the people, but also gave, in 1519, a signal proof of his courage, by opposing, with the greatest resolution and success, the ministry of a certain Italian monk, named Bernardine Samson, who was carrying on, in Switzerland, the impious traffick of indulgences with the same impudence that Tetzel had done in Germany. This was the first remarkable event that prepared the way for the reformation among the Helvetic cantons. In process of time, Zuingle pursued with steadiness and resolution the design that he had begun with such courage and success; and some other learned men, educated in Germany, acting with zeal as his colleagues, succeeded so far in removing the credulity of a deluded people, that the pope's supremacy was rejected and denied in the greatest part of Switzerland. It

est attention and care, before he resolved upon any measure, but also filled him with uneasy apprehensions where there was no danger, and made him fear even things that, in reality, could never happen. And yet, on the other hand, when the hour of real danger approached, when things bore a formidable aspect, and the cause of religion was in imminent peril, then this timorous man was at once converted into an intrepid hero, looked danger in the face with unshaken constancy, and opposed his adversaries with invincible fortitude. All this shows, that the force of truth and the power of principle had diminished the weaknesses and defects of Melancthon's natural character, without entirely removing them. Had his fortitude been more uniform and steady, his desire of reconciling all interests and pleasing all parties less vehement and excessive, his tri-is indeed to be observed, that he did not alumph over the superstitions imbibed in his infancy more complete, he must deservedly have been considered as one of the greatest among men.t

ways use the same methods of conversion that were employed by Luther; nor, upon particular occasions, did he discountenance the use of violent measures against such as adhered with obstinacy to the superstitions of their ancestors. He is also said to have attributed, to the civil magistrate, such an extensive power in ecclesiastical affairs, as is quite inconsistent with the essence and genius of religion. But, upon the whole, even envy itself must acknowledge, that his intentions were upright, and his designs worthy of high approbation.

XII. While the credit and authority of the pontiff were thus upon the decline in Germany, they received a mortal wound in Switzerland from Ulric Zuingle, a canon of Zurich, whose extensive learning and uncommon sagacity were accompanied with the most heroic intrepidity and resolution. It must even be acknowledged, that this eminent man had perceived some rays of the truth before Luther XIII. In the mean time, the religious discame to an open rupture with the church of sensions in Germany increased, instead of diRome. He was, however, afterwards still minishing; for, while Miltitz was treating with farther animated by the example, and instruct-Luther in such a mild and prudent manner as ed by the writings of the Saxon reformer; and thus his zeal for the good cause acquired new strength and vigour; for he not only explained the sacred writings in his public discourses to By this, no doubt, Dr. Mosheim means the credulity this great man discovered with respect to prodigies and dreams, and his having been somewhat addicted to the pretended science of astrology. See Schelhornii Amoenit. Hist. Eccles. et Lit. vol. ii. p. 609. We have a life of Melancthon, written by Joachim Camerarius; but a more accurate account of this illustrious reformer, composed by a prudent, impartial, and well-informed biographer, as also a complete collection of his works, would be an inestimable present to the republic of letters.

offered the fairest prospect of an approaching accommodation, Eckius, inflamed with resentment and fury on account of his defeat, repaired with the utmost precipitation to Rome, to accomplish, as he imagined, the ruin of the bold reformer. There, entering into a league with the Dominicans, who were still in high credit at the papal court, and more especially with their two zealous patrons, De Priero and Caietan, he earnestly entreated Leo to level the thunder of his anathemas at the head of the delinquent, and to exclude him from the communion of the church. The Dominicans, deThe translator has added, to the portrait of sirous of revenging the affront which, in their Zuingle, the quality of heroic intrepidity, because it opinion, their whole order had received by Luwas a predominant and remarkable part of the chather's treatment of their brother Tetzel and racter of this illustrious reformer, whose learning and fortitude, tempered by the greatest moderation, rendered him, perhaps beyond comparison, the brightest ornament of the protestant cause. Our learned historian does not seem to acknowledge this with pleasure, as the Germans and Swiss contend for the honour of having given the first overtures toward the reformation. If, how ever, truth has obliged him to make this acknowledgment, he has accompanied it with some modifications which are more artful than accurate. He says, that Zuingle "had perceived some rays of the truth before Luther came to an open rupture," &c. to make us imagine that Luther might have seen the truth long before that rupture happened, and consequently as soon as Zuingle. But it is well known, that the latter, from his early years, had been shocked at several of the superstitious practices of the church of Rome; that, so early as the year 1516,* he had begun to explain the Scriptures to the people, * Ruchart, Hist. de la Reformation en Suisse, Zuinglii op. tom. i. p. 7. Nouveau Diction. vol. iv. p. 866. Durand, Hist. du xvi. Siecle, tom. ii. p. 8, &c. Jurieu, Apologie pour les Reformateurs, &c. partie i. p. 119.

