marriage, he was not likely to stop half-way. Some of the reformers
were disposed to adopt the principles of the early church, and, while
permitting married priests to officiate, denied to them the right
to marry a second time or to espouse any but virgins, declaring all
_digami_ worthy of death and calling upon the people to drive them
out. Against these Luther, in 1528, took up the cudgels vigorously,
arguing the question in all its bearings and arriving at the conclusion
that only bigamists were to be shunned or deemed unworthy of holy
orders.[1077] Yet at the same time his thoroughly practical mind
prevented him from losing sight of some of the evils inseparable
from the revolution which he had wrought in an institution so deeply
affecting daily life as monasticism. As late as 1543, in a letter to
Spalatin, while congratulating him on the desire expressed by some
nuns to leave their convent, he cautions them not to do so unless
they have a certainty or, at least, a speedy prospect of marriage. He
complains of the number of such cases in which he had been obliged to
support the fugitives, and he concludes by declaring that old women
who had no chance of finding husbands had much better remain in their
cloisters.[1078]
It is not difficult to explain why there was so ready and general an
acquiescence in the abrogation of a rule established by the veneration
of so many centuries. Not only had the doctrines of the reformers
taken a deep and firm hold of the popular heart throughout Germany,
destroying the reverence for tradition and antiquity, and releasing
the human mind from the crushing obligation of blind obedience, but
there were other motives, natural, if not particularly creditable. The
ecclesiastical foundations had long neglected the duties of charity,
hospitality, and education, on which were grounded their claims to
their broad lands and rich revenues. While, therefore, the temporal
princes might be delighted with the opportunity of secularizing and
seizing the church possessions, the people might reasonably hope that
the increase of their rulers’ wealth would alleviate their own burdens,
as well as release them from the direct oppression which many of them
suffered from the religious establishments. Even more potential was the
disgust everywhere felt for the flagrant immorality of the priesthood.
The dread experienced by every husband and father lest wife and
daughter might at any moment fall victims to the lust of those who had
every opportunity for the gratification of unholy passions, led them
to welcome the change, in the hope that it would result in restoring
decency and virtue to a class which had long seemed to regard its
sacred character as the shield and instrument of crime.
The moral character of the clergy, indeed, had not improved during the
busy and eventful years which marked the first quarter of the sixteenth
century. There is a curious little tract, printed in Cologne in 1505,
with the approbation of the faculty, which is directed against
concubinage in general, but particularly against that of the priests.
Its laborious accumulation of authorities to prove that licentiousness
is a sin is abundant evidence of the existing demoralization, while
the practices which it combats, of guilty ecclesiastics granting
absolution to each other and mutually dispensing themselves from
confession, show how easily the safeguards with which the church had
sought to surround her ministers were eluded.[1079] The degradation of
the priesthood, indeed, can readily be measured when, in the little
town of Hof, in the Vogtland, three priests could be found defiling
the sacredness of Ash-Wednesday by fiercely fighting over a courtesan
in a house of ill-fame;[1080] or when Leo X., in a feeble effort at
reform, was obliged to argue that systematic licentiousness was not
rendered excusable because its prevalence amounted to a custom, or
because it was openly tolerated by those whose duty was to repress
it.[1081] In fact, a clause in the Concordat with Francis I. in 1516,
renewing and enhancing the former punishments for public concubinage,
would almost justify the presumption that the principal result of the
rule of celibacy was to afford to the officials a regular revenue
derived from the sale of licenses to sin[1082]—the old abuse, which
rises before us in every age from the time of Damiani and Hildebrand,
and which, since John XXII. had framed the tariff of absolutions for
crime known as the “Taxes of the Penitentiary,” had the authority of
the papacy itself to justify it. In this curious document we find that
a concubinary priest could procure absolution for less than a ducat
“in spite of all provincial and synodal constitutions;” while half a
ducat was sufficient to absolve for incest committed with a mother or a
sister.[1083]
That no concealment was thought necessary, and that sensual indulgence
was not deemed derogatory in any way to the character of a Christian
