Chapter VI: Book XIII (1)

THE PROTEST AND THE CONFERENCE. 1526-1529.

I. We have witnessed the commencement, the struggles, the reverses, and the progress of the Reformation; but the conflicts that we have hitherto described have been but partial; we are entering upon a new period,--that of general battles. Spire (1529) and Augsburg (1530) are two names that shine forth with more immortal glory than Marathon, Pavia, or Marengo. Forces that up to the present time were separate, are now uniting into one energetic band; and the power of God is working in these brilliant actions, which open a new era in the history of nations, and communicate an irresistible impulse to mankind. The passage from the middle ages to modern times has arrived.

A great protest is about to be accomplished; and although there have been protestants in the Church from the very beginning of Christianity, since liberty and truth could not be maintained here below, save by protesting continually against despotism and error, Protestantism is about to take a new step. It is about to become a body, and thus attack with greater energy that "mystery of iniquity" which for ages has taken a bodily shape at Rome, in the very temple of God.[2]

[2] 2 Thess. ii.

[Sidenote: TWOFOLD MOVEMENT OF REFORM.]

But although we have to treat of protests, it must not however be imagined that the Reformation is a negative work. In every sphere in which anything great is evolved, whether in nature or society, there is a principle of life at work,--a seed that God fertilizes. The Reformation, when it appeared in the sixteenth century, did not, it is true, perform a new work, for a reformation is not a formation; but it turned its face toward the beginnings of Christianity, thither were its steps directed; it seized upon them with adoration, and embraced them with affection. Yet it was not satisfied with this return to primitive times. Laden with its precious burden, it again crossed the interval of ages, and brought back to fallen and lifeless Christendom the sacred fire that was destined to restore it to light and life. In this twofold movement consisted its action and its strength. Afterwards, no doubt, it rejected superannuated forms, and combated error; but this was, so to speak, only the least of its works, and its third movement. Even the protest of which we have to speak had for its end and aim the re-establishment of truth and of life, and was essentially a positive act.

[Sidenote: REFORM THE WORK OF GOD.]

This powerful and rapid twofold action of reform, by which the apostolic times were re-established at the opening of modern history, proceeded not from man. A reformation is not arbitrarily made, as charters and revolutions are in some countries. A real reformation, prepared during many ages, is the work of the Spirit of God. Before the appointed hour, the greatest geniuses and even the most faithful of God's servants cannot produce it; but when the reforming time is come, when it is God's pleasure to intervene in the affairs of the world, the divine life must clear a passage, and it is able to create of itself the humble instruments by which this life is communicated to the human race. Then, if men are silent, the very stones will cry out.[3]

[3] Luke xix. 40.

It is to the protest of Spire (1529) that we are now about to turn our eyes; but the way to this protest was prepared by years of peace, and followed by attempts at concord that we shall have also to describe. Nevertheless the formal establishment of Protestantism remains the great fact that prevails in the history of the Reformation from 1526 to 1529.

* * * * *

The Duke of Brunswick had brought into Germany the threatening message of Charles the Fifth. The Emperor was about to repair from Spain to Rome to come to an understanding with the Pope, and from thence to pass into Germany to constrain the heretics. The last summons was to be addressed to them by the Diet of Spire, 1526.[4] The decisive hour for the Reformation was about to strike.

[4] See Vol. III. book x. chap. xiv. The Diet of Spire, held in 1526,
must not be confounded with that of 1529, at which the protest took
place.

On the 25th June, 1526, the diet opened. In the instructions, dated at Seville, 23d March, the Emperor ordered that the Church customs should be maintained entire, and called upon the diet to punish those who refused to carry out the edict of Worms,[5] Ferdinand himself was at Spire, and his presence rendered these orders more formidable. Never had the hostility which the Romish partisans entertained against the evangelical princes, appeared in so striking a manner. "The Pharisees," said Spalatin, "pursue Jesus Christ with violent hatred."[6]

[5] Sleidan, Hist Ref. book vi.

[6] Christum pharisæis vehementer fuisse invisum.--(Seckend. ii. p.
46.)

[Sidenote: PALLADIUM OF REFORM.]

Never also had the evangelical princes showed so much hope. Instead of presenting themselves frightened and trembling, like guilty men, they were seen advancing, surrounded by the ministers of the Word, with uplifted heads and cheerful looks. Their first step was to ask for a place of worship. The Bishop of Spire, count-palatine of the Rhine, having indignantly refused this strange request,[7] the princes complained of it as of an injustice, and ordered their ministers to preach daily in the halls of their palaces. An immense crowd from the city and the country, which amounted to many thousands, immediately filled them.[8] In vain on the feast days did Ferdinand, the ultra-montane princes, and the bishops assist in the pomps of the Roman worship in the beautiful cathedral of Spire; the unadorned Word of God, preached in the Protestant vestibules, engrossed the hearers, and the Mass was celebrated in an empty church.[9]

[7] Fortiter interdixit.--(Cochlœs, p. 138.)

[8] Ingens concursus plebis et rusticorum.--(Cochlœus.) Multis
millibus hominum accurrentibus.--(Seckend. ii. p. 48.)

[9] Populum a sacris avertebant.--(Cochlœus, p. 138.)

It was not only the ministers, but the knights and the grooms, "mere idiots," who, unable to control their zeal, everywhere extolled the Word of the Lord.[10] All the followers of the evangelical princes wore these letters braided on their right sleeves: V. D. M. I. Æ., that is to say, "The word of the Lord endureth for ever."[11] The same inscription might be read on the escutcheons of the princes, suspended over their hotels. The Word of God--such from this moment was the palladium of the Reform.

[10] Ministri eorum, equites et stabularii, idiotæ, petulanter
jactabant verbum Domini.--(Cochlœus, p. 138.)

[11] Verbum Domini Manet in Æternum.--(Ibid.)

