Reformers to This meagre abstract of the Augsburg Confession is Desire of the enough to demonstrate that in presenting it to the imperial mediate. Diet, the Reformers had been influenced by a strong desire to keep within the boundaries of the Latin Church, and to approximate as closely as possible to doctrines generally received'. Their moderation is peculiarly discernible in the silence they maintained respecting the encroachment of the papal power, as well as a long series of abuses in the penitential system which had stimulated their original protest. They were now indeed most anxious to assert and justify their own ecclesiastical position, to keep clear of the more violent reformers, whether Zwinglian or Anabaptist, and by following this conciliatory path to win from Charles V. and from the Romish section of the states at least a plenary toleration, till their grievances could be authoritatively redressed by the assembling of a general council2. 'Confutation' of the Augs fession, 1530. Yet the gentle measures of Melancthon and his colleagues were unable to disarm the rage of their opponents. burg Con Some of the more violent among them advocated an immediate appeal to persecution, in obedience to the edict that was levelled at the Saxon friar in the Diet of Worms: 1 Ranke, Reform. III. 270, 271. "They wished for nothing but peace and toleration; they thought they had proved that their doctrines had been unjustly condemned and denounced as heretical. Luther brought himself to entreat his old antagonist, the Archbishop of Mainz, who now seemed more peaceably disposed, to lay this to heart: Melancthon addressed himself in the name of the princes to the legate Campeggi, and conjured him not to depart from the moderation which he thought he perceived in him, for that every fresh agitation might occasion an immeasurable confusion in the Church,' p. 276. The following are the points which were at this time regarded as indispensable by Melancthon,crament in both kinds, marriage of -8a priests, omission of the canon in the Its nature and contents. but, nevertheless, the counsels of a party more pacific or forbearing were at last adopted by the emperor. On their suggestion, a committee of divines, who happened then to be at Augsburg, such as Eck, Wimpina, Faber, and Cochlæus, was appointed to draw up a formal confutation of the articles which had been recently submitted to their notice. It was not, however, till the third of August' that the princes, who employed them, were induced to give a hearing to their spirited report. When read in public, it excited the applause of all the enemies of Lutheranism3. This counter-manifesto is most interesting to the theological student, because it gives an ample opportunity of judging how far the representatives of the scholastic system, at a later period of the conflict, were disposed to hold or to recede from the extreme positions which had proved offensive to the first reformers. It is found that some articles of the Augsburg Confession are therein absolutely approved; that others are as absolutely rejected; while the remnant are in part accepted and in part condemned. The articles which fall into the first division are those enunciating the doctrines of the Holy Trinity and the Incarnation, the necessity of baptism and the efficacy of the sacraments (the sole objection being that the number seven' is not specified), the mission of the clergy, the authority of the magistrates, the final judgment, and the resurrection. We may also add, the article on the holy Eucharist, with the terms of which no fault is found, excepting that the Lutherans are required in explanation of it to accept the doctrine of concomitance,-in other words, to recognise the non-necessity of communion in both kinds. With reference to those points, where approbation was most positively withheld, it is important to observe how far 1 The first draft appears to have been shewn to the emperor on the 13th of July, after which it underwent extensive modifications. 2 Ibid. p. 283. 3 See it at length in Francke, Append. pp. 44-69. A more candid statement of objections taken by the Romish party to the Augsburg Confession is the Consilium of Cochlæus, presented to the king of the Romans, at his own request, June 17, 1540; in Le Plat, II. 657-670: cf. also the Consultatio of G. Cassander, A.D. 1564, Ibid. VI. 664 seqq. the Romish theologians modified the language of their masters. They no longer taught that sacraments justify 'ex opere operato,' apart from the volition or the receptivity of the human subject, nor that works done without grace are of the same nature as those which are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. They were far more willing to repudiate all theories of human merit, and while censuring the Lutheran formula of 'sola fides,' they maintained that faith and good works are the free gifts of God, and absolutely nothing (nulla sunt et nihil'), when compared with the rewards which He has mercifully attached to them. The Lutheran definition 'de ecclesia,' was rejected as seeming to imply that sinners are in no way members of the Church. Those also bearing on the invocation of saints, the denial of the cup, and the compulsory celibacy of the priesthood, were assailed by references to Holy Scripture, to the usage of the Primitive Church, and to the statements of the Forged Decretals'. The propitiatory sacrifice of the mass, the use of the Latin language, monastic vows, and other kindred topics, were all similarly re-affirmed and justified by the citation of authorities: and even where some hope was given that disciplinary abuses should hereafter be corrected, there is no