Almost the whole Imperial nobility, whether under Catholic or Lutheran authority, is inclined toward the new religion, and where they are not permitted to do this publicly, they nevertheless do it secretly, in spirit. And if one part [of the nobility] is still attached to the Roman religion, this is a cold, half-hearted [attachment] with little zeal behind it. The old, who are still well-disposed towards [the Roman religion] with devotion and zeal, are daily passing away. And the young cannot be reined in this way. Even if one makes a great effort, it does no good given the [influence of current] times, models, and associations.
In addition, this change has also taken hold amongst the clergy. Therefore, in the religious foundations of many places one finds that a large proportion of the canons secretly favors the Augsburg Confession and that the others are becoming more neutral and cold over time and that hardly any of them want to take up a [religious] calling and the clerical estate, but rather primarily [want] the usufruct of fat benefices and a life of ease.
It is almost universally true of the common man that he sets no more store by the old traditions and the ceremonies of the Roman clergy than he is required to do by his ruling authorities, and almost everywhere one sees that the people leave church when the sermon is finished and that everywhere, even in Catholic places, the people have their special evangelical books that they read at home, and they preach to and teach one another themselves. And one has learned from experience, in that the reformed religion has already been set aside and the Catholic [religion] reinstated in Constance (5) and in other places, that one cannot win back and reattach hearts to the Roman religion, even through the especially diligent efforts of the clergy over many years.
And until now, no force, victory, punishment, or tyranny has been able to accomplish this, whether in the Netherlands or in France, and although one has passively resisted and suffered for quite some time, nevertheless, one’s heart burns inside and is waiting and hoping for better times and [more favorable] opportunities and would rather apply oneself to the utmost toward this end.
[Rome has shown itself incapable of reform. The Holy See does not want to allow]
the poor common man to have Christian prayer or the Gospels or God’s Word in his own language in those places where it has power and ascendancy, but rather dares to press and force him on pain of death and loss of property to pray to his dear God in a foreign language so that he does not know what he is asking for and believes that religion may once more be preserved and restored through ignorance. He also believes that by means of external devotion, discipline, and ritual, even though the foundation of our Christian faith and salvation rests not on external appearances and church discipline, but on the recognition of and trust in God, and [even though] Christ himself, his Apostles, and their followers proclaimed and taught all peoples the prayers and the Word of God in the vernacular.
Therefore, because [this] will annoy and offend all the more in today’s world, it may be more readily noted and surmised that the aforementioned reformation is not complete, but will in the future (as in the recent past) progress and take effect, and that God’s abstruse judgment, punishment, and Providence will proceed with it.
[The decline in the reputation of the Franciscans and other orders, of indulgences, pilgrimages, and other established practices demonstrates the loss of trust that the “old Roman tradition” had suffered in the last half century. A return to the status quo ante seems impossible. Not even the clergy works toward this end; Charles V and Ferdinand I had already discovered this by experience.]
(5) An Imperial city on the west end of Lake Constance, in which Austria lordship was asserted and Catholicism restored by Habsburg forces in 1548 – trans.
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