prelate, may be reasonably deduced from the panegyric of Gerard of
Nimeguen on Philip of Burgundy, granduncle of Charles V., a learned and
accomplished man, who filled the important see of Utrecht from 1517
to 1524. Gerard alludes to the amorous propensities and promiscuous
intrigues of his patron without reserve, and as his book was dedicated
to the Archduchess Margaret, sister of Charles V., it is evident
that he did not feel his remarks to be defamatory. The good prelate,
too, no doubt represented the convictions of a large portion of his
class, when he was wont to smile at those who urged the propriety of
celibacy, and to declare his belief in the impossibility of chastity
among men who, like the clergy, were pampered with high living and
tempted by indolence. Those who professed to keep their vows inviolate
he denounced as hypocrites of the worst description, and he deemed them
far worse than their brethren who sought to avoid unnecessary scandal
by decently keeping their concubines at home.[1084]
Even this reticence, however, was considered unnecessary by a large
portion of the clergy. In 1512, the Bishop of Ratisbon issued a series
of canons in which, after quoting the Basilian regulations, he adds
that many of his ecclesiastics maintain their concubines so openly
that it would appear as though they saw neither sin nor scandal in
such conduct, and that their evil example was the efficient cause of
corrupting the faithful.[1085] In Switzerland the same abuses were
quite as prevalent, if we may believe a memorial presented, in 1533, by
the citizens of Lausanne, complaining of the conduct of their clergy.
They rebuked the incontinence of the priests, whose numerous children
were accustomed to earn a living by beggary in the streets, but the
canons were the subjects of their especial objurgation. The dean of
the chapter had defied an excommunication launched at him for buying
a house near the church in which to keep his mistress; others of the
canons had taken to themselves the wives of citizens and refused to
give them up; but the quaintest grievance of which they had been guilty
was the injury which their competition inflicted on the public brothel
of the town.[1086] What was the condition of clerical morality in
Italy may be gathered from the stories of Bishop Bandello, who, as a
Dominican and a prelate, may fairly be deemed to represent the tone
of the thinking and educated classes of society. The cynical levity
with which he narrates scandalous tales about monks and priests shows
that in the public mind sacerdotal immorality was regarded almost as a
matter of course.[1087]
The powerful influence of all this on the progress of the Reformation
was freely admitted by the authorities of the church. When the legate
Campeggi was sent to Germany to check the spread of heresy, in his
reformatory edict issued at Ratisbon in 1524, he declared that the
efforts of the Lutherans had no little justification in the detestable
morals and lives of the clergy, and this is confirmed by his unsparing
denunciation of their licentiousness, drunkenness, quarrels, and
tavern-haunting; their traffic in absolution for enormous offences;
their unclerical habits and hideous blasphemy; their indulgence in
incantations and dabbling in witchcraft.[1088] Very significant is
his declaration that the canonical punishments shall be inflicted on
concubinary priests, in spite of all custom to the contrary or all
connivance with the prelates.[1089]
How little, indeed, licentious ecclesiastics might reasonably dread
the canonical punishments is illustrated in the report, by the
celebrated jurisconsult Grillandus, of a case which came before him
while he was auditor of the Papal Vicar in Rome. A Spanish priest
and Doctor of Canon Law, residing in the Christian capital, became
enamoured of several young nuns at once, and endeavored to seduce them
by teaching them that, as they and he were alike spouses of Christ,
carnal affection between them was their duty. Failing in this, he
sought to compel the assistance of God in his designs, and, being a
man of literary culture, he composed a number of prayers of singular
obscenity, and bribed various ignorant priests to recite them amid
the ineffable mysteries of the Mass, hoping thus to obtain the aid of
heaven in overcoming the chastity of his intended victims. At length he
chanced to offer one of these prayers to a priest of somewhat better
character, who was sufficiently shocked by it to communicate with the
authorities. Brought before Grillandus, the guilty Spaniard sought to
justify himself by alleging various Scriptural texts, but, upon being
warned that such a defence would subject him to a prosecution for
heresy, he recanted and acknowledged his errors. For this complicated
mingling of lust and sacrilege, his only punishment was a short
banishment from Rome.[1090] When the papal court set such an example,
what was to be expected of less enlightened regions?