This was not all. The Protestants knew that the mere worship was not sufficient: the Landgrave had therefore called upon the Elector to abolish certain "court customs" which dishonoured the Gospel. These two princes had consequently drawn up an order of living which forbade drunkenness, debauchery, and other vicious customs prevalent during a diet.[12]

[12] Adversus inveteratos illos et impios usus nitendum esse.--(Seck.
ii. p. 46.)

[Sidenote: FIRMNESS OF THE REFORMERS.]

Perhaps the Protestant princes sometimes put forward their dissent beyond what prudence would have required. Not only they did not go to Mass, and did not observe the prescribed fasts, but still further, on the meagre days, their attendants were seen publicly bearing dishes of meat and game, destined for their masters' tables, and crossing, says Cochlœus, in the presence of the whole auditory, the halls in which the worship was celebrating. "It was," says this writer, "with the intent of attracting the Catholics by the savour of the meats and of the wines."[13]

[13] Ut complures allicerentur ad eorum sectam, in ferculis
portabantur carnes coctae in diebus jejunii, aperte in conspec
nitotius auditorii.--(Cochlœus, p. 138.)

The Elector in effect had a numerous court: seven hundred persons formed his retinue. One day he gave a banquet at which twenty-six princes with their gentlemen and councillors were present. They continued playing until a very late hour--ten at night. Everything in Duke John announced the most powerful prince of the empire. The youthful Landgrave of Hesse, full of zeal and knowledge, and in the strength of a first Christian love, made a still deeper impression on those who approached him. He would frequently dispute with the bishops, and thanks to his acquaintance with the Holy Scriptures, he easily stopped their mouths.[14]

[14] Annales Spalatini.

This firmness in the friends of the Reformation produced fruits that surpassed their expectation. It was no longer possible to be deceived: the spirit that was manifested in these men was the spirit of the Bible. Everywhere the sceptre was falling from the hands of Rome. "The leaven of Luther," said a zealous Papist, "sets all the people of Germany in a ferment, and foreign nations themselves are agitated by formidable movements."[15]

[15] Germaniae populi Lutherico fermento inescati, et in externis
quoque nationibus, gravissimi erant motus.--(Cochlœus, p. 138.)

It was immediately seen how great is the strength of deep convictions. The states that were well disposed towards the Reform, but which had not ventured to give their adhesion publicly, became emboldened. The neutral states, which demanded the repose of the empire, formed the resolution of opposing the edict of Worms, the execution of which would have spread trouble through all Germany, and the Papist states lost their boldness. The bow of the mighty was broken.[16]

[16] 1 Samuel ii. 4.

[Sidenote: PROCEEDINGS OF THE DIET.]

Ferdinand did not think proper, at so critical a moment, to communicate to the diet the severe instructions he had received from Seville.[17] He substituted a proposition of a nature to satisfy both parties.

[17] Some historians appear to think that these instructions were
communicated in reality at the very opening of the diet. Ranke shows
that this was not the case; but adds, that he sees no reason why the
commissaries should have thought themselves authorized to make any
other proposition. The motives that I have assigned appear to me the
true ones. I shall state below why the commissaries returned
afterwards to the imperial instructions.

The laymen immediately recovered the influence of which the clergy had dispossessed them. The ecclesiastics resisted a proposal in the college of princes that the diet should occupy itself with church abuses, but their exertions were unavailing. Undoubtedly a non-political assembly would have been preferable to the diet, but it was already something that religious matters were no longer to be regulated solely by the priests.

The deputies from the cities having received communication of this resolution, called for the abolition of every usage contrary to the faith in Jesus Christ. In vain did the bishops exclaim that, instead of abolishing pretended abuses, they would do much better to burn all the books with which Germany had been inundated during the last eight years. "You desire," was the reply, "to bury all wisdom and knowledge."[18] The request of the cities was agreed to,[19] and the diet was divided into committees for the abolition of abuses.

[18] Omnes libros esse comburendos. Sed rejectum est quia sic omnis
doctrina et eruditio theologica interitura esset.--(Seckend. ii. p.
45.)

[19] Civitatum suffragia multum valuerunt.--(Ibid.)

Then was manifested the profound disgust inspired by the priests of Rome. "The clergy," said the deputy from Frankfort, "make a jest of the public good, and look after their own interests only." "The laymen," said the deputy from Duke George, "have the salvation of Christendom much more at heart than the clergy."

[Sidenote: THE PAPACY DESCRIBED.]

The commissions made their report: people were astonished at it. Never had men spoken out so freely against the pope and the bishops. The commission of the princes, in which the ecclesiastics and the laymen were in equal numbers, proposed a fusion of Popery and Reform. "The Priests would do better to marry," said they, "than to keep women of ill-fame in their houses; every man should be at liberty to communicate under one or both forms; German and Latin may be equally employed in the Lord's Supper and in Baptism; as for the other sacraments, let them be preserved, but let them be administered gratuitously. Finally, let the Word of God be preached according to the interpretation of the Church (this was the demand of Rome), but always explaining Scripture by Scripture" (this was the great principle of the Reformation). Thus the first step was taken towards a national union. Still a few more efforts, and the whole German race would be walking in the direction of the Gospel.

The evangelical Christians, at the sight of this glorious prospect, redoubled their exertions. "Stand fast in the doctrine," said the Elector of Saxony to his councillors.[20] At the same time hawkers in every part of the city were selling Christian pamphlets, short and easy to read, written in Latin and in German, and ornamented with engravings, in which the errors of Rome were vigorously attacked.[21] One of these books was entitled, _The Papacy with its Members painted and described by Doctor Luther_. In it figured the pope, the cardinal, and then all the religious orders, exceeding sixty, each with their costumes and description in verse. Under the picture of one of these orders were the following lines:

Greedy priests, see, roll in gold
Forgetful of the humble Jesu:

under another:

We forbid you to behold
The Bible, lest it should mislead you![22]

and under a third:

We can fast and pray the harder
With an overflowing larder.[23]

[20] Elector Saxoniæ conciliarios suos exhortatus est, in doctrina
evangelica firmi.--(Seckend. ii. p. 48.)

[21] Circumferebantur item libri Lutherani venales per totam
civitatem.--(Cochlœus, p. 138.)

