History of the Great Reformation Part 36

[682] Forstemann's Urkundenbuch, pp. 80-92, 113-119.

[Sidenote: THE REFUTATION.]

Six weeks had elapsed since the Confession, and yet no reply. "The Papists, from the moment they heard the Apology," it was said, "suddenly lost their voice."[683] At length the Romish theologians handed their revised and corrected performance to the Emperor, and persuaded this prince to present it in his own name. The mantle of the state seemed to them admirably adapted to the movements of Rome.

"These sycophants," said Melancthon, "have desired to clothe themselves with the lion's skin, to appear to us so much the more terrible."[684] All the states of the Empire were convoked for the next day but one.

[683] Papistas obmutuisse ad ipsorum Confessionem. (Colch. p. 195.)

[684] Voluerunt sycophantae theologi ?e??t?? illam sibi circ.u.mdare, ut essent n.o.bis formidabiliores. (Corp. Ref. p. 252.)

On Wednesday, 3d August, at two o'clock in the afternoon, the Emperor, sitting on his throne in the chapel of the Palatinate Palace, surrounded by his brother, and the electors, princes, and deputies, the Elector of Saxony and his allies were introduced, and the Count-palatine, who was called "Charles's mouthpiece," said to them: "His majesty having handed your Confession to several doctors of different nations, ill.u.s.trious by their knowledge, their morals, and their impartiality, has read their reply with the greatest care, and submits it to you as his own, ordaining that all the members and subjects of the Holy Empire should accept it with unanimous accord."[685]

[685] Velut suam suaque publica auctoritate roboratam, ab omnibus unanimi consensu acceptandam. (Urkundenbuch, ii. p. 144.)

Alexander Schweiss then took the papers and read the refutation. The Roman party approved some articles of the Confession, condemned others, and in certain less salient pa.s.sages, it distinguished between what must be rejected and what accepted.

It gave way on an important point; the _opus operatum_. The Protestants having said in their 13th Article that faith was necessary in the Sacrament, the Romish party a.s.sented to it; thus abandoning an error which the Papacy had so earnestly defended against Luther in that very city of Augsburg, by the mouth of Cajetan.

Moreover, they recognised as truly Christian the Evangelical doctrine on the Trinity, on Christ, on baptism, on eternal punishment, and on the origin of evil.

But on all the other points, Charles, his princes, and his theologians, declared themselves immovable. They maintained that men are born with the fear of G.o.d, that good works are meritorious, and that they justify in union with faith. They upheld the Seven Sacraments, the Ma.s.s, transubstantiation, the withdrawal of the cup, the celibacy of priests, the invocation of saints, and they denied that the Church was an a.s.sembly of the saints.

This Refutation was skilful in some respects, and, above all, in what concerned the doctrine of works and of faith. But on other points, in particular on the withdrawal of the cup and the celibacy of priests, its arguments were lamentably weak, and contrary to the well known facts of history.

While the Protestants had taken their stand on the Scriptures, their adversaries supported the divine origin of the hierarchy, and laid down absolute submission to its laws. Thus, the essential character, which still distinguishes Rome from the Reformation, stood prominently forth in this first combat.

Among the auditors who filled the chapel of the Palatinate Palace, concealed in the midst of the deputies of Nuremberg, was Joachim Camerarius, who, while Schweiss was reading, leant over his tablets and carefully noted down all he could collect. At the same time others of the Protestants, speaking to one another, were indignant, and even laughed, as one of their opponents a.s.sures us.[686] "Really," said they with one consent, "the whole of this Refutation is worthy of Eck, Faber, and Cochlus!"

[686] Multi e Lutheranis inepte cachinnabantur. (Cochlus, p. 895.)

As for Charles, little pleased with these theological dissertations, he slept during the reading;[687] but he awoke when Schweiss had finished, and his awakening was that of a lion.

[687] Imperator iterum obdormivit. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 245.)

[Sidenote: IMPERIAL COMMANDS.]

The Count-palatine then declared that his majesty found the articles of this Refutation orthodox, catholic, and conformable to the Gospel; that he therefore required the Protestants to abandon their Confession, now refuted, and to adhere to all the articles that had just been set forth;[688] that, if they refused, the Emperor would remember his office, and would know how to show himself the advocate and defender of the Roman Church.

[688] Petiit Caesar ut omnes in illos articulos consentiant. (Corp.

Ref. ii. p. 345.)

This language was clear enough: the adversaries imagined they had refuted the Protestants by commanding the latter to consider themselves beaten. Violence--arms--war--were all contained in these cruel words of Charles's minister.[689] The princes represented that, as the Refutation adopted some of their articles and rejected others, it required a careful examination, and they consequently begged a copy should be given them.

[689] Orationis summa atrox. (Corp. Ref. p. 253.)

The Romish party had a long conference on this demand: night was at hand; the Count-palatine replied that, considering the late hour and the importance of this affair, the Emperor would make known his pleasure somewhat later. The diet separated, and Charles the Fifth, exasperated at the audacity of the Evangelical princes, says Cochlus, returned in ill-humour to his apartments.[690]

[690] Caesar non aequo animo ferebat eorum contumaciam. (Cochl. p. 195.)

