_i /■*» o ■SGC CORNELL UNIVERSITY LIBRARY GOLDWIN SMITH LIBRARY Cornell University Library BR 325.S65 1914 The life and letters of Martin Luther. 3 1924 014 611 978 The original of this book is in the Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924014611978 1/ }/L+t Avwvf JU^v THE LIFE AND LETTEBS OF MARTIN LUTHER BY PRESERVED SMITH, Ph.D. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS " Nothing extenuate, Nor set down aught in malice." BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY (£f>e ftiberp'ibe gnp$ Cambribge Q.S.4A. 52LS COPYRIGHT, I9IJ, BY PRESERVED SMITH ALL RIGHTS RESERVED &S.30SI TO MY PARENTS PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION The last word on a live subject is never said. As an immense volume of work on Luther continues to pour from the press, I propose, in the immediately following pages, to give some ac- count of the most important and pertinent literature produced since this biography first went to press. The most striking recent contribution to the subject, both on account of its size and of the altercation it has aroused, is the biography, in three volumes and 2500 lexicon-octavo pages, by Professor Hartmann Grisar, S.J. As his interest centers in the character of the Reformer and the moral effect of his work, the Catholic scholar, assuming the role of prosecuting attorney, labors, with much learning and a real intention of doing justice, to prove that both were bad. Whereas the specialist may learn much from Grisar, his whole point of view, as well as that taken by most of his Protestant critics, is foreign to the impartial investigator. More than a dozen volumes, many of them bringing fresh light, have been added to the Weimar edition of Luther's works. Per- haps the most interesting are those devoted to the table-talk. Much new material, not inferior in value to that already known, has been discovered, and bears out the opinion of Froude that the table-talk is " one of the most brilliant books in the world ... as full of matter as Shakespeare's plays." In order to make these newly published conversations of Luther accessible to the English-speaking public, a translation of them is now being executed and may be expected shortly to appear. Three more volumes of the letters in the Enders-Kawerau edition have come out. An English version of the correspond- ence, containing also letters by Luther's contemporaries on him and his movement, is now in course of publication. 1 1 Luther's Correspondence and Other Contemporary Letters, translated and edited by Preserved Smith, vol. i, 1507-1521, Philadelphia, 1913. The second and third volumes, completing the whole, may be expected before the centenary of 1917. viii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION Of Luther's early life and development prior to 1517 I have now arrived at a somewhat different conception from that set forth in the present biography. 1 Sturdy as was the Saxon's constitution, a neurotic vein may be detected in his violence of language, in his obsession by the devil, and, one is tempted to add, in that conception of God as a cruel and capricious tyrant, which he himself confessed was repugnant to natural feeling. 2 By the application of Sigismund Freud's psycho analytic method, much of this diathesis may be explained as rooted in Luther's heredity and childish experiences. A pathological exag- geration is also exhibited in the struggle, during the first ten years in the friary, with what he himself called " the invincible concupiscence " of the flesh. Regarding not only overt acts of unchastity, but also natural desire itself, as wicked, and finding that by no means eould he rid himself of this desire, he came to that conclusion as to the total impotence and bondage of the will, which lay at the basis of his most famous doctrine. His insight into the worthkssness of man's own efforts, and par- ticularly of the righteousness of works prescribed by the Church, was sharpened by a brisk quarrel with the " observants," i.e., that faction of his own order which laid most stress on the punctilio of the cloister. For a long time, however, he despaired of finding the true road to salvation, and believed himself rep- robate. The answer to his search, suggested by the German mystics, came to him about 1515 s with such force that he be- 1 " Luther's Development in the Light of Psycho-Analysis, " American Journal of Psychology, July, 1913. "Luther's Development of the Doctrine of Justifica- tion hy Faith only," Harvard Theological Review, October, 1913. The first article has been criticized in the Historische Zeitschrift and in the Archivfur Reformations- geschichte, bnt the legitimacy of the psycho-analytic method is now recognized in certain theological quarters. Cf. J. H. Schulz in Theologische Literaturzeitung, 1914, p. 36 : " Fur die Erforschung einzelner religionspsychologisch oder historisch bedeutsamer Erscheinungen oder Personlichkeiten kann die psychoanalytische Betrachtungsweise anreprend wirken." 