temporal or terminable penalties, which might extend into
purgatory. For the benefit of the needy he could draw upon the
treasury of merit stored up by Christ and the saints. Although
it was expressly declared by Pope Sixtus IV., that souls are
delivered from purgatorial fires in a way analogous to the
efficacy of prayer, and although contrition was theoretically
required of the recipient of an indulgence, it often appeared
to the people as a simple bargain, according to which, on
payment of a stipulated sum, the individual obtained a full
discharge from the penalties of sin, or procured the release
of a soul from the flames. Luther's theses assailed the
doctrines which made this baneful traffic possible. ...
Unconsciously to their author, they struck a blow at the
authority of Rome and of the priesthood. Luther had no thought
of throwing off his allegiance to the Roman Church. Even his
theses were only propositions, propounded for academic debate,
according to the custom in mediæval universities. He concluded
them with the solemn declaration that he affirmed nothing, but
left all to the judgment of the Church. ...
{1457}
The theses stirred up a commotion all over Germany. ... A
controversy arose between the new champion of reform and the
defenders of indulgences. It was during this dispute that
Luther began to realize that human authority was against him
and to see the necessity of planting himself more distinctly
on the Scriptures. His clear arguments and resolute attitude
won the respect of the Elector of Saxony, who, though he often
sought to restrain his vehemence, nevertheless protected him
from his enemies. This the elector was able to do because of
his political importance, which became still greater when,
after the death of Maximilian, he was made regent of Northern
Germany."
G. P. Fisher,
History of the Christian Church,
pages 287-293.
"At first neither Luther, nor others, saw to what the contest
about the indulgences would lead. The Humanists believed it to
be only a scholastic disputation, and Hutten laughed to see
theologians engaged in a fight with each other. It was not
till the Leipzig disputation (1519), where Luther stood
forward to defend his views against Eck, that the matter
assumed a grave aspect, took another turn, and after the
appearance of Luther's appeals 'To the Christian Nobility of
the German Nation,' 'On the Babylonian Captivity,' and against
Church abuses, that it assumed national importance. All the
combustible materials were ready, the spark was thrown among
them, and the flames broke out from every quarter. Hundreds of
thousands of German hearts glowed responsive to the complaints
which the Wittenberg monk flung against Papal Rome, in a
language whose sonorous splendour and iron strength were now
first heard in all the fulness, force, and beauty of the
German idiom. That was an imperishable service rendered to his
country by Luther. He wrote in German, and he wrote such
German. The papal ban hurled back against him in 1520 was
disregarded. He burnt it outside the gate of Wittenberg by the
leper hospital, in the place where the rags and plague-stained
garments of the lepers were wont to be consumed. The nobility,
the burghers, the peasants, all thrilled at his call. Now the
moment had come for a great emperor, a second Charlemagne, to
stand forward and regenerate at once religion and the empire.
There was, however, at the head of the state, only Charles V.,
the grandson of Maximilian, a man weak where he ought to have
been strong, and strong where he ought to have been weak, a
Spanish Burgundian prince, of Romance stock, who despised and
disliked the German tongue, the tongue of the people whose
imperial crown he bore, a prince whose policy was to combat
France and humble it. It was convenient for him, at the time,
to have the pope on his side, so he looked with dissatisfied
eyes on the agitation in Germany. The noblest hearts among the
princes bounded with hope that he would take the lead in the
new movement. The lesser nobility, the cities, the peasantry,
all expected of the emperor a reformation of the empire
politically and religiously. ... But all hopes were dashed.
Charles V. as little saw his occasion as had Maximilian. He
took up a hostile position to the new movement at once. He
was, however, brought by the influential friends of Luther,
among whom first of all was the Elector of Saxony, to hear
what the reformer had to say for himself, before he placed him
under the ban of the empire. Luther received the imperial
safe-conduct, and was summoned to the Diet of Worms, there to
defend himself. He went, notwithstanding that he was warned
and reminded of the fate of Huss. 'I will go to Worms,' said
he, 'even were as many devils set against me as there are
tiles on the roofs.' It was probably on this journey that the
thoughts entered his mind which afterwards (1530) found their
expression in that famous chorale, 'Eine feste Burg ist unser
Gott,' which became the battle-song of Protestants. Those were
memorable days, the 17th and 18th of April, 1521, in which a
poor monk stood up before the emperor and all the estates of
the empire, undazzled by their threatening splendour, and
conducted his own case. At that moment when he closed his
defence with the stirring words, 'Let me be contradicted out
of Holy Scripture--till that is done I will not recant. Here
stand I. I can do no other, so help me God, amen!' then he had
reached the pinnacle of his greatness. The result is well known.
The emperor and his papal adviser remained unmoved, and the
ban was pronounced against the heretic. Luther was carried off
by his protector, the Elector of Saxony, and concealed in the
Wartburg, where he worked at his translation of the Bible. ...
Brandenburg, Hesse, and Saxony declared in favour of reform.
In 1523 Magdeburg, Wismar, Rostock, Stettin, Danzig, Riga,
expelled the monks and priests, and appointed Lutheran
preachers. Nürnberg and Breslau hailed the Reformation with
delight."
S. Baring-Gould,
The Church in Germany,
chapter 18.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1516-1517, to 1522-1525.
ALSO IN:
L. von Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany.
L. Hausser,
The Period of the Reformation.
J. H. Merle d'Aubigne,
History of the Reformation.
M. J. Spaulding,
History of the Protestant Reformation.
F. Seebohm,
The Era of the Protestant Revolution.
P. Bayne,
Martin Luther.
C. Beard,
Martin Luther and the Reformation.
J. Köstlin,
Life of Luther.
GERMANY: A. D. 1519,
Contest for the imperial crown,
Three royal candidates in the field.
Election of Charles V., the Austro-Spanish monarch of many
thrones.
