History of the Great Reformation Part 17

[Sidenote: REMARKS.]

Thus the Reformation had made a sensible step at Marburg. The opinion of Zwingle on the spiritual presence, and of Luther on the bodily presence, are both found in christian antiquity; but both the extreme doctrines have been always rejected: that of the Rationalists, on the one hand, who behold in the Eucharist nothing but a simple commemoration; and of the Papists, on the other, who adore in it a transubstantiation. These are both errors; while the doctrines of Luther and Zwingle, and the medium taken by Calvin, already maintained by some of the Fathers, were considered in ancient times as different views of the same truth. If Luther had yielded, it might have been feared that the Church would fall into the extreme of Rationalism; if Zwingle, that it would rush into the extreme of Popery. It is a salutary thing for the Church that these different views should be entertained; but it is a pernicious thing for individuals to attach themselves to one of them, in such a manner as to anathematize the others. "There is only this little stumbling-block," wrote Melancthon, "that embarra.s.ses the Church of our Lord."[292] All,--Romanists and Evangelicals, Saxons and Swiss, admitted the presence, and even the real presence of Christ; but here was the essential point of separation: Is this presence effected by the faith of the communicant, or by the _opus operatum_ of the priest? The germs of Popery, Sacerdotalism, Puseyism, are inevitably contained in this latter thesis. If it is maintained that a wicked priest (as has been said) operates this real presence of Christ by three words, we enter the Church of the Pope. Luther appeared sometimes to admit this doctrine, but he has often spoken in a more spiritual manner; and taking this great man in his best moments, we behold no more than an essential unity and a secondary diversity in the two parties of the Reformation.

Undoubtedly the Lord has left his Church outward seals of his grace; but he has not attached salvation to these signs. The essential point is the connexion of the faithful with the Word, with the Holy Ghost, with the Head of the Church. This is the great truth which the Reform proclaims, and which Lutheranism itself recognises. After the Marburg conference, the controversy became more moderate.

[292] Hic unus in Ecclesia haeret scrupulus.--(Corp. Ref. i. p. 1106.)

There was another advantage. The evangelical divines at Marburg marked with one accord their separation from the Papacy. Zwingle was not without fear (unfounded, no doubt) with regard to Luther: these fears were dispersed. "Now that we are agreed," said he, "the Papists will no longer hope that Luther will ever be one of them."[293] The Marburg articles are the first bulwark erected in common by the Reformers against Rome.

[293] Pontifici non ultra possunt sperare Lutherum suum fore.--(Zw.

Opp. ii. p. 370.)

It was not, then, in vain that, after the protest of Spire, Philip of Hesse endeavoured, at Marburg, to bring together the friends of the Gospel. But, if the religious object was partially attained, the political object almost entirely failed. They could not arrive at a confederation of Switzerland and Germany. Nevertheless, Philip of Hesse and Zwingle, with a view to this, had numerous secret conversations, which made the Saxons uneasy, as they were not less opposed to Zwingle's politics than to his theology. "When you have reformed the peasant's cap," said Jonas to him, "you will also claim to reform the sable hat of princes."

The Landgrave, having collected all the doctors at his table on the last day, they shook hands in a friendly manner,[294] and each one thought of leaving the town.

[294] Die Hand einander fruntlich gebotten.--(Bull. ii. p. 236.)

[Sidenote: LUTHER'S DEJECTION.]

On Tuesday the 5th October, the Landgrave quitted Marburg early, and in the afternoon of the same day Luther departed, accompanied by his colleagues; but he did not go forth as a conqueror. A spirit of dejection and alarm had taken possession of his mind.[295] He writhed in the dust, like a worm, according to his own expression. He fancied he should never see his wife and children again, and cried out that he, "the consoler of so many tortured souls, was now without any consolation!"[296]

[295] Ego vix et aegre domum reversus sum.--(L. Epp. iii. p. 520.)

[296] Sic me vexante Angelo Satanae, ut desperarim me vivum et salvum visurum meos.--(Ibid.)

[Sidenote: STATE OF POLITICAL AFFAIRS.]

