RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Joafe Joachim
margrave regarded with personal dislike because of the former's bitter attack on Archbishop Albert. A personal interview with Luther previous to the meeting of the Diet of Worms served only to intensify the opposition between the two. In the execution of the provisions of the Edict of Worms Joachim took the leading part, gaining thereby increased favors from the emperor. In 1524 he married his eldest son to a daughter of Luther's enemy, George of Saxony, and in the following year joined the association formed at Dessau for the destruction of " The Abominable Sect of Lutherans." In spite of all his efforts, however, the new teachings made rapid progress in Brandenburg and created dissensions in his own household. In 1527 his wife Elizabeth received the communion secretly from a Lutheran priest, largely through the influence of her brother Christian II. of Denmark, whose interference in his domestic affairs aroused bitter resentment in Joachim. The electress escaped lifelong imprisonment only by flight, and Luther's intervention served but to intensify the elector's hatred. At the Diet of Augsburg he appeared as one of the leading champions of a policy of relentless warfare against the Lutherans. In 1533 he concluded with George of Saxony and Archbishop Albert a league at Halle in opposition to the Schmalkald League. In his will, drawn up in 1534, he laid the injunction upon his successors to remain faithful to the Roman communion, and, when his son Joachim's wife died, he obtained for him the hand of Hedwig, daughter of Sigismund, king of Catholic Poland. His death revealed, however, that his efforts against the spread of the reformed faith were practically vain.
(G. Kawerau.) Bibliography: J. G. Droysen, Geschichte der preussischen Politik, ii. 2, pp. 1-163, Leipsio, 1870; A. M tiller, Geschichte der Reformation in der Mark Brandenburg, Berlin, 1839; C. W. Spieker, Geschichte der Einfilhrung der Reformation in , . . Brandenburg, ib. 1839; IX Erdmann, Luther und die Hohenzollern, pp. 37 sqq., Breslau, 1883; J. Heidemann, Die Reformation in der Mark Brandenburg, Berlin, 1889. For matter upon the choice of the emperor consult: Reichstagsakten, new series, vol. i., Gotha, 1893; E. R. Roesler, Die Kaiserwahl Carls V., Vienna, 1878. Consult also the literature given under Tbithemius.
JOACHIM II.: Margrave of Brandenburg; b. Jan. 9, 1505; d. at Kopenik (8 m. s.e. of Berlin), Jan. 3, 1571. He was the son of Joachim I. (q.v.), was educated under the supervision of his uncle the Elector Albert (see Albert op Brandenburg), and at an early age conceived an interest in theological questions. By his marriage with the daughter of George of Saxony in 1524 and of Sigismund of Poland in 1535, his father had sought to bind him to the Roman faith. But it was early apparent that he would not follow closely in the footsteps of his father, whom he succeeded in 1535. At first he attempted to play the part of mediator between the two parties and eagerly embraced the plan of a general council for the settlement of the religious schism, but when the convocation of such an assembly was repeatedly postponed he turned his efforts solely in the direction of establishing harmony within the empire. In 1538 he submitted to the emperor a compromise program for the attainment of such an end, which led to prolonged negotiations in that and the following year without re-
sulting in any definite achievement. The death of George of Saxony in 1539 removed one of the strongest influences for Catholicism in Brandenburg. For some years before this event Joachim had permitted the open extension of the Lutheran influence, and in 1538 he submitted to Melanchthon a program of church reform drawn up for him by the dean of Elgersma. Melanchthon rejected the constitutions as insufficiently Evangelical, and the widespread movement among the nobles and the third estate convinced the margrave that the time for a radical change had come. New church constitutions were drawn up, after preparation by Prince Georg von Anhalt, by a commission comprising Jacob Stratner, Georg Buchholzer, and Georg Witzel and were approved by Melanchthon. In November, 1539, the margrave formally received the Lord's Supper according to the Lutheran form and subsequently the revised church constitutions were sent to Wittenberg, where they received the approval of Luther, Melanchthon, and Jonas, though of all Protestant Church systems they represented the least departure from the Roman Catholic position. Joachim succeeded in obtaining the confirmation of the emperor on the promise of submission to the decisions of a future council. The new ordinances were speedily introduced and the gradual abolition of the monastic system was begun.
In the field of politics also Joachim attempted to play the role of arbitrator between the two parties. At the Colloquy of Worms (q.v.) in 1540-41 his representatives sat with the " submissive " as opposed to the " protesting " deputies, and he based much hope upon the plan here secretly formulated for another conference at Regensburg where it was hoped that the reunion of the parties might be achieved. Luther, to whom the project was submitted, rejected its terms as unsatisfactory both to the Roman Church and to the Protestants, but Joachim did not abandon his activity, and when the emperor contemplated the despatch of a special mission to Luther he offered himself for the service. Before the outbreak of the Schmalkald War (1546) he attempted to mediate between the leaders of the League and the emperor, but, failing, sent a force of cavalry in the following year to the aid of Maurice of Saxony in return for the elevation of his second son Frederick to the post of coadjutor bishop of Magdeburg and Halberstadt. He pledged himself to abide by the decisions of the council to be assembled at Trent and obtained the same concessions in the religious sphere that had been granted to Maurice of Saxony. He was active in advocating the adoption of the Augsburg Interim (see Agricola, Johann; Interim, 2). From this time his political importance declines; his subsequent efforts were directed toward dynastic aggrandizement, and with this ambition he permitted his son Sigismund to accept the archbishopric of Magdeburg and the see of Halberstadt on the condition of complete submission to the pope. It was only political interests, however, that prevented the complete introduction of the Protestant confession in his dominions, an event which followed the death of Joachim and the succession of his son John George.
(G. Kawerau.)
Joachim of Flore Joash