CHAP. V. Joachim II. was ever ready to conform itself: but here we find the popular torrent in favour of reformation was so strong, and that not only among the lower orders, but even in the assembled "states" of the provinces, that the most powerful and most zealous catholic princes, ecclesiastical as well as civil, were obliged to give way to it! The history of Joachim II. will be found interesting. The reader will have in remembrance the zeal of his father for popery at the period of the diet of Augsburg. It was so great as led him to carry persecution into the bosom of his His mother own family. He had married Elizabeth the sister of Christiern II, the (expelled) king of Denmark, and niece of John, elector of Saxony. She was inclined to the doctrine of the reformers, and had received the sacrament in both kinds. and sister. Her own daughter, named also Elizabeth, was the person to discover this to Joachim, who was so incensed that he confined her to her own apartments, and was understood to be taking measures for her perpetual imprisonment. In consequence of this she fled from Berlin, and came to her uncle the elector of Saxony in a mere rustic car, and with only one female attendant. This was in the year 1528. The elector received her, and she continued in his dominions till the year 1546. Here she cultivated the acquaintance of Luther, and sometimes spent several months together at his house, deeply engaged in the study of the word of God.i It is remarkable that the daughter who thus betrayed her own mother," not indeed "to death," but to bonds or to exile, herself, within ten years, embraced the faith she had, not in this instance only but in others,2 laboured " to 1 Luth. and Spalatin. in Seck. ii. 122. 2 Seck. iii. 90, 91. destroy," and became, zealous in its support. The elector of Saxony, indeed, looked upon both her sincerity and her prudence with some distrust but his caution seems to have been in this instance excessive: she continued steadfast in the good cause, and after the death of her husband, Eric duke of Brunswick, effected the full reformation of that dutchy.' ; A. D. 1539. His Such being the temper and the principles of the elder Joachim, there could be no doubt education. of the care which would be taken, in the education of his son and heir, to fix him in the tenets of the Romish church. This was made an object of special attention, both to Joachim himself and to his brother the archbishop of Mentz and, as if to render the barrier thus placed around the young man insurmountable, he was married to the daughter of the inveterate George duke of Saxony. An apparently accidental circumstance, however, defeated all these precautions. In the year 1519, the younger Joachim, while yet only a boy of fourteen, accompanied his father to Francfort, to the diet which raised Charles V. to the imperial throne. On the way, His impres at Wittemberg, he happened to hear Luther sion in discourse on the articles of the Christian faith, Protestantand particularly on that of justification; and ism. was much captivated with him. Thus appears to have been sown in the mind of the youth that seed, which, fostered by his mother's pious care, afterwards expanded itself; and to this occurrence, probably, it may be traced that Prussia is at the present day a protestant kingdom!2 1 Seck. ii. 122, iii. 182. 2 It is true, that the reformation of East Prussia had been previously effected by Albert, Joachim's cousin ; (Milner, v. 177. (757.) but the whole at length came under the electoral branch of the family. Robertson, ii. 342. favour of CHAP. V. His accession. 1535. Several years indeed passed, as might have been expected, ere the impression which had been made produced its effects, and ere Joachim was brought openly to avow himself on the side of the reformation. During the lifetime of his father, however, in the year 1532, while he was himself leading the troops of Saxony to the Turkish war, we find him in correspondence with Luther, and affording to the reformer much satisfaction by the spirit which he manifested. In 1535, his father died, and he succeeded him: and the next year the landgrave addressed to him a very excellent letter, which we should have had greater pleasure in quoting, had the character of its author been more consistent with the principles he professed. It was designed to confirm Joachim in his attachment to scriptural doctrine, and to excite him to a bold avowal of it. "You know," says the writer, "that we must all die, and that the time of our death is altogether uncertain you know also the words of Christ, What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? Many," he observes," and one in particular,2 would aim to draw him away from the truth of the gospel ; but he trusts he would stand firm, alike against threats and caresses, and prefer the glory of God to all that the world could offer." 3-Still, however, Joachim had not the courage to act up to this advice, or various considerations restrained and, I fear we must say, ensnared him. From his accession, indeed, he willingly connived at the introduction of evangelical teachers among his subjects; but it was slowly and gradually that he was induced to go fur1 Seck. iii. 40 (4). 2 George, the landgrave's father-in-law, as well as Joachim's. 3 Seck. iii. 125. ther.1 His brother, John, marquis of Brandenburgh-Anspach, outstripped him in his religious course, by publicly establishing the reformation in his territories, in the year 1538. At length, however, perhaps excited by his brother's example, Joachim adopted more decisive measures, and, in the year 1539, published such an ecclesiastical regulation, both for doctine and discipline, as could scarcely have been surpassed, especially under the head of doctrine, had Luther himself drawn A. D. 1539. Regulation. tion : it up. From this document, a few passages, bearing His eccleespecially upon the great doctrine of justifica- siastical tion, may deserve to be transcribed. They will shew, how uniformly that doctrine, upon this fundamental point, which numbers to this day so much revile, and numbers more by every refinement, or rather perversion, strive to evade, was maintained by the reformers of different countries. "This," says the regulation, "is Justificathe chief topic of all, and herein lies the whole sum of the gospel, namely, in its being taught clearly and purely, and held fast even unto death, in spite of all contradiction that can be offered to it, that we obtain the remission of sins, justification, and final and eternal salvation, by the mere grace of God, and only through faith in the redemption of Christ, and by no worthiness, work, or desert of our own." The necessity of retaining the exclusive term only" that we are justified by faith only, without our own works "-is then insisted on; and the term is affirmed to be fully borne out by the tenor of scripture, and to be indispensable to the purity of the doctrine,2 and to the 1 Seck. iii. 234, 182. 2 Above, p. 89 99. CHAP. how to be preached. peace and safety of distressed consciences; and many," it is declared, "who now preach concerning faith, but avoid this assertion of its exclusive efficacy, are to be regarded as suspicious and dangerous teachers."-The regulation then proceeds to answer those who reproach, and those also who abuse the doctrine, as if it superseded the necessity of good works. "The true statement is by no means to be abandoned or obscured on account of such persons. The doctrine of the divine law is in the first instance to be inculcated. The suitable fruits of repentance and faith are to be required. The power and nature of faith are to be explained, which are such, that it cannot exist in a heart that is hard, proud, ungodly, and insensible of sin and of the divine wrath against it for faith is no cold and idle opinion; on the contrary it is earnest, efficacious, and active; so that the soul which seriously believes, and apprehends first the anger of God on account of its sin, and then his grace independently of any merits of its own, cannot but be filled with unspeakable joy and hope and consolation, derived from the grace of God, and with ardent love towards him; and, as he commands, towards its neighbour also. Hence proceed all good works"-which the paper then describes in detail. After having done this, it remarks: "The term only, annexed to faith, by no means faith only excludes these, as if they were not to be done : for it is one thing to do good works, and another to be saved by them. They are to be done, but they avail not to salvation: therefore the Son of God must die; and to this point [that is, to our becoming interested in his salvation] faith The term 1 In Seck. iii. 237. |