All too soon the predictions of Luther, and the fears expressed by
Melanchthon and others, were realized. June 26, 1546, four months after
Luther's death, Pope and Emperor entered into a secret agreement to
compel the Protestants by force of arms to acknowledge the decrees of
the Council of Trent, and to return to the bosom of the Roman Church.
The covenant provided that, "in the name of God and with the help and
assistance of His Papal Holiness, His Imperial Majesty should prepare
himself for war, and equip himself with soldiers and everything
pertaining to warfare against those who objected to the Council, against
the Smalcald League, and against all who were addicted to the false
belief and error in Germany, and that he do so with all his power and
might in order to bring them back to the old [papal] faith and to the
obedience of the Holy See." The Pope promised to assist the Emperor with
200,000 Krontaler, more than 12,000 Italian soldiers, and quite a number
of horsemen. He furthermore permitted the Emperor to appropriate, for
the purpose of this war, one half of the total income of the church
property in Spain and 500,000 Krontaler from the revenue of the Spanish
cloisters.
While the Emperor endeavored to veil the real purpose of his
preparations, the Pope openly declared in a bull of July 4, 1546: "From
the beginning of our Papacy it has always been our concern how to root
out the weeds of godless doctrines which the heretics have sowed
throughout Germany.... Now it has come to pass that, by the inspiration
of the Holy Ghost, our dearest son in Christ, Charles, the Roman
Emperor, has decided to employ the sword against these enemies of God.
And for the protection of religion we intend to promote this pious
enterprise with all our own and the Roman Church's possessions.
Accordingly, we admonish all Christians to assist in this war with their
prayers to God and their alms, in order that the godless heresy may be
rooted out and the dissension removed.... To each and all who do these
things we grant the most complete indulgence and remission of all their
sins." (St. L. 17, 1453ff. Walther, 10.)
The Smalcald War, so called because it was directed against the Smalcald
League, was easily won by the Emperor. Among the causes of this
unfortunate issue were the neutral attitude of Joachim II of Brandenburg
and of other Lutheran princes, and especially the treachery of the
ambitious and unscrupulous Maurice, Duke of Saxony and nephew of Elector
John Frederick of Saxony, who, in order to gain the Electorate of
Saxony, had made a secret agreement with the Emperor according to which
he was to join his forces with those of the Emperor against the
Lutherans. The decisive battle was fought at Muehlberg on the Elbe,
April 24, 1547. It proved to be a crushing defeat for the Protestants.
The Elector himself was taken captive, treated as a rebel, and sentenced
to death. The sentence was read to him while he was playing chess with
his fellow-captive, Duke Ernest of Lueneburg. John Frederick answered,
he did not believe that the Emperor would deal so severely with him; if,
however, he were in earnest, they should let him know that he might
order his affairs with his wife and children. He then calmly turned to
the Duke, saying: "Let us continue the game; it's your move." (Jaekel,
_G. d. Ref._ l, 114.) The day after the battle at Muehlberg, Torgau fell
into the hands of the Emperor; and when he threatened to execute the
Elector, having already erected a scaffold for this purpose, Wittenberg,
too, though well protected by 5,000 soldiers, signed a capitulation on
May 19, in order to save the Elector's life. On the 23d of May,
Wittenberg was occupied by the Emperor. Here Charles, when standing at
the grave of Luther, and urged to have the body of "the heretic"
exhumed, spoke the memorable words that he was warring not with the
dead, but with the living. The death-sentence was rescinded, but, apart
from other cruel conditions forced upon the Elector, he was compelled to
resign in favor of Maurice and promise to remain in captivity as long as
the Emperor should desire. His sons were granted the districts of
Weimar, Jena, Eisenach, and Gotha. Philip of Hesse surrendered without
striking a blow, and was likewise treacherously held in captivity and
humiliated in every possible way by the Emperor. The imperial
plenipotentiaries had assured the Landgrave that he would not be
imprisoned. Afterwards, however, the words in the document, "not any
bodily captivity--_nit eenige Leibesgefangenschaft,_" were fraudulently
changed by Granvella to read, "not eternal captivity--_nit ewige
Leibesgefangenschaft_" (Marheineke, _G. d. Deut. Ref._ 4, 438.) The sons
of the Landgrave remained in possession of his territory. Thus all of
Southern and, barring a few cities, also all of Northern Germany was
conquered by Charles. Everywhere the Lutherans were at the tender mercy
of the Emperor, whose undisputed power struck terror into all Germany.