and to censure, though with great prudence and mo deration, the errors of a corrupt church; and that he had very noble and extensive ideas of a general reformation, at the very time that Luther retained almost the whole system of popery, indulgences excepted. Luther proceeded very slowly to exempt himself from those prejudices of education, which Zuingle, by the force of an adventurous genius, and an uncommon degree of knowledge and penetration, easily shook off.

This again is inaccurate. It appears from the preceding note, and from the most authentic records, that Zuingle had explained the Scriptures to the people, and called in question the authority and supremacy of the pope, before the name of Luther was known in Switzerland. Besides, instead of receiving instruction from the German reformer, he was much his superior in learning, capacity, and judgment, and was much fitter to be his master than his disciple, as the four volumes in folio which we have of his works abundantly testify.

† See Jo. Henr. Hottingeri Hist. Eccles. Helvet. tom. ii. lib. vi.-Ruchart, Histoire de la Reformation en Suisse, tom i. liv. i.-Gerdes, Histor. Renovati Evangelii, tom. is.

their patron Caietan, seconded the furious ef- || appearance of reason or common sense, be afforts of Eckius; and the pontiff, overcome by terwards forcibly and authoritatively excluded the importunity of these pernicious counsel- from it. It is not improbable, that Luther lors, imprudently issued* a bull on the 15th of was directed, in this critical measure, by perJune, 1520, in which forty-one pretended he- sons well skilled in the law, who are generally resies, extracted from the writings of Luther, dexterous in furnishing a perplexed client with were solemnly condemned, his works ordered nice distinctions and plausible evasions. Be to be publicly burned, and in which he was that as it may, he separated himself only from again summoned, on pain of excommunica- the church of Rome, which considers the pope tion, to confess and retract his pretended er- as infallible, and not from the church considerrors within the space of sixty days, and to ed in a more extensive sense; for he submitted throw himself upon the clemency of the pon- to the decision of the universal church, when tiff. that decision should be given in a general council lawfully assembled. When this judicious distinction is considered, it will not appear at all surprising, that many, even of the Roman Catholics, who weighed matters with a certain degree of impartiality and wisdom, and were zealous for the maintenance of the liberties of Germany, justified this bold resolution of Luther.* In less than a month after he had taken this noble and important step, a second bull was issued against him, on the 6th of January, 1521, by which he was expelled from the communion of the church, for having insulted the majesty and disowned the supremacy of the pope.t

XIV. As soon as the account of this rash sentence was communicated to Luther, he thought it was high time to consult both his present defence and his future security; and the first step he took for this purpose, was the renewal of his appeal from the sentence of the pontiff, to the more respectable decision of a general council. But as he foresaw that this appeal would be treated with contempt, and that, when the time prescribed for his recantation should have elapsed, the thunder of excommunication would be levelled at his devoted head, he judged it prudent to withdraw himself voluntarily from the communion of the church of Rome, before he was obliged to leave it by force; and thus to render this new bull of ejection a blow in the air, an exercise of authority without any object to act upon. At the same time, he resolved to execute this wise determination in a public manner, that his voluntary retreat from the communion of a corrupt and superstitious church might be universally known, before the lordly pontiff had prepared his ghostly thunder. With this view, on the 10th of December, 1520, he had a pile of wood erected without the walls of the city; and there, in presence of a prodigious multitude of people of all ranks and orders, he committed to the flames both the bull that had been published against him, and the decretals and canons relating to the pope's supreme jurisdiction. By this he declared to the world, that he was no longer a subject of the pontiff, and that, consequently, the sentence of excommunication against him, which was daily expected from Rome, was entirely superfluous and insignificant; for the man who publicly commits to the flames the code that contains the laws of his sovereign, shows thereby that he has no longer any respect for his government, nor any intention of submitting to his authority; and the man who voluntarily withdraws himself from a society, cannot, with any

