History of the Great Reformation Part 30

[553] Wittembergae scribunt, tam diligenter ibi Ecclesiam orare.--(L.

Epp. iv. p. 69.)

[Sidenote: RECOLLECTIONS AND CONTRAST.]

VII. At length the 25th June arrived. This was destined to be the greatest day of the Reformation, and one of the most glorious in the history of Christianity and of mankind.

As the chapel of the Palatine Palace, where the Emperor had resolved to hear the Confession, could contain only about two hundred persons,[554] before three o'clock a great crowd was to be seen surrounding the building and thronging the court, hoping by this means to catch a few words; and many having gained entrance to the chapel, all were turned out except those who were not, at the least, councillors to the princes.

[554] Capiebat forsan ducentos.--(Jonas, Corp. Ref. ii. p. 157.)

Charles took his seat on the throne. The Electors or their representatives were on his right and left hand; after them the other princes and states of the Empire. The legate had refused to appear in this solemnity, lest he should seem by his presence to authorize the reading of the Confession.[555]

[555] Sarpi, Hist. Council. Trent. i. p. 101.

Then stood up John Elector of Saxony, with his son John Frederick, Phillip Landgrave of Hesse, the Margrave George of Brandenburg, Wolfgang Prince of Anhalt, Ernest Duke of Brunswick-Luneburg, and his brother Francis, and last of all the deputies of Nuremberg and Reutlingen. Their air was animated and their features radiant with joy.[556] The apologies of the early Christians, of Tertullian and Justin Martyr, hardly reached in writing the sovereigns to whom they were addressed. But now, to hear the new apology of resuscitated Christianity, behold that puissant Emperor, whose sceptre, stretching far beyond the columns of Hercules, reaches the utmost limits of the world, his brother the King of the Romans, with electors, princes, prelates, deputies, amba.s.sadors, all of whom desire to destroy the Gospel, but who are constrained by an invisible power to listen, and, by that very listening, to honour the Confession!

[556] Laeto et alacri animo et vultu.--(Scultet. i. p. 273.)

One thought was involuntarily present in the minds of the spectators,--the recollection of the Diet of Worms.[557] Only nine years before, a poor monk stood alone for this same cause in a hall of the town-house at Worms, in presence of the Empire. And now in his stead, behold the foremost of the Electors, behold princes and cities!

What a victory is declared by this simple fact! No doubt Charles himself cannot escape from this recollection.

[557] Ante decennium in conventu Wormatensi.--(Corp. Ref. ii. p. 153.)

[Sidenote: THE CONFESSION--PROLOGUE.]

The Emperor, seeing the Protestants stand up, motioned them to sit down; and then the two chancellors of the Elector, Bruck and Bayer, advanced to the middle of the chapel, and stood before the throne, holding in their hands, the former the Latin, and the other the German copy of the Confession. The Emperor required the Latin copy to be read.[558] "We are Germans," said the Elector of Saxony, "and on German soil; I hope therefore your majesty will allow us to speak German." If the Confession had been read in Latin, a language unknown to most of the princes, the general effect would have been lost. This was another means of shutting the mouth of the Gospel. The Emperor complied with the Elector's demand.

[558] Caesar Latinum prelegi volebat.--(Seck. ii. p. 170.)

Bayer then began to read the Evangelical Confession, slowly, seriously, distinctly, with a clear, strong, and sonorous voice, which re-echoed under the arched roof of the chapel, and carried even to the outside this great testimony paid to the truth.[559]

[559] Qui clare, distincte, tarde et voce adeo grandi et sonora eam p.r.o.nunciavit.--(Scultet. p. 276.)

"Most serene, most mighty, and invincible Emperor and most gracious Lord," said he, "we who appear in your presence, declare ourselves ready to confer amicably with you on the fittest means of restoring one sole, true, and same faith, since it is for one sole and same Christ that we fight.[560] And in case that these religious dissensions cannot be settled amicably, we then offer to your majesty to explain our cause in a general, free, and christian council."[561]

[560] Ad unam veram concordem religionem, sicut omnes sub uno Christo sumus et militamus.--(Confessio, Praefatio. Urkunden. i. p. 474.)

