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tion of the Turks under Soliman was another insuperable obstacle in the way of the repressive policy. Hence, in 1532, "the peace of Nuremberg" provided that religious affairs should be left unchanged, until they could be adjusted by a new Diet, or by a new Council. Such a Council the Protestants had demanded at Augsburg and Charles had promised to procure. Notwithstanding the disturbance produced by the Anabaptist communists at Münster, the Reformation advanced with rapid strides. The Protestant Duke of Würtemburg was reëstablished in his possessions by the Landgrave of Hesse, in 1534. Brandenburg and ducal Saxony, by the death of the Elector and of the Duke, became Protestant. Catholic princes were beginning to grant religious liberty to their subjects. The war with France, which broke out in 1536, rendered it impossible for the Emperor to hinder this progress. The Smalcald League was extended by the accession of more princes and cities. The Protestants refused to comply with the summons to a Council, in which, by the terms of the invitation, their condemnation was a foregone conclusion. Alarmed at the growing strength of Protestantism, the leading Catholic estates united in a Holy League at Nuremberg, in 1538, which, like the League of Smalcald, was ostensibly for defense.1 The next three years are marked by efforts to secure peace, of which the Conference and Diet of Ratisbon, in

1 The cause of the Reformation was weakened by the discord of Protestant princes, especially of the Elector and Duke Maurice. It suffered still more in consequence of the "dispensation" which Luther and Melancthon granted the Landgrave of Hesse, which allowed him to contract a second marriage without being divorced from his wife, who had become repugnant to him on account of her bodily disorders and personal habits. This "double marriage" brought reproach upon the reformers and carried with it political consequences that were disastrous. See Ranke, iv. 186 seq. Unfounded charges against Luther in connection with this unhappy event, by Protestant as well as Catholic writers — for example, that he was actuated by a selfish regard for the interests of the Protestant party; that he was in favor of polygamy, etc.- are exposed by Hare, Vindication of Luther, etc., p. 225 seq. The transaction is fully narrated by Seckendorf, iii. sect. 21 § lxxix. See also, Rommel, Philip d. Grossmüthige, i. 436, ii. 400.

1541, is the most remarkable. On this occasion the Pope was represented by his Legate, Contarini, who held a view of justification not dissimilar to that of the Protestants, and was ready to meet Melancthon half-way on the path of concession. In these negotiations an actual agreement was attained in the statement of four doctrinal points, which embraced the subjects of the nature of man, original sin, redemption, and justification; but upon the Church, sacraments, and kindred topics, it was found that no concord was attainable. The King of France, from the selfish purpose to thwart the effort for union, with others on the Catholic side who were actuated by different motives, complained of the concessions that had been made by the Catholic party; and Contarini was checked by orders from the Pope. The Elector of Saxony was equally dissatisfied with the proceedings of Melancthon, and together with Luther, who regarded the hope of a compromise as wholly futile, and as inspired by Satan, was gratified when the abortive conference was brought to an end. The necessity of getting help at once against the Turks compelled Charles once more to sanction the peace of Nuremberg with additional provisions to the advantage of the Protestants. His unsuccessful expedition against Algiers, in 1541, and the renewed war with France, together with the Turkish war in which his brother Ferdinand was involved, obliged the latter, at a Diet at Spires in 1542, to grant a continuance of the religious peace. The imperial declaration at Ratisbon was ratified by the Diet of Spires, held in 1544. The prospects of the Protestant cause had been bright. For a time it seemed probable that all Germany would adopt the new faith. But the League of Smalcald was grievously weakened by internal dissension. The cities complained of arbitrary proceedings of the Elector of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse; for example, in the expulsion of the Duke of Brunswick from his land, a

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measure that brought them into conflict with the imperial court. But the fatal event was the hostility of Maurice, Duke of Saxony, to the Elector, which rested on various grounds, and which had once before brought them to the verge of war; and the abandonment of the League by Maurice, in 1542. The Elector of Brandenburg had not joined the League, and was followed in this course by the old Elector Palatine, who adopted the Reformation in 1545. The Emperor forced France to conclude the peace of Crespy, in 1544. At the Diet of Worms in March, 1545, the Protestants refused to take part in the Council of Trent. The hostility of the Elector to Maurice prevented the formation of a close alliance between the two Saxonies and Hesse. Maurice, an adroit and ambitious politician, loving power more than he loved his faith, at length made his bargain with Charles, and engaged to unite with him in making war upon the Elector, whose territories Maurice coveted, and upon the Landgrave, the two princes whom the Emperor professed to attack, not on religious grounds, but as offenders against the laws and peace of the Empire. While the Emperor was dallying with the Protestants that he might prepare to strike a more effective blow, Luther died at Eisleben, the place of his birth, on the 18th of February, 1546. His last days were not his best. His health was undermined, and he suffered grievously from various disorders, especially from severe, continuous headache. He was oppressed with a great variety of little employments relating to public and private affairs, so that going one day from his writing-table to the window he fancied that he saw Satan mocking him for having to consume his time in useless business.1 His intellectual powers were not enfeebled. His religious trust continued firm as a rock.

