§ 125.2. “The Sum of Holy Scripture” and its Author.—This work, called also Deutsche Theologie, appeared anonymously at Leyden in A.D. 1523, and was confiscated in March, A.D. 1524. In various Dutch editions and in French, Italian, and English translations, it was soon widely spread over Europe; but so vigorously was it suppressed, that by the middle of the century it had disappeared and was forgotten. In A.D. 1877 the Waldensian Comba discovered and published an old Italian version, and Benrath translated into German in A.D. 1880 an old Dutch edition of A.D. 1526, and succeeded in unravelling for the most part its interesting history. He found that it was composed in Latin, and on the entreaty of the author’s friends rendered into Dutch. This led to the discovery, in the possession of Prof. Toorenenberger of Amsterdam, of the Latin original, which had appeared anonymously at Strassburg in A.D. 1527 with the title, Æconomica christiana. Benrath has also discovered the author to be Hendrik van Bommel, who was in the first half of A.D. 1520 priest and rector of a sisterhood at Utrecht, expelled in A.D. 1536 from Cleves, from A.D. 1542 to 1560 evangelical teacher and preacher at Wesel, dying in A.D. 1570 as pastor at Duisburg. The “Sum” is evidently influenced by those works of Luther which appeared up to A.D. 1523, its thoroughly popular, edifying, and positive contents are based upon a careful study of Scripture, and it is throughout inspired by the one grand idea, that the salvation of sinful men rests solely on the grace of God in Christ appropriated by faith.
§ 125.3. Henry VIII. and Erasmus.—Henry VIII. of England, as a second son, had been originally destined for the church. Hence he retained a certain predilection for theological studies and was anxious to be regarded as a learned theologian. In A.D. 1522 he appeared as the champion of the Romish doctrine of the seven sacraments in opposition to Luther’s book on the “Babylonish Captivity of the Church,” treating the peasant’s son with lordly contempt. Luther paid him in the same coin, and treated his royal opponent with less consideration than he had shown to Emser and Eck. The king obtained what he desired, the papal honorary title of Defensor fidei, but Luther’s crushing reply kept him from attempting to continue the controversy. He complained to the elector, who consoled him by reference to a general council (comp. § [129, 1]). The pretty tolerable relations between Erasmus and Luther now suffered a severe shock. Erasmus, indebted to the English king for many favours, was roused to great bitterness by Luther’s unmeasured severity. He had hitherto refused all calls to write against Luther. Many pulpits charged him with having a secret understanding with the heretic; others thought he was afraid of him. All this tended to drive Erasmus into open hostility to the reformer. He now diligently studied Luther’s writings, for which he obtained the pope’s permission, and seized upon a doctrine which would not oblige him to appear as defender of Romish abuses, though to gauge and estimate it in its full meaning he was quite incompetent. Luther’s life experiences, joined with the study of Paul’s epistles and Augustine’s writings, had wrought in him the conviction that man is by nature incapable of doing any good, that his will is unfree, and that he is saved without any well doing of his own by God’s free grace in Christ. With Luther, as with Augustine, this conviction found expression in the doctrine of absolute predestination. Melanchthon had also formulated the doctrine in the first edition of his Loci communes. This fundamental doctrine of Luther was now laid hold upon by Erasmus in A.D. 1524 in his treatise, Διατριβή de libra arbitrio, pronounced dangerous and unbiblical, while his own semi-Pelagianism was set over against it. After the lapse of a year, Luther replied in his treatise, De servo arbitrio, with all the power and confidence of personal, experimental conviction. Erasmus answered in his Hyperaspistes diatribes adv.Lutheri servum arbitrium of A.D. 1526, in which he gave free vent to his passion, but did not advance the argument in the least. Luther therefore saw no need to continue the discussion.[364]
§ 125.4. Thomas Murner.—The Franciscan, Thomas Murner of Strassburg, had published in A.D. 1509 his “Fools’ Exorcism” and other pieces, which gave him a high place among German satirists. He spared no class, not even the clergy and the monks, took Reuchlin’s part against the men of Cologne (§ [120, 4]), but passionately opposed Luther’s movement. His most successful satire against Luther is entitled, “On the Great Lutheran Fool as Exorcised by Dr. Murner, A.D. 1522.” It does not touch upon the spiritual aspect of the Reformation, but lashes with biting wit the revolutionary, fanatical, and rhetorical extravagances which were often closely associated with it. Luther did not venture into the lists with the savagely sarcastic monk, but the humanists poured upon him a flood of scurrilous replies.
§ 125.5. A notable Catholic witness on behalf of the Reformation is the “Onus ecclesiæ,” an anonymous tract of A.D. 1524, written by Bishop Berthold Pirstinger of Chiemsee. In apocalyptic phraseology it describes the corruption of the church and calls for reformation. The author however denounces Luther as a sectary and revolutionist, though he distinctly accepts his views of indulgences. He would reform the church from within. Four years after, the same divine wrote a “Tewtsche Theologey,” in which, with the exception of the doctrine of indulgence, the whole Romish system is vindicated and the corruptions of the church are ignored.
§ 126. Development of the Reformation in the Empire, A.D. 1522-1526.
