§ 136.4. The Council of Trent, A.D. 1545-1547.—The Council of Trent opened in Dec., A.D. 1545 (§ [149, 2]). At the outset, contrary to the emperor’s wishes, the pope laid down conditions that excluded Protestants from taking part in it. Scripture and tradition were first discussed.The O.T. Apocrypha (§§ [59, 1]; [161, 8]) had equal authority assigned it with the other books of the O. and N.T., and the Vulgate was declared to be the only authentic text for theological discussions and sermons. Tradition was placed on equal terms alongside of Scripture, but its contents were carefully defined. Original sin was extinguished by baptism, and after baptism there is only actual transgression. The scholastic doctrine of justification was sanctioned anew, but accommodated as far as possible to Scripture phraseology; justification is the inward actual change of a sinner into a righteous man, not merely the forgiveness of sins, but pre-eminently the sanctification and renewal of the inner man. It is effected, not so much by the imputation of Christ’s merits, as by the infusion of habitual righteousness, which enables men to win salvation by works. It is not forensic, but a physical act of God, is wrought not once for all, and not by faith alone, but gradually by the free co-operation of the man. The emperor, who saw in these decisions the overthrow of his attempts at conciliation, was highly displeased, and wished at least to postpone their promulgation. The pope obeyed for a time; but when the emperor threatened to interfere in the proceedings of the council, he had the decrees published, Jan., A.D. 1547, and some weeks after, on the plea of a dangerous plague having broken out, removed the council to Bologna, where for the time proceedings were suspended.
§ 136.5. The Augsburg Interim, A.D. 1548.—At a diet at Augsburg in Sept., A.D. 1547, the Protestants declared themselves willing to submit to a council meeting again at Trent, and beginning afresh; but as the pope refused this, the emperor was obliged to plan an interim, which should form a standard for all parties till a settlement at a proper council should be reached. It granted the cup to the laity and marriage of priests, but held by the Tridentine doctrine of justification. It represented the pope as simply the highest bishop, in whom the unity of the church is visibly set forth. The right of interpreting Scripture was given exclusively to the church. The sacraments were enumerated as seven, and the doctrine of transubstantiation emphatically maintained. The duty of fasting, and seeking the intercession of the mother of God and the saints, observing all Catholic ceremonies of worship, processions, festivals, etc., was strictly insisted upon. The emperor was satisfied, and so too some of the Protestant princes. Maurice, however, felt that his people would not agree to its adoption. He gave at last a half assent, which the emperor accepted as approval. The emperor took no notice of those who opposed it, the presence of his Spaniards in their dominions would prevent all trouble. The emperor was not strong enough to force the Catholic nobles to accept his interim, and so its observance was to be binding only on the Protestants. Landgrave Philip, whose power was for ever broken, gave in, but nothing in the world would induce the noble John Frederick to submit. The pope too refused persistently to recognise the interim, and only in Aug., A.D. 1549, did he allow the bishops to agree to the concessions made by it to the Protestants.
§ 136.6. The Execution of the Interim had on all sides to be compulsorily enforced. Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm were one after another coerced into adopting it. Constance resisted, was put under the ban, and lost all privileges, till at last instead of the interim the papacy found entrance, and evangelical Protestantism got its death-blow. The other cities submitted to the inevitable. All preachers refusing the interim were exiled and persecuted. Over 400 true servants of the word wandered with wives and children through South Germany homeless and without bread. Frecht of Ulm was taken in chains to the emperor’s camp. Brenz, one of the most determined opponents of the interim, during his wanderings often by a miracle escaped capture. Much more lasting was the opposition in North Germany. In Magdeburg, still lying under the imperial ban, the fugitive opponents of the interim gathered from all sides, and there alone was the press still free in its utterances against the interim. A flood of controversial tracts, satires, and caricatures were sent out over all Germany. In Hesse and Brandenburg the princes were unable to enforce the obnoxious measures; still less could Maurice do so in the electorate.
