St. Alphonsus Liguori: The History of Heresies and Their Refutation

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CHAPTER XI. – THE HERESIES OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY

II -THE DIETS AND PRINCIPAL CONGRESSES HELD CONCERNING THE HERESY OF LUTHER

13. Diet of Worms, where Luther appeared before Charles V., and remains obstinate.
14. Edict of the Emperor against Luther, who is concealed by the Elector in one of his Castles.
15. Diet of Spire, where the Emperor publishes a Decree, against which the heretics protest.
16. Conference with the Zuinglians; Marriage of Luther with an Abbess.
17. Diet of Augsburg, and Melancthon’s Profession of Faith; Melancthon’s Treatise, in favour of the authority of the Pope, rejected by Luther.
18. Another Edict of the Emperor in favour of Religion.
19. League of Smalkald broken up by the Emperor.
20. Dispensation given by the Lutherans to the Landgrave to have two wives.
21. Council of Trent, to which Luther refuses to come; he dies, cursing the Council.
22. The Lutherans divided into fifty-six Sects.
23. The Second Diet of Augsburg, in which Charles V. published the injurious Formula of the Interim.
24, 25. The heresy of Luther takes possession of Sweden, Denmark, Norway, and other Kingdoms.



13. The first Conference was in the Imperial Diet, assembled in Worms. Luther still continued augmenting his party, and pouring forth calumnies and vituperations against the Holy See. At the request of the Pope, Charles V. then wrote to the Elector of Saxony, to deliver up Luther, or, at all events, to banish him from his territories. The Elector, on receipt of the letter, said that as the Diet was now so near, it would be better to refer the whole matter to its decision. Luther was most anxious to appear in this illustrious assembly, hoping, by his harangue, to obtain a favourable reception for his doctrine, especially as at the request of his patron, the Elector, he obtained not only permission to attend, but also a safe conduct from the Emperor himself. The Diet assembled in 1521, and Luther arrived in Worms, on the 17th of April. Ecchius asked him, in the name of the Emperor, if he acknowledged himself the author of the books published in his name, and if it was his intention to defend them. He admitted the books were his; but as to defending them, he said, as that was an affair of importance to the Word of God, and the salvation of souls, he required time to give an answer. The Emperor gave him a day for consideration, and he next day said, that among his books some contained arguments on Religion, and these he could not conscientiously retract; others were written in his own defence, and he confessed that he was guilty of excess in his attacks on his adversaries, the slaves of the Pope, but that they first provoked him to it. Ecchius required a more lucid answer. He then turned to the Emperor, and said he could not absolutely retract anything he had taught in his lectures, his sermons, or his writings, until convinced by Scripture and reason, and that both Pope and Councils were fallible judges in this matter (1).


14. The Emperor, perceiving his obstinacy, after some conversation with him, dismissed him. He might then have arrested him, as he was in his power, but he disdained violating the safe conduct he himself had given him. Notwithstanding, he published, on the 26th of May, an edict, with consent of the Princes of the Empire, and of its Orders and States, in which he declared Luther a notorious and obstinate heretic, and prohibited any one to receive or protect him, under the severest penalties. He moreover ordained, that, after the term of the safe conduct expired, which was twenty days, he should be proceeded against wherever found (2); and he would not have escaped, were it not for the Elector Frederick, who bribed the soldiers who escorted him, and had him conveyed to a place of security. A report was then spread abroad, that Luther was imprisoned before the expiration of the safe conduct, but the Elector had him conveyed to the Castle of Watzberg, near Alstad, in Thuringia, a place which Luther afterwards called his Patmos. He remained there nearly ten months, well concealed and guarded, and there he finished the plan of his heresy, and wrote many of his works. In the works written here, Luther principally attacked the scholastic Theologians, especially St. Thomas, whose works he said were filled with heresies. We should not wonder he called the works of St. Thomas heretical, who centuries before had confuted his own pestilential errors (3).


15. In the year 1529, another Diet was held in the city of Spire, by the Emperor’s orders, in which it was decided, that in these places in which the edict of Worms was accepted, it should be observed; but that wherever the ancient religion was changed, and its restoration could not be effected without public disturbances, matters should remain as they were until the celebration of a General Council. It was, besides, decided that Mass should freely be celebrated in the places infected with Lutheranism, and that the Gospel should be explained, according to the interpretation of the Fathers approved by the Church. The Elector Frederick of Saxony, George of Branderburg, Ernest and Francis, Dukes of Luneburg, Wolfgang of Anhalt, and fourteen confederate cities (thirteen, according to Protestant historians), protested against this Decree, as contrary to the truth of the Gospel, and appealed to a future Council, or to some judge not suspected, and from this protest arose the famous designation of Protestant (4).