In his last years, Maximilian made great efforts to secure the
Imperial Crown for his grandson Charles, who had already
inherited, through his mother Joanna, of Spain, the kingdoms
of Castile, Aragon, and the Two Sicilies, and through his
father, Philip of Austria, the duchy of Burgundy and the many
lordships of the Netherlands. "In 1518 he obtained the consent
of the majority of the electors to the Roman crown being
bestowed on that prince. The electors of Treves and Saxony
alone opposed the project, on the ground that, as Maximilian
had never received the Imperial crown [but was styled Emperor
Elect] he was himself still King of the Romans, and that
consequently Charles could not assume a dignity that was not
vacant. To obviate this objection, Maximilian pressed Leo to
send the golden crown to Vienna; but this plan was defeated by
the intrigues of the French court. Francis, who intended to
become a candidate for the Imperial crown, intreated the Pope
not to commit himself by such an act; and while these
negociations were pending, Maximilian died at Wels, in Upper
Austria, January 12th 1519. ... Three candidates for the
Imperial crown appeared in the field: the Kings of Spain,
France, and England.
{1458}
Francis I. [of France] was now at the height of his
reputation. His enterprises had hitherto been crowned with
success, the popular test of ability, and the world
accordingly gave him credit for a political wisdom which he
was far from possessing. He appears to have gained three or
four of the Electors by the lavish distribution of his money,
which his agent, Bonnivet, was obliged to carry through
Germany on the backs of horses; for the Fuggers, the rich
bankers of Augsburg, were in the interest of Charles, and
refused to give the French any accommodation. But the bought
votes of these venal Electors could not be depended on, some
of whom sold themselves more than once to different parties.
The infamy of Albert, Elector of Mentz, in these transactions,
was particularly notorious. The chances of Henry VIII. [of
England] were throughout but slender. Henry's hopes, like
those of Francis, were chiefly founded on the corruptibility
of the Electors, and on the expectation that both his rivals,
from the very magnitude of their power, might be deemed
ineligible. Of the three candidates the claims of Charles
seemed the best founded and the most deserving of success. The
House of Austria had already furnished six emperors, of whom
the last three had reigned eighty years, as if by an
hereditary succession. Charles's Austrian possessions made him
a German prince, and from their situation constituted him the
natural protector of Germany against the Turks. The previous
canvass of Maximilian had been of some service to his cause,
and all these advantages he seconded, like his competitors, by
the free use of bribery. ... Leo X., the weight of whose
authority was sought both by Charles and Francis, though he
seemed to favour each, desired the success of neither. He
secretly advised the Electors to choose an emperor from among
their own body; and as this seemed an easy solution of the
difficulty, they unanimously offered the crown to Frederick
the Wise, Elector of Saxony. But Frederick magnanimously
refused it, and succeeded in uniting the suffrages of the
Electors in favour of Charles; principally on the ground that
he was the sovereign best qualified to meet the great danger
impending from the Turk. ... The new Emperor, now in his 20th
year, assumed the title of Charles V. ... He was proclaimed as
'Emperor Elect,' the title borne by his grandfather, which he
subsequently altered to that of 'Emperor Elect of the Romans,'
a designation adopted by his successors, with the omission of
the word 'elect,' down to the dissolution of the empire."
T. H. Dyer,
History of Modern Europe,
book 2, chapter 2 (volume l).
On his election to the Imperial throne, Charles ceded to his
younger brother, Ferdinand, all the German possessions of the
family. The latter, therefore, became Archduke of Austria, and
the German branch of the House of Austria was continued
through him; while Charles himself became the founder of a new
branch of the House--the Spanish.
See AUSTRIA: A. D. 1496-1526.
ALSO IN:
W. Robertson,
History of the Reign of Charles V.,
book 1.
J. S. Brewer,
The Reign of Henry VIII.,
chapter 11 (volume 1).
J. Van Praet,
Essays on the Political History of the 15th-17th Centuries,
chapter 2, (volume 1).
GERMANY: A. D. 1520-1521.
The Capitulation of Charles V.
His first Diet, at Worms, and its political measures.
The election of Charles V. "was accompanied with a new and
essential alteration in the constitution of the empire.
Hitherto a general and verbal promise to confirm the Germanic
privileges had been deemed a sufficient security; but as the
enormous power and vast possessions of the new emperor
rendered him the object of greater jealousy and alarm than his
predecessors, the electors digested into a formal deed or
capitulation all their laws, customs, and privileges, which
the ambassadors of Charles signed before his election, and
which he himself ratified before his coronation; and this
example has been followed by his successors. It consisted of
36 articles, partly relating to the Germanic body in general,
and partly to the electors and states in particular. Of those
relating to the Germanic body in general, the most prominent
were, not to confer the escheated fiefs, but to re-unite and
consolidate them, for the benefit of the emperor and empire;
not to intrust the charges of the empire to any but Germans;
not to grant dispensations of the common law; to use the
German language in the proceedings of the chancery; and to put
no one arbitrarily to the ban, who had not been previously
condemned by the diet or imperial chamber. He was to maintain
the Germanic body in the exercise of its legislative powers,
in its right of declaring war and making peace, of passing
laws on commerce and coinage, of regulating the contingents,
imposing and directing the perception of ordinary
contributions, of establishing and superintending the superior
tribunals, and of judging the personal causes of the states.
Finally, he promised not to cite the members of the Germanic
body before any tribunal except those of the empire, and to
maintain them in their legitimate privileges of territorial
sovereignty. The articles which regarded the electors were of
the utmost importance, because they confirmed the rights which
had been long contested with the emperors. ... Besides these
concessions, be promised not to make any attempt to render the
imperial crown hereditary in his family, and to re-establish the
council of regency, in conformity with the advice of the
electors and great princes of the empire. On the 6th of
January, 1521, Charles assembled his first diet at Worms,
where he presided in person. At his proposition the states
passed regulations to terminate the troubles which had already
arisen during the short interval of the interregnum, and to
prevent the revival of similar disorders. ... The imperial
chamber was re-established in all its authority, and the
public peace again promulgated, and enforced by new penalties.
