II. Origin and Extent. — The rupture with the dominant part of the Church of Rome, and the formation of the new communion, was made inevitable bv the Diet at Spires in 1529, at which the solemn protestation of the evangelical princes was presented, in opposition to the imperial recess (decree) in its bearing on the great religious interests of the time. This event gave to the Lutheran Church the title Protestant (q. v.), by which it is almost ex- clusively known in parts of Europe. The rupture was completed by the events connected with the presenta- tion of the Augsburg Confession in 1530. The funda- mental principle of the Lutheran Church prevented its formation into a new, concentrated, and united whole, like that ^vhich had grown to such enormous proportions and baleful power in the Church of the A\'est. Nor was it Luther's object to form an independent Church. He hesitated as much in the establishment of an inde- pendent organization as do the leaders of the Old Cath- olic movement in our day (1872). Luther's single aim, like Dollinger's to-day, was the reformation and revival of Christianity, and the restoration of the whole Church, in its universal form, to primitive and scriptural purity. Denominationalism he knew not. His conception of the Church comprehended Catholic Christianity. In spite of himself, however, his peculiar views, which for convenience sake we will now denominate " Lutheran- ism," spread rapidly, especially after the Diet of Worms (1521), and though as late as 1522 Luther himself wrote, " I beseech you, above all things, not to use my name ; not to call yourselves Lutherans, but Christians" ( Works, xviii, 293, in the 6th Leips. ed. ; comp. also Gelzer, Life of Luther, p. 288, 291), national churches sprang up in every country where his followers constituted the ma- jority. These state churches were all independent of each other, and were based much upon the same funda- mental principles of polity, allowing, however, of great variety in the forms of application. Instead of the bishop of Rome, the princes of the different countries now assumed the rights of bishops, and the direct rule of the Church was conducted by the Consistoriis (q. v.). John the Constant, elector of Saxony, followed in the steps of his brother and predecessor, Frederick the Wise, in devotion to the work of Luther. The landgrave Philip of Hesse also became an adherent. In Prussia the Lutheran doctrine was introduced in 1523 by George of Polentz, bishop of Samland. Thus, at the beginning of the year 1525, the three princes of Saxony, Hesse, and Prussia were its defenders. The Reformed doctrine found an especially ready entrance in the free impe- rial cities, where the voice of the pecqile was a power.
LUTHERAN
574
LUTHERAN
In Wiirteniberg it was introduced under duke Ulrich in 1534; in the' bishopries of ;\Ia,<;dolnirg and Halberstadt in 1541; in Brunswick about 1545. The views which Luther had expressed at an early period in regard to a congregational constitution were thrown into the back- ground by the disturbances of the Anabaptists and the insurrections of the peasants. The leagues of the evan- gelical princes were one of the earliest forms in which there was an expression of the unity of the different parts of the Lutheran Church. The conventions of the theologians for the adjustment of doctrinal controver- sies tended to the same end. In the political relations of the Church the unity found expression in the " Cor- pus Evangelicorum" (q. v.) at the Diets.
The rapid, and, for a time, resistless growth of the Lu- theran Church received its first check in the "ecclesiasti- cal reservations" of the religious peace of Augsburg. By the terms of this peace the transition of an ecclesiastical prince was attended by a loss of his secular power. The miscarriage of the attempt at reformation by Gebhard Truchsess in the archbishopric of Cologne in 1583 was a serious disaster to the Lutheran Church. The larger part of Germany was inclined to the Lutheran faith. The apostasy of several of the princes, as, for example, Pfalz-Neuburg, on political grounds, and the influence of the counter reformation conducted by the Jesuits in Bavaria and Austria, preserved a part of Germany for the pope; but the peace of Westphalia finally fixed the bounds of the Lutheran Church in Europe, and they re- main, very much as they then were, to the present day. The transition of the elector of Saxony, of the duke of Brunswick, and of other princes to the Church of Rome, exercised no very marked influence upon their people. A large part of the higher nobility, whicli in the earlier movements of the Reformation had manifested, almost without excci)tion, a drawing towards it, gradually lapsed again into Romanism. (On these perversions, and other losses to the Lutheran Church, see Lobell's Hist. Briefe ; Ranke, Deutsche Geschichte, vol. vii [1868].) At an ear- lier period than that of these changes, the Philippistic and Reformed churches of the Palatinate, and in Hesse, in Anhalt, and on the Lower Rhine, in East Friesland and Bremen, Lippe, Nassau, and Tecklenburg, had sun- dered themselves from the Lutheran Church. In the present century these churches have come together ua the " Union." Beyond the bounds of Germany the Lu- theran Church was firmly established in Sweden, Nor- way, and Denmark, and in the German Baltic provinces of Russia. In Poland it was suppressed (comp. Krasin- ski. Hist, of the Re/, in Poland). In the United States of America the Lutheran Church has won a new terri- tory. (See below, Lutherans in America.) In Hun- gary and Transylvania the German (Saxon) nationality accepted the Lutheran confession. The Magyars be- came Reformed. In Sweden, Olaf and Lorenz Peterson, pupils of Luther, preached the purified faith. Gustavus Vasa. king of Sweden, greatly promoted the interests of the Lutheran Church; and at the Diet of Westeras, in 1544, tlie last remnants of the papal system were re- moved. In Denmark, as early as 1527, Christian II had favored the Reformation. Frederick I was also' a de- cided Lutheran. Christian HI called in Bugenhagen to prepare and introduce a Church discipline and rit- ual. Riga and Courlaiid entered into the League of Schmalcald in 15.')8. Apart from the vast Lutheran element within the "Union" in Prussia, the Lutheran Church is the predominant Church in the minor Ger- man lands : Baden. Brunswick, Mecklenburg, Oldenburg, the principality of Reuss in Hesse, the Saxon lands, Schwarzburg, and Wiirtemburg; also in Denmark, Nor- way, and Sweden ; in Russia, in the dejiartments of Li- vonia, Esthland, St. Petersburg, Finland, and Courland. Lutherans constitute a large body in Hungary, France, the British empire, and North America. They are, in fact, found the world over. There are not less, probably, than fort v millions of them altogether. (Comp. Krauth, p. 124, 125.)