Thus  much  only  is  evident, — that  the  secular  authorities  generally  ob-
tained great  advantages  over  the  spiritual.
A  portion  of  the  ecclesiastical  revenues  fell  into  the  hands,  either  of  the
sovereign,  or  of  the  nobility,  or  of  the  community  at  large.  In  all  the
reformed  countries  a  clergy,  indebted  for  its  position  and  importance  to
the  zeal  and  efforts  of  the  civil  power,  was  substituted  for  one  whose
rights  were  exclusively  derived  from  episcopal  ordination.
We  find  a  proof  how  little  the  laity  were  inclined  to  submit  to  any

1  Extracts  from  the  Reports.     Rommel,  i.,  p.  191  and  note.
2  Schreiben  des  Urbanus  Rhegius  an  die  Augspurger  14  Juli,  1535,  bei  Walch
xvii.  2507  ;  see  Schlegel,  ii.  51,  95,  211.
3  Report  by  Cornelius  Ettenius,  p.  498.
*  Lang,  ii.  42.
Chap.  VIII.]     TRIUMPH  OF  THE  SECULAR  PRINCIPLE         713

domination  on  the  part  of  the  new  clergy,  in  the  ecclesiastical  ordinance  of
Nuremberg  and  Brandenburg  just  alluded  to.
