§ 134. Incidents of the Years A.D. 1537-1539.
Clement VII. made many excuses for postponing the calling of a council. At last, in A.D. 1533, he declared himself willing to do so in the course of the year; but he required of the Protestants unconditional acceptance of its decisions, to which they would not agree. His successor, Paul III., A.D. 1534-1549, called one to meet at Mantua in A.D. 1537. Luther composed for it as a manifesto the Schmalcald Articles; but finally the Protestants renewed their demand for a free council in a German city. In A.D. 1538 the Catholic nobles concluded the Holy Alliance at Nuremberg for carrying out the decrees of the Diet of Augsburg; but the political difficulties of the emperor compelled him to make new concessions to the Protestants in the Frankfort Interim of A.D. 1539. But in the same year the duchy of Saxony and the electorate of Brandenburg went over to the Reformation. By the beginning of A.D. 1540 almost all North Germany was won. Duke Henry of Brunswick alone held out for the old faith.
§ 134.1. The Schmalcald Articles, A.D. 1537.—In A.D. 1535 Paul III. sent his legate Vergerius (§ [139, 24]) into Germany to fix a place of meeting for the council. At Wittenberg he conferred with Luther and Bugenhagen, who scarcely expecting the council were indifferent as to the place. The council was formally summoned to meet at Mantua on May 23rd, A.D. 1537. At a diet at Schmalcald in Feb., A.D. 1537, the Protestants stated their demands. Luther, by the elector’s orders, had drawn up the articles of which the council must treat. These Schmalcald Articles are distinctly polemical, and indicate boldly the limits of the papal hierarchy demanded by evangelicals. The first part states briefly four uncontested positions on the Trinity and the Person of Christ; the second part deals with the office and work of Christ or our redemption, and marks abruptly the points of difference between the two confessions; the third part treats of those points which the council may further discuss. In the second part Luther unconditionally rejected the primacy of the pope, as not of Divine right and inconsistent with the character of a true evangelical Church. When the articles had been subscribed by the theologians, Melanchthon added under his name: “As to the pope, I hold that if he will not oppress the gospel, for the sake of the peace and unity of those Christians who are or may be under him, his superiority over bishops jure humano might be allowed by us.” Melanchthon’s tracts on “The Power of the Pope” and the “Jurisdiction of Bishops” were also subscribed by the theologians and added to the Schmalcald Articles. It was then decided that in order to secure a free Christian council it must be held in a German city. The elector even made the bold proposal to have a counter-council summoned, say, at Augsburg, by Luther and his fellow bishops.
§ 134.2. The League of Nuremberg, A.D. 1538.—The Protestant princes were astonished at the close of the Schmalcald convention to be told by Vice-Chancellor Held, on behalf of the emperor, that he did not recognise the Peace of Cadau or the Vienna Compact, and that the prosecutions would be resumed. They therefore resumed their old attitude of opposition. But Held visited all the Catholic courts in order to complete the formation of a Catholic league for the suppression of Protestantism. Ferdinand, who knew well that Held exceeded his instructions, was very angry, for the emperor was in the greatest straits, but he could not offer direct opposition without offending the Catholic princes. So on July 10th, A.D. 1538, the Holy Alliance was actually formed at Nuremberg, embracing George of Saxony, Albert of Brandenburg, Henry and Eric of Brunswick, King Ferdinand, and the Archbishop of Salzburg. The Schmalcald nobles prepared to meet force with force. A general bloody engagement seemed unavoidable.
§ 134.3. The Frankfort Interim, A.D. 1539.—As the emperor needed help against Soliman, he recalled Held, and sent in his place John, formerly Archbishop of Leyden. The electors of Brandenburg and the Palatinate went as mediators with the new envoy to Frankfort, where negotiations were opened with the Protestants present, who demanded an unconditional, lasting peace, and a judiciary court with Protestant as well as Catholic members. These demands were at first refused, but pressing need obliged the emperor to reopen negotiations, proposing that a diet should be held, consisting of learned theologians and simple, peaceable laymen, to effect a final union of Christians in faith and worship. He would also grant suspension of all proceedings against the Protestants for eighteen months. The Protestants accepted in this “Frankfort Interim” what had been greatly sought for at the Diet of Nuremberg. It was a victory of the Schmalcald over the Nuremberg League. The public confidence in Protestantism grew, and the cause rapidly spread into new regions.
§ 134.4. The Reformation in Albertine Saxony, A.D. 1539.—Duke George of Saxony, A.D. 1500-1539, was a devoted adherent of the old faith. Of his four sons only one survived, and he almost imbecile. He had him married, but he died two months after the marriage. The old prince was in perplexity, for his brother Henry, an ardent supporter of the Reformation, was his next heir. He could ill brook the idea of having the whole work of his life immediately undone. On the day of the death of his last son he proposed to his nobles a scheme of succession, according to which his brother Henry should succeed him only if he joined the Nuremberg League; otherwise it should go to the emperor or the King of Rome. Duke Henry rejected the proposal, and Duke George died before he could produce another scheme. With loud rejoicing the people received their new prince, and their allegiance was sworn to him at Leipzig. Luther was there, for the first time for twenty years, and preached with extraordinary success. The Reformation proceeded rapidly throughout the whole district. The King of Rome wished indeed to question George’s claim, but the Schmalcald League resolved to stand by him, so that Ferdinand thought it prudent to take no further steps.
