The life of Martin Luther

BR 325 .W67 1856 v.l

Worsley, Henry.

The life of Martin Luther

THE LIFE

MARTIN LUTHER.

HENEY WOESLEY, M.A.,

HECTOR OF EASTON, SUFFOLK, LATE MICHEL SCHOLAK OP QUEEN'S COLLEGE, OXFORD.

IN TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. L

LONDON:
BELL AND DALDY, 186, FLEET STREET;

CAMBRIDGE: DEIGHTON, BELL, & CO.; DUBLIN: HODGES & SMITH;
EDINBURGH : J. MENZIES.

MDCCCIVI.

WILLIAM STEVENS, PRINTKR, 37, BRLf, YARD,
TEMPLE BAK.

TO

HEE GEACE
SUSAN EUPHEMIA,

DUCHESS DOWAGER OF HAMILTON, BRANDON, AND
CHATELHERAULT,

&c.. Se.c., &c.,

IN TOKEK OF THE HIGHEST ESTEEM FOK HER

CHRISTIAN CHARACTER,

AND OF GRATITUDE FOR LONG-CONTINUED KINDNESS,

Cljisi 23iog;rapi;|)

IS DEDICATED.

PREFACE.

The " Life of Martin Luther" now offered to the public
is an attempt to supply a simple, impartial, and truthful nar-
rative of the great Reformer's public acts and personal and
domestic history in a succinct and readable form. Although
many Biographies of Luther existed previously in foreign
languages, it would be difficult to point out one which is in
any measure a complete work, or aims at being such ; for the
custom has been to dilate on the early portions of the Re-
former's career, and to finish off the remainder of the story in
a few pages or paragraphs. There is indeed no instance be-
sides the life of Luther by Keil, and perhaps one or two more
works of the same kind, which has even aspired to chrono-
logical arrangement. To the majority of readers, what is
known of Luther has probably been derived from the popular
work of D^Aubigne, an interesting and graphic, as well as able
history, which no candid person would be willing to depre-
ciate : but, besides that it is a history of the Reformation, and
not of its principal agent, it does not carry down the narra-
tive lower than the Diet of Augsburg, and Luther's life was

Vm PREFACE.

extended nearly as much as sixteen years beyond that date.
Whether, however, the present biography has supplied the
desideratum which has unquestionably existed, can only be
determined by the unbiassed judgment of the public.

The sources of information from which the narrative is
drawn are principally the writings of Luther himself, or of
his cotemporaries. The writings of Melancthon, Mathesius,
Spalatin^ Myconius, Cochlseus, and others, are of importance
only second to the accounts transmitted by Luther's own pen.
The observations of many cotemporaries of what they saw
or heard arc collected in the careful pages of Seckendorf ; and
Walch's German edition of Luther^s works, in twenty-four
parts, published at Halle in 1750^ which also contains many
documents, public and private, bearing on the Reformation
and the great Reformer's career, has been found of essential
senice. There is also much to be gathered from the less
trodden field of epistolary correspondence ; and the familiar
letters of Melancthon and Erasmus, and Zwingle and CEiCO-
lampadius, are considerable helps towards forming a true
estimate of the character of persons and of the times. But
Luther's own writings are, of course, the best and most
authentic ground on which to compile his biography. These
have been published in various editions at different times, in
Latin and German : but it is a disadvantage that no edition of
his works hitherto brought to a close is quite perfect and
complete. For the " Acts," or reports of events, conferences,
&c., which appeared at the time from the pen of some Wit-

PREFACE. IX

tenberg writer, and answered the same purpose as the news-
paper reports of the present day, and which evidently, from
the frequent intermixture of the first with the third personal
pronoun, were generally revised by the Reformer himself, and
therefore are authorised versions of what they relate, refer-
ences are made for the most part either to the Jena or the
Altenberg edition of Luther's works. The references to the
Table-talk (Tischreden) are to Fbrstemann's admirable edition,
published at Leipsic in 1844. And great use has been made
of De Wette's excellent edition of Luther's letters, published
at Berlin in 1825 — a source of information altogether invalu-
able for his biography, as in perusing his unpremeditated
familiar correspondence with an infinite variety of characters,
monarch and merchant, warrior and scholar, his bosom
friends and his acquaintances of yesterday, the biographer in
fact takes his seat at the entrances of his heart, and views
character and motives in their spring and well-head.

But other means of obtaining information, or of arriving at
a fair and impartial estimate of acts and opinions, have not
been overlooked. Amongst these may be mentioned such
German and French biographies of Luther as have been pro-
curable, as well as the pages of Seckendorf, Sleidan, Father
Paul, Pallavicini, Maimburg, &c., and also the more general
histories of the period. And the greatest obligation must be
acknowledged to the modern historian Ranke, whose stores
of information are as immense as his philosophical instruc-
tions are invaluable, and who has enjoyed access to manuscript

X PREFACE.

letters of ambassadors, and others personally engaged in the
transactions they record, preserved amongst the archives of
Princes and Cities, which throw a new light on history.

It is not pretended that this English biography of Martin
Luther has been undertaken in any undecided or lukew^arm
spirit, as to the comparative merits of Popery and Protes-
tantism. Every one who is blest with common sense and
with common honesty must concur with the French author
M. Villers, in his "Essay on the Spirit and Influence of
the lleformation of Luther," which gained the prize of
the National Institute, that, even in a merely temporal
point of view, we owe to the lleformation very much of
whatever constitutional freedom, civil liberty, social refine-
ment, and improved civilization the nations of Europe en-
joy. The blessings of the lleformation are read in the
striking difference between the Romanist and Protestant Can-
tons of Switzerland ; in the rarity or almost absence of crime
amongst the Waldenses of Piedmont ; and the rarity of crime
generally in Protestant communities, and their superior tran-
quillity, morality, and industry, as compared with nations
still under the yoke of the most licentious, profligate, and
criminal city in the world — the metropolis of Popery, But
these undeniable facts do not constitute any inducement for
dealing more tenderly than truth demands with the actions
and life of the Reformer, to whom more than any other
human agent the achievement of that great religious and
intellectual revolution is attributable ; for had Luther been as

PREFACE. XI

exceptionable a character as Henry VIII. of England, the
movement which he originated would nevertheless have to
take its stand strictly on its own merits. The endeavoui' has
been to represent Luther such as he actually was ; neither to
feign motives nor suppress facts : but to give his unbiassed
story from his birth to his grave, without magnifying his ex-
cellences or extenuating his failings. As regards Luther's
opinions, it is hardly necessary to say, that a mere biographer
can be in no way responsible for them : the only duty incum-
bent upon him in treading the perilous ground of contested
doctrine, is to state with truth and accuracy what the subject
of his biography really said, thought, and believed.

The second volume, which will conclude the Life of Luther,
will make its appearance — unless unforeseen events preclude —
at no distant interval of time. And, should the work afford
any satisfaction to the public, it is intended that Luther's
Life should form the first in a series of Biographies, having
for their object to illustrate the history of the Reformation
by sketches of the public and private careers of the most re-
markable of those who, in different countries, were the
chief instruments in the Divine work.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.

PAGE

The Reformers who preceded Luther 1

CHAPTER I.

FROM THE lOTH NOVEMBER, 1483, TO THE SUMMER OF 1517.

Luther's birth— Domestic training — School life at Mansfeld, Mag-
deburg, and Eisenach — Career at Erforth University — Monastic
life — Spii'itual conflicts — Acquamtance with Staupitz^— Ordina-
tion— Removal to Wittenberg — Lecturing and preaching — Visit
to Rome — Doctor's vow — Sermons on the Ten Commandments —
Theses — Correspondence — Inspection of the Forty Convents —
Sermon at Dresden — Ninety-nine propositions . . . ,38

CHAPTER II.

FROM THE SUMMER OF 1517 TO THE CLOSE OF 1520.

The plenary indulgence — Tetzel at Juterbock — Luther's sermon —
All Saints' Eve and the ninety-five Theses — Letter to the Arcli-
bishop of Mentz, and the Bishop of Brandenburg — Popular ex-
citement— The Elector's dream — Luther quite alone in his acts
— The counter Theses of Tetzel — Burnt by the Wittenberg stu-

xiv CONTENTS.

PAGE

dents— Prierias' dialogue— Luther's calmness — John Eck —
The Obelisks— The Asterisks— Luther's disputes at Heidelberg
—Encloses his "Solutions" to Leo— Hochstraten— Luther
preaches on excommunication — Is cited to appear at Rome —
Publishes the Solutions— Answers Prierias— The Augsburg Diet
— The Pope commissions Cardinal Cajetan to try Luther — Me-
lancthon— Luther at Augsburg— Effects of the Augsburg inter-
views— Luther returns to Wittenberg — Ready to depart — Elec-
tor's reply to Cajetan— The Edict— Miltitz — Maxmilian dies —
Luther disputes with Eck at Leipsic — The residts — Eck goes to
Rome — Charles of Spain elected Emperor — Luther wi-ites to him
— In high esteem at the Saxon Court — Edits the "Epitome" with
Notes — News from Rome — The Bull — Luther appeals to the
Christian nobility— Aleander and Eck— Eck's insolence — Eck at
Leipsic — Charles' coronation — Caraccioli and Aleander address
Cliarlcs — Frederic — Frederic's answer — Erasmus — Luther dis-
sembles— Publishes the "Babylonian Captivity" — Perseverance
of Miltitz — Luther appeals to a Coimcil — Writes " against the
execrable Bull of Anticlu-ist " — Publishes his " Assertion of the
condemned Articles " — Burns the Bull — Remarks on the develop-
ment of Luther's views — The three movements — The prospects
of the Reformation — Luther's faith and humility . .78

CHAPTER III.

FROM THE CLOSE OF 1520 TO THE END OF MAY, 1521.

Obstacles to Luther's appearance at Worms before the Diet — His own
wishes — Designs of the Papists — Glapio's interview with Bruck
— Discussion on Luther introduced — Aleander's speech — The
German grievances — Luther summoned — His labours at Witten-
berg in the interval — Staupitz — Hutten — Luther chooses a
middle course — Bugenhagen — Luther starts for Worms — Luther

CONTENTS, XV

PAGE

at Weimai' — Erfui'th — Eisenach — Franlifort — The Dean of
Franlifort — Glapio with Sickengen — Bucer — Spalatin's message
— Luther's tree — Luther's entrance into Worms — The evening
before his appearance before the Diet — His first appearance —
Tumult in the evening — His prayer — His second appearance —
His speech — His refusal to recant — He is recalled — His second
reftisal— Luther at his hotel — The can of Einbek beer — Joy of
the Elector— The imperial message to the States — Popular agi-
tation— Hutten and Sickengen — Mediation of the Elector of
Treves — First conference- — Renewed in private — Luther again
refiises to recant — By-scenes — The mediations resumed at
Luther's hotel — Luther's final interview with the Archbishop of
Treves — His Clmstian firmness — The imperial message — Lu-
ther at Frankfort — His letter to Luke Ci-anach — His letters to
the Emperor and the States — Luther at Hirschfeld — at Mora —
He is made prisoner — Conducted to the Wartbm-g — League of
Pope and Emperor — Papist artifice — The Edict — Charles' selfish
policy 202

CHAPTER IV.

FROM THE END OF MAY, 1521, TO THE SPRING OF 1523.

Tlie Edict of Worms futile — Luther's popularity enhanced by his
temporary seclusion — Luther's own feelings — His employments
in the Wartburg — His illness — Apparitions — His hunting — His
literary labours — "Confutation of Latomus" — Judgment of the
Sorboime — Luther's merriment— His " extempore answers " —
Passing events — Social and religious changes— Monastic vow re-
nounced— Luther's view of the case— His treatise on the monastic
vow — Objections to the Reformation as a sensual movement con-
sidered— The private mass denounced — Luther's treatise — Appa-
rition of Satan — Elector appoints delegates to discuss the mass

XVI CONTENTS.

PACE

with the Augu.stiue monks — His hesitation — Luther and the
Elector of Mentz — Luther's secret visit to Wittenberg — Transla-
tion of the New Testament — Carlstadt — The Zwickau prophets —
Frederic's perplexity — Iconoclastic fury — Luther's verdict on the
Zwickau doctiines — His resolution — Luther at the Black Bear
at Jena — His letter from Borna — Luther appears at Wittenberg
— His sermons — All is quiet again — -Conference with the celestial
prophets — Luther's missionary tour — Translation of the Old
Testament begun — Bohemians — Henry VIII. of England — The
Diet of Nuremberg — Episcopal visitations — Luther follows over
the same field — Diet meets again at Nuremberg in the autumn
— The Centmn Gravamina — The Report — The Recess — Adiian's
\'iolent brief — The Elector consults the Reformers — Immense
progi'ess of the Reformation — Extreme brightness of its pro-
spects— Luther's prophetical foresight 274

THE LIFE

MARTIN LUTHEE.

INTRODUCTION.

The Reformers who rose up at difiPerent periods in the history
of the Church may be divided into three classes : 1. The
assertors of the right of private judgment against spiritual
despotism; 2. The impugners of clerical excesses and ecclesi-
astical abuses ; 3. The revivers of true doctrine in opposition
to the false tenets of the infallible Church. This last deno-
mination must be allowed to constitute the most solid claim
to the name of Reformer ; but, in giving a brief glance at the
Reformers, whether individuals or reforming communities,
who preceded Luther, some members of the two former sec-
tions must not be overlooked.

In the third century the Novatians objected to the re-
admission into the bosom of the Church of those who had
fallen from the faith in the persecution of Decius. They bore
the appellation of the Cathari, or the pure, on account of
their rigid opinions, and were excommunicated by the Bishop
of Rome : but whatever judgment may be passed on their
peculiar sentiments, their attempt to reform the manners of
professing Christians is at least the earliest on record.

B

^-^

INTRODUCTION.

lu the following century, yErius, in the eastern provinces
of Asia Minor, inveighed against the arrogance of the
Bishops in assuming that they constituted a distinct order
from the presbyters ; condemned prayers for the dead, peri-
odical fasts, and the multitude of ceremonies which were
already deforming the simplicity of primitive worship : hut
the taint of Arianism caused him to be regarded as a heretic,
and threw suspicion on the most commendable of his doc-
trines.

In the same age, Jovinian, a monk of Milan, raised his
protest against ascetism, denying any disparity of rewards in
a future world ; he denounced self-imposed austerities, and
maintained that celibacy is in no respect more pleasing to
God than matrimony. He was declared a heretic by Syricius
Bishop of Rome, and Ambrose Bishop of Milan, and con-
demned by the latter in a council convened at Milan in
390. And application being made to the Emperor Honorius,
Jovinian was banished from Italy to the desolate island of
Boa, off the coast of lUyria.

In the next century, a Reformer arose of more vigorous
mind, and more powerful eloquence, Vigilantius, a native of
Convenae or Lyons, among the eastern roots of the Pyrenees,
who performed the functions of Presbyter at Barcelona, in
Spain. He had travelled to Egypt and Palestine, and wit-
nessed the system of monasticism as there carried to its
height, and had returned filled with a just disgust of the in-
flated pietism which he perceived to be the genuine growth
of self-mortification pursued as a holy discipline. He set
himself in earnest to the task of exposing the false notions on
which such superstitious practice rested. He assailed with
boldness the idea that the relics of martyrs, or the spots
where they have been entombed, enjoy any peculiar sanctity :
he condemned burning tapers at their sepulchres as Pagan in

INTRODUCTION. 6

origin : he derided pilgrimages, periodical fastings, the pre-
tensions of celibacy as a more holy state of life, prayers to
departed saints, lying legends of miracles, and the preposter-
ous doctrine that almsgiving can atone for sin. But the
reign of darkness had already so far deepened on the Christian
world, that it was not necessary for a council to be sum-
moned to extinguish the influence of such scriptural teaching.
The monk of Bethlehem, in his declamatory style of rabid
abuse, pronounced Vigilantius a heretic ; and this was enough
to compel the victim of such denunciation to seek refuge
from persecution in those sequestered valleys running down
from the eastern declivities of the Cottian Alps, which were
destined to prove the fastnesses of Christ^s true Church in the
outpouring of moral and doctrinal corruptions over the rest
of Christendom.

But Augustine Bishop of Hippo, a convert from Manichaeism
through the excellent example of his mother Monica and the
preaching of Ambrose, is the greatest name of this period.
He taught salvation by grace alone, as none had taught it
since St. Paul ; and he may with justice be esteemed the spi-
ritual father of Luther and the Reformation. He was raised up
in God^s providence to be a witness to the truth before the
grossest doctrinal corruptions had taken firm root, as Luther
was raised up when the papal church was overshadowed with
their fullest growth. In the intervening thousand years, what-
ever true Christianity subsisted within the Roman pale is due
to the Scriptures or to Augustine their best expositor. And
it would be as impossible for Rome to reconcile the decrees
of the Council of Trent with the writings of Augustine, whose
authority she professes to recognize, as with those of Luther
himself

Towards the beginning of the ninth century a man of
apostolical piety is found in those very valleys which had

B 2

4 INTRODUCTION.

slieltcred the last days of Vigilantius, whose light shone ao
briditlv as to be reflected in the Christianity of Piedmont
long after his decease. Claude was by birth a Spaniard^ and
from being chaplain to Lewis the Meek was promoted to the
episcopal office^ and commenced his duties as Bisliop of Turin
in 823. It was the era in which the contest about images
was raging with great virulence; and Claude went beyond
the French divines and the Iconoclast Emperors of Constan-
tinople in his resistance to image worship, removing from the
churches throughout his diocese not only images but the
crucifix and every material of superstition. Image worship
he accounted idolatry : " My adversaries/^ said he, "have not
abandoned idols, but have only changed their names." He
also discouraged the veneration for relics, pilgrimages, the
doctrines of the merits of saints and their intercession ; he
denied that the power of the priesthood to bind and loose
extends beyond this world, and asserted, in reference to the
Pontiff, that " he is not to be called Apostolic who merely
occupies the Apostle^s seat, but he who fulfils the functions of
the Apostle." He diligently studied the Scriptures, and wrote
commentaries on several of the sacred books, and doubtless
derived the purity of his doctrine from the source of inspira-
tion. There was a practical tendency in all his teaching.
" If," he declared, " a man does not himself persevere in the
faith, the righteousness, and the truth, in which the Apostles
persevered, he cannot be saved." But Claude does not stand
alone at this epoch as a witness for the Gospel. Agobard
Archbishop of Lyons, as is proved by his writings, shared the
scriptural faith of the Apostle of Piedmont ; so did Paulinus
Bishop of Aquileia ; and many others of less note preserved
in their own hearts and for their flocks the flame of pure
religion.

The name of an independent enquirer in the same century

INTRODUCTION. 5

must not be altogether omitted. Godeshalcus, a German by
birth, a monk of Orbais in the diocese of Soissons, broached
the doctrine of a twofold predestination, of the elect to ever-
lasting life and of the wicked to everlasting damnation. He
defended his opinion by the authority of Augustine : but he
was condemned by Rabanus Maurus, the most famous theo-
logian of the day, in a council held at Mayence in 848, and he
was subsequently severely handled by his own Diocesan the
celebrated Hincraar, Having been subjected to torture of
protracted duration he was next removed to a convent, where
he was kept in confinement for twenty years, but without any
eflfect upon his faith, for he died protesting the truth of the
tenet for which he had suffered.

In the next century the darkness of ignorance would seem
to have settled down with impenetrable gloom on the human
intellect, and to have reached its extreme verge : but in the
eleventh century another enquiring mind appears. Berenger
Archdeacon of Angers, and principal of the public school of
Tours, impugned the doctrine of transubstantiation, which
Paschasius Radbert had introduced into the Church about a
century and a half before, and maintained the real presence
in the Lord's Supper to be simply spiritual. He was con-
demned in a council held at Rome in 1050 : and also in two
councils summoned in France. In a council convened at
Tours in 1055, when Hildebrand was the legate of Pope
Victor II,, he was dismissed on signing a statement to the
effect that he believed in the real presence. Four or five
years later, in a council held at Rome, Berenger affixed his
signature to a document affirming transubstantiation in the
broadest terms. In 1078, in another council under the pon-
tificate of his friend Gregory VII., he was suffered to escape
by a profession of faith such as he had before made at Tours ;
but as this did not satisfy the more bigoted ecclesiastics, in a

6 INTRODUCTION.

second council at Rome under the same PontiflF, he declared
his adhesion to transubstantiation to the fullest extent in
explicit terms. But he continued to inculcate the same doc-
trine of only a spu'itual presence as before ; and died in 1088
overwhelmed with the most bitter remorse of conscience in
that he should ever have denied by mouth a doctrine rooted
in his heart. With brilliant talents and extensive learning
he possesses excellent claims to the genius of independent
thought ; but his faith was too feeble for the patient endurance
of a martyr.

The partial revival of letters in the eleventh century was
continued with increasing success in the twelfth. Universities
arose, in which learned men lectured ; and the contentions
about the nature of universals, which occupied the subtle and
ingenious, could not be pursued without expanding the realm
of thought, and questions in theology following in the train of
questions in philosophy. Abelard, Canon of Paris, founder
of the Paraclete, monk and abbot of Huys, and finally an
inmate in the monastery of Clugny, is an instance of this.
He transferred his freedom of thought and subtlety of acumen
from disputations on matters of logic to religious topics,
roused against himself the hatred of the intolerant, and par-
ticularly of St. Bernard, and, in the close of his career, was
glad of any shelter from persecution. His teaching and
writings, however, had the effect of exciting enquiry, and
stimulating others to resist the papal oppression. His dis-
ciple, Arnold, of Brescia, united the reformer with the patriot,
insisted on the distinction between civil and spiritual, and
called on the Pontiff to lay down his temporal dignity, and
on the clergy to return to the old simplicity and virtue of
their profession. Somewhat earlier, Peter de Bruys, the
founder of the sect of Petrobrussians, had laboured to over-
throw the dominant superstition in Languedoc and Dauphiny.

INTRODUCTION. 7

He destroyed the crucifix wherever he went, he denied tran-
substantiation, and ridiculed the notion of the condition of
the dead being affected by prayers or oblations ; but he carried
his zeal beyond the limits of orthodoxy, and repudiated
infant baptism and structures for divine worship. Another
reformer, Henry, the founder of the Henricians, an Italian
by birth and a hermit, travelling from Lausanne in Switzer-
land to Mans, and, on his being banished thence, to Poictiers,
Bordeaux, and Toulouse, with a tall cross in his hand,
attracted a concourse of peasants in the villages and towns he
passed through, to whom he dilated on the avarice and vices
of the clergy, and censured the festivals and ceremonies, multi-
plied by the Church for the sake of lucre. Each of these three
last-mentioned Reformers fell a victim to persecution. Arnold,
condemned by a Lateran Council in 1139, retired to Zurich,
where he broke up the ground for the seed of the Gospel, to
be sown with effect four centuries later by Zwingle; but,
returning to Home, was crucified there in 1155. Peter de
Bruys was burnt at St. Giles' in 1130. Henry, overpowered
by the antagonism of St. Bernard, ended his days in prison.

A Reformer, whose character and peculiar tenets are better
knoAvn to history, flourished towards the close of the same
century. Peter Waldus, or Waldo, was a native of Lyons,
and, whilst still a Romanist, was so eager for the diffusion of
Christianity amongst the people, that he had the four Gospels
and other parts of the sacred writings translated into the vulgar
tongue; and, through the study of his own versions of Scripture,
was converted to the truth, and enabled to see the hostility of
Popery to the Bible. His profession was that of a merchant, and
he had acquired considerable property ; but he relinquished the
pursuit of merchandise, dispersed his goods in charity, and con-
secrated his time and energies to the revival of pure religion.
The sanctity of his behaviour and the earnestness of his preach-

INTttODUCTION.

ing at first won him many converts in his native place; butj
after a timCj he iucarred the displeasure of the archbishop,
and found a retreat from persecution in the valleys of Pied-
mont; amongst Christians of congenial habits and doctrine, who
had transmitted unimpaired, father to son, from age to age,
the scriptural faith of their apostle, Claude of Turin.

It is jiist at this period in church history that distinct com-
munities of Christians, acknowledging a faith at variance
with Romanism and based on Scripture, came more under
notice. These Waldenses, or Vallenses — that is, inhabitants
of mountain valleys — or Vaudois, as they are variously called,
were in possession of a territory adapted by nature to be the
seed-plot of the Gospel for the rest of Europe. Continually
subjected to persecution, they found a safeguard against anni-
hilation in the natural obstacles which environed their Alpine
recesses ; and persecution so far aided the cause of the Gospel
that it quickened the tendencies commonly felt by the inha-
bitants of a poor and mountainous district to migrate to more
favoured countries, where industry may reap a surer i-eward
of toil. Thus emigrants from the Vaudois expired at the
stake in Cologne for their religious steadfastness in 1140; at
the commencement of the thirteenth century, the number of
Vaudois in Germany provoked a persecution from Frederic
II ; a hundred and fourteen Vaudois were burnt at Paris in
1304 ; there was a numerous colony of them in Treves witli
regular schools and recognised teachers, between 1330 and
1390; the Turlupins, or companions of the wolves in Flanders,
were Vaudois, or converts to the doctrines which the exiled
Protestants of the Alps everywhere carried with them : and
in 1370 a Vaudois colony was planted in Calabria. The
original district over which Waldensian doctrine circulated
extended on either side of the Alps, penetrating the fastnesses
of the Pyrenees, to the west, and traversing the plains of

INTKODUCTION. \)

Lombardy to the east ; and hence they are sometimes called
the poor men of Lyons, and sometimes the poor men of
Lombardy, although this distinction appears to be more than
local, since the former, it is stated, entertained communist
notions on the subject of property which were not found
among the latter. In their own valleys, or in the countries to
which they wandered, they retained a fast rooted antipathy to
Popery. The Pope they termed Antichrist and his prelates
Simonists ; and the ancient verse record of their faith in the
language of the Troubadours, La Nobla Leczyon, composed
in 1099, is a conclusive demonstration of the scriptural excel-
lence of the articles of their creed at that early date. If
credit is due to their own historians, the Vaudois, as a reli-
gious society, are earlier than the time of Claude, and sepa-
rated from the Latin Church at the era when, by the conver-
sion of Constantine, wealth, as poison, flowed into its bosom,
introducing luxury among its members, vitiating the primitive
purity of the Christian life, and, by rapid consequence, per-
verting the principles of the faith " once delivered unto the
the saints."

But the most important emigration from this " persecuted
but not forsaken" remnant of the Apostolic Church remains
to be spoken of. In 1176 a colony of Waldenses migrated
to Bohemia, and formed a settlement on the river Eger ; and
in this new land they discovered, according to Moravian
writers, a community of Christians attached to the Greek
ritual, Avlio had been struggling for upwards of two centuries
against the papal prescription. They coalesced with such
congenial minds, and formed an united religious body. The
metropolis, as it were, of these confederate Christians, con-
tinued to be in Piedmont, whither such as were intended for
the ministry were despatched to pursue their studies, and to
be trained for their spiritual labours. The zeal of the frater-

10 * INTRODUCTION.

nity was active and influential ; their missions embraced
Hungary, Brandenburg, Pomerania, England, and yet more
distant countries ; and in lapse of time their teaching was
not without its effect on some of the priests of the Roman
communion in their neighbourhood.

Thus a principal stream which irrigated with life some
parts of the barren sohtude of the Western Church, sprang
from the Cottian Alps. In the eastern division of the great
Koman Empire a kindred stream may be traced in very early
times, less pure in its origin, but filtered and purified in its
course, the windings of which were very tortuous, its tri-
butaries widely dispersed, until it would seem to mingle with
different branches from the chief current of European Pro-
testantism. The Paulicians were to be found among the
villages and mountains bordering on the Euphrates in the
seventh century, a proscribed religious sect ; stigmatised by
the Greek Church as tainted with Gnostic or Manichsean
heresy. But one of their members, Constantine, who after-
wards took the name of Sylvanus, received from a stranger,
a deacon, to whom he had given lodging in his return from
Syrian captivity, as a token of gratitude for his hospitable
treatment, a copy of the New Testament. Constantine read
it with careful study, and communicated its contents to his
Armenian fellow exiles, to whom it imparted a new and cor-
rect view of the doctrines of the Gospel, and by whom it was
ever afterwards appealed to as the only standard of Christian
truth, as well as employed as the chief means of propagating
their own sentiments. Hence the name of the community,
Paulicians, as those who embraced with especial ardour the
doctrines insisted on by the Apostle Paul in his epistles.
They endured continued persecution from the Greek Church
and Emperor. Under Theodora a strict inquisition was made
for them throughout Lesser Asia, and as many as a hundred

INTRODUCTION. 11

thousand, according to the boast of the orthodox, were put to
death by the order of that Empress. But these severities
produced retaliation ; and the Paulicians used the sword for
some time with considerable success, but lost in the profes-
sion of arms much of the Christian character which had pre-
viously distinguished them. In the eighth century they are
found in Thrace in close friendship with other Armenians
differing from them in faith. In the thirteenth century his-
tory records their appearance in Croatia, Dalmatia, Italy, and
France, still in their varied adventures and trials retaining
something of their ancient faith, and equally distinct from
the Greek Church and the Latin.

The Paulicians appeared in the largest numbers at the be-
ginning of the thirteenth century in the south of France, to
which the access was easy from Thrace, Constantinople, and
Italy ; and there combining with members of the Vaudois
Church and some remnants of the Petrobrussians and Hen-
ricians, they formed the Albigenses, so named, as some suppose,
from the town of Albigia or Albi; or, as others conjecture,
from the term Albigensium, by which the south of France was
designated in the middle ages. The Albigenses went com-
monly by the name of Paulicians, or Publicans, the latter
probably a corruption of the former ; Bulgarians, Paterini,
from a certain place called Pataria, Cathari or Gazari {i.e.
Puritans), andBoni Homines. The descriptions of them have
come down exclusively from their adversaries, and are there-
fore instructive chiefly by implication ; and it does not appear
that they were like the Flagellants, the Dancers, the Bianchi
of Italy, and other sects of the period, mere fanatics ; but on
the contrary, from the favour of the Counts of Toulouse, under
whom they lived, that they were eminent for the pacific
virtues of settled industry. It was not long, however, before
the hue and cry of heresy was raised, and Innocent III. sent

13 INTRODUCTION.

his emissaries, amongst them Dominic, the founder of the
Dominicans, charged with the work of extirpation. The papal
functionaries bore the title of Inquisitors : the roving commis-
sion was soon altered to a standing local tribunal ; the simple
forms of judicial enquiry yielded their place to the most re-
fined subtleties; and from the crucible of bigotry and intoler-
ance finally came forth the tribunal of the Inquisition. The
secular arm was further called to the aid of the spiritual ; and
Simon de Montford, one half a selfish politician, and the other
half a relentless fanatic, omitted no article of sanguinary
cruelty in obeying the behests of the Church. So complete
was the extermination, that in the middle of the thirteenth
century it would have been a task of difficulty to find an
Albigeusian.

The destruction of the Albigenses was a signal triumph for
Rome, and a disheartening retrospect to the narrow band of
Reformers on the summit of the Alps; so much so, that,
either from the zeal of the opponents of the Papacy being
calmed, or the vengeance of Rome slaked, the Waldenses had
a lengthened respite from persecution. But the century
which succeeded to this wholesale martyrdom was very dark,
feebly illumined by a scattered name or two of Christian
worth, such as that of Gross-teste Bishop of Lincoln, who
refused to institute an Italian boy to a benefice at the Pope^s
bidding, and is reported on his deathbed to have pronounced
the Pope to be Antichrist. The demand from without for a
Church Reformation had been quenched in the blood of
hundreds of thousands : but the demand was in itself so well
gi'ouuded, that an attempt for a revival was made from within,
and the four orders of friars rose upon the ruined reputation
of the monks, bound to a holy life by the additional obligation
of poverty. But from the bosom of this new papistical insti-
tution, framed to consolidate the power of Rome, and generally

INTRODUCTION'. 13

truly subservient to that purpose^ tliere proceeded devout and
humble minds, who, from their earnestness in religion, were
soon placed in antagonism to Rome. To many of the Fran-
ciscan order the regulation of their founder imposing absolute
poverty appeared needlessly severe : and application was made
to the Pontiff, not without effect, to relax its stringency. But
another party of the Franciscans were resolved to adhere, in
opposition both to the Pope and their brother friars, to the
plain literal construction of their founder's will. One section
of these dissentients remained in outward union with the
Franciscan body, and were only distinguished from the rest
by the appellation of Spirituals. The Fratricelli, however,
went farther ; and separating themselves from the degenerate
Franciscans altogether, formed establishments of their own,
repudiating not merely any right of property in possessions,
but even the use, and consistently with this principle, sup-
porting themselves by alms begged from door to door. In
addition to these, there were the Tertiaries, a secular fraternity
who followed the third rule of St. Francis, which imposed the
same rigid obligation on them as on the regulars of their order,
with the exception of the vow of celibacy. All these three
classes of dissentients emanating from the Franciscan com-
munity, believed for the most part in a book entitled, "^ The
Everlasting Gospel," commonly ascribed to the famous Abbot
Joachim, the chief subject of the revelations of which referred
to the coming lleformation of the Church. An explanatory
introduction was prefixed to this work by Gerhard, one of the
Spirituals, in which the definite assertion was advanced, that
the anticipated Reformation would be brought about by the
preaching of humble and barefooted friars, destitute of every
worldly possession. In the contest between the Pope and the
Emperor Louis of Bavaria, many of the Franciscan Spirituals
took refup;e with the latter ; and among them the celebrated

14 tNTUODUCTlON.

William Occam, a native of a village of the same name in
Surrey, who did not refrain from venting his antipathy to the
Papacy in the keenest satire. There were, paoreover, in Flanders,
many societies both of men and women, resembling in their
organization the Tertiaries of St, Francis, who appropriated to
themselves an appellation derived from the Canticles, of the
" Vineyard of the Lord.'' And many of these societies of lay
brethren and sisters, called Cellites, from living in cells, and
Alexians, from their patron saint Alexius, bestowed much
attention, about the beginning of the fourteenth century, on
visiting the sick, particularly such as were afflicted with the
plague, whom the clergy were afraid to approach ; and they
were accustomed to lay in the graves the corpses of such as
had died of pestilence, accompanying their charitable act with
muttering a low funeral dirge. Hence the term Lollard, or
singer, which became co-extensive with Beghard,"^ the proper
appellation of the Franciscan Tertiaries ; and the English
Beghards were more generally styled Lollards. There may
have been much of error as well as of truth mixed up in the
notions of these religionists ; and the records of them trans-
mitted by the pens of opponents charge them with many
heresies ; but the devotedness of life shown by at least numerous
members of their societies argue a sincere desire to know and
do the truth, which God does not often leave unenlightened or
in fatal error ; and the assiduity with which the Dominicans
fed the fires of the Inquisition with such inoffensive victims,
is another testimony to their worth.

What was the tendency of the opinions entertained on
religion by the Lollards or Beghards, as all those were called
who professed more than ordinary sanctity, (just as the term
Methodist has been applied in later times,) is best evidenced by

* Bcghard denoted prayerful, devout, and also subsist in o^ hy begging
alms.

INTRODUCTION. 15

the life and tenets of a Reformer, greater than any of his prede-
cessors, who earned the title of the " Apostle of the Lollards."
John de Wycliffe was born in the north of England, in the
village of Wycliffe, in Yorkshire, and of an ancient family, in
1324 ; and first brought himself into notice by a tract, entitled
" Able Beggary," directed against the mendicant friars, the
devoted and most active abettors of the papal pretensions.
In 1361, Wycliffe was presented to the living of Fillingham,
in Lincolnshire ; and, later in the same year, was advanced
to the wardenship of Baliol College. In 1365 he was made
Master of Canterbmy Hall, which, as Fuller says, has " since
like a tributary brook, been swallowed up in the vastness of
Christ Church."'^ But the death of his patron, Simon de
Islep Archbishop of Canterbury, taking place not many months
afterwards, Peter Langham — who had been a monk himself,
and therefore espoused the monastic and mendicant cause in
opposition to the universities and secular clergy — was elevated
to the primacy, and removed Wycliffe from his mastership, in
which he reinstated Woodhall, the previous master, whom
Simon de Islep had degraded for his contentions and refrac-
tory spirit. Against this act of the new Prinvite Wycliffe
appealed to the Pope ; but he did not on that account in any
measure recede from the bold defence of the universities and
clergy against the monks and friars, in which he was embarked.
Indeed, while the cause was pending, the refusal of Edward
III. to pay to the Pontiff the tribute which John had agreed
to pay annually to the Holy See, in recognition of feudal
submission, was defended by Wycliffe against a monk who
had written a tract on the pontifical side, and challenged the
Reformer to answer him. But this high-spirited conduct de-
termined the verdict of Urban V. Wycliffe, however, was com-

* Cluircli History of Britain, I., p. 439.

16 INTRODICTIOX.

prusuted for tlic deprivation of his mastership of Canterbury
Hall by being raised by the University of Oxford to the chair
of Professor of Theology. An enlarged sphere of usefulness
was thus opened to liira, in which he laboured with great
energy, enlightening the age by his writings and lectures. It
is not exactly known by what means Wycliffe had obtained
the patronage of John of Gaunt, but probably by his defence
of the King against the Pope, Avhich had also led to his being
appointed a royal chaplain; and the joint efforts of the duke
and the chaplain were directed to the laudable object of separat-
ing the spiritual and the temporal, and confining the attention
of ecclesiastics to the charge of their own flocks. In 1374,
Wycliffe was chosen one of the delegates to treat with the
papal commissioners on restraining within certain bounds the
patronage of the Pontiff"; for the statutes against provisors,
and other eff'orts of the king and parliament, had proved in-
sufficient to prevent or eff'ectually abate the evil. The nego-
eiations were carried on at Bruges. Had Avignon itself
been the theatre of the discussions, the display of papal sen-
suality and iniquity would have been more complete ; but the
Reformer sajv enough in the dealings of the commissioners to
conceive a more rooted hostility to Rome than before ; and
ever afterwards he denounced the Pope as unequivocally " the
Antichrist." He was not forgotten by the king in his
absence, but was presented first to the prebend of Aust, in
the collegiate church of Westbury, in the diocese of Wor-
cester, and soon afterwards to the rectory of Lutterworth, in
Lincolnshire. It appeal's that he did not return to En^-land
until 1376 ; and, in the meantime, William of Wykeham
Courtney, and the party of the prelates, had contrived so far
to excite the resentment of the public against John of Gaunt
that an attack upon Wycliffe was deemed practicable. In the
commencement of 1377 he was simimoned on the charge of

INTRODUCTION. 17

erroneous and heretical opinions to appear before his ecclesi-
astical superiors in St. PauFs, and the 19tli February was
fixed for his defence. He entered the place of trial accompa-
nied by Lord Percy the Earl Marshal, and by John of
Gaunt, whose protection was regarded by the prelates as
intrusive; and, in the altercation which ensued, Percy insisted
that WyclifiPe should be seated before his judges, and the Duke
used language to the effect that he would humble the pride of
the whole prelacy of England. The Londoners, according to
Walsingham, were all Lollards ; but the faction of the bishops,
taking advantage of the unpopularity of John of Gaunt, was
able to excite a tumult, which proceeded to acts of violence
and bloodshed ; and thus the affair of Wycliffe's trial ter-
minated for the present. But, in the July following, bulls
were received from the Pope, by which Wycliffe was pro-
nounced a heretic of a similar grade to John of Ghent (John
de Ganduno) and Marcillus of Padua ;* and he was summoned
by the Chancellor of the University of Oxford, but not with-
out some reluctance, to answer to the charges made against
him before his superiors, in the chapel of Lambeth. But on
this occasion, no political feelings intervening to turn aside
the bias of public sentiment on religion, the populace with a
menacing air surrounded the chapel. Sir Louis Clifford, in
the name of the Queen Mother, forbade the proceedings ;
and the bishops, in no little alarm, desisted from their attempt.
The Grand Schism which followed, in 1379, allowed the
Reformer a respite from persecution, and enabled him to
undertake and accomplish his most important work — of trans-
lating, by the aid of expository comments, not only the New
Testament but the whole Bible, from the Vulgate into
English ; and, at the same time, added to the vigour with

* They placed the civil above the ecclesiastical authority.
VOL. 1. C

18 INTRODUCTION.

which he composed and published popular religious tracts,
drawing attention to the goodness of Christ, " who hath begun
already to help us graciously, in that he hath clove the head
of Antichrist." But these labours brought on a severe sick-
ness, in which, stretched upon his bed at Oxford, he was
visited by representatives of the orders of friars and some
city aldermen, who admonished him to think of his approach-
ing end, and repent of his ways ; upon which Wychffe, haviog
been bolstered up in bed by his attendants, exclaimed, " I
shall not die, but live, and shall again declare the evil deeds
of the friars." This prediction proved true ; and he was
enabled not only to resume his sermons and lectures, but his
itinerant instruction to the scattered peasantry, amongst
whom his venerable appearance in his plain garb and long
frieze gown, and simple but powerful style of eloquence,
gained him great influence ; and such as he could not visit
himself, he found means of enlightening in the principles of
the Gospel by the agency of his "poor priests," who preached
in churches, markets, fairs, and wherever they could find an
auditory. In the spring of 1381 he gave great prominence
in his university lectures to his denial of the doctrine of
transubstantiation, asserting that the sacramental elements
are " not Christ nor any part of him, but an effectual sign of
him." This attack on the centre point of the Romish system
aroused the full enmity of his opponents. His teaching was
first prohibited by the authorities of his university, from whom
he appealed to the civil power, employing himself in the
interval before the meeting of Parliament in composing the
treatise known as " Wycliftc's Wicket," in which he arraigned
the monstrous absurdity of pretending that " the thing which
is not God to-day shall be God to-morrow; yea, that the
thing which is without spirit of life, but groweth in the field
by nature, shall another time be God ! " Just at this pei'iod,

INTRODUCTION-. 19

by the death of Simon Sudbury, the bigoted Courtney was
appointed Archbishop of Canterbury ; and in May, 1382, a
few days before the Parliament met, convoked a synod famous
as the Council of the " herydene," or earthquake, by which
its proceedings were for a moment interrupted, which con-
demned twenty-four articles extracted from Wycliffe^s writings,
ten as heresies, and the rest as errors. The crown and the
mitre were for a while united in sentiment at this juncture,
and a bill passed the Lords, but not the Commons, and
received the royal sanction, which is the fir^t iVct to be found
among the English statutes for the suppression of heresy.
Even John of Gaunt, the patron of Chaucer, and up to this
time of Wycliffe, who had strained every nerve to confine
within narrower limits the domination of Rome, drew back
from alliance with a man who had dared to assail a principal
dogma of the faith. But before persecution could wreak its
vengeance on his head, Wycliffe was mercifully released from
his trials and his labours, which had never been checked by
the resistance opposed to them. As he was raising the chalice
in solemnization of the Lord's Supper, in his church of Lut-
terworth, he was struck by paralysis, and expired on the last
day of the year 1384; his enemies imputing his death to the
divine judgment, and his friends regarding it as a special
mark of divine love, that the death stroke fell when he was
in the act of performing the highest function of the Christian
minister.

None of the preceding Reformers had attained in any
measure to Wyclifi'e's celebrity : and his opinions were so
singularly enlightened that, if not in the words which he em-
ployed to communicate them, yet in the reality of his mean-
ing, they fell but little short of the sum of Christian truth.
He insisted strongly in his teaching on Augustine's great
points, the depravity of man, and the grace through Christ;

c 3-

20 INTRODUCTION.

he bowed submissively before no authority save tliat of Scrip-
ture : he rejected transubstantiation, monasticism, and the
whole religion of ceremonial : he characterised pardons and
indulgences as " a subtle merchandise of anticliristian clerks,
causing men to wallow in sin like hogs:" he repudiated
auricular confession ; asserted the simply ministerial character
of priestly absolution ; disdained excommunications and in-
terdicts ; and maintained that bishops and priests belonged
originally to the same order. He did indeed retain the seven
sacraments, but understood the term in a very lax sense, as
appears from his observation, that " the baptism of water pro-
fiteth not without the baptism of the Spirit." It must be
imputed to the austere and melancholy Aiews, which the evils
of the times forced upon him, that he spoke of music in
divine worship as unsuitable " in this valley of tears ; " to the
vices of the clergy, that he regarded tithes merely as alms;
and to the worldly pride of the prelates, that he could see
little else in confirmation than means of episcopal aggrandise-
ment. He objected to oaths on whatever occasion as profane ;
and warmly advocated peace. Of the Pope he spoke as that
" evil manslayer, poisoner, and burner of the servants of
Christ, the root of all the misgovernance in the Church:" and
he subjected the property and conduct of ecclesiastics to the
award of civil tribunals ; and looked to the State as in right
and duty bound to reform the Church. His opinions on
many subjects were much like guesses after truth; and he
may be viewed as occupying something of the same position
in relation to subsequent Reformers which Roger Bacon
occupied in reference to the philosophers of a more favoured
era : and, according to human judgment, it sufficiently ex-
plains his failure to accomplish the object of his labours and
of his life, that his genius and knowledge shot so far beyond
the confined notions and servile principles of his age.

INTRODUCTION. 21

As has already been shown, side bj side with the true
Church of Christ protesting against Rome, attempts were
continually making from within the papal fold, not to reform
the doctrines, but to reform the corrupt morality which was
jeopardizing doctrines and the worldly interests of which the
doctrines were the palladium. Had Wycliffe inveighed as
exclusively as he did severely against the manners of the
times, and particularly of the ecclesiastical order, he would
.have been the precursor of such men as Peter D^Ailli, Cle-
mangis, and John Gerson, and would have ended his career in
the favour of the powerful and the repute of the world.
Gerson, the oracle of the Councils of Pisa and Constance, de-
nounced in an equally bold tone the laxity of ecclesiastical
morals and the infamy of the Pontiffs; but he placed the
decisions of Councils in the stead of Scripture, the Church, as
he termed the Latin Apostacy, in that of Christ; and whilst
in one sentence he vigorously called for a Reformation of the
Church, in the next he consigned those true Reformers, who
had probed the evil deeper than himself, to the dungeon or
the stake.

But it has been beautifully said of the remains of Wycliffe,
which, by a decree of the Council of Constance, were exhumed
from their resting-place more than forty years after inter-
ment, and thrown into the adjoining brook : — " The brook
did convey his ashes into Avon: Avon into Severn : Severn
into the narrow seas : they into the main ocean. And thus the
ashes of Wycliffe are the emblem of his doctrines, which now
are dispersed all the world over.'^ The transit of Wy differs
tenets and writings to Bohemia was facilitated by the return
of the ladies of the court of the good Queen of the ill-fated
Richard II., Anne of Bohemia, after her demise, to their
native land : and the communication was kept open by
Bohemian noblemen resorting to Oxford, where the disciples

22 INTRODUCTION'.

of the Reformer were still numerous, and by Oxford students
travelling to Bohemia. The influence which a great man
always exerts was exemplified most powerfully in the history
of an eminent Reformer and Martyr, a pupil of Wycliffe by
the study of his writings, who next rose up in this very
country, watered of old and prepared to receive with fruitful
energy the seed wafted from England.

John Hussinitz or Huss, so called from the rural -sdllage of his
birth, was remarkable for a pale thoughtful face, an attenuated
form, and a gentleness and affability of address which scarcely
less than his eloquence gained him the good will of all ranks.
In 1400 he was appointed confessor to Sophia of Bavaria, the
Queen of Bohemia : a year later he became President or
Dean of the philosophical faculty in the University of Prague :
in 1409 he was raised to be Rector of that University: but
for some years previously his sermons in the chapel of Beth-
lehem, delivered in the language of his countrymen, had
begun to attract great attention. In these sermons he solemnly
declared that the doctrines of "Wycliffe were the sum of
truth, and expressed his devout wish that on quitting this life
his soul might pass to the same region as that in which the
soul of Wycliffe had its dwelling-place. The clergy of Bo-
hemia at first had not shown themselves unfavourable to
IIuss, but as his character expanded, and his doctrinal system
developed, they conceived a stronger and stronger dislike to
him, and combining as against a heretic accused him to
John XXIII. , by whom he was summoned to stand his trial
at Rome. The papal mandate was disregarded and contemned.
The case was next taken up by the Council of Constance,
which among its earliest acts ordered John Huss to appear
before it ; and a safe-conduct from the Emperor Sigismund
seemed to preclude the idea of danger to his person. Huss,
who set a very different value on the authority of the Pontiff

INTHODUCTION. 23

aud that of a General Council, obeyed the requisition of the
latter with alacrity, and, confident in the justice of his cause,
addressed letters to his opponents, challenging them to meet
him face to face at Constance. But within a month after his
arrival he was thrown into prison : on the 14th May, 1415,
the writings and the bones of WyclifFe were condemned to
the flames : and it shortly afterwards was made apparent that
Sigismund's safe-conduct would only prevail so far as to pro-
cure Huss the mockery of a trial. From the Council Huss
appealed to Jesus Christ ; but this they declared was in deri-
sion of ecclesiastical authority ; and they registered their de-
cision that a promise given to a heretic is not binding. The
process of deprivation of the priestly office was formally carried
through. Huss was dressed in his full canonical robes with
the communion cup in his hands : the cup was first taken out
of his hands ; then his robes were stripped off" him : a cap
with " heresiarch " inscribed on it in large letters was put on
his head : after which his sentence was read, and his soul
consigned to the infernal devils, and he was finally led away
to the stake. His last words were, " Lord Jesus, I endure
with humility this cruel death for thy sake : and I pray thee
to pardon all my enemies." His ashes were thrown into the
Lake of Constance.

But another victim was requu'ed to satiate the orthodox
vengeance of a Council convened on the business of E/cform.
Jerome, the disciple of Huss, Master in Theology and Lec-
turer in the University of Prague, was accused of entertaining
the same theological principles as his Bector, and cited to
Constance to answer to the accusation. His first appearance
before the Council was on the 23rd May, when his constancy
stood proof against every demand of retractation. On June 14,
it was decided that the sacrament of the Lord's Supper should
be administered in one kind only, in opposition to the Bohemian

24 INTRODUCTION.

practice : and in the beginning of July Huss suffered martyr-
dom. These acts of the Council daunted the courage of
Jerome : and on his second appearance he wavered in his re-
plies; and on the third formally recanted, anathematizing all
heresies and especially those of Wycliffe and Huss. But he
was nevertheless reconsigned to prison ; and Gerson published
a tract intended to cast suspicion on the revocation of their
tenets by heretics. JNIcanwliile better feelings were re-awak-
ened in Jerome's breast. He earnestly and repeatedly solicited
to be taken once more before the Council, and on this request
beiug complied with, on the 23rd May 1416 he revoked his
former guilty recantation, and openly declared that it had
been wrung from him against his convictions by the appre-
hension of a painful death. Seven days afterwards he suffered
on the same spot on which Huss had sealed his testimony with
his blood. But as if to evince his shame at the weakness of
his earlier conduct, he ordered the executioner to kindle the
fire not behind his back but full before his face, and as the
flames ascended he imitated Huss in chaunting a hymn with
devout joy until the power of speech failed him.

The followers of Huss, incensed at the barbarous murder of
their spiritual father in the teeth of the imperial safe-conduct,
retired to a high mountain, to which they gave the name of
Thabor, whence they themselves obtained the designation of
Thaborites. They celebrated the holy communion in both
kinds in the most solemn manner; and took up arms in de-
fence of their faith, first under Nicholas de Hussinet, afterwards
of the famous John Zisca, and on his decease, of Procopius
Rasa. For some time their warlike operations were signally
successful, but at length their unhappy division into two par-
ties, the Calixtines, who expressed themselves satisfied with
retaining the use of the cup in the eucliarist, and the Thaborites
more strictly so called, who extended their views to a General

INTRODUCTION. 25

Reform^ sowed the seeds of disaster and finally of defeat. In
1433 tlie Council of Basle condescended to negociate with
heretics who had proved their skill in the use of the sword.
In 1436 a concordat was arranged between them and the
Emperor Sigismuud; but the Pontiff would hear of no com-
promise, and refused to confirm the appointment of Rokysan
a Calixtine to the See of Prague. In 1451 J^neas Sylvius, the
liberal Cardinal, and afterwards as Pius II. the intolerant Pope,
visited the Hussites, but with no effectual result. The hopes
of union with the Greek Church which Rokysan and the
Bohemians had formed were overthrown together with Con-
stantinople itself in 1453 ; and in 1466 Paul II. excommuni-
cated the Bohemian monarch, proclaimed a transfer of his
sceptre to Corvinus the son of Hunniades, and diverted the
arms levied against the Turks to the extirpation of heresy.
But persecution and presumption failed of their object.
Gradually, however, the resistance to Homish pretensions lan-
guished into indifference : even party denominations became
lost : only a remnant survived whom the sword had not quelled
and whose zeal for truth had not been extinguished by the
more powerful agency of the surrounding indiflFerence. Be-
lieved of adherents never more than partially enlightened as to
religious truth, this devoted remnant obtained a settlement in
the Lordship of Lititz, a domain laid waste by war on the
boundary of Silesia and Moravia ; and here they remodelled
their doctrines by the standard of Scripture, and established
themselves in a Christian society, to which they gave the name
of the United Bohemian or Moravian Brethren ; and to mark
their sympathy with the Christians in the Alpine valleys, their
first bishop, Matthew, was ordained by the Waldensian Bishop
Stephen. Congregations rapidly sprung up throughout Bo-
hemia and Moravia in connexion with this " Uuitas fratrum : "
missions were formed : and the new colony grew to a thriving

26 INTRODUCTION.

religious community, the centre of light to their neighbour-
hood, and even the more distant parts of Germany. So much
was this the case that their tenets engaged the attention of
Leo X. in 1513, and he invited their delegates to bear a share
in the deliberations of the fifth Lateran Council. And thus
when Luther sounded the notes of evangelical truth a few
years later, he drew to his banner amongst the foremost, Bo-
hemian and Moravian Christians, who amidst doctrinal cor-
ruptions on all sides, had ftiithfully repudiated the mass,
transubstantiation, purgatory, image worship, prayers for the
dead, the authority of Councils, and the usurpation of the
Pope.

It is now necessary to retrace the steps to England, and
there behold a Reformer like Huss, animated with a firm
faith in the doctrines of Wycliffe and the Scriptures, and,
like the Bohemian prophet, adorned too with the crown of
martyrdom. Sir John Oldcastle, or Lord Cobham, was one
of the most popular noblemen in England, equally a favourite
with Henry V. and with the people ; but at a period when a
newly established throne required clerical support, and there-
fore loose reins had been given to the prelates, he had distin-
guished himself by his ardour in opposing intolerance in his
place in Parliament, and had, moreover, laboured to instruct
the multitude by disseminating WyclifFe's writings, and em-
ploying the more gifted of his disciples as preachers. The
prelates accused him of heresy to his sovereign, and in a pri-
vate interview with Henry, Cobham was so bold, or so indis-
creet, as to declare, " As sure as God's word is true, it is
fully evident to me that the Pope is the great Antichrist fore-
told in Holy Writ.'' He was summoned to appear before
the Archbishop, and disregarding the summons, was excom-
municated. He now took alarm, and waited upon the king
with a written statement of his opinions; but at this very

INTRODUCTION. 27

moment the summoner entered the apartment, and cited him
to appear before the Archbishop. With the precipitancy of
his temperament he exclaimed, " Since I have no other
justice I appeal to the Court of Rome." Indignant at the
aftront, Henry commanded that he should be immediately
conveyed to the Tower. In two successive trials which fol-
lowed he behaved with the elevation of his character, de-
claiming against clerical avarice and vice, asserting the real
presence in the eucharist, but not " materially,^^ and main-
taining that the Romish communion constituted no part of
the Church of Christ. He was of course condemned as a
heretic, but in the interval before the execution of the sen-
tence effected his escape into Wales. At this point Henry V.
seemed disposed to let the matter sink into oblivion, and
leave Cobham in the obscurity of the Welsh valleys : but the
clergy were actuated by the virulence of disappointed blood-
hounds who had suffered the prey to escape from their teeth.
They feigned a conspiracy of the Lollards, with Cobham at
its head, against the royal authority, and so wrought on the
king's irascible mood, as to induce him with a few armed
attendants to set upon an assembly of Lollards congregated
in St. Giles' Fields for prayer, or some harmless object, whose
numbers sacerdotal artifice had swelled to twenty thousand.
Twenty were killed, and sixty taken prisoners ; but what was
more to prelatical taste, a price was set on Cobham^s head.
For four years his vigilance baffled the arts of his pursuers ;
but at last, captured by the exertions of Lord Powis, he
suffered the double punishment which a recent Act of Par-
liament attached to the crime with which he was charged :
he was hung in chains, and, a fire being kindled under the
gibbet, consumed to ashes. The severity of the law against
heresy was again increased ; but notwithstanding the san-
guinary decrees of the king and his parliament, Lollardism

28 INTRODUCTION.

grew and multiplied, and England, as a nation, welcomed the
Gospel more and more, which her rulers despised.

Towards the close of the fifteenth century the light was
becoming more and more distinct in the horizon, harbinger-
in<i- the dawn. Heretofore the Reformers of note had been

D

" few and far between f now many appeared at one time,
and almost every land could boast its own luminary. In
1479 John of Wesalia taught at Erfurth the futility of
indulgences, of the holy chrism, pilgrimages, and fast days,
and expatiated on the worthlessness of Pope, Bishops, and
Clergy, as instruments of salvation. John Wesselus of Gro-
ningen, denominated "the light of the world,^' taught the
same truths with greater force and genius ; so much so, that
his works were subsequently edited by Luther, who says of
him, " He lived without blood and contention, and this is the
only thing in which he differed from me.^^ It is a character-
istic trait, that when Wesselus was asked by his friend Pope
Sixtus IV. what he should do for him, he requested the pre-
sent of a Greek and a Hebrew Bible. Spain too possessed
her Reformer in Peter Osma, of Salamanca : and France in
John Laillier, Licentiate in Theology at Paris.

But the Italian Savonarola so far eclipsed all the other
Reformers of the era immediately preceding Luther, that his
actions, opinions, and fate deserve a more lengthened notice.
Born at Ferrara in 1452, Jerome Savonarola entered a
Domincan convent in 1475, and was early initiated into the
doctrines of grace, as taught by Augustine, and derived from
the Scriptures. His first attempts in pulpit eloquence were
unsuccessful, in consequence of the tenuity of his voice, the
effect of which was not diminished by a feeble bodily consti-
tution and a stature rather below the ordinary. But with
great pains he surmounted these physical difficulties ; and
subsequently the peculiarity of his appearance, a delicate

INTRODUCTION. 29

frame, lofty and deeply furrowed forehead, brilliant blue eyes,
aquiline nose, and fingers so emaciated as, held before the
light, to resemble transparency, are spoken of as adding to
the influence, and giving a kind of ethereal charm to a rapid
enunciation and the impassioned glow of eloquence, which
was regarded by many, and by himself, as inspiration. Having
been mentioned with high encomium by Pico della Mirandula
to Lorenzo de Medici, he became Prior of the convent of San
Marco, at Florence. The burden of his pulpit denunciations
was the iniquity of the times, which must shortly call down
divine vengeance : " The sword of the Lord upon the earth,
soon and sudden.^' In August, 1489, he commenced an
exposition of the Revelation of St. John, his favourite apostle,
as the Apocalypse was his favourite book, in the convent
garden, under a canopy of Damascus roses, to an immense
audience, which numbered the gay and the recluse, the igno-
rant and the learned. But to the mystic and ascetic he added
the character of the unyielding republican. Lorenzo de
Medici admired his powers and his probity, and desired his
familiarity and friendship ; frequently he walked in the con-
vent garden alone, having intimated his presence by a trusty
messenger to the prior; but Savonarola persisted in avoid-
ing his society. At last, upon his deathbed, Lorenzo sent for
the Prior of San Marco. After the commendation of the
sick man to the Divine clemency, and instilling religious
consolation, Savonarola asked " if he had a strong and living
faith?" ''Yes," was Lorenzo's ready answer. "You must
also," continued the monk, " part from all sin, repent, and
restore whatever you have wrongfully taken, or you cannot
be saved." Lorenzo promised so to do. " Wilt thou, then,"
urged the intrepid prior, "restore liberty to Florence?" Tlie
dying man shook his head, the demand was too great, and the
negative being still returned to the rej)ented question, Savona-

30 INTRODUCTION.

rola abruptly left the palace without administering the last
sacraments. When Charles VIII. of France invaded Ital.y,
Savonarola appeared in his presence with his characteristic
fortitude, and, in his capacity of prophet, assured the king
that he had foretold his advent, and warned him to restrain
the licentiousness of his soldiers, and to act as God's agent
for the regeneration of the Church of Italy. Amid his own
religious society his efforts as a Reformer had already been
exerted with success ; and two convents, that of San Marco
at Florence and another at Fiesole, separated from the Lom-
bard congregation, professed the rigid rule of St, Dominic.
But on Charles VIII. quitting Florence, the monk came for-
ward in the new character of civil legislator ; and, although
none had been a more staunch opponent of the Medici in
their period of prosperity, one of his earliest endeavours was
to repress every thought of vengeance, and procure a perfect
amnesty. The image present to his aspirations was "■ Florence
a spiritual city, a divine state, a Christian democracy," or
rather a theocracy. The ancient Church, he was wont to
tell his auditors, had a roof of gold, porticoes of the finest
marble, and pavement of mosaic; but now the glory of the
primitive building was displaced by a fabric of wood ; the roof
was fallen in, and all was ruin. The decay of the Church he
attributed to " locking up the springs of Holy Scripture."
The spirituality of life and of worship Avhich he strove to
revive, went so far as the rejection of music and other
external adjuncts to devotion : and consistently with this
principle he valued unuttered above vocal prayer. So power-
ful were his discourses, that his audience, after leaving the
Church, would form a ring for the enjoyment of spiritual
dances in the streets, a friar and a citizen hand-in-hand shout-
ing, "Viva Christo." But a more conclusive proof of his ora-
torical effectiveness was, that a change of manners was every-

INTRODUCTION. 31

where observable ; places of public amusement were closed ;
sensuality was excluded, and spirituality reigned in its stead ;
and Florence the gay had become Florence the sober. But
how was this to last ? The Pope instinctively dreaded Savo-
narola's influence, and had attempted to buy his alliance by
the proffer of a cardinal's hat, which was of course refused,
and that too in a thrilling cry from the pulpit. " The car-
dinal's hat to be set on my brow shall be the crown of
martyrdom dyed in blood." But, when after a wbile the
reaction came, and the waning popularity of the Prior of San
Marco allowed the Pontiff to drop the mask, it was soon
apparent that no mercy would be shown the heretic. Savo-
narola was cited to appear at Rome; the Tuscan convents
were reincorporated with the Lombard congregation; and
until he had been tried, the Reformer was interdicted from
preaching, and was finally excommunicated. In return the
pontifical authority was rejected : and an appeal for the
reformation of the Church by a General Council was made to
the Christian ci\dl rulers, accompanied by the assurance that
Alexander VI. is " no Pope nor even a Christian : " and the
Pontiff himself admonished " no longer to delay thinking of
his soul's salvation." Savonarola preached for the last time
publicly on the 18th March, 1498, when he declared, "that
he took refuge from the earthly Pope, from the hellish power
of Satan, with the heavenly Pope, even Christ." The catas-
trophe was not long postponed. A Franciscan brother had
decoyed Domenico di Pescia, a friend and disciple of Savona-
rola, into agreeing to subject their respective claims as to the
truth of their doctrines to the decision of the ordeal by fire :
and Savonarola, whose genius was not superior to superstition,
and had even hinted at the proof of his tenets by miracle, was
induced by the tendency of his own principles, and regard
for his friend, but against the warnings of his better judg-

32 INTRODUCTION.

incut, to sanction this trial. The Franciscan, -when all was
arranged, declined to enter the fire with any but Savonarola
himself. Another, however, was substituted in his place : and
a pile of wood having been raised in the Piazza, the Prior of
San Marco, bearing the host, and in his priestly attire, re-
paired to the spot at tlic head of a procession of his monks.
A delay was occasioned by Domcnico's insisting that he wovdd
carry the host with him through the flames, which the adverse
party as stoutly resisted : and meanwhile torrents of rain fell,
to which a more portentous significancy seemed to be given
by thui\derclaps and terrific lightning, and the pile was so
drenched that to ignite it was no longer possible. The dis-
appointment of the public curiosity completed the ruin of
Savonarola : his convent was stormed amidst scenes of blood-
shed; and he was compelled to deliver himself up to the
officers sent by the Signory to apprehend him. He was
examined by various modes of torture, some of which were
excruciating in the extreme to his delicate and highly sensitive
organization : but if he made any recantation under acute
pain he recanted it on returning to his senses : and the case
made out against him was after all a weak one. But Alexan-
der VI. had vowed his destruction : " He shall die," he ex-
claimed, "were he John the Baptist himself!" Commis-
sioners arrived from E,ome : the mock formality of a second
trial was gone through ; and sentence of death was pronounced
upon him with two of his associates. They were hanged in
the Piazza, Savonarola in the midst : their bodies were then
burnt, and their ashes were throAvn into the Arno.

The resemblance of Savonarola's history to Luther's is
stronger than to that of either Wycliflfe or Huss. Like
Luther he immured himself in a convent against his parents'
consent ; and like Luther, in the earlier part of his career,
maintained the doctrines of Augustine and the sacred writinas

INTRODUCTION. 33

whilst he remained in visible union with Rome. But Savo-
narola continued through life, what Luther was only for a
time, a mystic and ascetic. The monk of Florence was,
moreover, deemed inspired ; a dove, it was aflSrmed, would
frequently alight on his shoulder and whisper in his ear : his
prophetical gift was revered ; and in his reported personal
conflicts with the powers of darkness, there is much that
anticipates the private history of the monk of Wittenberg.
In his doctrine Savonarola more nearly harmonises with
Wycliffe, for he believed, like him, not merely in the invisi-
bility of the true Church, and the incompatibility of the
priestly character with the guilt of mortal sin, but disowned
every external adjunct or stimulant as an infringement on the
purity and spirituality of devotion. He was so far, in com-
mon with the Reformers of his age, inferior to Luther in
enlightenment, that he fulminated his denunciations against
the " Roman Babylon'' more on account of its moral defec-
tion than its doctrinal corruption. But he has been recog-
nised as a brother by Luther himself ; and in his torrents of
invective against the vices of the times, his stirring calls to
repentance, his own ascetic rigour, and his pointing to a
speedy ecclesiastical revival, he merits the name of the John
the Baptist of the Reformation.

The time was now near at hand when the ashes of the
martyrs, scattered to the winds and to the waves, were to
prove the seeds of new and multiplied spiritual life. Under
the obscure vault of night illusions cheat the senses, which
the light of day dissipates : and the revival of letters, which
had been progressively advancing, and had received a mighty
impulse from the importation of Greek scholars and books
into Europe from Constantinople, the rapid spread of intelli-
gence by the discovery of the art of printing, the new and
correct ideas in science which were just unfolding, all be-

VOL. I. D

St INTRODUCTION.

tokened that superstition was losing its hold, and the religious
emancipation of the mind could not be long deferred. Side
by side with the Reformers, more strictly so called, must be
placed the men who by their attainments, their writings, and
their influence, cleared away prejudices, and were the ap-
pointed pioneers of the Reformation.

Of this class two individuals in particular attained to strik-
ing eminence, Reuchlin and Erasmus. The latter, small in
stature, slight in figure, with observing blue eyes peering un-
der their falling lids, overwhelmed with nervous timidity at
the name of death or the idea of danger, who had experienced
the evils of monasticism forcibly in his own history, as the son
of parents whom the conventual vow into which the father
had been deceived by falsehood had debarred from matrimony,
to borrow a comparison from later times, was the Voltaire of
the Reformation. Whilst a favourite of sovereigns and of the
Pope, who was not without thoughts of making him a cardi-
nal, he was holding up to universal ridicule, with acute wit and
in his easy and entertaining style, the ignorance and vices of
the monks, and the many absurdities of the whole Romish
system. A service of a more positive kind to the cause of
truth was his edition of his New Testament in Greek, with a
Latin version in correction of the Vulgate, dedicated, accord-
ing to the literary rage of the day, to Leo X. himself, and ac-
cepted by him with the highest approbation. Although
nothing can be more false than the common saying that
" Erasmus laid the egg which Luther hatched,'^ yet he has
earned a statue not far from the vestibule of the tcmjjle of the
Reformation. He taught that Christianity was not in pil-
grimages or fastings, the monk's hood or nun's veil, but a life
according to the Gospel. Reuchlin, in physical qualities and
in mental gifts a contrast to Erasmus, finally applied his great
powers of acquiring knowledge to the study of Hebrew, com-

INTRODUCTION. 35

piled a Hebrew Grammar^ and became one of the greatest
Hebrew as well as Greek scholars of the age. Thrown into
direct collision with the persecuting bigotry of the monks, he
came off^victor : a proof that the tide of general taste and
feeling had already taken a turn. But there were many
minor Erasmuses and Reuchlins, such as Hutten, men who,
by their fables and dialogues, letters and poems, were per-
petually ridiculing priests and priestcraft. Every city, too,
had its society of learned men, of poets, or spiritualists, who
under the forms of Komanism were cherishing the life of Pro-
testantism ; and amongst priests and cardinals, in the metro-
polis of Romanism, at the table of its high priest, no one was
altogether in the fashion who did not combine with a rage
for literature a contempt for the fast wearing out religious
superstition of the middle ages. Thus pontiffs and cardinals
were buying up Greek and Latin manuscripts at immense
sums, were heightening the flavour of their sensualities by the
admixture of literary refinement, were making the dogmas
which their bread was given them to teach, the subject of
their jests, and fondly dreaming the structure secure which
their own hands had contributed to undermine. The at-
tempts which the more serious and devout spirits in commu-
nion with Rome had made to purge away moral grossness
and regenerate a decrepit system had proved failures, or only
existed in writing, to be the more palpably mocked in the
life : and it was not in the nature of things that a condemned
pile, sinking under the mass of its own rottenness, and which
had declined the hand of repair, could much longer be pre-
served in tottering coherence.

It will be asked, "Why was Germany selected as the
theatre of the coming struggle?" To this question it may
be answered, that, according to God's all- wise designs, the
light of evangelization was travelling northwards. Spain had

D 2

36 INTRODUCTION.

early been illuminated, but under the powerful influence of
monks and Councils and the Inquisition an impenetrable
gloom had settled down on her plains and rivers, save only
that some of the tops of the Pyrenees still reflected'Hhe twi-
light. France, always superficial, had derided the pretensions
of the Pope only to raise upon their destruction the preten-
sions of the Sorbonne, or of a General Council, and desired
no doctrinal but only a moral amendment, and thus had in
fact repudiated God^s Gospel. Italy had been favoured with
a Reformer after her own heart, a fervid spiritualist; but
gaiety and dissipation had choked the seed of divine life.
England, on the other hand, had not rejected God's word as a
nation ; for, although king, nobles, and clergy had succeeded
in driving it from them for a time, in the hearts of the com-
mon people, even under the priest-ridden rule of the princes
t)f the house of Lancaster, the leaven was fermenting more
and more until it should leaven the whole lump. But Ger-
nianj'^ was a new country in civilization and in religious cul-
ture. It had recently emerged from barbarism. It had re-
ceived and welcomed into its bosom the refugee Waldenses,
the persecuted Lollards; its limits bordered on the Bohe-
mian Brethren; it had many souls deep thinking, labori-
ous, and devout, who revered the memory and studied the
writings of Wycliffe and Huss. It seemed as if, when other
lands had been overflown with the deluge of political and cle-
rical indifference and persecution, God had been building in
Germany the ark of his Church. Besides this, there was no
land where the extortionate bondage of Rome, pushed to its
extremest point, had become moi'e odious to the people;
annates, reservations, coramendams, the countless artifices of
the Roman Chancery, had drawn German wealth in im-
poverishing prodigality into the stream of the Tiber : and the
prelate princes of Germany, who frequently felt as civil rulers

INTRODUCTION. 37

rather than as ecclesiastics, had many causes of dissension and
estrangement from an usurious master like the Pontiff. To
this it may be added, that, as the seat of the transferred
Roman and Greek Empire, and particularly as under the
sceptre of the mightiest modern potentate in the person of
Charles V., whatever should be done in Germany would pre-
eminently be done in the face of the whole world, and as an
example to the rest of Europe. Thus divine Providence had
marked out the time and the country in which the Reforma-
tion of Christendom should take its rise ; and when all was
in readiness, the divinely accomplished instrument, for the
momentous task was moved forward on the stage — Martin
Luther.

38

CHAPTER I.

FROM THE lOTH NOVEMBER, 1483, TO THE SUMMER OF 1517.

1483. In the close of the fifteenth century, there lived an industrious
and frugal couple, John and Margaret Luther by name,^ in a
peasant's cottage, in the village of Mora, near Eisenach. The
family to which the name of Luther appertained, was a large
and respected onef among the peasantry of that part of
Saxony, and had its representatives in all the neighbourhood
surrounding Eisenach. If there was any difference between
John and Margaret Luther, and other families of the same
extensive genealogical stock, it was certainly not in the article
of worldly circumstances, for John was a wood-cutter, ex-
tremely poor ; and Margaret often carried home upon her
shoulders, with a child trudging at her side, bundles of
faggots which her good man had cut in the forest. The dis-
tinction was rather in the superior sense, piety and worth of
the young couple at Mora. John was a rigidly just, truthful,
and withal strict man, an example of household severity, re-
calling instances of the patriarchal age : and Margaret, says
Melchior Adam, was " a model to her sex in chastity, reve-

* Spelt also Ludder or Luder. Margaret's maiden name was Lin-
demann.

t The cognizance of the Luthcrs was a hammer. Martin changed
the hammer to a cross, which he placed between three circles intersecting
one another, and in each of the intersections a rose. His Doctor's ring
has this coat of arms ; and it is also to be seen in his cell at Erfurth by
his portrait ; and in the inscription on the wall by his grave in Wit-
tenberg church.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.' 39

rence, and devoted piety/^ as well as in laborious housewifery 1483.
and thrifty economy. Two sons had already been born to the
estimable pair, when on the 10th November, the eve of St.
Martin's day, in a friend's liouse or in an inn at Eisleben,"^
whither they had been attracted by the fair, (although some
accounts state that they had already left Mora, and were then
settled at Eisleben,) Margaret gave birth very unexpectedly to
a third son,t who was taken into St. Peter's Church the next
day, and after the saint to whom it was sacred, baptized by
the name of Martin. No prognostics or prophecies foretold
the celebrity to which this son was destined. John and Mar-
garet Luther subsequently removed to Mansfeld, a district
under the Lordship of the Counts of Mansfeld, renowned for
its extensive and lucrative mines. Here they prospered by
honest industry : and John became the owner of two small
furnaces, and in process of time was elevated to be a member
of the Town Council.

The influence of education in forming the mind and the
character, can only be ranked second to that of nature itself,
or the stamp which God himself infixes on the heart and on
the head. And certainly the education which little Martin
enjoyed or underwent, was exactly adapted to fit and prepare
him for the arduous duties and trials of his future career.
John Luther was a pious man, and often prayed that his
children might be filled with the grace of God. He moreover
loved learning ; assembled in his cottage, as often as he could,
such learned men as would honour his dwelling with a visit ;

* The house iu which Luther was born was made public property,
renovated, and formed into a school-house for boys a century after his
birth.

t Besides two sons older than Martin there were several daughters
older or younger, six in all, of whom only two it appears married ; and
the number of children was made up to ten by the birth of another son,
James, who will be met with in these pages.

40 * THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1483. and resolved that little Martin, who evinced superior abilities
at a very early age, should be brought up to be a scholar.
"With a view to this he used to carry liim on his own shoulders,
when he was too young to walk alone, or have him conveyed
under the charge of Nicolas Emler, or Emilius, who after-
wards became his son-in-law, to a day-school in Mansfeld,*
where Martin acquired the elements of knowledge, learnt his
Creed, Ten Commandments, and " Our Father," Donatus, and
Cisio Janus, and to sing Christian hymns. f Martin suffered
from no deficiency of moral domestic discipline ; for, though
rigidly upright and just, so that his character was widely re-
spected, and this influence was ever afterwards felt by INIartin
himself in his days of celebrity, John Luther was so severe
a father, that his favourite son, if he had done wrong, would
often hide away from his resentment in the large chimney of
the cottage ; and such a congenial help-meet in this respect
was Margaret, that little Martin was once whipped by her for
some act of dishonesty about a nut, until the blood ran;
and he never forgot the chastisement or its lesson. At school
severity was practised on a more rigorous plan than even at
home ; and once Martin was flogged in one day fifteen times.
Doubtless the spirit was braced and tlie nature hardened
against the rougher discipline of mature life by these early
chastisements : but they had t]\e effect of associating in the
mind the ideas of justice and severity, as inseparably united
together; and his regarding the Almighty under that double
aspect was the principal reason which impelled Martin Luther
when just attaining manhood to enter a monastery.

1497. In 1497, when fourteen years of age, Martin was sent to

* " Gestavit in ludum literarium adhxic parvulum Georgii Emilii
pater, qui cum adhuc vivat, testis liujus narrationis esse potest." —
Melanchthon.

t Matbesius, p. 4.

THE LiriC OF MARTIN LUTHER. 41

the choral school of Magdeburg, conducted by Franciscans, 1497.
together with Jolm Reiueck, a boy of tlie same town, his
friend and playmate : with whom the friendship thus con-
tracted in childhood continued through life, when Luther had.
become the greatest name in Germany, and Reineck was also
a distinguished man. The time when Martin Luther was
sent to Magdeburg was memorable as the period of Andreas
Proles' teaching in that city the necessity of a reform in the
Church. As John and Margaret were still poor, their son
■was obliged to eke out a maintenance by the resource common
with German boys of singing in the streets at the house-doors,
and begging in recompense of the song for scraps of meat or
a piece of bread. And thus Luther acquired many a lesson
of experience which he could in after years recount to his
audience from the pulpit in illustration of the duties of the
Christian life. " Importunity in prayer," he would say,
" will always in the end bring down from heaven the blessing
sought. How well do I remember singing once as a boy
before the house of a rich man, and entreating very hard for
some bread. At last the man of the house came running out,
crying aloud, ' Where are you, you knaves ? ' We all took to
om- heels ; for we thought that we had angered him by our
importunity, and he was going to beat us ; but he called us
back, and gave us two loaves.^^^ When Luther had himself
become great, if not rich, his door was never shut against the
poor boys who sang for the dole of charity : and he would
admonish others to practise the same liberality. " Never
despise the poor boys who sing at the house-doors, and ask
bread for the love of God. How often have I been one of
such a group ! "

Notwithstanding that the instruction at Magdeburg was

* House-Postils.— Walch. XIII. p. 535.

42 THE LITE OF MAKTIN LUTHER.

14U7. gratis, his parents' means proved inadequate to maintain
Martin beyond a year at the choral school there ; and he was
then sent to a school at Eisenach, in the neighbourhood of

1498. which, as well as in the town itself, he had many relatives,
who might be disposed to lend a helping hand towards his
subsistence. But even at Eisenach the straits of penury were
severely felt by the Mansfeld miner's son ; and it seemed un-
certain whether he could support very long the unequal con-
test with necessity. But in this dilemma, God himself found
him a friend. Martin was one day very cold and hungry
singing in George-street, when a good woman, Ursula Cotta,
the wife of Conrad Cotta, a man of consideration among the
burghers, struck with the musical tones of his voice, and ob-
serving he was the same boy who sang so sweetly in church,
and whose demeanour there was so good, opened her door,
called him in, and gave him a hearty meal. Her husband
Conrad soon afterwards came in, was pleased with Martin's
countenance and conversation, and learning that he was very
poor, assented to his wife's proposition that he should become
an inmate of their dwelling. The Cottas had a little son,
Henry, with whom Martin soon formed a close intimacy,
questioned him on his catechism, and retained this, like all
his other friendships, for the remainder of his life. " There
is nothing kinder than a good woman's heart," Luther would
say in after years, commemorating the never-to-be-forgotten
charity of the Cottas towards him ; " happy he whose for-
tune it is to obtain it ! " Thenceforward he was safe from
want during the rest of his stay at Eisenach. His studies in
the school embraced Latin, rhetoric and verse-writing; his
amusements consisted chiefly in playing on the flute and lute,
of both which, the good Cotta pleased to encourage his talent
for music, made him a present ; and he learnt to play on tliem
without a master; and especially excelled in accompanying

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 43

the lute with his voice. His taste for poetry developed itself 1498.
as early as his turn for music, and at this period of boyhood
he was remarkable for extreme fluency and copiousness of
language, both in speaking and writing, and for skill in verse-
making. It is some indication even of boyish character that
the Rector of the school, John Trebonius, gained his esteem
and regard, not more by his ability than by the courtesy and
respect with which he treated his scholars. In contradis-
tinction to the unmannerly overbearance of the other masters,
Trebonius would take off his hat to the scholars on entering
the schoolroom, and admonish others to show the same defe-
rence to worth and learning, as yet .in a state of pupillage.
" There are great men,'' he would say, " here before us : some
of these boys will one day be men of learning, burgomasters,
chancellors, and doctors." Such words struck a cord in
Luther's heart.

