History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages;

ISTOirY OF Tl-il

GERMAN PEOPLE

HM

I J. ■ A 'Wi

fSf-

■f.'! > »

THE GERMAN PEOPLE

VOL. III.

Demy 8vo. 25s. per 2 Vols.

HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE at the

Close of the Middle Ages. By Johannes Janssen.

Vols. I. and II. Translated by M. A. Mitchell and
A. M. Chbistie.

Vols. III. and IV. Translated by A. M. Christie.

LONDON :
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. Ltd.

HISTORY OF THE
GERMAN PEOPLE
AT THE CLOSE OF
THE MIDDLE AGES

By Johannes Janssen

VOL. III.

TRANSLATED FROM THE
GERMAN BY A. M. CHRISTIE

LONDON
KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO. Ltd.

PATERNOSTER HOUSE, CHARING CROSS ROAD
lyoo

CONTENTS

OP

THE THIRD VOLUME

BOOK V

THE REVOLUTION PARTY AND ITS PROCEEDINGS
UP TO THE DIET OF WORMS IN 1521

CHAPTER PAOE

I. The Later German Humanism 1

A glance at the earlier humanists and the scholastic
theologians — Their attitude towards classical antiquity-,
3-8.

Erasmus of Rotterdam, leader and example of the later
humanists — His wanderings and outward circum-
stances — His relation to the Princes and nobles —
His behaviour to all his opponents, 8-12. Significance
of his literary activity — His attempts to blend
humanistic and theologic studies — His ' genuine
tlieology ' — ^Rationalistic interpretation of the Scriptures
— His attitude towards the Church and the different
fundamental dogmas of Christianity — His contempt of
the Christian learning of the Middle Ages— His educa-
tional theories and philosophy of life, 12-26.

Erasmus and the worship of genius, 26-27. The genius
and character of the later humanists — Productions
of the later humanists — A melancholy mixture of
Christian truth and pagan philosophy, 27-32.

Conrad Mutian and the Erfurt circle of humanists —
The older humanism at Erfurt, 32. Mutian's neologic
influence on the Erfurt humanists — ■ His views on
Christianity and the Bible — His contempt of the
Church and her sacred teaching — Immorality of the
new school — Mutian's cynicism, 33-38.

Opposition of the scholastic theologians and the monastic
clergy to the yoiinger humanism — Mutian and the
Erfurt humanists versus the Schoolmen, 38-44.

vi HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

TAGE

II. Thk PiEUCHLiN Controversy 44

Eeucblin and the Cabbala — His new theosophy — Criti-
cisms of the latter, 44-47. Controversy about the
Hebrew books — Pfefferkorn's writings against the
Jews — The Imperial mandate concerning the Jews'
books — Different opinions about them — Reuchlin's
' Augenspiegel,' 1511 — Importance of the controversy,
47-52.

The Cologne theologians, Arnold von Tungern, Collin,
and Hoogstraten, on the ' Augenspiegel ' — Reuchlin's
attacks on the Cologne theologians and Pfefferkorn — ■
The nature of his polemics — The Emperor orders the
suppression of the ' Augenspiegel ' — Condemnation of the
'Augenspiegel' by several Theological Faculties and the
chief Inquisitor, Hoogstraten — Reuchlin summoned
before the Pope, 52-61.

The younger humanists, on Reuchlin's side, make use of
the controversy to fight against scholasticism and
Church authority — Double-faced attitude of Miitian —
Infliience brought to bear on Reuchlin, especially
through Ulrich von Hutten, 61-65.

Hutten's character — His panegyrical poem on Albert,
Archbishop of Mayence — His acquaintance with
Erasmus, 65-69.

The ' Epistolae Virorum Obscurorum,' 1515-1517 — Their
nature and signiiicance — What the Cologne theolo-
gians said about them, 69-72.

Archbishop Albert's attitude towards the controversy —
The Archbishop's Electoral Court— Hutten at this
Court — Hutten's poetry of hatred and revenge, 63-66.

The Renaissance at the Courts of the Ecclesiastical
Princes of Germany — Its earlier manifestation at the
Court of Rome — Sale of indulgences — Building the new
Church of St. Peter's, 72-79.

III. Luther and Hutten 79

Luther's boyhood and early education — His student years
at Erfurt, and his connection with the humanists there,
79-83.
His cloister life — Distressing spiritual conflicts — His visit

to Rome, 83-86.
His new Gospel ; its origin and development — His posi-
tion outside the teaching of the Church as early as the
year 1515, 86-89.
■ His indulgence theses of 1517 — The deeper grounds of his
opposition — Tetzel on the sale of indulgences — Signifi-

CONTEXTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME Vll'

PAGE

III. cance of the indulgence controversy — Luther's utter-

ances concerning the new Gospel^ — Luther on the Pope
and the Roman Church, 89-97.

The Leipsic disputation of 1519 — Its purport and signifi-
cance, 97-99.

Luther's declaration that he is a Hussite, and that Huss
had proclaimed the true Gospel (similarity between
Luther and Huss), 99-100.

Luther's alliance with the younger humanists — His
letters to Mutian, Reuchlin, and Erasmus — He is
extolled by the Erfurt humanists as a new Hercules
and a second St. Paul — His adherents in Southern
Germany, 100-106.

Ulrich von Hutten on the Lutheran controversy — His
alliance with Franz von Sickingen — Plans for a politico-
clerical revolution — Sickingen's influence on the issue
of the Reuchlin controversy — Reuchlin ends by assum-
ing a decidedly orthodox attitude, 106-111.

Luther's alliance with Hutten, 1520 — Hutten intends to
break out with fire and sword — Luther joins himself to
the revolution party — The spirit and language of his
controversial writings — Contents and significance of his
' Address to the German Nobility,' 111-123.

Luther's summons to a war of religion — His confessions,
123-125.

Emser's apostrophe to Luther — His admonitions to the
German nation — He fears that Germany will be ruined,
as Bohemia was by Hussites, 125-129.

Luther sentenced by the Papal Bull, 1520 — His pamphlet
' On the Babylonish Captivity of the Church' — His new
marriage laws — His appeal to a General Council,
129-132.

Hutten's zealoiis revolutionary activity — His firebrand
writings against Rome — Luther on Hutten — Luther
burns the books of Canon Law and the Papal Bull
— He is depicted as a saint — Hutten writes to
Luther — Explains why he does not begin operations
— His repeated summons to a war of religion
— "Writes to Erasmus — Describes the Hussite leader,
Ziska, as the pattern of a liberator, 132-148.

Thomas Murner on ' The Downfall of Christian Faith ' —
What would be the results of a politico-clerical revolu-
tion— The Word of God abused for the promotion of
tumult and bloodshed — Murner against Luther's
'Address to the German Nobility" — His petition to
King Charles, 148-155.

viii HISTORY OF THE GEIJMAN I'EOPI,]']

BOOK VI

THE DIET OF WORMS AND THE PROGRESS OF
THE POLITICO-CLERICAL REVOLUTION UP TO
THE OUTBREAK OF THE SOCIAL REVOLUTION,
1521-1524

CHATTER PAliH

I. The Diet of Worms, 1521. Opinions on the New

Gospel .......... 156

Difficulty of King Charles V.'s situation— The mainspring
of his political activity — His coronation at Aix-la-
Chapelle — His conception of Imperialism — The corona-
tion oath, 156-lGl.

The Emperor's communications to tlie Estates at the
Diet of Worms — Transactions for the establishment of
a Beichsregunent — Powers of the latter — Transactions
for the restoration of the ReiclisTiammergericht
(Imperial Chamber) — Contention about defraying the
expenses of the Rcichsregiment and Kammergericlit,
161-168. An expedition to Rome to receive the
Imperial crown decided on — The Emperor's behaviour
with regard to the confederates, 168-171.

1\\e Papal Legate Aleander — His opinion on the condi-
tion of Germany and the new educational theories —
Erasmus for and against Luther at the same time —
His advice to the Elector Frederick of Saxony, 171-175.

Luther's attitude to the Church — The causes that pre-
vented a compromise with him and his reunion with
the Church, 175-178.

Ecclesiastical business at the Diet of Worms — Aleander' s
request to the Emperor and the Estates concerning
Luther — Declarations of the Estates — Luther cited to
Worms for trial — Efforts of the Imperial Father Con-
fessor, Glapion, to restore the peace of the Churcli —
Ecclesiastical reforms unanimously voted necessary —
The grievances of the German nation against the Coiu't
of Rome and the secular and monastic clergy — The
Emperor's attitude with regard to these questions,
178-185.

Fear of a tumult during the Diet — Hutten's threatening
letters to the Emperor, the Papal Legates, and the
ecclesiastical princes — The Emperor without an armed
escort — Aleander's reports on the situation of things,
185-188.

CONTENTS OF THE THIRD VOLUME IX

rlTAITET! PAGK

Luther's journey to Worms — Triumphal reception at
Erfurt by the humanists — His preaching there — His
first ' miracle,' 188-190.

Luther at the Diet — Hutten's letters to him — Threats of
a Bundscliuli — Transactions with Luther — Cochlaeus
proposes a public disputation — Luther's departure —
Pictures and coins in honour of him, 190-197.

Sentence on Luther— The Edict of Worms, 197-199.

Revolutionary storms — How the Emperor wards off the
revolution for the present, 199-200.

Contemporary oiiinions on Luther's undertaking — Letters
of Ulrich Zasius and Carl von Bodmann, 200-205.

Luther's verdict on himself and his work — His agonies of
conscience —His means for quieting them — His treat-
ment of his opponents— Pirkheimer, Pullinger, and
Zasius on Luther's manner of writing, 205-213.

11. The Populace inflamed by Preaching and the Press,

1521-1523 214

Comprehensive character of the sermons and pamphlets —
Eberlin von Giinzburg advocates the extirpation of the
monks and the abolition of the Catholic ritual by the
power of the sword — Is for pulling down churches —
His schemes for anew social organisation— How schools
should be organised, 214-221.

The so-called pamphlet of the Emperor Frederick III.,
221-223.

Preachers clamour for the abolition of tithes and interest
— Lay preachers— Karsthaus at Strasburg, 223-225.

The ' Neue Karsthaus ' — The peasants exhorted to side
with the nobility and exterminate the priests and
monks, after the example of Ziska, 225-227.

Thomas Murner's poem ' Vom grossen Lutherischen
Narren ' ( ' On the Great Lutheran Fool ' ) — Extracts
from other writings against the revolutionary disturb-
ances, 227-232.

Luther gives the tone to polemical literature — His remarks
on the clergy, the bishops, and the Universities — His
testimony to the people's love for the Established Church
— His statements concerning the Elector Frederick,
232-238.

Luther's teaching on the subject of vows — Baptism
should not be compulsory — There is no need to receive
the Sacrament — His mastery of language — His
pamphlet ' On the Freedom of a Christian ' — On what

X HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

CHAPTER FAGE

gronnds he rejects several books of Scripture — His
translation of the Bible interdicted, 238-242.
Luther's New Year's greeting to the Pope in 1522 — The
manner in which he warns against tumult and insur-
rection— He is the mouthpiece of Christ, 242-245.

III. Revolutionary Agitation in Erfurt and "Wittenberg.

Beginnings of the Split in the Church, 1521-1522 24G

Rising of the Erfurt populace against the clergy — Mob
riots — Destruction of the University — Overthrow of
existing Church system— Behaviour of the new
preachers — Luther's former tutor, Usingen, on the
fruits of the new preaching, 246-250.

Expectations of the religious reformers from the Arch-
bishop of Mayence — His double-faced attitude, 250-252.

Distiirbances in Wittenberg — Extracts from the letters of
two students — Abolition of the Mass — Student riots —
The clergy begin to marry — New prophets in Zwickau
— One of the latter interviews Melanchthon in Witten-
berg— Their verdict on Luther — Carlstadt preaches
iconoclasm (Emser's pamphlet on the worship of
images), 252-259.

State of affairs in the Electorate of Saxony — -Warnings of
Duke George of Saxony — The Elector Frederick on the
multitude of sects, 259-262.

Luther at Wittenberg — His sermons on the restoration
of tranquillity — No inclination towards the new Gospel
among the country folk of Saxony, 262-264.

Luther insists that salvation is only to be found in his
doctrine — The consequences of this teaching — His
remarks on the Emperor and several of the Princes —
He prophesies a civil war — Declares all the clergy
who do not believe in his Gospel outside the pale of
justice and law — Clamours for the extermination of
"bishops, 264-275.

IV. Franz von Sickingen's Attempt to Overturn the Con-

stitution OF the Empire, 1.522-152.3 .... 276
The position of the free nobility menaced by the growing
power of the Princes — Complaints on this subject —
Impoverishment of the lesser nobility — Proletariate
nobility and Robber Knights — Hans Thomas von Abs-
berg, 276-280.
Plans of the revolutionary nobles — Butzer on Sickingen's
and Hutten's zeal for the new Gospel — Hartmr:t von
Cronberg's ' missive ' for the new Gospel— Hutten's

CONTE^sTS OF THE TIIIED VOLUME xi

CHAPTER PAGE

predatory existence and cruel ill-treatment of defence-
less clergymen — His appeal to the Free Cities to unite
with the nobility in the cause of the new Gospel,
280 283.

Sickingen arms against the Archbishop of Treves — His
challenge to a war of religion — His invasion of the
diocese — Intends to make himself Archbishop of
Treves — Fear of an alliance between him and the
people — Position of Albert, Archbishop of Mayence —
Endeavours to secularise ecclesiastical principalities —
Failure to take Treves — Sickingen burns down churches
and cloivsters, 283-291.

Sickingen' s raid against the Palatinate — Troops levied
for him in Germany and Bohemia — His friends in the
Reiclisregiment — Sues for help from King Francis I.
of France — Far-reaching plans, 291-293.

Luther's opinion of the Princes and their tyranny — Duke
George of Saxony and the Bavarian Chancellor, Leon-
hard von Eck, on Luther's writings — Intrigues of Duke
Ulrich von Wiirtemberg — Communistic agitations
among the people, 293-298.

Campaign of the allied Princes of Treves, Hesse, and the
Palatinate against Sickingen — Bombardment of Land-
stuhl — Sickingen's defeat — Contemporary opinions
about him — Despondency of the adherents of the new
Gospel, 298-302.

Hutten's last days — Coiints on help from Erasmus in his
misfortunes — Ignoble behaviour of Erasmus — Hutten's
pamphlet ' Against the Tyrants ' — His death, 302-307.

Consequences of the defeat of Sickingen and his party,
307-308.

V. The Reichsregiment and the Diets of 1522-1523 . . 309
Opening of the Reichsregiment and first Diet at Nurem-
berg— The Turkish danger — A campaign against the
Turks decided on, 309 312.
Second Diet at Nuremberg — Contentions among the
Deputies — Grievances of the cities against the Princes,
the nobility, and the clergy— Answer of the Princes —
The town delegates refuse help for the Turkish war —
Will wait to contribute till the Turks invade Germany
itself, 312 317.
Scheme for a general import duty on goods which are not
necessaries of life— Disputes on the matter between
the Deputies, 317 319.

Xll IIISTOIIY OF THE GERMAN PEOrLE

CHAI'TEB FAGK

Behaviour of the Eeichsregiinent in ecclesiastical
matters — Elector Frederick of Saxony and Luther's
cause, 319-322.

Pope Adrian VI. 's friendly and open dealings at the
Diet at Nuremberg — Programme of reform — Opinions
about the Pope — Opinion of a 8ub-Committee of the
Eeichsregiment concerning the proposals of the Pope —
Decision of the States anent these proposals — Ho^jes of
maintaining the unity of the Church, 322-331.

YI. Continued Politico-Religious Agitations — Decay of

Intellectual and Philanthropic Life . . . 382

Violation of the Reichstagsabschied of the Diet of Nurem-
berg— Luther's fresh writings — His judgment on Adrian
VI. — His appeal to the Knights of the Teutonic Order —
He declares it impossible that vows should be kept — His
preaching on conjugal life — His proceedings at Witten-
berg in defiance of the commands of the Elector of
Saxony — Luther on Miracles — Luther and Melanchthon's
intei-j^retation of signs and portents — Luther predicts
great changes in Germany, 332-342.

Pamphlets of 1523-1524 by Cochlaeus, Emser, Dieten-
berger, and others against Luther and the new Gospel —
Emser's warnings and exhortations to the Germans,
342-354.

Fruits of the religious disturbances : decline of the
Universities — Contempt of learning and culture — Decline
of the book trade, 354-363. Decline of the national
schools, and Luther's mission on the subject, 363-366.
Luther on the benevolence of the past — Disappearance
of the spirit of self-sacrifice for the ideal good of life,
366-370.

HISTOEY

OF

THE GBEMAN PEOPLE

AT THE CLOSE OF THE MIDDLE AGES

BOOK V

CHAPTEE I

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM

The later school of German humanism, essentially
different from the earlier one, both in its character and
its methods, was responsible for a revolution fraught
with far-reaching results in the world of thought and
intellect.

The earlier humanists had contemplated classical
antiquity from the point of view of absolute faith in
Christianity, and they had pressed the classics into
the service of their creed. They valued the works of
the ancient writers for the deeply religious nature of
the ideas embodied in them ; thev reofarded them as
echoes of primseval inspiration ; but they were at the
same time decided and active opponents of mere pagan
systems of thought and life. They studied antiquity in

VOL. in. B

2 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

a scientific spirit of exhaustive research, and they justi-
fied their incorporation of pagan materials into their
systems of culture on the plea that these classic works
were an indispensable groundwork of scholarship, a
splendid means of mental gymnastic training for form-
ing independent judgment and sharpening the intellect
for the apprehension and presentation of truth. By the
profounder knowledge they acquired of the intellectual
life of the ancient world, they hoped to facilitate the
understanding of the Scriptures and to put fresh life and
reality into the contemporary systems of philosophical
and theological study. It was this motive that had
inspired the unwearied labours of Nicholas of Cusa and
his pupil Agricola in their efforts to graft the study of
classic literature on the German university curriculum ;
that had led Alexander Hegius to make the classics the
groundwork of education, and Jacob Wimpheling to
write his epoch-making works. ' It is not the study of
the heathen writers in itself which is dangerous to
Christian culture,' said the latter, ' but the false appre-
hension and handling of them. It would undoubtedly
be absolutely fatal if, as is often the case in Italy, by
means of the classics, pagan ways of thought and life,
prejudicial to pure Christian morality and the patriotic
spirit of the rising generation, were spread abroad, or
were to creep into the teaching of our writers and
poets. ^ But, on the other hand, a legitimate use of the
ancient writers might render the most invaluable
services to Christianity and learning. Had not the
Fathers of the Church themselves derived the greatest
help in their explanations of Scripture from the study

1 The dangers in this respect from the Italian humanists were fully
recognised by Wimpheling ; see Wiskowatoff, p. 67.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 3

of these profane writers, and had they not in consequence
recommended them to the veneration of Christian
students? ' St. Gregory Nazienzen,' he went on to say,
' had described the opponents of classic study as the
enemies of true learning,^ and Pope Gregory the Great
had shown conclusively that classic study was a useful
preparation and an indispensable aid to the understand-
ing of theology.'

For the same reason the leading theologians of the
fifteenth century, Heynlin von Stein, Gregory Eeisch,
Geiler of Kaisersberg, Gabriel Viel, Johannes Trithemius,
had been zealous advocates and promoters of the
labours of the Christian humanists.

' With a good conscience,' says Trithemius, ' we can
recommend the study of the ancient writers to all such
as do not make use of them in a worldly spirit for
mere intellectual sport, but for the serious cultivation
of their mental powers, and who, after the example of
the Fathers of the Church, seek to cull from them good
fruit for the nourishment of Christian scholarship.'

All these theologians, who were the chief expositors
of contemporay scholasticism in Germany, set them-
selves strongly against the pernicious habit of word-
splitting and subtle dialectical niceties which had been
in vogue since the fourteenth century and had led
to the gradual degeneration of Christian scholarship,
and which still prevailed to a great extent in theological
literature and in the pulpits. They were also zealous
denouncers of the barbarous Latin which figured so
largely in theological writings and lectures. 'This
Latin,' saidGeilerof Kaisersberg, 'is uncouth and wanting

^ See the admirable work of Daniel, Des Etudes Classiques dans la
SocieU.

4 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

in force : it is a wretched mongrel language, neither
Latin nor Grerman, but a barbarous compound of both.'
' Is it necessary,' asked Wimpheling, ' to carry on
unedifying contentions on the most trivial questions in
order to be a thorough and orthodox teacher of
theology ? Is it essential for this purpose to use an
unfamiliar and even repulsive language? Did the
Fathers of the Church and the great theologians of the
earlier centuries carry on contentions of this sort,
entangle themselves in the most hair-splitting casuistical
distinctions, and speak in such a barbarous tongue ? '

The pioneers of progressive reform in the fifteenth
century based their labours on the standpoint of the
great theologians of the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries ; in especial they set up Thomas Aquinas,
' the angel of the School,' once more as a beacon light.

Besides the encouragement they gave to humanist
philological learning they were anxious also to connect
with the study of theology that of natural science and
physics, which had lately come into fashion ; above all
they aimed at infusing life and reality into traditional
systems of theology by the study of the Bible and the
Fathers of the Church. They earnestly recommended
all theologians to study the Bible and the writings of
the Fathers, and while by no means advocating the
abolition of the customarv scholastic methods, which
they admired for the force and definiteness of their
logical and dogmatic formulas, they wished to see
them liberated from the dead formality which had
encrusted them.

In endeavours of this kind the older humanists —
themselves men of erudite scholarship and fully aware
of the value of this scholarship both for the cause of

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 5

theology and the training of the intellect — went hand
in hand with the theologians. In the year 1510
Wimpheling brought out a work ' For the Defence of
Scholastic Theology,' which may be regarded as the
programme of the whole humanist region of the Upper
Ehine/ And all his associates in the humanist cause
were as zealously opposed as he was himself to a one-
sided handling of classical antiquity, and to the deprecia-
tion of the great services rendered by theologians and
philosophers in the better periods of the Middle Ages.
They ranked these services as high as did Pico of
Mirandola, who makes the scholars and divines say of
themselves, 'We shall live, not in the schools of
pedants, but in the circles of the wise, who are not
concerned about the mother of Andromache, or the
sons of Niobe, but with the deeper realities of things
human and Divine.'^

It was not only ecclesiastical scholarship, however,
but the general culture of the nation as well which,
according to the older humanists, would be improved
and elevated by study of the Greek and Latin classics.
It is noteworthy in this respect that the Brethren of
the Common Life, who by their schools and didactic
writings did more than any educationalists for the spread
of classical teaching, laboured also the most zealously for
the improvement of their native language and of Ger-
man poetry, both by reducing to writing existing poetry

1 See Wiskowatoff, p. 154.

~ Bnrckhsirdt, Benaissance, p. 167. Feugere (p. 208) quotes an interest-
ing criticism of tlie French philosopher Victor Cousin on the scholastics.
' II est impossible d'avoir plus d'esprit que les scholastiques, de deployer
plus de finesse, plus d'harmonie, plus de ressources dans Targiunenta-
tion, plus de cette analyse ingenieuse qui divise et subdivise, plus de cette
synthese puissante qui classe et ordonne.'

6 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

and by composing new songs and epigrams of a religious
and didactic nature. Agricola, the actual founder of
the older school of humanism, wrote German songs
and insisted that the Latin historians should be trans-
lated and expounded in German with the threefold
object of ' instructing the people in history, encou-
raging them to read their own language, and per-
fecting that language.'

Sebastian Brant, another leading humanist of this
period, was the founder of a new epoch in German
literature, and so closely did he associate himself with
the welfare of the people that with all his distinguished
scholarship he did not think it beneath him to translate
a prayer-book for popular use.

The development of national historiography and
the concomitant improvement of German prose-writing
were thus among the important results of the labours of
the older humanists.

Wimpheling quotes, with full concurrence, the
saying of Geiler of Kaisersberg ' that every man,
though he should know all s]3oken languages, must
prize above others the one which he learnt from his
parents, and in which, in his youth, he was instructed in
Christian lore.' To him personally, he said, it seemed
monstrous that learned men should carry prejudice to
such an extent as to say that the German mother
tongue was fit only for old wives, sailors, and jDcasants.
' What other language,' said the monk Felix Fabri in
his enthusiasm, ' was as noble and as human as
German ? ' ^

With one and all of these older humanists, in
short, we find that all their scholastic and literary

^ J. Fabri, Evagatorium, iii. 449.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 7

activity and all their reform labours were coloured
and inspired by a strong national and religious spirit.
One and all recognised and fought against the deep
and grievous abuses of the Church : plurality of
benefices ; limitation of the higher Church dignities to
the families of the nobles ; ecclesiastical greed of
gold and territory ; the draining of the national
resources by the rapacious extortions of the Papal
See ; the scandalous profligacy which characterised
so large a part of both the secular and the regular
clergy ; the luxury and debauchery in the palaces of so
many of the ecclesiastical princes ; all mercenary traffic
in sacred things, all merely hypocritical show of piety ;
all purely mechanical performance of religious rites.

The older humanists were men with a real vocation
for reform ; belief in the truth and holiness of Chris-
tianity and the Church was part and parcel of their
existence, and their earnest, devout lives, and their
fidelity to the Church's rules and precepts, were in
perfect accord with their convictions. In their clerical
and political opinions they stood firmly on the ground of
the Middle Ages, and they represented collectively the
mediseval attitude towards Popedom and Imperialism.
The subjugation of the Turks and the restoration of
Christianity to its dominion over the world seemed to
them the hicyhest and worthiest human aim, and their
entire love and devotion, in spite of the then weakness
of Imperialism, was given to the Eoman Emperor
of the German nation, whom all nations of the
earth, as they held, were bound to honour, and whose
exalted office it was to be Protector of the Church. ^

1 See the more detailed notices of the earlier humanists and theo-
logians in the first volume of this work.

8 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Fundamentally different from these older or
Christian humanists was the school of younger
humanists, whose actual founder and chief repre-
sentative was Erasmus of Eotterdam.^

Desiderius Erasmus, of Rotterdam, born under the
most unhappy circumstances, left an orphan in early
youth, and deprived of his inheritance by fraudulent
guardians, took the monastic vow, without any inward
call, at the Augustinian monastery of Stein, in the
neighbourhood of Gouda, and ever after cherished a
deep grudge against the ordinances of the Church.
In the year 1491 he forsook the monastery, and for the
next ten years wandered about the world restless and
dissatisfied, declaring his intention now of settling
in England, now in France, now in Italy, now
in the Netherlands, now in Burgundy ; even Poland
and Spain were on the list of countries in which, in
turn, he intended to end his days. At an early date
in his career we meet with complaints of religious
laxity on his part. We read that ' that distinguished
scholar Erasmus, although a priest, never reads the
Holv Mass, seldom even hears it ; that he considers
the Breviary prayers ridiculous, and inveighs openly
and unsparingly against the Church's fasts and rules

^ Erasmian literature has of late received important additions from the
admirable biographical and literary works of Durand de Laur (1872), R.
B. Drummond (1873), and Feugere (1874) .... see also F. Neve, 'Erasme
d'apres sesNouveaux Historiens,' in the Bevue Catliol. 2^ ser. t. xiii, 1875,
and Rother, ' La Vie et les Travaux d'Erasme consideres dans leurs Rap-
ports avec la Belgique,' in Les Mem. Couronnees ^jar VAcad. Boy. de
Belgique, 1855 .... For an account of Erasmus's sojourn in Italy see the
Monographie of Molhac (Paris, 1888) and the English Historical Beview
(1895), X. 642-662.

(For further works on Erasmus mentioned by Dr. Janssen see the
above note in full in the original German, 17th and 18th ed., vol. ii.
p. 7. — Translator's Note.)

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 9

of abstinence, as against an intolerable yoke ; ' ' that
he gives all the greater cause of offence by such
conduct because he is such a learned scholar, and has
such great influence over the young,' and that by his
example he preaches the doctrine ' that for men of
learning the rules of the Church are superfluous and
even contemptible.' When the prior of his Order
pressed him to return to the monastery Erasmus
answered that he was neither physically nor intel-
lectually fitted for monastic life ; that monasteries had
formerly tended to the salvation of the world, but that
now, on the contrary, they were the cause and origin
of all the prevalent corruption. Christianity and re-
ligion, he said, were not bound up with any particular
order or way of life ; the whole world, according to
Christ's teaching, was one great family — one great
cloister, one might almost say. The journeyings of a
Solon, a Pythagoras, a Plato, were just as meritorious
as the seclusion of a monk. The apostles, St. Paul
especially, had also travelled about the world ; he,
Erasmus, would be made welcome in every region of
the earth ; every country would receive him hospitably.
As to his own general character and morals, he enter-
tained very cheerful views. Familiar intercourse with
wise men, so he wrote to the prior, had made him a
better man ; avarice was not his weak point ; of ambition
he had not a spark ; it was true that he had yielded to
the temptation of sinful lusts, but he had never become
a slave to them ; drunkenness and debauchery were
antagonistic to his nature.

From vices of this last description, indeed, even had
he not always shunned all that was outwardly coarse
in hfe, he would have been hindered by his dehcate

10 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

physique and weakly constitution. His most ardent
admirers, however, never described him as a stauncli
ascetic ; on the contrary, many of them were inchned to
think that it was indulgence in the strong wines he was
so fond of which was the cause of his frequent attacks
of stone. As for his contempt for money, of which he
boasts so often, he certainly did not covet riches for
their own sake, but he held firmly to the opinion that
a wise and circumspect man ought to get and to keep
as much money as would enable him to bear cheerfully
every reverse of fortune and all hardshijDS. He con-
trived always to make the acquisition of an income as easy
to himself as possible. He considered the alms-begging
of the Mendicant Friars as unworthy of the dignity of
free human beings ; and he refused as an intolerable
burden, incompatible with his independence, any post
which would have imposed definite duties on him and
restricted to him to a definite income. But at the same
time he did not think it beneath his dignity to cringe
with the basest flattery before prelates, princes, and
nobles, in order to wheedle out of them yearly allow-
ances or gifts of money ; or to procure the substan-
tial gratitude of the wealthy by laudatory dedications.
Not the fiercest denunciation brought on himself by
such behaviour could deter him from this method of
increasing his income, and he managed his pecuniary
affairs so advantageously that in course of time he
was able to spend 600 ducats yearly, a sum which,
considering the value of money at that time, was
quite out of the ordinary ; and out of an almost royal
treasury of gold and silver goblets and valuable coins
and medals he left property to the value of not less
than 7,000 ducats. ' My cupboards,' he writes, ' are

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 11

filled with presents of exquisitely wrought goblets,
plates, spoons, and clocks, some of them of solid gold,
aud rings innumerable.'

Literary toadying of princes and distinguished
people in order to win from them favour or gifts, and
the odious habit of prefixing to the most trumpery
writings flattering dedications addressed to patrons,
became quite common among the younger school of
humanists through the example of Erasmus. And from
their leader also these ' younger ' humanists contracted
that vanity and self-conceit which were so marked in
Erasmus during his youth, and which clung to him
through life.

This over-estimate of himself was fostered by the
panegyrics showered on him in early manhood, and it
blinded him to such an extent that he came to regard
his own opinion on all things in heaven and earth as
unanswerable, and invariably gave way to irritability
and temper when his judgment was in any way dis-
puted or his writings met with censure and opposition.

His talent for fulsome flattery was shown in in-
numerable cases, especially during the later period of
his life, to be thoroughly matched by a capacity for
malignant spite against adversaries, on whom he
dehghted to heap insult after insult.^ He met all
attacks on himself not only by completely ignoring,
but with intentional disregard for, the truth; and
used any weapon that came handy to annihilate

» Amongst the worst specimens of his flattering letters is one to Pope
Leo X., of whom he saj^s, amongst other things, ' Qui quanto ceteri
mortales pecudibus anteceUunt, tanto ipse mortales universos maj estate
superat,' &c. With regard to his flattery we find it diSicult to agree with
R. B. Drummond where he says (ii. 345), ' His letters in this respect are
models of good taste.'

12 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

his opponents both as men and as writers. Even
the printers of writings hostile to himself were made
to suffer from his vindictiveness. For instance, he
denounced as a raging dragon and a consummate
scoundrel the Strasburg printer Schott, from whose
press a pamphlet unfriendly to himself had been
issued ; he declared Schott's offence to be worse than
a theft, a murder, or an act of adultery. Whoever
presumed to oppose or gainsay him was, in his eyes,
an evil-doer against whom he was entitled to the help
of magisterial force.

Among the Italian humanists the habit of calumny
had long been the fashion ; Erasmus, by his behaviour,
did much to introduce the practice into Germany,
and to cause it to be considered reasonable and
honourable. The saying of Laurentius Balla became a
by-word in Germany : ' Fighting may be disgraceful,
but to yield to an enemy is still more so.' In one
point Erasmus even went beyond his Italian models.
The latter reviled and insulted each other mercilessly,
but they refrained from the pious phraseology with
which Erasmus wrapt a cloak of sanctity around
him after plunging a dagger into the heart of an
adversary.

Erasmus exercised an enormous influence on his
times. ^

The extent and variety of his knowledge in almost
every branch of contemporary learning, his untiring
activity in all directions, his consummate mastery and

^ An influence which can only be compared with that of Voltaire in
the eighteenth century. Erasmus has, indeed, been called the Voltaire
of the Renaissance ; but the dark side of his counterpart was undoubtedly
of a blacker shade.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM IS

artistic treatment of the Latin language, and the variety
and richness of his style were equalled by few. He was^
a man of swift and universal perception, and of keen,
incisive speech. The essential significance of the man
lay in his remarkable versatility, by means of which
he concentrated in himself, as in a burning focus, the
most various aspects and tendencies of literature. He
brouo'ht out fresh editions of the Latin and transla-
tions of the Grreek classics, fresh editions and fresh
expositions of the Bible, and produced original treatises
in every branch of literature — philosophy, theology,
education, satire, &c.

But he was altogether wanting in intellectual depth,
and he seldom applied himself to exhaustive research.
He frequently said of himself that he ' poured out ' rather
than ' worked out ' his thoughts, and that it was much
easier to him to write a book straight off than to read
it through and improve it after it was written. Hence
his frequent contradictions of himself, and the many
inaccurate and superficial statements which his enemies
justly criticise. He handled with masterly skill the
weapons of scorn, irony, and malicious satire, in
which he modelled himself on his earliest favourite,
Lucian. Manly dignity, warmth of feeling, self-sacri-
fice, love of his country and his Church appear as
little in his writings as in his life. It was his over-
estimate of the infinite importance of his personality
which gave weight to his work and was the secret
of his immense influence. In a satirical dialogue
of the time we read that ' Erasmus was as small —
indeed, much smaller — in his character than in his
person.'

He pursued his travels through England, Italy,

14: HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

France, and other countries, in the spirit of a mere
book-student, never as an observer of national hfe.
He even closed his mental pores against the chance
admission of any influences from the living surround-
ings he came in contact with. He boasted that he
understood as little of Italian as of Hindi, and was
also quite ignorant of German, French, and English.
In order to keep intact the purity and delicacy of his
perfect Latin, and to latinise his whole mode of
thought, he repudiated every living tongue as base
and pernicious.

In this matter also he was taken as model by the
younger German humanists, who, in opposition to the
older humanists, despised and ridiculed their mother-
tongue, and called it barbarous and old-fashioned.

But while Erasmus in his arrogant, self-satisfied
scholasticism held himself wholly apart from the
nation in life, thought, and sympathy, he had no
scruples whatever about ridiculing and travestying the
earnest piety of the people. He represented as
childish superstition the religious belief which his
sceptical, light-minded nature was incapable of under-
standing ; but at the same time he was himself so
superstitious that he tried to discover from astro-
logical horoscopes the reasons why his own times were
so addicted to controversy.^

Erasmus's own account of the actual object of

1 See his letters, O^j. iii. 405, 427, ep. 380, 405. In a letter of May 29,
1527 (Op. iii. 983, ep. 868) he praises the skill of the astrologers 'qui ex
astris norunt sibi dies et horas fortunatas eligere.' It was the same also
with the Italian Humanists, who the more they let go of a living Chris-
tian faith became the more a prey to all manner of superstitious. See
Burckardt, Renaissance, pp. 410-422 ; Pastor, Oeschichte der Piipste,
iii. 107.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 15

his labours was that he wished in every possible way
to promote the study of classical literature, art, and
philosophy, and, by connecting classical study with the
study of theology, to win for the former the approbation
of the Christian world ; he wished also to assist in the
propagation of the ' Philosophy of Christ ' and the
restoration of true theology, making use, to this end,
of humanist studies and culture. But the theological
reform at which he aimed was not to consist only
in forms of language and systems of instruction, but
was to embrace also the inward spirit and substance ;
humanistic rhetoric was to supersede speculative re-
search, and the hard and fast limits of dogmatic teach-
ing to give way to elastic and liberal methods. ' If we
wish to attain peace and unity,' he said, ' we must have
as few dogmatic definitions as possible, and in many
things we must allow each individual to exercise his
free, independent judgment.' ^

And to the service of this ideal, elastic, adaptable
theology of his he brought language so elastic also,
so infinitely flexible and accommodating, so susceptible
of being variously interpreted according to individual
taste, that people of all creeds and no creed, of the
most positive as well as the most negative minds,
catholics, heretics, and nationalists, by one watchword
or another, could all point to him as their guide or
authority.

Luther was perfectly justified in saying of his
shifty, slippery, equivocating language, ' If we think

' See R. Blackley Drummond's Life of Erasmus, ii. 182. Erasmus
vaunts his undertaking with the words, ' Theologiaixi nimium ad so-
phisticas argutias delapsam ad fontes ac priscam simplicitatem revocare
conatus sum ... ad puriorem Christianismum orbem ceremoniis pene
Judaicis indormientem expergefeci ' (Op. iii. 1727, app. ep. 345).

16 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

that he has said an immense deal he has in reaUty
said nothing ; for all his words can be twisted and
turned whichever way one likes.' ^ He busied him-
self with theological questions more for his own profit
than for the sake of truth, religion, and the Church.
His want of firm, unalterable convictions was on a par
with his want of courage. ' I make provision for ray
own peace of mind, and hold myself, as far as possible,
neutral.' He acknowleged, indeed, that out of polite-
ness and to avoid disputation he spoke in equivocal
and feigned language, and he was of opinion that the
masses can only be kept within the limits of duty by
beincf now and then deceived with falsehoods.

He protested loudly and solemnly that he would
never separate himself from the Catholic Church, but
long before Luther he cast doubt on the Divine
appointment of the Pope and spoke in false or
equivocal terms about other dogmas.^

Albertus Pius, Prince of Carpi, wrote to him once
as follows : ' All people who penetrate into the spirit
of your writings, without being dazzled and blinded
by their beauty of style and richness of language (for
indeed there are many who forget the kernel in the
beauty of the shell), will be indignant when they dis-
cover that firmly established doctrines have long since
been questioned by you, that you have robbed the
holy sacraments of their sacred character, and even

^ See Hess, ii. 453. ' Le oui et le non, le pour et le contre se heiirtent
dans ses ecrits,' says Durand de Laur (ii. 546) with justice. ' Comme
ecrivain religieux trois choses lui ont manque : la fermete et la vivacite
de la foi, la rigueur de I'esprit theologique, les elans du mysticisnie
Chretien qui ravissent I'ame et I'unissent a Dieu ' (ii. 561).

2 See E. B. Drummond, i. 319-322 and ii. 162, 182-186, 310 ; Feugere,
pp. 236-240.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 17

impugned the honour of the Pontifical Chair. They
will think differently of you when they realise with
what little reverence you speak of holy things, and how
you insult the monks and ridicule their institutions
and ordinances. You have audaciously asserted that
in olden times the papal power was neither recognised
nor exercised, that bishops had no higher rank than
the rest of the clergy, and that marriage was not
included among the actual sacraments. How ill-
judged was it of you to extol the married state at the
expense of celibacy, to find fault with the Church
liturgy and ritual, to speak with contempt of rehgious
ceremonies and institutions as mere human inven-
tions, and so forth ! Have you not thus encouraged
frivolous and light-minded people to think that all
these ordinances have no intrinsic power and are utterly
worthless? Have you not by such inconsiderate
utterances brought contempt on the whole edifice of
religion ? ' Melanchthon stigmatises Erasmus as the
actual originator of the controversy which arose later
on about the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper. Al-
though this is undoubtedly a false charge, it cannot
be denied that several of his intimate friends, such
as Wolfgang Fabricius Capito, Conrad Pelicanus,
and others, came forward in later vears as followers ^
of Zwingli, and that Zwingli was himself a personal
admirer of Erasmus.

Erasmus did, however, seriously propose a re-
vision of the doctrines laid down by the early
Church. He was inclined to look upon the trans-
actions, the controversies, and the doctrinal decisions
of the christological period as the first step in the
continuous deterioration of the Church. The Church

VOL. 111. c

18 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

had since then, he considered, departed from her
' ancient evangeHcal simplicity ; ' theology had become
subservient to a casuistical philosophy, which in its
turn had degenerated into the scholastic methods by
which the actual ruin of Christian doctrine and Christian
life had been brought about. During the whole of
his literary career he waged war against this barren
scholasticism with an acrimony that had no parallel, and
its representatives were a butt for his ridicule and con-
tempt. Ever since the dominion of this scholasticism
had set in, the whole western world, he declared, had
been subject to a spirit of Judaism and Pharisaism
which had crushed the true life of Christianity and
theology and perverted it to mere monastic sanctity
and empty ceremonialism.

The contempt for the Middle-Ages as for a period of
darkness and spiritual bondage, of sophistry in learn-
ing, and mere outwardness in life and conduct, origi-
nated with Erasmus and his school, and was transmitted
by them to the later so-called reformers. But, thanks
to the high esteem in which Erasmus was held for his
culture and scholarship, his ironical and calumnious
writings against mediaeval culture, and against the
influence of the Church and the traditions of Christian
schools, passed for a long time unchallenged.

His most influential production in this respect
was the ' Praise of Folly,' which made its first appear-
ance in 1509, and within a few months went through
seven editions. In this satire Folly, personified, comes
on the scene reciting her own panegyric. She boasts
of all the services she has rendered humanity, enu-
merates them seriatim^ and extols the very things which
deserve to be censured as errors or abuses.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 19

When the Prince of Carpi brought against Erasmus
the reproach that from the poisonous seed scattered
throughout this satire the most pernicious fruits had
grown, the reproof was not provoked by the attacks
the autlior had made on the flagrant abuses in the
Church — on plurality of benefices, warrior prelates, or
superstition in Church ceremonies — but by the fact that
Erasmus had taken up arms against the institution
itself which had thus become corrupted by abuses.
The language of Erasmus, moreover, breathed none of
the sincere sorrow of a Sebastian Brant, or a Geiler of
Kaisersberg, but only scorn and derision, and in its
reckless mingling of things sacred and profane, often
descended to wantonness and blasphemy.

The ' Praise of Folly ' may almost be called a y
prologue to the great theological tragedies of the
sixteenth century.^

In this satire the piety of the people is made to
appear corrupt to the very core, their whole religion
as a travesty of Christianity, and scholastic divinity
as a caricature of biblical theology ; whilst the attacks
on the Pope are so virulent as to have left little or
nothing to be said by later enemies of papacy.

No writer of former times ever brought reverence
for the Chair of St. Peter to such a low ebb as did
Erasmus, none ever mocked Hol}^ Writ by such bur-
lesque treatment.

Nevertheless he professed the highest veneration
for the Bible as the source of Christian faith, and
urged that theology, if it was to be restored to

' Fengere, p. 341 ; see Pennington, Erasmus (London, 1875), p. 77.

c2

20 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

soundness, must be subjected again to the test of the
Scriptures. All nations of the earth must have the
Bible put into their hands. ' I wish that even the
weakest woman should read the Gospel — should read
the Epistles of Paul,' he said in the year 1516 in his
preface to his edition of the New Testament — ' and 1
wish that they were translated into all languages and
read by Scotchmen and Irishmen, by Turks and
Saracens ; I long that the husbandman should sing-
portions of them to himself as he follows the plough,
that the weaver should hum them to the tune of his
shuttle, that the traveller should beguile with their
stories the tedium of his way.'

To read the Scriptures, he said, was the first step
towards understanding them, and granting that many
might turn them into ridicule, some at any rate would
be won over by them.

It was unjust that the lessons of faith should be the
exclusive property of those whom the masses sum up
under the names of theologians and monks, and who
form the smallest part of the Christian population,
while many of them do not even deserve the name of
Christian. Free study of the Scriptures, such as the
Bohemian Brothers enjoyed when the authority of the
Church was overthrown, was already advocated by
Erasmus in 1511. When the Brothers presented him
with one of the formulas of their creed, which they had
drawn up according to the new interpretation of the
Bible, he congratulated them on their accurate know-
ledge of truth. ' As far as he had read in this book,'
he said, ' he thoroughly approved of it, and he felt sure
that the remainder must be equally satisfactory.' But
he could not be induced to give the Brothers the

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 21

public assurance they wished for of his agreement with
them. ' With their enemies,' he argued, ' such testi-
mony would be of no use to them, while his own
writings would be in danger from such a step, and
would be taken out of the hands of the people by
papal authority, to the great prejudice of enlightened
religion. It was expedient, therefore, for the general
good that he should not give his testimony publicly, but
should preserve his authority and prestige unimpaired.'
His own interpretation of the Scriptures was a thoroughly
rationalistic one. He insisted on an intellectual, a
literary, or, as he expressed it, an allegorical met]iod of
explaining the Bible stories. His allegorical interpre-
tation, however, was very far removed from the
orthodox mystic significance which the early Fathers
often delighted to attach to the Bible stories, but
which always recognised the sacredness and divinity
of the simple word-sense. Erasmus explained the
Scriptures much in the same way as he would explain
mythological fables and sagas, not according to the
literal meaning of the words, but according to the
general truths and ' morals ' hidden behind the narra-
tives. In his ' Handbook of a Soldier of Christ ' ^ he
writes thus : *• If you read in an unallegorical sense that
Adam's body was made of clay and a soul breathed
into it ; that Eve was formed out of his rib ; that they
were forbidden to eat of the apple-tree ; that God took
a walk in the Garden of Eden ; that the guilty couple
hid themselves ; that an angel with a flaming sword was
placed at the gate of Paradise, so that Adam and Eve

^ The EncJiiridion of Erasmus. There is an English translation of
this entitled The Christian's Manual, by J. Spier. 2nd ed. London,
1752. — Translator.

22 HISTORY OF THE GEEMAN PEOPLE

might net go back again : if, I say, you read all this only
literally — on the surface, as it were — I do not see that
you have done more than in reading about the clay
statue which Prometheus made, and how he stole fire
from heaven and gave it to his image, so that the dust
became alive. There may, indeed, be greater profit in
reading the poetical fables of the heathens, if the alle-
gorical meaning is grasped, than in reading the Bible
stories, if we keep only to the literal sense. What
difference is there between the Books of Kings and
Judges and the history of Livy, if you leave out the alle-
gory ? For in Livy there is much that would tend to
the improvement of morals, while in these books of the
Bible there is much that is offensive — for example, the
intrigues of David, his act of adultery compassed by a
murder, the guilty love of Samson, and so forth.
Nearly all the books of the Old Testament moreover
are frequently objectionable, either from the obvious
absurdity of their narratives or from their enigmatical
obscurity. In the New Testament also obscurities
occur over and over again. In the passage where Jesus
is predicting the end of the world and the persecu-
tions the Apostles will undergo, he confuses and
contradicts his sayings to such an extent that it seems
to me he must have wished to make his meaning dark,
not only for the Apostles, but also for us. Many
passages are, in my opinion, inexplicable — for instance,
that about the unpardonable sin against the Holy
Ghost. Others can only be explained figuratively. By
the fire that is talked of in Scripture we must
understand the " fire of God's wrath " and the punish-
ment of God.' ' There is no other fiame in which that
rich man in the Gospel is tortured, and no other

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 23

punishment of hell than the mcessant soul torture
which attends the habit of sinninsr.'

' In his commentaries on the New Testament,' says
Dr. Johann Eck very truly, ' Erasmus presumes to set
right the Holy Ghost, who was the instructor of the
Apostles.' ' You say,' Eck writes to him, ' that the
Evangelists were mistaken. No Christian will ever
accept the theory of the Evangelists having made
mistakes. Far be it from us ever to suppose such a
possibility of men taught by the Holy Ghost, and by
Jesus our Saviour, of men who were the divinely
inspired founders of our faith. If in this point the
utterance of Holy Writ is not to be relied on, what
other part of it can be safe against suspicion of
error ? '

' That the writers of the Bible were on the whole
inspired by the Holy Ghost, and guided by divine
promptings, Erasmus did not deny, but he granted as
much as this to the great heathen writers and poets
who had taught such noble lessons, and whom he
considered worthy to stand side by side with the
sacred writers of the Christian Church.'

' Let the first place by all means,' he says in his
' Table Talk,' ' be s^ranted to the sacred writers, but for
all that I so constantly find in the pagan authors
passages so pure, so holy, so godlike, that I am
convinced that a divine spirit prompted the utterances
of these men. I cannot read Cicero's essays on old
age, on friendship, and on duty, or his ' Tusculanae,'
without sometimes being moved to kiss the volumes
and to bless the pious heart which must have been
inspired by the Deity. But when I hold in my hands
the moral writings of modern days, how cold they all

24 HTSTOEY OF THE GEEMAN PEOPLE

seem ! I can scarcely refrain from exclaiming : ' Holy
Socrates, pray for us. I often feel sure that Virgil and
Horace are saints in heaven. And if the pagans could
become saints, to what end is all this difficult Christian
asceticism, to what end the following of evangelical
counsel ? What profit is there in the institutions of the
Church, in fastings, in pilgrimages, and in other
devotional rites ? ' Christ, the all-perfect Teacher of
virtue and the loftiest of sages, who presented goodness
to us in utter purity, Christ, so Erasmus held, had not
enjoined fasting ; on the contrary, he had set himself
entirely in opposition to this and other kindred
regulations ; fasting was a human invention ; it was
even a form of tyranny.

The ' Philosophy of Christ,' for the promulgation of
which Erasmus desired to labour, was in substance no
more than the philosophy of a respectable moral man
who kept himself, as far as possible, blameless before
the world.

In his ' Table Talk,' which he had constantly in his
hands in his old age, and which he considered an im-
portant work for Christian education, the means towards
this education consist chiefly in the acquisition of fine
intellectual culture, in following the dictates of healthy
human understanding, and in making use of all
possible aids of human skill. ' Erasmus says and
i\ teaches many godless things in his " Table Talk "
under feigned names and characters,' says Luther ;
' above all he advocates war against the Church and
against Christian faith.' The ' Table Talk ' was specially
intended for the young, and nevertheless it contains the
most venomous ridicule of monks and of cloister life, of

THE LATER GEEMAN HUMANISM 25

fasts, pilgrimages, and so forth, and even pictures of
improper scenes. Erasmus could not even refrain
from coarse lasciviousness in some of his notes on
Holy Scripture. The moral of it all is that human
cleverness rules life, and views death, because it cannot
escape from it, with philosophic resignation. In a
treatise on the contempt of death, in which he seeks to
comfort a father for the loss of his twenty-year-old son,
he quotes various passages from pagan writers on the
shortness and misery of life, and amongst them the well-
known saying : ' The best of all is, never to have been
born ; the next best is to die at the moment of birth.'
' Who is there,' he asks, ' who could not with perfect
truth concur in this statement ? ' ' The wise man must
bear everything with the unflinching courage of cheer-
fulness : sorrow is of no profit to the dead, and is hurtful
to the living.' At the end of the treatise he gives a
so-called Christian view of death, introducing it with
the following words : ' After having had recourse
hitherto to the means of consolation which are at the
service of every pagan, I will now briefly state what
is required by religion and by Christian faith.' Here are
some of the sentences which we are to regard as
' Christian ' and ' pious : ' ' However terrible death may
be, we must make it welcome, for we can in no way
escape from it.' ' Even if death annihilated us com-
pletely we might still bear it with equanimity, because it
puts an end to the weariness of life.' ' If by death the
soul, with its ethereal origin, escapes from the coarse
prison and labour-house of the body, we may count
those happy and to be congratulated who escape
from life and return to a state of blissful freedom.'

t

26 mSTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Of Christ, the Giver of eternal Hfe, and of the hopes
oTOunded on Him, there is no mention in his treatise.^

Such was the ' new culture,' the ' Christian
Philosophy,' the ' new theology ' promulgated by
Erasmus the humanist, Erasmus for a long time
looked upon as the greatest intellectual light in the
Western world and as the centre of literary Europe.
His writings were bought up with unprecedented
enthusiasm, read and devoured with the greatest
avidity. He himself speaks of his having been
saluted as the ' champion of learning,' the " High Priest
of true theology,' ' the star of Germany.' When he
returned to Germanv from England in the autumn of
1513 his arrival was treated as a great and joyful
event, and celebrated as a universal festival for all
people of culture. In many towns he was received
almost as a king ; he was met by ambassadors ;
speeches were delivered, gifts and addresses presented to
him. Even Ulrich Zasius was so bewitched by the
brilliancy of his endowments, the versatility of his
culture, and the exquisiteness of his Latin, that he
declared him to be the greatest of all the scholars
Germany had ever possessed.

The whole generation of youthful enthusiasts for
classical learning were beside themselves with joy and
looked upon Erasmus as a saint.

' Thou incomparable man,' says the humanist
William Nesel in a letter to him, ' thou hast the power

' . . . Feugere (pp. 362-364), comparing the views of Erasmus with
those of Montaigne, saj'S : ' C'est deja I'esprit philosophique cherchant a
dissiper les terreurs religieuses des derniers instants de I'homme.
Erasme, comme plus tard Montaigne, n'est pas eloigne d'envier aux
anciens cette mort paisible a laquelle ils arrivaient sans chagrin dans uu
etat de somnolence confuse.'

THE LATER GEEMAN HUMANISM 27

to bestow immortality.' And another time Nesel de-
clared that he (Nesel) stood as far below the lowest of
scholars as Erasmus was high above the highest.
Humanists like Eobanus Hessus, Justus Jonas, Caspar
Schalbe made pilgrimages to the dwelling-place of
Erasmus ' through forest after forest,' writes Schalbe,
' through villages raging with infectious diseases,' in
order to seek out the ' one pearl of the universe.'

The worship of genius, thus concentrated on
Erasmus, was an entirely new manifestation in
Germany ; among the smaller fry of the younger
humanists it degenerated into a perfect mania for
mutual adulation, a mania which Erasmus encouraged
by the systematic manufacture of fulsome eulogiums,
which he lavished profusely on any individual who
might, he thought, at some time or other be used as a
mouthpiece for his own ends.

Another way in which Erasmus exercised a potent
influence over the younger humanists was by the con-
tempt which his teaching and his one-sided classical
euthusiasm inspired for all mediaeval ecclesiastical
learning. It has been said of him, and not without
justice, that he brought the study of philosophy into
disrepute, that he exalted rhetoric, wit, and elegance of
style above serious, scientific, and speculative research.
' It is very easy,' writes Wimpheling, ' to represent
scholastic learning as sophistry and barbarism to
young men who are enamoured of the pagan poets.
These young enthusiasts are only too glad to see
contempt poured on studies which require hard work
from them, and on the other hand to hear praise
bestowed on all that they find easy and entertaining.
The humanist Jacob Locher, surnamed Philomusus,

28 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

had already advocated the cult of the Muses in place
of the scholastic subjects : the sacred art of poetry, he
said, should take precedence of all other studies ; the
scholiasts, with all their supposed learned labours,
were mere theological jackanapes deserving the scorn
and ridicule of all really cultivated people. But from
the poets, the rising generation would get real culture ;
even Ovid was an exceedingly chaste writer, and the
sayings of Juvenal were on a par with evangelical truth.

With the second decade of the sixteenth century com-
plaints increase concerning the decay and depreciation
of philosophic studies, the one-sided, exclusive attention
to the classics, and the self-conceited arrogance as well
as the immorality of the younger humanists. ' Philo-
sophy,' writes Johannes Cochlaeus in the year 1512, ' is
completely set aside.' It is a great mistake ; for
humanistic studies, however much they adorn real
scholarship, are hurtful in the extreme to those
who have no foundation of sound erudition. Hence
the jejune shallowness of a certain set of persons to
whom the uninitiated have erroneously given the title
of poets ; hence their buffoonery and lasciviousness.
They are base slaves of Bacchus and Venus, not pious
priests of Phoebus and Pallas.^

The ' Poets,' as the younger humanists were com-
monly called, worked themselves to such a pitch of
enthusiasm for the classics that they could see no
value whatever in anything that was not Latin or
Greek ; in language and thought they repudiated their
German origin. Their apostasy from the traditional
spirit of the Fatherland protruded itself so egregiously,

1 See Otto, 26.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 29

that they even became ashamed of their German names
and manufactured new ones from the Latin or Greek
vocabularies. A Schuster became a ' Sutor ' or
' Sutorius,' a Fischer a ' Piscator,' and a Hans Jiiger
first of all a ' Venator ' and then a ' Crotus Eubianus.'
' When you were still called Jiiger of Dornheim,' his
friend Conrad wrote to the latter, ' then the school-
man, the reverend Doctor, the sagacious, the irrefutable
Doctor was still entirely to your taste ; but after you
were born again, and changed from a Jager of Dorn-
heim into a Crotus Eubianus, you lost your long tail
and ass's ears, like Apuleius when he was transformed
from a donkey back to a man. Bless us and save us !
Escaped from the rocks and the quicksands, and safe
in the harbour, you realise now how miserable those
must be who have not yet shaken off the yoke of bar-
barism.'

The younger humanists looked down with contempt
on the so-called ' ancient barbarians ' who busied them-
selves with learning and dialectics, were ignorant
of classical Latin, and could not write verses such as
the ' poets ' poured out.

The majority of humanists, indeed, devoted their
energies almost entirely to verse-making. But the
results were feeble and worthless. There was not a
spark of creative power, no substance of truth, no
depth of thought or vivacity of treatment in any of the
innumerable poetic effusions of which they made such a
parade, pluming themselves on being second Horaces
and Virgils. There was never any attempt to penetrate
the spirit of the ancient writers ; they considered
elegance of language as the chief end of culture and

o

0 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

exalted the outward beauty of form above the inward
matter.

How empty and insipid, for instance, are the three
hundred hexameter hues in which the humanist Her-
mann van dem Busche sings the praises of the sacred
city of Cologne ! Ehetorical flourishes and classical
quotations make up the chief substance of the poem ;
all the gods of heathen mythology are summoned
together for the glorification of the town ; only once,
incidentally, is the name of Christ mentioned, and as
for any knowledge of the contemporary life of the city,
one gets as good as nothing. The poem of Eobanus
Hessus in praise of Erfurt is no less vapid. The town is
represented as the home of the muses, the birthplace of
Pallas ; the rushing river Gera is a Triton ; gods and
demi-gods give their names to the professors ; the
humanist Mutian is glorified as Minos ; Eoban himself
does not rank below Homer. This poem, says its
author, will confer immortal fame on Erfurt ; as Troy
lives through the ' Iliad,' so Erfurt, even should it be
destroyed from the face of the eartli, will live on for
ever in his verses.

But as crowning specimens of bad taste and utter
worthlessness we commend those humanist poems
which deal with Christian material, representing the
Divine Creator as ruler of high Olympus, and as a
thundering Zeus, turning sacred things, in short, into
mere child's play. Eobanus Hessus, for instance, in the
year 1514, published a volume of ' Christian Heroids,'
or love-letters from Christian heroines to their lovers,
after the model of Ovid. Amons^st these are letters
from St. Mary of Magdalen to Christ ; and even God
the Father is made to exchange letters with the Virgin

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 31

Mary. One cannot read this sort of thing without a
shudder. Erasmus, however, declared himself dehghted
with the work, and greeted Eobanus on the strength of
it as the German Ovid who alone could rescue Germany
from barbarism.

These ' poets ' displayed greater naturalness in
several shameless imitations of the ancient erotic
writers, in which Conrad Celtes had been their precursor
and model. Celtes had far out-Ovided Ovid by his
indecent descriptions, and had claimed special merit on
this score, saying that he wished, by a naked presenta-
tion of reality, to warn and check the unbridled appe-
tites of the young. Under the same shallow pretext
many of the humanists used to read the most profligate
pagan poetr}^ with their young pupils.

' Can you deny,' asks Prince Carpi of Erasmus,
' that the same state of things exists now in Germany
as has so long prevailed with us in Italy, where the so-
called fine arts are cultivated exclusively, and with
contempt for philosophy and theology ? A melancholy
mixture of Christian truth and pagan ideas is spread
abroad, love of controversy fills all minds, and social
morality does not conform in any way to Christian
doctrine.' In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
many of the Italian humanists had already assumed an
attitude of indifference or scepticism towards the
Church, and were no longer ruled by Christianity,
with its constant reference to a higher life. They
filled the land with their lascivious writings, and set
examples of profligacy by their lives. With Greek
learning they had in most cases imbibed Greek vices,
and they were followers of a shameless philosophy of
pleasure-seeking, as Boccaccio has shown in his novels.

32 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

And this contagion was now spreading rapidly in
Germany. Men like Locher, Hermann van dem Busche,
Ulrich. von Hutten were in no way behind the Italians
in immorality, and they pushed the disregard of
Christian duties in their daily lives to the utmost
excess. As strong drinkers the Germans, indeed, outdid
the Italians. Not one of the latter could have com-
peted with an Eobanus Hessus, who thought nothing of
\ emptying a bucket of ale at one draught. He was
celebrated in song as the ' mighty toper.'

As for that ' melancholy mixture of Christian truth
and pagan philosophy ' which Prince Carpi and other
serious-minded Italians deplored, there was, indeed,
ample evidence of its having taken root in Germany
also ; witness especially the teaching of Conrad
Mutianus Kufus and the circle of humanists of whom
he was the leader.

Among the North German universities Erfurt had
already been distinguished at an early period for its
zeal in teaching the Greek and Latin classics, and had
received in this respect the most hearty support from
the three leading religious professors, with whose
labours the fame of the university in the last decades
of the fifteenth century is principally connected —
Jodocus Trutseller of Eisenach and Bartholomew Arnold
of Usingen, theologians, and Henning Goede, professor of
law. These three men, who later on, at the outbreak of
the religious war, suffered misfortunes and calumny of
all sorts for their adhesion to the catholic faith, were
at the time we write of on friendly terms with the chief
leaders of the rising generation of humanists, Maternus
Pistoris and Nicholas Marshalk.

Maternus and Marshalk used the ancient authors —

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 33

poets and all — exclusively as the subjects of their
lectures, but with wise discretion and moderation
they did not insist on undivided attention to human-
istic teaching, and, in spite of their enthusiasm for
the classics, they were far from seeking to reform
the study of theology by means of the humanities, to
upset the ancient doctrine of the Church, or to attack
the foundations of Christianity. It was not until
Mutian, a prebendary of Gotha, assumed the leader-
ship of the rising generation of humanists that a strong
spirit of innovation declared itself among the Erfurt
' poets.' Within the circle of humanists which included
Eobanus Hessus, Crotus Eubianus, Petrejus Eberbach,
George Spalatin, Justus Jonas, Herebord von der
Marthen, and for a short time also Ulrich von Hutten,
Mutian was worshipped as a ' teacher of pure virtue '
and ' a father of beatific peace.'

In Italy Mutian had become a warm advocate of
the Neoplatonism which prevailed among the humanists
of that country, and Pohtian and Marsihus Ficinus,
apostles of this philosophy, were objects of his par-
ticular veneration. He left no record of his opinions
in any work of learning, and in this respect he likened
himself to Christ and Socrates, who he said had left
no writings to the world. But his many confidential
letters to friends leave little doubt that, for a time
at least, he had quite broken with positive Chris-
tianity. He conceived Christianity as the religion of
pure humanity, not founded, like Mosaism, on any
revelation.

In a letter to Spalatin he says : ' I am not going to
ask you a riddle out of the Scriptures, but a straight-
forward question, which can be solved by secular
VOL. in. D

34 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

study. If Christ is the Way, the Truth, and the Life,
what did mankind do through all the centuries before
his birth ? Were they fast bound in the gross dark-
ness of ignorance, or had they a share in truth and in
salvation? I will come to your help with my own
view of the matter. Christ's religion did not begin
with his incarnation, but was already in existence
before all the centuries, as was Christ himself. For
what else is the true Christ, the actual Son of God, than,
as St, Paul says, the Wisdom of God, which was not
only present with the Jews in the small corner of
Syria, but also with the Greeks, the Italians, and the
Germans, although they all had different forms of reli-
gion ? Cain brought offerings of the fruits of the earth,
Abel of the first-born among the cattle. What other
forms of thank-offering other regions of the earth pre-
sented to the Deity you can read for yourself. The
commandment of God which gives light unto the soul
has two heads : Thou shalt love the Lord thy God,
and Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. By
fulfilling this law we are made partakers of the king-
dom of heaven : this is the natural law, not graven
in stone, like that of Moses ; not cut in brass, like that
of Eome ; not written on parchment or on paper ; but
instilled into our hearts by the highest of teachers.
Whosoever with due piety partakes of this memorable
and wholesome Eucharist accomplishes a Divine action.
. . . For the true body of Christ is peace and concord,
and there can be no nobler sacrifice than mutual love.'
In another letter, speaking of the impending Easter
festival, he writes : ' Our Saviour is the Lamb and
the Shepherd. But who is our Saviour ? Eighteous-
ness, peace, and joy. That is the Christ who has come

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 35

down from heaven. The kinsfdom of God is not meat
and drink. The veritable Christ is soul and spirit
which can neither be touched with the hands nor seen
with the eyes.'

With regard to the Bible he held the opinion that
the authors of the sacred narrative had wrapped up
all manner of mysteries in riddles and metaphors ; that
the Jewish writers dealt as copiously in fables as
Apuleius and Aesop ; he even went so far as to think
there was deep wisdom in the opinion of the Mahome-
dans that Christ was not crucified himself, but some
other man who bore a strong resemblance to him. His
notions of the Deity were very confused. ' There is
only one God and one goddess,' so he once taught a
friend, ' but there are as many names as deities — for
instance, Jupiter, Sol, Apollo, Moses, Christ, Luna,
Ceres, Proserpine, Tellus, Mary. But beware of repeat-
ing this. These things must be wrapped in silence,
like the Eleusinian mysteries. In matters of religion
we must make use of the mask of fables and enigmas.
Let us, by the grace of Jupiter — that is, of the best
and highest God — despise the lesser gods. When I say
Jupiter, I mean Christ and the true God. But enough
of these all too lofty things.' ' Mysteries ought not to be
made common,' he says in another place. ' We must
keep silence concerning them, or else present them
under the cloak of fable and allegory, so as not to cast
pearls before swine. It is for this reason that Christ
left no written record behind him, and that the men who
wrote the Gospel histories made such extensive use of
parables. Theodot, the tragedy-writer, was robbed of
his eyes when he once presumed to turn into a fable
some incident out of the Jewish mysteries.'

d2

36 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

From remarks of this sort it is evident that Mutian,
to the distress of his fellow prebendaries, must have
held back from the sacrifice of the Holy Mass
and from receiving the Holy Communion. We learn
further that he considered the service of the altar as
waste of time, that he rejected auricular confession,
called the Mendicant Friars ' hooded monsters ' and
lenten diet ' fools' diet.' Only fools, he said, look for
salvation in fasting. ' The priests,' he complained,
' are not satisfied with mortifying our bodies by fasts ;
they torment our souls also by retailing to their congre-
gations what they have done that deserves to be
cursed.' ' I always laughed right heartily,' he wrote
to the humanist Petrejus Eberbach, ' when Benedictus
used to tell of the complaints of your mother that you
so seldom went to church, that you would not fast,
and that you would eat eggs contrary to the general
custom, I used to excuse these unprecedented crimes
by saying, " Petrejus shows great wisdom in not
going to church, for the building might fall in, the
galleries tumble down ; it is a very dangerous place.
Besides it's only the priests who get any money for
going ; the laity get nothing but salt and water, like
the goats. That's why we call the people a ' flock,'
for a flock is a collection of sheep and goats. As to
fasting, of course Petrejus hates it, and with good
reason ; he knows what happened to his father : he
fasted and died. Had he gone on eating as he had
been in the habit of doing, he would not have died."'

* When Benedictus heard this,' Mutian goes on, ' he
frowned angrily and said, " Who will absolve all 3''0u
bad Christians? " " Study and learning," I answered.'

* At this moment,' he once wrote concerning the service

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 37

in the choir, ' I am called away by a tinkling bell
to a pious murmuring, like a Cappadocian fire-wor-
shipper,'

Amongst the books which Mutian was in the habit
of recommending to his friends were the ' Humorous
Anecdotes ' of the humanist Heinrich Bebel, of Tiibino-en,
a coJlection in Latin of all sorts of scurrilous, satirical,
and even blasphemous anecdotes, tales, and jests. Bebel's
sceptical scorn was hurled not only at the scandalous
lives of the clergy, at fasts and other church ordinances,
at the sale of indulgences and the worship of relics,
but at many of the fundamental doctrines of Chris
tianity itself. He speaks in the coarsest manner of the
Trinity and the scheme of redemption, and ridicules
the Christian's consolation in the sufferings of the body.
That outward respect for current church doctrine
was sometimes paid in spite of anti-scriptural opinions
is shown by an anecdote from the life of Peter Linden,
who, on being taken to task for ridiculing the doctrine
of the Trinity, answered : Oh well, I will not persist
obstinately in my opinion ; and rather than make
acquaintance with the martyr's fire I will beheve in a
' Quadrinity.'

