negatively in the conception of repentance which they set forth, and positively in the distinct declaration that the grace of God in Christ can alone avail for the forgiveness of sin. With incredible rapidity the theses spread over all Germany, indeed over all Europe. Luther accompanied them with a sermon on indulgence and grace. The immense applause which its delivery called forth led the supporters of the old views to gird on their armour. Tetzel publicly burnt the theses at Jüterbock, and with the help of Wimpina posted up and circulated at Frankfort and other places counter-theses. The Wittenberg students purchased quantities of these theses, and in retaliation burnt them, but Luther did not approve their conduct. In April, A.D. 1518, Luther went to Heidelberg, to take part there in a regular chapter of the Augustinians, which was usually accompanied by public preaching and disputations by members of the order. The disputation, which on this occasion was assigned to Luther, gave him the welcome opportunity of making known to wider circles these philosophical and theological views which he had hitherto uttered only in Wittenberg. The professors of the University of Heidelberg repudiated and opposed them, but in almost every case mildly and with tolerance. On the other hand, many of the young theologians studying there enthusiastically accepted his doctrines, and several of them, e.g. Martin Bucer of Strassburg (§ 125, 1), John Brenz and Erhard Schnepf of Swabia (§ 133, 3), as well as Theobald Billicanus, afterwards reformer of Nördlingen, etc., there and then consecrated themselves to their life work.

§ 122.3. =Prierias, Cajetan, and Miltitz, A.D. 1518, 1519.=--Leo X. at first regarded the matter as an insignificant monkish squabble, and praised Brother Martin as a real genius. He gave no heed to Hoogstraten’s outcry of heresy, nor did he encourage the Dominican Prierias in his attack on Luther. The book of Prierias was a harmless affair. Luther gave it a short and crushing reply. Prierias answered in a second and third tract, which Luther simply republished with sarcastic and overwhelming prefaces. The pope then enjoined silence upon his luckless steward. In May, A.D. 1518, Luther wrote a humble epistle to the pope, and added a series of Resolutiones in vindication of his theses. Staupitz is said to have revised both. Meanwhile it had been determined in Rome to deal with the Wittenberg business in earnest. The papal procurator made a complaint against Luther. A court was commissioned, which summoned him to appear in person at Rome to answer for himself. But, on the representations of the University of Wittenberg and the Elector Frederick the Wise, the pope charged Cardinal Cajetan, his legate at the Diet of Augsburg, to take up the consideration of the matter. Luther appeared, and made his appeal to the Bible. The legate however wished him to argue from the schoolmen, demanded an unconditional recantation, and at last haughtily dismissed “the beast with deep eyes and wonderful speculations in his head.” Luther made a formal appeal a sanctissimo Domino Leone male informato ad melius informandum, and quitted Augsburg in good spirits. The cardinal now sought to rouse Frederick against the refractory monk, but Luther’s buoyant and humble confidence won the noble elector’s heart. Cajetan continued a vigorous opponent of the reformed doctrine. But Luther’s superiority in Scripture knowledge had so impressed the cardinal, that he now applied himself closely to the study of the Bible in the original tongues; and thus, while firmly attached to the Romish system, he was led on many points, e.g. on Scripture and tradition, divorce, injunctions about meats, the use of the vernacular in public worship, the objectionableness of the allegorical interpretation, etc., to adopt more liberal views, so that he was denounced by some Roman Catholic controversialists as guilty of various heresies.--Luther had no reason in any case to look for any good from Rome. Hence he prepared beforehand an appeal for an œcumenical council, which the publisher, against Luther’s will, at once spread abroad. In Rome the cardinal’s pride was wounded by the failure of his undertaking. A papal bull defined the doctrine of indulgences, in order more exactly to guard against misrepresentations, and an accomplished courtier, the papal chamberlain, Carl von Miltitz, a Saxon, was sent to Saxony, in A.D. 1519, as papal nuncio, to convey to the elector the consecrated golden rose, and to secure a happy conclusion to the controversy. The envoy began by addressing a sharp admonition to Tetzel, and met Luther with hypocritical graciousness. Luther acknowledged that he had acted rashly, wrote a humble, submissive letter to the pope, and published “An Instruction on some Articles ascribed to him by his Traducers.” But after all the retractations which he made at the diet he still firmly maintained justification by faith, without merit of works. He promised the nuncio to abstain from all further polemic, on condition that his opponents also should be silent. But silent these would not be.

§ 122.4. =The Leipzig Disputation, A.D. 1519.=--John Eck of Ingolstadt had engaged in controversy with a zealous supporter and colleague of Luther, Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt, professor and preacher at Wittenberg, and Luther himself took part in the discussion between the two. This disputation came off at Leipzig, and lasted from June 27th to July 16th. But Eck’s vanity led him not only to seek the greatest possible fame from his present disputation, but also to drag in Luther by challenging his theses. Eck disputed for eight days with Carlstadt about grace and free will, and with abundant eloquence, boldness, and learning vindicated Romish semi-Pelagianism. Then he disputed for fourteen days with Luther about the primacy of the pope, about repentance, indulgences, and purgatory, and pressed him hard about the Hussite heresy. But Luther sturdily opposed him on the grounds of Scripture, and confirmed himself in the conviction that even œcumenical councils might err, and that not all Hussite doctrines are heretical. Both parties claimed the victory. Luther continued the discussion in various controversial treatises, and Eck, too, was not silent. New combatants also, for and against, from all sides appeared upon the scene. The liberal humanists (§ 120, 2) had at first taken little notice of Luther’s contention. But the Leipzig Disputation led them to change their attitude. Luther seemed to them now a new Reuchlin, Eck another specimen of Ortuinus Gratius. A biting satire of Pirkheimer (§ 120, 3), “Der abgehobelte Eck,” appeared in the beginning of A.D. 1520, exceeding in Aristophanic wit any of the epistles of the Obscurantists. It was followed by several satires by Ulrich von Hutten, who received new inspiration from Luther’s appearance at Leipzig. Hutten and Sickingen, with their whole party, undertook to protect Luther with body and soul, with sword and pen. This was a covenant of some advantage to the Reformation in its early years; but had it not been again abrogated, it might have diverted the movement into an altogether wrong direction. From this time forth Duke George of Saxony, at whose castle and in whose presence the disputation had been conducted, became the irreconcilable enemy of Luther and his Reformation.

§ 122.5. =Philip Melanchthon.=--At the Leipzig Disputation there also appeared a man fated to become of supreme importance in the carrying out of the Reformation. Born on February 16th, A.D. 1497, at Bretten in the Palatinate, Philip Melanchthon entered the University of Heidelberg in his thirteenth year, and at the age of sixteen published a Greek grammar. He took the degree of master at seventeen, and at twenty-one, in A.D. 1518, on the recommendation of his grand-uncle Reuchlin, he was made Professor of Greek in Wittenberg. His fame soon spread over all Europe, and attracted to him thousands of hearers from all parts. Luther and Erasmus vied with one another in lauding his talents, his fine culture and learning, and his contemporaries have given him the honourable title of Præceptor Germaniæ. He was an Erasmus of nobler form and higher power, a thorough contrast to Luther. His whole being breathed modesty, mildness, and grace. With childlike simplicity he received the recognised truths of the gospel. He bowed humbly before the powerful, practical spirit of Luther, who also, on his part, acknowledged with profound thankfulness the priceless treasure God had sent to him and to his work in this fellow labourer. Melanchthon wrote to his friend Œcolampadius at Basel an account of the Leipzig Disputation, which by chance fell into Eck’s hands. This occasioned a literary controversy, in which Eck’s vain over-estimation of himself appears in very striking contrast to the noble modesty of Melanchthon. He took part in the Reformation first in February, A.D. 1521, by a pseudonymous apology for Luther.[361]

§ 122.6. =George Spalatin.=--In consequence of his influential position at the court of the elector, which he obtained on Mutian’s (§ 120, 2) recommendation, after completing his philosophical, legal, and theological studies at Erfurt, George Burkhardt, born in A.D. 1484 at Spalt, in the diocese of Eichstadt, and hence called Spalatinus, played an important part in the German Reformation. Frederick the Wise, who had, in A.D. 1509, entrusted him with the education of his nephew John Frederick, appointed him, in A.D. 1514, his court chaplain, librarian, and private secretary, in which capacity he accompanied the elector to all the diets, and was almost exclusively the channel for communicating to him tidings about Luther. John the Constant, in A.D. 1525, made him superintendent of Altenburg, and took him with him to the diets of Spires, in A.D. 1526, 1529, and of Augsburg in A.D. 1530. John Frederick the Magnanimous, his former pupil, employed him in A.D. 1537 on important negotiations at the conference of the princes at Schmalkald [Schmalcald] (§ 134, 1). From A.D. 1527 Spalatin was specially busy with the visitation and organization of the Saxon church (§ 127, 1), conducted, in the interests of the Reformation, an extensive correspondence, and composed several works on the history of his times and the history of the Reformation.

§ 123. LUTHER’S PERIOD OF CONFLICT, A.D. 1520, 1521.

The Leipzig Disputation had carried Luther to a more advanced standpoint. He came to see that he could not remain standing half way, that the carrying out of the Reformation principle, justification by faith, was incompatible with the hierarchical system of the papacy and its dogmatic foundation. But amid all the violence and subjective one-sidedness which he showed at the beginning of this period of conflict, he had sufficient control of himself to make clear the spiritual character of his reforming endeavours, and firmly to reject the carnal weapons which Ulrich von Hutten and his revolutionary companions wished him to take up, thankful as he was for their warm sympathy. His standpoint as a reformer is shown in the writings which he published during this period. The Romish bull of excommunication provoked him to strong words and extreme measures, and with heroic boldness he entered Worms to present to the emperor and diet an account of his doings. The papal ban was followed by the imperial decree of outlawry. But the Wartburg exile saved him from the hands of his enemies and--of his friends.

§ 123.1. =Luther’s Three Chief Reformation Writings, A.D. 1520.=--In the powerful treatise, “To His Imperial Majesty and the Christian Nobility of the German Nation on the Improvement of the Christian Condition,” which appeared in the beginning of August, A.D. 1520, Luther bombards first of all the three walls behind which the Romanists entrenched themselves, the superiority of the spiritual to the civil power, the sole right of the pope to interpret Scripture and to summon œcumenical councils. Then he commends to the laity, as consecrated by baptism to a spiritual priesthood, especially civil rulers ordained of God, the task of carrying out the reformation which God’s word requires, but the pope and clergy hinder; and then finally he makes a powerful appeal for carrying out this work in a practical way. He exposes the false pretensions of the papal curia, demands renunciation of annats and papal confirmation of newly elected bishops, complete abandonment of the interdict and the abuse of excommunication, the prohibition of pilgrimages and the begging of the monks, a limitation of holy days, reform of the universities, permission to the clergy to marry, reunion with the Bohemian Picards (§ 119, 8), etc.--The second work, “On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” is a dogmatic treatise, and is directed mainly against the misuse of the sacraments and the reckoning of them as seven, which have been made in the hands of the pope an instrument of tyranny over the church. Only three are recognised as founded on Scripture: baptism, penance, and the Lord’s Supper, with the remark that, strictly speaking, even penance, as wanting an outward sign, cannot be styled a sacrament. The doctrine of transubstantiation, the withholding of the cup from the laity, and the idea of a sacrifice in the mass are decidedly rejected. The third treatise, “On the Freedom of a Christian Man,” enters the ethical domain. It represents the life of the Christian, rooted in justifying faith, as complete oneness with Christ. His relation therefore to the world around is set forth in two propositions: A Christian man is a free lord over all things, and subject to no one; and a Christian man is a ministering servant of all things, and subject to every one. On the one hand, he has the perfect freedom of a king and priest set over all outward things; but, on the other hand, he yields complete submission in love to his neighbour, which, as consideration of the weak, his very freedom demands.[362]

§ 123.2. =The Papal Bull of Excommunication, A.D. 1520.=--In order to reap the fruits of his pretended victory at Leipzig, Eck had gone to Rome, and was sent back triumphant as papal nuncio with the bull Exsurge Domini of June 16th. It charged Luther with forty-one heresies, recommended the burning of his works, and threatened to put him and his followers, if they did not retract in sixty days, under the ban. Miltitz renewed his attempts at conciliation, which, however, led to no result, although Luther, to show at least his good will, attended the conference, and, as a basis for a mutual understanding, published his treatise, “On the Freedom of a Christian Man,” in Oct., A.D. 1520. He accompanied this with a letter to the pope, in which he treated him with personal respect, as a sheep among wolves and as a Daniel sitting among lions; but there was in it no word of repentance or of any desire to retract. It could easily have been foreseen that these two documents would prove thoroughly distasteful to the Romish court. Meanwhile Eck had issued the bull. Luther published a scathing polemic against it, and renewed his appeal, made two years before, to an œcumenical council. In Saxony Eck gained only scorn and reproach with his bull; but in Lyons, Mainz, Cologne, etc., Luther’s works were actually burnt. It was then that Luther took the boldest step in his whole career. With a numerous retinue of doctors and students, whom he had invited by a notice posted up on the blackboard, on the 10th Dec., A.D. 1520, at the Elster gate of Wittenberg, he cast into the blazing pile the bull and the papal decretals with the words, “Because thou hast troubled the saints of the Lord, let eternal fire consume thee.” It was the utter renunciation of the pope and his church, and with it he cut away every possibility of a return.

§ 123.3. =Erasmus, A.D. 1520.=--Erasmus (§ 120, 6) had been hitherto on good terms with Luther. They entertained for one another a genuine regard. Diverse as their positive tendencies were, they were at one in contending against scholasticism and monkery. Erasmus was not sorry to see such heavy blows dealt to the detested monks, and constantly refused to write against Luther; he had also, he confessed, no wish to learn from his own experience the sharpness of Luther’s teeth. When the papal bull appeared, without hesitation he disapproved it, and indeed refused to believe in its genuineness. He, as the oracle of his age, was applied to by many for his opinion of the matter. His judgment was that not the papal decision in itself but its style and form should be disapproved. He desired a tribunal of learned, pious men and three princes (the emperor and the kings of England and Hungary), to whose verdict Luther would have to submit. When Frederick the Wise consulted him, he expressed the opinion that Luther had made two mistakes, in touching the crown of the pope and the belly of the monks; he regretted in Luther’s proceedings a want of moderation and discretion. Not without profit did the elector hear the oracle thus discourse.--Continuation § 125, 3.

§ 123.4. =Luther’s Controversy with Emser, A.D. 1519-1521.=--Emser, secretary and orator in the service of Duke George, after the Leipzig Disputation, which he had attended, sought by letter-writing to alienate the Bohemians (§ 139, 19) from Luther, representing him as having there spoken bitterly against them. This roused Luther to make a passionate reply. After several pamphlets of a violent character had been issued by both combatants, Emser issued his charge in a full and comprehensive treatise, to which Luther replied in his work, “The Answer of Martin Luther to the Unchristian, Ultra-ecclesiastical, and Over-ingenious Book of Emser at Leipzig.” They had also a sharp passage at arms with one another, in A.D. 1524, over the canonization of Bishop Benno of Meissen, in which Emser, by his duke’s order, took a zealous part (§ 129, 1). But all the later writings in this controversy Luther left unanswered. Emser, with great bitterness, assailed Luther’s translation of the Bible, in which he professed to have found 1,400 heretical falsifications and more than 1,000 lexical blunders. Luther was candid enough to acknowledge that several of his animadversions were not unfounded. On Emser’s own translation, which appeared shortly before his death in A.D. 1527, see § 149, 14.

§ 123.5. =The Emperor Charles V.=--The Emperor Maximilian had died on 12th Jan., A.D. 1519. The Elector of Saxony, as administrator of the empire, managed to determine the election, which took place on 28th June, A.D. 1519, against the French candidate, Francis I., who was supported by the pope, in favour of the young king of Spain, Charles I., grandson of Maximilian. Detained at home by Spanish affairs, it was 23rd Oct., A.D. 1520, before he was crowned at Aachen. All hopes were now directed toward the young emperor. It was expected that he would put himself at the head of the religious and national movement in Germany. But Charles, uninspired by German sentiment, and even ignorant of the German language, had other interests, which he was not inclined to subordinate to German politics. The German crown was with him only an integral part of his power. Its interests must accommodate themselves to the common interests of the whole dominions, upon which the sun never set. The German movement he regarded as one, indeed, of high importance, but he regarded it not so much from its religious as from its political side. It afforded him the means for keeping the pope in check and obliging him to sue for his favour. Two things required he of the pope as the price of suppressing the German movement: renunciation of the French alliance, and repeal of the papal brief by which a transformation had been recommended of the Spanish Inquisition, the main buttress of absolute monarchy in Spain. The pope granted both demands, and the hopes of the Germans in their new emperor, that he would finally free their nation from the galling yoke of Rome, were thus utterly blasted.

§ 123.6. =The Diet at Worms, A.D. 1521.=--Immediately after the arrival of the bull the emperor gave it the full force of law in the Netherlands, where he was then staying. He did not at once venture to make the same proclamation for Germany, specially from regard to Frederick the Wise, Luther’s own prince, who insisted that he should not be condemned unheard. Personal negotiations between Frederick and the emperor and his councillors at Cologne, in November, A.D. 1520, ended with a demand that the elector should bring Luther to the diet, summoned to meet at Worms, on 28th January, A.D. 1521; but at the desire of Aleander, the papal nuncio, who energetically protested against the proposal that civil judges should treat of matters of faith with an already condemned heretic, the emperor, in December, withdrew this summons. In the beginning of February there came a papal brief, in which he was urgently entreated to give effect to the bull throughout Germany. Aleander even sketched an imperial mandate for its execution, but was not able to prevent the emperor from laying it before his councillors for their opinion and approval. This was done in the middle of February. And now there arose a quite unexpected storm of opposition. The councillors demanded that Luther should be brought under an imperial safe conduct to Worms, there to answer for himself. His attacks on Romish abuses they would not and could not regard as crimes, for they themselves, with Duke George at their head, had presented to the pope a complaint containing 101 counts. On the other hand, they declared that if Luther would not retract his doctrinal vagaries, they would be prepared to carry out the edict. They persisted in this attitude when another scheme was proposed to them, which insisted on the burning of Luther’s writings. In the beginning of March a third proposal was made, which asked only for the temporary sequestration of his works. And to this they agreed. The emperor, though against his own will, submitted to their demand, and cited the reformer of Wittenberg to answer for himself at Worms. On 6th March he signed a summons, accompanied with a safe conduct, both intended, as Aleander said in writing to Rome, rather to frighten him from coming than with any desire for his presence. But the result was not as they desired. The courier appointed to deliver this citation was not sent, but instead of him, on the 12th, an imperial herald, who delivered to Luther a respectful invitation beginning with the address, “Noble, dear, and worshipful sir.” This herald was to bring him honourably and safely to Worms, and to conduct him back again in safety. All this was done behind the back of Aleander, who first came to know about it on the 15th, and certainly was not wrong in attributing the emperor’s change of mind to a suspicion of French political intrigues, in which Leo X., notwithstanding his negotiations for an alliance with the emperor, was understood to have had a share. Two weeks later, however, such suspicions were seen to be unfounded. Too late the sending of the herald was regretted, and an effort was made to conciliate the nuncio by the publication of the sequestrating mandate, which had been hitherto suppressed.

§ 123.7. =Luther= was meanwhile not idle at Wittenberg, while waiting with heroic calm the issue of the Worms negotiations. He preached twice daily, delivered lectures at the university, taught and exhorted by books, letters, and conversations, fought with his opponents, especially Emser, etc. While Luther was engaged with these multifarious tasks the imperial herald arrived. He now set everything aside, and on 2nd April boldly and confidently obeyed the summons. The fears of his Wittenberg friends and the counsels to turn back which reached him on his way were rejected with a heroic consciousness that he was in the path of duty. He had written on 14th March to Spalatin, Intrabimus Wormatiam invitis omnibus portis inferni et potentatibus aëris; and again from Oppenheim he wrote him, that he would go to Worms even if there were as many devils there as tiles upon the roofs. Still another attempt was made upon him at Oppenheim. The emperor’s confessor, Glapio, a Franciscan, who was by no means a blind worshipper of the Roman curia, thought it possible that a good understanding might be reached. He was of opinion that if Luther would only withdraw the worst of his books, especially that on the Babylonish Captivity, and acknowledge the decisions of the Council of Constance, all might be agreeably settled. With this in his mind he applied to the Elector of Saxony, and when he received no encouragement there, to Franz von Sickingen, who invited Luther, on his arrival at Ebernburg, near Worms, to an interview with Glapio; but Luther declined the invitation.--His journey all through was like a triumphal march. On 16th April, amid a great concourse of people, he entered Worms, along with his friends Justus Jonas and Nic. Amsdorf, as well as his legal adviser Jerome Schurf. He was called to appear on the following day. He admitted that the books spread out before him were his, and when called on to retract desired one day’s adjournment. On the 18th the trial proper began. Luther distinguished three classes of his writings, systematic treatises, controversial tracts against the papacy and papal doctrine, and controversial tracts against private individuals, and did not know that he had said anything in them that he could retract. He was asked to give a direct answer. He then gave one “without horns or teeth,” saying that he could and would retract nothing unless proved false from Scripture, or on other good and clear grounds, and concluded with the words, “Here stand I; I can no otherwise! God help me, Amen.” Among the German knights and princes he had won many hearts, but had made no favourable impression on the emperor, who, when Luther denounced the absolute authority of councils, stopped proceedings and dismissed the heretical monk. On the following day, without consulting the opinion of the councillors, he passed sentence of unconditional condemnation. But the councillors would not have the matter settled in this fashion, and the emperor was obliged, on 24th April, to reopen negotiations before a select commission, under the presidency of the Archbishop of Treves. Of no avail was a private conference of the archbishop and Luther on the 25th, in which the prelate accompanied his exhortation to retract with the promise of a rich priorate in his neighbourhood under his own and the emperor’s protection and favour. Luther supported his refusal by confident reference to the words of Gamaliel, Acts v. 38. On 26th April he left Worms unhindered; for the emperor had decidedly refused to yield to the vile proposal that the safe conduct of a heretic should be violated.--In consequence of Luther’s persistent refusal to retract anything, the majority of the diet pronounced themselves ready to agree to the emperor’s judgment against him. The latter now assigned to Aleander the drawing up of a new mandate, which should in the severest terms proclaim the ban of the empire against Luther and all his friends. After it had been approved in an imperial cabinet council, and was ready for printing in its final form in Latin and German, with the date 8th May, it was laid before the emperor for signature, which, however, he put off doing from day to day, and finally, in spite of all the nuncio’s remonstrances, he decided that it must be produced before the diet. When it appeared that this must be done, the two nuncios were all impatient to have it passed soon. But it was only on the 25th May, after the close of the diet, and after several princes, especially the Electors of Saxony and the Palatinate, had gone, that Charles let them present the edict, to which all present agreed. On the 26th May, after Divine service in church, he solemnly signed the Latin and German forms, which were published with blast of trumpets on the following day, and on Wednesday the sequestrated books of Luther were burnt.--Undoubtedly political motives occasioned this long delay in signing the documents. Perhaps he suspected the pope of some new act of political treachery; probably also he wished to postpone the publication of the edict until the imperial councillors had promised to contribute to his proposed journey to Rome, and perhaps until the nobles dissenting from the proceedings against Luther had departed.

§ 123.8. =The Wartburg Exile, A.D. 1521, 1522.=--Some days after Luther had dismissed the imperial herald, his carriage was stopped in a wood near Eisenach by two disguised knights with some retainers. He was himself carried off with show of violence, and brought to the Wartburg, where he was to remain in knight’s dress under the name of Junker Georg without himself knowing anything more of the matter. It was indeed a contrivance of the wise elector, though probably he took no active share in the matter, so that he could declare at Worms that he knew nothing of the Saxon monk. The most contradictory reports were spread. Sometimes the Cardinal Albert of Brandenburg (§ 122, 2) was thought of as the perpetrator of the act, sometimes Franz von Sickingen (§ 124, 2), sometimes a Franconian nobleman who was on intimate terms with Frederick. And as the news rapidly spread that Luther’s body, pierced with a sword, had been found in an old silver mine, the tumult in Worms became so great that Aleander had good cause to fear for his life.--From the Wartburg Luther maintained a lively correspondence with his friends, and even to the general public he proved, by edifying and stirring tracts, that he still lived, and was not inclined to be silenced or repressed. He completed the exposition of the Magnificat, wrought upon the Latin exposition of the Psalms, issued the first series of his “Church Postils,” wrote an “Instruction to Penitents,” a book “On Confession, whether the Pope have the Power to Enjoin it,” another “Against the Abuses of the Mass,” also “On Priestly and Monkish Vows,” etc. When Cardinal Albert, in September, A.D. 1521, proclaimed a pilgrimage with unlimited indulgence to the relic shrine at Halle (§ 115, 9), Luther wrote a scathing tract, “Against the New Idol at Halle.” And when Spalatin assured him that the elector would not suffer its being issued, he declined to withhold it, but sent him the little book, with imperative orders to give it over to Melanchthon for publication. While Spalatin still delayed its issue, Luther left his castle, pushed his way toward Wittenberg through the very heart of Duke George’s territories, and suddenly appeared among his friends in the dress of a knight, with long beard and hair. When he heard that the mere report of what he was proposing to do had led those in Halle to stop the traffic in indulgences, he decided not to proceed with the publication, but instead he addressed a letter to Albert, in which the archbishop had to read many a strong word about “the knavery of indulgences,” “the Pharaoh-like hardened condition of ecclesiastical tyrants,” etc. The prelate sent a most humble, apologetic, and gracious reply to the bold reformer. Luther then returned to his protective exile, as he had left it, unmolested. But the longer it continued the more insupportable did this electoral guardianship become. He would rather “burn on glowing coals than spend thus a half idle life.” But it was just this enforced exile that saved Luther and the Reformation from utter overthrow. Apart from the dangers of the ban of the empire, which would have perhaps obliged him to throw himself into the arms of Hutten and his companions, and thus have turned the Reformation into a revolution this confinement in the Wartburg was in various ways a blessing to Luther and his work. It was of importance that men should learn to distinguish between Luther’s work and Luther’s person, and of yet greater importance was the discipline of this exile upon Luther himself. He was in danger of being drawn out of the path of positive reformation into that of violent revolutionism. The leisure of the Wartburg gave him time for calm reflection on himself and his work, and the extravagances of the Wittenberg fanatics and the wild excuses of the prophets of Zwickau (§ 124, 1) could be estimated with a freedom from prejudice that would have been impossible to one living and moving in the midst of them. Besides, he had not reached that maturity of theological knowledge needed for the conduct of his great undertaking, and was in many ways fettered by a one-sided subjectivism. In his seclusion he could turn from merely destructive criticism to construction, and by undisturbed study of Scripture became able to enlarge, purify, and confirm his religious knowledge. But most important of all was the plan which he formed in the Wartburg, and so far as the New Testament is concerned carried out there, of translating the whole of the Scriptures.[363]

§ 123.9. =The Attitude of Frederick the Wise to the Reformation.=--Frederick the Wise, A.D. 1486-1525, has usually been styled “the Promoter of the Reformation.” Kolde, however, has sought to represent him as favouring Luther because of his interest in the University of Wittenberg founded by him, the success of which was largely owing to Luther, and because of his patriotic desire to have German questions settled at home rather than in Rome. This author supposes that after the Diet of Worms Frederick took no particular interest in the Reformation, beyond watching to see how things would turn out. To all this Köstlin has replied that Frederick’s whole attitude during the Diet of Worms betrayed a warm and hearty interest in evangelical truth; that his correspondence with Tucher of Nuremberg, A.D. 1518-1523, supports this view; that in one of these letters he addresses his correspondent with evident satisfaction as a good Lutheran; that in another he incloses a copy of Luther’s Assertio omnium articulorum; that at a later period he forwards him a copy of Luther’s New Testament, and expresses the hope that he will gain spiritual blessing from its perusal. He himself found it his greatest comfort in the hour of death, partook of the communion in both kinds after the reformed manner, which takes away all ground for the suspicion that he yielded only to the importunities of his brother John and his chaplain Spalatin. And even though Frederick, as late as A.D. 1522, continued to increase the rich collection of relics which he had previously made for his castle church, this only proves that not all at once but only bit by bit he was able to break away from his earlier religious tendencies and predilections.

§ 124. DETERIORATION AND PURIFICATION OF THE WITTENBERG REFORMATION, A.D. 1522-1525.

During Luther’s absence, the Reformation at Wittenberg advanced only too rapidly, and at last ran out into the wildest extravagances. But Luther hastened thither, regulated the movement, and guided it back into wise evangelical ways. This fanaticism arose in Wittenberg, but soon spread into other parts. The Reformation was at the same time threatened with danger from another quarter. The religious movement came into contact with the struggle of the German knights against the princes and that of the German peasants against the nobles, and was in danger of being identified with these revolutionary proceedings and sharing their fate. But Luther stood firm as a wall against all temptations, and thus these dangers were avoided.

§ 124.1. =The Wittenberg Fanaticism, A.D. 1521, 1522.=--In A.D. 1521 an Augustinian, Gabriel Didymus or Zwilling, preached a violent tirade against vows and private masses. In consequence of this sermon, thirteen of the brethren of his order at once withdrew. Two priests in the neighbourhood married. Carlstadt wrote against celibacy and followed their example. At the Wittenberg convent, secessions from the order were allowed at pleasure, and mendicancy, as well as the sacrifice of the mass, was abolished. But matters did not stop there. Didymus, and still more Carlstadt, spread a fanatical spirit among the people and the students, who were encouraged in the wildest acts of violence. The public services were disturbed in order to stop the idolatry of the mass, images were thrown out of the churches, altars were torn down, and a desire evinced to put an end to theological science as well as to clerical orders. A fanatical spirit began now also to spread at Zwickau. At the head of this movement stood the tailor Nicolas Storch and a literate Marcus Stübner, who boasted of Divine revelations; while Thomas Münzer, with fervid eloquence, proclaimed the new gospel from the pulpit. Restrained by energetic measures taken against them, the Zwickau prophets wandered abroad. Münzer went to Bohemia, Storch and Stübner to Wittenberg. There they told of their revelations and inveighed against infant baptism as a work of Satan. The excitement in Wittenberg became greater day by day. The enemies of the Reformation rejoiced; Melanchthon could give no counsel, and the elector was confounded. Then could Luther no longer contain himself. Against the elector’s express command he left the Wartburg on 3rd March, A.D. 1522, wrote him a noble letter, availed himself of his knight’s incognito on the way, and appeared publicly at Wittenberg. For a week he preached daily against fanaticism, and got complete control of the wild revolutionary elements. The prophets of Zwickau left Wittenberg. Carlstadt remained, but for a couple of years held his peace. Luther and Melanchthon now laboured to secure a positive basis for the Reformation. Melanchthon had already made a beginning in A.D. 1521 by the publication of his Loci communes rerum theologicarum. Luther now, in A.D. 1522, against the decided wish of his friend, published his Annotationes in epist. t. Pauli ad Rom. et Cor. In Sept. of the same year appeared Luther’s translation of the N.T. Besides these he also issued several treatises in defence of the Reformation.

§ 124.2. =Franz von Sickingen, A.D. 1522, 1523.=--A private feud led Franz von Sickingen to attack the Elector and Archbishop of Treves in A.D. 1522, but soon other interests were involved, and he was joined by the whole party of the knights. Sickingen’s opponent was a prelate and a pronounced enemy of the Reformation, and he was also a prince and a peer of the empire. In both characters he was opposed by Sickingen, who called for support in the name of religion and freedom. The knights, discontented with the imperial government and bureaucracy, with princes and prelates, crowded to his standard. Sickingen would also have gladly secured the monk of Wittenberg as an ally, but Luther was not to be won. Sickingen’s enterprise failed. The Elector of the Palatinate and the young Landgrave of Hesse hasted to the help of their beleaguered neighbours. The knights were overthrown one after another; Sickingen died of mortal wounds in May, A.D. 1523, immediately after the taking of the shattered Ebernburg. The power of the knights was utterly broken. The Reformation thus lost indeed brave and noble protectors, but it was itself saved.

§ 124.3. =Andrew Bodenstein of Carlstadt, A.D. 1524, 1525.=--Even after the suppression of the Wittenberg fanaticism, Carlstadt continued to entertain his revolutionary views, and it was only with difficulty that he restrained himself for a few years. In A.D. 1524 he left Wittenberg and went to Orlamünde. With bitter invectives against Luther’s popism, he there resumed his iconoclasm, and brought forward his doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, in which the real presence of the body and blood of Christ was absolutely denied (§ 131, 1). In order to prevent disturbance, Luther, by the order of the elector, went to Jena, and there in Carlstadt’s presence preached most emphatically against image breakers and sacramentarians. This roused Carlstadt’s indignation. When Luther visited Orlamünde, he was received with stone throwing and curses. Carlstadt was now banished from his territories by the elector. He then went to Strassburg, where he sought to win over the two evangelical pastors, Bucer and Capito. Luther issued a letter of warning, “To the Christians of Strassburg.” Carlstadt went to Basel, and published violent tracts against Luther’s “unspiritual and irrational theology.” Luther replied in A.D. 1525, earnestly, thoroughly, and firmly in his treatise, “Against the Heavenly Prophets, or Images and the Sacraments.” Carlstadt had secured the support of the Swiss reformers, who continued the controversy with Luther. He involved himself in the Peasants’ War, and afterwards, by Luther’s intercession with the elector, obtained leave to return to Saxony. He retracted his errors, but soon again renewed his old disorderly practices; and, after a singularly eventful career, died as professor and preacher at Basel during the plague of A.D. 1541.

§ 124.4. =Thomas Münzer, A.D. 1523, 1524.=--The prophets when expelled from Wittenberg did not remain idle, but set themselves to produce all sort of disorders in church and state. At the head of these disturbers stood Thomas Münzer. After his expulsion from Zwickau, he had gone to Bohemia, and was there received as an apostle of the Taborite doctrine (§ 119, 7). In A.D. 1523 he returned to Saxony, and settled at Allstadt [Allstädt] in Thuringia, and when driven out by the elector he went to Mühlhausen. In both places he soon obtained a large following. The Wittenberg Reformation was condemned no less than the papacy. Not the word of Scripture but the Spirit was to be the principle of the Reformation; not only everything ecclesiastical but also everything civil was to be spiritualized and reorganized. The doctrine of the evangelical freedom of the Christian was grossly misconceived, the sacraments despised, infant baptism denounced, and sole weight laid on the baptism of the Spirit. Princes should be driven from their thrones, the enemies of the gospel destroyed by the sword, and all goods be held in common. When Luther wrote a letter of warning on these subjects to the church at Mühlhausen, Münzer issued an abusive rejoinder, in which he speaks contemptuously of Luther’s “honey-sweet Christ,” and “cunningly devised gospel.” From Mühlhausen, Münzer went forth on a proselytising crusade in A.D. 1524, to Nuremberg, and then to Basel, but found little response in either city. His revolutionary extravagances were more successful among the peasants of Southern Germany.

§ 124.5. =The Peasant War, A.D. 1524, 1525.=--The peasants of the empire had long groaned under their heavy burdens. Twice already, in A.D. 1502, 1514, had they risen in revolt, with little advantage to themselves. When Luther’s ideas of the freedom of a Christian man reached them, they hastily drew conclusions in accordance with their own desires. Münzer’s fanatical preaching led to the adoption of still more decidedly communistic theories. In August, A.D. 1524, in the Black Forest, a rebellion broke out, which was, however, quickly suppressed. In the beginning of A.D. 1525 troubles burst forth afresh. The peasants stated their demands in twelve articles, which they insisted upon princes, nobles, and prelates accepting. All Franconia and Swabia were soon under their power, and even many cities made common cause with them. Münzer, however, was not satisfied with this success. The twelve articles were too moderate for him, and still more distasteful to him were the terms that had been made with the nobles and clergy. He returned to Thuringia and settled again at Mühlhausen. From thence he spread his fanaticism through the whole land and organized a general revolt. With merciless cruelty thousands were massacred, all cloisters, castles, and palaces were ruthlessly destroyed. Boldly as Luther had attacked the existing ecclesiastical tyranny, he resolutely left civil matters alone. He preached that the gospel makes the soul free, but not the body or property. He had profound sympathy for the sorely oppressed peasants, and so long as their demands did not go beyond the twelve articles, he hoped to be able to regulate the movement by the power of the word. The revolutionists had themselves in their twelfth article offered to abandon any of their claims that might be found to have no countenance from the word of God. When Münzer’s disorders began in Thuringia, Luther visited the cities most threatened and exhorted them to quiet and obedience. But the death of the elector on 5th May called him back to Wittenberg. From thence he now published his “Exhortations to Peace on the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants,” in which he speaks pointedly to the consciences of the nobles no less than of the peasants. But when the agitation continued to spread, and one enormity after another was perpetrated, he gave vent to his wrath in no measured terms in his book, “Against the Robbing and Murdering Peasants.” He there, with burning words, called upon the princes vigorously to stamp out the fanatical rebellion. Philip of Hesse was the first to take the field. He was joined by the new Elector of Saxony, Frederick’s brother, =John the Constant=, A.D. 1525-1532, as well as by George of Saxony and Henry of Brunswick. On 15th May, A.D. 1525, the rebels were annihilated after a severe struggle at Frankenhausen. Münzer was taken prisoner and beheaded. Even in Southern Germany the princes were soon in all parts masters of the situation. In this war 100,000 men had lost their lives and the most fertile districts had been turned into barren wastes.

§ 125. FRIENDS AND FOES OF LUTHER’S DOCTRINE, A.D. 1522-1526.

Luther’s fellow labourers in the work of the gospel increased from day to day, and so too the number of the cities in Northern and Southern Germany in which pure doctrine was preached. But Wittenberg was the heart and centre of the whole movement, the muster-ground for all who were persecuted and exiled for the sake of the gospel, the gathering point and nursery of new preachers. Among the theological opponents of Luther’s doctrine appears a crowned head, Henry VIII. of England, and also “the king of literature,” Erasmus of Rotterdam, entered the lists against him. But neither the one nor the other, to say nothing of the rude invectives of Thomas Murner, was able to shake the bold reformer and check the rapid spread of his opinions.

§ 125.1. =Spread of Evangelical Views.=--The most powerful heralds of the Reformation were the monkish orders. Cloister life had become so utterly corrupt that the more virtuous of the brethren could no longer endure it. Anxious to breathe a healthier atmosphere, evangelists inspired by a purer doctrine arose in all parts of Germany, first and most of all among the Augustinian order (§ 112, 6), which almost to a man went over to the Reformation and had the glory of providing its first martyr (§ 128, 1). The order regarded Luther’s honour as its own. Next to them came the Franciscans, prominent during the Middle Ages as a fanatical opposition (§ 98, 4; 108, 5; 112, 2), of whom many had the courage to free themselves of their shackles. From their cloisters proceeded, e.g., the two famous popular preachers, Eberlin of Günzburg and Henry of Kettenbach in Ulm, the Hamburg reformer Stephen Kempen, the fervent Lambert reformer of Hesse, Luther’s friend Myconius of Gotha, and many more. Other orders too supplied their contingent, even the Dominicans, to whom Martin Bucer, the Strassburg reformer, belonged. Blaurer of Württemberg was a Benedictine, Rhegius a Carmelite, Bugenhagen a Premonstratensian, etc. At least one of the German bishops, George Polenz of Samland, openly joined the movement, preached the gospel in Königsberg, and inspired the priests of his diocese with the same views. Other bishops, such as those of Augsburg, Basel, Bamberg, Merseburg, sympathised with the movement or at least put no hindrance in its way. But the secular clergy gave crowds of witnesses. In all the larger and even in some of the smaller towns of Germany Luther’s doctrines were preached from the pulpits with the approval of the magistrates, and where these were refused the preachers took to the market-places and fields. Where ministers were wanting, artisans and knights, wives and maidens, carried on the work.--One of the first cities which opened its gates freely to the gospel was Strassburg. Nowhere were Luther’s writings more zealously read, discussed, printed, and circulated than in that city. Shortly before Geiler of Kaisersberg (§ 115, 11) had prepared the soil for receiving the first seed of the Reformation. From A.D. 1518 Matthew Zell had wrought as pastor at St. Laurence in Münster. When the chapter forbade him the use of the stone pulpit erected for Geiler, the joiners’ guild soon made him a wooden pulpit, which was carried in solemn procession to Münster, and set up beside the one that had been closed against him. Zell was soon assisted by Capito, Bucer, Hedio, and others.

§ 125.2. =“The Sum of Holy Scripture” and its Author.=--This work, called also Deutsche Theologie, appeared anonymously at Leyden in A.D. 1523, and was confiscated in March, A.D. 1524. In various Dutch editions and in French, Italian, and English translations, it was soon widely spread over Europe; but so vigorously was it suppressed, that by the middle of the century it had disappeared and was forgotten. In A.D. 1877 the Waldensian Comba discovered and published an old Italian version, and Benrath translated into German in A.D. 1880 an old Dutch edition of A.D. 1526, and succeeded in unravelling for the most part its interesting history. He found that it was composed in Latin, and on the entreaty of the author’s friends rendered into Dutch. This led to the discovery, in the possession of Prof. Toorenenberger of Amsterdam, of the Latin original, which had appeared anonymously at Strassburg in A.D. 1527 with the title, Æconomica christiana. Benrath has also discovered the author to be Hendrik van Bommel, who was in the first half of A.D. 1520 priest and rector of a sisterhood at Utrecht, expelled in A.D. 1536 from Cleves, from A.D. 1542 to 1560 evangelical teacher and preacher at Wesel, dying in A.D. 1570 as pastor at Duisburg. The “Sum” is evidently influenced by those works of Luther which appeared up to A.D. 1523, its thoroughly popular, edifying, and positive contents are based upon a careful study of Scripture, and it is throughout inspired by the one grand idea, that the salvation of sinful men rests solely on the grace of God in Christ appropriated by faith.

§ 125.3. =Henry VIII. and Erasmus.=--Henry VIII. of England, as a second son, had been originally destined for the church. Hence he retained a certain predilection for theological studies and was anxious to be regarded as a learned theologian. In A.D. 1522 he appeared as the champion of the Romish doctrine of the seven sacraments in opposition to Luther’s book on the “Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” treating the peasant’s son with lordly contempt. Luther paid him in the same coin, and treated his royal opponent with less consideration than he had shown to Emser and Eck. The king obtained what he desired, the papal honorary title of Defensor fidei, but Luther’s crushing reply kept him from attempting to continue the controversy. He complained to the elector, who consoled him by reference to a general council (comp. § 129, 1). The pretty tolerable relations between Erasmus and Luther now suffered a severe shock. Erasmus, indebted to the English king for many favours, was roused to great bitterness by Luther’s unmeasured severity. He had hitherto refused all calls to write against Luther. Many pulpits charged him with having a secret understanding with the heretic; others thought he was afraid of him. All this tended to drive Erasmus into open hostility to the reformer. He now diligently studied Luther’s writings, for which he obtained the pope’s permission, and seized upon a doctrine which would not oblige him to appear as defender of Romish abuses, though to gauge and estimate it in its full meaning he was quite incompetent. Luther’s life experiences, joined with the study of Paul’s epistles and Augustine’s writings, had wrought in him the conviction that man is by nature incapable of doing any good, that his will is unfree, and that he is saved without any well doing of his own by God’s free grace in Christ. With Luther, as with Augustine, this conviction found expression in the doctrine of absolute predestination. Melanchthon had also formulated the doctrine in the first edition of his Loci communes. This fundamental doctrine of Luther was now laid hold upon by Erasmus in A.D. 1524 in his treatise, Διατριβή de libra arbitrio, pronounced dangerous and unbiblical, while his own semi-Pelagianism was set over against it. After the lapse of a year, Luther replied in his treatise, De servo arbitrio, with all the power and confidence of personal, experimental conviction. Erasmus answered in his Hyperaspistes diatribes adv. Lutheri servum arbitrium of A.D. 1526, in which he gave free vent to his passion, but did not advance the argument in the least. Luther therefore saw no need to continue the discussion.[364]

§ 125.4. =Thomas Murner.=--The Franciscan, Thomas Murner of Strassburg, had published in A.D. 1509 his “Fools’ Exorcism” and other pieces, which gave him a high place among German satirists. He spared no class, not even the clergy and the monks, took Reuchlin’s part against the men of Cologne (§ 120, 4), but passionately opposed Luther’s movement. His most successful satire against Luther is entitled, “On the Great Lutheran Fool as Exorcised by Dr. Murner, A.D. 1522.” It does not touch upon the spiritual aspect of the Reformation, but lashes with biting wit the revolutionary, fanatical, and rhetorical extravagances which were often closely associated with it. Luther did not venture into the lists with the savagely sarcastic monk, but the humanists poured upon him a flood of scurrilous replies.