The Protestants, on the contrary, withdrew full of peace; the reading of the Refutation having given them as much confidence as that of the Confession itself.[691] They saw in their adversaries a strong attachment to the hierarchy, but a great ignorance of the Gospel--a characteristic feature of the Romish party; and this thought encouraged them. "Certainly," said they, "the Church cannot be where there is no knowledge of Christ."[692]

[691] Facti sunt erectiore animo. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 259.)

[692] Ecclesiam ibi non esse, ubi ignoratur Christus.

[Sidenote: POLICY OF CHARLES.]

Melancthon alone was still alarmed; he walked by sight and not by faith, and, remembering the legate's smiles, he had another interview with him, as early as the 4th August, still demanding the cup for the laity, and lawful wives for the priests. "Then," said he, "our pastors will place themselves again under the government of bishops, and we shall be able to prevent those innumerable sects with which posterity is threatened."[693] Melancthon's glance into the future is remarkable: it does not, however, mean that he, like many others, preferred a dead unity to a living diversity.

[693] Quod nisi fiet, quid in tot sectis ad posteros futurum sit.

(Corp. Ref. ii. p. 148.)

Campeggio, now certain of triumphing by the sword, disdainfully handed this paper to Cochlus, who hastened to refute it. It is hard to say whether Melancthon or Campeggio was the most infatuated. G.o.d did not permit an arrangement that would have enslaved his Church.

Charles pa.s.sed the whole of the 4th and the morning of the 5th August in consultation with the Ultramontane party. "It will never be by discussion that we shall come to an understanding," said some; "and if the Protestants do not submit voluntarily, it only remains for us to compel them." They nevertheless decided, on account of the Refutation, to adopt a middle course. During the whole of the diet, Charles pursued a skilful policy. At first he refused everything, hoping to lead away the princes by violence; then he conceded a few unimportant points, under the impression that the Protestants having lost all hope, would esteem so much the more the little he yielded to them.

This was what he did again under the present circ.u.mstances. In the afternoon of the 5th, the Count-palatine announced that the Emperor would give them a copy of the Refutation, but on these conditions; namely, that the Protestants should not reply, that they should speedily agree with the Emperor, and that they would not print or communicate to any one the Refutation that should be confided to them.[694]

[694] F. Urkund. ii. p. 179; Corp. Ref. ii. p. 256; Bruck, Apol. p.

72.

This communication excited murmurs among the Protestants. "These conditions," said they all, "are inadmissible."--"The Papists present us with their paper," added the Chancellor Bruck, "as the fox offered a thin broth to his gossip the stork."

The savoury broth upon a plate by Reynard was served up, But Mistress Stork, with her long beak, she could not get a sup.[695]

[695] Gluck wie der Fuchs brauchet, da er den Storch zu gast lud.

(Bruck, Apol. p. 74.)

[Sidenote: STORMY MEETING.]

"If the Refutation," continued he, "should come to be known without our partic.i.p.ation (and how can we prevent it?), we shall be charged with it as a crime. Let us beware of accepting so perfidious an offer.[696] We already possess in the notes of Camerarius several articles of this paper, and if we omit any point, no one will have the right to reproach us with it."

[696] Quando exemplum per alios in vulgus exire poterat. (Corp. Ref.

ii. p. 76.)

On the next day (6th August) the Protestants declared to the diet that they preferred declining the copy thus offered to them, and appealed to G.o.d and to his Majesty.[697] They thus rejected all that the Emperor proposed to them, even what he considered as a favour.

[697] Das Sie es Gott and Kays. Maj. beschlen mussten. (Urkund. ii. p.

181.)

Agitation, anger, and affright, were manifested on every branch of that august a.s.sembly.[698] This reply of the Evangelicals was war--was rebellion. George of Saxony, the Princes of Bavaria, all the violent adherents of Rome, trembled with indignation; there was a sudden, an impetuous movement, an explosion of murmurs and of hatred; and it might have been feared that the two parties would have come to blows in the very presence of the Emperor, if Archbishop Albert, the Elector of Brandenburg, and the Dukes of Brunswick, Pomerania, and Mecklenburg, rushing between them, had not conjured the Protestants to put an end to this deplorable combat, and not drive the Emperor to extremities.[699] The diet separated, their hearts filled with emotion, apprehension, and trouble.

[698] Und darob wie man Spuren mag, ein Entzet zen gehabt. (Ibid.)

[699] Hi accedunt ad nostros principes et jubent omittere hoc certamen, ne Caesar vehementius commoveatur. (Corp. Ref. ii. p. 254.)

[Sidenote: RESOLUTIONS OF THE CONSISTORY.]

Never had the diet proposed such fatal alternatives. The hopes of agreement, set forth in the edict of convocation, had only been a deceitful lure: now the mask was thrown aside; submission or the sword--such was the dilemma offered to the Reformation. All announced that the day of tentatives was pa.s.sed, and that they were beginning one of violence.