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VI 6
-' ne
^r^^^
THE
CAMBRIDGE
lODERN HISTORY
PLANNED BY •
THE LATE LORD ACTON LL.D.
REGIUS PROFESSOR OP MODERN HISTORY
EDITED BY
A. W. WARD LiTT.D.
G. W. PROTHERO Lirr.D.
STANLEY LEATHES M.A.
•
• • w
VOLUME II
• ••••
•
• •
• • ■ . .
• ••'
*••••
THE REFORMATION
......
. .. ..
<
!-•
•
• I •
• . •
• ••
• • .:
• •
Ncto gorft
. • « . .
--*-/
••••.
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY
--- --
LONDON : MACMILLAN & CO., Ltd.
'::::
1904
'-'
All rights reserved
••••• •• • V
• • • •
• • •• •»
!"
COPTRIOHT, 1904,
By the MACMILLAN COMPANY.
Set up, electrotyped, and published January, 1904.
KortoooQ ipresi
J. S. Gushing & Co. — Berwick k Smith Co.
Norwood, Mass., U.S.A.
PREFACE
TN accordance with the scheme of the Cambridge Modem History, this
-*- volume takes as its main subject a great movement, the Reformation,
and follows this theme to a fitting close in its several divisions. No
attempt is made to fix a single chronological limit for the whole range
of European history. In international politics the battle of Marignano
made an appropriate close to our first volume; the Treaty of Cateau-
Cambr^sis forms a still more conspicuous landmark for the conclusion of
our second. The religious history of the Reformation period opens with
the abortive Fifth Lateran Council, and Luther's Theses follow close.
Some sort of religious settlement was reached in Germany by the Treaty
of Augsburg, in England by the great measures of Elizabeth, for the
Roman Church by the close of the Council of Trent; and the latter two
events are nearly contemporaneous with the death of Calvin. Before his
death Calvin had done his work, and the Reformed Church was securely
established. On the other hand, the Religious Wars in France had just
begun. Further developments of Lutheranism and Calvinism are left to
be treated in subsequent volumes.
In this period the scene of principal interest shifts from Italy to Ger-
many and Central Europe. Geneva, very nearly the geographical centre
of civilised Europe at the time, becomes also the focus of its most potent
lehgious thought, supported by her like-minded neighbours, Zurich, Strass-
burg, Basel, and the free imperial cities of southern Germany. As the
scene shifts, the main stream of European life broadens out and embraces
more distant countries, Scotland, Scandinavia, Poland. The Turkish
danger, though still a grave preoccupation to the rulers of eastern Europe,
had been checked; and limits had been set to the Ottoman advance.
The main proportions preserved in this volume will be found, it is
hoped, to correspond with the relative importance of the several tliemes.
If English topics are here treated on a relatively liberal scale, the Editors
cannot forget that this History in the first instance addresses itself to
English readers, and they look for pardon if, upon the canvas of this
V
vi Preface
work, Henry VIII, the Protector Somerset, Northumberland, Mary, and
Elizabeth occupy more space than strict historical symmetry would demand.
The Editors have suffered many losses and disappointments. Chief
among these is that of the chapter on the Council of Trent which Lord
Acton had intended to write. No living historian could hope to bring
to this task the wealth of accumulated knowledge that Lord Acton com-
manded, or his special opportunities of insight. The lamented death of
Professor Kraus has prevented the chapter on Medicean Rome from re-
ceiving his final revision ; and the loss of his bibliography is particularly
to be regretted. Lapse of time and fresh engagements have disturbed
many of the arrangements which Lord Acton had concluded. Of the
nineteen chapters comprised in this work, nine have, however, been written
by the authors to whom he assigned them.
In the original plan no provision had been made for the Reformation
in Poland. This topic hardly seemed by its importance to deserve a
separate chapter, and there were obvious reasons against including it in
any of the others. On the other hand it could not be altogether neglected.
A brief summary, compiled by one of the Editors, may serve to fill the gap.
Moved by representations which have reached them from many quarters,
the Editors have added to this volume, as to Volume vii, a chronological
table of leading events. A similar table for Volume i is now also supplied.
The thanks of the Editors are due to all the authors, who have spared
no labour to perfect their several contributions, under conditions of time
which were in many cases very burdensome.
A. W. W.
G. W. P.
S. L.
Cambridge,
November, 1903.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER I
MEDICEAN ROME
By the late Professor F. X. Kraus, of Munich
PAOB
Pontificate of Alexander VI 1
Eariy ideas of Church reform. The House of the Medici aud the Re-
naisBaDce 2
Hie Renaissance in Italy. Reaction. Savonarola 8
The PlatonistB at Florence • • / 4
Adriano di Cometo and Julius II A 6
St Peter's. Symbolical work of Michelangelo. Camera deJla Segnatura 0
Wide conceptions of Julius II /I 7
Attempt to harmonise modem culture with Christianity .... 8
Tht Fifth Lateran CounciL Estimates of Julius II . X • • • ^
Giovanni de^ Medici elected as Pope I^eo X. EAtimates of Leo . . 10
Bii character, his work, and his age ........ 11
Sospension of the great arUstic works at Rome 12
Arriiitectare, sculpture, and painting under I..eo 13
Mitical action. Extravagance, and frivolity. Beginnings of decadence 14
LiteiatQie under Julius II and Leo X . 15
XeritB of Leo X. The University of Rome 10
PtomLsing beginnings. Questionable expenditure of Leo X V . 17
Defects of Leo as a patron. Effects on his character of the supreme power 18
rinal estimate of J^io X. Election of Adrian VI, 1522 .... 19
Character of Adrian VI. His reception at Rome 20
Fatluze of Adrian as a reformer. His death, 152^i ..... 21
Election of Clement VII. His previous history. His character . 22
Giberti and Schomberg. Wavering policy of Hement .... 23
League of Cognac. 1529. Sack of Rome, 1527. Effects upon literature
andart 24
Relations of Clement and Cliarles V. Treaty of Barcelona (1529). C^)n-
ferencea at Bologna. 1530, 15:^2 25
Karriage of Catharine de' Medici to Henry of France. Henry VHI.
The General CounciL Death of Oement VII (1534) . . . 2fi
Failnre of Julius* ideas. Decadence of Italy and cornxption of the
Papacy 11 27
Decline of literafmre and art 28
Scheme of Reform. Synod of Pisa, 1511 1 29
The Fifth Lateran CounciL 1512. The Council under Leo * . . . 30
Proceedinga, and close of the Council (1517) .' 31
Concordat with Franci.s L 151*5. Election of Pani III, l.>3-l . . Z2
Paul in and the reform movement in the Clmrch. Paul IV, and r*iu.s V 3:^
List daya of Xichelangelo. The fate of Italy 3-i
vii
viii Contents
CHAPTER II
HABSBURG AND VALOIS (I)
By Stanley Leathes, M.A., Fellow and Lecturer of Trinity College
PAGE
The hereditary feud of Burgundy and Valois 36
Unstable equilibrium in Southern Europe. Resources of Charles V and
Francis I 37
Characters of Charles V and Francis I 38
Nature and reactions of the struggle. Peace of Noyon, 1616 ... 39
Candidature for election to the Empire 40
Election of Charles V, 1519. Significance of the contest .... 41
Negotiations for alliance with Henry VIII and Leo X / . . . 42
Conclusion of alliance with Henry VIII. Informal outbreak of war, 1521 43
Occupation of Milan. Death of Leo X, 1521. Election of Adrian VI, 1622 44
Treaty of Windsor. Second campaign in Lombardy. Battle of the
Bicocca, 1522 46
Disaffection of the Duke of Bourbon 46
Flight of the Duke, 1623. Failure of the invasions of France. Bonnivet
in Italy 47
Siege of Milan. Retreat of Bonnivet, 1624. Policy of Clement VII . 48
Invasion of France under Bourbon. Siege of Marseilles and retreat,
1524. Francis crosses the Alps 49
Francis besieges Pavia. Battle of Pavia, 1626 60
Capture of Francis. Treaty of Madrid, 1626 61
Conspiracy of Girolamo Morone, 1525. League of Cognac, 1526 . . 52
Ineffective action of the League in the Milanese. Ugo de Moncada and
the Colonna 63
Advance of the Duke of Bourbon, 1627 64
The Sack of Rome 65
Results of, and responsibility for the Sack of Rome 66
Invasion of Italy by Lautrec. Clement VII comes to terms with Charles V 67
Siege of Naples by Lautreo, 1628. Defection of Andrea Doria . . 68
Events at Genoa and in the Milanese. Peace of Cambray, 1629 . . 69
Treaty of Barcelona. Charles in Italy. Settlement of Italian affairs . 60
Coronation of Charles at Bologi\a. Causes of his success in Italy . . 61
Special features of the war, 1621-9 62
liesources of the Netherlands and Spain . ^ 63
Resources in Italy. Revenues of Francis I 64
Finance of Europe ^ 65
CHAPTER III
HABSBURG AND VALOIS (II)
By Stanley Leathes, M.A.
Death of Margaret of Savoy. Maria of Hungary regent in the Nether-
lands 66
Difficulties of Charles V in Italy and Germany. Charles in Italy, 1532.
He leaves for Spain, 1533 67
Contents ix\
f
PAOE
Frmncis I and Clement VII at Marseilles. The pirates of Algiers G8
Expedition against Tunis, 1535. Death of Clement VII, 1534. Election
of Paul III 69
Occupation of Savoy by the Fri'uch, 1536. Charles V in Sicily and
Naples, 1535 70
Attitude of Paul IIL Invasion of Provence by Charles V . . . 71
Charles leaves for Spain. Successes of the Turks in the Levant . . 72
Truce of Nice between Charles V and Fnmcis I. Results of the war 73
Operations against the Turks. Revolt of Ghent, 1539 .... 74
Reduction of Ghent. Affairs of Gelders, and of Italy . 75
Expedition against Algiers, 1541. Outbreak of war between Charles V
and France, 1542 76
Barbarossa at Toulon. Reduction of the Duke 6f Cleves, 1543. Battle
of Cert^le, 1544 77
Henry VIII and Charles V invade France., Peace of Cr^py, 1544 ^ . 78
Fresh stage in the settlement of Europe . • . "^ ^. • \ . \ . ^ ! . 79
League of Charles V and Paul III. Opening of the Council of Trent . 80
Battle of Milhlberg, 1547. Conspiracy of (lenoa 81
Death of Henry VIII, and Francis I, 1547 82
Affairs of l^acenza. Murder of Picrluigi Famese. League of Paul III
with Fnmce . . . . ^ 83
Policy of Gon^ga and Mendoza in Italy 84
Death of PaullII. Accession of Julius III. War of Parma ... 85
Mirandola. Dragut and the Ottomans. War in Savoy .... 86
Treaty of Cmimbord, 1552. French invasion of Lorraine. Charles V
besieges Metz 87
Revolt and reionquest of Siena, 1552-5 88
War in the Netherlands. Truce of Vaucelles, 1556. Close of Charles V's
career. Situation in Europe 89
Charles* abdication. Accespion of Pope Paul IV. His character and
action 90
I^eague with France. War with Philip II, 1556 91
Death of Paul IV, 1559. France at war with Philip II and England.
Battle of St Quentin 92
Capture of Calais. Battle of Graveliues, 1558. Treaty of Cateau-
Cambr^is, 1559 93
Resulting settlement of Europe 94
France. The Church 96
Revenue. Justice. The army 96
The chief personages. The Constable de Montmorency .... 97
The Guises. Catharine de' Medici 98
Spain. The Cortes. The Church 9J)
The Councils. Decline of Spain. Industry and trade .... 100
Internal economy. The Indies 101
Boi^ndy and the Netherlands. Regents 102
Hereiy in the Netherlands. Condition of the provinces .... 103
Contents
CHAPTER IV
LUTHER
By the Rev. T. M. Lindsay, D.D., Principal of the Glasgow College
of the United Free Church of Scotland
PAQK
-ppii«>»>/w> ^f rfiliyiffng and political forces in the ^fW^'ntj^ix ■ . 104
Popnlar r^ijyf^"" iVfa Vn fioi.twQtiy iw »ho liff^gCTi^ cenfuiy .^ 105
religious reviyal. The mendicant Orders 106
Cult of the Virgin and St Anne. Lay interference in the sphere of the
Church 107
Mun^ffjpa^ f^Ar^tv Religious confraternities 108
Luther's youth at Eisleben, Magdeburg, and Eisenach .... 109
At the University of Erfurt 110
Humanism and Scholasticism at Erfurt Ill
Luther's studies at Erfurt 112
He takes religious vows, 1505. His doubts 113
The Augustinian Eremites 114
Luther's religious difficulties. Staupitz 116
Luther's ordination. Transfer to Wittenberg, 1508 116
University of Wittenberg. Luther at Rome 117
Luther professor of theology at Wittenberg 118
His teaching at Wittenberg 119
Gradual change in his position, 1616-17 120
Tetgel^d the Indulgence, 1517 121
i'Ee practice of Indulgences 122
Ktblication of Luther's Theses, 1517. Theory of Indulgences . . . 123
Origin of Indulgences. Treasury of merits ^ > . 124
mUUlgences and the Sacrament of Penance ' . 125
""^^ttritLon and Contrition. Papal Indulgences I ^ . 126
„ buses connected. The Scholastics I . 127
■ IlemiBBton of guilt. Luther's position \ . 128
41i« ■" MAimon man." The character of the Theses . • 1 • 120
Six propositions. The vogue of the Theses / . 130
Attacks upon and discussion of the Theses 131
Luther summoned to Rome, to Augsburg, 1518 . ' 132
Interview with the Cardinal-Legate 183
Mission of Miltitz to Germany. Interview with Luther .... 134
Papal Supremacy. Disputation with Eck at Leipzig .... 135
Luther's writings 136
The Appeal To the CkrUtian NohUUy of the German Nation ... 137
Attack on the Roman Church. Luther excommunicated .... 138
^ The Diet of Wonns, 1521. The papal Nuncio, Aleander .... 139
Luther at the Diet 140
Luther's condemnation. The Wartburg 141
Contents
!S^
XI
/
CHAPTER V
NATIONAL OPPOSITION TO ROME IN GERMANY
By A. F. Pollard, M.A., Professor of Constitutional History
in University College, London
PAQB
Movement for reform of goverp'^ftTi^ [^ (larmftiiy i ■ . i 14i
Dynasdc aims of dbarles V. Effecteon^^jris^yry - ,^^ . 143
His ui liiudux^ . Acnrade iowariSs the Papacy . . " -.•>-.-. - ~ ^^_
iTgp ^f the impertat power ia Habsbur^ Interests 146
Ijnicn oi Wiirltelhberg. The Diet of WormsT iSSfl* T : . '. 14fr-
JhP rttTff?* "011 '"^ft ^^'*rira] dmnmat^'nn ^ . , _147.
The fitfltg vt y^^yiilnr f^i^lipg |t\ fiprmauy -*. . . . 148
B€t&iSfegxment and Heichskammergericht . . . ' .* . . 149
Partition of Habsburg territories. Territorial ambition of the Princes of .
Germany 150
Difficulties of the Reichsregiment 151
Proposal to tax exports and imports . •__•_• : i • • ^^^
R^jstaiir** ^^ *^9 '*'}*i'^ — ^ ........_*--— . !..' . . . 155"
"The knights and Sickingen 154
The Knights' War. Invasion of lYier 155
Defeat and death of Sickingen. Failure of the Reichsregiment . . 156
Victory of the territorial principle 157
X Failure of the Edict of Worms 158
. ^^^^on?«^Mnn litrratnre in fiormany 150
Spread of the Reformed doctrines 160
^.^^ The religious Orders and Reform 161
^^y Lack^i^rgaaJwrtton. Theological controversy increases .... 162
j^niEer and Augustine 163
Activity of Luther. His Bible 164-
Carlstadt and Z willing at Wittenberg 165
The Anabaptists 166
Lather returns to Wittenberg. The humanists . . . . . 167
Breach of the humanists with the Reformers. Formation of an opposition
to the Reformers 168
Secular Princes won by the Papacy. Converts to the Reformation . . 160
The Ntbmberg Diets and the papal Nuncios, 1622 170
Campeggio at Niimberg, 1524 171
^Demand for a General Council. Catholic Princes at Ratisbon, 1524 172
Lutheran meetings at Speier 17.'^
CHAPTER VI
SOCIAL REVOLUTION AND CATHOLIC REACTION IN GERMANY
By A. F. Pollard, M.A.
Supposed revolutionary tendency of the Reformation
Element of truth in the allegation. Discontent of the peasants
The grievaa^^es of the peasants. The Roman Law ...
Beginnings of the Peasants' Rising, 1524 . . .
174
175 •
17«l
177
xii Contents
PAQB
Articles of the peasants. Spread of the movement 178
Religious element in the rising 179
Evangelical Brotherhood. Articles of Memmingen 180
Ulrich in WUrttemberg 181
Risings in the south and west 182
Leaders, motives, and aims of the rebels 183
Utopian schemes 184
Socialistic and communistic movements in the towns .... 18
Thomas MUnzer and his teaching 18
Massacre of Weinsberg, 1626 187
The rebels in Franconia. Attack on Wtirzburg 188
Defeats of the rebels. Philip of Uesse and Truchsess .... 189
Suppression of the rebellion, 1626-6 190
Results of the Peasants' Revolt 191
Its nature. Religious reaction 192
Attitude of Luther towards the revolt 193
The Reformation in alliance with the Princes 194
^ Secularisation of Church property. Opposing leagues . . . . 195
\philip of Hesse. Recess of Speier, 1526 19($
Clement VII and Charles V. Battle of Mohdcs, 1526 .... 197
John Zapolya. Ferdinand, King of Bohemia 198
Ferdinand, King of Hungary. Effects of these preoccupations . . 199
The Princes and the Lutheran Church 200
« Demand for spiritual liberty. Luther's hymns and Catechism . . 201
Pack's forgeries. Philip of Hesse and the Catholics 202
\ Charles and Clement VII ; the treaty of Barcelona, 1629. The Diet of
Speier, 1529. Lutherans and Zwinglians 203
Decisions of the Diet The ** Protest" 204
The original Protestants 205
CHAPTER VII
THE CONFLICT OF CREEDS AND PARTIES IN GERMANY
By A. F. Pollard, M.A.
Protestant union ; its difiSculties. The Turks invade Hungary . . 206
Siege of Vienna, 1529. Conference of Marburg 207
Luther and Zwingli 208
Doctrine of the Eucharist 209
Protestant union impossible. Charles V in Germany, 1530 . . . 210
\ Diet of Augsburg ; Confession of Augsburg 211
The Tetrapolitana. Position of Charles between the parties . . . 212
Fruitless negotiations. Catholic proposals ; fresh protest . . . 213
Ferdinand, King of the Romans. Recess of Augsburg, 1531. Resort to
legal process 214
The Protestant Princes at Schmalkalden 215
Battle of jKappel, 1531. Swiss war proposed by Ferdinand . . . 216
Inaction 6f Charles. League of Schmalkalden formed, 1531 . . . 217
Charles conciliates the Protestants. Turkish invasion repelled . . 218
Charles leaves Germany for Italy. His failure 219
France ^sists a scheme to restore Ulrich in WUrttemberg . . . 220
Its succAa. Peace of Cadan, 1534. The Protestants and the Beichskam-
merhericht 221
CoHtents xiii
rACtt
BrvdntioiLUT moj^Bk&BtM 23d
Tte AnabapciBCi and oUier fleets SdS
Srpcre mcMDZCflL ResisUiice. M6o»ter 3dl
imhircwri in the Netherianda. lUstng at Miiiuter* 16M . . . S^
Aoab^XBt rale. Jan ran Leyden i^
Anabapcists mppieased, 1535 ^7
Social fcnneni in North Gennanj. Tlie Hanse Lea|:ue .... ±)8
AiEaiB in ScandinaTia. War in the Baltic. Wallenwerer, Boigomastcr
of Lobcck, 1533 299
Cbrirtopher of CHdenborg. The Gr^eitfehde. Sncceases of Puke
Chrisnan 830
fkD of WallenweTer. 1535 HSl
Dancer of the Protestants. Catholic Lea^e of Halle . . . . i3a
Extension of the Schmalkaldic League, 1535. Ferdinand compiomlses
with the Protestants 333
Wittenberg Concord, 153d. DiTisioiis among the Protestants ... 234
Thioe of Nice, 1538. Fear of a General Council Mission of Held, 153d.
Catholic Leagae of KOraberg 335
Dangers in Hungary, 1538-9. Gelders and Cleves-JiUich ... 23d
Joadiim 11 of Brandenburg. Death of Duke George of Saxony 237
Further aoocasions to Protestantism. Conference at Frankfort, 1539 238
Charles* difficulties with German Catholics. Conferences 239
Conference of Ratisbon, 1541. Its failure 240
Bigamy of Philip of HesBe. Philip makes terms with Charles V 241
Algiers. Hungary, aeves. War with Francis 1 242
liurtition of Wurzen. The Protestants overrun Brunswick. ConTersion
of Hermann of Cologne 243
Conquest of Gelders, 1543. Diet of Speier, 1544 244
Ftece of Cr^y, 1544 245
CHAPTER VIII
RELIGIOUS WAR IN GERMANY ^
By A. F. Pollard, M.A.
Religious situation in Germany. Aims of Charles V . . • . 24d
Dynastic purposes, and opportunism 247
Reasons for a policy of war 248
\ Summons of a General Council to Trent 249
The Protestants reject the General Council. Charles holds out hopes of
a National Council 250
Alliance of Paul III and Charles V. Bavaria won to Charles. Divisions
of the Protestants 251
Maurice of Saxony, and John Frederick 252
^Pbilipof Hease. Diet of Ratisbon. Charles V's diplomacy . . . 258
Weakness of the Protcstanus. The war represented as not religious . 2rA
Heresy and treason. Position of the Schmalkaldic League . . . 255
The Schmalkaldic War, 154G 250
Maurice and Ferdinand invade Ernestine Saxony 267
Break-up of the Protestant army. Negotiations with the South German
towns 2r.8
Hermann of Cologne resigns. Successes of John Frederick . . 2r)0
Paul in withdraws his troops. Charles in Saxony 2<)0
BatUe of Milhlberg, 1547. The Elector and the Landgrave prisoners 'JOl
xiv Contents
PAGS
rThe Diet of Augsburg. Proposed new League 262
Administrative measures of Charles. Tension between him and the Pope 263
\Tbe General Council. The Augsburg Interim^ 1548 264
Nature and results of the Interim 266
The Leipzig htterim. Situation at Augsburg 266
Question of the imperial succession 267
Charles* power in Germany undermined. Foreign aftairs . . . 268
Maurice prepares for desertion. War of Magdeburg .... 269
Negotiations with France. Successes of Maurice 270
Hans of CUstrin. Treaty of Chambord, 1562 271
Flight of Charles V. Conference at Passau 272
Treaty of Passau. Siege of Metz, 1552 273
Albrecht Alcibiades. League of Heidelberg 274
Battle of Sievershausen, 1553. Death of Maurice. Death of John Fred-
erick, 1564. Albrecht Alcibiades expelled 275
\Diet of Augsburg 276
Terms of the Religious Peace of Augsburg 277
Cvju9 regio ^ts religio. The new despotism 278
Results of the Reformation period in Germany ...... 279
CHAPTER IX
THE REFORMATION IN FRANCE
By A. A. TiLLBY, M.A., Fellow of King's College
The need for Reform in France 280
"XndepeudeuM uf Ff&uce. The Concordat of 1516 281
The Renaissance. Lef^vre d*£taples and Brigonnet .... 282
The Meauz preachers and the Sorbonne 283
Persecution of Reformers, 1526-32. Berquin executed .... 284
Vacillating policy of Francis I. Cop's address, 1633 .... 285
The Placards at Paris, 1534. Persecutions. Milder policy. Proposed
conference with German Reformers 286
The moderate party in France. The Christianae religionis institution 1636 287
Vigorous measures against the Protestants, 1538-44 288
Peace of Cr^py, 1644. The Waldenses of Provence 289
Massacre of the Waldenses, 1545. The Fourteen of Meaux, 1546 . . 290
Results of persecution. Spread of Reform .... .291
The Universities. The channels for the spread of Reform. Henry II,
1547 292
La Ghambre Ardente. Organisation of French Protestantism . . . 293
Proposed Inquisition. Persecutions . . 294
Distinguished converts. Protestant Synod, 1559 295
Death of Henry II, 1559. Accession of Francis II. The Guises . . 290
The Tumult of Amboise, 1660. Michel de PHOpital, Chancellor . . 29'
Edict of Romorantin. Assembly of Notables. Protestant conspiracy.
Arrest of Cond6 . 298
Death of Francis II, 1560. Accession of Charles IX. Catharine de*
Medici Regent. Estates at Orleans 299
Ordinance of Orleans. Disturbances in various towns .... 300
Edict of July. Estates at Pontoise. Attacks on the Clergy ... 301
Colloquy of Poissy 302
The Protestants in power. Conference at St Germain, 1562 . . . 303
The Edict of January. Religious war 304
IT ''
Contents xv
CHAPTER X
THE HELVETIC REFORMATION
By the Rev. J. P. Whitney, M.A., King's College, Principal of
the Bishop's Collie, Lennoxville, Quebec
PAOB
Early hisUny of the Swiss communities 305
Hie SwiflB Confederation. Zurich 800
Tbe youth of Zwingli. F&risb priest of Glarus, 1506 .... 307
ffis hnmmnistic and religious studies 306
Pensions and mercenary service in Switzerland. Removal to Einsiedeln.
Comparison of Luther, Erasmus, and Zwin^ 309
Zwtng}i people's priest at Zurich 310
Zwingli^s ideas. His influence and position at Zurich . ' 311
Constitution of Zurich. Waldmann 312
Zwing}i's marriage. Samson and Indulgences 313
Zwtng}i*s relations with Luther and Erasmus 314
Mercenary service. Zwingli*8 defection from the Papacy 315
Fteting in Lent. Zwingli's ArcheteUs 316
Hie first puhlic Disputation at Zurich, 1523 317
Social, educational, and religious reform 318
Doctrine and observances. The AnabapUsts 319
Effect of the Reform movement on the Swiss Confederation 320
Abolition of the Mass and the monasteries ..... 321
Supremacy of Zwingli in Zurich 322
Hie Swiss Anabaptists 323
Divisions in the Confederation. The Common Lands .... 324
League of the Catholic CantonH. Bern 325
Political schemes of ZwinglL Catholic counter-movement ... 326
Spcead of the Reformation. Disputation at Bern 327
Reformation at Bern, Basel, Constance, Strassburg 328
The Christian Civic League and the Christian Union .... 329
^Tbe Diet of Speier. Imminence of civil war 330
St Gallen. The Free Bailiwicks 331
Hie first Peace of KappeU 1529 332
The question of the Eucharist. The Conference of Marburg . 333
Failure of Zwin^^s political schemes 334
Relations with Germany. Tlie Tetrapolitana 335
Decline of Zwingli's influence. War of Musso 336
War in Switzeriand. Battle of Kappel and death of Zwin^i, 1531 . 337
Second Peace of Kappel 338
Results of Zwingli's policy. Wittenberg Concord. First Helvetic Con-
fession 339
Calvin. The Consengns Tigurinus 340
Division of the Swiss Confederation 341
t
xvi . Contents
CHAPTER XI
CALVIN AND THE REFORMED CHURCH
By the Rev. A. M. Fairbairn, D.D., Principal of Mansfield
College, Oxford
PAGE
Wider range of ideas in the modem era 342
Luther's personal influence and his limitations 343
Inadequacy of his system and doctrine 344
Contrast between Luther and Zwingli 345
The Reformation and the Reformed Church in France .... 346
Persecution in France 347
Characteristics of the Reformed Church in France 348
Influence of Calvin. His youth and antecedents 349
His family education. University of Paris 350
His friendSf and his relations with them 351
Legal studies. The De dementia 352
Moral attitude of the Commentary 353
Cop»s address, 1533, the work of Calvin. Flight of Calvin ... 354
Calvin at Basel. Intellectual conditions there 855
Calvin's Letter to Francis I 366
The Christianae Beligionis Institution 1536. Various editions . . 357
Calvin at Geneva. Situation of the city 358
The Bishop. The Vicedom. The citizens 359
Relations between the Church and the city-State 360
Relations between the Bishop and the House of Savoy .... 361
Eyguenots^ Mamelukes. Revolt against the Bishop. Alliance with Bern
and the Reformation 362
Calvin's spiritual development 363
His problem as a Reformer and a legislator 364
His relation to Augustine 365
Influence of his theology on his legislation 366
Calvin's flrst period of rule at Geneva, 1536-8 367
His drastic measures. His expulsion, 1538. His return, 1641 . . . 368
The relation of the Church to the Churches 369
The Ordonnances EccUsiastiques 370
The Reformed ministry 371
Position of the ministers. System of Education 372
Calvinist ministers in France. Influence of Calvin 373
The Consistory 374
The State and heresy 375
Some special services of Calvin 376
CHAPTER XII
THE CATHOLIC SOUTH
By the Rev. W. E. Collins, B.D., Selwyn College, Professor of
Ecclesiastical History in King's College, London
Reform movements in southern Europe 377
Lines of division. The Reformation in Italy. Adrian of Utrecht . . 378
The Oratory of Divine Love. Paul III. Consilium de emendanda ecclesia 379
Contents xvii
PAGE
Speziale. German influence in Italy 380
The Reform movement at Venice 381
Girolamo Galateo and Bartolommeo Fonzio 382
Giulio della Rovere. Antonio BrociolL Baldo Lupetino. Disciples of
the Reform 383
Procesaes for heresy in the Veneto, Court of Rente at Ferrara 384
Calyin at Ferrara. Correspondence with Rente 385
The Modenese Academy. Dispersed, 1540 386
Deaths for religion. Repressive measures in the Modenese . . 387
Naples. Juan and Alfonso de Valdte 388
Joan de Valdte at Naples 389
Followers of Vald63 390
Pietro Martire Vermigli at Lucca 391
His subsequent history. Bernardino Ochino of Siena .... 892
Italian Reformers in Switzerland and Poland 393
Pietro Paolo Vergerio. Francesco Spiera 394
Sympathisers with Reform 306
Aonio Paleario. Pietro Camesecchi 396
Process of Camesecchi. The Catholic reformers 397
Sadoleto, Contarini, and Pole 396
Fate of the Catholic reformers. Reform of the Church in Spain 399
The Orders. Revival of learning. Influence of Erasmus .... 400
Erasmi8ta8 and arUi-Erasmistas in Spain 401
Francisco de Enzinas (Dryander) 402
Juan Diaz ; his murder. Francisco de San Roman 408
Reform movements in Spain. Seville 404
Gil, Constantino, and Vargas 405
The Inquisition and the Reformers at Seville 406
ValUdolid. Agustin Cazalla. Carlos de Seso 407
u4tflo-de-/e at Valladolid 408
Bartolom^ de Carranza 409
Trial of Carranza, 1559-76 410
Miguel Serveto. His death at Geneva, 1553 411
Social condition of Portugal. Financial embarrassment . . 412
Establishment of the Inquisition, 1531 413
Negotiations with the Papacy. DamiSo de Goes 414
The work of the Inquisition in Portugal. Financial motives . . 415
CHAPTER XIII
HENRY Vni
By James Gaibdneb, C.B., LL.D.
Interviews of the King with Charles V and Francis I, 1520 . . 416
Treaty with Charles V. Execution of Buckingham, 1521 . . 417
Wolsey at Calais and Bruges 418
Charles V in England. Treaty of Windsor, 1522. Albany in Scotland . 419
War with the French and the Scots, 1522 420
Money for the wars. Suffolk in France, 1523
Failure of Suffolk. War with Scotland
Negotiations with Bourbon, with France. Battle of F^Tia, 1
XVlll
Contents
PAGB
Arrest of de Praet. Embassy from Flanders 424
The Amicable Grant. Treaties of the Moor, 1625 425
Treaty of Madrid. Position of England 426
League of Cognac, 1526. Embassy of the Bishop of Tarbes . . 427''
Treaties with France. Wolsey in France. Sack of Rome 428
Anne Boleyn. War declared by France and England against the Emperor 429
The Divorce. Campeggio*s mission to England 430
The Trial before the Legates 43I
Fall of Wolsey. New Parliament 482
Thomas Cranmer. Mission to Bologna 433
The Divorce. Wolsey's pardon. His College. Arrest of Wolsey . . 434
His death, 1530. His character. Pressure on the Pope .... 435
Praemunire. The King Supreme Head of the Church .... 436
Henry leaves Catharine finally. Annates abolished 437
Submission of the Clergy. Resignation of Sir Thomas More . . 438
Alliance of France and England. Marriage with Anne Boleyn, 1533 439
The King^s marriage annulled, 1583. Excommunication .... 440
Sir Thomas More and Fisher sent to the Tower 441
Irish Rebellion. Act of Supremacy 442
Fisher and More executed. Character of More 443^
Visitation and first suppression of monasteries 444
Anne Boleyn beheaded. Jane Seymour. Act of Succession . 445
The Ten Articles. Aske*s rebellion 446
The rebellion suppressed. Reginald Pole's mission 447
Further suppression of the monasteries 448
Executions of various noblemen. Intrigues against Henry 449
Act of Six Articles. Anne of Cleves 450
Anne of Cleves divorced. Catharine Howard. Cromwell beheaded 451
His character. The King in Torkshlre 452
Catharine Howard beheaded. Scotland 458
Scotland during the youth of James y 454
James V and Henry Vin 455
Battle of the Solway Moss. Death of James V 456
TVeatiea with Scotland. War with France 457
Maiy Stewart crowned. The treaties repudiated 458
Sie|:e of Boulogne. The currency 459
Anoram Moor. Ineffective war with France 460
Fsaoe with France 461
Murder of Beton. Death of Henry VIII 462
Absolutism of Henry vm. Breach with Rome 463
The new oonditSons of religion. Translation of the Bible . . 464
Tyndals. Coverdale 465
The Qroai Bible. Effects of the Act of the Six Articles .... 466
Anne Askew. Dissolution of the monasteries 467
Effects of the suppression. Education 468
Agrarian legislation and poor laws 469
Taxation. Debasement of the coinage. Wales 470
Council of the Marches, of the North. Ireland 471
Irish UUe. The navy 472
The army 478
Contents
XIX
CHAPTER XIV
THE REFORMATION UNDER EDWARD VI
By A. F. Pollard, M.A.
PAOB
.^ta|tti9n in England at Ed^ani ^^*° "^^'Vffi^n . . .^,--^ -^ 474
Tlie King^s will. The new government 476
Protector Somerset 476
Destruction of Henry Vlirs absolatism. Impulse to the Reformation 477
Spirit of the English Reformation 478
Its character under Edward VI 479
Proclamations against innovations. Somerset's policy .... 480
The attitude of Cranmer and the Church 481
Practical refonns in religion. Chantries Bill 482
Further reforms. Desire for uniformity of worship 483
The First Book of Common Prayer. The aims of its authors . 484
The agitation of Reformers and of Catholics 485
Religious persecution. Foreign policy 486
The attempted union with Scotland. Pinkie Cleugh .... 487
Thomas Seymour, Lord High Admiral 488'
The agrarian revolution 480
Measures against enclosure. The Protector's policy .... 490
The Enclosure Commissions. Hales. The bills rejected .... 491
Peasants' revolt. Robert Ket. French aggression 492
War with France, 1549. Defeat of the peasants 493
Warwick's plot against the Protector 494
The Fall of Somerset, 1549 495
Reaction against his policy. Treason Act 496
Agrarian repression. Hopes of the Catholics 497
More stringent policy of Reform 498
Disgraceful treaty with France, 1550 499
Religious controversy. Popular violence 500
Religious persecution 501
Bishop Hooper. Spoliation of Church property 502
Progress of the Reformation 503
Release of Somerset. His rivalry with Warwick 504
Coi«p<r&a<of Northumberland (Warwick), 1551 505
Trial of Somerset 506
His execution. Second Act of Uniformity 507
Second Book of Common Prayer, 1552. Articles of Religion. Further
seizure of Church property 508
Fuiiament of 1553. Dangerous position of Northumberland . . . 509
Settlement of the Crown on Lady Jane Grey and Guilford Dudley . . 510
Death of Edward VI, 1553 511
CHAPTER XV
PHILIP AND MARY
By James Bass Mullikosr, M.A., Uniyersity Leotuzer in History
and Lecturer of St John's C^^
Position of affairs in England .
Leading diplomatists of the reign
Proclamation of Lady Jane Grey. VtifiA
XX Contents
PAOK
Northumberland marches against Mary. Advice of Charles V . 515
Proclamation of Mary 616
Failure of Northumberland. Success of Mary 517
Clemency of Mary. Cardinal Pole 518
His advice to Mary 519
Position of Elizabeth. Mary^s difficulties 520
Her Church policy. The Reformers. Cranmer 521
Mary's First Parliament Moderate reaction 522
The suitors for Mary's hand. Edward Courtenay 523
Acceptance of Philip's offer. The Commons 524
Marriage Treaty with Philip 525
Conspiracies against Mary 526
Sir Thomas Wyatt in Kent 527
Wyatt in London. Executions of Jane, Dudley, Wyatt, and others 528
Elizabeth. Michiel. Cardinal Pole 529
Mary's Second Parliament 530
The royal wedding. Mary's counsellors 531
Arrival of Pole. Return of England to the Papal obedience . . 532
The Reformers. The first martyrs 533
Election of Caraffa as Pope, 1555. His policy 534
Elizabeth at Hampton Court. Mary's delusion 535
Departure of Philip 536
Abdication of Charles V. Measures against heresy 537
The martyrs. Cranmer, Ridley, and Latimer 538
Proceedings at Oxford. The disputation 539
The Reformers petition Parliament. Attitude of Parliament . 540
The martyrdoms at Oxford. Cranmer 541
Grants of money. The Death of Gardiner 542
Increased severity of Mary. Attitude of Pole 543
The Dudley conspiracy 544
Relations of the European Powers in 1557 545
Paul IV and Pole. Rebellion of Stafford 546
Victories of Spain in Italy and France 547
Scotland. Mary StewarL Loss of Calais *'548
Last Days of Queen Mary 549
CHAPTER XVI
THE ANGLICAN SETTLEMENT AND THE SCOTTISH REFORMATION
By F. W. Maitla^-^d, LL.D., Downing Professor of the
Laws of England
Entry of Scotland into the history of Europe 550
Scotland in the Middle Ages 551
The Scottish King, Pariiament, and nobles 552
The backwardness of Scotland. The Church 553
The Church and the nobles. Heresy 554
Distrust of England. Death of James V. Regency of Arran . 555
Murder of Beton. BatUe of Pinkie, 1547 556
Mary Stewart. War with Eng^dL ^laiy of Lorraine .... 557
John Knox and the Congregation of Jesus Christ 558
Accession of Elizabeth 559
KllEabeth's title. Her religion 560
Contents
XXI
PAOR
Elizabeth and her relations to foreign Powers 661
ReligioQS condition of England. Elizabeth ^s own faith .... 662
A retnm to the position of Heniy VIII impossible 663
Elizabeth and Paul IV. Her First Parliament 664
Her first acts. Relations with the Continent 666
Gateau-Cambrteis. Convocation. The Commons 666
Act of Supremacy 667
Colloquy of Westminster 668
Sapreme Governor of the Church. The Act of Uniformity . . 669
The religious Settlement 670
The new Bishops. Confirmation and consecration 671
*'*' All defects supplied.'' The Scottish rebellion 672
Elizabeth and the Scottish Protestants 673
England, France, and Scotland 674
KegotiaUons between England and the Scottish Protestants . 676
Treaty of Berwick, 1660 676
Siege of Leith and Treaty of Edinburgh 677
Elizabeth, Philip II, and Pius IV 678
The papal Nuncio. The Scottish Reformation Parliament 670
Saocess of the Scottish Reformation 680
The Queens of England and Scotland 681
Elizabeth and Robert Dudley 682
The invitation to the Council of Trent 683
England and the First French War of Religion 684
EUzabeth's Second Parliament The Oath of Supremacy . . 686
Elizabeth and the Catholics. Position of the Bishops .... 686
The Articles of Religion 687
Lutherans and Calvinists 688
The Thirty-nine Articles. The Canon Law 689
The Vestiarian controversy 690
The Churches of England and Scotland 691
Beginnings of Puritanism 692
Organisation of the Scottish Church. Presbyterianism .... 693
** Parity " and prelacy. Superintendents 694
Questions still unsettled. Erastianism 696
Belations between State and Church in Scotland 69&
Elizabeth and the Calvinists. Zurich. Bullmger 697
Fint yean of Elizabeth 698
CHAPTER XVII
THE SCANDINAVIAN NORTH
By the Rev. W. E. Collins, B.D.
The Scandinavian monarchies 699
The Union of Kalmar, 1397. Defects of the compact .... 600
Changes in the united kingdoms. The clergy 601
Abases in the Church. I. Denmark. Accession of Christian II in
Denmark, 1613 602
Reconquest of Sweden by Christian ^ **«*
The Stockholm Bath of Blood, 1620. Christianas Danish vr^
His exactions and administrative policy
Beginnings of ecclesiastical Reform .
New rules for the clergy. Christian's difBcult
xxii Contents
PAGB
Flight of Christian II. Position of his successor, Frederick I . . 608
Paul Eliaesen and his followers 609
Dispute concerning the see of Lund 610
Lutheran policy of Frederick I and his son Christian . . . . 611
Frederick I and the Bishops 612
Progress of the Reform. Death of Frederick 1 613
Disputed election. The Count's War 614
Christian III. His successes. Fate of the Bishops 615
Superintendents. New Church Ordinance 616
Later history of the Reformation in Denmark. II. Norway . . 617
Spoliation of the Church in Norway 618
Invasion of Christian IL Death of Frederick L Archbishop Olaf and
Christian III 619
Christian III in possession of the throne. His measures .... 620
Reformation in Iceland. III. Sweden. Rising under Gustaf Eriksson
(Gustavus Vasa) 621
GuRtavus King, 1523. His difficulties 622
Demands of money from the clergy. Relations with the Pope . . 623
Reformers in Sweden. Olaus and Laurentius Petri 624
The Diet of VesterSs, 1627 625
Gustavus' ultimatum. The Recess of VesterSs 626
Supremacy and policy of Gustavus 627
Gradual and progressive changes 628
The Ordinaries. Erik XlV-Johan III 629
Further ecclesiastical changes 630
Negotiations with the Papacy. The Jesuits 631
Defeat of the Romanising party. King Sigismund, 1592. The Council
of Upsala 632
Swedish religious settlement 633
NOTE ON THE REFORMATION IN POLAND
By Stanley Leathes, M.A.
The condition of the Church in Poland 634
Spread of Lutheran and other opinions in Poland 635
The Bohemian Brethren. Ecclesiastical licence. Divisions among the
Reformers 636
The Anti-IYinitarians. Hosius and the Jesuits. Lelio and Fausto Sozzini 637
The Socinians . 638
CHAPTER XVIII
THE CHURCH AND REFORM
By R. V. Laurence, M.A., Fellow and Assistant-Lecturer of
Trinity College
Different parties among the Catholic reformers 630
The Oratory of Divine Love 040
Venice, Padua, and Modena. Adrian VI 641
Clement VII. Fear of a General Council. Paul III .... 642
Contents
xxiu
PAQB
Commission of Cardinals, 1637. Their recommendations . . 643
Contarini and Paul III 644
Reforms of Paul III. Religious Colloquy at Ratisbon, 1641 . . 646
Failure of the Colloquy. The religious Orders 646
Reform of monastic Orders. The Capuchins 647
The Theatine Order. The Barnabites. CarafFa 648
Split of the Catholic reformers. The Inquisition 649
The Spanish Inquisition. The Inquisition at Rome 660
Ignatius Loyola. His early history 661^
Foundation of the Society of Jesus 662
Confirmation by Pope Paul III, 1640 663
Constitution of the Society. Election of Loyola as General . . . 664
Relations of the Jesuits to successive Popes 665
Laynez elected General, 1668. Interference of Paul IV ... . 666
The Spiritual Exercises of St Ignatius 667
Organisation of the Society 668
Spread of its influence 669 '
Failure of Contarini and his associates 660
Summons of a Council to Trent. Adjournment. Questions to be sub- ■ 1
milted to the Council 661 -^-1^
Negotiations between the Pope and Charles V 662 I
Legates appointed for the Council. The Council opens, 1646 . . 663 I
Arrangements for business. Spanish and Italian Bishops . . 664 I
Consideration of doctrine and of reform. The rule of Faith . 666
Church discipline. Original Sin. ' Justification 666
Seripando. The Jesuits at the Council 667 ;
Justification. Fear of more stringent reform 668 j
Decrees on Justification. Residence of Bishops 669 .^
Removal of the Council to Bologna, 1649. Suspension. Election of Pope
Julius III 670
The second meeting of the Council at Trent, 1661. The doctrine of the
Eucharist 671
Penance and Extreme Unction. Suspension of the Council, 1662 . . 672
Pope Paul IV, 1566. His secular and religious policy .... 673
Pope Pius IV, 1669. Fresh summons of a Council 674
Division among the Catholic Powers 676
Third meeting of the Council at Trent, 1662 676
Divisions in the Council. Residence of Bishops 677
The question of the continuity of the Council 678
The question of Communion in both kinds 679
The Sacrament of Orders. The rights of Bishops 680
The Cardinal of Lorraine and Ferdinand 681
The new Legates. Canisius 682
Dissensions of the French and the Spaniards. Marriage .... 683
Close of the Council of Trent, 1563 684
Results of the Council 686
Acceptance and execution of the decrees 686
The Index of Prohibited Books 687
The new Catholicism 688
End of the movement for Catholic reform 689
J
xxiv Contents
CHAPTER XIX
TENDENCIES OF EUROPEAN THOUGHT IN THE AGE OF
THE REFORMATION
By the Rev. A. M. Faibbairn, D.D.
PAGE
The new intellectual movements 690
Religion and philosophy 691
Renaissance and Reformation. Latin and Teuton 692
Characteristics of the two systems of thought 693
Influence of Lorenzo Valla on the Reformers 694
Mysticism. Pico della Mirandola and Reuchlin 695
Occasion of the Epistolae obscurorum virorum 696
Erasmus and his influence 697
The letters of Erasmus 698
His critical work and religious attitude 699
The spirit of the Latin Renaissance 700
Gemistus Piethon and the Neo-Platonists 701
The Platonic Academy. The new Aristotelians 702
Pomponazzi and his philosophy 703
The new scholasticism 704
New attitude of the defenders of the Church . . . . 705
Bernardino Telesio 706
Campanella. Giordano Bruno 707
The life and death of Giordano 708
His philosophy 709
The French Renaissance 710
Rabelais and Montaigne 711
The Teutonic Renaissance 712
Characteristics of the movement 713
Luther. Jakob Boehme 714
The Anabaptists. The will of God 715
Heretical views of the Deity 716
The philosophy of Predestination 717
^ The new scholarship 718
BIBLIOGRAPHIES
CHAPS. PAOB8
U 11, AKD III. Medicean Rome, and Habsburg and
Valois 719—727
IV. Luther \ . 728—733
V— VUI. Germany, 1521—1555 734—764
IX. The Reformation in Vrance .... 765—768
X. The Helvetic Reformation .... 769—778
XI. Calvin 779—783
XII. The CathoUc South 784—788
XIII. Henry VIII 789—794
XIV. The Reformation under Edward VI . . 795—801
XV. Philip and Mary 802—806
XVI. The Anglican Settlement and the Scottish
Reformation 806—813
XVII. The Scandinavian North 814—817
XVIII. The Church and Reform 818—824
XIX. Tendencies of European Thought in the Age
of the Reformation 825—828
Chronological Table of Leading Events . . 829—834
Index 835—857
xxv
ERRATA
p. 4, 1. 8 from bottom. For Pompomuszo read Pomponazzi.
p. 15, 1. 14 ^rom bottom. For Inghiriami read Inghirami.
p. 23, 1. 11 from top. For Gaspare read Gasparo.
p. 48, 1. 18 from bottom. For morale read moral,
p. 72, 1. 8 from top. For Pica read Pico.
p. 160, 1. 12 from bottom. For Rhegios read Regius.
p. 160, 1. 1 from bottom. For von der Dare read van der Dare.
p. 234, 1. 21 from top. For only stopped but for a while read only
stopped for a while.
THE
CAMBRIDGE
MODERN HISTORY
CHAPTER I
MEDICEAN ROME
On the 18th of August, 1503, after a sudden and mysterious
illness Alexander VI had departed this life — to the unspeakable joy
of all Rome, as Guicciardini assures us. Crowds thronged to see
the dead body of the man whose boundless ambition, whose perfidy,
cruelty, and licentiousness coupled with shameless greed had infected
and poisoned all the world. On this side the Alps the verdict of
Luther's time and of the centuries which followed has confirmed the
judgment of the Florentine historian without extenuation, and so far as
Borgia himself was concerned doubtless this verdict is just. But to-day if
we consider Alexander's pontificate objectively we can recognise its better
sides. Let it pass as personal ambition that he should have been the first
of all the Popes who definitely attempted to create a modern State from
the conglomerate of the old Stati pontificii^ and that he should have
endeavoured, as he undeniably did, step by step to secularise that State
and to distribute among his friends the remaining possessions of the
Church. But in two ways his government shows undeniable progress :
in the midst of constant tumult, during which without interruption
tyranny succeeded to tyranny in the petty States, when for centuries
neither life nor property had been secure, Cesare Borgia had established
in the Romagna an ordered government, just and equal administration
of the laws ; provided suitable outlets for social forces, and brought
back peace and security ; and by laying out new streets, canals, and by
other public works indicated the way to improve agriculture and increase
manufacture. Guicciardini himself recognises all this and adds the
important comment, that now the people saw how much better it was
for the Italians to obey as a united people one powerful master, than
to have a petty despot in every town, who must needs be a burden on
the townsfolk without being able to protect and help them. .And here
Guicciardini touches the second point which marks the pontificate of
Alexander VI, the appearance, still vague and confused, of the idea of a
future union of the Italian States, and their independence of foreign rule
and interference. Alexander played with this great political principle
O. M. H. II. 1 1
Early ideas of reformation
though he did not remain faithful to it ; to what could he have been
faithful ? Was not his very nature immoral and perfidious to its core ?
But now and then at least he made as if he would blazon on his banner
the motto Italia fard da se ; this brought him a popularity which
nowadays it is hard to understand, and made it possible for him, the
most unrighteous man in Italy, to gain the victory over the most
righteous man of his time and to stifle Savonarola's reforming zeal
among the ashes at the stake.
The idea of a great reformation of the Church in both head and
members had arisen since the beginning of the thirteenth century, and
was the less likely to fade from the mind of nations since complaints of
the evils of Church government were growing daily more serious and
well-grounded and one hope of improvement after another had been
wrecked. No means of bringing about this reform was neglected ; all
had failed. Francis of Assisi had opposed to the growing materialism
and worldliness of the Church the idea of renunciation and poverty.
But Gregory IX had contrived to win over the Order founded by the
Saint to the cause of the Papacy, and to set in the background the
Founder's original purpose. Thrust into obscurity in the inner sanc-
tuary of the Order, this purpose, tinged by a certain schismatic colouring,
developed in the hands of the Spirituales into the Ecclesia Spiritualis as
opposed to the Ecclesia Camalis^ which stood for the official Church.
Traces of this thought are to be found in Dante ; we may even call it
the starting-point, whence he proceeds to contrast his Monarchia with
the political Papacy of the fourteenth century, and as a pioneer to
develop with keen penetration and energy the modern idea of the State.
The opponents of the Popes of Avignon in reality only fought against
their politics without paying any attention to the moral regeneration of
Christendom. Theological science in the fifteenth century raised the
standard of reform against the dependence of the Papacy, the triple
Schism, and the disruption of the Church. But she too succumbed, her
projects foiled, at the great ecclesiastical conferences of Constance and
Basel. Asceticism, politics, theology had striven in vain ; the close of
the Middle Ages on both sides of the Alps was marked by outbursts of
popular discontent and voices which from the heart of the nations cried
for reform, prophesying the catastrophe of the sixteenth century. None
of these voices was mightier than Savonarola's, or left a deeper echo.
He was the contemporary and opponent of the men who were to give
their name to this epoch in Rome's history.
The House of the Medici passes for the true and most characteristic
exponent of the Renaissance movement. We cannot understand the
nature an"d historical position of the Medicean Papacy without an
attempt to explain the character and development of this movement.
The discovery of man since Dante and Giotto, the discovery of Nature
by the naturalism of Florence, the revival of classical studies, and
I
I
the reawakening of the antique in Art and Literature are its compo-
nent parts ; but its essence can only be grasped if we regard the Renais-
sance as the blosaoraing and unfolding of the mind of the Italian people-
The early Renaissance was indeed the Mta Nuova of the nation. It is
an error to believe that it was in opposition to the Church, Art and
the artists of the thirteenth century recognised no such opposition. It
is the Church who gives the artists employment and sets them their
tasks. The circle of ideas in whicli they move is stiU entirely religious:
the breach with the religious allegory and symbolism of the Middle
Ages did not take place until the sixteenth century. In the fourteenth
century the spread of naturalistic thought brought about a new con-
ception of the beauty of the human body ; this phase was in opposition
to the monastic ideal, yet it had in it no essential antagonism to Chris-
tianity. It was a necessary stage of the development which w^as to lead
from realism dominant for a time to a union of the idealist and realist
stiind points. Many of the Popes were entirely in eympathy with this
Renaissance ; several of them opposed the pagan and materialistic
degeneration of Hooianism, but none of them accused the art of the
Renaissance of being inimical to Christianity.
Its pagan and materialistic sidcj not content with restoring antique
knowledge and culture to modern humanity, eagerly laid hold of the
whole intellectual life of a heathen time, together w^th its ethical
perceptions, its principles based on sensual pleasure and the joy of
living ; the^e it sought to bring to life again. This impulse was felt at
the very beginning of the fifteenth century ; since the middle of the
century it had ventured forth even more boldly in Florence, Naples, Rome
in the days of Reggio, Valla, Beccadelli, and despite many a repulse
had even gained access to the steps of the Papal throne. A literature
cliaraeterised by the Facefiae, by Lorenzo Valla's Voluptas^md Beceadelli's
ffermapkroditu9 could not but shuck respectable feeling- Florence was
the headquarters of this school, and Lorenzo il Mafjnifim its chief sup-
porter. Scenes that took place there in his day in the streets and
squares, the extravagances of the youth of the cit}^ lost in sensuality,
the writings and pictures oflfered to the public, would and must seem
to earnest-minded Christians a sign of approaching dissolution. A
reaction was both natural and justifiable. Giovanni Dominici had
introduced it at the beginning of the century, and Fra Antonino of San
Marco had supported it, while Archbishop of Florence, w^ith the
authority of his blameless life devoted to the service of his fellow-men.
And so Cosimo's foundation became the centre and starting-point of a
movement destined to attack his own House. At the head of that
movement stood Era Girolamo Savonarola. Grief over the degradation
of the Church had driven him into a monastery and now it led him
forth to the pulpits of San Marco and Santa Maria del Fiore, As a
youth he had sung his dirge De Ruina Ecclenae in a canzone since gro%s^n
famous ; as a man he headed the battle against the immorality and
worldliness of the Curia. He was by no means illiterate, but in the
pagan and sensual tendency of humanist literature and in the voluptuous
freedom of art he saw the source of evil, and in Lorenzo and his sons
pernicious patrons of corruption. Zeal against the immorality of the
time, the worldliness of prelates and preachers, made him overlook the
lasting gains that the Renaissance and humanism brought to humanity.
He had no synipatJiy with this development of culture from the fresh
young life of his own people. He did not understand the Young Italy
of his day ; behind this luxuriant growth he could not see the good
and fruitful germ, and here, as in the province of politics, he lost touch
with the pulse of national life. His phin of a theocratic State governed
only by Christ, its invisible Head, was based on momentary enthusiasm
and therefore untenable. He was too deficient in aesthetic sense to be
able to rise in inward freedom superior to discords. Like a dead mar
amongst the living, he left Italy to bear the clash of those contradicttonsJ
which the great mind of Julius II sought, unhappily in vain, to fuse
in one conciliatory scheme. m
Such a scheme of conciliation meantime made its appearance in V
Florence, not without the co-operation and probably the encouragement
of the Medici, It was connected with the introduction of Platonism, m
which since the time of the Council of Florence in 1438 was represented ^
in that city by enthusiastic and learned men like Bessarion, and was
zealously furthered by Cosimo, the Pater Patriae^ in the Academy which j
he had founded. From the learned societies started for these purposes
come the first attempts to bring not only Plato's philosophy but the^
whole of classical culture into a close and essential connexion with
Christianity, Flatonism seemed to them the link which joined Chris*
tianity with antiquity. Bessarion himself had taught the internal
relationship of both principles, and Marsilio Ficino and Pico della
Mirandola made the explanation of this theory the work of their lives.
If both of them went too far in their youthful enthusiasm and mysticism,
and conceived Christianity ahnost as a continuance of Attic philosophy, >
this was an extravagance which left untouched the sincerity of theirj
own belief, and from which Marsilio, when he grew older, attempted'
to free himself, Giovanni and Giulio de' Medici, son and nephew
of Lorenzo, were both Marsilio's pupils. Both were destined to wear
the tiara and took a decided part in the scheme for conciliating these
contrasts, which Julius II set forth by means of Raffaelle's brush.
The victory of the Borgia over the monk of San Marco was not
likely to discourage the sceptic and materialistic tendency, whose vvorstJ
features were incarnate in Alexander VI and Cesare Borgia. Pietr
Pomponazzo furthered it by his notorious phrase, that a thing might^
be true in philosophy and yet false in theology ; a formula that spread
its poison far and wide. Even then in Florence a genius was developing, J
I
n
I
that was to prove the true incarnation of the pagan Renaissance and
modern realism. The flames which closed over Savonarola had early
convinced Niceolo Machiavelli that no reform was to be looked for from
Rome.
Savonarola's distrust of humanism and his harsh verdict on the
extreme realism of contemporary art were not extinguished with his life,
A few years later we find hia thoughts worked out, or rather extended
and distorted in literature. Castellesi (Adriano di Corueto), formerly
aecretary to Alexantler VI and created Cardinal May 31, 1503, wrote
his De vera phiiosophia ex quattuor doctoribus Ecchmae^ in direct oppo-
sition to the Renaissance and humanism. The author represents every
scientific pursuit, indeed all human intellectual life, as uselesa for sal-
vation, and even dangerous. Dialectics, astronomy, geometry, music,
and poetry are but vainglorious folly. Aristotle has no tiling to do
with Paul, nor Plato with Peter ; all philosophers <\re damned, their
wisdom vain, since it recognised but a fragment of the truth ami marred
even this by misuse. They are the patriarchs of heresy ; what are
physics^ ethics, logic compared with the Holy Scriptures^ whose au-
thority is greater than that of all human intellect ?
The man who wrote these things, and at whose table Alexander VI
contracted his last illness, was no ascetic and no monkish obscurantist.
He was the Pope's confidant and quite at home in all those political
intrigues which later under Leo X brought ruin upon him. His book
can only be regarded as a blow aimed at Julius II, Alexander's old
enemy, who now wore the tiara and was preparing to glorify his
pontificate by the highest effort of which Christian art was capable.
Providence had granted him for the execution of his plans three of the
greatest minds the world of art has ever known : never had a monarch
three such men as Bramante, Michelangelo, and Raflfaelle at once under
his sway. With their help Julius II resolved to carry out his ideas for
the glory of his pontificate and the exaltation of the Church. What
Cardinal Castellesi wanted wfis a downright rebellion against the Pope;
if he, with his following of obscurantists, were acknowledged to be in the
right, all the plans of the brilliant and energetic ruler would end in
failure, or else be hatmed as worldly, and Julius II would lose the glory
of having united the greatest and noblest achievement of art with the
memory of his pontificate and the interests of Catholicism.
The Pope gave Cardinal Castellesi his answer by making the Vatican
what it is. The alteration and enlargement of the palace howeverpasses
almost unnoticed in comparison with the rebmldui^iAliiiiiB^lica of
St Peter's, on which the Pope was resolved since I66I5, ■wi^^ ^^^
(1504) Hramante seemed to have set the crown on his i\ ^
the plans for the new cathedral, with all the sketchea
which still survive and have been analysed for ub
appreciation, show us Bramante not only in the
power, but as perhaps the most universal and gifted mind that ever use<
its mastery over architecture* Tlie form of the Greek eroi^s joined with
the vast central cupola might be taken as a fitting symbol for Catholicism.
The arms of the cross, stretched out to the four winds, tell us of the
•doctrine of universality ; the classical forms preferred by the Latin race,
the elevation with its horizontal lines accentuated throughout, bespeak!
that principle of rest and persistence, which is the true heritage of the
Catholic south in contradistinction to the restless striving in search of
visionary ideal shown in the vertical principle of the north* j St PeterV
thus, in the €levek>pment planned by Julius, presented the most perfect
picture of the majestic extension of the Church ; but the paintings
and decorations of the palace typified the conception of Christianity,
humanity led to Christ, the evolution and great destiny of His Church,
and lastly the spiritual empire in which the Pope, along with the greatest.
thinkers of his time, beheld the goal of the Renaissance and the schema^
of a new and glorious future, showing Christianity in itsfulkst realisation?
His own mausoleum gi%^es proof how deeply Julius II was convinced
that the chief part in this development fell to the Papacy in general,
and to himself, Giuliano della Rovere, in particular. The instruction
which he gave to Michelangelo to represent him as Moses can bear but
one interpretation : that Julius set himself the mission of leading forth
Israel (the Church) from its state of degradation and showing it — ^^
though he could not grant possession — the Promised Land at least^H
from afar, that blessed land wliich consists in the enjoyment of the ^^
highest intellectual benetits, and the training, and consecration of all
faculties of man's mind to union with God. I He bade Michelangelo
depict on the roof of the Sistine Chapel (1508-9), how after the fall
of our first parents mankind was led from afar towards this high goal ;
symbolising that shepherding of the soul to Christ, which Clement
the Alexandrine had already seen and described* When we see the
Sibyls placed among the Patriarchs and Prophets, we know what this
meant in the language of the theologians and religious philosophers of
that time. Not only Judaism, but also Graeco*Ruman paganism, is an
antechamber to Christianity ; and this antique culture gave not merely
a negative, but also a positive preparation for Cliriat. For this reason
it could not be considered as a contradiction of tlie Christian con-
ception ; there was a positive relationship between classical antiquity
and Christianity.
And so at one stroke not only the artist, but the Pope, who doubt-
less planned and watched these compositions, took up that mediatory
and conciliating attitude, which some decades earlier had been adopted
in Florence by Marsilio and Pico. But we see this thought more clear!
and far more wonderfully expressed in the Camera della Segnatiiri
(1509). If we consider what place it was that Raffaelle was painting,
and the character and individuality of the Pope, we cannot doubi
-1M3] The work of Julius II 7
tliat in these compositioiis also we are concerned, not with the subjective
in^Mration of the artist who executed, but with the Pope's own well-
considered and clearly formulated scheme. In the last few years it has
been recognised that this scheme is entirely based on the ideas of the
nniverse represented by the Florentine School. Especially it has been
proved that the School of AthetiM is drawn after the model which
Marsilio Ficino left of the Accademi(L, the ancient assembly of philosophers,
while Parnassus has an echo of that beUa seuola of the great poets of old
times, whom Dante met in the Limbo of the Inferno. The four pictures
of the Camera della Se^natura represent the aspirations of the soul of
man in each of its faculties ; the striving of all humanity towards God
by means of aesthetic perception (^Panuunui)^ the exercise of reason in
philosophical enquiry and all scientific research (the School of Athenf)^
order in Church and State (^CHft of Ecdesiastical and Secular Law%\
and finally theology. The whole may be summed up as a pictorial
representation of Pico della Mirandola's celebrated phrase, *^ philo9ophia
veritatem qtuurit, theologia invenit, religio possidet "" ; and it corresponds
with what Marsilio says in his AccuJemy of Noble Minds when he charac-
terises our life's work as an ascent to the angels and to God.
These compositions are the highest to which Christian art has
attained, and the thoughts which they express are one of the greatest
achievements of the Papacy. The principle elsewhere laid down is here
reaffirmed : that the reception of the true Renaissance into the circle
of ecclesiastical thought points to a widening of the limited medieval
conception into universality, and indicates a transition to entire and
actual Catholicity, like the great step taken by Paul, when he turned to
the Grentiles and released the community from the limits of Judaistic
teaching.
This expansion and elevation of the intellectual sphere is the most
glorious achievement of Julius II and of the Papacy at the beginning of
modem times. It must not only be remembered, but placed in the most
prominent position, when history sums up this chapter in human de-
velopment. Since Luther's time it has been the custom to consider the
Papacy of the Renaissance almost exclusively as viewed by theologians
whoemphasised onlymoral defects in therepresentativesof this institution
and the neglect of ecclesiastical reform. Certainly these are important
considerations, and our further deductions will prove that we do not
n^lect them nor underestimate their immense significance for the life of
the Church and Catholic unity. But from this standpoint we can never
succeed in grasping the situation. Ranke in his Weltgeschichte could
write the history of the first hundred years of the Roman Empire, with-
out giving one word to all the scandalous tales that Suetonius records.
The course of universal history and the importance of the Empire for
the wide provinces of the Roman world were little influenced by them.
Similarly, private faults of the Renaissance Popes were fateful for the
moral life of the Church, but the question of what the Papacy was and
meaut for these times, is not sumtned up or determined by them. It is
the right of these Popes to be judged by the better and happier sides of
their government j the historian who portrays them should not be less
skilful than the great nuisters of the Renaissance, who in their portraits
of the celebrities of their time contrived to bring out the sitter's best
and most characteristic qualities. Luther was not touched in the least
degree by the artistic development of his time; brought up amid the
peasant life of Saxony and Thuringia he had no conception of the whole
world that lay between Dante and Michelangelo, and coidd not see that
the eniineoce of the Papacy consisted at that time in its leaderehip of
Europe in the province of art. But to deny this now would be injustice
to the past.
The Medici had not stood aloof from this evolution, which reached its
highest point under Julius 11. Search has been made for the bridge by
means of which the ideas of Marsilio and his fellow thinkers were brought
from Florence to Rome. But there is no real need to guess at definite
personages. Hundreds of correspondents had long since made all Italy
familiar with this school of thought* Among those who frequented the
Court of Home, Castiglione, Bibbiena, Sadoleto, lnghirami,andBeroaldu3
had been educated in the spirit of Marsilio. His old friend and corre-
spondent Raffaelle Riario was now, as Cardinal of San Giorgio and the
Pope's cousin, one of the most influential personages in the Vatican.
But before all we must remember Giovanni de* Medici and his cousin
Giulio, the future Popes. They were Marsilio's pupils, and after the
banishment of their family he remained their friend and corresponded
wath them, regarding them as tlie true heirs of Lorenzo^s spirit ; Kaffaelle
has represented the older cousin Giovanni standing near Julius II in the
Bestowal of Spinfual Law».
It was a kingdom of intellectual unity, which the brush of the
greatest of painters was commissioned to paint on the walls of the
Camera deUa Segnatura; the same idea which Julius caused to be pro-
claimed in 1512, in the opening speech of Aegidius of Viterbo at the
Lateran Council, referring to the classical proverb: ^'o-rXoO*? o y^v0o^ r^
aX7}$€ia^ €<f>v — simplex sermo treritatis.''^ The world of the beautiful, of
reason and science, of political and social order, had its place appointed
in the kingdom of God upon earth* A limit was set to the neglect of
secular efforts to explore nature and history, to the disregard of poetry
and art, and its rights were granted to healthy human reason organised
in the State ; Grratiae et Mu$ae a Deo aunt atque ad Deum referendae^ as
Marsilio had said.
The programme laid down by Julius II, had it been carried out,
might have saved Italy and preserved the Catholic principle, w^hen
imperilled in the North. The task was to bring modern culture into
harmony with Christianity, to unite the work of the Renaissance, so far
^
^t was really sound and progre^jsive, with ecclesiastical practice and
ition into one harmonious whole. The recognition of the rights of
I intellectual activity, of the ideal creations of human fancy, and of the
conception of the State, were the basis for this union. It remains to be
giiown why the attempt proved fruitless.
The reign of Juliua II was one long struggle- The sword never left
his grasp, which was more used to the handling of weapons than of Holy
Writ. On the whole, the Pope might at the close of his pontificate be
contented with the success of his politics. He had driven the French
from Italy, and the retreat of Louis XII from L<imbardy opened the
gates of Florence once more to the Medici. The Council of Pisa, for
which France had used her influence, had come to naught, and its
remnant was scattered before the anger of the victorious Pontiff. And
as he had freed Italy from the ascendancy of France so he now lioped to
throw ofif that of Spain, It may be a legend that as he was dying he
murmured '" Fuori i barbari^'^ but these words certainly were the expres-
sion of his political thought. But this second task was not within
his power. On the 3rd of May, 1512, he had opened the Lateran
Council to counteract that of Pisa. At first none of the great Powers
was represented there; 15 Cardinals, 14 Patriarchs, 10 Archbishops^
and 57 Bishops, all of them Italians, with a few heads of monastic Orders,
formed this assembly, which was called the Fifth General Lateran Council.
Neither Julius nor Leo was ever able to convince the world that this
was an ecumenical assembly of Christendom. Julius died in the night of
February 20-1, 1513. Guicciardini calls him a ruler unsurpassed in
power and endurance, but violent and without moderation. Elsewhere
he says that he had nothing of a priest but vesture and title. The
dialogue, Juliug Exdumi%, attributed sometimes to Hutten, sometimes
to Erasmus, and perhaps written by Faust o Andrelini, is the harshest
ootidemnation of the Pope and his reign (*' Ophrenetieum^ sed mundanum^
ne mtmdanum quidem^ »ed Ethnieunu imo EthnuHtt sceleratiorem : gloriariB
t€ plurimum potuisse ad discindenda foedera^ ad inflammanda bella^ ad
Giraffes hominumexcUandas^'), But at bottom the pamphlet is exceedingly
one-sided and the outcome of French party-spirit. Although in many
cases the author speaks the truth, and for instance even at that time
(1513) unfortunately was able to put such words into the Pope's mouth
II.* " No9 Ecclemam imcamus sacra tf aedes^ sacerdotes^ et praectpue Curiam
Romanam^ me imprimity qui caput aum Ecclesiae,^^ yet this is more a
common trait of the otlice tlian a characteristic of Julius IL It almost
raises a smile to read in Pallavicino, that on his death-bed the mag-
nanimity of Julius was only equalled by his piety, and that, although
he had not possessed every priestly perfection — perhaps because of his
natural inclinations, or because of the age, which had not yet been disci-
pUned by the Council of Trent — yet his greatest mistake had been made
with the hest intention anil proved tlisastrous by a mere chance, when^ i
as Head of the Church, and at the same time as a mighty Prince, he
undertook a work that for these very reasons exceeded the meaua of his
treasury — the building of St» Peter's, We see that neither his enemies
nor his apoIc>gists had the least idea wherein Julius' true greatness con- 1
sisted. With such divided opinions it cannot surprise us that contem-
poraries and coming generations alike found it difficult to form a reasoned I
and final judgment of the pontificate which immediately foUowed-
Cardinal Giovanni de' Medici came forth from the conclave sum-
moned on March 4, 1518^ as Pope Leo X. Since Piero had beeuj
drowned on the 9tli of December, 1503, Giovanni had become the head]
of the House of Medici. He was only 88 years of age at the election, to
whicli he had had himself conveyed in a litter from Florence to Rome,
suffering from fistula. The jest on his shortsightedness, '^ mz</fi caeci\
CanUnales creavere caecuni decimum Leonem^^^ by no means expressed!
public opinion, which rejoiced at his accession. The PaiseMO^ which]
took place on April 11th, with the great procession to the Lateran, was
the most brilliant spectacle of its kind that Christian Rome had ever'
witnessed. What was expected of Leo was proclaimed in the inscription
which AgostiDo Chigi had attached to his house for the occasion ;
** Olim habuit C^rls sua tempitra^ tempora Mavf/rs
Olim fiabuit, sua nunc tempora Pallas kaltet.^
But other expectations were not wanting and a certain goldsmit
gave voice to them in the line t
" Marsfmi ; esl Paltwt ; Cypria semper era"
To Leo X the century owed its name- The Saeda Leonh have been]
called the Saeda Aurea^ and his reign has been compared with that of]
Augustus* Erasmus, who saw liim in Rome in 15Q7 and 1509; praises ^
his kindness and humanity, his magnanimity and his learning, the
indescribable charm of his speech, his love of peace and of the fine arts,
which cause no sighs, no tears ; he places him as high above all his
predecessors as Peter's Chair is above all thrones in the world. Palla-
vicino says of Leo that he was well*known for his kindness of heart,,
learned in all sciences, and had passed his youth in the greatest innocence.
That as Pope he let himself be Winded by appearances, which often I
confuse the good with the great, and chose rather the applause of the!
crowd than the prosperity of the nation, and thus was t^smpted toj
exercise too magnificent a generosity. Such expressions from one who
is the unconditional apologist of all the Popes cannot make much
impression, but it is noticeable that even Sarpi says : " Leo, noble by
birth and education, brought many aptitudes to the Papacy, especially i
a remarkable knowledge of classical literature, humanity, kindness, the'
greatest liberality^ an avowed intention of supporting artists and learned
I"
■ ion
meii» who for many years had enjoyed no such favour in the Holy See.
He would have made an ideal Pope had he added to these qualities
dome knowledge of the things of religion, and a little more inclination
piety, both of them things for which be cared little/'
The favourable opinion entertained of Leo X by big contemporaries
long held the field in history. His reign has been regarded as at once
the zenith and cause of the greatest period of the Renaissance. His
wide liberality, his unfeigned enthusiasm for the creations of genius, his
unprejudiced taste for all that beautifies humanity, and his sympathy
for all the culture of his time have been the theme of a traditional
chorus of laudation. More recent criticism has recognised in the reign
of Leo a period of incipient decline, and has traced that decline to the
follies and frailties of the Pontiflf.
With regard to the political methods of Leo some difference of
opinion may still be entertained. Some have seen in him the single-
minded and unscrupulous friend of Medicean Florence, prepared to
sjieritice alike the interests of the Church and of the Papacy to the
"Ivancement of his family. To others he is the clear-sighted statesman
ko, perceiving the future changes and ditheulties of the Church, sought
for the Papacy the firm support of a hereditary alliance.
Truth may lie midway between these two opinions. H we view Leo
la man, similar doubts encounter us. Paramount in his character were
his gentleness and cheerfulness, his good-nature^ his indulgence both for
himself and others, his love of peace and hatred of war. But these
amiable qualities were coupled with an insincerity and a love of tortuous
ways which grew to be a second nature. Nor must we overlook the fact
that Leo*s policy of peace was a mere illusion; his hopes and intentions
were quite frustrated by the actual course of affairs. On his personal
chai'acter the great blot must rest that he passed his life in intellectual
self-indulgence and took his pleasure in hunting and gaming, while the
Teutonic North was bursting the bonds of reverence and authority wliich
bound Europe to Rome. Even for the restoration of the rule of the
^^ Medici in Florence the Medicean Popes made only futile attempts,
^B Cosimo I was the first to accomplish it. Leo had absorbed the culture
^m of his time, but he did not possess the ability to look beyond that time.
^H A diplomatist rather than a statesman, his creations were only the
^m feats of a i)olitical virtuoso, who sacrificed the future in order to control
^^Lthe present.
^^|p Even the greatness of the Maecenas crumbles before recent criticism.
The zenith of Renaissance culture falls in the age of Julius IL Ariosto s
^^ light verses, Bibbiena's prurient La Oalajtdria^ the paintings in the
^H bath-room of the Vatican, the rejection of the Dante monument planned
"^ by Michelangelo, the misapplication of funds collected for the Crusade
to purposes of mere dynastic interest, Leo's political double-dealing,
which disordered all the affairs of Italy, and indeed of Christendom ;
all this must shake our faith in hira as protector of the good and
beautiful in art* His portrait by Raffaelle, with its intelligent but
cold and sinister face, may assist to destroy any illusions which we may
have had about his personality.
The harshness and violence of Leo's greater predecessor, Julius, ,
brought down on him the hatred of his contemporaries and won for
successor an immense popularity without further effort. The spirituall
heir of Lorenzo il Magnifico^ Rome and all Italy acclaimed Leo j[7aa#|
restmtratorem^ felicummum litteraiorum amatorem ; and Erasmus pro-i
claimed to the world tliat "an age, worse than that of iron, was suddenly '
transformed into one of gold." And there can be no doubt that when -
Leo X was greeted on his accession, like Titus, aa the deliciae (/en^ri^^^
humani he made every disposition to respond to these expectation^^
and prove himself the most liberal of patrons. The Pope, however, did
not long keep this resolution ; his weakness of purpose, his inclination
to luxury, enjoyment, and pleasures, soon quenched his sense of thi
gravity of life and all his higher perceptions ; so that a swift and sad
decline followed on the first promise.
On Leo's accession he found a number of great public buildings
progress which had been begun under his great predecessor but wer^
still unfinished. Among them were the colossal palace planned bj
Bramunte in the Via Giulia* St Peter's also begun by hira, and his work
of joining the Vatican with the Belvedere, besides the lotjgie and
buildings in Loreto. Leo, who was not in the iQUst affected by the,
passion of building — il mal di pietra — did not carry on these under-J
takings. He even hindered Michelangelo from finishing the tomb of
Julius II, so little reverence hud he for the memory of the Pope to
whom he owed his own position. Only the hggie were finished,
since they could not remain as Bramaute had left them. Even aftei
Bramante's death there was no lack of architects who could have'
finished St Peter's. Besides Raffaelle, who succeeded to Ids post as
architect, Sangallo and Sansovino, Peruzzi and Giuliano Leno waited
in vain for commissions. While Raffaelle in a letter relates that the
Pope bad set aside 60,000 ducats a year for the continuation of the
building, and talked to Fra Giocondo about it every day, he might J
soon after have told how Leo went no further, but stopped at the good^B
intention. As a matter of fact work almost entirely ceased because the ~
money was not forthcoming. There is therefore no reason to reproach,
Raffaelle with the delay in building. On the contrary, by not pressing
Leo to an energetic prosecution of the work, Raffaelle probably did the
building the greatest service ; since the Pope^s mind was full of plans^S
for which Bramante's great ideas would have been entirely forsaken. No
one could see more clearly than Raffaelle the harm which would have
thus resulted,
Leo X not only neglected the undertakings of his predecessor ; he
-1521 J Architecture, sculptHre, and paintiHg 13
ciemted nothing new in die wmv of monomentml buildings beyond die
pordeo of die Navioella, and a few pieces of restoradon in San Cocsimate
and St John Lateran. The work he had done beyond the walls in his
Tillas and hunting lodges (in Magliana^ at Palo, Montalto, and Monte-
fia8Cone)8erTed only the purposes of his pleasure. Of the more important
palaces built in the city two fall to the account of his relatives Lorenzo
and Giulio. that of the Lauti (Piazza de* Caprettari) and the beautiful
Yilla Madama on the Monte Mario, begun by Raffaelle^ Giulio Ro-
mano, and GioTanni da Udine, but ncTcr finished. Cardinal Giulio de*
Medici it was who carried on the building of the Sacristy in San Lorenzo
at Florence, in which Michelangelo was to place the tombs of Giuliano
and Lorenzo ; but the facade which the Pope had planned for the church
was never executed. Nor were any of the palaces built by dignitaries
of the Church under Leo X of importance^ with the exceptions of
a part of the Palazzo Famese and the Palazzo di Venezia. Even the
palaces and dwelling-houses built by Andrea Sansovino^ Sangallo^ and
Raffaelle will not bear comparison with the creations of the previous
pontificate^ nor with the later parts of the Palazzo Famese at Caprarola.
Sculpture had flourished under Pius II in the days when Mino of
Fiesole and Paolo Romano were in Rome ; it could point to very hon-
ourable achievements under Alexander VI and Julius II (Andrea San-
sovino's monuments of the Cardinals Basso and Sforza in Santa Maria
del Popolo) ; but this art also declined under Leo X ; for the work
done by Andrea Sansovino in Loreto under his orders falls in the time
of Clement VII, after whose death in 1534 the greater part of the
plastic ornament of the Santa Casa was executed. The cardinals and
prelates who died in Rome between 1513 and 1521 received only poor
and insignificant monuments, and Leo*s colossal statue in Ara Celi, the
work of Domenico d'Amio, can only be called a soulless monstrosity.
Painting flourished more under this Pope, who certainly was a
faithful patron and friend to Raffaelle. The protection he showed to
this great master is and always will be Leo's best and noblest title to
fame. But he allowed Leonardo to go to France, when after Bramante's
death be might easily have won him, had he bestowed on him the post
of piombat4>re apostolico^ instead of giving it to his mcAtre de plaisirM^ the
shallow-minded Fra Mariano («annio cucullatu%). He allowed Michel-
angelo to return to Florence, and, though he loaded Raffaelle with
honours, it is a fact that he was five years behindhand with the payment
of his salary as architect of St Peter's. A letter of Messer Baldassare
Turini da Pescia turns on the ridiculous investiture of the jester Mariano
with the tonaca of Bramante, performed by the Pope himself when
Bramante was scarce cold in his grave. This leaves a most painful impres-
sion, and makes it very doubtful whether Leo ever took his patronage of
the arts very seriously . In the same way his love of peace is shown in a
very strange light during the latter half of his reign by the high-handed
14
Decadence of art under Leo X
[1513-
caitipaign against the Duke of Urbino (1516) ; the menace to Ferrara
(1519) ; the crafty enticing of Giampaolo Baglione, Lord of Perugia, to
Rome and his murder despite the safe-conduct promised him ; the war
against Ludovico Freducci, Lord of Fermo ; the annexation of the towns
and fortresses in the province of Ancona ; the attempt on the life of the
Duke of Ferrara ; the betrayal of Francis I and the league with Charles V
in 152L The senseless extravagance of the Court, the constant succession
of very mundane festiv^als, hunting-parties, and other amusements, left
Leo in continual embarrassment for money and led him into debt not
only to all the bankers but to his own officials. They even drove him
to unworthy extortion, such as followed on the conspiracy of Cardinal
Petrueei and the pardon granted to his accomplices, or that which was j
his motive for the creation of thii*ty-one cardinals in a single day.
All this taken together brings us to the conclusion that Leo's one
real merit was his patronage of Raffaelle, Despite the noble and
generous way in which his reign began the Pope soon fell into an
effeminate life of self-indulgence spent among players and buffoons, a
life rich in undignified farce and offensive jests, but poor in every kind
of positive achievement. The Pope laughed, hunted, and gambled ; he I
enjoyed the papacy. Had he not said to his brother Giuliano on his
accession : " Qodiamoei il papato poicke Bio ci V ha datof^^ Though he
himself has not been accused of sensual excesses the moral sense of thai
Pope could not be delicate when he found fit to amuse himself with
indecent comedies like La Oalandria, and on April 30, 1518, attended
the wedding of Agostino Chigi with his concubine of many years*
standing, himself placing the ring on the hand of the bride, already
mother of a large family.
