had already violated his vows, by a sacrilegious marriage, and Luther would have done the same long before, only he was restrained by the Elector of Saxony, who, though a heretic, shuddered at the marriage of a religious, and protested he would oppose it by every means in his power. On the other hand, Luther was now quite taken with Catherine Bora, a lady of noble family, but poor, and who, forced by poverty, embraced a religious life, without any vocation for that state, in a convent at Misnia, and finally became abbess. Reading one of Luther's works, she came across his treatise on the nullity of religious vows, and requested him to visit her. He called on her frequently, and finally induced her to leave her convent, and come to Wittemberg with him, where, devoid of all shame, he married her with great solemnity, the Elector Frederick, who constantly opposed it, being now dead; and such was the force of his example and discourses, that he soon after induced the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order[1] to celebrate his sacrilegious nuptials, likewise. Those marriages provoked that witticism of Erasmus, who said that the heresies of his day all ended, like a comedy, in marriage.
17. In the July of 1530, the famous Diet of Augsburgh was held. The Emperor and all the princes being assembled at the Diet, and the feast of Corpus Christi falling at the same time, an order was given to the princes to attend the procession. The Protestants refused, on the plea that this was one of the Roman superstitions; the Elector of Saxony, nevertheless, whose duty it was to carry the sword of state before the Emperor[2], consulted his theologians, who gave it as their opinion, that in this case he might consider it a mere human ceremony, and that, like Naam, the Syrian, who bowed down before the idol, when the king leaned on his arm in the temple, he might attend. In this Diet the Catholic party was represented by John Ecchius, Conrad Wimpin, and John Cochleus, and the Lutheran by Melancthon, Brenzius, and Schnapsius. The Lutheran princes presented to the Emperor the Profession of Faith, drawn up by Philip Melancthon, who endeavoured as much as possible to soften down the opinions opposed to Catholicity. This is the famous Confession of Augsburg, afterwards the creed of the majority of Lutherans. In those Articles they admitted: First.—That we are not justified by faith alone, but by faith and grace. Second.—That in good works not only grace alone concurs, but our co-operation likewise. Third.—That the Church contains not only the elect, but also the reprobate. Fourth.—That free-will exists in man, though without Divine grace he cannot be justified. Fifth.—That the saints pray to God for us, and that it is a pious practice to venerate their memories on certain days, abstracting, however, from either approving
