Part 8 (1/2)
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SECTION 4. THE GROWTH OF PROTESTANTISM UNTIL THE DEATH OF LUTHER
Certain states having announced that they would not be bound by the will of the majority, the question naturally came up as to how far they would defend this position by arms. [Sidenote: March 6, 1530]
Luther's advice asked and given to the effect that all rebellion or forcible resistance to the const.i.tuted authorities was wrong. Pa.s.sive resistance, the mere refusal to obey the command to persecute or to act, otherwise contrary to G.o.d's law, he thought was right but he discountenanced any other measures, even those taken in self-defence.
All Germans, said he, were the emperor's subjects, and the princes should not s.h.i.+eld Luther from him, but leave their lands open to his officers to do what they pleased. This position Luther abandoned a year later, when the jurists pointed out to him that the authority of the emperor was not despotic but was limited by law.
The Protest and Appeal of 1529 at last aroused Charles, slow as he was, to the great dangers to himself that lurked in the Protestant schism.
Having repulsed the Turk and having made peace with France and the pope he was at last in a position to address himself seriously to the religious problem. Fully intending to settle the trouble once for all, he came to Germany and opened a Diet at Augsburg [Sidenote: June 20, 1530] to which were invited not only the representatives of the various states but a number of leading theologians, both Catholic and Lutheran, all except Luther himself, an outlaw by the Edict of Worms.
The first action taken was to ask the Lutherans to state their position and this was done in the famous Augsburg Confession, [Sidenote: June 25] read before the Diet by the Saxon Chancellor Bruck. It had been drawn up by {117} Melanchthon in language as near as possible to that of the old church. Indeed it undertook to prove that there was in the Lutheran doctrine ”nothing repugnant to Scripture or to the Catholic church or to the Roman church.” Even in the form of the Confession published 1531 this Catholicizing tendency is marked, but in the original, now lost, it was probably stronger. The reason of this was not, as generally stated, Melanchthon's ”gentleness” and desire to conciliate all parties, for he showed himself more truculent to the Zwinglians and Anabaptists than did Luther. It was due to the fact that Melanchthon [Sidenote: Melanchthon] was at heart half a Catholic, so much so, indeed, that Contarini and others thought it quite possible that he might come over to them. In the present instance he made his doctrine conform to the Roman tenets to such an extent that (in the lost original, as we may judge by the Confutation) even transubstantiation was in a manner accepted. The first part of the Confession is a creed: the second part takes up certain abuses, or reforms, namely: the demand of the cup for the laity, the marriage of priests, the ma.s.s as an _opus operatum_ or as celebrated privately, fasting and traditions, monastic vows and the power of the pope.
But the concessions did not satisfy the Catholics. A Refutation was prepared by Eck and others, and read before the Diet on August 3.
Negotiations continued and still further concessions were wrung from Melanchthon, concessions of so dangerous a nature that his fellow-Protestants denounced him as an enemy of the faith and appealed to Luther against him. Melanchthon had agreed to call the ma.s.s a sacrifice, if the word were qualified by the term ”commemorative,” and also promised that the bishops should be restored to their ancient jurisdictions, a measure justified by him as a blow at turbulent sectaries but one also most {118} perilous to Lutherans. On the other hand, Eck made some concessions, mostly verbal, about the doctrine of justification and other points.
That with this mutually conciliatory spirit an agreement failed to materialize only proved how irreconcilable were the aims of the two parties. [Sidenote: September 22] The Diet voted that the Confession had been refuted and that the Protestants were bound to recant. The emperor promised to use his influence with the pope to call a general council to decide doubtful points, but if the Lutherans did not return to the papal church by April 15, 1531, they were threatened with coercion.
[Sidenote: League of Schmalkalden]
To meet this perilous situation a closer alliance was formed by the Protestant states at Schmalkalden in February 1531. This league constantly grew by the admission of new members, but some attempts to unite with the Swiss proved abortive.
On January 5, 1531, Ferdinand was elected King of the Romans--the t.i.tle taken by the heir to the Empire--by six of the electors against the vote of Saxony. Three months later when the time granted the Lutherans expired, the Catholics were unable to do anything, and negotiations continued. [Sidenote: July 23, 1532] These resulted in the Peace of Nuremberg, a truce until a general council should be called. It was an important victory for the Lutherans, who were thus given time in which to grow.
The seething unrest which found expression in the rebellion of the knights, of the peasants and of the Anabaptists at Munster, has been described. One more liberal movement, which also failed, must be mentioned at this time. It was as little connected with religion as anything in that theological age could be. [Sidenote: Lubeck, 1533-35]
The city of Lubeck, under its burgomaster George Wullenwever, tried to free itself from the influence of Denmark and at the same time to get a more popular {119} government. In 1536 it was conquered by Christian III of Denmark, and the old aristocratic const.i.tution restored. The time was not ripe for the people to a.s.sert its rights in North Germany.
