540 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 To 1530.
justified the act on the ground that the bishops neglected their duty.
But Luther ventured even to consecrate a bishop, or a superintendent; as John Wesley did two hundred and fifty years afterwards in the interest of his followers in the United States. When the bishopric of Naumburg became vacant, the chapter, backed by the Roman-Catholic minority of the nobility and people, regularly elected Julius von Pflug, one of the ablest, purest, and mildest opponents of the Reformation. This choice displeased the Protestants. The Elector John Frederick, by an illegal use of power, confiscated the property of the diocese, and appointed a counter-bishop in the person of Nicolaus von Amsdorf, Luther’s most devoted friend, who was unmarried and a nobleman, and at that time superintendent at Magdeburg. ‘The consecration took place on June 20, 1542, in the dome of Naumburg, in the presence of the Elector, the Protestant clergy, and a congregation of about five thousand people. Luther preached the sermon, and performed the consecration with the assistance of three superintendents (Medler, Spalatin, and Stein) and an abbot, by the laying-on of hands, and prayer. This bold and defiant act created great sensation and indignation, and required a public defense, which he prepared at the request of the Elector.2 He used the strongest language against popery
1 Corp. Ref., I. 765. Comp. Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheranismi, vol. II. 29.
2 See an account of the consecration in Seckendorf, III. 391 sqq.; Kostlin, II. 561 sqq.; Janssen, III. 483-492. Janssen describes the sickening details of the violence, intrigues, and robberies connected with the Protestantizing and secularizing of the three Saxon bishoprics.
, ὃ Exempel, einen rechten christlichen Bischof zu weihen, 1542. ἘΠ]. ed., XXVI. 77-108; Walch, XVII. 122. He begins with the characteristic sentence: ‘* Wir armen Ketzer haben abermal eine grosse Stinde begangen wider die hollische unchristliche Kirche des allerhéllischten Vaters, des Papstes, dass wir einen Bischof im Stift Naumburg ordinirt und eingeweihet haben ohne allen Chresem [Chrisma, Salbél], auch ohne Butter, Schmalz, Speck, Teer, Schmeer, Weihrauch, Kohlen und was derselben grossen Heiligkeit mehr ist: dazu wider ihren Willen; doch nicht ohne ihr Wissen.’? Comp. also his letter to Jacob Probst, March 26, 1546 (De Wette, V. 451), where he
calls this consecration “ audaz facinus et plenissimum odio, invidia et indignatione.”?
§ 86. CHANGES IN THE VIEWS ON THE MINISTRY. 541
and episcopacy to overawe the opposition, and to make it contemptible. He even boasts of having made a bishop without chrism, butter, and incense. “41 cannot repent,” he says, “of such a great and horrible sin, nor expect absolution for it.” He assigns, among the reasons for setting aside the election of a Catholic bishop, that God had in the first three commandments, as by a thunderstroke of judgment, forever condemned to hell the chapter of Naumburg, together with the pope, cardinals, and all their régime, for breaking those commandments by their idolatry and false worship. Christians are forbidden, on pain of eternal damnation, to hear and tolerate them. They must flee a false prophet, preacher, or bishop, and regard a popish bishop as no bishop at all, but as a wolf, yea, as a devil.t “ And what does the most hellish father in his hellish Church? Does he not depose all bishops, abbots, priests, whom he finds heretics or apostates from his idolatry? ... Yea, he interferes even with secular and domestic government, deposes emperors, kings, princes, separates man and wife, dissolves marriage, abolishes obedience, duty, and oath, simply for disobedience to his audacious devilish decretals and accursed bulls.” But, as the holy Virgin sings in her Magnificat, “the Lord hath scattered the proud in the imagination of their hearts, and hath put down princes from their thrones” (Luke 1: 51, 52); and as St. Peter writes, “ Deus superbis resistit” (1 Pet. 5:5). The proud and haughty, whether he be pope, emperor, king, prince, nobleman, citizen, or peasant, will be humbled, and come to a bitter end. The chapter of Naumburg elected a bishop who would have been bound by obedience to the pope to persecute the gospel, “‘ to worship the devil,” and to let the pope, the archbishop of Mainz, and their courtiers rule and ruin at pleasure. The papists have been playing
1“... gezwungen durch Gottes Gebot, sich von ihm zu sondern, und thn fiir keinen Bischof, sondern fiir einen Wolf, ja fiir einen Teufel zu halten.”’ ἘΠῚ]. ed., p. 80.