A History of Germany Part 25

Out of the "Freedom of the Gospel," which was the first watch-word of the Reformers, smaller sects continued to arise, notwithstanding they met with almost as much opposition from the Protestants as the Catholics. The Anabaptists obtained possession of the city of Munster in 1534, and held it for more than a year, under the government of a Dutch tailor, named John of Leyden, who had himself crowned king of Zion, introduced polygamy, and cut off the heads of all who resisted his decrees. When the Bishop of Munster finally took the city, John of Leyden and two of his a.s.sociates were tortured to death, and their bodies suspended in iron cages over the door of the cathedral. About the same time Simon Menno, a native of Friesland, founded a quiet and peaceful sect which was named, after him, the Mennonites, and which still exists, both in Germany and the United States.

[Sidenote: 1544.]

While, therefore, Charles V. was carrying on his wars, alternately with the Barbary States, and with Francis I. of France, the foundations of the Protestant Church, in spite of all divisions and disturbances, were permanently laid in Germany. Although he had been brilliantly successful in Tunis, in 1535, he failed so completely before Algiers, in 1541, that Francis I. was emboldened to make another attempt, in alliance with Sultan Solyman of Turkey, Denmark and Sweden. So formidable was the danger that the Emperor was again compelled to seek the a.s.sistance of the German Protestants, and even of England. He returned to Germany for the second time and called a Diet to meet in Speyer, which renewed the Religious Peace of Nuremberg, with the a.s.surance that Protestants should have equal rights before the Imperial courts, and that they would be left free until the meeting of a _Free_ Council of the Church.

Having obtained an army of 40,000 men by these concessions, Charles V.

marched into France, captured a number of fortresses, and had reached Soissons on his way to Paris, when Francis I. acknowledged himself defeated and begged for peace. In the Treaty of Crespy, in 1544, he gave up his claim to Lombardy, Naples, Flanders and Artois, while the Emperor gave him a part of Burgundy, and both united in a league against the Turks and Protestants, the allies of one and the other. In order, however, to preserve some appearance of fidelity to his solemn pledges, the Emperor finally prevailed upon the Pope, Paul III., to order an OEc.u.menical Council. It was just 130 years since the Roman Church had promised to reform itself. The delay had given rise to the Protestant Reformation, which was now so powerful that only a just and conciliatory course on the part of Rome could settle the difficulty. Instead of this, the Council was summoned to meet at Trent, in the Italian part of the Tyrol, the Pope reserved the government of it for himself, and the Protestants, although invited to attend, were thus expected to acknowledge his authority. They unanimously declared, therefore, that they would not be bound by its decrees. Even Luther, who had ardently hoped to see all Christians again united under a purer organization of the Church, saw that a reconciliation was impossible, and published a pamphlet ent.i.tled: "The Roman Papacy Founded by the Devil."

[Sidenote: 1546. LUTHER'S LAST DAYS.]

The publication of the complete translation of the Bible in 1534 was not the end of Luther's labors. His leadership in the great work of Reformation was acknowledged by all, and he was consulted by princes and clergymen, by scholars and jurists, even by the common people. He never relaxed in his efforts to preserve peace, not only among the Protestant princes, who could not yet overcome their old habit of a.s.serting an independent authority, but also between Protestants and Catholics. Yet he could hardly help feeling that, with such a form of government, and such an Emperor, as Germany then possessed, peace was impossible: he only prayed that it might last while he lived.

Luther's powerful const.i.tution gradually broke down under the weight of his labors and anxieties. He became subject to attacks of bodily suffering, followed by great depression of mind. Nevertheless, the consciousness of having in a great measure performed the work which he had been called upon to do, kept up his faith, and he was accustomed to declare that he had been made "a chosen weapon of G.o.d, known in Heaven and h.e.l.l, as well as upon the earth." In January, 1546, he was summoned to Eisleben, the place of his birth, by the Counts of Mansfeld, who begged him to act as arbitrator between them in a question of inheritance. Although much exhausted by the fatigues of the winter-journey, he settled the dispute, and preached four times to the people. His last letter to his wife, written on the 14th of February, is full of courage, cheerfulness and tenderness.

