we not lament the fall of Rome, which is the common mother-city of all nations? I indeed feel this
calamity no less than if it were my own native place. The robber hordes were not restrained by
considerations of the dignity of the city, nor the remembrance of her services for the laws, sciences,
and arts of the world. This is what we grieve over. Whatever be the sins of the Pope, Rome should
not be made to suffer." He acquitted the Emperor of all blame, and held the army alone responsible.^940
§ 114. A War Panic, 1528.
On the "Packische Händel," see Walch (XVI. 444), Gieseler (III. 1, 229), Ranke (III. 26), Janssen
(III. 109), Rommel’s, and Wille’s monographs on Philip of Hesse; and St. Ehses: Geschichte
der Packschen Händel, Freiburg i. B. 1881.
The action of the Diet of 1526, and the quarrel between the Emperor and the Pope, were highly
favorable to the progress of the Reformation. But the good effect was in great part neutralized by
a stupendous fraud which brought Germany to the brink of a civil war.
Philip of Hesse, an ardent, passionate, impulsive, ambitious prince, and patron of
Protestantism, was deceived by an unprincipled and avaricious politician, Otto von Pack, provisional
chancellor of the Duchy of Saxony, into the belief that Ferdinand of Austria, the Electors of Mainz
and Brandenburg, the Dukes of Saxony and Bavaria, and other Roman Catholic rulers had concluded
a league at Breslau, May 15, 1527, for the extermination of Protestantism. He procured at Dresden
a sealed copy of the forged document, for which he paid Pack four thousand guilders. He persuaded
the Elector John of Saxony of its genuineness, and concluded with him, in all haste, a counter-league,
March 9, 1528. They secured aid from other princes, and made expensive military preparations, to
anticipate by a masterstroke an attack of the enemy.
Fortunately, the Reformers of Wittenberg were consulted, and prevented an open outbreak
by their advice. Luther deemed the papists had enough for any thing, but was from principle opposed
to aggressive war;^941 Melanchthon saw through the forgery, and felt keenly mortified. When the
fictitious document was published, the Roman Catholic princes indignantly denied it. Duke George
denounced Pack as a traitor.^942 Archduke Ferdinand declared that he never dreamed of such a
league.
The rash conduct of Philip put the Protestant princes in the position of aggressors and
disturbers of the public peace, and the whole affair brought shame and disgrace upon their cause.
§ 115. The Second Diet of Speier, and the Protest of 1529.
Walch, XVI. 315 sqq. J. J. Müller: Historie von der evang. Stände Protestation und Appellation
wider den Reichsabschied zu Speier, 1529, Jena, 1705. Tittmann: Die Protestation der evang.
Stände mit Hist. Erläuterungen, Leipzig, 1829. A. Jung: Gesch. des Reichstags zu Speier, 1529,
Leipzig, 1830. J. Ney (protest. pastor at Speier): Geschichte des Reichstags zu Speier im Jahr
(^940) "Corp. Ref.," XI. 130; C. Schmidt, Phil. Melanchthon, p. 135 sq.
(^941) See his letters on this subject in De Wette, III. 314 sqq.
(^942) After a fugitive life, Pack was beheaded as a forger in the Netherlands, 1536, at the solicitation of Duke George.