§ 125.5. A notable Catholic witness on behalf of the Reformation is the “=Onus ecclesiæ=,” an anonymous tract of A.D. 1524, written by Bishop Berthold Pirstinger of Chiemsee. In apocalyptic phraseology it describes the corruption of the church and calls for reformation. The author however denounces Luther as a sectary and revolutionist, though he distinctly accepts his views of indulgences. He would reform the church from within. Four years after, the same divine wrote a “Tewtsche Theologey,” in which, with the exception of the doctrine of indulgence, the whole Romish system is vindicated and the corruptions of the church are ignored.

§ 126. DEVELOPMENT OF THE REFORMATION IN THE EMPIRE, A.D. 1522-1526.

In consequence of the terms of his election, Charles V. had, at the Diet of Worms, to agree to the erection of a standing imperial government at Nuremberg, which in his absence would have the supreme direction of imperial affairs. Within this commission, though presided over by Archduke Ferdinand, the emperor’s brother, a majority was soon found which openly favoured the new religion. Thus protected by the highest imperial judicature, the Reformation was able for a long time to spread unhindered and so made rapid progress (§ 125, 1). The Nuremberg court succumbed indeed to the united efforts of its political opponents, among whom were many nobles of an evangelical spirit, but all the more energetically did these press the interests of the Reformation. And their endeavours were so successful, that it was determined that matters should be settled without reference to pope and council at a general German national assembly. But the papal legate Campegius formed at Regensberg [Regensburg], in A.D. 1524, a league of the Catholic nobles for enforcing the edict of Worms, against which the evangelical nobles established a defensive league at Torgau, in A.D. 1526. The general national assembly was vetoed by the emperor, but the decision of the Diet of Spires of A.D. 1526 gave to all nobles the right of determining the religious matters of their provinces after their own views.

§ 126.1. =The Diet at Nuremberg, A.D. 1522, 1523.=--The imperial court held its first diet in the end of A.D. 1522. Leo X. had died in Dec., A.D. 1521, and Hadrian VI. (§ 149, 1), strictly conservative in doctrine and worship, a reformer of discipline and hierarchical abuses, had succeeded with the determination “to restore the deformed bride of Christ to her pristine purity,” but vigorously to suppress the Lutheran heresy. His legate presented to the diet a letter confessing abuses and promising reforms, but insisting on the execution of the edict of Worms. The diet declared that in consequence of the admitted corruptions of the church, the present execution of the Worms edict was not to be thought of. Until a general council in a German city, with guaranteed freedom of discussion, had been called, discussion should be avoided, and the word of God, with true Christian and evangelical explanation, should be taught.

§ 126.2. =The Diet at Nuremberg, A.D. 1524.=--A new diet was held at Nuremberg on 14th Jan., A.D. 1524. It dealt first of all with the question of the existence of the imperial court. The reformatory tendencies of the government showed that what was vital to this court was so also to the Reformation. This party had important supporters in the arch-catholic Ferdinand, who hoped thus to strengthen himself in his endeavour to obtain the Roman crown, in the Elector of Mainz, the prime mover in the traffic in indulgences, who had personal antipathies to the foes of the court, in the elector of Saxony, its proper creator, and in the princes of Brandenburg. But there were powerful opponents: the Swabian league, the princes of Treves, the Palatinate and Hesse, who had been successful in opposition to Sickingen, and the imperial cities, which, though at one with the court in favouring the Reformation, were embittered against it because of its financial projects. The papal legate Campegius also joined the opposition. Hadrian VI. had died in A.D. 1523, and was succeeded by =Clement VII.=, A.D. 1523-1534. A skilful politician with no religious convictions, he determined to strengthen in every possible way the temporal power of the papal see. His legate was a man after his own mind. The opposition prevailed, and even Ferdinand after a struggle gave in. The newly organized governing body was only a shadow of the old, without power, influence, or independence. Thus a second (§ 124, 2) powerful support was lost to the Reformation, and the legate again pressed for the execution of the edict of Worms. But the evangelicals mustering all their forces, especially in the cities, secured a majority. They were indeed obliged to admit the legality of the edict; they even promised to carry it out, but with the saving clause “as far as possible.” A council in the sense of the former diet was demanded, and it was resolved to call a general national assembly at Spires, to be wholly devoted to religious and ecclesiastical questions. In the meantime the word of God in its simplicity was to be preached.

§ 126.3. =The Convention at Regensburg, A.D. 1524.=--While the evangelical nobles, by their theologians and diplomatists, were eagerly preparing for Spires, an assembly of the supporters of the old views met at Regensburg, June and July, A.D. 1524. Ignoring the previous arrangement, they proceeded to treat of the religious and ecclesiastical questions which had been reserved for the Spires Diet. This was the result of the machinations of Campegius. The Archduke Ferdinand, the Bavarian dukes, the Archbishop of Salzburg, and most of the South German bishops, joined the legate at Regensburg in insisting upon the edict of Worms. Luther’s writings were anew forbidden, their subjects were strictly enjoined not to attend the University of Wittenberg; several external abuses were condemned, ecclesiastical burdens on the people lightened, the number of festivals reduced, the four Latin Fathers, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory, set up as the standard of faith and doctrine, while it was commanded that the services should be conducted unchanged after the manner of these Fathers. Thus was produced that rent in the unity of the empire which never again was healed.--The imperial and the papal policies were so bound up with one another, that the proceedings of the Nuremberg diets, with their national tendencies, were distasteful to the emperor; and so in the end of July there came an imperial rescript, making attendance at the national assembly a crimen læsæ majestatis, punishable with ban and double-ban. The nobles obeyed, and the assembly was not held. With it Germany’s hopes of a peaceful development were shattered.

§ 126.4. =The Evangelical Nobles, A.D. 1524.=--Several nobles hitherto indifferent became now supporters of the Reformation. Philip of Hesse, moved by an interview with Melanchthon, gave himself enthusiastically to the cause of evangelical truth. Also the Margrave Casimir, George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Duke Ernest of Lüneburg, the Elector Louis of the Palatinate, and Frederick I. of Denmark, as Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, did more or less in their several countries for the furtherance of the Reformation cause. The grand-master of the Teutonic order, Albert of Prussia, returned from the Diet of Nuremberg, where he had heard Osiander preach, doubtful of the scripturalness of the rule of his order. He therefore visited Wittenberg to consult Luther, who advised him to renounce the rule, to marry, and obtain heirs to his Prussian dukedom (§ 127, 3). The cities took up a most decided position. At two great city diets at Spires and Ulm in A.D. 1524, it was resolved to allow the preaching of a pure gospel and to assist in preventing the execution of the edict of Worms in their jurisdiction.

§ 126.5. =The Torgau League, A.D. 1526.=--Friends and foes of the Reformation had joined in putting down the peasant revolt. Their religious divergences however immediately after broke out afresh. George consulted at Dessau in July, A.D. 1525, with several Catholic princes as to means for preventing a renewal of the outbreak, and they unanimously decided that the condemned Lutheran sect must be rooted out as the source of all confusion. Soon afterwards two Leipzig citizens, who were found to have Lutheran books in their possession, were put to death. But Elector John of Saxony had a conference at Saalfeld with Casimir of Brandenburg, at which it was agreed at all hazards to stand by the word of God; and at Friedewald in November Hesse and the elector pledged themselves to stand true to the gospel. A diet at Augsburg in December, for want of a quorum, had reached no conclusion. A new diet was therefore summoned to meet at Spires, and all the princes were cited to appear personally. Duke George meanwhile gathered the Catholic princes at Halle and Leipzig, and they resolved to send Henry of Brunswick to Spain to the emperor. Shortly before his arrival, the emperor had concluded a peace at Madrid with the king of France, who had been taken prisoner in the battle of Pavia. Francis I., feeling he could not help himself, had agreed to all the terms, including an undertaking to join in suppressing the heretics. Charles therefore fully believed that he had a free hand, and determined to root out heresy in Germany. Henry of Brandenburg brought to the German princes an extremely firm reply, in which this view was expressed. But before its arrival the elector and the landgrave had met at Gotha, and had subsequently at Torgau, the residence of the elector, renewed the league to stand together with all their might in defence of the gospel. Philip undertook to gain over the nobles of the uplands. But the fear of the empire hindered his success. The elector was more fortunate among the lowland nobles. On 9th June the princes of Saxony, Lüneberg [Lüneburg], Grubenhagen, Anhalt, and Mansfeld met at Magdeburg, and subscribed the Torgau League. Also the city of Magdeburg, emancipated since A.D. 1524 from the jurisdiction of its archbishop, Albert of Mainz, and accepting the Lutheran confession, now joined the league.

§ 126.6. =The Diet of Spires, A.D. 1526.=--The diet met on 25th June, A.D. 1526. The evangelical princes were confident; on their armour was the motto, Verbum Dei manet in æternum. In spite of all the prelates’ opposition, three commissions were approved to consider abuses. When the debates were about to begin, the imperial commissioners tabled an instruction which forbade them to make any change upon the old doctrines and usages, and finally insisted upon the execution of the edict of Worms. The evangelicals however took comfort from the date affixed to the document. They knew that since its issue the relation of pope and emperor had become strained. Francis I. had been relieved by the pope from the obligation of his oath, and the pope had joined with Francis in a league at Cognac, to which also Henry VIII. of England adhered. All Western Europe had combined to break the supremacy gained by the Burgundian-Spanish dynasty at Pavia, and the duped emperor found himself in straits. Would he now be inclined to stand by his instruction? The commissioners, apparently at Ferdinand’s wish, had kept back the document till the affairs of the Catholics became desperate. The evangelical nobles felt encouraged to send an embassy to the emperor, but before it started the emperor realized their wishes. In a letter to his brother he communicated a scheme for abolishing the penalties of the edict of Worms and referring religious questions to a council. At the same time he called for help against his Italian enemies. Seeing then that in present circumstances it did not seem advisable to revoke, still less to carry out the edict, the only plan was to give to each prince discretionary power in his own territory. This was the birthday of the territorial constitution on a formally legitimate basis.

§ 127. ORGANIZATION OF THE EVANGELICAL PROVINCIAL CHURCHES, A.D. 1526-1529.

The nobles had now not only the right but also had it enjoined on them as a duty to establish church arrangements in their territories as they thought best. The three following years therefore marked the period of the founding and organizing of the evangelical provincial churches. The electorate of Saxony came first with a good example. After this pattern the churches of Hesse, Franconia, Lüneburg, East Friesland, Schleswig and Holstein, Silesia, Prussia, and a whole group of Low German states modelled their constitution and worship.

§ 127.1. =The Organization of the Church of the Saxon Electorate, A.D. 1527-1529.=--Luther wrote in A.D. 1528 an instruction to visitors of pastors in the electorate, which showed what and how ministers were to preach, indicated the reforms to be made in worship, protested against abuse of the doctrine of justification by urging the necessity of preaching the law, etc. The whole territory was divided under four commissions, comprising lay and clerical members. Ignorant and incompetent religious teachers were to be removed, but to be provided for. Teachers were to be settled over churches and schools, and superintendents over them were to inspect their work periodically, and to these last the performance of marriages was assigned. Vacant benefices were to be applied to the improvement of churches and schools; and those not vacant were to be taxed for maintenance of hospitals, support of the poor, founding of new schools, etc. The dangers occasioned by the often incredible ignorance of the people and their teachers led to Luther’s composing his two catechisms in A.D. 1529.

§ 127.2. =The Organization of the Hessian Churches, A.D. 1526-1528.=--Philip of Hesse had assembled the peers temporal and spiritual of his dominions in Oct., A.D. 1526, at Homberg, to discuss the question of church reform. A reactionary attempt failed through the fervid eloquence of the Franciscan Lambert of Avignon, a notable man, who, awakened in his cloister at Avignon by Luther’s writings, but not thoroughly satisfied, set out for Wittenberg, engaged on the way at Zürich in public disputation against Zwingli’s reforms, but left converted by his opponent, and then passed through Luther’s school at Wittenberg. There he married in A.D. 1523, and after a long unofficial and laborious stay at Strassburg, found at last, in A.D. 1526, a permanent residence in Hesse. He died in A.D. 1530.--Lambert’s personality dominated the Homberg synod. He sketched an organization of the church according to his ideal as a communion of saints with a democratic basis, and a strict discipline administered by the community itself. But the impracticability of the scheme soon became evident, and in A.D. 1528 the Hessian church adopted the principles of the Saxon church visitation. Out of vacant church revenues the University of Marburg was founded in A.D. 1527 as a second training school in reformed theology. Lambert was one of its first teachers.

§ 127.3. =Organization of other German Provincial Churches, A.D. 1528-1530.=--George of =Franconian-Brandenburg=, after his brother Casimir’s death, organized his church at the assembly of Anspach after the Saxon model. =Nuremberg=, under the guidance of its able secretary of council, Lazarus Spengler, united in carrying out a joint organization. In =Brunswick-Lüneburg=, Duke Ernest, powerfully impressed by the preaching of Rhegius at Augsburg, introduced the evangelical church organization into his dominions. In =East Friesland=, where the reigning prince did not interest himself in the matter, the development of the church was attended to by the young nobleman Ulrich of Dornum. In =Schleswig= and =Holstein= the prelates offered no opposition to reorganization, and the civil authorities carried out the work. In =Silesia= the princes were favourable, Breslau had been long on the side of the Reformation, and even the grand-duke who, as king of Bohemia, was suzerain of Silesia, felt obliged to allow Silesian nobles the privileges provided by the Diet of Spires. In =Prussia= (§ 126, 4), Albert of Brandenburg, hereditary duke of these parts, with the hearty assistance of his two bishops, provided for his subjects an evangelical constitution.

§ 127.4. =The Reformation in the Cities of Northern Germany, A.D. 1524-1531.=--In these cities the Reformation spread rapidly after their emancipation from episcopal control. It was organized in =Magdeburg= as early as A.D. 1524 by Nic. Amsdorf, sent for the purpose by Luther (§ 126, 5). In =Brunswick= the church was organized in A.D. 1528 by Bugenhagen of Wittenberg. In =Bremen= in A.D. 1525 all churches except the cathedral were in the hands of the Lutherans; in A.D. 1527 the cloisters were turned into schools and hospitals, and then the cathedral was taken from the Catholics. At =Lübeck=, nobles, councillors, and clergy had oppressed and driven away the evangelical pastors; but the councillors in their financial straits became indebted to sixty-four citizens, who stipulated that the pastors must be restored, the Catholics expelled, the cloisters turned into hospitals and schools, and finally Bugenhagen was called in to prepare for their church a Lutheran constitution.

§ 128. MARTYRS FOR EVANGELICAL TRUTH, A.D. 1521-1529.

On the publication of the edict of Worms several Catholic princes, most conspicuously Duke George of Saxony, began the persecution. Luther’s followers were at first imprisoned, scourged, and banished, and in A.D. 1521 a bookseller who sold Luther’s books was beheaded. The persecution was most severe in the Netherlands, a heritage of the emperor independent of the empire. Also in Austria, Bavaria, and Swabia many evangelical confessors were put to death by the sword and at the stake. The peasant revolt of A.D. 1525 increased the violence of the persecution. On the pretence of punishing rebels, those who took part in the Regensburg Convention (§ 126, 3) were expelled the country, thousands of them with no other fault than their attachment to the gospel. The conclusion of the Diet of Spires in A.D. 1526 (§ 126, 6) added new fuel to the flames. While the evangelical nobles, taking advantage of that decision, proceeded vigorously to the planting and organizing of the reformed church, the enemies of the Reformation exercised the power given them in cruel persecutions of their evangelical subjects. The vagaries of Pack (§ 132, 1) led to a revival and intensification of the spirit of persecution. In Austria, during A.D. 1527, 1528, a church visitation had been arranged very much in the style of that of Saxony, but with the object of tracking out and punishing heretics. In Bavaria the highways were watched, to prevent pilgrims going to preaching over the borders. Those caught were at first fined, but later on they were drowned or burned.

=The first martyrs for evangelical truth= were two young Augustinian monks of Antwerp, Henry Voes and John Esch, who died at the stake in A.D. 1523, and their heroism was celebrated by Luther in a beautiful hymn. They were succeeded by the prior of the cloister, Lampert Thorn, who was strangled in prison. The Swabian League, which was renewed after the rising of the Diet of Spires, with the avowed purpose of rooting out the Anabaptists, directed its cruel measures against all evangelicals. The Bishop of Constance in A.D. 1527 had John Hüglin burnt as an opposer of the holy mother church. The Elector of Mainz cited the court preacher, George Winkler, of Halle, for dispensing the sacrament in both kinds at Ascheffenburg [Aschaffenburg]. Winkler defended himself, and was acquitted, but was murdered on the way. Luther then wrote his tract, “Comfort to the Christians of Halle on the Death of their Pastor.” In North Germany there was no bloodshedding, but Duke George had those who confessed their faith scourged by the gaoler and driven from the country. The Elector Joachim of Brandenburg with his nobles resolved in A.D. 1527 to give vigorous support to the old religion. But the gospel took deep root in his land, and his own wife Elizabeth read Luther’s writings, and had the sacrament administered after the Lutheran form. But the secret was revealed, and the elector stormed and threatened. She then escaped, dressed as a peasant woman, to her cousin the Elector of Saxony.

§ 129. LUTHER’S PRIVATE AND PUBLIC LIFE, A.D. 1523-1529.

Only in December, A.D. 1524, did Luther leave the cloister, the last of its inhabitants but the prior, and on 13th June, A.D. 1525, married Catherine Bora, of the convent of Nimptschen, of whom he afterwards boasted that he prized her more highly than the kingdom of France and the governorship of Venice. Though often depressed with sickness, almost crushed under the weight of business, and harassed even to the end by the threats of his enemies against his life, he maintained a bright, joyous temper, enjoyed himself during leisure hours among his friends with simple entertainments of song, music, intellectual conversation, and harmless, though often sharp and pungent, interchange of wit. Thus he proved a genuine comfort and help in all kinds of trouble. By constant writing, by personal intercourse with students and foreigners who crowded into Wittenberg, by an extensive correspondence, he won and maintained a mighty influence in spreading and establishing the Reformation. By Scripture translation and Scripture exposition, by sermons and doctrinal treatises, he impressed upon the people his own evangelical views. A peculiarly powerful factor in the Reformation was that treasury of sacred song (§ 142, 3) which Luther gave his people, partly in translations of old, partly in the composition of new hymns, which he set to bright and pleasing melodies. He was also most diligent in promoting education in churches and schools, in securing the erection of new elementary and secondary schools, and laid special stress on the importance of linguistic studies in a church that prized the pure word of God.

§ 129.1. =Luther’s Literary Works.=--In A.D. 1524 appeared the first collection of spiritual songs and psalms, eight in number, with a preface by Luther. His reforms of worship were extremely moderate. In A.D. 1523 he published little tracts on baptism and the Lord’s Supper, repudiating the idea of a sacrifice in the mass, and insisting on communion in both kinds. In A.D. 1527 he wrote his “German Mass and Order of Public Worship” (§ 127, 1) which was introduced generally throughout the elector’s dominions. He wrote an address to burgomasters and councillors about the improvement of education in the cities. Besides his polemic against Erasmus and Carlstadt, against Münzer and the rebellious peasants, as well as against the Sacramentarians (§ 131), he engaged at this time in controversy with Cochlæus. A papal bull for the canonization of Bishop Benno of Meissen (§ 93, 9) called forth in A.D. 1524 Luther’s tract, “Against the new God and the old Devil being set up at Meissen.” He was persuaded by Christian II. of Denmark to write, in A.D. 1526, a very humble letter to Henry VIII. of England (§ 125, 3), which was answered in an extremely venomous and bitter style. When his enemies triumphantly declared that he had retracted, Luther answered, in A.D. 1527, with his book, “Against the Abusive Writing of the King of England,” in which he resumed the bold and confident tone of his earlier polemic. A humble, conciliatory epistle sent in A.D. 1526 to Duke George was no more successful. He now unweariedly continued his Bible translation. The first edition of the whole Bible was published by Hans Lufft in Wittenberg, in A.D. 1534. A collection of sayings of Luther collected by Lauterbach, a deacon of Wittenberg, in A.D. 1538, formed the basis of later and fuller editions of “Luther’s Table Talk.” A chronologically arranged collection was made ten years later, and was published in A.D. 1872 from a MS. in the Royal Library at Dresden. Aurifaber in his collection did not follow the chronological order, but grouped the utterances according to their subjects, but with many arbitrary alterations and modifications. The saying falsely attributed to Luther, “Who loves not wine, women, and song?” etc., is assigned by Luther himself to his Erfurt landlady, but has been recently traced to an Italian source.

§ 129.2. The famous Catholic Church historian Döllinger, who in his history of the Reformation had with ultramontane bitterness defamed Luther and his work, twenty years later could not forbear celebrating Luther in a public lecture as “the most powerful patriot and the most popular character that Germany possessed.” In A.D. 1871 he wrote as follows: “It was Luther’s supreme intellectual ability and wonderful versatility that made him the man of his age and of his nation. There has never been a German who so thoroughly understood his fellow countrymen and was understood by them as this Augustinian monk of Wittenberg. The whole intellectual and spiritual making of the Germans was in his hands as clay in the hands of the potter. He has given more to his nation than any one man has ever done: language, popular education, Bible, sacred song; and all that his opponents could say against him and alongside of him seemed insipid, weak, and colourless compared with his overmastering eloquence. They stammered, he spoke. It was he who put a stamp upon the German language as well as upon the German character. And even those Germans who heartily abhor him as the great heretic and betrayer of religion cannot help speaking his words and thinking his thoughts.”

§ 130. THE REFORMATION IN GERMAN SWITZERLAND, A.D. 1519-1531.

While Luther’s Reformation spread in Germany, a similar movement sprang up in the neighbouring provinces of German Switzerland. Its earliest beginnings date back as far as A.D. 1516. The personal characteristics of its first promoter, and the political democratic movement in which it had its rise, gave it a complexion entirely different from that of the Lutheran Reformation. The most conspicuous divergence occurred in the doctrine of the supper (§ 131), and since the Swiss views on this point were generally accepted in the cities of the uplands, the controversy passed over into the German Reformed Church and hindered common action, notwithstanding common interests and common dangers.

§ 130.1. =Ulrich Zwingli.=--Zwingli, born at Wildhaus in Toggenburg on January 1st, A.D. 1484, a scholar of the famous humanist Thomas Wyttenbach at Basel, was, after ten years’ service as pastor at Glarus, made pastor of Maria-Einsiedeln in A.D. 1516. The crowding of pilgrims to the famous shrine of Mary at that place led him to preach against superstitious notions of meritorious performances. But far more decisive in determining his attitude toward the Reformation was his appointment on January 1st, A.D. 1519, as Lent priest at Zürich, where he first became acquainted with Luther’s works, and took sides with him against the Romish court party. Zwingli soon took up a distinctive position of his own. He would be not only a religious, but also a political reformer. For several years he had vigorously opposed the sending of Swiss youths as mercenaries into the armies of foreign princes. His political opponents, the oligarchs, whose incomes depended on this traffic, opposed also his religious reforms, so that his support was wholly from the democracy. Another important distinction between the Swiss and German movements was this, that Zwingli had grown into a reformer not through deep conviction of sin and spiritual conflicts, but through classical and biblical study. The writings of Pico of Mirandola (§ 120, 1), too, were not without influence upon him. To him, therefore, justification by faith was not in the same degree as to Luther the guiding star of his life and action. He began the work of the Reformation not so much with purifying the doctrine, as with improving the worship, the constitution, the ecclesiastical and moral life. His theological standpoint is set forth in these works: Comment. de vera et falsa relig., A.D. 1525; Fidei ratio ad Car. Imp., A.D. 1530; Christian. fidei brevis at clara expos., ed. Bullinger, A.D. 1536; De providentia Dei; and Apologeticus. Of the two principles of the anti-Romish Reformation (§ 121) the Wittenberg reformer placed the material, the Zürich reformer the formal, in the foreground. The former only rejected what was not reconcilable with Scripture; the latter repudiated all that was not expressly enjoined in Scripture. The former was cautious and moderate in dealing with forms of worship and mere externals; the latter was extreme, immoderate, and violent. Luther retained pictures, altars, the ornaments of churches, and the priestly character of the service, purifying it simply from unevangelical corruptions; Zwingli denounced all these things as idolatry, and burnt even organ pipes and clock bells. Luther recognised no action of the Holy Spirit apart from the word and sacrament; Zwingli separated it from these, and identified it with mere subjective feeling. The sacraments were with him mere memorial signs; justification solely by the merits of Christ as a joyous assurance of salvation had for him a negative rather than a positive significance, i.e. opposition to the Romish doctrine of merits; original sin was for him only hereditary moral sickness, a naturalis defectus, which is not itself sin, and virtuous heathens, like Hercules, Theseus, Socrates, and Cato were admitted as such into the society of the blessed, without apparently sharing in the redemption of Christ. His speculations, which led on one side almost to pantheism, favoured a theory of predestination, according to which the moral will has no freedom over against Providence.[365]

§ 130.2. =The Reformation in Zürich, A.D. 1519-1525.=--In A.D. 1518 a trafficker in indulgences, the Franciscan Bernard Samson, of Milan, carried on his disreputable business in Switzerland. At Zwingli’s desire Zürich’s gates were closed against him. In A.D. 1520 the council gave permission to priests and preachers in the city and canton to preach only from the O. and N.T. All this happened under the eyes of the two papal nuncios staying in Zürich; but they did not interfere, because the curia was extremely anxious to get auxiliaries for the papal army for an attack on Milan. Zwingli was promised a rich living if he would no more preach against the pope. He refused the bait, and went on his way as a reformer. The continued indulgence of the curia allowed the Reformation to take even firmer root. Zwingli published, in A.D. 1522, his first work, “Of Election, and Freedom in Use of Food,” and the Zürichers ate flesh and eggs during Lent of A.D. 1522. He also claimed liberty to marry for the clergy. At this time Lambert came from Avignon to Zürich (§ 127, 2). He preached against the new views, disputed in July with Zwingli, and confessed himself defeated and convinced. Zwingli’s opponents had placed great hopes in Lambert’s eloquence and dialectic skill. All the greater was the effect of the unexpected result of the disputation. The council, now impressed, commanded that the word of God should be preached without human additions. But when the adherents of the Romish party protested, it arranged a public disputation on 29th Jan., A.D. 1523, on sixty-seven theses or conclusiones drawn up by Zwingli: “All who say, The gospel is nothing without the guarantee of the Church, blaspheme God;--Christ is the one way to salvation;--Our righteousness and our works are good so far as they are Christ’s, neither right nor good so far as they are our own,” etc. A former friend of Zwingli, John Faber, but quite changed since he had made a visit to Rome, and now vicar-general of the Bishop of Constance, undertook to support the old doctrines and customs against Zwingli. Being restricted to Scripture proof he was forced to yield. The cloisters were forsaken, violent polemics were published against the canon of the mass and the worship of saints and images. The council resolved to decide the question of the mass and images by a second disputation in October, A.D. 1523. Leo Judä, Lent priest at St. Peter’s in Zürich, contended against image worship, Zwingli against the mass. Scarcely any opposition was offered to either of them. At Pentecost, A.D. 1524, the council had all images withdrawn from the churches, the frescoes cut down, and the walls whitewashed. Organ playing and bell ringing were forbidden as superstitious. A new simple biblical formula of baptism was introduced, and the abolition of the mass, in A.D. 1525, completed the work. At Easter of this year Zwingli celebrated a lovefeast, at which bread was carried in wooden trenchers, and wine drunk from wooden cups. Thus he thought the genuine Christian apostolic rite was restored. In A.D. 1522 he had married a widow of forty-three years of age, but he publicly acknowledged it only in A.D. 1524. He penitently confesses that his pre-Reformation celibate life, like that of most priests of his age, had not been blameless; but the moral purity of his later life is beyond suspicion.

§ 130.3. =Reformation in Basel, A.D. 1520-1525.=--In Basel, at an early period, Capito and Hedio wrought as biblical preachers. But so soon as they had laid a good foundation they accepted a call to Mainz, in A.D. 1520, which they soon again quitted for Strassburg, where they carried on the work of the Reformation along with Bucer. Their work at Basel was zealously and successfully continued by Röublin. He preached against the mass, purgatory, and saint worship, often to 4,000 hearers. On the day of Corpus Christi he produced a Bible instead of the usual relics, which he scornfully called dead bones. He was banished, and afterwards joined the Anabaptists. A new epoch began in Basel in A.D. 1523. =Œcolampadius= or John Hausschein, born at Weinsberg in A.D. 1482, Zwingli’s Melanchthon, was preacher in Basel in A.D. 1516, and was on intimate terms there with Erasmus. He accepted a call in A.D. 1518 to the cathedral of Augsburg, but a year after withdrew into an Augsburg convent of St. Bridget. There he studied Luther’s writings, and, in A.D. 1522, found shelter from persecution in Sickingen’s castle, where he officiated for some months as chaplain. He then returned to Basel, became preacher at St. Martin’s, and was soon made, along with Conrad Pellican (§ 120, 4, footnote), professor in the university. Around these two a group of younger men soon gathered, who energetically supported the evangelical movement. They dispensed baptism in the German language, administered the communion in both kinds, and were indefatigable in preaching. In A.D. 1524 the council allowed monks and nuns, if they so wished, to leave their cloisters. Of special importance for the progress of the Reformation in Basel was the arrival in A.D. 1524 of William Farel from Dauphiné (§ 138, 1). He had been obliged to fly from France, and was kindly received by Œcolampadius, with whom he stayed for some months. In February he had a public disputation with the opponents of the Reformation. University and bishop had interdicted it, but all the more decided was the council that it should come off. Its result was a great impulse to the Reformation, though Farel in this same year, probably at the suggestion of Erasmus, whom he had described as a new Balaam, was banished by the council (§ 138, 1).[366]

§ 130.4. =The Reformation in the other Cantons, A.D. 1520-1525.=--In =Bern=, from A.D. 1518 Haller, Kolb, and Mayer carried on the work of the Reformation as political and religious reformers after the style of Zwingli. Nic. Manuel, poet, satirist, and painter, supported their preaching by his satirical writings against pope, priests, and superstition generally. Also in his Dance of Death, which he painted on the walls of a cloister at Bern, he covered the clergy with ridicule. In A.D. 1523 the council allowed departures from the convents, and several monks and nuns withdrew and married. The opposition called in the Dominican John Haim, as their spokesman, in A.D. 1524. Between him and the Franciscan Mayer there arose a passionate discussion, and the council exiled both. But Haller continued his work, and the Reformation took firmer root from day to day.--In =Muhlhausen [Mühlhausen]=, where Ulr. von Hutten spent his last days, the council issued a mandate in A.D. 1524 which gave free course to the Reformation. At =Biel=, too, it was allowed unrestricted freedom. In East Switzerland, =St. Gall= was specially prominent under its burgomaster Joachim v. Watt, who zealously advanced the interests of the Reformation by word, writing, and action. John Karsler, who had studied theology in Wittenberg in A.D. 1522, and was then obliged, in order to avoid reading the mass, to learn and practise the trade of a saddler, preached the gospel here in the Trades’ Hall in his saddler’s apron in A.D. 1524, and took the office of reformed pastor and Latin preceptor in A.D. 1537. He died in A.D. 1574 as President of St. Gall. In =Schaffhausen= Erasmus Ritter, called upon to oppose in discussion the reformed pastor Hofmeister, owned himself defeated, and joined the reform party. In the canton =Vaud= Thos. Platter, the original and learned sailor, afterwards rector of the high school at Burg, laid the foundations of the Reformation. In =Appenzel= and =Glarus= the work gradually advanced. But in the Swiss midlands the nobles raised opposition in behalf of their revenues, and the people of Berg, whose whole religion lay in pilgrimages, images, and saints, constantly opposed the introduction of the new views. Lucerne and Freiburg were the main bulwarks of the papacy in Switzerland.

§ 130.5. =Anabaptist Outbreak, A.D. 1525.=--In Switzerland, though the reformers there had taken very advanced ground, a number of ultra-reformers arose, who thought they did not go far enough. Their leaders were Hätzer (§ 148, 1), Grebel, Manz, Röublin, Hubmeier, and Stör. They began disturbances at Zolticon near Zürich. Hubmeier held a council at Waldshut, Easter Eve, A.D. 1525, and was rebaptized by Röublin. During Easter week 110 received baptism, and subsequently more than 300 besides. The Basel Canton, where Münzer had been living, broke out in open revolt against the city. St. Gall alone had 800 Anabaptists. Zürich at Zwingli’s request at once took decided measures. Many were banished, some were mercilessly drowned. Bern, Basel, and St. Gall followed this example.[367]

§ 130.6. =Disputation at Baden, A.D. 1526.=--The reactionary party could not decline the challenge to a disputation, but in the face of all protests it was determined to be held in the Catholic district of Baden. The champions and representatives of the cantons and bishops appeared there in May, A.D. 1526, Faber and Eck leading the papists and Haller of Bern and Œcolampadius of Basel representing the party of reform. Zwingli was forbidden by the Zürich council to attend, but he was kept daily informed by Thos. Platter. Eck’s theses were combatted one after another. It lasted eight days. Eck outcried Œcolampadius’ weak voice, but the latter was immensely superior in intellectual power. At last Thomas Murner (§ 125, 4) appeared with forty abusive articles against Zwingli. Œcolampadius and ten of his friends persisted in rejecting Eck’s theses; all the rest accepted them. The Assembly of the States pronounced the reformers heretics, and ordered the cantons to have them banished.

§ 130.7. =Disputation at Bern, A.D. 1528.=--The result of the Bern disputation was ill received by the democrats of Bern and Basel. A final disputation was arranged for at =Bern=, which was attended by 350 of the clergy and many noblemen. Zwingli, Œcolampadius, Haller, Capito, Bucer, and Farel were there. It continued from 7th to 27th January, A.D. 1528. The Catholics were sadly wanting in able disputants, and they sustained an utter defeat. Worship and constitution were radically reformed. Cloisters were secularized; preachers gave their official oath to the civil magistrates. There were serious riots over the removal of the images. The valuable organ in the minster of St. Vincent was broken up by the ruthless iconoclasts. A political reformation was carried out along with the religious, and all stipendiaries received their warning.

§ 130.8. =Complete Victory of the Reformation at Basel, St. Gall, and Schaffhausen, A.D. 1529.=--The Burgomaster von Watt brought to =St. Gall= the news of the victorious issue of the disputation at Bern. This gave the finishing blow to the Catholic party. Thus in A.D. 1528, certainly not without some iconoclastic excesses, the Reformation triumphed.--In =Basel=, the council was divided, and so it took but half measures. On Good Friday, A.D. 1528, some citizens broke the images in St. Martin’s Church. They were apprehended. But a rising of citizens obliged the council to set them free, and several churches from which the images had been withdrawn were given over to the reformers. In December, A.D. 1528, the trades presented a petition asking for the final abolition of idolatry. The Catholic party and the reformed took to arms, and a civil war seemed imminent. The council, however, succeeded in quelling the disturbance by announcing a disputation where the majority of the citizens should decide by their votes. But the Catholic minority protested so energetically that the council had again recourse to half measures. The dissatisfaction of the reformed led to an explosion of violent image breaking in Lent, A.D. 1529. Huge bonfires of images and altars were set a blaze. The strict Catholic members of the council fled, the rest quelled the revolt by an unconditional surrender. Even Erasmus gave way (§ 120, 6). Œcolampadius had married in A.D. 1528. He died in A.D. 1531. In =Schaffhausen= up to A.D. 1529 matters were undecided, but the proceedings at Basel and Bern gave victory to the reformed party. The drama here ended with a double marriage. The abbot of All Saints married a nun, and Erasmus Ritter married the abbot’s sister. Images were removed without tumult and the mass abolished.

§ 130.9. =The first Treaty of Cappel, A.D. 1529.=--In the five forest cantons the Catholics had the upper hand, and there every attempted political as well as religious reform was relentlessly put down. Zürich and Bern could stand this no longer. Unterwalden now revolted, and found considerable support in the other four cantons, and the position of the cities became serious. The forest cantons now turned to Austria, the old enemy of Swiss freedom, and concluded at Innsbrück in A.D. 1529 a formal league with King Ferdinand for mutual assistance in matters touching the faith. Trusting to this league, they increased their cruel persecutions of the reformed, and burnt alive a Zürich preacher, Keyser, whom they had seized on the public highway on neutral territory. Then the Zürichers rose up in revolt. With their decided preponderance they might certainly have crushed the five cantons, and then all Switzerland would have surrounded Zwingli in the support of reform. But Bern was jealous of Zürich’s growing importance, and even many Zürichers for fear of war urged negotiations for peace with the old members of the league. Thus came about the First Treaty of Cappel in A.D. 1529. The five cantons gave up the Austrian league document to be destroyed, undertook to defray the costs of the war, and agreed that the majority in each canton should determine the faith of that canton. As to freedom of belief it was only said that no party should make the faith of the other penal. This was less than Zwingli wished, yet it was a considerable gain. Thurgau, Baden, Schaffhausen, Solothurn, Neuenburg, Toggenburg, etc., on the basis of this treaty, abolished mass, images, and altars.

§ 130.10. =The Second Treaty of Cappel, A.D. 1531.=--Even after the treaty the five cantons continued to persecute the reformed, and renewed their alliance with Austria. Their undue preponderance in the assembly led Zürich to demand a revision of the federation. This led the forest cantons to increase their cruelties upon the reformed. Zürich declared for immediate hostilities, but Bern decided to refuse all commercial intercourse with the five cantons. At the diet at Lucerne, the five cantons resolved in September, A.D. 1531, to avert famine by immediately declaring war. They made their arrangements so secretly that the reformed party was not the least prepared, when suddenly, on the 9th October, an army of 8,000 men, bent on revenge, rushed down on the Zürich Canton. In all haste 2,000 men were mustered, who were almost annihilated in the battle of Cappel on 11th October. There, too, Zwingli fell. His body was quartered and burnt, and the ashes scattered to the winds. Zürich and Bern soon brought a force of 20,000 men into the field, but the courage of their enemies had grown in proportion as all confidence and spirit departed from the reformed. Further successes led the forest cantons, which had hitherto acted only on the defensive, to proceed on the offensive, and the reformed were constrained to accept on humbling terms the Second Treaty of Cappel of A.D. 1531. This granted freedom of worship to the reformed in their own cantons, but secured the restoration of Catholicism in the five cantons. The defeated had also to bear the costs of the war, and to renounce their league with Strassburg, Constance, and Hesse. The hitherto oppressed Catholic minority began now to assert itself on all hands, and in many places were more or less successful in securing the ascendency. So it was in Aargau, Thurgau, Rapperschwyl, St. Gall, Rheinthal, Solothurn, Glarus, etc.

§ 131. THE SACRAMENTARIAN CONTROVERSY, A.D. 1525-1529.[368]

Luther in his “Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” of A.D. 1520, had, in opposition to prevailing views, which made the efficacy of the sacraments dependent on the objective receiving without regard to the faith of the receiver, opus operatum, pressed forward the subjective side in a somewhat extreme manner. During the earlier period of his career as a reformer, and indeed even at a later period, as his letter to the men of Strassburg shows, he was in danger of going to the extreme of overlooking or denying the real objective and Divine contents of the sacrament. But decided as the opposition was to the scholastic theory of transubstantiation, and convinced as he was that the bread and wine were to be regarded as mere symbols, the text of Scripture seemed clearly to say to him that he must recognise there the presence of the true body and blood of Christ. His anxiety to avoid the errors of the fanatics, and his simple acceptance of the word of Scripture, led him to that conviction which inspired him to the end, that IN, WITH, and UNDER the bread and wine the true body and blood of the Lord are received, by believers unto salvation, by unbelievers unto condemnation.

=Carlstadt= (§ 124, 3) had denied utterly the presence of the body and blood of the Lord in the sacrament. He sought to set aside the force of the words of institution by giving to τοῦτο an absurd meaning: Christ had pointed to His own present body, and said, “This here is My body, which in death I will give for you, and in memory thereof eat this bread.” When Carlstadt, expelled from Saxony, came to Strassburg, he sought to interest the preachers there, Bucer and Capito, in himself and his sacramental view. But Luther was not moved by their attempts at conciliation. =Zwingli=, too, took the side of Carlstadt. In essential agreement with Carlstadt, but putting the matter on another basis, Zwingli interpreted the words of institution, “This is,” by “This signifies,” and reduced the significance of the sacrament to a symbolical memorial of Christ’s suffering and death. In an epistle to the Lutheran Matthew Alber at Reutlingen in A.D. 1524 he set forth this theory, and sided with Carlstadt against Luther. He developed his views more fully in his dogmatic treatise, Commentarius de vera et falsa relig., A.D. 1525, where he characterizes Luther’s doctrine as an opinio non solum rustica sed etiam impia et frivola. =Œcolampadius=, too, took part in the controversy as supporter of his friend Zwingli when attacked by Bugenhagen, and wrote in A.D. 1525 his De genuina verborum Domini, Hoc est corpus meum, expositione. He wished to understand the σῶμα of the words of institution as equivalent to “sign of the body.” Œcolampadius laid his treatise before the Swabian reformers Brenz and Schnepf; but these, in concert with twelve other preachers, answered in the Syngramma Suevicum of A.D. 1525 quite in accordance with Luther’s doctrine. The controversy continued to spread. Luther first openly appeared against the Swiss in A.D. 1526 in his “Sermon on the Sacrament against the Fanatics,” and to this Zwingli replied. Luther answered again in his tract, “That the words, This is My body, stand firm;” and in A.D. 1528 he issued his great manifesto, “Confession in regard to the Lord’s Supper” (§ 144, 2, note). Notwithstanding the endeavours of the Strassburgers at conciliation the controversy still continued. Zwingli’s statement was the shibboleth of the Swiss Reformation, and was adopted also in many of the upland cities. Strassburg, Lindau, Meiningen, and Constance accepted it; even in Ulm, Augsburg, Reutlingen, etc., it had its supporters.--Continuation, § 132, 4.

§ 132. THE PROTEST AND CONFESSION OF THE EVANGELICAL NOBLES, A.D. 1527-1530.

For three years after the diet at Spires in A.D. 1526 no public proceedings were taken on religious questions. The success of the Reformation however during these years roused the Catholic party to make a great effort. At the next diet at Spires, in A.D. 1529, the Catholics were in the majority, and measures were passed which, it was hoped, would put an end to the Reformation. The evangelicals tabled a formal protest (hence the name Protestants), and strove hard to have effect given to it. The union negotiations with the Swiss and uplanders were not indeed successful, but in the Augsburg Confession of A.D. 1530 they raised before emperor and empire a standard, around which they henceforth gathered with hearty goodwill.

§ 132.1. =The Pack Incident, A.D. 1527, 1528.=--In A.D. 1527 dark rumours of dangers to the evangelicals began to spread. The landgrave, suspecting the existence of a conspiracy of the German Catholic princes, gave to an officer in Duke George’s government, Otto von Pack, 10,000 florins to secure documents proving its existence. He produced one with the ducal seal, which bound the Catholic princes of Germany to fall upon the elector’s territories and Hesse, and to divide the lands among them, etc. The landgrave was all fire and fury, and even the Elector John joined him in a league to make a vigorous demonstration against the purposed attack. But Luther and Melanchthon pressed upon the elector our Lord’s words, “All they that take the sword shall perish with the sword,” and convinced him that he ought to abide the attack and restrict himself to simple defence. The landgrave, highly offended at the failure of his project, sent a copy of the document to Duke George, who declared the whole affair a tissue of lies. Philip had begun operations against the elector, but was heartily ashamed of himself when he came to his sober senses. Pack when interrogated became involved in contradictions, and was found to be a thoroughly bad subject, who had been before convicted of falsehood and intrigues. The landgrave expelled him from his territories. He wandered long a homeless exile, and at last, in A.D. 1536, was executed by Duke George’s orders in the Netherlands. All this seriously injured the interests of the gospel. Mutual distrust among the Protestant leaders continued, and sympathy was created for the Catholic princes as men who had been unjustly accused.

