99

more. He actually succeeded so far as to unite several of the Estates at Ratisbon (July, 1524), in concluding a league for the execution of the edict of Worms, and in receiving from the legate a decree against isolated abuses, as if this was the reformation of the Church that was to satisfy the universal expectation.100 However, the time for deception was past; even zealous Catholic princes were ashamed of supporting this sham reform; and it soon became the laughing-stock of the people.101

Hadrian's honest concessions and fruitless efforts, as well as the opposite policy of his successor, only increased the conviction that a reformation of the Church was necessary, but could never be expected from Rome. Hence there was a more decided return to those ecclesiastical reforms which had already been successfully begun. In almost every part of Germany they had their champions. Popular authors, such as Hans Sachs at Nuremberg, 102 John Eberlin of Günzburg, 103 Michael Stiefel from Essling

" He desired especially to draw over Melancthon to his side. When, in April and May, he visited his fatherland, the Palatinate, the legate sent his secretary, Frederick Nausea, to him, to win him by large promises. Melancthon stoutly refused every overture (see the account of Camerarius, who was present at the time, Vita Melanchth. § 26, ed. Strobel, p. 93). Melancthon was thereby induced to send the cardinal a letter, which has become known under the title De Doctrina D. Lutheri ad Amicum quendam (Mel. Epistt., ed. Bretschneider, i. 657), and begins with the important remark: Fallitur mundus, cum unum hoc agi a Luthero judicat, ut publicae caeremoniae aboleantur.Verum non de caeremoniis dimicat Lutherus, majus quoddam docet, quid intersit inter hominum justitiam et Dei justitiam. The legate also tried to win Melancthon by means of Erasmus; see Erasmi Ep. ad Mel. postr. Nonas Sept., 1525, in Bretschneider, i. 672.

100. Ranke's Deutsche Gesch. im Zeitalter d. Ref. ii. 158. These were the Archduke Ferdinand, the Duke of Bavaria, the Archbishop of Salzburg, the Bishops of Trent, Ratisbon, Bamberg, Spires, Strasburg, Augsburg, Constance, Basle, Freisingen, Passau, and Brescia. The Documents of the League are in Walch, xv. 2699; best in Strobel's Miscellaneen, ii. 118. The Constitutio ad removendos Abusus et Ordinatio ad Vitam Cleri reformandam, which belongs to it, issued by Campeggio, may be seen in the Fasciculus Rerum Expetendarum et Fugiendarum, ed. E. Brown, p. 422. Goldasti Constitt. Imperial. iii. 478.

101 Even the zealous Catholic Ortuinus Gratius says of it in his Fasciculus 1. c. quae sicuti pauca complectitur, ita etiam a paucis est recepta. Lampoons against it are mentioned in Strobel's Miscellaneen, ii. 134, where also some extracts are given from one of them, "Absaz oder Fehdschrift des höllischen Fürsten Lucifers, Doctor Martin Luther jetzt zugesandt."

102 For instance, by his Wittenbergische Nachtigal, probably in 1523. Disputacion zwischen einem Chorherren u. Schuhmacher, darin das Wort Gottes u. ein recht christlich Wesen verfochten wird: 1524. Dialog von den Scheinwerken der Geistlichen u. ihren Gelübden: 1524. See Hans Sachs, Beförderer der Reformation, von Veesenmeyer, in the Kirchenhist. Archiv, 1826, iii. 249.

103 In 1521 he left the Franciscan monastery at Ulm, and labored in many places as a preacher of reform. To the number of his works, which are distinguished for their

en,104 and others,105 recommended them. In many parts of northern Germany, and the adjacent countries, they obtained the ascendancy in East Friesland from 1519;106 in some towns of Pomerania,107 and of Livonia, 108 and in Silesia,109 from 1522; in Prussia110 and Mecklenburg from 1523; in Denmark and Sweden

110

111

mildness, belong especially the 15 Bundsgenossen. Strobel's Nachricht v. Joh. Eb. v. G. Leben u. Schriften im Altdorf. literar. Museum, i. 363. Eighteen works of his are here enumerated. His work on the Reformation of the Clerical Order is reprinted in Strobel's Miscellaneen, ii. 207.

