Page:French Calvinism, German Lutheranism and the War.pdf/11

- 10 - ever-present spiritual tyranny of the German princeling for the distant and intermittent spiritual tyranny of the Roman Pope. Luther from political necessity was compelled to seek the support of the German rulers. From the beginning he tried to rouse them against the Papacy and in order to enlist their sympathies, he appealed to their lust of territory and to their lust of power and he held out the alluring bait of the vast confiscated Church properties.

I do not know whether you have ever looked on a religious map of Germany. It is a very queer mosaic. Even to-day you will find all over Germany little Catholic islets entirely surrounded by Protestant territories and other Protestant islets surrounded by Catholic territories. How shall we explain this strange religious mosaic of Germany? The only possible explanation is that the Lutheran Churches were not only national Churches, but territorial, political and dynastic Churches. From the beginning Lutheranism proclaimed the principle that the spiritual allegiance mist follow temporal allegiance. The spiritual power must be subordinated to the temporal