§ 132.2. =The Emperor’s Attitude, A.D. 1527-1529.=--The faithlessness of the king of France and the ratification of the League of Cognac (§ 126, 6) led to very strained relations between the pope and the emperor. Old Frundsberg raised an army in Germany, and the German peasants, without pay or reward, crossed the Alps, burning with desire to humiliate the pope. On 6th May, A.D. 1527, the imperial army of Spaniards and Germans stormed Rome. The so-called sack of Rome presented a scene of plunder and spoliation scarcely ever paralleled. Clement VII., besieged in St. Angelo, was obliged to surrender himself prisoner. But once again Germany’s hopes were cast to the ground by the emperor. Considering the opinion that prevailed in Spain, and influenced by his own antipathy to the Saxon heresy, besides other political combinations, he forgot that he had been saved by Lutheran soldiers. In June, A.D. 1528, at Barcelona, he concluded a peace with the pope and promised to use his whole power in suppressing heresy. By the Treaty of Cambray, in July, A.D. 1529, the French war also was finally brought to a conclusion. In this treaty both potentates promised to uphold the papal chair, and Francis I. renewed his undertaking to furnish aid against heretics and Turks. Charles now hastened to Italy to be crowned by the pope, meaning then by his personal attentions to settle the affairs of Germany.

§ 132.3. =The Diet at Spires, A.D. 1529.=--In the end of A.D. 1528 the emperor issued a summons for another diet at Spires, which met on 21st Feb., A.D. 1529. Things had changed since A.D. 1526. The Catholics were roused by the Pack episode, halting nobles were terrorized by the emperor, the prelates were present in great numbers, and the Catholics, for the first time since the Diet at Worms, were in a decided majority. The proposition of the imperial commissioners to rescind the conclusions of the diet of A.D. 1526 was adopted by a majority, and formulated as the diet’s decision. No innovations were to be introduced until at least a council had been convened, mass was everywhere to be tolerated, the jurisdiction and revenues of the bishops were in all cases to be fully restored. It was the death-knell of the Reformation, as it gave the bishops the right of deposing and punishing preachers at their will. As Ferdinand was deaf to all remonstrances, the evangelicals presented a solemn protest, with the demand that it should be incorporated in the imperial statute book. But Ferdinand refused to receive it. The =Protestants= now took no further steps, but drew up a formal statement of their case for the emperor, appealed to a free council and German national assembly, and declared their constant adherence to the decisions of the previous diet. This document was signed by the Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, George of Brandenburg, the two dukes of Lüneburg, and Prince Wolfgang of Anholt [Anhalt]. Of the upland cities fourteen subscribed it.

§ 132.4. =The Marburg Conference, A.D. 1529.=--The Elector of Saxony and Hesse entered into a defensive league with Strassburg, Ulm, and Nuremberg at Spires. The theologians present agreed only with hesitation to admit the Zwinglian Strassburg. The landgrave at the same time formed an alliance with Zürich, which attached itself to the interests of Francis I. of France. Thus began the most formidable coalition which had ever yet been formed against the house of Austria. But one point had been overlooked which broke it all up again, viz. the religious differences between the Lutheran and Zwinglian confessions. Melanchthon returned to Wittenburg [Wittenberg] with serious qualms of conscience; Luther had declared against any league, most of all against any fraternising with the “Sacramentarians,” and the elector to some extent agreed with him. Even the Nuremberg theologians had their scruples. The proposed league was to have been ratified at Rotach in June. The meeting took place, but no conclusion was reached. The landgrave was furious, but the elector was resolute. Philip now summoned leading theologians on both sides to a =conference at Marburg= in his castle, which lasted from 1st till 3rd Oct., A.D. 1529. On the one side were Luther, Melanchthon, Justus Jonas, from Wittenberg, Brenz from Swabia, and Osiander from Nuremberg; on the other side, Zwingli from Zürich, Œcolampadius from Basel, Bucer and Hadio [Hedio] from Strassburg. After, by the landgrave’s well-meant arrangement, Zwingli had discussed privately with Melanchthon, and Luther with Œcolampadius, during the first day, the public conference began on the second. First of all several points were discussed on the divinity of Christ, original sin, baptism, the word of God, etc., in reference to which suspicions of Zwingli’s orthodoxy had been current in Wittenberg. On all these Zwingli willingly abandoned his peculiar theories and accepted the doctrines of the œcumenical church. But his views of the Lord’s Supper he stoutly maintained. He took his stand upon John vi. 63, “The flesh profiteth nothing;” but Luther wrote with chalk on the table before him, “This is My body,” as the word of God which no one may explain away. No agreement could be reached. Zwingli declared that notwithstanding he was ready for brotherly fellowship, but this Luther and his party unanimously refused. Luther said, “You are of another spirit than we.” Still Luther had found his opponents not so bad as he expected, and also the Swiss found that Luther’s doctrine was not so gross and capernaitic as they had imagined. They agreed on fifteen articles, in the fourteenth of which they determined on the basis of the œcumenical church doctrine to oppose the errors of Papists and Anabaptists, and in the fifteenth the Swiss admitted that the true body and blood of Christ are in the sacrament, but they could not admit that they were corporeally in the bread and wine. Three copies of these Marburg articles were signed by the theologians present.--Continuation, § 133, 8.

§ 132.5. =The Convention of Schwabach and the Landgrave Philip.=--A convention met at Schwabach in Oct., A.D. 1529, at which a confession of seventeen articles was proposed to the representatives of the Swiss, but rejected by them. Meanwhile the imperial answer to the decisions of the diet had arrived from Spain, containing very ungracious expressions against the Protestants. The evangelical nobles sent an embassy to the emperor to Italy; but he refused to receive the protest, and treated the ambassadors almost as prisoners. They returned to Germany with a bad report. Hitherto there had been only a defensive federation against attacks of the Swabian League or other Catholic princes. Luther’s hope that the emperor might yet be won was shattered. The question now was, what should be done if an onslaught upon the reformed should be made by the emperor himself. The jurists indeed were of opinion that the German princes were not unconditionally subject to the emperor; they too have authority by God’s grace, and in the exercise of this are bound to protect their subjects. But Luther did not hesitate for a moment to compare the relation of the elector to the emperor with that of the burgomaster of Torgau to the elector; for he maintained the idea of the empire as firmly as that of the church. He insisted that the princes should not withstand the emperor, and that they should bear everything patiently for God’s sake. Only if the emperor should proceed to persecute their own subjects for their faith should they renounce their obedience. The landgrave’s negotiations with Zwingli also led to no result. For political purposes, notwithstanding the opposition of Wittenberg, there was formed a coalition of all the Protestants of the north with the exception of Denmark, extending also to the south and embracing even Venice and France. The Swiss would stop the way of the emperor over the Alps; Venice would be of service with her fleet, and the most Christian king of France was to be summoned as the protector of political and religious freedom of Germany. But these fine plans were seen to be vain dreams when the time for putting them in practice came round.

§ 132.6. =The Diet of Augsburg, A.D. 1530.=--From Boulogne, where the pope crowned him, the emperor summoned a diet to meet at Augsburg, at which for the first time in nine he was to be personally present. He would once again seek to induce the Protestants quietly to return to the old faith, and so his missive was very conciliatory. But before its arrival new irritations had arisen at Augsburg. The Elector John allowed the preachers accompanying him, Spalatin and Agricola, to engage freely in preaching. The emperor was greatly displeased at this, and sent him a request to withdraw this permission, which, however, he did not regard. On 15th June, accompanied by the papal legate Campegius (§ 126, 2, 3), he made a brilliant entrance, the Protestants, on the ground of 2 Kings v. 17, 18, offering no opposition to all the civil and ecclesiastical reception ceremonies. This gave the emperor greater confidence in renewing the demand to stop the preaching. But the Protestants stood firm, and Margrave George called down the unmeasured wrath of the emperor by his decided but humble declaration, that before he would deny God’s word, he would kneel where he stood and have his head struck off. Just as decidedly he refused the emperor’s call to join the Corpus Christi procession on the following day, even with the addition that it was “to the glory of Almighty God.” At last they yielded the matter of the preaching so far as to discontinue it during the emperor’s stay, on the other party undertaking to discontinue controversial discourses. On 20th June the diet opened. The matter of the Turkish war was on the emperor’s motion postponed, to allow of the thorough discussion of the religious questions.

§ 132.7. =The Augsburg Confession, 25th June, A.D. 1530.=--In view of the diet the evangelical theologians prepared for the elector a short confession in the form of a revision of the seventeen Schwabach Articles, the so called Torgau Articles. Melanchthon employed the days that preceded the opening of the diet in drawing up on the basis of the Torgau Articles, in constant correspondence with the evangelical theologians, the =Augsburg Confession=, Confessio Augustana. This concise, clear, and decided though temperate document received the hearty approval of Luther, who, as still under the ban, was kept back by the elector at Coburg. It contained twenty-one Articuli fidei præcipui, and also seven Articuli in quibus recensentur abusus mutati. On 24th June the Protestants said they desired their confession to be publicly read. But it was with difficulty that they obtained the emperor’s consent to allow its being read on the 25th June, and even then not in the public hall, but in a much smaller episcopal chapel, where only members of the diet could find room. The two chancellors of the electorate, Baier and Brück, appeared, the one with a German, the other with a Latin copy of the confession. The emperor wished the Latin, but the elector insisted that on German soil the German copy should be read. When this was done Dr. Brück handed both copies to the emperor, who kept the Latin one and gave the German one to the Elector of Mainz. Both were subscribed by Elector John, Margrave George, Duke Ernest of Lüneburg, Landgrave Philip, Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, and the cities of Nuremberg and Reutlingen. The confession made a favourable impression on many of the assembled princes, and many prejudices were dissipated; while the evangelicals were greatly strengthened by the unanimous confession of their faith before the emperor and the empire. The Catholic theologians Faber, Eck, Cochlæus, and Wimpina were ordered by the emperor to controvert the confession. Meanwhile Melanchthon entered into negotiations with the legate Campegius, in which his love of peace went so far as to withdraw all demands for marriage of the clergy, and the giving of the cup to the laity, and to allow the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the bishops, reserving the question about the mass to the decision of a council. But these weak concessions found little or no favour among the other Protestants, and the legate could make no binding engagement until he consulted Rome. On 3rd Aug. the confutation of the Catholic theologians was read. The emperor declared that it maintained the views by which he would stand. He expected the princes would do the same. He was defender of the Church, and was not disposed to suffer ecclesiastical schism in Germany. The Protestants demanded for closer inspection a copy of the confutation. This was refused. The landgrave now left the diet. To the elector he said that he gave over to him and to God’s word body and goods, land and people; and to the representatives of the cities he wrote: “Say to the cities that they are not women, but men. There is no fear; God is on our side.” The zealous Papist Duke William of Bavaria declared to Eck, “If I hear well, the Lutherans sit upon the Scripture and we alongside of it.” The cities siding with Zwingli, Strassburg, Memmingen, Constance, and Lindau, presented their own confession drawn up by Bucer and Capilo [Capito], the Confessio Tetrapolitana. In its eighteenth article it taught that Christ gives in the sacrament His true body and His true blood to be eaten and drunk for the feeding of the soul. The emperor had a Catholic reply read, with which he expressed satisfaction. Luther had meanwhile from Coburg supported those contending for the confession by prayer, counsel, and comfort. He preached frequently, wrote many letters, negotiated with Bucer (§ 133, 8), wrought at the translation of the prophets, and composed several evangelical works of edification.

§ 132.8. =The Conclusions of the Diet of Augsburg.=--The firm bright spirit of the minority made it seem to the Catholic majority too considerable to allow of an open breach. A further attempt was therefore made to reach some agreement. A commission was appointed, comprising from either side two princes, two doctors of canon law, and three theologians. On the twenty-one doctrinal articles, with the exception of that on the sacraments, they were practically agreed, but the Protestants were called upon to abandon everything in regard to constitution and customs. Thus the attempt failed. Five imperial cities took the side of the emperor, the rest attached themselves to the Protestant princes. The Protestants wished to read Melanchthon’s apology for the Augsburg Confession against the charge of the Catholic confutation, but the emperor with unbending stubbornness refused. This was the most decided piece of work Melanchthon ever did. At the close of the diet, 22nd Sept., the Protestant princes were informed that time for reflection would be allowed them till 15th April of the following year; meanwhile they should not enforce any innovations and should allow confession and the mass in their territories. The early calling of a council was expressly promised. The princes of the church had all their rights restored. The emperor declared his firm determination to enforce in its full rigour the edict of Worms, and commissioned the public prosecutor to proceed against the disobedient even to the length of putting them under the ban. The judicature was formally and expressly empowered to carry out the conclusions of the diet. Finally, the emperor expressed the wish that on account of his frequent absence his brother Ferdinand should be chosen King of Rome. The election was accordingly soon carried out at Frankfort; but the elector lodged a protest against it.

§ 133. INCIDENTS OF THE YEARS A.D. 1531-1536.

The Protestants now made an earnest effort to effect a union by forming in A.D. 1531 the Schmalcald League. To this decided action and the political difficulties of the emperor we owe the Peace of Nuremburg [Nuremberg] of A.D. 1532. The bold step of the landgrave freed Württemberg from the Austrian yoke and papal oppression. At the same time the Reformation triumphed in Anhalt, Pomerania, and several Westphalian cities. All Westphalia might have been one but for the Anabaptists. Bucer’s unwearied efforts at last succeeded by the Wittenberg concordat in opening the way for the Schmalcald League into the cities of the Uplands. The league now comprised an imposing array of powerful members.

§ 133.1. =The Founding of the Schmalcald League, A.D. 1530, 1531.=--The conferring upon the court of justiciary the power to execute the decrees of the Diet of Augsburg was most dangerous to the Protestants. For protection against this design, the Protestant nobles at a convention at Schmalcald in Dec., A.D. 1530, formed the bold resolution, that all should stand as one in resisting every attack of the court. But when the question came to be discussed, whether in case of need they should go the length of armed resistance to the emperor opinion was divided. The views of the jurists finally prevailed over those of the theologians, and the elector insisted on a league against every aggressor, even should it be the emperor himself. At a new convention at Schmalcald in March, A.D. 1531, a league on these terms was concluded for six years. The members of it were the electorate of Saxony, Hesse, Lüneburg, Anhalt, Mansfeld, and eleven cities.

§ 133.2. =The Peace of Nuremberg, A.D. 1532.=--The energetic combination of the Protestants had now rendered them formidable, and the Sultan Soliman was threatening a new attack. If the Protestants were to be conquered, an agreement must be come to with the Turks; if the Turks were to be humbled, a peaceable settlement with the Protestants was indispensable. Ferdinand’s policy at first inclined to the latter direction, and by his advice the emperor summoned a diet at Regensburg, and till the meeting forbade any prosecutions on the basis of the decrees of the Diet of Augsburg. But soon the catastrophe in Switzerland (§ 130, 10) changed Ferdinand’s policy. It seemed to him now the fittest time to deal a similar blow to the evangelicals in Germany. He therefore sent an embassy to the sultan, empowered to make the most humiliating conditions of peace. But Soliman rejected all proposals with scorn, and in April, A.D. 1532, advanced with an army of 300,000 men. Meanwhile the Diet of Regensburg had opened on 17th April, A.D. 1532. The Protestants no longer presented a humble petition, as they had done two years before, but they firmly made their demands. There was no longer talk of compromise or suffrance. They demanded peace in matters of religion; the annulling of all religious prosecutions; and, finally, a free general council, where matters should be decided solely by God’s word. So long as Ferdinand had any hope of getting a favourable answer from the Turks, he would not seriously consider proposals for peace. But when that hope was shattered, and Soliman’s terrible host approached, there was no time to lose. At Nuremberg the peace was concluded on 23rd July, A.D. 1532. The faithful elector was allowed to see the happy day, but died in that same year. He was succeeded by his son, =John Frederick the Magnanimous=, A.D. 1532-1547. A noble army was soon raised from the imperial guards. Soliman suffered various misfortunes on land and water, and withdrew without accomplishing anything. The emperor now went to Italy, and insisted on the pope calling a general council. But the pope thought the time had not come for that. Also the annulling of prosecutions promised in the treaty remained long unfulfilled. Pending prosecutions, mostly about restitution of ecclesiastical goods and jurisdiction, were pronounced to be not matters of religion, but of spoliation and breach of the peace. The Protestants made a formal complaint in Jan., A.D. 1534. This was disregarded, and arrangements were being made to put certain nobles under the ban when events occurred at Württemberg which changed the aspect of affairs.

§ 133.3. =The Evangelization of Württemberg, A.D. 1534, 1535.=--The Swabian League in the interest of Austria had obtained the banishment of Duke Ulrich in A.D. 1528, and frustrated every attempt to secure his return. His son Christopher had been educated at the court of Ferdinand, and in A.D. 1532 accompanied the emperor to Spain. He made his escape into the Alps, and publicly claimed his German inheritance. The Landgrave Philip, Ulrich’s personal friend, had long resolved to reconquer Württemberg for him. At last, in the spring of A.D. 1534, with aid of French gold, he carried out his plan. At Laufen Ferdinand’s army was almost annihilated, and he himself was obliged in the Peace of Cadau of A.D. 1534 to restore Ulrich to Württemberg as an under-feudatory, but with seat and vote in the imperial diet, and to allow him a free hand in carrying out the Reformation in his territory. Luther’s views had from the first found hearty reception in Württemberg. The oldest and most distinguished of the Swabian reformers, whose reputation had spread far beyond Württemberg, was John Brenz (§§ 131, 1; 132, 4; 135, 2; 136, 6, 8). He was preacher in Swabian Halle from A.D. 1522, provost in Stuttgart from A.D. 1553, and died in A.D. 1570. But Ferdinand’s government had stretched its arm so far as to visit with death all manifestations of sympathy with the Reformation. All the more rapidly did the work of evangelization now proceed. Ulrich brought with him Ambrose Blaurer, a disciple of Zwingli and friend of Bucer, and Erhard Schnapf, a decided supporter of Luther; to the former he assigned the evangelization of the upper, and to the latter the evangelization of the lower division of his territories. Both had agreed in accepting a common formula of Reformation principles. By the founding of the University of Tübingen, organized after the pattern of Marburg, Ulrich rendered important service to the cause of Protestant learning. Several neighbouring courts and cities were encouraged to follow Württemberg’s example.

§ 133.4. =The Reformation in Anhalt and Pomerania, A.D. 1532-1534.=--Wolfgang of =Anhalt= had at an early date introduced the Reformation on the banks of the Saale and into Zerbst. Another prince of Anhalt, George, at first an opponent of Luther, but converted by means of his writings, began in A.D. 1532 the Reformation of the country east of the Elbe. And when the Bishop of Brandenburg refused to ordain his married priests, he sent them to be ordained by Luther in Wittenberg. Much more violent was the Reformation of =Pomerania=. Nobles and clergy sought to rouse the people against Lutheranism. Prince Barnim was an ardent supporter of Luther, but his brother George was bitterly opposed. On George’s death, his son Philip joined with Barnim in introducing the Reformation into the land. At the Assembly of Treptow, in Dec., A.D. 1534, they presented a scheme of Reformation, which the nobles heartily accepted. It was carried into operation by Bugenhagen by a church visitation after the pattern of that of Saxony.

§ 133.5. =The Reformation in Westphalia, A.D. 1532-1534.=--In the Westphalian cities much was accomplished by Luther’s hymns. Pideritz, priest of =Lamgo=, was a supporter of Eck; but wishing to see the working of the new views for himself, he went to Brunswick, and returned to inaugurate the Reformation in his own city. At =Soest=, the Catholic council condemned to death a workman who had spoken of it with disrespect. Two blundering attempts were made upon the scaffold, and the victim at last was conducted home by the crowd in triumph. He died next day. The council precipitately fled from the city. And thus in July, A.D. 1533, Catholicism lost its last prop in that place. In =Paderborn=, where liberty of preaching had been enjoyed, the Elector of Cologne (§ 135, 7) had some of the leading Lutherans imprisoned; and when some on the rack confessed to a treasonable correspondence with the Landgrave of Hesse, of which they had been falsely accused, he condemned them to death. But moved by the request of an old man to share their death, and by the weeping of the wives and maidens, Hermann spared their lives. In =Münster=, Luther’s doctrines were preached as early as A.D. 1531 by Rottmann, and soon the evangelicals won the ascendency, so that council and clergy left the city. The Bishop of Waldeck, after an unsuccessful attempt by force of arms, was obliged in A.D. 1533 to grant unconditional religious freedom. The neighbouring cities were about to follow the example of the capital, when a catastrophe occurred which resulted in the complete restoration of Catholicism.

§ 133.6. =Disturbances at Münster, A.D. 1534, 1535.=--Rottmann had added to his Zwinglian creed the renunciation of infant baptism, and prepared the way for Anabaptist excesses. John of Leyden appeared in A.D. 1534, gained great popularity as a preacher, and the council was weak enough to grant legal recognition to the fanatics. Mad enthusiasts flocked into the city. One of their prophets proclaimed it as God’s will that unbelievers should be expelled. This was done on 27th February, A.D. 1534. Seven deacons divided what was left among the believers. In May the bishop laid siege to the city. This had the effect of confining the mad disorder to Münster. After the destruction of all images, organs, and books, with exception only of the Bible, community of goods was introduced. John of Leyden got the council set aside as required by his revelations, and appointed a theocratic government of twelve elders, who took their inspiration from the prophet. He proclaimed polygamy, himself taking seventeen wives, while Rottmann contented himself with four. In vain did the moral conscience of the inhabitants protest. The objectors were executed. One of his fellow prophets proclaimed John king of the whole world. He set up a showy and expensive establishment, and committed the most frightful abominations. He regarded himself as called to inaugurate the millennium, sent out twenty-eight apostles to extend his kingdom, and named twelve dukes who should rule the world under him. The besiegers made an unsuccessful attempt in August, A.D. 1534, to storm the city. Had not aid been sent them before the end of the year from Hesse, Treves, Cleves, Mainz, and Cologne, they would have been obliged to raise the siege. Even then they could only think of reducing the city by famine. It was already in great straits. On St. John’s night, A.D. 1535, a deserter led the troops to the walls. After a stubborn resistance the Anabaptists were beaten. Rottmann threw himself into the hottest of the fight, and there perished. John, with his chief officers, was taken prisoner, put to death with frightful tortures on 22nd Jan., A.D. 1536, and then hung in chains from St. Lambert’s tower. Catholicism was thus restored to absolute supremacy.

§ 133.7. =Extension of the Schmalcald league, A.D. 1536.=--A war with France had broken out in A.D. 1536, which taxed all the emperor’s resources. Francis I. had made a league with Soliman for a combined attack upon the emperor. Instead therefore of punishing the Protestant princes for their proceedings in Württemberg, he was obliged to do all he could to conciliate them, as Francis was bidding for their alliance. Ferdinand therefore, from the summer of A.D. 1535, sought to ingratiate himself with the Protestants. In November he received a visit of the elector in Vienna, and granted the extension of the Peace of Nuremberg to all nobles who since its ratification had become Protestants. The elector then went to an assembly at Schmalcald, where the Schmalcald League was extended for ten years, the French embassy dismissed, and the opposition to Austria abandoned. On the basis of the Vienna compact Württemberg, Pomerania, Anhalt, and several cities were added to the league. Signature of the Augsburg Confession was the indispensable condition of reception. Bucer managed to win over the upland cities to accept this condition.

§ 133.8. =The Wittenberg Concordat of A.D. 1536.=--Bucer and ultimately Œcolampadius, made such concessions on the doctrine of the sacraments as satisfied Luther, but they were rejected by Bullinger of Zürich. In December, A.D. 1535, there was a conference at Cassel between Bucer and Melanchthon. A larger conference was afterward held at Wittenberg, at which Bucer and Capito from Strassburg, and eight other distinguished theologians from the uplands, were present. As they accepted the formula “in, with, and under,” the only question remaining was whether unbelievers partook of the body of Christ. They admitted this in regard to the unworthy, but not, as Luther wished, in regard to the godless and unbelieving. Luther was satisfied. On 25th May, A.D. 1536, Melanchthon composed the “Wittenberg Concord,” which was signed by all, and ratified by the common partaking of the sacrament. In consequence of this union effort, three of the Swiss theologians, Bullinger, Myconius, and Grynæus seceded, and produced the Confessio Helvetica prior, in which the Zwinglian doctrine of the sacraments was moderately but firmly maintained.

§ 134. INCIDENTS OF THE YEARS A.D. 1537-1539.

Clement VII. made many excuses for postponing the calling of a council. At last, in A.D. 1533, he declared himself willing to do so in the course of the year; but he required of the Protestants unconditional acceptance of its decisions, to which they would not agree. His successor, Paul III., A.D. 1534-1549, called one to meet at Mantua in A.D. 1537. Luther composed for it as a manifesto the Schmalcald Articles; but finally the Protestants renewed their demand for a free council in a German city. In A.D. 1538 the Catholic nobles concluded the Holy Alliance at Nuremberg for carrying out the decrees of the Diet of Augsburg; but the political difficulties of the emperor compelled him to make new concessions to the Protestants in the Frankfort Interim of A.D. 1539. But in the same year the duchy of Saxony and the electorate of Brandenburg went over to the Reformation. By the beginning of A.D. 1540 almost all North Germany was won. Duke Henry of Brunswick alone held out for the old faith.

§ 134.1. =The Schmalcald Articles, A.D. 1537.=--In A.D. 1535 Paul III. sent his legate Vergerius (§ 139, 24) into Germany to fix a place of meeting for the council. At Wittenberg he conferred with Luther and Bugenhagen, who scarcely expecting the council were indifferent as to the place. The council was formally summoned to meet at Mantua on May 23rd, A.D. 1537. At a diet at Schmalcald in Feb., A.D. 1537, the Protestants stated their demands. Luther, by the elector’s orders, had drawn up the articles of which the council must treat. These Schmalcald Articles are distinctly polemical, and indicate boldly the limits of the papal hierarchy demanded by evangelicals. The first part states briefly four uncontested positions on the Trinity and the Person of Christ; the second part deals with the office and work of Christ or our redemption, and marks abruptly the points of difference between the two confessions; the third part treats of those points which the council may further discuss. In the second part Luther unconditionally rejected the primacy of the pope, as not of Divine right and inconsistent with the character of a true evangelical Church. When the articles had been subscribed by the theologians, Melanchthon added under his name: “As to the pope, I hold that if he will not oppress the gospel, for the sake of the peace and unity of those Christians who are or may be under him, his superiority over bishops jure humano might be allowed by us.” Melanchthon’s tracts on “The Power of the Pope” and the “Jurisdiction of Bishops” were also subscribed by the theologians and added to the Schmalcald Articles. It was then decided that in order to secure a free Christian council it must be held in a German city. The elector even made the bold proposal to have a counter-council summoned, say, at Augsburg, by Luther and his fellow bishops.

§ 134.2. =The League of Nuremberg, A.D. 1538.=--The Protestant princes were astonished at the close of the Schmalcald convention to be told by Vice-Chancellor Held, on behalf of the emperor, that he did not recognise the Peace of Cadau or the Vienna Compact, and that the prosecutions would be resumed. They therefore resumed their old attitude of opposition. But Held visited all the Catholic courts in order to complete the formation of a Catholic league for the suppression of Protestantism. Ferdinand, who knew well that Held exceeded his instructions, was very angry, for the emperor was in the greatest straits, but he could not offer direct opposition without offending the Catholic princes. So on July 10th, A.D. 1538, the Holy Alliance was actually formed at Nuremberg, embracing George of Saxony, Albert of Brandenburg, Henry and Eric of Brunswick, King Ferdinand, and the Archbishop of Salzburg. The Schmalcald nobles prepared to meet force with force. A general bloody engagement seemed unavoidable.

§ 134.3. =The Frankfort Interim, A.D. 1539.=--As the emperor needed help against Soliman, he recalled Held, and sent in his place John, formerly Archbishop of Leyden. The electors of Brandenburg and the Palatinate went as mediators with the new envoy to Frankfort, where negotiations were opened with the Protestants present, who demanded an unconditional, lasting peace, and a judiciary court with Protestant as well as Catholic members. These demands were at first refused, but pressing need obliged the emperor to reopen negotiations, proposing that a diet should be held, consisting of learned theologians and simple, peaceable laymen, to effect a final union of Christians in faith and worship. He would also grant suspension of all proceedings against the Protestants for eighteen months. The Protestants accepted in this “Frankfort Interim” what had been greatly sought for at the Diet of Nuremberg. It was a victory of the Schmalcald over the Nuremberg League. The public confidence in Protestantism grew, and the cause rapidly spread into new regions.

§ 134.4. =The Reformation in Albertine Saxony, A.D. 1539.=--Duke George of Saxony, A.D. 1500-1539, was a devoted adherent of the old faith. Of his four sons only one survived, and he almost imbecile. He had him married, but he died two months after the marriage. The old prince was in perplexity, for his brother Henry, an ardent supporter of the Reformation, was his next heir. He could ill brook the idea of having the whole work of his life immediately undone. On the day of the death of his last son he proposed to his nobles a scheme of succession, according to which his brother Henry should succeed him only if he joined the Nuremberg League; otherwise it should go to the emperor or the King of Rome. Duke Henry rejected the proposal, and Duke George died before he could produce another scheme. With loud rejoicing the people received their new prince, and their allegiance was sworn to him at Leipzig. Luther was there, for the first time for twenty years, and preached with extraordinary success. The Reformation proceeded rapidly throughout the whole district. The King of Rome wished indeed to question George’s claim, but the Schmalcald League resolved to stand by him, so that Ferdinand thought it prudent to take no further steps.

§ 134.5. =The Reformation in Brandenburg and Neighbouring States, A.D. 1539.=--Henry of Neumark joined the Schmalcald League, and introduced the Reformation into his territories; but his brother Joachim II. of Brandenburg, A.D. 1535-1571, for several years adhered to the old faith without forbidding evangelical preaching, which gradually made an impression on his own mind. In the beginning of A.D. 1539, with the approval of his nobles, he gave his adhesion to the reformed doctrines. The city of Berlin asked for communion in both kinds, and a considerable section of the nobles of Brandenburg expressed a hearty longing for the pure gospel. On November 1st, A.D. 1539, Joachim assembled all the preachers of his land in the Nicolai Church at Spandau, the Bishop of Brandenburg held the first evangelical communion, and the whole court and many knights received the communion in both kinds. The people followed the example of the prince. Joachim sketched a service which let several of the old ceremonies remain, but justification by faith was the central point of the doctrine, and communion in both kinds the centre of the worship. The Duchess Elizabeth of Calenberg-Brunswick followed her brother’s example. After the death of her husband Eric, who was otherwise minded, she exercised her influence as regent for the spread of the reformed religion. The Cardinal-archbishop and Elector of Mainz, Albert of Brandenburg, sought to preserve his archiepiscopal diocese of Magdeburg, but his constant calls for money would be responded to only on condition that he granted liberty of preaching. At his Halle residence he made vigorous resistance, but there too was obliged to yield. Before his eyes, Justus Jonas, Luther’s most trusted friend and fellow labourer, Prof. and Provost of Wittenberg since A.D. 1521, carried on the work of Reformation in the city. The cardinal, in a rage, left Halle and the “idol of Halle” (§ 123, 8) for Mainz.--Mecklenburg also about this time adopted the evangelical constitution, mainly promoted by one of its princes, Magnus Bishop of Schwerin. The Abbess of Quedlinburg, Anna von Stolberg, had not ventured, so long as Duke George of Saxony lived, to bring forward her evangelical confession; but now without opposition she reformed her convent and the city.

§ 135. UNION ATTEMPTS OF A.D. 1540-1546.

The Frankfort Interim revived the idea of a free union among those who in the main agreed upon matters of faith and worship. With the object of realizing this idea a whole series of religious conferences were held. But near as its realization at one time seemed to be all the measures taken proved one after another abortive, because the emperor would not recognise the conclusions of any conference at which a papal legate was not present. And just at this time, when the imposing might of the Protestant nobles excited the brightest hopes, the Protestant princes themselves laid the grounds of their deepest humiliation: the landgrave by his double marriage, and the elector by his quarrels with the ducal Saxon court.

§ 135.1. =The Double Marriage of the Landgrave, A.D. 1540.=--Landgrave Philip of Hesse had married Christina, a daughter of the deceased Duke George of Saxony. Various causes had led to an estrangement between them, and a strong sensuous nature, which he had been unable to control, had driven him to repeated acts of unfaithfulness. His conscience reproved him; he felt himself unworthy to be admitted to communion, great as his desire for it was, and doubted of his soul’s salvation. From regard to his wife he could not think of a divorce. Then came the idea, suggested by the O.T. polygamy that had not been abrogated in the N.T., that with consent of his wife he might enter into a regular second marriage with Margaret von der Saale, one of his sister’s lady’s-maids. In Nov., A.D. 1539, he sent Bucer to Wittenberg in order to get the advice of Luther and Melanchthon. The alternative was either continued adultery, or an honourable married life with a second wife taken with consent of the first. Luther and Melanchthon entreated him earnestly for his own and for the gospel’s sake to avoid this terrible scandal, but haltingly admitted that the latter alternative was less heinously wicked than the former. They added, however, that in order to avoid scandal the marriage should be private, and their answer regarded not as a theological opinion, but confidential counsel. The landgrave had the marriage consummated in May, A.D. 1540. But the story soon spread. The court of Albertine Saxony was deeply incensed, the elector beside himself with rage, the theologians in most extreme embarrassment. Melanchthon started to attend a religious conference at Hagenau, but the excitement over the unhappy business prostrated him on a sick-bed at Weimar. The emperor threatened Philip with the infliction of capital punishment, which by the law of the empire was attached to the crime of bigamy. At last the elector called a convention of Saxon and Hessian theologians at Eisenach to consult about the matter. Luther refused to treat it as a question of law, and demanded absolute privacy as the condition of permission. Among the opponents of the Reformation, it was Duke Henry of Brunswick who insisted upon exacting the utmost penalties of the law. He indeed was least fitted by his own character to assume the part of defender of morals. It was well known that he was then living in adultery with Eva von Trott, after her pretended death and burial. In his perplexity, Philip turned to the imperial chancellor Granvella, who was willing to intercede for him, but on conditions to which the landgrave could not accede. At last, at the Diet of Regensburg, in A.D. 1541, Philip undertook to further the imperial interests and to join no union in any way inimical to these; and upon these terms the emperor agreed to grant him a full indemnity.

§ 135.2. =The Religious Conference at Worms, A.D. 1540.=--Negotiations for peace with France having failed, the emperor still required the support of the Protestant party. He therefore agreed to the holding of a religious conference at =Worms=, in order to reach if possible a good mutual understanding on the basis of Holy Scripture. It was held in Nov., A.D. 1540, under the presidency of Granvella. On one side were Melanchthon, Bucer, Capito, Brenz, and Calvin; on the other, Eck, Gropper, canon of Cologne, the Spaniard Malvenda, etc. But the emperor had insisted on the papal nuncio Marone taking part, and this, contrary to his intention, brought the whole affair to naught. For Marone first of all presented a number of formal objections, and when at last, in Jan., A.D. 1541, the conference began, and awakened the utmost apprehensions for the papacy, he rested not till Granvella, even before the first article on original sin had been discussed, dissolved the conference in the name and by command of the emperor. But the emperor did not give up the idea of conciliation, and called a diet at Regensburg, at which the negotiations were to be renewed.

§ 135.3. =The Religious Conference at Regensburg, A.D. 1541.=--The diet at Regensburg was opened on April 5th, A.D. 1541. The emperor, anxious to reach a peaceable conclusion, named as members of the conference Eck, Gropper, and Julius von Pflugk, Dean of Meissen, on the one side; and Melanchthon, Bucer, and Pistorius, on the other side; with Granvella and Frederick, count-palatine, as presidents. The nuncio Contarini was representative of the curia. By such a gathering the emperor hoped to reach the wished for conclusion. In Italy (§ 139, 22) there had sprung up a number of men well instructed in Scripture, who sought to reform the doctrine of the church by adopting the principle of justification by faith without touching the primacy of the pope and the whole hierarchical system. Contarini was one of the leaders of this party. He had come to an understanding with the emperor that justification by faith, the use of the cup in communion by the laity, and marriage of priests should be allowed for Germany, and that, on the other hand, the Protestants were to agree to the primacy of the pope. The justitia imputativa was acknowledged by both parties; and even when Contarini, on the basis of that imputation, insisted upon a justitia inhærens, i.e. not merely a declaring but a making righteous, seeing that he grounded it solely on the merits of Christ, the Protestants acquiesced. Differences arose over the doctrine of the church, which were reserved for another occasion. And now they came to the sacrament of the altar. Communion in both kinds was agreed to by both; but trouble arose over the word transubstantiation. Not only Eck, who had opposed all concessions, but even Contarini, who had his orders from Rome, would not yield. No more would the Protestants. The conference had therefore to be dissolved. The emperor wished both parties to accept the articles agreed on as a common standard, and to have toleration granted upon the disputed points; but the Catholic majority would not agree to this. The Regensburg Interim, therefore, as the decision of the diet is usually called, extends the Nuremberg Peace (§ 133, 2) to all presently members of the Schmalcald League, and enforced upon Protestants only the accepted articles.

§ 135.4. =The Regensburg Declaration, A.D. 1541.=--The emperor, in order to satisfy the naturally dissatisfied Protestants, made a special declaration, annulling the prosecutions decree of the Augsburg Diet and relieving the adherents of the Augsburg Confession from all disabilities. Also the injunction that no one should withhold their dues from the clergy was extended to the Protestant ministers. But on the very day when the declaration was issued the emperor held a private session with the Catholic majority, in which the Nuremberg League was renewed and the pope received into it. Thus he hoped to receive help from all parties and to ward off internecine conflict till a more convenient season. He concluded a separate treaty with the landgrave and the Elector Joachim II., both undertaking to support imperial interests. The elector expressly promised not to join the Schmalcald League; and the landgrave promised to oppose all consorting of the league not only with foreign powers (England and France), but also with the Duke of Cleves, with whom the emperor had a standing feud. In return the landgrave was granted an amnesty for all previous delinquencies and undisturbed liberty in matters of religion. The emperor’s negotiations with the Elector of Saxony broke down over the Cleves dispute, for the Duke of Cleves was his brother-in-law.

§ 135.5. =The Naumburg Bishopric, A.D. 1541, 1542.=--Since A.D. 1520 the Lutheran doctrines had spread in the diocese of Naumburg. When the bishop died, in A.D. 1511, the chapter elected the learned and mild provost Julius von Pflugk. But the elector regarded it as proper in a Lutheran state to have a Lutheran bishop, and so refused to confirm Pflugk’s appointment, and had Nic. von Arnsdorf (§ 127, 4) ordained bishop by Luther, in A.D. 1542, “without chrism, butter, suet, lard, tar, grease, incense, and coals.” The civil administration of the diocese was committed to an electoral officer; Arnsdorf was satisfied with the small income of 600 florins and the rest of the revenues were applied to pious uses. After the battle of Mühlberg, in A.D. 1547, Arnsdorf was expelled and Pflugk restored. On his death in 1564, the chapter, though then Lutheran, did not restore Arnsdorf, but gave over the administration to a Saxon prince. The elector’s violent procedure in this case caused great offence to the Albertine court. Duke Henry had died in A.D. 1541, and was succeeded by his son Maurice. The elector and the young duke quarrelled over a question of jurisdiction, and it was only with great difficulty that Luther and the landgrave managed to effect a peaceful solution of the dispute. But the mutual estrangement and rivalry between the courts soon afterwards broke out in a violent form.

§ 135.6. =The Reformation in Brunswick and the Palatinate, A.D. 1542-1546.=--Duke Henry of Brunswick accused the city of Goslar of the destruction of two monasteries, and in spite of all the concessions to Protestants the court pronounced the ban against the city, and empowered Henry to carry it out. The elector and the landgrave, acting for the Schmalcald League in defence of the city, entered Henry’s territory in A.D. 1542 and conquered it. The gospel was now preached, and an evangelical constitution was given to Brunswick by Bugenhagen. This completed the conquest of North Germany for the gospel.--In South Germany Regensburg received the Reformation in A.D. 1542; but Bavaria, owing to Ferdinand’s influence, gave no place to the heretics. In the Upper Palatinate evangelical preachers had for a long time been tolerated. The young prince of the Neuburg Palatinate in A.D. 1543 called Osiander from Nuremburg [Nuremberg], and joined the Schmalcald League. The Elector-palatine Louis died in A.D. 1543. His brother Frederick II., who succeeded him was not unfavourable to the Reformation, and formally introduced it into his dominions in A.D. 1546. Even in Austria evangelical views made such advance that Ferdinand neither could nor would attempt those violent measures that he had previously tried.

§ 135.7. =The Reformation in the Electorate of Cologne, A.D. 1542-1544.=--Hermann von Weid (§ 133, 5), Archbishop and Elector of Cologne, now far advanced in life, by the study of Luther’s Bible had convinced himself of the scripturalness of the Augsburg Confession. He resolved to reform his province in accordance with God’s word. At the Bonn Assembly of March, A.D. 1542, he made known his plan, and found himself supported by his nobles. He invited Bucer to inaugurate the work, and he was soon joined by Melanchthon. In July, A.D. 1543, the elector laid before the nobles his Reformation scheme, and they unanimously accepted it. The cathedral chapter and the university opposed it in the interests of the papacy; also the Cologne council from fear of losing their authority. Nevertheless the movement advanced, and it was hoped that the opposition would gradually be overcome. Cologne was to remain after as before an ecclesiastical principality, but with an evangelical constitution. The Bishop of Münster prepared to follow the example, and had the work in Cologne been lasting, certainly many others would have pursued the same course.

§ 135.8. =The Emperor’s Difficulties, A.D. 1543, 1544.=--Soliman in A.D. 1541 had overrun Hungary, converted the principal church into a mosque, and set a pasha over the whole land, which now became a Turkish province. Aid against the Turks was voted at a diet at Spires in the beginning of A.D. 1542, and the Protestants were left unmolested for five years after the conclusion of the war. The campaign against the Turks led by Joachim II. was unsuccessful. Meanwhile new troubles arose with France, and Soliman prepared for a second campaign. The emperor now summoned a diet to meet at Nuremberg, Jan., A.D. 1543. Ferdinand was willing to grant to the Protestants the Regensburg Declaration, but William of Bavaria would rather see the whole world perish or the crescent ruling over all Germany. In summer of A.D. 1543 the emperor was beset with dangers from every side; France attacked the Netherlands, Soliman conquered Grau, the Danes closed the Sound against the subjects of the emperor, a Turco-French fleet held sway in the Mediterranean and had already taken Nizza, and the Protestants were assuming a threatening attitude. Christian III. of Denmark and Gustavus Vasa of Sweden asked to be received into the Schmalcald League. The Duke of Cleves, too, broke his truce. This roused the emperor most of all. He rushed down upon Cleves and Gelderland, and conquered them, and restored Catholicism. The emperor’s circumstances now improved: Cleves was quieted; Denmark and England came to terms with him. But his most dangerous enemies, Soliman and Francis I., were still in arms. He could not yet dispense with the powerful support of the Protestants.

§ 135.9. =Diet at Spires, A.D. 1544.=--In order to get help against the Turks and French, at the Diet of Spires, in Feb., A.D. 1544, the emperor relieved the Protestants of all disabilities, promised a genuine, free Christian council to settle matters in dispute, and, in case this should not succeed, in next autumn a national assembly to determine matters definitely without pope or council. The emperor promised to propose a scheme of Reformation, and invited the other nobles to bring forward schemes. After such concessions the Protestants went in heartily with the emperor’s political projects. He wished first of all help against the French. In the same year the emperor led against France an army composed mostly of Protestants, and in Sept., A.D. 1544, obliged the king to conclude the Peace of Crespy. The Turks had next to be dealt with, and the Protestants were eager to show their devotion to the emperor. In prospect of the national assembly the Elector of Saxony set his theologians to the composition of a plan of Reformation. This document, known as the “Wittenberg Reformation,” allows to the prelates their spiritual and civil functions, their revenues, goods, and jurisdiction, the right of ordination, visitation, and discipline, on condition that these be exercised in an evangelical spirit.