The wisest and best part of the Roman catholics acknowledge, that Leo was chargeable with the most culpable imprudence in this rash and violent method of proceeding. See a Dissertation of the learned John Frederic Mayer, de Pontificis Leonis X. processum adversus Lutherum improbantibus, which is part of a work published at Hamburg, in 1698, under this singular title: Ecclesia Romana Reformationis Lutheranæ patrona et cliens. There were several wise and thinking persons at this time about the pontiff, who declared openly, without the least ceremony, their disapprobation of the violent counsels of Eckius and the Dominicans, and gave it as their opinion, that it was both prudent and just to wait for the issue of the conferences of Miltitz with Luther, before such forcible measures should be employed.

Of Wittenberg.

XV. Such iniquitous laws, enacted against the person and doctrine of Luther, produced an effect different from what was expected by the imperious pontiff. Instead of intimidating this bold reformer, they led him to form the project of founding a church upon principles opposite to those of Rome, and to establish, in it, a system of doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline agreeable to the spirit and precepts of the Gospel of truth. This, indeed, was the only resource left to him; for, to submit to the orders of a cruel and insolent enemy, would have been the greatest degree of imprudence imaginable; and to embrace, anew, errors which he had rejected with a just indignation, and exposed with the clearest evidence, would have discovered a want of integrity and principle, worthy only of the most abandoned profligate. From this time, therefore, he applied himself to the pursuit of the truth with increased assiduity and fervour; nor did he only review with attention, and confirm by new arguments, what he had hitherto taught, but went far beyond it, and made vigorous attacks upon the principal fortress of popery, the power and jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, which he overturned from its very foundation. In this noble undertaking he was seconded by many learned and pious men, in various parts of Europe; by those professors of the university of Witten

This judicious distinction has not been sufficiently attended to; and the Romanists, some through artifice, others through ignorance, have confounded the papacy with the catholic church, though they are, in reality, two different things. The papacy, indeed, by the ambitious dexterity of the Roman pontiffs, incorporated itself by degrees into the church; but it was a preposterous supplement, and was really as foreign to its genuine constitution, as a new citadel, erected by a successful usurper, would be to an ancient city. Luther set out and acted upon this distinction; he went out of the citadel, but he intended to remain in the city, and, like a good pa. triot, hoped to reform its corrupted government.

† Both these bulls are to be found in the Bullarium Romanum, and also in the learned Pfaff's Histor. Theol. Literar.

berg, who had adopted his principles; and in a more especial manner by the celebrated Melancthon; and, as the fame of Luther's wisdom and Melancthon's learning had filled that academy with an incredible number of students, who flocked to it from all parts, this happy circumstance propagated the principles of the Reformation with an amazing rapidity through all the countries of Europe.

May, 1521, was excessively severe; and Charles, whether through sincere zeal or political cunning, showed himself in this affair an ardent abettor of the papal authority; for in this edict the pope is declared the only true judge of the controversy, in which he was evidently a party concerned; Luther is declared a member cut off from the church, a schis