This state might partly arise from Luther's want of brotherly feeling; but it had other causes also. Soliman had come to fulfil a promise made to King Ferdinand. The latter having demanded, in 1528, the surrender of Belgrade, the Sultan had haughtily replied, that he would bring the keys himself to Vienna. In fact, the Grand Turk, crossing the frontiers of Germany, had invaded countries "on which the hoofs of the Mussulman war-horses had never trod," and eight days before the conference at Marburg, he had covered with his innumerable tents the plain and the fertile hills in the midst of which rise the walls of Vienna. The struggle had begun under ground, the two parties having dug deep galleries beneath the ramparts. Three different times the Turkish mines were sprung; the walls were thrown down;[297] "the b.a.l.l.s flew through the air like a flight of small birds," says a Turkish historian; "and there was a horrible banquet, at which the genii of death joyously drained their gla.s.ses."[298]

[297] Ipsam urbem in tribus locis, suffoso solo et pulvere supposito disjicit et patefecit.--(L. Epp. iii. p. 518.)

[298] Dschelalsade, quoted by Ranke.

Luther did not keep in the background. He had already written against the Turks, and now he published a _Battle Sermon_. "Mahomet," said he, "exalts Christ as being without sin; but he denies that he was the true G.o.d; therefore he is his enemy. Alas! to this hour the world is such that it seems everywhere to rain disciples of Mahomet. Two men ought to oppose the Turks: the first is Christian, that is to say, Prayer; the second is Charles, that is to say, The sword." And in another place, "I know my dear Germans well, fat and well-fed swine; as soon as the danger is removed, they think only of eating and sleeping. Wretched man! if thou dost not take up arms the Turk will come; he will carry thee away into his Turkey; he will there sell thee like a dog; and thou shalt serve him night and day, under the rod and the cudgel, for a gla.s.s of water and a morsel of bread. Think on this; be converted, and implore the Lord not to give thee the Turk for thy schoolmaster."[299]

[299] Heer predigt wider die Turken.--(L. Opp. (W.) xx. p. 2691.)

[Sidenote: VARIETY OF CHARACTER.]

The two arms pointed out by Luther were, in reality, vigorously employed; and Soliman, perceiving at last that he was not the "soul of the universe," as his poets had styled him, but that there was a strength in the world superior to his own, raised the siege of Vienna on the 16th October; and "the shadow of G.o.d over the two worlds," as he called himself, "disappeared and vanished in the Bosphorus."

But Luther imagined that, when retiring from before the walls of Vienna, "the Turk, or at least his G.o.d, who is the devil," had rushed upon him; and that it was this enemy of Christ and of Christ's servants that he was destined to combat and vanquish in his frightful agony.[300] There is an immediate reaction of the violated law upon him who violates it. Now Luther had transgressed the royal law, which is charity, and he suffered the penalty. At last he re-entered Wittemberg, and flung himself into the arms of his friends, "tormented by the angel of death."[301]

[300] Forte ipsum Turcam partim in isto agone cogor ferre et vincere, saltem ejus Deum, diabolum.--(L. Epp. iii. p. 520.)

[301] Angelus Satanae, vel quisquis est diabolus mortis ita me fatigat.--(L. Epp. iii. p. 515.)

Without, however, overlooking the essential qualities of a Reformer that Luther manifested at Marburg, there are in G.o.d's work, as in a drama, different parts. What various characters we see among the Apostles and among the Reformers! It has been said that the same characters and the same parts were a.s.signed to St. Peter and to Luther, at the time of the Formation and of the Reformation of the Church.[302] They were both in fact men of the initiative, who start forward quite alone, but around whom an army soon collects at the sight of the standard which they wave.

[302] Dr. Vinet.

But there was perhaps in the Reformer a characteristic that was not found to the same degree in the Apostle; this is firmness.

[Sidenote: EXASPERATION OF THE PAPISTS.]

As for Zwingle, he quitted Marburg in alarm at Luther's intolerance.

