was drawn up with all possible rancour and malice by Alexander. However, whilst Luther attended at Worms, and pleaded his cause, he was treated with affability and civility by that illustrious assembly. He shewed a sufficient presence of mind, and a noble intrepidity, in the opinion of every one but himself; for he afterwards lamented, that he had not been stili bolder in the cause of God *.

The tenets of Luther became now to be received, not only in Upper and Lower Saxony, but also in other parts of Germany, and in the North. Erasmus, and the learned Agrippa of Cologne, looked upon this Reformer as a hero, who would put a stop to the tyranny which the mendicant friers, and the rest of the clergy, exercised over the minds and consciences of men. Being ignorant and voluptuous, they encouraged a thousand paltry superstitions, and would neither emerge from their barbarity, nor suffer others to do it; insomuch, that to be witty, and polite, was sufficient to expose a man to their hate and indignation.

Luther made a translation of the New Testament into the German language, and wrote several books, during his retirement, which he called his hermitage. He was immediately accused of corrupting the Gospel in several places; but none of his adversaries ventured to condemn the translation of the New Testament in the vulgar tongue: on the contrary, Jerom Emser criticised upon this version, and made another. The king of England wrote to the princes of Germany upon that subject; and said, it was useful to have the Scripture in several languages, that corrupt versions might be prevented. However, it is acknowledged, that Luther, in translating the Bible, was assisted by the disciples of Reuchlin, and hath translated

At the time the diet of Worms was held, a treatise was published, in which were the following among other anecdotes: The count of Nassau, governor of Flanders, Brahant, and Holland, said to the divines at the Hague, "Go, and preach the Gospel in sincerity and truth, like Luther." The academies of Louvain complained to Margaret the emperor's sister, governess of the Netherlands, that Luther was subverting Christianity by his writings. "Who, said she, is this Luther" They replied, he was an illiterate monk. "Is he so, said the princess? Then you, who are very learned and numerous, write against this illiterate monk: and surely the world will pay more regard to many scholars than to one blockhead."

many

many places very happily that he was master of the German language; and that there is much to be learned from this work. But the sieur de St. Aldegonde, in 1594, wrote to John Drusius, who was employed by the States General to make a new translation of the Bible into the Dutch tongue, that, "among all the versions he had met with, he had seen none that differed so widely from the true Hebrew, as that of Luther."

Luther wrote against private confession, private masses, and monastic vows; in consequence of which, Carolostadius, and the Augustine friers at Wittenberg, abolished the use of the mass. Vows of celibacy very little promoted continence. The monks left their cloisters at Wittenberg, and the priests married; after Carolostadius and Justus Jonas had set them the example, which was afterwards followed by Luther.

The doctrine of Luther was not hindered by the edict of the emperor, which was contemned by the princes and magistrates. Henry VIII. king of England, stopped the new doctrine from spreading in his dominions: he did something more, for he caused to be made, in his own name, a treatise about the ses en sacraments, against Luther's book of "The Captivity of Babylon." Some have thought that Edward Lee, afterwards archbishop of York, was the author of that work: but the king presented it to the Pope, who received it very favourably, and was so well pleased with Henry, that he rewarded him with the title of "Defender of the Faith." Henry was the slave of Rome for the first eighteen years of his reign. Delighted with the flatteries of the Pope and the clergy, he drew his pen in their defence. The Papal compliments induced Henry to order all Luther's books to be called in; and forty-two articles, taken from his doctrine, were condemned. Luther had made very free with Aquinas, the favourite author of Henry VIII. who had a great opinion of his learning and talents for dispu tation, and stepped forth as the champion of the church, to defend her against the danger she was in from the spreading of Luther's heresy. But Luther was not to be silenced by the power of his adversary and conceiving himself too contemptuously used by the king, he replied with more acrimony than was thought decent towards the person of a sovereign prince. He answered Henry with

sharpness;

sharpness; and without any respect to his royal dignity; for Luther spared no man in the cause of God. Many divines thought it an honour to defend the king of England, by confuting the book which Luther wrote against him. In Germany, it was answered in Latin by Eckius; and in High Dutch by Muncer. In England, John Fisher, bishop of Rochester, wrote a book to maintain the doctrine which the king had vindicated; and sir Thomas More wrote another, under the name of William Ross, in which he gave a character of Luther. But Luther's magnanimous spirit was not to be depressed by the words of a king, whose treatment of Lambert, the martyr, discovered a heart full of rancour against the truth, because he condemned it without investigation, and a mind full of meanness, because he insulted and threatened an humble subject and inferior.