' Make haste and get Bebel's " Facetiae," ' writes
Mutian to Herebord von der Marthen. 'There is no doubt
that coarse anecdotes have great influence on people.
They arrest attention, they go straight to the mark, and
they stick in the memory.' He expressed a desire to
publish such a collection himself.

The personal influence that Mutian exercised over
the humanists who frequented his house corresponded
with the spirit that characterises his letters. LTCverent
jesting against sacred things was encouraged, and we

38 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

read that in conversation with Mutian and his
associates, and to the general satisfaction of the
company, Crotus Eubianus used to call the Holy Mass
a popish comedy, the holy relics ravens' bones, ^ and
the prayers at canonical hours a mere baying of
hounds. He used to say that Cicero was a saintly
apostle and a greater Eoman hierarch than Pope
Leo X.

This contemptuous bearing towards the Church and
its sacred teaching was often accompanied by unlimited
license in conduct. Concerning the sexual trans-
gressions of his friends Mutian was wont to speak
with a cynicism compared with which the erotic writers
of antiquity seem almost chaste. Even the seduction
and carrying off of a nun was treated by him as a good
joke.

It is not to be wondered at that in Erfurt and
Grotha, and in all places where the later humanists
preached the new gospel of classicism and tried to win
disciples to their cause, men of earnest lives and strong
Church principles should have fought shy of them and
opposed them. In many cases this antagonism went
to the length of hostility to all poetic culture. The new
gospel was judged by the lives of its apostles, and by the
spiritual fruit which they brought to the market, and
which was for the most part worthless or poisonous.

' It does not surprise me,' writes Cochlaeus, ' that so
many people should have become decided antagonists
of humanistic studies who formerly befriended and
encouraged them. For what good is done by all these
" poets " who tramp about Germany as play-actors and
swashbucklers ? Wherever they go they stir up strife

^ That is, skeletons left on the gallows for the ravens to peck at.

/

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 39

and enmity ; their manners, to put it mildly, are loose
and free ; only in exceptional cases does one find in
them any reverence for what is sacred and venerable ;
their sole delight is to insult and ridicule existing
institutions, and any one who refuses help in over-
throwing the latter is regarded by them as a
barbarian.'

Germany was completely overrun with literary
parasites, charlatans, and lampoonists, who made the
vilification of the Church and the clergy and the mon-
astic orders a special branch of their newly acquired
' culture.'

It was thus inevitable that the monks should be
the enemies par excellence of the ' poets ; ' nor is
it to be wondered at that in a struggle grounded on
mutual suspicion and intolerance, often wilfully ig-
norant from fear of false knowledge, the limits of
moderation should frequently have been far over-
stepped.

In lecture haUs and pulpits the monks and the
scholastic theologians thundered against the ' poets ' as
the representatives of unchristian learning which set
more store by fine language than by the truth of God ;
as the promoters of a system of study which lured the
young away from all useful and solid intellectual
work. They denounced them as godless people steeped
in paganism. The time was now unfortunately fulfilled,
said preachers and lecturers, in which, according to the
prediction of the apostle, ' men would turn away their
ears from the truth and be turned unto fables.' Hence
there was most urgent need to put an end to this state
of things. The preaching of the Gospel had never
consisted in fine words of human wisdom ; the corrupt-

4:0 HISTOIIY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

ing study of heathen poets and writers must be entirely
forbidden to the young. ' That stream must be stopped
at its source,' said a Dominican preacher at Cologne in
1516, ' which is pouring its poisonous waters over the
rising generation.' Shall we any longer allow the
young of our land to be led away by men who do not
scruple to put into their hands the most indecent poets
of antiquity, who explain these poets by indecent
glossaries, and spice their instruction with gibes and
satires against the Church and the Pope ; by men who
rate the Bible no higher than the heathen writings, and
who have the audacity to say that more good may be
learnt from the latter than from the Holy Scriptures ?
Let us banish all these ' poets ' from our schools, the
old and the new alike, for the new are more dangerous
even than the old.

A sect considered specially dangerous among the
holders of these new opinions were those ' poet '
humanists who posed under the mask of theology,
and who exercised an influence similar to that of
Erasmus, aiming, like him, at throwing contempt on
scholastic learning as such.^ It was to this class that
Mutian belonged.

He was among the most violent enemies of scho-
lasticism. He described the war between the human-
ists and the schoolmen as ' a struggle between light
and darkness,' and he inspired the whole body of
humanists under his lead with the profoundest aver-
sion for what he called ' that arrogant, extortionate,
irascible race of sophists.' Many of his own poems,

^ Among the most important pamphlets against the humanists may
be reckoned, in this respect, the Dialogue of Jacobus Latomus, Pro-
fessor at Lowen, De Tribus Linguis et Batione Studii Theologici (Lovaniae,
1519).

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 41

of which he made presents to his pupils, breathed the
bitterest hatred against scholasticism. The aim of his
labours was the complete annihilation of the old
schools and of all institutions which had grown up
under their influence. The academic degree, on
which the sophists based their authority, seemed to
him worse than laughable. ' Where reason points the
way,' he writes, ' there is no need for " doctors." ' Men
of real culture ought not to waste their energies on
acquiring the empty, barbarian titles of ' bachelors '
or ' masters.' The ' school,' he said, is the province of
the grammarian ; the theologian is quite out of place
there.' The ' theological apes ' nowadays absorb the
whole of the school curriculum into their system, and
give out all sorts of nonsense. The right proportions
in our university staffs would be one sophist, two
mathematicians, three theologians, four lawyers, five
' doctors,' six rhetoricians, seven Hebraists, eight
Hellenists, nine grammarians, and ten sound philoso-
phers as heads and principals of the whole learned
body.

Nearly all the disciples of Mutian imitated him in
ferocious attacks on the sophists and on the professors
of the old universities, and the breach between teacher
and pupil became wider and wider at Erfurt, as in all
the universities where the humanist influence gained
ground.

Many of the older professors, who had formerly
been promoters of humanism, now took the opposite
side and openly declared that the new 'poets' were
the ruin of the universities. But Mutian only waxed
fiercer and fiercer. ' We have nothing to do,' he said,
' with the opinions of contentious sophists concerning

42 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

our young flock.' ' The enemies of the fine arts are
accompHshing nothing ; whether they will or no the
number of our followers goes on increasing.' ' I con-
gratulate the younger professors at Erfurt,' he writes to
Herebord von der Marthen, ' for they are setting them-
selves free from barbarism.' He exhorted the human-
ists, whom he called his Latin cohorts, to stand firmly
together in battle, saying that in a short time he would
lead them to victory over the barbarians. ' We must
hold out to the end, having once begun this cam-
paign and bound ourselves together by the oaths of
soldiers.'

But even before the outbreak of this relioious
war, a revolutionary rising of the community against
the town council took place at Erfurt in the year
1509 ; and the hostiliity between humanists and
scholiasts was transferred to political platforms. The
older professors, with Henning Goede at their head,
ranged themselves on the side of the town coun-
cil, while the humanists showed decided sympathy
with the resistance of the popular party. Mutian,
already before bitterly incensed against Goede, who
as a thorough-going German objected strongly to the
humanist contempt for his native language and litera-
ture, now discharged volley after volley of insults on
the scholiasts. With curious ingenuity he proved all
German jurisprudence and all the civic laws of the
country to have come down from antiquity, especially
from the code of Solon ; and by arguments from the
ancient classics he convinced his humanist friends of
the justice of the popular claims. ' It was madness,'
he wrote, ' to believe that princes must always be born
such ; they often sprang from the lowest ranks of

THE LATEK GERMAN HUMANISM 4^

society. Socrates had long ago said that we should
have better rulers if we chose them for ourselves. In
his letters he inveighed fiercely against the adherents
of the town party, and expressed his delight at the
poems in which the humanists vented their popular
sympathies. Only they must take care not to endanger
their own personal safety ; he himself always en-
deavoured to avoid all risk. Herebord von der Mar-
then was the only one of the humanist body who took
an active part in the fight. Constant scenes of tumult
threw all the town business and proceedings into con-
fusion. A quarrel among the students, which broke
out in 1510, resulted in the destruction by the enraged
populace of the university building, with its ancient
records and charters, the splendid library, and even the
colleges and ' Bursas.' ^ In the destruction of the col-
leges, in which the young of successive generations had
so long been kept together in order and discipline, the
more keen-sighted observers of later times rightly dis-
cerned the cause of the internal decay of the university.
Amongst the emancipated students, given over to self-
government, who went forth in bands from the ruins
of the university, unrestrained license rapidly gained
ground.

Mutian's band of humanists also became scattered
over all parts of Germany, and wherever they went
they preached the gospel according to their master,
spread enmity against the ' barbarians,' enrolled fresh
recruits in their own ranks, and returned to Erfurt
towards the end of 1512 strengthened for the conflict.

The warfare was soon to spread all over Germany,

1 (

Bursa,' an educational establishment with foundations for the
support of scholars. — Translator.

44 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

and to secure the victory of light over the darkness of
the monks and theologians.

The immediate provocative to the outbreak of hos-
tilities was the controversy of Eeuchlin with the Cologne
theologians.

The Reuclilin Controversy

Johann Eeuchlin was among the first leaders of
thought in Germany who by example and speech, and
by constantly pointing out the imjDortance of the study
of Greek literature, procured for the Greek language
a place in the higher branches of university curri-
culums. He also rendered substantial service to the
cause of Latin study by his Latin dictionary and his
translations of the Greek classics into Latin. But his
labours in the department of the Hebrew language con-
stitute the most important of all his achievements. It
is to him that we owe the first complete system of
instruction in Hebrew. It was his wish by means of
Hebraistic research, and by throwing open the original
text of the Old Testament, to furnish a healthy counter-
poise to the excessive worship of pagan antiquity ; for
it seemed to him that in the engrossing study of rhetoric
and poetry the Holj^ Scriptures were in danger not
only of sufiering neglect but of being altogether despised
by many people.^

As in the study of classical literature, however, so
also in that of the Hebrew there were dangers of a special
kind. Eeuchlin was by nature strongly predisposed

^ See OTir statements concerning Eeuchlin, vol. i. (9th-12th editions)
pp. 88-91, (13th edition) pp. 92-94, (15th and 16th editions) pp. 101-103 ;
English translation, i. 102-105. (Readers are referred for full notes
on this controversy to pp. 40-56 of the German original. — Trans-
lator.)

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 45

to mysticism, and he soon began to use his knowledge
of the Hebrew tongue as a key to the strange world of
Cabbalistic lore. The man who influenced him most
powerfully in this respect was Pico della Mirandola,
who had been the first to procure admission for the
Cabbala into the circles of learned men, and who
speaks of it in terms of the highest veneration. ' No
systems of science or learning,' he says, ' make us feel so
certain of the divinity of Christ as do the Cabbala and
natural magic' Eeuchlin adds the following to this
testimony : ' The one aim and object of the Cabbalists
is to raise the spirit of man up to God, and to endow it
with complete beatitude. All who pursue the study of
this science obtain in this life the highest happiness, and
in the life to come everlasting joy.'

In two works, entitled respectively ' De Verbo
Mirifico ' (' Of the Wonder-working Word ') and ' De
Arte Cabbalistica ' (' Of the Cabbalistic Art '), Eeuchlin
lays the basis of a semi-supernatural, semi-rationalistic
theosophy. His leading idea in both books is that the
visible world is the image or reflection of an invisible
one with which it stands in the most intimate corre-
lation. Allied with this idea is the belief in the magic
power of terrestrial elements over their corresponding
forces in the celestial world.

Especial efiicacy is assigned to those letters of Holy
Writ which individually are in miraculous union with
the individual angels who carry on the government of
the nether world. At the utterance of certain words
God is beheld by our minds, and as it were reproduced
within us. Eeuchlin justifies the mystic. Cabbalistic
interpretation of the five books of Moses by the
argument that if there were no mystic wisdom con-

46 HISTOKY OF THE GEEMAN PEOPLE

cealed in these books they would have no higher value
than other books whose contents are equally moral and
didactic. The art of arranging the letters of Holy
Writ in magic order was, he asserted, conferred on
Moses by the Almighty ; from Moses it came down to
Christ, from Christ, by transmission, to the seventy
translators, and from them to the company of the
esoterics. Eeuchlin's estimate of Pythagoras as a man
in almost every respect at one with Christian belief is
quite consistent with these opinions. According to
Pythagorean philosophy, he says, faith must not be
subjected to any operation of logic, for mankind will
never attain to a clear apprehension of the basis of
religion by mere processes of thought ; hence religion
has never presented itself as a product of human
speculation, but always as a divine revelation.

Eeuchlin was far from any wish to injure the cause
of Christianity and the Church by his mysto-philo-
sophical system ; on the contrary he imagined that he
had struck new light out of the Hebrew books for the
better understanding of Christianity.

His opinions, however, even if regarded as mere
philosophy only, were well calculated to turn men's
brains, especially as they gave great encouragement to
the tendency already strong in mankind to put oneself
in immediate connection with the spirit-world. Mutian
was delicfhted with the ' De Verbo Mirifico,' and
expressed the hope that Eeuchlin would accomplish all
that Pico della Mirandola had predicted.^ Cornelius
Agrippa delivered lectures on this ' Christian and
catholic work.'

Several theologians, on the other hand, spoke

^ Beuchlin's Correspondence, p. 84.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 47

disparagingly of it. ' In reading Eeuchlin's books,'
wrote John Colet, ' one is made to feel as if the magic
lay more in the words than in the things ; there must
be rare secrets indeed contained in the Hebrew letters
and signs ! Ah me, of such books and such wisdom
there is no end ! There is nothing better for us in this
brief span of time than to live purely and nobly, to
strive daily after perfection, and to seek indeed to
attain that which these Pythagorean Cabbalists hold
out before us, but which we can only lay hold of by
fervent love to Jesus and by imitation of his example.'

In serious apprehension of another invasion of
Judaism the Dominican monk Jacob Hoogstraten,
professor of theology at Cologne, and religious
inquisitor of the provinces of Cologne, Mayence, and
Treves, entered the lists against Eeuchlin in a pamphlet
entitled ' Destruction of the Cabbala,' in which he
showed that the Jewish mystics did not support the
articles of the Christian faith, but, on the contrary,
denied their truth, and that Eeuchlin's book was full
of errors.

When Eeuchlin's ' De Arte Cabbalistica ' and Hoog-
straten's confutation of it appeared a lengthy con-
troversy on the question of the Hebrew books was
already in full swing. At the beginning of it Eeuchlin
had astonished his contemporaries by taking part with
the opponents of the Jews. At the instigation of a
certain nobleman he published, in 1505, a ' missive ' with
the title 'Why did the Jews remain so long in
Captivity ? ' In this pamphlet he explained that the
captivity and exile of the Jews, lasting more than
1,300 years, was a just punishment for the godless
crime they had committed against the Saviour of the

48 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

world. This sin of theirs, he said, continued perpetually,
so that day after day they were guilty of fresh blas-
phemy, reviling and dishonouring God in the Person of
His Son, our Lord Jesus, the true Messiah. ' They call
him,' says Eeuchlin, ' a criminal, a sorcerer, a male-
factor. The gracious Virgin, his mother, they call
" Haria," and the Apostles and disciples heretics, and all
of us Christians they call " outcasts " ^ and foolish
heathens ' All Jews, up to the present time, so long
as they continued to be Jews, he said, were partici-
pators in this blasphemy towards God, and took a
peculiar delight in inventing fresh ways of harming
Christians. This was manifest in all their proceedings
and in their daily prayers ; in their books also, which
are written and read out against us. ' The worst part
of it is that the Jews will not recognise that all this,
which is committed against our Lord Jesus, is sin and
wickedness, for in this way they cannot come to any
recognition of their wrong-doing or improvement of
their lives. And. so long as they remain altogether
stiff-necked in their sins they must also continue in
durance and exile. I pray God that He will enlighten
them and turn them back to the true faith, that so thev
may be set free from the yoke of the devil, as the
community of the Christian Church pray devoutly for
them every Good Friday ; and if they would recognise
Jesus as the true Messiah it would be well with them
here in this world and in the world to come for ever.
He concludes with the following generous offer : ' If
there is any Jew who would like to be instructed
concerning the Messiah and our true faith, I will
willingly receive such a one and provide for him, so

1 'Unvolk.'

THE LATER GEEMAN HUMANISM 49

that he may have no anxiety for temporal necessities,
but may be able to serve God peaceably and in freedom
from care.'

The conversion of the Jews then could only be
hoped for, so the theologians and canonists had re-
peatedly declared, when they cast off their grasping
spirit, earned their living, like Christian citizens, by
honest trades and industries, and were compelled to
surrender all those anti-Christian books by which hatred
of Christianity was continually kept alive — above all
the Talmud. In several pamphlets published between
the years 1507 and 1509 the converted Jew, Johannes
Pfefierkorn, urged the above demands anew, and in
perfect good faith, against his former co-religionists.

In the first of these, the ' Judenspiegel,' he began
by a resolute condemnation of the persecution of the
Jews, and defended them against the crimes laid
to their charge, especially the accusation that they
were obliged to use Christian blood for their sacrifices,
and for this purpose to slaughter young Christian
children. 'Well-beloved Christians,' he exclaims, 'I
entreat you to give no credence to this ! ' He urged that
the persecutions which the Jews underwent deterred
them from adopting Christianity. Having thus done
justice to the Jewish side of the question, he went on
to insist that the Jews must renounce the practice of
usury, earn their bread by honourable work, attend
sermons at stated times to hear the Word of God
preached, and, above all, give up the Talmudic
books. In a later pamphlet he declared that ' from
the way in which these blind Jews kept the Easter
festival' they could no longer be followers of Moses^
but were mere Talmudists, repudiators of the Old and

VOL. III. E

50 HISTORY OF THE GEKMAN PEOPLE

the New Testaments, and deserving of condemnation
according to Mosaic law. The Tahiiud, which was
their seducer, must be taken from them, and then they
would soon change in heart and mind. In this pam-
phlet, as well as in two others, the ' Judenbeicht ' and
the ' Judenfeind,' he described, in terms of strong con-
demnation, the wanton wickedness of the Jews towards
the Christians, and exhorted the latter not to tolerate the
Jews amongst them in their present reprobate condition,
for they were cursers of Jesus Christ and his blessed
Mother. He did not, however, go so far as to demand
the banishment or extermination of the Jews ; he only
asked that the measures proposed above should be
adopted and enforced. If, however, the magistrates,
bribed, possibly, by gifts of money from the Jews,
refused this petition of the Christians, he advised the
latter to have recourse to prayer to God, and also to
make appeal to other Christian rulers.

Of these the Emperor was the highest, and to
him Pfefferkorn himself resolved to turn for help.
Through the instrumentality of several monasteries ol
the Dominican Order, which protected the Christians
zealously against Jewish usury and advocated the
suppression of Jewish books, Pfefferkorn obtained
letters of recommendation to the Emperor Maximilian's
sister Kunigunde, widow of Albrecht, Duke of Bavaria,
and the Duchess, approving of his scheme, recom-
mended him to her brother. On August 15, 1509,
Maximilian issued an injunction to all the Jews of the
Empire to the effect that they were to bring all and
any of their books which were directed against the
Christian religion or against their own Mosaic law
before Johannes Pfefferkorn, ' as our servant and loyal

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 51

subject of the realm, and as a well-established and
learned believer of our faith.' Pfefferkorn was invested
with authority to take all these books from the Jews
and confiscate them, albeit in every place with know-
ledge and discretion, and in the presence of the priest
and two members of the town council or magistracy.

By a later decree Maximilian transferred the
management of the whole business to Uriel, Arch-
bishop of Mayence, and commissioned him to examine
the books which Pfefferkorn had already seized in
different places, and to collect the opinions of the
universities of Mayence, Cologne, Erfurt, and Heidel-
berg, as well as those of the chief inquisitor, Jacob
Hoogstraten, of Cologne, of the priest Victor of Carbes,
and of Johann Eeuchlin.

Eeuchlin's opinion was more favourable for the
Jews than might have been expected from his ' Missive.'
It was to the effect that, according to law, only the
manifestly libellous books could be destroyed, and that
all others must be preserved. As for the Talmud,
Christ himself had enjoined the preservation of these
books, because in them also evidence for the Christian
faith could be found. As regards the occult portions
of the Talmud there was no justification for destroying
even these, because superstition and error must be
mixed up with human reason, in order to the strength-
ening and testing of true believers.

The opinions of the four universities were all
different. Heidelberg arrived at no decided verdict,
but appointed a committee of learned men to consider
the question. Erfurt pronounced that the Emperor,
and each of the princes in his own dominion, ought
themselves to take awav from the Jews all books of

E 2

52 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

theirs which Kbelled the Christian rehgion. Mayence
insisted on the suppression of all Jewish books, and for
the present even their Bibles, because there was ground
for suspicion that they had been falsified wherever
passages favourable to Christianity occurred. Cologne
was in favour of leaving the Bible to the Jews, but not
the books of the Talmud, the burning of which had
already been ordered by several popes. Hoogstraten
and Victor of Carbes agreed with this last opinion.

In November 1510 the collective opinions were, by
order of the Archbishop of Mayence, presented by
Pfefferkorn to the Emperor, who was then at Freiburg.
Maximilian handed the documents over for decision to
three theologians, among whom was the famous Car-
thusian prior Gregory Eeisch.^ The verdict of these
theologians accorded with that of the Cologne Univer-
sity. The Bible might be left in the Jews' possession
without danger, but all the rest of their books must be
taken from them, whether or no they were works which
might be of use to the Christian religion or to the Jews
themselves. The books were to be collected all over
the world by the archbishops, bishops, and other
ecclesiastical commissioners, with the help of certain
lay officers ; they were then to be examined by men
versed in the Latin and Hebrew tongues ; those pro-
nounced harmless, restored to the Jews, and the re-
mainder either burnt or divided among Christian
libraries for the use of students.

But all this great book question came to no issue.
The Emperor declared himself satisfied with the
opinions, but would not act on the final decision

1 See ovir statements, vol. i. (9th-12th ed.) p. 103, (13th ed.) p. 106, (15th
and 16th ed.) p. 115 (EngUsh Translation, i. 121, 122).

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 53

without the concurrence of the Diet. Nevertheless
the case never came on at any later Diet.^

With this question of the Hebrew books, however,
there came to be associated a controversy of the greatest
importance for the intellectual and religious life of the
nation.

In his statement of opinion concerning the Jews'
books Eeuchlin had made a personal attack on Pfeffer-
korn, had called him an ' ass ' who understood nothing
whatever about the books whose destruction he was
advocating, and had indulged in innuendoes against
the rascally fellows who had adopted Christianity from
base motives. These insults had not been intended for
publication, and Pfefferkorn had only come to know of
them in his official capacity, but nevertheless he anim-
adverted upon them in the most violent manner in
his ' Handspiegel,' published in 1511, as an offence
against his personal character. Eeuchlin, in his
' Augenspiegel,' answered with still greater violence ;
calling Pfefferkorn a base, dishonourable villain, a man
cursed with a devil's nature. He took the oppor-
tunity also of disclosing in this publication, amongst
other things, the memorandum of advice he had drawn
up for the Emperor about the Jewish books, with an
explanation of it.^

Neither Pfefferkorn's ' Handspiegel ' nor Eeuchlin's
' Augenspiegel ' was of the nature of a party pro-
paganda, but consisted solely of personal attacks ; the
Cologne theologians had no part in the ' Handspiegel,'
nor Eeuchlin's humanist followers in the ' Augenspiegel,'

■^ See Geiger's Life of Beuchlin, pp. 216-240.

'^ The most impartial and exhaustive account of this controversy is
given in L. Geiger's Life of Beuchlin. (For fiiU notes on this controversy-
see German original, 17th and 18th ed., vol. ii. pp. 46 to 55.)

54 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

but on the strength of these pamphlets the two hostile
camps were soon formed.

The ' Augenspiegel,' which appeared in 1511 at the
Erankfort autumn fair, caused the greatest excite-
ment, and was soon distributed all over Germany,

On the pretext that this pamphlet contained false
and anti-Church teaching the Frankfort clergyman
Meyer, by order, as he said, of Uriel, Archbishop of
Mayence, sent a copy of it to the Theological Faculty
of Cologne, which, by papal authority, possessed the
supreme right of censure in Germany. Just as at
that period the University of Cologne, with its two
thousand students, still held the first place in size,
importance, and fame among Ehenish universities, so
the Cologne Theological Faculty stood at the head of
all the Theological Faculties of Germany.^ The most
distinguished of its members were Arnold von Tungern,
the head of the Laurentine Bursa, and the two Domini-
can monks Conrad Collin and Jacob Hoogstraten.

As soon as Eeuchlin learnt that his book was
to be criticised by Arnold von Tungern he wrote to
him, on October 28, 1511, that he considered himself
fortunate in having assigned to him a judge who
was himself a distinguished scholar and a venerator of
learning, and who made allowances for human weak-
ness ; that in setting forth his opinion he had had no
intention whatever of hurting anybody's feelings, still

^ This statement concerning a supreme right of censorship, bestowed
by Papal authority on tlie Theological Faculty of Cologne, is certainly
incorrect. All that is true is that the Cologne Dominican Prior ' ab
immemorabili tempore fuerit et sit inquisitor apostolicus haeret. pravitatis
per Moguntinam, Treverensem et Coloniensem provincias.' See Hansen,
Bheinlschc Aden ;:ur GcscliicJite des Jcsuitenordens (Bonn 1896), p. 5G6.'
This explains why the Archbishop of Mayence referred the Frankfort
clergyman to the Cologne Faculty, in which the Dominican Prior, as
nquisitor apostolicus, always played a prominent part. — Editor.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 55

less of offending a university ; that he honoured
learning, and above all theology, but that he had never
studied this subject himself, and that he quoted theo-
logical extracts in his writings much in the same way
as a country clergyman might talk of medicine in his
sermons. If he had made mistakes he begged that
they might be pointed out to him, and he would be
ready to correct them ; for in all points he wished to
continue firm in his obedience to the Church and to
preserve his faith unspotted.' In a letter to Collin,
with whom he had long been on friendly terms,
Reuchlin expressed himself in a similar strain. Collin
replied on January 2, 1512, that it was not surprising
that a doctor of law should make mistakes in theology ;
that the Faculty would send him the objectionable pass-
ages, pointing out what they wished altered in them.

The Faculty thereupon addressed a letter to
Eeuchlin, representing to him that by the publication
of his opinion he had thwarted the Emperor's proceed-
insfs against the Jewish books, and laid himself under
suspicions of favouring Jewish heresy ; his ' Augen-
spiegel,' published in the German language, was being
read and distributed by the Jews, who were de-
lighted that so learned a man as Eeuchlin had taken
up their cause, and was protecting their writings
against Christ and the Christian Faith ; that in sup-
port of his opinions he had perverted and misquoted
passages from Holy Writ, and had furthermore been
guilty of many objectionable and scandalous assertions,
whereby he had cast doubts on his own orthodoxy. It
was with great pleasure, however, that the Faculty
learned from his letters to Tungern and CoUin that he
wished to persevere in the faith, and that he was ready
to correct any erroneous matter. They herewith sent

56 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

him a list of incorrect assertions and passages that he
had perverted, and they begged him to recast them in
more accurate language, or else, after the example of the
humble-minded Augustine, to retract them altogether.

After such conciliatory explanations on both sides
one might have expected a peaceful settlement of the
matter. But nothing of the kind happened.

' Within a few months,' so wrote Hoogstraten later
on, ' Eeuchlin, under the influence of men who loved
controversy and hated the Church, completely changed
his attitude and his language.' On March 12, 1512,
Eeuchlin had said in a letter to Collin that ' it was not
he (Eeuchlin) who had begun the contention, but the
Cologne theologians, or rather that baptised Jew goaded
on by them ; he had been betrayed and sold, but he feared
nothing, for he had powerful friends amongst nobles
and commoners, and it would cause a tremendous
sensation if an orator with the power of a Demosthenes
should set to work to unravel the tangled threads of
this transaction, and reveal to the world who among
those concerned in it were friends of Jesus Christ and
who were friends only of the purse. ' And among the
number of my powerful protectors,' he added emphati-
cally, ' would be the poets and the historians, numbers
of whom honour me, as they should, as their former
teacher. These men would keep in everlasting recol-
lection the memory of so great a wrong committed
against me by my enemies, and would hold me up as
an innocent man, to the eternal shame of your great
university.'

In a later pamphlet, written in German, Eeuchlin
maintained all these objectionable passages and attacked
the Cologne Faculty indirectly by spiteful insinuations.

THE LATEE GEEMAN HUMANISM 57

The Cologne theologians, however, were anxious to
keep the people in ignorance of this controversy, and
accordingly Arnold von Tungern drew up an answer in
Latin, and attempted to expose Eeuchlin's heterodox
opinions. This pamphlet was on the whole moderate, and
in the dedication to the Emperor, Yon Tungern said that
he had written thus against Eeuchlin because the latter
in his ' Augenspiegel ' had favoured the Jews unjustly
and had encouraged them in their antagonism to the
Christians ; and also because Eeuchlin had not kept his
promise and withdrawn the objectionable passages
pointed out to him, but had tried to intimidate the
Cologne theologians by the threat that he had a strong-
host at his back to support him. They were not, how-
ever, to be frightened by menaces.

Pfefierkorn took a different line. Incensed by the
insults of Eeuchlin, who had spoken of him in his last
pamphlet as a man who took a strange delight in lying,
he made a violent attack on the great Hebraist in his
' Brandspiegel.' The angry scholar was all the more
infuriated by this step because on October 7, 1512,
the Emperor Maximilian had issued a prohibition
against the ' Augenspiegel ' and had ordered its seizure
on pain of heavy punishment.

Eeuchlin now published a ' Defence against his
Cologne Calumniators,' which was one of the most violent
specimens of the party polemics of the day. ' It was
not zeal for the Faith,' he declared in his dedication to
the Emperor, ' that had moved the Cologne theologians
to proceed against him, but a desire to injure and
annihilate him personally. His opponents were not
theologians, but theologists, men who were con-
cerned not with the establishment of truth, but with

58 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

empty verbal disputations ; men who, far from striving
after moral purity, defiled themselves with scandal of
all sorts. Moreover it was his experience of old that
the just were always persecuted by the unjust. Homer
himself had had to fight an unworthy opponent ; there
was always a swarm of vilifiers at the heels of every man
of note. The Jewish-book question had only been taken
up thus by the Cologne theologians in order to extort
money from the Jews. ' They hunger and thirst after
Jewish gold,' he said ; ' may it be showered on them !
They may banish or burn every Jew in the country for
all I care, so long as they leave me in peace and quiet.'
The accusation against him of having falsely
interpreted certain passages of the Bible and of the
classical writings, he declared to be quite unjustifiable.
It was allowable to explain such passages in a dif-
ferent sense from that in which they had been written
and understood by the authors ; to recast the mean-
ing, as it were, provided the natural signification was
not made to suffer by the process. The reproach of
' perverting meanings ' came strangely, he said, from the
lips of men like his opponents, who were incapable of
either understanding or appreciating either the Bible or
the classical writings. Apart altogether from their de-
ficiencies of scholarship and knowledge, the simple pro-
cesses of accurate thought were unknown to them ;
they were wanting in understanding of logic ; they
could not follow his arguments, and distorted them
in order to refute them. And they were not only
wanting in the capacity for understanding him, but
also in the wish to do so. He called them ' foolish
sheep, bucks, sows, pigs,' said they were less human
than wild beasts, that they were scholars of the

THE LATER GEEMAN HUJ^IANTSM 59

devil, frequenters of the lower regions, animated by
fiendish pride, and so on through all the vocabulary of
opprobrious invective that he could muster, and then
ended by saying : ' They would w^onder that he had dealt
so mildly with his enemies, that he had borne their insults
without rejoinder, that he had not met their fury with
fury, their contempt with contempt, their calumnies
with calumnious retorts, but he would scorn to act in
the same manner that they had.' He prayed God to
save them from the torments of hell. His sole
revenge would be to hand down to posterity the name
of his adversary hewn thus in marble : ' Arnold von
Tungern, slanderer and vilifier.' ^

It is to the credit of Pfefferkorn that after he had
received Eeuchlin's insulting letter he sought him out
at Stuttgardt in order to confront him in a court of
justice before his prince, the Duke of Wiirttemberg.
But he never met him.

The Emperor, to whom Eeuchlin had sent his pam-
phlet, issued the following edict from Coblenz on July
9, 1513 : ' Whereas on the occasion of some proceedings
begun by him (the Emperor) against the Jewish books,
but left only half completed, owing to pressing business,
certain pamphlets had been published by Eeuchlin,
which were opposed to the Emperor's undertaking, and
especially a more recent one, which had heaped insults on
the Dominicans of Cologne, and on Arnold von Tungern
in particular ; and whereas this last pamphlet was cal-
culated to stir up ill-feehng among the people — he (the
Emperor) commissioned the Archbishops of Cologne,

1 From Geiger's Life of Beuclilin, pp. 272-278. In the polemical art
Eeuchlin was the precursor of Luther, little as he was inchned, as will be
shown later, to proceed against the Church in Luther's spirit.

60 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Mayence, and Treves, and the Chief Inquisitor, to see
that wherever this said pamphlet was discovered it
was instantly seized and its sale prevented.' ^ The Theo-
logical Faculties of Louvain, Cologne, Mayence, Erfurt,
and Paris also condemned the ' AugenspiegeL'

The Chief Inquisitor, Hoogstraten, commenced pro-
ceedings against Eeuchlin.^

Eeuchhn appealed to Pope Leo X. against the edict
for the suppression of his book, and in order to secure
a favourable hearing at the Court of Eome he addressed
a most servile letter to Leo's Jewish physician in
ordinary, Bonet de Lates. He explained that, in opposi-
tion to the verdict of the Cologne Faculty, which had
condemned the Jewish books to be destroyed, he had
defended their utility; and that was the reason why
the Dominicans of Cologne hated and persecuted
him.

The Pope handed the matter over to the young
Bishop of Spires, George, Count Palatine, who, on his
part, having little knowledge of the subject under dis-
pute, commissioned his prebendary, George Truchsess,
a pupil of Eeuchlin's, to determine the rights of it. The
verdict of the latter was as follows : ' That the " Augen-
spiegel " was quite free from heresy, was neither slander-
ous nor irreverent, nor too friendly to the Jews, and that
it might safely be distributed and read everywhere ; that
Hoogstraten had been unfair to it, and that he should be
punished by a fine and bound over to silence on the
subject for evermore.'

Hoogstraten in his turn then appealed to the Pope,

' Geiger's Life of BeucMin, pp. 279-281.

- Concerning these proceedings only the one-sided accounts of Eeuchlin
and his friends have hitherto become known.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 61

and the latter appointed Cardinal Grimani to be the
judge. In June 1514 Grimani summoned the contend-
ing parties to Eome.

Hoogstraten was to appear in person, but Eeuchlin,
on account of his age, might be represented by his coun-
sel. Hoogstraten responded at once to the summons, but
the case dragged on from year to year. In vain the
Archduke Carl, afterwards Emperor, represented to
the Pope in 1515 that the mischief only increased the
longer the settlement of the case was delayed ; that a
decision ought to be arrived at speedily, in order to
avert the ruin of the Christian population, and to clear
away all stumbling-blocks from the paths of the weaker
brethren.

Eeuchlin had influential patrons at Eome, both secu-
lar and clerical.^ The Pope, foreseeing no danger,
remained inactive.

In Germany, however, that which the Cologne theo-
logians had predicted in 1514 had meanwhile come to
pass. ' If the levity of the " poets " in these matters
which concern the Faith is not checked,' the theologians
had written, ' they will grow more and more unscrupu-
lous in attacking the truths of theology.'

While the older humanists, such as Jacob
Wimpheling and Sebastian Brant,- although on friendly
terms with Eeuchlin, in no way concurred in these
proceedings of his, the ' poets,' or younger humanists,
on the contrary, rallied round him in large numbers
and urged him forward to the fight. It was owing to

^ Among these patrons was Stephan Rosinus, chaplain to the Emperor
Maximilian, and his agent in Rome.

^ See Schmidt, notice on Sebastian Brant in the Bevue d' Alsace,
nouvelle serie, iii. 41-42.

62 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

their influence, indeed, that this formerly grave and
dignified scholar chano^ed both his attitude and his
language, and used weapons against the Cologne
theologians which were otherwise foreign to his nature
and character.

These 'poets,' now banded together for the first
time in a close federation, made use of the Eeuchlin
complications in their warfare against Church
authority, against clerical scholastic learning, and
above all against the Dominican Orders, whose members
perpetuated in all the universities the traditional learn-
ing of the schoolmen.

Their campaign against these monks was greatly
assisted by their publishing abroad in Latin and
German pamphlets the story of a crime which four
Dominicans had committed by means of sham spiri-
tual apparitions, mechanically contrived. The case
had been brought before the ecclesiastical court and
conducted by the Bishops of Lausanne and Sitten and
a legate appointed by Pope Julius II., and sentence
of death pronounced. The monks had then been
stripped of their sacerdotal garb in the open market-
place by the legate, had been pronounced unworthy
of their priestly dignity, and handed over to the arm
of the secular law for execution. This scandalous
incident was now used also against the ecclesiastical
dignitaries and the clergy in general.

' All monks and ecclesiastics are liars and
deceivers,' cried the ' poets.' ' All men of culture
must join in battle against them.'

The generalship of these ' poets ' was assumed by
Mutian. After having written to Petrejus, in October
1512, that, as Eeuchlin's eulogist, he meant to take

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 63

up his cause, when Tungern's pamphlet appeared he
decided that the time had come when prudence
required a change of front.

To his most intimate friends, however, he confessed
secretly that the condemnation of Eeuchlin appeared
to him just ; the latter, he said, in his criticism of the
Jewish books, had written in a style far more presump-
tuous than the occasion required ; he had collected
together odious and criminal matter to support his
opinion, and had assumed in the most preposterous
manner an air of omniscience.

None the less, however, did Mutian, from hatred of
the ' barbarians,' commend most zealously to the
favour of the humanists the very cause which he had
himself condemned.

' May the gods exterminate the theologians ! ' he
exclaimed to his friends. ' They must not enjoy the
protection of the law ; they have forfeited every claim
to justice.' He enlarged his secret league and wrote
to Eeuchlin : ' Every day brave youths come pouring
in, in whose hearts and mouths your name lives.' ^
All his friends wrote letters to Eeuchlin exhorting him
to persevere in his attacks on the ' reprobate race of
Cologne theologians.' One of them addressed him
with the words : ' Holy Father, peace be with thee.'
Another called him ' a Hercules victorious over the bar-
barian monster.' Crotus Eubianus wrote to him in
1514 : ' It is, no doubt, through the providence of the
gods that this strife has broken out ; they delight to
strengthen through suffering those whom they love.
But be tranquil ; you are not alone in the fight. You
have on j^our side the great scholar Mutian ; you have

^ Keuchlin's Correspondence, p. 256.

64 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

the whole of Mutian's flock — philosophers, orators,
poets, theologians — all devoted to you, all ready to
fight in your cause. Eobanus is endowed with a
divine gift ; he is an admired and successful poet.
In my friend Ulrich von Hutten fiery zeal is coupled
with sagacity. Only speak the word ; we are ready
to serve you at a moment's notice.' Eobanus com-
posed a poem in praise of Eeuchlin, in which he
called him ' the tamer of monsters,' and he wrote
to him in 1515 : ' The senate of the republic of
learning has decreed your triumph. May the gods
destroy the wicked ones and wipe their memory from
the face of the earth ! They deserve that all good men
should hate them, for they are not only persecutors of
learning, but also corrupters of divine religion. I have
just polished off some slashing iambics against those
Cologne demons — that's what you call them, is it not ?
— and am going to write some more and send them to
you when the time comes. I take courage at the
thought that I do not stand alone. I have hopes that
Hutten, Busch, Crotus, and Spalatin, and your country-
men Philomusus and Melanchthon, and a good many
others besides, will join with me in the psean of victory.'
'Your enemies,' wrote Hermann van dem Busch to
Eeuchlin after the decision of the Bishop of Spires,
' look the very picture of frantic envy and hatred.
They roll their eyes, gnash their teeth, groan and
sigh. Be of good courage, I say once more ; you
will soon see all the malice of your adversaries con-
founded.' Ulrich von Hutten wrote to him in the
same encouraging strain on January 13, 1517. 'Be
calm,' he says ; ' I am gathering associates to the cause,
whose age and circumstances are equal to the

THE LATER GEEMAN HUMANISM 65

occasion. You will soon look out from a ' house of
laughter' on the melancholy tragedy of your fallen
enemies. Take heart, take heart ; a train is being
laid which at the auspicious moment will kindle into a
conflagration.'

Ulrich von Hutten, scion of a Franconian knightly
family, was born in 1488 at the castle of Steckelberg.
It was his father's wish that he should be dedicated to
the Church, and in his eleventh year he was placed at
the monastic school of Fulda to be educated. In
1504 or 1505, however, at the instigation of Crotus
Eubianus, he ran away from Fulda, and for many
years led the life of a travelling Literat, going from one
university to another in North and South Germany,
and visiting also the universities of Italy, often in
extreme poverty and presenting the most wretched
appearance. Owing to dissolute living he remained a
prey to ill-health from the year 1508 ; he suffered tor-
tures from painful ulcers, and was often reduced to
such a pitiable condition that a friend once advised
him to commit suicide. He was utterly wanting in
moral discipline and self-restraint. Even his friends
were often alarmed at the fire of excitement and
irritability ever ready to flame out in this fussy, insigni-
ficant-looking little man. ' The slightest word,' wrote
Mutian, ' puts him in a frenzy.' His brilliant powers
and fine humanistic culture filled him with such in-
ordinate self-conceit that he came to regard himself a&
the initiator of a new era, and considered all his
thoughts and actions as of epoch-making importance.

His genius, however, was essentially destructive.

Whatever stood in the way of the misty, undefined
phantom of liberty which he had set up as his ideal, he

V^OL. III. F

66 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

looked upon as tyranny and oppression and strove
with all his might to overthrow. In his behaviour to
his gainsayers all means and measures appeared to
him legitimate — distortion of facts, lies, slander, and
calumny. He was incapable of being inspired by a
great or generous idea.

Contempt and ridicule of the Church, its teaching
and its ordinances, Hutten had learnt from the Erfurt
humanists, into whose circle he had been introduced
by Crotus Eubianus. In a short time he became a
zealous and impassioned follower of Mutian. He looked
on the ' holy man ' as the common leader of all those
who were in league against the barbarians, and he
kept up a correspondence with him through all his
wanderings.

Hutten was so early saturated with a pagan,
anti-Christian spirit that in an elegy to the gods, in
which he bewails his misery to them and calls on them
to avenge him, he mixes up with the heathen deities the
* Christ acquainted with suffering.'

Another noteworthy production of Hutten's is a
•consolatory poem addressed in the year 1515 to the
father of his cousin, Hans von Hutten, equerry to
Duke Ulrich of Wlirttemberg, who had just been
murdered by the Duke. The poem is essentially
from a pagan point of view. Christians, he says,
are, of course, bound to believe that the soul lives
on after death, but even if it perished with the
body, death would be no evil, as it puts an end to all
suffering.

To the papacy Hutten had vowed the bitterest
enmity during his first sojourn in Italy in 1513, when
he composed his epigrams against that ' corrupter of

THE LATEE GERMAN HUMANISM 67

the world,' 'that pest of the human race' Pope
Juhus II.

Oil his return from Italy m 1514 he tried his luck
at the court of the Archbishop of Mayence, Albrecht
von Brandenburg, where his patron, Eitelwolf von
Stein, a friend of Mutian's, held an influential post.
As a revolutionist, who would fain have turned the
world upside down, Hutten was scarcely a friend of
princes, but, for the sake of the object they had in
view, his party, he said, must make use of this species
of humanity, and must praise and flatter them as
Augustuses and Maecenases. They must throw out
nets in all directions to catch their favour ; they must
cringe before them ; they must wheedle themselves into
their service as lawyers and theologians, and not be too
proud to accept oflaces from them. In 1514 he ad-
dressed Albrecht in a poem as ' the ornament of his
age,' ' a jewel of piety, protector of the peace and
defender of learning.' In this poem he makes the
Ehine call all the river gods together to celebrate the
glory of Archbishop Albrecht, and he himself comes
forward to greet his ' king and lord ' as follows : ' Say,
0 Prince, what more will you achieve, you, who in the
flower of your youth are already greater than all your
predecessors ? ' The prince in question, then a youth of
four-and-twenty, did not possess a single merit besides
his high birth. But owing to the accident of birth,
according to the scandalous usage of the times, after
having already been elected Archbishop of Magdeburg
and administrator of the bishopric of Halberstadt, he
was promoted, in addition, to be Archbishop of Mayence
and Primate of the German Church.

Erasmus prophesied from Hutten's panegyric that a

68 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

great epic poet was about to appear in Germany.
Albrecllt sent the poet a present of two hundred gold
florins, and held out to him the prospect of a post at
his court as soon as he should have completed the study
of jurisprudence, which he had begun in Italy. For
this purpose, with pecuniary assistance from Albrecht,
Hutten travelled to Eome, and later on to Bologna,
cherishing all the time hatred and enmity against the
' hypocritical, corrupt race of theologians and monks.'
While in Rome he followed the great Eeuchlin case with
close attention, but thought it a matter of perfect
indifference whether the Pope condemned Eeuchlin or
not. ' A single arrow shot by Erasmus at a scoundrel,'
he wrote, ' could not be of less consequence to me than
ten of that Florentine's anathemas, which for many and
valid reasons are no longer much regarded by any one
possessing any remnant of manliness.'

With Erasmus, Hutten had already made acquaint-
ance at Mayence in the year 1514, and soon after that
he began to praise the ' genuine theology ' which
this famous scholar had resuscitated. Although in his
enthusiasm for heathen antiquity he had remained in
complete ignorance of all Christian science, and
especially of theological matters, he addressed Erasmus
in a letter as the ' German Socrates,' who was no less
solicitous about the education of the German people
than Socrates had been about that of his own nation.
He said that he should cleave to him as faithfully as
Alcibiades had to Socrates.

' Arrows against scoundrels,' to use Hutten's ex-
pression, had again been shot by Erasmus in 1515 by
the publication of a new edition of the ' Praise of
Folly,' with commentaries in which the learning of the

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 69

schoolmen, the institution of monasticism, and the
Papal Chair were viciously attacked. This edition was
given out to be the work of one Gerardus Listrius,
but in reality it proceeded — the chief part of it at
any rate — from Erasmus himself.

The full gist and malice of the ' Praise of Folly ' were
now first thoroughly appreciated, and the growing fame
of Erasmus, added to the bitterness of party feeling
engendered by the Eeuchlin controversy, procured
for this second edition a furious sale. At the time of its
appearance other satires of even grosser nature were in
course of preparation in Mutian's circle, notably the
' Epistolae Virorum Obscurorum ' ( ' Letters of Obscure
Men'), written by Crotus Eubianus and Ulrich von
Hutten. These letters, the first part of which appeared
in 1515 and 1516, and the remainder in 1517, were
expected to strike the death blow at obscurantism.

Nearly the whole of the ' Epistolae ' relate to the
Eeuchlin controversy, but their real object was not so
much to shower scorn on Eeuchlin's antagonists as to
attack the authority of the Church. As Justus Menius
rightly pointed out later on, the Cologne obscurantists
were not the real mark of the libellous shafts ; the
authority of the Church was already being under-
mined.

Erasmus had no share in the comxposition of these
Letters ; on the contrary he deprecated their tone ;
but Prince Carpi was justified in saying that it was the
' Praise of Folly ' that had put their weapons into
the hands of the authors of the ' Epistolae,' and that
Erasmus was thus their spiritual father. In substance
they were in fact little more than a reproduction of
the ' Praise of Folly ' carried to the extreme of gross-

70 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

ness and personality. The most objectionable parts of
them, as in the earlier satire, are those which make fun
of the Holy Ghost. Erasmus had allowed himself free
and irreverent use of Scripture for purposes of carica-
ture : in the ' Letters of Obscure Men ' monks who were
held up to derision were made to quote passages from
the Bible in extenuation of obscene matters. Erasmus,
a man devoid of all moral seriousness, set himself up as
an eloquent preacher of morality, and turned the whole
system of monasticism into ridicule ; but he abstained
from mentioning individuals. His successors, Crotus
and Hutten, bespattered named individuals with the
mud in which they themselves wallowed, and did not
even spare the immaculate Arnold von Tungern, whom
they accused of writing most shameful things and of
carrying on an adulterous connection with the wife of
Pfefierkorn.

The similes in the ' Epistolae ' are of the most
offensive description. Our Lord Jesus Christ is com-
pared to Cadmus ; as Cadmus went forth in search of
his sister, so Christ seeks after his sister the human
soul ; because Christ had two nativities, one before aU
time and another in his human form, he is compared
to the twice-born Bacchus ; Semele, who brought up
Bacchus, signifies the Virgin Mary. The Pope is
spoken of with the utmost derision, confession and
the worship of relics are ridiculed ; the holy vestment at
Treves is called a shabby old coat, and the three holy
kings of Cologne are said to have been probably three
Westphalian peasants.

The ' genuine theology of Erasmus,' which had be-
come a stock phrase, plays its part in these satires, and
is held out as a means for reforming the Church and

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 71

dissipating the errors which have crept in. By such
men as Erasmus, we are informed, God intends to
visit with His judgment those stiff-necked divines who
persist in the foul, obscure, senseless theology which
was invented several hundred years ago. From want
of linguistic knowledge the divines were not in a
position to understand the Scriptures. Mutian also is
here included among the men chosen out to punish
those people ' who are playing their last card.'

Hoogstraten in his apology expressed himself as
follows concerning the writers of this libellous book :
' We do not intend to write in the style of those calum-
niators whose mouths are full of hatred and bitterness,
but empty of wisdom and learning, and who delight
in abusive language such as one scarcely hears from
the lowest roughs. God Himself, to whom be eternal
praise, will judge between them and us.'

' He who is throned above the clouds,' says the
same writer in an apostrophe to Eeuchlin, ' knows our
hearts, and is a witness that we are innocent victims of
all this slander and abuse ; He knows that we pray
fervently to Him without ceasing, and that we have
not followed the example of those professors of false
doctrines who besmirch godly men with damaging
obloquy. None who are lovers of truth will ever be
able to say that the theologians of Cologne behaved
craftily or treacherously towards you, but rather that
they have only struggled for the defence of Christian
truth. Nothing that we have done has been prompted
by hatred, or done for the satisfaction of our own
vanity ; w^e have only acted in righteous conformity to
papal injunctions, which require of us as a duty to
withstand all error.'

72 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Pfefferkorn also took up the cudgels against the
' Epistolae ' and issued a pamphlet called the ' Defence,'
written both in German and Latin, and a little volume
called ' Streitblichlein,' in which publications he in-
veighed against the irreverent handling of sacred things
in the ' Epistolae,' and also against the calumnious
charges aimed at him personally.

These pamphlets appeared in 1516 and 1517.
Pfefferkorn dedicated them to Albrecht, Archbishop of
Mayence, whom he implored to take measures against
the Jews' books, to close the Eeuchlin case, which
had now been dragging on for three years, and to
vindicate him (Pfefferkorn) against the impugnment of
his honour before both a secular and an ecclesiastical
tribunal. Albrecht, however, threw aside the pam-
phlets without reading them and sent the bearer away
without any answ^er.

This behaviour of the Archbishop was not prompted
by any idea that Pfefferkorn had gone too far in his
demands against the Jews; for while he (Pfefferkorn)
only proposed that their books should be taken from
them, and that they should be compelled to earn their
living by honest labour, and to attend sermons at stated
times, Albrecht was himself at the very time working
to bring about their perpetual banishment from Ger-
many, organising a league for the purpose and en-
deavouring to gain more more princes and towns to the
cause. But he had been caught in the nets of the
humanists with whom he had surrounded himself, and
had taken a decided line against the Cologne Faculty,
whom he would not even suffer to bring their cause
before a court of justice.

' May the earth open and swallow up that baptised
Hebrew, and all the poisonous crew of hypocritical

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 7

o

theologians and monks who are backing him up ! '
So Albrecht's physician in ordinary, Henry Stromer,
had written to Eeuchlin in August 1516,

It was Archbishop Albrecht's ambition to make
his electoral court a centre of learning and art, and
to imitate the Medicis on German soil. 'Where in
the whole of Germany,' writes Hutten, ' is there a
scholar whom Albrecht does not know, or what man of
learning and culture has ever addressed himself to the
Archbishop whom he has not loaded with his favour
and generosity ? ' Artists, like Albert Durer and
Matthiius Grlinewald, miniature-painters, like Beham
and Glockendon, received from him frequent commis-
sions ; sculptors and gold artificers were paid princely
sums by him to enrich with splendid works of art the
cathedral of Mayence and its treasuries. The Arch-
bishop was passionately fond of music, and he procured
musicians from far and near, even from Italy, to
heighten the charms of those sumptuous banquets
which were often graced by the presence of ladies.
Eichly embroidered carpets and sparkling mirrors
adorned his halls and apartments ; costly dishes and
recherche wines covered his tables. As Prince Elector
he revelled in outward pomp and magnificence ; he had
a body-guard of a hundred and fifty armed riders ;
crowds of court-servants in splendid liveries ac-
companied him when he rode in and out ; pages of
noble birth were trained at his court in all elegant,
knightly demeanour. The brilliancy of his retinue
elegant the whole atmosphere of his entourage were a
theme for countless panegyrists, but were scarcely in
accordance with the position and calling of arch-
bishop and Primate of the German Church. Albrecht
was by no means a man of vital, inward piety, or of

74 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

serious moral character. He had never even mastered
the groundwork of theology, and he did not concern
himself at all about the practical training of the clergy.
While regarding the scholastic learning that had
hitherto been in vogue as a remnant of barbarism he
held forth in rapturous terms about the divine genius
of Erasmus, which was about to restore to its pristine
glory the degenerate theology of the present day. He
promised Erasmus his zealous support, and Erasmus iu
return extolled Albrecht, in a letter to Eeuchlin, as
' the sole ornament of Grermany in our age,' lamenting
grievouslv, however, that he should have lowered
himself by becoming a ' monk of the Eomish Pope '
and accepting a cardinal's hat.

The ' poets ' who resided at the Archbishop's court,
freethinkers all of them, and scoffers at religion, held
their meetings, according to the ' Epistolae Virorum
Obscurorum,' in the Crown Hostel. They carried swords
and rapiers at their side ; they gambled for indulgence
tickets, carried on blasphemous talk, and made game of
any unlucky monks or ' doctors ' whose evil stars led
them to the same resort. Ulrich von Hutten, one of
the frequenters of this inn, makes a monk relate in the
' Epistolae ' that he (Hutten) had once said, that if the
Dominicans treated him as they had treated Eeuchlin
he would proclaim a feud against them, and cut off
the noses and ears of any of them who fell into his
hands.

With Hutten talk of this sort was not mere bravado.
Erasmus tells later on, as a fact generally known by the
people, that Hutten had actually cut off the ears of two
preaching monks who had fallen into his hands, and had
committed many similar acts of brutality. Feud and

THE LATER GEHMAN HUMANISM 75

rapine were thoroughly in accordance with his wild,
undisciplined nature. Once in 1509 he requested his
cousin Ludwig von Hutten to knock down a certain
tradesman, who was an enemy of his, on the way to the
Frankfort fair : he was not to kill him, as that would
not be advisable, but to shut him up in the tower, and
he himself would finish off the punishment.

Before Hutten was actually received into the service
of Archbishop Albrecht on his return from Italy in the
autumn of 1/617 he brought out a new edition of Lau-
rentius Valla's book on the fictitious Donation of Con-
stantine to Pope Sylvester and his successors, and he
accompanied it with a preface to Pope Leo X., which ex-
ceeded all that had ever been written against papacy in
virulent invective, scorn, and derision. He described all
the former popes as robbers, plunderers, tyrants, and ex-
tortioners, who had put a money price on the pardon of
sins, and had turned the punishments of the next world
into a source of revenue for themselves. 'None but
the great Leo X.,' said the hypocrite, ' had been a good
pope' — that same Leo of whom Hutten had spoken a
short time before as a frivolous, avaricious Florentine.
' Leo,' he now declared, ' had restored peace and justice,
truth and freedom, and was prepared to give up his
secular dominion ; he would of his .own accord
graciously renounce what must have been taken from
him by force if he had been a bad pope.'

It had, indeed, long been the maxim of Hutten that
in the sacred cause of freedom force would soon become
imperative, and he had shown plainly enough in his
' Triumph of Reuchlin ' what might be expected from
his ' party,' supposing the latter to have acquired
sufiicient strength for the execution of its plans. In

76 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

this poem, in which he loads Eeuchhn's enemies witli
chains and showers insuUs on them, he calls on the
hangman to mangle and mutilate Pfefierkorn, and drag
him along by the feet. He gloats gruesomely over the
tortures which the hangman is to perpetrate on
Pfefferkorn :

Hurl him down with his hated face to the earth ;

Upwards straighten his knees, that he may not behold the heavens,

That his staring glance may not perturb you.

With his slandering mouth let him gnaw the earth,

With his lips let him feed on the dust.

Why do you tarry, you hangman ? make haste, open wide his mouth ;

Tear out his tongue, tear it out, that author of evil unspeakable.

Hack off his ears and his nose, and fix right fast in his feet

The iron ; haul him roimd by his knees.

That his face and his heart may sweep the earth.

Knock out his teeth and make his lips innocuous.

Have you fastened his hands behind him and gagged him tight ?

Then crop off his finger-tips as well, O hangman.

To many people it seemed incomprehensible that an
archbishop and a Primate of the German Church
should have taken such a man as Hutten into his
service. ' The ecclesiastical and the secular princes,
the first even more than the last,' wrote Prince Carpi
ten years later with reference to Hutten's literary
productions, ' are now reaping fruits which to a greai
extent they have sown themselves, or whose growth, ai
-any rate, they have fostered. It is essentially with the
" poets " that all the risings against Church and
Commonwealtli, all the violations of law and order
which we see around us have had their origin. But
who are they who encouraged these same " poets " and
made use of their services ? Church dignitaries of the
highest rank have not infrequently harboured at their
voluptuous courts flatterers and sycophants, who in a
semi-pagan spirit railed at everything that was sacred

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 77

to the nation, and aimed at the subversion of all existing
institutions.' This impious poesy-mongering and
literary parasitism had resulted in immeasurable evil,
and the worldliness and irreligiousness of ecclesiastical
princes were largely to blame for the contempt in which
the clerical status had come to be held and for the
anarchy with which church and state were threatened.

But this unholy poesy-mongering, Prince Carpi
mio-ht have added, had met with encourao-ement at the
Romish Court much earlier even than in Germany, and
the Eenaissance had already unfolded its briUiant and
seductive blossoms in Eome long before it had become
recognised in German3^ A very small proportion of
the 120 ' poets ' who lived at Eome under Leo X., and
besieged the theatres, the palaces, and even the
churches, can be credited with any Christian belief or
sentiment. ■

The courts of very many among the German
ecclesiastical princes — notably that of the Archbishop
of Mayence — were in crying contradiction to the
vocation of Church dignitaries, but the Court of Leo
X., with its extravagant expenditure in card-playing,
theatres, and all manner of worldly entertainments, was
still more flagrantly opposed to the position of chief
overseer of the Church. The iniquity of Eome far
exceeded that of the ecclesiastical princes of Germany ;
indeed, the worldliness and profligacy of the latter
would scarcely have reached the point it did, or at any
rate would not have been tolerated so long, had it not
been for the example set by the Pontifical Court.

In Italy, moreover, a movement of emancipation
from the ancient traditions of Christian scholarship and
art, and a spirit of irreverence for the great monuments

78 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

of the Christian past, had been in progress long before
the taint of heathenism had beo-un to infect learnins
and science in Germany.

One of the most striking proofs of this was the order
issued by Pope Juhus II. for the demohtion of the ancient
Basihca of St. Peter's — the shrine for centuries of
universal Christendom — in order to erect on its ruins
a facsimile of the Pantheon. The scheme met with
much disapproval among the population of Eome/ and
cries of lamentation were loud in Germany over the
impending destruction of this venerable sanctuary. The
opinion was uttered that such a project could have
been inspired by no good evangelical spirit, but by the
evil genius of profane art, and that it would not bring
a blessing, but rather a curse, on the country. Julius
II. had proclaimed a sale of indulgences for laying the
foundations of this new St. Peter's Church. Leo X.
renewed the sale in 1514, in order to raise money for
the completion of the building, and employed the
Minorites to proclaim the Bulls relating to the sale.

The chief papal commissioner for North Germanv
was the Archbishop Albert of Mayence, and it occurred
to him that he might profit by this favourable
opportunity for paying off the debt which he had
incurred with the Fuggers of Augsburg for remittance
of the Pallium money to Eome. These Pallium fees
amounted at that time in the archbishopric of Mayence
to a sum of not less twenty thousand Ehenish florins,
which had to be contributed by the different provinces
of the diocese. Within the space of one decade this
enormous sum had been paid up twice — after the death

' See Ranke's History of tlie Pojyes, i. 69-70; v. Neumont, iii. 377 ;
Pastor's History of the Popes, iii. 707.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 79

of Archbishop Berthold von Henneberg in 1504 and of
Jacob von Liebenstein in 1508. Hence the cathedral
chapter, on a fresh vacancy of the Papal Chair in 1514,
after the death of Uriel von Gemmingen, had gladly
accepted Albert's proposal, if he were chosen Arch-
bishop, to bear the costs of the Pallium himself.
Albert had borrowed the money from the Fuggers, and
the latter were now referred to the Pope's dealers for
repayment of this debt out of the proceeds of the sale
of indulgences, half of which was to be handed over to
them and the other half to the building fund of St.
Peter's.

This disgraceful bargain had been concluded in the
summer of 1514, but was not carried into effect till
1517. At the beginning of this year the preaching of
indulgences was started, and almost simultaneously the
Church was violently convulsed by the appearance on
the scene of the Augustinian monk Martin Luther.

Luther ^ and Hutten

Martin Luther was born at Eisenach on November
10, 1483. His youth, passed at Mansfeld, was a
period of hardship and suppression, not so much on
account of the poverty of his parents as from the ex-
treme severity with which he was treated both at home
and at school. He himself relates that his mother once
whipped him till he bled, all about a miserable nut, and
that another time his father punished him so cruelly
that he was filled with hatred against him, and was very
nearly running away from home. At school he once

* (For footnotes about Luther, which are very lengthy and numerous,
and which refer to German books not translated into English, or to Latin
writers, see vol. ii. pp. 70-141 of German original.— Translator.)

80 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

got fifteen thrashings in one morning ; and with all this
beating and misery, he says, he learnt nothing at all.
This system of education developed a timid, nervous
disposition, and left no room for joyous obedience. It
was well calculated to daunt and crush the passion-
ate spirit of the boy, but not to curb and direct it. In
his fourteenth year Luther was sent to the school of the
Ntdlbrilder at Magdeburg, and in the following year
to the Latin school at Eisenach. So great was his
poverty that he was obliged to sing in the streets to
earn a crust of bread. His religious feelings were
strongly influenced at this period by the solemn church
services of the place and the religious plays performed
there, and especially by the German hymns, in which
the whole congregation used to join during the service.

When he was about sixteen years old a great change
took place in his life at Eisenach, owing to the kindness
of Frau Cotta, a rich lady of noble birth, who took him
to live with her own family. She had taken a great
fancy to him, says Luther's eulogist Mathesius, on
account of his beautiful voice and his devout behaviour
in church. In 1501 Luther went to the Monastery of
Erfurt to study philosophy and law. In 1502 he took
the degree of Bachelor of Philosophy, and three years
later that of Doctor, after which he was occupied for
a short time in lecturing on the physics and ethics of
Aristotle.

At Erfurt he pursued zealously the study of the
classics ; he read most of the works of the Latin authors,
Cicero, Livius, Virgil, and Plautus, attended the human-
istic lectures of Hieronymus Emser, and distinguished
himself so greatly, says his biographer, that the whole
university wondered at his intellectual powers.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 81^

Among the younger humanists whose circle he
joined, Crotus Eubianus and Johannes Lange were his
special friends, but he hnnself passed among his asso-
ciates as a musician and a learned philosopher rather than
as a poet. He joined heartily in all their social pleasures,
and dehghted them with his singing and music. But
he would often pass suddenly from mirth and cheerful-
ness to a gloomy, despondent state of mind, in which
he was tormented by searchings of conscience. In the
year 1505 he sustained a great shock in the sudden
death of a friend, who was stabbed in a duel, and in the
same year he was caught in a terrific thunderstorm,
during which his life was in danger. ' As I hurried
along with the anguish and fear of death upon me,' he
wrote later on, ' I vowed a vow that was wrung from me
by terror.' Soon after he gathered his friends together
at a supper, which was enlivened by lute-playing and
singing, and then informed them of the resolve he had
made to renounce the world and become an Augus-
tinian monk. ' To-day you see me,' he said, ' but after-
wards no more.' All the entreaties of his friends were
useless. They accompanied him, weeping, to the doors
of the monastery.

It was characteristic of Luther that the only books
which he took with him into his retreat were the
pagan poets Virgil and Plautus. What the Dominican
monk Peter Schwarz said against exclusive devotion to
the classics and the study of law was entirely appli-
cable to Luther up to within the last years before the
great crisis of his life. ' How many men now-a-days
study poetry and poetising, and how few study the Holy
Scriptures ; how many master the subtleties of law, and
how few have any knowledge of the Gospel ! ' Eeuchlin,

VOL. III. G

82 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

in like manner, complained that the Scriptures were
neglected at the present day for the arts of ^rhetoric
and poetry. While in all the Latin schools which ad-
hered to the traditional Church methods the study of
the Bible was carried on assiduously it appears that in
the schools which Luther attended, if we may believe
his own testimony, the ancient classics alone were
taught. ' When I was twenty years old I had not
yet seen a Bible ; I thought there were no other gos-
pels and epistles besides those in the homilies.' These
words are the more astonishing, seeing that when he
was twenty years of age he had already been for two
years a student at the Erfurt University, where there
could have been no lack of opportunity for becoming
acquainted with the Bible, which had been a recognised
subject of study there ever since the middle of the
fifteenth century. Of the still extant manuscript
theological works in one of the town libraries of Erfurt
exegetical writings make up about one-half ; and in 1480
a scholarship was founded at the University of Erfurt for
-an eight years' course of study of the Holy Scriptures,
' with some attention also to canon law.'

' I entered the monastery,' writes Luther, ' and
renounced the world, despairing of myself all the
while.' In spite of the decided objections of his father,
who mistrusted Martin's vocation for the monastic life,
and who wished to see his extraordinarily gifted son
loaded with worldly distinction and married to a
wealthy wife, Luther took the vow of the Eremites of
St. Augustine, to live in povert}^ and chastity after the
rule of St. Augustine until death. 'In opposition to
the fifth commandment,' his father said to him on his
consecration as priest, ' you liave forsaken your dear

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 83

mother and myself in our old age, when we might have
expected some help and comfort from you, seeing how
much your studies have cost us.'

It was not in response to a real call that Luther
had entered the monastery, but in obedience to a
sudden, impetuous resolve, formed after an attack of
morbid discontent with his inner spiritual condition ;
and the means by which, after having become a monk,
he endeavoured to obtain the peace he lacked only
aggravated his condition. He fell a victim to a morbid
hyper-scrupulousness, which was, no doubt, fostered in
great measure by the isolation of the monastic life.
Simple, unquestioning obedience to the rules of his
Order became distasteful to him. It was his duty to
say liis ' Horaa ' daily, but, carried away by his passion
for study, he often let weeks go by without taking his
breviary in his hand ; then he would try to make up
all at once for past omissions, would shut himself up in
his cell, touch neither food nor drink for several weeks,
go without sleep, and torture himself to such an extent
that he was once nearly losing his senses. The pre-
scribed rules of ascetic practice did not satisfy him. I
imposed on myself additional penances,' he writes ; ' I
devised a special plan of discipline for myself. The
seniors in my Eule objected strongly to this irregularity,
and they were right. I was a criminal self-torturer
and self-destroyer, for I imposed on myself fastings,
prayers, and vigils beyond my powers of endurance ;
I wore myself out with self-mortifications, which is
nothing less than self-murder.' The old monastic
proverb was amply verified in Luther : ' In a monk
everything but obedience is despicable.' Like all
liyper-sensitive souls he saw in himself nothing but

G 2

84 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

sin, in Grod nothing but wrath and vengeance. .With
this agony of remorse there mingled no feehng of love
to God, no childlike hope in His mercy through Christ.
The thought of the Deity awoke no emotion in him
but that of unmitigated fear, and he was for ever
seeking to appease the Divine wrath by his own
righteousness, by the power of works which should
bring- him into a condition of sinlessness. ' I was a
most outrageous believer in self-justification, a right
presumptuous seeker of salvation through works, not
trusting in God's righteousness, but in my own.'

