XVI.

and the laws of the empire. This request was so C EN T. much the more likely to be granted, that CHARLES SECT. I, 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 rivals 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 pontif, 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.

Luther's

XVII. LUTHER, therefore, appeared at Worms, The result secured against the violence of his enemies by a of this diet, safe-conduct from the emperor, and, on the 17th banishof April, and the day following, pleaded his cause ment. before that grand assembly with the utmost resolution and presence of mind. The united power of threatenings and entreaties were 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 pontif. But he refused all this with a noble obstinacy, and declared solemnly, that he would

E 4

XVI.

CENT. would neither abandon his opinions, nor change SECT. I. 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 ntagnanimous 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 [r]. FREDERICK,

[r] This sentence, which was dated the 8th of May, 1521, was excessively severe; and Charles V. whether through sincere zeal or political cunning, shewed 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. This edict was, however, received with the highest 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 pontif, before these matters were discussed and decided by a gencral council; and 3dly, because a considerable number of the German princes, who were immediately interested in this affair, such as the electors of Cologn, Saxony, and the Palatinate, and other sovereign princes, had neither 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

SECT. I.

FREDERICK, who saw the storm rising against Lu-C EN T. THER, used the best precautions to secure himXVI. 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 [s].

XVIII. The

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 lauguage, 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 rst scene of his trials, we shall find a true spirit of rational

zeal,

CENT.
XVI.

SECT. I.

ཡ

The conduct of

Luther af

ter his leaving the castle of

Wartenberg.

XVII. The active spirit of LUTHER could not, however, 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 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

zeal, generous probity, and Christian fortitude, animating 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 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 pontif, 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 intrepedity, 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 over-grown power of its pontif, 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, then the despotic dictates of mere authority, attended with injurious and provoking language.

excited tumults in Saxony, and were acting in ac ENT. manner equally prejudicial to the tranquillity of XVI. the state, and the true interests of the church. SECT. I. 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 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 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 [t], and since the destruction

of

[] 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 devotion 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 ambitious of appearing the principal, if not the only, conductor of this great work. This is not a mere conjecture. Luther bimself has not taken the least pains to conceal this instance of his ambition;