By the /Peace of Augsburg/ Protestantism was recognised as a distinct and separate form of Christianity, and the first blow was struck at the fundamental principles on which the Holy Roman Empire had been built. Charles V. was blamed at the time, and has been blamed since for having given his consent to such a treaty, but if all the circumstances of the time be duly considered it is difficult to see how he could have acted otherwise than he did. It is not the Emperor who should be held accountable for the unfavourable character of the Augsburg Peace, but "the most Catholic King of France" who allied himself with the forces of German Protestantism, and the Catholic princes who were more anxious to secure their own position than to fight for their sovereign or their religion. Charles V., broken down in health and wearied by his misfortunes and his failure to put down the religious revolt, determined to hand over to a younger man the administration of the territories over which he ruled, and to devote the remainder of his life to preparation for the world to come. In a parting address delivered to the States of the Netherlands he warned them "to be loyal to the Catholic faith which has always been and everywhere the faith of Christendom, for should it disappear the foundations of goodness should crumble away and every sort of mischief now menacing the world would reign supreme." After his resignation he retired to a monastery in Estremadura, where he died in 1558. Spain and the Netherlands passed to his legitimate son, Philip II., while after some delay his brother, Ferdinand, was recognised as his successor in the Empire.
Charles V. was a man of sound judgment and liberal views, of great energy and prudence, as skilful in war as he was in the arts of diplomacy, and immensely superior in nearly every respect to his contemporaries, Francis I. of France and Henry VIII. of England. Yet in spite of all his admitted qualifications, and notwithstanding the fact that he was the ruler of three-fourths of Western Europe, he lived to witness the overthrow of his dearest projects and the complete failure of his general policy. But his want of success was not due to personal imprudence or inactivity. It is to be attributed to the circumstances of the times, the rebellion in Spain, the open revolt of some and the distrust of others in Germany, the rapid advance of the Turks towards the west, and, above all, the struggle with France. Despite his many quarrels with the Holy See, and in face of the many temptations held out to him to arrive at the worldwide dictatorship to which he was suspected of aspiring, by putting himself at the head of the new religious movement, he never wavered for a moment in his allegiance to the Catholic Church.
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[1] Grisar, /Luther/ (Eng. Trans.), i., p. 4.
[2] /Id./ p. 8.
[3] Grisar, /Luther/ (Eng. Trans.), i., p. 14.
[4] Id. chap. iv.
[5] Keller, /Johann von Staupitz und die Anfange der Reformation/, 1888.
[6] Grisar, op. cit. (Eng. Trans.), i., 34, 323.
[7] Id. i., 34, Bd. iii., 957-8.
[8] Paulus, /Johann Tetzel, der Ablassprediger/, 1899. /Die Deutschen Dominikaner im Kampfe gegen Luther/, 1903.
[9] Grisar, op. cit. (Eng. Trans.), i., pp. 341-55.
[10] Kidd, /Documents of the Continental Reformation/, pp. 20-6.
[11] Specially, Nos. 43, 45, 59, 86.
[12] /Dialogus . . . in presumptuosas M. Lutheri conclusiones de potestate Papae./[13] Greving, /Johann Eck/, etc., 1906.
[14] "/Beatissime Pater, prostratum me pedibus tuae beatitudinis offero cum omnibus quae sum et habeo. Vivifica, occide, voca, revoca, approba, reproba, ut placuerit. Vocem tuam vocem Christi in te praesidentis et loquentis agnoscam. Si mortem merui, mori non recusabo./"[15] Pastor, op. cit., iv., 177-9.
[16] Creutzberg, /Karl von Miltitz/, 1907.
[17] "/Coram Deo et tota creatura sua testor, me neque voluisse neque hodie velle Ecclesiae Romanae ac Beatitudinis Tuae potestem ullo modo tangere aut quacunque versutia demoliri; quin plenissime confiteor huius ecclesiae potestatem esse super omnia, nec ei praeferendum quidquid sive in coelo sive in terra praeter unum Jesum Christum Dominum omnium/" (3rd March, 1519). Kidd, op. cit., p. 43.
[18] Grisar, op. cit. (Eng. Trans.), i., 359.
[19] /Cambridge Modern History/, ii., chaps. ii., iii.
[20] /Imperatorum nationis Germanicae gravamina ad Sadem Romanam/, 1725.
[21] De Weldige-Kremer, /De Joannis Cochlaei Vita et Scriptis/, 1865.
He was one of the most energetic opponents of the Reformation party.
[22] Schwane, /Dogmengeschichte der neuren zeit/, 1890, pp. 131-51, 210-240, 251-92.
[23] Grisar, op. cit., Bd. iii., 228.
[24] /De Libero Arbitrio/, etc., 1524.
[25] Grisar, op. cit., Bd. i., pp. 483-502.
[26] Raynaldus, /Ann. Eccl./ (ann. 1522).
[27] Pastor, op. cit., Bd. iv., pp. 212-393.
[28] "Of such slender dimensions was the original Protestant Church;small as it was, it was only held together by the negative character of its protest."--/Camb. Mod. Hist./, ii., p. 205.
[29] Negwer, /Wimpina/, 1909.
[30] Hergenrother-Kirsch, op. cit., Bd. iii., p. 80.
[31] Pastor, op. cit., Bd. iv., 473-5.
[32] Hergenrother-Kirsch, op. cit., iii., pp. 102-8.
[33] For Luther's own views on the results of his preaching, cf.
Dollinger, /Die Reformation/, Bd. ii., pp. 426-52.
[34] Grisar, op. cit., Bd. ii., 382-436.
[35] Grisar, op. cit., Bd. iii., 211-30.
[36] That there can be no question of suicide is admitted (Paulus /Luthers Lebensende/, 1898).
[37] /Tischreden/ (/Table Talk/), cf. Grisar, ii., 178 sqq. Smith, /Luther's Table Talk/, 1907. /Am. Ecc. Review/ (1906, pp. 1-18).
[38] /Personal Character of Luther/ (/Ir. Theol. Quart./, viii., p.
77-85).
(b) Zwingli in Switzerland: His attitude towards Lutheranism.