In order to direct the affairs of the empire during the
absence of Charles, a council of regency was established. ...
It was to consist of a lieutenant-general, appointed by the
emperor, and 22 assessors, of' whom 18 were nominated by the
states, and four by Charles, as possessor of the circles of
Burgundy and Austria. ... At the same time an aid of 20,000
foot and 4,000 horse was granted, to accompany the emperor in
his expedition to Rome; but the diet endeavoured to prevent
him from interfering, as Maximilian had done, in the affairs
of Italy, by stipulating that these troops were only to be
employed as an escort, and not for the purpose of aggression."
W. Coxe,
History of the House of Austria,
chapter 26 (volume 1).
ALSO IN:
L. von Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany,
book 2, chapter 4 (volume 1).
{1459}
GERMANY: A. D. 1522-1525.
Systematic organization and adoption in northern Germany of
the Lutheran Reformation.
The Diets at Nuremberg.
The Catholic League of Ratisbon.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1522-1525.
GERMANY: A. D. 1524-1525.
The Peasants' War.
"A political ferment, very different from that produced by the
Gospel, had long been troubling the empire. The people,
weighed down under civil and ecclesiastical oppression,
attached in many places to the lands belonging to the lords,
and sold with them, threatened to rise, and furiously burst
their chains. In Holland, at the end of the preceding century,
the peasants had mustered around standards inscribed with the
words 'bread' and 'cheese,' to them the two necessaries of
life. In 1503 the 'Cobblers' League' ['Bundschuh'--see
GERMANY: A. D. 1492-1514] had burst forth in the neighbourhood
of Spires. In 1513 this was renewed in Brisgau, and encouraged
by the priests. In 1514 Wurtemburg had witnessed 'the League
of poor Conrad,' the object of which was to uphold 'the
justice of God' by revolt. In 1515 terrible commotions had
taken place in Carinthia and Hungary. These insurrections were
stifled by torrents of blood, but no relief had been given to
the peoples. A political reform was as much wanted as a
religious one. The people had a right to it, but they were not
ripe to enjoy it. Since the commencement of the Reformation
these popular agitations had been suspended, the minds of men
being absorbed with other thoughts. ... But everything showed
that peace would not last long. ... The main dykes which had
hitherto kept the torrent back were broken, and nothing could
restrain its fury. Perhaps it must be admitted that the
movement communicated to the people by the Reform gave new
force to the discontent which was fermenting in the nation.
... Erasmus did not hesitate to say to Luther: 'We are now
reaping the fruits of the seed you have sown.' ... The evil
was augmented by the pretensions of certain fanatical men, who
laid claim to celestial inspirations. ... The most
distinguished of these enthusiasts was Thomas Münzer. ... His
first appearance was at Zwickau. He left Wittenberg after
Luther's return [from his concealment at Wartburg, 1522],
dissatisfied with the inferior part he had played, and he
became pastor of the little town of Alstadt in Thuringia.
There he could not long be at rest, and he accused the
reformers of founding a new papacy by their attachment to the
letter, and of forming churches which were not pure and holy.
He regarded himself as called of God to bear a remedy for so
great an evil. ... He maintained that to obey princes,
'destitute of reason,' was to serve God and Belial at the same
time. Then, marching at the head of his parishioners, to a
chapel which was visited by pilgrims from all quarters, he
pulled it to the ground. After this exploit he was obliged to
quit the country, wandered over Germany, and came to
Switzerland, spreading as he went, wherever people would hear
him, his plan for a universal revolution. In every place he
found elements ready for his purpose. He threw his powder upon
the burning coals, and a violent explosion soon followed. ...
The revolt commenced in those regions of the Black Forest, and
the sources of the Danube, which were so often the scene of
popular disturbances. On the 19th of July, 1524, the
Thurgovian peasantry rose against the Abbot of Reichenau, who
would not grant them an evangelical preacher. Thousands soon
gathered around the little town of Tengen, to liberate an
ecclesiastic who was imprisoned there. The revolt spread, with
inconceivable rapidity, from Suabia to the Rhine countries, to
Franconia, to Thuringia, and to Saxony. In January, 1525, the
whole of these countries were in insurrection. Towards the end
of that month the peasants published a declaration in twelve
articles, asking the liberty to choose their own pastors, the
abolition of petty tithes, serfdom, the duties on inheritance,
and liberty to hunt, fish, cut wood, &c., and each demand was
supported by a passage of Scripture."
J. H. Merle D'Aubigné,
The Story of the Reformation,
part 3, chapter 8,
(History of the Reformation, book 10, chapters 10-11).
"Had the feudal lords granted proper and fair reforms long
ago, they would never have heard of these twelve articles. But
they had refused reform, and they now had to meet revolution.
