person. On the other hand, they did not wish to take the
risk of radical measures against the new doctrines, and were
glad of an excuse for refusing the demands of the pope.
Adrian soon died, worn out by his futile attempts to correct
the abuses at home, and was followed by Clement VII., a
Medici, less gifted but not less worldly in his instincts than
Leo X.
Clement sent one of his ablest Italian diplomatists, Campeggio, to negotiate with the diet which met at Spires in 1524. He induced the diet to promise to execute the edict of Worms as far as that should be possible; but it was generally understood that it was impossible. TheBeginning of the religious cleft between the German states of the north and south in 1524. diet renewed the demand for a general council to meet in a German town to settle the affairs of the Church in Germany, and even proposed the convocation of national council at Spires in November, to effect a temporary adjustment. In this precarious situation Campeggio, realizing the hopelessness of his attempt to induce all the members of the diet to co-operate with him in re-establishing the pope’s control, called together at Regensburg a certain number of rulers whom he believed to be rather more favourably disposed toward the pope than their fellows. These included Ferdinand, duke of Austria, the two dukes of Bavaria, the archbishops of Salzburg and Trent, the bishops of Bamberg, Spires, Strassburg and others. He induced these to unite in opposing the Lutheran heresy on condition that the pope would issue a decree providing for some of the most needed reforms. There was to be no more financial oppression on the part of the clergy, and no unseemly payments for performing the church services. Abuses arising from the granting of indulgences were to be remedied, and the excessive number of church holidays, which seriously interfered with the industrial Welfare of Germany, was to be reduced. The states in the Catholic League were permitted to retain for their own uses about one-fifth of the ecclesiastical revenue; the clergy was to be subjected to careful discipline; and only authorized preachers were to be tolerated, who based their teachings on the works of the four Latin Church fathers. Thus the agreement of Regensburg is of great moment in the development of the Protestant revolt in Germany. For Austria, Bavaria and the great ecclesiastical states in the south definitely sided with the pope against Luther’s heresies, and to this day they still remain Roman Catholic. In the north, on the other hand, it became more and more apparent that the princes were drifting away from the Roman Catholic Church. Moreover, it should be noted that Campeggio’s diplomacy was really the beginning of an effective betterment of the old Church, such as had been discussed for two or three centuries. He met the long-standing and general demand for reform without a revolution in doctrines or institutions. A new edition of the German Bible was issued with the view of meeting the needs of Catholics, a new religious literature grew up designed to substantiate the beliefs sanctioned by the Roman Church and to carry out the movement begun long before toward spiritualizing its institutions and rites.
In 1525 the conservative party, which had from the first feared that Luther’s teaching would result in sedition, received a new and terrible proof, as it seemed to them, of the noxious influence of the evangelical preachers. The peasant movements alluded to above, which had causedThe peasant Revolt, 1525. so much anxiety at the diet of Augsburg in 1518, culminated in the fearful Peasant Revolt in which the common man, both in country and town, rose in the name of “God’s justice” to avenge long-standing wrongs and establish his rights. Luther was by no means directly responsible for the civil war which followed, but he had certainly contributed to stir up the ancient discontent. He had asserted that, owing to the habit of foreclosing small mortgages, “any one with a hundred gulden could gobble up a peasant a year.” The German feudal lords he pronounced hangmen, who knew only how to swindle the poor man—“such fellows were formerly called scoundrels, but now we must call them ' Christians and revered princes.”' Yet in spite of this harsh talk about princes, Luther relied upon them to .forward the reforms in which he was interested, and he justly claimed that he had greatly increased their powers by reducing the authority of the pope and subjecting the clergy in all things to the civil government.
The best known statement of the peasants' grievances is to be found in the famous “Twelve Articles” drawn up in 1524. They certainly showed the unmistakable influence of the evangelical teaching. The peasants demanded that the gospel should be taught them as a guide in life, and that each community should be permitted to choose its pastor and depose him if he conducted himself improperly. “The pastor thus chosen should teach us the gospel pure and simple, without any addition, doctrine or ordinance of man.” The old tithe on grain shall continue to be paid, since that is established by the Old Testament. It will serve to support the pastor, and what is left over shall be given to the poor. Serfdom is against God’s word, “since Christ has delivered and redeemed us all without exception, by the shedding of. his precious blood, the lowly as well as the great.” Protests follow against hunting and fishing rights, restrictions on wood-cutting, and excessive demands made on peasants. “In the twelfth place,” the declaration characteristically concluded, “it is our conclusion and final resolution that if one or more of the articles here set forth should not be in agreement with the word of God, as we think they are, such articles will we willingly retract if it be proved by a clear explanation of Scripture really to be against the word of God.” More radical demands came from the working classes in the towns. The articles of Heilbronn demanded that the property of the Church should be confiscated and used for the community; clergy and nobility alike were to be deprived of all their privileges, so that they could no longer oppress the poor man. The more violent leaders, like Münzer, renewed the old cry that the parsons must be slain. Hundreds of castles and monasteries were destroyed by the frantic peasantry, and some of the nobles were murdered with shocking cruelty. Luther, who believed that the peasants were trying to cloak their dreadful sins with 'excuses from the gospel, exhorted the government to put down the insurrection. “Have no pity on the poor folk; stab, smite, throttle, who can!” To him the peasants' attempt to abolish serfdom was wholly unchristian, since it was a divinely sanctioned institution, and if they succeeded they would “make God a liar.” The German rulers took Luther’s advice with terrible literalness, and avenged themselves upon the peasants, whose lot was apparently worse afterwards than before.
The terror inspired by the Peasant War led to a new alliance, the League of Dessau, formed by some of the leading rulers of central and northern Germany, to stamp out the “accursed Lutheran sect.” This included Luther’s old enemy, Duke George of Saxony, the electors of BrandenburgAppearance of an evangelical party. and Mainz, and two princes of Brunswick. The rumour that the emperor was planning to return to Germany in order to root out the growing heresy, led a few princes who had openly favoured Luther to unite also. Among these the chief were the new elector of Saxony, John (who, unlike his brother, Frederick the Wise, had openly espoused the new doctrines), and the energetic Philip, land grave of Hesse. The emperor did not return, and since there was no one to settle the religious question in Germany, the diet of Spires (1526) determined that, pending the meeting of the proposed general council, each prince, and each knight and town owing immediate allegiance to the emperor, should decide individually what particular form of religion should prevail within the limits of their territories. Each prince was “so to live, reign and conduct himself as he would be willing to answer before God and His Imperial Majesty.” While the evangelical party still hoped that some form of religion might be agreed upon which would prevent the disruption of the Church, the conservatives were confident that the heretics
