§ 137.4. Death of Maurice, A.D. 1553.—The Margrave Albert of Brandenburg had been Maurice’s comrade in the Schmalcald war, and with him also he turned against the emperor. But after the ratification of the Passau Compact, to which he was not a party, Albert continued the war against the prelates and their principalities. He now fell out with Maurice, and was taken into his service by the emperor, who not only granted him an amnesty for all his acts of spoliation and breaches of the truce, but promised to enforce recognition of him from all the bishops. Albert therefore helped the emperor against the French, and then carried his conquests into Germany. Soon an open rupture occurred between him and Maurice. In the battle of Sievershausen Maurice gained a brilliant victory, but received a mortal wound, of which he died in two days. Albert fled to France. The rude soldier was broken down by misfortune, the religious convictions of his youth awakened, and the composition of a beautiful and well-known German hymn marks the turning point in his life. He died in A.D. 1557.—The year 1554 was wholly occupied with internal troubles. A desire for a lasting peace prevailed, and the calamities of both parties brought Protestants and Catholics nearer to one another. Even Henry of Brunswick was willing to tolerate Protestantism in his dominions.
§ 137.5. The Religious Peace of Augsburg, A.D. 1555.—When the diet met at Augsburg in February, A.D. 1555, the emperor’s power was gone. To save his pride and conscience he renounced all share in its proceedings in favour of his brother. The Protestant members stood well together in claiming unconditional religious freedom, and Ferdinand inclined to their side. Meanwhile Pope Julius died, and the cardinals Morone and Truchsess hasted from the diet to Rome to take part in the papal election. The Catholic opposition was thus weakened in the diet. The Protestants insisted that the peace should apply to all who might in future join this confession. This demand gave occasion to strong contests. At last the simple formula was agreed upon, that no one should be interfered with on account of the Augsburg Confession. But a more vehement dispute arose as to what should happen if prelates or spiritual princes should join the Protestant party. This was a vital question for Catholicism, and acceptance of the Protestant view would be its deathblow. It was therefore proposed that every prelate who went over would lose, not only his spiritual rank, but also his civil dominion. But the opposition would not give in. Both parties appealed to Ferdinand, and he delayed giving a decision. Advice was also asked about the peace proclamation. The Protestants claimed that the judges of the imperial court should be sworn to observe the Religious Peace, and should be chosen in equal numbers from both religious parties. On 30th Aug. Ferdinand stated his resolution. As was expected, he went with the Catholics in regard to prelates becoming Protestants, but, contrary to all expectations, he also refused lasting unconditional peace. On this last point, however, he declared himself on 6th Sept. willing to yield if the Protestants would concede the point about the prelates. They sought to sell their concession as dearly as possible by securing to evangelical subjects of Catholic princes the right to the free exercise of their religion. But the Catholic prelates, on the ground of the territorial system (§ [126, 6]) advocated by the Protestants themselves, would not give in. It was finally agreed that every noble in matters of religion had territorial authority, but that subjects of another faith, in case of the free exercise of their religion being refused, should have guaranteed unrestricted liberty to withdraw without loss of honour, property, or freedom. On 25th Sept., A.D. 1555, the decrees of the diet were promulgated. The Reformed were not included in the Religious Peace; this was first done in the Peace of Westphalia (§ [153, 2]).
§ 137B. Germany after the Religious Peace.
The political importance of the Protestant princes was about equal to that of the Catholics; the Electors of Cologne, Mainz, and Treves were not more powerful than those of Saxony, the Palatinate, and Brandenburg; and the great array of Protestant cities, with almost all the minor princes, were not behind the combined forces of Austria and Bavaria. The maintenance of the peace was assigned to a legally constituted corporation of Catholic and Protestant nobles, which held power down to A.D. 1806. The hope of reaching a mutual understanding on matters of religion was by no means abandoned, but the continuance of the peace was to be in no way dependent upon its realization. A new attempt to effect a union, which like all previous efforts ended in failure, was soon made in the Worms Consultation. Equally unsuccessful was a union project of the emperor Ferdinand I. Protestantism could get no more out of the Catholic princes. A second attempt to protestantize the Cologne electorate broke down as the first had done (§ [136, 2]).