[22] Dass die Schrift sie nicht verführe,
Durft ihr keinen nich studir.--(L. Opp. xix. p. 536.)

[23] Doch war ihr küch nimmer leer.--(Ibid.)

"Not one of these orders," said Luther to the reader, "thinks either of faith or charity. This one wears the tonsure, the other a hood; this a cloak, that a robe. One is white, another black, a third gray, and a fourth blue. Here is one holding a looking-glass, there one with a pair of scissors. Each has his playthings......Ah! these are the palmer worms, the locusts, the canker-worms, and the caterpillars which, as Joel saith, have eaten up all the earth."[24]

[24] L. Opp. xix. p. 535. Joel i. 4.

[Sidenote: THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM.]

But if Luther employed the scourges of sarcasm, he also blew the trumpet of the prophets; and this he did in a work entitled _The Destruction of Jerusalem_. Shedding tears like Jeremiah, he denounced to the German people a ruin like that of the Holy City, if like it they rejected the Gospel.[25] "God has imparted to us all his treasures," exclaimed he; "he became man, he has served us,[26] he died for us, he has risen again, and he has so opened the gates of heaven, that all may enter......The hour of grace is come......The glad tidings are proclaimed......But where is the city, where is the prince that has received them? They insult the Gospel: they draw the sword, and daringly seize God by the beard.[27]......But wait......He will turn round; with one blow will he break their jaws, and all Germany will be but one wide ruin."

[25] Libelli, parvuli quidem mole, sed virulentia perquam grandes,
sermo Lutheri Teuthonicus de destructione Jerusalem.--(Cochlœus, p.
138.)

[26] Wird Mensch, dienet uns, stirbt fur uns.--(Luth. Opp. xiv. (L.)
p. 226.)

[27] Greiffen Gott zu frech in den Bart.--(Ibid.) Deo nimis ferociter
barbam vallicant.--(Cochlœus.)

These works had a very great sale.[28] It was not only the peasants and townspeople who read them, but nobles also and princes. Leaving the priests alone at the foot of the altar, they threw themselves into the arms of the new Gospel.[29] The necessity of a reform of abuses was proclaimed on the 1st of August by a general committee.

[28] Perquam plurima vendebantur exemplaria.--(Cochlœus, p. 139.)

[29] Non solum plebs et rustica turba, verum etiam plerique optimatum
et nobilium trahebantur in favorem novi Evangelii, atque in odium
antiquæ religionis.--(Cochlœus, p. 160.)

[Sidenote: THE INSTRUCTIONS OF SEVILLE.]

Then Rome, which had appeared to slumber, awoke. Fanatical priests, monks, ecclesiastical princes, all beset Ferdinand. Cunning, bribery, nothing was spared. Did not Ferdinand possess the instructions of Seville? To refuse their publication was to effect the ruin of the Church and of the empire. Let the voice of Charles oppose its powerful _veto_ to the dizziness that is hurrying Germany along, said they, and Germany will be saved! Ferdinand made up his mind, and at length, on the 3d August, published the decree, drawn up more than four months previously in favour of the edict of Worms.[30]

[30] Sleidan, Hist. de la Ref. liv. vi. p. 229.

The persecution was about to begin; the reformers would be thrown into dungeons, and the sword drawn on the banks of the Guadalquivir would pierce at last the bosom of Reform.

The effect of the imperial ordinance was immense. The breaking of an axle-tree does not more violently check the velocity of a railway train. The Elector and the Landgrave announced that they were about to quit the diet, and ordered their attendants to prepare for their departure. At the same time the deputies from the cities drew towards these two princes, and the Reformation appeared on the brink of entering immediately upon a contest with the Pope and Charles the Fifth.

But it was not yet prepared for a general struggle. It was necessary for the tree to send out its roots deeper, before the Almighty unchained the stormy winds against it. A spirit of blindness, similar to that which in former times was sent out upon Saul and Herod,[31] then seized upon the great enemy of the Gospel; and thus was it that Divine Providence saved the reform in its cradle.

[31] 1 Sam. xvi. 14-23; Matt. ii.

[Sidenote: CHANGE OF POLICY.]

The first movement of trouble was over. The friends of the Gospel began to consider the date of the imperial instructions, and to weigh the new political combinations which seemed to announce to the world the most unlooked-for events. "When the Emperor wrote these letters," said the cities of Upper Germany, "he was on good terms with the Pope, but now everything is changed. It is even asserted that he had told Margaret, his deputy in the Low Countries, to proceed _gently_ with respect to the Gospel. Let us send him a deputation." That was not necessary. Charles had not waited until now to form a different resolution. The course of public affairs, taking a sudden turn, had rushed into an entirely new path. Years of peace were about to be granted to the Reform.

[Sidenote: RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PROPOSED.]

Clement VII., whom Charles was about to visit, according to the instructions of Seville, in order to receive in Rome itself and from his sacred hands the imperial crown, and in return to give up to the pontiff the Gospel and the Reformation,--Clement VII, seized with a strange infatuation, had suddenly turned against this powerful monarch. The Emperor, unwilling to favour his ambition in every point, had opposed his claims on the states of the Duke of Ferrara. Clement immediately became exasperated, and cried out that Charles wished to enslave the peninsula, but that the time was come for re-establishing the independence of Italy. This great idea of Italian independence, entertained at that period by a few literary men, had not, as now, penetrated the mass of the nation. Clement therefore hastened to have recourse to political combinations. The Pope, the Venetians, and the King of France, who had scarcely recovered his liberty, formed a _holy league_, of which the King of England was by a bull proclaimed the preserver and protector.[32] In June 1526, the Emperor caused the most favourable propositions to be presented to the Pope; but these advances were ineffectual, and the Duke of Sessa, Charles's ambassador at Rome, returning on horseback from his last audience, placed a court-fool behind him, who, by a thousand monkey tricks, gave the Roman people to understand how they laughed at the projects of the Pope. The latter responded to these bravadoes by a brief, in which he threatened the Emperor with excommunication, and without loss of time pushed his troops into Lombardy, whilst Milan, Florence, and Piedmont declared for the Holy League. Thus was Europe preparing to be avenged for the triumph of Pavia.

