CHAP. emperor engaging to impose silence on the L divines of the popish as well as of the protestant party, and to appoint such preachers, exclusively, as all might hear without offence to their consciences. Though the sermons, therefore, which were preached, were very vapid and barren of scriptural truth, yet Seckendorf thinks the protestants were rather gainers than losers by the arrangement, as the minds of the persons assembled from all parts of Germany were prevented from being poisoned by the invectives of such preachers as Faber and Cochlæus.1

Devotions

peror and

It may deserve to be recorded, at least for of the Em- the purpose of shewing what the habits of the the Elector. times required and produced, that the day before the diet opened (being Sunday,) the emperor received the holy sacrament, and spent two hours of the evening in retired devotion, "besides the hour which he thus employed every morning."2 It is to be feared, that there is no breach of charity in suspecting that the emperor's prayers, at this period, at least, and for many years after, were marked by little of that sincerity which is the first element of "spiritual worship." His character and conduct, governed solely by the principles of an ambitious policy, force this judgment upon us. But, from the same decisive evidence of character, we may draw a different conclusion concerning

1 Sleid. 127. Seck. ii. 153, 155, 163-165, 181, 202.How much and how earnestly this question, concerning the preaching, was considered among the protestant leaders, may be learned from the Epistles of Melancthon, and particularly from Pezelius's Melancthonis, Consilia Theologica i. 102-109. On the subjects treated of by the preachers, Melancthon writes, "Nothing controversial is introduced, but edifying instruction concerning the Saviour, and such as is necessary for the reformation of men's lives."

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.' 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.

1.

On the twentieth of June the diet was opened with a long speech in the emperor's Opening of name, read by Frederic count palatine.

the Diet. June 20.

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.1 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 the same thing 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

"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 could 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 direct object of examination and attack to their opponents.1

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. Gerdes has given us his portrait, and a fuller account of him. Hist. Ref. i, 195–204. 1 Seck. ii. 203.

fession,

CHAP.

1.

ticularly in the seventeen articles prepared by 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 their 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 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 passsed 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.

2 Seck. ii. 181, &c. "In Apologiâ quotidie multa mutamus." Melanc. Ep. i. 2. 3 Seck. ii. 203.