Luther was now at open war with the church of Rome, and wrote against the excommunication issued by the Pope: be also attacked the bishops, and ecclesiastical princes, in a work, entitled, "Against the Order, falsely called, the Order of Bishops." And he exhorted the states of Bohemia to continue in their separation from the Roman church. He wrote his rough answer to Henry VIII. in Latin, and afterwards translated it into German. Emser wrote the life of Benno, bishop of Misnia in the eleventh century, whose principal merit was, that he had been a rebel and a traitor; yet he was canonized by Pope Adrian VI. for his miracles. Luther wrote against this canonization, and treated Benno's miracles as human frauds, or diabolical operations. Every thing co-operated with the decree of Heaven, in spreading the doctrines of Luther; and the spiritual monarchy of Rome was on the

brink of ruin.

As the diet of Worms had not settled the tranquillity of the empire, another diet was appointed by the emperor to be held at Nuremberg in November, 1522. The emperor was not present, and his brother Ferdinand supplied his place. The Pope (Adrian VI.) sent his nuncio, Che regatus, to this diet; with letters, in manner of a brief, to the princes; and instructions how to proceed against Luther. The Pope informed the diet, that Luther continued to disturb and replenish the world with new books; which grieved him the more, because he was his country

man.

man. He exhorted the members to reduce Luther, and his adherents, to a conformity of faith with the church: but, if this pestiferous canker cannot be cured with gentle medicines, sharper salves must be proved, and fiery searings: the putrified members must be cut off from the body, lest the sound parts should be infected." Yet the nuncio was instructed to declare, "that God suffered this persecution to be inflicted upon his church for the sins of men, especially of priests and prelates among the clergy." The cardinals strongly resented these reflections cast upon them in such an assembly; and it is imagined that the life of Adrian was shortened on that account. The diet answered the nuncio by writing, that they had not put the Papal sentence, nor the imperial edict, into execution against Luther, for fear of raising civil commotions: but they particularly desired he would apply a remedy to the abuses and grievances of which they would give him a memorial; as this would be the only way to re-establish peace and concord between the ecclesiastical and secular orders. They thought it would be necessary, as soon as possible, to call a free council in Germany, to extirpate all errors and abuses; and that all controversy should cease, till the determination of such a council should be known. The nuncio replied, that the negligence which they had shewn concerning Luther, was offensive to God, to the Pope, the emperor, and the empire: that they should observe the imperial edict; and also put in execu tion the degree of the council of Lateran, which inhibits the printing of any book about religious matters, without being licensed by the ordinary. The diet, in the reign of Maximilian, proposed ten grievances against the court of Rome; but this diet of Nuremberg sent oue hundred heads of complaint, or grievances, to the Pope; with a protestation, that they neither could nor would endure such oppressions and extortions. The principal of the "centum gravamina" were against the great number of human constitutions; indulgences; ecclesiastical causes; collation of benefices; annates; exemption of ecclesiastics in criminal causes; excommunication; and many others which they reserved to be proposed, when justice was done them in these. This resolution of the diet was published March 6, 1523, in the form of an edict; but both the Papists and Lutherans interpreted it in favour of them selves.

selves. Luther continued to publish several new tracts; and undertook to compose a new form of celebrating the communion in the church of Wittenberg. He would have none admitted to the communion, but such as could give an account of their faith; and who knew the nature, use, and benefit of the Lord's Supper: he appointed, that both kinds should be given; and that those, who would take only in one, should have neither.

Zuinglius, at this time, was establishing his doctrine in Switzerland; but differed from Luther in the doctrine of the sacrament. Pope Adrian VI. died Oct. 24, 1523, in the sixty-fifth year of his age; without being able to reform the church. He was succeeded by the cardinal Julius de Medicis, who assumed the name of Clement VII. The new Pope sent cardinal Campegius to the diet of Nuremberg, in February, 1524, when he had an audience of the assembly, and vainly endeavoured to stop their complaints by promises. The diet declared for a free council, to allay the disputes of Luther; but the legate procured a private assembly to be held at Ratisbon in July, where it was agreed, that the edict of Worms should be put in execution; and that thirty-five articles of certain constitutions, made for the reformation of the German clergy in pursuance of the late complaints, should be published. The doctrines of Luther were generally favoured by the imperial cities, whose deputies held an assembly at Spires, and explained the decrees of Nuremberg in their favour, while the other sat at Ratisbon.

Luther exposed the contradictions in the two last edicts; and the Popish princes opposed Lutheranism, by putting those edicts in execution. Luther was certainly right, in sserting, that the edicts of Nuremberg and Spires contradicted each other: for if the edict of Worms, which ondemned Luther as a heretic, were to be obeyed; why hould the diet of Nuremberg, which ordered that edict be executed, also order his books to be examined at pires? And if an examination were to be made of his ritings, why was he to be condemned as a heretic, beore such examination was made?

Luther published a book " Of the Duty and Dignity of he civil Magistrate;" and wrote an elegy upon two Austine monks, who were burnt for Lutheranism at russels. Their names were Henry Voes, and John Esch. VOL. III.-No. 62. Nn

The