In this way he came gradually to such a con-
dition of hopeless despondency and despair that, as he
says, he actually hated God and raved against Him,
and hated his own existence, often wishing that he had
never been born. ' From misplaced reliance on my
own righteousness,' he says, ' my heart became full of
distrust, doubt, fear, hatred, and blasphemy of God.
I was such an enemy of Christ that whenever I saw an
image or a picture of Him hanging on His cross I loathed
the sight and I shut my eyes, and felt that I would
rather have seen the devil. My spirit was completely
broken, and I was always in a state of melancholy, for
do what I would my ' righteousness ' and my ' good
works ' brought me no help or consolation.' Strange
to say, Luther, in later years, attributed this melan-
choly spiritual condition to the influence of the Church's
teaching concerning good works, while as a fact he was
in complete opposition to this, as to all other doctrines
of the Church.

Any manual of religious instruction and devotion
might have taught him that the Church repudiated all
Pharisaic doctrines of self-justification, and considered

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 85

Christ and His merits as the sole foundation of Christian
righteousness, and the grace of Christ as the source of
all life and action that was pleasing in the sight of
God ; and, above all, in the eyes of the Church ascetic
practices were merely means to an end, wholesome
discipline for weakening and overcoming sinful inclina-
tions with the help of grace, but in no way meritorious
actions on which man could build hopes of acceptance
with Cod. ' Man must fix his faith, hope, and love on
Ood and not on anything created.' So runs the caie-
chism of Dietrich Eoehde, published in 1470. 'He must
trust in nothing but the merits of Christ.' In the
* Seelenwurzgartlein,' one of the most complete and
widel}^ used prayer-books of the time, there stands the
following injunction : ' You must place all your hope
and trust on nothing but the merits and death of
Jesus Christ.' ' Man must die trusting in the mercy of
<jod and not in his own good works,' says Ulrich Krafft
in his ' Spiritual Conflict ' of the year 1503. Amongst all
the books recognised and used by the Church, whether
learned works or religious tracts for the people, there
is not a single one in which the doctrine of justifica-
tion through Christ is not clearly set forth.

Whilst this condition of spiritual despair and self-
torture continued, Luther found no comfort or relief in
receiving the Sacrament. Twice at Erfurt and once in
Eome he sought alleviation of his misery by making
plenary confession, but it was all in vain. His whole
nervous system was so strained and overwrought that
when he was at Eome, as he wrote in later years, he
almost wished that his parents were dead, so that he
might have the joy of releasing them from purgatory by
his good works and his Masses. He says that he felt

86 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

at that time that he might even have become a hideous
murderer for the sake of rehgion, had the opportunity
been at hand. ' I should have been ready to kill any
one and every one for daring to refuse obedience to
one syllable from the Pope.'

Such a state of religious exaltation could not but
be followed by a violent reaction. Eacked thus in the
innermost depths of his being, and tortured to death
by his conscience, Luther ended by passing over to the
other extreme. If he had hitherto put overmuch con-
fidence in his own good deeds, he now cast away all
reliance whatever on human strenofth and riohteousness
in the work of salvation. He began to believe that
man, by reason of inherited sin, had become altogether
depraved and had no free-will ; that all human action
whatever, even that which was directed towards good,
was an emanation from man's corrupt nature and there-
fore, in the sight of God, nothing more or less than
deadly sin ; that it was by faith alone that man could
be saved. ' When we believe in Christ we make His
merits our own possession ; ' it was thus that he now
taught. ' We put on the garment of His righteousness,
which covers all our guilt and our condition of perpe-
tual sinfulness, and furthermore makes up in super-
fluity for all human shortcomings ; hence, when once
we believe, we need no longer be tormented in our
consciences.' ' Be a sinner if you will,' he writes to a
friend, ' and sin right lustily, but believe still more
lustily, and rejoice in Christ, who is the vanquisher of
sin.' ' From the Lamb that takes away the sin of the
world, sin will not separate men, even though they
should commit fornication a thousand times a day and
murders as frequently.'

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 87

This new doctrine of justification by faitli alone
Luther considered the central point of Christianity. It"
summed up for him the whole of Scripture ; it was the
truth which had long lain hidden on a shelf; he called
it, in short, the ' New Gospel,' the only medicine for the
salvation of Christendom. His teachings, he declared,
contained Gospel truth as pure and unadulterated
almost as that of the Apostles ; what, indeed, did the
word ' gospel ' mean but a new, a good, a joyful mes-
sage, or good news, the announcement of something
that people rejoice to hear ? This can never be laws or
commandments, for the breaking of which we shall be
punished with damnation ; for no one would rejoice at
such an announcement.

This new doctrine began shaping itself gradually in
Luther's mind in the year 1508, after his appointment
to the professorship of philosophy at the Wittenberg
university, founded six years before. This post had
been conferred on him by the Elector Frederic of
Saxony at the instigation of Luther's intimate friend
Johann von Staupitz. Luther's departure from Erfurt,
according to contemporary records of the year 1508,
was not a matter of regret to the ' Brothers ' there, for
Luther ' was always in the right ' in all disputations,
and he dearly loved disputing.

At Wittenberg Luther devoted himself chiefly to
BibUcal and theological studies ; he was invested with
the dignity of Doctor of Divinity in 1512, and lectured
to admiring audiences on the Pauhne letters — the
letters to the Eoraans especially — the Psalms, and St.
Augustine. He also gained great fame as preacher in
the Cathedral Church. 'This Brother has deep-set
eyes,' said Martin Polhch, the first rector of the

88 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Wittenberg University, of Luther ; ' he must have
"Wonderful thoughts and ideas.'

Ah'eady several years before the outbreak of the
indulgence controversy Luther had put himself outside
the teaching of the Church by his opinions on grace
and justification and the absence of free-will; and in
the year 1515, according to the testimony of his eulogist
Mathesius, he was denounced as a heretic. ' Our
righteousness,' he said in a sermon preached at Christ-
mas 1515, ' is only sin ; each one of us, therefore, must
accept the grace offered by Christ.' ' Learn, dear
brother,' he wrote on April 7, 1516, to the Augustinian
George Spenlein at Memmingen, ' learn to despair of
thyself and say : "Thou, Lord Jesus, art my righteousness;
I am Thy sin. Thou hast taken what is mine and given
me what is Thine." Only through Christ, and through
utter abnegation of thyself and thine own works, shalt
thou find peace.' He was already so firmly convinced
of the truth of this teaching that he added an anathema
to it : ' Cursed be whoever does not believe this.' His
tenets are expressed in the most outspoken terms in
the report of a disputation held at the university in
September 1516, on which occasion he had asked to be
elected president of the debate — an honour which
ought by right to have been conferred on another
member. In this discussion the following thesis,
among others, was defended : ' Man commits sin when-
ever he acts according to his own impulses, for of him-
self he can neither think nor will rightly. Of the
twenty- nine theses which he wrote out for a Docto-
randen the fourth runs thus : ' The truth is that man,
after having become a corrupt tree, can will and do
nothing but what is bad ; ' and the 5th : ' It is false to

THE LATEE GERMAN HUMANISM 89

say that the will of man is free and can decide one
way or another : our wills are not free, but in captivity.'

It was during the Lent of 1517 that he began
preaching his new tenets openly among the people. In
these sermons he inveighed fiercely against those vain
babblers who had filled Christendom with their chatter,
and had misled the poor credulous folk with their
pulpit utterances, telling them that they ought to have
or to cultivate good wills, good intentions, good ways
of thinking. Where no will whatever existed, Luther
taught them, God's wiU was the best of all.

Already in July 1517, three months before the
beginning of the indulgence controversy, Duke George
of Saxony expressed his fears of the effect of such
teaching on the people. When Luther proclaimed, in
a sermon preached at Dresden on July 25 by desire of
the Dake, that the mere acceptance of the merits of
Christ insured salvation, and that nobody who pos-
sessed this faith need doubt of his salvation, the Duke
said more than once at table, in serious earnest, ' he
would give a great deal not to have heard this sermon,
which would only make the people restive and mutinous.'

Luther's doctrines, for which he thought he found
support in St. Augustine, had spread through the whole
University of Wittenberg, so he writes, as early as the
year 1516.

It was after October 31, 1517, that they began to
be disseminated throughout Germany.

It was on this day that Luther, incensed by the
indulgence preacher Johann Tetzel, affixed to the/
church door at Wittenberg twenty-nine theses attack-
ing the virtue of indulgences.

Tetzel, a Dominican monk and a favourite popular

90 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

preacher, had been appointed by Albert, Archbishop of
Mayence, sub-commissioner in Upper Germany, to carrv
on the sale of indulgences established by Leo X. for the
building of St. Peter's Church. His sermons attracted
everywhere immense crowds of people.

The erroneous views still current concerning these
sermons on the sale of indulgences spring chiefly from
the reason that things of very different natures have
not been carefully enough distinguished. Whoever
wished to procure an indulgence for him or herself
was required first to make confession in true peni-
tence, to attend church devoutly, and to contribute
to the building of St. Peter's Church in proportion to
his or her means. The indulgence preachers were ex-
pressly enjoined ' to dismiss no applicant without
grace, as in this transaction the welfare of Christian
believers was no less considered than the buildinfif of
the church Those who had no money to contribute
were to give their prayers and faith, for the kingdom of
heaven was not open to the rich more than to the poor.'

With regard to the granting of indulgences to the
living, Tetzel's teaching was throughout irreproachable,
and the statement that he sold pardon for sin for
the sake of gain without requiring penitence has no
warrant in fact. His proceedings with regard to in-
dulgences for the dead are more open to criticism. It
has often been alleged, though from all appearances
unjustly, that if Tetzel's preaching on this point was not
exactly open to reproach it corresponded closely, at
any rate, to the sense of the lines —

As soon as the gold in the casket rings
The rescued soul to heaven springs.

In order to feel empowered to proclaim this teaching

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 91

the preacher of indulgences had only to believe that
an indulgence for a dead person could certainly be ob-
tained by payment of the prescribed sum, and that the
indulgence procured would, without doubt, be applied
to the particular soul it was bought for. Now both in
the papal bulls of that period and in the Mayence
' Instructions ' drawn up for the guidance of the
preachers the only condition insisted on in applicants
for indulgences for the dead is a gift of money towards
the building of St. Peter's Church ; it is expressl}'
stated that for obtaining this kind of indulgence no
repentance or confession is necessary. Was there any
certainty, however, that the indulgences obtained
would be applied to the souls for which they were
bought ? In the Mayence ' Instructions ' this question
is answered decidedly in the affirmative. And on this
point the compiler of the ' Instructions ' was able to
support his statement by a scholastic interpretation
recognised by eminent theologians. It was merely a
scholastic opinion, however, not Church dogma, that
indulgences for the dead were quite certain to benefit
the particular souls they had been procured for.
Cardinal Cajetanus proves that in the Eome of Leo X.
such a statement certainly did not hold good. No
credence, he said, must be given to theologians and
preachers who made such unfounded assertions. ' The
preachers,' said Cajetanus emphatically, ' come forward
in the name of the Church in so far as they proclaim
the teaching of Christ and of the Church ; but if they
teach out of their own heads, and for their own profit,
things about which they have no knowledge, they cannot
pass as representatives of the Church, and one cannot
wonder if in such cases they fall into error.' It would

92 HISTOEY OF THE GEKMAN PEOPLE

have been better for the Cathohc cause if, in so dehcate a
matter, the German indulgence preachers had observed
the same reticence as Cajetanus. As, however, the
indulgence commissioners themselves inserted in an
official document a very dubious scholastic opinion as
if it were positive truth, what was to be expected from
the ordinary indulgence preacher? Grievous abuses
there certainly were in the proceedings and the be-
haviour of the preachers, and the manner of offering
the indulo'ence bills and toutinsc for customers caused
all sorts of scandal ; Tetzel especially cannot be alto-
gether acquitted of blame. It was not, however, the
abuses of the sale which impelled Luther to the course
he took, but the doctrine of indulgences itself — above
all the Church teaching of good works, which was con-
trary to his views concerning justification and free-will.
The satisfaction which Christ requires, he says, is in
the heart, so that you must not go off to Eome, or to
Jerusalem, or to St. Jacob, or hither and thither in
search of absolution. Christ's letter of indulgence
runs thus : ' If you forgive your debtors my Father will
also forgive you ; but if you do not forgive them,
neither will my Father forgive you your debts.'

Thus the Church also had always taught ; she in-
sisted continually on the necessity of a real conversion
of the heart and a worthy reception of the Eucharist
for each one who wished to obtain absolution — that is
to say, remission of the temporal penalties of sin.

Luther, however, preached that ' this so-called
indulgence brief of Christ's, sealed with His wounds
and ratified by His death, was almost entirely oblite-
rated and washed out by the deluge of Eomish in-
dulgences.' Christ did not say, ' " You must observe so

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 9

o

many fasts for your sins, say so many prayers, give so
much in alms ; you must do this, that, or the other : "
He only required us to renounce all our sins and
forgive those who had trespassed against us. Such ni-
dulgence bills as this would not erect a new Church of
St. Peter, which, no doubt, was what the Devil wanted,
but they would build up the Church of Christ, which
the Devil does not want at all.' Such indulgences,
moreover, could not lose their significance through his
(Luther's) adding that he did not want to reject
Romish indulo-ences altooether. Pointino- out the
deeper ground of his objections, he wrote later on to
Tetzel: 'You need not trouble and distress yourself,
for the matter did not begin with you : this child had,
indeed, quite a different father.' 'The Church was full
of spiritual abuses,' he said once in a memorandum
drawn up for the Elector of Saxony ; ' the notables of
the Empire had complained of them, and the Pope
had promised redress ; as, however, the abuses had not
been suppressed by those whose business it was to get
rid of them, the people were beginning to do away
with them themselves all over Germany, and the clergy
were despised and regarded as ignorant, unworthy,
yea, pernicious people. . . .' This sweeping away of
abuses was already to a great extent in full swing
before Luther's teaching began ; for the whole world
had grown sick and weary of them. Luther, however,
gave all the credit to his own teaching, through which
he said religion would be saved.

Li opposition to Luther's theses Tetzel, on January
20, 1518, posted up a hundred and six antitheses' at

^ The common supposition that Tetzel burnt Luther's theses pubHcly is
incorrect. See Grone, pp. 122-126. Tetzel's antitheses were burnt by the

94 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

the University of Frankfort on the Oder, where he had
taken his degree of doctor of theology. In these the
Church teaching on indulgences was briefly and clearly
set forth. Indulgences do not blot out sins, but only
remit the temporal punishment due to sin, and that only
when the sins have been confessed and truly repented
of. Indulgences do not stultify the merits of Christ,
but substitute for expiatory penalties the expiatory
sufferings of Christ. ' In the holy council of Costnitz,'
writes Tetzel, ' it was decided anew that any one wishing
to obtain an indulgence must first have confessed at the
Sacrament of Penitence, according to the ordinance of
the Holy Church, or must intend so to do.' All papal
indulgence bulls and letters lay down also the same
condition. ' Only those persons are deserving of indul-
gences who are truly penitent, and filled w^ith love for
God, which love does not allow them to remain lazv and
indolent, but stimulates them to serve God and do
great works for His glory.' It is moreover a known
fact that it is Christian, God-fearing, pious people, and
not lewd, idle ones, who are eager to obtain indul-
gences. For all indulgences are given first and fore-
most for the sake of God's glory. Consequently
whoever gives alms to procure an indulgence bill,
cfives to the honour of God, seeino- that no one can obtain
indulgence who has not attained to true penitence and
love of God, and whoever does good works out of love
for God lives to the glory of God. ' It is not for any
works of righteousness we accomplish ourselves that
God gives us salvation, but through His holy mercy.'
Such was the teaching which, according to Tetzel, the

Wittenberg students in the market-place. See Luther's Letters of
March 21 and May 9, 1518, edited by De Wette.

THE LATEK GERMAN HUMANISxAI 95

preachers of indulgences were enjoined to impress on
the hearts of their hearers.

Among the papal bulls and letters of indulgence, in
which the nature of indulgences was clearly stated, we
may specially notice a decree issued by Leo X. in 1518.
The Pope, it said, as successor of St. Peter, the holder
of the keys, and as Vicar of Christ, had authority,
through the power handed over to him w4th the keys
of the Church, to remit both the sins of Christian
believers and the penalties incurred by those sins. The
sins themselves were remitted by the priests in the
sacrament of penitence, but the temporal punishment
of the sins by the absolution of the Church.

As the agitation proceeded Tetzel plainly recognised
that it was no mere scholastic dispute that Luther had
started, but a serious conflict, involving fundamental
principles of Christian doctrine and Church authority.
Already in 1518, in his refutation of Luther's 'Articles
on Absolution and Grace,' he had said : ' These articles
inculcate contempt of the Pope and of the Church ;
henceforth people will no longer believe in the teaching
of the Church, and will interpret Holy Scripture just as
it pleases them ; whereby great spiritual danger will
arise among the Christian populace ; for each one will
believe only what suits him or her.'

The Emperor Maximilian also thoroughly grasped
the whole scope of the contention. Luther's innovations,
he said in a letter to the Pope on August 5, 1518, ' if not
strenuously opposed, would imperil the unity of the
faith, and private opinion would take the place of
traditional dogma.'

Luther claimed from the outset that his cause was
the cause of God ; he expected his assertions to be

96 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

accepted as fixed and unalterable truth. When he sent
his first indulgence theses to his friend Johannes Lange,
on November 11, 1517, he wrote as follows: 'They
reproach me with rashness, arrogance, and a passion
for anathematising, but without some arrogance and
combativeness — or at any rate the semblance of them —
nothing new can be accomplished.' In support of this
statement he alleged the example of Christ and all the
holy martyrs. Why had they been put to death, why
had these teachers been the marks of hatred and envy,
but because they had been regarded as arrogant contem-
ners of time-honoured wisdom, or because, without the
concurrence of those who were versed in old-established
beliefs, they had introduced new ideas and opinions ?
He, Luther, taught the purest theology, which no doubt
was a * stumbling-block to the Jews and to the Greeks
foolishness.' All that he preached, and that his ad-
versaries thus contested, he had received straisfht from
the Almighty.

Luther's reiterated declaration, during the earlier
years of this great controversy, that he would remain
subject to the Pope and the Church, while all the time
he was maintaining his new doctrine of justification by
faith only and of the non-freedom of the human will,
could only be taken to mean that he would remain
true to the Church if the Church came round to his
views. Under these circumstances there could be no
hope that any amount of disputation would lead to a
satisfactory result, neither could any accommodation
be arrived at either through the negotiations held with
Luther by Cardinal Cajetanus at Augsburg in 1518 by
order of the Pope, or by the derogatory attempts at
reconciliation of Carl von Miltitz. In the sure con vie-

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 97

tion that he would be excommunicated, Luther had
already in July 1518 preached a sermon on the power
of the papal ban, in which he propounded a new
theory entirely opposed to Church teaching — namely,
that the true fellowship of the Church was not a
visible but an invisible reality, from which one could
not be excluded by a ban, but only by sin.

Luther's conviction that he was called by God to
proclaim anew the fundamental truths of Christianity,
which had been falsified and distorted since the days
of the Apostles, led him to declare that he would have
his teaching amended by no one, not even by angels.
' Whoever rejects my doctrine,' he said, ' cannot
be saved.' It also led him to the opinion, long held
by the Hussites and other heretical teachers of the
fifteenth century, that the Pope was Antichrist, and
that the Church was languishing in Babylonish captivity.
And these two fixed ideas that he was a divinely
inspired teacher and that the Pope was Antichrist
dominated his whole life and work.

On December 11, 1518, Luther sent to a friend the
report of his negotiations with Cardinal Cajetanus at
Augsburg with the following remark : ' My pen is already
busy with far more important matters, but I send you
my "trifles," in order that you may judge whether I am
right in supposing that the veritable Antichrist, of
whom St. Paul speaks, is now ruling at the Court of
Eome. That the latter is even worse than the Turks I
think I shall have no difficulty in proving.' ' The
Court of Eome,' he wrote to Spalatin on December 21,
1518, 'is fighting Christ and His Church with an arm}-
of monsters that surpasses all the horrors of the Turks.'
And again on March 13, 1516 : 'I don't mind telling

VOL. III. H

98 HISTORY OF THE GEKMAN PEOPLE

3"ou, between ourselves, that I am not sure whether
the Pope is Antichrist himself or only his apostle.'
Ten days before he had written to the Pope that
he swore before God and all His creatures that he had
never dreamt of impeaching the Catholic Church,
that there was nothing in heaven or earth that he
preferred before her. And immediately after, in the
following May, he declared that it was solely for the
sake of the Elector Frederic and the university that
he suppressed much which otherwise he should ' spue
forth ' against Eome, or rather Babylon, the spoiler
of the Church and the perverter of the Holy Scrip-
tures.'

Such was Luther's frame of mind whilst engaged
in the famous disputation with John Eck at Leipzig
during the months of June and July 1510.

When Eck, in the course of the controversy,
objected against him that his views concerning the
papal supremacy scarcely differed from those of the
Hussites, and that the latter consequently boasted
of having found in Luther a new supporter of their
cause, Luther denied that he had an3'thing in com-
mon with the Hussites ; ' he had never,' he said,
' countenanced schismatics, and never would do so.'
Li February 1519 he had written that ' no matter
could be great enough, or become great enough, to
justify separation from the Eoman Church; nay, that
for no sin or evil of any kind that one could name or
think of, ought one to renounce one's love for the
Church and rend asunder its spiritual unity. Huss
and the Hussites he hated as heretics, principally because
they rejected the doctrine of purgatory and the worship
of the saints.' In Leipzig also, he said, the Hussites had

/

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 99

acted very wrongly, because tliey had separated from
the Eoman Church.

Soon after this, however, he formed an entirely
■different opinion about the Hussites. On October 3,
1519, he received letters from two Hussite leaders,
urging him to proceed courageously in the path he
had entered on. 'What John Huss was formerly in
Bohemia,' wrote the provost of the university of Prague,
^ you, Martin, are now in Saxony. I charge you, there-
fore, to pray and to be strong in the Lord ; do not
despair if you are excommunicated as a heretic ;
remember what Christ suffered, and the Apostles.'
The other Hussite exhorted him as follows : ' Do not
let the Antichrist lay hold of you ; he has a thousand
ways of doing harm ; may Christ preserve you ! ' _^^

In February 1520 Luther came to recognise that
he was in truth a Hussite, and that John Huss had
proclaimed the true Gospel. ' The battle is the Lord's,'
he wrote to Spalatin in February 1520, ' who did not
come to bring peace on earth.' ' I, fool, without
knowinof it have tauo-ht and held all the doctrines of
John Huss ; we are all of us Hussites, without having
been aware of it ; yea, Paul and Augustine are
Hussites to the very letter. For very terror I know
not what to think about the awful judgments of
God on mankind, for that men have burnt and con-
demned evangelical truth which has been openly
proclaimed for more than a hundred years, and that
•one is not allowed to confess it.'

At the council of Costnitz he said that the Pope
and his followers had set forth the doctrines of the
dragon of hell in place of the Gospel, that ' Huss was a

H 2

100 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

noble martyr of Christ,' and that he ought to be
canonised.

As Luther maintained that the Gospel truth had
been revealed to him by God, and that he was the
divinely appointed means for proclaiming it anew to
the people, the question arose by what means the Papal
Chair, as the seat of Antichrist, was to be fought
against, and the true Gospel to acquire dominion over the
earth.

The Hussites had spread their evangel with fire and
sword, and Luther also in the first years, after he had
acknowledged himself a Hussite, had no scruples about
advising recourse to violent measures. 'I implore you,'
he wrote to Spalatin in February 1520, 'if you rightly
understand the Gospel, do not imagine that its cause
c'an be furthered without tumult, distress, and uproar.
You cannot make a " pen " out of a " sword," or
" peace " out of " war." The Word of God is a sword,
is warfare, is destruction, is wrath, is spoiling, is an
adder's tongue, and, as Amos says, like the lion in
the footpath and the bear in the forest.'

When Luther wTote these words he had already
gained over to his evangel a powerful confederacy, on
the strength of which he defied all the ' bans, threats^
and spectres of his enemies.'

Luther's first confederates were the humanists. In
their struoole ao-ainst scholastic learnino- and ecclesi-
astical authority the latter welcomed this audacious
reformer, and entered the lists for him in the same
manner as they had previously done for Eeuchlin.

'With their lips and their pens,' wrote Cochlasus,.
' the humanists fought unweariedly for Luther, and
disposed the hearts of the laity towards his cause.

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 101

They attacked the prelates and theologians with all
manner of abusive and derisive language, accused
them of covetousness, pride, envy, ignorance, and
coarseness, and said that they only persecuted the
innocent Luther because he was more learned than
themselves, and because he had sufficient candour to
speak out the truth ' in opposition to the deceit and
falsehood of hypocrites. As these humanists, besides
being shrewd and gifted men, could also use both spoken
and written language with eloquence and skill, it was an
■easy matter for them to excite pity and regard for
Luther among the laity, and to make out that for the
sake of truth and justice he was persecuted by a set of
envious, grasping, unlearned clergy, who, living them-
selves in idleness and debauchery, endeavoured to get
money out of the poor silly people by working on
their superstitions. Luther's friendship with Philip
Melanchthon, who already in earl}' years had become
famous as a humanist all over Germany, served to
strengthen the favourable attitude of the ' poets '
towards the ' Wittenberg herald of new truth.'

Luther himself had tried at a fairly early date to in-"^
gratiate himself with the humanist confederacy, and had
addressed his homage in flattering letters to its leaders,
Mutian, Eeuchlin, and Erasmus. To Mutian, ' that most
learned man, of most exquisite culture,' he spoke of him-
self as a ' barbarian who had always been accustomed to
the cackling of geese,' and begged for the favour of his
friendship. In a letter to Eeuchlin on December 14,
1518, he called himself Eeuchlin's successor, who,
like him, was suffering persecution, but whose courage
was undaunted ; thanks to Eeuchlin, Germany had
begun to breathe again after long centuries during

102 HISTORi' OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

wliicli it had been not simply crushed but ahuost an-
nihilated. 'The beginnings of better knowledge,' he
wrote to Eeuchlin, ' could only come through a man en-
dowed with no small portion of grace.' For as God
had trodden into the dust of death the greatest of all
mountains, Jesus Christ, and from that dust had
sprung numbers of other mountains, so Eeuchlin, he
wrote, would have brought forth but little fruit if he too
had not similarly been slain and trampled into dust,
from which dust so many defenders of the Holy Scrip-
tures had arisen. His lano'uao-e towards Erasmus was
even more subservient. He was ' the ornament and
hope of his age, a man after my own heart, with
whom I commune daily in spirit,' so Luther wrote on
March 28, 1519; 'for where is there anyone whose
inner being Erasmus does not take in at a glance,
whom Erasmus does not instruct, whom Erasmus does
not rule ? ' ' He himself,' he went on, ' during his time
with the sophists had not even got so far as to be on
terms of correspondence with any learned man, but now
that his name had become known to Erasmus through
the indulgence controversy, and that he had learnt
from the preface to the new edition of the " Manual of
a Christian Soldier " that Erasmus approved of his
writings, he ventured to approach him and to beg for
his favour.' He subscribed himself as his most devoted
admirer.

Mutian, whom Luther approached first, was also
the first among the prominent humanists who saw in
Luther's proceedings against Eome the dawn of a
better future ; among his circle the ' new Hercules,'
the ' second Paul,' found the most ardent supporters.
In satires and university lectures Erfurt humanists.

THE LATEE GERMAN HUMANISM 103

such as Euricius Cordus, Justus Jonas, Eobanus Hessus,
entered the Usts against the ' unholy band ' who were
oppressmg Luther, and it was a chief incentive to
them that Erasmus, their venerated leader, had taken
Luther's cause under his protection.

The works and letters of Erasmus were to the
humanists a well-spring of ever fresh enthusiasm for
Luther. 'Whoever read them,' wrote one of them-
selves, ' could no longer turn aside from the great
work begun by Luther.'

After the example of Luther the humanists accus-
tomed themselves to a Biblical style of language,
which soon pervaded all humanistic literature ; they
even became of a sudden scholars of divinity, and
delivered lectures on theological subjects. Where-
as formerly a colleague of Mutian's had devoted a
special lecture to the exposition of the ' Praise of
Folly,' Eobanus Hessus, in 1519, chose the 'Manual of
a Christian Soldier ' as the subject of his discourse.
Erasmus, he said, had brought the world back to the
fountain of true piety, the Bible, and the yoke of
superstition, hypocrisy, and degradation must now be
thrown off. It was not to be tolerated that the
Christian populace, the simple and unlearned masses,
should be any longer deceived by foolish, deceitful
trickery. Under the banner of Christ they must
destroy the host of the enemy. Euricius Cordus
praised Luther as the saviour and emancipator of
piety, as a hero greater than Achilles. Justus Jonas
saw in the whole world nothing but sin and corrup-
tion, and called for a complete breach with the
past. But the most extravagant of them all was
Crotus Eubianus, with whom Luther had in former

104 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

years stood in close friendship at Erfurt. After
having, in 15] 8, in the character of a genuine human-
ist, extolled the Italian Petrus Pomponatius, who had
questioned the immortalit}^ of the soul, and having
welcomed him as an associate in the work of exter-
minating the sophists and monks, he now began to
realise how greatly his ends would be furthered by
Luther's campaign. He at once became ' biblically
minded ' and chose ' The sword of the Holy Scriptures '
as his new watchword. On October 16, 1519, he
wrote to Luther as his ' learned and saintly friend,'
urging him, as the chosen of the Lord, to the most
reckless steps against the ' Papal Chair, the seat of
corruption, the very sight of which caused nausea.'
The stroke of lio;htnino- which had once struck Luther
to the ground at Erfurt was a sign tliat, like a
second St. Paul, he had received a special call from
heaven ; he must go on as he had begun, and all
Germanv would receive the Word of God from him
with rejoicing.

In Lower Germanv, Luther, on his first cominsf for-
ward, found the most enthusiastic supporters among
the humanists, the Eoman lawyers, and the patricians
of Nuremberg ; men like Christopher Scheurl, Hierony-
mus Ebner, Johann Holzschuher, Lazarus Spengler, and
others vied with each other in tokens of approval.
' Luther has become Germany's most illustrious man,'
wrote Scheurl in the year 1518 ; ' his name is on every
one's lips.' ' His friends extol him, worship him, fight
for him, and are ready to go through fire and water
for him ; they kiss his writings, they call him a herald
of truth, a trumpet of the gospel, a preacher of the
one Christ, through whom alone the Apostle Paul

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 105

speaks.' Even Albert Dlirer could scarcely find words
with which to praise Luther as a man enlight-
ened by the Holy Ghost and a follower of the true
Christian Faith, ' who had written with clearer vision
than any other man who had Hved during the last
hundred and forty years.' From men like Luther,
Dlirer hoped for the reahsation of the unity of the
Christian Church, so that all unbelievers, as he said,
' on account of our good works may turn to us of their
own accord and accept the Christian Faith.'

So too Dlirer's friend Wilibald Pirkheimer was for
many years a staunch supporter of Luther, till his eyes
were opened to see the sad effects of the new Gospel,
the ' evangelical ' rascalism which became so common,
and the not evangelical but diabolical libertinism of so
many apostates, both men and women. Pirkheimer
called the scholastic philosophers wild beasts and
hobgoblins, who ought to be thrashed.

In the Latin satire ' Eccius Dedolatus,' ^ presumably
written by Pirkheimer, a dialogue in the spirit of the
* Letters of Obscure Men,' Eck is lield up to general
scorn. He is represented as a thoroughly bad man
and made to say ' that in heart he was one with
Luther, for he was inspired only by the greed of gain,
and that he played upon the superstition and stupidity
of the people to get money out of them.'

Luther had also most zealous partisans among
the humanists of A.ugsburg, Strassburg, Schlettstadt,
Basle, and Zurich. The literary clubs in these towns
distributed freely among the people pamphlets, fugi-

^ Der abgeholte Eck. Dr. Charles Beard, in his Life of Luther, says
of this title : ' Recollecting that " Eck " in German means " a corner," we
may translate this " the corner planed away." ' — Translator.

IOC) HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

tive pieces, and caricatures inimical to the Cliurcli.
They sent hawkers round, who went from house to
house and were only allowed to sell opposition litera-
ture.

The sale of Lutheran books was enormous, and
side by side with them appeared thousands of leaflets,
satires, and pasquils, which struck at all existing insti-
tutions of Church and society.

In no other period of German history did revolution-
ary journalism acquire such importance and such wide
circulation as at that time. Crowds of adherents
flocked round Luther, not from any preference for
his religious opinions, but, as Melanchthon explains,
because they looked upon him as the restorer of liberty,
under which name each (me understood the removal of
whatever stood in his own way, and the attainment of
the particular form of happiness he individually wished
for. Many of his supporters were actuated by no other
motive than the love of destroying. By speech and by
pen they laboured for the destruction of social order,
and undermined through all classes of society all re-
spect for the inward restraints of religion and conscience,
and the outward control of the law.

The most violent and at the same time the most
gifted of these enemies of the existincj order was Ulrich
von Hutten. A man without any respect for or under-
standing of questions of Christian doctrine, he had
from the first, while viewing Luther's controversy as a
contemptible monkish quarrel, realised nevertheless
how much it might advance his own ends. ' Perhaps
you do not yet know,' he wrote to a friend in April
1518, ' that at Wittenberg, in Saxony, one party has
risen up against the power of the Pope, while the

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 107

Other party is defending papal indulgences with all its
micrht. Monks are at the head of the combatants, and
passionate, hot-headed, fanatical leaders the}^ are, now
shouting triumphantly, now wailing and lamenting.
Lately they have also taken to writing. The printers
have their work cut out for them.'

' My hope is that they will mutually work each
other's ruin. When a Brother of a certain order told me
a short time ago what was going on in Saxony, I
answered : " Bite and devour one another, so that ye
be consumed of one another." Heaven grant that
our enemies may fight each other as fiercely as pos-
sible, and finally destroy one another in internecine
strife.' Even after the transactions of Luther with
Cardinal Cajetanus, Hutten, at the end of October 1518,
still viewed the matter from the same point of view ;
he rejoiced at the spectacle of theologians tearing each
other to pieces. He, personally, he said, at about the
same time, had set himself a distinct aim : amid his
literary pursuits he did not intend to miss the
opportunity of establishing his hereditary nobility by
personal merit and deeds of prowess and adding to the
fame and glory of his family ; in his plans, he said, he
reckoned with fortune ; he could not lose anything by
the venture, for he had not enough to live on as it was,
but through good luck he might gain something.

He did not believe at that time that the Lutheran
movement could forward his object of revolutionising
political conditions in favour of the nobihty. Towards
the end of the year 1518 he pubHshed a pamphlet
entitled the ' Tilrkenrede,' which had been written
in May, in which he denounced not only the Court

108 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

■of Eome but also the German princes and their
reciprocal robbing and plundering, burning and pil-
laging, and foretold an early rising of the people.
While he himself, the year before, had undertaken a
mission from the Elector Albrecht of Mayence to the
French Court, in order to conclude an alliance with
Francis L, and to promise the latter Albrecht's vote
at the election of a new Emperor, he now declared
that it was a scandalous, ungerman, and treasonable
plan to transfer the imperial crown to a foreigner, as
though princely blood had died out in Germany.
In an appendix to the ' Tlirkenrede ' for ' all free and
loyal Germans ' he turned the point of his attack
against Eome. Eome must take care, he said, that
' Liberty gagged and wellnigh strangled did not
suddenly break loose.'

In order to be more free and independent in his
light against the ' ecclesiastical corrupters of Germany,'
he now wished to leave the court of Mayence. Through
the intervention of Erasmus, to whom Hutten appealed
for hel]D in March 1519, he was relieved from service
at the Archbishop's court without having his salary
withdrawn. For the publication of all manner of
controversial writings, satires, and pamphlets he made
use of the printing press of Schoffer at Ma3^ence. In
March and April 1519 he joined in the campaign for
the expulsion of Duke Ulrich of Wlirtemberg. Full
of ardent hope, he wrote to Erasmus before setting
out : 'In a short time you will see all Germany in
commotion.'

During this campaign he became intimately asso-
ciated with Franz von Sickingen, of whom he speaks as
' a great man, every inch of him,' and one ' who will some

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 109

day achieve great fame among the German nation.'
' Sickingen is clever,' he wrote to Erasmus in June ; ' he
is eloquent ; he grasps everything at once, and he is
developing that capacity for action which is necessary
in a commander. May God prosper the undertakings
of this brave man, who will yet bring great glory to the
German nation ! '

Hutten had found in Sickingen the man he needed
for the execution of his revolutionary plans. The
' young, inexperienced king,' so reckoned both the
knights, would easily be won over to their plans. Hence
they did all they could to secure his election as Em-
peror, and they hoped above all that Charles's younger
brother Ferdinand would make common cause with
them against ' barbarism.' ' We must try to win over
Ferdinand,' Hutten wrote to Melanchthon ; ' Sickino-en
would much like to bind him by some service.' Hutten
dedicated to Ferdinand a polemical pamphlet purporting
to date from the period of the conflict between Gregory
Vn. and Henry IV., in which he represented the latter
as the ideal of an emperor, and claimed from the newly
elected King Charles, as his higliest duty, the liberation
of Germany from the tyranny of papacy. Charles must
take Henry IV. as his pattern ; Ferdinand must en-
courage his brother in this course ; he (Hutten) would
stand by them both as a zealous adviser.'

In July, whilst awaiting the moment for weightier
undertakings, Sickingen, at the instigation of Hutten,
threw himself into the still pending Eeuchlin affair,
with the intention of settling the ecclesiastical struggle
by the sword. To the joy of the humanists, as
'lovers of right and justice,' he threatened to declare
a feud against Hooo-straten and the heads of the Domini-

no HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

can Order if tliey did not make amends to the pious
and learned Eeuclilin ; and lie also threatened to oppress
the city of Cologne, whose magistrate was on the side
of the Dominicans.

What Sickingen meant by a declaration of feud, and
to what length his ' oppression ' might go, the towns of
Worms, Landau, and Metz, and the landgraviate of
Hesse had been learning by gruesome experience since
the year 1515. 'For the last two years,' said the
burgomaster and the council of Worms in March 1517,
in a public report, ' Sickingen has been devastating the
land, cutting down the corn and the vines in the
fields, setting fire to the fruit-trees, chopping off the
hands and ears of the poor labourers at their work, and
killing them in wanton cruelty ; flogging women and
young girls, and violating their honour ; seizing young
boys and putting many to death ; plundering and
wounding pilgrims, messengers, and merchants, and
cutting crosses on their foreheads ; flogging, lacerat-
ing, plundering, and making prisoners of priests and
monks.' The humble demeanour of the Dominicans
towards this dreaded robber-knight is easily understood,
but no respect was felt for him. The convention of
the Order, intimidated by Hutten, deprived Hoogstraten
of the priorship of the Dominicanmonastery of Cologne,
and also of the inquisitorship, and bound him over to
silence.

By a papal brief, however, the latter was restored to
his ofiices and the long-pending Eeuchlin case was settled
in favour of the Dominicans. The Pope declared the
Bishop of Spires's decision invalid, interdicted the
' Augenspiegel ' as an offensive and pernicious book
unduly favourable to the Jews, and sentenced Eeuchlin

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 111

to pay the whole costs of the lawsuit. Eeuchlin's
connection with the revolutionary barons now came
to an end. In vain Sickingen offered him assistance
and invited him to his castles. Eeuchlin submitted
to the decision of the head of the Church, and as-
sumed towards Luther a decidedly orthodox attitude.
He endeavoured to withdraw his great-nephew
Melanchthon from the dano^erous vicinitv of this
religious innovator, and in a letter to the Bavarian
dukes he spoke so decisively against Luther that
Hutten declared enmity against him. ' It is altogether
unworthy of you,' wrote Hutten to Eeuchlin, ' to
fight against the party which attracts to it all men
who have any honourable cause at stake — men whose
associate you ought to be. But do as j^ou please,
and if your age allows it, go to Eome, where all your
aspirations draw you, and kiss Pope Leo's toe ; and go
on writing against us to your heart's content. In spite
of you, and the hubbub that you and these godless
Eomanists are making, we shall succeed in breaking the
heaviest chains, and in freeing ourselves from the dis-
graceful bondage which* you, as you boast, have always
endured willingly, as though it were worthy of you.
Luther's enterprise is distasteful to you, and you would
gladly bring it to nought. But you will find in me a
determined adversary not only if ever you should fiojht
against Luther, but also if you submit yourself to the
Pope.'

With Luther meanwhile Hutten had entered into
close fraternity.

In the year 1519 his relations with the Archbishop of
Mayence, from whom he received a salary, had debarred
him from a public alliance with Luther. But in

]12 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

January and February 1520 he made advances to the
reformer through the medium of Melanchthon, to whom
he wrote on January 20 : ' Sickingen has charged me
to make known to Luther that in case of his encounter-
ing opposition in his struggle, and having no hope of
better help from any other quarter, he is to turn to
him, and he will do all he can. Believe me he will
scarcely obtain more trustworthy help in any other
quarter. Luther is beloved by Sickingen.' His letter
from Steckelberg on February 28 was still more press-
ing. ' Make haste and convey to Luther the message
I sent him from Sickingen ; but pray, between our-
selves, I do not wish any one to know of my being-
mixed up in this affair. If difficulties accumulate
round him he has no need to seek help from any others.
With Franz at his side he may safely defy all his
enemies. I am projecting great and important schemes
with Sickingen. Were you here I would privately tell
you all about them. I hope a bad end will overtake
the barbarians and all who help to keep us under the
Roman yoke. My dialogues, " The Romish Trinity "
and " The Onlookers," are already in the press ; they
are remarkable for great freedom of expression against
the Pope and the blood-suckers of Germany.'

In the first dialogue Hutten says : 'Against the poison
which exudes from the heart of the Pope there is no
antidote ; his protecting shield is a sure refuge when all
other forms of imposture — stratagem, deceit, trickery,
cunning, and artifice — have failed.' ' The Pope is a
bandit chief, and his gang bears the name of " the
Church." ' Why tarry we thus ? Has Germany no
longer any sense of honour ? Has Germany no spirit
left? If the Germans have none the Turks will

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 113

have plenty.' The sword of the Turks must be
called in if the Christians have no spirit, and go
on letting themselves be fooled by superstition and
will not stir to punish the wrongdoers. There were
three evils he wished to see befall the ' Eoman cesspool,'
the ' seat of corruption ' — plague, famine, and war.
' Eome is a sea of impurity, a mire of filth, a bottomless
sink of iniquity : should we not flock from all quarters
to compass the destruction of this common curse of
humanity ? Should we not set all our sail, saddle all
our horses, let loose sword and fire ? '

In April 1520, after the publication of the above
pamphlet, Hutten had an interview at Bamberg with
his ally Crotus Eubianus, which was followed by
important results for the cause of the league. The
intention of the confederates was to brino- their collec-
tive influence to bear on Luther, in order to drive him
to the most extreme measures against Eome, and to
make use of him as a tool for their politico-clerical revo-
lution.

From Bamberg, in the same month, Crotus once
more appealed by letter to Luther as ' the greatest of
theologians,' ' most excellent Polycletus,' urging him
to persevere in his path. The creatures of the Pope
might boast as they would, and praise the infallible
teachino' of the Church, but he held bv the text : ' Thy
Word is a lantern to my feet and a light unto my
path.' It was for Luther to undertake the protection
and custody of this light, and he would do well to
comply with the invitation of Sickingen, the great
leader of the German nobility. Luther's life was
threatened by his enemies, but with Sickingen he
would find security against all their plots. ' Be careful

A^OL. III. I

114 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

of the future, is my advice ; write to Sickingen ; keep
yourself in his favour.'

The morbid terror of pursuit and assassination
from which Luther was ah-eady at that time suffering
was greatly increased by these warnings of danger to his
life. On A]3ril 16, 1520, he wrote to Spalatin that he
had been warned that a certain doctor of medicine, who
by means of magic could make himself invisible at will,
had been sent to kill him ; that his fears had been
specially aroused by Hutten. ' Hutten cannot be
uro'ent enousfh in his warnino's,' he wrote ; ' he is so
dreadfully afraid of poison on my account.' This
terror of pursuit grew later into a perfect monomania.
Luther, carried away b}'' the rush of the forces once
let loose, followed the advice of Crotus. He wrote
to Sickingen and Hutten even before the latter had
ventured to enter into open alliance with him. In
May 1520 the knight Sylvester von Schaumburg also
assured him of his protection, and on June 4, 1520,
Hutten wrote openly to him from Mayence. Under the
watchword of ' Lon^- live freedom ' he beo'o-ed him to
make common cause with them, and casting off his
pagan opinions, he put himself suddenly forward as a
champion of the Gospel, and spoke in biblical language.
' We have not laboured altocf ether without result here.
Christ be with us ! Christ help us ! For it is his
precepts we are fighting for, his teaching, obscured by
the mist of papal institutions, that we are bringing to
light again, you successfully, I according to my
powers.' ' We hate the assembly of wicked persons,
and we will not sit in the seat of the scornful.'

' Nevertheless look well before you and keep your
eyes open and your senses about you. Be strong and

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 115

fear not. In me j^ou have a champion at every turn.
Therefore be not afraid for the future to confide all
your plans to me. We will fight together for libert}^
and set free the Fatherland, so lono- held in bondasre.
Sickingen urges you to come to him ; he will entertain
you in a manner worthy of your dignity and protect
you valiantly against enemies of all kinds. To-day I
start on my journey to Ferdinand. I shall lose no time
in doing there what I can for our cause.'

In Luther's circle great expectations were based
on this journey. Melanchthon wrote on June 8, 1-520 :
' Hutten is betaking himself to Ferdinand, brother of
King Charles, in order to prepare the way for freedom
l)y the aid of the mightiest princes ; what, then, may we
not hope for ? '

For the expenses of this journey to the Court of Brus-
sels Hutten received money from Archbishop Albert of
Mayence, with whom he was still on friendly terms, in
spite of all his scurrilous writings against Eome. The
Archbishop probably reckoned on the possibility that,
in the event of the hoped-for separation of Germany
from Eome and the establishment of a German national
Church, the dignity of head of this Church might fall
to him. ' Hutten has been here,' Agrippa von jSFettesheim
wrote from Cologne to a friend on June 16, ' with several
other meml^ers of the Lutheran party, who are letting
fly their shafts at the " courtiers," as they call them, and
the Eoman legates, and who are also full of hostility
to the Pope himself They are preparing the way,
if God does not hinder it, for a great insurrection, and
are urging on certain German princes, with ardent
appeals, to shake off the Eomish yoke. " What
have we to do,"' thev are clamourino-, " with Eomish

11 G HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

bishops ? Have we not bishops and primates in Ger-
many ? Germany must have done with the Romans and
return to her own primates and bishops and pastors."
You see what they are aiming at. Ah^eadysome of the
towns and the princes are lending wilhng ears to them.
What the might of the Emperor may be able to
accomplish, I know not.'

The long dormancy of the Emperorship between the
death of Maximihan in 1519 and the accession of the
Emperor Charles had thrown Germany into a state of
anarchy, which favoured the proceedings of the
revolutionary party.

Luther's alliance with the revolution party was now
an accomplished fact.

' In Sickingen,' so he wrote to Hutten, ' he placed
o-reater confidence and hope than in any one of the
princes.' ' It's my belief,' he said in a letter to Spalatin
at the beginning of June 1520, ' that at Eome they
have all become idiotic, maniacal, insensate fools,
sticks, stones, hell-fiends, and devils.' When the knight
Sylvester von Schaumburg offered, on June 11, to
brino- a hundred nobles to his assistance, Luther sent
Sylvester's letter to Spalatin, with the following words :
' The die is cast ; I despise the wrath of the Romans
as much as their favour ; never to all eternity will I
ao-ain be reconciled to them, nor have any communion
with them, though they should burn and damn me and
all my belongings. And I too, in return, unless there
should be no fire to be had, will publicly damn and
burn the whole popish crew — that learned monster
of heresy. Thus at last will there be an end of that
fruitless observance of humility and submission by
which I will no longer let the enemies of the Gospel

THE LA.TER GERMAN HUMANISM 117

be magnified. Sylvester von Scliaumburo- and Franz
von Sickino-en have set me at rest from the fear of
men.'

' Franz von Sickingen,' he says in a letter to a
Brother of his Order, ' guarantees me, through Hutten,
his protection against all my enemies. Sylvester does
the same with regard to the Franconian nobles. I
have had a beautiful letter from him. Now I have no
more fears, and I am bringing out a book against the
Pope on the improvement of the Christian estate. I
attack his Holiness in it mercilessly, as though he were
the Antichrist.'

This book, which appeared at the beginning of
August 1520, was the ' Address to the Christian
Nobility of the German Nation,' and the actual declara-
tion of war of the Lutheran-Hutten revolutionary
party.

The proposals it contained with regard to the
suppression of secular iniquities were such as to
command sympathy for Luther from many who op-
posed his religious views. ' In the iirst place,' he
says, ' there is imperative need of agreement on the
part of the German nation against the extravagant
superfluity and costliness of clothing, by which so
many nobles and rich people have been impoverished.
Has not God given to us, as to other countries, wool,
hair, flax, and other materials amply sufficient for seemly
and comfortable clothing for all classes, so that we
have no need to squander recklessly such terrible sums
■on silk, velvet, and cloth of gold, and all manner of
other outlandish wares ? '

Similarly, there was, he said, no need for such large
outlay on spices and groceries, which was one of the

]18 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

drains by which money was carried off from the Germaiu
land. But the greatest curse of the German nation
was undoubtedly the practice of buying on credit ; if
that was not allowed many a one would have to go
without buying his silk, velvet, cloth of gold, spices,.
and all the rest of the luxuries. ' Verily this buying
on credit was a sion and a token that the world was
sold to the devil with heavy sins, which must ruin us,,
both spiritually and temporall}^'

It was high time, indeed, to curb the Fuggers and
other like companies. Could it possibly be godly and
righteous that such a pile of kingly goods and treasures
should be heaped up in the life of a human being ? It
would be far more godly to increase and spread agri-
culture and to restrict commerce ; how much better
were those who, according to the Scriptures, tilled the
earth and got their food out of it, following the Bible
precept : ' In the sweat of thy brow shall thou eat
bread ! '

In these statements Luther was reiterating what
the theological political economist of the fifteenth
century had preached over and over again.

' Then,' he a'oes on, ' there is the excess in eating-
and drinking, for which we Germans have a bad re-
putation in foreign lands as our special vice, and which
cannot be mended by preaching only, so firmly has it
taken root and got the mastery of us. The waste of
money that it causes would be the least evil ; but in
its train follow murder, adultery, theft, blasphemj^ and
every other vice. The temporal power should do
something here, or it will come to pass, as Christ fore-
tells, that " the last day will come like a thief in the
night, and ye shall be eating and drinking, marrying

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 119

and giving in marriage, building and planting, buying
and selling," just as things are going on now, and that
so vigorously that I much fear the day of judgment is at
hand, though we do not concern ourselves about it.'
' Finally,' he adds, ' is it not a lamentable thing that
we Christians should have among us free and public
brothels ? If the people of Israel maintained itself
without such a disgrace, why should not a Christian
nation be able to do as much? If so many of the
small towns, villages, and hamlets can do without such
houses, why cannot the great cities do the same ? '

All these opinions, which are to be found in the con-
cluding pages, are deserving of praise, but they did not
form the substance of the address, the pith and marrow of
which was thatlLuther, associating himself closely with
Huss and with Hutten, attacked in its foundations the
whole existing fabric of Church organisation, and made
demands which aimed at the subversion of all traditional
authority. 1

Starting' from the Hussite doctrine of universal
priesthood, he declared that all Christians were of the
priestly caste. ' Whatever issues from baptism,' he
says, ' may boast that it has been consecrated priest,
bishop, pope.' There was no difference among Chris-
tians, except the nominal one of ' office.'

' And if it should happen that any one appointed to
one of these offices were deposed for abuses he would
be just what he was before he was ordained.' ' If the
community has deposed him, he becomes again a simple
peasant, or citizen, just like the rest.'

Since all Christians are priests, all have the power to
judge and decide what is right or wrong in belief;
the standard of judgment is Holy Writ, which each one

120 HISTORY OF THE GEE3IAN PEOPLE

must interpret according to his reasonable faith. No
one must let ' the spirit of liberty, as St. Paxil calls
it, be cowed by words invented by the Pope ; on
the contrary, it behoves everv Christian to under-
stand the faith that he accepts, and to condemn all
errors.'

This peculiar priesthood of Luther's and this Chris-
tian community invested with hierarchical prestige, each
member of which was free to construct his own creed
according to his own interpretation of Scripture, were to
be subject to the temporal power. ' Forasmuch as the
temporal power is ordained by God to punish the
wicked and to protect the good, therefore it must be
allowed to do its work, unhindered, on the whole
Christian body, without respect of persons, whether it
strike popes, bishops, priests, monks, nuns, or whom it
will ; ' ' whatever ecclesiastical law has said to the con-
trary, is onty the invention of Eomisli arrogance.' Above
all, ' when necessity demands it, the secular power
should provide for the meeting of a truly free council.'
And in case of the Pope's opposhig such an assembly,
and denouncing and anathematising it, his proceedings
should be treated with contempt, like the behaviour
of a madman, and he himself must in return be anathe-
matised and placed under a ban.'

' This free council, which is to be called together by
secular authority, in defiance of the Pope, must re-
organise the constitution of the Church from its founda-
tions, and must liberate Germany from the Eomish
robbers, from the scandalous, devilish rule of the
Eomans.' Eome was sucking out the Germans to such
an extent that ' it is a wonder that we have anything
left to eat.' The Pope lived in such pomp and splen-

THE LATEE GEEMAN HUMANISM 121

dour on the wealth of the Germans that ' whenever he
goes out riding he is accompanied by three or four
thousand mule-riders, more than the escort of any
king or emperor ! ' Small wonder if God were to rain
brimstone and lire down on Eome, and doom it to
destruction, as he did with Sodom and Gomorrah. 0
noble princes and sirs, how long will you suffer your
land and your people to be the prey of these ravening
wolves ? ' Luther was not content with imitating the
language of Crotus Eubianus and Hutten ; he even sur-
passed it in his description of Eome, which was such an
iniquitous abode of plunder and theft, lying and cheat-
inof, that the rule of Antichrist himself could not be more
abominably wicked. ' Meanwhile, since this devilish
state of things is not merely open robbery, deceit and
t3^ranny, such as proceeds from the gates of hell, but
also destroys Christianity, body and soul, we are bound
to use all diligence to put a stop to it. If we wish to
fight the Turks let us begin here, where they are worst.'
'Either the secular power, or a general council,
should prohibit for the future all payments of money
to Eome, and should abolish all papal commendams and
reservations ; every courtling who comes from Eome
should be strictly commanded to withdraw, to jump
into the Ehine or the nearest river, and to administer
a cold bath to the Interdict, seal and letter and all.
The German bishops must no longer be mere puppets
and tools of the Pope. It should be decreed by an
Imperial law that no episcopal mitre, and no confirma-
tion of any appointment shall for the future be ob-
tained from Eome. Also the ' reserved cases ' ^ {casus

' (' Casus reservati ' refers to those great sins for which the Pope or the
bishops claimed that they only could give absolution.- — Translator.)

122 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

reservati) should be abolished, and the oaths of allegiance
to the Pope which bishops are compelled to take. All
matters relating to ecclesiastical fiefs and benefices
should be settled by the Primate of Germany with the
assistance of a general consistory.

By proposals of this sort Luther hoped to gain
favour with the German Church dignitaries, especially
the Archbishop of Mayence, the German Primate ; his
schemes for circumscribing the territory of the Church,
and for depriving the Pope of the suzerainty of Naples
would, he hoped, attach the Emperor to his cause,
while the nobles would be attracted by hopes of
cathedrals and abbeys for their younger sons.

Concernino' Church ordinances and ceremonies
he said : ' We should abolish all Saints' days or keep
them on Sundays. Festivals, church-treasures, and
ornamentation are offensive and pernicious ; anni-
versaries must be abolished or reduced in number,
chapels and FeldJdrclien (field-churches) rased to the
ground. As it was to be feared that the many masses
that had been endowed would provoke the wrath
of God, it was advisable to endow no more, and
to abolish many already endowed. All pilgrimages
undertaken as " o-ood works " must be forbidden :
but if they were undertaken to gratify curiosity
and the desire to see new lands, people might be
left to do as they pleased.' All fasts enjoined by the
Church must be abolished. The Church punishments,
such as interdicts, bans, suspension of priests, and so
forth, ' had been introduced into the heavenly kingdom
of Christ by the spirit of evil, and were odious
plagues and curses ; ' an interdict more particularly
was a greater crime than the strangling of twenty

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANIS3I 123

popes. Above all the canon law must be swept
away from the first letter of it to the last — particularly
the decretals. ' Everything that the Pontificate has
instituted or ordained is calculated only to multiply
sin and error.'

' It is stated that there is no finer government in
the world than that of the Turks, who have neither a
spiritual nor a secular code of law, but only their Koran.
And it must be acknowledged that there is no more dis-
graceful system of rule than ours, with our canon law
and our common law, whilst no class any longer obeys
either natural reason or the Holy Scriptures.'

' May God give to us all,' says Luther in conclusion,
'a Christlike understanding, and to the Christian
nobility in particular a Christian mhid and will to do
the best for our poor Church ! '

At this period Luther appears to have had implicit
confidence not only in the nobles but also in the
Emperor Charles. Li the opening lines of his letter he
says : ' God has given us a noble young sovereign for
our head, in order that many hearts may be roused to
great and good hopes.'

With unsparing energy Luther endeavoured to
stir up German national feeling against Italy and in
favour of his own cause. According to him the
Italians were steeped in every kind of vice, and yet
so proud and haughty that they looked upon the
Germans as scarcely human.

Luther's address to the German nobilitv was a
martial summons to the fiercest onslaught.

Simultaneously with this address Luther published,
with an accompanying marginal commentary, a pam-
phlet that had been written against himself by Sylvester

124 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Prierias, ' on the Pope as an infallible teacher.' In the
preface to this pamphlet he calls pontifical Eome a
* synagogue of Satan's ; ' congratulates the Greeks and
the Bohemians, who have severed themselves from the
Eomisli Babylon, and execrates all who have any
connection with Eome. ' Go to now, unhappy repro-
bate, godless man ; may God's wrath overtake you, as
you richly deserve ! ' In the epilogue he throws out a
distinct challenge to a war of religion. ' If the mad-
ness of the Eomanists goes on like this,' he says, ' there
seems to me no other way of escape than for the
Emperor, the kings, and the princes to have recourse
to arms, to make them read}^ for battle, to declare war
against this pest of the universe, and to bring the
matter to an issue not with words, but with iron and
steel. If we punish thieves with the halter, murderers
with the sword, heretics with the stake, why do we not
still more chastise, with every weapon we can lay
hands on, these teachers of corruption, these cardinals,
these popes, and all the crawling vermin of this Eomish
Sodom, who go on unceasingly corrupting, degrading,
ruining the Church of God ? Why do we not wash our
hands in their blood ? '

For such outbursts of unbridled passion there is
but one explanation, which we find in some of his
confidential utterances to his friends. In a letter to
Johann Lange on August 18, 1520, Luther wrote that
against the papacy, ' the seat of the real veritable
Antichrist,' he considered every possible mode of
attack permissible for the sake of the salvation of
souls.

The furv of his enemies, he said in another letter,
was so great that he was no longer master of him-

THE LATER GERMAN HmiANISM 125

self, and was impelled by he knew not what manner of
a spirit,

' Your overbearing temper,' wrote Hieronymus
Emser, court chaplain and secretary of Duke George of
Saxony, to Luther, his former friend, 'your overbear-
ing temper cannot brook that any one should contra-
dict you by speech or by pen, lets you listen to no
one, allows no one to know better than you. For
this reason it cannot verily be the Spirit of the Lord,
but must be some other spirit ; for, as the prophet
says, the Spirit of the Lord dwells with none but the
humble-minded, the lowly, and the peaceable. Now it
is everywhere notorious that you, like a wild and
tempestuous sea, neither by day nor by night have
any rest and peace for yourself, and will not allow
other people to be at rest, but as waves dash up
against the ships so you rub yourself up now against
this person, now against that, and are always seek-
ing whom you may quarrel with. By my faith as
a priest, in place of an oath, I say it, I have
never conceived in my heart hatred or envy ao-ainst
your person, but only against your presumptuous
behaviour to our Mother, the Holy Christian Church,
against your false doctrines and your perverse inter-
pretations of the Scriptures, which are contrary to all
Christian teaching ; against these I am and ever shall
be incensed, and so much the more as from day to day
" the more you spin the coarser your thread becomes."
I have now three times warned you as a brother, and
entreated you for the love of God, to spare and have
pity on this poor nation which is growing visibly
irritated by this business, and 3-ou answer me at last
with the words : " Let the Devil have his way ; the

126 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

matter was not begun for the love of God, and it sliall
be ended for the love of God." '

At the end of the year 1520 Emser writes that the
time of the visitation of the German people has now
come. ' Worthy Germans,' he says, ' God is visiting
and proving each one of you, in order to see how
steadfast and loyal each of you will remain to the holy
faith and to the Christian Church. Hitherto, praised
be the Germans in this for evermore, it has never come
to pass that any single German emperor, king, prince,
or community, after having once acknowledged the
Christian faith, has fallen awa}^ from it again, or
become heretical, like the princes, kings, and emperors
of other nations, who have often let themselves be so
miserably seduced by heretics that they have become
renegades to the faith of Christ, have worshipped
i>"ods that are no o-ods, have destroved churches
and monasteries, have persecuted, driven out, and
slain priests, bishops, and popes — one here, another
there, as the chronicles credibly show. Furthermore,
whole provinces, empires, and kingdoms have some-
times in the time of their visitation been led away
from the holy faith through curious prying into new
doctrines and obstinate persistence in their sins.
The two largest quarters of the world, Asia and
Africa, have withdrawn from the Eoman dominion
and Church, so that scarcely an}^ Christians are to
be found there ; and in the third quarter, Europe,
no small number have followed this example. And
now^ the turn has come for us Germans, as indeed was
foretold many years ago, that in these our days a
monk would lead the German nation into great errors,
as in truth Christ himself has warned us generally

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 127

that wolves would come among us in sheep's
clothing/

' And now, whereas openly in the day time, with all
vehement earnestness and purpose, Martin Luther, an
Augustinian monk, has dared and presumed for a long-
time, through much strange and novel teaching, dispu-
tation, preaching, and writing, to throw contempt on
the chief overseers and prelates of the Church, to give
free licence to sin, thereby to gain over the common
people and make the German nation independent of
the Eoman Church, there is verily cause for fear that
this man is not far removed from that one, or perhaps
is the very same, whom the prophecies have foretold,
, and against whom Christ and the Apostles warned us.'

Luther's proceedings, it was asserted, were entirely
opposed to Gospel teaching ; ' for the Gospel teaches
us that in no case, even if they have sinned, are we to
allow our prelates to be put to open shame, scourging,
and disorace ; furthermore it is contrarv to the natural
as well as to the statute rights of emperors, who are
enjoined to inflict capital punishment for sins of this
sort and contempt of majesty. The Gospel nowhere
teaches us that we ought to stir up such discord, tumult,
and division among the people. Cyprian says : " Whoso-
ever disturbs the peace of Christ and the concord of
the people of God, is not with Christ but against
him." Neither does the Gospel say that we ought to
despise the commandments, ordinances, and opinions
of the Church, and oppose them with such sacrilege,
and still less that we ought to cause scandal and vexa-
tion to any one.'

' But what has ever been more scandalous, injurious,
poisonous to the German nation than Luther's teaching.

128 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

books, and writings, which in so short a time have
occasioned such quarreUing, tumuh, and uproar that
there is no province, town, village, or house which is not
torn by party spirit and where people are not divided
one against the other ? And this not for a trifling cause,
but for the sake of the holy Christian faith, which our
forefathers handed down to us and which they served
so steadily and loyally, by deeds rather than by words/
' Luther," said Emser, ' brouo^ht forth his errors
not from his own storehouse, but from the books
of his models and examples, Wickliffe and Huss.
It was from them that he learnt to call the Pope
Antichrist, Christians Eomanists, and heretics Chris-
tians, and to reject the holy Sacraments, the Mass,
the consecration of priests, and all Christian ritual and
ordinances. He despised all Church authority, all
the doctrines of the Fathers, and referred each one for
himself to the H0I3' Scriptures. But if every fanatic
were to interpret the Scriptures according to his own
taste, the Bible would have more meanino-s than there
were heads to the Hydra, and there would never be
any agreement in the matter. Through the rejection and
contempt of all Church ordinances and authority the
fear of God would be extinguished in the land, and what
manner of obedience would then be yielded to the
secular ruler, every honest man could decide for him-
self. There were two assertions of Luther's which were
most especially subversive of all order and discipline :
" Christ has made us free from all laws of man," and.
Call it what you will, what has been decreed by
man is the work of man, and nouoht that is sfood
can ever come of it."' 'The liberty,' saj^s Emser,
on which Luther insists,' St. Peter calls ' a cloak

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 129

of maliciousness, and St. Paul an occasion of sin.'
' One must not thus utterly despise the works of
men, or speak of them so indiscreetly before the
common people, as to say that never at any time
did or could any good come of what was decreed
or ordained by men, nor any good could ever result
therefrom ; for what would King Charles, or any future
Council of State, be able to accomplish for a reforma-
tion, or for opinions and ordinances, if we approached
them with the assertion that from their laws no good
thing could at any time proceed ? ' Eeforms were
urgently needed, but Luther was not agitating for the
reform of abuses and scandals, but for the sweeping
away of the Church itself, for the uprooting of its
divine foundation, and if his schemes succeeded there
would be anarchy among all classes, in the Church and
in society, such as had followed in Bohemia from the
agitation of the Hussites.

' Open your eyes,' he writes imploringly to Luther,
' and behold the wretched misery, heresy, error,
degradation, destruction, and murder of God's worship
and glory which has come upon the Bohemians through
the teaching of Huss — a noble kingdom laid waste,
ruined, and disgraced, as the people themselves feel
more and more.'

' See that you do not bring us Germans into a
plight such as that into which Huss led the Bohemians ;
for it would almost seem as if you were sparing no
trouble and turning all your energies to bring things to
this pass. God preserve us from your ideas ! '

After long anfl mature deliberations a„-p^pal .bull
was_completed on June 15, 1520, which condemned
twenty-four statements of doctrine contained in Luther's

VOL. ni. K

loO HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

writings, ordered the destruction of the books in which
they occurred, and directed that Luther himself, after
an interval of sixty days allowed him for recantation,
should be delivered up to the full severity of ecclesiastical
punishment. ' After the pattern of the divine mercy,
which does not will the death of the sinner, but rather
that he should repent and live, we have resolved,' said
the Pope, ' disregarding the insults against ourselves and
this Apostolic Chair, to use the utmost clemency, and
as much as lies in our power to do everything to induce
the Brother Martin, by gentle methods, to repent and
to renounce his errors. By the depths of the Divine
compassion, and by the blood of our Lord and Saviour
Jesus Christ, which he shed for the human race and
for the foundation of our holy Church, we exhort and
conjure the Brother Martin himself, as also all his
followers and supporters, that they do desist from
further disturbing the peace, unity, and truth of the
Church, for which the Saviour has prayed so earnestly,
and that they do renounce their corrupting heresies.'

By a grievous error of judgment Luther's opponent
Eck was entrusted with the proclamation of the bull
and the execution of its sentence, as regarded Luther's
partisans, in several of the German dioceses. Li
Leipzig, where the bull was to be posted up, Eck was in
danger of his life from the Wittenberg students, and
in Erfurt the fury and violence of the young acade-
micians were equally uncontrollable. All existing
copies of the obnoxious decree were carried ofl' from the
book-shops and either torn up or thrown into the river
Gera. When the news spread that Eck was coming to
Erfurt, armed students went forth to meet him.

To Luther himself it made no difference who was

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 131

•selected to proclaim tlie bull, for lie had been firmly
resolved ever since 1519 to break for ever with the
Papal Chair and the Catholic Church. In his treatise on
the ' Babylonish Captivity of the Church ' he had once
more represented the Pope as Antichrist, he had rejected
the doctrines of the sevenfold number of the Holy
Sacraments and of the Sacred Mass, and at the same
time by novel views concerning marriage had attacked
the recognised basis of the Christian family. He not
•only robbed marriage of its sacramental character, but
removed the prohibition of marriage between Chris-
tians and non-Christians. With regard to certain cir-
€umstances of married life he laid down principles
unheard of before in Christian Europe. Already at
that time he put forward the same views which he
•expressed at a later date in a German ' Sermon on
Married Life ' in the following words : ' Know then
that marriage is an outward matter, like any other
worldly transaction. Just as I may eat, drink, sleep,
walk, ride, buy, talk, and do business with a heathen,
a Jew, a Turk, a heretic, so also I may marry any of
them. Do not give heed to the fool's law which
forbids this. One finds plenty of Christians who are
more hardened in unbelief inwardly, the greater
part of them indeed, than any Jew, heathen, Turk,
■or heretic. A heathen is just as much a man or
a woman created by God as St. Peter, St. Paul and
St. Lucia ; be silent then, thou false, mischievous
Christian.'

