XVI.

SECT. I.

pro

CENT. to the meeting of this council at Trent. But the protestants were fixed in their resolution, and the efforts of Charles were vain. Upon which the emperor, who had hitherto disapproved of the violent measures which were incessantly suggested by the court of Rome, departed from his usual prudence and moderation, and, listening to the sanguine counsels of Paul, formed, in conjunction with that subtle pontiff, the design of terminating the debates about religion by the force of arms. The landgrave of Hesse, and the elector of Saxony, who were the chief protectors of the testant cause, were no sooner informed of this, than they took the proper measures to prevent their being surprised and overwhelmed unawares by a superior force, and, accordingly, raised an army for their defence. While this terrible storm was rising, Luther, whose aversion to all methods of violence and force 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 the approaching calamities that threatened his country. He died in peace, on the 18th of February, in the year 1546, at Aysleben, the place of his birth.

CHAP. 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.

The com. I.

mencement

of the war

TH

HE emperor and the pope had mutually resolved the destruction of all who should of Smal- dare to oppose the council of Trent. The meeting cald. of that assembly was to serve as a signal for their

XVI. SECT. I.

taking arms; and accordingly, its deliberations CENT. were scarcely begun, in the year 1546, when the protestants perceived undoubted marks of the approaching storm, and of a formidable union between the emperor and the pontiff to overwhelm and crush them by a sudden blow. There had been, it is true, a new conference 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 it was carried on, and its issue and result, that the matters in debate would sooner or later be decided in 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 of Ratisbon protested against their authority, and were, in consequence of this, proscribed by the emperor, who raised an army to reduce them to obedience.

of the pro

favourable

turn.

II. The elector of Saxony and the landgrave of The affairs Hesse led their forces into Bavaria against the testants emperor, and cannonaded his camp at Ingolstadt take an unwith great spirit. It was supposed that this would bring the two armies to a general action; but several circumstances prevented a battle, which was expected by the 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 on the one hand, and by his own ambition and avarice on the other, invaded the electoral dominions of his uncle John Frederick, 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

SECT. I.

CENT. had been promised by its monarch; and other inXVI. cidents of less moment. All these things discouraged so the heads of the protestant party, that their army was 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 to destroy 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 think by the treachery of his officers. The two armies drew up in order of battle near Muhlberg on the Elbe, on the 24th of April, 1547, and after a bloody action, that of the elector, being inferior in numbers, was entirely defeated, and himself taken prisoner. Philip, landgrave of Hesse, the other chief of the protestants, was persuaded by the entreaties of his sonin-law, Maurice, now declared elector of Saxony [x], 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 [y]; but

this

[x] In the room of John Frederick, whom he had so basely betrayed.

[y] There is scarcely in history any instance of such a 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, and that in the most respectful and affecting terms, and after having set him at liberty by a solemn treaty, he had him arrested anew, without alleging any reason, nay, any pretext, and kept him for several years in a close and severe confinement. When Maurice remonstrated

XVI. SECT. I.

this point of history has not been hitherto so far CENT. cleared up, as to enable us to judge with certainty concerning the confinement of this prince, and the real causes to which it was owing [*].

temporary

III. This revolution seemed every way adapted The famous to complete the ruin of the protestant cause, and edict, called to crown the efforts of the Roman pontiff with the the Interim, most triumphant success. In the diet of Augsburg, which was assembled soon after, with an imperial army at hand to promote union and dispatch, 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, who was ardently desirous of obtaining the liberty of his father-in-law the landgrave of Hesse. This general submission to the will of the emperor 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, engages the greatest part of the assembled fathers to retire to Bologna, and thereby the council was, in effect, dissolved; nor could all the entreaties or remonstrances of the emperor prevail upon the pope to re-assemble it again without

VOL. IV.

I

strated to the emperor against this new imprisonment, the emperor 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 perpetual prison, instead of einiger gefangnis, which means any prison. This matter is, however, contested by some historians.

[] See a German work entitled, Beni Grosch Vertheidigung der Evangelischen Kirken gegen Gottrf. Arnold. p. 29.

SECT. I.

CENT. without delay. While things were in this situaXVI. tion, and the prospect of seeing a council assembled was cast at a distance, the emperor judged it necessary during this interval, to fall upon 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 Aysleben, to draw up a Formulary, which might serve as a rule of faith and worship to both of the contending parties, until a council should be summoned. 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 [a].

IV. This

[a] This project of Charles was formed, partly to vent his resentment against the pope, and partly to answer other purposes of a more political kind. Be that as it may, the Formula ad Interim, or temporary rule of faith and worship here mentioned, contained all the essential doctrines of the church of Rome, though considerably softened and mitigated by the moderate, prudent, and artful terms in which they were expressed; terms quite different from those that were employed, before and after this period, by the council of Trent. There was even an affected ambiguity in many expressions which rendered them susceptible of different senses, applicable to the sentiments of both communions, and therefore disagreeable to both. The Interim was composed with that fraudulent, specious, and seducing dexterity, that 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 allowed, 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, accompanied with the two following conditions; "1. That every one should be at liberty to use the cup, or to abstain from it, and to choose a state of marriage, or a state of celibacy, as he should judge most fitting. 2. That these grants should remain in force no longer than the happy period when a general council should terminate all religious differences." This second condition was adapted to produce the greatest disorder and confusion, in

case