duct, proscribed by the emperor, who raised an army to reduce them to obedience. II. The elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse led their forces into Bavaria against the emperor, and cannonaded his camp at Ingolstadt with great spirit. It was supposed that this would bring the two armies to a ge emperor; while this prince endeavoured, at the diet of Worms, in 1545, to persuade the protestants to consent to the meeting of this council at Trent. But they were fixed in their resolution, and the efforts of Charles were vain; upon which the emperor, who had hitherto disapproved the violent measures which were incessantly suggested by the court of Rome, de-neral action; but several circumstances preparted from his usual prudence and moderation, and, listening to the sanguinary counsels of Paul, formed, in conjunction with that artful pontiff, the design of terminating religious debates by the force of arms. The landgrave of Hesse, and the elector of Saxony, the chief protectors of the protestant cause, were no sconer informed of this, than they took the proper measures to prevent themselves from being surprised and overwhelmed by a superior force, and, accordingly, raised an army for their defence. While this terrible storm was rising, Luther, whose aversion to all violence in matters of religion was well known, and who recommended prayer and patience as the only arms worthy of those who had the cause of genuine Christianity at heart, was removed by Providence from this scene of tumult, and from the calamities that threatened his country. He died in peace, on the 18th of February, 1546, at Eisleben, the place of his birth. CHAPTER IV. The History of the Reformation, from the Commencement of the War of Smalcald, to the famous Pacification, commonly called the Peace of Religion, concluded at Augsburg. I. CHARLES and the pontiff had determined upon the ruin of all who should dare to oppose the council of Trent. The meeting of that assembly was to serve as a signal for their taking arms; and accordingly, its deliberations were scarcely begun, in 1546, when the protestants perceived undoubted marks of the approaching storm, and of a formidable union of their chief adversaries to overwhelm and crush them by a sudden blow. There had been, it is true, a new conference in this very year, at the diet of Ratisbon, between some eminent doctors of both parties, with a view to the accommodation of their religious differences; but it appeared sufficiently, both from the nature of this dispute, the manner in which it was carried on, and its issue and result, that the matters in debate would sooner or later be decided m the field of battle. In the mean time, the fathers, assembled in the council of Trent, promulgated their decrees; while the protestant princes in the diet protested against their authority, and were, in consequence of this conficently at Rome, and riding through the streets on fine mules, while the cardinals and other ecclesiastics accompanied them in a most courteous and familiar manner. The several articles of this plan of reformation (which Luther and Sturmius of Stras burg turned into ridicule, and which indeed left unredressed the most intolerable grievances of which the protestants complained) were published at Antwerp in or about the year 1539, with the answer of Cochlæus to the objections of Sturmius. They are likewise prefixed to the History of the Council of Trent, by Crabre, and were afterwards published at Paris in 1612. || vented a battle, which was expected by most of the confederates, and, probably, would have been advantageous to their cause. Among these we may reckon, principally, the perfidy of Maurice, duke of Saxony, who, seduced by the promises of the emperor, and by his own ambition and avarice, invaded the electoral dominions of his uncle John Frederic, while that worthy prince was maintaining against the emperor the sacred cause of religion and liberty. Add to this the divisions that were fomented by the dissimulation of the emperor among the confederate princes, the failure of France in furnishing the subsidy that had been promised by its monarch, and some incidents of less moment. All these things so discouraged the heads of the protestant party, that their troops were soon dispersed, and the elector of Saxony directed his march homewards. But he was pursued by the emperor, who made several forced marches, with a view of subduing his enemy, before he should have time to recover his vigour; in which design he was assisted by the ill-grounded security of the elector, and, as there is too much reason to two armies drew up in order of battle near think, by the treachery of his officers. The Muhlberg on the Elbe, on the 24th of April, 1547, and, after a fierce conflict, that of the elector, being inferior in number, was entirely defeated, and himself made prisoner. Philip, landgrave of Hesse, the other chief of the protestants, was persuaded by the entreaties of his son-in-law, Maurice, now declared elector of Saxony,* to throw himself upon the mercy of the emperor, and to implore his pardon. To this he consented, relying