Chap.  II.]  DIET  OF  SPIRE,   1526  429

mittee,  sanctioned  the  sending  of  the  deputation,  and  approved  the  in-
structions drawn  up  for  it.  It  was  ordered  in  the  Recess,  that  until  the
general  or  national  assembly  of  the  church,  which  was  prayed  for,  should
be  convoked,  each  state  should,  in  all  matters  appertaining  to  the  edict
of  Worms,  "  so  live,  rule,  and  bear  itself  as  it  thought  it  could  answer  it
to  God  and  the  emperor."1

The  reader  must  pardon  the  repetition  of  these  words,  in  consideration
of  the  infinite  importance  they  afterwards  acquired.  They  contain  the
legal  foundation  of  the  constitution  of  the  national  churches  of  Germany,
and  at  the  same  time  they  involve  (although  leaving  open  the  possibility  of
a  future  re-union)  the  separation  of  the  nation  into  two  great  religious
parties.  They  are  the  words  which  decided  the  fate  of  Germany.  Catho-
licism would  not  have  been  able  to  maintain  itself  if  the  edict  of  Worms
had  been  formally  repealed.  The  evangelical  party  would  not  have  been
able  to  constitute  itself  legally,  if  the  emperor  and  the  States  had  insisted
on  the  execution  of  that  edict.  The  future  existence  and  development
of  both  hung  on  this  point.
Generally  considered,  it  was  the  immediate  and  necessary  consequence
of  the  division  between  the  emperor  and  the  pope.  Their  alliance  had
produced  the  edict  of  Worms  :  that  alliance  being  broken,  the  emperor
and  his  brother  revoked  the  edict  in  so  far  as  its  revocation  was  consistent
with  their  own  interests.
CHAPTER  III.
CONQUEST    OF    ROME,    A.D.    1 527.
While  these  deliberations  were  going  on  in  Germany,  in  Italy  war  had
already  broken  out.