N<jr can Leo's reign, apart from his own share in it, be regarded as |
the best period of the Renaissance. The great masters had done their
best work befoie 1513. Bramante died at the beginning of Leo's i
pontificate, Michelangelo had painted the Sistine Chapel from 1508 to
1512^ Leonardo the Oena in 1496, Raffaelle the Stanza delta Segnatura^
1508-11. The later Stance are far inferior to that masterpiece ; the
work of his pupils comes more to the fore in the execution of the
paintings. And in his own w^ork, as also in that of Michelangelo,
the germ of decadence is already visible, and a slight tendency to]
harocco style is to be seen in both. The autumn wind is blowing, and
the first leaves begin to fall.
The trutli results that the zenith of Renaissance art falls in the time
between 1496 and 1512, during which the Last Supper^ the roof of
the Sistine Chapel, and the Stanza della Se<pmtura were painted, and
Bramante's plans for St Peter's were drawn up. We can even mark ai
narrower limit, and say that the four wall paintings uf the Stapiza delta*
Segnatura mark the point at which medieval and modern thought touch
one another \ the narrow medieval world ceases, the modern world stands 4
-I2i] Literatmrt mmter Leo X 15
befoie OS dereloped in mil its fulness and freedcum. One mav indeed
doubc whether all the meaning of this contrast was quite clear to the
Bind of Jolios II ; bot after all that is a matter of secondary importance*
For it is not the individual who decides in such matters : without being
aware of it he is borne on bv his time and must execute the task that
hisUHT has laid upon him. Great men of all times are those who have
understood the err from the inmost heart of a whole nation or genera-
tion, and, consciously or unconsciously, have accomplished what the hour
demanded.
It has been in like manner represented that literature passed through
a gcdden age under Leo X ; but considerable deductions must be made
&om the undiscriminating eulogies of earlier writers.
Erasmus has reflected in his letters the great impression made by
BcMne, the true seat and home of all Latin culture. Well might
Cardinal Raffaelle Riario write to him : ^ Everyone who has a name in
acience throngs hither. Each has a fatherland of his own, but Rome is
a c<Hnmon fatherland, a foster-mother, and a comforter to all men of
learning.'^ It is long since these words were written — far too long for
the honour of Catholicism and of the Papacy. But at that time, under
Julius II, they were really true. A circle of highly cultured cardinals
and nobles, Riario, Grimani, Adriano di Corneto, Farnese, Gio\-anni de*
Medici himself in his beautiful Palazzo Madama, his brother Giuliano U
MoffmiJicOy and his cousin Giulio, afterwards Clement VII, gathered
poets and learned men about them, that dotta eompa^ia of which
Ariosto spoke; to them they opened their libraries and collections.
Clubs were formed which met at the houses of Angelo Colooci, Alberto
Rio di Carpi, Goritz, or Savoja. The poets and pamphleteers, to
whom Arsilli dedicated his poem De PoetU UrhanU^ g^^ve vent to their
wit on Pasquino or on Sansovino's statue in Sant' Agostino. They met in
the salons of the beautiful Imperia, in the banks described by l^mdello,
among them Beroaldo the younger, who sang the praises of that most
celebrated of modem courtesans ; Fedro Inghiriami, the friend of Emsmus
and Raffaelle ; Colooci, and even the serious Sadoleto. It is characteristic
of this time, which placed wit and beauty above morals, that when
Imperia died at the age of twenty -six she received an honourable burial
in the chapel of San Gregorio, and her epitaph praised the ^* CortiMua
Romana quae^ digna tanto nomine^ rarae inter homines format specimen
deditJ*'' And although women no longer played so prominent a part at
the papal Court as they had done under Innocent VIII and Alexander VI,
yet, as Bibbiena wrote to Giuliano de' Medici, the ai-rival of noble ladies
was extremely welcome as bringing with it something of a corte de^ donne.
The activity of the greater number of literary men and wits, whose
names have most contributed to the glory of Leo's pontifieiite, dates
back to Giulio's time ; so for instance Molza, Vida, Giovio, Valeriano,
whose dialogue De Infelicitate Litteratorum tells of the fate of many of
his friends^ Porzio, Cappella, Bembo, who as Latinist was the chief
representative of tlie cult of Cicero, and as a writer in the vulgar tongue
gave Italy her prose, and Sadoleto, who chronicled the discovery of the
Laocoon group. Pontano too and Sannazaro, Fracaatan, and Navagero
had already done their best work*
Nothing could be more unjust than to deny that Giovanni de' Medici
himself had a highly cultured mind and an excellent knowledge of
literature. It may be that Lorenzo had destined him for the Papacy
from his birth; certainly he gave him the most liberal education* He
gave him Poliziano, Marsilio, Pico della jMirandola, Johannes Argyro-
poulos. Gentile d* Arezzo for his teachers and constant companions, and,
to teach him Greek, Demetrius Chalcondylas, and Petrus Aegineta.
Afterwards Bernardo di Do vizi (Bibbicna) was his best known tutor.
In belles lettrea Giovanni had made an attempt with Greek verses^ none
of wliich have survived. Of his Latin poems the only examples handed
down to us are the hendecasyllables on the statue of Lucrezia and an
elegant epigram, written during his pontificate, on the death of Celso
Mellini, weU known for his lawsuit in 1519 and his tragic death by
drowTiing,
Nor can it be denied that the opening years of this pontificate were
of great promise, and seemed to announce a fresh impetus, or, to speak
more exactly, the successful continuation of what had long since begun.
Amongst the men whom the young Pope gathered round him were
many of excellent understanding and character, such as the Milanese
Agostino Trivulzio, who later on was to do Clement signal service,
Alessandro Cesarini, Andrea della Valle. Paolo EniiJio Cesi, Baldassare
Turini, Tommaso de Vio, Lorenzo Campeggi, the noble Ludovico
di Canossa, from Verona, most of whom wore the cardinaPs hat.
Bembo and Sadoleto were the chief ornaments of his literary circle;
to them was added the celebrated Greek John Lascaris, once under
the protection of Bessarion, then of Lorenzo il Magnifico and Louis XII,
in France the teacher of Budaeus, in Venice of Erasmus. Leo X on his
accession at once summoned him to Rome, and on his account founded
a school of Greek in tlie palace of the Cardinal of Sion on Monte
Cavallo. Lascaris' pupil, Marcus Musurus, was also summoned from
Venice in 1516 to assist in this school. At the same time the Pope com-
missioned Beroaldus to publish the newly-discovered writings of Tacitus.
A measure, wliich might have proved of the utmost importance, was
the foundation of the university of Rome by the Bull Dum Suavimmas
of November 4, 1513. This was a revival and confirmation of an already
existing Academj% in which under Alexander VI and Julius II able men
such as Beroaldo the younger^ Fedro» Casali, and Pio had taught, and
to which now others were summoned, among them Agostino Nifo,
Botticella, Cristoforo Aretino, Chalcondyhis, Parrasio, and others,
Vigerio and Tommaso de Vio (Cardinal of Gaeta) also lectured oa
-I52i] The University of R(yme 17
thecdogy, and Giovanni Gozzadini on law. Petrus Sabinus, Antonio
Fahro of Amitemo, and Raffaelle Brandolini are mentioned among the
leetorers, and even a Professor of Hebrew, Agacius Guidocerius, was
appointed. Cardinal Raffaelle Riario acted as Chaneellor. The list of
the professors given by Renazzi numbers 88 : 11 in canon law, 20 in law,
15 in medicine, and 5 in philosophy. It was another merit of Leo's that
he established a Greek printing-press, which printed several books in
1517 and 1518. Chigi had some years before set up a Greek press in
his palace, from which came the first Greek book printed in Rome, a
Pindar, in 1515. The Pope himself kept up his interest in Greek
studies, and retained as custodian of his private library one of the best
judges of the Greek idiom, Guarino di Favera, who published the first
ThtMaunu lingiuie CrraeecLe in 1496, and whom he nominated Bishop of
Novara.
Unfortunately these excellent beginnings were for the most part not
carried on. It was not Leo's fault, but his misfortune, that many of the
most gifted men he had summoned were soon removed by death. But
we cannot acquit him of having ceded Lascaris like Leonardo to France
in 1518, and allowed Bembo to return discontented to Padua ; he did
not secure Marcantonio Flaminio, and held Sadoleto at a distance for
a very long time. The continual dearth of money in the papal treasury
was no doubt the chief cause of this change of policy. Even before 1517
the salaries of the professors could not be paid, and their number had
to be diminished. And this was the necessary consequence of Leo's
ridiculous prodigality on his pleasures and his Court. Well might a Fra
Mariano exclaim ^^lemamo al hallo $anto^ ehe ogni altra co$a e lurla.^^
Serious and respectable men left him and a pack of ^'^'pcuszU luffoni e
nmU 9arta dipiaeevoli " remained in the Pope's audience chambers, with
whom he, the Pope himself, gamed and jested day after day " cum ri$u
et hilaritate.''* Such were the people that he now raised to honour and
position ; what money he had he spent for their carousals. No wonder
that this vermin flattered his vanity and sounded his praises as ^^ Leo
Leus nogter.'' But beside this we must remember, that, as is universally
admitted, Leo was extremely generous to the poor. The anonymous
author of the Vita Leonis X, reprinted in Roscoe's Xt/5?, gives express
evidence as to this, " egenteB pietate ac Uleralitate est proseeutu$y*^ and adds
that, according to accounts which are, however, not very well attested, he
supported needy and deserving ecclesiastics of other nationalities. But
he too remarks, that Leo's chief, if not his only, anxiety was to lead a
pleasant and untroubled life ; in consequence of which he spent his days
at music and play, and left the business of government entirely in the
hands of his cousin Giulio, who was better fitted for the task and an
industrious worker. Unfortunately he admitted not only bufifoons to his
games of cards, but also corrupt men like Pietro Aretino, who lived on
the Pope's generosity as early as 1520, and in return extolled him as the
C. M. H. II. 2
pattern of all pontiffs. The appointment of the German Jew Giammaria
as Castellan and Count of Veirucchio was even in Rome an unusual
reward for skilled performance on the lute, and even for the third
successor of Alexander VI it was venturesome to let the poet Querno,
attired as Venus and supported by two Cupitls, declaim verses to him at
the Cosmalia in 1519, We have already mentioned the scandalous
carnival of that year, and the theatre for which Raffaelle w^as forced to
paint the scenery, A year later an unknown savanU under the mask of
Pasquino, complained of the sad state of the sciences in Rome, of the
exile of the Muses, and the starvation of professors and literary men*
From all this data the conclusion has been drawn that Leo X was by
no means a llaecenas of the fine arts and sciences ; that the high
enthusiam for tliera shown in his letters, as edited by Bembo and
Sadoleto, betrays more of the thoughts of his clever secretary than his
own ideas ; and that his literary dilettantism was lacking in all artistic
perce|ition, and all delicate cultivation of taste. Leo has been thought
to owe his undeserved fame to the circumstance that he waa the son of
Lorenzo, and that his accession seemed at the time destined to put an end
to the sad conf usionsand wars of the last decades. Moreover, throughout
the long pontificate of Clement VII, and cqnally under the pressure of
the ecclesiastical reaction in the time of Paul IV, no allusion wasallow^ed
to the wrongdoing of this Leonine period ; till at last the real circum-
stances w^ere so far forgotten, that the fine flower of art and literature
in the first twenty years of the sixteenth century was attributed to the
Medicean Pope*
But there are points to be noted on the other side. Even if we
discount much of the praise which Poliziano lavishes on his pupil in
deference to his father, we cannot question the conspicuous talent of
Giovanni de' Medici, the exceptionally careful literary education which
he had enjoyed, and his liberal and wise conduct during his cardinalship.
We must also esteem it to his credit that as Pope he continued to be
the friend of Raffaelle, and that in Rome and Italy at least he did not
oppress freedom of conscience, nor sacrifice the free and noble charac-
ter of tlie best of tlie Renaissance. Nor can it be overlooked that his
pontificate made an excellent beginning, though certainly the decline
soon set in; the Pontiff's good qualities became less apparent, his faults
more conspicuous, and events proved that, as in so many other instances,
the man's intrinsic merit was not great enough to bear his exaltation to
the highest dignity of Christendom without injury to his personality*
Such a change in outward position, promotion to an absolute sway
not inherited, intercourse with a host of tlattcrcrs and servants who
idolised him (there were 2000 dependents at Leo's Court) — all this
is almost certain to be fatal to the character of the man to whose lot
it falls. Seldom does the possessor of the highest dignity find this
enormous burden a source and means of spiritual illumination and
moral advancement. Mudiocre natures soon develop an immovable
obstinacy, the despair of any reasonable adviser, and which is none
the more tolerable for having received the varnish of a piety that
worships itself. Talented natures too easily fall victims to megalomania^
and by extravagant and ill-considered projects and undertakings drag
their age with them into an abyss of ruin* Weak and sensual natures
re themselves up to enjoyment, and consider the highest power merely
licence to make merry. Leo w^as not a coarse voluptuary like
ader VI, but he certainly was an intellectual Epicurean such as
seldom been known. Extremes should be avoided in forming
^Judgment of the pontifieate and character of this prince. Not the
objective historian, but the flattering politician, spoke in Erasmus when
belauded the three great benefits which Leo had conferred on humanity:
the restoration of peace, of the sciences, and of tlie fear of God, It was
a groundless suspicion that overshot the mark, when Martin Luther
acxjused Leo of disbelief in the immortality of the soul ; and John Bale
(1574) spread abroad the supposed remark of the Pope to Hembo : *^ All
ages can test if ye enough, how profitable that fable of Christ has been
to us and our compagnie/* Hundreds of writers have copied this from
Bale without verification. Much of Leo's character can be explained
by the fact that he was a true son of the South, the personification of
the soft Florentine temperament This accounts for his childish joy in
the highest honour of Christendom, *' Qtiesto wi da piacere^ che la mia
tiara!'* The words of the office which he was reading, when five day*
before his death news AViis brought to him of the taking of Milan by his
troops, may well serve as motto for this reign, lacking not sunshine and
glory, but all serious success and all power : *^ Ut sine timore de manu
inimicorum nostromm liberati serviamus a/K." This pontificate truly
• was, as Gregorovius has described it, a revelry of culture, which Ariosto
accompanied with a poetic obhligato in his many-coloured Orlando.
This poem was in truth 'Uhe image of Italy revelling in sensual and
intellectual luxury, the ravishing, seductive, musical, and picturesque
creation of decadence, just as Dante s poem had been the mirror of the
manly power of the nation."
^
On December 27, 1521, a Conclave assembled, w^hich closed on
January 9, 1522, by the election of the Bishop of T^rtosa as Adrian VL
He was born at Utrecht in 1459 and when a professor in Louvain waa
chosen by the Emperor Maximilian to be tutor to his gnindson Charles.
Afterwards he was sent as ambassador to Bferdinand the Catliolic, who
besttiwed on him the Bishopric of Tortosa'Qi Leo X made liim Cardinal
in 1517- This Conclave, attended by-tliirty-niue cardinals, offered a
spectacle of the most disgraceful party struggles, but mustered enoii ^
unanimity to propose to the possible candidates a capitulation, b\
terms of which the towns of the Papal States were divided amongst the
members of the Conclave, and hardly anything of the temporal power was
left to the Pope. The Cardinals de' Medici and Cajetan (de Vio) rescued
the assembly from this confusion of opinions and unruly passions by
proposing an absent candidate. None of the factions had thought of
Adrian Dedel ; the astonished populace heaped scorn and epigrams on the
Cardinals and their choice. Adrian, who was acting as Charles' vicegerent
in Spain at the time of his election, could not take up his residence at
Rome till August 29 ; it then looked, as Castiglione says, like a plundered
abbey ; the Curia was ruined and poverty-stricken, half their number had
fled before the prevailing pestilence. The simple-minded old man had
brought his aged housekeeper with him from the Netherlands ; he was
contented with few servants and spent but a ducat a day for maintenance.
He would have preferred to live in some simple villa with a garden ; in
the Vatican among the remains of heathen antiquity he seemed to himself
to be rather a successor of Constantine than of St Peter. His plan of
action included the restoration of peace to Italy and Europe, a protective
war against the invading Turks, the reform of the Curia and the Church,
and the establishment of peace in the German Church, Not one of these
tasks was heabletofulfil ; he wasdestinedonly to showhisgood intentions.
We shall deal presently with his attempts at reformation, which have
for all time made him worthy of admiration and his sliort pontificate
memorable. He was not lacking in good intentions to make Rome
once more the centre of intellectual life ; but Reuchlin had lately died ;
Erasmus, to whom the Pope had written on December 1, 1522, preferred
to remain in Germany ; Sadoleto went to Carpentras ; and Bembo, who
thought Adrian's jjontificate even more unfortunate than Leo's death,
stayed quietly in northern Italy* Evidently no one had confidence in the
permanency of a state of things which could not but api>ear abnormal to
everybody* And indeed, the silent, pedantic Dutchman, with his cold
nature, his ignorance of Italian, his handful of servants, "Flemings
stupid as a stone," was the greatest possible contrast to everything that
the refinement of Italian culture and the well-justified element of Latin
grace and charm demanded of a prince* The Italiiins would have put
up for a year or two at least with an austere and pious Pope, if his piety
had been blended with something of poetry and grace ; but this Dutch
saint was utterly incomprehensible to them. And in truth this was not
entirely their fault. As Girolamo Negri wrote, one really could apply
to him Cicero's remark about Cato : " he behaves as if he had to do with
Plato's Republic instead of the scum of the earth that Romulus collected/*
And it must have been unbearable for the Romans that the new Pope
should have as little comprehension for all the great art of the
Renaissance as for classical antiquity. He wanted to tlirow Pasquino
into the Tiber because the jests pasted on the statue irritated him ; at
the sight of the Laocoon he turned away with the words, ** These are
heathen idols.'* He closed the Belvedere, and even a man like Negri
I
WHS seriously afraid that some day the Pope would follow the supposed
example of Gregory, and have all the heathen statues broken aud used
as building stones for St Peter*s.
In a word, despite the best iutentions, despite clear insight, Adrian
was not adequate to his task, Tiie moment demanded a Pojje who could
reconcile and unite all the great and valuable elements of the Italian
Renaissance, the ripened fruit of the modern thought sprung from Dante
and Petrarch, with the conceptions and conscience of the Germanic world.
Both the German professors who now posed as leaders of Christendom*
Adrian Dedel and Martin Luther, were lacking in the historic and
aesthetic culture which would have enabled them to understand the
value of Roman civilisation. Erasmus saw further than either of them,
but the discriminating critic lacked the unselfish nobility of soul and the
impulse which can only be given by a powerful religious excitement, an
unswerving conviction, the firm faith in a {jersonal mission confided by
Providence, He too, despite his immense erudition, his deep insight, left
the world to its own devices when it required a mediator; for a gentle
~ negative criticism of human folly is, taken by itself, of little value.
Adrian could neither gain the mastery over Luther's Refonnation,
nor succeed in reforming even the Roman Curia, to say nothing of the
whole Church. The luxurious Cardinals went on with their pleasant
life; when he came to die they demanded his money ami treated him,
as the Duke of Sessa expressed it, like a criminal on the rack. The
threat of war between France and the German Empire lay all the while
like an incubus on his pontificate. With heavy heart the most peace-
loving of all the Popes, reminded by Francis I of the days of Philip the
Fair, was at last obliged to enter into a treaty with England and
Germany, Adrian survived to see war break out in Lombardy ; he died
on the day when the French crossed the Tieino, September 14, 1523.
Giovio and Guicciardini reLate that some wag wrote on the door of his
physician, "To the deliverer of the Fatherland, from the senate and
people of Rome/* I/ittle as the people were delighted with the pontifi-
cate of this last German Pope, he was no better pleased with it himself.
He spoke of his throne as the chair of misery, and said in his first
epitaph, that it was his greatest misfortune to have attained to power.
The epitaph written for his tomb in Santa Maria dell* Anima by his
faithful servant, the Datary and Cardinal Enckenvoert, was certainly
the best motto for this man and his pontificate: ""^ Pr oh dolor ! qiiantum
refert in qu4ie ternporavel optimi cult/sque virtus incidat.'^
A Conclave of thirty-three electors assembled on the first of October,
1523* Some sided with the Emperor, some with the French, but the
imperial party was also divided. Pompeo Colonna made an of
the future Pope by opposing his candidature, and Cardinal ;\ \\x
Farnese in vain oflfered the ambassadors of both sides 200,000 ducatet
Cardinal AVolsey once again made all kinds of offers, but there was now
a feeling against all foreigners. During the night of the 18th-liHh of
November Giulio de* Medici was elected. He was the son of Giuliano,
who fell in the Pazzi conspiracy, A certain Fioretta, daughter of
Antonia, is mentioned aa his mother ; little or nothing was known in
Florence about her and her child. Lorenzo tCM>k the orphan into
his house and had him brought up with his sons. In 1494 Giulio,
then sixteen years of age, followed them into exile. Living for some
time in Lombardy, but mostly with Giovanni, on his cousin's rise in
power he too was quickly promoted. Leo nominated him Archbishop of
Florence, having special!}^ dispensed him from the canonical hindrance
of his illegitimate birth. At his verj^ first creation of Cardinals on
September 23, 1513, the Pope bestowed on him the title of Cardinal of
Santa Maria in Dominica and made him Legate of Bologna, witnesses
having first sworn to the virtual marriage of his father Giuliano with
Fioretta. During Leo's reign, as we have already seen. Cardinal Giulio
had almost all the business of government in his own hands. He seciired
the election of Adrian, but left Rome and the Pope on October 13, 1522,
in the company of MatmeU the imperial envoy, in order to retire to
Florence. A difference with Francesco Soderini brought him back in
the following April to the Eternal City. He entered it with two thousand
horse, and already greeted as the future Pope kept great state in his
palace. A few days later Francesco Soderini, accused of high treason,
disappeared into the Castle of St Angelo; he was released during the
next Council. With the new reign a return of happier times was
expected — una Corte jlorida e un huon Ponfefice ; the restoration of
literature, fled before the barbarians ; " eat enim Mediceae familiae
deeus favere Mims.^* And indeed many things seemed to point to a
fortunate pontificate. The new Pope was respected and rich, and now
of a staid and sober life. He had ruled Rome well in Leo's day, and
as Archbishop of Florence had used his power succeasfully. lie was
cautious, economical, but not avaricious ; though not an author himself,
an admirer of art and science ; a lover of beautiful buildings, as his
Villa Madama gave proof, and free from his cousin's unfortunate liking
for the company of worthless buffoons. He did not hunt, but he was
fond of good instrumental music, and liked to amuse himself at table
with the conversation of learned men.
Very soon it became clear that Clement VH was one of those men,
who, though excellent in a subordinate position, prove unsatisfactory
wlien placed at the head. The characters of both Mediei Popes are
wonderfully conceived in Raffaelle\s portraits : in Leo's otherwisa intel-
lectual face there is a vulgarity that almost degenerates into coarseness
and sensuality, and with Clement the cold soul, lacking all strong feeling,
distrustful, never unfolding itself. " In spite of all his talents,'* said
Francesco Vettori, *^ he brought the greatest misery on Rome and on
I
I
I
himself ; he lost courage at once and let go the ruddor." Guicciardini
too complains of GiuUo's faintheartedness, vacillatiou, and indecision as
the chief source of his misfortune- This indecision kept him wavering
between the counsels of the two men, in whr»m from the beginning of hia
reign he pilaced his confidence ; one belonging to the French faction^
the other to that of the Em|3eror. One w|is like himself a bastard,
Giamraatteo Giberti, rightly valued by all his contemporaries for his
piety, honesty, and insight. He took an active part in the foundation
of the Order of the Theatines (1524) by the pious Gaetano da Thiene,
afterwards canonised, in company with Caraflfa. He was appointed Da-
tary by Clement, and afterwards Bishop of Verona. Gaspare Contarini,
writing in 1530, says that he was on more intimate terms with the Pope
than were any of his other counsellors, and tliat in politics he worked in
the French interest. He left the Court in 1527 to retire to his bisbopric,
which he made a model of good goveriunent. In Verona he founded
a learned society and a Greek print iug-press, which published good
editions of the Fathers of the Church. Paul III summoned him to
Rome several times ; it was on his way back that he died in 1543. The
Emperor's interests were represented by Clemen t*s other counsellor,
Nikolaus von Schomberg, of Meissen, in Saxony. On the occasion of
a journey to Italy in 1497, carried away by the preaching of Savonarola
in Pisa, he had joined the same monastery- Later, scorned by the
populace as a Judas, he had gone over to the party of the Medici, was
summoned to Rome as Professor of Theology by Leo X, created Arch-
bishop of Capua in 1520, and often entrusted with diplomatic missions,
in which capacity Giulio came to know and value him. Contarini speaks
well of him, but evidently only half trusted Iiim. Schomberg received
the Cardinal's hat from Paul III in 1534, and died in 1537.
Clement's accessinn had at once brought about a political change in
favour of France. The Pope's policy wavered long between the King
and the Emperor ; weak towards both of them, undecided, and on
occasion faithless enough. On January 5, 1525, he himself announced
to the Emi>eror the conclusion of liis treaty with Francis L The
Battle of Pavia, tlie greatest military event of the sixteenth century
(February 24, 1525), made Charles V master of Italy and Francis I his
prisoner. By April I Clement had made his peace with the Emperor,
but soon began to intrigue and tried to fonn a league against him with
Venice, Savo3^ Ferrara, Scotland, Hungary, Portugal, and other States ;
this was mainly the work of Giberti, At this time the bold plan of
a League of Freedom, which was to claim the independence of Italy from
foreign Powers, was formed by Girolamo Morone ; Pescara, the husbantl
of Vittoria Colonna, the real victor at Pavia, was to stand at its
head. The conspiracy in which Clement on his own confessinr ^ ^ !
letter to Charles V of June 23, 152t») had taken part, was K :
Pescara himself ; at his instigation Morone named the Pope wb
originator of the offers made to Pescara. The veil of secrecy still covers
both Pescara'a action — Giiiceiardini cliaracterised it as eterna infamia —
and hia early death, which occurred on March 30, 1525* The Emperor
freely expressed his opinion of the Pope*s faithlessness (September 17»
1526). On May 22, 1526, Clement concluded the Holy League of
Cognac with Francis, wh<j had returned to France at the beginning of
March, his captivity over. This brought on open war with the Eraperor,
the attack on Rome by the Colonna (September 20), the plundering of
the Borgo, the march of the Imperial troops against Rome under the
command of Bourbon^ the storming of the part of the city named after
Leo in which Bourbon fell (May 6, 1527), the flight of the i*ope to
the Castle of St Angelo, and tinally the storming of Rome and the sack
which followed it ; cruel and revolting to all Christian feeling, it remains
to this day a memory of terror for all Italians, No Guiscard appeared
this time, as in the days of Gregory VII, to save the beleaguered Pope,
On June 5, 1527, he was forced to capitulate, yield the fortress and give
himself up to the mercy of the Emperor. When a prisoner and deprived
of all his means, Cleruent bade Cellini melt down his tiara, a symbol of
liis own position ; for the whole temporal power of the Papacy lay at the
feet of the Emperor, who could abolish it if he chose. We know that
this policy w^as suggested to him : we know- also that Charles had serious
thoughts of utilising the position of the Pope for an ecclesiastical refor-
mation, and forcing him to summon the General Council, which all sides
demanded. But France and England declared they would recognise no
Council until the Pope was set free again, and the Spanish clergy also
petitioned for the release of the Head of the Church. Once more the
Imperial troops returned to Rome from their summer quarters, and in
September, 1527, the city was once more sacked, Veyre arrived as the
Emperor's agent to offer Clement freedom on condition of neutrality,
a general peace, and the promotion of reform by means of a Council.
The agreement was signed on November 2G ; but on December 8 the
Pope escaped to Orvieto, ivhence on June 1, 1528, he removed to Viterbo.
The war proved disastrous for France ; Lautrec's defeats, his death by
plague (August 15), the terrible state of Italy, which was now but one
vast battletield strewn wuth corpses, induced Clement at last to side with
the Emperor. On October 8, 1528, he returned horror-stricken to half-
burnt, starving Rome. Harried by the pkgue, her population diminished
by one-half ; her importance for the literary and artistic life of humanity
had been for ever marred by the awful events of the year 1527. Those
of her artists and learned men who had not fled were maltreated and
robbed during the Sack : those that were left were beggars and had to
seek their bread elsewhere. Erasmus wrote to Sadoleto (October 1,
1528) that not the city, but the world had perished, and that the
present sufferings of Rome were more cruel than those brought on her
by the Goths and the Gauls, From Carpentras in 1529 Sadoleto wrote
a mournful letter to Colocci, in which he speaks of past glories — a letter
aptly called by Gregorovius the swan's song, the farewell to the cheerful
world of humanist times.
Clement's participation in the league against Charles and the Empire
had favoured the spread of the Lutheran Reformation in Germany.
Unwittingly the Pope had become Luther's beat ally at the very
moment when for Catholicism everything depended on strengthening
the Emperor's opposition to the Keformation, winch had the hour in its
lavour. Even after the Sack tlie Pope was not chiefly concerned for the
preservation and improvement of the Church, or for the reparation of
the evil done to Home. What absorbed his attention were the dynastic
interests* of his own House, which had once more been expelled from
Florence, and the restoration of the Papal State. The Emperor could have
ended the Temporal Power with a stroke of the pen had he not feaieil the
immense influence of the clergy and the threatening voice of the Inquisi-
tion, which did not hesitate to cross the threshold even of the most mighty,
Charles needed the Pope, since a lasting enmity with him would have
cut the ground from under his feet both in Spain and Germany. He
needed him in order to keep his hold on Italy, and by his influence to
divide the League. And so the Treaty of Barcelona was brought about
(June 29, 1529), whereby the Emperor acknowledged the power of
Sforza in Milan, gave the Papal State back to the Pope, undertook to
restore Florence to the Medici by force of arms, and as a pledge of
friendship to give his illegitimate daughter Margaret to Alessandro de'
Medici. The Imperial coronation was moreover to take place in Italy.
The "Ladies' Peace" of Cambray (August 5, 1529) confirmed Simn-
ish rule in Italy. Clement crowned Charles Enaperor on February 24,
1530, in Bologna, having come thither with sixteen Cardinals. The
Emperor left for the diet at Augsburg on June 15. The Pope returned
to Rome on April 9 ; and on August 12 Florence fell after a heroic
death-struggle, burying the honour of the Pope in its fall, since he had
not hesitated to hand over the freedom of hLs native town to his family.
The republican constitution of the town was formally annulled on April
27, 1532, and Alessandro de' I^Iedici was proclaimed Duke of Florence-
Clement VII is said t4> have sighed during the siege: *' Oh that
Florence had never existed!" The Papacy itself, as well as its repre-
sentative in that time, had good reason to utter this cry ; for the fall of
the Republic brought about by the Pope and accomplished by the
Emperor and his bands of foreign mercenaries, joined the Papacy hence-
forth to all movements inimical to the freedom and unity of Italy. It
delivered over Italy and the Church to the idea of an ecclesiastico-politieal
despotism native to Spain ; it severed the bond which in the Middle
Ages had kept Rome in touch with the national aims of the Italian
people. In December, 1532, Emperor and Pope met once more in
Bologna in order to conclude an Itelian league. At the same moment
Clement was negotintiiig with France, who did her utmost to draw thai
Papacy from the embrace of Spain, Francis I proposed the marriage of
his second son Henry with Catharine, daughter of Lorenzo de' Medici 1
the younger, and did his very betit to help Clement to prevent an
assemblage of the Council, as we now know from the disclosures of
Antonio Soriano. The marriage of Catharine de' Medici, through f
whom her House attanied to royal honour, was celebrated with great |
solemnity at Marseilles in October, 1533, Clement himself had come to |
witness the triumph of his family in the person of his great-niece. The ^
young girl, scarcely more than a child, whom he handed over to the
royal House of France, proved a terrible gift to the hind; for some
thirty-eight years later she contrived the Massacre of St Bartholomew.
The jewels which Filippo Strozzi counted over to the French as forming |
part of the down*y of the little princess, — Genoa, Milan, Naples, — never
came into the possession of France, and Henry was forced in the Treaty
of Catean-Cambresis to yield all the gains of the French policy of
annexation in Italy.
Clement was back in Rome by December 10, 1533, and in the ^
following March annulled Thomas Cranmer's declaration that the
marriage of Henry VHI with his cousin Catharine of Aragon w^as void.
The Pope threatened the King with excommunication if he did not |
re-establish the marriage. The King\s answer was the separation of
England from the obedience of Rome. Shortly before this the articles of
tlie League of Sehmalkalden had recorded the desertion of a consider-
able part of South Germany to the Reformation. The Council which
was to have restored unity to the Church had not come into being.
Clement certainly raised hopes of it in the near future at Bologna
(January 10, 1583), but only for the sake of appearances. In reality he j
liad every reason to prevent all discussion by a Council of his personal!
and dynastic policy, and he attained his end by excuses and means]
which led the Emperor's confessor. Cardinal Garcia de Loaysa (May,!
1630), to write to Charles V that this Pope was the most mysterious of 1
beings, that he knew more ciphers than anyone else on earth, and that]
he would not hear of a Council at any price.
Even the last act of the dying Pope leaves a painful impression.
On September 23, 1534, he wrote a long letter to the Emperor, to!
recommeiul to his care, not the welfare of the Church or of Italy, but
the preservation of the rule of the Medici in Florence, and the protection ,
of his two beloved nephews, the Cardinal Ippolito and Alessandro, whom]
Clement had appointed to be his heirs.
After a painful illness Clement VII died on September 25, 1634 J
His friend Francesco Vettori gives testimony that for a century iic
better man had occupied Peter^s Chair than Clement, who was neither]
cruel nor proud, neither venal, nor avaricious, nor luxurious. And]
despite of this, he continues, the catastrophe came in his time, whilej
I
I
others stained with crime lived and died bappily. And indeed many
mn excellent quality seemed to promise this Medici a happier reign ;
but he had to atone for his dynastic egotism and for the sins t»f Im
predecessors. A fatal confusion of politics and religion bore its bitterest
fruits in las pontificate. Rome was ruined, Italy from Milan to Naples
was turned into a field of slaughter bathed in blood and tears ; the
unity of the Church was destroyed, and half Europe fell away from
the centre of Christianity. All this was a painful commentary on the
theories of political Catholicism and the esteem of that temporal sway
over the world which some still affirm to be useful or even necessary to
the cause of Christ.
The harmonious union of medieval with modern thought^ the organic
arrangement of the ideas brought by the Renaissance in the system of
Christian Ethics, the inner development of Catholicism on the basis of
this harmony as planned in the scheme of the Camera della St'iftiatum ;
all this miscarried, and w<as bound to do so, since the acting powei's, on
whom devolved the accomplishment of this great scheme, conceived in
the true spirit of the Apostle Paul, lacked the ability and enthusiasm
necessary for the execution of so enormous a task. The preceding
paragraphs have shown to what extent these acting powers were in*
capable of fulfilling the mission set before them.
The powers at work were two in chief, the Papacy and the Italian
nation. We have seen the Papacy of Medicean Rome swayed by
Ijolitical, by worldly considerations, guided in all its actions luul de-
cisions by the dynastic interests of its rulers* The religious and moral
point of view was ignored in this domain of worldly ainrs and ideas.
The pontificate of Adrian YL that came as an interlude between tliose
of Leo X and Clement VII, certainly was representative of religious
Catholicism,' — honourable, wise, sincere. But on the one hand it was
of too short a duration to ripen any of its fruits, and on the other it
failed, not only because of Italian corruption, and the general dislike to
foreigners, but also because the last Teutonic Pope could nut coinpreheml
the development of Italian culture, the right of the Latin world to its
own characteristics, and the aesthetic interests swaying all minds soutlj
of the Alps. The predominance of the woridly and sensuoun eleinenta
in life, in science, and even in art came into play ; they did their part
in preventing the victory of idealistic views.
Although the Curia was not equal to its task, liad Italy been still in
a healthy state the nation and public opinion could have forced the
Papacy into right courses- But here also corruption had long sin*
in. Strong moral force, such as proclaims itself in Dante, in ih
of Siena, was gone from the people ; they had but lately ■
prophet to the flames in the Piazza dcUa Signoria at F.
nation can sin thus against its best men without pm
28
The Mediri and reform
people of Italy could not put new blood and fresh life into the Curia,
because in them the law of the body had triumphed over the law of the
spirit. The same observation has to be made in the province of literature.
We liave spoken of Ariosto ; the other productions of the Medicean
period in the domain of literature are for the most part trifling and
frivolous in their contents. As Gregorovius says, their poets sang the
praises of Maecenas and Phryne, they wrote pastorals and epics of
chivalry, while the freedom of Italy perished. The theatre, still more
early and markedly than pictorial art, cut itself adrift from ecclesiastical
subjects and from the whole world of religions ideas. It became not
merely worldly, but distinctly pagan, and at the same time incapable
of any great creation of lasting value which could touch the heart of
the nation. Serious theological literature was almost entirely lacking
at Leo's Court and during his pontificate, with the exception of two or
three names, such as Sadoleto, EgicHo of Viterbo, and Tommasode Vio,
After the death of Raflfaelle and Leonardo painting and sculpture at
once took a downward path. Michelangelo upheld for himself the great
traditions of the best time of the Renaissance for almost another quarter
of a century ; but he was soon a very lonely man. Decadence showed
itself directly after Rafifaelle*s death, when Marcantonio engraved Giulio
Romano's indecent pictures, and Fietro Aretino wrote a commentary on
them of still more indecent sonnets. Clement VII, who had at one time
received this most worthless of all men of letters as a guest in his Villa
Careggi, repulsed him after this. But Aretino was characteristic of his
time ; what other would Iiave borne with him ?
After Raffaelle's death ideas were no longer made the subject of
paintings ; the world of enjoyment, sweet, earthly, sensual enjoymenti
was now depicted before art declined into a chilly mannerism and the
composite falseness of eclecticism. A time which is no longer able to
give an artistic rendering of ideas is incapable of resolution and of great
actions. Not only the Muses and the Graces wept by Raflfaelle's grave,
tlie whole Julian epoch was buried with him. During Leo's reign he
had undertaken with feverish activity to conjure up not only ancient
Rome but the antique ideals. In vain. His unaided force was not
enough for the task, and he saw himself deserted by those whom he
most needed and on whom he relied. And then came the Sack of
Rome ; it was the tomb of all this ideal world of the Renaissance
period. From the smoking ruins of the Eternal City rose a dense,
grey fog, a gloomy, spiritless despotism, utterly out of touch with the
joyous spring of the mind of the Italian people whose harbinger was
Dante* Under its oppression the intellectual life of the nation soon
sank asphyxiated.
The Guelf movement of the Middle Ages, which had its home
in the free States of Tuscany and North Italy, was dead and gone ;
it could no longer give life or withhold it. And the old Ghibelline
principle was dead too. No German Emperor arose in whom the
I dreams of Henry VII coixld live again. What Charles V sought and
attained in the two conferences at Bologna and during his subsequent
visit to Konie (April 5, 1536) had nothing whatever to do with the
plans of the Emperors before him. The restoration of the Medici in
Hurenee and the Emperor's dealings with the doomed Republic in-
augurated that unhappy policy which down to 1866 continued to
make the Germans enemies of the Italians. This it was that, after the
tribulations of Metternich's government, brought on the catastrophe of
Solferino and Sadowa,
n
I
The programme of 1510 demanded in the first place a reformation
of the Church, both in its head and its members. Let us consider the
attitude of Rome under the Medici with regard to this question.
The reformations attempted by the Councils of Constance and Basel
had utterly failed. Since Martin V had returned to Rome the Pa2>acy
could consider nothuig beyond the governing of the Papal State, and
since Calixtus III it was involved in dynastic intrigue. Aeneas Silvius
had stated with the utmost clearness thirteen years before he became
Pope that no one in the Curia any longer thought of reformatioo. Then
Savouax'ola appeared ; France and Germany cried out for reform. At
the synods of Orleans and Tours (1510) the French decided on the
assembling of an Ecumenical CounciL In view of the decree Frequena
of the Council of Constance, the dilatoriness of the Pope, and the
breaking of the oath he had sworn in conclave, the Second Synod of
Pisa was convoked (May 16, 1511). It was first and foremost a check
offered to Julius II by French politicians, but was also intended to
obtain a general recognition by the Church of the principles of the
Pragmatic Sanction of 1438 drawn from the articles of the Basel and
Constance conventions. This pseudo-synod was attended only by a few
French prelates and savants. Meantime the Emperor Maximilian had
conferred with the leading theologians of his Empire, such as Geiler von
Kaisersberg, Wirapheling, Tritliemius, Johaun Eck, Matthaus Lang,
and Conrad Pentinger, about the state of the Church* In 1510 he
commissioned the Schlettstadt professor, Jakob Winipheling, to draw up
a plan of reform, which the latter published in his Gravamina Oermanicae
Nationis cum remedih et aifisaimntis ad Gaemream Malestatem* It is
composed of an extract from the Pragmatic Sanction, an essay on the
machinations of courtiers, another on the ten grievances, with their
remedies, notifications for the Emperor, and an excursus concerning
legates. The ten gravamina are the same which Martin Mayr had
mentioned as early as 1457 in his epistle to Aeneas Silvius.
The Emperor, who since 1507 cherished the wild plan of procuring
his own election to the Papacy on the death of Julius, at first gave
his protection to the Council of Pisa. Afterwards he withdrewik and
the German Bishops also refused to have anything to do with the
flchiamatic tendencies of the French. On July 18, 1511, Julius II
summoned an Ecumenical Council to Rome; it assembled there on
April 19, 1512, with a very small attendance composed entirely of Italian
prelates. The Spaniards also showed an interest in the work of reforma-
tion, as 18 proved by the noteworthy anonymous Brevis Memorla^
published by Dtillinger ; but they took no part in the Council. Before
the opening of the Lateranense Fa controversy hud arisen on the powers
witbin the scope of Councils, The Milanese jurist Deciuti had upheld
the side of the Pisan Council, so had the anonymous author of the
Status Romani Imperii^ published in Nardouin, and Zaccaria Ferreni of
Vicenza ; the chief disputant on the side of the Curia was Tommaso de
Vio (Cajetan)*
It was a good omen for the Council that the best and most pious
man of intellect then in Rome made the opening speech, Aegidius of
Viterbo as Principal of the Augustiuian Order had worked energetically
at the reform of his own Order ever since 1508, Bembo and Sadoleto
praised his intellect and his learning, and the latter wrote to the former
that, though luunanity and the aries humanitatid had been lost to man-
kind, yet Aegidius alone and unaided could have restored them to us-
In bis opening speech Aegidius uttered some earnest truths and deep
thoughts* He touched on the real source of decadence in the Church,
when, perhaps in allusion to Dante's words about the donation of
Constantine, he said, ^^ Ita ferme post ConBtantini tempora^ qiiae ut sacrh
in rebus multum adieeere splendorls et ornamentin ita marum et vitae
severitatem non parmn enervarunt ; rpioties a St/nodis habendis cessatum
est, toties vidimus sponsam a sponso dereUctatn/'
Unfortunately the Council did not fulfil the expectations which might
have been based on this inaugural address. When Leo X opened the
sixth sitting (April 27, 1513) the assembly numbered^ besides 22 cardinah*
and 91 abbots, only 02 hisliops* Bishop Simon, of Modena, appealed to
the prelates to begin by reforming themselves. At the seventh sitting
the preacher, Rio, revived the theory of the twoswords. Co Decemberl9»
1513, France was officially represented, and at the eighth sitting tlie
Council condemned the heresies taken from the Arabs concerning the
human soul, which was explained as humani corporis forma ~ These had
already been denounced at Vienne* Then the theologians were called on
to prune *'the infected roots of philosophy and poetry." Philosophers
were to uphold the truth of Christianity* Bishop Nicholas of Bergamo
and Cardinal Cajetan opposed this measure; the first did not wish
restrictions to be imposed on philosophers and theologians, the second
did not agree that philosophers should be called upon to uphold the
truth of the Faitli, since in this way a confusion might arise between
theology and philosophy, which would damage the freedom of philosophy.
At the ninth sitting the curialist, Antonio Fucci, spoke on reform, and
lid that the clergy had fallen away from love; that the tyranny of
inordinate desire had taken its place ; that tlieir lives were in opposition
the teaching and canons of the Church. The bull of reformation
published after this, Supertiae didpontlonU arhitrio^ was concerned
pfc^th the hi^^her appointmentis in the Church, elections, postulations,
provisions^ the deposing and translation of prelates, commendam^^ unions^
ispensations, reservations ; with Cardinals and the Curia ; reform in the
ife of priests and laity ; the incomes and immunities of clerics ; the wide
Bpread of superstition and false Christianity. The reform of the Calen-
Idar was also debated, but at the tenth sitting (May, 1515) proved still
iripe for discussion ; the sitting w^as then devoted to the contentions
lef the bishops and the regular clergy ; resolutions were passed concerning
Itnoney -lenders ; and Leu*s bull pointed out the duty of furthering bene-
Bcial modern institutions* Of great interest is the bull concerning the
printing and publishing of books ; it attributes the invention of printing
Ito the favour of Heaven, but adds that what was made for the glory of
[God ought not to be used against llim, for which reason all new books
Jwere to be subjected to the censorship of the Bishops and Inquisitors.
The eleventh sitting was occupied with the complaints of the Bishops
[against the Regulars, whom Aegidius of Viterbo defended (December \%
1 1516). It w^as declared unlawful to foretell coming misfortunes from
the pulpit with any reference to a definite date; thia was probably a
retarded censure on Savonarola. The bull Pmtor Aeternus was issued,
[ which proclaimed the abolition of the Pragmatic Sanction, Leo declared
Hnull and void, and confirmed the decision of the bull Unam Sanctam
imned by Boniface VIII, that all Christians are subject to the Pope,
I At this point the ordinances for the clergy and their privileges were
read. At the twelfth sitting Giovanni Francesco Pico d«lla Mirandc»ki
presented his Oratio de ReformandiM Mortbus to the Pope. In it he
announces to Leo that should the Pope tlelay healing the wounds of
uociety* He whose representative the Pope was, would cut off the cor-
rupted members with fire and sword, and scatter them abroad, sending
a terrible judgment on the Church. Christ, he said, had cast out the
doves anJ pigeons that were sold in the Temple ; wiiy should not Leo
exile the worshippers of the many Golden Calves, who had not only
a place, but a place of command in Rome? This again was a remi-
niscence of Savonarola's sermons. Pico had constituted himself his
biographer and apologist. It was strange that the flaming wortls of the
prophet should rise once more from the grave at the moment when their
terrible prophecy w^as to be fulfilled in Germany.
On March 16, 1517, the Council closed with its
had made many useful orders, and shown good i
various abuses. But the carrying out of the comi
the Curia was entirely neglected. The Couii
a dead letter^ and, even had it gained effect
catastrophe in the north would not have been averted. For tht?re an
inward alienation from Rome had long been going on, ever since the
days of Ludwig the Bavarian ; little was needed to make it externally
also an accomplished fact. Neither Leo nor his Lateran Council had
the slightest conception of this state of affairs north of the Alps,
The government of the Church was entirely in the hands of Italians ;
the Curia could count scarcely more than one or two Germans or Eng-
lish in their number. Terrible retribution was at hand. Leo X had
seen no trace of the coming religious crisis, although its forerunners,
Reuchlin and Erasmus, Wimpheling and Hutten, and the appearance of
Obscurorum Virorum Ephtolae might well have opened his eyes. Hia
announcement in the midst of all this ferment of the great Absolution
for the benefit of St Peter's was a stupendous miscalculation, due to
the thoughtless and contemptuous treatment vouchsafed to German
affairs in Rome. Instead of directing his most serious attention to
them Leo had meantiuie made his covenant with Francis I at Bologna
(December, 1615), on which followed directly the French treaty of 1516.
At Bologna the King had renounced the Pragmatic Sanction, in return
for which the Pope granted him the right of nomination to bishoprics,
abbeys, and conventual priories. It was the most immoral covenant
that Church history had hitherto recorded, for the parties presented
each other with things that did not belong to them. The French
Church fell a victim to an agreement which delivered over her freedom
to royal despotism \ in return Francis 1 undertook that the Pope's
family should rule in Florence, and as a pledge of the treaty gave a
French Princess fo the Pope's nephew Lorenzo in marriage.
The hour in which this compact was made was the darkest in Leo's
pontificate. North of the Alps this act undermined all confidence in
him or in his cousin Clement VIL No further reform of the Church
was expected of two Popes who cared more for their dynasty than for
the welfare of Christendom. The short interregnum of Adrian VI was,
as we have seen, not equal to the task of carrying out the re for ma ti on .
But it must be remembered that in his reign the worthiest representative
of the Cluirch*s conscience during the Medicean era came forward once
more with a plea for reform. The great document, laid before the Pope
at his command^ by Aegidius of Viterbo, revealed the disease, when it
pointed to the misuse of papal power as the cause of all the harm, and
demanded a limitation to the absolutism of the Head of the Church.
This tallied with the Pope's ideas, and the celebrated instruction issued
to the Nuncio Chieregato (1522), which announced that the disease had
come from the liead to the members, from the Pope to the prelates, and
confessed, ** We have all sinned, and there is not one that doeth good."
Alessandrn Farnese came forth from the Conclave of 1534 on
October 12 as Paul III. A pupil of Pomponio Leto, and at the age of
^
twenty-five^ in 1493, invested with the purple by Alexander VI, he had
Uken part in all phases of the humanistic movement, and shared its
ies and its sins. Now the sky had become overcast, but a clear
ny gleam from the best time of the Renaissance still lay over him,
though his pontificate was to witness the inroad of Lutheran ism on
Italy^ the appearance of the doctrine of justification by faith, and on
the other hand the foundation of the Society of Jesus (September 3,
1539), the convocation of the long wiahed-for Ecumenical Council
of Trent (1542), and also the reorganisation of the Inquisition
(1-S41),
The last Pope of the Renaissance, as we must call Famese, left as
the brightest memory of his reign the record of an effort, which proved
fruitless, to unite the last and noblest supporters of the Renaissance
who still survived in the service of the C-hureh, for an attempt at
reformation* This is celebrated as the Conmiltum delectorum Cardina-
Hum et alionim prelatorum de emendanda Ecde%ia^ and bears the signa-
tures of Contarini, Caraffa, Sadoleto, Reginald Pole, Federigo Fregoso,
Giberti, and Cortese. Contarini must be acknowledged to have been
the real soul of the movement, which aimed at an inward reconciliation
h the German party of reform. All these ideas had root in the
reption represented by the scheme of Julius II . The greater number
of those who worked at the ConsuUum of 1538 must be regarded as the
last direct heirs of this great inheritance. The Religious Conference of
Ratisbon in 1541 forms the crisis in the history of this movement : it
was wrecked, not, as Reumont states, by the incompatibility of the
principle of subjective opinion with that of authority, but quite as
much, if not more so, by the private aims of Bavaria and Fnince. So
ended the movement towards reconciliation, and another came into force
and obtained sole dominion. This regarded the most marked opposition
to Protestantism as the salvation of the Church, and to combat it
summoned not only the counter-reformation of the Tridentinunh, but
every means in its power, even the extremest measures of material
force, to its assistance. The representatives of the conciliatory reform
movement, Contanni, Sadoleto, Pole, Morone, became suspect and,
despite their dignity of Cardinal, were subject to persecution. Even
noble ladies like Vittoria Colonna and Giulia Gonzaga were not secure
from this 8us]>icion and persecution,
Paul IV (lo55-9) and Pius V (1566-72) carried out the Counter-
Reformation in Italy. While the pagan elements of humanism merged
in the Antitrinitarian and Socinian sects, the Inquisition was stamping
out the %ola fides belief, but its terrorism at the same time crushed
culture and intellectual life out of Italy* The city of Rome recover
from the Sack of 1527 ; but from the ruin wrought by Caraffa, the natioi
or at any rate Papa! Rome, never recovered. Whatever intellectual lif
still remained was forced in the days of Paul III to shrink more
more from publicity. The sonnets which Vittoria Colonna and Miohel-
luigelo exchanged, the converse these two great minds held in the
garden of tlie Villa Colonna, of which Francesco d' Ollanda has left us
an account, were the last flickerings of a spirit which had once controlled
and enriched the Renuissance-
WJiat comparisons must have forced themselves on Michelangelo as
all the events since the days of Lorenzo il Magnijico^ his first patron»
whom he never forgot, passed in review before his great and lonely
spirit, now sunk in gloom. We know from Condivi that the impressions
Buonarotte had received in his youth exercised a renewed power over
his old age. Dante and Savonarola were once his leaders, they had
never entirely forsaken him. Now the favole del mondo^ as his last
poems bear witness, fell entirely into the background before the earnest
thoughts that hail once filled his mind at the foot of the pulpit in
San Marco, His Griudizio Universale sums up the account for his whole
existence, and is at the same time the most terrible reckoning, made in
the spirit of Dante, with his own nation and its rulers. All that Italy
might have become, liad she followed the dictates of Dante and Savonarola,
floated before his eyes as his brush created that Judge of all the world
whose curse falls on those that have exiled and murdered His prophets,
neglected the Church, and bartered away the freedom of the nation. His
Last Judgment was painted at the bidding of the Pope, Paul III can
scarcely have guessed how the artist was searching into the consciences
of that whole generation, which was called to execute what Julius
had bidden Rafifaelle and Michelangelo depict for all Christendom, and
which liad ignored and neglected its high office.
Since 1541 the Schism was an accomplished fact, a misfortune alike
for North and South. The defection of the Germanic world deprived
the Catholic Church of an element to whicli the future belonged after
the exhaustion of tlie Latin races* Perhaps the greatest misfortune lay
and still lies, as Newman has said, in the fact that the Latin races
never realised, and do not even yet realise, what the}^ have lost in the
Germanic races. From the time of Paul HI, and still more from that
of Paul IV onwards, the old Catholicism changes into an Italianism
which adopts more and more the forms of the Roman Curialism. The
idea of Catholicity, once so comprehensive, was sinking more and more
into a one-sided, often despotic insistence on unity, rendered almost
inevitable by the continual struggle with opponents. And this was due,
not to the doctrines of the Church, but to her practice. Romanism
alone could no longer carry out a scheme such as that of which Julius II
had dreamed. It is now clear to all minds what intellectual, moral,
and social forces the seliism had drawn away ; this is manifest even in
the fate of Italy* The last remnant of Italian idealism took refuge in
the idea of national unity and freedom which had been shadowed forth
in the policy of Alexander VI and Julius II, and which Machiavelli had
The fate of Italy 35
written on the last wonderful page of hi^ Principe as the guiding principle
for the future. This vision it was which rose dimly in Dante's mind ;
for its sake the Italian people had forgiven the sins of the Borgia and
of della Rovere ; it had appeared to Machiavelli as the highest of aims ;
after another three hundred years of spiritual and temporal despotism it
burst forth once more in the minds of Rosmini, Cesare Balbo, Gioberti,
and Cavour, and roused the dishonoured soul of the nation.
CHAPTER n
HABSBURG AND VALOIS (I)
The secular struggle between the Houses of Burgundy and Valois
reaches a new stage in the era of the Reformation. The murder of the
Duke of Orleans in the streets of Paris in 1407 involved at first only a
junior branch of the French royal House in the blood feud with Burgundy.
The alliance of Orleans and Armagnac in 1410, and of both with
Charles the Dauphin in 1418, swept in the senior branch, and led to the
retributive murder of John of Burgundy at Montereau in 1419. Steadily
the area of infection widens. A relentless Ate dominates all the early
years of Philip the Good, and then, laid for a while to sleep at Arras
(1485), reappears in the days of Charles the Bold. Not only political
and national aims, but an hereditary dynastic hatred might have inspired
Louis XI in his campaigns of war and intrigue until the crushing blow
at Nancy. The grandson of Charles the Bold, Philip the Fair, seemed,
in his jealousy of Ferdinand and his devotion to the interests of the
Netherlands, to have forgotten the ancestral feud. But his son and
heir, whom we know best as Charles the Fifth, inherited, together with
the inconsequent rivalries of Maximilian, and the more enduring and
successful antagonism of Ferdinand, the old Burgundian duty of revenge.
Thus the chronic hostility between the Kings of Valois- Angouleme and
the united line of Burgundy, Austria, Castile, and Aragon has a dramatic
touch of predestined doom, which might find a fitting counterpart in a
Norse Saga or the Nibelungenlied.
But greater forces than hereditary hate drove Europe to the gulf in
which the joy of the Renaissance was for ever extinguished. The terri-
torial consolidation of the previous age in Europe, though striking, had
been incomplete. The union of the French and Spanish kingdoms had
gone on natural lines. But Italy had been less fortunate. At the death
of Ferdinand her fate was still uncertain. The Spaniards stood firm in
Sicily and Naples, the French seemed to stand secure in Milan. Venice
had withstood the shock of united Europe. Florence seemed strengthened
by the personal protection of the Holy Father. But so long as two
rival foreign Powers held their ground in Italy, consolidation had gone
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too far or not far enough. Italy must be either Italian or Spanish or
French, The equilibrium was unstable. No amicable arrangement
could permanently preserve the status quo. The issue could only be
flolved by the arbitrament of arms.
In Germany the case was different. Their consolidation seemed to
be out of the question. Neither the preponderance of any single Power^
nor that of any combination of Powers, held out hopes of successful con-
quest. And the German nation, inured to arms, could oflfer a very different
resistance to that which any of the Italian States could maintain. Thus
the history of Europe in this period falls into two well marked sections^
The Teutonic lands work out their own development under the influence
of the new religious thought, unaffected as a whole by the competition
for supremacy in Europe. Tliey had their own dangers from the Turk
and in civil strife. But the struggle, although ostensibly between tha
Emperor and the King of France, was in reality between Spain and
France for hegemony in western Europe, supremacy in Italy. The
struggle was dynastic, but dynasties are the threads about which nations
crystallise.
At the outset the forces were not ill-matched. On the death
of Ferdinand in 1516 the Archduke Charles succeeded by hereditary
right to the kingdoms of Castile and Aragon and their dependencies, to
the kingdoms of the two Sicilies, to the Franche-Comte of Burgundy,
and to the provinces of the Netherlands. On the death of Maximilian
in 1519, he added to these the Habsburg inheritance in eastern Europe,
which he wisely resigned before long to his brother Ferdinand. For
soldiers he could rely on his Spanish dominions, on the regular forces
organised by Charles tlie Bold in the Netherlands, on the less trust-
worthy levies of Germany and Italy. The Netherlands and Spain gave
him a considerable revenue, which exceeded in gross the revenue of the
French King, but was not equally available for common dynastic pur-
poses, owing to the ditEculty of exporting and transporting treasure, and
the cogent necessities of internal government. The Sicilies might pay
for their own government, and provide an occasional supplement, but
the resources of these kingdoms hardly compensated for the needs of
their defence. The maritime resources of Spain were considerable, but
ill-organised and therefore not readily available.
The French King on the other hand, though his dominions were less
extensive, had manifest advantages both for attack and defence. His
territory was compact, and almost all capacity for internal resistance had
been crushed out by the vigorous policy of Louis XI and Anne of
Beaujeu. His subjects were rich and flourishing, and far more indus-
trious than those of Spain. All their resources were absolutely at his
control* Even the clergy could be relied upon for ample subsidies.
His financial system was superior to that of any other existing State.
He could make such laws and impose such taxes as suited his sovereign
88
Characters of Francis and Charles [1516^21
pleasure. Since the Concordat of 1516 all important clerical patronage
was in his hands ; and the great ecclesiastical revenues served him as a
convenient means for rewarding ministers, and attaching to himself tlie
great families whose cadets were greedy of spiritual promotion* His
cavalry and artillery were excellent and well organised. His infantry
had not yet been satisfactorily developed, but his resources permitted
him to engage mercenaries, and Germans and Swiss were still ready to
serve the highest bidder. In defence he could fight upon interior
lines- For attack he had a ready road to Italy through the friendly
territories of Savoy- The possession of Milan secured to him the
maritime power of Genoa, a very valuable addition to his own.
In character the two potentates were less equally matched. Francis
was bold, and vigorous upon occasion, but inconsequent Lu action ; bis
choice of men was directed by favouritism ; his attention was divert^
from business by the pursuit of every kind of pleasure, the more as well
as the less refined. His extravagance was such as to hamper his public
activity. To the last he never showed any increasing sense of royal
responsibility, and preserved in premature old age the frivolous and
vicious habits of his youth.
At the death of Ferdinand Charles was still a boy, and, until the
death of Guillaume de Croy, Sire de Chievres (1521), his own individual-
ity did not make itself clearly felt. Chievres, his old tutor, now liis prin- ^J
eipal minister, dominated his action. Yet at the election to the Empire^H
it WHS his own pertinacity that secured for him the victory when othei^s
would have been content to obtain the prize for his brother Ferdinand.
Throughout his life this pre-eminent trait of manly perseverance marks
him with a certain stamp of greatness. Slow in action, deliberate in
council to the point of irresolution, he yet pursued his ends with
unfailing obstinacy until by sheer endurance he prevailed. Extreme
tenacity in the maintenance of his just rights, moderation in victory,
and abstinence from all chimerical enterprise, are the other qualities to
which he owes such success as he 6btained. Fortune served him well on
more than one conspicuous occasion ; but he merited her favours by
indefatigable patience ; and he never made on her exorbitant demands.
Of his two grandfathers he resembles Ferdinand far more than Maxi-
milian* In the course of his career these characteristic's were developed
and became more notable ; unlike his rival he learnt from life ; but from
his youth he was serious, persistent, sober. In his choice of minist'ers
and judgment of men he showed himself greatly superior to Francis.
He was well served throughout his life ; and never allowed a minister to
become his master. Unsympathetic, unimaginative, he lacked the en-
dearing graces of a popular sovereign ; he lacked the gifts that achieve
greatness. But, born to greatness, he maintained unimpaired the
heritage he had received ; and, at whatever price of personal and
national exhaustion, he left the House of Habsburg greater than he
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had found it. When we consider the ineluctable burden of his several
and discrete realms, the perplexing and multifarious dangei"s to which
he was exposed, the mere mechanical friction occasioned by distance and
boundaries and intervening hostile lands, the inefficient organisation, po-
UticaL financial, and military, of his countries at that time, the obstacles
opposed by institutions guarding extinct and impossible local privilege,
the world -shaking problems which broke up all previous settled order,
then the conscientious sincerity with which he addressed his mediocre
talente to the allot ted work must earn for him at least a place in our esteem.
On neither side was the struggle for world-empire* Charles would
have been content to recover Milan in self-defence, aud the duchy of
Burgundy as his hereditary and indefeasible right. France has good
grounds for claiming Milan and Naples. But it is doubtful w^hether
Francis would have lieen as moderate after victory as C*harles»
The struggle can be considered apart from developments in Germany.
But it has its reaction on German fortunes. Had Charles not been
hampered throughout his cai^eer by the contest with France he would
not have been forced to temporise with the Reforming movement until
it was too late for effective action. The Most Christian King wsls an
unconscious ally of Luther, as he was a deliberate ally of the Turk.
Immediately the conflict concerned the fate of Italy. Indirectly it
weakened tlie resistance of Europe to the Reformed opinions, and to the
Muslim in Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean.
After Marignano (1515) and the Peace of Noyon (1516), which pro-
fessed to shelve all outstanding questions and secure perpetual friendship
between Spain and France, Euro}>e had peace for a while. It was
arranged at Noyon tliat Charles should take Louise, the daughter of the
King of France, to wife, and that tlie rights over the kingdom of Naples
should go with her. Until this babe-in-arms should become his wife,
Charles was to pay 100,000 crowns a year as rent for Naples, and 50,000
mitil she bore Iiim a son. If Louise died, some daughter of a later birth
was to be substituted as his afBuneed bride, and this clause actually took
effect, Charles promii^ed satisfaction wnth regard to Spanish Navarre,
conquered by Ferdinand in 1512 ; perhaps he even secretly engaged
himself to restore it to Catharine, its hiwful queen, within six months*
The treaty was concluded under the influence of Flemish counsellors, who
liad surrounded Charles, since he had taken up the government of the
Netherlands in the previous year. It was inspired by a desire for peace
with France in interests exclusively Rurgundian ' il also its
value for Spain, for it gave Charles a It-
the affairs of his new kingdoms. M
forced to come to terms with France an»i
and peace was secured in Italy for a whi
at Cambray in 1517 the partition oi
■ il.
t''> settle
1, was
i^iiii
was discussed, but nothing was definitely settled, English diplomatists
looked on askance at the apparent reconciliation, but their hopes of
fishing in troubled waters were soon revived.
Charles utilised the respite for his visit to Spain in 1517. While
here he was not only occupied with the troublesome affairs of his new
kingdoms, but with the question of the Empire. Maximilitin, who,
Edthough not yet sixty years of age, was worn out by his tumultuous
life, was anxious to secure the succession to his grandson. At the Diet
of Augsburg, 1518, he received the promise of the Electors of Mainz,
Cologne, the Pulatinate, Brandenburg^ and Bohemia for the election of
Charles as Roman King, The French King was already in the field, but
the promises and influence of Maximilian, and the money which Charles
was able to supply, overl)nre for the moment this powerful antagonism.
On the receipt of this news Pope Leo X, who had already been
attracted to the side of France, was seriously alarmed. The union of
the imperial power with the throne of Naples was contrary to the time-
honoured doctrines of papal |ioliey. Thenceforward he declared himself
more openly a suppoHer of the French claims. Meanwhile, if Charles
was to be elected before Maximilian's death, the latter must first receive
from the Pope the imperial crown. This Leo refused to facilitate. la
all this the Pope showed himself as ever more mindful of the temporal
interests of the Roman See and of his own dynastic profit, than of the
good of Europe or religion* Both in the coming struggle with victorious
Islam, and against the impending religious danger, an intimate alliance
with Charles was of far more value than the support of France, But
the meaner motives prevailed.
On January 19, 1519, Maximilian died, and the struggle broke out
in a new form. The promises of the Electors proved to be of no
account. All had to be done over again. The zeal of his agents, his
more abundant supplies of ready cash, the support of the Pope, at first
gave Francis the advantage. Troubles broke out in the Austrian
dominions. Tilings looked black in Spain. Even the wise Margaret
of Savoy lost hope, and recommended that Fenlinand sliould be put
forward in place of Charles, Charles showed himself more resolute and
a better judge of the situation. He had friends in Germany, Germans,
who understood German politics better than the emiijisaries of Francis,
The influence of England on either side was discounted by Henry VII !'»
own candidature. German opinion was decidedly in favour of a German
election, and although Charles was by birth, education, and 8)Tnpathy a
Netherlander, yet the interests of his House in Germany were important,
and it may not have been generally known how little German were his
predilections. The great house of Fugger came courageously to his aid
and advanced no less than 500,000 florins. The advantage of this
support lay not only in the sum supplied, but in the preference of the
Electors for Augsburg bills* The Elector of Mainz refused to acoept
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any paper other than the obligations of well-known German merchants.
At the critical moment Francis could not get credit. The Swabiau
League forbade the merchants of Augsburg to accept his bills* He
endesavoured in vain to raise money in Genoa and in Lyons.
It is needless to pursue the base intrigues and tergiversations of the
several Electors. The Elector of Saxony played the most honourable
part^ for he refused to be a candidate himself, and declined all personal
gratification. The Elector of Mainz showed himself perhaps the most
greedy and unfaithfuL He received 100,000 florins from Charles alone
and the promise of a pension of 10,000* which it is satisfactory to note
was not regularly paid. Money on the one hand, and popular pressure
on the other decided the issue. The Rhinelands, where the possessions
of four Electors lay and where the election was to take place, were
enthusiastic for the Hababarg candidature. It was here that the
national idea was strongest^ and the humanists were eloquent in their
support of Maximilian's grandson. The army of the Swabian League,
under Franz von Sickingen, the great German condottiere^ was ready
to act on behalf of Charles ; it had been recently engaged in evicting
the Duke Ulrich of Wiirttembergf from his dominions, and was now
secured by Charles for three months for his own service. Here also
money had its value. Sickingen and the Swabian League received
171,000 florins. At the end the Po|>e gave way and withdrew his
opposition. On June 28, 1519, the Electors at Frankfort voted
ananimously for the election of Charles. The election cost him
850,000 florins.
It is a commonplace of historians to exclaim at the fruitless waste of
energy involved in this electoral struggle, and to point out that Charles
was not richer or more powerful as Emperor than he was before ; while
on the other hand his obligations and anxieties were considerably in-
creased. But so long as prestige plays its part in human affairs, so
long a reasonable judgment will justify the ambition of Charles. He
was still perhaps in the youthful frame of mind which willingly and
ignorantly courts responsibility antl faces risks, the frame of mind in
which he entered on his first war with Francis, saying, *' Soon he
will be a poor King or I shall be a poor Emperor," But the imperial
Crown was in some sort hereditary in liis race. Had he pusillanimously
refused it, his prestige must have suffered severely. As a German prince
he could not brook the interference of a foreign and a hostile power in
tlie affairs of Germany. The imperial contest was inevitable, and was
in fact the i>eaceful overture to another contest, equally inevil
more enduring, waged over half a continent, through nearly fa
War was in fact inevitable, and Charles was ill-prepared
His affairs in Spain went slowly, and it was not until May, If
Charles was able to sail for the north* leaving open re^'^H ^^ ^
and discontent in his other dominions. The fortuna
42
TegotiatmiB for alliance
1520-1
complications has been related in the first volume of this HUtoryJ^fL
Diplojuacy had already paved the way for an understanding with '"
Henry VIII, which took more promising shape at Gravelines, after a^
visit to Henry at Dover and Canterbury, and the famous interview c
Hemy VIII and Francis I at the Field of the Cloth of Gold. Wolsey'
skilful diplomacy Lad brought it about that botli the greatest monarcl
of Europe were bidding eagerly for his and his master's favour,
pension and a bishopric for the Cardinal, a renewal for England of the^
commercial treaty with the Netherlands were the preliminary price* At
Gravelines it was agreed that Charles and Henry should have the same
friends and the same enemies ; and that neither Power should conclude^
an alliance with any other without the consent of both. If war brokd^H
out between Charles and Francis, Henry was to act against the aggressor*"
For two years the agreements for the marriage of the Dauphin with the^
English Princess Mary, and of Charles with Charlotte the daughter *
Francis (Louise having died) were to receive no further confirmationj
Towards the end of this period another meeting was to take place
which another agreement sliould be concluded. Each Power was
maintain a regular ambassador at the Court of the other. The paina
taken by Wolsey to reassure Francis and to show that Henry had re-
jected propositions from Charles for a joint attack on France provf
that he was stil! anxious to prevent the Roman King from drawing
near to France ; but the nett result of the interviews was to guarante
Charles against any immediate adhesion of England to his rival.
Fortified by this belief, and leaving his aunt Margaret of Savoj
to govern the Netherlands with extensive powei's, Charles proceeded
to his coronation, which took place at Aachen on October 23, 1520,
Meanwhile in Castile and Valencia the troubles continued, until the
rising of the Cotnunerog was definitely crushed at the battle of Villalar,
April 24, 1521, Charles was thus relieved from one of his worstj
anxieties, though the condition of his finances was so bad that he coul<
only look with alarm on the prospect of war. All his Spanish revenues
were pledged and nothing could be expected from that souixe. Still"
the outbreak of war was delayed, and he was able to bring the Diet
of Worms to a close before any decisive step was needed. And more
important still, in the eager hunt for alliances on both sides, Charles !
proved the more successful. On May 29, 1521, a secret alliance had
been concluded on Iiis behalf with the Pope. ji
From the time of the imperial election Leo had foreseen the 000-*^!
sequences, and had turned his shallow statecraft to the task of considering
what could be got for the Papal See and his own family from the im^
pending war. At first he had urged a prompt and miited attack upoii
Charles, in which France, Venice, and England were to join* This migb^
well have succeeded while Charles was still embroiled in Castile. Thel
while negotiations with France and England flagged and each Power wa
I
mancBUvring for the weather-gauge, Leo began to see that France and
Venice could never consent to hU favourite scheme for the annexation
of Ferrara, the one part of Julius' design vp'hich yet remained un-
executed, France was closely linked with Alfonso d* Este^ and Venice
preferred him as a neighbour to the Pope. Then Leo turned to Charles,
and Charles was read}^ to promise all that he could ask — Parma,
Piaceuza, Ferrara, imperial protection for the Medici, the restoration of
Francesco Sforza in Milan and the Adorni in Genoa, and the suppression
of tlje enemies of the Catholic faith. In return the Pope promised the
investiture of Naples, and a defensive alliance, Leo would have been
glad to make the alliance offensive, but the Emperor was in no hurry
for war, and still hoped that it might be averted.
The alliance with Leo was valuable to Charles for the resources,
material and spiritual, which the Pope and the Medici controlled, for
the protection which the Papal States afforded against attacks on
Naples from the north, and for the access they gave to Lonibardy
from the south* Still more valuable appeared the . alliance with
England, as securing the Netherlands against a joint attack, Wolsey
at first was anxious to play the part of mediator or arbitrator between
the hostile powers. At length at Bruges the agreement was reached
on August 25, Chievres was dead (May 18, 1521), and Charles took
himself the leading part in these negotiations. Charles was to marry
Mary, the daughter of Henry VIII. The Emperor and King entered
the most solemn alliance not only for the defence of their present
possessions, but for the recovery of all that they could severally claim.
The Emperor, who was meditating a visit to Spain, was to \asit
England on the way. War was to be openly declared in March,
1623, But if no suspension of hostilities came about between Charles
and France, the declaration of war was to take jJace on the occasion
of Charles* visit to England. All this was to be secured by the most
solemn and public declaratinns within four months.
The treaty of alliance, solemn as it professed to be, left something
to be desired. France was already effectively at war wuth Charles.
Robert de la Marck, Lord of Bouillon and Sedan, early in the year
had invaded the southern Netherlands, and Duke Charles of fielders, an
old ally of France and enemy of tlie Burgundian rulers, had attacked the
north* Henri d' Albret had marched into Navarre, and at first had met
with considerable success. These attacks were manifestly supported by
France, and Charles could therefore claim the aid of England by %drtue
of earlier treaties as the victim of unprovoked aggression. But for the
time being it must suffice that England was neutralised. In the border
warfare which succeeded Charles could hold his own. Sickingen chastised
the Lord of Bouillon. Henri d' Albret was driven from Navarre by local
levies. And although on the frontier of the Netherlands things looked
k for a while, though Mezieres under Baj^ard held out againat
and the Emperor himself risked a serious defeatoear Valenciennes, though
the Admiral Bonnivet succeeded in occupying Fuenterrabia, the most
important position on the western Pyrenees, all was compensated and
more than compensated by the seizure of Mikin on November 19, 1521^
by the joint forces of the Emperor and the Pope. Lombardy with"'
tlie exception of a few fortresses was easily occupied, and in the north
Tournay capitulated. After these astonishing successes the death of Lee
on December 1, came as an unexpected blow to the imperial hopes-l
But his aid had done its work. His support had been the chief instru-
ment in preventing the Swiss from assisting Francis with their full force ;]
papal and Florentine money Iiad supplied the needs of the joint expedi-
tion. In return he received before his death the news that Parma and
Piacenza had been recovered for the Holy See.
The campaign in Lombardy had been conducted by Prospero Colonna
in command of the papal and imperial forces, among wliich were 16,00(]
German infantry, brought by way of Trent. The French army wa
commanded by Odet de Foix, Vicomte de Lautrec, who owed his positior
to his sister's favour with the French King, They were joined by a
considerable contingent from Venice. The Spanish troops under An-^
tonio de Ley va and the Marquis of Pescara came up slowly from Naples ;
operations began badly ; no plan of campaign commanded approval ; and"
when at length the siege of Parma was undertaken, it had to he abandoned
owing to danger from Ferrara. In October, however, on the news of the
approach of a body of Swiss, whom the Pope had induced to serve for
the protection of the Holy See, Colonna crossed tlie Po. Giovanni delj
Medici defeated a Venetian force, and the Marquis of Ferrara suffered a|
defeat. Lautrec failed to prevent the junction of Colonna with the
Swiss. There were now Swiss in both armies, and the orders of the Swis
Diet came to both armies that they were to return. But the papal con^
tin gent held firm, while those in the pay of the French deserted in greao
numbers. Colonna forced the passage of the Adda, and Lautrec retired
on Milan, where the exactions and repressive measures of the Frencfc
provoked a Ghibelline rising, as soon as the enemy appeared before th«s
walls. The Venetians led the flight, and Lautrec abandoned the citj
for Como, whence he passed to winter in the Venetian territory.
The strange election of Adrian of Utreclit to the papal throne^j
which followed on the death of Leo, appeared at first to favour the
imperial side. Adrian had been the Emperor's tutor and was left by
him as regent in Castile in 1520. But Adrian's visionary and un-
worldly character unfitted him to take the traditional part of the Pope
in Italian politics. It was long before he appeared in Italy, and afte<
his arrival he long endeavoured to maintain neutrality. At last, aboutj
a month before his death in September, 1523, Adrian was forced to tak^
a side, and joined the Emperor.
The news of the successes in Lombardy put an end to the exertions
I
of Wolsey to conclude au armistice between the Powers, and to secure
Ills own acceptance as arbitrator. The alliance with England was
confirmed, and Charles was free to sail for Spain (May 26, 1522).
On his way he landed at Dover and visited Henry; and on June 19 the
treat3^ of Windsor was concluded, according to which both sovereigns
were bound to invade France each with a force of 30,000 foot, and
10,000 horse ; the date named for this great effort was May, 1524.
In July, 1522, Charles reached Spain and the last remnants of
rebellion were stamped out. Meanwiiile his armies in Italy had been
left almost to their own resources* The ample supplies voted by the
Netherlands in 1521 had been all expended in the war of that yean
No more money w^as forthcoming from the Pope or Florence* A great
part of the imperial army had to be disbanded. The death of Leo
threw the Swiss entirely on to the side of France. The French King
moreover found no more difficulty in hiring German Landskneehte than
did the Emperor himself. In the Papal State the forces of disorder
reigned unchecked, and the old tyrant a reafipeared in Urbino, Camerino,
Rimini^ and Perugia. Early in March, 1522, Lau tree moved across the
Adda to join the Swiss who were coming to the number of 10,000 from
the passes of the Alps. The junction was effected at Monza. But the
defensive works of Colonna executed during the winter rendered Mihiu
impregnable to assault. The enthusiastic support of the Milanese
provided garrisons for the principal towns of the duchy. Francesco
Sforza entered Milan on the 4th of April, and tlie Jlilanese were now
fighting for a duke of their own, Laufcrec, although reinforced by a
French force under his brotlier Thomas de Lescun^ could achieve nothing
against the defensive strategy of Colonna. At length the impatience of
the Swiss, who demanded battle or pay, forced the French to attack the
enemy in a strong position of their own choosing, called the Bicocca,
three miles from Mihm (April 27). Here they were repulsed with con-
siderable loss, the Milanese militia doing good service side by side with
the Spaniards and the Germans. The Swiss then returned to their
bomes, discontented and humiliated, and the French army shortly
afterwards evacuated Lombardy, excepting the three castles of Novara,
Milan^ and Cremona. Genoa was stormed and pillaged by the
Imperialists on May 30. A new government was set up in Milan under
Francesco Sforza, though the unpaid Spanish and German soldiers recom-
pensed themselves for their arrears by pillage and exactions. In Florence
the imperial success restored the Medici authority which had been
seriously threatened by malcontents from the Papal Stiites, supported
by hopes of French assistance.
The treaty of Windsor led to an immediate declaration of w^ar by
Henry VIII, and during the summer of 1522 the English and Spanish
fleets raided the coasts of Britanny and Normandy. Later an invading
force under the Earl of Surrey and the Count van Buren entered Picardy,
but little was achieved against the defensive opposition of the Frencl
A systematic devastation of hostile country took place in this region.
In spite of their ill-success in two campaigns the French did not givfl
up their hope of reconquering Milan. Financial distress had agal
forced the Emperor to reduce his forces, and the necessary means wer6
with difficulty collected from the Italian towns and princes. The
Netherlands had up to this time been the only trustworthy source of
revenue, and the expenditure of Charles* Court had made great in-^
roads upon his treasury. Money w^as now coming in to the Castiluii]
exchequer, but these funds had been pledged in advance* The Italiai:
army was a year in arrear, Ferdinand was begging for money fo|
measures against the Turks, The desperate appeal of Rhodes for aid in*
1522 had to pass unregarded^ and this outlying bulwark of Christendora
capitulated at the close of 1522. Although Charles w^as in Spain to
stimulate operations, Fuenterrabia was successfully defended by the
French against all att^icks until February, 1524,
On the other hand, since the autumn of 1522 the allies had been
counting on powerful aid in France itself . The Duke of Bourbon, with
his extended possessions in the centre of France, was almost the only
remaining representative of the great appanaged princes of the fifteenth
century. Although his wings had been clipped by legislative and even
more by administrative changes, he still commanded a princely revenue
and considerable local support* His position in the kingdom had
been recognised by the gift of the highest of Crown offices, the posts
and dignity of Constable of France, But his title to the vast possessions
which he held was not beyond question. The duchy of Bourbon had
been preserved from reunion with the Crown under Louis XII by the in-
fluence of Anne, Duchess of Bourbon, better laiown as Anne of Beaujeu,
who first procured for her daughter ♦Susanne the right to succeed her
father intheduchy (1498), and then (1505) married her to Count Charles
of Montpensier, her cousin, who represented the rights of a youngerJ
brancli of the Bourbon House. By this marriage Charles of Montpensiei
was elevated to the duchy of Bourbon, but when his wife Susanne died
without issue in 1521 his title became questionable at law. From'
motives probably of cupidity, and of cupidity alone, a double claim wa8_
now advanced against him. The Queen Mother, Duchess of Angouleme
claimed the female fiefs as being more closely related to the main line of
the Bourbon House, and the King claimed the mala fiefs as escheating
to the Crown. Against claimants so powerful Charles of Bourboi]
felt himself unable to litigate before the Parliament of Paris, Th€
points of law were nice and the tribunal amenable to royal influenceJ
He turned therefore to the enemies of his country. He approached'
Charles V and boldly asked for his sister Eleouora (widow of the King
of Portugal) in marriage, offering in return to raise 600 men-at-arm^
and 8000 foot-soldiers and to co-operate with an invasion from the east
I
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But the intrigues became known, and although the King hesitated to
arrest hiis Constable when he Iiad him nt Paris in his power, and though
again in August, 1523, when the King passed through Mouhns to take
part in the great expedition to lUily, the Constable was allowed to stay
behind on a plea of sickness, at length a peremptory summons was sent
ordering him to join the King at Lyons. On this the Duke, w*ho had
been looking in vain for the approach of aid from the east, took to
flight and, after attempting to escape to Spain by way of Roussillon^
succeeded at length in reaching the frontier of Franche-Comte.