In his eighteenth year, and on the seventeenth of July, 1501,
1501, he commenced his career at the University, or High
School of Erfurth, his father making considerable personal
sacrifices, although with the utmost cheerfulness, working
earlier and later, and living more sparingly, to afl"ord him this
advantage. At the University he read Cicero, Virgil, Livy,
and other Latin authors, not only, Melancthon states, for
the beauty of their style of writing, but even more for the
examples of life and the excellent precepts of morality with
which their writings abound. He likewise studied and rapidly
acquired the science and art of dialectics, the thorny labyrinth
which beset the entrance of every learned profession of that
age. But his simple truthful nature revolted from useless
subtleties and idle quibblings ; and his inclination rather led
him to acquire an acquaintance with things, than to expend
much time and labour ou the study of words. The influence

44 THK LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1501. of domestic piety, as exemplified at the miner's hearth in
Mausfeld, -was not lost upon the University student ; and even
at this period, Mathesius is careful to observe that he was
diligent in praj'er, and took for his motto that " earnestly
prayed is more than half studied." Had he enjoyed more
general and extensive mental culture, Melanethon is of opinion
it would have exerted a most beneficial effect in softening
tliose asperities of character which controversy and other trials
afterwards revealed ; but all that he learnt he learnt thoroughly ;
he rather "knew much than many things/' and his acquire-
ments, as compared with those of cotemporary students, Mere
a theme of admiration to the whole University.

It seemed accident which first directed his mind into that
channel of reading and thought in which he was destined
to reflect the light of God to men. One day he was opening
one volume after another in the University library, when he

1502. lighted upon a book which riveted his attention. It was the
Latin Vulgate of the whole Bible; and Martin Luther found
with surprise that it contained " more Gospels and Epistles
than those in the Postils." He turned over the pages, and was
arrested by the history of Hannah and Samuel, and warmed
over the description of the mother dedicating the child of
many prayers to the Lord. He was soon called away, but, as
often as he could, returned to the library and spent his spare
moments in poring over the new found treasure.

1503. In 1503, he became Bachelor of Philosophy. But soon
afterwards a severe and dangerous malady stretched him upon
his bed in despair of life, and in this state he was visited by
an aged priest, who addressed him with words of comfort.
" My bachelor, take heart ; you shall not die of this sickness :
our God will yet make a great man of you, and use you to
comfort many others ; for whom God loves on him he lays the

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 45

holy cross, under whicli the patient learns much."* This 1503.
prophecy re\dved Martin's courage, and years after its fulfil-
ment he was wont to recur to it with strong feelings of grate-
ful recollection.

In 1505, he was made Doctor of Philosophj^, or Master of 1505.
Arts; and began to lecture on the physics and ethics of Aris-
totle, until, as he says, he knew them almost by heart, and
he lectured also on other branches of philosophy, and for a
while entertained the idea of studying for the bar, according
to his father's long-cherished wish.

Shortly after, Luther allowed a respite for a season to his
studies, and paid a visit to the miner's dwelling at Mansfeld.
If any one had met him, it has been well said,t as he travelled
on foot towards his home, his sword and hanger at his side, a
warlike appearance with a gentle and peaceful heart, gay in
his indigence, with pure morals under the ostentation of dis-
order, he would have failed to recognise in the young German
the future Reformer, f It was as he was returning to the
University from this visit, that an event occurred which de-
termined his future path in life. He had approached very
near to Erfurth, when a violent thunderstorm overclouded the
heavens, and according to some accounts a stroke of lightning
struck his dear companion Alexius dead at his side.§ Luther,

* Keil. p. 11.

t Michelet, Memoires, I. p. 21.

X Lingke relates, that, in returning home, Luther's sword fell out of
the sheath and cut a vein in the leg. Luther was carried home, and
the effusion of blood stayed by his invoking the Virgin.

§ This account is very doubtful. Melancthon only remarks, " Hos-
terrores seu primum seu acerrimos sensit eo anno cum sodalem nescio
quo casu interfectum amisisset." Melchior Adam says, "Fulmine, ut
volunt, et commililonis violenta morte territus." Jiirgens supposes
that Luther's friend met his death in a duel, and that the thunderstorm
was later ; and as Luther entered the monasteiy on St. Alexius' day,
the name of the Saint was giveii by common rumour to his friend.

46 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1505. in the utmost terror of God, fearing that his own end -was
imminent, vowed to St. Anne that if liis life were spared he
would consecrate it to religion by taking the monk's hood.
It seemed as if a voice from licivcn spoke to him in the crash
of the thunderstorm : a light from heaven struck on his senses
as on another Saul ; he had been providentially rescued from
the divine vengeance; his future years were to be spent in
appeasing God's anger and earning heaven.

But before he parted for ever from the world, he resolved to
have one evening of merriment and social converse with his
most intimate associates. He spread the best cheer he could
before them ; music and wit seasoned the mirth of the com-
pany; all was enjoyment : and the host was very careful not
to let a hint drop of the determination which he had formed."^
It was the seventeenth July, St. Alexius' day. As soon as
ever his friends had left his apartment, Luther chose two
books from his collection, a Virgil and a Plautus, and with
these in his hand in the dead of the night sought the convent
of the Eremites of St. Augustine. The gate opened to his
knock ; he passed beneath the portal ; the fraternity were
equally surprised and rejoiced that one of the brightest orna-
ments of the University demanded to be enrolled in their
number. The next day, he took leave of his friends and
messmates in a letter, sent back to the University his master's
ring and go^vn, and wrote to inform his parents of the reso-
lution which he had carried into effect. Many members of
the University came to the convent gate, and requested to
speak with him ; for the course he had adopted seemed to
them the height of the wildest folly : but they were not
granted admission, and for a whole month no one could see or

* Keil. p. 12. Ohne ihnen das jreringste von seinem vorhaben
mcrkeu zu lasseii. But there are different accounts. — Walch. XXIV.
p. 70.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 47

approach him. His father was overcome with rage and dis- 1505.
appointment; and it was in vain that his wife laboured to
console him. He had anticipated Martin's acquiring emi-
nence in the legal profession, contracting a Avealthy alliance,
and becoming a person of opulence and note. That such
hopes might be realised, what sacrifices had he not made for
a long succession of years ! In a letter expressive of extreme
displeasure, he again addressed his son with the pronoun
" Thou," instead of the respectful " You," which he had
employed towards him ever since his taking the degree of
Master of Arts. And some accounts state that John Luther
journeyed to Erfurth and expostulated with Martin at the
convent : " Take care that that voice you heard from heaven
prove not a delusion of the devil ; how can a son do right in
disobeying the counsel of his parents ? " But the enraged
father was to be taught acquiescence in the will of Provi-
dence. The same year the plague carried off" two of his sons ;
and it was reported that the monk of Erfurth also was dead :
tlie father's heart became softened ; and he had so far relented
two years later, when Martin was ordained priest, as to con-
sent to be present at the ceremony.

Meanwhile the drudgery to which Luther was subjected in
his noviciate would have disgusted any mind less earnestly
devoted than his to monasticism. " If ever monk," he after-
wards said, '^ could have got to heaven by monkery, I might
have done so. I wore out my body with watching, fasting,
praying, and other works." '^ What I underwent as a monk,"
he would declare from the pulpit in after years, " so shattered
my head, that I have never recovered the effects of it, and all
my life long I never shall."* As novice Luther had to open
and shut the gate, wind up the clock, sweep the chapel, clean
the rooms, and such-like menial duties. He found most of his

* House-Postil for Seventh Sunday after Trinity.

48 THK LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1505. brother monks lazy, stupid, and ignorant, fond of good cheer,
and each had set before him for supper two cans of beer and
a can of winc."^ It was their maxim that holy words, even
without being understood by those who repeated them, would
make the devil fly ; and all their devotion was to mumble
over at stated times the horse canonicas. Most of them soon
conceived a dislike to Luther as a man of learning. If he
asked time for his studies, he was reminded that the interests
of the convent were served, not by study, bnt by bringing
home flour, eggs, fish, flesh, and money ; and as soon as he
had finished his indoor labours the cry was in their doggerel,
" Saccum per nackum,^^ — " Go through the streets with the
sack and get us what you can to eat." It was only the mind
bent on appeasing God's wrath which rendered this tedious
and unceasing drudgery at all bearable. At length the Uni-
versity interfered in behalf of one of its members ; and it Avas
arranged by the Prior that Luther should be allowed time for
private study.

He flew to reading with the avidity of one long debarred
a favourite pursuit. He read the patristic writings, above
all, the woi'ks of Augustine througbout, but particularly his
Exposition of the Psalms, and treatise on the Letter and the
Spirit. But reading Augustine inflamed his thirst to draw
more deeply from the well of Scripture itself. He longed to
have a Bible, that unattainable book, as his own ; as it was,
he could only use the Vulgate from the convent library : and
much that he read of the Scriptures seemed at first strange
and inexplicable to his apprehension. He read of God^s con-
versing with the patriarchs, as detailed in Genesis; and
feared it must all be fable ; the terrible God could never con-

150G. verse as man with man.t After his ordination he was

* Tiscliredcn II. p. 290, &c.
t ''As one shooniaker with another" — are Luther's exact words.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 49

directed to study the Schoolmen, not a congenial task ; but 1506.
in the spirit of obedience he read Peter D'Ailly, and Gabriel
Biel, till he knew them nearly by heart : he read Occam,
whom he preferred to Aquinas, and also Scotus ; he read also
Gerson, and studied the Glossa Ordinaria and Nicolas Lyra.
Not only was his memory exceedingly tenacious, but he pro-
foundly reflected on all that he read ; and often a single pas-
sage or word would engage and engross his thoughts for hours.
At the same time he was studying Greek and Hebrew with
such helps as the convent offered.

The general demeanour of Luther amazed the Eremite
brethren. His character before entering the monastery had
been social, and even jovial : he was now exactly the reverse ;
silent, abstracted, and solitary. The monks could not com-
prehend him. He confessed very often : not about women,
or any of the usual sins of monks; but about his spiritual
conflicts, or what he calls, '' the true knot, the real question
— How shall a man be just before God?^^ His father con-
fessor knew nothing of such trials ; he had never experienced
or even heard of them before ; and Luther became more de-
spondent than ever, thinking that he alone was harassed with
such perplexities and struggles. He gasped for communion
with God, for a sense of reconciliation, an assm-ance of salva-
tion. Consciousness of sin thrust him back from God. " It
is not God who is angry with you," his father confessor told
him repeatedly, " it is you who are angry with God." But it
was of no use. He read the passage, " Save me in thy
righteousness ; " and enquired how the righteousness of God
could be a cause of salvation. " I thought only," he after-
wards wrote, "of that active righteousness whereby God
punishes the wicked : I understood not of that passive right-
eousness whereby he maketh righteous in Christ the penitent
sinner. The righteousness of God in the Scriptures almost

VOL. I. E

50 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

150C. always means faith and grace.'' On one occasion^ if Coch-
Iseus is to be believed, when mass was celebrating, Luther, in
the intensity of agony, fell down crying aloud, " It is not I —
It is not I ''* — meaning, perhaps, that Christ's blood could
not cleanse such a sinner as he was ; or there may have
been some ideal sin present to his imagination of which he
protested he was not guilty. On another occasion he re-
mained closeted in his cell without food for some days ; this
was not unusual with him, excepting in the duration of his
absence, so that at last his door was tried; it was found
locked ; they called to him, but no answer was returned : the
door was then forced open, and Luther was discovered lying
insensible upon the ground. His friends in the town heard
of his state ; and Lucas Edenberger entered with some choral
singers, and struck up one of his favourite hymns ; this
revived the poor monk, he opened his eyes, consciousness
returned, and he arose from the ground. But often did
Luther spend whole days and nights without food or rest,
and even forgetting his prayers, in the intensity of study;
then he was overwhelmed with regret for this omission, and
to make amends he spent days and nights in the intensity of
prayer. The only joyful interlude in such a troubled history
is supplied by the recreation of music. He sometimes retired
to lonely haunts and amused himself with his flute; and after
his ordination he would sometimes preach to the shepherds
and ploughmen of a neighbouring village, and returning
liome listen to their songs, or join in themf with all the
enthusiasm of his heart.

When the Vicar-General of the Augustines in Germany,
John Staupitz, came on a visit of inspection to the convent of
Erfurth, amidst the usual variety of common -place characters

* Cochlfcus, p. 2. t Seckend. I. p. 21.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 51

which the fraternity presented, his eye rested with curiosity 150(3.
on such a serious brow as "brother Augustine's;" such was
the name which Luther had assumed. Staupitz enquired
the history of the young monk from the prior, and that added
to the interest awakened by his appearance. In the confes-
sional, the sympathy of congenial tastes was increased to
friendship ; and Luther unburdened his conscience with the
greatest confidence to such a gentle superior, whose character
for piety was held in universal esteem.

" I promise to God,'' he exclaimed, " but sin is always too
strong for me." " I have myself vowed more than a thousand
times to lead a holy life," Staupitz replied, "and as often
broken my vow. I now trust only in the mercy and grace of
God in Christ." To Luther's statements of his terror of God
on account of his sinfulness, the Vicar- General answered,
" Look at the wounds of Jesus Christ ; see the Saviour bleed-
ing upon the cross ; and believe in the mercy of God." Lu-
ther's idea of repentance was, that it is made up of mortifica-
tions and macerations of the flesh, and he could never be
satisfied that his degree of repentance was sufficient to propi-
tiate the Divine favour. Staupitz explained to him, that to
repent is to turn with the heart to God, the God who had
first loved him ; and that the heart, not the body, must be
contrite and broken. But iDcsides instruction from his own
lips, Staupitz gave to the young monk a Bible for his own
property, and thus placed him at the feet of the Saviour
himself. Luther's heart overflowed with gratitude when the
prize which he had so long coveted was at last in his hands,
his own possession, never to be removed from his cell. Still
his melancholy could not wear entirely away ; but despair at
times again seized him. Observing him one day seated at
table in a very abstracted mood, Staupitz enquired, " Brother
Martin, why arc you so sad?" " How should I be other-

E 2

52 THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER.

150G. wise?" Luther replied. But when they were alone, Staupitz
unfolded to him the divine motives in his trials : " Dear
Martiuj you know not how profitable and necessary such
temptations are for you. God sends them not in vain ; he is
training you, and will use you for great things." " He
thinks/' Luther said to himself, '' that I am learned, and
that, without such trials, I should become proud." Keeping
up a correspondence with his spiritual father between the
different visits of inspection, Luther in one letter exclaimed
in his anguish, '^ My sins! my sins! my sins!" "Oh,"
Staupitz replied, " your sins are ideal ; Christ is the Saviour
not of fictitious but of actual siimers."

Luther's health sunk under the pressure of his severe con-
flicts, and he became dangerously ill. The old monk who
was his ordinary father confessor visited him in his sickness,
and, after listening to the details of the horror which he felt
of God's wrath on account of his guilt, and the doubts which
perplexed his heart, and aggravated his maladj'^, replied by
citing the article of the Apostles' Creed, " I believe in the
forgiveness of sins;" that is, not merely of Peter's sins, or
David's sins — for devils believe so much — but of my own
sins." And the old monk went on to quote a passage from a
sermon of St. Bernard : " The testimony which the Holy
Spirit applies to thy conscience is this : ' Thy sins are forgiven
thee.' And so, declares the Apostle, ' we are justified by faith.'"
These enlightened words, confirmed by Scripture, from the
lips of the simple old man, poured the balm of comfort on
Luther's troubled spirit. His illness abated as peace returned ;
he rose from his bed, and regained his strength. It was pro-
bably this old brother monk who gave Luther "■ The Dialogue
between Athanasius and Arias before Constautine, copied
out with his own hand," of which he says subsequently that
he read it with the utmost ardour of faith, and gratitude to

THE LIFE OF MAIITIN LUTHER. 53

the donor, who he doubted not was a true Christian, altliough 150G.
under the cowl of damnation.* Luther was now deeply con-
versant with the Scriptures, particularly with St. Paul's
Epistles, which he studied with delight and an intuitive com-
prehension of their meaning, from their applicability to his
own trials as well as because his mind was cast in the same
logical mould as the Apostle's ; and, when his trials recurred,
he comforted himself under them with the passage, " We are
justified by faith without the deeds of the law." The Gospel
scheme of salvation acquired order and consistency in his
apprehension. " The eternal laws of the universe," says
Ranke, " require that a deep and earnest longing of the soul
after God should at length be appeased with the fulness of
conviction ; " in other words, the scriptural promise was at
last made good to Luther—" Every one that seeketh
findeth."

In the spring of 1507, '^ Brother Augustine" was to be 1507.
ordained priest by Jerome Bishop of Brandenburg. And on
this occasion, in inviting John Braun, Vicar of Eisenach, to
be present at his ordination, Luther, in his earliest extant
letter, says — " Since the glorious God, holy in all his works,
has deigned to exalt me, who am a wretched man and every
way an unworthy sinner, so eminently, and to call me to his
sublime ministry by his sole and most liberal mercy, may I
be grateful for the magnificence of such divine goodness (as
far at least as dust and ashes may), and duly discharge the
office committed to me." He was very glad of an opportunity
for full reconciliation with his father, and wrote to him a most
dutiful letter, imploring the favour of his presence, and
requesting him to fix the day of ordination. John Luther
complied with this entreaty, and named the 2nd May (Domi-

* De Wotte, IV. p. 427. " Sub daranato cucullo verus Cliristianus."

54 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1507. nica Cantate*) ; when the Bishop of Brandenburg, placing
the cup in Tjuther's hand, bestowed on him the power of
" sacrificing for the living and the dead." " I marvel," Lu-
ther used afterwards to say, " that, at that moment, the earth
did not open and swallow us both up." John Luther had
come attended by twenty horsemen, Martin's old friends and
comrades, and had brought his son a present of twenty
guilders ; and after the ceremony withdrew, with many of the
company, to partake of a repast in the refectory. The event
of the day formed naturally the subject of conversation, and
the self-sacrifice of Martin in renouncing all his worldly
prospects, bright as they were, and shutting himself up within
the walls of a monastery, to secure his salvation and to serve

* God, was highly applauded. But this was more than the
father could brook. " You men of learning !'' he exclaimed,
"have you never read in the Scriptures God's command,
'Honour thy father and mother?"' These words left a
deep and unfading impression on the heart of Martin Luther ;
he thought more of them than of all the idle compliments
which were buzzing around, and their truth aff'orded him one
cogent reason for his subsequent work of exterminating
monasticism.

Soon after his ordination, the anniversary of Corpus
Christi was celebrated at Eisleben, with great pomp, by the
Augustine fraternity. The Vicar-General walked first in the
procession, carrying the host : Luther followed in his priestly
robes. But the idea that the actual body of the Lord and
Saviour Jesus Christ was borne before him overwhelmed his
soul ; he staggered, and could with difficulty keep his place in
the procession : his own sinfulness and God the avenger
overpowered him with dread. When he was left alone with

* Fourth Sunday after Easter.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 55

Staupitz, he recounted the agony which he had undergone at 1507.
the thought of his proximity to God made flesh. " That is
not Jesus Christ," Staupitz answered ; " Jesus Christ does
not terrify, he only comforts."

Luther had been three years, or rather more, in the Con-
vent of Erfurth, when it pleased God, by the instru-
mentality of Staupitz, to draw him forth from obscurity to
the theatre of active life. The University of Wittenberg had
been founded in 1502 by Frederic Elector of Saxony, com-
monly called the Wise, partly on his own suggestion, partly on
the recommendation of his brother Ernest Bishop of Magde-
burg. The Pope had given his consent, as in the case of the
Universities of Treves and Tubingen, for the amalgamation of
the duties and revenues of several clerical offices in Witten-
berg and its neighbourhood, with the diff'erent Profess'orships.
The University studies were conducted upon the humanist
principle, in opposition to the scholastic system, which conti-
nued to prevail in many of the more ancient seats of learning.
And indeed the two men who were principal agents of the
Elector in this undertaking, were both distinguished by a
spirit of enlightenment beyond that of their age. Dr. Martin
Pollich, of Mellerstadt, " the first rector and father of the
University of Wittenberg," according to the inscription on
his tomb, was known in a period of high-sounding titles as
" the light of the world," and held the rational opinion that
the study of theology would be best promoted by the general
study of literature. The other agent in founding the new
school of learning was Dr. Staupitz, already mentioned in
these pages, the Vicar- General of the Augustines, with espe-
cial jurisdiction over forty convents in Misnia and Thuringia,
whose injunction to the monks under his authority to " study
above all books the Holy Scriptures, and instead of Augustine
or any of the fathers to have the Bible read to them over their

56 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1507. meals," is a sufficient indication of religious enlightenment.
Staupitz v.as of a noble family in Misnia, of dignified appear-
ance, much used to courts, and a general favourite with the
great, and particularly with Frederic the Wise, by his genial
temper and vein of homely humour. His office gave him
peculiar facilities for selecting fit persons for the different
Professors' chairs at Wittenberg ; and he now recommended
" brother Mai-tin," as one for the extent of whose attainments
and abilities he could readily vouch, to the notice of the
Elector.

1508. Accordingly, Luther was rather suddenly summoned from
Erfurth in October, 1508, to occupy a cell in the Augustine
Convent of Wittenberg, of which at that time only the dor-
mitory was standing, the foundations of the rest of the
building being not much more than level with the ground.
He packed up his few possessions, the principal of which were
a Greek and a Latin Bible, and obeyed the call with so much
speed that he was obliged to wish several of his friends near
Erfurth good-bye by letter from Wittenberg. He was ap-
pointed Lecturer in Physics and Dialectics. " I am now," he
wrote to his old friend Braun, " by the will or permission of
God, at Wittenberg ; and am well by God's grace, excepting
that the study of philosophy is much against the grain with
me, and from the first I would most gladly have changed it
for theology ; the theology I mean that searches the kernel of
the nut, the marrow of the wheat, the marrow of the bones.
But God is God, and man is often, nay always, mistaken in

1509. his judgment."* But in March, 1509, Luther was created
Bachelor of Theology, and entered upon his deeply desired
task of lecturing on the Holy Scriptures. His spiritual
training had been progressing as at Erfurth ; he had explored

* De Wette, I. p. 6.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 57

the Bible deeper and deeper, and had besides spent much time 1509.
over Augustine and the sermons of Tauler the Dominican,
one of the mystic school who had flourished in the preceding
century. And in his temptations to despair on account of his
sinfulness, he had repeatedly felt the sustaining power of the
text, " The just shall live by faith."

Passing from his cell to the lecturer's chair with the Scrip-
tures in his hand, he proceeded to pour out with the enthu-
siasm of his own rooted convictions, to a crowd of students
which was continually augmenting in number, the truths
which he had learnt himself by long and most trying process,
but the joy of which beamed over his features as he spoke.
Such lecturing was altogether a novelty : the Bible itself was
a new book in that day : and Luther's profound acquaintance
with every part of it raised the admiration of his auditors.
Dr. Mellerstadt himself went to hear him lecture, and pro-
nounced the verdict, " The monk wiU reform the whole
Romish Church ; he builds on the prophets, apostles, and the
word of Jesus Christ : and that no philosophy can overthrow,
no Sophist, Scotist, Albertist, Thomist, or Tartarist."*
Luther's lecture time was the first hour after dinner.f

Staupitz was much gratified by the success of his " dear
Martin " in the lecture room, and requested him next to essay
his powers in the pulpit. " It is no light thing," Imther
replied, " to speak in God's stead." He proceeded to insist
that he had fifteen arguments for resisting the call to the office
of preacher : in fine that, if the Vicar-General compelled him
to undertake it, it would prove his death within a quarter of
a year. '■' Be it so," Staupitz answered with a smile, " Our
Lord God has great things a doing, and needs wise people

* Matlies. p. 11.

t It sliould have been at six o'clock in the morning ; but was changed
" ob commoditatem." Seckend. I. p. 19.

58 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LTTTHER.

1509. above also." The vow of obedience precluded any farther
objection. The old Augustine church stood amidst the rising
foundations of the Augustine convent, a tottering mouldering
edifice of wood, thirty feet long and twenty broad,* propped
up on every side with stays. It has been likened by a co-
temporary writer to the stable at Bethlehem in which the
Kedeemer of the world was born. The pulpit was a rude
structure of unpolished planks standing by the south wall of
the church, three feet high fi'om the floor. Here Luther
first preached the Gospel of Christ, in language as plain and
simple as the rustic edifice, but with a clearness, power, and
zeal which won the heart, it being evident, in the language of
Melancthon, that " his words had their birthplace not on his
lips but in his soul.'^f Within a short period, the timbers
of the ancient church creaked with the throng of attentive
listeners. The Town Council then did Luther the honour to
choose him for their preacher; and he preached in the parish
church. On one occasion Frederic the Wise was one of his
auditors ; and afterwards remarked that he was surprised to
hear how well the monk spoke, and at the fund of matter with
which his mind was stored. Eventually, inasmuch as the
pastor of Wittenberg parish church, the brother of Gregory
Bruck, subsequently distinguished as an Electoral Councillor,
was an invalid, and in very poor pecuniary circumstances,
Luther gratuitously became his ordinary substitute both in
the pulpit and in the parish.

To complete the training of the future Reformer for his
great work, it was ordered by divine Providence that he should
witness the practical working of the Papal system in Rome
itself. This visit to the metropolis of the Papacy took place

1510. most probably in 1510, but some writers have assigned 1511,

* Seckend. I. p. 17. t "Non nasci in labris sed pectore."

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 59

others 1512 as the date* Seven convents of the Augustine 1510.
order were at variance on some points which cannot now be
exactly ascertained, with the Vicar- General, and chose Martin
Luther to represent their case to the Pope, because Cochla^us
says he was "of acute intellect and bold and vehement in
contradiction/' He was allowed ten ducats to engage the
assistance of an advocate at Rome ; and a brother monk was
assigned him as his travelling companion. Having crossed
the Alps, Luther and his comrade found themselves amidst
scenes of luxury and splendour such as they had never beheld
in Germany. They rested at a convent of the Benedictines,
and were amazed at the sumptuous apartments, the gay
dresses, and the magnificent cheer of the holy recluses : on
Wednesdays and Fridays the table was loaded as on other
days with every variety of viands; and the monastic severity
was metamorphosed into a pursuit of every kind of luxury
and pleasure. The German strangers looked at one another
in amazement; and at last Luther ventured gently to remind
the monks that they were breaking the Pope's command by
eating meat on fast days. But this mild reproof very nearly
cost him his life; and it was only by favour of the door-
keeper that he was enabled to effect a clandestine escape from
the dangerous spot, and reach Padua in safety. Here he
fell very sick, and suspected that the monks had given him
poison : but by eating a pomegranate he obtained some relief
from the violence of the pains in his head. At Bologna he
was again seized with severe pains in the head, attended with
a dreadful ringing in the head and ears. The idea of God
as an avenger again haunted him ; consciousness of sin again
tortured his mind ; and he was only enabled to bear up under

* Mathesius places it in 1510; Melancthon in 1512. "Post trien-
nium Eoman profectus, &c."

60 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1510. sickness and spiritual anguish by the comfort of the text,
" The just shall live by faith/' And this text proved his best
medicine. As soon as health would allow he resumed his
journey with brother Ursel; and after a toilsome travel of
many days, through Milan, where he found with surprise
another mass book than the Roman in use, and through Flo-
rence, which enkindled his warm admiration by its well-
ordered hospitals, across an arid country, contrasting with the
Saxon verdure, he came at last in sight of the long looked-
for towers of the holy city. Falling prostrate to the earth,
and raising his hands to heaven, Luther exclaimed, in the
fervour of his delight, " God save thee, O Rome, seat of the
Holy One ; yea, thrice holy by the blood of the sainted mar-
tyrs shed within thy walls."

Luther entered Rome by the gate of the people, and re-
mained a short time, about fourteen days, in the holy city.
But it was a season of continued religious excitement and
enthusiasm to a youthful devotee of his imaginative and en-
thusiastic temperament. He ran from church to church and
tomb to tomb, listened with rapt interest to every idle legend,
and believed implicitly all that was told him. He celebrated
mass frequently, and half grieved that his parents were not
dead, that he might release them from purgatory by his
masses, prayers, and works. He had heard the proverb —
" Blessed is the mother whose son says mass on St. John's
eve ; " and, indeed, he had hurried to Rome with a longing
desire to win the blessing ; but the crowd of competitors pre-
vented him from achieving his hope. He attempted to climb
upon his knees the Scala Sancta, or Pilate's Staircase, mira-
culously transported, as the legend declared, from Jerusalem
to Rome. But in the midst of this holy effort, a voice in the
depth of his heart seemed to rebuke him, crying, "The just
shall live by faith." He saw and heard a great deal which,

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER, 61

without producing much impression at the time, bore durable 1510.
fruits afterwards, and was never obliterated from his memory.
He heard anecdotes of Alexander VI., Csesar Borgia, and the
reigning Pope Julius II., of other popes, of their sons,
daughters, and mistresses, which drew from him an involun-
tary shudder.* He stood by the statue of a pope, " repre-
sented as a woman with a sceptre in her hand, arrayed in the
pontifical garb, and with a child in her arms ; " she had
been delivered of a child on that spot, so the legend affirmed ;
but the Saxon enthusiast only expressed his astonishment
that the Pope and Cardinals should sufier it to remain where
it was. He sat at table with many priests, and heard them
laugh over their wine at the mysteries of the Christian reli-
gion, and boast how they deluded the silly people by changing
the words of consecration in the mass to " Bread thou art,
and bread thou shalt remain ; wine thou art, and wine thou
shalt remain." When he said mass, he was reproved for his
tediousness; the Roman priests could say mass seven times
over as quickly as he could say it once. He was one day at
the Epistle when the priest next to him had finished the mass.
He was jogged and urged on. " Speed, speed ! Send back
our Lady her Son quickly." " I would not have missed see-
ing Rome," he used to say in after years, "for a thousand
florins !" "At Rome one maybe anything save a good man."

In 1512, under a tree in the convent garden, which Luther 1512.
in subsequent years was fond of pointing out as a spot cherished
in his recollections, the wish of his order was communicated to
him by Staupitz — that he should be elevated to the degree of
Doctor. Luther objected. " I am a weak and sickly brother,
and have not long to live ; look out a sound man to make

* Tisclireden III. p. 181, &c. Mathes. p. 11. Walch. XIX. p. 1509.
Audin is strangely forgetful. I. pp. 40 — 44.

62 THE LiFii; or martin luther.

1512. Doctor." " Our God/' Sta\\pitz answered, " will shortly have
great things to do in heaven and earth, for which he needs
young and laborious doctors. Whether you live or die, God
requires you of his counsel. Obey the will of your convent,
and my will, as your vow obliges you. All the costs our gra-
cious Elector will pay of his own chamber to our God for the
furthering of this university and cloister." On the 22nd of
September, Luther wrote to his brother monks of Erfurth, to
inform them of his intended elevation, to entreat their prayers,
and request their presence at the ceremony ; he would not
burden them with such an expense unless the Vicar-General
had enjoined him, and it were meet in itself to invite them.
But he had considerable difficulty in obtaining the money for
his doctorate from the Elector's servants ; he had to travel to
Leipsic, and after much delay he had nearly returned without
it. At length, on the 18th of October, the festival of St.
Luke, at one o'clock in the afternoon, he was admitted Licen-
tiate or Master of Theology, by Andrew Bodenstein Carlstadt,
Archdeacon of All Saints' Church, in the presence of the
whole university and a large attendance of strangers. The
following day the great bell sounded, the members of the
university and many strangers assembled in the great hall,
and Martin Luther was adorned with the insignia of Doctor
in the Holy Scriptures, by Carlstadt, with all the customary
formahties. When he was made Licentiate, he took the oath,
" I swear to defend the truth of the Gospel with all my
power;" and on being made Doctor, he swore ''never to
preach strange doctrine, condemned by the church and
offensive to pious ears ; but all my life long to study diligently
and preach the Holy Scriptures, and maintain the Christian
faith by disputation and writing against all heretics. So help
me God!"*

* Mathes. p. 12. Keil. p. 21.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 63

Soon afterwards the convent of Erfurth, jealous of Witten- 1512.
berg University — which, says Juncker, " was raising its head
like a cypress beside the other trees of the garden " — at the
instigation of John Nathin, one of their society, declaimed
against Luther as a perjured man, who had forsaken his rightful
university and convent. He was at first much incensed, but
finally wrote to them a very temperate Jetter,"**" to the effect
that they might have prevented his being made Doctor by one
word had they pleased, and moreover that he had never sworn
upon the Bible at Erfurth : " he was not conscious of having
taken a single oath there. ^^ This vow to maintain the Holy
Scriptures proved a source of great encouragment and strength
to Luther in his future perilous career. In the midst of his
trials and troubles, he says that the devil often insinuated the
question, "What call have you to do all this?" Then his
oath recurred to his memory ; and he told his antagonists he
must carry out at all hazards his Doctor's vow. He lectured
at this time on the Psalms and the Epistle to the Romans,
and then passed on to the Epistle to the Galatians.

Just about this period, the first letter appears of that series
of correspondence between Luther and Spalatin, the Elector's
secretary, which ere long swelled to a volume. Spalatin,
tlirough John Lange, an Augustine brother, who had aided
Luther in learning the rudiments of Hebrew at Erfurth,
enquired his opinion on the controversy which was then
raging between Reuchlin and the University of Cologne. A
converted Jew, of the name of Pfefferkorn, had ransacked
the Talmudists and Cabbalists, and descried many blasphemies ;
on account of which he demanded that all Jewish writings,
except the Scriptures, should be committed to the flames.
Reuchlin had opposed this Vandal demand ; upon which

* De Wetto, I. p. 12.

64 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1512. Hoclistraten, the papal inquisitor at Cologne, and Ortuinus
Gratius, censor and poetaster, had fastened on Reuchlin him-
self, as a heretic who ought to be led to the stake. The con-
troversy engrossed the public mind ; pamphlet replied to
pamphlet ; and, when the process against Reuchlin was stayed
by papal rescript, the German Humanists exulted in their
victory. To Spalatin's enquiry Luther replied, that John
Reuchlin, or Capnio,^ was in his judgment quite innocent, and
a most learned man ; he held him in great price and regard ;
but his judgment might be open to suspicion, for he was
hardly free and neutral. " But what," he continued, '' shall
T say of this, that they are attempting to cast out Beelzebub,
and not by the finger of God ? It is this I mourn and grieve
over. We Christians are wise abroad, and fools at home.
There are a hundred fold worse blasphemies in all the streets
of Jerusalem, and everything is full of spiritual idols."

Yet with all this anxiety for Church Reform Luther's
reverence for the Pope and his rules was scarcely less fervent
than ever : he speaks of himself as " a most insane Papist " at
this period :t and notwithstanding his dislike and even hatred
to Aristotle and the Schoolmen, a tincture of scholasticism,
such is the force of education, was pertinaciously clinging to
his mind. The progress of enlightenment was very gradual.
There is a sketch of a sermon delivered by him in German,

1515. dated November 1515, in which the symbolical language of
the Canticles is applied to the harmony of the different parts
of Scripture, and then to the operations of the Holy Ghost
acting on the spirit through the flesh. A sermon preached
by him in December of the same year contains an explanation
of the mystery of the Trinity upon the Aristotelic theory of

* Capnio was Keuclilin's classical name, as Schwartzerd was called
Melancthon ; Gerard, Erasmus ; Cauvin, Calvin, &c.
t Papista insanissimus.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 65

beiugj motion, and rest. But on the essential doctrines of 1515.
Christian faith, especially justification by Christ's merits
alone, his convictions and teachings were as clear as the sun's
unclouded rays at noon. He was, in fact, not yet at one with
himself; his doctrinal principles had to be carried out to their
necessary conclusions by the logic of experience.

His " Sermons on the Commandments," although not pub- 151G.
lished until 1518, were delivered to the Wittenberg people in
1516 and 1517, and are most characteristic of the author and
aflford a summary of his opinions at this time. His object in
them was to produce chiefly conviction of sin. Ascending
the pulpit of the parish church he told the common people,
in the plainest German, that " whoever hangs upon anytliing
else save God for help or salvation is guilty of a breach of the
first commandment. Outward idols are only signs of the in-
ward idolatry of the heart, in which the whole world is sunk.
There is no one who does not worship the devil in his heart,
even though he refrain from the external worship of an idol.
And no one can believe and trust in God unless the Holy
Ghost illumine his soul." According to Luther, an act as
regarded in itself is nothing. Prayers, alms, and fasting are
nothing in themselves. And the law, by compelling outward
conformity to God's will, the rather deters from inward con-
formity as using compulsion, therefore the law only produces
an outside or pretended holiness. The Gospel, the Spirit of
God, must create faith in the heart : then there is liberty ;
and in such a way alone can the commands of God be kept as
they should be in any measure. He summed up with the
confession of universal depravity. "All men alike are sinners
in their hearts. Let no one boast himself good in God's
sight : we are all guilty under every one of the ten com-
mandments. Whoso looks in his bosom finds it so. There-
fore let us all cry and howl to God to give us his Spirit, that

VOL. I. F

66 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1516. wc may not only be outwardly good before the world, but be
so before God in the heart. Amen." *

He also endeavoured to simplify the duties of the con-
fessional. " It is not expedient/' he said, " to load the
memory and weary out the priest with so many divisions of
sins — as, 1. Omission and commission. 3. The heart, the
mouth, the act. 3. The five senses. 4. The six acts of
mercy. 5. The seven sacraments. 6. The seven mortal sins.
7. The seven gifts. 8. The eight beatitudes. 9. The nine
sins against one's neighbour. 10. The ten commandments.
11. The twelve articles of faith. 12. The twelve fruits of the
Spirit; and, further, The four cardinal and three theological
virtues. Also mute sins, and sins that cry to heaven ; and,
lastly, sins against the Holy Ghost. All this is confusion
and distraction."

An article in Luther's doctor's vow was to defend the Holy
Scriptures by disputation ; and he zealously had recourse to
this instrument also of spreading the truth. His sermons
were for the vulgar ; his propositions or theses were for the
learned. In February, 1516, he requests John Lange by
letter to convey the enclosed theses to Jodocus Trutvetter,
his old tutor at the University of Erfurth. They were di-
rected against " the logic, philosophy, and theology then in
vogue " — in other words, against Aristotle, Porphyry, and the
schoolmen — which he denominates " the useless studies of
the age." He says, " There is nothing I burn to do so much
as to reveal that stage player, who with his Greek mask has
deluded the Church. If Aristotle had not been flesh, I should
not blush to affirm that he was the devil himself. And it is
])art of, or ray greatest cross, to see excellent abilities lost in
his mire."t The theses in question consisted of three cou-

* WaU'h. III. p. 1511, &c. t De Welie, I. p. IG.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 67

elusions, with three corollaries to each, " on the strength and 1516.
will of man without grace;" and were maintained, under
Luther^s presidency, by his pupil Bernard of Feldkerchen, at
that time Professor of Aristotelian Physics. The enquiry pro-
posed in them was, '' Whether man, created in God's image,
can keep his Creator's precepts by his natural strength ; and
whether, if grace be given him, he can merit anything, and
know that he does so?" The answer was entirely in the
negative. " It is superstitious," Luther states, " at man^s
discretion to assign to different saints different offices of
ministration." " Christ Jesus," he says, in another proposi-
tion, " is our virtue, our righteousness, the searcher of the
heart and reins, alone cognizant of our merits, our Judge."*

Correspondence by letter was also sedulously kept up by
Luther with his brother monks, and with many of the prin-
cipal members of the humanist party, and habitually ren-
dered subservient to a religious use. He had sold some
property belonging to George Spenlein, an Augustine monk
of Memmingen, and after giving an account of the proceeds,
enquires of his " dearest brother^^ — " How is it with your
soul ? Are you weary of your own righteousness, and only
breathing and relying in the righteousness of Christ? My
dear brother, learn Christ, and him crucified ; learn to sing to
him ; and, despairing of yourself, say — Lord Jesu, thou art my
righteousness, I am thy sin : thou didst take mine and give
me thine ; thou didst take what thou wert not, and give me
what I was not. Never seek to seem to yourself without sin.
Christ only dwells in sinners. If you are the lily and rose
of Christ, your conversation must be among thorns : only
become, not through impatience or pride, a thorn yourself.'' t
To another Augustine monk, who was suffering from heavy

* L. Op. Lat. Jenfe, 1564, I. p. 1. f De Wette, I. p. 17.

F 2

68 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1516. trials, he wrote—" The cross of Christ is divided through
the whole world. Reject it not ; rather receive it as a most
sacred relic, not into a vase of gold or silver, but a heart of
gold, a heart imbued with meekness." To Spalatin he de-
clared his judgment of persons and things with remarkable
freedom : " What offends me in Erasmus, a most erudite
man, is, that in interpreting the apostles' ' righteousness of
the law,' he excludes the moral law and confines the term to
the ceremonial and figurative. The righteousness of the law
includes the entire decalogue. Without faith in Christ men
may become Fabricii or Reguli, but can no more become holy
than a crab-apple can become a fig. We do not, as Aristotle
asserts, become just by doing just acts ; we must first be just,
then we shall do just actions. The heart must be changed;
the works will follow : Abel is acceptable; therefore his offer-
ings are so." Of Frederic the Wise, he wrote to that Prince's
private secretary : " Many things pleases your Prince which
are displeasing and hateful to God. I do not deny that he is
a very wise man in things of this world ; but in things apper-
taining to God and the soul's safety, he is oppressed with a
sevenfold blindness, and so is your Pfeffinger. I say not this
in a corner, as a detractor; but would willingly say it to
either, to his face."

This severe judgment had most probably reference to the
superstitious zeal of Frederic the Wise. In the Spring of
151G, the Vicar-General of the Augustines was despatched to
the Low Countries on the holy errand of procuring relics for
the Elector's new and favourite church of All Saints : and
meanwhile Luther was deputed to discharge the functions
of inspector of the forty convents in Misnia and Thuringia.
" Brother Martin " set about his new duties with his charac-
teristic devoted energy. He proceeded to Grimma, thence to
Dresden ; to Erfurtli, where ho had the satisfaction of insti-

THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER. 69

tuting John Lange hs Prior ; to Gotha and Salza, in which 1516.
two places he found the condition of the monasteries most
pleasing; Nordhausen, Sangerhausen, and so home. This
tour occupied about six \Teeks, including the whole of May ;
and^ by the 8th June, he had returned to Wittenberg. His
admonitions to the monks, whom he found better read in
St. Thomas than in St, Paul, were to establish and diligently
maintain schools, "the prime object of monasteries/^ to live
peaceably and chastely; and to study God's word continually.
A monk of Dresden had fled thence to the priory of Mentz ;
and it is in these words that Luther requested he might be
sent back : — " The lost sheep is mine ; send him to me, either
to Dresden or Wittenberg : I will receive him with open
arms. It is no miracle for a man to fall. The cedars of
Lebanon, which touch heaven with their summits, fall. An
angel fell in heaven : Adam in Paradise. The miracle is
when he who has fallen is raised again." He advised John
Lange to keep a register of the consumption of bread, wine,
&c., on Saints' days and holidays, which would furnish a cor-
rect estimate of the hospitality of the Convent, and be a check
on the grumbling propensities of the monks. To the Prior of
Neustadt, who was involved in differences with the fraternity,
he wrote first upon conventual matters, and then adverted to
religion — " Care not for the peace of the world ; and say not
with Israel, Peace, Peace, when there is no peace : say with
Christ, the cross, the cross, and there will be no cross. The
cross will cease to be a cross as soon as you can say, with joy,
— Blessed cross, of all woods there is none such." Luther
was not in good health at this time ; * yet his zeal in the
cause of religion was not to be quenched or allayed by any
impediment of that kind.

* De Wette, I. p. 23.

70 THE LIFE CP MARTIN LUTHER.

151(5. This year is also memorable for the printing of Erasmus'
edition of the Greek Testament at Basle^ whither the scholar
had fled from the fm'y of the papistical party in England^ and
either lodging in the house of the celebrated printer, John
Frobenius, corrected the sheets as they came fresh from the
press, or superintended the work from his wanderings in Hol-
land. In his address to the reader Erasmus expressed his
hope that " even women would study the Pauline Epistles ; "
that " the husbandman would sing some portion of the sacred
book as he held the plough, the weaver to the sound of the
shuttle, the traveller on his wearisome road : " * words which
bear a very deep significancy on the very eve of the Reforma-
tion, as prophetical of the commutation of his Greek and
Latin versions of the Evangelists and Apostles, which quickly
followed, into the living tongues of Europe. Luther too was
not idle in the work of publication. In 1516 he edited the
" German Theology," with a preface from his own pen ; he
Avas preparing a catechism : and in the next year he published
the seven penitential psalms translated into, and explained in,
German. "The morning star of the Reformation," as has
been often said, rose with the opening of the year 1516. Yet
in proof that the wisest of men dip but very shallowly into
the councils of Providence, how little did Frederic the Wise —
negociating in relics for his Cathedral Church of All Saints,
Erasmus editing his New Testament, Luther visiting the
Saxon convents, each a chosen instrument of God in the puri-
fication of his Church — dream of events severed from the
world of facts only by the thin veil of a year and a few
months !

The reputation of Luther had attracted a large number of

* "Utinam liinc ad stivam aliquid dccantct agricola, liinc nonniliil
ad radios suos moduletur lextor, hujusmodi fabulis itiueris tedium levet
viator."

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEH. 71

students to Wittenberg. Amongst others many monks, par- 1516.
ticularly such as belonged to his own order, came to enjoy the
benefit of his lectures ; many more than he could find accommo-
dation for in his convent, or even in the town ; and, at the end
of August, in a letter to Lange, he put a veto on any further
arrivals. The plague was expected. On the twentieth October
he wrote to Lange — " I require two secretaries or chancel-
lors : I do scarcely anything else all day but write letters. I
am preacher to the Convent, reader at table ; I am required
each day as parish preacher ; I am regent of studies, vicar —
that is, prior eleven times over : inspector of the fish -ponds at
Litzkau ; counsel for the Hertzberg cause at Torgau ; lecturer
in Paul, also lecturer in the Psalms ; besides, what engrosses
most of my time, writing letters. I have seldom time to
pray as I should, to say nothing of conflicts with the flesh,
the world, and the devil. Yesterday you began the second
book of the Sentences : to-morrow / shall begin the Epistle to
the Galatians ; although I fear the plague will interrupt the
prosecution of it. The plague has carried ofi" one or two per-
sons. My neighbour Faber over the way buried one son to-
day who was quite well yesterday, and has another son just
seized with the pestilence. So you wish me and Feldkerchen
to take refuge with you ? I hope the world will not go to
pieces, if brother Martin should drop. I shall send the
monks away ; but my own post is here -, obedience will not
suffer me to fly. Not that I am without fear of death : I am
not the Apostle Paul, although I lecture on his writings ; but
I hope the Lord will deliver me from my fear." Luther
weathered out the plague unscathed. But with so much in-
trepidity, he was at this time distinguished by his gentle de-
portment, and frequently admonished Lange, whose manners
were austere, to be conciliatory towards the monks under his
authority and to avoid all harsh and contumelious language.

72 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1516. In a letter to Spalatin of the fourteenth December, Luther
expresses his thanks to the Elector for having clothed him
most liberally, " in better cloth than became the hood, were
it not a Prince's gift/^ The secretary had forwarded the in-
formation that Frederic made frequent and honourable men-
tion of him. " I am quite unworthy," Luther replied, "of
mention from any one, and much more from so great a Prince.
I find indeed that those who make the worst mention of me
are my truest friends. To God alone be praise, honour, and
glory. Amen." Spalatin had consulted him upon a project
of translating some book into German. " What can do more
good,'^ Luther answered, "than the Gospel of Christ? But
it is to many a savour of death unto death, to very few of life
unto life. Above all things ask counsel of Christ. Even our
good deeds do not please him, if they are done without his
command and will. I may add, that if you are pleased with
pure solid theology like the ancient, study the sermons of
Tauler the Dominican. I know not in Latin or German any
theology more accordant with the Gospel. Taste, and see how
sweet the Lord is ; and you will see how bitter is all that we
are." In another letter to Spalatin, Luther begs the loan of
one of the Epistles of Jerome : his own copy Lange had
taken away with him ; and he was anxious to read what
Jerome said about St. Bartholomew, with a view to a sermon.
He therefore wanted the book, or a copy of the particular
passage, before twelve o'clock. " I am strangely offended,"
he adds, " with the follies and lies of the Catalogue and
Legend." As bold in his criticism as in everything else,
Luther had also denied, to the great disgust of Carlstadt and
others, that the tract on " True and false Penitence," ascribed
to Augustine, was really the production of that Father ; " it
was a most senseless and absurd treatise."

Ho had now attained to so much celebrity, as the most

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 73

learned man of his age in Northern Germany, and the great 1516.
attraction of the University of Wittenberg, that his friend-
ship was esteemed an honour, even by men who enjoyed con-
siderable reputation themselves. Christopher Scheurl, the
town clerk of Nuremberg, united Staupitz and " Brother
Martin " in his eulogies, and requested to be allowed the pri-
vilege to be ranked amongst the friends of the latter. "I
would not have you to be my friend,^' Luther replied,* " for 1517.
it will not turn to your glory but to your danger, if the old
proverb is true — ' what belongs to friends is common.^ " But
the friendship thus begun survived many of those shocks
which it would appear the future Reformer already antici-
pated. Luther moreover observed, with great thankfulness to
God, the influence of his lectures, sermons, and disputations in
his own University, which was daily growing in reputation
and numbers. " Our theology,^^ he wrote to Lange, " and
St. Augustine are proceeding prosperously, and reign here by
the power of God : Aristotle is on the decline ; he totters to
his ruin, which I hope will be eternal : the lectures on the
Sentences are scorned ; and if any lecturer would have an
audience he must lecture on the Bible, St. Augustine, or one
of the Fathers.^'

Staupitz was requested by George Duke of Saxony, of the
Albertine branch of the Saxon house and cousin to the
Elector of Saxony, to recommend him a good and learned
preacher. The Vicar- General recommended "Brother Martin,^^
who was accordingly invited by the Duke to preach in the
Castle Chapel at Dresden. Luther obeyed the summons, and
preached before the Duke on the twenty-fifth of July, the
festival of James the Great. He chose for his subject the
Gospel of the day, the petition of the mother of Zebedee's
children in behalf of her two sons, and began by remarking

* In a letter dated tlie 27th January, 1517.

74 THE LIFE OF MAIITIN LUTHER.

1517. on the frequency of foolish wishes and prayers ; and then
passed to the right object of desire — the soul's salvation. He
spoke of faithj the badge of Christian discipleship, of free
election and the comfort of such a doctrine viewed in con-
nexion with the Saviour's finished work_, of the obligation on
all men never to despair of salvation, if they only diligently
read and obey the Word of God ; and he concluded with an
anecdote of three virgins.* It was the first time that Luther
and Duke George had been within the same walls. At his
dinner table the Duke turned to his Duchess' lady of the bed-
chamber, Barbara Von Sala, and inquired what she thought of
the sermon ? "I could die in peace/' she eagerly replied,
" could I only hear such another ! " and a month afterwards
she did die, in the fulness of Christian faith. But the Duke
grew very angry : " he would give a great deal," he said,
" that he had never heard such a sermon at all ; such
preaching could have no effect but to encourage and harden
men in sin.'' And he repeated his opinion aloud, with great
warmth, several times. There was in the palace a secretary
and councillor of the Duke, a licenciate of canon law^, Jerome
Emser by name, who entreated or rather compelled Luther to
take supper with him on the evening of the day on which he
had preached. John Lange and the Piior of Dresden, and a
Master of Arts of Leipsic, were the other guests. It soon
appeared that a snare had been laid for Lulher by his enter-
tainer : for the Master of Arts directed the conversation into
the channel of doctrinal controversy ; whilst behind the door
a Dominican was intently listening to all that passed, and had
considerable difficulty in restraining himself from bursting
into the room and spitting in Luther's face. Neither Thomas
himself, nor any Thomist, Luther asseverated, had ever really
understood a single chapter of Aristotle. On both sides the

* De Wette, I. p. 81. See Seckend. I. p. 23.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 75

controversy became excited and noisy. The Master of Arts 1517.
bragged a great deal of his acquirements and talents, and
treated his opponent as far beneath him in learning. " Come/'
Luther said, nothing daunted, " do you Thomists club all
your learning together, and define in what obedience to the
commands of God consists : I know there is not a Thomist in
the world who knows as much as that.^^ " GiA^e me my fee
first/' said the Master of Arts, extending his hand. Luther
and his friends laughed outright at this evasion ; and the
party broke up. But Emser took care to inform the Duke of
Saxony that Luther had been completely worsted in argument,
and had not been able to say a word in his own defence in
Latin or German. And to aggravate the disgrace he had
fallen into with the Duke and his creatures, it was pretended
that the story of the three virgins was intended to have a
personal application, and had been supplied from the private
history of the Dresden Court.

A little later Luther published ninety-nine propositions,
" on the will and understanding " against the Pelagianism of
the day, based on Aristotle and the schoolmen. The follow-
ing selections will show the drift of his views : —

" Man having become a corrupt tree can only do what is
corrupt.

" The appetite is not free to pursue good or evil ; it is not
free, but bound.

" Man by nature does not wish God to be God ; but wishes
himself to be God.

" Nothing precedes grace but an indisposition for, or rebel-
lion against, grace.

" Man without God's grace sins every moment, though he
may not commit murder, or adultery, or theft.
" It is sin not to fulfil the law spiritually.
" To love God is to hate one's self, and to love nothing else
but God.

76 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1517. " Syllogism has no place in theology.^' *

These propositions Luther forwarded to Lange, and offered
to maintain them publicly, either in the University or in the
Augustine Convent at Erfurth ; for " he did not wish merely
to whisper them in a corner, if the University of Wittenberg
could be of so small account as to be no better than a cor-
ner." Desirous that the principles of scriptural theology
should be circulated as widely as possible, he sent them also to
Scheurl of Nuremberg, with the request that he would com-
municate them to " our Eck, that most learned and ingenious
man, that I may hear and see what he says of them." This
Avas John Meyer, more generally called Eck, from a village in
Suabia, whose fame in Southern Germany, as the chief orna-
ment of the University of Ingoldstadt, rivalled that of Luther
in Northern Germany.

The preceding narrative has attempted to point out the
successive stages in Luther's preparation or education for that
great part in the revival of the true faith of Christ which Pro-
vidence had assigned him. Early hardships, mental disci-
pline— above all, spiritual conflicts and the deep study of
God's word — had ripened him for his work. He had found
God his Saviour for his own heart : and, like David, he had
already poised in his hand the pebbles from the brook, the
holy principles drawn from the stream of inspiration, which
were to strike to the ground the giant of Pelagianism and
formal religion. It would be untrue to say that he had not
formed the idea of becoming a Reformer ; t for he had dis-
tinctly formed it, had counted the cost, and even launched on
the enterprise, and his mind was engrossed with the para-
mount duty of reviving the ancient doctrine of the Church,
the doctrine of Scripture and of the Fathers, in place of that

* Nulla forma syllogistica tenet in terminis divinis.
t This oven the mendacious Audin seems to confess. See Vol. I.
pp. 56, 57.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 11

Aristotelic Thoraist school theology which had paralysed 1517.
faith and heart piety. But this was all he had as yet con-
ceived, excepting so far as he was conscious that the revival of
Scriptural truth would bring in its train great moral bless-
ings. His reverence for the Roman Church was as yet deep
and untouched; and he only wanted to remind that large
section of it^ whom Aristotle and the schoolmen had deluded,
what was in fact the real doctrine of the Catholic Church,
as taught by the early fathers, and founded on the Bible.
With a view to this doctrinal regeneration he was doing all
that lay in his power, to excite curiosity, and stimulate
enquiry, as the first step towards the attainment of truth.

But it must be added, that all his faith as to the success of
his endeavours was built upon God alone. His religion was
"God, not man;" and this principle ran through the whole
of his individual character, as well as constituted the bond of
unity in his teaching. Thus he never moved an inch beyond
his proper sphere. He had been advanced step by step
towards the goal, but rather against than with his own free
consent. And making his solemn vows to God and in the
face of man the landmarks of his course, he was about to
be taught by the way what as yet he had no conception of:
to proceed to a point far beyond his ken, nothing short of the
reconstruction of the Christian faith and Church on their pri-
mitive foundations, leading one half of Christendom with him.
And, as an indirect result of his success, he was destined to
fix the doctrines, invigorate the energies, and do something
towards purifying the life, even of that branch of Christianity
which should persevere in adhering to man's authority against
the dictates of the inspired word.

78

CHAPTEE II.

FROM THE SUMMER OF 1517 TO THE CLOSE OF 1520.

1517. Purgatory, the mass, and the plenary indulgence, are the
three doctrines by which especially the Roman Pontiffs con-
solidated their power and filled their coffers. The origin
of the last was as follows : — In early times penance was
exacted for spiritual or moral delinquencies with extreme
rigour, not by way of expiation, but in proof of sincere
contrition. But gradually the real object of penance came
to be lost sight of, and in a superstitious age it was looked
upon in the light of a satisfaction or atonement. To as-
sume the cross and pass to Palestine to do battle for the
Holy Sepulchre, was accepted by the Church in lieu of every
penance : and not only was a plenary indulgence published to
all those who took the vow of the crusader ; but, as money
was required as well as soldiers, it was sold to such as prefer-
red remaining at home at a cost proportioned to their rank
and wealth. The application of this doctrine to another sub-
ject was easy, particularly as pilgrimages were often enjoined
by way of penance : and in 1300, the centenary jubilee year
was established by Boniface VIII., and a plenary indulgence
was granted to all who visited Rome within the allotted time.
But the interval of a hundred years was found too long, and
was abbreviated first to fifty, then to twenty-five years ; and
at last the opportunity of buying pardon recurred at the
Pope's discretion :* and a journey to Rome not always being

* Walch. XV. pp. 3—275. See Polani, Hist. Cone. Trid. p. 4.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 79

convenient, the papal pardoners were soon to be found in 1517.
every land. Like prayers and masses^ the indulgence was
brought to bear on the condition of the dead in purgatory ; it
conveyed remission, so at least tauglit the indulgence mer-
chants, for every conceivable sin ; and, as the power of the
keys was without limit, was even declared to avail for the
pardon of sins, past, present, or future.

Leo X. was not the Pontiff to forego such a means of
revenue. Engaged in erecting the magnificent fabric of
St. Peter's at Rome, with a most costly establishment of mi-
nisters to his pleasures, poets, painters, musicians, huntsmen,
grooms, and falconers, with a taste for all the elegancies of
life, sculpture, architecture, rare manuscripts and articles of
vertu, and besides, with the family of the Medici leaning
upon him for support, far better acquainted with the art of
giving than acquiring, and for the latter purpose compelled to
employ the skill of the Cardinal Quatuor Sanctorum, he
found even the mines of wealth which the Chm'cli had dis-
covered in the credulity of the people, inadequate to satisfy
his needs. In some countries the Pontiff was wont to keep
the management of the indulgence traffic in his own hands ;
in others to let it out to contractors. When Albert Arch-
bishop of Mentz and Magdeburg, made application to farm
the profits of the sale in Germany, Leo demanded the pay-
ment due for his pallium. This the Fuggers of Augsburg,
the great money firm in Germany in that age, consented to
advance on the security of the indulgence proceeds ; and, by
their entering into a contract with Albert, the Archbishop was
enabled to conclude his bargain with Leo. Personages of
however high rank and position, involved in such an affair of
huckstering for their reciprocal advantage, were not likely to
be scrupulous in their choice of a subordinate agent, and ac-
cordingly .John Diezel, or Tetzcl, the son of a goldsmith of

80 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1517. Leipsic, a Dominican and inquisitor, who had often filled the
oflfice before, and had remarkable talents for it, the voice of a
town-crier, mendacity unlimited in power of invention, and
extreme impudence, was pitched upon to hawk about the
spiritual wares, and dispose of them on the most lucrative
terms. "^ The Gruardian of the Franciscans was joined with
Albert in the Pope^s commission ; but he was a mere cypher,
a name which might serve to reflect a little respectability on
the undertaking ; for as to any actual concern in it he and his
order were opposed to the whole proceeding.

In the summer of 1517 Tetzel established his indulgence mar-
ket at Juterbock, a few miles from Wittenberg. He was pro-
hibited by Frederic from entering Saxony, because he ob-
jected to the indulgence tax being levied on his subjects, and
also on personal grounds, for at Inspruck Tetzel had been con-
victed of adultery, and sentenced to be thrown in a sack into
the river. Frederic had himself begged him off,t but was in-
censed that the pardon traffic should be entrusted to an agent
of proved bad character, and for other reasons he was not on
particularly good terms with the Archbishop of Mentz. Yet
Frederic had purchased letters of indulgence for his Church
of All Saints immediately from Rome, and thus given his
sanction to the indulgence doctrine itself. Notwithstanding,
however, the known sentiments of their Prince, many of the
inhabitants of Wittenberg flocked to TetzeFs pardon-counter
at Juterbock, and returned home with a plenary indulgence.

The theatrical colouring which Tetzel was careful to throw
over his proceedings was well adapted to influence the popu-
lace. He and his party, consisting of Friar Bartholomew and

* Tetzel sold, besides indulgences, dispensations to eat meat, &c., on
fast days, licences to choose such a father confessor as was most accept-
able, &c. Polaui. Histor. p. 4.

t Melchior Adam. Vitse Theologorum, p. 105.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 81

two secretaries, were generally received at the gates of a town 1517.
hj the Council and the clergy in their robes, monks, nuns,
choristers, and the scholars of the principal schools, and with
lighted candles, floating banners, and amidst the ringing of
bells mingling with the notes of music, conducted to the
church or cathedral. The Pope's brief was borne in state
before him, and he carried in his hand the red cross. On
entering the church the tall red cross, surmounted with the
Pope's arms, was set up at the high altar ; the money counter
was placed beneath it; and the papal brief on its velvet
cushion was displayed in full view. Then Tetzel, in the garb
of the Dominicans, mounted the pulpit, and with stentorian
voice harangued the multitude on the infallibility of the Pope
and the efficacy of his pardons. The indulgence, he stated,
was the very grace of Jesus Christ ; and he himself, as the dis-
penser of such a blessing, was not to be compared with St.
Peter, for he had saved many more souls than the Apostle.
At the close of the oration Brother Bartholomew shouted,
" Come and buy, come and buy."

The penitents knelt at confessionals suspended with the
Papal arms ; they mumbled over their confession, and passed
to the altar ; dropped the stipulated sum into the money box,
and received in return a sealed letter of pardon. But after
his traffic in any place had been concluded, Tetzel commonly
sat down with his assistants to a merry drinking bout ; played
at dice, staking sometimes, it was said, the salvation of souls
on the cast; and jested at the credulity of the poor fools
whom he had tricked of their money. The tavern keeper had
to take his indulgence letters in exchange for his accommoda-
tion ; and they thus circulated like paper money, only that
they were made payable in another world.

An instance of his craft, which occurred at Zwickau, has
been particularly noted by cotemporaries. The money bag

VOL. I. G

82 THE' LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1517. liad been sealed up when the chaplains and altarists applied
to Tetzcl to give them a supper. His invention was put to
the rack, but quickly struck upon a device. He ordered the
church bell to be tolled, and ascended the pulpit. The in-
habitants of the place, roused by the bell from their occupa-
tions, and prompted by curiosity, repaired to the church ;
when Tetzel informed them that he had intended to quit
their town that very day, but in the preceding night his
slumbers had been broken by groans from the adjoining
cemetery, of some poor soul still suffering in purgatory.
Whose relative he or she might be no one could affirm, but
it was unquestionably the soul of a poor adulterous man or
woman; and all the pious were concerned to release the
sinner from torment : in such a cause he would be the first
to contribute. His example was followed by the whole com-
pany, for all wished to be regarded among the pious, who
could compassionate the sins of others and their punishment.
An ample sum was collected ; and Tetzel and his associates
sat down to a jovial entertainment, made the more merry by
the adroitness which had procured it.*

When Luther first heard of Tetzel' s proceedings he ex-
claimed, " God willing, I will beat a hole in his drum." But
it was in the confessional that Luther's sincere principles of
religion were first brought into actual collision with the reck-
less and avaricious dogmas of Tetzel. Several persons con-
fessed their iniquities and demanded absolution with the frank
acknowledgment that they had no intention of lea^dng off
sin, which would be an unnecessary act of self-denial. In
explanation of such a statement they displayed a prospective
indulgence letter. Luther assured them of the absurdity of
their notions and the worthlessness of the paper which they

* Walch. XV. p. 442.

THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER. 83

thought a passport to heaven, and refused them absohition 1517.
unless they were seriously bent upon amendment. In reply
they confronted with his teaching the pulpit declarations of
Tetzel; and when an opportunity offered, reported to the
pardon-seller what the Doctor of Wittenberg asserted of the
doctrines he declaimed with such vehemence from the pulpit.
The hostility was thus begun ; and fresh fuel was continually
added to its fire. On the 14th September Luther, from the
pulpit of Wittenberg parish church, discoursed to the people
on the delusions which had obtained circulation on the subject
of indulgences. '' According to Aquinas," he said, " Repent-
ance was divided into Contrition, Confession, and Satisfaction :
indulgences could only affect the last, but could be no satis-
faction for guilt ; for God of his mercy freely forgives through
Christ all who will turn to him and lead a holy life for the
future. Indulgences therefore only remit the satisfaction or
penance imposed by the Church. The poor of the place had
the first claim for charity, the churches of the neighbourhood
the next ; and when these prior demands had been satisfied,
then it might be well to contribute towards the erection of St.
Peter's."^ Yet it must be far better to give to build St. Peter's
out of pure charity than to compound with the gift for a letter
of indulgence.'^ But he allowed of the authority of the Pope,
and the existence of purgatory. When Tetzel heard of this
sermon he flew into a towering rage ; mounted the pulpit,
vaunted the infallibility of the Pontiff, and consigned his ad-
versary to eternal perdition as a blasphemous heretic. f And
to symbolize his sense of his deserts he caused a monster bon-

* Seckend. I. p. 24. Walcli. VIII. p. 533. L. Lat. op. Jense, I. p. 13.

t " I^on jam conciones sed fulmina in Lutherum torquet, vociferatur
ubique hunc liaereticum igni perdendum esse ; propositiones etiam
Lutlieri et concionem de indulgentiis publice conjicit inflammas." —
Melancthon.

G 2

81' THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1517. fire to be lighted in the market square, aud rioted in his
denunciations of heresy and its doom. He afterwards pub-
lished in more moderate tone " a refutation " of the sermon,
mentioning it as the sermon of twenty articles ; and to this
"refutation" Luther replied,"^ or rather to the corner stone
of its doctrine, commending all Tetzel's "superfluous paper
flowers and dry leaves to the dear wind Avhich had leisure
to dispose of them.'^ f Some time before this, however, the
Dominican had broken up camp from Juterbock, and moved
to Frankfort on the Oder.

On the 31st October, the eve of the festival of All Saints,
when the saintly bones and precious relics, enclosed some in
gold, others in silver, or in gems, which Frederic had collected
at incredible pains and cost for his favourite church, were ex-
posed to the public gaze, and multitudes of pilgrims were
thronging the way to the cathedral, Luther appeared in the
crowd and posted on the door ninety -five theses J on the doc-
trine of indulgences, which he engaged to maintain in the
University against whatever opponent, mouth to mouth, the
next day, or against the absent by letter. The first proposi-
tion stated — "Our Lord aud Master Jesus Christ, in saying
Repent, intended that the whole life of the faithful should
be a repentance." He proceeded to say —

4. The Pope does not intend to remit and cannot remit any
punishments but those he has himself imposed of his own
will or by the Canons.

8. The penitential Canons ought to be imposed on the living
only ; nothing ought to be imposed on the dying in obedience
to them.

* Freyheit des Sermons, &c. Walcb. XVII. p. 564, &c. It was
written by Luther in June, 1518.

t Dem lieben winde der aucb mussigcr ist.
;J; Lat. op. JeniB, I. p. 3.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 85

16. Hell, purgatory and heaven seem to differ as despair, a 1517.
feeling akin to despair, and safety,

20. The Pope by the plenary remission of all penalties
means simply all those imposed by himself.

25. The same power which the Pope has over purgatory
generally, every bishop has also in his own diocese, and every
curate in his own parish.

26. The Pope is right in that he gives remission to the
dead, not by power of the keys (which he cannot), but by
prayer.

32. They will be condemned for ever with their masters,
who believe that by letters of indulgences they are secure of
their salvation.

35. It is unchristian to teach that an indulgence letter in
behalf of the dead or living can dispense with the necessity
of contrition.

43. He who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does
far better than he who buys an indulgence letter.

58. The merits of Christ and the saints always, without the
Pope, work grace in the inner man ; the cross, death, and
hell in the outward man.

62. The true treasure of the Church is the ever blessed
Gospel of God's grace and glory.

76. The papal pardons cannot remit even the least of venial
sins as regards the guilt.

Such propositions exhibit the enlightenment of Luther's
mind, notwithstanding much lingering ignorance on the
merits of saints, the necessity of macerating the body, and
the existence of purgatory. But he did not intend to main-
tain all the ninety-five theses in the affirmative : he threw
them out, according to his wont, to awaken enquiry with a
view to the better information of himself and others.

The same evening he enclosed the theses to the Archbishop

86 THE LIFE OF MAKTIN LUTHER.

1517. of Mentz, whom he addressed in a most humble letter.
"The grace and mercy of God^ and all that may be and is.
Spare me, most reverend Father in Christ, illustrious Prince,
that I the dregs of men have so much boldness as to medi-
tate a letter to your sublime dignity. The Lord Jesus is my
witness that, conscious of my meanness and vileness, I have
long deferred what now I essay with unabashed forehead,
moved chiefly by a sense of the faithfulness I owe to you, my
most reverend Father in Christ. Therefore will your High-
ness deign to throw an eye on a piece of dust, and hear my
prayer for your and the papal clemency ? Papal indulgences
are carried about under your illustrious name for building
St. Peter's Church, in which I do not blame the statements
of the commissaries, for I have not heard them, but grieve
over the false conceptions of the multitude, which I learn
from all sides — that those who buy an indulgence are secure
of salvation ; that the soul flies out of purgatory as soon as
the money jingles in the box ; that the grace of the indul-
gence is so great, that, if a man could perpetrate the impos-
sible crime of violating the Mother of God, it would remit it ;
and that by such means all punishment and all guilt are for-
given and done away. O blessed God ! It is thus that souls
committed to your charge, most reverend Father, are in-
structed to death, and every day the account you will have to
render becomes more awful. For no one can be assured of
salvation through any Bishop; the grace of God within us
cannot even make us secure ; but we are bidden to be always
working out our salvation in fear and trembling. Even ' the
righteous is scarcely saved :' — * Strait is the gate which
leadeth to life :' and the Lord, by his prophets Amos and
Zacharias, calls those who shall be saved ' brands plucked
from the burning ;' and everywhere declares the extreme dif-
ficulty of salvation. Why, then, by those false indulgence

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 87

fables and promises make the people secure and without fear ? 1517.
For indulgences are of no avail to the soul as regards its sal-
vation or sanctificatioUj but only remove the sentence of the
Church, the canonical penance. In fine, works of piety and
charity are infinitely better than indulgences ; and the chief
duty of a Bishop is to teach the Gospel and the love of Christ.
Moreover, most reverend Father in the Lord, in the instruc-
tion to the commissaries, published under your name (doubt-
less without your consent or knowledge), it is stated that
indulgences are the inestimable gift whereby man is recon-
ciled to God, and the torments of purgatory are removed ;
and that, for those who buy them contrition is unnecessary.
What can I do, noble Prelate, illustrious Prince, but by the
Lord Jesus Christ implore you to destroy that book clean out
of hand, and give the commissaries another form for preach-
ing ; lest perchance some one rise up to confute them and
that book, to the great calumny of your most illustrious
Highness. I should dread such an event; but I foresee it
must be, unless timely measures are resorted to. May your
Grace receive as a Prince and a Bishop these faithful offices
from one so mean, which I ofl'er with the most faithful and
devoted heart ; for I am a part of your fold. And the
Lord Jesus keep you for ever. Your unworthy son, Martin
Luther,'^ &c.^

He also enclosed the theses, and wrote to his diocesan, the
Bishop of Brandenburg, and subsequently to others of the
neighbouring prelates. The Bishop of Brandenburg in reply
communicated with Luther by letter, and by a special mes-
senger the Abbot of Lenin ;t hinted his concurrence in con-
demning all the proclamations of indulgences, but regretted

* De Weite, I. pp. 67—70.

t De Wette, I. p. 71. Abbas Leninensis.

88 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1517. that Luther's sermon in German had been published^ and im-
plored him not to publish, or at least to postpone the publica-
tion of the proofs of his theses. Luther himself states that
he was overcome by the condescension of this treatment, and
in the confusion of his modesty answered, " I am content ;
T had rather be obedient than work miracles." Albert of
Meutz took no notice of his letter.

But however eager the Bishop of Brandenburg might be to
hush up the matter to avoid ecclesiastical scandal, and how-
ever reluctant Luther himself was at this period, as he ex-
pressly affirms, to advance, it was not probable that the monks
and inquisitors, whose happiest dreams were of heretics con-
sumed at the stake, would leave tlie Wittenberg Professor in
peace ; nor could society, which was stirred to its depths by
the sermon and theses, suffer the affair to drop. The theses
passed to the Emperor Maximilian ; to Eeuchlin at Stutgard;
to Erasmus in the Low Countries. The pilgrims carried them
home in their wallets : translations of them appeared even in
Holland and Spain ; within a month they had travelled the
round of Europe; a copy was offei-ed for sale in Jerusalem.
It seemed, says Myconius, as though the angels were the
carriers. In the evening of one day an unknown monk had
become an European character ; and palace and cottage rang
Avith his name. Letters of thanks, acknowledgments of the
truth he was vindicating, poured in upon him. Many monks
who like Luther himself had a relish for evangelical piety,
looked forth from their cells to hail the dawn of a new reli-
gious era. E-euchlin, Hutten, Siekingen, were transported
with joy ; Maximilian exclaimed, " This monk will give the
priests some trouble ;" Erasmus hardly concealed his approval ;
Bishop Bibra spoke out, and pronounced the prhiciples of the
Wittenberg monk most conformable to the Scriptures; Albert
Durer sent Luther a present, doubtless a work of his art, in

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 89

token of his love.* The whole world exclaimed, " What a 1517.
bold monk ! " The prophecy of John Huss was remembered,
that, "though they might kill the goose (Huss), after a hun-
dred years a swan would succeed to whose notes they would
listen.^' The hundred years had just run their course.

If the dream ascribed to the Elector of Saxony be true, it
must be regarded as showing the current of opinion, or in
other words, that '^coming events cast their shadows before
them." It is said that on the morning of the 31st October,
Frederic of Saxony in his castle of Schweinitz, six leagues
from Wittenberg, was pondering how to keep the festival of
All Saints when he fell asleep. He dreamt that the Almighty
sent a monk to him, a true son of the Apostle Paul. The
monk asked permission to write something on the door of
the castle church of Wittenberg, which was granted. The
monk took his pen and wrote, but in characters so big, that
they could be clearly read as far as Schweinitz. The pen grew
longer and longer, until at last its tip reached to Rome,
wounded the ears of a lion, and shook the triple crown on the
Pontifl''3 head. All the cardinals and princes put out their
hands to stay the tottering crown. The Elector in his dream
did the same ; and awoke with the effort. He soon dropped
asleep again, and went on dreaming of the mighty monk with
the long pen. The lion began to roar, the Pontiff and the
States of the Empire roused themselves and called on the
Elector to restrain the monk, because he was one of his sub-
jects. Frederic awoke again; repeated a paternoster; and
again fell asleep. He dreamt that the princes of the Empire,
himself and his brother among them, flocked to Rome in
order to break the pen ; but the more they tried, the stronger
it grew ; it seemed made of iron and bafiled all their attempts.

* Tlirough Scbeurl of Nuremberg. De Wette, I. p. 95.

90 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1517. The Elector enquired of the monk whence he had procured
such a strong pen, and was answered that it once belonged to
the wing of a goose of Bohemia. Presently a loud noise was
heard ; a number of other pens had issued from the long iron
pen, and were all writing. Frederic awoke, and it was day-
light.

Yet when the first act towards the accomplishment of this
prophetic vision was achieved, the Elector of Saxony was far
from according his approbation. He was full of alarm for the
credit of his University ; he dreaded the height to which con-
troversy might grow, and sent to Luther to intimate the pain
which his conduct gave him. The monks of his convent also,
and the Prior, expostulated with him on his rashness, and
mourned over the disgrace which he would bring on his order.
The monks of his old convent at Erfurth likewise arraigned
him of conceit and pride. '' That,'^ he answered, " has always
been made the charge against such as would not consult the
oracles of the old opinions ; the humility you require of me
would be mere hypocrisy." Luther in fact had acted quite
alone; neither the Elector,* nor Staupitz, nor his brother
monks had known anything of his intention ; he had been
careful to act thus independently in order to implicate no one
but himself. Moreover, whatever might be the admiration of
high-spirited men like Hutten, the low-minded and timid,
always the majority, anticipated Eriar Martin's ruin as the
sequel of the history. "Alas! poor monk," it was said,
" what can you do against the power of the Church ; creep into
your cell, and cry. Have mercy on me." It cannot be sup-
posed that such representations and forebodings carried no
weight A\ath them, Luther has declared that he felt for the
moment alone, a poor humble friar attenuated by study and

* De Wette, I. p. 76.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 91

fastings until " he was more like a corpse than a living man." 1517.
At the same time he revered the authority of the Church ; he
not only venerated, but even almost adored the Pontiff; and
thus there was a struggle in his own breast between his con-
flicting and even contradictory sentiments. But on the other
hand he was convinced he had done his duty, he had kept
his vow; and it is thus he wrote to Lange — " I wish what I
do, not to be done by man^s counsel but by God's. If the
work be of God, who can prevent it? If it be of man, who
can further it ? Thy will be done. Holy Father, who art in
heaven. Amen."

Just at this time he made application to the Elector for
some cloth which had been promised him for a gown : the
courtiers, he complained, would only spin him fine words,
which " would not beat into good cloth : " * and by favour of
Frederic his suit was complied with. No doubt the want of
a suitable gown was impressed on his mind by the probability
of his having to appear in public disputations.

Tetzel had found a cordial shelter in the University of Frank-
fort on the Oder, and under the wing of Conrad Wimpina, a
learned professor, framed two distinct series of antitheses,
which he engaged to maintain "to the glory of God, the
defence of the Catholic faith, and the honour of the Apostolic
See." The first series related to the subject of indulgences,
and stated, that,

3. "Whoever maintains that Christ when he preached. Re-
pent, intended only inward repentance and outward mortifica-
tion of the flesh,

4. "Without teaching or implying the sacrament of penance
and its parts, confession and satisfaction, as obligatory, errs.
Nay it is of no avail, if inward repentance works outward

* De Wette, I. p. 77.

92 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1517. mortification, unless there be in act or intention confession
and satisfaction,

5. This satisfaction (since God suffers no fault to go with-
out vengeance) is by punishment or its equivalent in the Divine
acceptation.

6. Which is either imposed by priests, at their discretion,
or according to the Canon, or sometimes is exacted by the
divine justice to be paid here or in purgatory.

9. This punishment by way of satisfaction, if once duly
paid, he who is absolved is not bound to pay again.

11. This punishment imposed for deeds, for which contri-
tion has been felt, and confession made, the Pope by indul-
gences can entirely remit.

Such was the Romish indulgence doctrine as explained by
Conrad Wimpina, resting on the double assumption, that
man can by his own acts or sufferings atone for his misdeeds,
and that the priest, or at least the Pope, is in the place of
God. But as the whole hinged on this supposed power of the
Pontiff, the second series of antitheses, so framed as to detect
" at the first glance every heretical, schismatical, pertinacious,
contumacious, erroneous, seditious, ill-tongued, presumptuous,
and injurious person,'^ declared — that

1. The power of the Pope is supreme in the Church, and
instituted by God alone; and the whole world together can-
not restrain or augment it.

3. The authority of the Pope is superior to that of the
whole Church and of a General Council; and humble obedi-
ence must be rendered to his statutes.

4. The Pope can alone determine points of faith, and in-
terpret Scripture.

Here was the Aristotelic Thomist system of religion in full
vigour. But it is important to observe how by this means,
on the very threshold of the controversy, the question was

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 93

sliifted back to first principles_, from the doctrine of Repent- 1517.
ance and Indulgences to the alleged supremacy and infalli-
bility of the Pope. " Tetzel," said Luther, "treats Scripture
as a sow does a sack of oats.'^ It was Scripture and the
earliest Christian records which the Reformer was now driven
to search upon this one head, the claim of the Pope to infal-
libility. One link in the Roman chain of doctrines had been
unbound ; and now, in consequence, the metal itself, from
which the chain was wrought, was to be tested.

Tetzel and Wimpina had fixed the 20th January as the
day for the disputation. It was much easier to defend their
positions at Frankfort, than to take up the gauntlet which
Luther had flung down, and meet him in the lists at Witten-
berg. They promised themselves to carry the day without
any antagonist offering to contest the palm. But in this they
were deceived, for John Knipstrcw, a student of the Univer- 1518.
sity, a youth of about twenty years of age, manfully main-
tained the opinions of Luther ; and Tetzel retreated under
the shield of Wimpina. At the close of the discussion Tetzel
was elevated to the degree of Doctor : and in the evening, a
pulpit and scaffold having been erected in the suburbs, the
new made Doctor raved from the pulpit against heresy, and
placing Luthex''s sermon and theses on the scaffold, burnt them
amidst the acclamations of the crowd. Tetzel's antitheses
were brought to Wittenberg by a man of Halle ; the students
of Wittenberg bought or seized the 800 copies which the
vendor had with him, and in the ardour of their zeal for the
Scriptures, and in revenge of the insult to Luther, burnt
them publicly at two o'clock in the afternoon in the market
place. This act, however, was regarded by the authorities
with great displeasure, as increasing the daager of Luther's
position.

The addresses of tlie indulgence-sellers to the populace

94 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. had never ceased to vilify the monk of Wittenberg with every
term of abuse and mode of threat. Sometimes they gave
out that within five days he wouUl be led to the stake; then
the term of respite was extended to a month ; or he was to be
summoned before the inquisitorial tribunal at Rome. It
aggravated their fury that the fictions which they rehearsed
to the multitude were every day falling more into disrepute ;
and, amongst the clergy themselves, there were springing up
those who, like Egranus the preacher of Zwickau, laughed at
the foolish legends of the Saints, which a little while before
had been deemed sacred.