After the proclamation of the bull, Luther appealed,
on November 17, 1520, from the Pope, as from ' an un-
just judge, a stifFnecked, erring heretic and apostate, con-
demned by all the writings of Scriptures,' to a general

K 2

132 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

council of Christians, and called upon the Emperor
and the princes and the whole commonwealth to with-
stand the unchristian proceedings and the monstrous
sacrilege of the Pope. Whoever submitted to the Pope,
he (Martin Luther) delivered up to the Divine tribunal..
' Never once since the creation of the world,' he said
in a letter to Spalatin, 'had Satan spoken out so
shamelessly against God as in this bull ; it was im-
possible that any one could be saved who either
supported it or did not fight against it." 'I have come
to the conviction,' he wrote to another friend, ' that
nobody can be saved who does not with all his might
make war to the death against the statutes and man-
dates of the Pope and the bishops.' Starting from his
accustomed premiss that ' his teaching alone was the
truth,' he said amongst other things, in a treatise
' Acrainst the Bull of Antichrist : ' 'I have alwavs-
held that whoever sets error above truth denies God
and worships the Devil ; and that is what this most
precious and famous Bull tries to compel us to do
with threats of interdict.' ' Who could wonder if the
princes, nobles, and laity were to knock the Pope,
bishops, priests, and monks on the head and drive
them all out of the country ? Is it not an unheard-of,
an outrageous thing in Christendom that Christian
people should be publicly commanded to deny and
condemn the truth and to destroy it by lire ? Is it not
heretical, false, scandalous, misleading, insufferable
stuff for all Christian ears ? But now all things are
turned upside down, and I hope it has become mani-
fest that the Pope, bishops, priests, and monks are
rinoin<4' their own knell and not Dr. Luther's with this
wicked and scandalous bull, and summoning the laity

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 133

to cut their own throats.' ' The bull deserves that all
true-hearted Christians should trample it under foot,
and send the Eomish Antichrist, and Dr. Eck his apostle,
about their business with fire and sword.'

Simultaneously with this Lutheran storm Ulrich
von Hutten also broke out in revolutionary proceed-
ings. ' Already the axe is laid to the roots,' he wrote
in a pamphlet addressed ' To all Free-men in Germany '
in May 1520, ' and every tree shall be cut down that
beareth not good fruit. The vineyard of the Lord shall
be cleansed. This is no longer a thing you may hope
for ; 5^ou will see it soon with your eyes. Meanwdiile be
of good heart, ye men of Germany, and encourage each
other to good cheer. Your leaders are not weak
and inexperienced, but strong for the recovery of
freedom.'

On his return home from his journey to the court
of the Archduke Ferdinand, whom he had endeavoured,
without success, to win over for the great cause
against Eome, Hutten learnt that a papal brief had
been sent to the Archbishop of Mayence enjoining the
latter to put a stop to his (Hutten's) presumptuous and
dangerous agitations, and if necessary to use strong-
measures against him. This brief threw Hutten into the
greatest fury and fanned his dreams of a sacerdotal
war into fiery determination. ' Hutten has written
me letters,' says Luther to his friend Spalatin on
September 11, 1520, ' which breathe fury against the
Pope. He intends now, he writes, to combat priestly
tyranny with all his weapons of ink and steel. The
Pope is pursuing him with dagger and poison, and
has ordered the Archbishop of Mayence to take him
prisoner and send him in chains to Eome.' Luther

134 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

says in a later letter to Spalatin, October o : ' Hutten is
arming against the Pope with indomitable spirit, and
is fio'htino- it out with his sword and his wit.'

Hutten's ' wit ' had its Hing in September 1520 in
several printed letters which he addressed from Ebern-
buro-, the chief stronoliold of his friend Sickino-en, to the
Emperor Charles, the Elector Frederic of Saxony, and
all the Estates of the Empire. His cause, he said in the
first letter, was the cause of the Emperor ; it was only on
account of his imperialist views that he was persecuted
by Eome ; Charles was appointed by Providence to de-
stroy the dominion of the Pope, which was a disgrace
to the German nation. He openly confessed to the
Emperor that he had contemplated a complete subver-
sion of the existing order of things. ' Eome, the great
Babylon, the mother of all the most execrable, inhuman
deeds of the universe, Eome, which has poisoned and
corrupted the whole earth,' he says in his letter to
Frederic of Saxony, ' Eome must be overthrown.'
' Can this tyranny be allowed to go on growing worse ?
Must it not be stamped out ? But who is to achieve
this consummation ? God Almighty ! None other than
God Himself; but through the instrumentality, as
always, of human hands. And what part will you take,
you princes and lords ? What counsel and support
will you contribute ? ' He then appeals to the princes
to come to the help of himself and his confederates
against this many-horned, savage beast, or otherwise,
so he threatens, he will find some other remedy for the
disease. In Eome in olden times Cato the elder had
said that the rulers and officers who might prevent evil
and who did not do so ought to be stoned to death.
The present issue could not be settled without slaughter

THE LATER GEEMAN HUMANISM 135

and bloodshed. Desperate diseases required desperate
remedies. So it must be in this case ; no other means
will serve.' ' If the Emperor wishes it, we will give
back Eome to him, and the Eoman Bishop shall be
put on an equality with other bishops. The number
of the clergy must be reduced by one per cent., and
the monastic orders entirely done away with. His
address ' to Germans of all classes,' in which he
again vividly depicted the ' Romish master-craftsman
in deceit, the fountain of all roguery,' concluded with
these words from one of the Psalms : ' Let us rend
their fetters asunder and cast away their cords from
us.'

When Luther received through Crotus Eubianus
these fire-brand letters of Hutten's he wrote to Spalatin :
' I am besfinning to believe that this hitherto irre-
sistible Pontificate may really be overturned, contrary
to all expectation, or that the day of judgment is at
hand.'

On December 5, 1520, Crotus had again addressed
himself to Luther, calling him ' the most holy High
Priest, the most evangelical being that the heavenl}-
powers had given to this degenerate age, and prof-
fering him his unqualified devotion and co-opera-
tion. As to those people of Cologne who had burnt
Luther's books, Crotus said that in so doing they had
burnt the Gospel of Christ, or rather Christ himself.

Five days later Luther, in his character of ' New
Evangelist,' convoked the professors and students of
Wittenberg outside the Elster Gate, and in their
presence he burnt the papal bull and the books of the
Canon law, saying as he did so : ' Because thou hast
destroyed the Holy One of the Lord, therefore I destroy

136 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

thee in everlasting fire.' And then he invoked the
name of the Apostle Paul, who had burnt the books of
the sorcerers. 'This deed of Luther's, the like of
which had never before been heard of in all Christen-
dom,' says the Bernese chronicler Anshelm, ' has caused
great surprise and indignation.'

The following day Luther declared to his audience
in the university that this bonfire was only a trifle;
it was imperative to burn the Pope himself — that is
to say, the Papal Chair. Whoever did not, with all
his heart, struggle against papacy could not attain
salvation. ' The clearness and the beauty of his
fatherly address,' an eye-witness assures us, 'were so
convincing that one must have been more senseless
than a stick not to perceive that all that Luther said
was Gospel truth, and he himself an angel of the living
God, called by Him to feed his erring sheep with the
words of truth.'

After the year 1520 ^ Luther's Latin and German
pubhcations were frequently accompanied by a wood-
cut in which he was represented with a glory round
his head, or with the Holy Ghost in the form of
a dove hovering over him. Among the populace it

^ See Schuchardt, ii. 312-313, catalogue of the writings, where there
occurs one of these woodcuts, from a drawing by Lucas Cranach. In a
reprint of the Latin edition of De Cajjfivitate Bahylonica this picture is
found with the following inscription at the bottom : —

' Numina coelestem nobis peperere Lutherum,
Nostra diu majus saecla videre nihil.
Quern si pontificum crudelis deprimit error,
Non feret iratos impia terra deos.'

See my pamphlet Ein zweites Wort an nieine Kritiker (' A Second Word
to my Critics'), p. 69 (new edition, 1895, p. 70). Luther's portrait was
first engraved in copper by Lucas Cranach in the year 1519, then in
1520, and again in 1521 (Schuchardt, ii. 189-191). For the oldest
pictures of Luther see the KatholiJi, 1894, ii. 191.

THE LATER GERMAN HU3IANISM 137

was rumoured that in Wittenberg, while Luther was
burning the papal decretals and bulls, angels had been
seen up in the clouds, looking on with approval at the
spectacle.

In a letter which recounts this popular rumour
we read that ' Luther holds out the threat that
seven provinces have sworn to support him, that the
Bohemians have promised him 35,000 men, and the
Saxons and other tribes of the north as many more, in
order to invade Italy and Eome, after the example of
the Goths and Vandals.' ' The poison has gone so
deep,' this letter goes on to say, ' that it can scarcely
be got rid of without great suffering of all sorts ; for
all classes of Germans who are opposed to the clerical
orders, and whose hearts are set on plunder, look upon
Luther's scheme as an opportunity for demolishing the
hated and opulent race of ecclesiastics, and for turning
everything upside down.' Not all Luther's friends, how-
ever, concurred in these violent measures. Wolfgang
Capito, court preacher to the Archbishop of Mayence,
warned Luther on December 4 against exciting the people
to fur3\ ' You are frightening j^our supporters away
from you,' he wrote, ' by your constant reference to
troops and arms. We can easily enough throw every-
thing into confusion, but it will not be in our power,
believe me, to restore things to peace and order.'
Besides the people were by no means to be relied on.
' Experience teaches how easily the masses are moved ;
to-day they are all for us, to-morrow all against us.'
The court preacher was not a little alarmed at
Luther's having so often sounded a trumpet-note of
war and incited Hutten to battle, and at his expressed
intention of ' soon making an attempt with arms.'

138 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

According to Hutten's plan the war of religion \va&
to begin in this very year lfj20.

On December 9 of this year Hutten communicated
to his ' dearest brother and friend Luther,' ' to the
invincible herald of the Divine Word,' a more detailed
account of his progress. ' Whilst I am gaining new
adherents and supporters,' he writes, ' old ones fall away ;
so deep-rooted and widespread is still the superstition
that whoever rises against the Pope commits an unpardon-
able sin. Franz Sickingen is the only one who stands
by us with unswerving loyalty.' And even Sickingen
had almost begun to waver, but he (Hutten) had so fed
his enthusiasm that now scarcely a day passed without
his havino- somethino- from Luther's or Hutten's writings
read out to him at supper. To all friends who tried to
dissuade him from supporting Luther Sickingen had
represented that the welfare of the Fatherland required
that ' Luther's and Hutten's counsels should be listened
to, and the true faith defended.' Meanwhile Hutten
goes on : ' I do not conceal from you, dearest brother,,
that Franz has hitherto restrained me from active
measures against our enemies, in order to lead them
on to greater presumption. Moreover he considers
it advisable to await w^hat the Emperor shall decide.'
Sickingen hopes, he says, that the Emperor will realise
what is to be expected from the Pope and his follow-
ing ; a great split between the Pope and the Emperor
is predicted, and Sickingen will appeal to the Emperor
at the proper moment. ' I have just written to Spalatin
asking him to sound the Elector as to his intentions,
and to inform me of them as far as he can. I want to
know, for instance, how far we may reckon on his pro-
tection, and I should like this to be known not only to

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 139

you, but also to all who will help us with, their swords.
Do you too, I beg of you, insist on this. You have no
idea how immensely serviceable to our cause it would
be that the Elector should either aid those who
have taken up arms, or should at least be willing
to connive at our enterprise so far as to allow us to
take refuge in his territory if the state of affairs should
make it necessary. As soon as I have got this informa-
tion I think of coming to you in person ; for I can
no longer put off seeing face to face a man I so greatly
admire for his virtues.'

With this letter Hutten sent Luther his latest
poetical writings, in the hope that he would have them
published at Wittenberg. In these verses, destined for
the people, and therefore written in the German
language, he urges an armed rising of the nation
against the papacy and the clergy :

Upon the nobles proud I call,
Ye pious towns, too, rouse ye all ;
We'll stand together for our right ;
Leave me not lonely in the fight.
Have pity on the Fatherland,
Ye valiant Germans, lift the hand !
Now is the time to wield the sword
For Liberty : so wills the Lord.

High and low must join together in the war for
religion :

I summon all the princely host,

The noble Emperor Charles foremost,

That they support right valiantly

The cities and nobiUt3\

All men whose hearts this does not sway

No love for Fatherland have they,

Nor do they rightly God obey.

Flock hither every German youth

And with God's help sound forth the truth !

140 HISTORY OF THE GERxMAN PEOPLE

LandsTcnechts and troopers, do your part,
And all who have a patriot's heart,
To root out superstition black
And bring the truth of heaven back.
And, since no gentle means bestead,
We must have warfare and bloodshed !
Armour and horse we have galore.
Of swords and halberds a goodly store,
And we will use them, by the Lord,
If they are deaf to warning word.
AVe'll heed no more how men may yelp.
Almighty God will be oiar help !

Hutten was also prepared to seek aid from foreign
countries :

Now hear me swear upon my soul,
If God with favour on me look.
Who ne'er the righteous yet forsook,
I'll cleanse the Empire with my hands,
Though help I crave from foreign lands.

In another pamphlet, with the lengthy title
* Anzeige, wie cdlwegen sick die romischen Bischofe
oder Papste gegen die deutschen Kaiser geitalten
haben,' he presumed to instruct the Emperor Charles
in his duties and privileges with regard to Eome. As
mi imperial papist he said that the emperors formerly,
before they became subject to the Pope, had had the
power of appointing and deposing the Christian
bishops. The despotic Henry IV., he said, was a hero
in his eyes, although not born in German land. But
the greater his valour, spirit, and virtue, the more he
had had to suffer persecution from the Popes ; for as
soon as they began to recognise his great courage and
ability they set themselves against him, to prevent
his rising up over their heads. And this not in
the case of one or two Popes only, but with four
or five of them, amongst whom, however, that exe-

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 141

crable monk, by name Hildebrand, pressed him most
sorely.

Hutten's historical knowledge was most extra-
ordinary. In proof of the rights that former emperors
had exercised against the popes he related that the
Emperor Otto III. had had Pope John XIV.'s eyes put
out ; in proof of the tyranny that popes had been
guilty of in murdering emperors he informed his readers
that Clement IV. had had King Conrad IV. put to
death. In these statements there was not a word of
truth.

With a view to feeding the frenzy of the populace
Hutten now published his Latin dialogues in German,
as a Gesprachbuchlein. The moral of them was set
forth in a picture on the title-page. On the right
hand, at the top, stands King David addressing God
the Father (who is depicted on the left hand hurling
down lightning) with the words of the psalmist : ' Arise,
thou Judge of the world, and reward the proud after
their deserving.' In the middle space Luther and
Hutten appear side by side as the twin heralds of freedom.
At the bottom of the page armed warriors with out-
stretched spears are chasing a crowd of yelling priests
who are fleeing in terror, while the Pope, the car-
dinals, and the bishops are just visible below them.
At the end of the book also there is a pictorial
representation of Luther and Hutten side by side, and
it became customary to depict these two together as
' inseparable instruments of God.' ' God has sent
forth two specially chosen, bold, and enlightened
messengers,' said Eberlin of Giinzburg in his pamphlet
' Pllnfzehn Bundesgenossen ' (' Fifteen Confederates '),
which appeared in 1521. ' These two messengers are

142 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Martin Lutlier and Ulrich von Hutten : they are both
natives of Germany, deeply learned and Christian men,
who have devoted all their days to the furtherance of
God's glory, as is shown by their present insurrection.'
A ' Litanei der Deutschen ' was circulated, in which
divine help was asked for on behalf of these two
men.

Hutten in his writings gave the impression that he
was confident that the Emperor would place himself at
the head of the contemplated bloody revolution ; a
poem addressed to Charles runs as follows :—

For what herein is done by me

Is for thy glory and thy praise,
Or else it would not fitting be

That I should thus a tumult raise.
All free Germanics I exhort

(Yet as thy subject vassals brave)
To lend me gladly their support,

And from disgrace the Empire save.
And as our leader thee alone.
Most gracious Emperor, we'll own.

In his private correspondence, on the other hand,
it transpires that, after his visit to the Court of the
Emperor's brother Ferdinand had proved fruitless,
he had little hope left that Charles would assume
the leadership of the revolutionary forces. ' I place
but little hope on the Emperor,' he wrote, ' for he
is surrounded by crowds of priests, some of whom
especially have won his entire confidence.' And in
a letter to Erasmus on November 13, 1520, he ex-
presses the same hopelessness with regard to the
Emperor, but at the same time his intention of proceed-
ing to revolutionary measures without his help. He
exhorted Erasmus most urgently to be careful of his
personal safety in the coming struggle, and to take

THE LATEil GERMAN IIUMANIS3I 143

refuae at Basle. The conflict would already have
besTin if Sickingen had not advised delav on account
of the Emperor. ' If you too,' he writes to Luther,
' do not approve of my strong measures, you cannot,
at any rate, blame my intention of setting Germany
free and gaining new glory for learning. Should
the undertaking not succeed, still no skill or artifice
of the popish Court will be able to extinguish the
fire that we shall have kindled for its destruction.
That fire will burn on, even though we ourselves
should be consumed in it, and from our ashes there
will arise yet stronger and more valiant defenders
of liberty. It is just because I am persuaded of this
that I mean to attempt all, and not to let myself
be deterred by any threats. Even if an imperial edict
goes out against us, every place of refuge will not
be closed to us, or all means of help taken from us.' The
Eomish tyranny was beyond all measure terrible, and
could no longer, as Erasmus had thought, be staj^ed
by gentle means ; there was nothing for it but to resort
to arms, and ' to cast away, to burn, to destroy the
putrid corpse.' He did not stand alone in the fight,
he said in a song for the people :

There' s many a one

Will join the fun,
Though death should prove his master.

Brave troopers, rise,

LandshnecJits likewise,
Save Hutten from disaster.

The burden of another popular song is the glory he
will earn as the champion of the Gospel :

Ah, noble Hut. Franconian,

Go forward undismaj^ed ;
Anon thou shalt sing praises

To God, who gave thee aid

144 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

For justice well to fight :
Thou shalt uphold the right
"With peasant and with knight,
With pious warriors good
Defend Christ's Holy Blood.

At the beginning of the year 1521 Hutten brought
out a further collection of ' Gespriiche ' (Dialogues).

In the first of these, ' The Bull-slayer,' he repeats the
call to arms. ' This is a matter which concerns us all ;
we are carrying on business for the profit of all.
Come, all ye who wish to be free, here is something of
great value for sale. Here tyrants are expelled. Here
bondao'e is broken. Where are the lovers of freedom,
who cannot all have disappeared from the land ?
Where are the wise and the enlightened, those men of
illustrious names ? Where are ye, ye leaders of
nations ? Why come ye not to the muster, to join
with me in ridding our common Fatherland of this
pest ? Is there none who cannot endure to be a
bondsman ? Is there none who is ashamed of oppres-
sion and can wait no longer to become free ? In
one word, are there none left who have any manly
courage and spirit ? Where are all those who but
lately were ready to march against the Turks ? As if
wild raoincf bulls were not far worse enemies for
Germany.' ' You have heard me ! I see a hundred
thousand armed men, and at their head my brave
friend Sickingen. The gods be thanked ! Germany
has come to its senses and means to be free ! '

In the dialogue of ' The Eobbers ' he depicts four
classes of thieves. The most harmless and inoffensive
are the so-called street robbers ; a far worse kind
are the merchants, who by the introduction of foreign
wares outrageously rob the German people every

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 145

year, and who ought to be driven out of the country ;
worse still are the lawyers, who defeat all justice and who
should to be completely extirpated ; but the very worst
class of all are the robber-bands of profligate priests.
If Germanv is not freed from this last class, so Hutten
makes Sickingen say in the dialogue, there is no hope
for the land. He will never cease to urge on the
Emperor that he must relieve the priests of their
burden of riches ' for the increase of their piety ; ' and
that he ought to have all the gold and the silver in the
churches melted down, and all the jewels sold, and raise
armies with the money thereby realised.

It was not by Eome only that the German people
were plundered without measure and without end ; the
Emperor's own German prelates werejust asbad, and so
mighty had they grown through fraud and robbery that
they had gained possession of all the fairest regions and
most fruitful plains of Germany. The ill-fated tribe of
the Franconians was especially in subjection to the
godless rule of the priests, and had forfeited the glorious
name of ' free Franconians ' by accepting this yoke
more servilely than any other tribe. But the day of
delivery from these most pestilential robbers was at
hand.

Thus we see that in these projects of emancipation
it was not merely the diminution of the wealth of the
church and the plunder of churches that was planned,
but also the transformation of ecclesiastical principalities
into secular ones — such as Sickingen, for instance, later
on tried to effect in the case of the archbishopric of
Treves.

As soon as the moment of deliverance had come,
said Hutten, the knights of the realm must try and

VOL. III. L

146 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

persuade all the most honourable townships of Germany
to put aside all old quarrels and differences and to
unite in common action. ' For I see them aspiring after
freedom and protesting against this scandalous bondage
as no other class does. They have strength moreover,
and money in abundance, so that if it comes to fight-
ing— and in my opinion it must — the}' will be able
to supply the necessary sinews of war.'

' All this,' says a merchant whom Hutten brings into
the dialogue, ' seems to point to a war against the
priests, which may Christ, the Saviour, hasten. For
according to my holding there has never been a
more just or more urgent cause for war.' Where-
upon Hutten answers : ' It is as you say. If it has
always been held necessary to fight against every
kind of tyranny, what zeal must we now evince when
we have to do with tyrants who not only lay hands on
our property and rob us of our civil freedom, but who
also undermine our faith, our religion, all we hold
sacred ; who suppress the iruth and even endeavour to
•drive Christ Himself from our thoughts ! '

Another Hussite whirlwind was to be let loose on
Oerman soil.

Accordingly in another dialogue, ' The Second
Admonisher ' (' Zweiter Warner '), Hutten introduces the
Hussite leader Ziska in the character of a deliverer.
He makes Sickingen say : ' And in order that you may
•see that it has not alwa3"s fared ill with those who
have been enemies of the priesthood I will mention to
vou one man, instead of many, the Bohemian Ziska, the
invincible leader in the fiercest and longest war
ever waged against sacerdotalism. In what respect does
Ziska fall short of the most orlorious renown of the

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 147

greatest of o-enerals ? Has he not left behind him the
fame of having freed his country from tyranny, of
having rid all Bohemia of those good-for-nothing
wretches the lazy priests and lazier monks ; of having
■distributed their goods among the different foundations
and the community at large ; of having closed the country
against the attacks and robberies of the Pope ; of having
manfully avenged the martyrdom of the saintly John
Huss ; and with all this of having sought no reward,
of having in no wise enriched himself?' When the
^Admonitor' objects that he has heard say that
' Ziska's deeds were full of atrocity and godlessness,'
Sickingen answers that ' it is no crime to punish the
guilty au43o_depTive__haAighty, avaricious, luxurious,
and idle men of that of which they had taken_
possession unlawfully, and to drive them out of the
Fatherland, where33|ieiF~presence in suchiiumbers
causes famine and scarcity.' 'Why,' asks Sickingen,
* should I not follow such an example ? '

Hutten desired to gain the Emperor to his side, but
he meant to go through with his plans even if Charles
was not favourable ; for he said ' There are cases in
which not to obey is the truest obedience.' ' The
Emperor lets himself be made use of by the worst
of men for things that are of no profit.' 'If it is
his destiny so promptly to follow bad counsellors, I
think that speedy downfall will also be his destiny.'
Surrounded as he was by a host of honourable men, the
Emperor ought to deprive the Bishops of their inordi-
nate power, abolish superstition, bring in the true
relio-ion and the liirht of the faith, and restore the
freedom of Germany. It was not the opinions
of single individuals, but the will of God, tliat

L 2

148 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

should be considered : truth and rehgion were at
stake ! ' If the Emperor, however,' he said, ' will not
take up this cause, and no hope any longer remains
that he will interest himself in the welfare of the
Fatherland, I have resolved to make a venture at my
own risk, be the result what it may.'

The politico-ecclesiastical revolutionary party was
in great measure responsible for the state of things in
Germany which is deplored by the Franciscan monk
Thomas Murner, in his lament on ' The Downfall of the
Ghristian Faith.' In this poem he says that no
right-minded person can defend the existing evils
and abuses of the Church, and that the Church-
people themselves are partly to blame for the revolu-
tionary movement that has broken out :

The evils they deplore

No man of honour lands ;
God will endure no more,

Methinks, these Romish frauds.
Yet herein do I grieve,

And all my heart is rent.
Our faith they will upheave :

This is my sore lament.

I must in truth say this,

^Ye are to blame indeed ;
To sell indulgences

May many a man mislead :
Who thus forgiveness buys,

And thinks ' all's even now,'
That man will lightly prize

All sacraments, I trow.

The ruling powers, he goes on to say, were sunk in
indolence ; discord and envy reigned among the clergy.
But these evils could not be cured b}^ a revolutionary
upheaval and by the complete shattering of all exist-
ing? institutions, which was what the new religious

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 149

movement must lead to. The whole fabric of Church
organisation would be destroyed by the new doctrines
that were being preached :

The shepherd is struck down,

And scattered are the sheep ;
The Pope's expelled ; his crown

No longer he can keep.

And scarcely now is named

The name of Christ the Lord,
Lies everywhere proclaimed

And venom rank outpoured.

The patriarchs and all

The cardinals are gone, -

No bishop's in his stall —
The parson's left alone.

The people now decree,

In ignorance most dense,
"Who shall their shepherd be :

Ah, woe the shame immense !

The Holy Mass is nil,

In life, or yet in death ;
The sacraments they will

Revile with every breath.

Five of them they've anniilled.

And left us two alone.
But so to pieces pulled

They'll also soon 'be gone.

Of Luther's doctrine of universal priesthood he

says : —

We're priests now, every one.

All women and aU men.
Though Orders we have none.

Nor have anointed been.

The stool stands on the table, I

The coach before the steed, 1
The faith is quite unstable, /

And soon will fall indeed, y/

In some half-dozen more verses he describes the
misery and discord caused throughout the Empire

150 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

by the new doctrines ; he laments that the Gospel^
which once filled men's hearts with joy and gladness, is
now only the cause of tumult and bloodshed.

The apple is thrown down,

And discord's everywhere,
In village and in town ;

No one will give a hair.
No, not a single mite :

The magistrates are spurned ;
By cunning and by spite

Our hearts to gall are turned.

The Gospel was of old

A message of glad mirth,
Which heaven did unfold

To fill with peace the earth.
But now they've poisoned it

With wrath and bitterness ;
The sacred Holy AVrit

Brings only wretchedness.

Of God's most Holy Word

Complaint I dare not make,
But these men do pervert

The truth for slaughter's sake.
The Word of endless life.

Which Christ brought from above,
They've used for war and strife,

Instead of peace and love.

Had Turkish armies won

Each Allemanic town,
From rising of the sun

To where it goeth down,
They could not have destroyed

Our holiness as much
As we have been annoyed

By Christians yclept such.

Since Christ his time indeed,

Upon my oath I say,
There ne'er was such sore need

'Mong Christians as to-day.
The beauty of our trust

Has fallen with great might ;
Our crow n lies in the dust

And is bemocked oiiti'ight

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 151

Agitators who entrapped the people and mculcated
contempt for all authority would bring about the
complete ruin of the Faith :

Who now can best befool

With lying words, and teach
Contempt for law and rule,

And insurrection preach,
Hun flock the ruasses round

To hear him shout and smash
Our faith, tiU on the ground

It crumbles into ash.

In an exhaustive reply to Luther's ' Address to the
German Nobility ' Murner speaks out frankly concern-
ing the abuses of the Church — annates, pallium money,
commendams, reservations, and others — and will ' ex-
cuse no one for their abuses.' As for the contempt
into which the Church penalty of the ban has fallen
he says : ' Nobody is to blame for it but the priests and
bishops, who have used or rather abused it so lightly,
often inflicting it for a mere theft of two or three hazel
nuts or some such paltry matter. These abuses should be
put down in a constitutional manner by the ecclesiastical
courts, the Emperor, and the Estates, but they should
not be used, as Luther is using them, to ' inj ure our
faith.' Luther, he said, as nobody could doubt, was
only taking up the grievances of the German nation
against the Court of Eome as a lever and a plausible
pretext for upsetting the Christian faith, for spreading
his poison over the land, and proclaiming Hussite
and Lollard doctrines. Whilst endeavouring to unite
Germany with the Bohemians and the Muscovites he
would ' separate the country, as regards its creed,
from all other Christian fellowship.' ' I hope to God
that we Germans will in time have got rid of all our

r-

152 HISTOEY OF THE GEKMAN PEOPLE

grievances, and will afterwards remain pious Chris-
tians, and submissive to the laws of our Fatherland.'
Whether for the removal of these grievances a council
would be necessary he left to the Emperor and the
Estates to decide. Luther, he said, had talked of ap-
pealing to a Council, ' but I should have thought,' he
continues, addressing himself to Luther, ' that since you
long so much for a Council you would have trusted
to that same Council, inspired by the Holy Ghost,
to make all necessary reforms and to redress all
grievances. You are disregarding this right and
proper course, and embarking on a fatal line of action.'
Everywhere, he complains, Luther is counselling arbi-
trary measures ; his language to the Pope is out-
rageous : ' I will say in truth that the meanest scullion
has never been more shamefully scolded and abused
than the Pope ; and even if he were a murderer and
the greatest villain on the earth he ought not to be
treated so scandalously.' No improvement in the
condition of the Church would ever be effected by such
calumnious writings as Luther's.

Whilst refutino- Luther's doomatic and doctrinal
assertions Murner becomes particularly fierce in the
passage where he treats of the holy Mass. To Luther's
assertion ' that the establishment of masses is not only
of little use, but also provokes God's anger against us,'
he answers : ' I must tear open my heart here in
great bitterness, and speak with you briefly, but
in plain German. And I will set aside all priest-
craft, doctor's degrees, monkhood, monasticism, vows,
oaths, promises, and what not, by which I might
seem laid under obligation, and will be simply a
pious Christian. Well, then, my father taught me from

THE LATER GERMAN HUMANISM 153

my youtli up to show reverence to the Mass as to a
memorial of the sufferings of Christ Jesus, our Lord, and
thus all are taught who learn in the holy Scriptures
about our common Saviour, Christ, that the Mass is a
sacrifice, profitable for the living and for the dead ; all
sacred teachers are of this opinion ; it is our holy
usage that has grown up with us since the time of the
twelve Apostles. See to it now and remember, you
high priests of the faith, that you teach us the truth in
this matter of the Mass, for it lies at the heart's core of
every Christian man. For if this should not be, and
any error were found here, it may well be conjectured
what might happen in other cases. See to it, and re-
member that here in this matter of the Mass you do
not delay or spare ; for you see that they do not delay
or spare who are combating our reverence for the Holy
Mass. But if you delay you will rue the evil.'

' This I say from my Christian heart, and my father's
teaching : If all the bishops were silent as death, so
that the worship of the Holy Mass became extinct,
still I would testify with this my handwriting that I
will die out of this world in the paternal doctrine of
the worship of the Mass, and will trust for salvation
to the contemplation of the cross of Christ.'

Eeferring to Luther's proposal that the ancient
abbeys should be reserved for the younger sons of the
nobility he says : ' In this the Holy Ghost does not speak
through you, Luther, but you are holding out a bait
to the nobility. For you say : We are all of the
priestly order. If, then, w^e are all of the same order,
why do you give privileges to the children of the nobles
before all others ? Do you mean to say that Christ
admitted only nobles to the high dignity of the twelve

154 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Apostles ? As you pride yourself on being a truth-
speaking man, this flattery does not become you. But
if you cannot prove this from Holy Writ I let it
stand for human speech.'

Again and again he begs and conjures the
nobles to fight for and protect the ancient Christian
faith. ' I will not have it denied that Dr. Luther is in
the wrong and has spoken untruth in everything, but in
many things he has been found not unskilful.' In
this, he blames him however, ' most of all for that
he has so mixed up truth with falsehood that the
one cannot be separated from the other or understood
by simple-minded Christians ; also because by means
of you the chief and the most prominent people he
has abused his noble profession and his reason for
seditious, separatist, and unchristian ends to lead
Christ's poor lambs into unbelief.'

Luther's turbulent proceedings must inevitably
lead to a ' Bundschuh ' ^ (a rising of the peasants),
and to frantic and senseless agitation.

Murner too, addressedhimself as Luther and Hutten
]\ad done, to the newly elected Emperor Charles. He
begged and implored him to stand up for the old
faith. Never since its foundation, he said at the be-
ginning of his address to Charles, had the empire
been more dangerously attacked than it was now by
Luther and his party. This so-called reformer, like
a second Catiline, was fomenting civil war, ' as if
such insurrection, innovation, and forcible revolution
were in accordance with the Christian faith,' and as if

' So called from the device — a Bundschuh, or rough kmd of peasant's
shoe — stuck on a pole as a banner at the first peasants' rising in 1431.
See for further explanation vol. iv. p. 129, English translation.

THE LATER GER3IAN HUMANISM 155

' God's command could in such wise be obeyed and no
sin committed.'

' Church and State are tottering to their founda-
tions,' wrote the prebendary Charles von Bodmann
shortly before King Charles came over from Spain,
' and the eyes of the world are turned to the young-
emperor, who is assuming the reins of government
under more difficult and distressing circumstances than
any of his predecessors on the throne. How will he
be able to avert the imminent danger of intestine
war ? What remedies will he discover for the daily
and rapid spread of heresy ? The nation looks to him
as to its saviour in its extremest need.'

156 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

BOOK VI

CHAPTEE I

THE DIET OF WORxMS AND THE SENTENCE ON THE NEW

GOSPEL

The newly elected Emperor, Charles V., began his
rule with the firm determination to maintain peace
among Christian nations ; to protect Christendom
against the ever increasing danger from the Moslem
arms, and if possible, by the expulsion of the Turks, to
restore the supremacy of Christendom throughout the
world. In his first manifesto to the Estates and
subjects of the Empire, issued from Mohno del Eey on
October 31, 1519, four weeks before receiving the
electoral capitulation, he announced his intention to
start from Spain the following March, and come to
Germany to be crowned Emperor and to hold a Diet.
Further, he intended to nominate an ' honourable and
worthy ' Council of Administration, to be composed of
the notables and other excellent and loyal persons of
the German nation, for the maintenance of peace,
justice, and order in the holy Empire, ' Moreover,' he
promised in this declaration, ' we shall attend to all
other matters as beseems a Eoman king and chief head
and protector of Christendom, so that resistance may
be opposed to the infidels who now, more than ever

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 157

before, are extending their dominion and tyranny in an
alarmino- manner, and in order that we ourselves may
be worthy of the title of "Perpetual Augmenter of
the Empire." ' His subjects, he says in another pro-
clamation, are to await his arrival with hopefulness
and rejoicing, and with pious prayers and solemn pro-
cessions, to beg of God that his journey to Germany
may be prosperous, and that he may be enabled to
carry into effect his laudable intentions for the welfare
of all Christendom.

From the very outset the position of Charles was a
most difficult one.

While the Koman Empire had fallen to his lot there
was a near prospect of his losing his own hereditary
dominions. A revolution was raging in Spain, and
threatened to deprive him of the throne ; the Castilian
insurgents had offered the crown to Don Manuel, King of

Portugal. Naples stood in constant fear of attack from
'a'Turkish fleet, and the French king, Francis I., was
stirring up discontent in Naples as well as in Castile.
In the Austrian hereditary dominions there was no firmly
established rule : the struggles for provincial independ-
ence seemed to endanger to the utmost the authority
of the sovereign power. In the Empire the state of
things was almost anarchical. The English ambassador,
Eichard Pace, remarked in the summer of 1519, while
in the Rhine district, that the German nation was
in such a state of discord that all the Princes of
Christendom would not be able to restore the country
to order. In the following spring the Cardinal von Este
wrote, concerning the eastern portion of the Empire,
that the country was so distracted that everyone could do
as he pleased ; there were many to rule, but few to obey.

158 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

The terms of the ' capitulation ' laid before the new Em-
peror by the Electors represented an almost complete vic-
tory of the oligarchical over the monarchical principle.
Added to all this the treasury of the young King was
quite exhausted ; ^ the crown of Germany Iiad cost
him nearly a million gold gulden - — an enormous sum,
according to the then value of money — and the appli-
cation for a loan from King Henry VIII. of England
had been unsuccessful.

Thus outward circumstances all combined to
dictate a policy of peace to the young King. His
character and bent of mind, moreover, were also
opposed to warlike and revolutionary plans. He only
wished to utilise the means at his disposal for the
defence of the inheritance that had fallen to him, and
he thanked God that such means had been vouchsafed
him.

On October 22, 1-520, Charles made his entry, with
great pomp and magnificence, into the coronation town
of Aix-la-Chapelle. The only two Electors who were
absent on the occasion were Joachim of Brandenburg
and Frederick of Saxony ; the latter was detained in
Cologne by an attack of gout. In the retinue of the
King there stood out prominently ' four hundred
cuirassiers adorned with silver and gold, so that I
cannot believe,' writes an eye-witness, ' there could
ever be seen amongst men more beautiful or more
costly apparel. But the royal apparel surpassed all
other.' Charles was mounted on a horse capari-

^ See our statements, vol. ii. (Eng. trans.), pp, 278, 279.

- ' A gulden, according to Kostlin (M, I. i. 26), was equivalent,
in the first half of the sixteenth century, to from 15 to 20 marks of present
German money.' (I have ventured to make use of this note from Beard's
Martin Luther, p. 121. — Translator.)

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW OOSFEL ib\)

soned with silver, and wore a silver biretta on his
head ; he was of slight build and middle height ; his
face was pale and beardless, and ' he was so calm and
serious in his behaviour that no one would have
thought he was only just twenty years old.' He
seemed ' to count as nothing ' the highest earthly
good fortune ; ' he showed a dignity and greatness of
character as if he had the globe of the earth iDcneath
his feet.'

On October 23 the coronation was solemnised, and
Charles took the oaths which formed the basis of the
Holy Eoman Empire of the German nation and the
substance of its constitution. The principal article
related to the protection of the Church and the Papal
See. 'Wilt thou,' said the Archbishop of Cologne,
according to the ancient usage, ' wilt thou hold fast
the holy Catholic faith, as it has been handed down
from the Apostles, and show it forth in works that are
worthy of it ? And wilt thou yield due and loyal
submission to the Pope and the Holy Eoman Church ? '
' T will,' answered the Emperor, and laying two fingers
of his right hand on the altar to give formal ratifica-
tion to his oath, he added the words : " In reliance on
divine protection, and supported by the prayers of the
whole body of Christians, I will, to the best of my
power, truly perform what I have promised, so help me
God and the holy evangel.'

Charles interpreted the word Empire in the full
scope of its ancient mediaeval acceptation as the basis
and corner-stone of all human rii»-ht on earth, and as
the supreme headship and protectorate of the Christian
Church.

His chief aim and object, lie said on August 16,

160 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

1519, in a memorandum for his envoy to King Henry
VIII. of England, was to use his power for the glory of
God and the Apostolic See. ' The papal and imperial
sovereignty ' he believed to have been instituted by
God as the highest authority on earth, exalted above
all others. On Pope and Emperor, as the two ' real
heads of Christendom, the duty was imposed of
extirpating all errors among Christian peoples, of
establishing universal peace, of undertaking a general
crusade against the Turks, and of brinoina' all thin2:s
into better order and condition. In war and in peace
these two powers must be indissolubly bound together,
and by their unanimity hold out to all true believers
the assurance of a better future.' ^

After the Emperor had taken his coronation oath
the Archbishop put the following question to the
Electors, the princes, and the whole assembly of people
present : ' Will you submit yourselves to this Prince
and Lord ? Will you strengthen and defend his kingdom,
build it up loyally, and be obedient to his com-
mands according to the injunction of the apostle, who
says : " Let each one be subject to the higher powers ? " '
Wliereupon all present, the princes as well as the
lowest among the assembled crowd, answered : ' Yes,
we will.' The coronation oath was mutually binding ;
it included the whole number of the German princes,
the absent ones also, according to ancient custom.
That one and all of them would be ready to defend the
Church and its head was all the more to be expected
as up to that time in Germany the unity of the Church

^ ' Le papat . . . et lempeyre,' says Charles i]i a letter to Adrian of
March 7, 1522, ' doit estre une mesme chose, iinanime des deux ' (Lanz,
Corres]ponilence , i. 59).

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 161

had never yet been loosened by any division among its
members. Whatever the force of the movement which
the new doctrines and Luther's incendiary writings had
aroused, it had as yet led to no practical results : the
ancient church constitution and the old forms of
worship remained everywhere unaltered ; even in
Wittenberof the Holv Mass was still read. There was
every reason to expect that the princes and the other
notables would continue in the same frame of mind
as in the year 1512, when they had declared at the
Diet of Cologne that 'as a Christian body and
assembly they were bound to support the Emperor and
were pledged towards each other to act in concert and
unison for the maintenance of the faith, of the Eoman
Church, and of the Holy lioman Empire of the German
nation, to prevent papal oppression, and to protect the
unity of the Church against schismatic separatists.'

When the questions and answers at the coronation
were over, the Emperor, kneeling before the altar, was
anointed on the head, breast, and hands, and then led
into the sacristy and arrayed in the liturgic garments
of stole, dalmatica, and pluvial. The sword of Charles
the Great was then girt upon him, a gold ring was
placed on his finger, the sceptre and the imperial orb
were handed to him, and finally the crown of Charles
the Great was placed on his head by the Archbishops.
He was then led back to the altar, where he repeated
his solemn oath, and before the completion of the Mass
he received the Holy Communion.

A few days after the coronation the Archbishop of
Mayence, in the presence of Charles, read a papal brief
to the effect that the Pope had chosen King Charles to
be Eoman Emperor on the condition that, like the late

VOL. III. M

162 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Emperor Maximilian, he would bear the title Roman
Emperor Elect.

From Aix-la-Chapelle Charles proceeded to Cologne,
whence he convoked a Diet to be held at Worms. The
assembly met on January 27, 1521, and, after a solemn
service in the cathedral, was opened in the presence of
a numerous gathering of notables.

On the day after the opening of the Diet the
Emperor made a proclamation to the notables, informing
them that, ' as a German by birth, it had seemed to him
that if means were not taken to stem the existing
turl:)ulence and confusion, the Holy Eoman Empire
would be disintegrated. He had therefore made up
his mind to do all he could for the Empire in this
respect, and also for the exaltation of the Christian
faith, so that the enemies of the same misfht be the
more easily destroj^ed. Before everything else, there-
fore, it was necessary to consider how justice, peace, and
order might be re-established, and a Council of Regency
formed, which should govern the country during the
Emperor's absence ; for it was only under the rule of
justice, peace, and order that all necessary and
profitable business could be carried on and flourish.'

Also, in accordance with the demands of the
Electors, the Emperor would, as soon as possible
endeavour to go to Eome to be (browned, and at the
■same time he would make everv effort to regain the
principalities and provinces which had been wrested
from the Empire. In all these matters he asked for the
counsel and sympathy of the notables, but above all in
the restoration of peace and justice and in the entire
suppression of highway rol)l)ery, which was utterlj^
•obnoxious and intolerable to him.

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 163

111 a later address Charles explained to the notables
that he had accepted the crown ' not for his own
profit, or for the sake of extending his dominions and
■enriching his purse, but out of love for the German
nation and the Holy Empire, which in glory, honour,
might and majesty, no monarchy in the world can
■compare with, but which is at present regarded as
the shadow of its former self.' He hoped, ' with the
help of his kingdom of Spain and his allies, to be
able to restore the Holy Empire to its former honour
and dignity.' This undertaking, he said, would be
advantageous to him not only as secular head of
Christendom, and defender and protector of the faith,
the Church, and the Pope, 1)ut also to the German
nation, the common good, and the maintenance of
peace and order. It was ]iis will and intention,
if only the Estates would loyally help and support
him, to set things right again in the Empire ; he
would devote his life and his fortune to this purpose,
^nd govern justly and usefully with the help of
loyal, intelligent, and pious counsels. His imperial
honour and dignity were bound up with the honour
and dignity of the Estates of the Empire. The latter,
in their deliberations, must therefore lay this fact to
heart : the dignity, majesty, reputation, and prestige
of the Empire would be judged not by them only but
by foreign nations also, and he and they must be
careful to maintain the reputation of the Empire
abroad.

The first matter to be considered was the appoint-
ment of a Council of Eegency, which, according to the
suggestion of the Emperor, should be empowered to
act in his absence. Witli regard to this matter the

M 2

164 HISTORY OF THE GEHMAN PEOPLE

notables stated, on March 7, that they would submit a
memorandum of advice to Charles, from which he
would see that their aims and desires were directed
towards the exaltation of the Empire and the Imperial
prestige, and that they honoured him (Charles) as their
true ruler and Emperor, and would rejoice in his
glory and welfare. Nothing on earth would be dearer
to them than that he should excel all other Christian
potentates in splendour and prosperit}^

In spite of these assurances, however, the scheme
drawn up for the constitution of a, Reichsregiment
(Council of Eegency ^) seemed almost a mockery of the
Imperial Majesty. The oligarchists, who thought that,
with this youthful Emperor at the head of affairs, the
time had come for them to get the administration into
their own hands and to have their way Math the other
deputies, made demands which were based on the or-
ganisation of the Augsburg Council of Eegency of
1500. Even during the presence of Charles in his
Empire this new Council was to retain the sum and
substance of authority, or, as one of the town delegates
excellently expressed it, ' to relieve the Emperor of all
responsibility.' But Charles was equal to them. ' They
appeared to him,' he informed them in answer to their
proposals, ' to have begun suddenly to think that he
was too young to govern, although the}^ had unanim-
ously elected him, and thus testified that they con-
sidered him to be of age ; it was not customary to place
a guardian or regent over a person who had attained his
majority. It would not become his dignity, authority,
and reputation that the Council of Eegency should
exercise administrative power while he himself was

' See Dyer's History of Modern Eurojje, i. 380.— Translator.

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL ] 65

present in the Empire, or that the power hitherto vested
by divine and human law and custom in the Imperial
Majesty should be in any way curtailed.

After lengthy discussion it was finally settled that
the Reichsregiment should onl^^ ^^overn duriujg the
absence of the Emperor ; that on his return it should
onl^y be called ajJouncil, and ttiat withm a prescribed
■circuit the Emperor should have the power to summon
it to himself; that in any Imsiness that had alread}^
been begun this Council should retain the chief power,
buFHiat in all matters that arose after the Emperor's
return nothino- should Ije done without his consent.
During the Emperor's absence tlie Reklisregiment was
to have the power and privileges of a chief central
administration for all internal affairs of the Empire ; it
was to be the highest tribunal and the highest admin-
istrative body ; and finally — and this last clause had
far-reaching results in the following year — it was to
exercise ecclesiastical jurisdiction, and to be em-
powered to proceed against any assailants of the
Christian faith. The Reichsregiment was to consist of
an Imperial vicegerent and twenty-two assessors, of
whom Charles was to nominate four — two in his
capacity of Emperor and two by right of his Austrian
and Bur^undian dominions. The Estates were to have
the nomination of the remaining eighteen. The appel-
lation ' Eegents of His Imperial Majesty and the
Empire,' which had been given to the Council of
Regency under Maximilian, was, by Charles's wish,
changed to 'His Imperial Majesty's Eegency in the
Empire ; ' and the members were no longer, as formerly,
to take their oaths to the ' Emperor and Empire,' but
to the Emperor alone. The seat of the Reichsregiment

160 irisTORY or the geeman people

for the next eighteen months was to be Nuremberg^
and the Kammergericht, or Imperial Chamber, was to
meet there also during this period.

This Kammergericht, the highest tribunal in the
Empire, had of late fallen into abeyance, and the debate
concerning its rehabilitation took up a great deal of
time. ' The Kammergericht,' wrote home the Frankfort
delegate, Philip Ftirstenberg, on February 9, 'is like a
wild animal that puzzles everybody. No one knows
how to attack it : one advises this way, another that.'
' How to get the Kammergericht into good order and
smooth working,' he writes again on February 26, 'has
long been a matter of arduous labour, thought, and
trouble, but in truth I have not yet heard of any
" Doctor " — and there are many on the bench — who can
solve the problem.' At last, with but slight modilica-
tions, the same rules and organisation that had ob-
tained under Maximilian were adopted ; but two more-
assessors, to be appointed by the Emperor, were added
to the orio'inal number. With the full assent of the
notables Charles announced an enlarged and improved
scheme for the Landsfriede, or public peace, in which
the ancient traditional alliance of the spiritual and
secular powers was recognised anew by a decree to the
effect that every person who remained year after year
under the imperial ban — that is to say, in outlawry —
would be put also under the ban of the Church.

The costs of maintenance of the Reichsregiment and
the Kammergericht were estimated at 50,000 gulden.
The notables had offered to undertake the raising of the
necessary funds, and the question now was how this
was to be managed.

But every one refused to pay up. ' We are all in

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 167

prison,' tlie}^ said ; ' nobody goes courting.' ' Metz
borders on Lorraine, and expects every day the
invasion of the French ; Nuremberg has not had any
peace for the last twenty years ; Uhii is pauperised by
fines ; Cologne has a slender purse ; Frankfort is
reduced both in the number and the wealth of its
burghers, and also by its taxes ; Worms has spent more
than 100,000 gulden over its feuds ; Spires is being
ruined by priests and taxation ; greater misery and la-
mentation have never been known.' The counts, barons,
and knights intimated by letter or by speech that ' if
advantageous terms and legitimate privileges were not
conceded to them, to the poor as well as to the rich,
and to the rich equally with the poor, they would not
give their consent to any tax whatever.' Some of the
princes and prelates also, says Filrstenberg in his
report, excused themselves from contributing to the
costs. ' Some of them,' he says, ' declared that they got
nothing from the Empire, and so they hoped not to
have to pay anything. Others of the princes proposed
that the money should be raised by holding back
the annates, or the rents from ecclesiastical fiefs which
went to Eome, or by levying a tax on the Jews, or a
new imperial duty. ' A general duty might be imposed
on all wares that came from England, France, or Italy.
Item, on all gold, silver, copper, iron, steel, and other
metals, either wrought or crude ; item, on horses and
other animals which were exported from German lands a
duty of twenty gulden must be paid. Such a duty,
they said, would not fall heavily on the poor man.'
The town delegates, however, would not consent to an
imperial duty. At length it was unanimously agreed
that, with a few individual exceptions, every one should

168 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

contribute towards the maintenance of the Kammer-
gericht and the Reichsregiment five times as much as
he had formerly paid for the Kammergericht.

With regard to his foreio'n affairs Charles, who
appeared in person at the assembly on March 21,
informed the notables that ' the honour, welfare, glory,
and reputation of the Empire still depended on two
principal points — namely, that the Imperial Majesty
should receive the imperial crown at Eome, and that
restitution should be made of all that had been taken from
the Empire in Italy. The Emperor on his part, he said,
if only the Estates helped him according to their means,
would stake life and fortune on the attempt. He
offered to provide for this undertaking, at his own
expense, 2,000 heavy horse, or more, and a considerable
number of lighter horse; also 10,000 federal troops
and 6,000 Spaniards. From the Estates he asked, for
the space of one year, 20,000 cavalry and 4,000
infantry. A prompt decision was imperative, as every
one knew how His Majesty's enemies were preparing
for war.' For many hundred years there had been
no such opportunity as now of helping the Empire to
so OTeat an extent ; therefore no time must be lost. If
the aid was volunteered he (Charles) would set out from
Germany on a ' march of recuperation to Eome ; ' if it
was refused he would declare himself innocent before
God and the world of having been wanting in will to
come to the rescue of the Holy Empire. He would then
be ' compelled to provide in some other way, either in
war or in peace, for the affairs and business of the
Empire, as far as might be necessary to His Majesty and
his hereditary kingdom, lands, and subjects. At the
same time he promised ' none the less in addition not

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 169

only to establish and maintain peace, law, and order in
the Holy Empire, but to do and undertake whatever
else might be of service to the Holy Empire and could
promote its honour and prosperity.'

With regard to the Federal States, which he had
again endeavoured to bind closely to the Empire, and
which he hoped would join him in his march to Eome,
the Emperor had already made proposals to the
notables a few weeks before. Several foreign countries,
he said, were constantly at work forming leagues and
treaties with these Federal States (which were after all
subjects of the Empire) and inciting them to rebellion
and insubordination. A special embassy ought, there-
fore, to be sent to them and a threefold demand made
— first, that as Germans and subjects of the Empire
they would promise not to ally themselves with
foreign Powers against the Emperor and the Estates ;
secondly, that they should supply 10,000 men for the
Emperor's expedition to Rome, and should assist him in
recoverinof the dominions that had been wrested from
him ; finally, that ' an understanding be arrived at
between the Holy Empire, its Estates and members on
the one side and the Federal States on the other, in
order that we may live more peacefully side by side,
and that war and tumult, which arise from unfriendly
neighbours, may be prevented.' If the Federals agreed
to these terms, the Emperor and the Estates would
protect and defend them as part and parcel of the
Empire.

On May 13, the notables declared themselves ready
to furnish the numbers of cavalry and infantry re-
quired of them by the Emperor for the ' expedition to
Eome and the reconcjuest of what had been taken from

170 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

the Empire.' But they stipulated that the contingents
should not be furnished till the following September
twelvemonth, and then only for a term of six months, and
that the aid should be contributed in men and not in
money, in order that the transaction might not be
turned into a financial speculation. The six months,
moreover, were to be calculated from the day of
departure to the day of return. Furthermore, if peace
and order were not restored within the stated time
nobody was to be pressed for further levies. By the
establishment of a new ' Matrikel ' ^ the contingents
of men were apportioned amongst the notables ; this
' Matrikel ' remained in use till the latest period of the
imperial constitution.

At the beginning of the Diet the princes had passed
a resolution excluding the town delegates from the
debate on the lioman campaign ' very unfairly,' so
these delegates said, ' and contrary to time-honoured
custom.' For if they were to yield ' love and service '
with the other Estates, and to stretch their help even
beyond their means, they should not in justice be
excluded from the council. In consequence of these
remonstrances one town representative was summoned
to the committee of deliberation, in order to insure that
in cases where the tax imposed had been too small it
should be increased, and that it should be lightened
where it was too heavy.

' God grant that some good may come out of it all,'
said the Frankfort delegate on May 20, in a letter
reporting on the costs of the ' Kammergericht ' and

^ See Dyer's Modern Europe, i. 259. ' There were two methods of
assessment in Germany, the Roll or Register (' Matrikel ') and the
Common Penny (' der gemeine Pfennig ').

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 171

the ' Eeiclisreoiment ' and the establishment of the
new ' Matrikel,' ' since it is being done in the name of
honour, restitution, peace, and law. But, as the matter
appears to me, I much fear that nothing will come of
it.

That nothing did come of the many good measures /
passed at the Diet of Worms must be attributed to the
revolutionary movement by which Church and State
were harassed.

Luther had been condemned by the papal bull as
an heretical teacher, and his writings ordered to be
burnt. The Pope had sent the protonotary Marino
Caraccioli and Hieronymus Aleander, superintendent
of the Vatican, as his Legates to Germany to see that
the bull and the imperial ban were enforced.

Aleander was a man of cpreat intellectual distinction
— one of the most learned humanists of the time. He
had lectured on the Greek language at Paris with
conspicuous success. At his lecture on Ausonius, so a
German student reported, ' there was such an immense
audience (and among them the most distinguished men)
that the ordinary lecture-room was not large enough,
and a larger one had to be found. Sometimes Aleander
had as many as 2,000 listeners, of all classes. In the
year 1511 he determined to go over to Germany and
there devote himself to giving instruction in the Greek
language and publishing the ancient classics. There
were plenty of good brains, he wrote, in France and in
Italy, but in those countries people were chiefly inter-
ested— and that not without some suspicion of cupidity
— in those arts and sciences, from which they might
expect direct pecuniary profit. In Germany, on the
other hand, men were impelled by pure love of truth

172 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

to be always attempting something new, not for personal
gain, but for renown and for the common good of the
nation ; they improved and perfected the ancient arts,
and they invented new ones.'

At that time it had been Aleander's belief that no
nation was so sincerely devoted to the Church as
Germany ; but when he returned ten years later as
Leojate he found the minds of men much altered throuofh-
out a large part of the country. Formerly he himself had
stood high in the esteem of German humanists, but now
that he had taken up the cause of the Church against
Luther and Hutten, his former friends and pupils became
his bitter opponents ; they called him, as he himself
wrote to Eome, a traitor to learning, a court sycophant,
^ champion of preaching friars. ' Germany,' he wrote,
' is brimful of grammarians and poetasters, who think
they can have no influence as scholars — especially
in Greek— unless they break with the Catholic
Church.' The professors of Eoman and Canon law
were also, he said, on Luther's side ; the clerics, with
the exception of the parochial clergy, were seriously
infected ; a legion of impoverished nobles under the
leadership of Hutten were thirsting for the blood of the
•clergy and only waiting for the moment of insurrection.
' All Germany is up in arms against Eome ; all the
world is clamouring for a Council that shall meet on
German ground ; papal bulls of excommunication are
laughed at ; numbers of people have ceased re-
ceiving the sacrament of penance.' A revolt against
the Apostolic Chair, such as without being credited
the Pope had predicted five years ago, had now broken
■out in Germany. The disaffection towards Eome

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 173

was taking deeper and deeper root in all influential
circles.

Aleander was of opinion that the burning of
Luther's books, in case the latter should not be in-
duced to recant, would be an admirable method of
checking the spread of heresy ; for the sentence pro-
nounced in the bull would in this way become gene-
rally known in Germany and elsewhere ; and such
measures, carried out publicly by authority of the
Pope and by imperial decree, would also, he thought,
have a salutary effect on the laitv, who had been mis-
led by thousands of heretical sermons and pamphlets.

In the Emperor's hereditary dominions of Burgundy
and the Netherlands Aleander had repeatedly executed
the papal bull. In Cologne also, during the Empe-
ror's absence, the Lutheran books had been burned
outside the cathedral.

In Cologne, however, Aleander met with the first
serious difficulties in the execution of the bull, difficul-
ties which were connected with the Elector Frederic of
Saxony, then at Cologne, and which were of the greatest
consequence for the subsequent course of events.

Aleander and Caraccioli handed over the papal
document to the Elector on November 4, 1520, and
beijo'ed him, accordino- to the instructions of the bull,
to have Luther's books burned, and Luther himself put
under restraint, or else sent to Eome. Frederic an-
swered that he would give the matter his consideration,
and the next day he asked advice of Erasmus, who was
also at Coloi^ne at the time.

Erasmus had already by letter pleaded in favour of
Luther to the Elector ; everv one, he had said, who

174 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

had religion at heart, read these books with the
greatest sjanpathy. To a Spanish bishop, on the other
hand, he had said in March 1520 : ' Every pious person
must be on the side of the Pope ; Luther stirs up
tumult and rebellion, and is everlastingly publishing
fresh hateful books and pamphlets.' To the Pope
himself he wrote, on September 13 of the same year,
that he had never read more than some ten or twelve
pages of Luther's writings, and these only very
hurriedly ; that he should not presume to oppose his
diocesan in any way, especially as he was the Vicar
of Christ. Even when it had still been lawful to
befriend Luther he had not, he said, taken him under
protection. In his interview with the Elector, however,
he openly defended Luther. To Frederic's question
whether he thoui^ht that Luther had erred in his
preaching and writing Erasmus smiled first and then,
as Spalatin relates, gave the following answer : ' Yes,
in two things : that he has attacked the Pope in his
crown and the monks in their bellies.' He spoke so
favourably of Luther's teaching that the electoral coun-
cillor and the Court-chaplain, Spalatin, asked him to
put down some of his opinions on paper for them. In
compliance with this request Erasmus wrote out the
following statements amongst others : ^ ' That the
whole fight against Luther sprang from hatred of the
classics and from tyrannical arrogance, that the best
and most evanoelicallv minded men were not incensed
by Luther's opinion, but b}^ the Pope's Bull ; Luther was
quite justified in demanding that he should be tried by
disinterested judges ; the world was thirsting for evan-
gelical truth, and the latter ought not to be maliciously

' ' Axiomata Erasmi ' in Lutheri Oj}. Latina, v. 241-2 i2.

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 175

opposed, nor should the Emperor on his accession make
himself hated by hard measures. He (Erasmus) would
like to see Luther's case decided not by Church
authority, but by wise and unprejudiced men. From
the Emperor, he was convinced, nothing was to be
hoped, for he was surrounded by sophists and papists.
Fearing that his written statements might fall into the
hands of the Legate Aleander, Erasmus asked Spalatin
to let him have them back, and the latter was fuUv
justified in saying from his point of view: 'So fear-
fully ready was Erasmus to acknowledge evangelical
truth.' Spalatin gave him back his written opinions,
but soon afterwards they appeared in print, to the
extreme annoyance of Erasmus, who, a few da^^s after
the conversation with the Elector and the episode with
Spalatin, had written to a friend : 'For many reasons
I have refrained from connectino- mvself with the
Lutheran cause.'

Erasmus was worse than Luther, Aleander said ;
he was the real originator of the new heresies^;^^

After his talk with Erasmus the Elector Frederic
sent the following answer to the papal nuncios : ' He
could not comply with their request, for Luther had
lodged an appeal, and it seemed that a considerable
number of people, learned and unlearned, clergy and
lait}^ approved of this step. There was not suffici-
ently convincing evidence of the danger of Luther's
doctrines, sermons, and books to warrant their destruc-
tion ; the best plan would be to grant Luther a safe-
conduct to appear before a tribunal of learned and
unprejudiced judges.' Frederic accordingly interceded
on Luther's behalf with the influential imperial coun-
cillors Herr von Chievres and Count Henry of Xassau,

176 IIISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

and, on November 28, the Emperor sent instructions
to the Elector to brini^ Luther with him to Worms
for trial, but, in the meanwhile, to forbid his publish-
ing any more writings against the Pope and the
Eoman See. On December 17, however, after
Luther had burnt the bull and the books of
canon law, the Emperor, under the influence of
Aleander, cancelled these instructions. But Luther was
encouraged in his revolutionary course by Duke John
Frederic of Saxony, who, on December 20, expressed
his gratitude to him for having continued to preach
and to write as before, in spite of the Pope's sentence.

Luther persisted unweariedly in stirring up the
people against the head of Christendom. In a sermon
preached at the festival of the Three Kings in 1521 he
compared the Pope to King Herod, ' who with a hypo-
crite's heart dares to come forward and worship Christ,
and means all the while to cut his throat.' The rule of
the Pope and that of Christ's kingdom, he said, were as
opposite to each other as fire and water, or the devil
and angels. The Pope, he said in a pamphlet pub-
lished on March 1 in the German language, was ' more
wicked than all devils ; for he damned the faith, which
no devil had ever done.' ' Therefore, because I call the
Pope the greatest murderer that has ever been since
the beginning of the world, in that he kills souls as
well as bodies, I am, God be praised, a heretic in His
Holiness's papistical eyes.' At the same time he re-
asserted his contempt for the Councils, especially the
Council of Costnitz, at which the gospel had been
anathematised in the person of John Huss, and in its
place the 'hellish dragon of learning' set up. Huss
had done too little, and had only made a beginning of

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW C40SPEL 177

opening up the Gospel. ' I have done five thnes as
much,' he said, ' and yet I fear that I too am doing too
Uttle. John Huss did not deny that the Pope is supreme
over all the world : he only insisted that a wicked Pope
is not a member of Holy Christendom, however neces-
sary it may be to put up with him as a tyrant. For all
the members of Holy Christendom must either be holy or
become holy. But if at this very day St. Peter himself
were sitting in the Papal Chair I should deny that he
was Pope by Divine appointment over all the other
bishops. All churches are alike.' ' All papal decre-
tals,' he said, ' were unchristian, antagonistic to Christ,
written by inspiration of the Evil Spirit ; ' he had
therefore burnt them with o-reat delight.

His own books, on the other hand, must not be
burnt or interdicted : for ' his teaching had not yet been
demolished.' ' If the whole world were on the side of
the Pope and his bulls,' he said in the matter of his out-
lawed books, in a manual of ' Instruction to Penitents,'
* the whole world would deserve to be burnt up and
destroyed, as it would undeniably be condemning the
Gospel and the true faith.'

In all the writings which Luther published in these
last years he stood forth as a complete separatist from,
the Church. He rejected in its entirety the whole body
of Church tradition and Church authority, and with
regard to the relations of man to God he set up a
new dogma, of which he said that it had been buried
in oblivion since the days of the Apostles. His
theories on the universal priesthood and the Christian
community struck at the roots of the whole fabric
of Church organisation. According to his ideas the
Church ought to break with the M^hole of her past —

VOL. III. N

178 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

in her teaching, her sacraments, her worship, in short,
in all her ordinances. Formerly there had been talk
of a reform of the Church in its head and members ; but
Luther insisted that the Church should altogether dis-
solve itself — in one word, should commit suicide.^

And whatever he insisted on was to be accounted
infallible gospel truth. There could be no question with
him of compromise or reconciliation ; all attempts at
anything of the sort must in the nature of things be
shipwrecked, as was soon proved at the Diet of Worms.

At the first general assembly of the Estates on
February 13, Aleander read out a papal brief in
which the Emperor was required, if he had the unity
of the Church at heart, to confer the sanction of legal
authority on the bull of excommunication against
Luther, by issuing a general edict for its enforcement.
In a speech which lasted three hours Aleander showed
that Luther's teaching not only shook the Church to
its foundations, but would also have the most fatal
effects on society. Just as the Bohemians formerly, in
the name and seml3lance of the Gospel, had overthrown
all law and order, so Luther, with his aiders and
abettors, was on the way to do now ; had he not, indeed,
in one of his writings openly declared that ' they ought
to wash their hands in the blood of the clergy ' ? Some
people, said Aleander, were of opinion that Luther
ought to be summoned to Worms and allowed a hear-
ing. But how could one give a hearing to a man who
had declared publicly that he would not submit to
be instructed by any one, not even by an angel from
heaven, and that excommunication was what he wanted ?
Luther had appealed to a Council, but he despised

^ See Dollinger, The CJiurch, and Churches, p. 67.

DIET OF WOEMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 179

Councils and maintained that the Council of Costnitz
had condemned John Huss falsely. As all gentle
measures hitherto employed to bring Luther back to a
right mind had been fruitless, and had only driven him
to fiercer resistance, there was no effectual method left
but the declaration of the imperial ban, which accord-
ing to the constitution of the Empire ought to follow
the papal ban.

Aleander's speech made a deep impression on all
present. In compliance with the Pope's brief the
Emperor laid before the notables the draft of a man-
date to be issued against Luther and his followers.
Amongst other thino's it was said in this draft that
Luther by his sermons and his books had most
scandalously attacked the Papal Chair, the decrees of
the Councils, and the faith and unity of the Church ;
regardless of all the lenity and forbearance shown to
him, and in the semblance of a minister of religion,
he was still persisting in enticing the piousl}^ disposed
among the common people into new and damnable
errors, and in stirring up rebellion and bloodshed
against the Pope, the priests, and all in authority. As
this matter touched the faith so closely, the Pope, in
virtue of his office, had repeatedly summoned Luther
to appear before him, and now at length, since he had
not put in an appearance, and had gone on teaching
and preaching to the utmost of his power against
the Church and the decisions of the Council, His
Holiness publicly declared him a heretic, and con-
demned him as such. As the highest temporal protec-
tor of Christianity, and in conformity with the dictates
of his own Christian feelings, he, the Emperor, was
firmly resolved to defend and safeguard with all his

n2

180 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

might the Holy Faith, the decrees and doctrines of
the Church and of his ancestors, the Pope, and the
Eoman See. To hear Luther further was neither
necessary nor desirable. If the latter would not
desist from his undertaking, and make a public recan-
tation, he must be put under restraint ; his books, under
decree of the imperial ban, must not be sold or
read in any part of the Empire, but must be burnt
and destroyed, because they tended only to the ruin
of the Christian faith, to the fostering of insurrec-
tion and bloodshed, and to the destruction of all
religious and secular authority and public well-being.
Luther's partisans and supporters were to be punished
as state criminals.

Whilst the electors and princes were debating over
the Emperor's draft they became so angry and excited
that, according to Aleander, the Electors Frederic of
Saxony and Joachim of Brandenburg were on the verge
of a hand-to-hand fight. At last they came to the unani-
mous conclusion that the Emperor might of course
have sent forth his mandate without consultino- the
notables, but that such a proceeding would have
caused sfreat offence in Germany. The notables were
willing and anxious to confer with the Emperor and
to assist him in any measures that would be most service-
able to the Church and the Empire, but they ventured
to suggest that, ' seeing what kind of thoughts, fancies,
and desires had been excited in the minds of the
common people by Luther's books and preaching, it
would be wise and prudent to consider well what
might be the result of issuinfy this mandate in a harsh
uncompromising manner, without having first cited
Luther to appear and answer for himself. It was

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEAV GOSPEL 181

their opinion that Luther ought to be conveyed to
and from the Diet under sufficient escort, and that he
should be questioned by a few learned and expert men,
not in order to engage him in a disputation, but simply
to find out from him whether or not it was his intention
to stand by the writings he had published against the
holy Christian faith. In case of his being ready to
retract these he should then be heard further concern-
ing other points and matters, and be dealt with accord-
ingly ; if, however, he should answer that he meant
to stand by all he had written against the Christian
faith and doctrines that they and their fathers had
hitherto held and believed, then all the electors,
princes, and other notables of the realm, in conjunc-
tion with the Eoman Imperial Majesty, must, without
further discussion, declare their intention of standing
by the faith of their fathers and forefathers and all
the articles of the Christian Creed, and helping to
enforce them, and the Emperor must then give the
necessary orders for having his mandate proclaimed in
all parts of the Holy Empire.'