[32] Sleidan, Hist. de la Ref. liv. vi.; Bullar. Mag. roman. x.

Charles did not hesitate. He wheeled to the right as quickly as the Pope had done to the left, and turned abruptly towards the evangelical princes. "Let us suspend the Edict of Worms," wrote he to his brother; "let us bring back Luther's partisans by mildness, and by a good council cause the evangelical truth to triumph." At the same time he demanded that the Elector, the Landgrave, and their allies should march with him against the Turks--or against Italy, for the common good of Christendom.

Ferdinand hesitated. To gain the friendship of the Lutherans was to forfeit that of the other princes. The latter were already beginning to utter violent threats.[33] The Protestants themselves were not very eager to grasp the Emperor's hand. "It is God, God himself, who will save his churches."[34]

[33] Ferdinandus, ut audio, graviter minatur.--(Corp. Ref. i. p. 801.)

[34] Imperator pollicetur......sed nemo his promissis movetur. Spero
Deum defensurum esse suas Ecclesias.--(Ibid.)

What was to be done? The edict of Worms could neither be repealed nor carried into execution.

[Sidenote: CRISIS OF THE REFORMATION.]

This strange situation led of necessity to the desired solution: religious liberty. The first idea of this occurred to the deputies of the cities. "In one place," said they, "the ancient ceremonies have been preserved; in another they have been abolished; and both think they are right. Let us allow each one to do as he thinks fit, until a council shall re-establish the desired unity by the Word of God." This idea gained favour, and the _recess_ of the diet, dated the 27th August, decreed that a universal, or at least a national free council should be convoked within a year, that they should request the Emperor to return speedily to Germany, and that, until then, each state should behave in its own territory in a manner so as to be able to render an account to God and to the Emperor.[35]

[35] Unusquisque in sua ditione ita se gereret ut rationem Deo et
imperatori reddere posset.--(Seckend. ii. p. 41.)

Thus they escaped from their difficulty by a middle course; and this time it was really the true one. Each one maintained his rights, while recognising another's. The diet of 1526 forms an important epoch in history: an ancient power, that of the middle ages, is shaken; a new power, that of modern times, is advancing; religious liberty boldly takes its stand in front of Romish despotism; a lay spirit prevails over the sacerdotal spirit. In this single step there is a complete victory: the cause of the Reform is won.

Yet it was little suspected. Luther, on the morrow of the day on which the _recess_ was published, wrote to a friend: "The diet is sitting at Spire in the German fashion. They drink and gamble, and there is nothing done except that."[36] "Le congrès danse et ne marche pas,"[37] has been said in our days. It is because great things are often transacted under an appearance of frivolity, and because God accomplishes his designs unknown even to those whom he employs as his instruments. In this diet a gravity and love of liberty of conscience were manifested, which are the fruits of Christianity, and which in the sixteenth century had its earliest, if not its most energetic development among the German nations.

[36] Potatur et luditur, præterea nihil.--(L. Epp. iii. p. 126.)

[37] The congress dances but does not move forward.

Yet Ferdinand still hesitated. Mahomet himself came to the aid of the Gospel. Louis, king of Hungary and Bohemia, drowned at Mohacz on the 29th August, 1526, as he was fleeing from before Soliman II., had bequeathed the crown of these two kingdoms to Ferdinand. But the Duke of Bavaria, the Waywode of Transylvania, and, above all, the terrible Soliman, contested it against him. This was sufficient to occupy Charles's brother: he left Luther, and hastened to dispute the two thrones.

[Sidenote: ITALIAN WAR.]

II. The Emperor immediately reaped the fruits of his new policy. No longer having his hands tied by Germany, he turned them against Rome. The Reformation had been exalted and the Papacy was to be abased. The blows aimed at its pitiless enemy were about to open a new career to the evangelical work.

Ferdinand, who was detained by his Hungarian affairs, gave the charge of the Italian expedition to Freundsberg, that old general who had patted Luther in a friendly manner on the shoulder as the reformer was about to appear before the diet of Worms.[38] This veteran, observed a contemporary,[39] who "bore in his chivalrous heart God's holy Gospel, well fortified and flanked by a strong wall," pledged his wife's jewels, sent recruiting parties into all the towns of Upper Germany, and owing to the magic idea of a war against the Pope, soon witnessed crowds of soldiers flocking to his standard. "Announce," Charles had said to his brother,--"announce that the army is to march against the Turks; every one will know what Turks are meant."

[38] See Vol. II. book vii. chap. viii.

[39] Haug mars chalk, surnamed Zeller.

Thus the mighty Charles, instead of marching with the Pope against the Reform, as he had threatened at Seville, marches with the Reform against the Pope. A few days had sufficed to produce this change of direction: there are few such in history in which the hand of God is more plainly manifested. Charles immediately assumed all the airs of a reformer. On the 17th September, he addressed a manifesto to the Pope,[40] in which he reproaches him for behaving not like the father of the faithful, but like an insolent and haughty man;[41] and declares his astonishment that, being Christ's vicar, he should dare to shed blood to acquire earthly possessions, "which," added he, "is quite contrary to the evangelical doctrine."[42] Luther could not have spoken better. "Let your holiness," continued Charles the Fifth, "return the sword of St. Peter into the scabbard, and convoke a holy and universal council." But the sword was much more to the pontiff's taste than the council. Is not the Papacy, according to the Romish doctors, the source of the two powers? Can it not depose kings, and consequently fight against them?[43] Charles prepared to requite "eye for eye, and tooth for tooth."[44]

[40] Caroli Imperat. Rescriptum ad Clementis Septimi
criminationes.--(Goldasti, Constitut. Imperiales, i. p. 479.)

[41] Non jam pastoris seu communis patris laudem, sed superbi et
insolentis nomen.--(Ibid. p. 487.)

