SPIRES
942
SPIRES
c«»mnii-5<i<incrs introducoil instructions, dated ^farcli 23, wIulIi (iroliihinMl tluMn I'nrni aivi'ptini,' any action on tlie part oC the diet that did not liarinoiiizc with the traihtional cUntrinos and usaices. and recinired them to I>roni<>to the execution of the Edict of Worms. The elector of Saxony and the landgrave of Hesse took im- mediate measures to depart from .Spires: and tlic diffi- cidiies which surrounded the emperor, joined Avith the counsels of his advisers, now led him to employ more conciliatory lanf^uage. He wrote to his brother Ferdi- nand that he was determined to win over the Kvangel- ical* with kindness, and to submit their doctrines to a c«>uncil ) and the recess of the diet, dated August 27, de- creed that a universal — or at least a national — council slioulil be called within a year, and that in matters treated of in tlie Edict of Worms each state should, during the interval, behave so as to be able to render account to God and the emperor. The Evangelical cause was thus accorded a season of quiet, during which its adherents drew more firmly together, and consoli- dated the Church. See the .lc/(/ of the diet in Luther's W'fike (Walchs ed.), xvi, 243 sq. ; Veesenmayer, Die VfrhiimUnmien atifdem R(ric/i.tt(i//e zu Speyer ini .lahre 1521). etc., in Vater's Archiv, 1H25, i, 22 sq. ; Eanke, JJeiitsc/w (ifscli. ii,354 scj. ; id. Fiirs/en ii. Volker von ISiid- eiiropii. ii, KX) sq, ; Neudecker, Meikw. Aktenstiicke uus dtm Ziiliilli-r d. liej'urmatioa, i, 19 sq.
H. TJie second Diet of Sf)ires was occasioned by the more favorable conditions which the political relations of the emperor assumed, in coijsequence of which he felt liimself able to enforce what was always his real desire, the repression of the Evangelical movement in (Jerma- ny. When Franci§ I of France sued for peace, and the jiope was induceii to renew amicable relations, the coun- cil promised in the recess of the first diet was no longer thought of by the emperor. He declared that he would no longer tolerate such disobedience to his commands as was manifest in the disregard of the Edict of Worms, and .asserted tiiat the existing diflf'erences in matters [•ertaiiiing to the faith were the occasion from which sprang the troubles of the empire. He appointed com- missaries, at the head of whom was his brother Ferdi- nand, anil ordered the convening of a diet at Si)ires, to open Feb. 1, 1529. The date was afterwards changed to the iJlst of that month ; but the opening w.ts delayed until March 15. The lloniish jiarty was stronglv in the majority, and had been eml)ittered l)y the fraud of Pack ((J. v.), until its members were thoroughly deter- mineil to execute the emperor's instructions ilesigned to overthrow the ICvangelical teachings and Church order. The Evangelicals, as at the first Diet of Spires, were de- nied the use (if a church, and were compelled to wor- ship in their lodgings. .Attendance on their services was prohibited; but c(»ngregations of over 81)00 persons were, nevertheless, present at the preaching of the Word. The imperial commissaries were busily em- ployed in sowing seeds of dissension among the Evan- gelicals; and failing in this purpose, they secured the exclusion of the delegates from Strasburg and Mem- niinixen, where the mass had been i)rohibited.
The diet was opened by the commissaries in the spirit of the emperor's instructions. They al)rogated the re- cexs (if the previous diet, on the alleged ground that it had been arbitrarily ex()lained. The aihlress of the commissaries was referred to a committee, in which the Evangelicals were greatly in the minority, and was of Ci>urs<- approved. The report recommended the hold- ing of a council in some (ierman ciiy, that the mass shouhl be everywhere retained, and that it shoidd be restored where it had been set asi.le ; that a rigid cen- sorship over b<M>kH should be exercised; and, finally, that every form of teaching which did not recognise the real b..dy and blood of Christ in the sacrament should be pndiibited. The liual item was designed to prevent the union of Lutherans and Reformed into a single nud powerful party, as the landgrave of Hesse projHWfd. Ferdiiiuntl exerted himself to promote the
[ adoption of this report, and Eck and Faber (q. v.) were restlessly at work to divide the minority. The land- grave, assisted by INIelancthon, was, however, success- ful in uniting the Evangelicals in support of a declara- tion directly opposed to the report of the committee in all its parts. This declaration was submitted to the diet April 12, and was of course immediately rejected by the Homish majority; and Ferdinand, in the session of April 19, even exalted the report of the committee into a recess of the diet, and commanded the Evangel- icals to submit to its provisions, as having been fixed bv a majority. As the minority were not prepared to yield immediately, he and his associate commissaries left the diet. The Evangelical princes at once drew up a protest against the action of Ferdinand and in harmo- ny with their ])revious declaration, and caused it to be read immediately and publicly, after which they de- manded its incorporation into the recess. On the fol- lowing day (April 20) they transmitted a more extend- * ed copy of their protest to tlie imperial commissaries, which was returned to them by Ferdinand. This inci- dent conferred on them the title of Proie»1ants. The protest set fVirth that the Evangelical princes and es- tates could not sanction the revocation by a party vote of the recess passed unanimously at the last diet; that their opponents had conceded the correctness of Evan- gelical teaching in many points, and could not there- fore require its rejection by those who now received it; that the papal legate had acknowledged, at the diet in Nuremberg, that the Church suffered from many evils in both head and members, and that consequently the occasion for existing differences must be found in liome; as was also evident from the fact that the complaints of the German nation had not yet been satisfied. In the event that the recess of the former diet shoidd, nev- ertheless, be recalled by the partisan majority, the sign- ers protested before God that, for themselves and their people, they would "neither consent nor adhere in any maimer whatsoever to the proposed decree in anything that is contrary to (iod, his holy Word, our right con- science and the salvation of our soids, and the last decree of Spires," They asked that the matter be reported to the emperor, and declared that they would in the mean- time so govern their actions that they might be able to render account thereof to God and the emperor.