[561] Causam dicturos in tali generali, libero, et Christiano concilio.--(Ibid. p. 479.)

[Sidenote: THE CONFESSION--JUSTIFICATION.]

This prologue being ended, Bayer confessed the Holy Trinity, conformably with the Nicene Council,[562] original and hereditary sin, "which bringeth eternal death to all who are not regenerated,"[563]

and the incarnation of the Son, "very G.o.d and very man."[564]

[562] Et tamen tres sunt personae ejusdem essentiae.--(Ibid. p. 682.)

[563] Vitium originis, afferens aeternam mortem his qui non renasc.u.n.tur.--(Confessio, Praefatio. Urkunden. i. p. 483.)

[564] Unus Christus, vere Deus, et vere h.o.m.o.--(Ibid.)

"We teach moreover," continued he, "that we cannot be justified before G.o.d by our own strength, our merits, and our works; but that we are justified by Christ through grace, through the means of faith,[565]

when we believe that our sins are forgiven in virtue of Christ, who by his death has made satisfaction for our sins: this faith is the righteousness that G.o.d imputes to the sinner.

[565] Quod homines non possint justificari coram Deo, propriis viribus, meritis, aut operibus, sed gratis, propter Christum, per fidem.--(Ibid. p. 484.)

"But we teach, at the same time, that this faith ought to bear good fruits, and that we must do all the good works commanded by G.o.d, for the love of G.o.d, and not by their means to gain the grace of G.o.d."

The Protestants next declared their faith in the Christian Church, "which is," said they, "the a.s.sembly of all true believers and all the saints,"[566] in the midst of whom there are, nevertheless, in this life, many false Christians, hypocrites even, and manifest sinners; and they added, "that it was sufficient for the real unity of the Church that they were agreed on the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the sacraments, without the rites and ceremonies inst.i.tuted by men being everywhere the same."[567]--They proclaimed the necessity of baptism, and declared "that the body and blood of Christ are really present and administered in the Lord's Supper to those who partake of it."[568]

[566] Congregatio sanctorum et vere credentium.--(Ibid. p. 487.)

[567] Ad veram unitatem Ecclesiae, satis est consentire de doctrina Evangelii et administratione sacra mentorum, nec necesse est, &c.--(Ibid. p. 486.)

[568] Quod corpus et sanguis Christi, vere adsint et distribuantur vescentibus in cna Domini.--(F. Urkund. i. p. 488.)

[Sidenote: THE CONFESSION--FAITH.]

The Chancellor then successively confessed the faith of the Evangelical Christians, touching confession, penance, the nature of the sacraments, the government of the Church, ecclesiastical ordinances, political government, and the last judgment. "As regards Free-will," continued he, "we confess that man's will has a certain liberty of accomplis.h.i.+ng civil justice, and of loving the things that reason comprehends; that man can do the good that is within the sphere of nature--plough his fields, eat, drink, have a friend, put on a coat, build a house, take a wife, feed cattle, exercise a calling; as also he can, of his own movement, do evil, kneel before an idol, and commit murder. But we maintain that without the Holy Ghost he cannot do what is righteous in the sight of G.o.d."

Then, returning to the grand doctrine of the Reformation, and recalling to mind that the doctors of the Pope "have never ceased impelling the faithful to puerile and useless works, as the custom of chaplets, invocations of saints, monastic vows, processions, fasts, feast-days, brotherhoods," the Protestants added, that as for themselves, while urging the practice of truly Christian works, of which little had been said before their time,[569] "they taught that man is justified by faith alone; not by that faith which is a simple knowledge of the history, and which wicked men and even devils possess, but by a faith which believes not only the history, but also the effect of the history;[570] which believes that through Christ we obtain grace; which sees that in Christ we have a merciful Father; which knows this G.o.d; which calls upon him; in a word, which is not without G.o.d, as the heathen are."

[569] De quibus rebus olim parum docebant concionatores; tantum puerilia et non necessaria opera urgebant.--(F. Urkund. i. p. 495.)

[570] Non tantum historiae not.i.tiam, sed fidem quae credit non tantum historiam, sed etiam effectum historiae.--(F. Urkund. i. p. 498.)

