a dispensation than a rule, and to be used only in cases of extreme need, and as a lesser evil. By all means, also, such a marriage is to be kept a secret, since it could not be publicly defended. But while it might be permissible in case Philip could not restrain his unchaste passions, it was his duty to make the effort before going any farther. Thus, although with many scruples and cautions, their consent was given. To the surprise of Luther and Melanchthon, the marriage became known, and, as might have been expected, produced the most intense excitement. Luther advocated a denial of the marriage, but Philip, certain of the virtuousness of his course, refused.' That, at the time and since, this unfortunate decision of the principal Wittenberg reformers has been the occasion of scandal, need not be stated. They had not only consented to bigamy, but had reduced the second wife to the position of a mere concubine. It was inexcusable. But the blame lies, not on Protestantism, although the act was performed by Protestants, but on Roman Catholicism, for during all the centuries of their exclusive rule they had not effectually taught any higher ethics than those apparent in the act of Philip and in the decision of Luther and Melanchthon.' The reformers were only twenty-two years away from the eventful day when Luther nailed the ninetyfive theses on the door of the Castle Church. It was too early for all the refining and sanctifying influences of the Reformation to have become controlling in their lives. While the double marriage of Philip weakened it did not destroy the league. The gains in other directions had been so rapid and extensive as to compel the emperor to endeavor more zealously than before to bring about a union.' A conference held in Hagenau, in January, 1540, from which Melanchthon was detained by illness induced by the trouble which followed Philip's marriage, resulted in nothing but a postponement to autumn, when the conference was to be resumed at AT HAGENAU. Worms. Both the Roman Catholic and Protestant parties were ably represented when the conference met in the fall of 1540, and at first the prospects were good for an issue favorable to the desired reconciliation. But in April, 1541, the emperor opened a diet at Regensburg, whither he ordered the disputants. CONFERENCE The personnel of the conference was, however, somewhat changed after the removal. On the Roman side were Pflug, Gropper, and Eck; on the Protestant, Melanchthon, Bucer, and 1 Lenz, i, 373, 383. Kolde, Martin Luther, ii, 488. 3 See Häusser, 183 f. DIET AT Pistorius.' The Count Palatine Frederick and the Imperial Counselor Granvella presided. The so-called Ratisbon Interim' was made the basis of the discussion. It had been REGENSBURG. passed from one prince to another, and finally to Luther for his opinion. The first serious dispute occurred on the doctrine of justification. But a final agreement was reached in which the doctrine of justification by faith was asserted, and that of merit denied. Eck consented under protest. Contarini, the papal legate, thought the article was capable of a Roman Catholic construction, and forwarded it to Rome, certain that it would be acceptable there. Expectations ran high that at last the parties would be harmonized. But they were doomed to disappointment. In Rome the doctrine of merit could not be yielded. Luther, on the other hand, called the article a patchwork whose utterances he could accept only on condition that the Roman party would confess having taught contrary thereto in the past." Both parties were suspicious each of the other. The Duke of Bavaria wished to appeal to arms rather than to enter upon peaceable negotiations, and other Roman Catholic civil authorities feared lest the Romanists were being deceived with mere pretenses. The Elector of Saxony had objected from the first because the Augsburg Confession had not been made the basis of the conference. Luther declared that if the Roman Catholics had been in earnest they would have accepted all the articles and not merely the first four, since the last ten naturally followed when these were accepted. Because of this suspicion he declined to join in the efforts of certain Protestant princes to form a union with the Roman Catholics. The conference had failed to meet the emperor's wish. But the Turks were threatening the empire. Help must be had. The diet, therefore, finally reached a conclusion which was favorable to the Protestants, whose assistance the emperor needed at once. The results of the colloquy were to be laid before a universal or national council. The emperor was to call another diet within eighteen months. 1 These names, together with the futile efforts at reconciliation, suggested the following witty remark: "Sie pflügen, eggen, graben, putzen, und backen, und richten nichts aus."-Corp. Ref., iv, 335. Quoted by Schaff, vii, 383, n. 5. ? That is, a tentative formula upon which the disputing parties might unite for the time. The authorship has been much discussed. See Gieseler, iv, 174; Möller, iii, 128, 129. Luther did not approve the articles, nor did he think they would be approved by the Roman Curia. His judgment proved correct. 3 De Wette, V, 353 f. 5 Ibid., p. 176, n. 45, where see authorities. 