Two days afterwards, his strength began to fail. His friend, Dr. Jonas, was in Eisleben at the time, and Luther forced himself to sit at the table with him and with his own two sons; but it was noticed that he spoke only of the future life, and with an unusual earnestness and solemnity. The same evening it became evident to all that his end was rapidly approaching: he grew weaker from hour to hour, and occasionally repeated pa.s.sages from the Bible, in German and Latin. After midnight he seemed to revive a little: Dr. Jonas, the Countess of Mansfeld, the pastor of the church at Eisleben, and his sons, stood near his bed. Then Jonas said: "Beloved Father, do you acknowledge Christ, the Son of G.o.d, our Redeemer?" Luther answered "Yes," in a strong and clear voice; then, folding his hands, he drew one deep sigh and died, between two and three o'clock on the morning of the 17th of February.

[Sidenote: 1546.]

After solemn services in the church at Eisleben, the body was removed on its way to Wittenberg. In every village through which the procession pa.s.sed, the bells were tolled, and the people flocked together from all the surrounding country. The population of Halle, men and women, came out of the city with loud cries and lamentations, and the throng was so great that it was two hours before the coffin could be placed in the church. "Here," says an eyewitness of the scene, "we endeavored to raise the funeral psalm, _De profundis_ ('Out of the depths have I cried unto thee'); but so heavy was our grief that the words were rather wept than sung." On the 22d of February the remains of the great Reformer were given to the earth at Wittenberg, with all the honors which the people, the authorities and the University could render.

CHAPTER XXVI.

FROM LUTHER'S DEATH TO THE END OF THE 16TH CENTURY.

(1546--1600.)

Attempt to Suppress the Protestants. --Treachery of Maurice of Saxony.

--Defeat and Capture of the Elector, John Frederick. --Philip of Hesse Imprisoned. --Tyranny of Charles V. --The Augsburg Interim.

--Maurice of Saxony turns against Charles V. --The Treaty of Pa.s.sau. --War with France. --The Religious Peace of Augsburg. --The Jesuits. --Abdication of Charles V. --Ferdinand of Austria becomes Emperor. --End of the Council of Trent. --Protestantism in Germany.

--Weakness of the Empire. --Loss of the Baltic Provinces.

--Maximilian II. Emperor. --His Tolerance. --The Last Private Feud.

--Revolt of the Netherlands. --Death of Maximilian II. --Rudolf II.'s Character. --Persecution of Protestants. --Condition of Germany at the End of the 16th Century.

[Sidenote: 1546. HOSTILITIES TO THE PROTESTANTS.]

The woes which the German Electors brought upon the country, when they gave the crown to a Spaniard because he was a Hapsburg, were only commencing when Luther died. Charles V. had just enough German blood in him to enable him to deceive the German people; he had no interest in them further than the power they gave to his personal rule; he used Germany to build up the strength of Spain, and then trampled it under his feet.

The Council of Trent, which was composed almost entirely of Spanish and Italian prelates, followed the instructions of the Pope and declared that the traditions of the Roman Church were of equal authority with the Bible. This made a reconciliation with the Protestants impossible, which was just what the Pope desired: his plan was to put them down by main force. In fact, if the spirit of the Protestant faith had not already entered into the lives of the ma.s.s of the people, the Reformation might have been lost through the hesitation of some princes and the treachery of another. The Schmalkalden League was at this time weakened by personal quarrels among its members; yet it was still able to raise an army of 40,000 men, which was placed under the command of Sebastian Schertlin. Charles V. had a very small force with him at Ratisbon; the troops he had summoned from Flanders and Italy had not arrived; and an energetic movement by the Protestants could not have failed to be successful.

[Sidenote: 1547.]

