hitherto exercised, the late contest had been productive of the most injurious consequences; but viewing it in the character of a usurping power, or of one tottering to its fall, the issue of the struggle amounted even to brilliant success, for notwithstanding the inroads made upon its territory, it still possessed a dominion sufficiently extensive to satisfy the most ambitious of potentates.

That there was only a pause in the conflict, and not that the struggle was at an end, is a consideration to be kept in mind throughout the perusal of the following narrative. The development of many important doctrines and theories was dependent upon this state of affairs. Some of the most interesting circumstances in the later history of the Church are only to be accounted for by a reference to this fact, and though it will not be always necessary to bring it prominently forward, its being borne in mind will generally add force and clearness to the detail.

It was the grand object of the Reformation to purify the religious system, which millions acknowledge to be the gift of God, from the corruptions which time, and human ambition, and the host of selfish passions attendant thereon, had gradually introduced. But these corruptions admit of being considered under a twofold character. There were those which belonged to the mere government of the Church, and those which more immediately respected the truths which it was instituted to promulge. We are to look then, in the times now to be contemplated, for a juster species of ecclesiastical rule; for authority exercised upon maxims more accordant with the spirit of the gospel; for doctrines set free from the alloy of human conceits, and examples of holiness founded on the sure foundation of godly wisdom.

But not forgetting that the excitement attending the Reformation had its share of salutary influence on the opposite party, it will become us to trace with candour the indications of spiritual mindedness, and of an earnest zeal to promote the glory of God, found in numerous individual members of the Church which we have seen exposed to such a mighty onset of collected learning, wisdom, and holiness. Collecting in this manner, the

proofs of increasing light and grace, wherever they are to be discovered, we shall have abundant reason to rejoice at the results of the revolution just accomplished. But while thus looking with thankful delight upon the manifestations of divine power, the gratification belonging to such a spectacle must not prevent our scanning the opposite side of the picture. There, unhappily, we shall see too clearly pourtrayed awful scenes of folly and inconsistency; melancholy examples of human weakness and corruption, to demonstrate, beyond contradiction, the inadequacy of either rules or systems, or even the full freedom to employ all the means of grace, to complete the emancipation of mankind from sin and ignorance.

In order to accomplish the design thus alluded to, we shall have to trace the progress of opinions rather than of events. At the period when the Diet of Augsburg was held, truth had its broad, bold statements to make in the face of a host of enemies haughty and uncompromising. Others but accidentally connected with these foremost defenders of error were gradually drawn in to support the same cause; and the champions of the pure gospel had thus to meet an army, the ranks of which extended in length and depth to the extreme borders of Christendom. There was little time left in the conduct of such a battle for the development of the principles asserted, for proving by their effects how sound or valuable they were, or what was to be expected from them when they should no longer be employed as a warcry, but should begin to operate tranquilly in men's minds, left at liberty to obey their convictions, or the higher influences of Heaven. The period, therefore, which has been just described, was eminently one of action and events, and the conduct of public men necessarily demanded our chief attention. Now, on the other hand, we have to contemplate the important consequences of the struggle, and to show how the two great parties themselves, and those to which they gave rise, proceeded to unfold their several designs.

The state of the Lutheran Church was at this time but little encouraging to the friends of peace and order.

Luther had clearly foreseen the agitations which would follow his decease. Whatever the ardour of his friendship for Melancthon, or the veneration in which he held his piety and genius, he well knew his unfitness to stand at the head of a party, or perform the tasks for the execution of which no qualities were more needed than fortitude and determined resolution. Nor was he less acquainted with the feelings of the men who, most active in their opposition to Rome, were, by disposition originally, and now still more so by habit, ready to delight in any species of agitation, and, therefore, as likely to rise against the final settlement of a reformed Church, on any fair and proper foundation, as they had previously been to resist the tyranny of the Popes.

Scarcely was Luther dead* when all these anticipated causes of disturbance came into full play. Melancthon's mind was as capacious as his spirit was catholic. He had present to his thoughts whatever learning as well as divine charity could suggest in favour of tolerance and mutual forbearance. Had he been able to make his associates understand, not only the force but the connexion of his arguments, their general relation, that is, to evangelical truth, in its largest and broadest acceptation, as well as their present expediency, he might have exercised a most profitable influence over their minds. But while some acknowledged their value in the latter sense only, others restricted their admiration of them to the former; and the violent pressure of outward circumstances soon drove both parties far beyond the reach of his admonitions.