§ 134.5. The Reformation in Brandenburg and Neighbouring States, A.D. 1539.—Henry of Neumark joined the Schmalcald League, and introduced the Reformation into his territories; but his brother Joachim II. of Brandenburg, A.D. 1535-1571, for several years adhered to the old faith without forbidding evangelical preaching, which gradually made an impression on his own mind. In the beginning of A.D. 1539, with the approval of his nobles, he gave his adhesion to the reformed doctrines. The city of Berlin asked for communion in both kinds, and a considerable section of the nobles of Brandenburg expressed a hearty longing for the pure gospel. On November 1st, A.D. 1539, Joachim assembled all the preachers of his land in the Nicolai Church at Spandau, the Bishop of Brandenburg held the first evangelical communion, and the whole court and many knights received the communion in both kinds. The people followed the example of the prince. Joachim sketched a service which let several of the old ceremonies remain, but justification by faith was the central point of the doctrine, and communion in both kinds the centre of the worship. The Duchess Elizabeth of Calenberg-Brunswick followed her brother’s example. After the death of her husband Eric, who was otherwise minded, she exercised her influence as regent for the spread of the reformed religion. The Cardinal-archbishop and Elector of Mainz, Albert of Brandenburg, sought to preserve his archiepiscopal diocese of Magdeburg, but his constant calls for money would be responded to only on condition that he granted liberty of preaching. At his Halle residence he made vigorous resistance, but there too was obliged to yield. Before his eyes, Justus Jonas, Luther’s most trusted friend and fellow labourer, Prof. and Provost of Wittenberg since A.D. 1521, carried on the work of Reformation in the city. The cardinal, in a rage, left Halle and the “idol of Halle” (§ [123, 8]) for Mainz.—Mecklenburg also about this time adopted the evangelical constitution, mainly promoted by one of its princes, Magnus Bishop of Schwerin. The Abbess of Quedlinburg, Anna von Stolberg, had not ventured, so long as Duke George of Saxony lived, to bring forward her evangelical confession; but now without opposition she reformed her convent and the city.
§ 135. Union Attempts of A.D. 1540-1546.
The Frankfort Interim revived the idea of a free union among those who in the main agreed upon matters of faith and worship. With the object of realizing this idea a whole series of religious conferences were held. But near as its realization at one time seemed to be all the measures taken proved one after another abortive, because the emperor would not recognise the conclusions of any conference at which a papal legate was not present. And just at this time, when the imposing might of the Protestant nobles excited the brightest hopes, the Protestant princes themselves laid the grounds of their deepest humiliation: the landgrave by his double marriage, and the elector by his quarrels with the ducal Saxon court.
§ 135.1. The Double Marriage of the Landgrave, A.D. 1540.—Landgrave Philip of Hesse had married Christina, a daughter of the deceased Duke George of Saxony. Various causes had led to an estrangement between them, and a strong sensuous nature, which he had been unable to control, had driven him to repeated acts of unfaithfulness. His conscience reproved him; he felt himself unworthy to be admitted to communion, great as his desire for it was, and doubted of his soul’s salvation. From regard to his wife he could not think of a divorce. Then came the idea, suggested by the O.T. polygamy that had not been abrogated in the N.T., that with consent of his wife he might enter into a regular second marriage with Margaret von der Saale, one of his sister’s lady’s-maids. In Nov., A.D. 1539, he sent Bucer to Wittenberg in order to get the advice of Luther and Melanchthon. The alternative was either continued adultery, or an honourable married life with a second wife taken with consent of the first. Luther and Melanchthon entreated him earnestly for his own and for the gospel’s sake to avoid this terrible scandal, but haltingly admitted that the latter alternative was less heinously wicked than the former. They added, however, that in order to avoid scandal the marriage should be private, and their answer regarded not as a theological opinion, but confidential counsel. The landgrave had the marriage consummated in May, A.D. 1540. But the story soon spread. The court of Albertine Saxony was deeply incensed, the elector beside himself with rage, the theologians in most extreme embarrassment. Melanchthon started to attend a religious conference at Hagenau, but the excitement over the unhappy business prostrated him on a sick-bed at Weimar. The emperor threatened Philip with the infliction of capital punishment, which by the law of the empire was attached to the crime of bigamy. At last the elector called a convention of Saxon and Hessian theologians at Eisenach to consult about the matter. Luther refused to treat it as a question of law, and demanded absolute privacy as the condition of permission. Among the opponents of the Reformation, it was Duke Henry of Brunswick who insisted upon exacting the utmost penalties of the law. He indeed was least fitted by his own character to assume the part of defender of morals. It was well known that he was then living in adultery with Eva von Trott, after her pretended death and burial. In his perplexity, Philip turned to the imperial chancellor Granvella, who was willing to intercede for him, but on conditions to which the landgrave could not accede. At last, at the Diet of Regensburg, in A.D. 1541, Philip undertook to further the imperial interests and to join no union in any way inimical to these; and upon these terms the emperor agreed to grant him a full indemnity.