sion concerning those of the good elector of Saxony. He, we are told, after hearing the opening speech in the diet, called together his associates, the friends of the reformation, and exhorted them to an intrepid assertion of the cause of God and religion; and the next morning, having ordered all his counsellors and attendants to retire, he poured forth most fervent supplications to God for the success of the great business in hand: and then, for the confirmation of his own mind, committed to writing some things which Dolzig (his ambassador to the emperor,) and Melancthon are said to have perused with admiration. 1 How edifying is such an exhibition of the spirit with which this pious prince and his associates met the dangers of the present crisis, and entered upon the arduous service to which they were called, and with which the honour of God, and the liberties and the salvation of men were so closely connected.2 1 Seck. ii. 168, 169. 2 It appears that, though the emperor severely inhibited the publication, on the part of the protestants, of any of the proceedings at Augsburg, he sanctioned, and protected by a penalty, the publication, on the part of their adversaries, of a very injurious representation of the transactions, drawn up by a person who was not present. This produced a full relation of all that passed, by one intimately acquainted with the whole-" perhaps," says Seckendorf, by" Pontanus himself" which exists in MS. in the library of Saxe Weimar, and which Seckendorf thinks would be better worth publication than most things that have appeared relative to these events. He gives an abstract of it, ii. 202-206. According to this writer it would seem, that few on the catholic side exhibited the same decorum and appearance of piety that the emperor did. Some of the principal persons, he says, and he is speaking especially of the ecclesiastics, openly," in the sight of the whole city carried in and out with them two or three harlots, and spent their time in dice and other games, while only here and there one made prayers C A. D. 1530. CHAP. the Diet. June 20. On the twentieth of June, the diet was opened with a long speech in the emperor's Opening of name, read by Frederick count palatine. It turned principally upon two points. The first, was the necessity of adopting vigorous measures against the Turks, who, under their sultan Solyman, had taken Belgrade, conquered Rhodes, (at that time the seat of the knights of St. John of Jerusalem, and the bulwark of Christendom,) recently besieged Vienna, and, in short, threatened all Europe. The other point was, the unhappy religious differences' in Germany. The speech concluded with inviting the princes and states to unfold their sentiments concerning the existing discords and abuses: but it was observed, that it did this more coldly than it had been done in the summons issued for the diet; which proposed "a friendly discussion, and charitable settlement of the points in dispute," and that an opportunity should be afforded of " explaining and rectifying what had been said or done amiss by either party."2 to God for the success of the important business at issue." -Can we conceive less than judicial infatuation in such conduct, under the eye of all the princes and states of Germany, and at a time when the corruptions of the Romish church threatened to prove fatal to its interests? That this is no libellous account we may conclude, as from many other proofs, so particularly from the report of the cardinals and others appointed by pope Paul III, a few years afterwards, to draw up a plan for the reformation of the church. Mosheim, iii. 368. See also Milner, v. 185, 186, 349. (766, 941.) Among the "Hundred Grievances" of Germany, one was the shameful exactions of the clergy for licences to keep concubines. 112. (687.) 1 Sleid. 127-129. 2 Seck. ii. 150, 151, 168.-Mercurinus Gattinara, the emperor's chief minister, who was friendly to reformation, and so desirous of peaceable counsels, that he seems, when very ill, to have followed his master at the risk of his life, in A. D. 1530. subject. It was agreed on all hands that the subject of religion should first come under consideration. The interest which both parties took in Religion the question would naturally lead to such an the first arrangement; and it was obvious that some termination must be put, or some healing means applied, to the internal divisions of the empire, before the attempt would be successfully made, to unite it against its foreign enemies. On the twenty-second of June, therefore, the emperor gave notice to the elector of Saxony and his friends, that at the next session, to be held on the twenty-fourth, they should present a summary of their faith, and an account of the reformation of abuses, which they demanded. According to the terms of the summons and the emperor's letters, the one party, as well as the other, should have been required to present the articles of their faith upon the points in question: the protestants however alone, as being the innovators, were thus called upon, and the catholics were saved the trouble and peril of presenting a direet object of examination and attack to their opponents. 1 fession 19 The elector and his friends were prepared to The Conmeet the demand made upon them. The Confession,' or, as it was at that time called, 'The Apology,' had been drawn up for some time. Luther had furnished the materials, par order to promote them, was alive when the summons was issued, but died before the diet assembled. (Seck. ii. 151, and 157.) His name (Mercurinus) frequently occurs in the letters of Erasmus and Melancthon, and every where he appears to bear a high character. Sentiments delivered by him in the prospect of the impending crisis, and indicative of a truly serious and pious mind, are recorded in a letter of Spalatinus, in Seck. ii. 157. Gerdesius has given us his portrait, and a fuller account of him. Hist. Ref. 1 Seck. ii. 203. CHAP. ticularly in the Seventeen Articles prepared by I. the elector's command, and presented to him at Torgau in the month of March: but it received its form from the clear and eloquent pen of Melancthon, who indeed was revising and retouching it, to the very last moment, with a minute anxiety which Luther thought very superfluous.2 At the time appointed, therefore, the diet assembled, and the parties attended. It was four o'clock in the afternoon before business commenced; and much time was then spent in receiving the credentials of Campeggio, the legate, and in hearing from him a long Latin oration, to which the elector of Mentz, by the emperor's command, replied, assuring the papal representative, that "both the emperor and the states of the empire would discharge their duty, in a manner that should be approved by God, by the pope, and by all men." After this the Austrian ambassadors were heard, representing the calamities which that part of the empire had suffered, and the further danger to which it was exposed, from the Turks, and imploring that all proper measures might be adopted for its safety. This late commencement of business, and long occupation in preliminary matters, would seem all to have been arranged to furnish the emperor with a more plausible pretext for refusing to hear the confession read:3 for, as to give it all possible publicity was an object with those who presented it, so to have it passed over with as little notice as might be was the aim of their adversaries.. 1 Milner, v. 560. (1163.) The Articles of Torgau are given by Scultetus, 154, 155. Seck. ii. 181, &c. "In Apologiâ quotidie multa mutamus." Melanc, Ep. i. 2. 3 Seck. ii. 203. At length the stage was open, and the elector arose, attended by the several princes his friends, and standing near the throne, by Pontanus his ex-chancellor, (a man of eminent piety, eloquence, and experience in affairs, who had been forced to retire from office through ill health,) entreated to have the "apology," which they had prepared, read, "that their real doctrines, and the observances of their religion, might be known, and that the great misapprehensions, and the consequent odium, under which they lay, might be removed." With this request, however, the emperor refused to comply; ordering the papers to be delivered to him, and promising to hear them the next day in private. To this the princes earnestly and strenuously objected, and pressed for permission to read them in the full diet-urging that the case was one which concerned their reputation, their fortunes, their lives, and even the salvation of their souls; and that, as the emperor graciously condescended to hear inferior persons, upon much less important matters, such an indulgence might reasonably be expected by them: and, at all events, they pleaded to be allowed to retain their papers in their own hands till they could be heard.2-At length he agreed that they should retain them, and that he would hear them the next day; not, however, in the full diet, but in the hall, which served the purpose of a chapel, in the episcopal palace where he resided, and which would hold about two hundred persons.3 1 See his Life in Melch. Adami Vit. Germ. Jurisconsult. 51-53. He will be further noticed in the appendix. 2 They too well knew that, if once previously examined in private, their papers would never be heard in public. 3 Sleid. 129. Seck. ii. 168-170. A. D. 1530. presented: |