104 An Augustinian monk at Essling; he wrote a poem, "Von der Christförmigen, rechtgegründten Lehre D. M. Luther's," and was drawn into a correspondence about it with Thomas Murner at Strasburg. He left his monastery in 1522, worked as an evangelical preacher in many places, wrote much in the cause of the Reformation, but degenerated at length into Apocalyptic dreams, † 1567 at Jena; see the Nachricht von M. Stiefel's Leben u. Schriften, in Strobel's Neue Beytrage, i. 1.

105 Thus Kettenbach, a barefooted friar, wrote, "Practica practicirt aus der h. Bibel, 1523. 4." See Altdorfisches literar. Museum, ii. 51. In the year 1524 appeared: "Ain Sermon gepredigt vom Pauren zu Werdt bey Nürnberg von dem freyen Willen des Menschen, auch von Anrufung der Heiligen," composed by Diepold Peringer, a peasant from the district of Ulm, who had preached publicly at Kitzingen and Nüremberg, and was probably also the author of the following works: "Des Christl. Pauren getreuen Rath," and "Ain schöne Auslegung über das göttlich Gebet Vater Unser, das uns Gott selbst geleret hat. Das hat betracht ein armer Bauer, u. s. w. ;" see Riederer's Nachrichten, ii. 71.-Utz Rychsner's (Urbanus Regius) Gespräch zwischen einem Pfaffen u. Weber: probably to the same author belongs also the dialogue between a barefooted friar and a spoon-maker. Both dialogues have been erroneously attributed to Hans Sachs; see Veesenmeyer, in the Kirchenhist. Archiv, 1826, iii. 271.-Ain schöner Dialogus von einem Lanzknecht u. Predigermünich durch Wolfgang Zierer von Salzburg; see Veesenmeyer in Illgen's Zeitschrift f. d. hist. Theologie, ii. 2, 257.

106 Gittermann's Reformationsgeschichte v. Ostfriesland, in the Kirchenhist. Archiv, 1824, iii. 23.

107 It was propagated in Treptow, from 1520, by Bugenhagen, persecuted in 1521; see Johannes Bugenhagen, by Zietz, Leipz., 1829, s. 43 ff. Illgen's Zeitschr. f. d. hist. Theol. v. i. 230; and the same work, new series, I. iii. 139. Stettin received two preachers from Wittenberg, Seckendorf, i. 240, b. Christian Ketelhodt preached at Stralsund from 1522; in April, 1523, a general storm against images ensued; see Sastrowen's Leben, edited by Mohnike, i. 36; Joh. Berckmann's Stralsundische Chronik, edited by Mohnike u. Zober (Stralsund, 1833), s. 33, 259. D. C. F. Fabricius, Die Acht u. Vierzig oder die Einführung der Kirchenverbesserung in Stralsund. Stralsund, 1837. 8.—(v. Medem's) Gesch. der Einführung der evangel. Lehre im Herzogth. Pommern. Greifswald, 1837. 8. J. G. L. Kosegarten, De Lucis Evangelicae in Pomerania exorientis Adversariis. Gryphisw., 1830. 4.

108 See § 15, Note 5, below.

109 Breslau set the example; it was followed by Frederick II., Duke of Liegnitz, and George, Margrave of Brandenburg, as Duke of Jägerndorf; see Rosenberg's Reform. Gesch. v. Schlesien. Breslau, 1767.

