Lutheran movement in england during the reigns of henry VIII. And edward VI

CHAPTER XV. NEW DIFFICULTIES IN THE REIGN OF EDWARD VI.

Decline of Lutheranism in Germany. The Results of the Battle of Mühlberg. The Interim. Melanchthon wavers. The Firmness of the Elector of Saxony. Influence of the Elector in England. Edward’s congratulatory Letter. The Elector’s Reply. The Augsburg Confession, still the only Basis. League with the Germans contemplated. John Frederick to be its Head. Deaths of the King of England, and the Elector of Saxony.

The death of Henry VIII. removed the great barrier that had stood in the way of the English Reformation. The two parties that had been held together by his arbitrary measures, were now to come to an open rupture. Cranmer was free to pursue his own course. All Romish interests were suppressed during the reign of Edward VI., as, from the Roman Catholic point of view, Mary was the rightful heir, and Edward, a usurper. The king’s uncle, the Duke of Somerset, “the Protector,” was known as an ardent friend of the Reformation; but he concerned himself almost exclusively with the political affairs of the kingdom, leaving to Cranmer the task of the ecclesiastical administration.

Could this change have been foreseen at any time during the preceding period from 1535, the prediction would have been made that the Church of England would now, at last, become Lutheran. If we seek the reasons why this expectation was not fulfilled, we must consider first of all the condition, at that time, of the Lutheran Church in Germany. Never was it less able to assert itself or to impress its influence upon those without. To human eyes, it really seemed as though it were on the very verge of destruction. Looking back, we can scarcely imagine that [[@Page:199]]only seventeen years had passed since the Diet of Augsburg, so great has been the fall. The transition has been even more rapid. For only a few years before, with five out of seven of the German electors on the Lutheran side, the prospect for its complete triumph was exceedingly encouraging.

Henry VIII. died January 28th, 1547. Eleven months before, the Reformation had lost its great pillar, when Luther died, February 18th, 1546, and the accomplished but vacillating Melanchthon succeeded to a position, for which his gifts, however eminent in other spheres, did not fit him. External dangers were rapidly gathering. The loyalty of the Lutheran princes of the Empire had induced them to participate in the war against Francis I., and, after they had conquered the foe whose activity had kept the Emperor’s hands from them, he was at last able to make an attempt to suppress the Lutheran heresy. This might readily have been repelled, if Duke Maurice of Saxony, influenced by motives of personal hostility against his cousin, the Elector John Frederick, had not energetically thrown himself upon the side of the Emperor, even though professing to be true to that faith, for whose destruction the war was waged. April 24th, 1547, less than three months after the accession of Edward VI., the battle of Mühlberg was fought, and the heroic and godly Elector, next to Luther perhaps the greatest figure of the days of the Reformation, and the head of the Smalcald League, who for so many years had been insisting on the acceptance of the entire Augsburg Confession, as interpreted by the Apology, as the condition of any further negotiations with England, was taken prisoner, deprived of his electoral dignity, despoiled of half his dominions and kept in degrading imprisonment for the next five years. Two months later the Landgrave of Hesse met a similar fate. When Melanchthon heard of the Elector’s defeat, he at once wrote to Cruciger (May 1st): “I see that a change of doctrine, and new distractions in the Church will follow,”²²⁰ and fled, first to Brunswick, and then to Nordhausen. [[@Page:200]]After Wittenberg was captured by the Emperor, and placed in charge of Maurice, Melanchthon was prevailed upon to return, although the Elector John Frederick, through his sons, besought him to aid in establishing a new University at Jena, one of the cities still left the Elector. Maurice’s exceeding kindness and his presents, as well as his assurances that he was still devoted to the Lutheran faith, seem to have almost reconciled Melanchthon to the changed circumstances. Among the homes offered him elsewhere at this time was one in England. October 25th, 1547, he writes:²²¹ “To-day I have answered the Bishop of Canterbury who invites me to England.”

