VI. CHAP. ings considerably irritated his kinsmen and neighbours, the dukes of Bavaria, he was glad to avail himself of the security of entering into the protestant league.1 Bishopric of Events at this time occurred also in the Naumburg. bishopric of Naumburg, in Thuringia, which 1529. tended to confirm and perfect the reformation in that diocese. So far back as the year 1520 one of the clergy, D. Pfenningius, preached evangelical doctrines there, but was imprisoned for life. During the rustic war the chapter allowed John Langer, afterwards pastor of Coburg, to be invited to the place: but five years afterwards, in consequence of the decree of the second diet of Spires, he was expelled. The people petitioned the provost of the cathedral, who was the patron of the parish church at Naumburg, to appoint a person who would preach to them the reformed doctrine; but he refused, and the church was in consequence deserted. In 1532 John Cramer began to preach to them the doctrines which they desired to hear, but he was obliged to flee from the city; and the people frequented country churches, particularly that of S. Maurice, which was almost in the suburbs, and the minister of which was nominated by the elector of Saxony. The progress of the reformation was not to be stopped by opposition; and in 1537 we find Nicholas à Medler become pastor and superintendant, and drawing up a form of worship approved by Luther and Melancthon. In 1541 he gained access into the cathedral, and preached there, though the canons and vicars continued the popish ceremonies. The same year the bishop died, and the chapter proceeded hastily to elect ! Seck. iii. 396, 397. was Julius Pflug for his successor. The elector of Saxony insisting that his concurrence necessary, and that the proceeding was in violation of his rights, refused to admit Pflug, and, after some deliberation, nominated Amsdorf, a friend of Luther's, before mentioned in this history. Amsdorf was of a family of rank, and had now been for eighteen years superintendant of Magdeburg, where so much mutual attachment subsisted between him and the people, that he was well content to remain with them, and they, on their part, offered every opposition which they with propriety could do to his removal. The elector, however, alleging the more extended interests of religion, which he hoped would thus be promoted, persisted in his nomination, and himself, with many other leading persons, attended his inauguration; on which occasion Luther preached, and took the principal part in the ceremony.1 The elector's proceedings in the exclusion of Pflug, and the installation of Amsdorf, have been much censured, though Luther wrote in defence of the measure.2 There seems no doubt that it proved highly irritating to the emperor, 1 Sleid. 288. Seck, iii. 387-395. 2 Seck. iii. 409-411.-Luther's taking upon him, in conjunction with other presbyters, to consecrate bishops, which he did on more occasions than one, would naturally be made the subject of much animadversion. I can offer no better apology for him than that made by bishop Atterbury, in his "Answer to some Considerations on the spirit of M. Luther, and the original of the Reformation, [written by Obadiah Walker, master of University College, and] printed at Oxford, 1687: ""That he made new bishops we admit ; not out of choice, but necessity; following, as he thought, in this case the practice of the church, mentioned in that wellknown passage of S. Austin's-In Alexandria, et per totam Egyptum, si desit episcopus, consecrat presbyter: but that he put these bishops in the places of the deceased, by his A. D. 1541. CHAP. who interested himself much on behalf of Pflug, and, when he was excluded, told him to bear it patiently for a time, and he should find that he made his cause his own. Accordingly Pflug was, in 1546, put in possession by Maurice, who then commanded an army in cöoperation with the emperor; and he retained the bishopric till his death in 1564, administering it with great moderation, and a near approach to protestant principles; while Amsdorf returned to Magdeburg, and subsequently retired to Isenach. Indeed the elector in this instance was disposed to outstrip the zeal of his divines. He proposed to appoint a bishop deprived of all the civil authority which his predecessors had exercised, and to suppress the canons and cathedral clergy altogether. Luther and others, however, dissuaded him from such measures, pointing out several things of an external nature which were best administered where such officers existed; and also the inconveniences which had arisen from destroying the connexion of superior families with the church, and thus removing the stimulus afforded to the cultivation of learning among persons of rank.-Prince George of Anhalt was the person whom Luther and his friends would have recommended for the bishopric, in preference to one of less distinguished rank, wishing, as they said, the elector to avail himself of this opportunity of exhibiting a bishop unexceptionably chosen, and a diocese administered in the most exemplary manner. Even their severest censurers must surely here admit their moderation, disinterestedness, and discretion.2 own authority, is notoriously false; for the duke of Saxony A. D. 1541. The protestants at this period had much confidence in the king of Denmark; but some distrust, it appears, had grown up among them Denmark of the king of Sweden. The same illustrious and Sweden. prince, Gustavus Vasa, who had in so vigorous and decisive a manner introduced the reformation into Sweden nearly twenty years before,1 still reigned over that country; and Luther on this occasion undertook to write to him, exhorting him to constancy in the true doctrine, and to good understanding with the elector of Saxony and the other protestant confederates. Gustavus replied to Luther in terms of respect and affection. The fact, he said, had been, that his advances had met with apparent neglect, and he thought it not therefore becoming his dignity to repeat them. It would be very acceptable to him, however, if through Luther's means any arrangement could be made between him and the confederate princes, conducive to the honour of God, the maintenance of divine truth in his dominions, and the best interests of his family and successors. In consequence a correspondence was opened, in the course of which Gustavus wrote to the elector and the landgrave, in the pious strain of which the following extract furnishes a specimen. "Nothing," he says, "could be more to his heart's desire, than that, through the divine illumination, and the influence of the Holy Spirit, the preaching of the pure and saving word of God should become universal, and be crowned with the greatest success: that he himself, as a Christian prince, and a member of the catholic church of Christ, had taken earnest care to promote this object in his kingdom: and he doubted not but 1 Milner v. 133-142. (710-720.) 1542. CHAP. of Metz; God would protect his work against all adversaries: as, however, both force and fraud were to be apprehended, he conceived it to be just, pious, and Christian to enter into alliance for the defence of their religion; and therefore, at the instance of his brother and neighbour Christiern king of Denmark, he professed himself ready to treat with the German princes upon that subject."-It is gratifying to trace such marks of ingenuous piety and zeal for religion, in a man on other grounds eminently distinguished as a patriot and a hero.-The result was his association in the protestant league.1 Attempted In other places reformation was desired and reformation attempted, but without success, or even with a calamitous issue. The latter was particularly the case at Metz, at that time a free imperial city, though since united to France. Numbers of the citizens, and not a,few of the senate, were attached to evangelical doctrine, as now preached to them by William Farel, a Frenchman; and considerable hopes were entertained that protestantism might here obtain an establishment, and thence spread into Lorrain and the neighbouring parts of France. The reformed party applied to the protestant league to be taken under their protection: but the elector doubted how far it would consist with their engagements to the emperor, to accede to this request; and Luther and Melancthon gave it as their opinion that it was in itself unwarrantable, to undertake the support of a minority, who could be considered but as private individuals, against the governing powers of their own state. They had great apprehensions also that it might, in this case, prove as inex 1 Seck. iii. 371, 372, 418. Gerdes. iii. 325-327. |