76

32

CONFERENCE AT RATISBON.

[BOOK III.

CHAPTER II.

In the year 1546, the religious differences, which had so long agitated Germany, seemed to be drawing to a crisis. Not, indeed, that the council then sitting at Trent, although both parties had, in the early days of the Reformation, referred the points in dispute to such an assembly, could be expected to settle them. The Protestants had long outgrown the notion of submitting to a tribunal whose verdict was sure to be adverse; and in a meeting at Frankfort they had agreed formally to reject its jurisdiction, and to publish their reasons for taking such a course.1 Even the Catholics themselves displayed no great zeal for the council; and all parties seemed to be aware that the questions between them must at no distant period be left to the arbitrament of the sword. The conference held at Ratisbon towards the end of January, in pursuance of a decree of the Diet of Worms, had only further tended to demonstrate the hopelessness of expecting any settlement from discussion. The Emperor, whose object it seemed to be to break with the Protestants, instead of appointing men of conciliating temper, like Contarini, had named some fierce bigots to manage the conference on the Popish side, and especially the Spaniard, Malvenda, a subtle scholastic disputant.

The Protestants were as violent on their side. A book of Luther's, which had been written the year before, entitled "Against the Popedom of Rome, founded by the Devil," in which he outdid himself in scurrility, was published on the occasion; while in a cut the Pope was represented with ass's ears, riding on a sow attended by devils. To the reflecting and unprejudiced student of history and mankind, it will be more instructive to relate a horrible crime which sprang from these discussions, than to detail the arguments, however subtle and ingenious, that were urged by either side.3

This was done in two treatises, or pamphlets, published in Feb. and March 1546. One of these, drawn up by Melanchthon, took the religious view of the question, while the other was grounded on historical and political considerations. Both are published in Luther's Werke,

B. xvii. S. 1112 ff.

2 Ibid. S. 1278 ff.; cf. Sleidan, lib. xvi. For the Catholic view see Raynaldus, t. xiv. p. 160 sqq.

A sketch of the proceedings will be found in Menzel, Neuere Geschichte der Deutschen, B. i. S. 419 ff.

CHAP. II.]

FRATRICIDE OF ALPHONSO DIAZ.

333

Among the disputants, who took part against Malvenda at Ratisbon, was John Diaz, a countryman of his own, who had become a convert to the new doctrines whilst a student at Paris, and had accompanied Bucer to the conference. Nothing had vexed Malvenda more than to see a native of orthodox Spain in the ranks of the heretics; and after some vain attempts to bring Diaz back to the true faith, he notified John's heresy to his brother Alphonso, who filled a high position in the Roman Rota. Alphonso hastened to Ratisbon, and finding that his brother was about to proceed to Neuburg on the Danube, in order to superintend the printing of a book of Bucer's, forced upon him the gift of a couple of crowns to help him on the way. But this present was only a snare. Alphonso was a man of that fanatical stamp, then not uncommon in Spain. He beheld in his brother's heresy a scandal both to his family and country; and resolved to take his life rather than leave him among the German heretics. One morning, while John Diaz was dressing himself, Alphonso's servant tapped at his chamber door with a letter, and while John was bending over the sheet to decipher the well-known hand in the early morning twilight, the man laid him dead on the floor with a blow dealt from behind with a hatchet. Alphonso himself was watching the door, and when the deed of blood was done, he and his servant hastened down to their horses and fled. They were apprehended at Innsbrück; but the Pope rescued them from the secular arm, on the ground that they were clerks; and many years afterwards Alphonso Diaz related his brother's murder to the historian Sepulveda with a feeling of entire satisfaction. Such is the power of bigotry and fanaticism to stifle the holiest instincts of human nature! 4

