VIII. 1546. ces, he poured forth against such as disappointed him in B O OK this particular, a torrent of invective mingled with contempt. Regardless of any distinction of rank or character when his doctrines were attacked, he chastised all his adversaries indiscriminately, with the same rough hand; neither the royaf dignity of Henry VIII. nor the eminent learning and abilities of Erasmus, screened them from the same gross abuse with which he treated Tetzel or Eccius. BUT these indecencies of which Luther was guilty, must not be imputed wholly to the violence of his temper. They ought to be charged in part on the manners of the age. Among a rude people, unacquainted with those maxims, which, by putting continual restraint on the passions of individuals, have polished society, and rendered it agreeable, disputes of every kind were managed with heat, and strong emotions were uttered in their natural language, without reserve or delicacy. At the same time, the works of learned men were all composed in Latin, and they were not only authorized, by the example of eminent writers in that language, to use their antagonists with the most illiberal scurrility; but, in a dead tongue, indecencies of every kind appear less shocking than in a living language, whose idioms and phrases seem gross, because they are familiar. In passing judgment upon the characters of men, we ought to try them by the principles and maxims of their own age, not by those of another. For, although virtue and vice are at all times the same, manners and customs vary continually. Some parts of Luther's behaviour which to us appear most culpable, gave no disgust to his contemporaries. It was even by some of those qualities, which we are now apt to blame, that he was fitted for accomplishing the great work which he undertook. To rouse mankind, when sunk in ignorance or superstition, and to encounter the rage of bigotry armed with power, required the utmost vehemence of zeal, as well as a temper daring to excess. A gentle call would neither have reached, nor have excited those to whom it was addressed. A spirit more amiable, but less vigorous than Luther's, would have shrunk VIII. 1546. BOOK back from the dangers which he braved and surmounted. Towards the close of Luther's life, though without any perceptible diminution of his zeal or abilities, the infirmities of his temper increased upon him, so that he grew daily more peevish, more irascible, and more impatient of contradic. tion. Having lived to be a witness of his own amazing success; to see a great part of Europe embrace his doctrines; and to shake the foundation of the Papal throne, before which the mightiest Monarchs had trembled, he discovered, on some occasions, symptoms of vanity and self-applause. He must have been, indeed, more than man, if, upon contemplating all that he actually accomplished he had never felt any sentiment of this kind rising in his breast *. SOME time before his death he felt his strength declining, his constitution being worn out by a prodigious multiplicity of business, added to the labour of discharging his ministe rial function with unremitting diligence, to the fatigue of constant study, besides the composition of works as voluminous as if he had enjoyed uninterrupted leisure and retirement. His natural intrepidity did not forsake him at the approach of death; his last conversation with his friends was concerning the happiness reserved for good men in a future life, of which he spoke with the fervour and delight natural to one who expected and wished to enter soon upon the enjoyment of it. The account of his death filled the Roman Catholic party with excessive as well as indecent joy, A remarkable instance of this, as well as of a certain singularity and elevation of sentiment, is found in his Last Will. Though the effects which he had to bequeath were very inconsiderable, he thought it necessary to make a Testament, but scorned to frame it with the usual legal formalities. Notus sum, says he, in cœlo, in terra, & inferno, & auctoritatem ad hoc sufficientem habeo, ut mihi soli credatur, cum Deus mihi, homini licet damnabili, et miserabili peccatori, ex paterna misericordia Evangelium filii sui crediderit, dederitque ut in eo verax & fidelis fuerim, ita ut multi in mundo illud per me acceperint, & me pro Doctore veritatis agnoverint, spreto banno Papæ, Cæsaris, Regum, Principum & sacerdotum, immo omnium dæmonum odio. Quidni, igitur, ad dispositionem hanc, in re exigua, sufficiat, si adsit manus meæ testimonium, & dici possit, hæc scripsit D. Martinus Luther, Notarius Dei, & testis Evangelii ejus. Sec. 1. iii. p. 651. a Sleid. 362. Seck. lib. iii. 632, &c. VIII. 1546. and damped the spirits of all his followers; neither party BOOK sufficiently considering that his doctrines were now so firmly rooted, as to be in a condition to flourish independent of the hand which had first planted them. His funeral was celebrated by order of the Elector of Saxony with extraordinary pomp. He left several children by his wife Catharine a Boria, who survived him. Towards the end of the last century, there were in Saxony some of his descendants in decent and honourable stations b. vours to Protest THE Emperor, meanwhile, pursued the plan of dissimu- The empelation with which he had set out, employing every art to ror endeaamuse the Protestants, and to quiet their fears and jea- amuse and lousies. For this purpose he contrived to have an interview deceive the with the Landgrave of Hesse, the most active of all the con- ants. federates, and the most suspicious of his designs. To him March 28. he had made such warm professions of his concern