in the name of " the secondary clergy of Cologne," professedly against Bucer, but in reality against the reformation at large. It was answered both by Bucer and Melancthon. They speak of "a pampered Carmelite monk, a votary of Bacchus and Venus, and one more conversant in the loose comedies of Plautus than in the holy scriptures, having been employed to draw it up: 2 and such was the nature of its contents in certain parts, that Melancthon seriously charges those who sanctioned its publication with having sent into the world a book calculated to debauch the minds of youth.3 While these things were going on, the archbishop attended in person the diet of Spires, and there expressed his sentiments with great freedom. "Reformation," he said, "was a duty incumbent not only upon ecclesiastical but upon civil rulers, and both one and the other sinned grievously if they postponed it even for an hour. For his own part, he was determined to go forward in the course on which he had entered; and he thought it a general rule, that, if the bishops would not do it, the princes ought to take the lead in this cause of indispensable necessity." The next step, which his refractory clergy took, was to threaten him with an appeal to 1 Seck. iii. 438-441. Melanc. Op. ii. 93. &c. or Pezelii Consil. Melanc. i. 538, &c. Melanc. Ep. iii. 75. Seck. iii. 560 (d). Everard Billicus was the person intended. The authors of this work roundly ascribe "to the Lutheran heresy the rustic war and the other commotions of Germany, the sweating sickness of England, and other epidemic diseases, and the eruption of the Turks, with the disasters which followed:" nay they say it was so evidently the cause of all these evils, that they must be "blind who will not see it." Seck. iii. 439 (i). 4 Ib. iii. 474. A. D. 1543. 1544. CHAP. VII. the pope and the emperor. They accordingly drew one up, containing heavy charges against the archbishop, as subverting the established order of the church, and forcing upon his clergy and people the doctrines and practices of the Lutheran heresy, and moreover as " introducing every where lewd and profligate wretches under the character of teachers of religion." Having made him acquainted with this appeal, and received his answer, that he "had done nothing but what was his duty, and that he was determined to proceed in those things which concerned the glory of God and the reformation of the church;" they formally signed and transmitted their appeal, procuring the bishops of Liege and Utrecht, and the university of Louvain to concur with them in it, and excluding from the right of voting, as accused persons, such of their own number as disagreed with them.1 The archives of Weimar here supply some additional and interesting particulars, not recorded by Sleidan, whom we have hitherto principally followed in this account. It appears that about the close of the year 1544, probably after the appeals were transmitted, but before they were formally received, the canons of Cologne, at the suggestion of the pope and the emperor, sent a deputation to Herman, again urging him to abandon his designs, and, in case he refused to do so, to renounce their allegiance to him. He promptly told them, that it was "not in their power to release themselves from the obligation of their oaths, and that the pretence to do so was a matter of very ill example." For the rest, after taking time to 1 Sleid. 340, 341, 374. advise with his counsellors, he answered, "That he had not hitherto acted without consideration, or from levity of mind, but that for more than fifteen years past he had been deliberating with his friends on the means of correcting the abuses of the church, and particularly the intolerable corruptions of the court of Rome: that he had hoped that the pope or the emperor, moved by the complaints of such multitudes of persons aggrieved by these evils, would have found some remedy for them, either by a council or through the diet; but that this had hitherto been prevented by the artifices of Rome herself: that being now grown an old man, who had need to care seriously for the peace of his conscience and the salvation of his soul, he had diligently applied himself to the study of the holy scriptures and other pious writings, and had had recourse to the counsels of learned men; and that he had thus become convinced, by the clearest evidence of the word of God, that that doctrine, which in all the successive diets the pope and others had vehemently opposed, was indeed pure, pious, apostolic, and divine truth: that he could not recede from it and from the word of God, but would steadfastly persist in his purpose, though it should be at the risk of his possessions, his dignities, and his life itself; for that he felt his own eternal salvation, and that of multitudes beside, to be at stake in the present cause: that in all external and civil affairs, not contrary to the express will of God, the emperor should find him most dutiful and compliant: that he felt a confidence of obtaining a testimony from all persons, that in the station assigned him by providence he had, during so long a term of years, conducted himself in such a manner that no one had just cause of com A. D. 1543. CHAP. VII. Herman before the Emperor and the Pope; plaint against him. He further affirmed, that, "in prosecuting his plan of reformation, he had brought no burden of expence upon the archiepiscopal revenues, but had supported twelve or fifteen preachers in his province at his own charge, and chiefly from his private patrimony, without their receiving any stipend from the funds of the church: and, if, for what he had done in this most righteous, religious, and truly honourable cause, he was now, in his extreme old age, to be still infested as he had hitherto been by the opposition of his canons, and should thus eventually, either by force or fraud, be despoiled of his office and dignity-he left that to God, the supreme and righteous judge; nor would it be at all grievous to him if, as he had been born, so he should die, simply count of Wied: his family would receive and support him for his remaining days: but he would testify by public writings, both his own and those of the learned men with whom he had advised, that he had avowed and defended pure doctrine, as his solemn engagements bound him to do; and that he had most anxiously desired, that his provinces might be rescued from the complicated idolatry in which they were involved, and receive the right knowledge of Jesus Christ."1 Still, however, the archbishop continued to summoned be harassed by addresses from the pope, the other archbishops of Germany, the doctors of Louvain, and the emperor's ministers. At length, in the diet of Worms, held in the year 1545, where Gropper appeared and heavily accused the archbishop,2 the emperor received the appeal against him; took the canons of Cologne under his protection, forbidding any June. one, under pain of proscription, to molest them in their religion, their revenues, or their rights; commanded them to proceed against the professors of the protestant faith; and cited Herman himself to appear before him within thirty days, either personally or by his proctor, to answer the charges laid against him. This was immediately followed by a similar citation from the pope, requiring Herman, with the dean of Cologne, and five others of the canons, who, says Sleidan, "loved the archbishop, and disapproved the deed of the rest," to appear, in like manner, at Rome within sixty days, to give account of their conduct before the tribunal of his Holiness.1 To the former of these citations Herman answered, by sending his proctor to the emperor at Brussels, though, by his electoral privileges, he was not obliged to make any appearance out of the limits of the empire.2 It seems also that the emperor, in his way from Worms, saw him personally, and significantly reminded him that "his archiepiscopal dignity depended on the will of the pope, and that from it the electorate was inseparable." Herman, however, was still firm, and insisted upon it that he had done no more than his duty required; and even declared that, "as great numbers of his people had heard with profit the preachers whom he had introduced, he could not in conscience remove them.3 A. D. 1543. July. municated. To the citation of the pope it does not appear deprived that he made any answer at all; while the clergy and excomvigorously prosecuted their appeal. In consequence, on the sixteenth of April 1546, the pope pronounced sentence of deprivation and excommunication against him: released his subjects from their allegiance, and discharged 1 Sleid. 351 Seck. iii. 554. * Sleid. 352. 3 Seck. iii. 554. |