It was also in the interest of allaying the animosity against his own
person that Elector Maurice had prevailed upon Melanchthon to frame the
Leipzig Interim. But in this respect, too, the document proved to be a
dismal failure. Openly the people, his own former subjects included,
showed their contempt for his person and character. Everywhere public
sentiment was aroused against him. He was held responsible for the
captivity and shameful treatment of Philip of Hesse and especially of
John Frederick, whom the people admired as the Confessor of Augsburg and
now also as the innocent Martyr of Lutheranism. Maurice, on the other
hand, was branded a mameluke, condemned as a renegade and an apostate,
despised as the traitor of Lutheranism, and abhorred as the "Judas of
Meissen," who had sold his coreligionists for an electorate.
At the same time Maurice was provoked by the arbitrary manner in which
the Emperor exploited and abused his victory by a repeated breach of his
promises, and by the treacherous and shameful treatment accorded his
father-in-law, Philip of Hesse. Chagrined at all this and fully
realizing the utter impossibility of enforcing the Interim, Maurice
decided to end the matter by a single stroke which at the same time
would atone for his treachery, and turn shame into glory and the vile
name of a "traitor" into the noble title of "Champion of Protestantism."
Accordingly Maurice, easily the match of Charles in duplicity and
cunning, secretly prepared his plans, and, suddenly turning his army
against the unsuspecting Emperor, drove him from Innsbruck, scared the
"Fathers of Trent" to their homes, and on April 5, 1552, victoriously
entered Augsburg, where he was received with great rejoicing. The fruits
of this victory were the Treaties of Passau August 2, 1552, and of
Augsburg, 1555, which for the first time granted religious liberty to
the Protestants. The latter placed Lutherans and Catholics on an equal
footing in the Empire and, according to the rule: _Cuius regio, eius
religio,_ gave every prince religious control in his own territory,
non-conformists being granted the right of emigration. To the great
advantage of the Romanists, however, the treaty also provided that
territories ruled by bishops must remain Catholic even though the ruler
should turn Protestant.
But while the Interim was thus eliminated as a political and practical
issue, the theological controversy precipitated by it continued
unabated. Its political elimination cleared the situation toward the
Romanists, but left conditions within the Lutheran Church unsettled. It
neither unified nor pacified the Church. It neither eliminated the false
doctrines and unionistic principles and tendencies injected by the
Interimists, nor did it restore confidence in the doctrinal soundness,
loyalty, and sincerity of the vacillating Philippists, who had caused
the first breach in the Lutheran Church. "Does it agree with the
character of the Lutheran Church to tolerate and approve the doctrines
and principles contained and involved in the Interim, and to harbor and
fellowship such indifferentists as framed, indorsed, and defended this
document?" such and similar were the questions which remained live
issues even after the Interim was politically dead. The theological
situation within the Lutheran Church, therefore, was not changed in the
least when the annihilation threatening her from without was warded off
by the victory of Maurice over the Emperor. The Interim was fraught with
doctrinal issues which made unavoidable the subsequent controversies.
XI. Controversies Following the Interim and Settled by the Formula of
Concord.