110 See § 15, Note 3, below.

111 First at Rostock, in 1523, by Joachim Schlüter (M. Joachim Schlüter erster evang. Prediger zu Rostock, ein Beitrag zur Reformationsgesch. geschr. durch Nicolaum Grysen 1593, neu herausgegeben v. K. F. L. Arndt, Lübeck, 1832. 8), at Wismar, by Henry Möllens, in 1524, Seckendorf, i. 295, a. Sculteti Annales Evangelii Renovati, ad D. Schröder's Kirchenhist. des evang. Meklenburg. Rostock, 1788, 2

ann. 1524. Theile, 4..

the number of adherents was already considerable. Reform met with special success among the people in the free towns. Thus, by the decision of the citizens, it prevailed at Francfort on the Mayne,112 in Swabian Halle,113 and in Magdeburg in 1523,1 114 in 1524 in Ulm,115 Strasburg,116 Bremen,117 and Nuremberg.118 Very few were the towns in which it did not stir up a hazardous struggle that endangered the old constitution of the Church.119

113 It had been preached there ever since 1521, and been protected by certain noblemen in the neighborhood. On the 5th March, 1523, the Senate had to issue an order to all the clergy to preach the word of God pure and clear, Seckendorf, i. 243. J. B. Ritter's Evang. Denkmahl der Stadt Frankf. a. M., od. ausführl. Bericht der daselbst ergangenen Kirchenreform. Frankf., 1726. 4.

113 By John Brenz, who here became pastor in 1522, and discontinued mass in 1523, Seckendorf, i. 242.

114 The citizens assembled on the 23d June, 1523, with seven preachers, in the Augustinian monastery, and drew up articles for the Council, in which they demanded a reformation. Then they prevailed on Nic. Amsdorf to undertake the arrangement of ecclesiastical matters, Seckendorf, i. 246. G. S. Rötger's Magdeburg. Reformationsgeschichte. 2te Aufl. Magdeburg, 1792. 8.

115 Though the Franciscans, John Eberlin (see Note 103), Henry of Kettenbach (see Veesenmeyer's Beyträge zur Gesch. der Literatur u. Reform., Ulm, 1792, s. 79), and John Diepholt had preached the Reformation before this time, it obtained greater consistency in 1524, when Conrad Sam was called in at the request of the townsmen. In the same year the Senate began its regulations for reform, by a command to the clergy either to dismiss their concubines or to marry them; see Seckendorf, i. 242.—The Reformation prevailed at Heilbronn also by means of Bernhard Lachmann, 1521, who was pastor there; see C. Jager's Mittheilungen zur Schwäb. u. Fränk. Reformationsgesch. Bd. 1 (Stuttgart, 1828), s. 30 ff. In Kaufbeuern the signal for the introduction of reform was given by a tinman, 8th Sept., 1524, who interrupted the priest in a sermon of extravagant commendation of the Virgin Mary with the words "Pfaff, du lügst" (Priest, thou liest); see Wagenseil's Beitrag zur Gesch. der Reform. Leipz. 1830, s. 2.

116 The efforts for reform, which had been early undertaken, received a decided character from the year 1523, when Caspar Hedio came to Strasburg as preacher at the cathedral, Wolfgang Fabricius Capito as provost of the foundation of St. Thomas, and Martin Bucer. The alteration in divine service was commenced in 1824, with the approval of the Senate; see A. Jung's Beiträge zu der Gesch. d. Reformation. 2te Abth. Gesch. der Reformat. der Kirche in Strasburg u. dem Elsasse. Strasb. u. Leipz., 1830. 8.