2 Infra, p. 208, and Tischreden, Weimar, i, no. 1193 : " Erasmus' thought is the greatest and subtlest of all temptations, the belief, namely, that God is unjust." He called it " Erasmus' thought " because Erasmus had said that if God were such as Luther represented him, damning men for acts they could not help, he would be unjust. 8 Not in 1508, as stated below, p. 15. The best recent works on this subject, besides Grisar, are : 0. Scheel: Dokumente zu Luthers Entwicklung, 1911 ; K. A. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION ix lieved it to be a direct revelation of the Holy Ghost. Its essence was that a man could be saved only by perfect self-surrender, by pure passivity in God's hands, by an entire reliance on him ; for this, more than mere belief, constituted the " faith," justifi- cation by which has always been counted the cardinal doctrine of Protestants. The effect of this discovery iu his own life was almost instan- taneous. Forthwith he commenced purging his order and his uni- versity, and presently protested against the abuses of the Church so vigorously as to bring himself into collision with her repre- sentatives, and soon to cause him to be summoned before the Diet at Worms. The importance of this crisis in European politics has been put in strong light by two recent books. 1 Schubert has shown that the Pope offered Frederic of Saxony the imperial crown in exchange for the surrender of Luther — an insufficient bribe. When Charles of Spain was elected, his agents swore to a capitulation, drawn up, July 3, 1519, with Luther in mind, that no German should be condemned unheard ; and, in fact, on the very day on which Charles decided to hold his first Diet he agreed to allow the accused heretic to appear before it. When he actually did come to the bar of this high tri- bunal, his condemnation (as is set forth by Kalkoff) had already been drafted by Aleander as early as December, 1520, and, under the name of the " Edict of Worms," was forced through the Diet by intrigue and imperial influence against the wishes of the majority of its members. Forced by the ban into hiding at the Wartburg, Luther began his greatest work, the translation of the Bible. It has recently been asserted that this was but a revision of previous German versions, 2 but the reasons given for this opinion are not convinc- ing. In the New Testament, at least, if he leaned too heavily Meiasinger: Luthers Exegese in der Fruhzeit, 1911; A. Humbert : Les Origines de latMologie moderns, 1911; W. Kohler: " Luther bis 1521," in Pflugk-Harttung's Im Morgenrot der Reformation, 1912. 1 H. v. Schubert : Die Vorgesckichte der Berufung Luther s avf den Reichstag zu Worms (Sitzungsberichte d. heidelberger Akademie, 1912, yi) ; P. Kalkoff : Die Entstehung des Wormser Edihts, 1913. 2 Vedder : The German Reformation, 1914 ; W. W. Florer : Luther's Use qfpre- Lutheran Versions of the Bible, Anne Arbor, 1913. x PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION on the authority of any predecessor, it was on the Latin trans- lation pubished by Erasmus in the second edition of the Greek text (1519). The sole evidence of the use of earlier versions is found in the slight resemblances between them and Luther's Bible. There is no direct testimony that the Reformer knew previous translations, and this is the more remarkable now that the minutes of the proceedings of his commission for revising his first edition have been published. 1 They put in a stronger light than ever the extreme care with which he worked, and also the ineradicable subjectivity of his attitude. He knew no interpretation, no exegesis whatever, unconditioned by prac- tical interests, the chief of which was the confutation of his opponents. On one point there is no difference of opinion, the remarkable and immediate success of the work. A wide examination 2 of contemporary literature has shown that by 1526, three fourths of the quotations from the New Testament in German were from Luther's version. The Catholics paid it the sincere compliment of plagiarism — for the rapidly executed version of Emser was but a light revision of his opponent's work. Only the Zwing- lians for a time stood aloof. Luther's inconsistency in claiming for the Bible an infallible authority, and at the same time in criticizing and rejecting parts of it himself, has been noted below (p. 267y.). For the former, from his own day to this, Luther has been praised and followed ; for the latter he has frequently been blamed. And yet there is no doubt that the second position is the rational and progressive one ; whereas the first has been responsible for much with which Protestantism may justly be blamed. Not only in rejecting certain texts was he inconsistent, but in relying solely on tradition in defending usages, such as the observance of Sunday instead of Saturday, and infant baptism, for which no support can be found in Scripture. But his self-contradic- tions hurt him less than his consistencies ; for it was on the au- 1 Deutsche Bibel, Weimar, ill, 1911. There were three revisions, 1531, 1534, and 1539, not one, as stated below, p. 264. 