but all to no purpose, since the difference between their opinions was too considerable, and of too much importance to admit of a reconciliation. It was in these conferences that the spirit and character of Melancthon appeared in their true and genuine colours; and it was here that the votaries of Rome exhausted their efforts to gain over to their party this pillar of the reformation, whose abilities and virtues added such a lustre to the protestant cause. This humane and gentle spirit was apt to sink into a kind of yielding softness under the influence of mild and generous treatment. And accordingly, while his adversaries soothed him with fair words and flattering promises, he seemed to melt as they spoke, and in some measure to comply with their demands; but when they so far forgot themselves as to make use of imperious language and menacing terms, then did Melancthon appear in a very different point of light; then a spirit of intrepidity, ardour, and independence animated all his words and actions, and he looked down with contempt on the threats of power, the frowns of fortune, and the fear of death. The truth is, that in this great and good man, a soft and yielding temper was joined with the most inviolable fidelity, and the most invincible attachment to the truth.

The result of

ences.

v. This reconciling method of terminating the religious debates between the friends of liberty and the vothese confer- taries of Rome, proving ineffectual, the latter had recourse to other measures, which were suited to the iniquity of the times, though they were equally disavowed by the dictates of reason and the precepts of the gospel. These measures were, the force of the secular arm, and the authority of imperial edicts. On the 19th of November, a severe decree was issued out, by the express order of the emperor, during the absence of the Hessian and Saxon princes, who were the chief supporters of the protestant cause; and in this decree every thing was manifestly adapted to deject the friends of religious liberty, if we except a faint and dubious promise of engaging the pope to assemble, in about six months after the separation of the diet, a general council. The dignity and excellence of the papal religion are extolled beyond mea

for healing divisions, he was not employed in these conferences, but he was constantly consulted by the Protestant party; and it was with a view to this that he resided at Coburg.

sure in this partial decree; a new decree of severity and force added to that which had been published at Worms against Luther and his adherents; the changes that had been introduced into the doctrine and discipline of the protestant churches, severely censured; and a solemn order addressed to the princes, states, and cities, that had thrown off the papal yoke, to return to their duty and their allegiance to Rome, on pain of incurring the indignation and vengeance of the emperor, as the patron and protector of the church."

VI. No sooner were the elector of Saxony and the confederate princes informed of this deplorable issue The league of of the diet of Augsburg, than they assembled in Sinalcald. order to deliberate upon the measures that were proper to be taken on this critical occasion. In the year 1530, and the year following, they met, first at Smalcald, afterward at Francfort, and formed a solemn alliance and confederacy, with the intention of defending vigorously their religion and liberties against the dangers and encroachments with which they were menaced by the edict of Augsburg, without attempting however any thing, properly speaking, offensive against the votaries of Rome. Into this confederacy they invited the kings of England, France, and Denmark, with several other republics and states, and left no means unemployed that might tend to corroborate and cement this important alliance." Amidst these emotions and

g To give the greater degree of weight to this edict, it was resolved that no judge who refused to aprove and subscribe its contents, should be admitted into the imperial chamber of Spire, which is the supreme court in Germany. The emperor also, and the popish princes, engaged themselves to employ their united forces in order to maintain its authority, and to promote its execution.

h Luther, who at first seemed averse to this confederacy, from an apprehension of the calamities and troubles it might produce, perceiving at length its necessity, consented to it; but, uncharitably as well as imprudently, refused comprehending in it the followers of Zuingle among the Swiss, together with the German states or cities, which had adopted the sentiments and confession of Bucer. And yet we find that the cities of Ulm and Augsburg, had embraced the reformation on the principles of Zuingle. In the invitation addressed to Henry VIII. king of England, whom the confederate princes were willing to declare the head and protector of their league, the following things were expressly stipulated among several others; viz. that the king should encourage, promote, and maintain the true doctrine of Christ, as it was contained in the confession of Augsburg, and defend the same at the next general council; that he should not agree to any council summoned by the bishop of Rome, but protest against it, and neither submit to its decrees, nor suffer them to be respected in his dominions; that he should never allow the Roman pontiff to have any pre-eminence or jurisdiction in his dominions; that he should advance one hundred thousand crowns for the use of the confederacy, and double that sum if it became necessary; all which articles the confederate princes were obliged equally to observe on their part. To these demands the

preparations, which portended an approaching rupture, the elector palatine, and the elector of Mentz, offered their mediation, and endeavoured to reconcile the contending princes. With respect to the emperor, various reasons united to turn his views toward peace. For on the one hand, he stood in need of succours against the Turk, which the protestant princes refused to grant as long as the edicts of Worms and Augsburg remained in force; and on the other, the election of his brother Ferdinand to the dignity of king of the Romans, which had been coneluded by a majority of votes, at the diet of Cologn, in the year 1531, was contested by the same princes as contrary to the fundamental laws of the empire.