' Nevertheless the notables,' so ran the final clause,
' do humbly petition your Majesty that your Majesty
would graciously weigh and consider what grievances
and abuses are imposed on the Holy Empire, and are
suffered in a variety of ways from the See of Eome,
and that your Majesty would graciously see to it that
such grievances be removed and a proper, suitable,
and bearable state of thinofs restored.'

The Emperor showed great discretion and the
utmost loyalty to the Church in dealing with this
memorial of the notables. He advised that Luther's
attacks on the faith should not be mixed up with

182 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

grievances against the Court of Eome ; he would write
to the Pope himself, he said, concerning these complaints,
and should hope for removal of the abuses as soon as
they were brought to the notice of His Holiness ; also
the notables were advised that they should themselves
point out to him all the grievances which the nation
suffered from the Court of Rome and the priesthood,
and should communicate to him their opinion and
advice on the subject ; he would then, in conjunction
with them, deal with this separate matter. But con-
cerning the authority of the Pope and his decretals
there must be no discussion. In these questions the
Emperor did not consider the Diet qualified to pro-
nounce judgment.

With regard to allowing Luther a hearing, he said
that if the latter was really to be summoned to the
Diet he must only be asked whether or not he had written
the books in question. If he confessed to this, and
was willing to retract, the Emperor would then inter-
cede with the Pope to have the ban annulled and
Luther received back into the Church ; but if he
continued obstinate in his heresy he must be dealt
with as a heretic.

Under the above conditions Luther was invited by
the Emperor on March 6 to come to the Diet, in order
to give information concerning his teaching and his
books. 'You need fear no violence or molestation,'
Charles assured him, ' for you have our safe-conduct.'

On the Emperor's asking the notables what ought
to be done if Luther refused to come, or if, having
come, he refused to recant, they answered that he
must then be condemned as a public heretic, held up
as such to universal opprobrium, and proceeded against

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 183

by mandates. ' God grant,' wrote Aleander, ' that
Luther's presence here may resuh in peace and tran-
quillity to the Church.'

The Emperor's father confessor, Jean Glapion, an
austere Franciscan monk, had some time before done_
all he could to induce the Elector Frederic of Saxony
to restrain Luther in his revolutionary course, and to
get the necessary reforms carried out in a religious
spirit. He conveyed to the Elector the information
that he had warned the Emperor that God would
punish him and all the princes if they did not free the
Church from the innumerable abuses that disgraced it ;
Luther, he said, had been sent by God as a scourge on
account of the iniquities of mankind. From many of
his waitings, Glapion said, the Church might get good
fruit ; care must therefore be taken that his good wares
were brouofht into harbour ; but no Christian could
tolerate his teaching on the universal priesthood, his
denial of the authority of the Church, and other such
heresies. The book on the Babylonish captivity of the
Church had affected him (Glapion) most painfully ; he
had felt while reading it as if he was being scourged
from the crown of his head to the soles of his feet. The
Bible, on which alone Luther took his stand, became in
his hands like a book made of soft wax, which could
be squeezed and stretched to suit each individual's
taste ; if it was well to propagate heresy and error he
himself could prove still more startling things out of
the Bible than any that Luther had asserted. Glapion
pointed out categorically the articles which Luther
should be made to retract, so that they might be able
to co-operate harmoniously with him in effecting those
ecclesiastical reforms which the Emperor had so keenly

184 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

at heart. If the true reformation made shipwreck, and
discontent, war, and insurrection were stirred up in
Germany, the disaffected kings of France and England,
and other lands as well, would rejoice over the mis-
fortunes of the Fatherland.

This and other similar representations were made
by Glapion to the Saxon Chancellor Brlick ; he did not
succeed in procuring an interview with the Elector
himself.

The papal nuncio, Aleander, recognised as clearly
as did Glapion the necessity for much reform in eccle-
siastical matters. He implored of the Pope that the
multitude of papal reservations and dispensations
might be abolished, and that the papal Court would
renounce its habit of annulling the concordats con-
cluded with the German nation, and would relieve
Germany of the heavy burdens imposed ; that a check
might be put to the practice of benefice-hunting, and
that all energy might be devoted to restoring chastity
among the clergy. Duke George of Saxony, Luther's
most inveterate opponent, said in the petition against
Church abuses presented by him to the Diet by the
Emperor's wish : ' The heaviest curse of all arises out
of the scandals among the clergy ; hence a general
reform is urgently needed ; this would best be arrived
at by means of a general council.' In his list of
grievances Duke George laid special stress on annates,
dispensations, commendams, and indulgences.

' With regard to complaints of this sort,' the
canonicus Karl von Bodmann wrote to Eome, ' all
people in Germany are of one mind, from the Emperor
down to the meanest man. The whole nation is
indignant at the continually increasing oppression of

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON JvEW GOSPEL 185

the pallium fees. These complaints are vociferously
echoed at the Diet.'

A committee chosen from the notables was
appointed to draw up a list of grievances against the
Papal Chair, and also against the archbishops and
bishops, the monastic orders, and the rest of the
clergy. Amongst other things it was objected
that the spiritual tribunals legislated in matters purely
secular ; that benefices were frequently bestowed on un-
suitable persons ; that the ban was often enforced in
purely trivial cases, and interdicts pronounced unjustly ;
that pastors were too often absent from their cures ;
that bishops were very negligent in holding and
attending the synods prescribed by the canon law ; that
the mendicant orders were allowed too much license in
begging and in collecting food; and that the monastic
Orders of St. Benedict, St. Bernhard, and the Premon-
stratenses, in spite of their already great possessions,
went on accumulating to themselves by commerce the
property of the laity, and thus became inordinately
wealthy. Moreover the affluence of the priestly class
in general was outrageous.

This comprehensive list of grievances came before
the Imperial Council to be read. ' One sees from it,'
wrote the Palatine-Neuburg ambassador, ' what in-
fluence Luther's and Hutten's writings have had on
the notables, in matters even which have no connection
with the Christian faith.' ^

The Emperor, on his part, w^as as eager as any one
in Christendom for the redress of real abuses and
grievances ; and as for Pope Adrian VI., who within a
year from that date succeeded Leo X., all the world

^ 0. Waltz, Der Wormser Beiclistag im JaJire 1521, p. 32.

186 HISTOKY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

was convinced of his ardour for reform. At no
former period of German history would the prospects of
genuine reform in the Church — both as to the head and
as to the members — have been more favourable, if only
the movement could have been carried on without
violent uprooting and destruction, and with the
harmonious co-operation of the chief spiritual and
secular powers. There might then have been some
chance of preserving the allegiance of the Fatherland
to the Church of its fathers, cleansed and purified and
re-established on a sound and lasting- basis.

But already at the Diet of Worms things wore a
bellicose and revolutionary aspect. In the town itself
anarchy was rampant. ' Scarcely a night passes,' wrote
thence Dietrich Butzbach on March 7, ' that two or
three people are not murdered. The Emperor has a
provost who has drowned, hanged, and murdered over
a hundred people.' ' The fasts are no longer observed.
They stab one another ; they commit fornication ; they
eat flesh, fowls, pigeons, eggs, cheese (in Lent) and
carry on their revels as if they were in Mistress Venus's
palace.' ' Know also that there are many gentlemen
and foreign folk here who have drunk themselves to
death with strong wine.'

After his speech on February 13, Aleander's life
was not safe in the place ; he could not show himself
in the streets without being hooted by the mob and
threatened with death. Luther was glorified by the
people as a new Moses, a second Paul. He was a
greater Church Father than Augustine, so one of his
followers declared in the public market-place before
an assembled multitude ; Augustine had been a sinner,
capable of erring, and he had erred ; but Luther was

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 187

without sin and had never erred. The pictures of the
reformer, which had already come into vogue, with the
saint's lialo, or the Holy Ghost hovering over him in
the shape of a dove, were offered publicly for sale, as
also the representations of Luther and Hutten together
as just combatants for Christian freedom. The Lutherans
erected a printing press at Worms, which confined
itself to the issue of writings hostile to the Church ;
Hutten's missives, and innumerable pamphlets, full of
scorn and raillery against Luther's opponents, flew
from hand to hand. From his pen came the grossest
menaces against the papal legates, whom he represented
as the fiercest of robbers and the most heinous of
impostors. 'I shall use the utmost diligence,' he
wrote to Aleander. ' I shall put forth all the zeal
I am capable of, I shall spare no exertions, I shall
risk all hazards so that you may be carried away
a lifeless corpse, you, who came among us bent on
fury, vengeance, crime, and injustice.' He hurled
the most offensive slanders at the ecclesiastical princes
and higher Church dignitaries who were present
at the Diet. ' Begone from the pure stream, you
unclean swine ! Off with you out of the sanctuary, you
godless traders ! Do you not see that the winds of
liberty are beginning to stir, that the people, disgusted
with present conditions, are seeking to establish new
ones ? I mean to goad, spur, agitate, and storm for
freedom. None with the least spark of valour in them
can any longer refrain from breaking out in fierce
onslaught against you, and taking your life.' He
even directed his threats at the Emperor. ' Our
hope had been,' he said in a missive to the latter,
' that you would have lifted the Eoman yoke from off

188 HISTORY OF THE GER3IAN PEOPLE

our necks and have put an end to papal supremacy.
The gods grant that this beginning of yours may be
followed by something better ! ' But if the Emperor
himself consented to the deo-radation of Germany there
were other German men who, even at the risk of
oifending His Imperial Majesty, would bestir themselves
to action.^

Excitement of the wildest description seized all
minds. It was everywhere murmured that a por-
tentous blow was about to be struck at the clergy, and
that the knights would seize all Church .property.
Aleander's reports show that there was daily fear that
the city would be attacked by the revolutionary party
and a mine sprung on the Diet — a danger all the more
to be apprehended as the Emperor was without an
armed escort.

' Sickingen, truly, is king in Germany,' writes
Aleander, ' for he can command followers when and
where he will.' ' The Emperor is unarmed.' ' The
princes are passive ; the prelates quake and tremble and
let themselves be swallowed up like rabbits ; Sickingen
is, indeed, under present circumstances, the terror of
Germany, before whom all others pale.'

In such circumstances the arrival of Luther was
awaited at Worms.

Luther had started from Wittenberg on April 2.
Four days later he was received at Erfurt as a
triumphant hero by the whole band of humanists, who
were entirely favourable to him. ' Exult, rejoice, thou

^ See Bocking, ii. 38-46; Strauss, ii. 178-180. The English
ambassador Tunstall reports from Worms to Kmg Henry VIII. that
Luther had promised the Emperor, if he would march to Rome against
the Pope, to bring 100,000 men into the field (Fiddes's Life of Wolsetj,
2nd edit. p. 231 ; see also Waltz, p. 32).

DIET OF WOKMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 18&

glorious Erfurt,' exclaimed Eobanus Hessus in rapturous
strain at the news of his advent, ' for, lo ! he comes who
shall deliver thee from the ignominy under which thou
hast too long groaned. He, first, has dared with iron
spade to root up the poisonous weeds that have over-
grown the acres of Christ.' Eobanus goes on to picture
the river Gera coming forward to do homage to the
expected hero, who will 'bear down all before him,
were it the whole vast universe.' Crotus Eubianus,
then Eector of the University of Erfurt, at the head
of forty members of the university and followed by
a large crowd of the townspeople, went three miles
beyond the city gates, to receive the ' hero of the
evangel,' and addressed him as ' the judge of wicked-
ness,' adding that for himself and his friends to be
allowed to scaze on his features was almost like a
divine revelation.

On the following day Luther preached in the
Augustinian church to a great crowd of people. ' The
Athenians were not filled with such astonishment,'
exclaimed Eobanus, ' at the speech of Demosthenes, nor
Eome when she sat at the feet of her great orator, nor
did Paul stir the hearts of his listeners as Luther's
sermon moved the populace on the banks of the Gera.'
' One man builds churches,' said Luther in his sermon,
' another makes pilgrimages to the shrine of St. James
or St. Peter, a third fasts and prays, wears the monk's
cowl, oroes barefoot .... all such works are nothinof
and must be done away with. Note well these words :
" All our works have no power. I am your righteous-
ness, says the Lord Christ ; I have destroyed the sins
with which you are loaded ; believe, therefore, that
it is I who have done this, and you will be justified."

190 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

What does this mean ? That if we commit a fresh sin
we need not at once despair, but say : " 0 God, thou
livest still ; Christ, my Lord, is the destroyer of sin : "
and the sin is at once taken away. Thus we care
nothing for the laws of men, not even if the Pope should
come down upon us with his ban, for we are reconciled
to God, so that calamities, bans, laws are as nothing
to us.' Luther fired invectives against the intolerable
yoke of papacy and against the ecclesiastics who
' tended their sheep much as butchers do on Easter
eve.' ' There are at least three thousand pastors,' he
said, ' amongst whom not four good ones are to be
found.'

Li the course of his sermon, according to the
report of his admirers, he performed a miracle. When
suddenly a noise was heard in the overcrowded church,
and all became bustle and confusion, Luther said : ' Be
still, dear people ; it is the Devil, who is getting up a
sham fight. Be still, there is nothing to fear.' ' And
he exorcised the Devil,' says a chronicler, ' and all
became quite quiet.' ' This is the first miracle that
Luther did,' adds another chronicler, ' and his disciples
believed on him and worshipped him,'

It was no wonder that Luther's vehement preaching
fanned to a fierce flame the animosity that had already
so long smouldered against the Church and the clergy.
Luther himself was far from wishing that the seed he
sowed should grow to a firebrand, but none the less it
was bound to do so.

The very day after his departure riots broke out
in Erfurt. Students assembled in a threatening attitude
before the house of Doliator, deacon of the Church of
St. Severus. The latter had expelled the prebendary

DIET OF AVORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 191

John Draco from the choir for having taken part in
the welcome ijiven to Luther, and had thus merited
punishment. Threatening letters were sent to him at
his house and notices to the same effect posted on the
church doors. Doliator was so much alarmed that he
received Draco back into the choir. These proceedings
were only the prelude to the tumultuous uproar of the
so-called ' Pfaffensturm ' (priest riot) in June of the
same year.^

On April 16 Luther arrived at Worms, with his
escort, among whom was the humanist Justus Jonas.
He was firmly resolved, he said, ' to defy all the gates of
hell and the principalities of the air.' ' Say a Pater
Noster for our Lord Christ,' he had said on the jour-
ney to the principal of the cloister of Eeinhardsbrunn,
' to ask His Father to be gracious to Him.' If God
maintains Christ's cause mine also is won.' To Spa-
latin he wrote : ' It is our intention to defy and terrify
Satan.'

But on his first appearance before the Emperor and
the Council on April 17 Luther was by no means in a
confident state of mind. To the question addressed to
him whether he owned to these books he orave an
afiirmative answer ; but on the next question, whether
he would retract them all, he asked for time to
consider. 'He spoke in such a low voice that even
those close to him could scarcely hear him,' reported
the Frankfurt delegate, Philip Fiirstenberg, ' and as if
he was paralysed with fear.' The Emperor and the
notables answered that although he might have known
from the tenor of the citation what he had been sum-
moned for, and therefore was not entitled to delay for

^ See more detailed account at p. 246 and following.

192 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

further consideration, the Emperor, of his innate clem-
ency, would grant him a respite till the following-
day.

On the day of the first hearing Hutten wrote to
Luther from the Castle of Ebernburg as ' the uncon-
querable evangelist, the saintly friend,' and encou-
raged him to steadfastness. ' Keep a good heart and
be strong ; you see how greatly the course of events
depends on yourself. If you remain true to yourself
I will stand by you to the last breath. For myself I
shall hazard and hope for the utmost ; it is time that the
Lord should cleanse his vineyard.' ' Would that I could
go to Worms,' Hutten wrote at the same time to Justus
Jonas, ' and raise up a storm and an insurrection ! '

On April 19 the Emperor sent to the notables a
document which he had composed himself and written
out in his own hand in French,^ and which was to the
effect that he intended, after the example of his
forefathers, to adhere loyally to the Christian faith
and the Roman Church, and to believe in the holy
Fathers, who had been gathered together in
Council from all Christendom, rather than in one
solitary monk ; that he regretted having so long-
abetted this man and not having allowed him to
be proceeded against in earnest ; and that without
a moment's delay Luther must depart from Worms.
' We will hold, nevertheless, to the safe-conduct we
have granted him,' the Emperor said in conclusion ; ' he
shall return unmolested to the place he came from ;
but we forbid his preaching any more and misleading

' Wrede has inserted the original text of the Imperial Declaration of
April 19 (taken from the Public Record Office, London) in the Reichstags-
acten.

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 193

the people with his heretical teaching, and incitements
to sedition.'

The night after this document was sent out to the
Estates the following words were placarded upon
several of the town gates : ' Woe to the land whose
king is a child ! ' Outside the Council House a notice
was posted up which ran as follows : ' After we have
conferred together and sworn not to forsake the
righteous Luther, we, numbering four hundred allied
knights, proclaim to the simple understandings of
Eomanist princes and lords, especially the Bishop of
Mayence, our inveterate enmity, because honour and
divine justice have been trodden down by them ; we do
not further indicate names or describe all the tyranny
of the priests over their flocks. We are ill at writing,
but we mean grievous injury ; with 8,000 men will we
fight.' The threat ended with the dreaded watchword
of insurgent peasants, thrice repeated, ' Bundschuh !
Bundschuh ! Bundschuh ! '

Alarmed by repeated threats of this sort, the Estates
begged that the Emperor would not so abruptly break
off relations with Luther ; they dreaded an insurrection
in the Empire if action against him was taken thus
hastily without further examination. They therefore
submitted to the Emperor that he would do well to let
some of them endeavour to persuade Luther to
retract the articles condemned by the Apostolic See.

Hutten, whom Luther had kept informed of the
proceedings, could not divest himself of the fear that
the reformer would give in. ' Unconquerable evan-
gehst,' he wrote to him on April 20, ' I see that we need
bows and arrows, swords and muskets, to stop the fury
of those devils. Do not waver, beloved Father, do

VOL. III. o

194 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

not let thyself be shaken. Let them scream, clamour,
rage. Stand up fearlessly against these monsters.
You shall not lack defenders, avengers. The prudence
of friends, who fear my risking too much, compels
me to keep quiet, otherwise I should long ago have
raised a tumult under the walls of Worms ; very
soon, however, I shall break loose. And when I
have done so you will see that I too, in my fashion,
will not betray the spirit that God has awakened
in me. We have Franz von Sickinoen as an ardent
partisan.'

' You have to thank the German nobility,' said
Thomas Mlinzer in a pamphlet against Luther, ' whose
mouths you buttered and fed with honey, for having
been allowed to appear before the Imperial Council at
Worms. Fine visions they had of the windfalls of
abbeys and cloisters your preaching would cast at their
feet. If you had wavered at Worms you would first
have been stabbed by the nobles and then sent about
your business : it's patent to every one.'

A committee, consisting equally of ecclesiastical
and secular members, with Eichard von Greiffenklau,
Archbishop of Treves, as president, tried all gentle
means in dealing with Luther. The Augsburg dele-
gate, Conrad Peutinger, and the Baden chancellor,
Hieronymus Vehus, repeatedly begged him to commit
his case to the hands of the Emperor and the Estates for
final settlement.

Luther rejected this proposal, informing its authors
of the suspicions he entertained of His Imj^erial Majesty
personally and of many of the princes. He listened
with perfect indifierence to the statement of Vehus
that turbulence and insubordination had been aroused

DIET OF WORMS ANI> SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 195

hy his writings, those especially on Christian freedom,
which, as Vehiis said, most people M^ould interpret as
giving them licence to live just as they pleased.

Luther also rejected the proposal' that he should sub-
mit to the decision of a committee of German prelates,
chosen on behalf of His Papal Holiness, who should
■consider his case in conjunction with the Emperor.'

Finally Peutinger proposed to him that the decision
should be postponed till the next Council. Luther
answered that he would asfree to this on condition that
^t the Council ' no judgment should be pronounced
against, or detrimental to, the divine words, the Epistles
■of St. Paul, and the truth.' In vain they tried to
■convince him that this was an inadmissible subterfuo-e,
for he might say in every case that the judgment pro-
nounced was contrary to the divine writings. Equally
in vain also did John Cochlaeus, assistant theoloo-ical
councillor of the Archbishop of Treves, propose a
public disputation : he would listen to no remonstrance.
When Cochlaeus asked him if he had had a divine
revelation, seeing that he thus set himself up in
•opposition to the whole Church and the Councils,
Luther answered, after a little hesitation : ' It has been
revealed to me,' He declared that he would not desist
from preaching and writing.

Christopher von Schwarzenbergf wrote on April 25
to Duke Louis of Bavaria that the Archbishop of
Treves had informed him that ' Luther had communi-
cated something to him in strictest confidence, which
was not to be repeated to any one.'

This probably referred to Luther's intimation con-
cerning the revolutionary body of knights who were
backing him up.

0 2

196 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

When all attempts to come to an understanding
with Luther had failed, the Emperor caused him
to be informed that he must leave Worms without
further delay ; he still had twenty-one days of safe-
conduct left, but he must on no account preach, or
issue any pamphlets on the journey.

Luther wrote to tell Hutten of this final decision and
he started from Worms on April 26. Two days later
he sent a missive from Friedberg to the Emperor and
another to the Estates, which last immediately appeared
in print ; on the title-page Luther was depicted with the
halo and with the Holy Ghost in form of a dove over
his head. A memorial medal was struck with the in-
scription : ' Doctor Martin Luther. Blessed be the
womb that bare thee ! ' ^

' I am going to be shut up and hidden away,' wrote
Luther to Lucas Cranach, the painter, ' though where
I don't vet know myself. I must endure and be silent
for a little while. " A little while and ye shall not see
me, and again a little while and ye shall see me," said
Christ the Lord. I hope it will be the same with me.'

On the evening before his departure the Elector
Frederic had told him in the presence of Spalatin and
others that he was going to be put under restraint, but
that he was not to know where the place of confinement
would be, and that he (Frederic) did not wish to know
it either, so that in case of need he might be able to
swear to ignorance. Luther was conveyed to the
Wartburg. His followers, however, in order to in-
cense the people, spread everywhere the rumour that

' Another memorial coin bore Luther's likeness, with the inscription :
' Heresibus si dignns erit Lutherus in ullis,
Et Christus dignns crimiiie hnjns erit.'

DIET OF WOEMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 197

the Emperor's safe-conduct had been violated ; that
Luther had been taken prisoner, handcuffed, and
cruelly treated. It was even asserted that his corpse
had been seen lying in a mine.

Whilst the outbreak of a bloody insurrection was
momentarily apprehended at Worms, the Lutheran case
was brought to a conclusion at the Diet. On April 30
the Emperor once more solicited the advice of the
notables as to the best method of proceeding against
Luther, his writings, and his supporters, whether by
proscription and outlawry or by some other penalty.

The notables, who had already before advised
the Emperor, in case of Luther's refusing to retract, to
protect the Catholic faith by issuing the necessary and
customary edict against him, now insisted that this
edict should be made out. The Elector Frederic of
Saxony wrote on May 4, 1521, that not only Annas
and Caiaphas were against Luther, but also Pilate and
Herod — that is to say, not only the ecclesiastical
princes but also the secular ones. Frederick liimself
withdrew from the proceedings and left Worms. The
edict, which Aleander was commissioned by the Em-
peror to draw up, was ready by May 8, but was not
proclaimed till the expiration of the term granted to
Luther in the safe- conduct. It imposed outlawry and
excommunication on Luther and all his partisans and
patrons, and ordered his books to be destroyed by
fire. Luther appeared to the Emperor as a man
' possessed.' By his writings, said the edict, he was
disseminating noxious poison. He had violated the
number, the institution, and the use of the sacra-
ments, and degraded the sacred and unimpeachable
law of marriage; he had belaboured the Pope with

198 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

scandalous and libellous language; he was treating
the priesthood with contempt and inciting the laity
to wash their hands in the blood of the clergy.
He went about teaching the non-freedom of the human
will, and encouraging a mode of life altogether unre-
strained by law ; indeed, he had not scrupled himself to
pull down all the most hallowed restraints and barriers
by publicly burning the books of the canon law. He
spurned Councils, and in particular he had called the
Council of Constance, which, to its eternal honour, had
restored peace and unity to Germany, a synagogue of
the Devil's, and those who had taken part in it he
had denounced as Antichrists and murderers. ' Even a&
the wicked fiend in the garb of a monk he united in
himself old and new heresies, and wore the semblance of
a preacher of the faith in order that he might destroy
the true and right belief, and in the name and
similitude of evangehcal doctrine might trample
under foot evangelical peace and love and public
order.' Besides Luther's books, all his miscellaneous
publications, which had been issued in such quantities
to the prejudice of the Christian folk, must also be
destroyed; all his libellous pamphlets, and also his
pasquils and caricatures of the Pope. And in order
that in future the Christian community should be
preserved from the pest of corrupt books and the
noble art of printing be used only for good and laud-
able purposes all books and writings whatever, in which
there was the slightest allusion to the Catholic faith,
should be submitted before being printed to the
approval of the ordinary of the place and to the theo-
logical faculty of the nearest university.

Round Worms, meanwhile, troops of several hundred

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 199

knights had gathered together ; it was reputed that
Sickingen had announced that he would make an end
of the Diet. ' We have Franz on our side,' wrote Hutten
on May 1, 1521, to WiUbald Pirkheimer, ' and he is not
merely favourably disposed, but red-hot and burning.
He is so to say, completely saturated with Luther ; he
has his books read to him at meals, and I have heard him
swear that in spite of all dangers he will not forsake
the cause of truth. You must positively take these
words as a divine voice, so great is his devotion and con-
stancy. It would be well also if you were to sound his
praises amongst your own people : there is no grander
character in all Germany.' Hutten's friends and con-
federates, the humanists Eobanus Hessus and Hermann
van dem Busclie, urged immediate action. ' There
had been enough of words and talk,' wrote the former
to Hutten ; ' he wished now to take arms against the
hereditary foe, the worst and most veritable Turks they
had yet had to fight. He would not be alone in this
battle ; from all corners of the Fatherland combatants
would hasten to his standard ; he and Sickingen would
be the lightning strokes that would shatter the Eoman
pestilence.' They must not wait, urged Hermann
van dem Busche on May 5, till the Emperor had left
Worms, but rush at once to arms. If Hutten allowed
the papal nuncios, Luther's and Germany's worst
enemies, to escape from Germany with sound limbs,
and disappointed the expectations here, it would be a
bad blot on his fame. ' We read in the Book of
Joshua,' wrote Luther on June 1 from the Wartburo- to
Sickingen, ' his particular lord and patron,' ' that when
God led the people of Israel into the promised land,
and they slew all the people there, that is thirty-one

200 HISTOEY OF TPIE GERMAN PEOPLE

kings with all their cities, not one of the cities
was so poor-spirited as to sue for peace, excepting
Gideon only . . . but that all in their stubbornness
fought against Israel. Thus it was ordained by God
that as they fought stubbornly and defiantly against
Israel they were ruined thereby and no mercy was
shown to them. This history seems to me to be
meant as an example to our popes, bishops, learned
men, and other spiritual tyrants. But although their
manoeuvres have been disclosed they have thought
neither of submission nor of peace. ' They endeavour
to extinguish the light by force, and they persist in
their delusions, imagining themselves so firmly seated
that no one can move them, and I expect it will be
ordained by God that in their obstinacy they will
neither think of humility, nor treat for peace, so
that at last they may be overthrown without mercy.'
' I can do nothing more ; I am put aside on the
shelf; but they have time now to alter what can
no longer be endured from them, nor will be endured.
If they do not alter it all, some one else, whom they
will not thank, will do it for them, not, like Luther,
with letters and words, but with deeds.'

Sickingen, however, would not come forward
actively. He refused to co-operate with the revolu-
tionary party, and found it more profitable to lend an
arm to the Emperor, who had just laid Luther under
the imperial ban : he hired himself out to Charles for
a campaign against Eobert von der Mark, who had
invaded the Emperor's hereditary dominions, and
against King Francis I. of France, who encouraged
and protected Eobert.

The confederates were hesitating and trembling.

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 201

said Hutten in his answer to Eobanus' letter ; but he
himself would persevere till death, would risk every-
thing, would take up arms, and as before he had sup-
ported Luther in the sj^irit so now he would help
him with his fists. It was not his fault that the papal
nuncios had escaped with whole skins ; he had left
nothing undone ; he had wa}4aid them in the streets,
he had set ambuscades, but the Emperor's men-at-arms
had protected them.

After the proceedings of the Worms Diet it had
become clear that the object aimed at by Luther
and his adherents was nothing less than a complete
subversion of the whole edifice of Church organisation
and of all social order. Hence all those who did
not wish for such revolutionary measures fell away
from Luther ; former panegyrists became dumb ; many
even went over resolutely to the side of the Church.
Before May was out Erasmus began to regret much of
what he had written, and now began to utter warning
prophecies against appropriation of Church property,
tumult, war, and the decay of liberal culture. Mutian,
who had begun by greeting Luther as the ' morning
star of Wittenberg,' soon saw in him nothing but an
unholy devastator, and complained of the insolence and
benightedness of this innovator, ' who had all the fury
of a maniac' Crotus Eubianus came to recognise, in
the summer of 1521, that it was a crime to attack the
Church, ' our Queen and Holy Mother, who had given
us such good laws.'

But this change of attitude was most marked in the
case of a man who was one of Germany's greatest
ornaments — the learned jurisprudent Ulrich Zasius.
He, too, had originally hoped for an improvement in

202 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

the condition of Church matters through Luther's-
action, and shortly before the Leipzig disputation he
had given utterance to the wish, ' May our Luther
depart thither under favourable auspices ! ' But after
Luther had denied the divine appointment of the
Pope and the infallibility of the Councils, Zasius had
gradually broken with him, and ever since the Diet
of Worms he had become more and more unreserved
in his condemnation of the revolutionary trend of
affairs. He lamented that Melanchthon was prosti
tuting his noble intellect to the defence of Lutheran
error. To his former pupil Thomas Blarer, who had
taken up Luther's opinions, he wrote on December 21,
1521 : ' You pity me, and I pity you from the
bottom of my heart, you, a stripling, ignorant of
the world, who have forsaken the Church to follow
after shadows. Is it right to upset the whole
Church on account of the abuses of some of its
members ? You are reasoning from the exception
to the rule, and because of the wicked you are
condemning the good and throwing everything into
confusion.' The dishonouring of the Mass filled him
with particular sadness. He thought of writing a
pamphlet on the subject, and remarked that it would
be quite becoming in him to do so, because ' you
grammarians, and poets, and young people of all
sorts presume to meddle with the deep mysteries of
theology.' ' You reject good works,' he went on,
' although some one has said : " Your works shall
follow you." ' ' You insist on evangelical freedom, but
you do not show how it is to be reached. What have
you in view, unhappy young men, that you let
yourselves be misled by unwise Doctors ? You say

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 205

that you have learnt the Gospel at the fountain-head,
from Christ himself, not from the Fathers of the
Church. Who disputes that ? I also have gone to
the fountain-head, but in cases of obscure and doubt-
ful passages in the Gospel, I follow the exposition
of Hieronymus, Augustine, Chrysostom — not yours.
What unheard-of audacity it is for one solitary
individual to set up his interpretation above that of
the Fathers, of the Church itself, of the whole of
Christendom ! What justification can you show for
such presumption ? But I know what you will answer :
the Spirit guides and leads you ! The Spirit ! Answer
me, my Thomas, what spirit ? Oh, how much could
I say on this point ! Is it the Spirit that teaches
you to slander and revile so scandalously ? I have
read in the Epistle of St. James that wisdom is
peaceable and sober. But your watchword is, "Not
peace but a sword ; " for it was thus that Luther
answered the princes, pressing the Bible meaning with
intolerable audacity, for it was in any sense but that
that our Saviour spoke those words. I have learnt
from Christ that the sword must be put back in its
sheath, and that whosoever fighteth with the sword
shall perish by the sword.' Perhaps he was thinking
of Luther. ' Under the cloak of the Gospel,' prophesied
Zasius, ' the unbridled populace would break out in
every possible form of infamy.'

' I was for a long time favourably disposed to
Luther's proceedings,' wrote the prebendary Carl von
Bodmann, in much the same spirit as Zasius, ' not
because I wished for a separation from the teaching of
the Church, or thought new dogmas and new forms of
divine worship either necessary or desirable, but because

204 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

I believed, like so many other learned men, that Luther
was aiming at, and would bring about, a wholesome
reform of ecclesiastical life. But the sight of all that is
going on around us convinces us, only too plainly, that we
have been bitterly deceived. How would it be possible
to reform any institution if one began by a wholesale
destruction of its organisation, with all its century-old
traditions and practices, and by proclaiming the whole
structure to be throughout pernicious and corrupt ?
Worldliness and luxury, greed of gold and enjoyment,
contempt of law, hatred and envy, and all other ignoble
passions, by whatever name we may call them, are deeply
rooted in all classes ; they spring up, as fruits of our
fallen nature, in our age, as in all other ages, and all
the more abundantly in our age in proportion as in
this or that land, in this or that city, an evil example is
set to the lower orders of the people by the rich and
the noble, by ecclesiastical and secular personages
of the highest standing. But how, I ask, can rich or
poor be improved by removing all curbs and checks on
their evil passions and all Church discipline and by
being taught to despise and ridicule the chastisements
of the Church, its fasting and confession, as hurtful insti-
tutions ? Will the QTeed for opold and for the ss'ood
things of this life be suppressed by holding out wealthy
Church endowments as baits to the mighty ones of the
earth ? ' Will the sanctity of family life be secured and
shielded by the proclamation of marriage principles
which make every earnest Christian blush ? The
religion of the people is essentially bound up with the
Church and its teaching, and with the loss of these all
secular authority will lose its support. Luther's

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 205

character has great and noble features, but his pre-
sumption has brought about his downfall. I wish I
could read in Luther's own soul how he judges his
work and its results, and how he judges the enter-
prises of which he has been made the tool.'

What sort of judgment Luther passed on himself
and his work we learn in detail from his private con-
versations and letters.

His anxieties, doubts, and agonies of conscience
with regard to the movement he had set on foot began
already to torment him during his confinement in the
Wartburg,^ To have attempted to reconstitute all the
spiritual and secular organisation of society in opposi-
tion to the opinion of mankind, and to have encou-
raged others in such a proceeding, began to seem to
him ' a really tremendous business.' ' Oh, with how
far greater pains and labour, and with diligent study,
too, of the Holy Scriptures,' he wrote on November 25
to the Augustinians at Wittenberg, 'have I yet
scarcely attained to setting my own conscience right,
that I, all by myself, should have dared to rise up
against the Pope, to denounce him as Antichrist, the
bishops as the apostles of Antichrist, and the univer-
sities as his brothels ! '

' How often has my heart misgiven me, reproached
me, and twitted me with the argument : " Art thou the
only wise one ? Are all others mistaken, and have they
been mistaken so long? What if thou thyself shouldst
be in error, and all those whom thou art misleading

' Concerning Luther's melancholy condition of mind during his
sojourn in the Wartburg see his own letters ; De Wette, ii. 2, 10, 16, 17,
22, 33 ; Enders, iii. 189.

206 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

should be destined to eternal damnation ? " ' Spiritual
tortures of this sort, however, he believed were now at
an end, for Christ had established and confirmed him
with his one sure word, so that his heart no longer
misgave him, but withstood these arguments of the
papists as a stone wall the waves, and mocked at their
storming and threatening/

But Luther was mistaken.

The torments returned asfain and aoain, almost
unceasingly, and even in his old age he still heard the
same inward voice, which he regarded as the voice
of the Devil, asking him who had called him to preach
the Gospel after a fashion in which through all the
centuries no bishop or holy man had ever understood
it ? ' What if after all God has no pleasure in you, and
you are held answerable for all the souls you have
thus misled ? ' - ' No one can imagine,' he said, ' what
a bitter trial this is, and how these thoughts go on
hammering at one's head.'

' De Wette, ii. 107.

- Collected Works, lix. 296 and Ix. 6, 45. Luther's fights with the
Devil, whom he beheved he had seen in all manner of shapes, are well
known. ' The Devil,' he said in a HausiJostiUc, ' sometimes disguises himself
as a sow, a flaming wisp of straw, and so forth, as I have seen with my own
■eyes.' At the Wartburg, so he told a friend, the Devil had twice appeared to
him in the form of a dog to destroy him (Myconius, Hist. Beform. p. 42).
In his garden he saw the Devil in the shape of a black wild sow ; at
€oburg, in that of a star (Mathesius, Historien, p. 184). He held remark-
able opinions about the Devil's sojournings on earth, and on the Devil as a
murderer of mankind. Extraordinary stories illustrating these are told
in Lauterbach's Tagehticli (Diary), pp. 109, 129, 143, 156. See also our
own statements at vol. vi. (1st to 12th ed.) pp. 464-469, (13th to 14th ed.)
pp. 482-487. Of the Margrave Joachim von Brandenburg he believed that
' he had made a compact with Satan, he and his father ' (' habuit foedus
■cum Sathana, ipse et pater ejus') (Lauterbach, p. 105). He was firmly
convinced of the connection between the Devil and witches, and
declared himself ready to burn all the witches with his own hand
{ihid. p. 121).

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 207

' For instance, when one sees that so many excellent,
intelligent, and learned people — indeed, the best and
largest part of the world — besides so many saintly
people, such as Ambrosius, Hieronymus, and Augustine,
have held and taught such and such doctrines.' ' And
then that terrible murder cry which they yell out, " The
Church ! the Church ! " that sickens me more than any-
thing. For indeed it is a hard matter to conquer
one's own heart and to break with all the people who
are so highly esteemed and bear so holy a reputation ;
aye, with the Church itself, and no longer to trust
and believe its teaching.' His conscience reproached
him with having erred in thus disturbing the former
condition of the Church, which had been so peaceful
and tranquil under the Papacy, and for having caused
much scandal, discord, and sedition by his doctrines ;
' and I cannot deny,' he adds, ' that I am often anxious
and uneasy on that score.' But in all these heart-
searchings he endeavoured to comfort himself with the
thought that he was preaching the ' one Christ ' who
alone could not err, whereas the Christian Church could
err and had erred ; his teaching was the pure unadul-
terated Gospel, which no one should hinder, or could
hinder. This doctrine must be preached even though
everything else in the world should be destroyed. ' It
is very terrible,' he said, ' but there is no way out of it.
It is short and simple : If any one will not believe he shall
be damned ; for thus speaks the Lord Christ, who has
sent me, and from whom I have received the words,
who also has called me to preach and who does not lie.
But now they say : " If the Pope falls, Germany will go
to ruin, the country will be shipwrecked." How can I
help it ? I cannot prevent it. Whose fault is it ? ' Oh,

208 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

oh ! you say, if this Luther had not come with his-
preaching, the Pontificate would still be standing on
firm legs, and there would be peace. I cannot help
it.' He did not shrink from comparing the condition
of Christendom, before the proclamation of his gospel,,
with that of heathendom at the time of the Apostles. ' In
Eome also they said at that time : " If St. Peter and St.
Paul come into this town, all will go to ruin ; formerly
when we worshipped idols all went well with us." This
same cry goes forth now when people say : "If the
Gospel had not been preached, things would never have
come to this pass, but all would have remained peace-
ful." No, my friends, things will be still better, for
Christ says : " I have many more things to say and to
do," which means that you must let this preaching
have its way, or you will not have one stick left unto
you, and there shall not remain one stone upon another.'
Such was the confident language in which he spoke
in his sermons and in all his writings. But in his
private confessions and in conversation with his friends
his words had quite another ring. ' It is a mystery
to me,' he laments after having preached his new
gospel for more than twenty years, ' that I cannot trust
in this doctrine ; in this I am an enemy to myself, for
all my disciples fancy they have it pat at their fingers'
ends.' ' Antonius Musa, pastor at Ptochlitz,' writes
Luther's eulogist Mathesius, ' told me that he had once
bitterly lamented to the Doctor that he could not himself
believe what he preached to others. " God be praised,"
the Doctor had answered, " that other people feel that
also ; I thought it was peculiar to myself." ' In order
to comfort himself in his uncertainty Luther tried to
persuade himself that St. Paul also had not been able to

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 209

believe firmly, and that this was the thorn in the flesh
of which he speaks. The Apostle's words, ' I die daily,'
he took to mean that he had doubted his own teaching.
' I cannot indeed believe in this gospel as strongly as I
can preach, talk, and write about it, and as other people
think that I believe.'

His spiritual conflicts, his despondency and hopeless
despair are often described by himself with a pathos
that excites the profoundest pity. He says that in the
agony of these temptations to doubt he became so
physically prostrated and exhausted that he could
scarcely gasp for breath, and that no one could
console him ; and he used to say to himself, ' Am I the
only one who must always be so sad of heart, and so
sorely assailed? Oh, I saw fearful faces and spectres
mocking me and spitting at me. I have often wondered
at such times whether I had the least scrap of heart
left in my body.' ' I am often angry with myself,'
he confesses in another place, ' because when thus
assailed I cannot drive out my thoughts by the grace
of Christ, nor in any degree shake them off, in
spite of all I have read, written, and preached.' And
again : ' If any one else had had to suffer the trials
and temptations that I have experienced, he would long
since have been dead. I have had no greater or
heavier ones than the thought : " It is you who have
raised up all this tumult ! " In these times of temptation
I have often seemed to go down into hell, till Grod
brought me out again and comforted me.'

When a preacher once related how the Devil had
tempted him to stab himself with a knife, Luther
replied : ' It has often happened to me that when I
have taken a knife in my hand wicked thoughts have

VOL. III. p

210 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

instantly come into my head, and that often I have
been unable to pra}^, and the Devil has driven me out of
the room.'

' One may almost exclaim with Job and Jeremiah,'
he laments another time, ' " Would that I had never been
born ! " I may well say also : " Would that I had never
written an}^ books ! I don't care if they are all
destroyed." ' ' I was tossed hither and thither,' he wrote
once to Melanchthon, ' in the storms and floods of despair
and of the wrath of God ; ' and to another friend : ' Many
people think, because in the intervals I am cheerful in
my outward bearing, that I live on a bed of roses ; but
God knows what my real life is.' He was incessantly"^
at war with himself and his conscience, and according I
to his own confession he sought relief from these fits of )
despair in excessive drink, in card-playing, and in con-
viviality, or else in outbursts of vindictive fury against \
the Church and its teaching and institutions, especially j
the Pope. ^

In order to silence the agonies of his conscience, and
to justify his endeavours after a separation from the
Church, he worked himself into that frantic pole-
mical frame of mind which surprised and terrified all
his peaceably minded contemporaries, friends as well
as foes. ' Have at them ! have at them ! ' was his
cry as often as he felt himself assailed with 'justifi-
cation ' that is his doctrine of righteousness through
faith alone. ' They are sons of perdition who say one
must not revile the Pope.' When he was unable to
pray, he said, he used to picture to himself the Pope
with his crew of ' reptiles and vermin,' so that he might
rouse himself to a frenzy of wrath, and then his prayers
became fervent. ' This will be my honour and glory,'

DIET OF WORMS AND SENTENCE ON NEW GOSPEL 211

he said, ' and even so would I have it, that it will be
said of me how full I was of abusive words, revilings,
and cursings against the papists.' ' I will curse and
gird those wretches till I am in my grave, and they
shall not hear another good word from me. I will
toll their knells with my thunder and lightning. For I
cannot pray, I am compelled to curse. If I would say,
" Hallowed be thy name," I am forced also to utter,
^' Accursed, damned, reviled be the name of the Pope."
If I try to say, " Thy kingdom come," in spite of myself
I am obliged to say also, " Cursed, damned, destroyed be
the kingdom of the Pope." Veritably I pray in this
manner every day with my lips and with my heart
without ceasing.'

Everything was to be exterminated which excited
his displeasure and was antagonistic to him.

Accordingly he preached irreconcilable enmity not
only against the papacy and the eingeteufelten, durch- '
geteufelten, iibergeteufelten Herzen und Lugemnduler of/
all his other opponents on Christian territory, but also\
against the Jews. The latter were ' a stiff-necked,
unbelieving, proud, wicked, abominable nation.'
Therefore he demanded that their synagogues and
schools should be laid waste with fire, ' and let whosoever
can throw brimstone and pitch upon them ; if one could
hurl hell-fire at them so much the better ; and what
will not burn let it be covered with earth and buried
underground, so that no man may ever see a brick or a
stone of it ao-ain. And this must be done for the
honour of our Lord and of Christianity ; so that God
may see that we are indeed Christians. Let their
houses also be shattered and destroyed, and let them
flee to a shed or a stall ; let their prayer-books and

p \i

212 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Talmuds be taken from them, and their whole Bible too ;.
let their Eabbis be forbidden, on pain of death, to teach
henceforth any more ; let the streets and highways be
closed against them ; let them be forbidden to practise
usury, and let all their money and all their treasures
of silver and gold be taken from them and put away in
safety ; and if all this is not enough, let them be
driven like mad dogs out of the land.' ' I have done
my part,' he says in conclusion ; 'let each one see
that he does his also.'

Luther's language became so ungovernable that
Wilibald Pirkheimer said of him : ' To judge by his un-
bridled, slanderous tongue, one would think he had
gone mad or was possessed by an evil spirit.' ' Luther
knows no bounds,' wrote Bullinger, one of the most
highly esteemed theologians of the new faith in
Switzerland ; ' his writing, indeed, is in great measure
mere bluster and abuse. So that if God has given him
a good cause to plead he spoils it all by his offensive
language ; he buries the good in so much evil that
it can scarcely be perceived. He sends _to th^ Devil
all who do jLoL_entirely._agree with him. Li all his
fault-finding there is an immense amount of personal
animosity, and very little that is friendly and paternal.
Many — aye, too many — are the preachers wdio have
gathered out of Luther's books quite a vocabulary of
abuse, which they fire off from their pulpits at God's
poor people. Through the evil example of such
preachers the habit of reviling and slandering is
spreading through the whole community, and most
clergymen now-a-days who wish to appear good " evan-
gelicals " season their preaching with abuse and ca-
lumny. It is clear as daylight, and, alas ! undeniable.

DIET OF WOEMS AND SEXTEXCE ON NEW GOSPEL 213

that nobody has sinned more seriously, gross!}', and un-
becomingly against Christian propriety and temperance
in dealing with matters of faith than Luther has done.
He labours to outdo himself in abuse.' ' I have
repeatedly in my letters begged Melanchthon, the
flower of Germany,' writes Theobald Billicanus, ' to try
and calm down Luther's white heat, and to restrain
his violence by friendly, soothing advice ; for I seemed
to foresee that the populace, inflamed to insurrection
by this sort of preaching, plunge all Germany into
unutterable misery.'

' What am I to say ? ' groans Ulrich Zasius in a
letter to Boniface Amerbach. ' This shameless Luther
turns all Scripture, the Old Testament and the New,
from the first chapter of Genesis to the last of Eeve-
lations, into threats and curses against popes, bishops,
and priests, as if through all the centuries God had
had nothino- else to do but to thunder anathemas
against the priests.' Luther's spirit, he said, ' begets
enmity, strife, friction, schism, hatred, and murder.'

214 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

CHAPTER II

THE POPULACE INFLAMED BY PEEACHING AKD THE PEESS..

1521-1523

The armed attack expected during the sitting of
the Diet of Worms did not take place. But the
process of inflaming the people and stirring them up
to revolt went on uninterruptedly, in spite of the
decrees of the Diet. Demagogue preachers, some
of them members of the secular clergy, and some
renegade monks, tramped about the country, pro-
claiming their revolutionary doctrines, and in most
districts of the Empire the circulation of printed
lampoons, squibs, satires, and slanders of the
most scurrilous description was allowed to go on un-
checked.

The country population was especially ready to
respond to the preaching of the agitators and to rise
in rebellion against all existing- institutions. The
whole body of ecclesiastics, from the Pope down
to the humblest mendicant friar, and every single
statute and ordinance of the Church, were abused
and ridiculed throughout the provinces in the grossest
and most obscene manner ; in drinking-taverns, in
public bath-houses, on the market-place, in fields, and
lanes, and highways, riotous mobs declaimed against
' the priests, those servants of Lucifer, those dragons

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PRESS 215

of hell, and all their abominable Sodomitish juggling
with saints and idols, prayers and confessions, tithes
and taxes.' The itinerant preachers went about repre-
senting the iniquities and oppression of the great
secular lords as altogether intolerable.^ 'Spiritual
and secular tyrants and oppressors,' so said a scurri-
lous pamphlet of the year 1521, ' were the iniquitous
cause of the plague that was raging in Germany. For
at that time the discontent of the people was aggravated
by a deadly pestilence mortality in all the German
provinces, while in Bavaria no single town had escaped
the epidemic. In Vienna 24,000 people had died, and
the plague had not yet ceased. At Cologne, all
along the Ehine, in Suabia, in Switzerland, and in
Austria, the black death was raging.

One of the most influential of these travelling
preachers and pamphleteers was the former Franciscan
monk Johann Eberlin von Glinzburg, who perambulated
Switzerland, Suabia, Bavaria, Saxony, and other dis-
tricts, and proclaimed the new gospel by word and
pen. By a priest, he said, was meant a blasphe-
mous godless individual, idle, avaricious, quarrelsome,
cantankerous, adulterous ; the wrath of God would
break out against the priests, and it would be a
wonder if the people did not stone them to death.
Monks and priests had long been busy day and night
plotting how they could ensnare us, while we had been
careful and anxious about providing bodily comforts
for ourselves, our children and households, and had
not observed that our spiritual caretakers and pro-
viders, under a plausible outward semblance, had been

^ See extracts from sermons and tracts in Hagen, ii. 155-227, and
Baur, Deutschland in den JaJiren 1517-1525.

216 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

compassing the destruction of our souls. Through the
teaching of the universities and the mendicant friars
the Germans had become worse than heathens and
poorer than beggars. Of St. Francis, the founder of
the Order to which he had formerl}^ belonged, Eberlin
wrote that he must have been either a fool, who ought
to be well beaten with clubs, or a scoundrel who
should be driven out of the country. It might, perhaps,
be said that there were many saintly people belonging
to his Order ; but a corrupt tree bears no good fruit ;
at any rate they were only Satanic deceivers from
whom the Order had sprung.

' 0 mother,' he exclaimed in a missive to the town of
Ulm, ' who leavest thy child in a cloister, harder art thou
than a stone, more cruel than a she-wolf or a lioness,
yea, than Medea herself; a parent more like unto a
murderer, a friend more cruel than a foe, fellow-citizens
who are unto me as foreigners, Christ who is but Anti-
christ ! 0 mother, liadst thou but strangled thy child
in its cradle ! for it can only lament like Job and
Jeremiah over the day of its birth ; for within the
cloister it is as if one were in the jaws of Antichrist.
Where monks are, there are the soldiers of the Devil
assembled.'

All the monks, he said, ought to be driven out of
the country as suppressors of the Word of God ; the
secular powers should strangle them all for their
open and incessant blaspheming of God. Luther had
taught again and again that the world ought to be
freed from these cloister swine. ' All consecrated
individuals, monks, nuns, priests, the whole lot of them,'
he thundered out in another place, ' are marked with
the Devil's brand, and are therefore accursed of God

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PRESS 217

and sold, like Ahab, to work wickedness. It would be
easier for a mulatto to turn white than for a monk to
do any good.'

All bishops and priests ought to marry, for God had
ordained the state of marriage and had not excepted
priests from the rule. The bishops who forbade priests
to marry were sinners against the public good. A
pamphlet in which he tried to prove this was orna-
mented with a title-page on which three couples were
depicted as going through the marriage service to the
accompaniment of music — a monk and a nun, a monk
and a fashionable lady, and a bishop and another
fashionable lady.

Concerning the buildings erected for purposes of
divine worship Eberlin taught as follows : ' The Church
is a house set apart not by God, but by the community
itself, for its Christian assemblies. If a particular
house no longer pleases the congregation, they may use
it without scruple for any other purpose they choose —
for a shop, a bathing-house, a bakery, a slaughter-
house.' ' It is the beginning of all evil, and a gross
artifice of the Devil's, that we have been duped into
believing that God wants a house from us, and thus we
have been drawn away from Christ and his Spirit to
the pomp and splendour of this world.' Through
churches and church ornaments, altars, pictures, and
glass work, the country has been impoverished. ' Your
pious ancestors,' he said to the people of Ulm concern-
ing their cathedral, ' were misguided to build so costly
a church, on which so much money was spent, and
still is spent every year, that might far better be given
to the poor instead of to the idols of the temple. It is
by no means wrong to have a house for edification, but

218 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

God will take no greater pleasure in it than in a
bathing-house or a coach-house, or a council-house.
May God give you sense to pull down all your marble
churches and to build with the materials fine hospitals
or houses for poor people ! I would that hailstorms
might destroy all the churches in the land, and that
they might be rebuilt without any paintings or costly
ornamentation or mass vestments.

It was not necessary, Eberlin told the peasants, that
every village should have its own priest. ' Our fore-
fathers in Germany have been Christians for several
hundred years, and they have often had as many as
ten or twelve villages under one pastor. When jour
conscience pricks you, seek advice and consolation
from a pious trustworthy Christian ; if j'ou can't have
a priest, go to a layman ; if there is no man at hand,
go to a woman, be it in life or when at the point of
death. Suffer death rather than let yourself be driven
to the confessional. Be satisfied with going to church
on festivals ; if you cannot go be satisfied with
believing. If you cannot have the Sacrament ad-
ministered to you at death it is enough that you
wished for it.' Above all he insisted that the priests
of the Mass ought to be abolished ; the Mass was
blasphemy of God, it was like throwing the Eucharist
into a pigsty. In a treatise on the ' Eeform of the
Clerical Class ' he went so far as to say that no other
prayers should be taught the people than the Lord's
Prayer and the Belief, and only the Apostles' Creed,
not the Athanasian.

In another pamphlet, a ' New Organisation for the
Secular State,' written in 1521, Eberlin made the
following proposals, among others, for the reorganisa-

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PEEACHING AND PRESS 219'

tion of society : ' No work or calling other than agri-
culture shall be considered honourable ; no foreign
goods shall be imported, except in case of extreme
bodily need, [even the importing of corn was only to
be allowed in dire necessity] ; no mercantile association
of more than three members shall be allowed to ex-
ist ; game, birds, and fish shall be the common
property of all, to be caught for their use by any who
like ; everybodj^ shall be free to cut wood for his
needs. For half a Pfennig as much bread shall be
sold as a strong man can eat at one meal ; a measure
of wine shall be sold for a Kreuzer, and the capacity
of the measure shall be the quantity that two men
who drink reasonably can drink at one meal. Every
office, that of king as well as others, shall be filled by
election ; in all councils there shall be an equal number
of nobles and of peasants, but no clerical members in
any. Those who have less than a hundred Gulden
shall pay no taxes ; whoever has more must pay a
Heller ^ weekly.'

' In the towns no unnecessaril}^ expensive houses
must be built, excepting buildings intended for the
common use. Every individual whose expenditure is
out of proportion to his means shall be handed over
to the magistrates. No one shall be allowed to be-
queath anything to public institutions.'

The secular magistrates alone shall have the care of
the poor, and they must introduce free and compulsorj^
education. Under this last head Eberlin drew up the
following remarkable scheme : ' All children, boys and
girls, must be sent to school at the age of three and kept
there till they are eight. The schools must be

^ A small copper coin.

220 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

maintained at the public expense. In the schools the
children must be taught the Christian law out of the
Gospel and the writings of St. Paul ; further, they must
learn to understand Latin and German well, and Greek
and Hebrew they must learn to read and understand a
little; they must be taught to play on some kind of
stringed instrument ; and they must also learn the arts
of geometry, arithmetic, and astronomy, and, finally,
botany and the knowledge of ordinary remedies for
diseases. When a child is eight years old it may
either be put to a handicraft, or allowed to continue
its studies.'

'It seems as if the world had become idiotic or
visionary,' said the author of the ' Complaint of a
Simple Cloister Brother,' ' there are so many fantastic
people abroad putting all sorts of ridiculous notions
into the heads of the lower orders, telling them
they must learn this, that, and the other, addhng
their brains and puffing them up with nonsensical
ideas.'

In the higher schools Eberlin proposed that philo-
sophy should no longer be taught, except that which
Didymus Faventinus (Melanchthon) had taught in his
oration as^ainst Thomas Placentinum ; also that no
scholastic doctor should henceforth be read except
for criticism, and that all priests' laws or decretals
should be burnt.

No magisterial body was to have power any longer to
deal with any matter whatever, whether in the towns or
the provinces, without the help and advice of special
counsellors chosen by the community. All ancient
imperial and sacerdotal privileges were to be abolished.
All subjects were to have equal rights, and each

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PRESS 221

individual was to be allowed to decide for himself or
herself what was legal or illegal. There should no
longer be any judges or lawyers.

A complete remodelling of all existing laws and
ordinances was also advocated in a pamphlet which
appeared in 1522 under the title ' Teutscher Nation
Notturft ; die Ordnung und Eeformation aller Stand
im romischen Eeich.' ^ Here too it was recommended
that doctors, both of canon and secular law, should
be done away with ; and that all imperial secular
privileges heretofore recognised should be annulled,
excepting such as could clearly be proved to rest on
legitimate grounds, and to be free from all suspicion
of fraud and artifice. Further, ' all tolls, duties, pass-
ports, fines, taxes, and exactions which have hitherto
been current in the Empire are to be abolished,
excepting such as are recognised as necessary : so that
selfishness may not tyrannise over the community, and
that there be no hindrance to trade and daily labour.^
' No merchant shall extend his business beyond the
sum of 10,000 Gulden ; whatever is in excess of this
shall be forfeited to the Empire.' 'Veritably, 0 ye
princes,' says the unknown author of this pamphlet,
* ye lay snares to make unlawful gain ; ye drink the
blood and the sweat of the poor folk. Truly we have
had enough of this : be warned.' ' Ye fill your courts
with flatterers and hypocrites and sycophants, for ye
cannot endure the truth. Any one who can enrich you
or enrich the profits of your offices, that man is a
meritorious fellow : nobody asks if the profits come

^ ' The Needs of the Germanic Nation, and the Reform and Reor-
ganisation of all Classes in the Roman Empire.' See Hagen, ii. 338-
342.

^22 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

lawfully, so long as they come, as if God had created
his people for the use and benefit of you fools. As
for you, extortioners in the land, you are no longer
wanted. Through the wealthy ecclesiastics all the
people are turned into beggars. Go to now, ye pious
Christians, nobles and commoners, rich and poor,
old and young, consider honestly, and lay it well to
heart, whether these things can be any longer endured.
I should like to know to whom the great church
dio-nitaries are of use. I should like much also to hear
from any one who can tell me what C^hrist our
Eedeemer, when he was on earth, ever said about
monks and nuns. If the clergy will not distribute the
goods of the Church they may be sure that God will
reward them after their deserts — that is to say, will take
their property from them by force. You have oppressed
and ground down the whole population of the Empire,
and now your own turn is coming. As you have
oppressed the nation, so now it will rise up against
you, so that your possessions shall be plundered like
the goods of an enemy, and you shall be turned out
of house and home.'

' They are trooping about in crowds in the towns
and villages,' we read in the ' Complaint of a Simple
Cloister Brother,' ' and disseminating libels and cari-
catures against the clergy, high or low, and they
are preaching that no more tithes and taxes are to be
paid to them, and still more that everything they
have is to be taken from them and that they are to be
driven out and destroyed. And they are twisting the
Holy Scriptures to the service of their accursed work ;
they are inciting the people against all authority
and all law ; and the Word of God must needs be

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PRESS 223

used as a pretext for their scandalous revolutionary
proceedings.'

Another of these demagogue preachers, one Chris-
topher Schapper of Memminger, proved to the people
from the Bible that the payment of tithes had been
abolished by the New Testament ; that it was unchris-
tian to take rent, fines, and taxes from believers, or
to impose them ; that heaven was open to the peasants,
but closed against the' nobles and the clergy. At
Kempten, Matheys Waybel preached in 1523 that rent
and tithes were not to be paid, and that the precepts of
the Holy Catholic Church must be altogether disre-
garded and nullified, for by them the poor at Kempten,
and indeed throughout in the country, had been cruelly
deceived. The preacher Nicolaus Schweikart went
about, in the garb of a peasant, haranguing against
the giving of tithes to the priests, and saying that
the latter had cheated the people quite enough, and
that they deserved rather to have St. Velten^ given
them.

There were a good many laymen also among these
preachers. ' Ignorant uneducated laymen,' says Eber-
lin von Giinzburg, 'farmers, miners, corn-threshers,
understand the Gospel better, and can teach it
better, than a whole village, or town-chapter of abbots
and priests — yea, better than the most erudite doctors
of divinity.' ' One finds nowadays,' wrote the former
Franciscan monk Heinrich Ketterbach in 1523, 'at
Nuremberg, Ulm, Augsburg, in the Ehineland, in
Switzerland, in Saxony, women, young girls, servants,

' In allusion to a form of cursing common among the people at that
time. St. Velten (St. Valentine) appears to have been connected in some
way with epilepsy, and to say ' Potz Velten ' to any one was equivalent to
the wish that that person might be afflicted with epilepsy. — Translator.

224 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

labourers, artisans, tailors, shoemakers, innkeepers,
coopers, troopers, kniglits, bacchants ^ who know-
more about the Bible than is known at all the univer-
sities or by all the priests all over the world, and they
can prove this — ay, and do prove it — every day.' ' If
the Emperor Charles were as learned as Luther's servant-
man is, he would not let that stupid monk, his father
confessor Glapion, make such a ninny of him that he
is despised all the world over, and looked upon as a
mere cipher.'

Amongst these lay preachers there figured pre-emi-
nently a peasant named Karsthaus, who carried on his
agitation chiefly in the Ehine districts, in Strasburg
and Basle. ' A lay individual named Karsthaus,' we
read in an old Strasburg document, ' a most seditious
agitator and a fanatical propagandist of the Lutheran
heresy, is perambulating the town of Strasburg, stirring
up contempt of all respectable well-behaved people,
collecting the populace in the streets and squares, and
filling their heads with all manner of improper, erro-
neous, and heretical ideas. Amongst other things this
turbulent scoundrel has declared that now is the
opportune moment for completely exterminating the
clergy.' And when a bystander asked what reason he
had for saying this Karsthaus answered : ' Because
the clergy have taken money from the laity on false
pretences. The clergy have gone on preaching hitherto
that there was a place called Purgatory, and that souls
could be released from it by prayers and money, which
is altogether false.' The name of Karsthaus became a
watchword in the thousands of revolutionary leaflets
and pamphlets which were distributed among the

' Raw students who had newly entered the university.

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PRESS 225

peasants by hawkers. That which had the widest
circulation was an anonymous pubhcation emanating
from the Sickingen party, a dialogue between the
peasant Karsthaus and Franz von Sickingen, entitled
' Neue Karsthaus.' ^

Just as Hutten in his dialogue ' The Eobbers '
had advocated an alliance between the nobles and
the towns against the clergy, so here a league be-
tween the nobles and the peasants was recommended.
He had become one with the nobility, said Karsthaus
on the title-page, and for his part he would fall to with
his own hands. In the present bloody reckoning with
the priests the only thing wanting was a general
at their head. Sickingen described the clergy to the
peasants as devouring wolves, whereupon Karsthaus
exclaims : ' Therefore we must strike in among them
with pickaxes and flails.' On Sickingen's explaining
that the Pope has set his Chair up above the
Almighty, and therefore is bound to fall like Lucifer,
the answer follows : ' So let him fall in the name of
all the devils, and may the Devil help him up again ! '
Sickingen goes on to say that they must set them-
selves free from all the ecclesiastics who ' with their
ceremonies and juggling ' try to impose on the unen-
lightened masses ; God only asks to be worshipped
in spirit and in truth ; He cares nothing for all these
churches of wood and stone ; therefore the greater
number of them must be pulled down, and above all
they must follow the example of the Bohemian Ziska,.
who exterminated the monks and the priests. For as
long as the churches remain standing, he says, there
will always be an incentive to priestcraft, and the

^ A new pickaxe.
VOL. IIL Q

226 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

corrupt faith will not be rooted out from among the
people ; therefore let these superfluities be removed and
all monastic orders be abolished. Ziska showed his
wisdom in destroying the churches ; for if he had left
them standing it would have been as he predicted. ' If
the nests were allowed to remain,' he said to the
Bohemians, ' in ten years' time the birds would all be
back again.' 'Neither can I sufficiently praise his
great good sense,' Sickingen continues, ' in having
driven out and exterminated all the monks ; for he
judged rightly in thinking that the origin of all heresy
and unbelief lay in those hypocrites and extortioners
who could never be satisfied. If their destruction did
not quickly come about, the Christian population would
be made paupers by them. In urging a violent on-
slaught against the clergy Sickingen took his stand on
the words of St. Paul : ' Where the Spirit of God is,
there is liberty.'

As an appendix to the dialogue there follow thirty-
six articles, accompanied by the attestation : ' Thus
Helferich, nobleman, Heinz, knight, and Karsthaus
have sworn.' The jurors promise one another to
regard the Pope as Antichrist, and the cardinals as
apostles of the Devil. Every papal legate shall be
treated as a common eneni}^ of Germany ; every mendi-
cant friar who begs for a bit of cheese shall have a
stone weighing four pounds thrown at him ; every
clerical official or emissary shall be hunted with hounds
and pelted with mud by the children. They will aid
and encourage Hutten in strangling and murdering
the Eomish courtlings and their hangers-on, and will
not hesitate to flog or trample underfoot any priest
who comes in their way. To all Luther's foes and

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PRESS 227

■detractors tliey swear enmity ; the emissaries who
bring over ecclesiastical decrees shall have their ears
■cut off the first time they come, and their eyes put out
if they come a second time. Festivals shall be done
away with, and only Sunday kept holy ; and all
images, whether of stone, wood, gold, or silver, shall
be destroyed ; God shall be worshipped in spirit only.
In these and other articles the confederates swore to
risk their lives and their prosperity, and called God to
witness that in all their projects they had a single eye
to the welfare of the Fatherland and the establishment
■of divine truth.

The following verses from Murner's poem 'Vom
grossen Lutherischen Narren ' accord exactly with the
doctrines set forth in the thirty articles of the ' Neue
Karsthaus ' and in innumerable pamphlets of the
time : —

They preach no godly word of peace,

But only how to slay and fleece,

And how their Bundschuhs to increase.

Their Gospel teaching is all schism,
Riot, topsy-turvyism ;
They're worse than any heathen Turk,
And soon all men will cease to work ;
The Gospel, as they understand.
Is looting cloisters, churches, land.

They're wondrous knaves at trickery ;
To plunder is their ministry.
And pillage others' property.

The common people they hoodwink.
And what they're at these little think :
And yet it's all pure Christian teaching,
Although a pack of lies they're preaching.

The ' poor man ' of Germany, Murner prophesies,

Q 2

228 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

who is deluded with promises of a fair share in the
booty, will come off about as well as did the ' poor
man ' of Bohemia.

For when the goods they all have tal en
And a mighty heap have maken,
The poor will get as fair a lot
As poor men in Bohemia got.
There too the people thought to reap
An equal portion of the heap ;
Bvit lo ! the rich man took the whole
And left the i)oor man making dole.

Things fell out, indeed, as Joseph Grlinbeck, secre-
tary to the Emperor Maximihan, had predicted in 1507,
long before Murner. 'Oppression and tyranny will
not merely be doubled, they will be trebled, they will
be quadrupled, and selfishness will be multiphed
to such an extent that both clergy and laity will
shrink from no falsehood and injustice in order to
acquire riches for themselves. Therefore the voices of
the widows and orphans, defrauded of their rights, cry
again and again to God for vengeance ; and that
vengeance will soon come ; it will fall on our own
heads if we do not straightway turn to God.' ' I fear
that the Empire will rot inwardly, decay, and shrivel
up ; I fear that gruesome tumult and sedition will be
stirred up in the Fatherland. I verily fear and dread
that our strength and manliness will be changed into
the trembling of cowards ; that war, famine, and
pestilence will rage unceasingly, till the whole might,
vio'our, and marrow has been drained out of the whole
body, from the least as well as from the greatest of its
members. Young and old, rich and poor, laymen and
clergy, thirst for gold, and are reckless as to the means
by which they obtain it ; and the day is coming when,.

POPULACE INFL.OIED BY PltEACHING AND PRESS 229

as a judgment of God, secular matters will be mixed
up with ecclesiastical matters and will infect them with
the poison of worldliness. But in the present calamities,
which the clergy are bringing on themselves by their
sins, the laity will have to share, and will indeed have
the worst share of the distress. And thouoh the clero-v
are the first to taste this cup of afiliction, the laity will
have to drink the sour dregs that remain at the bottom.^
The persecution and desecration of the clergy will be
speedily followed by rebellion against all earthly
rule.'

Numerous astrological forecasts on the destiny of
the nation were published abroad. The burden of
them was that much adversity and opposition was in
store for princes and rulers everywhere in Germany ;
that the people were leaguing themselves together and
forming Bundschuhs not against one ruler only but
ao-ainst almost all ; there would be a oreat deluo-e
which would upset and alter everything on earth. The
date prophesied for the deluge was about the year
1524.