This sentence, which was dated the 8th of

tates of right reason, that his opinions were erroneous, and his conduct unlawful. When therefore neither promises nor threats could shake the constancy of this magnanimous reformer, he obtained, indeed, from the emperor, the liberty of returning unmolested to his home: but, after his departure from the diet, he was condemned by the unanimous suffrages both of the emperor and the princes, and, was XVI. Not long after the commencement of declared an enemy to the holy Roman empire.* these divisions, Maximilian I. had resigned his Frederic, who saw the storm rising against Lubreath; and his grandson, Charles I. of Spain ther, used the best precautions to secure him and V. of Austria, had succeeded him in the from its violence. For this purpose he sent three empire in 1519. Leo seized this new occasion or four persons in whom he could confide, to of venting and executing his vengeance, by meet him on his return from the diet, in order putting the new emperor in mind of his char- to conduct him to a place of safety. These acter as 'advocate and defender of the church,' emissaries, disguised by masks, executed their and demanding the exemplary punishment of commission with the utmost secrecy and sucLuther, who had rebelled against its sacred cess. Meeting with Luther near Eisenach, laws and institutions. On the other hand, they seized him, and carried him into the casFrederic the Wise employed his credit with tle of Wartenberg; nor, as some have imaginCharles to prevent the publication of any un-ed upon probable grounds, was this done withjust edict against this reformer, and to have his out the knowledge of his imperial majesty. In cause tried by the canons of the Germanic this retreat, which he called his Patmos, the church, and the laws of the empire. This re-reformer lay concealed for ten months, and quest was so much the more likely to be granted, employed this involuntary leisure in composias Charles was under much greater obligations tions that were afterwards very useful to the to Frederic than to any other of the German world.† princes; for it was chiefly by his zealous and important services that he had been raised to the empire, in opposition to the pretensions of such a formidable rival as Francis I. king of France. The emperor was sensible of his obligations to the worthy elector, and was disposed to satisfy his demands. That, however, he might do this without displeasing the Roman pontiff, he re-matic, a notorious and obstinate heretic; the sesolved that Luther should be called before the council which was to be assembled at Worms in 1521, and that his cause should be there publicly heard, before any definitive sentence should be pronounced against him. It may highest disapprobation by all wise and thinking perperhaps appear strange, and even inconsistent sons, 1st, because Luther had been condemned withwith the laws of the church, that a cause of a out being heard, at Rome, by the college of cardi. religious nature should be examined and de-nals, and afterwards at Worms, where, without any discussion or refutation of his doctrine, he was only cided in the public diet. But it must be con- despotically ordered to abandon and renounce it; sidered that these diets, in which the arch- 2dly, because Charles V., as emperor, had not a right bishops, bishops, and even some abbots, had to give an authoritative sentence against the doctrine of Luther, or to take for granted the infalli their places, as well as the princes of the embility of the Roman pontiff, before these matters pire, were not only political assemblies, but were discussed and decided by a general council. also provincial councils for Germany, to whose and, 3dly, because a considerable number of the Ger jurisdiction, by the canon law, such causes as man princes, who were immediately interested in this affair, such as the electors of Cologne, Saxony, that of Luther properly belonged. and the Palatinate, and other sovereign princes, had neither been present at the diet, nor examined and approved the edict; and, therefore, at best, it could house of Austria, and to such of the princes as had only have force in the territories belonging to the given their consent to its publication. But, after all, this edict produced scarcely any effect, not only for the reasons now mentioned, but also because Charles, whose presence, authority, and zeal, were necessary to render it respectable, was involved in other af fairs of a civil nature which he had more at heart. Obliged to pass successively into Flanders, England, to form new alliances against his great enemy and and Spain, to quell the seditions of his subjects, and rival Francis, he lost sight of the edict, while it was treated with the highest indignation or the utmost contempt by all who had any regard for the liberties of the empire and the rights of the Germanic

XVII. Luther, therefore, appeared at Worms, secured against the violence of his enemies by a safe-conduct from the emperor, and, on the 17th of April, pleaded his cause before that grand assembly with the utmost resolution and presence of mind. Menaces and entreaties were alternately employed to conquer the firmness of his purpose, to engage him to renounce the propositions he had hitherto maintained, and to bend him to a submission to the Roman pontiff. But he opposed all these attempts with a noble obstinacy, and peremptorily declared that he would never abandon his opinions, or change his conduct, unless he should be convinced by the word of God, or the dic

verest punishments are denounced against those who shall receive, entertain, maintain, or countenance him, either by acts of hospitality, by conver sation or writing; and all his disciples, adherents, and followers, are involved in the same condemnation. This edict was, however, received with the

church.

