Never had these qualities been more necessary, for matters were taking an alarming aspect. On the 4th June died Chancellor Gattinara, who was to Charles the Fifth "what Ulpian was to Alexander Severus," says Melancthon, and with him all the human hopes of the Protestants vanished. "It is God," Luther had said, "who has raised up for us a Naaman in the court of the King of Syria." In truth Gattinara alone resisted the Pope. When Charles brought to him the objections of Rome: "Remember," said the Chancellor, "that you are master!" Henceforward every thing seemed to take a new direction. The Pope required that Charles should be satisfied with being his "lictor," as Luther says, to carry out his judgments against the heretics.[396] Eck, whose name (according to Melancthon) was no bad imitation of the cry of Luther's crows, heaped one upon another[397] a multitude of pretended heretical propositions, extracted from the Reformer's writings. There were four hundred and four, and yet he made excuse that, being taken unawares, he was forced to restrict himself to so small a number, and he called loudly for a disputation with the Lutherans. They retorted on these propositions by a number of ironical and biting theses on "wine, Venus, and baths, against John Eck;" and the poor Doctor became the laughing-stock of everybody.
THE CHURCH, THE JUDGE.
But others went to work more skilfully than he. Cochlœus, who became chaplain to Duke George of Saxony in 1527, begged an interview with Melancthon, "for," added he, "I cannot converse with your married ministers."[398] Melancthon, who was looked upon with an evil eye at Augsburg, and who had complained of being more solitary there than Luther in his castle,[399] was touched by this courtesy, and was still more fully penetrated with the idea that things should be ordered in the mildest manner possible.
The Romish priests and laymen made a great uproar, because on fast days meat was usually eaten at the Elector's court. Melancthon advised his prince to restrain the liberty of his attendants in this respect. "This disorder," said he, "far from leading the simple-minded to the Gospel, scandalizes them." He added, in his ill-humour: "A fine holiness truly, to make it a matter of conscience to fast, and yet to be night and day given up to wine and folly!"[400] The Elector did not yield to Melancthon's advice; it would have been a mark of weakness of which his adversaries would have known how to take advantage.
On the 31st May, the Saxon confession was at length communicated to the other Protestant states, who required that it should be presented in common in the name of them all.[401] But at the same time they desired to make their reservations with regard to the influence of the state. "It is to a council that we appeal," said Melancthon; "we will not receive the Emperor as our judge; the ecclesiastical constitutions themselves forbid him to pronounce in spiritual matters.[402] Moses declares that it is not the civil magistrate who decides, but the sons of Levi. St. Paul also says (1 Cor. xiv.), 'let the others judge,' which cannot be understood except of an entire christian assembly; and the Saviour himself gives us this commandment: 'Tell it unto the Church.' We pledge, therefore, our obedience to the Emperor in all civil matters; but as for the Word of God, it is liberty that we demand."
THE LANDGRAVE'S CATHOLIC SPIRIT.
All were agreed on this point; but the dissent came from another quarter. The Lutherans feared to compromise their cause if they went hand in hand with the Zwinglians. "This is Lutheran madness," replied Bucer: "it will perish of its own weight."[403] But, far from allowing this madness "to perish," the reformed augmented the disunion by exaggerated complaints. "In Saxony they are beginning to sing Latin hymns again," said they; "the sacred vestments are resumed, and oblations are called for anew.[404] We would rather be led to slaughter, than be Christians after that fashion."
The afflicted Landgrave, says Bucer, was "between the hammer and the anvil;" and his allies caused him more uneasiness than his enemies.[405] He applied to Rhegius, to Brenz, to Melancthon, declaring that it was his most earnest wish to see concord prevail among all the Evangelical doctors. "If these fatal doctrines are not opposed," replied Melancthon, "there will be rents in the Church that will last to the end of the world. Do not the Zwinglians boast of their full coffers, of having soldiers prepared, and of foreign nations disposed to aid them? Do they not talk of sharing among them the rights and the property of the bishops, and of proclaiming liberty......Good God! shall we not think of posterity, which, if we do not repress these guilty seditions, will be at once without throne and without altar?"[406]—"No, no! we are one," replied this generous prince, who was so much in advance of his age; "we all confess the same Christ, we all profess that we must eat Jesus Christ, by faith, in the Eucharist. Let us unite." All was unavailing. The time in which true catholicity was to replace this sectarian spirit, of which Rome is the most perfect expression, had not yet arrived.
AUGSBURG.