[42] Cum id ab evangelica doctrina, prorsus alienum videtur.--(Ibid.
p. 489.)

[43] Utriusque potestatis apicem Papa tenet--(Turrecremata de
Potestate Papali.)

[44] Exod. xxi. 24.

[Sidenote: ITALIAN CAMPAIGN.]

Now began that terrible campaign during which the storm burst on Rome and on the Papacy that had been destined to fall on Germany and the Gospel. By the violence of the blows inflicted on the pontifical city, we may judge of the severity of those that would have dashed in pieces the reformed churches. While we retrace so many scenes of horror, we have constant need of calling to mind that the chastisement of the seven-hilled city had been predicted by the Divine Scriptures.[45]

[45] Revel. xviii. We should not, however, restrict this prediction to
the incomplete sack of 1527, and from which the city soon recovered.

[Sidenote: MARCH ON ROME.]

In the month of November, Freundsberg, at the head of fifteen thousand men, was at the foot of the Alps. The old general, avoiding the military roads, that were well guarded by the enemy, flung himself into a narrow path, over frightful precipices, that a few blows of the mattock would have rendered impassable. The soldiers are forbidden to look behind them; nevertheless their heads turn, their feet slip, and horse and foot fall from time to time down the abyss. In the most difficult passes, the most sure-footed of the infantry lower their long pikes to the right and left of their aged chief, by way of barrier, and Freundsberg advances, clinging to the lansquenet in front, and pushed on by the one behind. In three days the Alps are crossed, and on the 19th November the army reaches the territory of Brescia.

The Constable of Bourbon, who since the death of Pescara was commander-in-chief of the imperial army, had just taken possession of the duchy of Milan. The Emperor having promised him this conquest for a recompense, Bourbon was compelled to remain there some time to consolidate his power. At length, on the 12th February, he and his Spanish troops joined the army of Freundsberg, which was becoming impatient at his delays. The Constable had many men, but no money: he resolved therefore to follow the advice of the Duke of Ferrara, that inveterate enemy of the princes of the Church, and proceed straight to Rome.[46] The whole army received this news with a shout of joy. The Spaniards were filled with a desire of avenging Charles the Fifth, and the Germans were overflowing with hatred against the Pope: all exulted in the hope of receiving their pay and of having their labours richly recompensed at last by the treasures of Christendom that Rome had been accumulating for ages. Their shouts re-echoed beyond the Alps. Every man in Germany thought that the last hour of the Papacy had now come, and prepared to contemplate its fall. "The Emperor's forces are triumphing in Italy," wrote Luther; "the Pope is visited from every quarter. His destruction draweth nigh; his hour and his end are come."[47]

[46] Guicciardini, History of the Wars in Italy, book xviii. p. 698.

[47] Papa ubique visitatur, ut destruatur; venit enim finis et hora
ejus.--(Luther to Haussmann, 10th January, 1527. Epp. iii. p. 156.)

[Sidenote: REVOLT OF THE TROOPS.]

A few slight advantages gained by the papal soldiers in the kingdom of Naples, led to the conclusion of a truce that was to be ratified by the Pope and by the Emperor. At this news a frightful tumult broke out in the Constable's army. The Spanish troops revolted, compelled him to flee, and pillaged his tent. Then approaching the lansquenets, they began to shout as loudly as they could, the only German words they knew: _Lance!_ _lance!_ _money!_ _money!_[48] These words found an echo in the bosoms of the Imperialists; they were moved in their turn, and also began to cry with all their might: _Lance!_ _lance!_ _money!_ _money!_ Freundsberg beat to muster, and having drawn up the soldiers around him and his principal officers, calmly demanded if he had ever deserted them. All was useless. The old affection which the lansquenets bore to their leader seemed extinct. One chord alone vibrated in their hearts: they must have pay and war. Accordingly, lowering their lances, they presented them, as if they would slay their officers, and again began to shout, "Lance! lance! money! money!"--Freundsberg, whom no army however large had ever frightened! Freundsberg, who was accustomed to say, "the more enemies, the greater the honour," seeing these lansquenets, at whose head he had grown gray, aiming their murderous steel against him, lost all power of utterance, and fell senseless upon a drum, as if struck with a thunderbolt.[49] The strength of the veteran general was broken for ever. But the sight of their dying captain produced on the lansquenets an effect that no speech could have made. All the lances were upraised, and the agitated soldiers retired with downcast eyes. Four days later, Freundsberg recovered his speech. "Forward," said he to the Constable; "God himself will bring us to the mark." Forward! forward! repeated the lansquenets. Bourbon had no other alternative: besides, neither Charles nor Clement would listen to any propositions of peace. Freundsberg was carried to Ferrara, and afterwards to his castle of Mindelheim, where he died after an illness of eighteen months; and on the 18th April, Bourbon took the highroad to Rome, which so many formidable armies coming from the north had already trodden.

[48] Lanz, lanz, gelt, gelt.

[49] Cum vero hastas ducibus obverterent indignatione et ægritudine
animi oppressus, Fronsbergius subito in deliquium incidit, ita ut in
tympano quod adstabat desidere cogeretur, nullumque verbum proloqui
amplius posset.--(Seckend. ii. p. 79.)

[Sidenote: THE ASSAULT.]

Whilst the storm descending from the Alps was approaching the eternal city, the Pope lost his presence of mind, sent away his troops, and kept only his body-guard. More than thirty thousand Romans, it is true, capable of bearing arms, paraded their bravery in the streets, dragging their long-swords after them, quarrelling and fighting; but these citizens, eager in the pursuit of gain, had little thought of defending the Pope, and desired on the contrary that the magnificent Charles would come and settle in Rome, hoping to derive great profit from his stay.

On the evening of the 5th May Bourbon arrived under the walls of the capital; and he would have begun the assault at that very moment if he had had ladders. On the morning of the 6th the army, concealed by a thick fog which hid their movements,[50] was put in motion, the Spaniards marching to their station above the gate of the Holy Ghost, and the Germans below.[51] The Constable, wishing to encourage his soldiers, seized a scaling-ladder, mounted the wall, and called on them to follow him. At this moment a ball struck him: he fell, and expired an hour after. Such was the end of this unhappy man, a traitor to his king and to his country, and suspected even by his new friends.