The elaborate plans of tlie allies, which included the despatch of
a force of 10,000 LandBknechte to Bourbon, an invasion of Pieardy by
a joint army of 21,000 men, and an attack on Languedoc with 34,000
men from Spain, were thua defeated. The Constable brought with him
only his name and his sword. But the danger w^as judged sufficiently
real to prevent Francis from leading his army in person into tlie Milanese,
as had been intended. Great preparations had been made for an
expedition on a royal scale, but the Admiral Bonnivet w^as appointed
to take eomraan4 instead of the King. While Bonnivet was advancing
on Italy some attempt was made by the allies to execute the other parts
of the plan. The Duke of Suffolk and the Count van Buren advanced
by Pieardy to the neighbourhood of Compiegne and Seolis, the German
force threatened the frontier from tlie side of Bresse, while a Spanish
force crossed the Pyrenees in October and threatened Bayonne. The
delays had shattered the effect of the combination, but the kingdom
was almost undefended, and even Paris was thought to be insecure* Yet
Uttle came of all these efforts* The Germans from Bresse made an
ineffectual attempt to join with Suffolk and Buren, but were hunted
back across the frontier by the Count of Guise. The leaders of the
northern expedition showed little enterprise, and money as usual was
deficient. The Spanish army advanced upon Biiyoime, but was repulsed
by the vigorous defence of Lautrec, and retired ineffective. In spitA
of a liberal subsidy in August from the Cortes of Castile, and the
seizure in October of gold coming ou private account from the
Indies, the great design for the partition of France proved entirely
abortive.
Meanwhile Bonnivet had pursued his path to Lombardy. His army
consisted of 1500 men-at-arms and some 25,000 foot, Swiss, Germaiifs,
French, and Italians* On the 14th of September he reached the Tieino.
Prospero Colonna, who was in command of the imperial troops, had no
adequate resources with which to resist so powerful a foe in the fielil*
Adrian VI, it is true, had recently announced his reluctant adhesion to
the imperial party, and about the same time Venice had renounced her
French alliance and concluded a league with Charles. But the value
of theae accessions had not begun to be felt wiien Adrian's death
(September 14) introduced uncertainty afresh at the very moment when
Bonnivet appeared in Italy, Coloima wjis no longer supported bj
Pescara, bat he had at his disposition Giovanni de* Medici, the celebrate^
leatler of the Black Italian Bands, and Antonio de Leyva* The imperia
leaders abandoned the western part of the duchy to the French aud
retired oq Milan. If Bonnivet had pressed on he would have found tl:
capital unready for defence. But his delay gave time to improvise"
protection : and when he arrived an assault appeared impracticable. H^
determined to endeavour to reduce the city by famine.
Besides Milan, Colonna still held Pavia, Lodi, and Cremona, an^
wisely confined his efforts to the retention of these important posts,^
Bonnivet divided his forces and sent Bayard to attack Lodi an^
Cremona. Lodi fell, but Cremona held out, and Bayard had to b^
recalled. The election of Clement VII on November 19 gave for the
moment strength to the imperial side. Money was sent and the Marquis
of Mantua brought aid. Bonnivet was forced to abandon the siege of
Milan, and retire upon the Ticino. On December 28 Prospero Colonna
died, but Charles de Lannoy, the viceroy of Naples, with the Marquis of
Pescara, arrived to take his place, bringing with him a small supply of
money and troops. Reinforcements came from Germany, and the Im-
perialists, now supported more effectively by Venice, were able to take
the offensive* They drove Bonnivet from Ahbiate-Grasso, then from
Vigevano to Novara. The reinforcements which he was eagerly expecting
from the Grisons at length arrived at Chiavenna, but found neither men
nor money to meet them. Giovanni de' Medici hung upon their flanks
and drove the Grisons levies back over the mountains. At length Bon-
nivet was forced to leave Novara and endcavourtoeffecta junction with
a force of 8000 Swiss, whom lie met upon the Sesia. But this relief was
too late. The morale of the army was destroyed. The remnants could
only be saved by retreat, Bonnivet himself was wounded at this
juncture, and the task of conducting the wearied and dispirited troops
across the mountains fell upon Bayard* Bayard took command of the
rear-guard, and, in protecting the movements of his cunirades, fell
mortally wounded by the ball of an arquebus (April 30, 1524). With
him perished the tinest flower of the French professional army in that age
the knight who had raised tlie ideal of a warrior's life to the highest point
But his last task wassuccessfully acccmiplished. The Swiss effected thet
retreat by Aosta, the French by Susa and Brian^on. The last garrisoij
of the French in Lombardy capitulated.
Adrian^s successor, Giulio de' Medici, Clement VII, had been su|
ported in his election by the imperial influence, in spile of Charles
promises to Wolsey, Giulio had long controlled the papal policy
under Leo, and it was assumed that he would tread the same path. But
Clement had all the defects of his qualities. Supremely subtle and
acute, he had not the constancy to follow up what he had once come
regard as a mistake. He relied upon his own ingenuity and duplicity^
I
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and endeavoured to sail with every wind. Thus he failed alike to serve
his owTi interests and those of his allies,
Clement began almost at once to detach himself from the imperial
alliance, dangerous in defeat, oppressive in the event of success- His
efforts however to conclude a truce proved unsuccessful, and on May 25^
1524, a new compact was accepted by the allies. The Duke of Bourbon
was to invade France at the head of the victorious array of Italy. A
joint expedition was to invade Picardy, and a Spanish array was to
attack by way of Roussillon, Henry VIII seemed to see a chance of
making good the pretensions of his ancestors to the French throne, and
exacted from the unwilling Duke of Bourbon an oath of fidelity to
himself as King of France.
In July the first point of this agreement was carried into effect.
The Duke of Bourbon crossed the Alps in company with Pescara and
invaded France (July 1)» His artillery joined him by sea at Monaco.
Provence offered little resistance. The Duke entered Aix on August 9.
But the other movements were delayed, and it was thought dangerous
to advance on Lyons without this support. Accordingly it was deter-
mined to lay siege to Marseilles, which was surrounded on August 19,
Francis had here shown unusual foresight, and the town was prepared
for defence imder the command of the Orsini captain, Renzo da Ceri,
who had shown himself throughout a passionate friend of France* The
breaches in the walls were immediately protected by earthworks, and the
besiegers could not venture an assault. The French navy, reinforced
by Andrea Doria with his galleys, was superior to the invaders oij
the sea. Meanwhile Francis was collecting with great energy an army
of relief at Avignon, Unexampled tallies were imposed ; the clergy
were taxed, the cities gave subsidies, and the nobles forced loans* Time
pressed and the assault of Marseilles was ordered for September 4, but
the troops recoiled before the danger; the Marquis of Pescara, hostile
throughout to the enterprise and its leader, did not conceal his dis-
approval ; and the project was abandoned. The promised aid from
Roussillon was not sent, and the diversion in Picardy was not made.
On September 29, much against his will, the Duke of Bourbon ordered
the retreat. The troops, ill-clothed, ill -provided, ill -shod, made their
way across the mountains, closely pursued by Montmorency. Francis
followed with his whole army and reached Vercelli on the same day
that the retreating army arrived at Alba, about sixteen miles S.S.W.
of Asti.
With troops humiliated, discontented, exhausted, resistance in the
field was impossible. The Imperialists adopted the same strategy that
had succeeded so well against Bonnivet. They determined to hold
Alessandria, Pa via, Lodi, Pizzighettone, Cremona. The citadel of Milan
was garrisoned, and it was hoped that the city might be held ; but
it had suffered terribly from the plague, and on the approach of Francis
60
Campaiijn of Pavia
[152^
with his whole array, the attempt was given up> Bourbon, Lannoy, an^H
Pescara retired to Lodi ; and the defence of Pavia was entrusted t^"
Antonio de Leyva. Instead of following up the remnants of the impe-
rial army to Lodi, and crusldng them or driving them east into the
arms of their uncertam Venetian allies, Francis turned aside to make
himself master of Pavia. The siege artillery opened lire on November 6.
An early assault having failed, Francis attempted to divert the course of
the Ticino, and by this means to obtain access to the south side of the
town, which relied niairdy on the protection of the river. But the win-
ter rains rendered the work impossible, Francis determined to reduce
the city by blockade. Meanwhile he called up reinforcements from the
Swiss, and took Giovanni de' Medici into his pay.
Italy prepared to take tlie side which appeared for the moment
stronger, Venice hesitated in her alliance. Clement, while endeavouring
to reassure the Emperor as to his fidelity, and ostensibly negotiating foi
an impossible peace, concluded, on December 12, 1524, a secret treatj
with France, in which Florence and Venice were included. This treat
led both Clement and Francis to their ruin. Clement paid for his"
cowardly betrayal at the Sack of Rome, and Francis was encouraged
to detach a part of his army under the Duke of Albany to inyadl
Naples, an enterprise winch w^eakened his main force without securing
any corresponding advantage. The Duke, after holding to ransom t\ii
towns of Italy through which he passed, reached the south of tlie papal
territory, where he was attacked by the Colonna and driven back to
Jlome. It was hoped however that this diversiou would induce the
imperial generals to leave Lombardy to it^ fate and hurry to the protec
tion of Naples. But reinforcements were coming in from CtermanJ
under Frundsberg, and it was Naples that was left to fortune. Onl
January 24, 1525, the imperial forces moved from Lodi. After a
feint on Milan, they approached Pavia, and encamped towards the
east to wait their opportunity. Thence they succeeded in introducing
powder and other most necessary supplies into the famished city.
The seizure of Chiavenna oji behalf of Charles recalled the Orisons
levies to the defence of their own territory. Reinforcements coming
to Francis from the Alps were cut off and destroyed. Giovanni de'
Medici was incapacitated by a w^ound. But the condition of the
beleaguered city and lack of pay and provision did not permit of
further delay. It was decided to attack Francis in his camp and risk -.
the issue. ■
On the night of February 24-25 the imperial army broke into the
walled enclosure of the park of Miral>ello. Delays were caused by the
solid walls and day broke before the actual encounter. The news of
the attack induced Francis to leave his entrenclnnents and to mua
Ids army, which consisted of 8000 Swiss, 5000 (Jermans, 7000 Frencl
infiintry, and 6000 Italians. He was not much superior in actual
I
nambers, but stronger in artillery and cavalry. An attempt of the
Imperialists to join bamis with the garrison of Pa via, by marching past
the French army, which had liad time to adopt a perfect order of battle
in the park, proved impossible under a flanking artillery fire. Nor was
it possible to throw up earthworks and await assault, as Lannoy had
hoped. A direct attack upon the French army was necessary. In the
milie which ensued it is ahnost impossible to disentangle the several
causes of the issue^ but it seems clear that the complete victory of the
Imperialists was due to the admirable fire-discipline and tactics of the
veteran Spanish arquebusiers, to the attack of Antonio de Leyva with
his garrison from the rear, to an inopportune movement of the German
troops of the French which masked their artillery fire, and perhaps in
some measure to the cowardly example of flight set by the Duke of
Alengon, The French army was destroyed, the French King was
captured, and all his most illustrious commanders were taken prisoners
or killed. As Ravenna marks the advent of artillery as a deciding
factor in great battles, so perhaps Pavia may be said to mark the
superiority attained by hand firearms over the pike. The Swiss pike-
men were unable to stand against the Spanish bullets*
Gnce more the duchy had been reconquered, and it seemed lost for
ever to France. Francis was sent as a prisoner first to Pizzighettone
and then to Spain. Here the un won tod restraint acting on a man so
passionately devoted to field-sports shook his health \ he thought at one
time of resigning the crown of France in favour of the Dauphin, in
order to discount the advantage ijossessed by Charles in the custody of
his royal person ; but he was at length constrained to accept the
Emperor's terms. The result was the treaty of Madrid, signed by
Francis on January 14, 1526, and confirmed by the most solemn
oaths^ and by the pledge of the King's kniglitly honour, but with the
deliberate and secretly expressed intention of repudiating its obligations,
Francis was to marry Eleonora, the Emperor's sister and the widow of
the King of Portugal. He renounced all his rights over Milan, Naples*
Genoa, Asti, together with the suzerainty of Flanders, Artois, and
Tournay, He ceded to Charles the duchy of Burgundy, in which how-
ever the traditional dependencies of the duchy were not included. The
Duke of Bourbon was to be pardoned and resl^^red to his hereditary
possessions* Francis aliandoned the Duke of G elders, and gave up all
claims of d'All>ret to Navarre. As a guarantee for the execution of
the treaty the King's two eldest sons were to be surrendered to the
Em£>eror'8 keeping j and Francis was to return as a prisoner in the
event of non-fulfilment.
In spite of the outcries of historians, the terms of this treaty must
be regarded as moderate. Chai'les exacted nothing, after his extra-
ordinary success, except what he must have considered to be his own by
right. But how far his moderation was dictated by policy, and how far
by natural feelings of justice, may remain undecided. The Duke of
Bourbon and Henry VIII had pressed upon him the pursuit of the war*
the invasion and dismemberment of France. Had Charles really aimec
at European supremacy this course was open to him. But he did noij
take it, whether from a prudent distrust of his English ally, or from an
honest dislike for unjust and perilous schemes of aggrandisement. That he
took no pains to use his own victory for the furtherance of the ends of
England, may appear at first sight surprising. But Henry VIII had
had no part in the victory of Pavia, and almost none in any of CharleaJ^B
successes, English subsidies had been a factor, though not a decisive^^
factor, in the war, but English armed assistance had been uniformly .
Ineffective. Even before the battle of Pa via Charles had known o^^M
Henry's contemplated change of side. Moreover, since the rejection o^^
Henry's plans for tlie dismemberment of France, the English King had
concluded an alliance with Louise of Savoy, the regent of France, and
profited by his desertion to the extent of two millions of crowns, Chai'les
owed nothing to Henry at the time of the treaty of Madrid.
Other considerations of a politic nature may have inclined Charle
to moderation. The Pope, appalled by the disaster of Payia, had beei
preparing against the Emperor an Italian league. Francesco Sforza
had been approached and had lent an ear to proposals of infidelity^
Venice was secured. Even Pescara, Charles' own servant, had beei
sounded by Girolanio Morone, the Cliancellor of Milan, with the offe|
of the Kingdom of Naples. Pescara was discontented with the favouT
and good fortune of Lannoy, with his own position, the conditions of ^
his service, and his rewards. He seems to have hesitated for a moment,^H
but eventually disclosed all to Charles, and threw Morone into prison^^
(July — October, 1525). Sforza w^as deprived of the chief places in the
Milanese, retaining only the citadels of Milan and Cremona ; but all this
meant further trouble in Italy, and pointed to an understanding with
France, although Mercurino Gattinara throughout had urged that ni
reliance should be placed on French promises. Charles deserves credi^
for his prudence, if not for his generosity. The notion that Francial
permanent friendship could have been won by any greater liberality caH
be at once dismissed.
i'rancis 1 wiis liberated at the French frontier on March 17, 1526j(
leaving his two little sons in his place. Ue at once made known his in-"
tentions by delaying and finally refusing the ratification of the treaty of
Madrid ; and on May 22, at Cognac, a League was concluded against th^
Emperor, in which Francesco Sforza, the Pope, Florence, and Venice'
joined with France. Sforza was to receive the duchy of Milan unim-^j
paired, the States of Italy were to be restored to all their rights, am^^J
the French Princes were to be released for a ransom of 2,000,000 crowns.^^
Henry VIII gave fair w^ords and encouragement in abundance, but did
not join the League. The aid of France was equaUy illusory. The
I
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allies talked of peace, but in reality they courted war, and with it
all the disasters which followed.
The adhesion, however vacillating, of Henry VIJI to the party of
his enemies, set Charles free from any obligations towards Mary of
England, and in March, 1526, he concluded his inarriage with Isabella
of Portugal, a union which he had long desired, securing to him an
ample dowry, and promising peace between the two Iberian kingdoms.
The affairs of Italy still occupied his attention, Francesco Sforza
received the first blow. Pescara was dead, but Charles still had able and
devoted servants in Italy* With the troops at their disposal Antonio
de Leyva and Alfonso del Guasto besieged Francesco Sforza in the
citadel of Milan. After the League of Cognac had been concluded
ies advanced to his relief. The imperialists were in piteous
Left without means of support, they were obliged to live upon
the country and to levy money from the citizens of Milan. In conse-
quence they had to deal with an actual revolt of the inhabitants which
was with ditliculty repressed, while the siege of the citadel was still vigor-
ouslj^ maintained. Francesco Maria,Duke of Urbino, moving deliberately
and cautiously at the head of the united Venetian and papal army, after
seizing Lodi, advanced to the relief of Sforza, and was only at a short
distance from the town when the Duke of Bourbon opportunely arrived
with a small force (July 5). Bourbon had been named as Duke of
Milan to compensate him for the loss of his French possessions which
Francis had refused to restore. The Duke of Urbino then commenced
an attack, which if vigorously pushed might have resulted in the de-
struction of the imperialist forces, between the invaders and the citadel,
and among a hostile population. But he showed neither resolution
nor activity, and on July 25 the citadel surrendered. The Duke of
Urbino, now reinforced by some six thousand Swiss, the only aid which
Francis supplied, turned to the siege of Cremona, in which he consiuued
his resources and two months of valuable time. The final capture of
the city (September 23) was an inadequate compensation.
The attitude of Charles towards Clement VII at this juncture was
expressed in his letter of September 17, 1526, in which the misdeeds of
the Pope were systematically set forth. This letter was afterwards
printed in Spain, Germany, and the Netherlands as a manifesto to all
Christendom. The arraignment was severe but not on the whole unjust.
In view of his wrongs, real and supposed, the means used by the Emperor
are not surprising. His eniis.sary, Ugo de Moncada, after vainly en-
deavouring to win back Clement, had turned to the still powerful family
of Colonna. These nobles, Gliibellines by tradition, soldiers by pro-
fession, and raiders by inclination, after terrifying the Pope by forays in
the south and by the capture of Anagni, concluded with him a treacherous
peace (August 22). The Pope, already overburdened by his efforts in
the north, was thus induced to disarm at home^ and on September 20
64
Tnaction of the Duke of Urbino
[1^
the Colonua struck at Rome. They }>enetrated first into the southei
part of the town, and then into the Leonine city, where they sacked ti
papal pakce, and the dwellings of several Cardinals* Clement too
refuge in the Castle of St Angelo, where he was shortly forced to coij
elude a truce of four months with the Emperor, promising to witlidra'j
his troops from Lomburdy and liis galleys from before Genoa, and giving
hostages for hi« good faiili. The Emperor disavowed the actions of the
allies but profited by tlie result, which w^as indeed only partial, sine
Giovanni de' Medici, with the best of the papal troops, continued
fight for the League, in the name of tlie King of France, An amnesty"
promised to the Colonna was disregarded, and in full Consistory thei
lands were declared to be confiscated, and a force was sent to esecuf
this sentence.
Inert liS ever, after the capture of Cremona, the Duke of Urbino
allowed three w^eeks to pass before, strengthened by the arrival of 40(1
French, he moved upon Milan, not to assault but to blockade. The
delays were invaluable to Charles, They allowed him to win the adhesic
of Alfonso, Duke of Ferrara, which was facilitated by the papal hostilit
They allowed him to send troops from Spain to Naples (Decemberl
and to collect German levies, who arrived in Italy under Frundsberg \
November. Their presence in the duchy of Mantua forced the Duke'
Urbino to abandon the siege of Milan. He divided his army, leaving]
part at Vauri, on the Adda, and advanced mth the remainder agaii
Frundsberg, whom he found at Borgoforte near tlie Po. In the skirmhiE
which followed Giovanni de/ Medici was wounded, and he died shortlv
afterwards at Mantua, The Duke of Urbino gave up all further
attempt to prevent the junction of the imperialists, and returned to
Mantua. The want of energy displayed by the Duke of Urbiuo_
throughout this campaign is not wholly to be attributed to his characte
He had a well-groimded mistrust of the troops of which his army wa
composed, and doubted their competence to face the Spaniards. More-
over the Venetians w^ere uncertain as to the Pope's real intentions ai
were reluctant to push matters to an extreme. The success of Charl€
however was principally due to this policy of inaction. The Duke
of Bourbon now extorted by the extremest measures the money nee
sary to enable him to move, requiring, for instance, 20,000 ducats
Morone as the price of his life and pardon, and at length the forces nil
at Fiorenzuola in the territory of Piacenza (February, 1527). Tl
united army then moved towards the Papal States, watched at a distant
by the Duke of Urbino, wliile garrisons were sent to save Bologna and
Piacenza, The Pope, in extreme alarm, threatened by Bourbon from
the north and Lannoy wnth the Colonna from the south, implored Francis
to act, and showed himself willing to make whatever terms he could with
the Emperor. Then on hearing of a small success of his troops in tt
south at Frosinone (January^ 1527), he determined to pursue the wa
n
^
^
^
^
^
A sudden raid Ijy Renzo da Ceri on tlie Abruzzi seemed at first to
promise a welcome diversion, but very soon tbe invasions of Naples
proved as unprofitable as the campaigns in the north. The project of
conferring the kingdom on Loois, Count of Vaudemont, the brother of
the Duke of Lorraine, whicli Clement had put forward, faded into*
the visionary. The Pope shifted his ground again, and on March 15
concluded a truce of eight months for himself and r'lorence.
Meanwhile the imperial army had been hjng inactive at San Gio-
vanni, N,W, of Bologna. Destitute of everything, it was mit likely
that they would accept a truce which brought them only 60,000 ducats.
A meeting had in fact already taken place, and Frundsberg, while
endeavouring to pacify his Lnndskfiechte^ was struck by apoplexy ; his
days of activity were over. Hereupon came the news of the truce, with
its impossible proposals, prolonging the intolerable condition of inaction
and want. The army chimoured to go forward and Bourbon decided to
lead them. The Count del Guasto, Pescara's nephew, whose Italian
patriotism always competed vnth his duty to his master, protested and
withdrew, but on March 30 the others set forth, scantily provided with
transport and provisions by the Duke of Ferrara. Clement, on the con-
clusion of the truce, had disbanded his troops, and while Lannoy was
endeavouring on his behalf to raise the money at Florence to appease
the imperialists, the tumultuous advance continued. On April 21
Lannoy met Bourlxm with 100,000 ducats, but lie now demanded more
than twice that sum^ and the march proceeded dnwn the valley of the
Arno, threatening Florence. But the army of the League was near
enough to protect that city, and the only result was a futile rising of the
citizens, and the accession of Florence to the League, Bourbon then
determined to move on Rome, a resolution acceptable above all to his
Lutheran followers. The Pope proclaimed his adhesion to the con-
federates, and clamoured for aid. But it was too late. On May 5 the
mutinous army appeared before Rome on the Monte Mario. They had
left their artillery on the road, but the city was almost undefended,
except for such measures as Renzo da Ceri had been able to take on
orders given at the last moment. The next day the Leonine city wiis
assaulted and eaptiired, the Duke of Bourbon being killed at the
moment of escalading the wall, Philibert, Prince of Orange, took the
command. Clement had only just time to seek refuge in St Angelo.
In the main city Renzo da Ceri endeavoured to persuade the Romans
to protect themselves by breaking down the bridges, and preventing the
entry of the Colonna from the srmth. But he failed. The Trastevere
was easily captured, and the imperialists advanced without opposition
across the bridge of Sixtus. For eight days the Sack continued, among
horrors almost unexampled in the history of w^ar. The Lutlierans re-
joiced to burn and to defile what all the world had adored. Churches w^ere
desecrated, women, even the religious, violated, ambassadors pillaged*
cardinals put to ransom, ecclesiastical dignitaries and ceremonies made
a mockery, and the soldiers fought among themselves for the spoil, ^
The population of Rome had been much reduced by the plague of 152!^
and a rough census taken shortly before the capture gives the number^
as about 55,000, of whom 4000 are estimated to have perished in the
Sack. All who were able took to flight, and the deserted city was left
to the soldiers.
The Duke of Urbino came and looked at the city from without, bu^
decided to do nothings though the disorder of the imperial troops gav<
good hopes for an attack^ and the Pope at least might have been rescued.
In default of all aid Clement made terms: the payment of 400,000
ducats, and the surrender of Ostia, Civita Vecchia, Piacenza, and Modenjj
being stipulated. The Pope was chisely guarded in the Castle of Sfcl
Angelo. While he was helpless there the Imperialists occupied Ostia
and Civita Vecchia, but were not able to obtain possession of the other
places. The Duke of Ferrara seized Modenaand Keggio : the Venetians,^
in spite of their alliance, Ravenna and Cervia» The Papal State was
crumbling. Prom Florence also the Medici nephews were expelled witlij
their guardian, the Cardinal of Cortona* A Kepoblic was established^
though the city still adhered to the League. Meanwhile in Rome the
Prince of Orange had been forced to relinquish his command, and
Lannoy, who took his place soon afterwards, died of the plague, which
w^as raging in the array. For nine months the city and its neighbour-
hood were at the mercy of the lawless and leaderless troops.
The responsibility of Charles for the Sack of Rome cannot be accu-
rately weighed. That he who wills the act wills also the consequences
of the act is a principle that applies to both sides. Charles willed the ad-
vance of Bourbon and the armed coercion of the Pope ; he wiUed that the
Pope should be deceived by truces, which he did not intend to honour. j
He could not foresee that Bourbon's army would have been completelj
out of control, hut sooner or later such must have been the case with
these Italian armies, among w^hom destitution was chronic. On the;,
other hand, Clement brought his fate upon himself. He who observe
faith with none cannot expect that faith will be observed witli him.1
Jle who takes the sword must accept what the sword brings. And*
although an honourable motive, the desire to liberate Italy, and a
nattiral motive, the desire to preserve the real independence of Florence
and the papal power, may have partly influenced his actions, it id]
impossible to acquit Clement of a desire for personal and pontifical
aggrandiseuient, while in the use of means for the accomplishment of
these ends he showed neither rectitude nor practical T^asdom. Even in
his own game of Italian duplicity he allowed himself to be outwitted.
The Pope and the Papacy were crushed into the dust, but the
struggle was not yet over* Before the Sack of Rome, Henry VIII and
Francis had concluded a new and offensive alliance at Westminster
1527-8] Invasion of Italy hy Lautrec 57
(Apnl 30, 1527); and after the news bad spread through Europe this
was confirmed on May 29, and strengthened still further by the interview
of Amiens (August 4). One more great eflFort was to be made in Italy
to force the Emperor to accept two million crowns in lieu of Burgundy,
and to release the sons of the French King. The King of England was
to give support with money and with men. His zeal was quickened
by a desire to liberate the Pope from imperial control, and to bring
influence to bear on him for the divorce of Catharine.
In July Lautrec set forth once more from Lyons for the Milanese
with an army of 20,000 foot and 900 men-at-arms, to which Italian
additions were expected. Advancing by the usual route of Susa, he
easily made himself master of the western districts, including Ales-
sandria, and took Pavia by assault. Andrea Doria, the great Genoese
sea-captain, who was in himself almost a European Power, came again
into the King's service, leaving the Pope, and by his aid the Imperialist
Adomi were driven from Genoa, and the Fregoso party set up in their
place. Teodoro Trivulzio was appointed to govern the city for France.
Francesco Sforza was re-established in the chief part of the Milanese.
Milan alone under Leyva resisted.
Butwithout completing the conquest of the duchy, Lautrec determine4
to go south to deliver the Pope. Prospects were favourable, for Ferrara
had changed sides again, and Federigo da Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua^
abandoning his policy of neutrality, joined the League. But while Lautred
was still approaching, the Pope was forced on November 26 to accept the
Emperor's terms, which, except for the promise to convoke a General
Council to deal with the Lutheran heresy, chiefly concerned the payment
of money, and the grant of ecclesiastical privileges of pecuniary value ;
but provided against future hostility by the guarantee of Ostia, Civita
Vecchia, and Citta Castellana, and the surrender of notable Cardinals as
hostages. Indeed the Pope, though unlikely to turn again to Francis,
who had deserted him in his need, expelled his family from Florence, and
was now allied with the Duke of Ferrara. Before the day appointed for
his release the Pope was allowed to escape to Orvieto (December 6), his
original hostages having been also liberated by the intervention of the
Cardinal Pompeo Colonna. He at once set his influence to work to
establish a permanent peace. Both monarchs were prepared for peace,
but the terms were diflScult to arrange. In view of the great expenditure
required, whether for the ransom of Burgundy, or for the alternative of
war, Francis called together an assembly of Notables (December 16, 1527)
to justify the levy of an extraordinary imposition. The Church offered
1,300,000 livres, nobles promised unlimited aid, an offer which they after-
wards unwillingly and grudgingly translated into prose ; and those who
spoke for the towns guaranteed 1,200,000 crowns.
But the terms which were offered to Charles were rejected by him in
January, 1528, and war was solemnly declared on behalf of France and
58
Siege of Naples. Defection of Doria [i528
England. Cliarles in reply reproached Francis with having cowardly
broken his knightly word, and offered to sustain his contention with his
body. Francis took up the challenge, and asked that time and place
should be named* But for one reason or another, this fantastic and
frivolous proposal never came to its accomplishment, and it may be
doubted if either monarch desired to be taken at hia word.
Lautrec was at Bologna when he heard of the liberation of the Pope,
and he continued his march through the Koniagna, favoured by the
secret friendship of Clement, Thence he penetrated through the
Abruzzi and advanced upon Apulia. This move drew the imperial
army out of Home, February IT, 16i28, which they had sacked once
more, and left deserted. Of the forces wliich had sacked Rome some
11,000 were left; the Prince of Orange had resumed the command, and
taken up his position at Troja to protect Naples. Lautrec refused to
attack him in this strong position, professing to be waiting for reinforce*-
ments, but wlien the Florentine troops arrived, the Prince of Orange
retired towards Naples. Meanwhile the Venetians, as in previous wars,
occupied the cities on the Adriatic seaboard. The Prince saw that the
utmost he could accomplish was to save Naples* But it was with
difficulty that he could collect sufficient provisions for the immediate
needs of the troops and city, while Filippino Doria, cruising off the
coast, intercepted supplies from Sicily- An attempt made by Moncada
to surprise and crush the Genoese commander ended in disaster, with
the loss of four galle3's, the death of Moncada and of other c-aptains
(April 28, 1528), and almost immediately afterwards Lautrec appeared
before the walls. Naples was now completely blockaded by the Cfcnoese
fleet, soon reinforced by the Venetians, while Lautrec established a siege
on land. Meanwhile Henry the younger, Duke of Brunswick, crossed the
Alps with a German force, and on June 9 joined Leyva on the Adda,
unopposed by the Duke of Urbino ; but instead of marching to Naples,
Leyva at once proceeded to the reconquest of the duchy, a part of which,
including Pavia, he had previously recovered, and Lodi was besieged-
But the country was bare of all sustenance, and even when bills arrived
there was no one to cash them: so after three weeks the Germans refused
to continue the thankless task, and the chief part of them went home.
The imperial government in Milan about this time was reduced to such
straits that they were driven to impose a ruinous tax on bread to meet
their most necesvsary expenses* French reinforcements were collecting at
Asti under the Count of Saint Pol. Never had the prospects of Spain
in the Peninsula looked so black. Suddenly, July 4, orders came to
Filippino Doria from his uncle Andrea, to withdraw his blockading
force from Naples.
Francis had made the great mistake of offending the powerful sea-
captain. In addition to private slights, Andrea Doria was incensed at the
apparent intention of Francis to develop Savona for war and commerce
at the expense of Genoa, and, when he expostulated with the King,
Francis formed the dangerous design of arresting the captain in his own
city, and put a French commander, without experience, Barbesieux, over
his head. Charles saw his opportunity and, l>y the advice of the Prince
of Orange, he won Doria for his own service, on favourable terms of
engagement, and wath the promise of liberty for Genoa under imperial
protection. In vain, wlien Francis learnt his danger, he conceded too
late everything that Doria had asked. The AdmiraFs suspicion and
resentment had been aroused, and he joined the Emperor once and
for all.
This defection changed the whole position of affairs. While the
prench camp before Naples was ravaged by the plague, abundance suc-
eded to famine in the city. The French fleet under liiubesieux arrived
on July 17 bringing a few men, but little real assistance. Lautrec clung
desperately to his siege, and endeavoured to collect fresh troops. The
sieged became more and more audacious in their attacks ; Doria
speared at Naples Mith his galleys ; and, when on August 16 Lautrec
"died, the situation was hopeless. On August 28 the remnants under
the Marquis of Saluzzo retired to Aversa, where they were obliged to
capitulate shortly after. On September 12 Doria entered Genoa, and
established a new oligarchical Republic, the French taking refuge in the
Castelletto. The form of government then set up persisted, with some
modification in 1576, until 1796, and Genoa had internal peace at lastl
In the Nortli Pa via had been retaken by Saint PoL The French com-
mander made an eflbrt to recover Genoa, bufc without success. The
Genoese soon after occupied Savona, and tire Castelletto surrendered
(October 28). Finally in the spring of 1529 the combined armies of
Saint Pol and the Duke of Urbino determioed to reduce Milan, not by
a siege, but by a combination of posts of observation. This plan,
unpromising enough in itself, was frustrated by the conduct of Saint
Pol, who attempted to surprise Genoa, but allowed himself to be waylaid
and defeated on his march by Leyva at Landriano (June 20).
Francis and his allies still held some places in the Milanese, and
acme outlying posts in the kingdom, as well as the cities of the Adriatic
littoral, Bnt negotiations begun in the winter between Louise of Savoy
and Margaret, the ruler of the Netherlands, had resulted in a project of
peace, which was vehemently desired in the interests of all countries, but
especially of tlie Netherlands, where public opinion made itself perhaps
most felt. Charles was meditating a great expedition to Italy under his
personal command, but lie consented to treat. He sent fnll powers and
instructions, elastic though precise, to Margaret, who was visited by the
King's motlier, Louise, at Oambray, July 5. Here the terms of peace
were definitely concluded, and the treaty was signed on August 3, 1529,
The compact of marriage between Francis and Eleonora was renewetl.
Francis resigned all pretensions to Italy, left his allies in the hirch,
renounced his suzerainty over Flanders and Artois, and all the frontier
places on the north-east remained in the hands of the occupant. Robert
de la Miirck and the Duke of Gelders were abandoned- Two millions
of crowTis w^ere to be paid as ransom for the young French princes, and
in lieu of the present cession of Burgundy, to which Charles reserved
Ills right ; while the possessions of Bourbon and of the Prince of
Orange were left to the French King.
With this treaty the first stage in the settlement of the affairs of
Western Europe was reached. To Spain waa surrendered the un*
questioned supremacy in Italy, while the territory of France remained
practically undiminished. The agreement seemed stable. Both Powers
were thoroughly tired of war. The minor Italian potentates had begun
to learn that nothing could be gained by war except a change of
masters, accompanied by devastation, exaction, plague, and famine.
The Pope had made his choice at last. The influence of Giberti, which
had alway^ been on the French side, was removed. The moderation
which Charles showed in the use of his success confirmed them in this
frame of mind. It wtxa his policy, while changuag as little as possible in
the government of the smaller States, to make such order as should
secure to hiin in each effective supervision and controL
Tl*e expedition wiiich Charles had prepared for w^ar in Italy set
forth from Barcelona, after a treaty had been concluded with the Pope
(June 29), and in the hope of peace from the negotiations at Cambray.
Charles may have received the news of peace on his arrival at Genoa,
August 12, With the troops that he brought with him, with the
victorious force from Naples, the army of Leyva, and fresh German
levies from the Tyrol, he was absolute master of Itiily, and coulrl shape
it at his wilL His dii^positions were made at Bologna, whither Clement
came to confer on him the imperial crown.
Peace was made with Venice, who restored all her conquests and
paid a w^ar indemnity. Francesco Sforza w^as restored to Milan : but
Charles reserved the right to garrison the citadel of Milan, and the town
of Como, and a Spanish force was left in the Duchy. Florence was
restored to the Medici, an operation w^hich required a ten months' siege
(October, 1529 — August, 1530), Alessandro de' Medici was appointed
as head of the government of the city by the decree of October 28, 1530,
The claim of the Duke of Ferrara to Keggio and Modena was reserved
for the future decision of Charles. Id all other respects the Pope was
restored to his full rights, and re-entered on the possession of his
temporal power, though his status now resembled that of an inferior and
protected prince. Malta and Tripoli were given to the Knights of
St John* A league of the powers of Italy w^as formed, to which finally
not only the Pope, Venice, Florence, the Manjuis of Mantua now created
Duke, but also the Duke of Savoy^ and all the minor States adhered.
^
»
^
The Duke of Ferrara was to join when he had been reconciled to the
Pope. After all was concluded Charles received at the hands of the
Pope the iron crown of Lombardy and the imperial crown^ February
23-24. and left Italy for Germany (April, 1530). All the years of war
he had spent in Spain, and this was the first time he had visited the
ill-fated peninsula, \vhere so much of all that is precious had been
expended in supporting and combating his claims. How much had
been sacriiiced to these ends may best be indicated by noting that the
battle of Mohacs was fought in 1526, that Ferdinand was elected to
the thrones of Bohemia and Hungary in the same year, and that the
Diet of Speier and the Siege of Vienna are dated in 1529.
The success of Charles appeared complete and permanent. Far
other and even more difficult tasks awaited him beyond the Alps, but
80 far lis Italy was concerned he might sleep secure. He seemed to have
brought for once in her troubled history unity to Italy. That so much
had been acliieved appears at tirst sight due more to good fortune than
good management. Again and again, above all at Pavia and Naples,
luck had declared in his favour when everything seemed to promise
disaster. But good fortune seldom comes where it is wholly unmerited.
Though always unequal in intellect and resources to the gigantic tasks
that w^ere imposed upon him, Charles had shown perseverance almost
adequate to his needs. Moreover, the brilliant work of his servants,
of Pescara, of Leyva, of Lannoy, of the Prince of Orange, even of the
Duke of Bourbon, seems to argue something in this King which enabled
him to choose the right men and retain their permanent and devoted
service. The fidelity of his Spanisli and to a less degree of his German
soldiers compares very favourably with the conduct of other ill*paid
mercenaries during tliis period. The Emperor's name might count for
much, but men may also well have felt that in serving Charles they
were serving one who could always be trusted to do his best, who
would never forget or neglect his duties, even though sheer physical
incapacity might often leave him far below the level of his conscientious
aspiration .
But, not less than the inexhaustible persistency of Charles, the defects
of his rivals had contributed to the result. Francis' choice of men was
persistently unlucky. Lautrec and Bonnivet compare ill with the leaders
of the imperial army. French support was never forthcoming at t!ie
crisis. When it came it was ineffectively employed. On the Italian
side the leaders and the policy were similarly deficient. After all excuses
have been made for the Duke of Urbino he most be judged an un-
enterprising commander. Giovanni de* Medici, though brilliant as a
subordinate, never had a chance to show if he had the capacity to
conduct a campaign. The Venetians never dared to push home the
resolution on which they had for the moment decided, Clement showed
all the characteristics of a man of thought involved in the uncongenial
necessity of prompt, continuous, and definite action. The shadowy .
figure of Francesco Sforza Bit^ upon the stage and leaves no clear]
impression.
Some features of the war deserve particular notice. It followed the
path of least resistance, and was therefore concentrated on Italy, The
invasion of France, of the Netherlands, of Spain, though occasionally
attempted, was always fruitless. Germany was never touched, though
an attack might liave been directed upon Wiirt tern berg, and the
Habsbiirg possessions in Alsace* In each of these countries national
resistance would be real and vigorous, the population was warlike.
Spain was further protected by its inhospitable country, north-eiistj
France and the Netherlands by the numerous defensible towns. Italy
had no effective feeling of nationality, its inhabitants could fight for J
others but not for themselves. The immunity of the county andl
duchy of Burgundy from attack is surprising, but their security was
mainly due to the guarantee which the Swiss exacted for their Bur-j
gundian friends and neighbours in their French treaty of 1522. Except
on this occasion the national action of the Swiss, which for a brief period
had decided the fortunes of Italy, 1512-15, does not reappear. They'
fought as mercenaries, rarely for any national interest, and even as mer-
cenaries their unquestioned military supremacy was passed away. The
best Spanish foot was probably better ; good Germans equally good.
Moreover religious differences were beginning to paralyse the Con-
federation, and the Reformers discouraged foreign service. Savoy ,
and Piedmont were the highway of the French armies, exposed on!
the otlier hand to the incursions and requisitions of the Imperialists, j
when they had for the moment the upper hand in Milan. German j
assistance in men was more than might have been expected, considering]
the dilliciilties with which Ferdinand had to contend in the hereditary |
Habsburg lands. When the war was against the Pope, Lutheran
ardour facilitated recruiting. Tlie English alliance, though eagerly]
sought for, proved of little advantage on any occasion. But the out-1
come of events in Italy decided the question of Henry's divorce, and j
with it the defection of England from the papal obedience.
The possession of Milan, on which the struggle chiefly turned,
was a luxury to France, a point of vital unportance to Charles, so long
as he held the kingdoms of Naples and Sicily together with the Nether-
lands, The continued presence of two first-class Powers in the peninsula
was an impossibility. On the other hand, without the defence afforded!
by the territory and fortresses of Lombardy, Italy was constantly open
to invasion, and the value of this barbican was shown in the fact that
only once in all these campaigns the kingdom of Naples was seriously
threatened, by the invasion of Lautrec. The other consideration, that
Milan was the door by which the Spanish forces through Genoa and the
Italian forces from the South, could come to the rescue of the Netherlands
I
in event of civil war or foreign attack, was not overlooked by Charles
and his advisers, hut its full significance was not in fact disclosed until
the reign of Philip IL On the question of right Charles professed to
be fighting for a vassal of the Empire wrongfully deforced ; ttien for an
imperial Hef forfeited by Sforza's treason ; and the restitution of Milan
to Sforza shows that the plea of right was not wholly insincere.
We can see that the whole issue of the struggle centred in
the question of finance, but uufortunatel}'' we are unable to follow
the details or draw up any budget of expenses or receipts either for
France or the Spanish possessions. During the years from the election
to the Empire until the Conference of Bologna, the Netherlands were
the cliief resource of Charles. Year after year the Estates voted unheard-
of subsidies ; the total contributions of the Low Countries are estimated
for 1520-30 at no less than 15,000^000 Uvrt^ft tournois ; and though a
considerable part of this wiis consumed in the defence of the provinces,
for the necessities of their government, and the maintenance of the
Court of the Regent* it was to the Netherlands that Charles looked
m the moments of his greatest des|uih'. Castile came next, so soon as
the revolt of the Cormmeros had been crushed. The annual income
of Spain maybe estimated at about l,r500,000 ducats, in the first years
uf Charles' reign, The Empire and the hereditary Habsburg lands may
for this i>urpose be neglected.
Money was raised in Castile by pledging the taxes in advance, by
issuing Juro9 or bonds at fixed interest charged upon the national
revenues, by mortgaging to fmaneial houses every possible source of
profit. In this way the great House of Fugger took over in 1524 the
estates (maf.Hlrazffos^ belonging to the masterships of the three military
orders, and later the quicksilver mines of Almaden, and the silver mines
of Guadalcanal. The enaada^ or revenue from indulgences granted on
pretext of a fictitious crusade, became a regular source of revenue, and
when, as in the time of Clement, the papal sanction was refused, the
King did not scruple to raise it on his own authority, and to pledge
it for many years in advance. The fifth on ail treasures imported from
the Indies was since the conquest of Mexico becoming a valuable supple-
ment, and as an exceptional measure the treasure could be seized and
juroH issued in recompense. But the objection of the Spaniards to tlie
export of treasure from the peninsula made the use of these resources
at a distance a very difficult operation, which could only be negotiated
by the aid of the most powerful financial houses. From his early years
Charles relied greatly on tlie Fuggers ; Genoa from the first, except when
it was in French hands, and in the later years of his reign Antwerp, were
mainstays of his financial power. Cliarles was very punctilious in defray-
mg at least the interest if not the capital of his debts, and thus he was
at all times able to borrow upon terms. Mi^juros were sometimes issued
at a price equivalent to a rate of 7^ per cent. : but in times of great
64
Italian 7*esources. — Revenues of Francia
need and danger, when time was the dominant factor, he was obliged
to pay as much as 12 and even 16 per cent, for loans. As time went on
the revenues of the Netherlands were similarly pledged in advance.
The revenues of the Duchy of Milan in time of peace might have
been considerable. In time of war they were whatever the army coul
raise from the impoverished inhabitants ; and before the war was ovi
the state of the country was such tliat not only was there no superttuou"
wealth, but the army and the inhabitants alike seemed in a fair way t^
perish of starvation. The case of Naples and of Sicily was not quite
desperate, in spite of two rather serious risings in Sicily which we hai
not had occasion ^to mention. But here a considerable army of occi
pation had to be kept up and a fleet, if possible, for the protection
the coast, if not from the French and the Genoese, at any rate from thj
pirates of Algiers. The surplus revenues of the southern kingdoms
cannot have been large, and although very often in an emergency Lannoy
pro< bleed money to content some starving troops or to move some
paralysed army, the sums which are mentioned are almost always small,
and give but a poor idea of the capacity of the kingdoms to assist their
King, Here also the same ruinous policy was pursued as in Castile,
pledging everything in advance, of selling everything that could be sold
and years of peace would be required before the kingdoms could recove^
In Italy another valuable source of occasional revenue was tl
subsidies raised from the lesser Italian States, which, iinless actually
war with the Emperor, could generally be coerced into payment, and,
in his alliance, were expected to contribute handsomel}' . The Pope was
the largest giver, but Venice could sometimes be bled, and Florence,
Lucca, Siena, Ferrara, Mantua, were often in a condition which made
refusal difficult.
The King of France had a better financial sj^stem and was not
troubled like the Spanish King by the necessity of consulting hi
Estates. His entire revenue was somewhat less than the joint revenue
of Spain and the Netherlands, but on the other hand he could incren
it more rapidly by raising the taiUey and it was entirely at his dispostil
nor was he troubled like Charles by the necessity of diflicult financial
operations l>efore he could fit out an army. On the other hand, when
his array was abroad these obstacles confronted him also. His financial
ministers were not conspicuous for honesty, and the institution of the
TrSior de VEpargne in 1523, to receive all casual and unexpected sums
of revenue and to build up a reserve fund to be at the King's absolute
disposal, was not so great a success as was hoped. The deficits during
the years of war reached an alarming figure, and it is difficult to see
how they were met. For the credit system in France was not developed
as it was in Augsburg, Genoa, and Antwerp. The first public loans ii
France were raised on the security of the revenues of particular towns j
and it was not until 1542 that the King began to build up Lyons aa i
Finance of Uurope 65
financial centre to perform for him the same functions that the bourses
of Genoa and Antwerp were fulfilling for Charles. The attempt had
some success, and similar bourses were started at Toulouse (1556) and
at Rouen (1563). Henry II on his accession acknowledged the
debts of his father, and the royal credit sensibly improved. At the
outset the King was obliged to pay 16 per cent, for advances, but by
1550 the rate had fallen to 12 per cent. But confidence was rudely
shaken when in 1567 the King suspended the payment of interest on
the debt, which at that time amounted perhaps to five million crowns.
We can thus get a glimpse of the methods by which the enormous
expenses of these and subsequent wars were liquidated. All the spare
cash of Europe, withdrawn from commerce and industry, flowed at a
crisis into the King's coffers ; the road was opened to national bankruptcy,
which was general soon after the treaty of Cateau-Cambresis. Princes
had learnt to borrow, but they had not learnt to pay. The sources of
wealth were diverted from profitable and useful enterprise to destructive
war ; and in the long run not even the financiers profited, though in the
interval some capitalists built up fortunes, which are almost comparable
with those of our own day.
C. M. H. II.
CHAPTER III
HABSBUEG AND VALOIS (II)
After the Treaty of Cambray and the Conference of Bologna the
interest of European history shifts its centre to Germany. Charles'
efforts in the South were chiefly devoted to the preservation of the
existing equilibrium in Italy, to resisting the continuous advance of
Muslim power in the Mediterranean, and to the restoration of some
degree of prosperity to the shattered homes of Italy. His main atten-
tion was centred on the religious question in Germany, and the main-
tenance of Habsburg power on the Danube. France was still a chronic
menace, but the wars were neither so frequent nor so dangerous as
they had been from 1522-9. The death of Margaret of Savoy
(December 1, 1530) who had governed the Netherlands during Charles'
minority (1507-15), and again with intervals from 1517 until her
death, made another break with the past. Margaret had been the
confidante and intimate adviser of her father Maximilian and, although
for a time after his accession in the Netherlands Charles had been
estranged from her, he soon discovered her worth, and relied on her as
on another self. She was perhaps the most capable woman of her time,
well versed in all the arts of politics and diplomacy, a friend of letters
and of art, and under her rule the authority of her nephew over the
Burgundian States had sensibly increased, though the prosperity of the
provinces had not shown a corresponding advance. He was fortunate in
finding in the circle of his own family another woman, perhaps less
gifted, but well competent to take her place and carry on her policy.
His sister Maria, the widow of the unfortunate King of Hungary who
fell at Mohacz, was persuaded to undertake the task, for which she had
shown her capacity in the troubles which followed the death of her
liusband Louis, and she entered upon the duties of her oflSce in 1531.
Her government was strengthened by the new ordinance establishing
three Councils in the Netherlands for foreign affairs, justice, and finance.
Shortly before Charles had procured the election of his brother, the
Archduke Ferdinand, to the dignity of King of the Romans, and he
could therefore regard the relations of his House to Germany and the
Netherlands as satisfactorily established.
But his other European concerns gave him grave cause for anxiety*
Henry VIII had been brought into marked hostility with Cbarlea by tha
affair of the divorce. Francis was ever on the look-out for opportunities
of reversing the decisions of Carabray. Clement was perplexed by the
demand for a General Council; irritated by the appointment of the
Cardinal of Colonna, his enemy, as Governor of Naples ; and aggrieved
by the award of Reggio and Modena to the Duke of Ferrara (April 21,
1531). Charles' earnest desire for joint action against the Turks was
thwarted by the scarcely concealed hostility of Francis, and the moro
secret manomvring of the Pope. On June 9, 1531, Clement concluded
an agreement for the marriage of Catharine de' Medici to Henry, Duke of
Weans, second son of Francis, with secret articles binding the Pope to
aist France in the recovery of Milan and Genoa. The German antago-
nists of Ferdinand were allied with Francis. The formation of the
League of Schmalkaldcn and the renewed advance of Solyman upon
Vienna (July, 1532) added further complications, and Charles was in
consequence obliged to temporise with the Protestant Powers of Germany
(August, 1532), Aid was sent to Ferdinand not only from Germany
but from Italy, which for once enabled Ferdinand to meet the enemy in
>rce ; Solyman retired and Charles had a respite.
In the autumn of 1532 Charles was again able to visit Italy* Here
he found all the States wavering. Venice watched the situation with a
cautious eye, well informed of all that was moving in e%'ery Court, and
ready to take any advantage that offered. Milan groaned under the
foreign occupation, Mantua and Ferrara were of doul>tf ul fidelity. In
Florence, where the old constitution had been aboliRhed in 1532 in
favour of an unniiiskcd autocracy, and in Genoa, where the party of
Spinola and Fiesco still were strong, there were powerful political forces
working for change. Armed inter%^enlion had been necessary at Siena,
After a long visit to Mantua, where the famous meeting with Titian
took place, Charles met the Pope once more at Bologna (December,
1532). Clement managed to avoid tlie General Council by imposing
impossible conditions ; and Charles failed to induce him to give up the
projected marriage of Catiiarine with the Duke of Orleans, All that he
fcould secure was the renewal of a defensive League in which Clement,
Jlilan, Ferrara, Mantua, Genoa, Lucca, Siena, were all included. Venice
alone refused to join even tliis deceptive League, On April 9 Charles
left Italy for Spain, where his presence had long been eagerly desired.
The marriage of Henry with Anne Boleyu, which was solemnised
on May 23, 1533, now threatened a change in the political situation.
But Henry was in close alliance with Francis ; and Charles was obliged
to accept the insult. And although on July 11 the Pope launched
r against Henry the Bull of Excommunication, which was not however
come into force until October, he was at the same time arranging
for a meeting with Francis, and preparing to hand over in person hia
niece to tlie Duke of Orleans. The n><^eting took place at Marseilles in
October, 1533. What matters may have been discussed between theae
rulers, whether Francis disclosed to the Head of Christendom bis pro-
jected alliance mth the Turks, is unknown, and inatterH little, for
Clement did not live to see any of their plans carried into execution*
But the marriage sets the stamp on his policy and marks it as
essentially dynastic, not Italian or ecclesiasticaL In order to win a
doubtful Milan for his niece, he was ready to expose the peninsula
once more to the terrors of war, terrors of which ho had earned bitter
and personal experience.
The death of the Marquis of Montferrat in 1533 and the enfeoff-
ment by Charles of the Duke of Mantua %vith this frontier State led to
hostilities between Saluzzo and Mantua which shook the unstable
equipoise of Italy. The news of the conquest of Peru (1532), and the
welcome arrival of its treasures, were items to set on the other side.
But the relations between the German Protestants and Francis assumed
a more dangerous phase in 1534 w^hen the Habsburgs were driven out
of Wiirttemberg. In September Francis made proposals to Charles
which showed that he was meditating the disturbance of peace. A
double marriage was to unite the royal Houses ; but Milan, Asti, and
Genoa were to return to France, and the Emperor was to give satis-
faction to Francis' allies in Germany. The last condition showed that
war was inevitable ; but Charles determined to gain time by negotiationa
until a needful piece of work had been accomplished.
For years the western waters of the Mediterranean had been rendered
unsafe by a settlement of Muslim pirates on the north coast of Africa,
whose headquarters were at Algiers. In 1518 an expedition from Spain
had succeeded in defeating and killing Harbarossa, the founder of this
power, but his younger brother, Khair Eddin, who is known as Barba-
rossa II, had tlien taken up the command, under the protection of the
Porte, and had still further extanded the strength and activity of his
robber fleets. The settlement by Charles of the Knights of St John at
Tripoli and Malta (1530) had been intended to afford a counterpoise to
tlie Muslim, and war had been \vaged on both sides with piracy and
rapine. The dangers of this situation concerned Charles above all
others. Not only had Spain a number of possessions dotted along the
African coast, but the coasts of Spain, Naples, and Sicily w^ere especially
exposed to the raids of the pirate fleets, and their active commerce
was endangered. During the Italian wars Charles had neither leisure
nor spare energy to attend to this peril ; but now immediate measures
w^ere not only desirable but possible. The Barbaresques had recently
extended their power to Tunis, and in July, 1534, emboldened by the
unconcealed favour of Francis, who had concluded with them a com-
mercial truce, tliey had made a raid of unusual extent upon the Italian
coast, Barbarossa had also been named by Solyman as admiral of the
Turkish fleet ; and though still a pirate he was the representative of a
great Power.
Charles considered that there might just he time for a blow before
he was once more paralysed by hostilities with France, The winter of
1534 was spent in preparations, and on May 30, 1535, Charles sailed
from Barcelona, and was joined by Doria from Genoa ami the galleys
of Italy and Sicily. Assistjince came from Portugal, from the Knights
of Malta, from Venice, and other Italian States, and especiallj^ from the
new Pope Paul III. The force amounted to 74 galleys, 30 smaller war-
lips, and 300 «hips of burdon. The attack was directed against Tunis
id proved completely HuccessfnL Landing at Carthage, the army first
won its way into the fortress of Goletta, taking 84 ships and 200 guns,
ad then after some hesitation advanced upon Tunis, defeated the
roops of Barbarossa, and, assisted by the rising of some 5000 Christian
slaves, captured the town. The former ruler of Tunis, Muley Hassan,
was restored there, the Spaniards retaining Goletta, Bona, and Biserta.
Charles returned in triumph to Sicily, though he had not ventured
to attack Algiers. The blow was opportune, for a few months later
(February, 1536) Francis concluded a treaty with Soiyman, with whom
he had previously entered into relations in 1525 and 1528. It had
another significance, for the Moors of Valencia, after their forcible con-
version to Christianity ordered in 1525 and executed in the following
years, had been in relations with the Muslim in Africa, and many of
them had escaped to swell the bands of Barbarossa.
Meanwhile^ on September 25, 1534, Clement had died, nowhere
regretted, unless in France* To him more than to any other man is
due the success of the Reformation, as a movement antagonistic to
Rome. Intent upon dynastic and political interests, he had not only
refused persistently to face the question of religion, but he had done as
much as any to fetter the only force, except his own, that could have
attempted its solution. At his death all England, Denmark, Sweden,
part of Switzerland, and tlie half of Germany, were in revolt ; but up to
the last the possession of Florence or Milan was of more account in
his eyes than the religious interests of all Christendom. The College of
Cardinals, immediately on their meeting, came to the almost unanimous
choice of Alessandro Faniese, %vho took the name of Paul III. He soon
showed his proclivities by attempting to take Canierino from Francesco
Maria della Rovere, the Duke of Urbino, to give it to his own son
Pierluigi. But the choice of the Cardinals was grateful to the Emperor,
who hoped better things from Farnese than he had ever obtained from
Clement, and in particular the summons of a General Council.
The death of Francesco Sforza (November 1, 1535), to whom the
Emperor had in 1534 given his niece Christina of Denmark, disturbed
the settlement of Milan and threatened the early outbreak of war.
Charles seems to have made up his mind to this, for the demands now
made by him on France were provocative rather than conciliatory. He
offered the Duchy of Milan not to the Duke of Orleans but to Charles,
Duke of Angouleme, with the hand of Christina of Denmark, ret|uiriug
in return the support of France in the matter of the General Council,
against the Turks, and in particular against Barbarossa, for the recogni-
tion of Ferdinand's election, for the subjection of Hungary, agjvinst
Henry VIII, and even in Denmark, Norway, and Sweden* Even Milan
was not to be unconditionally given^ for tlie Emperor was to retain the
chief places under his own captains and the Duke of AngoulSme was to
be deposited in his hands. The poyition of Charles was strengtliened
on the one hand by the death of his aunt, Queen Catharine, January 7,
1536, and on the other hand by the attitude of the Bavarian Dukes,
who for dynastic reasons now turned more definitely to the imperial side.
The Pope maintained neutrality, and his help could only be expected
for France if the guilt of aggression could be fastened on the Emperor.
The Duchy of Savoy, during the campaigns of the first war, had
been at the disposal of the French, and opened for them the easiest path
to Italy* But the settlement after the peace of Cambray had brought
the weak Duke Charles III into the bnperial defensive league, and his
marriage with Beatrice of Portugal, in 1521, followed by the marriage
of the Emperor with her sister in 1526, formed a permanent link. The
tirst step therefore towards Italy required the subjection or adhesion of
Savoy, and the somewhat fanciful claims which the King of France put
forward to a part of the ducal inheritance can only be regarded as a
cover for attack or a pretext for coercion, Charles III was the weaker
at this moment since he had been at war since 1530 with his city of
Geneva ; and early in the year 1536 his hopes of recovering the
town were shattered by an expedition of Bern and the Swiss Pro-
testants, w^hich relieved Geneva and overran the territory of Lausanne
and the Pays de Vaud. In March, 15116, the French invaded Savoy,
and, in spite of the obstinate resistance of its inhabitants, conquered the
whole of Savoy, and occupied Turin. The remainder of the fortified
places in Piedmont were seized by order of de Leyva from Milan, to
prevent their falling into the hands of the French*
Meanwliile since his landing in Sicily, August 17, 1535, Charles had
been devoting his attention to his southern kingdoms- Sicily he now
visited for the first time, and he spent ten weeks in considering pro|)osi-
tions of reform laid before him by the Parliament, and in inspecting the
country. Thence he passed into Italy, leaving Ferraute da Gonzaga as
Viceroy in Sicily, and reached Naples on November 25. Here Pedro
di Toledo had been Viceroy since 1532, and had given himself to the
restoration of order, the improvement of the city, and the re-establish-
ment and extension of the ro^^al power. An attempt which was made
to induce Charles to remove him only resulted in strengthening his
position, for it soon appeared that the charges against him arose from
I
I
^
the stern impartiality of his adniinistration. At Naples Charles remained
four months aod a subsidy of a million ducats was voted to him, after a
larger ofifer made in a vainglorious spirit had been wisely refused. That
so large a sum could be raised proves the excellent results of Toledo's
three years' rule. From Naples Charles proceeded to Rome, learning on
his way that the French had attacked Savoy, He had alread}' begun his
preparations for defence in Navarre and Roussillon, and now sent urgent
orders to assemble troops and collect money.
His presence in Italy, however, was worth an army to his cause.
While still in Naples he had succeeded in securing Venice once more for
the defensive league, and after his magnificent entry intoRome on April 5,
1536, he could hope that personal influence and concessions to the l*ope'B
family ambitions would secure for him at least the neutrality of Rome.
Kager^ however, to vindicate his honour, he made before the Consistorj'
and Ambassadors in solemn session a detailed exposition of his ease against
France and called upon the Pope to decide between them* Paul III
declared his intention of remaining neutral, and, yielding at length to
long-cchi tinned pressure, he issued on May 29 a Bull summoning a
General Council to Mantua for May, 1537. The Pope had promised to
do his best to reconcile the parties; but as France was determined to
accept nothing less than Milan for the Duke of Orleans, and Charles
could not, in view of the Dauphin's precarious life, accept his second
brother, Henry, whose marriage alliance with the Medici family was
another bar, the prospects of successful mediation were poor. But the
position in Italy seemed fairly secure; and Henry of England, though
an impossible ally for the Emperor, was too busy at home to cause
much anxiety. The contest thus confined itself to France, and Charles,
who liad collected a great army of 50,000 or 00,000 men, was unwilling
to consume it in the unpretending task of reconquering Savoy.
The invasion of Provence seemed likely to secure the evacuation of
Savoy, besides the promise of further gain* Accordingly on July 25,
1536, the imperial army, taking advantage of the accession of the
Marquis of Saluzzo to the Emperor's side, crossed the French border.
But Montmorency, to whom Francis had entrusted the chief command,
maintained the strictest defensive. His army was lodged in two fortified
camps at Avignon and Valence ; the country was systematically devas-
tated; and Ciiarles, though he was able to advance to Aix, found an
attack on Marseilles or Aries impracticable* Nothing coidd be less
French and nothing could be more effective than the strategy of Mont-
morency. On September 1p3 Charles was obliged to order the retreat.
Meanwhile in the north the Count of Nassau had conquered Guise
and undertaken the siege of Feronne. But the war was unpopular in
the Netherlands; subsidies were unwillingly granted and the money
came in slowly ; Peronne held out under the vigorous command of
Fleuranges ; and at the end of September Nassau also was forced to
retire. In Italy Leyva was dead, and the prospects of the imperial cause
were not promising. The little place of Miraudola, whose ruler* Galeotto
Pica, had put himself under the protection of France, was a valuable
outpotit for tlae French, a base where their troops could find harbour and
issue forth to attack the confines of Lombardy, On August 10 the
Dauphin had died, and the offer of Mihan to Charles of Angouleme
assumed a different aspect, Charles while negotiating for peace pre-
pared for war*
For this purpose it was necessary that he should visit Spain to raise
the necessary funds, leaving many Italian questions unsettled. The
Duke of Mantua received the investiture of Montferrat, Del Guasto
was appointed to the command in Milan in place of Leyva. But the
attitude of the Pope aroused suspicion ; and Charles was obliged to
depart without having contented him. On November 17 he left Genoa ;
but his journey was repeatedly interrupted by storms, while a hostile
fleet of French and Turkish gidleys lay at Marseilles. At length the fleet
was able to make the coast of Catalonia. In Spain many mouths and
continuous efforts resulted in the raising of sums quite insutliciont to
meet the pressing needs. Francis meanwliile had proclaimed the re-
sumption of the suzerainty over Flanders and Artois, which he had
renounced at the Peace of Cambray ; and on ^larch 16, 1537, a consider-
able army invaded Artois. Hesdin surrendered, and Charles of Gelders
was once more in arms. But Francis soon grew weary and drew away a
large part of his army to the south ; the Estates of the Netherlands
granted for self-defence the sums which they had refused for genehil
purposes; the attack was driven back; and on July 30 a ten montns*
armistice was concluded for the Netherlands and north-eastern Fran<ie.
Meanwhile del Guasto )iad held his own in Lorahardy and even won
back some places of Piedmont from the enemy. The Turkish assistance
had been worth little to the French, Even in the kingdom of Sicily,
owing to the energetic measures of defence, Barbarossa had been able
to effect little. The Mediterranean war deviated into a contest between
Venice and the Muslim. The remaining islands of the Aegean fell into
the hands of the Barbaresques. Nauplia and Monembasia, the sole
strongholds of Venice in the Morea, were besieged by the Turks.
The murder of Alessandro de' Medici in Florence, January 7, 1537*
strengthened rather than weakened the position of Charles in Italy.
In spite of the efforts of French agents the imperial vicegerents had
their way; the attacks of il^e fuorusciti nndej Filippo Strozzi, though
aided by the French, were driven off; and the cool and competent
Cosirao became Duke of Florence in the imperial interests, and was
married to a daughter of Toledo. Filippo Strozzi was put to torture
and died in prison. Paul was won over by the gift of Alessandro^s
widow Margaret, the Emperor's natural daughter, to his grandson*
Ottavio Farnese, and Pierluigi, the Pope's son, was invested with
Novara. On February 8, 1538, a defensive league against the Turk
was concluded between the Pope, the Emperor, Ferdinand, and Venice,
irhich prepared the way for a favourable intervention of the Pope
Btween the two great Powers.
However, in October, 1537, ilontmoreney with a new army had
appeared in Savoy, and the imperial troops were obliged to evacuate
Pinerolo and Turin. But these successes led to nothing further.
Both monarchs were ready for peace ; an armistice was concluded
(November, 1537) ; negotiatious began in earnest, but were long pro-
longed, 80 many were the questions at issue between the rivals. After
the conclusion of tlie League against the Turks the Pope left Rome, and
journeyed to Nice, to mediate between Francis and Charles. Here some
ill-feeling was aroused because the Duke of Savoy refused to put the
fortress of Nice, his last remaining possession, in Charles' hand for the
meetings. In a neighbouring monastery therefore the Emperor and
King negotiated personally and separately with the Pope, and a truce
was arranged for ten years (June 17, 1538), on the basis of nti possidetiB,
The Pope and Emperor set forth at once for Genoa to concert operations
against the Turk.
Although at Nice the King and the Emperor had refused to meet, it
soon became known that a future int^jrview had been arranged, perhaps
through the mediatu>n of Queen Eleonora. At Aigues-Mortes the visits
took place on July 14-16, with the most surprising demonstrations of
good feeling. Nothing definite was arranged, but hopes of agreement
succeeded to something like despair. And Charles was anxious to make
the most of the apparent friendship*
For the Emperor the war of 1536—7 had been on the whole far less
successful than those of 1522—9. Francis had overrun almost the whole
of Savoy and Piedmont, he had invaded Artois, and successfully repelled
two invasions of France. He was content for the present to rest upon
his conquests, to hold Savoy, an outpost for defence, a ready road fur
attack, and to defer the settlement of other outstanding questions for
a season. Charles was the more willing to leave Savoy in Francis*
possession because the Duke had offended him deeply in the matter of
Nice. On the other hand he needed peace above all for his affairs in
Germany, and to meet the Turkish danger. A long truce with the
appearance of durability suited him as well or better than a peace,
which could only have been secured at the price of hnniiliating and
i_damaging concessions. In fact the two Powers, after violent oscillations
and fro, had reached a position of comparatively stable equilibrium.
They had learnt their own limitations, and the strength of their atlver-
saries* A stage was reached on the road to the more permanent settle-
ment of Cateau-Cambresis.
The truce between the great Powers and the League of 1538 led to
the hope that soraething serious would now be undertaken against the
Turks. But exhaustion, the mutiny of soldiers at Goletta, in Sicily, in
Lombardy, a thousand reasoos made it impossible for Charles to put out
his full strength in 1538. The force that was sent under Andrea Doria
to the Levant from Sicily, Naples, Genoa, and Barcelona, to co-operate
with the Venetians and a papal squadron, had no orders to undertake
any great enterprise. The Venetians desired to attack Prevesa, at the
mouth of the Gulf of Arta, where the Turkish fleet was lying, but Doria
was unwilling to risk so nnieli on a single encounter; national, urban,
and personal jealousies were at work ; the League, like other leagues*
soon showed its inherent weakness ; futile skirmishes were the only
result; and the allies soon began to talk of peace. Charles had
important business elsewhere, in the Netherlands, in Germany, and the
enterprise was put off. After long negotiations, delays, and disappoint-
ments, the Venetians made peace with the Turks (October, 1540), sur-
rendering Nauplia and MoMembasia.
Not only tlte affairs of Germiuiy, becoming more and more com-
plicated, but a serious difficulty in the Netlierlands contributed to this
result, Tlie war of 1536 hud necessitated application to the States-
General of the Netherlands for a heavy subsidy. All the provinces
consented (1537), and in Flanders the three Members Ypres, Bruges,
and ie Franc gave their vote, but Ghent refused ; and when Mary
declared that the grant of three Members out of four bound also the
fourth, and tonk measures to levy the city's quota, the citizens appealed
to Charles, who gave his full support to his vicegerent. After prolonged
discontent, at length in 1539 Ghent broke into open rebellion. The
government of the town gave way to the pressure of the mob, forti-
ficaiitms were repaired, militia was levied, the subject-cities of Ghent,
Alost, Oudenarde, and Courtrai were drawn into the rising, and Mary
was obliged to recognise the revolutionary movement-
At this juomeut tlie friendly relations of Charles with France stood
him in good stead. Charles had recently lost his beloved wife, Isabella
of Portugal, and the French King hoped to engage him in some profit-
able marriage alliance* He offered a free passage through his States,
and C'harles, though he refused to hear of any marriage propositions,
accepted the offer. Leaving instructions to his son Philip for the event
of his death, which show that he would have been willing to allow the
whole Burgundian dominions to jniss to a French prince as the price of
a permanent accommodation, he ptissed through France, met Francis at
Loches (December 12, 1539), and was accompanied by him to Paria.
Here he was royally received, and set on his way to Valenciennes, where
he met Mary, January 21, 1540, Thence he proceeded to Brussels*
The news of his coming, with the assembling of German troops* had
quelled the rebellious, irresolute spirits of Ghent, and on February 14
he entered the city without resistance. Its punishment was stern though
1538-41]
Gelders and Julkh'Ckves
75
not excessive. Nine of tlie ringleaders were executed. The town, by
tearing up the famous calfskin, liad declared its own sentence ; the
constitution was forfeited and an oligarchical government set up. The
disputed subsidy and a money indemnity in addition were exacted.
The city was deprived of its rights over the surrounding territory and
neighbouring towns. A fortress was to be built to prevent rebellion in
the future. Solemn submission and humiliation were required. Finally,
on these terms the city was pardoned, at the price of all its remaining
Uberties-
This rapid collapse of a formidable rebellion increased the prestige
of Charles very opportunely, for the death of Charles of Gelders in 1538,
instead of diminishing his difficulties, had increased them. The Estates
of the duchy had at once proceeded to the election of William de la
JIarck, the heir of Cleves, Berg, and Jiilich. The death of his father,
Duke «Iohn,soon followed (1539), and the union of the four duchies under
a prince whose leanings were Protestant was a serious menace to the
Habsburg power in the north, Francis I gave Jeanne d'Albret to
William of Cleves (treaty of July 17, 1540) ; which compensated for the
rejection of his sister by Henry VIII, announced about the same time.
The project of settling matters between Charles and France by one of
Beveral alternative marriage schemes had again proved impracticable ;
and this French alliance with a German prince, an enemy of the
Ilabsburgs, showed a renewal of French hostility ; the more so that
Charles had hoped that, by a different disposal of Jeanne's hand, the
• question of Navarre at least might be settled for ever. Charles replied
by investing his son Philip (October 11, 1540) with the duchy of Milan.
Affairs in Italy were fairly quiet. The reduction of Camerino by
the papal forces (1539), the revolt of Perugia (1540), the refusal of
I the Viceroy of Naples to allow his forces to co-operate in its repression,
[ and quarrels between Ottavio Farnese and his bride, were not sufficient to
\ disturb the firm foundations on which the Spanish supremacy was built.
[ The rebellion and chastisement of the Colon na were allowed to pass as of
purely local importance. It was tliought that some of these movements
tad been instigated to induce the Pope to give effect to the long-
promised Council, but the Council, which had been put off time after
time, seemed as far distant as ever. The conference at Katisbon
(1541) and the benevolent intervention of Contarini proved of no avail,
except to show that the Luthemns would not accept even the decisions
of a General Council.
Secure for the time in Italy, and temporising as usual in Germany,
Charles thought the moment propitious for another attack on the power
of the Barbaresques. When war with France once more became in-
evitable, the control of the western seas would be valuable ; and
meanwhile commerce and coast towns urgently required relief. Since
1538 an attempt had been made to win over Barbarossa by way of
negotiation. Cliiirletj hoped to secure the corsair for his own service, to
create for him a vassal kingdom including Tunis, and to turn his arms
against the Porte. But at the last moment Barbarossa declined the
proposals, and Charles determined if possible to destroy his power. In
July, 1541, two French envoys^ Antonio Rincon, on his way to Con-
stantinople, and Cesare Fregoso, accredited to Venice, were set upon
near Pavia and killed by Spanish soldiers. Their papers were not
secured, but the general nature of their errand was notorious. This
delayed the conclusion of a new alliance between France and the Porte,
and before it could be formed it was necessary if possible to take
Algiers* The knowledge of the warlike preparations of the French
King seemed to make postponement till the new year impossiljle, and
although the Diet of Ratisbon, the journey through Italy, and a
hurried interview with the Pope had brought Charles to September, and
his most experienced advisers declared that the season was too late, he
determined to push on his expedition.
It was October 20, 1541, before the fleet which had collected at
Majorca met the Spanish contingent oflf Algiers, Hea\^ weather
prevented them from landing for two days, and when at length they were
able to put the men on shore the artillery, the supplies, the tents were
left on board, A tempest then smote the armjs who were at the same
time attacked by the Barbaresques ; fourteen galleys and a hundred
sliips were driven ashore ; and Doria was obliged to draw off. The army
had to go now to Cape Matifii, where they took ship again at Bugia,
and with difficulty set sail for their homes, after severe losses, and
without any comi>en sating success (November, 1541).
This failure encouraged the French in their long-determined scheme
of attack. New agents had concluded the arrangements with the Sultan,
and although the Venetians and Lorraine refused to join, the alliance of
Clevea, with the support of Denmark and Sweden, promised results,
though not in Italy, The main objective this time was the Netherlands,
Antoine, Duke of VendSme (Jiily, 1542), marched upon Artois and
Flanders, hoping for a rising in Ghent and Antwerp. From the side of
Cleves Martin van Rossem advanced Avith 18,000 men, and the Duke of
Orleans with a third army entered Luxemburg. A fourth army entered
Roussillon under Francis and invested Perpignan, but the defence of
Perpignan, under the Uuke of Alva, checked any further advance on
this side. Van Rossem, after devastating Brabant, and threatening
Antwerp, joined the Duke of Orleans in Luxemburg, where before long
no place of importance held out excepting Thionville. But the capri-
cious withdrawal of the Duke of Orleans from Luxemburg with the
intention of sharing in the great victory expected for the King in the
South, took the heart out of this attack, and the Netherland troops
soon recovered Luxemburg except Ivoy and Damvillers. In Roussillon
instead of a victory an ignominious retreat followed.
1S43-4] War with Cleves. Battle of Ceresole
77
The following year was threatening for Charles. The Sultan was
advancing in force upon Vienna. Barbarossa after devastating the
coasts of Italy joined the French fleet under the Duke of Enghien, and
laid siege to Nice (August 5, 154*3). The city surrendered before long ;
but the citadel held out, until it was relieved by the approach of
del Guasto by land and of Andrea Doria by sea (Septeniljer 8).
Barbarossa returned to winter at Toulon, where throughout the winter
Christian slaves were openly sold. Francis on his part invaded Hainault.
But Charles, leaving Barcelona for Genoa with the fleet of Doria, arrived
in Italy (May, 1543), and, after a hurried interview witlithe Pope, wliose
desire for Milan or Siena he was not able to content, continued his
journey towards Germany, with a small force of Spaniards and Italians.
The Council, already suniinoued (1542) to Trent, had to be postponed;
other things for the moment were more pressing. Ferdinand was left to
manage as best he could in the East. At Speier Charles picked up a
considerable force of Germans who had assembled to bring aid against
the Turks. But Charles led them on with him to Cleves, and attacked
Duren. In two days the city was captured by assault. In a fortnight
the Duke was at his feet imploring pardon, and on September 7, 1543,
a treaty was signed by which the Duke broke off all alliance with
France, Denmark, and Sweden, and ceded the duchy of Gelders with
the county of Zutphen.
This success fully compensated for the reoccupation of Luxemburg
by the French which was completed about the middle of September.
Charles moved into Hainault to effect a juncture with the troiips which
Henry, his ally in this war as he had been in his tirst, had sent to Calais,
and advanced (October 20) to the siege of Landrecies. Francis was in
the neighbourhood with a superior army; Charles was anxious to meet
him in the held, and advanced m hopes of tempting him to battle. In
this he did not succeed, but the retreat of the French army left him with
the honours of the campaign.
But the war was not over, and Charles needed all the aid that could
be by any means procured. Henry was induced to promise to invade
France in the coming spring with an army of 35,000 men. Peace was
made with Christian III of Denmark, At the Diet of Speier, 1544,
Charles met the German Princes and by extensive concessions secured
the neutrality or support of the Protestant Estates. Francois, Count
d*Enghien, had invaded Italy, and advanced to recover Carignano near
Turin, which del Guasto had occupied. Del Guasto hurried from Milan
to relieve it ; and d'Enghien, having received permission to risk a battle,
attacked him at Ceresole on April 14, 1544, and completely defeated
him, with the los^s of some 8000 killed and 2000 prisoners. All Italy
began to consider the di\asion of the spoil, but their hopes were
vain. The Spanish, holding all the strong places of Lombardy, were
enabled to prevent d'Enghien from any further success. Piero Strozzi,
78 Peace of Cr6py [1544
wlu) had collected 10,000 foot at Mirandola, advanced boldly to
Milan, in the hopes of joining d'Enghien there, but the Swiss refused
to move for want of pay, and Strozzi had to extricate himself as
boHt ho could, and the brilliant victory of Ceresole had no results.
Still the news of this defeat rendered his success at Speier the more
wolconio to Charles.
His army under Count William von Fiirstenberg now advanced upon
Luxemburg and recovered his duchy. The siege of St Dizier was
thon undort4iken ; and on July 18 Charles arrived, with 10,000 foot,
2300 hi>rst\ and 1600 sappers, to take part in the siege. Here the
Prince of Oniuge was struck by a bullet, and died on the following day,
leaving i\s liis heir his more famous cousin. Count William of Nassau.
Tlio siege dnigfgod on, while tlie Dauphin and the Admiral Annebaut
with a strong army of observation lay at J&lons, between Epemay and
Chfelons, and outposts at Vitry harassed the besiegers. But on July 23
those outposts were crushed with considerable loss to the French. On
A\igU8t 17 Sancerre, the captain, surrendered St Dizier with all the
honours of w^r. Charles now ad>-anced on Chfilons and, declining to
attack the Dauphin's army, pressed on to Ch&teau-Thierry and to
Soissons (^Sopteml>er 12").
If Henry's army had shown equal enterprise the case of France would
hav«^ l>een desin^mte. He arrived on July 15 at Calais with the bulk of
his army* and was joined by the Count van Buren with a small force
fn>m the Netherlands- Leaving the Duke of Norfolk to beside
MoiUr^uiK he pmxveded with his main force to besiege Boulogne.
Without aid from him Charles had reached the end of his tether. His
T^lalii>ns with the Pope were becoming more and more uncomfortaUe.
l^iul had allo\i"ed Kero Stn>rti to raise troops in his State ; the Orani
had been suffercil to join him : and the Pope was ecMisidering the gift
of his grandchild Vittoria to the Duke of Orleans with Paima and
IHacenra as her dv^wry. On the other hand Charles* position for con-
cluvliui: iH\*oe was faw^urable and he seiied it- The result was the Peace
\xf OTe;n\ Scp:ember IS^ 1>I4. Henry was informed of the terms which
Oharietji was wilUag to accept : he di5appro\-ed of the eoQ«litions : bat
was tcrce\l to cv>ntent himself with Boulv^giie, which surrendered on
Sej^eruber 14.
V>r: K<h siviet? the terrttory cvvupied since the trtwe vX Nice w:» to
be ret^:ocx\i. Fraacis was to rerivxtis^e all claioks to Naples^ FLaadeis^
artd Ar^v^ : ti^e Er2ixvrv>r did tsov iriSist vvi the restitutioa of the dTjAr
s>£ lvur^::r:dT. Tbe rlxals were to cv^^-wrate tor tise resj^ocaiioc ct ositx
xa th* Chxirch. ar>i apdsss the T^Jirks. Charles was to c^ve to ti^
r^x:? c»e vVIetifcr5:> et:ber iis ^M:ft!C ca::^ier with the BaLrgT3L:>:^^ laasd^
oc the ^ecv'^rd diuichter ."i F:?ri— >t:^i with Mllazr* If the Ne-ther irnink
wec>f ri^f^:^ Ohirve^ w^fc> ro re^ai* the ^:l^i^^35e docsiiicc f.^r hi> life.aad
Fraaicas w^fc? tc r-2»:czj.v i:2S rights to Mijarr asid Asci. wiii wiece.
1544-5] Fresh stage in the settlement of Europe 79
however, to revive in case there was no issue of the marriage. If Milan
were given the Emperor was to retain effective hold on the duchy untU
a son was bom ; and the gift was declared to be a new fief, not
dependent on hereditary rights of the House of Orleans. The King in
return was to give a handsome appanage to his son in France. As soon
as either of these transfers took place Savoy was to be evacuated, and
the questions of right between the King and the Duke were to be decided
by arbitration. These public conditions were supplemented by a secret
treaty, by which the King was required to aid in procuring a General
Council, to give help against the German Protestants, and to assist the
Emperor to a peace or durable truce with the Turks. The Dauphin
shortly afterwards made a solemn protest before witnesses against the
treaty as contrary to the fundamental interests of the kingdom. The
Pope was left out in the negotiations, although the religious motive is
prominent in the conditions. But Paul was obliged to accommodate
himself, and to avoid worse he issued a fresh summons to the Council to
meet at Trent on March 15 of 1545.
Thus another stage is reached in the settlement of Europe. The
war of 1543-5 differs from preceding wars in that the principal effort
was directed on the Netherlands, that an attempt was made on both
sides to win substantial support in Germany, that Italy was neglected as
no longer offering a favourable ground for attack in spite of the
possession of Savoy. It resembles the second war in proving that
offensive operations on either side, though in this war more extensive
and determined, could not lead to any permanent result. The solidity
of the several countries was more abundantly demonstrated. The ugly
features of this episode are on the one hand the alliance of Francis with
the Turk and the corsairs of Barbary, on the other hand the concessions
of Charles to the Protestants of Germany, which involved either treason
to the Church or the betrayal of his dupes. But some excuse must be
made on the ground of the extremity of his need. Charles was a zealous
Churchman, but he could not master fate. So long as he was opposed
by France and the Ottomans, ill seconded, even thwarted, by the Popes,
he could not in addition take upon himself the task of coercing
Protestants in Germany. He and he alone of the Princes in Europe
formed a just opinion of the religious danger, and did his best to
meet it. His desire for ecclesiastical reform was frustrated by the blind
opposition of the Popes. Toleration was forced upon him as a political
necessity. But to sacrifice the material to the spiritual was a virtue
that lay beyond his ken, and one moreover ill suited to the spirit of the
age. After all Charles was a temporal prince, and as such his first duty
was to the State which he governed.
