The duplicity and perfidy of the Emperor and the Romanists in their
dealings with the Lutherans was characterized by Chancellor Brueck as
follows: "The tactics of the opponents in offering a copy [of the
Confutation] were those of the fox when he invited the stork to be his
guest and served him food in a broad, shallow pan, so that he could not
take the food with his long bill. In like manner they treated the five
electors and princes, as well as the related cities, when they offered
to accede to their request and submit a copy to them, but upon
conditions which they could not accept without greatly violating their
honor." (Koellner, 419.) Over against the Emperor's demand of blind
submission and his threat of violence, the Lutherans appealed to their
pure Confession, based on the Holy Scriptures, to their good conscience,
bound in the Word of God, and to the plain wording of the imperial
manifesto, which had promised discussions in love and kindness. In an
Answer of August 9, _e.g._, they declared: The articles of the Augustana
which we have presented are drawn from the Scriptures, and "it is
impossible for us to relinquish them with a good conscience and peace of
heart, unless we find a refutation founded on God's Word and truth, on
which we may rest our conscience in peace and certainty." (Foerstemann,
2, 185.) In the Preface to the Apology, Melanchthon comments as follows
on the demand of the Romanists: "Afterwards, negotiations for peace were
begun, in which it was apparent that our princes declined no burden,
however grievous, which could be assumed without offense to conscience.
But the adversaries obstinately demanded that we should approve certain
manifest abuses and errors; and as we could not do this, His Imperial
Majesty again demanded that our princes should assent to the
Confutation. This our princes refused to do. For how could they, in a
matter pertaining to religion, assent to a writing which they had not
been able to examine, especially as they had heard that some articles
were condemned in which it was impossible for them, without grievous
sin, to approve the opinions of the adversaries?" (99.)
Self-evidently the Lutherans also protested publicly that the procedure
of the Romanists was in contravention of the proclamation of the Emperor
as well as of his declaration on June 20, according to which both
parties were to deliver their opinions in writing for the purpose of
mutual friendly discussion. In the Answer of August 9, referred to above
they said: "We understand His Imperial Majesty's answer to mean nothing
else than that, after each party had presented its meaning and opinion,
such should here be discussed among us in love and kindness." Hence,
they said, it was in violation of this agreement to withhold the
Confutation, lest it be answered. (Foerstemann, 2, 184f.) Luther
expressed the same conviction, saying: "All the world was awaiting a
gracious diet, as the manifesto proclaimed and pretended, and yet, sad
to say, it was not so conducted." (St. L. 16, 1636.)
That the Romanists themselves fully realized that the charges of the
Lutherans were well founded, appears from the subterfuges to which they
resorted in order to justify their violence and duplicity, notably their
refusal to let them examine the Confutation. In a declaration of August
11 they stated "that the imperial laws expressly forbid, on pain of loss
of life and limb, to dispute or argue (_gruppeln_) about the articles of
faith in any manner whatever," and that in the past the edicts of the
Emperor in this matter of faith had been despised, scorned, ridiculed,
and derided by the Lutherans. (Foerstemann, 2, 190.) Such were the
miserable arguments with which the Romanists defended their treachery.
Luther certainly hit the nail on the head when he wrote that the
Romanists refused to deliver the Confutation "because their consciences
felt very well that it was a corrupt, futile, and frigid affair, of
which they would have to be ashamed in case it should become public and
show itself in the light, or endure an answer." (St. L. 16, 1635.)