690 THE GERMAN REFORMATION. A.D. 1517 τὸ 1530.
Fortunately, the Reformers of Wittenberg were consulted, and prevented an open outbreak by their advice. Luther deemed the papists bad enough for any thing, but was from principle opposed to aggressive war;! Melanchthon saw through the forgery, and felt keenly mortified. When the fictitious document was published, the Roman Catholic princes indignantly denied it. Duke George denounced Pack as a traitor.2— Archduke Ferdinand declared that he never dreamed of such a league.
The rash conduct of Philip put the Protestant princes in the position of aggressors and disturbers of the public peace, and the whole affair brought shame and disgrace upon their cause.
§ 115. The Second Diet of Speier, and the Protest of 1529.
WaALcH, XVI. 315 sqq. J. J. MULLER: Historie von der evang. Stinde Protestation und Appellation wider den Reichsabschied zu Speier, 1529, Jena, 1705. TITTMANN: Die Protestation der evang. Stande mit hist. Erlauterungen, Leipzig, 1829. A. JuNG: Gesch. des Reichstags zu
Speier, 1529, Leipzig, 1880. J. Ney (Protest. pastor at Speier): Ge-
, Sschichte des Reichstags zu Speier im Jahr 1529. Mit einem Anhange
' ungedruckter Akten und Briefe, Hamburg, 1880. RANKE, III. 102-116. JANSSEN, III. 180-146.
Under these discourageménts the second Diet of Speier was convened in March, 1529, for action against the Turks, and against the further progress of Protestantism. The Catholic dignitaries appeared in full force, and were flushed with hopes of victory. The Protestants felt that “Christ was again in the hands of Caiaphas and Pilate.” ὃ
The Diet neutralized the recess of the preceding Diet of 1526; it virtually condemned (without, however, annulling) the innovations made; and it forbade, on pain of the imperial
1 See his letters on this subject in De Wette, III. 314 sqq.
2 After a fugitive life, Pack was beheaded as a forgerin the Netherlands, 1536, at the solicitation of Duke George.
ὃ Words of Jacob Sturm, the ambassador of Strassburg, from the middle of March.
§ 115. THE-SECOND DIET OF SPEIER. 691
ban, any further reformation until the meeting of the council, which was now positively promised for the next year by the Emperor and the Pope. The Zwinglians and Anabaptists were excluded even from toleration. The latter were to be punished by death.
The Lutheran members of the Diet, under the well-founded impression that the prohibition of any future reformation
meant death to the whole movement, entered in the legal form ~ of an appeal for themselves, their subjects and for all who now or shall hereafter believe in the Word of God, the famous protest of April 25, 1529, against all those measures of the Diet which were contrary to the Word of God, to their conscience, and to the decision of the Diet of 1526, and appealed from the decision of the majority to the Emperor, to a general or German council, and impartial Christian judges." The document was signed by the Elector John of Saxony, Margrave George of Brandenburg, Dukes Ernest and Francis of Braunschweig-Liineburg, Landgrave Philip of Hesse, Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt, and the representatives of fourteen imperial cities, including Strassburg and St. Gall of the Zwinglian persuasion. They were determined to defend themselves against every act of violence of the majority. Their motto was that of Elector John the Constant: “The Word of God abideth forever.” They deserve the name of confessors of the evangelical faith and the rights of conscience in the face of imminent danger.? :
The protest of Speier was a renewal and expansion of Luther’s protest at Worms. The protest of a single monk
1 The great Instrumentum appellationis is given by Miiller, Walch, Jung, and in substance by Gieseler, J.c. April 25 (a Sunday) is the date of the legal completion of the protest (Ranke, III. 113). The dates of the preparatory steps are April 19 and 22.
2 Janssen denies the right of such protest, and dates from it the schism of the German nation. ‘‘ Von dem Tage zu Speier an,’’ he says, III. 144, “beginnt die eigentliche Spaltung der deutschen Nation.’’ Fortunately, the
schism has been healed in 1870 by Providence, without the aid of the Pope and against his wish and will.