The first direct attack upon Luther^s indulgence doctrines
came from Rome itself — from Sylvester Prierias, the Roman
Censor, and Master of the Palace — and reached the Reformer
early in January. It was a dialogue between Luther and
Prierias, dedicated to Leo ; and the preface stated that the
following answer to an obscure monk, Martin Luther by
name, had occupied the author three days, and interrupted so
long his commentary on the first chapter of the second book
of St. Thomas. Yet the Pope himself gave no great encou-
ragment to the zeal of his Master of the Palace. When he
first heard of the famous theses, he spoke of them as " doubt-
less the work of some drunken German ; " but, after an in-
spection of them, when Prierias presented his Dialogue,
replied, that " Friar Martin was a man of genius ; he did not
wish to have him molested ; the outcry against him was all
monkish jealousy." But Leo^s prudence or indifiference was
easily overruled by his cardinals and courtiers.

Before entering on the Dialogue, Prierias laid down four
rules or first principles : — " 1 . The Universal Church essen-
tially is a congregation for divine worship of all believers in
Christ ; but the Universal Church is virtually the Roman
Church, the head of all Churches, and the Supreme PontiflP.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 95

The Romish Church representatively is the College of Cardi- 1518.
nals ; virtually it is the Supreme Pontiff, who is the head of
the Church, but in a different sense from Christ. 2. As the
Universal Church cannot err in determining concerning faith
or manners, so a true Council, doing what in it lies to under-
stand the truth, cannot err, by which I mean its head being
included; or, at last and finally (it may perhaps at first be
deceived as long as the act of enquiry into the truth continues ;
nay, it has even sometimes erred ; but at last, through the Holy
Spirit, it has understood the truth), in like manner, the Roman
Church cannot err, nor the supreme Pontiff; that is, officially
pronouncing and doing what in him lies to understand the
truth. 3. Whoever does not rely on the doctrine of the
Roman Church, and of the Roman Pontiff, as the infallible
rule of faith, from which even Scripture derives its strength
and authority, is a heretic. 4, The Roman Church, as it can
in word so in act, can determine anything respecting faith
and manners. And, consequently, as a heretic is one who
thinks amiss concerning the truth of the Scriptures, so too
one who thinks amiss concerning the doctrine and acts of the
Church in matters pertaining to faith and manners, is a
heretic."

To these first principles was appended, as a corollary, that
" He who, in the matter of indulgences, says that the Roman
Church cannot do what it actually does, is a heretic." The
Dialogue then opened with the invitation, " Come now,
Martin, let us hear your propositions ;" and after severe casti-
gation by word of mouth, Martin was handed over to the
ministers of the Inquisition.

Luther received this "Dialogue" from Nuremberg, and
sent it to Spalatin, together with a Dialogue of Lucian, just
translated into Latin by Mosellanus, both to be returned to

96 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER,

1518. liim.* He consulted his fellow professors at Wittenberg on
tlie expediency of returning an answer to Pricrias ; but it
was generally agreed tliat the " Dialogue " must be a burlesque,
like the " Literse obscurorum Virorum/' He continued to
preach, lecture, and instruct the people by his writings.
About this period he published an exposition of the 110th
Psalm, an explanation of the Lord's Prayer, and other popular
tracts ; and he was writing his " Solutions " of his ninety-five
theses, the publication of which he still deferred out of respect
to his Bishop. He was deeply studying Scripture and the early
Fathers, and examining the foundations of the Papacy. " Be
assured,'' he wrote to Spalatin, who had asked his advice on
the true mode of studying the Bible, " that the Bible cannot
be understood by mere study or intellect. Begin with prayer,
that it would please God of his boundless mercy to grant you
an understanding of his word ; not to your glory, but his own.
Pray to be taught of God, and utterly distrust your own abi-
lities ; and then, in entire self- despair, read the Bible through
in order from beginning to eud."t " I have great reason,"
he wrote in another letter, " to be on the watch against pride,
for my opponents are destitute of all literature, human and
divine." "In every work," he wrote to Spalatin, "if we
would be successful, we must be animated by two sentiments,
despair and confidence ; despair of all we can do, confidence
in God." " Send me," he wrote to Lange, " Lucian's Dia-
logues, More's Utopia, which Richard Pace mentions, and his
Epigrams, Wolfgang's Hebrew Institutes, above all Erasmus'
Apology against Faber." Thus religiously composed, calm
and peaceful, was Luther after the storm had begun, when the
indulgence-merchants and the inquisitors were howling on all
sides, and Rome was on the point of taking up their cause.

* De Wette, I. p. 86. t De Wette, I. p. 88.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 97

A new antagonist rose up in the person of Dr. Eck, who 1518.
had recently contracted a friendship with Luther, Avhich had
been cemented by an interchange of letters. But Eck had
two principal reasons for acting as he now did. The most
eminent Professor of Ingolstadt University, itself an offshoot
from Leipsic, and like that a rival of Wittenberg, he did not
desire that Wittenberg or its Doctor should eclipse the repu-
tation of other academies and Professors. He was moreover
deeply imbued with the old scholastic spirit ; as Luther after-
wards said of him, " crammed with the bran and husks of
Scotus and Gabriel, and saturated with Aristotle." Eck
wrote a treatise against the ninety-five theses, at the sugges-
tion, as he stated, of his Diocesan the Bishop of Eichstadt, to
whom he submitted it and then circulated it privately amongst
his friends ; giving the work the name of the " Obelisks,"
because he marked with an obelisk those propositions which
he could "not assent to. The work was full of virulent abuse,
and styled Luther " heretical, seditious, and Bohemian." *
It occasioned the Reformer much pain, as a breach of friend-
ship; for Eck had neither written nor given any warning of
his intention, nor implied that the regard between them was
to cease in any way.f Yet Luther was willing to swallow the
sop, and had resolved to do so; when his friends persuaded
him that he was in honour and duty bound to reply. He
wrote therefore the " Asterisks," and circulated his answer
privately amongst his friends. Eck had objected to the
statement that "the indulgence remits only the canonical
penance ; " and argued, " if the penalties of the Canons are
added in accumulation to the Divine penalties, they are a
snare : if they are only declaratory, which is the truth, then
the Pope does remit some actual penalties." "It is not

* De Wette, I. p. 100.
t Neque monens, ueque scribens, neque valedictens.
VOL. I. H

98 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. true/^ Luther answered, ''that any penalties are imposed by
God, for he freely forgives the penitent sinner, and has him-
self paid all in Christ. If it is meant that to remit canonical
penalties -without remitting Divine is a snare, this is true just
as far as it is true that penalties are imposed by God at all,
which is utterly false. But were Dr. Obelisk a theologian as
much as he is a sophist, he would not be surprised to hear
that the Canons are a snare, when the law itself is that net
whereby God has concluded all under siu.^^ Again, Eck had
asserted that the Sacraments of the New Law effect what they
figure, in which they differ from the Sacraments of the Old
Law. " The Sacraments of the New Law," Luther answered,
" do not effect the grace of which they are seals ; but faith is
required before every sacrament. Faith is grace. Therefore
grace always precedes the Sacrament. The mistake of our
Obelisk Theologian is in supposing that the Sacraments can
work grace without any act on the part of the recipient, pro-
vided he oppose no barrier. This is not indeed ' Bohemian
poison ; ' but it is the hemlock of hell." The controversy
was then taken up by Carlstadt, who published some proposi-
tions for disputation against Eck's opinions. A reconciliation
was attempted between Luther and Eck by Scheurl of Nurem-
berg their common friend; and Luther on his part wrote a
letter to Eck, " most friendly and full of courtesy," * and was
willing to impute the whole to the malice of advisers. They
afterwards met at Augsburg, and peace seemed restored.

A Chapter of the Augustine Order was to be held at
Heidelberg. Luther was advised not to be present, on ac-
count of the dangers which might assail him by the way;
but he was resolved to go. He started on foot, with a guide
to carry his baggage, and passed through Erfurth and Juden-

* " Scripsi ad eum ipsiim amicissimas ct pleuas literas humauitatc."
Be Wotle, I. p. 126.'

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 99

bach to Cobourg, but found the journey excessively fatiguing. 1518.
" I sinned/' he wrote to Spalatin on the 15th April, from
Cobourg, " in undertaking this expedition on foot ; but my
contrition is perfect, the satisfaction I have paid complete,
and I hope I may be allowed an indulgence letter.'' At
Wurzberg he had an interview in the evening with the excel-
lent Bishop Lawrence Bibra, who would hardly be refused
the pleasure of sending an escort with him to Heidelberg.
But he fortunately obtained a seat in the carriage of Staupitz,
and after three days' pleasant travelling with the Vicar-Gene-
ral and John Lange, alighted at the Augustine convent in
Heidelberg. It is not known what was the exact object of
this meeting of the Order : but Luther, seizing his oppor-
tunity for disseminating the truth, published forty proposi-
tions, twenty-eight on Theology, the remainder on Philoso-
phy, which he engaged to maintain on the 26th April, in the
Augustine convent, since the University would not allow him
the use of their hall. He maintained his " paradoxes " on
faith, grace, justification, and the spiritual impotency of the
will, against five doctors ; of whom four argued with great
modesty, and even dexterity, although the views advanced
were strange to them ; the fifth remained silent, except that
he once called aloud to Luther, to the amusement of the com-
pany, " If the country folk heard this, they would stone you."
It is worthy of remark, that amongst the audience were three
men destined to be eminent witnesses to evangelical truth
in their subsequent career, Bucer, Brentz, and Snepf, who in
this disputation were favoured for the first time with a ray of
Gospel light. Luther had brought a letter of recommenda-
tion from the Elector to the Count Palatine Wolfgang, by
whom he was received with great cordiality. He presented
the letter to the Master of the Court, James Semler, who
exclaimed on reading it, '' Indeed you hat)e got a letter of

H 2

100 THE LIFE Ol' MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. recommendation !"^ and he and his friends were invited to a
repast by the Count, and enjoyed a most agreeable conversa-
tion with their host^ eating and drinking, and viewing every-
thing worthy of sight in Heidelberg Castle. He did not
return home on foot, but was conveyed at the expense of the
different Augvistine convents on the line of road.

At Erfurth he wrote a letter to his old University tutor,
Jodocus Trutvetter. " You know/' he said, " what able men
we have at Wittenberg ; Carlstadt, Amsdorf, Schurf, Wolf-
gang, the two Feldkirchens, and Peter Lupin. They all
agree with me in the matter of indulgences : so does the
Avhole University, with the exception of the Licentiate Sebas-
tian; so do our Elector and Ordinary, and many Prelates
besides, and all respectable citizens." The letter was fol-
lowed by an interview between the former pupil and tutor;
and Luther endeavoured, but in vain, to persuade Jodocus,
that " unless the canons, decretals, scholastic theology, phi-
losopliy and logic, then in fashion, were entirely done away
with, and the study of the Bible and the Fathers revived, the
Church could never be reformed." On the Sunday evening
after Ascension day Luther re-entered Wittenberg. Wher-
ever he had been known during his journeys he had been an
object of attraction to the cui'ious. The expedition had been
of benefit to his health ; and it was remarked that he had
gained in flesh and strength.

On the 2.2ud of May he wi'ote to the Bishop of Branden-
burg, and enclosed his " Solutions," which were now finished,
but not yet sent to the press. He had been forced, he stated,
into the line of conduct which he had pursued in the affair of
the indulgences, for his opinion had been asked again and
again on the strange doctrines set forth by the commissaries,

* Dicens sua Neckarcua lingua — ibr habt bj GoLt einen kystlicbeu
credentz. De Wette, I. p. 111.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 101

and he had for a long while forborne replj'ing, until it was 1518.
evident that the reverence dne to the Pontiff and the Church
was in jeopardy. He entreated his Reverend Father to take
the pen and strike out whatever displeased him in the " Solu-
tions/' or even to burn thein altogether. The reply of his
Diocesan must have beeu favourable ; for on the 30th May he
addressed a letter to Staupitz, enclosing the " Solutions" in
manuscript, and a letter to Leo himself, both of which he
requested the Vicar- General to transmit for him to his Holi-
ness, He reminded Staupitz of the conversations which had
passed between them in the Erfurth monastery ; how he had
received his " dearest father's" words as a voice from heaven,
when he declared that the hatred of sin must begin with the
love of God, and of holiness. " That declaration clung to his
heart like the sharp arrow of the mighty ; and reading Scrip-
ture in the new light tlius vouchsafed, he found all harmony,
everything seemed to smile and leap up, as it were, to wel-
come the true doctrine. And that word once inexpressiljly
bitter to him, Kepentance, became most sweet, when he read
its meaning, not only in books, but in tlie wounds of the
beloved Saviour."

The letter to Leo, after stating how he had been induced to
avail himself, on the subject of indulgences, of that right of
public disputation which his HoHness accorded to the Univer-
sities on far more momentous topics, and after alluding to the
unexpected celebrity which his propositions had attained,
obscure and enigmatical as they were (and had I known, he
said, that they would have run over almost the whole earth,"^
I would have made them much plainer), concluded with the
humble surrender of himself and his cause to the Pontiff.
" I lay myself prostrate at the feet of your Holiness, with all

* "In omuom terram pceue exierinl."

103 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER,

1518. 1 have and am. Grant me life or slay me, call or recall, ap-
prove or disapprove, as may please you. I will receive your
voice as that of Christ presiding and speaking in you. If I
have deserved death, I do not refuse to die ; for the earth is
the Lord's and the fulness thereof. Blessed be his name for
ever! Amen. And may he preserve you to all eternity."

The agitation against '^ Friar Martin," far from declining,
was increasing in vehemence amongst the indulgence-mer-
chants, the inquisitors of heresy, and the extreme Papist
party. How could it be otherwise when the value of indul-
gences as a commodity was nearly spoilt ?* James Hochstra-
ten, the Dominican inquisitor of Louvain, called upon Leo to
rise up with a lion^s fury against the heretic monk, and destroy
him without farther delay. " Whatever is contrary to Scrip-
ture," said Hochstraten, " is heretical." Luther replied in a
brief letter, but in terms of greater severity than he had pre-
viously used, and particularly addressed himself to the inqui-
sitor's definition of heresy. "David's adultery was against
Scripture, therefore David was a heretic. Every sin is against
Scriptui'c, therefore the whole world is in heresy. The
Church is heretical. Arise, O Leo, most gentle pastor, and
make inquisition upon your heretical inquisitors by other in-
quisitors, for they prove your Holiaess and the whole Church
to be heretical. No," he continued, " a person may be in
great error, yet is he not a heretic unless he pertinaciously
asserts and defends his error. Now the Pope has not been
fouiid in any great error, nor has he pertinaciously clung to
any error, great or small. Go, wretch, blood-stained parri-
cide, thou who thirsteth for thy brother's blood, make inqui-
sition for beetles in their own filth, until you can comprehend
the d-stinction between sin, error, and heresy. Thou bloody

* Cochlseus, p. 8. "Earescebant mamis largientium."

THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER. 103

man! thou enemy to truth. If your fury urges you again 1518.
to attempt anything against me, be cautious to act with judg-
ment and consideration. God knows what I shall do, if I
live."

The adversaries who had risen up against Luther, instead
of injuring, had in fact benefited his cause. Maimburg the
Jesuit states that it was senseless in Prierias to throw back the
question on the infallibility of the Pontiff, and that in Rome
itself his opinions were regarded as ultra. It is certain that
neither the learning nor the ability of the Master of the
Palace was of a high order. The attack made upon Luther
by Hochstraten sounded like the howl of the executioner for
his victim. The interference of Eck, who had both erudition
and talent, in the controversy, had been purchased by a disho-
nourable breach of friendship, and wore very much the guise
of personal rivalry. All these circumstances weighed upon
the Elector's mind, and disposed him more and more favour-
ably towards his Professor ; and this disposition was greatly
increased by the reputation which Luther enjoyed, the avidity
and admiration with which his writings were received, and
the consent of the' whole University, and of all good men,
with the sentiments which he had proclaimed. But, out of
Germany, the indulgence party were able to carry everything
their own way. How could Italy endure that Germany should
deny her those large sums of money of which she had drained
Europe, and Germany especially, like a subject province, for
centuries, on the pretence of some cleverly-invented lies?
Besides, the Thomist faction was very potverful at the Vatican,
and, supported out of doors by Italian jealousy, Italian ava-
rice, and everywhere by the monkish inquisitorial section
before combined against Reuchlin, and by all those who were
conscious of a vested interest in the permanence of ignorance,
bigotry, and extortion, could almost dictate to the Pontiff

104 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER,

1518. how he was to act. Luther felt all this ; and, anxious to pre-
pare the people for the blow which he well knew the Court of
Rome had already struck against liim, preached on the 15th July
on the force and meaning of ecclesiastical excommunication.
'' This/' he said, " was of two kinds, just as the Church itself
was in one sense the body of true believers only, and in an-
other sense the society of professing Christians. From the real
Church of Christ no soul could be cut off but by his own sin.
The visible Churchy however, could excommunicate, and might
err in its sentence ; but even in such a case its chastisement was
to be patiently borne as the rod of a mother ; and thus pa-
tiently to endure an unjust punishment without receding from
the path of duty, ' which is yet more requisite than patient
endurance,' would convert the undeserved correction to a
blessing. Although Annas and Caiaphas, Pilate and Herod,
might be in chief authority in the visible Church, the example
of Christ himself taught the obligation of paying them rever-
ence." The sermon was followed by a series of theses, pro-
posed for public disputation, on the same subject; but here a
messenger from the Bishop of Brandenburg interposed,
requesting that the disputation might be deferred, and Luther
immediately obeyed.*

About three weeks after the sermon on excommunication,
Luther received a citation from the Papal Fiscal to appear
within sixty days at Rome, to answer the charge of heresy,
before Jerome, Bishop of Asculum, and Sylvester Prierias,
Master of the Palace. He immediately wrote to Spalatin,
who was at Augsburg in attendance upon the Elector during
Aug. 8. the sitting of the Diet, in these words : " My dear Spalatin,
I am now in the greatest need of your help j nay, the honour
of the whole University requires it. The favour I implore is,

* De Wcttc, I. p. 130.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 105

that you will petition our illustrious Prince and Pfeffinger, 1518.
that our Prince and the Emperor will obtain a transfer or
remission of my cause for trial in Germany. I have written
to this effect to our Prince. I see how treacherously and ma-
liciously the homicide preachers are compassing my ruin.
There is not a moment for delay ; for the time prescribed is
very short, as you will see by the enclosed citation. Read it
with all its hydras and portents. If you love me and hate
iniquity, make speed in the matter, and signify our Prince's
pleasure to me, or rather to our Vicar-General Staupitz, who
must ere this have reached Augsburg. In conclusion, I
entreat you not to be moved or distressed on my account.
The Lord will make a way of escape."

The Elector also had received a letter from the Cardinal
St. George, in which it was hinted that Frederic's fidelity to
the Holy See had fallen under suspicion, and that, to re-instate
himself in the esteem of the Church, it was trusted he would
cease protecting his rebellious friar. It was an anxious moment
for Luther. Rome was that giant's cave strewn with bones and
stained with blood, the vestibide of which showed many enter-
ing but no retiring footprints. His safety at this period, to
human eyes, turned upon the decision of Frederic ; but there
was every reason to believe, from the goodwill of Spalatin
and Pfeffinger, and the firmness and discrimination of the
Elector himself, that the support so much required would not
prove wanting in this hour of extremity.

The danger which was visibly hanging over his head did
not for an instant repress Luther's zeal for truth. Just at
this crisis, his " Solutions " were given to the world. He
declared in them that " the Pope's power was not different in
kind from that of any other priest, but only in quantity, as
extending over the parish of the whole Church." Absolution,
he affirmed, was never valid unconditionally ; but " the faith-

106 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. ful received exactly in proportion to their faith^ not on account
of the Pope's or priest's declaration^ but by virtue of Chrisfs
promise;" the use of absolution being simply to comfort the
weak in faith^ assure them of the truth of God's word ; i e.,
work faith in faith. " He questioned the entire doctrine of
the merits of saints, for he did not believe that any mere
human being ever had done or ever could do a work of super-
erogation." Of purgatory he averred that it was " not a
workshop for paying the satisfaction of guilt," but a place in
which souls neither without faith nor yet perfect in faith, in
whom the new man was not completely formed, by conviction
of sin and repentance, matured in faith, hope, and charity.
God was not a merchant or an usurer who could not forgive
without the payment of compensation money. And indul-
gences were not an acquittance from purgatory, nor from a
holy life, nor from deeds of mercy and charity, but simply
from the canonical penance. To Leo personally he was
most complimentary ; but he called Rome " that veritable
Babylon," and pitied a good pontiff in such a den of Satan.
Then, with increasing boldness : " I care little for what may
merely please or displease the Pope. He is a man like others.
I listen to the Pope as Pope ; that is, when he speaks in the
Canons, or agreeably to the Canons, or determines in conjunc-
tion with a Council ; but not when he speaks according to his
own head. Otherwise, I shall be compelled to say, with
some who know little of Christ, that the horrible spillings of
Christian blood by Julius II. were the blessings of a gentle
pastor bestowed on Christ's fold." His courage rose yet
higher as his zeal waxed warmer. " t will speak out in a few
words, and boldly. The Church must be reformed. And it
is the work not of one man, as the Pape, nor many, as the
Cardinals ; but for the whole world, or rather for God alone.
The time of such a Reformation He only knows. Meanwhile

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 107

our vices are patent beyond denial. The keys are put to the 1518.
service of avarice and ambition. The torrent has received an
impetus which we cannot stay."

As soon as the " Solutions " were in the hands of the pub-
lic, he employed his pen in answering the " most sylvestrian
Dialogue " of Sylvester Prierias, " that sweetest man," who
he had now discovered was a matter-of-fact existence and was
"at once his adversary and his judge." The answer was
written in the space of two days and was soon in print. " I
know the Church," Luther said, " virtually only in Christ,
representatively only in a Council. If whatever your virtual
Church, i. e. the Pope does, must needs be the act of the
Church, what enormities must be reckoned among the
Church's acts ! The bloodsheddings of Julius II., the tyran-
nies of Boniface VIII., who, as the saying runs, 'came in
like a fox, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog ! ' " He
proceeded to declare an extension of his doctrine in regard to
the power of the keys — " In those words of Christ, ' What-
soever thou shalt bind on earth, &c.,' no privilege is given to
Peter. The words are an irrefragable law, given not to Peter
only, but to all priests, and not to priests only, but to every
Christian." This was indeed laying the axe to the root of
sacerdotalism. In reply to the cavil of Prierias, that if, as
Luther had stated. Repentance was the work for all life long,
it would be an impossibility, he said, " The admonition is not
' Do penance,^ as a false translation renders it, but ' Be con-
verted or changed in heart.' Of course such true repentance
must ever be in its perfect form and extent an impossibility
on earth : but every real Christian is engaged in the mortifi-
cation of sin each day and each moment. A sacramental
penance every moment of the day would be an absurdity.
But the real Christian in his most ordinary acts, whether he
eats or drinks, does all to the glory of God. He lives to God

108 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. and dies to God. Even in sleeping lie obeys God's will, and
to obey God's will, that is repentance. How can you or any
one dare to assert that the believer in Christ when asleep is
void of good acts and the work of repentance cannot be going
on in him? On the contrary, he is then the fullest of good
acts, when he suffers God placidly to act in him, and enjoys
a Sabbath in the Lord.'' But it was not to be expected that
Luther's scriptural profundity would meet with any corres-
ponding quality in Prierias ; and this " answer " only elicited
fresh effusions of ignorance and vanity from the Master of the
Palace.

In the meantime the deliberations of the Diet were pro-
ceeding at Augsburg. Two subjects more particularly en-
gaged attention : the threatened invasion of Germany by
Sultan Selim, who had already overrun Armenia, Egypt, and
Syria ; and the demand of Maximilian that his grandson
should be elected King of the Romans during his own lifetime.
The Elector of Saxony acted his usual independent part in the
Diet; and from the great influence which he possessed from
his high moral character and reputation for wisdom, was
enabled to carry matters according to his wishes. He would
not allow the papal legate. Cardinal Cajetan, to extract more
money from Germany on the pretence of a Turkish war; but
in resistance to such a demand ten grievances of Germany
against Rome were delivered in writing to the Emperor,
amongst which Indulgences and Tenths for a war never
waged, were the eighth and ninth enumerated."^ And he
succeeded in overthrowing Maximilian's policy, to have the
reversion to the empire secured to his grandson against the
fundamental laws of the constitution. But this latter service
to the constitutional cause was also a great boon to the

* Walch. XV. p. 550.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 109

Pontiff, and outweighed the incivility of refusing the tenths : 1518.
as there was nothing which St. Peter's successor dreaded
more sincerely than the union of half the sceptres of Europe
in one hand.

The Emperor and the Elector both wrote to the Pontiff
from Augsburg. Maximilian, chagrined at the disappoint-
ment of his schemes, denounced Martin Luther, hinting
that the rebellious monk had found numerous defenders and
patrons among the powerful. Whatever the Apostolic See
might determine in the matter, the Emperor, in his profound
reverence for the Vicar of Christ, would rejoice to carry into
effect. And he trusted the Pontiff would restrain "wordy
disputations after the scholastic fashion/^ which many grave
authorities disapproved, and " the lawfulness of which was
questioned in an ancient decree of the pontifical Senate."
Frederic on his part, in replying to the Cardinal St. George,
began with expressing his submission to the Holy See ;
touched on personal matters ; and passed on to Doctor Mar-
tin Luther, whose writings and sermons he denied that he
had ever taken upon him to defend, "nor would he do so
now." But he had been informed that Dr. Luther Avas will-
ing, " under a safe-conduct," to submit his tenets to the ex-
amination of "just, courteous, impartial, and learned judges."
In conclusion, he mentioned his brother Elector and friend
the Archbishop of Treves, as a very fit person to be entrusted
with the management of the case. The Elector also ad-
dressed the imperial secretary through Spalatiu, stating that
Dr. Luther was willing to submit the points in dispute to the
decision of any of the German Universities, excepting Erfurth,
Leipsic, and Frankfort on the Oder. The University of Wit-
tenberg also warmly took up the cause of their most distin-
guished Professor; and in a letter to Charles von Miltitz,

110 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. the German Chamberlain of the Pontiff, spoke of Luther's
"various and almost extraordinary erudition, of his simple
and unadulterate manners;" and in a letter to Leo himself,
alluded to his feeble health, which rendered him quite un-
equal to a journey to Rome, and affirmed that his religious
teaching had always enjoyed a most orthodox repute at Wit-
tenberg, and still did so. Not a stone was left unturned to
prevent the remission of the cause to Rome ; and Luther
himself suggested that, if the case could not be tried in Ger-
many, the Elector should save him from certain death by
refusing his safe- conduct.

But the power of Rome was far from being equal to her
malice : in her complicated system one wheel was a check
upon another j and as political considerations weighed with
her more than religious, it seemed the direct reverse of good
policy, in the present prospects of Europe, to break with such
an influential Elector as Frederic. Leo therefore, probably
with less reluctance than his courtiers, consented to a change
of proceedings. '' We have heard," he wrote to Frederic,
" from many most learned and religious men, and particularly
from our beloved son the Master of the Sacred Palace, that
Martin Luther has dared to assert and maintain publicly
many impious and heretical tenets. We have therefore cited
him to answer these charges before our beloved son Thomas,
Cardinal St. Sixti, Legate de Latere of the Holy See, a man
versed in all theology and philosophy, who will decide what
he must do." The epistle concluded with an admonition
to the Elector to keep the splendour of his family, of such
saintly repute, unsullied by the calumny which had assailed
him of protecting a heretic.^ This new arrangement was a

* Lat. Op. Jena;, I. p. 181.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. Ill

great compliment to the Elector of Saxony, who had himself 1518.
requested the Cardinal to- apply to the Vatican for the remis-
sion of the cause to his judgment ; a suit which Cajetan had
willingly undertaken, in order, by his success in reconciling
Luther to the Church, to repair the failure of his endeavours
in regard to the tenths. On the one part, the Cardinal de Vio
promised the Elector that he would treat his monk with paternal
gentleness ; on the other, Frederic engaged that Dr. Martin
should appear before the Legate without fail at Augsburg,
But such a fatality attended all the measures of Rome, that by
this concession to Frederic she was involved in a transparent
contradiction. By a new brief, dated the 23rd August, it was
given out that the accused friar Martin had already been con-
demned as a heretic, and that the Cardinal St. Sixti was
commissioned to force and compel him to appear in his pre-
sence, if he proved unwilling to do so, and to keep him in
custody until the papal pleasure should be known ; or, if he
voluntarily appeared before him, in that case treating him as
a heretic already condemned, either to absolve him on his re-
tractation ; or, if he would not retract, to lay an interdict on
the dominions of any potentate, as long as the refractory
heretic might remain in them, and for three days afterwards,
the Emperor alone excepted. This brief was kept as snug as
could be from all curious eyes : but that of course could be
only for a time, although Rome trusted sufficiently long for
her purpose to have been answered ; and when it afterwards
fell into Luther's hands, he published it with this comment :
— " The date of this brief is the 23rd August : but I had
been cited only on the 7th August, an interval of sixteen days.
The sixty days allowed me, beginning from the 7th August,
would terminate about the 7th October. It is forsooth the
custom and style of the Roman Curia to cite, admonish,
judge, condemn, and publish the sentence all at once, whilst

112 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. the culprit is leagues away, aud knows nothing of the
matter!"^

However, the citation to the Reformer to appear at Augs-
burg before the Legate threw his friends into the utmost
consternation. Some wrote to dissuade him from compliance :
every where it was feared open violence or dangerous guile
would track his footsteps : and even in his own language, "to
go to Augsburg was to tempt God." But he never thought
of recoiling from the path of duty. " You know my spiritual
conflicts," he wrote to Staupitz, " they are so great that I
think nothing of these earthly momentary trials." But Stau-
pitz was overcome with anxiety for his dear Martin. " Come
to me," he wrote to Luther, " let us live and die together :
the world is exasperated against Christ, and the sentence
against you is at the door."

Before Luther started on his journey he welcomed to the
University Pliilip Melancthon, whom the Elector had appointed
Professor of Greek. Philip Schwarzerd or Melancthon was
the son of a master armourer of Bretten ; but his father was
dead : his mother Barbara who was still living was the daughter
of John Renter a magistrate of Bretten, a woman of some
poetical talent and an excellent mother. Melancthon was a
protege of Reuchlin, and had received when a boy from that
eminent scholar the present of a Greek Grammar and a Bible.
He was only twenty-two years of age when he was called to
the chair of Greek literature at Wittenberg, and had already
lectiu-cd in the University of Tubingen. His personal ap-
pearance, for his features were mean, and his stature low, his

* Luther also declared that this brief was of German workmanship,
sent from Germany to Rome, and having there received the approba-
tion of some magnates, sent back again to Germany. Lat. Op. Jense,
I. p. 92.

t Letter of Staupitz, dated Sept. 14. See Seckend. I. p. 44.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 113

manners shy and diffident, belied his attainments and talents. 1518.
But on the 29th August he delivered his inaugural lecture
with such learning and terseness that Luther and the other
Professors were overjoyed. "We have indeed an acquisition
in our Greek Professor/' Luther Avrote to Spalatin; "I only
hope his tender frame will not resent our spare diet, and shift
to better fare at Leipsic, whither he has been invited.
Pfeffinger is too close a guardian of our Prince's purse.*
As long as I have Melancthon I want no better tutor
in Greek." But even Luther was only partly conscious of
the treasure which he had found ; and had yet to learn that
Melancthon's mental and moral qualities, added to his own,
made up the complement of a Reformer.

On the 28th September Luther reached Weimar on his road
to Augsburg, and lodged in the convent of the Bare-footed
Friars, where he was beheld for the first time by Myconius, even
then in heart a disciple to the doctrines of the Reformation.
" My dear Doctor," Myconius relates, one of the fraternity
exclaimed, in his compassion for the persecuted " Brother
Martin," " the Italians are clever people ; you will never de-
fend your cause against them : they will burn you." " Dear
friend," Luther answered, " pray to our dear God and his
dear Son Christ, whose cause it is, to uphold it for me." f
From Weimar he pursued his route, still on foot, to Nurem-
berg, where he borrowed of his old friend and brother monk,
Wenceslaus Link, a monk's frock to appear in before the Le-
gate, for his own was sore worn with age and the toils of the
journey : and he had the advantage of the company of Link
and another brother friar, by name Leonard, for the rest of

* It was chiefly through Pfeffinger that the Elector laid himself open
to Luther's jest — " Our Prince receives with the bushel, and measures
out with the spoon."

t Walch. XV. p. 672.

VOL. I. I

114 THIC LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. the road. But when they were witliin a few leagues of their
destination, Luther, who was extremely weary with travelling
on foot, was seized with violent pains in the stomach ; and
his two comrades were obliged to procure a waggon, in Avhich
they laid him, and in this state, on the evening of Friday the
8th October, he was conveyed into Augsburg.

The next morning Luther was much better : the night's
rest had wonderfully restored him. The Diet was over;
Augsburg was deserted, the only strangers in it being the
Legate and his followers, and Luther himself and his two
brother friars. Luther's first act was to send Link and
Leonard to inform Cardinal Cajetan of his arrival. The
Elector had supplied the Reformer with letters of recom-
mendation to several of his own friends in Augsburg : and the
following day these called upon him, and with great warmth
entered into his cause. They were Peutenger and Langen-
mantel, both imperial councillors, the two brothers Adelraann,
who were canons ; and with them was a Doctor Auerback,
of Leipsic. They came into the room just after the orator
Urbanus von Serra Longa,* one of the Legate's followers, had
left it with the intention of preparing the Legate for the in-
terview, and of shortly returning to conduct Luther to his
presence. Hearing what had passed they remarked, "Of
course you have a safe-conduct? " Luther had not thought
of a safe-conduct : but they assured him that he m.ust by no
means venture into the presence of the Nuncio until it had
been procured, for without it there could be no guarantee for
his personal safety, and they were only surprised that he
should have entered Augsburg without such a safeguard.
The Cardinal, they said, would be outwardly full of mildness,
but in heart was most bitter against him. They quitted the

* See Spalatiii's relation, Walcli. XV. p. G75.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 115

apartment ; and Serra Louga shortly afterwards returned, and 1518.
was clamorous when he heard of Luther's resolution not to
proceed to the interview until he had been furnished with a
safe-conduct. " Why/' said the wily Italian, " you are
making an easy and simple matter into a long and tiresome
one. The Legate is an Italian ; it will not do for you to
argue with him : but he will behave towards you with
paternal gentleness; and three syllables, just six letters,
' Revoco/ will settle the whole business.'' Luther answered
that he had made up his mind to wait until a safe-conduct
should have been granted. " What ! " rejoined the Italian,
" it cannot be your intention not to revoke : do you imagine
that any princes or lords will protect you against the Holy
See? What support can you have? Where will you remain?"
" I shall still have heaven," Luther answered. But the
Italian's chattering continued : he spoke of the Abbot Joachim
of Florance, who had revoked, and therefore had been pro-
nounced no heretic ; of the Pope's word being law : all in
vain ; for Luther remained resolute. " What would you do,"
asked the Italian, " if you had the Pope and the Cardinals in
your power ? " "I would treat them," Luther replied, " with
the utmost respect and reverence." Serra Longa made his
grimaces, bit his finger, muttered " hem ; " and returned to
the Legate.

In this interval Luther wrote on Monday, the 11th October,
to Melancthon ; and first alluded to his having engaged John
Bossenstein as Hebrew lecturer at Wittenberg, and then ad-
verted to the topic of pressing interest : — " I find Augsburg
rife with the rumour of my name : every one must have a
peep at the Herostratus who has kindled such a fire. Do you
play the man, and instruct our students rightly. I go to be
sacrificed for you and for them, if it please God. I had
rather perish, and lose your delightful society, the greatest loss

I 2

116 THE LIIE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. 1 should sustain, tliau revoke the truth and injure the noblest
studies. Italy is plunged in Egyptian darkness ; its ignorance
of Crn-ist and the things of Christ is total. Yet, these are
our lords and masters in faith and morals ; and the curse of
God is thus fulfilled — ' Children are their oppressors, and
women rule over them.' "

Probably before this letter had been written the safe-con-
duct had arrived, having been easily procured from the Em-
peror on the Cardinal's tacit permission ;* and on Tuesday
Oct. 12. Luther proceeded, accompanied by his friends, his host, the
Prior of St. Anne, and Link and Leonard, to his first inter-
view with the Legate. He Avas careful to comply with the
directions which Serra Longa had given him as to the cus-
tomary formalities upon approaching a prince of the Roman
Church ; he threw himself prostrate at the feet of the Legate,
and waited his permission to rise. After these ceremonials a
pause ensued ; the Cardinal was awaiting the monk's abject
recantation. Einding that he was expected to speak, Luther
broke the silence by craving pardon of " his most reverend
lord,'' if he had done or spoken anything rashly, and profess-
ing his readiness to be instructed and guided to sounder views.
Cajetan in reply, with paternal clemenqy, commended and
congratulated him on his humility, and stated that he only
required three things : that he would retrace his wanderings,
and return to his sober senses ; that he would promise obedi-
ence for the future ; and that he would abstain from whatever
might tend to disturb the peace of the Church. Luther
begged permission to see the papal brief, but the Legate, with
a waive of the hand, signified that he could not accede to such
a request. " Most reverend father," Luther then answered,
" deign to point out to me in what I have erred." Cajetan

* De Welte, I. p. 143. Lat. Op. .Jens', I. p. 196. Seckend. I. p. 4.

THE LIFE OP MAllTIN LUTHER. 117

turned to the seventh proposition of the ninety-five theses : — 1518.
" Observe^ you state that no one can receive the grace of the
Sacraments without faith; and moreover, in your fifty- eighth
proposition, yon assert that the treasure of indulgences does
not consist of the merits and sufferings of our Lord Jesus
Christ. Now this is contrary to the extravagant (Unigenitus)
of Clement VI. Yon must revoke both these errors and
embrace the true doctrine of the Chuixh." " In regard to
faith in the Sacrament being requisite to its validity, that,"
said Luther, "is a truth I never can and never will revoke."
" Whether you will or no," returned the Legate, " I must
have your recantation this very day, or for this one error I
shall condemn all your propositions." The Cardinal had
promised to convict the poor friar of error by warrant of
Scripture; but he did not adduce a word of Scripture, but
I'citerated in proof of the opus opcratum doctrine of Rome,
statements of doctors and councils. " Most reverend father,
I ask for Scripture," Luther said ; " it is on Scripture my
views are based ; " and he quoted several texts. " Oh,"
interrupted the Legate laughing, " he is speaking of faith in
general." "No, most reverend father, not of faith in general,
but that the Sacraments of Christ are of no efficacy without
faith." They dropped this subject for the time, and came to
the question of indulgences. Luther affirmed that he had
read both the extravagant of Clement VI. and the analogous
extravagant of Sixtus IV., but placed little reliance on them,
inasmuch as they wrested the plain sense of Holy Scripture,
and were merely reproductions of the notions of Thomas
Aquinas. The Legate was much offended. " Do you not
know," he said, " that the Pope is above all ? " " Not above
Scripture." "Yes, above Scripture; the Pope," continued
the Legate, " is above Scripture and above Councils ; why, he
abolished the Council of Basle." Luther introduced the

118 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. mention of the University of Paris. " And with its merited
punishment/^ exclaimed the Cardinal, " will that rebellious
University be visited ; Gerson and all Gersonists are to be
condemned.^^ " Who/^ Luther enquired, " are the Ger-
sonists ? " But here the Legate intimated that he should not
continue the subject ; and on Luther's requesting a day for
deliberation, replied, that " he should not dispute with him,
but must have a revocation, and would give him one day for
reflection." After the usual ceremonials of respect, the Re-
former withdrew ; but, as he passed through the courtyard,
he was assailed with abuse and a sophistical argument by the
CardinaPs master of the ceremonies, who had hardly restrained
his vehemence in the Legate's presence, and had run after the
heretic to give vent to it. Luther unriddled the sophistry
with a stinging sarcasm, and the courtier slunk back to his
friends.^

On his return to the convent of the Carmelites, where he
lodged, Luther, to his great delight, found the Vicar-General
of the Augustine Order awaiting him. It was at once com-
municated to Staupitz that the Cardinal demanded a naked
recantation, would not vouchsafe any scriptural proof of doc-
trine, but only cited the decretals and the Schoolmen. It was
agreed that Luther should commit to writing a mild and
humble, but firm protest against this treatment of the Legate,
which was directly in the teeth of his own promise. And the
next day, with protest in hand, Luther proceeded to his
second interview with the Cardinal, accompanied by a more
numerous body of friends than on the day previous, by the
Vicar- General, four imperial councillors, amongst them Peu-
tinger and the Dean of Trent, two electoral councillors, Ruel,
a lawyer, and the knight Philip von Feilitzsch, and a notary

* Spalatin's relation— Walcli. XV. p. 682.

THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER. 119

and witnesses. The Italian party had also been reinforced in 1518.
the interim, for the Prior of the Dominicans, who had been
reconciled to Cajetan, as Herod to Pilate, by the bond of a
stronj^ common enmity, was fonnd seated beside the Cardinal.

After the cnstomary obeisance Luther read his protest to
the following eflPect : — " I protest that I honour and follow
the holy Roman Church in all my words and deeds, present,
past, and future. And if anything may have been said, con-
trary or otherwise, I wish it unsaid, and so account it. I
have only sought truth in my disputations, and cannot relin-
quish that search, much less retract anything before I have
been heard, and convicted of error. I know that I am but a
man, and liable to err. I have therefore submitted, and now
submit myself to the judgment and determination of the legi-
timate holy Church, and to all persons my superiors in know-
ledge. And over and above what may be necessary, I offer
myself in person here or elsewhere, to render an account
even in public of my words. If this is not agreeable to his
most Reverend Lordship, I am ready to answer in writing
whatever objection he may produce against me. Moreover, I
am ready to submit my theses to the decision of the imperial
Universities of Basle, Fribourg, and Louvain, and, if they are
not enough, of Paris, from of old ever the most Christian,
and in theology the most flourishing University."

The Cardinal listened to this protest with a smile; and
then assuming great mildness, entreated him to leave oft'
these senseless counsels, and to return to his sound mind : —
" Retract, my son, retract : it is hard for you to kick against
the pricks." Luther replied, that he would plead the cause
by reference to Scripture alone, and in writing ; there had
been enough of fencing the day before." The Cardinal was
highly oflbnded with what he termed the audacity of such a
spcGch. " My sou," he answered, " I have neither fenced

120 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. with, nor shall I fence with you ; I am not here for such a
purpose; but out of the regard 1 bear to the illustrious
Elector Frederic, I am ready with all paternal benignity to
hear, admonish, and teach, and, if possible, to reconcile you
to the Holy See.""^ The Cardinal continued his discourse
with great volubility, the strain of all his exhortations being
that he must have an unconditional revocation. Luther re-
mained perfectly silent : at last Staupitz rose and asked per-
mission for the monk to put his answer in writing. This
the Cardinal assented to ; and the second conference closed.
Luther afterwards observed, in reference to the affront which
his language had occasioned, " I ought not to have used the
word ' fencing ;'f my Latinity was too elegant: I shoidd
have said, ' disputing,' for we had really done nothing but
dispute the previous day.''

'ct. 15. The interval of a day was suffered to elapse, and on Friday
the Reformer appeared before the Legate for the tliird and
last time, and deferentially presented his " declaration." 'Mt
is most certain," this declaration stated, " that the Pope is
not above, but under the authority of the word of God ; and
I know it to be the uniform doctrine of the whole Church
that the merits of Christ in the Spirit cannot be committed
to man, nor be transmitted through men, nor by men. How
many former decrees of Popes have been corrected by later
ones ! Panormitanus shows that in matters of faith not only
is a General Council above the Pope, but likewise any
Christian whatever, if he depend on better authority and
reason than the Pope, as did Paul in his argument with

* Pallavicini puts somewhat different words in Cajetan's mouth.
I. p. 15.

t Pro disputare dij:;ladian dixeram clcgantius. — Do Wette, I. p. 181.
See Cajclau's letter — Lai. Op. Jeua\ I. p. 195.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 121

Peter.* How can the merits of saints be a treasure, when 1518.
the whole Scripture affirms that God rewards us all far
beyond our deserts ? " On the subject of faith the " declara-
tion^' first dwelt on justification before God by faith alone,
then on the necessity of faith to the validity of a Sacrament.
"■ By no disposition are we made meet, by no works meet for
the Sacrament, but by faith alone." Scripture, Augustine,
and Bernard, were quoted in evidence of this doctriue. And
the whole concluded with an appeal to the Cardinal to " re-
veal to him a truer light, for otherwise he must stand to his
assertions, and obey God rather than man ; " and he im-
plored the Cardinal to '' be his intercessor with Leo not to be
rigorous towards a soul desiring only the light of truth."

Cajetan took the " declaration," and, with a look of con-
tempt, pronounced it '^ mere words " — " a long philactery " —
and the quotations from Scripture quite irrelevant; but he
would, he said, send the paper to Rome. He was even
warmer than he had been two days previously, and reiterated
with increased vehemence the old burden of his remarks —
" Retract, my son, retract." If he would not retract the
theses, at least he urged him to retract the sermon. Luther
remained calm, silent, and immoveable under the storm of the
Cardinal's volubility. At last, in a determined tone, he said
— " Most reverend father, I will retract, if you can prove by
the extravagant of Pope Clement that the treasure of indul-
gences is the very merit of Christ." The Legate seized the
volume with a look of triumph, and puffing with impatience
and eagerness to confute his challenger, turned to the pas-
sage, and read aloud — " The Lord Jesus Christ has acquired
this treasure by his merits." The eyes of the Italians, who
thronged the apartment during each interview, sparkled with

* Gal. li.

123 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. malicious delight ; and Luther's friends feared that he was
entrapped by his boldness. But with unchanged countenance
he answered — " Most worthy father, if the Lord Jesus Christ
has acquired a treasure by his merits, that is no evidence that
the treasure and the merits are the same.^' The feelings of
all in the room were in a moment changed ; and the Legate,
anxious to divert attention from the flaw in his argument,
with ready eifrontery turned to another topic, and resumed
his vociferation and demand of an unqualified retractation.
But Luther, perfectly awake to the advantage he had ob-
tained, was not to be so put off. — " Most reverend father, you
must not suppose that we Germans know nothing of gram-
mar.^^'^ Cajetan's irritation now exceeded all bounds; he
rose from his chair, and in a voice of thunder repeated, " Re-
tract;'' and at last, " Retract, or never appear in my presence
again." Luther requested that the " declaration '^ might be
forwarded to the Pope with his most humble prayers, and
making a profound obeisance withdrew.

After dinner a messenger waited on the Vicar-General from
the Cardinal, to solicit his immediate attendance. Staupitz
was of course aware what this meant ; and before obeying the
summons released Luther from the vow of obedience to his
Order, which was likely to prove as important for Luther as
for the Vicar-General and the Order itself in the subsequent
efforts of Rome to shake his constancy. But Luther felt this
to be a moment of trial, and was ever aftemvards wont to call
his exclusion from his Order his " first excommunication."
Staupitz found Cajetan recovered from his recent agitation
and more calm than ordinarily. " I no longer," he said to
Staupitz, " regard Martin as a heretic : indeed I love him ;
he has no greater friend than myself." He proceeded to

* Sec Kucl's accoimt — Lat. Op. Jena?, I. p. 185. De VVctte, I, p. 181.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 123

request Staupitz, using that authority with which he was 1518.
invested as Vicar- General, to point out to Martin the errors
he was labouring under, and the heinous guilt of setting him-
self in opposition to the decrees of the Church. Staupitz
answered, that " Brother Martin " was his superior in ac-
quaintance with the Scriptures and in ability. The Cardinal
persisted in such arguments as he thought would induce
Staupitz to use his influence and authority with Luther for
his recantation. With some insight probably into the cha-
racter of the Vicar- General, he touched upon the penalties to
which he would render himself liable by in any way upholding
or not disclaiming Martin's errors : on the other hand, he
engaged that, if the monk would retract, the act should be
attended by no disgrace or opprobrium whatever. " He
meant," (Luther afterwards commented on these words,) " that
that eternal disgrace would attend it, which never leaves those
who act against truth and their conscience." Link likewise
had an interview with the Cardinal, and found him in the
same conciliatory mood, and full of gentle expressions towards
Luther. It may be questionable what exact part Staupitz
and Link were induced by the plausible and mild demeanour
of the Cardinal to take in their arguments with Luther at
this crisis. If Cajetan's own statement may be believed, they
approved his proposals for an amicable accommodation, to
avoid the necessity of referring the matter to Rome. At
least they prevailed on Luther to address a most humble and
deferential letter to the Cardinal, which he composed on
Sunday the 17th October. The letter began by stating that
his dearest father in Christ, John Staupitz, had implored
him to act humbly, to give up his own opinion, and submit
his own will ; and that Wenceslaus Link, his fellow- student
from his earliest years, had joined in the same entreaty. " I
confess," he continued, " O reverend fatlier in Christ, as I

134 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHKIl.

1518. have often coufessed at other times, that I have been indis-
creet, too bitter and irreverent tovrards the PontiflF. And
although I was strongly provoked to this irreverence, yet I
now perceive that my duty bound me to handle the matter
with more modesty and humility and deference, and not to
answer a fool so as to become like him. I sincerely grieve,
and ask pardon, and am willing to proclaim this my confes-
sion from the pulpit, which I have done at other times when
I have been guilty of an offence ; and I will speak of indul-
gences no more, if my adversaries also will forbear. But I
cannot retract my doctrines, for that would be against my
conscience ; I ask for the decision of the Church, and to be
convinced by better reason. I long to be worthy to hear the
voice of the bride, for she must hear the voice of the bride-
groom. Even if I should revoke without conviction in my
conscience, what would such a revocation be worth? It
would only be said that I had at first assented, and then
revoked, without knowing wherefore or what I assented or
revoked.^'

To this letter Cajetan did not vouchsafe any reply; and it
was generally believed that his feelings were not quite so
kindly towards Luther as his words would imply. Even
Staupitz received a proof of this, if the relation be correct,
that he urged it upon the Cardinal to have another interview
with " Brother Martin : ''' wlien Cajetan, thrown off his guard
by his repugnance to the proposal, exclaimed, " I will not
speak with the beast again : he has deep eyes ; and his head
is full of speculations.^'* But it v;as commonly inquired,
" Why this delay ? What is the Cardinal meditating ? "
Rumour spoke much of Italian artifice and Italian revenge.
It was known that the Legate had boasted that he was em-

* Jlyc-onius— Wak-h. XV. p. 714.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 125

powered to throw Staupitz and Luther into prison ; and the 1518.
very silence which surrounded him and his hive of attendants
seemed to public apprehension to bode no good. A negotia-
tion might already be on foot between the Cardinal and the
Emperor, who it was known was hunting in the neighbour-
hood ; and the result might be the imperilling of the Re-
former's safety in a multiplicity of ways. In this state of
uncertainty Monday passed and Tuesday. No message was
received from the Cardinal, and nothing was heard of him
beyond surmises. Luther and his friends were of opinion
that no time was to be lost, and matured their plans for his
immediate flight. The next morning, Wednesday the 20th
October, before daybreak, he sallied forth through the dim
and untrodden streets of Augsburg on a horse procured from
Staupitz, but without a horseman's arms or accoutrements,
under the conduct of an aged guide whom one of his friends
had engaged as a trustworthy person to attend him. In this
plight he reached a small low gate in the city walls, which a
friendly hand, by the contrivance of the Senator Langen-
raantel,* unlocked, and let Luther and his guide pass into the
open country. He had before hesitated in what direction to
pursue his flight, and had at one time contemplated escaping to
France, for the envoy of the French monarch at the recent Diet
had mentioned him favourably; but he had relinquished that
idea, and turned his horse's head towards Wittenberg. He rode
only eight miles the first day ; but when he dismounted in the
stable of the hostelry, he fell down on the straw overcome with
anxiety and fatigue. On reaching Nuremberg he saw for the
first time the papal commission to Cajetan and was filled with
thankfulness to God, who had delivered him from the dangers
which had environed him. He entered Wittenberg in safety

* Sec-kend. I. p!49.

126 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. on the Eve of All Saints' day — a memorable anniversary ; but
there was no longer, as the year before, a crowd of pilgrims
wending their way to the Castle Church.

Meanwhile the friends who had attended him at Augsburg
had likewise quitted that city, and were dispersed in different
spots. Staupitz, on whose fears the Cardinal's implied threats
left a lasting impression, disappeared almost as mysteriously
as Luther, without, as the Legate complained, even bidding
adieu to his host. Link had returned to Nuremburg ; Bro-
ther Leonard, it seems, was left behind for a day or two to
present the appeal which Luther had duly made before wit-
nesses previous to his flight. And shortly afterwards John
Frosch, the prior of the Carmelites, paid a visit to Witten-
berg, where his hospitality to Luther at Augsburg was requited
with the best cheer the Augustine convent could yield or
Luther procure, by begging venison and eatables of all kinds
from Spalatin.

The directions of Luther had been to place his "appeal" in
the hands of the Cardinal as well as to affix it in public : but
no one durst enter Cajetan's presence on such an errand, and
even placarding the "appeal" in public seemed to involve
considerable hazard. The notary to whom this latter duty
had been assigned was warned by one whom Luther, as he
states, had deemed one of his best friends at Augsburg, that
imminent danger would attend such an act. The diligence
of the Prior, however, conquered this timidity, and the " ap-
peal " was affixed in the market place and on the door of the
Cathedral. It bore date the 16th October, and recapitulated
Luther's arguments for withstanding the abominable teaching
of the indulgence commissioners, complained of the unfairness
of committing his cause for judgment to Sylvester Prierias,
spoke of the sanguinary reputation of the city of Rome, of
Luther's feeble health and extreme poverty as a mendicant.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 127

and insisted on the inconsiderate conduct of Cajctan in de- 1518.
manding an unconditional revocation without deigning to give
any proof of error. But Luther had not yet discarded the
papal authority, and the style of the document ran thus : — '' I
appeal from the most holy father the Pope, ill-informed^ to the
most holy father the Pope Leo X. by name, by the grace of
God to be better informed," &c.

A farewell letter in explanation of his sudden departure had
also been addressed by Luther to the Cardinal, to be delivered
when he was at a safe distance. In this letter he dwelt on
the decisive proofs which he had given of obedience, by tra-
velling so long a journey through so many dangers, although
weak in body and very lean in purse. He had thrown him-
self, he said, and all his, at the feet of his Holiness, and had
omitted nothing to demonstrate his submission to the Church.
But his longer stay would have been a severe tax on the hos-
pitality of the Carmelites, and the most reverend father had
commanded him not to approach his presence without a recan-
tation. He had therefore appealed to the Most Holy Lord
Leo X. to be better informed, and he well knew that such an
appeal would please the Elector of Saxony far better than a
revocation; but in making it he had consulted the judgment
of his friends rather than his own, for he had thought it
enough that he had before resigned the matter into the hands
of the Church, and with the docility of a scholar was waiting
her sentence.*

But, although Luther had escaped the immediate perils of
Augsburg, his condition could not be regarded under any
other light than as most precarious. Cajetan had of course
become exasperated, and the Thomist party, of which he was
the head, proportionately incensed. His refusal to retract,

* De VVette, I. pp. 164, 1G5.

128 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. and now his flight, were added to the Roman catalogue of his
deadly sins. But in reference to the progress of his cause,
and the public estimation of his character, the result was
widely different. Luther himself declared that all that had
been done at Augsburg was to waste time and money. His
description of Cajetan's theological acumen was, that it rivalled
in excellence the skill of an ass in playing the harp. " Yet,"
he added, "he is the most learned of the Thomists, and
Prierias ranks second ! What must the tenth or the hundredth
be ! The dear God preserve me from being puflFed up.'^ But
such words themselves afford a confutation of the estimate
that nothing had been done at Augsburg. Luther had learnt
the deep ignorance of a cardinal of most learned fame in
divine things, and the public had become more awakened to
the same fact : the aflFair had passed through another stage,
and its adjustment had become more diflticult ; and the
reforming party had acquired greater confidence in Luther
himself; and these were all of them important points.

Immediately on his return he resumed the quiet routine of
his preaching and lecturing, and proceeded with his commen-
tary on the Epistle to the Galatians. But on the 19th No-
vember Frederic received a letter from the Cardinal St. Sixti,
conveying his version of the Augsburg inter\dews, and im-
ploring the Elector not to sully any longer his name and his
house by favouring a heretic, against whom judicial proceed-
ings were in process at Bome, and of whose affairs he himself
had now for ever washed his hands. The letter was trans-
mitted almost as soon as received to Luther by his Prince,
and drew from the Reformer an admirable answer at some
length, in which he corrected the Cardinal's version of the
interviews, and showed that Cajetan had quite departed from
his promise of convicting him of error from Scripture, and
then s})oke of the misapplication, so gross that any layman

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 129

could at once detect it, much less a prince endued with such 1518.
wisdom as Frederic — of texts of Scripture to support the pre-
tensions of Rome. This doctrinal sequel to a statement of
historical facts throws light on the researches of the Reformer
in his cell, in this anxious interval, which were directed to the
basis on which the papal supremacy rested, which he found
more rotten than he had anticipated. And, in strict accord-
ance with the progress of his ecclesiastical enlightenment,
Luther drew up another " appeal ; ^' and on Sunday, the 28th
November, read it aloud in Corpus Christi Chapel, in the
presence of a notary stnd witnesses. "I appeal," he said,
"from the Pontiff as a man liable to error, sin, falsehood,
vanity, and other human infirmities, not above Scripture but
under Scripture, to a future Council to be legitimately con-
vened in a safe place, so that a proctor deputed by me may
have secure access, protected from those snares which daily
beset me even in Wittenberg from my adversaries." And
this advance must be attributed in part to the influence of the
Augsburg discussions upon the direction of his studies, that
he now in fact abjured the Pope, and no longer appealed from
Leo ill-informed to Leo well-informed, but from the papal
authority itself to that of a Council.

But Luther's bold language seemed to mock at the actual
dangers of his present situation. What might be the most
effectual means of providing for his safety was a problem of
very uncertain solution, and he received intimation from the
Elector that he must be ready to start for any destination at
a moment's notice; and he had further an interview with
Spalatin at Lichtenberg upon the subject. At one time a
retreat to France was in contemplation : at another a cap-
tivity or concealment in one of the Elector's fortresses was
even as early as this date suggested ; but all was precarious,

VOL. I. K

130 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. " I am ready to go forth/' Luther said, " like Abraham, not
knowing whither to go ; nay, most certainly knowing, for
God is everywhere." At last the long expected mandate
from Frederic actually arrived, that Luther must be prepared
for instant departure ; he had everything in readiness, and
was only waiting more definite directions, when a second
mandate counter-ordered the first ; a change of plans result-
ing, as was afterwards shown, from a change in the policy of
Eome, which was bent on making another attempt at amica-
ble adjustment. In this uncertain state Luther bade a con-
ditional farewell to his Wittenberg congregation : a com-
mand for him to quit the town might reach him, he told
them, at any moment ; it would not then be in his power to
wdsh them farewell ; he seized the opportunity, therefore, to
do so once for all.

All this while the other Professors of Wittenberg were
keeping pace with Luther in his scriptural discoveries, or fol-
lowing at no long interval : and the students generally were
treading close on the heels of their Professors. The theology
of Holy Scripture was at that time studied in the University
of Wittenberg under the stimulus of controversy, and the in-
terest natural to the mind in a newly opened source of know-
ledge, with an ardour and perseverance for which it would be
difficult to find a parallel in later times. " Our University,"
Luther said, "glows with industry like an anthill." More
students were flocking in than accommodation could well be
procured for in the town : and the general curiosity was
directed to acquiring Hebrew and Greek, the two languages
which, like porters, sit at the entrance of the Bible, holding
the keys. But Bossenstein, the Hebrew Professor, did not
give thorough satisfaction : he thought too much of prosody
and minute scholarship, as if, Luther complained, we were

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 131

dreaming of becoming Hebrew orators. The rage was to 1518.
know Scripture ; and the lectures on Scripture or the early-
fathers were crowded. This passion passed from the Uni-
versity to the Court — indeed it was pervading Germany —
and Spalatin, in his correspondence with Luther, perpetually
asked and received expositions of scriptural texts; and be-
hind his secretary's shadow the real querist was often most
probably Frederic himself. Luther had delivered a remark-
able sermon, perhaps in some measure tentative, in reference
to the worship of saints ; and the Electoral Secretary enquired
if he objected to the*worship of saints. "You must not
expect me to say much," Luther answered, '' about saints or
angels : I know only Jesus Christ, and him crucified." But
he subsequently explained that his strictures had been level-
led, not at the invocation of saints, but the objects for which
they were invoked. " St. Lawrence is invoked against fire ;
St. Sebastian against the plague ; Martin and St. Roch
against poverty; St. Anne and the blessed Virgin against
evils innumerable ; St. Valentine against the falling sickness ;
Job against the scab. How is it that no saint is invoked for
chastity, patience, humility, faith, hope, or charity?"

But Luther had no settled conviction that it was Frederic's
resolution to protect him against Rome, under the ordeal of
the greater trials that must ensue ; and he related with
avowed satisfaction to Spalatin a conversation which had been
reported to him from the table of the Bishop of Brandenburg.
'^ On what does this monk rely," a guest had enquired,
" that he dares to assail Rome so courageously ? Is it on
Erasmus and the literati ? " " No," the Bishop himself re-
plied, " the Pope would care little for Erasmus and the
literati; the University of Wittenberg and the Elector of
Saxony are Martin's stronghold."

At length, however, Frederic spoke out, still in a tone of

K 2

132 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. moderation, but with so much sincerity as to render his real
sentiments no longer dubious. He replied on the 8th Decem-
ber to the Cardinal's letter, which, he said, although dated the
25th October, not having been despatched by a special mes-
senger, had failed to reach him until more than three weeks
later. He objected to the Cardinal, that, in his treatment of
Luther, he had forgotten his promise to use paternal gentle-
ness and no coercion. The high esteem, he continued, in
which Martin was held for his piety and learning was irre-
concileable with the charge of heresy : he had been convicted
of no error; and his services could* not be dispensed with
without great detriment to the University of Wittenberg.
And Dr. Martin, he believed, had already referred the points
in dispute to distinguished Universities, or had offered to
maintain his opinions in public disputation. It was evident
that the opposition to him arose principally from those who
had found his erudition an obstacle to their private emolu-
ments. The reply of Luther to the Cardinal's statement of
what had passed at Augsburg was enclosed in this letter,
which diflFused the liveliest satisfaction in Wittenberg.

It so happened that the very next day after this letter had
been despatched, the Reformer's narrative* of the Augsburg
interviews found its way into the hands of the public. But the
connexion in the dates was only casual. The Elector had
sent to request that the publication might be deferred : and
Luther would have readily complied ; but the avidity of tlie
public and the cupidity of the printers outstripped his caution.
To such a height had the popular excitement attained, that the
house in which the printing was carried on was beset by a
crowd of every rank and age ; as each sheet came reeking from
the press it was disposed of, and happy was the student or the

* Acta Augustina.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 133

burgher whose hand was the first to seize the prize. In fact 1518.
Luther himself was one of the last to see an impression of his
own writing.

The first public act of Rome, in reply to the intelligence of
Luther's obstinacy, and Cajetan's failure, was to issue a new
decretal, dated the 9th November, which was published on
the 13th December following, by the Cardinal Legate himself,
at Lintz in Austria,'^ sanctioning afresh the doctrine of indul-
gences. It was a proof that Rome felt her authority to be
tottering. The edict declared that " the Roman Church, the
mother of all Churches,* had handed down by tradition that
the Roman Pontiff, the successor of Peter who bore the keys,
the Vicar of Christ on earth, by the power of the keys — the
office of which is to open by removing impediments from the
faithful, that is, by removing the guilt and punishment due
for actual sins by indulgence — can for reasonable causes grant
to the faithful of Christ, who by the bonds of charity are
members of Christ, whether in this life or in purgatory, indul-
gences out of the superabundance of the merits of Christ and
the Saints ; can confer the indulgence by absolution, or trans-
fer it by suffrage. And all those who have acquired indul-
gences, whether alive or dead, are released from so much tem-
poral punishment for their actual sins as is the equivalent of
the acquired indulgence. This doctrine is to be held and
preached by all, under penalty of excommunication, from
which only the Pope can absolve, save at the point of death.'*
But this was a weak decree for bolstering up a failing autho-
rity. Indeed, if Rome had been bent upon demonstrating to
the world in the most conclusive manner, that all which her
adversaries alleged against her was true, she could hardly
have hit upon a policy more directly calculated to serve this

* Pallav. I. p. 20. Polanus, I. p. 7.

134 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1518. end than the proclamation of such an edict. It proved to the
whole world that Tetzel and the Commissaries were not the
only delinquents in the indulgence matter; that Cardinal
Cajetan was not alone in his determination to preserve her
revenues to the Church, but that the Chief Priest of Christen-
dom himself clutched the money bag with as covetous a gripe
as any needy friar, and made his doctrines equally subservient
to his emolument. Nor is it difficult to trace the influence of
this and other events, accumulating as it were the present
upon the past, and adding passing acts to what he was reading
in ecclesiastical records, upon the Reformer's mind, as seen
in the clear mirror of his correspondence. " His pen," he
tells Link at this time, " is teeming with some nobler achieve-
ment than he had essayed hitherto : " he had before called
Home Babylon, but now "the conviction is daily growing
upon him that the Pope is Antichrist.'' And when Spalatin
enquired, v/hat he thought of war against the Turk, " Let us
begin," he replied, " with the Turk at home ; it is fruitless to
fight carnal wars and be overcome in spiritual wars."*

But it would be a mistake to suppose that Rome had as yet
resolved upon extreme measures. On the contrary, her
policy was double as before : a bold front to the world, and a
whisper of conciliation for the heretic and his friends, a smart
blow to be quickly succeeded by the kiss of peace. Having
buttressed up the dignity and reputation of her Cardinal, and
uttered her authoritative voice to the world, she prepared for
more gentle dealing with those w^hose faith was not amenable
to the parchment and lead of the Vatican. Frederic's good-
will could not be forfeited in the present juncture of German
affairs. Just at the crisis when Luther was about to appear
before Cajetan, it had been intimated that the Pontiff would

* Letter of December 21. De Wette, I. p. 200.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 135

present the Elector with the golden rose; and the delegate who 1518.
was to make the presentation in the PontifF^s name was also em-
powered to arrange the unpleasant business of "friar Martin's"
heresy. It was the turn for moderate counsels. Cajetaiij it
was guardedly hinted^ was a very improper person, as the
Prince of the Thomist party, for the work of reconciliation ;
as an Italian, he could not be acceptable to the German
nation; and his behaviour had been peremptory instead of
conciliatory. In the person of the envoy now to be de-
spatched direct to the Saxon Court, all these defects were to
be more than repaired by the opposite virtues. Charles von
Miltitz, the Pope's chamberlain, was not a theologian, but a
diplomatist ; he was not only a German but a Saxon ; and,
in place of arrogance or harshness, he was an accomplished
corn-tier, versed in the arts of conciliation. Letters were re-
ceived from the Vatican by Pfeffinger and Spalatin, exhort-
ing them in the most complimentary strain to use their
influence with Frederic to second the efforts of the new envoy.
Popular feeling, however, was far from being conciliated by
this new move on the part of Rome. Miltitz, it was hinted,
had lived too long at Rome not to have imbibed a touch of
Italian craft : it was reported that he would come laden with
apostolic briefs; that, if fair means failed, he had orders to
carry off the Reformer by force ; and Luther's friends trem-
bled for his safety more than ever, now that a Papal emissary
was coming straight to their doors.

Before the close of the year, Miltitz arrived in Misnia. 1519.
He promptly paid a visit to Spalatin, an old friend, from
whom he heard a good deal of Tetzel's malpractices, and
sounded in return the feelings of the Saxon Court. And
early in January he had an interview with Luther in Spala-
tin's house at Altenburg. The affability of the envoy sur-
prised the Reformer. " He came," Luther afterwards said.

136 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. " laden with seventy apostolic briefs to carry me alive, and
bound, to that homicide Jerusalem, Rome, or rather Babylon :
but, struck to the ground by God in the way — that is, terri-
fied by what he has seen and heai'd of the popular agitation in
the taverns by the road-side — he has changed his enmity to
kindness." After the first civilities at meeting, Miltitz con-
gratulated Luther on the high esteem in which he was held
by the populace. " Out of five Germans, barely two, at the
most three, were on the side of Rome. I should bs a bold
man to think of carrying you off, with twenty-five thousand
soldiers at my call : you have torn Germany from the
Papacy." Then, looking in Luther^s face : " Brother Martin,
I had expected to see an old man fond of prosing on theology
in his chimney-corner ; but you are in the prime and vigour
of life." From compliments Miltitz advanced smoothly
enough to business, and laboured to establish five points :
1. That the people had been seduced in the matter of indul-
gences. 2. That Luther had been the instrument of this
seduction. 3. That he had been sorely provoked to it by
Tetzel. 4. That the Archbishop of Magdeburg was to blame
for impelling Tetzel to act as he had done on the spur of
gain. 5. That Tetzel had exceeded his commission. It
seemed to the envoy that this skilful mode of apportioning
blame would soothe any irritation of the feelings, and lead to
Luther's acknowleding his error in assailing an established
dogma of the Church. The Reformer, in reply, maintained
that the blame really rested at the Pontiff's door, for he had
forced the Archbishop of Magdeburg to get money by some
means or other to defray the cost of his pallium, which he
might have conferred freely : and thus the Pontiff himself had
made the virtue of indulgences a laughing-stock. He hinted
also at the avarice of the Florentines, who had lu-ged the Pon-
tiff, a man himself of ingenuous mind, to gross pecuniary ex-

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 137

actions; and, "whilst they thought themselves able to bring 1519.
him into what port they pleased, were like to subject him to
shipwreck. ^^ As to a retractation, Luther stated that as his
first movement had been in defence of the Church against
those who degraded her by false and covetous doctrines, so to
retract without being convicted of error, would only deepen
the Church's disgrace. It was ultimately agreed that both
sides should be forbidden to write or act in the question ;
that Luther should revoke upon proof of his errors, and that
the matter should be referred to the management of an en-
lightened Bishop. Luther suggested the Archbishop of
Treves, or Salzburg, or the Bishop of Naumberg. At this
arrangement the envoy expressed himself transported with
joy; he mildly admonished Luther to forbearance, and let
some few tears drop between his words. The Reformer
looked on in silence : " I pretended not to understand,' ' he
afterwards said, " those crocodile tears." They supped toge-
ther on the most friendly and convivial terms, and Miltitis
spoke of the hubbub which the affair had raised at Rome —
" for a hundred years nothing had been known like it, and
the Cardinals would give ten thousand ducats, rather than let
the matter proceed any farther." And he dismissed the Re-
former with a kiss, " a Judas kiss," said Luther, " but I would
not let him perceive that I saw through his Italian tricks."

But Miltitz regarded his duty as only half-performed in
dealing with Luther. He had before summoned Tetzel into
his presence to answer for his delinquencies ; but the indul-
gence-trafficker had refused to appear, alleging the dangers of
the road from many powerful chieftains, the adherents of
Martin Luther. Miltitz therefore repaired" to Leipsic, where
Tetzel, having discontinued his professional perambulations,
had found a domicile in the Dominican Convent of St. Paul :
he instituted an investigation into his proceedings, and dis-

138 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. covered from the Fuggers that he had swept large profits into
his own pocket. The craven indulgence-retailer crept away
into some obscure corner to hide his shame^ and not long
afterwards died, the victim of misery and despair. Perhaps
the only person who grieved at his fate was his old adversary
Luther, who regarded him as the scapegoat of worse offenders
and the victim of a corrupt system.

In the midst of Miltitz^ conciliatory negotiations, which, to
the superficial observer, seemed to promise well, the Emperor
Maximilian expired, on the 12th January. This event, so
important to Europe, had also an immediate bearing upon
Luther's case, inasmuch as, by the Germanic Constitution,
during the interregnum the government devolved on the
Elector of Saxony. So long, therefore, his Professor had little
to fear from Rome. But whatever hopes the Nuncio might
entertain of a successful adjustment of the controversy — and
he boasted at Dresden that Dr. Martin was in his hands — or
whatever might be the general opinion, Luther himself did
not for a moment conceive that the matter could rest where
it was. " God himself," he wrote to Staupitz,* " hurries,
drives, not tt) say leads me : I am not master of myself : I
wish to be quiet, and am hurried into the midst of tumults."
He published, in the spring, his "Operations on the Psalms," —
he " could not call the work by a higher title," — and dedicated
them to the Elector Frederic ; and put the finishing hand to
his " Commentary on the Galatians," and committed it to
the press. He was busy in his researches into ecclesiastical
history, the canons, and decretals ; and, with the criticism of
native sagacity, was sifting the wheat from the chaff, the
genuine writings of antiquity from the spurious. But with
his researches his convictions continued to deepen daily.

* Letter of the 20tli Februury. De Wette, I. p. 231.

THE LIFK OF MARTIN LUTHEIl. 139

''Whatever I have hitherto done against Rome," he said, 1519.
" has been but jest : soon I shall be in earnest/' " Let me
whisper in your ear," he wrote to Spalatin, " that I am not
sure whether the Pope is Antichrist or his Apostle."

Yet he honestly carried out his arrangement with Miltitz,
and published in February a statement of his opinions on
many points of doctrine, that the world might not suppose him
a worse heretic than he really was. Prayers to the Saints he
approved ; he believed in Purgatory ; he venerated the Roman
Church, but left the extent and foundation of the papal
supremacy to the judgment of the learned."^ He addressed
also, on the 3rd March, a humble letter to the Pontiff. " Most
blessed Father, necessity again compels me, albeit the dregs
of mankind and the dust of the earth, to approach your
Majesty. Lend paternal ears, as becomes the Vicar of Christ,
to your poor sheep, and deign to regard my bleating." He
stated that those acts of his which had been construed into
irreverence to the Holy See had really sprung from zeal to
preserve the honour of the Roman Church : that his writings,
which his adversaries had sought to crush, had on that account
only circulated the more widely, and had fixed their roots in
the minds of men too deeply to be revocable. Indeed, that
to revoke them would be to yield the Roman Church to the
vituperation of all men. He protested that it never had been
nor was it his intention to assail the Roman Church, whose
power was paramount to everything save Jesus Christ the
Lord of all. And he closed his epistle with a statement of his
entire readiness to say nothing more whatever about indul-
gences, provided his enemies would cease their empty and
arrogant language.

This letter produced little or no effect ; and shortly after-

* Walch. XV. pp. 813—849.

140 THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. wards Luther heard that he had been burnt in effigy at Rome,
But Miltitz remained warm in his work. In the middle of
May he invited the Reformer to appear at Coblentz before the
Archbishop of Treves and in presence of Cardinal Cajetan.
Luther answered, that no mandate had as yet arrived from
Rome by which the affair was entrusted to the Archbishop ;
that in the vacancy of the empire it was not likely any such
mandate would arrive — if it should, the Archbishop might not
accept it ; that Cajetan was not a Catholic Christian, but had
attempted to turn him aside from the Christian faith at
Augsburg, and, when he had leisure, it was his intention to
write to the Pope and Cardinals, and convict him of his errors
if he did not amend them ; and moreover, that the time ap-
pointed for his disputation with Dr. Eck of Ingolstadt was
near at hand.

This contemplated disputation with John Eck was now the
topic of general conversation, and was exciting much fear and
hope in the breasts of both the antagonist parties. It has been
already stated that Carlstadt had published a series of proposi-
tions for public disputation against the tenets of Eck. And
Luther had had an interview with Eck at Augsburg, and ar-
ranged that the disputation to which Carlstadt had challenged
the Ingolstadt Doctor should come off at Leipsic. But it
afterwards appeared that through Carlstadt, Eck was aiming a
blow at Luther : for he published a set of propositions in
which he manifestly impugned the characteristic doctrines of
the Wittenberg monk, particularly his denial of the Pope's
primacy by Divine right. This was throwing down the gaunt-
let, and Luther, writing to the Elector of Saxony, declared
that he deemed it due to the honour of his University, that he
should pick it up. But in fact he was eager enough to accept
the challenge on other grounds, and rejoiced in an opportu-
nity of bringing the foundation of the papal pretensions more

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 141

fully before thQ public. There were however obstacles in the 1519.
way of the two renowned Doctors of Germany breaking a lance
with one another in the controversial lists ; and Luther wrote
in vain three times to Duke George of Saxony, to obtain his
permission to have the disputation held in his town of Leipsic.
There was no difficulty raised as to the contest of Carlstadt
with Eck, but the proposed combat of Eck and Luther seemed
to involve a breach of the engagements entered into with
Miltitz.

That stipulation however, of reciprocal silence, had already
been infringed by the Papist party. Jerome Dungershein
of Ochsenfort, a Professor of Leipsic, had been canvassing the
question of the papal supremacy with Luther in several letters,
nominally indeed for the sake of information, but really in a
spirit of hostility. Ijuther had replied very briefly but per-
tinently. If this were not deemed an infringement — and how
could it be less ? — yet the Minorites of Juterbock had openly
preferred a charge of heresy against Luther to the Bishoj) of
Brandenberg; they had searched his writings and clubbed
together the heresies they had severally detected : they had
visited Wittenberg itself on an inquisitorial mission, cate-
chized his congregation as to his sermons, and taken down
heritical propositions from his own mouth and the lips of his
friends. Luther on his part answered their charge with con-
tempt, warned them that no task could be easier than to
expose their ignorance ; recommended them silence for the
future} but ofifered them peace or war.'^ These were indica-
tions of what common sense could scarcely have overlooked,
even without them ; that the popular agitation had run too
high, and the interest of all Germany in the struggle was too
intense to be suppressed or curbed by the diplomatic ligatures

* Lat. Op. Jenoe, I. p. 213.

143 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. of Miltitz. But beyond Germany the same agitation was fer-
menting in the popular mind. Luther heard from Switzer-
land that his writings were highly esteemed there. Froben of
Basle had never entered upon such a profitable speculation as
reprinting them : a bookseller of Pavia was selling numerous
copies in Italy : all along the Rhine, in Spain and Graul,
in Brabant and England, they were in great request : they
were perused by the Doctors of the Sorbonne. Every other
interest seemed absorbed in the great and overwhelming topic
of religion — Rome or Scripture was the one question. And
particularly in the interval of the interregnum, when thought
seemed more than ordinarily unfettered and language unre-
strained,* men of all ranks might be observed to be choosing
their side, as for a war which every one knew to be unavoida-
ble. But these are apologies for the conduct of Luther's ad-
versaries, not of Luther, for he had been challenged by Eck,
and his opinions openly assailed; and he was not bound to
silence unless his opponents observed the same.

The 27th of June had been fixed for the disputation, and
three days previously the Wittenberg party entered Leipsic.
Carlstadt led the van in one of the low open waggons on
wooden wheels (roU-wagen) used in that age : Duke Barnim
of Pomerania, as Rector of the University of Wittenberg,
followed with Luther and Melancthon on either side : and
about two hundred Wittenberg students, full of zeal for their
Professors and University, and armed, as some accounts say,
with pikes and halberts, brought up the rear. But in pro-
ceeding through the town a wheel of Carlstadt's waggon broke
down, and the Archdeacon was precipitated in the mire.
Luther's waggon thus obtained the first place, and led the
procession to the door of the lodging. And this accident was

* Cocblasus, Acta et Scripta, p. 12.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEK. 143

regarded by the bystanders as an omen of the issue of the 1519.
contest.

It was however as yet by no means clear that Luther would
be admitted to share in the disputation at all : and he says
himself that he entered Leipsic as a spectator and not a com-
batant. The Bishop of Merseburg had caused a notice, in
prohibition of the controversy, to be nailed to all the church
doors in Leipsic : but as soon as ever Duke George entered
his capital, he resented this as a stretch of ecclesiastical
power, and had the notices torn down. As soon, therefore, as
Luther's arrival was known, Eck called upon him, and com-
plained that he understood he was unwilling to contend with
him. " You," he said to Luther, " are the principal ; I care
very little for disputing with Carlstadt.^' " Obtain permission
from the Duke," Luther replied, " and I will gratify you."
Eck now addressed himself to Duke George, and represented
the extreme anxiety which was generally felt that he should
be allowed to enter the lists against Luther himself j he ad-
verted to the laurels he had won already, and spoke with
confidence of a triumph for the Roman Church on the present
occasion. The Duke was induced to give his permission.

The popular speculations passed over Carlstadt, and only
dwelt on the chances of success as between Luther and Eck.
Dr. John Meyer Eck had won polemical laurels in Pannonia,
Lombardy, and Bavaria, and as yet had overborne every com-
petitor. At first, the expectation prevailed that he would be
the victor at Leipsic ; and Luther had to allay the apprehen-
sion which even Spalatin and the Elector of Saxony felt on
the subject, by laying before the secretary an account of the
chief arguments available on both sides, his answers to Eck's,
and the reasons he had for knowing that Eck could not satis-
factorily explain away his. " In human judgment," he wrote
to Spalatin, " I have been undone long ago : my theses, my

144 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. sermon, my answer to Prierias, my ' solutions/ the Augsburg
interviews — all and each of these was to end in my ruin !
And God will overrule this disputation too for good." As
the day approached, expectation began to veer, and pointed
its finger to Luther as likely to be the conqueror ; and, on the
eve of the discussion, there was generally this presentiment
in Leipsic itself, where his doctrines at this period were held
in the deepest aversion. His calm demeanour inspired re-
spect for his abilities.

