It was the emperor's necessities, and not his will, which consented to the peace of Nuremberg; there was no prospect, therefore, of its being lasting. But the Protestants availed themselves of their temporary repose to strengthen themselves and extend their power. The emperor continued to urge the pope to convoke a general council. At length, in 1530, Paul III. issued a summons for a council to meet at Mantua in the following year; but the duke of Mantua disinclined to receive so many turbulent guests into his quiet city, the project did not take effect. In anticipation, however, and convinced that no council convened under the exclusive influence of the pope would deal fairly with the subject in dispute, the Protestants met at Smalkald in the year 1537, and while solemnly protesting against a mere Italian or papal council, at the same time agreed to a new summary of their doctrines, drawn up by Luther, to be presented to the assem bled bishops. This summary is known under the name of the Snuilkald Articles, and along with the Confession of Augsburg and the Apology for the Confession, constitutes to this day the doctrinal basis of the German Lutheran Church.
At length, in 1546. the same year in which Luther, worn out by his many toils, died somewhat suddenly at Eisleben, a council assembled at Trent. It was soon evident that no compromise was practicable between the Protestant and the papal party, and both sides prepared to try the venture of war. When the council of Trent promulgated its decrees, and the reformed princes in the diet of Ratisbon protested against theirauthority, the emperor raised an army to compel their obedience. They, on their part, were ready with their forces, and marched into Bavaria against the emperor. The results, in the first instance, were severely disastrous to the Protestant cause, chiefly through the division of the princes, and especially the perfidy of Maurice, the nephew of the elector of Saxony. Various attempts at reconciliation and cotnpromise were again attempted, in N. hich Melanchthon took a prominent part; but, as before, they came to nothing. A change of fortune gave a temporary triumph to the Protestant arms, and the resultwas that Charles concluded a formal treaty at Passau, in 1552, which may be considered the foundation of the Protestant liberties of Germany. The Protestants stipulated for the free exercise of their religion, until the meeting of a diet which should settle a permanent religious peace; and in return they agreed to lend assistance against the Turks, who were still men acing the frnatiers of the empire. The promised diet assembled at Augsburg in 1555, and trained articles for the religious pacification of Germany, according to which all adherents of the Augsburg confession of faith were left iu the undisturbed enjoyment of the rights which they had acquired, were freed from papal domination, and allowed to order their religious concerns as seemed best to them; Protestants and Celt°lies alike being bound to respect each others' convictions, and not to injure or persecute one another on account of religion, under penalty of being proceeded against as enemies of the empire. This
treaty of Augsburg terminates the period of the reformation in Germany.
In the neighboring countries of Denmark and Sweden, the progress of reformed opinions had proceeded still mare rapidly than in Germany. In both these countries, the sovereigns took the lead iu enlightening their people, and freeing them from the tyranny of the church of Rome. In Sweden particularly, Gustavus Vasa showed both great courage and prudence in carrying out a reforming policy. He invited learned Lutheran teachers into his dominions, and showed special zeal in the circulation of a Swedish version of the Scriptures, made by one of these teachers, named Ohms Petri, who occu pies the most prominent place among the Swedish reformers. At an assembly of the states at Westerans, in 1527, while there formers in Germany were still struggling for bare existence, it was unanimously resolved that the Lutheran doctrines should be adopted in Sweden, and a Reformed church, entirely independent of Rome, established. The same result occurred in Denmark in 1539, when an assembly of the Danish states at Odensce gave formal sanction to a plan of religions doctrine, worship, and discipline, drawn up by Bugenhagen, a disciple and,friend of Luther, whom Christian III. had in vited front Wittenberg for the purpose.
In France the progress of the reformation was of a much more uncertain and waver ing character. As early as 1523 the new doctrines had spread greatly in many parts of France, under the countenance of Margaret, queen of Navarre, sister of Francis I., the constant rival of Charles V. The names chiefly associated with this early phase of the French reformation, besides that of Margaret herself, are those of Lefevre and Fara the latter particularly a man of active and fiery zeal, who had been originally a priest in Dauphine. and whom we find subsequently associated with Calvin in Geneva. The university of Paris became for a time strongly infected with the "new learning," and many of the nobility, as well as the people, were actually inclined to throw aside the superstitions of Rome, and embrace a more scriptural form of faith. But the violent and inconsistent policy of Francis L. and the fierce spirit of faction which the struggle engeutlered, gave an unhappy turn to the course of events in France, and prevented the reformation from obtaining in that country anything of the same national recognition that it nbtained in Germany and elsewhere. Both Fa rel and Calvin were driven by the violence of persecution into Switzerland. The latter settled for a time at Basel, where he completed and published the first edition of his Institutes. The famous addressed to Francis I., bears the date of Basel, Aug. 1, 1535. In the following year he repaired to Geneva, where Farel, already laboring in the work of the reformation, retained him by a "divine menace," and he began that great career as a reformer, theo logian, and legislator which has rendered his name so illustrious.