SECT. I. CEN T. ne mor fa ourable to the friends of the Re formation, than they could naturally expect. The emperor's ambassadors at this diet were ordered to use their most earnest endeavours for the suppression of all farther disputes concerning religion, and to insist upon the rigorous execution of the sentence that had been pronounced at Worms against LUTHER and his followers. The greatest part of the German princes opposed this motion with the utmost resolution, declaring, that they could not execute that sentence, nor come to any determination with respect to the doctrines by which it had been occasioned, before the whole matter was submitted to the cognizance of a general council lawfully assembled; alleging farther, that the decision of controversies of this nature belonged properly to such a council, and to it alone. This opinion, after long and warm debates, was adopted by a great majority, and, at length, consented to by the whole assembly; for it was unanimously agreed to present a solemn address to the emperor, beseeching him to assemble, without delay, a free and a general council; and it was also agreed, that, in the mean time, the princes and states of the empire should, in their respective dominions, be at liberty to manage ecclesiastical matters in the manner they should think the most expedient; yet so as to be able to give to God and to the emperor an account of their administration, when it should be demanded of them. The pro XXV. Nothing could be more favourable to gress of the those who had the cause of pure and genuine tion after Christianity at heart, than a resolution of this the diet at nature. For the emperor was, at this time, so reforma Spire, 1527 entirely taken up in regulating the troubled state' of his dominions in France, Spain, and Italy, which exhibited, from day to day, new scenes of perplexity, that, for some years, it was not in his power XVI. SECT. I. power to turn his attention to the affairs of Ger-C E N T. many in general, and still less to the state of religion in particular, which was beset with difficulties, that, to a political prince like CHARLES, must have appeared peculiarly critical and dangerous. Besides, had the emperor really been possessed of leisure to form, or of power to execute, a plan that might terminate, in favour of the Roman pontif, the religious disputes which reigned in Germany, it is evident, that the inclination was wanting, and that CLEMENT VII. who now sat in the papal chair, had nothing to expect from the good offices of CHARLES V. For this pontif, after the defeat of FRANCIS I. at the battle of Pavia, filled with uneasy apprehensions of the growing power of the emperor in Italy, entered into a confederacy with the French and the Venetians a gainst that prince. And this measure inflamed the resentment and indignation of CHARLES to such a degree, that he abolished the papal authority in his Spanish dominions, made war upon the pope in Italy, laid siege to Rome in the year 1527, blocked up CLEMENT in the castle of St Angelo, and exposed him to the most severe and contume-lious treatment. These critical events, together with the liberty granted by the diet of Spire, were prudently and industriously improved, by the friends of the Reformation, to the advantage of their cause, and to the augmentation of their number. Several princes, whom the fear of persecution and punishment had hitherto prevented from lending a hand to the good work, being delivered now from their restraint, renounced publicly the superstition of Rome, and introduced among their subjects the same forms of religious worship, and the same system of doctrine, that had been received in Saxony. Others, though placed in such circumstances as discouraged them from acting in an open manner against the inteF 4 rests SECT. I. CENT rests of the Roman pontif, were, however, far XV. from discovering the smallest opposition to those who withdrew the people from his despotic yoke; nor did they molest the private assemblies of those who had separated themselves from the church of Rome. And in general, all the Germans, who, before these resolutions of the diet of Spire, had rejected the papal discipline and doctrine, were now, in consequence of the liberty they enjoyed by these resolutions, wholly employed in bringing their schemes and plans to a certain degree of consistence, and in adding vigour and firmness to the glorious cause in which they were engaged. In the mean time, LUTHER and his fellow-labourers, particularly those who were with him at Wittemberg, by their writings, their instructions, their admonitions and counsels, inspired the timorous with fortitude, dispelled the doubts of the ignorant, fixed the principles and resolution of the floating and inconstant, and animated all the friends of genuine Christianity with a spirit suitable to the grandeur of their