VII. In this troubled state of affairs many projects of reThe peace of conciliation were proposed; and after various Nuremberg. negotiations, a treaty of peace was concluded at Nuremberg, in the year 1532, between the emperor and the protestant princes, on the following conditions: that the latter should furnish a subsidy for carrying on the war against the Turk, and acknowledge Ferdinand lawful king of the Romans; and that the emperor, on his part, should abrogate and annul the edicts of Worms and Augsburg, and allow the Lutherans the free and unmolested exercise of their religious doctrine and discipline, until a rule of faith was fixed either in the free general council that was to be assembled in the space of six months, or in a diet of the empire. The apprehension of an approaching rupture was scarcely removed by this agreement, when John, elector of Saxony, died, and was succeeded by his son John Frederic, a prince of invincible fortitude and magnanimity, whose reign was little better than a continued scene of disappointments and calamities.

king answered immediately, in a manner that was not satisfactory. He declared, that he would promote and maintain the true doctrine of Christ; but at the same time, as the true ground of that doctrine lay only in the Holy Scriptures, he would not accept, at any one's hand, what should be his faith, or that of his kingdom, and therefore desired they would send over learned men to confer with him, in order to promote a religious union between him and the confederates. He moreover declared himself of their opinion with respect to the meeting of a free general council, promised to join with them in all such councils, for the defence of the true doctrine; but thought the regulation of the ceremonial part of religion, being a matter of indifference, ought to be left to the choice of each sovereign for his own dominions. After this, the king gave them a second answer, more full and satisfactory: but upon the fall of queen Anne, this negotiation came to nothing. On the one hand, the king grew cold, when he perceived that the confederates could be of no longer service to him in supporting the validity of his marriage; and on the other, the German princes were sensible that they could never succeed with Henry, unless they would allow him an absolute dictatorship in matters of religion.

VIII. The religious truce, concluded at Nuremberg, inspired with new vigour and resolution all the A council exfriends of the reformation. It gave strength to pected in vain. the feeble, and perseverance to the bold. Encouraged by it, those who had been hitherto only secret enemies to the Roman pontiff, spurned now his yoke publicly, and refused to submit to his imperious jurisdiction. This appears from the various cities and provinces in Germany, which about this time boldly enlisted themselves under the religious standards of Luther. On the other hand, as all hope of terminating the religious debates that divided Europe was founded in the meeting of the general council, which had been so solemnly promised, the emperor renewed his earnest requests to Clement VII. that he would hasten an event that was expected and desired with so much impatience. The pontiff, whom the history of past councils filled with the most uneasy and discouraging apprehensions, endeavoured to retard, what he could not with any decency absolutely refuse. He formed innumerable pretexts to put off the evil day; and his whole conduct evidently showed, that he was more desirous of having these religious differences decided by the force of arms, than by the power of argument. He indeed, in the year 1533, made a proposal, by his legate, to assemble a council at Mantua, Placentia, or Bologna; but the protestants refused their consent to the nomination of an Italian council, and insisted that a controversy, which had its rise in the heart of Germany, should be decided within the limits of the empire. The pope, by his usual artifices, deluded his own promise, disappointed their expectations, and was cut off by death, in the year 1534, in the midst of his stratagems.*

IX. His successor, Paul III. seemed to show less reluctance to the assembling a general council, and appeared even disposed to comply with the desires of the emperor in that respect. Accordingly, in the year 1535, he expressed his inclination to convoke one at Mantua; and, the year

Ii Beside the fear of seeing his authority diminished by a general council, and another reason engaged Clement VII. to avoid an assembly of that nature; for being conscious of the illegitimacy of his birth, as Frao Paulo observes, he had ground to fear that the Colonnas, or his other enemies, might plead this circumstance before the council, as a reason for his exclusion from the pontificate; since it might be well questioned, whether a bastard could be a pope, though it is known, from many instances, that a profligate may.

k See an ample account of every thing relative to this council, in Frao Paulo's History of the Council of Trent, book i.

following, actually sent circular letters for that purpose through all the kingdoms and states under his jurisdiction.' The protestants, on the other hand, fully persuaded that, in such a council," all things would be carried by the votaries of Rome, and nothing concluded but what should be agreeable to the sentiments and ambition of the pontiff, assembled at Smalcald in the year 1537. And there they protested solemnly against such a partial and corrupt council as that which was convoked by Paul III. but, at the same time, had a new summary of their doctrine drawn up by Luther, in order to present it to the assembled bishops, if it was required of them. This summary, which was distinguished by the title of the Articles of Smalcald, is generally joined with the creeds and confessions of the Lutheran church.

committed by

x. During these transactions, two remarkable events happened, of which the one was most detrimental etters to the cause of religion in general, to that of the the anabaptists. reformation in particular, and produced in Germany, civil tumults and commotions of a most horrid kind; while the other was more salutary in its consequences and effects, and struck at the very root of the papal authority and dominion. The former of these events was a new sedition, kindled by a fanatical and outrageous mob of the anabaptists; and the latter, the rupture between Henry VIII. king of England, and the Roman pontiff, whose jurisdiction and spiritual supremacy were publicly renounced by that rough and resolute monarch. In the year 1533, there came to Munster, a city in Westphalia, a certain number of Anabaptists, who surpassed the rest of that fanatical tribe in the extravagance of their proceedings, the phrensy of their disordered brains, and the madness of their pretensions and projects. They gave themselves out for the messengers of heaven, invested with a

This council was summoned, by Paul III. to assemble at Mantua; on the 23d of May, 1537, by a bull issued out the 2d of June of the preceding year. Several obstacles prevented its meeting. Frederic, duke of Mantua, was not much inclined to receive at once so many guests, and some of them turbulent ones, into the place of his residence.

m That is, in a council assembled by the authority of the pope alone, and that also in Italy; two circumstances that must have greatly contributed to give Paul III. an undue influence in that assembly. The Protestants maintained, that the emperor and the other Christian princes of Europe, had a right to be authoritatively concerned in calling a general council: and that so much the more, as the Roman pontiff was evidently one of the parties in the present debate.