A preliminary meeting was held to arrange the mode of
conducting the disputation, and the question first canvassed
was whether notes should be taken of the arguments. Carl-
stadt demanded that what was said on both sides should be
committed to writing for publication : Eck urged, that if
notes should be taken of the proceedings, the fluency and
vehemence of speaking would be obstructed. It was at
length agreed that minutes should be made of the arguments :
but it does not appear that any settlement was come to as to
the question of publication. Afterwards, in an interview with
Luther, Eck insisted that the disputation thus taken down in
writing should be submitted to some judge for the award of
victory, and he proposed the Pontiff. Luther answered that
he never could consent to the Pontiff as judge; but, to avoid
the appearance of wishing to decline the contest, he assented
to submitting the disputation to the Universities of Erfurth
and Paris. In regard to the question of publication he used
no ambiguity. " Never imagine," he said, " that I will bind
myself to hold my tongue."

On the morning of the 27th, mass was celebrated in the
Church of St. Thomas. Princes, nobles, councillors, and
professors walked in procession to the church, and after the
service returned in the same order to Pleissenberg Castle,
where the great hall had been fitted up as the scene of the

THE LIFE OF MAIITIN LUTHER. 11-5

disputation. Duke George, the hereditary Prince John of isiy.
Saxony, the Duke of Pomerauia, and Prince George of
Anhalt, had separate seats assigned them : the less distin-
guished of the audience sat upon benches : and two pulpits
had been erected for the disputants. When all had taken
their places, an introductory address, an exhortation to
courtesy and gentle language, was delivered by Mosellanus.
On the conclusion of the address the notes of the organ
pealed through the hall ; and all the company bending upon
their knees joined in the hymn, ''Veni Sancte Spiritus."
This was the inauguration of the contest ; and at the close of
the hymn the assembly dispersed for their noonday repast :
Duke George himself gave a grand entertainment to the dis-
putants, and the more eminent of the spectators. At two
o'clock in the afternoon the discussion commenced between
Eck and Carlstadt. Its knotty subject was the power of the
human will, which Carlstadt affirmed was spiritually altogether
in bondage, but which Eck asserted possessed a measure of
freedom, so as to be able to co-operate with God's grace. Eck
was very much annoyed that Carlstadt had his books with him,
and that Philip Melancthon would sometimes walk from his
bench to Carlstadt's pulpit, and suggest an argument or quo-
tation, until at last Eck thundered out, " Sit down, you
grammarian, and don't disturb me." And when he suc-
ceeded in having Carlstadt's books put aside, his overpowering
voice and voluble eloquence crushed opposition, and reigned in
the hall. But this disputation attracted no large amount of
interest, and latterly the benches were almost empty. As to
the controversial merits of the arguments adduced on either
side, Luther avers that " to his certain knowledge Carlstadt
carried back his proposition safe and unharmed to Wittenberg."
But whilst this discussion continued, the Duke of Pome-
rania requested that Luther would preach in the private chapel

VOL. I. L

146 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. of the castle on the anniversary of St. Peter and St. Paul.
At an early hour the chapel was filled, and as many who were
eager to be present could not obtain seats or standing room, an
adjournment was made to the large hall of disputation. Luther
took as his text the Gospel of the day;* and treated, first, of
the grace of God, and the human will, and secondly, of the
power of Peter and the keys. Of the will, he said, that the
beginning of its freedom was the entrance of grace. The
grace of God must create God's image in the heart, and the
best preparation for his grace was to despair of self. Under
his second head he declared that the keys were not given to
Peter exclusively, but in his person to the Christian Church,
" to me and to you, for the comforting of our consciences."
This sermon inflamed to greater intensity the hatred of the
partisans of Rome. The charge of " Bohemian poison" re-
sounded in a tone of menace ; and he was subjected to per-
sonal afiront from the populace in the streets : and on one
occasion, when he chanced to enter a church whilst mass was
celebrating, the priests hurried away the wafer and the sacred
utensils, and passed rapidly out of the sacred edifice, crossing
themselves as they went. All the pulpits in the city were
placed at Eck's service, and four times successively he fulmi-
nated his anathemas against heresy ; and when Luther de-
manded permission to reply, every pulpit was closed against
him. The University offered him the usual compliment of
wine ; but this was the narrow extent of their civility : and
the only friends he had of the inhabitants of the city were
Doctor Auerbach, who had stood by his side at Augsburg,
and Doctor Pistor, the younger. The Leipsic and the Wit-
tenburg students more than once came to blows in the streets ;
and if Luther escaped the assault of open violence, it may be

Matt.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 147

accounted for in some measure from the superstitious horror 1519.
which enveloped him, a tale of the clergy having gained
general circulation, that he carried the devil about with him
in a small box.

At length the anxiously awaited moment arrived : and on
the 4th July, at seven o'clock in the morning, the great hall
was filled to overflowing with an excited audience, the per-
sonal friends, or warm allies of the two champions. Eck's
natural confidence had been additionally inflated by his mani-
fest superiority in learning and ability to Carlstadt. In per-
son he was tall and handsome, and showed ofi" his fine figure to
the best advantage by the animated action with which he dis-
puted: and his strong voice harmonised with his stalwart
frame. Mosellanus remarked, in reference to his mental
powers, that his memory was astonishing ; and " if the
strength of the other faculties corresponded, he would be an
extraordinary man." On the tapestry hanging from his
pulpit the figure of St. George was embroidered. Luther
was of a stature but little above the ordinary ; he was so thin
at this time that his bones almost seemed to pierce his skin ;
his voice, far less powerful than Eck's, was clearer and more
musical ; his eyes beamed with earnest thought, and his fea-
tures generally wore the impress of the severe spiritual con-
flicts which he had passed through. He mounted his pulpit,
before which the figure of St. Martin was suspended with a
nosegay in his hand, and with a cheerful air : but when he
prepared for the discussion, his countenance assumed deep
seriousness of expression. The idea impressed on the specta-
tors by their relative appearances was, that John Eck, in the
confidence of his learning and talents was seeking renown ;
Luther, in reliance on God, was seeking truth.

Before beginning the disputation Eck protested that he
''submitted all he was about to say to the judgment of the

L 2

148 THE LIFE OK MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. supreme See and the Lord who sat upon it." Luther, in his
turn, protested — " In the name of the Lord, Ameu. I em-
brace and follow the protestation of Dr. Eck. I add this,
that in reverence to the Pope and the Roman Church, I
would willingly have omitted this subject, as unnecessary and
extremely invidious, had I not been dragged into it by the
proposition of Dr. Eck. I grieve at the absence of those
who were bound to be present, I mean the heretical inquisi-
tors," "^ The proposition alluded to was the thirteenth and
last in Eck^s series, to this effect : " We deny that the
Roman Church was not superior to others before the times of
Sylvester ; and we always recognise as successor of Peter and
General- Vicar of Christ him who holds the See and the faith
of the blessed Peter." In opposition to this, Luther's thir-
teenth proposition maintained : " The superiority of the Ro-
man Church to others is only proved by cold decrees of
Pontiffs not more than four hundred years old, against which
there are eleven hundred years of approved history, the text
of Scripture, and the decree of the most venerable Council
of Nice." The disputation was immediately directed to this
article, the Pope's primacy, as based or not on divine precept,
which the Papists themselves, Prierias, Cajetan, and now Eck,
had made, according to a military phrase, " the key to their
position."

"The Church," Eck commenced, " is a monarchy after the
type of the heavenly monarchy," and he quoted Scripture and
the fathers to prove this statement. Luther declared his
assent. "And the head of this earthly monarchy," Eck
proceeded, " is the Pontiff, the successor of Peter." " No,"
Luther replied, " the Church militant is a monarchy, but its
head is not man, but Christ himself; for 'He must reign till

* Lat. Op. Jcnfp, I. p. 232.

THE LIFE OK MARTIN LUTHEll. 149

he hath put nil enemies under his feet ; ' and again, ' LOj I 1519.
am with you always ; ' and again, ' Then cometh the end
when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even
the Father ; ' and he himself exclaimed to St. Paul, ' Saul,
Saul, why persecutest thou me ? ' Here, as Augustine says,
is the head speaking for its members." Quotations followed
from the fathers and decrees of Councils. But Luther went
farther, and advanced a mass of proof from the patristic
writings, that " by divine right all Bishops are equal ; " and
also a passage from Jerome in evidence that presbyter and
bishop were in primitive times the same, and " differed now
by custom rather than divine authority."

Eck, in support of the Divine right of the primacy, rested
on two texts of Scripture alone or principally — " Thou art
Peter, and on this rock I will build my church," &c. ; and
the injunction thrice repeated to Peter — "^Feed my sheep."
Luther replied — " The true translation of the first quoted text
is, 'Thou art Peter (a stone), and on this rock I will build
my Church ; ' that is, as Augustine and Ambrose explain, not
on Peter, but on Peter's confession of faith : for ' other founda-
tion can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ ; '
and as Peter himself declares, ' To whom coming as unto a
living stone, &c., ye also as lively stones are built up a
spiritual house.' All believers are stones built on the founda-
tion-stone or rock Jesus Christ." In answer to the other
text Luther stated, " The thrice repeated injunction to Peter
was a solemn warning to him to spurn every dignity, to love
nothing but the Saviour, to deny himself and that self-
righteous confidence through which he had thrice denied the
Lord." "But," continued Eck, "It was Peter who walked
on the sea to go to Christ, which, says St. Bernard, typified
the world made subject to him : Christ commanded him,
' Follow thou me : ' Peter exhorted the Apostles previous to

150 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. the election of Matthias." Luther answered^ " To exhort is
no proof of primacy, but the common office of Apostles : as
to the admonition to ' follow ' the Saviour, so far St. John
might have better claims to the primacy, as the notion was
current that he should never die : in walking on the waters
Peter was beginning to sink, but really to trample the world
under foot is the duty of every Christian. I might add, that
the Apostles sent Peter as well as John to Samaria: that
James confirmed the speech of Peter ; * that Paul ' withstood
Peter to the face because he was to be blamed ; ' that in the
description of the ecclesiastical body by St. Paul there are
enumerated — ' first Apostles, then prophets, thirdly teachers : '
no hint of any primacy; that Paul spoke of himself as the
' Apostle of the Gentiles,' of Peter as the ' Apostle of the cir-
cumcision ; ' that Matthias was not ordained, nor Paul and
Barnabas separated to the ministry by Peter; that 'the thief
on the cross kept the faith,' as saitli Augustine, ' which Peter
denied ; ' that ' the new Jerusalem ' has twelve foundations ;
the brazen sea was supported by twelve oxen, Solomon's
throne by twelve lions, twelve stones wer^ placed by the
Jordan, all in direct contradiction to the idea of any in-
equality." But Luther was at this time willing to concede
to St. Peter a primacy of honour. When the argument
came to ecclesiastical history, Luther maintained that the
Church of Christ had existed for twenty years before the
Church of Rome existed at all ; that Cliurch was itself an
oflfshoot from the Church of Jerusalem : the Greek Church
had been independent for 1400 years, and " now at last were
Gregory Nazianzen, Basil, Epiphanius, Cyprian, and a host
of saints to be driven from their seat in heaven ?"t that in
the fourth century many churches were independent of Rome,

* Acts XV. t De ccelo deturbare.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEll. 151

and the patriarchates were on an equality, as appeared by the 1519.
decree of the Council of Nice ; that Gregory the Great had
repudiated expressly the title of Oecumenical or Universal
Bishop. Yes, Eck replied, but there is a difference between
Universal Bishop and Bishop of the Universal Church. The
audience laughed at the sophistry ; and Luther observed that
he had obtained one valuable piece of information to take
back with him to Wittenberg.

Throughout the disputation Luther laboured under the dif-
ficulty of having to confront citations from authorities now
well ascertained to be spurious, such as Dionysius the Areo-
pagite and the false decretals. Eck's reading had been more
extensive than the Reformer's ; and in quoting passages from
rare authors he did not fail to remark that probably his ad-
versary had not heard their names before. But with that
intuitive sagacity, which, with all his immense reading and
prodigious memory, the Doctor of Ingolstadt wanted_, Luther
boldly advanced the charge of spuriousness from internal evi-
dence against many of the works quoted; as, for instance,
against an alleged constitution of Anacletus, in Avhich it was
asserted that '^Cephas'' Avas synonymous with head.

But EcVs strong point was the insinuation of heresy
against his ojiponent ; and he pushed Luther hard with the
accusation of l3eing " a patron of the doctrines of Wycliffe,
Huss, and the Bohemians.'^ This charge was deliberately
made, and the effects of the reply it was well known would
be felt throughout Europe : there were Bohemians in the hall
whom the controversy had called to Leipsic : and Duke
George and the audience were carried away by the over-
whelming interest of the moment, and half rose from their
seats in expectation of the manner in which the accusation
would be met. It evidently cost Luther an effort to answer
as he did, for he foresaw the consequences ; but he disdained

152 THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTIIEK,

3519. equivocation "The Bohemians/' he rephed_, "are schis-
matics, and I strongly reprobate schism ; the supreme divine
right is charity and unity. But amongst the articles of John
Huss, condemned by the Council of Constance, some are
plainly most Christian and evangelical." Hence it followed
that a general Council was not infallible ; tliis conclusion was
inevitable : and this was in fact the chief result to the Re-
former's system of doctrines from the Leipsic disputation.
He had appealed from the Pope to a General Council, and
condemned the primacy as cf divine right by the voice of a
Council ; but he was now driven from this transition stage,
and fell back on the Bible, and tlie Bible alone, as the only
infallible standard. But Eck had so far gained his point that
he had clear proof of his opponent's heresy for the papal ear.
The debate on the primacy lasted five days. Duke George
acted the part of a courteous, and for the most part an im-
partial president of the contest. He one day observed to
Luther and Eck at his own dinner-table in interruption of
their conversation — " Whether the Pope be by divine or
human right, at least he is Pope." " I was much pleased,"
Luther remarked afterwards, " with this observation, for it
proved the Duke saw the folly of our discussion." In some
respects the Reformer perceived a decided leaning to Eck, but
" I could distinguish," said he, " between the pipe and the
breath which blew on it : whenever the Duke spoke of his
own mind his words were most princely." After the question
of the Primacy the doctrines of Indulgences, Repentance,
Absolution, Satisfaction, and Purgatory passed under discus-
sion. Luther did not deny Purgatory, but maintained that
Scripture spoke only of two states in the eternal world. Of
prayers to the dead, he remarked that the Maccabees com-
mended them ; but the apocryphal books were not canonical ;
the Jews had never regarded them as such. Tlie nearest ap-

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 153

proxiniation in opinion between Luther and Eck was on the 1519.
subject of Indulgences, which supplied matter chiefly for
ridicule, and " was almost hissed off the stage." Their dis-
putation concluded on the morning of the ]4th at eight
o'clock : after which Carlstadt and Eck renewed their en-
counter, discussing the merit of good works ; and on the 16th
the whole was closed by a sermon and the chaunt of Te Deum.
The opinions were various to which side the palm of
victory was due. The Leipsickers declared that it remained
with Eck. But that Eck himself did not feel this to be cer-
tain, is evident from his complaint that the Wittenberg party
brought their books into the hall of disputation, took careful
notes of all that was said, and in the interval studied the
subject for discussion for the next day, and were many against
one. " There were," he averred, " two doctors, Lange the
Vicar of the Augustines, two licentiates, a very arrogant
nephew of Eeuchlin, three doctors of law, and a host of
masters." Yet Eck had Emser and the Leipsic Professors to
aid him with their counsel ; and if he wanted books the
University Library was all at his service : and in fact the
Leipsic masters asserted that they had won the cause for him.
Eck persisted that he was all alone, and Luther confirmed his
assertion, so far at least as that his coadjutors kept quite quiet
and he was always clamouring. There can be no doubt, the
Reformer said that he " outbellowed " us. But he did not
think highly of Eck's argumentative claims. " We had exa-
mined at Wittenberg," he said, " the subjects in dispute so
closely as to count the bones ; Eck only grazed the skin : he
is a water spider and runs along the surface ; he flies before a
text of Scripture as the devil before the cross." He told Eck,
with one of those flashes of his genius with which he ever
and anon lighted up the maze of the controversy, that, " The
theologian, if he would not err, must place the whole of

154 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. Scripture before his eyes^ and compare contraries with con-
traries ; and then seeming contraries, Hke the faces of the
cherubim turned away from one another yet meeting over the
centre of the mercy-seat, would all be found to meet in
Christ." Eck ceased to brawl of Luther that he was a man
without learning ; but the most convincing proof that he
knew himself to be vanquished, is that his wounded pride
never healed ; but the amity which had till then been main-
tained with some kind of semblance was exchanged on his
part for the most rancorous and untiring persecution.

The controversy sounded throughout Germany, and every-
where produced an incredible sensation. Indulgences were
quite forgotten in the vastly more interesting enquiry which
had now been brought before the public, aiFecting the ground-
work of the pretensions of Rome ; and the popular sympathies
rushed into this new channel with a force of which there had
been no example. The painters caricatured Dr. Eck, the
poets satirized him, the ballad-singers sung his defeat at the
street corners. And against this aggregate of talent he had
only the poetaster E-ubeus to chime his praises. The pun of
Erasmus became popular; "Don't call him Eck, call him
Jeck.^'* Ulric Hutten, ever amongst the foremost, sharpened
his sword, for he was rejoiced to think he might have need of
it, and sharpened his pen ; and, having abjured Rome for
ever, as his motto said, " the die being cast,'' made a dash at
Eck in the "planed-ofF corner (Eck)." Lazarus Spengler,
and Bilibald Pirkheimer, let him taste the pungent salt of
Nuremberg. And the " unlearned regulars " of the diocese of
Misnia, who had been accused to their Bishop by Eck of
Lutheranism, requested, by the pen of CEcolampadius, of
" the most glorious, superlatively learned, and triumphant

* Dutch for fool.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 155

Dr. Eck," to explain his arguments^ wliicli surpassed their 1519.
comprehension, nay, that of the Pope himself; whereas
Luther's were so level to their simple minds, in such striking
harmony with Scripture and the fathers, as well as accept-
able, which was strange, to the most learned men of the
age. None of the flying squibs of the day stung Eck more
keenly.

But besides this " biting from beneath a hedge,^'* as Luther
called these anonymous satires, various accounts of the dispu-
tation were soon afloat, to Eck's extreme annoyance. Me-
lancthon forwarded his description of the controversy to
QEcolampadius ; and Eck, from fulminating against his oppo-
nent, and chaunting his own panegyric in the Leipsic pulpits,
turned to his pen, and wrote his version of the disputation in
answer to the "grammarian,'^ who, although he was "not
quite ignorant of Greek and Latin," was too far below him to
be " challenged in the theological stadium." But his hopes
were fixed on the Universities ; and, by the agency of the aged
Hochstraten and Duke George, he trusted to influence the Uni-
versities of Louvain and Paris to deliver a verdict in his favour.
His only confidence was thus in a packed jury of academicians.
The public eye shot scorn and ridicule. Thirty versions of
the disputation were already in existence, so pressing was the
demand, when the authoritative account, as taken down by
the notaries of the Wittenberg side, made its appearance, and
was hailed by Eck and his faction with a chorus of reproach,
as against the preliminary agreement. On the heels of this
document Luther published his " Solutions of the Thirteen
Propositions " with a preface, in which he quoted his own ex-
plicit words — " Never imagine that I will consent to hold my
tongue." And this preface again entangled him with Eck^s
pen.

* Morsus sub sepe.

156 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. An important effect of the Leipsic disputation was the in-
tercourse thus opened between the Christianity of Witten-
berg and of Bohemia. The prefect of the College of the
Emperor Charles^ at Prague, wrote Luther a letter of congra-
tulation, and enclosed some books of Huss ; and Luther, in
return, sent the Bohemians all or the greater part of his own
treatises. The Curate, also, of the Cathedral of Prague, for-
warded to him the assurance of the hearty goodwill of the
Bohemian Christians, who " had prayed night and day to God
in his behalf, and offered up supplications in all their churches
for his success." But Jerome Emser, Luther's old Leipsic
acquaintance, thought he might put with advantage a spoke
of his own into the wheel, and wrote to the administrator of
the Catholic Church in Prague to encourage him in, bringing
back stragglers to the '" one fold/' by saying that Luther,
" in his rare erudition,'' had not disclaimed any charge witli
such vehemence as that of sympathy with the Bohemian
Beghards. Luther marked the craft and malevolence of this
insinuation, and indited a sharp reply to the '^Emseran he-
goat," twitted him on his avarice and incontinence, and ad-
vised him to borrow a little of his friend Eck's memory. " The
Adam in him," the Reformer said, " was full of gall, but the
Christ in him suppressed it." As for the Bohemians, they
were schismatics, and schism was condemned in Scripture,
but only a lying tongue could call them heretics. The paper
war, if for a moment it had shown a tendency to slacken, re-
doubled in activity after the Leipsic combat. Augustine Alveld,
a Franciscan of Leipsic, attacked Luther in a tract, which,
said he, " in brain, nose, mouth, and hair, shows the Leipsic
ox;'''^ and, as he had not a spare hour to waste, he deputed
Lonicer, a Wittenberg student, to write from his suggestions

* I. e. Dungersheim of Oclisenfort.

THE Llt'E OF MARTIN LUTHER. 157

an answer for him. And when Thomas Rhadiuus, no other, 1519.
as he supposed, but incorrrectly, than the "he- goat" under a
personated name, made another butt at him, he handed over
this aggressor to his faithful armour-bearer, Melancthon*.

But by far the most important result of the disputation was
its influence in expanding and consolidating Luther's theolo-
gical system. He had before said, '' Wycliffe and Huss
assailed the morals, but in assailing the doctrines of Rome we
seize the goose by the throat ; '' but by perusing the writings
of Huss, he found that the strictures of the Bohemian Apostle
had not been confined to the mode of life, that there was
much he might learn from him, and he exclaimed with deep
earnestness that " God would assuredly visit it upon the world,
that truth had been proclaimed a century ago and had been
burnt. St. Paul, Augustine, John Staupitz, all of us,'' he
exclaimed, " are Hussites." He found that Huss had repu-
diated the doctrine of Purgatory, and being convinced by
renewed examination tliat Scripture was with him, he rejected
it also. He read with great interest the objections of Huss,
on plain grounds of Scripture, to the denial of the cup to the
laity in the Lord's Supper ; and shortly afterwards, in a sermon
to his Wittenberg people, declared his conviction that it was
" highly advisable that a General Council should determine
the administration of both kinds to the laity in the Sacrament."
These discoveries led the way to others. In treating upon
confession from the pulpit at this period, he divides it into con-
fession to God, or that of faith; confession to the injured
party, or that of charity ; and auricular confession, " the ap-
pointment not of God but of the Pope." He began to hint
that a General Council would do well to '' allow curates their
lawful wives instead of strumpets : " and pronounced with

* See Bretschneider, I. p. 288.

158 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. emphasis his condemnation of the " monk's begging sack/'
which Eck made a special charge against him ; " for himself,
he had much rather have learnt some honest handicraft, and in
that faith he should die, despite Dr. Eck." Again, the
Franciscans of Juterbock, who had slunk back to growl in
secret at Luther's first rebuff, had now obtained the patronage
of Eck ; and under his wing were clamouring with augmented
fury against the Wittenberg heretic. Luther in his reply
warned them of their folly in trusting to Dr. Eck, who was,
" as the wolf said to the nightingale, voice and nothing more : "
but it is more worthy of remark, that, as in the constant
expansion of his views in almost every tract he throws out a
fresh ray of light, so here he says, " I ask what passage of
Scripture gives power to the Pope to canonize Saints : next,
what necessity there is to canonize Saints : finally, what
utility there is in canonizing Saints." ^ About the same
time also the treatise of Laurentius Valla on " the donation of
Constantine," edited by Hutten, fell into his hands, and he
learnt from it, and communicated the intelligence with exulta-
tion to Spalatin, that the famous donation was all a fiction.

It was likewise a memorable trophy of the Leipsic disputa-
tion that Caspar Cruciger, whose name will often occur in this
biography, at that time a student at Leipsic, was converted by
means of Luther's arguments to a knowledge of the Gospel.
And a scarcely less illustrious trophy was that Melancthon
thenceforward became a theologian, and soon afterwards
commenced lecturing on St. Paul's Epistles, with so much
penetration and ability that Luther exclaimed with pride,
" The little Greek will beat me too in theology." In the in-
terval which followed on the discussion, before men's minds
had been drawn to some other subject by some fresh event,

* Contra malifrnum Johan. Eccii judicium. Op. Jense, I. p. 225.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 159

Melancthou published in answer to Eck, his first theological 1519.
writing, terse and elegant like all the fabrics of his intellect.
It proclaimed Scripture as the only Lydian stone to test
truth. That Scripture is abused, he asserted, is the fault
not of Scripture but of those who bring the heat of prejudice
to its study : " as the polypus imbibes the colour of the rock
it clings to, so is Scripture coloured by human fancies and
preconceived notion s.^^ And this in one sentence was cer-
tainly the greatest result of the collision in Pleissenburg
Castle, that thenceforth— not the Pope, nor even a General
Council, but Scripture, was recognised by the Lutherans as
the only religion of Christians. " The reed of Egypt nothing
against the sword of the Spirit."

On the other hand, the disputation, which had yielded such
fruits to the reforming party, had not left the Uomanists
without hope. To a certain extent Luther had faUen into
the trap which had been laid for him ; and Duke George, fol-
lowing in the traces of Eck, in a letter to Frederic before
the end of the year, hinted that the promotion of his Professor
to be " Bishop of Prague " might be shortly looked for. The
University of Cologne condemned Luther^s writings before
the end of August ; and that of Louvain did the same early
in November. One or two bishops placed his writings and
Hutten^s in their " index expurgatorius." The Bishop of
Misnia placarded in public his condemnation of Luther's
sermon on the Sacrament of the Altar. The Bishop of Bran-
denburg, who had hitherto shown him some countenance,
had now become his determined foe ; and, in the presence of
his courtiers, taking up a brand and throwing it into the fire,
exclaimed, " I will never rest till Martin is consumed like
that brand." The priests of Misnia did not scruple to declare
that to kill Luther would be no sin. And the malice of his
enemies, building on the foundation laid at Leipsic, had

160 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. invented and circulated a story that he was of Bohemian
birth and parentage, which he found it necessary to disprove
in a letter to Spalatin, and in a public '^ declaration."

The least idle of all the Romanist party was the leader of
the persecution himself. Eck, after various rencontres with
pen and ink in sequel to the great Leipsic combat, prepared
for a public bonfire of Luther's writings at lugolstadt ; but
the good sense of Reuchlin prevailed upon the University to
exercise forbearance. Eck then turned from attempting to
burn to attempting to refute ; and with his best talent, and
most ostentatious learning, composed an elaborate treatise on
the primacy of St. Peter. The work was an ingenious super-
structure built on piles of quotations from spurious fathers,
spurious decretals, and spurious decrees of Councils. Having
thus refuted Luther, which he had promised to do — and hs
told the reader he had kept his word — and having given the
minor spirits of his Pandemonium their cue, he hastened
away at the end of February to Rome, to present his book in
person to the Pontiff. There was one vigorous hope in his
breast, of which he was assured he should not be disappointed,
to add his strength to that of Prierias, Cajetan, and the
Thomist phalanx around Leo, and crusb his adversary for ever
by the whole weight of the Papacy. It was the Pope who
must now speak, in accents such as he had not yet used, that
infallible judge to whom he had submitted all that he had
said.

Simultaneously with the early part of the Leipsic disputa-
tion^ the electoral conclave at Frankfort was engaged in deep
deliberation on whose brow the crown of the empire should
be placed. The deliberations commenced on the 17th June.
The competitors for the prize Avere Francis of France, and
Charles of Spain ; for Henry of England had retired from the
contest. The Pope, who dreaded the union of the kingdom

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 161

of Naples with the empire, was on the side of Francis, and 1519.
had exerted himself in the cause with a zeal which had even
been deemed intrusive by the Rhenish Electors, who were
more favourably disposed to France, and in this way had
added to the unpopularity of the Papacy in Germany. The
course of events inclined against Francis. The private wars
which raged before and during the canvass took a turn so de-
cidedly opportune for Austria just at the crisis of the election,
and Spanish gold flowed so freely among the electoral de-
pendants, aided by large promises of various kinds to the
Electors themselves, that before the decisive day the issue
could be foreseen. The Electors of Treves, Brandenburg, and
Saxony alone remained unpledged to Austria. Many had
been the attempts, and large the offers of the Austrian nego-
ciators, to extract from the incorruptible Frederic the promise
of his vote, to which a peculiar moral weight was attached ;
yet, although no engagement had been entered into, a mar-
riage contract between the son of his brother and colleague
Duke John and Catherine, sister of Charles V., pointed to the
bias of his sentiments. There were, however, those among
the Electors who had formed the scheme of setting aside both
the professed candidates, and filling the imperial throne by a
choice from their own body. Joachim of Brandenburg was
ambitious enough to covet earnestly this elevation for himself,
but he did not enjoy that public esteem which constituted one
of the many qualifications of Frederic. And accordingly, in
a nocturnal conference, the Elector of Treves exhorted his
brother Elector of Saxony to accept the diadem, if it should
be offered him, and to sanction his canvassing in his behalf.
Had he assented, the interest of the French monarch, who
despaired of his own chance of success, and the interest of
the Pontiff, would both have been thrown into the scale, and

VOL. I. M

1G2 THE LIFE Ol-' MARTIN LUTHER.

1519. would probably have turned it in his favour. But on mature
consideration Frederic rejected the proposal, on the ground
that in the present turbulent times his authority would be
insufficient to maintain internal tranquillity and check the
encroachments of the Turks. Charles of Austria was of
German descent, and the most powerful prince of the age:
and after Frederic's refusal he stood alone in his claims. On
the 28th June, the Electors assembled in the dimly lighted
chapel in the choir of the Church of St. Bartholomew, in their
scarlet robes of state ; and the Elector of Treves being asked
by the Elector of Mentz for whom he gave his vote, replied,
'' For Charles of Austria." The voice of the entire College
repeated the same words. And Charles, King of Spain, both
the Sicilies, Jerusalem, Hungary, Dalmatia and Croatia,
Archduke of Austria, Duke of Burgundy, Count of Hapsburg,
Flanders, and the Tyrol, and lord of a new hemisphere, was
pronounced duly elected Emperor of Germany. But had the
election been postponed an hoar, the success of some German
adherents of France against the partisans of Austria, trivial
in itself, and, as events turned out, without fruit, might pos-
sibly have altered the destinies of Europe.

Charles was at Barcelona holding the Catalonian Cortes
when the news of his election reached him. And meanwhile,
until he could visit Germany, Frederic of Saxony was nomi-
nated Lieutenant of the Regency. No council of Regency,
however, was appointed. The public affairs were administered
by the imperial Commissioners at Augsburg ; the old Coun-
cillors of Maximilian presided over by the Archduchess Mar-
garet; and notwithstanding the Electors had made express
stipulations for enlarging the liberties of the States, every-
thing proceeded in the old despotic fashion. But in the
absence of Charles the settlement of religious dissensions, as

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 163

dependant on the civil power, of course remained in abeyance. 1519.
And in this way divine Providence again sliielded the rising
struggles of truth.

In the middle of January Luther addressed a letter to the 1520.
youthful emperor^ imploring him to cast a favourable eye
upon his cause, which was " worthy to come before the throne
of heaven^ much more before an earthly potentate.^' He had
been drawn, he said, from his corner against his will, and
solely by his love of truth ; he had offered mutual silence to
his adversaries in vain ; he had demanded proof of his errors,
none had been vouchsafed. It was evident that in plotting
his ruin his foes meant nothing less than the extirpation of
the Gospel. He therefore implored his most Serene Majesty,
the prince of the kings of the earth, to take the cause of truth
under the shadow of his wings, to defend which God had
entrusted to him the sword, and not to suflfer him to be con-
demned unheard.* Towards the end of the same month, the
Spanish Ambassador paid a visit to the Saxon Court, and was
honoured with a magnificent entertainment by Frederic, to
which Luther and Melancthon were invited, and argued the
great religious question with the Ambassador. This invitation
was a proof to the Imperial Court of the Elector's regard for
Luther's cause ; and it is memorable as the only occasion on
which Frederic and Luther ever conversed together : they
afterwards met face to face for the last time in the Diet of
Worms. The Reformer soon afterwards addressed an epistle,
deprecating being condemned unheard, to the Archbishop of
Mentz, and another to the same purport to the Bishop of
Merseberg. In this letter he spoke of his readiness to be
relieved from the wearisomeness of public notice and his
office of teaching, for it was his continual grief that " he did

* De Wette, I. pp. 392, 394.

M 2

164 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. not live as he taught •" * and he had never sought his own
glory, but only truth. The Archbishop replied that Luther
was culpable in declaiming with vehemence on such points
as freewill and the Pope's primacy ; and the Bishop, that he
was rebelling against the papal power.f The curtain was
already let fall on the indulgence controversy.

Fresh proofs were afforded the Reformer of his Prince's
regard, by the request which the Elector made through Spa-
latin, that he would write an explanation of the Epistles and
Gospels throughout the Christian year, a work begun this
spring, and which appeared in parts, as promptly as Luther's
other multifarious labours would allow, under the title of
^'Postils." The wish of Frederic was to divert the Re-
former's attention from " quarrelsome, biting, and turbulent
writings," and lead him to " apply his mind to the quiet pur-
suit of sacred literature." But, at the same time, Luther
had become the court theologian, and his judgment was con-
stantly referred to in explanation of passages of Scripture.
He was asked to write a consolatory treatise for the use of
Frederic, who was labouring under severe iRness, and pro-
duced the " Tessaradecas," and dedicated it to his patron.
He had preached a sermon on " good works," dwelling on his
great principle that good works, as men call them, are not in
outward acts, but in the heart, which Spalatin, at the sugges-
tion of Duke John, requested him to write down and print :
he did so, enlarging it from a sermon to a book, and dedicated
it to the Duke. He gave the preference to this tract over all
his previous works : but " perhaps this very leaven," he added,
" of self-satisfaction has tainted and spoilt it." But it was in
vain that Spalatin, here also the mouthpiece of the Saxon
Court, tried to instil the importance of avoiding bitterness

* Quod non vivo quod doceo. t Walch. XV. p. 1651.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 165

in controversy, on occasion of a severe reply from the Re- 1520.
former to an inhibitory schedule placarded against his sermon
on the Eucharist by the Bishop of Misnia."^ Luther answered
that the Gospel was so dear to him, that he would not per-
mit an angel from heaven to defame one of its truths, much
less a Bishop — "a terrestrial idol/^ And he defended his
severity on the plea that tame writings soon fall into oblivion ;
and, if his own age judged him too acrimonious, the judgment
of posterity would be more compassionate. "You cannot,"
he continued, "make a sword into a feather, or war into
peace : and the word of God is war, it is ruin, a reproach, per-
dition, and poison ; it meets the children of Ephraim as a
bear in the way, and a lioness in the wood." But the cou-
trast between Luther's words and acts was never better
evidenced than at this very time. A riot between the stu-
dents and some of the townspeople had filled the streets of
Wittenberg with tumult ; many of the University authorities,
and amongst them the Rector Burckard, took the side of the
students ; but Luther sharply reproved this timorous partia-
lity ; he insisted that the Elector's mandate should be obeyed,
and no weapon be carried by any student, and, mounting the
pulpit, reprimanded both the offending parties with even-
handed justice. The devil, he said, had been foiled at Augs-
burg and at Leipsic, and, being very wroth, trusted to traduce
the Gospel by fomenting brawls at Wittenberg.

"The wild ass of Leipsic," so Luther styled Alveld, "brayed
again ;" f and the Reformer followed up Lonicer's writing by
a tract from his own pen, " On the Papacy." Having thus
dealt a settling blow to one adversary, he turned round to deal
one to another. Prierias, " the Greek barbarian and Roman

* Lat. Op. Jense, I. p. 465. t De Wette, I. p. 445.

166 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. cook,"* had not only replied to Luther's " Answer/' but was
engaged in compiling a standing exposure of Luther's hetero-
doxy, a learned medley of scholastic quotations, and had sent
the Reformer an epitome of the third book, to let him under-
stand by tlie sample of one rod what must be the combined
weight of the implement preparing for his chastisement.
Luther served this '^ Epitome " as he had before served the
" Reply." He re-edited it with marginal notes, adding a pre-
face and epilogue ; and he bound up with it a treatise of John
Nannes, a Dominican of Viterbo, in the last century, who
had advanced what Prierias had reproduced, that Daniel's
fifth monarchy, the reign of the Saints, was the reign of
the Papacy. To this, Luther rejoined that his scriptural re-
searches had not led him to the conclusion that Daniel's fifth
monarchy was realised in the Pope's temporal and spiritual
despotism; but he was convinced of the apostolicity of the
Papacy, and that it had its prototype in Judas Iscariot. " In
the purple harlot of the Apocalypse, the mother of fornications
and abominations of the earth, the mystic Babylon, drunk
with the blood of the saints and of the martyrs of Jesus, riding
on the scarlet beast, full of names of blasphemy, he recognised
the scriptural prediction of the reign of the Pope."

Spalatin continued to represent the duty and necessity of
forbearance. But how hopeless were his efforts, the publica-
tions of each successive month, or even week, most clearly
demonstrated. Treatise followed treatise, " like sparks from
the iron under the stroke of the hammer,'^ f each spark
brighter than the preceding, and adding to the fiiry of the fire
blazing on all sides. But before the appearance of this last

* Magister palatii, was couverted by the Lutlieraus into Magirus
palatii — palace-cook,
t Eankc's Kef., trans, by Sarah Austin, I. p. 340.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 167

mentioned publication Rome had resolved npon^ or already 1520.
taken, a decided step in the affair, as Luther was very well
aware, by the rumours floating in all quarters, and by direct
accounts from the papal city. It was reported that a physi-
cian, well skilled in the art of poisoning by the most secret
and inscrutable means, who had moreover the power of ren-
dering himself invisible at pleasure, had been hired at a costly
price by the Roman Curia to make short work with Luther.
And to complete the tragedy, his advent at Wittenberg was
fixed for All Saints' eve. But this is only one of the terrors
which the popular apprehension conjured up. In the begin-
ning of May tidings were received from Eck that he was
almost certain of success in his enterprise; a minute of a
bull against Luther had been roughly sketched ; at the next
consistory it would be matured, and, if the Pontiff would be
guided by him, every Cardinal and Bishop should subscribe
it. But the pestilent heretic's doctrines had been very inade-
quately appreciated at Rome before his arrival. Nor were
Eck's statements, however deeply tinged with the personal
braggadocio of such " an animalcule of vain-glory," as Luther
termed him, incorrect as to facts. The utmost excitement of
feeling prevailed at the Vatican; and Leo himself, against
whom the Thomist party had long murmured in secret as not
walking in the via regia of the Popes, but encouraging litera-
ture to the detriment of theology, bowed to the fury of the
angry spirits around him, or was carried away by a current
too strong to be resisted. Cajetan, although labouring under
severe indisposition, was conveyed to every consistory, and
took an eager share in the proceedings. A difference of
opinion was manifested between the jurists and the divines
of the Curia : the former were for citing Luther again before
pronouncing his excommunication. They argued, that be-
fore the Almighty condemned Adam, he enquired, ''^Adam,

168 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. where art thou ? " So of Caiu, " Where is Abel thy bro-
ther ? " And in the destruction of the cities of the plain,
" I will go down now and see." * The latter would not
brook delay. But this difference was arranged by a com-
promise : Luther was pronounced excommunicated unless
within sixty days he recanted his errors; and the famous
bull of excommunication, caDing on God, on Peter, on Paul,
on the Saints and the whole Church, to rise up against
the new Porphyry,t and which condemned forty-one pro-
positions extracted from his works, and consigned all his
books to the flames, and declared the decrees of the Univer-
sities of Louvain and Cologne most holy, was signed on the
15th June.J

Besides other intelligence, a letter from Valentin Deutleben,
the Saxon representative at the Vatican, and also a letter
from the Cardinal St. George to Frederic, both which were
immediately transmitted to Luther, had prepared him for
this event. Deutleben told his master that all his affairs
were at a standstill, for he could not obtain a hearing on
account of the protection afforded Luther. The Cardinal in
strong terms urged Frederic to rigorous proceedings against
his heretic monk. In reply to these letters, the Reformer
requested his " most illustrious Prince " not to embroil him-
self in his cause at all, but to keep aloof as heretofore ; only
to refuse to be his judge or executioner, at least until proof
had been afforded of his guilt. " Whatever I have done,"
Luther said, " I have done upon compulsion, and have always
been ready to have peace, provided the truth of the Gospel
were left free. This is all I ask, not a cardinal's hat, or gold,
or any of those things which at Rome they prize, but the way

* Polau. I. p. 9.

t The Bull, with Hutten'a notes— Walch. XV. p. 1692, &c.

J The seventeenth day before July 1.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 169

of salvation left open to Christians. I hope your illustrious 1520.
Highness will frame such an answer as to make the Roman
heads comprehend that Germany, not through her own, but
through Italian rudeness, has been hitherto oppressed by the
secret judgment of God." The Elector's reply stated, that he
had hitherto kept the accused monk near him at the desire of
Miltitz, to prevent his acting with greater freedom beyond
the limits of Saxony ; that the challenge of Eck, and the con-
stant attacks of his enemies, had precluded Dr. Martin from
observing that silence which otherwise he had been most
willing to maintain : and, moreover, that there were so many
learned men in Germany, and so many students of the Bible
even among the laity, that the mere authoritative sentence
of the Church, without scriptural proof, would only occa-
sion bitter offence, and give rise to horrible tumults. This
was plain language for the Vatican : and from all quarters
Luther^s encreasing danger elicited warmer demonstrations in
his favour. The knight Taubenheim placed himself at his
service. Sickengen, through the medium of Hutten, offered
the refuge of his castle. The Eranconian knight Schaum-
burg,* proffered his fortress and a hundred devoted swords.
There were a multitude of free spirits to whom the vision of a
war against the tiara was fraught with delight.

With a grateful sense of the kindness extended to him,
Luther determined nevertheless to remain at Wittenberg, and
there await the explosion of the storm. He even resolved
to anticipate its burst, and, with a spirit-stirring blast which
should ring from one end of Germany to the other, to arouse
his countrymen to a conviction of their duty and to summon
especially the magistracy, the civil rulers, and the Emperor to
the great work of reforming the Church. "The time for silence

* See Seckend. I. p. 111.

170 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. is past, and the time to speak is come." The Appeal began
with bemoaning the misery of Germany, and then passed to
the promise of better times from the young noble blood just
made the national head. The great work to be done, however,
must be entered upon in the strength of God; for it was
because he leaned on his own might that Frederic I. had been
trampled under foot by the Pope ; the bloodthirsty Julius II.
had been raised so high because France, Germany, and
Venice trusted to themselves ; forty-two thousand of the
Israelites fell by the children of Benjamin, because they ven-
tured on battle in their own strength. The Papists had built
up three walls against a Church Reformation ; the first, that
temporal power had no right or jurisdiction over spiritual ; ^
the second, that none should read the Scriptures save the
Pope ; the third, that none could summon a Council save the
Pope. " Now help us God, and give us one of the trumpets
whereby the walls of Jericho fell down, that we may blow
around these walls of straw and paper and make them fall."
He demolished the walls successively. Then he drew a
picture of the ruined condition of Germany, her wealth sucked
up by Rome; by indulgences, annates, commendams, and
countless modes of extortion, all in the name of Christ and
St. Peter ; so that the wonder was, not that princes, nobles,
states, cathedrals, land and people were poor, but that they
had ought remaining at all. AU went into the Roman sack,
which had no bottom. Here was open robbery ; the fraud

* The Papacy, Luther would say, has painted the Church as a great
ship : in the forepart the Pope and Cardinals with the Holy Ghost ;
the bishops, clergy, and monks aft, monks at the oars, all bound
straight for heaven. But not a single layman is in the ship ; all of
them, kings and nobles, are in the water : many sink, but some swim
to the ship and cling to it, others lay hold of ropes thrown out from the
ship, and so arc saved. Sec the Engraving, Centifol. Luther, p. 256.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 171

and tyranny of the gates of hell ; destruction of soul and 1520.
body ; the groans and spoils of Christendom. Talk of war
against the Turk : the Roman Turk was the fellest Turk in the
world. Talk of hanging thieves and decapitating robbers:
Roman avarice was the greatest thief and robber that had ever
bestrode the earth. All too in the name of God ! The
remedies to be sought against such evils from the temporal
power were that each prince^ noble, or state, should forbid
their subjects giving annates to Rome; that the Christian
nobility should resist the Pope as the foe and perdition of
Christendom, and throw his bann, seal, and briefs into the
Rhine or the nearest stream ; that an imperial decree should
be issued prohibiting archbishops and bishops from receiving
their dignities from Rome ; that all causes should be tried by
the civil power ; that the oath taken by bishops to the Pope
should be abolished ; that the Emperor should no longer kiss
the Pope^s toe or hold his stirrup ; that the Pope should leave
princes and lords to govern, and, renouncing his temporal
sovereignty, should preach and pray ; that pilgrimages to Rome
should cease ; that the clergy should have their lawful wives ;
that man^s ordinances should be done away with and God's
ordinances be restored. " Hearest thou, O Pope, not all-holy
but all-sinful? Who gave thee power to lift thyself above
God and break his laws ? The wicked Satan lies through thy
throat. O my Lord Christ, hasten thy last day and destroy
the deviPs nest at Rome. There sits the man of sin, of
whom Paul speaks, the son of perdition ! What is Popery
but leading souls to hell under thy name ? " This appeal to
secular Germany against the Papacy was commenced in June,
and published early in the August ensuing. Before the 18th
August, four thousand copies had been sold in that illiterate
age. Before the end of August a new edition was in print,
and was speedily caught up by persons of every rank and class.

172 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. The storm was coming on apace ; but through the black-
ness of its columns the form of Dr. Eck, as its guiding
genius, could be distinctly seen. Every one exclaimed, " It is
Eck^s Bull." Its prolixity, obscurity of wording, and forensic
style, were sharply criticised.^ And certainly, if the policy
of Rome had before been short-sighted, it was now nothing
less than infatuated. There were no two more unpopular
men than Aleander, the creature, so it was affirmed, of Alex-
ander VI., the secretary of the infamous Caesar Borgia, and
subsequently engaged in the service of Leo X ;t and Eck, the
baffled antagonist of Luther. Yet it was to these heads of the
ultra- Romanist faction, and neither of whom, to countervail
other disadvantages, possessed any weight of moral character,
that Rome assigned the task of conveying the bull to Ger-
many, and providing for its publication and execution. Some
Wittenberg wags immediately attacked the salient points in
Aleander's reputed history. " It cannot be denied," they
told the public, " but he is a clever linguist ; Hebrew is his
vernacular ; whether he was ever baptized is dubious ; but it
is clear he is no Pharisee, for he does not believe in the resur-
rection of the dead, but lives as if body and soul would perish
together. In arrogance, avarice, and lust, he is insatiate ; and
has found his pretended conversion to Christianity a very lucky
speculation." In the case of Eck the popular indignation
was still deeper, on account of the personal spleen and malice
displayed in his condiict. On the other side, a persecution

* "Quasi de causa feudal! ferenda esset sententia," says Father
Paul ; and he observes that one of the sentences contained four hundred
words at the least. — Histor. I. p. ] 1.

t The real cause of Aleander's appointment was, that, before he en-
tered the service of Leo, he had been in the service of the Bishop of
Liege, an Austrian partisan, afterwards named a cardinal to please
Charles.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 173

conducted in such a way raised Luther in public regard higher 1520.
than he had ever stood before^ and made him the rallying
point of all that was free, generous, and patriotic, as well as
enlightened and Christian in Germany.

The brother nuncios had each a separate sphere of opera-
tions marked out for him. Aleander descended the Rhine,
burnt Luther's writings with exultation at Mentz, and directed
his course to Louvain ; and the very day that the Emperor,
whose coronation at Aix-la-ChapeUe was shortly to take place,
quitted the town, he had some of Luther's books burnt in the
market-place, to make believe, the Lutherans averred, that the
Emperor had ordered it. Eck, elate with his official dignity,
was advancing from the more southern districts of Germany
towards "Wittenberg itself, to menace, and, if possible, to
drive the lion from his den. In the course of September * he
had copies of the bull affixed in public in Meissen, Merse-
burg, and Brandenburg. As the bull was aimed not only at
Luther, but at his adherents also, the singular privilege had
been conferred upon Eck of annexing to the Reformer's name,
the names of any of his allies whom it might be particularly
desirable to reduce to conformity ; and he took advantage of
this indiscreet indulgence to gratify his private pique. He
inserted in the bull the names of six persons, all held in high
respect by the public, Adelmann of Adelmannsfeld, his
brother canon, with whom he had once all but come to
blows in the heat of controversy ; Spengler and Pirkheimer of
Nuremberg, whose satirical effusions were not to pass un-
punished; Carlstadt and Feldkirchen of Wittenberg; and

* The September of this year is remarkable for Melancthon's marriage
with Catherine Crappin, the daughter of a Wittenberg burgher, by the
advice of his friends. The scholar spoke of his wife as "a temporal
chastisement for his sins, but a mild and paternal one." Luther, it was
thought, made up the match.

174 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. Egranus^ the preacher of Zwichau^ who had called the veracity
of the legend of St. Anne into question. This crowning act of
insolence and malice made the cup of popular indignation run
over, and served to fill up Avhatever might be wanting, to the
entire discredit of the bull. Yet, with such despotic autho-
rity was Eck armed, that out of the six persons whom
he had singled from the crowd of heretics in alliance with
Luther for special condemnation, the three who did not live
under the protection of the Elector of Saxony were forced to
yield and declare their submission to the Holy See.

But Wittenberg was unassailable. The University was
exempt from the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Brandenburg,
and the Elector of Saxony was a tower of strength against the
papal artillery. And it was of no little moment that the
centre of the reforming movement was thus secure. But even
elsewhere, in the ferment of popular indignation, which was
shared not only by such ecclesiastics as the Bishops of Wurz-
burg and of Breslaw, but by many others, indeed the majority
of the hierarchy, who felt the appointment of a man of no
high station in the church, like Eck, to an exalted office, as an
affront to themselves, the way was by no means so smooth for
the overthrow of Luther's doctrines as Rome could have
wished. In some dioceses the demand of the Nuncio for the
publication of the bull was rejected ; in others compliance
was long postponed. Eck himself entered Leipsic in a tri-
umphal mood, and boasted over his wine that he should soon
bring back Friar Martin to his senses. But besides the " ox,"
the "he-goat,'* and the 'Svild ass," (or Ochsenfort, Emser,
and Alveld,) and Duke George, and the Bishop of Merseburg,
he found few supporters ; in fact, within less than a year, a
thorough revulsion of feeling had taken place; jeers and gibes
assailed him in the streets ; pasquinades met his eye on every
wall, and he feared for his personal safety in a town which

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 175

had SO recently exhibited the most noisy proofs of admiration 1520.
for his talents, and he repaired from the general scorn to the
cloisters of St. PauFs, which had before screened the humilia-
tion of Tetzel. Even here he was still annoyed by tlu'eaten-
ing letters ; and so, after forwarding the bull, together with a
letter to the University of Wittenberg on the 3rd October, he
fled by night to Friburg,* and thence to Coburg. But not
only had Leipsic become Lutheran : at Erfurth, the students
literally obeyed Luther's directions in his great "Appeal,"'
seized the copy of the bull, tore it to pieces, and threw
the fragments into the Elbe, exclaiming, " It is a bubble
(bulla), let it swim." And so all-pervading was the feeling
of hostiHty to Rome, that even in the Low Countries, under the
very eye of the Emperor himself, the indications of the popu-
lar antipapal spirit could not be suppressed. At Antwerp, it
was attempted to burn Luther's writings, but in vain. Every-
where, whatever had before remained unalienated from the
Papacy, seemed now estranged from it ; and the bull, which
was intended to extinguish the Reformation for ever, gave it
new life, and may be regarded as the turning act in the
struggle which decided its success.

The most important question was — What part will the Em-
peror take in the religious warfare, which, having embroiled
the states of the empire, threatened to invade his hereditary
dominions? Luther had appealed from the Church to the
State, from the priesthood to the laity : and Rome, in her
turn, was about to invoke the temporal arm in aid of spiritual
weapons whose use had outlived their efficacy. The yomig
Emperor had sailed from Corunna on the 22nd May : on the
26th he had landed at Dover, and prepossessed the heart of
Henry of England and his ambitious favourite Wolsey in his

* Walch. XV. p. 1873.

176 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. favour ; and from the time of his landing in the Netherlands
he had been busied with multifarious negociations, and with
making preparations for the war with France, which was in-
evitably soon to break out. The 23rd October had been fixed
as the day for his coronation at Aix-la-Chapelle. Princes,
nobles, and knights, the representatives of secular power, and
the papal legate Caraccioli, and the commissioner Aleander,
might be seen approaching from different sides the ancient
city of Charlemagne. And on the appointed day, amongst a
constellation of German magnificence, more solemn and gor-
geous than had previously met on any similar occasion, the
crown of the empire was placed on the brows of the young
Prince, whose reign was destined to mark indelible traces on
the future history of the world.

The ceremony was no sooner over than Charles, accom-
panied by the Elector of Saxony and the other Princes, re-
treated before the plague from Aix-la-Chapelle, and took
refuge at Cologne, where he held his court. Marino Carac-
cioli and Hieronymus Aleander followed him thither, and
pressed the immediate exercise of the imperial authority in
giving effect to the papal condemnation of heresy. In some
points Charles showed no disinclination to uphold the power
of the Church, and consented to the conflagration of Luther's
writings throughout his own dominions, which was accord-
ingly promptly commenced, and carried through with great
vigour by the clergy and monks. But when this did not
satisfy the envoys, but the demand was made that the author
should be led to the stake, the Emperor drew back. " We
must consult," he said, " the Princes of the empire, and espe-
cially our father', the Elector of Saxony, before we can strike
such a blow against a sect so numerous and powerful."

All appeared to turn once more on the decision of Frederic.
The Pope had accompanied the enclosure of the bull by a

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 177

letter dated the 8th July, in which he thanked the Elector 1520.
that he had " always abhorred the attempts of that son of
iniquity, Martin Luther, and had never aided nor favoured
him," and then stated that, with the counsel of his venerable
brethren, and of men learned in the canons and divine Scrip-
ture, " under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, which in cases
of such a nature has never been absent from the Holy See,
we have framed a decree, inscribed in apostolic letters, and
decorated with the leaden bulla, in which, from amongst the
almost innumerable errors of this man, we have condemned
some as plainly heretical, others as likely to relax in the
minds of the simple the bonds of obedience, continence, and
humility/' And his Holiness requested Frederic first to ex-
hort Friar Martin to a recantation ; but, if he proved obstinate,
on the expiry of the allotted time to seize and send him to
Rome, "whereby he would repel no slight stain from his
own, his family's, and the national honour." Such a letter
was added, in the Elector's mind, to the indignities which he
enumerated as already sustained from Rome, the treatment
of Luther by Cajetan, the reference of the controversy, as
arranged by Miltitz, to an enlightened judge effectually stulti-
fied, and the ready credence given at the papal court to a dis-
appointed braggart like Eck. His own high sense of the
obligations of truth and integrity made the Elector of Saxony
feel more poignantly the unworthy conduct of the Papacy.

On the Sunday after All Saints' day Frederic was engaged Nov. 3.
in divine service in the convent of the Cordeliers before the
hour of noon, and the mass had just begun, when he was
accosted by Carraccioli and Aleander. The former placed in
his hands the bull ; and, from the praises of the Elector and
his house, diverged to the benignity of the Pontiff, in transfer-
ring the empire from the Greeks to the Germans : but at this
point Aleander pushed himself forwards, and with the vchc-

VOL. I. N

178 THE LIFE OF MAllTIN LUTHER.

1520. mcnce of his character, designating Luther as a heretic worse
than Huss or Jerome, demanded, first, that the Elector would
command that Luther's writings should be burnt ; and, se-
condly, would apprehend Luther, and either keep him captive
or send him to Home. '' The Emperor and all the other
Princes,'' said he, " assent to the Pontiff's demand ; you are
the only obstacle.'' Frederic answered by the mouth of the
Bishop of Trent, that on such a momentous subject he must
be allowed time for reflection, but would signify his pleasure
as soon as he conveniently could.

The next day * Carraccioli and Aleander presented them-
selves in the convent of the Cordeliers in the afternoon, to
receive the Elector's answer. Frederic replied by the Bishop
of Trent as before. He stated, that in his unavoidable ab-
sence to attend the coronation of the Emperor, Dr. Eck, of
his own caprice, had added in his published bull to the name
of Luther the names of several others, whom he had thus
wantonly exposed to extreme peril; that such conduct was
inconsistent with the duties of a Nuncio; and what lively
gratitude it must inspire in his own breast, might easily be
imagined. He had never made common cause with Luther.
He had refrained from banishing him from his University at
the express request of Miltitz. But how had it come to pass,
that although Luther had always been willing, under sufficient
security, to appear before the Archbishop of Treves, such an
arrangement had been superseded ? Luther would never have
written as he had done, unless he had been provoked thereto
l)y the attacks of embittered rivals, as calumnious as they
were imj)ious. It had never been proved that Luther's writ-
ings were deserving of the flames : and it would be most
unjust to burn them before he had been heard in his defence,

* Quarfa feria post omnium Sanctorum.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 179

and convicted of error. And he requested, therefore, that the 1520.
present course of procedure might be abandoned, and the
cause committed to just, learned, pious, and unsuspected
judges, and the public faith and a safe-conduct be granted
Luther to appear before them in a convenient place. And
then if Luther should be convicted of error by arguments,
learned reasons, pious and solid scriptural proofs, he (the
Elector) would act as would become a Christian and an
obedient son of the Church.

The Nuncios, after hearing this answer read to them, with-
drew for a while and then returned to resume their suit with
unabated importunity. Carraccioli spoke of the many endea-
vours of the Pontiff to recall Luther to a sense of duty, and
affirmed that Luther had not kept the promise which he had
made : and here again Aieander took up the thread of the
argument, and urged that the commission to the Archbishop
of Treves had of course been extinguished by the Pope re-
moving the cause to his own tribunal ; that the Pope alone
could determine a question of faith, and that he and his col-
league had no alternative but as the bull prescribed to hunt
out and burn Martin Luther's books ; as for his person the
Pontiff did not desire " to make his hands fat with his blood.^' *
It was growing late in the day, and the remonstrances of the
Nuncios were neither exhausted nor seemed likely to become
so, when Frederic, on the plea of his presence being required
elsewhere, broke up the audience.

The very next day the Elector of Saxony received in his
apartments, by special invitation, the world-famed scholar of
Rotterdam. As the prince of literature Erasmus was disposed
to think favourably of Luther in the proportion in which the

* Nolit mauus suas (ut Aleandri verbis iitannur) ejus sanguine
pinguefaoere.

N 2

180 THE LIFE OV MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. monks reviled him ; and at Louvaiu he had been singled out
for more pointed censure than Luther himself in the oration
of Edmuudanus one of the Professors. He had hardly en-
tered the room before the Elector in his straightforward way
enquired his opinion of Luther. The scholar looked surprised,
knit his brow, bit his lips, and was seeking time for delibera-
tion before he committed himself by a definite answer. The
Elector fixed his eyes on him, with the peculiar expression
which they were accustomed to wear when he was determined
to ascertain the real sentiments of the person he interrogated.
" Luther,^' said Erasmus, " has struck the Pope on the crown,
the monks on their belly.'' And from this introduction he
proceeded to enlarge upon the facts of the controversy.
Spalatin accompained him on his departure to his lodging,
and prevailed on him to enter in writing the various topics on
which he had touched in his conversation with the Elector.
This paper is extant under the title of " The Axioms of Eras-
mus,"^ and is a curious and instructive document in connexion
with the great religious revolution. The fountain of the per-
secution it stated to be the hatred of literature, and the ambi-
tion of domination ; the mode of persecution, the true stream
from such a source, clamours, conspiracies, animosities, and
virulent writings. The leaders of the persecution were all
persons of suspected character ; and everywhere the best men
and the most imbued with the evangelical doctrine were the
most favourably inclined to Luther. The good-nature of Leo
must have been abused, for the bull was unworthy the gentle
Vicar of Christ. Two Universities only had condemned Luther,
and they had condemned without convicting him of error, and
their judgments were marked by disagreements. Luther had
done the utmost that could reasonably be expected, in offering

* See L. Lat Op. Jt-xm.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 181

to defend his opinions in public disputation or to submit them 1520.
to impartial umpires. The arguments of those who had
written against Luther had been disapproved even by his op-
ponents. The world was athirst for truths and seemed im-
pelled towards it by a preternatural force^ which it must be
wickedness to resist. Spalatin bade adieu to the scholar^ and
returned to his master, delighted to have the precious docu-
ment in his possession^ which in fact the timid Erasmus had
scarcely given out of his own hands, before he manifested an
anxiety to recall it. The inteiest however which Erasmus
professed in Luther's behalf was real; and he exerted the
influence which he conceived that he possessed with the
Nuncios, (and he had been intimate with Aleander in the
house of Aldus Manutius, the printer of Venice,) with more
energy than was usual with him to procure a reconsideration
of the question with a view to its adjustment by arbiters : and
probably his vanity cajoled him into imagining that he should
be selected as the fittest person, from his moderate opinions,
to strike a balance between conflicting extremes of religious
faith.

All this while, the leader of the Reform movement at Wit-
tenberg, instead of cowering from fear, roused, if possible, to
more activity and boldness by his own peril, and the critical
state of the struggle was heaping fresh faggots on the fire
which was to consume to ashes the tyrannical pretensions of
Rome. Yet, with all his enthusiasm in the cause, he acted
prudently. " Dr. Eck," he exclaimed, " has come into Ger-
many with a long beard, a long purse, and a long bull ; but
I laugh at his bull, or rather, his bombast. I must see the
seals, handle the strings, and examine the signature, or else
all the noise which it has made will not affect me a straw."
He asserted that the bull was not the Pontiff" 's, but had ema-

182 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. nated from the papal inquisitors of Louvain,* the ground tvork
Hochstraten's^ and the finish Eck's. In his private corres-
pondence^ however, he owned that he had no doubt but the
bull was genuine. "Eck had been the Pope's Paraclete."
And whilst it suited his purpose to question its authenticity,
his answer to it was in course of preparation. He did not re-
ceive certain intelligence of its publication until the 3rd
October ; and on the 6th he published his " Babylonian Cap-
tivity of the Church/' the exposition of his doctrinal senti-
ments, as the " Appeal to the Christian Nobility " had been
the exposition of his views on the relation of the Church to
the State. But he still wrote as if he questioned the real
pontifical origin of the bull.

Two years before, he said, he had disputed and written on
the subject of indulgences; and, from a superstitious rever-
ence for the Roman tyranny, had afiirmed that they were not
utterly to be rejected; but now, he would entreat readers and
booksellers to burn his treatises, and, in place of all he had
advanced on the subject, to take this single proposition — " In-
dulgences are a wicked fiction of papal flatterers.'"' Next, in
argument with Eck, he had denied the divine, but conceded the
human right of the Papacy ; and he would therefore request
that all his books on this topic also might be burnt to ashes,
and this proposition be substituted for all he had said — "The
Papacy is a vigorous hunt, led by the Roman Bishop." He
next animadverted upon the contradictory and senseless abuse
heaped upon him for expressing his hope that the Church
would ordain the administration of the Lord's Supper in both
kinds : and thence he proceeded to treat of the Sacraments,
He could not any longer acknowledge seven, but only three,

* Bullam illam terrificam Lovanii natam. Acta Acad. Lovan. Lat.
Op. Jenae, I. p. 464.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 183

viz.j baptism, penance, and bread, in reference to each of 1520.
which the Roman Consistory had put Christendom under the
yoke of bondage, and despoiled the Church of her rightful
liberty. Or more properly, in the language of Scripture,
there was but one Sacrament, and three Sacramental signs.

He first treated on the Lord's Supper, and would not
allow that the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel had any re-
ference to it ; it spoke only of spiritually eating and drinking,
that is, by faith, " which alone gives life." It was therefore
unfairly appealed to by the Bohemians in advocating the ad-
ministration in both kinds. Matthew, Mark, and Luke, how-
ever, expressly stated that Christ delivered ^the whole Sacra-
ment to his disciples ; and it was certain that St. Paul
administered it in both kinds. Our Lord's words in Matthew
were not. Eat ye all of it, but " Drink ye all of it/^ and the
narrative of Mark was not, They all ate of it, but "They all
drank of it." As for the argument, that the Apostles were
presbyters — and such words, therefore, only applied to pres-
byters— if such an argument were valid for refusing the cup
to the laity, it must be equally valid for refusing the bread
to the laity. The words of Christ, " This is my blood which
is shed for you and for many," included in the " many " all
for whom his blood was shed, whether priests or laity. And
the Church had no more right to divide the Sacrament of the
altar, than to divide baptism or penance. This was the first
article in which Rome had introduced Babylonian bondage.

The second captivity of the Church was the doctrine of
transubstantiation, which had never been heard of for twelve
hundred years, but was now insisted on by the Thomist Aris-
totclic Roman Church as a point of faith, although, in apply-
ing to this subject Aristotle's doctrine of substance and acci-
dents, Aquinas had been altogether ignorant what Aristotle's
doctrine really is. The Scripture called the sacred elements

184 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. after consecration bread and wine, and therefore, of course,
they must remain bread and wine. And why shoukl not the
body of Jesus Christ be contained in the substance as well as
in the accidents of bread and wine? The words of Christ,
" This is my body," were enough : Christians should simply
cling to the Saviour's words, exploding the idle curiosity which
would investigate the mode of divine operation. The third
captivity, and the most impious of all, consisted in the mass
being regarded as a good work and a sacrifice, an abuse which
had difi'used an infinite deluge of other abuses, until a divine
sacrament had been degraded to a matter of marketing,
huckstering, and vile bargaining. The Lord's Supper he de-
fined to be " a promise of the forgiveness of sins given by
God, and sealed in the blood of God the Son.'' As a promise
no works, nor strength, nor merits were required to approach
it, but only faith. On the one side was the word of God pro-
mising, on the other the faith of man accepting. And the
sign or memorial of so great a promise were the body and
blood of Christ contained in the bread and wine.

He then turned to baptism. " Blessed," he said, "be God,
who in his abundant mercy has preserved at least this one sacra-
ment in his Church uncontaminated by human constitutions,
and free to all nations and all ranks." Baptism being adminis-
tered to infants incapable of avarice and superstition, its virtue
and glory had been preserved from the defilement of that over-
reaching ecclesiastical tyranny, which otherwise woidd have
been sure to invent " preparations'^ and meetnesses, reserva-
tions and restrictions, nets to catch money, so that water
would be sold as dear as parchment." But although Satan had
])een unable to extinguish the virtue of baptism in infants, he

* " Preparaliones et dignitates deinde reservationes restrictiones, et
si qua sunt similia retia pecuniarum ; quibus aqua non vilior quam
nunc membrante venderentur."

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 185

had extinguished it in adults, for there was scarce one who 1520.
remembered his baptism, much less gloried in it ; which had
occasioned that dangerous saying of Jerome, " They trust to
repentance, their second raft after shipwreck," whereas " bap-
tism is repentance.'^ The baptized person must believe with-
out a doubt that by baptism he is really saved, according to
the Saviour's words, "He that believeth and is baptized shall
be saved.'^ The force of baptism was not destroyed by sin,
but it ever remained one unbroken vessel, never split into
planks, in which all sailed who should reach the wished-for
haven. The baptismal formula, "In the name of the Father,"
&c., marked that the rite was administered not by man,
but through man as the instrument, by the blessed Trinity.
The sacramental sign was immersion in water; but there
was no occult virtue in the word or in the water; faith in the
divine promise was the submersion of the old man and the
resurrection of the new ; and this faith was so essential that
even without the sacrament it would avail to salvation, and
only "he who believeth not shall be damned." This true
science of baptism had been reduced under bondage by the
Pope, who was worse than the Turk.

The sacrament of penance, like the two preceding, con-
sisted of a sign, the word of the divine promise on the one part,
and faith on our part. The promise was, "Whatsoever ye
shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, &c. — whosesoever
sins ye remit they are remitted." But as he had spoken on
this subject before, a few words would suffice now. The
Papacy had magnified contrition beyond faith, nay, had extin-
guished faith altogether, whereas in truth contrition and con-
solation flowed out of faith. Truly " by the waters of Babylon
we sat down and wept when we remembered thee, O Zion ;
as for our harps we hanged them up upon the willows that
were there by." IMight the Lord curse those barren willows !

186 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. Amen. Confession and satisfaction had been made famous
workshops for lucre and power to the Roman Babylon. He
did not wish to do away with confession ; but the true office
of a priest was to preach the Gospel and take care of the poor,
not to hear confessions. Any Christian might confess to
another Christian. The injunction, "Tell it unto the Church/'
did not mean tell it to a prelate or to a priest. The true
satisfaction was not whippings with scourges, vigils, and fast-
ings, but the faith of the contrite heart and an amended life.
The insatiable Roman leech cried, " Bring money, bring
money, and I will sell you sin.'' Thus the Princes of Babylon
and Bishops of Bethaven, Jeroboam's priests of Dan and
Beersheba, who waited on the worship of the golden calf, had
reduced the sacrament of penance under a woeful captivity.

Confirmation, matrimony, orders, and extreme unction could
not be ranked as sacraments, because there was no word of
divine promise on which faith could rely. In regard to ordi-
nation a priest differed from a layman in nothing except the
functions of ministry; the character indelibills was a mere
figment; and he rejoiced that by the demolition of this fig-
ment the Papacy itself, with its characters, would fall, and
"joyous liberty" return, whereby all Christians would recog-
nise their equality, that " he who is a Christian has Christ,
and he who has Christ has all things appertaining to Christ."
As to extreme unction, he enquired, " why extreme ? " Why
should that be special which the Apostle makes general?
Why only to the dying, when the words of St. James are,
" If any be sick among you let him call for the elders of the
Church ? " &c.* St. James stated that the prayer and the

* James v. 14, 15. Luther, however, states, in his " Babylonian
Captivity," that he questions the canonicity of the Epistle ascribed to
James. This was on account of its apparent contradiction to the other
Scriptures on the doctrine of faith. It seems also that in the editions

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 187

oil would be blest to the sick man^s recovery ; what then could 1520.
be the meaning of extreme unction ? Alas ! scarcely one
priestling * now attended at the sick man^s bed, not to anoint
the sick, Ijut to offer prayer ; for anointing the sick was only
efficacious in the apostolic age, and was now merely to be
ranked with such rites as the consecrating and sprinkling of
salt and water. He concluded by saying that he had heard
from others who had heard it,t that bulls and Papist curses
were prepared against him to compel him to revoke or declare
him a heretic. If there were any truth in such reports he
could wish this treatise to be a portion of his recantation, and
the remainder, such as hitherto Rome had not seen or heard,
should follow speedily.

If, in the " Appeal," Luther had sounded a trumpet-blast
for war, in the "Babylonian Captivity" he unfurled his
standard. But whilst the chasm between Rome and Witten-
berg, the Papacy and Luther, was thus daily widening, it
must not be supposed that Miltitz had relaxed in his efforts
for reconciliation. On the 11th October, in the preceding
year, he had had an interview with Luther at Liebenwerd,
and found him still willing to appear before the Archbishop
of Treves, under a safe-conduct, and with the Elector's con-
sent, at which he had expressed his extreme joy. In the
December following he had been favoured with an audience
by Frederic at Torgau; but the displeasure of the Elector
with the behaviour of the Roman Court, and his unwilling-

prior to 1525, tlie assertion occurs, that in comparison with the Epistles
of Paul and Peter, it was a strawy (straminea) work. But see Bayle's
Dictionary, III. p. 2065 (the 4 vols., folio edition, in English). Sub-
sequently, he saw that there was no real contradiction, and accepted it
as part of Scripture.

* Vix unus sacerdotulus.

t Auditum enim audio.

188 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. ness to permit Luther to undertake a journey to Treves, until
there was more reason to hope the sincerity of the Vatican,
and a mandate had been issued to the Archbishop, had
afforded little encouragement to his zeal. But even the
events of the ensuing spring, the letters from Rome, finally
the signing the bull, which had convinced every unprejudiced
mind that the time for mediation was gone by, had not
deterred Miltitz from a fresh effort. A Chapter of the
Augustines had been held at Eisleben in the beginning of
September; when Staupitz, timid and anxious at Brother
Martin's difficulties, revisiting Saxony after a long absence,
resigned into the hands of his order his Vicar- Generalship,
M'hich was conferred on John Lange. In the midst of the
assembled fraternity Miltitz made his appearance, and in
German, marked with a strong Italian accent, implored them
to use their influence to restrain Luther, and induce him to
address a letter to the Pontiff in refutation of the calumny
that he had ever assailed his sacred person — " If he would do
this, all would yet be well." Accordingly Staupitz and Lange
waited upon the Reformer, and solicited him to write the re-
quired letter. But Luther postponed writing it until after an
interview with Miltitz himself at Lichtenberg on the 13th
October. There was some little difficulty in the previous
publication of " The Babylonian Captivity," so he dated back
the letter to the 6th September.

It was laid to his charge, he said in this letter, that he
had not even spared in his raslmess the person of the Pontiff :
but the accusation was entirely false, for he had always used
the most honourable and reverential terms in treating of his
Holiness. He had defended his innocence against a calum-
niator like Sylvester ; he had called him Daniel in Babylon ;
and prayed for his salvation. But Leo himself could not
deny that the Roman Consistory exceeded Babylon or Sodom

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 189

in corruption ; and it grieved hira to the heart to contemplate 1520.
the Roman Church, once the glory of all Churches, now a
den of robbers, a shameless brothel, a kingdom of sin, death,
and hell, so that were Antichrist present, no conceivable addi-
tion could be made to its abominations. And if Leo, " a
lamb amidst wolves, Daniel among the lions, Ezekiel among
the scorpions," and three or four cardinals with him, should
try to reform such flagrant iniquities, they would all be cut
off by poison. Would that Leo would renounce his glory,
and become a private priest, or live on his paternal lands, and
leave to Iscariots that dignity which they alone were worthy
of. The Church, once the gate of heaven, had become the gulf
of hell : and, in one word, to be a Christian was to be not a
Roman. He had given a bill of divorce to the Roman Con-
sistory, and addressed her in the words, " He that is unjust,
let him be unjust still," &c. : but Satan had opened his eyes,
and stirred up his minion, John Eck, a noted adversary of
Christ, to attack him about one little word which he had let
fall on the primacy of Rome. Under the pretence of esta-
blishing Rome's primacy, Eck had aimed to establish his own
primacy among theologians ; and when his expectation failed,
had been driven mad with rage. For his own part he had
never been opposed to peace. Cardinal St. Sixti, had he
been content Avith exacting silence only, might have settled
the dispute with a word. Miltitz, with all his assiduity, had
only been able to have one or two conferences with him, and
had always found him ready to keep silence. He had agreed
to accept as judge either the Archbishop of Treves or the
Bishop of Naumburg. But Eck must rush in and confuse
evei-ything. He concluded with exhorting Leo not to credit
the flatterers who told him he had any power whatever over
heaven, hell, or purgatory. What a dissimilarity between
Jesus Christ and his Mcar ! too trulv Christ's Vicar, for

190 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. " the Vicar has place where the King is absent.'^ And Christ
being absent, the Church was a congregation without Christ.
What was such a Vicar but really Antichrist ? This might be
deemed impudence, but it was after the example of St. Ber-
nard, whose book, addressed to Eugenius, every Pope ought to
have by heart. Not to approach his Holiness empty-handed,
he offered him his little tract on Christian Liberty, which he
enclosed, a pledge of peace, and a sample of those studies in
which he had much rather spend his time than in contention.
In writing this letter Luther acted as he ever had done,
putting no obstacle in the way of peace, but not the less
steadily pursuing the line of freedom and truth. It soon
became impossible to pretend ignorance that the bull which
had been published, and was the topic in every mouth, and by
all allowed to be genuine, was the true offspring of the Roman
Curia. Luther therefore ceased to dissemble, and adopting
the precaution, which his position, the ideas of the time, and
his past history suggested, renewed his appeal in the most
solemn form from Leo X. to a future Council. On Saturday the
17th November,"^ at ten o'clock in the morning, in the Augus-
tine Convent, and in the presence of "many venerable witnesses
of various dioceses," amongst them Caspar Cruciger, he read
his appeal from a schedule in his hand, and the notary took
down his words as he spoke. " I appeal,'^ he said, " from
Leo X., first, as an unjust, rash, and tyrannical judge, because
he passes judgment on me merely by his own power without the
statement of causes or of information. Secondly, as in error,
and obstinate in error, a heretic and apostate condemned by
Holy Writ, who would have me deny that faith is necessary
to the validity of the Sacraments. Thirdly, as an enemy,

* Die Saturni 17 Mensis Novembris, &c. See Lat. Op. Jense, II.
p. 315.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 191

adversary^ and Antichrist, an oppressor of the whole of sacred 1520.
Scripture, in that he sets his naked words against the words
of divine Scripture. Fourthly, as a blasphemous, proud con-
temner of the Holy Church of God, and of a legitimate coun-
cil, becaiise he presumptuously and falsely declares that a
council is nothing in the nature of things.^' In proof of the
truth of these assertions, he professed his readiness to appear
at a given time and place against any who should contradict
them. And he called upon " the Emperor, the Electors'
Princes, Barons, Nobles, Senators, and the entire Christian
Magistracy of Germany, for the redemption of Catholic truth,
for the faith and Church of Christ, for the liberty and right of
a lawful council, to stand by him and his appeal, to resist the
impious tyranny of the Pope, or at least to remain quiet, and
defer the execution of the bull, until he had been legally sum-
moned, and heard by impartial judges, and convicted from
Scripture and worthy documents."

His words, very little less rapid than his thoughts, Luther,
on the 4th November followed up his " Appeal " by a tract
against "the execrable bull of Antichrist. '' The bull, he
complained, had gone out over almost the whole earth, before
it had reached him, the object of its fury. It had so feared
the light of his face, that it was only with great difficulty, by
the aid of friends, he had at last been enabled to see the bat
in its true shape. It was the undoubted progeny of that
monster of iniquity, John Eck, a man huddled up and sewn
together from lies, hypocrisies, errors, and heresies : an
apostle worthy of the apostleship assigned him. He had at
one time heard that the saliva of the bull was so displeasing
to all men of learning, that it had been postponed, nay, sup-
pressed. And he could not believe that Leo and the learned
among the cardinals could be the real authors of such mad-
ness, not out of any respect for Rome, but lest he should be

192 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. puffed up with pride^ and imagine himself worthy of such
glorious opprobrium for the truth. With the confidence of
his whole soul he embraced the articles condemned in the
bull, and pronounced that all Christians under penalty of
eternal damnation must embrace them ; and he declared, that
whoever agreed with the bull was Antichrist, and together
with all those who knew and loved Jesus Christ, he should
account all such as heathens, and avoid them. Amen. " This
was his recantation in answer to the bull." He proceeds to
expose the unprecedented and absurd character of the bull.
The Apostles, he said, in their councils had always adduced
Scripture : but the bull advanced no argument of any sort,
but its mere ipse dixit. What fool, what ass, what mole,
what stock could not condemn after such a fashion vrith a
simple no7i'2)lacet ! The bull, moreover, condemned some
articles as heretical, others as only erroneous, without defining
which were which ; which was as good as to say, " We don't
exactly know which are heretical and which are only erro-
neous." The bull, too, decided that those of his writings in
which there was no error should nevertheless be all burnt.
The infernal dragon yelled in that bull. It was a common
saying, " The ass would bray better if he did not begin too
high ; " and that bull would have brayed better if it had not
lifted its blasphemous mouth to heaven with more than dia-
bolical impiety to condemn proved and acknowledged truth.
" Where are you, most noble Charles our emperor ? Where
are you. Christian kings and princes ? You have been bap-
tized into Christ. Can you endure to hear the tartarean howl
of Antichrist ? Where are you, O bishops, and doctors? — ■
O Leo, cardinals, and all at Rome, if you admit that this
bull is yours, I must use the power, whereby in my baptism I
was made a child of God, and joint-heir with Christ, built on
the sure Rock ; I bid, warn, and exhort you in the Lord to

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 193

return to your senses from your diabolical blasphemies, and 1520.
to put a stop to your presumptuous impieties, and that quickly.
And if you will not do this, know that I, and all who love
Jesus Christ, shall account your seat the seat of Antichrist,
the condemned seat of Antichrist, towards which, instead of
obedience, detestation and execration are due : in the name
of Him whom you persecute, Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
Jesus Christ still lives and still reigns ; and soon will he
come and slay with the breath of his mouth, and destroy
with the brightness of his coming this man of sin and son of
perdition." And he ended with the words, '■ As they have
excommunicated me, according to their sacrileg-ious heresy,
so do I excommunicate them, according to God's holy truth.
Christ the Judge will see which excommunication shall avail
with him. Amen." ^

Rome had to do with an adversary whose vigour was inex-
haustible. " My thoughts," Luther himself said, " run in a
stream, and have never to be drawn drop by drop : and I am
a rapid penman." The stream never ceased, but was ever
swelling in volume, and gathering strength. On the 1st De-
cember he published his " Assertion of all the Articles con-
demned by the last Bull of Leo X." In touching on the old
subject of indulgences, he said, "When I first treated of them
I knew not that the Pope is Antichrist, who at the bidding
of Satan is ruining Christendom." When he came (in the

* Luthor alluded m this tract lo the report tliat money liad been
offered him to defray his expenses in journeying to Rome. He insisted,
on the contrary, that "the Bank had offered money, some hundred
gold pieces, but it was to assassins to slay him. But let the Bank give
him money, provided it were enough to raise 20,000 foot and 5000 horse,
and without caring for a safe-conduct he would appear at Rome, for
then he should be sure of good faith in that city where holy fathers
murdered their beloved sons, and l>rother brother, in true Roman style,
all out of love to God," &c.

