WURTEMBERG GIVEN TO PROTESTANTISM BY THE KING OF FRANCE.
(SPRING 1534.)
The idea of correcting the errors of the Church without changing its
government was not new in France. By the Pragmatic Sanction in 1269, St.
Louis had founded the liberties of the Gallican Church; and the great
idea of reform had been widely spread since the time of the council of
Constance (1414), of Clemengis, and of Gerson. The two Du Bellays, with
many priests, scholars, and noblemen, thought it was the only means of
calming down the agitations of christendom, and Margaret of Valois had
made it the great business of her life.
[Sidenote: INTERVIEW OF DU BELLAY AND BUCER.]
William du Bellay, on his way back from Augsburg, where he had delivered
such noble speeches in favour of the protestant dukes of Wurtemberg, had
stopped at Strasburg, and had several meetings with the pacific Bucer.
His success in Germany, his conversations with the evangelical princes
and doctors, who took him for as sound a protestant as themselves, had
filled him with hope. In no place could those who desired to take a
middle course meet with more sympathy than at Strasburg; there was quite
a system of compromises there with the Swiss and with Luther; why not
with Rome also? 'Since Luther will not give way in anything,' Bucer had
said, 'I will accommodate myself to his terminology; only I will avoid
every expression that may indicate a too local and too gross presence of
the body of Christ in the bread.'[586] Accordingly Bucer, with his pious
and moderate friends Capito, Hedio, and Zell, received the diplomatic
mediator with great pleasure. They retired to the reformer's library,
where Du Bellay explained his great project with all the seriousness of
a man convinced. 'It is a greater work,' he said to Bucer, 'than this
union of Zwinglians and Lutherans which has hitherto been your sole and
constant occupation. We wish to effect a fusion between catholicism and
the Reformation. We shall maintain the _unity_ of the former; we shall
uphold the _truth_ of the latter.' Du Bellay's plan was at bottom, we
see, the same as Leibnitz endeavoured to get Bossuet and Louis XIV. to
accept. Bucer was in ecstasies: it was what he had sought so long; the
diplomatist appeared to him as if surrounded with a halo of glory. And
hence he often said: 'If the Lord would raise up many men like this
_hero_, the kingdom of Christ would soon come out of the pit.'[587]
According to Bucer, Du Bellay was meditating a very perilous but still a
great enterprise: it was a labour worthy of Hercules.... The counsellor
of the King of France was satisfied to find the great pacificator
agreeing with him, and hastened to Paris, flattering himself that he
would gain a victory more striking than that of Francis I. at Marignan,
or of Charles V. at Pavia.
Everything seemed favourable: Francis, delighted at his conference with
the landgrave, had never been better disposed for conciliation. Du
Bellay endeavoured to convince him that Germany was quite ready for the
_great fusion_. Melanchthon, whom all Germany venerated, was (in his
opinion) the man of the hour, by whose agency the two contrary currents
would mingle their waters and form but one stream bearing life to every
part. Was it not he who said: 'Preserve all the old ceremonies that you
can: every innovation is injurious to the people?' Had he not declared
at Augsburg that no doctrine separated him from the Roman Church; that
he respected the universal authority of the pope, and desired to remain
faithful to Christ and the Church of Rome? Margaret of Navarre also
spoke to her brother of this great and good man: 'Melanchthon's
mildness,' she said, 'contrasts with the violent temper of Zwingle and
Luther.' Other persons observed to the king that what distinguished
France from all catholic nations was its attachment to those liberties
of the Church, which were on that account denominated _Gallican_. 'It
would thus be a thoroughly French enterprise,' they said, 'to strip the
pope of his usurped privileges.'
Francis listened. To be king both in Church and State, to imitate his
dear brother of England, who at heart was more catholic than
himself,—this was his desire. Du Bellay, noticing this disposition,
laboured vehemently (to use his own expression)[588] to introduce the
Melanchthonian ideas into France. He spoke of them at court and in the
city, sometimes even to the clergy, and met everywhere with almost
universal approbation.[589] 'Only make a forward movement,' he was told.
