From Luther's Death To The End Of The 16th Century


(1546--1600.)



Attempt to Suppress the Protestants. --Treachery of Maurice of Saxony.

--Defeat and Capture of the Elector, John Frederick. --Philip of

Hesse Imprisoned. --Tyranny of Charles V. --The Augsburg Interim.

--Maurice of Saxony turns against Charles V. --The Treaty of

Passau. --War with France. --The Religious Peace of Augsburg. --The

Jesuits. --Abdication of Charles V. --Ferdi
and of Austria becomes

Emperor. --End of the Council of Trent. --Protestantism in Germany.

--Weakness of the Empire. --Loss of the Baltic Provinces.

--Maximilian II. Emperor. --His Tolerance. --The Last Private Feud.

--Revolt of the Netherlands. --Death of Maximilian II. --Rudolf

II.'s Character. --Persecution of Protestants. --Condition of

Germany at the End of the 16th Century.





[Sidenote: 1546. HOSTILITIES TO THE PROTESTANTS.]



The woes which the German Electors brought upon the country, when they

gave the crown to a Spaniard because he was a Hapsburg, were only

commencing when Luther died. Charles V. had just enough German blood in

him to enable him to deceive the German people; he had no interest in

them further than the power they gave to his personal rule; he used

Germany to build up the strength of Spain, and then trampled it under

his feet.



The Council of Trent, which was composed almost entirely of Spanish and

Italian prelates, followed the instructions of the Pope and declared

that the traditions of the Roman Church were of equal authority with the

Bible. This made a reconciliation with the Protestants impossible, which

was just what the Pope desired: his plan was to put them down by main

force. In fact, if the spirit of the Protestant faith had not already

entered into the lives of the mass of the people, the Reformation might

have been lost through the hesitation of some princes and the treachery

of another. The Schmalkalden League was at this time weakened by

personal quarrels among its members; yet it was still able to raise an

army of 40,000 men, which was placed under the command of Sebastian

Schertlin. Charles V. had a very small force with him at Ratisbon; the

troops he had summoned from Flanders and Italy had not arrived; and an

energetic movement by the Protestants could not have failed to be

successful.



[Sidenote: 1547.]



But the two chiefs of the Schmalkalden League, John Frederick of Saxony

and Philip of Hesse, showed a timidity almost amounting to cowardice in

this emergency. In spite of Schertlin's entreaties, they refused to

allow him to move, fearing, as they alleged, to invade the neutrality of

Bavaria, or to excite Ferdinand of Austria against them. For months they

compelled their army to wait, while the Emperor was constantly receiving

reinforcements, among them 12,000 Italian troops furnished by the Pope.

Then, when they were absolutely forced to act, a new and unexpected

danger rendered them powerless. Maurice, Duke of Saxony (of the younger

line), suddenly abjured the Protestant faith, declared for Charles V.,

and took possession of the territory of Electoral Saxony, belonging to

his cousin, John Frederick. The latter hastened home with his own

portion of the army, and defeated and expelled Maurice, it is true, but

in doing so, gave up the field to the Emperor. Duke Ulric of Wuertemberg

first humbly submitted to the latter, then Ulm, Augsburg, Strasburg, and

other cities: Schertlin was not left with troops enough to resist, and

the Imperial and Catholic power was restored throughout Southern

Germany, without a struggle.



In the spring of 1547, Charles V. marched into Northern Germany,

surprised and defeated John Frederick of Saxony at Muehlberg on the Elbe,

and took him prisoner. The Elector was so enormously stout and heavy

that he could only mount his horse by the use of a ladder; so the

Emperor's Spanish cavalry easily overtook him in his flight. Charles V.

now showed himself in his true character: he appointed the fierce Duke

of Alba President of a Court which tried John Frederick and condemned

him to death. The other German princes protested so earnestly against

this sentence that it was not carried out, but John Frederick was

compelled to give up the greater part of Saxony to the traitor Maurice,

and be content with Thuringia or Ducal Saxony--the territory embraced in

the present duchies of Meiningen, Gotha, Weimar and Altenburg. He

steadfastly refused, however, to submit to the decrees of the Council of

Trent, and remained firm in the Protestant faith during the five years

of imprisonment which followed.



[Sidenote: 1548. TYRANNY OF CHARLES V.]



His wife, the Duchess Sibylla, heroically defended Wittenberg against

the Emperor, but when John Frederick had been despoiled of his

territory, she could no longer hold the city, which was surrendered.