The Peace of Crepy set Charles free for the first time in his life to
intervene effectually in the affairs of Germany. His religious zeal is
attested by the stringent repressive measures which followed in the
Netherlands, and the Edict (1544) which called upon all his subjects in
thehereditarv^ Habsburg lands tocouformto the Confession of Louvain —
the acts of a bigot perhaps, but a good man cannot do more than follow
his conscience, and Charles was a conscientious Catholic. His first need
was to come to an understanding with the Pope. Charles proposed to
Lim detinitely the use of the great sums accumulated for a crusade
against the Turks in a war against the Protestants, and in support of
the Council. At the Diet of Worms (March, 1545) the refusal of the
Protestants to be satisfied with a General Council in which the Pope
w^ould be both party and judge w^as openly declared. Charles held himself
released from his obligations to the Protestants by this attitude, though
indeed the proposed Council at Trent was very different from that which
he had promised. But the Pope still hung in the wind. To win him
the material must be sacrificed to the spiritual ; and the exact nature
of the sacrifice was made clear when Paul invested his son Pierluigi with
Parma and Piacenza (August, 1545) in spite of the claims of Milan to
these districts, and without the imperial sanction. Still the General
Council was actually opened at Trent in December, 1545, after many
delays and proposals for a removal to an Italian city, which the
Emperor emphatically rejected. The choice of Trent was a compromise/
Italian cities would attract only Italian clergy, who were too much inter-
ested in the abuses of the Curia. German cities would be acceptable
only to the Germans. A truce was concluded w^ith the Turks in October,
1545, on very unfavourable terms. The decision of Charles between
Milan and the Netherlands as the marriage gift of the Duke of Orleans
had at leugth been made in March, 1545. Milan was to be given
with the second daughter of Ferdinand, but the death of the Duke of
Orleans in September relieved Charles of this necessity*
Charles was thus free to act in Germany, and, after the futile Religious
Conference of Katisbon (1546) and the so-called Diet which followed,
he signed a treaty with the Pope, \vho pledged himself to send
12,000 men to the support of the Emperor, with a substantial subsidy,
and to allow considerable levies from the ecclesiastical resources of Spain
(June 22)* The Emperor wiis anxious to keep the terms of the League
secret, but the Pope was eager that it should be known, and in letters
to the several States he published it at once, exhorting them to join.
But the course of the German war aroused once more his fear and sus-
picions. Only the obstinate resistance of the Emperor had prevented
the Pope from removing the Council from Trent to some town where he
could more effectively control all its proceedings. Many differences had
arisen over the policy to be observed with reference to the Council; the
Pope sent his troops, though not the foil number, and the 200,000 crowns
which he had promiseddid not arrive ; difficulties were raised with regard
to the pledging of Church lands in Spain. The Emperor was obliged to
raise money by an agreement with the southern citiea of Germany,
promising them religions liberty. In January, 1547, the Pope withdrew
his contingent, the six months for which he had promised it having
expired. He was intriguing with the French, In March, 1647, the
Council was removed to Bologna, and the Spanish Bishops refused to
follow, while Charles refused to recognise a Council at Bologna. The
victory of MUhlberg, April 23, 1547, made Charles' position still more
formidable. An actual rupture between the Pope ami the Emperor
seemed probable, suggested not only by fear of Charles' exorbitant
position in Europe, but by minor Italian interests.
The soliditj^ of Spanish power in the Italian peninsula was apparent
especially at tills juncture* Kerrante de Gonzaga, who had been named
as Governor of Milan in 1546, though the appointment proved
unfortunate, secured at least the support of Mantua. The Venetian
pohcy grew more and more cautious, and the greater this caution the
greater the difficulty of disturbing existing arrangements. The policy
of Ercole II of Ferrara was almost equally prudent, Cosirao de' Medici
showed himself the faithful servant. of Charles, and in view of his
watchful guardianship troubles at Lucca and Siena might pass almost
unnoticed- Naples was in tlie firm hands of Toledo. Doria seemed
safe at Genoa, and could be absolutely trusted. Only the Pope showed
inclinations to disturb the settled order, in the interests of his greedy
Farnese family* And t^o long as the other factors remained unchanged
he was powerless for serious harm. But in Italy revolutions were
always possible.
The remarkable enterprise of Francesco Burlamacchi directed from
Lucca against Florence with the aid of the Strozzi failed miserably
(1546), A more dangerous conspiracy was set on foot in Genoa by
Gianluigi Fiesco. Gianluigi, moved by the loss of his own property,
jealous of the power of the Doria, and taking advantage of the dis-
content of the people with the constitution of 1528, which gave all
the power to the old nobility, had long since entered into relations with
France for the overthrow of the Doria, ami the Spanish power resting
upon them. The possession of Genoa was the key to tlie peninsula, and
the wealth of the Genoese capitalists a mainstay of Charles. On the
other hand the immense debts owed by Charles to the Ligurian
financiers secured for him the support of the moneyed interest, but could
hardly prevent a sudden stroke of force. The Pope allowed Fiesco to
arrange for the purcliase of four of hia own galleys, at that time lying
in Civita Vecchia (154*3). The Pope's relations with Doria were far
from friendly, apart from any animus against the Emperor. .
The time fixed for the attempt was the night of January 2, 1547.
At ten o'clock the conspirators, who had a galley and 300 foot-soldiers
at their disposal, issued from the palace of Fiesco in three bands. ^^i^B
himself with one made for Doria's galleys, seized them, and in'
C* M« H. II,
82 Deaths of Henry VIII and of Francis I [1547
attempt to prevent the liberation of the galley-slaves fell overboard and
was drowned. The two other bands made for two of the gates of the city,
and at the noise of the tumult, Giannettino, the adopted son of Andrea
Doria, came up and was promptly killed. Andrea, however, escaped with
his life, and when the conspirators looked upon their work in the morning
they discovered that their own chief was missing. Left thus without unity
or direction they wavered ; the Senators oflfered them an amnesty on
condition that they left the city ; and the formidable plot resulted in
nothing but the re-establishment of Doria and his master. The amnesty
was revoked ; the possessions of the conspirators were confiscated ; but
Doria succeeded in repelling proposals for the reduction of Genoa under
direct Spanish rule, and for the erection of a fortress. Certain alterations
were made in the constitution for the purpose of securing authority to the
partisans of Doria, but Genoa retained at least the forms of liberty. The
Castle of Montobbio, the sole remaining possession of the Fieschi, became
a danger for a while ; but surrendered to the forces of the Republic on
June 11, 1547; and Doria succeeded in suppressing other plots instigated
by Francesco and Pierluigi Farn^se.
The removal of the Council from Trent came a little too soon for
Charles, and it would have been impossible for him at that moment
to follow the radical counsel of Cosimo de' Medici (February 6, 1547),
who advised him to use his power for a complete reform of the Church
through the Council, taking away the tyranny of priests, reducing the
power of the Pope to its proper spiritual limits, and restoring the pure
faith of Christ without the abuses that had grown up about it. Charles
was powerless to prevent the removal of the Council, though its subse-
quent adjournment was a concession to him. The gulf between Emperor
and Pope widened ; but neither of them was anxious for an open rupture.
Henry VIII had died on January 28, and Francis I on March 31, 1547;
and the whole scheme of European policy wa^.likely to undergo revision.
The Pope would not move until he was sure ©1 support ; and Charles was
too busy in Germany to wish to provoke complications in the peninsula.
Henry II of France showed .fjsiendly inclinations towards Paul, but gave
him no more definite assurance of friendship than a promise of the hand
of his natural daughter for Orazio Farnese. From England under
Somerset nothing was to be hoped. The negotiations of the Pope with
Charles still turned on the investiture of Parma and Piacenza, and the
addition of Siena, as much as upon the question of the Council. Charles
was determined that no session should be held at Bologna; and although
the Pope had set out to preside over a solemn session intended as pre-
paratory to the close of the Council, Diego de Mendoza, the Emperor's
envoy, had succeeded in procuring a further postponement, when a series
of unexpected events changed the whole situation. The aspect of Naples
and Siena was threatening, but the cloud burst in Piacenza.
The progress of heretical opinions in Naples was notorious; and in
May Paul bud sent a commissury to the kingdoin, with a brief which
hiJiied at the eataldishinent of the Inquisition. A rebellion at once
followed ; and the small Spanish garrison was in difficidties. But the
prompt and judicious measures of Toledo, and the assurance of Charles
himself that he had no intention of introducing the Inquisition or of
allowing it to be introduced, soon restored order ; yet an uneasy feeling
remained that the brief had been sent with the secret intention of
provoking revolt. Siena had already in 1545 risen in arms against the
imperial commissioner, Juan de Luna, aed the Monte dei Nove^ whom he
supported, and had driven out the Spanish garrison^ Cosimo succeeded
in preventing any great excesses, but Francesco Grassi, whom Charles
ent from Milan to appease discontent, failed to effect a compromise*
le citizens took up arms again and accepted the protection of the
Pope, protesting against any foreign garrison, and excluding the Novesehi
from any share in the government. Co.simo, however, succeeded in
procuring the acceptance of his own mediation, and on September 28
a garrison of Spaniards was admitted. Mendoza arrived in October,
restored the Novetfchi, and set up as before a governing body of forty,
ten from each 3Ionte^ but insisted on naming the half of them himself
(November, 1548).
In Piacenza the rule of Pierluigi Farnese was hated. His measures
for reducing the nobility to obedience, by depriving them of their
privileges and forcing them to live in the city, though sahitary, made
him many enemies. Private wrongs increased their number. Gonzaga,
who represented the forward policy in Italy, wavS anxious to take advantage
of the troubles at Genoa and Siena to establish direct Spanish rule
over those cities, and the discontent at Piacenza was much to his mind,
Awitre of the liostile movements directed against him, and of the support
given by Gonzaga from Mihtn to his assailants, Pierluigi prepared to
defend himself by the building of a fortress at Piacenza. This accelerated
the blow which had been long prepared by Gonzaga. On September 10,
1547, the conspirators took up arms ; Pierluigi was'killed in his palace ;
and the city was in the power of the rebels* Gonzaga*s promptitude is a
sufficient proof of his complicity. On the 12th he entered the city, and
occupied it in the name of Spain. Of the projects of his minister
Charles had been suiHciently informed, and, although he had counselled
prudence, he had not discouraged the enterprise. It was an act of
open war against the Pope, wounding him where he was most sensitive.
Charles de Guise, the newly elected Cardinal, appeared at Uuhh m
October, and this seemed to give the Pope his opportunity
Conditions for a league with France were drawn up ; Parma a
were to be given to Orazio Farnese, not to Ottavio, Ust
»on*in-law; the King was to supply troops for tli* ^ ''
States; French bishops were to attend the Coi;
Pope was to contribute 7000 men, if the King waa t^ '
own States. The projected league like many others, though ostensibly
defensive, was really intended for offence.
The Diet of Augsburg (1547) gave Charles a lever in his negotiations.
He was able to offer the submission of all Germany to the Council
as a price for its return to Trent. But the Pope referred the decision
to the Fathers at Bologna, who decided in favour of that city- Charles
could do nothing but enter a solemn protest before the assembly at
Bologna and in the Consistory (January, 1548) ; and the Spanish Bishops
remained at Trent. Negotiations continued while the Council remained
in effect suspended. Threats made by the Pope of an attack upon
Naples came to nothing, and a fresh plot conducted by Giulio Cibo
against Genoa failed. On the other hand Henry II wtis not satisfied
with the terms of the league offered by the Pope. Meanwhile France
was arming ; the Pope was arming ; and Charles put his possessions in
a state of defence, Cosimo de* Medici occupied Elba and Piombino
for the farther defence of his coasts in the imperial interest. The
remonstrances, however, of the Genoese, who feared an attack upon
Corsica, led Charles to take these places into his own hands. The \isit
of Henry II to Savoy and Piedmont (May, 1548) proved to be no more
than a reconnaissance in force an€l led only to the seizure of the
Marquisate of Saluzzo. Further delay was caused by the French war
with England which broke out in 1548 over the Scottish question, and
the Pope's revenge had to be postponed. The Interim (May, 1548)
agrees with the tone of general European politics at the time. Every
Power was seeking to enjoy the benefits of time, and in such a policy
Charles was a master.
And so the stormy year 1547 passed into the sullen peace of
1548, while the Pope was still offering ecclesiastical concessions as the
price for the restitution of Piacenza, and Charles replied by asserting
his right not only to Piacenza but to Parma also. Gonzaga continued
to push his adventurous plans upon the Emperor^ and hoped to take
advantage of the passage of the Archduke Philip through Northern
Italy in the autumn of 1548, at least to secure the building of a castle
in Genoa ; but nothing could b« done except by force, and the Emperor
was above all anxious to preserve tlie existing equipoise, as is shown by
his instructions to Philip, written in February, 1548* With Gonzaga
was co-operating Mendoza; he hicreased his personal authority over
Siena, disarmed the citizens, and finally proposed the erection of a castle.
The Pope proceeded with his negotiations with France, and although
he allowed certain ecclesiastical concessions to be extorted from him,
nothing certain resulted. The affairs of the Council became more and
more desperate; and ^finally, in September, 1549, the order came to
suspend it* The proposal to give Parma to Orazio Farnese or to
incorporate it with the domains of the Ciiurch had alienated Ottavio ;
who, after a futile attempt to seize the city, took refuge with Gonzaga.
Paul III died on November 10, 1549, his last days embittered by dis-
sension with his family, whose advancement had been his chief thought,
and for whom he had sacrificed the friendship of tlie Emperor and the
interests of the Church. His last act was to sign an order to place
Parma in Ottavio's hands ; but the Orsini, who were holding the town,
refused compliance.
The Conclave which followed was unusually prolonged. The imperial
party, with whom the Farnese party made common cause in the hopes
of winning Parma at least, if not Piacenza, for the family, were in a
majority, and aimed at the election of Pole or the Cardinal Juan de
Toledo, both known to be well disposed towards ecclesiastical reform.
But the French party, though not able to elect any of their own can-
didates, were fully able to prevent the election of any ottier ; and, after
the Conclave had lasted more than two months, the two parties agreed
to elect the Cardinal del Mont6, who took the name of Julius III
(February 7, 1550). Although his sympathies on the whole had been
French, although he had been associated with the removal of the Council
to Bologna, although he had the reputation of frivolity and vice, the
imperial party accepted him as likely to choose tranquillity rather than
war and intrigue. Tranquillity meant the continued domination of
Spain. His good disposition towards tlie Emperor soon became evident
in a number of matters, trifling in theniselves, but important in the
aggregate. More important still was the intention which he soon
announced of reopening tlie Council at Trent. In fact, on November 14,
1550, he published a Bull summoning the Council to meet at Trent in
the following May, notwithstanding the opposition of France, and the im-
possibility of settling the conditions in accordance with the wishes of the
Emperor, the demands of the German Diets, and the interests of the Curia.
Julius had restored Ottavio Farnese to Parma in falfilment of
promises made in the Conclave, but he could not effectually protect
him against the hostilities of Gonzaga from Milan. Nor could he
persuade Charles to restore to Ills son-in-law Piacenza also. On the
contrary the pressure of Gonzaga on the borders of Parma and his
intrigues within the Duchy drove Farnese to apply for aid from
France (December, 1550). Terms were arranged A\^th France, and
Ottavio passed into the service of Henry, The King assembled troops
at Mirandola. The Emperor pressed for a sentence of confiscation
against Ottavio, and offered a loan to enable Julius to carry it out.
Gonzaga seized Brescello (to the north-east of Parma) from the Cardinal
d'Este. The Pope hesitated, but finally decided that it was more
dangerous to offend the Emperor, and (May, 1551) declared Ottavio
deprived of his fief. It then became necessary to resort to force, and
Giambattista del Monte, the Pope's nephew in command of the papal
troops, received orders to co-operate with Gonzaga in the occupation
of the Parmesan (June)t
The war opened badly. On hia way to join Gonzaga Giambattista
Buffered a slight reverse. Bolognese territory was attacked by the
Farnesi, and the safety of Bologna itself was doubtfuL The Pope was
anxious to protect Bologna and called off the chief part of his troops for
its defence. Reinforcements reached Parma from Miraiidola. Although
Mirandola Wiis under French protection it became necessary to attack
it, and the double enterprise against Parma and Mirandola proved too
much for the scanty forces. The country was ruined but nothing was
effected. War had not yet opened between the French King and the
Emperor, but the peace concluded with England by Henry II (March 24,
1550) by vvliich Boulogne was restored for a money payment, left him free
on that side ; and he could choose his own moment for overt hostilities.
Meanwhile the truce between Charles and the Sultan had been
broken. A new corsair, Dragut, had estabUshed himself on the Tiinisian
coast of Africa at Mehedia, known as the Port of Africa. His ravages
on the neighbouring littoral of Sicily and further aiield had rendered
action imperative; and in September, 1550, the united fleet of Charles'
dominions had attacked and captured his headquarters, thougli his fleet
escaped on this occasion, and again from Doria's blockade in the
following spring. Charles could represent that this act of reprisal Inid
been abundantly provoked, but the Sultan had made Dragut his com-
missioner to rule over the whole of Barbary, and regarded the attack
upon him as an attack upon liimself. (Jn his return from an expedition
against the Sophy of Persia, which the truce with Charles had permitted,
the Sultan prepared for war. In July, 1551, a great Turkish fleet
appeared in Sicilian waters, and after vainly demanding the restoration
of Mehedia, tlie Ottomans turned upon the Knights of St John, and
captured Tripoli (August 11). In September of the same year the
Turkish war began afresh in Hungary* Once more Charles had to
withstand the simultaneous hostility of the Most Christian King and
of the infidels. In the course of 1551 Heiiry was submitting plans for
common action to tlie Porte, and the use of the Turkish fleet was
recommended ; war in Hungary being calculated to unite the Germans
in defence. The King of France was also in relations with Magdeburg
and with Maurice of Saxony.
Under these auspices the Council met once more at Trent in Jlay^
1551, though it was autumn before formal proceedings could be begun.
Its prospects were not rosy, for in September, 1551, war opened on the
side of Savoy. Although Francois de Brissac, the French commander,
did not push bis attack, the necessity of action in two distant fields
completely disorganised the imperial finances in Italy. Tlie blockades
of Parma and Mirandola were in consequence slackly pursued ; the Pope
saw little prospect of gain from the war ; his debts were burdensome ;
French hostility threatened him with the failure of French funds; he
began to ihhik whether an arrangement with France was not possible.
n
I
I
In April, 155!2» he concluded a truce wath France, which allowed Ottavio
Farnese to hold Parina unmolested for two years. About the same time
the Pope's nephew, Giambattista, died in action, Charles was fain to
accept the truce, for the same reason wliieh mainly influenced tlie final
decision of the Pope ; the rising of Maurice of Saxony in alliance with
the French, and the news of a F'rench invasion, A fresh advance of the
Turks in September, 1551, was anotlier of the intolerable burdens which
Charles had to bear at thin, tlie darkest moment of his life.
The alliance between Henry II of France and tlie Protestant Princes
of Germany was concluded at Cliambord on January 15, 1552. It
opened the way for a new development of French policy, the acquisition
of territory, not Burgundiau, at the expense of the Empire. On
March 13, 1552, Henry invaded Lorraine, took the government from
the Duchess and her infant son, and, in accordance with his agreement
with the Protestant princes, occupied the principal towns of the three
great bishoprics of Toul, Metz, and Verdun.
Since the accession of Rene de Vaudemont the power of the Dukes
had been consolidated in tlie Duchy of Lorraine, by the extension of
their influence over the Bishopries, and the election of relations or
partisans to the several Sees. But the policy of the duchy in the wars
between France and Burgundy had been to preserve neutrality as far as
possible ; and thus up to this time immunity had been secured. The
marriage of Christina, the Emperor's niece, to the heir of Lorraine in
1540 had not duruig the life of her husband disturbed this neutrality ;
but Cliristina had been recently left a widow, and her regency in the
duchy gave a plausible excuse for French intervention. Lorraine was
easily subdued, but an attempt to seize Strassburg failed. The Nether-
land forces created a diversion by invading France and devastating
Champagne ; and Henry replied by marching on Luxemburg and occu-
pying the southern part of the duchy.
The Emperor had hoped before the crisis arrived in Germany to
reach the NetherUmds, but his way was barred by the confederates ; in
Innsbruck he was not safe, and he was a fugitive at Villaclj in Carinthia,
while the French worked their will in Lorraine and Luxemburg. But
in August, 1552, after the confederates had been brought to terms, he
issued once more with an army, and passing tlirough Southern Germany,
was well received at Strassburg, which had refused to admit the French,
Thence notwithstanding the lateness of the season he proceeded to the
siege of Metz, which meanwhile had been strongly fortihed by Francois,
Due de Guise, and was ready to hold out. In spite of Charles* dis-
creditable alliance witli Margrave Albert Alcibiades of Brandenburg.
Culmbach, tlie siege, which did not begin until October, proved a complete
failure, and on January 1, 1553, Charles had to order a retreat. Those
events had their reaction on the Council of Trent, which was suspended
in April, 1652, for two years or until the troubles should be overpast.
88 Revolt and conquest of Siena [1552-5
That no more general rising took place in Italy during the months
when Charles was suflfering the invasion of Lorraine, and afterwards
flying from Innsbruck before his enemies, is a remarkable testimony to
the solidity of the edifice which he had built up. Charles contributed
indeed to this result by abandoning the forward policy and its agents.
Mendoza was recalled, and Gonzaga was removed from the government
of Milan. There were not wanting centres of disaffection. Ferrara
was French, even Cosimo wavered, Siena, irritated by the castle which
Charles was building outside the walls by the advice of Mendoza, burst
into open rebellion (July 17, 1552) ; but Cosimo was able to isolate the
conflagration, and although the Spanish garrison was driven out and
the fortress levelled the rebellion did not spread. It was agreed that
Siena should remain free under imperial protection, and foreign forces
should be excluded. Nevertheless French troops garrisoned the city, the
fortifications were strengthened, and the Cardinal of Ferrara assumed
the government in the French interest. The Spanish government had
to acquiesce for the present and wait for its time to come. An attempt
in January, 1553, to subdue the city by force from Naples failed owing
to the death of Toledo, and the recall of his son, who was commanding
the army.
In 1554, however, Cosimo gave the word for more energetic action.
Piero Strozzi, the ubiquitous opponent of Medici and Habsburg, had
entered the city in January. During his temporary absence Florentine
troops surprised a gate of the city. Nevertheless Siena held out for fif-
teen months, the besieging army being commanded by that successful ad-
venturer, Gian Giacomo Medichino, Marquis of Marignano; while Blaise
de Montluc governed the city for the French King and Strozzi showed
great ability and resource in frequent raids and sallies. But Strozzi's
total defeat at Marciano on August 2, 1554, rendered it possible to
complete the blockade, and in April, 1555, the city surrendered to famine.
The irreconcilables held out for four years longer at Montalcino, but
the issue was no longer doubtful. The city was given up by Philip to
Cosimo (1557), and incorporated in his duch}'^ of Tuscany. The
Spaniards retained, however, the coast towns (the Presidi}. Piombino
and Elba Cosimo had already received. So ended the last of the old-
fashioned revolutions of Italy, and one more single and independent city
was incorporated in the larger system. Cosimo was a main link in the
Italian scheme of Charles, and the accessions of territory which he
received were well earned by his services to the Habsburg cause.
Meanwhile the French and Turkish fleets had been co-operating in
the Mediterranean, raiding the Italian coasts. They then provoked a
rebellion in Corsica, which at first had considerable success, but ultimately
with Spanish and German aid the Genoese recovered the principal fort-
resses, and the Treaty of Cateau-Cambr^sis restored the island to Genoa.
The war on the French frontier continued its indecisive course. In
^
^
»
June, 1553, Chaiies had his first success. Terouanne was attacked in
April, and after two months capitulated with its garrison of 3000 men,
and Montmorency's eldest son» Emmanuel Philibert^ who in this same
year succeeded his father as Duke of Savoy, took and destroyed I iesdin.
Robert de la Marck, whose hostilities had first involved the Emperor in
war (152'2), was a captive. An attack on Cambray by the French King
iled. In the following year the B'rench changed their objective to the
ley of the Meiise, capturing Marienburg, Dinant, and Bouvines. To
resist them two new fortresses, Charlemont and Philippeville, were built
on the territory of Liege. The defence of Namur by Charles in person
ended his fighting days with credit. Almost his last act of authority
was to conclude the short-lived Truce of Vaucelles (Februar^^ 5, 1556)-
The close of Charles' career is characteristic. A long campaign
against odds in which reverses were fully compensated by success; the
marriage of Philip with Mary of England (July 25, 1554), conceived in
the true Habsburg spirit; the completion and final consolidation of his
work in Italy; the Religious Peace of Augsburg, in which Charles was
forced by political necessity to acquiesce, against his will and against his
con\dctions. His work was done. During forty years he hatl striven
to discharge the impossible tasks imposed upon him by accident and a
mistaken dynastic policy. Ho had now accomplished what he could
perform. The duchy of Milan and preponderance in Italy was a set-off
for the lost duchy of Burgundy. Tlie conquest of Lorraine he could
regard as a wrong done not to himself but to others. The acquisition
of this duchy would have tempted him had he resembled his ancestor
Charles the BohL It does not however appear that he ever contemplated
such a conquest, a proof of his essentially conservative policy. He had
given peace to Italy and Germany; at the price of much that was
valuable, much that could never be restored, but still he had given
peace. The accession of Paul IV (May 23, 1555 ) gave reason to believe
that this peace might be disturbed; but its ultimate restoration could
be confidently expected. The late war had shown the strong defensive
position in Italy and the Netlierlands; a position so strong that the main
French attack had been diverted fromCliarles' hereditary possessions to
the neighbouring independent and weaker powers. Spain as usual was
regarded as inexpugnable* With tlie Reformation alone he had proved
unable to cope. It was an accomplished fact, but ho had given it
bounds, and extinguished in Germany religious war.
The question of Savoy still remained unsolved, but tliis he could
leave to his son to settle. So long as France still held Savoy and
Piedmont she held the gates of Italy ; and Spanish garrisons in Milan
had to be maintained almost at war-strength. But something must be
left undone ; and Charles had the right to demand his release. Although
he was still young, as we measui^e youth, his incessant labours had
destroyed his health. He was racked with gout, the penalty of his
90 Election of Pope Paul IV [1566-6
voracious appetite and unsparing industry. His abdication, although
it has often been regarded with surprise, was the most natural act, and
the moment for it well chosen. In the Netherlands it was accompanied
by a touching and impressive ceremony (October 25, 1565), when, in
the midst of a splendid assembly at Brussels, the Emperor with tears
explained his reasons, recounted his labours, and gave his last ex-
hortation ; and then solemnly invested his son with his Northern
provinces. Milan and Naples had been previously handed over. On
January 16, 1556, Charles resigned his Spanish kingdoms and Sicily.
Shortly afterwards he gave up the Franche-Comte. He made over to
his brother all his imperial authority, though his formal renunciation of
the Empire was not accomplished until 1558. Free at last he set sail
for Spain (September 17, 1556) and made his way to the monastery at
Yuste. Here he took a constant interest in the political affairs of the
time, and occasionally intervened by way of advice and influence. After
two years of rest, broken by increasing infirmity, he closed his life in
1558 ; too soon to see the seal set upon his labours by the Treaty of
Cateau-Cambr^sis.
Julius III had concluded on March 24, 1555, his insignificant career ;
Marcellus II, his successor, died on April 30 ; and on May 23 Giampiero
Caraffa was elected, and took the title of Paul IV. The ecclesiastical
activity of Caraffa, his share in the endeavour to restore pontifical and
hierarchical authority in the years previous to his election as Pope, his
religious attitude and tendencies, do not concern us here. But the spirit
shown by Caraffa in the treatment of heretics, and the affairs of the
Church, promised little peace if it were to be applied to the complicated
political relations of the papal see. What all expected to see was an
uncompromising postponement of political expediency to the single
object of restoring papal supremacy and ecclesiastical unity. What
none could have foreseen was that not only the political interests of the
Holy See but also all chances of an effective Catholic reaction were to be
sacrificed to the demands of intense personal hatred.
It was known that Caraffa was an enemy of Spain. As a Neapolitan,
he detested the alien masters of his native country. In 1547 he had
urged upon Paul III an attack on Naples in support of the rising which
had then occurred in the kingdom ; and it had subsequently required all
the influence of Julius to procure his admission to the Archbishopric of
Naples. But the overmastering nature of his hatred was not known, and
is even now not completely to be explained. If we assume that personal
grounds of animosity co-operated witli intense hatred of foreign rule, a
despairing sense that one last blow must be struck to free the Papacy
once and for all from Spanish domination, and a stern conscientious
antipathy to those methods of compromise with heretics which had been
the chief mark of Charles' action in religious matters — if we assume that
all these feelings worked together, each intensifying and exacerbating
1666-t] War between Paul IV and Philip I J
91
the other, then we can perhaps begin to understand tlie attitude of Paul.
In addition his advanced age (he was 79 years old at the time of his
election) admitted of no delay; what wa« to be done must be done
quickly; and the history of the Papacy can prove that old age exercises
no mitigating influence over the passions of anger and hatred.
The forces with which Paul entered on this struggle were in
themselves insigniiicant. The total gross revenues of the Papal Statu
about this time are estimated at 1,000,000 crowns; from which sum
400,000 crowns must be at once deducted for taxation remitted by
Caraffa and necessary current expenses. The ecclesiastical revenues had
been reduced by the apostasy of Germany, the practical independence
of Spain^ the condition of England, and by the austere refusal of
the Pope himself to allow money to be raised by questioiiable means
employed in the past. The papal troops were inefficient even if judged
by an Italian standard; the population was neither prosperous nor
devoted; and there w^ere permanent centres of sedition and opposition^
Paul set himself at once to gain external help. Ferrara joined; a
league w^as concluded at Rome wdth France, wbieh was represented by
Charles de Guise, the Cardinal of Lorraine, December 16, 1555; but
Venice as usual maintained a watchful neutrality. But his poiiey of
enriching his nephews by confiscation of tiie goods of Roman nobles,
while it agreed ill with the zeal for re form and justice hitherto professed
by the Pope, gained him many enemies at home. The conclusion of the
Truce of VauccUes (February, 1556) was a disappointment to Paul; but
his able and unscrupulous nephew, C'ardinal Carlo Caraffa, suececded
during the summer in persuading Henry II to renew the league for
defensive purposes. The seizure and imprisonment of Garcilasso della
Vega, the secretary of the Spanish embassy at Rome, was a measure
of open hostility; and the Duke of Alva, wdio had succeeded Toledo at
Naples, was forced to address a remonstrance, almost an ultimatum, to
the Pope in August, 1556, No satisfaction was to be expected ; and in
September the Spanish troops crossed the frontier and began to occupy
the Carapagna, The Pope, ill prepared for w^ar, w^as forced to beg for
an armistice, which was granted (December 2, 1556), He used the
interval to call on his ally for help ; and before the month w^as out the
Duke of Guise crossed the Alps. Instead of allowing him to proceed to
the reduction of Milan, Paul insisted on his pressing on through papal
territory to Naples. The passage of the French troops increased the
discontent of the papal subjects in Roraagna and the Marches, wdach
had already been aroused by the extraordinary subsidies required for the
war. The pajnil troops were melting away for want of pay; and when
the allied armies crossed the Neapolitan frontier and laid siege to
Civitella, they were soon compelled to withdraw. In August, 1557, the
news of the battle of St Quentin caused the recall of Guise, and the Pope
was left without defence.
Alva could easily have taken Rome if he had wished, but neither he
nor his master wisiied to reduce the Pope to extremities. The Pope was
forced to beg for peace, which was granted on easy terms. The only
serious concession required was the restoration to the Colonna and other
friends of Spain of the property which had been taken from them and
conferred upon the papal nephews. The Spanish hegemony in the
peninsula stood firmer than ever, but the Papal State was not curtailed.
Alva visited Paul at Rome, and was reconciled to the Pope (September,
1557).
After this brief and friiitless exposition of hatred, Paul returned
rebuked to his work of ecclesiastical reformation and the stimulation of
the Inquisition. That action of the Inquisition was frequently directed
by political motives was generally believed at the time, and is not in
itself improbable. Partly to quell the resentment caused by this and
other measures, partly perhaps to indicate the recognition and abandon-
ment of a mistaken policy, Paul (January, 1559) deprived his nephews
of all their offices and banished them from Rome, This act of justice
was however only the preliminary to the enforcement of still sterner
measures of religious repression ; and when the Pope expired in August,
1559, it was amid scenes of wild disorder; the headquarters of the Holy
Office at Rome were stormed and wrecked; the Pope's statue was
destroyed and dragged with ignominy through the streets. His
ecclesiastical policy appeared to be as complete a failure as his attack
upon the power of Spain.
But indirectly the action of Paul had a permanent effect on the
history of Europe. It led to the rupture of the Truce of Vaucelles. The
conclusion of this truce had seemed to be a triumph for Montmorency ;
but Cardinal Caraffa and the influence of Guise secured the real tri-
umph for the party of Lorraine. Soon after the expedition of Guise to
the peninsula war broke out in the North of France, but both sides con-
fined themselves for some time to preparations and defensive measures.
On June 7, 1557, Mary of England declared war on France. At length,
in July the army of the Netherlands under Emmanuel Philibert began
to move, and laid siege first to Guise and then to St Quentin* Coligny
succeeded in throwing himself into this place, and animated its defence;
but when Montmorency attempted to relieve the fortress (August 10) ho
was attacked and severely defeated. The Constable himself, with many of
the greatest men of France, was taken prisoner. The only French army
in the north was scattered, and the way lay open to Paris. But Philip
refused to allow the advance, and the French were given time to assemble
troops and put their defences in order. Coligny's obstinate defence in
St Quentin gave seventeen days of respite after the battle; and Guise
was recalled from Italy. Philip occupied a few trifling fortresses and
then disbanded his army.
In November Guise, whose authority with the King was now no
longer contested by the conflicting influence of Montmorency, had
brought together an army ; and on January 1^ 15»58, the siege of Calais
was undertaken ; in eight days the town surrendered, and the Enghsh
were expelled. Guines was captured shortl}' afterwards, and this gate
of B" ranee was closed for ever to the English- But the French need
was extreme. While the siege of Calais was proceeding the notables of
[France assembled in Paris at the King's command, and Henry demanded
*©f them a loan of 3*000,000 crowns, one-third from the clergy, two-
thirds from the towns, The news of the capture of Calais caused the
proposition to be accepted with acclamation. In April the marriage of
the Dauphin to Mary of Scothind, %vith the secret agreements concluded
previously, opened other prospects to French foreign policy.
In May, however^ negotiations for peace were begun by the Cardinal
of Lorraine, and Antoine de Granvelle, Bishop of Arras, suggested the
alliance of France and Spain for the suppression of heresy, pointing
out that persons in the highest positions in France, such as Coligny,
d*Andelot,and the Bourbon family, were infected by the new doctrines*
Religion was beginning in France to intensify party rivalries and serve
as an excuse for partisan revenge. But before negotiation could lead to
its full result war had once more to play its part.
The French plan of campaign for 1558 was directed to the capture
of Thionville, and, as a sequel, to a double invasion of Flanders. But
the dehiys caused by the long resistance of Thionville, wliick did not
fall until June 22, prevented the simultaneous execution of the two
attacks. The Marechal de Termes from Calais was first in the field,
and after sacking Dunkirk and ravaging the country he found himself
forced by the Flemish army untler Egmont to give battle near Grave-
lines. Here he suffered a complete defeat (July 13) to which the guns
of the English fleet contributed. After this the French armies were
compelled to confine themselves to the defensive.
In October peace negotiations were resumed on the north-eastern
frontier in tlie county of Saint FoL During the course of the discus-
sions Mary Tudor died (November 17). Her death facilitated an agree-
ment in two ways* In the first place it reduced the iniportaoce of
the question of Calais. Philip had no longer any need to insist on the
restitution of this town for the benefit of Elizabeth. In the second
place it allowed marriage proposals to weigh in the scales, and, although
Philip sued for the hand of Elizabeth of England, there was little to be
expected in that quarter. After the conference had been removed to
Cateau-Cambresis (February, 1559), Elizabeth, finding that Spain was
not supporting her demands for restitution, agreed that France slioold
[retain Calais for eight years, and the way was cleared for the main
[compact. The peace was signed on April 2* The last point decided
[was that Philip should marry Elizabeth of France.
France restored Marienburg, Thionville, Damvillers, and Montmedy,
9.4 The resulting settlement in Europe [1668
receiving in return Saint Quentin, Ham, le Catelet, and Terouanne ;
Bouvines and Bouillon were given back to the Bishop of Liege ; Philip
retained Hesdin. Montferrat, the Milanese, Corsica, Savoy, Bresse, and
Piedmont were abandoned by the French ; except for the places of
Turin, Pinerolo, Chieri, Chivasso, and Villanuova in the territory of
Asti. Montalcino was tc^ be given up to the Duke of Tuscany. France
did not press for the restitution of Navarre, but retained Saluzzo.
Thus the contest of sixty years reached its close, never to revive
in the same form. The boundaries of the Netherlands were restored
with slight alterations. Italy was left as Charles had fixed her system.
Savoy was re-established as a buflfer-State between France and Italy ; a
position which the genius of her Dukes would use to good advantage.
No treaty marks a more definite stage in the development of the
European state system. It involved the acceptance of Spanish supremacy
in Italy, and the recognition of the organic unity of France, of Spain,
and of the Netherlands. For all her concessions France received com-
pensation in the debateable land which lies between the southern
boundaries of the Netherlands and the northern slopes of the Alps.
Here the international struggles of the next century would be fought
out, until French ambition returned once more to attempt the conquest
of the Netherlands, and the obliteration of the Pyrenees. The death of
Henry II, and the accession of Elizabeth in England, the death of
Paul IV, the marriage of Philip with Elizabeth of France, and the death
of Charles V, all occurring within twelve months contributed to em-
phasise the close of an old epoch, the beginning of a new one. The
policy of Montmorency had triumphed over that of the Guises ; the
obstinate persistence of Charles V had received its posthumous reward ;
and the outbreak of the wars of religion in France on the one hand, the
revolt of the Netherlands on the other, were before long to paralyse all
those remaining forces and ambitions which might have reversed the
decisions recorded at Cateau-Cambresis. The Reformation had hitherto
run its course almost without opposition ; henceforward the energies,
which had been absorbed in the long dynastic struggle, would be occu-
pied by the still greater contests arising out of the Counter-Reformation
movement. In these contests the resumption of the Council of Trent,
and its policy and conclusions, furnished the dogmatic basis, and defined
the controversial issues.
Throughout this period there have been two main plots in Euro{>ean
history, the one centring in Germany and concerned with the questions of
religious reform, the other centring in Italy, and leading to the permanent
settlement of territorial questions in Europe. The plots are interwoven,
and it has been only possible in the foregoing pages occasionally to
indicate important points of contact. But each can be to some extent
isolated. The German plot is reserved for full treatment in later
Royal authority in the French Church 95
chapters. The Italian plot has for its chief actors, on the one side
Spain and the Netherlands, on the other side France, while Savoy and
the lesser States of Italy each contribute their share to the action. The
internal affairs of Italy have received in the description of the main plot
such attention as space permitted, and as was necessary to explain the
forces at work. But the internal affairs of France, Spain, and the
Netherlands have been left aside. Yet some knowledge of these is
required if we are to understand the power exerted by each in the
forcible settlement of European questions.
The course of the reform movement in France is related below;
the institutions of France are described in the first volume of this
History. It remains only to give some account of those internal de-
velopments and changes that affected the activity of France as a
European power.
In the institutions of France there is little change to record. The
absolute monarchy had been already established, and was further
developed by the school of legists, who had their headquarters in the
University of Toulouse. At their head was the Chancellor Duprat.
Their principles and their action aimed at the continuous extension of
the royal power. From the King they received their employment and
their reward ; to his strength they owed everything. All their efforts
were directed to its increase both in State and in Church. In the
Church especially the Concordat of 1516 proved a valuable instrument
in their hands. The absolute authority of the Crown over the Church
is proved by the lavish grants frequently made by the clergy to the
King, enforced at need by the seizure of property : and by the proposals
to sell clerical lands for the King's benefit put forward in 1561 at St
Germain. The clergy then offered willingly 16,600,000 livres to avoid
this danger, so real did it appear. The old Gallicanism of the Pragmatic
died hard, finding its last strongholds in the Parliaments and the Uni-
versities ; and was not finally defeated until the lit de justice of 1527,
which removed all jurisdiction relative to high ecclesiastical office from
the ParlemenU and gave it to the Grand Conseil, The old Gallicanism
was replaced by a new royal Gallicanism, which resented interference
with the ecclesiastical affairs of France from beyond the Alps, but placed
the Church at the mercy of the King. In consequence of this subjection
of the French Church to the King the clergy of France fell into two
well-marked divisions : those who held or hoped for rich ecclesiastical
promotion from the King, and the poor parochial clergy, who thought
and suffered, and whose importance as a political factor will be seen in
the Wars of Religion.
Though the general lines remain unaltered, administrative changes
can be perceived. The elevation of Jacques de Beaune de Semblan9ay
(1618) to the cognisance of all the King's finances, extraordinary as well
as ordinary, shows the desire for some unification ; but his fall in 1527
96 Revenue^ justice^ and army in France
proves that the new arrangements were not supposed to have worked well.
The establishment of the TrSsor de VSpargne in 1523 shows the same
effort for centralisation; this measure weakened the Tr^soriers and
0-SnSraux^ and brought the whole question of finance under the eyes of
the King's Council. The scope of the TrSsor de VSpargne was gradually
widened, and in 1542 a more radical reform was introduced ; the old
financial districts were abolished, and 16 new centres were established
for the receipt of all funds arising from the areas assigned to them.
These reforms were in the right direction, but did not go far enough.
The sources of revenue were unchanged. The taille was still the
mainstay of the government, and was increased at will. In 1543 it
reached a figure higher than in the time of Louis XI. Extraordinary
supplies were raised by the sale of domain lands, and by the creation of
new ofl&ces, intended to be sold. The consequent multiplication of
unnecessary officials, each anxious to recoup his expenditure, was the
gravest abuse of the time. Under Francis I the system of aideB was
gradually extended to the provinces which had hitherto enjoyed im-
munity ; and, in spite of solemn engagements, the quart du sel of
Guyenne was first (1541) raised to three-eighths; and then in 1545 the
gahelle du sel^ with its system of compulsory purchase, was put in full
force in all the south-western provinces. The revolt of La Rochelle
(1542) and of Guyenne in general (1548) did not prevent the execution
of these decrees.
Similarly in the department of justice changes are rather administra-
tive than constitutional. The introduction of the prSsidiaux, a board of
judges appointed for each hailliage or sSnSchaiiasSe^ and intermediate
between the Parlements and the Courts of first instance, was probably
advantageous to the people, though its immediate object was the raising
of money by the sale of the new ofl&ces. The Edict of Villers-Cotterets
(1539) was a great landmark in the administration of justice and in the
history of legal procedure in France ; it instituted the use of the French
language in the Courts, and superseded ecclesiastical jurisdiction in the
great majority of cases by the lay tribunals. The clergy in 1552 paid
three millions of crowns to recover these rights of jurisdiction; but
apparently the King did not fulfil his share in the bargain.
The old military system changed slowly. The mounted archers were
gradually being separated from the gend d'armes, whose following they
had originally constituted. As the importance of hand firearms increased
the number of archers was diminished ; and some attempt was made so
to strengthen the defensive armour of horse and man as to meet this
new weapon of offence. Chevau-Ugers^ trained after the Stradiot fashion,
and other varieties of cavalry begin to appear. But in infantry France
was still deficient. The attempt of Francis I (1543) to form seven
provincial legions, each of 6000 foot, alarmed the gentry by placing
arms in the hands of the peasantry, and for this reason or because of
7%e Constable de Montmorency 97
Francis' habitTial inconseqaence it was abandoned* and only served as a
pretext for leyying the additional impost for which this measure was
made an excuse.
Thns the chief interest of the time for France consisted in the
persons who conducted the goYcrnment. The system might not change,
but the spirit in which it was administered depended on the King and
the persons in whom he had trust. Inattentive as he was to business,
the character of Francis I had a marked effect upon the history of his
reign. The profuse expenditure on his Court must have reacted on his
foreign policy. The cost of the Court is estimated by a Venetian
ambassador as amounting to 1,500,000 crowns a year, i.e. about three
millions of livreM toumou. Of this sum 600,000 crowns went in pensions.
The King's buildings, important as they are in the history of art,
weighed heavily upon his people. The influence of the King's mistresses,
Madame de Chateaubriand and Madame d'Etampes, and of his son's
mistress, Diane de Poitiers, decided the fate of ministers if not of nations.
In the early years of the King's reign, and particularly during his cap-
tivity, the influence of the Queen-Mother, Louise of Savoy, was pre-
dominant. Her powerful will and vigorous though narrow intellect
were not without their value for France ; but her rapacity was unlimited,
and led to the treason of the Duke of Bourbon, the most important
domestic incident of the reign. During his early years Francis was
dominated by Bonnivet, and to a less degree by Lautrec and Lescun ;
during his later life (1541-7) Admiral Annebaut (de Retz) and the Car-
dinal de Toumon came to the front. The Due d'Enghien also enjoyed
so much favour that his accidental death was ascribed by Court gossip to
the act of the Dauphin himself. In the King's middle life Philippe de
Brion had considerable power. But none of these courtiers can be said
to have possessed a definite scheme of policy or to have worked for
any definite end. More important was the part played by Anne de
Montmorency.
So early as 1522 Montmorency became a Marshal of France. In the
negotiations for the King's freedom after Pavia he took a prominent
part, and was shortly afterwards appointed grand maitre (1526), and
from that time until 1541 he was the most conspicuous person at the
King's Court. He was Governor of Languedoc, a post previously held
by the Constable de Bourbon, the duties of which he executed as a rule
by deputy. The tendencies of his policy were favourable to the Emperor.
He was unwilling to break the peace, to form alliances with the Pro-
testant Princes or with the Sultan. Thus the period of his influence
shows a certain touch of moderation. Montmorency was not always
able to make his counsels prevail ; but their weight was always on the
side of compromise. In the conclusion of the Treaty of Cambray his
influence is especially to be seen. On the other hand there is little
reason to believe that the grand maitre contributed anything masterly
C. M. H. II. 7
98 The Guises and Diane de Poitiers
to the inconsequent foreign policy of Francis ; any notable ideas of
strategy to his army. His intellect was mediocre, and his most brilliant
achievement was the devastation of Provence in 1636, which frustrated
the invasion of Charles.
In 1538 he reached the culmination of his fortunes under Francis,
when he was created Constable of France. The interview at Aigues-
Mortes belongs to this period, when his influence was perhaps at its
height. He must have the responsibility of the policy which allowed
Charles a free hand in the chastisement of Ghent (1540). The failure
of this policy left France isolated, unable to rely either upon England
or upon the German Protestants. His fall, however, in 1541 was rather
due to a Court intrigue, to the fear of Francis of his heir-apparent,
to the jealousy of Madame d'Etampes and of Diane de Poitiers, than to
the actual failure of his schemes. The party of Madame d'Etampes
won the day, and the Constable retired into private life.
Francis retained so much animosity against him that he is said to
have warned his son before his death not to admit Montmorency to
his favour. But the advice, if given, had little effect, and inmiediately
on his accession Henry recalled the Constable to the royal Councils,
and even paid the arrears of his pensions for the years of his suspension.
The alliance between the Constable and Diane was intimate, but she
perceived the danger of having him all-powerful. The Princes of the
House of Guise, cadets of the sovereign House of Lorraine, and nearly
related to the Houses of Anjou and Bourbon, were the instruments
whom she found. Their father, Claude, Due de Guise, a contemporary
of Francis I, had not succeeded in pushing his own fortunes at Court,
but had nevertheless found opportunities to serve the King by levying
troops for him and otherwise, so that he was able to secure dignities for
himself, with offices and benefices for his relations. His brother, Jean,
Cardinal of Lorraine, was not inconspicuous at the Court of Francis and
in the history of the French Renaissance. But the high fortunes of the
family begin with the sons of Claude ; among whom are pre-eminent,
Francis, the soldier, afterwards Due de Guise, and Charles, Archbishop
of Reims, and afterwards Cardinal. Under Henry II the places of power
and profit, the spoils of discarded favourites, the determination of the
King's policy, are divided between Montmorency and the Guises ; while
Diane de Poitiers secured through their rivalry the decisive intermediate
position. The Guise policy was aggressive, enterprising, provocative.
Montmorency was more cautious, and favourable to peace. To the
former were due the League of Rome and the rupture of the Truce of
Vaucelles ; to the latter the Truce of Vaucelles, and above all, the Peace
of Cateau-Cambresis. All alike were zealous Catholics ; all alike ra-
pacious and greedy. In view of the powerful elements disputing the
supremacy over her husband Catharine de'Medici wisely kept in the back-
ground. Her capacities for rule and intrigue were not seen until a later age.
Montmorency bad the advantage through his powerful character,
his industry, and will ; the Guises through their skill in winning
the people and the interests to their side; in the Church, in tha
army, in the Parhment^ their influence was great and was carefully
developed. On the other hand, the immense ransoms exacted from
Montmorency in 1559 for himself and his relatives impoverished his
estate, and the Peace of Cateau-Cambresis was unpopular and diminished
his credit. Thus, after the death of Henry II the advantage lay with
the younger rivals of the Constable.
The changes in the system of the Spanish monarchy during the period
are even less significant than those in France. The Cortes of Castile
continued to meet and to retain their hold upon finance. The servicio
became a regular impost, voted every three years. On the other hand,
the alcabala was a ground for frequent bargaining between the King
and the Cortes, and the advantage fell to the latter; for the total nett
income raised from this source did not increase during the reign, while
fthe purchasing power of money was diminished by at least one half.
The real limitation of the royal power in Spain is seen in the refusal
of all three Estates, exceptionally summoned to the Cortes of 1538, to
[agree to Charles* proposal to raise money by a new excise on meat. The
power of the Crown over the Cortes, if it was increasing, was increasing
alowly, and it-s increase Avas due to the extension of royal authority in
the towns, where the royal corregidor was becoming more autocratic,
and the reffidores themselves were ai>pointed by the Crown. The pressure
of the hidalgos for admission to municipal office, which is a notable
.feature of the time, would tend also gradually to divorce the ruling
olass in the towns from those who carried on its business and felt the
real pinch of tyranny or maladministration.
In Spain more than elsewdiere the interests of tlie Church and the
Crown were cloaely linked. The Church looked to royal protection
against heresy and against the Cortes. The King looked to tlie Church
for supplies in time of need ; he had its good government thoroughly
at heart ; he supported and moderated the action of the Inquisition so
far as he could, for the Inquisition, though based on royal authority,
was not entirely under his control. The forcible conversion of the
Moriscos of Valencia in 1525 and following years attests the zeal,
rather than the wisdom, of Charles, The flight of a large part of this
industrious class, and the discontent and apprehensions of those who
I remained, living as they did in constant fear of the Holy Office, was a
I snain cause of the impoverishment of a considerable part of Spain. Charles
|«eems himself to have perceived his error, and the severity of the decrees
J against the Moriscos was considerably relaxed during his later years.
In Spain also tlie administrative developments are more conspicuous
than the constitutional. The business of government was becoming
more and more complicated. Under Ferdinand and Isabella we have
already the Councils of State, of Finance, and of Castile, besides the
Council of Aragon ; and iu addition the Councils of the Inquisition, of
the Military Orders, and of the Cruzada, Under Charles we have in
addition the Chamber, tlie Council of War, the Council of the Indies,
the Council of Flanders, and the Council of Italy. The several fields
of these Councils, with a monarch who was absent from Spain for one-
half of the total period of his reign, required to be carefully limited and
circumscribed. This led in its turn to the transaction of more and more
business by writing, and that to red-tape and it-s accompanying delays j
so that the excessive elaboration of bureaucratic methods tended to
hamper and impede the despatch of business. This became even more
conspicuous in the time of Philip.
The problem of the decline of Spain has often occupied the minds of
historians, who are at a loss to discover why the country which fills so
large a place on the European canvas daring the sixteenth century after-
wards fell into impotence and decay. But the contrast has generally
been exaggerated. Spain was never very rich and never very powerful.
Individual Spaniards showed great enterprise and great talents. Fer-
dinand, and after him Charles V, obtained from their country all the
energy of which it was capable. The Spanish foot -soldier had admirable
qualities. But the work of Charles V depended as much upon the
Netherlands as upon Spain ; Italian enterprise was supported as much
from the Low Countries as from Spain; and from both together support
was always insufiicient, and had to be eked out hy local oppression. No
great national impulse raised the Habsburgs to the head of Europe;
the conquest of the Indies was due more to good fortune and the
enterprise of a few men than to the greatness of the Spanish nation.
When Spain lost the stimulus of great rulers, when she was deprived of
the efficient support of the Netherland commercial wealth, when she was
thrown upon her own resources^ then the true weakness of the national
character disclosed itself. The Spaniards could never be a great nation
because they were never industrious.
Nevertheless, if Spain ever had an age of industry, it was in the time
of Charles V, From the time of the conquest of Mexico an immense
opening was offered to Spanish trade. Cliarles was anxious to encourage
this trade. In 1529 he opened the export trade to a number of cities of
the East and the North, and broke dovni to some extent the monopoly
of Seville. As a consequence many industries increased by leaps and
bounds. The silk industry in Toledo and Seville, the cloth industry in
Toledo, Cordova, Cuenca and Segoviii, reached considerable dimensions.
The same stimulus reacted upon agriculture and the wool-growing
industry. For a time the new discoveries seemetl to have opened an
industrial era in Spain. But before long the influx of precious metals,
rapid after the conquest of Mexico, more rapid after the conquest of
Peru, and immense after the discovery of the silver mines of Potosi,
began to raiae the prices of commodities in Spain, far above the level
current hx other eonntries. This made Spain a bad seller and it
profitable market. In spite of all the laws against export of treasure
the merchants managed to exchange their wares of foreign manufacture
for Spanish bullion, and to transport it beyond the border. The trade
with the Spanish colonies stimulated competition. The legislation of
1552 encouraged import and discouraged export in the interests of the
inhabitants of Spain. The industries that had flourished began once
more to shrink; the influx of treasure, with the appearance of wealth
wliich it brought to so many, discouraged exertion, always distastefid to
the Spaniards, and by the end of the reign of Charles V the period of
industrial activity was alreaily in its decline. This was not due to the
severity of taxation — having regard to the rise of prices the taxes of
Spain probably became lighter during the period — but to the natural
* action of the circumstances upon the national temperament, aided by
bad laws and a misconceived economic policy. But the worst results
of these forces and methods fall outside our period,
The returns from the colonies enriched the government and individuals
rather than the nation. The fifth share of the treasury in all treasure
imported and other profits from c^jlonial trade brouglit the revenue
from this source in 1551 to 400,000 and in 1556 to 700,000 ducats.
The whole treasure of the Indian fleet was seized for the first time in
1535 by way of loan; and the evil precedent was followed in later years,
until forbidden by a law of Philip in 1567.
In the government of the Indies Charles took a lively interest, and
his belief in their future was not to be shaken. His relations w^ith Ins
great adventurers were not always happy* Cortes ended Ids days in a
maze of litigation. Fernando Pizarro was imprisoned iu 1539 for a long
period. Francisco was killed by the insurgents, against whom the home
government gave him insufficient support. Gonzalo Pizarro was executed
for rebellion in 1548. But the difficulties of controlling these autocratic
soldiers at a distance of 4000 miles accounts for many misunderstandings;
and the natural tendency to local despotism and virtual independence
required constant supervision and suggested suspicion. In regard to the
treatment of the natives and the question of the encomiendtis Charles'
policy was humane ; though his measures w^ere oidy in part successful.
He lent a ready ear to the representations of Las Casas, and supported
the missionaries against the colonists. On the whole his colonial policy
achieved its objects ; the natives were preserved from extermination
or universal slavery ; while the provinces of Mexico, Peru, Bolivia,
Northern Chili, with Venezuela, New Granada, and Central America,
were in his reign reduced to order and tolerable government. The
spice trade with the Moluccas he endeavoured at one time to secure for
the Spaniards ; but in 1529 he was content to leave the monopoly to
the Portuguese in return for an ample money compensation.
The provinces of the Netherlands inherited by Charles were sub-
stantially increased before his death. The French enclave of Toiirnay
was conquered in 1521. After a long period of civil war Friesland was
finally annexed in 1523. The expulsion of the Bishop of Utrecht by
the Duke of Gelders was the excuse for the acquisition of the temporal
sovereignty of this important diocese by Charles in 1527 ; and the city
of Utrecht was reconquered in 1528* The endless struggle with the
Duke of Gelders did not end with the death of Charles of Egniont in
1538 ; but the rapid campaign of Charles against the Duke of Cleves
resulted in the final incorporation of Gelders with the Burgundian
possessions in 1543. Groniiigen and the neighbouring territory had
been acquired in 1536, In 1543 Charles forced also Cambray to
accept a garrison. Liege, though still in nominal independence, was
brought more and more under Burgundian influence* Its Bishop,
Evrard de la Marck, maintiiined with Charles almost unbroken friendship
until his death in 1538. Then Charles procured the election of his
uncle George, the bastard son of Maximilian, Charles used the territory
of Liege as his own» building on it the fortress of Marienburg (1546),
and after the capture of this town Charlemont and Philippe viUe in 1554,
Thus the area of Burgundian supremacy was widened and its
boundaries rectified ; and in 1548 the status of the Provinces with
reference to the Empire was revised. The whole of them was included
in the Burgundian Circle ; tliey were declared not to be subject to the
laws of the Empire ; tliey were bound however to contribute to imperial
subsidies, and received in return the protection of the Empire, The
effect of this measure was to sever the connexion between the Empire
and the Netherlands ; for the protection was a figment, and the con-
tribution remained unpaid. The suzerainty of France over Flanders and
Artois had been renounced in 1529, and thus the Burgundian possessions
became a single and independent whole. The Pragmatic Sanction of
1548 further declared that the law of succession for all the Provinces
should be henceforth the same, and prevented the danger of a divided
inheritance.
The regency of Margaret of Savoy » which ended in 1530, and that
of Maria of Hungary, which terminated in 1552, were both directed by
the supreme will of Charles, though much discretion was left to these
able and faithful vicegerents. The centralisation of the government
was carried further. Councils of State and of Finance for the whole
aggregate were established. A central Court of Appeal was set up at
Malines, though its authority was not universally accepted. The States-
General for all the principalities were frequently summoned; and,
although their decisions were not legally binding on the several States,
every effort was made to enforce the wiU of the majority upon every
district. Here as elsewhere Charles respected the constitution and did
not attempt to enforce his will against the vote of the States, Many
instances are on record in which he was obliged to give way. The newly
acquired provinceB were not immediately incorporated in the assemhly
of States-GeneniL
In the Netherlands, as in his other dominions, Charles endeavoured
to enforce his will ui>ou the Church. But the rival interests of tbe
reat alien sees, possessing ecclesiastical authority over the chief part of
lis territory, rendered this difficult ; and his plan for the creation of six
^national dioceses failed owing to the opposition of the existing prelates
and the Roman See, But in the matter of heresy he succeeded in
holding his own for his lifetime. Early in 1521 before the Diet of
Worms he issued his first edict in the Netherlands against Luther. By
repeated laws, increasing in stringency, he kept if not the Reformed
opinions at any rate their public expression within bounds ; and the
only serious danger of an outbreak in the Netlierhinds under Charles was
at the time of the Anabaptist movement at Miinster (15B5), when the
attempted seizure of Amsterdam by those sectaries led to a more rigorous
persecution of them in various parts of the Netherlands. Tlie Inquisition
was established un a secular basis, for Charles could not afford to give
this powerful instrument into the hands of alien Bishops or the Holy
See. But under the surface the forces were growing; the movement was
amorphous and heterogeneous ; Lutheranism in the North, Zwinglian
views in the South, Anabaptist doctrine among the more violent, and
towards the end of the reign the more methodical and better organised
Calvinistic system were spreading in spite of the Inquisition, The
persecution of Charles, which, although vigorous in appearance, was
in effect not especially severe, succeeded in concealing rather than in
preventing the spread of heresy. This legacy he left to his son.
Indeed, though tlie Netherlands flourished under Charles, though
their trade prospered through the connexion with Spain and tlie Indies,
though the wealth of Antwerp and Amsterdam increased year by year,
though peace was preserved and apparent obedience, though territory
was rounded off and hostile province incorporated, the seeds were being
sown which bore fruit in the days of Philip. The pressure of taxation
was severe. The Spanish garrisons introduced in the early years of
Charles' reign were hated here as elsewhere. Religious causes of discord
were constantly growing. Charles spent but a small part of his reign
the Netherlands, but his early years were passed there, and he was
'^never a stranger, nor out of sympathy. His son was a Spaniard, and his
home in Spain. The days of Margaret and Maria were to be fullnwed
by the rule of a different class of proconsuls, with a different kind of
instructions. Then the accumulated discontent, the weariness of long-
continued burdens borne in a cause that was not their own, the strain
of the prolonged strife with Franee, tlieir natural friend, all the errors
and mistaken policy of Charles, would make themselves felt j the issue of
these things will be seen in a later volume.
CHAPTER IV
LUTHER
The Reformation of the sixteenth century had its birth and growth
in a union of spiritual antl secular forces such as the world has seldom
seen at any other period of its history. On the secular side, the times
were full of new movements, intellectual and moral, politieal, social, and
economic ; and spiritual forces were everywhere at work, which aimed
at making religion the birthright and possession of the common man — »
whether king» noble, burgher, artisan, or peasant — as well as of the
ecclesiastic, a possession which should directly promote a ^vorthy life
within the famil}^ and the State. These religious impulses had all a
peculiar democratic element and were able to impregnate with passion
and, for a time, to fuse together tlie secular forces of the period. Hence
their importance historically. If the main defect iu the earlier histories
of the Reformation has been to neglect tlie secular sides of the movement,
it is possible that more recent historians have been too apt to ignore the
religious element which was a real power.
It may be an exaggeration to say, as is sometimes done, that this
religious side of the Ueformation began in tlie inward religious growth
of a single personality — the river comes from a thousand nameless rills
and not only from one selected fountain-head ; yet Luther was so
prominent a figure that the impulses in his religious life may be taken as
the type of forces which were at work over a wide area, and the history
of these forces may be fitly described in tracing the genesis and growth
of his religious opinions from his early years to his struggle against
Indulgences.
The real roots of the religious life of Luther must be sought for in
the family and in the popular religious life of the times. What had
Luther and Myconius and hundreds of other boys of the peasant and
burgher classes been taught by their parents within the family, and
wdiat religious influences met them in the high-school and University ?
Fortunately the writings of the leaders of new religious movement
abound in biographical details ; and the recent labours of German
historians enable us to form some idea of the discordant elements
the religious life at the close of the fifteenth century,
104
I
Popular reU<jious life in Germany
105
The fi taught by parents to children in pious German families
seems tu nn v v ueen si tuple, unaffected and evant^elical. Myconius relates
how his father, a burgher, was accustomed to expound the Apostles'
Creed to the boy and to tell him tliat Jesus Christ was the Saviour from
all sins ; that the one thing needed to obtain God's pardon for sins was
to pray and to trust; and how he insisted above all that the forgiveness
of God was a free gift, bestowed without fee by God on man for the
sake of what Christ had done. Little books suitable for family instruc-
tion were in circulation in which were printed the Creed, the Lord's
Prayer, the Ten Commandments, and sometimes one or two Psalms in
the German tongue. Simple catechisms and other small books of
devotion seem to have been in circulation which were full of very simple
evangelical teaching. It is probable that Luther repeated a great deal
of what was commonly taught to clii Id ren in his own earliest years, vvheui
in later days, he himself wrote little books for the young. Traces of
this simple family piety, which insisted that all holiness came from
** trusting in tlie holy passion of Christ," and that nothing which the
sinner could do for himself availed anything, may be found all down
the stream of medieval ©eligious life in the most jjopular hymns and
in the sermons of the great revival preachers.
The latter half of the fifteenth century saw the growth of a form of
piety very different from that simple household religion, A strange
terror seemed to brood over the people. The plague came periodically
into the crowded and badly drained towns ; new diseases made their
appearance and added to the prevailing fear ; the dread of a Turkish
invasion seemed to be previilent — mothers scared their children by
naming the Turks, and in hundreds of German parishes the bells tolled
in the village steeples calling the people to pray to God to deliver them
from Turkish raids* This prevailing fear bred a strange restlessness.
Crowds of pilgrims thronged the highways, trudging from shrine to i
ehrine, hoping to get deliverance from fear and assurance of pardon for ^
sins. Princes who could afford a sufficiently large armed guard visited
the holy places in Palestine and brought back relics which they stored in
their private chapels j the leaser nobility and the richer burghers made
pilgrimages to Rome, especially during the Jubilee years, which became
somewhat frequent in the later Middle Ages, and secured indulgences by
visiting and praying before the several shrines in the Holy City, For
the common folk of Germany, in the last decades of the fifteenth century,
the favourite place of pilgrimage was Compostella in Spain, and, in the
second degree, Einsiedeln in Switzerland. It was said that the bones of
St James the Brother of our Lord had been brought from Palestine to
Compostella; and the shrine numbered its pilgrims by the hundred
thousand a year. So famous and frequent was this place of pilgrimage
that a special, one miglit almost say a professional, class of pilgrims came
into existence, the Jacohabriider^ who were continually on the roads
106 Religixms revival
coming to or from Compostella, seeking to win pardon for themselves
or others by their wandering devotion.
Sometimes the desire to go on pilgrimage became almost an epidemic.
Bands of children thronged the roads, bareheaded and clad in nothing
but their shirts ; women left their families and men deserted their work.
In vain preachers of morals like Geiler von Kaisersberg denounced the
practice and said that on pilgrimages more sinners were created than
sins pardoned. The terror swayed men and they fled to shrines where
they believed they could find forgiveness ; the pilgrimage songs make a
small literature ; and pilgrim guide-books, like the Mirabilia Momae and
Die Waif art und Strasse zu Sant Jacobs appeared in many languages.
This revival of religion had its special effect on men destined to a
religious life. The secular clergy seem to have been the least affected.
Chronicles, whether of^owns or of families, bear witness to the degrada-
tion of morals among The parish priests and the superior clergy. The
Benedictines and their dependent Orders of monks do not appear to
have shared largely in the religious movement. It was different however
with the Dominicans, the Franciscans, and the mendicant Augfustinians.
These begging friars reformed themselves strenuously, in the medieval
sense of reformation. They went back to their old lives of mortifying
the flesh, of devoting themselves to works of practical benevolence and
of self-denying activity. As a consequence, they, and not the parish
clergy, had become the trusted religious leaders of the people. Their
chapels were thronged by the common folk, and the better disposed
nobles and burghers took them for their confessors and spiritual directors.
It was in vain that the Roman Curia proclaimed, by its Legates in
Germany, the old doctrine that the benefits of religious acts do not de-
pend upon the personal character of the administrators; that it published
regulations binding all parishioners to confess at least once a year to
their parish priests. The people, high and low, felt that Bishops who
rode to the Diet accompanied by their concubines disguised in men's
clothing, and parish priests who were tavern-keepers or the most
frequent customers at the village public-house, were not true spiritual
guides. They turned for the consolations of religion to the poor- living,
hard-working Franciscans and Augustinian Eremites who listened to
their confessions and spoke comfortingly to their souls, who taught the
children and said masses without taking fees. The last decades of the
fifteenth century were the time of a revival in the spiritual power and
devotion of the mendicant Orders.
One result of the underlying fear which inspired this religious
revival was the way in which the personality of Christ was constantly
regarded in the common Christian thought of the time as it iSj revealed
to us in autobiographies, in sermons, and in pictorial representations.
The Saviour was concealed behind the Judge, who, was to come to
punish the wicked. Luther tells us that when he was a boy in the
parish cliurch his childish imaginittion was inflamed by the stained -glass
picture of Jesus, not the Saviour, but the Judge, of a fierce countenance,
seated on a rainbow, and carrying a flaming a word in His hand. This
idea prevented pious people who held it from approaching Jesus as an
intercessor. He Himself needed to be interceded with on behalf of the
poor sinners He was coming to judge. And this thought in turn gave
to the adoration of the Virgin Mother a strength and intensity hitherto
unknown in medieval religion. The doctrine of the Immaculate Con-
ception had strenuous advocates ; men and women formed themselves
into confraternities that they might beseech her intercession with the
strength that numbers give ; and these confraternities spread all over
Germany. The intercessory powers of the Virgin Mother became a
more and more important element in the popular religion, and little
books of devotion were in i-irculation — the Little Gospel^ the Pearl of
the Passion — which related with many a comment the words of Christ
un the Cross to St John and to the Virgin, Then the idea grew up
tliat the Virgin herself had to be interceded with in order to become an
intercessor ; and her mother, St Anne, became the object of a cult which
may almost be called new. This '' Cult of the Blessed Anna " rapidly
extended itself in ever- widening circles imtil there were few districts in
Germany which had not their confraternities devoted to her service.
Such was the prevailing enthusiastic popular religion of the last decades
of the fifteenth century — the religion which met and surrounded a
sensitive boy wlien he left his quiet home and entered the world. It
had small connexion, save in the one point of the increased reverence
paid to the Virgin, with the theology of the Schools, but it was the
religious force among the people.
Side by side with this flamboyant popular religion can be discerned
another spiritual movement so unlike it, so utterly di%^ergent from it in
character and in aim, that it is surprising to detect its presence within
the same areas and at tlie same period, and that we need scarcely wonder
that it has been so largely overlooked. Its great characteristic was that
lajTuen liegan to take into tlieir own hands matters which had hitherto
been supposed to be the exclusive property of churchmen. We can
discern the impulse setting in motion at the same time princes,
burghers, and artisans, each class in its own way.
The Great Council of Constance had pledged the Church to a large
number of practical reforms, aiming at the reinvigoration of the various
local ecclesiastical institutions. These pledges had never been fulfilled,
and their non-fulfilment accounts for one side of the German opposition
to Rome, During the last decades of tlie lifteentli century some of the
German Princes assumed the right to see that within their lands proper
discipline was exercised over the clergy as well as over the laity. To
give instances would need more apace than this chapter affords. It is
enough to say that the jus episcopale which Luther claimed in later
108 Secular control of religion and charity
days for the civil power had been exercised, and that for the good of
the people, in the lands of Brandenburg and of Saxony before the close
of the fifteenth century. We have therefore this new thing, that the
laity in power had begun to set quietly aside the immunities and privi-
leges of the Church, to this extent at least, that the civil authorities
compelled the local ecclesiastical institutions within their dominions to
live under the rule of reform laid down by an ecumenical council, and
that they did this despite the remonstrances of the superior ecclesiastical
authorities.
The same assertion of the rights of laymen to do Christian work in
their own way appears when the records of the boroughs are examined.
The whole charitable system of the Middle Ages had been administered
by the Church ; all bequests for the relief of the poor had been placed
in the hands of the clergy ; and all donations for the relief of the poor
were given to clerical managers. The burghers saw the charitable be-
quests of their forefathers grossly perverted from their original purposes,
and it began to dawn upon them that, although the law of charity was
part of the law of Christ, it did not necessarily follow that all charities
must be under ecclesiastical administration. Hence cases appear, and
that more frequently as the years pass, where burghers leave their
charitable bequests to be managed by the town council or other secular
authority ; and this particular portion of Christian work ceased to be
the exclusive possession of the clergy.
Another feature of the times was the growth of an immense numl)er
of novel religious associations or confraternities. They were not, like
the praying circles of the Mystics or of the Grottesfreunde^ strictly non-
clerical or anti-clerical ; they had no objection to the protection of the
Church, but they had a distinctively lay character. Some of them were
associations of artisans ; and these were commonly called Kalands^ be-
cause it was one of their rules to meet once a month for divine service,
usually in a chapel belonging to one of the mendicant Orders. Others
bore curious names, such as St Ursula' % Schifflein^ and enforced a rule that
all the members must pray a certain number of times a week. Pious
people frequently belonged to a number of these associations. The mem-
bers united for religious purposes, generally under the auspices of the
Church ; but they were confraternities of laymen and women who had
marked out for themselves their own course of religious duties quite
independently of the Church and of its traditional ideals. Perhaps no
greater contribution could be made to our knowledge of the quiet reli-
gious life at the close of the fifteenth century than to gather together in
a monograph what can be known about these religious confraternities. \/ \
Such was the religious atmosphere into which Luther was born and ^
which he breathed from his earliest days. His mother taught him tpeM /
simple evangelical hymns which had fed her own spiritual growth ; his
father had that sturdy common-sense piety which belonged to so
many of the better disposed uobles, burghers^ and artisans of the time ;
while the fear of Jesus the Judge, who was coming to judge and pun-
ish the wicked, branded itself on his child's soul when he gazed up at
the vengeful picture of our LonL He was taught at home the Ten
Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, words of Jesus from the Gospels,
the Creed, such simple hymns as Chrint ut er»tanden^ Ein kindeiein
so Idbelich^ and Nun bitten wir den heiUgen Geut — all' that went to
make what he long afterwards culled '** the faith of the children/* His
father's strong dislike to monks and friars ; the Hussite propaganda,
which, in spite of all attempts at repression, had penetrated the Harz
and Tlmiingia ; the Mansfeld police regulations, with other evidence
from the local chronicles, show how much the lay religion had made its
way among the people. The popular revival displayed itself in the
great processions and pilgrimages made to holy places in his neighbour-
hood — to Kyffhiiuser, w^here there was a miraculous wooden cross, to the
Bruno Chapel of Quernfurt, to the old chapel at WelfesholZj and to the
cloister church at Wimraelberg*
Martin I^uther was born on November 10, 1483, at Eisleben, and
spent Ids childliood in Mansfeld. His father, Hans, was a miner in the
Mansfeld district, where the policy of tlie counts of Mansfeld, to build
and let out on hire small smelting furnaces, enabled thrifty and skilled
workmen to rise in the worltl.
The boy grew up amidst the toilsome, grimy, often coarse surroundings
of the German peasant life — protected from much that w^as evil by the
wiseseverityof his parents, but sharing in its hardness, its superstitions,
jmd its simple political and ecclesiastical ideas ; as that the Emperor
was God's ruler on the earth who w^ould protect poor people from the
Turk ; that the Church was the '^ Pope's house," in which the Bishop of
Rome was the house-father; and that obedience and reverence were due
to the lords of the 8L»il, He went to the village school in Mansfeld and
endured the cruelties of a merciless pedagogue ; he was sent later to a
school at Magdeburg, and then to St George's High School at Eisenach,
In these boyish days he w^as a '^poor student/* Le» one who got Ids
education and lodging free, was obliged to sing in the church choir,
and was permitted to sing in the streets, begging for bread. His
later writings abound in references to these early school-days and to
his own quiet thoughta ; and they make it plain that the religion of
fear was laying hold on him and driving out the earlier simple family
faith. Two pictures branded themselves on -his childish mind at Mag-
deburg. He saw a young Prince of Anhalt, who had forsaken rank ami
inheritance and, to save his soul, had become a barefooted friar, carryiiu
the huge begging-sack, and w^orn to skin and bone by his scoi '^
fastings and prayers. The other was an altar-piece in a
picture of a ship in which was no layman, not even a King c*
in it were the Pope with his Cardinals and BishopSf and tb
110 Life at Eisenach [i483-l60l
hovered over them directing their course, while priests and monks
managed the oars and the sails, and thus they went sailing heavenwards.
The laymen were swimming in the water beside the ship ; some were
drowning, others were holding on by ropes which the monks and priests
cast out to them to aid them. No layman was in the ship and no
ecclesiastic was in the water. The picture haunted him for years. At
Eisenach he had some glimpses of the old simple family life, this time
accompanied by a new refinement, in the house of the lady whom most
biographers identify with Frau Cotta. But the religious atmosphere
of the town which the boy inhaled and enjoyed was new. The town
was under the spell of St Elizabeth, the pious Landgravine who had
given up family life, children, and all earthly comforts, to earn a
medieval saintship. Her good deeds were blazoned on the windows of
the church in which Luther sang as choir-boy, and he had long conver-
sations with some of the monks who belonged to her foundations. The
novel surroundings tended to lead him far from the homely piety of his
parents and from the more cultured family religion of his new friends, and
he confesses that it was with incredulous surprise that he heard Frau
Cotta say that there was nothing on earth more lovely than the love
of husband and wife when it is in the fear of the Lord. He had
surrendered himself to that revival of crude medieval religion which
was based on fear, and which found an outlet in fastings, scourgings,
pilgrimages, saint-worship, and in general in the thought that salvation
demanded the abandonment of family, friends, and the activities and
enjoyments of life in the world.
After three happy years at Eisenach Luther was sent to Erfurt and
entered his name on the matriculation roll in letters which can still be
read, Martinus Ludher ex Mansf eldt. Hans Luther had been prospering ;
he was able to pay for his son's college expenses ; Luther was no longer
a "poor student," but was able to give undivided attention to his
studies. The father meant the son to become a trained lawyer ; and the
lad of seventeen seems to have accepted without question the career
marked out for him.
The University of Erfurt was in Luther's days the most famous in
Germany. It had been founded in 1392 by the burghers, and academic
and burgher life mingled there as nowhere else. The graduation days
were town holidays, and the graduation ceremonies always included
a procession of the University authorities, the gilds and the town
oflBicials, with all the attendant medieval pomp, and concluded with
a torchlight march at night. But if the University was strictly allied
to the town it was as strongly upited to the Church. It had been
enriched with numerous papal privileges ; its chancellor was the Arch-
bishop of Mainz ; many of its theological professo/s held ecclesiastical
prebends, and others were monks of different Orders and notably of the
Augustinian Eremites. The whole teaching staff ^i^ent solemnly to hear
at the beginning of every term ; each faculty was under the
protection of a patron Saint — St George presiding over the faculty of
Philosophy ; the professors had to swear to teach nothing opposed to the
ioctrine of the Roman Church ; and care was taken to prevent the
eginnings and spread of heretical opinions.
The University teaching was medieval in all essentials, but represented
the new, as Cologne championed the old, scholasticism. Gabriel Biel,
the disciple of Williiun of Occam, had been one of the teachers.
Humanism of the German type, which was very different from the
Italian, had found an entrance as early as 1400 in the persons of
Peter Luder and Jacob Publicius, and in the following years there was
good deal of intercourse between Erfurt scholars and lUilian humanists.
'Maternus Pistoris was lecturing on the Latin classics in 1494 and had
for his colleague Nicholas Marschalk, who was the first to establish a
printing-press in Germany for Greek books. They had speedily gathered
round t]jem a band of enthusiastic scholars, Johannes Jager of Drontheim
(Crotus Rubeanus), Henry and Peter Eberach, George Burkhardt of
Spelt (Spalatinus), John Lange, and others knouTi afterwards in the earlier
stages of the Reformation movement. Conrad Mutti (Mutianus Rufus),
who had studied in Italy, was one of the leaders ; Eobtm of Hesse
(Helius Eobanus Hessus), perhaps the most gifted of them all, joined
the circle in 1494, These humanists did not attack openly the
older course of study at Erfurt. They wrote complimentary Latin
poems in praise of their older colleagues ; they formed a select circle
who were called the '' Poets '' ; they affected to correspond with each
■•other after the manner of the ancients. In private, Mutianus and Crotus
ffieera to have delighted to reveal their eclectic theosophy to a band of
half-terrified, half-admiring youths ; to say that there was but on©
God, who had the various names of Jupiter, Mars, Hercules, Jesus, and
one Goddess, who was called Juoo, Diana, or Mary as the worshippers
chose ; but these things were not supposed to be for the public ear.
The University of Erfurt in the beginning of the sixteenth century
was the recognised meeting-place of the two opposing tendencies of
scholasticism and humanism ; and it wiis also, perhaps in a higher
degree than any other university, a place where the student was exposed
to many other diverse influences. The system of biblical exegesis
first stimulated by Nicholas de Lyra, which cannot be classed under
scholasticism or humanism, had found a succession of able teachers in
Erfurt. The strong anti-clerical teaching of Jacob of Juterbogk and of
John Wessel, who had taught in Erfui*t for fifteen years, had left its
mark on the University and was not forgotten* Low mutterings of the
Hussite propaganda itself, Luther tells us, could be heard from time to
time, urging a strange Christian socialism which was at the same time
thorougldy anti-clerical. Then over against all this opportunities were
ecaaionaUy given, at the visits of papal Legates, for seeing the
V
112 Luther* 8 studies at Erfurt [1601-5
magnificence and might of the Roman Church and of the Pope its head.
In 1502 and again in 1504, during Luther's student days, Cardinal
Raimund, sent to proclaim in Germany new and unheard-of Indulgences,
visited the university town. The civic dignitaries, the Rector Magnificus
with the whole University, all the clergy, the monks and the school
children, accompanied by crowds of the townsfolk, went out in procession
to meet him and escort him with due ceremony into the city. Add to
this the gross dissipation existing among many of the student sets, and
the whisperings of foul living on the part of many of the higher clergy
in the town, and some idea can be formed of the sea of trouble, doubt,
questioning, and anxiety into which a bright, sensitive, imaginative, and
piously disposed lad of seventeen was thrown when he had begun his
student life in Erfurt.
When we piece together references in correspondence to Luther's
student life, recollections of his fellow-students, and scattered sayings
of his own in after-life, we get upon the whole the idea of a very level-
headed youth, with a strong sense of the practical side of his studies,
thoroughly respected by his professors, refusing to be carried away into
any excess of humanist enthusiasm on the one hand or of physical
dissipation on the other; intent only to profit by the educational
advantages within his reach and to justify the sacrifices which his
father was making on his behalf. He had been sent to Erfurt to
become a jurist, and the faculty of Philosophy afforded the preparation
for the faculty of Law as well as of Theology. Luther accordingly
began the course of study prescribed in the faculty of Philosophy —
Logic, Dialectic, and Rhetoric, followed by Physics and Astronomy, the
teaching in all cases consisting of abstract classification and distinctions
without any real study of life or of fact. The teacher he most esteemed
was John Trutvetter, the famed "Erfurt Doctor" whose fame and
genius, as all good Germans thought, had made Erfurt as well known as
Paris. Scholasticism, he said, left him little time for poetry and classical
studies. He does not seem to have attended any of the humanist lec-
tures. But he read privately a large number of the Latin classical
authors. Virgil, whose pages he opened with some dread, — for was he
not in medieval popular legend a combination of wizard and prophet of
Christ ? — became his favourite author. His peasant upbringing made him
take great delight in the Bucolics and Q-eorgics — books, he said, that
only a herd and a countryman can rightly understand. Cicero charmed
him ; he delighted in his public labours for his country and in his versa-
tility, and believed him to be a much better philosopher than Aristotle.