Then came the persecutions connected with the forcing of the Interim upon Lutheran people. Charles V. dissatisfied with the uncompromising spirit manifested by the Council of Trent, and hoping still to maintain the unity of his Empire by a compromise making some concessions to his Lutheran subjects, caused a document (the Augsburg Interim) to be prepared by Agricola, in connection with two Roman Catholic theologians, which, in effect, reintroduced, with a few modifications, the abominations of the Papacy. It forced hundreds of Lutheran ministers into exile, and entailed the greatest distress in various communities, especially at Magdeburg and Augsburg. It was during this persecution, that John Brentz showed himself such a hero in Würtemberg. Even the Elector Maurice was indignant, and would not accept it save with certain restrictions. But this did not prevent Melanchthon from a second exile, as the Emperor demanded that, because of his opposition, he must be surrendered or banished. Maurice devised another expedient in the Leipzig Interim, which was preponderatingly Lutheran in its statements, but was so worded as to give the least offence to its opponents, and which enjoined the use of a number of ceremonies, made more acceptable by an evangelical explanation, that heretofore had been regarded badges of the Papists.

Melanchthon was free to express his preference for what he [[@Page:201]]regarded a more correct statement of doctrine and prescription of usage, but at the same time declared (January 6th, 1549,) that it “made no change in the Church,”²²² that its prescriptions were “tolerable”²²³ and that “it is the better course to treat some Collies moderately.”²²⁴ He in no way foresaw the storm which his disposition to suppress a protest would call forth.

The Leipzig Interim found no favor anywhere and all attempts to introduce it, had to be abandoned. It is worth while noting that the entire history of the Interims shows that the controversy which had just ceased in England, had been transferred to Germany; and that the policy of yielding certain matters to the Papists, to secure outward unity, was only the repetition of the course of Henry VIII. The Six Articles and the Augsburg Interim belong together; while the Leipzig Interim was also a recession from the principle which demanded unconditional subscription to the Augsburg Confession as the condition of union. Just when the English Church was ready for the entrance of the full truth, those who were regarded the representatives of Lutheranism, themselves waver. Is it wonderful, therefore, that a more radical element soon enters, by its more positive and decided testimony to take the place of such uncertain and wavering Lutheranism? Let any one who who has the curiosity, look into the Calendar of State Papers of the reign of Edward VI., and he will note what pains the authorities in England were then taking to be promptly and fully informed concerning what was transpiring on the Continent, and how the weekly and almost daily dispatches of such ambassadors as Christopher Mount, Sir John Masone and Sir Richard Morysinne, supply, not only most valuable information concerning the ecclesiastical complications of Germany, but even the details of the current gossip of courts and cities. We can imagine the pain and consternation, with which English Lutherans looked on the defection of those, from whom [[@Page:202]]they had hoped for encouragement and sympathy in the better times that had now come for them in England.

One great figure, however, stood forth as a beacon light amidst the storm. One heart rose superior to the crisis. The clearness of the testimony of the imprisoned Elector, upon whom even sentence of death had been passed, carried with it a moral weight that was felt throughout Christendom. Summoned before the Emperor in 1548, he was offered the most favorable terms, in case he would desist from his error, and submit to a council.” His answer is worthy of everlasting remembrance: “I stand before your Imperial Majesty a poor prisoner. I do not deny that I have confessed the truth, and for it have lost possessions and property, wife and child, land and people, in short everything that God has given me in the world. I have noting left but this imprisoned body, and even this is not within my power, but within that of your Majesty. By the truth which I have confessed, I will abide, and will suffer, as an example, whatever else God and your Imperial Majesty may impose.”²²⁵ The better feelings of the Emperor, we are told, overcame him, and he turned away to hide his emotion. When the Interim was published, another persistent effort was made to secure the Elector’s subscription. But he was immovable. “From his youth he had been instructed according to the doctrine contained in the Augsburg Confession. As in his conscience he was convinced of its truth, should he yield, he could not show himself grateful for such distinguished grace, nor could he expect the inheritance of everlasting life which Christ promised those who would confess him. But if he were to accept the Interim, he must deny the Augsburg Confession, whereby he would sin against God for time and to eternity. Nothing could be more pleasing to him and his unwieldy body (for he was corpulent) than freedom, yet, then, he could not testify with a good conscience before God’s judgment seat that he had sought for no comfort of this poor temporal life, but only for God’s glory and the inheritance of life everlasting.”²²⁶ He [[@Page:203]]wrote also a paper to be preserved as his testimony after his death, beginning: “I a poor prisoner in Babylonian captivity, in order that every one may know that, with God’s help, I will not during my life receive the Interim, but will abide faithful to the Augsburg Confession, and the other articles agreed upon at Smalcald.”²²⁷