And they knew of but one way of meeting it, namely, by the
sword. The lords of the Swabian League sent their army of foot
and horsemen, under their captain, George Truchsess. The poor
peasants could not hold out against trained soldiers and
cavalry. Two battles on the Danube, in which thousands of
peasants were slain, or drowned in the river, and a third
equally bloody one in Algau, near the Boden See, crushed this
rebellion in Swabia, as former rebellions had so often been
crushed before. This was early in April 1525. But in the
meantime the revolution had spread further north. In the
valley of the Neckar a body of 6,000 peasants had come
together, enraged by the news of the slaughter of their fellow
peasants in the south of Swabia." They stormed the castle of the
young Count von Helfenstein, who had recently cut the throats
of some peasants who met him on the road, and put the Count to
death, with 60 of his companions. "A yell of horror was raised
through Germany at the news of the peasants' revenge. No yell
had risen when the Count cut peasants' throats, or the Swabian
lords slew thousands of peasant rebels. Europe had not yet
learned to mete out the same measure of justice to noble and
common blood. ... The revolution spread, and the reign of
terror spread with it. North and east of the valley of the
Neckar, among the little towns of Franconia, and in the
valleys of the Maine, other bands of peasants, mustering by
thousands, destroyed alike cloisters and castles. Two hundred
of these lighted the night with their flames during the few
weeks of their temporary triumph. And here another feature of
the revolution became prominent. The little towns were already
... passing through an internal revolution. The artisans were
rising against the wealthier burghers, overturning the town
councils, and electing committees of artisans in their place,
making sudden changes in religion, putting down the Mass,
unfrocking priests and monks, and in fact, in the interests of
what they thought to be the gospel, turning all things upside
down. ... It was during the Franconian rebellion that the
peasants chose the robber knight Goetz von Berlichingen as
their leader. It did them no good. More than a robber chief
was needed to cope with soldiers used to war. ... While all
this was going on in the valleys of the Maine, the revolution
had crossed the Rhine into Elsass and Lothringen, and the
Palatinate about Spires and Worms, and in the month of May had
been crushed in blood, as in Swabia and Franconia.
{1460}
South and east, in Bavaria, in the Tyrol, and in Carinthia
also, castles and monasteries went up in flames, and then,
when the tide of victory turned, the burning houses and farms
of the peasants lit up the night and their blood flowed
freely. Meanwhile Münzer, who had done so much to stir up the
peasantry in the south to rebel, had gone north into
Thuringia, and headed a revolution in the town of Mülhausen,
and became a sort of Savonarola of a madder kind. ... But the
end was coming. The princes, with their disciplined troops,
came nearer and nearer. What could Münzer do with his 8,000
peasants? He pointed to a rainbow and expected a miracle, but
no miracle came. The battle, of course, was lost; 5,000
peasants lay dead upon the field near the little town of
Frankenhausen, where it was fought. Münzer fled and concealed
himself in a bed, but was found and taken before the princes,
thrust into a dungeon, and afterwards beheaded. So ended the
wild career of this misguided, fanatical, self-deceived, but
yet, as we must think, earnest and in many ways heroic spirit.
... The princes and nobles now everywhere prevailed over the
insurgent peasants. Luther, writing on June 21, 1525,
says:--'It is a certain fact, that in Franconia 11,000
peasants have been slain. Markgraf Casimir is cruelly severe
upon his peasants, who have twice broken faith with him. In
the Duchy of Wurtemberg, 6,000 have been killed; in different
places in Swabia, 10,000. It is said that in Alsace the Duke
of Lorraine has slain 20,000. Thus everywhere the wretched
peasants are cut down.' ... Before the Peasants' War was ended
at least 100,000 perished, or twenty times as many as were put
to death in Paris during the Reign of Terror in 1793. ...
Luther, throughout the Peasants' War, sided with the ruling
powers. ... The reform he sought was by means of the civil
power; and in order to clear himself and his cause from all
participation in the wild doings of the peasantry, he publicly
exhorted the princes to crush their rebellion."
F. Seebohm,
The Era of the Protestant Revolution,
part 2, chapter 5.
ALSO IN:
L. von Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany,
book 3, chapter 6 (volume 2).
P. Bayne,
Martin Luther: His Life and Work,
book 11 (volume 2).
J. Köstlin,
Life of Luther,
part 4, chapter 5.
C. W. C. Oman,
The German Peasant War of 1525
(English History Review, volume 5).
GERMANY: A. D. 1525-1529.
League of Torgau.
The Diets at Spires.
Legal recognition of the Reformed Religion, and the withdrawal
of it.
The Protest which gave rise to the name "Protestants."
See PAPACY: A. D.1525-1529.
GERMANY: A. D. 1529.
Turkish invasion of Austria.
Siege of Vienna.
See HUNGARY: A. D. 1526-1567.
GERMANY: A. D. 1530.
The Diet at Augsburg.
The signing and reading of the Protestant Confession of Faith.
The condemnatory decree.
Breach between the Protestants and the emperor.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1530-1531.
GERMANY: A. D. 1530-1532.
The Augsburg Decree.
Alarm of the Protestants.
Their League of Smalkalde and alliance with the king of
France.
Pacification of Nuremberg with the emperor.
Expulsion of the Turks from Hungary.
The decree issued by the Diet at Augsburg was condemnatory of
most of the tenets peculiar to the protestants, "forbidding
any person to protect or tolerate such as taught them,
enjoining a strict observance of the established rites, and
prohibiting any farther innovation, under severe penalties.
