II -THE DIETS AND PRINCIPAL CONGRESSES HELD CONCERNING THE HERESY OF LUTHER. – 13.-Diet of Worms, where Luther appeared before Charles V., and remains obstinate. 14.-Edict of the Emperor against Luther, who is concealed by the Elector in one of his Castles. 15. -Diet of Spire, where the Emperor publishes a Decree, against which the heretics protest. 16.-Conference with the Zuinglians; Marriage of Luther with an Abbess. 17.-Diet of Augsburg, and Melancthon’s Profession of Faith; Melancthon’s Treatise, in favour of the authority of the Pope, rejected by Luther. 18.-Another Edict of the Emperor in favour of Religion. 19.-League of Smalkald broken up by the Emperor. 20. Dispensation given by the Lutherans to the Landgrave to have two wives. 21. -Council of Trent, to which Luther refuses to come; he dies, cursing the Council. 22.-The Lutherans divided into fifty-six Sects. 23. -The Second Diet of Augsburg, in which Charles V. published the injurious Formula of the Interim. 24, 25. -The heresy of Luther takes possession of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and other Kingdoms.
The first Conference was in the Imperial Diet, assembled in Worms. Luther still continued augmenting his party, and pouring forth calumnies and vituperations against the Holy See. At the request of the Pope, Charles V. then wrote to the Elector of Saxony, to deliver up Luther, or, at all events, to banish him from his territories. The Elector, on receipt of the letter, said that as the Diet was now so near, it would be better to refer the whole matter to its decision. Luther was most anxious to appear in this illustrious assembly, hoping, by his harangue, to obtain a favourable reception for his doctrine, especially as at the request of his patron, the Elector, he obtained not only permission to attend, but also a safe conduct from the Emperor himself. The Diet assembled in 1521, and Luther arrived in Worms, on the 17th of April. Ecchius asked him, in the name of the Emperor, if he acknowledged himself the author of the books published in his name, and if it was his intention to defend them. He admitted the books were his; but as to defending them, he said, as that was an affair of importance to the Word of God, and the salvation of souls, he required time to give an answer. The Emperor gave him a day for consideration, and he next day said, that among his books some contained arguments on Religion, and these he could not conscientiously retract; others were written in his own defence, and he confessed that he was guilty of excess in his attacks on his adversaries, the slaves of the Pope, but that they first provoked him to it. Ecchius required a more lucid answer. He then turned to the Emperor, and said he could not absolutely retract anything he had taught in his lectures, his sermons, or his writings, until convinced by Scripture and reason, and that both Pope and Councils were fallible judges in this matter (1).
The Emperor, perceiving his obstinacy, after some conversation with him, dismissed him. He might then have arrested him, as he was in his power, but he disdained violating the safe conduct he himself had given him. Notwithstanding, he published, on the 26th of May, an edict, with consent of the Princes of the Empire, and of its Orders and States, in which he declared Luther a notorious and obstinate heretic, and prohibited any one to receive or protect him, under the severest penalties. He moreover ordained, that, after the term of the safe conduct expired, which was twenty days, he should be proceeded against wherever found (2); and he would not have escaped, were it not for the Elector Frederick, who bribed the soldiers who escorted him, and had him conveyed to a place of security. A report was then spread abroad, that Luther was imprisoned before the expiration of the safe conduct, but the Elector had him conveyed to the Castle of Watzberg, near Alstad, in Thuringia, a place which Luther afterwards called his Patmos. He remained there nearly ten months, well concealed and guarded, and there he finished the plan of his heresy, and wrote many of his works. In the works written here, Luther principally attacked the scholastic Theologians, especially St. Thomas, whose works he said were filled with heresies. We should not wonder he called the works of St. Thomas heretical, who centuries before had confuted his own pestilential errors (3).
(1) Nat. Alex. sec. 14, n. 4; Varill. t. 1, l. 4, dalla, . 175; Van Ranst, p. 304 (2) Nat. Alex. loc. cit.; Van Ranst, p. 205. (3) Hermant, c. 230, 231; Van Ranst, loc. cit.
In the year 1529, another Diet was held in the city of Spire, by the Emperor’s orders, in which it was decided, that in these places in which the edict of Worms was accepted, it should be observed; but that wherever the ancient religion was changed, and its restoration could not be effected without public disturbances, matters should remain as they were until the celebration of a General Council. It was, besides, decided that Mass should freely be celebrated in the places infected with Lutheranism, and that the Gospel should be explained, according to the interpretation of the Fathers approved by the Church. The Elector Frederick of Saxony, George of Branderburg, Ernest and Francis, Dukes of Luneburg, Wolfgang of Anhalt, and fourteen confederate cities (thirteen, according to Protestant historians), protested against this Decree, as contrary to the truth of the Gospel, and appealed to a future Council, or to some judge not suspected, and from this protest arose the famous designation of Protestant (4).
The same year another Conference, composed of Lutherans and Zuinglians, or Sacramentarians, was held in Marpurg, under the patronage of the Landgrave of Hesse, to endeavour to establish a union between their respective sects. Luther, Melancthon, Jonas, Osiander, Brenzius, and Agricola appeared on one side, and Zuinglius, Ecolampadius, Bucer, and Hedio, on the other. They agreed on all points, with the exception of the Eucharist, as the Zuinglians totally denied the Real Presence of Christ. Several other Conferences were held to remove, if possible, the discussion of doctrine objected to then by the Catholics, but all ended without coming to any agreement. In this the Providence of God is apparent : the Roman Church could thus oppose to the innovators that unity of doctrine she always possessed, and the heretics were always confounded on this point (5). About this period Luther married an Abbess of a Convent. His fellow-heresiarch Zuinglius, also a priest, 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.
(4) Nat. Alex. t. 9, sec. 4, n. 9, ex Sleidano, I 6; Van Ranst, q. 306; Hermant, t. 2, c. 244. (5) Van Ranst, p. 306; Nat. Alex, loc. cit. n. 10.
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 Frederic, 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 (6) 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.
In the July of 1530, the famous Diet of Augsburg 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 (7), 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 :
1st – That we are not justified by Faith alone, but by Faith and Grace.
2nd -That in good works not only Grace alone concurs, but our co-operation like wise.
3rd – That the Church contains not only the elect, but also the reprobate.
4th – That free-will exists in man, though without Divine Grace he cannot be justified.
5th – 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 or condemning their invocation.
(6) Varillas, t. 1, p. 306; Hermant, t. 2, c. 243. (7) Nat. Alex. loc. cit. sec. 4, n. 11; Van Ranst, P . 307..
Saint Alphonsus Liguori - 18th century