Charles V. was urged by Alba and others to burn Luther's body and

scatter the ashes, as those of a heretic; but he answered, like a man:

"I wage no war against the dead." Herein he showed the better side of

his nature, although only for a moment. Philip of Hesse was not strong

enough to resist alone, and finally, persuaded by his son-in-law,

Maurice of Saxony, he promised to beg the Emperor's pardon on his knees,

to destroy all his fortresses except Cassel, and to pay a fine of

150,000 gold florins, on condition that he should be allowed to retain

his princely rights. These were Charles V.'s own conditions; but when

Philip, kneeling before him, happened (or seemed) to smile while his

application for pardon was being read, the Emperor cried out: "Wait,

I'll teach you to laugh!" Breaking his solemn word without scruple, he

sent Philip instantly to prison, and the latter was kept for years in

close confinement, both in Germany and Flanders.



Charles V. was now also master of Northern Germany, except the city of

Magdeburg, which was strongly fortified, and refused to surrender. He

entrusted the siege of the place to Maurice of Saxony, and returned to

Bavaria, in order to be nearer Italy. He had at last become the

arbitrary ruler of all Germany: he had not only violated his word in

dealing with the princes, but defied the Diet in subjecting them by the

aid of foreign soldiers. His court, his commanders, his prelates, were

Spaniards, who, as they passed through the German States, abused and

insulted the people with perfect impunity. The princes were now reaping

only what they themselves had sown; but the mass of the people, who had

had no voice in the election,--who saw their few rights despised and

their faith threatened with suppression--suffered terribly during this

time.



[Sidenote: 1548.]



In May, 1548, the Emperor proclaimed what was called the "Augsburg

Interim," which allowed the communion in both forms and the marriage of

priests to the Protestants, but insisted that all the other forms and

ceremonies of the Catholic Church should be observed, until the Council

should pronounce its final judgment. This latter body had removed from

Trent to Bologna, in spite of the Emperor's remonstrance, and it did not

meet again at Trent until 1551, after the death of Pope Paul III. There

was, in fact, almost as much confusion in the Church as in political

affairs. A number of intelligent, zealous prelates desired a correction

of the former abuses, and they were undoubtedly supported by the Emperor

himself; but the Pope with the French and Spanish cardinals and bishops,

controlled a majority of the votes of the Council, and thus postponed

its action from year to year.



The acceptance of the "Interim" was resisted both by Catholics and

Protestants. Charles V. used all his arts,--persuasion, threats, armed

force,--and succeeded for a short time in compelling a sort of external

observance of its provisions. His ambition, now, was to have his son

Philip chosen by the Diet as his successor, notwithstanding that

Ferdinand of Austria had been elected king in 1530, and had governed

during his brother's long absence from Germany. The Protestant Electors,

conquered as they were, and abject as many of them had seemed, were not

ready to comply; Ferdinand's jealousy was aroused, and the question was

in suspense when a sudden and startling event changed the whole face of

affairs.



Maurice of Saxony had been besieging Magdeburg for a year, in the

Emperor's name. The city was well-provisioned, admirably defended, and

the people answered every threat with defiance and ridicule. Maurice

grew tired of his inglorious position, sensitive to the name of

"Traitor" which was everywhere hurled against him, and indignant at the

continued imprisonment of Philip of Hesse. He made a secret treaty with

Henry II. of France, to whom he promised Lorraine, including the cities

of Toul, Verdun and Metz, in return for his assistance; and then, in the

spring of 1552, before his plans could be divined, marched with all

speed against the Emperor, who was holding his court in Innsbruck. The

latter attempted to escape to Flanders, but Maurice had already seized

the mountain-passes. Nothing but speedy flight across the Alps, in night

and storm, attended only by a few followers, saved Charles V. from

capture. The Council of Trent broke up and fled in terror; John

Frederick of Saxony and Philip of Hesse were freed from their long

confinement, and the Protestant cause gained at one blow all the ground

it had lost.



[Sidenote: 1553. ALBERT OF BRANDENBURG'S RAID.]



Maurice returned to Passau, on the Danube, where Ferdinand of Austria

united with him in calling a Diet of the German Electors. The latter,

bishops as well as princes, admitted that the Protestants could be no

longer suppressed by force, and agreed to establish a religious peace,

independent of any action of the Pope and Council. The "Treaty of

Passau," as it was called, allowed freedom of worship to all who

accepted the Augsburg Confession, and postponed other questions to the

decision of a German Diet. The Emperor at first refused to subscribe to

the treaty, but when Maurice began to renew hostilities, there was no

other course left. The French in Lorraine and the Turks in Hungary were

making rapid advances, and it was no time to assert his lost despotism

over the Empire.