§ 135.10. =Differences between the Emperor and the Protestant Nobles, A.D. 1545, 1546.=--The pope by calling a council to meet at Trent sowed seeds of discord between the emperor and the Protestants. The emperor’s proposals of reform were so far short of the demands of the Protestants that they were unanimously rejected. The Reformation movement in Cologne had seriously imperilled the imperial government of the Netherlands. An attempt of Henry to reconquer Brunswick was frustrated by the combined action of the Landgrave of Hesse and the Duke of Saxony. Frederick II., elector-palatine, began to reform his provinces and to seek admission to the Schmalcald League. Four of the six electors had gone over, and the fifth, Sebastian, who after Albert’s death in A.D. 1545 had been, by Hessian and Palatine influence, made Elector of Mainz, had just resolved to follow their example. All these things had greatly irritated the emperor. He concluded a truce with the Turks in Oct., A.D. 1545, and arranged with the pope, who pledged his whole possessions and crown, for the campaign against the heretics. On 13th Dec., A.D. 1545, the pope opened the =Council of Trent=, and made it no secret that it was intended for the destruction of the Protestants. The emperor attempted to get the Protestants to take part. In Jan., A.D. 1546, a conference was held in which Cochlæus (§ 129, 1) and others met with Bucer, Brenz, and Major; but it was soon dissolved, owing to initial differences. The horrible fratricide committed at Neuburg upon a Spaniard, Juan Diaz, showed the Protestants how good Catholics thought heretics must be dealt with. The murderer was seized, but by order of the pope to the Bishop of Trent set again at liberty. He remained unpunished, but hanged himself at Trent A.D. 1551.

§ 135.11. =Luther’s Death, A.D. 1546.=--Luther died at Eisleben in his 63rd year on 18th Feb., 1546. During his last years he was harassed with heavy trials. The political turn that affairs had taken was wholly distasteful to him, but he was powerless to prevent it. In Wittenberg itself much was done not in accordance with his will. Wearied with his daily toils, suffering severe pain and consequent bodily weakness, he often longed to die in peace. In the beginning of A.D. 1546 the Counts of Mansfeld called him to Eisleben in order to compose differences between them by his impartial judgment. In order to perform this business he spent the three last weeks of his life in his birthplace, and, with scarcely any previous illness, on the night of the 18th Feb., he peacefully fell asleep in Jesus. His body was taken to Wittenberg and there buried in the castle church.

§ 136. THE SCHMALCALD WAR, THE INTERIM, AND THE COUNCIL, A.D. 1546-1551.

All attempts at agreement in matters of religion were at an end. The pope, however, had at last convened a council in a German city. The emperor hoped to conciliate the Protestants by bringing about a reformation after a fashion, removing many hierarchical abuses, conceding the marriage of the clergy, the cup to the laity, and even perhaps accepting the doctrine of justification. But he soon came to a rupture with the Protestants, and war broke out before the Schmalcald Leaguers were prepared for it. Their power, however, was far superior to that of the emperor; but through needless scruples, delays, and indecision they let slip the opportunity of certain victory. The power of the league was utterly destroyed, and the emperor’s power reached the summit of its strength. All Southern Germany was forced to submit to the hated interim, and in North Germany only the outlawed Magdeburg ventured to maintain, in spite of the emperor, a pure Protestant profession.

§ 136.1. =Preparations for the Schmalcald War, A.D. 1546.=--In consequence of variances among the members of the league the emperor conceived a plan of securing allies from among the Protestants themselves by a judicious distribution of favours. The Margrave Hans of Cüstrin and Duke Eric of Brunswick, the one cousin, the other son-in-law, of the exiled and imprisoned Duke of Wolfenbüttel, were ready to take part in war against the robbers of their friend’s dominions. Much more eager, however, was the emperor to win over the young Duke Maurice of Saxony. He tempted him with the promise of the electorate and the greater part of the elector’s territory, and was successful. The emperor could not indeed formally release any of them from submission to the council, but he promised in any case to reserve for their countries the doctrine of justification, the cup in lay communion, and the marriage of priests. Now when he was sure of Maurice the emperor proceeded openly with his preparations, and made no secret of his intention to punish those princes who had despised his imperial authority and taken to themselves the possessions of others. The Schmalcald Leaguers could no longer deceive themselves, and so they began their preparations. With such an open breach the Diet of Regensburg ended in June, A.D. 1546.

§ 136.2. =The Campaign on the Danube, A.D. 1546.=--Schärtlin, at the head of a powerful army, could have attacked the emperor or taken the Tyrol; but the council of war, listening to William of Bavaria, who professed neutrality, and hoping to win over Ferdinand, foolishly ordered delay. Thus the emperor gained time to collect an army. On 20th June, A.D. 1546, he issued from Regensburg a ban against the Landgrave Philip and the Elector John Frederick as oath-breaking vassals. These princes at the head of their forces had joined Schärtlin at Donauwörth [Donauwört]. Papal despatches fell into their hands, in which the pope proclaimed a crusade for the rooting out of heretics, promising indulgence to all who would aid in the work. Fatal indecision still prevailed in the council of war, and winter came on without a battle being fought. The news that Maurice had taken possession of the elector’s domains led the landgrave and the ex-elector to return home, and Schärtlin, for want of money and ammunition, was unable to face a winter campaign in Franconia. Thus the whole country lay open to the emperor. One city after another accepted terms more or less severe. In the beginning of A.D. 1547 he was master of all Southern Germany. Now at last he put an end to the Cologne movement (§ 135, 7). The pope had issued the ban against the archbishop in A.D. 1546, and now the emperor had the former coadjutor proclaimed archbishop and elector, in spite of the opposition of the nobles. Hermann was willing to secure the religious peace of his dominions by resignation, but this was refused, and being too weak to offer resistance, he resigned unconditionally. Thus the Rhine provinces were irretrievably lost to Protestantism.

§ 136.3. =The Campaign on the Elbe, A.D. 1547.=--After rapidly reconquering his own territories, the Elector John Frederick hastened with a considerable army to meet his enemy. At Mühlberg he suddenly came upon the emperor’s forces. There scarcely was a battle. His comparatively small armament melted away before the superior numbers of the imperial host, and the elector was taken prisoner on 24th April, A.D. 1547. He had already been sentenced to death as a rebel and heretic. It was deemed more prudent to require of him only the surrender of his fortresses. The pious prince willingly resigned all temporal dignities, but in matters of religion he was inflexible. He was sentenced to life-long imprisonment and his possessions were mostly given to Maurice. The Landgrave Philip, for want of money, ammunition, and troops, had been prevented from doing anything. The news of John Frederick’s misfortunes brought him almost to despair. Too powerless to offer opposition, he surrendered at discretion to the emperor. He was to prostrate himself before the emperor, surrender all his fortresses, neither now nor in future suffer enemies of the emperor in his lands, and for all his life to renounce all leagues, to liberate Henry of Brunswick and restore him to his dominions. The ceremony of prostration was performed at Halle on 19th July. The two electors with the landgrave then went by invitation to a supper with the Duke of Alba. After supper the duke declared the landgrave his prisoner. The elector’s remonstrances then with Alba and next day with the imperial councillors were all in vain. The emperor was equally deaf to all representations.

§ 136.4. =The Council of Trent, A.D. 1545-1547.=--The Council of Trent opened in Dec., A.D. 1545 (§ 149, 2). At the outset, contrary to the emperor’s wishes, the pope laid down conditions that excluded Protestants from taking part in it. Scripture and tradition were first discussed. The O.T. Apocrypha (§§ 59, 1; 161, 8) had equal authority assigned it with the other books of the O. and N.T., and the Vulgate was declared to be the only authentic text for theological discussions and sermons. Tradition was placed on equal terms alongside of Scripture, but its contents were carefully defined. Original sin was extinguished by baptism, and after baptism there is only actual transgression. The scholastic doctrine of justification was sanctioned anew, but accommodated as far as possible to Scripture phraseology; justification is the inward actual change of a sinner into a righteous man, not merely the forgiveness of sins, but pre-eminently the sanctification and renewal of the inner man. It is effected, not so much by the imputation of Christ’s merits, as by the infusion of habitual righteousness, which enables men to win salvation by works. It is not forensic, but a physical act of God, is wrought not once for all, and not by faith alone, but gradually by the free co-operation of the man. The emperor, who saw in these decisions the overthrow of his attempts at conciliation, was highly displeased, and wished at least to postpone their promulgation. The pope obeyed for a time; but when the emperor threatened to interfere in the proceedings of the council, he had the decrees published, Jan., A.D. 1547, and some weeks after, on the plea of a dangerous plague having broken out, removed the council to Bologna, where for the time proceedings were suspended.

§ 136.5. =The Augsburg Interim, A.D. 1548.=--At a diet at Augsburg in Sept., A.D. 1547, the Protestants declared themselves willing to submit to a council meeting again at Trent, and beginning afresh; but as the pope refused this, the emperor was obliged to plan an interim, which should form a standard for all parties till a settlement at a proper council should be reached. It granted the cup to the laity and marriage of priests, but held by the Tridentine doctrine of justification. It represented the pope as simply the highest bishop, in whom the unity of the church is visibly set forth. The right of interpreting Scripture was given exclusively to the church. The sacraments were enumerated as seven, and the doctrine of transubstantiation emphatically maintained. The duty of fasting, and seeking the intercession of the mother of God and the saints, observing all Catholic ceremonies of worship, processions, festivals, etc., was strictly insisted upon. The emperor was satisfied, and so too some of the Protestant princes. Maurice, however, felt that his people would not agree to its adoption. He gave at last a half assent, which the emperor accepted as approval. The emperor took no notice of those who opposed it, the presence of his Spaniards in their dominions would prevent all trouble. The emperor was not strong enough to force the Catholic nobles to accept his interim, and so its observance was to be binding only on the Protestants. Landgrave Philip, whose power was for ever broken, gave in, but nothing in the world would induce the noble John Frederick to submit. The pope too refused persistently to recognise the interim, and only in Aug., A.D. 1549, did he allow the bishops to agree to the concessions made by it to the Protestants.

§ 136.6. =The Execution of the Interim= had on all sides to be compulsorily enforced. Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm were one after another coerced into adopting it. Constance resisted, was put under the ban, and lost all privileges, till at last instead of the interim the papacy found entrance, and evangelical Protestantism got its death-blow. The other cities submitted to the inevitable. All preachers refusing the interim were exiled and persecuted. Over 400 true servants of the word wandered with wives and children through South Germany homeless and without bread. Frecht of Ulm was taken in chains to the emperor’s camp. Brenz, one of the most determined opponents of the interim, during his wanderings often by a miracle escaped capture. Much more lasting was the opposition in North Germany. In Magdeburg, still lying under the imperial ban, the fugitive opponents of the interim gathered from all sides, and there alone was the press still free in its utterances against the interim. A flood of controversial tracts, satires, and caricatures were sent out over all Germany. In Hesse and Brandenburg the princes were unable to enforce the obnoxious measures; still less could Maurice do so in the electorate.

§ 136.7. =The Leipzig or Little Interim, A.D. 1549.=--Maurice in his difficulties sent for Melanchthon. Since the death of Luther and the overthrow of John Frederick of Saxony, Melanchthon’s tendency to yield largely for peace’ sake had lost its wholesome checks. In writing to the minister Carlowitz, the bitterest foe of Luther and the elector, he even went so far as to complain of Luther’s combativeness. The result of various negotiations was the drawing up of a document at the assembly in Leipzig, 22nd December, A.D. 1548, by the Wittenberg theologians in accordance with the views of Melanchthon. This modified interim became the standard for religious practice in Saxony, and a directory of worship in harmony with it was drawn up by the theologians, and published in July, A.D. 1549. Calvin and Brenz wrote letters that cut Melanchthon to the heart. The measure was everywhere viewed by zealous Lutherans with indignation, and the Interim of Leipzig was even more hateful to the people than that of Augsburg. Imprisonment and exile were vigorously carried out by means of it, yet the revolution and ferment continued to increase.--The Leipzig Interim treated Romish customs and ceremonies almost as things indifferent, passed over many less essential doctrinal differences, and gave to fundamental differences such a setting as might be applied equally to the pure evangelical doctrine as to that of the Augsburg Interim. The evangelical doctrine of justification was essentially there, but it was not decidedly and unambiguously expressed; and still less were Romish errors sharply and unmistakably repudiated. Good works were said to be necessary, but not in the sense that one could win salvation by means of them. Whether good works in excess of the law’s demands could be performed was not explicitly determined. On church and hierarchy, the positions of the Augsburg Interim were simply restated. To the pope as the highest bishop, as well as to the other bishops, who performed their duties according to God’s will for edification and not destruction, all churchmen were to yield obedience. The seven sacraments were acknowledged, though in another than the Romish sense. In the mass the Latin language was again introduced. Images of saints were allowed, but not for worship; so too the festivals of Mary and of Corpus Christi, but without processions, etc.

§ 136.8. =The Council again at Trent, A.D. 1551.=--In September, A.D. 1549, Paul III. dissolved the council at Bologna, where it had done nothing. His successor, =Julius III.=, A.D. 1550-1555, the nominee of the imperial party, acceded to the emperor’s wishes to have the council again held at Trent. The Protestant nobles declared their willingness to recognise it, but demanded the cancelling of the earlier proceedings, a seat and vote for their representatives. This the emperor was prepared to grant, but the pope and prelates would not agree. The council began its proceedings on 1st May, A.D. 1551, with the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Meanwhile the Protestants prepared a new confession, which might form the basis of their discussions in the council. Melanchthon, who was beginning to take courage again, sketched the Confessio Saxonica, or, as it has been rightly named, the Repetitio Confessionis Augustanæ, in which no trace of the indecision and ambiguity of the Leipzig Interim is to be found. The pure doctrine is set forth firmly, with even a polemical tone, though in a moderate and conciliatory manner. Brenz, who had been in hiding up to this time, by order of Duke Christopher of Württemberg, sketched for a like purpose the “Württemberg Confession.” In November, A.D. 1551, the first Protestants, lay delegates from Württemberg and Strassburg, appeared in Trent. They were followed in January by Saxon statesmen. On 24th January, A.D. 1552, these laid their credentials before the council, but, notwithstanding all the effort of the imperial commissioners, they could not gain admission. In March the Württemberg and Strassburg theologians arrived, with Brenz at their head, and Melanchthon, with two Leipzig preachers, was on the way, when suddenly Maurice put an end to all their well concerted plans.

§ 137A. MAURICE AND THE PEACE OF AUGSBURG A.D. 1550-1555.

In the beginning of A.D. 1550 the affairs of the Reformation were in a worse condition than ever before. In the fetters of the interim, it was like a felon on whom the death sentence was about to be passed. Then just at the right time appeared the Elector Maurice as the man who could break the fetters and lead on again to power and honour. His betrayal of the cause had brought Protestantism to the verge of destruction; his betrayal of the emperor proved its salvation. The Compact of Passau guaranteed to Protestants full religious liberty and equal rights with Catholics until a new council should meet. The Religious Peace of Augsburg removed even this limitation, and brought to a conclusion the history of the German Reformation.

§ 137.1. =The State of Matters in A.D. 1550.=--It was a doleful time for Germany. The emperor at the height of his power was laying his plans for securing the succession in the imperial dignity to his son Philip of Spain. In a bold, autocratic spirit he trampled on all the rights of the imperial nobles, and contrary to treaty he retained the presence of Spanish troops in the empire, which daily committed deeds of atrocious violence. The deliverance of the landgrave was stubbornly refused, though all the conditions thereof were long ago fulfilled. Protestant Germany groaned under the yoke of the interim; the council would only confirm this, if not rather enforce something even worse. Only one bulwark of evangelical liberty stood in the emperor’s way, the brave, outlawed Magdeburg. But how could it continue to hold out? Down to autumn, A.D. 1552, all attempts to storm the city had failed. Then Maurice undertook, by the order of the emperor and at the cost of the empire, to execute the ban.

§ 137.2. =The Elector Maurice, A.D. 1551.--Maurice had lost the hearts of his own people, and was regarded with detestation by the Protestants of Germany, and notwithstanding imperial favour his position was by no means secure. Yet he was too much of the German and Protestant prince to view with favour the emperor’s proceedings, while he felt indignant at the illegal detention of his father-in-law. In these circumstances he resolved to betray the emperor, as before he had betrayed to him the cause of Protestantism. A master in dissimulation, he continued the siege of Magdeburg with all diligence, but at the same time joined a secret league with the Margrave Hans of Cüstrin and Albert of Franconian Brandenburg, as also with the sons of the landgrave, for the restoration of evangelical and civil liberty, and entered into negotiations with Henry II. of France, who undertook to aid him with money. Magdeburg at last capitulated, and Maurice entered on 4th November, A.D. 1551. Arrears of pay formed an excuse for not disbanding the imperial troops, and, strengthened by the Magdeburg garrison and the auxiliary troops of his allies, he threw off the mask, and issued public proclamations in which he brought bitter charges against the emperor, and declared that he could no longer lie under the feet of priests and Spaniards. The emperor in vain appealed for help to the Catholic princes. He found himself without troops or money at Innsbrück, which could not stand a siege, and every road to his hereditary territories seemed closed, for where the leagued German princes were not the Ottomans on sea and the French on land were ready to oppose him. Maurice was already on the way to Innsbrück “to seek out the fox in his hole.” But his troops’ demands for pay detained him, and the emperor gained time. On a cold, wet night he fled, though not yet recovered from fever, over the mountains covered with snow, and found refuge in Villach. Three days after Maurice entered Innsbrück; the council had already dissolved.

§ 137.3. =The Compact of Passau, A.D. 1552.=--Before the flight of the emperor from Innsbrück, Maurice had an interview with Ferdinand at Linz, where, besides the liberation of the landgrave, he demanded a German national assembly for religious union, and till it met unconditional toleration. The emperor, notwithstanding all his embarrassments, would not listen to the proposal. Negotiations were reopened at Passau, and Maurice’s proposals were in the main accepted. Ferdinand consented, but the emperor would not. Ferdinand himself travelled to Villach and employed all his eloquence, but unconditional toleration the emperor would not grant. His stubbornness conquered; the majority gave in, and accepted a compact which gave to the Protestants a full amnesty, general peace, and equal rights, till the meeting of a national or œcumenical council, to be arranged for at the next diet. Meanwhile the emperor had made great preparations. Frankfort was his main stronghold, and against it Maurice now advanced, and began the siege. Matters were not promising, when the Passau delegate appeared in his camp with the draft of the terms of peace. Had he refused his signature, the ban would have been pronounced against him, and his cousin would have been restored to the electorate. He therefore subscribed the document. With difficulty Ferdinand secured the subscription of the emperor, who believed himself to be sufficiently strong to carry on the battle. The two imprisoned princes were now at last liberated, and the preachers exiled by the interim were allowed to return. John Frederick died in A.D. 1554, and the Landgrave Philip in A.D. 1567.

§ 137.4. =Death of Maurice, A.D. 1553.=--The Margrave Albert of Brandenburg had been Maurice’s comrade in the Schmalcald war, and with him also he turned against the emperor. But after the ratification of the Passau Compact, to which he was not a party, Albert continued the war against the prelates and their principalities. He now fell out with Maurice, and was taken into his service by the emperor, who not only granted him an amnesty for all his acts of spoliation and breaches of the truce, but promised to enforce recognition of him from all the bishops. Albert therefore helped the emperor against the French, and then carried his conquests into Germany. Soon an open rupture occurred between him and Maurice. In the battle of Sievershausen Maurice gained a brilliant victory, but received a mortal wound, of which he died in two days. Albert fled to France. The rude soldier was broken down by misfortune, the religious convictions of his youth awakened, and the composition of a beautiful and well-known German hymn marks the turning point in his life. He died in A.D. 1557.--The year 1554 was wholly occupied with internal troubles. A desire for a lasting peace prevailed, and the calamities of both parties brought Protestants and Catholics nearer to one another. Even Henry of Brunswick was willing to tolerate Protestantism in his dominions.

§ 137.5. =The Religious Peace of Augsburg, A.D. 1555.=--When the diet met at Augsburg in February, A.D. 1555, the emperor’s power was gone. To save his pride and conscience he renounced all share in its proceedings in favour of his brother. The Protestant members stood well together in claiming unconditional religious freedom, and Ferdinand inclined to their side. Meanwhile Pope Julius died, and the cardinals Morone and Truchsess hasted from the diet to Rome to take part in the papal election. The Catholic opposition was thus weakened in the diet. The Protestants insisted that the peace should apply to all who might in future join this confession. This demand gave occasion to strong contests. At last the simple formula was agreed upon, that no one should be interfered with on account of the Augsburg Confession. But a more vehement dispute arose as to what should happen if prelates or spiritual princes should join the Protestant party. This was a vital question for Catholicism, and acceptance of the Protestant view would be its deathblow. It was therefore proposed that every prelate who went over would lose, not only his spiritual rank, but also his civil dominion. But the opposition would not give in. Both parties appealed to Ferdinand, and he delayed giving a decision. Advice was also asked about the peace proclamation. The Protestants claimed that the judges of the imperial court should be sworn to observe the Religious Peace, and should be chosen in equal numbers from both religious parties. On 30th Aug. Ferdinand stated his resolution. As was expected, he went with the Catholics in regard to prelates becoming Protestants, but, contrary to all expectations, he also refused lasting unconditional peace. On this last point, however, he declared himself on 6th Sept. willing to yield if the Protestants would concede the point about the prelates. They sought to sell their concession as dearly as possible by securing to evangelical subjects of Catholic princes the right to the free exercise of their religion. But the Catholic prelates, on the ground of the territorial system (§ 126, 6) advocated by the Protestants themselves, would not give in. It was finally agreed that every noble in matters of religion had territorial authority, but that subjects of another faith, in case of the free exercise of their religion being refused, should have guaranteed unrestricted liberty to withdraw without loss of honour, property, or freedom. On 25th Sept., A.D. 1555, the decrees of the diet were promulgated. The Reformed were not included in the Religious Peace; this was first done in the Peace of Westphalia (§ 153, 2).

§ 137B. GERMANY AFTER THE RELIGIOUS PEACE.

The political importance of the Protestant princes was about equal to that of the Catholics; the Electors of Cologne, Mainz, and Treves were not more powerful than those of Saxony, the Palatinate, and Brandenburg; and the great array of Protestant cities, with almost all the minor princes, were not behind the combined forces of Austria and Bavaria. The maintenance of the peace was assigned to a legally constituted corporation of Catholic and Protestant nobles, which held power down to A.D. 1806. The hope of reaching a mutual understanding on matters of religion was by no means abandoned, but the continuance of the peace was to be in no way dependent upon its realization. A new attempt to effect a union, which like all previous efforts ended in failure, was soon made in the Worms Consultation. Equally unsuccessful was a union project of the emperor Ferdinand I. Protestantism could get no more out of the Catholic princes. A second attempt to protestantize the Cologne electorate broke down as the first had done (§ 136, 2).

§ 137.6. =The Worms Consultation, A.D. 1557.=--Another effort was made after the failure of the council in the interests of union. Catholic and Protestant delegates under the presidency of Pflugk met at Worms in A.D. 1557. At a preliminary meeting the princes of Hesse, Württemburg [Württemberg], and the Palatinate adopted the Augsburg Confession as bond of union and standard for negotiations. The Saxon delegates insisted upon a distinct repudiation of the interim and the insertion of other details, which gave the Catholics an excuse for putting an end to the negotiations. They had previously expressly refused to acknowledge Scripture as the unconditional and sole judge of controversies, as that was itself a matter in dispute (§ 136, 4).

§ 137.7. =Second Attempt at Reformation in the Electorate of Cologne, A.D. 1582.=--The Archbishop and Elector of Cologne, Gebhard Truchsess of Waldburg went over in A.D. 1582 to the Protestant Church, married the Countess Agnes of Mansfeld, proclaimed religious freedom, and sought to convert his ecclesiastical principality into a temporal dominion. His plan was acceptable to nobles and people, but the clergy of his diocese opposed it with all their might. The pope thundered the ban against him, and Emperor Rudolph II. deposed him. The Protestant princes at last deserted him, and the newly elected archbishop, Duke Ernest of Bavaria, overpowered him by an armed force. The issue of Gebhard’s attempt struck terror into other prelates who had been contemplating similar moves.

§ 137.8. =The German Emperor.=--=Ferdinand I.=, A.D. 1556-1564, conciliatory toward Protestantism, thoroughly dissatisfied with the Tridentine Council, once and again made attempts to secure a union, which all ended in failure. =Maximilian II.=, A.D. 1564-1576, imbued by his tutor, Wolfgang Severus, with an evangelical spirit, which was deepened under the influence of his physician Crato von Crafftheim (§ 141, 10), gave perfect liberty to the Protestants in his dominions, admitted them to many of the higher and lower offices of state, kept down the Jesuits, and was prevented from himself formally going over to Protestantism only by his political relations with Spain and the Catholic princes of the empire. These relations, however, led to the adoption of half measures, out of which afterwards sprang the Thirty Years’ War. His son =Rudolph II.=, A.D. 1576-1612, educated by Jesuits at the Spanish court, gave again to that order unlimited scope, injured the Protestants on every side, and was only prevented by indecision and cowardice from attempting the complete suppression of Protestantism.

§ 138. THE REFORMATION IN FRENCH SWITZERLAND.[369]

In French Switzerland the Reformation appeared somewhat later, but in essentially the same form as in German Switzerland. Its special character was given it by Farel and Viret, the predecessors of Calvin. The powerful genius of Calvin secured for his views victory over Zwinglianism in Switzerland, and won the ascendency for them in the other Reformed Churches.

§ 138.1. =Calvin’s Predecessors, A.D. 1526-1535.=--=William Farel=, the pupil and friend of the liberal exegete Faber Stapulensis (§ 120, 8), was born in A.D. 1489 at Gap in Dauphiné. When in A.D. 1521 the Sorbonne condemned Luther’s doctrines and writings, he was obliged, as a suspected adherent of Luther, to quit Paris. He retired to Meaux, where he was well received by Bishop Briçonnet, but so boldly preached the reformed doctrines, that even the bishop, on renewed complaints being made, neither could nor would protect him. He then withdrew to Basel (§ 130, 3). His first permanent residence was at Neuchatel, where in November, A.D. 1530, the Reformation was introduced by his influence. He left Neuchatel in A.D. 1532 in order to work in Geneva. But the civil authorities there could not protect him against the bishop and clergy. He was obliged to leave the city, but Saunier, Fromant, and Olivetan (§ 143, 5) continued the work in his spirit. A revolution took place; the bishop thundered his ban against the refractory council, and the senate replied by declaring his office forfeited. Farel now returned to Geneva, A.D. 1535, and there accompanied him =Peter Viret=, afterwards the reformer of Lausanne. Viret was born at Orbe in A.D. 1511, and had attached himself to the Protestant cause during his studies in Paris. He therefore had also been obliged to quit the capital. He retired to his native town, and sought there diligently to spread the knowledge of the gospel. The arrival of these two enthusiastic reformers in Geneva led to a life and death struggle, from which the evangelicals went forth triumphant. As the result of a public disputation in August, A.D. 1535, the magistracy declared in their favour, and Farel gave the movement a doctrinal basis by the issuing of a confession. In the following year Calvin was passing through Geneva. Farel adjured him in God’s name to remain there. Farel indeed needed a fellow labourer of such genius and power, for he had a hard battle to fight.

§ 138.2. =Calvin before his Genevan Ministry.=--=John Calvin=, son of diocesan procurator Gerhard Cauvin, was born on 10th July, A.D. 1509, at Noyou in Picardy. Intended for the church, he was, from his twelfth year, in possession of a benefice. Meeting with his relation Olivetan, he had his first doubts of the truth of the Catholic system awakened. With his father’s consent he now turned to the study of law, which he eagerly prosecuted for four years at Orleans and Bourges. At Bourges, Melchior Wolmar, a German professor of Greek, exercised so powerful an influence over him, especially through the study of the Scriptures, that he decided, after the death of his father, to devote himself exclusively to theology. With this intention he went to Paris in A.D. 1532, and there enthusiastically adopted the principles of the Reformation. The newly appointed rector of the university, Nic. Cop, had to deliver an address on the Feast of All Saints. Calvin prepared it for him, and expressed therein such liberal and evangelical views, as had never before been uttered in that place. Cop read it boldly, and escaped the outburst of wrath only by a timely flight. Calvin, too, found it prudent to quit Paris. The bloody persecution of the Protestants by Francis I. led him at last to leave France altogether. So he went, in A.D. 1535, to Basel, where he became acquainted with Capito and Grynæus. In the following year he issued the first sketch of the Institutio Religionis Christianæ. It was made as a defence of the Protestants of France, persecuted by Francis on the pretext that they held Anabaptist and revolutionary views. He therefore dedicated the book to the king, with a noble and firm address. He soon left Basel, and went to the court of the evangelical-minded Duchess Renata of Ferrara (§ 139, 22), in order to secure her good offices for his fellow countrymen suffering for their faith. He won the full confidence of the duchess, but after some weeks was banished the country by her husband. On his journey back to Basel, Farel and Viret detained him in Geneva in A.D. 1536, and declared that he was called to be a preacher and teacher of theology. On 1st October, A.D. 1536, the three reformers, at a public disputation in Lausanne, defended the principles of the Reformation. Viret remained in Lausanne, and perfected the work of Reformation there. As a confession of faith, a catechism, not in dialogue form, was composed by Calvin as a popular summary of his Institutio in the French language, and was sworn to, in A.D. 1536, by all the citizens of Geneva. The Catechismus Genevensis, highly prized in all the Reformed churches, was a later redaction, which appeared first in French in A.D. 1542, and then in Latin, in A.D. 1545.[370]

§ 138.3. =Calvin’s First Ministry in Geneva, A.D. 1536-1538.=--In Geneva, as in other places, there sprang up alongside of the Reformation, and soon in deadly opposition to it, an antinomian libertine sect, which strove for freedom from all restraint and order (§ 146, 4). In the struggle against this dangerous development, which found special favour among the aristocratic youth of Geneva, Calvin put forth all the power of his logical mind and unbending will, and sought to break its force by the exercise of an excessively strict church discipline. He created a spiritual consistory which arrogated to itself the exclusive right of church discipline and excommunication, and wished to lay upon the magistrates the duty of inflicting civil punishments on all persons condemned by it. But not only did the libertine sections offer the most strenuous opposition, but also the magistrates regarded with jealousy and suspicion the erection of such a tribunal. Magistrates and libertines therefore combined to overthrow the consistory. A welcome pretext was found in a synod at Lausanne in A.D. 1538, which condemned the abolition of all festivals but the Sundays, the removal of baptismal fonts from the churches, and the introduction of leavened bread at the Lord’s Supper by the Genevan church as uncalled for innovations. The magistrates now demanded the withdrawal of these, and banished the preachers who would not obey. Farel went to Neuchatel, where he remained till his death in A.D. 1565; Calvin went to Strassburg, where Bucer, Capito, and Hedio gave him the office of a professor and preacher. During his three years’ residence there Calvin, as a Strassburg delegate, was frequently brought into close relationship with the German reformers, especially with Melanchthon (§§ 134, 135). But he ever remained closely associated with Geneva, and when Cardinal Sadolet (§ 139, 12) issued from Lyons in A.D. 1539 an appeal to the Genevese to return to the bosom of the Romish church, Calvin thundered against him an annihilating reply. His Genevan friends, too, spared no pains to win for him the favour of the council and the citizens. They succeeded all the more easily because since the overthrow of the theocratic consistory the libertine party had run into all manner of riotous excesses. By a decree of council of 20th Oct., A.D. 1540, Calvin was most honourably recalled. After long consideration he accepted the call in Sept., A.D. 1541, and now, with redoubled energy, set himself to carry out most strictly the work that had been interrupted.

§ 138.4. =Calvin’s Second Ministry in Geneva, A.D. 1541-1564.=--Calvin set up again, after his return, the consistory, consisting of six ministers and twelve lay elders, and by it ruled with almost absolute power. It was a thoroughly organized inquisition tribunal, which regulated in all details the moral, religious, domestic, and social life of the citizens, called them to account on every suspicion of a fault, had the incorrigible banished by the civil authorities, and the more dangerous of them put to death. The Ciceronian Bible translator, Sebastian Castellio, appointed rector of the Genevan school by Calvin, got out of sympathy with the rigorous moral strictures and compulsory prescriptions of matters of faith under the Calvinistic rule, and charged the clergy with intolerance and pride. He also contested the doctrine of the descent into hell, and described the Canticles as a love poem. He was deposed, and in order to escape further penalties he fled to Basel in A.D. 1544. A libertine called Gruet was executed in A.D. 1547, because he had circulated an abusive tract against the clergy, and blasphemous references were found in his papers; e.g. that Christianity is only a fable, that Christ was a deceiver and His mother a prostitute, that all ends with death, that neither heaven nor hell exists, etc. The physician, Jerome Bolsec, previously a Carmelite monk in Paris, was imprisoned in A.D. 1551, and then banished, because of his opposition to Calvin’s doctrine of predestination. He afterwards returned to the Romish church, and revenged himself by a biography of Calvin full of spiteful calumnies. On the execution of Servetus in A.D. 1533, see § 148, 2. Between the years 1542 and 1546 there were in Geneva, with a population of only 20,000, no less than fifty-seven death sentences carried out with Calvin’s approval, and seventy-six sentences of banishment. The magistrates faithfully supported him in all his measures. But under the inquisitorial reign of terror of his consistory, the libertine party gained strength for a vehement struggle, and among the magistrates, from about A.D. 1546, there arose a powerful opposition, and fanatical mobs repeatedly threatened to throw him into the Rhone. This struggle lasted for nine years. But Calvin abated not a single iota from the strictness of his earlier demands, and so great was the fear of his powerful personality that neither the rage of riotous mobs nor the hostility of the magistracy could secure his banishment. In A.D. 1555 his party again won the ascendency in the elections, mainly by the aid of crowds of refugees from France, England, and Scotland, who had obtained residence and thus the rights of citizens in Geneva. From this time till his death on 27th March, A.D. 1564, his influence was supreme. The impress of his strong mind was more and more distinctly stamped upon every institution of the commonwealth, the demands of his rigorous discipline were willingly and heartily adopted as the moral code, and secured for Geneva that pre-eminence which for two centuries it retained among all the Reformed churches as an honourable, pious, and strictly moral city. In spite of a weak body and frequent attacks of sickness Calvin, during the twenty-three years of his two residences in Geneva, performed an amazing amount of work. He had married in A.D. 1540, at Strassburg, Idaletta de Bures, the widow of an Anabaptist converted by him. His wife died in A.D. 1549. He preached almost daily, attended all the sittings of the consistory and the preachers’ association, inspired all their deliberations and resolutions, delivered lectures in the academy founded by his orders in A.D. 1559, composed numerous doctrinal, controversial, and apologetical works, conducted an extensive correspondence, etc.

§ 138.5. =Calvin’s Writings.=--The most important of the writings of Calvin is his already mentioned Institutio Religionis Christianæ, of which the best and most complete edition appeared in A.D. 1559, a companion volume to Melanchthon’s Loci, but much more thorough and complete as a formal and scientific treatise. In this work Calvin elaborates his profound doctrinal system with great speculative power and bold, relentless logic, combined with the peculiar grace of a clear and charming style. Next in order of importance came his commentaries on almost all the books of Scripture. Here also he shows himself everywhere possessed of brilliant acuteness, religious geniality, profound Christian sympathy, and remarkable exegetical talent, but also a stickler for small points or seriously fettered by dogmatic prejudices. His exegetical productions want the warmth and childlike identification of the commentator with his text, which in so high a degree distinguishes Luther, while in form they are incomparably superior for conciseness and scientific precision. In the pulpit Calvin was the same strict and consistent logician as in his systematic and polemical works. Of Luther’s popular eloquence he had not the slightest trace.[371]

§ 138.6. =Calvin’s Doctrine.=--Calvin set Zwingli far below Luther, and had no hesitation in characterizing the Zwinglian doctrine of the sacraments as profane. With Luther, who highly respected him, he never came into close personal contact, but his intercourse with Melanchthon had a powerful influence upon the latter. But decidedly as he approached Luther’s doctrine, he was in principle rather on the same platform with Zwingli. His view of the Protestant principles is essentially Zwinglian. Just as decidedly as Zwingli had he broken with ecclesiastical tradition. In the doctrine of the person of Christ he inclined to Nestorianism, and could not therefore reach the same believing fulness as Luther in his doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. He taught, as Berengar before had done, that the believer by means of faith partakes in the sacrament only spiritually, but yet really, of the body and blood of the Lord, through a power issuing from the glorified body of Christ, whereas the unbeliever receives only bread and wine. In his doctrine of justification he formally agrees with Luther, but introduced a very marked difference by his strict, almost Old Testament, legalism. His predestination doctrine goes beyond even that of Augustine in its rigid consistency and unbending severity.[372]

§ 138.7. =The Victory of Calvinism over Zwinglianism.=--By his extensive correspondence and numerous writings Calvin’s influence extended far beyond the limits of Switzerland. Geneva became the place of refuge for all who were exiled on account of their faith, and the university founded there by Calvin furnished almost all Reformed churches with teachers, who were moulded after a strict Calvinistic pattern. Bern, not uninfluenced by political jealousies, showed most reluctance in adopting the Calvinistic doctrine. Zürich was more compliant. After Zwingli’s death, =Henry Bullinger= stood at the head of the Zürich clergy. With him Calvin entered into doctrinal negotiations, and succeeded in at last bringing him over to his views of the Lord’s Supper. In the Consensus Tigurinus of A.D. 1549, drawn up by Calvin, a union was brought about on a Calvinistic basis; but Bern, where the Zwinglians contending with the Lutheranised friends of Calvin had the majority, refused subscription. The Consensus pastorum Genevensium, of A.D. 1554, called forth by the conflict with Bolsec, in which the predestination doctrine of Calvin had similar prominence, not only Bern, but also Zürich refused to accept. Yet these two confessions gradually rose in repute throughout German Switzerland. Even Bullinger’s personal objection to the predestination doctrine was more and more overcome from A.D. 1556 by the influence of his colleague Peter Martyr (§ 139, 24), though he never accepted the Calvinistic system in all its severity and harshness. When even the Elector-palatine Frederick III. (§ 144, 1) wished to lay a justificatory confession before the Diet of Augsburg in A.D. 1566, which threatened to exclude him from the peace on account of his going over to the Reformed church, Bullinger, who was entrusted with its composition, sent him, as an appendix to the testament he had composed, a confession, which came to be known as the Confessio Helvetica posterior (§ 133, 8). This confession, not only obtained recognition in all the Swiss cantons, with the exception of Basel, which likewise after eighty years adopted it, but also gained great consideration in the Reformed churches of other lands. Its doctrine of the sacraments is Calvinistic, with not unimportant leanings toward the Zwinglian theory. Its doctrine of predestination is Calvinism, very considerably modified.

§ 138.8. =Calvin’s Successor in Geneva.=--=Theodore Beza= was from A.D. 1559 Calvin’s most zealous fellow labourer, and after his death succeeded him in his offices. He soon came to be regarded at home and abroad with something of the same reverence which his great master had won. He died in A.D. 1605. Born in A.D. 1519 of an old noble family at Vezelay in Burgundy, he was sent for his education in his ninth year to the humanist Melchior Wolmar of Orleans, and accompanied his teacher when he accepted a call to the Academy of Bourges, until in A.D. 1534 Wolmar was obliged to return to his Swabian home to escape persecution as a friend and promoter of the Reformation. Beza now applied himself to the study of law at the University of Orleans, and obtained the rank of a licentiate in A.D. 1539. He then spent several years in Paris as a man of the world, where he gained the reputation of a poet and wit, and wasted a considerable patrimony in a loose and reckless life. A secret marriage with a young woman of the city in humble circumstances, in A.D. 1544, put an end to his extravagances, and a serious illness gave a religious direction to his moral change. He had made the acquaintance of Calvin at Bourges, and in A.D. 1543 he went to Geneva, was publicly married, and in the following year received, on Viret’s recommendation, the professorship of Greek at Lausanne. Thoroughly in sympathy with all Calvin’s views, he supported his doctrine of predestination against the attacks of Bolsec, justified the execution of Servetus in his tract De hæreticis a civili magistratu puniendis, zealously befriended the persecuted Waldensians, along with Farel made court to the German Protestant princes in order to secure their intercession for the French Huguenots, and negotiated with the South German theologians for a union in regard to the doctrine of the supper. In A.D. 1558 Calvin called him to Geneva as a preacher and professor of theology in the academy erected there. In A.D. 1559 he vindicated Calvin’s doctrine of the supper against Westphal’s attacks (§ 141, 10) in pretty moderate language; but in A.D. 1560 he thundered forth two violent polemical dialogues against Hesshus (§ 144, 1). The next two years he spent in France (§ 139, 14) as theological defender and advocate of the Huguenots. After Calvin’s death the whole burden of the government of the Genevan church fell upon his shoulders, and for forty years the Reformed churches of all lands looked with confidence to him as their well-tried patriarch. Next to the church of Geneva, that of his native land lay nearest to his heart. Repeatedly we find him called to France to direct the meetings of synod. But scarcely less lively was the interest which he took in the controversies of the German Reformed with their Lutheran opponents. At the Religious Conference of Mömpelgard, which the Lutheran Count Frederick of Württemberg called in A.D. 1586, to make terms if possible whereby the Calvinistic refugees might have the communion together with their Lutheran brethren, Beza himself in person took the field in defence of the palladium of Calvinistic orthodoxy against Andreä, whose theory of ubiquity (§ 141, 9, 10) he had already contested in his writings. Very near the close of his life the Catholic Church, through its experienced converter of heretics, Francis de Sales (§ 156, 1), made a vain attempt to win him back to the Church in which alone is salvation. To a foolish report that this effort had been successful Beza himself answered in a satirical poem full of all his youthful fire.[373]

§ 139. THE REFORMATION IN OTHER LANDS.

The need of reform was so great and widespread, that the movement begun in Germany and Switzerland soon spread to every country in Europe. The Catholic Church opposed the Reformation everywhere with fire and sword, and succeeded in some countries in utterly suppressing it; while in others it was restricted within the limits of a merely tolerated sect. The German Lutheran Confession found acceptance generally among the Scandinavians of the north of Europe, the Swiss Reformed among the Romanic races of the south and west; while in the east, among the Slavs and Magyars, both confessions were received. Calvin’s powerful personal influence had done much to drive the Lutheran Confession out of those Romance countries where it had before obtained a footing. The presence of many refugees from the various western lands for a time in Switzerland, as well as the natural intercourse between it and such countries as Italy and France, contributed to the same result. But deeper grounds than these are required to account for this fact. On the one hand, the Romance people are inclined to extremes, and they found more thorough satisfaction in the radical reformation of Geneva than in the more moderate reformation of Wittenberg; and, on the other hand, they have a love for democratic and republican forms of government which the former, but not the latter, gratified.--Outside of the limits of the German empire the Lutheran Reformation first took root, from A.D. 1525, in Prussia, the seat of the Teutonic Knights (§ 127, 3); then in the Scandinavian countries. In Sweden it gained ascendency in A.D. 1527, and in Denmark and Norway in A.D. 1537. Also in the Baltic Provinces the Reformation had found entrance in A.D. 1520; by A.D. 1539 it had overcome all opposition in Livonia and Esthonia, but in Courland it took other ten years before it was thoroughly organized. The Reformed church got almost exclusive possession of England in A.D. 1562, of Scotland in A.D. 1560, and of the Netherlands in A.D. 1579. The Reformed Confession obtained mere toleration in France in A.D. 1598; the Reformed alongside of the Lutheran gained a footing in Poland in A.D. 1573, in Bohemia and Moravia in A.D. 1609, in Hungary in A.D. 1606, and in Transylvania in A.D. 1557. Only in Spain and Italy did the Catholic Church succeed in utterly crushing the Reformation. Some attempts to interest the Greek church in the Lutheran Confession were unsuccessful, but the remnants of the Waldensians were completely won over to the Reformed Confession.