4 Gieseler, iv, 175, n. 44. PROTESTANTS. The Protestants were to conform to the articles agreed upon. The Roman prelates were to reform their clergy, while both the religious peace of Nuremberg and the recess of Augsburg were FAVORABLE renewed. The emperor personally issued a declaration ISSUE TO in which he assured the Protestant clergy that they as well as the Romans should be protected in the matter of revenues; that no one should be forbidden to adopt the Protestant faith; that the Protestants should be represented in the high court of judicature; that the monasteries should be reformed; together with other equally fair promises.' The emperor, in the hope of drawing the Turks away from Austria, started upon a campaign against Algiers, which ended disastrously, in October and November, 1541. A new war with France was anticipated. The war with the Turks made peace with the Protestants a necessity. Peace for five years longer was purchased by the promise of continued assistance on the part of the Protestants against the Eastern foes, at the diet of Spires, in February, 1542. These were years of rapid progress for the Reformation, but they preceded a frightful catastrophe, which previous events had, unforeseen, prepared. 1 1 Corpus Reformatorum, iv, 612 ff.; 632 ff. Walch, xvii, 999. CHAPTER XVI. GEOGRAPHICAL EXPANSION OF THE REFORMATION IN PROVIDEN- 1 THE rapid spread of the new doctrines has been the wonder of all observers. It was not alone because of their truth, for the truth was the same in those countries where it did not prevail. The political conditions were such as to favor the activity of the reformers. But we must also take into account other causes. The chief of these was the prepared condition of the soil for the seed. Then, too, it must be remembered that Luther had no intention of placing himself in antagonism to the Church, nor did he excite such expectation in those whom he converted to his ideas. The doctrines, therefore, were firmly imbedded in the minds and hearts of large masses before it was discerned that the result would be a division of the Church. The art of printing had been discovered just in time to make possible the widest and most rapid diffusion of Luther's writings. All these may be called the providential aids, and one who believes in the power of God in history cannot doubt that Luther was raised up at the appointed time, when all the conditions most favorable to the needed work concurred. 2 But besides these causes Luther's personality was such as to make a most powerful impression. He was original in method, LUTHER'S INFLUENCE. aim, and thought; strong in conviction and determined in effort; and, withal, learned and able. He had attracted vast numbers of students before he entered upon his open opposition to ecclesiastical abuses. These he 1 At the diet of Spires twenty-four imperial cities were looked upon as religiously disobedient to the emperor; besides, of the princes and other nobility present, Elector John, Philip of Hesse, Margrave George of Brandenburg, Dukes Ernst and Francis of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, and several other cities and noblemen, openly espoused the Protestant doctrine.-Kolde, Martin Luther, ii, 302. 2 So potent was the press in the diffusion of the reformed doctrines in France that Francis I, by the advice of the theologians of the Sorbonne, issued an edict forbidding the use of the art of printing in his realm. Berger says that up to 1513 only 90 German works had been printed; in 1519 nearly three times as many. From 1513 to 1517 the number was 527; from 1518 to 1523, 3,113.Martin Luther, i, 408. held in the main to his way of thinking, and they became the champions of his cause in almost every land. The early friends of Luther may not be overlooked by one who would understand the marvelous progress of the Reformation in its earliest years. Many of them have been already mentioned. On the whole the Reformation was propagated by the peaceful, and at the same time most powerful, means of the pulpit and the press. Men accepted the Gospel from conviction, not from compulsion; and the most strennous endeavors and most cunning intrigues of its enemies could not hold the movement in check. While the Saxon electorate had become Protestant in the first years of the Reformation, the Saxon dukedom which lay to the south of the electorate remained Roman Catholic until 1539. This was due to the influence of Duke George, SAXONY. who, though not unfavorable to reform, conceived a violent hatred for Luther at the Leipzig disputation. Luther, in return, at first employed the most bitter language concerning him; although later he made a humiliating attempt to effect a peace." But the im portant Hessian State was early brought over to the ranks of the Protestants through the influence of the Landgrave Philip, Duke George's son-in-law. He first made the acquaintance of Luther at the diet of Worms in 1521. In 1524, under the instruction of Melanchthon, he came out boldly for the Reformation.' When the diet of Spires in 1526 granted the right, according to Protestant interpretation, to each State to order its own religious affairs, Philip took immediate advantage of the supposed permission. In harmony with his promptness of character he allowed but two months to elapse before he had assembled a synod at Homburg, attended by representatives of the clergy, the nobility and the cities. 3 Philip had placed the work of introducing the Reformation in the hands of Lambert of Avignon. This eccentric Frenchman proposed to make only those members of the reformed communion who offered themselves as such, and wrought out a complete plan of church organization, which, however, was rejected at the suggestion of Luther. The Reformation was introduced into Braunschweig-Lüneburg by Duke Ernst in 1527. In 1530 the responsibility of introducing the more formal reforms was imposed by him upon Urban Rhegius, who was in turn Romanist, Lutheran, Zwinglian, and moderate Lutheran, yet who wrought effectually 1 See Köstlin, Martin Luther, ii, 4–6. * Möller, iii, 41. For details see Köstlin, Martin Luther, ii, 49, f.; Kolde, Martin Luther, ii, 239 f.; Möller, iii, 72; Schaff, vi, 579–587. * Schaff, vi, 576. 4 |