With the troops which the princes now agreed to furnish, the Emperor

marched into France, and in October, 1552, arrived before Metz, which he

besieged until the following January. Then, with his army greatly

reduced by sickness and hardship, he raised the siege and marched away,

to continue the war in other quarters. But it was four years before the

quarrel with France came to an end, and during this time the Protestant

States of Germany had nothing to fear from the Imperial power. The

Margrave Albert of Brandenburg-Kulmbach, who was on the Emperor's side,

attempted to carry fire and sword through their territories, in order to

pay himself for his military services. After wasting, plundering and

committing shocking barbarities in Saxony and Franconia, he was defeated

by Maurice, in July, 1553. The latter fell in the moment of victory,

giving his life in expiation of his former apostasy. The greater part of

Saxony, nevertheless, has remained in the hands of his descendants to

this day, while the descendants of John Frederick, although representing

the elder line, possess only the little principalities of Thuringia, to

each of which the Saxon name is attached, as Saxe-Weimar, Saxe-Gotha,

&c.



[Sidenote: 1555.]



Charles V., who saw his ambitious plans for the government of the world

failing everywhere, and whose bodily strength was failing also, left

Germany in disgust, commissioning his brother Ferdinand to call a Diet,

in accordance with the stipulations of the Treaty of Passau. The Diet

met at Augsburg, and in spite of the violent opposition of the Papal

Legate, on the 25th of September, 1555, concluded the treaty of

Religious Peace which finally gave rest to Germany. The Protestants who

followed the Augsburg Confession received religious freedom, perfect

equality before the law, and the undisturbed possession of the Church

property which had fallen into their hands. In other respects their

privileges were not equal. By a clause called the "spiritual

reservation," it was ordered that when a Catholic Bishop or Abbot became

Protestant he should give up land and title in order that the Church

might lose none of its possessions. The rights and consciences of the

people were so little considered that they were not allowed to change

their faith unless the ruling prince changed his. The monstrous doctrine

was asserted that religion was an affair of the government,--that is,

that he to whom belonged the rule, possessed the right to choose the

people's faith. In accordance with this law the population of the

Palatinate of the Rhine was afterwards compelled to be alternately

Calvinistic and Lutheran, four times in succession!



The Treaty of Augsburg did not include the followers of Zwingli and

Calvin, who were getting to be quite numerous in Southern and Western

Germany, and they were left without any recognized rights. Nevertheless,

what the Lutherans had gained was also gained for them, in the end; and

the Treaty, although it did not secure equal justice, gave the highest

sanction of the Empire to the Reformation. The Pope rejected and

condemned it, but without the least effect upon the German Catholics,

who were no less desirous of peace than the Protestants. Moreover, their

hopes of a final triumph over the latter were greatly increased by the

zeal and activity of the Jesuits, who had been accepted and commissioned

by the Church of Rome fifteen years before, who were rapidly increasing

in numbers, and professed to have made the suppression of Protestant

doctrines their chief task.



This treaty was the last political event of Charles V.'s reign. One

month later, to a day, he formally conferred on his son, Philip II., at

Brussels, the government of the Netherlands, and on the 15th of January,

1556, he resigned to him the crowns of Spain and Naples. He then sailed

for Spain, where he retired to the monastery of St. Just and lived for

two years longer as an Imperial monk. He was the first monarch of his

time and he made Spain the leading nation of the world: his immense

energy, his boundless ambition, and his cold, calculating brain

reestablished his power again and again, when it seemed on the point of

giving way; but he died at last without having accomplished the two

chief aims of his life--the reunion of all Christendom under the Pope,

and the union of Germany with the Spanish Empire. The German people,

following the leaders who had arisen out of their own breast,--Luther,

Melanchthon, Reuchlin and Zwingli--defeated the former of these aims:

the princes, who had found in Charles V. much more of a despot than they

had bargained for, defeated the latter.



[Sidenote: 1558. FERDINAND OF AUSTRIA EMPEROR.]



The German Diet did not meet until March, 1558, when Ferdinand of

Austria was elected and crowned Emperor, at Frankfort. Although a

Catholic, he had always endeavored to protect the Protestants from the

extreme measures which Charles V. attempted to enforce, and he

faithfully observed the Treaty of Augsburg. He even allowed the

Protestant form of the sacrament and the marriage of priests in Austria,

which brought upon him the condemnation of the Pope. Immediately after

the Diet, a meeting of Protestant princes was held at Frankfort, for the

purpose of settling certain differences of opinion which were not only

disturbing the Lutherans but also tending to prevent any unity of action

between them and the Swiss Protestants. Melanchthon did his utmost to

restore harmony, but without success. He died in 1560, at the age of

sixty-three, and Calvin four years afterwards, the last of the leaders

of the Reformation.



