PROTESTANT.
While the reformation thus ran its course in Germany, and was adopted by the civil authorities in many states, it was making corresponding progress in Switzerland. and there at length also. after a famous and elaborate conference held at Bern in 1528. under the countenance of the civil authorities, the supremacy of the pope was abolished, and the reformed doctrines. in even a broader and more definite shape than in were declared to be the only doctrine of Scripture. Bern, Zni•ich, and Basel continued to be the main centers of the reformed movement in Switzerland; but the reformed doc trines gradually extended throughout the great majority of the cantons. Chiefly those surrounding the lake of Lucerne remained, as they remain to this day, strongly attached to the Roman Catholic faith. The chief point of difference between the reformers in Switzerland and Germany concerned the doctrine of the eucharist. Luther, while abandoning the doctrine of a literal conversion of the bread of the eucharist into the body of Christ, known under the name transubstantiation, held to a modification of this doe trine, under the name of consubstantiation. The bread did not become the body of Christ literally, but it contained the body of Christ. Christ was in the bread as really "as the sword in the scabbard or the Holy Ghost in the dove." Zwingli, on the contrary, and his co-reformers in Switzerland, discarded all outward presence of Christ in the eneharist. The service, in their view, was merely memorial. "It is the spirit that quiekeneth; the flesh protiteth nothing:" a passage which they applied to prove the worth lessness of any supposed eating of the body of Christ, even if such a thing were possible.
The dispute which arose on this subject between the reformers of Germany and Switzerland, and especially between their respective leaders, Luther and Zwingli, proved a serious impediment to the cause. Philip of Ilesse sought to bring about a reconciliation between them. Zwiugli, Dicer. and Oecolampadins met with Luther and Melanchthon at Marburg in the year 1529, on his invitation, and held a long conference, but without any result. Luther was not to be moved in a matter which he held to be of the very essence of the Christian faith. The combatants separated with their opinions unchanged.
When Charles V. perceived the firmness of the Protestant princes in the position which they had taken up, he became anxious for temperate and conciliatory measures. In an interview with the pope at Bologna he urged, but without success, the necessity of a general council, and at the same time took means to convene personally with the princes at a new diet to be held at Augsburg. In the view of this important convention the reformers prepared, at the instance of the elector of Saxony, a statement of their special doctrines. The basis of this, the famous Confession of Augsburg, was 17 articles,
delivered by Luther to the elector at Torgau, which had been adopted at a con ference at Schwabach in 1529. These articles, enlarged and polished by the careful and moderate pen of Melanchthon, were submitted in 28 chapters to the diet which met at Augs burg in June, 1580. Twenty-one chapters were occupied with the statement of the opinions of the reformers, and the remaining seven devoted to an exposure of the errors of popery. The reading of this confession by the chancellor of Saxony. in name of the Protestant states, made an earnest and favorable impression upon the diet. The papal authorities submitted a reply, which was approved by the emperor, and ordered by him to be accepted as a conclusion of the religions differences which had arisen. The Prot estants responded instead by an answer to the papal document, which was afterward expanded by Melanchthon, and published under the title of Apology for the Confession of The religious schism between the emperor and many of the slates of Germany seemed now approaching a crisis which could only terminate in war. A renewed decree, ex ceeding in severity that of Worms, was launched against the reformers. They on their part appreciated the solemnity of the crisis, and met, headed by the elector of first at Smalkald, and then at Frankfort, in the years 1530 and 1531, when they entered into a treaty of defensive alliance, and encouraged each other in the resolution to main tain their religion and liberties against the threatened encroachments of the imperial edict. To Henry VIII. of England, who was at that time just beginning his own erratic career of reformation, they sent a special invitation to co-operate with them, on the basis of the doctrines of the Confession of Augsburg, an invitation to which lie responded, but which issued in no practical result. The emperor, notwithstanding the strongly hostile attitude which he had assumed, was not prepared as yet to plunge into hostilities. The Turks were menacing the frontier of the empire; he had his own personal objects to gain in the advancement of his brother Ferdinand to the dignity of king of the Romans, an object which he could not accomplish without a majority of votes at an imperial diet. He was content, therefore, to enter anew into negotiations with the Protestant princes, and after many unavailing projects of reconciliation, a treaty of pence was concluded between them at Nuremberg in 1532. The Protestants agreed to support him against the Turks, and to acknowledge Ferdinand as king of the Romans; while the emperor in his turn agreed to abrogate the edicts of Worms and Augsburg, and the Protestants the free exercise of their religion until some settlement by a general council or a diet of the empire.