The reformation suffered, however, from the absence of hit guiding hand. Carl stadt and others, when left alone at Wittenberg, gave the rein to many excesses. Reform seemed likely to merge into license. The heart of Luther, after a year's residence iu obscurity, was incontrollably stirred within him to be at his old post again, directing and controlling the spirit of innovation ; and be returned to Wittenberg in March, 1522. The lawless movement, however, which hail received. impulse, was not to be restrained. It broke out in many quarters. Social oppression and misery added to the flames of fanaticism. The peasantry rose in arias, headed by the Anabaptist Minizer. and the horrors of a civil war raged throughout Germany. Luther exerted all his influence to stem the unhappy tide of affairs; exhorted the nobles on one hand, and the peasants on the other; and at no part of his career did he show a higher spirit and wisdom, although lie has not always got the credit of this.
With his hands thus full of practical labor, he plunged at the same time into a violent controversy with Erasmus, which by no means reflected so much credit on him. Eras inns and he had hitherto, although in different ways, co-operated in't he same cause; but they were men of such different spirit and temper, that a separation between them was inevitable. Luther had felt this for some time, but he Iva: reluctant to come to an open breach. "Ho not join your forces to our adversaries; publish no books against me, and 1 will publish none against you," he had said in it letter in 1524. On the publica tion, however, of Erasmus's treatise De Libero Arintrio, Luther could no longer bold silence. He responded in the same year 1525, by his counter-treatise, De Servo Arbitrio; and the war of words waged hotly and vehemently between them. Luther was not only hearty but violent in denunciation; his indignation sunk into coarseness, while the audacity of his logic plunged him into unguarded and even unmoral paradoxes, which left him gravely open to the cold and telling sarcasms of his opponent. He was evi dently himself little satisfied with the result, and even his warmest admirers cannot see much to admire in the spirit and zeal which be manifested on this occasion.
Hitherto the reformation had not received any legal establishment. Frederick of Saxony, while warmly protecting Luther and his followers, did not yet take any steps to displace Romanism by legal enactment, and set up in its stead a reformed church. This was now done, however, by Frederick's successor. He coimnissioned Luther and Melanchthon to prepare a new form of church government and church service for his dominions. His example was followed by the other princes and states in Germany that had renounced the papal supremacy. The reformation thus obtained substantive exist ence and civil support. It was no longer merely a spiritual movement, it became hence forth also a political power. This important result showed itself conspicuously at the diet of Spires in 1526. An endeavor made at this diet to suppress the new religious movement, and to insist upon the rigorous execution of the papal sentence against Luther and Ids followers, was successfully opposed by a majority of the princes and representatives of states; and it was resolved, on the contrary, that the princes should have full power to order ecclesiastical affairs in their own dominions as they thought proper. This resoNtion served greatly to extend the reformation. The emperor was too busy for some years with his own affairs to be able to interfere with the course of events; and the reforming cause was in the mean time greatly strengthened and advanced in various states of Germany, This period of progress and tranquillity, however, was soon interrupted. A new diet was convoked at the same place in 1529; and under the more powerful influence of the papal party, backed by the presence of the emperor's brother, who presided in the diet, the measures of the former diet were recalled, and all changes in religion declared to be unlawful except such as might be authorized by an approaching general council. It was then that the elector of Saxony, the landgrave of IIesse. and other princes of the empire who had already embraced the reformation, and established it in their dominions, made a solemn protest agniust the action of this diet—a circumstance which gave rise to the name of Protestants, which has since attached to all the followers of the reformation. See