On the 4th of December, 1563, the Council of Trent finally adjourned,

eighteen years after it first came together. The attempts of a portion

of the prelates composing it to reform and purify the Roman Church had

been almost wholly thwarted by the influence of the Popes. It adopted a

series of articles, to each one of which was attached an anathema,

cursing all who refused to accept it. They contained the doctrines of

priestly celibacy, purgatory, masses for the dead, worship of saints,

pictures and relics, absolution, fasts, and censorship of books--thus

making an eternal chasm between Catholicism and Protestantism. At the

close of the Council the Cardinal of Lorraine cried out: "Accursed be

all heretics!" and all present answered: "Accursed! accursed!" until the

building rang. In Italy, Spain and Poland, the articles were accepted at

once, but the Catholics in France, Germany and Hungary were dissatisfied

with many of the declarations, and the Church, in those countries, was

compelled to overlook a great deal of quiet disobedience.



[Sidenote: 1559.]



At this time, although the Catholics had a majority in the Diet (since

there were nearly 100 priestly members), the great majority of the

German people had become Protestants. In all Northern Germany, except

Westphalia, very few Catholic congregations were left: even the

Archbishops of Bremen and Magdeburg, and the Bishops of Luebeck, Verden

and Halberstadt had joined the Reformation. In the priestly territories

of Cologne, Treves, Mayence, Worms and Strasburg, the population was

divided; the Palatinate of the Rhine, Baden and Wuertemberg were almost

entirely Protestant, and even in Upper-Austria and Styria the Catholics

were in a minority. Bavaria was the main stay of Rome: her princes, of

the house of Wittelsbach, were the most zealous and obedient champions

of the Pope in all Germany. The Roman Church, however, had not given up

the struggle: she was quietly and shrewdly preparing for one more

desperate effort to recover her lost ground, and the Protestants,

instead of perceiving the danger and uniting themselves more closely,

were quarrelling among themselves concerning theological questions upon

which they have never yet agreed.



There could be no better evidence that the reign of Charles V. had

weakened instead of strengthening the German Empire, than the losses and

the humiliations which immediately followed. Ferdinand I. gave up half

of Hungary to Sultan Solyman, and purchased the right to rule the other

half by an annual payment of 300,000 ducats. About the same time, the

Emperor's lack of power and the selfishness of the Hanseatic cities

occasioned a much more important loss. The provinces on the eastern

shore of the Baltic, which had been governed by the Order of the

Brothers of the Sword after the downfall of the German Order, were

overrun and terribly devastated by the Czar Ivan of Russia. The Grand

Master of the Order appealed to Luebeck and Hamburg for aid, which was

refused; then, in 1559, he called upon the Diet of the German Empire and

received vague promises of assistance, which had no practical value.

Then, driven to desperation, he turned to Poland, Sweden and Denmark,

all of which countries took instant advantage of his necessities. The

Baltic provinces were defended against Russia--and lost to Germany. The

Swedes and Danes took Esthonia, the Poles took Livonia, and only the

little province of Courland remained as an independent State, the Grand

Master becoming its first Duke.



[Sidenote: 1567. THE GRUMBACH REBELLION.]



Ferdinand I. died in 1564, and was immediately succeeded by his eldest

son, Maximilian II. The latter was in the prime of life, already popular

for his goodness of heart, his engaging manners and his moderation and

justice. The Protestants cherished great hopes, at first, that he would

openly join them; but, although he so favored and protected them in

Austria that Vienna almost became a Protestant city, he refused to leave

the Catholic Church, and even sent his son Rudolf to be educated in

Spain, under the bitter and bigoted influence of Philip II. His daughter

was married to Charles IX. of France, and when he heard of the massacre

of St. Bartholomew (in August, 1572) he cried out: "Would to God that my

son-in-law had asked counsel of me! I would so faithfully have persuaded

him as a father, that he certainly would never have done this thing." He

also endeavored, but in vain, to soften the persecutions and cruelties

of Philip II.'s reign in the Netherlands.