This precaution of the humane and excellent elector being put in execution, on the 3d of May, * There is a particular account of the rapid pro- five days before the solemn publication of the edict gress of the reformation in Germany, given by the of Worms, the pope missed his blow; and the adver learned Daniel Gerdes, professor at Groningen, insaries of Luther became doubly odious to the people his Historia renovati Evangelii.

of Germany, who, unacquainted with the scheme of

XVIII. His active spirit could not, however, long bear this confinement; he therefore left his Patmos in March, 1522, without the consent or even the knowledge of his patron and protector Frederic, and repaired to Wittenberg. One of the principal motives that engaged him to take this bold step, was the information he had received of the inconsiderate conduct of Carlostadt, and some other friends of the Reformation, who had already excited tumults in Saxony, and were acting in a manner equally prejudicial to the tranquillity of the state, and the true interests of the church. Carlostadt, professor at Wittenberg, was a man of considerable learning, who had pierced the veil, with which papal artifice and superstition had covered the truth, and, at the instigation of Eckius, had been excluded with Luther from the communion of the church. His zeal, however, was intemperate; his plans were laid with temerity, and executed without moderation. During Luther's absence, he threw down|| and broke the images of the saints that were placed in the churchies, and instead of restraining the vehemence of a fanatical multitude, who had already begun in some places to abuse the

Frederic, and not knowing what was become of their favourite reformer, imagined that he was im prisoned, or perhaps destroyed, by the emissaries of Rome. In the mean time, Luther lived in peace and quiet in the castle of Wartenberg, where he translated a great part of the New Testament into the German language, and wrote frequent letters to his trusty

friends and intimates to comfort them under his absence.

Nor was his confinement here inconsistent with amusement and relaxation; for he frequently enjoyed the pleasure of hunting in company with his keepers, passing for a country gentleman, under the appellation of Younker George.

If we cast an eye upon the conduct of Luther, in this first scene of his trials, we shall find a true spirit of rational zeal, generous probity, and Christian fortitude, animating this reformer. In his behaviour, before and at the diet of Worms, we observe these qualities shining with a peculiar lustre, and tempered, notwithstanding the warmth of his complexion, with an unexpected degree of moderation and decent respect both for his civil and ecclesiastical superiors. When some of his friends, informed of the violent designs of the Roman court, and alarmed by the bull that had been published against him by the rash pontiff, advised him not to expose his person at the diet, notwithstanding the imperial safe-conduct, (which, in a similar case, had not been sufficient to protect John Huss and Jerome of Prague from the perfidy and cruelty of their enemies,) he answered with his usual intrepidity, that "were he obliged to encounter at Worms as many devils as there were tiles upon the houses of that city, this would not deter him from his fixed purpose of appearing there; that fear, in this case, could be only a suggestion of Satan, who apprehended the approaching ruin of his kingdom, and who was willing to avoid a public defeat before such a grand assembly." The fire and obstinacy that appeared in this answer seemed to prognosticate much warmth and vehemence in his conduct at the assembly. But it was quite otherwise. He exposed with decency and dignity the superstitious doctrines and practices of the church of Rome, and the grievances that arose from the over-grown power of its pontiff, and the abuse that was made of it. He acknowledged the writings with which he was charged, and offered, both with moderation and humility, to defend their contents. He desired the pope's legates and their adherents to hear him, to inform him, to reason with him; and solemnly offered, in presence of the assembled princes and bishops, to renounce his doctrines, if they were shown to be erroneous. But to all these expostulations he received no other answer, than the despotic dictates of mere authority, attended with injurious and provoking language.

