er threw aside the monastic habit; and the next year he married
Catherine de Bore, a nun who had escaped from a convent; and though he was
ridiculed by his enemies, and censured for taking a young wife, he
defended his conduct by scriptural texts, and again set at nought the
authority of Rome and the cavils of her advocates. In 1525, the emperor
called a diet at Spires, in consequence of the war with the Turks, as well
as the troubled state of Germany in consequence of religious disputes; and
in the sitting of the next year he proposed that the edict of Worms should
be duly enforced, the Catholic religion supported, and heretics punished.
The new doctrines, though thus openly attacked by the head of the empire,
were ably defended by the electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, the
landgrave of Hesse, the prince of Anhalt, and others; and in another diet,
held again at Spires, these dissentient princes protested against the
measures of the empire, and were consequently called _Protestants_. In the
midst of the confusion of Germany, a confession of faith was drawn up by
Melancthon, the mildest and most moderate of Luther's followers, and, as
it was presented to the emperor at Augsburg, it has been called the
_Augsburg Confession_. Thus the opposition raised against the mighty
empire of spiritual Rome by an obscure monk, was supported by intelligent
princes and powerful nations, and Luther, now regarded as the champion of
the faith through Germany, had nothing to apprehend from his persecutors,
but had only to labor earnestly to confirm what had been so happily
established. His German translation of the Bible appeared in 1535, and was
received with grateful raptures by the Germans. He died at Isleben, 18th
February, 1546, aged 63. This illustrious man, engaged, as Atterbury has
observed, against the united forces of the Papal world, stood the shock
with bravery and success. He was a man of high endowments of mind, and
great virtues. He had a vast understanding, which raised him to a pitch of
learning unknown in the age in which he lived. His works, collected after
his death, appeared at Wittemberg, in seven volumes, folio.

Ulriucus Zuinglius.

A zealous reformer, born at Wildehausen, in Switzerland, 1487. He studied
the learned languages at Basle and Berne, and applied himself to
philosophy at Vienna, and took his degree of doctor of divinity, at Basle,
1505. For ten years he acquired popularity as public preacher at Gl