' Everythhig that is written nowadays,' says the
' Complaint of a Simple Cloister Brother,' ' tends to
excite general tumult, destruction, and sacrileo-e — both
spiritual and secular. The worst of all verily is, not
that they attack the worldliness of the clergy and the
splendour and luxury of the bishops and high prelates,
for this is much to be reoretted, and it would be well if
their riches were diminished, and they were compelled
to simple and chaste living ; the worst of all is rather
that everything is upset which appertains to the service

' See Murner's poem. Vom grossen Lutherischen Narren (' Of tlie Great
Lutheran Fool'), pp. 23-28.

230 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

of God in churches and cloisters and private houses.
The modesty of the young is disappearing ; they are
taught to blaspheme and scoff at all that is venerable.
0 God, what a world it is now, when people revile and
curse all that was sacred to our parents, all that we
learned and practised in our youth, all through which,,
by the grace of God, our parents obtained salvation in
death, and through which we also have hoped for sal-
vation in death by the same grace ! The commemora-
tion of Christ's Sacrifice in the Holy Mass is reviled as
idolatry of the Devil, and it is idolatry also to worship
the dear saints and to fast and pray for souls in purga-
tory. Brother is stirred up against brother, the lower
classes against the upper, and everything is upside down,,
and everybody against everybody ; and must we not
fear war and rebellion ? Such a gospel was never
preached by Christ as is announced by Luther and his
followers.'

In a ' Mission from a Nun to her Brother ' we fiuxd
similar lamentations. Monks and nuns were reproached
that they thought to be saved by orders, by cowls, by
prayers and fasts ; but such a creed was far from being"^
theirs, and had never been taught them ; on the contrary
they knew well from the Holy Scriptures that all human
righteousness was but as a filthy rag, and only through
Jesus did they hope to be saved. The monks could
% no more be saved by the cowl than the burghers of
Cologne bv their civic o-arb. Because some indi-
viduals in cloisters led scandalous lives, it did not
follow that it was right to condemn them all, any
more than one would be justified in condemning all
burgomasters and councillors because some of them
were unworthy. 'I know there are a great many

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PEE ACHING AND PRESS 231

pious and honourable people in cloisters, and also
undoubtedly among the citizens of towns and the
peasants in villages. And it would be well if people
let each other alone and recognised each other as
brothers and sisters in Christ, and if each one took
heed to do right in his own station, and left off back-
biting and slandering others, for, as St. Paul says
to the Eomans in the first chapter, God hates back-
biters.' ' I do not say this, dear brother, concerning
vou,' the nun goes on, ' but concerning those who
highly esteem Luther's teaching', and from whom you
hear nothing else than abuse and calumny of popes,
bishops, and nuns, fasts and prayers. If that's what
they learn from Luther, I appeal to your understanding
whether such teaching is more like honey or poison ;
in no part of the Gospel do I find that Christ taught
his followers to slander and revile.'

' The papists complain," wrote Henry Kettenbach
in a defence of Luther, ' that Luther did not pre-
serve evangelical and brotherly love ; he was so bitter
and envious, and abused and slandered people. Li
this, however, Luther was only following the example of
Christ and the Apostles. It was more necessary, he
said, nowadays to preach against the subtle, insinuat-
ing, saintly seduction of the world by tonsured
folk than to preach against open sinners, Turks
and heathens, thieves, murderers, and adulterers.
Luther pitted against you papists is, in fact, like Christ,
Paul, Peter, and Elias. How, then, can he be doing
wrong ? He has no right to flatter rascals. They do
not deserve good words from him ; for blind, blind,
blind they are determined to remain. Therefore I say
that to drive out and exterminate such as these is

232 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

no more sin than it was for Daniel and Elias to drive
out the evil-doers.'

The tone of the whole mass of polemical literature
of that period was set by Luther as well in his
earlier writings as in the later ones which he sent
forth into the world from the Wartburg. In a treatise
entitled ' The Abuse of the Mass,' written at the end of
1521 and printed at the beginning of the following-
year, he called the holy mass an outgrowth of hell and
a scandalous piece of idolatry. Every true Christian
must be aware, he said, that in the New Testament there
are no outward visible priests except those that the
Devil has set up by means of human lies. The priest-
hood was in all Christians, in the spirit only, without
form or substance. ' Whence come ye then, ye priests of
idols ? ' he asks of the cleraT- ' Are ve not thieves
and plunderers and blasphemers of the Church, who
scandalously abuse for your own glory, pride, greed,
and malice the holy name of " priest," which is the
common property of all Christians, but which ye have
taken by force as your private property ? Ye are
not priests, but intolerable burdens on the earth.' As,
then, the priesthood is null, he goes on, so its laws are
null, and still more void and null are the works and
sacrifice, which have originated through the laws of
the priests. Hence it follows that the laws of the Pope
are empty mockery and lies, that the popish priesthood
is nothing more than a sign and an outward show ;
the popish mass, which they call a sacrifice, mere
idolatry, and worse idolatry even than that of which
Jews or heathen are guilty, or ever have been guilty.'

Luther was never weary of declaring, ' on divine
authority and the evidence of the Scriptures,' that the

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PPtEACHING AND PRESS 233

priests were nothing but ' Priests of the Devil,' and
that in all their books and writings it was only the
Devil himself who spoke. ' When, therefore, any
Christian man,' so he said, ' beheld a great innume-
rable crowd of monks and priests with their masses,
their sacrifices, their ordinances, and all their works,
he saw in truth nothing but the Devil's own people and
servants.' It was far better to be a hangman or a
murderer than a priest or a monk. The Pope, ' the
Devil's hog,' had made the whole priesthood into the
' dreo-s of all that was most execrable ; ' the consecration
vow stamped the priests with the ' mark of the beast '
of the Book of Eevelation.

The bishops were a special mark for Luther's
attacks. 'There are no people on earth whom God
is more set against than those idolaters and hypocrites ;
they are unbelieving, unchristian, ignorant apes, mon-
sters and prodigies sent by God in his wrath. Why,
then, should you be afraid of them, or fearful for
them, and not much rather despise them and look
upon them as spots and blemishes of the whole world,
as St. Peter says, with all their laws, lies, pomp, and
hateful habits and customs ?

He indulged in the same sort of language against
the universities, which he denounced as temples of
Moloch and dens of murderers. ' Out of these
murderous dens there go forth the locusts which
cover the whole world, in every corner, spiritual
and secular, for verily since the foundation of the
universe the Devil has found no better way of
crushing the Gospel and the faith than by means of
the universities.' It made him furious to think that
the largest and best part of the young generation were

234 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

educated in these dens. His utterances in this respect
are specially noteworthy, as showing how full of
vitality was the Church in Germany at that time, in
what high esteem the universities stood, and what
fervent zeal for learning had up till then prevailed in all
parts of the country. ' Everybody is of opinion,' says
Luther, ' that in no spot under heaven can the young
be better instructed than at the universities, so that
even the monks go there also.' ' Whoso has not
entered or studied at a university can do nothing, but
any one who has can do all things. For it is believed
that in the universities all arts, human and divine, are
learnt ; and therefore everybody thinks that no one
can do better than send his sons there, and that he is
doing God a great service by offering his children up
as sacrifices in these high places, to be turned into
preachers, priests, and servants of God, who are
needed by God and man.' ' These folk make great
lords, doctors, and magisters, who are skilful in ruling
other people, as indeed we see with our eyes that
nobody can be a preacher, or a pastor, unless he has
become a " master " or a " doctor," or at least has
entered a university.'

It was one of Luther's deepest causes of lamenta-
tion that all the world wanted to be taught and ecclesias-
ticised at the universities.

His constantly reiterated complaints on this point
make him the most convincing witness to the fact
that throughout the whole German nation at that
period there was not only universal outward confor-
mity, but also warm inward attachment to the Church.
' The mind of each one,' he said, ' was set on how he
could make himself into a holy ecclesiastic — priest or

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PRESS 235

monk — or how he could institute church services.'
' Whenever a young lad was to read his first mass, how
blessed did the mother think herself that she had borne
such a son and supplied God with a minister ! ' ' There
was no father or mother in the land,' he said, ' who did
not wish to make priests, monks, or nuns out of their
children ; so that one fool has made others. Thus
all the young people and the best part of the world
have flocked in crowds to the devil.' ' At a monstrous
cost in money,' he complains, ' we have founded
these devil's larvce, these monks, these hobgoblin high
schools, and dressed up shoals of doctors, preachers,
masters, priests, and monks, or rather great, fat, coarse
asses, in red and brown birettas, like sows with pearls
and gold chains, who have taught us nothing good,
but have o'one on makino- us blinder and blinder and
more and more idiotic, and eaten up all our goods into
the bargain.' 'It is a lamentable pity that a boy
should be obliged to study twenty years and longer in
order that he may become a priest and read masses ;
and when the end is accomplished then forsootli he has
become blessed, and blessed is the mother who bore
such a child.'

And again : ' If only a man has put on a priest's
frock, all the world must worship and bow down before
him. Everybody joins in the worship, and the mother
who bore him becomes "blessed." '

From the standpoint of his new gospel Luther
considered this warm attachment of the nation
to the Church, as well as the university system
which fostered it, as one of the worst evils and
greatest hindrances to the spread of his teaching.
He adopted, therefore, every possible means of

:^36 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

compassing the downfall of the universities, those
' dens of the latest horrors,' those ' synagogues of
corruption.'

At the conclusion of his pamphlet on the ' Abuse
of the Mass ' Luther repeats his expressions of delight
that the Wittenbergers have abolished the mass.
^ Would to God,' he says, ' that this Pharisaic indigna-
tion might increase and spread, till the priests cry out
in a body : " See there in Wittenberg, there is no more
divine service ; they hold no more masses, they no
longer play the organ, and they have all become heretics
and lunatics ! " ' It displeased him greatly that the
Elector Frederic of Saxony, ' deceived by the papists,'
had enlarged and beautified the Cliurch of All Saints
at Wittenberg, for, said Luther, lie might have fed
numbers of poor people in Saxony with the money he
spent on the church ; he feared also that the money and
the goods of the princes were seldom worthy of being
used for Christian causes, as they were seldom acquired
•otherwise than as Nimrod had obtained his wealth and
possessions. For the rest, however, he said that the
Elector was no t3'rant or fool ; he listened gladly to the
truth, and was tolerant of it, and hence the Witten-
bergers would find it all the easier to accomplish
the work they had begun. In the Elector Frederic the
ancient prophecy would be fulfilled : ' The Emperor
Frederic will recover the Holy Sepulchre.' For what
else can we understand by the Holy Sepulchre than
the Holy Scriptures, in which the truth of Christ,
murdered by the papists, has lain buried, and which its
keepers — that is, the mendicant Orders and the heretics
— have watched and guarded, so that no disciple of
•Christ's should come and steal it ? For as to the orave

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PEE ACHING AND PRESS 237

in which the Lord lay, God wants that back as Httle as he
wants all the cows in Switzerland.' ' Now nobody can
deny,' he goes on, ' that among you in Saxony, under
the Elector Frederic, the living truth of the Gospel has
come forth again. How if I were to boast mj^self that
I had been an angel at the grave, or Mar}^ Magdalen ?
And althouoh some would maintain that I was an
impostor, I will carry on the pretence and will amuse
myself with marvelling how it comes to pass that God
has willed to waken up his Word again in this despised
corner of the world, and that a wonder is seen here
which I think has not happened in any other country —
namely, that the towns and villages round Wittenberg,
and also the citizens, have Hebrew names, like the towns
and hamlets round Jerusalem, The people of Wittenberg
had been the first to see the " pure countenance of the
Gospel," and now it was their duty zealously to spread
it about and let others see it, albeit preserving harmony
among themselves and stretching out their hands to one
another without strife or discord.'

In another pamphlet of the same period, entitled
' Memoranda and Information concerning the Cloisters
and all Ecclesiastical Vows,' Luther denounced all
clerical vows because it was impossible to keep them.
He taught that nobody should be compelled to confess,
or even to be baptised. ' I approve of faith and baptism,'
he wrote on September 17, 1521, ' but nobody should
be coerced in these matters, only admonished and ex-
horted, and then left free to decide.' In like manner
he said in his treatise on the confessional : ' All Sacra-
ments must be free to each individual. Whosoever
does not wish to be baptised, let him go without.
Whoever does not wish to receive the Sacrament is in

238 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

liis full riolit. Also whoever refuses to o-o to con-
fession is wholly in the right before God.'

These opinions could not but exercise a disturbing
and pernicious influence on the habitual religious life
of the people.

Luther's assertions and injunctions were all the
more impressive and fruitful in results from the manner
in which he knew so well how to clothe them. He
was a mighty master of the German language. His
vocabulary was strong and incisive, his style full of life
and movement ; his similes in their naked plainness
were instinct with vigour and went straight to tlie mark.

He drew from the rich mines of the vernacular
tongue, and in popular eloquence and oratory few
equalled him. Where he still spoke in the spirit
of the catholic past, his language was often truly
sublime. In his works of instruction and edification
he more than once reveals a depth of religious grasp
which reminds one of the days of German mysticism.

How beautiful, for instance, are the passages on the
beatitude of the soul in the booklet j)ublished in 1520
on the ' Freedom of a Christian Man,' where the union
of the soul with Christ through the bridal rino- of faith
is compared to that of a bride and bridegroom ! ' A
Christian man becomes, by faith, so lifted up above
everything that he is spiritually lord of all things, for
nothing can harm his felicity ; yea, everything is sub-
jected unto him and tends to heighten his bliss. That
is indeed a high and glorious dignity, a truly omni-
potent rulership, a spiritual sovereignty.' ' Above and
beyond this we are priests, which is much more than
being kings, because the priesthood makes us worthy
to come into the presence of God and to pray for others.'

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PPtESS 239

' For this has Christ redeemed us to himself, that we may
intercede and pray for one another in the spirit/ ' Who
can fathom the height and glory of a Christian man ?
Through his sovereignty he is supreme over all things ;
through his priesthood he is supreme over God.' Thus
joyousl}^ and triumphantly did Luther look out upon
the world, so long as he had an inch of the old faith to
stand on.

But there are even finer passages than these in this
publication. One cannot help asking oneself how the
same hand which delighted to shatter as with a sledge
hammer all that had hitherto been held sacred and
venerable, could also touch so tenderly the chords of
divine love. Here are other passages : ' But enough
has been said about the inner man. Let us come now
to the other part, the outward man. Here we have to
consider " works " in which man must not be idle, for
verily the body must be driven and exercised with
fasts, vigils, labour, and all suitable discipline, so that it
may become obedient to and be brought into conformity
with the inward man and with faith, and not hinder or
withstand the latter, as is its habit when not itself
restrained. For the inner man is at one with God, is
happy and joyous in the love of Christ, who has done
so much for it, and finds all its delight in serving God
in free love.' ' Every Christian man should willingly
become a servant to help his neighbour, to dwell with
him and act with him as God through Christ has dealt
with himself. And all this for love only, seeking no
other gain than the praise of God.' ' Behold how out of
faith flow love and delight in God, and out of love a
free, willing, joyous life of disinterested service to one's
neiodibour.' ' In this wav,' savs Luther in conclusion.

240 HISTORY OF THE C4ERMAN PEOPLE

' must the good things of heaven flow from one to the
other and become common property : from Christ to us
men and women, from us to our neighl30urs — whoever
they be, that are in need of them.' Through the soul of
Luther, as he penned these pages, there seems to have
poured a rich stream of influence from the catholic
past ; they carr}^ one back to that eventful day when
he took the vows of monkhood, and out of pure love to
God, bound himself by an oath to hold fast through life
to the holy precepts of the Gospel.

In this same tract, however, on the ' Freedom of a
Christian Man,' he demolished afresh the whole system
of Church organisation built up by the centuries, and
took his stand solely on the plain letter of Holy Writ,
which he declared to be the sole fountain-head of faith,
the one authoritative rule for Christians. And then he
himself set to work to undermine this authority of the
Scriptures by his prefaces to separate books in his
translation of the New Testament.^

For instance, he rejected the Epistle of St. James as
a thoroughly matter-of-fact letter which had no evan-
gelical character in it. ' I do not regard it,' he said,
' as the writing of any Apostle.' ' The riglit test,' he
says, ' by which to judge these books is whether they
preach Christ. Whatever does not preach Christ is not
apostoHc, even though it be written by St. Peter or St.
Paul. And, on tlie other hand, whatever does preach
Christ would Ije apostolic even if it proceeded from
Judas, Pilate, or Herod. But this James does nothing
more than preach the law and obedience to the law,
and mixes the one with the other in a chaotic manner.
Therefore I will not admit him in my Bible among the

^ See Bollinger's licformation, iii. 139-173.

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PRESS 241

number of true canonical writers. But at the same
time I will forbid none to place and esteem him as
they please.'

Of the Epistle to the Hebrews he declared that it
did not proceed from Paul or any other Apostle.
' Who did write it, however, is unknown, and will
remain unknown yet a while ; but it is not of an}^
importance.'

With regard to the Book of Eevelations his verdict
was : ' As to this book, I allow each individual to form
his own opinion, and will not bind down any one to my
own judgment, or my own ignorance. I say what I feel.
To me there is a want of unity in this book ; it seems to
me neither apostolic nor prophetic. Let each one esteem
it as it strikes him. As for me, this book does not
appeal to my mind.'

Thus, then, the authority of the Holy Scriptures was
only to be recognised by each one in so far as they
accorded with his individual ideas.

' What will be the outcome of Luther's principles
with regard to the interpretation and the authority of
the Bible ? ' asked Karl von Bodmann, as Emser and
Cochlaeus had already asked. ' He rejects this, that, or
the other book as unapostolic, as not genuine, simply
because it does not accord with his views. Others, on
similar grounds, will reject other books, and finally
people will refuse tobelieve any part of the Bible, and will
treat it like any secular book. And yet they are crying
out indignantly that Luther's translations are forbidden
to the common people, as if this were an unheard-
of piece of tyranny.^ Numbers already scoff at the

1 Prohibitive edicts against Luther's translation of the New Testament
■were issued in Bavai'ia, in Austria, in the Mark of Brandenburg, and in

VOL. IIL R

242 HISTORY OF THE GEEMAN PEOPLE

reverence in which the Bible is held, and even repudiate
the doctrine of the divinity of Christ, just as they
repudiate the Church and its teaching. And this
melancholv state of thins^s throws worse and worse the
more the authority of the Church is attacked by Luther
in her overseers, the Pope and the bishops.

In the year 1522 Luther addressed as a New Year's
greeting to the Pope 'An Exposition of the Bull In
Coena Domini,' i.e. ' the Bull of the Evening Carousals
of his Archholiness my Lord the Pope.'

The Pope appears again in this document as Anti-
christ, ' who surpasses the iniquity of the Dragon of
Hell and his apostle " Knavery." ' ' Open your eyes, ye
Mind miserable papists,' he says, ' behold your idol,
how he is striving against Christ , and doing nothing
but devil's M^ork.' ' The Pope is driving the world to
forsake the Christian faith and believe in his devil's lies,
so that whether for body or for soul the Pope's rule is
ten times worse than that of the Turks. And if Christ
himself should not overthrow Antichrist, according to
the Scriptures, and we were to set about destroying the
Turks, we should have to begin with the Pope.' ' The
Khine was scarcely big enough to drown the whole

the Duchy of Saxony. A mandate of Duke George of Saxony, November 7,
1522, enjoined that before Christmas all the copies in circulation in the
duchy should be handed over to the magistrates. Hieronymus Emser,
the Duke's court chaplain, published a pamphlet in which he stated
the reasons why the common people were forbidden to read this trans-
lation— viz. not only on account of the false rendering of some of the
passages, but because the notes of glossaries spoilt the appearance of the
Bible. The Leipzig Theological Faculty also advised the Diike, in a letter
of January 23, 1523, to enforce the edict against Luther's prefaces and
glossaries, even if the translation (which was not the case) were quite
correct. Emser recommended the bishops to have a new accurate trans-
lation executed by a body of learned men. See Seidemann, Erh'iute-
rungen zur Reformationsgcscliiclite, pp. 51-55.

I'OPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PPtESS 243

accursed gang of Eomisli extortioners, tlie faithful and
well-beloved apostles of the Pope — cardinals, arch-
iDishops, bishops, and abbots.'

In another polemical pamphlet, to which he gave
the name of ' Sincere Exhortation to all Christians to
beware of Insurrection and Turbulence,' he expressed
himself with equal violence. Now that the scandalous
and injurious conduct of the Pope and his adherents,
their tyranny and misdeeds, had come to the light of
day, it was plain to see, he said in his preface, that
things were tending to insurrection, and that priests,
monks, and bishops, with the whole of the ecclesiastical
•class, would be destroyed and expelled, if they did not
set to work in earnest to reform themselves. For the
poor man, exasperated and embittered by the injuries
(beyond all measure and possibility of endurance)
which he had suffered in his goods, his body, and his
soul, would not and could not bear such treatment any
longer, and he had right good reason to strike in at his
oppressors with clubs and flails, as Karsthaus had
threatened to do. He, on his part, was by no means
sorry to hear that the clergy were in such great fear
and anxiety, and he wished that their terrors were
even greater. ' Such fear and terror Scripture assigns to
all enemies of God, as the beginning of their chastise-
ment. Therefore it is just, and it pleases me well, that
such a pestilence should overtake the papists who
persecute and condemn the truth of God.'

At the same time Luther in no way desired an
uncontrolled rising of the people : what he wished was,
not that the uneducated masses should break loose
blindly, but that the rulers and authorities should
arrange for the suppression of popish knavery, deception,

B 2

244 HISTOKY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

and tyranny ; this they were bound to do in virtue of
their magisterial powers, each prince and ruler in his
own territory. ' For that which is brought about by
legal authority is not of the nature of insurrection/
'The people must take no part in the transactions
except under orders of the ruling powers.' ' There-
fore,' he says to the people, ' respect the powers that
be. So long as they do not proceed to action, do
you keep quiet with hand and mouth and heart, and take
nothing upon yourselves. If, however, you can prevail
upon the authorities to take action, you are at liberty to
do so.' ' But if you should say : What are we to do, if
the rulers will not be^jin ? I answer : You are to do
nothini?.'

Furthermore every Christian must help in carrying on
the work that Luther j)roposes to do, and must persevere
courageously in making known among the people the
knavery and deceit of the Pope and the papists both by
writing and speaking. They must do as he was doing —
' Teach, preach, talk, and write ; show how human laws
are as nothing. Advise and hinder everybody you can
from becoming priest, monk, or nun, and persuade those
who have taken vows to cast them off. Give no more-
money for bulls, tapers, bells, altars, churches, but cry
aloud that the Christian life consists in faith and love ;.
let us go on like this for two years more, and you will see
how much will be left of pope, bishop, priest, monk, nun,
bell, tower, mass, vigils, cowls, hoods, rules, ordinances,,
and the whole pestilential edifice of popish government.'"
' Each one who reads the Word of Christ can freely boast
that his mouth is as the mouth of Christ. I indeed am
certain that my words are not mine own, but Christ's ;
therefore my mouth must be his whose words it speaks.'"

POPULACE INFLAMED BY PREACHING AND PRESS 245

One mio'lit have answered him that he himself, on
January 27, 1517, had written to the Nuremberg jurist
Christopher Scheurl that ' it was the height of arro-
gance to deem oneself the habitation of Christ. Such
self-glorification could only be tolerated in an Apostle.'

But to such an answer Luther would have retorted
in the langQage of his letter to the Elector Frederic on
March 5, 1522: 'Your Highness knows, or perhaps
does not know, so let your Highness now learn the fact
that I have received the Gospel not from men, but direct
from heaven, through our Lord Jesus Christ, so that
I might well have subscribed myself, as henceforth I
intend to do. His servant and Evangelist.'

Luther informed the Elector in this letter that he
had left the Wartburg and was going back to Witten-
berg where his presence was needed owing to the revo-
lutionary excitement that had arisen in consequence
of the new evangelical preaching.

246 HiSTORy OF the German people

CHAPTER III

EEVOLUTIONARY AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG

BEGINNINGS OF THE SPLIT IN THE CHURCH.

1521-1522

The first revolutionary disturbances, after the Diet of
Worms, took place at Eijiirt. in June 1521. Luther's
friend, the Augustinian monk Johannes Lange, by his
seditious preaching, stirred up the populace of this
town to hatred and violence against the clergy, and
the town council itself made use of the riotous mob in
its attacks on the privileges and property of the
ecclesiastics. Armed bands of students, artisans, and
peasants, and rabble of all sorts, demolished, in the
course of a few days, more than fort}^ parsonages ; com-
mitted the most fearful depredations, unhindered by the
magistrates ; destroyed whole libraries ; tore up all the
documents and rent-rolls they could lay hands on in
the law offices of the provosts of Santa Maria and
St. Severus ; and perpetrated deeds of violence of the
worst kind. Many cases of murder also occurred, and
even Maternus Pictoris, highly esteemed as he was by
the university for his services in the humanist cause,
did not escape the fury of the assassins. His murder
was recorded in the folio win<? doQ-gerel : —

To the house of Maternus they came in wrath ;
Through the window backwards they pushed him forth ;
He lay in the street, alas ! quite dead.
The priests, I ween, were sore bestead.

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG 247

The insurgents inflamed each other to the work of
destruction witli revolutionary songs.

Break in pieces all that's there,
Windows, benches, table, chair,
Walls and railings everywhere !
Work like men of sense bereft.
That nothing in the house be left.

In another riot towards the end of July seven
parsonages were set on fire.

After these events the University of Erfurt began
to show signs of rapid decline. The number of its
students sank to less than half, for many parents took
their sons away to preserve them from the taint of
Hussitism. Among those who were left riots and
excesses of all sorts became the order of the day.

But, in spite of all the revolutionary tumults and
disturbances, the ancient constitution of the Church
remained intact at Erfurt, as, indeed, all over the
Empire, until the autumn of 1521. The customary
divine services were performed as usual, the services of
the Holy Mass and the administration of the Sacraments
underwent no alteration ; there was as yet no idea of
organising a new Church system.

Such a contingency, however, could not but follow
eventually as the result of Luther's teaching of justifi-
cation by faith alone, and of universal priesthood. If
all Christians were priests before God there was no
need of any hierarchical system ; if good works were
not necessar}^ to salvation, ecclesiastical institutions
and cloisters became superfluities, and all the worldly
goods of the Church were equally useless. This evan-
gelical liberty, thus ostentatiously proclaimed, required
the removal of all such offensive anomalies, and inflamed
multitudes with eagerness to escape from the crushing

i^4:8 HISTORY OF THE GERxMAN PEOPLE

slavery of cowl and cloister, prayers, fasts, and morti-
fication, and filled them watli desire to obtain a share
in the rich possessions of lazy priests and the splendid
church treasures of gold and silver chains, monstrants,
and so forth.

In the town of Erfurt the final upheaval began
in the autumn of 1521. Monks flocked mutinously
from the cloisters — the Augustinians especially — and
began openly preaching that people should adhere
no longer to the religion of their fathers. The Old
Testament, they declared, expressly enjoined the duty
of forsaking the creed of their fathers ; the Church of
God had been nothing but a ' mother of human
dogma, pride, avarice, luxury, faithlessness, and
hypocrisy,' a workshop of lies and all that was evil.
The Augustinian monk Lange called the cloisters ' free
bandit castles.' One of these apostates insisted that
the common people, every time they heard the
Catholic Church even mentioned, should make the
sign of the cross. All these preachers harangued
most fiercely against the tyranny of the papacy, and
declared that fasts and prayers, confession and abso-
lution, monkhood and masses, were only human institu-
tions, devised by the greed of ' oiled and tonsured
priests.' Christian martyrs and Church Fathers of
the first centuries were carried about in efiigy and
dragged in the mire ; the chastity of a St. Franciscus
and St. Dominicus was made the lauoliino-stcck of
the people. Eufiianly crowds showed their sympathy
with the preachers by yelling and shouting in church.
Theological questions were debated in market-places
and taverns ; men, women, and boys expounded the
Bible.

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG 249

The populace manifested its evangelical ardour by
repeated risings.

' These are the fruits of Gospel-preaching,' wrote
Luther's brother monk, and former tutor, Bartholomaus
Usingen, ' that the people, after having renounced
obedience to the Catholic Church, are noM% under the
cloak of Christian freedom, giving themselves up to the
lusts of the flesh, throwing contempt on true piety, and
rushing headlong into an abyss from which it will
scarcely be possible ever to rescue them.'

Usingen was the most persistent defender of the
■old faith in Erfurt. In his cathedral preaching, and in
his apologetic writings, he warned the people against
the new false prophets. ' Under the guise of freedom
and the Gospel,' he said, ' these men are destroying
religion, discipline, and respectability ; they are reviving
the old Hussite anarchy ; they are stirring up tumult and
mutiny, and delivering over the Christian common-
wealth to perpetual chaos.' Clerical reform of eccle-
siastical living was certainly necessary, he said, but
it was necessary above all in the case of those dis-
orderly, runaway monks, who were posing as moral
reformers and endeavouring to cover their owai shame
by wicked exaggeration of the abuses of the Church.
It filled every honourable man with indignation that
such people should presume to sit in judgment on
the whole edifice of ancient church life, when they
themselves were more in need of reform than anv others.
He declared it to be a disgrace to the name of ' German '
that such proceedings should be allowed to go un-
punished. Just as, in consequence of the Greek icono-
clastic riots, the ancient splendour of Constantinople
and the Eoman imperial crown had passed over to the

250 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

German nation, so, lie sadly predicted, the present
German iconoclasts wonld bring about the downfall of
Germany, and the loss of all her former greatness.
Thousands flocked to hear his preaching, but it had
little influence on the course of events in the town.
The revolutionary party became all-powerful in Erfurt.
For thirty years Usingen had ministered to the glory of
the town and the university, and now he saw himself
exposed helplessly to the scorn of the jDopulace, whilst
his life was scarcely safe. The majority of the town
councillors ranged themselves on the side of the agitators
and championed the new gospel, in order to emancipate
themselves from the dominion of the detested Archbishop
of Mayence, and to get into their own hands the rich
possessions of the Church.

' These religious innovators have no fear of the
Archbishop of Mayence,' wrote Carl von Bodmann to
Eome ; ' on the contrary, they hope that he, and others
with him, will gradually come round to their side ; and
that, for his own benefit, he will lend a helping hand
when the projected diminution of Church territory is
effected. As for the Worms edict against Luther
and his adherents, since the Emperor's departure from
the country nothing, or as good as nothing, has been
done to carry it into effect. Even in some of the
episcopal towns Luther's books are sold freely and
openly, and the imperial edict has become pretty much
a joke among the people.' In another letter he says :.
' Pamphlets and treatises which assail and vilify the
Cliu]-ch and the clerical body are devoured with
famine voracity, whereas only a very few of the bishops
take any trouble to supply the people with orthodox
literature on the subject, or to instruct them by sermons.

AGITATION IN EKFURT AND WITTENBERG 251

concerning the peril the Church is in from these
heretical teachers. Luther's partisans are even to
be found in the private council chambers of many
of the bishops. Everything and everybody seems
paralysed with fear at the present convulsed state of
affairs.'

The wavering uncertain attitude of many of the great
ecclesiastical dignitaries, especially the Archbishop of
Mayence, Primate of Germany, did undoubtedly do
much to develop the revolutionary character of these
religious innovators.

Albrecht had from the beginning acted a double I
part with regard to this movement, and the papal
Nuncio, Aleander, had good grounds for his repeated
complaints concerning the Archbishop and the unortho-
dox following he gathered round him. Even whilst the
papal and imperial bans were hanging over Luther, he
sent word to the latter that he was on his side and would
protect him ; that he himself had thought of ' taking
the lead in this Gospel cause, only in a safer and more
suitable manner.' Litimidated by Hutten and his
partisans, he had not signed the Edict of Worms, as he
ought to have done as Imperial Chancellor, and in his
dioceses of Mayence, Magdeburg, and Halberstadt he did
all in his power to hinder public, proceedings against

Luther. His court preacher and Privy Councillor,

Wolfgang Capito, who was in favour of the new re-
ligious teaching, praised him in a letter to Zwingli of
August 4, 1521, as a promoter of the 'Evangel;' the
Archbishop, he said, would not allow Luther to be
spoken against from the pulpits ; and just lately he had
dismissed the provincial of the Order of Minorites, who
had attempted to preach against Luther in the dioceses

252 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

of the Rhine Provmces. ' However,' Capito continued,
* Luther's adherents are spUtting into several parties ;
a new sect of sophists is arising, and in their hands
everything becomes either matter of doubt, or material
for empty disputation, or fuel for insurrectionary
tumult ; this is especially the case with the runaway
monks, and a large proportion of the people are turning
from them in consequence.'

At the end of September 1521 Capito and Henry
■Stromer, physician in ordinary to the Archbishop, went
to Wittenberg to interview Melanchthon and induce
him to try and persuade Luther to moderate his
personal vehemence, and to treat Albrecht with con-
sideration and forbearance. Luther, they said, by
judicious reserve, might gain over those whom he could
not overcome by violence. Melanchthon answered that
it was not his business to influence Luther. He knew
well how the w^orld judged the latter, how some thought
him a bad man, others a lunatic ; he for his part
believed that Luther was proclaiming the Gospel by
inspiration of God. ' Concerning sacred things,' said
Melanchthon in the course of his speech, ' we under-
stand only as much as the Spirit reveals to each of us.'
As to the Archbishop of Mayence, he would spare him
as much as possible, in order that he might not pro-
claim outlawry and the ban.

Consistent^ with his other underhand dealings Al-
brecht had not the moral courage to protest decidedly
against the innovations ; he was forced to bow_before
Luther, ' the primate before the excommunicated monk,'
wlio threatened him with disclosures . Akeady in 1522
Carl von Bodman had expressed his fear that Albrecht

' Melanchthon's letter in the Corp. Beform. i. 462.

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBEEG 253

contemplated taking to himself a wife, transforming
the archbishopric of Mayence into a secular princi-
pality, and throwing it open to Luther's ' Evangel.' The
Wittenberg professor Carlstadt concluded a pamphlet
with the joyful tidings that the German Primate was
coming round to the evangelical truth, and that there
was reason for hoping that other bishops would join with
him in throwing off the Eoman yoke, and would rule
their dioceses themselves independently of the Pope's
appointment and confirmation. Capito reckoned up,
in praise of Albrecht, the number of those who in the
year 1523 had preached the ' Evangel ' unhindered in
the towns and lordships of Mayence.

Meanwhile disturbances of the same nature as those
at Erfurt had broken out in Wittenberof.

On October 6, 1521, the Augustinian monk Gabriel
Zwilling, called Didymus, told the students assembled
in the monastery that the adoration of the Eucharist
was idolatry, and that nobody must an}' longer attend
the_service of the Mass ; for the Bod}^ and Blood of
Christ were not a sacrifice, but only a sign of the
forgiveness of sins.

' We do not yet know what will happen,' wrote a
young student to a friend from the ' most Christian town
of Wittenberg' on October 19, ' but this much is certain,
that we shall communicate in both kinds, though the
Pope and all his crew should burst in consequence.
Do you suppose Melanchthon lied when he said in the
public lecture-hall : " I believe that we shall gain this
much, and receive the Sacrament in both kinds " ? '
* To-day ' (October 23), ' writes another student, ' the
Augustinians have abolished the Mass. Carlstadt
started a discussion on the subject and proposed that a

254 HISTORY OF THE GERxAIAN PEOPLE

sermon should first be preached agamst the abuse of
the Mass, and that then the parishioners of Wittenberg-
should meet in a body and give their sanction to its aboli-
tion ; otherwise the preservation of Christian fellowship
would be in danger. The monks, however, opposed the
suggestion, saying that it was above all things needful
to keep in view the danger in which the faith stood,
and that with the abolition of the Mass the faith too
would be extinguished. The matter was finally brought
before Melanchthon, who declared himself to be in
asfreement with Carlstadt concernino- the adoration of
the Sacrament, because one was bound to believe
Christ, no matter w^here he be. If St. Paul had
entirely abolished circumcision among the Corinthians,
why should not the mass be abolished ? The Augus-
tinians, he said, were supported by good precedents. On
Carsltadt's motion that time should be allowed for bring-
ing into operation the measure of abolition Melanchthon
answered : ' Enough has been preached about it here
in Capernaum ; what do you mean by clinging thus to
ceremonies ? The monks have Christ on their side ; let
the Pharisees rage if they will.' It was not necessary,
he said, to refer this matter to the civic authorities, as
Carlstadt suggested ; ' he who had put his hand to the
plough must not draw back.' On November 12 the
Auo-ustinian prior, Conrad Hett, complained to the
Elector of Saxony that some of the monks had
forsaken the monastery, were turning their Order into
ridicule among the burghers and the students, and were
inciting lewd fellows against himself and the other
monks, so that the destruction of the monastery was
hourly to be feared.

A few weeks later a band of students from Erfurt

AGITATION IN ERFUET AND WITTENBERG 255

■and^Wittenberg forced their wajr^into the parisk church
with naked knives, drove the priests from the altar,
and pelted them with stones, shouting out that the altars
must be thrown down and oibbets and i>allows made

out of the stones ; that the office of hangman was more
useful than that of an idolatrous priest ; that except at
the risk of perdition, nobody would attend Mass again.
Carlstadt — ' in order,' as he said, ' by his example
to rescue many poor, miserable, lost, deluded priests
from the captivity of the devil ' — now determined
to enter into the state of matrimony, ' to which
Ood had destined his priests.' In the presence
of Melanchthon and many other professors of the
university he was betrothed on December 26, 1521,
to the fifteen-year-old daughter of a poor nobleman,
and o-ave notice of a cjreat weddins; festival to be
celebrated, whereat Lutliei' expressed his delight.
The prior of the castle, Justus Jonas, also announced
to his friend Capito that he was thinking of taking a
wife, and begged him to see to it that the Archbishop
Albrecht took no measures against a ' bei>"innino- '
which God Himself had manifestly initiated and
sanctioned. ' I have nothing to say against your
Lord Archbishop,' he writes, ' for merely " winking in
silence at our proceedings," as you lately said to us,
' but I would rather that the Princes openly confessed
the Christ of the Holy Scriptures.' ' Do thou never
forget that God's Word is apt to be abused and
mocked at ; but forget for a while that on account
of which thou hast so often recommended and preached
mxoderation to me ; for it is as if God Himself, as in the
time of Christ, were now visibly inflaming the people
with a sudden outpouring of the Holy Ghost.'

256 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

In a more extraordinary manner even than at
Wittenberg did this so-called spirit of God manifest
itself in the town of Zwickau. New prophets, chiefly
of the artisan class, arose there, ' called by God,' and
under the leadership of the preacher Thomas Miinzer,
and the cloth-weaver Nicholas Stock they declared
that they were going to establish a new kingdom of
Christ in place of the old one, Mdiich was falling to
pieces. In this new kingdom there was to be no
outward form of worship, no outward fabric of law, and
no secular authority ; all men were to be equal, all pro-
perty held in common ; all were to be priests and kings
alike. Twelve apostles and twenty disciples were to be
chosen, whose lord and master Miinzer was to be. A
serious mutiny would have ensued if the town
council had not been beforehand with them. Fifty-five
journeymen weavers were shut up in the tower ; but
the leaders escaped. Among the latter were Miinzer
and Storch.

Storch, with two associates, repaired to Wittenberg
to proclaim his new gospel there. These prophets
entered the town on December 27, 1521, the day after
Carlstadt's betrothal. They informed the populace
that all the priests would be put to death, even though
they should have married, so that in a short time — say
five, six, or seven years — the world would be so
completely changed that no impious or wicked sinner
would be left alive. These men pointed to Holy
Scripture as the source of their enlightenment, just as
Luther and his followers had done. Only what was
plainly commanded in the Bible must be allowed to
remain ; therefore infant baptism must l)e abolished as
beino- diametrically opposed to the words of the Saviour,

AGITATION IN ERFUET AND WITTENBERG 257

* Whoso believeth and is baptised.' Furthermore,
Holy Writ, as a dead letter, has no longer any value ;
God and the Holy Spirit reveal all truths and all com-
mandments to believers in visions.

These ' prophets ' made a deep impression on
Melanchthon, to whom they gave a full account of their
' special, undoubted, direct communications from God.'
He had no doubt whatever that they were possessed by
spirits, but he was of opinion that Luther should be
called on to decide as to the nature of these spirits.
The prophets, on the other hand, said that Martinus was
generally right, but not in all points ; there would
come another after him with a still greater spirit.'
Melanchthon in his extremity turned to the secular
ruler, the Elector Frederic of Saxony, ' who,' he
said, ' as a Christian Elector, and at this time the only
champion of the Church, was a fit person to act in
such matters, especially in the question of the baptism
of children.' ' These questions about baptism,' Melanch-
thon wrote to him, 'have shaken me in my opinions.'
Melanchthon took into his house one of these pro-
phets, who had had a liberal education, and gave
him several children to instruct. Meanwhile the
prophets preached about the new empire in public
assemblies and tried their utmost to connect them-
selves with Carlstadt.

Carlstadt, jwlj.Q_j3egan with hesitation but soon
became one of the most daring of the innovators, had
already instituted a new form of Communion service ;
and in a pamphlet on the ' Cleansing of the Churches \
he advocated iconoclasm. ' Images are an abomina-
tion,' he said, ' and it follows, therefore, that we also are
abominable if we take pleasure in them. Our temples

VOL. III. s

258 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

may justly be called murderers' dens, for our souls are
killed and ruined in them. It is tlie Devil who rewards
the popes who have thus killed and destroyed us.' ' It
would be a thousand times better if the images were in
hell fire, or in a fiery furnace instead of in the houses of
God. Carlstadt knew full well that the people neither
worshipped the images nor reverenced them for their
own sakes, but nevertheless they were all to be carried
off by force and destroyed. ' If any one,' he wrote,
' ventured to say, " I do not pray to the images ; I do
not reverence them for themselves, but for the sake of
the saints whom they represent," God would answer
briefly and plainly : " Thou shalt not pray to them,
thou shalt not worship them." ' ' If any should say,
"Pictures teach and instruct the unlearned as books
do the learned," you must answer him : " God has
forbidden me to use pictures ; therefore I will learn
nothing from them." If another comes and says,
" Pictures remind us of the sufferings of our Lord, and
often cause people to repeat a Pater JSToster, or to
think of God, who otherwise might never think of Him,
and never pray to Him," you must answer such an one :
*' God has forbidden pictures." No excuse will avail,
though you should repeat a thousand times over : " I do
not worship them for their own sakes, but for the sake
of what they represent." '

The magistrates, Carlstadt said, had the right —
indeed, it was their duty — to remove the pictures and
images from the churches. ' Would to God that our
rulers resembled the pious kings and rulers of Judea !
They are authorised, indeed, by Holy Scripture to
superintend the Churches, and to remove whatsoever
may be a hindrance and a stumbling-block to

AGITATION IN ERFURT .IND WITTENBERG 259

believers. ' The magistrates also had the right to
compel and coerce the priests in this matter ; for the
latter were by divine law subject in all things to the
magistracy. But they ought not to wait till the priests
of Baal themselves removed their temples and images ;
the chief secular power should command and en-
force.'

Carlstadt spoke to the same effect in the sermons
which he preached before crowded audiences. Of
these an eye-witness wrote as follows : ' Those who
formerly went seldom or never to hear a sermon, now
never miss one.' In conjunction with Gabriel Zwilling
Carlstadt urged the community to all sorts of arbitrary
changes in religious worship ; denounced confession
as a devilish device of papal tyranny, and the
Pope and bishops as the Devil's vicars and messen-
gers. In January 1522 he broke into the churches at
the head of a riotous gang, tore down altars and cruci-
fixes, trampled under foot the pictures of the saints,
pelted the clergy in the streets with stones, and
threatened to storm the Barefoot Monastery.

Duke George of Saxony bestirred himself energeti-
cally in this matter, and addressed urgent appeals to
his relatives, the Elector Frederic and Duke John,
brother of the Elector, concerning the proceedings at
Wittenberg.

On November 16, 1521, he drew attention to the
fact that ' matters in Saxony were, in his opinion,
becoming as serious as they had been in Bohemia,
where their forefathers had fought to the death
for the preservation of the faith. There were already
some people now in Saxony who had put away all
religion, and who denied the immortality of the soul.

s 2

260 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

All this was the result of Luther's teaching. He could
not sufficiently lament that such a state of things
should have come about in Wittenberg, the first city in
the Electorate. He entreated Duke John to prevail on
his brother to punish these innovators, or at any rate
to declare himself against them ; he (George) was
all the readier with counsel and help, seeing that the
moon was now in the last quarter, as was plainly to be
seen by ' hair and beard.'

In his letter George repeatedly urged the Hussite
disturbances as a warning. In Bohemia also churches
and cloisters had been plundered ; let them only con-
sider the condition in which the Church now stood in
that country ; the clergy had sunk to such a depth of
poverty that they were looked upon with utter con-
tempt, so much so that hangmen and usurers had been
appointed to clerical office ; the population was split
into sects, the faith almost stamped out or degraded to
old wives' fables. Let the Elector consider how things
stood at the present moment in his own country. In
Wittenberg a new ritual had been introduced ; in Eilen-
burfif an attack had been made on the house of the
4\ clergyman ; a man had actually ridden into the church
on a donkey ; altars and pictures were being destroyed ;
monks were deserting the cloisters ; priests were taking
to themselves wives. He did not know how he could
defend the Elector against the reproaches of those who
laid on him the blame of all these crimes, for he who
does not prevent evil is as much to blame as he who
commits it. God had given the House of Saxony great
treasures, the Duke went on to say, but since Luther'&
proceedings had begun they had had but little luck
. with the mines. Morals too were being corrupted.

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG 261

These agitators falsely boasted that they had resuscitated
the Gospel ; he had been acquainted with the Gospel
now for forty years, and a much better one, indeed,
than that which was now being hawked about.

In the town of Eilenburg, alluded to by Duke
George, Gabriel Zwillino- had been the leader of
sedition. ' The Wittenberg renegade monk,' an eye-
witness wrote concerning him, ' has set himself up to
preach ; he wears a student's gown, and a shirt with a
black border, and a biretta of marten-skin with two
ear-lappets. He has the greatest contempt for the
Holy Mass, and also for good works, and he preaches
that there are only two ways : one is narrow and
leads to heaven, and is faith ; the other is wide and
leads to hell, and is made up of good works, masses,
prayers, fasting, almsgiving, and penance. He says,
moreover, that we are not subject to any law, but that
laws are subject to us, and that no one should be com-
pelled to confess or to be baptised.' After the sermon
the Communion was celebrated in the castle church on
the mountain. Zwilling repeatedly impressed on his
hearers that it was not necessary to confess before
receiving the Sacrament, and also that it might
be received after eating. 'The communicants,' the
narrator goes on, 'went_ up to the altar almost
laughing, and amongst them were even some who, to t
iny^ knowledge, had spent the night before in riotins
and. fornication J_

But in all that they did the new evangelists believed
themselves to be following the Word of God. When
the Elector Frederic sent remonstrances through an
emissary to the iconolast Carlstadt, the latter justified
himself, as Luther was wont to do, on the plea of a

g '

262 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

special mission from heaven. ' The Word was borne
in upon me,' he said, ' with sudden swiftness ; woe
is me if I do not preach it.' Discord and divisions
had arisen because all men did not follow the Holy
Scriptures ; he himself followed them implicitly, and no
fear of death should make him swerve from them : he
should hold fast to the sense of God's Word and not let
himself be led into error by what others taught ;
besides, none were offended by his preaching but those
who were not Christians.'

Following the exaniple of the ' prophets ' of
Zwickau, Carlstadt declared open war on all liberal
studies, and demanded the abolition of all schools and
the suspension of Doctors' degrees. Laymen and
artisans were to be appointed preachers of the new
evangel ; students were not to lose any more time in
study, but were to learn some trade or handicraft.
The number of his followers went on increasing. The
revolution party triumphed at Wittenberg as it had
done at Erfurt ; here, as there, the universitj^ was
deserted. ' Nearly all the most learned and distin-
guished men,' wrote Spalatin, ' are grievously dis-
tressed.' Each of these new evangelists had his own
peculiar method. ' They proceeded so strangely and
in such diverse ways,' we read in a letter of the Elector
Frederic's, ' that all sorts of sects grew up, and every-
body was bewildered and no one knew who was cook
and who scullion.'

In the midst of this dilemma Luther, who had been
kept accurately informed at the Wartburg of all that
was doing, appeared suddenly at Wittenberg. He
preached eight sermons there in 1522, in which he
traced the ' desolation of abomination ' to a ' misappre-

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG 263

hension of Christian liberty.' In view of the out-
rages perpetrated he laid down the following maxim
in reference to the Epistle of St. James and other
Scripture passages which he had rejected : ' Faith with-
out love is nothing worth ; yea, it is not faith but only
a semblance of it.' What had been done in Wittenberg
had been done in an irregular manner and ' with
wrong to one's neighbour,' ' You should first have
brought the matter in earnest prayer before God, and
secondly before the magistrates, and then it would have
been known to have proceeded from God.' It grieved
him sorely that they had acted without his orders and
cooperation. ' Follow me,' he said, claiming for himself
immediate inspiration from God ; ' I was the first whom
God entrusted with this matter ; I was also the one
to whom God first revealed how His Word should be
preached to you. Therefore you have done wrong in
starting such a piece of work without my sanction and
help, and without having first consulted me.'

He reproved them most severely of all for the way
in which they had desecrated the holy altar of the
Sacrament. ' The other offences,' he said, ' might be
forgiven, but this was unpardonable. You have acted
so outrageously in this that people sa}^ : " Yes, there •
are good Christians in Wittenberg ; for they take the
sacramental chalice in their hands, and fiU it with
brandy and drink themselves dead drunk." '

The Wittenberg Gospel had not yet by any means
gained favour among the people of Saxony, as is testified
by a letter of the Polish ambassador Johannes Dantiscus,
who paid Luther a visit at Wittenberg in 1523. 'I
did not reach the place,' he writes, ' without delays
and difficulties, for the rivers, especially the Elbe, which

264 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

flows past Wittenberg, were so swollen that in the
lowlands all the seeds had floated to the surface. From
the country folk I had time therefore for observa-
tions by the way, and I heard a good deal of reviling
and anathematising of Luther and his associates. It
seemed to be the general opinion that it was because
most of these innovators had eaten meat all through the
fasting seasons that God was now visiting the land with
a flood.' Much stronger evidence even of the popular
dislike of the new gospel is found in an oflicial docu-
ment of Melanchthon's, in which he gives the following
answer to the question whether it is permissible for the
Elector of Saxony to go to war in support of the new
evangel. ' No,' he says, ' for it is certain that the feel-
ings and opinions of his subjects are not in favour of a
war for the sake of the gospel ; for they have no faith
and are not Christians. Therefore the Prince must not
go to war; for he is prince of a heathen people — that
is, of unbelievers.'

The Catholics, in Melanchthon's opinion, as well as
in Luther's, were altogether heathens or infidels.

That the Devil had played him such a trick as this
through the instrumentality of Carlstadt and the new
prophets of Wittenbeig, Luther regarded as a punish-
ment for what he considered his too cringing behaviour
at Worms. In a pamphlet against King Henry VIII.
ofEnijland in 1522 he said : 'It crrieves me that I so
far lowered myself before the Emperor at Worms as to
allow judges to pronounce on my teaching, and that I
listened when they pointed out errors to me ; for I
ought not to have exhibited such insane humility when
all the while I knew I was right, and did not mean to
yield to the tyrants.'

AGITATION IN ERFUET AND WITTENBERG 265

From which it appears that Luther openly desig-
nated the Emperor a tyrant.

In the same pamphlet he calls himself ' by the
grace of God Ecclesiastic of Wittenberg,' who has not
only received his teaching direct from heaven, but
also is retained by one who with his little finger can
do more than a thousand popes, kings, princes, and
* doctors.' He proceeds to declare that he shall hold
eternally by all the points of his teaching, which he
enumerates seriatim, and shall always maintain that
' whoever teaches differently from what I have laid
down here, or condemns me for any part of my doctrine,
condemns God and is branded as a child of hell.' ' All
the papists in the world,' he said, ' lumped together
know less what faith and good works are than a
goose knows about the Psalter.' Through the clear
writing of God's grace he had discovered that papacy,
monkhood, nunhood, masses, church services, bishop-
rics, abbeys, cloisters, and universities were all accursed
inventions of the Devil. ' I should not have said that
the pontificate is a worse plunderer than Mmrod ; for
nearly all sovereignties are of God's ordinance, as was
Nimrod's ; I should have said : " The papacy is the
most hideous abomination of the Devil of devils that
ever was seen on earth." ' King Henry, he called a
frantic madman, a lubberly ass, a striking confirmation
of the saying : ' There are no bigger fools than kings
and princes.' ^

In a letter to the knight Hartmut von Cronberg,
in March 1522, in which he complains of the trick

' Answer to King Henry VIII.'s book against Luther's treatise on the
Babylonish Captivity {Collected Works of Luther), 28, 343-387. See
especially pamphlet, 351, 346-347, 349-351, 380, 383.

266 HISTORY OF THE GERINIAN PEOPLE

played him at Wittenberg, he says : ' All my enemies put
together, with all the whole gang of devils, however
hard they have often hit me, have never injured me
as I have now been injured by my friends ; and I
must acknowledge that the smoke of it has made my
eyes smart sorely, and stung my heart not a little.
Well, well, I often think it is perhaps a punishment for
my behaviour at Worms . . . because, for the sake
of good friends, and that I might not seem to them
too obstinate, I subdued my spirit and did not make
my protest before the tyrants more strongly and
uncompromisingly ... I have often repented of my
humility and subservience at Worms.' The sentence
pronounced on his teaching at Worms had, he said,
been a sentence on divine truth itself, and this sin was
being visited on the whole German nation. ' You are
aware,' he writes, ' that the sin committed at Worms,
when the divine truth was so childishly rejected,,
so publicly, audaciously, deliberately, and unjustly
condemned, was a sin of the whole German nation,,
because it was the act of the heads of the country, and
nobody opposed them. Thereby God has been beyond
measure sinned against, so much so that either He has
wholly taken away from the land His precious Word,
or has allowed things to come to such a pass that none
now believe it to be God's Word, but are suffered to
revile and persecute, as doctrines of the Devil, that which
in the wickedness of their hearts they dared to deny
and condemn. Alas ! alas ! my dear Hartmut, the
German nation has brought this reward on itself by the
service they rendered the Pope at that unholy Diet.' The
nation, he said, had again and again condemned the
Gospel, and he feared the same would happen to

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG 267

Germany as was written in the Book of Kings ; 'they
had killed their prophets so long that God gave them
over to a reprobate mind and there was no longer any
help for them.' ' And if they have not shed my blood
it has not been for want of will, and they murder
me incessantly in my heart. Poor lost nation, must
thou then hasten before all others work as the gaoler
and hangman of Antichrist against the saints and
prophets of God ? ' ' See how my words gush forth
and run away with me,' he writes at another time.
' That is the doing of the Christian faith, which has
shed itself in joy for your conversion and blessed con-
fession. Greet all our friends in the faith, the knights
Franz von Sickingen and Ulrich von Hutten, and any
others of you who may be there.'

Seeing how much was execrable in the papacy, it
was no wonder Luther said that ' there should be
some who will not treat our gospel rightly ; but have
we not gibbets, wheels, swords, and knives ? Those
who are obdurate can be brought to reason. But in
spite of all the offences of his own party, and attacks
of all the papists, all spiritual and secular rulers would
in due time have to succumb before his gospel, all
kings to bow down and worship. 'I am terribly
afraid,' he wrote to the Elector of Saxony, ' that God
intends to punish the country by some great rising-
of the people. For we see that this new gospel suits
the common people admirably, only they receive it in
a carnal sense ; they see the truth of it, but they will
not understand it in the right manner. Moreover
those who ought to put down the disturbances actually
encourage them, attempt to extinguish the light by
force, and do not see that, by so doing they only embitter

268 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

the hearts of the people and incite them to tumult,
while they themselves have the appearance of wishing
that they or their children should be destroyed, which
consummation God without doubt will send as a
curse.' ' The spiritual tyranny has been weakened, and
that is all that I aimed at with my writing : but now,
behold, God means to push things further, as He did
with Jerusalem and her two kingdoms. It has been
revealed to me lately that not the spiritual powers
only, but also the temporal ones, will have to succumb
to the Gospel, either through love or through force,
as is clearly proved by all biblical history. And
though at first I did not apprehend a .lational rebel-
lion, but thought only of a revolt against the priest-
hood, I fear now that the disturbances may begin
against the ruling powers and spread like a plague to
the priesthood.'

' The firstfruits of victory are ours,' he writes to
Wenzel Link a few days later in a letter of March 19,
1522, ' and we are triumphing over the papal tyranny,
which formerly crushed kings and princes ; how much
more easily then shall we not overcome and trample
^ down the princes themselves ! '

His especial wrath was directed against Duke
George of Saxony, who, in fulfilment of the injunctions
of the Edict of Worms, was waging bitter war
against Luther and his adherents, and urging other
princes to a similar course. ' If the princes go on being
guided by that donkey's pate of a Duke George, I very
much fear that they will land us in a revolution which
will put an end to princes and magistrates all over
Germany, and swallow up the whole of the clergy as
well. It seemed to him that he already saw Germany

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG 26&

swimming in blood. The nation was no longer what it
had hitherto been ; the princes ought to realise that
the sword of civil war was most surely hanging over
their heads.' He (Luther) was very far from fearing
them : the ruin of which they sang was for them,
not for him. Such of the clergy as did not come over
to his gospel he declared to be outside the pale
of law and justice. ' As I told you,' he wrote at
the beginning of May 1522 to the burgomaster and
town council of Altenburg concerning the canons of
the place, ' the Canons Eegular must forfeit their
authority if they oppose the Gospel, and must be
shunned and fled from like wolves.' ' God himself,' he
said in a letter to the Saxon Elector, ' has annulled all
authority and all power which works in opposition to
the Gospel ' ; ' therefore the council of Altenburg owes
it to your Electoral Grace to restrain false preachers,
or at least to assist in appointing an orthodox one. No
seals, or letters, or customs, or privileges can avail
them ; they must be forcibly compelled. And neither
seals, privileges, custom, nor authority can withstand
force. I have pointed out to them often enough that
they have power and right to distinguish and pro-
nounce judgment between true and false teaching, and
that everywhere the Canons Eegular are losing their
privileges, power, authority, and their right to farm-
rents, because they publicly oppose the Gospel.'

' It is not injustice,' he said in like manner to
Count Johann Heinrich von Schwarzburg, ' indeed, it is
the highest justice, that we should drive the wolf out
of the sheepfold, without caring whether his belly
bursts in consequence. Lands and tribute money are
not given to preachers in order that they may work

270 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

evil, but that tliey may make people pious. ' If they do
not make people pious ' — that is, if they do not preach
the Lutheran gospel — ' they must forfeit their posses-
sions.'

Luther was above all eager to have the biggest
wolves, viz. the bishops, turned out of the sheepfold,
and in a pamphlet against the ' Falsely so-called Spiritual
Estate of the Pope and Bishops ' he fervently exhorts
* all dear children of God and true Christians to co-
operate towards this end.'

This contemplated expulsion of the bishops, how-
ever, meant at the same time a complete overthrow of
the imperial constitution, for the bishops were not only
spiritual overseers, but, for the most part, reigning
princes of Germany as well.

In the above pamphlet, under the style and title of
'by the grace of God Ecclesiastic of Wittenberg,'
Luther took his stand on the proposition that his teach-
incy alone could ensure salvation, and that on the
strength of this he was authorised to pronounce judg-
ment on the bishops. He vaunted himself that he would
not have judgment pronounced on his doctrine by an}^
one, not even by all the angels. ' For inasmuch as I
know for certain that I am right, I will be judge above
you and above all the angels, as St. Paul says, that who-
ever does not accept my doctrine cannot be saved. For
it is the doctrine of God, and not my doctrine ; there-
fore my judgment also is God's, and not mine. While
I am alive I will leave you no peace ; if you kill me
you shall have ten times less peace, for I will be unto
you, as Hosea says, a bear in the way and a lion in
the street. Whatever you do with me you shall not
have your wicked will until your brazen foreheads and

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG 271

iron necks have been broken either with or without
grace.'

' Verily,' he begins, ' there are many well-disposed
people who do not consider that I am going too far
because I attack the great lords ; and if, as the tyrants
themselves expect, there is likely to be disturbance
and insurrection, I must show cause beforehand, and
prove it in writing, that it is not only just but also
necessary to punish the exalted heads.'

The preaching of all prophets, and that of the
Saviour himself, he said, had generally been directed
chiefly against kings, princes, priests, learned men, and
rulers of the people. The Christ of the Gospel was
quite a humble, lowly person, in no high position or
office. But on whom did he pronounce judgment ?
Whom did he punish except the High Priests, the
learned Scribes and Pharisees, and all the o-reat ones
of the earth ? And thereby he has left an example for
all preachers that with good courage they may attack
the high and mighty ones, since the ruin or the wel-
fare of the nation lies chiefly in their hands. Why
then should we follow the senseless Pope's fool's laws
in face of the example of Christ and all the prophets,
and abstain from punishing the great grandees and the
spiritual tyrants ? And what gain would there be in
letting the rulers go and punishing the people ? No
amount of good teaching wall ever be able to clear out
as much evil as the iniquitous rulers put in with false
teaching.'

The bishops and other ecclesiastical dignitaries,
moreover, must be punished much more severely than
the secular powers ; and this for two reasons : first,
because ecclesiastical greatness does not proceed from

272 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

God, wlio does not recognise the humbugging crew of
bishops ; nor does it rest on human authority, but it
has grown up of itself and set itself up in authority
against God and man : secondly, because the secular
powers, although they may be unjust and pernicious,
nevertheless only injure the body ; but spiritual rulers,
when they are not holy and do not carry on God's work,
are wolves and murderers of souls, and it is just as bad
as if the devil himself were set up to rule. Hence it
is just as needful to protect oneself against bishops
who do not teach God's word as against the devil.
For where God's Word is not, there assuredly are
devil's doctrines and soul murders, since without God's
Word the soul cannot live or be saved from the
devil.

By ' God's Word ' Luther of course always meant his
own interpretation of Scripture, his own doctrine,
which, as he prided himself, had been revealed to him
by God.

' If, however,' he goes on, ' you say that a mutiny
against the ecclesiastical rulers is to be dreaded, I
answer : Shall God's Word on that account be set
aside and the whole world be ruined? 'It would
be better that all bishops were murdered, all abbeys
and cloisters razed to the ground, than that one soul
should perish. One soul, did T say? that all men's
souls should be lost for the sake of those senseless
mummies and idols. Of what use are they except to
live in luxury on the sweat and labour of others, and
to hinder the Word of God ? You are afraid of an in-
surrection which may harm your bodies, but you care
nothing for spiritual destruction. Are they not wise
and excellent people? If they truly accepted God's

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG 27

*>

Word and sought the salvation of the soul, God would
be with them, who is a God of peace, and there would
be no tumult to be feared. It is not God's Word
that causes tumult, and if they will not listen to
God's Word, but storm and rage with bans, and fire
and murder, and all kinds of evil, what can more
justly befall them than a violent upheaval which shall
root them out of the earth ? And one could but mock
and laugh, if it should happen, according to what
divine wisdom says : " Ye have set at nought all my
counsel, and would none of my reproof; therefore I
also will laugh at your calamity and I will mock when
your fear cometh." '

In the face of such utterances as these one cannot
attach much meaning or importance to other passages in
which Luther says that he by no means wished to proceed
to force ; that the Antichrist must be destroyed without
carnal warfare. ' God's Word did not cause violence,
but the stiff-necked disobedience which resisted that
word ; let this disobedience be punished as it deserves.'

In his descriptions of the bishops he says, amongst
other things : ' Who are they who live, shut up there,
like brute beasts ? Who are they whom no one dares
punish, no one dares restrain? Does nobody know
that bishoprics, abbeys, cloisters, universities are com-
fortable homes in which the goods of princes and of
people of all sorts are collected, while (sic) the so-called
owners possess in reality nothing ? They think them-
selves altogether the most precious jewels of Christen-
dom, but St. Peter calls them " spots and blemishes."
They heap curses and maledictions on the truth,
which they do not understand. They are altogether
debauched, bestial, sensual, animal creatures, who have

VOL. III. T

274 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

never had a taste of spiritual existence. Attacks
on them are not attacks on spiritual rulers. They
are not bishops ; they are ignorant mummies and
dummies, hypocrites and jackanapes . . . wolves,
tyrants, soul-destroyers, and apostles of Antichrist sent
to ruin the world.'

' Do you say to me : " These people are too great, too
hio'h, too learned that vou should attack them thus " ?
I answer : Christ, Peter, Paul, and the prophets have
declared that no greater calamity can liappen to the
earth than that of Antichrist and the last evil.'

' Do you suppose that such words as those come only
from goosequills and leaves of trees ? God's Word
speaks continually of great things, against great
people. . . But this is the conclusion of the matter.
What signifies it how great, how high, how numerous,
how learned they be, if it be manifest that they are
striving against God ? Is God not more and greater
than all things ? The Turk too is great and mighty,
but he is against God.' " Who is so bold," they say, " as
to dare to call the Pope and the l)isliops and all their
staff an accursed crew ? " I answer : Peter, vea, the
Holy Ghost through Peter calls them accursed. They
are bishops, but not Christians, only thieves, plunderers,
and adulterers ; yea, archthieves, archplunderers, and
archadulterers. Swine and cattle, sticks and stones are
not so senseless as we have become under the Pope.'
All this he is able ' to prove fairly and convincingly '
out of Holy Writ. The cloisters ' are far worse than
1^ common brothels, taverns, and murderers' caves.'

Luther appended to this pamphlet a 'Bull of
Eeformation,' in which he proclaimed : ' All who help
in the work, all who stake life, property, and honour

AGITATION IN ERFURT AND WITTENBERG 27-5

on having the bishops exterminated and their rule put
an end to, they are dear children of God and true
Christians ; they hold to God's commandment and
fight against the Devil's ordinances, or at any rate
condemn or io-nore them. On the other hand all
who acquiesce in the government of the bishops and
submit to them with willing obedience, they are the
Devil's own servants, and resist God's ordinances and
laws. Every single Christian must help with life and
purse, that so this tyranny may be put an end to, and
the}^ must do heartity and with goodwill all they can
to oppose them, as if it was the Devil himself they were
fighting.' At the end he says : ' This is my (Dr.
Luther's) Bull, which confers God's grace and reward
on all who uphold it and follow it. Amen.'

To Spalatin, who had remonstrated with him on the
violence of his language, Luther wrote on July 26,
1522, that it was with deliberate intention that he had
spoken thus violently against the bishops, and that he
would not spare them ; if they had to suffer from
insurrection and innovations, it would not be he who
would have brouoht about these calamities, but their
•own tyranny and the decrees of destiny.

For the fulfilment of this destiny Franz von
Sickingen, Luther's ' particular lord and patron,'
stood ready equipped on the ajDpearance of the
pamphlet, which was, as it were, the declaration of war
with which Franz heralded his campaign for the over-
throw of the imperial constitution and for ' opening a
way for the Gospel.'

X -z

276 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

CHAPTEE lY

FRANZ VON SICKINGEN's ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE
CONSTITUTION OF THE EMl'JRE

SiCKiNGEN had returned from the campaign against
France without military glory and without booty. He
now, in the summer of 1522, thought the time had
come to carry into execution the long-meditated plan
of ' reorganising the constitution of the Empire.' The
Emperor was absent in Spain, and the Imperial Council,
which was opened at Nuremberg in September 1521,,
under the presidency of its Lieutenant-General, Count
Palatine Frederic, was weak and little to be feared.
Sickingen had good reason to hope for support in his
undertaking among the nobility generally, for public
affairs in the Empire were growing year by year more
unfavourable for the lesser aristocracy of the country,,
whilst among the great nobles the discontent which had
long been brewing had risen to savage fury. Shut out
from all share in the affairs of the Empire, and deprived
of one of their essential political privileges — the right of
federation — the imperial nobility saw the existence
of their order threatened by the growing power of the
princes.^

They complained that the feudal oppression of the
princes was becoming intolerable ; fresh taxes were

' See our statements, vol. ii. p. 158.

ATTEMPT TO OVERTPIROW THE CONSTITUTION 277

continually imposed by them, and heavy grievances,
scarcity, injustice of all sorts went on increasing.
All attempts of the nobles to confer together over
their wrongs or to hold meetings were prevented
by threats or by violence, although in many parts
they had had leagues and associations for the last
two hundred years. On the other hand the electors,
princes, and other estates of the realm, constantly
organised themselves in special leagues — either secret
or public — which, although the name of Imperial
Majesty was always outwardly respected, undoubtedly
fostered opposition and resistance to the Emperor,
their liege lord, rather than obedience to him,
and were also certainly detrimental to the general
peace and welfare of the German nation. The nobility
further complained that the most intolerable grievance
they suffered from was the corrupt condition of the law
courts : the lesser tribunals of the territorial lords
no longer existed, so it would seem, for the purpose of
administering justice, but only in order to guard the
privileges of the ruling princes. Appeals against
unjust sentences dictated by party-spirit were stultified
in one territory by this or that nominal privilege or
* liberty,' in another by open force ; if any noble
wanted to bring any matter of dispute before the
Imperial Council, or before the Kammergericht, he
could scarcely find a single notary who dared to act
accordin.o- to his conscience. The hio-her courts were
merely instruments for the most offensive tyrann}^ of the
strong over the weak. Even the Imperial Council
in the execution of sentences stooped to all manner
of partiality in favour of those in power, so that
any advantage which the weaker side might have

278 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

with untold difficulty have gained was utterly useless.
And even supposing the intentions of the Council to be
good its executive powers were too slight to carry any-
thing through in opposition to a large and influential
majority. On this account the Imperial council was ill
adapted to the maintenance of general peace throughout
the Empire ; it seemed best, therefore, always to leave
the enforcement of any sentence entirely in the hands
of the successful litigant, with liberty to use the help
of an adequate armed force. All the Estates of the
Empire, the nobles complained, whether spiritual or
secular, were equally bent on their suppression ; and
they were, therefore, not going beyond their rights in re-
volting against this conspiracy and seeking to emancipate
themselves from servitude, and in banding together for
the recovery of their power and a reasonable footing in
the land. All other classes were orowin*? more and
more affluent ; the nobilitv alone were sinkino" lower
and lower in poverty and degradation.

