A History of the Reformation in the 16th
Century
Book 13 - The Protest and the
Conference (1526-1529)
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
13, Chapter 1
Protestantism had been a group of factions around Europe fighting
very much for the same goals – the propagation of the Gospel of Christ
and His work to save sinners by grace.
At this time in the history of the Reformation the movement as a
whole would begin to gel together as a body.
The Reformation in this respect is accomplished in the history of
salvation by the work of God.
Upon the commencement of the Diet of Spires from 1526-1529, we
see this formation of formal Protestantism as whole emerging.
The Diet commenced on June 25, 1526, and the princes of the
country were bolder with their ministers than they had ever been.
They did not attend mass, and did not partake in the fasts
prescribed by the Roman Church. Duke
John arrived with an impressive envoy, and Phillip of Hesse immediately
began debating with the bishops silencing them by the Word.
The Diet was divided up into committees in order to deal with the
varied abuses of Church at large. The
commissioners made their report and the Protestant church seemed to win,
for they sided with the Reformation.
Some of Luther’s works were translated and handed out to the
people. Many of the
commoners left the Catholic Church and sided with the Reformation.
Ferdinand could not allow this anymore, and drew up an edict that
substantiated the one given at Worms.
Persecution was about to begin on the reformers.
A grand turning point in these plans was political when Clement
did not side with Charles V and instead freed the reformers from the
edict by turning in a different direction than that the Pope.
Since the Pope moved left, Charles moved right and wrote a letter
to his brother, and freed the reformers from harm by dissolving the
edict given.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
13, Chapter 2
The emperor did not win with his newfound decision to move away
from the political ideas of the Pope and rejected him in purpose.
Instead of marching against the Reformation, as he seemed to have
promised in Seville, now he was marching with the Reformation against
the Pope due to political reasons.
The war with Italy would soon begin.
Pawns were being placed around the battlefield.
Freudsberg with fifteen thousand men marched through the Alps
ready to make war in Brescia. The
Constable of Bourbon took possession of Milan and met Freudsberg’s
army and joined with him. In Naples they met with a possible truce suggested by the
Pope, but the army was outraged that Freudsberg would even consider this
and he was hurt in a tumult. Freudsberg
was brought to his castle where he later died.
However, the army continued to move forward and was closing in on
Rome.
On May 5th Bourbon arrived at Rome and attempted a
secret attack by fog, but the Spaniards there were waiting and he was
quickly struck down. Yet,
the army advanced, sacked the city, and began to pillage it.
Clement fled to the castle of St. Angelo.
No one was spared in the city and it was overthrown.
After ten days of pillaging the peace of the city began to be
restored.
Clement was attacked while in the castle of St Angelo.
He recanted of everything he plotted against Charles, and agreed
to pay a handsome booty to him in return of his life.
He remained his prisoner until he was able to fulfill the debt.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
13, Chapter 3
Rome had been sacked, and this move of Charles caused the
Reformation to be strengthened. Since the Roman church was falling into anarchy, the states
separated from her, which is a turning point in ecclesiastical history.
The Diet of Spires, then, aided the states in their separation
from Rome and the furtherance of the Gospel in those states due to a
lack of effect from the pontificate.
Phillip of Hesse strongly urged these new ideas to take shape.
Not only did Phillip prevail in the Diet itself with pressing the
matters of the Reformation, but he took part in actually helping the
states become more independent from Rome.
He was inclined toward the Swiss reform that had begun, and made
a connection with James Sturm who in turn told him about Francis
Lambert. Lambert desired to
help Hesse in the reformation of the country.
The gates of the principle church at Homberg were opened the next
day and Hesse and Lambert, along with throngs of people, including
Catholics, entered to hear Lambert speak about the propositions that had
been hung around the city. He explained them with fervor from the Bible and backed them
up with the early fathers and Peter Lombard.
No one was able to shut Lambert down, and the autonomy of the
church had a victory for the Reformation.
Luther had already begun having the church chooses elders, but
would all the churches follow this lead?
Luther published his German Mass which organized the
church formally, and beginning in Saxony the reformers went around
deposing those not fit to lead the church.
In every area of Europe the Reformation and organization of the
same church of the Apostles was beginning to take form.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
13, Chapter 4
King Ferdinand published the Edict of Ofen in Hungary on August
20th, 1527. It stated that anyone who saw Mary as equal as other women,
or not partake of the sacraments correctly, or was not a Romish priest
to distribute the sacraments, should be punished.
Those who protested this were not necessarily brought to court,
but simply attacked in the street and murdered, which was the fate of
George Winkler. However, as
it seemed fitting, the scaffold was used frequently to uphold this
edict. George Carpenter was
burned alive, at Landsburg nine people were also put in the flames, and
in Munich twenty-nine were drowned.
There were even those who desired to profit monetarily in some
way by these kinds of dealings and martyrdoms.