The king resumed the reading of the Bible, which he had laid aside after
the first days of the Reformation. It was not that he relished the Word
of God, but the Bible was a weapon that would help him to gain the
victory over the emperor. When conversing with the persons around him,
he would quote some phrase of Scripture. He particularly liked the
passages where St. Paul speaks of _breastplates_, _shields_, _helmets_,
and _swords_. He found the apostle, indeed, a little too spiritual and
mystical; and in his heart he preferred the helmet of a soldier to the
_helmet of salvation_; but he appeared every day better disposed towards
the Holy Scriptures.[590] Margaret was transported with joy. 'I agree
with the German protestants,' said the king to Du Bellay. 'Yes, I agree
with them in _all_ points ... except _one_!' Du Bellay wrote immediately
to Bucer, and added: 'You know what that means.'[591] Francis desired to
remain in union with Rome for form's sake, if it were only by a thread.
But Rome is not contented with a thread.
[Sidenote: FRANCIS COOPERATES WITH THEM.]
An approaching event seemed destined to decide whether or not a
semi-reformation would be established in France. The king and his
minister kept their eyes fixed on Germany, and waited impatiently to
learn if the enterprise decided upon at Bar-le-Duc for the restoration
of the protestant princes to the throne of Wurtemberg would be crowned
with success. In their eyes Wurtemberg was the field of battle where the
cause of the papacy would triumph or be crushed. Francis hoped that, if
the protestants were victorious, they would enter upon a war that would
become general. If the empire and the papacy fell beneath the blows of
their enemies, new times would begin. Europe would be emancipated from
both pope and emperor, and Francis would profit largely, both for
himself and France, by this glorious emancipation.
The landgrave prepared everything for the great blow he was about to
strike. At once prudent and active, he did not write a word that could
compromise him, but sent his confidential counsellors in every
direction. He went in person to the Elector of Trèves and the
elector-palatine, and promised them that if Wurtemberg was restored to
its lawful princes, Charles's brother should be compensated by being
recognised King of the Romans. These measures succeeded with Philip, who
immediately made known this happy commencement to Francis I.
On Easter Monday (1534) the Louvre displayed all its magnificence; many
officers of the court were on foot, for Francis was to give audience to
the agent of the Waywode (hospodar) of Wallachia, who had been
dispossessed by Austria, like the Duke of Wurtemberg. The king's eyes
sparkled with delight: 'The Swabian league is dissolved,' he told the
envoy. 'I am sending money into Germany.... I have many friends
there.... My allies are already in arms.... We are on the point of
carrying our plan into execution.'[592] Francis was so happy that he
could not keep his secret.
[Sidenote: FEARS IN GERMANY.]
All was not, however, so near as he imagined. An old obstacle came up
again, and seemed as if it would check the landgrave. The other
evangelical princes and doctors did all they could to thwart an
enterprise which would, in Philip's opinion, secure their triumph. 'The
restoration of the Duke of Wurtemberg,' said the wise Melanchthon, 'will
engender great troubles. Even the Church will be endangered by them. You
know my forebodings.[593] All the kings of Europe will be mixed up in
this war. It is a matter full of peril, not only to ourselves, but to
the whole world.'[594] Astrology interfered in the matter, and spread
terror among the people. Lichtenberg, a famous astrologer, published
some predictions, to which he added certain 'monstrous pictures,'[595]
and said: 'The Frenchman (Francis) will again fall into the emperor's
hands;[596] and all who unite with him in making war will be destroyed.
The lion will want help, and will be deceived by the lily.'[597] In such
terms the German prophecy declared that France (the lily) would deceive
Hesse (whose device is a lion): this shows how little confidence Germany
had in the French monarch.