How keenly these evils were felt by the people, and how instinctively
they were referred to the rule of celibacy as to their proper origin,
is shown by an incidental allusion in the formula of complaint laid
before the pope by the imperial Diet held at Nürnberg early in 1522,
before the heresy of priestly marriage had spread beyond the vicinity
of Wittenberg. The Diet, in recounting the evils arising from the
ecclesiastical jurisdiction which allowed clerical offenders to
enjoy virtual immunity, adduced, among other grievances, the license
afforded to those who, debarred by the canons from marriage, abandoned
themselves night and day to attempts upon the virtue of the wives and
daughters of the laity, sometimes gaining their ends by flattery and
presents, and sometimes taking advantage of the opportunities offered
by the confessional. It was not uncommon, indeed, for women to be
openly carried off by their priests, while their husbands and fathers
were threatened with vengeance if they should attempt to recover them.
As regards the sale to ecclesiastics of licenses to indulge in habitual
lust, the Diet declared it to be a regular and settled matter, reduced
to the form of an annual tax, which in most dioceses was exacted of all
the clergy without exception, so that when those who perchance lived
chastely demurred at the payment, they were told that the bishop must
have the money, and that after it was handed over they might take their
choice whether to keep concubines or not.[1091] In the face of this
condition of ecclesiastical morality, it required some obtuseness for
Adrian VI. to compare Luther to Mahomet, the one seeking to attract to
his party the carnal-minded by permitting marriage, even as the other
had established polygamy,[1092] and, further, to abuse him for uniting
the ministers of Christ with the vilest harlots.[1093]
* * * * *
Among the diverse opinions of existing evils and their remedy, it is
interesting to see what was the view of the subject taken by those
ecclesiastics whose purity of life removed them from all temptation to
indulgence, and who yet were not personally interested in upholding the
gigantic but decaying structure of sacerdotalism. Of these men Erasmus
may be taken as the representative. His opinion on all the questions
of the day was too eagerly desired for him to escape the necessity of
pronouncing his verdict on the innovation portended by the one or two
marriages which took place near Wittenberg in 1521, and accordingly, in
1522, from his retreat at Bâle he issued a short dissertation on the
subject, which, although addressed merely to Bishop Christopher of that
city, was evidently intended for a European audience. In this essay,
after sketching the rise of celibacy and attributing it to the purity
and fervor of the early Christians, he proceeds to depict the altered
condition of the church. Among the innumerable multitude of priests
who crowd the monasteries, the chapters, and the parishes, he declares
that there are few indeed whose lives are pure, even as respects open
and avowed concubinage, without penetrating into the mysteries of
secret intrigue. As, therefore, there is no Scriptural injunction of
celibacy, he concludes that, however desirable it might be to have
ministers free from the cares of marriage and devoting themselves
solely to the service of God, yet, since it seems impossible to conquer
the rebellious flesh, it would be better to allow those who cannot
control themselves to have wives with whom they could live in virtuous
peace, bringing up their children in the fear of God, and earning
the respect of their flocks. No more startling evidence, indeed, of
the demoralization of the period could be given than the cautious
fear which Erasmus expresses lest such a change should be opposed by
the episcopal officials, who would object to the diminution of their
unhallowed gains levied on the concubines of the clergy.[1094]
* * * * *
When such was the condition of ecclesiastical morality, and such were
the opinions of all except those directly interested in upholding the
old order of things, it is no wonder if the people were disposed to
look with favor on the marriage of their pastors, and if the rejection
of celibacy gave a fresh impetus to the cause of Lutheranism. In the
early days of all sects, it is only those of ardent faith and pure
zeal who are likely to embrace a new belief, with all the attendant
risks of persecution and contumely. The laxity of life allowed to the
Catholic clergy would attract to its ranks and retain those whose aim
was sensual indulgence. Thus, necessarily, the reformers who married
would present for contrast regular and chaste lives and well-ordered
households, purified by the dread of the ever-impending troubles
to which the accident of a day might at any time expose them. The
comparison thus was in every way favorable to the new ideas, and they
flourished accordingly.