on the promise of Charles for obtaining forgiveness, and being restored to liberty; but, notwithstanding these expectations, he was unjustly detained prisoner by a scandalous violation of the most solemn convention. It is said, that the emperor retracted his promise, and deluded this unhappy prince by the ambiguity of two German words, which resemble each other; but this point of * In the room of John Frederic, whom he had so basely betrayed. There is scarcely in history an instance of such mean, perfidious, and despotic behaviour, as that of the emperor to the landgrave in the case now before us. After having received in public the humble submissions of that unhappy prince, made upon his knees, in the most respectful and affecting terms, and after having set him at liberty by a solemn treaty, he ordered him to be again arrested, without alleging any reason, or even any pretext, and kept him for several years in a close and severe confinement. When Maurice remonstrated to the emperor against this new imprisonment, Charles answered, that he had never promised that the landgrave should not be imprisoned anew, but only that he should be exempted from perpetual imprisonment and, to support this assertion, he produced the treaty in which his ministers, in order to elude the true meaning of the accommodation, had perfidiously foisted in ewiger gefangnis, which signifies a perpe tual prison, instead of einiger gefangnis, which ty, but was equally offensive to the followers of Luther and to the Roman pontiff. It was, however, promulgated with solemnity, by the emperor, at the diet of Augsburg; and the elector of Mentz, without even deigning to ask the opinions of the assembled princes and states, rose with an air of authority, and, as if he had been commissioned to represent the whole diet, gave a formal and public approbation to this famous Interim.* Thus were many princes of the empire, whose silence, though it proceeded from want of courage, was interpreted as the mark of a tacit consent, engaged against their history has not been hitherto so far cleared up, IV. This temporary rule of faith and discip as to enable us to judge with certainty of the line, though it was extremely favourable to the confinement of this prince, and the real causes interests and pretensions of the court of Rome, to which it may be ascribed.* had yet the fate to which schemes of reconciliIII. This revolution seemed to threaten ruination are often exposed; it pleased neither par to the protestant cause, and to crown the efforts of the pontiff with the most triumphant success. In the diet of Augsburg, which was assembled soon after, with an imperial army at hand to promote union and despatch, the emperor required of the protestants, that they would leave the decision of these religious contests to the wisdom of the council that was to meet at Trent. The greatest part of the members consented to this proposal; and, among others, Maurice, the new elector of Saxony, who owed both his electorate and his dominions to the emperor, and who was ardently desirous of obtaining the liberty of his father-in-will to receive this book as a body of ecclesiaslaw the landgrave of Hesse. This general submission to the will of Charles, did not, however, produce the fruits that were expected from such a solemn and almost universal approbation of the council of Trent. A plague, which manifested itself (or was said to do so) in that city, induced the greatest part of the assembled fathers to retire to Bologna, and thereby the council was, in effect, dissolved; nor could all the entreaties and remonstrances of the emperor prevail upon the pope to reassemble it without delay. While affairs were in this situation, and the prospect of seeing a council assembled was obscured, the emperor judged it necessary, during this interval, to devise some method of maintaining peace in religious matters, until the decision, so long expected, should be finally obtained. It was with this view that he ordered Julius Pflugius, bishop of Naumburg, Michael Sidonius, a creature of the pontiff, and John Agricola, a native of Eisleben, to draw up a formulary, which might serve as a rule of faith and worship to both parties, until a council should begin to act. As this was only a temporary appointment, and had not the force of a permanent or perpetual institution, the rule in question was called the Interim.t means any prison. This point, however, is contested by some historians. *See a German work entitled, Benj. Grosch Vertheidigung der Evangelischen Kirche gegen Gottfr. Arnold. tical law. The major part of those, who had the resolution to dispute the authority of this imperial creed, were obliged to submit to it by the force of arms; and hence arose deplorable scenes of violence and bloodshed, which involved the empire in the greatest calamities. Maurice, elector of Saxony, who, for some time, had affected to be neutral, and neither declared himself for those who rejected, nor for those who had adopted the formulary, assembled, in 1548, the Saxon nobility and clergy, with Melancthon at the head of the latter, and, in