XVI. CENT.ticular occasions, did he discountenance the use of SCT. 1. 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 the highest approbation. Luther is excommu nicated by the pope, in 1520. XIII. In the mean time, the religious dissensions in Germany increased, instead of diminishing. For while MILTITZ was treating with LUTHER in Saxony, 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 at Leipsic, repaired with the utmost precipitation to Rome, to accomplish, as he imagined, the ruin of LUTHER. There, entering into a league with the Dominicans, who were in high credit at the papal court, and more especially with their two zealous patrons, DE PRIERIO and CAJETAN, he earnestly entreated LEO X. to level the thunder of his anathemas at the head of LUTHER, and to exclude him from the communion of the church. The Dominicans, desirous of revenging the affront that, in their opinion, their whole order had received by LuTHEK's treatment of their brother TETZEL, and their patron CAJETAN, seconded the furious efforts of ECKIUS against the Saxon reformer, and used their utmost endeavours to have his request granted. The pontif, overcome by the importunity of these pernicious counsellors, imprudently issued [n] out a bull against LUTHER, dated the 15th of June, 1520, [] The wisest and best part of the Roman Catholics acknowledge, that Leo X. was chargeable with the most culpable imprudence in this rash and violent method of proceeding. See XVI. 1520, in which forty-one pretended heresies, C E N T. extracted from his writings, were solemnly con- SECT. I. demned, his writings ordered to be publicly burnt, and in which he was again summoned, on pain of excommunication, to confess and retract his pretended errors within the space of sixty days, and to cast himself upon the clemency and mercy of the pontif. withdraws communion XIV. As soon as the account of this rash sen-Luther tence, pronounced from the papal chair, was himself brought to LUTHER, he thought it was high time from the to consult both his present defence and his fu- of the ture security; and the first step he took for this church of purpose, was the renewal of his appeal from the Rome. sentence of the Roman pontif, to the more respectable decision of a general council. But as he foresaw that this appeal would be treated with contempt at the court of Rome, and that when the time prescribed for his recantation was elapsed, the thunder of excommunication would be levelled at his devoted head, he judged it prudent to withdraw himself voluntarily from the communion of the church of Rome, before he was obliged to leave it by force; and thus to render this new bull of ejection a blow in the air, an exercise of authority without any object to act upon. At the same time, he was resolved to execute this wise resolution in a public manner, that his voluntary retreat from the communion of a corrupt and superstitious E 2 See a Dissertation of the learned John Frederick Mayer, De Pontificiis Leonis X. processum adversus Lutherum improbantibus, which is part of a work he published at Hamburg, in 4to in the year 1698, under this singular title: Ecclesia Romara Reformationis Lutheranæ patrona et cliens. There were several wise and thinking persons at this time about the Roman pontif, who declared openly, without the least ceremony, their disapprobation of the violent counsels of Eckius and the Dominicans; and gave it as their opinion, that it was both prudent and just to wait for the issue of the conferences of Miltitz with Luthier, before such forcible measures were employed. SECT. I. CENT. perstitious church might be universally known, XVI. before the lordly pontif had prepared his ghostly thunder. With this view, on the 10th of December, in the year 1520, he had a pile of wood erected without the walls of the city [0], and there in presence of a prodigious multitude of people of all ranks and orders, he committed to the flames both the bull that had been published against him, and the decretals and canons relating to the pope's supreme jurisdiction. By this he declared to the world, that he was no longer a subject of the Roman pontif; and that, of consequence, the sentence of excommunication against him, which was daily expected from Rome, was entirely superfluous and insignificant. For the man who publicly commits to the flames the code that contains the laws of his sovereign, shews thereby that he has no longer any respect for his government, nor any design to submit to his authority; and the man who voluntarily withdraws himself from any society, cannot, with any appearance of reason -or common sense, be afterwards forcibly and authoritatively excluded from it. It is not improbable, that LUTHER was directed, in this critical measure, by persons well skilled in the law, who are generally dextrous in furnishing a perplexed client with nice distinctions and plausible evasions. Be that as it may, he separated himself only from the church of Rome, which considers the pope as infallible, and not from the church, considered in a more extensive sense; for he submitted to the decision of the universal church, when that decision should be given in a general council lawfully assembled. When this judicious distinction is considered, it will not appear at all surprising, that many, even of the Roman catholics, who weighed matters with a certain degree of impartiality and wisdom, and were zealous for the main [9] Of Wittemberg. tenance XVI. tenance of the liberties of Germany, justified thisC EN T. bold resolution of LUTHER [o]. In less than a SECT. I. month after this noble and important step had been taken by the Saxon reformer, a second bull was issued out against him, on the 6th of January, 1521, by which he was expelled from the communion of the church, for having insulted the majesty, and disowned the supremacy, of the Roman pontif [p]. of the Lu XV. Such iniquitous laws, enacted against the The rise person and doctrine of LUTHER, produced antheran effect different from what was expected by the church. imperious pontif. Instead of intimidating this bold reformer, they led him to form the project of founding a church upon principles entirely opposite to those of Rome, and to establish, in it, a system of doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline, agreeable to the spirit and precepts of the Gospel of truth. This, indeed, was the only resource LUTHER had left him; for to submit to the orders of a cruel and insolent enemy, would have been the greatest degree of imprudence imaginable; and to embrace, anew, errors that he had rejected with a just indignation, and exposed with the clearest evidence, would have discovered a want of integrity and principle, worthy only of the most E 3 abandoned [] This judicious distinction has not been sufficiently attended to, and the Romanists, some through artifice, others through ignorance, have confounded the papacy with the catholic church; though they be, in reality, two different things. The papacy indeed, by the ambitious dexterity of the Roman pontifs, incorporated itself by degrees into the church; but it was a preposterous supplement, and was really as foreign to its genuine constitution, as a new citadel erected, by a successful usurper, would be to an ancient city. Luther set out and acted upon this distinction; he went out of the citadel, but he meant to remain in the city, and, like a good patriot, designed to reform its corrupted government. [p] Both these bulls are to be found in the Bullarium Romanum, and also in the learned Pfaff's Histor. Theol. Literar. tom. ii. p. 42. SECT. I. CENT. abandoned profligate. From this time, therefore, XVI. he applied himself to the pursuit of the truth with still more assiduity and fervour than he had formerly done; nor did he only review with attention, and confirm by new arguments, what he had hitherto taught, but went much beyond it, and made vigorous attacks upon the main stronghold of popery, the power and jurisdiction of the Roman pontif, which he overturned from its very foundation. In this noble undertaking he was seconded by many learned and pious men, in various parts of Europe; by those of the professors of the academy of Wittemberg, who had adopted his principles; and in a more especial manner by the celebrated MELANCTHON. And as the fame of LUTHER'S wisdom and MELANCTHON's learning had filled that academy with an incredible number of students, who flocked to it from all parts, this happy circumstance propagated the principles of the Reformation with an amazing rapidity thro❞ all the countries of Europe [q]. A dict as Worms, in 1521. XVI. Not long after the commencement of sembled at these divisions, MAXIMILIAN 1. had departed this life, and his grandson CHARLES V. king of Spain, had succeeded him in the year 1519. LEO X. seized this new occasion of venting and executing his vengeance, by putting the new emperor in mind of his character 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 [9] There is a particular account of the rapid progress of the reformation in Germany given by the learned M. Daniel Gerdes, professor at Groningen, in his Historia renovati Evangelii, tom. ii. |