as advocate and defender of the church, and demanding the exemplary punishment of Luther, who had rebelled against its sacred laws and institutions. On the other hand, Frederick the Wise employed his credit with Charles to prevent the publication of any unjust edict against this reformer, and to have his cause tried by the canons of the Germanic church, and the laws of the empire. This request was so much the more likely to be granted that Charles was under much greater obligations to Frederick, than to any other of the German princes, as 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 entirely disposed to satisfy his demands. That, however, he might do this without displeasing the Roman pontiff, he resolved that Luther should be called before the council that was to be assembled at Worms in the year 1521, and that his cause should be there publicly heard, before any final sentence should be pronounced against him. It may, perhaps, appear strange, and even inconsistent with the laws of the church, that a cause of a religious nature should be examined and decided in the public diet. But it must be considered, that these diets, in which the archbishops, bishops, and even certain abbots, had their places, as well as the princes of the empire, were not only political assemblies, but also provincial councils for Germany, to whose jurisdiction, by the ancient canon law, such causes as that of Luther properly belonged. The result of this banishment. XVII. Luther, therefore, appeared at Worms, secured diet, Luther's against the violence of his enemies by a safe-conduct from the emperor, and on the 17th of April, and the day following, pleaded his cause before that grand assembly with the utmost resolution and presence of mind. The united power of threatenings and entreaties was 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 refused all this with a noble obstinacy, and declared solemnly, that he would neither abandon his opinions, nor change his conduct, until he was previously convinced, by the word of God, or the dictates of right reason, that his opinions were erroneous, and his conduct unlawful. When, therefore, neither promises nor threatenings 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 declared an enemy to the holy Roman empire. Frederick, who saw the This sentence, which was dated the 8th of May, 1521, was excessively severe; and Charles V., 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 the party concerned; Luther is declared a member cut off from the church, a schismatic, a notorious and obstinate heretic; the severest punishments are denounced against those who shall receive, entertain, maintain, or countenance him, either by acts of hospitality, by conversation, or writing; and all his disciples, adherents, and followers, are involved in the same condemnation. edict was, however, received with the highest This disapprobation by all wise and thinking persons, 1st, because Luther had been condemned without being heard, at Rome, by the college of cardinals, and afterwards at Worms, where, without either examining or refuting his doctrine, he was only despotically ordered to abandon and renounce it; 2dly, because Charles V., as emperor, had not a right to give an authoritative sentence against the doctrine of Luther, nor to take for granted the infallibility of the Roman pontiff, before these matters were discussed and decided by a general council; and, 3dly, because a considerable number of the German princes, who were immediately interested in this affair, such as the electors of Cologne, Saxony, and the Palatinate, and other sovereign princes, had neither storm rising against Luther, used the best precautions to secure him from its violence. For this purpose he sent three or four persons in whom he could confide, to meet him on his return from the diet, in order to conduct him to a place of safety. These emissaries, disguised by masks, executed their commission with the utmost secrecy and success. Meeting with Luther near Eysenac, they seized him, and carried him into the castle of Wartenberg, nor, as some have imagined upon probable grounds, was this done without the knowledge of his Imperial majesty. In this retreat, which he called his Patmos, the Saxon reformer lay concealed during the space of ten months, and employed this involuntary leisure in compositions that were afterwards useful to the world." The conduct of XVIII. The active spirit of Luther could not, however, Luther after his long bear this confinement. He therefore left his Patmos, in the month of March of the year 1522, without the consent, or even the knowledge, of his patron and protector, Frederick, and repaired to Wittemberg. One of the principal leaving the castle of Wartenberg. been present at the diet, nor examined and approved the edict; and that, therefore, at best, it could only have force in the territories belonging to the house of Austria, and to such of the princes as had given their consent to its publication. But after all, the edict of Worms produced almost no effect, not only for the reasons now mentioned, but also because Charles V., whose presence, authority, and zeal, were necessary to render it respectable, was involved in other affairs of a civil nature which he had more at heart. Obliged to pass successively into Flanders, England, and Spain, to quell the seditions of his subjects, and to form new alliances against his great enemy and rival Francis I., he lost sight of the edict of Worms; while all who had any regard to the liberties of the empire and the rights of the Germanic church, treated this edict with the highest indignation, or the utmost contempt. This precaution of the humane and excellent elector being put in execution, the 3d of May, five days before the solemn publication of the edict of Worms, the pope missed his blow; and the adversaries of Luther became doubly odious to the people in Germany, who, unacquainted with the scheme of Frederick, and, not knowing what was become of their favourite reformer, imagined he was imprisoned, 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 enjoyed frequently the pleasure of hunting in company with his keepers, passing for a country gentleman, under the name of Yonker 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, animat ing this reformer. In his behaviour, before and at the diet of Worms, we observe these qualities shine with a peculiar lustre, and tempered, notwithstanding Luther's warm complexion, with an unexpected degree of moderation and decent respect both for the 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 of Worms, 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 his 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 as the diet of Worms." The fire and obstinacy that appeared in this answer seemed to prognosticate much warmth and vehemence in Luther's conduct at the assembly before which he was going to appear. 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 overgrown 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. 