Calvin Synod Herald, 1984 (84. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)
1984-04-01 / 2. szám
CALVIN SYNOD HERALD — 6 — REFORMÁTUSOK LAPJA • I <. < > <» “You shall not yield one hair's breadth!” Philip of Hesse to his counsellors at the Diet of Augsburg It was Sunday, the third of October. The year was fifteen hundred twenty-nine. The “Angelus” had just been sounded by the bells in the slender Gothic tower of the old St. Elizabeth church. The church itself had been named after St. Elizabeth of Hungary whose bones lay in peace among its ancient walls. It had just recently been taken over by the rapidly growing evangelicals. Marburg the romantic Hessian town, one of the first to join the Reformation, lay silent on the picturesque banks of the river Lahn. The high steep hill in the center of the town was crowned by the historic and romantic castle of the ruling prince of Hesse with its battlements and towers glittering in the late autumn sunshine.The beautiful region roundabout was smiling under the featherlike clouds of the autumn sky. On the romantic mountain range behind, groups of fir-trees were seen in the pale sunlight. On the hillside below where cliff was piled on cliff, the autumn wind was carrying the fallen leaves under the leafless branches of the trees. Here everything was now on a scale of grandeur. All was silent without the castle, but not within. A young handsome lonely man appeared on the balcony of the castle under the marble arch and began to gaze at the grand view around and below. From the large hall behind him, came considerable noise. He was a man in the prime of life, wearing a furtrimmed black habit and a velvet cap with ostrich feather. The black silk of his dress underneath was enlivened by the white of his beautifully embroidered collar and tunic. Around his neck was a closely meshed double gold chain. He had a neatly trimmed narrow moustache, glistening blue eyes under fair thin eyebrows, and an aquiline nose. He was none else than the serene, high born prince and lord, Philip. Landgrave of Hesse, Count of Katzenellenbogen, Nidda and Ziegenhain. He was a man of dual nature; one, a plain realist, and an uncontrolled sensualist like most great rulers and leaders of his age; the other, an idealist, a dreamer, a seer of visions, whose ideal was truth and light. Philip the Magnanimous, Landgrave of Hesse, was the foremost champion of rapidly spreading Protestantism. The young Prince had come face to face with Truth at the Diet of Worms, eight years before, and right there he had assured the Monk of Wittenberg: “You are right, Doctor!” Three years after that he had openly associated himself with the movement of the Reformation. After the Diet of Worms Emperor Charles, leaving the northeastern part of his decentralized Empire, had been busy directing his French and Turkish wars from his favorite Spanish capital of Barcelona. Since then strange things had happened in history. The Pope of Rome, the would-be head of Christianity, Clement VII, had entered into alliance with Sultan Sulejman, the most fanatic Christian-hating Mohammedan ruler who had come upon Europe with his fearful Asiatic forces to destroy Christianity and Western civilization. Little Hungary had become the sacrificial lamb, defending Christianity against the Turkish hordes till King and army had met a tragic death on the bloody battlefield of Mohács three years before. Then the Turks had marched on victoriously towards Vienna. The Pope and his most loyal subject, the Emperor of the Holy •. Roman Empire, thus had become engaged in an open war with each other. And yet not having been reconciled to the King of France either, the bigoted Catholic Emperor had been unable to, and had been wise enough not to, suppress the advancing movement of Reformation in the North. Thus the Edict of Worms against Luther had remained a dead letter, and the reformer after nine months’ rest at Wartburg could return to Wittenberg unmolested and continue his great work. But now as the Emperor’s armies had begun to score victories against the Turks, the Pope had again made peace with the Emperor and had urged him to bring drastic measures to suppress the rapidly spreading movement of Reformation. Thus six months before in the spring months of this year at the Diet of Spire, the Emperor and Pope had triumphed and succeeded in passing a final decree upon the execution of the Edict of Worms. The anti-evangelical feeling at Spire rose high. Bishops of the Church of Rome had preached openly: “The Turks are better than the Lutherans, for they fast, and these do not,” and “I would rather throw away the Bible, than the ancient errors of the Church.” But then and there the evangelical princes and representatives had taken a great step that will always be celebrated in history. Landgrave Philip of Hesse with four other leading princes Elector John of Saxony, the son and successor of Frederick the Wise; Elector George of Brandensburg; Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt; Duke Ernest of Luneberg; and the representatives of fourteen imperial free cities — had entered a formal Protest and Appeal against the decree of the Diet declaring that in matters affecting the honor of God, their consciences required them to obey God rather than man. The Catholics of the Diet had named them Protestants by way of derision, but they had accepted that name of contempt as an honorable title and had begun to wear it with pride and distinction. The great Protestant, Philip of Hesse, standing at the balcony of his castle many times as he was now, had seen dark clouds gathering over Marburg castle and had known that yet darker clouds were gathering over the heads of the Protestants. Three months ago the Emperor’s threatening reply had arrived from Barcelona, a harsh disapprobation of the Protest. The Landgrave had learned the secret through the counsellor of his bigoted father-in-law, Duke George, that the Catholic princes had formed a league against the evangelical states. He had foreseen many things. He knew that bloodshed would follow. He knew that in order to save the Truth on the road of march from complete destruction, a Protestant counter-league must be organized. His idea was to secure a permanent place for Protestantism. So he had far-reaching political plans. His plan was to form a coalition of the Northern evangelical states with the Swiss evangelical cantons against the Emperor and Pope. But he realized that there was an immense obstacle in the way of his plan: namely, divided Protestantism. Even before the new Evangelical Church had made its position firm against the kingdom of the Pope, it was separated into two great parties, not to mention the number of small sects. While Catholics were Ninth Miniature ---------------------i| The dream of a prince that could not become a reality-------------------Philip of Hesse, the Magnanimous--------------------