16. The same year another Conference, composed of Lutherans and Zuinglians, or Sacramentarians, was held in Marpurg, under the patronage of the Landgrave of Hesse, to endeavour to establish a union between their respective sects. Luther, Melancthon, Jonas, Osiander, Brenzius, and Agricola appeared on one side, and Zuinglius, Ecolampadius, Bucer, and Hedio, on the other. They agreed on all points, with the exception of the Eucharist, as the Zuinglians totally denied the Real Presence of Christ. Several other Conferences were held to remove, if possible, the discussion of doctrine objected to then by the Catholics, but all ended without coming to any agreement. In this the Providence of God is apparent : the Roman Church could thus oppose to the innovators that unity of doctrine she always possessed, and the heretics were always confounded on this point (5). About this period Luther married an Abbess of a Convent. His fellow-heresiarch Zuinglius, also a priest, had already violated his vows, by a sacrilegious marriage, and Luther would have done the same long before, only he was restrained by the Elector of Saxony, who, though a heretic, shuddered at the marriage of a Religious, and protested he would oppose it by every means in his power.

On the other hand, Luther was now quite taken with Catherine Bora, a lady of noble family, but poor, and who, forced by poverty, embraced a religious life, without any vocation for that state, in a Convent at Misnia, and finally became Abbess. Reading one of Luther’s works, she came across his treatise on the nullity of religious vows, and requested him to visit her. He called on her frequently, and finally induced her to leave her Convent, and come to Wittemberg with him, where, devoid of all shame, he married her with great solemnity, the Elector Frederic, who constantly opposed it, being now dead; and such was the force of his example and discourses, that he soon after induced the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order (6) to celebrate his sacrilegious nuptials, likewise. Those marriages provoked that witticism of Erasmus, who said that the heresies of his day all ended, like a comedy, in marriage.


17. In the July of 1530, the famous Diet of Augsburg was held. The Emperor and all the Princes being assembled at the Diet, and the feast of Corpus Christi falling at the same time, an order was given to the Princes to attend the procession. The Protestants refused, on the plea that this was one of the Roman superstitions; the Elector of Saxony, nevertheless, whose duty it was to carry the sword of state before the Emperor (7), consulted his Theologians, who gave it as their opinion, that in this case he might consider it a mere human ceremony, and that, like Naam, the Syrian, who bowed down before the idol, when the King leaned on his arm in the temple, he might attend. In this Diet the Catholic party was represented by John Ecchius, Conrad Wimpin, and John Cochleus, and the Lutheran by Melancthon, Brenzius and Schnapsius. The Lutheran Princes presented to the Emperor the Profession of Faith drawn up by Philip Melancthon, who endeavoured as much as possible to soften down the opinions opposed to Catholicity. This is the famous Confession of Augsburg, afterwards the Creed of the majority of Lutherans. In those Articles they admitted:

1st – That we are not justified by Faith alone, but by Faith and Grace.

2nd -That in good works not only Grace alone concurs, but our co-operation like wise.

3rd – That the Church contains not only the elect, but also the reprobate.

4th – That free-will exists in man, though without Divine Grace he cannot be justified.

5th – That the Saints pray to God for us, and that it is a pious practice to venerate their memories on certain days, abstracting, however, from either approving or condemning their invocation.

In ten other chapters of less importance they agree with Catholics. They agreed, likewise, in saying that Jesus Christ is present in the Eucharist, in each species, and did not condemn the laity who communicated in one kind only. They allowed the jurisdiction of Bishops, and that obedience was due to them by Pastors, Preachers, and Priests, in Spiritual matters, and that censures published by them, according to the rule of Scripture, are of avail. The Emperor, hoping it would render easier the establishment of peace, joined to the commissions two jurists, for each side, along with Ecchius and Melancthon; but this Conference never was closed, because, as Sleidan tells us, Melancthon was not permitted by Luther to sign the treaty, although he was most anxious for the establishment of peace, as he declares in his letter to the Legate Campeggio : ” We have no dogma,” he says, ” different from the Roman Church; we are ready to yield her obedience, if, in her clemency, she will relax or wink at some little matters. We still profess obedience to the Roman Pontiff, if he does not cast us off” (8). Varillas (9) mentions a curious fact relative to this. When Francis I., King of France, invited Melancthon to Paris, to teach in the University (in which he did not succeed), he received from him a pamphlet, in which he laid it down as a principle, that it was necessary to preserve the preeminence and authority of the Roman Pontiff, to preserve the unity of doctrine. Nothing could exceed Luther’s rage when he heard of this, and he told Melancthon that he had a mind to break with him altogether, and that he was now about to ruin the Religion it cost him twenty years labour to establish, by destroying the authority of the Pope.


