History of the German People at the Close of the Middle Ages Volume 5 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1903 Excerpt: ... Emperor. It might be advisable, moreover, for the Protestants to weigh well the likelihood of any other fruit growing out of the tenets and methods of these men than fatal disturbance and sedition in the Empire, with an untold amount of misery to land and people.1 That many evils had certainly sprung into existence since the beginning of the religious troubles was frankly admitted by the Saxon theologians. 'We see on all sides, ' they say in a memorandum addressed to the 'Elector of Saxony and the other Evangelical Estates, ' 'how serious have been the consequences of this schism in the Faith; how demoralised the populace has become; what interminable errors, sects, and factions are springing up day by day.' They apprehend that matters would grow worse should a war break out. As a further result of the dissensions 'all discipline had vanished from the schools and the churches.' 'Parents are unwilling to send their children to school, and justly so; for no one is willing to expose his child to the dangers which threaten scholars so long as this disunion continues. Neither can any decorum be maintained in the churches. What is not tolerated in one place is approved of in another, so that it is utterly impossible to enforce obedience.' They point to the danger of the people becoming ' quite wild and heathenish, ' and rather than this should happen they deem it ' preferable to return to Judaism, with all its bondage.' 2 1 Mtiller, p. 722; Walch, xvi. 1632, 1688. 2 Corp. Reform. ii. 281. VOL. V. T The spiritual princes endeavoured to persuade the Protestant Estates that the universally acknowledged deterioration of morals in the populace was a necessary consequence of the subversion of the ancient constitution of the Church and of the methods with which the new te...