Nor, perhaps, were the worldly inducements to which I have before
alluded less powerful in their own way in advancing the cause. Shortly
before Luther’s marriage, whatever influence was derivable from an
aristocratic example was obtained when the Baron of Heydeck, a knight
of the Teutonic order, renounced his vows and publicly espoused a nun
of Ligny.[1095] This may possibly have encouraged his superior, Albert
of Brandenburg, grand-master of the order, to execute his remarkably
successful coup d’état in changing his religion and seizing the estates
of the order, thus practically founding the state which chance and
talent have exalted until it has been able to realize, at least for a
time, the day-dream of a united Germany. The liberty of marriage which
he thus assumed was soon turned to account in his advantageous alliance
with Frederic, King of Denmark, whose daughter Dorothea he espoused,
the Bishop of Szamland officiating as his proxy, and the actual
marriage being celebrated June 14, 1526.[1096]
Luther may reasonably be held excusable for counselling and aiding a
transaction which lent such incalculable strength to the struggling
cause of the Reformation, and it is not to be wondered at if he
endeavored to follow it up with another of a similar character. The
nephew of the Duke of Prussia, also named Albert of Brandenburg,
occupied the highest place in the Teutonic hierarchy, as Archbishop
both of Mainz and Magdeburg, in the latter of which powerful sees the
Lutheran heresies had taken deep root. Luther sought to induce the
archbishop to follow his uncle’s example; to take possession in his
own right of the Magdeburg territories, and to transmit them to the
posterity with which heaven could not fail to bless his prospective
marriage—a scheme which met the warm approbation of the leading nobles
of the diocese. Albert thought seriously of the project, especially as
the Peasants’ War then raging was directed particularly against the
lands of the church, but he finally abandoned it, and his flock had to
work out their reformation without his assistance.[1097]
Perhaps some plans of territorial aggrandizement may have stimulated
the zeal of the Count of Embden, who boasted that he had assisted
and encouraged the marriage of no less than five hundred monks and
nuns;[1098] yet the process of secularizing the monastic foundations
was in many places by no means sudden or violent. Thus, when the Abbot
of Ilgenthal in Saxony died, in 1526, the Elector John simply forbade
the election of a successor, and placed the abbey in charge of a
prefect, while the remaining monks were liberally supplied until they
one after another died out,[1099] and in 1529, when Philip, Count of
Waldeck, took possession of the ancient monastery of Hainscheidt, he
caused all the monks to be supported during life.[1100]
* * * * *
Through all this period the hope had never been abandoned of such an
arrangement as would prevent an irrevocable separation in the church.
Moderate and temperate men on both sides were ready to make such
concessions of form as would enable Christendom to remain united, as
the great vital truths on which all were agreed so far outweighed the
points of divergence. Whether these hopes were well or ill-founded
was to be determined at the Diet of Augsburg, to which, in June,
1530, both parties were summoned for the purpose of submitting their
differences to the emperor. Charles came to Germany in the full flush
of his recent extraordinary triumphs, the most powerful prince since
the days of Charlemagne. Europe was at length at peace, even the Turk
only looming in the East as a probable, not as an existing, enemy. But
Charles, newly crowned at Bologna, came ostensibly as the steadfast
ally of the pope, and Clement VII. had not the slightest intention of
renouncing the traditional and imprescriptible rights of the Holy See.
The Catholic princes of Germany, too, had their grounds of private
quarrel with their Protestant peers, and, holding an unquestioned
majority, were not disposed to abandon their position. The Protestant
princes, on the other hand, were firm in their new-found faith, and,
however disposed to avert the threatened storm by the sacrifice of
non-essentials, their convictions were too strong for them to retrace
the steps which they had taken during so many long and weary years.
