# Der Lutheraner_St. Louis Missouri_1847 12 08_S66
# AI translation — CHI Digital Archive (demonstration)

that he should forbid his theologians to preach publicly at Augsburg. Although for the present this order was not heeded, inquiry was nevertheless made of Luther at Coburg as to what should be done if the emperor insisted on it. Luther answered: "Should His Imperial Majesty desire that Your Electoral Grace's preachers be made to cease preaching, it is still, as before, my opinion that the emperor is our lord, and the city and everything is his — just as one ought not to resist Your Electoral Grace at Torgau where you desire or order that this or that be left undone in your own city. I would indeed be glad, if it could be, to see that with good, fitting words and manner one might turn aside His Imperial Majesty's desire and intention, with humility, so that His Imperial Majesty would not, unheard, forbid the preaching outright, but would first let someone listen to how it is preached; surely His Imperial Majesty would not forbid the preaching of the plain, clear Scripture, since one preaches in no seditious or fanatical manner otherwise. If this does not help, then one must let force take the place of right. We have done our part, and are excused."

Since, as has been said, the emperor's arrival was delayed, the evangelical princes and estates gained time to weigh once more, thoroughly, all the points of religion. Their theologians worked through the articles again in brotherly harmony. The secular councilors and envoys, too, gave careful consideration to every point, and the Confession, thus improved, was sent to Luther at Coburg on May 11; he entirely approved it and sent it back with these words: "I have read through Master Philip's Apologia (as the Confession was called before its submission); it pleases me quite well, and I know of nothing in it to improve or change, nor would that be fitting, for I cannot tread so softly and gently. May Christ our Lord grant that it bear much and great fruit, as we hope and pray. Amen." For Melanchthon had indeed held the pen in drawing up the Confession; from him, therefore, chiefly derive its form and expression, but he is not to be regarded as its actual author. For the seventeen articles which were laid as the foundation of the Confession did not originate with him but with Luther, and moreover Melanchthon, in drawing it up, did nothing without the counsel and deliberation of the other theologians, since in particular Justus Jonas, Johann Brenz, Georg Spalatin, Johann Agricola, and Erhard Schnepf collaborated on the Confession. Since Melanchthon, before the emperor's arrival, still made several further alterations and improvements to the Confession, he wrote to Luther again on May 22, asking for his judgment, and the latter was satisfied with everything.

At last, on June 15, the day before the Feast of Corpus Christi, the emperor made his entry into Augsburg late in the evening; he went first to the cathedral, received the blessing from Cardinal Campeggio, the papal legate, and thereafter took up residence in the Palatinate, or the episcopal court. The emperor had deliberately hastened his journey in order to celebrate this feast* at Augsburg with the utmost solemnity, and thereby to give new splendor to the Roman Catholic religion, which had been considerably weakened at Augsburg through the evangelical preaching. For this reason he had the Lutheran princes and estates summoned that very evening, demanding not only that the Lutheran preaching be discontinued at once, but also that they take part the following day, together with the emperor, in the Corpus Christi procession. The negotiations lasted until noon of the following day; but although the emperor insisted harshly, indeed in a threatening manner, on the latter demand, the Lutherans most humbly refused it, thereby giving a praiseworthy proof of their steadfastness in the truth they had recognized. The procession proceeded with all pomp. The Cardinal of Mainz carried the host under a costly canopy; on the right walked King Ferdinand, on the left Margrave Joachim. The canopy was carried by six princes, who took turns with others, and behind them walked the emperor, bareheaded and bearing a burning candle, together with the ecclesiastical electors and the rest of the tail of the great Roman dragon. Only the truly great and noble Lutheran princes — namely the Elector of Saxony, Margrave George of Brandenburg, Duke Ernst of Lüneburg, Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, and Wolfgang, Prince of Anhalt — took, as noted above, no part in this idolatrous feast. But since the emperor had also demanded the immediate discontinuance of the Lutheran preaching, Margrave George of Brandenburg, in the name of his fellow believers, set forth the reasons why they could not yield on this point either, whereupon he declared to the emperor's face, freely: "Rather than deny my God and His Gospel, I would kneel down before Your Imperial Majesty and let my head be struck off." The emperor thereupon demanded of the Lutheran princes that they set down in writing the reasons for their refusal of his command. They therefore presented him, on June 17, with a document in which they said "that if they had found their preachers teaching anything new, or anything not grounded in Holy Scripture, they would by no means have permitted it. But to forbid these men the doctrine of the Gospel, which they proclaimed clearly and purely according to the words of Scripture and the interpretations of the most esteemed fathers, would be irresponsible, a sin against the Holy Spirit. Moreover they themselves, as poor sinful men, needed such preaching and proclamation from God's Word; for if they could not even sustain daily life without necessary food, how much less could the spiritual life be sustained without spiritual food." The emperor received this document very ungraciously; yet at last the matter was so mediated that none of the estates of the empire, whether Roman or Lutheran, should be permitted to let their own preachers appear publicly; only the preachers appointed by the emperor himself were to read the text of the Gospel from the pulpit, but without any further explanation. This ordinance was proclaimed on June 18 by an imperial herald.

On the following June 20, the emperor, through Electoral Saxony, had all the estates of the empire invited to the opening of the Diet. They appeared early, about seven o'clock, at the palace, and accompanied the emperor first to the great collegiate church. On this occasion the Elector of Saxony, according to ancient custom, had to carry the sword before the emperor, which therefore cannot be regarded as participation in the false worship of the papists, but rather as a civil service which he was obliged to render the emperor (compare Naaman, 2 Kings 5:17-18). Thereafter all the estates of the empire betook themselves to the town hall, and Count Palatine Frederick first took the floor in the emperor's name, laying before them the subjects for deliberation. He made extensive mention first of the Turkish war and then of the state of religion at that time; and finally the estates, both Catholic and evangelical, were commanded to submit their opinion concerning the religious division and the abuses in religion to the emperor in writing, in both German and Latin.

That same day it was made known that the deliberations were to begin on June 22. Elector John therefore summoned his fellow believers to himself the day before, after having spent the morning alone in earnest prayer. He laid before them his opinion that they must insist that the matter of religion be taken up first at the Diet, and asked them to give him their opinion on this the following morning. Accordingly they came to the elector the next morning and declared that they were of the same mind. Thereupon they betook themselves to the town hall, where the Roman Catholic princes and estates also assembled. Both parties agreed among themselves that the matter of religion should be dealt with first. But those of the Roman persuasion refused to submit a written confession of faith, since, as they said, they remained with the old doctrine. The Lutherans, on the other hand, pointed out that the imperial summons had laid upon both parties the obligation to submit their opinion on matters of faith in writing; but the others persisted in their refusal, for indeed it had been strictly forbidden them from Rome to enter into any disputation concerning religion.** Thus it was then that

* This feast consisted of a solemn procession, in which the host was carried about and worshipped. For they held the host, even apart from its sacramental use, to be the Lord's body. Hence comes the word Frohnleichnam [Corpus Christi], for in Old German this means nothing other than "the Lord's body."

** Just as the so-called Evangelicals, Methodists, and others of today are, for easily explicable reasons, no friends at all of disputation; for the enemy who is conscious of his own weakness gladly avoids