VOL. I. O

194 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTPIER.

1520. thirtieth Article) to the mention of John Huss, he said,
" They are incorrect in calling me a Hussite ; if he was a
heretic, I am a tenfold worse heretic : I before stated tliat
some, I now state that all the Articles of Huss condemned by-
Antichrist and his apostles at Constance, in that synagogue of
Satan, are evangelical." In speaking of Purgatory (in the
thirty-seventh Article), he pronounced the doctrine peculiar to
the Roman Church, " the most schismatical of all Churches."
The existence of Purgatory was " a dream of the Pope, who
knew less on such topics than the very least of believers."
Under the forty-first and last Article he had been mr.de to
declare that " Prelates and Princes would do well to remove
all the sacks of mendicity." He had not said "sacks," he
observed, he cared not about their " sacks," for, if they had
not them, they would have " vases and waggons ;" but he de-
sired the extinction of all mendicity. " What man Avas there,
heathen or Christian, endowed with sense, who did not exe-
crate the mendicity of laymen, how much more that of priests !
Most holy Vicar of God, your tenets are utterly impious and
diabolical. O Satan, Satan, Satan, woe unto you with your
Pope and Papists ! Farewell, guilty abomination. May the
Lord Jesus visit you quickly with the brightness of his
coming. Amen."

But Luther was not satisfied with reiterating his contempt
for the bull, defending his own teaching, and exposing the
anti- scriptural character of the Roman doctrines. Convinced
that the Babylon of the Apocalypse pourtrays the Papacy, he
had that text of the sacred book perpetually recurring to his
thoughts, " Reward her, even as she hath rewarded you, and
double unto her double according to her works," In con-
formity with this curse on Rome, he had pronounced her con-
demnation in answer to his own j she had proclaimed him a
heretic, and he liad in turn proclaimed her heretical, schis-

THE LIFE OF IMARTIN LUTHER. 195

maticalj and diabolical ; she had excommunicated him, and he 1520.
had excommunicated her, appealing to Jesus Christ as Judge.
An additional requital remained. Rome had burnt his books,
and he was resolved to deliver her volumes in turn to the
flames ; and he was well aware that if this act should be par-
ticipated in by the masters and scholars of the University, it
would be a demonstration to the world that Wittenberg went
heart and hand with her great professor. The University
reply to Eck's letter, and the bull, had been framed in the
presence of Luther and Carlstadt, and in accordance with
their wishes; but it was evident that an overt act of the
University, marking condemnation of and secession from
Rome at such a juncture, would speak with more power to
the popular mind than any written document. Luther,
therefore, had notices affixed throughout Wittenberg, that on
Monday the 10th December, at nine o'clock in the morning,
at a spot behind the poor's house, a mile and a half from the
town, the Antichristian decretals would be given to the
flames.

The enthusiasm elicited by the occasion even exceeded
expectation. The inhabitants of Wittenberg flocked to wit-
ness the spectacle with the ready zeal of earnest partisans ;
and the students, not far short of six hundred in number,
hastened in a troop with the still more glowing fervour of
youth and scholastic interest to the place of conflagration.
At the appointed time, or soon after, the pile was built up
and set fire to by a Master of Arts of distinction ; and then,
Luther coming forward, threw first the Decretals, Clementines,
Extravagants, and Canon Law, with sundry writings of Eck,
Emser, and Dungersheim, and the " Summa Angelica," into
the flames, and finally the copy of the bull itself, saying, ''Thou
hast troubled God's Holy One, and therefore may fire eternal
trouble thee." Doctors, masters, students, and townsmen

o 2

196 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. crowded around the Reformer, and in sometliing like a
triumphal procession attended him back to the town.

The next day, as he was lecturing on the Psalms, adverting;
to the recent scene, he warned his audience against the pa-
pistical statutes. The conflagration, he said, of Popish writings
was nothing : the grand point to be attained was the con-
flagration of the Pope, that is, of the papal See itself. His
brow gathered as he spoke, and he pronounced with emphasis,
" Unless with all your heart you dissent from the papal reign,
you cannot obtain the salvation of your souls. The reign of
the Pope is so alien from the kingdom of Christ and the
Christian life, that it would be safer to roam the desert, and
never behold a human face, than to continue under the rule
of Antichrist. Every one must look carefully to his soul's
welfare, and take heed that, by assenting in any way to the
Papists, he may not deny Christ. The time is come, when
each Christian must choose between death here and death
hereafter ; and for my own part, I choose death here, and will
never lay such a burden on my soul as to hold my peace, but
shall think of the reckoning to be made to God. I abomi-
nate the Babylonian pest. As long as T live, I will proclaim
the truth. And if the wholesale destruction of souls through-
out Christendom may not be prevented, at least it shall be
my labour to rescue my own countrymen from the bottomless
pit of perdition."

He also published his reasons for burning the bull and the
papal books. He had done so, he stated, — First, because
abominable writings ought to be burnt. Secondly, because,
by his baptismal vow, and the oath he had taken as Doctor of
the Holy Scriptures, he was bound to use his best efforts for
the extinction of error. Thirdly, because the Pope and his
faction had rejected all his warnings to them. He added,
that the authority for Ijurning his writings had been purchased

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 197

of the civil power by the Universities of Cologne and Louvain 1520.
for a very large sum ; and he believed that Leo X. individually,
as far at least as he understood, was not responsible for it.
But, as such burning might lead to a shipwreck of truth with
the ignorant populace, he had retaliated on the papal books,
under the influence, as he thought, of the Holy Spirit, for the
confirmation and preservation of Christian verity. He an-
nexed thirty Articles culled from the books of the Canon Law,
which justly sentenced them to the flames. '' The sum and
substance of the Canon Law," he continued, " is this — The
Pope is God upon earth, superior to every other being, celes-
tial or terrestrial, spiritual or secular. All things appertain to
the Pope, and none can say to him, What dost thou ? " And
such a pretension proved that the Papacy was " the abomi-
nation of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet standing
iu the holy place,^' The example set at Wittenberg, of burn-
ing the bull, told with effect throughout Germany; and in
several cities, and amongst them Leipsic and Torgau, de-
monstrations of a similar kind declared the popular senti-
ments.* The humanist poets were loud in their notes of
exultation.

War was now publicly declared on both sides; every
barrier broken down, the sword drawn, and the scabbard
thrown away. And at this point another stage may be re-
garded as completed in Luther^s religious development. He
had become thoroughly acquainted with the essential doc-
trines of Scripture, and had habitually taught them long
before Tetzel erected his indulgence market at Juterbock ; and
the indulgence controversy, far from producing the Reform a-

* At Doeblin the bull was torn and disfigured, and tlie inscription
appended, " The nest is here, the birds are flown : " at Magdeberg it
was publicly gibbetted (fixus in publico palo quod Sack seu den Pranger
vocant.) De Wettc, I. p. 569. Pallav. I. p. 34.

198 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1520. tioUj found the Reformation already in existence, and was
simply the spark Avhich fired the train. But, from the assertion
of truth, Luther had now advanced to the detection of error.
From holding evangelical principles himself, and proclaiming
them to others, he had been taught their application to the
rest of his creed; and had discovered that, as a necessary
consequence of such tenets, he must condemn the worldly
status aud the doctrinal system of the Church of Rome. His
progress had been gradual ; Romish fictions had fallen, one
after another, tried by the touchstone of scriptural truth;
and, in the mysterious course of divine Providence, the argu-
ments of his antagonists had proved highly subservient to his
progressive enlightenment. But it is very remarkable that
he had attained very nearly to the fulness of his antipapal
convictions before the ordeal of the Diet of Worms. Within
the three preceding years, almost all his anti-Romanist dis-
coveries have their date; and from that period, although to
carry his conceptions into execution, to write, preach, teach
the Gospel and translate the Scriptures, engrossed his whole
life, his opinions, under the force of circumstances, if any-
thing, instead of advancing, rather retrograded, if an excep-
tion be made of some few points, such as his more decisive
judgment on monastic vows.

The true view of the great revolution, of which Luther was
the divinely appointed instrument, is, that it was primarily a
religious doctrinal movement, seconded by a literary and na-
tional movement. The people were " athirst for evangelical
truth " — that was the centre around which all revolved. But
it cannot be denied that the inferior tendencies of the Refor-
mation— its literary tendency as a rebellion against scholasti-
cism, and its national tendency as a resistance to tyranny and
extortion — extended and enforced its influence. Thus Luther^s
character combined these three elements ; although in him, as

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 199

in the Reformation itself, the religious greatly preponderated. 1520.
And in the same way Frederic of Saxony was the head of the
constitutional party in Germany, the founder of a humanist
University, as well as the patron of Luther and a student of
the Bible. It is, however, clear that the Reformation must
have proved a failure, unless the religious centre had imparted
warmth and vitality to all the subordinate parts. Duke
George of Saxony, for instance, was profoundly national in
spirit ; yet his hatred to the doctrine of grace made him the
most bitter foe the Reformation met with in its career. And
Erasmus, the prince of letters, notwithstanding his many
feelings in common, and the early sympathy which he showed
with the impulse for Reform, not being sufficiently enlightened
in doctrine to steer a determined course, was ere long sucked
back into the vortex of Rome.

Apart from considerations of divine agency, the chances of
success, if surveyed from the point of view of the sixteenth
century, held out little encouragement to the advocate of
ecclesiastical reform. It is true that much had been done
within an incredibly short space of time. At Copenhagen
the chair of divinity was filled by Martin Reinard, the chair
of Greek by Matthias Gabler, both pupils of Luther. Carl-
stadt spent some months there in the next year : the King of
Denmark, Christian II,, was disposed to favour the evange-
lical cause to ingratiate himself with his people. Under the
Swiss Alps the Gospel plant had taken root by the instrumen-
tality of Ulric Zwingle, and was covering with its shadow the
waters of the lake of Zurich, and spreading its roots on all sides.
In Germany, the most influential of the Electors, the Nestor
of the commonwealth,* had so far, at least, sheltered the great

* "Germanici imperii Nestor et unicus quideni." — Melancthon,
Bret. I. p. 284.

200 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEU.

1520. monk. The flourishing University of Wittenberg was com-
mitted to his cause ; and the current of popular sentiment had
strongly set in the direction of religious emancipation. But
what were all these against the gigantic power of the Church
of Rome, with its long recognised authority, and with its de-
voted army of monks, and its subservient and interested allies
in every town and village ? No instance appeared on record
when the Pope had failed to silence or to overthrow a religious
innovator. Moreover, there was every reason to conclude
that the Emperor, if not at the commencement of the struggle,
yet, as it proceeded, would definitely unite himself with the
Pontiff. Their cause was identified as that of authority
against enquiry, and precedent against reason. As far as the
burning of Luther's writings in his own dominions, Charles
had already complied with the papal ban ; and, in the war
which was imminent against France, expediency, or rather
necessity itself, must drive him into the arms of the Pontiff.
Against Pope and Emperor, the spiritual and the temporal
arm, how slight the resources of an isolated Prince, a newly
founded University, some knights, merchants, doctors, pea-
sants, and mechanics, with some poets and men of letters, led
by a feeble and attenuated friar !

These reflections are important, in order to comprehend
not only Luther's actual position, but the essential features of
his extraordinary character. The improbability of success,
far from exciting his apprehension, was one of his strongest
grounds of hope, because, as he argued, in the inadequacy of
human means, God's hand would work most surely and effec-
tively. In regard to himself, he might doubt his continued
safety from the arts and the power of Rome ; and he was de-
lighted to repeat that he was probably only an Elijah prepar-
ing the way for an Elisha, Phihp Melancthon, or some other
instrument to be raised up by heaven, and endued with a

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 201

double portion of the prophetic spirit. But he never doubted 1520.
for the cause. " We are standing on the threshold of some
marvellous dispensation," was his certain conviction. "If
they kill me/' he declared, " after three days the truth will
rise again." " My life will be the bane of the Papacy, my
death will be its ruin.'^ Then again, the thought of his un-
worthiness recurred more forcibly, and he predicted that he
should not fall by the poison, the sword, or the fire of Rome,
because by his sins he had forfeited the privilege, the highest
glory of humanity, to be a martyr for Christ ; and he should
deem himself too richly blessed to be '' one day the last in the
kingdom of God.""^

* Utinam aliquando merear ultimum membrum fieri Ecclesise.

202

CHAPTEE III.

FROM THE CLOSE OF 1520 TO THE END OF MAYj 1521,

1521. The great theme of conversation was now the Diet, that
meeting of the States so long deferred by unexpected events,
which to human apprehension must determine the fate of
Luther and his doctrines. Three topics in particular pressed
for decision by the national assembly : the nomination of a
Council of Regency, according to the Election Capitulations,
to supply the Emperor's place as often as he might be absent,
and moreover retain some authority when he might be present
(but this latter part of the requirement was obliged to be
given up); the jurisdiction of the imperial chamber; and
above all, that religious controversy which in the minds of
many was so paramount as to put every other thought far in
the back ground. Frederic had been requested to bring
Luther with him to the Diet, but had declined the charge,*
apprehending, as he hinted in his reply, peril to the Reformer
from the burning of the bull ; and proceeded in December
with Spalatin to Worms without the great monk, whom the
populace would gladly have descried amongst his train. The
Emperor had then directed that Frederic should take Luther
with him as far as Frankfort ; but the Elector had already
proceeded half way on his journey when the second letter
reached him. And indeed there were not a few obstacles of a
more serious nature to the popular feeling being gratified by

* De Wette, I. p. 542. See Seckcnd. I. p. 142. Walch. XV. pp. 2021

—2028.

THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER. 203

Luther's appearance before the highest political assemblage of 1521.
the empire. On the 3rd January a second bull was issued,
finally expelling him from the communion of the Church.
The Papists objected to the heretic's appearing before the
Diet at all, particularly now that the Church had so authori-
tatively and conclusively spoken, and decided that the only
duty of the Diet was to decree that temporal pmiishment
which ought invariably to follow the Roman ban. This
high argument, drawn from Ultramontane notions on the
relation of Church and State, was aided by other reasons.
Cajetan had proved Luther's ability; and therefore a con-
demnation of him unheard, besides being strictly orthodox,
was highly expedient. Moreover, Aleander, in his journey
through Germany, had been startled at the demonstrations of
sympathy with the excommunicated heretic which presented
themselves on all sides. The office, the person of the nuncio,
were marks for contempt from the German populace : at some
inns he was refused admission ; he had often to resort to the
very meanest, and oftentimes on entering his apartment his
eye rested as the first object on the portrait of Dr. Martin
Lather over the mantelpiece. He exclaimed that " Germany
to a man was Lutheran," and vowed to use all his art and
eloquence to preclude the national hero from being heard in
his defence before the national tribunal.

But on the other hand there were those, and some of them
personages of high consequence, who were resolved that
Luther should, at whatever cost, appear before the Diet.
The extortions of the Papacy had been so exorbitant, and
the print of its withering policy so deeply branded on the
German soil, that the constitutional party were bent on not
losing the opportunity which the energies of a solitary monk
had supplied for instituting a better order of things in re-
ligious matters, and desired to back their own eff'orts by all

204 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. the force of Luther^s personal presence. Nobles and princes
came to the Diet armed with the great " Appeal." Aa
abridgment of it had even obtained larger circulation than
the original document. It was the national mind and voice;
and the man who had written it, in right of common fairness,
which Germany loved, and even in gratification of that pride
with which his countrymen named his name, was not to be
immured or stifled in a corner, but to be heard in public.
Charles himself varied according to the variations in the sen-
timents which were buzzed most noisily round him, and now
addressed another letter to the Elector of Saxony (his pre-
vious letters he had recalled) , demanding Luther's appearance
at Worms. This was made known to the Reformer, and drew
from him a memorable reply in declaration of his joyful
assent. " I call Christ to witness that it is the cause of God,
of the Christian Church, of the whole German nation, not of
one man, still less my cause. I implore your Electoral Grace
to beseech his Majesty in my behalf to grant me a safe-con-
duct, to prevent that violence which I have so much reason to
apprehend, and to provide that the cause may be examined by
good, learned, and prudent men, above suspicion, and pious
Christians, both from among the clergy and laity, men well
grounded in the Scriptures, and acquainted with the distinc-
tion between divine and human laws. With the security of a
safe-conduct for my journey to and from Worms, I am most
ready in humble obedience to present myself before the Im-
perial Diet and submit to be tried by just, learned, and
honest and impartial judges : for in all that I have written
and taught I have obeyed my conscience, my vow and duty,
as a poor scholar in the Scriptures, to the praise of God, the
health of Christendom, and the weal of Germany." *

* Letter of Jan. 25. Be AVette, I. p. 548.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 205

But if Charles, a very young man, and hitherto, as it 1521.
seemed, under the control of his prime minister and those
about him, vacillated according as the impulse from one side
was for a time stronger than that from the other, the Papist
party kept steadily in view one object, constantly pursued
through every diflEiculty, to prevent by whatever means Lu-
ther^s presence. With a view to this Glapio the Franciscan,
the Emperor's confessor, who represented the Reform party
within the Roman pale, sought an interview with Gregory
Bruck or Pontanus, the councillor of the Elector of Saxony,
and with great wilyness laboured that Luther's friends might
commit him, and so ruin his cause. Glapio's project was a
committee of learned and impartial men to examine Luther's
writings, and hear the Reformer's explanation viva voce of
dubious or objectionable passages in them. He protested that
his conviction of a Church reformation was as strong as that
entertained by Luther himself, or by any one else ; and he
had assured the Emperor that he was called by God, under
penalty of signal chastisement, to the work of reform. He
stated that Luther had acted most properly in opposing the
indulgence traffic ; that he had read his writings witli much
approval, and in a certain measure they bad been acceptable
to the Emperor himself. Only the " Babylonian Captivity "
formed an exception from this general eulogy. "He had
himself, on perusing it, felt as if a scourge had struck him
from head to foot ; it exhibited neither the peculiar style nor
industry of Luther's other writings : it could not be his ; or,
if it were, it must have been indited under the maddening
influence of the recent bull. Luther must disown that pro-
duction; and as the worst evils were not without remedy,
so here a remedy would be presently found." Bruck, with
the sagacity of his character, saw tlirough the duplicity of the
Confessor, and replied that the Elector of Saxony had never

206 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEU.

1521. taken upon himself to defend Martin Luther, and that, even
if he were wilKng to do so, Luther would be unwilling to en-
trust his defence to him. And when Glapio demanded a
private interview with the Elector himself, the demand was
courteously but decidedly declined. The conversations, how-
ever, between Glapio and Bruck were continued. The latter
observed that a slight had been shown his master by his ex-
clusion from those councils which were daily carried on in the
imperial presence relative to the mode of dealing with Luther:
and that his master's services in the late election to the
throne had not deserved such a recompense. Glapio parried
this side blow as well as he could, and returned to the busi-
ness of his negociation, insisting, that on Luther's retracting
his "Babylonian Captivity," the Pontiff would reverse his
sentence. " But what ! " Bruck exclaimed, " if when Mar-
tin's books have been deposited with the impartial umpires,
who, according to your suggestion, are to settle the whole
matter, the Emperor should go into Spain, and the Pontiff
issue his mandate to the umpires to burn the books ! " The
Confessor would not recognise such an event as possible,
although Aleander's views on the pontifical supremacy and
independence had been already freely broached. And when
Bruck finally declared that the Elector could see no mode of
arriving at any decision but by Luther's personal appearance
before the Diet, with a deep sigh Glapio again protested, and
called God to witness the sincerity with which he desired a
reform of the Church, and the grief with which he foresaw
that " the noble merchandise which Luther had almost
brought into port, would all be shipwrecked." * The effect

* I have preferred taking Spalatin's view of Glapio's motives to
E.anke's. Spalatin saj'S — " Luthero favere visum esse Glapionem : alios
aiitem affii-mare extreme illi infensum, et veliementer territiim fuisse,
cum adventare eum audisset." Seckend. I. pp. 143, 144.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 207

of these negociatious was to confirm Frederic in his estimate 1521,
of the Reformer's cause, and in the conviction that his pre-
sence before the Diet was of essential moment.

All this while, and for months previously, the imperial
negociations with the Papal Court had been proceeding, and
had at last reached a definite result. On the one side the
Pope consented to withdraw his aid from the Spanish Cortes,
and recall all his briefs mitigating the inquisitorial system in
Spain : on the other side the Emperor agreed to sacrifice
Luther to the pontifical vengeance. A singular bargain, by
which ultramontism through the influence of the Emperor,
an ultramontanist in Spain, and of the Pope, an ultramon-
tanist in Germany, seemed efifectually established in both
countries. When the compact had thus been sealed in
tyranny and bloodshed, Charles, one day in February, when
the imperial banner had been unfurled, and everything seemed
ready for a tournament, suddenly summoned the princes and
nobles to his own presence, to hear read to them a brief
which he had received from Rome, exhorting him to put in
execution the ecclesiastical sentence upon Luther, and also
the edict which he had caused to be drawn up in conformity
to the Papal pleasure. It was a bold step, just such as Aleau-
der might have prompted to secure the assent of the Diet by
a surprise, and preclude Luther's appearance by the arbitrary
and summary settlement of his cause. But the forms of the
constitution required Charles to add, that, "if the States
knew anything better, he was ready to hear them.'' Aleander
and his party may have counted much upon the natural prone-
ness on the part of his nobles to gratify a young and recently
elected emperor ; but the Diet was very jealous of prescrip-
tive rights : even those of its members who were resolved to
cling to Romish doctrine desired a reformation in externals,
especially that a curb should be put on the extortions of

208 THK LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHICR.

1521. the Vatican ; and therefore time was requested for delibera-
tion.

The subject which was uppermost in the general mind hav-
ing been thus formally brought under consideration, very
clamorous altercations ensued in the Diet, Pallavicini states
that the Elector of Saxony and the Elector of Brandenburg,
the political heads of the opposing parties, grew so warm in
argument on one occasion, that the loud tone of the former
could be heard beyond the precincts of the hall, and from
words they had all but come to blows, " an unprecedented de-
viation from the respect mutually rendered by princes/'^
But this tale is very inconsistent with Frederic's established
character for prudence and calmness ; nor had he as yet so
energetically committed himself to Luther's cause. On the
13th of February, Aleander proceeded to try the effect of
rhetoric ; and^ having been exhorted by Charles and his tutor
and minister, the Lord of Chievres, to " speak without fear of
any one,"t delivered an oration of three hours' length in a
strain of the utmost vehemence and vituperation. The Elec-
tor of Saxony was absent on plea of sickness; but he had
careful notes taken of the speech.J The Nuncio produced an
authentic copy of the bull, to remove every doubt as to its
genuineness, and commenced with averring that the question
really at issue was, whether the Pope should continue to wear
the tiara or not. There was enough in Luther's writings to

* PalJav. I. p. 40. Pallaviciui's statement is as little to be trusted
that the doorkeeper, a Lutheran in heart, thrust back Aleander as he
was entering the hall with a blow of his fist on his breast, in order to
divert the Nuncio's atte7ition from the public to a private cause ! I. p. 46.

t At an earlier stage in the negociations Chievres had told Aleander
that the Emperor would act towards the Pope as the Pope acted
towards him.

X Seckendorff'a account is founded on these notes. Pallavicini iu-
yonts a speech for Aleander.

THE LIFE OF .MARTIN LUTHEK. 209

sanction the burning of 100,000 heretics. Besides defending 1521.
Wycliffe and Huss, Martin Luther had taught that the body
of Christ is not really in the sacrament ; that a Christian is
not bound to obey the magistrates ; that there is no such
place as Purgatory, contrary to the decree of the Council of
Florence, which he produced and laid before the Emperor ;
that every Christian is a priest, in accordance with which the
"Babylonian Captivity '' had just been reprinted at Strasburg,
with a representation of two dogs biting one another, to de-
note the clergy and laitj'^ ; that he had rejected monasti-
cisra ; that he had blasphemed against the Saints, for he had
showered contempt on the writings of Dyonysius the Areopa-
gite ; that he had called the Council of Constance " the Sink
of Satan;" that he denied the freedom of the will, and
made fate the arbiter of human actions. As to summoning
Martin Luther to answer for himself before them, such a
course must be useless, for an angel from heaven would not
turn him from his errors, and he had already been cited to
appear at Rome, and had refused to go thither. It was an
affair exclusively appertaining to the Church, in which the
laity had no right to intermeddle ; and it behoved the
Emperor to act as Constantine had done in the case of Eut}'^-
ches, and resign the heretic to the ecclesiastical authority.
The books of Martin Luther must be everywhere proscribed,
and consigned to the flames ; and the heresy be prevented
from spreading any further, or else the Jews, the Turks, and
Pagans would say, " The Christians, above all the Germans,
a nation especially esteemed for piety, are disputing about
their faith." Luther had vilified Rome as the seat of hypo-
crisy, but it must be well known that imitation brass is only
in request where the true gold is held in value. The Luthe-
rans were the scum of men ; the Catholics were in every
respect their superiors. And the judgment of almost every

VOL. I. p

210 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. crowned head in Europe had ah'eady been given, or was on
the eve of being given, against the most pestilent of heresies.
He concluded with a few observations personal to himself, in
reply to the allegation that he was a Jew. His family was
generally known ; in the vicissitudes of life it had been reduced
to poverty, but it was descended from the Marquises of Istria :
he was himself of legitimate birth, for he was a Canon of
Liege, and no Jew ; although, were he such, it would be far
removed from a disgrace, for Christ and his Apostles were
Jews. When he sat down, exhausted with his efforts, the
countenances of the Papists in the Diet bore witness to their
inflamed hostility to Luther ; and, as gold had flowed freely
to Aleander's touch from the treasures of the Vatican, san-
guine hopes were entertained that heresy would be extermi-
nated without its author being heard.*

But the effect of the oration very speedily evaporated ;
there were stern facts of papal encroachment and extortion
which rhetoric could not successfully smooth away, and a few
days later Duke George of Saxony himself rose in the Diet to
deliver a philippic against the avarice and artifice of Rome,
and the enormity of ecclesiastical abuses which these had
engendered. The Duke passed in review the chief features of
Roman venality and profligacy ; annates, buying and selling
of benefices, relaxations for money, expectative graces, the

* Pallavicini says that the Emperor was so much moved by the
speech as to tear the letter he had received from Luther to pieces, and
give the pieces to Aleander to send to Rome. I. p. 46. Audin, after
Pallavicini, describes Aleander as an exemplary man. Eanke, on the
contrary, states that " his correspondence is a mixture of cunning,
cowardice, arrogance, and every base passion." Judging, as is usual
with bad men, of others by himself, he boasted that the Diet would
dance to Rome's piping if they saw her gold. Hutten afTirms tliat
John Eck, the Chancellor of Treves, who questioned Luther before tlie
Diet, had been bribed very largely.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

211

multiplication of stations in order to prey upon the poor, in- 1521.
dulgences procurable for money, penances contrived so as to
cause a repetition of the offeuce, civil causes drawn to eccle-
siastical tribunals, heavy fines unjustly imposed for the sake
of revenue, the abominable vices of the papal officials, com-
mendams, whereby abbeys and monasteries were emptied, and
their wealth went to cardinals and foreign bishops ; all which
" grievous perdition of miserable souls ^' demanded a universal
reform, which could not be more fitly obtained than by a
General Council, " which, with the utmost zeal, and with due
submission, they implored might be convened." But the
ecclesiastical members of the Diet enhanced the emphasis of
Duke George's summary of abuses, by alluding, as if to screen
themselves, to the existing Pope's taste for pleasure, and his
consequent bestowal of Church patronage on jesters, fal-
coners, grooms, valets, and other ministers to his whims and
pastimes. The feeling on the subject became so strong that
a committee was appointed to draw up a catalogue of griev-
ances ; and the result was a list of abuses under one hundred
and four heads,"^ specified in the spirit of Hutten's writings,
or of Luther's " Appeal," to which it was above all things in-
cumbent that the knife of reform should be vigorously ap-
plied. But beyond this the Diet required that Martin Luther
should be summoned to appear before them. Aleander now
plied his craft with more energy than ever, for he was pain-
fully solicitous as to the influence which the burning words of
an intrepid monk might exert over an assembly which had
already shown the inflammable temper by which it was actu-
ated. The Elector of Saxony had demanded that Luther
should be permitted to appear in order to explain any words
or passages in his writings which might be open to censure.

* Walch. XV. pp. 2058— 2] 14.

p 2

212 THE LIFE OF MAHTIN LUTHER.

1521. And the Emperor^ who discerued the inexpediency or impos-
sibility of resisting the national will, contrived to steer mid-
way between the requirements of the two antagonistic parties :
he consented to summon Luther, but not for the purpose of
explaining the sense of his writings, but simply to answer the
questions whether the books ascribed to him were really his ?
• and whether he was willing to retract the errors contained in
them? Accordingly on the 6th March the summons to Lu-
ther to present himself within twenty-one days before the
Diet at Worms, received the imperial signature. A safe-
conduct was enclosed in the citation ; and Caspar Sturm, the
imperial herald, was despatched to be the bearer of these
documents to the Reformer.

Meanwhile, Luther at Wittenberg, far from suffering his
danger to engross his thoughts and depress his activities, had
been engaged in the constant routine of his duties and avoca-
tions ; writing as fearlessly, and preaching and lecturing * as
energetically, as if neither Pops nor Emperor, but only God
had his eye upon him. He had received information of the
gradual progress of the counsels of the Diet from Spalatin,
and in answer to the catalogue of the heretical propositions
extracted from his works, which he would be required to re-
tract, affirmed that " if he were summoned to Worms to
recant, he should refuse to go; he might as well send his
refusal from Wittenberg : but if he were summoned to be
put to death he should go, for he would never fly and forsake
God's truth." And this settled temper of confidence kept
him firm and resolute, and comparatively indifferent to the
result of the public deliberations. He speaks of himself at
this time as " preaching two sermons a day, writing a com-

* He had prooeedccl in his lectures as far as Gen. xx. and to J6\xn
the Baptist in the Gospels, when he was cited to "Worms.

THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER. 213

mentary ou the Psalms, going on with the ' Pastils/ answer- 1521.
ing his enemies, attacking the bull in Latin and German, and
defending himself, to make no mention of correspondence,
conversations," &c. He was translating his " Assertion" of
the condemned articles into German at the request of Fre-
deric. His Commentary on the Psalms had been commenced
in 1519, and he had begun the publication of it in series, two
Psalms at a time ; and his pen was suspended in his comment
on the twenty-second Psalm when Caspar Sturm entered and
presented him the imperial citation. He had his " Postils"
for the four Sundays in Advent in the press to be ready
against the Frankfort fair, with a dedication to the Elector.
He was also engaged in a commentary on the Magnificat.*
He had been reassailed by Emser, and by Emser's friend,
Thomas Murner, who lifted the pen of satire, while Emser
himself wielded the more weighty pen of argument. As he
considered that Jerome Emser spoke with the authority of
Duke George, he condescended to reply to the " Leipsic he-
goat," embracing in the same tract some observations upon
Murner's jests ; and Emser retorted " against the Wittenberg
bull."

In addition to the attacks of these neighbour antagonists,
which had become ordinary events, a controversial treatise
was wafted to him from Italy through the agency of Winces-
laus Link — a work of Ambrosius Catharinus,t in defence of
Sylvester Prierias' assumption that " the reign of the saints
in Daniel is the reign of the Pope." Luther sent back the
book to Link " by way of retaliation for having lost him so
many hours in reading it," and together with it a " refuta-
tion" addressed to his friend, whom he warned against sup-

* Dc Wctte, I. p. 562.

t Venit tandem a Norimbcrga Ambrosius Catliarimis proli Deum !
(juam iusulsus et stolidua Thomista. Dc Wetle, I. p. 570.

214 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521 posing that by such au act he was subjecting himself again to
his authority. Luther insisted in this refutation, that the
Pope and the Papists cannot be the Church of Christ, be-
cause the gates of hell have prevailed against them. But his
answer is chiefly remarkable for the more full evolution con-
tained in it of his prophetical views. He identifies the king
of fierce countenance in Daniel with the Pope, pre-eminently
" the king of masks ;" and then describes the twelve masks
of the Papacy. He hazards* also the conjecture that "the
fifth angel which sounded/' in the ninth chapter of the
Apocalypse, is the Roman Pontiff; the "star'' which "fell
from heaven," Alexander de Hales, or Thomas Aquinas ; the
" smoke " rising out of the pit the vapours and fumes of Aris-
totle's doctrines ; the king of the bottomless pit, Abaddon, or
Apollyon, no other than Aristotle himself. Thus the bottom-
less pit appeared to his fancy as the cauldron of the Papacy
surrounded by the archi-magirus and his assistant ministers.
Passing on to the second chapter of St. Paul's second Epistle to
the Thessalonians, he declares, as he had before done, that
"the man of sin, the son of perdition," is the Pope, the Vicar of
God, who had raised himself above and displaced God; and then
he proceeds to the delineation of the Papacy in St. Peter and
St. Jude, closing with the statement that in this workf he
offers to the world the other part of his recantation, which
he had promised in the " Babylonian Captivity." " Christ
lives and reigns, and in this confidence I shall not fear many

* Meo hie sensu periclitabor.

t Some, Audin amongst tliem, incorrectly assign the treatise against
Catlieriiius to the Wartburg period of Luther's life. But the letter to
Link with which it closes is dated Wittenberg, April 1. Walch. XVIII.
p. 1941. The mistake has been caused by the printing having been
later, when Luther made some additions. See his letter to Spalatin.
De Wette, II. p. 41.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 215

thousand Papists." At this time he was assailed also by 1521.
Latomus of Louvain, whom he answered a few months later
from the Wartbnrg.

Thus in his own words Luther " grasped the sword with
one hand^ and builded the wall with the other " — " an Ehud
with the full use of both his hands.^^ * But he was not with-
out many encouragements at this trying hour, and thousands
of warm hearts throbbed with his own. He received intelli-
gence that the printing of his '' Operations on the Psalms "
had been undertaken at Basle under Conrad Pellican, for the
use of the Swiss. His sermons on the Ten Commandments
and on the Lord's Prayer had been translated into Bohemian.
Accounts also reached him that Duke Henry of Saxony and
the King of Hungary would not suffer that his writings
should be condemned in their dominions. The Marquis of
Brandenburg, as he passed through Wittenberg on his way
to the Diet, requested to see him, and held an agreeable con-
versation with him. Dr. Henry Schmidberg of Eilenburg
left him a legacy of one hundred florins; he accepted the
money as a token of favour from God ; but when another
legacy almost directly afterwards Avas poured into his lap, he
drew back in dismay. " I enter my protest," said he, " with
Almighty God that I will not have my reward in this life ; "
and he made the prior of his convent a happy man with
the present of half.

And if Luther looked beyond the grating of his cell, or
walked the streets of Wittenberg, it was only to witness some
new pantomime by which the students marked their devotion
to his cause. One of them would personate the Pope, and
several others his cardinals ; an ass would be led with great
ceremony, from whose neck the papal bull was suspended,

* Epistle dedicating the Postils to Frederic, March 3, 1521.

216 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTIIEU.

1521. which was dipped with suppressed merriment in every gutter
traversed in the procession : presently the Pope and the Car-
dinals took to their heels and fled in various directions, pelted
and pursued by the crowd of students amidst jeers and up-
roarious laughter. And these exhibitions of the pervading
sentiment in mimic forms, highly acceptable to the German
taste, found imitators in most of the universities and large
towns. On the other hand it was only at Meissen, Merseburg,
and at Leipsic, that a counter demonstration was made by
burning Luther's books ; and it was exclusively the work of
the priests ; the people had no share in it.*

Not, however, that, amidst continual proofs of the popular
enthusiasm, Luther's feelings were not painfully lacerated by
instances of individual timidity. Staupitz, who was receding
farther and farther from Luther, as the Reformer's doctrines
were more clearly developing and becoming more and more
decidedly anti-E-omanist, liad been accused to his friend the
Archbishop of Salzburg, by the Pope, as an ally of the Wit-
tenberg monk, and in reply had declared his submission to
the Holy See. So much was the Reformer grieved at this
pusillanimity that he addressed a letter on the subject to
Staupitz, in which affection seems to vie with remonstrance.
" You have too much humility, and / have too much pride.
Let me be found guilty of every sin there is or can be rather
than of impious silence at a time like the present, when
Christ is in his agony, and says, ' I looked on my right hand,
and beheld, but there was no man that would know me.' I
fear that you will continue to vacillate midway between Christ
and the Pope, who are diametrically opposed. Indeed, I am
not a little vexed at your recent submission, whereby you have
shown yourself another man from the Staupitz who once

* Bretsch. I. p. 361.

THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER. 217

preached grace aud the cross. Philip salutes you^ and prays 1521,
for you an increase of courage. Your son, Martin Luther.'^^
Eeuchlin too showed himself very cautious, and requested
Melancthon not to write to him, that he might not incur
suspicion. Another defection was that of Adrian, the Hebrew
Professor, who removed from Wittenberg to Leipsic, now that
Luther's affair was growing serious ; but this was a loss which
few regretted. t

If some, like Staupitz, were dejected, and step by step re-
turning to Kome, there were others who were for wildly rush-
ing into the coimter extreme, and settling religious differences
by the sword. Hutten, the little valiant knight, who had
singly repulsed five Frenchmen who set upon him at once
when he was returning from one of his enterprises, was the
mouthpiece of this warlike party, and had formed, in con-
junction with Sickengen, a plan of the campaign. These
counsels were as offensive to Luther as the timid drawing
back of Staupitz. He knew that his own life was in imminent
jeopardy, but the very last means by which he would pur-
chase peace was bloodshed. His words are very memorable.
" Hutten,^' he wrote to Spalatin, " would contend for the
Gospel with violence and carnage. I decline any such instru-
mentality. The world was conquered by the Word, the
Church saved by the Word, and by the Word it must be re-
newed. Antichrist must be broken without hand by the
Word." And in reliance on the power of the Word, and of
that God whose Word it is, he was prepared to go to Worms,
and face the Emperor, the Nuncio, all the stratagems and
perils of Satan ; but not a sword or a hand was to be moved
in his behalf " The will of the Lord be done."

It was on the 24th March, or some say on the 26th, that

* De Wette, I. pp. 557, 558.

t The Hebrew professorship thus vacant was given subsequently to
Aurogallus.

218 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. (>aspar Sturm, the imperial herald, passed through the streets
of Wittenberg. The Elector of Saxouy had furnished him
with a safe-conduct for Luther;"^ but that was a point of
small moment, as everywhere in Germany, and how much
more in Saxony ! the great monk was the object of popular
idolatry. It seemed likely to be a more important precaution
that Frederic directed the magistrates to provide by every
means in their power for the safety of the herald, and if
necessary appoint him a guard; but, although considerable
excitement prevailed at Wittenberg, order and tranquillity
reigned there. Luther's feelings were thoroughly under-
stood ; and those who feared for his safety were scarcely dis-
posed to wrong the Reformer or his cause by denying him
the glory of bearing witness to the truth at Worms. But a
few days' delay was requisite for completing preparations for
the journey, and making arrangements for supplying Luther's
place during his absence, in the lecture-room and in the
pulpit. It was a providential coincidence that just at this
time Bugenhagen, or Pomeranus, so called because the town
Wollin, in Pomerania, was his birthplace, came to Witten-
berg, a fugitive from the persecution of the Bishop of Camin.
His conversion from Romanism had been very recent. At
Treptow, where he was Rector of the Grammar School, he
was seated at table with the Inspector of the Church, in com-
pany with other guests, in the closing month of 1520, when
the " Babylonian Captivity " was placed in his hands, and his
opinion enquired as to its merits. He turned over a few
pages as he sat at the table, and exclaiming that " the author
of that book was the most pestilent heretic that had ever
vexed the Church," read aloud some of the statements which
it contained. But he took the book home with him, perused

* Luther had also a safe-conduct from Duke George. Walch. XV.
p. 2126.

THE LIFE OV MARTIN LUTHER. 219

it more attentively, and after a few days returned to his for- 1521.
mer messmates, with an apology for the hasty judgment
which he had expressed, since " on closer study he had be-
come convinced, that the whole world was wilfully blind, and
was plunged in Cimmerian darkness, and Luther alone saw
the truth." The arrival at Wittenberg of this warm-hearted
and learned disciple, a man after his own heart, who earned
the distinctive title of " the Priest or Pastor," rendered
Luther's mind easy as to the provision to be made for theo-
logical lectures in his absence, and inspired him with re-
newed gratitude to God. His pulpit ministrations he assigned
to Feldkerchen."^ He had now only to think of his journey ;
and it was agreed that John Pezenstein, an Augustine brother,
Nicolas AmsdorflF, Jerome Schurff, a professor of law, and
Peter Suaven, a young nobleman from Denmark, who lodged
in Melancthon's house, at their own anxious solicitation,
should be his companions to the scene of his trial. And on
Tuesday in Easter week, the 2nd April, bidding an affec-
tionate farewell to Melancthon, who reluctantly remained at
Wittenbergjt and to the many friends who were assembled
to witness the departure, Luther and his companions mounted
the waggon which the town council had provided for him at
their own cost, with every regard to his own dignity and the
honour of the cause of which he was the champion, and pro-
ceeded on their road. The herald in the insignia of his office
rode first; his servant on horseback followed; and Luther
and his comrades came last in their waggon, which could be
either opened or covered at pleasm-e.

The same day they reached Leipsic, where the only civility
shown was that the customary compliment of wine was offered
to them. The next day they proceeded to Naumburg, where

* So I gather from Lutlier's letter. De Wette, I. p. 589.
t Bretschneider, I. p. 365.

220 THE LirK OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. Luther and the herakl were entertained at table by the bur-
gomaster Grsessler. He left Naumburg early on the morrow,
and a priest of that town sent after him a present, a portrait
of the Italian Reformer Savonarola, accompanied by a letter,
in which he exhorted Luther " to be manful for the truth,
and stand by God, and God would stand by him.'^^ Luther
took the portrait in his hand, gazed on the features, and im-
printing a kiss, repeated what he was wont to say as often as
the Italian Heformer was spoken of, that Savonarola had been
a true servant of Jesus Christ. On the 4th April, they arrived
at Weimar, where Luther had an audience with Duke John,
who had from the first espoused his cause more openly than
his brother the Elector, and from whom he received money
for his journey : and he preached before him at his request.
But at Weimar a new spectacle met his eyes. The very day
after the citation to Luther to appear before the Diet had
been signed by the Emperor, an edict requiring every one
who had any of the Reformer's writings in his possession to
carry them to the magistrates, also received the imperial sig-
nature. It was a sop to the Papists, whom Charles was
eager to conciliate, after that their wishes in reference to
Luther's non-appearance had been set aside ; but it was equi-
valent to prejudging the cause and pronouncing condemna-
tion on Luther as a heretic, and had been employed by the
Romanists as a means of erecting yet another barrier against
an event so dreaded as his presence. In the streets of
Weimar officials were seen affixing this edict to the walls.
The herald turned round and looked at Luther, and in a hesita-
ting tone enquired, " Well, Doctor, will you go on ? " " Yes,"
Luther returned ; " though they should kindle a fire between
Wittenberg and Worms to reach to heaven, I will go on. I
will confess Christ in Behemoth's mouth between his great
teeth. "t

* Mathes. p. 41. f Waloh. XV. p. 2173.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 221

The journey was next to Erfurth, which, in a letter ad- 1521.
dressed to John Lange previous to leaving Wittenberg, the
Ueformer had anticipated that he might be debarred from en-
tering ; but his reception was more cordial there than it had
been in any town which he had passed through. The Rector
of the University, and with him Eoban Hess and Jodocus or
Justus Jonas, a licentiate of law, and many others, in all a
cavalcade of forty horsemen, met him at a distance of about
two miles from the town-gate, and conducted him on his way
and through the streets ; and at the gate a number of country
people and of the town folk had assembled, who, as he passed,
loudly cheered him. There was, indeed, much at Erfurth to
excite half-painful, half- pleasureable sensations : the University
in the library of which he had first found the Bible, the cell
which had witnessed the vivid struggles of his earliest convic-
tions, and outside the town the spot where religious impres-
sions were fastened on his soul in the terrors of the thunder-
storm. But not only these, every object in the old town
suggested a prayer or excited a reminiscence. He passed
through the graveyard, and marked a little cross of wood
above the remains of a brother of his order, whom he had
known intimately, and who had fallen asleep in Christ, and
pointing it out to Justus Jonas observed, '^ How calmly he

sleeps, and I ^ He sat down on the gravestone, and

remained in deep meditation for a long time, until he was at
length interrupted by Amsdorff and warned of the lateness of
the hour. The next day, the 7th April, was Sunday; and
he was earnestly requested to preach.'^ The Emperor had in-
deed prohibited him from preaching on the way, but nothing

* Audin says, with wilful falsehood, II. p. 86, "He demanded
and obtained permission to preach." Seckendorft' expressly states,
" Instanter rof^atus concionem habuit." I. p. 152. And it was Lutlier's
maxim never to preach without a call.

223 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. was clearer to his conscience than that he was bound to obey
God rather than man; and that God's word could not be
bound ; and Caspar Sturm, whose inclination to Lutheranism
had ripened into a settled persuasion by his intercourse with
the Reformer, was not disposed to assert his authority to
prevent a step from which he promised a blessing to himself
and others. But had he attempted it, it would have been in
vain. The little church of the Augustines at Erfurth was
filled to overflowing on the report that Luther would preach ;
and it is related by Selneccer, that in the middle of the ser-
mon part of the outer wall of the sacred building fell down
with a loud crash. The congregation were using all haste to
escape from the scene of danger; but Luther raising his
hand and elevating himself in the pulpit, called them back
and exhorted them to composure. "Do you not understand,"
he said, " that this is a machination of Satan to hinder you
from listening to the word of God ? Remain. Christ is Avith
us." They returned to their places, and the Reformer con-
tinued his discourse, which treated of the folly of trusting in
human merit, and directed a severe censure against the vices
of the clergy, amidst perfect tranquillity. It appears that he
preached also in other towns and villages, as at Gotha, where
Myconius relates * that the devil in his wrath threw down
some stones from the church gable which had remained firm
for two hundred years ; and Varillas mentions a town by the
name of Andors, which is however not to be found in any
map, either ancient or modern, where he delivered a sermon
with so much effect, that when it was concluded the inhabi-
tants to a man declared themselves converts to the evangelical
doctrines. On leaving Erfurth the party was increased by
the addition of the schoolmaster Euricius Cordus, and of

* Walcli. XV. p. 2172.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 223

Justus Jonas, Professor of Law, who had contracted a warm 1521.
friendship for Luther, and would not be deterred by any dis-
suasion from accompanying him to his trial.

From Erfurth he passed through Gotha to the Benedictine
convent of Reinhardsbrunn, where he rested for the night;
and so on to Eisenach, over ground every step of which echoed
to the recollections of childhood. " Are you the man who
has taken upon him to reform the Papacy? " said an officer of
the Emperor to Luther at one of the inns on the roadside,
looking him hard and contemptuously in the face ; " are you
the person about whom there is all this noise ?" " Yes," the
Reformer replied, " I am the man ; my reliance is placed in
God, whose word and command I am obeying." " Ah ! "
rejoined the officer, abashed by the gentleness yet firmness of
the reply, " there is something in what you say. I am my-
self a servant of the Emperor, but you serve a Master greater
than mine." At Eisenach Luther was seized with severe
illness, and it was found necessary to bleed him : the Schul-
thess John Oswald administered a cordial which had the efiect
of throwing him into a profound slumber, from which he
awoke very much revived, and with the malady abated. But
for the remainder of the journey he suffered severely from
illness. Prom Frankfort on the Maine he wrote to Spalatin
on Sunday the 14th April, not cheerfully, but wath un-
diminished fortitude, "All the way from Eisenach I have
been, and still am languishing with sickness, in such a way as
I never experienced before. That the mandate of the Em-
peror was published to terrify me T am well aware. But
Christ lives; and we shall enter Worms despite all the gates
of hell, and all the powers of the air. I send you copies of
the imperial letters. It has not seemed good to me to write
more until I shall be present and see what must be done, that
I may not inflate the pride of Satan, whom I am resolved on

221 THE LIFE OF MARTIN' LUTHEH.

1521. the contrary to contemn. Prepare my lodging for me. Fare
thee well." Luther was too ill to derive much comfort from
the incidents which Cochlseus enumerates, that " wherever he
went a crowd thronged to see him : in the hotels at which he
rested there were drinking healths, good cheer, and the de-
lights of music : and Luther himself played on his lute, and,
like another Orpheus, but an Orpheus shorn, and wearing a
cowl, drew all eyes upon liim.-"'^ The Reformer paid a visit
to the school of William Ness, the eminent geographer, at
Frankfort, and pronounced his benediction on two of his most
promising pupils presented to him by the master. But the
enthusiastic reception which greeted him at every corner of
the streets, the multitude who thought themselves too happy
to look in his face, and only envied those who approached
near enough to press his hand, produced such an influence on
the fears of Cochlseus, the Dean of Frankfort, that Luther had
not long quitted the town, when he hastened after him to
Worms, bent on aiding the counsels of a congenial spirit such
as Aleander, and resolved, as he said, if need should be, to
lay down his life in defence of the Roman Church.

However, the papistical faction of the Diet were not con-
tent without making one more efl"ort to prevent Luther from
entering Worms. The imperial mandate for the destruction
of his books had failed of one part of the object which the
Romanists had sought by it : but they reminded one another
that natures which are the least open to the influence of
terror are often the most easily won over by a show of kind-
ness. Glapio, the Emperor's confessor, the connecting link
between the party of extreme, and that of moderate Papists,
and who was peculiarly adapted by his character, and the sen-
timents which he ostentatiously professed, for the task of

* Acta et Scripta, L. p. 31.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 225

mediator, and together with him the imperial chamberlaiuj 1521.
Paul von Armsdorf, suddenly left Worms for the Castle of
Ebernberg, the residence of the knight Francis Sickingen.
Glapio with little difficulty induced Sickingen, who probably
had his own reasons for welcoming his advice, and in fact had
already invited Luther to his fortress, to give his countenance
to the scheme which he had devised,"^ which was to divert
Luther from his journey to Worms to Sickingen's fortress,
where, in a private interview, differences might be adjusted,
and through his own paramount influence with the Emperor the
whole matter be satisfactorily arranged, without in any way
either compromising the Reformer, or exposing his person to
the perils which must await him at Worms. Sickingen's
chaplain was Martin Bucer, one of Luther^s Heidelberg con-
verts, the very man to fall in readily with Glapio^s suggestion,
and second the proposition with the utmost ardour. Bucer
was deputed to be the bearer of Sickingen's invitation, and of
Glapio's expressions of cordial good will to Luther ; and he
came up with the Reformer and his party when they were not
far from Oppenheim. Luther's companions were at once
moved by Bucer's representations, and gladly caught at
Glapio's assurance, that every difference should be accommo-
dated without the Reformation or its author being imperil-
led. " Let us go," they turned to Luther and said, " to
Ebernberg : we can rely upon Sickingen and Bucer : your
life will be forfeited at Worms." But the Reformer never
wavered for an instant. " My reply is," he said to Bucer,
" that if Glapio has ought to communicate to me, he will find
me at Worms. I obey the Emperor's command." In fact,
the twenty-one days allow^ed in the safe-conduct were within

* Luther attributed the scheme to the Archbishop of Mentz. Walch.
XV. p. 2171.

VOL. 1. Q

226 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. three days of expiring ; and had he turned aside to Ebernberg
Castle, he would have been after that period at the mercy
of his enemies.

But shortly afterwards another messenger greeted Luther
and his company, sent from Spalatin, whose fears for his friend's
safety, shared in some measure by the Elector himself, had
been wrought to a high pitch by all that he saw and heard,
which the E/Oraanists studiously contrived should impress
their adversaries with the worst forebodings. "Carry back
this answer to your master," Luther replied to the messenger,
and wrote down the words on paper : " that I am resolved
and fixed to enter Worms in the name of the Lord Jesus
Christ, although as many devils should set at me as there
are tiles upon the housetops.""^

At Pfifflingheim, very near to Worms, the Reformer was
overcome with fatigue, and lay down to refresh his energies
with a brief slumber, on a spot near which a young elm (since
celebrated as Luther's tree) t was planted in memorial of this
repose, on the eve of the eventful struggle. Luther prayed
that " his doctrine might increase, and grow like the branches
of the elm." When he awoke from his sleep he found nume-
rous countrj'^ people, who had gathered from all quarters on
liearing that he was in the neighbourhood, anxiously expect-
ing his rising — a glorious opportunity of proclaiming to them
the Gospel of God, which he did not permit to pass unem-
ployed. After his discourse some of them drew close around
him, and reasoned with him on the hazard he was incurring in

* The Acta WormatiaB have it differently — " Mihi vero, qui vocatus
sum, decrotum et certum est ingredi urbem in nomine Domini Jesu
Christi, et iara si scirem tot Diabolos mihi oppositos quot sunt tegulse in
omnibus totius orbis tectis." Lat. Op. Jena?, II. p. 412. See De Wette,
II. p. 139. Walch. XV. p. 2174.

t This tree vcrxs struck by lightning in 1811.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 227

venturing to present himself before the Emperor and the 1521.
States at Worms. The case of John Huss gave small war-
rant for the security of a safe-conduct. He smiled at their
remonstrances, but answered in the spirit of the sentiment
with which he habitually solaced his misgivings, that, if his
foes should burn him to ashes, at least they would be unable
to burn the truth with him.

Continuing his route, about ten o'clock on Tuesday the 16th
April, he beheld the walls of Worms.* The herald, with his

* Audin writes — " A la vue des vieux cliochers de la ville, il se leva
debout sur son cliariot et se mit a chanter cet hymne, dont il avait, dit
on, improvise les paroles et la musique a Oppeuheim deux jours aupa-
ravant : C'est la Marseillaise de la Eeforme." II. p. 90. Notwith-
standing that this celebrated hymn does not appear in the editions of
Luther's hymns until 1529, I believe, with M. Audin, Peter Busch,
and others, that it was composed at this time, and not, as is generally
thought, some years later, when the Reformer was at Coburg. Because —
1. The words are in themselves far more applicable to this than to any
other period of Luther's career. 2. The same vein of thought runs
through this hymn as the prayer which he framed expressly for this
occasion ; and in some instances even the expressions are identical.
3. He wrote to Melancthon from the Wartburg — " Sing by night the
song of the Lord which I sent to you : I will sing it too ; let us be only
anxious for the word. ' Canticum Domini in nocte mandatum canite ;
concinam et ego : tantum pro verbo soliciti simus.' " De Wette, II.
p. 10. To what hymn can allusion be here made but to his paraphrase
of the 46th Psalm, "Ein feste burg ist unser Gott," &c., which answers
exactly to the description, "canticum Domini?" And it is well
known that whenever tidings of any calamity to the Reformation
reached Wittenberg, he used to comfort his friends, " Come and let us
sing the 46th Psalm." The following is an attempt to translate this
noble hymn ; the pith and spirit of which it is hopeless to think of
transferring to a translation : —

Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott, A tower of strength is God,

Ein' gute Wehr unci Waften, A shield on every side,

En hilft uus frei aus allcr Noth, A sure defence the Almighty rod.

Die uns jest hat betroffen. Lot what e'er will betide.

(J 2

228

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. tabard embroidered with the imperial eagle, preceded ; Luther,
in his mouk's dress, followed, with his comrades in his waggon ;
and Jonas and another of the party came behind on foot.^
Several of the Saxon nobility, Bernhard of Hirschfeld,

Dei- alte bose Feind
Mit Eriiste er's jest meint.
Grots' Macht unci vielo List
Seiii graiisam Riistung ist,

Old Satan grim and fell,
In sootli he knows it well !
His wily plots, his triple mail,
'Gainst him are all of light avail.

Auf Erd' ist nicht seiu's Gleichen. On earth there's none beside.

Mit uusrer Macht ist nichts gethan

Wir sind gar bald verloren.

Ks streit't fiir uns der rechte Mann

Den Gotfc hat selbst erkoren.

Fragst du wer der ist ?

Er heitsett Jesus Christ,

Der Herre Zebaoth,

Und ist kein andrer Gott,

Das Feld muts er behalten.

Und wenn die Welt voU Teufel war',
Und wollten uns verschlingen.
So fiirchten vvir uus nicht so sehr
Es soil uns doch gelingen.
Der Fiirste dieser Welt,
Wie sauer er sich steUt,
Thut er uns doch nicht ;
Das macht ; er ist gericht't
Ein Wortlein kann ihn fallen.

Das Wort sie sollen lassen stahn
Und kein'n Dank dazu haben.
Er ist bei uns wohl auf dem Plan,
Mit seinem Geist und Gaben.
Nehmen sie uns den Leib,
Gut, Ehre, Kind und Welb :
Lats fahven dahin !
Sie haben's kein'n Gewinn
Das Reich nints uns doch bleiben.

See M, L.'s

Our toil and pains are empty cost.

With human might all's quickly lost.

He fights for us, and fights alone,

God's chosen true eternal One.

Ask'st thou his name ? He's God's own Son,

Christ Jesus, Lord and Kmg,

Of Sabaoth God, save Him

None other God and King :

The field he keeps, the victory won.

And though the world with devils swarm.
With open mouth and fierce alarm :
Their wildest rage can nought us harm :
Tlieu' spite and guile shall perish.
The haughty Prince of this world's den
Can work no hurt to faithful men.
How grim soe'er he look.
One word from out the book,
God's book, will make hun vanish.

God's word! no fiend shall quench its force.
No thanks for that ! unmoved its base.
He guides us safely in our course :
At every turn we feel we trace
His Spirit's gifts, his Spirit's grace.
Let them take child and wife.
Let them take gold and life.
Small is their utmost gain :
Our wealth shall still remain.
Geistliche Liedia- von Wachernngel, p. 55 ;

and Anhang. p. 155.

* See tlic account of Veit Warbeck, an oyo-witncss, iu Seckejidorff,
1. p. 152.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 229

John Schott, and Albert of Lindenau^ and many of the 1521.
courtiers of the princes in attendance on the Diet, were
waiting the Reformer's arrival outside the city, and formed
an escort or guard round his waggon in the procession
through the streets. The inhabitants were all at their noon-
day meal; but as soon as the watchman on the church
tower descried the costume of the herald, he blew his trumpet,
and in a few instants the deserted streets were moving with a
crowded scene of human heads — Germans, Spaniards, and
Italians, peasants, nobles, princes, and mechanics, mingled in
the throng to witness the entrance of the monk of Wittenberg.
The first sight which confronted his eyes in the streets of
Worms was a mournful and ill-omened pageant. A man,
dressed in grotesque attire, appeared, bearing a cross, as is
customary in Popish countries before a corpse carried out for
interment, and chaunting in dismal cadence notes which
sounded like a prophetic requiem —

" At lengtli thou art come, O longed for one,
• In our dark abode we waited thee."

But the crowd was vast and impatient, and, hurrying eacii
before his fellow to catch a glimpse of Luther, soon shut out
from view the lofty cross and the strange bearer, who was no
other than Beffler, the court fool of one of the Dukes of
Bavaria, who chose this quaint style of representing his sense
of the transparent folly of a poor monk in doing battle against
the great ones of the earth. Luther's waggon moved with much
difficulty through the increasing throng, and at length halted
before the hotel of the Knights of Rhodes, (on the same side
of the street, and very near to the inn known by the sign of
the Swan, in which the Elector Palatine was lodging,) where
the Electoral Councillors, Frederic von Thun, and Philip von
Feilitsch had taken up their quarters, with whom the Re-

230 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. former was to sliarc accommodations. Almost directly after
his arrival, he sent information to Glapio, that if he desired to
speak with him, he was now in Worms, but received the
answer " that an interview would no longer be of any use."
The Elector of Saxony received the intelligence of Luther's
arrival with manifest pleasure; the Archbishop of Mentz
looked blank with astonishment.* General opinion had pre-
dicted that Luther would never dare to enter Worms.

There was no rest for Luther after the fatigues of travelling
and the harass of excitement. All the evening, and until
deep in the night, visitors in unprecedented numbers, so that,
as the Elector Frederic said, " never was prince so honoured,"
flocked to the hotel to feast their curiosity with the spectacle
of one whose daring and reputation contrasted so forcibly with
his humble origin and poverty. Princes, counts, barons,
knights and nobles, priests and laymen, are stated to have
jostled one another at this unanticipated levee of the Re-
former; and as one tide of visitants ebbed, there was a full
flow of more to supply their room. William Duke of Bruns-
wick, and Prince William of Henneburg, are expressly men-
tioned among the shoals of the curious. The surprise was
universal at the striking serenity of the Reformer's coun-
tenance, which, to some, seemed to breathe divine peace, to
others bore the impress of Satanic temper and resolution.
Luther was prevented from retiring to rest until a very late
hour, and he slept that night but little : he walked up and
down his chamber, turning to the window and looking up at
the starlit heavens, as was his custom when engaged in
meditation and prayer ; and sometimes he touched his lute,
and the air and words of some of his favourite hymns deep-
ened his composure.

* "And liad I been as great a coward as the Archbishop of Mentz,"
Luther observed, " no doubt I never should have come."

THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER. 231

At eight o'clock the next morning, Uhic Pappenheim, the 1521,
imperial hereditary Grand Marshal, who was lodging in the
same hotel, officially cited Luther to appear at four o'clock in
the afternoon of the same day before his Imperial Majesty and
the States of the empire, to hear for what purpose he had
been summoned. The forenoon of Wednesday, the 17th
April, the Reformer employed in prayer, beseeching God to
carry through and determine his own cause : and when the
Grand Marshal with the herald appeared to conduct him to the
Diet, he was in readiness and quite calm. The herald pre-
ceded ; then the Marshal ; and Luther followed. The win-
dows of the houses along the route were blocked up with tiers
of faces ; and the roof tops here and there were covered with
spectators. But it was soon evident that, from the density of
the crowd, a passage through the streets would be attended
with great difficulty ; and^ accordingly, the herald adopted a
circuitous route, and conducted the Reformer through the
garden of the Knights of Rhodes along the backs of houses,
and led him by a private staircase directly opposite the Town
Hall, in which the Diet was sitting. But even so the popu-
lace rushed through the alleys and courts, and even forced
their way through houses to obtain a sight of " the wonder
man." At the Town Hall the multitude formed a complete
block, and it was necessary that a path should be cleared by
the imperial soldiery; but, as Luther passed, some voices from
the crowd declared the popular sympathy — "Blessed is the
womb that bare thee." In the vestibule of the Town Hall
not only the area, but every vacant niche and window recess
Avere filled with courtiers or their dependents, who were so lucky
as to obtain admission. And at the door of the room Luther
was met by the veteran George Freundsberg, whose name
with the Germans of that age was the symbol of gallantry.
" My monk, my good monk," the great soldier said, putting

232 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

■l 221 ^^is hand on Luther's shoukler, " you are going a path such as
I and our captains in our hardest fight have never trodden.
But if you are sure of your cause, go on in God's name ; fear
not ; He will not leave you."

The doors of the room were thrown open, and Luther was
ushered into the presence of the full array of the assembled
wisdom and grandeur of the empire. The Emperor had the
three ecclesiastical Electors on the right of his throne, the
three secular Electors on the left ; at his feet on either side the
two Nuncios ; his brother Ferdinand sat on a chair of state a
step below the throne. The sun, verging to its setting, was
streaming full on the scene of worldly magnificence, so
strangely varied by every colour and form of dress. The
Spanish cloak of yellow silk, the velvet and ermine of the
Electors, the red robes of Cardinals, the violet robes of Bishops,
the plain sombre garb of the deputies of towns and jurists,
and the monk's shorn head, were encircled with the dark
flashing line of the mailed chivalry of Germany. A profound
stillness marked the universal interest and anxiety, which was
interrupted for a moment as Luther entered, by many of the
Germans rising from their seats — a movement of homage
rather than of curiosity, which even the presence of the Em-
peror failed to restrain. And then the silence was as un-
broken as before.

Luther seemed at first bewildered; on observing which,
some of the nobles near him whispered, " Fear not them
which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul."
"When 3''ou are called before governors and kings, do not
premeditate, for I will give you a mouth and wisdom," &c.
'^ Only speak," said Pappenheim, "in answer to the ques-
tions put to you." The guards moved on clearing a way ;
and presently Luther stood immediately in front of the throne
of Charles V.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 233

Those assembled in tlie hall included the Emperor, the 1521.
sovereign of half Europe, besides illimitable territories across
the Atlantic ; his brother, the Archduke Ferdinand, who had
been placed over the five Austrian duchies, and was subse-
quently King of the Romans, and finally wielded the sceptre
of the empire ; six electors, each a sovereign prince ; twenty-
seven dukes, two landgraves, seven margraves, twentj'-one
archbishops and bishops, besides abbots ; the deputies of ten
free cities, princes, counts, barons, eight ambassadors, amongst
them the representatives of England and France, and the
two nuncios of his Holiness, in all more than two hundred
personages of the highest rank in Germany or Spain.'^ And
in the midst of this assembled group of earthly potentates
there stood a man worn out with toil and study, and enfeebled
with recent sickness, in his monk's frock, on whom every eye
was bent, from Charles to his guards, who was there arraigned
because he had dared to remind mankind of the supreme
authority of God^s Word.

It was expected that Glapio, the Emperor's confessor,
would be the spokesman of the Diet : but instead of this,
John Eck, the Chancellor of the Archbishop of Treves, a dis-
tinct person from the theologian, rose, and in a sonorous voice
repeated, first in Latin and then in German, these words : —
" JNIartin Luther, his sacred and invincible Majesty has cited
you before his throne, according to the advice of all orders of
the Sacred Koman Empire, to interrogate you on two sub-
jects. First, whether you acknowledge these writings,'' and
as he spoke he pointed to a bundle of books in Latin and
German, " which bear your name, to be yours. And secondly,
whether you will retract and recall them and their contents,
or on the contrary will persist and persevere in them."

* AValch. XV. pp. 2225—2231.

234 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

3521. Jerome SchurfF, the lawyer, was by the side of his friend,
and cried out aloud, " Let the titles be read." The Chan-
cellor read the titles of the treatises, mentioning among them
Luther's Commentary on the Psalms, on the Lord's Prayer, his
tract on good works, and other writings not of a controversial
nature. After which Luther replied, not without a little
faltering and indistinctness of voice, first in Latin and then in
German, as follows : — " His Imperial Majesty proposes to me
two questions. As regards the first, I cannot but confess
that the books just named are mine, and I will never deny
any of them. As regards the second, since it is a question
concerning faith, and the salvation of souls, and affects the
Word of God, than which nothing is greater in heaven and in
earth, which we are all bound to revere, it would be alike rash
and dangerous to advance anything without due considera-
tion, for I might say less or more than the circumstances and
the truth warrant, and in either case I should fall under the
condemnation of Christ : ' Whosoever shall deny me before
men, him will I deny before my Father which is in heaven.'
I therefore as a suppliant implore his Imperial Majesty to
grant me time for deliberation, that I may answer the enquiry
without wrong to the Divine Word, and hazard to my own
soul."

The Diet rose to consider this request. Charles and his
ministers retired to one chamber ; the electors and the
princes to another ; the deputies of the free cities to a third.
The Emperor had eyed the Reformer very narrowly, and
before rising observed to a courtier near his person, "Cer-
tainly that man would never make a heretic of me." After a
short time spent in consultation, the members of the Diet re-
turned to their seats. It was agreed that the request should
be granted. Eck again rose and said, " Martin Luther,
although you might have understood from the imperial man-

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER, 235

date for what purpose you were summoned^ and on that ac- 1521.
count are unworthy to have a longer time for deliberation
allowed you, nevertheless his Imperial Majesty, of his innate
clemency, grants you an indulgence of one day, and com-
mands you to appear to-morrow before him at the same hour,
on condition that you answer not by writing, but by word of
raouth." Luther bowed his acknowledgments ; and the herald
came forward, and conducted him back to his hotel.

In the seclusion of his own apartment Luther sat down to
indite a letter to the imperial councillor Cuspinianus, in
which, after a brief statement of what had just passed, and a
reference to the ordeal of the morrow, he adds, " I shall not
retract an iota, by the grace of Christ/^ Meanwhile the fer-
mentation in men's minds, which the events of the day and
the anticipation of the conclusive scene of the next day had
heightened to intensity, resulted in considerable uproar and
commotion in the streets of Worms. The Spaniards of the
middle class sympathised cordially with Luther ; for the ex-
ertions of their own Cortes against the Inquisition and its
functionaries, resembled the struggle of the German patriot
and Reformer against the rapacity and tyranny of sacer-
dotalism; but the upper classes of the nobility, led by the
sanguinary Alva, raved of Luther as the incarnation of evil.
Violent passions grew more violent by collision. The Spanish
nobility made an attack on the booksellers' stalls which were
supposed to contain writings of Luther or Hutten : the Ger-
man populace took part with the insulted booksellers; and
frequent scuffles and fights ensued. Again, some paintings
posted in public, particularly over the lodging of the Elector
of Saxony, occasioned grievous offence to the Homanists.
The ark of God was represented as borne by Hutten and
Luther : Erasmus appeared in front, and John Huss in rear
of the ark, which was surmounted with two cups. And vari-

236 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. ous caricatures of Aleander circulated amongst the populace."^
Besides paintings and engravings, verses of Hutten and of
Hermann Buscli the Westphalian poet, who was then in
Worms, parodies f f^nd satires, in derision of the Nuncios, the
Pope and Cardinals, and all that was Roman, contributed to
stimulate Spanish bigotry and ferocity, as well as to kindle
the passion and fire of German nationality. The threat re-
sounded that the heretic should perish at the stake; and the
answer reverberated, that, if so, the fire should be quenched
in the blood of the Papists.

Before the dawn of the 18th April, the Privy Council of
the Papist faction, Glapio, Aleander, Eck, and Cochlreus, had
met in conclave, and were busied for some time in determin-
ing the course which it would be incumbent on them to p "r-
sue. On the other hand, the Reformer in his chamber was
preparing for the decisive ordeal on his knees before God.
He glanced over his writings ; endeavoured to throw his an-
swer into a proper shape ; studied the Word of God in its
most applicable passages; and again prayed fervently. Ex-
postulating in the fervour of devotion, he said, " Almighty,
Eternal God, how there is but one thing to be seen upon
earth ! How the people open wide their mouths ! How small
and slight is the trust of man in God ! How is the flesh so
tender and weak, and the devil so mighty and powerful
through his apostles and worldly-wise ones ! How does the
world draw back the hand and hum, as it runs the common
track, the broadway to hell, the portion of the godless ! And
it looks only and merely at Avhat is commanding and power-

* Pallav. I. p. 39.

t See tlie German Litany, Walcli. XV. p. 2175, of wliicli the follow-
ing may serve as a sample : —

From Annates, Good Lord deliver us.

!From wrath, Good Lord deliver Aleander.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 337

ful^ strong and mighty, and bears a goodly mien. If I should 1521.
turn mine eyes thitherwards, it would be all over with me ;
my doom decided ; and my sentence passed ! O God ! O
God ! My God, O thou my God ! stand by me against all
the world^s reason and wisdom ; Thou must do it ; Thou alone ;
for it is not my cause but thine ; I have nothing to do for
mine own self; nothing to do with these great lords of the
world ; I would have good, peaceable days, and be free from
tumult. But it is thy cause. Lord ! the true eternal cause !
Stand by me, thou true eternal God ! I trust in no man.
It is in vain and to no purpose all that is flesh, it is lame and
halt, all that savours of flesh, O God ! my God ! Hearest
thou not, my God ! art thou dead ? No. Thou canst not
die. Thou only hidest thyself. Hast thou chosen me to
this ? I ask of thee that I may be assured thereof, if it be
thy will ; for all my life long I never thought to have to do
with such great lords. I have not taken it upon myself, O
God ! Stand by me in the name of thy dear Son, Jesu
Christ, who shall be my defence and shelter, yea, my fast
tower through the might and the strength of thy Holy Ghost.
Lord ! where abidest thou ? Thou, my God ! Avhere art thou ?
Come ! come ! I am ready to lay down my life patiently as a
lamb. For the cause is right, and it is thine. I shall never
be separated from thee ! Be this determined in thy name !
The world must leave my conscience unconstrained. And
though it be full of devils, and my body, thy handiwork and
creation, go to the ground, and be rent to fragments and
dust, it is but the body ; for thy word is sure to me ; and
my soul is thine, to thee it belongeth, and shall abide with
thee to eternity. Amen. God help me. Amen.^' •^

Hising from prayer, and placing his left hand on the volume

* Keil. p. 100.

238 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. of Scripture open on the table before him^ and raising his
right hand to heaven, he swore never to forsake the truth of
God, but, should it be God's will, to seal his testimony with
his blood.

Four o'elock struck quickly amidst such wrestlings with
Jehovah, and the herald presented himself with the grand
marshal, as on the previous day, to conduct Luther to the
Town Hall. When they arrived at the vestibule of the hall
the Diet was in deep deliberation ; and two hours intervened
before Luther was admitted to their presence. Two hours of
expectancy, adding to the severity of the trial ! And it was
thought that Aleander and his clique had calculated upon the
influence of this delay and had purposely arranged it, that
the uproar on all sides, the blending of confused sounds, and
the harassing influence of suspense, might shake the equili-
brium of the mind, and render it weak for the hour of trial that
was to succeed. The hall was illuminated by torches, which,
flashing on rich dresses and proud high-born features, made
the scene more imposing, when Luther was ushered, as on
the preceding audience, to his place in front of the throne.
Charles was there as before, grave and thoughtful, the same
Spanish dress, with the ostrich plume and the chain of pearls,
from which hung the order of the Golden Fleece ; but Luther
gazed upon his sovereign with a calm fixed eye, an index of
his inward tranquillity. There was no bewilderment of man-
ner or look ; no embarrassment, as on the previous day ; the
most common observer could predict that when the moment
to answer should come, there would be no trembling in the
voice.

The Chancellor of the Elector of Treves rose and said, first
in Latin and then in German, " Martin Luther, although you
had no right to demand a longer period for deliberation, inas-
much as you were well aware of the purpose for which you

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 239

were summoned, and a matter of faith ought to be so 1521.
grounded in the minds of all, that any one, at whatever time
he might be questioned, should be able to render a sure and
settled reason for it ; Come, then, and answer the imperial
demand. Do you maintain all the books you have acknow-
ledged to be yours ? or are you willing to retract anything? ''
In a suppliant and modest tone, without the least vehe-
mence, but with the firmness of Christian courage,^ Luther
answered : " Most serene Emperor, most illustrious Princes,
most gracious Lords, I appear before you obediently at the
time appointed me yesterday evening, entreating, by the
mercy of God, that your most serene Majesty, and your
most illustrious Lordships, will deign to hear with clemency
this cause, as I believe, of justice and truth. And, if through
my ignorance, I should fail to give to any one his proper titles,
or in any way whatsoever offend against the manners and
habits of courts, that you will kindly pardon me, for I have
lived not in courts, but cloisters, and can testify only this of
myself, that, so far, I have taught and written with such sim-
plicity of heart, as to regard only the glory of God, and the
sincere edification of the faithful in Christ. Most serene
Emperor, most illustrious Princes, to those two articles pro-
posed to me yesterday by your most serene Majesty, viz.,
whether I recognised the books published in my name as
mine? and whether I persevered in their defence, or was
willing to retract them ? I gave my ready and plain answer
on the former article, in which I still persist, and shall per-
sist, and shall for ever persist, viz., that they are my books,
and were published in my name by myself, unless, perchance,
by my rivals^ cunning or dishonest wisdom, ought have been

* Quanquam supplicitci', non claniosc ac modeste, non tamen siuo
Christiana animositate et coustantia.

240 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEK.

1521. cliaiigedj or unfairly omitted ; I acknowledge nothing but
what is truly my own, written by myself aloue, and have no-
thing to do with the construction which may be industriously
attached to it.

"In replying to the other question, I entreat your most
serene Majesty and your Lordships will deign to consider that
my books are not all of the same kind. There are some in
which I have handled the faith and piety of manners so
simply and evangelically, that my adversaries themselves arc
compelled to confess them to be useful, harmless, and w^orthy
of a Christian's perusal. Nay, the bull, fierce and cruel as it
is, declares some of them harmless, although it condemns even
these by a judgment which is truly monstrous. Should I
then retract these, what should I do but, alone of all men,
condemn that truth which my foes and friends alike ac-
knowledge, struggling singly against the common consent.

" The second class of my writings inveighs against the
Papacy, and the doctrine of the Papists, as persons who, by
their foul doctrines and examples, have wasted Christendom
with evils both spiritual and temporal. No one can deny
this, nor pretend that it is not so. The experience of all,
and of the whole world, is witness that, by the laws of the
Pope and by the doctrines of men, the consciences of the
faithful have been most miserably entangled, vexed, and tor-
tured, their property and substance, especially in this re-
nowned nation of Germany, by incredible tyranny, devoured,
and, up to this very day, devoured without end and by shame-
ful means; although, by their own laws, they provide that
the laws and doctrines of the Pope, if contrary to the Gospel,
or the sentiments of the Fathers, shall be accounted erroneous
and reprobate.

" If then I recall these, what else shall I do but add strength
to tyranny, and throw wide open not only the windows, but

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 241

the doors to gross impiety, which will stalk more widely and 1521.
freely than it has hitherto ever dared. By such revocation
the reign of their iniquity will become most licentious and
unabashed, utterly intolerable to the poor vulgar ; it will be
strengthened and established, especially if it be noised abroad
that I acted by the authority of your most serene Majesty
and the whole Roman Empire. O ! good God ! what a
cloak I should be made to cover iniquity and tyranny !

" The third class of my writings is addressed to some private
individuals, who laboured to defend the Roman tyranny and
to overthrow the doctrine which I taught. I confess that I
have been more bitter towards them than becomes my reli-
gion or profession. I do not rank myself as a saint ; nor is
the dispute about my life, but about the doctrine of Christ.
But I cannot retract even these, because by such retractation
tyranny and impiety would reign, and oppress the people of
God more violently than even heretofore.

" I am but a man, and not God, and can uphold my books
in no other way than that in which the Lord Jesus Christ
himself maintained his doctrine. When he Avas questioned
before the High Priest Annas, and buffeted, he said, ' If I
have spoken evil bear witness to the evil.' If the Lord him-
self, who knew that he could not err, did not refuse to hear
testimony against his own doctrine, even from the vilest slave,
how much more ought I, who am but the scum of men, and
can do nought but err, to require and expect what testimony
may be rendered against my doctrine ?

" I implore by the mercy of God that your most serene
Majesty, and your most illustrious Lordships, and whosoever
can, be he of the highest or lowest grade, will render testi-
mony against it, convince me of my errors, and disprove them
by the writings of the Prophets and Evangelists. I shall be

VOL. I. R

242 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. most ready, if thus convinced, to retract every error, and will
be the first to throw my writings to the flames.

" From this I think it clear that I have sufficiently weighed
the dangers and hazards, the emulations and dissensions, of
which my doctrine has been the occasion in the world, on
which subject I was gravely and strongly admonished yester-
day. It pleases me most of all to see the Word of God the
occasion of emulations and dissensions ; for such is the course
of God's word, its consequence and issue, as he says, ' I came
not to send peace, but a sword — I came to set a man against
his father,' &c.

" Let us reflect, therefore, how our God is wonderful and
terrible in counsel, lest if we begin by condemning the Word
of God, which all this heat is aiming at, it prove the opening
of an intolerable deluge of evils, and the reign of our youthful
illustrious Emperor (in whom, next to God, our hope is
placed) be clouded by an untoward and inauspicious com-
mencement,

'' I could adduce many instances from Scripture of mo-
narchs, of Egypt, Babylon, and Israel, who never lost them-
selves so much as when, by their own wise counsels, they
laboured to pacify and strengthen their realms. He it is who
taketh the wise in their own craftiness, and overthroweth the
mo\intains, and they know it not. To fear is the work of
God. I do not say this because such noble potentates need
my instruction or admonition, but because I am bound to pay
the service which I owe to my beloved Germany. With these
words I commend me to your most serene Majesty and your
Lordships, humbly imploring that you will not suff'er me,
through the zeal of my enemies, to become odious to you
without a cause. My speech is said."

Luther delivered this answer in German, and, when he had

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 243

finished it^ he was quite overcome and exhusted with the 1521,
exertion. The Chancellor requested him to repeat what he
had just stated in Latin. The Emperor was not partial to
German, and understood it very imperfectly. Although Fre-
deric von Thun^ who stood at the Reformer's side at the
Elector's command, as the Knight Chum had stood by John
Huss at Constance, to ward off any sudden violence, ob-
serving his fatigue, intimated to him, " If you are exhausted,
what you have said is enough ;" after a few moments' respite,
Luther recommenced, and went through the whole in Latin :
the facility with which he did this gave the utmost satisfac-
tion to the Elector of Saxony. The speech in German and
Latin occupied two hours.

At the conclusion the Chancellor remarked, in a chiding
tone, " You have not answered to the point. The doctrines
condemned and defined by Councils cannot be brought into
question. Give a simple and direct answer. Will you re-
tract, or will you not ? "

Luther, unmoved, replied, " Since your most serene Ma-
jesty and your Lordships require a simple and direct answer, I
will give one as simple as language can express. Unless I am
convinced by the testimony of Scripture, or plain reason — (for
I do not believe in the Pope, nor in Councils alone, for it is
certain they have often erred, and have contradicted them-
selves)— unless I am convicted by the texts which I have ad-
duced (and my conscience is a captive to the Word of God), I
cannot retract, nor will I retract anything, for to act against
my conscience is neither safe nor honest. Here I stand : I
can do no otherwise : God help me. Amen."