§ 136.7. The Leipzig or Little Interim, A.D. 1549.—Maurice in his difficulties sent for Melanchthon. Since the death of Luther and the overthrow of John Frederick of Saxony, Melanchthon’s tendency to yield largely for peace’ sake had lost its wholesome checks. In writing to the minister Carlowitz, the bitterest foe of Luther and the elector, he even went so far as to complain of Luther’s combativeness. The result of various negotiations was the drawing up of a document at the assembly in Leipzig, 22nd December, A.D. 1548, by the Wittenberg theologians in accordance with the views of Melanchthon. This modified interim became the standard for religious practice in Saxony, and a directory of worship in harmony with it was drawn up by the theologians, and published in July, A.D. 1549. Calvin and Brenz wrote letters that cut Melanchthon to the heart. The measure was everywhere viewed by zealous Lutherans with indignation, and the Interim of Leipzig was even more hateful to the people than that of Augsburg. Imprisonment and exile were vigorously carried out by means of it, yet the revolution and ferment continued to increase.—The Leipzig Interim treated Romish customs and ceremonies almost as things indifferent, passed over many less essential doctrinal differences, and gave to fundamental differences such a setting as might be applied equally to the pure evangelical doctrine as to that of the Augsburg Interim. The evangelical doctrine of justification was essentially there, but it was not decidedly and unambiguously expressed; and still less were Romish errors sharply and unmistakably repudiated. Good works were said to be necessary, but not in the sense that one could win salvation by means of them. Whether good works in excess of the law’s demands could be performed was not explicitly determined. On church and hierarchy, the positions of the Augsburg Interim were simply restated. To the pope as the highest bishop, as well as to the other bishops, who performed their duties according to God’s will for edification and not destruction, all churchmen were to yield obedience. The seven sacraments were acknowledged, though in another than the Romish sense. In the mass the Latin language was again introduced. Images of saints were allowed, but not for worship; so too the festivals of Mary and of Corpus Christi, but without processions, etc.
§ 136.8. The Council again at Trent, A.D. 1551.—In September, A.D. 1549, Paul III. dissolved the council at Bologna, where it had done nothing. His successor, Julius III., A.D. 1550-1555, the nominee of the imperial party, acceded to the emperor’s wishes to have the council again held at Trent. The Protestant nobles declared their willingness to recognise it, but demanded the cancelling of the earlier proceedings, a seat and vote for their representatives. This the emperor was prepared to grant, but the pope and prelates would not agree. The council began its proceedings on 1st May, A.D. 1551, with the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Meanwhile the Protestants prepared a new confession, which might form the basis of their discussions in the council. Melanchthon, who was beginning to take courage again, sketched the Confessio Saxonica, or, as it has been rightly named, the Repetitio Confessionis Augustanæ, in which no trace of the indecision and ambiguity of the Leipzig Interim is to be found. The pure doctrine is set forth firmly, with even a polemical tone, though in a moderate and conciliatory manner. Brenz, who had been in hiding up to this time, by order of Duke Christopher of Württemberg, sketched for a like purpose the “Württemberg Confession.” In November, A.D. 1551, the first Protestants, lay delegates from Württemberg and Strassburg, appeared in Trent. They were followed in January by Saxon statesmen. On 24th January, A.D. 1552, these laid their credentials before the council, but, notwithstanding all the effort of the imperial commissioners, they could not gain admission. In March the Württemberg and Strassburg theologians arrived, with Brenz at their head, and Melanchthon, with two Leipzig preachers, was on the way, when suddenly Maurice put an end to all their well concerted plans.
§ 137A. Maurice and the Peace of Augsburg A.D. 1550-1555.
In the beginning of A.D. 1550 the affairs of the Reformation were in a worse condition than ever before. In the fetters of the interim, it was like a felon on whom the death sentence was about to be passed. Then just at the right time appeared the Elector Maurice as the man who could break the fetters and lead on again to power and honour. His betrayal of the cause had brought Protestantism to the verge of destruction; his betrayal of the emperor proved its salvation. The Compact of Passau guaranteed to Protestants full religious liberty and equal rights with Catholics until a new council should meet. The Religious Peace of Augsburg removed even this limitation, and brought to a conclusion the history of the German Reformation.
