Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 16.djvu/886

* REFORMATION. 782 REFORMATION. moned by the new Emperor, Charles V., to the Diet at Worms, he refused to retract and was se- creted for a time in the Castle of Wartburg, ilnder the protection of his friend the Elector Frederick of Saxony. He had now reached the point where he must begin a constructive move- ment. He translated the Bible into vigorous colloquial Gennan, assisted by his friend and coworker. IMelanchthon, and entered into com- munication with the Xorth German princes, many of whom gave him their support. At the Diet of Speyer in 1529 a majority of the princes and rep- resentatives of the cities issued the 'Protest' which gave to the adherents of the new move- ment the name of Protestants, and a year later at the Diet of Augsburg, when the Emperor was present, they set forth their views in the Augs- burg Confession (q.v.), prepared by Melanchthon, which it was hoped would be a means of media- tion. The Protestants were then in a minority, however, and a decree of condemnation was passed, beginning the long and bitter struggle. The Pi-otestants organized the League of Schmal- kald for defense, but for some time the political difficulties with which Charles had to deal in his rivalry with France and the necessity of uniting Germany against the onslaughts of the Turks made liim defer the execution of the decree of Augsburg. But in 1546, immediately after the death of Luther, the Emperor turned his attention to the Schmalkald League and in 154" he defeated it with the aid of Duke Maurice (q.v.) of Saxony. (See Muhl- BERG. ) The return of the latter to the Pro- testant side turned the tables and the Em- peror concluded a treaty at Passau in 1552, in which the Protestants stipulated for the free exercise of their religion, until the meeting of a diet which should settle a permanent religious peace; and in return they agreed to lend assist- ance against the Turks, who were still menacing the frontiers of the Empire. The promised diet assembled at Augsburg in 1555 and framed arti- cles for the religious pacification of Germany, according to which each prince might choose be- tween Lutheranism and Catholicism, the religion of the prince to be that of his people. Any pre- late on becoming Protestant •was to resign his benefice, and subjects of ecclesiastical princes were to enjoy religious liberty. This peace gave recognition to the Lutherans. It established a modus civendi between the adherents of the old and new creeds, which soon proved to be a pre- carious one, and finally the issues between Catho- lics and Protestants were fought out in the Tliirtv Years' War to a settlement in the Peace of Westphalia (1G48). Denjiakk and Sweden. In the neighboring coiuitries of Denmark and Sweden the progress of reformed opinions had been more rapid than in Germany. In both these countries the sov- ereigns took the lead. In Sweden particularly Gustavus Vasa pursued a vigorous policy in favor of the Eeformation. He invited Luth- eran teachers into his dominions, and showed special zeal in the circulation of a Swedish ver- sion of the Scriptures, made by one of these teachers, named Olaus Petri, who occupies the most prominent place among the Swedish reform- ers. At an assembly of the States at ^ esterSs in 1527 it was unanimously resolved that the Lutheran doctrines should be adopted in Sweden, and a Reformed Church, entirely independent of Rome, established. The same result occurred in Denmark in 1539, when an assembly of the Danisli States at Odense gave formal sanction to a plan of religious doctrine, worship, and dis- cipline, drawn up by Bugenhagen, a disciple and friend of Luther, whom Christian III. had in- vited from Wittenberg for the purpose. Switzerland akd Calvin. Parallel with the Lutheran movement in Germany a religious re- volt on similar lines developed in the German cantons of Switzerland under the leadership of I'lrich Zwingli (q.v.), a Zurich pastor (1519). The causes of the Swiss movement were partly political, but the underlying principles involved ^A•ere the same as in Germany, and the outbreak was finally due to the question of indulgences. The cantons surrounding Lake Lucerne remained, as they are to-day, strongly attached to the Cath- olic faith. Their resistance to the reformers led to a civil war, and Zwingli was killed in 1531 while accompanying the troops of Zurich on a disastrous expedition. Before Zwingli's death in 1529 an attempt was made by the friends of the two reform leaders to bring Luther and Zwingli into cooperation. Luther and Jlelanch- thon met Zwingli, Bueer, and CEcolampadius at Jlarburg on the invitation of Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, one of the earliest and wisest supporters of the Reformation. The meeting failed to ac- complish anrthing. owing to their ditl'erenee in regard to the Lord's >Supper, which Zwingli held to be a memorial and a symbol, while Luther in- sisted on the acceptance of the doctrine of con- substantiation as a fundamental principle of Cliristian faith. Thus the division of Protestant- ism began on the very threshold. Zurich de- clared its ecclesiastical independence in 1524, Berne and Saint Gall followed in 1528, Basel and Schaff'hausen in 1529. The movement was checked temporarily by the defeat of Zurich and the death of Zwingli, but the accession of Geneva to the Protestant cause in 1535 and the establish- ment there of John Calvin, the great organizer of the Reformation, gave a new impulse to the Swiss movement and speedily made Switzerland a centre for the promulgation of Reformation ideas. Calvin was the needed element to make the Reformation aggressive. Luther was too tlioroughly a German to carry much weight ex- cept among Germanic peoples, and Lutheranism became a German •State religion, settling in time into a rigid mold which prevented expansion. Calvin, on the other hand, was more of a jurist and administrator than a preacher. His theological creed was one that in those da^-s most of the reformers could accept, and his Instiiutes be- came the constitution of Protestantism, outside of the North German and ,Scandina^^an coun- tries. The Swiss followers of Zwingli adhered to the new leader. Two great Protestant sects were thus formed at the very beginning — Lutherans and Calvinists or 'Reformed.' From the teach- ings of Calvin came the congregational idea of Church government with its far-reaching political consequences. The Protestants of France, Hol- land, and .Scotland followed the guidance of Cal- vin, who maintained a constant correspondence with the leaders of the Reformed n?ovement in these countries. A little later, when persecution began in England, English exiles came to the Continent, imbibed the lessons of Calvinism, and carried them back to become the marrow of English Puritanism.