A. D. 1530. 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 presented. 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. 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. CHAP. 1. read, June 25. On this occasion Ferdinand was observed to whisper in his brother's ear, and was suspected of making suggestions unfriendly to the protestants; though afterwards, Seckendorf observes, when he knew them better, he was more favourably disposed towards them. 1 On Saturday therefore, the twenty-fifth of June, the princes and dignitaries of the empire, with the representatives of such as were personally absent, assembled-none but official characters being admitted; 2 and the protestant princes, and the deputies of the imperial cities of Nuremberg and Reutlingen, with Christian Bayer, the elector's chancellor, and Pontanus presented themselves-Bayor bearing a German, and Pontanus a Latin copy of the Confession. The elector and his companions proposed to stand during the reading, but the emperor desired them to take their seats. Bayer and Pontanus therefore came forward into the middle. The emperor wished the Latin copy to be read: but the elector, proposing his request in terms, which would have made it unpopular to reject it, said, "as we are in Germany, I trust your majesty will allow us to speak German ;" and the emperor assented. Bayer therefore read deliberately, and in so audible a voice as to be heard beyond the hall, in the court below, the whole of the Confession and its appendages -which occupied him two hours. When he had finished, both the copies were offered to the imperial secretary, but the emperor himself took the Latin one, and then courteously dismissed the assembly, causing it to be signified to the parties, that he would take the subject into his most serious consideration.3 1 Seck. ii. 169. Hane, Hist. Ref. ii, 9. 3 Seck. ii. 170, et ibi Maimburg. A. D. 1530. reading. This public reading of a document which asserted and maintained all the great principles of protestantism, and openly impugned the Luther's errors, doctrinal and practical, of the church of joy at the Rome, was to Luther, amidst all the discouragements and anxieties under which he had to console his friends at Augsburg, a matter of great triumph and devout exultation. He thus writes to the elector the very day on which he had received his highness's letters: "Our adversaries think they have succeeded to admiration, in procuring the preaching to be stopped by an imperial prohibition: but, poor men! they do not perceive, that, by the exhibition of a written confession to the emperor, more is done to make known and propagate our doctrine, then perhaps ten preachers could have effected. Islebius, it is true, and the other divines are silenced: but forth come the elector of Saxony and the other princes and lords, with a written confession of faith in their hands, and preach, with all possible freedom, before his imperial majesty and the whole empire, in the view of all the world, so that they are forced to hear, and can say nothing against it....Truly Christ is not silent in the diet!... Thus is that accomplished which is written, The word of God is not bound. No: if it is prohibited in pulpits, it shall be heard in the palaces of kings." If the public reading of the Confession, even alone, were such a subject of rejoicing, much more might it be so when taken in connexion with the wide extended publication of it, which soon followed, and with its being made to this day the doctrinal standard of so large and 1 Which was not, however, it would seem, till the 9th of July. 2 Agricola. 3 Seck. ii. 183. CHAP. 1. Its effects. so respectable a section of the Christian world. The printing of the Confession, or of any thing relating to it, was indeed for the present forbidden; but it was soon translated into numerous languages, and manuscript copies were dispersed in all the courts of Europe.1 But, in fact, the immediate effects of the Confession were such as to justify a large portion of the joy and triumph which Luther expressed on the occasion. Mosheim says, "The princes heard it with the deepest attention and recollection of mind: it confirmed some in the principles they had embraced; surprised others; and many, who before this time had little or no idea of the religious sentiments of Luther, were now not only convinced of their innocence, but moreover delighted with their purity and simplicity." 2 In conformity with this description, the manuscript narrative abstracted by Seckendorf observes, that "many eminently wise and prudent persons pronounced a favourable judgment of what they had heard, and declared they would not have missed hearing it for a great Father Paul also observes, "It is not Archbishop Sum." 3 to be omitted that cardinal Matthew Langi, archbishop of Salzburg, told every one," after hearing the Confession, "that the reformation of the mass was becoming, the liberty of meats proper, and the demand to be disburdened of so many commandments of men, just: but that a poor monk should reform all was not to be en of Salzburg. 1 Seck. ii. 171. Scultetus (156) says, the emperor himself sent copies to the principal sovereigns of Europe for their opinion and advice respecting it. It was translated into Italian for the pope, who was but a poor Latinist! Melch. Adam. Vit. Lutheri. 68. 2 Mosh. iii. 354. 3 Seck. ii. 203. dured." "The archbishop of Salzburg would A. D. 1530. Augsburg. But of another prelate, Christopher von Sta- Bishop of dion, bishop of Augsburg, we have a much more promising account. After After hearing the Confession, he is related to have said, "What has been recited is true; pure truth; we cannot deny it." 2 And some time after, when he was among the commissioners appointed to bring about, if possible, an agreement between the parties, the following occurrence took place. 1 F. Paul, 52. Luther also refers to this speech in his Warning to the Germans. Seck. iii. 5. It immediately follows in F. Paul, "Cornelius Scoper, the emperor's secretary, said, that, if the protestants had money, they would easily buy of the Italians what religion pleased them best: but that, without gold, it was impossible to make their's shine in the world." 2 Seck. ii. 170. |