Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 15.djvu/96

Rh 82 Marburg confer- Diet of Augs burg and the Augs burg confes sion. Zwingli that Philip of Hesse induced the Swiss and the German theologians to meet at Marburg. Luther was gloomy and suspicious, &quot;as he had never been seen before,&quot; a friend said. The frank declarations of the Swiss Reformers soon cleared away all shadows of difference and dissent on all points but one, and fourteen articles denning the chief heads of Christian doctrine were adopted by both parties. Then came the discussion on the fifteenth, the doctrine of the Eucharist. Luther took a piece of chalk and wrote upon the table Hoc est corpus meum, and when worsted in argument, as he usually was, appealed to the sentence. The discussion, which lasted four days, however, resulted in the parties recognizing exactly where the point of difference lay, and in reducing it to its smallest dimen sions. Both declared that they agreed in recognizing the Eucharist to be a sacrament of the true body and blood of Christ, and that a spiritual partaking of this body was a means of grace. They differed whether the true body and blood of Christ were corporeally in the sacrament. It was hoped that time would bring about alliance if not agree ment, but Luther was obstinate. &quot; Submit yourselves, believe as we do, or you cannot be acknowledged as Chris tians.&quot; He refused Zwingli s hand ; &quot; You have another spirit from us,&quot; he said, meaning that there was no objec tive basis of faith between them owing to what he thought to be Zwingli s rationalism. The result was a sad one, but Zwingli was to some extent a gainer; his view be came naturalized in Germany, where Swabia adopted it, as did many of the imperial cities, and Philip of Hesse indicated that he preferred it. The Marburg conference was a sad prelude to the decisive diet to be held at Augsburg in 1530. The new diet was anxiously awaited. Charles had made known his intention to be present, and that he intended to enforce obedience to the edict of Worms. He entered Augsburg with great magnificence, and was in fact at the zenith of his power. He had broken the might of France, humbled the papacy, been crowned at Bologna, reor ganized Italy, and driven back the Turk. His only remaining task, and it seemed easy, was to crush the Reformation. He first summoned before him the pro testing princes and asked them to withdraw the protest. This they refused to do ; they had a clear constitutional right, founding on the decision of Spires, to resist the emperor, and they resolved to exercise it. Divine ser vice after Lutheran fashion was held at their quarters, and they refused to join in the procession of the host at the festival of Corpus Christi. Meanwhile Luther, Melanchthon with him, was at Coburg, near enough at hand for consultation and yet beyond the emperor s reach. Melanchthon was preparing a confession with a defence, the so-called Apology, in case the emperor should require a statement of their doctrines. Luther was writing commentaries on the Psalms and the prophets, and was also preparing a popular edition of JZsop s Fables. He also wrote comforting letters to the elector, and addressed one of his most powerful writings to the Roman Catholic clergy assembled in the diet at Augsburg. Melanchthon was sent for to consult about the confession which the emperor had asked for, and Luther remained alone at Coburg full of anxiety, for he knew his friend s helpless ness in the actual bustle of life. When Melanchthon got to Augsburg he really became a source of weakness. He induced the elector for the sake of peace to give up the services in the Franciscan church, and the Protestant preachers left the town in despair. Luther all the while had been quiet, waiting in patience; but this was too much for him, and he wrote to encourage the elector to resist. At length the Protestants were asked to present their con fession. The emperor ordered it to be read in Latin. &quot;No,&quot; said the elector, &quot; we are Germans and on German ground. I hope therefore your majesty will allow us to speak Ger man.&quot; When the vice-chancellor of the elector, Dr Christian Baier, had read the first part of the confession, which ex pounds the principles of the Reformation, and in particular the doctrine of justification by faith, &quot;that faith which is not the mere knowledge of an historical fact, but that which believes, not only the history, but also the effect of that history upon the mind,&quot; it is said that an indescribable effect was produced upon the assembly. The opponents felt that there was a reality before them which they had never imagined ; and others said that such a profession of faith by such princes was a more effectual preaching than that which had been stopped. &quot; Christ,&quot; said Jonas, &quot; is in the diet, and he does not keep silence ; the word of God is indeed not to be bound.&quot; The Roman Catholic theologians present answered the confession, and then the emperor engaged Protestant and Roman Catholic theologians in negotiations in which Melanchthon soon showed his yield ing character, even granting that the Protestants might acknowledge the jurisdiction of the bishops and the supremacy of the pope. At this critical moment Luther s indignation found vent. &quot; I understand,&quot; he wrote to Melanchthon, &quot; that you have begun a marvellous work, to make Luther and the pope agree together, but the pope will say that he will not, and Luther begs to be excused. Should you, however, after all succeed in your affair, I will follow your example and make an agreement between Christ and Belial. Take care that you give not up justification by faith ; that is the heel of the seed of the woman to crush the serpent s head. Take care not to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the bishops ; they will soon take all. In short, your negotiations have no chance of success unless the pope will renounce papacy.&quot; The Romanists fortunately demanded too much. Not even Melanchthon could yield the acknowledgment of private masses, of auricular confession, and of the meritorious character of good works ; and the negotiations ceased. While they were in progress the emperor tried to intimidate the princes by calling the imperial troops into the free city of Augsburg and closing the gates. The landgrave escaped, and this frightened the Catholics. Unfortunately the Pro testants had confessed their want of union by presenting three confessions of faith : the Lutherans had presented the Augsburg confession ; Strasburg, Constance, Memmin- gen, and Lindau, which sympathized to some extent with Zwingli, presented the Confessio Tetrapolitana; and Zwingli had sent a confession which was not, however, laid before the diet. The diet broke up with the final decision that the Protestants should have till next spring to consider whether they would voluntarily return to the church, and that, if they proved obstinate, then measures would be taken for their extermination. To the student of Luther s life the diet of Augsburg is noteworthy chiefly because it was the occasion of the com position of the Augsburg confession, or Augustana, which afterwards became the symbol or confession of faith for the Lutheran Church. It was prepared by Melanchthon, founding on the fifteen articles of the Marburg conference, on the seventeen articles of Schwabach, and on the articles of Torgau. These various sets of articles had been written by Luther, and therefore the Augsburg confession was strictly Luther s own. It consists of two parts one dogmatic, in twenty-one articles, which states the principal doctrines of the evangelical church, beginning with the Trinity and ending with the worship of saints ; and the other in seven articles, rejecting the celibacy of the clergy, the sacrifice of the mass, auricular confession, ceremonial feasts and fasts, monastic vows, and the secular jurisdic tion of bishops. It was signed at Augsburg by John of