History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century Volume III Part 19

The people, however, antic.i.p.ated them. While the diet was deliberating what should be done with these ministers, the town-council of Nuremberg were considering how they should proceed with regard to the decision of the diet. They resolved, without exceeding their jurisdiction, that if attempts were made to lay violent hands on the city preachers, they should be set at liberty by main force. Such a determination was very significant. The astonished diet replied to the nuncio, that it was not lawful to arrest the preachers of the free city of Nuremberg, unless previously convicted of heresy.

[Sidenote: PROMISES OF REFORM.]

Chieregati was deeply moved at this new insult to the omnipotence of the papacy. "Well, then," said he haughtily to Ferdinand, "do nothing, but let me act. I will have these preachers seized in the pope's name."[283] As soon as the Cardinal-archbishop Albert of Mentz and the Margrave Casimir were informed of this extravagant design, they hastened to the legate, entreating him to renounce his intentions. The nuncio was immovable, affirming that in the bosom of Christendom obedience to the pope was of the first importance. The two princes quitted the legate, saying: "If you persist in your design, we desire that you will give us warning; for we will leave the city before you venture to lay hands on these preachers."[284] The legate abandoned his project.

[283] Sese auctoritate pontifica curaturum ut isti caperentur. Corp.

Ref. i. 606.

[284] Priusquam illi caperentur, se urbe cessuros esse. Ibid.

Despairing of success by measures of authority, he resolved to have recourse to other expedients, and with this view he acquainted the diet with the intentions and mandates of the pontiff, which he had hitherto kept secret.

But the worthy Adrian, a stranger to the ways of the world, injured by his very frankness the cause he so heartily desired to serve. "We are well aware," said he in the resolutions intrusted to his legate, "that for many years certain abuses and abominations have crept into the holy city.[285] The contagion has spread from the head to the members; it has descended from the popes to the other ecclesiastics. It is our desire to reform this Roman court, whence proceed so many evils; the whole world is craving after it, and to effect this we submitted to ascend the papal chair."

[285] In eam sedem aliquot jam annos quaedam vitia irrepsisse, abusus in rebus sacris, in legibus violationes, in cunctis denique perversionem. Pallav. i. 160. See also Sarpi, p. 25; L. Opp. xviii.

329, &c.

The partisans of Rome blushed for shame as they heard this extraordinary language. They thought, with Pallavicini, that these avowals were too sincere.[286] The friends of the Reformation, on the contrary, were delighted at seeing Rome proclaim her own corruption.

They no longer doubted that Luther was right, since the pope himself declared it.

[286] Liberioris tamen, quam par erat, sinceritatis fuisse visum est, ea conventui patefacere. Ibid. 162.

[Sidenote: ALARM OF THE LEGATE.]

The reply of the diet showed how much the authority of the sovereign pontiff had fallen in the empire. Luther's spirit seemed to have entered into the hearts of the representatives of the nation. The moment was favourable: Adrian's ear seemed open; the emperor was absent; the diet resolved to collect into one body all the grievances that for ages Germany had endured from Rome, and forward them to the pope.

The legate was frightened at this determination. He entreated and threatened in turns. He insinuated that under a purely religious exterior the reformer concealed great political dangers; he a.s.serted, like Adrian, that these children of iniquity had no other end in view than to destroy all obedience, and lead every man to do as he pleased.

"Will those men keep your laws," said he, "who not only despise the holy canons of the Father, but still further, tear them in pieces and burn them in their diabolical fury? Will they spare your lives who do not fear to insult, to strike, to kill the anointed of the Lord? It is your persons, your goods, your houses, your wives, your children, your domains, your states, your temples, and all that you adore, that are threatened by this frightful calamity."[287]

[287] In eos, in vestras res, domos, uxores, liberos, ditiones, dominatus, templa quae colitis. L. Opp. Lat. ii. 536.

[Sidenote: GRIEVANCES OF THE NATION.]

