LUTHER. 



and had the addrefs to procure a majority approving a 3e- 

 I creo, which declared it unlawful to introduce any change in 

 I the dodrine, difciphne, or worfhip of the ettablilhed re- 

 ligion, before the determinations of a general council were 

 known. This decree was exceedingly revolting to the 

 eleftor of Saxony, and other princes, as well as to the de- 

 puties of fourteen imperial cities, who, in a body, when 

 they found their arguments and remonilrances of no avail, 

 entered their folemn ^ro/£/? againfl: it, on the 19th of April 

 1)29, 3"'^ appealed to the emperor and a future council. 

 On this account they were dilliiiguifhed by the name of 

 Protestants, which, from this period, has been applied 

 to all fefts of whatever denomination which have feparated 

 themfelves from the Roman church. The protetting princes 

 fent embaffies to the emperor, which were ill received ; and 

 in anfwer to one of them, they received an account that he 

 was determined to come into Germany, with a view to ter- 

 minate, in a diet to be held at Augfburg, in June 1530, 

 the religious difputes which had produced fo many aiid 

 grievous divifions in the empire. Charles had many con- 

 fultations with pope Clement VII. concerning the molt cf- 

 fedlual means for that purpffe. In thefe interviews the 

 emperor infilled, in the moll urgent manner, on the neceffity 

 of affembling a general council : to this his holinefs was a 

 decided enemy, becaule he had learnt from hillorv that 

 general councils were fsftious, ungovernable, and flow in 

 their operations ; and he contended that the fureit way was 

 for the emperor to do his duty, in fupporting the authority 

 of the church, and in employing all his power in executing 

 fpeedy vengf-ance on the obftinate heretical factions, who 

 dared to call in queftion the authority of the holy Roman 

 fee. Charles was itill for mild and conciliatory meafures, 

 but promifed if thefe ftould prove ineffeflual, that then he 

 would employ the ^veight of his authority in reducing the 

 rebellious to implicit obedience. In his journey to Augf- 

 burg he had full opportunity of knowing the fentiments of 

 the people, and, from his own obfervation, he was fatisfied 

 that feverity ought not to be attempted, until other mea- 

 fures proved ineffectual : he therefore called on the elector 

 of Saxony to obtain from Luther, and other eminent di- 

 vines, a written explication of their religious fyftem, and an 

 expHcit avowal of the feveral points in which they differed 

 from the church of Rome. Luther delivered to the elcftor 

 at Torgaw feventeen articles, called " The articles of Tor- 

 gaw," which were deemed by him a proper declaration of 

 the fentiments of the reformed. By others they were not 

 thought fufficiently open, and Melanflhon was delired to 

 give an account of the fame, who, with a due refpeft to the 

 fentiments of Luther, expreffed his opinions, and fet forth 

 his Qoftrine, with the greateft elegance and perfpicuity, 

 and in terms as little ofFenfive as poffible to their opponents. 

 Such was the origin of the creed, celebrated in hiftory as 

 " The confeffion of Augfturg." In June 1530, the diet 

 was opened ; and in a few days, the Proteftauts, who had 

 adopted the opinions of Zuingle, delivered their confef- 

 fion, drawn up by Martin Bucer. A refutation of this was 

 undertaken by Faber, Eckius, and Cochlzeus, which was 

 read publicly in the diet ; and the unlimited fubmifllon of 

 the Protellauts to the doSrines contained in it was required 

 by the emperor. Inllead, however, of yielding obedience 

 to the imperial command, they demanded a copy of the 

 paper, in order that they might have an opportunit^y of de- 

 monilrating more fully its extreme iiifufRciency and weak- 

 ' nefs. This requeft was refufed, and there was now no 

 I profpeft of a reconciliation. The emperor next attempted 

 to bring over to his views the princes who had been lomc 

 time the patrons of the ne»v dodrines : but however deiirous 



they might be of obliging the emperor, they would not 

 make facrifices to him of their integrity, and, in a firm tone, 

 refufed to abandon what they deemed the caufe of God, for 

 the fake of any earthly acquilition. The emperor, difap> 

 pointed and exceedingly vexed, rcfolved to take vigorous 

 meafures for afferting the authority and doftrines of the 

 eftabhfhed church, and enforcing the fubmilTion of heretics. 