several conferences at Leipsic and other places, took counsel concerning what was to be done in this critical affair. The deliberations, on this occasion, were long and tedious, and their result was ambiguous; for Melancthon, whose opinion was respected as a law by the reformed doctors, fearing the emperor on the one hand, and attentive to the sentiments of his sovereign on the other, pronounced a sort of conciliatory sentence which, he hoped, would be offensive to no party. He gave it as his opinion, that the whole of the book called Interim could not, by any means, be adopted by the friends of the Reformation; but he declared, at the same time, that he saw no reason, why this book might not be approv ed, adopted, and received, as an authoritative rule, in things that did not relate to the essential parts of religion, or in points which might be considered as accessory or indifferent.t This project of Charles was formed, partly to vent his resentment against the pope, and partly panied with the two following conditions: "1. That to answer other purposes of a more political kind. every one should be at liberty to use the cup, or to Be that as it may, the Formula ad Interim, or tempo-abstain from it, and to choose a state of marriage rary rule of faith and worship here mentioned, con- or a state of celibacy, as he should judge most fit or tained all the essential doctrines of the church of convenient: 2. That these grants should remain in Rome, though considerably softened and mitigated force no longer than the happy period when a geneby the moderate, prudent, and artful terms in which ral council should terminate all religious differences." they were expressed; terms quite different from those This second condition tended to produce the greatest that were employed, before and after this period, by disorder and confusion in case the future council the council of Trent. There was even an affected should think proper to enjoin celibacy on the clergy, ambiguity in many expressions, which rendered and declare, as it did in effect, their marriage un them susceptible of different senses, applicable to the christian and unlawful. sentiments of both communions, and therefore disagreeable to both. The Interim was composed with that fraudulent, specious, and seducing dexterity, which in aftertimes appeared in the deceitful exposition of the Catholic faith, by M. Bossuet, bishop of Meaux; and it was almost equally rejected by the Protestants and Roman Catholics. The cup was alowed, by this imperial creed, to the protestants in the administration of the Lord's supper, and priests and clerks were permitted by it to enter into the married state. These grants were, however accom. * See Jo. Erdm. Bieck, Triplex Interim.-Luc. Osianders Cent. XVI. Histor. Eccles. lib. ii. cap. Ixviii. p. 425.-For an account of the authors and editions of the book called Interim, see Die Danisobe Biblioth. part v. and vi. By things indifferent, Melancthon understood particularly the ceremonies of the popish worship. which, superstitious as they were, that reformer yielding to the softness and flexibility of his natura temper, treated with a singular and excessive indul gence upon this occasion. This decision, instead of pacifying matters, || evidently to such as consider attentively the nature of the times, and compare the transac tions of this prince, one with another. Relying on the extent of his power, and the success that frequently accompanied his enterprises, with a degree of confidence that was highly imprudent, he proposed to turn these religious commotions and dissensions to the confirmation and increase of his dominion in Germany, and, by sowing the seeds of discord among the princes of the empire, to weaken their power, and thereby the more easily to encroach upon their rights and privileges. On the other hand, ardently desirous of reducing within narrower limits the jurisdiction and dominion of the Roman pontiffs, that they might not set bounds to his ambition, or prevent the execution of his aspiring views, he flattered himself that this would be the natural effect of the approaching council. He was confirmed in this pleasing hope, by reflecting on what had hap pened in the assemblies of Constance and of Basil, in which the lust of papal ambition had been opposed with spirit, and restrained within certain limits. He also persuaded himself, that, by the dexterity of his agents, and the number of the Spanish and German bishops devoted to his interests, he should be able to influence and direct the deliberations of the council in such a manner, as to make its decisions answer his expectations, and contribute effectually to the accomplishment of his views. Such were the specious dreams of ambition that filled the imagination of this restless prince; but his views and projects were disconcerted by that very individual, that supposed friend, who had been one of the principal instruments of the violence and oppression which he had exercised against the protestant princes, and of the injury he had done to the protestant cause. VII. The most considerable princes, not only of