§ 139.1. =Sweden.=--For fifty years Sweden had been free from the Danish yoke which had been imposed upon it by the Calmar union of A.D. 1397. The higher clergy, who possessed two-thirds of the land, had continuously conspired in favour of Denmark. The Archbishop of Upsala, Gustavus Trolle, fell out with the chancellor, Sten Sture, and was deposed. Pope Leo X. pronounced the ban and interdict against Sweden. Christian II. of Denmark conquered the country in A.D. 1520, and in the frightful massacre of Stockholm during the coronation festivities, in spite of his sworn assurances, 600 of the noblest in the land, marked out by the archbishop as enemies of Denmark, were slain. But scarcely had Christian reached home when =Gustavus Vasa= landed from Lübeck, whither he had fled, drove out the Danes, and was elected king, A.D. 1523. In his exile he had become favourably inclined to the Reformation, and now he joined the Protestants to have their help against the opposing clergy. =Olaf Peterson=, who had studied from A.D. 1516 in Wittenberg, soon after his return home, in A.D. 1519, began as deacon in Strengnæs, along with =Lawrence Anderson=, afterwards administrator of the diocese of Strengnæs, to spread the reformed doctrines. Subsequently they were joined by Olaf’s younger brother, =Laurence Peterson=. During the king’s absence in A.D. 1524, two Anabaptists visited Stockholm, and even the calm-minded Olaf was for a time carried away by them. The king quickly suppressed the disturbances, and entered heartily upon the work of reformation. Anderson, appointed chancellor by Vasa, in A.D. 1526 translated the N.T., and Olaf with the help of his learned brother undertook the O.T. The people, however, still clung to the old faith, till at the Diet of =Westnæs=, in A.D. 1527, the king set before them the alternative of accepting his resignation or the Reformation. The people’s love for their king overcame all clerical opposition. Church property was used to supply revenues to kings and nobles, and to provide salaries for pastors who should preach the gospel in its purity. The Reformation was peacefully introduced into all parts of the land, and the diets at Örebro, in A.D. 1529, 1537, and at Westnæs, in A.D. 1544, carried out the work to completion. The new organization adopted the episcopal constitution, and also in worship, by connivance of the people, many Catholic ceremonies were allowed to remain. Most of the bishops accepted the inevitable. The Archbishop Magnus of Upsala, papal legate, went to Poland, and Bishop Brask of Linköping fled with all the treasures of his church to Danzig. Laurence Peterson was made in A.D. 1531 first evangelical Archbishop of Upsala, and married a relative of the royal house. But his brother Olaf fell into disfavour on account of his protest against the king’s real or supposed acts of rapacity. He and Anderson, because they had failed to report a conspiracy which came to their knowledge in the confessional, were condemned to death, but were pardoned by the king. Gustavus died in A.D. 1560. Under his son Eric a Catholic reaction set in, and his brother John III., in A.D. 1578, made secret confession of Catholicism to the Jesuit Possevin, urged thereto by his Catholic queen and the prospect of the Polish throne. John’s son Sigismund, also king of Poland, openly joined the Romish Church. But his uncle Charles of Sodermanland, a zealous Protestant, as governor after John’s death, called together the nobles at Upsala in A.D. 1593, when the Latin mass-book introduced by John was forbidden, and the acknowledgment of the Augsburg Confession was renewed. But as Sigismund continued to favour Catholicism, the peers of the realm declared, in A.D. 1604, that he had forfeited the throne, which his uncle now ascended as Charles IX.--The Reformation had been already carried from Sweden into =Finland=.[374]

§ 139.2. =Denmark and Norway.=--=Christian II.=, nephew of the Elector of Saxony and brother-in-law of the Emperor Charles V., although he had associated himself with the Romish hierarchy in Sweden for the overthrow of the national party, had in Denmark taken the side of the Reformation against the clergy, who were there supreme. In A.D. 1521 he succeeded in getting Carlstadt to come to his assistance, but he was soon forced to quit the country. In A.D. 1523 the clergy and nobles formally renounced their allegiance, and gave the crown to his uncle =Frederick I.=, Duke of Schleswig and Holstein. Christian fled to Saxony, was there completely won over to the Reformation by Luther, converted also his wife, the emperor’s sister, and had the first Danish N.T., by Hans Michelson, printed at Leipzig and circulated in Denmark. To secure the emperor’s aid, however, he abjured the evangelical faith at Augsburg in A.D. 1530. In the following year he conquered Norway, and bound himself on his coronation to maintain the Catholic religion. But in A.D. 1532 he was obliged to surrender to Frederick, and spent the remaining twenty-seven years of his life in prison, where he repented his apostasy, and had the opportunity of instructing himself by the study of the Danish Bible.--Frederick I. had been previously favourable to the Reformation, yet his hands were bound by the express terms of his election. His son Christian III. unreservedly introduced the Reformation into his duchies. In this he was encouraged by his father. In A.D. 1526 he openly professed the evangelical faith, and invited the Danish reformer =Hans Tausen=, a disciple of Luther, who had preached the gospel amid much persecution since A.D. 1524, to settle as preacher in Copenhagen. At a diet at Odensee [Odense] in A.D. 1527 he restricted episcopal jurisdiction, proclaimed universal religious toleration, gave priests liberty to marry and to leave their cloisters, and thus laid the foundations of the Reformation. Tausen in A.D. 1530 submitted to the nobles his own confession, Confessio Hafinca, and the Reformation rapidly advanced. Frederick died in A.D. 1533. The bishops now rose in a body, and insisted that the estates should refuse to acknowledge his son =Christian III.= But when the burgomaster of Lübeck, taking advantage of the anarchy, plotted to subject Denmark to the proud commercial city, and in A.D. 1534 actually laid siege to Copenhagen, the Jutland nobles hastened to swear fealty to Christian. He drove out the Lübeckers, and by A.D. 1536 had possession of the whole land. He resolved now to put an end for ever to the machinations of the clergy. In August, A.D. 1536, he had all bishops imprisoned in one day, and at a diet at Copenhagen had them formally deposed. Their property fell into the royal exchequer, all monasteries were secularized, some presented to the nobles, some converted into hospitals and schools. In order to complete the organization of the church Bugenhagen was called in in A.D. 1537. He crowned the king and queen, sketched a directory of worship, which was adopted at the =Diet of Odensee [Odense]= in A.D. 1539, and returned to Wittenberg in A.D. 1542. In place of bishops Lutheran superintendents were appointed, to whom subsequently the title of bishop was given, and the Augsburg Confession accepted as the standard. The Reformation was contemporaneously introduced into =Norway=, which acknowledged the king in A.D. 1536. The Archbishop of Drontheim, Olaf Engelbrechtzen, fled with the church treasures to the Netherlands. =Iceland= stood out longer, but yielded in A.D. 1551, when the power of the rebel bishops was broken.[375]

§ 139.3. =Courland, Livonia, and Esthonia.=--Livonia had seceded from the dominion of the Teutonic knights in A.D. 1521, and under the grand-master Walter of Plattenburg assumed the position of an independent principality. In that same year a Lutheran archdeacon, =Andr. Knöpken=, expelled from Pomerania, came to Riga, and preached the gospel with moderation. Soon after Tegetmaier came from Rostock, and so vigorously denounced image worship that excited mobs entered the churches and tore down the images; yet he was protected by the council and the grand-master. The third reformer =Briesmann= was the immediate scholar of Luther. The able town clerk of Riga, Lohmüller, heartily wrought with them, and the Reformation spread through city and country. At Wolmar and Dorpat, in A.D. 1524, the work was carried on by Melchior Hoffmann, whose Lutheranism was seriously tinged with Anabaptist extravagances (§ 147, 1). The diocese of Oesel adopted the reformed doctrines, and at the same time a Lutheran church was formed in Reval. After strong opposition had been offered, at last, in A.D. 1538, Riga accepted the evangelical confession, joined the Schmalcald League, and in a short time all Livonia and Esthonia accepted the Augsburg Confession. Political troubles, occasioned mainly by Russia, obliged the last grand-master, =Kettler=, in A.D. 1561 to surrender Livonia to Sigismund Augustus of Poland, but with the formal assurance that the rights of the evangelicals should be preserved. He himself retained Courland as an hereditary duchy under the suzerainty of Poland, and gave himself unweariedly to the evangelical organization of his country, powerfully assisted by Bülau, first superintendent of Courland.--The Lutheran church of Livonia had in consequence to pass through severe trials. Under Polish protection a Jesuit college was established in Riga in A.D. 1584. Two city churches had to be given over to the Catholics, and Possevin conducted an active Catholic propaganda, which was ended only when Livonia, in A.D. 1629, as also Esthonia somewhat earlier, came under the rule of Sweden. In consequence of the Norse war both countries were incorporated into the Russian empire, and by the Peace of Nystadt, of A.D. 1721, its Lutheran church retained all its privileges, on condition that it did not interfere in any way with the Greek Orthodox Church in the province. In A.D. 1795 Courland also came under Russian sway, and all these are now known as the Baltic Provinces.

§ 139.4. =England.=[376]--=Henry VIII.=, A.D. 1509-1547, after the literary feud with Luther (§ 125, 3), sought to justify his title, “Defender of the Faith,” by the use of sword and gibbet. Luther’s writings were eagerly read in England, where in many circles Wiclif’s movements were regarded with favour, and two noble Englishmen, John Fryth and William Tyndal, gave to their native land a translation of the N.T. in A.D. 1526. Fryth was rewarded with the stake in A.D. 1533, and Tyndal was beheaded in the Netherlands in A.D. 1535.[377] But meanwhile the king quarrelled with the pope. On assuming the government he had married Catharine of Arragon, daughter of Ferdinand the Catholic and Isabella, six years older than himself, the widow of his brother Arthur, who had died in his 16th year, for which he got a papal dispensation on the ground that the former marriage had not been consummated. His adulterous love for Anne Boleyn, the fair maid of honour to his queen, and Cranmer’s biblical opinion (Lev. xviii. 16; xx. 21) convinced him in A.D. 1527 of the sinfulness of his uncanonical marriage. Clement VII., at first not indisposed to grant his request for a divorce, refused after he had been reconciled to the emperor, Catharine’s nephew (§ 132, 2). Thoroughly roused, the king now threw off the authority of the pope. Convocation was forced to recognise him in A.D. 1531 as head of the English Church, and in 1532 Parliament forbade the paying of annats to the pope. In the same year Henry married Anne, and had a formal divorce from Catharine granted by a spiritual court. Parliament in A.D. 1534 formally abolished papal jurisdiction in the land, and transferred all ecclesiastical rights and revenues to the king. The venerable Bishop Fisher of Rochester and the resolute chancellor, Sir Thomas More (§ 120, 7), in A.D. 1535 paid the price of their opposition on the scaffold. Now came the long threatened ban. Under pretext of a highly necessary reform no less than 376 monasteries were closed during the years 1536-1538, their occupiers, monks and nuns, expelled, and their rich property confiscated.[378] Nevertheless in doctrine the king wished to remain a good Catholic, and for this end passed in the Parliament of A.D. 1539 the law of the Six Articles, which made any contradiction of the doctrines of transubstantiation, the withholding of the cup, celibacy of the clergy, the mass, and auricular confession, a capital offence. Persecution raged equally against Lutherans and Papists, sometimes more against the one, sometimes more against the other, according as he was moved by his own caprice, or the influence of his wives and favourites of the day. On the one side, at the head of the Papists, stood Gardiner, Bishop of Winchester, and Bonner, Bishop of London; and on the other, Thomas Cranmer, whom the king had raised in A.D. 1533 to the see of Canterbury, in order to carry out his reforms in the ecclesiastical constitution. But Cranmer, who as the king’s agent in the divorce negotiations had often treated with foreign Protestant theologians, and at Nuremberg had secretly married Osiander’s niece, was in heart a zealous adherent of the Swiss Reformation, and furthered as far as he could with safety its introduction into England. Among other things, he secured the introduction in A.D. 1539, into all the churches of England, of an English translation of the Bible, revised by himself. He was supported in his efforts by the king’s second wife, Anne Boleyn; but she, having fallen under suspicion of unfaithfulness, was executed in A.D. 1536. The third wife, Jane Seymour, died in A.D. 1537 on the death of a son. The fourth, Anne of Cleves, was after six months, in A.D. 1540, cast aside, and the promoter of the marriage, the chancellor, Thomas Cromwell, was brought to the scaffold. The king now in the same year married Catharine Howard, with whom the Catholic party got to the helm again, and had the Act of the Six Articles rigorously enforced. But she, too, in A.D. 1543, was charged with repeated adulteries, and fell, together with her friends and those reputed as guilty with her, under the executioner’s axe. The sixth wife, Catharine Parr, who again favoured the Protestants, escaped a like fate by the death of the tyrant.[379]

§ 139.5. =Edward VI.=, A.D. 1547-1553, son of Henry VIII. and Jane Seymour, succeeded his father in his tenth year. At the head of the regency stood his mother’s brother, the Duke of Somerset. =Cranmer= had now a free hand. Private masses and image worship were forbidden, the supper was administered in both kinds, marriage of priests was made legitimate, and a general church visitation appointed for the introduction of the Reformation. Gardiner and Bonner, who opposed these changes, were sent to the Tower. Somerset corresponded with Calvin, and invited at Cranmer’s request distinguished foreign theologians to help in the visitation of the churches. Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius from Strassburg came to Cambridge, and Peter Martyr to Oxford.[380] Bernardino Ochino was preacher to a congregation of Italian refugees in London. A commission under Cranmer’s presidency drew up for reading in the churches a collection of Homilies, for the instruction of the young a Catechism, and for the service a liturgy mediate between the Catholic and Protestant form, the so-called Book of Common Prayer of A.D. 1549; but from the second edition of which were left out chrism and exorcism, auricular confession, anointing the sick, and prayer for the dead. Then followed, in A.D. 1553, a confession of faith, consisting of forty-two articles, drawn up by Cranmer and Bishop Ridley of Rochester, which was distinctly of the reformed type, and set forward the ecclesiastical supremacy of the king as an article of faith. The young king, who supported the Reformation with all his heart, died in A.D. 1553, after nominating as his successor Jane Grey, the grand-daughter of a sister of his father. Not she, however, but a fanatical Catholic, =Mary=, A.D. 1553-1558, daughter of Henry VIII. and Catharine of Spain, actually ascended the throne. The compliant Parliament now abrogated all the ecclesiastical laws of Edward VI., which it had itself sanctioned, reverted to Henry’s law of the Six Articles, and entrusted Gardiner as chancellor with its execution. The Protestant leaders were thrown into the Tower, the bones of Bucer and Fagius were publicly burnt, married priests with wives and children were driven in thousands from the land. In the following year, A.D. 1554, Cardinal Reginald Pole, who had fled during Henry’s reign, returned as papal legate, absolved the repentant Parliament, and received all England back again into the fold of the Romish church.[381] The noble and innocent Lady Jane Grey, only in her sixteenth year, though she had voluntarily and cheerfully resigned the crown, was put to death with her husband and father. In the course of the next year, A.D. 1555, Bishops Ridley, Latimer, Ferrar, and Hooper with noble constancy endured death at the stake.[382] In prison, Cranmer had renounced his evangelical faith, but abundantly atoned for this weakness by the heroic firmness with which he retracted his retractation, and held the hand which had subscribed it in the flames, that it might be first consumed. He suffered in A.D. 1556.--The queen had married in A.D. 1554 Philip II. of Spain, eleven years her junior, and when in A.D. 1555 he returned to Spain, she fell into deep melancholy, and under its pressure her hatred of Protestantism was shown in the most bloody and cruel deeds. A heretic tribunal, after the fashion of the Spanish Inquisition, was created, which under the presidency of the “Bloody Bonner,” consigned to the flames crowds of confessors of the gospel, clergymen and laymen, men and women, old and young. After the persecution had raged for five years, “Bloody Mary” died of heart-break and dropsy.[383]

§ 139.6. =Elizabeth=, A.D. 1558-1603, the daughter of Anne Boleyn, though previously branded by the Parliament as a bastard, now ascended the throne unopposed as the last living member of the family of Henry VIII. Educated under the supervision of Cranmer in the Protestant faith of her mother, she had been obliged during the reign of her sister outwardly to conform to the Romish church. She proceeded with great prudence and moderation; but when Paul IV. pronounced her illegitimate, and the Scottish princess Mary Stuart, grand-daughter of Henry’s sister, assumed the title of queen of England, Elizabeth more heartily espoused the cause of Protestantism. In A.D. 1559 the Parliament passed the Act of Uniformity, which reasserted the royal supremacy over the national church, prescribed a revision of the Book of Common Prayer, which set aside the prayer for deliverance from the “detestable enormities” of the papacy, etc., and practically reproduced the earlier, less perfect of the Prayer Books of Edward VI., while every perversion to papacy was threatened with confiscation of goods, imprisonment, banishment, and in cases of repetition with death, as an act of treason. At the head of the clergy was Matthew Parker, consecrated Archbishop of Canterbury by some bishops exiled under Mary. He had formerly been chaplain to Anne Boleyn. Under his direction Cranmer’s forty-two articles were reduced to thirty-nine, giving a type of doctrine midway between Lutheranism and Calvinism; these were confirmed by convocation in A.D. 1562, and were adopted as a fundamental statute of England by Act of Parliament in A.D. 1571. This brings to a close the first stage in the history of the English Reformation,--the setting up by law of the Anglican State Church with episcopal constitution, with apostolical succession, under royal supremacy, as the Established Church.[384] (For the Puritan opposition to it see § 143, 3.) The somewhat indulgent manner in which the Act of Uniformity was at first enforced against the Catholics encouraged them more and more in attempts to secure a restoration. Even in A.D. 1568 William Allen founded at Douay a seminary to train Catholic Englishmen for a mission at home, and Gregory XIII. some years later, for a similar purpose, founded in Rome the “English College.” His predecessor, Pius V., had in A.D. 1570 deposed and issued the ban against the queen, and threatened all with the greater excommunication who should yield her obedience. Parliament now punished every withdrawal from the State church as high treason. Day and night houses were searched, and suspected persons inquisitorially examined by torture, and if found guilty they were not infrequently put to death as traitors.[385]--Continuation, §§ 153, 6; 154, 3.

§ 139.7. =Ireland.=--Hadrian IV., himself an Englishman (§ 96, 14), on the plea that the donation of Constantine (§ 87, 4) embraced also the “islands,” gave over Ireland to King Henry II. as a papal fief in A.D. 1154. Yet the king only managed to conquer the eastern border, the Pale, during the years 1171-1175. Henry VIII. introduced the Reformation into this province in A.D. 1535, by the help of his Archbishop of Dublin, George Brown. The ecclesiastical supremacy of the Crown was proclaimed, monasteries closed and their property impropriated, partly divided among Irish and English peers. But in matters of faith there was little change. More opposition was shown to the sweeping reformation of faith and worship of Edward VI. The bishops, Brown included, resisted, and the inferior clergy, who now were required to read the Book of Common Prayer in a language to most of them strange, diligently fostered the popular attachment to the old faith. The ascension of Queen Mary therefore was welcomed in Ireland, while Elizabeth’s attempt to reintroduce the Reformation met with opposition. Repeated outbreaks, in which also the people of the western districts took part, ended in A.D. 1601 in the complete subjugation of the whole island. By wholesale confiscation of estates the entire nobility was impoverished and the church property was made over to the Anglican clergy; but the masses of the Irish people continued Catholic, and willingly supported their priests out of their own scanty resources.[386]--Continuation, § 153, 6.

§ 139.8. =Scotland.=--Patrick Hamilton, who had studied in Wittenberg and Marburg, first preached the gospel in Scotland, and died at the stake in his twenty-fourth year in A.D. 1528.[387] Amid the political confusions of the regency during the minority of James V., A.D. 1513-1542, a sister’s son of Henry VIII. of England, the Reformation obtained firm root among the nobles, who hated the clergy, and among the oppressed people, notwithstanding that the bishops, with David Beaton, Archbishop of St. Andrew’s at their head, sought to crush it by the most violent persecution. When Henry VIII. called on his nephew to assist him in his Reformation work, James refused, and yielding to Beaton’s advice formed an alliance with France and married Mary of Guise. This occasioned a war in A.D. 1540, the disastrous issue of which led to the king’s death of a broken heart. According to the king’s will Beaton was to undertake the regency, for Mary Stuart was only seven days old. But the nobles transferred it to the Protestant Earl of Arran, who imprisoned Beaton and had the royal child affianced to Henry’s son Edward. Beaton escaped, by connivance of the queen-mother got possession of the child, and compelled the weak regent, in A.D. 1543, to abjure the English alliance. The persecution of the Protestants by fire and sword now began afresh. After many others had fallen victims to his persecuting rage, Beaton had a famous Protestant preacher, George Wishart, burnt before his eyes; but was soon after, in A.D. 1546, surprised in his castle and slain. When in A.D. 1548 Somerset, the English regent after Henry’s death, sought to renew negotiations about the marriage of Mary, now five years old, with Edward VI., her mother had her taken for safety to France, where she was educated in a convent and affianced to the dauphin, afterwards Francis II. By hypocritical acts she contrived to have the regency transferred in A.D. 1554 from Arran to herself. For two years the Reformation progressed without much opposition. In December, A.D. 1557, its most devoted promoters made a “covenant,” pledging themselves in life and death to advance the word of God and uproot the idolatry of the Romish church. The queen-regent, however, after the marriage of her daughter with the dauphin in A.D. 1558, felt herself strong enough to defy the Protestant nobles. The old strict laws against heretics were renewed, and a tribunal established for the punishment of apostatizing priests. The last victim of the persecution was Walter Mill, a priest eighty-two years old, who died at the stake at Perth (?) in A.D. 1559.[388] The country now rose in open revolt. The regent was thus obliged to make proclamation of universal religious toleration. But instead of keeping her promise to have all French troops withdrawn, their number was actually increased after Francis II. ascended the French throne. Elizabeth, too, was indignant at the assumption by the French king and queen of the English royal title, so that she aided the insurgents with an army and a fleet. During the victorious progress of the English the regent died, in A.D. 1560. The French were obliged to withdraw, and the victory of the Scotch Protestants was decisive.

§ 139.9. There was one man, whose unbending opposition to the constitution, worship, doctrine, and discipline of the Church of Rome, manifested with a rigid determination that has scarcely ever been equalled, left its indelible impress upon the Scottish Reformation. =John Knox=, born in A.D. 1505, was by the study of Augustine and the Bible led to adopt evangelical views, which in A.D. 1542 he preached in the south of Scotland. Persecuted in consequence by Archbishop Beaton, he joined the conspirators after that prelate’s assassination, in A.D. 1546, was taken prisoner, and in A.D. 1547 served as slave in the French galleys. The ill treatment he thus endured developed his naturally strong and resolute character and that fearlessness which so characterized all his subsequent life. By English mediation he was set free in A.D. 1549, and became in A.D. 1551 chaplain to Edward VI., but took offence at the popish leaven allowed to remain in the English Reformation, and consequently declined an offered bishopric. When the Catholic Mary ascended the throne in A.D. 1553, he fled to Geneva, where he enjoyed the closest intimacy with Calvin, whose doctrine of predestination, rigid presbyterianism, and rigorous discipline he thoroughly approved. After presiding for some time over a congregation of English refugees at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, he returned in A.D. 1555 to Scotland, but in the following year accepted a call to the church of English refugees at Geneva that had meanwhile been formed. The Scottish bishops, who had not ventured to touch him while present, condemned him to death after his departure, and burned him in effigy. But Knox kept up a lively correspondence with his native land by letters, proclamations, and controversial tracts, and with the help of several friends translated the Scriptures into English. In A.D. 1558 he published with the title, “The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regiment of Women,” the most violent of all his controversial works, directed mainly against the English Queen Mary, who was now dead. It roused against him the unconquerable dislike of her successor, and increased the hatred of the other two Maries against him to the utmost pitch. Yet he accepted the call of the Protestant lords, and returned next year to Scotland, and was the heart and soul of the revolution that soon thereafter broke out. Images and mass-books were burnt, altars in churches broken in pieces, and 150 monasteries were destroyed; for said Knox, “If the nests be pulled down, the crows will not come back.” After the death of the regent in A.D. 1560, the Parliament proclaimed the abolition of the papacy, ratified the strictly Calvinistic Confessio Scotica, and forbade celebrating the mass on pain of death. Then in December, the first General Assembly prescribed, in the “First Book of Discipline,” a strictly presbyterial constitution under Christ as only head, with a rigidly puritan order of worship (§ 163, 3).

§ 139.10. In Aug., A.D. 1561, Queen =Mary Stuart=, highly cultured and high-spirited, returned from France to Scotland, a young widow in her 19th year. Brought up in a French convent in fanatical attachment to the Romish Church, and at the French court, with absolutist ideas as well as easy-going morals, the severe Calvinism and moral strictness of Scottish Puritanism were to her as distasteful as its assertion of political independence. At the instigation of her half-brother James Stuart, whom she raised to the earldom of Moray, and who was head of the ministry as one of the leaders of the reformed party, she promised on her arrival not to interfere with the ecclesiastical arrangements of the country, but refused to give royal sanction to the proceedings of A.D. 1560, held Catholic service in her court chapel, and on all hands favoured the Romanists. By her marriage, in A.D. 1565, with the young Catholic Lord Darnley, grandson by a second marriage of her grandmother Margaret of England, who now assumed the title of king, Moray was driven from his position, and the restoration of Catholicism was vigorously and openly prosecuted by negotiations with Spain, France, and the pope. The director of all those intrigues was the Italian musician David Rizzio, who came to the country as papal agent, and had become Mary’s favourite and private secretary. The rudeness and profligacy of the young king had soon estranged from him the heart of the queen. He therefore took part in a conspiracy of the Protestant lords, promising to go over to their faith. Their first victim was the hated Rizzio. He was fallen upon and slain on 9th March, A.D. 1566, while he sat beside the queen, already far advanced in pregnancy. Darnley soon repented his deed, was reconciled to the queen, fled with her to the Castle of Dunbar, and an army gathered by the Protestant Earl of Bothwell soon suppressed the rising. The rebels and assassins were at Mary’s entreaty almost all pardoned. Darnley, now living in mortal enmity with the heads of the Protestant nobility, and again on bad terms with the queen, fell sick in Dec., A.D. 1566, at Glasgow. On his sick-bed a reconciliation with his wife was effected, and apparently in order that she might the better nurse him, he was brought to a villa near Edinburgh. But on the night of 9th Feb., A.D. 1567, while Mary was present at the marriage of a servant, the house with its inhabitants was blown up by an explosion of gunpowder. Public opinion charged Bothwell and the queen with contriving the horrible crime. Bothwell was tried, but acquitted by the lords. Suspicion increased when soon after Bothwell carried off the queen to his castle, and married her on 15th May. In the civil war that now broke out Mary was taken prisoner, and on 24th July obliged to abdicate in favour of her one-year old son James VI., for whom Mary undertook the regency. Bothwell fled to Denmark, where he died in misery and want; but Mary was allowed to escape from prison by the young George Douglas. He also raised on her behalf a small army, which, however, in May, A.D. 1568, was completely destroyed by Moray at the village of Langside. The unhappy queen could now only seek protection with her deadly enemy Elizabeth of England, who, after twenty years’ imprisonment, sent her to the scaffold in A.D. 1587, on the plea that she was guilty of murdering her own husband and of high treason in plotting the death of the English queen.--Mary’s guilt would be conclusively established, if a correspondence with Bothwell, said to have been found in her desk, should be accepted as genuine. But all her apologists, with apparently strong conviction, have sought to prove that these letters are fabrications of her enemies. The thorough investigation given to original documents, however, by Bresslau [Breslau], has resulted in recognising only the second of these as a forgery, and so proving, not indeed Mary’s complicity in the murder of her husband, but her adulterous love for Bothwell, and showing too that her apparent reconciliation with Darnley on his sick-bed was only hypocritical.[389]

§ 139.11. The young queen had at first sought to win by her fair speeches the bold and influential reformer =John Knox=, who was then preacher in Edinburgh. But his heart was cased in sevenfold armour against all her flatteries, as afterwards against her threats; even her tears found him as stern and cold as her wrath. When he called an assembly of nobles to put a stop to the Catholic worship introduced by her at court, he was charged with high treason, but acquitted by the lords. The marriage with Darnley and all that followed from this unhappy union only increased his boldness. He publicly preached without reserve against the papacy and the light carriage of the queen, on the outbreak of the civil war urged her deposition, and demanded her execution for adultery and the murder of her husband. The assassination of Regent Moray in A.D. 1570 threw the country into further confusion, which was only overcome by his third successor, Morton. The fugitive Knox now returned to Edinburgh, and soon after died, on 24th Nov., A.D. 1572. Of his extant writings the most important is his “History of the Reformation,” reaching down to A.D. 1567. Morton’s vigorous government completely destroyed Mary’s party, but also restricted the pretensions of Presbyterianism. After his overthrow in A.D. 1578, =James VI.=, now in his 12th year, himself undertook the government at the head of a council of state. His weakness of character showed itself in his vacillating between an alliance with Catholic Spain and one with Protestant England, as well as between secret favouring of Catholicism and open endeavouring to supersede puritan Presbyterianism by Anglican-Protestant episcopacy. In A.D. 1584 the parliament, enlarged by the introduction of the lower orders of the nobility, so defined the royal supremacy as to deprive the Presbyterian church of several of her rights and privileges. But in A.D. 1592 the king was obliged absolutely to restore these. After Elizabeth’s death in A.D. 1603, as the great-grandson of Henry VII., he united the kingdoms of England and Scotland under the title of James I.[390]--Continuation, § 153, 6.

§ 139.12. =The Netherlands.=--By the marriage of Mary of Burgundy, the heiress of Charles the Bald, with Maximilian I., in A.D. 1478, the Netherlands passed over to the house of Hapsburg, and after Maximilian’s death, in A.D. 1519, went to his grandson Charles V. Even in the previous period the ground was broken in these regions for the introduction of the Reformation of the 16th century by means of the Brothers of the Common Life (§ 112, 9) and the Dutch precursors of the Reformation (§ 119, 10), working as they did among an intrepid and liberty loving people. The writings of Luther were introduced at a very early date into Holland, and the first martyrs from the Lutheran Confession (§ 128, 1) were led to the stake at Antwerp, in A.D. 1523. The alliance with France and Switzerland, however, was the occasion of subsequently securing the triumph of the Reformed Confession (see § 160, 1). But fanatical Anabaptists soon followed in the wake of the reform movement, and sent forth their emissaries into Germany and Switzerland. As the emperor had here an authority as absolute as his heart could desire, he proceeded to execute unrelentingly the edict of Worms, and multitudes of witnesses for the gospel as well as fanatical sectaries were put to death by the sword and at the stake. Still more dreadful was the havoc committed by the Inquisition after Charles’ abdication, in A.D. 1555, under his son and successor =Philip II.= of Spain, which had for its aim the overthrow alike of ecclesiastical and political liberty. In order the more successfully to withstand the Reformation, the four original bishoprics were increased by the addition of fourteen new bishoprics, and three were raised into archbishoprics, Utrecht, Mechlin, and Cambray. But even these measures failed in securing the end desired, because the Dutch, even those who hitherto had remained faithful to the Romish Church, saw in them simply an instrument for advancing Spanish despotism.--In A.D. 1523 Luther’s translation of the N.T. had already been rendered into Dutch and printed at Amsterdam. In A.D. 1545 Jacob van Liesfield translated the whole Bible, and was for this sent to the scaffold in A.D. 1545. A Calvinistic symbol was set forth in A.D. 1562 in the Belgic Confession. The league formed by the nobles, in A.D. 1566, to offer resistance to the tyranny of the Spaniards, to which their oppressors gave the contemptuous designation of the Beggars--a name which they themselves adopted as a title of honour--increased in strength and importance from day to day, and the people, thirsting for revenge, tore down churches, images, and altars. The prudent regent, however, =Margaret of Parma=, Philip’s half-sister, would have been more successful in preventing an outburst of rebellion by her conciliatory manœuvres, had her brother given her greater freedom of action. Instead of doing so he sent to her aid, in A.D. 1587, the terrible =Duke of Alva=, with a standing army of 10,000 Spaniards. The “Bloody Council” instituted by him for stamping out the revolt now began its horrible proceedings, sending thousands upon thousands to the rack and the scaffold. The regent, protesting against such acts, demanded her recall, and Alva was put in her place. The bloody tribunal moved now from city to city; all the leading throughfares were covered with victims hanging from gibbets, and when Alva at last, in A.D. 1573, was at his own request recalled, he could boast of having carried out in six years 18,600 executions. Meanwhile the great =Prince of Orange, William the Silent=, formerly royal governor of the Dutch Provinces, but since A.D. 1568 a fugitive under the ban, had now openly signified his adhesion to Protestantism, and in 1572 placed himself at the head of the revolt. After gaining several victories by land and by sea, he succeeded, in the so called Pacification of Ghent, of A.D. 1576, in uniting almost all the provinces, Protestant and Catholic, under a resolution to exercise toleration to one another and show resistance to the common foe. The new governor, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma, managed indeed to detach the southern Catholic provinces from the league, but all the more closely did the seven northern provinces bind themselves together in the Union of Utrecht of A.D. 1579, promising to fight to the end for their religious and political liberty. William’s truest friend, counsellor, and director of his political actions, since the formation of the league of A.D. 1566, was =Philip van Marnix=, Count of St. Aldegonde. He had drawn up the articles of the league, and was equally celebrated as a statesman and soldier, and as theologian, satirist, orator, and poet. He was pre-eminently an ardent patriot, and an enthusiastic adherent of Calvin’s Reformation. He had been himself a pupil of the great Genevan. Besides a spirited material version of the Psalter, his chief satirico-theological work was “The Beehive of the Holy Roman Church,” written in the Flemish dialect.--After William’s assassination by the hand of a Catholic, in A.D. 1584, he was succeeded by his son =Maurice=, who after long years of bloody conflict succeeded, in A.D. 1609, in completely freeing his country from the Spanish yoke.[391]

§ 139.13. =France.=--The Reformation in France had its beginning from Wittenberg, but subsequently the Genevan reformers obtained a dominating influence. Even in A.D. 1521, the Sorbonne issued a Determinatio super doctr. Luth., pronouncing Luther’s teaching and writings heretical, which Melanchthon in the same year answered with unusual vigour in his Apologia adv. furiosum Parisiensium theologastrorum decretum. Everything depended upon the attitude which the young king =Francis I.=, A.D. 1515-1547, might assume in reference to the various religious parties. His love of humanist studies, now flourishing in France, whose zealous promoter and protector he was against the attacks of the scholastic Sorbonne (§ 120, 8), as well as the traditional policy of his family in ecclesiastical matters since the time of St. Louis (§ 96, 21), seemed to favour the hope that he would not prove altogether hostile to the ideas of the Reformation. But even as early as A.D. 1516 he had, in his concordat with the pope (§ 110, 14), surrendered the acquisitions of the Basel Council by the revocation of the Pragmatic Sanction of Charles VII., and in this way, by the right given him to nominate all the bishops and abbots, he obtained a power over all the clergy of his realm which was too much in accordance with his dynastic ideas to allow of his sacrificing it in favour of the Lutheran autonomy in the management of the church, let alone the yet more radical demands of the Calvinistic constitution. Even in his antagonism to the emperor (§§ 126, 5, 6; 133, 7), which led him to befriend in a very decided manner the German Protestants, his interests crossed one another, inasmuch as he required to retain the goodwill of the pope. Suppression of Protestantism in his own land and the fostering of it in Germany were thus the aims of his crooked policy. He did indeed for a time entertain the idea of introducing a moderate Reformation into France after the Erasmian model, in order to secure closer attachment to and union with German Protestantism. He entered into negotiations with Philip the Magnanimous, and had Melanchthon invited in A.D. 1535 to attend a conference on these matters in France. Melanchthon was not indisposed to go, but was interdicted by his prince the elector, who feared lest he might make too great concessions. And just about this time fanatically violent pamphlets and placards were published, which were even thrown into the royal apartments, and thus the anger of the king was roused to the utmost pitch. The persecutions, which, from A.D. 1524, had already brought many isolated witnesses to the scaffold and the stake, now assumed a systematic and general character. In A.D. 1535, an Inquisition tribunal was set up, with members nominated by the pope, and as supplementary thereto there was instituted in the Parliament of Paris the so-called chambre ardente: the former drew up the process against the heretics, the latter pronounced and executed the sentence. Thousands of heroic confessors died under torture, on the gallows, by sword, or by fire. Under =Henry II.=, A.D. 1547-1559, who continued his father’s crooked policy, the chambre ardente became more and more active, and the cruelty of the persecution increased. Among the sworn foes of the Reformation, Diana of Poitiers, an old love of his father’s, had for a time the greatest influence over the king. He raised her to the rank of duchess. With diabolic satisfaction she gloated upon the spectacle of autos-de-fé carried out at her request, and enriched herself with the confiscated goods of the victims. Side by side with her, inspired by a like hate of Protestantism, stood the great marshal and all-powerful minister of state, the Constable Montmorency. These two were further backed up by all the influence of the powerful ducal family of the Guises, a branch of a Lorraine house naturalized in France, consisting of six brothers, at their head the two eldest, the Cardinal Charles of Lorraine, Archbishop of Rheims, who died in A.D. 1574, and Francis, the conqueror of Calais. The least influential in the league at that time was the queen, Catharine de Medici.

§ 139.14. In spite of all persecutions, the Reformed church made rapid progress, especially in the southern districts. Its adherents came to be known by the name of =Huguenots=, meaning originally Leaguers, Covenanters, on account of their connection with Geneva. A popular etymology of the word derives it from the nightly assemblies in a locality haunted by the spirit of King Hugo. Calvin and Beza, as sons of France, assisted the young church with counsel and help. But even within the bounds of the kingdom it had very important political supporters. Certain members of the house of Bourbon, a powerful branch of the royal family, Anton, who married the brilliant heiress of Navarre, Jeanne d’Albret, and his brother Louis de Condé, had attached themselves to the Protestant cause. Also other distinguished personages, e.g. the noble Admiral Gaspard de Coligny, a nephew of Montmorency, and several prominent members of Parliament, were enthusiastically devoted to Protestantism, and, withdrawing from the frivolous and licentious court, gave to the profession of the reformed faith a wide reputation for strict morality and deep piety. The first general synod of the reformed church was held in Paris from 25th to 28th May, A.D. 1559. It adopted a Calvinistic symbol, the Confessio Gallicana, and, as a directory for the constitution and discipline of the church, forty articles, also inspired by the spirit of Calvin.--Henry II. was followed in succession by his three sons, Francis, Charles, and Henry, all of whom died without issue. Under =Francis II.=, A.D. 1559, 1560, who ascended the throne in his sixteenth year, the two Guises, the uncles of his queen Mary Stuart, held unlimited sway and gave abundance of work to the chambre ardente. A conspiracy directed against them in A.D. 1560 led to the execution of 1,200 persons implicated in it. Even the two Bourbons were cast into prison, and the younger condemned to death. The king’s early death, however, prevented the execution of the sentence. The queen-mother, Catharine de Medici, now succeeded in breaking off the yoke of the Guises and securing to herself the regency during the minority of her son =Charles IX.=, A.D. 1560-1574. But the attempts of the Guises to undermine her authority obliged her to seek supporters meanwhile among the Protestants. Coligny was able in A.D. 1560 to demand religious toleration of the imperial Parliament, and succeeded at last so far that in A.D. 1561 an edict was issued abolishing capital punishment for heresy. In order to bring about wherever that was possible an understanding between the two great religious parties, a five weeks’ religious conference was held in September of that same year in the Abbey of Poissy, near Paris, to which on the evangelical side Beza from Geneva and Peter Martyr from Zürich, besides many other theologians, were invited. On the Catholic side, the Cardinal of Lorraine represented the doctrine of his church, and subsequently also the general of the Jesuits, Lainez. The proceedings, in which Beza’s learning, eloquence, and praiseworthy courtesy toward his opponents had great weight, were concentrated on the doctrines of the Church and the Lord’s Supper, but yielded no result. In order that they might be able to inflame the Lutherans and the Reformed against one another, the Catholics endeavoured to bring forward supporters of the Augsburg Confession into the discussions on those points. Five German theologians were actually brought forward, among them Jac. Andreä of Württemberg, but too late to take part in the conference. On 17th January, A.D. 1562, the regent issued an edict, by which the Protestants were allowed to hold religious services outside of the towns, and also to have meetings of synod under the supervision of royal commissioners.

§ 139.15. The rage of the Guises and their fanatical party at this edict knew no bounds. Francis of Guise swore to cut it up with his sword, and on 1st March, A.D. 1562, at Passy in Champagne, he fell upon the Huguenots assembled there for worship in a barn, and slew them almost to a man. At Cahors, a Huguenot place of worship was surrounded by a Catholic mob and set on fire. None of those gathered together there survived, for those who escaped the flames were waylaid and murdered. At Toulouse, the oppressed Protestants, with wives and children, to the number of 4,000, had betaken themselves to the capitol. They were promised a free outlet, and were then slaughtered, because no one, it was said, should keep his word with a heretic (§ 200, 3). Louis Condé summoned his fellow Protestants to take up arms in their own defence against such atrocities, entrenched himself in Orleans, and obtained, by the help of the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, German auxiliaries. The Guises, on the other hand, won over to their side the king and his mother. And now the strict legitimist Coligny placed himself at the head of the Huguenot movement. The battle of Dreux in Dec., A.D. 1562, resulted unfavourably to the Protestants, but during the siege of Orleans Francis of Guise was assassinated by a Huguenot nobleman. The regent now, in the peace edict of Amboise, of 19th Nov., A.D. 1563, allowed to the Protestants liberty of worship except in certain districts and cities, of which Paris was one. After securing emancipation from the yoke of the Guises, however, she soon began openly to show her old hatred of the Protestants. She joined in a league with Spain for the extirpating of heresy, restricted in A.D. 1564 by the Edict of Roussillon her previous concessions, and laid incessant plots in order to effect the capture or murder of the two great leaders of the Huguenot party. The threatening incursions of the Duke of Alva upon the neighbouring provinces of the Netherlands, in A.D. 1567, occasioned the outbreak of the second religious war. The projected removal of the court to Monceaux fell through indeed, in consequence of the hasty flight of the king to Paris, but the overthrow of the royal army in the battle of St. Denys, in Nov., A.D. 1567, in which Montmorency fell, as well as the reinforcement of the Huguenot army by an auxiliary corps under the leadership of John Casimir, the prince of the Palatinate, led Catharine to conclude the Peace of Longjumeau, of March, A.D. 1568, which guaranteed anew all previous concessions. But when the persecution of the Huguenots was continued in numberless executions, before the year was out they had again, for the third time, to have recourse to arms. England supported them with money and ammunition, and Protestant Germany gave them 11,000 auxiliaries; while Spain helped their opponents. Louis Condé fell by the hand of an assassin in A.D. 1569, but the Huguenots had so evidently the best of it, that the king and his mother found themselves obliged to grant them complete liberty of conscience and of worship in the peace treaty of St. Germain-en-Laye, on 8th of Aug., A.D. 1570, excepting in Paris and in the immediate surroundings of the palace. As a guarantee for the treaty, four strongholds in southern France were surrendered to them. It was further stipulated, in order to confirm for ever the good undertaking, that Henry of Navarre, son of Jeanne d’Albret, should marry Margaret, the sister of Charles IX.

