§ 126.5. The Torgau League, A.D. 1526.—Friends and foes of the Reformation had joined in putting down the peasant revolt. Their religious divergences however immediately after broke out afresh. George consulted at Dessau in July, A.D. 1525, with several Catholic princes as to means for preventing a renewal of the outbreak, and they unanimously decided that the condemned Lutheran sect must be rooted out as the source of all confusion. Soon afterwards two Leipzig citizens, who were found to have Lutheran books in their possession, were put to death. But Elector John of Saxony had a conference at Saalfeld with Casimir of Brandenburg, at which it was agreed at all hazards to stand by the word of God; and at Friedewald in November Hesse and the elector pledged themselves to stand true to the gospel. A diet at Augsburg in December, for want of a quorum, had reached no conclusion. A new diet was therefore summoned to meet at Spires, and all the princes were cited to appear personally. Duke George meanwhile gathered the Catholic princes at Halle and Leipzig, and they resolved to send Henry of Brunswick to Spain to the emperor. Shortly before his arrival, the emperor had concluded a peace at Madrid with the king of France, who had been taken prisoner in the battle of Pavia. Francis I., feeling he could not help himself, had agreed to all the terms, including an undertaking to join in suppressing the heretics. Charles therefore fully believed that he had a free hand, and determined to root out heresy in Germany. Henry of Brandenburg brought to the German princes an extremely firm reply, in which this view was expressed. But before its arrival the elector and the landgrave had met at Gotha, and had subsequently at Torgau, the residence of the elector, renewed the league to stand together with all their might in defence of the gospel. Philip undertook to gain over the nobles of the uplands. But the fear of the empire hindered his success. The elector was more fortunate among the lowland nobles. On 9th June the princes of Saxony, Lüneberg [Lüneburg], Grubenhagen, Anhalt, and Mansfeld met at Magdeburg, and subscribed the Torgau League. Also the city of Magdeburg, emancipated since A.D. 1524 from the jurisdiction of its archbishop, Albert of Mainz, and accepting the Lutheran confession, now joined the league.
§ 126.6. The Diet of Spires, A.D. 1526.—The diet met on 25th June, A.D. 1526. The evangelical princes were confident; on their armour was the motto, Verbum Dei manet in æternum. In spite of all the prelates’ opposition, three commissions were approved to consider abuses. When the debates were about to begin, the imperial commissioners tabled an instruction which forbade them to make any change upon the old doctrines and usages, and finally insisted upon the execution of the edict of Worms. The evangelicals however took comfort from the date affixed to the document. They knew that since its issue the relation of pope and emperor had become strained. Francis I. had been relieved by the pope from the obligation of his oath, and the pope had joined with Francis in a league at Cognac, to which also Henry VIII. of England adhered. All Western Europe had combined to break the supremacy gained by the Burgundian-Spanish dynasty at Pavia, and the duped emperor found himself in straits. Would he now be inclined to stand by his instruction? The commissioners, apparently at Ferdinand’s wish, had kept back the document till the affairs of the Catholics became desperate. The evangelical nobles felt encouraged to send an embassy to the emperor, but before it started the emperor realized their wishes. In a letter to his brother he communicated a scheme for abolishing the penalties of the edict of Worms and referring religious questions to a council. At the same time he called for help against his Italian enemies. Seeing then that in present circumstances it did not seem advisable to revoke, still less to carry out the edict, the only plan was to give to each prince discretionary power in his own territory. This was the birthday of the territorial constitution on a formally legitimate basis.
§ 127. Organization of the Evangelical Provincial Churches, A.D. 1526-1529.
The nobles had now not only the right but also had it enjoined on them as a duty to establish church arrangements in their territories as they thought best. The three following years therefore marked the period of the founding and organizing of the evangelical provincial churches. The electorate of Saxony came first with a good example. After this pattern the churches of Hesse, Franconia, Lüneburg, East Friesland, Schleswig and Holstein, Silesia, Prussia, and a whole group of Low German states modelled their constitution and worship.
§ 127.1. The Organization of the Church of the Saxon Electorate, A.D. 1527-1529.—Luther wrote in A.D. 1528 an instruction to visitors of pastors in the electorate, which showed what and how ministers were to preach, indicated the reforms to be made in worship, protested against abuse of the doctrine of justification by urging the necessity of preaching the law, etc. The whole territory was divided under four commissions, comprising lay and clerical members. Ignorant and incompetent religious teachers were to be removed, but to be provided for. Teachers were to be settled over churches and schools, and superintendents over them were to inspect their work periodically, and to these last the performance of marriages was assigned. Vacant benefices were to be applied to the improvement of churches and schools; and those not vacant were to be taxed for maintenance of hospitals, support of the poor, founding of new schools, etc. The dangers occasioned by the often incredible ignorance of the people and their teachers led to Luther’s composing his two catechisms in A.D. 1529.