3 H. Zeiener: Studien uber das beyinnende JSindringen der lutherischen Bibeh Sbertetzung in die deutsche Literatw, 1911. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xi thority of the Bible that he opposed the scientific work of other men, and also justified two or three immoral principles. Coper- nicus he called a great big fool for thinking he knew more than the inspired writers about the revolutions of the heavenly bodies. Erasmus he charged with atheism for applying sound critical principles to the elucidation of the Greek Testament. Polygamy and even concubinage 1 he tolerated on the ground that they were practiced by the patriarchs and not forbidden by the apos- tles. Lying in a pious cause he claimed was sanctioned by the example of Christ. 2 For the horrible cruelties of persecution, he, and still more his followers, found ample warrant in the wars of the Israelites. All this should serve to remind us that it is a momentous error to suppose that Luther and we have lived in the same era of civilization. 8 Here, as so often, our thought has been the slave of an outworn terminology. Because it has for long been the fashion to divide the history of the world since the fall of Rome into two epochs, " mediaeval " and " modern," we perforce assume that if Luther was not mediaeval he must have been almost contemporary with us; or, on the other hand, if it is shown that he differed widely from twentieth-century standards, that he must have lived, intellectually, in the dark ages. It is truer to see in the last five hundred years two distinct eras, differing as much from each other as the former differed from the Middle Ages proper. It would be well if we had some con- venient name, such as the "Age of Transition," for the period of Renaissance and Reformation, covering roughly the fifteenth, sixteenth, and seventeenth centuries, and reserved the term " modern " exclusively for the last two hundred years, heralded by the " enlightenment " of the " philosophers " and the eman- cipation of the American and French Revolutions. Let us 1 On polygamy of . infra, index. On concnbinage, Luther's " Sermon on Mar- riage," 1522, Weimar, X, part ii, p. 290 : " Will die Fran nicht [die eheliche Pflicht zahlen] so komme die Mag-d.' ' 2 Infra, p. 383, n. 4. 8 On Luther's place in history and thought, recent works are : E. Troeltsch : Protestantism and Progress, 1912 ; H. S. Chamberlain : Foundations of the Nine- teenth Century, 1911 (in parts) ; A. V. Miiller : Lathers theologische Quellen, 1912 ; A. C. McGifEerf. Protestant Thought before Kant, 1911. xii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION examine briefly the points in which Luther and his world dif- fered, first, from modern times, and, secondly, from the Middle Ages. In the first place the Reformation did not claim to be an appeal to reason, or in any sense a progressive movement. "We know," said the Beformer, " that Eeason is the Devil's harlot, who can do nothing but slander and harm all that God says and does." 1 Protestant and Catholic alike have been consistently opposed to the march of improvement, be it scientific or social. Indeed, the direct influence of the Protestant revolt was at first disastrous to the dawn of enlightenment. We cannot quite agree with Nietzsche that " the Reformation was a reaction of spirits behind the times, against the Italian Renaissance," 2 but we must recognize that the two movements were antagonistic in as many points as those in which they were united, and that the spirit of the Renaissance passed rather into the Church of Rome than into those of Wittenberg and Geneva. 3 If modern Pro- testantism has shown greater hospitality to science and philoso- phy than has Catholicism, the reverse was true of the earlier centuries. In short, " Luther's most regrettable limitation was that he neither absorbed the cultural elements offered by his time, nor recognized the right and duty of free research." 4 Gibbon observed long ago that if a " philosopher " studied the dogmas of the Reformed Churches, he would be astonished not by what they rejected, but by the amount they kept. Even the existence of a personal, ethical God, and of a future life, though still commonly believed, can no longer be postulated as they were by the Reformers. But further than this, they took almost entire the body of Catholic dogma, the Trinity, the miracles and resurrection of Christ, the atonement, and many other mysteries. The one trenchant reform made by Luther in the field of pure dogma, that of the sacramental system of the Church, was not due to his special enlightenment, but " because 1 Weimar, xviii, 164. Cf . Weimar, xlyii, 474. 2 Menchliches, Allzumencldichee, 1878, p. 200. - E. Troeltseh: "Renaissance und Reformation," Historische Zeitschrift, ex, mff, iei3. 4 A. Harnaok : Dogmengeschickte*, iii, 1910, p. 816. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xin of his inner experience that where ' grace ' does not endow the soul with God, the sacraments are an illusion." 