But the two chiefs of the Schmalkalden League, John Frederick of Saxony and Philip of Hesse, showed a timidity almost amounting to cowardice in this emergency. In spite of Schertlin's entreaties, they refused to allow him to move, fearing, as they alleged, to invade the neutrality of Bavaria, or to excite Ferdinand of Austria against them. For months they compelled their army to wait, while the Emperor was constantly receiving reinforcements, among them 12,000 Italian troops furnished by the Pope.

Then, when they were absolutely forced to act, a new and unexpected danger rendered them powerless. Maurice, Duke of Saxony (of the younger line), suddenly abjured the Protestant faith, declared for Charles V., and took possession of the territory of Electoral Saxony, belonging to his cousin, John Frederick. The latter hastened home with his own portion of the army, and defeated and expelled Maurice, it is true, but in doing so, gave up the field to the Emperor. Duke Ulric of Wurtemberg first humbly submitted to the latter, then Ulm, Augsburg, Strasburg, and other cities: Schertlin was not left with troops enough to resist, and the Imperial and Catholic power was restored throughout Southern Germany, without a struggle.

In the spring of 1547, Charles V. marched into Northern Germany, surprised and defeated John Frederick of Saxony at Muhlberg on the Elbe, and took him prisoner. The Elector was so enormously stout and heavy that he could only mount his horse by the use of a ladder; so the Emperor's Spanish cavalry easily overtook him in his flight. Charles V.

now showed himself in his true character: he appointed the fierce Duke of Alba President of a Court which tried John Frederick and condemned him to death. The other German princes protested so earnestly against this sentence that it was not carried out, but John Frederick was compelled to give up the greater part of Saxony to the traitor Maurice, and be content with Thuringia or Ducal Saxony--the territory embraced in the present duchies of Meiningen, Gotha, Weimar and Altenburg. He steadfastly refused, however, to submit to the decrees of the Council of Trent, and remained firm in the Protestant faith during the five years of imprisonment which followed.

[Sidenote: 1548. TYRANNY OF CHARLES V.]

His wife, the d.u.c.h.ess Sibylla, heroically defended Wittenberg against the Emperor, but when John Frederick had been despoiled of his territory, she could no longer hold the city, which was surrendered.

Charles V. was urged by Alba and others to burn Luther's body and scatter the ashes, as those of a heretic; but he answered, like a man: "I wage no war against the dead." Herein he showed the better side of his nature, although only for a moment. Philip of Hesse was not strong enough to resist alone, and finally, persuaded by his son-in-law, Maurice of Saxony, he promised to beg the Emperor's pardon on his knees, to destroy all his fortresses except Ca.s.sel, and to pay a fine of 150,000 gold florins, on condition that he should be allowed to retain his princely rights. These were Charles V.'s own conditions; but when Philip, kneeling before him, happened (or seemed) to smile while his application for pardon was being read, the Emperor cried out: "Wait, I'll teach you to laugh!" Breaking his solemn word without scruple, he sent Philip instantly to prison, and the latter was kept for years in close confinement, both in Germany and Flanders.

Charles V. was now also master of Northern Germany, except the city of Magdeburg, which was strongly fortified, and refused to surrender. He entrusted the siege of the place to Maurice of Saxony, and returned to Bavaria, in order to be nearer Italy. He had at last become the arbitrary ruler of all Germany: he had not only violated his word in dealing with the princes, but defied the Diet in subjecting them by the aid of foreign soldiers. His court, his commanders, his prelates, were Spaniards, who, as they pa.s.sed through the German States, abused and insulted the people with perfect impunity. The princes were now reaping only what they themselves had sown; but the ma.s.s of the people, who had had no voice in the election,--who saw their few rights despised and their faith threatened with suppression--suffered terribly during this time.

[Sidenote: 1548.]