Ferdinand of Austria distrusted the prophecy, and thought the
landgrave's attack close at hand. Sensible of his own weakness, he turned
to the pope and said to him through his envoy Sanchez: 'The landgrave's
expedition is a danger which threatens the Church and Italy ...
the spirituality and the temporality.' The pope promised everything,
but (as was his custom) with the determination to do nothing. A war that
might weaken Charles was gratifying to him, even though protestantism
should profit by it. Clement, however, convoked the consistory;
described to them in very expressive language the danger of the empire
and the Church; but of helping them, not a word.... Ferdinand, still
more alarmed, became more importunate, and the matter was brought before
a congregation: 'Alas!' said Clement to the cardinals, 'it is impossible
to conceal from you the dangers that threaten King Ferdinand and the
Austrian power. They are attacked by so severe a disease that a simple
medicine would be insufficient to effect a cure.... It requires an
energetic remedy ... but where can it be found?' The cardinals agreed
with their chief; they thought that, as the danger threatened Austria
alone, it was for Austria to get out of it as she could. The
recollection of the sack of Rome by the imperialists in 1527 was not yet
effaced from the hearts of these Roman priests, and they were not sorry
to see the emperor punished by an heretical scourge. They resolved that
as Rome could not give a subsidy sufficiently large, they would give
none at all. 'This expedition,' said Clement VII. to Ferdinand's envoy,
with a certain frankness, 'is only a private matter.... But if the
landgrave touches the Church, you may reckon then upon my help.'
Sanchez, seeing the pontiff's lukewarmness, and moved by sorrow and
indignation,[598] forcibly replied: 'Be not deceived, holy father....
This matter is not so small as you suppose.... It will cost the Church
of Rome dear ... and not the Church only, but the city and all Italy.'
[Sidenote: THE POPE AND AUSTRIA.]
Sanchez thought, like Francis and the politicians, that the protestants,
victorious in Wurtemberg, would not stop in so glorious a career; that
they would raise a large army; and that, aided by France, they would
cross the Alps and go to Rome to dethrone the successor of St. Peter,
and put an end to what they regarded as the power of antichrist. This
suggestion exasperated Clement: he felt the tiara shaking on his head,
and angrily exclaimed: 'And where is the emperor? What is he doing? Why
does he not watch over his brother's states and the peace of Germany?'
Charles V., quite unconcerned about a project which might, however,
insure his rival's triumph, was calmly enjoying his repose beneath the
smiling sky of Spain, reclining on the banks of its beautiful rivers,
under the shade of its orange and citron trees and of its gigantic
laurels. The pope took courage from his example to do the same. If he
did nothing to stop the protestant army, the papacy might suffer; but if
he did anything, he might turn aside from the house of Austria the
terrible blow about to fall on it, and save from a reverse that imperial
power which he detested. The pontiff sank back into his apostolic chair,
and prepared for a luxurious slumber, thinking it would be time enough
to wake up ... when danger was at his own door. 'Alas!' said sincere
catholics, 'why are the successors of St. Peter, the fisherman and
apostle, _clothed in soft raiment_, which is for those who are _in
kings' houses_? Why do they covet these courtly pomps and effeminacies?
Why do they imitate _the princes of the Gentiles who exercise dominion
over them_? Christ bore the cross.' The political passions of
Clement VII. extinguished his ecclesiastical zeal. The temporal power of
the popes has never been other than a clog upon their spiritual power,
preventing it from working freely. The judgments of God were about to be
executed.
At the beginning of May everything was astir in Hesse, Pomerania,
Mecklenburg, Brunswick, Westphalia, and on the banks of the Rhine; the
landgrave was preparing to march against Austria. Omens threatened,
indeed, to detain him. At Cassel, the chief town of Hesse, a monster was
seen walking mysteriously and silently upon the water during the
night.[599] 'It is a sure warning,' said the old crones and a few
citizens, 'that the prince ought to stop.' But Philip replied coldly:
'These visions are not worthy of belief.' Without heeding the monster,
Philip, mounted on horseback and carrying a lance in his hand, reviewed
his army on Wednesday, the 6th of May, after midnight, and then gave the
order to march. Almost all the officers and a great many of the soldiers
belonged to the evangelical confession. It was, alas! the first
politico-religious army of the sixteenth century, and this campaign was
the first Germanico-European opposition to the house of Austria.[600]
History shrouds herself beneath a veil of mourning as she points to this
epoch; for the employment of human force in the interests of religion,
the armed struggle between the new and the old times, began then.