All these declamations proved of no avail. The diet, although commending the promises of the pope, required for their speedy fulfilment that a free and christian council should be a.s.sembled as soon as possible at Strasburg, Mentz, Cologne, or Metz, in which laymen should be present. Laymen in a council! Laymen regulating the affairs of the Church in concert with priests! It is more than we can see even now in many protestant states. The diet added, that every man should have liberty to speak freely for the glory of G.o.d, the salvation of souls, and the good of the christian commonwealth.[288]

It then proceeded to draw up a catalogue of its grievances, which amounted to the number of eighty. The abuses and arts of the popes and the Roman court to extort money from Germany; the scandals and profanations of the clergy; the disorders and simony of the ecclesiastical tribunals; the encroachments on the secular power for the enslaving of consciences; were all set forth with as much frankness as energy. The states gave the pope to understand that the traditions of men were the source of all this corruption, and concluded by saying: "If these grievances are not redressed within a limited time, we shall seek other means to escape from so many oppressions and sufferings."[289] Chieregati, foreseeing the terrible recess that the diet would draw up, hastily left Nuremberg, that he might not have to deliver this sad and insolent message.

[288] Quod in tali concilio eis qui interesse deberent vel ecclesiastici vel laicalis ordinis libere liceret loqui. Geldart, Const.i.t. Imper. i. 452.

[289] Wie sie solcher Beschwerung und Drangsaal entladen werden. L.

Opp. xviii. 354.

Yet was there not reason to fear that the diet would seek to make amends for its boldness by sacrificing Luther? People thought so at first; but a spirit of justice and truth had descended on this a.s.sembly. It demanded, as Luther had done, the convocation of a free council in the empire, and added, that in the meanwhile the pure Gospel alone should be preached, and nothing should be printed without the approbation of a certain number of pious and learned men.[290]

These resolutions furnish us with the means of calculating the immense progress the Reformation had made subsequently to the Diet of Worms; and yet the knight of Feilitsch, the Saxon envoy, solemnly protested against this censorship, moderate as it was, which the diet prescribed. This decree was regarded as the first triumph of the Reformation, which would be followed by other more decisive victories.

The Swiss themselves, in the midst of their mountains, thrilled with delight. "The Roman pontiff is vanquished in Germany," said Zwingle.

"We have nothing more to do than deprive him of his weapons. This is the battle we have now to fight, and a furious one it will be. But Christ is the umpire of the conflict."[291] Luther said publicly that G.o.d himself had inspired the princes to draw up this edict.[292]

[290] Ut pie placideque purum Evangelium praedicaretur. Pall. i. 166; Sleidan, i. 135.

[291] Victus est ac ferme profligatus e Germania Roma.n.u.s pontifex. Zw.

Epp. 313.--11th October 1523.

[292] Gott habe solenes E.G. eingeben. L. Opp. xviii. 476.

[Sidenote: THE POPE'S LETTER TO FREDERICK.]

The indignation at the Vatican among the papal ministers was very great. What! is it not enough to have a pope who disappoints all the expectations of the Romans, and in whose palace there is neither singing nor playing; but, more than this, secular princes are allowed to hold a language that Rome detests, and refuse to put the Wittemberg heretic to death!

Adrian himself was filled with indignation at the events in Germany, and it was on the head of the Elector of Saxony that he discharged his anger. Never had the Roman pontiffs uttered a cry of alarm more energetic, more sincere, or perhaps more affecting.

"We have waited long--and perhaps too long," said the pious Adrian in the brief he addressed to the elector; "we were anxious to see whether G.o.d would visit thy soul, and if thou wouldst not at last escape from the snares of Satan. But when we looked to gather grapes, we found nothing but sour grapes. The blower hath blown in vain; thy wickedness is not consumed. Open, then, thine eyes to see the greatness of thy fall!......

"If the unity of the Church is broken; if the simple have been turned aside from that faith which they had imbibed at their mothers'

b.r.e.a.s.t.s; if the temples are destroyed; if the people are without priests; if the priests receive not the honour that is due to them; if Christians are without Christ: to whom is it owing, but to thee?[293]......If christian peace has vanished from the earth; if the world is full of discord, rebellion, robbery, murder, and conflagration; if the cry of war is heard from east to west; if a universal conflict is at hand: it is thou--thou who art the author of these things!

