The Leipzig Interim was imposed upon the churches of Electoral Saxony as
a directory for teaching, preaching, and worship. Melanchthon declared
that it could be adopted with a good conscience, and hence should be
introduced, as demanded by Maurice, in order to insure the peace of the
Church. At Wittenberg and other places corresponding efforts were made.
But everywhere the result was dissension and strife. The Interim
defeated its own purpose. Pastors who declined to conform were deposed,
banished, incarcerated or abused in other ways. And wherever faithful
ministers were removed, the people refused to be served by the hirelings
who took their places. At the very convention at Leipzig where the
Interim was adopted, Wolfgang Pfentner, Superintendent at Annaberg,
declared: "What caused them to reintroduce such tomfooleries [Romish
ceremonies]? Were they growing childish again? They might do what they
wanted to, but as for himself, he could not consent [to the Interim].
And even if he should permit himself to be deceived, his parishioners
would not accept it. For in a letter delivered by a messenger on
horseback they had charged him to agree to no ungodly article, or not
return to them. Accordingly, he would have his head cut off at Leipzig
and suffer this with a good conscience rather than give offense to his
church." (Walther, 22.)
December 24, three days after the adoption of the Interim,
representatives of the cities in Saxony presented complaints to Elector
Maurice and Melanchthon against some of the provisions of the document.
They protested particularly against the reinstitution of Extreme
Unction, the Festival of Corpus Christi, and the use of chrism at
Baptism. (_C. R._ 7, 270.) Even the Wittenberg theologians finally
admitted that in consequence of "the Interim the rupture had become so
great that there was an agreement neither of one church with another,
nor, in the same church, of any deacon, any schoolmaster, or sexton with
his pastor, nor of one neighbor with another, nor of members of the
household with one another." (Walther, 23.)
Foremost among the champions of true Lutheranism over against the
Interimists were John Hermann, Aquila, Nicholas Amsdorf, John Wigand,
Alberus, Gallus, Matthias Judex, Westphal, and especially Matthias
Flacius Illyricus, then (from 1544 to 1549) a member of the Wittenberg
faculty, where he opposed all concessions to the Adiaphorists. It is
due, no doubt, to Flacius more than to any other individual that true
Lutheranism and with it the Lutheran Church was saved from annihilation
in consequence of the Interims. In 1548 he began his numerous and
powerful publications against them. In the same year, 1548, the
following book of John Hermann appeared: "That during These Dangerous
Times Nothing should be Changed in the Churches of God in Order to
Please the Devil and the Antichrist." In 1549: "Against the Mean Devil
who Now Again is Disguising Himself as an Angel of Light."
In 1549, when he was no longer safe in Wittenberg, Flacius removed to
Magdeburg then the only safe asylum in all Germany for such as were
persecuted on account of their Lutheran faith and loyalty, where he was
joined by such "exiles of Christ" as Wigand, Gallus, and others, who had
also been banished and persecuted because of their opposition to the
Interim. Here they inaugurated a powerful propaganda by publishing
broadsides of annihilating pamphlets against the Interim, as well as its
authors, patrons, and abettors. They roused the Lutheran consciousness
everywhere, and before long the great majority of Lutherans stood behind
Flacius and the heroes of Magdeburg. The publications emanating from
this fortress caused such an aversion to the Adiaphoristic princes as
well as theologians among the people that from the very outset all their
plans and efforts were doomed to failure, and the sinister schemes of
the Pope and Emperor were frustrated. Because of this able and staunch
defense of Lutheranism and the determined opposition to any unionistic
compromise, Magdeburg at that time was generally called "God's
chancellery, _Gottes Kanzlei._" Nor did the opposition subside when this
Lutheran stronghold, thrice outlawed by the Emperor, was finally, after
a siege of thirteen months, captured by Maurice. In their attacks the
champions of Magdeburg were joined also by the ministers of Hamburg and
other places. Only in Saxony and Brandenburg the policy of Melanchthon
was defended.
As the conflict extended, it grew in bitterness, revealing with
increasing luridness the insincerity and dishonesty of the Philippists.
True Lutherans everywhere were satisfied that the adoption also of the
Leipzig Interim was tantamount to a complete surrender of Lutheranism.
Their animosity against this document was all the stronger because it
bore the stamp of the Wittenberg and Leipzig theologians and was
sponsored by Melanchthon, the very man whom they had regarded as
Luther's successor and as the leader of the Church. This, too, was the
reason why the Leipzig Interim caused even more resentment among the
Lutherans, especially in Northern Germany, than did the Augsburg
Interim. In their view, Melanchthon and his colleagues had betrayed the
cause of the Reformation and practically joined their forces with those
of the Romanists, even as Maurice had betrayed the Lutherans politically
when fighting at the side of the Emperor against his own coreligionists.
Tschackert remarks: "In view of the fact that at that time about 400
Evangelical pastors in Southern Germany, because of their refusal to
adopt the Augsburg Interim, had suffered themselves to be driven from
their charges and homes and wandered about starving, many with their
wives and children, the yielding of the theologians of Electoral Saxony
could but appear as unpardonable and as a betrayal of the Church."
(508.)