117 Henry of Zutphen preached the reformation here from 1522-24 in the Anschariikirche; John Timann from 1524, in the church of St. Martin. In 1525 the mass was every where abolished; see Pratje, Bremen u. Verdische Bibliothek, B. 1, St. 2, s. 1; H. W. Rotermund vom Anfange der Reformation im Erzstifte Bremen u. Stifte Verden. Lüneburg, 1825.

and

118 Joh. Müllner's Reformationsgesch. der freyen Reichstadt Nürnberg. Nürnberg, 1770. 8. The two provosts, George Besler at St. Sebald, and Hector Pömer at St. Laurence's, the Augustine prior, Wolfgang Volprecht, and Andrew Osiander, from 1522 preacher at St. Lawrence's, began, from the year 1522, to preach the Reformation; the Council protected them, notwithstanding the remonstrances of the papal legate, and the Emperor's stadtholder, at the Diets of Nuremberg, in 1523 and 1524; see Altdorfisches literar. Museum, ii. 26. In the year 1524 they abolished the mass and other popish usages, and the sentence pronounced against them by the Bishop of Bamberg remained without result; see Strobel's Miscellaneen, iii. 45.

119 For a characteristic account of this struggle, see Ambrose Blarer's apology to the

town-council of Constance, A.D. 1523 (in Füssli's Beyträge zur Reformationsgesch. iv. 195). He shows how Luther's doctrine was perverted by his enemies: "They say Luther rejects all outward good works which God has commanded, but at the same time they pass over in silence his faithful teaching, that all good and fruitful works must proceed from the ground of a believing heart: thus he would first make the root and the tree good, so that the fruits may not be hung upon it from without, but put forth from within. They also pretend that he inculcates carnal enjoyments, and teaches that men should fast no more, and that accordingly he rejects all appointed days and seasons; but they maliciously conceal the fact that he exhorts us earnestly to daily chastening and restraint of the flesh.-Further, they object that, according to Luther's doctrine, man need not pray, merely because he condemns vain repetition, as Christ himself condemned such lip-service; however, they omit to say that he teaches us to pray without ceasing, with elevation and aspiration of the soul toward God.-They report that Luther teaches carnal wantonness, because he wishes to put some check upon the wide-spread, scandalous impurity of the clergy by permission to marry, and to assist well-meaning priests, who, through bashfulness, are unable to advise themselves, and who would yet be willingly helped in the becoming manner allowed by Christ and his apostles; but they pass over in silence that he forbids all impurity, while we still have to this day, as our ecclesiastical superiors and spiritual advisers, men who live in open fornication, scandal, and crime.-Further still, they cry out that Luther would do away with all authority, because, forsooth, he will not endure the cruel rule of certain tyrants who undertake, with unhallowed boldness, to encroach upon the sovereignty of God the Lord, since they try to extend their power over our souls and consciences; yet they do not say that, according to Luther's doctrine, we are not only subject to authority, but also are bound to suffer and endure with Christian patience even their insane and cruel government, reserving only the freedom of the soul and conscience.-Besides, they allege the discord and disturbance which this doctrine has roused in the world, and do not consider that the word of God from the first has caused disunion and conflicts between the believers in truth and falsehood.-Then we have to consider, as Christians, that, as the Church was at first begun and built up by the persecution and bloodshed of the faithful, now too, since it has been brought to ruin and lamentable disorder in almost all points, it can not be reconstituted, and re-established in its ancient dignity without great disturbance and revolt.-They also pretend that Luther rejects all divine ornaments, tables, coffins, lamps, tapers, organs, mass-vestments, etc.; but they conceal the fact that he so earnestly exhorts us to keep in repair and to adorn the living temples of God, as Paul says, namely, the poor, that they may not suffer from want and necessity. -In like manner, they complain that this doctrine tends to the disgrace and the lessening of the honor of the immaculate and ever-pure Virgin Mary, and other of God's saints; because pilgrimages, outlying chapels, taper-burning, and such proceedings, are not allowed to be of much avail; but they do not say that we are taught true reverence for saints, namely, to recognize, praise, and adore the grace of God in His saints, and thus to strengthen our hearts in confidence and hope, that He will grant unto us the same paternal grace as to them, because they are our brethren, and, in fine, so direct us in their footsteps that we may follow the example of their faith and virtuous living. They will imbitter this honey of ours by saying that Luther is so hasty, quarrelsome, and bitter, that he attacks, reproaches, and reviles his adversaries, and among them even the great nobles and princes, ecclesiastical and temporal, with such wanton boldness that he quite forgets brotherly love and Christian courtesy. Of a truth he has often mispleased me in this respect; I would advise no one now to imitate him in this point. At the same time, I have not, on this account, rejected his good, Christian doctrine, neither will I pronounce sentence upon his person in this matter; because I do not understand his spirit and the secret judgment of God, since by this fault many people are deterred from his doctrine; but I also bear in mind that he is not fighting his own cause, but for the word of God; on this account much may be forgiven him, and all ascribed to a zealous indignation for God.-Lastly, they endeavor to make this doctrine suspicious and reproachful, by saying that for more than a thousand years there has

