The people at Wittenberg and in other cities of influence were gradually
learning to think of the church as separate from the Roman hierarchy.
Now there was need for reorganization. A steady supply of ministers was
essential and arrangements had to be made for their training and
support. A bond of some sort was necessary to establish unity of
endeavor, and mission work was imperative in areas where conviction had
lapsed into indifference.
Luther didn’t care for organizational work. The thought that the new
church might degenerate into a system of laws and regulations haunted
him. Although his revised order of worship was finding its way into use
he felt that still more urgent matters demanded attention. Proper
instruction of young and old was essential and to accomplish it there
had to be some sort of oversight.
The bishops had neglected instruction of the laymen and the princes were
loath to reinstitute it. Luther, therefore, laid the task directly upon
the congregations and in some cases the city councils to select
competent men as pastors, establish pastoral districts, and set up
schools. To advise and assist in this work, visitation committees
comprising learned laymen and theologians traveled throughout Saxony
beginning in 1527. The visitation was carried on in other areas of
Germany too, and in this way the groundwork for future organization
began.
In the meantime two distinct factions had developed among the princes of
Germany. One espoused the Roman cause, the other the Reformation. From
1525 to 1529 a series of diets and assemblies was held. The rival
princes concerned themselves largely with attempts at, and opposition
to, the invoking of the ban against Luther, his works, and his cohorts
which had been executed at Worms. At Speyer in 1529 the Catholic
princes, with the emperor’s backing, tried to force a resolution
preventing the spread of Luther’s teachings in any new areas, but the
Reformation princes protested. Matters concerning salvation were of an
individual nature and could not be legislated. Conscience bound them to
oppose the resolution. Principles which the Wittenberg monk had declared
only eight years before were becoming the national mind.