eight hundred persons, to quit his dominions. In corresponding with these people, Luther had advised them to suffer all extremities rather than receive the eucharist, contrary to their consciences, in the popish mode, and had, no doubt with a harshness which was reprehensible, and could only do harm, styled George an "apostle" or emissary "of the devil." This coming to the ears of the duke highly incensed him, and he in consequence made a vehement appeal to the elector, charging Luther with exciting his subjects to sedition. The elector admonished the reformer to be more circumspect, or it would not be in his power to screen him. Luther, however, wrote in his own vindication, and subjoined a consolatory epistle to the exiles.1 This treatment of the citizens of Leipsic was only a specimen of the severity, with which George proceeded against those who yielded not implicit submission to the rules of the church. Fabricius, in his Origines Saxonicæ,2 gives an account of equal cruelties practised in Misnia against such as presumed to eat forbidden meats, to frequent any other than their parish churches, or to receive the sacrament otherwise than the papal ritual prescribed. Priests guilty of such offences were subjected to torture: others were sentenced to perpetual imprisonment, or died of want, or from the stench of the places in which they were confined and these were buried by the hangman, or other base officer, in waste ground where the dead bodies of unclean animals were cast. Some were sent into exile, with merely a cloth thrown over them, having in it a rent, through 2 1 Sleid. 167, 168. Seck. iii. 39, 55-59. Lib. vii. p. 874. A. D. 1538. CHAP. III. Extension formation. which their heads were passed: "and this," says the narrator, "I myself have seen at Dresden." -Luther wrote to these exiles also, exhorting them to be peaceable and patient, for that "the fury of the duke would not last long; nor would it go unpunished."1 Yet all George's severities could not prevent of the Re- the progress of protestant principles, even among his ministers, and his own near relatives. On these grounds Anthony à Schönberg, a man of high family, and brother to a cardinal, forfeited the duke's favour, and incurred persecution from him. Others of the same family manifested similar sentiments, particularly Ernest, who had commanded the duke's troops in the rustic war, and had himself been very tenacious of the established rites. When death approached, he wrote to George, requesting that he would permit him to "receive Christ's testament as Christ had himself appointed, namely, entire in both its parts; " and, not being able to prevail for such indulgence, he made application to the elector, to send him a pious and learned minister to instruct him, and administer the sacrament to him. This was accordingly done. -George's daughter-in-law also, Elizabeth sister to the landgrave of Hesse, conceived such scruples, as made her refuse to receive the sacrament according to the papal usage.2 But indeed the extension of the reformation at this period was rapid. "The religious truce concluded at Nuremberg," says Mosheim, “inspired with new vigour and resolution the friends of the reformation. It gave strength to the feeble, and perseverance to the bold. Encouraged by it, those, who had hitherto been 2 Ib. 69, 128, 223. 1 Seck. iii. 69. only secret enemies to the Roman pontiff, spurned now his yoke publicly, and refused to submit to his imperious jurisdiction. This appears from the various cities and provinces in Germany, which about this time boldly enlisted themselves under the standard of Luther."1 To some of the instances here referred to, our attention may now be more particularly turned. A. D. 1533. completed. The elector of Saxony, at the instance of the Visitation states under his jurisdiction, early availed him- of Saxony self of the confidence inspired by the pacification, to complete that ecclesiastical visitation of his dominions, by commissioners, partly lay and partly clerical, which had been begun some years before, but never finished. This appears (1528.) to have been conducted to the great advancement of religion, by the removal of scandalous priests, the rooting out of the remainders of superstition, the promoting of sound instruction, both among youth and persons of mature age, the making provision for the preservation of ecclesiastical edifices, and for the maintenance of the clergy. In these latter duties, the people, since they were relieved from the burdens imposed under the ancient system, had, as we have seen, shewn themselves very remiss: and some appropriations were now made for the purpose, from the funds of the monasteries and other abrogated institutions.-On this occasion also the reformation was first extended to the seventy parishes" of Swartzburg in Thuringia, and to some places not immediately under the elector's authority, particularly in Voightland in Misnia.3 Three years afterwards, the same pious prince materially augmented the endowment of the 2 Milner v. 490. (1089.) 1 Mosh. iii. 361. 1536. III. duke of Cleves. 1533. CHAP. university of Wittemberg; on which occasion he thankfully acknowledges what God had wrought by means of that institution, and especially through the instrumentality of Luther and Melancthon-"making manifest," he says, "the true and Christian understanding of his word, to the comfort and salvation of all men.”1 Edict of the In the same year with the visitation of Saxony a movement took place in the dutchy of Cleves, in Westphalia, from which more, perhaps, might at first have been expected than actually followed. The duke John (father of Sibylla, wife to the elector of Saxony, and of Ann, afterwards married to Henry VIII. of England,) issued a long edict, containing very particular directions for the reformation of the church in his dominions. Many of these regulations were excellent; as, that "the Old and New Testaments should be the rule according to which ministers should preach, so as to lead men to the true knowledge of Christ, to charity, obedience, peace, and amendment of life" that they should teach, "that the written word of God contained every thing necessary to salvation, and that the people should implore Almighty God to open their minds to the true understanding of it: that, with respect to more obscure passages, no arbitrary sense was to be put upon them, but that they were to be interpreted according to the context, and by the help of passages which were more clear: that what the scriptures taught, which was above reason, was not to be attempted to be confirmed by arguments drawn from reason, but received with a simple faith that the evil of sin was to be demonstrated from the death of Christ, who suffered for sins not his 'Seck. iii. 142. own that faith consists not in a slight assent, but in a firm persuasion of all things taught in scripture, and in a sincere reliance on the grace promised through Christ: and that no one is interested in the promises, who does not study to obey the commands of God." Yet, with all these excellent principles, the promulgator of this edict retained many of the superstitious usages of popery, very much after the manner of Erasmus in his treatise on concord, lately reviewed ; and the whole is certainly chargeable with prescribing too much, both in matters of faith and of religious observance. In this, Seckendorf suspects that there was some artful management on the part of those who drew up the edict-especially since, all being in the name of the prince alone, to whom the church of Rome allowed no authority in such matters, the whole would more easily, under a change of circumstances, be declared null and void. Accordingly, partly perhaps from this cause, but still more from its motley character, it was productive of little fruit in the dutchy; and might thus be considered as furnishing a specimen of what Erasmus's plans were likely to effect.' A. D. 1533. tion desired 1533. The rays of evangelical truth, it appears, had Reformaalso penetrated into Italy, and even to the very in Italy. heart of the papal dominions; and we find at this time a remarkable address in favour of reformation, made by some distinguished citizens of Bologna to John Planitz, the elector's ambassador at the court of the emperor, then held in that city-which formed part of the territories of the church. The design of the address was, to entreat Planitz most seriously to urge the emperor to procure a council, which the 1 Seck. iii. 66-68. · |