Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

with Copernicus, Voltaire, and Darwin as the most powerful

personalities in the modern world. More has been written about him

than about any other modern man except Shakespeare and Napoleon. His

influence on philosophy was tardy and indirect; it moved the fideism

of Kant, the nationalism of Fichte, the voluntarism of Schopenhauer,

the Hegelian surrender of the soul to the state. His influence on

German literature and speech was as decisive and pervasive as that

of the King James Bible on language and letters in England. No other

German is so frequently or so fondly quoted. Along with Carlstadt

and others, he affected the moral life and institutions of Western man

by breaking away from clerical celibacy, and pouring into secular life

the energies that had been diverted to monastic asceticism,

idleness, or piety. His influence lessened as it spread; it was

immense in Scandinavia, transitory in France, superseded by Calvin's

in Scotland, England, and America. But in Germany it was supreme; no

other thinker or writer cut so deep a mark into the German mind and

character. He was the most powerful figure in German history, and

his countrymen love him not less because he was the most German German

of them all.

IV. THE TRIUMPH OF PROTESTANTISM: 1542-55

-

He died just a year before a disaster that seemed fatal to

Protestantism in Germany.

In 1545 Charles V, helped by Lutheran troops, compelled Francis I to

sign the Peace of Crepy. Suleiman, at war with Persia, gave the West a

five-year truce. Pope Paul III promised the Emperor 1,100,000

ducats, 12,000 infantry, 500 horse, if he would turn his full force

against the heretics. Charles felt that at last he might effect what

all along had been his hope and policy: to crush Protestantism, and

give to his realm a unified Catholic faith that would, he thought,

strengthen and facilitate his government. How could he be a real

emperor in Germany if Protestant princes continued to flout his

authority, and to dictate the terms on which they would accept him? He

had not taken Protestantism seriously as a religion; the disputes

between Luther and the Catholic theologians meant little or nothing to

him; but Protestantism as the theology of princes leagued in arms

against him, as a political power capable of determining the next

Imperial election, as the faith of pamphleteers who lampooned him,

of artists who caricatured him, of preachers who called him Son of

Satan- `062057 this he could bear in somber silence when he had to;

but now for a fleeting season he was free to fight back, and to mold

his chaotic realm into one faith and force. He decided for war.

In May 1546, he mobilized his Spanish, Italian, German, and

Lowland troops, and summoned to his side the Duke of Alva, his

ablest general. When the Protestant princes dispatched delegates to

him at Ratisbon to ask the meaning of his moves, he answered that he

intended to restore Germany to Imperial obedience. During that

conference he won to his support the most competent military leader in

Germany, the young and ambitious Duke Maurice of Albertine Saxony. The

Fuggers promised financial aid, and the Pope issued a bull

excommunicating all who should resist Charles, and offering liberal

indulgences to all who should aid him, in this holy war. Charles

proclaimed the Imperial ban against Duke John of Ernestine Saxony

and Landgrave Philip of Hesse; he absolved their subjects from

allegiance to them, and vowed to confiscate their lands and goods.

To divide the opposition he announced that he would not interfere with

Protestantism where it was definitely established; his brother

Ferdinand made a like pledge to Bohemia; and Maurice was tied to the

cause by a promise that he would replace John as Elector of Saxony.

Hopeful or fearful, the electors of Cologne and Brandenburg, the count

Palatine, and Protestant Nuremberg remained neutral. Realizing that

not only their theology but their goods and persons were at stake,

John of Saxony, Philip of Hesse, the princes of Anhalt, the cities

of Augsburg, Strasbourg, and Ulm mobilized all their forces, and put

into the field 57,000 men.

But when John and Philip marched south to challenge Charles,

Ferdinand moved north and west to seize John's duchy; and Maurice,

to have a finger in the pie, joined him in invading Ernestine

Saxony. Appraised of this, John hurried north to defend his duchy.