[Sidenote: PHILIP DEFEATS THE AUSTRIAN.]
The Austrian government, deserted by the pope, saw that it must help
itself, and had made great exertions on its part. All the convents,
chapters, and towns of Wurtemberg had been forced to contribute large
sums of money, and the most experienced generals of the Italian wars had
been placed at the head of the imperial army. The soldiers of Austria
marched to Laufen on the Neckar, and there waited for the enemy. The
landgrave's army, full of hope and courage, uttered loud shouts of joy
when they heard of it.
It was not so at Wittemberg. Melanchthon was more grieved than ever, and
many persons sympathised with him. On the one hand, the theologians of
the Reformation detested war; but on the other, they said to themselves
at certain moments: 'Still ... if Philip takes up arms it is to restore
legitimate princes to the throne of their fathers, and secure a free
course to the Word of God!'—'Oh, what cruelties in the Roman Church,'
added Melanchthon, 'what idolatries, and what obstinacy in defending
them! Who knows but God desires to punish their defenders, if not
utterly to destroy such notorious evils for ever?[601] Oh that the issue
of this war may be beneficial to the Church of Christ!' Some time after,
when Melanchthon was told of the advance of the army of Philip of Hesse,
that peaceful christian gave way once more to his anguish: 'These
movements are quite against our advice,' he said, and then shutting
himself up in his closet, he exclaimed: 'In the midst of the dangers and
sorrows to which God exposes us, we have nothing else to do but to call
upon Christ and to feel his presence.'[602] He then fell upon his knees
before God; and God, who saw him in secret, rewarded him openly. But
while the christians were weeping and praying, the politicians were
rejoicing and acting. Du Bellay, in particular, did not doubt that an
early victory would cement the union of France with German
protestantism; and perceiving the consequences that would follow from
the enfranchisement of his country, he gave utterance to his joy.
The impetuous landgrave, taking a spring, cleared, as at one bound, the
country which separated him from the Neckar, arrived unexpectedly on the
banks of that river near Laufen, where the imperial army was posted, and
attacked it with spirit. At first the Austrians courageously sustained
the fight; but the count palatine, their commander, having been wounded
by a cannon-shot, they retired precipitately. Early the next morning,
the landgrave, putting himself at the head of his cavalry and artillery,
fell upon them as they were beginning to retreat, and drove part of them
into the Neckar.[603]
Wurtemberg was gained, and Duke Ulrich, accompanied by Prince
Christopher, reappeared in the country of his fathers. The people,
excited at the thought of seeing their national princes once more after
so many years, assembled in the open country near Stuttgard, and
received them with immense acclamation. The landgrave, not allowing
himself to be retarded by the warm reception of the people whom he had
restored to independence, followed up his plan, and on the 18th of June
reached the Austrian frontier. Everybody thought that he would march on
Vienna, and overthrow that insolent dynasty which desired to be the
master of the world.
[Sidenote: ALARM AT THE VATICAN.]
Great was the consternation in all the catholic world, but particularly
in the Vatican. On the 10th of June, 1534, Clement, who was sick, went
sorrowful, downcast, and tottering, to the college of cardinals, and
laid before them the pitiful letters he had received from King
Ferdinand.[604] The cardinals, as they read them, were struck with
terror. Would Vienna, that had resisted the Turks, fall under the
assault of the protestants? Would a victorious army, crossing the Alps,
come and perpetrate a second sack of Rome which, as the work of
heretics, might not be more compassionate than that of the catholic
Charles V.? The cardinals saw no other remedy than that to which Rome
had recourse when her ducats and arquebuses were gone. 'A general
council,' they exclaimed, 'is the only remedy that can save us from
heresy and all the calamities by which christendom is distressed.'
While there was mourning at Rome, there were great rejoicings at the
Louvre. It was a long time since the emperor had received such a check.