The Diet held at Ratisbon a few months later brought matters to a crisis. Charles appeared in that city early in April, but the proceedings were not opened till June 5th. The assembly was thinly attended, as most of the Protestant princes kept away; and it was not till after a second pressing summons from the Emperor that there appeared Duke Maurice of Saxony, Duke Eric of Brunswick, the Margraves John of Cüstrin, brother of Joachim II. of Brandenburg, and Albert of Culmbach. None of these princes, however, except the first, was of much political importance. The presence of Maurice did

The true history is related by Sepulveda (Opera, t. ii. p. 127 sqq. ed. Madrid, 1780), and by Senarclé, a young Savoyard, who was with Diaz the day before his murder (Hist. vera de Morte sancti Vir Johannis Diazi, Hispani, &c., per Claudium Senarclæum, 8vo, 1546). The narratives of Melanchthon and Lange, which VOL. II.

D

seem to have been followed by Seckendorf, lib. iii. sect. 37, init. are not quite so correct. Alphonso, however, does not appear to have escaped all remorse, if the account of John Manlius in his Commentaries (ap. Menzel, B. i. S. 423) be true, that he hanged himself at Trent, in 1557.

34

CHARLES THROWS OFF THE MASK.

[Book III. not cause much anxiety to the Elector of Saxony, who thought that his cousin only wanted to wrest from him the monastery of Dobrilugk. Business was opened with the customary forms; nay, the Emperor even asked, as usual, the advice of the States on the affairs of religion, though it could hardly be a secret that he was making the most vigorous preparations for war. Recruits were raising among the German lansquenets, and places were assigned for their mustering; all Italy, from Naples to the Tyrol, rang with the note of war; while Count Buren was assembling a third army in the Netherlands. Yet the Protestants fell into the trap. On June 13th they made their answer to the Emperor, with the same ingenuous confidence as in former times. They rejected the Council of Trent, and renewed the proposition for a national council; meanwhile, they observed, it was only necessary to maintain the resolutions of 1544, and allow them the enjoyment of peace. The simplicity of this proposal overcame Charles's customary gravity, and he was observed to smile. It was, indeed, somewhat ridiculous in the Protestants to suppose that they should now obtain the same terms as when the Empire was in the greatest danger; they seemed to have forgotten that the Emperor, by his peace with France and the Turks, as well as by the divisions of the Protestants among themselves, was no longer subject to those embarrassments which had formerly proved of so much service to their cause. At length they bethought themselves of asking against whom these warlike preparations were directed? Charles answered that it was his intention to reconcile the States of the Empire; that they who assisted him should experience his gracious favour; but that they who refused to obey should feel all the weight of his authority. And when the Palatine Frederick asked who then were the disobedient princes? Charles answered, it was those who practised against him under pretence of religion; who rejected the jurisdiction of the Imperial tribunal; secularised the property of the Church, and abused it according to their pleasure. The mask had now fallen. Nothing was left to the Protestant princes but to arm in turn.

Protestantism had recently gained some accessions in Germany. The Archbishop of Cologne, whose diocese had been one of the strongholds of Popery, had gone over; for which he was excommunicated by the Pope, and deprived of his ecclesiastical dignity (April 16th 1546). Early in January, Frederick, the Elector Palatine, who had long been inclined to the reformed doctrines, seeing that they had been embraced by the greater part of his subjects, also openly proclaimed his adhesion to the Reformation, though he declined to join the League of Smalcald.

CHAP. II.]

TREATY WITH BAVARIA.

