History of the Great Reformation Part 2

[30] Sleidan, Hist. de la Ref. liv. vi. p. 229.

The persecution was about to begin; the reformers would be thrown into dungeons, and the sword drawn on the banks of the Guadalquivir would pierce at last the bosom of Reform.

The effect of the imperial ordinance was immense. The breaking of an axle-tree does not more violently check the velocity of a railway train. The Elector and the Landgrave announced that they were about to quit the diet, and ordered their attendants to prepare for their departure. At the same time the deputies from the cities drew towards these two princes, and the Reformation appeared on the brink of entering immediately upon a contest with the Pope and Charles the Fifth.

But it was not yet prepared for a general struggle. It was necessary for the tree to send out its roots deeper, before the Almighty unchained the stormy winds against it. A spirit of blindness, similar to that which in former times was sent out upon Saul and Herod,[31]

then seized upon the great enemy of the Gospel; and thus was it that Divine Providence saved the reform in its cradle.

[31] 1 Sam. xvi. 14-23; Matt. ii.

[Sidenote: CHANGE OF POLICY.]

The first movement of trouble was over. The friends of the Gospel began to consider the date of the imperial instructions, and to weigh the new political combinations which seemed to announce to the world the most unlooked-for events. "When the Emperor wrote these letters,"

said the cities of Upper Germany, "he was on good terms with the Pope, but now everything is changed. It is even a.s.serted that he had told Margaret, his deputy in the Low Countries, to proceed _gently_ with respect to the Gospel. Let us send him a deputation." That was not necessary. Charles had not waited until now to form a different resolution. The course of public affairs, taking a sudden turn, had rushed into an entirely new path. Years of peace were about to be granted to the Reform.

[Sidenote: RELIGIOUS LIBERTY PROPOSED.]

Clement VII., whom Charles was about to visit, according to the instructions of Seville, in order to receive in Rome itself and from his sacred hands the imperial crown, and in return to give up to the pontiff the Gospel and the Reformation,--Clement VII, seized with a strange infatuation, had suddenly turned against this powerful monarch. The Emperor, unwilling to favour his ambition in every point, had opposed his claims on the states of the Duke of Ferrara. Clement immediately became exasperated, and cried out that Charles wished to enslave the peninsula, but that the time was come for re-establis.h.i.+ng the independence of Italy. This great idea of Italian independence, entertained at that period by a few literary men, had not, as now, penetrated the ma.s.s of the nation. Clement therefore hastened to have recourse to political combinations. The Pope, the Venetians, and the King of France, who had scarcely recovered his liberty, formed a _holy league_, of which the King of England was by a bull proclaimed the preserver and protector.[32] In June 1526, the Emperor caused the most favourable propositions to be presented to the Pope; but these advances were ineffectual, and the Duke of Sessa, Charles's amba.s.sador at Rome, returning on horseback from his last audience, placed a court-fool behind him, who, by a thousand monkey tricks, gave the Roman people to understand how they laughed at the projects of the Pope. The latter responded to these bravadoes by a brief, in which he threatened the Emperor with excommunication, and without loss of time pushed his troops into Lombardy, whilst Milan, Florence, and Piedmont declared for the Holy League. Thus was Europe preparing to be avenged for the triumph of Pavia.

[32] Sleidan, Hist. de la Ref. liv. vi.; Bullar. Mag. roman. x.

Charles did not hesitate. He wheeled to the right as quickly as the Pope had done to the left, and turned abruptly towards the evangelical princes. "Let us suspend the Edict of Worms," wrote he to his brother; "let us bring back Luther's partisans by mildness, and by a good council cause the evangelical truth to triumph." At the same time he demanded that the Elector, the Landgrave, and their allies should march with him against the Turks--or against Italy, for the common good of Christendom.

Ferdinand hesitated. To gain the friends.h.i.+p of the Lutherans was to forfeit that of the other princes. The latter were already beginning to utter violent threats.[33] The Protestants themselves were not very eager to grasp the Emperor's hand. "It is G.o.d, G.o.d himself, who will save his churches."[34]

[33] Ferdinandus, ut audio, graviter minatur.--(Corp. Ref. i. p. 801.)

[34] Imperator pollicetur......sed nemo his promissis movetur. Spero Deum defensurum esse suas Ecclesias.--(Ibid.)

What was to be done? The edict of Worms could neither be repealed nor carried into execution.

[Sidenote: CRISIS OF THE REFORMATION.]

This strange situation led of necessity to the desired solution: religious liberty. The first idea of this occurred to the deputies of the cities. "In one place," said they, "the ancient ceremonies have been preserved; in another they have been abolished; and both think they are right. Let us allow each one to do as he thinks fit, until a council shall re-establish the desired unity by the Word of G.o.d." This idea gained favour, and the _recess_ of the diet, dated the 27th August, decreed that a universal, or at least a national free council should be convoked within a year, that they should request the Emperor to return speedily to Germany, and that, until then, each state should behave in its own territory in a manner so as to be able to render an account to G.o.d and to the Emperor.[35]

[35] Unusquisque in sua ditione ita se gereret ut rationem Deo et imperatori reddere posset.--(Seckend. ii. p. 41.)