About the end of June a courier from Germany brought Francis the
despatches announcing the arrival of Philip of Hesse on the Austrian
frontier. He could not repress the outburst of his joy. He spoke to
himself, to his councillors, to his courtiers.... 'My friends,' he
exclaimed, 'my friends have conquered Wurtemberg.' Then, as if the
landgrave and his victorious army were before him, he exclaimed in a
tone of command: 'Forward! forward!' His dream was about to be realised;
the war would become general; he already saw the landgrave at Vienna;
and, what was better still, he saw himself at Genoa, Urbino, Montferrat,
and Milan. All his life through he forgot France for Italy, which he
never possessed. But he was mistaken as to the landgrave's intentions.
Much as Francis desired to see the war become general, Philip of Hesse
laboured to keep it local. Satisfied with having restored Wurtemberg to
its princes, he meant to respect the empire. The kings of France and
England were seriously vexed: 'The Duke of Wurtemberg, restored by my
help and yours,' said Henry VIII. to Francis I., 'is only seeking how to
make peace with the emperor.'[605] It would appear by the evidence
derived from the _State Papers_, that the gold of England as well as of
France had contributed to despoil Austria of Wurtemberg. Henry, more
perhaps than Francis I., had hoped that the blow struck upon the banks
of the Neckar would be, to emperor as well as to pope, the commencement
of sorrows; but they were both mistaken. The temptation, no doubt, was
great for a prince of thirty, full of decision and energy, who believed
that nothing would make the triumph of protestantism so secure as the
humiliation of Austria; but Philip's loyalty resisted the temptation.
[Sidenote: WURTEMBERG RESTORED.]
On the 27th of June the peace of Cadan put an end to all differences,
and restored Wurtemberg to its national princes, with a voice in the
council of the empire. If there had never been a war more energetically
conducted, there had never been a peace so promptly concluded. The
landgrave had displayed a spirit and talents which, men thought, might
in future prove troublesome to the puissant Charles.[606]
The emperor having received his lesson, the pope's turn came next. As
the state of Wurtemberg had been wrested from the hands of Austria, the
Church was to be saved from the clutches of the papacy. At the diet of
Augsburg, in 1530, Duke Christopher had seen the landgrave, his relation
and friend, come forward as the most intrepid champion of the
Reformation. His generous heart had been won to a cause which included
such a noble defender, and his desire was to see it triumph in
Wurtemberg. On the other hand, King Ferdinand, when renouncing his
authority over the duchy, desired at least to maintain that of the pope;
and he therefore proposed to insert in the treaty of peace an article
forbidding any change in religious matters. But the dukes, the
landgrave, and the Elector of Saxony unanimously declared that the
Gospel ought to have free course in the duchy, and the electoral
chancellor wrote this word on the margin, by the side of the article
proposed by the King of the Romans: _Rejected_.[607] 'You are in no
respect bound as to the faith,' said the evangelical princes to Ulrich;
while the papal nuncio Vergerio entreated King Ferdinand not to give way
to the Lutherans. All the efforts of the Romish party were useless. The
important victory of the landgrave (and of Francis I.) was about to open
the gates of Wurtemberg to the Reformation, and consequently those of
other Roman-catholic countries.
Ulrich and Christopher, being quite as desirous of bringing souls to the
knowledge of the Word of God as of replacing their subjects under the
sceptre of the ancient house of Emeric,[608] set to work immediately.
They invited to their states Ambrose Blaarer, the friend of Zwingle and
Bucer, and Ehrard Schnepf, the friend of Luther, converted by his means
at Heidelberg at the beginning of the Reformation.[609] Their labours
and those of other servants of God spread the evangelical light over the
country.[610] Nor was that all: if the defeat at Cappel had restored
many cities to the Romish creed,[611] the victory of Laufen allowed many
to come to the evangelical faith. Baden, Hanau, Augsburg, Pomerania,
Mecklenburg, and other places began, advanced, or completed their
reformation about this time. French money had never before returned such
good interest.
[Sidenote: A KINGLY PROJECT.]