35

Charles, on his side, had been some time endeavouring to strengthen himself by alliances, and he now succeeded in bringing several to a conclusion. He entered into a treaty with William, by the death of his brother sole reigning Duke of Bavaria (June 2nd 1546). At the accession of Frederick to the Palatinate, the house of Bavaria had renewed its pretensions to that electorate, and the Emperor now promised, though loth to proceed against a relative, that if Frederick did not renounce his Protestant principles, and submit himself to the council, he would at once transfer the electoral dignity to Bavaria. The alliance was confirmed by a marriage between Albert, the Bavarian heir-apparent, and the Emperor's niece, the eldest daughter of King Ferdinand; with the express condition, that on failure of Ferdinand's male heirs, the house of Bavaria should succeed to the Bohemian throne. Thus Charles postponed even his own line in favour of this alliance. Yet the Bavarian Duke did not promise much. He engaged to provide a small sum of money, together with some artillery, ammunition, and provisions, but on condition of being compensated at the peace; and he insisted on the treaty being kept secret, that he might not be exposed to the revenge of the Protestant princes, with whom he was now in amicable relations, in case they should prove victorious. The Emperor was by no means averse to this stipulation, as a concealed enemy would be only the more dangerous to the allies of Smalcald. Charles further secured the Duke of Clèves by betrothing to him King Ferdinand's second daughter. He also attempted to form alliances with some of the Protestant princes. With the Landgrave of Hesse he was not successful. Under the protection of a safe-conduct, Philip had an interview with the Emperor at Spires, while the latter was on his way to Ratisbon; but though he wheedled the Landgrave into a belief of his pacific intentions, he failed in procuring him as an ally. Philip was simple enough to think, till his eyes were opened by the proceedings at Ratisbon, that the Emperor's warlike preparations were only again intended against Algiers, or perhaps against Piedmont. Charles succeeded, however, in gaining over the Protestant princes, whom we have already mentioned as attending the Diet. The Margrave John of Cüstrin formally renounced the League of Smalcald, of which he was a member; while Albert of Brandenburg Baireuth had profited so little by his evangelical education as openly to declare that "he would take service under the devil himself, provided he obtained good pay." Eric of Brunswick

* Seckendorf, p. 662 (ed. 1694).

36

TREATY WITH DUKE MAURICE.

[Book III. also joined the Imperial party; while Charles could reckon at least on the neutrality of the Elector of Brandenburg and the Palatine, who were by no means inclined to become martyrs in the Protestant cause.

But of all the evangelical princes whose friendship he succeeded in securing, Duke Maurice of Saxony was by far the most important, not only from his power, but more particularly, in a war with the Smalcaldic League, from the situation of his dominions. The conduct of the Elector John Frederick towards his cousin had been impolitic; they had long been involved in trifling disputes, and the ambition of both was at present directed towards the Archbishopric of Magdeburg and the Bishopric of Halberstadt, vacant since the death of the Archbishop of Mentz. By a secret treaty concluded June 19th, the Emperor conferred upon Maurice the protectorate, or conservatorship, of those dioceses; stipulating, however, that they should remain in the old religion, and that nobody disapproved of by the Emperor or King Ferdinand should be elected to them. Maurice, on his side, engaged not only to be a true and faithful subject of the Emperor, but also a devoted friend and adherent of the house of Austria; to subject himself, so far as other German princes, to the Council of Trent, and before its decrees were published to adopt in his dominions no further religious innovations. Duke Maurice quitted Ratisbon immediately this treaty was concluded, by which the Emperor had at least secured his neutrality."

Besides these alliances with German princes, the Emperor also concluded in June a treaty, long previously arranged, with the Pope, by which the latter engaged to furnish both men and money to reduce the refractory states, and bring them back to the bosom of the Church; while Charles was allowed to raise money by the sale of conventual estates in Spain, and by taxing the Spanish clergy.7

In the Papal Bull, the object of these preparations was openly avowed to be the extirpation of the new heresies, and indulgences were granted after the ancient fashion to those who took part in this new crusade; a proceeding which not only excited the indignation of the Germans, but was also very distasteful to the Emperor himself, who was yet neither completely prepared for a war, nor

The treaty is in Pontus Heuterus, Rerum Austriac. lib. xii. c. vi. p. 290. Robertson erroneously says (Charles V. bk. viii. vol. iii. p. 353) that Charles engaged by it to bestow the dignities and territories of the Elector of Saxony on

Maurice in return for his assistance. This engagement was the subject of a subsequent treaty with King Ferdinand; but it might now have been talked over. Dumont, t. iv. pt. ii. p. 308.