1 In harmony with this dogmatic conservatism, Luther took over almost unchanged the prevalent conception of society, which with him, as with the Middle Ages, remained essentially that of an authoritative ecclesiastical civilization. His famous pamphlet on The Liberty of a Christian Man sets forth an idea of free- dom remote from our own. With us liberty means not only the relaxation of external restraint upon the conscience, but the right to range untrammeled through all fields of culture, and the joy in doing so. With Luther a Christian was " the most free lord of all " simply because no amount of force could com- pel him to renounce his faith ; his liberty was, like that of the Stoic, mere indifference to the world. For political equality and for social reform as such Luther never cared at all. When in 1525 the serfs demanded their enfranchisement, the Reformer followed St. Paul (1 Cor. vn, 20y.) in denying them this right. His hatred and distrust of the common people were such that, notwithstanding his opinion of princes as usually " the biggest fools and worst rascals on earth," he preferred despotism to democracy. " The princes of the world," he once said, " are gods ; the common people are Satan." 2 Again he remarked that he would sooner bear with a government which did wrong than with a people which did right. 3 In fact the "divine right of kings" found a strong support in Lutheranism. Popular government first arose in England and America under Calvinism, and in France under Catholicism. The Wittenberg professor never doubted the right and duty of the State to persecute for heresy. While still fighting for the opportunity to express his own opinions, indeed, he took a liberal view, and one of his early propositions condemned by the bull Exsurge Domine, was that it was contrary to the will of the Holy Spirit to put heretics to death. Again in 1525 he said: " The government shall not interfere ; a man may teach and believe what he likes, be it gospel or lies." * But a very few years 1 A. Harnack: What is Christianity t p. 279. s Tischreden, Weimar, i, 171. 8 Werke, Erlangen, vol. 50, p. 294. * Weimar, xviii, 298/. xiv PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION of success convinced him and Melanchthon of the untenability of this attitude. In 1529, with the consent of the Elector John and of Melanchthon, who were present, an imperial edict was passed at Spires condemning Anabaptists to death. In pursu- ance of this law, a regular inquisition was established in Saxony, with the "gentle " Melanchthon at its head, and a hideous per- secution began. 1 In a short time several of the poor noncon- formists were put to death, and many others imprisoned for long terms. Melanchthon wrote a paper to justify this course ; this he did by asking, " Why should we pity such men more than does God ? " who, it was believed, sent them to eternal torment for their opinions. Luther signed this document, 2 with a post- script showing that he was a little sorry for the poor people ; about the same time, in a commentary on the Eighty-second Psalm, 8 he expressed equally intolerant ideas. According to this the government should put to death: 1. All heretics who are seditious, anarchical, or who preach against private property. 2. " Those who teach against a manifest article of the faith, clearly grounded in Scripture, and believed throughout Chris- tendom, like the articles children learn in the creed ; as, for ex- ample, if any one should teach that Christ was not God but a mere man. . . . They should not be tolerated but punished as public blasphemers." 3. If there are two sects within one state, one should yield to the other to avoid conflict. Luther says he would advise his own followers to yield to the Catholics in such a case, but conversely, if Catholics in a Lutheran state refused to be convinced, they should be chastized. The Reformer contin- ues that a Papist cannot be sure of his faith, and therefore must be punished by those who are certain he errs, just as a murderer should be punished even if he believed that murder was right. Later he said that Jews should be prohibited from the exercise of their religion on pain of death. It is no wonder that some authorities have seen in the Ref-^ ormation an actually retrograde movement in this regard, and have thought that the fanaticism it aroused really sharpened 1 P. Wappler : Die Stdlung Kursachsens und Philipps von Hessen zur Tduferbe- tcegung, 1910. 2 Eiiders, xiv, 129 (1531). » Weimar, xxxi, part i, 208/ PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xv [the persecuting spirit. 