General History for Colleges and High Schools

by P. V. N. Myers

BURNING OF THE PAPAL BULL (1520).—All the continent was now plunged into a perfect tumult of controversy. Luther, growing bolder, was soon attacking the entire system and body of teachings of the Roman Catholic Church. At first the Pope, Leo X., was inclined to regard the whole matter as "a mere squabble of monks," but at length he felt constrained to issue a bull against the audacious reformer (1520). His writings were condemned as heretical, and all persons were forbidden to read them; and he himself, if he did not recant his errors within sixty days, was to be seized and sent to Rome to be dealt with as an heretic. Luther in reply publicly burned the papal bull at one of the gates of Wittenberg.

THE DIET OF WORMS (1521).—Leo now invoked the aid of the recently elected Emperor Charles the Fifth in extirpating the spreading heresy. The emperor complied by summoning Luther before the Diet of Worms, an assembly of the princes, nobles, and clergy of Germany, convened at Worms to deliberate upon the affairs of Germany, and especially upon matters touching the great religious controversy.

Called upon in the Imperial assembly to recant his errors, Luther steadily refused to do so, unless his teachings could be shown to be inconsistent with the Bible. Although some wished to deliver the reformer to the flames, the safe-conduct of the emperor under which he had come to the Diet protected him. So Luther was allowed to depart in safety, but was followed by a decree of the assembly which pronounced him a heretic and an outlaw.

But Luther had powerful friends among the princes of Germany, one of whom was his own prince, Frederick the Wise, Elector of Saxony. Solicitors for the safety of the reformer, the prince caused him to be seized on his way from the Diet by a company of masked horsemen, who carried him to the castle of the Wartburg, where he was kept about a year, his retreat being known only to a few friends. During this period of forced retirement from the world, Luther was hard at work upon his celebrated translation of the Bible.

THE PEASANTS' WAR (1524-1525).—Before quite a year had passed, Luther was called from the Wartburg by the troubles caused by a new sect that had appeared, known as the Anabaptists, whose excesses were casting great discredit upon the whole reform movement. Luther's sudden appearance at Wittenberg gave a temporary check to the agitation.

But in the course of two or three years the trouble broke out afresh, and in a more complex and aggravated form. The peasants of Suabia and Franconia, stung to madness by the oppressions of their feudal lords, stirred by the religious excitement that filled the air, and influenced by the incendiary preaching of their prophets Carlstadt and Muenzer, rose in revolt against the nobles and priests. Castles and monasteries were sacked and burned, and horrible outrages were committed. The rebellion was at length crushed, but not until one hundred thousand lives had been sacrificed, a large part of South Germany ravaged, and great reproach cast upon the reformers, whose teachings were held by their enemies to be the whole cause of the ferment.

The Reformers are called Protestants. Notwithstanding all the efforts that were made to suppress the doctrines of Luther, they gained ground rapidly, and in the year 1529 another assembly, known as the Second Diet of Spires, was called to consider the matter. This body issued an edict forbidding all persons doing anything to promote the spread of the new doctrines, until a general council of the Church should have investigated them and pronounced authoritatively upon them. Seven of the German princes, and a large number of the cities of the empire, issued a formal protest against the action of the Diet. Because of this protest, the reformers from this time began to be known as Protestants.

CAUSES THAT CHECKED THE PROGRESS OF THE REFORMATION.—Even before the death of Luther, [Footnote: After the death of Luther, the leadership of the Reformation in Germany fell to Philip Melanchthon (1497-1560), one of Luther's friends and fellow-workers. Melanchthon's disposition was exactly the opposite of Luther's. He often reproved Luther for his indiscretion and vehemence, and was constantly laboring to effect, through mutual concessions, a reconciliation between the Roman Catholics and the Protestants.] which occurred in the year 1546, the Reformation had gained a strong foothold in most of the countries of Western Christendom, save in Spain and Italy, and even in these parts the new doctrines had made some progress. It seemed as if the revolt from Rome was destined to become universal, and the old ecclesiastical empire to be completely broken up.

But several causes now conspired to check the hitherto triumphant advance of Protestantism, and to confine the movement to the Northern nations. Chief among these were the divisions among the Protestants, the Catholic counter-reform, the increased activity of the Inquisition, and the rise of the Order of the Jesuits.

DIVISIONS AMONG THE PROTESTANTS.—Early in their contest with Rome, the Protestants became divided into numerous hostile sects. In Switzerland arose the Zwinglians (followers of Ulrich Zwingle, 1484-1531), who differed from the Lutherans in their views regarding the Eucharist, and on some other points of doctrine. The Calvinists were followers of John Calvin (1509-1564), a Frenchman by birth, who, forced to flee from France on account of persecution, found a refuge at Geneva, of which city he became a sort of Protestant pope. [Footnote: Calvin was, next after Luther, the greatest of the reformers. The doctrines of Calvin came to prevail very widely, and have exerted a most remarkable influence upon the general course of history. "The Huguenots of France, the Covenanters of Scotland, the Puritans of England, the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, were all the offspring of Calvinism.">[