All orders of men were required to assist with their persons
and fortunes in carrying this decree into execution; and such
as refused to obey it were declared incapable of acting as
judges, or of appearing as parties in the imperial chamber,
the supreme court of judicature in the empire. To all which
was subjoined a promise, that an application should be made to
the pope, requiring him to call a general council within six
months, in order to terminate all controversies by its
sovereign decisions. The severity of this decree, which was
considered as a prelude to the most violent persecution,
alarmed the protestants, and convinced them that the emperor
was resolved on their destruction." Under these circumstances,
the protestant princes met at Smalkalde, December 22, 1530,
and there "concluded a league of mutual defence against all
aggressors, by which they formed the protestant states of the
empire into one regular body, and, beginning already to
consider themselves as such, they resolved to apply to the
kings of France and England, and to implore them to patronise
and assist their new confederacy. An affair not connected with
religion furnished them with a pretence for courting the aid
of foreign princes.'" This was the election of the emperor's
brother, Ferdinand, to be King of the Romans, against, which
they had protested vigorously. "When the protestants, who
were' assembled a second time at Smalkalde [February, 1531],
received an account of this transaction, and heard, at the
same time, that prosecutions were commenced in the imperial
chamber against some of their number, on account of their
religious principles, they thought it necessary, not only to
renew their former confederacy, but immediately to despatch
their ambassadors into France and England." The king of France
"listened with the utmost eagerness to the complaints of the
protestant princes; and, without seeming to countenance their
religious opinions, determined secretly to cherish those
sparks of political discord which might be afterwards kindled
into a flame. For this purpose he sent William de Bellay, one
of the ablest negotiators in France, into Germany, who,
visiting the courts of the malecontent princes, and
heightening their ill-humour by various arts, concluded an
alliance between them, and his master, which, though concealed
at that time, and productive of no immediate effects, laid the
foundation of a union fatal on many occasions to Charles's
ambitious projects. ... The king of England [Henry VIII.],
highly incensed against Charles, in complaisance to whom, the
pope had long retarded, and now openly opposed, his divorce
[from Catharine of Aragon], was no less disposed than Francis
to strengthen a league which might be rendered so formidable
to the emperor. But his favourite project of the divorce led
him into such a labyrinth of schemes and negotiations, and he
was, at the same time, so intent on abolishing the papal
jurisdiction in England, that he had no leisure for foreign
affairs. This obliged him to rest satisfied with giving
general promises, together with a small supply in money, to
the confederates of Smalkalde. Meanwhile, many circumstances
convinced Charles that this was not a juncture" in which he
could afford to let his zeal for the church push him to
extremities with the protestants.
{1461}
"Negotiations were, accordingly, carried on by his direction
with the elector of Saxony and his associates; after many
delays ... terms of pacification were agreed upon at Nuremberg
[July 23], and ratified solemnly in the diet at Ratisbon
[August 3]. In this treaty it was stipulated: that universal
peace be established in Germany, until the meeting of a
general council, the convocation of which within six months
the emperor shall endeavour to procure; that no person shall
be molested on account of religion; that a stop shall be put
to all processes begun by the imperial chamber against
protestants, and the sentences already passed to their
detriment shall be declared void. On their part, the
protestants engaged to assist the emperor with all their
forces in resisting the invasion of the Turks. ... The
protestants of Germany, who had hitherto been viewed only as a
religious sect, came henceforth to be considered as a
political body of no small consequence. The intelligence which
Charles received of Solyman's having entered Hungary, at the
head of 300,000 men, brought the deliberations of the diet at
Ratisbon to a period. ... The protestants, as a testimony of
their gratitude to the emperor, exerted themselves with
extraordinary zeal, and brought into the field forces which
exceeded in number the quota imposed on them; and the
catholics imitating their example, one of the greatest and
best-appointed armies that had ever been levied in Germany
assembled near Vienna. ... It amounted in all to 90,000
disciplined foot, and 30,000 horse, besides a prodigious swarm
of irregulars. Of this vast army ... the emperor took the
command in person; and mankind waited in suspense the issue of
a decisive battle between the two greatest monarchs in the
world. But each of them dreading the other's power and good
fortune, they both conducted their operations with such
excessive caution, that a campaign for which such immense
preparations had been made ended without any memorable event.
Solyman, finding it impossible to gain ground upon an enemy
always attentive and on his guard, marched back to
Constantinople towards the end of autumn. ... About the
beginning of this campaign, the elector of Saxony died, and
was succeeded by his son John Frederick. ... Immediately after
the retreat of the Turks, Charles, impatient to revisit Spain,
set out, on his way thither, for Italy."
W. Robertson,
History of the Reign of Charles V.,
book 5.
ALSO IN:
L. von Ranke,
History of the Reformation in Germany,
book 6, chapters 1-8 (volume 3).
H. Stebbing,
History of the Reformation,
chapters 12-13 (volume 2).
GERMANY: A. D. 1532-1536.
Fanaticism of the Anabaptists of Münster.
Siege and capture of the city.
See ANABAPTISTS OF MÜNSTER.
GERMANY: A. D. 1533-1546.
Mercenary aspects of the Reformation.
Protestant intolerance.
Union with the Swiss Reformers.
The Catholic Holy League.
Preparations for war.
"During the next few years [after the peace concluded at
Nuremberg] there was no open hostility between the two
religious parties. ... But there was dissension enough. In the
first place there was much disputation as to the meaning of
the articles concluded at Nuremberg. The catholic princes,
under the pretext that, if no man was to be disturbed for his
faith, or for things depending on faith, he was still amenable
for certain offences against the church, which were purely of a
civil nature, were eager that the imperial chamber should take
cognisance of future cases, at least, where protestants should
seek to invade the temporalities of the church. ... But
nothing was effected; the tribunal was too powerless to
enforce its decrees. In 1534, the protestants, in a public
assembly, renounced all obedience to the chamber; yet they did
not cease to appropriate to themselves the property of such
monasteries and churches as, by the conversion of catholics to
their faith--and that faith was continually progressive--lay
within their jurisdiction. We need scarcely observe, that the
prospect of spoliation was often the most powerful inducement
with the princes and nobles to change their religion. When
they, or the magistracy of any particular city, renounced the
faith hitherto established, the people were expected to follow
the example: the moment Lutheranism was established in its place,
the ancient faith was abolished; nobody was allowed to profess
it; and, with one common accord, all who had any prospect of
benefiting by the change threw themselves on the domains of
the expelled clergy. That the latter should complain before
the only tribunal where justice could be expected, was
natural; nor can we be surprised that the plunderers should
soon deny, in religious affairs, the jurisdiction of that
tribunal. From the departure of the emperor to the year 1538,
some hundreds of domains were thus seized, and some hundreds
of complaints addressed to him by parties who resolved to
interpret the articles of Nuremberg in their own way. The
protestants declared, in a letter to him, that their
consciences would not allow them to tolerate any papist in
their states. ... By espousing the cause of the exiled duke of
Wittemberg, they procured a powerful ally. ... But a greater
advantage was the union of the sacramentarians [the Swiss
reformers, who accepted the doctrine of Zwingli respecting the
purely symbolical significance of the commemoration of the
Lord's Supper--see SWITZERLAND: A. D. 1528-1531] with the
Lutherans. Of such a result, at the diet of Augsburg, there
was not the least hope; but Bucer, being deputed by the
imperial cities to ascertain whether a union might not be
effected, laboured so zealously at the task that it was
effected. He consented to modify some of his former opinions;
or at least to wrap them in language so equivocal that they
might mean anything or nothing at the pleasure of the holder.