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 Wittemberg, 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 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 churches, and, instead of restraining the vehemence of a fanatical multitude, who had already begun in some places to abuse the precious liberty that was dawning upon them, he encouraged their illtimed 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 first 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 great and 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 doctrines of the church of Rome from the minds of a prodigious number of persons. Leo X. succeeded by Adrian VI. in the year 1522. Diet at Nuremberg. XIX. While these things were transacting, Leo X. departed this life, 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 Dr. Mosheim's account of this matter is perhaps more advantageous to Luther than the rigorous demands of historical impartiality will admit of; the defects at least 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 devotions of the people. But, perhaps, the true reason of Luther's 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 laid, and that he was ambitions of appearing 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 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 connections he formed afterwards with the fanatical anabaptists, headed by Munzer. His contests with Luther about the eucharist, in which he manifestly maintained the truth, shall be mentioned in their proper place. On 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. Frid. Mayer, and published in 4to. at Hamburg, in the year 1701. A more ample one, however, was expected from the labours of the learned J. Melchior Kraft, but his death has disappointed our hopes. See Jo. Alb. Fabricii Centifolium Lutheran. par. I. p. 147, et par. II. P. 617. 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 assembled at Nuremberg in 1522. Francis Cherogato, the person who was entrusted with this commission, had positive orders to demand the speedy and vigorous execution of the sentence that had been pronounced against Luther and his followers at the diet of Worms; but, at the same time, he was authorised to declare that the pontiff was ready to remove the abuses and grievances that had armed such a formidable enemy against the see of Rome. The princes of the empire, encouraged by this declaration, on the one hand, and by the absence of the emperor, who at this time resided in Spain, on the other, seized this opportunity of proposing the summoning a general council in Germany, in order to deliberate upon the proper methods of bringing about a universal reformation of the church. They exhibited, at the same time, a hundred articles, containing the heaviest complaints of the injurious treatment the Germans had hitherto received from the court of Rome, and, by a public law, prohibited all innovation in religious matters, until a general council should decide what was to be done in an affair of such high moment and importance. As long as the German princes were unacquainted with, or inattentive to, the measures that were taken in Saxony for founding a new church in direct opposition to that of Rome, they were zealously unanimous in their endeavours to set bounds to the papal authority and jurisdiction, which they all looked upon as overgrown and enormous; nor were they at all offended at Luther's contest with the Roman pontiff, which they considered as a dispute of a private and personal nature. Clement VII. elected pope in the year 1524. XX. The good pope Adrian did not long enjoy the pleasure of sitting at the head of the church. He died in the year 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 the year 1524, a cardinal legate, named Campegius, 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 the promise Adrian had made to reform the corruptions of a superstitious church. The emperor seconded the demands of Campegius, by the orders he sent to his minister to insist upon the execution of the sentence which had been pronounced against Luther and his adherents at the diet of Worms. princes of the empire, tired out by these importunities and remonstrances, changed in appearance the law they had passed, but confirmed it in reality. For, while they promised to observe, as far as was possible, the Edict of Worms, they at the same time renewed their demands of a general council, and left all other matters in dispute to be examined and decided at the diet that was soon to be assembled at Spires. The pope's legate, on the other hand, perceiving, by these proceedings, that the German princes in general were no enemies to the Reformation, retired to Ratisbon, with the bishops and those of the princes that adhered to the cause of Rome, and there drew from them a new declaration, by which they engaged them See Caspar. Burmanni Adrianus VI. sive Analecta Historica de Adriano VI. Papa Romano, published at Utrecht in 4to, in the year 1727. See Jac. Frid. Georgii Gravamina Ger The selves to execute rigorously the edict of Worms in their respective dominions. Carlostadt and XXI. While the efforts of Luther towards the reformaZuingle. tion of the church were daily crowned with growing success, and almost all the nations seemed disposed to open their eyes upon the light, two unhappy occurrences, one of a foreign and the other of a domestic nature, contributed greatly to retard the progress of this salutary and glorious work. The domestic, or internal incident, was a controversy concerning the manner in which the body and blood of Christ were present in the eucharist, that arose among those whom the Roman pontiff had publicly excluded from the communion of the church, and unhappily produced among the friends of the good cause the most deplorable animosities and divisions. Luther and his followers, though they had rejected the monstrous doctrine of the church of Rome with respect to the transubstantiation, or change of the bread and wine into the body and blood of Christ, were nevertheless of opinion, that the partakers of the Lord's Supper received, along with the bread and wine, the real body and blood of Christ. This, in their judgment, was a mystery which they did not pretend to explain.m Carlostadt, who was Luther's colleague, understood the matter quite otherwise, and his doctrine, which was afterwards illustrated and confirmed by Zuingle with much more ingenuity than he had proposed it, amounted to this:-"That the body and blood of Christ were not really present in the eucharist; and that the bread and wine 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 the year 1524, a tedious and vehement controversy, which, notwithstanding the zealous endeavours that were used to reconcile the contending parties, terminated at length in a fatal division between those who had embarked together in the sacred cause of religion and liberty. The war of the peasants. XXII. To these intestine divisions were added the horrors of a civil war, which was the fatal effect of oppression on the one hand, and of enthusiasm on the other, and, by its unhappy consequences, was prejudicial to the cause and progress of the Reformation. In the year 1525, a prodigious multitude of seditious fanatics arose, like a whirlwind, all of a sudden, in different parts of Germany, took arms, united their forces, waged war against the laws, the magistrates, and the empire in general, laid waste the country with fire and sword, and Luther was not so modest as Dr. Mosheim here represents him. He pretended to explain his doctrine of the real presence, absurd and contradictory as it was, and uttered much senseless jargon on this subject. As in a red hot iron, said he, two distinct substances, viz. iron and fire, are united, so is the body of Christ, joined with the bread in the eucharist. I mention this miserable comparison to show into what absurdities the towering pride of system will often betray men of deep sense and true genius. "See Val. Ern. Loscheri Historia Motuum inter Lutheranos et Reformatos, part. I. lib. i. cap. ii. p. 55.-See also on the other side of the question, Scultet's Annales Evangelii, published by Von der Hardt, in his Historia Litter. Reformat. p. 74; Rud. Hospinianus, and 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 sacrament 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 Sacrament of the Lord's Supper." |