Tausen Called To Copenhagen.
At length, this same year, an important event occurred to crown these various measures in favor of Protestantism. The king, calmly pursuing his course, resolved to call Tausen to discharge his ministry in a more important sphere, namely, at Copenhagen itself, and he appointed him pastor of the church of St. Nicholas. It cost Tausen some pain to leave Viborg. He foresaw what opposition and enmities he would have to encounter in the capital; he did not, however, shrink from it, but set out. In the course of his journey he let no opportunity slip of proclaiming the truth. Like St. Paul he preached in season and out of season. Having met a senator of the kingdom, Count Gyldenstern, a man held in very high esteem, he announced to him the Gospel. The senator could not resist the truth. ‘One thing alone perplexes me,’ said he; ‘I cannot persuade myself that the Church, which has for centuries shone with so much splendor, can be false, and all this new religion which Luther preaches, true. The true religion must needs be the most ancient.’[[285]] Tausen was able easily to answer that the faith preached by the reformers is found in the ancient writings of the Apostles. He then went on his way.
The evangelical Christians of Copenhagen gave lively demonstrations of their joy at his arrival; and the zealous doctor saw in a little while an immense crowd gathered to his preaching. His hearers did not rest satisfied with merely giving signs of approval of the doctrine which he preached, but they gained over those who were still halting between the Gospel and the papacy, so that ere long the majority of the people took the side of the Word of God. The great truths of salvation till that time hidden, they said, are now disclosed and presented to us eloquently and soundly, so that they are impressed on our souls.[[286]] An impulse still more powerful was about to be given to the Reformation.
In the month of May, 1530, the Imperial Diet assembled in the free city of Augsburg. No one doubted that the emperor, who had just been crowned by the pope in Italy, would be desirous of discharging his obligation to the latter by compelling the Protestants to prostrate themselves anew before the triple crown. The Danish prelates, especially, were persuaded of this. They took a higher tone, and said that if they could but meet the Lutherans, they would speedily reduce them to silence. They assumed to give at Copenhagen a rehearsal of the drama which was about to be acted at Augsburg. The Danish evangelicals, on their part, ardently desired a conference; and the king himself acknowledged the necessity for it. He therefore caused proclamation to be made throughout Denmark. ‘The bishops, the prelates on the one side, and the Lutheran preachers, Master John Tausen and his adherents, on the other side, were invited to appear at the Diet, before the king and the royal council, for the purpose of presenting their confession of faith and of defending it, to the end that one sole Christian religion might be established in the kingdom.’[[287]]
Diet Of Copenhagen.
The opening of the Diet was fixed for the 20th of July, 1530.
The royal proclamation produced various effects. The prelates affected to be heartily pleased, and would fain have convinced every body of their sincerity. But it is not safe to triumph before victory.[[288]]
The members of the roman party when by themselves were not the same men as they were in public. ‘Alas!’ they would say to one another, ‘if Odensee gave freedom to the Protestants, will not Copenhagen deprive the prelates of their dignities?’
The prelates took council among themselves, and came to the conclusion that they could not trust to their own strength. Paul Eliæ was the only man at all fit to cope with Tausen; but the prelates had not entire confidence in him. Eck and Cochlaeus had refused to venture so far as Scandinavia. The precentor of the cathedral of Aarhuus, Master George Samsing, one of the best Danish theologians, was despatched to the holy city of Cologne to seek after doctors well versed in Aristotle,[[289]] masters of arts and bold and subtile mocks, skilled in the art of hitting hard blows, and of opportunely misleading their antagonists and their hearers in the labyrinth of distinctions and syllogisms. The precentor was not very fortunate in his researches; he succeeded, however, in persuading an unknown doctor named Stagefyr, and another whose name even is not known.
At length the 20th of July arrived. The assembly of the States was opened, and the whole nation was attentive to what was about to take place. On the issue of this conference hung the religious future of Denmark. On the side of Rome appeared the bishops, not to defend their doctrine, but to sit as councillors of the kingdom, and, as they pretended, as judges. The two doctors whom we have mentioned, and besides them, Eliæ, Muus, Samsing, Wulff the apostolical prothonotary, and several others came forward after them to defend the papacy. On the evangelical side, Tausen, Wormorsen, Chrysostom (guldenmund), Sadolin, and Erasmus presented themselves; twenty-two ministers altogether.[[290]] During the first eight days the latter continued silent, and did not take a single step in self-defence; their adversaries the while proceeding with all the more violence against those whom they called the heretics. Eight days after the opening, Tausen presented himself at the head of his party and delivered to the king the evangelical confession which they had drawn up. The king communicated it to the prelates, and they took the necessary time for its examination.