He read Livy, Terence, and Plautus. He prized the pathetic portions of
Horace but esteemed him inferior to Prudentius. He seems also to have
read from a volume of selections portions of Propertius, Persius, Lucretius,
Tibullus, Silvius Italicus, Statins, and Claudian. We hear of him
studying Greek privately with John Lange. But he was never a member
1502-5]
Lxdher takes religwus vows
113
[ of the humariist circle, and in his student days was personally un-
ftcquainted with its leading members. He had none of the humanist
enthusiasm for the language and the spirit of the past; what he cared
for was the knowledge of human life which classical authors gave him.
Besides, the '" epicurean '" life and ideas of the young humanist circle
displeased him. They, on their part, woidd evidently have received him
u gladly. They called him ^Hhe philosopher," they spoke about his gifts
ol singing and lute-playing, and of his frank, engaging character. In
I later days he could make use of humanism^ but he never was a humanist
in spirit or in aim. He was too much in earnest about religious matters,
^ and of too practical a turn of mind.
Luther's course of study flowed on regularly. He was a bright,
sociable, hard-working student and toc^k his various degrees in an
exceptionally short time. He was Bachelor in 1502, and master in 1505,
when he stood second among the seventeen successful candidates* He
' had attained what he had once thought the summit of eartlily felicity
and found himself marching in a procession of University magnates and
civic dignitaries, clothed in his new robes. His father, proud of his son's
success, sent him the costly present of a Corpus Juris. He may have
begun to attend lectures in the faculty of Law, when he suddenly
retired into a convent and became a monk.
This action was so unexpected that his student friends made all
sorts of conjectures about his reasons, and these have been woven
into stories which are pure legends. Little or nothing is known about
Luther's religious convictions during his stay at Erfurt. This is the
more surprising since Luther was the least reticent of men. His
correspondence, his sermons, his commentaries, all his books are full of
little autobiographical details. He tells wliat he felt when a child, what
his religious thoughts were during his school-days; but he is silent about
' his thoughts and feelings during his years at Erfurt, and especially
during the months which preceded his plunge into the convent. He
^.has himself made two statements about his resolve to become a monk,
id they comprise the only accurate information obtainable. He says
that the resolve was sudden, and that he left the world and entered the
cloister because *'he doubted of himself'*; that in his case the proverb
I was true*^ *' doubt makes a monk."
What was tlie doubting? The modern mind is tempted to imagine
intellectual difficulties, to think of the rents in tlie Church's theology
which the criticisms of Occam and of Biel had produced, of the complete
antagonism between the whole ecclesiastical mode of think' MIh^
enlightenment from ancient culture that humanism Wf d
Luther's doubtings are frequently set down to the self-fl
his contact with humanism in Erfurt had produc* *
not foreign to tlie age, was strange to Luther,
oould ever do what he thought had to be done 1
C. M. tU IK
114 The Augustinian Eremites [i506
if he remained in the world. That was what compelled him to enter the
convent. The lurid fires of Hell and the pale shades of purgatory
which are the constant background of Dante's Paradise were always
present to the mind of Luther from boyhood. Could he escape the
one and win the other if he remained in the world ? He doubted it and
entered the convent.
The Order of monks which Luther selected was the Augustinian
Eremites. Their history was somewhat curious. Originally they had
been formed out of the numerous heimits who lived solitary religious
lives throughout Italy and Germany. Several Popes had desired to
bring them together into convents; and this was at last effected by
Alexander IV, who had enjoined them to frame their constitution
according to the Rule of St. Augustine. No other order of monks
shared so largely in the religious revival of the fifteenth century. The
convents which had reformed associated themselves together into what
was called the Congregation. The reformed Augustinian Eremites strictly
observed their vows of poverty and obedience; they led self-denying
lives; they represented the best type of later medieval piety. Their
convents were for the most part in the larger towns of Germany,
and the monks were generally held in high esteem by the citizens who
took them for confessors and spiritual directors. The Brethren were
encouraged to study, and this was done so successfully that professor-
ships in theology and in philosophy in most of the Universities of
Germany in the fifteenth century were filled by Augustinian Eremites.
They also cultivated the art of preaching; most of the larger convents
had a special preacher attached; and the townspeople flocked to hear
him.
Their theology had little to do with Augustine; nor does Luther
appear to have studied Augustine until he had removed to Wittenberg.
Their views belonged to the opposite pole of medieval thought and
closely resembled those of the Franciscans. No Order paid more rever-
ence to the Blessed Virgin. Her image stood in the Chapter-house of
every convent; their theologians were strenuous defenders of the Im-
maculate Conception; they aided to spread the "cult of the Blessed
Anna. " They were strong advocates of papal supremacy. In the person
of John von Palz, the professor of theology in the Erfurt convent and
the teacher of Luther himself, they furnished the most outspoken
defender of papal Indulgences. This was the Order into which Luther
so suddenly threw himself in 1505.
He spent the usual year as a novice, then took the vows, and was
set to study theology. His text-books were the writings of Occam,
Biel, and D'Ailly. His aptness for study, his vigour and precision in
debate, his acumen, excited the admiration of his teachers. But Luther
had not come to the convent to study theology; he had entered to save
his soul. These studies were but pastin\e; his serious and dominating
1505-8] Influence of Staupitz 115
task was to win the sense of pardon of sin and to see his body a temple
of the Holy Ghost. He fasted and prayed and scourged himself
according to rule, and invented additional methods of maceration. He
edified his brethren ; they spoke of him as a model of monastic piety ;
but the young man — he was only twenty-three — felt no relief and was
no nearer God. He was still tormented by the sense of sin which urged
him to repeated confession. God was always the implacable judge
inexorably threatening punishment for the guilt of breaking a law which
it seemed impossible to keep. For it was the righteousness of God that
terrified him ; the thought that all his actions were tested by the standard
of that righteousness of God. His superiors could not understand him.
Staupitz, Vicar-General of the Order, saw him on one of his visitations
and was attracted by him. He saw his sincerity, his deep trouble, his
hopeless despair. He advised him to study the Bible, St Augustine,
and Tauler. An old monk helped him fpr a short time by explaining
that the Creed taught the forgiveness of sin as a promise of God, and
that what the sinner had to do was to trust in the promise. But the
thought would come : Pardon follows contrition and confession ; how
can I know that my contrition has gone deep enough ; how can I be
sure that my confession has been complete ? At last Staupitz began
to see where the difficulty lay, and made suggestions which helped him.
The true mission of the medieval Church had been to be a stern preacher
of righteousness. It taught, and elevated its rude converts, by placing
before them ideals of saintly piety and of ineffable purity, and by
teaching them that sin was sin in spite of extenuating circumstances.
Luther was a true son of that medieval Church. Her message had sunk
deeply into his soul ; it had been enforced by his experience of the
popular revival of the decades which had preceded and followed his
birth. He felt more deeply than most the point where it failed. It
contrasted the Divine righteousness and man's sin and weakness. It
insisted on the inexorable demands of the law of God and at the same
time pronounced despairingly that man could never fulfil them. Staupitz
showed Luther that the antinomy had been created by setting over
against each other the righteousness of God and the sin and helplessness
of man, and by keeping these two thoughts in opposition ; then he
explained that the righteousness of God, according to God's promise^
might become the possession of man in and through Christ. Fellowship
of man with God solved the antinomy ; all fellowship is founded on
personal trust ; and faith gives man that fellowship with God through
which all things that belong to God can become his. These thoughts,
acted upon, helped Luther gradually to win his way to peace of heart.
Penitence and confession, which had been the occasions of despair when
extorted by fear, became natural and spontaneous when suggested by a
sense of the greatness and intimacy of the redeeming love of God in
Christ.
116 Religious views. Ordination [i505-8
The intensity and sincerity of this protracted struggle marked Luther
for life. It gave him a strength of character and a living power which
never left him. The end of the long inner fight had freed him from the
burden which had oppressed him, and his naturally frank, joyous nature
found a free outlet. It gave him a sense of freedom, and the feeling
that life was something given by God to be enjoyed, — the same feeling
that humanism, from its lower level, had given to so many of its dis-
ciples. For the moment however nothing seemed questionable. He
was a faithful son of the Medieval Church, " the Pope's house," with
its Cardinals and its Bishops, its priests, monks, and nuns, its masses
and its relics, its Indulgences and its pilgrimages. All these external
things remained unchanged. The one thing that was changed was the
relation in which one human soul stood to God. He was still a monk
who believed in his vocation. The very fact that his conversion had
come to him within the convent made him the more sure that he had
done right to take the monastic vow.
Soon after he had attained inward peace Luther was ordained,
and Hans Luther came from Mansfeld for the ceremony, not that he
took any pleasure in it, but because he did not wish to shame his eldest
son. The sturdy peasant adhered to his anti-clerical Christianity, and
when his son told him that he had a clear call from God to the monastic
life, the father suggested that it might have been a prompting from the
devil. Once ordained, it was Luther's duty to say mass and to hear
confessions, impose penance and pronounce absolution. He had no
difficulties about the doctrines and usages of the Church ; but he put his
own meaning into the duties and position of a confessor. His own
experience had taught him that man could never forgive sin ; that
belonged to God alone. But the human confessor could be the spiritual
guide of those who came to confess to him ; he could warn them against
false grounds of confidence, and show them the pardoning grace of God.
Luther's theological studies were continued. He devoted himself to
Augustine, to Bernard, to men who might be called " experimental "
theologians. He began to show himself a good man of business, with
an eye for the heart of things. Staupitz and his chiefs entrusted him
with some delicate commissions on behalf of the Order, and made quiet
preparation for his advancement. In 1508 he, with a few other brother
monks, was transferred from the convent at Erfurt to that at Wittenberg,
to assist the small University there.
Some years before this the Elector Frederick the Wise of Saxony,
the head of the Ernestine branch of his House, had resolved to provide
a university for his own dominions. He had been much drawn to the
Augustinian Eremites since his first acquaintance with them at Grimma
when he was a boy at school. Naturally Staupitz became his chief
adviser in his new scheme ; indeed the University from the first might
almost be called an educational establishment belonging to the
The UniversUy of Wittenberg
117
Augastinian Eremites. There was not much money to spare at the
Electoral Court. A sum got from the sale of Indulgences some years
before, which Frederick had not allowed to leave the country, served
to make a beginning. Prebends attached to the Castle Church — the
Church of All Saints w^as its ecclesiastical name — furnished the salaries
of some of the professors ; the other teachers were to be supplied from
the monks of the convent of the Augustinian Eremites in the town.
The Emperor Maximilian granted the usual imperial ivrivileges, and the
Univei-sity was opened October 18, 1502. Staupitz himself was one of
the professors and dean of the faculty of Theology ; another Augustinian
Eremite was dean of the faculty of Arts, The patron Saints of the
Order, the Blessed Virgin and St Augustine, were the patron Saints of
the University. Some distingoished teachers, outside the Augustinian
Eremites, were induced to come, among others Jerome Schurf from
Tubingen ; Staupitz collected promising young monks from convents of
his Order and enrolled them as students ; other youths were attracted
■by the teachers and came from various parts of Germany. The Uni-
versity enrolled 41G students during its first year. This success, how-
ever, appears to have been artificial ; the numbers gradually declined to
5G in the summer session of 1505. Tlie first teachers left it for more
promising places. Still Staupitz encouraged Frederick to persevere.
New teachers w^ere secured — among them Nicliolas Amsdorf, who had
then a great reputation as a teacher of the old-fashioned scholasticism,
and Andi-ew Bodenstein of Carlstadt, The University began to grow
slowly.
Luther was sent to Wittenberg in 1508. He w^as made to teach
the Dialectic and Physics of Aristotle, a task which he disliked, but
whether in the University or to the young monks in the convent it is
impossible to say. He also began to preach. His work was interrupted
by a command to go to Home on the business of his Order. The
Augustinian Eremites, as has been already said, were divided into the
unreformed and the reformed convents — the latter being united in an
association which w^as called the Congregation. Staupitz was anxious
to heal this schism and to bring all the convents in Germany within the
reformation. Difficulties arose, and the interests of peace demanded
that both the General of the Order and the Curia should be informed
on all the circumstances. A messenger was needed, one whom he could
trust and who would also be trusted by the stricter party among his
■monks. No one seemed more suitable than the young monk Martin
Luther.
Luther saw Rome, and the impressions made upon him by his visit
remained with him all his life. He and his companion approached the
imperial city with the liveliest expectations ; but they were the longings
of the pious pilgrim, not those of the scholar of the Renaissance — so
little impression had humanism made opon him. When he first oau£bt
118
Luthm* at Rovie
1512-^
sight of the city Luther raised his hands in an ecstasy, exclaiming,
** I greet thee, thou Holy Rome, thrice holy from the blood of the
Martyrs/' That wag his mood of mind — so little had lus convent
struggles and the peace he had fonnd in the thought that the just live
by faith separated Mm from the religious ideas of his time*
His ofificial business did not cost much time ; he seems to have had
no complaints to make against the Curia ; indeed the business on which
he had been sent seems to have been settled in Germany by an amicable
compromise. His official work done, he set himself to see the Holy
City with the devotion of a pilgrim and the thoroughness of a German.
He visited all the shrines, especially those to which Indulgences were
attached. He climbed the thirty-eight steps which led to the vestibule
of St Peter's — every step counting seven years' remission of penance ;
he knelt before all the altars ; he listened reverently to all the accounts
given him of the various relics and believed them all ; he thought
that if his parents had been dead, he could, by saying masses in certain
chapels, secure them against purgatory. He visited the remains of
antiquity which could tell him something of the life of the old Romans
— the Pantheon, tho Coliseum, and the Baths of Diocletian,
But if Luther was still unemancipated from his belief in relics, in the
effect of pilgrimages, and in the validity of Indulgences for the remission
of imposed penance, his sturdy German piety and liis plaiu Christian
morality turned his reverence of Rome into a loathing. The city he
had greeted as holy, he found to be a sink of iniquity ; its very priests
were infidel, and openly scoffed at the sacred services they performed ;
the papal courtiers were men of depraved lives ; the Cardinals of the
Church lived in open sin \ he had frequent cause to repeat the Italian
proverb, first spread abroad by Machiavelli and by Bembo, " The nearer
Rome the worse Christian.'* It meant much for him in after-days that
he had seen Rome for himself.
Luther was back in Wittenberg early in the summer of 1512»
Staupitz sent him to Erfurt to complete the steps necessary for the
higher graduation in Theology, preparatory to succeeding Staupitz in
the Chair of Theology in Wittenberg, He graduated as Doctor of the
Holy Scripture, took the Wittenberg doctor's oath to defend evangelical
truth vigorously (yiriliter)^ w^as made a meml>er of the Senate three
days later, and a few weeks after he succeeded Staupitz as Professor of
Theology.
From the first Luther's lectures differed from what were then expected
from a professor of theology. It was not that he criticised the theology
then current in the Church ; he had an entirely different idea of what
theology ought to be, and of what it ought to make known. His whole
habit of mind was practical, and theology for him was an " experimental *'
discipline. It ought to be» he thought, a study which would teach how
a man could find the grace of God, and, having found it, how he could
persevere in a life of joyous obedience to God and His commandments.
He had, himself, sought, and that with deadly earnest, an answer to this
question in all the material which the Church of the time had accumu-
lated to aid men in the task. He had tried to find it in the penitential
system, in the means of grace, in theology professedly based on Holy
Scripture expounded by the later Schoolmen and Mystics, and his search
had been in vain. But theologians like Bernard and Augustine had
helped him, and as they had taught him he could teach others. That
was the work he set himself to do. It was a task to which contemporary
theology had not given any special prominence, and which, in Luther's
opinion, it had ignored. His theology was new, because in his opinion
it ought to be occupied with a new task, not because the conclusions
reached by contemporary theology occupied with other tasks w^ere neces-
sarily wrong,
Luther ne%^er knew much Hebrew, and he used the Vulgate in his
prelections. He had a huge, widely printed volume on his desk, and
wrote the heads of his lectures between the printed lines. The pages
still exist and can be studied. We can trace the gradual growth of his
theology. In the years 1513-15 there is no sign of any attack upon
the contemporary Scholastic teaching, no thought but that the monastic
life is the flower of Christian piety. He expounded the Psalms ; his aids
are what are called the mystical passages in St Augustine and in Bernard,
but what may be more properly termed those portions of their teaching
in which they insist upon and describe personal religion. These thoughts
simply push aside the ordinary theology of the day without staying to
criticise it. We can discern in the germ what grew to be tlie main
thoughts in the later Lutherantheology. Menare, redeemed apart from
any merits of their own; mati s laith is trust in the verity of God and l
in the historical work of Christ, These thoughts were for the most part *
expressed in the formulae common to the Scholastic philosophy of the
time; but they grew in clearness of expression, and took shape as a
series of propositions which formed the basis of his teaching — that man
wins pardon through the free grace of God, that when man lays hold
on God's promise of pardon he becomes a new creature, that this sense
of pardon is the beginning of a new life of sanctification. To these
may be added the thoughts that the life of faith is Christianity on its
inward side; that the contrast between the economy of law and that
of grace is something fimdamental ; and that there is a real distinction
to be drawn between the outward and visible Church and the ideal
Church, w^hich is to be described by its spiritual and moral relations
to God after the manner of Augustine. The years 1515 and 1516
give traces of a more thorough study of Augustine and of the Gew
Mystics, This comes out in the college lectures on the Epistle tOf
Romans and in some minor publications* His language loBe0
scholastic colouring and adopts many of the well-known mystical phn
120 Gradual change in Luther^ s position [i5l5-7
especially when he describes the natural incapacity of men for what is
good. Along with this change in language, and evidently related to it,
we find evidence that Luther was beginning to think less highly of the
monastic life and its external renunciations. Predestination, meaning
by that not an abstract metaphysical dogma, but the thought that the
whole of the believer's life and what it involved depended in the last
resort on God and not on man, came more and more into the foreground.
Still there did not appear any disposition to criticise or repudiate the
current theology of the day.
But about the middle of 1516 Luther had reached the parting of
the ways, and the divergence appeared on the practical and not on
the speculative side of theology. It began in a sermon he preached on the
theory of Indulgences in July, 1516, and increased month by month — the
widening divergence can be clearly traced step by step — until he could
contrast " our theology," the theology taught by Luther and his colleagues
at Wittenberg, with what was taught elsewhere and notably at Erfurt.
The former represented Augustine and the Bible; the latter was founded
on Aristotle. In September, 1517, his position had become so clear that
he wrote against the scholastic theology, declaring that it was at heart
Pelagian and that it obscured and buried out of sight the Augustinian
doctrines of grace. He bewailed the fact that the current theology
neglected to teach the supreme value of faith and of inward righteous-
ness, that it encouraged men to seek to escape the due reward of sin by
means of Indulgences, instead of exhorting them to practise that inward
repentance which belongs to every genuine Christian life. It was at this
stage of his own inward religious development that Luther felt himself
forced to stand forth in public in opposition to the sale of Indulgences
in Germany.
Luther had become much more than a professor of theology, by this
time. He had become a power in Wittenberg. His lectures seemed
like a revelation of the Scriptures to the Wittenberg students ; grave
burghers from the town matriculated at the University in order to attend
his classes ; his fame gradually spread, and students began to flock from
all parts of Germany to the small, poor, and remote town ; and the
Elector grew proud of his University and of the man who had given it
such a position. In these earlier years of his professoriate Luther under-
took the duties of the preacher in the town church in Wittenberg.
He became a great preacher, able to touch the conscience and bring
men to amend their lives. Like all great preachers of the day who
were in earnest he denounced prevalent sins ; he deplored the low
standard set by the leaders of the Church in principle and in practice ;
he declared that religion was not an easy thing ; that it did not consist
in externals ; that both sin and true repentance had their roots in the
heart ; and that until the heart had been made pure all kinds of external
purifications were useless. Such a man, occupying the position he had
won, could not keep silent wliee he saw what lie believed to be a great
fiource of raoi^l corruption gathering round him and infecting the pecjple
whom he taught daily, and who had selected him us their confessor and
the religious guide of their lives.
Luther began his work as a Reformer in an attack on what was called
an Indulgence proclaimed in 1513 by Pope Leo X, farmed by Albert of
Brandenburg, Archbisliop of Mainz, and preached by John Tetzel, a
Dominican raonk who !iad been commissioned by Albert to sell for him
the '* papal letters,"' as the Indulgence tickets were called. The money
raised was to be devoted to the building of St Peter's Church in Rome,
und to raise a tomb worthy of the great Apostle who* it was said, lay
in a Roman grave. People had come to be rather sceptical about the
destination of moneys raised by Indulgences ; but the buyers hatl their
** papal letters/' and it flid not much matter to them where the money
went after it had left tlieir pockets. The seller of Indulgences liad
generally a magnificent welcome when he entered a German town. lie
drew near it in the centre of a procession with the Boll announcing the
Indulgence, carried before him on a cloth of gold and velvet, and all the
priests and monks of the town, the Burgomaster and Town Council, the
teachers and the school-children and a crowd of citizens went out to
meet him with banners and lighted candles, and escorted liim into the
town singing hymns. When tlie gates were reached all the bells began
to ring, the church-organs were phiyed, the crowd, with the commissary
in their midst, streamed into tlie principal church, where a great red
cross was erected and the Pope's banner displayed* Then followed
sermons and speeches by the conimissary and his attendants extolling
the Indulgence, narrating its wonderful virtues, and inviting the people
to buy. The Elector of Saxony had refused to allow the commissary to
enter his territories: but the commissary could approach most parts
of the Elector 8 dominions withont actually crossing tlie boundaries.
Tetzel had come to »Iiiterbogk in Magdeburg territory and Zerbst in
Anhalt, and had opened the sale of Indulgences there: and people from
Wittenberg had gone to these places and made purchases. They had
brought their ** papal letters " to Luther and had demanded that he
should acknowledge their efficacy. He had refused ; the buyers had
complained to Tetzel and the commissary had uttered threats ; Luther
felt liimself in great perplexity. The Indulgence, and the addresses by
which it was commended, he knew, were doing harm to poor souls ; he
got the letter of instructions given to Tetzel by his employer, the
Archbishop of Mainz, and Mb heart waxed wroth against it. Still at
the basis of the Indulgence, bad as it was, Lutlier thought that there
was a great truth ; that it is the business of the Chnrch to declare the
free and sovereign grace of God apart from all human satisfactions. -
The practice of Indulgences was, in his days, universal and perme-
, ated the whole Church life of the times. A large number of the pious
122 The practice of Indulgences [i6l7
associations among laymen, which formed so marked a feature of the
fifteenth century piety, were founded on ideas that lay at the basis of
the practice of granting Indulgences. Pious Christians of the fifteenth
century accepted the religious machinery of their Church as unquestion-
ingly and as quietly as they did the laws of nature. That machinery
included among other things an inexhaustible treasury of good works —
of prayers, fastings, mortifications of all kinds — which holy men and
women had done, and which might be of service to others, if the Pope
could only be persuaded to transfer them. When a pious confraternity
was formed, the Pope, it was believed, could transfer to the credit of the
community a mass of prayers, almsgivings, and other ecclesiastical good
deeds, all of which became for the members of the confraternity what a
bank advance is to a man starting in business. Some of these associ-
ations bought their spiritual treasure from the Pope for so much cash,
but there was not always any buying or selling. There was none in
the celebrated association of St Ursuia's Schifflein^ to which so many
devout people, the Elector himself included, belonged. Probably
little paying of cash took place in the thirty-two pious confraternities
of which Dr PfeflBnger, the trusted Councillor of the Elector Frederick,
was a member. The machinery of the Church, however, secured this
advantage, that if by any accident the members of the association failed
in praying as they had promised, they had always this transferred
treasure to fall back upon. There could be little difference in principle
between the Pope transferring a mass of spiritual benefits to a pious
brotherhood, and his handing over an indefinite amount to the Arch-
bishop of Mainz to be disposed of, as the prelate thought fit, through
Tetzel or others.
Moreover, it must be remembered that in the course of Luther's re-
ligious life down to 1517 there are no traces of anything quixotic ; and
that is a wonderful proof of the simplicity and strength of his character.
He had something of a contempt for men who believe ,that they are
born to set the world right ; he compared them to a player at ninepins
who imagines he can knock down twelve pins when there are only
nine standing. It was only after much hesitation and deep distress of
mind that he felt compelled to interfere, and it was his intense earnest-
ness in the practical moral life of his townsmen that compelled him to
step forward. When he did intervene he went about the matter with
a mixture of prudence and courage which were eminently characteristic
of the man.
The Castle Church of Wittenberg had always been closely connected
with the University, and its doors had been used for publication of
important academic documents ; notices of public disputations on
theological matters, common enough at the time, had doubtless often
been seen figuring there. The day of the year which drew the largest
concourse of townsmen and strangers to the church was the first of
November, All Saints* Day, It was the anniversary of the consecration
of the Church, was commemorated by a prolonged series of services,
and the benefits of an Indulgence were secured to all who took part
in them. At noon on All Saints' Day, Luther nailed his Ninety-five
Theses to the door of the church. It was an academic proceeding* A
doctor in theology offered to hold a disputation, such was the usual
term, for the purpose of explaining the efficacy of the Indulgence.
The explanation had ninety-live heads or propositions, all of which
*^ Doctor Martin Luther, theologian," offered to make good against all
comers. The subject, judged by the numberless books which had been
written upon it, was eminently suitable for debate ; the prupobiitions
offered were to be matters of discussion ; and the author was not sup-
posed, according to the usage of the times, to be definitely committed
to the opinions he had expressed ; they were simply heads of debate.
The document differed however from most academic disputations in this,
that everyone wished to read it. A duplicate was made in German.
Copies of the Latin original and of the German translation were sent to
the University printing-house and the presses there could not throw
them off fast enough to meet the demand which came from all parts
of Germany.
The question which Luther raised in his theses was a difficult one ;
the theological doctrine of Indulgences was one of the most complicated
of the times, and ecclesiastical opinion on many of the points involved
was doubtful. It was part of the penitential system of the medieval
Church, and had changed from time to time according to the changes
in that system* Indeed it may be said that in the matter of Indulgences
doctrine had always been framed to justify practices and changes in prac-
tice. The beginnings go back a thousand years before the time of Luther.
In the ancient Church serious sins involved separation from the
fellowship of Christians, and readraission to the communion was de-
pendent nofc merely on public confession but also on the manifestation
of a true repentance by the performance of certain sathfactwns, such as
the manumission of slaves, prolonged fastings, extensive almsgiving ;
which were supposed to be well-pleasing in God's sight, and were also'
the warrant for the community that the penitent might be again re-
ceived within their midst* It often happened that these satisfactions were
mitigated ; penitents might fall sick and the prescribed fasting could
not be insisted upon without danger of death ^ — in which case the impos-
sible satisfaction could be exchanged for an easier one, or the community
might be convinced of the sincerity of the repentance without insisting
that the prescribed satisfaction should he fully performed. These ex-
changes and mitigations are the germs out of which Indulgences grew.
In course of time the public confessions became private confessions
made to a priest, and the satisfactions private satisfactions imposed by
the confessor. This change involved among other things a wider circle
124 Changes in the character of Indulgences
of sins to be confessed — sins of thought, the sources of sinful actions,
brought to light by the confessor's questions ; and different satisfactions
were imposed at the discretion of the priest corresponding to the sins
confessed. This led to the construction of penitentiaries containing lists
of penances supposed to be proportionate to the sins. In many cases
the penances were very severe and extended over a long course of years.
From the seventh century there arose a system of commutations of
penances. A penance of several years' practice of fasting might be
commuted into saying so many prayers or psalms, giving prescribed alms
or even into a money fine — and in this last case the analogy of the
Wergeld of the Germanic codes was frequently followed. This new
custom commonly took the form that anyone who visited a prescribed
church on a day that was named and gave a contribution to the funds
of the church had his penance shortened by one-seventh, one-third,
one-half, as the case might be. This was in every case a commutation
of a penance which had been imposed according to the regulations of
the Church (relaxatio de injunctapoenitentid^. This power of commut-
ing imposed penance was usually supposed to be in the hands of Bishops
and was used by them to provide funds for the building of their great
churches. But priests for a time also thought themselves entitled to
follow the episcopal example ; and did so until the great abuse of the
system made the Church insist that the power should be strictly kept
in episcopal hands. Thus the real origin of Indulgences is to be found
V in the relaxation by the Church of a portion of the ecclesiastical penal-
ties, imposed according to regular custom.
^^Three conceptions, however, combined to effect a series of changes
/in the character of Indulgences, all of which were in operation in the
beginning of the thirteenth century. These were the formulation of
the thought of a Treasury of merits, the change of the institution of
penance into the Sacrament of Penance, and the distinction between
attrition and contrition. The two former led to the belief that the
Pope alone had the power to grant Indulgences — the treasure needed a
guardian to prevent its being squandered ; and, when Indulgences were
judged to be extra-sacramental and a matter of jurisdiction and not of •
Orders, they belonged to the Pope, whose jurisdiction was supreme.
The conception of a Treasury of merits was first formulated by
"Alexander of Hales in the thirteenth century, and his ideas were accepted
and stated with more precision by the great Schoolmen who followed him.
Starting with the existing practice in the Church that some penances,
such for example as pilgrimages, might be performed vicariously, and
bringing together the conceptions that all the faithful are one community,
that the good deeds of all the members are the common property of all,
that sinners may benefit by the good deeds of their fellows, that the
sacrifice of Christ is sufficient to wipe out the sins of all, theologians
gradually formulated the doctrine that there was a common storehouse
containing the good deeds of living men, of the saints in heaven^
and the inexhaustible merits of Christ, and that the merits there
accmnulated had been placed in the charge of the Pope and could be
ispensed by him to the faithful. The doctrine was not thoroughly
efined in the fifteenth century, but it was generally accepted and
increased the power and resources of the Pope. It had one immediate
consequence on the theory of Indulgences. They were no longer re-
garded as the substitution of some enjoined work for a canonical
penance ; they could be looked upon as an absolute equivalent of
what was due to God, paid over to Him out of tliis Treasury of
merits. ^^^
When the institution became the Sacrament of Penance it was
Wlivided into three parts — Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction; and
Absolution was made to accompany Confession and therefore to precede
Satisfaction, which it had formerly followed. Satisfaction lost its old
meaning. It was not the outward sign of inward sorrow, the test of
fitness for pardon, and the necessary precedent of Absolution. According
to the new theory, Absolution, which followed Confession and preceded
Satisfaction, had the effect of removing the whole guilt of the sins
confessed, and, with the guilt, the whole of the eternal punishment due ;
but this cancelling of guilt and of eternal punishment did not open
straightway the gates of Heaven. It wa8 thought that the Divine
righteousness could not permit the baptised sinner to escape all punish-
ment ; so the idea of temporal punishment w^as introduced, and these
poenae Umporales, strictly disimgiimhed from the eternal, included punish-
ment in Purgatory. The pains of Purgatory therefore were not included
in the Absolution, and everyone must suffer these had not God in His
mercy provided an alternative in temporal Satisfactions. This gave
rise to a great uncertainty ; for who could have the assurance tliat the
priest in imposing the Satisfaction or penance had calculated rightly
and had assigned the equivalent which the righteousness of (iod de-
raamled ? It was here that the new idea of Indulgences came in to aid
the faithfid. Indulgences in the sense of relaxations of imposed penance
/ went into the background, and the valuable Indulgence was what would
I secure against the pains of Purgatory. Thus in the opinion of Alexander
I of HaJes, of Bonaventura, and above all of Thomas Aquinas, the real
value of Indulgences is that they procure the remission of penalties after
Contrition, Confession, and Absolution, whether tliese penalties have
been imposed by the priest or not ; and when the uncertainty of the
imposed penalties is considered* Indulgences are most valuable with
regard to the unimposed penalties ; the priest might make a mistake,
but God does not.
While, as has been seen. Indulgences were always related to Satis-
factions and changed in character with the changes introduced into the
meaning of these, they were not less closely affected by the distinction
which came to be drawn between Attrition and Contrition. Until the
thirteenth century it wa^ always held that Contrition or a condition of
real sorrow for sin was the one thing taken into account in the according
of pardon to the sinner. The theologians of that century however began
to make a distinction between Contrition, or godly 8orrov\% and Attrition,
a certain amount of sorrow which might arise from a variety of causes of
a more or less unworthy nature. It was held that this Attrition, though
of itself too imperfect to win the pardon of God, could become perfected
through the Confession heard by the priest and the Absolution ad-
ministered by him. When this idea was placed in line with the
thoughts developed as to the nature of the Sacrament of Penance, it
followed that the weaker the form of sorrow and the greater the sins con- j
fessed and absolved, the heavier were the temporal penalties demanded^
by the righteousness of God, Indulgences appealed strongly to the indif-
ferent Christian who knew that he had sinned, and who knew at the same
time that his sorrow did not amount to Contrition. His conscience,
however weak, told him that he could not sin with perfect impunity and
that something more was needed than his perfunctory confession and the
absolution of the priest He felt that he must make some amends ; that
he must perform some satisfying act, or obtain an Indulgence at some
cost to himself. Hence, for the ordinary indifferent Christian, Attrition,
Confession, and Indulgence stood forth as ttiB^ three great heads of the
scheme of the Church for his salvation.
This doctrine of Attrition and its applications had not the undivided
support of the Church of the later Middle Ages, but it was the doctrine
which was taoglit by most of the Scotist divines who took the lead in
theological thinking during these times. It was taught in its most
pronounced form by such a representative man as John von Pak, who
was professor of theology in the Erfurt monastery when Luther entered
upon his monastic career ; it was preached by the Indulgence sellers ;
it was specially valuable in securing good sales of Indulgences and
therefore in increasing the papal profits. It lay at the basis of that
whole doctrine and practice of Indidgences which confronted Luther
when he felt liimself compelled to attack them.
The practice of Indulgences, on whatever theory they were upheld,
had enmeshed the whole penitentiarj^ system of the Church in the
thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. The papal power was at
first sparingly used. It is true that in 1095 Pope Urban II promised
an Indulgence to the Crusadei^a such as had never before been heard
of — namely, a plenary Indulgence or a complete remission of all
imposed canonical penances — ^ but it was not until the thirteenth and
fourteenth centuries that Indulgences were lavished by the Pope even
more unsparingly than they had been previously by the Bishops. From
the beginning of the thirteenth century they were promised in order to
find recruits for wars against heretics, such as the Albigenses, against
opponents of papal political schemes — in short to recruit the papal
armies for wars of all kinds. Thej were granted freely to the religious
Orders^ either for the benefits of the members or as rewards to the
faithful who visited their churches and made contributions to their
funds. They were bestowed on special churches or catliedrals, or on
altars in churches, and had the effect of endowments. They were
given to hospitals, and for the rebuilding, repair, and upkeep of
bridges — the Elector had one attached to his bridge at Torgau and had
employed Tetzel to preach its benefits. They were attached to special
collections of relics to be earned by the faithful who visited the shrines.
In short^ it is difficult to say to what they were not given and for what
money-getting purpose they had not been employed. The Fuggers
amassed much of their wealth from commissions received in managing
these Indulgences. But perhaps it may be said that the Indulgence
system reached its height in the great Jubilee Indulgences which were
granted by successive Popes beginning with Boniface VIIL They were
first bestowed on pilgrims w^ho actually visited Rome and prayed at
prescribed times w^ithin certain churches ; then, the same Indulgence
came to be bestowed on persons who were walling to give at least %vhat
a journey to Rome w^oiild have cost them ; and in the end they could
be had on much easier terms. Wherever Indulgences are met with
they are siirrounded with a sordid system of money-getting ; and, as
Luther said in a sermon which he preached on the subject before he
ihad prepared his Theses, they were a very grievous instrument to be
placed in the hands of avarice.
The theories of theologians had always followed tlie custom of the
Church ; Indulgences existed and had to be explained. This is the
attitude of the two great Schoolmen, Bonaventura and Thomas Aquinas,
who did more than any other theologians to provide a theological basis
for the practice. The practice itself had altered and new explanations
had been made to suit the alterations. It is needless to say that the
theological explanations did not always agree, and that sometimes the
terms of the proclamation of an Indulgence went beyozid the theories
of many of the theological defenders of the system. To take one
instance. Did an Indulgence give remission for the guilt of sin or only
for certain penalties attached to sinful deeds ? This is a matter still
keenly debated. The theory adopted by all defenders of Indulgences
who have written on the subject since the Council of Trent is that guilt
(culpa) and eternal punishment are dealt with in the Sacrament of
Penance ; and that Indulgences have to do with temporal punishments
only, including under that phrase the penalties of Purgatory. It iflLAifiQ
to be admitted that this modern opinion is confirmed by the mo^
medieval theologians before the Council of Trent. Those W
however, do not settle the question. Medieval theologj' did
Indulgences ; it only followed and tried to justify the '
and the Roman Curia ^ — a confessedly difficult task. The question still
remains whether the official documents did not assert that Indulgences
did remove guilt as well as penalty of the temporal kind. If documents
granting Indulgences, puhlished after the Sacrament of Penance had
been formulated, be examined, it \sHll be found that many of them,
w^iile proclaiming the Indulgence and its benefits, make no mention
of the necessity of previous confession and priestly absolution ; that
others expressly assert that the Indulgence confers a remission of
guilt (^eidpa) as well as penalty ; and that very many, especially in the
Jubilee times, use language which inevitably led intelligent laymen
(Dante for example) to believe that the Indulgence remitted the guilt
as well as the penalties of actual sins ; and when all due allowance has
been made it is very difficult to avoid the conclusion that Indulgences
had been declared on the highest authority to be efficacious for the
removal of the guilt of sins in the presence of God.
Luther however approached the w^bole question not from the side o^
theological theory but from its practical moral effect on the minds
of the common people, who were not theologians and on wliom refined
distinctions were thrown away ; and the evidence that the people believed
that the Indulgence remitted the guilt as well as the penalties of sins is
overwhelming. Putting aside the statements or views of Hus, Wiclif,
and the Pier^ Ploivman series of poems, contemporary chroniclers are
found describing Indulgences given for crusades or in times of Jubilee as
remissions of guilt as well as of penalty ; contemporary preachers dwelt
on the distinction between the partial and the plenary Indulgence,
asserted tliat the latter meant remission of guilt as well as of penalty,
and explained their statements by insisting that the plenary Indulgence
included within it the Sacrament of Penance ; tlie popular guide-books
written for pilgrims to Rome and Compostella spread the popular ideas
about Indulgences, and this without any interference from the ecclesi-
iistical authorities. The Mirahilia Romeae, a very celebrated guide-book
for pilgrims to Rome, wdiich had gone through nineteen Latin and
twelve German editions before the year 1500, says expressly that every
pilgrim who visits the Lateran has forgiveness of all sins, of guilt as well
as of penalty, and makes the same statement about the virtues of the
Indulgences given to other shrines. The popular belief was so well
acknowledged that even Councils had to excuse themselves from having
fostered it, and did so by laying the blame on the preachers and sellers
of Indulgences, or, like the Council of Constance, impeached the Pope
and compelled him to confess that he had granted Indulgences for the
remission of guilt as well as of penalty. This widespread popular belief
justified the attitude taken up by Luther.
I\ut if it be granted that the intelligent belief of the Church as
found in the writings of its most respected theologians was that the
Indulgence remitted the penalty and not the guilt of sin, it is well to
lotice what this meant. Shice the formulation of the doctrine of the
Sacrament of Penance, the theory had been that all guilt of sin and all
eternal punishment were remitted in the priestly Absolution which
followed the confession of the penitent. The Sacrament of Penance hud
abolished guilt and hell. But there remained actual sins to be punished
because the righteousness of God demanded it, and this was done in the
temporal \mus of Purgatory, The ** common man," if he thought at all
on the matter, might be excused if he considered that guilt and hell, if
taken away by the one hand, were restored by the other, and that tlie
whole series of questions discussed by the theologians amounted to
little more than dialectical fencing with phrases. He was taught and he
believed that punishment awaited him for his sins — and a temporal
punishment whicli might last thousands of years was not very different
from an eternal one in his eyes. With these thoughts the Indulgence
was oflfered to him as a sure way of easing his conscience and avoiding
the punishment wliich he knew to be deserved. He had only to pay a
sura of money and perform the canonical good deed enjoinefl, whatever
it might be, and he had the remission of his punishment and the sense
that God's justice was satisfied. It was this practical ethical effect of
I the Indulgences, and not the theological explanations about them, which
l^tirred Lutlier to make his protest.
Luther's Theses, in their lack of precise theological definition and of
logical arrangement,are singularly unlike what might have been expected
from a professional theologian ; and they contain repetitions which might
[easily have been avoided. They are not a clearly reasoned statement of
a theological doctrine ; still less are they the programme of a scheme of
reformation* They are simply ninety-five sledge-hammer blows directed
against the most flagrant ecclesiastical abuse of the age. They look
like tlie utterance of a man who was in close contact with the people,
who had been shocked at statements made b}^ the preachers of the Indul-
gence, who had read a good deal of the current theological opinions
published in defence of Indulgences, and had noted several views which
he longed to contradict as publicly as possible. They are prefaced with
the expression of love and desire to elucidate the truth. They read as
if they were addressed to the *-' common man ■' and appealed to his
[common sense of spiritual things. Luther had told the assembly of
clergy, who met at Leitzkau in 1512 to discuss the affairs of the Church,
that every true reformation must begin with individual men, and that it
must have for its centre the regenerate heart, for its being an awakening
faith, and for its inspiration the preaching of a pure Gospel.
The note which he sounded in this, his earliest utterance which
has come down to us, is re*ccbned in the Theses* It is heard in the
opening sentences. The penitence which Christ requires is somet
more than a momentary expression of sorrow ; it is an habitual tl
which lasts continuously during the whole of the believer's life ; outv
130 The character of the Theses
deeds of penitence are necessary to manifest the real penitence which is
inward and which is the source of a continuous mortification of the flesh ;
confession is also a necessary thing because the true penitent must be
prepared to humble himself ; but the one thing needful is the godly
contrition of the heart. In the Theses Luther makes six distinct
assertions about Indulgences and their efficacy : — (1) Indulgence is and
can only be the remission of a canonical penalty ; the Church can remit
what the Church has imposed ; it cannot remit what God Ras imposed.
(2) An Indulgence can never remit guilt ; the Pope-himself is unable to
do this. (3) It cannot remit the divine punishment for sin — God keeps
that in His own hands. (4) It has no application to souls in Purgatory ;
for penalties imposed by the Church can only refer to the living ; death
dissolves them ; all that the Pope can do for souls in Purgatory is by
prayer and not by any power of keys. (5) The Christian who has true
repentance has already received pardon from God altogether apart from
an Indulgence and does not need it; and Christ demands this true
repentance from everyone. (6) The Treasure of Merits has never been
properly defined, and is not understood by the people ; it cannot be the
merits of Christ and the Saints, because these act without any intervention
from the Pope ; it can mean nothing more than that the Pope, having
the power of the keys, can remit Satisfactions imposed by the Church ;
the true treasure of merits is the holy Gospel of the grace of God.
The Theses had a circulation which for the times was unprecedented.
They were known all over Germany, Myconius assures us, within a
fortnight. This popularity was no doubt partly due to the growing
dislike of papal methods of gaining money ; but there must have been
more than that in it ; Luther was only uttering aloud what thousands
of pious Germans had been thinking. The lack of all theological
treatment must have increased their popularity. The sentences were
plain and easily understood. They kept within the field of simple
religious and moral truth. Their effect was so immediate that the sales
of Indulgences began to decline. The Theses appealed to all those who
had been brought up in the simple evangelical family piety and who
had not forsaken it ; and they appealed also to all who shared that non-
ecclesiastical piety which had been rising and spreading during the last
decades of the fifteenth century. Both these forces, purely religious,
at once rallied round the author.
Theologians were provokingly silent about the Theses. Luther's
intimate friends, who agreed with his opinions, thought that he had
acted with great rashness. His Bishop had told him that he saw nothing
to object to in his declarations, but advised him to write no more on the
subject. Before the end of the year Tetzel published Counter-Theses,
written for him by Conrad Wimpina, of Frankfort on the Oder. John
Eck (Maier), by far the ablest of Luther's opponents, had in circulation,
though probably unpublished, an answer entitled Obelisks^ which was in
Ijnther's hands as early as I\Iarch 4, 1518, and was probably answered
by Luther on March 2-4, although the answer was not published until
August. The Theses had been sent to Rome by the Archbishop of
Mainz. The Pope, Leo X, thinking that they represented a merely
monkish tjuarrel, contented himself with asking the General of the
Augustinian Eremites to keep things quiet among his monks. But at
lome, Silvester Muzzolini, called Prieriiia (from his birthplace, Prierio),
Dominican, Papal Censor for theTlomaii Province and an Inquisitor,
was profoundly dissatisfied with Lutlier's declarations, and answered
them in a book entitled A IMalotjue about the power of the Pope^ against
the Presumptuous Conchmoiu of 31<trtin Luther, In April, 1518, the
Augustinian Eremites held their usual annual chapter at Heidelberg,
and Luther went there in spite of many warnings that his life was not
safe out of Wittenberg. At these general chapters some time was
always spent in theological discussion, and Luther at lust heard his-
Theses temperately discussed. He found the opposition to his view?
much stronger than he had expected, but the real discussion so pleased
him that he returned to Wittenberg much strengthened and c*jmforted.
On his return he began a general ansvt'er to his opponents. The book,
Jiesolutiones^ was probably the most carefully pre par eel of aD Luther's
writings* It was meditated over long and rewritten several times. It
contains an interesting and partly biographical dedication to St4iupit2 ;
it is addressed to the Pope ; it sets forth a detailed defence of the
author*s ninety-five conclusions on the subject of Indulgences.
If we concern ourselves with the central position in the attacks made
on Luther's Theses it will be found that they amount to this ; that
Indulgences are simply a particular case of the use of the ordinary power
placed in the hands of the Pope and are whatever the Pope means
tliem to be, and that no discussion about the precise kind of efficacy
which may be in their use is to be tolerated. The Roman Church
is virtually the Universal Church, and the Pope is practically the Roman
Church, Hence as the Representative of the Roman Church, which in
turn represents the Universal Church, the Pope, when he acts officially,
cannot err. Official decisions are given in actions as well as in words,
and custom has the force of law. Therefore whoever objects to such
long-established customs as Indulgences is a heretic and does not deserve
to be heaiHi. Luther, in his Theses and still more in his Rfsoluttones^
had repudiated all tlie additions made to the theory and practice of
Indulgences founded on papal action during the three centuries past,
and all the scholastic subtleties which had attempted to justify those
practices* The answers of his opponents, and especially of Prierias, had
barred all such discussion by declaring that ecclesiastical usages were
matters of faith, and by interposing the official infallibility of the Bishop
of Rome. Had the question been one of intellectual speculation only,
it is probable that the Pope would not have placed himself behind his
too zealous supjjorters. The Church was accustomed to the presence of
various schools of theology with differing opinions ; but the Curia had
always been extremely sensitive about Indulgences ; they were the source
of an enormous revenue, and anything which checked their sale would
have caused financial embarrassment. Hence it is scarcely to be won-
dered at that Pope Leo summoned Luther to Kome to answer for his
attack on the system of Indulgences,
This sudden summons (July, 1518) to appear before the Inquisitorial
Office could be represented as an affront to Wittenberg ; and Luther
wrote to Spalatin, the Elector's chaplain, and the chief link between his
Court and the University, suggesting that German princes ought to
defend the riglits of German universities attacked in his person.
Spalatin immediately wrote to the Elector Frederick and to the
Emperor Maximilian, both of whom were at Augsburg at the time.
The Elector was jealous of the rights of his University, and he had a
liigh regard for Luther, who had done so much to make his University
the flourishing seat of learning it had become. The Emperor's keen
political vision discerned a useful if obscure ally in the young German
theologian. " Luther is sure to begin a game with the priests/' he said ;
*' the Elector should take good care of that monk, for he will be useful to
us some day/* 80 the Pope was urged to suspend the summons and
grant Luther a trial on German soil. The matter was left in the hands
of the Pope's Legate in Germany, Cajetan (Thomas de Vio ), and Luther
was ordered to present himself before that official at Augsburg.
When Luther had nailed his Theses to the door of the Castle Church
at Wittenberg he had been a solitary monk driven imperiously by his
conscience to act alone and afraid to compromise any of his friends. It
must have been with verj^ different feelings that he started on his journey
to meet the Cardinal-Legate at Augsburg. He knew that the Theses
had won for him numberless sympathisers. His correspondence shows
that his University was with him to a man* The students were en-
thusiastic and thronged his class-room. His theology — theology based
on the Holy Scriptures and on Augustine and Bernard — was spreading
rapidly through the convents of his Order in Germany and even in the
Netherlands. Melanchthon had come to Wittenberg on the 25th of
August J he had begun to lecture on Homer and on the Epistle to Titus ;
and Luther was exulting in the thought that Ids University would soon
show German scholarship able to match itself against the Italian. The
days were fast disappearing, he wrote, when the Romans could cheat
the Germans with their intrigues, trickeries, and treacheries ; treat them
as blockheads and boors ; and gull them continuously and shamelessly.
As for tlie Pope, he was not to be moved by what pleased or displeased
his Holiness. The Pope was a man as Luther himself was ; and many
a Pope had been guilty not merely of errors but of crimes. At quieter
moments, however, he was oppressed with the thought that it had been
laid on him who hated publicity, who loved to keep quiet and teach his
students and preach to his people, to stand forth as he had felt ecimpelled
to do. The patriot, the prophet of a new era, the humhk% almost
shrinking Christian monk — all these characters appear in his correspond-
ence with his intimates in the autumn of 1518,
The Diet, which had just closed when Luther reached Augsburg, had
witnessed some brilliant scenes. A Cardinars hat had been bestowed
on the Archbishop of Mainz with all gorgeous solcranities ; the aged
Emperor Maximilian had been solemnly presented with the pilgrimage
symbols of a hat and a dagger, both blessed by the Pope. His Holiness
invited Germany to unite in a crusade against the Turks, and the Emperor
would have willingly api>earGd as the champion of Christendom* But
the German Princes, spiritual and secular, were in no mood to fulfil any
demands made from Rome. The spirit of revolt had not yet taken
active shape, hut it could be expressed in a somewhat sullen refusal to
agree to the Pope*s proposals. The Emperor recognised the symptoms,
and wrote to Rome advising the Pope to be cautious how he dealt with
Luther. His ad vice was thrown away. When, after wearying delays, the
monk had his first interview with the Cardinal-Legate, he was told that
no discussion could be permitted, private or public, until Luther had
recanted his heresies, had promised not to repeat them, and had given
assurance that he would not trouble the peace of the Church in the future.
Being pressed to name the heresies, the adroit theologian named two
opinions wldch had wide-reaching consequences — the 58th conclusion
of the Theses and the statement in the Rt^BolutioneB that the sacraments
were not efficacious apart fnim faith in the recipient. Tliere was some
discussion notwithstanding the Cardinal's declaration ; but in tlie end
Luther was ordered to recant or depart. He departed ; and, after an
appeal from tlie Pope ill-informed to the Pope to he well-informed, and
also an appeal to a General Council, he returned to Wittenberg. There
he wrote out an account of his interview with the Legate — the Acta
AmiuHiina — ^ which was published and read all over Germany.
The interview between tlie Cardinal-Legate and Luther at Augsburg
ahnost dates the union between the new religious movement, the
growing national restlessness under Roman domination, and the
humanist intellectual revolt. A well-known and pious monk, an
esteemed teacher in a University which he w^as making famous
throughout Germany, an earnest moralist who had proposed to discuss
the efficacy of a system of Indulgences which manifestly had some
detrimental sides, had been told, in the most peremptory way, that he
must recant, and that without explanation or discussion* German
patriots saw in the proceeding another instance of the contemptuous
way in which Rome aUvays treated Germany ; humanists believed it
to be tyrannical stifling of tlie truth even worse than the dealings with
Ueucldin ; and both humanist and patriot believed it to be another
134 Mission of Miltitz to Germany [i5l8-9
instance of the Roman greed for German gold. As for Luther
imself he daily expected a Bull from Rome excommunicating him
as a heretic.
But the political condition of affairs in Germany was too delicate —
the country was on the eve of the choice of a King of the Romans, and
possibly of an imperial election — and the support of the Elector of
Saxony too important, for the Pope to proceed rashly in the con-
demnation of Luther which had been pronounced by his Legate at
Augsburg. It was resolved to send a special delegate to Germany
to report upon the condition of affairs there. Care was taken to
select a man who would be acceptable to the Elector. Charles von
Miltitz belonged to a noble Saxon family ; he was one of the Pope's
chamberlains, and for some years had been the Elector's agent at
Rome. His Holiness did more to gain over Luther's protector.
Frederick had long wished for that mark of the Pope's friendship, the
Golden Rose, and had privately asked for it through Miltitz himself.
The Golden Rose was now sent to him with a gracious letter.
Miltitz was also furnished with formal papal letters to the Elector,
to his councillors, to the magistrates of Wittenberg, and to several
others — letters in which Luther figured as " a child of Satan." The
phrase was probably forgotten when Leo wrote to Luther some time
later and addressed him as his dear son.
Miltitz had no sooner reached Germany than he saw that the
state of affairs there was utterly unknown to the Roman Curia. It
^ was not a man that had to be dealt with, but the slowly increasing
movement of a nation. He felt this during the progress of his journey.
When he reached Augsburg and Niirnberg, and found himself among
his old friends and kinsmen, three out of five were strongly in favour
of Luther. So impressed was he with the state of feeling in the country
that before he entered Saxony he " put the Golden Rose in a sack with
the Indulgences," to use the words of his friend, the jurist Scheurl, laid
aside all indications of the papal Commissioner, and travelled like a
private nobleman. Tetzel was summoned to meet him, but the unhappy
man declared that his life was not safe if he left his convent. Miltitz
felt that it would be better to have private interviews before producing
his official credentials. He had one with Luther, where he set himself
to discover how much Luther would really yield, and found that the
Reformer was not the obstinate man he had been led to suppose.
Luther was prepared to yield much. He would write a submissive
letter to the Pope ; he would publish an advice to the people to
honour the Roman Church ; and he would say that Indulgences were
useful in remitting canonical Satisfactions. All of which Luther did.
But the Roman Curia did not support Miltitz, and the Commissioner
had to reckon with John Eck of Ingolstadt, who wished to silence
his old friend by scholastic dialectic and procure his condemnation
1619] Disputation vrith Eck at Leipzig 135
as a heretic. Nor was Luther quite convinced of Miltitz' honesty.
When the Commissioner dismissed him with a kiss, he could not help
asking himself, he tells us, whether it was a Judas-kiss. He had
been re-examining his convictions about the faith which justifies, and
trying to see their consequences ; and he had been studying the Papal
Dtecretals, and discovering to his amazement and indignation the frauds
that many of them contained and the slender foundation which they
really gave for the pretensions of the Papacy. He had been driven
to these studies. The papal theologians had confronted him with
the absolute authority of the Pope. Luther was forced to investigate
the evidence for this authority. His conclusion was that the papal
supremacy had been forced on Germany on the strength of a collection
of decretals; and that many of these decretals would not bear in-
vestigation. It is hard to say, judging from his correspondence,
whether this discovery brought joy or sorrow to Luther. He had
accepted the Pope's supremacy; it was one of the strongest of his
inherited beliefs, and now under the combined influence of historical
study, of the opinions of the early Fathers, and of Scripture, it was
slowly dissolving. He hardly knew where he stood. He was half-
terrified, half-exultant, at the results of his studies, and the ebb and
flow of his own feelings were answered by the anxieties of his imme-
diate circle of friends. A public disputation might clear the air, and
he almost feverishly welcomed Eck's challenge to dispute publicly with
him at Leipzig on the primacy and supremacy of the Pope.
Contemporary witnesses describe the common country carts which
conveyed the Wittenberg theologians to the capital of Ducal Saxony,
the two hundred students with their halberts and helmets who escorted
their honoured professors into what was an enemy's country, the
crowded inns and lodging-houses where the master of the house kept
a man with a halbert standing beside every table to prevent disputes
becoming bloody quarrels, the densely packed hall in Duke George's
palace, the citizens' guard, the platform with its two chairs for the
disputants and seats for academic and secular dignitaries, and the two
theologians, both sons of peasants, met to protect the old or to cleave
a way for the new. Eck's intention was to force Luther to make such
a declaration as would justify him in denouncing his opponent as a
partisan of the Bohemian heresy. The audience swayed with a wave
of excitement, and Duke George placed his arms akimbo, wagged his
long beard, and said aloud, " God help us ! the plague ! " when Luther
was forced, in spite of protestations, to acknowledge that not all the
opinions of Wiclif and Hus were wrong.
So far as the fight in dialectic had gone Eck was victorious ; he
had compelled Luther, as he thought, to declare himself, and there
remained only the Bull of Excommunication, and to rid Germany of
a pestilent heretic. He was triumphant. Luther was correspondingly
136 Luther^ s writings [i620
downcast and returned to Wittenberg full of melancholy forebodings.
But some victories are worse than defeats. Eck had done what the
/more politic Miltitz had wished to avoid. He had made Luther a
/ central figure round wliich all the smouldering discontent of Germany
I with Rome could rally, and had made it possible for the political move-
ment to become impregnated with the passion of religious convictio^,^
I The ^eipzigDisputation was perhaps the most important episode in
\ the whole" cou'rae^UT'Luther's career. It made him see clearly for
\the first time what lay in his opposition to Indulgences ; and it made
others see it also. It was after Leipzig that the younger Gei-man
humanists rallied round Luther to a man ; the burghers saw that
religion and liberty were not opposing but allied forces ; that there
was room for a common effort to create a Germany for the Germans.
The feeling awakened gave new life to Luther ; sermons, pamphlets,
controversial writings from his tireless pen flooded the land and were
read eagerly by all classes of the population.
Three of these writings stand forth pre-eminently : The Liberty
of a Christian Man; To the Christian Nobility of the Q-erman Nation
concerning the reformation of the Christian Commonwealth ; and On the
Babylonish Captivity of the Church. They were all written during the
year 1620, after three years spent in controversy, and at a time when
Luther felt that he had completely broken with Rome. They are
known in Germany as the three great Reformation treatises. The
tract on Christian liberty was probably the last published (October,
1620), but it contains the principles which underlie the two others.
It is a brief statement, free from all theological subtleties, of the
priesthood of all believers, which is a consequence of the fact of
justification by faith alone. The first part shows that everything
which a Christian has can be traced back to his faith ; if he has faith,
he has all: if he has not faith, he has nothing. The second part
shows that everything which a Christian man does must come from
his faith ; it is necessary to use all the ceremonies of divine service
which have been found helpful for spiritual education; perhaps to
fast and practise mortifications ; but these are not good things in the
sense that they make a man good; they are all signs of faith and
are to be practised with joy, because they are done to the God to
Whom faith unites man.
Luther applied those principles to the reformation of the Christian
Church in his book on its "Babylonish Captivity." The elaborate
sacramental system of the Roman Church is subjected to a searching
criticism, in which Luther shows that the Roman Curia has held the
Church of God in bondage to human traditions which run counter
to plain messages and promises in the Word of God. He declares
himself in favour of the marriage of the clergy, and asserts that divorce
is in some cases lawful.
The Appeal To the ChrUtian Nobility of the German Nation made
the greatest iinmeiliate inipretSsioiK Contemporaries cjilled it a trumpet
blast. It was a call to all (termuiiy to unite against Rome, It was
written in haste, but must have been long meditated upon. Luther
wrote the introduction on the 2Brd of June (1520); the printers
worked as he wrote ; it was finislied and published about tlie middle of
August, and by the 18th of the month 4000 copies had gone into all
parts of Germany and the printers could not supply the demand* This
Appeal was the manifesto of a revolution sopt forth by a true leader
of men, able to concentrate the attack and direct it to the enemy's
one vital spot. It grasped the whole situation ; it summed up with
vigour and directness all the grievances which had hitherto been stated
separately and weakly; it embodied every proposal of reform, however
incomplete, and set it in its proper place in one combined scheme.
All the parts were welded together by a simple and direct religious
faitli, and made living by the moral earnestness which pervaded the
whole*
Keforra had been impossible, the appeal says, because the walls
behind which Rome lay entrenched had been left standing- — walls of
straw and paper, but in appearance formidable fortifications. If the
temporal Powers demanded reforms, they were told that the Spiritual
Power was superior and controlling. If the Spiritual Power itself was
attacked from the side of Scripture, it was affirmed that no one could
say what Scripture really meant but the Pope. If a Council was called
for to make the reform, men were informed that it was impossible to
summon a Council without the leave of the Pope. Now this pretended
Spiritual Power which made reform impossible was a delusion. The
only real spiritual power existing belonged to the whole body of
believers in virtue of the spiritual priesthood bestowed upon them by
Christ Himself. Tlie clergy were distinguished from the laity, not by
an indelible character imposed upon them in a divine mystery called
ordination, but because they were set in the commonwealth to do a
particular work. If they neglected the work they were there to do,
the clergy were accountable to the same temporal Powers which ruled
the land* The statement that the Pope alone can interpret Scripture
is a foolish one ; tlie Holy Scripture is open to all, and can be inter-
preted by all true bt^lievers who have the mind of Christ and come to
the Word of God humbly and really seeking enlightenment. Wlien
a Council is needed, eveTj individual Christian has a right to do his
best to get it summoned, and the temporal Powers are there to repre-
sent and enforce his wishes.
The straw walls having been cleared away, the Appeal proceeds
with an indictment against Rome. There is in Rome one who calls
himself the Vicar of Christ and whose life has small resemblance to
that of our Lord and St Peter j for this man wears a triple crown
138 Attack upon the Roman Church [1520
(a single one does not content him), and keeps up such a state that he
requires a larger personal revenue than the Emperor. He has surrounding
him a number of men called Cardinals, whose only apparent use is to
draw to themselves the revenues of the richest convents and benefices
and to spend this money in keeping up the state of a wealthy monarch in
Rome. In this way, and through other holders of German benefices
who live as hangers-on at the papal court, Rome takes from Germany
a sum of 300,000 gulden annually, — more than is paid to the Emperor.
Rome robs Germany in many other ways, most of them fraudulent —
annates^ absolution money, &c. The chicanery used to get possession
of German benefices ; the exactions on the bestowal of the pallium;
the trafficking in exemptions and permissions to evade laws ecclesiasti-
cal and moral, are all trenchantly described. The plan of reform
sketched includes the complete abolition of the supremacy of the Pope
over the State; the creation of a national German Church with an
ecclesiastical national Council, to be the final court of appeal for Ger-
many and to represent the German Church as the Diet did the German
State; some internal religious reforms, such as the limitation of the
number of pilgrimages, which are destroying morality and creating in
men a distaste for honest work ; reductions in the mendicant Orders,
which are mere incentives to a life of beggary; the inspection of all
convents and nunneries and permission given to those who are dissatis-
fied with their monastic lives to return to the world ; the limitation of
ecclesiastical festivals which are too often nothing but scenes of glut-
tony, drunkenness, and debauchery ; a married priesthood and an end
put to the universal and degrading concubinage of the German parish
priests. The Appeal closes with some solemn words addressed to the
luxury and licensed immorality of the cities.
None of Luther's writings produced such an instantaneous, wide-
spread, and powerful effect as did this Appeal. It went circulating all
over Germany, imiting all classes of society in a way hitherto unknown.
It was an effectual antidote, so far as the majority of the German people
was concerned, to the Bull of Excommunication which had been prepared
in Rome by Cajetan, Prierias, and Eck, and had been published there in
June, 1620. Eck was entrusted with the publication of the Bull in
Germany, where it did not command much respect. It had been drafted
by men who had been Luther's opponents, and suggested the gratification
of private animosity rather than calm judicial examination and rejection
of heretical opinion. The feeling grew stronger when it was discovered
that Eck, having received the power to do so, had inserted the names of
Adelmann, Pirkheimer, Spengler, and Carlstadt along with that of
Luther — all five personal enemies. The German Bishops seemed to be
unwilling to allow the publication of the Bull within their districts.
Later the publication became dangerous, so threatening was the attitude
of the crowds. Luther, on his part, burnt the Bull publicly; and
electrified Germany by the deed. Rome had now done its utmost to get
rid of Luther by way of ecclesiastical repression* If he was to be over-
thrown, if the new religious movement and the national uprising which
enclosed it, were to be stifled, this could only be done by the aid of the
highest secular power. The Roman Curia turned to the Emperor-
Maximilian had died suddenly on tlie 12th of January, 1519. After
some months of intriguing^ the papal diplomacy being very tortuous,
his grandson, Charles V, the young King of Spain, was tnianimously
chosen to be his successor (June 28). Troubles in Spain prevented
him from leaving that country at once to take possession of his new
dignities. He was crowned at Aachen on the 23rd of October, 1520,
and opened his first German Diet on January 22, 1521<
The proceedings of this Diet were of great importance apart from its
relation to Luther ; but to the common people of Germany, to the papal
Nuncios, Aleander and Caraccioli, and to the foreign envoys, the issues
raised by Luther's revolt against Rome were the matters of absorbing
interest. Girolamo Aleander had been specially selected by Pope Leo X
to secure Luther's condemnation by the Emperor. He was a cultivated
Churchman, who knew German}^ well, and had been in intimate relations
with many of the German humanists. His despatches and those of the
envoys of England, Spain, and Venice witness to the extraordinary
excitement among tfie people of all classes. Aleander had been in
Germany ten years earlier, and liad found no people so devoted to the
Papacy as the Germans. Now all things were changed. The legion
of poor nobles, the German lawyers and canonists, the professors and
students, the men of learning and the poets, were all on Luther^s side.
Most of the monks, a large portion of the clergy^ many of tlie Bishops,
supported Luther. His friends had the audacity to establish a printing-
press in Worms, whence issued quantities of the forbidden writings,
which were hawked about in the market-place, on the streets, and even
within the Emperor's palace. These books were eagerly bought and
read with avidity ; large jiriees were sometimes given for them.
Aleander could not induce the Emperor to consent to Luther's
immediate condemnation. Charles must have felt the difficulties of the
situation. His position as head of the Holy Roman Empire, the
traditional policy of the Habsburg family, his own deeply rooted
personal convictions, which found outcome in the brief statement read
to the Princes on the day after Luther's appearance, all go to prove that
he liad not the slightest sympathy with the Reformer and that he had
resolved that he should be condemned. But tlie Diet's consent was
necessary before the imperial ban could be issued; and besides Cltarles
had his own bargain to make with the Pope, and tliis matter of Luther
might help him to make a good one. The Diet resolved that Luther
should be heard; a safe-conduct was sent along with the summons to
attend; Luther travelled to Worms in what seemed like a triumphal
procession to the angry partisans of the Pope; and on April 16th he
appeared before Charles and the Diet. He entered smiling* says
Aleander ; he looked slowly round the avSsembly and his^ face became
grave. On a table near where he w^as placed there was a pile of bookn.
Twenty-tive of Luther's writingfH had been hastily collected by command
of the Emperor and placed there. The procedure was entrusted to
Jolm Eek» the Official of Trier (to be distinguished from John Eck
of Ingolstadt), a man in w4iom Aleander had much confidence and who
was lodged, he says significantly, in the chamber next his. Luther was
asked whether the books before him were of his authorslup (the names
were read over to him), and whether he would retract what he had
written in them. He answered, acknowledging the books, but asked for
time to consider how to reply to the second question. He w^as granted
delay till the following day; and retired to his lodging.
The evening and the night were a time of terrible depression, conflict-,
despair, and prayer. Before tlie daw^n came, the victory had been won
and he felt in a great calm. He was sent for in the evening (April 18);
the streets were so thronged that his conductors had to take him by
obscure passages to the Diet. There wiis the same table with the same
pile of books. This time Luther was ready \vith his answer, and his
voice had recovered its clear musical note. \¥hen asked whether,
having acknowledged the books to be bis, he was prepared to defend
them or to w^ithdraw them, he replied at some length. In substance,
it was, that his books were not all of the same kind; in some he had
written on faith and morals in a w^ay approved by all, and that it was
needless to retract what friends and foes alike ap{»rovedof; others were
written against the Papacy, a system which by teaching and example
was ruining Christendom, and that he could not retract these writings;
as for the rest, he was prepared to admit that he might have been more
violent in his charges than became a Christian, but still he was not
prepared to retract them either ; but he was ready to listen to anyone
who could show that he had erred. The speech was repeated in Latin
forthe benefit of the Emperor. Then Charles told him tlirougli Eck that
he was not there to question matters %vhichhad been long ago decided and
settled by General Councils, and that he must answer plainly whether
he meant to retract w^iat he had said contradicting the decisions of the
Council of Constance. Luther answered that he must be convinced by
Holy Scripture, for he knew that both Pope and Councils had erred ; his
conscience was fast bound to Holy Scripture, and it was neither safe nor
honest to act against conscience. This was said in German and in
Latin. The Emperor asked him, tlirough Eck, whether he actually
believed that a General Council could err. Luther replied that he did,
and could prove it. Eck was about to begin a discussion, but Charles
interposed. His interest w^as evidently confined to tlie one point of a
General Council. Luther was dismissed, tlie crowd followed him, and a
1521] Condemnation of Luther 141
number of the followers of the Elector of Saxony accompanied him.
Aleander tells us that as he left the audience hall he raised his hand in
the fashion of the German soldier who had struck a good stroke. He
had struck his stroke, and left the hall.
Next day Charles met the princes, and read them a paper in which
he had written his own opinion of what ought to be done. The Ger-
mans pleaded for delay and negotiations with Luther. This was agreed
to, and meetings were held in hopes of arriving at a conference.
A commission of eight, representing the Electors, the nobles, and the
cities, was appointed to meet with Luther. They were all sincerely
anxious to arrive at a working compromise ; but the negotiations were
in vain. The Emperor's assertion of the infallibility of a General
Council, and Luther's phrase, a conscience fast bound to the Holy J
Scripture, could not be welded together by any diplomacy however
sincere. The Word of God was to Luther a living voice speaking to
his own soul, it was not to be stifled by the decisions of any Council ;
Luther was ready to lay down his life, rather than accept any com-
promise which endangered the Christian liberty which came to men by
justifying faith.
The negotiations having failed, the Ban of the Empire was pro-
nounced against Luther. It was dated on the day on which Charles
concluded his secret treaty with Pope Leo X, as if to make clear to the
Pope the price which he paid for the condemnation of the Reformer.
Luther was ordered to quit Worms on April 26th, and his safe-conduct
protected him for twenty days, and no longer. At their expiration he
was liable to be seized and destroyed as a pestilent heretic. On his
journey homewards he was captured by a band of soldiers and taken
to the Castle of the Wartburg by order of the Elector of Saxony.
This was his " Patmos," where he was to be kept in safety until the
troubles were over. His disappearance did not mean that he was no
longer a great leader of men ; but it marks the time when the Lutheran
revolt merges into national opposition to Rome.
CHAPTER V
NATIONAL OPPOSITION TO ROME IN GERMANY
Thkough all the political and religious confusion, which distracted
Germany during the period from the Diet of Worms to the Peasants'
War, there runs one thread which gives to the story at least a semblance
of unity ; and that is the attempt and failure of a central government to
keep the nation together on the path towards a practical reform in
Church and in State. The reform was no less imperative than the
obstacles to it were formidable. Germany was little more than a
geographical expression, and a vague one withal ; it was not a State,
it could hardly be called a nation, so deep were its class divisions.
Horizontal as well as vertical lines traversed it in every part, and
its social strata were no more fused into one nation than its political
sections were welded into one organised State. Rival ambitions and
conflicting interests might set Prince against Prince, knight against
knight, and town against town, but deeper antagonisms ranged knights
against Princes and cities, or cities against Princes and knights ; they
might all conspire against Caesar, or the peasant might rise up against
them. Imperial authority was an ineffective shadow brooding over the
troubled waters and unable to still the storm. Separatism in every
variety of permutation and combination was erected into a principle,
and on it was based the Germanic political system.
Yet this warring concourse of atoms felt once and again a common
impulse, and adopted on rare occasions a common line of action. With
few exceptions the German people were bent on reform of the Church,
and with one voice they welcomed the election of Charles V. Nor for
the moment was the hope of political salvation entirely quenched. The
efforts of Berthold of Mainz and Frederick of Saxony to evolve order out
of the chaos had been foiled by the skill of the Emperor Maximilian,
and the advent of Luther had been the signal for a fresh eruption of
discord. But the urgency of the need produced a correspondingly
strong demand for national unity ; and at his election Charles was
pledged to renew the attempt to create a national government, to
maintain a national judicature, and to pursue a national policy. Un-
142
ippily vague aspiratiouB and imperial promises were poor fiiibstitutes for
^litical forces, and tlie forms in which the commuu feelings of the
nation found vent added strength to centrifugal tendencies, and con-
tributed their share to the ruin of unity. The attempt to remodel the
Church divided the realm into two persistently hostile camps, and the
suecession of Charles V secured the throne of the Caesars to a family
which was too often ready to sacrifice its national imperial duties to
the claims of dynastic ambition.
Seldom has a nation had better cause to repent a fit of enthusiasm
than Germany had when it realised the effects of the election of
Charles V. Of his rivals Francis I would no doubt have made a worse
imperor, but the choice of Ferdiuand — a suggestion made by Margaret
Df Savoy and pereriiptorily rejected by Charles himself — or of Frederick
of Saxony, would probably have been attended with less disastrous
consequences to the German national cause. In personal tastes and
sympathies, in the aims he pursued witldn his German kingdom, and
in his foreign policy Charles V was an alien ; his ways were not those
of his subjects, nor were his thoughts their thoughts; he could neither
speak the German language, nor read the German mind. Nurtured
from birth in tlie Burgundian lands of his father, he at first regarded
the world from a purely Burgundian point of view and sorely offended
his Spanish subjects by his neglect of their interests in concluding
the Treaty of Noyon (1.516). But the Flemish aspect of his Court and
his pohcy rapidly changed under southern influence, and the ten years of
his youth (1517-20 and ir>22-9) which he spent in Spain developed the
Spanish tastes and feelings which he derived from his mother Juana.
His mind grew ever more Spanish in sympathy, and this mental evolution
ras more and more clearly reflected in CLarles' d^'nastic policy. So far
\ it was afl'ected by national considerations, those considerations became
Bver more Spanish ; the Colossus which bestrode the world gradually
turned its face southwards, and it was to Spain and not to the land
of his birth that Charles retired to die-
From this development Germany could not fail to suffer, German
soldiers lielped to win Pavia and to desecrate Rome, but their blood was
shed in vain so far as the fatlierlaud was concerned. Charles' conquests
in Italy, made in the name of the German Empire and supported by
German imperial claims, went to swell the growing bulk of the Spanish
monarchy, and when he was crowned by Pope Clement VII at Bologna
it was noted that functions which belonged of right to Princes of the
Empire were performed by Spanish Grandees. His promise to the
German nation to restore to the Empire its pristine extent and glory
was interpreted in practice as an undertaking to enhance at all costs •]
prestige of the Habsburg family. The loss of its theoretical rights <
such States^ as Milan and Genoa was, however, rather a sentimi
than a real grievance to the nation. It had better cause for compTaT
144 Charles and the Papacy
when Charles (1543) in effect severed the Netherlands from the Empire
and transferred them to Spain. He sacrificed German interests in
Holstein to those of his brother-in-law Christian II of Denmark ; and,
although he was not primarily responsible for the loss of Metz, Toul,
and Verdun in 1662, his neglect of German interests along the Slavonic
coasts of the Baltic was not without effect upon the eventual incor-
poration of Esthonia, Livonia, and Courland, in the Russian domains of
the Czar. German troops had been wont to march on Rome; but
Charles brought Italian troops to the banks of the Elbe. He introduced
into Germany that Spanish taint which was only washed out in the
Thirty Years' War ; and he then sought to turn that tide of northern
influence, which has been flowing ever since the decline of the Roman
Empire.
In religion as well as in politics Charles' increasingly Spanish ten-
dencies had an evil effect on the Empire. He was no theologian, and
he could never comprehend the Reformers' objections to Roman dogma ;
but that did not make him less hostile to their cause. His attitude
towards religion was half way between the genial orthodoxy of his
grandfather Maximilian and the gloomy fanaticism of his son Philip II,
but his mind was always travelling away from the former and towards
the latter position ; and the transition enhanced the diflSculty of coming
to an accommodation with Lutheran heretics.
This orthodoxy, however, implied no blindness to the abuses of the
Pope's temporal power, and was always conditioned by regard for the
Emperor's material interests. The fervid declaration of zeal against
Luther which Charles read at the Diet of Worms has been described
as the most genuine expression of his religious feelings. No doubt it
was sincere, but it is well to note that the Emperor's main desire was
then to wean Leo X from his alliance with Francis I, and to prove to
the papal Nuncio that, whatever the Diet might do, Charles' heart was
in the right place. If he often assumed the r6le of papal champion, he
could on occasion remember that he was the successor of Henry IV, and
to some at least the Sack of Rome must have seemed a revenge for the
scene at Canossa. He could tell Clement that that outrage was the just
judgment of God, he could seize the temporalities of the bishopric of
Utrecht, and speak disrespectfully of papal excommunications. He could
discuss proposals for deposing the Pope and destroying his temporal
power, and was even tempted to think that Luther might one day
become of importance if Clement continued to thwart the imperial plans.
With Charles, as with every prince of the age, including the Pope,
political far outweighed religious motives. Chivalry and the crusading
spirit were both dead. His religious faith and family pride might both
have impelled him to avenge upon Henry VIII the wrongs of Catharine
of Aragon ; but these, he said, were private griefs ; they njust not be
allowed to interfere with the public considerations which compelled him
conciliate the English King ; and hi^ one aim throughout the affair
"was to provide for the succession of his cousin to the throne of England,
That was a clear dynastic issue which ap|)ealed to Charles with a force
which no other motive could rival. One simple principle pervaded the
whole of Charles' actions, and one object he pursued %rith unswerving
fidelity throughout his public career. It was neither the conversion of
heretics nor the overthrow of the Turks ; it was not even a national
object, for Charles was too cosmopcditan and his lands too heterogeneous
for him to become such an exponent of national aspirations as Francis I
and Henry II were in France, or Henry VIII and Elizabeth in England,
f But he was deeply imbued with pride in the Habsburg race and faith
in the famUy star. To the service of the Habsburgs he devoted his
industry, his patience, his tenacity of purpose, and his gi*eat diplomatic
abilities. Therein lay the reason of his ultimate failure ; in the end the
] e of natic»naUty defied the Habsburg power, and not a foot of
i conquered by Charles remains to the Spaniard to-day*
The imperial throne of Germany was thus a possession which Charles
fht to use in the Habsburg interest ; and this idea dominated not
ely his foreign policy but the course he pursued with regard to
domestic affairs. He was told by his minister, Maximilian von Zeven-
bergen, that the only means to prevent the Empire from becoming a
democratic republic like Smtzerhmd was the extension within it^ borders
of the absolutist Habsburg power* and t^ this d\Tiastic use the Emperor
turned, so far as he could, his prerogative as national sovereign. The
great enemy of irai>erial unity was the territorial principle, and Charles
elf regarded it as such, yet he never hesitated toextend his territorial
ions at the exj)ense of the national government. Everj^ element
in the German State tended towards separation, but the greatest separatist
of all was tlie Emperor. Besides \'irttially severing the Netherlands
from the Empire, he sought to exempt his hereditary possessions from
the jurisdiction of the national Courts of law, from contributing to the
national taxes, and from sliaring the burden of national government.
He was to be as absolute as he could in the Empire at large, but while
he controlled the national government, the national government was to
have no control over his hereditary lands. It mattered little how much
the imperial authority diminished provided the Habsburg power grew ;
ao one should henceforth be Emperor unless he came of the Habsburg
The extent of his heritage was greater than that of the German
Jteitk, and he thought that his allegiance to his family transcended his
bligations to any one of the realms over which ^ ruled. But
I Germany was concerned, the Emperor Charles V never ]
aw dynastic to a br«>ad national conception of his
fiport unities as ruler of GeiTnany, Both the exterr*" '
authority of the central government dwindled
narrowed the German Reich and weakened Uie Ra
146 Diet of Wor^ns [i5l9-2i
While German national interests were thus subordinated to those
of a family, while the nominal control of the Empire's foreign policy
was vested in the hands of one who regarded Germany as only a piece
in the game of dynastic ambitions, the German people reaped no
corresponding advantage from increased security. The endless roll of
principalities and powers which adorned Charles V's style and dazzled
the eyes of the Electors proved no more than a paper wall of defence.
The Emperor's strength was also his weakness ; it was dissipated all over
Europe, and though Germans turned the scale in Italy, few troops came
from Spain or Burgundy to defend the Empire against the Turks or the
French. While Francis I and Solyman wielded swords, Charles V
seemed to brandish an armoury of cumbrous weapons, which were only
of use if used all together, and were frequently unavailable at the
critical moment. Germany had to look to itself for defence, and a
further element of separatism was fostered by the consequent tendency
of individual Princes to make arrangements with Charles' enemies behind
the Emperor's back.
The nation was not long left in doubt as to the character of the ruler
whom it had chosen or the objects he meant to pursue. German envoys
to Spain were not well pleased with their youthful sovereign's obvious
devotion to priestly rites, or with the intimation that they must negotiate
in the Flemish tongue because Charles could speak neither German nor
Latin. Nor was his first act as Emperor calculated to reassure his
people. Amid the confusion of the interregnum Ulrich, the dispossessed
Duke of Wiirttemberg, attempted to recover his duchy ; he was easily
defeated by the Swabian League, which ceded its conquest to Charles
on repayment of the cost of the campaign. Ulrich was a ruffian who
deserved no consideration, but his vices did not abrogate the rights of
his heirs, and it was utterly repugnant to German custom and sentiment
for the Emperor to confer a fief upon himself. No territory, however,
was so convenient for the extension of Austria's influence as Wiirttem-
berg ; with it in Habsburg hands, Zevenbergen thought that Charles
and his brother would dominate Germany, and so Wiirttemberg passed
into Habsburg possession, with Zevenbergen as its governor.
Troubles in Spain and adverse winds delayed Charles' departure
from the shores of Galicia until May, 1520, and his two interviews with
Henry VIII further postponed his coronation at Aachen until October 23.
There he swore to observe the promises made before his election, and on
November 1 he summoned a Diet to meet in the following January.
He then made his way up the Rhine to Worms, where, on January 28,
the day sacred to Charles the Great, he opened perhaps the most famous
of all the Diets in German history (1521).
The dramatic episode of Luther's appearance and condemnation by
the Edict of Worms has, however, been allowed to obscure the more
important business of the Diet and to convey a somewhat misleading
1521] Revolt against clerical domination 147
impression. The devils on the roofs of the houses at Worms were really
rather friendly to Luther than otherwise, and the renowned Edict itself
was not so much an expression of settled national policy as an expedient,
recommended by the temporary exigencies of the Emperor's foreign
relations, and only extorted from him by Leo's promise to cease from
supporting Charles' foes. Probably Charles himself had no expectation
of seeing the Edict executed, and certainly the Princes who passed it had
no such desire. They were much more intent on securing redress of
their grievances against the Church than on chastising the man who
had attacked their common enemy ; and the fact that the Diet which
condemned Luther's heresy also solemnly formulated a comprehensive
indictment against the Roman Church throws a vivid liglit upon the
twofold aspect which the Reformation assumed in Germany as elsewhere.
