innovations. The conservatives refused to ratify the recess,
which was not published, but the Protestant states declared
that they would accept the emperor’s word of honour, and
furnished him with troops for repelling the Mahommedans. The
fact that the conservative princes, especially the dukes of
Bavaria, were opposed to any strengthening of the emperor’s
power, and were in some cases hereditary enemies of the house
of Habsburg, served to protect the Protestant princes. In
1534 the Schmalkaldic League succeeded in restoring the
banished duke of Württemberg, who declared himself in favour
of the Lutheran reformation, and thus added another to the
list of German Protestant states. In 1339 George of Saxony died,
and was succeeded by his brother Henry, who also accepted the
new faith, and in the same year the new elector of Brandenburg
became a Protestant. Indeed, there was reason to believe at
this time that the archbishops of Mainz, Trier and Cologne, as
well as some other bishops, were planning the secularization of
their principalities.
To the north, Lutheran influence had spread into Denmark; Sweden and Norway were also brought within its sphere. Christian II. of Denmark, a nephew of the elector of Saxony, came to the throne in 1513, bent on bringing Swede, Sweden and Norway, over which he nominally ruled inDenmark, Norway and Sweden become Protestant. accordance with the terms of the Union of Kalmar (1397), completely under his control. In order to do this it was necessary to reduce the power of the nobility and clergy, privileged classes exempt from taxation and rivals of the royal power. Denmark had suffered from all the abuses of papal provisions, and the nuncio of Leo X. had been forced in 1518 to flee from the king’s wrath. Christian II. set up a supreme court for ecclesiastical matters, and seemed about to adopt a policy similar to that later pursued by Henry VIII. of England, when his work was broken off by a revolt which compelled him to leave the country. Lutheranism continued to make rapid progress, and Christian’s successor permitted the clergy to marry, appropriated the annates and protected the Lutherans. Finally Christian III., an ardent Lutheran, ascended the throne in 1536; with the sanction of the diet he severed, in 1537, all connexion with the pope, introducing the Lutheran system of Church government and accepting the Augsburg Confession.[1] Norway was included in the changes, but Sweden had won its independence of Denmark, under Gustavus Vasa, who, in 1523, was proclaimed king. He used the Lutheran theories as an excuse for overthrowing the ecclesiastical aristocracy, which had been insolently powerful in Sweden. In 1527, supported by the diet, he carried his measures for secularizing such portions of the Church property as he thought fit, and for subjecting the Church to the royal power (Ordinances of Vesteräs); but many of the old religious ceremonies and practices were permitted to continue, and it was not until 1592 that Lutheranism was officially sanctioned by the Swedish synod.[2]
Charles V., finding that his efforts to check the spread of the
religious schism were unsuccessful, resorted once more to
conferences between' Roman Catholic and Lutheran
theologians, but it became apparent that no permanent
compromise was possible. The emperor then succeededThe Council
of Trent.
in disrupting the Schmalkaldic League by winning over, on
purely political grounds, Philip of Hesse and young Maurice
of Saxony, whose father, Henry, had died after a very brief
reign. Charles V. had always exhibited the greatest confidence
in the proposed general council, the summoning of which had
hitherto been frustrated by the popes, and at last, in 1545,
the council was summoned to meet at Trent, which lay conveniently
upon the confines of Italy and Germany (see Trent, Council of).
The Dominicans and, later, members of the
newly born Order of Jesus, were conspicuous, among the
theological deputies, while the Protestants, though invited,
refused to attend. It was clear from the first that the decisions
of the council would be uncompromising in character, and that
the Protestants would certainly refuse to be bound by its decrees.
And so it fell out. The very first anathemas of the council were
directed against those innovations which the Protestants had
most at heart. The emperor had now tried threats, conferences
and a general council, and all had failed to unify the Church.
Maurice of Saxony, without surrendering his religious beliefs, had become the political friend of the emperor, who had promised him the neighbouring electorate of Saxony. John Frederick, the elector, was defeated at Mühlberg, April 1547, and taken prisoner. Philip of HesseEvents culminating in the religious peace of Augsburg, 1555. also surrendered, and Charles tried once more to establish a basis of agreement. Three theologians, including a conservative Lutheran, were chosen to draft the so-called “Augsburg Interim.” This reaffirmed the seven sacraments, transubstantiation and the invocation of saints, and declared the pope head of the Church, but adopted Luther’s doctrine of justification by faith in a conditional way, as well as the marriage of priests, and considerably modified the theory and practice of the Mass. For four years Charles, backed by the Spanish troops, made efforts to force the Protestant towns to observe the Interim, but with little success. He rapidly grew extremely unpopular, and in 1552 Maurice of Saxony turned upon him and attempted to capture him at Innsbruck. Charles escaped, but Maurice became for the moment leader of the German princes who gathered at Passau (August 1552) to discuss the situation. The settlement, however, was deferred for the meeting of the diet, which took place at Augsburg, 1555. There was a general anxiety to conclude a peace—“beständiger, beharrlicher, unbedingter, für und für ewig währender.” There was no other way but to legalize the new faith in Germany, but only those were to be tolerated who accepted the Augsburg Confession. This excluded, of course, not only the Zwinglians and Anabaptists, but the ever-increasing Calvinistic or “Reformed” Church. The principle cujus regio ejus religio was adopted, according to which each secular ruler might choose between the old faith and the Lutheran. His decision was to bind all his subjects, but a subject professing another religion from his prince was to be permitted to leave the country. The ecclesiastical rulers, however, were to lose their possessions if they abandoned the old faith.[3] Freedom of conscience was thus established for princes alone, and their power became supreme in religious as well as secular matters. The Church and the civil government had been closely associated with one another for centuries, and the old system was perpetuated in the Protestant states. Scarcely any one dreamed that individual subjects could safely be left to believe what they would, and permitted, so long as they did not violate the law of the land, freely to select and practise such religious rites as afforded them help and comfort.
During the three or four years which followed the signing of the Augsburg Confession in 1530 and the formation of the Schmalkaldic League, England, while bitterly denouncing and burning Lutheran heretics in the name of the Holy Catholic Church, was herself engaged inReligious situation in England at the opening of the 16th century. severing the bonds which had for well-nigh a thousand opening of years bound her to the Apostolic See. An independent national Church was formed in 1534, continued, however, for a time to adhere to all the characteristic beliefs of the medieval Catholic Church, excepting alone the headship of the pope. The circumstances which led to the English schism are dealt with elsewhere (see England, Church of), and need be reviewed here only in the briefest manner. There was some heresy in England during the opening decades of the 16th century, survivals of the Lollardy which now and then brought a victim to the stake. There was also the old discontent among the orthodox in regard to the Church’s exactions, bad clerics and
- ↑ The episcopal office was retained, but the “succession” broken, the new Lutheran bishops being consecrated by Buggenhagen, who was only in priest’s orders.
- ↑ The episcopal system and succession were maintained, and the “Mass vestments” (i.e. alb and chasuble) remain in use to this day.
- ↑ This so-called “ecclesiastical reservation” was not included in the main peace.
