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Towards the close of 1524 the influence of the evangelical movement on the mass of the people received a startling exemplification in the rising of the peasants which followed the miscarried attempt of Franz von Sickingen and Ulrich von Hutten to vindicate by force the rights of the lesser nobility against the princes in the previous year. In his tract On the Civil Power (1523), Luther, in contrast to his attitude to the State on the Address to the German Nobility three years previously, sharply distinguished between the political and spirit ual spheres, and, whilst denouncing the misgovernment of the princes, inculcated anew the duty of the subject to submit to the civil power and the established order in the State and to suffer, not actively repel, injustice. Some of the evangelical preachers were, however, less restrained, and actively sympathized with the demand of the peasants for social emancipation and the radical modification of the feudal system to this end. Moreover, Thomas Miinzer, the leader of the extreme wing of the evangelical party, advocated a social and religious revolution by forcible methods, and Carlstadt, who had by this time been estranged from Luther, though less violent, also actively espoused the cause of the peasants. On theological grounds Luther was repelled by these extremists, who professed a more subjective type of reli gious thought, based not exclusively on the Word of God, but on the illumination of the individual believer in direct com munion with God (the "inner light"). Their association with the social movement contributed to prejudice him against it, though he had pleaded for a more equitable treatment of the common man in the spirit of the Gospel. At the same time his own revolt against the traditional Church, his resounding appeals for its drastic reformation, and on behalf of the rights of the individual mind and conscience enlightened by the Word of God, his doctrine of justification by faith alone, and especially of the spiritual priesthood of all believers, contained democratic impli cations which the mass of the people were not slow to apply in the service of a social as well as a religious reformation, and of a far-reaching transformation of the prevailing order in the State and society as well as the Church. This popular movement found expression in the Twelve Articles of the Swabian peasants which were evidently drawn up under the influence of evangelical preach ers like Schappeler and Hubmaier, if not actually composed by them, demanded the abolition of serfdom and the preaching of the pure Gospel, and were widely adopted. The leaders of the peasants submitted these articles, which were couched in a moder ate spirit, for Luther's judgment, and whilst deprecating the resort to force, he expressed sympathy with the reasonable griev ances of the common man, and counselled both sides to seek an accommodation (An Exhortation to Peace in Response to the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants, April, 1525). When, however, the peasant bands in southern, western, and central Germany discarded his advice and took arms to enforce this programme of social reforms, he took the side of the princes and lords and issued a sanguinary and ill-judged appeal to a war of extermination against the rebels (Against the Murderous and Thieving Peasant Bands, May, 1525). Not only was the rising ruthlessly suppressed; the princes and lords sullied their victory by a savage retribution, of which many thousands of their subjects became the victims, and which both dashed the hope of achieving the legitimate social aspirations of the masses in connection with the religious reformation, and embittered the common man against the reformer, whom they denounced as the accomplice of their oppressors.
In this year Luther was de prived by death of his potent protector, the elector Fred erick. His successor, the elector John, was, however, a con firmed adherent, and his cause had won the ardent ' support of the landgrave Philip of Hesse, Albert of Brandenburg, grand master of the Teutonic order, and other princes, as well as a large number of cities, and its princely supporters were begin ning to league themselves in its defence. On the other hand, the archduke Ferdinand of Austria, the two dukes of Bavaria, the elector of Brandenburg, and Duke George of Saxony had com bined to stem the progress of the movement, and the persecu tion of his adherents had already begun in Romanist territories. In the diet which met at Spires in 1526 the Lutheran princes, in conjunction with the moderate Roman Catholics, were strong enough to carry a resolution to suspend the edict of Worms pend ing the meeting of a general, or at least a national, council; and meanwhile so to act in the matter of the edict as its members should answer to God and the emperor.
The evangelical princes interpreted the decision as entitling them to organize the evangelical Church within their territories, and for this purpose Melanchthon, by direction of the elector John, drew up, and Luther revised, a church ordinance (Kirchen ordnung) which formed alike a confession of faith, a directory of public worship, a scheme of educational reform, and con tained the germ of the later consistorial form of Church govern ment, which consigned the ecclesiastical administration to a body of State officials or consistory, composed of theologians and jurists, under the supremacy of the territorial prince. At the second diet of Spires in 1529 the emperor Charles, through his commissioners, succeeded in reversing the decision of the previous diet. On this occasion the extreme Catholics were in the majority and carried a resolution enforcing the diet of Worms in Catholic territories and disallowing further religious innova tions in the Lutheran States, whilst prohibiting the profession of the Zwinglian and Anabaptist forms of the reformed faith. Against these decisions the Lutheran minority appealed and pro tested and this Appellation and Protestation was signed by
cities as well as by the elector of Saxony, the landgrave of Hesse and four other princes. Hence the name Protestant as a designa tion of the evangelical party.
This reverse to the Lutheran reformation was aggravated by the dissension between Luther and the Swiss theologians on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper. Whilst rejecting the mediaeval doctrine of transsubstantiation, Luther firmly believed in the bodily presence of Christ in the bread and wine (consubstantiation). Zwingli, the reformer of Zurich, and the south German theologians, on the other hand, accepted only a spiritual presence in the elements, and a bitter controversy had been proceeding for some years over this ques tion before the landgrave Philip, in the hope of uniting the war ring parties, summoned the leaders to a conference at Marburg in October 1529. During the three days' debate Luther doggedly argued in support of the literal interpretation of the words, "This is my body" (Hoc est meum Corpus) against Zwingli and his Swiss and South German colleagues Occolampadius, Bucer and Capito, who contended in favour of the figurative sense of the words. They further adduced the impossibility of the pres ence in the elements of Christ's body, which had ascended into Heaven, against Luther's contention on behalf of its ubiquity in virtue of Christ's divine nature which was not subject to any human limitations. Neither party would give way on these two fundamental points, and the debate ended in a complete dead lock. Luther refused to extend the right hand of fellowship to Zwingli, who was prepared to agree to differ for the sake of unity. Despite this impasse the landgrave, after the formal close of the debate in the afternoon of Oct. 3, made a final effort to secure unanimity. He besought both parties to consider in pri vate the possibility of finding a formula which they could sub scribe. In response Luther drew up a formula which, while asserting that "the body of Christ is truly, i.e., essentially and substantially" present in the sacrament, waived further dis cussion on the question as to the mode of its presence. This was undoubtedly a considerable concession on Luther's part. and Bucer was at first disposed to accept it as a satisfactory solution. Zwingli and Occolampadius, on the other hand, could not bring themselves to subscribe this Lutheran formula in the course of the private discussion of the following day, and held to their view that Christ is present only in a spiritual sense. The next best thing in the interest of the landgrave's policy of a comprehensive evangelical union was to give expression to their agreement on the other doctrines of the reformed faith, and Luther joined with his opponents in subscribing the Marburg Articles which he drew up for this purpose. The Marburg con ference was thus not a total failure. The inability to see eye to eye on the sacramental question resulted, however, in an un fortunate estrangement between the Lutheran and the Swiss and south German Churches for the time being at least, and frustrated the project of a great evangelical alliance in defence of the Re formation to meet the menace of the impending imperial attempt to suppress it.