An indistinct murmur of applause, which even the imperial
presence could not quite overawe and suppress, ran through
the Hall at these words. And Charles himself half reversed
his opinion of the previous day, and said, " The monk speaks

244 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. boldly with confident courage.'^ The Chancellor resumed —
" If you do not retract, the Emperor and the States of the
Empire will know how to deal with an irreclaimable heretic."

"God help ma/' Luther exclaimed emphatically, "for I
can retract nothing."

The Reformer left the Hall, and the assembled potentates
proceeded to deliberate. But the blow dealt that day to the
power of Kome, seemed to the papal satellites fraught with
such formidable consequences, that they resolved to make
yet another attempt to avert it ; and Luther was recalled.
"Martin," it was said to him, "you have answered more
boldly than beseems your character, and, moreover, not to the
purpose. You make a division of your books without any
bearing on your answer. Had you retracted those in which
a large part of your errors is contained, without doubt his im-
perial Majesty, of his innate clemency, would not permit the
desti'uction of those which are good. You revive doctrines
which the Council of Constance has condemned, and you
demand to be refuted by Scripture, which is thorough doatiug.
To what purpose is a new disputation on matters condemned
by the Church and a Council, unless peradventure a reason
should be given on whatsoever subject to whosoever may
require it. If he who impugns Councils and the sense of
the Church must be convinced by Scripture, there will be
no point in Christianity sure and determined. On this
account his imperial Majesty demands of you a simple and a
plain answer, in the negative or aflfirmative. Do you defend
all your doctrines as Catholic ? or, are you willing to retract
any of them?"

Luther replied with gentleness and modesty — "My con-
science is a captive to the Holy Scriptures. His imperial
Majesty must not suffer me to be forced to retract without
plain proofs on the part of my opponents. I have given a

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEll. 245

simple and direct answer^ and I have no other to give. The 1521.
decrees of Councils are not necessarily true : nay, Councils
have erredj and have often contradicted one another. Hence
the invalidity of my opponents' arguments. I can show that
Councils have erred, and cannot revoke doctrines which are
clearly and emphatically laid down in Scripture.'''^

The official merely replied, that '' it could not be proved
that Councils had erred.'' To which Luther answered, that
" he certainly could prove it, and would undertake to do so."
But it was now impossible to press that point any farther :
the Reformer's language had been decided and unmistake-
able : and he was dismissed by the Diet.

It quickly circulated through the city that Luther in the
most positive terms had refused to revoke, and had been in
consequence unequivocally condemned. And when he was
observed to be conducted away from the Town Hall by the
officers, in the dark of the evening, the rumour spread in all
quarters that he was led away to be consigned to prison.
Some noblemen shouted to him, " Whither are they taking
you?" "To my hotel," Luther answered ;t and thus the
public anxiety was pacified, and a tumult which was on the
point of breaking out prevented. Some of the Spanish nobi-
lity, however, and their dependants, who were wont to parade
the streets proudly on their mules, and would never let an op-
portunity slip to show their national contempt for the Ger-
mans, vented their idle malice on the Reformer, by following
on his track through the dim streets, with scoffs and mock-
ings, like the howling of wild beasts.

On Luther's return full of joy to his hotel, Spalatin and
his other friends joined him. Their feelings were in perfect

* Quod sedulo palam expressum sit in Scriptura.
t Walch. XV. p. 2234.

246 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. unison, and breathed fervent gratitude to God. " Had I a
thousand lives/^ Luther said, " I would lay them all down
rather than retract a word."* In the midst of general con-
gratulations a servant entered bearing a silver can of Einbeck
beer. Luther enquired who had sent him this token of his
regard ; and was informed that the aged Duke Eric of Bruns-
wick, a partisan of Rome, who had drunk out of it himself
first, had sent it him with the hope of aflFording him refresh-
ment after his fatigue. Luther was parched with thirst,
raised the can to his lips, took a long draught, and then
putting it down, said, " As Duke Eric has remembered me
this day, so may our Lord Christ remember him in his last
struggle ! " t And it is related, that as Duke Eric was dying
he thought on Luther's words, and begged one of those by his
bedside to read some portion of the New Testament to him ;
and the Saviour's promise was read, " Whosoever shall give to
drink to one of these little ones a cup of cold water only in the
name of a disciple, verily I say unto you. He shall in no wise
lose his reward." This incident is important, as implying the
remarkable impression which Luther's bearing before the Diet
had produced, even on those who were strongly the antagonists
of his religious sentiments.

The table was spread for supper in the apartment of the
Elector of Saxony when Spalatin returned to his patron.
They had fasted long; and the water had already been
brought in for washing the hands; but Frederic could not
satisfy the calls of appetite until he had beckoned his secre-
tary! iii^o his retiring-room, and given expression to his de-
light. " I am filled with joy : how nobly Luther spoke before

* Walch. XV. p. 2235.
t Keil. p. 102.

X Winckten sie mir iu ilire kamer zii folgen. Walch. XV. p. 2247.
Seckend. I. p. 157.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 247

the Diet ! my only apprehension was lest he should say too 1521.
much." And he requested Spalatin to report what he had
said to Luther. Bitterly did Aleander and his coterie blame
their own shortsightedness in allowing the Reformer to speak
at all, or at least in not interrupting the current of his re-
marks. His words had told too powerfully. Some, before
steadfast in adherence to Rome, had been shaken in their
constancy; others, who had wavered from side to side, had
become decided in the conviction that the evangelical tenets
were true : the Elector of Saxony, and the nobles who had
before been friendly to the Reformation, had acquired fresh
boldness and determination.

But Aleander and his conclave still built largely on the
Catholic temper and constancy of the Emperor ; and in the
warmth of his hopes the Nuncio did not hesitate to speak of
Charles V, as "■ the most sincere spirit that had been born
into the world for a thousand years." Events proved that
they might reckon with more certainty on his attachment to
their cause on the motive of temporary expediency. The
next day, Friday, a message relating to the proposed treat- April 19.
ment of Luther was written by the Emperor in French
in his own hand, and was by his command read aloud the
following day in the Diet. It was to this effect : " Our
ancestors, Emperors of Germany, Kings of Spain, Archdukes
of Austria, Dukes of Burgundy, were all obedient to the
Roman See from the cradle to the last moment of their lives.
Their ordinances they handed down for us to observe ; and
we must tread in the footsteps of our excellent fathers. Hence
I am resolved to maintain the decrees of the holy Council of
Constance and all the other Councils. And since one monk,
deceived by self-opinion, wishes to raise his judgment above
that of all Christendom, were his judgment true, it would
be hard to believe that all Christendom has been so long in

248 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEll.

1521. error : but as it is most false, and a diabolical invention, I will
sacrifice my kingdoms, my empire, power, friends, body,
blood, life, and soul, rather than that this sad beginning
should proceed further ; considering that such an issue would
be to my great dishonour and disgrace, as well as that of the
renowned nation of Germany, the vindicators of justice, pro-
tectors and defenders of the Catholic faith. And whereas we
yesterday heard the obstinate reply which Luther made to us,
I assure you by this my own writing, and certainly affirm,
that it pains me in my heart to have delayed so long to pro-
ceed against the aforesaid Luther; and I recommend that he
be reconducted home according to the tenor of the safe-
conduct, with the understanding that the conditions named in
it be strictly observed — that he shall not preach, write, nor be
in any way the occasion of popular riot. And for Avhat re-
mains I am determined to proceed against him as against a
manifest heretic, and demand that your resolutions be such
as becomes good and faithful Christians, as you are and as
you have promised."

This message gave deep umbrage to many members of the
Diet ; for Charles had failed to observe the established custom
of asking first the opinion of the States, and had acted on
his own arbitrary will. It occupied their attention the whole
of the Saturday, and occasioned a very warm and passionate
debate. The Elector of Brandenburg, as the mouthpiece of
Aleander, and his own brother of Mentz, revived the doctrine
that a promise is not to be kept to a heretic, and instanced as
a precedent the execution of John Huss by the Council of
Constance. This was the object at which the extreme Papists
were now driving — the violation of the safe-conduct, and the
destruction of Luther. But the Elector Palatine, who was
very favourable to a reformation of the Church, rejected this
counsel with disdain, and declared that neither victory nor

THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER. 249

prosperity had blest Germany since that treacherous act of 1521.
burning Huss, but many calamities had befallen her in just
retribution of perjury. Duke George of Saxony also charac-
terised the perfidy recommended as " unbefitting the ancient
good faith of the Germans.'' But there is no reason to sup-
pose that, under the circumstances of the period, even if the
Elector of Brandenburg's proposition had met with less
strenuous resistance, it could ever have been carried into exe-
cution. Some noblemen assured Luther himself, that if a
hand were laid on him for harm, there should be blood for
blood. A sci'oll was found in the Emperor's bedchamber, nor
could the least clue as to whose hand had put it there be dis-
covered, with these words inscribed on it, " Woe to the land
whose king is a child." And a placard appeared on the doors
of the Town Hall threatening ruin to the Archbishop of Mentz,
which four hundred knights had pledged their word to exe-
cute ; and it was added that the writer would do " some great
harm at the head of eight thousand foot soldiers. Bundschuh !
Bundschuh ! Bundschuh ! " '^ The Archbishop was so much
moved by this menacing notice that he swooned away on his
seat. The Emperor merely remarked, with a smile, that he
" doubted not the four hundred would prove like Mutius' three
hundred, only one man." However, the popular resentment
could not be aroused without the most imminent danger to
all who should be concerned in any act of severity to Luther's
person.

It was known that the castle of Ebernburg, at an easy dis-
tance, was crowded with the Reformer's staunch supporters,
that every eye was turned to Worms, and that Hutten was
amongst them, who had addressed letters of warning to the
Emperor and the States, and had twice written in animating

* The gathering cry of the peasanti'y in the insurrections of 1501-2.

250 THE LIFE OF MAKTIN LUTHER.

1521. and warlike terms to " the invincible theologian and evange-
list Martin Luther, my saintly friend." " There is a great
difference between your undertaking and mine/^ he wrote to
Luther ; " I rely on man's arm, you on God only.'' Many,
he told the Reformer, came to him with the expression of
their earnest hopes that Luther would remain steadfast. " Ah,"
he replied to them, " I see you want to be Luther." ^ To
such a spirit, more Lutheran than Luther himself, to whom
the struggle against Rome was the breath of his life, the in-
spirer of a large section of Germans who were not too loyally
inclined to the Emperor, it was thoroughly understood by the
Court that the most daring scheme would be the most accept-
able. Indeed, Hutten was at this time negociating a league
between the cities and the nobles, with a view to overthrowing
the power of the ecclesiastical princes. He had Luther's
works read at Sickengen's table; and had conceived some
very ambitious designs for Sickengen himself, of whom he
spoke as " the greatest soul of the age." His cry was for
sword, bow, battle-axe, and cannon. And, further, the reports
that reached Worms from distant parts of the empire proved
that a finger laid on Luther would be the beginning of con-
vulsions which would tear up order and government by the
roots. These were powerful arguments, and precluded the
idea of infringing the safe-conduct from being entertained for
a moment by practical minds of the Romish party.

It was now the turn for moderate measures. The Arch-
bishop of Mentz, admonished by his fears, and perhaps in
some measure influenced by Wolfgang Capito, his chaplain, a
Reformer at heart, but a cautious temporiser, waited on the
Emperor, and prayed that time might be allowed to try the
effect of renewed arguments and exhortations with Luther.

* Ihi' wurdet ein Luther seyn.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 251

Charles would not hear of farther delay. But afterwards the 1521.
princes in a hodj waited on the Emperor, and importuned him
to grant the concession ; and he yielded so far as to extend
the safe-conduct for three days, during which time whoever
would might treat with the Reformer privately. The princes
assigned the office of mediator to the Archbishop of Treves,
who, as a courteous man of the world, and an old and inti-
mate friend of his brother Elector of Saxony, was every way
well adapted for this part. The Archbishop despatched two
priests of his household^ to Luther, about supper time on
Monday, to request a visit from him at six o'clock on the
morning of Wednesday, the 24th April ; for the intervening
Tuesday was sacred to St. George, and the festival was to be
kept with much pomp.

At four o'clock on the Wednesday morning Aleander sent
for Cochlffius, and deputed him to watch the proceedings in
the Papist interest, and note with strict accuracy the lan-
guage used on either side, but on no account to enter into
any argument with Luther. At the appointed hour the Re-
former was at the Archbishop's hotel, and found the Arch-
bishop himself. Margrave Joachim Elector of Brandenburg,
Duke George of Saxony, the Bishops of Augsburg and Bran-
denburg, and the Master of the Teutonic Order, with Jerome
Wehe Chancellor of Baden, who was to conduct the conference,
assembled there. George Count of Wertheim, and Dr. Bock
of Strasburg, and Peutinger of Augsburg, came into the
apartment afterwards. Luther was himself attended by his
friends, and by electoral councillors, whom Frederic, who was
not over well pleased with this renewal of admonition and
expostulation, had appointed to this duty.

Wehe opened the conference, by saying, that " the motive

* Cochla>us, p. 37.

252 THE LIFE OV MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. for their desiring an interview was not to dispute on doctrinal
points^ but in the spirit of Christian charity and gentleness to
exhort Luther as a brother." He went on to observe, that
Councils had passed different, but not contrary decrees. And
even had they erred egregiously, that would be no reason
why Luther should set up his own sentiments above them.
Human laws were necessary : there must be order and an
ecclesiastical system : and the tree must be judged, not by its
blossom, but by its fruit. Martin, Nicolas, and many other
saints, had taken a share in the deliberations of Councils. The
Reformer's writings had kindled angry commotions, and espe-
cially his tract on Christian Liberty, which was abused to un-
dermine the basis of ecclesiastical authority, and stimulate
rebellion. And the devil took advantage of such abuse to
bring those of his writings, the tendency of which was really
good, into discredit, and thus debar them from any profitable
influence. If the ecclesiastical ruler erred or sinned foully,
his power and authority were not forfeited on that account.
It was earnestly hoped that Luther would prove amenable to
reason. And Wehe proceeded to enumerate thirteen distinct
arguments why he should yield to the brotherly admonition
addressed to him ; " but if he persisted in the course he had
chosen, the Emperor had no alternative but to adopt severe
measures against him, and banish him from the Empire.^'
So well did Dr. Wehe speak, Luther himself remarked in
his relation of the interview, ''^as to let me know that the
Chancellor of Treves was not worthy to pour water on his
hands." *

At the close of the address, several of the Reformer's
friends were pressing forward to furnish him with an answer
to an objection, or to offer a suggestion ; but Frederic von

* Walch. XV. p. 2294.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 253

Tlmn repressed tlieir eagerness, by saying, " Let him alone ; 1521.
lie is quite able to make answer for himself." Luther replied
that he was grateful for the condescension and kindness of so
great princes towards one so insignificant as he was. He had
condemned the Coiincil of Constance chiefly for denying the
truth -Averred by Huss— "The Church of Christ is the uni-
verse of predestined souls " — and so denying by consequence
this article of the Nicene Creed — " I believe in the Holy Ca-
tholic Church." He quite agreed with what had been said on
the obedience due to all in authority : but his objection was
not that popes, cardinals, and bishops led godless and iniqui-
tous lives ; but that they taught false and unscriptural doctrine.
The spirit of obedience and brotherly love was pushed too far,
if it sanctioned the corruption of God's Word. And then
raising his hands and enumerating in order upon his fingers
Wehe's thirteen arguments, why he was bound to yield —
" ' Obedience to the magistrate ' — Yes ! I acknowledge obe-
dience to be due to all in authority, although their lives be
sinful and iniquitous ; — ' Obedience to the Church ' — Yes ! I
am willing to accord it ; I allow all ; I will yield all : save only
that which I dare not and cannot yield, because it is not mine
to yield, but God's, the Scriptures, the Word of God. I will
renounce all my own notions and opinions ; I have stated as
much again and again in my writings, but the Word of God,
it is not mine to surrender."

Luther withdrew, and the Princes conferred together alone.
After a short time he was recalled : and Wehe enquired,
" Will you submit your writings to the judgment of the Em-
peror and the States ? " He replied that he most willingly
submitted his writings to the judgment not only of the Em-
peror, but of the very meanest of his subjects, provided only
the judgment were formed according to the dictates of God's
AVord. He quoted St. Augustine on the sole infallibility of

254 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. Holy Scripture, and cited St. Paul — '^ Though an angel from
heaven should preach unto you another Gospel, let him be
accursed."' ' We must not then, it is evident," he continued,
" believe an angel from heaven against God's own Word. I
supplicate and implore that you will not urge m}'' conscience,
which is enchained to the truth of the divine Scriptui-es, to
deny the clear declarations of God. I beg that I may be
most humbly commended to his imperial Majesty, with the
assurance that I will comply with any requirements of which
my conscience does not disapprove." " Do you mean," asked
the Margrave of Brandenbm^g, " that you will never yield
unless you are convinced by Holy Scripture ? " " Yes, that
is my meaning, most gracious Lord," Luther answered, " un-
less I am convinced by Scripture, or by clear and indubitable
reasoning."*

The meeting broke up after this explicit statement. But
when the rest took their departure, John Eck, the Chancellor
of Treves, and Cochlseus, stayed behind with the Archbishop,
who requested Luther's attendance, with two of his friends,
Amsdorf and Schurff, in a private apartment. Here Eck,
taking up the thread of the previous conversation, endea-
voured to argue the Reformer out of his dependence on Holy
Scripture, by enumerating various heresies which had ori-
ginated from that very source ; and in particular laboured to
impugn the position that the Catholic Church is the Com-
munion of Saints. The Reformer and Schurff replied to the
arguments advanced with great patience and moderation.
"The Pope," Luther said, "is no judge in causes appertain-

* Audin, II. p. Ill, adds — " Vous admettez done Tine raison supe-
rieure a la parole de Dieu? Objecta vivement le chancelier : Luther
resta silencieux." This addition is entirely Audin's invention ; nor is
it to be supposed that such a commonplace objection, had it been made,
would have posed Luther for an instant.

THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER. 255

ing to God's Word and faith; but each Christian must 1521.
examine and judge for himself, as he must hve and die for
himself. The master must follow the scholar, if the scholar is
better read in God's Word." "^ Sometimes Cochlseus raised
his voice in the discussion, and exhorted Luther to desist
altogether from his undertaking, and cease to write and teach.
But the private interview ended as the previous more public
one had done. And it was reported to the Emperor, to his
equal surprise and indignation, that the negociations had
failed of their aim ; but as, notwithstanding, hopes continued
to be cherished in some quarters of an amicable settlement,
he consented to extend the furlough to two days more.

Meanwhile Luther, at the hotel of the Knights of Rhodes,
was an object of more general attention and curiosity than
the Emperor and the princes and lords, not merely singly, but
all united. One day Philip, the young Landgrave of Hesse, t
rode into the courtyard of the hotel of the Knights of
Rhodes, and, leaping from his horse, ran up the steps to
Luther's apartment, requiring to speak with him. " My dear
Doctor, how do matters go with you ? " " My gracious Lord,
with God's help all will go well," Luther replied. "They
tell me," the Landgrave said, '' that you teach that if a woman
be married to an old man, it is allowable for her to quit him
for a husband who is younger," aud he laughed as he spoke.
Luther also smiled at this calumny, and replied, " No ! no !
Your highness must not say so." Seizing the Reformer's
hand, and giving it a warm shake, Philip exclaimed, "Well,
Doctor, if your cause is just, may God aid you ; " and rushing
down stairs, and springing on his horse, rode out of the
courtyard as abruptly as he had entered it. At another time

* Luther's own account to Count Albert of Mansfeld, Walcli. XV.
p. 2296.

t Walch. XV. p. 2247.

256 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER,

1521. Cochlseus walked into Luther's lodging after dinner time;
and in the excitement of conversation, sometimes familiar and
sometimes argumentative, made the Reformer the offer to
dispute publicly with him, provided he would forego his safe-
conduct. Jerome SchurfF smiled, and observed, " That would
be an equal contest, indeed ! " Luther, however, was demur-
ring, for a public. disputation in Worms itself presented to his
mind important advantages, when another friend, the knight
Vollrat von Watzdorf, rudely seized the dean, and without
more ado thrust him out of doors. On another occasion
Luther was supping at the table of an ecclesiastical dignitary,
probably the Archbishop of Treves. At such times he usually
overflowed with mirth and wit; and the Chancellor John
Eck, who had interrogated him in the Diet, drank to his
health, and according to custom passed the glass to Luther.
The Reformer having made the sign of the cross on the glass,
was raising it to his lips, when it suddenly flew into a hundred
fragments. " Either this wine was not intended for me, or it
would have disagreed with me," Luther observed, laughing;
"no doubt the glass has flown because in washing it was
dipped too suddenly in cold water." But his friends with
less charity whispered among themselves that he had provi-
dentially escaped being poisoned.'^ Such were some of the
interludes between the various acts of the drama.

On the evening of Thursday, the 25th April, the negoeia-
tions were resumed, and Chancellor Wehe, in company with
Dr. Peutinger, by the request of the Archbishop of Treves
visited the Reformer at his hotel. The Elector of Saxony had
been apprised of this intended visit, and sent Frederic von
Thun and Dr. Philipp to be at the Reformer's side during the

* From a manuscript history, preserved in tlie library of Gotha, of
Eazeberg, physician to the Elector John Frederic. D'Aubigne, II.
p. 326. Audin, II. p. 133. Kiel, p. 105.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. .257

interview^ and use every precaution to prevent his being drawn 1521.
into any snare. The bent of their solicitations was that
Luther should resign the settlement of the case simply and
absolutely into the hands of the Emperor and the States, in
reliance on their Christian and friendly intentions. Luther
replied that he acknowledged the power and authority of the
Emperor, but he could never resign the Word of God. He
found it written there, " Put not your trust in princes ; " and
"Cursed is the man that trusteth in man.'' But on the
Archbishop's delegates persisting in their efforts to persuade
him to commit his cause to the arbitrament of the civil
power, he frankly declared, " Rather than leave my cause to
the Emperor, I would renounce my safe-conduct." Frederic
von Thun upon this rose hastily from his seat and exclaimed,
"That is enough; you have your answer; he can never
renounce the safe-conduct ; " and immediately quitted the
apartment. Doctor Philipp remained whilst they pressed
their arguments a little farther, Luther firmly maintaining
that "he could never let the Word of God go from his hands.
What must become of him if he did ? " They then left him
for the present, stating that they would call again in the
afternoon, and meanwhile they hoped he would ponder favour-
ably on what they had said.

In the afternoon they returned with a new proposal, to the
effect that Luther should submit his opinions, or some pro-
positions extracted from his writings, to the decision of a Ge-
neral Council. He replied that he was quite willing to give his
assent to this proposal, on condition that the judgment to be
passed by the Council should be in conformity to Holy Scrip-
ture. And the negociators hastened back to the Archbishop
with the welcome assurance that Luther had given his consent
to the determination of the questions in dispute by a General
Council. The Archbishop immediately sent for Luther, and

VOL. I. s

358 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. greeting him very kindly, said, " My dear Doctor, I under-
stand that you agree to submit your cause to the judgment of
a Council." " My gracious lord/' Luther answered, " I can
endure anything saving to surrender Holy Scripture.'' " Did
you then make a reservation of the Scriptures?'' the Arch-
bishop exclaimed, who had before suspected there must be
some mistake. " My Doctors told me that you had given an
unconditional assent : and I am glad that I had not carried their
report to the Emperor before speaking personally with you."
The good Archbishop then led the Reformer into a private
room, Spalatin, it would appear, being the only witness of the
interview, and essayed his own powers of persuasion with
Dr. Martin. Luther honestly avowed that he could feel little
confidence in submitting his opinions to the verdict of the
Emperor and the States, after their summoning him to their
bar and then condemning him before he had answered to the
summons, by sentencing his books to be carried to the magis-
trates to be burnt. After some conversation, which left the
matter in as unsatisfactory a state as before, the Archbishop
enquired, " Is there any remedy, Doctor, that you can yourself
suggest to stay these unhappy dissensions ? " "I know not
of any," Luther replied, " except the advice of Gamaliel, ' If
this counsel or this work be of men, it will come to nought ;
but if it be of God, ye cannot overthrow it.' Let the Emperor
and the States write to the Pope that they are fully assured,
that, if the doctrines so much decried are not of God, they
will perish by a natural death within two or three years."
The Archbishop enquired whether he had any objection to
some of the propositions taken from his writings, which had
excited the most stir in men's minds, being submitted to a
Council. "None whatever," Luther replied, "provided they
be not those which the Council of Constance condemned;
for I am firmly convinced in my soul that they are scriptural."

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 259

" I fear/' said the Elector, "they are the very same." " By 1521.
those decrees, my gracious lord/' Luther continued, "the
Word of God itself was condemned ; and I had rather lose
my life and head than ever abandon the simple and plain
Scriptures," The Archbishop now saw clearly that nothing
could be done.

The conduct of Luther at Worms has been arraigned with
severity by two very opposite classes, by bitter Papists, and
by some of the more extreme partisans of the Reformation ;
and, strangely enough, by both on very nearly the same
ground.^ According to these authorities, his look ought to
have been stouter, his words should have been in bolder and
sharper defiance of his enemies ; and, in particular, he ought
not, on his first appearance before the Diet, to have requested
space for deliberation ; but without any delay, which always
implies indecision, he ought to have avowed his settled refusal
to retract a word or a letter of his writings. Luther himself
makes nearly the same complaint, when he writes to Spalatin,
that " he is grievously vexed in conscience that he yielded to
his advice, and that of his other friends, and tamed his spirit,
and did not act with more of the power of Elias in presence
of those idols." But, in his old age, when he delighted in
reviewing past eventful scenes, he delivered a different judg-
ment : " God himself inspired me with courage at that time :
I had no fears, and was quite ready to lay down my life : I
doubt whether I could be so fearless now." And this more
mature verdict is undoubtedly the true one. There was
Luther at Worms without that admixture of baser qualities
which too often sullied his noble acts and glorious words ; all
his firmness without his sarcasm, abusiveness, and violence.

* See, for instance, on one side Audin, and on the other Vaughan,
in the remarks prefixed to his translation of the " Bondage of the
Will."

s 2

260 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. There can be no doubt but his demanding a day for further
deliberation added much to the influence of his final answer : it
showed that what he did was done not precipitately, but on due
and careful reflection, with a full view of consequences ; and
he was far too clear-sighted not to have anticipated, at the
very moment of making the demand, the additional weight
that would thus be given to his words. That he never for an
instant dreamt of a revocation, even in a syllable, his familiar
correspondence afi^ords uncontrovertible proofs. Nor is his
conduct the less commendable, because, on the pedestal on
which some of his warm admirers would fain have had him
raise a statue or a monument to himself, he placed, not him-
self or any of his own opinions or writings, but the Word of
God. With less humility and forbearance he might have been
guilty of despising " the powers that be," and by such weak-
ness must have done grievous damage to his cause : but he
was invincible by always appealing to Scripture as the only
standard of truth, and reiterating that he himself and his
notions were nothing, God and his Word were everything.

On quitting the hotel of the Archbishop of Treves, Luther
paid a visit to the sick chamber of John Minkwitz, a knight
and councillor of the Elector of Saxony, whose illness seemed
likely to terminate in death. After suitable discourse and
prayer, Luther pronounced a benediction on the sick man,
observing that " he should not be able to visit him again, for
he should leave Worms to-morrow." Spalatin was in the
room, and pulling Luther's cowl to make him turn round his
head, said : " Doctor, how do you know that ? you have no
intimation to that eff^ect ? " " You will see," Luther answered,
"that I shall leave Worms to-morrow."^ His friends re-
turned with him to the hotel of the knights of Rhodes, and

* Waleh. XV. p. 2248.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER 361

shortly afterwards^ about three hours from his quitting the 1521.
Archbishop's hotel, the Chancellor of Treves, with Maximilian
Trausilvanus, Secretary to the Emperor, and some other
officials, presented himself before the Reformer, and read
aloud the Imperial command. " Martin Luther, since you
have in such various ways been admonished by the Emperor,
the Electors, Princes, and States of the Empire, but all in
vain, to return to your proper mind and to the unity of the
Church, it only remains for his Majesty to resort to such
measures as become an advocate of the Catholic faith. It is
therefore the imperial command, that within twenty-one days
you return whence you came, under the public safe-conduct, and
that you excite no popular disturbance on the road by preach-
ing or writing." On hearing this command, Luther bowed
his head, and answered, "Be it so! as the Lord will!
Blessed be the name of the Lord ! "^ He then desired the
expression of his warmest thanks, most humbly and truly, to
the Emperor, the Princes and the States of the Empire, for
the gracious hearing they had vouchsafed him, and their gra-
cious observance of the safe -conduct. " 1 have never required
anything," he added, "but a reformation of the Church in
accordance with Holy Scripture. In other respects I would
undergo anything for the sake of his Imperial Majesty and the
States of the Empire, life, death, fame, infamy, gain, loss.f
But the Word of God must not be bound. It must be left
free to me to confess and to proclaim it, without any reserva-
tion. I most humbly commend me, and declare my submis-
sion to his Imperial Majesty and the States of the Empire."
The same evening, the Councillors of the Elector of Saxony

* See Mathesius, p. 48.
t Luther repeats this in his letter to Charles. Walch. XV. p. 2251.

262 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. concerted the means of providing for Luther's safety under
the perils that were ready to burst on his head : and their
plan was communicated to the Reformer, who, on the under-
standing that Frederic desired his compliance, acquiesced very
reluctantly in it. The Elector himself, for obvious reasons,
wished that the whole management of the scheme should
devolve on his councillors, and that everything should be con-
cealed from himself except the mere outline of the plan.
April 26. On Friday morning, the Reformer's friends breakfasted with
him at his hotel, a parting meeting full of joy from the unani-
mous sense of the glorious witness which he had been enabled
to bear to the truth ; and at ten o'clock he bade them an aflPec-
tionate farewell, and departed from Worms, accompanied by the
same noblemen on horseback who had formed his escort when
he entered the city. Remnants of the crowds of populace who
had remained true in their devotion to Luther from his en-
trance into Worms to his exit, might be still seen lingering in
knots here and there in the streets after the cavalcade had
passed the city gate. The imperial herald a few hours later
rode after the party, and joined Luther at Oppenheim, where
they rested for the night.

The next day they proceeded to Frankfort, where Luther
was lodged in the house of Wolfgang Prenter, who had cor-
dially welcomed and entertained him before when going to
his trial. Hence the Sunday morning following, he wrote a
characteristic epistle to his Wittenberg friend, Luke Cranach,
the painter, his coadjutor in caricatm-es. " My service, dear
gossip Luke. I bless and commend you to God ; and for
myself have given consent to their concealing me, but as yet
I know not where. And though I had far rather have suf-
fered death at the hands of the tyrants, especially the raving
Duke George of Saxony, yet the counsel of good people it is

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

not meet to despise.* .... I supposed that his Impe- 1521 .
rial Majesty would have assembled some fifteen doctors or so,
and have overcome the monk by argument ; but no, nothing
of the sort. Are the books yours? Yes. Will you revoke
or not? No. Get you gone, then. O ! blind Germans,
what children we are, to let the Roman apes scoff at and be-
fool us in this way ! Give my gossip, your dear wife, my greet-
ing ; and I trust she will keep well till I have the pleasure of
seeing her again. The Jews must be allowed to sing for once,
Yo ! Yo ! Yo ! But our Easter week will come soon, when
we shall sing Hallelujah. For a short time we must be silent
and endure. ' A little time and ye shall not see me — and
again a little time and ye shall see me.^ I hope it will prove
so with us. But God^s will as always of all the best be done
herein, as in heaven so on earth. Amen.'^

They prosecuted their route on the Sunday to Friedburg, April 28.
and reposed there that night. In the evening of the Lord's
day Luther sat down to frame two letters, one to the Emperor
and the other to the States, both written with the same ob-
ject, and often in nearly the same terms ; and which quickly
passed into print, and served, as Luther intended they should,
as the expositors of his feelings and principles, through the
length and breadth of Germany. They recapitulated what
had transpired at Worms, declared the most heai^tfelt loyalty
to the Emperor and the States, and in this reverence to
earthly potentates made no exception, save of " the holy, free,
plain, and clear Word of God, the Lord of all, and hereafter
the Judge of all.'' Luther closed his epistle to the States
by saying, " If Christ my Lord and my God, prayed on the

* It is singular that, with this letter before him, Michelet should
say, " Luther avait renvoye le heraut, qui I'escortait a quelques lieues
de Worms, et ses ennemis en ont conclu qu'il s'attendait a son enleve-
ment. Le contraire ressort de sa correspondence." — Memoircs, I p. 90.

264 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. cross for his enemies, how much more am I bound to pray,
implore, and entreat with all submission and faith for his Im-
perial Majesty, the whole empire, my dearest lords, the rulers
and magistrates, and the whole German people, whom in all
obedience I commend to the grace and favour of Almighty
God." Such words were his solemn farewell to the Diet. He
gave these letters to Caspar Sturm to convey to Worms, and
deliver to those to whom they were addressed : and he warmly
embraced the herald on parting.

The next day he travelled to Grunberg, a town in the
dominions of Philip of Hesse, from whom, in contemplation
of this route, he had obtained a safe-conduct,"^ the style of
which betrayed not darkly the Lutheran tendency of the
April 30. Landgrave ; and here he spent the night. On Tuesday, he
proceeded to Hirschfeld, the Prince Abbot of which, Crato
Milius, a monk of the Benedictine Order, sent his chancellor
and treasurer to meet him at the distance of a mile from the
city, whilst he himself, with a considerable retinue of horse-
men, waited somewhat nearer the town, and conducted him
to his palace, the Senate welcoming him at the gate.f That
evening Luther was sumptuously entertained by the Abbot :
it was insisted that he should occupy for the night the Abbot's
own bed : and the next morning at five o'clock, in compliance
with entreaties which would not admit of refusal, although he
candidly stated the imperial prohibition, and the danger in-
volved in disregarding it, he preached to the Abbot and his
May 1. court in the Church. The evening of the same day (Wednes-
day) he prosecuted his journey as far as Eisenach, whence he
wrote a hurried account to Count Albert of Mansfeld of what
had passed at Worms ; and here too he again ascended the
pulpit, and preached those truths, for proclaiming Avhich he

* See it in Walcli. XV. p. 2126. t De Wette, II. p. 6.

THE LIFE OF MAKTIN LUTHER. 265

had already been excommunicated, and was shortly to be out- 1521.
lawed. The curate, with a notary and two witnesses at his
side, stood trembling at the door of the church, and inter-
posed his protest ; but merely with the object of screening
himself from the consequences of acquiescing in an illegal
act. On leaving Eisenach Luther turned aside from the
high road, and directed his course towards the little village of
Mora, where his uncle Henry Luther dwelt, with whom his
aged grandmother resided ; and many other relatives lived in
the neighbourhood. At this point, therefore, he parted from
his comrades, Schurff, Jonas, and Suaven, who continued
their journey to Wittenberg by the direct road through
Gotha and Erfarth ; and he struck into the forest of Thuriu-
gen, and, in company with Amsdorf alone, arrived at Mora
the same evening. The whole of the Friday was passed in
this secluded and tranquil scene, a delightful contrast to the
turmoil of Worms, and the renewed artifices of his opponents.
And on Saturday he started again on his journey, in com- May 4.
pany with Amsdorf and his brother James, in the direction of
Walterhausen.

They had not travelled far when, just as the waggon was
passing a narrow defile near the ruined church of Glisbach,
not far from the castle of Altenstein, the fortress of the
knight Burckard von Hund, two armed horsemen, their faces
concealed under masks, with three armed attendants also
masked, suddenly made their appearance, and fell on the
band of travellers. Immediately James Luther sprung out
of the waggon, and, without a word of farewell to his bro-
ther Martin, fled with precipitancy towards Walterhausen.
The waggoner was thrown to the ground and beaten ; Ams-
dorf was seized and held fast ; whilst Luther himself was se-
cured and hurried away to a spot where a horse, ready bridled
and saddled, had been tied, which he was made to mount, and

266 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. a knight's mantle thrown around him, and a knight's cap
drawn over his brows. The object of the intrusion thus
attained, the waggoner and Amsdorf were left without further
molestation to pursue their way through the forest. The
whole was the deed of a few moments, in executing which the
horsemen observed a profound silence : and Luther having
been mounted, they rode away, changing their course many
times, as if with a view to baffle pursuit. One of them dropt
his cap, but would not stay to pick it up. In this way they
wore out the evening and the twilight, and so exhausted
Luther, who was unused to riding, and had been weakened
by his recent trials, that they were obliged to halt from their
wanderings for some time, and suffer the Reformer to dis-
mount, and rest on the ground under a beech tree near a
fountain which still bears his name, with the waters of which
he slaked his thirst. It was drawing on for eleven o'clock
at night, when the party arrived at the foot of a very steep
and almost precipitous hill. On its summit, frowning over
the forest, whose umbrageous solitudes mantled their dark shel-
ter round, and looking beyond to a range of hills which, open-
ing at intervals, suffered the eye to escape with delight over
" that golden land,"'^ the fertile and well-cultivated valleys of
Thuringia, stood the venerable fortress of the Wartburg, or
the Castle of the Watch-tower, sacred to St. Elizabeth, and once
the seat of the Landgraves of Thuringia. Here one of the
party was bound to represent a prisoner captured in the day's
enterprise ; and thus the knights passed the portal, and, having
aided Luther to dismount, led the way into the interior of the
fortress. One of the knights proved to be Burckard von Hund,
the Lord of Altenstein, and the other John von Berlepsch,
the Provost of the Wartburg. Luther was conducted by the

* So tlie Count of Mansfeld called it.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 267

latter, with all tlie respect that could be shown the most dis- 1521.
tinguished guest, to an apartment which was found ah-eady
prepared as for an expected visitor. He was provided with the
attire and sword of a knight ; he was requested to suffer his hair
and beard to grow ; and, to complete the incognito, he was to
be known to the household by the title of Yonker George.

Thus the scene is curiously and abruptly shifted from
the Town Hall of Worms to the upper room in the soli-
tary Wartburg; and a new chapter opens in the story of
Luther's life. There was much in the change to vex and irri-
tate, but something also to refresh his heart. " I had rather/'
he affirmed, "have been laid on a bed of burning coals,
than be compelled to endure the weariness of such a capti-
vity ! " Wittenberg and his duties, his preaching and lectur-
ing, his friends and intimates, the open honesty and hardi-
hood of his life all resigned ! The sacrifice was not a light
one. But, as he gazed round his apartment, looked over the
battlements of his tower of refuge, surveyed his own figure in
the mirror, he found subjects of congratulation. " Here I
am," he exclaimed, " in a condition of true Christian liberty,
disenthralled from all the enactments of the Roman tyrant ! "

Luther had not been conveyed many days to a place of
safety before the edict of the Diet was fulminated against
him, and all who in any way shared his opinions. But this
measure was intimately connected with political designs and
alliances, of which it is essential to speak.

Leo X., votary of the arts, and of sensuality, as he was, was
not devoid of the ambition of acquiring glory ; to which he
was stimulated by a jealous eagerness to rival the warlike
fame of his predecessor, Julius II., and in particular, by a de-
sire to recover Parma and Placentia, which, to his great dis-
credit, he had lost. Well aware of the hostile feelings enter-
tained by Francis towards a political rival who had carried off

2G8 THE LIFE OF MAllTIN LUTHER.

1521. the prize at which he had aimed, his first overtures had been
made to the French monarch. But Charles had an able re-
presentative at the Papal court in Don John Manuel, the
staunch friend of his father Philip, and a sufferer in his
behalf. But even of more moment at such a juncture than
the skill of his ambassador, was the bait which Charles was
able to hold out to secure the Pontiff's favour. Although
Leo and his cardinals valued the doctrines of their Church
chiefly as furnishing an inexhaustible subject for jest, yet it
was impossible that they could view with any sentiment, save
that of the keenest animosity, the spread of opinions which
struck at the foundation of their political and social condi-
tion : and none could better appreciate the force of Luther's
words, that he had " bitten a good hole in the pocket of the
Papists." And accordingly on Maundy Thursday, the anniver-
sary of the institution of the Lord's Supper, when the Redeemer
of the world, taking the cup in his hand, pronounced — " This
is my blood which is shed for many for the remission of sins,"
and which the Roman Church selects as the day on which to
pronounce her bitter and horrible imprecations on all who op-
pose or deny her claims by her bull, " In Coena Domini," the
name of Luther, as the latest and worst of heretics, was added
to the list of those annually consigned by infallible authority to
misery in this world and the next. Well aware, therefore, what
sat uppermost in the mind of the Roman Curia for the time, Don
John Manuel made an efficient use of the Emperor^s position
in regard to the great Reformer. And at length it was under-
stood that severity against Luther and his adherents would
be accepted by the Papal See as the purchase of its assistance
in political enterprise. The revocation of the papal briefs in
regard to the Inquisition in Spain, as already alluded to, was
the first fruits of this understood compact. And by virtue of
it a treaty was further concluded between the Pope and the Em-

THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER. 269

peror on the 8th of May, which stipulated that by their united 1521.
forces the French should be expelled from the Milanese, and May 8.
the Duchy given to Francis Sforza : that Parma and Pla-
centia should be restored to the Church ; that the Emperor
should aid the Pope to conquer Ferrara ; that the annual
tribute paid by Naples to the Holy See should be augmented ;
that the Medici should be taken under the special protection
of the Emperor ; that ten thousand ducats a year should be
settled on the Cardinal, and lands in the kingdom of Naples
to an equal annual value should be bestowed on Lorenzo's
illegitimate son Alexander.

But although the Emperor was thus committed to Luther's
condemnation, an obstacle to fulfilling his intentions existed
in the warm sympathy, which, ever since his appearance
before them, the States had shown with Luther's cause and
personal history. It was therefore necessary to tide over the
arrangement of the business, till the opportunity should be
ripe. And the delay was not long. The Elector of Saxony,
who observed " that not only Annas and Caiaphas, but Pilate
also and Herod, were adversaries to Christ," was too much
disgusted by what transpired of the understanding between
the Nuncios and the Emperor to remain much longer in
Worms, particularly as his state of health was so feeble
that he was scarcely able to walk from room to room with-
out the support of attendants. His departure was followed
by that of the Elector Palatine and the Archbishop of Co-
logne, the other two Electors who were favourably inclined
to Luther. And, following the example of the Electors,
the princes and nobles of similar bias retired one after
another from the theatre of discussion, and left the Diet at
the mercy of the Spaniards in the Emperor's retinue — the
Nuncios of his Holiness, and the papistical section of the Ger-
man princes headed by the Emperor himself. As the ban

270 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. of the Diet had already been declared against Luther con-
ditionally, unless he retracted,'^ it was ODly requisite that an
edict should be drawn up on the basis of this previous resolu-
tion. And it was deputed to Aleander to compose a rough
draught of what might serve as the edict ; and he gratified to
the full his virulent and vindictive feelings in the style of the
May 25. composition. On the 25th May, when the Princes had es-
corted back the Emperor from the Town Hall to the Bishop's
Palace, in which he was residing, the draught of the edict was
by imperial command suddenly and unexpectedly produced
and read aloud to those present ; and the Elector of Bran-
denburg, speaking for the rest, acknowledged his consent to
it. The next day, just as mass was about to be solemnized in
the Cathedral of Worms, Aleander, robed in the full insignia of
his commission, approached the Emperor, and, kneeling at his
feet with the edict in Latin in one hand, and a copy of it in
German in the other, humbly prayed his Imperial Majesty to
affix his signature and seal. The Emperor graciously smiled,
and complied with the petition.

The edict stated that it is the duty of the true Emperor of
the Romans not only to extend the limits of the sacred
Empire by the conversion of infidels to orthodoxy ; but like-
wise to see that among the subject nations no spot of heresy
defile the pure vesture of religion. That Martin Luther, an
Augustine friar, had been condemned by the Church as guilty
of monstrous heresy. That on extreme unction this grievous
heretic thought with Wycliffe ; that on purgatory, the mass,
and indulgences he held the same opinion as the Waldenses
and Wycliflfe, contrary to the doctrine of the Church ; that as
to the Church itself he spoke as did the Pelagians and
Hussites ; that he termed the Council of Constance " Satan's

* See the Eesolution, Walch. XV. p. 2057.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 271

synagogue ; " and that everywhere he excited the people to 1521.
revolt, scliisra, murder, and every outrage. " But in fine," it
continued, " this Luther is no man, but the devil himself in
human form under a monk^s cowl, for the perdition of man-
kind," That under the pretence of faith he was labouring to
destroy true faith ; under pretence of liberty he was trying to
introduce the servitude of Satan's yoke ; under the profession
of the Gospel he sought to extirpate the peace and charity of
the Gospel, to invert all order, and mar the beauteous har-
mony of the Church. That he spurned at the authority of
the Pope, the Church, and CEcumenical Councils. And
therefore that after the expiration of twenty-one days, wher-
ever he might be found, proceedings should be taken against
him ; and whoever gave him meat or drink or any sort of aid
by act, word, writing, or in whatever way, should suffer con-
fiscation of all his goods, moveable and immoveable. That
none should buy or sell, retain, read, copy, act, print, or
cause to be printed or copied, preach, assert, or in any way
maintain or defend his writings or doctrines. And the same
was enacted in reference to every schedule, libel, picture, in-
vective, satire, abuse, against the Pontiff, the Apostolic See,
prelates, princes, or universities. And no one was to print,
engrave, or publish anything relating, in however slight a
degree, to sacred letters or the Catholic faith, without the
licence of the ordinary of the place or his deputy, together
with the sanction of the theological faculty of some neigh-
bouring university. This edict bore date the 8th of May, but
in reality it received the imperial signature, as has been
already stated, on the 26th of May, and was ante-dated that
it might seem to have been issued with the consent of the
whole Diet in full assembly.

But before the bolt fell the Reformer was securely lodged
in his mysterious ■►retreat. Aleander's malice had a rao-

272 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. mentary gratification ; the Popish faction enjoyed a shortlived
triumph ; but events ere long proved the edict to be little less
futile than the bull had been. It has even been hinted by
historians that the Emperor himself, although he signed the
decree, was accessory to the plot by which Luther was ex-
empted from the fate his enemies had prepared for him ;
there can be little doubt that he was secretly pleased at his
escape from the pontifical vengeance ; and it is certain that
he never adopted any means to discover his concealment in
order to apprehend his person. The Germans had concluded
far too rashly that their young emperor was a person of very
ordinary or even mean capacity, at least that he was by no
means to be compared with his brother Ferdinand. But in
reality the silence and gravity which wore the semblance of
weakness and indecision, veiled powers for political intrigue
and combination of the very highest order. The death of his
prime minister, which occurred during the session of the Diet,
left Charles more to his own counsels, but was not needed to
develope faculties derived from nature rather than from edu-
cation, and already in active exercise. It is very evident, on
impartial examination, that in all Charleses seeming varia-
tions there was a real unity ; he appeared to be driven, yet he
in fact was steering his course straight for a haven he had
deliberately marked out ; and by dexterously leaning first to
one side, and then the other, he contrived to attain his own
end while seeming to bend to the will of others. He had
secured the alliance of the Pope by a harshly- worded, but, as
events showed, an innocuous edict; on the other hand, he
had not violated the safe-conduct granted to Martin Luther,
and never dreamt of molesting him in his place of refuge.
For however much it might now serve his turn to humour the
ultramontane faction, Charles was far too sagacious and long-
sighted to overlook the contingency, that if the great heretic's

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 273

life were preserved^ he might, at some future day, be again 1521.
as good a card in his hand in his deep game for political as-
cendancy as he had proved already. And thus he quitted
Worms as successful in his diplomacy as he had before quitted
the shores of England.

VOL. I.

274

CHAPTEE IV.

FROM THE END OF MAY, 1521, TO THE SPRING OF 1523.

1521. The bull, which had been intended to crush for ever the re-
formed opinions and their author, decided the success of the
one, and the popularity of the other ; the edict of Worms, the
imperial sanction of the bull, was certainly only less powerful
than the bull itself in strengthening the cause it aimed at
destroying : and Luther's removal from the theatre of active
life to the seclusion and refuge of the Wartburg, was, further,
a most effective instrument in spreading his tenets, and ren-
dering his person almost an object of national adoration. The
Papists hoped that the ink with which the edict was signed
would scarcely dry up ere Lutheranism would be extinguished
by such a bitter document. It was generally published ; and
many of the Bishops, in their zeal for the Papacy, charged
their clergy to refuse absolution to every Lutheran ; and in
some places the Reformer's writings were publicly committed
to the flames. The Emperor himself passed one of these bon-
fires at Antwerp, but with a hardly-suppressed smile. All
this lasted for some time. But as soon as the Emperor took
his departure to draw together the threads of his diplomacy,
and execute his warlike schemes, the tone of popular feeling
became more and more audible and decided, and the German
princes, who had either been entrapped into giving their sanc-
tion to the edict, or had previously quitted the Diet in dis-
gust, were willing enough to respect the will of their subjects,
and let the offensive proscription be a dead letter. On the

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 275

other hand, the Papist Princes, with the exception of such 1521.
men as the Elector of Brandenburg, and Duke George of
Saxony, were deprived of the presence of their Emperor, and of
their own courage in the cause of religion, nearly at the same
time. And the Archbishop of Mentz, whose destruction was
reported to have been vowed by a conspiracy numbering 1800
members,* went so far in his endeavours to allay the public
indignation, as to prohibit the Minorites, who had made their
churches ring with their invectives, from preaching against
Luther any further.

What had become of the Eeformer was the topic in every
mouth ; and a great diversity of rumours obtained circulation.
Some asserted that he had been waylaid and assassinated by
emissaries of the Pope ; others declared that he had been con-
veyed, out of regard for his safety, by friends, beyond the
German frontier, and France was supposed to be the scene of
his exile. At length an account of his seizure by armed
horsemen, who had carried him off with his hands tied behind
him, was one step attained towards the solution of the ques-
tion by the prevailing curiosity; but the object of this cap-
tivity, and the place of his imprisonment or concealment,
remained an uncertainty, about which various conjectures
were hazarded. The universal interest which these enquiries
excited was anything rather than gratifying to the votaries of
Rome ; and Aleander deridingly exclaimed, " We shall have
to light a candle, and search through the land for this monk
to give him back to his Germans!'^ When more certain
tidings of his safety reached Wittenberg the joy was intense.
" Our dearest father/' Melancthon wrote to Link, " is still
living. O ! happy day, when I shall embrace him once
more ! "

* " Fertui' galerita Moguntinus hostes in se juratos habere 1800."
-De Wette, II. p. H.

t2

276 THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. Meanwhile Luther in his watch-tower was a prey to bitter
self-recrimination, both on account, as he now viewed it, of
his "timid conduct" at Worms, and also of his acceding to
the Elector's wish in receding for a time from his office of
preaching and teaching. He accused himself of having treated
the Emperor with too much respect, and of having failed to
bear witness to Jehovah before Ahab and his guilty court,
with more determined energy ; and he sought in vain for a
proof sufficient to satisfy his conscience that the God who had
commissioned him to declare his word had called him to the
safe retreat of his present asylum. As he sat alone in this
meditative mood the vision of the distressed condition of the
Church rose before his eyes. "Alas !" he exclaimed, " that I
was not worthy to suffer death from the Rehoboam of Dresden,
and the Benhadad of Damascus ! ^ ' Oh ! that my head were
waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears, that I might weep
day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people,'
the spiritually slain of Satan and the Pope. Would that the
hog of Dresden had put me to death in the discharge of my
true functions, whilst publicly preaching the Gospel ! But if
it be not the Lord's will and my privilege to suffer for His
sake. His will be done !" No letter was despatched by him
from his retreat until the 12th May, and then he wrote to
Melancthon, Amsdorf, and Agricola. It was the first day
that he had received tidings of the Electoral court in a letter
from Spalatin ; and previously, as he said, he had been appre-
hensive that any letters he might send would be intercepted.
" Pray for me," he wrote to PhUip, " that this seclusion may
work out something for God's glory. You acknowledge your
own calling and gifts. Be earnest as a minister of the Word ;
set up the walls and towers of Jerusalem, until they seek your

* Duke George of Saxony and the Elector of Brandenburg.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 277

life also." " The Lord visits me/' he wrote to Amsdorf, 1521.
''pray for me, for I never forget you. Be bold and preach
the Word with confidence. A cruel edict has been issued
against us ; but the Lord will laugh them to scorn." " I sit
here/' he wrote to Agricola, " of my own will, and yet against
my will : of my own will because it seems God's will, and
against it because it is my heart's desire to stand up in public
for his Word. Your office is to instruct your scholars in the
Word ; be zealous to fulfil this ministry." Agricola's wife had
just given him a little daughter; Luther had engaged to be
godfather, and he appends a postscript to his letter — " I send
two gold pieces, one for your little daughter, the other for the
mother to buy wine with, to increase her supply of milk." "^

In a letter to Spalatin two days subsequently, describing
his journey from Worms, and his capture, he writes of him-
self— " I sit idle, and full of meat and drink the whole day;
I read the Bible in Greek and Hebrew ; I am writing a ser-
mon in German on the liberty of auricular confession; I
shall proceed with my comments on the Psalms, and with the
Postils, as soon as ever I have received what I want from
Wittenberg with the Magnificat which I had begun." A
letter addressed to Melancthon the 26th May, exhibits him
again immersed in his studies and writings, and gratified with
the rumours which reached him from the neighbouring town
of Eisenach, and from all sides, of the progress of the evan-
gelical cause. " I am replying to James Latomus : I send sn
exposition, which I have completed at my leisure, of the 68th
Psalm : I intend to give the expositions of the Gospels and

Epistles in German If the Pope assails all who think

with me, Germany will be involved in tumult : God is moving
the spirits of many, and the hearts of the people; the public

* De Wette, II. pp. 1—4.

278 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. conviction cannot be repressed, and if that be attempted, it
will only add tenfold force to the general impulse." Luther
had heard with great pleasure of the marriage of a priest, his
friend Bernard of Feldkirchen, pastor of Kemberg, and ob-
served that he was " a husband strangely without fear in such
troublesome times : the Lord direct him and mix delights with
his lettuces, which will be the case without my prayers ; I fear
he will be driven from his cure, and then another stomach
will want besides his own, as well as the stomachs that may
proceed from them. But if he has faith, God, who suffers
not the fowl to starve, will provide for him.'^

The walls of the Wartburg often at this time rang with
Luther's laughter, as he perused some of the satirical pieces
against Popery, in the form of dialogue or otherwise, which
had been forwarded to his retreat. " Wood from the burning of
Luther's Books," the work of Francis Faber ; " The Dialogue
between the He-goat and the Spectre," and other writings
against Emser ; Hutten's " Address to the Hats and long-
winged Hoopoes of Worms, i.e. the Cardinals and Bishops,"
afforded him especial amusement : and he examined with de-
light the " Christ and Antichrist" of Luke Cranach, a series
of antithetical engravings contrasting the meekness, humility,
and sufferings of the Saviour, with the pomp, luxury, and ini-
quities of his pretended Vicar ; to which Luther himself had
added explanatory verses.

Melancthon's " Common Places," the lasting value of which
he had anticipated, had not been sent him, and he was very
anxious to see what had as yet been printed of this celebrated
work. " You will succeed to me," he wrote to Philip, " as
Ehsha to EHas, with a double portion of my spirit. If I
perish, the Gospel will not perish with me. It was not with
my own will that I became a preacher of the Word. How can
you complain that the Church is deprived of her pastor, when

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 279

you and Amsdorf are at Wittenberg? I only wish that every 1521.
Church were favoured with but a fourth part of you. Sing
by night the song of the Lord which I sent you. I will sing
it too without a care or solicitude about anything save the
Word. He that is ignorant let him be ignorant : he that wiU
perish let him perish, provided we are not lacking in our
duty." " Behold," Luther wrote about the same period to
Spalatin, " the hand of the mighty God of Jacob ! whilst I
was free the priests and monks raved : now I am a captive
they tremble. ' Be still, and God will fight for you/ ' Make
your supplication upon your bed and be still.^ "

But his joy at the progress of the Gospel was changed into
sorrow when he heard of the uproar which the University
students had raised at Erfurth. Draco, one of those who had
met the Beformer at the gate of the town, had been dragged
by his surplice from amongst the choristers, of whom he was
one, by Severian, a bigoted Papist, in resentment of which the
students had attacked the houses of the priests, and commit-
ted much violence. " Such conduct," Luther complained to
Melancthon, " is a shame and disgrace to our cause. Ah ! we
are but the fig-tree by the walls of Jerusalem, only leaves and
words, until we act as we teach."

He used to date his letters " From the region of the birds,"
" From among the birds that sing sweetly on the boughs, and
praise God with all their might night and day," or " From
the place of my wandering," or " From the isle of Patmos,"
or " From my wilderness," or " Given at my mountain."
Only Spalatin and Amsdorf knew of the actual place of his
refuge : and the provost of the Castle used the utmost dili-
gence, and with success, to prevent the secret from trans-
piring. Towards the end of September, indeed, the secret
was communicated to Duke John : and soon afterwards the
secretary of the Duke, by some means or other, got an ink-

280 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. ling of the Reformer's whereabouts, and wrote to a woman
of Torgau that he was concealed in the Wartburg ; * but
the suspicion thus excited passed off without any injurious
results.

Before leaving Worms Luther had suffered very much from
obstruction of the bowels ; and now in the Wartburg this
malady returned with extreme severity and pain. He re-
garded it as a correction from God; and blessed his name
that " he did not leave him without the dear cross." But at
times the apprehension which occasionally vexed him, that his
seclusion was displeasing to God, gathered strength from this
painful malady, which seemed a warning to go forth into active
life again. Bodily indisposition was attended, as was usual
with him, with spiritual trials : and he complained, that not
only his body was still very weak, as at Worms, but also his
spirit and his faith. On the 13th July, he wrote to Spalatin
that for eight days he had suffered incredible pain, and,
under the temptations of the flesh and the spirit, could
neither write nor study : if the disorder continued he must go
to Erfurth for medical advice, for " ten great wounds " would
not be so bad as what he endured ! " Pray for me ! It is
because I am alone, and you do not help me. Watch and
pray \" He complained that often he could not pray for
himself : but " sat insensible and hardened without a groan,
without even a prayer for the Church of God." But the
plague, which he himself thought very little of, for, " God,"
he said, " is everywhere," but which his friends estimated
very differently, precluded his visit to Erfurth ; and Spalatin,
earnestly and repeatedly implored by Melancthon to consider
Luther's danger,t sent him some pills which afforded some

* De Wette, II. p. 29.

t Bret. I. 418. O utinam hac vili anima mea ipsius vitam emere
queam, quo nihil nunc habet orbis terrarum Qetdrepoy.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 281

relief. Still the ailment was not overcome, but returned at 1521,
intervals, until the 6th October, when he pronounced himself
recovered. " My stomach and mouth are reconciled. Thanks
be to God!"

Luther's state of health will go far to account for the sen-
sible assaults of Satan, and the preternatural sounds and
noises which disturbed his quiet in the old castle. His apart-
ment was divided from the other parts of the tower, and no
one was allowed to approach him excepting two noble youths,
who twice a day brought him food and drink. These attend-
ants had brought him a bag of hazelnuts, which he placed in
a chest, and ate of from time to time. He had withdrawn
one night from his sitting apartment to his bedroom, and was
laid down on his bed, when he was disturbed by an extraor-
dinary commotion among the hazelnuts. They rolled and
struck against one another with such violence, that they
made the beams of the room to shake, and the bed on which
Luther was lying to rattle. The same night, it would seem,
although the steps leading to his solitary apartment were
barred fast with iron chains and an iron door, so that no one
could come up to them, after he had enjoyed a brief sleep he
was suddenly awakened by a tremendous rumbling up and down
the steps, which he describes as though threescore casks were
rolling up and down. Luther, nothing doubting but that this
was a machination of the devil, walked to the stairs head, and
called aloud, — " Is it thou ? Be it so, then ! I commend me
to the Lord Christ, of whom it is written in the eighth
Psalm, ' Thou hast put all things under his feet.^ " And
having said this he retired again to his repose. Another tale
of the turret chamber of the Wartburg, relates that the Pro-
vost's dame, who had been absent during the early part of
Luther's sojourn, having heard it rumoured at Eisenach that
he was her husband's guest, came to the Castle and insisted

282 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. on being allowed to see the Reformer. It was not thought
safe to entrust her with the secret : so Luther was removed
to another apartment, and the Lady von Berlepsch occupied
the room which had before been his. But in the night her
rest was broken in upon with every kind of noise, as if a
thousand devils were holding their orgies round her. It was
also at a later period of his stay in the Wartburg, that Luther,
whilst engaged in the study of the New Testament, and trans-
lating it from the Greek into German, was interrupted on
more than one occasion by the baying of a dog at the door of
his solitary room. The natural explanation is, that the Pro-
vost's dog was the intruder ; but Luther was certain that no
dog was near, or indeed could approach the door, and that it
was the devil, who had assumed the form of a dog to molest
him in his great work ; and he silenced the baying by appeal-
ing to Christ. " That is the true way,^' said he, " to make
satanical apparitions avaunt : show the devil you despise him,
and call upon the Lord Christ." At another time the devil
became a moth, fluttered round the candle, and flew buzzing
round Luther's ears, who seized his inkstand and showered
its contents over his wings.

For an ailing body and an overwrought mind John von
Berlepsch deemed the open air and active exercise the best
medicine, and he recommended Luther to try this prescrip-
tion. He took Yunker George out hunting with him. Then
the Heformer would amuse himself with searching for straw-
berries through the woods which clothed the sides of the
mountain, where they abounded. Gradually becoming less
anxious and cautious, the Provost assigned the Reformer a
faithful and experienced attendant, in whose company he was
permitted to visit the neighbouring towns and villages, and
refresh himself in his ride at the inns or convents. On one
occasion he was seated in the parlovir of an inn, when some

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 283

books attracted his attention, and quickly laying aside his 1521.
sword, he took up one of the volumes, opened it, and began
reading, to the excessive annoyance of his companion, who
admonished him to avoid such an unknightly act for the
future, which could not fail to betray him if it were noticed.
At the convent of Martschal, which he had before visited, he
sat amongst his friends of the fraternity without being de-
tected by any one. But at the convent of Rheinhardsbrunn,
where it will be remembered he had rested a night in his journey
to Worms, he was recognised by one of the lay brethren. The
vigilant eye of the attendant promptly perceived this, and
hinting to Luther that some particular business required his
presence at a distant spot that evening, hurried him away and
galloped home to the castle. But this adventure had the
effect of circulating the intelligence that Luther was living in
concealment somewhere in the neighbourhood of Eisenach :
the Wartburg was suspected ; and the visit of the Provost's
dame was occasioned by this report, and also an examination
of the Wartburg itself by a prince and some great ladies who
had heard the tidings. Fortunately, however, when these
last-mentioned strangers arrived Luther was absent. Sitting
at a table buried deep in thought, he had been overheard to
exclaim, " O that I were at Wittenberg ! " and his host
directed his attendant to escort him thither : and after re-
maining some days in concealment at Amsdorfif's house, and
conversing with his most intimate friends, he returned to the
Wartburg without the secret of his retreat being divulged.

In his knight's attire, in his excursions, and in the hunting
field, Luther was still Luther, engrossed with his theology.
AH he heard or saw ministered to the all-absorbing passion.
" I have been engaged in hunting for two days," he wrote
to Spalatin, " for I wished to experience that sweet and bitter
pleasure of heroes. We took two hares and some poor par-

28 !• THE LIFE Ol' MARTIN LUTHEK.

1521. tridgcs : an occupation for men who have plenty of time upon
their hands. But amongst the nets and dogs I turned theo-
logian, and as much pleasure as the mimicry afforded, so
mucli pity and pain did the mystery it veiled mingle with it.
For it is but a mimic show. Satan with his snares and dogs,
his impious masters, bishops and divines, hunts the innocent
for his prey. I had a vivid sense of this sad mystery of
simple and faithful souls. And the mystery grew more terri-
ble when, after I had saved one leveret alive, and hid it in the
sleeve of my coat, and removed to a little distance, the dogs
scented out their victim, sprang up at it, broke its leg and
throttled it. It is thus that Satan and the Pope rage. The
souls that I Avould fain rescue they destroy, and care nought
for my pains. I have had enough of hunting, and deem it
sweeter sport to strike down, with javelin and arrow, bears,
wolves, boars, and foxes, and such kind of vile teachers. It is,
however, a solace to me that it is a mystery savouring of sal-
vation that hares and innocent beasts should be caught by man
rather than by bears, wolves, and rapacious hawks, and their
counterparts Bishops and Divines. That would be a capture
for hell, the other denotes a capture for heaven. I mention
to you this similitude, to let you understand that you courtiers
who pursue your prey, are a prey yourselves. Christ, the
best huntsman, with great pains is trying to catch you and
save you. Yon are yourselves a sport whilst you sport in
huutiug.'^ *

Nothing could exceed the attention of the Provost to his
prisoner : the best of everything was placed on Luther's table :
but this veiy profusion made him anxious to know at whose
cost he was living in his wilderness. " I care not where I
may be," he wrote to Spalatin, "provided I am not burden-

* De Wette, II. p. 43.

THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER. 285

some to others. But I cannot endure that any one should be 1521.
put to expense on my account. And if it were not my belief
that I am maintained at the expense of our Prince, I would
not remain here another hour and consume the substance of
my guardian who supplies me with everything with the
greatest alacrity and cheerfulness. If I am to waste any one's
wealth, let it be the wealth of princes. For it is unavoidable
but a prince must be in some measure a robber ; and how
much the more a prince, so much the more a robber. Inform
me upon this point." Luther made the best return he could
to his host : and twice every Sunday preached to him and to
such of his friends in the Castle, or from the neighbourhood,
as were allowed the privilege of being present as being judged
trustworthy. Then he would retire to his solitary room, and
read and write. Sometimes day succeeded to day and night
to night, and the Reformer, immersed in the study of the
Hebrew or Greek Scriptures, or occupied with one of his
writings, would forget the lapse of time in the ardour of his
interest. At other times his pen would be laid aside, his
books lie unopened, and he would be quite prostrated, and the
fire of his energy for a time overpowered by the force of his
temptations of the flesh and spirit. At such periods he wrote
in the deepest melancholy, and with something of reproach to
his friends, urging them to pray for him. "1 am exposed to
a thousand Satans in this idle wilderness." " Multitudes of
malicious and crafty devils scoff at me and rob me of my time."
" I have more than one Satan with me, or rather against me,
whilst I am thus alone : but sometimes I am not alone."
Luther passed from one extreme to another, toiling for some
days without intermission, then lost in dejection, partly phy-
sical, partly of a spiritual origin, brooding over the woes of
the Church, groaning under his own trials from his " untamed
flesh," and lamenting his sinful idleness.

286 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. What he really achieved with his pen during his ten
months of exile must appear to ordinary minds almost incre-
dible. Having written a commentary on the 68th Psalm,
finished his exposition of the 22nd Psalm,^ in which the herald
had found him engaged when he summoned him to Worms,
and having also concluded his comments on the Magnificat, he
composed a sermon on Confession, for the edification of the
Provost, and then enlarged the sermon into a book for general
reading.f CEcolampadius, he found, had anticipated him in
the subject, and he received his tract from Spalatin, and ad-
mired the ^' free, confident, and Christian spirit " in which it
was written, and was pleased that the Swiss divine and him-
self had fallen on the same line of argument. Luther dedi-
cated this treatise to Frank Sickengen, his " special lord and
patron.'^ He affirmed in it that he could not discover any
Scriptural warrant whatever for the confession of sins to the
Pope, a bishop, or priest. The injunction simply declared —
" Confess your faults one to another." So that, according to
Scripture, the Pope himself must make confession of his own
sins, as well as the meanest Christian. He sent also some
theses on confession to Wittenberg for disputation : but the
Elector prohibited any discussion being held on the subject,
which gave great displeasure to Luther, and induced him to
warn Melancthon not to heed the Court much : " had he
himself heeded it, he should never have done half that he had
done." On some spare space of the last sheet of the Treatise
on Confession, he wrote a commentary on the 119th Psalm, but

* Nam Psalmum xxi. antea misi completum ad typos suos. The
reading should evidently be Psalmum xxii., for Psalm xxi. had been
completed long before.

t He also wrote an address to those who were questioned at the
confessional, whether they had any of his books. Walch. XIX. pp. 1007
—1015.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 287

retained it to give it the last touch, when he sent the other 1521.
productions of this date to Spalatin for publication.* The
119th Psalm contained, he observed, 176 verses; and yet it
was all summed up in two things : first, that God must be the
teacher ; secondly, to beware of man's teaching.

He next turned his attention to Latomus' Vindication of
the judgment of the University of Louvain, and in twelve
days finished his " Confutation," which must ever be ranked
amongst the ablest of his writings. He dedicated this work
to Justus Jonas, who, by the death of Henning Goden, had
just been appointed Provost of All Saints' Collegiate Church,
a post of importance as giving supervision over thirty
churches.f He implored Jonas, in his epistle dedicatory,
" like Aaron in his sacred vestments, so clothed in the robe of
Holy Scripture, the censer of prayer in his hands, to stand
between the living and the dead, and stay the devastation of
the Roman fire.''

Luther expressed his gratitude to God, in the commence-
ment of this treatise, for the sure and certain conviction
vouchsafed to him that the Pope is the Antichrist foretold in
Scripture, and the universities synagogues of Satan, " wherein
sophistical divines. Epicurean hogs, bear rule." Latomus had
introduced in his work an old man, who, with what he cha-
racterised as great wisdom, proposed three modes for mending
the morals of the Bishop of Rome : the first, to cease making
unworthy demands, and each one to correct his own failings :
the second, prayer : the third, patience. The first, Luther
replied, is the modus optativus, thinking that we may think ;
as for instance, if an ass could but fly, an ass would have
wings ; if the people did not make unworthy demands, the

* See his letter of June 10. De Wette, II. p. 16.
t The Provost was required to lecture on Canon Law, which Jonas
refused to do without hindrance to his appointment.

288 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

loJl. Pope would become a better man. ''What! Are the sheep
to feed themselves, the people to direct themselves, and lead
their shepherd to the pasture, and show their footprints to
guide their guardian ! " As to the second mode, no one is
prayed for more universally than the Pope : as to the third, no
tjTanny has been endured with such long-continued patience
as his. So what does the counsel of Latomus' wiseacre amount
to ? Luther proceeds, " Quoth Latomus, ' You excite sedi-
tion, and you do not make men better by your preaching.^
The argument of the Jews ! They objected to Christ that he
stirred up the people, and men did not become a whit the
better for his doctrine ; nay, they became worse. Was Christ
silent on such grounds ? or is there any truth in the inference,
' They will not hear, therefore you must hold your peace ? '
But what assurance is there that no one is made better ? The
sedition which wastes the body is dreaded, the sedition which
Avastes the soul is unthought of ! " Latomus had especially
decried Luther's statement that every good act of man is
really sin : and the " Confutation " is principally taken up
with defending and explaining in all its bearings this theolo-
gical verity. " Scripture," Luther said, " declares it emphati-
cally in pronouncing of God, ' In thy sight can no man living
be justified.' By sin is meant what is contrary to the law of
God. The Fathers of the Church, for the most part gently,
spoke of failings and infirmities : but Augustine, in round
terms, after the example of Scripture, called failings and in-
firmities by their true names, sins and iniquities. In Christ,
however, there is a complete refuge for him who knows that
he can do no good thing : and that God has commanded what
no man can perform. In substitution for man's guilt there is
Christ's righteousness : in place of that wrath, which every
act of every man deserves, but which the blood of Christ has
quenched, there is the grace of the Holy Spirit. And he who

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 289

is under wrath is wholly under wrath : and he who is under 1521.
grace is wholly under grace. God does nothing by halves.
The righteousness begun in the Christian by the Holy Spirit
must ever adhere to the righteousness of Christ, and as a
wave from the ocean, flow from him, and roll back towards
him, for his righteousness is certain and perpetual, without any
failing or infirmity.^'

At the close, the Reformer returned to Jonas. " My dear
Jonas, I have done with Latomus, and send him to you, to
spare myself further trouble, for I have begun the Exposition
of the Gospels and Epistles in German, which is the reason
why I was annoyed to have to read and reply to his jargon.
At some other time I may answer all that he has said : but at
present in my exile I am without books, and am under that
sentence of the masters of heresy, that Jews should read the
Bible only. I have only the Bible with me. Not that I
make much account of being without other books; but T
should have examined, had it been in my power, whether the
quotations from the Fathers are honestly made by my adver-
sary. He cites Dionysius on praying to God for the dead,
whereas I very well remember that the passage simply refers
to giving thanks to God in their behalf. But why not some
of you reply to the remainder ? Why not you yourself? Or
what is Amsdorf about ? I have crushed the head, why not
some of you trample the serpent's body ? "

The " Confutation " finished, Luther hastened on with his
translation of the Postils from Latin into German ; and to
those for the four Sundays in Advent, which he had to trans-
late, he intended to add six Sundays more, and then have the
whole ten published together.* He deemed the Postils of pri-
mary importance. But his attention was divided by fresh

* De Wette, II. p. 33.
VOL. I. U

290 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. material for controversy. On the 15tli April the condemna-
tion of his opinions had been pronounced by the University
of Paris. The theological Faculty enumerated the heretics
who had disturbed the peace of the Church from the earliest
age, and ended with Martin Luther, who, if the " Babylonian
Captivity," and the other works bearing his name, were really
his, had united in his sentiments some portion of all the
heresies of preceding times. An index of matter, and the
citation, under separate heads, of propositions drawn from the
Reformer's writings, seemed to imply that the work of con-
demnation had not been executed carelessly or hastily. But
it was also known that three Doctors, Beda, Quercus, and
Christophorus,"^ had originated the condemnation, and that
others of the Faculty had expressed disapprobation. And the
Sorbonne had given no better reason for their sentence than
— " This is absurd — This is heretical." In order that this
judgment might not weigh with the public, from the character
for erudition enjoyed by the Sorbonne, Melancthon imme-
diately replied to it with great point and acuteness. He
proved the Masters of the Sorbonne to be really the heretics
instead of Luther ; he told them that any German school-boy
could cobble up a refutation as good as theirs out of Gabriel
and Scotus ; that it was most absurd to call, as they had done,
University decrees, sayings of Fathers of the Church, and
decrees of Councils, the first principles of the Christian faith ;
that it mattered little what Paris thought, what was required
was a sufficient reason for her thinking as she did ; that it was
plain they had never read Augustine ; that they had misin-
terpreted the author of the " Calling of the Gentiles," whe-
ther Ambrose or some other Father ; and that of Scripture
they knew nothing whatever. Their vocation was rather to

* Named by Luther Bellua, Stercus. and Cliristotomos.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 291

make drains than to handle divinity, Luther read with delight 1521.
Melancthon's reply, and set himself to work to translate it
into German for popular reading, appending notes, as he went
on, derisive of the " Parisian asses/' And shortly afterwards
" The Comedy of Luther, condemned by the Stupid and Sa-
crilegious Sorbonne ; or. The Second Determination of the
Sorbonne in condemnation of Philip Melancthons's Apology,^^
made its appearance, the product probably of Luther^s humor-
ous hours in his retreat. It consisted of three parts or books :
the first, a parody of the condemnation of Luther, a proposi-
tion from Melancthon^s work being recited, and then the
verdict of the Faculty, delivered upon it in the pompous and
self-satisfied style of the all-authoritative Sorbonne ; the second
book gave the reasons why the judgment of the Sorbonne
must be correct ; and the third demonstrated that the only
reliable authority in the world was the Sorbonne.

Luther had directed Amsdorf to reply to Emser, who had
again attacked him in the " Quadruplia ; " but, considering
what a " captious, cavilling Satan " dwelt in the he-goat as
" in an appropriate vessel," he at last answered him himself.
The topic for argument between Emser and Luther at this
time was, the nature of the Christian priesthood, which the
Reformer insisted appertained to every Christian in common.
And he also wrote a commentary on the bull " In Csena
Domini," as a new year's wish or present for the Pope.

It must not be thought surprising that Luther spent some
of his hours in his solitude in giving vent to his inexhaustible
humour and talent for satire. It was a relief to his own
mind under the weight of overpowering thoughts; and he
knew the influence which the ridiculous exercises upon public
sentiment. Germany was inundated with writings of this
kind at this period, as if the profound spirit of the national
convictions was working itself clear of the dregs of heat and

u 2

292 THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. irritation through such a channel. Never had Hutten tried
his pen more felicitously than in his " Conclave of Theologers
against the Friends of Germany and of Literature, held at
Cologne.^^ Various expedients are suggested by the different
theologians for relieving Eck from his embarrassments, who
gives a piteous talc of his case to the meeting, and for staying
the progress of the evangelical opinions. One proposes a
ghostly apparition of St. Thomas, to proclaim the tenets of
the Roman Church to be in strict accordance with his own
infallible wisdom — a spiritual artifice not beyond the know-
ledge or experience of the religious orders. Another inti-
mates that a cardinal's red robe, or a bishop's crozier, w ould be
the most likely means to quiet Luther. The aged Hochstraten
(Hochstrata) , who presides, discovers something to detract
from the value of every suggestion, and finally dismisses the
conclave, by pronouncing the Faculty of Theology at Cologne
extinct. Another popular dialogue represented Eck in a
lamentable plight from sickness and remorse, and attended
by a physician, a barber, and a confessor. The confessor, in-
stead of hearing, as he expects, a confession of sins from the
ailing divine, hears a list of Eck's academical titles and
polemical triumphs, and only by the utmost dint of per-
severing ingenuity extorts from him the various base motives
which induced him to oppose Luther, The barber shaves his
head, and looks aghast to find it inscribed up and down with
propositions, syllogisms, and the complete science of scho-
lasticism. The physician gives him an emetic ; and he
vomits up the load from his stomach in the form of bulls,
briefs, and decretals, &c, : and a purgative draught produces
no less astonishing results,

Luther also composed, during his banishment at his Patmos,
an "Instruction on Baptism;" and a brief treatise "Against
the falsely called spiritual rank of the Pope and Bishops," in

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 293

which he promulgated his own bull excommunicating the 1521.
Pope and Bishops, and pronouncing those who upheld them
to be " servants of the devil," and those who would annihilate
their antichristian rule to be " God's dear children." Jesus
Christ, he said, had expressly forbidden all such dominion and
authority as were exercised by the Princes of the Gentiles
over the Gentiles. The objection against a return to the
simple institution of the Church as founded by Christ, seemed
to lie in the difficulty which the nobility would have in pro-
viding for their children if bishoprics were dons away with.
To obviate this, he proposed that the eldest son, as among the
Jews, should inherit the largest portion of the father's pro-
perty, and that the other children, who were not to be with-
out their share, should be placed on a par with the burghers.
For "it never could end in good for the nobility to inter-
marry solely with the nobility." He was requested by Spa-
latin, — who had first applied to Melancthon, and had been by
him referred to Luther, — to write a consolatory treatise for
the Elector under his many and increasing trials ; but this he
declined to do, alleging that he had already framed a work
with this object, the " Tessaradecas." But he composed a
treatise, at the solicitation of Duke John, on the injunction
of Christ to the ten lepers whom he had healed, to ''go and
show themselves to the priests," in which the Papists asserted
that the doctrine of private confession was inculcated. It
seems, moreover, that at this period the Reformer wrote an
exposition of John vi. 37 — 40,* for the instruction of the
Saxon court, at the desire of Spalatin. But his industry
was not seconded by the Elector's secretary with any kin-
dred zeal in forwarding the printing of his writings. The
Elector was apprehensive of offending the Emperor by in-

* See Walch. VII. pp. 2565—2575.

294 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEIl.

1521. fringing the edict, and the printing was intentionally post-
poned, to Luther's excessive annoyance ; so that he was
obliged to expostulate strongly with Spalatin, and insist on
compliance with lus wishes. But even when he received his
Treatise on Confession, printed by John Luft of Wittenberg,
he was vexed by discovering the grossest inaccuracies in the
execution, and directed that the Postils should be printed by
Lotther.

A brief writing of this period, in a catechetical form, gives
his " extempore answers '' to propositions alleged against him
as heretical by his adversaries, taken from his " Babylonian
Captivity," and his " Assertion." It is valuable as a concise
representation of his doctrines.

Question. The bread and wine remain in the Sacrament of
the altar ; and there is no transubstantiation ?

huther. I do not condemn such an opinion ; but deny it to
be an article of faith, for there is no such doctrine as transub-
stantiation in Scripture : but the body and blood of Christ
are in the Sacrament.

Q. The Sacrament is not entire and perfect in one kind only ?

Luther. Not as regards the kinds, but perfect as regards
the substance. The whole of Christ is in either kind ; but
the Sacrament is not perfect without both.

Q. All persons are impious who object to the laity com-
municating in both kinds ?

Luther. Yes ; they are guilty of a breach of the institution
of Christ.

Q. It is a palpable and impious error to offer mass for the
dead ?

Luther. Truly so as regards the mass or sacrament itself;
but not as regards prayer in the Sacrament. For it is the
nature of the Sacrament that each one must partake of it for
liimself ; he cannot do so for another.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 295

Q. A baptized person cannot, if he will, lose salvation by 1521.
any sins whatever, provided he have faith ?

Luther. Because faith does away with all sins ; and he who
has faith cannot sin wilfully.

Q. No one has a right to impose anything upon a Christian
without his consent ; and whatever is so imposed, is imposed
in a tyrannical spirit ?

Luther. Clearly so ; for Paul says (Coloss. ii.), " Beware
lest any man spoil you, after the tradition of men."

Q. It is not necessary to confess one's secret sins to a
prelate or priest ; but it is lawful to disclose such sins to any
brother or sister ?

Luther. Because the duty of confessing such sins cannot
be proved from Holy Scripture.

Q. Whoever shall confess his sins of his own accord to any
brother privately, and shall amend his life, is absolved from
all his sins?