"Lutheranism," wrote he to the Landgrave, "will lie as heavy upon us as Popery."[303] He reached Zurich on the 19th October. "The truth,"

said he to his friends, "has prevailed so manifestly, that if ever any one has been defeated before all the world, it is Luther, although he constantly exclaimed that he was invincible."[304] On his side, Luther spoke in a similar strain. "It is through fear of their fellow-citizens," added he, "that the Swiss, although vanquished, are unwilling to retract."[305]

[303] Das Lutherthum werde so schwer, als das Papsthum.--(Zw. Epp. p.

374.)

[304] Lutherus impudens et contumax aperte est victus.--(Zw. Epp. p.

370.)

[305] Metuebant plebem suam ad quam non licuisset reverti.--(Zw. Opp.

ii. p. 19.)

If it should be asked on which side the victory really was, perhaps we ought to say that Luther a.s.sumed the air of a conqueror, but Zwingle was so in reality. The conference propagated through all Germany the doctrine of the Swiss, which had been little known there till that time, and it was adopted by an immense number of persons. Among these were Laffards, first rector of St. Martin's School at Brunswick, Dionysius Melander, Justus Lening, Hartmann, Ibach, and many more. The Landgrave himself, a short time before his death, declared that this conference had induced him to renounce the oral manducation of Christ.[306]

[306] Rommels Anmerkungen, p. 227-229.

Still the dominant principle at this celebrated epoch was unity. The adversaries are the best judges. The Roman-catholics were exasperated that the Lutherans and Zwinglians had agreed on all the essential points of faith. "They have a fellow-feeling against the Catholic Church," said they, "as Herod and Pilate against Jesus Christ." The enthusiastic sects said the same,[307] and the extreme hierarchial as well as the extreme radical party deprecated equally the unity of Marburg.

[307] Pontificiis et catabaptistis multum displicuit consensus Marpurgi.--(Scultet. p. 208.)

[Sidenote: THREATENING PROSPECTS.]

Erelong a greater agitation eclipsed all these rumours, and events which threatened the whole evangelical body, proclaimed its great and intimate union with new force. The Emperor, it was everywhere said, exasperated by the Protest of Spire, has landed at Genoa with the pomp of a conqueror. After having sworn at Barcelona to reduce the heretics under the power of the Pope, he is going to visit this pontiff, humbly to bend the knee before him; and he will rise up only to cross the Alps and accomplish his terrible designs. "The Emperor Charles," said Luther, a few days after the landing of this prince, "has determined to show himself more cruel against us than the Turk himself, and he has already uttered the most horrible threats. Behold the hour of Christ's agony and weakness. Let us pray for all those who will soon have to endure captivity and death."[308]

[308] Carolus Caesar multo atrocius minatur et saevire statuit in nos, quam Turca.--(L. Epp. iii. p. 324.)

Such was the news that then agitated all Germany. The grand question was, whether the Protest of Spire could be maintained against the power of the Emperor and of the Pope. This was seen in the year 1530.

BOOK XIV.

THE AUGSBURG CONFESSION. 1530.

I. The Reformation was accomplished in the name of a spiritual principle. It had proclaimed for its teacher the Word of G.o.d; for salvation, Faith; for king, Jesus Christ; for arms, the Holy Ghost; and had by these very means rejected all worldly elements. Rome had been established by _the law of a carnal commandment_; the Reformation, by _the power of an endless life_.[309]

[309] Hebrews vii. 16.

If there is any doctrine that distinguishes Christianity from every other religion, it is its spirituality. A heavenly life brought down to man--such is its work; thus the opposition of the spirit of the Gospel to the spirit of the world was the great fact which signalized the entrance of Christianity among the nations. But what its Founder had separated, had soon come together again; the Church had fallen into the arms of the world; and this criminal Union had reduced it to the deplorable condition in which it was found at the era of the Reformation.

Thus one of the greatest tasks of the sixteenth century was to restore the spiritual element to its rights. The Gospel of the Reformers had nothing to do with the world and with politics. While the Roman hierarchy had become a matter of diplomacy and a court intrigue, the Reformation was destined to exercise no other influence over princes and people than that which proceeds from the Gospel of peace.