Religion and Rebellion: The Roles of Protestant Nobility in Reformation Germany
The Declaration Against Emperor Charles and Reprint of the Warning Letter, both printed in 1546 within the Holy Roman Empire, show the unique relationship, and ciritcal role that the German nobility played in the Protestant Reformation. Alongside this, two texts illustrate the evolving ideas surrounding nobility of non-Catholic faith in the early modern period.
Written by Georg Major in Wittenberg, The Declaration Against Emperor Charles (right) condemns the transgressions of Catholics in the empire, robbing Protestants of their religious freedoms, and calls upon Protestants of the empire to unite against this Catholic threat headed by Emperor Charles V. Major proclaims the text to be a declaration from God, subverting the emperor’s imperial authority with that of the divine. The Reprint of the Warning Letter is a copy of a letter drafted by the Protestant nobility and cities of the Schmalkaldic League, who had decided to rebel against Charles V in the defense of their civil and religious liberties. The text justifies the rebellious actions Protestant princes took against the Catholic Emperor, and proposes the reatively novel notion that a Catholic ruler could have obligations to his non-Catholic subjects, who owe loyalty to him,but not to the Pope.
Preachers and Princes
Frontispiece of Reprint of the Warning Letter
The Declaration and Reprint of the Warning Letter were written during a tumultuous time in the Holy Roman Empire. The religious status quo of the edict of Nuremberg, passed in the 1530s, left both Protestant and Catholic parties dissatisfied, and minor conflicts started to break out between the two sects. In 1531, the Protestant princes and cities of the empire banded together and formed the Schmalkaldic League. The league was formed to protect Protestant interests within the empire and ensure some semblance of a united Protestant community. The members of the league were concerned by the actions of Charles V, whom they thought was preparing to eliminate the Protestant faith in his lands.[1]
The members of the league, knowing that facing the full strength of the empire guaranteed defeat, decided to launch a pre-emptive strike against the emperor, drafting the Warning Letter, and reprinting it throughout the empire.[2] Both the reprint of and the original warning letter justified the princes' rebellious actions, naming legal and political causes to rebel. The right of a subject, specifically a Protestant one, to rebel against their emperor had become a heated debate within the empire. Some Protestants argued for a right to self-defence, to protect themselves and their communities from tyranny. The arguments presented in the Warning Letter reflect this, citing Catholic tyranny as legitimizing the leagues actions.[3]
The Declaration was written by Georg Major, a prominent theologian in the Protestant community, who had avoided taking a strong opinion here or there in matters of the Reformation until the Decleration’s writing. In the 1540’s Major was noticed by the Elector of Saxony, John Frederick I, who was one of the de-facto leaders of the Schmalkaldic league. He recruited Major for a variety of ecclesiastical roles. Major represented the Electorate of Saxony and its Protestant population in Imperial affairs. It was only when his political patron, John Frederick, was threatened by the forces of the Catholic emperor, did Major write the Declaration anonymously.[4] The Elector of Saxony’s relationship with Major and the Reprint of the Warning Letter are both representative of the role Protestant nobility played in the empire, and how princely patronage guaranteed Protestant success.
Protestant princes drafting the Warning Letter [5]
God denounces Charles in the Declaration
Protestant Princes: Patrons of Print and Preachers
Major’s decision to write the Declaration when his princely patron was in danger echoes the close relationship the nobility of Germany had with Protestants in the Empire. German nobility allowed Protestant theologians to establish themselves within their realms, nurturing a Protestant community, and defending them from oppressive forces. This relationship being most famously seen with Luther and Frederick III of Saxony. Without nobility to defend them, Protestant communities were quickly uprooted or eliminated. Partisan efforts launched by unsupported Protestants to defend their lands always ended in a Protestant defeat, and the condemnation of other Protestants in the empire. With the nobles of the empire supporting Protestants, reformers were able to enjoy protection, and representation within the politics and legislature of the empire.[6]
When the Catholic prince of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel attacked the Protestant city of Goslar in the 1540s, members of the league came to the city's aid, and repulsed the prince’s assault. But fighting other nobility, or worse the Emperor, in the defense of what was considered a heretical sect, was an equally condemnable act for nobles of the empire. [7]
New ways of thought were needed to justify the actions of Protestant nobility in their defense of Protestant communities in the empire. The Reprint of the Warning Letter stands as an ideological manifesto representing this thought, setting forth ideas of a Catholic emperor having non-Christian subjects, who have the same rights as other subjects and deserve to be treated properly. In the numerous opinions that arose in the debate for princely self defense from the 1530s to 40s, a premature idea of mutual nationhood arose. Ideas generated of an Emperor ruling purely for the empire, and subjects serving to aid the imperial cause. Less radical voices in the debate, such as Regius Selinus, added additional arguments for a mutual relationship between a Christian emperor who upheld the law of the empire, and Protestant noble.[8]
This debate would conclude nine years after the publishing of these texts in 1555 with the implementation of the Peace of Augsburg, allowing princes to decide which faith would be practiced in their territories.[9] While providing only one side of the argument, these texts can be seen as steps towards the thought which would allow for the Peace of Augsburg. These texts stand as a testament to the protection, and success Protestant nobility afforded the reformist communities within their realms.
By: Harry Henderson
[1] Christopher Ocker, Church Robbers and Reformers in Germany, 1525-1547: Confiscation and Religious Purpose in the Holy Roman Empire, 103–8,112-13,115,119-123.
[2] Nathan Rein, The Chancery of God: Protestant Propaganda against the Empire, Magdeburg, 1546-1551, St. Andrews Studies in Reformation History (Aldershot, England ; Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2008), 23–29,106-107.
[3] Robert V. Friedeburg, ‘In Defense of Patria: Resisting Magistrates and the Duties of Patriots in the Empire from the 1530s to the 1640s’, The Sixteenth Century Journal, 32, no. 2 (2001): 360–61,
[4] Robert Kolb, ‘Georg Major as Controversialist: Polemics in the Late Reformation’, Church History 45, no. 4 (December 1976): 455–57, https://doi.org/10.2307/3164348.
[5] H.D, Kriegsrat Im Schmalkaldischen Krieg, 1546, Woodcut, 1546, Wikipedia Commons , https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Kriegsrat_Schmalkalden.jpg.
[6] Ocker, Church Robbers and Reformers in Germany, 50–66.
[7] Ocker, Church Robbers and Reformers in Germany,119-123.
[8] Friedeburg, ‘In Defense of Patria', 360–69.
[9] Ocker, Church Robbers and Reformers in Germany, 126.