Luther. Yes ; for Christ says to all Christians, " Whatso-
ever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.'^

Q. The circumstances of sins, the time, place, person, and
all that is external are equal, and to be entirely disregarded ?

Luther. Christ has made no mention of such points in his
law.

Q. The single circumstance to be considered is, that sin
has been done ?

Luther. Yes ; God accepteth no man's person.

Q. Marriage cannot be prohibited, nor when contracted be
dissolved, for any cause except too near afl&nity or consan-
guinity ?

Luther. So the law of God declares, although the law of
the Pope says otherwise.

Q. All baptized Christians are equally priests, that is, have
the same power in the Word and Sacraments ?

296 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. Lnther. For Peter declares (1 Peter ii.), " Ye are a royal
priesthood." But they do not all enjoy the functions of the
ministry, but only those ordained to that power.

Q. Any deacon or layman may ordain priests, consecrate
churches and bells, and confirm children ?

Luther. That is, these meaner offices ought to be committed
to those of less account in the Church ; not to bishops, whose
business is to preach the Gospel.

Luther's almost superhuman energy in controversial and
theological writings did not prevent his keeping a steady eye
on the course of events. In him the man of s'udy and the
man of action were united. His large correspondence kept
him accurately and promptly informed of all that was passing
amongst the reforming party ; the movements in the Papist
body were also known to him ; and every rumour of public
events was carried to his mountain. On most of these, as
they occurred, his letters preserve his spontaneous judgments,
delivered with his characteristic turn of thought. The death
of a bishop who had been one of his most virulent opponents
at AVorms, lie interpreted as a sign of God's Avrath and indig-
nation against the Papists. On hearing that Chaiies' chief
chamberlain was dead, and had left his master a million of
gold pieces, '' How confident," he exclaimed, " is Christ, that
he is not appalled by mountains of gold ! " The insurrection
in Spain, and the war with France, which had already broken
out in Navarre and in the Low Countries, drew from him
the prophecy, that the Emperor would continue to be en-
tangled in wars throughout his career ; that he would never
enjoy prosperity ; but would pay the penalty of the impiety
of others for repudiating to the face by their counsel the
truth at Worms : and that Germany would be involved in
calamity with him, because she had assented to impiety.*

* Do Welti', II. p. 30.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 297

" But God \>dll know his own." His eye rested continually 1521.
on Wittenberg, where the horizon seemed the brightest with
hope. Philip was lecturing in the Colossians, Amsdorf in the
Hebrews. " How I Avish/' Luther wrote to them, " that I
could be a scholar in your lecture-room." He suggested that
a sermon should be delivered on the afternoons of Sa"nts'
days, to keep the people from the games and drinking which
had converted the holidays of the Church to a use very dif-
ferent from that which they had been intended to serve.
And sensible of the importance of religious culture for society
generally, and especially that most influential portion of it,
the wife, mother, and sister, he entreated Melancthon, after
the example of Origen, to establish a lecture in the Scriptures
for women only, and to become '' a German bishop as he was
already a Latin bishop." He was desirous of re-introduc-
ing lay-preaching according to the custom of the primitive
Church. It was his constant regret and complaint that
Melancthon, with a wife and children, was so slenderly fur-
nished with the needful, and he was repeatedly demanding an
increase of salary for him from the Court. Then the plague
was reported to be at Wittenberg ; and his afffection took the
alarm lest Philip, on whom, under God, his hopes for Ger-
many were built, should be cut ofi", and his safety Avas to be
at once provided for by his temporary removal to a distance.
So richly did he deem Wittenberg endowed with labourers in
the Gospel field, that he projected himself undertaking the
office of theological teacher at Cologne or at Erfurth, or of
travelling as a missionary through Germany, as soon as ever
he should quit his concealment. And it is a proof how alive
he had become to the necessities of the times, that almost all
his works in the Wartburg were written in German. Yet
notwithstanding the daily progress of the Reformation, his
mind was full of forebodings of evil. His friend Lupin
Rhadheim, to whom, together with Carlstadt, he had dedi-

298 THE LIFK OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. cated liis Commentary on the Galatians, had been called to
rest. " How I envy him," Luther exclaimed, " his happy
death ! I see daily more and more clearly from my watch-
tower the signs of God^s wrath, which is so great against a
wicked generation, that T fear few except infants are saved
from the jaws of Satan."

But if all Germany passed under Luther's review from his
mount of observation, the Reformer himself, although absent
in flesh, was never more really present in spirit with his
countrymen than at this epoch. From the heights of the
Wartburg, say his French biographers, he loomed upon the
eye of all Germany.* A remarkable stage had been reached
in the progress of the Reformation, that transition period in
mental revolutions, when thoughts which have long animated
one heart are transferred with such vital power to the hearts
of others as to cause their presentation no longer in mere
word or writing, but in act and life ; and the field of specula-
tion is changed for that of practice. None of these alterations
in religious and social life were indeed made at Luther's direct
instigation : on the contrary, the part which he played in re-
ference to them was to moderate and control, rather than to
stimulate and impel, but they were not the less legitimate de-
ductions from his system of doctrine. Some extravagant
abuses of his teaching were attempted, as is natural in a period
of commotion ; for ambitious and unscrupulous men are every-
where to be found, Avho are sure to seize the opportunity which
such a state of things holds out to them, for deluding others
and aggrandizing themselves. But with these excesses Luther
is by no means chargeable : on the contrary, he used his
utmost endeavours and exerted all his influence to nip the evil
in the bud. And it is thus from this point in his history that

* " II plainc invisible du liaut du chateau."— Michelet. I. p. 93. Audin,
II. p. 138.

THE LIFE 0¥ MARTIN LUTHER. 299

some of the most distinctive features of his character, which 1521.
had before lain obscured, are drawn out by the force of cir-
cumstances, and placed in a strong light.

The first open inroad on the papal system was the infringe-
ment of the law of clerical celibacy. Three priests, Bartholo-
mew Bernard Feldkirchen, as already alluded to, and a pastor
in the Mansfeld district, and James Seidler, pastor of Glas-
hutte, with the sanction of their respective Churches, entered
upon the married state. Feldkirchen, being pastor of Kem-
berg, within the civil jurisdiction of the Elector of Saxony,
appealed from the Archbishop of Mentz, who had expressed
himself dissatisfied with his reasons for violating the customs
of the Roman Church, as stated in a letter addressed to him,*
to Frederic ; and he found so much favour with the Elector,
that when the Archbishop demanded that the culprit should
be sent to him to Halle, the answer was returned that the
Elector would not act the part of a constable. But Seidler
and the Mansfeld pastor were less fortunate. f Being under
the jurisdiction of Duke George of Saxony, Seidler was deli-
vered up by that prince to the Bishop of Misnia, who con-
signed him to prison, where he died or was put to death, and
the Mansfeld married clergyman was thrown into prison by
the Archbishop of Mentz. It has been seen that the mar-
riage of the secular clergy in these first instances at once re-
ceived the approbation of Luther. It was decisive in his eyes
that the Scriptures called the prohibition of matrimony " a
doctrine of devils ; " and there was no self-imposed vow of
celibacy in the case of the secular clergy as in the case of the
monks. GermanyJ had been very reluctant to obey the Pope

* This was wT-itten for Feldkirchen by Melancthon. See it in Walch.
XV. pp. 2354, &c.

t Bretsclineider, I. pp. 418, &c.

X Et accepit jugum hoc infelix Germauia sero admodum nee nisi
coacta. — Feldkirchen's Apology.

300 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. in the matter of celibacy from tlie first; and the Reformer
had the vivid German appreciation of domestic life; and^
writing from the Wartburg to his friend Gerbel^ the lawyer,
of Strasburg, to congratulate him on having entered the con-
jugal state, observes, "Even in the depths of poverty matri-
mony appears to me a paradise." But this beginning of
throwing off the papal yoke could not stop short at one class
or one tyrannical restriction.

The renouncing of the monastic vow by several monks of
the A-Ugustine Order soon followed. This was done at the
fervent recommendation of Gabriel Zwilling or Didymus, a
brother of the fraternity, who had been elevated into conse-
quence by his pulpit talents in Luther's absence — for, not-
withstanding a small stature and a very slender voice, he was
possessed of an attractive popular eloquence; and he pro-
claimed to his Order, in the little Augustine church at Wit-
tenberg, that " there was no salvation under the cowl." And
it shortly appeared that public opinion went with him in this
denunciation. Such monks as seceded from the convent were
received into society with general welcome and applause;
whilst the lingerers in the Augustine and Carmelite monaste-
ries in the town fell under such violent displeasure from the
students and townspeople that they were in constant dread of
an attack upon their asylums. Before long the Augustine
monastery* became deserted by all except Conrad Helt, the
prior, who alone did not relish the new proceedings ; and the

* The Augustines of Misnia and Thuringia in December or January,
1521-2, resolved — 1. That each monk might remain in his cloister or
not, as he pleased, for " in Christ there was neither Jew nor Greek,
monk nor layman." 2. Might please himself in garb and food. B. That
love should be guide in all things. 4. That beggary be abolished.
5. That such monks as had the gift of preacliing should devote them-
selves to that office ; the rest learn some handicraft to support them-
selves and their brethren. 6. Obedience should be shown to the
superior from love, to avoid scandals. — Walch. XV. p. 2333.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEK. 301

Elector forwarded invitations to monks in Misnia and else- 1521.
where to come and occupy the vacant cells.

Carlstadt had openly declared himself in some theses in
favour of the abolition of the monastic vow : but his reasons
were not satisfactory to Luther's mind. Melancthon also
entertained the same sentiments as Carlstadt ; and letters on
this and other subjects, now prominently throAvn into the
crucible of popular discussion, were continually passing be-
tween Wittenberg and the Wartburg. Bnt notwithstanding,
Luther was at first disposed to place himself in the gap, and
stay the work of demolition : his temper was strongly con-
servative ; all that he had already done had, in fact, been con-
servative, in restoration, or rather, in retention, in act as
well as in profession, of the Divine authority of the Scrip-
tures : and all that he had done had been accompanied by
sharp pangs of self-accusation and reproach, which nothing
but a sense of duty had availed to compose and overcome.
And he now felt, that to throw open the convent gates to the
monks and nuns, and let each who would settle down in some
domestic sphere, would be not only a blow at the foundations
of Popery, but an entire revolution in Christian society. He
anticipated, what hasty innovators always overlook, the great
peril which must ever attend the loosening an important stone
in an old fabric. '^ "What ! " he exclaimed, " let the monks take
wives ! At least they shall not obtrude a wife upon me ! "
" The friars," he wrote to Melancthon, "have of their own
accord preferred a life of celibacy. They are not like the
priests ordained of God, and so absolved from the command-
ments of men." But as he pondered on the subject with more
searching deliberation, the recollection of his own conventual
life came powerfully before his mind — the idleness, gluttony,
and licentiousness, which his own experience had proved to him
were the usual inmates of the cloister — and a ray of hope broke
in upon his reveries, that, perhaps, even now Providence might

302 THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. be preparing a way for the rescue of thousands of souls from
" the hell of the monastery." In his own visits of inspection
as temporary superintendent^ he had always acted upon the
principle that a vow undertaken before the age of discretion
was not binding. But what he required^ was to release
others, as well as the very young, from a chain which galled
soul and body. He fell upon his knees and prayed earnestly
that the Lord Jesus would vouchsafe his teaching, and of his
mercy grant that freedom which he alone could bestow. In
this examination of the subject, he proposed to himself a sim-
ple but conclusive question, "Is the monastic vow conform-
able or otherwise to the spirit of the Gospel and the Word of
God ? " And, by applying this test, he arrived at the conclu-
sion, that the monastic vow, if based on the notion of human
merit, and the supposition that God's anger is appeased by
the denial of passions which he has himself implanted in
the breast, must be opposed, not more to nature, than to
the fundamental doctrine of Scripture, salvation by Christ
alone through faith, and therefore quite irreconcileable
with the primary obligation of obedience to the Divine
Word.

Melancthon had tried the solution of the question by an-
other mode, and dwelt on the impossibility of fulfilling the
vow as decisive against it. Luther rejected this reasoning,
because all the commands of God are, in strict language, im-
possible of fulfilment, but they are not on that account not
binding. " The difference," he wrote to Philip, " between the
commands of God and the monastic vow is, that the latter is
self-imposed. Make that, then, your ground of dispensing
with it, and not the impossibility of fulfilment." But even so,
he was not satisfied. '' We must annul the vow," he said, " not
a posteriori, but a priori." He was resolved so thoroughly
to sift the subject, as to satisfy his own conscience and the
consciences of others, that the overthrow of monasticism was

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 303

demanded by the principles of Sacred Writ. He dreaded 1521.
nothiug more than hasty acts undertaken, not on the verdict
of conscience, but the spur of some excited feeling, which,
with the excitement, would be sure to pass away, and leave the
mind to the stings and goads of a wounded conscience. The
solution which he had already arrived at, was satisfactory to his
judgment as far as it went ; but it did not release all monks and
nuns from their self-imposed obligations, but only those who
had incurred them under the mistaken idea that the cowl aad
the veil are a passport to heaven. The question was thus left
to be determined by the individual conscience, for, if the vow
had not been undertaken under such an illusion, the command
remained unrepealed, " Vow, and pay unto the Lord thy
vows.^' He anxiously longed for a meeting with Melancthon
in some secret place, to discuss and decide upon a point of
such extreme moment. But gradually he assumed a more
decided position ; and without any reference to individual in-
tention, pronounced the vow itself, in every case, impious.
" It is certain,^^ he subsequently Avrote to Melancthon, " that
the vow is in itself impious. We have only to trust wholly in
the Gospel. I thank our gracious Saviour and Lord Jesus
Christ, for the firm and unhesitating conviction which he has
aflPorded me.^' His long process of reflection on this subject
was marked at the different stages, by the writings which he
gave to the public : first, " Conclusions on Vows and the
Spiritual Life of the Cloister ;" secondly, " Considerations and
Information respecting the Monastic and other Vows ; ^' and
last, came his mature and final judgment, in a treatise " On
Spiritual and Monastic Vows." *

This work was dedicated to his father, John Luther, in a
striking letter. He assured his dear father that there was now
nothing of which he was so strongly convinced, as of the reli-

* It was printed in the January following.

304 THE LII'E OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. gious obligation of a command from God. He had been a
monk for nearly sixteen years. He had entered the convent
in his twenty-second year, c<(ntrary to his father's wish. Ter-
rors from heaven, not love of the belly, had driven him to
such a step; and he had uttered an enforced vow under the
dread of immediate death. But his father^s expostulation
with him, " Did you never hear that children should obey
their parents ? " had sunk deep into his heart. God, how-
ever, had overruled all for good. He had become a monk to
learn what the wisdom and sanctity of the monastery are by
his own experience : and although his life had not been with-
out sin, it had been without crime. " Well, then," he con-
tinued, " you are still a father, and I a son ; all my vows are
worthless. On your side is Divine authority, on mine nothing
but human presumption. Celibacy, which they applaud with
bursting cheeks, is nothing without obedience to God's com-
mands. It is nowhere enjoined ; obedience to God is every-
where enjoined. Celibacy has been tricked out by Papist art
in feathers stolen from conjugal chastity. Will you, then,
my dear father, now exert your parental authority to release
me from the monastery ? To give you no cause to boast, the
Lord has been beforehand with you, and has himself released
me. I may still, indeed, wear the monk's garb and tonsure,
but what of that ? The cowl belongs to me, not I to the
cowl. My conscience is free, and that is the true and real
freedom. I am, therefore, now a monk, and yet no monk, a
new creature, not of the Pontiff, but of Christ. Christ is my
Bishop, Abbot, Prior, Lord, Father, and Master. I know no
other any more. And I trust that he took one son from you,
that through that one he may comfort many of his sons.
What greater joy could you experience ! And what if the
Pope should kill me, or sentence me to hell ! Once killed, he
will never be able to raise me to life and kill me asrain ; and
as for his sentence, I pray that I may so sin in his eyes, as to

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 305

sin unto death, and never be absolved by him. I am con- 1521.
fident the day is approaching when that kingdom of abomina-
tion and perdition shall fall. How glorious to be accounted
worthy to be the first victims of the fire or the sword, that our
blood might cry to heaven and hasten the day of his destruc-
tion. But if we be not counted worthy to seal our testimony
with our blood, at least let us pray and entreat for this mercy
to bear testimony with our life, and with our voice, that
Jesus Christ is our only Lord God, blessed for ever ! Amen.
In whom, farewell, beloved father, and salute my mother,
your Margaret, with all my kinsfolk in Christ.'^

Luther's position in his Treatise is, that the whole monastic
life is built upon lies. Vows were to be kept, but only true
vows. The vow of St. Paul, in the Acts, was nothing but a
vestige of the ancient Jewish law. St. Anthony, the prince
of monks, had taught that nothing should be attempted on
any authority but that of Scripture ; and so he lived in the
desert unwedded, but bound by no vow of celibacy. Now,
Christ declared, as to the way of salvation, " I am the way,
the truth, and the life.'' Monasticism had fabricated some
other way. Monasticism turned Scripture into a lie in other
points. It distinguished between the counsels and the pre-
cepts of the Gospel, and also between the state of perfection
and the state of imperfection of the Christian life. Celibacy
was the state of perfection, and the precepts were addressed to
all, the counsels only to such as might be disposed to listen to
them in order to earn a higher condition of bliss hereafter.
All these distinctions were lies. The Evangelist declared
Christ went up into a mountain, sat down, opened his mouth,
and taught. To teach must be to deliver precepts. And
Christ himself declared of his teaching, "Whosoever shall
break one of the least of these commandments, and teach men
so, the same shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven."

VOL. I. X

306 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. He called " commands " what the Roman Sodom and Go-
morrah entitled " counsels." Christ said, " Agree with thine
adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him, lest
at any time thiue adversary deliver thee to the judge, and the
judge deliver thee to the officer, and thou be cast into prison.
Verily, I say unto thee, thou shalt by no means come out
thence till thou hast paid the uttermost farthing." Here was
a punishment and an eternal one denounced ; but the moles
and bats of Paris would know that a punishment could not be
threatened for neglecting a counsel. As to celibacy being
'' the state of perfection, salvation, and glory," as Monasticism
babbled, Christ and his Apostles attributed all to faith, and
never spoke of celibacy as a more perfect state or anything
meritorious in itself, but only as more free from cares and
the tribulation of the flesh, and therefore better adapted for
preaching God^s Word and making progress in faith. Celibacy
was represented in Scripture as the handmaid of faith and
other Christian graces; but nothing more. But out of the
numerous counsels of Christ, as Monkery styled his com-
mands, the Papists had selected three, and only three — obe-
dience, poverty, and chastity — as the subjects of a special vow.
But the monkish vow of obedience meant the overthrow of all
obedience. It would run, if it spoke truly, thus — " O God,
I vow that I will not, as thy Gospel bids me, be subject to all
my superiors, but, instead of that, to only one." The votaries
of poverty were notoriously the most avaricious and the
wealthiest of mankind. Chastity only remained to the pro-
fessors of " the state of perfection," and the adherents to the
"counsels;" but theirs was a chastity drowned in lusts.
The monastic vow, moreover, contradicted faith, for it denied
Christ, and said, " I am Christ, I can save myself by my ovm
works." It contradicted Christian liberty, charity, obedience
to parents, and the love of one's neighbour. It contradicted

THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER. 307

reason, " that gross light of nature, too dull to be a sure 1521.
guide in affirmatives, but infallible in negatives,^^ which
proved its fulfilment impossible. And it was a blasphemy
against baptism — " the all in all of Christians,^' for the bap-
tismal vow contained in its terms the whole of a Christian's
duties. At the conclusion reference was made to the passage
in St. Paul's first Epistle to Timothy,'^ wherein, speaking of
widows, he says, "When they have begun to wax wanton against
Christ they will marry, having damnation, because they have
cast off their first faith." Such a passage did not contain any
warrant for vows, for the widows in question were under no
vow, nor did St. Paul object to their re-marrying, on the con-
trary, he said, "I will therefore that the younger widows
marry ;" but his objection was to their marrying heathen
husbands, which he called " waxing wanton against Christ,"
and " casting off their first faith."

It was not to be expected that in the bandying of re-
proaches between two rival creeds, such as Romanism and
Protestantism, the first deviation in act from the system of
the former, furnishing an easy loophole for misrepresentation,
Avould be allowed to pass without severe strictures from its
devotees. Aleander remarked, that " the contest was that of
the flesh against the Spirit;" and from his day down to the
present, Romanists have not ceased to decry the Reformation
as a movement originating in carnal motives, and to ground
their assertion on this very fact, that the evangelical clergy,
as their first overt act of secession from Popery, took to
themselves wives, and that Luther himself eventually became
a married man. It has even been asserted that Luther's
motive in entering on and prosecuting the career of a
Reformer was simply this : to cease to be a monk, and to

* 1 Tim. V.

X 2

308 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. raarry. But such a supposition is too preposterous to be seri-
ously combated : it is so utterly incomprehensible and incre-
dible, that Luther's groans over his spiritual corruptions in
his cell at Erfurth, his agonizing investigation of the great
difficulty, " How can a man be just with God? " his standing
alone at Worms, exposed to countless perils, risking his life
and all he had on earth, with the intervening acts in his his-
tory, were all based on a shrewd, selfish calculation of carnal
gratification, to be realised in the obscure and distant future.
If a man can believe this, he is far removed beyond the reach
of argument.

But the attack on the Reformation itself, that is, on its
maintainers generally, on the ground just stated, carries with
it a greater semblance of probability. The objection, how-
ever, on this score, is at once done away with, if it is borne in
mind that impurity in the priestly character was not only re-
cognised and allowed by the Pope, but made a subject of gain, a
taxable indulgence whence a revenue was derived to the Holy
See :* and that concubinage was practised from the Pope him-
self to the lowest grade of the ecclesiastical corporation, so
notoriously, that in most cases the veil of decency was judged
superfluous. M. Audin himself observes, that the clergy who
married took to themselves as wives, for the most part, the
women who had previously been their concubines. Where,
then, is the gratification of the flesh ? The marriage knot was
substituted in place of a conventional liaison : the conscience
was relieved ; it had before been callous : the truths which the
Reformation unsealed and disclosed made it tender and suscep-

* Article XCI. of the "Centum Gravamina" stated, — "That in
most places Bishops and their officials not only tolerated concubinage,
upon paying money, in the more dissolute sort of monks, but exacted
it also in the more coutiuent, saying, it was now at their choice to
have ronpubines or not."

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 309

tible ; but there was no other diiaPerenee of any account. And 1521.
this description of the wives of the evangelical clergy will
equally apply to the wives of thj monks on M. Audin's own
statement^ which is, that the monks passed from the refectory
to the kitchen, from the library to the dining-room, and made
their cook or their waiting woman the partner of their mar-
ried life;* which, considering the moral condition of the
monasteries, as painted from the life by Erasmus and Hutten,
and other writers of the time, who knew their subject well,
simply means, that the monks followed in the footprints of
the secular clergy. Again, it may be confidently asked.
What gratification of the flesh is there here? Instead of a
vow which was habitually broken, and was only an inlet to
unfettered carnality, a vow is mutually undertaken which re-
stricts every roving propensity by its direction to one special
and exclusive object. And certainly it will hardly be pre-
tended that in Italy, or in the south of Europe generally, in
those countries still Romanist, where the monk and celibacy
yet flourish, the passions are less warm, or the life more pure
and chaste, than in those Protestant regions which have a
married body of clergy. The direct contrary is a known fact.
Enforced celibacy, therefore, is the triumph of sensuality;
doing away with it is the rebellion of man's better nature
against, and triumph over sensuality. For all supernatural
virtue is an ironical term for preternatural vice.

Nor is there any large amount of truth in the more general
statement that the Reformation was a movement impelled by
the engine of worldly motives. Luther reproached the Papists
with " turning the Church of God into a market house, and
rendering everything venal, even the forgiveness of sins ; "
but Popery was unable to return this taunt on one Avho, like

* " Du refectoire a la cuisine, de la bibliotheque a la salle a manger :
c'est leur cuisiniere on leur servante qu'ils epousent ordiuairemcnt." —
II. p. 201.

310 . THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1621. his colleague Melancthoii, had been teaching divinity at Wit-
tenberg for a hundred florins a year. It was no doubt a great
auxiliary to the cause of the Reformation that, by half the
lands in Germany being the property of the Church, exempt
from the taxation which fell on lands in private possession,
and by the rapacity as well as other delinquencies of the
clergy, as a body, the papal system had become odious to tiie
people, and the man who raised a voice against it was wel-
comed as a national deliverer. But whatever sway such mo-
tives may have exercised with the crowd who thronged round
the banner of the Reformation, at least they were extremely
subordinate in the mind of him whose hands had lifted it on
high. It is a singular feature in Luther's character and writ-
ings, how very little the abuses of the ecclesiastical system
seem to have moved and influenced him. Even indulgences
drew his attention and elicited his censure as trenching upon
the ground of scriptural doctrine. His arguments against
Romanism were, that she had falsified truth, sealed up Scrip-
ture, and substituted for it her own visions and lies. And no
defect less vital than this could have justified him in his own
eyes in the path which he pursued. No merely human
teacher ever more strictly 'Haid the axe to the 7'oot of the
ti'ce.'' And when allusions to abuses or to superstitious prac-
tices, such as the morals of the Pope, cardinals, and bishops,
their luxury and splendour, or the use of rosaries, sprinkling
with holy water, &c., occur in his writings, they are generally
incidental, and rather employed in the way of argumentum
ad hominem than as possessing much weight or importance in
his own judgment. Up to a certain point the Reformation
itself was absolutely Luther. And in fact he and those par-
tisans who formed the centre of the movement were them-
selves, it must be remembered, of the clerical body, or chiefly
so, and therefore, whilst they put their all to hazard, and jeo-
pardised their lives, which some of them were privileged to lose

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 311

in the cause tliey had espoused^ they went completely against 1521,
their own worldly interests, for they destroyed with their own
hands the harvest of Church wealth in which they might have
been sharers.'^ If, on the other hand, it be conjectured that
the desire of notoriety, the ambition of fame, was the in-
spiring motive of Luther's conduct, this, too, is negatived by his
modesty and humility, the honesty and sincerity, the longing
for death,t and the real godliness which his familiar corres-
pondence so abundantly discloses, and moreover by the sacri-
fice of personal glory and popularity to the weal of others,
and to truth, which, as these pages will hereafter show, he
readily made as soon as ever duty demanded it. But to
return to the narrative.

Another innovation followed so quickly upon the abroga-
tion of the vow of celibacy, as to be almost simultaneous with
it, Gabriel Z willing, flattered by the success of his pulpit
declamations on one point, turned his eloquence next against
the abuse of the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, in the
adoration of the Host, and the administration of one kind
only. From this it followed that the votive, private, or
corner mass was a gross impiety. Again popular feeling
went with him ; and so strong a sensation was produced by
his words, that the Prior of the Augustines was compelled to
discontinue private masses in the convent church. This
change was of course reported to Luther, and he gave it his
approval, qualified only by the apprehension that in the haste
and hurry for change, the conscience might not be sufliciently
instructed in the reasons which authorised and demanded it.
On all Saints' Day he wrote an address to his Augustine
brethren, and accompanied it with a treatise " On the Aboli-

* Thus Bruck writes to the Elector — " If the monks abolish the
private mass, they will find the difference in their kitchen and cellar."

t Melancthon writes of him — " Scio quam cupiat ipse dissolvi et
esse cum Christo."

312 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. tion of the Private Mass," which was printed iu the January
following.

That the Augustines had removed from them the abuse of
tlie mass, had filled him, he said, with joy; it was proof
that the Word of Christ was not idle ; but yet his joy was
tempered by fear, lest they might not all have reached so
arduous a decision Avith equal constancy and a clear con-
science. Every one knew the day after day plots of the idola-
trous pontiffs and priests of Baal against such as were weak
in the faith ; how one extolled indulgences, another spread
his snares for the consciences of the priests who had married,
and in the emulation of wickedness every mind was teeming
with some monster. They must be prepared for the most
bitter taunts, to be reviled as reckless innovators even by
those who were held in estimation for prudence and piety.
It was true that blasts would blow and torrents break over
them in vain if they were founded on the Rock ; but if their
foundation was sand, their ruin was imminent. He knew the
wrestlings of conscience by his own experience ; and it was
only with the strongest balm of Gilead, the most plain and
incontrovertible texts of Scripture, that he had been able to
strengthen his own resolution singly to oppose the Pope, and
proclaim him Antichrist, his bishops Antichrist's apostles, his
universities brothels, whilst his trembling heart was throb-
bing, and his perplexity suggesting the inquiry, " Art thou
the only wise man ? '' He thanked God that his faith was
now firm and settled, and he could meet the Papist arguments
with the triumph of conviction, as the shore laughs at the
storm. He was most anxious that the Augustines should be
possessed with an equally deep and rooted conviction that in
doing what they did they were doing what is right, so as to
esteem the judgment of the whole world as but fluttering
leaves and straws. It was easy to shut the ears to the voices
of the world, but who could shut the ears to the voice of his

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 313

own conscience, or to the inginuations of Satan, or the inqui- 1521.
sition of God ? Hence the necessity of being sheathed in the
armour of God's sure Word, and built upon the Rock.

The Treatise demolished that sacerdotalism which is the
corner-stone of Popery, and on which the sacrifice of the
mass is based. Quoting all the passages in which the term
priest occurs in the New Testament, he showed that in every
case it is applied to all and each of Christ's true people.
" Come then, you famous priests, produce, I challenge you to
it, a single syllable or letter from the Gospels or Epistles to
prove that your order is a separate priesthood from the com-
mon priesthood of Christians. And the pretence of a peculiar
priesthood being totally unscriptural, it follows that the laws
of the Pope are nothing but figments, the papal priesthood a
mere mask and idol, and the so-called sacrifice of the mass
the climax of idolatrous impiety. Christ is the only sacri-
ficing priest of Christians. He has made one sacrifice once
for all, of which the mass is a commemoration.^^ He dwelt
upon his favourite passage in 1 Cor. xiv. in demonstration
that the right of prophecying or teaching originally belonged
to every Christian — " Ye may all prophecy one by one, that
all may learn, and all may be comforted." He continued,
" Behemoth and his spawn may burst to learn that Christ
gave the right of teaching and judging to all Christians, and
did not set up one little Lucifer to tower over the rest. The
mass-mongering papistical priesthood is Satan's handiwork."
Proceeding in this strain, he instituted a comparison between
Christ's bishops, " married laymen of good report," and the
Pope's bishops and priests, " with their razored heads, oily
fingers, and pharisaical vestments.'^ And he concluded with
what he styled " an allegory of the synagogue," viz. that the
priests of Bethaven, who waited on the worship of the golden
calf, were to the Jewish what the Papacy is to the Christian
Church.

314 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. At the end of this Treatise he resumed his address to his
Augustine brethren of Wittenberg — ''You, too, have got a
Bethaven, that Church of All Saints, which the Elector
Frederic has received by inheritance, and by Papist deceit has
magnificently adorned. How many poor might have been
relieved at the price of such costliness ! How many friends
might he have made to himself with the mammon of un-
righteousness, to welcome him into everlasting dwellings !
But it is much to be feared that the wealth of princes is
seldom worthy to be put to a pious use, for it is generally
acquired after the example of Nimrod. But, by the grace of
God, we may indulge a pride that our Elector is by no means
tyrannical, foolish, hasty, or severe, but a great lover of truth,
calm in his judgments, an object of terror to the bad and of
respect to the good. Finish what you have begun. By such
opportunities God invites you, and stretches out his hand."*

Luther underwent many dark struggles of spiritual conflict
by reason of his repudiating the private mass : his settled
conviction on the subject was turned into a weapon against
him by the devil, to drive him to despair. One night, he re-
counts that he awoke about midnight, and saw Satan standing
by his bedside. "Listen, Luther, learned, thrice learned
Doctor," the fiend said to him ; " for fifteen years you have
celebrated private mass : what if the private mass turns out
now to be idolatry, and what you adored to be simply bread
and wine ? " Luther answered, " I am an anointed priest,
anointed and consecrated by a bishop, and I acted in obe-
dience to my superiors in all that I did ; I pronounced the
words of Christ with seriousness, and with all the serious-
ness of my soul celebrated the mass. Thou knowest it well."
" Yes," replied Satan ; " but then you had no true faith or

* Luther mentions tlie same grievance, the Bcthaven of All Saints'
Church, in a letter to Spalatin.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 315

knowledge of Christ : you were no better tlian the Turks, or 1521,
than we devils, who believe the history of Christ, but have
him not as a Mediator and Saviour, but only as an angry
Judge. So you deemed Christ an angry Judge; you flew
to Mary and the Saints, and prayed them to mediate for
you. You robbed Christ of the glory due to him, and sacri-
ficed the mass as a Gentile or heathen. It was therefore
no mass at all, for there was no consecrating power present,
that is, no Christian faith. Again, you disobeyed the insti-
tution of Christ, and did not distribute of the elements to
others, but ate and drank alone. What sort of sacrament
or communion is this? Christ knows nothing of it. You
never once confessed Christ in the mass, as he enjoined, but
muttered some words in a whisper to yourself. And you were
ordained, contrary to the will of Christ, not to communicate
the Sacrament to others, but to sacrifice for the quick and
dead. What ordination is that? Or what kicd of mass did
you celebrate? What kind of baptism would it be, if one
baptized himself? or confirmation, to confirm one's self? or
ordination, absolution, unction, or marriage, to ordain, absolve,
anoint, or marry one's self. These are your seven sacraments.
How could you perform the communion for yourself alone,
any more than any other of the sacraments? Christ himself
did not take his sacrament himself alone ; he distributed of it
to his apostles. What sort of a minister have you been ? "
" But I sacrificed," Luther replied, re-grasping, as before, the
old weapons which he had used as a Papist, " in the faith of
the Church, according to the intention of the Church ; if I
did not believe aright, yet at least the Church did." "Where,"
Satan loudly rejoined to this reply, "where is the text of
Scripture which states that an impious and unbelieving man
can stand by Christ's altar and sacrifice in the faith of the
Church? How could the Church give you her intention?

316 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. And what is the iiitcatiou of the Church but that of Christ,
which is only to be learnt from his Word ? What, then, is
that intention which is contrary to Christ's AVord ? Blas-
phemous man ! in the private mass you contradicted the
clear words of Christ. Ordination for such a purpose is no
better than the baptism of a stone, or of a bell. You did
not celebrate the sacrament at all, but turned it into a source
of gain in blasphemy of Christ, serving not him but your own
belly." After these words, with a ghastly laugh the tempter
vanished. But it can hardly be supposed that Luther in-
tended that this apparition of, and colloquy with Satan,
should be understood literally ; it is far more probable that in
representing how the evil spirit can and often does employ the
conviction of truth to produce despair, he gives to the voice
within, suggested by the devil, an outward existence, as if
Satan in visible shape had uttered it.*

How was the Elector of Saxony engaged whilst this reli-
gious and social revolution was progressing with such rapid
strides in his dominions ? Audin says t that he was walking
in his pleasure grounds at Lochau with Horace or Juvenal in
his hand. But the season of the year (October) would hardly
suit such open-air studies ; and if it is necessary to fill up the
gaps in history by the aid of the imagination, a picture
nearer the truth would be, that of the aged and infirm
Frederic seated in his easy chair, with Spalatin at his elbow,
listening to his secretary as he read to him a letter lately
received from Luther, or a portion of the book of God, or
consoled him under the trials of age, infirmity, and public

* The account of the colloquy with Satan did not appear in any
earlier edition of the work than that of 1533. A barefooted monk,
Caspar Schatzgeyer, opposed Luther's conclusions on the mass and the
monastic vow ; but was quickly silenced.

t Histoirc de Luther, II. p. 193.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 317

troubles with some passages from the Tessaradecas. Frederic's 1521.
mind was made up as to the line of conduct which he should
pursue ; and without abandoning the caution and prudence
of his character, he was resolved to take truth as his pole-
star. " The straight line is always the shortest road/' was
his motto. How he acted in reference to the case of Feld-
kirchen has been already seen. And when the question of
the private mass was thus prominently brought into discus-
sion, his first efforts were directed to ascertaining the sense of
Scripture upon the subject. He appointed delegates from the
university, Jonas, Carlstadt, Melancthon, Platner, Amsdorf,
Doltz, and Jerome Schurf, to hold a conference with the
Augustine fraternity ; and the delegates discussed with them
for two days their reasons for the abolition of the private
mass, and received at their hands a written statement in jus-
tification of their proceedings. And the delegates made a
report to Frederic in approval of the sentiments of the
Augustines on all points save the rather material one of the
private and sole communion of one person, which was not so
certainly objectionable in the opinion of the delegates as in
that of the fraternity.* In other respects they adopted ex-
actly the views of Luther, that to call the mass " a good
work and a sacrifice," is to obscure the essential doctrine of
the Gospel— justification through Christ by faith alone; and
they implored the Elector so to act, that at the day of judg-
ment the reproach which had fallen on Capernaum might not
be applied to him, that Christ's ineffable goodness had been
vouchsafed in vain. But besides the difference between the

* The Augustines said " Nee unquam unus privatim seipsum com-
municasse legitur " — of which the delegates observed, " Quod autem
inter reliqua et hanc causam sui facte exponunt neminem privatim et
solum debere communicare, ea nobis quidem non satis firma videtur."
— Lat. Op. JeuEB, II. pp. 472, 473 ; and Walch. XV. p. 2342.

318 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. fraternity and the delegates on one material point, a further
difficulty was occasioned by the University as a body hesitat-
ing to sanction the report of the delegates. The Elector
therefore replied, that on a matter of so much moment, no
determination must be formed hastily; that if the Gospel was
clear on the subject, a more general consent would soon be
arrived at : he begged to be informed when the abuse of the
mass originated, and the apostolical usage ceased, and de-
manded what was to become of the endowments of chantries
if votive masses were done away with, and finally required
that order and tranquillity should be rigorously maintained
by all means."^ The delegates replied that the ancient col-
leges and monasteries had served as schools for the education
of Christian youth up to the age not only of Augustine but of
Bernard : that the foundation only of the more recent con-
vents, which did not date farther back than 450 years, was in
connexion with the mass : that the administration in both
kinds had continued unimpaired without question to the
time of Cyprian, and remained so still in the Eastern Church
to the present day : that the mass-book used by the Bishop
of Milan was without many of the additions to be found in
the Roman mass-book ; and that to offer the sacramental
bread as a sacrifice for the quick and the dead was blasphemy
and in the teeth of the express words of Christ. But as the
University declined to co-operate with the delegates, Frederic
preferred to leave the question undecided by any authoritative
settlement on his part for the present.

In the midst of his controversial labours and spiritual dis-
quietudes, the resentment of the Reformer in the Wartburg
was aroused to a towering height, by an unexpected piece of
intelligence forwarded to him, that the Archbishop of Mentz

* See his Instruction, Bretsch. I. p. 471.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 319

had re-established the indulgence traffic at Halle. It was 1521.
reported that he spoke of Luther as "the excommunicated
monk safe under bolts and bars.^^ Luther had been very in-
dignant with the Archbishop before^ on account of his severe
and crviel treatment of a married priest ; and this new intelli-
gence made the fire of his wrath flame with tenfold violence.
In this frame of mind Luther composed a treatise " Against
the Idol Worship at Halle." But his intended publication
quickly got wind, and the Archbishop despatched Capito and
Auerback {i.e. Stromer) to Wittenberg, to use their influence
with the Lutheran Professors to restrain Dr. Martin's im-
petuosity;, and prevent the step which he had been informed
he was on the point of taking. They visited Jonas and
Melancthon, and, as though incidentally, recommended that
Luther should spare the Archbishop.^ Their embassy, how-
ever, was ineffectual at Wittenberg ; but they next essayed
Frederic, and represented in lively colours the great evils of a
breach of peace, which Luther's violence must without fail
occasion. Frederic was so much moved that he assured the
Archbishop's delegates that he would not permit the publica-
tion of the treatise. The Edict of Worms dwelt in his me-
mory. And Spalatin was directed to convey to the Reformer
the electoral prohibition of his intended publication against
the Archbishop of Mentz. To this prohibition Luther rephed,
in very decided terms, in a letter to Spalatin of the 11th or
12th November : " I scarce ever read a less welcome letter
than your last, so that I have not only postponed my reply,
but had determined to send no reply at aU. First, I will
never endure that our Prince will not suffer me to write
against the Archbishop of Mentz, and disturb the public
peace. Rather I will destroy you, and our Prince, and every

* See Melancthon's account, Bret. I. p. 463.

320 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTIIEK.

1521. creature. If I resisted the Pope, the creator, why am I to bow
before his creature ? It is a fine excuse, forsooth, that the
public peace must not be disturbed, when God's eternal peace
is broken by such impious and sacrilegious doings of perdition.
Not so, Spalatin ! not so, my Prince ! For the sheep of
Christ I will resist with all my might that fell wolf, and make
him an example to others. I send the book which I had
already composed against him when your letter came, which
has not induced me to change a single syllable : but I had
intended to submit it to the judgment of Philip, to let him
make any alteration that he might think fit. Beware of not
forwarding the book to him. My determination is fixed. '^ ^

It was not long after this that Luther paid his secret visit
to Wittenberg, and there arranged, amongst other matters,
what part he should act towards the Archbishop. On his re-
turn to the Wartburg he wrote a letter to him on the ] st De-
cember, threatening to publish the treatise already composed
" Against the Idol at Halle,'' unless within fourteen days he
received a satisfactory answer from his Grace. He reminded
the Archbishop that he had twice before addressed him, but
in vain : he now addressed him once more, and would write in
German. He had himself before undertaken his Grace's de-
fence, and urged that the teaching of the indulgence commis-
saries must be without his knowledge : but the Archbishop
was now declaring to the Avhole world that by his own spon-
taneous choice he oppressed and robbed the poor folk. A
little spark oft gi'ew to a mighty fire. Every one had thought
that the poor monk must fall before the power of the Pope.
God, however, had ordained otherwise. And the same God
still lived, whose delight it was to break the cedars, and
abase the haughty Pharaohs. If the idol was not immedi-

* De Wette, II. p. 94.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 321

ately removed, divine truth would compel him to treat the 1521.
Archbishop as he had treated the Pontiff, to render him as
infamous as he had rendered Tetzel, and to demonstrate to all
the world the distinction between a bishop and a wolf. " His
Grace must, moreover, leave the married priests in peace ; or
else a voice would cry from the Gospel, ' Let the bishops first
pull the beam out of their own eye/ let them put away their
whores, before they call on honest men to put away their
lawful vdves." *

The most remarkable incident in the story is, that, before
the fourteen days had elapsed, an answer arrived from the
Archbishop in the following terms : —
" Dear Doctor,

"1 have received your letter, dated St. Catherine's Day,
with all good will and favour; but the matter to which you
refer has been remedied long since. It is my wish to be a
good Bishop and a good Christian Prince, so far as God's
grace, strength, and wisdom may be granted me ; and for this
I will truly pray and implore others to pray also. I know
that I can do nothing of myself, but stand in need of God's
grace; for I am a sinful man, subject to daily errors and
transgressions. There is no good in me without the grace of
God ; and I am a stinking dunghill in myself, as much as
others, if not more so. I have not wished to conceal from
you my good inclinations towards you, for I am more than
willing to show you grace and favour for Christ's sake. Bro-
therly and christian rebuke I can well bear. I hope the
merciful and good God will extend to me more grace, strength,
and patience in this and in other things, to live according to
his will. " Albert,

" With his own hand."t

* De Wette, II. p. 112. f Walch. XIX. p. 661.

VOL. I. Y

322 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. This singular letter was accompanied by an epistle from the
Archbishop's temporising chaplain, Capito, informing Luther
that the Archbishop had replied in a mild strain by his advice,
and recommending gentle handling of the sins and infirmities
of persons in high station, in order to promote the progress of
the Gospel. Luther left the Archbishop's letter unanswered,
and replied to the chaplain — " The view you take is downright
hypocrisy and a denial of Christian truth. What connexion
is there between a Christian and a flatterer? Christianity
is the most open and honest-dealing thing in the world. I
suspect that you have shaped your Cardinal into an egregious
hypocrite. If he is sincere in his professions, let him resign
his cardinal's mask and his episcopal pomp, and gird himself
to the ministry of the Word. You tell me that the married
priest, of whom I made mention, is now released from impri-
sonment. Released, indeed ! You made him first forswear
his wife against his conscience ! and your Cardinal writes
that that matter which I complained of has been long since
remedied. Are you tempting the Holy Ghost ? Inform your
Cardinal of my sentiments. I know not whether 1 ought to
praise his sincerity or reprobate his hypocrisy. If I thought
him sincere, O ! how gladly would I throw myself at his
feet."* Thus the matter remained in abeyance : the Treatise,
indeed, had found a deadlock in Spalatin's custody for the
present; but it Avas afterwards published.

As the duration of his solitude lengthened, Luther turned
a more longing eye towards Wittenberg. There was much
doing in his cherished town and University : every week was
marked by some fresh conversion, or some new step in the
opposite direction to Rome ; and the ire and insults of the
Papists were redoubled on each successive move in the pro-

* J)e, Wetto, II. pp. 129—134.

THE LIFE OF MAKTIN LUTHER. 323

gress of the evangelical tenets. With a view to comfort his 1521.
townspeople under the calumnious imputations which their
abolition of the most obnoxious usages of Rome drew upon
them, he addressed to them an exposition of the 36th Psalm,
and accompanied it with a letter, which ran in the highest
strain of religious confidence. " I have appeared/^ he said,
"before the Papists three several times, at Augsburg, at
Leipsic, and at Worms; but they have been always afraid to
show their faces at Wittenberg, and try their arguments by
the test of a public disputation. They tremble at the light as
the evil spirit at the name of the judgment day. Let them
bleed themselves dry with slandering us. We have the Scrip-
tures : they have not ; we stand in the plain : they sneak into
corners like mice." ^ At last, his desire to see Wittenberg
again, and to learn whether the reports which reached him
stated the truth, grew too strong to be repressed ; and under
the effectual disguise of his knightly character, and the con-
duct of his faithful attendant, about the end of November,
as has been mentioned, he passed unobserved through the
streets, and halted at the door of Amsdorf^s house. His
most intimate friends were privately apprised of his pre-
sence ; and soon a group of Professors surrounded the
strange-looking knight with the long beard. In such so-
ciety once more met together, the moments passed winged
with delight. All that he heard received his approval, and
drew forth warm expressions of gratitude to God ; the only
drawback was, that when he mentioned his recent treatises,
his friends were found to be quite in the dark respecting
them; Spalatin, in fact, had continued the policy against
which Luther had before so warmly remonstrated, and sup-
pressed them. Seizing a pen, he wrote immediately to the

* De Weite, II. p. 63.

y2

324 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEK.

1521. Elector's secretary :—" Amidst the endearments of my friends
I have not been spared some admixture of wormwood. It is
of no use for you to row against the tide. If my writings can-
not be printed at Wittenberg, I will have them printed else-
where. And if the copies have been lost^ or you have retained
them, be assured that my spirit will become so embittered,
that I shall handle the same subjects with far greater vehe-
mence hereafter. All that I see and hear rejoices me. May
the Lord comfort the hearts of those who wish well ; although
upon my road I was so vexed with rumours of agitations and
commotions, that I have resolved to compose a public exhort-
ation to peace and quiet immediately on my return to my
wilderness. Do not let the Elector know of my visit, for rea-
sons which you are aware of,

" Given in Philip's company at Amsdorff's house."
The postscript to this letter mentions a Latin Bible, in the
possession of Spalatin, which Luther requested might be sent to
him ; and in the next letter addressed to Spalatin after his re-
turn to the Wartburg, mention is made of a Greek Testament,
which he desired to have forwarded to Philip, to be despatched
to him with some other books. From these directions, added to
the fact, that previously to this visit no allusion appears in his
correspondence to his translation of the New Testament, and
that subsequently its progress is a frequent theme of remark,
it is probable that his intention in this respect was formed or
matured at this Wittenberg meeting. During the remainder
of his stay in the old fortress, his time was engrossed with
the mighty work of translating the whole of the Greek New
Testament, which has shed such glory around his own name,
and the tower itself, and the room in which it was achieved.
His lute, which had before beguiled many a wearisome hour,
was laid aside ; his rides were discontinued ; the rafters and
walls of his captivity no longer echoed with his peals of laugh-

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 325

ter ; the New Testament was constantly in his hands, or 1521.
before his eyes ; and within three months the Greek original
had been converted into noble German. But before he com-
menced the task, he performed his promise, and composed a
popular exhortation to peace and quiet, and transmitted it to
Spalatin in the beginning of December.

The translation of the books of the New Testament into
German was imperatively required, not only in completion of
what had been begun, and as a palladium of its continuance,
but as a barrier against those excesses and extravagances, to
which the human mind in an unsettled and excited frame is
pecidiarly liable, and which had been anticipated by Luther's
foresight, as blots with which Satan would seek to mar the
work of God in the Reformation. In fact, the disease broke
out before the antidote had been provided. On the 3rd De-
cember, just when the celebration of the mass was com-
mencing in Wittenberg parish church, some students and
burghers, who had mustered for the purpose, rushed towards
the altar with knives in their hands, drove the priests from
their places, and carried off the mass books. The town coun-
cil, however, seemed resolved to check the first outbreak of
riot, and summoned those implicated in this rude and violent
disturbance of public worship, to appear at their bar, and had
them apprehended : but upon this the townspeople rose
en masse, demanded the liberation of the prisoners, and threat-
ened open insurrection if their demand was not conceded.
The town council gave way.

This success of the popular cause encouraged the prime
movers in the agitation to proceed with vigour in the path of
religious change. Carlstadt had come prominently forward
in objecting to clerical and monastic celibacy; and had openly
declared against the private mass, the administration of the
Sacrament in one kind, and the adoration of the Host. He

326 THE LIFK OK MARTIN LUTHER.

1521. was a mau of a peculiar character, a type of the German mind,
in its restless, less sound, and sceptical phase. He united the
curiosity of intellectual speculation with the personal ambi-
tion to occupy the sphere of a shining light in the Church.
He had been diverted from scholasticism to attention to the
Sacred Writings, by the influence and example of Luther ;
but his diligence had not been sufficiently persevering to
enable him to acquire a thorough acquaintance with the
ancient languages in which the Scriptures were originally
given to mankind. But his thoughts had early been directed
to such enquiries, as, whether the five books generally attri-
buted to Moses were really the productions of that lawgiver ;
and whether the four Gospels had come down to mankind in
the form in which they were at first composed. Luther's ab-
sence had raised the Archdeacon of Wittenberg higher on the
stage of public notice ; and resolving not to fall below the ex-
pectations which had been formed of him, the little sallow,
tawny man, whose eloquence had never been remarkable, pro-
ceeded to discourse to crowds, of the sublimities of theologj^, in
a mysterious and inflated language, which, for the very reason
that it was not easy of comprehension, seemed to envelope a
hidden and rare wisdom. As early as October Carlstadt ad-
ministered the Lord's Supper, in conformity Avith the institu-
tion of Christ, to twelve private friends. But on the Sunday
before Christmas Day, he announced publicly from the pulpit
that on New Year's Day he should administer the Sacrament
in the parish church, divested of all those corruptions in doc-
trine, language, and ceremonial, with which the Papacy had
encumbered a simple commemorative rite. There were, how-
ever, reasons for suspecting that his intention would be frus-
trated by measures to be adopted by the Court, if he waited
for the appointed day ; and therefore he forestalled this pre-
sumed antagonism, and on Christmas Day seized the oppor-

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 327

tuuity of solemnising the Lord^s Supper in public, according 1521.
to the primitive mode. He admitted to the communion such
as had only confessed generally in the prayers of the Church,
as well as those who had attended auricular confession, ab-
solving them in the words, " Sin no more." He distributed
both the bread and the wine to the communicants, repeating
as he did so some words in German : and, at the conclusion,
the Agnus Dei was sung. Upon New Year's Day he again 1522.
administered the Lord's Supper in the same manner, and
continued so to do, without meeting with any opposition from
the Saxon Court, beyond a verbal and personal rebuke from
one of the courtiers. Popular opinion was energetically on
his side : and in January the town council issued their order
that the celebration of the Sacrament should uniformly be con-
ducted according to the revived custom of the primitive age.

As yet, however, no rupture between Luther and Carlstadt
had taken place. Audin would indeed imply that the Arch-
deacon^s vanity had been wounded by Luther's rejection of
his reasons for abolishing the monastic vow."^ " The Homeric
laugh," he says, of the recluse in the Wartburg, " sounded as
far as Wittenberg." But this does not appear correct. Lu-
ther had not publicly avowed any difference from Carlstadt's
views : he had written his own reasons, which, although vary-
ing from the Archdeacon's, arrived at the same conclusion ;
and in his correspondence with Melancthon, he spoke gene-
rally of Carlstadfs treatises as " neither deficient in genius
nor in erudition, but wanting clearness." t " His endea-

* Carlstadt, in his work, " De Cselibatu Monacliatu et Viduitate,"
cited as a reason the prohibition, Levit. xviii. 21, " Ne quis immolet
semen Moloch." Luther observed to Melancthon privately, that such
reasoning would make them a laughing-stock to the Papists. See
De Wette, II. p. 37.

t " Utinam Carlstadii scripta plus lucis haberent, cum et ingenii ct
eruditionis magna vis in eis est." — De Wette, II. p. 40.

328 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1622. vours and industry," he says in another place, " are greatly
to be approved." He still called him "the excellent Carl-
stadt." Early in January the Archdeacon maiTied Anne
Mochau, a spinster, of a house ranking among the nobility ;
a special service beginning with, " God declared. It is not
good for man to be alone," had been framed for the occasion ;
and Luther sent his congratulations, and promised to bring his
bridal gift himself in person, when he should return to Wit-
tenberg. It does indeed appear from a passage in one of the
Reformer's letters, that the precipitancy of the Archdeacon's
conduct Avas regretted by Luther : but the words are gentle,
and betoken regard : " I am pained about Carlstadt." ^

But Carlstadt's views and behaviour ere long became more
widely divergent from the line of prudence, and ran deeper
into the mazes of speculation. Luther's teaching had ele-
vated the Scriptures to their rightful supremacy as the exclu-
sive standard for doctrine and practice; and he had denied
the right of any individual Doctor or Father of the Church,
however learned or holy, and of the Society of Christians
generally, as represented by an CEcumenical Council, to inter-
pret Scripture authoritatively. Each one must live and die
for himself, stand before God's judgment-seat himself alone,
and answer for his own thoughts, words, and actions. Each
one must, therefore, read, study, and believe God's book for
himself. Such was his teaching. The Roman system had
feigned a spiritual partnership among Christians, whereby the
prayers of the priest could be a substitute for those of the
congregation ; the Bible be a priest's book, not the people's
book ; its truths be proclaimed or reserved, garbled or exag-
gerated, as the priests might please; the good works of the
Saints, over and above what they had need of for themselves,

* Dolco de Carlstadio.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 829

be transferred to the tattered or bare sboulders of less meri- 1522.
torious members of the religious community, the bonds of
which remained undissolved by death, for even beyond that
gulf masses and prayers could liberate the soul from misery.
Such a religion, however poetical and even sublime in theory,
with its high priest, the centre of the system, the Supreme
PontiflF, holding the keys of destiny, and unlocking the gates
of heaven to let the members of the Church militant on earth
pass to the Church triumphant above, terminated practically,
by a fatal necessity, in gross superstition, a lucrative priest-
craft, and the substitution with the multitude of form and
ceremony for vital and personal godliness. In overthrowing
this flattering but fallacious notion of a joint-stock company
in spiritualities, and laying the stress where the Scriptures
lay it, on individual faith, charity, and holiness, Luther seized
on the only means of refining religion from its dregs by in-
troducing true and worthy ideas of the Church, as the com-
munion of individual saints. But it is easy to see that this
principle of individuality, like all truth, is liable to perversion
and abuse. And this now proved the case in Germany. There
arose a sect of fanatics, who laid claim to immediate inspi-
ration from God, and urged that the Scriptures and every
species of learning were useless, because they were themselves
a Bible to themselves, they held communion with Jehovah,
and were divinely illuminated in all things. Thus Luther, as
he had already combated Bomanism, was next called upon to
combat one of the most seductive forms of Rationalism. And
these new sectaries, although apparently at the opposite pole
to Popery, in reality approached very near to it ; for, like
Popery, they discarded Scripture, substituting for it indivi-
dual reason, or individual phantasies, as Popery substituted
for it the reason of the so-called Church, or the reason of one
assumed infallible man, the Pope. Luther declared for God,

330 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEK.

1622. not mail : man to be conformed to GocVs will, as made known
in liis Word; Popery and Rationalism declared for man, not
God — God's Word to be shaped and coloured, shortened or
lengthened, according to human predilections, to be sealed
up under the keys of the Church, or superseded by the
plenary light of individual intuition.

This new fanaticism, or rather this old fanaticism newly
revived, took its rise at Zwickau. No tow^n had welcomed
the evangelical tenets with greater zeal."^ Frederic Myconius,
or Mecum, a Reformer before the Reformation, who had been
taught the doctrine of justification through Christ alone by faith,
from childhood, by a father who Melchior Adam supposes may
have been one of the W^aldenses, and who had looked forth from
his Franciscan convent at Annaberg with joy, when Luther's
Theses appeared, to see that Sun beginning to shine upon the
world which had long been shining upon his own heart, had
proclaimed the Gospel there. He had removed to another
sphere; but Nicholas Hausmann, the present pastor of
Zwickau, was so eminent for his exemplary life, even among
the earliest adherents of the Reformation, as to be distin-
guished by Luther himself with the eulogy, " He lives as we
preach." But the fervour of religious zeal easily becomes
extravagance in some minds, or is readily converted by de-
signing men into an instrument for promoting their selfish
schemes. Nicholas Stork, a weaver of Zwickau, seems to
have been the first to promulge there the fanatical notions of
immediate inspiration superseding the use of all subordinate
means. He was soon joined by Mark Thomas, also a weaver
of Zwickau, by Mark Stubner, who had been a student of
Wittenberg, and by Thomas Munzer, pastor of Alstedt. Not

* Eauke says, that Peter of Dresden, wlio, with Nicolas, being
banished by the Bishop of Misnia, had taken refuge in Prague, had
sqiourned at Zwickau a long time.— Deutsche Geschichte, II. p. 16.

THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER. 331

satisfied with rejecting the Bible as unnecessary under the 1522.
light which they enjoyed by direct contact with the Divine
Being, they represented it as a servile book, ministering only
to sin and wrath ; they depreciated learning as a hinderance
to communion with the invisible world; and predicted the
overthrow of the existing state of society, and the destruction
of the civil power, to make way for the reign of the Saints.
The Archangel Gabriel, Stork affirmed, had appeared to him
in a vision, and said, " Thou slialt sit on my throne." As to
their other opinions, they determined that an infant could not
have faith ; and, faith being essential to the validity of a
Sacrament, they required of those who espoused their doc-
trines to be rebaptized. And hence the name which the sect
afterwards acquired of the '^ Anabaptists." In imitation of
Christ they chose from among their number twelve men
whom they called apostles ; and seventy whom they placed in
the subordinate rank of disciples. Great crowds of the lower
orders and some of the class of tradespeople eagerly attached
themselves to these opinions. But Hausmann energetically
opposed such fanatical principles. And when the ardour of
the new sect was beginning to display itself in commotion and
tumult, the magistrates resolved to repress their seditious
doctrines, and with a view to that end to prevent their
meetings by the arm of authority. The fanatics persisted in
holding their meetings, and were collecting weapons for self-
defence, when the chief magistrate of the town, anticipating
their intention of resorting to force, had the most factious of
their party arrested. Upon this the rest abandoned Zwickau,
and dispersed in various directions. Some turned their steps
to Prague, where they hoped to make converts; but Stork,
Stubner, and Thomas took the road to Wittenberg, where the
agitated condition of the public mind seemed to promise a
harvest for their enthusiastic and self- conceited dogmas. And

332 THE LIFE or MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. here they presently allied themselves with Carlstadt, whose
notions upon Scripture were already in some measure in har-
mony with their own.

Melancthon found himself unequal to a contest with these
visionary sectaries, and wrote to the Elector that the man to
pass sentence on their tenets and to confront them personally
was " Dr. Martin ; " ^ and glad enough was he even of this
reason for Luther's return, for in all his letters to Spalatin he
had never failed to reiterate, " Send us back our Elias." Their
other opinions did not move Melancthon; but they stated
their objections to infant baptism, and with all his learning
he was perplexed for an answer; and according to his custom
referred his difficulties for solution to the captive in the Wart-
burg. Carlstadt, on the contrary, was not misled by their
Anabaptist novelties; but he yielded to their vehement in-
vectives against learning, closed his books, and recommended
others to do the same ; and ceasing altogether the study of
Scripture, in which his assiduity had often flagged, passed
from the workshop of the artisan to the tradesman's counter,
to hear divine truths from the lips of babes in worldly know-
ledge, but preternaturally taught of heaven. The new sect
declared their enthusiastic doctrines in their mystic language,
to an audience in exactly that stage of mental and religious
excitement when visionary ideas of immediate access to the
invisible world are the most captivating ; and it was impossi-
ble to foresee what influence they might acquire, how far and
how deep their principles might fix their roots, and whether
the triumph of the celestial prophets might not extend to the
overthrow of the civil institutions of society, of all learning,
and of civilization itself. It was certainly an auxiliary of
some account towards eftecting the popular delusion, that the

* See Melancthon's letter, Walcli. XV. p. 2367. Bret. II. p. 534.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 333

inspired of God held in the main the evangelical doctrines 1522.
which Luther had impressed on the students and townspeople
of Wittenberg. Mark Stubner, the only man of letters among
the prophetSj was admitted by Melancthon to lodge in his
house, ■^ either from the extreme benevolence of Philip's cha-
racter, or his desire to become well acquainted with the
Zwickau creed. Several of Melancthon's pupils became con-
verts to opinions discrediting all learning, human or divine,
save what was immediately imparted by God himself. Martin
Mohr or Cellarius, the Rector of the Grammar School, called
upon the citizens, from the windows of the school-house,
to take away their children, and instead of seeking book-
learning for them, to apprentice them to learn some useful
trade or handicraft. Another schoolmaster, Neber Enders,
also resigned his school, and turned to day labour as a
peasant.f And several of the University students, acting by
the guidance of the new lights, transferred their attention
from literary study to the acquisition of some mechanical art.
In this medley of notions and pursuits the Elector of
Saxony himself, warmly as he loved peace, and fondly as he
cherished his University, was not without bewildering per-
plexities how he ought to act. He received from his coun-
cillors and from learned men an account of the tenets of the
Zwickau prophets ; and he sent for Melancthon and Amsdorf
to Prettin, and conversed with them on the subject ; but he
hesitated to adopt the same measures which the magistrates
of Zwickau had used ; for he thought with himself, " What if

* A conversation between Melancthon and Stubner has been pre-
served. "What," said Stubner, "is your opinion of John Chrysos-
tom ? " "1 value his writings highly," Melancthon replied, " although
I regret their verbosity." " I saw him," Stubner resumed, " in Pur-
gatory, and his face was very sorrowful." — Camerar. p. 50.

t Mathes. p. 62.

334 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHKR.

1522. tlieir teaching should after all be true ! " " I am a layman,
and do not understand theology/^ he told Melancthon and
Amsdorf, '' but I had rather take my staff in my hand and
quit my country than resist God ! " * In this dilemma he at
length determined to pursue the course which he had usually
found the most prudent, to leave the question to unravel itself
by the course of events. But not so the majority as well as
the more sensible of the citizens and students. Their cry
and prayer was for Luther's return. Earnest letters were ad-
dressed to him, entreating that he would comply with the
general wish. Even the inspired saints themselves appealed
to him to endorse their sentiments. And it was evident to
most persons of sound sense that if the vessel of the Reforma-
tion was to be saved from total shipwreck, the firm and skilful
pilot must once more be at the helm.

Carlstadt was bent on finding his own advantage in his
alliance with the Zwickau prophets; and having reached a
more commanding influence by- their support, hastened to
carry into execution his unripe projects for a more thorough
Reformation. As if he knew that his opportunity would not
last long, every day witnessed the downfall of some portion
of the old ecclesiastical system. Auricular confession was
abolished ; the attire of the priest was thrown aside, and a
layman's garb assumed in its place. Antipapal zeal made a
display of eating eggs and meat on "Wednesdays and Fridays.
With puritanical ardour the church walls were stripped of the
pictures which had adorned them ; candles, crucifixes, and the
various decorations of the shrines of saints strewed the pave-
ment. Carlstadt's discourses had been particularly directed
against the idolatry of image-worship ; and a resolution had

* "Ehe wollte icli einen stab in meine liaud nelimen und davon
gehen."— Walch. XV. p. 2368.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 335

been made and notified by the civil authorities, for the re- 1522.
moval of all incentives to this impiety ; but, as its execution
seemed tardy, the Archdeacon incited the multitude to free
the sacred edifices from the desecration of these "painted
gods, idol logs,^^ with their own hands. The churches were
tumultuously entered, the images torn down ; heads, hands,
and limbs were broken, or chopped off, and the fragments left
on the floor, or thrown into the streets, or consumed by fire
amidst shouts of exultation. The citizens were then moved to
petition the town council for the entire abrogation by formal
order of masses, vigils, processions, and all useless ceremonies,
which, under apprehension of more destructive riot, was con-
ceded. The utmost liberty of preaching was granted to the
Zwickau prophets, by whose aid these precipitate measures
had been successfully accomplished : and matters were so
rapidly maturing, that the project for organizing at Witten-
berg a Christian society on the Zwickau principles, composed
of none but saints exempt from error by divine illumination,
was a principal topic of discussion.

AH this while Luther was prosecuting his translation of the
New Testament. His sense of the importance, or rather ne-
cessity of this work, is thus expressed in a letter of the 18th
December, to his old friend John Lange, who had himself
previously, of his own independent thought, entered on the
same task. " The Germans demand it. I hear that you are
labouring in the same thing ; go on as you have begun. I
would fain that every town in Germany should have its
own translator, and that the book of books should be in
every tongue, in every hand, before every eye, in every ear,
and in every heart." But Luther found time to continue
the Postils ; although the difficulties which he had to over-
come in rendering the New Testament, for the first time,
from the original Greek into a modern language, proved far

33G THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. more onerous than he had at all anticipated. It was, he
said, a work beyond his strength ; and he expressed a wish,
in letters, both to Melancthon and Amsdorf, of the same
day,^ that an apartment might be provided for him in some
friend's house, or a lodging be procured to which he might
repair, to avail himself of learned assistance. His plan had at
first embraced the translation of the Old Testament from the
Hebrew, as well as of the New from the Greek : but he now
determined not to attempt the Old Testament, until he en-
joyed the presence and co-operation of his friends. t And the
disturbances at Wittenberg shortly afterwards assuming more
alarming features, as has been related, which proved the ne-
cessity of his speedy return in his proper character, made him,
without question, expedite the translation of the New Testa-
ment at the closing period of his seclusion, with all the de-
spatch of incredible industry, joined to the highest native
powers.

The Postils were advancing, the translation of the New
Testament rapidly progressing, and yet Luther found spare
time for epistolary correspondence, to solve questions in theo-
logy proposed by his friends, and to communicate his counsel
in the trying emergencies of the Reformation. Amsdorf en-
quired his opinion on the subject of Purgatory. He stated in
reply his belief, that it was rather a state than a place, " a
taste of hell, such as Christ, Moses, Abraham, David, Jacob,
Job, Hezekiah, and many other Scriptural characters en-
dured," and still Purgatory, whether undergone in the body
or out of the body. Of the soul in its intermediate state
before reunion with the body, he held the opinion, that ex-
cept in a few instances it remained in a dormant condition,

* January 13.

t Vetus Testamentum non potero attingere, nisi, &c. — De Wette
II. p. 123.

THE LIFK OK MARTIN LUTHER. 337

but yet so, that there might be a dreamy foretaste of the joys 1522,
of heaven, or of the torments of hell. To Melancthon, he an-
swered the objection against infant baptism, that infants
were incapable of faith, by denying such an assumption alto-
gether. " Let them prove first what they advance, without
the least warrant of truth, that infants are incapable of faith.^^
The baptism of infants, he urged, had from the Apostolic age
to the present been the invariable custom of the Church :
and, although he had expected that " Satan would one day
touch this sore,^^ the evil spirit had not done so under the
Papacy, but had reserved such a dreadful wound for the era
of the Reformation. No single truth of God had ever been
left without its witness among men : and, therefore, it fol-
lowed incontestably, that the Anabaptist doctrine, unheard of
until broached by the Zwickau fanatics, was destitute of all
foundation. Circumcision among the Jews was of equal virtue
with baptism among Christians ; yet it had been ordained of
God that that sign of faith should be marked upon infants :
and this simple difference, that a specific time, the eighth day
from the birth, was appointed the Jews, whereas no particu-
lar period was set apart for baptism, only evinced the greater
liberty which characterised the Christian dispensation. Even
were infants incapable of faith, w^hich was untrue, yet the
faith of the parents might suffice to warrant the admission of
their children to the baptismal covenant ; or else what did the
Apostle mean by saying, " Otherwise were your children un-
clean, but now are they holy."

From the very first Luther saw through the delusion of im-
mediate inspiration, and the pretence of sensible colloquies
with the Divine Being. And it raised his astonishment that
Philip, so much his superior in attainments, should be stag-
gered for an instant by the Anabaptist sophistries of the self-
styled prophets, or ])e at any loss how to deal with their

VOL. I. z

338 THE LIPE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. presumptuous claims. " Try them/' he wrote, " by such
Scriptures as Deut. xiii. and 1 John iv. Their story upon its
face is extremely suspicious, for they talk of divine colloquies.
Enquire whether they have experienced that spiritual anguish,
those divine births — death and hell. If you hear of nothing
but blandness, tranquillity, devotion, and piety, even if they
should speak of being carried to the third heaven, believe
them not; because the sign of the Son of Man is wanting,
which is the test, the sole touchstone of Christians, and the
sure discerner of the spirits. Would you know the place, the
time, the mode of divine colloquies ? Listen — ' Like as a
lion he hath broken all my bones — I am cast away from the
sight of thine eyes — My soul is filled with trouble, and my
life draweth nigh unto hell.' The Divine Majesty doth not
so speak that man may behold him, for ' There shall no flesh
see me and live.' Nature cannot endure a scintillation of his
voice. And, therefore, he speaks by the agency of man, be-
cause we could not bear it if he spoke himself. The Virgin
was afl'righted when she saw the angel. So was Daniel. And
Jeremiah complains, ' Bring me into judgment with thee ; be
not a terror unto me.' Need I add more? As if the Divine
Majesty covdd speak with the old man, and not first slay and
turn him to dust, that his foul stench might not arise, because
God is ' a consuming fire.' Even the dreams and visions of
the Saints are terrible when sleep has departed. Use these
tests : and never hear of Jesus in glory, until you have first
beheld Jesus on the cross."

He had before resolved to return to Wittenberg after Easter;
but the commotions which had arisen, or were threatening to
arise, induced him to fix his return for the beginning of Lent.
The tumultuous exit of the monks from many convents, as
from that at Erfurth, which he made a matter of complaint to
John Langc, and the agitation of the public mind generally,

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 339

warned hira not to delay in his retreat longer than the great 1522.
work he was engaged in imperatively required. Above all, the
fanaticism of the Zwickau prophets, which was daily gaining
the ascendant at Wittenberg, made it indispensable that not
an unnecessary moment should be spent in the Wartburg.
On the 17th January, he wrote to Spalatin to implore that
the Elector would not imbrue his hands in the blood of the
fanatics, nor have them bound and thrown into prison, nor
use any kind of violence with them. " I shall soon return, if
God will, either to remain at Wittenberg or elsewhere, or to
journey from town to town. I was before resolved on return-
ing, and now the rumours which reach me are worse and
worse.^^ The month of February was passed in unremitting
attention to his work of translation ; so much so, that it is
only marked in his correspondence by one letter, strikingly
characteristic, addressed in a consolatory tone of undaunted
faith to the Elector Frederic. " Grace and blessing from
God the Father, in respect of your new relics. For a long
time your Highness has sent after relics into all lands ; but
now God has heard your desire, and has sent you without
your expense or pains a whole cross with nails, spears, and
scourges. Once more, I say, Grace and blessing from God,
for your new relics. Fear not : stretch out your arms in con-
fidence, and let the nails enter deep : be thankful and joyful.
It must and shall be so, with whoever shall hold fast God's
word, that not only Annas and Caiaphas shall roar, but also a
Judas shall be among the Apostles, and Satan among the
children of God. Only let your Highness be prudent and
wise, and not be led by reason and the appearance of things.
Tremble not : all is not as Satan would have it. Your High-
ness must believe me, fool as I am, a little longer ; I know these
and such-like snares of Satan, and, therefore, I fear nothing,
and that is. Woe to him. All is not as it seems. Let the

z 2

S^O THK LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. world scream and pass its censure ; let who will fall^ fall :
St. Peter and the Apostles shall come again on the third day
at Christ's resurrection. That must still be fulfilled in us —
' approving ourselves as the ministers of God in afflictions, in
tumults,' Your Highness will excuse that my pen has run so
fast in my haste : I have no more time ; and shall myself,
if God will, soon be there,"

Luther toiled on at his translation, with his ear open to the
tidings which continually reached him of the progress of
fanaticism at Wittenberg. He heard that Melancthon avowed
his " inability to stay the torrent ; " that Carlstadt vindicated
his preaching anywhere and everywhere against the remon-
strances of the Court, because, as he said, " the Word had
come to him with such velocity * that he felt. Woe is me, if I
do not preach ! " that the Elector by his councillors had ap-
pealed both to the Town Council, and the University for the
restoration of order, but without effect ; that Amsdorf preached
in the parish church against violence and tumult, but the
popular frenzy would brook no restraint. Such intelligence
successively received gave speed to his energy, and scarcely
allowed him to relinquish the pen from his hand for a moment.
At last Februai'y Avas closing, and the translation of the
New Testament wv\s completed. What was there now any
longer to detain him in his towei", when Satan had entered
among his flock at Wittenberg in the form of an angel of light,
and was scattering the sheep, and rending the work of God ?
He resolved accordingly to leave his Patraos on Saturday the
1st March ; and hoAV strong was the tension of his faith, the
strain of the preceding letter may demonstrate. On the even-
ing of the Friday, when the arrangements for his journey had
all been made, a letter was received from Frederic, requiring
him to remain in his retreat, and employ himself in composing

* Gesoliwintligkoit.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 341

his defence for presentation to the Diet, which had begun its 1522.
session at Nuremberg : on no account whatever to quit his
asylum, for it was impossible that he could undertake to de-
fend hira, and the Emperor and the Pope would demand his
surrender into their hands, and how could he excuse himself?
But Luther's decision had been irrevocably taken ; his eye was
towards God alone ; Frederic admitted this world, the princes,
and the Diet, in the background of the picture, present to his
worldly wisdom. Luther, on the contrary, discerned evidently
the finger of God summoning him back to his old post; and
his mind was too exclusively possessed with the interests of
religion, to let the command, even of his prince, much less
the apprehension of personal danger, weigh a feather in the
balance.^

It was late in the evening of Shrove Tuesday, the 4th
March, when two Swiss students from the town of Basle,
stopped at the sign of the Black Bear, in the outskirts of
Jena. They had passed on through a pelting storm of rain
into the heart of the town ; but the usual scene of rioting,
masquerading, and jollity, the sure accompaniments of the
Carnival in Roman Catholic districts, having attracted the
neighbouring country people and strangers of all kinds to
Jena, the central inns were crowded to overflowing, and the
two Swiss travellers had been compelled to seek entertain-
ment in a less frequented quarter. On entering the parlour
of the Black Bear they found a knight seated alone at the
table, accoutred in his riding apparel, red mantle, trunk-
hose, and doublet, which showed that he was a traveller
like themselves ; his right hand rested on the pommel of his
sword, and a book was open before him, which he was intently
perusing. The Swiss students paused in the entrance on ob-
serving the knight, and were proceeding to take their places

* Sec the letter, Walch. XV. p. 2377. Bret. II. p. 561,

342 THE LIFE OF iMAKTlN LUTHEK.

1522, at some distance, out of respect to the stranger, and in consi-
deration of their wet and travel-stained garments, when the
knight, courteously addressing them, oflFered them seats at
the table, and, handing them a glass of beer, enquired from
what part of Switzerland they were come. St. Gall, they
said, was their native canton ; but they had been recently
students at Basle, and were now on their road for Wittenberg,
as they intended to study at that University. The conversa-
tion naturally turned to Erasmus, the state of religious mat-
ters at Basle, and the reputation in which Martin Luther was
held there. The students ordered some wine, and requited
their hospitable reception by offering some of it to the
stranger. " If you are going to Wittenberg," said the knight,
continuing the conversation, " you will find one of your own
countrymen. Dr. Jerome Schurff, there." They replied, that
the principal object of their journey was to see Dr. Martin
Luther himself, and they should be extremely obliged to the
knight, if he could inform them by what means they would
be likely to obtain a sight of him. " I know, for a certainty,"
the knight replied, " that he is not at present at Wittenberg,
but I am equally assured that he soon will be there." He
then spoke of Philip Melancthon, and his immense erudition,
and advised the students to pay the most careful attention to
his lectures, and use the utmost assiduity for the acquire-
ment of Greek and Hebrew, that they might be able to read
the Scriptures in the original languages. But the students'
curiosity had fixed itself upon Martin Luther, and they cared
comparatively little about Melancthon. "We understand,"
they rejoined, ''that Luther's aim is to do away with the
clergy and the mass, and, as we have oui'selves been educated
for lioly orders, Ave are anxious to learn on what basis his
principles are built." " What is thought of Luther by your
countrymen?" the knight enquired. " Some persons," they

THE LIFE OK MARTIN LUTHER. 343

aiisweredj " cannot be loud enough in his praise ; and others 1522.
are not able to find words strong- enough to express their de-
testation." " Yes, of course/' muttered the knight, " those
are the priests." Emboldened by this familiar conversation,
one of the students had the curiosity to open the volume,
which was still lying on the table, in which the knight had
been reading, and found to his surprise that it was the Psalter
in Hebrew. "I would willingly give my little finger," he
remarked, shutting i^p the book, and eager to find some
apology for his inquisitiveness, "if I understood that lan-
guage." " You have only to persevere," the knight answered,
" and you may be assured that your wish will be gratified."
But the curiosity of the students was now redoubled to know
who the strange knight could be, who, booted and spurred,
and with a sword at his side, talked nevertheless of Erasmus
and Melancthon, and read Greek and Hebrew.

In the middle of the conversation the landlord entered the
room, and having heard the two Swiss express their eagerness
to see Luther, observed, " Good friends, you should have been
here two days ago, and you would have had your wish, for he
sat in that very chair and at that very table," pointing to
where the knight was seated. The landlord went out with a
broad laugh on his countenance, and soon afterwards, calling
one of the students aside, whispered in his ear, " I heard you
say just now that you wanted to see Martin Luther; I will
tell you a secret, if you can keep it : it is Luther with whom
you have been conversing." " You are making a fool of me,"
the student exclaimed in astonishment. " No ; it is Luther
himself; you may be assured that I am telling you the truth;
only don't let him perceive that he is recognised." The Swiss
hastened back to the parlour, and contrived, whilst leaning
forward as if he were looking at the door, to apprise his com-
panion that their host had just told him the strange knight

344 THE LIFE OF MAKTIN LUTHER.

1522. was Luther. " Impossible ! " the other answered, " he must
have said Hutten ; the two names sound something alike."
They agreed that the ear must have confused the sounds, and
that the knight with the Hebrew Psalter was Ulric von
Hutten.

Presently two travelling merchants entered the apartment,
one of them with an unbound book in his hand, which he
showed to the company, and which proved to be the first part
of Martin Luther's '^ Postils," or " Commentaries on the
Gospels and Epistles,'' dedicated to Albert the youngest of
the counts of Mansfeld, and which had just been published.
The book attracted the attention of the knight, and he ob-
served, " I shall soon procure that book."

It was now time for supper to be served; but the two
Swiss, whose purses were but leanly furnished, apprehending
the cost of sitting down to the same repast with a knight and
two wealthy merchants, requested that they might be pro-
vided for apart. But the landlord told them that he would
be considerate and not fleece them ; and the knight, who
guessed the true ground of their demurring to partake of
supper with the merchants and himself, invited them to be-
come his guests : " Come, come, I shall settle the score."
The conversation at the supper-table quickly became exceed-
ingly animated, and the knight delivered himself of such
sensible and shrewd remarks, with so much point and fluency,
that the rest of the company thought less of enjoying their
meal than of listening to his observations. He dilated with
some severity on the senseless manner in which the German
nobles assembled at Nuremberg in attendance on the Diet
were wasting their time, and instead of devoting their thoughts
to the business of their country, were engaged in tourneys,
sledging, revelling, and pageantry. "Such," he said, "are
our Christian princes ! " " It is plain that tliat Martin

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 315

Luther/' exclaimed one of the merchants, " is either an angel 1522.
from heaven or a devil from hell ; I would give ten guilders
to have the opportunity of confessing to him."