When Maurice at last could no longer suppress his indignation at the manner in which the Emperor had used him as a tool to destroy the Lutheran faith, and in which the most sacred pledges were wantonly broken, he sought to repair, to an extent, the wrong in which for years he had participated. Finding an ally in the King of France, he so suddenly made war, that the Emperor, surprised, routed and almost captured at Innspruck in 1552, was glad to conclude, the same year, the Peace of Passau. But even before peace was forced, the Emperor to conciliate his subjects liberated the Elector, who, nevertheless, preferred for awhile to remain with his late captor. When he finally returned to Saxony, his course became a regular triumphal procession, as the people turned out in mass, to honor one who had been greater in defeat, than he couldhave been even in victory. “Everywhere,” says Salig, “he was embraced as a father of his country and a faithful defender of the Augsburg Confession, who, through no trouble and suffering, could be alienated from the truth.”²²⁸ Melanchthon promptly wrote a long letter of congratulation. “The memory of your confession, your troubles and liberation, is useful to the Church both now and to posterity. As that of the Israelites in the fiery furnace, or of Daniel among the lions, so also your example will, in many ways, profit others for the true knowledge of God. This honor is much to be preferred to bloody victories and triumphs.”²²⁹ The Elector in his courteous reply administers a significant rebuke, when he intimates that the great theologian had culpably wavered and declares how he had wished [[@Page:204]]from his heart that no change whatever had been attempted in the doctrine as set forth by Luther in 1537 at Smalcald and received by all preachers and pastors of the Augsburg Confession. “We have no doubt,” he says, “that if such had been the case, the divisions and errors that have occurred among the teachers of the above mentioned Confession, would, with God’s help, have been removed.”²³⁰

In England also, the release of the Elector was hailed as a great victory for the Gospel. The despatches show that he was then regarded as the leader of the Lutheran cause. King Edward VI. also wrote a congratulatory letter. The reply of John Frederick (August 22d, 1552) shows that he still had in mind his old terms of agreement with England. It would be a great gratification to have the very letter; but, in its absence, the abstract given in the “Calendar of English State Papers”²³¹ must answer: “Returns thanks for his Majesty’s letter from Petworth of 25th of July, delivered to him by Sir Richard Morysinne, and for his ready good will towards him. Commends his Majesty’s efforts on behalf of the Gospel religion, and urges him to continue these. And whereas his Majesty had exhorted him to exert himself towards procuring a suspension of controversies among the professors of Protestantism, declares that of all things the most difficult is to settle religious differences, especially at this advanced age of the world, when every one thinks he has found the truth, lest the old serpent should bite the heel of him who tramples on him. These dissensions arise in consequence of many being misled by philosophical speculations and civil wisdom, withdrawing from the Confession of Augsburg, which had been approved by the consent of the most eminent theologians. To which, if they had firmly adhered, as they ought, neither that most mischievous Zwinglian sect, nor the Anabaptists, nor the Antinomians, nor the Adiaphorists, and authors of change in religion, would have disturbed, as they have done, the best [[@Page:205]]constituted churches, and inflicted a wound that seems almost incurable.”

Again it began to look as though an Anglo-German Lutheran alliance might yet be made. With John Frederick liberated, they had now a leader who could be trusted, especially as he was supported by by Francis Burkhard who, in 1538, with Myconius, had so nearly gained the victory in the negotiations in London. Hence we find, in the “Calendar” of May 25th, 1553,²³² the record that commissioners appointed for the purpose recommend to the Royal Council the formation of “a league with the Germans, including the Emperor,” and “suggest that for the naming of the matter, John Frederick is the fittest person to hear of it first; because as he cannot but like, so he is better able to further it, than they, having a man, Francis Burkhard, who has been thrice in England, as fit as any in Germany to handle the subject.”

But this was not to be. Providence again mysteriously interfered. Within less than six weeks, (July 5th, 1553) the young King of England died, and the reign of Bloody Mary began. On the third of March following, the heroic Elector, broken down by the severe sufferings through which he had passed, was added to “the noble army of martyrs” in the Church Triumphant. When Amsdorf visited him on his death-bed, to receive his confession and impart the consolations of the Gospel, he heard this dying testimony: “This I know: Whether I live, I live unto the Lord, or whether I die, I die unto the Lord. Of this I am certain.”²³³ [[@Page:206]]