He did it brilliantly; but meanwhile Philip's troops began to desert

for lack of pay, and the Protestant cities, lured by promises of

fair play, sued for peace with Charles, who let them off with heavy

fines that broke the financial backbone of their freedom. Charles

was now as superior in arms as in diplomacy. The only force favoring

the Protestants was the Pope. Paul III had begun to fear too great a

success for the Emperor; if no Protestant princes should survive to

check the Imperial power, it would establish itself as supreme in

northern as well as southern Italy, would surround or absorb the Papal

States, and would irresistibly dominate the papacy. Suddenly

(January 1547) Paul ordered the papal troops who were with Charles

to leave him and return to Italy. They gladly obeyed. The Pope found

himself heretically rejoicing over the victories of Elector John in

Saxony.

But Charles was determined to bring the campaign to a decision.

Marching north, he met the depleted forces of the Elector at

Muhlberg on the Meissen, routed them completely (April 24, 1547),

and took John captive. Ferdinand demanded the execution of the doughty

prince; canny Charles agreed to commute the sentence to life

imprisonment if Wittenberg would open its gates to him; it did, and

the capital of German Protestantism fell into Catholic hands while

Luther slept peacefully under a slab in the Castle Church. Maurice

of Saxony and Joachim of Brandenburg persuaded Philip of Hesse to

surrender on their promise that he would soon be freed. Charles had

made no such pledge; the extent of his geniality was to promise Philip

release after fifteen years. No one seemed left to challenge the

victorious Emperor. Henry VIII had died on January 28, Francis I on

March 31. Never since Charlemagne had the Imperial power been so

great.

But the winds of fortune veered again. German princes, assembled

in another diet at Augsburg (September 1547), resisted the efforts

of Charles to consolidate his military victory into a legal autocracy.

Paul III accused him of conniving at the murder of Pierluigi

Farnese, the Pope's natural son; and Bavaria, ever loyal to the

Church, turned against the Emperor. A Protestant majority re-formed

among the princes, and wrung from Charles his temporary consent to

clerical marriage, the double administration of the sacrament, and the

Protestant retention of Church property (1548). The Pope fumed at

the Emperor's assumption of power to rule on such ecclesiastical

matters, and Catholics murmured that Charles was more interested in

extending his Empire and entrenching the Hapsburgs than in restoring

the one true faith. Maurice, now Elector of Saxony at Wittenberg,

found himself, Protestant and victorious, dangerously unpopular amid a

population Protestant and conquered; his treachery had poisoned the

power it had won. His appeals to Charles to free the Landgrave were

ignored. He began to wonder had he chosen the better part. Secretly he

joined the Protestant princes in the Treaty of Chambord (January

1552), by which Henry II of France promised aid in expelling Charles

from Germany. While Henry invaded Lorraine and seized Metz, Toul,

and Verdun, Maurice and his Protestant allies marched south with

30,000 men. Charles, resting on his laurels at Innsbruck, had

carelessly disbanded his troops; he had now no defense except

diplomacy, and even at that shifty game Maurice proved his match.

Ferdinand proposed an armistice; Maurice prolonged the negotiations

courteously, meanwhile advancing on Innsbruck. On May 9, accompanied

only by a few attendants, Charles moved painfully, by litter,

through rain and snow and the night, over the Brenner Pass to

Villach in Carinthia. One throw of fortune's dice had transformed

the master of Europe into a gouty fugitive shivering in the Alps.

On May 26 Maurice and the triumphant Protestants met with

Ferdinand and some Catholic leaders at Passau. Charles, after a long

interlude of self-deflation, consented to have Ferdinand sign a treaty

(August 2, 1552) by which Philip was to be released, the Protestant

armies were to disband, both Protestants and Catholics were to enjoy

freedom of worship till a new diet could meet, and if that diet failed

to reach an acceptable settlement, this freedom of worship should

continue forever- a favorite word in treaties. Maurice had begun

with treachery, and had risen to victorious statesmanship; soon (1553)

he would die for his country at the age of thirty in battle against

Albrecht Alcibiades, who had turned half of Germany into an anarchy

perilous to all.

