Thus in the obscure dwelling of the chaplain of St. John's was made the first confession of the true Christian union. In presence of the holy mechanical unity of the Pope, these confessors of Jesus raised the banner of the living unity of Christ; and, as in the days of our Saviour, if there were many synagogues in Israel, there was at least but one single temple. The Christians of Electoral Saxony, of Luneburg, of Anhalt, of Hesse and the Margravate, of Strasburg, Nuremberg, Ulm, Constance, Lindau, Memmingen, Kempten, Nordlingen, Heilbron, Reutlingen, Isny, Saint Gall, Weissenburg, and Windsheim, clasped each other's hands on the 25th April, near the church of St. John, in the face of threatening persecutions. Among them might be found those who, like Zwingle, acknowledged in the Lord's Supper the entirely spiritual presence of Jesus Christ, as well as those who, like Luther, admitted his corporeal presence. There existed not at that time in the evangelical body any sects, hatred, or schism; christian unity was a reality. That upper chamber in which, during the early days of Christianity, the apostles with the women and the brethren "continued with one accord in prayer and supplication,"[176] and that lower chamber where, in the first days of the Reformation, the renewed disciples of Jesus Christ presented themselves to the Pope and the Emperor, to the world and to the scaffold, as forming but one body, are the two cradles of the Church; and it is in this its hour of weakness and humiliation that it shines forth with the brightest glory.
MELANCTHON'S DEJECTION.
After this appeal each one returned silently to his dwelling. Several tokens excited alarm for the safety of the Protestants. A short time previously Melancthon hastily conducted through the streets of Spire towards the Rhine his friend Simon Grynæus, pressing him to cross the river. The latter was astonished at such precipitation.[177] "An old man of grave and solemn appearance, but who is unknown to me," said Melancthon, "appeared before me and said: In a minute officers of justice will be sent by Ferdinand to arrest Grynæus." As he was intimate with Faber, and had been scandalized at one of his sermons, Grynæus had gone to him, and begged him no longer to make war against the truth. Faber had dissembled his anger, but immediately after repaired to the king, from whom he had obtained an order against the importunate professor of Heidelberg.[178] Melancthon doubted not that God had saved his friend by sending one of His holy angels to forewarn him. Motionless on the banks of the Rhine he waited until the waters of that stream had rescued Grynæus from his persecutors. "At last," cried Melancthon, as he saw him on the opposite side, "he is torn from the cruel teeth of those who drink innocent blood."[179] When he returned to his house, Melancthon was informed that the officers in search of Grynæus had ransacked it from top to bottom.[180]
Nothing could detain the Protestants longer in Spire. Accordingly, on the morning after their appeal (Monday, 26th April), the Elector, the Landgrave, and the Dukes of Luneburg, quitted the city, reached Worms, and then returned by Hesse into their own states. The appeal of Spire was published by the Landgrave on the 5th, and by the Elector on the 13th May.
Melancthon had returned to Wittemberg on the 6th May, persuaded that the two parties were about to draw the sword. His friends were alarmed at seeing him agitated, exhausted, and like one dead.[181] "It is a great event that has just taken place at Spire," said he. "It is big with dangers, not only to the Empire, but also to Religion itself.[182] All the pains of hell oppress me."[183]
THE PRINCES, THE TRUE REFORMERS.
It was Melancthon's greatest affliction, that all these evils were attributed to him, as indeed he ascribed them himself. "One single thing has injured us," said he; "our not having approved, as was required of us, the edict against the Zwinglians." Luther did not take this gloomy view of affairs; but he was far from comprehending the force of the protest. "The diet," said he, "has come to an end almost without results, except that those who scourge Jesus Christ have not been able to satisfy their fury."[184]
Posterity has not ratified this decision, and, on the contrary, dating from this epoch the definitive formation of Protestantism, it has hailed in the Protest of Spire one of the greatest movements recorded in history.
Let us see to whom the chief glory of this act belongs. The part taken by the princes, and especially by the Elector of Saxony, in the German Reformation, must strike every impartial observer. These are the true Reformers—the true Martyrs. The Holy Ghost, that bloweth where it listeth, had inspired them with the courage of the ancient confessors of the Church; and the God of Election was glorified in them. A little later perhaps this great part played by the princes might have produced deplorable consequences: there is no grace of God that man may not pervert. But nothing should prevent us from rendering honour to whom honour is due, and from adoring the work of the eternal Spirit in these eminent men who, under God, were in the sixteenth century the saviours of Christendom.
The Reformation had taken a bodily form. It was Luther alone who had said No at the Diet of Worms: but Churches and ministers, princes and people, said No at the Diet of Spire.