At the conclusion of supper the landlord whispered to the
students, " Martin has settled the reckoning.-" The mer-
chants now rose from table to retire to rest, and thanking
the knight for his generous hospitality, intimated that they
supposed him to be Ulric von Hutten. The host came in
shortly afterwards, and the knight related to him with a
smile how he had just been taken for Hutten. " No, you are
not Hutten," rejoined the landlord, " you are Martin Luther."
Bursting into a hearty laugh, the knight exclaimed, " What !
they take me for Hutten, and you for Luther; I shall be
taken next for Markolfus ! " The Swiss were left alone in
the room with the knight, Avho, filling a glass with beer, and
raising it to his lips, challenged his messmates in the manner
of the country : " Swiss, one glass more for thanks ! " He
was going to pass the glass to them, when recollecting that
they did not drink beer, but wine, he poured out a glass of
wine, and presented it to them instead. Then rising from
table, and throwing his military cloak about his shoulders,
he shook hands with the students, requesting them not to
forget to give his salutation to Dr. Jerome Schurff. And
" Who are we to say," they inquired, " bids us ofiPer him his
salutation ? " '' Say," replied the knight, " that he who should
come sends his salutation to him ; he will know who it is,"

The next morning the knight rose with the break of day,
and was already mounted on his horse at the door of the inn,
ready to depart, when the two merchants, who had been
informed meanwhile by the landlord that the stranger was
Martin Luther, hurried towards the knight, and offered their
apologies for the freedom and incivility of their remarks the
night before, of which they had been guilty in entire igno-

346 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHEU.

1522. ranee who he really was. '' Well," the knight replied Avith a
smile, " if you go to Wittenberg, and confess to Martin
Luther, as you spoke of doing, you will see whether I am he
or not : " and so saying, and nodding a farewell, he rode from
the court of the Black Bear.

That day, the 5th March (Ash Wednesday), Luther — for the
courteous knight with the Hebrew Psalter was no other — con-
tinued his ride until he reached Borna, a small town in the
vicinity of Leipsic, where he rested for the night at the sign
of the Guide. And that evening he wrote from Borna a let-
ter to the Elector of Saxony, in reply to the communication
which he had received from hira the evening before he set out
from the Wartburg, in prohibition of his return. "Your
Highness' letter reached me on Friday evening, when I had
already fixed to start on my journey on the following morn-
ing. It needs no acknowledgment or testimony from me that
the intention of your Highness is all for the best ; for I am
as assured it is so, as any human conviction can make me.
On the other hand, that my own intention is for good, I know
from a higher than any human conviction.

■X- * * " What I wrote to your Highness did not proceed
from any regard to myself; I never thought of that, but from
concern at the gross proceedings which have recently tran-
spired at Wittenberg, to the extreme scandal of the Gospel.
I apprehended that your Highness would be greatly troubled
by it. It has so grieved me myself, that were I not confident
that the dear Gospel is with us, I should tremble for our
cause. Every suffering that has as yet assailed me in this
cause is mere child's play, and as nothing to it. Willingly,
could I have done so, I would have redeemed us from such a
scandal with my life. We cannot answer for it, either before
God or the world : and it is woe to my very heart. The pur-
port of my letter was, to direct the attention of your Highness

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 347

to the plain footprint of the devil in this disgraceful game. If 1522.
j^our Highness needed not such admonition, at least it be-
hoved me to tender it.

" As regards ray own cause, I answer, whether your High-
ness knows it or not, let it now be declared, that I have not
received the Gospel from man, but from heaven, through our
Lord Jesus Christ, so that I well might boast, and write my-
self, and henceforth I will do so, his servant and evangelist.
That I offered my tenets for disputation, was never because I
felt the slightest question of their truth, but in the hope of
winning over others to embrace them. But I now see that
my humble tone has been an injury to the Gospel, and that
Satan will seize the vacant ground if I only give him a hand's
breadth of room ; and, therefore, henceforth my conscience
will compel me to act otherwise. Satan knows well that what
I did 1 never did from fear. He saw my heart Avhen I en-
tered Worms, that had I known that so many devils would
have set upon me, as there were tiles upon the housetops, I
should have sprung into the midst of them with joy.

" Now Duke George is, after all, very different from only
one devil. And since the Father of infinite mercies has made
us joyful lords over all devils, and over death, and has given
us the kingdom of faith, that we can dare to call him, ' Dear
Father,' your Highness may infer that it is the deepest shame
to our Father, not so far to trust him, as to believe that we
shall be lords over the fury of Duke George. I well know
that if the scene of this disturbance were at Leipsic, instead of
at Wittenberg, I would ride into that town — your Highness
must pardon my silly talk— although it should rain nothing but
Duke Georges for nine days, and each one of them tenfold as
furious as he is. He fancies my Lord Christ a man of straw,
and that my Lord and I may endure for a little while. I will
not hide it from your Highness, that 1 have prayed and wept
for Duke George, and that not once merely, that God would

348 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

]522. enlighten him with his grace. And I will pray and weep for
him once again ; but never more after that. I implore your
Highness to help too with your prayers^ if by any means we
may turn away from him the judgment^ which, O Lord God !
is hastening with what speed to overtake him every hour of
the day. I could choke Duke George with one word, if all
coidd be settled so.

" I would have your Highness know that I come to Wit-
tenberg under a much higher protection than that of the
Elector. I have not the least intention of craving protection
from your Highness. On the contrary, I believe that 1 shall
be better able to protect your Highness than your Highness
will be to protect me. If I thought that your Highness either
could or would protect me, I should not come. This cause
no sword either can, or sliall counsel, or help. God must do
all alone, without any care or aid of man. He who has the
most faith will be the best able to afford protection. And
knowing that your Highness is still very v. cak in faith, I can
in no wise look upon your Highness as the man to protect
or save me.

" Since your Highness desires to know what you should do
in this cause, under the impression that you have done too
little, I reply, with all submission — Your Highness has done
far too much already, and must do nothing at all. For God
will not, and cannot endure any care or trouble on your
Highness' part or mine. He will have everything left to
himself alone. If your Highness can believe this, you will
have peace : if your Highness cannot believe this, yet I be-
lieve it, and must leave your Highness' want of faith to suffer
the qualms of its own cares, which is the portion of those
without faith. Since I do not follow the directions of your
Highness, your Highness is guiltless before God, should I be
apprehended or put to death. Your Highness, as an Elector,
must be obedient to the supreme power, and allow his Im-

THK LIFK OF MARTIN LUTHER. 349

perial Majesty in your Higliness' states and lands, to dispose 1522.
of body and goods, as is his prerogative, according to the ordi-
nances of the Empire, without offering atiy opposition, or inter-
posing any hinderance, if the sovereign power should please to
seize or slay me. For no one shall resist the supreme power
save Him who appointed it. To do so, is rebellion against
God. I hope, however, they will have sense enough to know
that your Highness was rocked in too lofty a cradle to act the
part of a gaoler over me. If your Highness will leave the gate
open, and respect the safe-conduct, when they come them-
selves to take me or send their messengers, by such conduct
your Highness will sufficiently regard the duty of obedience.

" Herewith I commend me to your Highness in the grace
of God. I will write again speedily if there be need. I have
despatched this letter in haste, that your Highness might not
be grieved by the report of my coming ; for I shall and must
be a comfort to every one, and not a bane, if I would be a
true Christian. I have to deal with a different man from
Duke George, one who knows me well, and whom I do not
know ill. Could your Highness but believe, you should see
the majesty of God : because you have not yet believed, you
have as yet not seen it. To God be praise and love for ever.
Amen.^^

The allusion to Duke George in the preceding letter had
reference to a proclamation which he had published for the
suppression of all Lutheranism in his dominions : Duke
Henry of Brunswick and some bishops had published procla-
mations with a similar object ; but that of Duke George
breathed inordinate fury, and sentenced Lutheran monks and
priests, and all who communicated in both kinds, to prison
without mercy ."^

* Keil. p. 125. Seckend. I. p. 192.

350 THE LIPf: OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. After two days' more travelling, on Friday, the 7th March,
Martin Luther passed through the streets of Wittenberg, and
dismounted at the gate of his convent. He retired to his cell,
Init tlic transmutation which had taken place in the Wartburg
was not immediately reversed : he still wore in the Augustine
convent for a day or two the military costume of Yunker
George. A letter in which he had replied to the entreaties
of the Wittenberg townspeople for his return, had apprised
them of his coming as near at hand ; but, although his arrival
was thus not unexpected, it was not the less welcome to all
friends of sober sense and order. The next day after his
return Luther repaired to the house of Jerome Schurff, and
there found Melanethon, Jonas, Amsdorff, and Augustine
Schurff, the brother of Jerome, assembled and waiting his
presence. Luther was standing in the centre of this group of
professors, minutely inquiring the particulars of all that had
passed since he was last with them, when the two Swiss stu-
dents who had been favoured with the singular rencontre
with the knight with the Hebrew Psalter at Jena, were
ushered into the apartment. They were standing near the
door in awe of the learned society among which they suddenly
found themselves, when their eyes fell on the unmistakeable
countenance of the knight of Jena, dressed in the same garb
as when they had seen him before, who at once recognising
them in turn, advanced and gave them a hearty welcome,
and introduced them as his friends to the other professors.
He led them to Melanethon, and said, "This is Philip of
whom you heard me speak at Jena.'^ And on the strength
of the acquaintanceship formed in the parlour of the Black
Bear, Luther insisted that the two Swiss should spend the
rest of the day with himself and his associates.

The Elector Avas at this time at Lochau, and was deeply
aflfected when he received the tidings of Luther's return.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 351

The heroism of the unfriended monk, who, relying on God 1522.
alone, discarded human defence in his bold adherence to duty,
was exactly calculated to touch the sympathies of a generous
prince. Frederic's thoughts naturally turned immediately to
the Diet, before whose consideration the Lutheran aflFair was
shortly to be brought, and he thought with alarm on the
effect which the hazardous step the Reformer had just token
might produce on the states of the Empire ; but as that step
could not now be retraced, he determined to use his best efforts
to secure Dr. Martin's safety. He wrote therefore on the 6th
March to Schurff, " Let Luther write to me stating the rea-
sons of his return, in such a manner that his letter may be
made public, and let him expressly avow that he returned
without my consent ; and let him not on any account preach
in All Saints' Church."

Luther wrote a letter to the Elector in conformity with
this request, in which he declared that the reasons which had
induced him to venture on returning to Wittenberg were
principally three. First, that the common voice of the Church
in the most urgent entreaties had implored him to return.
God had commissioned him to the Church of Wittenberg,
and his conscience would ever have reproached him had he
disregarded the call of his flock ; and it Avas not by others'
consciences, but by his own conscience, that he must answer
to God. Secondly, Satan, as a wolf, had fallen upon his
flock in his absence, and excited disturbances, which no writ-
ing, nothing he could do, short of his presence and " living
mouth " would be able to quell. He would gladly suffer
death for his flock ; he was bound to do so, for they were his
children in Christ, should it be God's will ; and the wrath or
no wrath * of the whole world was nothing in his estimation

* AUer welt ;5orn imd nnzorn hintan zu setzen.

352 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHKR.

1522. compared with his duty to his flock, Tliirdly, he foreboded a
general insurrection throughout Germany, in Divine ven-
geance on the national iniquities ; for the common people
loved to hear the truth better than to practise it ; and the
ruling powers were trusting to extinguish with the high hand
the light which God had kindled, and were thus provoking
the lower orders to rebellion. An infatuation from God had
fallen on them, and they Avere courting destruction for them-
selves and their children. It was true the spiritual tyranny
had been weakened by his writings ; but the temporal power,
he had now learnt, must bow to the Gospel either in the
spirit of love, or under the groans of suffering. He had
therefore returned to place himself, in Ezekiel's language, as a
wall before the people, to avert from Germany, if possible, the
scourge of the Divine anger. But he must act upon his own
convictions, and would warn the Elector that the decree
passed in heaven was different from that passed at Nurem-
berg ; and that those w^ho were thinking to eat up the Gospel
whole, would find to their woe that they had not yet " said
grace " over it. In a postsci'ipt he requested the Elector, if
anything were displeasing to him in the letter, to frame
another more conformable to his taste and send it to him.
Frederic availed himself of this permission to subdue mate-
rially the tone of the epistle. For " Nuremberg,^^ he substi-
tuted "earth " — '' different from the decree passed on earth,^'
— and he prefixed " all-gracious '' to the mention of the
Emperor — " my all-gracious lord." On the 12th March Lu-
ther despatched the revised, or rather emasculated, letter to
the Elector enclosed in a communication to Spalatin, in
which he did not omit to complain of " the many signs of the
Elector's timorous want of faith." He particularly regretted
the epithet " all-gracious " as applied to the Emperor, and
he said that only the popular style of speaking reconciled him

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 353

to its adoption, for he had an extreme hatred to every form 1522.
of falsehood,^ and all the world knew the Emperor had been
anything but " all-gracious " towards him.

On the Saturday after Luther's return there was but one
theme of remark at Wittenberg ; and burgher met burgher,
and student student, and with radiant countenances exchanged
congratulations on the great event, " Luther is come.'' His
sermon on the morrow was anxiously looked forward to ; and
before the appointed hour had arrived, the University and the
whole town had poured itself into the parish church. Carl-
stadt and Gabriel Zwilling were there, as well as Jonas and
Melancthon, all intent on listening to the man who, under
the anathema of the Pope and the ban of the Emperor, it
was yet felt, was the only man in Germany equal to the crisis.
The fate of the Reformation in fact, and the destiny of
humanity, seemed to hang upon his lips.

What events had passed since last Luther stood in that
pulpit ! But ascending it with the same calmness and quiet
self-possession as ever, he began his discourse in his usual un-
pretending style, insisting on the importance of a clear under-
standing of the principles of the Christian faith. The first
principle he declared to be, that we are all by nature the
children of wrath ; the second, that God has sent his only-
begotten Son that we should believe in him, and that who-
ever with the heart trusts in him is free from all sin and a
child of God. On these two momentous points he found no
error nor failing among his flock. On the contrary, such first
principles were clearly preached to them ; it would be grief
indeed to him were it otherwise : nay, he could clearly see,
and would dare to say, that several of them were better taught
than he was ; not merely one, two, three, or four, but ten or

* Fucos mire odi. — De Welte, II. p. 150.
VOL. I. A A

354 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. more, so enlightened were they in knowledge. The third
principle was, that '' we must also have love, and through love
act towards one another, as God has acted towards us through
faith." Without such love faith availed nothing ; nay, with-
out it faith was no faith, but a mere semblance, just as the
countenance of a man reflected in a mirror is no real coun-
tenance but a semblance of the real. Under this head, how-
ever, he had to regret a lamentable failure ; he could see no
proof of such love in them, but must mourn over their sad
defect of gratitude towards God for the rich treasure he had
bestowed. Wittenberg was too like Capernaum. The fourth
principle was the necessity of patience. " For the devil
sleepeth not, but gives enough to do." By enduring trials
faith waxed stronger day by day ; and a patient heart, graced
with virtue, could never rest, but would strive for the profit
and well-being of every brother, after the pattern of the Divine
love.

After laying down these principles, the discourse addressed
itself more pointedly to the recent religious changes. It was
the bouuden duty of every one to regard what was of use and
furtherance to his brother, and not always to do all that he
had a right to do. St. Paul declared, "All things are lasvful
for me, but all things are not expedient : " and God, by the
mouth of Moses said, " I have carried thee as a mother doth
her children." How did a mother rear her children? At
first by giving them milk, then pap, then other soft food. So
must we bear with our brother's weakness, and feed him with
milk till he should grow strong ; and not go to heaven alone,
but take our brother with us. " Dear brother, hast thou
sucked enough? cut not away the breast, but let thy brother
suck, as thou hast sucked." The changes which had been
made were good, but the zeal had been too precipitate ; and
there were brothers and sisters on the other side who were yet

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 355

to be brought OA'^er. The sun in the firmament had its light and 1522.
its warmth ; nothing was so strong as to bend from its path the
glance of the sunbeam ; but the ?ieat turned and bent itself on
all sides round the sun. Faith, like the sun's ra}', must be
inflexible, rooted in the heart, and never swerving from its
course ; but love, like the sun's warmth, must shed itself on
all sides, and fold our neighbour in its embrace. Some could
run, others could scarcely creep, and the weak must not be left
to be torn to pieces by the devil, by the strong outstripping
him. He had himself been the first to preach the truth at
Wittenberg ; and he well knew that he had proclaimed the
clear Word of God. They must lie under one another's feet,
reach out the hands to one another, and help one another.
The contest was now, not against the Pope or his bishops, but
against the devil. Did any suppose the devil slept? He was
not asleep, but he saw the true light going out, it no longer
flashed bright under his eyes, and he would soon run in at the
side if they were not on the watch. He knew him well, he had
eaten many a lump of salt with him, and he hoperl, by God's
grace, that he was his master. It was true the mass was an
impiety, but why had order been forgotten in abolishing it ?
Such an undertaking ought to have been commenced with
earnest prayer ; and the civil power should have been called
in to lend its aid. Some things must be, others might, or
might not be. Faith must be. But in such things as might
or might not be, regard must be paid to the profit of others ;
and to encourage a weak brother to eat meat on Fridays, was,
perhaps, to load his conscience with scruples which would
press sore on him in the death agony. They must earnestly
supplicate God, and each act with patience and brotherly
love, or all the woe which the Reformation had heaped upon
the Papists, would recoil on the Reformation itself.

On Monday Luther again mounted the pulpit, and preached

A A 2

356 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. more particularly on the subject of the mass. The mass was
a bad thing, and God detested it, for it was pretended that it
was a sacrifice and a good work, and therefore it must be
abolished. His prayer was, that all private masses through-
out the world might be abolished, and only the common evan-
gelical mass be celebrated ! But love must reign in the mat-
ter. No one must draw or tear another away by the hair,
but leave God to do his own woi'k, for the plain reason that
no man has in his hand the hearts of others, and no man can
make his words pass deeper than the ear. The Word of God
must be freely preached, and this Word must be left to work
in the heart ; and when the heart was won, then the man was
won, but not till then. And as soon as by such means a
general agreement was effected, then the work of abolition
would be properly carried into eflPect. Not that he wished to
restore the mass ; he " would let it lie where it was in the
name of God: '^ but there could be no such thing as seizing
or binding the faith. Faith must be free. When Paul walked
from one idol to another at Athens, and saw them all, he
moved not one of them with his foot, but he went into the
market-place and preached against idolatry ; the Word settled
in their hearts, and then the idols fell. The Word of God had
created heaven and earth, and all things, and that Word must
be the operating power, and " not we poor sinners." His own
history was an example of the power of the Word. He de-
clared God's Word, preached and wrote against Indulgences
and Popery, but never used force : but this Word, whilst he
was sleeping, or drinking his tankard of Wittenberg ale with
Philip and Amsdorf, worked with so mighty a power that the
Papacy had been weakened and broken to such a degree, as
no prince or emperor had ever been able to break it. Yet he
had done nothing, the Word had done all. Blood would have
been shed if he had been disposed to tumult ; and at Worms

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 357

a game would have been set on foot in wliich the Emperor 1522.
would have trembled for his safety : but that would have been
a fooFs game, only destruction of body and soul. He had
done nothing, he had left the Word to its own action. What
did they suppose the devil thought when man exerted his own
power to accomplish the purposes of truth ? Seated in the
depths of hell, he thought, O ! what a fine sport these fools
will make for me ! but it was woe to him, when any one
suffered the Word to operate unimpeded. The Word was
almighty, it took captive the heart, and then the work fol-
lowed as a matter of course. In St. PauFs time there were
great contentions whether the law of Moses was binding in all
its parts or not. Paul preached that a '' might or might not
be," should not be changed into a " must be," but the ques-
tion should be left to each one's decision according to his own
conscience. This settlement remained in force until Jerome
came, who was for abolishing every remnant of Judaism, and
establishing the " must be." Then came Augustine, who un-
derstood PauFs meaning, whereas Jerome was a full hundred
miles away from it. The two Doctors thrust their heads
hard together. On Augustine's death Jerome introduced the
''must be," and enacted a law. Prom one law sprang a thou-
sand laws, till they were overrun with laws. So would it be
now : one law would grow to two, two to three, and so on.
Compassion must be shown to weak consciences, and Christian
freedom be maintained.

On Tuesday he touched on the monastic life, and applied
the same principle. " He could wish that every monk and nun
heard his preaching, and had sense to leave the cloister, and
that every monastery throughout the world might cease to
exist." But it was left free by God to marry or to be un-
married, to eat fish, or to cat flesh, and God's freedom must
not be turned into a command. From this subject he passed

358 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. to that of images. These were imuecessary : " we might have
them or not have them ; although it were better to be with-
out them." The one party quoted the words of the Almighty,
"Thou shalt make to thyself no graven image, nor the like-
ness," &c. : the other party said — Yes, but the Almighty has
added, " Thou shalt not worship them." Noah, Abraham,
and Jacob had built altars ; Moses had erected a brazen ser-
pent; St. Paul voyaged in a ship which bore as its figure-head
the twin gods Castor and Pollux. Yet St. Paul did not tear
away their images. Such representations were permissible, if
they were not worshipped; if they were, they must be re-
moved, as Hezekiah broke in pieces the brazen serpent which
Moses had made, when it appeared that the Israelites ad-
dressed prayers to it. The Word must be preached, that
images are nothing, that God is not served by such things ;
and such a course would more effectually do away with them
than their tumultuous and forcible destruction. To destroy
them at Wittenberg might be to keep them standing at Nu-
remberg. Outward things could do no injury to faith, pro-
vided the heart did not hang upon them.

On Wednesday he resumed the subject of images. For
any man to fancy he did a work acceptable to God by placing
a silver or gold image in a church was direct idolatry; and
the Elector Frederic, the Bishop of Halle, and others, who
had spent so much wealth on images, would never have done
so had they known that an image is nothing in God's estima-
tion, and that it is far better to give a single guilder to a poor
man than to dedicate an image of gold to God. A crucifix
was not God — God was in heaven. That images were grossly
abused no one could gaiusay; but that was not sufficient
reason for destroying them. If everything that was abused
ought to be abolished, the sun, moon, and stars, which some
nations worshipped, must be torn down from their seats in

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 359

the heavens ; wine and women must be done away with ; nay, 1522.
a man must destroy himself, as his own heart was his greatest
foe."^ He could wish there were not an image in the whole
World ; but not compulsion, but the free preaching of God's
Word, must hurl down the images. He passed to the subject
of feasts and fasts. No one could deny that Christians were
free to eat flesh, fish, eggs, and butter, when they pleased.
The Pope had instituted a foolish dead ordinance — " Thou
shalt not eat flesh on Fridays, but fish— Thou shalt eat only
fish on fast-days, not butter or eggs." To vindicate Christian
freedom against the Pope and stiff'-necked persons, it was right
to transgress openly these ordinances of men. But, for the
sake of the weak in faith, who would willingly believe what
they ought, but were hindered through ignorance, it was meet
to act with patience and avoid giving offence. On this prin-
ciple St. Paul circumcised Timothy. But when St. Peter
first ate swine flesh with the Gentiles, then abstained from it
with the Jews, and thus led the Gentiles to conclude that
they must keep the Mosaic law, St. Paul reasoned with him —
"- If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of the Gentiles,
and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to
live as do the Jews ? ' ' Thus evangelical freedom would use
discernment of persons and seasons.

On Thursday he treated of the Sacrament of the Lord's
Supper, particularly of taking the bread with the hand, and
of receiving the Sacrament in both kinds. Their conduct in
respect to that sacrament, which- " is our highest treasure,"
had been such, that it would have been no wonder if thunder
and lightning had struck them to the earth. God might
endure all the rest, but he could by no means endure that

* The reasoning is not very conclusive, as there is a material dis-
tinction between trials and temptations ordered in the course of Divine
Providence, and self-created trials. Images arc of the latter kind

360 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. they had made a compulsory ordinance. And if they did not
recede from it, no Emperor need drive him from amongst
them : he would himself depart undriven, and say of them,
that no foe, although his foes had occasioned him much suffer-
ing, had ever dealt him such a blow as they had dealt him.
The words of the Saviour, " Take and eat," did not necessarily
imply " Take with the hand ; " and in imagining the handling
of the bread and the cup essential to a right reception, they
were as silly as the Papists, who would not permit the altar-
cloth to be washed by any woman, not even a pure nun, and
if any one touched the body of the Lord would cvit off his
finger, or yet worse. If handling the Lord made a Christian,
Herod and Pilate would be the best of Christians. It was
neither a good nor a bad act to take the bread with the hand ;
but for the sake of the weak in faith it had better be discon-
tinued. He approved of the administration in both kinds as
agreeable to the institution of Christ, but it must not be
framed into an ordinance and made compulsory. If they
supposed they were good Christians because they handled the
body of the Lord and received the Sacrament in both kinds,
they must be told they were very bad Christians ; for a sow
with her great snout could do as much, and so far be a good
Christian. No outward act, but faith, made the Christian.
The Word must be preached through the length and breadth
of the land ; and if they demeaned themselves soberly, many
weak but goodhearted men would come over to them, when
they had heard the Word as long as they had.

Friday was devoted to the renewed consideration of the
Sacrament of the Lord^s Supper, particularly the preparation
necessary in those who would partake of it — " Faith, in a
humbled and trembling heart."

Saturday resumed the subject, and was employed in investi-
gatiug the effect of worthily partaking of the Sacrament,

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 361

which he stated to be more particularly the increase of love, 1522.
doing to our fellow-creatures as God has done to us.

Sunday, the 15th March, wound up the series of discourses
with the topic of confession. There were two kinds of con-
fession grounded upon Scripture. The first, for open sins,
enjoined by Christ, and alluded to in the words, ''If thy
brother sin against thee, go and tell him his fault between
thee and him alone : if he shall hear thee thou hast gained
thy brother ; bu^t if he refuse to hear thee, tell it unto the
Church." If the guilty party would not take the warning of
the congregation in good part then it was incumbent that he
should be excommunicated, until he came to his sober senses
and repented. But of this species of confession there were
no traces left ; and on this point the Gospel was trampled
under foot. Whoever would restore this primitive discipline
would do a good work. The second kind of confession was
for secret sins, when the penitent went into a retired corner,
and humbled himself before God, and implored pardon. The
third kind of confession was not grounded upon Scripture,
but was commanded by the Pope. It consisted in going into
a private spot with another, and disclosing the sins and sorrows
of the heart in order to hear a word of comfort. The Pope had
not that power which he had arrogated to compel Christians
to this mode of confession. But, on the other hand, whoever
had fought oft and long with Satan must know well how
much comfort and strength were thus imparted ; and since
ours was a sore combat against the devil, death, hell, and our
sins, no weapon must be taken from our hands. When the
assurance of pardon conveyed from a fellow-creature^s lips
was believed, and there Avas deep repentance for sin, and a
hearty desire to be rid of it, the human sentence was ratified
in heaven. But if any one possessed a firm and steadfast
faith that his sins were forgiven him, he needed not the abso-

362 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. lution of his neighbour. The Gospel was full of the shelter
of Divine absolution, such as the text, " If ye forgive men
their trespasses your heavenly Father will forgive you your
trespasses ; " and the clause in the Lord's Prayer, " Forgive
us our trespasses as we forgive them/' &c. Baptism enabled
us to cry to God, " See, O Lord, I am baptized in thy name,
whereby I am assured of thy grace and compassion." The
general absolution was moreover as if God himself declared,
"Thy sins are forgiven thee." And in the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper we ate his body and drank his blood as a token
that God has loosed us from our transgressions.

These discourses from first to last vaere listened to by
crowded congregations with fixed attention. The whole his-
tory of the preacher, the fact, to which he appealed, that he
had been the first to make known the Gospel at Wittenberg,
his disinterested zeal, which had led him to brave the imperial
edict, and, as he himself said, " throw himself into the midst
of the rage of Csesar and the Pope, surrounded only by a
heavenly guard," weighed on the minds of his audience, and
put the seal of authority on his words. His conduct at
Worms had thrown a lustre on Germany as well as rendered
him more than ever the idol of his countrymen, and he now
reappeared amongst his flock from some mysterious retreat,
at a period of agitation and tumult, as in old time one of the
prophets of Jehovah might suddenly appear on the scene
after a temporary withdrawal, with a Divine message to the
backsliders of Israel. The great majority even of those who
had taken part in the disturbances excited by Carlstadt and
the Zwickau fanatics, were electrified by the moving elo-
quence of the preacher, the face, the form, the manner of
the tried champion of truth, the accents of the well-known
voice meeting the ear after an interval short in time but
longer than a century in momentous events ; and with con-

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 363

scious inferiority boMed before the unwavering decisions of a 1522,
powerful intellect and a deeply Christian heart. In truth, at
no moment of his career does Luther appear greater. In
opposing the recklessness of lawless innovation, maintaining
Scripture against fanaticism, and insisting on charity as the
true exemplification of faith, he added completeness to his
testimony at Worms, and greatly enhanced its value by prov-
ing the purity of his motives, and the soundness of his
scripturally informed judgment. And in his discourses,
whilst there was unhesitating clearness, there was the gentle-
ness of afiection blended with authority. He forbore from
personal allusions, and abstained from touching on the
Zwickau doctrines at all, as though he were unwilling to sup-
pose it possible that his flock could be victims to such sense-
less infatuation. And the self-sacrifice of his courageous de-
portment, and the love which his acts attested and his words
breathed, were vouchsafed the reward of the most speedy
and complete triumph. The routine of customary life was
restored as by magic. The merchant was again at his desk ;
the student at his books ; the schools were again crowded with
scholars, the lecture-rooms with auditors ; order reigned in
the chm^ches and in the streets. Before the discourses had
been concluded these eftects began to show themselves ; and
Dr. Schurflf wrote to the Elector,"^ " O ! what joy has Dr.
Martin's return diffused amongst us, whether learned or un-
learned ! He is daily by Divine mercy bringing back our
deluded people into the way of truth. It is as clear as da}''-
light that the Spirit of God is with him, and a special Provi-
dence has ordered his return." One of the first to acknow-
ledge and renounce his errors was Gabriel Zwilling. When
he was asked if he did not think Luther a wonderful preacher,

* See the letter, WalcL. XV. p. 2401. It was written March 15.

364 THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. he answered, " I scera to have been listening to no voice of
man, but that of an angel from heaven." Wolfgang Capito, the
temporising chaplain of the Archbishop of Mentz, spent two
days at Wittenberg, in order to attend Luther^s discourses,
and heard counsels of moderation and charity from lips of
sincerity and truth with no feigned delight. Even Carlstadt
became reconciled to Luther in appearance; and whatever
objections he might really entertain against his doctrines, for
the present at least behaved as if he were convinced of his
errors.

The principle laid down by Luther, and now acted upon,
was liberty within the lines drawn by God's Word ; to abolish
every usage plainly forbidden by Scripture ; but wherever the
verdict of Holy Writ was less evident, to permit the retention
of the custom, or its disuse, as each individual conscience
might dictate. This leniency did not proceed from any tinc-
ture of indifference, but was the simple exercise of the
true spirit of Christian charity. Luther with strict consist-
ency turned round upon the enthusiastic party, and applied
to them exactly the reproof which he had before directed
against the Papists, that " the Pope had erected a tyranny,
and they had only thrown down his to set up a tyranny of
their own." No ordinance was to be enacted where God had
made none. But his own views were defined on all the topics
which had come under discussion, and in his letters, as in his
preaching, he gave a distinct statement of them. " I con-
demn," he wrote to Hansmann, " images, but by the Word ; I
would not have them burnt, but no confidence placed in
them. I condemn the laws of the Pope on confession, com-
munion, prayer, and fasting, but by the Word, that the con-
science may be set free."* And he appealed from the pulpit

* De Wcttc, II. pp. 151, 152.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 365

to the recollection of his hearers, whether he was not now 1522.
teaching what he had always taught.* Proceeding on this
charitable and enlightened ground, it was determined that
both the elements should be administered in the communion,
and on this subject Luther composed a treatise at this time ;
but that they should not be received with the hand : that
private confession should or should not be resorted to at the
discretion of the individual, but that regard should be had to
the fitness of those admitted to be communicants ; and that,
for the present, the Latin service for the mass should still be
used, with the omission of the words in which it was designated
as a sacrifice : and that the private mass should be altogether
abrogated. Such images as had been untouched were to be
left standing : and to fast on Wednesdays and Fridays was
put on the same footing as private confession. Gabriel Zwil-
ling was for a time suspended from preaching : but soon
afterwards Luther was himself a petitioner in his behalf to
Spalatin ; and towards the close of April recommended him
as preacher to the Town Council of Altenburg, who had
apphed to him to send them a man learned in the Scriptures :
and, on opposition being offered by the canons of that town
to his appointment, the Reformer pleaded his cause himself
with Frederic. Carlstadt, who had intruded himself into the
pulpit of the parish church without any sufficient call — for
Luther could not recognize a right to preach without a call
from the congregation — was gravely admonished of his error ;
and a treatise of Carlstadt^s already in the press was prohibited
from publication by the University, but without any request

* Eanke and D'Aubigne both regard Luther as modifying his
teaching at this time in insisting on the necessity of charity ; but it is
easy to prove from his writings that his doctrine had always been the
same, and he only advanced this or that section of it more prominently
because circumstances demanded it.

366 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. to that effect or sanction of such proceeding on the part of
Luther."'^

Such was the quiet prevailing at Wittenberg after a length-
ened storm, when Mark Stubner, and Nicolas, or Claus Stork,
returned from their proselyting eff"orts in the neighbour-
liood, to find their forces at head quarters completely put to
the rout. Irritated beyond measure at the reverses which
had befallen their doctrines in their absence, and elate with
the dignity of being the inspired of Heaven, they demanded a
conference with the Reformer, which Luther, who well knew
the impatience of their temper, and the haughtiness of their
ignorance, was unable to decline, however much disposed to
do so. He therefore appointed a place, day, and hour, for
the conference. The schoolmaster, Martin Mohr, or Cellarius,
who had so warmly exulted in the proposed extinction of all
learning, and had remained proof against the compunctions
of common sense, which, under Luther's preaching, had re-
visited the minds of most of those at first bewildered by fana-
ticism, was the most vehement among the prophets, raged,
roared, and foamed at the mouth, although uninvited to bear
a part in the discussion. Stubner called on Luther to become
a convert to the Zwickau creed ; and when answered that all
which the prophets advanced was contrary to Scripture, de-
clined to enter into argument, but renewed the demand of

* In a letter of the 21st April to Spalatin, Luther says, " I implored
Carlstadt in private not to publish anything against me, that I might
not be compelled against my will to push against him horn to horn.
He said that he had not written anything against me ; but his manu-
script, which is in the hands of the Eector and University, tells a dif-
ferent tale. They are soliciting him to retract or suppress his book,
for which I am no advocate (quod non urgeo). I do not fear Satan or
an angel from heaven, much less Carlstadt." Three days later he
writes, "I hear the publication of Carlstadt's book is prohibited." —
De Wette, II. pp. 184, 185.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 367

implicit credence. Luther then required that, as their doc- 1522.
trine was not only beyond Scripture, but against it, they
should at least prove its truth by miracles — the credentials
which God had always committed to those whom he had
entrusted with an express revelation. The prophets were
at a nonplus for an answer; they could not uphold their
pretensions by argument, and they could not work mira-
cles; but they still insisted, that their assurances of Divine
inspiration should be cred'ted on their own authority, and
loudly asserted that the time would come when Luther
would be compelled to credit them. Mohr stamped on the
ground, and beat the table with his fists, like a frantic
man. Yet, although they could lay no claim to any sen-
sible miracle, they pretended to be gifted with prophetical
power; and Stubner warned Luther that he was informed,
that at the very moment the Reformer was expressing
his incredulity, a secret emotion was disposing him to yield
assent to their doctrines. Luther was silent for a while,
and then exclaimed, " The Lord rebuke thee, Satan,"
A burst of enthusiasm now transported the prophets, and
they shouted with one accord — "The Spirit, the Spirit."
*' I slap your spirit on the snout," responded Luther.
The conference ended by Luther's threatening " their
God not to presume on working miracles in opposition to
the will of his God." This meeting decided the downfal
of the Zwickau fanatics at Wittenberg ; and that very day,
the prophets in a body abandoned the scene of their former
triumphs, and anathematized Luther in a letter addressed to
him from Kemberg.''^

This period forms an epoch in the history of the Reforma-
tion and Luther's life. He had previously been sounding the

* Camerar, Vita Melancthon, pp. 43 — 53. Seckend. I. p. 193.

368 THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. general mind, and instituting enquiries rather than answering
them ; but from this period he no longer spoke as a searcher
after trutli, but as one who had found it, and was authorita-
tively commissioned to be its herald to the world. He still
wore his monk's cowl and frock, and from his convent cell,
as the centre, a vast religious movement spread on all sides,
seized everywhere like a flame on the popular mind, and far
beyond the limits of Germany, was met by repulsion or sym-
pathy in the court and the cottage.

In the latter part of March, and the month of April, he
composed his treatise " On partaking of the Sacrament in
both Kinds and other Changes," intended for the German
nation, and especially the converts to the Zwickau doctrines,
as his sermons had been necessarily addressed to his Witten-
berg flock, or auditors from the immediate neighbom'hood.
After Easter Sunday, which fell on the 20th April, had
passed, he set out on a missionary tour through the towns and
villages where he understood these fanatical tenets were most
prevalent. To prevent the ire of Duke George from making
him its victim, he was obliged to resort to a new disguise, and
wore the dress of a countryman, but his monk's frock and
hood were concealed in his waggon, and he put them on as
often as he had occasion to address the people. In this tour
he entered Zwickau itself; and from the balcony of the town
haU addressed many thousands of the populace, who had con-
gregated in the market-place, from Schneeberg, Annaberg,
and all the towns in the vicinity. Without a rival in the art
of popular addresses, from his happy union of original thought
with the most simple and expressive language, his words fell
on his vast audience with a telling power which seemed to
promise the speedy return of common sense and Christian
love. He passed also through Erfurth and Eulenberg, and
was welcomed in Eidenberg Castle, and returned to Witten-

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 309

berg before the 6th May, with spirits greatly cheered by the 1522.
reception everywhere given to his exhortations to peace and
brotherly forbearance. After his return he addressed an
epistle to the evangelical Church of Ei'furth, which shows the
spirit by which he was actuated in this controversy. " Would/'
he said, "that the saints and ourselves might be forgotten,
Moses and Elias vanish, and neither Abraham nor Israel
know us any more, but only Christ crucified fill the heart."
But he recommended the greatest indulgence to the weak,
abstinence from all violence and vehemence, and reliance on
the Word alone. " Christ Jesus," he said, in a private letter,
" must remain alone on Mount Tabor; " and in proof that the
only point that needed to be insisted upon was the utter use-
lessness of images, he observed, that, vmder this conviction,
all mention of the saints had insensibly been omitted from his
own prayers, and he now implored Christ and God the Father
alone.

The subject to which his utmost attention was next devoted
was his translation of the New Testament. The whole had
been translated by him in the Wartburg ; but the work re-
quired revision, and he went through it all verse by verse
with Melancthon, making use of his friend's great philo-
logical attainments in explanation of difiScult words or sin-
gular constructions, and then with his own mastership of the
German tongue rendering each passage in its exact sense.
Wherever aid could be procured for this great work it was at
once enlisted. Spalatin was consulted on the names, colours,
and general appearance of the precious stones mentioned in
Rev. xxi., and by the Elector's kindness a box of specimens
was forwarded to Wittenberg. On the subject of the coins
of the ancients Melancthon made use of the treatise of the
French scholar Budseus, but consulted also his friend Came-
rarius, George Opercus, and other learned men. The work

VOL. I. B B

370 THE LIFE OF MAKTIN LUTHER.

1522. proceeded rapidly. Before tlic 14th April the Gospel of St. John
had been printed and despatched to Spalatin^ who was in at-
tendance on the Elector at Nuremberg. By the 4th July
St. Mark and the Epistle to the Romans were likewise for-
warded to the Court. And by the 21st September the whole
of the New Testament in German was in print, and could be
purchased at the moderate sum of a florin and a half. The
healing streams of the fountain of life flowed freely amongst a
grateful people. As early as December a new edition was
called for. Before eleven years had elapsed seventeen editions
had issued from the Wittenberg presses alone, besides a much
larger issue in other towns of this work, at once the seal of the
Reformation's success and the earnest of its increasing
triumph.

But whilst the German version of the New Testament was
passing through the press, Luther's indefatigable energy had
already begun the still more arduous task of translating the
whole of the Old Testament from the Hebrew original. As
this labour advanced, he exclaimed, " If any man think him-
self learned, let him attempt to translate the Bible, and he
will find out his mistake." The translation was published
piecemeal, and each portion or book was rapidly printed ofi".
A fragment of the translation was forwarded to Spalatin as
early as the 10th May ; and before the end of the year the
whole of the five books of Moses had been completed. But
with all the ardour which such a work, in the infancy of the
Reformation, called into exercise, the immensity of the task
of necessity occupied many years before an entire edition of
the sacred volume in German could be forthcoming.

No source of information, however humble, was neglected
in the endeavour to give Germany as perfect a version as
possible of the Old Testament. Before November Luther
had translated as far as Leviticus, and whilst engaged in that

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 371

book was often to be seen at the stalls of the butchers in the 1522.
town, examining the division of the carcases of oxen and
sheep, and learning the technical names of the various parts.
On the subject of birds, beasts, and reptiles, on which he
found the Vulgate even more than usually unsatisfactory, he
consulted Spalatin, who it seems had some acquaintance with
natural history. The industry and research which Luther
expended on the German version of the Word of God was in
marked contrast to the fluency and rapidity with which he
threw off the, as he thought, valueless compositions of his
own pen. Often one Hebrew word occupied a laborious con-
sideration of three or four weeks. And as long as he lived
the correction and improvement of his version of the Scrip-
tures, by which, as his true monument, he desired that his
name should be remembered with posterity, was a daily and
unceasing study.

And this may be the most appropriate place to mention the
means which he adopted for this important end. When the
translation of the whole Bible had issued from the press,
necessarily very imperfect from the difficulty of the work and
the haste of the execution, he organized a synod or sanhedrim
of learned men, whose suggestions might be of value for its
amendment and more complete finish. This synod was com-
posed of Bugenhagen, Jonas, Melancthon, Craciger, Auro-
gallus, and George E-orer, of which last the office was to note
down the corrections agreed upon. They met once every
week before supper in the Augustine convent; and if any
learned man from another university should happen to be on
a visit to Wittenberg, he was invited to the conference.
Luther brought to the conclave his old Latin Bible and his
German version with the Hebrew text interleaved ; Melanc-
thon the Septuagint version; Cruciger the Hebrew and
Chaldee texts; Bugenhagen his "well-thumbed" Latin

B B 2

372 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. Bible. The Targums and the interpretations of tlie Jewish
Rabbis were also consulted. The portion to be considered
was stated beforehand, and, in the interval of the meetings,
each studied it in private. When they Avere met, their
opinions on the passage or topic under consideration were
asked in rotation, and each, without interruption, delivered
himself of the knowledge on the subject with which his re-
searches in the interval or his previous learning had furnished
him. But when the true meaning of the Hebrew original, as
far as was possible, had thus been elicited, the task of clothing
it in the most befitting German devolved on Luther alone.
Acquainted with all that had been written in his own lan-
guage, well read in the national poetry from its earliest bards
to his own time, he had peculiar talents for this office ; and
his rule was to choose the shortest, simplest, and most familiar
words and phrases, never forgetting that his translation was
to be the poor man's Bible. And it is a high praise, however
subordinate to the thanks which all posterity owe him for
being the first to translate the Scriptures into a modern tongue
from the original text, that, by his prose writings, and yet
more by the purity of his German Bible, he fixed the standard
of his own language, and became the father of German litera-
ture as well as the father of the Protestant Churches. The
anniversary of the day on which the German version of the
Scriptures had been completed was solemnly kept in Bugen-
hagen's house, and was spent in united prayer and songs of
thanksgiving to God.

Next to the Bible itself, Luther valued the Aimotations of
his "dear Philip'' on the sacred text; but his encomiums
could not overcome Melancthon's diffidence of his own merits.
Not only was Philip ever willing that the publication of his
works should be retarded until the Wittenberg presses had
given Luther's, as they were successively written, to the

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 373

world; but it was with extreme reluctance that he would 1522.
suffer some of his writings, on which others set a high value,
to appear in print. His Commentaries on the Epistles to the
Romans and Corinthians he absolutely refused to publish. So
Luther abstracted them from his closet^ and sent them to the
press, prefixing a preface, addressed to Melancthon himself, to
the following effect: — " ' Be angry, and sin not ; commune with
thyself upon thy bed, and be still.' It is I who have published
your Annotations, and send yourself a present to yourself. If
you are not pleased it is well ; but it is enough that we are
pleased. The sin is yours, if there is any sin at all ; for why
did not you publish them ? But I am willing to be called a
thief, and neither fear your complaints nor accusations. To
those who you may suspect will turn up their noses, I answer,
' Do you write something better.' I claim for you what the
impious ' Thomists ' falsely arrogate to their Thomas, that
there was never a better commentator on St. Paul. What
does it matter if those famous men and giants deride my
judgment. The risk is my own. I shall next steal your
Commentaries on Genesis and the Gospels of Matthew and
John, if you are not beforehand with me. You say Scripture
should be read alone without commentaries. This is very
true of Jerome, Origen, and Aquinas; but your Annotations
are not so much a commentary as an index to the study of
Scripture and the gaining a knowledge of Christ."

In addition to his philological labours, his writings, preach-
ings, and lecturings, "the care of all the Churches" which
had welcomed the truth devolved upon Luther, and this was
every day becoming a more onerous office. As the religious
movement quickened at Wittenberg, its influences were felt
more and more strongly throughout the rest of Germany,
and beyond its limits. Paul von Spretten proclaimed the
Gospel in Augsburg, Wurzburg, Salzburg, and Vienna, and

374 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. continued his evangelizing route till he arrived at Iglau iu
Moravia, where he found a society of Christians who had
long existed in separate communion from Kome, and held
articles of faith in harmony with those Avhich Luther had
proclaimed in Northern Germany with such power. Through
Spretten these Bohemian brethren were brought into direct
contact with Luther himself, and consulted him on the con-
dition of their Church, and on disputed points of faith and
ceremony, particularly on the adoration of the Host. Luther
answered, that " neither is the adoration nor the non-adora-
tion of the Host a sin, for faith adored not the bread and
wine, but Him whose body and blood the bread and wine
contained.^^ And, in a letter to Spretten, marked by a total
absence of dogmatism, and a sharp stricture on idle curiosity
in religion, he asserted, on the subject of the Eucharist,
the doctrine of " concomitancy,*' that is, of " consubstan-
tiation ; " but he added, " the Sacrament itself is not abso-
lutely necessary, faith and charity are absolutely necessary :
it is only faith that consecrates the elements." Luther
examined the ambassadors from the Bohemian bretlii'en as to
the actual doctrines of their Church, and found them sound
in all essentials, although their tenets were expressed in a
phraseology which he designated as '' obscure and barbarous,
not being derived from Scripture." He found their faith
correct on the Eucharist and on Baptism : they baptized
infants, but " attributed no efficacy to infant baptism," which
probably means that they did not believe in baptismal rege-
neration; they rebaptized those who joined their communion;
and, like the Romanists, held seven sacraments. But it filled
Luther's heart with sorrow to learn that there were some
amongst the Bohemians who meditated submitting themselves
to the Roman Chuich, in order to put an end to the various
sects which divided and distracted them ; and he despatched.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 375

by the ambassadors, an epistle to the Bohemian estates, 1522.
earnestly dissuading them from giving their sanction to such
scandalous degeneracy. " The times had been/^ he said, ''when
he had abhorred the name of Bohemian, but he had since
learnt that the Pope is Antichrist, and now no one was more
frequently reviled with the taunt of Bohemian than himself j
and he trusted ere very long the Bohemians and the Germans
would have one faith and one name. It was true the apostle
forbade sects and schism; but these flourished most under
the Papacy. The mendicants were split into several orders,
all hating one another ; and the Franciscan order itself was
split into divisions; and it was only by divisions that the
Pope kept his throne. There was but one road to unity — the
pure Gospel and one Christ. And to be reconciled to Rome
would be the same as to imbrue their hands in the blood of
their own martyrs, Huss and Jerome, to abjure Christ the
Lord, and become children of perdition.'^ And he implored
them to stand fast '' in that opposition to the devil in which
they had hitherto persisted to the death, and not to bring
contumely on the reviving faith of the Gospel.^' Thus, as
Huss had been by his writings an instrument in Luther's en-
lightenment, the German Reformer repaid the benefit by
building up in their martyr's faith the spiritual children of
Huss.

It was not only, however, to the land of Huss that Lutheran
missionaries travelled, circulating Luther's tracts, and pro-
claiming the Gospel, but the land of Wycliffe also was the
scene of similar exertions. The evangelical tenets were fast
spreading in England, where Lollardism, far from dying out,
had always been vigorously maintained among the lower or-
ders, and had been rather increased than diminished by the
sanguinary cruelty of the clergy, when the " Babylonian Cap-
tivity " found its way to the English court, and fell into the

376 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. hands of Henry VITI. himself. The King read a little way
in the book, and then thrust it from him with the exclamation
that it was " most pestilent heresy." He caused Luther's
writings to be placed under ban throughout his dominions ;
and, on the 12th May, 1521, Wolsey, the Lord Chancellor,
by royal command proceeded in state to St. Paul's, and com-
mitted the publications of the Wittenberg monk to the flames
in presence of a large confluence of spectators. He was not
however content with this ; but, eager to show his learning as
well as his zeal, composed a treatise in answer to the " Baby-
lonian Captivity," which he entitled " A Defence of the Seven
Sacraments, against Martin Luther, by the most invincible
King of England and France, Lord of Ireland, Henry the
eighth of that name ; " and had it presented by his ambas
sador John Clarke, Dean of Windsor, to the Pontiff" in full
consistory, who received it, as he said, with as much approba-
tion " as if it were a treatise of St. Augustine or St. Jerome."
And in a bull, dated the 10th October, 1521, the title of
" Defender of the Faith " was conferred upon the royal
author."^ The book, from the rank of its writer, excited a
great deal of notice. " It was written," says Collier, " as it
were with the sceptre." Treating the poor monk, as a king
might treat a beggar. King Henry seemed to imagine the
contest was one of relative station rather than of relative un-
derstanding, and that a farrago of school divinity quoted by
one of the first monarchs of Europe must be for ever decisive
on the merits of the controversy.

There is no allusion to this royal treatise in Luther's cor-
respondence until the summer of 1522, when, in a letter to
Lange, he says, inverting the fable of the ass in the lion's
skin, "There is a mighty talk about a book of the King of

* See Herbert, p. 95. kc.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 377

England : I suspect that the skin conceals a Lee (leo) ; " for 1522.
general report averred that Edward Lee, Henry's chaplain,
had had a large share in the composition. But, on reading
the treatise, his indignation was kindled by the tone of scorn
assumed by the haughty monarch, and as the book "was
magnified by the clergy as the most learned work that ever
the sun saw," and its authority was quoted to deter men from
embracing the evangelical doctrines, he resolved to answer it,
and expose its folly, and thereby " greatly provoke Satan."
True, Henry was a king, and Luther revered the kingly power,
but then he was not Luther's sovereign ; and the insolence of
his language, only exceeded by the ignorance of his arguments,
appeared to him an insult from a crowned piece of dust to the
King of Heaven. It was to no purpose that the councillors of
the Elector and the immediate friends of the Reformer laboured
to prevent any reply whatever, or at least to mitigate his
violence, by representing that Henry had only advanced the
worn-out plea of human authority. He answered the protes-
tations against any bitterness in writing by citing the words
of Christ, of Peter, and of Paul, who had termed the Jews " a
generation of vipers, murderers, children of the devil, and
fools," and convinced that softness of speech was out of place,
indeed had been used far too long, he bent his sarcastic and
argumentative powers to break the pride of the vain-glorious
monarch. His idea was, that, with the back stroke of his
pen, Henry had pushed the crown from off his head, and he
now intended to supply him with a more befitting head-gear.
" The King of England had given an ell or two of coarse
cloth, which Lee had cut out and made up into a fool's cap and
lined ; and it was now his intention to give the whole a good
brushing and to put on the bells." He dedicated his answer
to the Bohemian Count of Passun, a partisan of the Reforma-
tion, whose domains lay on the Bohemian and German con-

378 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. fines, in allusion to the royal taunt that he was a Bohemian,
and would soon fly to the Bohemians : a taunt which '^ before
God was a glorj^/' and which he accepted as a prediction that
his doctrines would find a general welcome from that noble
people. " Not,^^ he added, " that I approve everything in the
Bohemian Church, for I am ignorant of much respecting it,
and I hear that it is split into sects ; but, compared with it,
the Papist rabble are stench and rottenness throughout the
world."

The whole text of the King of England, Luther said in his
reply, was replete with the traditions of men, the glosses of
the Fathers, and the customs of ages. " The Fathers, the
Fathers ; customs, customs ; statutes, statutes," such was the
Papists^ cuckoo cry. He should ever respond " The Gospel,
the Gospel, Christ, Christ." King Henry, arrogant with his
new divinity, imagined whatever he said must needs be be-
cause he said it. He fought with his hay and stubble against
the rock of God's Word. Insanity itself was not so mad,
and stupidity itself not so gross. A mass of rottenness and
a worm of the dust dared to forge lies against the King of
Heaven : and therefore it must be lawful to befoul the majesty
of England with his own mud and dung, and trample on a
crown which lifted itself in blasphemy against Christ. The
Thomist monarch charged him with contradictions, but
whatever he had at any time written in favour of Rome, he
would now revoke plenarily and totally : and whereas he had
said, " The Papacy is a vigorous hunt led by the Roman
Bishop," he would substitute for it this sentence, "The
Papacy is the most pestilent abomination of King Satan which
ever has been, or ever shall be, under the whole heaven."
Such a learned and terrible Thomist as King Henry should
extort from him so much by way of revocation. The English
monarch accused him of acerbity of language, as if waggon

THE LIFfi OF MARTIN LUTHER. 379

loads of virulent contumely were the true mode of reforming 1522.
acrimony of language in another. But he had been too
gentle towards the Papist monsters in the hope of their re-
pentance : henceforth he should feel convinced he never could
suj[ficiently provoke such stolid blocks, such gross asses, such
bloated hogs. But to come to argument, first generally then
specially, after the pattern of Aristotle, the Thoraist's god.
All King Henry's wisdom lay in the force of " So I think,''
like the reasoners in the schools who on a premiss in their
syllogism being denied, have nothing for it but to repeat,
" Nevertheless, so I think." " Custom," the King said,
''established an article of faith against the plain text of the
Gospel," a stretch beyond even Thomist absurdity; and a
more direct blasphemy than Satan himself could be charged
with. If the Thomist Samsons could allege nothing in behalf
of their opinions but cvistom and antiquity, the faith of the
Turks was more ancient than the conversion of Germany to
Christianity, and ought to be embraced by the Germans in-
stead of the Gospel. The Church was built, not on the
custom or saying of any saint, not on John the Baptist, or
Elias, or Jeremiah, or Isaiah, or any of the prophets, but on
the only sure foundation, Christ the Son of God. The saints
were but fallible men. God's "Word alone was unmixed
truth. He then advanced to particulars, restricting his ob-
servations to one of the Sacraments, the Eucharist. " King
Henry had said that to administer the Sacrament in one kind
only was within the power of the Church as much as to cele-
brate the communion in the morning instead of the evening,
when Christ instituted it, or to mix water with the wine with-
out any scriptural warrant. But where was the parallelism ?
Because customs were introduced without any scriptural
warrant, did it follow that therefore a custom might be in-
troduced in the teeth of the express letter of Scripture ? The

380 THE LIFE OP MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. King liad built the doctrine of transubstantiation on the
text, ' This is my body/ not * With this/ or ' In this is my
body/ But the words of Scripture were, ' He took bread,
blessed and brake it, and said. This is my body,^ i.e., This
bread is ray body, for the ' this ' evidently meant that which
was the subject of the taking, blessing, and breaking, viz., the
bread. But the King required him to demonstrate that the
elements are not transubstantiated. The stupid Thomist, to
require him to prove a negative ! But he would ask Henry to
explain the following passages : ' The bread which we break, is
it not the communion of the body of Christ ? ' and ' Whosoever
eateth this bread and drinketh this cup,' &c. The Apostle
did not say this body. Again, to overthrow his assertion that
the mass is not a good work or a sacrifice, the only argument
which the King's stolid brain could devise was, that if it were
not, the laity would never give their wealth to the clergy for
celebrating it. So that it depended on the judgment of
the laity and the verdict of money whether the mass was in-
deed a good work and a sacrifice ! No harlot made a boast of
her shame with more effrontery than this most impudent king
made a boast of the covetousness and impositions of the
clergy. The king asserted, without the least proof of his
words, that the priests in the mass did not only what Christ
did at supper, but what Christ did also upon the cross ! To
which he would answer, that nothing could be plainer, than
that the priests not only did not what Christ did at supper, but
that they did what the Jews did to Christ upon the cross : for
to pervert and extinguish God's Word is the same as to crucify
the Son of God. The mass was simply a testamentary pro-
mise, it could not therefore be a sacrifice; it was received
and eaten, it could not* therefore be offered : for amongst the
Jews the portion offered in sacrifice was never eaten but
burnt. He needed not King Henry's instructions as to what

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 381

Ambrose, Augustine, or tlie Councils affirmed ; he denied 1522,
their authority, and therefore to adduce their opinions as de-
cisive was, in true Thomist fashion, to write a book beside
the point altogether — ' a begging of the question "* from
first to last."

This answer as much astonished as it exasperated the English
Court. Henry, however, did not again venture into the arena
of controversy, but left his defence to others. The venerable
Bishop of Rochester, not more respectable as a man than viru-
lent as a Papist, doomed himself to fall a victim to that perse-
cuting spirit which he now recommended, published in reply
his denunciation of Luther as a pestilent heretic ; and, quoting
the words of Solomon's Song,* " Take us, the foxes, the little
foxes, that spoil the vines ;" " this," he said, " is a warning to
seize heretics ere they grow big ; but this Luther is a large,
old, wily, and mischievous fox, and it is hard to catch him ;
nay, he is a mad dog, a hungry wolf, a fierce she-bear." Sir
Thomas More, also destined, like Bishop Fisher, by the retri-
butive justice of Heaven, to lose his life by that very cruelty
and self-conceit of his monarch, which he was now fostering,
grasped the pen, and accused " the tippler Luther " of ribaldry
and coarseness in a writing crammed so full of them both, as
quite to outdo in that respect even the object of his censure.
Henry's own retaliatory eff'orts were confined to forwarding
letters to Duke George and the Elector of Saxony, represent-
ing the doctrines of Luther as subversive of the priesthood,
the Papacy, and royalty itself, and calling on them to extin-
guish his accursed sect. Duke George, not altogether dissi-
milar from Henry in character, and who, like the king of
England, having been intended for holy orders, had enjoyed
a better education than was usual with princes in that age,

* Canticles, ii. 15.

383 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. heartily sympathised with the aggrieved monarch, and made
Luther's treatment of royalty an express matter of complaint
against him to the Council of Regency. With Frederic, the
expostulations of Henry VIII. produced no farther effect
than to lead him to regret more strongly than ever the acer-
bity of the Reformer's controversial writings.

And, on this occasion^ Spalatin was directed to express to
Luther in decided terms the displeasure and annoyance which
the acrimony of his tone had occasioned the Elector. But
Luther was by no means in the mood to plead guilty to an
accusation dictated, as he believed, by the motive of worldly
fear. He had previously been much grieved by the removal
of Gabriel Z willing from his office of preacher at Altenburg,
after he had renounced his fanatical errors, and yet more by
the maintenance of the mass by the Elector's command in
many churches and chantries, and by the continuance of the
" Bethaven of All Saints " in all its unprofitable splendour.
He therefore turned sharply round on the Saxon court and
its chaplain, and read them a plain lecture. " Do not falsely
imagine," he wrote to Spalatin, " that God will be mocked.
He will not be mocked by a court, however deeply versed in
the arts of hypocrisy. And you, too, what are you doing at
the court, you, a preacher of the Gospel ? Why do you not
warn the wicked of his wicked way, and deliver your own soul,
as Ezekiel bids you ? I know with what powerful words you
courtiers are for ever declaiming against my bitterness of
language ; but is it not much better to exasperate impiety and
to give offence to many than to sooth and flatter sin and cling
to a false peace ? Why thunder your censures against a hum-
ble delinquent and pass over the errors of your Prince ? This
is to have respect of persons, and to disown Christ." His
friends, also, at Wittenberg, expostulated with him on the
extreme severity of his reply to the royal treatise, to whom he

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 383

answered, that " If his enemies, such excellent Christians as 1522.
they thought themselves, were so vituperative, what could
be expected from him, whom they called a vile heretic ? He
had reasons for acting as he had done; they could not be
known now, but they would be known hereafter." But
everywhere amongst the common people the boldness with
which Luther had chastised the ignorance of regal pride
rather increased than detracted from his popularity, and ere
long events showed that he was far from having declined in
the esteem of the German nobility.

The Diet had met at Nuremberg early in the spring, being
summoned to enter upon its vocation with all convenient
despatch, on account of the progress of Sultan Soliman, who
had made himself master of Belgrade, and had spread con-
sternation through the adjoining provinces. This invasion of
the Ottomans was very opportune for Luther's security, for it
swallowed up for the time every other question, and after
providing for the expenses of the war, and regulating those
points of internal administration which the great rise in the
price of commodities and other circumstances rendered neces-
sary, the Diet broke up its session, and deferred the consider-
ation of religious dissensions until the autumn. But the
Council of Regency continued sitting, and before this per-
manent executive board the furious Duke George of Saxony
hastened to bring his complaints of the rapid growth and
fanatical tendency of the Lutheran tenets. The disturbances
at Wittenberg and elsewhere lent a ready handle to these
allegations, so that he succeeded in obtaining an order from
the Council that the Bishops of Naumburg, Meissen, and
Merseburg should visit the suspected districts, and use their
endeavours to repress the rage for innovation and maintain the
ancient rites and usages of the Church. In conformity with
this order an episcopal visitation was commenced through the

384 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. Saxon Electorate, the rite of confirmation was administered,
and sermons were preached to the people. Luther's attention
was directed to these proceedings, and he wrote to Hausraan,
the pastor of Zwickau, to inform him on the true meaning of
confirmation, which " has no sacramental character belonging
to it whatever." " When the episcopal puppet comes to you,"
he said, " question him closely on the articles of his faith, for
they are twice babes in faith and in the knowledge of Christ."
But whatever ill effect might be likely to result from this epis-
copal visitation, by inflaming the anti-papal spirit of the lower
orders, was effectually obviated by Luther himself following
in the track of the bishops over the field of their exertions.
Towards the end of September he set out for Leysnick; in
October he visited Weimar ; towards its close, and in the be-
ginning of November, he was at Erfurth, where he preached in
St. Michael's Church several times."^ Everywhere his powerful
addresses gained a strong hold on the public mind, and in-
structed his audience both in the principles of the Christian
faith, and also in the duty of obedience to the civil magistrate,
denouncing riot and the sword as auxiliaries of truth. Much
gratified with the success of his labours, he returned home to
shut himself up in his cell to finish with uninterrupted toil
his translation of the Pentateuch before the end of the year;
and, after achieving that task, he composed a treatise on " the
degree of obedience due to the temporal power," f dedicated
to Duke John, which was completed by the first day of the
new year.

* See Bret. II. p. 579. Melancthon relates that Luther got down
from his waggon some distance from Erfurth, and entered the town on
foot, to avoid the disagreeableness of a popular welcome. But, not-
withstanding, in the evening, in the house of the cui*ate of St. Michael's
Church, with whom he lodged, he was overwhelmed with a tumultuous
crowd of visitors.

t Von wcltlicher Oberheit, wie weit man, &c.

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 385

In the course of the summer the Elector of Saxony took 1522.
his departure for Nuremberg, and from the period of his
arrival there every peril which had menaced the Reformer
seemed dispelled. Frederic became the animating spirit of
the Council of Regency ; and the favour with which the Coun-
cil regarded Luther was quickly manifested by the evasive
answer returned to the repeated complaints of Duke George,
that " insults against the Pope and Emperor were resounding
on all sides." And it cannot be questioned but recent events
had thrown a lustre round the Reformer's name, which added
materially to the popularity of his cause. He had appeared
as a pacificator, when the smouldering heat of popular pas-
sions was rising into flame, and the tide of fanaticism had
threatened to overwhelm all the landmarks of civilization ;
and it was difficult to decide, whether the self-devotedness
with which he had quitted his retreat, and exposed himself to
death from any hand that might raise itself against him, or
the power of his influence, which, at his first word, had re-
duced chaos into order, the more enhanced his renown in the
estimation of the public.

Leo X. was dead. The excess of his joy at the capture of
Milan by the imperial forces had induced a fever, which had
brought his pontificate to a sudden termination in November,
1521. His successor was elected on the 9th January in the
following year — Adrian of Utrecht, Cardinal of Tortosa, who
now became Adrian VI. The recommendation of Adrian to
St. Peter's chair had been the favour in which the Emperor
held him as his tutor, and as having faithfully served him in
the Low Countries and in Spain ; but he was a widely differ-
ent person from Leo in his tastes and habits, an orthodox
Dominican in his tenets, scrupulously conscientious and strict
in his private morals, and full of the zeal of an inquisitor
of heresy against every impugner of the infallible Church.

VOL. I. CO

386 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. Leaving his peaceful and pious Deanery at Louvain with
regret, Adrian repaired to Rome in the August of 1522, con-
soUng himself for the sacrifice which he had made of a
secluded and studious life by the hope of accomplishing the
resolution he had strenuously formed, to reform the debauched
manners of the Roman Court, amend the morals of the clergy,
and correct the multifarious abuses of the whole ecclesiastical
system. He appointed Chieregati to represent him at the
Diet, and wrote a letter to the Elector of Saxony, dated the
5th October, imploring him to discountenance all heresy, and
" after the example of his ancestors, to consult the dignitj'- of
the Apostolic See, the safety and tranquillity of the whole
Christian world, and to protect the holy faith." Frederic's
reply, written by Melancthon, denied that he had ever es-
poused or defended Luther's cause, but required that the
monk should be refuted by Scripture, as every other argu-
ment must be unavailing, and expressed his sincere desire
for the establishment of God's truth, and the maintenance of
the public peace. Proceeding with great zeal in the path on
which he had entered, on the 25th November Adrian addressed
a brief to the " Estates of the Sacred Roman Empire assem-
bled at Nuremberg," summoning them to the defence of the
Catholic faith, and reminding them that " the Omnipotent
God had caused the earth to open and swallow up the schis-
matics Dathan and Abiram ; that Peter, the Prince of Apostles,
had struck Ananias and Sapphira with sudden death for lying
against God ; that pious Emperors of old time had removed
the heretics Jovinian and Priscillian by the temporal sword ;
that St. Jerome had determined that the heretic Vigilantius
should be delivered to destruction of the flesh, that his soul
might be saved ; that their own ancestors had put John Huss
and Jerome of Prague to death, who now seemed risen from
the dead in Martin Luther." But on entering Germany

i

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 387

Chieregati found that Pope Adrian's missive had been die- 1522.
tated in entire ignorance of all that was passing in the hearts
of the people to whose rulers it was addressed. As he raised
his two fingers, after the usual manner, as a Cardinal of the
Church, to hless the wayfarers, the populace, instead of bow-
ing with humility to receive the apostolical benediction, imi-
tated his gestures, or pointed the finger in ridicule at the
Nuncio and his mule. When he reached Nuremberg, he
found that free city all Lutheran. The chapel of the
Hospital, the churches of the Augustines, resounded with
the eloquence of scriptural truth, drunk in with eager ears
by the toAvn-people who thronged tliem. And when he made
this liberty of preaching a subject of strong complaint to the
Diet, and the Archduke Ferdinand and the Elector of Bran-
denburg aided his remonstrances, the former saying, that " he
was there in the place of his brother the Emperor,'' he found
that the bold reply of Planitz, the Saxon envoy, was received
with signal approval, — " Your Highness is representative of the
Emperor, only in conjunction with the Council of Regency,
and under the laws of the Empire." And such ineffectual
efforts to check the freedom of religious teaching only in-
creased the boldness of the Lutheran preachers ; for the town
council of Nuremberg publicly declared their resolution to
uphold the rights of their free city, and, if force should be
used against the preachers, to repel force by force. And
when Chieregati intimated his intention of apprehending the
preachers by his own authority, in the Pontiff's name, the
Archbishop of Mentz and others, in consternation at the idea
of a popular insurrection, replied that the attempt to execute
such a project would be the signal for them to leave the city
without a moment's delay.

The instructions of Adrian to his Nuncio required him to

388 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1522. make two important demands of the Diet : firsts the execu-
tion of the Edict of Worms ; and secondly, the establishment
of an episcopal censorship. And to render the Diet the more
disposed to accede to these demands, the Pope, with a well-
intentioned candour, which Cardinal Soderini, and such mem-
bers of the sacred college as knew the world well, and the
Roman court still better, regarded as childish imbecility, pro-
fessed his resolution to eflFect a universal reform of the
Church. " We know," he said, " that for several years cer-
tain vices have crept into the Roman chair, abuses in reli-
gion, violations of law, in fine, perversion in everything : and
the corruption has spread from the head to the members,
from the Pontiff to the clergy. We are resolved to reform
the Court of Rome ; the whole world calls for it." The
papal party blushed to have thus an acknowledgment under
the Pontift's own hand and seal, that the Lutheran com-
plaints of ecclesiastical excesses and iniquities were the strict
and patent truth. The fountain once unsealed, the waters
welled out without check or hinderance. Noble after noble
rose in the Diet ; and, taking the Pontiff's confession as his
text, illustrated its truth and force by enumerating the vari-
ous injuries or insults which he had to charge against the
Holy See : and the result of the intense indignation thus ex-
cited and kept alive, was the famous Centum Gravamina, a
befitting chapter to the pontifical preface, a document which
throws great light on the practices of the Roman Church,
and a standing evidence of the imperative necessity for a
thorough reformation. And it was stated that, " if prompt
redress were not accorded, it would become the duty of the
States to deliberate on some decisive method of putting a
period to such flagrant wrongs."

Tn reference to the answer to be returned to the Nuncio's

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 389

demands, a committee was appointed to draw up a Report to 1522.
be submitted to the Diet. The most influential member of
this committee was John von Schwarzenberg, the Hofmeister
of Bamberg, a man of great ability, and a decided Lutheran.
The Report accordingly placed in its foremost paragraph the
Pontiff's own admission of grievous abuses extending through-
out the whole ecclesiastical economy, and his promise to
rectify such an unhappy state of things. Under such cir-
cumstances, it alleged that the execution of the Edict of
Worms was an impossibility; instead of crushing heresy,
such an attempt would only extend and perpetuate it, and
would have the worst effect on the people, by inciting them to
resist authority. It required the Pope to abolish annates,
to carry out the concordats, and to remove grievances. For
the extinction of schism, it demanded a General Council,
to meet within the term of one year, in a neutral town,
wherein not only members of the clergy, but also of the
laity, should have a seat and voice, with full liberty of frank
discussion on " godly, evangelical, and other generally profit-
able afiairs." If these requirements were granted, the papal
party were given to understand that Luther and his adhe-
rents would refrain from disturbing the public repose in the
interval. With overflowing joy, on the 13th January, Planitz 1523.
forwarded this Report to the Elector of Saxony.

This Report was sanctioned by the Diet, with a few imma-
terial alterations, such as omission of the words which spoke
of corruptions pervading all orders in the Church, and the
omission of the word " evangelical,'' on the vehement objec-
tion of the Archbishop of Mentz. The discussion was now
transferred to the conduct to be observed by the antagonist
religious parties, in the interim, before the Council : and the
Papists succeeded in carrying the vote that Luther and his
associates should be interdicted from printing and publishing

390 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTIIEll.

1523. any writings,* and from everytliing calculated to interrupt
the public peace. It remained to be determined what preach-
ing should be tolerated from the pulpit. The Papists con-
tended that the four Latin Fathers, Jerome, Augustine^
Ambrose, and Gregory, should be constituted the doctrinal
standard conjointly with Scripture : the Lutherans insisted
that Scripture alone should be made the rule of faith and
teaching. At length a decision on the subject was agreed to,
M'hich satisfied both parties by the ambiguity of its language,
that *' nothing should be taught excepting the true, pure,
sincere, and holy Gospel, and approved writings, piously,
charitably, and christianly, according to the doctrine and
exposition of writings approved and received by the Christian
Church." And on the 6th March the Recess of the Diet was
drawn up and published to this effect.

When this Recess was published, it became evident to the
whole of Germany, and not least to those Papist members of
the Diet, who had given their sanction to it, that a decided
and momentous victory had been gained by the evangelical
side. Luther himself at once recognised in it the superin-
tending hand of Divine Providence, and was filled with joy
and thankfulness. Throughout Germany, hearts yearning,
like his own, for religious freedom, exulted in it as an earnest
of the more complete triumph of their cause. And beyond
Germany notes of congratulation from fellow Christians strug-
gling against Rome greeted the success of their German bre-
thren, "The Pope," Zwingle wrote, "has been routed, and
almost clean expelled from Germany." On the other hand,
the Nuncio made no secret of his disappointment and vexa-
tion ; he renewed his demands for the execution of the Edict

* The Saxon envoy, however, protested that " his Prince could not
consider himself bound by this prohibition, but should always know
how to act in a Christian, praiseworthy, and irreproachable manner."

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 391

of Worms, and the establishment of an episcopal censorship; 1523.
but the Diet directed his attention to the Centum Gravamina^
'"' which must be transmitted to his Holiness, and the fulfil-
ment of his promise awaited.^'

Disappointed and chagrined, his own concessions turned
into a weapon against him, Adrian directed his bitter wrath
against the man to whom he imputed the defeat of his ortho-
dox vengeance. He wrote a letter to the Elector of Saxony,
in which he charged him with having " nourished the serpent
in his bosom, who stained heaven and earth with his venom. It
was due to the Elector that the churches were without con-
gregations ; the people without priests ; the priests without
reverence ; and Christians without Christ. That faith was
being abandoned which had been sucked in with the mother's
milk. So silly and senseless had the Elector been as to be-
lieve one pigmy of humanity, covered with sins, rather than
many renowned fathers of the Church, and so many uni-
versal councils. The Bible was a sealed book, which only
the Lion of the tribe of Judah could open, and loose the
seals thereof; and could he suppose that one carnal man,
belching out wine and drunkenness, had more understand-
ing in God^s Word than so many spiritual fathers ? Lu-
ther was continually inciting the laity to wash their hands
in the blood of the priests. He taught that no satisfaction
for sin was to be rendered to God ; that fastings, prayers,
and lamentations, were no redemption of guilt ; that the
body and blood of Jesus Christ ought not daily to be of-
fered in sacrifice ; that vows were not binding. He polluted
the sacred utensils of God^s house ; he restored to the world,
or rather to the devil, the virgins espoused to Christ; he
united the priests of Christ to harlots ; he derided the saints ;
and with foul mouth contradicted the Councils ; under pre-
text of liberty he was labouring to introduce a licentious life.

392 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1523. resembling that of the brutes ; he branded not only the friars
and priests^ but even the successor of Peter, the vicar of
Jesus Christ on earth, with names so impious and infamous,
with contumelies, reproaches, and blasphemies so monstrous,
that the modest tongue could not utter them, or a chaste ear
bear the recital. He called that chair in which Peter the
head of the Apostles had sat, whence sacerdotal unity had
sprung, the seat of Antichrist; the Universities he called
brothels, Sodoms and Gomorralis. It was true that there
were bad and wicked priests. But was any one exempted from
honouring his parents, if they were wicked ? Did not Christ
command — ' The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses^ seat :
all, therefore, which they bid you, that observe and do.'
But now, the temples and monasteries were burnt and pro-
faned ; the virgins dedicated to Christ, the priests and the
monks, were cruelly persecuted, and the goods of the churches
plundered; rapine, highway robbery, murder, conflagration
produced universal confusion. O son, beloved in Christ, by
the bowels of our E,edeemer, by Christian unity, by the love of
your country, by your hope of salvation, we implore you, pity
your country, which, once sincerely submissive to the yoke of
the Lord, now instead of blushing as it ought, boasts that
Martin, the public enemy of faith and piety, is sprung from
her bowels. Think of Dathan and Abiram, and of Corah ; how
Uzziah was struck with leprosy, because he ventured on the
priest's office. Does not all history show that those have
perished by the avenging hand of God by a miserable end,
who have laid sacrilegious hands on the Lord's Christ ; whilst
prosperity and a long life have been the lot of those who have
venerated Christ in his priests ? " The letter concluded in
fiercer accents. " Let it be your first business to see that
that impure mouth be closed, that blasphemous tongue
bridled ; and if you will do this, as the angels in heaven

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER. 393

rejoice over one sinner that repentetli, so we will carry you as 1523.
the lost sheep found again, to the fold of the Lord with rejoic-
ing. But if you disregard our paternal and wholesome admo-
nition, we tell you in the name of God and of Jesus Christ —
whose vicar on earth we are— that in this present world your
crime shall not go unpunished, and hereafter eternal flames
await you. The Pope Adrian, and the most religious Empe-
ror Charles, his dearest son in Christ and pupil, whose edict
against Luther you have dared to set at nought, are alive in
the same age. Those whom the Pope Adrian, with Charles
the Great, begot in the faith — the Pope Adrian, with the Em-
peror Charles, will not suffer to perish by the contagion of
schism and heresy. Therefore, repent and return to your
sober senses, you and your deluded Saxons, unless you would
feel the sword of the Pope and the sword of the Emperor."

As he read such words, the peaceable Elector Frederic —
who, when told that he might seize and possess himself of
the town of Erfurth with the loss of only five men, had
replied, " The loss of otie would be too much," — felt his breast
glow with indignation, and anticipated the period when he
might be called upon to defend with the sword his rights
as an Elector of the Empire, and the cause of Christ. He
therefore referred the Pope's brief to the consideration of the
Apostles of the Reformation, and requested their judgment on
the lawfulness of waging war in behalf of the Gospel in resist-
ance to the Emperor. Luther, Link, Melancthon, Bugen-
hagen, and Amsdorf, met in conclave, and agreed vmanimously
upon the reply to be returned to -this question. They an-
swered that, first, a prince, in undertaking war, must be
satisfied in his conscience that his cause was just : secondly,
that he could only undertake war with the consent of his
people, who had delegated to him his authority, and whom it
was unjust to load with taxes ; but that the people could not

D O

394 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1523. desire a war in defence of the Gospel, for they had no faith.
Melancthon added as his private opinion that, thirdly, when
the Jewish kings made war for God, it was by an express
divine command; Christians, on the other hand, must not
defend themselves or require others to defend them, but
cheerfully pour out their lives for Christ.

Such an answer sufficiently marks that a great epoch had
been reached in the progress of the Reformation. The link
between Saxony and the Papacy had at last been torn asunder
by the Pontiflf himself: Lutheranism was beginning to take its
stand as a recognised religious system ; it had refused in its de-
fence carnal weapons, and sought refuge with God only; and the
public sympathy with the evangelical cause had been declared
by the Nuremberg Recess. Casting his eyes around, Luther
beheld on every side the marvellous growth and extension,
unparalleled save in the earliest history of Christianity, of
those scriptural principles in vindication of which he had
nailed his famous Theses to the door of the Castle Church.
In Sweden, under Gustavus Eric, in Norway and in Denmark,
under Frederic of Holstein, the evangelical religion was be-
coming the national faith : along the Baltic and the North
Seas, from Pomerania to the Netherlands, and inland from
Hamburg to Vienna, the popular creed was Lutheran : in
Switzerland a similar movement was daily gaining ground :
and the seed had been wafted to other lands, which already
afforded proofs that it could not remain without fruit. Such
effects in a less space of time than six years showed the finger
of God. And, so far, the progress of truth had been attended
by no disaster. The attempts, public or private, to fetter its
career, had added to its impetus : and even the efforts of
fanaticism seemed to have been overruled for good, and to
have enhanced the influence of the great Reformer.

Such is the outline which history gives of the achievements

THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER, 395

of the Reformation at this period. Its prospects were so 1523.
bright that, from the analogy of the past, it might fairly have
been anticipated by a contemporary observer, that at no
great distance of time the Roman faith would no longer exist,
and the revived truths of Scripture would be professed by all
Europe. But Luther himself was far from being thus misled
by outside appearances. He was too deeply conversant with
human nature, and looked below the surface to the under-
current of motives. Hating, like Erasmus, all war, and be-
lieving that, in a Christian point of view, scarcely any circum-
stances can justify it, he had seen, with undissembled sorrow,
the schemes of Hutten and the warlike party ripen into
action, and Sickengen, with his adherents, enter the terri-
tories of the Archbishop of Treves, and invest his capital,
nominallj'^ for the sake of vindicating the liberty of religious
teaching,"^ but in reality to carry into execution his political
designs. But this was, in Luther's apprehension, only the
little cloud arising "like a man's hand" which foreboded
still greater troubles. He foresaw that a terrible collision
must soon ensue, of the angry passions of the multitude,
using their spiritual professions to cloak their carnal ends,
with the cruelty and tyranny of many princes and nobles,
who were driving from their boundaries, or imprisoning, the
evangelical preachers, and had interdicted the circulation of
the New Testament. Since leaving the Wartburg, admo-
nitions to peace had rarely been absent from his lips. With
his love for playing on words, he told his Wittenberg congre-
gation, that the name of their Elector, Frederic, meant peace-
able, and answered to Solomon in the Hebrew, who had been
a type of the Prince of Peace. Peace seemed to him the

* So Bucer wrote to Zwingle. See his letter, Zuing. Op. (Edit.
Sculthess.) VII. p. 296.

396 THE LIFE OF MARTIN LUTHER.

1523. greatest blessing next to the Gospel of Christ. But he com-
plained that the reproclamation of that Gospel had chiefly
served to stir from its depths the wickedness of the human
heart ; that the people were willing enough to cease to be
Papists, but very unwilling to become Christians ; and with
fear and trembling he besought on his knees God's pity and
compassion for his country, on which he predicted that the
vials of the Divine wrath would soon be poured out.

END OF VOL. I.

LONDON :

WILLIAM STEVENS, PRINTER, 37, BELL YARD.

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The life of Martin Luther

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