Thus they escaped from their difficulty by a middle course; and this time it was really the true one. Each one maintained his rights, while recognising another's. The diet of 1526 forms an important epoch in history: an ancient power, that of the middle ages, is shaken; a new power, that of modern times, is advancing; religious liberty boldly takes its stand in front of Romish despotism; a lay spirit prevails over the sacerdotal spirit. In this single step there is a complete victory: the cause of the Reform is won.

Yet it was little suspected. Luther, on the morrow of the day on which the _recess_ was published, wrote to a friend: "The diet is sitting at Spire in the German fas.h.i.+on. They drink and gamble, and there is nothing done except that."[36] "Le congres danse et ne marche pas,"[37] has been said in our days. It is because great things are often transacted under an appearance of frivolity, and because G.o.d accomplishes his designs unknown even to those whom he employs as his instruments. In this diet a gravity and love of liberty of conscience were manifested, which are the fruits of Christianity, and which in the sixteenth century had its earliest, if not its most energetic development among the German nations.

[36] Potatur et luditur, praeterea nihil.--(L. Epp. iii. p. 126.)

[37] The congress dances but does not move forward.

Yet Ferdinand still hesitated. Mahomet himself came to the aid of the Gospel. Louis, king of Hungary and Bohemia, drowned at Mohacz on the 29th August, 1526, as he was fleeing from before Soliman II., had bequeathed the crown of these two kingdoms to Ferdinand. But the Duke of Bavaria, the Waywode of Transylvania, and, above all, the terrible Soliman, contested it against him. This was sufficient to occupy Charles's brother: he left Luther, and hastened to dispute the two thrones.

[Sidenote: ITALIAN WAR.]

II. The Emperor immediately reaped the fruits of his new policy. No longer having his hands tied by Germany, he turned them against Rome.

The Reformation had been exalted and the Papacy was to be abased. The blows aimed at its pitiless enemy were about to open a new career to the evangelical work.

Ferdinand, who was detained by his Hungarian affairs, gave the charge of the Italian expedition to Freundsberg, that old general who had patted Luther in a friendly manner on the shoulder as the reformer was about to appear before the diet of Worms.[38] This veteran, observed a contemporary,[39] who "bore in his chivalrous heart G.o.d's holy Gospel, well fortified and flanked by a strong wall," pledged his wife's jewels, sent recruiting parties into all the towns of Upper Germany, and owing to the magic idea of a war against the Pope, soon witnessed crowds of soldiers flocking to his standard. "Announce," Charles had said to his brother,--"announce that the army is to march against the Turks; every one will know what Turks are meant."

[38] See Vol. II. book vii. chap. viii.

[39] Haug mars chalk, surnamed Zeller.

Thus the mighty Charles, instead of marching with the Pope against the Reform, as he had threatened at Seville, marches with the Reform against the Pope. A few days had sufficed to produce this change of direction: there are few such in history in which the hand of G.o.d is more plainly manifested. Charles immediately a.s.sumed all the airs of a reformer. On the 17th September, he addressed a manifesto to the Pope,[40] in which he reproaches him for behaving not like the father of the faithful, but like an insolent and haughty man;[41] and declares his astonishment that, being Christ's vicar, he should dare to shed blood to acquire earthly possessions, "which," added he, "is quite contrary to the evangelical doctrine."[42] Luther could not have spoken better. "Let your holiness," continued Charles the Fifth, "return the sword of St. Peter into the scabbard, and convoke a holy and universal council." But the sword was much more to the pontiff's taste than the council. Is not the Papacy, according to the Romish doctors, the source of the two powers? Can it not depose kings, and consequently fight against them?[43] Charles prepared to requite "eye for eye, and tooth for tooth."[44]

[40] Caroli Imperat. Rescriptum ad Clementis Septimi criminationes.--(Goldasti, Const.i.tut. Imperiales, i. p. 479.)

[41] Non jam pastoris seu communis patris laudem, sed superbi et insolentis nomen.--(Ibid. p. 487.)

[42] c.u.m id ab evangelica doctrina, prorsus alienum videtur.--(Ibid.

p. 489.)

[43] Utriusque potestatis apicem Papa tenet--(Turrecremata de Potestate Papali.)

[44] Exod. xxi. 24.

[Sidenote: ITALIAN CAMPAIGN.]