Germany, but even of all Europe, had, for a long time, addressed to the emperor their united entreaties for the deliverance of Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and John Frederic, elector of Saxony, from their confinement; and Maurice had solicited, with peculiar warmth and assiduity, the liberty of the former, who was his father-in-law. But all these solicitations produced no effect. Perceiving at length that he was duped by the emperor, and also conVI. The real views of Charles, amidst the vinced that this ambitious monarch was formdivisions and troubles in Germany, (which he ing insidious designs upon the liberties of Gerfomented by negotiations that carried the out-many, and the jurisdiction of its princes, the ward aspect of a reconciling spirit,) will appear elector entered, with the utmost secrecy and expedition, into an alliance with the king of France and several of the German princes, for * Maurice (who was desirous of regaining the esteem of the protestants of Saxony, which he had the maintenance of the rights and liberties of lost by his perfidious behaviour to the late elector the empire. Encouraged by this respectable John Frederic, his benefactor and friend) gave his confederacy, the active Saxon led a powerful consent to the renewal of the council of Trent on the following conditions:-1st. That the points of army against the emperor in 1552, with such doctrine, which had been already decided there, astonishing valour and rapidity, that he surshould be examined and discussed anew; 2dly, That prised Charles at Inspruck, where he lay with this examination should be made in presence of the a small force in the utmost security, and withprotestant divines, or their deputies; 3dly, That the Saxon protestants should have a liberty of voting, as out the least apprehension of danger. This well as of deliberating, in the council; and, 4thly, unforeseen event alarmed and dejected the That the pope should not pretend to preside in that emperor to such a degree, that he was willing assembly, either in person or by his legates. This to make peace on almost any conditions; and, declaration was read in the diet, and the elector's deputies insisted upon its being registered, which the consequently, he not only concluded, at Pas archbishop of Mentz, however, obstinately refused. || sau, the famous treaty of pacification with the * protestants, but also promised to assemble, || trine and worship they thought the purest, and within the space of six months, a diet, in which all the tumults and dissensions that had been occasioned by a diversity of sentiment in religious matters should be entirely removed. Thus did the same prince, who stands foremost in the list of those that oppressed the protestants, and reduced their affairs to extremities, restore their expiring hopes, support and render triumphant their desperate cause, and procure for them that bulwark of peace and of liberty which still remains. Maurice, however, did not live to see this happy issue of his glorious expedition; for he lost his life in the following year, by a wound received at the battle of Siverhausen, while he was fighting against Albert of Brandenburg.† VIII. The troubles of Germany, with several other incidents, rendered it impossible to assemble the diet, which the emperor had promised at the pacification of Passau, so soon as the period mentioned in the articles of that treaty. This famous diet met, however, at Augsburg, in 1555, was opened by Ferdinand in the name of the emperor, and terminated those deplorable scenes of bloodshed, desolation, and discord, that had so long afflicted both church and state, by that religious peace (as it is commonly called) which secured to the protestants the free exercise of their religion, and established this inestimable liberty upon the firmest foundations; for, after various debates, the following memorable acts were passed, on the 25th of September; that the protestants who followed the confession of Augsburg, should be for the future considered as entirely exempt from the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, and from the authority and superintendence of the bishops; that they were left at perfect liberty to enact laws for themselves, relating to their religious sentiments, discipline, and worship; that all the inhabitants of the German empire should be allowed to judge for themselves in religious matters, and to join themselves to that church whose doc As this treaty is deemed by the German protestants the basis of their religious liberty, it will not be amiss to insert here some of its principal articles. By the three first articles it was stipulated, that Maurice and the confederates should lay down their arms, and should lend their troops to Ferdi: nand to defend Germany against the Turks, and that the landgrave of Hesse should be set at liberty. By the fourth it was agreed that the rule of faith, called Interim, should be considered as null and void; that the contending parties should enjoy the free and undisturbed exercise of their religion, until a diet should be assembled to determine amicably the