Editing Martin Bucer (section)

==Rejecting the Augsburg Interim (1547–1549)==
With the onset of the [[Schmalkaldic War]] in 1546, Protestants began a gradual retreat within the Empire.  On 21 March 1547, Strasbourg surrendered to the imperial army, and the following month the decisive imperial victory at the [[Battle of Mühlberg]] ended most Protestant resistance.  In Strasbourg, Bucer and his colleagues, including Matthew Zell, [[Paul Fagius]] and [[Johannes Marbach]], continued to press the council to bring more discipline and independence to the church. Charles V overruled their efforts at the [[Diet of Augsburg]], which sat from September 1547 to May 1548.  The Diet produced an imperial decree, the provisional [[Augsburg Interim]], which imposed Catholic rites and ceremonies throughout the Empire, with a few concessions to the Reformation. To make the document acceptable to the Protestants, Charles needed a leading figure among the reformers to endorse it, and he selected Bucer.{{Sfn |Greschat|2004|pp= 211–20}}

Bucer arrived in Augsburg on 30 March 1548 of his own volition. On 2 April, after he was shown the document, he announced his willingness to ratify it if certain changes were made; but the time for negotiations had passed, and Charles insisted on his signature. When he refused, he was placed under house arrest on 13 April, and shortly afterwards in close confinement. On 20 April, he signed the Interim and was immediately freed.{{Sfn | Greschat | 2004 |pp=220–1}}{{Refn | group = lower-alpha | According to {{Harvnb|Eells|1931| p= 394}}, rather than being freed immediately, he supposedly escaped and returned to Strasbourg.}}

Despite this capitulation, Bucer continued to fight. On his return to Strasbourg, he stepped up his attacks on Catholic rites and ceremonies, and on 2 July published the {{Citation | language = de | title = Ein Summarischer vergriff der Christlichen Lehre und Religion |trans-title=Concise Summary of Christian Doctrine and Religion}}, a confessional statement calling on Strasbourg to repent and to defend reformed principles outlined in twenty-nine articles. Charles ordered all copies destroyed. Tension grew in Strasbourg, as Bucer's opponents feared he was leading the city to disaster. Many Strasbourg merchants left to avoid a potential clash with imperial forces. On 30 August, the guild officials voted overwhelmingly to begin negotiations to introduce the Interim.  Bucer stood firm; even after the city of Konstanz surrendered and accepted the Interim, he called for Strasbourg to reject it unconditionally. In January 1549, with plans underway for the implementation of the Interim in Strasbourg, Bucer and his colleagues continued to attack it, producing a memorandum on how to preserve the Protestant faith under its directives. With no significant support left, Bucer and Fagius were finally relieved of their positions and dismissed on 1 March 1549. Bucer left Strasbourg on 5 April a refugee, as he had arrived twenty-five years earlier.{{Sfn |Eells|1931|pp=395–400}}{{Sfn |Greschat|2004|pp= 221–5}}