abatement of those magisterial claims which had been long propounded by the Latin Church and recognised by many of its members. Of the articles accepted in some measure only, one was that relating to original sin, (exception being taken to the term 'concupiscence'): others were the Lutheran definitions of confession and of penitence; the first of which was censured as too lax; the second as underrating or denying the necessity of satisfaction. Confuta It was obvious that the general feeling of the Diet, after Effects of the listening to this Confutation, was more hostile than before tion. to Luther and his party. Charles himself avowed a fierce determination to proceed as the hereditary champion of the holy Roman Church; and there is reason for believing that if he had not been alarmed by the unflinching attitude 1 Hardwick's Middle Age, pp. 145 sq. at mediation. of the Elector of Saxony and rumours of a Turkish war, he would have finally abandoned all attempts at mediation. Fresh attempt As it was, he now consented once again to the suggestions of the more moderate members of his party, and, on the 16th of August, a conference was opened with a view of framing some pacificatory scheme, and so of re-establishing the unity of the Germanic Churches. The reformers were, on this occasion, represented by Melancthon, Brentz, and Schnepf1. 'We are told that the dogmatical points at issue presented no insuperable difficulties. On the article of original sin, Eck gave way as soon as Melancthon proved to him that an expression objected to in his definition was, in fact, merely a popular explanation of an ancient scholastic one. Respecting the article on justification "through faith alone," Wimpina expressly declared that no work was meritorious, if performed without grace; he required the union of love with faith, and only in so far he objected to the word "alone." In this sense, however, the protestants had no desire to retain it; they consented to its erasure; their meaning had always been merely that a reconciliation with God must be effected by inward devotion, not by outward acts. On the other hand, Eck declared, that the satisfaction which the catholic Church required to be made by penitence was nothing else than reformation; an explanation which certainly left nothing further to be objected to the doctrine of the necessity of satisfaction. Even on the difficult point of the sacrifice of the mass, there was a great approximation. Eck explained the sacrifice as merely a sacramental sign, in remembrance of that which was offered on the cross. The presence of Christ in the Eucharist was not debated. The protestants were easily persuaded to acknowledge not only a true, but also a real or corporal presence. It was certainly not the difference. in the fundamental conceptions of the Christian dogma 1 Luther himself was vehemently opposed to some of the concessions of his friends, and on the 20th of September he wrote with great ear nestness forbidding them to proceed with the discussion. Briefe, ed. De Wette, IV. 171. which perpetuated the contest... The real cause of rupture lay in the constitution and practices of the Church1.' breach with The agent of this rupture was the papal legate Cam- The final peggi, who, though recognising the approximation of the the Lutherans. disputants in point of doctrine", was, on other grounds, the most implacable of Luther's enemies. He argued that the ordinances of the Church, to some of which the Lutherans ventured to object, were all dictated by the Holy Spirit; and the States, alarmed and irritated by his representations, finally decreed, that till the verdict of the long-expected council, the reformers should appoint no more married priests; that they should inculcate the absolute necessity of confession as practised in former years; that they should neither omit the canon of the mass, nor put a stop to private masses; and, especially, that they should hold communion in one kind to be as valid as in both3. It was this arbitrary edict of the Augsburg diet that extinguished the last hope of reconciliation, hitherto so warmly cherished by the moderate of both parties: for although another effort was eventually made, in 1541, under the auspices of Gaspar Contarini, whom the pope deputed as his legate to the colloquy of Ratisbon, it also was completely thwarted, on the one hand by the arrogance and stiffness of the Roman court, and on the other 1 Ranke, III. 306, 307. The truth of this last statement has been illustrated by the whole history of the papacy. To recognise the absolute authority of the Roman pontiff was the only indispensable condition required of our own Church in the time of Queen Elizabeth (Twysden, Vindication, pp. 198 seqq. Camb. ed.); and it is still exacted with the same rigour from all who submit to the Roman communion. In the case also of the Russian Uniates,' we are told that nothing is required but the one capital point of submission to the pope.' Mouravieff's Hist. of the Russian Church, p. 142, Engl. Transl. cf. p. 390 (note). 2 Gieseler, III. i. p. 260, n. 22. 3 Ranke, III. 310. The refusal of the Lutherans to comply with this edict, and the project of a Recess which was based upon it, suggested the composition of their second symbolical book, the Apologia Confessionis; in which the main points of their system are brought out more fully, and in a style less Medieval. 4 See the best account in Melancthon's Works, ed. Bretschneider, IV. 119 sq. The basis of the conference was an essay called the Book of Concord, or Interim of Ratisbon (Ibid. pp. 190 sq.), so constructed as to evade as far as possible the most prominent points of difference. |