*

precious liberty that was dawning upon them, he encouraged their ill-timed violence, and led them on to sedition and mutiny. Luther opposed the impetuosity of this imprudent reformer with the utmost fortitude and dignity, and wisely exhorted him and his adherents to eradicate error from the minds of the people, before they made war upon its external ensigns in the churches and public places; since, the former being once removed, the latter must fall of course, and since the destruction of the latter alone could be attended with no lasting fruits. To these prudent admonitions this excellent reformer added the influence of example, by applying himself, with redoubled industry and zeal, to his German translation of the Holy Scriptures, which he carried on with expedition and success, with the assistance of some learned and pious men whom he consulted in this important undertaking. The event abundantly showed the wisdom of Luther's advice; for the different parts of this translation, being successively and gradually spread abroad among the people, produced sudden and almost incredible effects, and extirpated, root and branch, the erroneous principles and superstitious doctrine of the church of Rome from the minds of a prodigious number of persons.

XIX. During these transactions, Leo died, and was succeeded in the pontificate by Adrian VI., a native of Utrecht. This pope, who had formerly been preceptor to Charles V., and who owed his new dignity to the good offices of that prince, was a man of probity and candour, who acknowledged ingenuously that the church laboured under the most fatal disorders, and declared his willingness to apply the remedies that should be judged the most adapted to heal them. He began his pontificate by sending a legate to the diet, which was as

* Dr. Mosheim's account of this matter is perhaps more advantageous to Luther than the rigorous demands of historical impartiality will admit; at least the defects of the great reformer are here shaded with art. It is evident from several passages in the writings of Luther, that he was by no means averse to the use of images, but that, on the contrary, he looked upon them as adapted to excite and animate the devotion of the people. But, perhaps, the true reason of his displeasure at the proceedings of Carlostadt, was, that he could not bear to see another crowned with the glory of executing a plan which he had formed, and that he was ambitious of appear. ing the principal, if not the only, conductor of this great work. This is not a mere conjecture. Luther himself has not taken the least pains to conceal this instance of his ambition: and it appears evidently in several of his letters. On the other hand, it must be owned, that Carlostadt was rash, violent, and prone to enthusiasm, as appears by the connexions he formed afterwards with the fanatical anabaptists, headed by Munzer. His contest with Luther about the eucharist, in which he manifestly maintained the truth, shall be mentioned in its proper place.

† Of this German translation of the Bible, which contributed more than all other causes, taken together, to strengthen the foundations of the Lutheran church, we have an interesting history composed by Jo. Fred. Mayer, and published at Hamburg in 1701. A more ample one was expected from the la. bours of the learned J. Melchior Kraft; but his death disappointed the hopes of the learned. See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Centifolium Lutheranum, part i. p. 117, and part ii. p. 617.

See Caspar. Burmanni Adrianus VI. sive Analecta Historica de Adriano VI. Papa Romano, published at Utrecht in 1727.

||

who adhered to the cause of Rome, and there drew from them a new declaration, by which they engaged themselves to execute the edict with rigour in their respective dominions.