J The origin of the whole movement was a natural attempt on the
part of man, with the progress of enlightenment, to emancipate himself
from the clerical tutelage under which he had laboured for centuries,
and to remedy the abuses which were an inevitable outcome of the
exclusive privileges and authority of the Church. These abuses were
traced directly or indirectly to the exemption of the Church and its
possessions from secular control, and to the dominion which it exercised
over the laity ; and the revolt against this position of immunity and
privilege was one of the most permanently and universally successful
movements of modern history. It was in the beginning quite indepen-
dent of dogma, and it has pervaded Catholic as well as Protestant
countries. The State all over the world has completely deposed the
Church from the position it held in the Middle Ages ; and the existence
of Churches, whether Catholic or Protestant, in the various political
systems, is due not to their own intrinsic authority but to the fact that
they are tolerated or encouraged by the State. No ecclesiastic has any
appeal from the temporal laws of the land in which he lives. In 1521
clerical ministers ruled the greater part of Europe, Wolsey in England,
Adrian in Spain, Du Prat in France, and Matthew Lang to no small
extent in Germany ; to-day there is not a clerical prime minister in
the world, and the temporal States of the Catholic Church have shrunk
to the few acres covered by the Vatican. The Church has ceased to
trespass on secular territory and returned to her original spiritual
domain.
This was, roughly speaking, the maiaJssue of the Reformation.; it
was practically^ universal, while the d ogmaticquestionTwere subsidiary
and took different forms in different legalities. It was on this principle
that the German nation was almost unanimous in its opposition to
Rome, and its feelings were accurately reflected in the Diet at Worms.
Even Frederick of Saxony was averse from Luther's repudiation of
Catholic doctrine, but, if the Reformer had confined himself to an attack
on the Church in its temporal aspect, Pope and Emperor together would
have been powerless to secure his condemnation. The whole nation,
\iTote a canon of Worms, was of one mind with regard to clerical
immorality, from Em23eror down through all classes to the last man.
Nine-tenths of Germany, declared the papal Nuncio, cried '" Long live
Luther," and the other tenth shouted ** Death to the Clxurch/' Duke
George of Saxcmy, the stauachest of Catholics, was calling for a General
Council to reform abuses, and Gattinara, Charles* shrewdest adviser,
echoed the recommendation. Even Jean (ilapion, the Emperor's con-
fessor, was believed to be not averse from an accommodation with
Luther, provided that he would disavow the Bahi/lonhh Captivity^ and
in Worms itself the papal emissaries went about in fear of assassination.
The Germans, wrote Tunstall to Wolsey from Worms, were everywhere
so addicted to Luther that a hundred thousand of them would lay
down their lives to save him from the penalties pronounced by the
Pope.
( This popular enthusiasm for Luther led Na4ioleon to fixp^ress the
^belief that, had Charles adopted his cause, he could have conquered
^Europe at the head of a united German^* But an imperial sanction
of Lutheran ism would not have killed the separatist tendencies of
German politics, nor was it Lutheran doctrine which had captivated the
hearts of the German people* He was the hero of the hour solely
because he stood for the national opposition to Rome. The circum-
stances in Germany in 1521 were not very dissimilar from those in
England in 1529. There was an almost universal repugnance to clerical
privilege and to the Roman Curia, Imt the section of the nation which
was prepared to repudiate Catholic dogma wa^ still insignificant ; and a
really national government, which regarded national unity as of more
importance than the immediate triumph of any religious party, would
have pursued a policy something like that of Henry VIII in his later
years. It woukl have kept the party of doctrinal revolution in due
subordination to the national movement against the abuses of a corrupt
clerical caste and an Italian domination ; it would have endeavoured to
satisfy the popular demand for practical refornu witliout alienating the
majority by surrendering to a sectional agitation against Catholic
dogma. But both the man and the forces were wanting, Charles
often dallied with the idea of a limited practical reform, and he had
already slighted the Papacy by allowing Luther to be heard at the I liet
of Worms after his condemnation by the Pope, as if an imperial edict
were of more effect in matters of faith than a papal Bull. He could
hardly, however, be Reformer in Germany and reactionary in Spain, and
the necessities of his dynastic position as well as his personal feelings
tied him to the Catholic cause. His frequent and prolonged periods of
absence and his absorption in other affairs prevented liim from bestowing
upon the government of Germany that vigilant and concentrated at-
tention which alone enabled Henry VIII to effect his aims in England ;
and the Uisk of dealing with the religions, and with the no lefl« trouble-
some political and social discord in Germany, was left to the Council of
Regency and practically, for live years, to Ferdhiand.
The composition and powert* of this* body were among the chief
questions which came before the Diet of Worms. When the electors
extorted from Charles a promise to re-establish the Beich^regimenU they
had in their mind a natitmal administration like that suggested by
Berthold of Mainz ; when Charles gave his pledge, he was thinking of
a Council which should be, like Maximilian's, Aulic rather than national ;
and he imagined that he was redeeming his pledge when be proposed to
the Diet the fornration of a government which was to Iiave no control
over foreign affairs, and a control, limited by his own assent, over do-
mestic administration. The Regent or head of the Council and six of
its twenty members were to be nominated by the Emperor; these were
to be permanent, but the other fourteen, representing the Empire, were
to change every quarter. This body was to have no power over Charles*
hereditary dominions* nor over the newly-won Wiirttemberg. The
Emperor, in short, was to control the national government, but the writs
of tlie national government were not to run in the Habsburg territories.
On the other hand, the Princes demanded a form of government which
would have practically eliminated the imjierial factor from the Empire ;
the governing Council was to have the same authority whether Charles
himself were present or not, it was to decide foreign as well as domestic
questions, and in it the Emperor should be represented only in the same
way as other Princes, namely, by a proportionate number of members
chosen from his hereditary lands.
In the ct»m promise which followed Charles secured the decisive
point. The government which was formed was ttio weak to weld
Germany into a political whole, able to withstand the disintegrating
influence of its own particularism and of the Habsburg dynastic in-
terest ; and Charles was left free to pursue throughout his reign the
old imperial maxim, divide et impera. The Reich^ref/iment was to have
independent power only during the Emperor s absence ; at other times
it was to sink into an advisory body^ and important decisions niuat
always have his assent* He was to nominate the president and four out
of the Councirs twenty-two me raters ; Imt his own dominions were to be
subject to its authority, the determination of religious questions was left
largely in the hands of the Estates, and Charles undertook to form no
leagues or alliances affecting the Empire without the ConnciFs consent.
The reconstitntion of the supreme national court of justice or Itf^ichs-
.Jkammergericht presented few variations from the form adopted at Con-
stance in 1507, and the ordinance establishing it is almost word for
word the same as the original proposal of Berthold of Mainz in 1495 ;
the imperial influence was slightly increased by the provision permitting
him to nominate two additional assessors to the Court, but, being paid
150 Growth of the power of the Princes
by the Empire and not by the Emperor, its members retained their
independence.
A measure which ultimately proved to be of more importance than
the reorganisation of these two institutions was the partition of the Habs-
burg inheritance. One of the most cherished projects of Ferdinand of
Aragon had been the creation in northern Italy of a kingdom for the
benefit of the younger of his two grandsons, which would have left
Charles free to retain his Austrian lands. That scheme had failed ; but
the younger Ferdinand, especially when he became betrothed to the
heiress of Hungary and Bohemia, could not decently remain unendowed
while his brother possessed so much ; and on April 28, 1521, a contract
was ratified transferring to Ferdinand the five Austrian duchies, of
Austria, Carinthia, Carniola, Styria, and Tyrol. This grant formed the
nucleus of the present so-called Dual Monarchy ; it was gradually ex-
tended by the transference to Ferdinand of all Charles V's possessions
and claims in Germany, and the success with which the younger brother
governed his German subjects made them regret that Ferdinand had
\ not been elected Emperor in 1519 instead of having to wait thirty-seven
years for the prize.
Soon after the conclusion of the Diet of Worms Charles left Ger-
many, which he was not to see again until nine years later ; and long
before then the attempt of the central government to control the
disruptive forces of political and religious separatism had hopelessly
broken down. A pathetic interest attaches to the intervening struggles
of the Reichiregimentas being the last efforts to create a modern German
national State co-extensive with Ihe medieval Empire, a State which
would have included not only the present German Empire, but Austria
and the Netherlands, and which, stretching from the shores of the Baltic
to those of the Adriatic sea, and from the Straits of Dover to the
Niemen or the Vistula, would have dominated modern Europe ; and a
good deal of angry criticism has been directed against the particularist
bodies which one after another repudiiated the authority of the gov-
ernment and brought its work to nought. But particularism had so
completely permeated Germany that the very efforts at unity were
themselves tainted with particularist motives ; and one reason alike for
the favour with which Princes like Frederick of Saxony regarded the
Reichsregiment, and for its ultimate failure, was that, with its ostensible
unifying purpose, the government combined aims which served the
interests of Princes against those of other classes.
The great Princes of the Empire present a double aspect, varjnng
with the point of view from which they are regarded. To Charles they
were collectively an oligarchy which threatened to destroy the monarch-
ical principle embodied in the person of the Emperor ; but individually
and from the point of view of their own dominions they represented a
monarchical principle similar to that which gave unity and strength to
1521-2] Difficulties of the Reichsregiment 151
France, to England, and to Spain, a territorial principle more youthful
and more vigorous than the effete Kaisertum. The force of political
gravitation had already modified profoundly the internal constitution of
the Empire ; States like Saxony, Brandenburg, and Bavaria had acquired
consistency and weight, and began to exercise an attraction over
the numberless molecules of the Empire which the more distant and
nebulous luminary of the Kaisertum could not counteract. The petty
knight, the cities and towns, found it ever more difficult to resist
the encroachments of neighbouring Princes; and princely influence
over municipal elections and control over municipal finance went on
increasing throughout the sixteenth century, till towards its end the
former autonomy of all but a select number of cities had well-nigh
disappeared. It was not from the Emperor but from the Princes that
knights and burgesses feared attacks on their liberties, and their danger
threw them into an attitude of hostility to the Reichsregiment^ a body
by means of which the Princes sought to exercise in their own interests
the national power. They could also appeal to the higher motive of
imperial unity ; the strength of individual Princes meant the weakness
of the Emperor, and unity in parts might seem to be fatal to the unity
of the whole.
The Diet of Worms had in fact been a struggle between Emperor
and Princes, in which neither had paid much regard to inferior classes,
and the spoils were divided exclusively between the two combatants.
The knightly order was denied all share in the government of the
Empire ; they could expect no more consideration than before in their
endless disputes over territory with their more powerful neighbours,
and the Reichskammergericht with its Roman law they regarded as an
insufferable infringement of their own feudal franchises. The cities
were not less discontented. They had been refused any representation
in the Reichsregiment^ subsidies had been voted without their concurrence,
and they anticipated with reason fresh taxation which would fall mainly
on their shoulders.
The new government was established at Niirnberg in November,
1521, and in the following February it met the Diet. The first business
was to raise forces to serve against the Turks before whose advance
Belgrade had just fallen ; and with Charles' consent a portion of the
supplies voted for the Emperor's abandoned journey to Rome was
applied to this purpose. Greater difficulty was experienced in finding
means to defray the expenses of the imperial council and court of
justice. It was proposed to revert to the Common Penny, to tax the
Jews, and to apply the annates of the German Church, which supported
the Roman Curia, to the purposes of the national government. But all
these suggestions were rejected in favour of a scheme which offered the
threefold advantage of promoting German unity, of relieving German
capitalists of some of their superfluous wealth, and of sparing the
152 Proposal to tax exports and imports [1522
pockets of those who voted the tax. All classes had soon perceived
that there could be no peace and no justice unless somebody paid for its
maintenance and administration, and with one voice they began to
excuse themselves from the honour of providing the funds. It was
necessary, however, to select a victim, and the choice of the mercantile
interest was received with acclamation by every other class in Germany.
The commercial revolution which marked the end of the fifteenth
and beginning of the sixteenth century had led, as such revolutions •
always do, to the rapid and disproportionate accumulation of wealth in
the hands of the few who knew how to exploit it ; and the consequent
growth of luxury and increase of the power of mercantile magnates were
a constant theme of denunciation in the mouths of less fortunate men.
The canonist doctrine of usury, based on the Scriptural prohibition, still
held sway in all but commercial circles, and the forestalling and regrating,
against which the English statute-book is so eloquent, excited no less
odium in Germany. Theologians united with lawyers in denouncing
the Fuggerd of the great trading companies; Luther and Zwingli,
Hutten and Erasmus were of one mind on the question. Erasmus
described the merchants as the basest of all mankind, and it was partly
due to this feeling that the lawless robbery of traders at the hands
of roving knights went on openly without an attempt to check it;
the humanist, Heinrich Bebel, even declared that the victims owed their
captors a debt of gratitude because the seizure of their ill-gotten goods
smoothed their path to heaven.
This moral antipathy to the evil effects of wealth, as exhibited in
other people, was reinforced by the prevalent idea that money and
riches were synonymous terms, and that the German nation was being
steadily impoverished by the export of precious metals to pay for the
imports it received from other countries, and especially English cloth
and Portuguese spices. It was felt that some check must be put upon
the process, and a national tax on imports and exports would, it was
thought, cure this evil, satisfy at once the moral indignation of people
and Princes against capitalists and their selfish desire for fiscal immunity,
and provide a stable financial basis for the national executive and judicial
system, for the defence of the realm against foreign foes, and for the
maintenance of peace within its borders. The measure as passed by the
Diet of Niirnberg in 1622 exempted all the necessaries of life, but imposed
a duty of four per cent, on all other merchandise, to be paid on exports
as well as on imports. Custom-houses were to be erected along the whole
frontier of the Empire, which was defined for the purpose. Switzerland
refused its consent and was excluded, and so were Bohemia and Prussia,
the latter as being a fief of Poland, but the Netherlands were reckoned as
an integral part of the Empire ; and, had the project been carried out,
it would have provided not only the revenues which were its immediate
object, but an invaluable lever for the unification of Germany.
Not content, however, with this victory over the moneyed classes
obtained through the co-operation of their own particular interests with
a national sentiment* nor with the further prohibition of all trading
companies possessint^ a capital of more than fifty thousand crowns, the
Princes proceeded at the Diet held at Niirnberg in November, 1522,
to strike at the imperial cities which bad hitherto refrained from
making common cause with the capitalists. In language which reminds
English readers of James I, they alBrmed that the participation of the
cities in the affairs of the Empire was not a matter of right, but of
grace and a privilege which might be withdrawn at pleasure ; when
the Electors and Princes had agreed on a measure, the cities, they
said, had nothing to do but consent, and they were now required to
levy a contribution towards the Turkish war which had been voted
without their concurrence.
The golden age of the towns had passed away in Germany as well as
in Italy, their brilliant part in history had been played out, and they
were already yielding place to greater political organisations; but they
were not yet prepared to surrender to the Princes without a struggle.
At a congress of cities held at Speier in March, 1523, it was resolved to
appeal from the Reichareffiment to the Emperor, and an embassy was sent
to lay their case before Charles at Valladolid in August. At first the
imperial Court took up an attitude of real or feigned hostility to their
demands, and there seems to be no conclusive evidence that this revolt
against the national government had been encouraged by Charles* Yet
the partioularist interest of the cities appealed to the particularist interest
of the Emperor with a force which ho could not resist. The opposition
had licen engineered by the Fuggers; and Charles' chronic insolvency
rendered him peculiarly susceptible to the arguments which they could
best apply; Jacob Fugger had even boasted that to liim and his house
Charles owed his election as Emperor. So now the deputies undertook
that Charles should not lose financially by granting their request, and
they also promised his councillors a grateful return for their trouble.
Other grounds were alleged ; it was hinted that the Princes would use
the proceeds of the tax in a way that boded no good to the imperial
power in Germany ; there was a scheme in hand for the appointment of
a King of the Rfunans who with adequate financial support might
reduce the Emperor to a cipher; moreover the Reick^regiment which
required this revenue was itself superfluous ; if Charles would select a
trustworthy Regent and maintain the Kammertjerirht, that would meet
all the exigencies of the case, and his own position in the Empire would
be materially strengthened. Finally, to remove Charles' suspicions of
the cities based on their alleged countenance of Lutheran ism, they
made the somewhat confident assertion that not a syllable of Luther's
works had been printed in their jurisdiction for years, and that it
was not with them that Luther and his followers found protection.
154 The knightly order and Sickingen [1522
Satisfied with these assurances Charles intimated that he would take the
government into his own hands, appoint a Regent and a fresh Kammer-
gericht^ forbid the imposition of the obnoxious tax, and prohibit the
Regiment from dealing with monopolies without again asking his con-
sent. The first great blow at the national government had been struck
by the Emperor at the instigation of the German cities ; another was
at the moment being struck by the German nobility and a section of
the German Princes.
Of all the disorderly elements in the German Empire the most
dangerous was the Bitterschaft^ a class whose characteristics are not
adequately denoted by the nearest English equivalent, "knights."
Their bearing towards the government and towards the other Estates
of the realm recalls that of the English baronage under Stephen and
Henry II, and another parallel to their position may be found in the
Polish nobles or "gentlemen" whose success in reducing the other
elective monarchy in Europe to anarchy would probably have been
repeated by the German Ritterschaft but for the restraining force of
the territorial Princes. Like the English barons and the Polish nobles
they recognised no superior but their monarch, enjoyed no occupation
so much as private war, and resisted every attempt to establish orderly
government. They had special grievances in the early part of the
sixteenth century ; the development of commerce was accompanied by
a corresponding agricultural depression ; and while wealth in the towns
increased and prices rose, the return from rents and services remained
stationary unless they were exploited on commercial principles. In
France and in England under strong monarchies the lords of the land
saved their financial position by sheep-farming, enclosures, and other
businesslike pursuits, but in Germany pride, or inadaptability, or special
facilities for private war kept the knights from resorting to such ex-
pedients, and their main support was wholesale brigandage. They took
to robbery as to a trade and considered it rather an honour to be
likened to wolves. Like wolves, however, they were generally hungry ;
the organisation of territorial States and the better preservation of peace
had, moreover, rendered their trade at once more dangerous and unprofit-
able ; and in 1522 there were knights who lived in peasants' cottages, and
possessed incomes of no more than fourteen crowns a year.
To their poverty fresh burdens were added by the reforms of the
national government ; the prohibition of private war, the supersession
of their ancient feudal customs by the newly-received Roman law, the
constant pressure of their powerful neighbours the Princes, drove them
into a position of chronic discontent ; and in the summer of 1522 the
knights of the middle and upper Rhine provinces assembled at Landau
and resolved to repudiate the authority of the Meichskammergericht on
the ground that it was dominated by the influence of their natural foes,
the Princes. They found a leader in the notorious Franz von Sickingen,
1522-5] The knights^ war 155
who has been regarded both as the champion of the (poorer classes and
as a Gospel pioneer. Probably his motives were mainly personal and
he adopted the canse of his fellow-knights only because that r6U suited
his private purposes. Charles V had taken him into his service and
employed him in the war with France^ but Sickingen^s success and
rewards had not been commensurate with his hopes* and he sought other
means to satisfy the extravagant ambition of becoming Elector of Trier
or even a King.
A decent cloak for his private ends and for the class interests of the
knights was found in the religious situation. Sickingen was apimrent ly a
genuine Lutheran ; Bucer lived in his castle, the El>ernburg* Oecolamjvi-
dius preached to his followers, and four hundred knights had undert4iken
Luther's defence at the Diet of Worms. The Reformer was grateful
and addressed Sickingen as his especial lord and patron. He k>oked to
the Bitter as a sword of the Gospel, and openly incited them to rise
and spoil the unregenerate priests and prelates ; while Hutten, whose
sympathies were naturally on the knightly side, urged Sickingen to
emulate Ziska, and endeavoured to enlist the towns in the service of
the opposition to their common foe, the territorial Princes. Some
of these Princes were, however, already half Lutherans ; the Elector
of Saxony was Luther's great patron, the Elector Palatine \^'as full of
doubts, and in any ease was no friend to the Bishops, and prudence
forbade open war in the ranks of the Reformers. An ingenious method
of avoiding it, and of combining secular and religious interests under
Sickingeu's banner, was found in the proposal to limit the attack to the
ecclesiastical Princes whose worldly goods were an offence to Luthernn
divines, whose jurisdiction was a perpetual grievance to the cities, and
whose territorial powers infringed knightly liberties.
And so, when in August, 1522, Sickingen revived his feud with the
Archbishop-Elector of Trier and entered his territory at the head of
an army which he had levied nominally for the Emperor's service, he had
some hopes of success. The government put hi^n under the ban of the
Empire, but Sickingen laughed at threats and proceeded to carry on the
controversy with fire and sword. Unfortunately these arguments were
double-edged, and Trier to which he laid siege offered an unexpected
resistance. The Archbishop himself evinced a martial valoin* at least
equal to his spiritual zeal, and the knightly emissaries met with no
response to their appeals from the people of the city ; the traders had
suffered too much from the wolves outside to wish to see them, even
though they came in sheep's clothing, encamped within their walls. The
allies whom Sickingen expected from Franconia were intercepted, and on
September 14 he was forced to raise the siege and to retreat to his
stronghold at Landstuhl. Here he thought himself secMiro acfainst any
attack ; but his elaborate fortifications were not proof against the new
and powerful artillery which the Princes brought into the field. In
April, 15:235 his walls crumbled before it, he was himself mortally
wounded by a splinter of stone, and died soon after his surrender. He
was the last of the German Ritter^ and the cannon which battered his
castle were symbolical of the forces which proved fatal to the inde-
pendence of his class.
This victory over one of the most formidable disruptive forces
in the Empire might have been expected to strengthen the national
government, but it was won in spite of, and nut by, the ReichBreifimrfiL
That body had been unable to keep the peace even in the immediate
vicinity of Niirnberg where it sat, and whither its members came in
disguise to avoid molestation at the hands of knightly robbers. Still
less could it cope with a force like that at Sickingen's disposal, and the
rebellion had been put down by three Princes, the Elector Palatine, the
Archbishop of Trier, and the young Landgrave, Philip of Hesse, who ha<l
acted on their own responsibility and in conjunction with the Sw^abiau
League, an organisation embodying within itself prelates. Princes, lesser
nobility, and towns, but working in its external relations for the
furtherance of the particuhirist interests of the House of Austria. This
alliance had early in the course of the revolt taken matters into its own
hands and treated the government with as much contempt as Sickingen
had done liiraselL As a natural result the Beichgreffhm^nt began to
incline to the knightly side, and Frederick of Saxony came to an
agreement with the rebels. Neither event had any effect upon the
result of the struggle. After the fall of Landstiihl the three Princes
and the Swabian League proceeded to crush the Franconian knights.
This was clone with little difficulty, their power was broken for ever, and
IJlrieh von Hutten fled to Switzerland, where he <lied soon afterw^irds
in the midst of a controversy with his former friend Erasmus. The
victors then punished the offenders and divided their spoils without
the least reference to the wishes or commands of the government ; and
the main result of the episode was to exhibit in startling contrast the
impotence of the Reicl^sregiment and the vigour of the territorial power
of individual Princes.
The Mefjiment was visibly tottering to its fall, and in January^
1524, it met the Diet for the last time at Niirnherg, Frederick of
Saxony came prepared with a sheaf of reforms, but it was a question of
ending and not of mending, and with that determination in their minds
the various sections of the opposition gathered in force. The deputies
of the towns had returned from Spain bringing the Emperor's veto on
the one practicable means of financing the administration- Charles'
chancellor, Franz Hannart, followed to fan the discontent. The wealth
of Germany was ranged against the government which had endeavoured
to abolish monopolies, to tax trade, an*l to restrict the operations of
capital. Duke George of Saxony had already declined to support an
authority which had shown itself so powerless to enforce respect for its
deoreea, and the three Princes of the Palatmate, of Trier, and of Hesse
had withdrawn their representatives from the Heicksreffirnent. The
Swabian League was encouraged to resist encroaehnientB on its autonomy,
and the two main supports of the administration, the Electors of Mainz
and Saxony, were engaged in personal quarrels* When the Diet opened,
one after another of the representatives of the vested interests rose to
denounce the government, and a practical vote of censure was carried by
the refusal of the Diet to consider any scheme for raising revenue until
the administration was changed.
So ended the last attempt to create a national government for the
medieval German Empire. Tlie Meichsret/iment was indeed continued,
(but it was removed to Esslingen, where it sat under the eliadow of
^Austrian domination, and was shorn of the little independent authority
lit bad wielded before. Germany was submerged under a flood of con-
stitutional chaos and personal rivalry, Ferdiuand M'as plotting against
the Elector of Saxony ; many Princes were alienated from Charles by his
failure to pay their pensions ; and Francis I was seeking to fish in the
troubled waters. The experiment of the lieichsrcf/iment had, in fact,
been foredoomed to failure from the first ; the government contained
within itself the seeds of its 9wn disruption because its aims had not
been single or disinterested. It %vas an attempt at national unity
dominated by particularist interests. The opposition of the towns and
of the knights had not been evoked because the government sought
national unity but because it administered the national authority in the
interests of territorial Princes ; the single city of Niirnberg had for
instance been taxed liigher than any one of the Electors. Nor would
national unity have been secured if the oligarchy of Princes had per-
petuated its control of the government, for the individual members
would soon have quarrelled among themselves. Their dissensions were,
indeed, patent even when their collective authority was threatened by
common enemies* Each, \vrote Hannart to his master, wanted to have^
the affaii:^ of tlie Empire regulated according to his individual taste ; y
they all demanded a national government and a national system of I
judicature, but no one would tolerate the interference of these institu- j
tions in his own household and jurisdiction ; everyone in short wished I
to be master himself. ^
In such circumstances Charles was perhaps justified in preferring,
like the rest, the extension of his own territorial power to every
other object. He may have perceived the impossibility of founding
national unity on a discredited imperial system. Unity did not come
through any of the metliods suggested by the reforming Diets ; it only
came when the imperial decay, which they tried to check, had run ita
full course and the Emperor's supremaoy had succumbed to the principle
of territorial monarchy. To the extension of that principle by methods
of blood and iron Germany owes her modern unity as England, France,
158 Failure of the Edict of Worms [1521-5
and Spain owed their unity in the sixteenth century. It was the most
potent political principle then fermenting in Europe ; destroying the
old, it led to the construction of the new.
The failure of the attempt at political reform involved the ruin of
all hopes of a religious settlement which should be either peaceful or
national, for the only instrument by which such an object could have
been achieved was broken in pieces. Each political organism within
the Empire was left to work out its own salvation at its own option
without the stimulus or control of a central government ; and the
contrast between the course of the Reformation in Germany and
its development in England affords some facilities for comparing the
relative advantages and disadvantages of a strong national monarchy.
In Germany at all events there can be no pretence that the whole
movement was due to the arbitrary caprice of an absolute King. To
whatever extent it may have had its roots in the baser passions of
mankind, it was at least a popular manifestation. It came from
below, and not from above. Charles V was hostile from conviction and
from the exigencies of his personal position ; the ecclesiastical Princes
were hostile from interest if not from conviction ; of the temporal
Princes only one could be described as friendly, and even Frederick of
Saxony was not yet a Lutheran. He was still treasuring a collection
of relics and he had spoken severely of Luther's Babylonish Captivity,
His attitude towards all religious movements, however extravagant, was
rather that of Gamaliel, on whose advice to the Sanhedrim he seems to
have modelled his action ; if they were of men they would come
to nought of themselves, and rather than be found fighting against
God he would take his staff in his hand and quit his dominions for
ever.
But whatever animosity the authorities may have entertained against
the movement was neutralised by their impotence. The Edict of Worms
/ left nothing to be desired in the comprehensiveness of its condepinations
f or in the severity of its penalties, and the Roman hierarchy was particu-
\ larly gratified by the subjection of the press to rigid censorship and by
I the relegation of its exercise to the Church. But, while the Edict had
been sanctioned by the national Diet, its execution depended entirely
upon local authorities who were reluctant to enforce it in face of the
almost universal disapproval. The Primate himself, the Archbishop of
Mainz, for fear of riots refused his clergy licence even to preach against
the outlawed monk ; and at Constance, for instance, not only was the
publication of the Edict refused, but the imperial commissioners who
came to secure its execution were driven out of the city with threats.
l^oth the Edict of Charles and the Bull of Leo remained dead letters in
Germany outside the private domains of the House of Habsburg ; and
the chief effect of the campaign of the allied Pope, Emperor, and King
I
of England against Luther was a bonfire of the heretic's works in
London and another at Ghent.
Tlie censorship of the press was never more ludicrously ineffective
to stop a revolution. In spite of it the number of books issued from
German printing-presses in 1523 was more than twelve times as great as
the number issued ten years before, and of these four-fifths were devoted
to the cause of the Reformation. It was only with great diflieulty that
printers could be induced to publish works in defence of the Catholic
Church, and they had often to be repaid for the loss in which the
limited circulation of such books involved them. On the other
hand Luther's own writings, violent satires like the Karsthans and
Ntmkarstkatis^ and Hans Saehs' Wittenleripsche N'/ichfu/all, enjoyed an
immense popularity, Tlie effervescence of the national miud evoked a
literature vigorous but rude in form and coarse in expression, the
common burden of which was invective against the Church, and especially
the monastic orders ; and this indigenous literature stirred to passion
the mass of the lower middle 'classes which the alien and esoteric
ideals of the Humanists had failed to touclh The pe^ndl was scarcely
less effective than the pen ; Albrecht Dlirer and Lucas Crauaeh were
almost as zealous champions of the new ideas as Luther and Ilutten,
and probably few pictures have had a greater popular influence than
Diirers portrayal of St John taking precedence of St Peter, and of
St Paul as the protector of tlic (iospel. An English nobleman
travelling in Germany in 1523 was amazed by the number of
"abominable pictures " ridiculiug the friars, though he sent to his King
some similar specimens satirising Murner, on whom Henry had bestowed
a liundred piounds for his attack on Luther and for his translation of
Henry *s own book.
The motive of all this literature was as yet practical rather than
doctrinal, to eradicate the abuses of tlie ecclesiastical organisation ratlier
than to establish any fresh dogmatic system ; and the revolutionary ten-
dencies were strongest in the middle classes, which dominated the town
life in Germany. Though su]>porled by the knights the Kef<vrmation
was in the main a hourfjeois movement ; it was the religious aspect
of the advent of the middle classes. They had already emancipated
themselves from the medieval feudal system, and they had long been
fretting against the tram nj els which the Church imposed upon their
individual and corporate autonomy. Clerical imnnmities from municipal
taxation^ episcopal jurisdiction over otherwise free towns produced a
never-ceasing source of irritation. To these commercial classes Eherlin
of Giinzburg's assertions tliat the papal Curia cost Germany three
hundred thousand crowns a year, and that the friars extracted another
million, were irresistible arguments for the elimination of papal control
over the German Church and for the dissolution of the friars* Orders.
This predisposition to attack the Church was reinforced by the lingering
rem Hants of the Hussite movement. Some members of tlmt sect had
settled on the borders of Silesia and Jlomvia in the middle of the
fifteenth century ; and they are claimed as the founders of the later
Bohemian Brethren, Wimpheling and Pirkheimer had remarked the
recrude.scence of the Hussite heresy; and Wolfgang Capito declares
that in his youth he had often heard his elders read the writings of the
Bohemian He formers. Luther's words were not entirely novel accents,
but the echoes of half- forgotten sounds repeated with a novel force.
So while the Princes held aloof from the movement it progressed
with rapid strides in the cities. At Nurnberg under the eyes of the
national government the churches of St Lawrence and St Sebald
resounded with the new doctrines, and Osiander under the protection
of the city authorities began to proselytise not only among the citizens
but among the numbers of public officials, from clerks to Princes,
who were brought to Niirnberg by the business of the Empire. The
Austrian administration of Wiirttemberg closed its churches to the
Reformers, but almost all the small imperial cities of Swabia favoured
the Reformation. Eherlin of Giinzburg was the most popular of the
Swabian preachers, but Hall, Nordlingen, Keutlingen, EssUngen, and
Heilbronn listened to the precepts of Brenz, Billicanus, Alber, Styfel,
and Lachmann. Strassborg and the southern cities of the Swabian
circle were powerfully influenced by the example of their Swiss neigh-
bours ; and in ir>24, the year in which Zwingli established control over
Zurich, Bucer and Capito effected a similar change in Strassburg, which
had alrejidy shown its sympathies by committing Murner's works to the
flames, by protecting Matthew Zell from the Bishop, and by exercising
the censorship over the press in a way that inflicted no hardship on the
Reformers. Elsewhere in Upper Swabia Zwingli's influence was strong ;
his friend Schajypeler, who was to play an important part in the
Peasants' Revolt, preached at Memmingen, and Hummelberg in Ravens-
burg, while the dispusition of Constance had been proved in 1521 by its
refusal to publish the Edict of Worms. In Bavaria and Austria the
Reformers were naturally less successful, and one was martyred at
Rat ten berg. But Jacob Strauss and Urbanua Rhegius preached in the
valley of the Inn, Speratus at Salzburg and Vienna, and traces of the
Reformed doctrines were found as far south as Tyrol.
In the north the Reformers were not less active. Heinrich Moller
of Zutphen, an Augustinian from the Netherlands, prevailed in Bremen
against its Archbishop. Hamburg and Liibeck, Stralsund and Greifs-
wald, other cities of the Hanseatic League, followed its example,
Bugenhagen, the historian of Pomerania, was also its evangelist. Konigs-
berg became Lutheran under the auspices of Bishop Poleme of Samland^
and beyond the limits of the Empire the new doctrines spread to the
German colonies at Danzig and Dorpat, Riga and RevaL Hermann
Tast laboured in Sehleswig* Jurien von der Dare (Georgius Aportanus)
in east Friesland ; and smaller towns in Mecklenburg, Oldenburg,
Liineburg felt the impulse. Magdeburg and Breslau were in close coiu-
iimication with Witteuberg, and at Breslau the object at which the
reforming cities were aiming was first achieved when the City Council
claimed control over religious instruction on the ground that it built
and maintained ecclesiastical edifices* In many cities the result of the
struggle between the old faith and the new was indecisive ; at Ulm, for
instance, the Council determined to maintain a religious neutrality ;
elsewhere the Catholic clergy retained control of the churches, while
Lutheran divines preached to large audiences in the open air.
At first sight it may seem strange that an anti-ecclesiastical move-
lent should have been led by ecclesiastics, but the greatest enemies of a
'class or order generally come from within it ; the most successful leaders
of democratic revolutions have usually been aristocrats, and the over-
throw of Churches has often been the work of Churchmen. So promi-
nent were members of Luther's own order in the agitation against
religious Orders that the whole thing was thought at first to be only a
squabble between August in ians and Dominicans, like many another
which had already brojven out and been suppressed. The movement
had been hatched in an Augustinian monaster}^ at Wittenberg, and the
first to imitate the Wittenberg monks were their Augustinian brethren
at Erfurt. In 1522 a Chapter of the Order declared monastic vows to
be no longer binding, and a few months later its vicar abandoned his
dignity and took a wife. The Augustinians of Eisleben, Magdeburg,
Gotha,and Niirnberg soon followed the example of those of Wittenberg
and Erfurt, and left their cloisters to become evangelical preachers or to
■ adopt some secular trade. Two members of the Order were the pioneers
of Lutheran ism in the Netherlands, and two others were there its
pro to martyrs.
The German Augustinians in fact adopted Luther's cause as a body ;
no other Order followed their example, but that of St Francis produced
at least as many leaders of Reform. From Franciscan cloisters came
[Myconius, the Reformer of Weimar, who in after years travelled to
England in the vain hope of strengthening the Anglican Church in the
Lutheran faith ; John Eberlin of Giinzburg, and Henry of Kettenbach,
who worked together at Ulm ; Stephen Kempen, the evangelist of
Hamburg ; John Breismann, the reformer of Kottbos ; Gabriel Zwilling^
the agitator of Wittenberg ; and Conrad Pellican, who translated the
Talmud into Latin and impressed with his learning the Englisli Re-
formers, Whitgift and Jewel, Bradford and Latimer. From among the
Dominicans there arose Martin Bucer, a notable name in the history of
the German, the Swiss, and the English Reformations ; the Brigettines
produced Oecolampadius, whose name, like Bucer*s, was familiar on
both sides of the English ChanneL Otto Brunfels was a Carthusian*
and Ambrose Blarer a Benedictine. The Carmelite house at Augsburg
C. M, U* II,
11
TS
was a Lutheran seminary, and Bugenhagen, the Apostle of northern
Germany, had been Rector of the Premonstratensian school at Treptow,
From the ranks of the secular priesthood there came few Reformers
of eminence, a circumstance which shows that even in their worst days
the monastic Orders attracted most of the promising youth, George von
Folenz was the only Bishop who openly espoused the Lutheran cause in
its early years, though the Bishops of Basel and Breslau, Bamberg and
Merseburg were more or less friendly* The halting attitude of the
Archbishop of Mainz was due partly to fear and partly to the design he
cherished of following the example of Albrecht of Brandenburg and
converting liis clerical principality into a secular fief.
But the movement, although led by Churchmen, was not the worlA
of the Church or of any other organisation. It was a well-nigh universal \
spontaneous ebullition of lay and clerical discontent with the social, J
political, and moral condition of the established Catholic Church, /
There was no one to organise and guide this vohime of passion, for
Luther, although the mightici^t voice that ever spoke the German
language, was vox et praeterea nikiL He had none of the practical
genius which characterised Calvin or Loyola ; aqdtho lack of statesman-
like direction caused the Reforming impulse to break in vain against
many of the Catholic strongholds in Germany. Where it succeeded, it
owed its success mainly to the fact that its control fell into the hands of
a middle^class laity which had already learnt to administer such compre-
hensive affairs as those of the Hanseatic League. This participation of
the laity made the towns the bulwark of the German Reformed faith A
and the value of their co-operation was theologically expressed by the I
enunciation of tlie doctrine of the universal priesthood of man against the I
exclusive claims of the Church. Indeed not only were all men priests, butt
women as well — so declared Matthew Zeli, in grateful recognition of thai
effective aid which women occasionally rendered to the cause of Reform.
That cause had until 1522 been identified with the attempt to
remedy those national grievances against worldly priests, high-handed
prelates, and a corrupt Italian Papacy, which had been variously ex-
pressed in the list of gravamina drawn up by the Diet of Worms and in
the furious diatribes of popular literature. But gradually and almost
imperceptibly this campaign assumed a theological aspect ; Luther and
his colleagues began to seek a speculative basis for their practical
propaganda, and to trace the evil customs of the time to a polluted
doctrinal source. Religion in that theological age consisted largely in
belief and very slightly in conduct, and the conversion of a movement for
practical reform into a war of creeds was inevitable* But it hindered
the practical Reforraiition and helped to destroy the national unity of
Germany, There was scarcely a conservative who did not see and admit
the need for a purification of the Church ; Mui-ner and Eck and, most
notably, Erasmus felt it as much as Luther, Melanchthon, and Hutten ;
and Duke George of Saxony and diaries V as nmch as the Elector
Frederick. But there was a vast difference between such a recognitioa
and the acknowledgement of Luther's doctrine of the unfree will,
between the admission that the theory of good works had been grossly
abused and the assertion that all good works were vain. The division
thus initiated was deep and permanent, and whereas the practical aims
of the Reformation have commanded a universal assent in theory and
an ever-widening assent in practice, Luther's theology commanded only
a sectional allegiance even among Reformers of his century and a
decreasing allegiance in subsequent generations.
But Luther in spite of his repudiation of scholastic theology never
got rid of the results of his scholastic training ; he must have a complete
and logical theory of the universe, and he sought it in the works of the
great Father of the Church on whose precepts Luther's own Order had
been professedly founded. St Augustine's views on the impotence of the
human will had been adopted by the Church in preference to those of
his antagonist Pelagius ; but in practice their rigour had been mitigated
by a host of beneficent dispensations invented to shield mankind from
the inevitable effects of its helplessness in the face of original sin. These
medieval accretions Lutherswept away; he accepted with all its appalling
consequences the doctrine of predestination and of the thraldom of
mankind to sin, and did not hesitate to make God directly responsible
for the evil as well as the good existing in the world. It is a singular
phenomenon that a fervent belief in the impotence of t!ie human will
should have stimulated one of the most masterful wills which ever
affected the destinies of mankind.
The evolution of this doctrine had been but one of the mental
activities which occupied Luther during his enforced seclusion at the
castle of Wartburg. His abduction had been preconcerted between
himself and his friends at the Elector Frederick's Court on the eve of
his departure from Worms ; and the secret was so well kept that his
followers commonly thought that he had been murdered by papal
emissaries. Here in hia solitude he was subjected to a repetition of
those assaults of the devil wliich he liad experienced in the Augustinian
cloister. What assurance had he tliat he was right and the rest of
the Church was wrong? But the faith that was in him saved him
from his doubts of himself, and hard work prevented him from be-
coming a visionary. The news that Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz
was intent on a fresh recourse to Indulgences provoked a remarkable
illustration of Luther s influence ; in spite of the efforts of well-wishers
at the Saxon Court to keep him quiet, he presented an ultimatum to
the Archbishop granting a respite of fourteen days within which
Albrecht might retract and escape the perils of the Reformer's fulmi-
uations. The Primate of Germany replied with an abject submission,
It was difficult to silence a man who wielded such an authority.
and commentaries on the Psalms nod the MagjiificaU sermons on the
Gospels and Epistles for the year, a book on Confession, and an
elaborate treatise condemning the validity of monastic vows, flowed
with amazing rapidity from his pen. More important M^as his trans-
lation of the New Testament, on which he was engaged during the
greater part of his captivity. The old error that versions of the
Scriptures in the vernacular tongues were almost unkno\\TL before the
Reformation has been often exposed, but it ia not so often pointed
out that these earlier translations were based on the Vulgate and thus
reflected the misconceptions of the Church against which the Reformers
protested. It was almost as important that translations into the ver-
nacular should be l>ased on original texts as that there should be
translations at all, and from a critical point of view the chief merit
of Luther's version is that he sought to embody in it the best results
of Qyeek and Ilebrew scholarship. But its success was due not so
much to the soumTness of its scholarsliip as to the literary form of
the translation, and Luther's Bible is as much a classic as the English
Authorized Version. If he did not create the Neuhochdeutseh which
Grimm calls the ** Protestant dialect," he first gave it extensive popular
currency, and the language of his version, which was based on the Saxon
Kanzhupracke^ superseded alike the old Ilochdeutsch and Plattdeut%ck^
which were then the prevalent German diiUects. The first edition of
the New Testament was issued in September, 1522, and a second two
months later ; the whole Bible was completed in 1534, and in spite
of the facts that a Basel printer translated Luther*s *' outlandish
words '' into South German and that a Plattdeut%ch version was also
published, the victory of Luther s dialect was soon assured.
Luther's Bible became the most effective weapon in the armoury
of the German Reformers, and to the infallibility of the Church they
and later Protestants opposed the infallibility of Holy Scripture, But
this was a claim which Luther himself never asserted for the Bible,
and still less for his own translation. His often-quoted remark that
the Epistle of St James was an ^^ epistle of straw," should not be
separated from Luther's own qualification that it was such only in
comparison with the Gospel of St John, the Pauline Epistles, and some
other books of the New Testament, But his references to that Epistle
and to the Epistle to the Hebrews and the Book of Revelation show a
very independent attitude towards the Scriptures. Wherever the words
of the Canonical Books seemed to conflict with those of Christ, he
preferred the latter as an authority, and further difliculties he left to
individual interpretation. Let each man, he writes, hold to what his spirit
yields him ; and he confessed that he could not reconcile himself to
the Book of Revelation* He was in fact supremely eclectic in respect to
"^the Scriptures and to the doctrines he deduced from them ; he gave the
greatest weight to those Books and to those passages which appealed
most strongly to liis own individuality, while he neglected those which,
like St James' Epistle, did not suit his doctrines. But he conld hardly
refuse a like liberty to others, and was thus soon involved in a struggle
with Reformers who like himself started from the denial of the authority
of the Roman Church, but pressed further tlian he did his own arguments
on the freedom of the will and the weight attaching to Scripture.
Luther's seclusion at the Wartburg did not allay the intellectual
ferment at Wittenberg or impair the influence it exercised over the
rest of Germany. At Wittenberg both the University and the town
defied alike the papal Bull and the imperial Edict, Scholars tlocked
to the University from all quarters, and it became the metropolis of
the reforming movement. Melanchthon forsook the Clouds of Aristo-
phanes to devote himself to the Epistles of St Paul; and his Lttci
Communei formed one of the most effective of Lutheran handbooks. But
he lacked the force and decision of character to lead or control the
revolutionary tendencies which were gathering strength, and Luther's
place was taken by his old ally Carlstadt, Carlstadt's was one of those
acute int^rllects which earn for their possessors the reputation of being
reckless agitators because Ihey are too far in advance of their age j
and the doubts wdiich he entertained of the Mosaic authorship of the
Pentateuch and of the identity of the Gospels, as they then existed, with
their original form, were considered to be evidence of the instability of
his character rather than of the soundness of his reasoning faculties.
He was not, however, free from personal vanity or jealousy of Luther,
and his rival's absence afforded him the opportunity of appearing as
the leader of the movement. Declining an invitation from Christian II
to Denmark, he united with Gabriel Zwilling in an attempt to destroy
what Luther had left of the papal system. He attacked clerical celibacy
in a voluminous treatise, Remanding that marriage should be made com-
pulsory for secular priests and optional for monastics* He denounced
the whole institution of monachism, and pronounced the adoration of
the Eucharist aud private masses to he sinfuL On December 3, 1521,
there w^as a riot against the Mass, and the University demanded its
abolition throughout the country. The Town Council refused its con-
currence in tliis request, but on Christmas*Day Carlstadt administered
the Sacrament of the Altar in both elements, omitting tlie preparatory
confession, the elevation of the Host, and the 'Mibominable canon,"
which implied that the celebration was a sacrifice. Zwilling next
inveighed against the viaticum and extreme unction as being a financial
trick on the part of the priests, and entered upon an iconoclastic
campaign, inviting his hearers to burn the pictures in churches and to
destroy the altars.
Reminiscences of Hussite doctrine may have predisposed the Saxon
population living on the borders of Bohemia in favour of Carlstadt's
proceedings, and he was now reinforced by the influx from Zwickau of
Nicolaus S torch, Thomas Miinzer, Marcus Stiibner, and their followers,
whose views were of a distinctively Hussite, or rather Taljorite, tendency.
These prophets believed themselves to be under the direct influence of
the Holy Spirit, aod their immediate intercourse with the source of all
truth rendered them independent of any other guidance, even that
of the Scriptures* The free interpretation of the Bible which seemed
a priceless boon to Luther, was a poor thing to men who believed
themselves to be at least as much inspired as its writers. From their
repudiation of infant baptism, on the grounds that a sacrament w^as void
without faith, and that infanta could not have faith, they were after-
wards called Anabaptists, but they also held the tenets of the later Fifth
Monarchy men in England. Like Luther they believed in the unfree
w^ill, but they carried the doctrine to greater lengths, and unlike him
they found inspiration in the Apocalypse. They asserted the imminence
of a bloody purification of the Church, and they endeavoured to verify
their prophecy by beginning with the slaughter of their opponents at
Zwickau, The plot was, however, discovered, and Storch, Miinzer, and
Stiibner fled to Wittenberg.
Here they joined hands with Qfljjjgt*4t and Zwilling. Even
Melanclithon w^as impressed by their arguments, antr Uie Elector
Frederick, mindful of Gamaliers advice, refused to move against them.
Early in 1522 iconoclastic riots broke out; priestly garments and
auricular confei^ion were disused ; the abolition of the mendicant Orders
was demanded, together with the distribution of the property of the reli-
gious corporations among the poor. The influence of Taborite dogma
was shown by the agitation for closing all places of amusement and the
denunciation of schools* universities, and all forms of learning as
superfluous in a generation directly informed by the Holy Ghost. The
Wittenberg schoolmaster, Mohr, himself beqjmght parents to remove
their children from school ; students began to desert t!ie University,
and the New Learning seemed doomed to end in the domination
► of fanatical ignorance based on the brute force of the mob-
In the Edict of Worms Luther had been branded rather as a
revolutionary than as a heretic, and the burden of the complaints pre-
ferred against him by the Catholic humanists was that his methods of
seeking a reformation would Ije fatal to all order, political or eculesiasti*
cah They painted him as the apostle of revolution, a second Catiline ;
and the excesses at Wittenberg might well make them think themselves
prophets. The moment was a crucial one ; it was to decide whether
or not the German Reformation was to follow the usual course of
revolutions, devour its own children, and go on adopting ever extremer
views till the day of reaction came. Of all the elements in revolt from
Rome, Luther and his school were the most conservative, and upon the
question whether he would prevail against the extreme faction depended
tlie success or failm-e of the German Reformation.
The initial proceedings of Carlstiidt had vexed Luther's soul, but he
was violently antipathetic to the Zwickau enthusiasts. He vehemently
repudiated their appeal to force in order to regenerate the Church. He
recalled the fact that by spiritual methods alone he had routed Tetzel
and his minions and defied with impunity both Emperor and Pope. He
probably foresaw that the Reformation would be ruined by its association
with the crude social democracy of Miinzer and Storch, but in any case
his personal instincts would alone have been sufficient to make him
^hostile ; and when he had made up his mind to a course, no consider-
ations of prudence or of his own safety could deter him from pursuing it.
Braving the ban of the Empire and disregarding the Elector's stringent
commands he left the Wartburg and reappeared at Wittenberg on
March 6, 1522. His action required at least as much courage as his
journey to Worms, and tl»e denionst ration of his influence was far more
striking. In a course of eight sermons he rallied almost the whole of
the town to bis side. Zwilling confessed his errors ; Carlstadt, Miinzer,
and Stiibner soon departed to labour in other fields, and most of the
work of destruction wtis repaired. Luther himself retained bis cowl and
Uived in the Augustinian monastery, and scope was afforded for every
man's scruples regarding the Mass ; in one church it was celebrated with
all the old Catholic rites, in another tlie Eucharist was administered in
one or in both forms according to individual taste, and in a third the
bread and the wine were always given to the laity.
Luther had vindicated the conservative character of the Reformation
as he conceived it ; be had checked the swing of the pendulum in one
direction, and bad thereby moderated the force of its recoil ; but be could
not prevent it from swinging back altogether. It had gone too far for
that under the impetus supplied by himself, and a reaction based upon
real conviction was slowly developing itself and coming to the rescue of
the storm-tossed Catholic Church, The first force to react under the
antagonism produced by the rejection of Catholic dogma was the
humanist movement. The body was shattered, and some of its members
joined the doctrinal Reformers ; but the majority, including the great
leader of the movement, took up a more and more hostile position.
Wlien Luther was thought to have been killed, many turned to Erasmus
as Luthers successor. **Give ear, thou knight-errant of Christ," wrote
Diirer, " ride on by the Lord Christ's side ; defend the truth, reach forth
to the martyr's crown/' But that was a crown which Erasmus never
desired ; still less would he seek it in a cause which threatened to ruin
his most cherished designs. Theology, be complained, bade fair to absorb
all the humanities; and the theology of Luther was as hateful to bim as
that of Louvain. The dogmas, which appealed to men of the iron cast
of Lutlier and Calvin, repelled cultured men of the world like Erasmus ;
for scholars and artists are essentially aristocratic in temperament and
firmly attached to that doctrine of individual merit which Luther and
Calvin denied. While Luther adopted the teaching of St Augustine,
Erasmus was regarded at Wittenberg as little better than a Pelagian,
and his personal conflict with Hiitten was soon followed by a more
important enecmnter with Luther* Urged by Catholics to attack the
new theology, Erasmus with intuitive skill selected the doctrine of free
will, which he asserted in a treatise of great moderation. Luther s reply
was remarkable for the unflinching way in which he accepted the logical
consequences of his favourite dogma. But that did not make it more
palatable, and Erasmus' book confirmed not a few in their antipathy to
the Lutheran cause.
These were by no means blind partisans of the Papacy. Murner,
the scholar and poet ; Jerome Emser, the secretary to Duke George of
Saxony; Cochlaeus, Heynlin von Stein, Alexander Hegius, Lutlier's
old master Staupitz, Karl von Miltitz, Johann Faber, Pirkheimer, and
many another had long desired a reformation of the Church, but they
looked to a General Council and legal methods. Revolution and dis-
ruj>tion they considered too great a price to pay for reform^ and therefore
sadly threw in their lot with the forces wliieh were preparing to do
battle for the Catholic Church, purified or corrupt. Slowly also a
section of the German laity began to range itself on the same side, and
from the confused rnelSe of public opinion two organised parties gradu-
ally emerged. Here and there this or tlmt form of religious belief ob-
tained a decisive predominance and began to control the organisation of
a city or principality in the interests of one or the other party. An
infinity of local circumstances contributed to each local decision;
dynastic conditions might assist a Prince to determine with which
religious party to side, and relations with a neighbouring Bishop or
even trading interests might exert a similar influence over the corporate
conscience of cities. liut with regard to Germany as a whole, and
with a few significant exceptions, tlie frontiers of the Latin Church
ultimately coincided to a remarkable extent with those of the old
Roman Empire. Where the legions of the Caesars had planted their
standards and founded their colonies, where the Latin speech and Latin
civilisation had permeated the peqple, there in the sixteenth century the
Roman Churcli retained its hold. The limits of the Roman Empire are
in the main the boundaries between Teutonic and Latin Christianity.
But Latin Christianity saved itself in southern Germany only by
borrowing some of the vreapons of the original opponents of Rome, and
the CounteF'Reformation owed its success to its adoption of many of the
practical proposals and some of the doctrinal ideas of the Reformation,
The confiscation of Church property and the limitation of clerical
prerogative went on apace in Catholic as well as in Protestant countries,
and, while the spiritual prerogatives of the Papacy were magnified at
the Council of Trent, its practical power declined. It secured secular
aid by making concessions to the secular power. The earliest example
1621-5
Concessions to the Seculur Powers
169
of this process was seen in Bavaria, Originally Bavaria had been as
hostile to the Church as any other part of Germany, and no attempt
was there made to execute the Edict of Worms, But what others
sought by hostility to the Papacy, the Dukes <jf Bavaria won by its
conciliation, and between 1521 and 1525 a firm alliance was built
up between the Pope and the Dukes on the basis of papal support
for the Duke?^ even against their Bishops. Adrian VI granted them
a fifth of all ecclesiastical revenues within their dominions, a source
of income which henceforth remained one of the chief pillars of the
Bavarian financial system ; and another Boll empowered the temporal
tribunals to deal with heretics without the concurrence of the Bavarian
Bishops, who resented the ducal intrusion into their jurisdictions. The
territorial ambition of the Dukes was thus gratified; and the grievances
of the hiity against the Church were to some extent satisfied by the
adoption of measures intended to reform clerical morals ; and they both
were thus inclined to defend Catholic dogma against Lutheran heresy.
A similar grant of Church revenues to the Archduke Ferdinand for use
against the Turk facilitated a like result; and Austria and Bavaria L
became the bulwarks of the Catholic Church in Germany, Other \
Catholic Princes, like Duke George of Saxony, maintained the faith
with more disinterested motives but witii less permanent success ; while
the ecclesiastical Electors of Mainz, Trier, and Cologne, were prevented
by Lutheran sympathies in the chapters or in the cities of their dioceses
from playing the vigorous part in opposition to the national movement
which might otherwise have been expected from tliem.
A like process of crystallisation pervaded the Reforming party. In
1524 Luther efifected the final conversion of the Elector Frederick of
Saxony, and his brother John who succeeded him in the following year
was already a Lutheran. In the same year the youthful and warlike
Landgrave Philip of Hesse was won over by Melauchthon and enjoined
the preacliing of the Gospel throughout his territories. Margrave
Casimir of Brandenburg took a similarly decisive step in concurrence
with his Estates at Bayreuth iu October, The banished Duke Ulricli of
Wiirttemberg was also a convert, and Duke Ernest of Liineburg, a
nephew of the Elector Frederick, began a reformation at Celle in 1524.
Charles V's sister Isabella listened to Osiander's exhortations atNiirnberg
and adopted the new ideas, and her husband. Christian II of Denmark,
invited Luther and Carlstadt to preach in his kingdom- He was soon
deprived of his throne, but his successor Frederick I adopted a similar
religious attitude and promoted the spread of reforming principles in
Denmark and in his duchies of Schleswig and Holstein. The Grand-
roaster of the Teutonic Order, Albrecht of Brandenburg, had also been
influenced by Osiander, and, turning his new faith to practical account,
he converted the possessions of the Order into the hereditary duchy of
Prussia, a fief of the Polish Crown, which received at once a purified
170 The Niirnherg Diets and the Papal Nuncios [l523^
religion and a new constitution* In the neighbouring duchy of
Pomerania the Catholic Bogislav X was succeeded in 1523 by his two
sons George and Barnim, of whom the latter was a Lutheran*
The feeble govern inent established at the Diet of Worms in 1521
was quite unable to control this growing cleavage of the nation into
two religious parties ; but it made some efforts to steer a middle course
and it reflected with some fidelity the national hostility to the papal
Curia. It had met the Diet for the first time in February^ 1522» and it
entertained some hopes that the new Pope, Adrian VI, would do some-
thing to meet the long list of gravamina which had been drawn up in
the previous year and sent to Rome for consideration ; but it was late
in the summer before Adrian reached the Vatican, and his policy could
not be announced to the Diet until its next meeting in November, The
papal Nuncio was Francesi!0 Chieregati, an experienced diplomatist, and
he came with a conciliatory message. He said nothing about Luther
in his first speech to the Diet^ and in an interview with Planitz, the
Elector FrederickVOhitncellor, he admitted the existence of grave abuses
in the Papacy, and the partial responsibility of Leo X for tliem ; nor
did he deny that lAither had done good work in bringing these abuses
to light; though of course the monk's attacks on the sacraments, on the
Fathers of the Church, and on Councils could not be tolerated. But
this peaceful atmosphere did not endure, Adrian seems to have come to
the conclusion that his instructions to Cliieregati did not lay sufficient
emphasis on papal dignity, and a brief which he addressed to his
Nuncio on November 25 was much more minatory* His threats were
conveyed to the Diet by Chieregati's speech on January 3, 1523 ; Luther
was denounced as worse than the Turk, and was accused of not merely
polluting Germany with his heresy but of aiming at the destruction of
all order and property. The Estates wei-e reminded of the end of
Dathan and Abiram, of Ananias and Sapphira, of Jerome and Hua ;
if they separated themselves from God's Holy Church they might incur
a similar fate.
Yet the Pope did not deny the abuses of which complaint had been
made, and his frank acknowledgement of them supplied the Diet with
a cue for their answer. They refused the Nuncio's demand that the
Lutheran preachers of Niirnberg should be seized and sent to Rome, and
appointed a committee to deal with the question. This body reported
that the Pope^^s acknowledgement of the existence of abuses made it
impossible to proceed against Luther for pointing them out ; and it
carried war into the enemy's territory by demanding that the Pope
should surrender German annates to be appropriated to German
national purposes, and summon a Council, in which the laity were to
be represented, to sit in some German town and deal with the ecclesi-
astical situation. This report met with some opposition from the
Elector Joachim of Brandenburg, Duke George of Saxony, and the
Archduke Ferdinand ; but the moditications adopted by the Diet did
not seriously alter its import. The Elector Frederick was to be asked
to restrain Luther, but probably no one anticipated that his efforts, if
he made any, would be successful ; no steps were to be taken to execute
the Edict of Worms or to silence the Reformers ; the Diet reiterated
its hundred gravamina, and^ although no approbation was expressed of
Luther and his cause, the outlawed monk had as much reason to be
pleased with the results of the Diet as Chieregati had to be discontented.
Before the Diet assembled again the reforming Adrian had gone the
way of his predecessors, and popular feeling at Rome towards reform
was expressed by the legend inscribed on the door of the dead Pope's
physician Liheratori jyatriae. Another Medici sat on the throne of
Leo X, and religious reform was exchanged for family politics. But
even Clement VII felt the necessity of grappling with the German
problem, and Lorenzo Campeggio was sent to the Diet which again met
at Niirnberg in January, 1524. As he entered Augsburg and gave his
benediction to the crowd, he was met with jeers and insults. At Niirn-
berg, which he reached on March 16, the Princes advised him to make
a private entry for fear of hostile demonstrations, and on Maundy
Thursday under his very eyes three thousand people, including the
Emperor s sister, received the communion in both forms. His mission
seemed a forlorn hope, but there were a few breaks in the gloom. The
ReichsregimenU which had on the whole been more advanced in religious
opinion than the Diets, had lost the respect of the people. The repudi-
ation of its authority by the towns, the knights, and several of the
Princes, with the encouragement of the Emperor, indicated the speedy
removal of this shield of Lutheranism, and the vote of censure carried
against the government seemed to open the door to reaction*
Campeggio accordingly again demanded the execution of the Edict
of Worms, and he was supported by Charles V's Chancellor, Haanart,
who had been sent from Spain to aid the cities in their resistance to
the financial proposals of the Reichsreffhnent. But the cities, in spite
of their repudiation of Lutheranisni in Spain, were now^ indignant at
the idea of enforcing the Edict of Worms, and the Diet itself was angry
because Campeggio brought no other answer to its repeated complaints
than the statement that the Holy Father could not believe such a
document to be the work of the Estates of the Holy Roman Empire.
So the old struggle was fought over again, and the inevitable compro-
mise differed only in shades of meaning from tliat of the previous year.
The Edict should, indeed, be executed " as well as they were able, and
as far as w^as possible" ; but the Estates did not profess any greater
ability than before. A General Council wm again demanded, and pend-
ing its not very probable or speedy assemblage, a national Synod was
to be summoned to meet at Speier in November, and there make an
interim settlement of all the practical and doctrinal questions at issue*
The prospect of such a meeting alarmed both Pope and Emperor
more than all the demands for a General Council ; for in a General
Council the Germans would be a minority, and General Councils
afforded unlimited scope for delay, liut a German Synod would mean
business, and its business was not likely to please either Clement or
Charles. It would probably organise a German national Church with
slight dependence ou Rome ; it might establish a national government
with no more dependence on Charles* Both these threatened interests
took action ; the Pope instigated Henry VIII to take away from the
German merchants of the Steelyard their commercial privileges, and to
urge upon Charles the prohibition of the meeting at Speier; he also
suggested the deposition of the Elector Frederick as a warning to other
rebellious Princes. The Emperor was nothing loth ; on July 15 he for-
bade the proposed assembly at Speier, and, although there is no evidence
that he woukl have proceeded to so dangerous and violent a measure as
the deposition of Frederick, he broke off former friemUy relations and
insulted the whole Saxon House by marrying his sister Catharine to
King John of Portugal instead of to Frederick's nephew, JoJm Fred-
erick, to whom she had been be trot lied as the price of the Elector^s
support of Charles* candidature for the Empire in 1519»
Before the news of these steps had reached Germany both sides had
begun preparations for the struggle. Campeggio had been empowered,
in case of the failure of his mission to the Diet, to organise a sectional
gathering of Catholic Princes in order to frustrate the threatened
national CounciL This assembly, the first indication of the permanent
religious disruption of Germany, met at Ratisbon towards the end of
June. Its principal members were the Archduke Ferdinand, the two
Dukes of Bavaria, and nine bishops of southern Germany; and the
anti-national character of tlie meeting was emphasised by the abstinence
of every elector, lay or clerical. It was, however, something more than
a particularist gathering ; it sought to take the wind out of the sails of
the Reformation by reforming the Church from within, and it was in
fact a Counter-Reformation in miniature. The spiritual lords consented
to pay a fifth of their revenues to the temporal authority as the price of
the suppression of Lutheran doctrine. The grievances of the laity with
respect to clerical fees and clerical morals were to some extent redressed ;
the excessive number of saints* da^'s and holy days was curtailed. The
use of excommunication and interdict for trivial matters was forbidden ;
and while the reading of Lutheran books was prohibited, preachers were
enjoined to expound the Scriptures according to the teaching, not of
medieval schoolmen, but of the great Fathers of the Church, Cyprian,
Chrysostom, Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose, and Gregory. Eck published
a collection of Loci Cammunes to counteract Melanchthon's, and Eniser a
version of the Bible to correct Luther's, and a systematic persecution of
heretics was commenced in the territories of the parties to the conference.
1624] Party Meetings at Ratishon and Speier 173
Meanwhile, in ignorance of the impending blow, the greater part of
Germany was preparing for the national Council or Synod at Speier.
The news of the convention at Ratisbon stimulated the Reformers'
zeal. The cities held meetings first at Speier and then at Ulm, where
they were joined by representatives of the nobles of the Rhine districts,
the Eifel, Wetterau, and Westerwald. They bound themselves to act
together, and ordered preachers to confine themselves to the Gospel and
the prophetic and apostolic Scriptures. These gatherings represented but
a fraction of the strength of the party of doctrinal reform. The almost
simultaneous adoption of Lutheranism by Prussia, Silesia, and part of
Pomerania, by Brandenburg-Culmbach, and by Hesse, Brunswick-Lune-
burg, Schleswig, and Holstein proves that the proposed national Council
at Speier would have commanded the allegiance of the greater part of
north Germany, and might, through its adherents in great cities like
Strassburg, Augsburg, and Ulm, have swept even the south within the
net of a national revolt from Rome. That consummation was post-
poned by the united action of Charles, of Clement, and of the Princes
and Bishops at Ratisbon; but the Empire was riven in twain, and
while the rival parties were debating each other's destruction, the first
rumblings were heard of a storm which threatened to overwhelm them
both in a common ruin. The peasant, to whom scores of ballads and
satires had lightly appealed as the arbiter of the situation, was coming
to claim his own, and the social revolution was at hand.
CHAPTER VI
SOCIAL REVOLUTION AKD CATHOLIC REACTION
IN GERMANY
The most frequent and damaging charge levelled at Luther between
1520 and 1525 reproached him with being the apostle of revolution and
anarchy, and predicted that his attacks on spiritual authority would
develop into a campaign against civil order unless he were promptly
suppressed. The indictment had been preferred in the Edict of Worms,
it was echoed by the Nuncio two years later at Niirnberg, and it was
the ground of the humanist revolt from his ranks. By his denunciations
of Princes in 1523 and 1524 as being for the most part the greatest fools
or the greatest rogues on earth, by his application of the text "He
hath put down the mighty from their seats," and by his assertion of
the principle that human authority might be resisted when its mandates
conflicted with the Word of God, Luther had confirmed the suspicion.
There was enough truth in it to give point to Murner's satire of
Luther as the champion of the Bundschuhy the leader of those who
proclaimed that, as Christ had freed them all, and all were children and
heirs of one father, all should share alike, all be priests and gentlemen,
and pay rents and respect to no man. The outbreak of the Peasants'
War appeared to be an invincible corroboration of the charge, and
from that day to this it has been almost a commonplace with Catholic
historians that the Reformation was the parent of the revolt.
It has been no less a point of honour with Protestant writers, and
especially with Germans, to vindicate both the man and the movement
from the taint of revolution. The fact that the peasants adopted the
Lutheran phrases about brotherly love and Christian liberty proves
little, for in a theological age it is diflScult to express any movement
except in theological terms, and behind these common phrases there
lay a radical divergence of aims and methods. The Gospel according
to Luther may have contained a message for villeins and serfs, but it
did not proclaim the worldly redemption they sought ; and the motives
of the peasants in 1525 were similar to those which had precipitated
half-a-dozen local revolts before Luther appeared on the scene. Even
174
in 1524 the earliest sets of articles propounded by the peasants con-
tained no mention of religious reform.
And yet the assertion that there was no connection between the
Reformation and the Peasants' Revolt is as far from the truth as the
statement tliat the one produced the other. The frequent association of
religious and social movements excludes the theory of mere coincidence.
Wat Tyler trod on the heels of Wiclif, and Ziska on those of Hus;
Ivett appeared at the dawn of English Puritanism, and the Levellers at
its zenith. When one house is blown up, its neighbour is sure to be
shaken, especially if both stand on the same foundation; and all govern-
ment, whether civil or ecclosiiistical, rests ultimately on the same basis.
It is not reason, it is not law, still less is it force; it is mainly custom
and habit. Without a voluntary and unreasoning adherence to custom
and deference to authority all society and all government would be
impossible; and the disturbance of this habit in any one respect weakens
the forces of law and order in all. When habit is broken, reason and
passion are called into play, and it would be hard to say which is
more fatal to human institutions. The Reformation had by an appeal
to reason and passion destroyed the habit of unreasoning obedience to
the Papacy, and less venerable institutions inevitably felt the shock.
This appeal against habit and custom was made to the peasant more
directly than to any other class* Popular literature and popular art
erected him into a sort of saviour of society* In scores of dialogues
he intervenes and confounds with his common sense the learning of
doctors of law and theology; he knows as much of the Scriptures as
thi'ee parsons and more; and in his typical embodiment as Karsthans he
demolishes the arguments of Luther's antagonist, Murner. He is the
hero of nearly all contemporary pamphlets; with his hoe and his flail
he will defend the Gospel if it comes to fighting; and even Luther
himself, when Sickingen liad failed, sought k) frighten Princes and
Prelates with the peasant's sceptre. The peasant was the unknown
factor of the situation ; his power was incalculable, but it would not be
exerted in favour of existing institutions^ and wlieu hard pressed the
religious Reformers were prepared, like Frankenstein, to call into
existence a being over which their control was imperfect.
The discontent of the peasantry in Germany, as in other countries
of Europe, had been a painfully obvious fact for more than a
generation, and since 1490 it had broken out in revolts in Elsass, in
the Netherlands, in Wiirttemberg, at Kempten, at Bruchsal, and in
Hungary. The device of the peasant's shoe, whence their league acquired
the name of Bundaehuh^ had been adopted as early as 14H3, and again
in 1502; and the electoral Princes themselves had admitted that the
common people were burdened with feudal services, taxes, ecclesiastical
Courts, and other exactions, which would eventually prove intolerable.
Hans Rosonbliit complained before the end of the fifteenth century that
the nobles were cons tan tly demanding more and more from tlie peasant;
and the process of extortion did not shicken in the succeeding years.
The noble himself was feeling the weight of the economic revolution, of
the increase in prices, and depression in agriculture; and he naturally
sought to shift it from his own shoulders to those of his villeins and
serfs, that lowest substratum of society on which all burdens ultimately
rest. He endeavoured to redress the relative depreciation in the value
of land by increasing the amount of rent and services which he received
from its tillers.
Nor was this tlie only trouble in which the peasants were involved.
The evil of enclosures, although it was felt in Germany, was not so
prominent among their complaints as it was in England; but their
general distress produced two other symptoms, one of which seems to
have been peculiar to those districts of Germany in which the revolt
raged with the greatest fury. In the south-west, in the valleys of the
Tauber and the Neekar, in the Moselle and middle Rhine districts, the
practice of subdividing hind had proceeded so far that the ordinary
holding of the peasant had shrunk t» the quarter of a ploughlaud; and
the effort to check this ruinous development only resulted in the creation
of a landless agrarian proletariat. The other process, which was not
confined to Germany, was the conversion of land into a speculative
market for money. The financial embarrassments of the peasant rendered
him an easy prey to the burgher-capitalist who lent him money on tho
security of his holding, the interest on which was often not forthcoming
if the harvest faded or the plague attacked his cattle ; and the traffic
in rents, whicli inevitably bore hardly on the tenant, was one of the
somewhat numerous evils which Luther at one time or another declared
to be the ruin of the German nation.
Besides these economic causes, the growing influence of Roman law
affected the peasant even more than it had done the barons. By it*
said tlie Emperor Maximilian, the poor man either got no justice at
all against the rich, or it was so sharp and line-pointed that it availed
him notlnng. Ignoring the fine distinctions of feudal law with respect
to service it regarded the rendering of service as proof of servitude,
and everyone who was not entirely free sank in its eyes to a serf. The
policy of reducing tenants to this position was systematically pursued
in many district^^ ; the Abbots of Kempten resorted not merely to the
falsification of charters but to such abuse of their clerical powers as
refusing the Sacrament to those who denied their servitude ; and one of
them defended his conduct on the ground that he was only doing as
other lords. It was in fact the lords and not the peasants who were
the revolutionists ; the revolt was essentially reactionary* The peasants
demanded the restoration of their old Haingerkhte and other Courts,
the abolition of novel jurisdictions and new exactions of rent and service.
The movement was an attempt to revive the worn-out communal system
of the Middle Ages« and m socudbtio piv4iKl a^minsl iW iudividu<idi$lio
tendencies of the time*
The peasant *s condition iras fruitful soil for the seeils of a $^^¥^1
of discontent. The aristocratic humanist revival avr\>ki^ no tvh\H^ in
his breast, bat he found balm of Gilead in lumber's denunciali\>n« of
merchants as usurers^ of lawyers as robborss and in his as;s^>rlioi\ of tb<^
worthlessness of all things comi^reil with the Wont of InxU which
peasants could understand better than priests* More radical preachers
supplied whatever was lacking in Luther s doctrine to cinnpU^tc their
exaltation. Carlstadt improved on Luther's declaration thut [HHisants
knew more of the Scriptures than learncil diH^tors by aftirming that
they certainly knew more than Luther. IVast^nts adoptinl with fervour
the doctrine of imiversiU priesthixxL and Wgiin thomst^lvt^ to preach
and baptise. Schappeler announcetl at Mommiugcn that heaven was
open to peasants, but closed to nobles and clergy • But wliilo this wiw
heresy, it was hardly sedition ; most of the preachers iH^liovcd as Luther
did, in the efficacy of the Word, and repudiatcil Mi\niRcr*s apiH^l to the
sword ; and the promise of heaven hereafter might Ih> exptH'ted to
reconcile rather than to exasi>en\te the (le^uuiut witli his lot on earth%
Yet it exerted an indirect stimulus, for men do not rt*lH»l in des)mir,
but in hope ; and the spiritual hoi>ea hold out by the (lospcl pnuluinnl
that quickening of his mind, without which the peasant would never
have risen to end his temporal ills.
The outbreak in 1524 can only have caused surprise by it^ oxttuit,
for that the peasants would rise was a common expectation. Alnumaoks
and astrologers predicted the storm with remarkable uoouraoy ; indeed
its mutterings had been heard for years, and in 1522 frionds of the oxiUni
Ulrich of Wiirttemberg had discussed a plan for his restoration to the
duchy by means of a peasant revolt. But the first step in the groat
movement was not due to Ulrich or to any other extraneous impulse.
It was taken in June, 1524, on the estates of Count Siegnunul von Lupfen
at Stiihlingen, some miles to the north-west of S(OuifThiiUHnn. Thtu'o
had already been a number of local disturbancos elHowhi^ns and the
peasantry round Niirnberg had burnt their tithes on the Held ; but they
had all been suppressed without difliculty. T\h) rising at KtiUilingen is
traditionally reported to have been provoked by a wiiim of the ( -ountcmH
von Lupfen, who insisted upon the Count's tenants spending a lioliduy
in collecting snail-shells on which she might wind her wool ; and this
trivial reason has been remembered, to the oblivion of tluj more weighty
causes alleged by the peasants in their list of grievances. Tliey (!onipliiinnd
of the enclosure of woods, the alienation of conunon limdH, and the
denial of their right to fish in streams ; they were (!on)p()lle<l, tlmy stiid,
to do all kinds of field-work for their lord and his Htcjwivrd, to iiMMJMt at
himts, to draw ponds and streams without any regard to tlnj iuh'vhhII'wh
of their own avocations ; the lord's streams were div(jit<?d across tlu^ir
C. M. H. II. \2
fields, while water necessary for irrigating their meadows and turjiing
their mills was cut off, and their crops were ruined bj huntsmen
trampling them down* They accused their lord of abusing his juris-
diction, of inflicting intolerable punishments, and of appropriating
stolen goods ; and in short they deelared that they could no longer
look for justice at his hands, or support their wives and families in face
of his exactions.
These articles, which number sixty-two in all, are as remarkable for
w4iat they omit as for what they include. There is no trace of a religious
element in them, no indication that their authors had ever heard of
Luther or of the Gospeh They are purely agrarian in character, their
language is moderate, and, if the facts are stated correctly, their demanfls
are extremely reasonable. In its origin tlie Peasants' Revolt bore few
traces of the intellectual and physical violence which marked its later
course. It began like a trickling stream in the highlands ; as it floAved
downwards it was joined first by one and then by another revolutionary
current, till it united in one torrent all elemeats of disorder and
threatened to inundate the whole of Germany.
When once the movement had started, it ciuickly gathered momentum,
A thousand tenants from the Stuhlingen district assembled with such
arms as they could collect, and chose as their captain Hans Miiiler of
Bulgenbach, an old lanchkneeht who showed more talent for organisation
than most of the peasants' leaders. In August he made his way south
to Waldshut, probably with the object of obtaining the eo-operation
of the discontented proletariate in the towns. The towns had been
permeated with new religious ideas to an extent which w^as almost
unknown in the country, the upper classes by Lutheranism, the lower
by notions of which Carlstadt and Mlinzer Avere the chief exponents.
Waldshut itself was in revolt against its Austrian government, which
had initiated a savage persecution of heretics in the neighbourhood and
demanded from the citizens the surrender of their preacher, Balthasar
Hubmaier. It w^as thus predisposed to favour the peasants' cause, but
the often repeated statement that Miiiler, in August, 1524, succeeded in
establishing an Evangelical Brotherhood is incorrect. That scheme, w^hich
probably emanated from the towns, was not effected until the meeting
at Meramingen in the following February ; and the intervening vrinter
elapsed without open conflict between the peasants and the authorities.
The Archduke Ferdinand's attention w^as absorbed by the momentous
struggle then being waged in North It^tly, and every available lands-
kneckt had been Bcnt to swell the armies of Charles V. Tlie Swabian
League, the only effective organisation in South Germany, could muster
but two thousand troops, and recourse was had to negotiations at
Stockach which were not seriously meant on the part of the lords.
Many of the peasants, however, returned home on the understanding
that none but ancient services should be exacted ; but the lords.
thinking that the storm had blown orev^ resorted to their usual prac-
tices and made little endeavour to conclude the pourparlers at Stockach.
As a result the insurrection broke out afresh^ and was extended into a
wider area.
In October and November, 1524, there were risings of the peasants
all round the Lake of Constance, in the Allgau, the Klettgau, the Hegao^
the Thurgau, and north-west of Stiihlingen at Villingen, Further to
the east, on the Iller in Upper Swabia, the tenants of the abbey of
Kempten, who had long nursed grievances against their lords, rose, and
in February, 1525, assembled at Sonthofen ; they declared that they
would have no more lords, a revolutionary demand which indicates that
their treatment by the abbota had been worse than that of the Lupfen
tenants. The peasants of the Donauried (N. W. of Augsburg) had been
agitating throughout the winter, and by the first week in February
four thousand of them met at Baltringen, some miles to the north of
Biberach ; before the end of the month their numbers ha<l risen to
thirty thousand. They were also joined by bands called the Seehaufeit,
from the northern shores of Lake Constance, while Hans Miiller made
an incursion into the Breisgau and raised the peasants of the Black
Forest.
As the rebellion extended its area the scope of its objects grew
wider, and it assimilated revolutionary ideas distinct from the agrarian
grievances which had originally prompted the rising. A religious ele-
ment began to obtrude, and its presence was probably due to the fact
that it supplied a convenient banner under which heterogeneous forces
might fight ; Sickingen had adopted a similar expedient to cloak the
sectional aims of the knights, and men now began to regard the revolt as a
rising on behalf of the Gospel. In this light it w^as viewed by the neigh-
bouring city of Zurich, where Zwingli's influence was now aU*powerful ;
and the Zurich government exhorted the Klettgau peasants to adopt
the Word of God as their banner. In conformity with this advice they
gave a religious colour to their demands^ and in January, 1525, offered
to grant their lord whatever was reasonable, godly, and Christian, if he
on his side would undertake to abide by the Word of God and righteous-
ness. So, too, the Baltringen bands declared that they wished to create
no disturbance, but only desired that their grievances should be re-
dressed in accord %vith godly justice ; and in the Allgau, where the
peasant Hiiberlin had preached and baptised, the peasants formed them-
selves into a •'godly union/' On the other hand the Lake bands, with
whom served some remnants of Sickingeus host, appear to ha\
more intent upon a political attack on lords and cities.
In March all these bodices held a sort of parliament at Me
the chief town of Upper Swabia* to concert a comm -^ ^ - — -
and here the Zurich influence carried the day. S«. J
friend, had been preaching at ^lemmingen on the inin
!..
if he did not actually pen the famous Twelve Articles there formulated,
tliey were at least drawn up undec^Ms inspiration and that of his
colleague Lotzer. They embody ideas of wider import than are likely
to have occurred to bands of peasants concerned with specific local
grievances ; and throughout the movement it is obvious that, while the
peasants supplied the physical force and their hardships the real motive*
the intellectual inspiration came from the radical element in the towns.
This element was not so obvious at Memmingen as it became later on,
and its chief effect there was to give a religious aspect to the revolt and
to merge its local character in a universal appeal to the peasant, based
on ideas of fraternal love and Christian liberty drawn from the Gospel,
This programme was not adopted without some difiference of opinion,
in which the Lake bands led the opposition. But the proposal of an
Evangelical Brotlierhood was accepted on March 7 ; and the Twelve
Articles, founded apparently upon a memorial previously presented by
the people of Memmingen to their town Council, were then drawn up.
The preamble reputliated the idea that the insui'gents' " new Gospel "
implied the extirpation of spiritual and temporal authority ; on the con-
trary, they quoted texts to show that its essence was love, peace, patience^
and unity, and that the aim of the peasants was that all men should live
in accord with its precepts* As means thereto they demanded that
the choice of pastors should be vested in each community, which should
also have power to remove such as behaved unseemly. The great tithes
they are willing to pay, and they proposed measures for their collection
and for the application of the surplus to the relief of the poor, and, in
case of necessity, to the expenses of war or to meet the demands of the
tax-gatherer ; but the small tithes they would not pay, because God
had created the beasts of the field as a free gift for the use of mankind.
They would no longer be villeins, because Clmst had made all men
free ; huu they would gladly obey such authority as was elected and set
over them, so it be by God appointed* They claimed the right to take
ground game^ fowls, and fish in flowing water j they demanded the
restoration of woods, meadows, and ploughlands to the community, the
renunciation of new-fangled services, and payment of peasants for those
which they rendered^ the establishment of judicial rents, the even
administration of justice, and the abolition of death-dues, which ruined
widows and orphans. Finally, they required that all their grievances
should be tested by the Word of God; it aught wliicli they had demanded
were proved to be contrary to Scripture, they agreed to give it up, even
though the demand had been gmnted ; and on the other hand they
asked that their lords should submit to the same test and relinquish
any privileges which might hereafter be sho\m to be inconsistent with
the Scriptures, although they were not included in the present list of
grievances.
On the basis of these demands negotiations were reopened with
I
b
the Swabian League at Ulm, but they were not more successful or
sincere than those at Stockach. The League rejected an offer of
mediation made by the Council of Regency which now sat with diminished
prestige at Esslingen ; and, though the discussions were continued, they
were only designed to give Tnichsess, the general of the League, time
to gather his forces : even during the progress of the negotiations
he had attacked and masisacred unsuspecting bands of Hegau peas-
ants, till his victorious progress was cheeked by the advent of a dif*
ferent foe.