"Such," said Bayer, "is a summary of the doctrine professed in our Churches, by which it may be seen that this doctrine is by no means opposed to Scripture, to the universal Church, nor even to the Romish Church, such as the doctors describe it to us;[571] and since it is so, to reject us as heretics is an offence against unity and charity."

[571] Nihil inesse quod discrepat a Scripturis vel ab Ecclesia Catholica, vel ab Ecclesia Romana, quatenus ex Scriptoribus nota est.--(Ibid. p. 501.)

[Sidenote: LUTHER ON THE CONFESSION.]

Here terminated the first part of the Confession, the aim of which was to explain the Evangelical doctrine. The Chancellor read with so distinct a voice, that the crowd which was unable to enter the hall, and which filled the court and all the approaches of the episcopal palace, did not lose a word.[572] This reading produced the most marvellous effect on the princes who thronged the chapel. Jonas watched every change in their countenances,[573] and there beheld interest, astonishment, and even approbation depicted by turns. "The adversaries imagine they have done a wonderful thing, by forbidding the preaching of the Gospel," wrote Luther to the Elector; "and they do not see, poor creatures! that by the reading of the Confession in the presence of the diet, there has been more preaching than in the sermons of ten preachers. Exquisite subtlety! admirable expedient!

Master Agricola and the other ministers are reduced to silence; but in their place appear the Elector of Saxony, and the other princes and lords, who preach before his imperial majesty, and the members of the whole Empire, freely, to their beard, and before their noses. Yes, Christ is in the diet, and he does not keep silence: _the word of G.o.d cannot be bound_. They forbid it in the pulpit, and are forced to hear it in the palace; poor ministers cannot announce it, and great princes proclaim it; the servants are forbidden to listen to it, and their masters are compelled to hear it; they will have nothing to do with it during the whole course of the diet, and they are forced to submit to hear more in one day than is heard ordinarily in a whole year......When all else is silent, the very stones cry out, as says our Lord Jesus Christ."[574]

[572] Verum etiam in area inferiori et vicinis locis exaudiri potuerit.--(Scultet. p. 274.)

[573] Jonas scribit vidisse se vultus omnium de quo mihi spondet narrationem coram.--(L. Epp. iv. p. 71.)

[574] L. Epp. iv. p. 82.

[Sidenote: THE CONFESSION--ABUSES.]

That part of the Confession destined to point out errors and abuses still remained. Bayer continued: he explained and demonstrated the doctrine of the two kinds; he attacked the compulsory celibacy of priests, maintained that the Lord's Supper had been changed into a regular fair, in which it was merely a question of buying and selling, and that it had been re-established in its primitive purity by the Reformation, and was celebrated in the Evangelical churches with entirely new devotion and gravity. He declared that the Sacrament was administered to no one who had not first made confession of his faults, and he quoted this expression of Chrysostom: "Confess thyself to G.o.d the Lord, thy real Judge; tell thy sin, not with the tongue, but in thy conscience and in thy heart."

Bayer next came to the precepts on the distinction of meats and other Roman usages. "Celebrate such a festival," said he; "repeat such a prayer, or keep such a fast; be dressed in such a manner, and so many other ordinances of men--this is what is now styled a spiritual and christian life; while the good works prescribed by G.o.d, as those of a father of a family who toils to support his wife, his sons, and his daughters--of a mother who brings children into the world, and takes care of them--of a prince or of a magistrate who governs his subjects, are looked upon as secular things, and of an imperfect nature." As for monastic vows in particular, he represented that, as the Pope could give a dispensation from them, those vows ought therefore to be abolished.

The last article of the Confession treated of the authority of the bishops: powerful princes crowned with the episcopal mitre were there; the Archbishops of Mentz, Cologne, Salzburg, and Bremen; the Bishops of Bamberg, Wurzburg, Eichstadt, Worms, Spire, Strasburg, Augsburg, Constance, Coire, Pa.s.sau, Liege, Trent, Brixen, and of Lebus and Ratzburg, fixed their eyes on the humble confessor. He fearlessly continued, and energetically protesting against that confusion of Church and State which had characterized the Middle Ages, he called for the distinction and independence of the two societies.