[Sidenote: May 1534]
The growth of Protestantism was at times a.s.sisted by force of arms.
Thus, Philip of Hesse restored the now Protestant Duke Ulrich of Wurttemberg, who had been expelled for his tyranny by the Swabian League fifteen years before. This triumph was the more marked because the expropriated ruler was Ferdinand, King of the Romans. If in such cases it was the government which took the lead, in others the government undoubtedly compelled the people to continue Catholic even when there was a strongly Protestant public opinion. Such was the case in Albertine Saxony,[1] whose ruler, Duke George, though an estimable man in many ways, was regarded by Luther as the instrument of Satan because he persecuted his Protestant subjects. When he died, his brother, [Sidenote: April, 1539] the Protestant Henry the Pious, succeeded and introduced the Reform amid general acclamation. Two years later this duke was followed by his son, the versatile but treacherous Maurice. In the year 1539 a still greater acquisition came to the Schmalkaldic League in the conversion of Brandenburg and its Elector Joachim II.
[Sidenote: Philip of Hesse, 1504-67]
Shortly afterwards the world was scandalized by the bigamy of Philip of Hesse. This prince was utterly spoiled by his accession to the governing power at the age of fifteen. Though he lived in flagrant immorality, his religion, which, soon after he met Luther at Worms, became the Evangelical, was real enough to make his sins a burden to conscience. Much attracted {120} by the teachings of some of the Anabaptists and Carlstadt that polygamy was lawful, and by Luther's a.s.sertion in the _Babylonian Captivity_ that it was preferable to divorce, [Sidenote: 1526] he begged to be allowed to take more wives, but was at first refused. His conscience was quickened by an attack of the syphilis in 1539, and at that time he asked permission to take a second wife and received it on December 10, from Luther, Melanchthon, and Bucer. His secret marriage to Margaret von der Saal [Sidenote: March 4, 1540] took place in the presence of Melanchthon, Bucer, and other divines. Luther advised him to keep the matter secret and if necessary even to ”tell a good strong lie for the sake and good of the Christian church.” Of course he was unable to conceal his act, and his conduct, and that of his spiritual advisers, became a just reproach to the cause. As no material advantages were lost by it, Philip might have reversed the epigram of Francis I and have said that ”nothing was lost but honor.” Neither Germany nor Hesse nor the Protestant church suffered directly by his act. [Sidenote: 1541] Indeed it lead indirectly to another territorial gain. Philip's enemy Duke Henry of Brunswick, though equally immoral, attacked him in a pamphlet. Luther answered this in a tract of the utmost violence, called _Jack Sausage_.
Henry's rejoinder was followed by war between him and the Schmalkaldic princes, in which he was expelled from his dominions and the Reformation introduced.
[Sidenote: 1541]
Further gains followed rapidly. The Catholic Bishop of Naumburg was expelled by John Frederic of Saxony, and a Lutheran bishop inst.i.tuted instead. About the same time the great spiritual prince, Hermann von Wied, Archbishop Elector of Cologne, became a Protestant, and invited Melanchthon and Bucer to reform his territories. One of the last gains, before the Schmalkaldic war, was the Rhenish Palatinate, under {121} its Elector Frederic III. [Sidenote: 1545] His troops fought then on the Protestant side, though later he turned against that church.
The opportunity of the Lutherans was due to the engagements of the emperor with other enemies. In 1535 Charles undertook a successful expedition against Tunis. The war with France simmered on until the Truce of Nice, intended to be for ten years, signed between the two powers in 1538. In 1544 war broke out again, and fortune again favored Charles. He invaded France almost to the gates of Paris, but did not press his advantage and on September 18 signed the Peace of Crepy giving up all his conquests.
Unable to turn his arms against the heretics, Charles continued to negotiate with them. The pressure he brought to bear upon the pope finally resulted in the summoning by Paul III of a council to meet at Mantua the following year. [Sidenote: June 2, 1536] The Protestants were invited to send delegates to this council, and the princes of that faith held a congress at Schmalkalden to decide on their course.
[Sidenote: February 1537] Hitherto the Lutherans had called themselves a part of the Roman Catholic church and had always appealed to a future oec.u.menical or national synod. They now found this position untenable, and returned the papal citation unopened. Instead, demands for reform, known as the Schmalkaldic Articles, were drawn up by Luther. The four princ.i.p.al demands were (1) recognition of the doctrine of justification by faith only, (2) abolition of the ma.s.s as a good work or _opus operatum_, (3) alienation of the foundations for private ma.s.ses, (4) removal of the pretentions of the pope to heads.h.i.+p of the universal church. As a matter of fact the council was postponed.
[Sidenote: April 19, 1539]