1 It seems truer to say, however, that (the schism created rather fresh opportunity than an increased \desire to persecute. When nearly every one conformed there was small possibility of active intolerance, and throughout the Middle Ages the Church had a thousand times exhibited her ruthless cruelty. What made the Reformers peculiarly inexcus- able was that they denied to others the very right for which they themselves were fighting. Turning now to the new in Luther, we must first of all be on our guard against measuring him too exclusively by our contemporary standards. Nothing is more unhistorical than the method, now quite common, of searching the past with the sole idea of unearthing some anticipation of modern thought. Whether sympathetic to us or not, Luther gave to the prob- lems of his time the accepted and therefore the historically valid answer. Less enlightened than Erasmus, and with less of the truly evangelic spirit, he was, because more suited to his time and otherwise more effective, historically greater. And his services to mankind were solid and important. The greatest of these was undoubtedly that he broke the strongest tyranny and dissolved the worst monopoly that the world has ever known, that of the Roman Church. Whether the various companies into which the Standard Religion Trust resolved itself were intrinsically better than the original corpo- ration was' far less important than the fact that these smaller bodies did effectually, and even in a cut-throat spirit, compete. The pretensions of a single authority to infallibility are plausi- ble ; but two or more churches, each claiming to be the sole purveyor of salvation, and mutually giving each other the lie, must by their very existence arouse skepticism. Again the Reformation was really a progressive movement, and not, as it claimed to be, mainly the return to an earlier standpoint. Crying " Back ! " the Reformers really went for- ward, simply because they could not, with all their efforts, grasp 1 On the subject in general : G. L. Burr : " Anent the Middle Ages," American Historical Review, 1913, pp. 710-26 ; N. Fanlus : Protestantismus und Toleranz, 1911; K. Volker: Toleranz und Intoleranz im Zeitalter der Reformation, 1912 ; F. Knffini : Religious Liberty, 1912 ; R. Lewin : Luthers Stellung zu den Juden, 1911. xvi PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION the primitive ideas of the Gospel. Protestantism is remote in spirit from the early Church, because the sixteenth century is remote in time from the first. In almost all points Catholicism is nearer to the New Testament than is Protestantism. 1 Even the famous " sola fide " is less Pauline than Luther supposed, because its main corollary, the antithesis to the sacramental system, would not have occurred to the Tarsian. Another ex- ample is the progressive history of the eucharist. Recent research has abundantly shown that the theophagy of the New Testament was understood by the early Christians in a far more literal sense than it has ever been since. Transubstan- tiation was not, as generally represented, the gross invention of a superstitious age, interpreting too literally the words : " Take, eat ; this is my body "; rather it was the first attempt to ration- alize that language. In substituting the closely related theory of consubsantiation, Luther took another step in the same direc- tion, not because he intentionally consulted his senses, — this he passionately deprecated, — but because, without the historical knowledge and imagination to put himself in Paul's place, any movement whatever on his part was bound to be conditioned by the atmosphere of contemporary thought. The final step was taken by Zwingli, in which the original mystery, founded in a forgotten and almost primeval culture, was turned into a simple commemorative rite. So in other things, Luther was, contrary to his own intention, the father of modern undogmatic Christianity, and through that, to a degree, of modern rationalism. Emerson quite rightly stated that had Luther known his Theses would lead to Boston Unitarianism he would rather have cut off his hand than have posted them. But once the avalanche was started, he was im- potent to stop it. Having pushed men but a little way from the unstable equilibrium of ideal Catholic faith, he put them in a condition necessitating further motion. Indeed, not only was he the spiritual ancestor of many Christian sects which he would have anathematized, but even, to a certain extent, of infidelity. There is a measure of truth in Nietzsche's assertion that the great 1 So Kirsopp Lake, in The Harvard Theological Review, 1914, pp. 429, 431 ; G. Santayana: Reason and Religion, 1905, 114-24. PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xvu Saxon first began to teach the Germans to be un-Christian. On the other hand, it must be recognized that Protestantism has in some cases acted as a vaccination against free thought ; the small dose seasonably administered inoculates against a more for- midable infection, later. Thus Catholic France and Italy have become more skeptical than Protestant Germany, England, and America. As in Church so in State, Luther was a secularist in spite of himself. In freeing society from the heavy burden of monas- ticism, with its attendant evils of unproductive idleness and sterility, he restored to the world energies previously devoted to religion. In declaring that all laymen were priests, he really reduced all priests, with their divine and magical powers, to the rank of laymen. In this also, this unconscious secularization of the ideal, Wittenberg stood farther from Galilee than did Rome. It is the Founder of Christianity who bids