The inferior nobility had, in fact, in many districts
lost the material basis of their political importance,
in consequence both of the excessive subdivision of
their hereditary possessions and of the luxurious extrava-
gance of their expenditure, whereby the value of their
landed property had become greatly reduced. Their
own luxury, ostentation, and dissipation were largely to
blame for the class degradation they complained of.

The many decayed and impoverished members of
the aristocracy looked with envy and ill-favour on the
wealthy cloisters and abbeys, and especially on the
princely affluence of the archbishoprics and cathedral
benefices. The efforts of so many of the spiritual lords
to increase continually the already enormous possessions

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 279

of the Church, and their ostentatious display of weahh
and superfluity, aggravated more and more the dis-
content of those even who, while lamenting the condition
of affairs in Church and State, did not wish to separate
from the Church and its teaching. Hence the scheme
for what Hutten and Sickingen deemed the urgently
needed restriction and partition of Church property
found hosts of advocates and supporters, and was
especially dear to those who considered it a lawful
privilege of the aristocratic class to plunder proprietors
as much as possible.

The institution of robber knights had reached
really alarming dimensions in many provinces of the
Empire, and, in spite of all regulations for public
peace, was considered an honourable calling. When
a Barefoot friar once said in a sermon that the
highway-robbers ought to be caught and severely
punished, and where necessary hanged on gallows in
their boots and spurs, many Franconian nobles who
were among the congregation were highly indignant
with the monk ; ' for they held,' says Zimmer's
chronicle, ' that they are entitled by a pretended
ancient privilege to commit robberies in the streets and
take what belongs to others without let or hindrance.'
One of those present, Schenk Ernst von Tautenberg,
' wanted to have the monk put to death.'

Even the near neighbourhood of Nuremberg itself,
the seat of the Imperial Council, was thrown into con-
sternation by Hans Thomas von Absberg, the leader
of a gang of robber knights. In company with
numerous associates he robbed and maltreated even
needy artisans. In June 1522, for instance, he cut off
the right hand of a coiner of Nuremberg, and it was in

280 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

vain that the poor man begged on bended knees that
his left hand might be cut off instead and the right
hand left him. On August 5 Hans Thomas and his
murderous crew overtook a furrier and a cutler of
Nuremberg in the neighbourhood of Baireuth, One of
the robbers asked if they had not got a ' dissack ' (a
short Bohemian sword without a hilt), for he wanted
to do a stroke of work ; he had done nothing for so long.
They hacked the furrier mercilessly with five successive
strokes, and then cut off his right hand. The cutler
too had his right hand cut off, and Hans Thomas sent
both the hands to the buro^omaster of Nuremberg with a
message that he had still a hilt to his sword, which
their victim would be made to bite, till his teeth fell
out of his mouth, and fire burst forth from his eyes.
He should deal in the same way with them all, he
told the furrier, and he might tell this to his burgo-
master.

Amonofst Absbero''s associates were Georo' von
Giech, Wolf Heinrich, and Hans Georg von Aufsess ;
and these robber knights actually found shelter in
many of the feudal castles of the Margrave Casimir von
Brandenburg.

Others who were scarcely less desperate than Von
Absberg were Mangott von Eberstein, lord of Branden-
stein, and the knight Von Eosenberg. Mangott's wife,
Margaret von Eosenberg, often gave travellers the follow-
ing advice at meals : ' If a tradesman does not keep his
word to you, chop off his hands and feet and leave him
by the wayside.' Sickingen also, for many years the
terror of peaceful citizens, M^hen in 1522 he was boasting
that he ' would dare to do what no Eoman emperor
had ever yet dared,' counted among his supporters

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 281

* men whose horses had been tramed to bite people's
knapsacks in the highways and streets.'

' I must get back to Sickingen as fast as possible,'
wrote the preacher Martin Butzer from Strasbnrg to
his friend Sapidus, ' for he wants to send me off again
on a mission of the highest importance. He made me
promise to go back to hiiu as soon as possible, as
he would probably want to send me to Saxony.'
Butzer was a former Dominican monk whom the
knight von Sickingen had often employed on ' evan-
gelical missions.' ' Pray to the Lord,' he went on in
the fashion which had come into vogue among preachers,
' that he would grant his protection to my knights,
Sickino-en and Hutten, who are inflamed with such zeal
for the Gospel that they would joyfully sacrifice in
its cause money and land and life. Their progress
hitherto has been so satisfactory that if the Lord does
not withdraw his favour from them we may well hope
that the tyranny of the mighty ones may be over-
thrown. Let him do what is well-pleasing in his eyes.
If I am not mistaken a great and universal up-
heaval is at hand, and prudent and careful people
will not long be left asking whether they wish for it
or not.'

Butzer was, in fact, sent to Saxonj^ and he wished
that he could have stayed longer at Wittenberg
in intercourse with Luther and Melanchthon. The
instructions he was to carry out on this mission ' for
the GospeL have not transpired, but the object aimed
at in this reorganisation of affairs for the benefit of
the Gospel is plainly indicated by Sickingen's own
utterances, as well as from those of his associates
Hartmut von Cronbero- and Ulrich von Hutten.

282 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Hartmut, who was an enthusiastic adherent of both
Sickingen and Luther, had ah^eady sent all sorts of
missives and admonitory letters to the Pope and the
Emperor, to the mendicant friars, to the confederates,
and, amongst others, also to the Frankfort pastor Peter
Meyer. He informed the latter that if he did not come
round to the ' Gospel ' it would be allowed to every-
body to treat him, both in word and deed, as a
rabid wolf, a spiritual thief and murderer. Of the
Emperor the knight required that he should with
the utmost courtesy represent to the Pope that he
was the Devil's vicegerent, yea, Antichrist himself.
And if the Pope, completely subject as he was to
the Devil, would not acknowledge this, the Emperor
had full right and liberty, in all innocence before God,
to proceed against his Holiness with all his might, as
against an apostate, a heretic, and an Antichrist. And
to this end the Emperor might use the possessions of
Antichrist, hitherto called ecclesiastical possessions, in
order that the kino-dom of Antichrist mio-ht be sub-
dued and destroyed by its own sword.

If the Emperor delayed, and postponed the enter-
prise, Sickingen would start it. As a German Ziska
he would punish the spiritual robbers with violence
and murder ; as a new Brutus he would put an
end to the tyranny of princes and bishops. Hutten
hoped that the German towns, in spite of all that
they had suffered from the robber knights, would
unite with the insurgent nobility, and fight with them
for German freedom and the Gospel. In his ' Be-
klagung der Freistadte deutscher Nation ' he appeals
thus to the free cities to make common cause with
the inferior nobility : —

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 283

Ye pious towns, your succour lend
The lesser nobles' case to mend ;
Attach them to yourselves in trust ;
Should you desert us, die I must.

You see we're trodden down, like you,
And crushed by haiighty t^'rants, who
Oppress all other classes and
Themselves alone exalted stand.

Good Dr. Luther's lore they dare
Forbid, as though it poison were.
And why ? Because the holy truth
Agrees not with their ways, forsooth !

Then, pious towns, for war equip,
Secure the nobles' firm friendship.
And help the Allemanic nation -
To save itself from degradation.

' If once the Word of God obtained dominion,' he said,
' the might of the princes would soon decay.'

Against none of the German princes did Sickingen
cherish greater hatred than against Eichard von
Greiffenklau zu VoUraths, Archbishop of Treves, who
at the Diet of Augsburg in 1518, whilst Sickingen was
carrying on his raid against the Landgrave Philip of
Hesse, and threatening Frankfort, had drawn emphati-
cally attention to the danger from this freebooting
knight. Sickingen, he said, was going rather too far in
attacking first the towns and then the princes, one after
the other. It was for the. great lords, electors, and
princes to consider what was likely to be the end of all
this. The Archbishop on this occasion recommended
severe measures against Sickingen, for which the latter
never forgave him. Eichard was, moreover, one of
Luther's most powerful opponents, and a rumour had
been set about during the meeting of the Worms Diet
that the troops mustered by Sickingen were intended
for an attack on the archbishopric of Treves.

284 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Even before his return from the French campaign
Sickingen had raised troops of Landshiechts against
the Archbishop. At a large gathering of free
Ehenish knights summoned by him at Landau, a
* Fraternal League' was organised on August 13, with
Sickingen at its head, for the protection of the nobility ;
and with the help of this league he made ready for
the onslaught. In order to win as many recruits as
possible to his cause, he pretended that he was levying
troops for the service of the Emperor. He did not
scruple to display the banner of the Empire, and the
Burgundian cross, in his ranks. From fear of these
robber knights, who had for so many years levied
contributions on the town of Worms without being
punished, the town council of Strasburg made over to
them a considerable sum of money, and before long
some five thousand cavalry and ten thousand infantry
were in the pay of the town.

In order ' to open to the Word of God the door
which the Archbishop of Treves had done all in his
power to close as firmly as possible ' this army was to
invade the Archbishop's territory. Among the chief
ofiicers of the forces were the Counts Eitelfritz von
Zollern, Wilhelm and Friedrich von Fiirstenberg,
Wilhelm von Laufen, the knights Ulrich von Hutten,
Hans Thomas von Rosenberg, Ludwig von Spilt, and
Johann Hilchen von Lorch. At the end of August
Sickingen mustered his troops in the neighl^ourhood of
Strasburg, and had the text, ' Lord, thy will be done,'
fastened as a badge on the sleeves of the soldiers'
uniforms. In a manifesto drawn up by the runaway
monk Heinrich Kettenbach the Landsknechts were
addressed as knights of Christ, armed against the

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 285

enemies of the Gospel, the bishops and priests ; and the
motto, ' All victory is from God,' which the Turks also
wore on their sleeves, was illustrated by examples from
the Bible. They were fighting with God, the summons
declared ; Sickingen was free from all motives of self-
interest ; he had no wish to enrich himself with land,
or men, or money ; on the contrary he was ready to
sacrifice all he possessed, in order to fight for the glory
of Christ against popes and bishops, those foes and
destroyers of evangelical truth. The army was accom-
panied by fanatical preachers.

Thus for the first time on German soil a war of
religion was declared ; religion was used as a cloak for
political and ecclesiastical plunder.

On the most empty pretexts Sickingen, on August
27, 1522, issued a declaration of war against the Arch-
bishop, who ' had acted in opposition to God and the
Imperial Majesty,' and a few days later he made a
sudden raid into the archiepiscopal see, while waiting
for reinforcements. He hoped by rapid action to
seize the chief town of the diocese before the Arch-
bishop could receive assistance from the princes in
leacfue with him — the Landojrave of Hesse and the
Count Palatine Louis. After the capture of Treves
he intended at once to march against Hesse. 'We
are informed,' wrote the Landgrave Philip on Sep-
tember 2 to Count Michael von Wertheim, ' that
Sickingen, when he has executed his designs against
Treves, means at once to fall upon us.'

Sickingen's certainty of victory was so great that
after the capture of the small fortified town of St.
Wendel he revealed his plans openly to the nobles who
had been taken prisoners : he told them that he con-

286 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

templated becoming ' Elector of Treves, and even more
than this.' ' You are prisoners,' he said to these nobles.
' Your horses and your arms have been taken from you.
But you have an Elector who can and will pay }'ou well
if he is able to hold out. But if Franz becomes
Elector of Treves — and it is quite likely that he will
succeed not only in this his least aim, but in much
more also — he will indeed give you cause to rejoice, 0
captives.' It was not without reason and truth, there-
fore, that it was said of Sickingen that he had designated
himself as the future King of the Ehineland and Duke of
Franconia. In the lordship of Schaumburg he had
received consecration in the name of the Emperor, and
had then continued his march, setting fire to many
places on the way, and appearing before Treves on
September 8. In letters which he shot into the town
he required the citizens to surrender, assuring them
that he would protect their lives and property, and
that he only claimed the possessions of the Archbishop,
the priests, and the monks.

' Sickingen is encamped before Tre\'es,' wrote the
canonicus Carl von Bodmann, ' and there's a tremendous
game at stake. He has numbers of friends in all parts,
who wish to see the spiritual princes hnmbled and
driven out, who are lusting after Church property, and
who themselves, although they are laymen, exercise
spiritual authority, and think that the parochial clergy
and other ecclesiastical officers ought to be sub-
ject to them. If Sickingen's game succeeds we
shall live to see a complete change in tlie Church
system in many provinces of the Empire. The lower
orders, everywhere incited to rebellion, hope to gain by
this revolution and to shake off the oppression of the

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 287

ecclesiastical and secular lords. Sickino-en's friends
are stirring up the populace under the watchword of
evangelical freedom, and preaching blood and de-
struction.'

' If Sickingen does not succeed in his enterprise
against the Archbishop of Treves,' wrote the Bavarian
chancellor, Leonhard von Eck, to his sovereign lord,
Duke William, ' he will be a ruined man, and he will
then lose his " faith " also. He knows that wherever
he goes a hue and cry will be raised, that he will be
pursued by the ban or beset by the Ehenish princes,
and that there will be nothino' left him but flio-ht. To
ward off such shame and disaster he will consider
neither God, nor man, nor honour, but, on the
contrary, w^ill manoeuvre in every possible way to
raise the masses, as has hitherto been apprehended, from
the news that comes daily to hand with threatenings of a
Bundschuh.' The book of dialogues ' Neukarsthaus,'
published by Sickingen's circle, had presupposed an
alliance of the knights with the people. ' If a Bund-
schuh should be organised,' continues Eck, ' and the
common people should get the upper hand, the
Ehenish princes will have to pay for the breakfast,
your Princely Highness and the otlier princes for the
dinner, and the lesser nobles for the sleeping-cup.
But perhaps it will be the will of God that the princes
and the great " heads " should be punished ; and it is truly
an extraordinary thing that an invasion of an electorate
should have been allowed and connived at by princes
and other belligerents.'

Among the princes who not only tolerated but
actually encouraged Sickingens' deeds of violence, Albert
of Brandenburg, Archbishop of Mayence, was foremost.

288 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

It was cast in his teetli, indeed, that in the event of
the success of Sickingen's undertaking against Treves he
(Albert) intended to carry out his long-cherished plan
of transforming the archbishopric of Mayence into a
secular principality. It is, at any rate, an established
fact, that he refused the Archbishop of Treves the help
he asked of him against Sickingen ; that when the
Eeichsregiment required him to arm against this
violator of the peace he sent an evasive answer, and
allowed Sickingen's troops, on their march to Treves,
to cross the river in the Eheingau unhindered.
Albert's highest official dignitaries and councillors,
the Hofmeister Frowin von Hutten and the Marshal
Caspar Lercli von Dirm stein, were in league with
Sickingen, and instructed the Archbishop's general,
Nickel von Minckwitz, to lead his troops by Cologne to
join Sickingen.

As the Bavarian chancellor, Eck, had spoken un-
favourably of Sickingen's undertaking against the
princes, so now he made disparaging remarks on the
Eeichsregiment. ' It is very sick and feeble,' he said,
' and lies at its last gasp.'

The Council of Eegency at least, as early as
September 1, had summoned several of the Ehenish
princes and towns to arm against Sickingen, who was
stirring up ' tumult, war, and sedition in the Empire.'
If serious steps were not taken to check his proceed-
ings, it was greatly to be feared, the Council had
declared, that his undertaking would not only do
damage to the Archbishop of Treves, but grow in a
short time to such dimensions that irreparable in-
jury would accrue to the Estates of the realm, and
to the whole commonwealth. On September 9, the day

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 289

after the commencement of the siege of Treves, an envoy
from the Eeichsregiment appeared in Sickingen's camp,
and handed to him an injunction to abstain from his
enterprise on penalty of the imperial ban and a tine of
2,000 silver marks. Nevertheless ' the highest authority
of the realm was treated very improperly.' ' See here
the Councirs old fiddlers,' said Sickingen to the by-
standers on receipt of the mandate, ' but the dancers
are wanting ; there's no lack of ordinances, but where
are those that obey?' To the envoy of the Council
himself Sickingen answered scoffingiy in his own and
his chief officers' names : ' He was to tell the Imperial
Viceroy, and the other lords of the Council, that
they need not disturb themselves, for he was a servant
of the Emperor just as much as they were ; he
had no intention of proceeding against His Majesty,
but only against the Archbishop of Treves, and he
knew for certain that the Emperor would not be
angry if he punished this priest a little, and took
some of the sweetness out of those crowns which
he had received from France for use against the
Emperor.'

It was his intention to institute a better system
of law than the Imperial Council had yet established,
and to accomplish more than this august body
had done. The Kami)iergericJit at Nuremberg, to
which the Council of Eegency had referred him, was
nothing to him ; he had a council of wagons which
settled matters with rifles and cartridges. With regard
to his desire to secularise the spiritual principalities of
Germany, he declared to the envoy that if he could get
a following he would so manage that when Charles
returned to the Empire he would find more land and

VOL. III. u

290 HISTORY OF lllE GERMAN PEOPLE

money there than he was seeking for elsewhere. He,
Sickingen, wished to secure for himself a peaceful life as
Archbishop of Treves, and he had no objection what-
ever to Archbishop Eichard becoming a trooper. To
compass this end he had entrenched himself before
Treves. Another defiant speech of Sickingen's is
reported as follows : ' He had begun this business for
himself, and would carry it through in spite of the
Emperor.'

' If I am not mistaken,' Spalatin wrote concerning
Sickingen, ' this instigator of civil war means to be
another Julius Caesar.'

Nevertheless the high-flying schemes of the knight
were brouofht to nothins; before Treves.

The Archbishop, ' a manly and courageous lord, and
<a skilful warrior,' defeated the whole enterprise by
his resolute spirit and cool discretion. In spite of
all the assaults of the besieging army the whole body
of citizens stood loyally and devotedly by their liege
lord. The town of Metz had sent powder and am-
munition to the Archbishop ; Cologne had also furnished
him with powder ; federated troops from Hesse and
the Palatinate came to his assistance. Sickingen, on
the contrary, did not receive the reinforcements he
had been expecting ; after five fruitless attempts at
storming the city he was disabled by scarcity of
powder ; and in the districts ravaged by his robber
bands the peasants had become exasperated. There-
fore on September 14 Sickingen raised the siege and
w^ithdrew his forces, burning and plundering as he
went. Churches, cloisters, whole villages, were ravaged
and set on fire ; ' the poor people with their little
children were driven out of house and home,' says

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 291

an old clironicle, ' and treated in such a manner that
the stones of the earth might have cried out in pity.'
Laden with booty, Sickingen went back to his castles.
According to the Archbishop's calculation, the damage
done in his diocese amounted to the value of 300,000
o-old o-ulden. The peaceful and defenceless inhabitants
of the archbishopric had been the first to experience in
Germany what was meant by a war undertaken in the
name of religion, what it was ' to open up a way for the

Gospel.'

Sickingen had succumbed to necessity, but his
arrooance, and his confidence in the fortunate issue of
his cause against the spiritual wolves and the tyranny
of the princes in general remained undisturbed and
undiminished. Hopes were still entertained that not
only the whole of the nobility, but also all the towns
in his neighbourhood, would attach themselves to him.
*You have never had better reason than now for
oivino' your support to the nobles.' So Heinrich
Kettenbach, author of Sickingen"s war challenge
against Treves, exhorted the free cities. 'If you
array yourselves against the nobles you will injure not
them only, but also the Gospel of Christ.' On October
10, 1522, Sickingen, with his friends and associates,
was laid under the ban of the Empire, as a pubUc
violator of the Landfried. With supreme indifference
to the edict, however, the irrepressible knight, at the end
of the same month, burst into the Palatinate and
plundered and devastated the town of Kaiserslautern, at
the very time that the Bishop of Spires, brother of the
Count Palatine Louis, was endeavouring to bring about
an amicable settlement between the knight and the

r 2

292 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

confederate princes of Treves, Hesse, and the Palati-
nate. Sickingen sought and found accompUces in the
Palatinate, in Suabia, and even in Bohemia, where
Hartmut von Cronberg, whose property the allied
princes had plundered, and the doctor of law, Knipfht
Johann von Fuchstein, were active in his cause. This
Fuchstein, who had filled the office of chancellor at
the court of Count Palatine Frederick, ' was very skil-
ful, but withal of a somewhat perverted mind,' says
a trustworthy contemporary. ' With him right and
justice were to be bought for money, and wherever he
saw a chance of o;ain he could twist thini^s as he
pleased. Furthermore he had a bad reputation for infi-
delity in marriage and for fornication, but was none the
less in favour with the princes, because he was so skilful
with his tongue in justifying and exculpating crimes,
so that many were deceived by him and held him for
an honourable man, which, however, he was not.' He
had been appointed assessor to the Eeichsregiment by its
president, Frederic, and being a follower of the Lutheran
teaching he had worked with all his might for Sickingen
in the Council. Letters in his handwriting were found
addressed to Sickingen, to the effect that ' he was to be
good cheer,' for the whole of the Eeichsregiment was
well affected towards him, and the time was now at
hand when, by means of his enterprise, the haughtiness
of the princes might be brought low, and the German
nobility be freed from their unendurable yoke, and
even grow up to the height of those who had domi-
neered over them. Having been forced to fly from the
country on account of his treachery, he wrote from
Prague on January 1, 1523, after having received
promises of help from the Bohemians, that it was the

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 293

wish of his heart to live and die with him to whom the
tyramiy of the nobles and their pomp and ostenta-
tion were obnoxious.

In Alsace, in the Sundgau, and in the Breisgau, the
Counts von Flirstenberg and von ZoUern levied troops
for Sickinoen ; Bavaria also contributed recruits to the
cause ; and Sickingen even applied to the King of
France for help in men and money.

While everybody was in terror as to coming events,
Luther published on January 1, 1523, a pamphlet en-
titled ' On Secular Authority, and how far Obedience
is due to it. These pages bristled with the most
savage invectives against the princes who were inimical
to his gospel, and who had forbidden the sale of his
books and translations. ' God Almighty,' he said, ' has
struck our princes with madness, so that they imagine
they may treat and command their subjects just as they
please ; and the subjects too are crazy enough to think
that it is their duty to obey all that is commanded
them.' The princes had taken upon themselves to for-
bid the people certain books, to tyrannise over their
consciences and their faith, and to tutor the Holy Ghost
accordino^ to their maniacal notions. ' And inasmuch as
the raging of such fools,' he goes on, ' tends to the ruin
of the Christian faith, to denial of God's Word, and to
blasphemy of the divine majesty, I can and will no
longer wink at your proceedings, my ungracious lords
and angry gentlemen, but must at' least wage war on
you with words. And if I have not been afraid of your
idol, the Pope, who threatens to rob me of my soul and
of heaven, I must let it be seen that neither do I fear
his " shadows and water-bubbles," which threaten to
take from me my body and the earth under my feet.'

294: HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

' God grant that they may rage till the grey coats dis-
appear ! ' 'In Meissen, in Bavaria, in the Mark, and in
other places, the tyrants have issued an order that all
copies of the New Testament are to be delivered up
to the magistrates. Here then I declare that these
subjects are not to deliver up one leaf, one letter, on
pain of forfeiting their salvation ; that whoever sur-
renders them, delivers over Christ into the hands of
Herod ; for they are acting, like Herod, as murderers
of Christ;

' It is God Himself who has decreed that the princes
should act so preposterously, should be puffed up so
egregiously. God has given them over to a reprobate
mind, and will make an end of them, and also of the
ecclesiastical nobles.' ' The secular lords may rule their
lands and people in externals ; that may be left as it is.
They can do no more than oppress and injure, heap
tax on tax, exaction on exaction ; let loose here a
bear and there a wolf, do violence to all law, truth, and
fidelity, and so act that robbers and scoundrels grow all
too many, and their secular rule becomes as deeply de-
graded as the rule of the spiritual tyrants. And then
God perverts their mind, so that they want to be
spiritual sovereigns over souls also, just as those others
want to have temporal sovereignty, and thus they gaily
burden themselves with foreign sins and the hatred of
God and man, till they all make shipwreck with bishops,
priests, and monks, one scoundrel with another ; and
then they lay the blame of it all on the Gospel, and in-
stead of making confession they blaspheme God, and
say it is our preaching which has done it all. But it is
only the just punishment that their wickedness has
deserved.'

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 295

' Behold,' he exclaims to his readers, ' there you
have the counsel of God concerning the great ones of
the earth. But they will not be suffered to believe it,
lest such a severe judgment of God should be hindered
by their repentance.'

' From the beginning of the world,' he says further
on, ' a clevpr prince has been a very rare bird, and a
pious prince a still rarer one. They are generally the
biggest fools or the worst scoundrels on earth, so that
one must always expect the worst from them, and look for
little good, especially in divine matters, which concern
the salvation of the soul. For they are God's gaolers
and hangmen, and his divine wrath makes use of them
to punish the wicked and to preserve external peace. He
is a great Lord, is our God ; therefore he must have such
noble, high-born, and rich hangmen and gaolers. But
I would like in all sincerity to advise these blind-eyed
people to consider a short sentence which occurs in the
hundred and seventh psalm : " God has poured out
contempt upon princes.'" I swear to you by God, if
you do not take heed, that this little verse will be ful-
filled in you, so that you will be utterly lost, were you,
each one of you, as mighty as the Turks, and all your
snorting and fuming will not help you. Already it has
in great measure come about. For there are very few
princes who are not looked upon as fools or rascals.
For, indeed, they prove themselves to be such, and the
poor man is growing wise, and the plague of the princes
is becoming intolerable among the common people, and
I fear the princes will not be able to defend themselves,
unless they behave themselves in a princely manner,
and begin again to rule soberly and with reason. The
people will not, they cannot, any longer endure your

296 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

tyranny and your presumption. Dear Princes and
Lords, be advised, and change your ways. God will
not suffer it any longer. The world's no longer what it
used to be, when you drove the people before you like
the wind.'

Melanchthon contradicted most emphatically the
report that Luther was in league with Sickingen ; the
latter, he said, on the contrary, loaded Luther's cause
with infamy, and Luther grieved deeply over Sickingen's
insurrection. Luther's pamphlet, however, could not
but strengthen the Catholics in their belief that he was
allied with the revolutionary knight.

When Duke George of Saxony complained to the
Elector Frederic, on March 21, 1523, of this ' scan-
dalously seditious ' pamphlet, and urged that Luther
should be punished, the Elector answered that ' he had,
as was generally known, never taken up this business
of Luther's, and he could not concern himself with this
pamphlet, that George indeed could not expect this
of him.' The Council of Eegency also, to which
George appealed, answered that it did not know what
to advise this time, and cautioned the Duke to abstain
from further strife with Luther.

' It was, therefore, no wonder,' wrote Carl von
Bodmann, ' that it was supposed in Germany that all
manner of abuse of spiritual and secular authorities
was allowed, and that the princes had no longer any
power to ward off the fall with which they were
threatened by the common people.'

The Bavarian chancellor, Leonhard von Eck, in a
letter of March 20, 1523, to his sovereign lord, Duke
Wilhelm, spoke in warning tones of the manner in
which Luther incited the people against the princes

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 297

' Doctor Luther,' he said, ' has written a German book
and had it printed, to show the sort of way in which
vassals should be subject to their rulers, in which book
he calls secular princes fools, villains, and heretics, and
abuses them to the utmost. He denounces them as
tyrants, especially in Meissen, in Bavaria, and in the
Mark ; and goes so far as to say that they oppress and
fleece the people by taxes, duties, &c. Luther is en-
deavouring to stir up the subjects against their rulers.
Therefore, if ever there has been need of princes and
their supervision, it is now, and it will never do to laugh
at matters and ' sail with half a wind.' ' Will your
Princely Highness,' he repeats eight days later, ' think
about action, now that every place is in rebellion ? A
pamphlet has been distributed among the people in
which, as I am told, they are exhorted, for mam-
reasons, to throw off the servitude under which thev
have so long been ground down by the tyranny of
kings, princes, and lords. They are told that in so
acting they will be doing a good work. All this comes
from that wicked man Luther, and from Franz von
Sickingen, and if ever there was a powerful Bundschuh
and insurrection against the princes it is now.'

There was special fear abroad that Sickingen had
allied himself to Duke Ulrich of Wiirttemberg, who had
been expelled from his country by the Suabian league,
and for many years past had made common cause with
the people, and was endeavouring with their help to
recover his duchy. Ulrich had entrenched himself in
his strong fortress of Hohentwiel, in the Hegau, and
worked assiduously to gain the good-will of the common
people of the Hegau and the Thurgau. Already at the
end of the year 1522 they had instituted a banner of

298 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

their own, made of white damask, with a nimljus and
a Biindschuli painted on it, and ronnd it the inscription,
'• Whoever will be free let him come up here into this
sunshine.' Thus, as it was put to the inhabitants of the
Wlirtemberg Black Forest, by the Austrian Govern-
ment of Stuttgardt, under whose rule Wlirtemberg
then was, under the ' sweet semblance of libertv ' Ulrich
tried to tempt back the simple uneducated people to the
heavy yoke of the old servitude. Any intelligent person,
indeed, could see that the object of Ulrich's parti^^ans
was not and could not be to maintain freedom, but to
get as much plunder and gain as possible for them-
selves, and even to take away such freedom as an}-
individuals already possessed, and to reduce the people
to greater bondage than before. The poor people,
so the Austrian government at Stuttgart reported to
the Archduke Ferdinand, were everywhere longing to
become free, to pay no more taxes, and to share the
property of the w^ealthy classes ; the Archduke was
therefore advised to despatch mounted troops to tlie
district, so that they might be beforehand with the
populace in case of an insurrection. Against Sickingen
also complaints were lodged with the Eeichsregi-
ment by the federated Princes of Treves, Hesse, and
the Palatinate, to the effect that he was constantly
plotting and mancBuvring with his adherents to
incite the common people to rebellion against all
authority and respectability, and to attach them to
himself.

By the end of September 1522 these three princes
had pledged themselves to unite in forcible measures
against Sickingen, in order ' to get rid of this noxious
root,' so that peace and concord and securit}- to

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHIIOAV THE CONSTITUTION 299

trade might be re-established in the Empire. Duke
George of Saxony had long insisted that the nests
must be destroyed. Even should the whole Empire
be engaged for a year, or even for two years, in
the sieae of one of those houses, it would be better
than constant liability to such turbulent commotion ;
it would also cost less, serve the cause of freedom
better, and be quite as meritorious a work as the ex-
pulsion of the Turks from Jerusalem. The Margrave
Joachim von Brandenburg also demanded that Sickin-
gen's proceedings should be put a stop to. ' This
man,' he said, ' was like the Turk in the Empire,
falling foul of one prince to-day, of another to-
morrow.'

As the three confederate princes could get no help
from the powerless Eeichsregiment, in spite of the
imperial ban hanging over Sickingen, they came to an
understanding with the Suabian League, which was to
undertake an expedition against the Franconian robber
knights. The imperial vicegerent, Archduke Ferdi-
nand, and the Estates, assembled at a Diet at Nurem-
berg, tried in vain to arrange a compromise. Sickingen
would hear of no surrender. To the peace commis-
sioners who were sent to him he declared that he was ^
a chosen instrument of God for the punishment of the
clergy ; that he was expecting strong military rein-
forcements from Germany and France, and that he had
resolved to carry out the work to which God had called
him.

But he greatly over-estimated his capacity of resis-
tance to the princes. Luther had early predicted a
disastrous issue to the undertaking.

When the decisive moment arrived Sickino-en's

300 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

confederates were not to tlie fore, and his expectation of
a simultaneous rising of the nobihty in the Palatinate,
in Hesse, and in Treves was disappointed. The allied
princes conducted their plan with the utmost circum-
spection, and in April 1523 they marched upon
Sickingen's stronghold of Landstuhl to ' snare the bird
in its nest,' for there the robber knio-ht was himself
entrenched, whilst his son Schweikard was negotia-
ting with Count Eitelfritz of Zollern for the des-
patch of an army of relief. On April 29 the siege
of the citadel began in real earnest. On the third
day Sickingen was mortally wounded by a blow
from a falling beam, which tore open his whole side,
' leaving his lungs and his liver naked to the sight.'
The garrison capitulated on May 6, while Sickingen
lay dying in a dark vault in the rock. ' Wliere now
are my friends and brother knights,' he lamented, ' von
Arnberg, von Flirstenberg, von Zollern, the men of
Switzerland and of Strasburg, and all of the " Brother-
hood " who promised me so much and have performed
so little ? Let none, therefore, put their trust in men or
in riches.' Whom he meant by ' all of the Brotherhood '
is not known.

On May 7 the princes made their entry into the
citadel, and went to see Sickingen in his dungeon. When
the Archbishop of Treves said to him : ' Franz, what
possessed you thus to invade my territory and injure
my poor people ? ' the dying man answered : ' There's
much to be said on that score, and nothing without
reason.' When the princes had left him Sickingen
made confession to his chaplain, and died while
receiving the sacrament. 'After he was dead,'
Spalatin relates, ' some peasants and the Landgrave's

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 301

servants squeezed his body into an old armour-chest, so
that his head and knees were bent together, dragged
him down the mountain with a cord, and buried him in
a httle chapel of Landstuhl.' ' So ended the man,'
says Spalatin, ' who but a short time before had been
the terror of the whole Eoman Empire.' ' If God had
not called him away,' says an old Basle chronicle,
' Sickingen would have brousfht oreater disasters on
the princes than Ziska once upon a time caused in the
kingdom of Bohemia.' ' God is a just Judge, but at the
same time an astounding one,' wrote Luther in heavi-
ness of heart, on hearing the news of the knight's
death. The Elector Frederic of Saxony said in a
letter to Spalatin : ' That Sickingen, to whom may
God be gracious, should have paid thus with his life
and goods is truly, to human thinking, marvellous to
hear.'

After the downfall of Sickingen the Catholics,
according to Spalatin's account, exclaimed : ' The
would-be Emperor is dead ; soon too an end will come
to the would-be Pope ' — meaning Luther, who was only
longing for that time to come. Anyhow the adherents
of the new religious opinions were most profoundly
distressed and alarmed bv the loss of one of their first
and mightiest protectors. ' I cannot tell you,' wrote
Martin Butzer to Zwingli on June 9, 1523, 'how
greatly the fall of this one man has caused the popish
monsters to lift up their horns. For right well did
Antichrist know that he must fall to the ground if
by the exertions of Sickingen the Gospel should once
again be preached in its freedom and purity ; and there-
fore he left no stone unturned to ruin this man.'
' We had set great hopes on Sickingen, but now his

302 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

whole work is tottering and crumbling to pieces,' Otto
Brunfels laments in a letter to Zwingli, ' and not only
liis work but that of all the supporters of the Gospel.
Our Hutten is in evil plight, and all the rest of us
everywhere humbled to the dust. We are derided in
all lands, and I know not what misfortunes are in store
for us.' ' Not one of the princes or the Pharisees,' he
says elsewhere, ' believes in the Gospel.' Hutten scented
a regular conspiracy of the princes against the new
teaching : everywhere, he believed, the party hostile
to the Gospel was conquering and prevailing.

Hutten, fearing well-merited punishment from the
princes for his revolutionary proceedings, had speedily
left Landstuhl, and towards the end of 1522 he came
destitute and racked with physical pains as a fugi-
tive, to Basle, where he had friends, and where he
counted especially on the assistance of Erasmus,
his former teacher and leader, who was then making
a stay at Basle. Friendship with the sons of
misfortune, however, did not enter into Erasmus's
scheme of life, and friendship with Hutten would,
moreover, have brought him into discredit with his
highest patrons, and would have caused, he feared,
too great a strain on his purse. It was the delight
of Erasmus to play in his writings the part of a
Christian monitor. Not to the monks only, but to all
who bore the name of Christians, he preached that
exclusive possessions were forbidden ; that among
Christians love made all things common property, and
that whosoever did not support a needy brother
according to his power, must be looked upon as if he
was retaining stolen goods in his possession. But
Hutten in his adversity did not find that Erasmus

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 303

carried liis preaching into practice : the pretended
Christian sociaHst repulsed the sick and downfallen
knij^ht coldly and unsympathisingiy, and sent him
word that he did not wish to be embarrassed and
compromised by visits from him. To a friend Erasmus
wrote that he meant well by him in so far as Hutten
meant well by himself, but that he had other business
to attend to.

Deeply hurt by this treatment, Hutten branded
Erasmus as an apostate from the Gospel, and vented
all his wrath and indignation against him in a
calumnious pamphlet. ' What can be the cause of
such backsliding ? ' he asks. ' Jealousy of Luther's
fame? Abject fear of the opposite party ? Bribery?
Or could it be that Erasmus had changed his views ? '
' The banding together of so many princes against the
Gospel left him doubtful of the result, and so he found
it politic to break away from the cause and to make
sure at any rate of the favour of the princes.' ' Eras-
mus intended to bind the princes to himself by some
service, and was therefore going to write against the
Lutherans. ' 0 unworthy spectacle ! ' exclaims Hutten
in his pamphlet. ' Erasmus has given himself up to
the Pope. He has received from him a commission
to see that no injury is done to the prestige of
the Apostolic Chair. And he has already commenced
hostilities, has already inflicted a wound. Oh, what
tergiversation ! ' ' Formerly,' Hutten goes on, ' Erasmus
had worked towards the same end as himself and
Luther, and if the greater part of his writings was
not destroved, all readers who looked at the substance
and not merely at the words would see that he be-

304 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

longed then to the very party which he was now
striving to demoUsh.'

Erasmus wrote a reply to which he gave the title of
' A Sponge to wipe off Hutten's Aspersions.' He at-
tacked Hutten's character and conduct mercilessly, and
did not even refrain from railing at his misfortunes.
With perfect justice he represented Hutten as a stand-
ing warning to the young ; but it was a revelation of
Erasmus's own character that he should have been
capable of writing as he did, after the man's death, of
one with whom for lono^ vears he had stood on the most
friendly relations, whom he had praised and encouraged.
' Many men,' he said, ' start with looking complacently
on their own vices, think carousing and fornication
becoming to their youth, hold it a grand and spirited
thing to gamble and squander their money. Mean-
while their fortunes diminish, their debts increase, their
reputation suffers, the favour of the princes, on whose
o-ood graces they lived, forsakes them. Necessity then
soon leads to robbery, which at first is practised under
the name of war ; but when this pretext is worn out,
like the leaking sieve of the Danaids, recourse is had
to mean stratagems, and wherever there is a chance
of snapping up booty no distinction is made betwixt
friends and foes, till at last passion, like a horse
that has thrown its rider, rushes suddenly to ruin.'
In his ' Sponge ' he classed Hutten among the men who.
under the cloak of the Gospel, think themselves justified
in living entirely on plunder and rapine, who have no
scruples about robbing travellers on the public highways,
and who, when they have squandered their moneyin wine,
rioting, and gambling, think it an honoura1)le proceed-

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 305

ing to declare a feud against anybody from whom any-
thing is to be chained.

In this pamphlet against Hutten, Erasmus, as usual,
gave equivocating explanations of his own attitude
towards the Church and towards the Lutheran party, and
he made at the same time some remarkable suggestions
as to how the cause of the Gospel might be furthered
without tumult. He himself, he said, belonged to no
party ; he valued his independence too greatly. The
Lutheran proceedings had been started without his
advice, and Luther's obstinate spirit had displeased him
from the first. Hutten, however, had no warrant for
accusing him of having declared himself devoted to
the Pontificate. At the same time he should never
break with the Eoman See unless Eome should break
with Christ. The Church in its fight against the neM^
teaching appeared to this 'oracle of learning' only
as one party against another ; both parties must learn
to come to a mutual understanding, and this ought
to be all the easier as they were at one as regards
all the chief articles of Christian faith and conduct,
and the quarrel was to a great extent concerned
merely with paradoxes that were either incomprehen-
sible or unimportant. Dropping their private ani-
mosities and prejudices, the spiritual and secular
potentates should be willing to receive instruction from
the mouths of the poor and simple ; the men of learning,
abandoning strife and slandering, should confer to-
gether concerning the healing of the soul and the
welfare of Christianity, and the results of such con-
ferences should be communicated to the Pope and the
Emperor privately. With unobtrusive measures of this

VOL. ni. X

306 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

sort Erasmus contemplated healing the sickness of the

times.

Melanchthon apprehended evil consequences from
Hutten's attack on Erasmus. ' Hutten,' he writes,
' endangers us with his raging. He brings down on us
the hatred of all w^ell-disposed persons ! It appears
that Erasmus is more incensed with us even than with
Hutten.' And again : ' We are complete strangers to
the intentions of Hutten.'

' Erasmus has shamefully deserted the cause of the
Gospel,' said Hutten in a letter to Eobanus Hessus on
July 21, 1523, ' but he repents him of the bad exchange
he has made. Flight has led me among the Swiss,
and I anticipate a still more distant banishment ; for
Germany in its present condition will not tolerate me ;
but I hope shortly to see this state of things happily
changed by the expulsion of the tyrants.' He sent
Eobanus a pamphlet ' Against the Tyrants ' — i.e. the
princes whom Sickingen had plundered of their posses-
sions— and begged him earnestly to get it printed in
Erfurt. ' The job,' he says, ' can be managed quietly
and secretly, and nowhere better than in a town where
no one suspects anything of the kind, especially now
that I am so far away. Again I entreat you, waste
no time in this matter, which is most important for
us.'

But Hutten had miscalculated. His former con-
federate Eobanus was no longer willin<x to forward the
printing of a pamphlet of that sort. Now, as before,
indeed, he inveighed against the Pope as a wolf wearing
the mask of innocence, and against his subordinates as
the authors of all that was execrable, but he was no
longer an apostle of deliverance from the princes. In

ATTEMPT TO OVERTHROW THE CONSTITUTION 307

consequence of the disrepute into which university
studies had fallen at Erfurt, through the haranguing of
the preachers and their followers, Eobanus had been
nearly reduced to starvation, and he was now courting
the favour of the Landgrave Philip of Hesse, in order to
obtain a post in Marburg. He stigmatised Sickingen
and his associates as robbers, and expressed his delight
at their punishment to the Landgrave's chancellor.
Thus Hutten could not expect help from Eobanus in
the circulation of his pamphlet ' Against the Tyrants,'
and eventually the manuscript was lost.

Hutten had been compelled to leave Basle, because
he had plotted to bring about the downfall of the
Church system there. For a similar reason he had to
fly from Mulhausen. At last he found shelter at
Zurich with Ulrich Zwingli. At the end of August
1523, he died on the island of Ufnau, on the Lake of
Zurich, in the thirty-sixth year of iiis age. Zwingli
tells us that he left nothing of any value behind him.
He had no books, and nothing in the way of household
furniture but a pen.

With Sickingen and Hutten the revolutionary
knights lost their heads and leaders ; and in a short
time nothing more was heard of their plans for
upsetting the constitution of the Empire.

Sickingen's castles were all seized by the allied
princes, and many of them burnt down ; the princes
joined together in a fresh offensive alliance, by which
they pledged themselves to fight together with life and
goods for the maintenance of their conquests.

The Franconian knighthood was humbled by the
Suabian League ; more than twenty robber castles were
destroyed in June and July 1523, but it was a matter

X 2

308 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

of sfeneral lament that the limb-hacker, Hans Thomas
von Absberg, could not be caught and punished as he
deserved.

The political independence of the lesser nobility
was crushed, but the revolutionary ideas which had
gained ground amongst them were by no means extin-
guished.

The politico-religious revolution spread more and
more widely among the people, and, side by side with
the multitude of seditious evangelical preachers, the
expelled knights plotted secretly to incite the vassals of
the princes, and the peasants especially, to open revolt.

Not, however, until the ruling power of the Empire
had been annihilated, the central authority reduced to
impotence, and religion given over to utter lawlessness,
did the revolution come to a head.

309

CHAPTER V

THE REICHSEEGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-1623

The Eeichsregiment,^ which held its first sitting at
Nuremberg in the autumn of 1521, commenced opera-
tions by issuing a decree providing for the estabUsh-
ment and perpetuation of the Landsfriede. By one
of the clauses of this decree a change was made
against which Maximilian I., in his efforts for im-
perial supremacy, had constantly struggled — namely,
the election of the heads of the provinces and their
councillors was transferred to the electors of the
provinces. The next step was to summon a Diet at
Nuremberg, chiefly for the purpose of arranging a
campaign against the Turks, who had made themselves
masters of Belgrade, had seized and devastated the
greater part of Hungary, and were on the point of
invading Lower i^ustria, Bavaria, and other German
provinces. ' The need was great,' so ran the writ,
* and an invasion of the infidels might be expected any
month, but help was slow in coming, and each one
thought only of himself, and many even grudged the
expense of attending the Diet.' Only a few of the
notables were present in Nuremberg at the appointed
hour. Mahomet Bey had just occupied Wallachia ; in

^ Or Council of Regency, appointed to govern in the Emperor's
absence from Germany. See Dyer's Modern Euro;pe, i. 330. — Trans-
lator.

310 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Hungary there was daily fear of a fierce attack by
Sultan Solyman tlirough Siebenbiirgen, of the blockade
of the Moldau, and of an invasion of Slavonia. In
April 1522 the Turks ravaged the whole of the Karst
towards Friaul.

'In one day,' writes Georg Kirchmair in his me-
moirs, ' they carried off more than six thousand people.
Little children were torn from one another ; women were
shamefully, inhumanly treated ; priests were murdered,
and everything burnt. And on May 15, 1522, they
were still encamped before Laybach, twenty-four thou-
sand in number. But there is no one who has compas-
sion on them. Nowhere is there any helper or deliverer ;•
there is no prince or leader. Each one is waiting till his
own walls are in flames. Oh, how miserably are our
Christian brothers forsaken ! ' ' Nobody is concerned
for the honour and protection of the Christian religion,
but none forgets to look after his own interest.' ^ As a
protection against danger from the Turks the Council
of Regency issued an edict on March 25, for the insti-
tution of public processions and prayers, and ordered
that at midday in all the towns, boroughs, and villages
a special bell should be rung, at the sound of which
all the people should offer up prayers to God ' that He
might withhold the thunderbolts of His wrath and
grant the Christian people victory over the Turks.'

On April 7, the Count Palatine Frederic an-
nounced to the members of the Diet, in his capacity of
Imperial Vicegerent, that the Emperor would give
up the contingent of 20,000 infantry and 4,000 cavalry,,
which had been granted him for the march to Eome,.
in order that these forces might assist in the urgently

1 In Fontes Ber. Ausfr. i. 458.

THE REICHSREGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 311

needed Turkish campaign. But not one of the
notables took any early action. ' As usual,' as
the Frankfort delegate, Philip Fiirstenberg, wrote
home, 'official quarrels broke out, and so the busi-
ness was not settled.' The Council stated in their
report that, considering the greatness and imminence
of the danger from the Turks, they had expected that
all the Electors and the other members would have
come without fail to the Diet, but that only a minority
of them had been present, and they had therefore
postponed this business to another Diet on September 1.
Meanwhile a Turkish tax was imposed on all the
Estates and subjects of the Empire, and on May 8, at
the last sitting of the Council, it was resolved that
three-eighths of the forces offered at the Worms
Diet should be utilised against the Turks. Each
Estate was to send in its money contribution without
delay or evasion. But the payments came in very
slowly. By the end of July, for instance, Worms and
Spires had paid nothing at all, and the Eeichsregi-
ment prepared to proceed against these towns and win
contumacious subjects. The city of Frankfort, which,
in view of the urgent need, had been pressed by the
Council for a loan of 4,000 gulden, excused itself on
account of its many feuds and necessary expenses for
town buildings.

The second Diet summoned at Nurembero- to con-
sider the Turkish question also failed to meet on
the date fixed, because in the meanwhile Franz von
Sickingen had appeared ' as a Turk in the Empire,'
and because tumult and insurrection were apprehended
throughout the country. ' The notables behaved very
ill with regard to the Diet,' wrote the Frankfort delegate,

312 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Hamann von Holzhausen, in October 1522; 'not a
single prince attended it. I wish I were back at home.'
' Archduke Ferdinand,' who had succeeded to the office
of Imperial Vicegerent in place of the Palatine
Frederic, ' is working most energetically to get the
Diet together, but it is still doubtful whether the
meeting will take place.'

It was not till JSTovember IT that the Diet assembled,
and the members present were then informed that the
chief business to be discussed was as follows : how per-
manent peace was to be established ; how resistance
was to be opposed to the Turks ; and how the Reichs-
regiment and the Kammergericht were to be permanently
maintained and guaranteed fixed revenue. It had now
come to this, that twenty-six free cities, thirty-eight
prelates, twenty-nine counts and barons, seven German
and eleven Italian princes had ceased to pay taxes for
the support of these two administrative bodies. If sup-
plies were not forthcoming, it was to be feared that the
paralysis and dissolution of these imperial institutions
must ensue, with the unavoidable result of ' insurrec-
tion, disaffection, and disturbance of peace and order.'

But the debates about taxation had scarcely begun
when ' all the members, who, seeing the urgency of the
need, ought to have been unanimous, became divided
one against the other.' It was ' piteous to behold, and
a matter almost for despair.' ' Each Estate thought
itself the most heavilv burdened, and each threw the
blame of the necessity and misfortune on the other.'
' All the wounds of the Empire began suddenly to
bleed.'

The town delegates complained, and indeed with
justice, that they were not admitted to the delibera-

THE KEICHSREGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 313

tions of the Diet, but only expected to agree to what
the electors, princes, and other notables had settled.
' The electors and princes have been pleased to decide,'
wrote the Frankfort delegate, ' that henceforth they
will not grant the towns any voice or weight in their
councils and business, but will exclude them alto-
gether.' Such treatment seemed intolerable to the
town representatives, and they profited by the oppor-
tunity ' to speak openly once for all and pour out their
complaints.' They handed in accordingly a petition of
grievances.

Hitherto, they said in their petition, the towns had
always been regarded as forming one of the Estates
of the Empire ; they had been represented at the general
Diets, and in imperial taxation they had been rated
more highly than the other Estates ; at the sittings of
the Imperial Assembly they had, not long ago, had
a voice as well as the princes and the other notables,
and they had assisted in the settlement of any business
that was transacted. Now, on the contrary, the town
delegates were no longer admitted to the debates of the
Empire, and all affairs that the Empire had to regulate
and administer were discussed and settled without
them. But it was above all essential in the present
troubled times that there should be union and co-
operation of all the Estates ; therefore they prayed that
these things should be ' put back into the old order.'

The remaining complaints of the town representa-
tives referred to the tardiness of the execution of
justice and to the system of feuds. ' The latter had
gained ground in such a manner that no life or property
was any longer safe, and no trade or business could be
carried on. In spite of all regulations for public peace

314 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

and order, property was continually being stolen from
citizens in the streets, and carried off, or burnt in the
open fields; wayfarers were attacked and wounded,
had their limbs chopped off, or were cruelly murdered,
or incarcerated. Such gruesome and wicked deeds
were perpetrated ' as were terrible to think of even
among infidels.' Moreover ' the doers and perpe-
trators of these crimes, however dishonourable, gross,
and excessive they might be, were not only seldom
punished, but even winked at and tolerated. If this
iniquitous state of things was not ended, the whole Ger-
man nation would be confronted with ruin." Further-
more the multitude of new taxes imposed by the
princes and the magistrates was quite unendurable.
The German nation w^as already more highly burdened
than any other with all sorts of heavy taxes, dues,
fines, tolls, rents, and other liabilities ; it was contrary
to all laws, human and divine, that an individual, a
ruler, or a class should grow rich at the sacrifice of
so many fellow-creatures, or should fatten on the
sweat and labour of the common people. It was
well known how troubled affairs were becoming every-
where throughout the Empire, and it was, therefore,
advisable not to oppress the common people with any
more insupportable burdens.' Complaints of an
equally serious nature were made about the spiritual
tribunals, the Court of Eome, and the coinage of the
realm : false and base coins were circulated in quantities
in German provinces ; the good ones were smuggled
into Italy by the Jews and Christians ; all the money
of the country was being rapidly lost.

To this petition of grievances the electors, the
princes, and the other notables gave the following

THE REICHSREGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 315

answer on January 23, 1523 : With regard to imperial
representation no right had been taken away from the
towns, for they had never had a voice in the Council of
the Empire ; it was true that occasionally at the Diets
town delesfates had been chosen as members of com-
mittees, but this had never been a right but a favour
shown to them. As to the slow execution of law, the
towns themselves were to blame ; the feuds did not
injure the free cities only but all the Estates, and
measures were already being taken to ensure a satis-
factory maintenance of the Landfriede ; the taxes were
certainly oppressive, but these had been levied by the
Emperor, and it would not become the Estates of the
Empire to curtail the power of the Imperial Majesty.
The towns ought to have brought their complaints on
this score before the Emperor personally at Worms.
Concerning the ecclesiastical jurisdiction, negotiations
with the Pope were even now being instituted ; the
ordinaries themselves were quite disposed to reorganise
their tribunals in a judicial manner. As for the
currency, it was the towns that were specially guilty in
the matter of clipping coins and otherwise tampering
with them,

' The town delesfates are fairlv dissfusted with this
abominable, mocking, contemptuous answer,' wrote
Hamann von Holtzhausen on January 25, 1523, to the
Council of Frankfort, ' and they have agreed together
to give no opinion on the resolutions of the electors,
princes, and other notables, to contribute no money
and to take no part in signing the minutes.' ' I have
no further news to write,' he says on the same day in a
letter to the burgomaster of Frankfort, Johann von
Glauburg, ' except that matters generally, and the

316 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

proceedings at the Diet to-day, seem tending to great
acrimony, dissatisfaction, and sedition. God in His
mercy and grace preserve us from this last danger.
This Diet was convoked for the purpose of estabUshing
peace, and so we do nothing here but foment discontent
and strife.'

These contentions among the members had an
important and decisive bearing on the question of
supphes for the Turkish expedition.

The town delegates absolutely refused their consent
to the Turkish tax proposed at the previous Diet of
Nuremberg, because the towns were proportionately
more highly rated than the higher Estates. They also
refused contributions of any description, whether of
money or of men, to an army of 4,000 men, which the
other Estates had guaranteed to che Hungarian ambas-
sador on December 19, 1522. The ambassadors from
Hungary and Croatia had begged for help, for both
provinces were in the greatest danger of being con-
quered by the Turks, and in case they (the ambassa-
dors) returned without a reassuring answer the
inhabitants would go over to the Turks. ' Unmoved,'
the town delegates persisted in their refusal, even when
the Knights of St. John, after a long and heroic fight
against the superior force of the Osmans, had been
obliged to leave their island of Rhodes, which was one
of the most important bulwarks of Christianity. It
was quite- impossible, as the delegates had already
declared at a previous meeting of the Diet, for the
German nation to conquer the Turks alone, and unless
the Pope and all the Christian kings and Powers com-
bined together to demohsh them, Germany would get
nothing from the war but shame, defeat, and loss. In

THE REICHSREGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 317

the event of the Turks themselves attacking and over-
running Germany every Estate and every community,
spiritual and secular, should then be required to con-
tribute a moderate and suitable number of men, and
each community should be left to tax its own popula-
tion itself, and to pay the troops that it supplied from
the proceeds of the taxes.

' There is no longer any question of unity among
the Germans,' wrote the papal nuncio Francesco
Chieregati to Eome ; ' we may be thankful that there
is even a prospect of only a very small contribution of
forces against the infidels ; but whether even those
will really be contributed time alone will show.' On
the nuncio's petitioning that the whole of the forces
promised to the Emperor for his march to Eome at the
Diet of Worms should be utilised against the Turks,
the Estates had answered that the internal condition of
Germany had become so infinitely worse since the
meeting of that Diet that so strong an armament could
not be sent out of the country.

The conflict between the towns and the other
Estates of the Empire at the Diet of Nuremberg was
intensified by the proposal, emanating from the latter,
to levy an imperial duty, which the towns pronounced
to be ' utterly monstrous and calculated to ruin them.'

In order to provide for the maintenance of the
Kammergericht and the Reichsregiment^ and also to
defray the expenses of administration, a general customs
duty, both on exports and on imports, was to be levied on
all goods not included in the absolute necessaries of life,
and this duty was to be at the rate of four per cent, on
the market purchasing price of the commodities.

In a fresh petition of grievances of February 2,

318 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

1523, the town delegates complained that a tax of this
sort would be the ruin of all trade and would provoke
the people to fatal sedition ; all artisans and good
workmen would be driven by it into other countries,
and Germany would be utterly beggared. If the princes
persisted in this scheme the}' could not, they declared,
concur in the Diet's proceedings, resolutions, or disso-
lution.

The other Estates answered that this new tax would
not fall heavily on the common people, for the goods
necessary for general use, wine and beer, oxen, sheep,
pigs, and all other animals, besides cheese, salt, and
lard, fresh and salted fish, leather, and copper, were
all untaxable ; only such goods were taxable as came
under the head of luxuries and non-essentials, and it
would thus be in the power of each individual to avoid
being injured by the tax. Moreover, as this duty was
intended solely for the maintenance of the Reichsregiment
and the Kammergericht, and for carrying out the regula-
tions of the Landfriede and ensuring security in the public
streets, and would accordingly promote peace and order
in the realm, it would be as beneficial to the tradespeople
as to the working classes. Other nations, as was well
known, for the sake of the common good, had levied a
similar, or even a higher tax on all articles of commerce,
and trade and business had by no means diminished in
consequence ; on the contrary they had increased,
because the money had been spent in securing the safety
of the streets ; besides which this customs duty only
affected foreign countries, such as Bohemia, Hungary,
Poland, England, whence the taxable goods were im-
ported. Moreover this tax, as the customs regulations
set forth, was not to last longer than five years without

THE KEICHSREGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 319

a further decree of the Emperor and the Estates. For
all these reasons it seemed strange that the town
delegates should view this tax in the light of a grievance,
and should rate the profit of a few tradespeople more
highly than the common good of some 100,000 human
beings. With regard to the reiterated complaints of
the towns concerning prestige and votes, these should
be brought before the Emperor and the absent notables,
and a further answer be oiven at the next Diet. But even
if the towns had, which they denied, a right to a voice in
the deliberations of the Council, they could not thereby
obstruct the decisions of the majority of the Estates.
For it would be an unheard-of, extraordinary, and most
unjust innovation if the decisions of all or most of the
members went for nothiuo- in case the town delegates
did not approve of them ; the whole government of the
Empire would then ])e entirely in the hands of the
towns.

' It's my belief,' wrote the Bavarian chancellor,
Leonhard von Eck, to Duke William, ' that the towns
will not in any way consent to this tax, and that they
will communicate on the subject with His Imperial
Majesty in Spain, and with Ferdinand ; and it is the
opinion of some that if they are coerced by the Reichs-
regiment or the Kam^nergericJit they will go over to
the Swiss or the French.'

The most important transactions of the Nuremberg
Diet related to the ecclesiastical complications.

The Reichsregiment had never since its opening
acted firmly with regard to the Church movement,
but had let things take their chance, now for, now
against Luther. So little indeed had it done towards

320 HISTOEY OF THE GEEMAN PEOPLE

the execution of the Edict of Worms, the carrying out
of which the Emperor had imperatively commanded,
that in Nuremberg itself Lutheran l^ooks were printed
and offered publicly for sale, and from some of the
pulpits even Lutheran doctrines were preached, and
Pope and bishops, Church precepts, and old usages and
ordinances virulently abused. The legal assessors of
the Council were many of them apostates from the
ancient Church system, but lovers of Church property
and treasures ; they had dreams of a golden time
when the possessions of the Church should be par-
titioned, ecclesiastical arrogance humbled in the dust,
the episcopate abolished, and the Pope and cardinals
deprived of all authority. When these things came to
pass, they said to themselves, there would grow up a
secular regime^ in which they, the learned ones of the
law, would bear rule instead of princes. It was in vain
that Duke George of Saxony complained repeatedly to
the Council of Luther's insolent invectives against the
Pope and the Emperor, against the princes of the
Empire, and against the Reichsregiment itself. On his
sending them the pamphlets which were full of this
abuse he onl}^ received the answer : ' We learn that
Your Highness is displeased with the al)use hurled at
the Papal Holiness and the Lnperial Majesty, and we
assure Your Highness that we ourselves should not
willingly tolerate insult and injury to the Imperial
Majesty wherever we should observe or experience it,'
They would not see or believe anything, nor proceed
actively in any way against Luther's actions. ' Against
a matter of this sort,' the Imperial Vicegerent, Count
Palatine Frederic, explained later on to the Duke,
' it had not been possible to take any action.' While

THE REICHSEEGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 321

Sickingen was plotting the overthrow of the hnperial
constitution for the benefit of the new gospel he was
assured by Johann von Fuchstein, chancellor to the
Vicegerent and assessor of the Reichsregiment, that the
entire Council was favourably disposed towards him.
The Elector Frederic of Saxony, who, according to
rule, was obliged to attend the Council in the sum-
mer of 1522, scarcely even arrived at having any
definite policy, still less at proceeding to action, and
by his inaction gave the reins to disafiection towards the
Emperor and the Empire and the encouragement of all
manner of disturbances both in ecclesiastical and
secular departments. Under Frederic's protection
Luther was left free to hurl, with impunity, his insults and
anathemas against the King of England, the Emperor's
ally, and against the German princes, the Dukes of
Bavaria, the Elector of Brandenburg, and Duke George
of Saxony, and to denounce them as murderers of
Christ, and tyrants and executioners of the people. The
Elector caused Luther to be informed that 'he had
always declared to his Papal Holiness, his Imperial
Majesty, and the other Estates that he had had nothing
to do with Luther and his proceedings.' To the
Emperor, Frederic wrote 'he begged, as he had so
often done before, that they would not consult with
him on this matter ; he was feeble with age and sick-
ness, and did not understand the business ; he could
give little or no advice as to what was to be done.'
Frederic's minister, Hans von Planitz, informed the
Council that the Elector thought it advisable, in spite
of the imperial ban, to countenance Luther's continued
residence in Wittenberg, for he did not teach any
heresy, and if he were removed imitators would spring

VOL. III. T

322 HISTORY OF THE GEEMAN PEOPLE

up who would not only preach against the Church
but agamst God and Christendom, and utter unbelief
would be propagated.

Utter unbelief did indeed show itself in all quarters
as the fruit of the rebellion against Church authority ;
with the breakdown of spiritual restraints all secular
ones gave way also, and the door was thrown open to
every description of lawlessness.

' Will those who despise the precepts of the Church
and the holy Councils, and do not scruple to tear up
and burn the decrees of the Fathers,' asked Pope Adrian
VI. of the Estates assembled at the Nuremberg Diet,
' will such as these obey the laws of the Empire ? Do
you imagine that men who are not afraid to carry off
before your eyes the things that are consecrated to God,
will refrain from stretchiniy out their hands to seize the
goods of the laity ? Will they spare your heads if
they despise the anointed of the Lord ? '

Pope Adrian VI. was most anxious to treat with the
members of the Nuremberg Diet, in a spirit of peace
and conciliation, concerning the ecclesiastical affairs
of the Empire. ' No man could be more upright and
well-intentioned than Adrian,' says a contemporary
chronicle. Born at Utrecht of German burgher
parents, and educated at ZwoUe by the Brethren of the
Common Life, he had early won himself great esteem
by his piety, his learning, and the strictness of his
morals ; he obtained a professorship of theology at
Lowen, became tutor to Charles V., and for some time
administered the affairs of the government in Spain, as
Charles's vicegerent. After the death of Leo X., on
December 1, 1521, he was ' quite unexpectedly and to
the joy of all good people ' elected Pope by the College

THE EEICHSREGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 323

of Cardinals, and all his thoughts and energies ' were
thenceforth devoted to the reformation of clerical life,
the liberation of Christendom from the Turkish yoke,
and the suppression of the religious contentions in his
German Fatherland.'

' With unparalleled candour ' this Pope spoke out
concerning the necessity of reform both in the head
and the members, and above all concerning the
grievous abuses of the Eoman Court. ' We are well
aware,' he informed the Diet through his nuncio
Francesco Chieregati, ' that even in this Holy See, for
many years past, much that is abominable has been
going on — abuses in things spiritual, transgressions of
commands ; yea, that all things have been perverted
to evil. It is therefore indeed not to be wondered at
if the sickness has spread from the head to the limbs,
from the popes to the lesser prelates. We have all
of us wandered from the right way, and we must there-
fore humble ourselves before God. As far as it lies
with us to do anything in this matter we will use all
diligence that first of all the Court of Eome, from which,
perhaps, all this iniquity has gone forth, may be
improved ; and then, as the sickness proceeded from
Eome, so too the restoration to health will begin there.
We consider ourselves all the more in duty bound to
take steps in earnest, since the whole world is crying
out for a reform of this our Eoman Curia. We have
never been ambitious of the papal dignity, and
we only undertake the office of supreme Pastor in
order to have the power to restore the Holy Church,
the Bride of Christ, to her pristine beauty; to give
succour to the oppressed, to encourage and support
the learned and the virtuous, and, in short, to do all

\ 2

324 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

that is incumbent on a good overseer of the Church,
and a true successor of St. Peter.' Adrian YI.
promised the Estates of the Empire, in all sincerity and
honesty, that in future there could be no more dis-
regard of Concordats by the Papal See, and that he
would take care to appoint learned and pious Germans
to the high offices of the Church; finally he asked
advice from the Estates of the realm as to the best way
of checking the progress of the ' new gospel ' party.

It was a critical moment for the German nation.

The Pope spoke with complete unreserve to the spiri-
tual and secular representatives of the nation from which
he had himself sprung and which he loved devotedly ;
he made them sharers of his anxiety and solicitude
for the welfare of Christianity, called upon them for
counsel and help, and warned them against the dis-
turbance of ecclesiastical peace and order, which
would of necessity be followed by the uprooting of all
civil order. He pointed out that, if they provoked
and countenanced religious discord and insurrection in
the realm, it would never be possible to resist effectually
the fury of the Turks, and that civil wars would be
almost certain to break out among the Germans. He
demanded the execution of the Edict of Worms. All
the opinions in which Luther disagreed with the
Church had already been repudiated by the Church
through the decisions of various Councils. Whatever
had been approved and established as dogmas of the
faith by the general Councils and the whole Church must
never again be treated as doubtful. Otherwise what
security could there be for anything on earth? Or
when would there be an end of contention and disputa-
tion if every perverse and deluded upstart were free

THE REICHSREGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 325

to reject what had been affirmed and consecrated, not
by the voice of a few individuals, but by the unanimous
judgment of so many centuries, of so many of the wisest
of men, and by the decision of the Church itself?
Since it is now seen that Luther and his followers con-
demn the holy Fathers, and set at nought all holy laws
and ordinances, that they are turning everything topsy-
turvy according to their own arbitrary will and
pleasure, and throwing the whole world into confusion,
it is evident that if they persist in this behaviour
they must be forcibly suppressed as enemies and
destroyers of the public peace, and all friends of peace
should co-operate to this end.' The nuncio further
informed the members of the Diet that it was in-
tended to hold an oecumenical Council in some one
of the German towns, for the purpose of considering
the questions of the removal of clerical abuses, the
restoration of Church discipline, and the quieting of
the tumults that had broken out.

A committee of members of the Council and of the
several Estates was appointed to draw up an answer
to the papal charges, in which Luther's adherents were
distinctly predominant. The document drawn up by
this committee ran as follows : ' They could not proceed
seriously against Luther, because it would be tanta-
mount to a declaration that they wanted to suppress
evangelical truth by tyranny, and to countenance
unchristian abuses ; and the onlv result would be to
provoke resistance to authority, and insurrection,
and rebellion. Let the Pope respect the Concordats,
redress the grievances of the German nation, and
above all exact no more annates, but surrender these
for the future to the Imperial Vicegerent and the

326 HISTORY OF THE GEEMAN PEOPLE

Reichsregiment for the time being ; or otherwise it was
not to be expected that peace, justice, and order could
be maintained in Germany. Tlie Pope must, with
the consent of the Imperial Majesty, summon an
oecumenical Council in some German town within the
space of twelve months, and the laity also must have
seats and votes in the assembly, before which must be
brought all urgent questions relating to divine and
evangelical matters concerning the common good.
If the Pope would accede to these suggestions they
would undertake to arrange with the Elector and with
Luther that nothing further should be written or
taught, either by Luther or his followers, which would
be likely to provoke the people to riot and insurrection.
Only the Gospel and the canonical Scriptures should
be taught, and that according to their true Christian
meaning ; the archbishops and bishops should see to
this with the assistance of men expert in the inter-
pretations of the Scriptures. Further^ a careful super-
vision should be exercised over all printers and book-
sellers, to ensure that nothing more was printed or put up
for sale which could lead to disturbance and sedition.