Ulrich, the exiled Duke of Wiirtteniberg, and his party constituted
one of the discontented elements which were certain to rally to any
revolutionary standard, lie had announced his intention of regaining
his dncliy with the help of *^spur or shoe," of knights or peasants* The
former hope w^as quenched by Siekingen*s fall, but as soon as the peasants
rose Ulrich began to cultivate their friendship; in the autumn of 1524,
from Hdhentwiel, of wliich he had recovered ptjssession, on the confines
of the territory of liis Swiss protectors and of the disturbed Hegau, he
established relations with the insurgents, and took to signing his name
" Utz the Peasant." In February, 1525, he resolved to tempt his fate ;
supported by ten thousand hired Swiss infantry he crossed the border
and invaded Wiirttemberg. The civil and religious oppression of the
Austrian rule had to some extent wiped out the memory of Ulrich\s own
harsh government, and he was able to occufiy Ballingen, Herrenberg,
and Sindelfmgen without serimisoiiposition, and to lay siege to Stuttgart
on March 9. The news brought Trachsess into Wiirttomberg j but
Ulrich was on the eve of success when the tidings came of the battle of
Pavia (February 24)* Switzerhtnd might need all her troops for her
own defence, and those serving under Ulrich's Itanner w^ere promptly
summoned home. There was nothing left for Ulrich but flight so soon
as Truchsess appeared upon the scene; and the restoration of Austrian
authority in Wiirttemberg enabled the general of the Swaliian League
once more to turn his arms against the peasants.
But the respite, short as it was, had given the revolt time to spread
in all directions, and before the end of April almost the whole of Germany,
except the north and east and Bavaria in t!ie soutli, was in an uproar.
From Upper Swabia the movement spread in March to the lower districts
of the cii'cle. Round Leipheim on the Danube to the north-east of Ulm
the peasants rose under a priest named Jacob Wehe, attacked Leipheim
and Weissenhorn, and stormed the castle of Roggcnburg, while a con-
siderable portion of Truchsess^ troops sympathised with their cause and
refused to serve against them. Even so, the remainder, consisting
mostly of veterans returned from Pavia, were sufficient to crush the
Leipheim contingent, whose incompetence and cowardice contmsted
strongly with the behaviour of the Swiss and Bohemian peasants in
previcms wars. They fled into Leipheim almost as soon as Trucb*
appeared, losing a third of their numbers in the retreat; the town
thereupon tiurrendered at discretion ; and Jacob Wehe was discovered
lading, and executed outside the walla. Truchseas now turned back
to crush the contingents from the Lake and the Hegau and the
Baltringen band, which had captured Waldsee and was threatening
his own castle at Waldhurg. He defeated the latter near Wurzach on
April 13, Ijut was less successful with the fonner, who were entrenched
near Weingarteu, They were double the number of Truchsesa' troops,
and after a distant cannonade the Swabian general cousented to negotiate ;
the peasants, alarmed perhaps by the fate of their allies, were induced to
disband on the concession of some of their demands and the promise of
an inquiry into the rest.
Truchsess had every reason to be satisfied with this rcvsult, for from
all sides appeals were pouring in for help. In t)ie I legau Radolfzell
was besieged ; to the south-east the cardinal archbishop of Salzburg,
Matthew Lang, was soon shut up in his castle by his subjects of the
city and neighbouring country, wliile the Archduke Ferdinand himself
would not venture outside the walls of Lmsbruck. Forty thousand
peasants had risen in the Vorarlberg ; Tyrol was in ferment from end to
end; and in Styria Dietrichstein's Bohemian troops could not save him
from defeat at the hands of the peasants. In the south-west Hans Midler,
the leader of the Stiihlingen force, moved through the Black Forest,
and raising the Breisgau villagers appeared before Freiburg, The
fortress on the neighbouring Schlossberg was unable to protect the city,
which admitted the peasants on May 24* Across the Rhine in Elsass
twenty thousand insurgents captured Zabern on May 13, and made
themselves masters of Weissenburg and most of the other towns in the
province ; Colmar alone withstood their progress. Further north in the
west Rhine districts of the Palatinate, Lauterburg, Landau, and Neusta.dt
fell into the rebels* hands, and on the east side of the river they carried
all before them. In the Odenwald George Metzler, an innkeeper, had
raised the standurd of revolt hefore the end of March, and Jiicklein
Rohrbach followed his example in the Neckarthal on the first of A]>riL
Florian Geyer headed the Franconian rebels who gathered in the valley
of the Tauber, and the Austrian government in Wiirttemberg liad
barely got rid of Ulricli when it was threat-ened by a more dangerous
enemy in the peasants under Matern Feuerbacher. Further north still,
the Thuringian commons brr*ke out under the lead of Thomas Miinzer.
So widespread a movement inevitably gathered into its net perso-
nalities and forces of every description. The bidk of the insurgents and
some of their leaders were peasants ; but willingly or unwillingly they
received into their ranks crimimils, priests, ex-officials, barons^ and even
some ruling Princes. Florian Geyer was a knight more or less of Sickingen's
t}^e, who threw himself heart and soul into the peasants* cause. Gotz von
Berlichingen, the hero of Goethe's drama known as Gotz of the Iron
Hand — he had lost one hand in battle — came from the same class* In
his memoirs he represents his complicity in the revolt as the result of
compulsion, but before there was any question of force he had given
vent to such sentiments as that the knights suffered as much from the
Princes' oppression as did the peasants, and his action was probably more
voluntary than he afterwards cared to admit. The lower clergy, many
of them drawn from the peasants, naturally sympathised with the chvss
from which they sprang, and they had no cause to dislike a movement
which aimed at a redistribution of the wealth of Princes and Bishops;
in some cases all the inmates of a monastery except the abbot willingly
joined the insurgents. Some of the leaders were resiJectable innkeepers
like Matern Feuerbacher, but others were roysterers such as Jacklein
Rohrbach, and among their followers were many recruits from the
criminal classes* Tliese baser elements often thrust aside the better,
and by their violence brought odium upon the whole movement. The
peasants had indeed contemphited the use of force from the beginning,
and those who refused to join the Evangelical Brotherhood were to be put
under a ban, or in modern phraseology, subjected to a boycott ; but the
burning of castles and monasteries seems hrst to have been adopted in
retaliation for Truehsess' destruction of peasants' dwellings, and for the
most part the insurgents' misdeeds arose from a natural inability to
resist tlie temptations of seigneurial tishponds and wine-cellars.
No less heterogeneous than the factors of which the revolutionary
horde wa.s composed were the ideas and motives by which it was movecl^
There was many a private and local grudge as well as class and common
grievances- In Salzburg the Archbishop had retained feudal privileges
from which most German cities were free ; in the Austrian duchies there
was a German national feeling against the repressive rule of Ferdinand's
Spanish ministers ; religions iiersecution helped the revolt at Brixen^ for
Strauss and Urbanus Regius had there made many converts to Luther's
Gospel; others complained of the tyranny of mine-owners like the
Fuggers and other capitalist rings ; and in not a few districts the rising
. assumed the character of iiJudenhetze. The peasants all over Germany
Fere animated mainly by the desire to redress agrarian grievances,
"but hatred of prelatical wealth and privilege and of the voracious
territorial power of Princes was a boud which united merchants and
knights, peasants and artisans, in a common hostility.
Gradually, too, the development of the movement led to the pro-
luction of various manifestoes or riither crude suggestions for the
establishment of a new political and social organisation. Some of them
were foreshadowed in a scheme put forward by Eherlin in 1521, which
may not, however, have been more seriously intended than Sir Thomas
lore^ B Utopia, Its pervading principle was that of popular election;
F:each village was to choose a gentleman as its magistrate ; two hundred
chief places were to select a knight for their bailiff ; each tea bailiwicks
were to be organisod under a city, and each ten cities under a Duke or
Prince, One of the Princes was to be elected King, but he, like every
subordinate officer, was to be guided by an elected Council. In this
scheme town was throughout subortlinate to country; half the members
of the Councils were to be peasants and half nobles, and agriculture was
pronounced the noblest means of sustenance. Capitalist organisations
were abolished; the importation of wine and cloth was forbidden, and
that of corn only conceded in time of scarcity; and the price of wiue and
bread was to be fixed. Only articles of real utility were to be manu-
factured, and every form of luxury was to be suppressed. Drastic
measures were proposed against vice, and drunkards and adulterers were
to be punished with deatli* All children were to be taught Latin, Greeks
Hebrew, astronomy, and medicine.
This Utopian scheme was too fanciful even for the most imaginative
peasant leaders, but their proposals grew rapidly more extravagant*
The local demand for the abolition of seigneurial rights gave place to
universal ideas of liberty, fraternity, equality; and it is scarcely an
exaggeration to say that the German peasants in 1525 anticipated most
of the French ideas of 1789. The Twelve Articles of the Elsass peasants
went beyond the originals of Memmingen in demanding not only the
popular election of pastors but of all officials, and the right of the
people to repudiate or recognise princely authority. So, too, the peasants'
parliament at Meran in the Tyrol insisted that all jurisdictions sliould be
(|xercised by persons chosen by the community. It was perhaps hostility
to the Princes rather than perception of national needs that prompted
the agitation for the reduction of all Princes to the status of heutenants
of the Emperor, who was to be recognised as the one and only sovereign
ruler ; but the conception of a democratic Empire had taken strong
hold of the popular imagination. Hipler and Weigant, two of the
clearest thinkers of the revolution, suggested writing to Charles and
representing the movement as aimed at two objects dear to his heart*
the reformation of his Church and the subjection of the Princes to
obedience to the Empire. They, no less than the English, preferred a
popular despotism to feudal anarchy. Even the conservative Swabians
desired the abolition uf a number of petty intermediate jurisdictions;
and in more radical districts the proposed \dndication of the Emperor's
power was coupled with the condition that it was to be wielded in the
people's interest. The Kaiser was to be the minister, and his subjects
the sovereign authority.
Between this ruler and his people there were to be no intervening
grades of society. Equality was an essential condition of the new order
of things. Nobles like the counts of Hohenlohe and Henneberg, who
swore through fear the oath imposed by the rebels, were required
to dismantle their castles, to live in houses like peasants and burghers, to
eat the same food and wear the same dress ; they were even forbidden to
ride on horseback, because it raised tliem above their fellows. Except he
became as a peasant the noble could not enter the kingdom of brotherly
love. Who, it wa^ asked, made the first noble, and had not a peasant
five fingers to his hand like a prince ? Still more attractive than the
proposed equality of social standing was the suggested equality of
worldly goods ; and, though in the latter case the ideal no doubt was
that of levelling up and not of levelling down, it was declared enough
for any man to possess two thousand crowns.
It might well be inferred, even if it had not been stated by the
peasants themselves, that they derived these ideas from teachers in
towns ; and it was the co-operation of the town proletariate which made
the revolt so formidable, especially in Franconia and Thuringia. A
civic counterpart of Eberlin's peasant Utopia was supplied by a political
pamphlet entitled TJie^ Needs of the Qerman Nation^ or The Refor-
niation of Frederick III, As in the case of the Twelve Articles of
Memmlngen, tlie principle of Christian liberty was to be the basis of the
new organisation ; but it was here applied specifically to the conditions
of the poorer classes in towns. Tolls, ducK, and especially indirect taxes
should be abolished ; the capital of individual merchants and of
companies was to be limited to ten thousand crowns ; the coinage,
weights, and measures were to be reduced to a uniform standard ; the
Roman civil and canon law to be abolished, ecclesiastical property to be
confiscated, and clerical participation in secular trades — against which
several Acts of the English Reformation parliament were directed — to
be prohibited.
Some of these grievances, especially those against the Churchy were
common to rich and poor alike, but socialistic and communistic ideas
naturally tended to divide every town and city into two parties, and the
struggle resolved itself into one between the commune, representing the
poor, and the Council, representing the well-to-do. This contest was
fought out in most of the towns in Qgrmany ; and it^ result determined
the amount of sympathy with which each individual town regarded the
peasants' cause. But nowhere do the cities appear to have taken an
active part against the revolution, for they all felt that the Princes
threatened them as much as they did the peasants. Waldsliut and
Memmingen from tlie fii'st were friendly ; Zurich rendered active
assistance ; and there was a prevalent fear that the towns of Switzerland
and Swabia would unite in support of the movement. The strength
shown by the peasants exercised a powerful influence over the intra-
mural struggles of commune and Council, and in many of the smaller
towns and cities the commune gained the upper hand. Such was the
case at Heilbronn, at Rothenburg, where Carlstadt Iiadbeen active, and at
Wiirzburg. At Frankfort the proletariate formed an organisation which
they declared to be Council, Burgomaster, Pope, and Emperor all rolled
into one ; and most of the small cities opened their gates to the peasants.
either because they felt unable to stand a siege or because the commune
was relatively stronger in the smaller than in the bigger cities. The
latter were by no means unaffected by the general ferment, but their
agitations were less directly favourable to the peasants. In several, such
as Strassburg, there were iconoclastic riots ; in Catholic cities like
Mainz, Cologne, and Ratisbon the citizens demanded the abolition of
the Councirs financial control, the suppression of indirect taxation, and
the extirpation of clerical privilege ; in others again their object was
merely to free themselves from the feudal control of their lords ; while
in Bamberg and Speier they were willing to admit the lordship of the
Bishops, but demanded the secularisation of their property. In one
form or another the spirit of rebellion pervaded the cities from Brixen
to Miinster and Osnabriick, and from Strassburg to Stralsund and
Dantzig.
The most extreme embodiment of the revolutionary spirit was found
in Thomas Miinzer, to whose influence the whole movement has some-
times been ascribed* After his expulsion from Zwickau he fled to
Prague, where he announced Ida intention of following the example of
Hus. His views, however, resembled more closely those of the extreme
Hussite sect known as Taborites, and their proximity to Bohemia
may explain the reception which the Thuringian cities of AUstedt and
Miihlhausen accorded to Miinzer's ideas. At AUstedt his success was
great bothamong the townsfolk and the peasants ; here he was established
as a preacher and married a wife ; here he preached his theocratic
doctrines, which culminated in the assertion that the godless had no
right to live, but should he exterminated by the sword of the elect. He
also developed communistic views, and maintained that lords who with-
held from the community the fish in the water, fowl of the air, and
produce of the soil were breaking the commandment not to steal.
Property in fact, though it was left to a more modern communist to
point the epigram, was theft. The Elector Frederick would have
tolerated even this doctrine ; but his brother Duke John and his cousin
Duke George secured in July, 1524, Miinzers expulsion from AUstedt.
He found an asylum in the imperial city of Miihlhausen, where a runaway
monk, Heinrich Pfeiffer, had already raised the small trades against the
aristocratic Council ; but two months later the Council expelled them
both, and in September Miinzer began a missionary tour through south-
western Germany.
Its effects were probably much slighter than has usually been
supposed, for the revolt in Stiihlingen had begun before Miinzer started,
and his extreme views were not adopted anywhere except at Miihlhausen
and in its vicinity. He returned thither about February, 1525, and by
March 17 he and Pfeiffer had overthrown the Council and established a
communistic theocracy, an experiment which allured the peasantry of
the adjacent districts into attempts at imitation* Even Erfurt was for
a time in the hands o£ insurgents, and the Counts of Hohenstein were
forced to join their ranks. Miinzer failed^ however, to raise the people
of Mansfehi, and there was considerable friction between him and
Pfeiffer, whose objects seem to have been contined to consolidating the
power of the gilds witliin the walls of Miihlhausen. Miinzer'a strength
lay in the peasants outside, and, when Philip of Hesse with the Dukes
of Brunswick and Saxony advc^nced to crush the revolt, he established
Jus camp at Frankenhausen, some mtles from Muldliausen, wdiile Pfeiffer
remained within the city.
Divisions were also rife in the other insurgent bands ; the more
statesmanlike of the leaders endeavoured to restrain the peasants'
excesses and to secure co-operation from other classes, while the extremists,
leither following the bent of their nature or deliberately counting on the
affects of terror, had recourse to violent measures. The worst of their
fdeeds was the ^^ massacre of Weiusberg," which took place on April 17,
and for which the rufiSan Jiicklein Rohrbach was mainly responsible.
In an attempt to join hands with the Swabian peasants, a contingent
of the Franconian army commanded by Metzler attacked Weinsberg, a
town not far from lleilbronn held by Count Ludwig von Hclfenstein.
Helfenstein had distinguished himself by his defence of Stuttgart against
Duke Ulrich of Wtirttemberg, and by his rigorous measures against such
rebels as fell into his power. When a handful of peasants appeared
I before Weinsberg and demanded admission the Count made a sortie and
cut thera all down. This roused their comrades to fury j Weinsberg
was stormed by Rohrbach, and no (quarter was given until Metzler
arrived on the scene and stopped the slaughter* He granted Rohrbach,
I however, custody of theprisoners, consisting of Ilelfensteinand seventeen
**other knights ; and, against Metzler s orders and without his knowledge,
the Count and his fellow-prisoners w^ere early next morning made to run
the gauntlet of peasants* daggers before the eyes of the Countess, a
natural daughter of the Emperor Maximilian.
These bloody reprisals were not typical of the revolt ; they were
the work of an extreme section led by a man wlio w^as little better
I'than a criminal, and they were generally repudiated by the other
insurgent bands* The Wiirttemberg peasants under Feuerbacher dis-
claimed all connexion with the '*■ Weinsbergers,"' as the perpetrators of
tiie massacre came to be called, and the deed hastened, if it did not
cause, a division among the revolutionary ranks. Gotz von Berlichingeo,
Wendel Hipler, and Metzler, all men of comparative moderation, were
chosen leaders of the insurgents from the Odenwald and the surrounding
districts; and they endeavoured on the one hand to introduce more
discipline among the peasants and on the other to moderate their
demands. It was proposed that the Twelve Articles should be reduced
to a declaration that the peasants would be satisfied with the immediate
abolition of serfdom, of the lesser tithes, and of death-dues, and would
concede the performance of other services pending a definite settlement
which was to be reached at a congress at Heilbronn. By these con-
cessions and the proposal that temporal Princes should be compensated
out of the wealth of the clergy for their loss of feudal dues, Hipler and
Weigant hoped to conciEate some at least of tlie Princes ; and it was
probably with this end in view that the main attack of the rebels was
directed against the Bishop of Wiirzburg,
A violent opposition to these suggestions was offered by the
extremists; their supporters were threatened vnth death, and Fener-
bacher was deposed from the command of the Wlirttemberg contingent-
A like difficulty was experienced in the effort to induce military sub-
ordination. Believers in the equality of men held it as an axiom that
no one was better than another, and they demanded that no military
measures should be taken without the previous consent of the whole
force. Rohrbachand hisfriends separated from the main body probably on
account of the selection of Berlicliingen as commander and of the moder-
ate proposals of Hipler, and pursued an independent career of useless
pillage. But wlule this violence disgusted many sympatliisers with the
movement, its immediate effect was to terrorise the Franconian nobles*
Scores of them joined the Evangelical Brotherhood, and handed over
their artillery and munitions of war. Count William of Henneberg
followed their example, and the Abbots of Hersfeld and Fulda, the
Bishops of Bamberg and Speier, the coadjutor of the Bishop of
Wurzburg, and Margrave Casimir of Brandenburg were compelled to
sign the niodilied Twelve Articles, or to make similar concessions.
Nearly the whole of Franconia was now in the rebels' hands, and
towards the end of April they began to concentrate on Wiirzburg, whose
lUshop was also Duke of Franconia and the most powerful Prince in tl^e
circle. The city offered little resistance, and the Bishop fled to his
castle on the neighbouring Frauenberg. This was an almost impregnable
fortress ; and the attempt to capture it locked up the greatest mass of
the peasants' forces during the crucial month of the revolution. It
might have been taken or induced to surrender but for defects in the
organisation of the besieging army. There was little subordination to
the leaders or unity in their councils. Some were in favour of offering
terms, but Geyer opposed so lukewarm a measure. The peasants
obtained a fresh accession of strength by the formal entry of Rothenburg
into the Evangelical Brotherhood on May 14, but on the following night,
during the absence of theii* ablest commanders, the besiegers made an
attempt to storm the castle whicli was repulsed with considerable loss.
Irretrievable disasters were meanwhile overtaking the peasants in
other quarters of Germany. On the day after the failure to storm the
Frauenberg was fought the battle of Frankenhausen, which put an end
to the revolt in Thuringia. The dominions of Philip of Hesse had
been less affected by the movement than those of Ms neighbours, mainly
I because Iiis government had been less oppressive ; and, though there
were disturbances, his readiness to make concessions soon pacified them,
and he was able to come to the assistance of less fortunate Princes.
Joining forces with the Dukes of Brunswick and Duke John of Saxony,
who succeeded his brother Frederick as Elector of Saxon}^ on May 5,
Philip attacked Mtinzer at Fninkenhausen on the 15th* According to
Melanchtlion, whose diatribe against Miinzer has been usually accepted
as the chief authority for tJie battle, the prophet guaranteed bis followers
immunity from the enemy's bullets, and they stood still singing bymns
as the Princes' onslaught commenced, lint their inaction seems also to
have been due in part at least to the agitation of some of the insurgents
for surrender. In any case there w^as scarcely a show of resistance ; a
brief cannonade demolished the line of waggons wdiich they had, after
the fasluon of the Hussites, drawn up for their defence, and a few
minutes later the whole force was in flight. Miinzer himself was cap-
tured, and after torture antl imprisonment wrote a letter, the genuine-
ness of which has been doubted, admitting his errors and the justice of
'his condemnation to death* Pfeiffer and his party in Miiblhausen were
now helpless, and their appeals to tlie Franconian insurgents, wiiich
fell upon deaf ears, would in any case have been nnavaih ng. On the
24th Pfeiffer escaped from the city, which thereupon surrendered : he
was overtaken near Eisenach, and met his inevitable fate with more
Bourage than Miinzer had shown, A like measure was meted out to
Ptlie Burgomaster, Miililbausen itself wvls deprived of its privileges as a
free imperial city, and the revolt was easily suppressed at Erfurt and in
LOtber Thuringian districts*
The peasants had been crushed in the North, and they fared as ill in
the South, Truchsess, after his truce with the Donauried, the Allgau,
and the Lake contingents, had turned in the last %veek in April against
the Black Forest bauds, when he was ordered by the Swabian League to
march to the relief of Wtirttemberg, and so prevent a junction between
the Franconian and Swabian rebels. On May 12 he came upon the
peasants strongly entrenched on marshy groinid near Boblingen. By
means of an understanding with some of the leading burghers the gates
of the town were opened, and Truchsess was enabled to plant artillery
on the castle -walls, whence it commanded the peasants' entrenchments.
Compelled thus to come out into the open, they were cut to pieces by
cavalry, though, with a courage w^hicli the peasants had not hitherto
displayed, the Wtirttemberg band prolonged its resistance for nearly
four hours. Weinsberg next fell into Truchsess' hands and was burned
to the ground, and Rohrbach was slowly roasted to death.
Truchsess* approach spread consternation in the camp at Wiirzburg,
After the failure to storm the Frauenl>erg, Gotz von Berlichingen
deserted the peasants' cause, and about a fourth of his men returned to
their homes. The remainder were detached from the camp at Wiirzburg
to intercept Truchsess ; they met him on J une 2 at Konigshofen and
suffered a defeat almost as disastrous as that at Boblingen. Truchsess
next fell upon Florian Geyer and his '* Black Band," who made a
stubborn defence at Ingolstadt, but were outnumbered and most of them
slain. Geyer escaped for the time, but met his death by fair means
or foul shortly afterwards at the hands of WiLhelm von Grnmbach*
Truchsess could now march on Wiirzburg without fear of molestation;
the outskirts were reached on June 5, and the leaders of the old city
Council entered into communication with the approaching enemy.
They conceded practically .all the reactionary demands, but represented
to the citizens that they liad made the best terms they could ; and on
June 8 Truchsess and the Princes rode into the city without opposition.
The surrender of Wiirzburg carried with it the reUef of the hard-
pressed castle of Frauenberg, and, the neck of the rebellion being thns
broken, its life in other parts gradually flickered out. Rothenburg was
captured by Margrave Casimir on June 28^ but Carlstadt and several
other revolutionary leaders escaped, Menimingen was taken by strata-
gem, and few of the cities showed any disposition to resist. The move-
ment in Elsass had been suppressetl by Duke Anthony of Lorraine with
the help of foreign mercenaries before the end of May, and by July the
only districts in which large forces of tlie peasants remained in arms
were the Allgau, Salzburg, and Ferdinand's duchies. Truchsess, having
crushed the revolt in Franconia, returned to complete the work which
had been interrupted in Upper Swabia. With the aid of George von
Fruntisberg, who had returned irom Italy, and by means of treachery in
the peasants* ranks, he dispersed two of the Allgau bands on Jtdy 22, and
compelled a third to surrender on the banks of the Luibas. A week before
Count Felix von Werdenberg had defeated the Hegau contingent at Hil-
zingen, relieved Radolfzell, and beheaded Hans Miiller of Bulgenbaeh.
In the Austrian territories and in Salzburg, however, the revolution
continued active throughout the winter and following spring. Waldshut,
which had risen against Ferdinand's religious persecution before the
outbreak of the Peasants' War, held out until December 12, 152f5, The
revolt in Salzburg was indirectly encouraged by the jealousy existing
between its Archbishop and the Dokes of Bavaria, and by a scheme which
Ferdinand entertained of dividing the archbishop's lands between the
two Dukes and himself. The Archduke had in June, 1525, temporarily
pacified the Tyrolese peasantry by promising a complete amnesty and
granting some substantial redress of their agrarian, and even of their
ecclesiastical, grievances. But Michael Gaismayr and others, who aimed
at a political revolution, were not satisfied, and Gaismayr fled to
Switzerland, where he received promises of support from Francis I and
other enemies of the Habsburgs. Early in 152G he returned to the
attack and in May laid siege to Radstadt. At Schladming, some fifteen
miles to the east of Radstadt, the peasants defeated DietrichBtein and
for some mouths defied the Austrian government. Gaismayr inflicted
two reverses upon the forces sent to relieve Kadstadt, but was unable
permanently to resist the increasing contingents despatched against him *
by the Swabian League and the Austrian government. In July he was
compelled to raise the siege, and fled to Italy, where he was murdered
in 1528 by two Spaniards, who received for their deed the price put by
the government on Gaismayr's head.
The Austrian duchies were one of the few districts in which the re-
volt resulted in an amelioration of tlie lot of the peasants* Margrave
Philip of Baden, whose humanity was recognised on all sides, pursued a
similar policy, and the Landgrave of Hesse also made some concessions.
But as a rule the suppression of the movement was marked by appal-
ling atrocities. On JLiy 27 Leonard von Eek, tiie Bavarian chancellor,
reports that Duke Anthony of Lorraine alone had already destroyed
twenty thousand peasants in Elsass ; and for the whole of Germany a
moderate estimate puts the number of victims at a hundred thousand.
The only consideration that restrained the victors appears to have been
the fear that, unless they held their hand, they would have no one left to
render them service. ^' If all the peasants are killed," wrote Margrave
George to his brother Casimir, 'Mvhere shall we get other peasants to
make provision for us ? '* Casimir stood in need of the exhortation ; at
Kitzingen, near Wiirzburg, he put out the eyes of fifty-nine townsfolk,
and forbade the rest under severe penalties to offer them medical or
other assistance. When the massacre of eighteen knights? at Weinsberg
is adduced as proof that the peasants were savages, one may well ask
what stage of civilisation had been reached by German Princes.
The effects of this failure to deal with the peasants' grievances extept
by methods of brutal oppression cannot be estimated with any exacti-
tude ; but its effects were no doubt enduring and disastrous. The Diet
of Augsburg ifi 1525 attempted to mitigate the ferocity of the lords
towards their subjects, but the effort did not produce much result, and
to the end of the eighteenth century the German peasantry remained
the most wretched in Europe, Serfdom lingered there longer than in
any other ci\"ilised country save Russia, and the mass of the people
were effectively shut out from the sphere of political action. Tlie begin-
nings of democracy were crushed in the cities ; the knights and then
the peasants were beaten down. And only the territorial power of the
Princes profited. The misery of the mass of her people must be reck-
oned as one of the causes of the national weakness and intellectual
sterility which marked Germany during the latter part of the sixteenth
century. The religious lead which she had given to Europe passed into
other hands, and the literary awakening which preceded and accompa-
nied the Reformation was followed by slumbers at least as profound as
those which had gone before.
The difficulty of assigning reasons for the failure of the revolt itself
is eiiliaiiced hy tliat of determining how far it was really a revolutionary
movement and how far reactionary. Was it the h^st and greatest of
the medieval peasant revolts, or was it a premature birth of modern
democracy? It was probably a combination of both* The hardships
of the peasants and town proletariate were undoubtedly aggravated by
the economic revolution, the substitution of a world-market for local
markets, the consequent growth of capitalism and of the relative poverty
of the poorest classes ; and, in so far aa they saw no remedy except in a
return to the worn-out medieval system, their objects were reactionary,
and would have failed ultimately, even if they had achieved a temporary
success. On the other hand, the ideas which their leaders developed
during the course of the movement, such as the abolition of serfdom,
the participation of peasants in politics, the universal application of
the principle of election, were undeniably revolutionary and premature.
Many of these ideas have been since successfully put into practice, but
in 1525 the classes which formulated them had not acquired the faculties
necessary for the proper exercise of political power ; and the movement
was an abortion.
The effect of its suppression upon the religious development of
Germany was none the less disastrous* In its religious aspect the
Peasants' Revolt was an appeal of the poor and oppressed to ^* divine
justice "' against the oppressor. They had eagerly applied to their lords
the biblical anathemas against the rich, and interpreted the beatitudes
as a promise of redress for the wrongs of the poor. They were naturally
unconvinced by Luther's declarations that the Gospel only guaranteed a
spiritual and not a temporal emancipation, and that spiritual Uberty was
the only kind of freedom to which they had a right. They felt that
such a doctrine might suit Luther and his knightly and boitrgeoiM sup-
porters, who already enjoyed an excessive temporal franchise, but
that in certain depths of material misery tlie cultivation of spiritual and
moral welfare was impossible. It was a counsel of perfection to advise
them to be content with spiritual solace when they complained that they
could not feed their bodies. They did not regard poverty as compatible
with the *^ divine justice '' to which they appealed ; and when their ap-
peal was met by the slaughter of a hundred thousand of their numbers
their faith in the new Gospel received a fatal blow. Their aspirations,
which had been so vividly expressed in the popular literature of the last
five years, were turned into despair, and they rela{:>sed into a state of
mind which was not far removed from materialistic atheism. Who
knows, they asked, what God is, or whether there is a God ? And the
minor questions at issue between Luther and the Pope they viewed with
profound indifference.
Such was the result of the Peasants' Revolt and of Luther's inter-
vention. His conduct will always remain a matter of controversy,
because its interpretation depends not so much upon what he said or
left unsaid, as upon the respective emphasis to be laid on the various
things he said, and on the meaning his words were likely to convey to
his readers. His first tract on the subject, written and published in the
early days of the m(jvement, distributed blame with an impartial but
lavish hand, He could not countenance the use of force, but many of
the peasants* demands were undeniably just, and their revolt was the
vengeance of God for the Princes' sins. Both parties could, and no
doubt did, interpret this as a pronouncement in their favour ; and,
indeed, stripped of its theology, violence, and rhetoric, the tract was a
sensible and accurate diagnosis of the case. But, although the Princes
may have deserved his strictures, a prudent man who really believed
the revolt to be evil would have refrained from such attacks at that
moment, Luther, however, could not resist the temptation to attribute
the ruin which threatened the Princes to their stiff necked rejection of
Lutheran dogma ; and his invectives poured oil on the flames of revolt.
Its rapid progress filled him with genuine terror, and it is probably
unjust to ascribe his second tract merely to a desire to be found on the
side of the big battalions. . It appeared in the middle of May, 1525,
possibly before the news of any great defeat inflicted on the insurgent
bands had reached him, and when it would have required more than
Luther's foresight to predict their speedy collapse.
Yet terror and his proximity to Thuringia, the scene of the most
violent and dangerous form of the revolt, while they may palliate,
cannot excuse Luther's efforts to rival the brutal ferocity of Miinzer's
doctrines, \IIc must have known that the Princes' victory, if it came at
all, would be bloody enough without his exhortations to kill and slay
the peasants like inad dgigpi, and without his promise of heaven to those
who fell in the holy work. His sympathy with the masses seems to haje
been limited to those occasions when he saw in tliem a useful weapon
to hold over the heads of his enemies. J He once lamented that refractory
servants cuuld nu longer be treated^like " other cattle '* as in the days of
the Patriarclis ; and he joined with Melancbthon and Spalatin in
removing the scruples of a Saxon noble with regard to the burdens his
tenants bore, "The ass will have blows," he said, ^'and the people will
be ruled by force " ; and he was not free from the upstarts contempt
for the class from which he sprang. His followers echoed his sentiments ;
Melancbthon thought even serfdom too mild for stubborn folk like the
Germans, and maintained that the master's right of punishment and the
servant's duty of submission should both be unlimited. It was little
wonder that the organisers of the Lutheran Church afterwards found the
peasants deaf to their exhortations, or that Melancbthon was once
constrained to admit that the people abhorred himself and hia fellow-
ines.
It is almost a commonplace with Lutheran writers to justify Luther's
action on the ground that the Peasants^ Revolt was revolutionary,
O. M, tl. 11. 13
unlawfu!, immoral, while the religious movement was reforming, lawful,
and moral ; but tlie hard and fast line whicli is thus drawn vanishes
on a closer investigation. The peasants had no constitutional means
wherewitli to attain their ends, and there is no reason to suppose that
they would have resorted to force unless force had been prepared to
resist them ; if, as Luther maintained, it was the Christian's duty to
tolerate worldly ills, it was incmnbent on Christian Princes as well as on
Christian peasants ; and if, as he said, the Peasants' Revolt was a punish-
ment divint;ly ordained for the Princes, what right had they to resist?
Moreover, the Lutherans themselves were only content with constitutional
means so long as they proved successful ; when they failed Lutherans
also resorted to arms against their lawful Emperor, Nor was there
anything in the peasants' demands more essentiallyrevolutionary than the
repudiation of the Pope's authority and the wholesale appropriation of
ecclesiastical property. The distinction between the two movements has
for its basis the fact that the one was successful, the other was not ;
while tlie Peasants' Revolt failed, the Reformation triumphed, and then
discarded its revolutionary guise and assumed the respectable garb of
law and order.
Luther in fact saved the Reformation by cutting it adrift from the
failing cause of the peasants and tying it to the chariot wheels of the
triumphant Princes, If he had not been the apostle of revolution-^ he
had at least commanded the army in which all the revolutionaries
fought. He had now repudiated his left wing and was forced to depend
on his right. The movement from 1521 to 1525 had been national, and
Luther had been its hero ; from the position of national hero he now
sank to be the prophet of a sect, and a sect which depended for existence
upon the support of political powers. Melanchthon admitted that the
decrees of the Lutheran Church were merely platonie conclusions without
the support of the Princes, and Luther suddenly abandoned his views on
the freedom of conscience and the independence of the Church. In 1523
he had proclaimed the duty of obeying God before men ; at the end of
1524 he was invoking the secular arm against the remnant of papists at
Wittenberg ; it was to punish the ungodly, he said, that the sword had
been placed in the hands of authority, and it was in vain that the
Elector Frederick reminded him of his previous teaching, that men
"simuld let only the Word fight for them. Separated from tlie Western
Clmrch and alienated from the bulk of the German people, Lutheran
di^nes leant upon territorial Princes, and repaid their support with
undue servility ; even Henry VI H extorted from his bishops no more
degrading comi>liance than the condoning by Melanchthon and others
of Philip of Hesse's bigamy. Melanchthon came to regard the com-
mands of princes as the ordinances of God, while Luther looked upon
them as Bishoj^s of the Church, and has been claasod by Treitschke
with Machiavelli as a champion of the indefeasible rights of the State.
Erastus, like most political philosophers, only reduced to theory what
had lomg been the practice of Princes.
Thh alliance of Lutheran State and Lutheran Church was based on
mutual interest. Some of the peasant leadei-s had offered the Princes
compensation for the loss of their feudal dues out of the revenues of the
Church, The Lutherans offered thera both ; they favoured the retention
of feudal dues and the confiscation of ecclesiastical property ; and the
latter could only be satisfactorily effected through the intervention of the
territorial principle, for neither religious party would have tolerated
the acquisition by the Emperor of the ecclesiastical territories within
the Empire. Apart from the alleged evils inherent in the wealth of the
clergy, secularisation of Church property was recommended bn the
ground that many of the duties attached to it had already passed to
some extent under State or municipal supervision, such as the regulation
of poor relief and of education ; and the history of the fifteenth century
had shown that the defence of Christendom depended solely upon the
exertions of individual States, and that the Church could no longer, as
in the days of the Crusades, excite any independent enthusiasm against
the infidel. It was on the plea of the necessities of tiiis defence that
Catholic as well as Lutheran princes made large demands upon
ecclesiastical revenues. With the diminution of clerical goods went a
decline in tlie independence of the clergy and a corresponding increase
in the authority of territorial Princes ; and it was by tlie prospect of
reducing his IMshops and priests to subjection that sovereigns like
Margrave Casimirof Brandenburg were induced to adopt the Lutheran
cause.
The Lutherans had need of every recruit, for the reaction which
crushed the peasants threatened to involve them in a similar ruin*
Duke Anthony of Lorraine regarded the suppression of the revolt in the
light of a crusade against Luther, and many a Gospel preacher was
summarily executed on a charge of sedition for which there was slender
ground. Catholic Princes felt that they would never be secure against a
recurrence of rebellion until tliey had extirpated the root of the evil ;
and the embers of social strife were scarcely stamped out when they
began to discuss schemes for extinguishing heresy. In July, 1525,
Duke George of Saxony, who may have entertained hopes of seizing his
cousin's electorate, the Electors Joachim of Brandeiiburg and Albrecht of
Mainz, Duke Henry of Brunswick-Wolfenbiittel, and other Catholic
Princes met at Dessau to consider a Catholic League, and Henry of
Brunswick was sent to Charles to obtain the imperial support. The
danger produced a like combination of Lutherans^ and in October, 1525»
Philip of Hesse proposed a defensive alliance between himself and Elector
John at Torgau ; it was comi^leted at Gotha in the following March, i
at Magdeburg it was joined h}^ that city, the Brunswick-Liinebur
Otto, Eniest, and Francis, Duke Philip of Brunswick-Grub
Duke Henry of Mecklenburg, Prince Wolfgang of Anbalt-Kothen, and
Counts Gebhard and Albrecht of Manafeld.
Tbis league was the work of Philip of Hesse, the statesman to whom
the Reformation in Germany largely owed its success ; his genuine
adoption of its doctrines bad little eflect on his personal morality, yet he
risked bis all in the canse and devoted to it abilities of a very high order*
But for bis slender means and narrow domains be might have played a
great part in history ; as it was, bis courage, fertility of resource, wide
outlook, and independence of formulas enabled him to exert a i>owerful
influence on the fortunes of his cixed and liis country. He already
meditated a scheme, which he afterwards carried into effect, of restoring
Duke Ulricb of Wiirttembcrg ; and the skill with wbicb he played on
Bavarian jealousy of the Habsburgs more than once saved the Reformers
from a Catholic combination. He wished to include in the league the
half-Zwinglian cities of South Germany, and although bis far-reaching
scheme for a union between Zwinglian Switzerland and Lutheran
Germany was baulked by Lutlier*s obstinacy and Zwingli's defeat at
Kappel, be looked as early as 1626 for belp to the Northern Powers
which eventually saved the Reformation in the course of the Thirty
Years' War,
Meanwhile a Diet summoned to meet at Augsburg in December, 1525,
was scantily attended and proved abortive. Another met at Speier in
the following June, and its conduct induced a Reformer to describe it as
the boldest and freest Diet that ever assembled. The old complaints
against Rome were revived, and the recent revolt was attributed to
clerical abuses, A committee of Princes reported in favour of the
marriage of priests, communion in both kinds, the abolition of private
masses, a reduction in the number of fasts, the joint use of Latin and
German in baptismal services and in the celebration of the Eucharist,
and the interpretation of Scripture by Scripture. To prevent the
adoption of these resolutions Fertliimnd produced instructions from the
Emperor, dated the 23rd of March, 1526, in which he forbade innovations,
promised to discuss the question of a General Council with the Pope^
and demanded the execution of the Edict of Worms, The cities, how-
ever, again declared the last to be impracticable, and called attention
to the fact that, whereas at the date of Charles* letter he bad been at
peace with the Pope, they were now at open enmity. They declined to
believe that the Emperors intentions remained the same under these
altered conditions ; and they proposed sending a deputation to Spain to
demand the suspension of the Edict of Worms, and the immediate
convocation of a General or at least a National Council, ifeanwhile the
Princes suggested that as regarded matters of faith each Prince should so
conduct himself as be could answer for his behaviour to God and to the
Emperor ; and this proposal was adopted, was promulgated in the Diet's
Recess, and thus became the law of the Empire. Both the Emperor and
the national government seemed to have abdicated their control over
ecclesiasticalpoliej in favourof the territorial Princes ; and the separatist
principle, which had long dominated secular politics, appeared to hava
legally established itself within the domain of religion.
The Diet had presumed too moch upon Charles' hostility to the
Pope, but there were grounds for tliis assumption. Although his letter
arrived too lat-e to aflfect the Diet's decision, the Emperor had actually
written on July 27, suggesting the abolition of the penal clauses in the
Edict of Worms, and the submission of evangelical doctrines to the
consideration of a General Council. Rut this change of attitude was
entirely due to the momentary exigencies of his foreign relations,
Clement VII was hand in glove with the I^eague of Cognac, formed to
wrest from Charles the fruits of Pavia* The Emperor, threatened with
excommunication, replied by remarking that Luther might be made a nmn
of importance ; while Charles' lieutenant, Moncada, captured the castle
of St Angelo, and told the Pope that God himself could not withstand
the victorious imperial arms. Other Spaniards were urging Charles to
abolish the temporal power of the Papacy, as the root of all the Italian
wars ; and he hoped to find in the Lutherans a weapon against the Pupe,
a hope which was signally fulfilled when Frundsberg led eleven thousand
troops, four thous^md of whom served without pay, to the sack of Rome-
Moreover Ferdinand was in no position to coerce the Lutheran
princes. The peasant revolts in his Austrian duchies were not yet
subdued, and he was toying with the idea of an extensive secularisation of
ecclesiastical property. He had seized the bishopric of Rrixen, meditated
a partition of Salzburg, and told his Estates at Innsbruck that the
common people objected altogether to the exercise of clerical jurisdiction
in temporal concerns. And before long considerations of the utmost
importance for the future of his House and of Europe further diverted
his energies from the prosecution of either religious or political objects
in Germany; for 1526 was the birth-year of the Austro-IIungarian
State which now holds in its straining bond all that remains of Habsbnrg
power.
The ruin which overtook the kingdom of Hungary at Mobacs
(August 30, 1526) has been ascribed to various causes. The simplest
is that Hungary, and no other State, barred the path of tlie Turks, and
felt the full force of their onslaught at a time when the Ottoman Power
was in the first flush of its vigour, and was wielded by perhaps the greatest
of Sultans* Hungary, though divided, was at least as united as Germany
or Italy; it was to some extent isolated from the rest of Europe, but it
effected no such breach with Western Christendom as Rohemia had done
in the Hussite wars, and Rohemia escaped the heel of the Turk. The
foreign policy of Hungary was ill-directed and inconsequent ; but if the
marriage of its King with the Emperor's sister and that of its Princess
198
John Zapolya in Himgary
[1626
with his brother could not protect it, the weaving of diplomatic webs
would not have impeded the Turkish advance. No Hungarian wizard
could have revived the Crusades ; and Hungary fell a victim not so much
to faults of her own, as to the misfortune of her geographical position,
and to the absorption of Christian Europe in its internecine warfare.
But Hungary's necessity was the Habsburgs' opportunity. For at
least a century that ambitious race had dreamt of the union of Austria,
Bohemia, and Hungary under its sway. Under Alhrecht H and his son
Wladislav the dream enjoyed a twenty years' realisation (1437-57) ;
hut after the latter's death Bohemia found a national King in Podiebrad
jind Hungary in Corvinus. On the extinction of these two lines the
realms were again united, but not under Austrian rule ; and for more
than a generation two Polish princes of the House of Jagello successively
sat on the Cech and Magyar thrones. The Emperor Maximilian,
however, never ceased to grasp at the chance which his feeble father had
missed ; and before his death two of his grandchildi-en were betrothed to
Louis II and his sister Anna, while the Austrian succession, in default of
issue to Louis, was secured by solemn engagements on the part of both
the kingdoms.
The death of Louis at Mohacs hastened the crucial hour. Both
kingdoms prided themselves on their independence and right to elect
their monarclis, and in both there was national antagonism to German
encroachment. In Hungary, where the Xiefoniiation had made some
slight progress, the Catholic national party was led by John Zapolya,
who had earned a reputation by his cruel suppression of a Hungarian
peasant revolt in 1514, and had eagerly sought the hand of the Princess
Anna, His object throughout had been the throne, and the marriage
of Anna to Ferdinand enraged him to such an extent that he stood idly
by while the Turk triumphed over his country at Mohacs, He would
rather lie King by the grace of Solyraan than see Hungary free under
Ferdinand. The nobles' hatred of German rule came to Zapolya's aid,
and on November 10, 1526, disregarding alike Ferdinand's claims through
his wife and their previous treaty-engagements, they chose Zapolya
King at Stulilweissenburg, and crowned him the following day.
Had Ferdinand had only one rival to fear in Bohemia the restdt might
have been similar, but a multitude of candiJates divided the opposition.
Sigismund of Poland, Joachim of Brandenburg, Albrecht of Prussia,
three iSaxon Princes, and two Bavarian Dukes, all thought of entering the
lists, but Ferdinand's most serious competitors were his Wittelsbaeh
rivals, who had long intrigued for the Boliemian throne. But if the
Oechswere to electa German King, a Wittelsbaeh possessed no advantages
over a Habsburg, and Ferdinand carried the day at Prague on October 23,
1526. The theory that he owed his success to a Catholicism which was
moderate compared with that of the Bavarian Dukes ignores the Catholic
reaction which had followed the Hussite movement ; and the Articles
submitted to Ferdinand by bis future subjects expressly demanded the
prohibition of clerical marriages, the maintenance of fasts, and the
veneration of Saints. Of course, like his predecessors, he had to sign
the eompactata extorted by the Bohemians from the Council of Basel and
Btill uncoutirmed by the Pope, but this was no great concession to heresy,
and Ferdinand showed much firmness in refusing stipulations which
would have weakened his royal authority. In spite of the hopes which
his adversaries built on this attitude he was crowned with acclamation
at Prague on February 24, 1527, the anniversary of Pavia and of
Charles V's birth.
He then turned his attention to Hungary; his widowed sister's
exertions had resulted in an assemblage of nobles which elected
Ferdinand King at Pressburg on December 17, 1526; and the eft'orts
of Francis I and the Pope, of England and Venice, to strengthen
Zapolya's party proved vain. During the following summer Ferdinand
was recognised as King by another Diet at Buda, defeated Zapolya at
Tokay, and on November 3 was crowned at Stublweissenburg, the scene
of his rivaFs election in the previous year. This rapid success led hira
to indulge in dreams which later Habsburgs succeeded in fulfilling.
Besides the prospect of election as King of the Romans, he hoped to
secure the ducliy of Milan and to regain for Hungary its lost province
of Bosnia. Ferdinand might also be thought to have foreseen the
future importance of the events of 1526-7, and the part which his
Pconglomerate kingdom was to play in the history of Europe.
These diversions of Ferdinand* and the absorption of Charles V in his
wars in Italy and with England and France, aflforded the Lutherans an
opportunity of turning the Recess of Speier to an account which the
Habsburgs and the Catholic Princes had certainly never contemplated. In
tiieir anxiety to tUscover a constitutional and legal plea wliicli should re-
move from the Reformation the reproach of being a revolution, Lutheran
historians have attempted to differentiate this Recess from otlier laws of
the Etnpire, and to regard it rather as a treaty between two independent
Powers, which neither could break without the other^s consent, than aaa
law which might be repealed by a simple majority of the testates. It was
represented as a fundamental part of the constitution beyond the reach
>f ordinary constitutional weapons ; and the neglect of the Emperor and
le Catholic majority to adopt this view is urged as a legal justification
of that final resort to arms, on the successful issue of which the existence
of Protestantism within the Empire was really based-
It is safe to affirm that no such idea had occurred to the majority of
the Diet which passed the Recess. The Emperor and the Catholic
Princes had admitted the inexpediency and impracticability of reducing
Germany at that juncture to religious conformity ; but they had by no
means forsworn an attempt in the future when circumstances might
prove more propitious. Low as tlie central authority bad fallen before
the onslaughts of territorial separatists, it was not yet prepared to admit
that the question of the nation s religion had for ever escaped its control-
But for the moment it was compelled to look on while individual Princes
organised Churches at will ; and the majority had to content themselves
with replying to Lutheran expulsion of Catholic doctrine by enforcing
it still more rigorously in their several spheres of influence.
The right to make ecclesiastical ordinances, which the Empire had
exercised at Worms in 1521 and at Niirnberg in 1523 and 1524, but had
temporarily abandoned at Speier, was not restored to the Chuix'h^ but
passed to the territorial Princes, in whose hostility to clerical privileges
and property Luther found his most effective support. Hence the
democratic form of Church government, which had been elaborated by
Francois Lambert and adopted by a synod summoned to Homberg by
Philip of Hesse in October, 1526, failed to take root in Germany. It was
based on the theory that every Christian participates in the priesthood,
that the Church consists only of the faithful, and that each religious
community should have complete independence and full powers of
ecclesiastical discipline. It was on similar lines that " Free '' Churches
were subsequently developed in Scotland, England, France, and America.
But such ideas were alien to the absolute monarchic principle with
which Luther had cast in his lot, and the German Reformers, like
the Anglican, preferred a Church in which the sovereign and not the
congregation was the summui^ episcopu^* In his hands were vested the
powers of punishment for religious opinion, and in Germany as in
England religious persecutions %vere organised by the State. It was
perhaps as well that the State and not the Lutheran Church exercised
coercive functions, for the rigour applied by Lutheran Princes to dissi-
dent Catliolics fell short of Luther's terrible imprecations, and of the
cruelties inflicted on heretics in orthodox territories.
The breach between the Lutheran Church and the Church of Rome
was, with regard to both ritual and doctrine, slight compared with that
effected by Zwingli or Calvin* Latin Christianity was tlie groundwork
of the Lutheran Church, antl its divines sought only to repair the old
foundation and not to lay down a new, Luther would tolerate no
figurative interpretation of the words of institution of the Eucharist,
and he stoutly maintained the doctrine of a real presence, in his own
sense. With the exception of the *' abominable canon,'' which implied a
sacrifice, the Catholic Mass was retained in the Lutheran Service ; and
on this question every attempt at union with the '* Reformed" Churches
broke down. The changes introduced during the ecclesitistical visitations
of Lutheran Germany in 152t>-T were at least as much concessions to
secular dislike of clerical privilege as to religious antipathy to Catholic
doctrine. The abolition of episcopal jurisdiction increased the in-
dependence of parish priests, but it enhanced even more the princely
N
^
^
^
^
authority. The confiscation of monastic property enriched pariah
churches and schools, and in Hesse facilitated the foundation of the
University of Marburg, but it also swelled the State exchequer ; and the
marriage of priests tended to destroy their privileges as a caste and
merge them in the mass of their fellow-citizens.
It was not these questions of ecclesiastical government or ritual
Trhicli evoked enthusiasm for the Lutheran cause. Its strength lay in its
appeal to the conscieuce» in its emancipation of tlie individual from the
restrictions of an ancient but somewhat oppressive system, in its
declaration that the means of salvation were open to all, and that neither
priest nor Pope could take them away ; that individual faith was
sufficient and the whole apparatus of clerical mediation cumbrous and
nugatory. The absolute, immediate dependeuce on God, on w^hieh
Luther insisted so strongly, excluded dependence on man ; and the
individualistic_egJitism ami quickening conscience of the age w^ere alike
exalted by the sense of a new-born spiritual liberty. To this moral
elation Luther's hymns contributed as much as his translation of the
New Testament, and liis musical ear made them national songs. The
first collection was published in 1524, and Luther's Ein feste Burg tst
umer Gott^ written in 1527, has been described by Heine as the
Maruillaue of the Reformation \ it was equally popular as a song of
triumph in the hour of victory and as a solace in persecution. Luther was
still at work on his translation of the Bible, and his third great literary
contribution to the edification of the Lutheran Church was his Catechimh
wliich appeared in a longer and a shorter form (1529), and in the latter
became the norm for German Churches. The w^ay for it had been
prepared by two of Luther's disciples, Johann Agricola and Justus
Jonas ; and other colleagues in the organisation of the Lutheran Church
were Amsdorf, Luther s Elisha, ^lelanchthon, whose theological learning,
intellectual acuteness, and forbearance towards the Catholics were marred
by a lack of moral strength, and Bugenhagen. The practical genius of
the last-named reformer was responsible for the evangelisation of the
greater part of North Germany » wliich, with the exceptitm of the
territories of the Elector of Brandenburg, of Duke George of Saxony,
and of Duke Henry of Brunswiek-Wolfcnbiittel, had by 1529 broken
away from the Catholic Church.
But the respite afforded by the Diet of Speier, invaluable though
it proved, was not of long duration, and the Lutheran Princes were
soon threatened with attacks from their fellow-Princes and from the
Emperor liimself . A meeting lietween Elector Joachim of Brandenburg,
Duke George of Saxony, and the Archduke Ferdinand, now King of
Hungary and Bohemia, at Breslau in May, 1527, gave rise to rumours of
a Catholic conspiracy ; and these suspicions, to which the Landgrave's
hasty temperament led him to attach too ready a credence, were turn*
to account by one Otto von Pack, who had acted as Vice-Chancellor
n
Duke George of Saxon3^ Pack forged a document purporting to be an
authentic copy of an oflfensive league between Ferdinand, the Electors of
Mainz and Brandenburg, Duke George of Saxony, the Dukes of Bavaria,
and the Bishops of Salzburg, Wiirzburg, and Bamberg, the object of
which was first to drive Zapolya from Hungary, and then to make war
on the Elector of Saxony unless he surrendered Luther, For this
information the Landgrave paid Pack four thousand crowns, aud
despatched him to Hungary to warn Zapolya and to concert measures
of defence. Another envoy was sent to Francis I ; and at Weimar in
March, 1528, Philip concluded a treaty with the Elector of Saxony in
which they agreed to anticipate the attack. The Landgrave at once
began to mobilise his forces, but Luther persuaded the Elector to halt.
All the parties concerned denied the alleged conspiracy, and eventually
Philip himself admitted that he had been deceived, lllogieally, however,
he demanded that the Bishops should pay the cost of his mobilisation ;
and iis they liad no force wherewith to resist, they were compelled to find
a hundred thousand crowns between them.
The violence of this proceeding naturally embittered the Catholics,
aud Philip was charged with having concocted the whole plot and
instigated Pack*s forgeries. These accusations have been satisfactorily
disproved, but the Landgrave*s conduct must be held partially respon-
sible for the incre^^ised persecution of Lutherans which followed in
1528, ami for the hostile attitude of the Diet of Speier in 1529. The
Catholic States began to organise visitations for the extirpation of
heresy; in Austria printers and vendors of heretical Imoks were con-
demned to be drowned as poisoners of the minds of the people. In
Bavaria in 1528 thirty-eight persons were burnt or drowned, and the
victims included men of distinction such as Leonhard Kiiser, Heuglin,
Adolf Clarenbach, and Peter Flysteden, while the historian Aventinus
suffered prolonged imprisonment. In Brandenburg the most illustrious
victim was the Elector's wife, the Danish Princess Elizabeth, who only
escaped death or lifelong incarceration by flight to her cousin, the
Elector of Saxony.
Meanwhile the Emperor's attitude grew ever more menacing, for a
fresh revolution had reversed the imperial policy. The idea of playing
off Luther against the Pope had probably never been serious, and the
protests in Spain against Charles' treatment of Clement would alone
have convinced him of the dangers of such an adventure. Between
1527 and 1529 he gradually reached the conclusion that a Pope was
indispensable. Immediately after the Sack of Rome one of his agents
had warned him of the danger lest England and France should establish
patriarchates of their own ; and a Pope of the universal Church under
the control of Charles as master of Italy was too useful an instrument to
be lightly abandoned, if for no other reason than that an insular Pope
in England would grant the divorce of Henry VIII from Catharine of
f Aragon. The Emperor also wanted Catholic help to restore Lis brother-
in-law, Christian II of Denmark, deposed by his Lutheran subjeets ; he
desired papal recognition for Ferdinand's new kingdoms ; and hia own
imperial authority in Germany could not have survived the secularisation
of the ecclesiastical electorates. Empire and Papacy, said Zwingli, both
femanated from Rome ; neither could stand if the other felL At the
same time the issue of the war in Italy in 1628-9 convinced Clement
that he could not stand without Charles, and paved the way for the
mutual undei-s tan ding which was sealed by the Treaty of Barcelona
(June 29, 1529). It was almost a family compact; the Pope's nephew
was to marry the Emperors illegitimato daughter, the Medici tyranny
{•was to be re-established in Florence, the divorce of Catharine to be
prefused, the papal countenance to be withdrawn from Zapolya, and
^Emperor and Pope were to unite against Turks and heretics. The
Treaty of Cambray (August 3) soon afterwards released Charles from
his w^ar with France and left him free for a while to turn his attention
to Germany.
The growing intimacy between the Emperor and Pope had already
smoothed the path of reaction, and reinforced the antagonism of the
Catholic majority to the Lutheran princes. In 1528 Charles sent the
Provost of Waklkirch to Germany to strengthen the Catholic cause ;
Duke Henry of Mecklenburg returned to the Catholic fold ; the waver-
[ing Elector Palatine forbade his subjects to attend the preaching of
Lutherans ; and at the Diet of Speier, which met on February 21, 1529,
the Evangelicals found themselves a divided and hopeless minority
opposed to a determined and solid majority of Catholics* Only three
of their number were chosen to sit on the committee appointed to
diBcuss the religious question, Charles had sent instructions denouncing
1 the Recess of 1526 and praetically dictating the terms of a new one.
The Catholics were not prepared to admit this reduction of the Diet
to the status of a machine for registering imperial rescripts ; but their
L modifications were intended rather to show their independence than to
'alter the purport of Charles^ proposals, and their resolutions amounted
to this : tliere was to be complete toleration for Catholics in Lutheran
States, but no toleration for Lutherans in Catholic States* and no
[toleration anywhere for Zwinglians and Anabaptists; the Lutherans
f were to make no farther innovations in their own dominions, and clerical
jurisdictions and property were to be inviolate.
The differentiation between Lutherans and Zwinglians was a skilful
attempt to drive a wedge between the tw^o sections of the anti-Catholic
party, — an attempt which Melanchthon's pusillanimity nearly brought to
a successful issue. The Zwinglian party included the principal towns of
South Germany; but Melanchthon was ready to a- ' m tbi
price of peace for the Lutheran Church. Philip of i i-
aone of the theoloc^ical narrowness which character
Melanchthon, and, in a less degree, even Zwingli ; he was not so blind
as the divines to the political necessities of the situation, and he managed
to avert a breach for the time ; it was due to him that Strassburg and
Ulm, Niirnberg and Meinmingen, and other towns added their weight to
the protest against the decree of the Diet. Jacob Sturm of Strassburg
and Tetzel of Niirnborg were, indeed, the most zealous champions of the
Recess of 152G during the debates of the Diet ; but their arguments and
the mediation of moderate Catholics remained without effect upon the
majority. The complaint of the Lutherans that the proposed Recess
would tie their hands and open the door to Catholic reaction naturally
made no impression, for such was precisely its object. The Catholics
saw that their opportunity had come, and they were determined to take
at its flood the tide of reaction. The plea that the unanimous decision
of 1526 could not be repealed by one party, though plausible enough as
logic and in harmony with the particularism of the time, rested u[>on
the unconstitutional assumption that the parties were independent of the
Empire's authority ; and it was not reasonable to expect any Diet to
countenance so suicidal a theory.
A revolution is necessarily weak in its legal aspect, and must depend
on its moral strength ; and to revolution the Lutheran Princes in spite of
themselves were now brought. They were di'iven back on to ground on
which any revolution may be based ; and a secret understanding to
witlistand every attack made on them on account of God's Word, whether
it proceeded from the Swabian League or the national government, was
adopted by Electoral Saxony, Hesse, Strassburg, Ulm, and Niirnberg.
We fear the Emperor*s ban, wrote one of his party, but we fear still
more God's curse ; and God, tliey proclaimed, must be obeyed before
man. This was an appeal to God and to conscience which transcended
legal considerations. It wjis the very essence of the Reformation,
though it was often denied by Reformers themselves ; and it explains
the fact that from the Protest, in which the Lutherans embodied this
principle, is derived the name which, for want of a better term, is loosely
applied to all the Churches which renounced the obedience of Rome.
A formal Protest against the impending Recess of the Diet had been
discussed at Niirnberg in March, and adopted at Speier in April. When,
on the 19t]j, Ferdinand and the other imperial commissioners refused all
concessions and confirmed the Acts of the Diet, the Protest was publicly
read. The Protestants affirmed that the Diet's decree was not binding
on them because they were not consenting parties ; they proclaimed their
intention to abide by the Recess of 1526, and so to fulfil their religious
duties as they could answer for it to God and the Emperor. They
demanded that their Protest should be incorporated in the Recess, and
on Ferdinand*s refusal, they published a few days later an appeal from
the Diet to the Emperor, to the next General Council of Christendom,
or to a congress of the German nation. The Princes who signed
1629] The original Protestants 205
the Protest were the Elector John of Saxony, Margrave George of
Brandenburg, Dukes Ernest and Francis of Brunswick-Liineburg,
Landgrave Philip of Hesse, and Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt ; and the
fourteen cities which adhered to it were Strassburg, Ulm, Niirnberg,
Constance, Lindau, Memmingen, Kempten, Nordlingen, Heilbronn,
Reutlingen, Isny, St Gallen, Wissenberg, and Windsheim. Of such
slender dimensions was the original Protestant Church ; small as it
was, it was only held together by the negative character of its Protest ;
dissensions between its two sections increased the conflict of creeds
and parties which rent the whole of Germany for the following twenty-
five years.
CHAPTER VII
THE CONFLICT OF CREEDS AND PARTIES IN
GERMANY
The threats of the victorious Catholic majority at Speier and the
diplomacy of Philip of Hesse had, despite the forebodings of Luther
and the imprecations of Melanchthon, produced a temporary alliance
between the Lutheran north and the Zwinglian south ; and the summer
and autumn of 1529 were spent in attempts to make the union perma-
nent and to cement it by means of religious agreement. In the secret
understanding concluded between Electoral Saxony, Hesse, Niirnberg,
Ulm, and Strassburg at Speier on April 22, it was arranged that a con-
ference should be held at Rodach, near Coburg, in the following June.-
But this coalition between Lutheran Princes and Zwinglian towns had
been concealed from the divines, and as soon as it came to their ears
they raised a vehement protest. Melanchthon lamented that his friends
had not made even greater concessions at Speier; if they had only
repudiated Zwingli and all his works, the Catholics, he thought, might
not have hardened their hearts against Luther ; and he did his best to
dissuade his friends in Niirnberg from participating in the coming con-
gress at Rodach. Luther not only denounced the idea of defending by
force what Melanchthon described as " the godless opinions " of Zwingli,
but denied the right of Lutherans to defend themselves. Resort to arms
he considered both wicked and needless ; " Be ye still," he quoted from
Isaiah, " and ye shall be holpen " ; and, while the conference at Rodach
succumbed to his opposition, a vast army of Turks was swarming up the
banks of the Danube and directing its march on Vienna. Solyman
brandished the sword which Luther refused to grasp.
Hungary had failed to resist the Turks by herself ; but the Austrian
shield, under which she took shelter, afforded^ letter protection, and
Ferdinand only escaped the fate of Louis II ifliause he kept out of the
way. Absorbed in the Lutheran conflict, he made no attempt to secure
his conquests of 1527, and, when the Turkish invasion began, Zapolya
descended from his stronghold in the Carpathians, defeated a handful of
Ferdinand's friends, and surrendered the crown of St Stephen on the
206
scene of MoLfics to tlie Sultan. Unresisted, the Turkish forces swept
over the plains of Hungary, crossed the imperial frontier, and on Sep-
tember 20 planted their standards before the walls of Vienna, But over
these the Crescent was never destined to w^ave, and the brilliant defence
of Vienna in 1529 stopped the firsts as a still more famous defence a
hundred and fifty yeai's later foiled the last, Turkish onslaught on
Germany- The valour of the citizens^ the excellence of the artillery,
with which the hite Emperor Maximilian had furnished the city, and
the early rigour of winter supplied the defects of the Habsburg power,
and on October 15 Solyman raised the siege. Ferdinand failed to make
adequate use of the Sultan's retreat ; lack of pay caused a mutiny of
land$knechte ; and though Gran fell into his hands he could not recap-
ture Buda, and the greater part of Hungary remained under the nomi-
nal rule of Zapolya, but real control of the Turk*
The relief of Vienna was received \vith nnngled feelings in Germany.
Luther, who had once denied the duty of Christians to fight the infidel
as involving resistance to God's ordinance, had been induced to recant
by the imminence of danger and the pressure of popular feeling. In
1529 he exhorted his countrymen to withstand the Turk, in language
as vigorous as that in which he had urged them to crush the peasants ;
and the retreat of the Ottoman was generally hailed as a national deliv-
erance. But the joy w^as not universal, even in Germany. Secular and
religious foes of the Ilabsburgs had offered their aid to Zapolya; while
Philip of Hesse lamented the Turkish failure and hoped for another
attack- The Turk was in fact the ally of the Reformation, which might
have been crushed without his assistance ; and to a clear-sighted states-
man like Pliilip no other issue than ruin seemed possible from the
mutual enmity of the two Protestant Churches.
The abortive result of the meeting at Kodach in June and the aban-
donment of the adjourned congress at Schwabach in August only stirred
the Landgrave to fresh efforts in the cause of Protestant union. On
the last day in September he assembled the leading divines of the two
communions at his castle of Marburg with a view to smoothing over
the religious dissensions which had proved fatal to their political
co-operation* The conference was not likely to fail for want of eminent
disputants. The two heresiarchs themselves, Luther and Zwingli, were
present, and their two chief supporters, Melanchthon and Oecolampa-
dius. The Zwinglian cities of Germany w^ere represented by Bucer and
Hedio of Strassburg; thj^^therans by Justus Jonas and Casi>ar Cruci-
bs from Gotha, Brenz from HalU Osiander
Kgricula from Augsburg. But they came
Luther prophesied failure from the first,
Ktest difficulty that Melanchthon could be
induced even to discuss accommodation with such impious doctrines
as ZwiJigli's. On the other hand the Zurich Reformer started with
ger from Wittenberg^
from Niirnberg, and
in different frames of
and it was with the
sanguine hopes and with a predisposition to make every possible cou-
cession, in order to pave the way for the religious and political objects
which he and the Landgrave cherished. But these objects were viewed
with dislike and suspicion by the Lutheran delegates. Public con-
troversy between Luther and Zwingli had already waxed tierce. Zwingli
had first crossed Luther's mental horizon as the ally of Carlstadt, a
sinister conjunction the effects of which were not allayed by Zwingli'a
later developments. The Swiss Reformer was a combination of the
humanist, the theologian, and the radical; while Luther was a pure
theologian, Zwingli's dogmas were softened alike by his classical
sympatliies and by his contact with practical government. Thus he
would not deny tlie hope of salvation to moral teachers like Socrates ;
while Luther thought that the extension of the benefits of the Gos-
pel to the heathen, who liad never been taught it^ deprived it of all its
efficacy. The same broad humanity led Zwingli to limit the damning
effects of original sin; he shrank from consigning the vast mass of
mankind to eternal perdition, believed that God's grace might possibly
work through more cliannels than the one selected by Luther, and was
inclined to circumscribe that diabolic agency which pla3^ed so large a
part in Luther's theological system and personal experience.
Zwingli was in fact the most modern in mind of all the Reformers,
while Luther was the most medieval. Luther's conception of truth
was theological, and not scientific ; to him it was something simple and
absolute, not complex and relative. A man either had or had not the
Spirit of God; there was nothing between heaven and hell. One or
the other of us, he wrote with regard to Zwingli, must be the devil's
minister; and the idea that both parties might have perceived some dif-
ferent aspect of truth was beyond his comprehension. This dilemma w^as
his favourite dialectical device ; it reduced argument to anathema and
excluded from the first all chance of agreement. He applied it to political
as well as religious discussions, and his inability to grasp the conception
of compromise determined his views on the question of non-resistance.
If we resist the Emperor, he said, we must expel him and become Em-
peror ourselves ; then the Emperor will resist, and there will be no end
until one party is crushed. Tolerance was not in his nature, and con-
cession in Church or in State was to him evidence of indifference or
weakness. Truth and falsehood, right and wrong, were both absolute.
The Papacy embodied abuses, therefore the Pope was Antichrist; Cae-
sar^s authority was recognised by Christ, th^^A|re all resistance was sin.
Between Luther*s political doctrines ai^^^^Bpf ZwingU there was
as ranch antipathy as between their theolot^^^^^Popriately, the statue
of Luther at Worms represents him armed
of Zwingli at Zurich bears a Bible in one ban
Zwingli had first been stirred to public protest by a secular evil, the
corruption of his country by foreign gold; and political aims were
h a Bible, while that
II d a sword in the othen
inextricably interwoven ^\dt!i religious ol>JL»cts throiigliout his career.
He hoped for a uuion both spiritual and temporal between Zurich and
Bern and the cities of South Germany, by means of which Emperor and
Pope should alike be eliminated, and a democratic republic established ;
aristocracy, lie declared, had always been the ruin of States. Under
the influence of this idea a civic affiliation had been arranged between
Constance and Zurich in 1527, and extended to St Gallen, Basel,
Miilhausen in Elsass, and Biel in 1629; and it was partly to further
this organisation and to counteract the alliance of Austria with the five
Catnolic cantons that Zwingli journeyed to Marburg.
But the primary objects of tlie conference were theological, and it
was on a dispute over tlie Eucharist that the tlifferences between the two
parties came to a head. On all other points Zwingli went to the limit
of concession, but he could not accept the doctrine of consubstantiation-
Luther chalked on the table round which tliey sat, the~{ext " "Tliis is
my Body,'* and nothing could move hiui from its literal interpretation.
Zwingli, on the other hand, explained the plirase by referring to the
sixth chapter of St John, and declared that **• is " meant only '' repre-
sents" ; the bread and the wine represented the body and blood, as a
portrait represents a real person. Christ was only figuratively *'the
door " and the " true vine '* ; and the Eucharist instead of being a
miracle was, in his eyes, only a feast of commemoration. This doctrine
was anathema to Luther; at the end of the debate Zwingli offered him
his hantl, but Luther rejected it, saying ** Your spirit is not our spirit."
As a final effort at compromise Luther was induced to draw up the
fifteen Marburg Articles, of which the Zwinglians signed all but the one
on the Eucharist ; and it was agreed that each party sliouhl moderate
the asperity of its language towards the other. But this did not
prevent the Lutheran divines from denying that Zwinglians could be
members of the Cliurch of Clirist, or Luther himself from writing a few
days afterwards that they were *^not only liars, but the very incarnation
of lying, deceit, and hypocrisy, asCarlstadt and Zwingli show by their
very deeds and words/* Tlie hand which had pulled down the Roman
Church in Germany made the first rent in the Church which was
beginning to grow up in its place. Zwingli went back to Zurich to
meet his death two years later at Kappel, and the Lutherans returned
home to ponder on the fate which the approach of Charles V had
in store,
^ion to sacrifice everything on the altar of
their internal defence as it had been to
J few weeks after the Marburg Conference
Palmch to consider the basis of common
?rman Princes and the South German cities.
As a preparation for this attempt at concord Luther drew up another
series of seventeen articles in which he emphasised the points at issue
Their stubborn dcterni
dogma was as fatal to^
their alliance with Z\
a meeting was held
action between the Nc
c. M. n. II.
U
210 Charles Vin Gernmny, Diet of Augsburg [i53a
between him and Zwingli, and persuaded the Lutheran Princes to admit
no one to their alliance who would not subscribe to every single dogma
in this formulary. As a natural result Strassburg and Ulm refused to
sign the articles at Schwabach, and in this refusal they %vere joined by
the other South German cities at a further conference held at Schraal-
kalden in December. Luther even managed to shake the defensive
understanding between Hesse and Saxony by persuading the Elector of
the unlaw^f ulness of any resistance to the Emperor. The Reformer was
fortified in tliis attitude by a child-like faith — which Ferdinand was
sagacious enough to encourage — in Charles' pacific designs, although
the Emperor had denounced the I^rotest from Spain, Avas pledged by
his treaty Avitli the Pope to the extirpation of heresy, and arrested the
Protestant envoys who appeared before him in Italy. So the far-reach-
ing designs of Philip of Hesse and Zwingli for the defence of the Refor-
mation were brought to naught at the moment when the horizon was
clouding in every quarter.
In May, 1530, having in conjunction with Clement VII regulated
the affairs of Italy and discussed schemes for regulating those of the
world, Charles V crossed the Alps on his second visit to his German
dominions. The auspices in 1530 were very dififerent from those of 1521.
Then he had left Spain in open rebellion, he was threatened with war
by the most powerful State in Europe, and the attitude of the Papacy
was still doubtfuh Now Spain was reduced to obedience and the
Pope to impotence ; France had suffered the greatest defeat of the cen*
tury ; Italy lay at his feet ; and Ferdinand had added two kingdoms
to the family estate. Over every obstacle Charles seemed to have tri-
umphed. But in (iermany the universal agitation against Rome had
resolved itself into two organised parties which threatened to plunge the
nation into civil war. Here indeed was the scene of the last of Hercules'
labours ; would his good fortune or skill yield him a final triumph ?
It is doubtful whether Charles had formed any clear idea of the
policy he must adopt, and it is certain that his ignorance of German
methods of thought and character and his incapacity to understand
religious enthusiasm led him to underrate the stubbornness of the
forces with which he had to deal. But his inveterate habit of silence
stood him in good stead ; Luther regarded with awe the monarch who
said less in a year than he himself said in a day- Campeggi, w^ho
accompanied Charles on his march, daily instilled in his ear the counsels
of prompt coercion ; and the death of the poMic Gattinara at Innsbruck
was so opportune a removal of a restrai
ascribed his end to Italian poison. It wasJ
Emperor*a nature to resort to force before
tion had been tried and failed* In 1521 17
Bull against Luther without a personal attempt at mediation ; in 1530
he would not proceed against the Protestants by force of arms until he
rluence that Lutherans
, inconsistent with the
iiethod of acconumoda-
used to act on the papal
1530] Confession of Augshurg 211
had tried the effect of moral suasion, and there is no need to regard the
friendly terms in which he summoned the Lutheran Princes to the Diet
of Augsburg as merely a cloak to conceal his hostile designs.
The Diet opened on June 20, 1530, and was very fully attended.
Luther, who was still under the ban of the Empire, could come no
nearer than Coburg ; his place as preceptor of the Protestant Princes
was taken by Melanchthon ; and the celebrated Confession of Augsburg,
though it was based on Luther's Schwabach Articles, was exclusively
Melanchthon's work. The attitude of the Lutheran divines is well
expressed by the tone of this document ; they were clearly on the
defensive, and the truculent Luther himself, who had dictated terms to
the Archbishop of Mainz, was now reduced to craving his favour.
Melanchthon was almost prostrated by the fear of religious war ; and
he thought it could best be averted by an alliance between Catholic*
and Lutherans against the Zwinglians, whom he regarded as no better
than Anabaptists. His object in framing the Confession was therefore
twofold, to minimise the differences between Lutherans and Catholics,
and to exaggerate those between Lutherans and Zwinglians ; he hoped
thus to heal the breach with the former and complete it with the
latter.
In form the Confession is an apologia^ and not a creed ; it does not
assert expressly the truth of any dogma, but merely states the fact that
such doctrines are taught in Lutheran churches, and justifies that
teaching on the ground that it varies little if at all from that of the
Church of Rome. It does not deny the divine right of the Papacy,
the character indelehilis of the priesthood, or the existence of seven
Sacraments ; it does not assert the doctrine of predestination, which
had brought Luther into conflict with Erasmus ; and the doctrine
of the Eucharist is so ambiguously expressed that the only fault the
Catholics found was its failure to assert categorically the fact of transub-
stantiation. In view of the substantial agreement which it endeavoured
to establish between Catholic and Lutheran dogma, it was represented
as unjustifiable to exclude the Reformers from the Catholic Church ;
their only quarrel with their opponents was about traditions and abuses,
and their object was not polemic or propaganda, but merely toleration
for themselves.
This Confession was to have been read at a public session of the Diet
on June 24 ; but, apparently through Ferdinand's intervention, the plan
was changed to a private recitation in the Emperor's apartments, and
there it was read on the 25th by the Saxon Chancellor, Bayer. Philip
of Hesse was loth to subscribe so mild a pronouncement, but eventually
it was signed by all the original Protestant Princes, with the addition of
the Elector's son, John Frederick, and by two cities, Niirnberg and
Reutlingen. But the door was completely shut on the Zwinglians; in
vain Bucer and Capito sought an arrangement ^vith Melanchthon. He
would not even consent to see tliem lest he should be compromised^ and
Lutlieraii pulpits resounded with denunciations of the Sacramentariaiia,
as Zwingli and his supporters now began to be called. Zwingli himself,
so soon as he read the Confession, addressed to Charles a statement of his
own belief, in which he threw prudence and fear to the winds* He
retracted the concessions he had made to Lutheran views at Marburg,
a-nd asserted his differences from the Catholic Church in such plain terms
that Melanchthonsaid he was mad* The cities of Upper Germany were
not prepared for such extremities ; but, cut off from the Lutheran com-
munion, they were compelled to draw up a confession of their own, wdiich
was named the TetrapoUtana from the four cities, Strassburg, Constance,
Lindau, and Meminingen, which signed it. It was mainly the work of
Bucer, was completed on July 11, and, while Zwinglian in essence, made
a serious attempt to approach the doctrines of Wittenberg,
It appears to have been the hope of the Protestants, and probably of
Charles also^ that the Emperor would be able to make himself the
mediator between the Lutherans and Catholics, and to effect an agreement
by inducing each side to make concessions. But for the moment the
Catholics distrusted Charles more than the Protestants did. They had
secular as well as ecclesiastical grievances. They denounced the treaties
concluded in Italy as wanting their concurrence ; they were horrified at
the example set by Charles in secularising the see of Utrecht, and they
refused to confirm the Pope's grant of ecclesiastical revenues to Ferdinand;
while the orthodox Wittelsbachs were moving heaven and earth to
prevent the election of Charles' brother as King of the Romans. They
were thus by no means disposed to place themselves in the Emperor's
hands ; they insisted rather that they should determine the Empire's
policy, and that Charles should merely execute their decrees ; and,
lacking the Emperors broader outlook, the}^ were less inclined to make
concessions to peace. It was the growing conviction that Charles was
a helpless tool in the hands of their enemies which caused a revulsion of
the Protestant feeling in his favour.
Yet the Catholics were not all in favour of extreme courses, and
either Mehmchthon'a moderation or the effect of twelve years' criticism
pi^duced some modification of Catholic dogma, as expressed in the Con-
futation of the Confession drawn up by Eck,Valjer, Cochlaeus, and others,
and presented on August 3, The doctrine of good works w^as so defined
as to guard against the previous popular abuses of it ; and in other
respects there were signs of the processof purifying Catholic dogma which
had commenced at the Congress of Ratisbon in 1524 and was completed
at the Council of Trent. But these concessions were too slight to satisfy
even Melanchthon ; and the Protestant Princes were not frightened into
submission by the threats of Charles that unless they returned to the
Catholic fold he would proceed against them as became the protector
And steward of the Church.
Neither side was, however, prepared for religious war ; and, when
the Confutation and Charles' menaces failed to precipitate unity, a series
of confused and lengthy negotiations between the various parties, the
Emperor, the Pope^ the Catholic majority, and the Lutherans, was initi-
ated. In tlie course of these Melanchthon receded still further from
the Protestant standpoint. He offered on behalf of the Lutherans to
recognise episcopal authority, auricular confession and fasts, and under-
took to regard the Communion in hoth kinds and the marriage of priests,
which he had before demanded, as merely temporary concessions pending
the convocation of a General Council, He even went so far as to assert
that the Lutherans admitted papal authority, adhered to papal doctrine^
and that this was the reason for their unpopularity in (tcrmany. On
the other hand, the Catholic member's of the commission apivointed to
di&cuss the question were ready to concede a communion sub utrdque^
on condition that the Lutherans would acknowledge communion in one
kind to be equally valid, and declare the adoption of either form to be
a matter of indifference.
Melanchthon was prepared to make these admissionsi but his party
refused to follow him any further. Lutlior grew restive at Coburg,
and began to talk of tlie impossibility of reconciling Christ with
Belial, and Luther with the Pope ; to restore episcopal jurisdiction was,
he thought, equivalent to putting their necks in the hangman's rope^
and on September 20 he expressed a preference for risking war to making
further concessions. If the Catholics would not receive the Confession
or the Gospel, he wrote to Melanchthon with a characteristic allusion to
Judas, *^ let them go to their own place,'* The Princes had never been so
timorous as the d i v ines. They were not so much concerned for the un ity of
the Empire as Melanchthon was for that of the Church* Philip of Hesse
told the Emperor he would sacrifice life and limb for his faith, and long
before the Diet had reached its conclusion he rode off without asking
the Emperor*8 leave. The Elector*s fortitude was such that Luther
declared the Diet of Augsburg had made him into a hero, and lesser
Princes were not less constant. Tlieir steadfastness and the uncom-
promising attitude of the Catholics stiffened the backs of the Lutheran
divines ; and, in reply to a taunt tliat the Confutation had demolished
the Confession, they presented an Apology for the hitter, the tone of
which was much less humble. No agreement being now expected, the
Catholic majority of tlie Estates drew up a proposal for the Recess on
Sept^ember 22. Tlie Protestants were given till April 15 to decide
whether they would conform or not, and meanwlnle they were ordered
to make no innovations on their own account, to put no constraint on
Catholics in their territories, and to assist the Emperor to eradicate
Zwinglians and Anabaptists, Against this proposal the Protestant
Princes again protested ; fourteen cities, including Augsburg itself,
followed their example ; and they then departed, leaving the Catholic
majority to pursue its own devices, and to discover within itself oppor-
tunities for division.