[50] Guicciardini, vol. ii. p. 721.

[51] Since the new wall built by Urban VIII. on the top of the
Janiculum, the gates of the Holy Ghost and of Seltimiana have become
useless.

His death, far from checking, served only to excite the army. Claudius Seidenstucker, grasping his long sword, first cleared the wall; he was followed by Michael Hartmann, and these two reformed Germans exclaimed that God himself marched before them in the clouds. The gates were opened, the army poured in, the suburbs were taken, and the Pope, surrounded by thirteen cardinals, fled to the Castle of St. Angelo. The Imperialists, at whose head was now the Prince of Orange, offered him peace on condition of his paying three hundred thousand crowns. But Clement, who thought that the Holy League was on the point of delivering him, and who fancied he already saw their leading horsemen, rejected every proposition. After four hours' repose, the attack was renewed, and by an hour after sunset the army was master of all the city. It remained under arms and in good order until midnight, the Spaniards in the Piazza Navona, and the Germans in the Campofiore. At last, seeing no demonstrations either of war or of peace, the soldiers disbanded and ran to pillage.

[Sidenote: THE SACK.]

Then began the famous "Sack of Rome." The Papacy had for centuries put Christendom in the press. Prebends, annates, jubilees, pilgrimages, ecclesiastical graces,--she had made money of them all. These greedy troops, that for months had lived in wretchedness, determined to make her disgorge. No one was spared, the imperial not more than the ultramontane party, the Ghibellines not more than the Guelfs. Churches, palaces, convents, private houses, basilics, banks, tombs--every thing was pillaged, even to the golden ring that the corpse of Julius II. still wore on its finger. The Spaniards displayed the greatest skill; they scented out and discovered treasures in the most mysterious hiding-places; but the Neapolitans were still more outrageous.[52] "On every side were heard," says Guicciardini, "the piteous shrieks of the Roman women and of the nuns whom the soldiers dragged away by companies to satiate their lust."[53]

[52] Jovius Vita Pompeii Colonnæ, p. 191; Ranke, Deutsche Gesch. ii.
p. 398.

[53] Guicciardini, ii. p. 724.

[Sidenote: GERMAN HUMOURS.]

At first the Germans found a certain pleasure in making the Papists feel the weight of their swords. But ere long, happy at finding food and drink, they were more pacific than their allies. It was upon those things which the Romans called "holy" that the anger of the Lutherans was especially discharged. They took away the chalices, the pyxes, the silver remonstrances, and clothed their servants and camp-boys with the sacerdotal garments.[54] The Campofiore was changed into an immense gambling-house. The soldiers brought thither golden vessels and bags full of crowns, staked them upon one throw of the dice, and after losing them, they went in search of others. A certain Simon Baptista, who had foretold the sack of the city, had been thrown into prison by the Pope; the Germans liberated him, and made him drink with them. But, like Jeremiah, he prophesied against all. "Rob, plunder," cried he to his liberators; "you shall however give back all; the money of the soldiers and the gold of the priests will follow the same road."

[54] Sacras vestes profanis induebant lixis.--(Cochlœus, p. 156.)

Nothing pleased the Germans more than to mock the papal court. "Many prelates," says Guicciardini, "were paraded on asses through all the city of Rome."[55] After this procession, the bishops paid their ransom; but they fell into the hands of the Spaniards, who made them pay it a second time.[56]

[55] Wars of Italy, ii. p. 723.

[56] Eundem civem seu curialem haud raro, nunc ab Hispanis, nunc a
Germanis ære mutuato redimi.--(Cochlœus, p. 156.)

One day a lansquenet named Guillaume de Sainte Celle, robes, and placed the triple crown upon his head; others, adorning themselves with the red hats and long robes of the cardinals, surrounded him; and all going in procession upon asses through the streets of the city, arrived at last before the castle of Saint Angelo, where Clement VII. had retired. Here the soldier-cardinals alighted, and lifting up the front of their robes, kissed the feet of the pretended pontiff. The latter drank to the health of Clement VII., the cardinals kneeling did the same, and exclaimed that henceforward they would be pious popes and good cardinals, who would have a care not to excite wars, as all their predecessors had done. They then formed a conclave, and the Pope having announced to his consistory that it was his intention to resign the Papacy, all hands were immediately raised for the election, and they cried out "Luther is Pope! Luther is Pope!"[57] Never had pontiff been proclaimed with such perfect unanimity. Such were the humours of the Germans.

[57] Milites itaque levasse manum ac exclamasse: Lutherus Papa!
Lutherus Papa!--(Cochlœus, p. 156.)

[Sidenote: VIOLENCE OF THE SPANIARDS.]

The Spaniards did not let them off so easily. Clement VII. had called them "Moors," and had published a plenary, indulgence for whoever should kill any of them. Nothing, therefore, could restrain their fury. These faithful Catholics put the prelates to death in the midst of horrible tortures, destined to extort their treasures from them: they spared neither rank, sex, nor age. It was not until after the sack had lasted ten days, and a booty of ten million golden crowns had been collected, and from five to eight thousand victims had perished, that quiet began to be in some degree restored.

Thus did the pontifical city expire in the midst of a long and cruel pillage, and that splendour with which Rome from the beginning of the sixteenth century had filled the world faded in a few hours. Nothing could preserve this haughty city from chastisement, not even the prayers of its enemies. "I would not have Rome burnt," Luther had exclaimed; "it would be a monstrous deed."[58] The fears of Melancthon were still keener: "I tremble for the libraries," said he, "we know how hateful books are to Mars."[59] But in despite of these wishes of the reformers, the city of Leo X. fell under the judgment of God.

[58] Romam nollem exustam, magnum enim portentum esset.--(Epp. iii. p.
221.)

[59] Metuo bibliothecis.--(Corp. Ref. i. p. 869.)