sembled at Nuremberg in 1522. Francis Cheregato, the person who was intrusted with this commission, had positive orders to demand the speedy and vigorous execution of the sentence that had been pronounced against Luther and XXI. While the efforts of Luther toward his followers at the diet of Worms; but, at the the reformation of the church were so far sucsame time, he was authorised to declare that cessful, and almost all the nations seemed disthe pontiff was ready to remove the abuses posed to open their eyes upon the light, two and grievances that had armed such a formi- unhappy occurrences, one of a foreign, and the dable enemy against the see of Rome. The other of a domestic nature, contributed greatly princes of the empire, encouraged by this de- to retard the progress of this salutary and gloclaration, and also by the absence of the em- rious work. The domestic, or internal inciperor, who at this time resided in Spain, seized dent, was a controversy concerning the manner this opportunity of proposing the convocation in which the body and blood of Christ were of a general council in Germany, in order to present in the eucharist, that arose among deliberate upon the proper methods of bring- those whom the pope had publicly excluded ing about a universal reformation of the from the communion of the church, and unchurch. They exhibited, at the same time, a happily produced among the friends of the hundred articles, containing the heaviest com- good cause the most deplorable animosities and plaints of the injurious treatment which the divisions. Luther and his followers, though Germans had hitherto received from the court they had rejected the monstrous doctrine of of Rome, and, by a public law, prohibited all the church of Rome with respect to transubinnovation in religious matters, until a general stantiation, or the change of the bread and council should decide what ought to be done wine into the body and blood of Christ, were in an affair of such high importance.* As nevertheless of opinion, that the partakers of long as the German princes were unacquainted the Lord's supper received, with the bread and with, or inattentive to, the measures that were wine, the real body and blood of Christ. This, taken in Saxony for founding a new church in || in their judgment, was a mystery, which they direct opposition to that of Rome, they were did not pretend to explain.* Carlostadt, who zealously unanimous in their endeavours to set was Luther's colleague, understood the matter bounds to the papal authority and jurisdiction, otherwise; and his doctrine, which was afterwhich they all looked upon as overgrown and wards more fully illustrated and confirmed bý enormous; nor were they at all offended at Zuingle, amounted to this: "That the body Luther's contest with the pontiff, which they and blood of Christ were not really present in considered as a dispute of a private and per- the eucharist; and that the bread and wine sonal nature. were no more than external signs, or symbols, designed to excite in the minds of Christians the remembrance of the sufferings and death of the divine Saviour, and of the benefits which arise from it." This opinion was embraced by all the friends of the Reformation in Switzerland, and by a considerable number of its votaries in Germany. On the other hand, Luther maintained his doctrine, in relation to this point, with the utmost obstinacy; and hence arose, in 1524, a tedious and vehement controversy, which, notwithstanding the zealous endeavours that were used to reconcile the contending parties, terminated, at length, in a mischievous division between those who had embarked together in the sacred cause of religion and liberty.

Luther was not so modest as Dr. Mosheim here

XX. The good pope Adrian did not long enjoy the pleasure of sitting at the head of the church. He died in 1523, and was succeeded by Clement VII., a man of a reserved character, and prone to artifice. This pontiff sent to the imperial diet at Nuremberg, in 1524, a cardinal legate, named Campeggio, whose orders, with respect to the affairs of Luther, breathed nothing but severity and violence, and who inveighed against the lenity of the German princes in delaying the execution of the decree of Worms, while he carefully avoided the smallest mention of Adrian's promise of reforming the corruptions of a superstitious church. The emperor seconded the demands of Campeggio, by the orders he sent to his minister to insist upon the execution of the decree. The princes of the empire, tired out by these importunities and remonstrances, represents him. He pretended to explain his doctrine changed in appearance the law they had pass-was, and uttered much senseless jargon on this subject. of the real presence, absurd and contradictory as it ed, but confirming it in reality; for, while they As in a red-hot iron, said he, two distinct substances, promised to observe the edict, as far as it was pos- namely, iron and fire, are united, so is the body of sible, they renewed their demand of a general mention this miserable comparison to show into Christ joined with the bread in the eucharist. I council, and left all other disputed points to be what absurdities the towering pride of system will examined and decided at the diet that was often betray men of deep sense and true genius. soon to be assembled at Spire. The pope's Lutheranos et Reformatos, part i. lib. ii. cap. i.— legate, on the other hand, perceiving by these See, on the other side of the question, Scultet's Anproceedings, that the German princes in general nales Evangelii, published by Vonder Hardt in his were no enemies to the Reformation, retired Historia Liter. Reformat.; also Rud. Hospinianus, and to Ratisbon, with the bishops and those princes other reformed writers, who have treated of the origin and progress of this dispute.- It appears from this representation (which is a just one) of the sentiments of Zuingle concerning the holy sacra. ment of the Lord's supper, that they were the same with those maintained by bishop Hoadly, in his Plain Account of the Nature and Design of the Sacra. ment of the Lord's Supper.

*See Jac. Fred. Georgii Gravamina Germanorum adversus Sedem Romanam, lib. ii. p. 327.

† See Jac. Zeigleri Historia Clementis VII. in Jo. Georgii Schelho nii Amanit. Histor. Eccles. tom. ii. p. 210.

† See Val. Ern. Loscheri Historia Motuum inter