Maximilian II.'s reign of twelve years was quiet and uneventful. Only

one disturbance of the internal peace occurred, and it is worthy of note

as the last feud, after so many centuries of free fighting between the

princes. An independent knight, William von Grumbach, having been

dispossessed of his lands by the Bishop of Wuerzburg, waylaid the latter,

who was slain in the fight which occurred. Grumbach fled to France, but

soon allied himself with several dissatisfied Franconian knights, and

finally persuaded John Frederick of Saxony (the smaller Dukedom) to

espouse his cause. The latter was outlawed by the Emperor, yet he

obstinately determined to resist, in the hope of wresting the Electorate

of Saxony from the younger line and restoring it to his own family. He

was besieged by the Imperial army in Gotha, in 1567, and taken prisoner.

Grumbach was tortured and executed, and John Frederick kept in close

confinement until his death, twenty-eight years afterwards. His sons,

however, were allowed to succeed him. The severity with which this

breach of the internal peace was punished put an end forever, to petty

wars in Germany: the measures adopted by the Diet of 1495, under

Maximilian I., were at last recognized as binding laws.



[Sidenote: 1576.]



The Revolt of the Netherlands, which broke out immediately after

Maximilian II.'s accession to the throne, had little, if any, political

relation to Germany. Under Charles V. the Netherlands had been quite

separated from any connection with the German Empire, and he was free to

introduce the Inquisition there and persecute the Protestants with all

the barbarity demanded by Rome. Philip II. followed the same policy: the

torture, fire and sword were employed against the people until they

arose against the intolerable Spanish rule, and entered upon that

struggle of nearly forty years which ended in establishing the

independence of Holland.



On the 12th of October, 1576, at a Diet where he had declared his policy

in religious matters to be simply the enforcement of the Treaty of

Augsburg, Maximilian II. suddenly fell dead. According to the custom

which they had now followed for 140 years, of keeping the Imperial

dignity in the house of Hapsburg, the Electors immediately chose his

son, Rudolf II., an avowed enemy of the Protestants. Unlike his father,

his nature was cold, stern and despotic: he was gloomy, unsocial and

superstitious, and the circumstance that he aided and encouraged the

great astronomers, Kepler and Tycho de Brahe, was probably owing to his

love for astrology and alchemy. He was subject to sudden and violent

attacks of passion, which were followed by periods of complete

indifference to his duties. Like Frederick III., a hundred years before,

he concerned himself with the affairs of Austria, his direct

inheritance, rather than with those of the Empire; and thus, although

internal wars had been suppressed, he encouraged the dissensions in

religion and politics, which were gradually bringing on a more dreadful

war than Germany had ever known before.



One of Rudolf II.'s first measures was to take from the Austrian

Protestants the right of worship which his father had allowed them. He

closed their churches, removed them from all the offices they held, and,

justifying himself by the Treaty of Augsburg that whoever ruled the

people should choose their religious faith, did his best to make Austria

wholly Catholic. Many Catholic princes and priests, emboldened by his

example, declared that the articles promulgated by the Council of Trent

abolished the Treaty of Augsburg and gave them the right to put down

heresy by force. When the Archbishop of Cologne became a Protestant and

married, the German Catholics called upon Alexander of Parma, who came

from the Netherlands with a Spanish army, took possession of the

former's territory, and installed a new Catholic Archbishop, without

resistance on the part of the Protestant majority of Germany. Thus the

hate and bitterness on both sides increased from year to year, without

culminating in open hostilities.



[Sidenote: 1600. GROWTH AND CONDITION OF GERMANY.]



The history of Germany, from the accession of Rudolf II. to the end of

the century, is marked by no political event of importance. Spain was

fully occupied in her hopeless attempt to subdue the Netherlands: in

France Henry of Navarre was fighting the Duke of Guise; Hungary and

Austria were left to check the advance of the Turkish invasion, and

nearly all Germany enjoyed peace for upwards of fifty years. During this

time, population and wealth greatly increased, and life in the cities

and at courts became luxurious and more or less immoral. The arts and

sciences began to flourish, the people grew in knowledge, yet the spirit

out of which the Reformation sprang seemed almost dead. The elements of

good and evil were strangely mixed together--intelligence and

superstition, piety and bigotry, civilization and barbarism were found

side by side. As formerly in her history, it appeared nearly impossible

for Germany to grow by a gradual and healthy development: her condition

must be bad enough to bring on a violent convulsion, before it could be

improved.



Such was the state of affairs at the end of the sixteenth century. In

spite of the material prosperity of the country, there was a general

feeling among the people that evil days were coming; but the most

desponding prophet could hardly have predicted worse misfortunes than

they were called upon to suffer during the next fifty years.



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