The Swiss, indeed, especially those of Zurich, refused to
sanction the articles on which Luther and Bucer had agreed.
Still, by the union of all protestant Germany under the same
banners, much was gained. ... In the meantime, the dissensions
between the two great parties augmented from day to day. To
pacify them, Charles sent fruitless embassies. Roused by the
apparent danger, in 1538, the catholic princes formed, at
Nuremberg, a counter league to that of Smalcald [calling it
the Holy League]. ... The death of Luther's old enemy, George,
duke of Saxony [1539], transferred the dominion of that
prince's states into the hands of [his brother Henry] a
Lutheran. Henry, duke of Brunswick, was now the only great
secular prince in the north of Germany who adhered to the
Roman catholic faith. ... A truce was concluded at Frankfort,
in 1539; but it could not remove the existing animosity, which
was daily augmented. Both parties were in the wrong. ...
{1462}
At the close of 1540, Worms was the scene of a conference very
different from that where, 20 years before, Luther had been
proscribed. There was an interminable theological disputation.
... As little good resulted, Charles, who was hastening from
the Low Countries to his German dominions, evoked the affair
before a diet at Ratisbon, in April, 1541. ... The diet of
Ratisbon was well attended; and never did prince exert himself
more zealously than Charles to make peace between his angry
subjects. But ... all that could be obtained was, that things
should be suffered to remain in their present state until a
future diet or a general council. The reduction of Buda,
however, by the Turks, rendered king Ferdinand, his brother,
and the whole of Germany, eager for an immediate settlement of
the dispute. ... Hence the diet of Spires in 1542. If, in
regard to religion, nothing definitive was arranged, except
the selection of Trent as the place most suitable for a
general council, one good end was secured--supplies for the
war with the Turks. The campaign, however, which passed
without an action, was inglorious to the Germans, who appear
to have been in a lamentable state of discipline. Nor was the
public satisfaction much increased by the disputes of the
Smalcald league with Henry of Brunswick. The duke was angry
with his subjects of Brunswick and Breslau, who adhered to the
protestant league; and though he had reason enough to be
dissatisfied with both, nothing could be more vexatious than
his conduct towards them. In revenge, the league of Smalcald
sent 19,000 men into the field,--a formidable display of
protestant power!--and Henry was expelled from his hereditary
states, which were seized by the victors. He invoked the aid
of the imperial chamber, which cited the chiefs of the league;
but as, in 1538, the competency of that tribunal had been
denied in religious, so now it was denied in civil matters.
... The following years exhibit on both sides the same
jealousy, the same duplicity, often the same violence where
the mask was no longer required, with as many ineffectual
attempts to procure a union between them. ... The progress of
events continued to favour the reformers. They had already two
votes in the electoral college,--those of Saxony and Brandenburg;
they were now to have the preponderance; for the elector
palatine and Herman archbishop of Cologne abjured their
religion, thus placing at the command of the reformed party
four votes against three. But this numerical superiority did
not long remain. ... The pope excommunicated the archbishop,
deposed him from his dignity, and ordered the chapter to
proceed to a new election; and when Herman refused to obey,
Charles sent troops to expel him, and to install the
archbishop elect, Count Adolf of Nassau. Herman retired to his
patrimonial estates, where he died in the profession of the
reformed religion. These events mortified the members of the
Smalcald league; but they were soon partially consoled by the
capture of Henry duke of Brunswick [1546], who had the
temerity to collect troops and invade his patrimonial
dominions. Their success gave umbrage to the emperor. ... He
knew that the confederates had already 20,000 men under arms,
and that they were actively, however secretly, augmenting
their forces. His first care was to cause troops to be as
secretly collected in his hereditary states; his second, to
seduce, if possible, some leaders of the protestants. With
Maurice duke of Saxony he was soon successful; and eventually
with the two margraves of Brandenburg, who agreed to make
preparations for a campaign and join him at the proper moment.
... His convocation of the diet at Ratisbon [1546], which
after a vain parade ended in nothing, was only to hide his
real designs. As he began to throw off the mask, the reformed
theologians precipitately withdrew; and both parties took the
field, but not until they had each published a manifesto to
justify this extreme proceeding. In each there was much truth,
and more falsehood."
S. A. Dunham,
History of the Germanic Empire,
book 3, chapter 2 (volume 3).
GERMANY: A. D. 1542-1544.
War with Francis I. of France.
Battle of Cerisoles.
Treaty of Crespy.
See FRANCE: A. D. 1532-1547.
GERMANY: A. D. 1542-1563.
The beginning of the Roman Catholic reaction.
The Council of Trent.
See PAPACY: A. D. 1537-1563.
GERMANY: A. D. 1546-1552.
War of Charles against the Protestants.
The treachery of Maurice of Saxony.
The battle of Muhlberg.
The emperor's proposed "Interim" and its failure.
His reverse of fortune.
Protestantism triumphant.
The Treaty of Passau.