undertaking, Another diet held at the year XXVI. But the tranquillity and liberty they Spire; in enjoyed, in consequence of the resolutions taken in the first diet of Spire, were not of a long duragin of the tion. They were interrupted by a new diet asdenomina- sembled, in the year 1529, in the same place, by tion of Pro-the emperor, after he had appeased the commo 1529. Ori testants. tions and troubles which had employed his attention in several parts of Europe, and concluded a treaty of peace with CLEMENT VII. This prince, having now got rid of the burthen that had, for some time, overwhelmed him, had leisure to direct the affairs of the church; and this the reformers soon felt, by a disagreeable experience. For the power, which had been granted by the former diet to every prince, of managing ecclesiastical matters as they thought proper, until the meeting of a general council, was now revoked by a majority XIV. SECT. I. majority of votes; and not only so, but every CENT. change was declared unlawful that should be introduced into the doctrine, discipline, or worship of the established religion, before the determination of the approaching council was known [ƒ]; This decree was justly considered as iniquitous and intolerable by the elector of Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse, and the other members of the diet, who were persuaded of the necessity of a reformation in the church. Nor was any of them so simple, or so little acquainted with the politics of Rome, as to look upon the promises of assembling speedily a general council, in any other light, than as an artifice to quiet the minds of the people; since it was easy to perceive, that a lawful council, free from the despotic influence of Rome, was the very last thing that a pope would grant in such a critical situation of affairs. Therefore, when the princes and members now mentioned found that all their arguments and remonstrances against this unjust decree made no impression upon Ferdinand [g], nor upon the abettors of the ancient superstitions (whom the pope's legate animated by his presence and exhortations), they entered a solemn protest against this decree on the 19th of April, and appealed to the emperor and to a future council [b]. Hence arose the denomi nation [f] The resolution of the first diet of Spire, which had been taken unanimously, was revoked in the second, and another substituted in its place by a plurality of voices, which, as several of the princes then present observed, could not give to any decree the force of a law throughout the empire. [g] The emperor was at Barcelona, while this diet was held at Spire; so that his brother Ferdinand was president in his place. [b] The princes of the empire, who entered this protest, and are consequently to be considered as the first protestant princes, were John, elector of Saxony, George, elector of Brandenburg, for Franconia, Ernest and Francis, dukes of Lunenburg, the landgrave of Hesse, and the prince of Anbali These CENT. nation of Protestants, which from this period has XV. been given to those who renounce the superstitious communion of the church of Rome. SECT. I. Leagues formed between tants. XXVII. The dissenting princes, who were the protectors and heads of the reformed churchthe proteses, had no sooner entered their protest, than they sent proper persons to the emperor, who was then upon his his passage from Spain to Italy, to acquaint him with their proceedings in this matter. The ministers, employed in this commission, executed the orders they had received with the greatest resolution and presence of mind, and behaved with the spirit and firmness of the princes, whose sentiments and conduct they were sent to justify and explain. The emperor, whose pride was wounded by this fortitude in persons that dared to oppose his designs, ordered these ambassadors to be apprehended and put under arrest during several days. The news of this violent step was soon brought to the protestant princes, and made them conclude that their personal safety, and the success of their cause, depended entirely upon their courage and concord, the one animated, and the other cemented by a solemn confederacy. They, therefore, held several meetings at Rot, Nuremberg, Smalcald, and other places, in order to deliberate upon the means of forming such a powerful league as might enable them to repel the violence of their enemies [i]. But so different were their These princes were seconded by thirteen imperial towns, viz. [] See the history of the confession of Augsburg, wrote in German by the learned Christ. Aug. Salig. tom. i. book II. ch. i. p. 128. and more especially another German work of Dr Joachim Muller, entitled, Historie von der Evangelischen Stande Protestation gegen den Speyerschen Reichsabscheid von 1529, Appellation, &c. published at Jena in 4to, in the year 1703. |