In May, 1548, the Emperor proclaimed what was called the "Augsburg Interim," which allowed the communion in both forms and the marriage of priests to the Protestants, but insisted that all the other forms and ceremonies of the Catholic Church should be observed, until the Council should p.r.o.nounce its final judgment. This latter body had removed from Trent to Bologna, in spite of the Emperor's remonstrance, and it did not meet again at Trent until 1551, after the death of Pope Paul III. There was, in fact, almost as much confusion in the Church as in political affairs. A number of intelligent, zealous prelates desired a correction of the former abuses, and they were undoubtedly supported by the Emperor himself; but the Pope with the French and Spanish cardinals and bishops, controlled a majority of the votes of the Council, and thus postponed its action from year to year.

The acceptance of the "Interim" was resisted both by Catholics and Protestants. Charles V. used all his arts,--persuasion, threats, armed force,--and succeeded for a short time in compelling a sort of external observance of its provisions. His ambition, now, was to have his son Philip chosen by the Diet as his successor, notwithstanding that Ferdinand of Austria had been elected king in 1530, and had governed during his brother's long absence from Germany. The Protestant Electors, conquered as they were, and abject as many of them had seemed, were not ready to comply; Ferdinand's jealousy was aroused, and the question was in suspense when a sudden and startling event changed the whole face of affairs.

Maurice of Saxony had been besieging Magdeburg for a year, in the Emperor's name. The city was well-provisioned, admirably defended, and the people answered every threat with defiance and ridicule. Maurice grew tired of his inglorious position, sensitive to the name of "Traitor" which was everywhere hurled against him, and indignant at the continued imprisonment of Philip of Hesse. He made a secret treaty with Henry II. of France, to whom he promised Lorraine, including the cities of Toul, Verdun and Metz, in return for his a.s.sistance; and then, in the spring of 1552, before his plans could be divined, marched with all speed against the Emperor, who was holding his court in Innsbruck. The latter attempted to escape to Flanders, but Maurice had already seized the mountain-pa.s.ses. Nothing but speedy flight across the Alps, in night and storm, attended only by a few followers, saved Charles V. from capture. The Council of Trent broke up and fled in terror; John Frederick of Saxony and Philip of Hesse were freed from their long confinement, and the Protestant cause gained at one blow all the ground it had lost.

[Sidenote: 1553. ALBERT OF BRANDENBURG'S RAID.]

Maurice returned to Pa.s.sau, on the Danube, where Ferdinand of Austria united with him in calling a Diet of the German Electors. The latter, bishops as well as princes, admitted that the Protestants could be no longer suppressed by force, and agreed to establish a religious peace, independent of any action of the Pope and Council. The "Treaty of Pa.s.sau," as it was called, allowed freedom of worship to all who accepted the Augsburg Confession, and postponed other questions to the decision of a German Diet. The Emperor at first refused to subscribe to the treaty, but when Maurice began to renew hostilities, there was no other course left. The French in Lorraine and the Turks in Hungary were making rapid advances, and it was no time to a.s.sert his lost despotism over the Empire.

With the troops which the princes now agreed to furnish, the Emperor marched into France, and in October, 1552, arrived before Metz, which he besieged until the following January. Then, with his army greatly reduced by sickness and hardship, he raised the siege and marched away, to continue the war in other quarters. But it was four years before the quarrel with France came to an end, and during this time the Protestant States of Germany had nothing to fear from the Imperial power. The Margrave Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, who was on the Emperor's side, attempted to carry fire and sword through their territories, in order to pay himself for his military services. After wasting, plundering and committing shocking barbarities in Saxony and Franconia, he was defeated by Maurice, in July, 1553. The latter fell in the moment of victory, giving his life in expiation of his former apostasy. The greater part of Saxony, nevertheless, has remained in the hands of his descendants to this day, while the descendants of John Frederick, although representing the elder line, possess only the little princ.i.p.alities of Thuringia, to each of which the Saxon name is attached, as Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Gotha, &c.

[Sidenote: 1555.]