us hate father and mother, wife and child for his sake; who points the way to celi- bacy by his example and his approbation of men " who have made themselves eunuchs for the kingdom of heaven's sake"; who finds the poor blessed and the rich unable to enter God's king- dom ; who inculcates humility and lives rather for contempla- tion and prayer than for active life and learning. In all this it is St. Francis who is his truest disciple, and the monastic ideal which is like that of Jesus, unworldly, disenchanted, ascetic. Luther and his followers, on the contrary, are convinced of the importance of success and prosperity ; they abominate the disreputable ; think of contemplation as idleness, of solitude as selfishness, and of poverty as a punishment. Married and industrial life is typically godly. Calvinism furnished the moral sanction for capitalism ; the Protestant theologian Richard Bax- ter declared that in neglecting the opportunity to make money a man was guilty of a sin. This position may be defended on many grounds, as common sense or as conducive to the best interests of society ; but it is not the ethics of the Gospel. Just as on the intellectual side Protestantism approaches a pious skepticism, so on the ethical side it has been reduced to the sanctimonious authorization for an extremely materialistic civi- lization. xviii PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION After all, Luther's strongest appeal to us is his own person- ality. His true originality is his character, his greatest work his life, his most remarkable achievement himself. P. S. Mokrisviixe, Vebmoht, July 22, 1914. PREFACE It can hardly be denied that the men who have most changed history have been the great religious leaders. " Priest, Teacher," says Carlyle, "whatsoever we can fancy to reside in man, em- bodies itself here, to command over us, to furnish us with con- stant practical teaching, to tell us for the day and hour what we are to do." Among the great prophets, and, with the possible exception of Calvin, the last of world-wide importance, Martin Luther has taken his place. His career marks the beginning of the present epoch, for it is safe to say that every man in western Europe and in America is leading a different life to-day from what he would have led, and is another person altogether from what he would have been, had Martin Luther not lived. For the most important fact in modern history is undoubtedly the great schism of which he was the author, the consequences of which are still unfolding and will continue to unfold for many a century to come. In saying this we do not attribute to him the sole re- sponsibility for the revolt from Rome. The study of history, as of evolution in other forms, has shown that there are no abrupt changes, — appearances to the contrary, — and that one epoch follows another as naturally and with as gradual a development as one season follows another in the year. In a sense the Pro- testant revolt, and the larger movement of which it was but the chief symptom, the expansion of the human mind, was inevit- able. In another sense, equally true, it was the courage and genius of a great man which made it possible. If some such crisis was inevitable, he at least determined its time and to a large extent its direction. Granting, as axiomatic, that essential factors of the movement are to be found in the social, political, and cultural conditions of the age, and in the work of prede- cessors and followers, in short, in the environment which alone made Luther's lifework possible, there must still remain a very large element due directly and solely to his personality. XX PREFACE The present work aims to explain that personality; to show him in the setting of his age ; to indicate what part of his work is to be attributed to his inheritance and to the events of the time, but especially to reveal that part of the man which seems, at least, to be explicable by neither heredity nor environment, and to be more important than either, the character, or individ- , uality. A new biography of Luther, however, requires more apology than is to be found merely in the intrinsic interest of the sub- ject. A glance at the catalogue of almost any great library — that of the British Museum for instance — will show that more has been written about Luther than about any man, save one, who ever lived. Why bring another coal to this Newcastle ? One main reason is to be found in the extraordinarily rapid advance of recent research, which, within the last ten, and still more, of course, within the last twenty years, has greatly changed our knowledge of the man. For example, the publica- tion, in 1908, of the long lost Commentary on the Epistle to the Romans has revolutionized our conception of the Reformer's early development; the opening of the Vatican Archives by the late Pope, by which many important documents were first (1904) brought to light, has at last revealed the true history of the legal process taken against the heretic by the Curia ; the researches of Dr. Kroker have but lately (1906) enabled us to speak with