present disputes (which diet was to meet in the space of six months;) and that this religious liberty should continue always, if it should be found impossible to come to an uniformity in doctrine and worship. It was also resolved, that all those who had suffered banishment, or any other calamity, on account of their having been concerned in the league or war of Smalcald, should be reinstated in their privileges, possessions, and employments; that the Imperial chamber at Spire should be open to the protestants as well as to the catholics; and that there should be always a certain number of the Lutheran persuasion in that high court. Albert, marquis of Brandenburg, after the pacification of Passau, to which he refused to subscribe, continued the war against the Roman catholics; and afterwards committed such ravages in the empire, that a confederacy was formed against him, at the head of which Maurice was placed. the most consonant to the spirit of true Christianity; and that all those who should injure or persecute any person under religious pretexts, and on account of opinions and belief, should be declared and proceeded against as public enemies of the empire, invaders of 'ts liberty, and disturbers of its peace.* * The difficulties that were to be surmounted before this equitable decision could be procured, the tedious de liberations, the warm debates, the violent animosities, and bloody wars, that were necessary to engage the greatest part of the German states to consent to conditions so agreeable to the dictates of right reason, as well as to the sacred injunctions of the Gospel, show us, in a shocking and glaring point of light, the ignorance and superstition of these miserable times, and stand upon record, as one of the most evident proofs of the necessity of religious reform. IX. During these transactions in Germany. the friends of genuine Christianity in England deplored the gloomy reign of superstition, and the almost total extinction of true religion and, seeing before their eyes the cause of pope ry maintained by the terrors of bloody persecution, and daily victims brought to the stake, to expiate the pretended crime of preferring the dictates of the Gospel to the despotic laws of Rome, they deemed the Germans happy, in having thrown off the yoke of an imperious and superstitious church. Henry VIII., whose personal vices, and whose arbitrary and capricious conduct, had greatly retarded the progress of the Reformation, was now no more. He died in 1547, and was succeeded by his only son, Edward VI. This amiable prince, whose early youth was crowned with that wisdom, sagacity, and virtue, that would have done honour to advanced years, gave new spirit and vigour to the protestant cause, and was its brightest ornament, as well as its most effectual support. He encouraged learned and pious men of foreign countries to settle in England, and addressed a particular invitation to Martin Bucer and Paul Fagius, whose moderation added a lustre to their other virtues, that, by the ministry and labours of these eminent men, in concert with those of the friends of the reformation in England, he might purge his dominions from the vile fictions of popery, and establish the pure doctrines of Christianity in their place. For this purpose he issued the wisest orders for the restoration of true religion; but his reign was too short to accomplish fully such a glorious purpose. In 1553, he was taken from his loving and afflicted subjects, whose sorrow was inexpressible, and suited to their loss. His sister Mary, (the daughter of Catharine of Arragon, from whom Henry had been separated by the famous divorce,) a furious bigot to the church of Rome, and a princess whose natural character, like the spirit of her religion, was despotic and cruel, succeeded him on the English throne, and imposed anew the arbitrary laws and the tyrannical yoke of Rome upon her reluctant subjects. Nor were *Jo. Schilteri Liber de Pace Religiosa.-Christ, Lehmanni Acta Publica et Originalia de Pace Religiosa. * the methods she employed, in the cause of su- || ciple of Calvin, whose eloquence was persuasive, and whose fortitude was invincible.* This resolute reformer set out from Geneva for Scotland, in 1559, and, in a very short time inspired the people, by his private exhortations and his public discourses, with such a violen. aversion to the superstitions of Rome, that the greatest part of the Scottish nation abandoned them entirely, and aimed at nothing less than the total extirpation of popery. From this period to the present times, the doctrine, worship, and discipline that had been established at Geneva by the ministry of Calvin, have been maintained in Scotland with invincible obstinacy and zeal; and every attempt to introduce into that kingdom the rites and government of the church of England, has proved impotent and unsuccessful.