§ 2.

3

HISTORY OF THE REFORMATION IN SWITZERLAND TO 1525. From the time that the brave Swiss mercenaries had so often decided the fortunes of war on the battle-fields of northern Italy, the Pope and the kingdom of France had been the chief rivals in the attempt to obtain adherents in the thirteen cantons.1 Pensions were given by both parties to win men of influence. The Pope employed his spiritual power, also, for the same purpose; and allowed great forbearance and concessions about ecclesiastical matters, indulgences, and church-benefices. The direct result of the constantly increasing enlistment in foreign service was a deplorable demoralization; for the mercenaries, on their return to their fatherland, brought back licentiousness, wanton levity, and all sorts of crimes. At the same time, the clerical order was degraded by the unprincipled distribution of church-patronage. But reverence toward Rome also rapidly decreased, now that men so often came to know her near at hand, and found such frequent cause of complaint against her. Accordingly, the Swiss Governments were constantly assuming a more independent bearing been a general agreement in the understanding of Holy Scripture; and that the holy fathers and teachers have been quite unanimous in this; but now comes Luther, overthrows every thing, and will have a private meaning after his own head, so that all past opinions together are quite worthless. In answer to this, it is enough to say that he, above all other men, has so restricted his understanding, according to the exhortation of Paul, and forced it into subjection to the word of Christ, that he seldom decides by his own opinion, but by comparing and explaining Scripture with Scripture, which is the highest art in commenting.-Besides, it is not true that ancient or modern teachers have hitherto been agreed in handling Scripture, for in a few days I could compile a large book of articles in which they have been entirely at variance and discordant.-Against Luther only, who has pointed out and laid his hand on the real ulcer and crime of the Church, they raise the cry of murder; they can not endure his writings, they endeavor to make his doctrine loathsome to all men, they pervert his words, they attribute to him many unheardof heresies, so that every thing preposterous which is now sung or said of God and the saints, all vicious books and heresies, are burdened upon Luther and the Lutherans," etc. 1 Compare J. v. Müller's Schweitzergeschichte, Th. 5, Abth. 2, by Robert Glutz-Blotzheim (Zürich, 1816), s. 243 ff. Wirz, Neuere Helvet. Kircheng. i. 31 ff.

2 Anshelm's Berner Chronik, vi. 91, in the year 1521: "Wie dann vornach bishar alle Uebermäss, Ueppigkeit und Aendrung der Sitten in ein schlechte, tapfere Eydgenossschaft us fremden Kriegen gebracht ist worden, also ist auch zu diser Zyt beschehen, etc." Bullinger's Reformationsgeschichte, i. 4. Glutz-Blotzheim, s. 504. Wirz, i. 48. Niklaus Manuel von Grüneisen. Stuttg. u. Tübingen, 1837, s. 27. Compare the poem "Der alte u. der neue Eidgenosse," ibid. s. 461.

* Glutz-Blotzheim, s. 501. Hottinger, continued by Müller and Glutz-Blotzheim, vi. 282. Grüneisen, s. 16.

• Gruneisen, s. 26. Anshelm, v. 481. When a papal legate appeared before the Diet at Glaris, in Jan., 1520: "Da erklagten sich die Eydgenossen, ihre Pension wurd ihnen