18. The Zuinglians presented their confession of Faith at the same Diet, in the name of the four cities of Strasburg, Constance, Meningen, and Lindau, which differed from the Lutheran one only in the doctrine of the Eucharist. At the breaking up of the Diet, the Emperor promulgated an edict, in which the Lutheran Princes and cities were allowed, until the 15th of April following, to wait for a General Council, and again become united with the Catholic Church, and the rest of the Empire. It was forbidden them to allow any innovations in Religious matters, or any works contrary to Religion to be published in their respective territories, and that all should unite in opposition to the Anabaptists and Zuinglians. The Lutherans refused to accept these articles, and all hopes of peace being at an end, asked leave to depart. Before they left, however, the Emperor published an edict, subscribed by the remaining Princes and Orders of the Empire, that all should persevere in the ancient Religion, condemning the sects of the Anabaptists, Zuinglians, and Lutherans, and commanding all to hold themselves in readiness to attend at the Council, which he promised he would induce the Pope to summon in six months (10).


19. The Protestants refused obedience to this Decree, and met in Smalcald, a city of Franconia, and there, in 1531, formed the famous League of Smalcald, to defend with force of arms the doctrines they professed; but they refused the admission of the Zuinglians into this League, on account of their errors regarding the Holy Sacrament. This was the cause of the famous battle of Mulberg, on the Elbe, in 1547, in which Charles V. was victorious, and John, Elector of Saxony, and Philip, the Landgrave, the two chiefs of the heretical party in Germany, were made prisoners (11). The whole power of Protestantism would have been broken by this defeat, had not Maurice of Saxony, the nephew of the imprisoned Elector, taken up arms against Charles (12). The Landgrave obtained his liberty, but was obliged to beg pardon of the Emperor prostrate at his feet, and surrender his States into his hands (13).


20. This Philip is the same who obtained, in 1539, from Luther and other faithful Ministers of the Gospel, as they called themselves, that remarkable dispensation to marry two wives at the same time. Yarillas says (14), that the Landgrave, though previous to his marriage he always led a moral life, could not, after the loss of his faith, content himself with one wife, and persuaded himself that Luther and the Theologians of his sect would grant him a dispensation to marry another. He well knew whom he had to deal with : he assembled them in Wittemberg, and though they well knew the difficult position in which they were placed, and the scandal they would give by yielding to his wishes, still his influence had greater weight with them than the laws of Christ or the dictates of their consciences. Varillas (P. 531) gives the rescript in full by which they dispense with him. They say they could not introduce into the New Testament the provisions of the Old Law, which permitted a plurality of wives, as Christ says they shall be two in one flesh, but they likewise say that there are certain cases in which the New Law can be dispensed with; that the case of the Prince was one of these; but that, in order to avoid scandal it would be necessary that the second marriage should be celebrated privately, in the presence of few witnesses; and this document is subscribed by Luther, Melancthon, Bucer, and five other Lutheran Doctors. The marriage was soon after privately celebrated in presence of Luther, Melancthon, and six other persons. The Landgrave died, according to De Thou, in 1567.


21. The Council of Trent was opened on the 13th of December, 1545, under Paul III., was continued under Julius III., and being many times suspended for various causes, was formally concluded under Pius IV., in December, 1563. Luther frequently called on the Pope to summon a General Council, but now that it was assembled he would not attend it, knowing full well his doctrines would be there condemned. First, he appealed from the Legate to the Pope then from the Pope not sufficiently informed to the Pope better informed then from the Pope to a Council and now from the Council to himself. Such has been the invariable practice of heresiarchs : to refute the decisions of the Pope they appeal to a Council; condemned by a Council, they reject the decisions of both. Thus Luther refused to attend the Council, and after his death his example was followed by the other Protestants, who refused even to avail themselves of the safe conduct given to them for that effect.