It is evident that, with such materials on either side, no reunion
was probable; and, even had an accommodation on points of doctrine
been possible, there was one subject which scarcely seemed to admit of
satisfactory compromise. In the states of the reform, the downfall of
monachism had placed in the hands of the temporal powers large bodies
of sequestrated abbey lands. To the Catholic it was sacrilege to leave
these in the hands of the spoiler; the Protestant would not willingly
give up the spoil.
The contest was opened by the Protestants submitting a statement
of their belief, divided into two parts, the one devoted to points
of faith, the other to matters of practice. Prepared principally
by Melanchthon, it presents their tenets in the mildest and least
objectionable form, and becoming the recognized standard of their
creed, it has attained a world-wide renown under the name of the
Confession of Augsburg. The questions of celibacy and monastic vows
were ably and temperately argued; their post-scriptural origin was
shown, and the reasons which induced the reformers to reject them
were placed in a light as little offensive as possible.[1101] At
first, a counter-statement was anticipated from the Catholics, and
negotiations were expected to be carried on by a comparison of the
two, but they took higher ground, and contented themselves with
drawing up a refutation of the Confession. The emperor was firm.
His aspirations for the universal monarchy, which ever eluded his
grasp, did not comport with encouraging independence of thought and
freedom of religious belief. In his theory, uniform subordination of
religion was a necessary element of the political system which was to
make him sovereign of Europe, and he would listen to no compromise.
He was inclined to summary measures, but the Catholic princes were
hardly prepared for the consequences of an immediate rupture, and,
after a threatening interval, another effort was made to effect a
reconciliation. Conferences between the leading theologians on both
sides took place, and the Lutherans, warned of their danger, were more
disposed than ever to make concessions and to accept such terms as
the stronger party were willing to offer them. At length, on the 8th
of September, the draft of a proposed plan of accord was laid before
the Diet. In this the points in dispute were referred to that future
œcumenic council which had so long been demanded as the panacea for
all ecclesiastical ills, and which, after more than thirty years of
continued expectation, was destined to fail so miserably in reconciling
difficulties. Such monasteries as had not been destroyed were to be
maintained in the exercise of the customary rites and observances
of religion. Abbots and communities who had been ejected were to be
allowed to return; and all religious houses which had been emptied of
their occupants were to be placed in the hands of officers appointed
by the emperor, who were to administer to their possessions until
the future council should decide upon all the points relating to
monachism; the Protestants thus relieving themselves of the accusation
that they were actuated by motives of worldly gain. Similar proposals
were made with regard to communion in the two elements and clerical
marriage. These were left as open questions for the council to settle,
while a phrase of doubtful import subjected them in the mean time
to the governments of the several states.[1102] The concessions in
this project, however, though they might suit the views of temperate
doctors and princes in Germany, and though even the Roman curia might
be willing to grant them in order to save its threatened temporal power
over the Teutonic states, did not suit the policy of Charles, who
regarded the church as simply one of the instruments with which he was
to build up his universal empire.[1103] It was not difficult for him,
therefore, to bring to naught all such schemes of conciliation. The
restoration of all abbots and monks was ordered; restitution of church
lands was commanded, or their delivery to the emperor to be held until
the assembling of the future council; and when the Diet adjourned,
Charles issued a decree enjoining on all married priests to abstain
from their wives, to eject them, and to seek absolution from their
ordinaries.[1104]
The threatening aspect of affairs warned the Protestant princes that no
time was to be lost in making provision for mutual defence, and ere the
year was out the famous League of Schmalkalden enabled them to present
a united front to the powers which they had virtually defied. Into the
political history of that eventful time it is not my province to enter.
Suffice it to say that they were able to maintain their position, and
in their own states to oppose the reactionary movement which at times
seemed to be on the point of destroying all that had been accomplished.