Charles, despairing of a solution for his problems in Germany,

turned west to renew his struggle with France. Ferdinand presided with

patience over the historic Diet of Augsburg (February 5- September 25,

1555), which at last, for half a century, gave Germany peace. He saw

that the territorial principle of ducal freedom was too strong to

allow such a central and absolute sovereignty as the kings had won

in France. The Catholic representatives were a majority in the Diet,

but the Protestants, superior in military power, bound themselves to

stand by every article of the Augsburg Confession of 1530; the Elector

Augustus, who had succeeded Maurice in Saxony, adhered to the

Protestant view; and the Catholics perceived that they must yield or

renew the war. Charles, in the senility of his diplomacy, urged the

electors to name his son Philip as his successor to the Imperial

title; even the Catholics dreaded the prospect of that dour Spaniard

ruling them; and Ferdinand, aspiring to the same throne, could not

hope to win without Protestant support in the electoral college.

Arms and circumstances so favored the Protestants that they demanded

everything: they were to be free in the practice of their faith in all

German territory; Catholic worship was to be forbidden in Lutheran

territory; present and future confiscations of Church property were to

be held valid and irrevocable. `062058 Ferdinand and Augustus worked

out a compromise that in four famous words- cuius regio eius

religio - embodied the spiritual infirmity of the nation and the

age. In order to permit peace among and within the states each

prince was to choose between Roman Catholicism and Lutheranism; all

his subjects were to accept "his religion whose realm" it was; and

those who did not like it were to emigrate. There was no pretense on

either side to toleration; the principle which the Reformation had

upheld in the youth of its rebellion- the right of private judgment-

was as completely rejected by the Protestant leaders as by the

Catholics. That principle had led to such a variety and clash of sects

that the princes felt justified in restoring doctrinal authority, even

if it had to be fractured into as many parts as there were states. The

Protestants now agreed with Charles and the popes that unity of

religious belief was indispensable to social order and peace; and we

cannot judge them fairly unless we visualize the hatred and strife

that were consuming Germany. The results were bad and good: toleration

was now definitely less after the Reformation than before

it; `062059 but the princes banished dissenters instead of burning

them- a rite reserved for witches; and the resultant multiplication of

infallibilities weakened them all.

The real victor was not freedom of worship but the freedom of the

princes. Each became, like Henry VIII of England, the supreme head

of the Church in his territory, with the exclusive right to appoint

the clergy and the men who should define the obligatory faith. The

"Erastian" principle- that the state should rule the Church- was

definitely established. *06046 As it was the princes, not the

theologians, who had led Protestantism to its triumph, they

naturally assumed the fruits of victory- their territorial supremacy

over the emperor, their ecclesiastical supremacy over the Church.

Protestantism was nationalism extended to religion. But the

nationalism was not that of Germany; it was the patriotism of each

principality; German unity was not furthered, it was hindered, by

the religious revolution; but it is not certain that unity would

have been a blessing. When Ferdinand was chosen emperor (1558) his

Imperial powers were less than those that even the harassed and

hampered Charles had possessed. In effect the Holy Roman Empire died

not in 1806 but in 1555.

The German cities, like the Empire, lost in the triumph of the

princes. The Imperial communes had been wards of the emperor,

protected by him against domination by the territorial rulers; now

that the emperor was crippled the princes were free to interfere in

municipal affairs, and communal independence waned. Meanwhile the

growing vigor of Holland absorbed most of the trade that poured German

products into the North Sea through the mouths of the Rhine; and the

southern cities languished with the relative commercial decline of

Venice and the Mediterranean. Commercial and political enfeeblement

brought cultural decay; not for two centuries to come would the German

towns show again the vitality of trade and thought that had preceded

and supported the Reformation.