In consequence of the terms of his election, Charles V. had, at the Diet of Worms, to agree to the erection of a standing imperial government at Nuremberg, which in his absence would have the supreme direction of imperial affairs. Within this commission, though presided over by Archduke Ferdinand, the emperor’s brother, a majority was soon found which openly favoured the new religion. Thus protected by the highest imperial judicature, the Reformation was able for a long time to spread unhindered and so made rapid progress (§ [125, 1]). The Nuremberg court succumbed indeed to the united efforts of its political opponents, among whom were many nobles of an evangelical spirit, but all the more energetically did these press the interests of the Reformation. And their endeavours were so successful, that it was determined that matters should be settled without reference to pope and council at a general German national assembly. But the papal legate Campegius formed at Regensberg [Regensburg], in A.D. 1524, a league of the Catholic nobles for enforcing the edict of Worms, against which the evangelical nobles established a defensive league at Torgau, in A.D. 1526. The general national assembly was vetoed by the emperor, but the decision of the Diet of Spires of A.D. 1526 gave to all nobles the right of determining the religious matters of their provinces after their own views.
§ 126.1. The Diet at Nuremberg, A.D. 1522, 1523.—The imperial court held its first diet in the end of A.D. 1522. Leo X. had died in Dec., A.D. 1521, and Hadrian VI. (§ [149, 1]), strictly conservative in doctrine and worship, a reformer of discipline and hierarchical abuses, had succeeded with the determination “to restore the deformed bride of Christ to her pristine purity,” but vigorously to suppress the Lutheran heresy. His legate presented to the diet a letter confessing abuses and promising reforms, but insisting on the execution of the edict of Worms. The diet declared that in consequence of the admitted corruptions of the church, the present execution of the Worms edict was not to be thought of. Until a general council in a German city, with guaranteed freedom of discussion, had been called, discussion should be avoided, and the word of God, with true Christian and evangelical explanation, should be taught.
§ 126.2. The Diet at Nuremberg, A.D. 1524.—A new diet was held at Nuremberg on 14th Jan., A.D. 1524. It dealt first of all with the question of the existence of the imperial court. The reformatory tendencies of the government showed that what was vital to this court was so also to the Reformation. This party had important supporters in the arch-catholic Ferdinand, who hoped thus to strengthen himself in his endeavour to obtain the Roman crown, in the Elector of Mainz, the prime mover in the traffic in indulgences, who had personal antipathies to the foes of the court, in the elector of Saxony, its proper creator, and in the princes of Brandenburg. But there were powerful opponents: the Swabian league, the princes of Treves, the Palatinate and Hesse, who had been successful in opposition to Sickingen, and the imperial cities, which, though at one with the court in favouring the Reformation, were embittered against it because of its financial projects. The papal legate Campegius also joined the opposition. Hadrian VI. had died in A.D. 1523, and was succeeded by Clement VII., A.D. 1523-1534. A skilful politician with no religious convictions, he determined to strengthen in every possible way the temporal power of the papal see. His legate was a man after his own mind. The opposition prevailed, and even Ferdinand after a struggle gave in. The newly organized governing body was only a shadow of the old, without power, influence, or independence. Thus a second (§ [124, 2]) powerful support was lost to the Reformation, and the legate again pressed for the execution of the edict of Worms. But the evangelicals mustering all their forces, especially in the cities, secured a majority. They were indeed obliged to admit the legality of the edict; they even promised to carry it out, but with the saving clause “as far as possible.” A council in the sense of the former diet was demanded, and it was resolved to call a general national assembly at Spires, to be wholly devoted to religious and ecclesiastical questions. In the meantime the word of God in its simplicity was to be preached.
§ 126.3. The Convention at Regensburg, A.D. 1524.—While the evangelical nobles, by their theologians and diplomatists, were eagerly preparing for Spires, an assembly of the supporters of the old views met at Regensburg, June and July, A.D. 1524. Ignoring the previous arrangement, they proceeded to treat of the religious and ecclesiastical questions which had been reserved for the Spires Diet. This was the result of the machinations of Campegius. The Archduke Ferdinand, the Bavarian dukes, the Archbishop of Salzburg, and most of the South German bishops, joined the legate at Regensburg in insisting upon the edict of Worms. Luther’s writings were anew forbidden, their subjects were strictly enjoined not to attend the University of Wittenberg; several external abuses were condemned, ecclesiastical burdens on the people lightened, the number of festivals reduced, the four Latin Fathers, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Gregory, set up as the standard of faith and doctrine, while it was commanded that the services should be conducted unchanged after the manner of these Fathers. Thus was produced that rent in the unity of the empire which never again was healed.—The imperial and the papal policies were so bound up with one another, that the proceedings of the Nuremberg diets, with their national tendencies, were distasteful to the emperor; and so in the end of July there came an imperial rescript, making attendance at the national assembly a crimen læsæ majestatis, punishable with ban and double-ban. The nobles obeyed, and the assembly was not held. With it Germany’s hopes of a peaceful development were shattered.
§ 126.4. The Evangelical Nobles, A.D. 1524.—Several nobles hitherto indifferent became now supporters of the Reformation. Philip of Hesse, moved by an interview with Melanchthon, gave himself enthusiastically to the cause of evangelical truth. Also the Margrave Casimir, George of Brandenburg-Ansbach, Duke Ernest of Lüneburg, the Elector Louis of the Palatinate, and Frederick I. of Denmark, as Duke of Schleswig and Holstein, did more or less in their several countries for the furtherance of the Reformation cause. The grand-master of the Teutonic order, Albert of Prussia, returned from the Diet of Nuremberg, where he had heard Osiander preach, doubtful of the scripturalness of the rule of his order. He therefore visited Wittenberg to consult Luther, who advised him to renounce the rule, to marry, and obtain heirs to his Prussian dukedom (§ [127, 3]). The cities took up a most decided position. At two great city diets at Spires and Ulm in A.D. 1524, it was resolved to allow the preaching of a pure gospel and to assist in preventing the execution of the edict of Worms in their jurisdiction.