§ 137.6. The Worms Consultation, A.D. 1557.—Another effort was made after the failure of the council in the interests of union. Catholic and Protestant delegates under the presidency of Pflugk met at Worms in A.D. 1557. At a preliminary meeting the princes of Hesse, Württemburg [Württemberg], and the Palatinate adopted the Augsburg Confession as bond of union and standard for negotiations. The Saxon delegates insisted upon a distinct repudiation of the interim and the insertion of other details, which gave the Catholics an excuse for putting an end to the negotiations. They had previously expressly refused to acknowledge Scripture as the unconditional and sole judge of controversies, as that was itself a matter in dispute (§ [136, 4]).
§ 137.7. Second Attempt at Reformation in the Electorate of Cologne, A.D. 1582.—The Archbishop and Elector of Cologne, Gebhard Truchsess of Waldburg went over in A.D. 1582 to the Protestant Church, married the Countess Agnes of Mansfeld, proclaimed religious freedom, and sought to convert his ecclesiastical principality into a temporal dominion. His plan was acceptable to nobles and people, but the clergy of his diocese opposed it with all their might. The pope thundered the ban against him, and Emperor Rudolph II. deposed him. The Protestant princes at last deserted him, and the newly elected archbishop, Duke Ernest of Bavaria, overpowered him by an armed force. The issue of Gebhard’s attempt struck terror into other prelates who had been contemplating similar moves.
§ 137.8. The German Emperor.—Ferdinand I., A.D. 1556-1564, conciliatory toward Protestantism, thoroughly dissatisfied with the Tridentine Council, once and again made attempts to secure a union, which all ended in failure. Maximilian II., A.D. 1564-1576, imbued by his tutor, Wolfgang Severus, with an evangelical spirit, which was deepened under the influence of his physician Crato von Crafftheim (§ [141, 10]), gave perfect liberty to the Protestants in his dominions, admitted them to many of the higher and lower offices of state, kept down the Jesuits, and was prevented from himself formally going over to Protestantism only by his political relations with Spain and the Catholic princes of the empire. These relations, however, led to the adoption of half measures, out of which afterwards sprang the Thirty Years’ War. His son Rudolph II., A.D. 1576-1612, educated by Jesuits at the Spanish court, gave again to that order unlimited scope, injured the Protestants on every side, and was only prevented by indecision and cowardice from attempting the complete suppression of Protestantism.
§ 138. The Reformation in French Switzerland.[369]
In French Switzerland the Reformation appeared somewhat later, but in essentially the same form as in German Switzerland. Its special character was given it by Farel and Viret, the predecessors of Calvin. The powerful genius of Calvin secured for his views victory over Zwinglianism in Switzerland, and won the ascendency for them in the other Reformed Churches.
§ 138.1. Calvin’s Predecessors, A.D. 1526-1535.—William Farel, the pupil and friend of the liberal exegete Faber Stapulensis (§ [120, 8]), was born in A.D. 1489 at Gap in Dauphiné. When in A.D. 1521 the Sorbonne condemned Luther’s doctrines and writings, he was obliged, as a suspected adherent of Luther, to quit Paris. He retired to Meaux, where he was well received by Bishop Briçonnet, but so boldly preached the reformed doctrines, that even the bishop, on renewed complaints being made, neither could nor would protect him. He then withdrew to Basel (§ [130, 3]). His first permanent residence was at Neuchatel, where in November, A.D. 1530, the Reformation was introduced by his influence. He left Neuchatel in A.D. 1532 in order to work in Geneva. But the civil authorities there could not protect him against the bishop and clergy. He was obliged to leave the city, but Saunier, Fromant, and Olivetan (§ [143, 5]) continued the work in his spirit. A revolution took place; the bishop thundered his ban against the refractory council, and the senate replied by declaring his office forfeited. Farel now returned to Geneva, A.D. 1535, and there accompanied him Peter Viret, afterwards the reformer of Lausanne. Viret was born at Orbe in A.D. 1511, and had attached himself to the Protestant cause during his studies in Paris. He therefore had also been obliged to quit the capital. He retired to his native town, and sought there diligently to spread the knowledge of the gospel. The arrival of these two enthusiastic reformers in Geneva led to a life and death struggle, from which the evangelicals went forth triumphant. As the result of a public disputation in August, A.D. 1535, the magistracy declared in their favour, and Farel gave the movement a doctrinal basis by the issuing of a confession. In the following year Calvin was passing through Geneva. Farel adjured him in God’s name to remain there. Farel indeed needed a fellow labourer of such genius and power, for he had a hard battle to fight.