‡ been apt to shrink back. By an unwearied application to study and to business, as well as by the frequency and fervour of his public discourses, he had worn out a constitution naturally strong. During a lingering illness, he discovered the utmost fortitude, inseparable from his character. He was constantly and met the approaches of death with a magnanimity doc-employed in acts of devotion, and comforted himself with those prospects of immortality, which not only preserve good men from desponding, but fill them: with exultation in their last moments." X. The seeds of the reformation were very early sown in Scotland, by several noblemen of that nation, who had resided in Germany during the religious disputes that divided the empire. But the power of the Roman pontiff, supported and seconded by inhuman laws and barbarous executions, choked, for many years, these tender seeds, and prevented their taking The first and most eminent opposer of the papal jurisdiction was John Knox, a dis root. * This prelate was the less entitled to compassion, as, when in power, he followed the execrable example of the Romanists, by committing to the flames, against the will of the young king, two supposed heretics, two unfortunate foreigners, whom, one would think, every humane Briton would have spared, and whose destruction nothing could justify.-EDIT. The earl of Morton, who was present at his funeral, pronounced his eulogium in a few words, the more honourable for Knox, as they came from one whom he had often censured with peculiar severity: There lies he who never feared the face of man." † See Neal's History of the Puritans, vol. i. Calderwood's History of Scotland's Reformation.Georg. Buchanani Rerum Scoticar. Hist.-Melvil's Memoirs, vol. i. The indignation of the people, which has been excited by the vices of the clergy, was soon transferred to their persons, and settled at last, by a and thus the effects of the reformation extended, not transition not unusual, upon the offices they enjoyed; only to the doctrine, but also to the government of the popish church. But in Germany, England, and the northern kingdoms, its operations were checked by hierarchy (which appears to be the most conformable the power and policy of their princes, and episcopal to the practice of the church, since Christianity became the established religion of the Roman empire) was still continued in these countries, under certain limitations. The ecclesiastical government was in a great measure borrowed from the civil; and the dioceses and jurisdiction of patriarchs, archbishops, and bishops, corresponded with the division and constitution of the empire. In Switzerland and the Low Countries, the nature and spirit of a republican policy gave fuller scope to the reformers; and thus all pre-eminence of order in the church was destroyed, and that form of ecclesiastical government estab lished, which has been since called Presbyterian. The situation of the primitive church (oppressed by continued persecutions, and obliged by its sufferings to be contented with a form of government extremely It will not be improper to insert here the character of this famous Scottish reformer, as it is drawn by the spirited, accurate, and impartial pen of Dr. Robertson, in his History of Scotland, book vi.simple, and with a parity of rank for want of ambi. "Zeal, intrepidity, disinterestedness, (says that incomparable writer,) were virtues which he possessed in an eminent degree. He was acquainted, too, with the learning cultivated in that age, and excelled in that species of eloquence which is calculated to rouse and to inflame. His maxims, however, were often too severe, and the impetuosity of his temper excessive. Rigid and uncomplying himself, he showed no indulgence to the infirmities of others. Regardless of the distinctions of rank and character, he uttered his admonitions with an acrimony and vehemence, more apt to irritate than to reclaim; and this often betrayed him into indecent and undutiful expressions with respect to the queen's person and conjuct. Those very qualities, however, which now render his character less amiable, fitted him to be the instrument of Providence for advancing the reformation among a fierce people, and enabled him to face dangers, and to surmount opposition, from which a person of a more gentle spirit would have VOL. II.-0 tion to propose, or power to support, a subordina. tion) suggested, without doubt, the idea of this latter system; though it would be unfair to allege this consideration as a victorious argument in favour of Presbyterianism, because a change of circumstances will sometimes justify a change in the methods and plans of government. Be that as it may, the church of Geneva, which received the decisions of Calvin with an amazing docility, restored this presbyterian or republican form of ecclesiastical policy; Knox studied, admired, and recommended it to his countrymen, and he was seconded by many of the Scottish nobles, of whom some hated the persons, while many others coveted the wealth of the dignified clergy. But, in introducing this system, that re former did not deem it expedient to depart altogether from the ancient form; for, instead of bishops, he proposed the establishment of ten superintendents, to inspect the lives and doctrines of the other clergy, and preside in the inferior judicatories of the church, |