Now began that terrible campaign during which the storm burst on Rome and on the Papacy that had been destined to fall on Germany and the Gospel. By the violence of the blows inflicted on the pontifical city, we may judge of the severity of those that would have dashed in pieces the reformed churches. While we retrace so many scenes of horror, we have constant need of calling to mind that the chastis.e.m.e.nt of the seven-hilled city had been predicted by the Divine Scriptures.[45]

[45] Revel. xviii. We should not, however, restrict this prediction to the incomplete sack of 1527, and from which the city soon recovered.

[Sidenote: MARCH ON ROME.]

In the month of November, Freundsberg, at the head of fifteen thousand men, was at the foot of the Alps. The old general, avoiding the military roads, that were well guarded by the enemy, flung himself into a narrow path, over frightful precipices, that a few blows of the mattock would have rendered impa.s.sable. The soldiers are forbidden to look behind them; nevertheless their heads turn, their feet slip, and horse and foot fall from time to time down the abyss. In the most difficult pa.s.ses, the most sure-footed of the infantry lower their long pikes to the right and left of their aged chief, by way of barrier, and Freundsberg advances, clinging to the lansquenet in front, and pushed on by the one behind. In three days the Alps are crossed, and on the 19th November the army reaches the territory of Brescia.

The Constable of Bourbon, who since the death of Pescara was commander-in-chief of the imperial army, had just taken possession of the duchy of Milan. The Emperor having promised him this conquest for a recompense, Bourbon was compelled to remain there some time to consolidate his power. At length, on the 12th February, he and his Spanish troops joined the army of Freundsberg, which was becoming impatient at his delays. The Constable had many men, but no money: he resolved therefore to follow the advice of the Duke of Ferrara, that inveterate enemy of the princes of the Church, and proceed straight to Rome.[46] The whole army received this news with a shout of joy. The Spaniards were filled with a desire of avenging Charles the Fifth, and the Germans were overflowing with hatred against the Pope: all exulted in the hope of receiving their pay and of having their labours richly recompensed at last by the treasures of Christendom that Rome had been acc.u.mulating for ages. Their shouts re-echoed beyond the Alps. Every man in Germany thought that the last hour of the Papacy had now come, and prepared to contemplate its fall. "The Emperor's forces are triumphing in Italy," wrote Luther; "the Pope is visited from every quarter. His destruction draweth nigh; his hour and his end are come."[47]

[46] Guicciardini, History of the Wars in Italy, book xviii. p. 698.

[47] Papa ubique visitatur, ut destruatur; venit enim finis et hora ejus.--(Luther to Haussmann, 10th January, 1527. Epp. iii. p. 156.)

[Sidenote: REVOLT OF THE TROOPS.]

A few slight advantages gained by the papal soldiers in the kingdom of Naples, led to the conclusion of a truce that was to be ratified by the Pope and by the Emperor. At this news a frightful tumult broke out in the Constable's army. The Spanish troops revolted, compelled him to flee, and pillaged his tent. Then approaching the lansquenets, they began to shout as loudly as they could, the only German words they knew: _Lance!_ _lance!_ _money!_ _money!_[48] These words found an echo in the bosoms of the Imperialists; they were moved in their turn, and also began to cry with all their might: _Lance!_ _lance!_ _money!_ _money!_ Freundsberg beat to muster, and having drawn up the soldiers around him and his princ.i.p.al officers, calmly demanded if he had ever deserted them. All was useless. The old affection which the lansquenets bore to their leader seemed extinct. One chord alone vibrated in their hearts: they must have pay and war. Accordingly, lowering their lances, they presented them, as if they would slay their officers, and again began to shout, "Lance! lance! money!

money!"--Freundsberg, whom no army however large had ever frightened!

Freundsberg, who was accustomed to say, "the more enemies, the greater the honour," seeing these lansquenets, at whose head he had grown gray, aiming their murderous steel against him, lost all power of utterance, and fell senseless upon a drum, as if struck with a thunderbolt.[49] The strength of the veteran general was broken for ever. But the sight of their dying captain produced on the lansquenets an effect that no speech could have made. All the lances were upraised, and the agitated soldiers retired with downcast eyes. Four days later, Freundsberg recovered his speech. "Forward," said he to the Constable; "G.o.d himself will bring us to the mark." Forward!

forward! repeated the lansquenets. Bourbon had no other alternative: besides, neither Charles nor Clement would listen to any propositions of peace. Freundsberg was carried to Ferrara, and afterwards to his castle of Mindelheim, where he died after an illness of eighteen months; and on the 18th April, Bourbon took the highroad to Rome, which so many formidable armies coming from the north had already trodden.

[48] Lanz, lanz, gelt, gelt.

[49] c.u.m vero hastas ducibus obverterent indignatione et aegritudine animi oppressus, Fronsbergius subito in deliquium incidit, ita ut in tympano quod adstabat desidere cogeretur, nullumque verb.u.m proloqui amplius posset.--(Seckend. ii. p. 79.)