 He accordingly condemned the peculiar tenets held by the 

 Proteftants, forbidding any perfon to proteft or even tole- 

 rate fuch as taught them, enjoining a drift obfervance of the 

 eftablifhed rites, and prohibiting any further innovation un- 

 der fevere penalties. This decree, which was regarded as 

 a prelude to the mod violent perfecution, convinced the 

 Proteftants that the emperor was refolved on their deftruc- 

 tion ; and the dread of the calamities which were ready to 

 fall on the church oppreffed the fpirit of Mclanfthon, who 

 refigned himfelf to a fettled melancholy. I^uther, however, 

 was not at all diflieartened, and ufed his utmoft efforts to 

 keep up the fpirits of thofe who were willing to give way ; 

 being allured that their perfonal fafely, as well as fuccefs, 

 depended wholly on union. In purfuance of this opinion, 

 they affcmblcd in 1J30, firft at Smalcalde, and afterwards 

 at Frankfcrrt, where they formed a lolemn alliance and con- 

 federacy, with the refoluticn of defending vigoroufly their 

 religion and liberties again (I the dangers with which they 

 were threatened by the edift of Augfburg. They invited 

 the kings of England, France, and Denmark, to join in the 

 confederacy ; and, by their negotiations, fecured powerful 

 protection and afhftance, in cafe of neceflily. Luther was 

 at firfl averfe from this confederacy, dreading the calamities 

 which it might produce. In this llate of things, the eleftor 

 palatine and the eleftor of Mcntz offered their mediation, 

 and endeavoured to reconcile the contending princes ; and, 

 in a fhort time, negociations were carried on, that finally 

 produced a pacification, the terms of which were agreed 

 upon at Nuremburg, and folemiily ratified in the diet at 

 Ratifhon, Augull 3d, 1532. By this treaty, the Pro- 

 teftant princes engaged to afhH the emperor with all their 

 forces, in refifting the invafion of the Turks ; and it was 

 flipulated that univcrfal peace fliould be ellablifhed in Ger- 

 many, until the meeting of a general coui.cil, the convoca- 

 tion of which the emperor was to endeavour to procure 

 within fix month? ; that no perfon fhould be molefted on ac- 

 count of religion ; that a flop fhould be put to all proceffes 

 begun by the imperial chamber againfl t'.ie Proteftants ; and 

 that the fentences already pafled to their uolrinient fhould be 

 declared void. 



Luther now had the fatisfaftion and happinefs of feeing 

 one of the chief obllacles to the undifguifed profefGon of his 

 opinions removed ; and henceforth he might fit down and 

 contemplate the mighty, work which he had accomphfhed : 

 his difciples and followers, the Proteftants of Germany, 

 who had hitherto been regarded onfy ;is a religious feft, 

 came to be confidered as a political body of fome confe- 

 quence. The emperor, in conformity to the ftipulations of 

 the truce lately concluded, applied to the pope for a general 

 council : but Clement threw a multitude of obrtacles in the 

 way to prevent it ; and when he found that to be impoffible, 

 he infilled that the meeting fhould be held in Italy, but the 

 Proteftants contended for it in Germany. The latter in- 

 filled that all matters in difpute fhould be determined by the 

 words of Scripture alone ; the pope alfertcd that the decrees 

 of the church and the opinions of the fathers were of equal 

 authority. They required a free council, in which the di- 

 vines, commifiioned by different churches, fhould be allowed 

 a voice ; he aimed at modelling the council in fuch a man- 

 ner as would render it entirely dependent on his ploafure. 



Above 



