This edict was a compromise, and did not decide the church question; but it averted the
immediate danger to the Reformation, and so far marks a favorable change, as compared with the
Edict of Worms. It was the beginning of the political emancipation of Germany from the control
of the papacy. Luther was rather pleased with it, except the prohibition of preaching and writing,
which he did not obey.
The influence of the edict, however, was weakened by several events which occurred soon
afterwards.
At a new Diet at Nürnberg in January, 1524, where the shrewd Pope Clement VII. was
represented by Cardinal Campeggio, the resolution was passed to execute the Edict of Worms,
though with the elastic clause, "as far as possible."
At the earnest solicitation of the papal nuncio, the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria, and the
Dukes William and Louis of Bavaria, together with twelve bishops of South Germany, concluded
at Ratisbon, July 6, 1524, a league for the protection of the Roman faith against the Reformation,
with the exception of the abolition of some glaring abuses which did not touch doctrines.^494 The
Emperor lent it his influence by issuing a stringent edict (July 27, 1524). This was an ominous
event. The Romish league called forth a Protestant counter-league of Philip of Hesse and John of
Saxony, at Torgau in June, 1526, although against the advice of the Wittenberg Reformers, who
feared more evil than good from a union of politics with religion and trusted to the power of the
Word of God without any carnal weapons.
Thus the German nation was divided into two hostile camps. From this unhappy division
arose the political weakness of the empire, and the terrible calamities of the Smalkaldian and the
Thirty Years’ Wars. In 1525 the Peasants’ War broke out, and gave new strength to the reaction,
but only for a short time.
§ 70. Luther and Henry VIII
Henricus VIII.: Adsertio VII. Sacram. adv. Luth. Lond. 1521. A German translation by Frick, 1522,
in Walch, XIX., 158 sqq. Lutherus: Contra Henricum Regem. 1522. Also freely reproduced in
German by Luther. His letter to Henry, Sept. 1, 1525. Auf des Königs in England Lästerschrift
M. Luther’s Antwort. 1527. Afterwards also in Latin. See the documents in Walch, XIX.
153–521; Erl. ed., XXVIII. 343 sqq.; XXX. 1–14. Comp. also Luther’s letters of Feb. 4 and
March 11, 1527, in De Wette III. 161 and 163.
With all his opposition to Ultra-Protestantism in church and state, Luther did not mean to yield
an inch to the Romanists. This appears from two very personal controversies which took place
during these disturbances,—the one with Henry VIII. concerning the sacraments; the other with
Erasmus about predestination and free-will. In both he forgot the admirable lessons of moderation
which he had enjoined from the pulpit in Wittenberg. He used again the club of Hercules.
Henry VIII. of England urged Charles V. to exterminate the Lutheran heresy by force, and
wrote in 1521 (probably with the assistance of his chaplain, Edward Lee), a scholastic defence of
the seven sacraments, against Luther’s "Babylonish Captivity." He dedicated the book to Pope Leo
X. He treated the Reformer with the utmost contempt, as a blasphemer and servant of Satan. He
(^494) See details in Ranke, II., 108 sqq. and in Janssen, II., 336 sqq.