Otho Pack, vice-chancellor to Duke George, was a crafty man and
involved in forgery in order to gain contribution for his pocket instead
of the imperial government as intended.
Phillip of Hesse intervened to catch this criminal in the act,
and using his power cut a deal with him, albeit a false deal in order to
trap him. Phillip allied
himself with Duke John, many electors, and the kings of Denmark and
Poland against the tyranny that would break forth by the document’s
allowance of the punishments of heretics.
However, this blow by Hesse would have ripped the countries apart
and halted the forward movement of the Reformation.
Rome desired to annihilate the Reformation in a different way
than Pack had intended through the Word.
At the Diet of Spires, which began in March of 1529, Rome wanted
to raise her banner over the Reformation ecclesiastically and crush it
by pronouncing heresies and swaying the nobles to follow the mother
church.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
13, Chapter 5
Charles and Clement had been at odds.
Clement, at this point, would rather side with Charles than
continue to be humiliated at the hands of the people who even denied
that he should be Pope. An
alliance was made on June 29, 1528 based on the destruction of the
Reformation heresies and Charles and Clement were again allied.
Ferdinand arrived at Spires, as did the dukes of Bavaria, the
electors of Mentz and Treves, the elector of Saxony accompanied by
Melancthon and Agricola, and Phillip of Hesse.
Rome was at this Diet in force, and the Romans continued to
detest the Protestants who were arriving even while meeting them in the
streets. An imperial
proposition was made that echoed the last Diet at Spires some years ago
where the emperor had overthrown the ability of the states to do as they
desired towards the dictates of conscience.
This alarmed the Protestants and a commission was appointed to
examine this statement.
The majority vote was no longer accepted at the Diet, and it
seemed the tide was rising here against the Gospel.
The nobles and princes who defended the Gospel decided that no
matter what majority or non-majority was given at the Diet that their
consciences would not be bound by voting for or against dictates of the
Word of God. Ferdinand
opposed the Protestants vehemently, and on April 18th it was
decided that they would not be heard in the Diet.
Ferdinand produced a document that Charles gave giving power to
the Catholics. Rome widened
the breach between the two parties greatly by this act.
The Protestants would not even be heard.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
13, Chapter 6
The evangelical princes made a protest, and here the name Protestants
became official. A
declaration was drawn up that demonstrated their protest to the actions
of the Diet. An essential
part of this protest was the free preaching of the Gospel which Rome
detested. Even Perduelles,
a Roman historian, equated Protestant with “enemy of the
emperor and the Pope.” The
Catholics were upset that such a protest was even made or considered,
but by the dictates of the politics of the Diet, it was now set as part
of history.
The Protestants were overjoyed that such a declaration was made.
The Catholics trembled for they saw their desire to simply
reinstitute the papacy again as slipping away into the darkness from
whence it came. The
landgrave and Duke left the Diet after these proceedings were made.
The aim was that the edict of Worms should not be induced, and
the edict of the last Diet of Spires should stand.
After their voice was heard in these dealings, they quitted the
Diet and left the city.
As Luther had withstood the Diet at Worms and so now the princes
and people withstood the Catholic Church here at Spires.
Though they had remained under superstition and manipulation for
centuries under the Roman church, they were now freed.
The liberty of the Gospel had set them free from the yoke that
they had been oppressed by and the history of the world would now have
the name Protestant engraved in it for all time.
History
Of The Reformation Of The Sixteenth Century:
Book
13, Chapter 7
Though the Diet of Spires had brought Protestantism together in
many respects, theologically this was more difficult between the actual
reformers of the movement surrounding the Lord’s Supper.
Luther, up until 1519 was still Catholic in his doctrine of the
Lord’s Supper. Luther
believed in transubstantiation, while Zwingli saw the Supper as a
memorial symbolizing the body and blood, but not the body and blood of
Christ.
Luther
and Zwingli wrote against one another, Zwingli being more charitable in
his work Friendly Exposition of Luther’s position.
Luther was irate with Zwingli’s view and his obstinacies to
hold something different than Luther believed.
Phillip of Hesse desired to see the two reconciled and purposed a
meeting between them to settle their differences.
They settled on Marburg to have a theological meeting.
Luther
was accompanied by Melancthon and Zwingli by Oecolampadius.
Luther sat with Oecolampadius and Zwingli sat with Melancthon
both teams in separate rooms. The
best debate took place between Melancthon and Zwingli.
Melancthon wanted to corner Zwingli believing, like Thomas Munzer,
that the Holy Spirit worked alone and not through the sacrament.
Luther used this same tactic with Oecolampadius.
After debate in this fashion, on the next day, all four sat a
table and continued the debate. Luther
could not give up hoc est corpus meum, this is my body, and wrote
it in chalk on the table itself. Zwingli
and Oecolampadius saw this as a figure of speech.
There was no compromise. Luther
detested Zwingli for this disagreement.
They met once more, for the last time the next day, drew up a
document that demonstrated their agreement in other doctrines, and they
all signed it. |