-

Melanchthon, surviving the Peace of Augsburg by five years, was

not sure that he wanted the reprieve. He had outlived his

leadership, not only in negotiations with the Catholics but in the

determination of Protestant theology. He had so far liberated

himself from Luther as to reject complete predestination and the

bodily presence of Christ in the Eucharist, `062060 and he struggled

to maintain the importance of good works while insisting with Luther

that they could not earn salvation. A bitter controversy arose between

"Philippists"- Melanchthon and his followers- and the orthodox

Lutherans, who fulminated chiefly from Jena; these called

Melanchthon "an apostate Mameluke" and "servant of Satan"; he

described them as idolatrous sophistical blockheads. `062061

Professors were engaged or dismissed, imprisoned or released, as the

tides of theological lava ebbed or flowed. The two parties agreed in

proclaiming the right of the state to suppress heresy by force.

Melanchthon followed Luther in sanctioning serfdom and upholding the

divine right of kings; `062062 but he wished that the Lutheran

movement, instead of allying itself with the princes, had sought

rather the protection of municipal burgher aristocracies, as in

Zurich, Strasbourg, Nuremberg, and Geneva. In his most

characteristic moments he spoke like the Erasmian that he had hoped to

be: "Let us speak only of the Gospel, of human weakness and divine

mercy, of the organization of the Church, and the true worship. To

reassure souls and give them a rule of right action- is this not the

essence of Christianity? The rest is scholastic debate, sectarian

disputes." `062063 When death came to him he welcomed it as a benign

liberation from the "fury of theologians" and the "barbarity" of "this

sophistical age." `062064 History had miscast as a general in a

revolutionary war a spirit that nature had made for scholarship,

friendliness, and peace.

CHAPTER XXI: John Calvin: 1509-64

I. YOUTH

-

HE was born at Noyon, France, July 10, 1509. It was an

ecclesiastical city, dominated by its cathedral and its bishop; here

at the outset he had an example of theocracy- the rule of a society by

clergymen in the name of God. His father, Gerard Chauvin, was

secretary to the bishop, proctor in the cathedral chapter, and

fiscal procurator of the county. Jean's mother died while he was still

young; the father married again, and perhaps Calvin owed to stern

step-rearing part of his somber spirit. Gerard destined three of his

sons for the priesthood, confident that he could place them well. He

found benefices for two, but one of these became a heretic and died

refusing the sacraments. Gerard himself was excommunicated after a

financial dispute with the cathedral chapter, and had some trouble

getting buried in holy ground.

Jean was sent to the College de la Marche at the University of

Paris. He registered as Johannes Calvinus, and learned to write

excellent Latin. He passed later to the College de Montaigu, where

he must have heard echoes of its famous pupil Erasmus; and he remained

there till 1528, when his Catholic counterpart, Ignatius Loyola,

entered. "The stories told at one time of Calvin's ill-regulated

youth," says a Catholic authority, "have no foundation." `06211 On the

contrary, the available evidence indicates an assiduous student,

shy, taciturn, pious, and already "a severe censor of his comrades'

morals"; `06212 yet loved by his friends, now as later, with an

unshakable fidelity. In the hot pursuit of esoteric knowledge or

fascinating theory he read far into the night; even in those student

years he developed some of the many ailments that plagued his mature

life and helped to form his mood.

Unexpectedly, late in 1528, a directive came from his father to go

to Orleans and study law, presumably, said the son, "because he judged

that the science of laws commonly enriched those who followed

it." `06213 Calvin took readily enough to the new study; law, not

philosophy or literature, seemed to him the outstanding intellectual

achievement of mankind, the molding of man's anarchic impulses to

order and peace. He carried into theology and ethics the logic,

precision, and severity of Justinian's Institutes, and gave his

own masterpiece a similar name. He became above all a lawgiver, the

Numa and Lycurgus of Geneva.

