Protestants.^960 But the Emperor had promised the Pope to use all his power for the suppression of
heresy, and was bound to execute as best he could the edict of the Diet after the expiration of the
term of grace, April 15, 1531.
The Lutheran princes therefore formed in December, 1530, at Smalcald, a defensive alliance
under the name of the Smalcaldian League. The immediate object was to protect themselves against
the lawsuits of the imperial chamber of justice for the recovery of church property and the restoration
of the episcopal jurisdiction. Opinions were divided on the question whether the allies in case of
necessity should take up arms against the Emperor; the theologians were opposed to it, but the
lawyers triumphed over the theological scruples, and the Elector of Saxony pledged the members
for defensive measures against any and every aggressor, even the Emperor. At a new convent at
Smalcald in March, 1531, the League was concluded in due form for six years. It embraced Electoral
Saxony, Hesse, Lüneburg, Anhalt, Mansfeld, and eleven cities. Out of this League ultimately arose
the Smalcaldian war, which ended so disastrously for the Protestant princes, especially the Elector
of Saxony and the Landgrave of Hesse (1547).
But for the present, war was prevented by the peace at Nürnberg, 1532. A renewed invasion
of Sultan Suleiman with an army of three hundred thousand, in April, 1532, made conciliation a
political and patriotic duty. The Emperor convened a Diet at Regensburg, April 17, which was
transferred to Nürnberg; and there, on July 23, 1532, a temporary truce was concluded, and vigorous
measures taken against the Turks, who were defeated by land and sea, and forced to retreat. The
victorious Emperor went to Italy, and urged the Pope to convene the council; but the Pope was not
yet ready, and found excuses for indefinite postponement.^961
John the Constant died in the same year, of a stroke of apoplexy (Aug. 16, 1532), and was
followed by his son John Frederick the Magnanimous, who in the Smalcaldian war lost his electoral
dignity, but saved his evangelical faith.
§ 119. The Augsburg Confession.
I. Editions of the Augsb. Conf.: The best critical edition in the 26th vol. of the "Corpus
Reformatorum," ed. Bretschneider und Bindseil (1858), 776 pages. It gives the Invariata and
the Variata, in Latin and German, with critical apparatus, list of MSS. and early editions, and
the preceding documents: viz., the Articles of Visitation, the Marburg, the Schwabach, and the
Torgau Articles.
The Confession in Latin or German, or both, Is embodied in all the collections of Lutheran
symbols by Rechenberg, Walch, Weber, Hase, Meyer, Francke, Müller.
Separate modem editions by Twesten, Tittmann, Weber, Wiggers, Förstemann, Harter, etc.
English translation, with Latin text, in Schaff, Creeds, III. 3–73; in English alone, in Henkel,
Book of Concord, 1854, and Jacobs, Book of Concord, Philad., 1882. The first English
translation was made by Richard Taverner, London, 1536, the last, on the basis of this, by
(^960) Albrecht accepted from Melanchthon the dedication of his commentary on the Romans and sent him a cup with thirty gold guilders
(1532). He also sent to Luther’s wife a present of twenty guilders, which Luther declined. Köstlin, II. 427; Janssen, III. 203. Hermann of
Cologne afterwards professed Protestantism, and made an abortive attempt to reform his diocese with the aid of Bucer and Melanchthon.
(^961) Luther chastised the Pope with all his power of irony and sarcasm for his conduct in regard to a council, in his book Von den Conciliis
und Kirchen, 1539 (Erl. ed. XXV. 219-388).