for the happiness of Germany, and of his aversion to all violent measures; he denied in such express terms, his having entered into any league, or having begun any military preparations which should give any just cause of alarm to the Protestants, as seem to have dispelled all the Landgrave's doubts and apprehensions, and sent him away fully satisfied of his pacific intentions. This artifice was of great advantage, and effectually answered the purpose for which it was employed. The Landgrave, upon his leaving Spires, where he had been admitted to this interview, went to Worms, where the Smalkaldic confederates were assembled, and gave them such a flattering representation of the Emperor's favourable disposition towards them, that they, who were too apt, as well from the temper of the German nation, as from the genius of all great associations or bodies of men, to be slow, and dilatory, and undecisive in their deliberations, thought there was no necessity of taking any immediate measures against danger, which appeared to be distant or imaginary c. SUCH events, however, soon occurred as staggered the Proceedcredit which the Protestants had given to the Emperor's de- ings of the b Seck. 1. iii. 651. c Sleid. Hist. 367. 373. council VIII. 1546. Protest ants. April 8. . BO O K clarations. The council of Trent, though still composed of a small number of Italian and Spanish prelates, without a single deputy from many of the kingdoms which it assumed against the a right of binding by its decrees, being ashamed of its long inactivity, proceeded now to settle articles of the greatest importance. Having begun with examining the first and chief point in controversy between the church of Rome and the Reformers, concerning the rule which should be held as supreme and decisive in matters of faith, the council, by its infallible authority, determined, "That the books to which the designation of Apocryphal hath been given, are of equal authority with those which were received by the Jews and primitive Christians into the sacred canon; that the traditions handed down from the apostolic age, and preserved in the church, are entitled to as much regard as the doctrines and precepts which the inspired authors have committed to writing; that the Latin translation of the Scriptures, made or revised by St. Jerome, and known by the name of the Vulgate translation, should be read in churches, and appealed to in the schools as authentic and canonical." Against all who disclaimed the truth of these tenets, anathemas were denounced in the name and by the authority of the Holy Ghost. The decision of these points, which undermined the main foundation of the Lutheran system, was a plain warning to the Protestants what judgment they might expect when the council should have leisure to take into consideration the particular and subordinate articles of their creedd. THIS discovery of the council's readiness to condemn the opinions of the Protestants, was soon followed by a striking instance of the Pope's résolution to punish such as embraced them. The appeal of the canons of Cologne against their Archbishop having been carried to Rome, Paul eagerly seized on that opportunity, both of displaying the extent of his own authority, and of teaching the German ecclesiastics the danger of revolting from the established church. As no person appeared in behalf of the Archbishop, he was d F. Paul, 141. Pallavic. 206. VIII. held to be convicted of the crime of heresy, and a Papal B OOK bull was issued, depriving him of his ecclesiastical dignity, inflicting on him the sentence of excommunication, and ab- 1546. solving his subjects from the oath of allegiance which they April 16. had taken to him as their civil superior. The countenance which he had given to the Lutheran heresy was the only crime imputed to him, as well as the only reason assigned to justify the extraordinary severity of this decree. The Protestants could hardly believe that Paul, how zealous soever he might be to defend the established system, or to humble those who invaded it, would have ventured to proceed to such extremities against a Prince and Elector of the Empire, without having previously secured such powerful protection as would render his censure something more than an impotent and despicable sally of resentment. They were of course deeply alarmed at this sentence against the Archbishop, considering it as a sure indication of the malevolent intentions not only of the Pope, but of the Emperor, against the whole party. about to commence Protest UPON this fresh revival of their fears, with such violence Charles as is natural to men roused from a false security, and conscious of their having been deceived, Charles saw that now hostilities it became necessary to throw aside the mask, and to de- against the clare openly what part he determined to act. By a long se- ants. ries of artifice and fallacy, he had gained so much time, that his measures, though not altogether ripe for execution, were in great forwardness. The Pope, by his proceedings against the Elector of Cologne, as well as by the decree of the council, had precipitated matters into such a situation, as rendered a breach between the Emperor and the Protestants almost unavoidable, Charles had therefore no choice left him, but either to take part with them in overturning what the See of Rome had determined, or to support the authority of the church openly by force of arms. Nor did Negocithe Pope think it enough to have brought the Emperor un- the pope.. der a necessity of acting; he pressed him to begin his operations immediately, and to carry them on with such vi ates with |