CHAP. Measures adopted for tion there. Reforma 1539. stition and infidelity, and crying sins prevail." With this representation Melancthon's account, when he visited the country, too faithfully agrees. Scarcely in any other part of Germany," he says, "can I think that such barbarous and heathenish superstition is to be found."2 And again, answering the clergy themselves: "The greatest part of those who occupy the higher offices in the church teach not at all. In many places pastors are altogether wanting, while the canons enjoy the salaries, and do nothing for them in return. Wandering monks undertake to teach, who are either ignorant of the gospel themselves, or from interested motives confirm the people in idolatry. Your very churches, filled with a variety of statues, shew the state of religion among you. Here S. Ann is worshipped, there S. Mary, and there S. Servatius-who wears a purse about his neck, because he is thought to preserve the money of those who honour him. In short, images abound on every side, to which the people flock in crowds, and think this to be religion; while concerning true prayer to God, concerning Christ, and the real duties of piety, and the right discipline of the church, a profound silence reigns."3 Accordingly the book, which had been published after the synod of 1536, gave no satisfaction, and the archbishop himself, in proportion as his light increased, grew displeased with it. Hence we find him, three years afterwards, sending a confidential person to Melancthon to confer with him, and invite him to visit the archbishop that they might consult together 1 In Seck. iii. 442 (ee), 443 (2). 2 Ep. i. 74. iv. 298. concerning further reformation. Melancthon wrote to him commending his design, and suggesting important advice, but he did not visit Cologne till some years after this time. Alluding to the book which Gropper had drawn up, he says, "There is nothing so monstrous, that it may not be made to appear plausible by dexterous management, and the magic touch of a skilful sophister." 1 After the conferences at Ratisbon, it appears, Gropper mightily commended Bucer to the archbishop, as" of all men the fittest to be intrusted with the reformation of religion, as he was both very learned, a lover of peace, and of good and upright life :" on which the archbishop, who had some previous knowledge of him, sent for him to Cologne, where he was "most courteously received, particularly by Gropper; and, on parting with him, the archbishop made him promise to return when he should again send for him."2 Maimbourg would fain account for this part of Gropper's conduct, by saying, that Bucer was so wrought upon by the arguments of Gropper at Ratisbon, as to give him hopes of his returning to the catholic church. But there appears to be no foundation for this assertion: on the contrary, Bucer, in letters to the landgrave, declared, that Gropper either sincerely assented to the evangelical doctrine, or with solemn asseverations pretended it; whence he was not without hopes of his conversion; though, on the other hand, he had his fears, that the avarice of the man, which led him to grasp at one piece of preferment after another, 'Eput in 38. “Nihil tam surdum est, quod non possit efc: concianins, si calidi ar.tices adhibeant and pigmenta, sea, at Earcides vocat, se sasuana." Ive given the ranstation. 1 Sird. 243, 249. sense, rather than a close A. D. 1543. 1541. CHAP. might tempt him to disown the truth of which he was convinced.1 VII. 1541. 1543. The recess of Ratisbon (in which the pope's legate had concurred,) having enjoined on all prelates to promote "a holy reformation in their several provinces and dioceses "-which, however, was afterwards explained to mean a reformation of manners only, and not of doctrines or ceremonies-the archbishop availed himself of it, and called a convention of his states, which consisted of the clergy of the cathedral church, the nobles, and the deputies of cities, to take into consideration the complying with this authoritative recommendation. It was resolved that the work should be proceeded in: and the archbishop appointed persons to draw up a scheme of reformation, and to select able and faithful ministers to occupy the churches. When the plan was prepared, he sent it to the clergy of Cologne, desiring their judgment upon it, according to the sacred scriptures: but they shewed no disposition to comply with his demand. After a sufficient time therefore had elapsed, and nothing was to be expected from them, he again sent for Bucer, who came in December 1542, and was appointed by him to preach at Bonn, the seat of the archiepiscopal residence. He soon after called another convention of the states: but the clergy sent no deputies to it: the other orders, however, encouraged him to proceed, with the assistance of such persons as he might think proper to select. Accordingly, having solicited the elector of Saxony, and the landgrave of Hesse to send to him for a time Melancthon and Pistorius, he associated them with Bucer; and thus employed 1 Seck. iii. 437 (9), 560 (e). those very divines, whom the emperor had selected as the protestant collocutors at Ratisbon, to prepare his formulary of doctrine, of ceremonies, and of discipline. We may here observe, that, even before the elector and the landgrave received this application, those princes, on the suggestion of Bucer, that they would do well to strengthen the hands of " an old man who was tremulous and hesitating in his proceedings," had written to the archbishop a letter, his answer to which indicated the piety that appears to have governed his whole conduct. He thanked them for this token of their kindness, and for their offers of assistance, and declared that he "sought not himself in what he did, but the glory of God, and the salvation of his neighbour." 2 Melancthon gives the following account of the proceedings after the book of reformation was drawn up. "The aged prelate ordered the whole book to be read over to him in the presence of his coadjutor Schaumburg, count Stolberg the dean, several other principal persons, and myself. He listened to it with the closest attention, and discoursed much, in a serious and forcible manner, on many parts of it: some he, with good reason, altered according to his own. judgment, and on others, after discussion, he preferred our opinion to his own. To this employment he devoted a whole week, spending in it four or five successive hours every morning. I could not but admire the assiduity of the venerable old man; and I was struck with the seriousness with which he conducted the whole business-and of how much consequence that 'The archbishop was at this time seventy years of age. Seck. iii. 436 (3). A. D. 1543. VII. 1543. June. is, I need not tell you. He is become quite an acute judge in these controversies." 1 When he had thus carefully examined the book himself, he sent it to the clergy of Cologne, determined to be wanting in no attention to them; and then laid it before a convention of the states, desiring each order to appoint persons to consult together, and give their judgment upon it. The clergy, however, led by the canons of the cathedral church, (high-spirited men, all of them of noble families,) insisted that Bucer and the other preachers, whom the people flocked to hear,2 should be in the first instance dismissed, and desired time to be allowed them to examine the book, though they would not join the other orders in deliberating upon it. With the first of these demands the archbishop refused to comply, unless they could prove any thing against the persons whom they wished to be removed: in the second he indulged them, Opposition though he saw their design. Accordingly the course they took was, to publish, in opposition to the archbishop's book, a work entitled Antididagma, in the preface to which, "after a great deal of railing against the Lutherans, they professed in plain terms, that they would rather live under the Turk, than under a magistrate who should embrace and defend that reformation."3 This work likewise is ascribed to Gropper, both by Sleidan and Maimbourg. Another book also was published about the same time, 1 Melanc. Epist. iv. 304. Ep. vi. p. 34, 35, strengthens this account. "The book of heavenly wisdom was placed by his side, in Luther's version, and he frequently sought out in it the passages quoted, that he might consider them in their connexion....I know that few shew such discernment," &c. See also i. 74; iii. 76; iv. 298; vi. p. 297. 2 Ib. i. 74. 3 Sleid. 310, 311. |