Having taken his degree as Licentiate or Bachelor of Laws (1531), he

returned to Paris and entered upon a voracious study of classical

literature. Feeling the common urge to see himself in print, he

published (1532) a Latin essay on Seneca's De clementia; the

sternest of religious legislators began his public career with a

salute to mercy. He sent a copy to Erasmus, hailing him as the "second

glory" (after Cicero) and "first delight of letters." He seemed

dedicated to humanism when some sermons of Luther reached him and

stirred him with their audacity. Alert circles in Paris were

discussing the new movement, and there must have been much talk

about the reckless monk who had burned the bull of a pope and defied

the ban of an emperor; indeed, Protestantism had already had martyrs

in France. Some men who were urging Church reform were among

Calvin's friends; one of them, Gerard Roussel, was a favorite of the

King's sister, Marguerite of Navarre; another, Nicholas Cop, was

chosen rector of the university, and Calvin probably had a hand in

preparing Cop's fateful inaugural address (November 1, 1533). It began

with an Erasmian plea for a purified Christianity, proceeded to a

Lutheran theory of salvation through faith and grace, and ended with

an appeal for a tolerant hearing of the new religious ideas. The

speech created a furore; the Sorbonne erupted in anger; the

Parlement began proceedings against Cop for heresy. He fled; a

reward of 300 crowns was offered for his capture alive or dead, but he

managed to reach Basel, which was now Protestant.

Calvin was warned by friends that he and Roussel were scheduled

for arrest. Marguerite seems to have interceded for him. He left Paris

(January 1534) and found refuge in Angouleme; and there, probably in

the rich library of Louis de Tillet, he began to write his

Institutes. In May he ventured back to Noyon, and surrendered the

benefices whose income had been supporting him. He was arrested there,

was freed, was rearrested and again freed. He returned clandestinely

to Paris, talked with Protestant leaders, and met Servetus, whom he

was to burn. When some Protestant extremists posted abusive placards

at various points in Paris, Francis I retaliated with a furious

persecution. Calvin fled just in time (December 1534), and joined

Cop in Basel. There, a lad of twenty-six, he completed the most

eloquent, fervent, lucid, logical, influential, and terrible work in

all the literature of the religious revolution.

II. THE THEOLOGIAN

-

He published the book in Latin (1536) as Christianae religionis

institutio ( The Principles of the Christian Religion ). Within a

year the issue was sold out and a new edition was invited. Calvin

responded with a much enlarged version (1539), again in Latin; in 1541

he translated this into French; and this form of the work is one of

the most impressive productions in the gamut of French prose. The

Parlement of Paris proscribed the book in both languages, and copies

of it were publicly burned in the capital. Calvin continued throughout

his life to expand and republish it; in its final form it ran to 1,118

pages.

The first edition opened with a passionate but dignified "Preface to

the Most Christian King of France." Two events gave occasion for

addressing Francis: the royal edict of January 1535 against the French

Protestants, and the almost simultaneous invitation of Francis to

Melanchthon and Bucer to come to France and arrange an alliance

between the French monarch and the Lutheran princes against Charles V.

Calvin hoped to reinforce political expediency with theological

arguments, and help incline the King, like his sister, toward the

Protestant cause. He was anxious to dissociate this from the

Anabaptist movement then verging on communism in Munster. He described

the French reformers as patriots, devoted to the King and averse

from all economic or political disturbance. The beginning and end of

this famous Preface reveal the majesty of Calvin's thought and style.

-

When I began this work, Sire, nothing was further from my thoughts

than writing a book which would afterwards be presented to your

Majesty. My intention was only to lay down some elementary principles,

by which inquirers on the subject of religion might be instructed in

the nature of true piety.... But when I perceived that the fury of

certain wicked men in your kingdom had grown to such a height as to

leave no room in the land for sound doctrine, I thought I should be

usefully employed if in the same work... I exhibited my confession

to you, that you may know the nature of that doctrine which is the

object of such unbounded rage in those madmen who are now disturbing

the country with fire and sword. For I shall not be afraid to

acknowledge that this treatise contains a summary of that very

doctrine, which, according to their clamors, deserves to be punished

with imprisonment, banishment, proscription, and flames, and to be

exterminated from the face of the earth. I well know with what

atrocious insinuations your ears have been filled by them, in order to

render our cause most odious in your esteem; but your clemency

should lead you to consider that if accusation be accounted sufficient

evidence of guilt, there will be an end to all innocence in words

and actions....

You yourself, Sire, can bear witness of the false calumnies with

Durant W. The Reformation. A History of European Civilization from Wyclif to Calvin: 1300-1564

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