While the Fathers were making preparations for the Fourth Session, news of Luther’s death was brought to Trent; he went to Eisleben towards the end of January, at the invitation of some of his friends, to arrange some differences, when he was then told he was invited to the Council. He exclaimed in a rage : “I will go, and may I lose my head if I do not defend my opinions against all the world; that which comes forth from my mouth is not my anger but the anger of God” (15). A longer journey, however, was before him; he died in the sixty-third year of his age, on the 17th of February, 1546. After eating a hearty supper and enjoying himself, jesting as usual, he was a few hours after attacked with dreadful pains, and thus he died. Raging against the Council a little before his death, he said to Justus Jonas, one of his followers : ” Pray for our Lord God and his Gospel, that it may turn out well, for the Council of Trent and the abominable Pope are grievously opposed to him.” Saying this he died, and went to receive the reward of all his blasphemies against the Faith, and of the thousands of souls he led to perdition. His body was placed in a tin coffin, and borne on a triumphal car to Wittemberg, followed by his concubine, Catherine, and his three sons, John, Martin, and Paul, in a coach, and a great multitude, both on foot and horseback. Philip Melancthon preached his funeral oration in Latin, and Pomeranius in German. Pomeranius also composed that inscription for his tomb, worthy alike of the master and the disciple : ” Pestiseram vivus, moriens ero inors tua, Papa” ” I was the plague of the Pope while living, dying I will be his death” (16).


22. The Lutherans were invited to the Council by various briefs of the Popes, but always refused to attend (17). They were afterwards summoned by the Emperor Ferdinand, on the re-opening of the Council; but they required conditions which could not be granted (18). They at first split into two sects, Rigorous and Relaxed Lutherans (19), and these two, as Lindan afterwards informs us, were divided into fifty-six sects (20).


23. In another Diet, celebrated in Augsburg, in 1547, the Emperor Charles V. restored the Catholic religion in that city; but in the following year, as Noel Alexander (21) tells us, he tarnished his glory by publishing the famous Interim, thus usurping the authority to decide on questions of Faith and ecclesiastical discipline. We should, says Noel Alexander, hold this Interim in the same detestation as the Enoticon of Zeno, the Ecthesis of Heraclius, and the Tiphos of Constans. In the year 1552 he again tarnished his honour,, for after routing Maurice of Saxony, he made peace with him, and granted freedom of worship in his states to the professors of the Confession of Augsburg. In the year 1556 he gave up the government of the Empire to his brother Ferdinand, King of the Romans, and retired to the Jeromite Monastery of St. Justus, in Estremadura, in Spain, giving himself up to God alone, and preparing for death, which overtook him on the 21st of September, 1558, in the fifty-eighth year of his age (22).


24. Luther’s heresy, through the instrumentality of his disciples, soon spread from Germany into the neighbouring kingdoms, and first of all it infected Sweden. This kingdom, at first idolatrous, received the Catholic Faith in 1155, which was finally established in 1416, and continued the Faith of the nation till the reign of Gustavus Erickson. Lutheranism was introduced into this country in 1523, by Olaus Petri, who imbibed it in the University of Wittemberg; along with many others, he gained over King Gustavus, who gave leave to the preachers to propound, and to all leave to follow, their doctrines, and also permitted the Religious to marry. It was his wish that the old ceremonies should be kept up, to deceive the people; but he caused all the ancient books to be burned, and introduced new ones, written by heretics; thus in four years Lutheranism was established in Sweden. Gustavus, at his death, left the crown to his son, Eric XIV.; but his reign was but short, for his younger brother, John, declared war against him, and dethroned him in 1569.

Before John came to the crown, he was a good Catholic, and desired to re-unite Sweden to the Church, especially as the Pope sent him an excellent missioner to strengthen him in the Faith. He commenced the good work by publishing a liturgy opposed to the Lutheran, and intending gradually to abolish the heresy. He then wrote to the Pope, saying, he hoped to gain Sweden altogether to the Faith, if his Holiness would grant four conditions : First – That the nobility should not be disturbed in the possession of the ecclesiastical property they held. Second – That the married Bishops and Priests should have liberty to retain their wives. Third – That Communion should be given in both kinds. Fourth – That the Church service should be celebrated in the vulgar tongue. The Pope consulted the Cardinals, but refused his request, as he could not well grant him what he refused to so many other Princes. When this answer arrived, the King was already wavering in his determination to support the true Faith, fearful of causing a revolt with which he was threatened; this unfavourable answer decided him, and he gave up all hopes, and followed the religion of his States. His Queen, a zealous Catholic, a sister of Sigismund Augustus, King of Poland, was so much affected by the change in her husband’s dispositions, that she survived but a short time. In twelve months after the King followed her, and left the throne to his son Sigismund, then King of Poland. Charles of Sudermania, who governed the kingdom in the Sovereign’s absence, usurped the crown, and his crime was sanctioned by the States, who declared Sigismund’s right to the throne null and void, on account of his religion. Charles, therefore, being settled on the throne, established Lutheranism in Sweden. He was succeeded by his son, Gustavus Adolphus, one of the greatest enemies Catholicity had either in Sweden or Germany; but his daughter Christina renounced the throne, sooner than give up the faith she embraced, and lived and died in the Catholic Church. She left the kingdom to Charles Gustavus, her cousin, who reigned for six years, and transmitted it to his son, Charles V., and to the present day no other religion but Lutheranism is publicly professed in Sweden (23).