§ 139.16. At the marriage, consummated on 18th of August, A.D. 1572, subsequently known as the =Bloody Marriage=, the chiefs of the Huguenot party were gathered together at Paris. Jeanne d’Albret had died at the court, probably by poison, on 9th June, and Coligny had been fatally wounded by a shot on 22nd August. On the night of St. Bartholomew, between the 23rd and 24th August, the castle bell tolled. This was the concerted signal for the destruction of all the Huguenots present in Paris. For four days the carnage was unweariedly carried on by the city militia appointed for the purpose, the royal Swiss guards, and crowds of fanatical artisans. Coligny fell praying amid the blows of his murderers. No Huguenot was spared, neither children, nor women, nor the aged. Their princely chiefs, Henry of Navarre and Henry Condé, the son of Louis, were offered the choice between death and taking part in the celebration of mass. They decided for the latter. Meanwhile messengers had hasted into the provinces with the death-warrants, and there the slaughter began afresh. The whole number of victims is variously estimated at from 10,000 to 100,000; in Paris alone there fell from 1,000 to 10,000.--The death decree was not indeed so much the result of long planned and regularly conceived conspiracy, as a sudden resolve suggested by political circumstances. The queen-mother was at variance with her son with respect to his anti-Spanish policy, which had always inclined him favourably to Coligny; and so, in concert with her favourite son, Henry of Anjou, she succeeded in dealing a deadly stroke at the great admiral by the hand of an assassin. The king swore to take fearful vengeance on the unknown perpetrators of this crime. Catharine now made every effort to avert the threatened blow. She managed to convince the king, by means of her fellow conspirators, that the Huguenots regarded him as an accomplice in the perpetrating of the outrage, and that so his life was in danger because of them. He now swore by God’s death that not merely the chiefs, to whom Catharine and her auxiliaries had directed special attention, but all the Huguenots in France, should die, in order that not one should remain to bring this charge against him. On the other hand, it is all but certain that the thought of such a diabolical deed had previously suggested itself, if indeed expression had not been explicitly given to it. To the Spanish and Romish courts, the French government represented the deed as an acte prémédité, to the German court as an acte non prémédité. But even before this a letter from Rome to the Emperor Maximilian II. (§ 137, 8) had contained the following: “At that hour (referring to the marriage festivities) when all the birds are in the cage, they can seize upon them altogether, and can have any one that they desire.” He was profoundly excited about the villany of the transaction, while Philip II. of Spain on hearing of it is said to have laughed for the first time in his life. Pope Gregory XIII. indeed feared the worst consequences, but soon changed his mind, and had Rome illuminated, all the bells rung, the cannons fired, a Te Deum performed, processions made, and a medal struck, with the inscription, Ugonottorum strages. He instructed the French ambassador to inform his king that this performance was a hundred times more grateful to him than fifty victories over the Turks.[392]

§ 139.17. The dreadful deed, however, completely failed in accomplishing the end in view. Even after 100,000 had been slaughtered there still remained more than ten times that number of Huguenots, who, in possession of their strongholds, occupied positions of great strategical importance. After a brief breathing time of peace, therefore, they were able, on five occasions, in A.D. 1573, 1576, 1577, 1580, to renew the religious civil war, when once and again the truce had been broken by the Catholics. Charles IX. was succeeded by Catharine’s favourite son, =Henry III.=, A.D. 1574-1589, who, joining the most shameless immorality to the narrowest bigotry and asceticism (§ 149, 17), was no way behind his brother in dissoluteness, and was still more conspicuous for dastardliness and cowardice. Henry Condé had, just immediately after Charles’s death, abjured again the Catholic confession, and put himself at the head of the Huguenot revolt. Henry of Navarre rejoined his old friends two years later, after having in the meantime vied with his brother-in-law and his incestuous wife in frivolity and immorality. He was able to take part successfully in the fifth religious war, in which the Huguenots, supported once more by the German auxiliaries under the Count-palatine John Casimir, secured such advantages, that the court, in the Treaty of Beaulieu, of A.D. 1576, were obliged to grant them complete religious freedom and a larger number of strongholds. But now Henry of Guise, in concert with his brothers Louis, cardinal and Archbishop of Rheims, and Charles, Duke of Mayenne, formed the Holy League, which he compelled the king to join, and renewed the war with increased vigour. In the eighth war since A.D. 1584, which on the part of the Guises was really as much directed against the king’s Huguenot policy as against the Huguenots themselves, Henry was obliged, by the Treaty of Nemours, of A.D. 1585, to declare that the Protestants were deprived of all rights and privileges. In the battle of Coutras, however, in A.D. 1587, Henry of Navarre annihilated the opposing forces. But as he failed to follow up the advantages then secured, the Guises again recruited their strength to such a degree that they were able openly to work for the dethronement of the king. Henry could save himself only by the murder of both the elder Guises at the Diet of Blois. There was now no alternative left him but to cast himself into the arms of the Huguenots, and on this account, at the siege of the capital, he was murdered by the Dominican Clement. Henry of Navarre, as the only legitimate heir, now ascended the throne as =Henry IV.=, A.D. 1589-1610. After a hard struggle, lasting for four years, in which he was supported by England and Germany, while his opponents, headed by the Duke of Mayenne, were aided with money and men by Spain, Savoy, and the pope, he at last decided, in A.D. 1593, to pass over to Catholicism, because, as he said, “Paris is well worth a mass.” He secured, however, for his former co-religionists, by the =Edict of Nantes=, of 13th April, A.D. 1598, complete liberty of holding religious services in all the cities where previously there had been reformed congregations, as well as thorough equality with the Catholics in all civil rights and privileges, especially in regard to eligibility for all civil and military offices. The fortresses and strongholds hitherto held by them were to be left with them for eight years, and in the Parliament a special “Chamber of the Edict” was instituted, with eight Catholic and eight Protestant members. But, on the other hand, they continued to be under the Catholic marriage laws, were obliged to cease from work on the Catholic festivals, and to pay tithes to the Catholic clergy. After a stubborn resistance on the part of the Parliament of Paris, the university, and the Sorbonne, as well as on that of the bishops, the king, in February, A.D. 1599, secured the incorporation of the edict among the laws of France. On 14th May, A.D. 1610, he was struck down by the dagger of the Feuillant Ravaillac, a fanatical Jesuit. Notwithstanding his many moral shortcomings, France has rightly celebrated him as one of the greatest and best of her kings. With wisdom, prudence, and humanity he wrought unweariedly for the advancement of a commonwealth that had been reduced to the lowest depths. He protected the Protestants in the enjoyment of privileges guaranteed to them, and though he did indeed put upon his old Huguenot friends some gentle pressure to get them to follow his example, he yet honoured those who steadfastly refused. His minister Sully, although it is supposed that he had felt obliged to advise the king to go over to Catholicism, stood himself unhesitatingly true to his profession of the Huguenot faith, while he retained the king’s confidence, and proved his most faithful adviser and administrator during all the negotiations of peace and war. Philip du Plessis Mornay, on the other hand, distinguished even more as a statesman, diplomatist, and field marshal than as a theologian and author,[393] but above all as a Christian and a man in the noblest sense of the word, who, in the belief that evangelical truth would, even in the Catholic church, assert its conquering power, had agreed with the Catholic League to instruct the king in the Catholic faith, and had thus made the act of apostasy appear to him less offensive. But just because the mere presence of a friend of high moral character and true religious principles acted as too sharp a sting to the king’s conscience, he had to submit to be relegated to an honorary post as governor of Saumur, where he became founder of the famous academy which Louis XIV. suppressed in A.D. 1685. Theodore Agrippa d’Aubigné, too, distinguished as a brave warrior in the army of the Huguenots, as well as a historian, poet, and satirist, stood high in favour with the king, though Henry, often roused by his unbending pride, repeatedly expelled him from the court. After Henry’s death D’Aubigné returned to Geneva, where he died in A.D. 1630.[394]

§ 139.18. =Poland.=--The Reformation had been introduced into Poland first of all by the exiled Bohemian Brethren, and Luther’s writings soon after their appearance were eagerly read in that region. =Sigismund I.=, A.D. 1506-1548, opposed it with all his might. It met with most success in Prussian Poland. Dantzig, in A.D. 1525, drove out the Catholic council. Sigismund went down there himself, had several citizens executed, and restored the old mode of worship in A.D. 1526. But scarcely had he left the town when it again went back to the profession of the Lutheran faith. Elbing and Thorn followed its example. In Poland proper also the new doctrines made way. In spite of all prohibitions many young Poles flocked to Wittenberg, and brought away from it to their native country a glowing enthusiasm for Luther and his teaching. The Swiss Confession had already found entrance there, and the persecutions which Ferdinand of Austria carried on after the Schmalcald war in Bohemia and Moravia led great numbers of Bohemian Brethren to cross over into the Polish territories. =Sigismund Augustus=, A.D. 1548-1572, was personally favourable to the Reformation. He studied Calvin’s “Institutes,” received letters from him and from Melanchthon, and, in accordance with the decisions of a national assembly at Petrican in A.D. 1555 demanded of the pope a national council, as well as permission for the marriage of priests, the communion in both kinds, the celebration of mass in the vernacular, and abolition of annats. The pope naturally refused to yield, but in A.D. 1556 sent into the country a legate of a despotic and violent temper, called Aloysius Lippomanus, who was replaced in A.D. 1563 by the bland and eloquent Commendone. Both were powerfully supported in their struggle against heresy by the fanatically Catholic cardinal Stanislaus Hosius, Bishop of Ermeland. The Protestant nobility then recalled, in A.D. 1556, their celebrated countryman =John à Lasco=, who twenty years before had, on account of his evangelical faith, resigned his office as provost of Gnesen and left his fatherland. He had meanwhile taken part in the Reformation of East Friesland, and had acted for several years as preacher at Emden. After that, he had gone, at the call of Cranmer, in A.D. 1550, to England; upon the death of Edward VI., along with a part of his London flock of foreign exiles, had sought refuge in Denmark, which, however, was refused on account of his attachment to Zwingli’s doctrine; and at last settled down at Frankfort-on-the-Maine as pastor to a congregation of French, English, and Dutch exiles. After his return home he endeavoured to bring about a union of the Lutherans and Reformed, in concert with several friends made a translation of the Bible, and died in A.D. 1560. At a =general synod at Sendomir=, in A.D. 1570, a union was at last effected between the three dissentient parties, by which the Lutheran doctrine of the Lord’s Supper was acknowledged, yet in so indefinite a form that Calvin’s view might also be entertained. The Lutheran opposition at the synod had been suppressed by urgent entreaty, but afterwards broke out again in a still more violent form. At the Synod of Thorn, in A.D. 1595, the Lutheran pastor Paul Gericke was the leader of it; but one of the nobles present held a dagger to his heart, and the synod suspended him from his office as a disturber of the peace. Sigismund Augustus had meanwhile died, in A.D. 1572. During the interregnum that followed, the Protestant nobles formed a confederation, which before the election of a new king succeeded in obtaining a comprehensive religious peace, the =Pax dissidentium of A.D. 1573=, by means of which Catholics and Protestants were for all time to live together in peace and enjoy equal civil rights. The newly elected king, =Henry of Anjou=, sought to avoid binding himself by oath to the observance of this peace, but the imperial marshal addressed him in firm and decided language, Si non jurabis, non regnabis. In the following year, however, the new king left Poland in order to mount the French throne as Henry III. =Stephen Bathori=, A.D. 1576-1586, swore without hesitation to observe the peace, and kept his oath. Under his successor, Sigismund III., a Swedish prince, A.D. 1587-1632, the Protestants had to complain of the infringement of many of their rights, which from this time down to the overthrow of the Polish kingdom, in A.D. 1772, they never again enjoyed.[395]--Continuation, § 164, 4.

§ 139.19. =Bohemia and Moravia.=--The numerous Bohemian and Moravian Brethren (§ 119, 8), at whose head was the elder Luke of Prague, greeted the appearance of Luther with the most hopeful joy. By messages and writings, however, which in A.D. 1522-1524 were interchanged between them, some important diversities of view were discovered. Luke disliked Luther’s realistic theory of the Lord’s Supper, continued to hold by the seven sacraments, rejected the doctrine of justification by faith alone, and took special offence at Luther’s view of Christian freedom, which seemed to him to want the necessary rigour of the apostolic discipline of the life and to under-estimate the importance and worth of celibacy and virginity. Luther, on the other hand, charged them with a want of grasp of the doctrine and a Novatian over-estimation of mere outward exercises and discipline. And so these negotiations ended in mutual recrimination, and only after Luke’s death, in A.D. 1528, and the glorious Diet of Augsburg, in A.D. 1530, were they reopened. The Lutheranizing tendency, for which especially the two elders John Roh and John Augusta laboured, now gained the upper hand for two decades. In A.D. 1532 the Brethren presented to the Margrave George of Brandenburg an apology of the doctrine and customs, which was printed at Wittenberg, and had a preface by Luther, in which he expressed himself in very favourable terms about the doctrine of the “Picards,” and only objected to their spiritualizing tendency, of which their doctrine of the supper and of baptism was not altogether free, inasmuch as they, while practising infant baptism, required that each one should on reaching maturity take the vows upon himself and have baptism repeated. Still more favourably did he speak of their confession presented in A.D. 1535 to King Ferdinand, in which they had left out the rebaptizing, substituting for it the solemn imposition of hands as confirmation. When the Brethren at Luther’s request had modified the two articles at which he took offence, their unsatisfactory theory of justification, and that of the wholesomeness, though not necessity, of clerical celibacy, he declared himself thoroughly satisfied, and at their last personal conference, in A.D. 1542, he stretched his hand over the table to Augusta and his companions as the pledge of indissoluble brotherly fellowship, although not agreed in regard to various matters of constitution and discipline. The refusal of the Brethren to fight against their German fellow Protestants in the Schmalcald war led to their king Ferdinand upon its close issuing some penal statutes against them. Driven away into exile in A.D. 1548, many of them went to Poland, the larger number to Prussia, from whence they returned to their native land in A.D. 1574. Meantime matters had there in many respects taken an altogether new turn. In the later years of his reign Ferdinand had become more favourable to the evangelical movement in his hereditary dominions, and Maximilian II., A.D. 1564-1576, gave it an absolutely free course (§ 137, 8). Thus the Brethren could not only go on from day to day increasing in numbers and in influence, but alongside of them there grew up a genuine Lutheran community and an independent Calvinist body. The Crypto-calvinism which was also at the same time gaining the victory in Saxony (§ 141, 10) cast its shadow upon the Lutheranizing movement among the Brethren. And this movement told all the more against the Lutheran party there from the circumstance that at an earlier period there had been powerful influences at work, inspired by a national Bohemian spirit, to resist German interference in matters of religion. Since the death of the elder Luke the national party had succeeded more and more in working back to the genuine Bohemian constitution, discipline, and confession of their fathers. At the head of this movement stood John Blahoslaw, from A.D. 1553 deacon of Jungbunzlau, after Luke of Prague and before Amos Comenius (§ 167, 2) the most important champion of the Bohemian-Moravian Confession. To him chiefly are the Brethren indebted for the high development of literary and scientific activity which they manifested during the second half of the century, and his numerous writings, but pre-eminently his translation of the N.T., proved almost as influential and epoch-making for the Bohemian language as Luther’s translation of the Bible did for the written language of Germany. Himself one of the ablest among the very numerous writers of spiritual songs in Bohemian, he was the restorer of the simple and majestic Bohemian chorales. As he had himself, in A.D. 1568, translated the N.T. from the original Greek text, he also undertook, with the help of several younger men of noble gifts, a similar translation of the O.T. and a commentary on the whole Bible. But he died in A.D. 1571, in his forty-eighth year, before the issue of his great work, upon the inception of which he had expended so much thought and care. This great undertaking was completed and published in six volumes between A.D. 1579-1593. The strong spiritual affinity between the society of the Brethren and the Calvinistic church, especially in its doctrine of the supper and in its zeal for rigid church discipline, was meanwhile again brought into prominence, and had led to a more and more decided loosening of attachment to the Lutheran church, and, in spite of the antagonism of its episcopalianism to the Calvinistic presbyterianism, to the formation of closer ties with Calvinism. But now, on the other hand, the common danger that threatened them from Rudolph II., who had been king of Bohemia from A.D. 1575, at the instigation of Jesuits through the Spanish court, led all non-Catholics, of whatever special confession, to draw as closely together as possible. Thus a league came to be formed in the same year in which the Brethren were far outnumbered by Lutherans, Reformed, and Calixtines (§ 119, 7), by means of which, in the Confessio Bohemica of A.D. 1575, a common symbol was drawn up, and all the four parties were placed under the management of a common consistory. But when, after Maximilian’s death, Rudolph II. proceeded more and more rigorously in his efforts to completely suppress all heresy, the Bohemians rose with one heart, and at last, in A.D. 1609, extorted from him the rescript which gave them absolute religious liberty according to the Bohemian Confession, a common consistory of their own, and an academy at Prague. Bohemia was now an almost completely evangelical country, and scarcely a tenth part of its inhabitants professed attachment to the Catholic faith.[396]--Continuation, §§ 153, 2; 167, 2.

§ 139.20. =Hungary and Transylvania.=--From A.D. 1524, Martin Cyriaci, a student of Wittenberg, wrought in =Hungary= for the spread of the true doctrine. King Louis II. threatened its adherents with all possible penalties. But in A.D. 1526 he fell in battle against the Turks at Mohacz. The election of a new king resulted in two claimants taking possession of the field; Ferdinand of Austria secured a footing in the western, and the Woiwode John Zapolya in the eastern provinces. Both sought to suppress the Reformation, in order to win over the clergy to support them. But it nevertheless gained the ascendency, favoured by the political confusions of the time. =Matthias Devay=, a scholar of Luther, and for a time a resident in his house, from A.D. 1521 preached the gospel at Ofen, having been called thither by several of the leading inhabitants on Melanchthon’s recommendation, and in A.D. 1533 had a Hungarian translation of the Pauline epistles printed at Cracow. In A.D. 1541 Erdösy issued the complete New Testament, which was also the first book printed in Hungary. At a synod at Erdöd, in A.D. 1545, twenty-nine ministers drew up a confession of faith in twelve articles, in agreement with the Augsburg Confession. But also the Swiss doctrine had now found entrance, and won more and more adherents from day to day. These adopted at a council at Czengar, in A.D. 1557, a Calvinistic confession, with decided repudiation of the Zwinglian as well as the Lutheran theory of the Lord’s Supper, describing the latter as an insania sarcophagica. The government of Maximilian II. did not interfere with the progress of the Reformation; but when Rudolph II. attempted to interfere with violent measures, the Protestants rose in revolt under Stephen Bocskai, and compelled the king to grant them complete religious liberty by the Vienna Peace of A.D. 1606. Among the native Hungarians the Reformed confession prevailed, but the German residents remained true to Lutheranism. (Continuation § 153, 3.)--As early as A.D. 1521 merchants had brought into =Transylvania= from Hermanstadt copies of Luther’s writings. King Louis II. of Hungary, however, carried his persecution of the evangelicals even into this territory, which was continued after his death by Zapolya. In A.D. 1529, however, Hermanstadt ventured to expel all adherents of the Romish church from within its walls. In Cronstadt, the work of the Reformation was carried on from A.D. 1533 by =Jac. Honter=, who had studied at Basel. Since Zapolya through an agreement with Ferdinand, in A.D. 1538, was assured of possession for his lifetime of Transylvania, he acted more mildly toward the Protestants. After his death the monk Martinuzzi, as Bishop of Grosswardein, assumed the helm of affairs for Zapolya’s son during his minority, oppressing the Protestants with bloody persecutions, while Isabella, Zapolya’s widow, was favourable to them. Martinuzzi therefore handed over the country to Ferdinand, but was assassinated in A.D. 1551. After some years Isabella returned with her son, and a =national assembly at Clausenburg=, in A.D. 1557, gave an organization to the country as an independent principality, and proclaimed universal religious liberty. The Saxon population continued attached to the Lutheran confession, and the Czecks and Magyars preferred to adopt the Reformed.[397]

§ 139.21. =Spain.=--The connection brought about between Spain and Germany through the election of =Charles V.= as emperor led to the very early introduction into the Peninsula of Luther’s doctrine and writings. Indeed many of the theologians and statesmen who went in Charles’ train into Germany returned with evangelical convictions in their hearts, as, e.g., the Benedictine Alphonso de Virves, the fiery Ponce de la Fuente, both court chaplains of the emperor, and his private secretary Alphonso Valdez. A layman, Roderigo de Valer, by earnest study of the Bible attained unto a knowledge of the gospel, and became the instrument of leading many others into the way of salvation. The Inquisition confiscated his goods and condemned him to wear the san benito (§ 117, 2). Juan Gil, a friend of Valer, Bishop of Tortosa, founded a society for the study of the Bible. The Inquisition deposed him, and only Charles’ favour protected him from the stake; but subsequently his bones were dug up and burnt. Many other prelates also, such as Carranza of Toledo, Guerrero of Granada, Guesta of Leon, Carrubias of Ciudad Roderigo, Agostino of Lerida, Ayala of Segovia, etc., admitted the necessity for a thoroughgoing revision of doctrine, without detaching themselves from the pope and the Romish church; and in this direction they laboured with zeal and success amid the threatenings of the Inquisition. The first Protestant martyr in Spain was Francisco san Romano, a merchant who had become acquainted with Luther’s doctrine at Antwerp. He was led to the stake at Valladolid, in A.D. 1544. Francis Enzina, in A.D. 1543, translated the New Testament. He was cast into prison, and the book prohibited. A complete Spanish Bible was printed by Cassiod. de Reyna at Basel, in A.D. 1569. In Seville and Valladolid first of all, and at a later period also in many other Spanish cities, evangelical congregations held secret services. Even so soon as about A.D. 1550, the Reformation movement threatened to become so general and widespread, that a Spanish historian of that age, Ilesca, in his history of the popes, expresses the conviction that all Spain would have become overrun with heresy if the Inquisition had delayed for three months longer to put an end to the pestilence. But it now applied that remedy in the largest and strongest doses possible. The measures of the Inquisition were specially prompt and vigorous during the reign of =Philip II.=, A.D. 1555-1598. Scarcely a year passed in which there were not at each of the twelve Inquisition courts one or more great autos-de-fé, in which crowds of heretics were burnt. And the remedy was effectual. After two decades the evangelical movement was stamped out. How determinedly the crusade was carried out is shown by the proceedings in the case of the Archbishop of Toledo, Barthol. Carranza. This prelate had published a “Commentary on the Catechism,” in which he expressed a wish to see “the ancient spirit of our forefathers and of the early church revived in its simplicity and purity.” The grand-inquisitor discerned therein Lutheran heresy, and though he bore one of the highest positions in the Spanish church, Carranza was kept close prisoner for eight years in the dungeons of the Inquisition, and after he had at last reached the pope with his appeal, he was kept for nine years in the castle of St. Angelo at Rome. There at last, upon his abjuring sixteen heretical propositions, especially about justification, saint and image worship, he was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment in the Dominican cloister at Orvieto, but died some weeks after, in A.D. 1576, in his seventy-third year. At the Quemadero, the scene of the autos-de-fé of the Madrid Inquisition court, there were till quite recently discernible the traces of the human hecatombs that had there been offered up to the insatiable Moloch of religious fanaticism. The official newspaper of the capital of the 12th April, A.D. 1869, reports how on the removal of the soil for the purpose of lengthening a street, the grim geological archives of the burnings of the Inquisition were laid bare, while with horrifying minuteness it proceeds to describe the maximum reached, and the gradual diminution of these papal atrocities.[398]

§ 139.22. =Italy.=--The Reformation made progress in Italy in various directions. A large number of the humanists (§ 120, 1) had in a self-sufficient paganism lost all interest in Christianity, and were just as indifferent toward the Reformation as toward the old church; but another section were inclined to favour a reformation after the style of Erasmus. Both remained in outward connection with the old church. But besides these there were many learned men of a more decided tendency, some of them attempting reforms at their own hand, and so not infrequently rejecting fundamental doctrines of Christianity, such as the various Anti-trinitarians of that age (§ 148), some who attached themselves to the German, but more frequently to the Swiss reformers. Both brought the reforming ideas before the people by preaching and writing. Almost all the works of the German and Swiss reformers were immediately after their publication circulated in Italy in translations, and under the shield of anonymity scattered broadcast through the land, before the Inquisition laid hold upon them. Among the princely supporters of the Reformation movement, the most prominent was Renata of Este, Duchess of Ferrara, and sister-in-law of the French king Francis, distinguished as much for piety as for culture and learning. Her court was a place of refuge and a rallying point for French and Italian exiles. Calvin stayed some weeks with her in A.D. 1536, and confirmed her in her evangelical faith by personal conversation, and subsequently by epistolary correspondence. Her husband, Hercules of Ferrara, whom she married in A.D. 1534, at first let her do as she liked, but in A.D. 1536 expelled Calvin from his dominions, and had his wife confined, in A.D. 1554, as an obstinate Lutheran heretic, in the old castle of Este. Still she was allowed to return to her husband after she had brought herself to confess to a Romish priest. But when after his death, in A.D. 1560, Alphonso, her son, put before her the alternative of either recanting her faith or leaving the country, she returned to France, and there openly made profession of her faith and attached herself to the Huguenots. Francis of Guise was her son-in-law, and she was subjected on account of her Protestantism to the incessant persecutions of the Guises. She died in A.D. 1575.--We have seen already, in § 135, 3, that the idea had been mooted of a propaganda of Catholic Christians in Italy. With a strong and lively conviction of the importance of the doctrine of justification by faith they made it the central point of religious life and knowledge, and thus, without directly opposing it, they inspired new life into the Catholic church. The first germ of this movement appeared in the so-called Oratory of Divine Love, an association formed in the beginning of A.D. 1520 at Rome, after the apostolic model, for mutual religious edification, consisting of fifty or sixty young, eager men, mostly of the clerical order. One of the original founders was Jac. Sadolet, who in this spirit expounded the Epistle to the Romans. To it also belonged such men as the founder of the Theatine order (§ 149, 7), Cajetan of Thiene, and John Pet. Caraffa, Bishop of Chieta, and afterwards Pope Paul IV., who sought the church’s salvation rather in the practice of a rigorous inquisitorial discipline. The sack of Rome (§ 132, 2) broke up this association in A.D. 1527, but spread its efforts over all Italy. The fugitive English cardinal, Reginald Pole, attached himself in Venice to the party of Sadolet. In Ferrara there was Italy’s most famous poetess, Vittoria Colonna; at Modena the Bishop Morone, who, although as papal legate in Germany, a zealous defender of the papal claims (§§ 135, 2; 137, 5), yet in his own diocese even subsequently aided the evangelical tendencies of his companions with much ardour, and hence under Paul IV. was cast into the Inquisition, to come out only under Pius V., after undergoing a three years’ imprisonment. In Naples there was Juan Valdez, Alphonso’s brother, secretary of the Spanish viceroy of Naples, and author of the “One Hundred and Ten Divine Considerations,” as well as a book of Christian doctrine for the young in the Spanish language. In Siena there was Aonio Paleario, professor of classical literature, famous as poet and orator. In Rome there was the papal notary Carnesecchi, formerly the personal friend of Clement VII. In other places there were many more. The most conspicuous representative of the party was the Venetian Gasparo Contarini (§ 135, 3), who died in A.D. 1542.

§ 139.23. The tendency of the thought of these men is most clearly and fully set forth in the little work, “The Benefit of Christ’s Death.” At Venice, where it first appeared in A.D. 1542, within six years 60,000 copies of this tract were issued, and afterwards innumerable reprints and translations of it were circulated. Since Aonio Paleario had written, according to his own statement, a tract of a similar character, he came to be generally regarded as its author, until Ranke discovered a notice among the acts of the Inquisition, according to which the heretical jewel was to be assigned to a monk of San Severino in Naples, a disciple of Juan Valdez, and afterwards Benrath succeeded in proving his name to be Don Benedetto of Mantŏva. The conciliatory spirit of these friends of moderate reform gave grounds for large expectation, all the more that Paul III. seemed all through his life to favour the movement. He nominated Contarini, Sadolet, Pole, and Caraffa cardinals, instituted in A.D. 1536 a congregatio præparatoria, and made Contarini the representative of the curia at the religious Conference of Regensburg in A.D. 1541 (§ 135, 3), which sought to bring about the conciliation of the German Protestants. But just about this time, probably not without the co-operation of the Jesuit order founded in A.D. 1540, a split occurred which utterly blasted all these grand expectations. The zeal of Caraffa set himself at the head of the opposition, and Paul III., in accordance with his proposal in his bull Licet ab initio of A.D. 1542, reorganized the defunct Roman Inquisition after the Spanish model as the central institution for the uprooting of the Protestant heresy. This “Holy Office” henceforth pursued its violent career under the pontificate of Caraffa himself, who mounted the papal throne in A.D. 1555 as Paul IV. Subsequently, too, under the obstinate, fanatical, and hence canonized monkish pope Pius V., from A.D. 1566 every suspicion of Protestantism was rigorously and mercilessly punished with imprisonment, torture, the galleys, the scaffold, and the stake. So energetically was the persecution carried out against the adherents and the patrons of the Reformation, that by the end of the century no trace of its presence was any longer to be found within the bounds of Italy. One of the last victims of this persecution was Aonio Paleario. After he had been for three years in the prisons of the Inquisition, he was strangled and then burnt. A similar fate had previously befallen Carnesecchi. How thoroughgoing and successful the Holy Office was in the suppression of books suspected of a heretical taint appears from the war of extermination carried on against that liber perniciosissimus, “On the Benefit of Christ’s Death.” In spite of the hundred thousand copies of the book that had been in circulation, the Inquisition so carefully and consistently pursued its task of extirpation, that thirty years after its appearance it was no longer to be found in the original and after a hundred no translation even was supposed to exist. In Rome alone a pile of copies were burnt which reached to the height of a house. In A.D. 1853 a copy of the original was found in Cambridge, and was published in London, 1855, with an English translation made by the Duke of Devonshire in A.D. 1548.[399]

§ 139.24. Among the Italian reformers who shook themselves entirely free from the papacy, and only by flight into foreign lands escaped prison, torture, and the stake, the following are the most important.

1. =Bernardino Ochino=, from A.D. 1538 general of the Capuchins, became by his glowing eloquence one of the most popular of Italian preachers. The study of the Bible had led him to accept the doctrine of justification when, in A.D. 1536, he was called to Naples as Lenten preacher. He was there brought into close contact with Juan Valdez, who confirmed him in his evangelical tendencies, and made him acquainted with the writings of the German reformers. In order to escape arrest and the Inquisition, he fled in A.D. 1542 to Geneva, and wrought successively at Basel, Augsburg, Strassburg, and London. After the death of Edward VI. he was obliged to make his escape from England, went as preacher to Zürich, adopted Socinian views, and even justified polygamy. He was consequently deposed from his office, fled to Poland, and died in Moravia in A.D. 1565.[400]

2. =Peter Martyr Vermilius=, an Augustinian monk and popular preacher. The study of the writings of Erasmus, Zwingli, and Bucer led him to quit the Catholic church. He fled to Zürich, became professor in Strassburg, and on Cranmer’s invitation came to England, where he was made professor in Oxford. When Mary came to the throne, he returned to Strassburg, and died as professor at Zürich in A.D. 1562.

3. =Peter Paul Vergerius= in A.D. 1530 accompanied Campegius to the Diet of Augsburg as papal legate (§ 132, 6); was sent again, in A.D. 1535, to Germany by Paul III., in order to get the German princes to agree to the holding of the council at Mantua (§ 134, 1), and on this point he conferred personally but unsuccessfully with Luther. On his return home, in A.D. 1536 the pope conferred upon him, in recognition of his faithful service, the bishopric of his native city, Capo d’Istria. In A.D. 1540 we find him again present during the religious conference at Worms (§ 135, 2), where his conciliatory efforts called down on him the displeasure of the pope and the suspicion of his enemies as a secret adherent of Luther. In order to clear himself of suspicion he studied Luther’s writings with the intention of controverting them, but had his heart opened to gospel truths, and was obliged to betake himself to flight. At Padua the dreadful end of the jurist Speira, who had abjured his evangelical convictions, and feeling that he had committed the unpardonable sin died amid the most fearful agonies of conscience, made an indelible impression upon him. He now, in A.D. 1548, formally joined the evangelical church, wrought for a long time in the country of the Grisons, not as a member of the Reformed but of the Lutheran church, and died as professor at Tübingen in A.D. 1565.

4. The Piedmontese =Cœlius Secundus Curio= was the youngest of a family of twenty-three, and was early left an orphan. He studied at Turin, where an Augustinian monk, Jerome Niger, made him acquainted with the writings of Luther and others. Unweariedly devoted to spreading the gospel in the various cities of Italy, he was repeatedly subjected by the persecution of the Inquisition to severe imprisonment, but always managed to escape in almost a miraculous way. At last he found, in A.D. 1542, on the recommendation of the Duchess Renata, an asylum in Switzerland, first of all in Bern; then he taught in Lausanne for four years, and in Basel for twenty-two. He died at Basel in A.D. 1569. His latitudinarian theology gave no offence among the liberal-minded folk of Basel, but he was looked upon with much displeasure by the theologians of Geneva, whose prosecutions of heretics he had condemned; and even from Tübingen, Vergerius, who had been his intimate friend, brought the charge of Pelagianism against him.

5. =Galeazzo Carraccioli=, Marquis of Vico, on his mother’s side a nephew of Paul IV., was led by intercourse with Juan Valdez and the preaching of Peter Martyr to abandon the gay, worldly life of the Neapolitan court for one of religious earnestness and devotion, and by means of a visit to Germany in company with the emperor he was confirmed in his evangelical convictions. In order to be able to live in the undisturbed profession of his faith, he fled, in A.D. 1551, to Geneva. Neither the tears nor the curses of his aged father, who had hurried after him to that place, nor the promise of indulgence from his papal uncle, nor the complaining, the tears, and despair of his tenderly loved wife and children, whom at great risk he had visited at Vico in A.D. 1558, were able to shake the steadfastness of his faith. But equally in vain were his incessant entreaties and tears to induce his wife and children to come and join him on some neutral territory, where he might be allowed to follow the evangelical and they the Catholic confession. On the ground of this obstinate and persistent refusal, the Genevan consistory, with Calvin at its head, at last granted him the divorce that he claimed, and in A.D. 1560 Carraccioli entered into a second marriage. Down to his death, in A.D. 1586, by his active and industrious life he afforded a pattern, and by his successful labours he proved a powerful support to the Italian congregation in Geneva, whose pastor, Balbani, raised to him a well deserved memorial in the history of his life, which he published in Geneva in A.D. 1587.

6. To the sketch of these noble reformers we may now add the name of a woman who is well deserving of a place alongside of them for her singular classical culture, her rich poetic endowment, and her noble and beautiful life. Fulvia Olympia Morata, of Ferrara, in her sixteenth year began to deliver public lectures in her native city, where she enjoyed the friendship and favour of the Duchess Renata. She married a German physician, Andrew Grunthler, went with him to his home at Schweinfurt, and there attached herself to the Protestant church. When that city was plundered by the Margrave Albert in A.D. 1553 (§ 137, 4), they lost all their property. She died in A.D. 1555 at Heidelberg, where Grunthler had been appointed professor of medicine.[401]

§ 139.25. =The Protestantizing of the Waldensians= (§ 108, 10).--The news of the Reformation caused great excitement among the Waldensians. Even as early as A.D. 1520 the Piedmontese barba, or minister, Martin of Lucerne, undertook a journey to Germany, and brought back with him several works of the reformers. In A.D. 1530 the French Waldensians sent two delegates, George Morel and Peter Masson, who conferred verbally and in writing with Œcolampadius at Basel, and with Bucer and Capito at Strassburg. The result was, that in A.D. 1532 a synod was held in the Piedmontese village of Chauvoran, in the valley of Angrogna, at which the two Genevan theologians Farel and Saunier were present. A number of narrow-minded prejudices that prevailed among the old Waldensians were now abandoned, such as the prohibition against taking oaths, the holding of magisterial offices, the taking of interest, etc.; and several Catholic notions to which they had formerly adhered, such as auricular confession, the reckoning of the sacraments as seven, the injunction of fasts, compulsory celibacy, the doctrine of merits, etc., were abandoned as unevangelical, while the Reformed doctrine of predestination was adopted. On this foundation the complete Protestantizing of the whole Waldensian community now made rapid progress, but called down upon them from every side bloody persecutions. In Provence and Dauphiné there were, in A.D. 1545, four thousand murdered, and twenty-two districts devastated with fire. Their remnants got mixed up with the French Reformed. When the Waldensian colonies in Calabria were told of the Protestantizing of their Piedmontese brethren, they sent, in A.D. 1559, a delegate to seek a pastor for them from Geneva. Ludovico Pascale, by birth a Piedmontese Catholic, who had studied theology at Geneva, was selected for this mission; but soon after his arrival he was thrown into prison at Naples, and from thence carried off to Rome, where in A.D. 1560 he went with all the martyr’s joy and faith to the stake erected for him by the Inquisition. In the trials of this man Rome for the first time came to understand the significance and the attitude of the Calabrian colonies, and now the grand-inquisitor, Alexandrini, with some Dominicans, was sent for their conversion or extermination. The flourishing churches were in A.D. 1561 completely rooted out, amid scenes of almost incredible atrocity. The men who escaped the stake were made to toil in the Spanish galleys, while their wives and children were sold as slaves. In Piedmont, the duke, after vain military expeditions for their conversion, which the Waldensians, driven to arms had successfully withstood, was obliged to allow them, in the Peace of Cavour of A.D. 1561, a restricted measure of religious liberty. But when the violent attempts to secure conversions did not cease, they bound themselves together, in A.D. 1571, in the so-called “Union of the Valleys,” by which they undertook to defend one another in the exercise of their evangelical worship.--Continuation, § 153, 5.

§ 139.26. =Attempt at Protestantizing the Eastern Church.=--The opposition to the Roman papacy, which was common to them and the eastern church, led the Protestants of the West to long for and strive after a union with those who were thus far agreed with them. A young Cretan, =Jacob Basilicus=, whom Heraclides, prince of Samos and Paros, had adopted, on his travels through Germany, Denmark, and Sweden had come into friendly relations with Melanchthon and others of the reformed party, and attempted, after he entered upon the government of his two islands in A.D. 1561, to introduce a reformation of the local church according to evangelical principles. But he was murdered in A.D. 1563, and with him every trace of his movement passed away.--In A.D. 1559 a deacon from Constantinople, =Demetrius Mysos=, spent some months with Melanchthon at Wittenburg [Wittenberg], and took with him a Greek translation of the Augsburg Confession, of which, however, no result ever came. At a later period, in A.D. 1573, the Tübingen theologians, Andreä, Luc. Osiander, and others, reopened negotiations with the patriarch Jeremiah II. (§ 73, 4), through a Lutheran pastor, Stephen Gerbach, who went to Constantinople in the suite of a zealous Protestant nobleman, David of Ungnad, ambassador of Maximilian II. The Tübingen divines sent with him a Greek translation of the Augsburg Confession, composed by Mart. Crusius, with a request for his judgment upon it. The patriarch, in his reply in A.D. 1576, expressed himself candidly in regard to the errors of the book. The doctors of Tübingen wrote in vindication of their formula, and in a second answer, in A.D. 1579, the patriarch reiterated the objections stated in the first. After a third interchange of letters he declined all further discussion, and allowed a fourth epistle, in A.D. 1581, to remain unanswered.--Continuation, § 152, 2.

II. The Churches of the Reformation.

§ 140. THE DISTINCTIVE CHARACTER OF THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.[402]

In the Lutheran Church, that specifically German type of Christianity which from the days of Charlemagne was ever panting after independent expression reached its maturity and full development. The sacred treasure of true catholicity, which the church of early times had nurtured in the form of Greek-Roman culture, is taken over freed from excrescences, and enriched by those acquisitions of the Middle Ages that had stood the proof. Its vocation was to set forth the “happy mean” between the antagonistic ecclesiastical movements and struggles of the West, and to give its strength mainly to the development of sound doctrine. And if it has not exerted an equal influence in all departments, paying most attention to the worship and least to matters of constitution, it cannot, on the other hand, be denied that even in those directions an effort has been made to modify the violent contradiction of extremes (§ 142, 1, 2).

=The Mediate and Mediating Attitude of the Lutheran Church= shows itself in its fundamental conception of the essence of Christianity as the union of the Divine and human, of which the prototype is found in the Person of Christ, and illustrations of it in the Scriptures, the church, the sacraments, the Christian life, etc. In the varied ways in which this union is conceived of lies the deepest and most inward ground of the divergence that exists between the three western churches. The Catholic church wishes to see the union of the Divine and human; the Lutheran, wishes to believe it; the Reformed, wishes to understand it. The tendency prevails in the Catholic church to confound these two, the Divine and the human, and that indeed in such a way that the human loses its human character, and its union with the Divine is regarded as constituting identity. The Reformed church, again, is prone to separate the two, to look upon the Divine by itself and the human by itself, and to regard the union as a placing of the one alongside of the other, as having not an objective but a merely subjective, not a real but a merely ideal, connection. But the Lutheran church, guarding itself against any confusion as well as any separation of the two elements, had sought to view the union as the most vital, rich, and inward communion, interpenetration, and reciprocity. In the view of the Catholic church the human and earthly, which is so often a very imperfect vehicle of the Divine, in which the Divine often attained to a very incomplete development, is to be regarded as in and by itself already the Divine. So is it in the idea of the church, and hence the doctrine of a merely external and visible church, which as such is only the channel of salvation. So is it in the historical development of the church, and hence the absolute authority of tradition and the reversal of the true relations between Scripture and tradition. So too is it with the doctrine of the sacraments, and hence the idea of an opus operatum and of transubstantiation. So in regard to the priesthood, hence hierarchism; so in regard to the idea of sanctification, and hence semipelagianism and the doctrine of merits. Thoroughly antagonistic to all this was the view of the Reformed church. It was inclined rather to sever completely the Divine in Christianity from its earthly, visible vehicle, and to think of the operation of the Divine upon man as merely spiritual and communicated only through subjective faith. It renounced all tradition, and thereby broke off from all historical development, whether normal or abnormal. In its doctrine of Scripture, the literal significance of the word was often exalted above the spirit; in its doctrine of the church, the significance of the visible church over that of the invisible. In its doctrine of the Person of Christ, the human nature of the glorified Saviour was excluded from a personal full share in all the attributes of His divinity. In the doctrine of the sacraments, supernatural grace and the earthly elements were separated from one another; and in the doctrine of predestination the Divine foreknowledge of man’s volitions was isolated, etc. The Lutheran church, on the other hand, had at least made the effort to steer between those two extremes, and to bind into a living unity the truth that lies at the foundation of both. In the Scripture it wishes as little to see the spirit without the word, as the word without the spirit; in history it recognises the rule and operation of the Spirit of God within the human and ecclesiastical developments; and it rejects only the false tradition which has not had its growth organically from Holy Scripture, but rather contradicts it. In its doctrine of the church it holds with equal tenacity to the importance of the visible church and that of the invisible. In its doctrine of the Person of Christ it affirms the perfect humanity and the perfect divinity in the living union and richly communicating reciprocity of the two natures. In its doctrine of the sacraments it gives full weight as well to the objective Divine fact which heavenly grace presents in earthly elements as to the subjective condition of the man, to whom the sacrament will prove saving or condemning according as he is a believer or an unbeliever. And, finally, it expresses the belief that in the Divine decree the apparent contradiction between God’s foreknowledge and man’s self-determination is solved, while it regards predestination as conditioned by the foreknowledge of God; whereas Calvinism reverses that relation.

§ 141. DOCTRINAL CONTROVERSIES IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.[403]

Even during Luther’s lifetime, but much more after his death, various doctrinal controversies broke out in the Lutheran church. They arose for the most part upon the borderlands either of Calvinism or of Catholicism, and were generally occasioned by offence taken at the attitude of the more stiff and dogged of Luther’s adherents by those of the Melanchthonian or Philippist school, who had irenical and unionistic feelings in regard to both sides. The scene of these conflicts was partly in the electorate of Albertine Saxony and in the duchy of Ernestine Saxony. Wittenberg and Leipzig were the headquarters of the Philippists, and Weimar and Jena of the strict Lutherans. There was no lack on either side of rancour and bitterness. But if the Gnesio-Lutherans went far beyond the Melanchthonians in stiffnecked irreconcilableness, slanderous denunciation, and outrageous abuse, they yet showed a most praiseworthy strength of conviction, steadfastness, and martyrlike devotion; whereas their opponents not infrequently laid themselves open to the charge, on the one hand, of a pusillanimous and mischievous pliability, and, on the other hand, of using unworthy means and covert, deceitful ways. Their controversies reached a conclusion after various alternations of victory and defeat, with often very tragic consequences to the worsted party, in the composition of a new confessional document, the so called Formula Concordiæ.

§ 141.1. =The Antinomian Controversy=, A.D. 1537-1541, which turned upon the place and significance of the law under the Christian dispensation, lay outside the range of the Philippist wranglings. =John Agricola=, for a time pastor in his native town of Eisleben, and so often called Master Eisleben, in A.D. 1527 took offence at Melanchthon for having in his visitation articles (§ 127, 1) urged the pastors so earnestly to enjoin upon their people the observance of the law. He professed, indeed, for the time to be satisfied with Melanchthon’s answer, which had also the approval of Luther, but soon after he had, in A.D. 1536, become a colleague of both in Wittenberg, he renewed his opposition by publishing adverse theses. He did not contest the pedagogical and civil-political use of the law outside of the church, but starting from the principle that an enjoined morality could not help man, he maintained that the law has no more significance or authority for the Christian, and that the gospel, which by the power of Divine love works repentance, is alone to be preached. Melanchthon and Luther, on the contrary, held that anguish and sorrow for sin are the fruits of the law, while the saving resolution to reform is the effect of the gospel, and insisted upon a continued preaching of the law, because from the incompleteness of the believer’s sanctification in this world a daily renewing of repentance is necessary. After several years of oral and written discussion, Agricola took his departure from Wittenberg in A.D. 1540, charging Luther with having offered him a personal insult, and was made court preacher at Berlin, where, in A.D. 1541, having discovered his error, he repudiated it in a conciliatory exposition. The reputation in which he was held at the court of Brandenburg led to his being at a subsequent period made a collaborateur in drawing up the hated Augsburg Interim (§ 136, 5). As his antinomianism every now and again cropped up afresh, the Formula Concordiæ at last settled the controversy by the statement that we must ascribe to the law, not only a usus politicus and usus elenchticus for terrorizing and arresting the sinner, but also a usus didacticus for the sanctifying of the Christian life.