§ 127.2. The Organization of the Hessian Churches, A.D. 1526-1528.—Philip of Hesse had assembled the peers temporal and spiritual of his dominions in Oct., A.D. 1526, at Homberg, to discuss the question of church reform. A reactionary attempt failed through the fervid eloquence of the Franciscan Lambert of Avignon, a notable man, who, awakened in his cloister at Avignon by Luther’s writings, but not thoroughly satisfied, set out for Wittenberg, engaged on the way at Zürich in public disputation against Zwingli’s reforms, but left converted by his opponent, and then passed through Luther’s school at Wittenberg. There he married in A.D. 1523, and after a long unofficial and laborious stay at Strassburg, found at last, in A.D. 1526, a permanent residence in Hesse. He died in A.D. 1530.—Lambert’s personality dominated the Homberg synod. He sketched an organization of the church according to his ideal as a communion of saints with a democratic basis, and a strict discipline administered by the community itself. But the impracticability of the scheme soon became evident, and in A.D. 1528 the Hessian church adopted the principles of the Saxon church visitation. Out of vacant church revenues the University of Marburg was founded in A.D. 1527 as a second training school in reformed theology. Lambert was one of its first teachers.
§ 127.3. Organization of other German Provincial Churches, A.D. 1528-1530.—George of Franconian-Brandenburg, after his brother Casimir’s death, organized his church at the assembly of Anspach after the Saxon model. Nuremberg, under the guidance of its able secretary of council, Lazarus Spengler, united in carrying out a joint organization. In Brunswick-Lüneburg, Duke Ernest, powerfully impressed by the preaching of Rhegius at Augsburg, introduced the evangelical church organization into his dominions. In East Friesland, where the reigning prince did not interest himself in the matter, the development of the church was attended to by the young nobleman Ulrich of Dornum. In Schleswig and Holstein the prelates offered no opposition to reorganization, and the civil authorities carried out the work. In Silesia the princes were favourable, Breslau had been long on the side of the Reformation, and even the grand-duke who, as king of Bohemia, was suzerain of Silesia, felt obliged to allow Silesian nobles the privileges provided by the Diet of Spires. In Prussia (§ [126, 4]), Albert of Brandenburg, hereditary duke of these parts, with the hearty assistance of his two bishops, provided for his subjects an evangelical constitution.
§ 127.4. The Reformation in the Cities of Northern Germany, A.D. 1524-1531.—In these cities the Reformation spread rapidly after their emancipation from episcopal control. It was organized in Magdeburg as early as A.D. 1524 by Nic. Amsdorf, sent for the purpose by Luther (§ [126, 5]). In Brunswick the church was organized in A.D. 1528 by Bugenhagen of Wittenberg. In Bremen in A.D. 1525 all churches except the cathedral were in the hands of the Lutherans; in A.D. 1527 the cloisters were turned into schools and hospitals, and then the cathedral was taken from the Catholics. At Lübeck, nobles, councillors, and clergy had oppressed and driven away the evangelical pastors; but the councillors in their financial straits became indebted to sixty-four citizens, who stipulated that the pastors must be restored, the Catholics expelled, the cloisters turned into hospitals and schools, and finally Bugenhagen was called in to prepare for their church a Lutheran constitution.
§ 128. Martyrs for Evangelical Truth, A.D. 1521-1529.
On the publication of the edict of Worms several Catholic princes, most conspicuously Duke George of Saxony, began the persecution. Luther’s followers were at first imprisoned, scourged, and banished, and in A.D. 1521 a bookseller who sold Luther’s books was beheaded. The persecution was most severe in the Netherlands, a heritage of the emperor independent of the empire. Also in Austria, Bavaria, and Swabia many evangelical confessors were put to death by the sword and at the stake. The peasant revolt of A.D. 1525 increased the violence of the persecution. On the pretence of punishing rebels, those who took part in the Regensburg Convention (§ [126, 3]) were expelled the country, thousands of them with no other fault than their attachment to the gospel. The conclusion of the Diet of Spires in A.D. 1526 (§ [126, 6]) added new fuel to the flames. While the evangelical nobles, taking advantage of that decision, proceeded vigorously to the planting and organizing of the reformed church, the enemies of the Reformation exercised the power given them in cruel persecutions of their evangelical subjects. The vagaries of Pack (§ [132, 1]) led to a revival and intensification of the spirit of persecution. In Austria, during A.D. 1527, 1528, a church visitation had been arranged very much in the style of that of Saxony, but with the object of tracking out and punishing heretics. In Bavaria the highways were watched, to prevent pilgrims going to preaching over the borders. Those caught were at first fined, but later on they were drowned or burned.