Charles V., who saw his ambitious plans for the government of the world failing everywhere, and whose bodily strength was failing also, left Germany in disgust, commissioning his brother Ferdinand to call a Diet, in accordance with the stipulations of the Treaty of Pa.s.sau. The Diet met at Augsburg, and in spite of the violent opposition of the Papal Legate, on the 25th of September, 1555, concluded the treaty of Religious Peace which finally gave rest to Germany. The Protestants who followed the Augsburg Confession received religious freedom, perfect equality before the law, and the undisturbed possession of the Church property which had fallen into their hands. In other respects their privileges were not equal. By a clause called the "spiritual reservation," it was ordered that when a Catholic Bishop or Abbot became Protestant he should give up land and t.i.tle in order that the Church might lose none of its possessions. The rights and consciences of the people were so little considered that they were not allowed to change their faith unless the ruling prince changed his. The monstrous doctrine was a.s.serted that religion was an affair of the government,--that is, that he to whom belonged the rule, possessed the right to choose the people's faith. In accordance with this law the population of the Palatinate of the Rhine was afterwards compelled to be alternately Calvinistic and Lutheran, four times in succession!

The Treaty of Augsburg did not include the followers of Zwingli and Calvin, who were getting to be quite numerous in Southern and Western Germany, and they were left without any recognized rights. Nevertheless, what the Lutherans had gained was also gained for them, in the end; and the Treaty, although it did not secure equal justice, gave the highest sanction of the Empire to the Reformation. The Pope rejected and condemned it, but without the least effect upon the German Catholics, who were no less desirous of peace than the Protestants. Moreover, their hopes of a final triumph over the latter were greatly increased by the zeal and activity of the Jesuits, who had been accepted and commissioned by the Church of Rome fifteen years before, who were rapidly increasing in numbers, and professed to have made the suppression of Protestant doctrines their chief task.

This treaty was the last political event of Charles V.'s reign. One month later, to a day, he formally conferred on his son, Philip II., at Brussels, the government of the Netherlands, and on the 15th of January, 1556, he resigned to him the crowns of Spain and Naples. He then sailed for Spain, where he retired to the monastery of St. Just and lived for two years longer as an Imperial monk. He was the first monarch of his time and he made Spain the leading nation of the world: his immense energy, his boundless ambition, and his cold, calculating brain reestablished his power again and again, when it seemed on the point of giving way; but he died at last without having accomplished the two chief aims of his life--the reunion of all Christendom under the Pope, and the union of Germany with the Spanish Empire. The German people, following the leaders who had arisen out of their own breast,--Luther, Melanchthon, Reuchlin and Zwingli--defeated the former of these aims: the princes, who had found in Charles V. much more of a despot than they had bargained for, defeated the latter.

[Sidenote: 1558. FERDINAND OF AUSTRIA EMPEROR.]

The German Diet did not meet until March, 1558, when Ferdinand of Austria was elected and crowned Emperor, at Frankfort. Although a Catholic, he had always endeavored to protect the Protestants from the extreme measures which Charles V. attempted to enforce, and he faithfully observed the Treaty of Augsburg. He even allowed the Protestant form of the sacrament and the marriage of priests in Austria, which brought upon him the condemnation of the Pope. Immediately after the Diet, a meeting of Protestant princes was held at Frankfort, for the purpose of settling certain differences of opinion which were not only disturbing the Lutherans but also tending to prevent any unity of action between them and the Swiss Protestants. Melanchthon did his utmost to restore harmony, but without success. He died in 1560, at the age of sixty-three, and Calvin four years afterwards, the last of the leaders of the Reformation.

On the 4th of December, 1563, the Council of Trent finally adjourned, eighteen years after it first came together. The attempts of a portion of the prelates composing it to reform and purify the Roman Church had been almost wholly thwarted by the influence of the Popes. It adopted a series of articles, to each one of which was attached an anathema, cursing all who refused to accept it. They contained the doctrines of priestly celibacy, purgatory, ma.s.ses for the dead, worship of saints, pictures and relics, absolution, fasts, and censorship of books--thus making an eternal chasm between Catholicism and Protestantism. At the close of the Council the Cardinal of Lorraine cried out: "Accursed be all heretics!" and all present answered: "Accursed! accursed!" until the building rang. In Italy, Spain and Poland, the articles were accepted at once, but the Catholics in France, Germany and Hungary were dissatisfied with many of the declarations, and the Church, in those countries, was compelled to overlook a great deal of quiet disobedience.