Clement VII., besieged in the castle of Saint Angelo, and fearful that the enemy would blow his asylum into the air with their mines, at last capitulated. He renounced every alliance against Charles the Fifth, and bound himself to remain a prisoner until he had paid the army four hundred thousand ducats. The evangelical Christians gazed with astonishment on this judgment of the Lord. "Such," said they, "is the empire of Jesus Christ, that the Emperor, pursuing Luther on account of the Pope, is constrained to ruin the Pope instead of Luther. All things minister unto the Lord, and turn against his adversaries."[60]

[60] Ut Cæsar pro Papa Lutherum persequens, pro Luthero papam cogatur
vastare.--(L. Epp. iii. p. 188.)

[Sidenote: PROFITABLE CALM.]

III. And in truth the Reform needed some years of repose that it might increase and gain strength; and it could not enjoy peace, unless its great enemies were at war with each other. The madness of Clement VII. was as it were the _lightning-conductor_ of the Reformation, and the ruin of Rome built up the Gospel. It was not only a few months' gain; from 1526 to 1529 there was a calm in Germany by which the Reformation profited to organize and extend itself. A constitution was now to be given to the renovated Church.

The papal yoke having been broken, the ecclesiastical order required to be reestablished. It was impossible to restore their ancient jurisdiction to the bishops; for these continental prelates maintained that they were, in an especial manner, the Pope's servants. A new state of things was therefore called for, under pain of seeing the Church fall into anarchy. Provision was made for it. It was then that the evangelic nations separated definitely from that despotic dominion which had for ages kept all the West in bondage.

Already on two occasions the diet had wished to make the reform of the Church a national work; the Emperor, the Pope, and a few princes were opposed to it; the Diet of Spire had therefore resigned to each state the task that it could not accomplish itself.

But what constitution were they about to substitute for the papal hierarchy?

They could, while suppressing the Pope, preserve the Episcopal order: it was the form most approximate to that which was on the point of being destroyed.

They might, on the contrary, reconstruct the ecclesiastical order, by having recourse to the sovereignty of God's Word, and by re-establishing the rights of the christian people. This form was the most remote from the Roman hierarchy. Between these two extremes there were several middle courses.

[Sidenote: PHILIP OF HESSE.]

The latter plan was Zwingle's; but the reformer of Zurich had not fully carried it out. He had not called upon the christian people to exercise the sovereignty, and had stopped at the council of two hundred as representing the Church.[61]

[61] _Supra_, Vol. III. b. xi. ch. x.

The step before which Zwingle had hesitated might be taken, and it was so. A prince did not shrink from what had alarmed even republics. Evangelical Germany, at the moment in which she began to try her hand on ecclesiastical constitutions, began with that which trenched the deepest on the papal monarchy.

It was not, however, from Germany that such a system could proceed. If the aristocratic England was destined to cling to the episcopal form, the docile Germany was destined the rather to stop in a governmental medium. The democratic extreme issued from Switzerland and France. One of Calvin's predecessors then hoisted that flag which the powerful arm of the Genevese Reformer was to lift again in after-years and plant in France, Switzerland, Holland, Scotland, and even in England, whence it was a century later to cross the Atlantic and summon North America to take its rank among the nations.

None of the evangelical princes was so enterprising as Philip of Hesse, who has been compared to Philip of Macedon in subtlety, and to his son Alexander in courage. Philip comprehended that religion was at length acquiring its due importance; and far from opposing the great development that was agitating the people, he put himself in harmony with the new ideas.

The morning-star had risen for Hesse almost at the same time as for Saxony. In 1517, when Luther was preaching in Wittemberg the gratuitous remission of sins, men and women were seen in Marburg repairing secretly to one of the ditches of the city, and there, near a solitary loophole, listening to the words that issued from within, and that preached doctrines of consolation through the bars. It was the voice of the Franciscan, James Limburg, who having declared that, for fifteen centuries, the priests had falsified the Gospel of Christ, had been thrown into this gloomy dungeon. These mysterious assemblies lasted a fortnight. On a sudden the voice ceased; these lonely meetings had been discovered, and the Franciscan, torn from his cell, had been hurried away across the Lahnberg towards some unknown spot. Not far from the Ziegenberg, some weeping citizens of Marburg came up with him, and hastily snatching aside the canvass that covered his car, they asked him, "Whither are you going?" "Where God wills," calmly replied the friar.[62] There was no more talk of him, and it is not known what became of him. These disappearances are usual in the Papacy.

[62] Rommel, Phil. von Hesse, i. p. 128.

Scarcely had Philip prevailed in the Diet of Spire, when he resolved on devoting himself to the Reformation of his hereditary states.

[Sidenote: Lambert's Paradoxes.]

His resolute character made him incline towards the Swiss reform: it was not therefore one of the moderates that he required. He had formed a connexion at Spire with James Sturm, the deputy from Strasburg, who spoke to him of Francis Lambert of Avignon, who was then at Strasburg. Of a pleasing exterior and decided character, Lambert added to the fire of the South the perseverance of the North. He was the first in France to throw off the cowl, and he had never since then ceased to call for a radical reform in the Church. "Formerly," said he, "when I was a hypocrite, I lived in abundance; now I consume frugally my daily bread with my small family;[63] but I had rather be poor in Christ's kingdom, than possess abundance of gold in the dissolute dwellings of the Pope." The Landgrave saw that Lambert was such a man as he required, and invited him to his court.

[63] Nunc cum familiola mea panem manduco et potum capio in
mensura.--(Lamberti Commentarii de Sacro Conjugio.)

Lambert, desiring to prepare the reform of Hesse, drew up one hundred and fifty-eight theses, which he entitled "paradoxes," and posted them, according to the custom of the times, on the church doors.

Friends and enemies immediately crowded round them. Some Roman catholics would have torn them down, but the reformed townspeople kept watch, and holding a synod in the public square, discussed, developed, proved these propositions, and ridiculed the anger of the Papists.

[Sidenote: FRIAR BONIFACE.]