§ 141.2. =The Osiander Controversy, A.D. 1549-1556.=--Luther had, in opposition to the Romish doctrine of merits, defined justification as purely an act of God, whose fruit can be appropriated by man only by the exercise of faith. But he distinguished from justification as an act of God for man, sanctification as the operation of God in man. The former consists in this, that Christ once for all has offered Himself up on the cross for the sins of the whole world, and that now God ascribes the merit of the sacrificial death of Christ for every individual as though it had been his own, i.e. juridically; the believer is thus declared, but not made righteous. The believer, on the ground of his having been declared righteous, is made righteous by means of a sanctifying process penetrating the whole earthly life and constantly advancing, but in this world never absolutely perfect, which is effected by the communication of the new life which Christ has created and brought to light. =Andrew Osiander= proposed a theory that diverged from this doctrine, and inclined toward that set forth in the Tridentine Council (§ 136, 4), but distinguished from the Romish view by decided attachment to the Protestant principle of justification by faith alone. He had been from A.D. 1522 pastor and reformer at Nuremberg, and had proclaimed his ideas without thereby giving offence. This first happened when, after his expulsion from Nuremberg on account of the interim, he had begun to announce his peculiar doctrine in the newly founded University of Königsberg, where he had been appointed professor by Duke Albert of Prussia in A.D. 1549 (§ 126, 4). Confounding sanctification with justification, he wished to define the latter, not as a declaring righteous but as a making righteous, not as a juridical but as a medicinal act, wrought by an infusion, i.e. a continuous influx of the righteousness of Christ. The sacrificial death of Christ is for him only the negative condition of justification, its positive condition rests upon the incarnation of Christ, the reproduction of which in the believer is justification, which is therefore to be referred not to the human but rather to the Divine nature in Christ. Along with this, he also held by the conviction that the incarnation of God in Christ would have taken place in order to complete the creation of the image of God in man even had the fall never happened. The main point of his opposition was grounded upon this: that he believed the juridical theory to have overlooked the religious subjective element, which, however, is still present in faith as the subjective condition of declaring righteous. The keen and bitter controversy over these questions spread from the university among the clergy, and thence to the citizens and families, and soon came to be carried on on both sides with great passionateness and heat. The favour publicly shown to Osiander by the duke, who set him as Bishop of Samland at the head of the Prussian clergy, increased the bitterness felt toward him by his opponents. Among these was Martin Chemnitz, a scholar of Melanchthon, and from A.D. 1548 rector of the High School at Königsberg. Also Professor Joachim Mörlin, a favourite pupil of Luther, Francis Staphylus, who afterwards went back to the Romish church (§ 137, 8), and Francis Stancarus of Mantua, a man who bears a very bad reputation for his fomenting of quarrels, were among Osiander’s most inveterate foes. Stancarus carried his opposition to Osiander so far as to maintain that Christ has become our righteousness only in respect of His human nature. The opinions received from abroad were for the inmost part against Osiander. John Brenz, of Württemburg [Württemberg], however, clined rather to favour Osiander’s view than that of his opponents, while Melanchthon, in giving utterance to the Wittenberg opinion, endeavoured by removing misunderstandings to reconcile the opposing parties, but on the main point decided against him. Even Osiander’s death in A.D. 1552 did not put an end to the controversy. At the head of his party now appeared the court preacher, John Funck, who, standing equally high in favour with the duke, filled all positions with his own followers. In his overweening conceit he mixed himself up in political affairs, and put himself in antagonism with the nobles and men of importance in the State. A commission of investigation on the Polish sovereignty at their instigation found him guilty of high treason, and had him beheaded in A.D. 1566. The other Osiandrianists were deposed and exiled. Mörlin, from A.D. 1533 general superintendent of Brunswick, was now honourably recalled as Bishop of Samland, reorganized the Prussian church, and in conjunction with Chemnitz, who had been from A.D. 1554 preacher in Brunswick, where he died in A.D. 1586 as general superintendent, composed for Prussia a new doctrinal standard in the Corpus doctrinæ Pruthenicum of A.D. 1567.[404]

§ 141.3. Of much less importance was the =Æpinus Controversy= about Christ’s descent into hell, which John Æpinus, first Lutheran superintendent at Hamburg, in his exposition of the 16th Psalm, in A.D. 1542, interpreted, after the manner of the Reformed theologians, of His state of humiliation, and as the completion of the passive obedience of Christ in the endurance of the pains of hell; whereas the usual Lutheran understanding of it was, that it referred to Christ’s triumphing over the powers of hell and death in His state of exaltation. An opinion sent from Wittenberg, in A.D. 1550, left the matter undetermined, and even the Formula of Concord was satisfied with teaching that Christ in His full personality descended into hell in order to deliver men from death and the power of the devil.--An equally peaceful settlement was brought about in the =Kargian Controversy=, A.D. 1563-1570, about the significance of the active obedience of Christ, which the pastor of Anspach, George Karg or Parsimonius, for a long time made a subject of dispute; but afterwards he retracted, being convinced of his error by the Wittenberg theologians.

§ 141.4. =The Philippists and their Opponents.=--Not long after the Augsburg Confession had been accepted as the common standard of the Lutheran church two parties arose, in which tendencies of a thoroughly diversant character were gradually developed. The real basis of this opposition lay in the diverse intellectual disposition and development of the two great leaders of the Reformation, which the scholars of both inherited in a very exaggerated form. Melanchthon’s disciples, the so-called Philippists, strove in accordance with their master’s example to make as much as possible of what they had in common, on the one hand, with the Reformed and, on the other hand, with the Catholics, and to maintain a conciliatory attitude that might aid toward effecting union. The personal friends, scholars, and adherents of Luther, on the contrary, for the most part more Lutheran than Luther himself, emulating the rugged decision of their great leader and carrying it out in a one-sided manner, were anxious rather to emphasise and widen as far as possible the gulf that lay between them and their opponents, Reformed and Catholics alike, and thus to make any reconciliation and union by way of compromise impossible. Luther attached himself to neither of these parties, but tried to restrain both from rushing to extremes, and to maintain as far as he could the peace between them.--The modification of strict Augustinianism which Melanchthon’s further study led him to adopt in the editions of his Loci later than A.D. 1535 was denounced by the strict Lutherans as Catholicizing, but still more strongly did they object to the modification of the tenth article of the Augsburg Confession which he introduced into a new rendering of it, the so-called Variata, in A.D. 1540. In its original form it stood thus: Docent, quod corpus et sanguis Domini vere adsint et distribuantur vescentibus in cœna Domini et improbant secus docentes. For these words he now substituted the following: Quod cum pane et vino vere exhibeantur corpus et sanguis Christi vescentibus in cœna Domini. This statement was indeed by no means Calvinistic, for instead of vescentibus the Calvinists would have said credentibus. Yet the arbitrary and in any case Calvinizing change amazed the strict Lutherans, and Luther himself bade its author remember that the book was not his but the church’s creed. After Luther’s death the Philippist party, in the Leipzig Interim of A.D. 1519, made several other very important concessions to the Catholics (§ 136, 7), and this led their opponents to denounce them as open traitors to their church. Magdeburg, which stubbornly refused to acknowledge the interim, became the city of refuge for all zealous Lutherans; while in opposition to the Philippist Wittenberg, the University of Jena, founded in A.D. 1548 by the sons of the ex-elector John Frederick according to his desire, became the stronghold of strict Lutheranism. The leaders on the Philippist side were Paul Eber, George Major, Justus Menius, John Pfeffinger, Caspar Cruciger, Victorin Strigel, etc. At the head of the strict Lutheran party stood Nicholas Amsdorf and Matthias Flacius. The former lived, after his expulsion from Naumburg (§ 135, 5), an “exul Christi,” along with the young dukes at Weimar. On account of his violent opposition to the interim, he was obliged, in A.D. 1548, to flee to Magdeburg, and after the surrender of the city he was placed by his ducal patrons in Eisenach, where he died in A.D. 1565. The latter, a native of Istria, and hence known as Illyricus, was appointed professor of the Hebrew language in Wittenberg in A.D. 1544, fled to Magdeburg in A.D. 1549, from whence he went to Weimar in A.D. 1556, and was called to Jena in A.D. 1557.

§ 141.5. =The Adiaphorist Controversy=, A.D. 1548-1555, as to the permissibility of Catholic forms in constitution and worship, was connected with the drawing up of the Leipzig Interim. That document described most of the Catholic forms of worship as adiaphora, or matters of indifference, which, in order to avoid more serious dangers, might be treated as allowable or unessential. The Lutherans, on the contrary, maintained that even a matter in itself unessential under circumstances like the present could not be treated as permissible. From Magdeburg there was poured out a flood of violent controversial and abusive literature against the Wittenberg renegades and the Saxon apostates. The altered position of the latter from A.D. 1551 hushed up in some measure the wrath of the zealots, and the religious Peace of Augsburg removed all occasion for the continuance of the strife.

§ 141.6. =The Majorist Controversy, A.D. 1551-1562.=--The strict Lutherans from the passing of the interim showed toward the Philippist party unqualified disfavour and regarded them with deep suspicion. When in A.D. 1551, George Major, at that time superintendent at Eisleben, in essential agreement with the interim, one of whose authors he was, and with Melanchthon’s later doctrinal views, maintained the position, that good works are necessary to salvation, and refused to retract the statement, though he somewhat modified his expressions by saying that it was not a necessitas meriti, but only a necessitas conjunctionis s. consequentiæ; and when also Justus Menius, the reformer of Thuringia, superintendent at Gotha, vindicated him in two tractates,--Amsdorf in the heat of the controversy set up in opposition the extreme and objectionable thesis, that good works are injurious to salvation, and even in A.D. 1559 justified it as “a truly Christian proposition preached by St. Paul and Luther.” Notwithstanding all the passionate bitterness that had mixed itself up with the discussion, the more sensible friends of Amsdorf, including even Flacius, saw that the ambiguity and indefiniteness of the expression was leading to error on both sides. They acknowledged, on the one hand, that only faith, not good works in themselves, is necessary to salvation, but that good works are the inevitable fruit and necessary evidence of true, saving faith; and, on the other hand, that not good works in themselves, but only trusting to them instead of the merits of Christ alone, can be regarded as injurious to salvation. Major for the sake of peace recalled his statement in A.D. 1562.

§ 141.7. =The Synergistic Controversy, A.D. 1555-1567.=--Luther in his controversy with Erasmus (§ 125, 3), as well as Melanchthon in the first edition of his Loci, in A.D. 1521, had unconditionally denied the capacity of human nature for independently laying hold upon salvation, and taught an absolute sovereignty of Divine grace in conversion. In his later edition of the Loci, from A.D. 1535, and in the Augsburg Confession of A.D. 1540, however, Melanchthon had admitted a certain co-operation or synergism of a remnant of freewill in conversion, and more exactly defined this in the edition of the Loci of A.D. 1548 as the ability to lay hold by its own impulse of the offered salvation, facultas se applicandi ad gratiam; and though even in the Leipzig Interim of A.D. 1549 the Lutheran shibboleth solê was constantly recurring, it was simply with the object of thoroughly excluding any claim of merit on man’s part in conversion. Luther with indulgent tolerance had borne with the change in Melanchthon’s convictions, and only objected to the incorporation of it in the creed of the church. But from the date of the interim the suspicion and opposition of the strict Lutherans increased from day to day, and burst forth in a violent controversy when John Pfeffinger, superintendent at Leipzig, also one of the authors of the detested interim, published, in A.D. 1555, his Propositiones de libero arbitrio, in defence of Melanchthon’s synergism. The leaders of the Gnesio-Lutherans, Arnsdorf in Eisenach, Flacius in Jena, and Musacus in Weimar, felt that they durst not remain silent, and so they maintained, as alone the genuine Lutheran doctrine, that the natural man cannot co-operate with the workings of Divine grace upon him, but can only oppose them. By order of the Duke John Frederick they prepared at Weimar, in A.D. 1559, as a new manifesto of the restored Lutheranism, a treatise containing a refutation of all the heresies that had hitherto cropped up within the Lutheran church. One of those invited to take part in the work, Victorin Strigel, professor at Jena, was made to suffer for the sympathy which he evinced for synergism by enduring close and severe imprisonment. The duke, however, soon again became more favourable to Strigel, who in A.D. 1560 vindicated himself at a public disputation in Weimar against Flacius, and was soon afterwards called to Leipzig. When in A.D. 1561 the duke set up a consistory in Weimar, and transferred to it the right hitherto exclusively exercised in Jena of ecclesiastical excommunication and the censorship of theological books, and the Flacian party opposed this “Cæsaro-papism” with unmeasured violence, all the adherents of the party were driven out of Jena and out of the whole territory, and their places filled with Melanchthonians. This victory of Philippism, however, was of but short duration. In order to regain the lost electoral rank, the duke allowed himself to be beguiled into taking part in the so-called Grumbach affair. He was cast into the imperial prison, and his brother John William, who now assumed the government, hastened, in A.D. 1567, to restore the overthrown theological party. Even in electoral Saxony interest in the Catholicizing synergism, at least, after Melanchthon’s death, in A.D. 1560, was gradually lost sight of in proportion as the controversy about the Calvinistic doctrine of the Lord’s Supper gradually gained prominence.

§ 141.8. =The Flacian Controversy about Original Sin=, A.D. 1560-1575.--In the heat of the controversy with Strigel at the conference at Weimar, in A.D. 1560, Flacius had committed himself to the statement that original sin in man is not something accidental, but something substantial. His own friends now urged him to retract this proposition, which his opponents had branded as Manichæan. Its author had not indeed intended it in the bad sense which it might be supposed to bear. Flacius, however, was of a character too dogged and obstinate to agree to recall what he had uttered. Expelled with the rest of the Lutherans in A.D. 1562, and not recalled with them in A.D. 1567, he wandered without any fixed place of abode, driven away from almost every place that he entered, until shortly before his death he recalled his overhasty expression. He died in the hospital at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, in A.D. 1575. In him a powerful character and an amazing wealth of learning were utterly lost in consequence of unpropitious circumstances, which were partly his fault and partly his misfortune.

§ 141.9. =The Lutheran Doctrine of the Lord’s Supper.=--The union effected by the Wittenberg Concord of A.D. 1536 (§ 133, 8) with the South German cities, which originally favoured Zwinglian views, had been in many cases threatening to dissolve again, and the attacks of the men of Zürich obliged Luther in A.D. 1544 to compose his last “Confession of the Holy Sacrament against the Fanatics.” The breach with the Zwinglians was now seen to be irreparable, but it appeared as if it were yet possible to come to an understanding with the more profound theory of the Lord’s Supper set forth by Calvin. To carry out this union was a thought very dear to the heart of Melanchthon. He had the conviction, not indeed that the Lutheran doctrine of the real presence of the body and blood in the bread and wine is erroneous, but rather that by the Calvinistic doctrine of a spiritual enjoyment of the body and blood of Christ in the supper by means of faith no essential element of religious truth was lost, and so he sought thereby to get over the difference in confession and doctrine. But with this explanation the strict Lutherans were by no means satisfied, and long continued and extremely passionate discussions were carried on in the various Lutheran countries, especially in Lower Saxony, in the Palatinate, and in the electorate. But the controversy was not restricted to the question of the supper; it rather went back upon a deeper foundation. Luther, carrying out the principles of the third and fourth œcumenical councils, had taught that the personal connection of the two natures in Christ implies a communication of the attributes of the one to the other, communicatio idiomatum, that therefore Christ, since He has by His ascension entered again upon the full exercise of His attributes, is, as God-Man, even in respect of His body, omnipresent, ubiquitas corporis Christi, and refused to allow himself to be perplexed by the incomprehensibility for the human understanding of an omnipresent body. It is here that we come upon the radical distinction between Luther’s view and that of Zwingli and Calvin, according to which the body of Christ cannot be at one and the same time in heaven at God’s right hand and on the earth in bread and wine. But Calvin, as well as Zwingli, from his very intellectual constitution, could only regard the Lutheran doctrine of the ubiquity of the glorified body of Christ as an utter absurdity, and so, repudiating the communicatio idiomatum, he taught that the glorification of Christ’s body is restricted to its transfiguration, and that now in heaven, as before upon the earth, it can be present only in one place. A necessary consequence of this view was the rejection of His corporeal presence in the supper, and at the very most the admission of a communication in the sacrament to believers of a spiritual influence from the glorified body of Christ.--The ablest vindicator of the Lutheran doctrine of the supper in this aspect of its development was the Württemberg reformer John Brenz (§ 133, 3). In the Syngramma Suevicum of A.D. 1525 (§ 131, 1), he has taken his place most decidedly on the side of Luther, and this he had also done again, in A.D. 1529, at the Marburg Conference (§ 132, 4). Then in A.D. 1559, as provost in Stuttgart, in consequence of the doubtful attitude of a Swabian pastor on the question of the supper, he summoned a synod at Stuttgart, before which he laid a confession which expressed the doctrine of the supper and the ubiquity in strict accordance with Lutheran views. In defence of the idea of ubiquity he quoted Ephesians iv. 10, as affording sufficient Scripture support. The synod unanimously adopted it, and the duke gave approval to this Confessio et doctr. theologor. et ministror. Verbi Dei in Ducatu Wirtb. de vera præsentia Corp. et sang, J. Chr. in Cœna Domini, by ordering that all preachers should adopt it, and that it should have symbolic authority throughout the Württemberg church. Melanchthon, who had hitherto been on particularly intimate terms with Brenz, was very indignant at this “unseasonable” creed-making in “barbarous Latin.” Brenz, however, would not be deterred from giving more adequate expression and development to the objectionable dogma, and for this purpose published, in A.D. 1560, his book, De personali unione duarum natur. in Christo.

§ 141.10. =Cryptocalvinism in its First Stage, A.D. 1552-1574.=--The struggle of the Gnesio-Lutherans against Calvin’s doctrine of the supper, and the secret favour shown toward it by several Lutheran theologians, was begun in A.D. 1552 by Joachim Westphal, pastor in Hamburg. Calvin and Bullinger were not slow in giving him a sharp rejoinder. In a yet more violent form the dispute broke out in Bremen, where the cathedral preacher Hardenberg, and in Heidelberg, where the deacon Klebitz, entered the lists against the Lutheran dogma. In both cases the struggle ended in the defeat of Lutheranism (§ 144, 1, 2). In Wittenberg, too, the Philippists George Major, Paul Eber, Paul Crell, etc., supported by the very influential court physician of the electoral court of Saxony, Caspar Peucer, Melanchthon’s son-in-law, from A.D. 1559 successfully advanced the interests of Cryptocalvinism. Melanchthon himself, however, was not to live to see the troubles that arose over this, a truly gracious dispensation of Providence on behalf of a man already sorely borne down and trembling with hypochondriac fears, to have him thus delivered a rabie theologicorum. He died on 19th April, A.D. 1560. While the Elector Augustus, A.D. 1553-1586, intended that his Wittenberg should always be the main stronghold of strict Lutheranism, the Philippists were always coming forward with more and more boldness, and sought to prepare the way for themselves by getting all places filled with members of their party. They persuaded the elector to give a nominative authority throughout Saxony to a collection of Melanchthonian doctrinal and confessional documents compiled by them, Corpus doctrinæ Philippicum s. Misnicum, 1560. The Wittenberg Catechism, Catechesis, etc., ad usum scholar. puerilium, 1571, set forth a doctrine of the sacraments and the person of Christ so manifestly Calvinistic, that even the elector was obliged to give way on account of the strong objections brought against it. The Philippists, however, succeeded in satisfying him by the Consensus Dresdensis, of 10th Oct., A.D. 1571, to this extent, that after the death of Duke John William, in the exercise of his authority as regent, he was induced to expel the Lutheran zealots Wigand and Hesshus from Jena, and in A.D. 1573 had more than a hundred clergymen of the duchy of Saxony deposed. In Breslau their interests were also zealously advanced by the influential imperial physician, John Krafft, to whom the Emperor Maximilian II. had granted a patent of nobility in A.D. 1568, with the new name of Crato von Crafftheim. Another Silesian physician, Joachim Curæus, also a scholar of Melanchthon, published in A.D. 1574, without any indication of author’s name, place of publication, or date of issue, his Exegesis perspicua controversiæ de cœna, which represented Melanchthon’s doctrine of the Lord’s Supper as the only tenable one, controverted that of the Lutherans as popish, eulogized that of the Reformed church as one most honouring to God, and urgently counselled union with the Calvinists. The warm recommendation of this treatise on the part of the Wittenberg Philippists, however, rather contributed to its failure. For now, at last, even the elector had become convinced of the danger that threatened Lutheranism through hints given him by the princes, and information obtained from intercepted letters. The Philippists were banished, their chiefs thrown into prison, Peucer being confined for twelve years, A.D. 1574-1586. A thanksgiving service in all the churches and memorial medal celebrated the rooting out in A.D. 1574 of Calvinism, and the final victory of restored Lutheranism.--In Denmark, Nicholas Hemming, pastor and professor at Copenhagen, distinguished alike by adequate scholarship and rich literary activity, and by mildness and temperateness of character, and hence designated the Preceptor of Denmark, was the recognised head of the Melanchthonian school. As a decided opponent of the doctrine of ubiquity, though otherwise on all points, and especially in his doctrine of the Lord’s Supper, a good Lutheran, he fell under the suspicion of the German Gnesio-Lutherans as a Cryptocalvinist, and was accordingly opposed by them. In A.D. 1579, by order of the Elector Augustus, his brother-in-law, the King of Denmark removed him from his offices in Copenhagen, appointing him to a canonry in the cathedral at Roeskilde, where in A.D. 1600 he died.

§ 141.11. =The Frankfort Compact, A.D. 1558, and the Naumburg Assembly of Princes, A.D. 1561.=--After the disgraceful issue of the Worms Conference of A.D. 1557 (§ 137, 6), the Protestant princes, the electors Augustus of Saxony, Joachim of Brandenburg, and Ottheinrich of the Palatinate, with Philip of Hesse, Christopher of Württemberg, and the Count-palatine Wolfgang, who were gathered together about the Emperor Ferdinand, consulted as to the means which they should employ to insure and confirm the threatened unity of the evangelical church of Germany. The result of their deliberations was, that they agreed to sign a statement drawn up by Melanchthon and known by the name of the =Frankfort Compact=, in which they declared anew their unanimous attachment to the doctrine set forth in the Augustana, the Variata, and the Saxonica (§ 136, 8), and in regard to controversial questions that had been discussed within the church expressed themselves in moderate terms as inclined to the views of Melanchthon. The Flacian party in Jena hastened to set forth their opposing sentiments in the manifesto of A.D. 1559, already referred to, in which the strict Gnesio-Lutheranism was laid down in the hardest and boldest manner possible.--The divisions that arose within the Lutheran church after Melanchthon’s death and the imminent reassembling of the Tridentine Council led the evangelical princes of Germany, who, with the exception of Philip of Hesse, all belonged to a new generation, once more to put forth every effort to restore unity by adoption of a common evangelical confession. At the =Assembly of Princes= appointed to meet for this purpose at =Naumburg= in A.D. 1561, most of them appeared personally. There was no thought of preparing a new confession, because it was feared that in those times of agitation it might be impossible to draw up such a document, or that, even if they succeeded in doing so, it might not close the breach, but rather widen it. Thus the only alternative remaining was to attempt the healing of the schism by reverting to the standpoint of the Augsburg Confession. But then the question arose whether the original form of statement of A.D. 1530, or its later elaboration of A.D. 1540, should be taken as the basis of union negotiations.--This at least was to be said in favour of the latter, that it had been unanimously adopted as the common confession of all the evangelicals of Germany at the peace Conference of Worms in A.D. 1540, where even Calvin had signed it, and at Regensburg in A.D. 1541 (§ 135, 2, 3); and now Philip of Hesse and Frederick III. of the Palatinate came forward decidedly in its favour. But all the more persistently did the Duke John Frederick of Saxony oppose it, and make every endeavour to get the rest of the princes to give their votes in favour of the Augsburg Confession of A.D. 1530. But the duke’s further wish to have added to it the Schmalcald Articles found very little favour. Finally a compromise was effected, in accordance with which, in a newly drawn up preface, the Apology of the Augustana, as well as the edition of A.D. 1540, was acknowledged, while the Schmalcald Articles, as well as the Confessio Saxonica (§ 136, 8) and the Frankfort Compact, were passed over in silence. John Frederick now demanded the adoption of an express condemnation of the Calvinising Sacramentarians. This led to a hot discussion between him and his father-in-law, the elector-palatine. He took his departure on the following day without having received his dismissal, leaving behind him a sharply worded protest. Ulrich of Mecklenburg also refused to subscribe, but allowed himself at last to be persuaded into doing so. At the sixteenth session two papal legates personally delivered to the princes a brief inviting them to attend the council. This latter, however, was returned unopened when they discovered in the address the usual but artfully concealed formula “dilecto filio.” Also the demand of the imperial embassy accompanying the legates to take part in the council was determinedly rejected, because that would mean not revision but simply a continuation of the previous sessions of the council, at which the evangelical doctrine had already been definitely condemned.

§ 141.12. =The Formula of Concord, A.D. 1577.=--Already for a long time had the learned chancellor Jac. Andreä of Tübingen wrought unweariedly for the restoration of peace among the theologians of the Lutheran church. In order also to win over the general membership in favour of peace, he attempted in six popular discourses, delivered in A.D. 1573, to instruct them in reference to the points in dispute and proper means for overcoming these differences. He was so successful in his efforts, that he soon ventured to propose that these lectures should be made the basis of further negotiations. But when Martin Chemnitz, the most distinguished theologian of his age, pronounced them unsuitable for that purpose, Andreä wrought them up anew in accordance with Chemnitz’s critical suggestions into the so called “Swabian Concord.” But even in this form they did not satisfy the theologians of Lower Saxony. The Swabian theologians, however, in their criticisms and emendations, had answered various statements in it, and in A.D. 1576 they produced a new union scheme, drafted by Luc. Osiander, called the “Maulbronn Formula.” The Elector Augustus of Saxony then summoned a theological convention at Torgau, at which, besides Andreä and Chemnitz, there were also present Chytræus from Rostock, as well as Körner and Andr. Musculus from Frankfort-on-the-Oder. They wrought up the material thus accumulated before them into the “Book of Torgau,” of A.D. 1576. In regard to this book also the evangelical princes delivered numerous opinions, and now at last, in obedience to the order of the princes, Andreä, Chemnitz, Selnecker (§ 142, 4), Chytræus, Musculus, and Körner retired into the cloister of Berg at Magdeburg in order to make a final revision of all that was before them. Thus originated, in A.D. 1577, the Book of Berg or the =Formula of Concord=, in two different forms, first in the most compressed style possible in what is known as the Epitome, and then more completely in the document known as the Solida declaratio. This document dealt with all the controverted questions that had been agitated since A.D. 1530 in twelve articles. It set forth the doctrine of the Person of Christ, giving prominence to the theory of ubiquity, as the basis of the doctrine of the supper, leaving it, however, undetermined in accordance with the teaching of Brenz, whether the ubiquity is to be regarded as an absolute or as a relative one, if only it be maintained that Christ in respect of His human nature, therefore in respect of His body, is present “ubicunque velit,” more particularly in the holy supper. An opportunity was also found in treating of the synergistic questions to set forth the doctrine of predestination, although within the Lutheran church no real controversy on this subject had ever arisen. Luther, who at first (§ 125, 3) had himself given expression to a particularist doctrine of election, had gradually receded from that position. It was so too with Melanchthon, only with this important difference, that whereas Luther, afterwards as well as before, excluded every sort of co-operation of man in conversion, Melanchthon felt himself obliged to admit a certain degree of co-operation, which even the censure of Calvin himself could not lead him to repudiate. When now the Formula of Concord, rejecting synergism in the most decided manner, affirmed that since the fall there was in men not even a spark remaining, ne scintillula quidem, of spiritual power for the independent free appropriation of offered grace, it had gone over from the platform of Melanchthon to that which Calvin, following the course of hard, logical consistency, had been driven to adopt, in the assertion of a doctrine of absolute predestination. The formula was thus in the main in agreement with the speculation of Calvin. But it declined to accept the conclusions arrived at in Calvinism by declaring that while man indeed of himself wanted the power to lay hold upon Divine grace and co-operate with it in any way, he was yet able to withstand it and refuse to accept it. In this way it was able to hold by the express statements of Scripture which represent God as willing that all men should be saved, and salvation as an absolute work of grace, but condemnation as the consequence of man’s own guilt. It regards the salvation of men as the only object of Divine predestination, condemnation as merely an object of the Divine foreknowledge.--At a later period an attempt was made to set at rest the scruples that prevailed here and there by securing at Berg, in February, A.D. 1580, the adoption of an addition to it in the form of a Præfatio drawn up by Andreä as a final determination of the controversy. The character of this new symbolical document, in accordance with its occasion and its aim, was not so much that of a popular exposition for the church, but rather that of a scientific theological treatise. For that period of excitement and controversy it is quite remarkable and worthy of high praise for its good sense, moderation, and circumspection, as well as for the accuracy and clearness with which it performed its task. The fact that nine thousand of the teachers of the church subscribed it affords sufficient proof of it having fulfilled the end contemplated. Denmark and Sweden, Holstein, Pomerania, Hesse, and Anhalt, besides eight cities, Magdeburg, Dantzig, Nuremberg, Strassburg, etc., refused to sign from various and often conflicting motives. In A.D. 1581 Frederick II. of Denmark is said indeed to have thrown it into the fire. Yet in later years it was adopted in not a few of these regions, e.g. in Sweden, Holstein, Pommerania [Pomerania], etc. The Elector Augustus of Saxony, in the Book of Concord, brought out a collection of all general Lutheran confessional writings which, signed by fifty-one princes and thirty-five cities, was solemnly promulgated on the anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, 25th June, A.D. 1580. By this means the whole Lutheran church of Germany obtained a common corpus doctrinæ, and the numerous collections of confessional and doctrinal documents acknowledged by the church, which hitherto separate national churches had drawn up for this purpose, henceforth lost their authority.

§ 141.13. =Second Stage of Cryptocalvinism, A.D. 1586-1592.=--Yet once more the Calvinising endeavours of the Philippists were renewed in the electorate of Saxony under Augustus’ successor Christian I., who had obtained this position in A.D. 1586, through his relationship with the family of the count-palatine. His chancellor Nicholas Crell filled the offices of pastors and teachers with men of his own views, abolished exorcism at baptism, and had even begun the publication of a Bible with a Calvinising commentary when Christian died, in A.D. 1591. The Duke Frederick William of Altenburg, as regent during the minority, immediately re-introduced strict Lutheranism, and, preparatory to a church visitation, had a new anti-Calvinistic standard of doctrine compiled in the so called =Articles of Visitation= of A.D. 1592, which all civil and ecclesiastical officers in Saxony were required to accept. In short, clear, and well defined theses and antitheses the doctrinal differences on the supper, the Person of Christ, baptism, and election were there set forth. In reference to baptism, the anti-Calvinistic doctrine was promulgated, that regeneration takes place through baptism, and that therefore every baptized person is regenerate. The most important among the compilers of these Articles of Visitation was Ægidius Hunnius, shortly before called to Wittenberg, after having, from A.D. 1576 to 1592, as professor at Marburg, laboured with all his might in opposition to the Calvinising of Hesse. He had also, by his defence of the doctrine of ubiquity, in his “Confession of the Doctrine of the Person of Christ” in German, in A.D. 1577, and his Latin treatise, “Libelli IV. de pers. Chr. ejusque ad dexteram sedentes divina majestate,” in A.D. 1585, shown himself an energetic champion of strict Lutheranism. He died in A.D. 1603.--The unfortunate chancellor Crell, however, who had made himself hateful to the Lutherans as the promoter and chief instigator of all the Calvinising measures of the deceased elector, and yet more so by his energetic interference with the usurpations of the nobles, suffered an imprisonment of ten years in the fortress of Königstein, and was then, after a trial conducted in the most arbitrary manner, declared to be a traitor and an enemy of the public peace, and executed in A.D. 1601.

§ 141.14. =The Huber Controversy, A.D. 1588-1595.=--Samuel Huber, reformed pastor in the Canton Bern, became involved in a controversy with Wolfgang Musculus over the doctrine of election. Going even beyond the Lutheran doctrine, he affirmed that all men are predestinated to salvation, although through their own fault not all are saved. Banished from Bern in A.D. 1588, after a disputation with Beza, he entered the Lutheran church and became pastor at Württemberg. Here he charged the Professor Gerlach with Cryptocalvinism, because he taught that only believers are predestinated to salvation. The controversy was broken off by his call to Wittenberg. But even his Wittenberg colleagues, Polic. Leyser and Ægidius Hunnius, fell under the suspicion of Cryptocalvinism, and were accordingly opposed by him. When all disputation and conferences had failed to get him to abandon his doctrine, and parties began to be formed among the students, he was, in A.D. 1594, removed from Wittenberg. With increasing rancour he continued the controversy, and wandered about Germany for many years in order to secure a following for his theory, but without success. He died in A.D. 1624.

§ 141.15. =The Hofmann Controversy in Helmstadt, A.D. 1598.=--The great influence which the study of the Aristotelian philosophy in connection with that of humanism obtained in the Julius University founded at Helmstadt in A.D. 1576, seemed to its theological professor, Daniel Hofmann, to threaten injury to theological study, and to be prejudicial to pure Lutheran doctrine. He therefore attached himself to the Romists (§ 143, 6), and took advantage of the occasion of the conferring of doctor’s degrees to deliver a violent invective against the incursions of reason and philosophy into the region of religion and revelation. In consequence of this his philosophical colleagues complained of him to the senate as a reproacher of reason, and as one injurious to their faculty. That court obliged him to retract and apologise, and then deprived him of his office as professor of theology.

§ 142. CONSTITUTION, WORSHIP, LIFE, AND SCIENCE IN THE LUTHERAN CHURCH.

In reference also to the ecclesiastical constitution, by holding firmly to the standpoint and to the working out of the system which it had sketched out in its confession and doctrinal teaching, the Lutheran church sought to mediate between extremes, although, amid the storms from without and from within by which it was threatened, it was just at this point that it was least successful. It reflected its character more clearly and decidedly in its order of worship than in its constitution.--The Reformation at last relaxed that hierarchical ban which for centuries had put an absolute restraint upon congregational singing, and had excluded the use of the vernacular in the services of the church. Even within the limits of the Reformation era, the German church song attained unto such a wonderful degree of excellence, as affords the most convincing evidence of the fulness, power, and spirituality, the genuine elevation and fresh enthusiasm, of the spiritual life of that age. The sacred poetry of the church is the confession of the Lutheran people, and has accomplished even more than preaching for extending and deepening the Christian life of the evangelical church. No sooner had a sacred song of this sort burst forth from the poet’s heart, than it was everywhere taken up by the Christian people of the land, and became familiar to every lip. It found entrance into all houses and churches, was sung before the doors, in the workshops, in the market-places, streets, and fields, and won at a single blow whole cities to the evangelical faith.--The Christian life of the people in the Lutheran church combined deep, penitential earnestness and a joyfully confident consciousness of justification by faith with the most nobly steadfast cheerfulness and heartiness natural to the German citizen. Faithful attention to the spiritual interests of their people, vigorous ethical preaching, and zealous efforts to promote the instruction of the young on the part of their pastors, created among them a healthy and hearty fear of God, without the application of any very severe system of church discipline, a thorough and genuine attachment to the church, strict morality in domestic life, and loyal submission to civil authority.--Theological science flourished especially at the universities of Wittenberg, Tübingen, Strassburg, Marburg, and Jena.

§ 142.1. =The Ecclesiastical Constitution.=--As a mean between hierarchism and Cæsaro-papism, between the intrusion of the State into the province of the church, and the intrusion of the church into the province of the State, the ecclesiastical constitution of the Lutheran church was theoretically right in the main, though in practice and even in theory many defects might be pointed out. It presented at least a protest against all commingling or subordinating of one or the other in these two spheres. Owing to the urgent needs of the church, the princes and magistrates, in the character of emergency-bishops, undertook the supreme administration and management of ecclesiastical affairs, and transferred the exercise of these rights and duties to special boards called consistories, made up of lay and clerical members, which were to have jurisdiction over the clergy, the administration of discipline, and the arranging and enforcing of the marriage laws. What had been introduced simply as a necessity in the troubled condition of the church in those times came gradually to be claimed as a prescriptive right. According to the Episcopal System, the territorial lord as such claimed to rank and act as summus episcopus. After introducing some cautious modifications that were absolutely indispensable, the canon law actually left the foundation of jurisprudence untouched. The restoration of the biblical idea of a universal priesthood of all believers would not tolerate the retaining of the theory of an essential distinction between the clergy and the laity. The clergy were properly designated the servants, ministri, of the church, of the word, of the altar, and all restrictions that had been imposed upon the clergy, and distinguished them as an order, were removed. Hierarchical distinctions among the clergy were renounced, as opposed to the spirit of Christianity; but the advantage of a superordination and subordination in respect of merely human rights, in the institution of such offices as those of superintendents, provosts, etc., was recognised.--Ecclesiastical property was in many cases diverted from the church and arbitrarily appropriated by the greed and rapacity of princes and nobles, but still in great part, especially in Germany, it continued in the possession of the church, except in so far as it was applied to the endowment of schools, universities, and charitable institutions. The monasteries fell under a doom which by reason of their corruptions they had richly deserved. A restoration of such establishments in an evangelical spirit was not to be thought of during a period of convulsion and revolution.--Continuation, § 165, 5.

§ 142.2. =Public Worship and Art.=--While the Roman Catholic order of worship was dominated almost wholly by fancy and feeling, and that of the reformed church chiefly by the reason, the Lutheran church sought to combine these two features in her services. In Romish worship all appealed to the senses, and in that of the Calvinistic churches all appealed to the understanding; but in the Lutheran worship both sides of human nature were fully recognised, and a proportionate place assigned to each. The unity of the church was not regarded as lying in the rigid uniformity of forms of worship, but in the unity of the confession. Altars ornamented with candles and crucifixes, as well as all the images that might be in churches, were allowed to remain, not as objects of worship, but rather to aid in exciting and deepening devotion. The liturgy was closely modelled upon the Romish ritual of the mass, with the exclusion of all unevangelical elements. The preaching of the word was made the central point of the whole public service. Luther’s style of preaching, the noble and powerful popularity of which has probably never since been equalled, certainly never surpassed, was the model and pattern which the other Lutheran preachers set before themselves. Among these, the most celebrated were Ant. Corvin, Justus Jonas, George Spalatin, Bugenhagen, Jerome Weller, John Brenz, Veit Dietrich, J. Mathesius, Martin Chemnitz. It was laid down as absolutely essential to the idea of public worship, that the congregation should take part in it, and that the common language of the people should be exclusively employed. The adoration of the sacrament on the altar, as well as the Romish service of the mass, were set aside as unevangelical, and the sacrament of the supper was to be administered to the whole congregation in both kinds. On the other hand, it was admitted that baptism was necessary, and might and should be administered in case of need by laymen. The customary formulary of exorcism in baptism was at first continued without dispute, and though Luther himself attached no great importance to it, yet every attempt to secure its discontinuance was resisted by the later Gnesio-Lutherans as savouring of Cryptocalvinism. Yet it should be remembered that such orthodox representatives of Lutheranism as Hesshus, Ægidius Hunnius, and Martin Chemnitz, as well as afterwards John Gerhard, Quenstedt, and Hollaz, were only in favour of its being allowed, but not of its being regarded as necessary. Spener again declared himself decidedly in favour of its being removed, and in the eighteenth century it passed without any serious opposition into disuse throughout almost the whole of the Lutheran church, until re-introduced in the nineteenth century by the Old Lutherans (§ 176, 2).--The church festivals were restricted to celebrations of the facts of redemption; only such of the feasts of Mary and the saints were retained as had legitimate ground in the Bible history; e.g. the days of the apostles, the annunciation of Mary, Michael’s Day, St. John’s Day, etc. Art was held by Luther in high esteem, especially music. Lucas Cranach, who died in A.D. 1553, Hans Holbein, father and son, and Albert Dürer, who died in A.D. 1528, placed their art as painters at the service of the gospel, and adorned the churches with beautiful and thoughtful pictures.

§ 142.3. =Church Song.=--The character common to the sacred songs of the Lutheran church of the sixteenth century is that they are thoroughly suited for congregational purposes, and are truly popular. They are songs of faith and the creed, with a clear impress of objectivity. The writers of them do not describe their subjective feelings, nor their individual experiences, but they let the church herself by their mouths express her faith, her comfort, her thanksgiving, and adoration. But they are also genuinely songs of the people; true, simple, hearty, bright, and bold in expression, rapid in movement, no standing still and looking back, no elaborate painting and describing, no subtle demonstrating and teaching. Even in outward form they closely resemble the old German epics and the popular historical ballad, and were intended above all not merely to be read, but to be sung, and that by the whole congregation. The ecclesiastical authorities began to introduce hymn-books into the several provinces toward the end of the seventeenth century. Previously there had only been private collections of sacred songs, and the hymns were distinguished only by the words of the opening line; and so widely known were they, that the mentioning of them was sufficient to secure the hymn so designated being sung by the congregation present at the public service.--The sacred songs of the Reformation age possess all these characteristics in remarkable degree. Among all the sacred poets of that time =Luther= stands forth pre-eminent. His thirty-six hymns or sacred poems belong to five different classes.

1. There are free translations of Latin hymns: “Praised be Thou, O Jesus Christ;” “Thou who art Three in unity;” “In our true God we all believe;” “Lord God, we praise do Thee;” “In the midst of life we are aye in death’s embraces;” “Come God, Creator, Holy Ghost,” etc.

2. There are reproductions of original German songs: “Death held our Lord in prison;” “Now pray we to the Holy Ghost;” “God the Father with us be;” “Let God be praised, blessed, and uplifted.”

3. We have also paraphrastic renderings of certain psalms: “Ah, God in heaven, look down anew” (Ps. xii.); “Although the mouth say of the unwise” (Ps. xiv.); “Our God, He is a castle strong” (Ps. xlvi.); “God, unto us right gracious be” (Ps. lxvii.); “Had God not been with us this time” (Ps. cxxiv.); “From trouble deep I cry to Thee” (Ps. cxxx.), etc.

4. We have also songs composed on particular Scripture themes: “There are the holy ten commands;” “To Isaiah the prophet this was given” (Isa. vi.); “From heaven on high I come to you” (Luke ii.); “To Jordan, where our Lord has gone,” etc.