1 "Here to-day have I been pestered with the knaveries and lies of a baker, brought before me for using false weights; though such matters concern the magistrate rather than the divine. Yet, if no one were to check the thefts of these bakers, we should have a fine state of things."-Tischreden.

His courage and his assurance of the ultimate victory of the truth never faltered. But he lost the cheerful spirits, the joyous tone, that had before characterized him. He took dark views of the wickedness of the times and of society about him. He was weary of the world, weary of life, and longed to be released from its burdens. He was old, he said, useless, a cumberer of the ground, and he wanted to go. His disaffection with Wittenberg, on account of what he considered the laxness of family government and reprehensible fashions in respect to dress, was such that he determined to quit the place, and he was dissuaded only by the united intercessions of the Elector, and of the authorities of the University and of the town. He fell into a conflict with the jurists on account of their declaration that the consent of parents is not absolutely indispensable to the validity of a marriage engagement, and he attacked them publicly from the pulpit.1 The friendship of Luther and Melancthon was not broken, but partially chilled in consequence of theological differences. There were two points on which Melancthon swerved from his earlier views. From the time of the controversy of Luther and Erasmus, Melancthon had begun to modify his ideas of predestination, and to incline to the view that was afterwards called Synergism, which gives to the will an active, though a subordinate, receptive agency in conversion. On this subject, however, the practical, if not the theoretical views of Luther were also modified, as is evident from the letters which he wrote in reply to perplexed persons who applied to him for counsel. The difference on this subject between him and Melancthon, if one existed, occasioned no breach. It was not until after Luther's death that his followers made this a ground of attack on Melanc

1 Galle, p. 139. Luther writes to Spalatin that in his whole life and in all his labors for the Gospel, he had never had more anxiety than during that year (1544). De Wette, v. 626.

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thon and the subject of a theological contest. But, on the Lord's Supper, the matter on which Luther was most sensitive, Melancthon, from about the time of the Diet of Augsburg, began to deviate from his former opinion. The spell which Luther had cast over him in his youth was broken; and, influenced by the arguments of Ecolampadius and by his own independent study of the Fathers, he really embraced, in his own mind, the Calvinistic doctrine, which was, in substance, the opinion advocated by Ecolampadius and Bucer. Melancthon still rejected the Zwinglian theory which made Christ in the sacrament merely the object of the contemplative act of faith; but the other hypothesis of a real but spiritual reception of Him, in connection with the bread and wine, satisfied him. Melancthon's reserve and anxiety to keep the peace could not wholly conceal this change of opinion; and persons were not wanting, of whom Nicholas Amsdorf was the chief, to excite as far as they could, the jealousy and hostility of Luther. The result was that the confidential intimacy of the two men was interrupted. For several years Melancthon lived in distress and in daily expectation of being driven from his place.1 "Often," he says, writing in Greek as he frequently did, when he wanted to express something which he was afraid to divulge-"Often have I said that I dreaded the old age of a nature so passionate, like that of Hercules, or Philoctetes, or the Roman General, Marius.”2 In remarks of this sort he referred, as he explained later, to the vehemence common to men of a heroic make.3 Yet,

1 Corpus Ref., v. 474. Galle, p. 142. A letter of Melancthon to Carlowitz, the Councilor of Duke Maurice (Corpus Ref., vi. 879), written just after the close of the Smalcaldic War, in which he speaks of the foreixia of Luther, affords proof of the uncomfortable relations in which he had stood with the strictly Lutheran Court of the Elector. This letter, which was written, saya Ranke, at an unguarded moment, gave, under the circumstances, just offense to those who cherished the memory of Luther. See the remarks of Ranke, v. 8 Galle, p. 149.

53.

2 Corpus Ref., v. 310. Galle, p. 140.