How would things turn out? Already on the 12th of July, Charles V. had received from the pope a request that he would destroy by force the Reformation in Germany, and he was ready to do this. Would it not be the same at Copenhagen? The young man from Kiertminde, Tausen, as he stood on the shore of the Great Belt, had seen the waters of the sea scatter the boats of the fishermen, and advancing furiously on the coast beat down the trees, overthrow the houses and lay waste the fields. Was not the Reform threatened with like ruin? Tausen thought so. His friends therefore and himself, full of boldness, determined to appeal to the people. They wished at the least that the triumph of their cause should proceed not so much from a decree of the states as from the free conviction of their fellow-citizens. They therefore distributed among themselves the forty-three articles of their confession, and every day the twenty-two ministers delivered in turn two sermons on the doctrines which they professed in it. The prelates, who had fancied that they should see their adversaries in alarm, hiding their convictions like cowards, were amazed at this unexpected boldness; and the crowds of hearers which streamed into the churches threw them into a great rage. They hastened to the king. They entreated him, they obliged him to prohibit these Lutheran sermons which, they said, infringed on the rights of the Diet. But Frederick, although overcome for a moment by the bishops, listened to the representations of the pastors and withdrew his |Sermons Multiplied.| prohibition. Then the Protestants, anxious to redeem lost time, preached four sermons every week-day and twelve every Sunday.[[291]] If the prelates abounded in the attack, the reformers superabounded in the defence. The case is, perhaps, unique in the history of the Reformation. But what a difference between these men! The activity of the ministers consisted in proclaiming their faith; the activity of the bishops consisted in imposing on their adversaries silence, imprisonment, and exile. The prelates took as much pains to hide their doctrine under a bushel as the evangelicals took to publish theirs on the house-tops. The former would not on any consideration set doctrine over against doctrine, lest they should draw laymen into the struggle. While the ministers were night and day proclaiming the Gospel, the priests were active only in persecution. According to a Scripture saying, they fell asleep and lay down like dumb dogs; and this, we are bound to confess, was not the case with the Roman Catholics in other countries. When two causes in the presence of each other adopt measures so different, victory is decided.
Sermons alone did not suffice the evangelicals. It was their great business to make a solemn confession of their faith before the Diet. One day, which it is not easy to determine, but probably about the end of July, 1530, Tausen and his friends appeared before the king, the grandees of the realm, the bishops, and the deputies, and presented, respectfully but boldly, the statement of their faith. Their declaration did not possess the perfect form of Melanchthon’s confession, with which they were at present unacquainted; but it had more clearness and force. While Luther’s friend, from a wish to spare and even to gain over the powerful princes who listened to him, had passed over in silence certain articles which might have given rise to sharp contradiction, Tausen and his brethren did not think it their duty, in the presence of haughty and persecuting bishops, either to soften the statement of their doctrines, or to spare the Romish party.
The Confession Of Faith.
‘The Holy Scriptures,’ they said, ‘alone and uncorrupted by the interpretations, additions, and fables of men,[[292]] teach all men how they may obtain salvation from God. (Art. 1 and 2.)
‘He who, in order to obtain eternal life, takes any other way than that which Scripture teaches, is foolish, blind, and incredulous, however wise and however holy he may seem to the world.[[293]] (Art. 3.)
‘The persecutions, the passion, the death, the resurrection, and the ascension of our Lord have been most certainly accomplished, and have been given to us to be our righteousness, the discharge of our debt, the expiation of all our sins.[[294]] (Art. 7.)
‘The Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, who is the comforter of all Christians, renews by diverse gifts of God our spirits and our hearts, establishes and unites the true Church in the faith and in the doctrine of Christ. (Art. 11.)
‘The holy Church is the communion of all those who by one and the same faith have been made righteous and well-beloved sons of God. And we make no account of any other Church, however distinguished in outward appearance, which curses those whom God blesses, rejects those whom God receives, and pronounces heretics those who teach according to the truth.[[295]] (Art. 12, 13.)
‘We believe that marriage, the pious union of man and woman, as it was instituted in paradise, is holy and honorable in all; that to live honestly in this state is to lead a chaste life in the sight of God, and that to forbid it to man and woman is a false semblance of chastity and a doctrine of the devil.[[296]] (Art. 20, 21.)
‘We believe that the true Christian mass is nothing else than the commemoration of the passion and the death of Jesus Christ, the celebration of the love of God the Father, in which the body of Christ is eaten and his blood is drunk as a sure pledge that for Christ’s sake we have obtained the remission of sins.[[297]] (Art. 26.)