Prominent among the members of the committee

which drew up this document was the Eoman jurist

Johann von Schwarzenberg, an active propagator

of Luther's gospel, who a short while before had

been one of those present at the Rittertag (meeting

of knights) convened by Sickingen at Landau. It was

he who had suggested that most radical innovation on

all ancient Church organisation, viz. that laymen also

should sit and vote at the oecumenical Councils. In an

astrological ' Handbook ' composed in allusion to this

proposal, and printed at Nuremberg and dedicated to the

THE REICTISREGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1622-3 327

Beichsregiment, it was announced that ' a conjunction
in the House of Jupiter ' pointed to the necessity of con-
vening a council at which, not the Pope, but the
Emperor, should undertake to reform, correct, and
bring to obedience the Christian Church and all
other Estates of the realm. If, as might be ex-
pected, he did not meet with obedience, there would
be a great war, followed by a violent disturbance of
all spiritual and secular principalities. The peasants
and common people of many districts would form
leagues and would unite together and rise up against,
and even above, their kings, princes, and lords ; they
would everywhere plunder their property, and take
whatever they pleased, attack the spiritual and secular
Estates ; they would spare no one, so that little differ-
ence would be seen between the rich and the poor.
Everything would be altered, perverted, and revolu-
tionised, and persecution and degradation of the
Churches were in prospect.

The opinions of the committee were submitted to
the Diet for consideration, and the town delegates
expressed themselves highly delighted at them. It
was manifest, they said, to all the Estates of the
Empire to what lengths the Lutheran transactions had
extended and what amount of annoyance and disturb-
ance had been caused by them, and also that all sorts
of distressing animosity had thereby been fomented
between clergy and laity and between rulers and
subjects. But the severe mandates, edicts, and inter-
dictions that had been issued had only aggravated
matters and increased the acrimony and hatred
between the laity and the clergy. If the Pope and the
Emperor would agree to act in conformity with the

328 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

proposals of the committee, they were quite sure that
not only would the errors now prevalent in the
Christian Church be in great measure silenced, but
many abuses would also die out of themselves, much
of the irritation and animosity between the different
classes would cease, and the spiritual and secular
States would be re-established side by side in peace
and unity.

Amongst the princes present at the Diet few were
partisans of Luther. ' Nearly all the princes who are
here are opposed to Luther,' wrote Hans von Planitz,
the Saxon reporter of the Reichsregiment, to the Elector
Frederic, ' but their councillors — for the most part Eoman
jurists — are nearly all good Lutherans.' The Margrave
Joachim von Brandenburg especially ' as a Christian
Elector would not tolerate any innovations.' He spoke
once of Luther to Planitz as follows : ' I wonder what
vour sovereign lord is thinkiui? of, that he allows and
winks at so much in this monk. I will do whatever
pleases his Highness, but I will not suffer myself to be
scolded by this monk ; that is certain.'

Li their answer to the Pope's representations the
Archduke Ferdinand, as imperial viceroy, and the
Electors and princes, said tliat they had received his
communication with reverence and gratitude, and
that from what he had said they saw clearly that
his Papal Holiness would leave nothing undone that
was incumbent on a faithful father and true overseer
of the Christian flock ; and therefore each one ought to
be the more moved to acknowledsfe his own sins and
offences, and to strive after Christian amendment.
As Christian members of the Empire they were deeply
grieved at all the scandal, schism, and offence that

THE REICHSREGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 329

these religious innovations had caused in the Christian
Church, and they were heartily willing to do whatever
they could, by punishment or by other means, to
improve the state of things. They acknowledged
themselves bound to render obedience to his Papal
Holiness and his Imperial Majesty, as to their superior
heads, and they were no less willing to do this in a
Christian manner than were their forefathers. As to
the execution of the Edict of Worms, however, they
had left that alone for the weightiest and most urgent
reasons, in order to avert worse evil. The greater
part of the German nation had been convinced long
before Luther's time, and had only been strengthened
in this conviction by Luther's writings, that Germany
suffered much and great injustice from the Eoman
Curia. If then the Council had rigorously carried
out the Edict, universal indignation would have been
aroused, just as if they had attempted to suppress
evanoj'elical truth and to maintain and defend odious
unchristian abuses ; and much sedition and tumult
would have ensued.

On this point the opinion of the Estates coincided
with that of the committee. They also begged and
entreated that with a view to the restoration of peace
and concord, the Pope would redress those national
grievances which they had pointed out in their
report. ,

All these grievances related to real or pretended
abuses in the exercise of spiritual authority, to the pro-
mulgation of bans, to the immunity of ecclesiastical
personages, to encroachments of the clergy on the
secular domain, to dispensations, indulgences, reserva-
tions, and other clerical ordinances, and did not in any

330 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

way touch or impugn the divine basis and character of
the Church.

With regard to the forthcoming Council, the
notables dropped the most important clause of the
report — namely, the claim of the laity to seats and
votes. Meanwhile pending the meeting of the Council
(the locality of which in Germany the Pope and the
Emperor were to determine), the members of the
Diet undertook to use all diligence, and especially to
negotiate with the Elector Frederic, with a view to
preventing Luther and his followers from writing
and printing anything fresh. Further, each elector
and prince, and each of the notables of the realm, within
his own domain was to see that from that time up
to the date of the Council nothing should be preached
* but the Holy Gospel, according to the interpre-
tation of Scripture, approved and accepted by the
Christian Church,' and that everything should be
avoided in sermons which might tend either to incite
the common people to rebel against the authorities,
or to lead Christians into error. Any preachers who
would not submit to these restrictions were to be
suitably punished by the ordinaries. Also no thing-
new was to be printed, or offered for sale, unless
it had first been examined and approved by learned
persons especially appointed to the task ; in especial
it was to be forbidden under penalty of severe punish-
ment to print or sell calumnious writings. Clergy-
men who took to themselves wives, and monks or nuns
who forsook the cloisters, were to forfeit their liberties,
privileges, benefices, and so forth. Public mandates
and edicts would be issued admonishino- masiistrates
not to hinder the ordinaries from inflicting such

THE REICHSEEGIMENT AND THE DIETS OF 1522-3 331

punishments, but rather to give them help and support
for the maintenance and protection of ecclesiastical
authority, in order that such renegade priests might be
punished according to the established course of law.

This answer, which was communicated to the nuncio
on February 8, 1523, was published to the Empire
on March 6 as a resolution issued in the name of the
Emperor. It was expressly laid down in it that
nothing was to be preached but the Holy Gospel
according to the Scriptural interpretation, approved
and accepted by the Christian Church, and that
nothing fresh was to be printed or sold, unless it had
first been examined and sanctioned by learned men
specially appointed to the task.
— At the same time the notables drew up a form of
exhortation to be read out to the Christian people
every Sunday from all pulpits, enjoining them ' to call
humbly on God and pray to Him to remove the errors
which were now everywhere springing up and spread-
ing, through the fault of Christian rulers, spiritual and
secular, and also of other men, and to vouchsafe His
grace that they might live, persist, and remain in
the harmony of the holy Christian faith, and thereby
attain to the way of everlasting salvation.

332 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

CHAPTER YI

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATOES — DECAY OF
INTELLECTUAL AND PHILANTHROPIC LIFE

In the ReiehsabschiecP of the Diet of Nuremberg
there had been no question of any separation from
Rome and the Catholic Church. Had subsequent pro-
ceedings been in accordance with the transactions of
Diet, there the would have been no split in the German
nation.

But the Reichsregiment violated itself the imperial
decrees, and allowed others to violate them with
impunity : the Elector of Saxony and other princes,
and most of the free cities, acted in open defiance
of them. Least of all did Luther trouble himself
about their decisions. Backed up by the force of the
revolution he was, as it were, Dictator in Saxony.

The notables of the Empire had promised at the
Diet of Nuremberg to use all diligence to prevent
Luther and his adherents from publishing any fresh
writings before the proposed Council was summoned ;
libellous pamphlets especially they undertook to stop
by severely penal measures. But for Luther ' there are
no such things as commands, come they whence they
may,' wrote Duke George of Saxony, ' and those whose

^ The Beichsabschied, or BeichstagsabscJiied, was the record of the
transactions at the Diet drawn up just before the close of the meeting.

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATORS 333

duty it is to see that orders are executed are too
dilatory, faint-hearted, or incapable : thus all the
world is free to abuse and defy with impunity the Pope
and the bishops, the Emperor and the princes.' When
Luther, in a letter to Duke George, once called the latter
a liar and a shameful blasphemer of evangelical truth,
and Hans von Planitz, the minister of the Saxon Elector,
reproved him for his violent language, Luther wrote in
self-justification that he had never attacked the Duke as
fiercely as the Pope, the bishops, and the King of
England ; on the contrary it was his opinion that he
had spared him ' far too much,' ' for such a ranting
tyrant,' he said, ' ought to have been severely tackled
by him long ago.'

' I know well, moreover, that all my writings have
been of such a nature that they have seemed at first
as if they came straight from the Devil, and everybody
was afraid the heavens would soon fall down, but after-
wards they saw differently. Times have now changed,
and the great heads are being attacked, as they were
never wont to be, and what God has in his counsels
He will show in his own good time.'

Pope Adrian VI. was certainly assailed by Luther
more fiercely than the Duke had been. After Adrian
had consecrated Bishop Benno of Meissen, on May 31,
1523, Luther published his pamphlet against ' the new
idol and the old devil that was to be set up at Meissen.'
' The living Satan,' he said in this pamphlet, ' in
mockery of God, lets himself be rigged out in gold
and silver and stuck up and worshipped.' God allowed
such things in his wrath, so that stiff-necked and
blinded tyrants and persecutors, like the Pope and his
crew, who will not hear the gospel for their salvation,

334 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

nor will tolerate it, should ' to their damnation believe in
the lies and the mighty errors and the works of the
Devil.' He called the Pope ' a hypocrite and the worst
enemy of God.' This libellous pamphlet went through
six editions.

It had been decreed at the Nuremberg Diet that
priests who married, and monks or nuns who left their
cloisters, were to forfeit their privileges and their
benefices.

Luther, on the other hand, issued, on March 28,
1523, an appeal to the Knights of the Teutonic Order,
telling them that ' they ought to break their vows, to
get married, and to divide the property of the Order
among themselves.' ' In the first place,' he says, ' your
Order will have the advantage of being provided
with secular food, and you may distribute the estates
among the several knights, and make them settlers
on the land, and officials, and otherwise, and there
will not be the same wretched need which now
keeps many mendicant friars and other monks in the
cloisters, viz. the wants of the stomach. There need
be no fear that the knights of your Order will be in
danger of being attacked for such proceedings.' ' I
have little doubt,' he says to them, ' that many
bishops also, and many abbots and other ecclesiastical
dignitaries, would marry, if it were not that they were
afraid of being the first, and if the example had once
been set, and if such marrying had become common, so
that there was no longer any disgrace or danger about
it, but it was considered honourable and praiseworthy
in the sight of the world. You ought to disregard the
tradition and set a worthy example. Behold, now is
the accepted time, now is the day of salvation. God's

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATORS 335

Word shines forth and calls to you. You have reason
and inducement to obey, and plenty of this world's
goods. ' There is nothing that hinders you in this, ex-
cept the insane world's insane judgment, which may
perchance cry out : " Ah ! do the Teutonic knights act
thus ? " But since we know that the prince of this
world is condemned, we need not doubt that this and
all other judgments of the world are already condemned
in the sight of God.'

If it be alleged that the vow of celibacy was ' an old
tradition in the time of the Apostles, preached and con-
firmed by numbers of synods and holy Fathers,' that is
all child's fooling. God has said : ' I will that thou
shouldest have a help meet for thee and not be alone,'
and God is ' older than all synods and holy fathers.' So,
too, God is greater and mightier than all Councils and
Fathers. Item, the angels all abide by God and the
Scriptures. Item, this custom of marriage came down
to us from Adam, and is older than the custom intro-
duced by the popes.' They must not wait for a future
Council and its decisions. He actually put in writing
the following words : ' Were it to come to pass that
one, two, a hundred, a thousand, and even more
councils settled that the clergy might marry, or gave
them leave to do whatever else God's Word has
already allowed, I should be more inclined to look
leniently upon, and commend to the mercy of God, the
man who all his life long had kept one, two, or three
harlots than on him who took to himself a lawful wife
simply on the strength of the decree of the Council, but
would not dare to do so without its consent; and I
would also, in the name of God, enjoin and advise all
that at the risk of his soul's salvation, none should take

336 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

a wife on tlie strength of sucli a decree, but should
live on in chastity, and, if this were impossible to
him, that he should not despair in his weakness and
sinfulness, but should call on God to help him.'

In another missive of April 10, 1523, ' Eeasons why
Young Women may leave their Convents,' he called
Leonhard Koppe, citizen of Torgau, a ' holy robber,'
because, incited by Luther's pronouncement, he had res-
cued nine nuns (Catharine von Bora amongst them) from
their convent ; just as Christ, he said, was a robber in
the world because by his death he had robbed the
prince of this world of his armour and his goods.'
All who were on the side of God would look upon the
theft of the nuns as an act of great piety, for they would
be certain that it was God who had ordered it, and that
it was not the work or the counsel of man. In a letter
to the Reichsregiment he said in August 1523 that it
was impossible to keep vows. ' Who that had vowed
to fly like a bird could keep his vow, unless God worked
a miracle for him ? In like manner it is going too far
when a man or a woman vows chastity. For they are
not made for chastity, but, as God says, to increase and
multiply.'

' For this command tliat God has given, " Increase
and multiply," is more than a mere command ; it is a
divine work which it does not lie with us to hinder
or neglect, but is absolutely necessary . . . even more
necessary than eating and drinking, sleeping and
waking.' Without a special call from God nobody
has a right to run counter to the command to ' increase
and multiply,' no, not though he should have sworn
ten oaths or vows.

It was the duty of priests, monks, and nuns to break

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATOES 337

their vows. ' Nuns and monks who are without
faith, and who rely on their chastity and their
orders, are not worthy to rock a baptised child in its
cradle, or to make its pap, even were it a child of
adultery. Eeason : because your Order and your life
have not the warrant of God's Word, and you cannot
claim that you are pleasing God by what you are doing.'

Luther now felt his position so strong that he
could even afford to disregard the commands of the
Elector of Saxony. Frederic had ordered that in the
cathedral church at Wittenberg the holy mass was
still to be read, and the service of the Catholic Church
generally adhered to. But in Luther's eyes this Church
service was ' idolatrous abomination.' He therefore
directed the canons of the cathedral on July 11,
1523, to have the abomination done away with ; for,
he said, this was not the least of the causes why God's
Word was so weak among them and brouo-ht forth so
little fruit.'

If they refused to obey he would refuse them the
name of Christians. What the Elector had com-
manded mattered not in the least, for it was here a
question of conscience. As the canons, protected by
the Elector, paid no attention to Luther's orders, he
afterwards wrote them a threatening letter. ' Whereas I
perceive,' he said, ' that our great patience, which we
have hitherto shown towards your devilish proceedings
and idolatry in your churches, is of no avail, but only
augments and strengthens your audacity and wicked-
ness ... I now make a friendly request and earnest
prayer to you that you would make an end of all your
rotten performances, and do away with masses, vigils,
and everything that is opposed to the Gospel and to our

VOL. III. z

338 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

commands, so that our conscience before God and our
name before the world may be estabhshed as of those
who are minded to shun and flee from jonr diabolical
community. Should you, however, refuse to do this, I
give you to understand that I shall not rest, so help me
Grod, till you have been forced to do it. So, then,
make up your minds, and let me have a straight-
forward immediate answer. Yes or No, for this next
Sunday.' ^ Thus, then, the ' evangelical freedom ' pro-
claimed by Luther meant for the cathedral canons that
they were to change their faith against their wills and
become adherents of his gospel. Luther could not in
this case make use of the magistracy as an instrument
for carrying his threat into execution, for the Elector
was on the side of the canons ; he would only have had
the support of the populace. The canons, however,
did not let the matter come to the trial of force.
Luther gained his end ; the Catholic Church service
was abolished at Wittenberg.

' According to you all means are lawful for the
spreading of your heresies,' wrote a clerical contro-
versialist in answer to Luther ; ' but you say it is un-
necessary for you to perform miracles, by which I pre-
sume you mean that you could work miracles if it
pleased you to do so. And now you are playing upon
the superstitious belief of the people in so-called miracu-
lous portents, in order to incense them against the
Pope and the Church.'

This was actually the case. Luther and Melanchthon
in their fight against the Church encouraged the belief
of the people in all manner of signs and portents, tokens

^ Letters edited by De Wette, ii. 354-35G, 565. See Kolde's Friedrich
der Weise, pp. 65-68.

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATORS 339

in the heavens and miraculous births on earth. For
example, the river Tiber was said to have thrown up, in
the neighbourhood of Rome, a monstrous animal ' which
had the head of an ass, the breast and trunk of a woman,
one foot like that of an ox, an elephant's foot on its
right arm, fishes' scales on its legs, and a dragon's head
behind it ; ^ another prodigy, the abortion of a cow, a
creature half monk and half calf, had been born at
Waltersdorf, near Freiberg, in Meissen. These mon-
strosities excited the terror of the people, and Luther
and Melanchthon made it their business to explain their
meaning. In the year 1523 they circulated several
editions of an illustrated ' Interpretation of the Two
Monstrous Figures, the Pope- Ass at Rome and the Monk-
Calf in Meissen.'

' Even as Daniel had predicted the rule of the
Roman Antichrist, so that all true Christians knew how
to guard themselves against its roguery,' so now, said
Melanchthon in his ' Interpretation of the Papstesel,^
for the same ends ' many signs were vouchsafed by God ;
in the monster at Rome God himself had counterfeited
the monstrosity of the Pontificate. The ass's head
signified the Pope ; the elephant's foot his spiritual rule,
with which he trampled down, tortured, and martyred
the souls of men and women ; the ox's hoof meant the
servants of the Pope, ' the papal teachers, preachers,
pastors, and confessors, but most especially the scholastic
theologians.'

' For all these accursed people do nothing else than
drive the unendurable laws of the Pope into the poor

^ Further details about the Roman monster found in the time of
Alexander VI. are given by Pastor in his History of the Popes, iii. 345.

^ Wenzel von Olmiitz executed the copper engraving (now so rare
which is known under the name of the Papstesel.

340 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

people's heads with their preaching, teaching, and
confessionals, and thus hold their miserable consciences
captive under the elephant's foot, and are therefore the
pillars, the feet, and the foundation of the papacy, which
otherwise could not have stood so long. For the
scholastic theology is nothing but empty, idle, lying,
cursed monkish invention and babble.' ' The woman's
breast and trunk,' Melanchthon goes on, ' are the
cardinals, bishops, priests, monks, students, and such-
like whoremongers. . .' ' The fishes' scales signify the
secular princes and lords, who hang on to the papacy
and its government ; justify and excuse its existence, as
if it were ordained by God ; promote its spiritual and
mundane sovereignty ; preserve its intolerable laws,
doctrines, and canons, and protect its worldly posses-
sions ; besides which they found cloisters, institutions,
universities, and churches, in which such teachers,
preachers, father confessors, doctors, canonists, and
theologians carry on their business indefatigably, so
that it may stand fast and be firmly established.'
But the head at the back shows ' that the papacy is
drawing near its end,' and that it is doomed to wax old
and perish of itself without the agency of human hands.
* Hereby I would have every one be warned,' Melan-
chthon concludes, ' that they must not disregard so
great a sign from God, but should beware of this
accursed Antichrist, and of his hangers-on — that is to
say, of the secular princes also who were adherents of
the Pope.'

Luther later on subscribed a hearty ' Amen ' to the
' Interpretation.' ' There was nothing so very terrible
in the PapsteselJ he said, ' for it was God Himself who
had made these wonders and prodigies.' ' The whole

CONTINUED POLITICO-EELIGIOUS AGITATORS 341

world,' he said, ' ought to tremble and be affrighted,
not at the monsters so much, but because it was the
High Divine Majesty itself which had created and
exhibited them, in order that men might see what
were the thoughts in God's mind. But everybody was
terrified at a ghost or a devil, or a rumbling noise in
a corner, which was mere child's play compared with
the horrors against which God was thus openly manifest-
ing his anger.'

' As the Papstesel signified the fall of the Ponti-
ficate,' Luther explained, ' so the Monchskalb meant
the fall of monasticism ; it was plainly declared by
this calf that God was the enemy of monkhood.'
The stiff-necked priests, however, would not accept this
interpretation, ' but persisted more and more obstinately
in their evil courses and in refusinfjf to recognise the
truth and to reform their lives.' ' As Balaam, when
he did not listen to God's Word, was at last reproved
by his own donkey, and yet did not turn from his evil
ways, so our spiritual fathers, whereas they have
hitherto closed their ears, like the deaf adders, against
the plain truth of the Gospel, are now made to behold
with their eyes, in this calf and donkey, as it were in a
glass, how they appear in the sight of God, and what is
thought of them in heaven.^

' In all these miracles ' God was giving them to
understand 'that a great calamity and change was in

1 Collected Worls, 29, 2-16. Luther's letter to Wenzel Link of
January 16, 1523, helps to explain these last words : ' Unum nionstrorum
ego interpretor, modo omissa generali iuterpretatione monstrorum, quae
significant certo rerum-publicaruvi mutationem per hella potissimum.
Quo et mihi non est dubium Germaniae piortendi vel summam belli
calamitatem vel extremum diem : ego tantimi versor in particulari iuter-
pretatione, quae ad monachos pertinet.' (See German original, vol. ii.
17th and 18th ed., p. 305, for further notes about these portents.)

342 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

store, " which mdeed all Germany must be aware of."
But how and by whom it would be brought about, it
was the business of the prophets to foretell.' The
evangelical light, which had risen with such splendour
had been followed by a great change. The prophets —
that is to say, the astrologers — had long predicted
from the many 'signs and wonders in heaven and
earth ' a general insurrection of the people in the year
1524, and a Bimdschuh which would spread over town
and country.

' The populace in the towns and the peasants in the
provinces will inevitably rise in rebellion,' wrote Cocli-
laeus in the year 1523, •■ even if they are not sum-
moned to seize muskets and hoes and set to work to hack
and destroy. They are poisoned by the innumerable
abusive pamphlets and speeches which are printed and
declaimed among them against both papal and secular
authority, against every one, indeed, who has any power
and wealth, and who will not renounce the faith of our
fathers. Luther says himself that his gospel cannot be
preached without tumult and insurrection, and casts all
manner of opprobrium on the faith of his fathers and of
his own youth.'

' I make bold to say,' writes Cochlaeus elsewhere to
Luther, ' that not even by the Emperor Julian was our
faith so greatly vilified and reviled as it is now in the
scurrilous writings of yourself and your adherents,' which
are circulated in such thousands by the printing press in
all towns and provinces — yea, in every remote corner
of the land.' ' A general alarm has been sounded of
the Bundscfiuh which is imminent, and in very deed
they must be prepared for this rising, which must
shatter all existing institutions. Luther intended to

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATORS 343

enrich the poor and the starving by means of a
Bundschuh ; he would give them the first pick of
the plunder taken from the nobility, and of all the
cloisters, field-churches, and pilgrim shrines. Verily
if he wins the game they will carr}?- ofi" a goodly share
of booty.

' I am aware that unhappily great abuses are per-
petrated by the clergy ; but that is not a reason for abol-
ishing churches and cloisters. On this principle all the
princes' courts would have to be swept away, for not
one of them is so pure as to be untarnished by
any abuse. That, perhaps, is what you would like to
bring about by a Bundschuh ; but howif it should be
necessary to do away with all artisans and with all classes
of mankind whatever ? Show me one single guild,
handicraft, government, class, system, which is entirely
free from all abuse. You want to palm off your heresies
by abusing the sins and the scandals of the clergy, and
in this manner you seek you ingratiate yourself with the
people. Do you suppose that either Emser or myself
wish to excuse or defend the sins and wickedness of the
clergy? God save us, we would far rather help you
to root them out, as far as it can be done legitimately
or we can do anything in the matter. But Christ
does not teach such methods as you are carrying on so
offensively with "Antichrist," " brothels," " devils' nests,"
" cesspools," and other unheard-of terms of abuse, not
to speak of your theatenings of sword, bloodshed, and
murder. 0 Luther, you were never taught this method
of working by Christ ; for he was meek and lowly of
heart. For, see, you speak all manner of slanderous
words openly before all the world, before Christians,
Hussites, and Jews, in many thousand pamphlets, not

344 HISTORY OF THE GEEMAN PEOPLE

only against your own brethren but also against our
common fathers, against the most high priest of God ;
and yet with it all you are doing nothing for the good
or improvement of a single human being. You are
only causing much offence among the people, many
hundred thousand sins of backbiting- and deriding.
Moreover you are mixing up a great deal of heresy
with your teaching, and are spoiling all your cause
by your unwarrantable and unchristian plan for
abolishing churches and cloisters.' Luther, he pro-
ceeds, found actual supporters only among ' poets,
troopers, haters of priests,' and ' poor Conrads,' who
set their hopes on a Bimdschuh. For the others
Luther's teaching had no weight : ' The Lutherans only
went with their Luther so far as he inveighed strongly
against the priests and the wealthy merchants. If
by means of this Bundschuh they could snatch the
possessions of the clergy and the money, the rents and
fortunes of the rich burghers, then they would be quite
ready to settle down and be Christians, like their parents
before them.

'Although Luther himself,' writes Carl von Bod-
mann, ' (possibly in order that he may thereby justify
himself with his Elector) says repeatedly in his writings
that the common people must not be allowed to take
up the sword, the contents of his pamphlets are, never-
theless, of a nature to stir up their angry passions, and
incite them to armed insurrection. And considering
their immense circulation, and all the means employed
to disseminate them, there can be no other result than
an insurrection and a complete overthrow of all social
and political order. Bishops and other spiritual over-
seers are, in Luther's eyes, robbers and murderers whose

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATORS 345

authority must be abolished, and who must themselves
be expelled. But what sort of a Church system does
he mean to erect on the ruins of the old ? Any-
thing so extraordinary as Luther's scheme no heretic
has ever yet propounded. Each one is to build up his
creed out of the Scriptures for himself; each one is to
decide for himself whether the doctrine presented to
him is right or not. Universal caprice will be the
result ; endless controversies will arise ; sects of all sorts
will spring up and will contend one against another.'

Emser said in the year 1524, in the dedication
to the Emperor of his ' Warning against Ecclesias-
tics falsely so called and that Archheretic Luther : '
' We Christians are no longer called Christians by
these heretics, but " papists ; " and the illustrious
members of your imperial nobility, the Electors, arch-
bishops, bishops, and princes of the Holy Empire, who
stand firm in their allegiance to the Eoman Church, and
in obedience to your Majesty, are scandalously abused,
despised, persecuted, and set one against the other.'
' All Christian members and loyal subjects of the Holy
Empire,' he says in the preface to this pamphlet, ' must
be deeply grieved at the cruel, unchristian abuse and
insults with which that blasphemer at Wittenberg,
who gives himself out for an ecclesiastic, prophet, and
evangelist, has so grossly belaboured our dear and
most venerable fathers and rulers, his Papal Holiness,
his Imperial Majesty, the princes and bishops of the
Holy Eoman Empire. In some of his latest publications
he insolently prides himself on having startled their
Papal and Imperial Majesties like a donkey from whose
back a sack has fallen ; and he calls the whole body of
bishops donkeys, impostors, jackanapes, and murderers

346 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

of souls ; he calls the princes of the Imperial Council
at Nuremberg fools and blasphemers of God ; and
exclaims in public : " Claus Narr would have managed
the business quite as well as they did." I will keep
silence concerning the other coarse and abominable
words with which this shameless tongue has wounded
modest ears and sensitive hearts.' From all this ' it
was plain to see ' that ' Luther was no true ecclesiastic
and prophet, but one of those of whom Christ says :
" Beware of the false prophets." '

Emser then proceeds to prove by twenty signs
that Luther is a 'false ecclesiastic.'

Among these ' twenty signs ' are the following : Keal
prophets, apostles, and preachers ' do not vaunt them-
selves,' as does Luther. He will allow no one to count
for anything but himself ; he despises and dishonours
the dead and the living, boasts that no ' Doctors ' or
early Fathers ever understood or preached the Gospel
rightly until he came. Again and again Emser draws
attention to the way in which Luther contradicts
himself; now complaining that he had been condemned
as a heretic without having been tried or confuted, and
that he could not obtain justice from the bishops ; and
now declaring that he will not be tried by any one on
earth, and will not be judged either by men or by
angels. ' Now I should like to know,' he adds, ' how
one is to get at justice with a man who will tolerate
no judge either of heaven or of earth ! '

'Luther sought the favour and friendship of the
world, which was no sign of a true prophet. He had
drawn almost half the world to his cause — ' namely, the
immoral priests whom he allowed, or rather commanded,
to marry ; item, wives for whom he had made the con-

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATORS 347

jugal bond very easy ; item, monks and nuns oppressed
by their rules, to whom he had given leave to escape
from their cloisters in spite of their oaths and vows, so
that he, like the Queen of Cyprus, might not be blamed
alone ; item, the nobility to whom he had addressed
his programme of reform, licensing them as it were
to use the sword, of which they were the votaries ;
item, the common people, whom he is helping to get
their freedom, and to whom he says : " A free Christian
should not be subject to any man or to any law,"
thus " putting cushions under all their heads," and
enticing them to himself with flattery and caresses.'

' True prophets, apostles, and preachers,' he goes on,
' exhort the people by their teaching and preaching
to peace and concord ; ' false prophets, on the other
hand, ' teach the populace that they ought to wash
their hands in the blood of the priests. Yes, verily,
says Luther : " If a violent insurrection came about,
and the pope and the bishops were exterminated, it
would only be matter for laughter ; " he even threatens
them openly with destruction ; if he lives they shall
have no peace from him ; if he dies they will have
still less peace, for after his death he will wound them
with great wounds.'

Emser deals especially with the leading article of
the Lutheran doctrine of justification through faith
alone ; he refutes it and establishes, from the evidence
of Holy Writ, the Catholic doctrine of good works, to
which also, he says, all true prophets and apostles
have always exhorted the people.'

Without faith, of course, there were no good works.
' Faith must exist above all things, and must be present
in the first instance, for without faith no good work

348 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

is pleasing to God.' But if the good works accom-
plished by reason of faith, and out of Christian love are
not meritorious and profitable for eternal life, why had
Christ taught, ' Whosoever gives a cup of cold water
in my name shall not lose his reward ' ? Why did he
say that at the Day of Judgment he should say to his
elect : ' Come, ye blessed of my Father. I was thirsty,
and ye gave me to drink,' and so forth ? If, then,
such a small thing as giving a cup of water had
its reward from God, what would not those pious
devoted servants of the cloisters deserve who under-
went penance religiously, and mortified their bodies
and their lives for the love of God ? How great would
be the reward of parents who, with toil and care,
diligently brought up their children in virtue and the
service of God ; of faithful domestics and obedient
subjects who for the love of God served their lords and
masters loyally, obediently, and industriously ; of
sovereigns and all in authority who governed those
under them conscientiously, and faithfully shielded and
befriended them. Summa summarum, there is no estate
or condition in Christendom wliich is not meritorious
if it be rightly fulfilled and if the duties attached
to it are performed faithfully and dihgently for love of
and faith in God. Those who are now preaching that our
good works are only tributes of gratitude, and neither
meritorious nor necessary for everlasting salvation,
are a pack of heretics, and false prophets, who are
preaching against the Christian Church and its
teachers. It is, however, true, that for all our good works
which we accomplish we ought to praise and thank
God, without whose grace and help we cannot begin or
finish anything that is good. But, this done, every

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATORS 349

work still possesses its own value and merit, as fasting,
praying, almsgiving, and so forth ; and each one has its
reward to be expected from God, so that the lowly will
be exalted and the mourners will be comforted, those
who hunger and thirst after righteousness will be
satisfied; and all who do or suiEfer anything for the
love of God will receive their due reward, as the
Lord says to them : ' Eejoice and be of good cheer, for
great is your reward in heaven.' And that is sound
catholic and evangelical truth. ^

Emser returns in several passages to the ' signifi-
cance of good works for salvation,' and also to the
refutation of the Lutheran teaching against monastic
vows. Luther, he says, preaches that these vows are
contrary to the command of God, because monks and
nuns ' base their vows on unbelief ; for they set them-
selves up against God and flatter themselves that they
will be saved by their works in their own way, which
is a Jewish belief and contrary to the first, second, and
third commandments.' ' On this point,' says Emser,
' Luther harps continually, like a musician who
can strum only one tune on his instrument. But,
as I have often said before, we do not dishonour
God with good works, but with bad ones, and the
clergy do not put their trust in their works as

^ The Church doctrine of good works was a most frequent theme of
the apologetic and polemic writings published for the people. Two little
treatises by the Dominican Johann Dietenberger of the years 1523 and
1524 are real masterpieces in this respect, as well for the present day as
for the times in which they were written. The titles are Oh der Glauhi
allein selig maclie and Oh die Christen mogen durch Hire gute Werhe das
HimmelreicJi verdienen ( ' "Whether Belief is sufficient for Salvation '
and ' Whether Christians can attain to the Kingdom of Heaven through
their Good Works ' ). (For further reference to religious writings of
Dietenberger see note at p. 311, vol. ii., of Janssen — German original,
17th and 18th ed.)

350 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

if it was their works that saved them, but they look
upon good works as a means and a way to salva-
tion. For just as God does not let the corn grow
in the fields for us without our labour and toil, so He
will not give us heaven unless we earn it by forsaking
evil and doing good. If we only consider what are the
things that the priests praise — chastity, voluntary
poverty, obedience, prayer, fasting, vigils, singing
praises to God — they are all excellent things, even if done
by Jews or heathens ! So, then, if the clergy and the
" religious " do all these things in the name and faith of
Christ, and for his sake, they do not thereby act against
the first, second, and third commandments of God, and
it cannot be called a Jewish belief. For the Jews do not
believe at all in Christ, and they are not now condemned
on account of the aforesaid works, but on account of
their unbelief. The pious, holy, children of God must
not be distressed because Luther so often calls them
"judaic " and "Jews," in which moreover he unwittingly,
like Caiaphas, speaks the truth ; for they are not real
Jews who are so outwardly in the flesh, but they who,
as St. Paul says, have the true circumcision of the
heart.'

In every condition of life we find ' proud, avari-
cious, dissolute, obstinate, irreligious, God-forgetting
people ; ' therefore ' it is no wonder that now in every
religious Order some are fallins^ off and forsakinsf
their cloisters ; for, as the old proverb says, whenever
the Devil wants to accomplish something great, he
makes use of a monk or a wicked old woman.' Luther
was enticing monks and nuns from their cloisters and
promising them freedom, ' but they would none the less
have to be the bond- servants of the whole world ; for

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATORS 351

some of them would be made to carry stones to
build walls, some to sweep rooms, some to be common
scavengers, and whatever nobody else liked doing,
these poor people would have to do, just as the
Israelites in Egypt had to fetch the straw for the
bricks. ' Come back, come back, ye lost and erring
brothers and sisters,' exclaims Emser to these renegades,
' put on again your first stoles, so that not we only,
but the angels also in heaven may rejoice over your
repentance.' ^

The true prophets and apostles, he goes on, are
known by the good fruits they bring forth ; they are
humble, patient, obedient, chaste, pious, and God-
fearing. The false prophets and preachers, on the
other hand, bring forth bad fruits : ' they make the
people haughty, defiant, arrogant, self-willed, stiff-
necked, disobedient, impatient, criminal, blasphemous,
warlike, envious, profligate, sensual and gluttonous,
and despisers of God. For we now see daily before
our eyes how the young generation, in the course
of three or four years, has abundantly put forth
such fruits, and, alas ! become so corrupted by them
that now no servants will any longer obey their
masters or mistresses, no child its father, no subjects
their rulers ; they fear neither God nor man, despise
all commands, all laws, all Christian rules, so that
Plato even — I say nothing of Christ — would not have
tolerated them in his community.' Never before
amono;st the German nation have such disturbance,
tumult, and sedition been experienced as Luther has
introduced with his false doctrine.

^ See Dietenberger's pamphlet, Wider 139 ScJilussreden Martin
Luther's von Qeliihdniss und geistl. Leben.

352 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

' And would to God that he had only led the poor
populace astray, and not also set kings and princes in
arms against each other, to produce even greater
misery ! For if only the princes and rulers were of one
mind they might be able to suppress the errors and the
contumacy of the people ; but he feared that Luther
was the man of whom it was written, that he would lay
waste the whole earth, and upset kingdoms and princi-
palities and devastate and destroy them.'

No joyful tidings could be recognised in Luther's
teaching, although his followers represented themselves
as evangelists. ' If the Lutherans were asked whether
they were believers, or whether they were Christians
or Lutherans, they answered that they were evangelical,
which no doubt was true, if they were speaking of
Luther's gospel, for, just as far as that was an
evangel, so were they evangelical. But if they meant
our evangel — authenticated and believed in by the
Church — then their words, ways, and works agree
as much with it as black does with white, fire with
water, light with darkness ; for very little good
tidings and good things are heard from them or pro-
claimed by them.'

Luther's opinions, publicly declaimed, on conjugal
life and sexual relations contributed indeed largely to
the marked decay of morals among the people.
Emser devotes a special chapter to this subject, and
bewails the ' unchristian desecration of holy matri-
mony,' and feels himself compelled to remind his
readers ' that Christ, and Paul, and all Christian
teachers, from the very beginning of the Church down
to the present day, have always enjoined purity and
chastity of body and soul.'

CONTINUED POLITICO-RELIGIOUS AGITATORS 353

' 0 ye worthy Germans and pious Christians/
exclaims Emser, ' supplicate and pray, I exhort you,
that ye may stand fast in the faith of your fathers and
may in no way let yourselves be led astray by this new
Jeroboam. For all his teachings aim at this : that
he would turn you and your children from these
two highest Christian virtues — namely, your ancient
faith and your obedience to your rulers.'

'The heretics are putting into the heads of the
people that they are no longer to give offerings, tribute-
money, tithes, and other rightful dues to Pope,
bishops, priests, and monks, and that furthermore they
are to take from them all that they possess. Dear
friends, why do they advise this ? You may well
imagine that if the priests are no longer to have
any payments they will no longer be able to pray,
preach, administer sacraments, and do other things
which appertain to their office, and which are needful
for the salvation of a Christian people.' ' But how could
the heretics have devised a more subtle plan for rooting
out Christianity than by abolishing priests, masses,
church, altar, sacraments, and all Christian rites, so
that all our consolation and hope of salvation should
be withdrawn from us, and each one should begin to
live as he pleases, and he that is the strongest push
the other against the wall ? But the foolish people
know no better, and think that if they can only perse-
cute and get rid of the priests, all will be rectified, and
do not consider what wretched misery they will be
plunged into if the counsel of the heretics has its way,"
' 0 ye pious Germans, take heed unto this warning.'

' I know well what attacks, threats, and danger I
myself have sufiered already for this cause even from

VOL. III. A A

354 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

those who were formerly my best friends. But as
through it all I have felt no hatred for them, so also I
have never committed any wrong or offence against any
of them ; in like manner I admonish you all that you
bear them no hatred or ill-will ; for he that hateth his
brother is a murderer in the sight of God and deserving
of judgment. Moreover the greater number of them
are acting in ignorance, because hitherto they have not
rightly understood the matter, and have been misled
and deceived ; and if, in course of time, they are rightly
instructed in the truth, they will, without doubt, draw
back again from Luther. But it is my earnest advice
that you and all who do not wish to be poisoned
with false doctrine should avoid Luther's books ; for
though he sometimes introduces somewhat of good,
there is nevertheless so much poison that it destroys
and neutralizes the good.'

' From the above little book,' says Emser at the
end to the Emperor, ' your Majesty will learn to what
extent crime and insolent audacity is being fostered
among us Germans by Luther's false teaching, and how
we are being led away not only from our ancient faith,
but from all submission to Your Majesty and to
Christian authority, so that all classes quake and
tremble.'

Like Emser, too, the Dominican Johann Dieten-
berger saw clearly in the year 1523 what would be
the consequence in Germany of the overthrow of all
ecclesiastical, political, and social order. ' At present,'
he writes, ' the Empire is still firmly and strongly
established,' but alarming symptoms of its decay
and of division among the people were manifesting
themselves. ' 0 thou land of Germany, whoso

DECAY OF INTELLECTUAL, ETC., LIFE 355

within thee hath ears to hear, let him hear. . . . God
in His mercy forfend that thy members should murder
one another in dissension, should burn, devastate,
and destroy each other's lives, property, and honour !
This I fear God will send upon you as a judgment and
punishment for your discord ; this visitation, that one
German shall miserably strangle another, that brother
shall murder brother, that neighbours and friends shall
put an end to each other, that one prince shall rise
against another, one town against another, till the
strength of your limbs has grown weak and sickly
and is wholly undone. These are the things which I
greatly fear for thee in the future.' ' ^

A natural result of these religious disturbances was_y
a general and rapid decay of intellectual life.

Within a few years the universities were observed
to deteriorate, with a rapidity as astonishing as it was
lamentable ; ' for the students,' so people complained
in the year 1524, ' are no longer interested in serious
studies ; they occupy themselves solely with religious
strife and disputation ; they read, write, and dis-
seminate little treatises and pamphlets ; they are
degenerating into coarseness and immorality, and at
the same time they declare that they are ihe messengers
of new wisdom and the reformers of public life.'
~" Luther had denounced the universities as dens of
murderers, temples of Moloch, synagogues of corrup-
tion ; in a sermon preached in the year 1521, of
which several editions were published, he had actually
gone the length of saying that ' the universities were
only worthy of being reduced to dust ; nothing more
hellish or devilish had ever appeared on the earth from
the beginning of things, or ever would appear.' Me-

A A 2

356 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

lanclitlion also, in a pamphlet against Emser in the
year 1521, said : ' Never had anything more corrupt
or godless been invented than the universities ; not the
popes but the Devil himself was their originator ;
Wickliffe had been the first to recognise that the
universities were schools of Satan ; could he have
said anything wiser or more godly ? The Jews offered
up youths to Moloch, and at the universities young
men were offered up to pagan idols.' ' A man who
boasts the title of philosopher cannot be called a Chris-
tian,'

In Luther's case, and at that time in Melanchthon's
also, this bitterness against the universities was closely
connected with hatred of philosophy, and of its intro-
duction, in any way, into religion. They hated the uni-
versities because these had always exalted ' the light of
nature ' and held up the reason as a suitable instrument
for the discovery of religious truth, and had attempted
a reconciliation between religion and science. Melan-
chthon soon abated the violence of his sentiments, but
Luther, to the end of his life, held firmly to the opinion
that ' reason was the Devil's bride, rationalism a beauti-
ful prostitute . . . who must be trampled under foot with
all her wisdom, who must be put to death, who must
have dirt thrown in her face to make her repulsive-
looking.'

Preachers innumerable spoke in similar accents.
They poured themselves out in virulent abuse against all
enlightened knowledge and all secular learning.

But the heaviest blow of all was struck at the
humanistic learning and studies, which before the
beginning of the religious controversies had developed
to such splendid blossoming that ' Cicero would soon

DECAY OF INTELLECTUAL, ETC., LIFE 357

have had to hide his diminished head,' *but which now
had dwindled down till scarce a trace of their pristine
bloom was left. 'Wherever Lutheranism prevails,'
wrote Erasmus to Pirkheimer, ' learning and liberal
culture go to the ground.' ' They care for two things
only — to get a place and a wife. Moreover their Gospel
gives them liberty to live according to their pleasure.'

' Under the cloak of the Gospel,' wrote the
humanist Eobanus Hessus from Erfurt in the year
1523, ' the escaped monks here are suppressing all the
fine arts. In their destructive sermons they rob
honourable studies of all credit in order to foist their
own nonsense on the world as wisdom. Our univer-
sity is quite deserted ; we are utterly despised.' ' So low
have we sunk,' he laments to his friend Camerarius,
* that only the memory of our former prosperity is left
us ; the hope of ever reviving it has completely dis-
appeared.' ' Our school has gone to ruin,' says
Euricius Cordus in a letter to his friend Draconites in
1523, ' and amongst the students there reigns a spirit
of lawlessness which could not be greater among
soldiers in a camp ; it makes me miserable to live here.'
' How sadly has learning decayed among us ! ' writes at
the same time the humanist Michael Nossen ; ' none
can see, without tears of grief, how all zeal for
learning and virtue has vanished from the place.
1 dread nothing so much as that, when the foundations
of learning and science have been destroyed, all piety
also will go to ruin, and a reign of barbarism set in,
which will completely annihilate every remnant of
religion and culture.'

' Nobody would have believed it,' says the Dean of the
Erfurt Philosophical Faculty in a report of 1523, 'if

358 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

any one had predicted that in a short time our university
would have fallen so low that scarcely a shadow of its
former lustre would remain. The affairs of the uni-
versity are handled in the pulpits in such a way that
scarcely anything escapes slander which was formerly
held in veneration,' ' All liberal studies are trodden
contemptuously under foot,' writes the rector of the
university ; ' academic honours have become an object
of hatred.'

' But what wonder,' he adds, ' that such things
should happen to the schools, when not even the
religion which has commanded veneration through so
many centuries is secure against calumny ? Verily,
for our sins we have merited that it should now be
permitted to factious partisans to assail all things
with impunity, just as it pleases them, so that scarcely
anything is respected nowadays but what was formerly
held in contempt.'

From year to year the numbers both of teachers
and students decreased in Erfurt ; hardly any one
was to be found who was willing to accept an aca-
demical post. Between May 1520 and 1521 as many
as 311 students had matriculated ; in the following
year the number sank to 120, in the year 1522 to 72,
and in 1523 and 1524 it fell to 34.

A similar decline in scientific studies took place in
Wittenberg. Melanchthon in a letter to Eobanus in 1523
says : ' I see that you are as much grieved as I am at
the falling oil in our studies, which but a short time
ago were so flourishing, and are now beginning to
droop again. Those who object to profane branches
of learning do not, believe me, think much better of
theological studies.' Later on, simultaneously with the

DECAY OF INTELLECTUAL, ETC., LIFE 359

publication of his pamphlets, Melanchthon wrote : ' If
that golden age had indeed come which in the blossom-
ing stage of learning we had dared to hope for, my
writings would have been brighter and more cheerful ;
but the impending schism, which came soon after,
cast its dark shadow over all my work.' He had
' begun his studies so joyously,' but already in the year
1524 he was sighing and moaning in the midst of the
religious disturbances : ' I am living here as in a
desert. I have scarcely any intercourse with any but
narrow minds, in which I find no pleasure ; therefore I
sit at home like a lame cobbler.' ' I have no one here,'
he says in another letter, ' who is in sympathy with me
or like-minded, and am reduced to what Plato calls
" wolf friendships," which are full of anxiety and
painfulness.' His efforts for the revival of liberal
culture in Wittenberg were completely shipwrecked.^
In his private letters he had no hesitation in attributing
to the Wittenberg theologians the responsibility of the
contempt of learning.

The other North German universities, such as
Leipzig and Eostock, also sank in importance from
year to year. At Eostock, where formerly about 300
students had matriculated every year, the number in
1524 was reduced to 38, and in 1525 to 15.^

The same melancholy picture was presented by the
South German universities, such as Basle, Heidelberg,
Freiburg. From Basle comes the following wail in
1524 : ' The university is as though dead and buried.

1 His Letters in the Corp. Beform. i. 575, 604, 613, 679, 683, 695,
726, 894. See the treatise ' Reformation and Literatiire ' in the Histor.-
polit. Blatter, xix. 259 ; Bollinger, Beformation, i. 354 ; Paulsen,
pp. 135-138.

- See DoUinger's Reformation, i. 575 ; Paulsen, p. 141 .

360 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

Empty are the chairs of the teachers, and empty the
benches of the learners.' In the year 1522 only 29
new students were entered, and m 1526 only 5. In
Heidelberg in the year 1525 there were more professors
than students.^ ' I have scarcely six regular attendants
at my lectures, wrote Ulrich Zasius, the most famous
of all professors of law, from Freiburg in 1523, ' and
these moreover are Frenchmen.' ' I carry on my
lecturing with great assiduity, though I never know if
I shall have any, or what, audience ; but the post is
wellnigh hateful to me, for the science of law has
come to be treated with such contempt.'

' There is a remarkable dearth of students here,' he
repeats in 1524, ' and I see no hope of improvement.'
The University of Vienna, which under the Emperor
Maximilian had been one of the first universities of
Europe, with its hundreds of professors and frequent
yearly tale of seven thousand students, had sunk
gradually to such a pitiful condition, in consequence of
the religious disturbances, that it counted, at the time
we write of, scarcely a dozen students ; the faculty of
jurisprudence was obliged to close its lecture- hall for a
time on account of the paucity of students.^

Wherever the new doctrine could be preached
without hindrance, multitudes of preachers worked
deliberately for the overthrow of all scientific culture ;
they set about systematically to build on the ruins

^ ' . . . Universitatem magna ex parte decrescere deflorescereque, in
earn pervenisse infelicitateni, ut plures sint professores quani anditores.'
See ' Die Berathung imd das Gutachten von Rector und Senat ' in
Hautz's History of the University of Heidelberg, p. 390.

- In the year 1517 the number of matriculations fell to 667 ; in 1520
to 569. After 1522 there followed a rapid decline, ' praecipue,' so we read
in the Acts of the university, ' quia ea tempestate secta Lutherana
plerosque a suscipiendis gradibus dehortabatur.'

DECAY OF INTELLECTUAL, ETC., LIFE 361

of ecclesiastical and educational institutions a govern-
ment by the ignorant mob, under the leadership of
clerical demagogues.^ They proceeded on the same
principles which had been proclaimed in the fifteenth
century by the Hussite party of the Taborites in
Bohemia. ' Whoso studies the liberal arts,' they said,
' or graduates in them, is frivolous and heathenish and a
sinner against the Gospel. The " truths " of philosophy
and of the liberal arts, even when they are in conformity
with the laws of Christ, must not be studied, but set
aside as heathenish, and the schools where they are
taught must be destroyed.'

' As the present age is the most perturbed of all,'
writes Glareamus in 1524 to Wilibald Pirkheimer, ' so
I fear that learning and science will soon be lost to-
gether with the knowledge of the classical languages,
the abolition of which is the great aim of those who
boast of resuscitating the pious life, and pride them-
selves on being the scourgers of the sophists, whereas
they are even stupider than these sophists. But how
piety is to be revived without true learning, and with-
out knowledge of the Greek language, I can in no wise
see. And yet these men assert with much clamouring
that it is not necessary to study Latin or Greek ; it is
enough to understand German and Hebrew. They
want to convert Christendom into a second Turkish
Empire.' The preachers who preached from their
pulpits to inexperienced youths against the dangers of
study ' ought,' said Melanchthon in 1524, 'to have their
tongues cut out.'

With this general disappearance of the scientific
and scholastic spirit, and the love and respect vvhich

^ DoUinger's Beformation, i. 440.

362 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

learning had enjoyed before the advent of the new gospel,
the German book-trade also began to suffer seriously.
After the year 1523 the operations of the great
publishers, such as Eynmann at Augsburg and the
brothers Atlansee in Vienna, came gradually to a
complete standstill ; the firm of Froben and Lachner at
Basle, which had formerly carried on such a splendid
business, became completely paralysed. All the legal
regulations of the trade were obliterated ; ' literary
property was entirely unprotected ; ' only the hawkers
' did a good business ' either in town or country. The
latter went about in swarms offering pamphlets,
caricatures, and lampoons for sale ; in the larger towns
vendors of every description of printed matter jostled
each other in the streets. In Nuremberg, for instance,
side by side with the regular booksellers and publishers,
miscellaneous shopkeepers displayed brochures for sale,
street urchins cried out pamphlets, &c., and foreign
hawkers, despite the enactments of the town council,
took their stand in the market-place in the very sight
of the council-house.^

^ For fuller details on the decline of the book-trade see Kirchhoff, i.
79-102 ; Hase, pp. 388-391. ' The strongest things that have been written
on piracy are to be found in Luther's Admonition to Printers (Sept.
1525), cxlvii-cxlviii. Erasmus wrote in the year 1524 : ' Apud
Germanos, vix quicquam vendibile est praeter Lutherana ac Anti-
Lutherana ' (O^j. iii. 824 ; compare p. 777). ' Frobenius complains to me
seriously that he was not selling even a single copy of St. Augustine's
De Civitate Dei' (Pag. 842). In the Colloquies he says: ' Nos Evan-
gelici quatuor res potissimum venamur : ut ventri bene sit, ne quid desit
iis, quae sub ventre sunt, tum ut sit, unde vivamus, postremo, ut liceat,
quod lubet, agere. Haec si suppetant, inter pocula clamamus : lo
Triumphe, lo Paean, vivit Evangelium, regnat Christus.' Compare
these and other remarks of Erasmus on the pernicious influence of the
new gospel on education, literature, and learning in Dollinger's Reforma-
tion (2nd ed.), i. 470-472 ; also Cochlaeus 'on the ruin that befell the
German fame for learning in consequence of the religious disturbances,'
in Otto, pp. 117, 131.

DECAY OF INTELLECTUAL, ETC., LIFE 363

The same fate which had overtaken the higher
branches of study and the seats of learning befell also
the inferior national schools, which sank year after
year to a lower ebb. 'The schools are beginning to
fall to such an extent,' wrote Enoch Widmann in the
town chronicle of Hoff, ' that scarcely any people will
send their children to school any more, or even allow
them to study, because the people have gathered just
this much from Luther's writings, that the priests and
the learned men have lamentably misled them ; thus,
everybody has become prejudiced against the priests,
and they are everywhere mocked and insulted.' ^ In like
manner spoke that zealous Hessian Protestant, Wilhelm
Lauze : ' Study and learning have declined and disap-
peared everywhere, in the towns and in the provinces ;
schools are deserted, and no parents will any longer
allow their children to remain at school.' - ' Under
the papacy,' so said Veit Dietrich at Nuremberg,
' there had been no measure or stint in giving ; ' now,
however, ' none would open their purses even to give a
Heller to help the poor churches, the ruined schools, or
the needy, destitute, oppressed people.' ^

Luther himself gave vent to the bitterest com-
plaints on this subject. ' In the German provinces,'
he said in 1524 in a missive to the burgomasters and
councillors of the different towns, ' the schools are now
everywhere allowed to go to ruin.' ' The universities
are sinking into disrepute, the cloisters are decreas-
ing in number, the soil is becoming sterile, and the
blossoms are withering.' Where cloisters and abbeys

^ See Dollinger's Beformation (2nd ed.), i., 466-467.
- Leben itnd Thaten P1iilix)pi Magnanimi ( ' Life and Deeds of Philip
the Magnanimous ' ), i. 141.

^ DoUinger's Beformation (2nd ed.), i., 469.

564 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

have been established nobody ' will any longer let their
children learn and study.' ' If,' they say, ' the status of
the clerics is to become of no account, we will let
learning also alone and not trouble ourselves about it
any more.'

All this, Luther declared, was a work of the Devil.
Under the papacy the Devil had spread out his nets by
the erection of cloisters and schools, ' so that it was
not possible for a single boy to escape him without a
special miracle from God.' Now, on the contrary,
because his wiles had been exposed by God's Word,
he would not let the boys learn anything. ' Nobody
has any idea what a wicked fiendish proceeding this is,
and it is going on so quietly that the mischief will be
accomplished before we can take counsel together and
hinder it. People are afraid of the Turks, of war, and
of floods, for they understand the danger of these
things ; but what the Devil has now in his mind nobody
sees, and so no one is frightened, and it is all taken
quietly. But, if they only knew, where they would give
one gulden to fight against the Turks, if they w^ere close
at our throats, they would give a hundred if perchance
one single boy might thereby be brought up to be an
honest Christian man. . . . Woe, woe unto the world,
always and eternally ! Every day children are born
and grow up amongst us, and there is no one, alas ! there
is nobody who looks after these young creatures and
brings them up properly ; they let them do just as they
like.' ' Dear sirs, if we spend yearly such great sums
on firearms, roads, bridges, dams, and countless other
such constructions, in order that some town may enjoy
material peace and comfort, should we not much more
spend as much on the needy children of the poor, so

DECAY OF INTELLECTUAL, ETC., LIFE 365

that we may produce, here and there, an able man for
a schoolmaster ? ' By means of the ' Gospel ' which he
had preached, the citizens, he said, had been saved
from the many great expenses they had been subject to
under the papacy ; would they not spend at least
a tenth part of this on the rebuilding of schools ?
' Each citizen ouo-ht to reason with himself thus-
wise : ' If hitherto he had been compelled to lose so
much money on indulgences, masses, vigils, founda-
tions, testaments, anniversaries, begging friars, brother-
hoods, pilgrimages, and all the rest of the rotten
rubbish, and now henceforth by the grace of God
he was to be saved from such robbery, would he not
for the future give a part of his gains, as a thank-
offering to God, for providing schools to educate the poor
children, which is a matter of such great importance ?
For verily we must have people who can administer
God's Word and sacraments to us, and tend the souls
of the people. But how shall we provide such pastors
if the schools are allowed to perish and no more
Christians are brought up ? ' ^

' I have now preached and written unceasingly,' he
complains in the same year 1524, in a missive to his
followers in Eiga and Livonia, ' that good schools
ought to be established in all towns, so that we may
train up learned men and women, who will make good
Christian pastors and preachers, so that the Word of
God may be abundantly propagated ; but they are so
tardy and indolent in setting about the work, as though
each one was anxious only about his food and his
temporal necessities, that it seems to me it must come to
this : that both schoolmasters and pastors and preachers

1 Collected Worhs, xxii. 171-174, 177, 19Sj,

366 HISTOEY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

have to renounce their professions and betake them-
selves to handicrafts, and leave the Word of God to
take care of itself, so that they may guard themselves
against starvation.' Formerly, he said, a town of four or
five hundred citizens gave from five to seven hundred
gulden yearly to the mendicant friars alone, besides all
the payments for bishops, officials, mendicants, and
beggars ; but now, on the contrary, ' there was such a
poor, miserable, forlorn government ' that scarcely one
or two hundred gulden could be raised for schools
and endowment of preachers. Formerly hundreds of
priests and monks had been maintained in the most
extravagant manner ; lands and retainers, towns and
castles had even been allotted to them ; but now the
preachers were treated as the rich man had treated
Lazarus. Not even three preachers could be provided
for ; everywhere the people were a prey to avarice and
anxiety about their daily bread. They were acting,
'without any necessity for it, like unbelieving hea-
thens,' and God would consequently permit a time of
terrible scarcity to overtake them, and it would be per-
fectly just.^

The Church doctrine of good works, by which men
ought to turn their faith in Christ into practice, and lay
up for themselves treasures in heaven, had called
forth during the Middle Ages numberless benevolent
donations and legacies for charitable institutions,
hospitals, and orphanages, had built churches and
cathedrals, and adorned them with the most beautiful
works of art ; had founded the higher and lower schools,
and provided them with endowments of all sorts. The
new doctrine of justification by faith alone, and of the

1 Collected Worlis, xli. 131-132.

DECAY OF INTELLECTUAL, ETC., LIFE 367

worthlessness of good works, had cut through the nerve
of self-sacrifice for the sake of the ideal things of life,
and at the same time was acting destructively on
the ordinances and institutions handed down to us
from our forefathers.

The most convincing witness to these facts is
Luther himself.

Over and over again in his writings he speaks
of the large-hearted munificence which prevailed
under the papacy. 'It rained alms, endowments,
legacies in those days,' he says, but under the evan-
gelical rule, on the contrary, ' nobody will give a
farthing ! ' ^ ' Under the papacy people were charitable
and gave gladly, but now, under the dispensation of
the Gospel, nobody gives any longer ; everybody
fleeces everybody else, and each wants to have
everything for himself only. And the longer the
Gospel is preached the more do the people become
steeped in avarice, pride, and pomp. All the
world grabs and saves, and yet nobody will be called
miserly, but every one is a " good evangelical " and a
true Christian. And this grabbing and pinching
touches nobody so much as poor Brother " Study " and
the poor pastors in towns and villages.' 'These last
are obliged to pay up, and to let themselves be fleeced
and skinned ; and the money that peasants, burghers,
and nobles extort from them the latter lavish and
squander in superfluous food and clothes — pour it down
their throats or hang it about their bodies. Therefore I
have often said that this state of things cannot continue
any longer, but must be changed ; either the Turk will
come, or else old Nick, and will suddenly make a clean

^ Collected Worlis, xliii. 164.

368 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

sweep of all that has during this long time been extorted,
stolen, plundered, and collected, or else the Day of
Judgment will come in and put an end to the game.' ^

In other places he says : ' Under the papacy
everybody was merciful and kind ; they gave gladly
with both hands, and with great devoutness. Now,
although people ought to show themselves grateful
for the Holy Gospel, they will give nothing, but
will only take. ' Formerly every town, when it had
grown to a fair size, was able comfortably to support
several cloisters. I say nothing of the priests of the
mass, and the rich foundations ; ' now they refuse
to maintain in a town two or three preachers, pastors,
and instructors of vouth, even 'when it would not
be done with their own money, but with that of
strangers which is left over from the papacy.'

From year to year Luther's complaints grew
louder. ' Those who ought to be good Christians,
because they had heard the Gospel, were much
more hard-hearted and unmerciful than before, as
one sees now only too plainly. Formerly, when,
under the misguidance of the pontificate and the false
Church-services, good works were compulsory, every-
body was ready and willing.' ' Now, on the contrary,
all the world had learnt nothing else than to save up
and extort, and openly rob by lies, tricks, usury, over-
charging, and overrating. And everybody behaves
towards his neighbour as if he did not regard him even
as a friend, still less as a brother of Christ, but as a
murderous enemy, and as if he only wanted to grab
everything for himself and grudged anything to any-
body else. This goes on every day and gets con-

1 Collected Worlis, v. 264-265.

DECAY OF INTELLECTUAL, ETC., LIFE 369

tinually worse and worse, and is universal among all
classes, princes, nobles, burghers, peasants, in all courts,
towns, villages — yea in all houses. Tell me where
there is a single town so independent, or so pious, that
it would now collect a sufficient sum to maintain one
schoolmaster or pastor. Yea, verily, if we had not
had alms and endowments in former times from the
benevolence of our ancestors, the burghers in the towns,
and the nobles and peasants of the country would
long ago have been altogether deprived of the Gospel,
and not a single poor preacher could now be supplied
with food and drink.'

' We might count on our fingers, here and else-
where, how much they give and do, who are en-
joying the Gospel, I will not say in order that we all
who are now living may have preachers and scholars,
but for the sake of our heirs and descendants who
shall come after us, that they may be able to learn
what we have learnt and believed. Ought we not
verily to be ashamed of ourselves, when we think of all
that our parents and ancestors did, kings and nobles,
princes and others, who gave so lavishly and chari-
tably, even to excess, for churches, pastors, schools,
foundations, hospitals, and so forth, by all which
generosity their posterity has in no wise been im-
poverished ? ' ^

And because under the dominion of the papacy, he
says elsewhere, everybody was so charitable, God sent
them a good time as a reward. ' Christ has spoken
and promised : " Give, and it shall be given unto you :
good measure, pressed down, and running over shall be
meted out unto you." And this also is proved by the

1 Collected WorJis, xiv. 389-390.'
VOL. 111. B B

370 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOPLE

experience of many pious people of all times, who,
before our day, gave liberal alms for preachers, and
schools, and the maintenance of the poor, and so forth,
and to whom GocI gave in return good times, peace, and
tranquillity ; thence also came that saying among the
people which confirms the truth of all this : " Kircheri-
gehefi sliumet nicht, Almosengeben arinet nicht, unrecht
Gut ivudelt nicht.'' ^ Therefore, too, we now see the
very opposite in the world, because such insatiable
avarice and greed are abroad, and nobody gives
either to God or to his neighbour, but only grabs for
himself what is given by others, while the sweat
and the lifeblood of the poor are drained ; therefore,
God gives us as our reward famine, dissension, and all
manner of calamity, till at length we shall be driven
to devouring ourselves, or being devoured by one
another, all of us together, the rich with the poor, the
great with the small.'

^ ' Church-goinj? does not hinder, almsgiving does not impoverish,
unrighteous gains do not enrich.'

END OF THE THIRD VOLUME

SPOTTISWOODE AXD CO., NEWSTRKKT SQUARE
LONDON

HISTOEICAL BOOKS

PUBLISHED BY

KEGAN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER, & CO., Ltd.

»ojis<o°

BAIN, R. NISBET, Gustavus III. and His Contemporaries,

1746-1792. From Original Documents. 2 vols, post 8vo. 2.s. net.

BAIRD, HENRY M., The Huguenots and the Revocation of

the Edict of Nantes. With Maps. 2 vols. 8vo. 30.<.

BANCROFT, K. H., Popular History of the Mexican People.

8vo. 15.S-.

BARING-GOULD, S., Germany, Present and Past. New and

Cheaper Edition. Larye crown 8vo. T-s'. 6d.

BRIDGETT, T. E., Blunders and Forgeries. Historical Essays.

Crown 8vo. 6s.

BRYANT, SOPHIE, Celtic Ireland. With 3 Maps. Crown

8vo. 5s.

BRYCE, JAMES, Two Centuries of Irish History. With

Introduction by JAS. Bkyce, M.P. 8vo. 16*.

DENVIR, JOHN, The Irish in Britain from the Earliest
Times to the Fall and Death of Parnell. By John Denvir.

Crown 8vo. 2s. 6d.

DJEMALEDDIN, BEY, Sultan Murad V. The Turkish

Dynastic Mystery, 1876-05. With 6 Portraits. Crown 8vo. 9s. net.

FREEMAN, E. A., Lectures to American Audiences. I. The

English People in its Ttiree Homes. II. I'raciical bearings of General
European History. Post 8vo. its.

GARDINER, SAMUEL R., and MULLINGER, J. BASS, Intro-
duction to the Study of English History. Third and Enlarged
Edition. Post 8vo. 7s. 6</. net.

GREVILLE, The Hon. E., The Year-Book of Australia.

Published Annuall3^ 8vo. 10s. &d. net.

HILLEBRAND, KARL, France and the French in the Second

Half of the Nineteenth Century. Translated from the Third
German Edition. Post 8vo. 10s. (id.

HOLST, H. von. The French Revolution. 2 vols, crown

8vo. 18s.

HOPE, Mrs., The First Divorce of Henry VIII. As told in

the State Papers. Crown 8vo. 6s.

Historical Boohs published bij Kegan Paul, Trench, Triibner, d- Co., Ltd.

JANSSEN, JOHANNES, History of the German People at

the Close of the Middle Ages. Translated by M. A. Mitchell
and A. M. Christie. Vols. 1. to IV. 8vo. 2os. per 2 vols.

KINGSFORD, W., The History of Canaia. By W. Kings-

KORD. In 10 volumes. Vol. I. lfi08-16S2 ; Vol. II. 1(;7'J-172.5 ; Vol. III.
1726-1756; Vol. IV. 1756-1763; Vol. V. 1768-1775; Vol. VI. 1776-
1779; Vol. VII. 1779-1807; Vol. Vlll. 1808-1815; Vol. IX. 1815-
1836; Vol. X. 1836-1841. With Maps. 8vo. 15a-. each volume.

LELAND, C. G., The Gypsies. Crown 8vo. lOs. M.

LIVY. Discourses on the First Decade of Titus Livius. From
the Italian of NiccoLO Machiavelli. By N. Hill Thompson. Large
crown 8vo. 12s.

MOORE, AUBREY L., Lectures and Papers on the History

of the Reformation in England and on the Continent. 8vo. le.s.

O'CLERY, THE, The Making- of Italy, 1856-1870. 8vo. 16s.
O'HAGAN, JOHN, Joan of Arc. An Historical Essay. Crown

8vo. '6s. 6(1.

PARAVICINI, FRANCES DE, The Early History of Balliol

College. 8vo. 12s.

PASTOR, Dr. LUDWIG, The History of the Popes. Trans-

lated from the German by Rev. Frederick I. ANTKOBUt., of the London
Oratory. Vols. I. to VI. 8vo. 24s. net per 2 vols.

PEET, Rev. STEPHEN D., Prehistoric America. Vol. I. The

Mound Builders. Illustrated. Crown 8vo. 21s. net.

REINDORF, Rev. CARL CHRISTIAN, History of the Gold

Coast and Asante. Demy 8vo. 9s. net.

ROBERTS, CHARLES G. D., A History of Canada. Demy

8vo. 10.S. 6^/.

SARJENT, Lt. HERBERT H., U.S. Army, Napoleon Bonaparte's
First Campaign. Crown svo. 6s.

The Campaigrn of Marengo. Crown 8vo. Qs.

TRENCH, Archbishop, Gustavus Adolphus in Germany,
and other Lectures on the Thirty Years' War. Third Edition,

Enlarged. Foolscap 8vo. is.

WALPOLE, C. G., Short History of Ireland. With 5 Maps

and Appendice.-5. Third Edition. Crown 8vo. 6s.

WRIGHT, THOMAS, Early Britain— The Celt, the Roman,

and the Saxon, a History ot the Early Inhabitants of britain down
to tue Conversion of the Anglo-Saxons to Christianity. Corrected and
Enlarged Edition. With nearly 300 Engravings. Crown 8vo. 9*.

London : Paternoster House, Charing Cross Road, W.C.

^^-'

to

O

LQ

03

a

•-3

o

3
-5|

4^ O
•H
r-"

a)
o

lb
til

o

ft

■--T^l

„-3lij:'xspni -JSH,, 'IM -"Span

JOU OQ

iavaan
oiNoaoj, JO AiisnaAiNn