uld be invited like the
other estates, and attend, they must needs dread a repetition of the
craftiness attempted at Augsburg, namely, of bringing their princes in
opposition to their preachers. Furthermore, in that case it would also
be considered self-evident that the Lutherans submit to the decision of
the majority in all matters. And if they refused, what then? "On this
wise we, for our part, would be lured into the net so far that we could
not, with honor, give a respectable account of our action before the
world. For thereupon to appeal from such decision of the council to
another would by all the world be construed against our part as
capriciousness pure and simple. At all events, therefore, the Lutherans
could accept the papal invitation only with a public protest, from which
the Pope and every one else could perceive in advance, before the
council convened, that the Lutherans would not allow themselves to be
lured into the net of a papal council, and what must be the character of
the council to which they would assent." (_C. R._ 3, 147.)

In this Protest, which the Elector presented, and which Melanchthon
translated into Latin, we read: "By the [possible] acceptance [of the
invitation to the council] they [the Lutherans] assent to no council
other than a general, free, pious, Christian, and impartial one; not to
one either which would be subject to, and bound by, papal prejudices
(as the one promised by Clement VII), but to such a synod as will
endeavor to bring godly and Christian unity within the Church by
choosing pious, learned, impartial, and unsuspected men for the purpose
of investigating the religious controversies and adjudicating them from
the Word of God, and not in accordance with usage and human traditions,
nor on the basis of decisions rendered by former synods that militate
against the Word of God." (152. 157.)

67. Counter-Council Disadvised.

The other matters which engaged the Elector's attention dealt primarily
with measures of defense, the convening of a counter-council
(_Gegenkonzil_) and the preparation of articles which all would
unanimously accept, and by which they proposed to stand to the
uttermost. August 20 Brueck brought these points up for discussion. And
in a "memorandum" which the Elector personally presented to the
theologians at Wittenberg on December 1, 1536, he expressed his opinion
as follows: The Lutherans were not obligated to attend the council,
neither would it be adv