reach a permanent solution by this method, Charles was again
forced to negotiate. The {122} Treaty of Frankfort agreed to a truce
varying in length from six to fifteen months according to
circumstances. This was followed by a series of religious conferences
with the purpose of finding some means of reconciling the two
confessions. [Sidenote: Religious Colloquies] Among the first of
these were the meetings at Worms and Hagenau. Campeggio and Eck were
the Catholic leaders, Melanchthon the spokesman for the Lutherans.
[Sidenote: 1540-1] Each side had eleven members on the commission, but
their joint efforts were wrecked on the plan for limiting the papal
power and on the doctrine of original sin. When the Diet of Ratisbon
was opened in the spring of 1541 a further conference was held at which
the two parties came closer to each other than they had done since
Augsburg. The Book of Ratisbon was drawn up, emphasizing the points of
agreement and slurring over the differences. Contarini made wide
concessions, later condemned by the Catholics, on the doctrine of
justification. Discussion of the nature of the church, the power of
the pope, the invocation of saints, the mass, and sacerdotal celibacy
seemed likely to result in some _modus vivendi_. What finally
shattered the hopes of union was the discussion of transubstantiation
and the adoration of the host. As Contarini had found in the
statements of the Augsburg Confession no insuperable obstacle to an
understanding he was astonished at the stress laid on them by the
Protestants now.

[Sidenote: 1542]

It is not remarkable that with such results the Diet of Spires should
have avoided the religious question and have devoted itself to more
secular matters, among them the grant to the emperor of soldiers to
fight the Turk. Of this Diet Bucer wrote "The Estates act under the
wrath of God. Religion is relegated to an agreement between
cities. . . . The cause of our evils is that few seek the Lord
earnestly, but {123} most fight against him, both among those who have
rejected, and of those who still bear, the papal yoke." At the Diet of
Spires two years later the emperor promised the Protestants, in return
for help against France, recognition until a German National Council
should be called. For this concession he was sharply rebuked by the
pope. [Sidenote: 1545] The Diet of Worms contented itself with
expressing its general hope for a "Christian reformation."