Whatever there was of bitterness in the disposition of those preparing for fresh controversy, it received no small accession of virulence from the general state of affairs. The main question respecting the ordinary

* Luther had been regarded by many with a false and extravagant veneration; some had even attached to his name a more than mortal honour. By such persons he was called, "the man of God;" "the new Elias;" "the last prophet, appearing at the end of the world." When he died, it is said, it seemed as if an oracle had suddenly become dumb, or that his scholars were deprived of what was most necessary to their instruction and advancement.-Henke, t. 11., p. 405.

rights of conscience had been well nigh settled; but while documents now existed, which proved that neither states, nor churches, could any more resist the imperative demands of common sense and justice, the minor attempts of persecution were being perpetually renewed; and the theologian went to his logic and his Bible with a burning and a throbbing heart, dreading or already suffering from the acts of a petty tyrant.

The treaty of 1555 seemed to promise many years of tranquillity. But such pacifications can, at best, only damp for the moment the fires of religious hatred. It is rarely they are extinguished. For the most part, they waste themselves and go out, like every other passion not proper to the ordinary condition of the human mind. In the present case they shot up from time to time into a broader glare, and the controversy between one petty state and another,-between the prince and the people, or one section of the people and another section, frequently assumed as fierce a character as the grand conflict itself between Rome and the whole mighty assemblage of those who dared to resist its power.

It was with scarcely the shadow of good feeling that the Emperor Ferdinand had assented to any of those measures which secured the dissenters from the Roman Church in the possession of their rights, either as citizens or Christians. That he was thus backward to accord what seemed fairly demanded of the temporal ruler by every principle of social equity, must not be too hastily attributed to religious severity or bigoted zeal. Ferdinand saw plainly how much was to be dreaded from the unsettled spirit of those who most eagerly demanded the boon, dear to every enlightened mind, but sought with no less passion by those who, the instant it is gained, only use it to their own ruin, and the discomfiture of truth and holiness. It was his duty, as a wise governor, to take notice of all those signs of the times which might in any degree lead him to a course, terminating in the prospect of more settled feelings. Let this be allowed, and it will tend partially to counterbalance the more painful impressions which

are left by the view of Ferdinand's character in the conduct of religious affairs. That he was inclined, by an unjust preponderance of feeling, to defend the rights of the one party rather than those of the other, appears plain from the whole tenor of the history of these times. He deserves whatever censure posterity can heap upon the memory of rulers guilty of such offences. But he was a man of more generosity, of better temper, and we shall not be wrong, perhaps, if we add, of a far more Christian spirit than his brother. His line of policy was marked out for him by his fears as a prince,by his deep anxiety for the tranquillity of his dominions, as well as by his zeal for the faith which he professed, and the communion to which he belonged.

Germany, but a short period before happy in the prospect of continued peace, was now torn by the ruinous dissensions of its rulers. The weak, oppressed by the powerful, were anxiously seeking distant alliances; while the powerful found new food for ambition in the forfeitures of states and offices demanded of those who preferred their religion to their dignities. The Duke of Ortenburg, deprived of his dominions by the Archduke of Bavaria, and Donauwerth, with its dependencies, furnish memorable instances of this fact. Nor was it on the side of the Roman Catholics only that proofs occurred of the angry and persecuting spirit of the age. The reformers were complained of in language no less bitter, and with accumulated accusations of oppressive conduct. The exactness of such complaints, on either side, may be well disputed; but there is ample reason to believe that no slight portion of what was said had its origin in truth; and that religion was now repeatedly made use of for the purpose of veiling worldly ambition or private enmity.

The conflict thus carried on between the two parties had but few and uncertain intermissions; still a fair prospect of peace was given by the determinations of the Diet of Augsburg in 1555. Scarcely, however, had four years passed away, when in the Diet, held at the same place, the reformers and their opponents heaped such accusations on each other that it evidently only