The organization of the churches in Saxony, notwithstanding its imperfections, produced for that time at least the most important results. This was because the Word of God prevailed; and because, wherever this Word exercises its power, secondary errors and abuses are paralyzed. The very discretion that was employed proceeded in reality from a good principle. The reformers, unlike the enthusiasts, did not utterly reject an institution because it was corrupted. They did not say, for example: "The sacraments are disfigured, let us do without them! the ministry is corrupt, let us reject it!"--but they rejected the abuse, and restored the use. This prudence is the mark of a work of God; and if Luther sometimes permitted the chaff to remain along with the wheat, Calvin appeared later, and more thoroughly purged the Christian threshing-floor. [Sidenote: THE REFORMATION ADVANCES.] The organization which was at that time accomplishing in Saxony, exerted a strong reaction on all the German empire, and the doctrine of the Gospel advanced with gigantic strides. The design of God in turning aside from the reformed states of Germany, the thunderbolt that he caused to fall upon the seven-hilled city, was clearly manifest. Never were years more usefully employed; and it was not only to framing a constitution that the Reformation devoted itself, it was also to extend its doctrine. The duchies of Luneburg and Brunswick, many of the most important imperial cities, as Nuremberg, Augsburg, Ulm, Strasburg, Gottingen, Gosslar, Nordhausen, Lubeck, Bremen, and Hamburg, removed the tapers from the chapels, and substituted in their place the brighter torch of the Word of God. In vain did the frightened canons allege the authority of the Church. "The authority of the Church," replied Kempe and Zechenhagen, the reformer of Hamburg, "cannot be acknowledged unless the Church herself obeys her pastor Jesus Christ."[106] Pomeranus visited many places to put a finishing hand to the Reform. [106] Evangelici auctoritatem Ecclesiæ non aliter agnoscendam esse contendebant quam si vocem pastoris Christi sequeretur.--(Seckend. i. p. 245.) In Franconia, the Margrave George of Brandenburg, having reformed Anspach and Bayreuth, wrote to his ancient protector, Ferdinand of Austria, who had knit his brows on hearing of his reforming proceedings: "I have done this by God's order; for he commands princes to take care not only of the bodies of their subjects, but also of their souls."[107] [107] Non modo quoad corpus, sed etiam quoad animam.--(Seckend. ii. p. 121.)