A young priest, Boniface Dornemann, full of self-conceit, whom the bishop, on the day of his consecration, had extolled above Paul for his learning, and above the Virgin for his chastity, finding himself too short to reach Lambert's placard, had borrowed a stool, and surrounded by a numerous audience, had begun to read the propositions aloud.[64]

[64] Cum statura homines hujusmodi esset ut inter Pygmæos internosci
difficulter posset, scabellum sibi dari postulabat, eoque conscenso,
cœpit, &c.--(Othon. Melandri Jocorum Cent.)

"All that is deformed, ought to be reformed. The Word of God alone teaches us what ought to be so, and all reform that is effected otherwise is vain."[65]

[65] Vana est omnis Reformatio quæ alioqui fit.--(Paradoxa Lamberti:
Sculteti Annal.)

This was the first thesis. "Hem!" said the young priest, "I shall not attack that." He continued.

"It belongs to the Church to judge on matters of faith. Now the Church is the congregation of those who are united by the same spirit, the same faith, the same God, the same Mediator, the same Word, by which alone they are governed, and in which alone they have life."[66]

[66] Ecclesia est congregatio eorum quos unit idem
spiritus.--(Paradoxa Lamberti: Sculteti Annal.)

"I cannot attack that proposition," said the priest.[67] He continued reading from his stool.

[67] Hanc equidem haud impugnaverim. Illam ne quidem
attigerim.--(Othon. Mel. Joc. Cent.)

"The Word is the true key. The kingdom of heaven is open to him who believes the Word, and shut against him who believes it not. Whoever, therefore, truly possesses the Word of God, has the power of the keys. All other keys, all the decrees of the councils and popes, and all the rules of the monks, are valueless."

Friar Boniface shook his head and continued.

[Sidenote: DISPUTATION AT HOMBURG.]

"Since the priesthood of the Law has been abolished, Christ is the only immortal and eternal priest, and he does not, like men, need a successor. Neither the Bishop of Rome nor any other person in the world is his representative here below. But all Christians, since the commencement of the Church, have been and are participators in his priesthood."

This proposition smelt of heresy. Dornemann, however, was not discouraged; and whether it was from weakness of mind, or from the dawning of light, at each proposition that did not too much shock his prejudices, he failed not to repeat: "Certainly, I shall not attack that one!" The people listened in astonishment, when one of them,--whether he was a fanatical Romanist, a fanatical Reformer, or a mischievous wag, I cannot tell--tired of these continual repetitions, exclaimed: "Get down, you knave, who cannot find a word to impugn." Then rudely pulling the stool from under him, he threw the unfortunate clerk flat in the mud.[68]

[68] Apagesis, nebulo! qui quod impugnes infirmesque invenire haud
possis! hisque dictis scabellum ei mox subtrahit, ut miser ille
præceps in lutum ageretur.--(Oth. Mel. Joc. Cent.)

On the 21st October, at seven in the morning, the gates of the principal church of Homburg were thrown open, and the prelates, abbots, priests, counts, knights, and deputies of the towns, entered in succession, and in the midst of them was Philip, in his quality of first member of the Church.

After Lambert had explained and proved his theses, he added: "Let him stand forth who has anything to say against them." There was at first a profound silence; but at length Nicholas Ferber, superior of the Franciscans of Marburg, who in 1524, applying to Rome's favourite argument, had entreated the Landgrave to employ the sword against the heretics, began to speak with drooping head, and downcast eyes; but as he invoked Augustin, Peter Lombard, and other doctors to his assistance, the Landgrave observed to him: "Do not put forward the wavering opinions of men, but the Word of God, which alone fortifies and strengthens our hearts." The Franciscan sat down in confusion, saying: "This is not the place for replying." The disputation, however, recommenced, and Lambert, showing all the fire of the South, so astonished his adversary, that the superior, alarmed at what he called "thunders of blasphemy and lightnings of impiety,"[69] sat down again, observing a second time, "This is not the place for replying."

[69] Fulgura impietatum, tonitrua blasphemiarum.

[Sidenote: TRIUMPH OF THE GOSPEL IN HESSE.]

In vain did the Chancellor Feige declare to him that each man had the right of maintaining his opinion with full liberty; in vain did the Landgrave himself exclaim that the Church was sighing after truth: silence had become Rome's refuge. "I will defend the doctrine of purgatory," a priest had said prior to the discussion; "I will attack the paradoxes under the sixth head (on the true priesthood)," had said another;[70] and a third had exclaimed, "I will overthrow those under the tenth head (on images);" but now they were all dumb.

[70] Erant enim prius qui dicerent: Ego asseram purgatorium; alius,
Ego impugnabo paradoxa tituli sexti, etc.--(Lamberti Epistola ad
Colon.)

Upon this Lambert, clasping his hands, exclaimed with Zacharias: _Blessed be the Lord God of Israel; for he hath visited and redeemed his people_.

After three days of discussion, which had been a continual triumph for the evangelical doctrine, men were selected and commissioned to constitute the churches of Hesse in accordance with the Word of God. They were more than three days occupied in the task, and then their new constitution was published in the name of the synod.

The first ecclesiastical constitution produced by the Reformation should have a place in history, so much the more as it was then set forward as a model for the new Churches of Christendom.[71]

[71] This constitution will be found in Schminke, Monumenta Hassiaca,
vol. ii. p. 588: "Pro Hassiæ Ecclesiis, et si deinde nonnullæ _aliæ_
ad idem _nostro exemplo_ provocarentur."

[Sidenote: CONSTITUTION OF THE CHURCH.]

The autonomy or self-government of the Church is its fundamental principle: it is from the Church, from its representatives assembled in the name of the Lord, that this legislation emanates; there is no mention in the prologue either of state or of Landgrave.[72] Philip, content with having broken for himself and for his people the yoke of a foreign priest, had no desire to put himself in his place, and was satisfied with an external superintendence, necessary for the maintenance of order.

[72] Synodus _in nomine Domini congregata_.--(Ibid.)