ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



319 



people in the town of Wittenburg, he threw the papal 

 bull, and the volumes of the canon law, into the flames ; 



sucn was me tyrannical violence ui uii miiy piciuic, appealing to a general council, which he declared to 

 that the reformer, after solemnly appealing from his the only tribunal where his cause could be judged, ar 



1 - ' ' to which, in the opinion of Christendom, the pope him 



Ecdesiasti- his briefs and letters, under the characters of a child of 

 cal History, iniquity, and a man given up to a reprobate sense. And 

 > *""Y"^ such was the tyrannical violence of this lofty prelate, 



judgment, to the more mature deliberation and decision 

 of the holy see, complied with the earnest intreaties of 

 his friends, and withdrew himself privately from Augs- 

 burg. 



All appeals 

 to the Pope 

 unnecessary 

 and unwise. 



to \vniv;ii, 111 me vjjiiiivjn w ^i j i ^ , 



self was subject. He warmly exhorted the princes 

 Europe to shake off the yoke which they had too lo 



rg. and too ignominiously borne; and offered thanks- 



From what we have stated, however, our readers will givihgs to Almighty God, that he had been selected a 



., , ., i*. i; 1 rtv /i;nrr trt thp lYlpa- 



utlier it 

 excomniu- 

 Bicalcd. 



"Effect of 

 the excom- 

 munication 

 on the mind 

 of Luther. 



easily perceive, that an appeal to the pope was both un- 

 wise and unnecessary. The dispute respecting indul- 

 gences affected not only the authority of the papal chair, 

 but the revenues of the pontiff. The cultivated magni- 

 ficence and the splendid liberality of Leo, required ex- 

 tensive funds. By diminishing the value of indulgen- 

 ces, the profits of the sale were lessened. One country 

 of Christendom would imitate another ; the resources of 

 the church would be impaired ; and who does not know 

 that the power of the pope has always been intimately 

 connected with the resources of the church ? But the 

 appeal in question was unnecessary, as well as unwise. 

 The court of Rome had already decided against Luther 

 and his followers. The sovereign pontiff had declared 

 the new doctrines heretical ; and a bull was in agitation, 

 to cut off the seditious monk, and to cast him out from 

 the bosom of the church. The document, if it may be 

 called so, was very solemnly prepared. The whole col- 

 lege of cardinals were consulted upon the occasion, and 

 were repeatedly assembled, in order to select the most 

 objectionable passages from the writings of the reform- 

 er ; and the schools were ransacked to procure some 

 able canonists, that the sentence might be expressed 

 with unexceptionable formality. At length, on the 

 15th day of June, A. D. 1520, the bull, so fatal to the 

 papal interests, was issued. " Forty-five propositions, 

 extracted from Luther's works, are condemned in it as 

 heretical, scandalous, and offensive to pious ears ; all 

 persons are forbidden to read his writings, upon pain 

 of excommunication ; such as had any of them in their 

 custody, are commanded to commit them to the flames ; 

 lie himself, if he did not, within sixty days, publicly re- 

 cant his error-!, and bum his own books, is pronounced 

 an obstinate heretic, is excommunicated, and delivered 

 over to Satan for the destruction of his flesh ; and all 

 .-i'1-iilar princes are required, under pain of incurring 

 the same censure, to seize his person, that he might be 

 punished as his crimes deserved." 



This famous bull had no other effect upon the mind 

 of Luther, than that of exciting him to keener opposi- 

 tion, and more systematic hostility. He had perseve- 

 red with habitual diligence, and with humble prayer 

 to God, in the study of the sacred scriptures. He had 

 read of the " man of sin," the antichrist who was to 

 conui in the latter days of the church ; that power 

 which was to oppose itself to the interests of true reli- 

 gion, and the dominion of the pvprlanting God. He 

 marked itio resemblance between the descriptions of 

 this power given to us in the sacred books, and the un- 

 justifiable pretensions and blasphemous arrogance of 

 the holy see. He noted the distinguishing circumstances 

 alluded to in the particulars, " of sitting in the temple 

 of God, (referring to the man of sin,) and showing him- 

 self that he is God," of " lying wonders" and the " de- 

 ceivableness of unrighteousness," of " forbidding to 

 marry" and " commanding to abstain from meats;" and 

 revolving the whole matter in his mind, he at length 

 boldly pronounced the POPE to be the man of sin, and 

 the power of the Romish church to be the deadly power, 

 which should r.ii-e itself, in the latter days, against tin- 

 sovereignty of Christ. Amidst a vast assemblage of 



die advocate of true religion, and, according to the mea- 

 sure of his abilities, as a friend to the liberties of man- 

 kind. 



Nor was the voice of the reformer lifted up in vain. The Refer . 

 The new opinions found supporters in almost every mat.on pro- 

 kingdom of Europe. In Switzerland, Ulric Zuinglius, ce 

 a man of a republican spirit, attacked the ancient su- 

 perstition, with a courage by no means inferior to that 

 of Luther himself. The elector of Saxony was the pa- 

 tron of the Reformation. Most of the Prussian princes 

 joined with the elector. The edict of Worms, which 

 was unfavourable to Luther, could not be executed. 

 At the same diet in which the edict alluded to was pro- 

 nounced, it was resolved, that every secular prince 

 should manage the ecclesiastical affairs of his own do- 

 minions, as he himself should judge to be most proper, 

 till the meeting of a general council. We must own, 

 however, that, at a subsequent diet, this wholesome re- 

 solution was reversed ; but we must not fail to state, 

 that against the sentence of reversal, the elector of 

 Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse, the marquis of Bran- 

 denburgh, together with the princes of Lunenburgh and 

 Anhalt, and the representatives of fourteen Imperial 

 cities, entered their most solemn protest. They decla- 

 red the sentence to be unjust as well as impious. From 

 the circumstance of protesting on the part of the princes 

 and representatives, mentioned above, the name of PRO- 

 TESTA MTS had its origin ; a name fince applied to all 

 the variety of sects which have withdrawn, upon any 

 account, from the communion of Rome. The sacred 

 scriptures were translated into the German tongue, and 

 were read with astonishing avidity. Melancthon, who 

 had assisted Luther in the translation, threw up the 

 conciliatory creed, entitled the " Confession of Augs- 

 burg." The league of Smalcalde was formed, and the 

 Protestant states were united into a regular body. The 

 Helvetic cantons, under the auspices of the famous 

 John Calvin, proclaimed aloud their determined hosti- 

 lity to the rites and ceremonies of the papal institute. 

 The secret friends of the Reformation abounded in 

 France, Spain, Hungary, Bohemia, and the Nether- 

 lands. And to crown the whole, King Henry VIII. of 

 England, after writing in defence of the papacy, and 

 obtaining from the holy see the title of " Defender of 

 the Faith," suddenly deserted the cause which he had, 

 espoused, and commenced a rough and hasty, but ef- 

 fectual reformation throughout his dominions, dethro- 

 ning the pope, and with blustering magnanimity, sub- 

 stituting fiimse/fin his place. 



Still, however, the enemies of the Reformation were The ene- 

 both numerous and powerful. A very great proportion niies of the 

 of the European princes remained attached to the an- 

 cient system ; some of them from religious considera- 

 tions, and others from motives of interest or policy. 

 Among the last class we must reckon the Emperor 

 Charles V. It was in opposition to this monarch that 

 the league of Smalcalde was formed ; and during a 

 eonmdenble part of his reign he was engaged in open 

 war with the Protestant leaders. The sovereigns of 

 France, Spain, and Portugal, continued to acknow- 

 ledge the powers of the holy see. All the Italian states 