France was now about to undertake a still greater task. We have seen
that there were at that time two systems of reform: Margaret's system
and Calvin's. It was in the order of things that the one which remained
nearest to catholicism should be tried first. If the most eminent
persons of the age, who sought in this middle course the last and
supreme resource of christendom, did not see their efforts crowned with
success, it would be necessary to undertake, or rather to continue
spiritedly, a more simple, more scriptural, more practical, and more
radical reform. When Margaret failed, there remained Calvin. The
realisation of this specious but illusory system, recommended in after
years to Louis XIV. by a great protestant philosopher of Germany, was
about to be tried by Francis I. The narrative of this experiment ought
to occupy a remarkable place in the religious history of the sixteenth
century.
[Footnote 586: Rœhrich, _Reform in Elsass_, ii. p. 274.]
[Footnote 587: 'Dominus excitet multos isti heroï similes.'—Bucer to
Chelius.]
[Footnote 588: 'Adhuc vehementer laboratur.'—Du Bellay to Bucer.]
[Footnote 589: 'Omnes enim bene sperare jubent.'—Du Bellay to Bucer.]
[Footnote 590: 'Etiam rex ipse, cujus animus _erga meliores litteras_
magis ac magis augetur.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 591: 'Una tamen in re vehementer a Germanis abhorret.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 592: Béthune MSS. 8493. Ranke, iii. p. 456.]
[Footnote 593: 'Restitutio ducis Wurtembergensis brevi magnos motus
pariet. Divinationes meas nosti.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 706.]
[Footnote 594: 'Magna et periculosa res universo orbi terrarum ac
præcipue nobis.'—Ibid. p. 728.]
[Footnote 595: 'Mit monstrosen Figuren.'—Seckendorf, p. 833.]
[Footnote 596: 'Gallum iterum venturum in potestatem imperatoris
Caroli.'—Ibid.]
[Footnote 597: 'Leo carebit auxilio et decipietur a lolio.'—Ibid. The
correct reading is evidently _lilium_ (lily) and not _lolium_ (tares).
The preposition _a_ indicates that the word is taken in a symbolical
sense.]
[Footnote 598: 'Dolore et indignatione accensus replicui.'—Sanchez'
report to Ferdinand: Bucholz. Ranke.]
[Footnote 599: 'Cassellæ nescio quid memorant noctu, super aquis monstri
visum esse.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 729.]
[Footnote 600: Ranke, _Deutsche Geschichte_, iii. p. 459.]
[Footnote 601: 'Quid si Deus illa publica vitia tum punire, tum aliqua
ex parte tollere decrevit?'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 729.]
[Footnote 602: 'Ut Christum invocare et præsentiam ejus experiri
discamus.'—_Corp. Ref._ ii. p. 730.]
[Footnote 603: Sleidan, i. liv. ix p. 365. Ranke, iii. p. 461. Rommel,
ii. p. 319.]
[Footnote 604: 'In senatum pontifex venit, lectæque ibi sunt litteræ
fratris Caroli.'—Pallavicini, _Conc. Trid._ i. p. 294.]
[Footnote 605: 'The Duke of Wyttemberg lately restored by his and his
good brother's meanes.'—_State Papers_, vii. p. 568.]
[Footnote 606: Sleidan, i. pp. 366-368. Ranke, iii. pp. 465-468.]
[Footnote 607: 'Soll aussen bleiben.'—Sattler, iii. p. 129. Sleidan,
iii. p. 369. Ranke, iii. p. 481.]
[Footnote 608: The house of Wurtemberg boasts its descent from Emeric,
mayor of the palace under Clovis.]
[Footnote 609: _Hist. of the Ref. of the Sixteenth Century_, vol. i. bk.
iii. ch. ii.]
[Footnote 610: 'Snepfius Stuttgardiæ pastor ecclesias in illo ducatu
reformavit.'—Melch. Adami _Vitæ Germanorum Theologorum_, p. 322.]
[Footnote 611: _Hist. of the Ref. of the Sixteenth Century_, vol. iv.
bk. xvi. ch. x.]