wealth, or their luxury. He proposed, therefore, that the subject should be taken up by the princes generally: that they should make it a common cause, and urge it upon the clergy that a reformation must and should take place. The scriptures and the first four councils he wished to be made the rule whereby this reformation should be conducted; as likewise such practices of the church as could be shewn to be of eight hundred or a thousand years standing; but that what was not thus sanctioned should be abolished. He thought that they might depart a little from the strict rule of scripture, for the sake of concord. These suggestions, he said, he submitted not by the authority of his master; yet ye knew that they corresponded with his sentiments; and he thought they would meet the views of the emperor, who, though he could not at the present crisis forfeit the support of the pope, yet would not be sorry to have reformation more loudly demanded of him by the princes. He proposed, therefore, that select persons should meet at Leipsic, at the time of the next fair, to draw up a scheme of reformation upon these principles, which should afterwards be submitted to a council to be held in Germany. A conference did in consequence take place at Leipsic, in January 1539. Luther said, nothing was to be expected from it. He did not, however, disapprove of Melancthon's being deputed with Pontanus to attend it. They met Carlevitz and Fachsius, commissioned by duke George, and Bucer with the chancellor of Hesse, sent by the landgrave. Carlevitz, however, here rather drew back from the proposals which he had formerly made; there appeared reason to suspect that the whole had been the contrivance of a man, who had so entirely forfeited A. D. 1539. CHAP. V. Reformation of Ducal Saxony. Henry arrived at Dresden the same evening, and was received with every demonstration of respect and of joy; even those, who during George's lifetime had declared that they would leave all behind them, and go into exile, rather than witness any change of religion, now vying with one another in their testimonies of regard for their new master. So great is the difference between a dead prince and a living one! Maimbourg represents the change of religion which ensued as rapid indeed: "At Leipsic, Luther, in one day, and by one sermon turned the whole city from catholic to protestant!" And his remark upon it is in all respects worthy of its author. "So frail," says he, "is the foundation of the religion of these miserable nations, who are ever ready to embrace, not what may be pleasing to God, but what may gratify their princes."2 Nothing could be more contrary to the fact in the present instance. The truth is, as Dr. Robertson has justly stated, that the people "had long wished for this change, which the authority of their duke alone had hitherto prevented." 3 But the proceedings in this important case, which was big with great consequences to Germany, deserve to be more particularly related. Henry, it is to be observed, was a man of rather inferior talents. He was now also become old and feeble; 5 and his zeal in the protestant cause, though sincere, can hardly, I fear, be shewn to have been so warm and persevering as that of his predecessor had been❝ 'Seck. iii. 213, 214. 2 Ib. iii. 208. Ib. iii. 217, and, at 244, the testimony of Card. Sadolet. * Ib. 159 (7). 5 Ib. 214 (9). 6 Robertson, above. Compare Seck. iii. 223 (2). that, in the embassy sent to him with these proposals, he seemed to himself to behold an image of Satan offering to Christ the kingdoms of the world and the glory of them, on condition that he should fall down and worship him.1 -Henry was next desired to send over immediately some trusty persons, to whom more acceptable terms might be proposed: and he in consequence himself set out for Dresden on the seventeenth of April, but was met on the road by messengers announcing the death of George on that same day. George was sixty-eight years of age, and had been for some weeks confined to his bed; so that he had not been able personally to consult with his ambassadors on their return from his brother Henry, nor to sign the will respecting which he had been so anxious, though his chancellor had waited upon him early in the morning for that purpose.2 The pastor of Dresden, when George's death approached, exhorted him to call upon S. James, whom he had ever considered as in a special manner his patron saint: but some noblemen, standing by, repelled the priest, and exhorted the duke to call upon Christ, which he accordingly did in few but emphatic words.-George was a person of talents, and of many social virtues as a man and a prince, but a bigoted and persecuting zealot in the cause of popery"most unhappy," as Seckendorf observes, "in his aversion to the light of the gospel which had arisen upon him.” 3 1 Sleid. 249. Compare Seck. iii. 212 (5). " It would seem also that there were other informalities in the will; and indeed that it was so drawn, as not to convey, even if it had possessed any validity, the sovereignty to the house of Austria. Seck. iii. 214 (9). 3 Seck. iii. 208, 212. A. D. 1539. CHAP. V. Reforma- Henry arrived at Dresden the same evening, and was received with every demonstration of respect and of joy; even those, who during George's lifetime had declared that they would leave all behind them, and go into exile, rather than witness any change of religion, now vying with one another in their testimonies of regard for their new master. So great is the difference between a dead prince and a living one! Maimbourg represents the change of religion which ensued as rapid indeed: "At Leipsic, Luther, in one day, and by one sermon turned the whole city from catholic to protestant!" And his remark upon it is in all respects worthy of its author. "So frail," says he, "is the foundation of the religion of these miserable nations, who are ever ready to embrace, not what may be pleasing to God, but what may gratify their princes."2 Nothing could be more contrary to the fact in the present instance. The truth is, as Dr. Robertson has justly stated, that the people "had long wished for this change, which the authority of their duke alone had hitherto prevented." "3 But the proceedings in this important case, which was big with great consequences to Germany, deserve to be more particularly related. Henry, it is to be observed, was a man of rather inferior talents. He was now also become old and feeble; 5 and his zeal in the protestant cause, though sincere, can hardly, I fear, be shewn to have been so warm and persevering as that of his predecessor had been 1 Seck. iii. 213, 214. 2 Ib. iii. 208. * Ib. iii. 217, and, at 244, the testimony of Card. Sadolet. in the opposite interest. He had the wisdom, however, to place himself under the direction of the elector and other able counsellors, and under their guidance he at present proceeded with vigour and success. A. D. 1539. from The first opposition offered to his designs was Opposition from king Ferdinand, who urged that the ex- Ferdinand, tension of the reformation was contrary to the pacification of Nuremberg, and the convention of Francfort, and that its introduction into Henry's new dominions would be a violation of the rights of the bishops of Misnia and Mersburg. Henry found it not difficult, however, to reply to these arguments.1 Bishop of The bishop of Misnia himself next addressed and the him, deprecating unlawful and unnecessary Misnia. innovations. He proposed to introduce all proper reformation himself, and sent to the duke by his dean, Julius Pflug, (a name afterwards distinguished in these controversies,) a sort of Necessary Erudition of a Christian man,' consisting of 195 folio pages, which he proposed to make the basis of reformation. Henry sent the book to the elector, desiring his judgment and that of his divines upon it; and the manuscript exists to this day at Weimar, with the marginal annotations of Luther, Melanethon, and Pontanus, and accompanied by a letter of considerable length, in which the two former, with Justus Jonas, deliver their sentiments concerning it. It appears to be specious, to have borrowed much from the reformers,2 where this could be done without impugning Romish tenets, and to be such a document as "had not before proceeded from episcopal 1 Seck. iii. 214. add. 3. "Testantur se ornatuin." commentum reperisse-suis plumis |