25. Denmark and Norway underwent a similar misfortune with Sweden. Idolatry was predominant in Denmark till the year 826, when the Catholic religion was established by Regnor I., and continued to be the only religion of the kingdom, till in 1523 Lutheranism was introduced by Christian II. The judgment of God, however, soon fell on him, as he was dethroned by his subjects, and banished, with all his family. His uncle, Frederick, was chosen to succeed him. He gave liberty to the Protestants to preach their doctrine, and to his subjects to follow it. Not, however, content with this, he soon began a cruel persecution against the Bishops, and against every Catholic who defended his religion, and many sealed their religion with their blood. This impious Monarch met an awfully sudden death while he was banqueting on Good Friday, and was succeeded by Christian III., who completed the final separation of Denmark from the Catholic Church. Thus in a short time Lutheranism became dominant in these kingdoms, and continues to hold its sway there. There are many Calvinistic congregations in Denmark, as Christian permitted the Scotch Presbyterians to found churches there. There are also some Catholics, but they were obliged to assemble privately for the Holy Sacrifice, and even now, though the spirit of the age is opposed to persecution, they labour under many restraints and disabilities. Norway, till lately, and Iceland at the present day, belongs to Denmark, and Lutheranism is likewise the religion of these countries, though the people, especially in the country parts, preserve many Catholic traditions, but they were till lately destitute of Priests and sacrifice.* In Lapland, some Pagans remain as yet, who adore the spirits of the woods, and fire, and water; they have no Catholic Missioner to instruct them. There are, indeed, but few Catholics altogether in the Northern kingdoms. Formerly, the Dominicans, Franciscans, Carthusians, Cistercians, and Brigittines, had Convents there, but now all have disappeared (24).



(1) Nat. Alex. sec. 14, n. 4; Varill. t. 1, l. 4, dalla, . 175; Van Ranst, p. 304
(2) Nat. Alex. loc. cit.; Van Ranst, p. 205.
(3) Hermant, c. 230, 231; Van Ranst, loc. cit.
(4) Nat. Alex. t. 9, sec. 4, n. 9, ex Sleidano, I 6; Van Ranst, q. 306; Hermant, t. 2, c. 244.
(5) Van Ranst, p. 306; Nat. Alex, loc. cit. n. 10.
(6) Varillas, t. 1, p. 306; Hermant, t. 2, c. 243.
(7) Nat. Alex. loc. cit. sec. 4, n. 11; Van Ranst, P . 307..
(8) Nat. Alex. loc. cit, n. 11; Hermant, c. 244.
(9) Varillas, t.l,l. 10, p. 445, coll 1.
(10) Nat. Alex. sec. 4, n. 10, in fin. ex Cochlæo in Act. Lutheri & Sleidano, l. 7; Van Ranst, p. 307.
(11) Nat. Alex. sec. 4, n. 13; Hermant, t. 2, c. 245
(12) Van Ranst, p. 307; Nat. Alex, t. 19, c. 10, sec. 4, n. 1.
(13) Nat. Alex. loc. cit.
(14) Varillas, t. 1, l 1, p. 530, c. 2.
(15) Cochleus in Actis Lutheri.
(16) Gotti, c. 105, s. 5, n. 7; Van Ranst, p. 308; Bernin. t. 4, sec. 16, c. 5. p.454; Varillas, t;. 2, l. 14,p.34.
(17) Varillas, t. 2, l. 24, p. 366.
(18) Varillas, 1. 25, p. 393.
(19) Varill. t. 2, l. 17, p. 122, & l. 24, p. 364.
(20) Lindan Epist. Roraem in Luther.
(21) Nat. Alex. t. 19, c. 10, art. 5, p, 321
(22) Nat. Alex. loc. cit. c. 10, art. 5.
(23) Historia Relig. Jovet, t. 2, p. 324.
(24) Joves, cit. p. 343.

* KB. Bishops have been appointed lately to Sweden and Norway,