19

CHAP. II.

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.

est attention and care, before he resolved upon || the people, but also gave, in 1519, a signal any measure, but also filled him with uneasy proof of his courage, by opposing, with the apprehensions where there was no danger, and greatest resolution and success, the ministry of made him fear even things that, in reality, a certain Italian monk, named Bernardine could never happen. And yet, on the other Samson, who was carrying on, in Switzerland, hand, when the hour of real danger approached, the impious traffick of indulgences with the when things bore a formidable aspect, and the same impudence that Tetzel had done in Gercause of religion was in imminent peril, then many. This was the first remarkable event this timorous man was at once converted into that prepared the way for the reformation an intrepid hero, looked danger in the face among the Helvetic cantons. In process of with unshaken constancy, and opposed his ad-time, Zuingle pursued with steadiness and reversaries 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 deFire of reconciling all interests and pleasing all parties less vehement and excessive, his triumph over the superstitions imbibed in his infancy more complete, he must deservedly have been considered as one of the greatest among men.t

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 came to an open rupture with the church of Rome. He was, however, afterwards still farther animated by the example, and instructed 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 Ammenit. Hist. Eccles. et Lit. vol. ii. p. 603. 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 inestiinable present to the republic of letters.

solution 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 is indeed to be observed, that he did not always 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.

XIII. In the mean time, the religious dissensions in Germany increased, instead of diminishing; for, while Miltitz was treating with Luther in such a mild and prudent manner as 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, however, to th 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 moderation, 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, casily 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. i.

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.

CHAP. II.

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.

21

berg, who had adopted his principles; and in a tates of right reason, that his opinions were more especial manner by the celebrated Me- | erroneous, and his conduct unlawful. When lancthon; and, as the fame of Luther's wisdom therefore neither promises nor threats could and Melancthon's learning had filled that shake the constancy of this magnanimous reacademy with an incredible number of students, former, he obtained, indeed, from the emperor, who flocked to it from all parts, this happy the liberty of returning unmolested to his circumstance propagated the principles of the home: but, after his departure from the diet, Reformation with an amazing rapidity through he was condemned by the unanimous suffrages all the countries of Europe.* 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.t 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 resolved 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 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 canon law, such causes as that of Luther properly belonged.

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

There is a particular account of the rapid progress of the reformation in Germany, given by the learned Daniel Gerdes, professor at Groningen, in his Historia renovati Evangelii.

This sentence, which was dated the 8th of

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 schismatic, a notorious and obstinate heretic; the sewho shall receive, entertain, maintain, or counteverest punishments are denounced against those nance 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

to give an authoritative sentence against the docbility 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 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 church.

trine of Luther, or to take for granted the infalli

This precaution of the humane and excel. lent elector being put in execution, on the 3d of May, five days before the solemn publication of the edict of Worms, the pope missed his blow; and the adver saries of Luther became doubly odious to the people of Germany, who, unacquainted with the scheme of

22

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.

SECT. I.

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.

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 teinerity, and executed without modera-The event abundantly showed the wisdom of tion. 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

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 sence. Nor was his continement 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.

friends and intimates to comfort them under his ab

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 Chris-, tian fortitude, animating this reformer. In his be haviour, 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 hin from his fixed purpose of ap pearing there; that fear, in this case, could be only a suggestion of Satan, who apprehended the ap proaching 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.

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 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 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 labours 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.

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

CHAP. II.

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION.

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 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, and also by the absence of the emperor, who at this time resided in Spain, seized this opportunity of proposing the convocation of 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 which 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 ought to be done in an affair of such high 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 pontiff, which they considered as a dispute of a private and personal nature.

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23

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.

XXI. While the efforts of Luther toward the reformation of the church were so far successful, 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 pope 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 transubstantiation, or the 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, 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. Carlostadt, who was Luther's colleague, understood the matter otherwise; and his doctrine, which was afterwards more fully illustrated and confirined by Zuingle, 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, XX. The good pope Adrian did not long designed to excite in the minds of Christians enjoy the pleasure of sitting at the head of the the remembrance of the sufferings and death church. He died in 1523, and was succeeded of the divine Saviour, and of the benefits which by Clement VII., a man of a reserved charac- arise from it." This opinion was embraced ter, and prone to artifice. This pontiff sent by all the friends of the Reformation in Switto the imperial diet at Nuremberg, in 1524, a||zerland, and by a considerable number of its 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 Christ joined with the bread in the eucharist. I mention this miserable comparison to show into 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.† See Val. Ern. Loscheri Historia Motuum inter legate, on the other hand, perceiving by these Sec, 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

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

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

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

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.