GERMANY. Germany with its more than three hundred States, loosely held together in the Empire, and seeking blindly to realize German nationality, always pulling hard against the assertions of Papal authority and of the Emperor, who represented Hapsburg rather than German interests. was in the sixteenth century in a favor able condition for starting the new movement for which the centuries had thus been preparing. Strenuous efforts were being made by the Papacy to raise money to complete Saint Peter's and to carry on war with the Turks. Martin Luther, then a professor in the University of Wittenberg and a parish priest, was aroused against the sys tem which connected the distribution of indul gences with these efforts, as carried on by Tetzel (q.v.). On October 31. 1517, Luther nailed to the church door at Wittenberg the ninety-five theses in which lie challenged the abuses of the Church. He seemed unconscious of the tremen dous revolution he was setting on foot, but events moved rapidly. Ile defended his po sition on historical grounds in public dispu tation and in writing, taking by degrees a more advanced position than at first. In his scheme, which rested on salvation by faith rather than by the formal works of the sacraments, he reduced the seven sacraments to three—haptistn. the Lord's Supper. and penance. On the 10th of December, 1520. he publicly burned a copy of the Papal bull of excommunica tion which had been directed at him by I.eo N. aml also one of the canon law, thus symbolically break ing the whole system upon which the Roman ecclesiastical structure rested. In 1521, sum moncd by the new Emperor, Charles V., to the Diet at Worms, he refused to retract and was se creted for a time in the Castle of Wartburg, under the protection of his friend the Elector Frederick of Saxony. He had now reached the point where he must begin a constructive move ment. He translated the Bible into vigorous colloquial German, assisted by his friend and coworker, Melanchthon, and entered into com munication with the North German princes, many of whom gave him their support. At the Diet of Speyer in 1529 a majority of the princes and rep resentatives of the cities issued the Protest' which gave to the adherents of the new move ment the name of Protestants, and a year later at the Diet of Augsburg, when the Emperor was present, they set forth their views in the Augs burg Confession (q.v.), prepared by Melanchthon,
which it was hoped would be a means of media tion. The Protestants were then in a minority, however, and a decree of condemnation was passed, beginning the long and bitter struggle. The Protestants organized the League of Sehmal kald for defense, but for some time the political difficulties with which Charles had to deal in his rivalry with France and the necessity of uniting Germany against the onslaughts of the Turks made him defer the execution of the decree of Augsburg. But in 1546, immediately after the death of Luther, the Emperor turned his attention to the Sehinalkald League and in 1547 he defeated it with the aid of Duke Maurice (q.v.) of Saxony. (See Mtn', BERG. ) The return of the latter to the Pro testant side turned the tables and the Em peror concluded a treaty at Passau in 1552, in which 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 assist ance against the Turks, who were still menacing the frontiers of the Empire. The promised diet assembled at Augsburg in 1555 and framed arti cles for the religious pacification of Germany, according to which each prince might choose be tween Lutheranism and Catholicism, the religion of the prince to be that of his people. Any pre late on becoming Protestant was to resign his benefice, and subjects of ecclesiastical princes were to enjoy religious liberty. This peace gave recognition to the Lutherans. It established a anodes rivendi between the adherents of the old and new creeds, which soon proved to he a pre carious one, and finally the issues between Catho lics and Protestants were fought out in the Thirty Years' War to a settlement in the Peace of Westphalia (1648).