The failure of MelancLthon's plan of attaining peace with Catholics
by breach with the Zwinglians prudueed a certain reaction of feeling
and policy. Luthur was, partially at any rate, disabused of his faith
in Charles' intentions, and the pressure of common danger facilitated
a renewed attempt at union. With this object in view, Bucer, the chief
author of the TetrapoUtana^ called on Luther at Coburg on September 25,
and was received with surprising favour, Lutlier even expressed a will-
ingness to lay down his life three times if only the dissensions among
the Reformers might be healed, and Bucer liimself bad a genius for
accommodation. Under these favourable circumstances he contrived to
evolve a plausible harmonisation of the Wittenberg and Tetrapolitan
doctrines of the Eucharist which was sufficient for the day and led to
an invitation of the South German cities to the meeting of Protestant
Powers to be held in December at Scbmalkalden.
Meanwhile the Catholic majority of the Diet continued its delibera-
tions at Augsburg. The aid against the Turks which Charles desired
had not yet been voted, and before he olitained it the Emperor had to
drop his demand for Ferdinand's ecclesiastical endowment, and promise
to press upon the Pope the redress of the hundred gravamina which
were once more revived. Substantial concessions to individual Electors
secured the prospect of Ferdinand's election as King of the Romans,
which took place at Cologne on January 5, 1531; and the Diet con-
<;luded with the adoption of the Recess on November 19. The Edict
of Worms was to be put into execution, episcopal jurisdictions were to
be maintained, and Church property to be restored. Of more practical
importance than these resolutions was the reconstitution of the Reichti'
kammergericM^ which henceforward began to play an important part in
imperial politics. It was now organised so as to be an ellicient instru-
ment in carrying out the will of the majority, and was solemnly pledged to
the suppression of Lutheranisni. Tlie campaign was to open, not on a field
of battle, but in the Courts of law ; and the attack was to be directed,
not against the persons of Lutheran Princes, but against their seculari-
sation of Church property. Countless suits were ah-eady pending before
the KammergericJtt ; and, however inconsistent such a policy may have
been in the Habsburgs who had themselves prohted largely by seculari-
sation, the law of the Empire gave the Kammergericht no option but to
decide against the Lutheruns, and its decisions would have completely
undermined the foundations of the rising Lutheran Church.
This resort to law instead of to arms is characteristic of Charles'
caution. Backed as he was by an overwhelming majority of the Diet,
it might seem that the Emperor would make short work of the dissident
Princes and towns. But in German imperial politics there was usually
many a slip between judgment and execution ; and of the Princes who
^
»
voted for the Recess of Augsburg there were only two, the Elector
Joachim of Brandenburg and Duke George of Saxony, who were ready
to face a civil war for the sake of their convictions. In Germany were
reproduced on a smaller scale all those elements of disunion whieh Itad
made the attempted crusades of the previous century ridiculous tinscos.
Each Catholic Prince desired the suppression of heresy, but no one would
set his face against the enemy for fear of being stabbed in the back by
a friend. The rulers of Ba%'aria and Austria were both uninipeachably
orthodox, but Bavaria was again intriguing with Hesse against the
House of Habsburg. Tlie Emperor himself had few troops and no
money. The multiplicity of interests pressing upon his attention pre-
vented his concentration upon any one object, and increased his natural
indecision of character. Never was his policy more hesitating and cir-
cumspect than in IS^O-^l, when fortune seemed to have placed the ball^
at his feet.
His inactivity enabled the Protestants to mature their plans and
organise an effective bond of resistance. The doctrine of implicit
obedience to the Emperor broke down as danger approached ; the
divines naively admitted tliat they had not before realised that the
sovereign power was subject to law ; and Luther, acknowledging that he
was a child in temporal matters, allowed himself to be persuaded that
Charles was not the Caesar of the New Testament, but a governor whose
powers were limited by the Electors in the same way as the Roman
Consul's by the Senate, the Doge's by the Venetian Council, and a Bishop's
by his Chapter. The Protestants, having already denied that a minority
could be bound by a majority of the Diet, now carried the separatist
principle a step further by declaring that the Empire was a federated
aristocracy of independent sovereigns, who were themselves to judge
when and to what extent they would yield obedience to their elected
president* It is not, however, fair to charge them with adopting
Protestantism in order to further their claims to political indepen*
dencc ; it is more correct to say that they extended their particularist
ideas in order to protect tlieir religious principles.
The first care of the Princes and burghers who deliberated at
Sclimalkalden from December 22 to 31, 1530, was to arrange for common
action with regard to the litigation before the ReicMkainmerg^'rwhL
But the decision wliich gave their meeting its real importance was their
agreement to form a league for mutual defence against all attacks on
account of their faith, from whatever quarter these might proceed.
This, the first sketch of the Schmalkaldic League, was subscribed by the
Elector of Saxony, the Landgrave of Hesse, the Brunswick-Liineburg
Dukes, Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, the two Counts of Mansfeld, and the
cities of Magdeburg and Bremen, Margrave George of Brandenburg and
the city uf Niirnberg were not yet prepared to take the decisive step ; and,
although the Tetrapolitan cities, reinforced by Ulm, Biberach^ Isny,
216 Battle ofKappel. Swiss war proposed hy Ferdinand [i53l
and Reutlingen, expressed their concurrence in the League at a second
meeting in February, 1531, and three Dukes of Brunswick, Philip, Otto,
and Francis, and the city of Liibeck also acceded to it, its full and final
development depended upon the result of the contest then raging
between Lutherans and Zwinglians for control of the South German
cities.
Bucer, after his partial success with Luther at Coburg, proceeded to
Zurich in the hope of bringing Zwingli to the point of concession where
Luther had come to meet him. But as the German Reformer grew
more conciliatory, the Swiss became more uncompromising. In Feb-
ruary, 1581, the Swiss cities refused to join the Schmalkaldic League,
and in the same month a Congress of Zwinglian divines at Memmingen
attacked tlie Catholic ceremonial observed in Lutheran churches. This
aggressive attitude may be traced to the rapid progress which Zwinglian
doctrines were making in South Germany at the expense of the Augsburg
Confession. At Augsburg itself the Tetrapolitan or Bucerian creed
defeated its Lutheran rival ; and in other German cities more violent
manifestations of the Zwinglian spirit prevailed. Under the influence of
Bucer, Blarer, and Oecolampadius, Ulm, Reutlingen, Biberach, and
other hitherto Lutheran cities destroyed pictures, images, and organs in
their churches, and selected pastors who looked for inspiration to Zurich
and not to Wittenberg ; those cities which had already joined the
Schmalkaldic League refused at its meeting at Frankfort in June to
subscribe to the League's project for military defence. South Germany
seemed in fact to be about to fall like ripe fruit into Zwingli's lap,
when his power suddenly waned at home, and the defeat of Kappel
(October 11, 1531) cut short his life, and ruined his cause in Germany ;
it was left for Calvin to gather up the fragments of Zwingli's German
party; and to establish an ultra- Protestant opposition to the Lutheran
Church.
This unexpected disaster to the Reformation in Switzerland appeared
to Ferdinand to offer a magnificent opportunity for crushing the
movement in Germany. He was thoroughly convinced that Swiss
political and religious radicalism was the most formidable of the enemies
of German Catholicism and the Habsburg monarchy, and that deprived of
this stimulant the milder Lutheran disease would soon yield to vigorous
treatment. He proposed to his brother an armed support of the Five
Catholic cantons, and the forcible restoration of Catholicism in Zurich
and Bern. But the Emperor declined to involve himself in a Swiss
campaign. His intervention in Switzerland would, he feared, precipitate
war with Francis I, who was already beginning again to cast longing
eyes on Milan, and feeling his way to an understanding with Clement VIL
The Pope's fear of a General Council, which Catholics no less than
Protestants were demanding fiDm Charles V, was a powerful weapon in
the hands of Francis I. Clement was haunted by the suspicion that a
Council niiglit be as fatal to him as that of Basel had threatened to be
to his predecessors ; and the Emperor's enemies suggested that if it met
Charles would propose the restoration of the Papal States to the Empire
from which they had been wrung. Rather than risk such a fate, some at
least of his friends urged Clement to accede to the Lutheran demand for
communion in both kinds and clerical marriage, and maintained that tlie
Augsburg Confession was not repugnant to the Catholic faith, AVithout
the help of the heretics it seemed impossible for Charles to resist the
approaching Turkish onslaught ; and the Emperors confessor, Loaysa,
urged him not to trouble if their souls went to hell, so long as they
served him on earth. And so the term of grace accorded to the
Lutherans by the Kecess of Augsburg expired in April, 1531, without
a thought of resort to compulsion ; and instead of this, the Emperor
suspended, on July 8, the action of the Reiclmkammergericht. He had
missed the golden opportunity ; it did not recur for fifteen years, during
which two wars with the Turk in Europe, two wars in Africa, and two
wars with France distracted Ids attention from German affairs.
This inaction on Charles* part cooled the martial ardour of the
Schmalkaldic League ; and Zwiiiglian aggression in South Ciermany
increased their disinclination to help the Swiss in their domestic troubles.
In reality the battle of Kappel was of greater ad%^antage to Luther than
to the Emperor- For a second time the Reformation was freed from
the embarrassment of a mutinous left wing ; and Luther, although he
professed to lament Zwingli's fate, regarded ilie battle a« the judgment
of God, and Zwingli as damned unless the Almighty made an irregular
exception in his favour. The cities of Upper Germany, deprived of
their mainstay at Zurich, gravitated in the direction of Wittenberg ;
while the defeat of one section of the Reformers convinced the rest of
the need for common defence* Under the pressure of these circum-
stances the Schmalkaldic League completed its organisation, and of
necessity assumed a predominantly Lutheran and territorial character.
At two conferences held at Nordhausen and Frankfort (November-
December, 1531) the military details of the League were settled, and
the respective contributions of its various meml>ers fixed ; the Princes
obtained a large majority of votes in its council of war and exclusive
command of its armies. Saxony and Hesse were treated as equal ; if
the seat of war w^as in Saxony or Westphalia the supreme command
was to fall to the Elector, if in Hesse or Upper Germany to the
Landgrave.
The accession of Gottuigen, Goslar, and Eimbeck to the League,
and the success of the Reformation at Hamburg, at Rostock, and in
Denmark) where Christian's return to Catholicism brought no nearer
his restoration to the throne, left the Schmalkaldic League in almost
undisputed possession of North Germany ; and it became a veritable
imperium in imperio with a foreign policy of its own. It might now be
reckoned one of the anti-Iiabsburg powers in Europe ; its agents sought
alliance with BVance, England, Denmark, and Venice ; and it began to
regard itself as a League not merely for self-defence within the Empire,
but for tlie furtherance of the Protestant cause all over Europe. Nor
were its aims exclusively religious ; theology merged into politics, and
Protestantism sometimes laboured under the suspicion of being merely
anti'imperialism. France ami Venice had few points in common with
Luther ; and Philip of Hesse's plan to utilise a Turkish invasion for the
restoration of Ulrich of Wiirttemberg outraged patriotic sentiment.
On the Catholic side Bavarian objects were no leas selfish; and the
Wittelsbaclis endtmvoured to undermine Ferdinand's supports against
the Turk in Germany, Bohemia, and Hungary. In both professedly
religious camps there was political double-dealing ; Hesse was ready to
aide with either Austria or Bavaria ; while the Wittelsbachs fomented
Charles* hostility to the Lutherans and denounced his concessions as
treason to the faith, at the same time that they were hand in glove with
Hesse for an attack on the Habsburg jiower.
These extreme and unpatriotic schemes were defeated by a tacit un-
derstanding between Catholic and Protestant moderates ; and Germany
presented a fairly united front to its infidel foe. Saxony and cities like
Ulm and Niirnberg convinced Charles that the coming of the Turk
would be used for no sectional purposes ; and the Emperor in return
promised the Lutherans at least a temporary peace. He turned a deaf
ear to the demands at the Diet of Rati^sbou (April, 15*32) for the
execution of the Augsburg Recess, while Luther denounced the claims of
hia forward friends to toleration for all future Protestants even in
Catholic territories as impossible and unreasonable. At Niirnberg
(July 23,15S2) an agreement was reached by which all suits against the
Protestants before the Beichskammerf/ericht were quashed and they were
guaranteed peace until the next Diet or a General Council. Tlie under-
standing was to be kept secret for fear of offending t!ie Catholics, but it
sufficed to open to Charles the armouries of the Protestant cities, and
Niirnberg sent double its quota to serve in the Turkish campaign.
Ferdinand had in vain sought to stave otf the attack by which
Solyman hoped to revenge his defeat at Vienna. He offered first to
pay tribute for Hungary, and then to cede it to Zapolya on condition
that it return to the Habsburgs on Zapolya's death* These terms were
rejected with scorn, and on April 26 tlte Sultan commenced his march*
His army was reckoned at a quarter of a million men, the stereotyped
estimate of Turkish invading forces, but luilf of these were non-combat-
ants; the Emperor's troops did not exceed eighty thousand, but they
were well equipped and eager for the fray. The same enthusiasm was
not conspicuous in the Turkish ranks \ they were foiled by the heroic
resistance of Giins (August 7— 28) and made no serious attempt either to
take Vienna or to come to close quarters with the imperial forces ; in
Septemter they commenced their retreat through Carinthia and Croatia,
which they ravaged on their way.
The precipitate withdrawal of the Turks was followed by an equally
sudden abandonment of the campaign by Charles V. After all his brave
words it wa.s a shock to his friends and admirers when he made no efFort
to seize the fruits of victory and recover Hungary for his brother ; for a
vigorous prosecution of the war in 1532 might have restored to Christen-
dom lands which remained under Turkish rule for nearly two centuries
longer- There are explanations enough for his course ; the German levies
refused to pass the imperial frontiers, regarding self-defence as the limit
of their duty ; the Spaniards and Italians confined their efforts mainly
to pillaging German villages ; and Cranmer, who accompanied Charles'
Court, describes how they spread greater desolation than the Turks
themselves and how the peasants in revenge fell upon and slew the
Emperors troops whenever opportunity offered ; so tliat delay in dis-
Ixinding his army might liave fanned the enmity between Charles'
German and Spanish subjects into war. But other reasons accounted
for the Emperor's departure from Germany, which was once more sacri-
ficed to the exigencies of Charles' cosmopolitan interests. The Pope,
irritated alike by the Emperor's bestowal of Modena and Keggio on the
Duke of Ferrara, antl by his persistence in demanding a General
Council, was proposing to marry his niece Catharine de' Medici to
Henry, Duke of Orleans; and a union between Clement and Francis I
would again have threatened Charles' position in Italy. He regarded
two olijects as then of transcendent importance, the reconciliation of
the Pope and the convocation of a General Councih They were quite
incompatible, yet to them Charles sacrificed the chance of regaining
Hungary.
Tlie result can only be described as a comprehensive failure. The
Emperor's interviews with Clement in February, 1533, did not prevent the
Pope's alliance with France, nor his sanction of Cranmer's appointment
to the see of Canterbury, which enabled Henry VI H to complete his
divorce from Catharine of Aragon. Charles' two years' stay in Germany
had effected little; Ferdinand, indeed, was King of the Romans but
his influence was less than before, while the power of the Protestants
had been greatly increased. The Emiieror had crossed the Alps in the
spring of 1530 with a record of almost unbroken success ; he recrossed
them in the autumn of 1532 having added a list of failures ; the German
labour had proved herculean, but Charles had proved no Hercules. For
another decade Germany was left to fight out its own political and
religious quarrels with little help or hindrance from it^ sovereign. His
intervention in 1530-2 had brought peace to no one ; the Protestants
had little security against the attacks of the ReicJiEkammergericht ; the
Catholics were unable to prevent the progress of heresy ; and while
Charles was journeying farther and farther away from Germany the
220 Scheme^to restore Ulrich in Wiirttemberg [i532-4
Habsburg authority in the Empire was threatened with one of the most
serious checks it experienced.
The restoration of Duke Ulrich of Wiirttemberg was not merely a
favourite design of the Protestants for the extension of the Reformation
in South Germany ; it was regarded by German Catholic Princes and by
the Emperor's foreign foes as an invaluable means of undermining the
Habsburg power. It is even believed that Clement VII himself in
his anger at Charles' persistent demand for a General Council, discussed
the execution of this plan at his interview with Francis I at Marseilles in
the autumn of 1533. At any rate the French King went from Marseilles
to Bar-le-duc, where in January, 1534, he agreed with Philip of Hesse to
give the enterprise extensive financial support, cloaked under a fictitious
sale of Montbeliard (the property of Ulrich) to the French King. The
moment was opportune. Ferdinand was busy in Bohemia and Hungary ;
the outbreak of the Anabaptist revolution gave Philip of Hesse an
excuse for arming ; and the decrepitude of the Swabian League neutral-
ised the force by which Wiirttemberg had been won and maintained
for the Austrian House. Religious divisions had impaired the harmony
of the League, and political jealousies had transformed it from a
willing tool of the Habsburgs into an almost hostile power. In
November, 1532, the Electors of Trier and the Palatinate and Philip of
Hesse had agreed to refuse a renewal of the League ; and in May, 1533,
some of its most important city members, Ulm, Niirnberg, and Augsburg,
formed a separate alliance for the defence of freedom of conscience. The
strictly defensive Catholic confederation established at Halle in ducal
Saxony in the following November between the Elector Joachim of
Brandenburg, Dukes George of Saxony, Eric and Henry of Brunswick,
was neither a match for the SchmaJkaldic League, nor had it any
interest in the perpetuation of Austrian rule in Wiirttemberg. Joachim
told Philip that Ferdinand would get no help from the Electors ; and his
words proved true indeed. The Archbishops of Mainz and Trier observed
a strict neutrality ; the Elector Palatine's promise of aid was delusive ;
while the Catholic bishop of Miinster and Duke Henry of Brunswick,
possibly on the understanding that Philip would assist them to put down
the Miinster Anabaptists, consented to help him in Wiirttemberg,
and assurances of support were also forthcoming from Henry VIII,
Christian III of Denmark, and Zapolya.
In 1532 Ulrich's son Christopher, alarmed at the prospect of being
carried ofif to Spain, escaped from the Emperor's Court during the
Turkish campaign, and in the following year appeared at a meeting of
the Swabian League at Augsburg. His cause was warmly advocated
by a French envoy and almost unanimously approved by the League.
Bavaria, indeed, wished to restore Christopher, who had been educated
as a Catholic, instead of his father, a strenuous Protestant, and on this
score quarrelled with Philip of Hesse. But French aid enabled Philip
1534] Peace of Cadan 221
to dispense with Bavarian assistance. In April, 1534, he mustered a
well-eqnipped army of 20,000 foot and 4000 horse, and on the 12th a
manifesto was issued to the people of Wiirttemberg, who, disgusted with
Ferdinand's rule, were eager to rise on Ulrieh's behalf. It was in
vain that Luther and Melanchthon prophesied woe for this contempt
of their doctrine of passive obedience. Philip knew the feebleness of the
foe ; Ferdinand's appeals to Charles had met with a cold response, and
his lieutenant in Wiirttemberg, Count Philip of the Palatinate, could
hardly raise 9000 foot and 400 horse. With this little army he waited
at Lauffen, where on May 12-13 an encounter, which can scarcely be
called a battle, was decided against him, mainly by the excellence of
the Hessian horse and artillery. Before the end of June the whole of
Wiirttemberg had been overrun by the invaders, and Luther had dis-
cerned the hand of God in the victors' triumph.
Nor was there any hope of retrieving the disaster ; rather, Ferdinand
dreaded lest Philip should with the help of the Anabaptists raise a
general insurrection against the Habsburgs, and seize the imperial crown
for himself, the Dauphin of France, or Duke William of Bavaria.
Francis I regarded Wiirttemberg as only a beginning, and was urging
Philip on to fresh conquests, which would have helped him in his
impending war with Charles. But tlie German Princes were content
with securing their immediate objects without becoming the cat's-paw
of France, and peace was made with Ferdinand at Cadan on June 29.
Ulrich was restored to Wiirttemberg, but Ferdinand's pride ^vas to some
extent saved by the provision that the duchy was to be held as a fief of
Austria — without however impairing its imperial status — and should
pass to the Habsburgs in the default of male heirs in Ulrieh's line ; at
the same time Ferdinand withdrew his original stipulation that the
Reformation should not be established in Wiirttemberg.
The Protestants, however, were bent upon more than a local victory
for their faith, and they employed their advantage over Ferdinand to
render more secure their general position in Germany. The great defect
in the Niirnberg Peace of 1532 was the absence of any definition of the
** religious cases " with wliich the Reichskammergericht was prohibited
from dealing. When the Court appealed to Charles on the point, he
replied that it was their business to determine what was, and what was
not, a ** religious " suit ; and as the Court was composed of Catliolics it
naturally asserted its jurisdiction in all suits about ecclesiastical property.
But secularisation of Church property was the financial basis of the
reformed Churches, and by this time was also one of the main financial
supports of Lutheran States. If they could be attacked on this ground
the Peace of Niirnberg was of little value to them ; and they grew more
and more exasperated as the Kammergericht proceeded to condemn cities
and Princes such as Strassburg, and Niirnberg, Duke Ernest of Liineburg
and Margrave George of Brandenburg. Eventually, on January 30, 1534,
222
Revolutiomiry movements
the Protectants formally repudiated the Kammergericht as a partisan
body, thus rejecting the last existing national institution, for the
Iteichireffiment was already dissolved. This however afforded them no
protection^ and in the Peace of Cadan they insisted that Ferdinand should
quash all such proceedings of the Chamber as were directed against the
members of the Schmalkaldic League. With this demand the King was
forced to comply ; the only compensation he received was the withdrawal
of the Elector of Saxony's opposition to his recognition as King of the
Romans. It was no wonder that men declared that Philip of Hesse had
done more for the Reformation by his Wiirttemberg enterprise than
Luther could do in a thousand books.
Other causes than the weakness of Ferdinand and the disinclination
of Lutherans to promote the ends of Francis I moved Catholic and
Protestant Princes to the Peace of Cadan. Both alike were threatened
by their common foe, the spirit of revolution, which in two different
forms had now submerged Catholic Miinster and Protestant Liibeck,
Of the two phenomena the Anabaptist reign at Miinster was the more to
be feared and the harder to be explained, for the term by which it is
known represents a mere accident of the movement as being its essence.
It was not essentially theological, nor is "anabaptist*' an adequate or
accurate expression of its theological peculiarities. The doctrines of
second baptism and adult baptism are iiioffensive enough, but attempts
to realise the millennium, if successful, would be fatal to most forms of
government, and a familiar parallel to the Miinster revolutionists may
be found in the English Fifth-moaarchy men of the seventeenth century*
In both cases millenary doctrines were only the outward form in which
the revolutionary spirit was matle manifest, and the spirit of revolution
is always at bottom the same because it has its roots in the depths of
human nature. The motive force which roused the English peasants in
1381 was essentially the same as that which dominated Miinster in 1534
and lined the barricades of Paris in 1848. The revolutionist becomes a
believer in the brotherhood of man, in the perfectibility of the race,
and in the practicability of the millennium. The narrower his experience
of men and affairs, the wider his flights of fancy ; and revolutionary
principles commonly lind their 'most fruitful soil among hand-workers
of sedentary occupation and straitened circumstances. In those sub-
merged classes materials for discontent ever abound, awaiting the coin-
cidence of two events to set them free, the flash of vision into better
things and the disturbance of the repressive force of law and order.
The Reformation produced them both ; and the new gospel of Divine
justice for the oppressed set the volcanic flood in motion, and strife
between Catholic and Protestant authorities gave it a vent.
It was not to be expected that the rigid, respectable condition into
which Lutheranism had sunk under the aegis of territorial Princes or
even the more elastic religion of ZwingU would satisfy all of those
who had revoltetl from Rome. Extreme opinions soon became heard.
Sebastian Franck declared that in the new Lutheran Church there was
less freedom of speech and belief than among the Turks and heathen ;
and Leo Jud described Luther as anotlier Pope who consigned at will
some to the devil, and rewarded others with heaven. Luther had found
his original strength in the spirit of revolutionary enthusiasm and reli-
gious exaltation ; but as soon as the way was clear he exchanged the
support of popular agitation for that of seen lar authority, and left the
revolutionists to follow their own devices. Their ranks were swollen by
a general feeling of disappointment at the meagre results of the Reforma-
tion. The moral regeneration which had been anticipated, the ameliora-
tion of social ills, and the reform of political abuses seemed as far off as
ever. " The longer we preach the Gospel,'' declared Luther, *^' the deeper
the people plunge into greed, pride, and luxury " ; and, acting on a princi-
ple enunciated by the Reformers tliemselves, men began to ascribe the evil
practice in Lutheran spheres to the errors in Lutheran doctrine. Hence
arose a number of theological ideas, which were anathema alike to
Catholics and Protestants, but appealed with irresistible force to multi-
tudes who found no solace in either of the more orthodox creeds. The
mass of tlie peasantry had been put out of the pale of hope in 1525,
and their complete indifference to ideas of any kind prevented a general
rising ten years later ; but in some of the towns the lower classes retained
enough mental Imoyancy to seek consolation in dreams for the burdens
they bore in real life*
The Anabaptist doctrine was but one of an endless variety of ideas,
ifinny of which had lt*ng been current. All such opinions gained fresh
vugtie in tlie decade following tlie Peasants' Revolt ; but most of the
**tectarie8" agreed in repudiating Lutlier's views on predestination and
the unfree will, and denounced the dependence of the Lutheran
ChiU'ch upon the State. They denied the right of the secular
iBlgistrate to interfere in religious matters, and themselves withdrew
in varying degrees from concern in tlie affairs of this world. Some,
mticipating the Quakers, refused to bear arms ; the Gttrtnerbruder of
Salzburg endeavoured to live on the pattern of primitive simplicity.
Oni^ >i*M t denied the humanity of Christ ; another^ of whom Luduig
: as the chief, began by regarding Jesos as a leader and t-eacher
ratiiLU than an object of worship, and ended by denying His divinity.
Many thoughtful people, repelled by the harshness of Lu therms dogmas,
insisted upon mercy as the pre-eminent attribute of God, and extended
ren to the devil the hope of salvation ; while the idea that the flesh
one sinned leaving the spirit undefiled pro%^ed attractive to the lower
»ort and opened the door to a variety of antinoraian speculations and
ractices*
Most of these dreamers indulged in Apocalyptic visions of an imme-
Rte purification of the world ; but this at worst was only a species of
i
quietspiritual dram-drinking, and probably it would liavegone no further
but for the ruthless persecution which their doctrines called down upon
them, Zwingli himself was hostile to them, and repressive measures
were taken agaiust their Swiss adherents ; but in most parts of Germany
they were condemned to wholesale death. Six hundred executions are
said to have taken place at Ensisheim in Upper Elsass, a thousand in
Tyrol and Gorz, and the Swabian League butchered whole bands of
them without trial or sentence. Many were beheaded in Saxony with
the express approbation of Luther^ who regarded their heroism in the
face of death as proof of diabolic possession. Duke William of Bavaria
made a distinction between those who recanted and those who re-
mained obdurate ; the latter were burnt, the former were only beheaded,
Bucer at Strassbui'g was less truculent than Luther ; but Philip of Hesse
was the only Prince of sufficient moderation to be content with the
heretics' incarceration.
The doctrine of passive resistance broke down under treatment like
this, and men's sufferings began to set their hands as well as their minds
in motion ; a conviction developed that it w;is their duty to assist in
eflfecting the purification which they believed to be imminent. In
Augsburg, Hans Hut proclaimed the necessity incumbent upon the
saints to purify the world witlx a double-edged sword, and his disciple,
Augustin Bader, prepared a crowTi, insignia, and jewels for his future
kingdom in Israel. Melchior Hofmann told Frederick I of Denmark
that he was one of the two sovereigns at whose hands all the firstborn
of Egypt should be slain. Not till the vials of wrath had been out-
poured could the kingdom of heaven come. Hofmann, who had preached
" the true gospel '* in Livonia and then Jiad combated Luther's magical
doctrine of the Eucharist at Stockholm, Kiel, and Strassburg, had by his
voice and his pen acquired great influence over the artisans of northern
Germany ; and here, where men's dreams had not been rudely dispelled by
the ravages of peasants and reprisals of Princes, revolutionary ideas took
their deepest root and revolutionary projects appeared most feasible.
From 1529 onwards there were outbreaks in not a few North (lerman
towns, at Minden, Herford, Lippstadt, and Soest ; but it was at Miinster
and Liibeck tliat the revolution in two different forms assumed a world-
wide importance.
Miinster liad long been a scene of strife between Catholic and
Protestant The Lutlieran attack Avas at iirat repelled by the Catholics,
and Bernard Rottman, the most prominent of the Reforming divines, was
expelled from the city. But he soon returned and established himself in
the suburbs, where his preaching produced such an effect on the populace
that the Reformers became a majority on the Council and secured control
of the city churches. In 1532 the Chapter and the rest of the Catholic
clergy, with the minority of the Council, left Miinster to concert measures
of retaliation with Count Franz von Waldeck, the newly-elected Bishop \
l5a3-4] The Netherlands and Munster 225
of Munster, and with the neighbouring gentry, who for the most part
adhered to the old religion. By their action all communication between
the city and the external world was cut off ; but, threatened with the
loss of their rents and commerce, the citizens made a sally on December 26,
surprised the Bishop and the chiefs of the Catholic party in their head-
quarters at Telgte (east of Miinster), and carried off a number of prisoners
as hostages. Alarm induced the Catholics to accept a compromise in
February, by which Lutheranism was to be tolerated in the six parish
churches, and Catholicism in the Cathedral and the centre of the city.
Lutheranism, however, while acceptable to the wealthier members of
the reforming party, no longer satisfied Rottman and the artisans.
Rottman gradually adopted the Zwinglian view of the Eucharist and
repudiated infant baptism ; and, although condemned by the University
of Marburg and the Council of Miinster, he was not expelled from the
city, but continued to propagate his doctrines among the lower orders,
and eventually in 1533 determined to strengthen his position by intro-
ducing into Miinster some Anabaptists from Holland.
In the Netherlands Charles V was enabled by the strength of his
position as territorial prince and by means of the Inquisition to exer-
cise an authority in religious matters which was denied him in Ger-
many, but his repression had the effect of stimulating the growth of
extremer doctrines. Schismatic movements had long been endemic in
the Netherlands, and nowhere else did Melchior Hofmann find so many
disciples. Chief among them were Jan Matthys, a baker of Haarlem,
and Jan Beuckelssen or Bockelsohn, popularly known as Jan of Leyden.
Matthys declared himself to be the Enoch of the new dispensation, and
chose twelve apostles to proselytise the six neighbouring provinces.
Beuckelssen was one of them; though not yet thirty years of age he had
seen much of the world ; as a journeyman tailor he had travelled over
Europe from Liibeck to Lisbon; abandoning his trade he opened an inn
at Leyden, became a leading member of the local Rederijker%^ and
wrote verses and dramas, in which he himself played a part. Finally he
fell under the influence of the Scriptural teaching of Hofmann and
Matthys, as whose forerunner he journeyed to Miinster in January,
1534, and joined forces with Rottman and the Miinster Anabaptists.
The arrival of Beuckelssen and his colleagues precipitated the conflict
for which the Catholics and Lutherans had armed as early as the previous
autumn. After a few days of ominous silence the insurrection broke
out on February 9. It was premature ; the Conservatives were still
the stronger party, but in a moment of hesitation they consented to
mutual toleration. The concession was fatal ; in a fortnight the fanatical
zeal of the revolutionists made thousands of fresh converts, especially
among the women ; and the legal security they had won in Miinster
attracted crowds of their fellow sectaries from Holland and the neigh-
bouring German towns. Matthys himself appeared on the scene; at
C. M. H. II. 16
226 Character of the Anabaptist rule [1534
the municipal election of the 2l8t the Anabaptists secured a majority
on the Council ; and KnipperdoUinck, the executioner of the sect, became
Burgomaster. Six days later there was a great prayer-meeting of armed
Anabaptists in the town-hall. Matthys roused himself from an apparent
trance to demand in the name of God the expulsion of all who refused
conversion. Old and young, mothers with infants in arms, and bare-
footed children, were driven out into the snow to perish, while the reign
of the saints began.
Like the earliest Christians they sought to have all things in
common, and as a commencement they confiscated the goods of the
exiles. To ensure primitive simplicity of worship they next destroyed
all images, pictures, manuscripts, and musical instruments on which they
could lay their hands. Tailors and shoemakers were enjoined to intro-
duce no new fashions in wearing apparel ; gold and silver and jewels
were surrendered to the common use ; and there was an idea of pushing
the communistic principle to its logical extreme by repudiating indi-
vidual property in wives. The last was apparently offensive to public
opinion even in purified Miinster, and the nearest approach to it effected
in practice was polygamy, which was not introduced without some san-
guinary opposition, and did not probably extend far beyond the circle
of Beuckelssen and the leaders of the movement. These eccentricities
were regarded by their authors as a necessary preparation for the second
coming of Christ. That the end of the world was at hand was a common
idea of the day. No one was more thoroughly possessed by it than
Luther; but while he set little store on the Book of Revelation, the
Anabaptists of Miinster found in it their chief inspiration. They
conceived that they were making straight the path of the Lord by
abolishing all human ordinances such as property, marriage, and social
distinctions. The notion was not entirely new; at one end of the
religious scale the Taborites had held somewhat similar views, and at
the other, monastic life was also based on renunciation of private
property, of marriage, and of the privilege of rank. The idea of
preparing for the Second Advent gave the movement its strength, and
stimulated the revolutionists of Miinster to resist for a year and a half
the miseries of a siege and all the forces which Germany could bring
against them.
The rule of Matthys the prophet was brought to a sudden end by
his death in a sortie at Easter, and his mantle fell upon Jan of Leyden,
probably a worse but certainly an abler man. His introduction of
polygamy provoked resistance from the respectable section led by
Mollenbeck, but they were mercilessly butchered after surrender. "He
who fires the first shot," cried Jan, in words which might have been
borrowed from Luther's attack on the peasants, "does God a service."
After his victory he dispensed with the twelve elders who had nominally
ruled the new Israel, and by the mouth of his prophet Dusentschur
aanounceci it as the will of fiotl that he should be king of all the world
and establish the Fifth ilonarchy of the Apocalypse. He assumed the
pomp and circumstance of royalty, easily crushed an attempt of Knip-
perdoUinck to supplant him, defeated the besiegers with much slaughter
on August 30, 1534, when they tried to take the city by storm, and in
October sent out twenty-eight apostles to preach the new kingdom to
the neighbouring cities. They were armed with Dusentschur's proph-
ecy of ruin for such as did them harm ; but almost all were seized and
executed, and a young woman, who attempt-ed to play the part of Judith
to the Holofernes of the Bishop of Miinster, met with a similar fate-
These misfortunes probably dimmed the faith of tlie besieged in
Miinster. Althougli there were thousands of Anabaptists scattered
throughout the north of Germany and the Netherlands, their sporadic
risings were all suppressed, and no town but Warendorf accepted
Miinster's proposals of peace. The Wurttemberg war, which had dis-
tracted the Princes of Germany, Wiis over; and the Liibeck war prevented
Hanseatic democrats from assisting the people of Miinster as effectually
as it kept North German Princes from joining the siege. But it was
April, 1535, before the nuitual jealousies of the various Princes* the
dissensions between Catholics and Protestants, the inefficiency of the
national military organisation, and the common fear lest Charles V should
seize the occasion to extend his Burgundian patrimony at the expense
of Germany by appropriating Miinster to himself, permitted a joint
expedition in aid of the Bishop of Mibister, who had hitherto carried on
the siege with the help of some Hessian troops. After tliat the result
F could not long remain doubtful ; but the city offered a stubborn resist-
ance, and it was only by means of treachery that it was taken by assault
ton the night of June 24* The usual slaughter followed ; Jan of Leyden
and KnipperdolHnck were tortured to death in the market-place with
red-hot pincers. Miinster was deprived of its privileges as an imperial
city ; the Bishop's authority and Catholicism were re-established, and a
fortress was built to support them. The Anabaptists were dispersed
into many lands, and their views exercised a potent influence in England
and America in the following century ; but the visionary and revo-
lutionary spirit which gave Anabaptism its importance during the
German Reformation passed out of it to assume other forms, and
Anabaptism slowly became a respectable creed.
Two of the three revolutions which disturbed Germany in 1534-5,
the Wiirttemberg war and the Miinster insurrection, were thus ended ;
there remained a third, the attempt of commercial democracy to establish
an empire over the shores of the Baltic* The cities of tlie Hanseatic
League had long enjoyed the most complete autonomy, and whatever
.authority neighbouring Princes and Prelates could claim within the wallii
of any of them was a mere shadow. Hence the Lutheran Reformation,
appealing as it did most powerfully to the burgher class, won an easy
and an early victory in most of these trading communities- But thia
victory was the beginning rather than the end of strife, for the social
ferment whicli followed on the religious revolt inevitably produced a
division between the richer and poorer classes. It bore little relation
to differences on religious questions, though here as elsewhere in the
sixteenth century every movement tended to assume a theological garb»
and the rich naturally favoured conservative forms of religion, while the
poor adopted novel doctrines. Thus risings at Hanover in 1533, at
Bremen in 1530-2, and at Brunswick in 1528 were directed partly
against the old Church and partly against the aristocratic Town Councils,
The chief of these municipal revolutions occurred at Liibeck and Stral-
sund, but, although the triumph of the democracy was accompanied by
a good deal of iconoclasm, and Wullenwever, the leader of the Liibeck
populace, was accused of Anabaptism, the struggle was really social
and political, or, according to Sastrow, the burgomaster of Greifswald,
between the respectable and the disreputable classes. In both cities the
oligarchic character of the Town Council -was abolished, and power was
transferred to demagogues depending on the support of the artisans ;
but the importance of these changes consists not so much in their con-
stitutional aspect, though this w^as of considerable significance, as in the
effect they produced upon the external policy of the Hanseatic League.
That famous organisation had lost much of the power it wielded in
the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Its position was based on a
union between the so-called Wendic cities of the Baltic and the towns
of Westphalia and the Netherlands, and upon the control which they
exercised over the united Scandinavian kingdoms, and thus over the
whole trade of the Baltic and the North Sea. The most potent voice
in the confederation had hitherto been that of Liibeck, but the develop-
ment of Bruges and Antwerp under the fostering care of their Burgundian
rulers provoked a bitter rivalry between the Flemings and the League ;
Liibeck insisted upon the exclusion of Dutch trade from the Baltic, and
the Dutch naturally resented this limitation of their commerce. At the
same time this loosening of the bond between the eastern and western
cities weakened the League's hold on the Scandinavian kingdoms ; and
Christian II, who had married Charles V's sister, conceived the idea of
utilising his Burgundian allies for the purpose of breaking the domina-
tion of the Baltic cities. The plan was ruined by Christian's vices, which
gained him the hatred of all his subjects and enabled the Liibeckers,
by timely assistance to Christian's uncle, Frederick, Duke of Holstein,
to evict their enemy from the throne of Denmark and Norway ; similar
aid was rendered to Guatavus Vasa, who in the same year (1523) drove
Christian out of Sweden ; and thus the union of the three Scandinavian
kingdoms which had lasted since the Peace of Kalmar (1397) was
permanently broken up.
Christian, however, was not content with his defeat, and with a
view to securing the assistance of his Habsburg brothers-in-law and
of Catholic Europe, lie abjured liis Lutberanism and represented his
attempt to regain his thi*ones as a crusade against heresy. In 1531^2
he overran Norway, but Liibeck blockaded the coast, forced him to
capitulate, and procured his lifelong imprisonment at Sonderburg.
This outrage on royal majesty, coupled with the mercantile hostility
between Lubeck and the Netherlands, precipitated naval war between
the Dutch and Baltic cities ; and the situation was complicated by the
death of Frederick I in April, 1533. Several claimants for his vacant
throne appeared. Frederick left two sons, Christian 1 1 1 , a l^u theran, and
John, who seems to have entertained some hopes of maintainiog his
pretensions by the help of the Catholic party. The old Ki ng. Christian 1 1,
was regarded as impossible, and the liabsburgs put forward as their
candidate Count Frederick of the Palatinate (afterwards the Elector
Palatine Frederick II), who married old Christian's daughter. Such
wasthe situation witli which the democrats of Liibeck, who had obtained
control of the Council in February and elected Jiirgen Wullenwever
Burgomaster in March, 1538, had to deal.
The distrust with which the revolutionists of Liibeck were viewed
by both Protestant and Catholic Princes made Wullcnwever's course a
difficult one. He started for Copenhagen to conclude an alliance between
the two cities, but Copenbagen looked on him askance, and he tlien
offered his friendship to the young Christian MI with no better result*
Liibeck, however, found an unexpected ally in Henry VJII, who was tlien
trying every means to reduce the Habsburg power, and regarded with
alarm the prospect of a Habsburg victory in Denmark. Marx Meyer,
a military adventurer who had taken service under Liibeek, had been
sent to sea in comraand of a fleet against the Dutch. Landing in
England without a passport, he had been lodged in the Tower of
London ; but Henry saw in him a convenient instrument against the
Habsburgs. He conferred on Meyer a knighthood, and promised Liibeck
assistance ; while the Liibeekers undertook to tolerate no Prince ujjon
the Danish throne of %vhom the English King did not approve. But
Henry's promises were not very serious, and the Liibeekers were wise in
not putting too much trust in them. They were better advised in
concluding a four years' truce with the Netherlands at the price of free
trade through the Sound in order to concentrate their efforts upon
establishing their control over Denmark.
The element on which they relied was the democratic spirit in the
Scandinavian kingdoms and particularly in the towns. Melchior Hofnumn
had preached at Stockholm, where Gustavus Vasa declared that the
populace aimed at his assassination. At Malmci and Copenhagen the
Burgomasters eventually adopted W ullen wever's views, and both peasants
and artisans in Denmark were excited and discontented. The expulsion
of the old King Christian had been in the main an aristocratic revolution,
abLUttitl by Liibeck in revenge for Christianas attacks on ber mercantile
monopoly ; and the rale of Frederick I had been marked by aristocratic
infring'ements of the commercial privileges of the townsfolk and by
oppression of the peasants* Both classes were ready to rise for their old
Bamrnkonig ; and Liibeck, aware that Christian would be a pnppet in
her hands, determined to restore the sovereign whom ten years before
she had deposed, TJie town took into its service Count Christopher of
Oldenburg, a competent soldier, albeit a canon of Cologne^ and stipulatetl
in case of success for the cession of Gotldand, Helsingborg, and Helsingor*
In May, 1534, Christopher arrived at Liibeck, and, ha\ing won a few
trifling successes over Duke Chinstian, he put to sea with a powerful
fleet and appeared off Copenhagen in June* Everywhere almost popular
insurrections broke out in favour of the old King or against the ruling
nobility. This war was called the Crrafenfehde^ and it was in the name
of the " Feasant King " that Christopher summoned the town and county
proletariate to rise against their lords. Seeland, Copenhagen, Laaland,
Langeland, and Falster once more recognised him as their sovereign ;
revolts of the peasants in Fiinen and Jutland led to a similar recognition,
while Oldendorp, whom Wullenwever describes as the originator of the
movement, roused some of the Swedish cities. The Liibeck revolu-
tionists seemed to be carrying all before them ; democratic factions
triumphed at Stralsund, Rostock, Riga, and Reval, and sent contribu-
tions in men or money to the common cause. In Liibeck itself Wullen-
wever strengthened his position by expelling the hostile minority from
the Council, and Bonnus, the Lutheran superintendent, resigned his
charge- ** Had the cities succeeded as they hoped,'" wrote a Pomeranian
chronicler, "not a Prince or a noble w^ould have been left.^'
The revolution at Miinster was now at its height, and the Princes
and nobles were aware of their peril ; but the Wiirttemberg w^ar also was
raging, and they were compelled to content themselves with denounciMg
the action of Liibeck, leaving to Duke Christian the task of effective
resistance. He proved equal to the occasion. In September he com-
pletely blockaded the mouth of the Trave and cut off Liibeck from
communication with the sea. The city was compelled to restore all the
territory it had taken from Holstein, but both parties were left free to
carry on hostilities in Denmark. There the Estates, threatened by
iBternal revolts and external foes, had elected Duke Christian King, and
in December he captured Aalborg and pacified Jutland. He was helped
by contingents from three Princes connected with him by marriage, the
Dukes of Prussia and Pome ran ia and Gustavus of Sweden, whose throne
had been offered by Liibeck to Albrecht of Mecklenburg. Near Assens
in Fiinen on June 11, 1535, Christian's general, Johann Rantzau,
defeated the Lill^eck allies under Count Johann von Hoya, and almost
simultaneously his fleet, commanded by the Danish admiral Skram, w^on
a less decisive victory over the ships of Liibeck off Bornholm* Fiinen
and Seelaiid submitted, and id August Copenhagen and Malmo alone
held ont»
These disasters were fatal to Wuilenwever's power in Liibeck ; during
his absence in Mecklenburg the restoration of the conservatives was
effected in August. WuUenwever eventually fell into the liands of
the Archbishop of Bremen, wa^s delivered to the Archbisliop's brother,
Duke Henry of Brunswick, and put to death in Septenil>er, 1537* Witli
the ruin of his party the prosecution of his war began to languish, and
in 1530 Christian took possession of Copenhagen and made himself
master of the two kingdoms of Denmark and Norway. He was crowned
by the Lutheran apostle Bugeidiagen, under whose auspices religion
according to the straitest sect of Wittenberg was established in Denmark.
Christian's triumph was no doubt hirgely due to national antipathy to
the domiueering interference of an alien State, but the national feeling
was exploited by class prejudice, and the aristocracy in Denmark turned
their victory to the same use as the German Princes did theirs in the
Peasants' War. In both eases Lutheranism matle common cause witli
the upper classes ; the proclamation of the Gospel and the enforcemeut
of serfdom went hand in hand, but the landlord was the predominant
partner, and even the children of preachers remained in the status of serfs.
To Liibeck itself it is possible that the soccess of Wullenwevers
grandiose ideas of mereantile empire might have been more fatal
than their failure. According to Baltic nautical ballads Liibeck long
regretted its turbulent Burgouiiister, and his name is surrouniled in
popular legend with Home thing of the halo of a van Artevelde, but his
attempt to clothe the new democratic spirit in the worn-out garb of
the city-empire was doomed from the first to end in disaster. He could
not have permanently averted the decay of the Hanse towns or pre-
vented the absorption of most of them in the growing territorial States ;
temporary success would only have prolonged the struggle witliout
affecting the last result. Besides the local circumstances which would
have rendered ineffectual the endeavour of Liibeck, under wliatever form
of municipal government it might have been made, to establish an im-
jjerial State, there was no element of stability in the revolutionary spirit
of which that endeavour was the last manifestation. The future of
Germany was bound up with the fortunes of the territorial principle, and
it is impossible to determine exactly in what degree the Lutheran
Reformation owed its salvation to its own inherent vitality, and
in what to its alliance with the prevailing political organisation.
Together Lutheranism and territorialism had crushed the revolutionary
movement, wliether it took the form of agrarian socialism, Miinster
Anabaptism, or urban democracy. From the conflict of creeds all but
two had now been eliminated, Catholicism and Lutheranism ; both were
equally linked with the territorial principle, and, whichever prevailed,
the political texture of Germany would still be the same. The subsidence
of the revolutionary spirit narrowed the field of contention, and the
question became merely one of fixing the limits of this or that territorial
State and of locating the frontier between the two established forms of
religion.
Yet peace was not any nearer because the rivals had beaten a common
foe. Theagreement of Niirnberg in 1532 had guaranteed to the members
of the Scluoalkaldic League immunity for their religion, but it did not
define religion or provide security for future Protestants. At the Peace
of Cadan in 1534 the first point was settled by Ferdinand's quashing
all the processes in the Reichskammergericht against the Schmalkaldic
allies ; but the protection did not extend beyond the members of the
League, and numerous other Protestant States were liable to practical
ruin as the result of the Supreme Court's verdicts. This w^as a particularly
dangerous cause of friction, because Catholic Princes had other than
religious motives for executing the judgments of the Court against their
Protestant neighbours ; as executors of the Court's decrees they could
legally seize the lands of recalcitrant cities or lords, and under the guise
of religion extend their territoritil power. Thus, Duke Erie of Brunswick-
Calenberg w^as anxious to execute sentence on his chief town^ Hanover,
where a revolutionary movement had taken place ; the Duke of Bavaria
cast longing eyes on Augsburg ; and the specific object of the Catholic
League of Halle (1533) was to secure the execution of verdicts against
all cities and Princes who were not among the Schmalkaldic confederates.
The Catholics umloulitedly had the law on their side, but necessity
drove their opponents to break it. They could hardly stand by while
their fellow-countrymen were punished for holding the faith they held
themselves ; had they done so they would only have prepared the w^ay
for their own destruction. The obvious method of protecting their
co-religionists was to admit them to the Schmalkaldic League ; but this
was an infraction of the terms of the Niirnberg Peace which would
endanger their own security, and they would not have ventured on the
step unless circumstances had tied the hands of the Austrian government.
Throughout the greater part of 1535 Charles V was engaged in the
conquest of Tunis, and he was hoping to follow up his success in this
direction with an attack on the Turks, who were embroiled in a war with
Persia, wdien his plana were disconcerted by the hostile attitude of
France. Francesco Sforza, Duke of Milan, died in 1535 without issue^
and Francis I» fearing with good reason that Charles would seize
the duchy himself, revived his claims to Milan, Genoa, and Asti. In the
spring of 1536 he overran Savoy, which had become the Emperor's alh%
entered into negotiations with the Turks and with Henry VIII for a
joint action against the Habsburgs, and approached the Lutheran
Princes with a similar object. The Lutherans were reluctant to side
with the Emperor's enemies, but they had no hesitation in putting a
high price on their friendship, and in turning Charles' necessities to
1534-6
I
account by demanding security for the threatened members of their
Church. In December, 15?J5, at a diet of the Schnmlkaldic League,
they undertook to admit all who would subscribe to the Confession
of Augsburg ; and Wiirttemberg, Fomerania, Anhalt^ and the cities of
Augsburg, Frankfort, Hanover, and Kempten became thus entitled to
its protection. They renewed their repudiation of the Reich»kammer-
gericht as a partisan body, anil declared that conscience would not allow
them to res|>ect its verdicts* They refused in fact to yield to the
national and imperial authorities that obedience in religious matters
which they rigorously exacted from the subjects of their own territorial
jurisdiction j and at the moment when they were pleading conscience as
a justification of their own conduct they declined to admit its validity
when urged by their Catholic brethren.
The Lutherans had not remained untainted by the pride of power
and the arrogance of success. In Ferdinand's own dominions at this
time Faber declared that but for him and the King all Vienna would
have turned Lutheran, and tliat it needed but a sign to arm all Germany
against the Roman Church, Ferdinand himself was urging such con-
cessions as the marriage of the clergy and communion under both kinds,
and complained to the Papal Nuncio that he could not find a confessor
who w^as not a fornicator, a drunkard, or an ignoramus. In England
Lutheranism had reached its higljest water-mark in Henry's reign;
Mehmchthon had dedicated an edition of his Loci Commnnegio the Tudor
King, and wiis willing to undertake a voyage to England to reform tlie
English Clairch* Francis I had invited Melanclithon and liucer to
France to discuss the religious situation. The new Pope, Paul III, who
had succeeded Clement VII in 1534, began his pontificate by creating
a number of reforming Cardinals, and nent Vergerio to Germany to
investigate the possibilities of a concordat with the heretics and to
ascertain the terms upon which they would support a General CounciL
In all the Scandinavian kingdoms the triumpli of the new faith was
complete, and the Protestant seemed to be the winning cause in Europe.
Now, when Charles was threatened with a joint attack by Turks and
French^ it was no time to throw the Lutheran Princes into the enemy's
arms. For the m€»ment temporal security was a more urgent need than
the maintenance of the Catholic Church, and the suspension of all the
ecclesiastical cases in the Reichdkammerfferi&ht was the price which
Ferdinand paid for the Lutheran rejection of alliance with Henry VI 11
and Francis I.
One of Ferdinand's motives was fear lest Bavaria should, by executing
the judicial sentence against Augsburg, acquire predominant influence in
that important city ; and he was by no means averse from the plan,
proposed by the Elector John Frederick of Saxony, of persuading
Zwinglian Augsburg to adopt the Lutheran Confession and of then
admitting it to the Schmalkaldic League. Augsburg was thus saved
from what Ferdinand regarded as a more pernicious form of heresy
than Liitheranism, and also from the clutches of the rival House of
Wittelsbach. The way for this conversion was prepared by the Witten-
berg Concord of 1536. The hostility between the Zwinglian and
Lutheran sects had to some extent sul)sided since Zwingli's death,
Melanchthon had modified hia attitude towards predestination, and had
been much impressed by Oecolampadiua' treatise on the use of the
Eucharist during the first three centuries. Luther even brought himself
to entertain a friendly feeling for Zwingli's successor Bullinger. After
various preliminary negotiations, in which Bucer was as usual the leading
spirit, a conference between Luther and representatives of the modified
Zwinglianisra which prevailed in the cities of Upper Germany was held
in Lutl)er*s house at Wittenberg in May, 1536. The two parties agreed
on a form of words which covered their differences about the real presence
in the Eucharist ; they were not so successful with regard to the other
disputed point, the reception of the body of Christ by unworthy com-
municants* but they agreed to differ* Luther expressed himself willing
to bury the past and roll the stone upon it, and extended to Bucer and
the Upper (lerraan cities that *'■ brotherly love " which he had refused to
Zwingli at Marburg in 15*29.
The Concord of Wittenberg only stopped but for a while the rifts
which had begun to api>ear in the Schmalkaldic Union. The mere fact (»f
security would have tended to relax the bonds, and there were personal
as wellas religious dififerencesbetween John Frederick and Philipof Hesse.
Philip expressed contempt for the dull but honest Elector, while John
Frederick had grave doubts about Philip's orthodoxy and the morality of
his policy, Pliilip liad always inclined to Zwinglian views and resented
dictation from Wittenberg; and the two religious parties had nearly
come to an open breach over the reformation of Wiirttemberg. Ulrich
himself was more Zwinglian than Lutheran, and his duchy was partitioned
into two spheres of influence, in one of which the Lutheran Schnepf
laboured and in the other the Zwinglian Bhirer. The latter proved the
stronger, and in 15^17 Blarer procured the abolition of images in spite of
the opposition of Schnepf and Brenz, while Ulrich devoted the confiscated
Cliurch revenues to exclusively secular purposes. It seemed as though
Hesse, Wiirttemberg, and tlxe Oberland cities miglit form a strong
Zwinglian Union independent of the Lutheran League of Schmalkalden,
Both the Eloi-tor and the Landgrave were hesitating whether to renew
that League, and both were pursuing indejxmdent negotiations at the
Court of Vienna, where Ferdinand by his conciliatory demeanour and
concessions induced them both to turn a deaf ear to the persuasions of
the Habsburgs' foreign enemies.
The necessity for this pacific diplomacy on Ferdinand's part was
amply demonstrated by the course of the war with the French and the
Tiirks from 1536 to 1538. In spite of the neutrality of Henry VIII
I
p
n
and the Lutheran PrinceH Francis I more than held his own, and the ten
years' truce negotiated by Paul III at Nice in 1538 marked a considerable
recovery from the humiliation of 1525-9. The real import of the agree*
sent between the two great Catholic Powers, w^hich follo%ved at Aigues-
lortes, Wiis and is a matter of doubt. Ostensibly the alliance Avas to
be directed against infidels and heretics ; and Henry VI 11^ tlxe Lutlieran
Princes, and the Turks had all some ground for alarm. Even if war was
not intended the Lutherans dreaded the General Council which peace
brought perceptibly nearer. They had brusquely declined to concur in
the assembly vainly summoned by Paul to meet at Mantua in May, 1537^
because the terms of the summons implied that its object was the extirpa-
tion of Lutherans and not of abuses. They justified their refusal to the
Emperor by arguing that the proposed Papal Council was very different
from that General Council contemplated by the Diets of 1523 and 1524;
and the Elector John Frederick suggested a counter ecumenical council
to be held at Augsburg under the protection of the Schmalkaldic League.
One and all tliey denied the Pope*s authority to summon a Council and
read with delight Henry VIlTs manifesto to that effect.
Apart from the General Council wducli the union of Paul, Charles,
and Francis seemed to portend, the Lutherans had been thrown into
alarm by the mission to Germany of the Emperor's Vice-Chancellor,
Held, who had received his instructions in October, 1586. Held had
been a zealous member of the Iteiekskammerffericht^ and he was burning
to avenge the contumely with which Protestants had treated the verdicts
of that Court. He interpreted Charles' cautious and somewhat
ambiguous language as an order to form a Catholic League with the
object of restraining, if not of attacking, the Lutheran Princes- He
ignored the Treaty of Cadan and Ferdinand's later concessions, required
that the Protestants should promise submission to the proposed Council
and to the Kammergerichty and, when they refused, proceeded to build up
his Catholic alliance. The Habsburg rulers, Ferdinand and the Queen-
Regent of the Netherlands, were alarmed at Held's proceedings ; but the
King could not afford to break with the ultra-Catholics wdiose tool Htld
was; and on June 10, 1538, the League of Niirnberg was formed under
the nominal patronage of Charles V. Its organisation was a faithful
copy of that of the Schmalkaldic League, and its members were the
Emperor, the King, the Archbishops of Mainz and Salzburg, and the
Dukes of Bavaria, George of Saxony, and Eric and Henry of B^unsw^ck-
The League was professedly defensive, but its determination to execute
the decrees of the Kamvurgeriekt, which the Schmalkaldic League had
repudiated, really threatened war ; and the occasion for it w^as almost
provided by Duke Henry of Brunswick, He was chafing at the support
given by the Schmalkaldic League to his two towns of Brunswick and
Goslar, which had been condemned by the Kammergerieht to restore the
confiscated goods of the Church ; and with a view to consolidating his
territorial power he was eager to carry out the verdict of the Court,
Personal animosity between him and his neighbour the Landgrave added
fuel to the flames ; Philip was believed to be arming for %var in the
spring of 1539, and Held and Duke Henry were bent upon anticipating
his attack.
Such a development was, however, repugnant to responsible people
on both sides. The Emperor had not in fact been so truculent as Held
represented ; Ms real intention in sending his Vice-Chaneellor to Germany
seems to have been to provide safeguards for his imperial authority*
which in 1536-7 was threatened at least as much by Catholic as it was
by Protestant enmities. The Pope appeared to be indifferent to the
fate of the Church and Empire in Germany, and regarded with apparent
unconcern the alliance between France and the infidels against the
Christian Emperor. If Charles was to make head against them he must
feel more secure in Germany, and the only means feasible were a Council
summoned without the concurrence of Francis or Paul, a national synod
of the German people, or a perpetual compromise on the basis of the
Niirnberg peace of 1532* Tlie ten years' truce with France concluded at
Nice relieved Charles of his more pressing anxieties, but in spite of
appearances, brought him no nearer to the position from which he could
dictate terras to the Lutlierans, He was doubtless aware that Francis
had given, both before and after the truce, satisfactory assurances to tlie
German Princes to the effect that the concord was merely defensive and
that he would not allow Charles to destroy them. And other dangers
arose on the imperial horizon. In February, 1538, Ferdinand closed his
long rivalry with Zapolya by a treaty which gtiaranteed to that potentate,
who was then childless, a lifelong tenure of his Hungarian throne on
condition that Ferdinand should be his successor* But this only enraged
the really formidable foe, the Sultan, who regarded Hungary as his and
Zapolya as only his viceroy ; and in 1539 war was once more threatened
on the banks of the Danube.
A still greater trouble menaced the Habsburgs in Flanders, and the
revolt of Ghent, extending though it did to Alost, Oudenaarde, and
Courtrai, was only a part of the peril, Gelders, which had constantly
been to the Burgundian House what Scotland was to England, passed
in 1539 into the hands of a ruler who dreamt of uniting with the
Schmalkaldic League on the east^ with Henry VIII on the west, and
possibly with Francis I on the south, and of thus surrounding Charles'
dominions in the Netherlands with an impenetrable hostile fence. John,
Duke of Cleves, had married Mary, the only child of William of Jiilich
and Berg ; hisson William, heir to the united duchy of Cleves-Jiilich-Bergt
had also claims on the neighbouring duchy of Gelders, whose Duke died
without issue in 1538, The Estates of Gelders admitted William's
claims, and in February, 1539, he also succeeded his father in Cleves.
He had been educated by Erasmus' friend Conrad Heresbach, and the
form of religion obtaining in Cleves was a curious Erasmmn compromise
between Popery and Protestantism, which erected the Duke into a sort
of territorial Pope and bore some resemblance to the via media pursued
by Henry VIII in England and by Joachim II in Brandenburg. Cleves
\va8 thus a convenient political and theological link between England
and the Schinalkaldlc League ; and by means of it Cromwell in 1531)
thought of forging a chain to bind the Emperor. Duke William'a
sister Sibylla was already married to the Elector Frederick of Saxony,
and at the end of 1.539 another sister Anne was wedded to Henry VIII.
Over and above these foreign complications the ever-increasing
strength of the Lutheran party in Germany rendered an attack upon
them a foulhardy enterprise on the Emperor's part unless his hands
were completely free in oilier directions. In 1539 two of the chief
pillars of the Catholic Church in the Empire were removed, the Elector
of Brandenburg and Duke George of Saxony. Joachim I of Brandenburg
had died in 1535, but it was four years later before his son and successor
definitely seceded from the ancient Church. On his accession he joined
the Catholic League of Halle and retained the old Church ritual, but
in 1538 he refused adherence to the extended Catholic confederation of
Niirnberg. In February, 1539, his capital Berlin with Kcilln demanded
the administration of the Sacrament in both kinds, and the Bishop of
Brandenburg himself advocated a Reformation. Joachim II, liowever,
taking Henry VIII as his exemplar, resolved to be as independent of
Wittenberg as he was of Rome ; and probably the chief motive in his
Reformation was the facility it afforded him of self-aggrandisement by
appropriating the wealth of the monasteries and establishing an absolute
control over his Bishops. He became, in fact, though not in title,
Biimmud episcapus and supreme head of the Church within his dominions.
Like the Tudor King he was fond of splendour and ritual, made few
changes in Catholic use, and maintained an intermediate attitude
between the two great religious parties.
The revolution in Albertine Saxony was more complete, Duke
George, one of the most estimable Princes of his age, had kept intact
his faith in Catholic dogma, though he had spoken with candour of the
necessity for practical reforms. On his death in 1539 the Duchy passed
to his brother Henry, who had preferred the religion of his Ernestine
cousin the Elector to that of his brother the Duke. In order to avert
the impending conversion of his duchy, George had made his brother's
succession conditional upon his renouncing Lutheranism and joining the
League of Niirnberg ; if he rejected these terms the duchy was to pass to
the Emperor or to Ferdinand. For this violent expedient there was
no legal justification and no practical support within or without the
duchy. The people had long resented the repressive measiires with
which Duke George had been compelled to support Catholicism, and
they accepted with little demur the new Duke and the new religion.
One Bishop, John of Meissen, petitioned Charles to be freed from his
allegiance to the Duke ; but even the Catholic members of the Estates
repudiated his action, and in 154(> the Estates sanctioned the Lutheran
Reformation which Duke Henry had begun without their concurrence*
Besides the Elector of Brandenburg and the Duke of Saxony, minor
Princes and many towns threw in their lot with the Protestant cause.
Jonchim IPs brother. Margrave John of Brandenburg, who ruled in
Cottbus and Peitz, joined the Schmalkaldic League in 1537. Ratisbon,
long a Catholic stronghold, relinquished its ancient faith ; its monas-
teries had only one or two inmates apiece ; and only some twenty
people gathered to worship in its cathedral. In other Catholic States
there were said to be more mimasteries than monks, and tlie number of
candidates for ordination sank to five in four years in the see of Passau,
and to seventeen in eight years in that of Laihach. Heidelberg, the
Elector Palatine's capital, was described as the most Lutheran city
in Germany ; and the Elector himself was, in the few moments he spared
from the hunt and his cups, wavering between liuther and the Pope.
Albrechtof Brandenburg, Luther*s *^ devil of Mainz,'' was the only member
of his family who remained Catholic, and he was compelled to flee from
his palace at Halle. Mecklenburg-Schwerin was reformed by its
episcopiil Doke, and Brunswick-Calenberg by its Dowager- Duchess,
Elizabeth of Brandenburg,
So the golden opportunity which the alliance with Paul and Francis
at Nice appeared to afford to Charles for the reduction of German heresy
passed away through no fault of the Emperor's. The zealous Held was
suppressed ; the negotiations with the Lutherans were entrusted to the
moderate Archbishop of Lund, who had contrived the agreement
between Zapolyaand Ferdioaiul ; and Charles accepted the mediation of
the doubtful Catholic, the Elector Palatine Ludwig V, and the doubtful
Protestaot, Joachim II of Brandenburg. The parties met at Frankfort
in April, 1539. Henry VIII sent envoys to stiffen the Lutheran demands
and prevent an agreement if possible. The Protestant terms were high;
they wanted a permanent peace wdiich no Council and no assembly of
Estates should have the power to break j the Niirnberg League was to
receive no fresh accessions, its Protestant rival of Schmalkalden as many
as chose to join it ; and all processes in the Reichskammergertcht were to
be suspended for eighteen months. All that Charles ultiuiately conceded
was a suspension for six months, and he quietly gave his consent to
the Niirnberg League. But its inmiediate object of enforcing the
decrees of the Supreme Court was baulked ; and for half a year even
the latest recruits to Protestantism were to enjoy complete immunity*
Beyond that nothing was settled, and the peace of the Lutherans
depended upon the extent of the Emperor*s troubles in other directions.
At first the Emperor prospered. Ghent was crushed with ease in
February, 1540, As soon as Henry YIII realised that the Catholic
alliance of France, tlie Pope, and the Emperor, involved no attack upon
him, he repudiated his Low German connexioDs and liis plain wife from
Cleves, and Charles' ministei's mur veiled at the ways of Providence.
The3^ succeeded also in keeping Philip of Hesse in good humour and in
preventing Duke William's admission into the Schmalkaldic League.
The clear-sighted Bucer deplored the Emperor's good fortune, and
augured the same treatment for Protestant Germany which Charles had
meted out to Ghent. But the hour was not yet come. In July, 1540,
Francis I rejected the Euiperor's conditions for the settlemeut of their
disputes, betrothed his niece, Jeanne of Navarre, to Duke William of
Cleves, and refused to surrender his claims on Milan and Savoy, or to
join in action against Turk or heretic. Parties in Germany were more
confounded than ever. The spread of Lutheranism produced no union
in the Catholic ranks, and at Frankfort Catholics as well as Lutherans
had refused to serve against the Turks. Charles appears to have reached
the not unreasonable conclusion that Catholicism, especially in the
ecclesiastical principalities, would only be safe under the shadow of
his territorial power. The Electors of Trier, Cologne, and Mainz, and
other great Bishops, were ever being tempted to follow the example of
Albrecht of Prussia and turn the lands of their sees into secular hereditary
fiefs. Bucer bad suggested this measure as necessary for the tirm founda-
tion of Protestantism, and the Elector of Cologne was beginning to
waver. But these non-heritable ecclesiastical fiefs were the chief bulwark
of Habsburg imperialism against the encroaching territorial tide ; ant! it
was natural that Charles sliould dream of extending his influence from
Burgundy over Cologne, Mlinster, Bremen, and Osnabrlick, so that if
they were to be secularised at all, he might do the work and deal
with them as he had dealt with Utrecht. This, of course, was not
the view of the ecclesiastical Princes, who wished at least to choose
between the advantages of their independent spiritual rule and those
of an equally independent territorial authority ; and there was actually
talk of an alliance between them, backed by the Bavarian Dukes, and
the Schmalkaldic League, for the defence of national freedom against
the Habsburgs. Yet at the same time ultra-Catholics were denouncing
Charles for his concessions at Frankfort. The Pope censured the Ilegent
Maria and the Archbishop of Lund, and required the Emperor to aniiul
the agreement with the Protestants on pain of being pronounced schis-
matic ; while Cardinal Pole hinted that the Church had more to fear
from Charles V than it had from Henry VI I L
For a while the Emperor had to tread delicately, and he took refuge
in a series of religious conferences. The first was held at Hagenau in
June, 1540, but produced no result. Another met at Worms in
November ; there were present eleven Catholics and eleven Protestants,
but the former included Ludwig of the Palatinate, Joachim of Branden-
burg, and William of Cleves, whose Catholicism was not of the Roman
type. For ouce the Protestants were united, the Catholics divided, and
Granvelle, who represented the Emperor, was an astute politician,
Morone, the papal Nuncio, was reduced to attempts to create Protestant
dissensions over the Eucharist, and to gain time by substituting an
interchange of writings for oral debate. The discussions began on
January 14, 1541, between Eck and Melanehthon, but the meeting was
soon adjourned to the Diet at Ratisbon, where Charles would attend
in person. It opened on April 5, and during its course the two parties
made their nearest approach to unity. The Keforunng movement in Italy
had somewhat modified the Catholic view of justification, and Morone's
place was taken by the broad-minded Contarini ; while on the other
side Bucer had drawn up an alluring scheme of comprehension* He,
Melanchthon,and Pistorius represented the Protestants ; Eck, Pflug, and
Gropper the Catholics, Of the latter Eck was the only fighting divinet
and both the marriage of priests and the use of the cup were conceded,
while an agreement was reached on the doctrine of justification.
Yet the most pertinent comment on Bucer s scheme was Melanch-
thon's, who compared it to Plato's Repiiblk, He and Luther and John
Frederick on one side, and Aleander and tlie Roman theologians on the
other, were convinced that no concord was possible between Rome and
evangelical Germany. It has been found possible to elaborate formu-
laries which will bear both a Catholic and a Protestant interpretation,
hut it requires a strong hand and an effective government to compel
their acceptance ; Charles could not coerce either Wittenberg or Rome ;
he had neither the will nor the means of Henry VIH and Elizabeth,
Bavaria organised an extreme faction among the Bishops and non-
Electoral Princes, who revealed their double motives by threatening to
seek another Emperor unless Charles afforded them better protection
and obtained restitution of their secularised lands. This intrigue proved
fatal to the attempt at comprehension and the result of the Diet was to
leave parties in much the same state as before. In July, 1541, Charles
made a declaration to the Protestants, suggested by Brandenburg, that
the Augsburg Confession should be no ground for proceeding against
any Prince ; that the Reickskammergericht should not exclude questions
of ecclesiastical property from this guarantee; and that, although for the
future monasteries must not be dissolved, they might adopt a ** Christian
reformation." But this declaration was to remain secret, and at the
same time Charles renewed the Catholic League of Nuruberg* He was
forced to ignore both Protestant and Catholic disobedience and to
conciliate rebels in both the camps.
If this was a defeat for the Emperor, he found compensation else-
where, and skilfully turned to his own advantage the most discreditable
episode in the history of German Protestantism. Philip of Hesse, like
most of the Princes and many of the Prelates of his age, was a
debauchee ; but with his moral laxity he combined, like Henry VI 11,
some curious scruples of conscience, and he could not bring himself to
take the sacrament while he was unfaithful to his wife. Insuperable
antipathy prevented marital relations ; continence was out of the ques-
tion ; debauchery endangered his souL He put his hard case before the
heads of the Lutheran Cimrch. They disbelieved in divorce ; so did
Henry VIII, but they did not possess Henry's talent for discovering
proofs that he had never been married to the wife he wished to repudiate ;
and bigamy, from which the Tudor abstained, appeared the only
solution. The same idea had occurred before to Clement VII ; a previous
Pope had licensed bigamy in the case of Henry IV of Caiitile ; and the
Old Testament precedents were familiar to all. Luther, Melanchthon,
and Bucer all concurred in approving Philip s second marriage on con-
dition that it remained a secret. The ceremony took phice at Rotlien-
burg on March 4, 1540, and the news soon leaked out. Melanchthou
quailed before the public odium and nearly died of shame, but Luther
wished to brazen the matter out with a lie, '*The secret "yea,"'' he
wrote, *'must for the sake of Christ's Church remain a public *nay/^'
By denying the truth of the rumours he would, he argued, be doing no
more than Clirist Himself did when He said He knew not the day and
the hour of His sectrnd coming, and he also alleged the analogy of the
confessional ; a good confessor must deny in Court all knowledge of
what he lias learnt in confession*
The moral effect of this revelation upon the Lutheran cause was
incalculable. Cranmer wrote from England to his uncle-indaw Osiander
of the pain which it caused to the friends of the Reformation and the
handle it gave to the enemy, Ferdinand avowed that he had long been
inclined to evangelical doctrines, but that this affair had produced a
revulsion of feeling. John Frederick and Ulrich of Wiirttemberg
refused to guarantee Philip immunity for his crime, the legal penalty
for which was death ; and tfxe Landgrave, seriously alarmed, sought to
make his peace with the Habslmrgs, and possibly witli Home ; as a last
resort he felt he could obtain a dispensation from the Pope, who would
willingly pay the price for a prodigal son. In the autumn of 1540 he
began his negotiations with Granvelle, and on June 13, 1541, concluded
his bargain with Charles ; he abandoned ids relations with England,
France, and Cleves, undertook to exclude them all from the Schmalkaldic
League, to side with Charles on all political questions, and to recognise
Ferdinand as Charles' successor in the Empire. In return he only
obtained security against personal attacks ; he would not be exempt
from the consequences of a general war against Protestants, PhiUp's
80U-in*law, Maurice, who succeeded his father Henry as Duke of Albertijie
Saxony in that year, was included in the arrangement ; and Joachim of
Brandenburg was induced to promise help against Cleves in return for
the confirmation of his church establishment. As the Elector John
Frederick could not be induced to abandon his brother-in-law of Cleves,
c. M. u. ir. 16
242 Leagiie against Charles V [1540-2
the Schmalkaldic League was split into two parties pledged to take
opposite sides in that all-important question ; and the anger of German
historians at this " treason " of Philip of Hesse is due not merely to its
disastrous effect on Protestantism, but to the fact that it materially
contributed to the conquest of Gelders by Charles and to its eventual
separation from the Empire. But for Philip of Hesse's bigamy Gelders
might to-day be part of Germany and not of Holland. \
The pressure of other dangers, however, gave Gelders a two years*
respite. The Emperor hurried from the Diet of Ratisbon to attempt
the conquest of Algiers, a nest of pirates which was a perpetual menace
to his Spanish and Italian possessions ; and the disastrous failure of that
expedition encouraged Francis I and Solyman to renew their war on
the Habsburgs. Zapolya had died on July 23, 1540, but before his
death he had been unexpectedly, blessed with a son, John Sigismund.
His widow and her minister George Martinuzzi, Bishop of Grosswardein,
thereupon repudiated the treaty of Grosswardein (1538), by which Ferdi-
nand was to succeed Zapolya, and crowned the infant John Sigismund.
Their only hope lay in Solyman, and the Turk had determined to end
the nominal independence which Hungary enjoyed under Zapolya. In
August, 1541, he captured Buda, turned its church of St. Mary into a
mosque, and Hungary into a Turkish province. The Diet of Speier
(January, 1542) offered substantial levies for the war, but they were
ill-equipped and worse commanded by Joachim of Brandenburg. In
September the army sat down before Pesth ; on the 5th a breach was
made, but the storming party failed ; and afterwards, wrote Sir Thomas
Seymour, who was present, " the soldiers for lack of wages refused to
keep watch and ward or to make assault." Two days later the siege was
raised ; Joachim and his troops returned in disgrace to Germany ; and
next year Solyman extended his sway over Fiinfkirchen, Stuhlweissen-
burg, and Gran.
Misfortune attended the Emperor in the west as well as in the east.
Cleves had definitely thrown in its lot with France, and the anti-imperial
league was joined by Sweden, Denmark, and Scotland. The French
alliance with Turkey was once more brought into play, the Pope was
hostile to both the Habsburg brothers, and Henry VIII was still
haggling over the price of his friendship. Francis I declared war in
1542; and, although he failed before Perpignan, a Danish-Clevish
army under Martin van Rossem defeated the imperialists at Sittard
(March 24, 1543), Luxemburg was overrun, and a Franco-Turkish fleet
captured Nice.
The Lutheran Princes meanwhile were making the best of their
opportunities. In 1541 the Erasmian Pflug was elected Bishop of
Naumburg, but John Frederick feared he would join the Niirnberg
League ; and in spite of Luther's warnings against the violence of his
action he forced Amsdorf into the see. Pflug's cause was adopted by
I
*
I Tin
' the
^ aut
■ Th
■^<
k
some of the nobles of Meissen, a part of Saxonj which was mainly
Albert Ine but to some extent under Ernestine influence. The Catholic
Bishop of Meissen naturally sided with Maurice, who had succeeded
to his father in 1541, rather than with John Frederiek. In 1542
he demurred to the Elector's demand for levies for the Turkish war,
and John Frederick without consulting Ida cousin marched his troops
into Wurzen, the property of a collegiate chapter founded by the
Bishops of Meissen, and conveniently situated for incorporation in the
Elector's dominions. This inflamed the Albertine nobility, and Maurice
began to arm. The Landgrave and Lutlier intervened; a convpromiae
was patched up, and Wurzen wfis partitioned ; but a root of bitterness
remained between the cfmsins, which bore fruit in later years.
One aggression was promptly fc^llowed by another. Among the tem-
poral Catholic Princes none of note were left except the Dukes of liavaria
and Duke Henry of Brunswick, Duke Henry (Lutlier's '^hd'ner ffc{m''y
was described as the ''great<?st Papist in all Germany/' and he was left
alone in the north to face the Schmalkaldic League. He had long been
at enmity with Philip of Hesse, and liis cruelty towards his wife was
almost as great a scandal as tlie Landgrave's bigamy. In his zeal for
his faith or for his house he pronounced Charles' suspension of the
verdicts of the Reichskammergerieht against Brunswick and Goslar to
be contrary to the laws of the Em]>ire, and despite the disapprobation
of Ferdinand, Granvelle, and Albrecht of Mainz, he proceeded to attack
the two towns. The Sclunalkahlic League at once armed in their defence ;
but not satisfied with this the Elector and the Landgrave overran Henry's
duchy, Wolfenbiittel alone offering serious resistance (August, 1542),
The Duke*s territories were sequestered by the League and evangelised
by Bugenhagen. Ferdinand had to content himself with the League's
uranoe that it would carry the war no farther, and with the pretence
t it had been waged in defence of Charles' suspending powers. But
the sort of respect the Lutherans were willing to pay the imperial
authorities was shown by their attitude towards the Kammergericht.
They obtained admittiince to it early in 1542, and thereupon declined to
ierate the presence of any clerical colleagues ; but, failing to secure
majority on it, they declared in December that it had no jurisdiction
over them or their allies. Encouraged i>erhaps by the result of the
Brunswick war, Duke William of Cleves now abandoned his Erasmian
compromise and adopted Lutheninism undcfiled. Even more inipoftant
was the simultaneous conversion of Hermann von Wied, Archbishop
and Elector of Cologne, whose territories were surrounded on all sides by
the composite duchy of Cleves-Jiilich-Berg. Bishop Hermann had held
the see since 1515 j he had corresponded with Erasmus, and after 1536
had endeavoured to reform the worst practical abuses in his dioeese-
Gropper's treatise, written to reconcile justification by faith with Catholic?
doctrine, probably indicates the direction in which the Archbishop's mind
was moving. He next began to correspond with Bucer, who with his
connivance commenced preaching at Bonn in 1542. Bucer was followed
by Melanchthon, who completed the work of conversion. Franz von
Waldeck, Bishop of Miinster, Minden, and Osuabriick, was inclined to
follow his metropolitan's leaiL, and another important convert was Count
Otto Henry, nephew, and eventually successor, of the Elector Palatine.
The Emperor's fate trembled in the balance. Arrayed against him
were France, Turkey, tho Pope, Sweden, Deinnark, Scotland, Geldei*s,
and Cleves ; he could only look for assistance from Henry VIII and the
Lutherans. Henry became his ally in hope of reducing Scotland, but
into which scale would the German sword be cast? Francis I was
holding out all sorts of inducements, and his proposals were backed by
Strassburg and Calvin. But the Princes were perhaps not boUl enough,
perhaps not bad enough, to seize the opportunity of effecting their
sovereign's ruin, Francis was allied to both Turks and Pope; Charles
was for once maintaining the national cause* To motives of patriotism
was added the private agreement between Charles and the Landgrave.
The Habsburgs were lavishing all their wiles on Philip ; antl Philip, in
spite of Bucer's warnings and in spite of his own real convictions, allowed
himself to be duped. He opposed the admission of Denmark, Sweden,
and Cleves into the Schmalkaldic League, and Duke William was thus
left to his fate. With genuine insight Charles made the reduction of
Gelders his first (^ject. On August 22, 1543, he arrived before Duren,
the principal stronghold in Gelders; on the 24th it was battered from
break of day till 2 p.m., and then his Spanish and Italian troops took it
by storm. JiOich, Roermonde, and Orkelen fell in the next few days,
and on September 6 Duke William knelt before Charles at Venloo.
Gelders and Zutphen were annexed to the Emperors hereditary States^
passed from him to Philip H, and thus were in effect severed from the
Empire ; Duke William repudiated his French bride and his heresy, and
later (1546) was married to Maria, Ferdinand's daughter. The Refor-
mation in neighbouring Cologne was checked, and during the winter
Bucer declared that the subjection of Germany was inevitable aud
imminent.
Such was not the view taken by German Princes, Charles still
needed their help to deal with France and the Turks, and they allowed
themselves to be bought* Their price was lieavy, but the Emperor was
willing to pay it, knowing that if he succeeded he would get his money
back with plenty of interest. At the Diet of Speier in February, 1544,
his words were smooth and his promises ample. In fact he almost
abandoned the Catholic position by committing himself to the pledge
of a national settlement of the religious question whether the Pope liked
it or not,-and by confirming the suspension of all processes against the
Protestants and their possession of the goods of the Church. In return
the Lutheran Princes contributed some meagre levies for the French
1644] Peace of CrSpy 245
and Turkish wars. Their real concession was abstention from taking part
with the Emperor's enemies, while Charles and Henry VIII invaded the
French King's dominions. This time it was John Frederick who made
private terms with the Habsburgs without his colleagues' knowledge.
In return for an imperial guarantee of the Cleves succession to his wife,
the sister of Duke William, in case William's line died out, the Elector
of Saxony recognised Ferdinand as Roman King ; and the compact was to
be sealed by the marriage of John Frederick's son to one of Ferdinand's
daughters. Other members of the hostile coalition were detached by
the same skilful play upon particularist interests. Gustavus of Sweden
and Frederick of Denmark had joined it from fear lest Charles should
enforce the claims of his niece Dorothea (daughter of Christian II and
Isabella), and her husband, Count Frederick of the Palatinate, to both
those kingdoms. These were now abandoned and Francis I was left
without allies except the Pope and the Sultan.
The campaign opened in 1544 with a French victory at Ceresole, but
the tables were turned in the north. Aided by Lutheran troops Charles
captured St Dizier while Henry VIII laid siege to Boulogne. In
September the Emperor was almost within sight of the walls of Paris,
when suddenly on the 18th lie signed the preliminaries of the Peace of
Crepy. Many and ingenious were the reasons alleged before the world
and to his ally of England. In reality there had been a race between
the two as to which should make peace first and leave the other in the
grip of the enemy. Had Henry won he might have conquered Scotland,
and there might have been no Schmalkaldic war. But Charles had
proved the nimbler ; it was he and not Henry who was left free to
deli 
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