§ 137.1. The State of Matters in A.D. 1550.—It was a doleful time for Germany. The emperor at the height of his power was laying his plans for securing the succession in the imperial dignity to his son Philip of Spain. In a bold, autocratic spirit he trampled on all the rights of the imperial nobles, and contrary to treaty he retained the presence of Spanish troops in the empire, which daily committed deeds of atrocious violence. The deliverance of the landgrave was stubbornly refused, though all the conditions thereof were long ago fulfilled. Protestant Germany groaned under the yoke of the interim; the council would only confirm this, if not rather enforce something even worse. Only one bulwark of evangelical liberty stood in the emperor’s way, the brave, outlawed Magdeburg. But how could it continue to hold out? Down to autumn, A.D. 1552, all attempts to storm the city had failed. Then Maurice undertook, by the order of the emperor and at the cost of the empire, to execute the ban.
§ 137.2. The Elector Maurice, A.D. 1551.—Maurice had lost the hearts of his own people, and was regarded with detestation by the Protestants of Germany, and notwithstanding imperial favour his position was by no means secure. Yet he was too much of the German and Protestant prince to view with favour the emperor’s proceedings, while he felt indignant at the illegal detention of his father-in-law. In these circumstances he resolved to betray the emperor, as before he had betrayed to him the cause of Protestantism. A master in dissimulation, he continued the siege of Magdeburg with all diligence, but at the same time joined a secret league with the Margrave Hans of Cüstrin and Albert of Franconian Brandenburg, as also with the sons of the landgrave, for the restoration of evangelical and civil liberty, and entered into negotiations with Henry II. of France, who undertook to aid him with money. Magdeburg at last capitulated, and Maurice entered on 4th November, A.D. 1551. Arrears of pay formed an excuse for not disbanding the imperial troops, and, strengthened by the Magdeburg garrison and the auxiliary troops of his allies, he threw off the mask, and issued public proclamations in which he brought bitter charges against the emperor, and declared that he could no longer lie under the feet of priests and Spaniards. The emperor in vain appealed for help to the Catholic princes. He found himself without troops or money at Innsbrück, which could not stand a siege, and every road to his hereditary territories seemed closed, for where the leagued German princes were not the Ottomans on sea and the French on land were ready to oppose him. Maurice was already on the way to Innsbrück “to seek out the fox in his hole.” But his troops’ demands for pay detained him, and the emperor gained time. On a cold, wet night he fled, though not yet recovered from fever, over the mountains covered with snow, and found refuge in Villach. Three days after Maurice entered Innsbrück; the council had already dissolved.
§ 137.3. The Compact of Passau, A.D. 1552.—Before the flight of the emperor from Innsbrück, Maurice had an interview with Ferdinand at Linz, where, besides the liberation of the landgrave, he demanded a German national assembly for religious union, and till it met unconditional toleration. The emperor, notwithstanding all his embarrassments, would not listen to the proposal. Negotiations were reopened at Passau, and Maurice’s proposals were in the main accepted. Ferdinand consented, but the emperor would not. Ferdinand himself travelled to Villach and employed all his eloquence, but unconditional toleration the emperor would not grant. His stubbornness conquered; the majority gave in, and accepted a compact which gave to the Protestants a full amnesty, general peace, and equal rights, till the meeting of a national or œcumenical council, to be arranged for at the next diet. Meanwhile the emperor had made great preparations. Frankfort was his main stronghold, and against it Maurice now advanced, and began the siege. Matters were not promising, when the Passau delegate appeared in his camp with the draft of the terms of peace. Had he refused his signature, the ban would have been pronounced against him, and his cousin would have been restored to the electorate. He therefore subscribed the document. With difficulty Ferdinand secured the subscription of the emperor, who believed himself to be sufficiently strong to carry on the battle. The two imprisoned princes were now at last liberated, and the preachers exiled by the interim were allowed to return. John Frederick died in A.D. 1554, and the Landgrave Philip in A.D. 1567.