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Updated: June 16, 2025
Henceforth the priests wished to be, above all, Christians; but to all Christians without exception, the call has been made according to the language of the Apostle, to become priests by inward consecration, priests without love of power and without the spirit of caste. At Wittemberg he taught. Throughout all Germany and the neighboring countries his severity is known.
Determination to crush Protestantism. Incursion of the Turks. Valor of the Protestants. Preparations for renewed Hostilities. Augmentation of the Protestant Forces. The Council of Trent. Mutual Consternation. Defeat of the Protestant Army. Unlooked for Succor. Revolt in the Emperor's Army. The Fluctuations of Fortune. Ignoble Revenge. Capture of Wittemberg. Protestantism Apparently Crushed.
"That Luther has a fine genius!" laughed Leo the Tenth when he heard in 1517 that a German Professor had nailed some Propositions denouncing the abuse of Indulgences, or of the Papal power to remit certain penalties attached to the commission of sins, against the doors of a church at Wittemberg.
Carlstadt, finding himself persecuted at Wittemberg left the city, and, as soon as he was released from the presence of Luther, began to revive his former zeal against images also, and was the promoter of great disturbances. He at last sought refuge in Strasburg, and sacrificed fame, and friends, and bread to his honest convictions.
There now arose at Wittemberg, in Germany, the great leader of the mighty change in England which is called The Reformation, and which set the people free from their slavery to the priests. This was a learned Doctor, named MARTIN LUTHER, who knew all about them, for he had been a priest, and even a monk, himself.
Charles now entered Wittemberg in triumph. The great reformer had just died. The emperor visited the grave of Luther, and when urged to dishonor his remains, replied "I war not with the dead, but with the living. Let him repose in peace; he is already before his Judge."
The emperor marched immediately to Wittemberg, which was distant but a few miles. It was a well fortified town, and was resolutely defended by Isabella, the wife of the elector. The emperor, maddened by the resistance, summoned a court martial, and sentenced the elector to instant death unless he ordered the surrender of the fortress. He at first refused, and prepared to die.
But he was a man of forty before his dream became fact. Drawn from his retirement in Gloucestershire by the news of Luther's protest at Wittemberg, he found shelter for a year with a London Alderman, Humfrey Monmouth. "He studied most part of the day at his book," said his host afterwards, "and would eat but sodden meat by his good will and drink but small single beer."
Under these uncomfortable circumstances he resolved to quit his country, and pay a visit to the most interesting cities of Germany. At Wittemberg, where he arrived in April 1566, he resumed his astronomical observations; but, in consequence of the plague having broken out in that city, he removed to Rostoch in the following autumn.
However he lost a major battle at Gross-Beeren and was forced to retire via Wittemberg, having suffered heavy losses.
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