[Sidenote: 1559.]

At this time, although the Catholics had a majority in the Diet (since there were nearly 100 priestly members), the great majority of the German people had become Protestants. In all Northern Germany, except Westphalia, very few Catholic congregations were left: even the Archbishops of Bremen and Magdeburg, and the Bishops of Lubeck, Verden and Halberstadt had joined the Reformation. In the priestly territories of Cologne, Treves, Mayence, Worms and Strasburg, the population was divided; the Palatinate of the Rhine, Baden and Wurtemberg were almost entirely Protestant, and even in Upper-Austria and Styria the Catholics were in a minority. Bavaria was the main stay of Rome: her princes, of the house of Wittelsbach, were the most zealous and obedient champions of the Pope in all Germany. The Roman Church, however, had not given up the struggle: she was quietly and shrewdly preparing for one more desperate effort to recover her lost ground, and the Protestants, instead of perceiving the danger and uniting themselves more closely, were quarrelling among themselves concerning theological questions upon which they have never yet agreed.

There could be no better evidence that the reign of Charles V. had weakened instead of strengthening the German Empire, than the losses and the humiliations which immediately followed. Ferdinand I. gave up half of Hungary to Sultan Solyman, and purchased the right to rule the other half by an annual payment of 300,000 ducats. About the same time, the Emperor's lack of power and the selfishness of the Hanseatic cities occasioned a much more important loss. The provinces on the eastern sh.o.r.e of the Baltic, which had been governed by the Order of the Brothers of the Sword after the downfall of the German Order, were overrun and terribly devastated by the Czar Ivan of Russia. The Grand Master of the Order appealed to Lubeck and Hamburg for aid, which was refused; then, in 1559, he called upon the Diet of the German Empire and received vague promises of a.s.sistance, which had no practical value.

Then, driven to desperation, he turned to Poland, Sweden and Denmark, all of which countries took instant advantage of his necessities. The Baltic provinces were defended against Russia--and lost to Germany. The Swedes and Danes took Esthonia, the Poles took Livonia, and only the little province of Courland remained as an independent State, the Grand Master becoming its first Duke.

[Sidenote: 1567. THE GRUMBACH REBELLION.]

Ferdinand I. died in 1564, and was immediately succeeded by his eldest son, Maximilian II. The latter was in the prime of life, already popular for his goodness of heart, his engaging manners and his moderation and justice. The Protestants cherished great hopes, at first, that he would openly join them; but, although he so favored and protected them in Austria that Vienna almost became a Protestant city, he refused to leave the Catholic Church, and even sent his son Rudolf to be educated in Spain, under the bitter and bigoted influence of Philip II. His daughter was married to Charles IX. of France, and when he heard of the ma.s.sacre of St. Bartholomew (in August, 1572) he cried out: "Would to G.o.d that my son-in-law had asked counsel of me! I would so faithfully have persuaded him as a father, that he certainly would never have done this thing." He also endeavored, but in vain, to soften the persecutions and cruelties of Philip II.'s reign in the Netherlands.

Maximilian II.'s reign of twelve years was quiet and uneventful. Only one disturbance of the internal peace occurred, and it is worthy of note as the last feud, after so many centuries of free fighting between the princes. An independent knight, William von Grumbach, having been dispossessed of his lands by the Bishop of Wurzburg, waylaid the latter, who was slain in the fight which occurred. Grumbach fled to France, but soon allied himself with several dissatisfied Franconian knights, and finally persuaded John Frederick of Saxony (the smaller Dukedom) to espouse his cause. The latter was outlawed by the Emperor, yet he obstinately determined to resist, in the hope of wresting the Electorate of Saxony from the younger line and restoring it to his own family. He was besieged by the Imperial army in Gotha, in 1567, and taken prisoner.