"Luther's death [which occurred in 1546] made no change in the
resolution which Charles had at last taken to crush the
Reformation in his German dominions by force of arms; on the
contrary, he was more than ever stimulated to carry out his
purpose by two occurrences: the adoption of the new religion
by one who was not only an Elector of the Empire, but one of
the chief prelates of the Church, the Prince-Archbishop of
Cologne. ... The other event that influenced him was the
refusal of the Protestants to accept as binding the decrees of
the Council of Trent, which was composed of scarcely any
members but a few Italian and Spanish prelates, and from which
they appealed to either a free general Council or a national
Council of the Empire; offering, at the same time, if Charles
should prefer it, to submit the whole question of religion to
a joint Commission, composed of divines of each party. These
remonstrances, however, the Emperor treated with contempt. He
had been for some time secretly raising troops in different
quarters; and, early in 1546, he made a fresh treaty with the
Pope, by which he bound himself instantly to commence warlike
operations, and which, though it had been negotiated, as a
secret treaty, Paul instantly published, to prevent any
retraction or delay on his part. War therefore now began,
though Charles professed to enter upon it, not for the purpose
of enforcing a particular religious belief on the recusants,
but for that of re-establishing the Imperial authority, which,
as he affirmed, many of the confederate princes had disowned.
Such a pretext he expected to sow disunion in the body, some
members of which were far from desirous to weaken the great
confederacy of the Empire: and, in effect, it did produce a
hesitation in their early steps that had the most important
consequences on the first campaign; for, in spite of the
length of time during which he had secretly been preparing for
war, when it came they were more ready than he. They at once
took the field with an army of 90,000 men and 120 guns, while
he, for the first few weeks after the declaration of war, had
hardly 10,000 men with him in Ratisbon. ...
{1463}
But the advantage of a single over a divided command was
perhaps never more clearly exemplified than in the first
operations of the two armies. He, as the weaker party, took up
a defensive position near Ingolstadt; but, though they
advanced within sight of his lines, they could not agree on
the mode of attack, or even on the prudence of attacking him
at all. ... At last, the confederates actually drew off, and
Charles, advancing, made himself master of many important
towns, which their irresolution alone had enabled him to
approach." Meanwhile the Emperor had won an important ally.
This was Duke Maurice, of the Albertine line of the House of
Saxony (see SAXONY: A. D. 1180-1553), to whom several
opportune deaths had given the ducal seat unexpectedly, in
1541, and whose ambition now hungered for the Electorate,
which was held by the other (the Ernestine) branch of the
family. He conceived the idea of profiting by the troubles of
the time to win possession of it. "With this view, though he
also was a Protestant, he tendered his services to the
Emperor, who, in spite of his youth, discerned in him a
promise of very superior capacity, gladly accepted his aid,
and promised to reward him with the territories which he
coveted. The advantages which Protestantism eventually derived
from Maurice's success has blinded some historians to the
infamy of the conduct by which he achieved it. ... The Elector
[John Frederick] was his [second] cousin; the Landgrave of
Hesse was his father-in-law. Pleading an unwillingness while
so young (he was barely 21) to engage in the war, he
volunteered to undertake the protection of his cousin's
dominions during his absence in the field. His offer was
thankfully accepted; but he was no sooner installed in his
charge than he began to negotiate with the enemy to invade the
territories which he had bound himself to protect. And on
receiving from Charles a copy of a decree, called the Ban of
the Empire, which had just been issued against both the
Elector and the Landgrave, he at once raised a force of his
own, with which he overran one portion of [the Elector's]
dominions, while a division of the Imperial army attacked the
rest; and he would probably have succeeded at once in subduing
the whole Electorate, had the main body of the Protestants
been able to maintain the war on the Danube." But Charles's
successes there brought about a suspension ol hostilities
which enabled the Elector to return and "chastise Maurice for
his treachery; to drive him not only from the towns and
districts which he had seized, but to strip him also of the
greater part of the territory which belonged to him by
inheritance." Charles was unable, at first, to give any
assistance to his ally. The Elector, however, who was the
worst of generals, so scattered his forces that when, "on the
23d of April [1547], Charles reached the Elbe and prepared to
attack him, he had no advantage over his assailant but that of
position. That indeed was very strong. He lay at Muhlberg, on
the right bank of the river, which at that point is 300 yards
wide and more than four feet deep, with a stream so rapid as
to render the passage, even for horsemen, a task of great
difficulty and danger." Against the remonstrances of his
ablest general, the Duke of Alva, Charles, favored by a heavy
fog, led his army across the river and boldly attacked. The
Ejector attempted to retreat, but his retreat became a rout.
Many fell, but many more were taken prisoners, including the
Elector and the Landgrave of Hesse. The victory was decisive
for the time, and Charles used it without moderation or
generosity. He declared a forfeiture of the whole Electorate
of Saxony by John Frederick, and conferred it upon the
treacherous Maurice; and, "though Maurice was son-in-law of
the Landgrave of Hesse, he stripped that prince of his
territories, and, by a device scarcely removed from the tricks
of a kidnapper, threw him also into prison." Charles seemed
now to be completely master of the situation in Germany, and
there was little opposition to his will in a diet which he
convened at Augsburg.
C. D. Yonge,
Three Centuries of Modern History,
chapter 4.