[293] Da.s.s die Kirchen ohne Volk sind, da.s.s die Volker ohne Priester sind, da.s.s die Priester ohne Ehre sind, und da.s.s die Christen ohne Christo sind. Ibid. 37.

[Sidenote: FREDERICK'S EMOTION.]

"Sawest thou not this sacrilegious man (Luther) rending with his wicked hands and trampling under his impure feet the images of the saints and even the holy cross of Christ?......Dost thou not behold him, in his unG.o.dly wrath, instigating laymen to imbrue their hands in the blood of the priests, and overturning the churches of our Lord?

"And what matters it, if the priests he a.s.sails are wicked priests?

Has not the Lord said: _Whatsoever they bid you observe, that observe and do; but do not ye after their works_; thus showing the honour that belongs to them, even when their lives are blame-worthy.[294]

[294] Wen sie gleich eines verdammten Lebens sind. L. Opp. xviii. 379.

"Rebellious apostate! he is not ashamed to defile the vessels consecrated to G.o.d; he drags from their sanctuaries the holy virgins consecrated to Christ, and gives them over to the devil; he takes the priests of the Lord, and delivers them up to infamous harlots......Awful profanation! which even the heathen would have condemned with horror in the priests of their idols!

"What punishment, what martyrdom dost thou think we judge thee to deserve?......Have pity on thyself; have pity on thy wretched Saxons; for if you do not all return into the fold, G.o.d will pour out his vengeance upon you.

"In the name of the Almighty G.o.d, and of our Lord Jesus Christ, whose representative I am upon earth, I declare that thou shalt be punished in this world, and plunged into everlasting fire in that which is to come. Repent and be converted!......Two swords are suspended over thy head,--the sword of the Empire and the sword of the Church."

The pious Frederick shuddered as he read this threatening brief. He had written to the emperor shortly before, to the effect that old age and sickness rendered him incapable of taking any part in these affairs; and he had been answered by the most insolent letter that a sovereign prince had ever received. Although bowed down by age, he cast his eyes on that sword which he had worn at the holy sepulchre in the days of his manly strength. He began to think that he would have to unsheathe it in defence of the conscience of his subjects, and that, already on the brink of the tomb, he would not be allowed to go down to it in peace. He immediately wrote to Wittemberg to hear the opinion of the fathers of the Reformation.

[Sidenote: OPINIONS OF THE REFORMERS.]

There also troubles and persecutions were apprehended. "What shall I say?" exclaimed the gentle Melancthon; "whither shall I turn? Hatred overwhelms us, and the world is transported with fury against us."[295] Luther, Linck, Melancthon, Bugenhagen, and Amsdorff consulted together on the reply they should make to the elector. Their answer was almost entirely to the same purport, and the advice they gave him is very remarkable.

[295] Quid dicam? quo me vertam? Corp. Ref. i. 627.

"No prince," said they, "can undertake a war without the consent of the people, from whose hands he has received his authority.[296] Now, the people have no desire to fight for the Gospel, for they do not believe. Let not princes, therefore, take up arms; they are rulers of the nations, and therefore of unbelievers." Thus, it was the impetuous Luther who counselled the wise Frederick to restore his sword to its sheath. He could not have returned a better answer to the reproach of the pope, that he excited the laity to imbrue their hands in the blood of the clergy. Few characters have been more misunderstood than his.

This advice was dated the 8th of February. Frederick restrained himself.

[296] Principi nullum licet suscipere bellum, nisi consentiente populo, a quo accepit imperium. Ibid. 601.

The pope's wrath soon bore fruit. The princes who had set forth their grievances against Rome, alarmed at their own daring, were now desirous of making amends by their compliance. Many, besides, thought that the victory would remain with the Roman pontiff, as he appeared to be the stronger party. "In our days," said Luther, "princes are content to say three times three make nine; or else, twice seven make fourteen: The reckoning is correct; the affair will succeed. Then our Lord G.o.d arises and says: How many do you reckon me?......For a cipher perhaps?......He then turns their calculations topsy-turvy, and their accounts prove false."[297]

[297] So kehrt er ihnen auch die Rechnung gar um. L. Opp. xxii. 1831.