5. There are, finally, poems original in form and contents: “Dear Christians, let us now rejoice;” “Jesus Christ, our Saviour true;” “Lord, keep us by Thy word in hope.”[405]

After Luther, the most celebrated hymn-writers in the Lutheran church of the sixteenth century are =Paul Speratus=, reformer in Prussia, who died in A.D. 1554; =Nicholas Decius=, first a monk, then evangelical pastor at Stettin about A.D. 1524. =Paul Eber=, professor and superintendent in Wittenberg, who died in A.D. 1569, author of the hymns, “When in the hour of utmost need;” “Lord Jesus Christ, true Man and God;” and one of which our well-known “Jesus, Thy blood and righteousness,” is a paraphrase.[406] Hans Sachs, shoemaker in Nuremberg, who died in A.D. 1567, wrote during the famine in that city in A.D. 1552 the hymn, “Why art thou thus cast down, my heart?” =John Schneesing=, pastor in Gothaschen, who died in A.D. 1567, wrote “Lord Jesus Christ, in Thee alone.” =John Mathesius=, rector and deacon in Joachimsthal, who also delivered sermons on Luther’s life, died in A.D. 1565, wrote a beautiful morning hymn, and other sweet sacred pieces. =Nicholas Hermann=, who died in A.D. 1561, precentor at Joachimsthal, wrote out Mathesius’ sermons in hymns, “The happy sunshine all is gone,” the burial hymn, “Now hush your cries, and shed no tear,” etc. =Michael Weisse= closes the series of hymn-writers of the Reformation age. He was a German pastor in Bohemia, translator and editor of the sacred songs of the Bohemian Hussites, and died in A.D. 1540. He wrote “Christ the Lord is risen again,” and the burial hymn to which Luther added a verse, “Now lay we calmly in the grave.”[407]

§ 142.4. In the period immediately following, from A.D. 1560 to A.D. 1618, we meet with many poetasters who write on sacred themes in doggerel rhymes. Even those who are poets by natural endowment, and inspired with Divine grace, are much too prolific; but they have bequeathed to us a genuine wealth of beautiful church songs, characterized by healthful objectivity, childlike simplicity, and a singular power of appealing to the hearts of the great masses of the people. But a tendency already begins to manifest itself in the direction of that excessive subjectivity which was the vice of hymn-writers in the succeeding period; the doctrinal element too becomes more and more prominent, as well as application to particular circumstances and occasions in life; but the objective confession of faith is always still predominant. Among the sacred poets of this period the most important are =Bartholmaus Ringwaldt=, pastor in Brandenburg, who died in A.D. 1597, author of “’Tis sure that awful time will come;” =Nicholas Selnecker=, at last superintendent in Leipzig, who died in A.D. 1592, as Melanchthon’s scholar suspected at one time of Cryptocalvinism, but, after he had taken part in the composition of the Formula of Concord, the object of the most bitter hatred and constant persecution on the part of the Cryptocalvinists of Saxony: he wrote, “O Lord my God, I cry to Thee;” =Martin Schalling=, pastor at Regensburg and Nuremberg, who died in A.D. 1608, wrote, “Lord, all my heart is fixed on Thee;” =Martin Böhme= or Behemb, pastor in Lusatia, who died in A.D. 1621, author of “Lord Jesus Christ, my Life, my Light.” The series closes with =Philip Nicolai=, a violent and determined opponent of Calvinism, who was latterly pastor in Hamburg, and died in A.D. 1608. His vigorous and rhythmical poetry, with its deep undertone of sweetness, is to some extent modelled on the Song of Songs. He wrote “Awake, awake, for night is flying;” the chorale in Mendelssohn’s “St. Paul,” “Sleepers, wake, a voice is calling,” is a rendering of the same piece.--Continuation, § 159, 3.

§ 142.5. =Chorale Singing.=--The congregational singing, which the Reformation made an integral part of evangelical worship, was essentially a reproduction of the Ambrosian mode (§ 59, 5) in a purer form and with richer fulness. It was distinguished from the Gregorian style preeminently by this, that it was not the singing of a choir of priests, but the popular singing of the whole congregation. The name chorale singing, however, was still continued, and has come to be the technical and appropriate designation of the new mode. It is further distinguished from the Gregorian mode by this other characteristic, that instead of singing in a uniform monotone of simple notes of equal length, it introduces a richer rhythm with more lively modulation. And, finally, it is characterized by the introduction of harmony in place of the customary unison. But, on the other hand, the chorale singing may be regarded as a renewal of the old cantus firmus, while at the same time it sets aside the secular music style and the artificialities of counterpoint and the elaborate ornamentation with which the false taste of the Middle Ages had overlaid it. The congregation sang the cantus firmus or melody in unison, the singers in the choir gave it the accompaniment of a harmony. The organ during the Reformation age was used for support, and accompanied only in elaborate, high-class music. But the melody was pitched in a medium key, which as the leading voice was called Tenor. The melodies for the new church hymns were obtained, partly by adaptation of the old tunes for the Latin hymns and sequences, partly by appropriation of popular mediæval airs, especially among the Bohemian Brethren, partly also and mainly by the free use of the popular song tunes of the day, to which no one made any objection, since indeed the spiritual songs were often parodies of the popular songs whose airs were laid hold upon for church use. The few original melodies of this age were for the most part composed by the authors of the hymns themselves or by the singers, and were the outflow of the same inspiration as had called forth the poems. They have therefore been rarely equalled in impressiveness, spiritual glow, and power by any of the more artistic productions of later times. Acquaintance with the new melodies was spread among the people by itinerant singers, chorister boys in the streets, and the city cornet players. From the singers or those who adapted the melodies are to be distinguished the composers, who as technical musicians arranged the harmony and set it in a form suitable for church use. =George Rhaw=, precentor in Leipzig, afterwards printer in Wittenberg, and =Hans Walter=, choirmaster to the elector, both intimate friends of Luther, were amongst the most celebrated composers of their day. The evangelical church music reaches its highest point of excellence toward the end of the sixteenth century. The great musical composer, =John Eccart=, who was latterly choirmaster in Berlin, and died in A.D. 1611, was the most active agent in securing this perfection of his art. In order to make the melody clearer and more distinctly heard, it was transferred from the middle voice, the tenor, to the higher voice or treble. The other voices now came in as simple concords alongside of the melody, and the organ, which had now been almost perfected by the introduction of many important improvements, now came into general use with its pure, rich, and accurate full harmony, as a support and accompaniment of the congregational singing. The distinction too between singers and composers passed more and more out of view. The skilled artistic singing was thus brought into closer relations with the congregational singing, and the creative power, out of which an abundant supply of original melodies was produced, grew and developed from year to year.

§ 142.6. =Theological Science.=--Inasmuch as the Reformation had its origin in the word of God, and supported itself upon that foundation alone the theologians of the Reformation were obliged to give special attention to biblical studies. John Förster, who died in A.D. 1556, and John Avenarius, who died in A.D. 1576, both of Wittenberg, compiled Hebrew lexicons, which embodied the results of independent investigations. =Matthias Flacius=, in his Clavis Scr. s., provided what for that time was a very serviceable aid to the study of Scripture. The first part gives in alphabetical order an explanation of Scripture words and forms of speech, the second forms a system of biblical hermeneutics. Exegesis proper found numerous representatives. Luther himself beyond dispute holds the front rank in this department. After him the most important Lutheran exegetes of that age are for the New Testament, Melanchthon; Victorin Strigel, who wrote Hyponm. in Novum Testamentum; Flacius, with his Glossa compendiaria in Novum Testamentum; Joachim Camerarius, with his Notationes in Nov. Testamentum; =Martin Chemnitz=, with his Harmonia IV. Evangeliorum, continued by Polic. Leyser, and completed at last by John Gerhard: for the Old Testament, especially =John Brenz=, whose commentaries are still worthy of being consulted. Of less consequence are the numerous commentaries of the comprehensive order, compiled by the once scarcely less influential David Chytræus of Rostock, who died in A.D. 1600. The series of Lutheran dogmatists opens with =Melanchthon=, who published his Loci communes in A.D. 1521. =Martin Chemnitz=, in his Loci theologici, contributed an admirable commentary to Melanchthon’s work, and it soon became the recognised standard dogmatic treatise in the Lutheran church. In A.D. 1562 he published his Examen Conc. Trident., in which he combated the Romish doctrine with as much learning and thoroughness as good sense, mildness, and moderation. Polemical theology was engaged upon with great vigour amid the many internal and external controversies, conducted often with intense passion and bitterness. In the department of church history we have the gigantic work of the Magdeburg centuriators, the result of the bold scheme of =Matthias Flacius=. By his Catalogus testium veritatis he had previously advanced evidence to show that at no point in her history had the church been without enlightened and pious heroes of faith, who had carried on the uninterrupted historical continuity of evangelical truth, and so secured an unbroken succession from the early apostolic church till that of the sixteenth century.--Continuation, § 159, 4.

§ 142.7. =German National Literature.=--The Reformation occurred at a time when the poetry and national literature of Germany was in a condition of profound prostration, if not utter collapse. But it brought with it a reawakening of creative powers in the national and intellectual life of the people. Under the influence and stimulus of Luther’s own example there arose a new prose literature, inspired by a broad, liberal spirit, as the expression of a new view of the world, which led the Germans both to think and teach in German. It was mainly the intellectual friction from the contact of one fresh mind with another in regard to questions agitated in the Reformation movement that gave to the satirical writings of the age that brilliancy, point, and popularity which in the history of German literature was not attained before and never has been reached since. In innumerable fugitive sheets, in the most diverse forms of style and language, in poetry and prose, in Latin and German, these satires poured forth contempt and scorn against and in favour of the Reformation. As we have on the Catholic side Thomas Murner (§ 125, 4), and on the Reformed side Nicholas Manuel (§ 130, 4), so we have on the Lutheran side =John Fischart=, far excelling the former two, and indeed the greatest satirist that Germany has yet produced. To him we are mainly indebted for the almost incessant stream of anonymous satires of the sixteenth century. He belonged, like Sebastian Brandt and Thomas Murner, to Strassburg, was for a long time advocate at the royal court of justice at Spires, and died in A.D. 1589. His satirical vein was exercised first of all upon ecclesiastical matters: “The Night Raven (Rabe) and the Hooded Crow,” against a certain J. Rabe, who had become a Roman Catholic. “On the Pretty Life of St. Dominic and St. Francis,” an abusive effusion against the Dominicans and Francisans [Franciscan]. “The Beehive of the Romish Swarm,” the best known of all his satires, an independent and original working up of the theme of the book bearing the same name by Philip von Marnix (§ 139, 12). “The Four-horned Bat of the Jesuits,” in rhyme, the most stinging, witty, and scathing satire which has ever been written against the Jesuits. Then he turned his attention to secular subjects. His “Beehive” may be regarded as a companion piece to Murner’s “Lutheran Buffoon;” but excelling this passionately severe production in spirit, wit, and bright, laughing sarcasm, it is as certain to win the pre-eminence and be awarded the victory. Among the secular poets of that century the shoemaker of Nuremberg, =Hans Sachs=, who died in A.D. 1576, an admirable specimen of the Lutheran burgher, holds the first rank. As a minstrel he is almost as unimportant as any of his contemporaries, but conspicuously excelling in the poetic rendering of many tales, legends, and traditions by his naïve drollery, honest good-heartedness, and fresh, lively vigour and style. He left behind him 208 comedies and tragedies, 1,700 humorous tales, 4,200 lays and ballads. He gave a bright and cheery greeting to the Reformation in A.D. 1523 in his poem, “The Wittenberg Nightingale,” and by this he also contributed very much to further and recommend the introduction of the teachings of the Reformation among his fellow citizens.

§ 142.8. For =Missions to the Heathen= very little was done during this period. The reason of this indeed is not far to seek. The Lutheran church felt that home affairs had the first and in the meantime an all-engrossing claim upon her attention and energies. She had not the call which the Roman Catholic church had, in consequence of political and mercantile relations with distant countries, to prosecute missions in heathen lands, nor had she the means for conducting such enterprises as those on which the monkish orders were engaged. Yet we find the beginnings of a Lutheran mission even in this early period, for Gustavus Vasa of Sweden founded, in A.D. 1559, an association for carrying the gospel to the neglected and benighted Lapps.[408]

§ 143. THE INNER DEVELOPMENT OF THE REFORMED CHURCH.

The close connection which all Lutheran national churches had obtained in their possession of one common confession was wanting to the Reformed church, inasmuch as there each national church had drawn up its own confession. The victory of Calvinistic dogmatic over the Zwinglian in the Swiss mother church (§ 138, 7) was not without influence upon the other Reformed national churches; and Calvinism, partly in its entire stringency and severity, partly in a form more or less modified, without expressing itself in one common symbol, formed henceforth a bond of union and a common standard for attacks on Lutheran dogmatics. Quite similar was the origin of the divergence that arose between Zwinglianism and Calvinism in the department of the ecclesiastical constitution. In this case also the victory was with the Calvinistic organization. Its ideal embraced the restoration of the primitive apostolic presbyterial and synodal constitution, together with the church’s unconditional independence of the State. This proved much more acceptable than the theory which, under Zwingli’s auspices, had been adopted in German Switzerland, according to which church government and the administration of discipline were put in the hands of the Christian civil magistrates. A rigid system of ecclesiastical penitential discipline, however, was on all sides applied to the public and private lives of all church members. Under such discipline the community came generally to present a picture of singularly pure and correct morality, and not infrequently we see exhibited a remarkable development of high moral character. It fostered the noble confidence of the martyr spirit, which indeed only too often ran out into extremes and made an unjustifiable use of Old Testament precedents and patterns.--In reference to worship, the Reformed church, with its simplest possible form of service, stripped of all pomp and ceremony, presents the most thorough and marked contrast to the gorgeous and richly ceremonial worship of the Roman Catholic church.--Yet the episcopal Anglican national church (§ 139, 6), in almost all particulars relating to constitution, worship, discipline, and customs, completely severed its connection with the distinctive characteristics of the Reformed church, and allied itself to the traditional forms and ceremonies of the Roman Catholic church. On the other hand, in reference to dogma it approaches in its mediating attitude nearer in several respects to the view of the Lutheran church. But all the more rigidly and exclusively did the Puritans who separated themselves from the Anglican church, as well as the strict Presbyterian church of Scotland, appropriate, and even carry out to further extremes, the rigorism of the Genevan model in regard both to worship and to doctrine.

§ 143.1. =The Ecclesiastical Constitution.=--Just as in the Lutheran church, the ecclesiastical leaders had been driven by necessity to submit to the so-called super-episcopate of the princes, it also happened here in German Switzerland that, under pressure of circumstances, this power, as well as church discipline and infliction of ecclesiastical censures, was put in the hands of the magistrates. By order of Zwingli and Œcolampadius there were founded in Zürich, in A.D. 1528, and in Basel in A.D. 1530, synods to be held yearly for church visitation. These were to be attended by all the pastors of the city and district, and one or more honourable men should be appointed from each congregation, in order to take up and dispose of any complaints that might be made against the life and doctrine of their pastors. But the intention of both reformers to give this institution a controlling influence in church government and ecclesiastical organization was thwarted in consequence of the jealousy with which the ruling magistrates clung to the authority that had been assigned them in ecclesiastical matters. In Geneva, on the contrary, Calvin’s unbending energy succeeded, after long and painful contendings (§ 138, 3, 4), in transferring from the magistrates the government of the church, together with church discipline and the imposition of censures, to which here also they laid claim, to a consistory founded by him, composed of six pastors and twelve lay elders or presbyters, which was supreme in its own domain, and free from all interference on the part of the civil authorities, while the magistrates were bound to execute civil penalties upon those excommunicated by the ecclesiastical tribunal. The introduction of this presbyterial constitution into Reformed national churches of large extent must have contributed to their further extension and to the maintenance of the national church unity. At the head of each congregation now stood a presbytery, called in French consistoire, composed of pastor and elders, the latter having been chosen either directly by the congregation, or by the local magistrate in accordance with the votes of the congregation, subsequently they were also allowed to add to their own number. Then, again, the presbyters of a particular circuit were grouped into so-called classes, with a moderator chosen for the occasion; and then, also, an annual classical synod, consisting of one pastor and one lay elder chosen from each of the presbyteries. In a similar way, at longer intervals, or just as necessity called for it, provincial synods were convened, composed of deputies from several classical synods; and from its members were chosen representatives to the general or national synod, which constituted the highest legislative authority for the whole national church.[409]

§ 143.2. =Public Worship.=--Zwingli wished at first to do away with church bells, organ playing, and church psalmody, and even Calvin would not tolerate altars, crucifixes, images, and candles in the churches. These he regarded as contrary to the Divine law revealed in the decalogue, inasmuch as the commandment that properly stood second as a distinct and separate statute, though it had slipped out of the enumeration usual among the Catholics and Lutherans, was understood to forbid the use of images. The churches were reduced to bare and unadorned places for prayer and assembly rooms for preaching, and simple communion tables took the place of altars. Kneeling, as savouring of ceremonialism, was discountenanced; the breaking of bread was again introduced in the administration of the Lord’s Supper as forming an important part of the symbolism; private confession was abolished; exorcism at baptism, as well as baptism in emergencies as a necessary thing, was discontinued; the liturgy was reduced to simple prayers spoken, not sung, and from a literalist purism the usual Vater unser was changed into Unser Vater. The festivals were reduced to the smallest number possible, and only the principal Christian feasts were celebrated, Christmas, Easter, Pentecost; while the Sunday festival was observed with almost the Old Testament strictness of Sabbath keeping.--In securing the introduction of psalmody into the worship of the German Reformed church, John Zwick, pastor at Constance, who died in A.D. 1542, was particularly active. In A.D. 1536 he published a small psalmody, with some Bible psalms set to Lutheran melodies. At Calvin’s request, Clement Marot set a good number of the Psalms to popular French airs in A.D. 1541-1543; Beza completed it, and then Calvin introduced this French psalter into the church of Geneva. Claude Goudimel (§ 149, 15) in A.D. 1562 published sixteen of these psalms with four-part harmonies. He was murdered in the massacre of St. Bartholomew at Lyons, in A.D. 1572. A professor of law at Königsberg, Ambrose Lobwasser, in A.D. 1573 made an arrangement of the Psalter in the German language after the style of Marot. This psalter, notwithstanding its poetical deficiencies, continued in use for a long time in Germany and Switzerland. Zwingli’s aversion to congregational singing was given effect to only in Zürich, but even there the service of praise was introduced by a decree of the council in A.D. 1598. In the other German Swiss cantons they did not confine themselves to the use of the Psalms, but adopted unhesitatingly spiritual songs by both Reformed and Lutheran poets. Among the former, who neither in number nor in ability could approach the latter, the most important were John Zwick and Ambrose Blaurer (§ 133, 3). It was only in the seventeenth century that the Lutheran sister church abandoned her rigid adherence to the exclusive use of Lobwasser’s psalms in congregational singing, when the rise of Pietism, and afterwards the spread of rationalism, overcame this narrow-mindedness.[410]

§ 143.3. =The English Puritans.=--The Reformation under Elizabeth (§ 139, 6), with its Lutheranizing doctrinal standpoint and Catholicizing forms of constitution and worship, had been sanctioned in A.D. 1559 by the Act of Uniformity in the exercise of the royal supremacy that was claimed over the whole ecclesiastical institutions of the country. But the Protestants who had fled from the persecutions of Bloody Mary and had returned in vast troops when Elizabeth ascended the throne brought with them from their foreign resorts, in Switzerland from Geneva, Zürich, Basel, in Germany from Strassburg, Frankfort, Emden, entirely different notions about the nature of genuine evangelical Christianity; and now with all the assumption of confessors they sought to have these ideas realized in their native land. Inspired for the most part with the rigorist spirit of the Genevan Reformation, they desired, instead of the royal supremacy, to have the independence of the church proclaimed, and instead of the hierarchical episcopal system a presbyterial constitution with strict church discipline, arranged in accordance with the Genevan model. They also gave a one-sided prominence to the formal principle of the Holy Scripture, adhered rigidly to the doctrinal theory of Calvin and to a mode of worship as bare as possible, stripped of every vestige of popish superstition, such as priestly dress, altars, candles, crucifixes, sign of the cross, forms of prayer, godfathers, confirmation, kneeling at the sacrament, bowing the head at the mention of the name of Jesus, bells, organs, etc. On account of their opposition to the Act of Uniformity, these were designated Nonconformists or Dissenters. They were also called =Puritans=, because they insisted upon an organization of the church purified from every human invention, and ordered strictly in accordance with the word of God. Their principles, which were enunciated first of all in private conventicles, found a very wide acceptance amongst ministers and people. This movement proved too strong to be suppressed, even by the frequent deprivation and banishment of the ministers, or the fining and imprisonment of their adherents. Amid the severity of persecution and oppression Puritanism continued to grow, and in A.D. 1572 numerous separatist congregations provided themselves with a presbyterial and synodal constitution; the former for the management of the affairs of particular congregations, the latter for the settlement of questions affecting the whole church. Specially offensive to the queen, and therefore strictly forbidden by her and rigorously suppressed, were the prophesyings introduced into many English churches after the pattern of the prophesyings of the church of Zürich. These were week-day meetings of the congregation, at which the Sunday sermons were further explained and illustrated from Scripture by the preachers, and applied to the circumstances and needs of the church of that day.[411]

§ 143.4. Even before the sixteenth century had come to an end an ultra-puritan tendency had been developed, the adherents of which were called Brownists, from their leader Robert Brown. As chaplain of the Duke of Norfolk, he was brought into contact at Norwich with Dutch Anabaptist refugees; and stirred up by them, he began a violent and bitter polemic, not only against the Cæsaro-papism and episcopacy of the State church, but also against the aristocratic element in the presbyterial and synodal constitution. He taught that church and congregation were to be completely identified; that every separate congregation, because subject to no other authority than that of Christ and His word, has the right of independently arranging and administering its own affairs according to the decisions of the majority. Having been cast into prison, but again liberated through the powerful influence of his friends, he retired in A.D. 1581 to Holland, and founded a small congregation there at Middleburg in Zealand. When this soon became reduced to a mere handful, he returned to England in A.D. 1589, and there renewed his agitation; but afterwards submitted to the hierarchical State church, and died in A.D. 1630 in the enjoyment of a rich living. After his apostasy, the jurist Henry Barrow took his place as leader of the Brownists, who still numbered many thousands, and were now called after him Barrowists. Persecuted by the government and harassed by severe measures from A.D. 1594, whole troops of them retreated to the Netherlands, where in several of the principal cities they formed considerable congregations, and issued, in A.D. 1598, their first symbolical document, “The Confession of Faith of certain English People exiled.”--The second founder of the party, a more trustworthy leader and more vigorous apologist, was the pastor John Robinson, who, in A.D. 1608, with his Norwich congregation settled at Amsterdam, and in A.D. 1610 moved to Leyden. He died in A.D. 1625. The fundamental points in the constitution under his leadership were these:

1. Complete equality of all the members of the church among themselves, and consequently the setting aside of all clerical prerogatives;

2. Thorough subordination of the college of presbyters to the will of the majority of the congregation, from which circumstance they obtained the name of =Congregationalists=; and

3. The perfect autonomy of separate congregations and their independence alike of every civil authority and of every synodal judicature, from which characteristic they obtained the name of =Independents=.

Synodal assemblies were allowed merely for the purpose of mutual consultation and advice, and when so restricted were regarded as beneficial. With this end in view a Congregational board was appointed to sit in London, which formed a common centre of union. And as in constitution, so also in worship there was a complete breach made with all the traditions and developments of church history. With the exception of Sunday all feast days were abolished. In the assemblies for public worship each individual had the right of free speech for the edification of the congregation. All liturgical formularies and prescribed prayers, even the Lord’s Prayer not excepted, were set aside, as hindering the mission of the Holy Spirit in the congregation.--In order to preserve for their descendants the sacred heritage of their faith, and their native English language and nationality, and in order to save them from the moral dangers to which they were exposed in large cities, but to an equal extent at least inspired by the wish to break new ground for the kingdom of God in the New World, many of their families set out, in A.D. 1620, from Holland for North America, and there, as “Pilgrim Fathers,” amid indescribable hardships, established a colony in the wastes of Massachusetts, and laid the foundations of that Congregational denomination which has now grown into so powerful and influential a church.[412]

§ 143.5. =Theological Science.=--In A.D. 1523, the grand council at Zürich set up the peculiar institution of prophesying (1 Cor. xiv. 29) or biblical conferences. Pastors along with students, as well as certain scholars specially called for the purpose, were required to meet together every morning, with the exception of Sundays and Fridays, in the choir of the cathedral, where, after a short opening prayer, public exegetical expositions of the Old Testament were given in the regular order of books and chapters, with a strict and detailed comparison of the Vulgate, the LXX. and the original text; and then at the close one of the professors stated the results of the conference in a practical discourse for the edification of the congregation. At a later period theological studies flourished at Geneva and Basel, in the French church at the academy of Saumur and the theological seminaries of Montauban, Sedan, and Montpellier. =Sebastian Münster=, formerly at Heidelberg, afterwards at Basel, issued, in A.D. 1523, a complete Hebrew lexicon. The Zürich theologians, Leo Judä and others, in A.D. 1524-1529 translated Luther’s Bible into the Swiss dialect, making, however, an independent revision in accordance with the original text. At the instigation of the Waldensians, =Robert Olivetan= of Geneva (§ 138, 1) undertook, in A.D. 1535, a translation of the Holy Scriptures from the original into the French language; but in so far as the New Testament is concerned he followed almost literally the translation of Faber (§ 120, 8). In subsequent editions it was in various particulars greatly improved, although even to this day it remains very unsatisfactory. =Theodore Beza= gave an improved recension of the New Testament text and a new Latin translation of it. Sebastian Münster edited the Old Testament text with an independent Latin translation. Also =Leo Judä= in Zürich undertook a similar work, for which he was well qualified by a competent knowledge of languages. =Sebastian Castellio= in Geneva endeavoured to make the prophets and apostles speak in classical Latin and in full Ciceronian periods. Most successful was the Latin translation of the Old Testament which =Immanuel Tremellius= at Heidelberg, in connection with his son-in-law =Francis Junius=, produced. =John Piscator=, dismissed from Heidelberg under the Elector Louis VI. (§ 144, 1), from A.D. 1584 professor in the academy founded at Herborn during that same year, published a new German translation of the Bible, which was authoritatively introduced into the churches at Bern and in other Reformed communities. Commentators on Holy Scripture were also numerous during this age. Besides =Calvin=, who far outstrips them all (§ 138, 5), the following were distinguished for their exegetical performances: Zwingli, Œcolampadius, Conrad Pellican (§ 120, 4 footnote), Theodore Beza, Francis Junius, John Piscator, John Mercer, and the Frenchman Marloratus.--As a dogmatist =Calvin=, again beyond all question occupies the very front rank. In speculative power and thorough mastery of his materials he excels all his contemporaries. Leo Judä’s catechisms, two in German and one in Latin, in which the scholar puts the question and the teacher gives the answer and explanation, continued long in use in the Zürich church. Among the German Reformed theologians =Andrew Hyperius= of Marburg, who died in A.D. 1564, takes an honourable place as an exegete by his expositions of the Pauline epistles, as a dogmatist by his Methodus theologiæ, as a homilist by his De formandis concionibus s., and as the first founder of theological encyclopædia by his De recte formando theolog. studio.--The pietistic efforts of the English Puritan party found a fit nursery in the University of Cambridge, where =William Whitaker=, who died in A.D. 1598, the author of Catechismus s. institutio pietatis, and especially =William Perkins=, who died in A.D. 1602, author of De casibus conscientiæ, besides many other English works of edification, laboured unweariedly in endeavouring to infuse a pious spirit into the theological studies. Both were also eager and enthusiastic supporters of the Calvinistic doctrine of predestination; but the attempt, through the “Nine Lambeth Articles,” laid before Archbishop Whitgift in his palace in A.D. 1598, and accepted and approved by him, to make this doctrine an absolute doctrinal test for the university was frustrated by the decided veto of Queen Elizabeth.--Continuation, § 160, 6.

§ 143.6. =Philosophy.=--For the formal scientific construction of systematic theology the Aristotelian dialectic, as the heritage bequeathed by the mediæval scholasticism, continued to exercise upon the occupants of the Reformed professorial chairs, as well as in Lutheran seminaries, a dominating influence far down into the seventeenth century. To emancipate philosophy, and with it also in the same degree theology, from these fetters, which hindered every free movement, and inaugurate a simpler scientific method, was an attempt made first of all by =Peter Ramus=, who from A.D. 1551 was professor of dialectic and rhetoric in Paris, distinguished also as a polyhistor, humanist, and mathematician, and diligent in disseminating his views from the platform and by the press. As he had openly declared himself a Calvinist, he had repeatedly to seek refuge in flight. After a long residence in Switzerland and Germany, where he gained many adherents, who were known by the name of Ramists, he thought that after the Peace of St. Germain (§ 139, 15), in A.D. 1571, he might with safety return to Paris; but there, in A.D. 1572, he fell a victim to Romish fanaticism on the night of St. Bartholomew.--Continuation, § 163, 1.

§ 143.7. The Reformed church made =one missionary= attempt in A.D. 1557. A French adventurer, Villegagnon, laid before Admiral Coligny a plan for the colonization of the persecuted Huguenots in Brazil. With this proposal there was linked a scheme for conducting a mission among the heathen aborigines. He sailed under Coligny’s patronage in A.D. 1555 with a number of Huguenot artisans, and founded Fort Coligny at Rio de Janeiro. At his request Calvin sent him two Geneva pastors in A.D. 1557. The intolerable tyranny which Villegagnon exercised over the unprotected colonists, the failure of their efforts among the natives, famine, and want impelled them in the following year to seek again their native shores, which they reached after a most disastrous voyage. All were not able to secure a place in the returning ships, and even of those who started several died of starvation on the way.--Continuation, § 161, 7.[413]

§ 144. CALVINIZING OF GERMAN LUTHERAN NATIONAL CHURCHES.

The Cryptocalvinist controversies conducted with such party violence proved indeed in vain so far as winning over to Philippist Calvinism the Lutheran church as a whole was concerned (§ 141, 10, 13); but they did not succeed in hindering, but rather fostered and advanced, the public adoption of the Reformed Confession on the part of several national churches in Germany or their being driven by force to accept the Calvinistic constitution and creed. The first instance of a procedure of this sort is to be found in the Palatinate. It was followed by Bremen, Anhalt, and in the beginning of the next century by Hesse Cassel and the electoral dynasty of Brandenburg (§ 154, 3).

§ 144.1. =The Palatinate, A.D. 1560.=--Tilemann Hesshus, formerly the scholar and devoted admirer of Melanchthon, had been banished by the magistrates as a disturber of the peace from Goslar, and then from Rostock, on account of his reckless and severe administration of church discipline. At Melanchthon’s recommendation, the Elector Ottheinrich of the Palatinate called him as professor and general superintendent to Heidelberg, in A.D. 1558. Here he came into collision with his deacon William Klebitz. The latter had produced, on the occasion of his receiving his bachelor’s degree, a thesis in which he vindicated a Calvinizing theory of the Lord’s Supper, whereupon Hesshus condemned and suspended him, in A.D. 1559. But Klebitz would not move. Passion on both sides developed into senseless fury, which found expression in the pulpit and at the altar. The new elector, Frederick III. the Pious, A.D. 1559-1576, sent both into exile, and obtained an opinion from Melanchthon, which advised him to hold by the words of Paul in 1 Corinthians x. 16, “the bread is the communion of the body of Christ.” The elector, who had long been favourably inclined to the Reformed doctrine and worship, now introduced, in A.D. 1560, into all the churches of his domains a Reformed order of service, had altars, baptismal fonts, images, and even organs removed from the churches, filled the professors’ chairs with foreign Calvinistic teachers, and in A.D. 1562 had the “Heidelberg Catechism” composed by two Heidelberg professors, Zach. Ursinus and Gaspar Olevianus, for use in the schools throughout his territories.[414] In respect of that simplicity which befits a popular manual, in power and spirituality, it is not to be compared to Luther’s “Short Catechism,” but it is certainly distinguished by learning, theological genius, Christian fervour, and moderate, peaceful spirit, and deserves in an eminent degree the acceptance which it has found, not only among the German, but also among the foreign Reformed churches. Calvin’s doctrine of predestination is avoided, and his theory of the Lord’s Supper is taught in a form approaching as near as possible to the Lutheran view, but the Roman Catholic mass is characterized as execrable idolatry. The introduction of this catechism, however, completed the severance of the Palatinate from the Lutheran church. Brenz in Stuttgart attacked its doctrine of the supper; Bullinger in Zürich and Beza in Geneva defended it with passionate eagerness; and the conference arranged by the elector to be held at Maulbronn, in A.D. 1564, between the theologians of the Palatinate and of Württemberg, during its six days’ discussions increased the bitterness of parties, and made the split perpetual. The Lutheran German states, irritated by the secession of the elector, complained of him to the Diet of Augsburg, in A.D. 1564, that he had broken the religious Peace of Augsburg by the forcible introduction of Calvinism. He answered in defence, that he had not himself read Calvin’s works, and was therefore not in a position to know what Calvinism was; that at Naumburg, in A.D. 1561 (§ 141, 11), he had subscribed the Augustana, more correctly the Variata, and still adhered to the confession he then made. The diet then did not venture to interfere with him, and was satisfied with a simple expression of disapproval. By the introduction of presbyteries by the order of the elector, in A.D. 1570, for the administration of church discipline, Olevianus embroiled himself in controversy with the electoral councillor and professor of medicine at Heidelberg, Thomas Erastus (§ 117, 4), who would much rather have the Zürich church order introduced (§ 143) than the Zwinglian theory of the supper. This idea he very persistently pressed, but without success. Although himself a member of the ecclesiastical council, he yet fell under its ban, along with Neuser and Sylvanus (§ 148, 3) as suspected of unitarianism, but this charge has never been proved against him. In A.D. 1510 he settled in Basel, and died there, in A.D. 1583, as professor of moral philosophy. His controversial treatise, “Explicatio gravissimæ quæstionis, utrum excommunicatio mandato nitatur divino, an excogitata sit ab hominibus,” was published after his death. Beza answered in two dissertations: “De presbyteriis” and “De excommunicatione.” Notice of his theory was now taken in England and Scotland, and among the names of sects in these countries during the seventeenth century we find that of Erastians. At this very day all subordinating of church government under the authority of the State is commonly styled Erastianism.[415]--The reign of Louis VI., A.D. 1576-1583, a zealous friend of the Formula of Concord, was of too short duration to secure the complete restoration of Lutheranism throughout his dominions. The count-palatine, John Casimir, who conducted the government as regent during the minority, systematically drove out all Lutheran pastors and trained up his ward Frederick IV. in Calvinism.--Continuation, § 153, 3.

§ 144.2. =Bremen, A.D. 1562.=--In Bremen the cathedral preacher, Albert Rizæus von Hardenberg, long lay under suspicion of favouring the Zwinglian theory of the sacraments. He publicly repudiated the Lutheran doctrine of the ubiquity of the body of Christ, which his colleague John Timann had defended in his treatise, “Farrago sententiarum ... de cœna Domini,” of A.D. 1555. Upon this there began a lively controversy between them. All the pastors took Timann’s side, but Hardenberg had a powerful supporter in the burgomaster Daniel van Büren, and an opinion obtained from Melanchthon in A.D. 1557 also favoured him by counselling concession. Through his refusal to subscribe a confession of faith in reference to the supper submitted to him by the council, the excitement in Bremen was increased, and spread from thence over all the provinces of Lower Saxony. Timann died in A.D. 1557. His place as champion of the Lutheran doctrine of the supper was taken by Hesshus, who had been driven out of Heidelberg in A.D. 1559, and had almost immediately afterward been called to Bremen. He challenged Hardenberg to a public disputation, which, however, did not come off, because the new Archbishop of Bremen, Duke George of Brunswick-Lüneberg [Lüneburg], forbade Hardenberg to take part in it, and instead of this brought the matter before the league of the cities of Lower Saxony. The league held a provincial diet at Brunswick, in A.D. 1561, where Hardenberg was removed from his office, yet without detracting from his honour. He went now to Oldenburg, and died in A.D. 1574 as pastor at Emden. Hesshus had left Bremen in A.D. 1560, having accepted a call to Magdeburg, and from thence continued his controversy with Hardenberg. His successor in Bremen, Simon Musæus, no less passionately than he insisted upon the expulsion of all adherents of Hardenberg, and had indeed managed to get the council to agree to the proposal when things took a turn in an altogether different direction. Büren, in spite of all opposition, became the chief burgomaster in A.D. 1562. Musæus and other twelve pastors were now expelled, and also the councillors who were in favour of Lutheranism felt that they could do nothing else than quit the city. By foreign mediation an understanding was come to in A.D. 1568, by which those who had been driven out were allowed to return to the city, but not to their offices. All the churches of Bremen, with the exception of the cathedral, which obtained a Lutheran pastor again in A.D. 1568, continued in the possession of the Reformed party.--But Hesshus was in A.D. 1562 expelled also from Magdeburg, as well as afterwards from his position as court preacher in Neuburg, in A.D. 1569, and from his professorship at Jena in A.D. 1573 (§ 141, 10), on account of his passionate and violent polemics. He was also expelled from his bishopric of Samland, in A.D. 1577, as a teacher of error, because he had ascribed omnipotence, etc., to the human nature of Christ etiam in abstracto. He died in A.D. 1588 as professor in Helmstadt.

§ 144.3. =Anhalt, A.D. 1597.=--After the death of Prince Joachim Ernest four Anhalt dynasties were formed by his sons, Dessau, Bemburg, Köthen, Zerbst. John George, first head of the family of Anhalt-Dessau, reigned on behalf of his brothers, who had not yet come of age, from A.D. 1587 till A.D. 1603, and married a daughter of John Casimir, the count-palatine. After having refused to sign the Formula of Concord, he began the Calvinization of the land in A.D. 1589 by striking out the exorcism, and then, in A.D. 1596, he put the Reformed church order in place of the Lutheran. Soon after this Luther’s catechism was set aside, and in A.D. 1597 a document was produced, consisting of twenty-eight Calvinistic articles with a modified doctrine of predestination, which all the pastors under pain of banishment from the country, were required to subscribe. The most active agents in this movement were Caspar Peucer (§ 141, 10), who had been expelled from Wittenberg, and the superintendent Wolfgang Amling of Zerbst. In A.D. 1644, however, Anhalt-Zerbst returned to the old Lutheran Confession, under Prince John, who had been trained up by his mother in the Lutheran faith.

III. THE DEFORMATION.

§ 145. CHARACTER OF THE DEFORMATION.

That in a spiritual movement so powerful as that which the Reformation called forth enthusiasts and extremists of various sorts should seek to push forward their fancies and vagaries is nothing more than might have been expected. But that such excrescences are not to be charged against the Reformation, as constituting an essential part of it, may be shown from the way in which the Reformation and the Deformation are constantly put in antagonism with one another. The starting point is clearly the same in the one case as in the other; namely, opposition to and revolt against the debased condition of the church of the age. But the Reformation distinguishes itself completely from the very first from the Deformation, often joins its forces even with those of Catholicism in order to secure the overthrow of what it regarded as a false and dangerous development; and so generally we find the champions of that movement manifesting as bitter a hatred toward the Protestant reformers as toward the Romanists. Its origin is to be explained by the tendency inherent in human nature, when once embarked on a course of opposition, to rush to the extreme of radicalism, which showed itself in this case partly in the form of rationalism, partly in the form of mysticism. The Reformation recognised the word of God in Holy Scripture as the only rule and standard in matters of religion, and as a judge and arbiter over tradition. The rationalistic spirit in the deformatory movement, on the other hand, subordinates Holy Scripture to reason, and estimates revealed truth in accordance with the supposed requirement of logical thought. The Reformation offers opposition to the Catholic deification of the church, but the Deformation goes the length of contesting the divinity of Christ (Antitrinitarians and Unitarians). On the other hand, the mystical side of the Deformation, which not infrequently amounts to a more or less clearly expressed pantheism, may be regarded as an extreme and exaggerated statement of the reformers’ demand for a more spiritual conception of the religious life in opposition to the externalism of Romanism. It places alongside of the word as expressed in Holy Scripture what it calls an inner illumination by the Holy Spirit as an equally high or even a higher kind of revelation, despises the sacraments, as well as all public or external forms of Divine worship. A third deformatory tendency, and that indeed which during the Reformation era was most powerful, is represented by Anabaptism. The ultra-reformatory endeavours of the movement aimed, not only at directing the private and ecclesiastical life of the individual Christian, but also at reconstructing, according to what it regarded as the apostolic standard, the whole fabric of the social and civil life. It derived its name from the demand for rebaptism which was made as a consequence of the denial of the usefulness and validity of infant baptism. This was, indeed, the one common term of its confession, in which its members, giving way in many directions to individualistic subjective peculiarities, were required to agree. Adult baptism was thus made the characteristic note of their community as a distinct sect.

The Catholic notions prevailing during the Middle Ages as to the manner in which heretics ought to be treated were so firmly held by the Protestants, that even Calvin without hesitation, in A.D. 1553, delivered over one who denied the doctrine of the Trinity (§ 148, 2) to be punished by the civil authorities. Their sentence of death by fire at the stake was carried out under his sanction and that of almost all the notable reformers of the day, Bullinger and Farel, Beza and Viret, Œcolampadius, Bucer, and Peter Martyr, even Melanchthon and Urbanus Rhegius. At an earlier period indeed Luther had occasionally, roused to indignation by what he beheld of the horrors of the Inquisition, opposed the idea that heretics as such should be punished with torture and death, and gradually he secured the victory in Protestant theory and practice for the view that heretics as such should neither be compelled to retract nor be put to death, but rather should be brought to a better mind and put out of the way of doing harm by imprisonment or banishment.

§ 146. MYSTICISM AND PANTHEISM.

Besides the true evangelical mysticism within the church, which Luther throughout his whole life esteemed very highly as a deepening of the Christian religious life, and which the Lutheran church had never ruled out of its pale, an unevangelical as well as thoroughly anti-ecclesiastical mysticism broke out at a very early period in quite a multitude of different forms. In the case of Schwenkfeld this tendency, though characterized by very decided hostility to the church, occupied an advantageous position, as well by the attitude which it assumed to theology as from the quiet and sober manner in which it conducted its propaganda. Agrippa and Paracelsus are representatives of a mysticism with a basis in natural philosophy, which was wrought out into fantastic forms by Valentine Weigel in his theosophy. Sebastian Franck drew his mysticism from the fountains of Eckhart’s and Tauler’s writings; and Giordano Bruno, by his wild, almost delirious mysticism, culminating in the boldest pantheism, won for himself the fiery stake. The French Libertins spirituels embraced a sublime antinomian pantheism, while the Familists, who appeared at a later period in England, were banded together in the service of an apotheosis of love like the members of one family.

§ 146.1. =Schwenkfeld and his Followers.=--Among the mystics of the Reformation period hostile to the church, Caspar Schwenkfeld, a Silesian nobleman of an old family, of the line of Ossingk, holds a prominent and honourable place as a man of deep and genuine piety. At first he attached himself with enthusiasm to the Wittenberg Reformation; but as it advanced his heart, which was exclusively set upon an inward, mystical Christianity, became dissatisfied. In A.D. 1525 he met personally with Luther at Wittenberg. The friendly relations that were maintained there, notwithstanding all the divergences that became apparent on fundamental matters and in the way of looking at things, soon gave place on Schwenkfeld’s side to open antagonism. He expressed himself strongly in reference to his dissatisfaction with the Wittenberg reformers, saying that he would rather join the papists than the Lutherans. Even in A.D. 1528 he had been expelled from his native land, and now began operations at Strassburg, where Bucer opposed him; and then, in A.D. 1534, in Swabia, where he encountered the vigorous opposition of Jac. Andreä. In every place he set himself in direct antagonism, not only to the German, but also to the Swiss reformers, and engaged in incessant controversies with the theologians, working steadily in the interests of a reformation in accordance with his own peculiar views. He died in A.D. 1561 at Ulm, and left behind him in Swabia and Silesia a handful of followers, who, in A.D. 1563, issued a complete edition of the “Christian Orthodox Books and Writings of the Noble and Faithful Man, Caspar Schwenkfeld,” in four folio volumes. Expelled from Silesia in A.D. 1728, many of them fled into the neighbouring state of Lausitz, others to Pennsylvania in North America, where they found some small communities. What Schwenkfeld so keenly objected to in the Lutheran Reformation was nothing else than its firm biblico-ecclesiastical objectivity. Luther’s adherence to the unconditional authority of the word of God he declared to be a worship of the letter. He himself gave to the inner word of God’s Spirit in men a place superior to the outward word of God in Scripture. All external institutions of the church met with his most uncompromising opposition. In a manner similar to that of Osiander (§ 141, 2), he identified justification and sanctification, and explained it as an incarnation of Christ in the believer. Rejecting the doctrine of the communicatio idiomatum, he taught a thorough “deifying of the flesh of Christ,” having its foundation in the birth by the Virgin Mary, regenerated in faith and completed by suffering, death, and resurrection; so that in His state of exaltation His Divine and human natures are perfectly combined into one. Infant baptism he condemned, and affirmed that a regenerate person can live without sin. In the Lord’s Supper according to him everything depended upon the inward operation of the Spirit. The bread in the sacrament is only a symbol of the spiritual truth that Christ is the true bread for the soul. He laid special emphasis on John vi. 51, and regarded the τοῦτο of the words of institution not as the subject but as the predicate: “My body is this;” i.e. is bread unto eternal life.[416]

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