"He opened the Diet of Augsburg (September 1, 1547), in the
hope of finally bringing about the union so long desired and
so frequently attempted, but which he despaired of effecting
through a council which the Protestants had rejected in
advance. ... By the famous 'Interim' of Augsburg--the joint
production of Julius von Pflug, Bishop of Naumberg; Michael
Helding, coadjutor of Mentz; and the wily and subtle John
Agricola, preacher to the Elector of Brandenburg--Protestants
were permitted to receive the Holy Eucharist under both kinds;
the Protestant clergy already married to retain their wives;
and a tacit approval given to the retention of property
already taken from the Church. This instrument was, from
beginning to end, a masterpiece of duplicity, and as such
satisfied no party. The Catholics of Germany, the Protestants,
and the Court of Rome, each took exception to it. ... Maurice,
the new Elector of Saxony, unwilling to give the Interim an
unconditional approval, consulted with a number of Protestant
theologians, headed by Melancthon, as to how far he might
accept its provisions with a safe conscience. In reply they
drew up what is known as the Leipsig Interim (1548), in which
they stated that questions of ritual and ceremony, and others
of minor importance, which they designated by the generic word
adiaphora, might be wholly overlooked; and even in points of a
strictly doctrinal character, they expressed themselves
favourable to concession and compromise. ... Such Lutheran
preachers as professed to be faithful followers of their
master, made a determined opposition to the 'Interim,' and
began a vigorous assault upon its adiaphoristic clauses. The
Anti-adiaphorists, as they were called, were headed by Flacius
Illyricus, who being an ardent disciple of Luther's, and
possessing somewhat of his courage and energy, repaired to
Magdeburg, whose bold citizens were as defiant of imperial
power as they were contemptuous of papal authority. But in
spite of this spirited opposition, the Interim was gradually
accepted by several Protestant countries and cities--a fact
which encouraged the emperor at the Diet of Augsburg, in 1550,
to make a final effort to have the Protestants attend the
sessions of the Council of Trent, again opened by Pope Julius
III. ... After a short delay, deputies from Brandenburg,
Würtemberg, and Saxony began to appear at Trent; and even the
Wittenberg theologians, headed by Melancthon, were already on
their way to the Council, when Maurice of Saxony, having
secured all the advantages he hoped to obtain by an alliance
with the Catholic party, and regardless of the obligations by
which he was bound, proceeded to betray both the emperor and
his country.
{1464}
Having received a commission to carry into effect the ban of
the empire passed upon Magdeburg, he was in a position to
assemble a large body of troops in Germany without exciting
suspicion, or revealing his ulterior purposes. Besides uniting
to himself, as confederates in his plot, John Albert, Duke of
Mecklenburg; Albert, Margrave of Brandenburg; and William,
Landgrave of Hesse, eldest son of Philip of Hesse, he entered
into a secret treaty (Oct. 5, 1551) with Henry II., King of
France, who, as was pretended, coming into Germany as the
saviour of the country, seized the cities of Metz, Toul, and
Verdun. Maurice also held out to Henry the prospect of
securing the imperial crown. Everything being in readiness for
action, Maurice advancing through Thuringia, seized the city
of Augsburg, and suddenly made his appearance before
Innspruck, whence the emperor, who lay sick of a severe attack
of the gout, was hastily conveyed on a litter, through the
passes of the mountains, to Villach, in Carinthia. While
Maurice was thus making himself master of Innspruck, the King
of the French was carrying out his part of the programme by
actively prosecuting the war in Lorraine. Charles V., now
destitute of the material resources necessary to carry on a
successful campaign against the combined armies of the French
king and the German princes, and despairing of putting an end
to the obstinate conflict by his personal endeavours, resolved
to re-establish, if possible, his waning power by peaceful
negotiations. To this end, he commissioned his brother
Ferdinand to conclude the Treaty of Passau (July 30, 1552),
which provided that Philip of Hesse should be set at liberty,
and gave pledges for the speedy settlement of all religious
and political differences by a Diet, to be summoned at an
early day. It further provided that neither the emperor nor
the Protestant princes should put any restraint upon freedom
of conscience, and that all questions arising in the interval
between the two parties should be referred for settlement to
an Imperial Commission, composed of an equal number of
Catholics and Protestants. In consequence of the war then
being carried on by the empire against France for the recovery
of the three bishoprics of Lorraine of which the French had
taken possession, the Diet did not convene until February 5,
1555."
J. Alzog,
Manual of Universal Church History,
volume 3, pages 276-279.
ALSO IN:
W. Robertson,
History of the Reign of Charles V.,
books 8-10 (volume 2-3).
L. von Ranke,
Civil Wars and Monarchy in France,
chapter 6.
E. E. Crowe,
Cardinal Granvelle and Maurice of Saxony
(Eminent Foreign Statesmen, volume 1).
L. Häusser,
The Period of the Reformation,
chapters 15-17.
G. P. Fisher,
History of the Reformation,
chapter 5.
F. Kohlrausch,
History of Germany,
chapter 20.
GERMANY: A. D. 1547.
Pragmatic Sanction of Charles V., changing the relations of
the Netherland provinces to the Empire.
See NETHERLANDS: A. D. 1547.
GERMANY: A. D. 1552-1561.
Battle of Sievershausen and death of Maurice.
The Religious Peace of Augsburg.
Abdication of Charles V.
Succession of Ferdinand I.
The halting of the Reformation and the rally of Catholic
resistance.
By the treaty of Passau, Maurice of Saxony bound himself to
defend the empire against the French and the Turks. "He
accordingly took the field against the latter, but with little
success, the imperial commander, Castaldo, contravening all
his efforts by plundering Hungary and drawing upon himself the
hatred of the people. Charles, meanwhile, marched against the
French, and, without hesitation, again deposed the corporative
governments reinstated by Maurice, on his way through
Augsburg, Ulm, Esslingen, etc. Metz, valiantly defended by the
Duke de Guise, was vainly besieged for some months, and the
Emperor was at length forced to retreat. The French were,
nevertheless, driven out of Italy. The aged emperor now sighed
for peace. Ferdinand, averse to open warfare, placed his hopes
on the imperceptible effect of a consistently pursued system
of suppression and Jesuitical obscurantism. Maurice was
answerable for the continuance of the peace, the terms of
which he had prescribed. ... Albert the Wild [of Brandenburg]
was the only one among the princes who was still desirous of
war. Indifferent to aught else, he marched at the head of some
thousand followers through central Germany, murdering and
plundering as he passed along, with the intent of once more
laying the Franconian and Saxon bishoprics waste in the name
of the gospel. The princes at length formed the Heidelberg
confederacy against this monster and the emperor put him under
the bann of the empire, which Maurice undertook to execute,