Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/94

Rh 80 enemies and timid friends, declined to accede to the alliance. There was more national feeling and courage in the Anglo-Saxon north of Germany. The princes of Brunswick, Luxemburg, Mecklenburg, Anhalt, and Mans- feld assembled at Magdeburg, and made a solemn and heroic declaration of their resolution &quot;to pledge their estates, lives, states, and subjects for the maintenance of the holy word of God, relying on Almighty God, as whose instruments they would act.&quot; The town of Magdeburg (which then had about three times as many inhabitants as now) a nd Duke Albert of Prussia adhered to the alliance. The league doubled its efforts. Charles, strong and rendered safe by the peace of Madrid concluded with Francis, sent word from Seville in March 1526, through the Romish Duke Henry of Brunswick, that he would soon come himself to crush the heresy. Luther saw the dangers crowding around him; his advice was, &quot;We are threatened with war ; let us force our enemies to keep the peace, con quered by the Spirit of God, before whose throne we must now combat with the arms of prayer ; that is the first work to be done.&quot; Diet of The emperor commissioned his brother Ferdinand to Spues, preside at the diet of Spires and carry out his wishes. But ~ before the diet met Francis and the pope had formed a league against him, and Charles had commissioned Count Frundsberg to levy an army of Germans to fight against the pope, while Ferdinand was called to Hungary to main tain against the Turks and others the kingdoms of Hungary and Bohemia, bequeathed to him by King Louis after the battle of Mohacz. When the diet at Spires met (June 1526), after some deliberation a proposition presented by the free cities was accepted that until a general council met &quot;every state shall live, rule, and bear itself as it shall be ready to answer for to God and his imperial majesty,&quot; a decision which foreshadowed the famous Augsburg formula cujus regio ejus religio, the principle on which the German Protestant church was afterwards legally based. The Reformation had thus the three years, 1526-1529, to organize and consolidate itself. The man of Germany at that time among the princes was Philip, landgrave of Hesse, and he was taught what to do by a citizen James Sturm, the deputy of Strasburg at Spires. Sturm had con vinced Philip that the basis of the true evangelical church was the acknowledgment of the self-government of the church by synods composed of the representatives of the whole Christian people ; and this was embodied in the first Protestant constitution, the Reformalio ecdesiarum Hassise juxta certissimam sermonum Dei regidam ordinata. 1 The constitution acknowledged the episcopal element, but not episcopal rule ; the jus episcopate was invested in the Christian community, and the flock of Christ were to heat- only the voice of their shepherd Christ. Bishops and deacons were to be elected by the Christian people ; bishops were to be consecrated by imposition of the hands of three bishops, and deacons instituted by the imposition of the hands of elders; while elders were associated with the pastors in the pastoral care of the congregation. A general or land synod was to be held annually, consisting of the pastor of each parish and of pious men elected from the various congregations, and there were provisions made for provincial and congregational synods. Three men were to be elected annually to exercise the right of visita tion. This was afterwards found to be inconvenient, and six and then thirteen superintendents for life were sub stituted. This board of superintendents became afterwards an oligarchy, and at last a mere instrument of state, overriding the original democratic constitutions of the 1 See Richter, Evany. Kirchenordnungcn, i. p. 56 ; and Lechler, Gesch. d. Prrsb. u. Synod. Verfassung, p. 14. church, a consequence of the disruption of Germany and of the paralysis of all national institutions. Luther had in 1523 and 1524 professed principles almost identical with those established in 1526 in Hesse. His action ceased there ; after the peasants war he abandoned his more liberal ideas, and insisted on leaving everything to the princes, and what could a people do cut up into fottr hundred sovereignties 1 Luther never acknowledged Caesaropapism or Erastianism as a principle and as a right. He considered the rights of the Christian people as a sncred trust provisionally deposited in the hands of the princes their representatives. &quot; Where,&quot; he asked, &quot; are the people to form the synods ? I cannot find them.&quot; It was Melanchthon s influence that facilitated the despotic system and hampered the thorough reform of the forms of worship. Luther withdrew from a sphere which he felt was not his. He busied himself during these years with plans to improve and simplify the church services at Wit tenberg. Some portions of the music in the communion service were too difficult for the people. Luther induced the elector to provide music teachers, and also to permit a simpler service. This led to the German Mass and Order of Worship for Wittenberg. The churches too throughout electoral Saxony were becoming better attended, and Luther had to consider and devise plans for church exten sion and supervision. His letters to Philip of Hesse, disapproving of the new constitution of the church there, show how jealous he had become of the entrance of democratic ideas. He asked the elector of Saxony to take charge of the church within his dominions, and Melanch thon s articles for the visitation of the churches in Saxony, which foreshadowed the Lutheran consistorial organization, show that Luther distinctly contemplates the transfer of the jus episcopate to the princes and magistrates. It is true that he called these magistrates Nothebisclwfe, but he could not see any other solution of the difficulty, and undoubtedly from the legal point of view it was easy to transfer the right of supervision from one external authority to another, and difficult to hand it over from the bishops to the congregation. The new ecclesiastical organization adopted in Hesse and electoral Saxony had the effect of making the archbishop of Mainz renounce in 1528 the spiritual jurisdiction he had hitherto exercised over these two districts. Meanwhile the emperor had been again successful in his Diet of political schemes. His German army under the Constable Spires, Bourbon and General Frundsberg had seized upon Italy and had sacked Rome, and again he had brought the pope and Francis to terms. It only remained to subdue the Reformation, and the mediaeval empire might be restored. He first sent a dispatch saying that the edict of Worms was to be held as in force. When the diet met at Spires in 1529, the imperial commissioners forbade the celebration of worship according to the reformed usage in churches, and afterwards in the houses of the elector and of the landgrave. The Act of Toleration of 1526 was to be abrogated. The diet appeared to be hopelessly divided, a majority with the emperor and a minority with the elector and the landgrave, and the majority passed an edict which amounted to this that where the edict of Worms could not be executed without fear of revolution no further reforms were to be allowed. The minority prepared a The pro- protest. &quot;The diet has overstepped its authority,&quot; they test and said; &quot;our acquired right is that the decree of 1526, Pl iei unanimously adopted, remains in force until a council can be convened. Up to this time the decree has maintained the peace, and we protest against its abrogation.&quot; Ferdinand, who represented his brother, assured the princes that nothing remained for them but to submit ; he threr.tened the free cities with the loss of their privileges