precision of the early life of Catharine von Bora; those of Dr. Rockwell (1904) have performed a similar service for an important incident in Luther's life. Again, the great edition of Luther's Works published at Weimar, and of the letters by Dr. Enders and Professor Kawerau, both of which are still in progress, have now made possible a more scientific study of his most important works. A few random instances, however, can give no adequate idea of the number of details, not to mention larger matters, which have first been revealed within the last decade. I have aimed to gather up, correlate, and present the results of recent research now scattered through a host of monographs. This has seemed to me the most pressing need of the present, and I have, therefore, only to a limited extent used unpublished material. In several points, however, PREFACE xxi my own studies have led me to different conclusions from those commonly held, and I venture to hope that this feature of the book will not be without value to specialists. In another respect the present work undertakes to present Luther to English readers from a standpoint different to that from which he is usually approached. I have endeavored to re- veal him as a great character rather than as a great theologian. In order to do this I have given copious extracts from his table- talk and letters, those pregnant documents in which he unlocks his heart. No such self-revelation as is found in them exists else- where. Neither Pepys, nor Cellini, nor Rousseau has told us as much about his real self as has Luther about himself. Every trait of character is revealed : the indomitable will, " and cour- age never to submit or yield," the loyalty to conscience, the warm heart, the overflowing humor, the wonderful gift of seeing the essence of things and of expressing what he saw, and also the vehement temper and occasional coarseness of a rugged peasant nature. In the tremulous tone of the first epistles is reflected the anguish of a soul tortured by doubt and despair ; later the writer tells with graphic force of the momentous debate at Leipsic ; again, in the same hour in which he stood before the Emperor and Diet at Worms, asked to recant and expecting death if he did not, he writes a friend that he will never take back one jot or tittle. The letters from the Wart- burg and Feste Coburg breathe the author's fresh, almost idyl- lic communion with nature ; in the table-talk it is now the warm family affection which charms, now the irrepressible, rollicking joviality which bursts forth. The man's faults, too, stand in his unconscious autobiography, neither dissembled nor attenuated. Two blunders, his incitement to bloody reprisals against the re- bellious peasants and his acquiescence in the bigamy of Philip of Hesse, blunders which his enemies called crimes, are frankly told in all the hideousness of their conception and consequences/ It is, moreover, plain to the reader of the letters and table-talk that Luther was often in language and sometimes in thought the child of a coarse age; But of him it is especially true that to understand all is to pardon all. Through all his mistakes, and worse, he emerges a good and conscientious as well as a very xxii PREFACE great man : a son of thunder calling down fire from heaven ; a Titan hurling Pelion upon Ossa against the hostile gods. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the help I have received from many quarters. Professor Adolph Harnack has personally as- sisted nty researches in the Berlin Eoyal Library. To Dr. Cowley and Professor Reginald Lane Poole I am indebted for special facilities in the use of the Bodleian Library at Oxford. Dr. Ernest Kroker, of Leipsic, has given me several valuable sug- gestions. Principal J. Estlin Carpenter, of Manchester College, Oxford, has kindly placed at my disposal the excellent collection of Lutherana made by the late Dr. Beard, whose History of the Reformation to the Diet of Worms, unfortunately left unfinished at his death (1888), is a well-known contribution to the subject. My friend Dr. David Saville Muzzy, of New York, has kindly revised the chapter on the Peasants' Revolt ; Professor R. L. Poole, and Mr. Percy S. Allen, .Fellow of Merton College, Ox- ford, have done the same for the chapter on Luther and Henry VIII as it originally appeared in the .English Historical Review. My friend, Professor Herbert P. Gallinger, of Amherst, has read the proofs. I feel under especial obligations to Professor Gustav Kawerau, of Berlin, who, during my long stay at the Prussian capital, with the greatest possible kindness placed at my disposal his rare books and manuscripts and his more valu- able time. To all these gentlemen I tender my warmest thanks. Last, but not least in love, I must acknowledge the help received in my own family. My father, the Rev. Dr. Henry Preserved Smith, has read the whole manuscript, and thus given me the benefit of his lifelong studies in divinity and experience as a writer. My sister, Miss Winifred Smith, and my wife have also aided me with criticism and suggestion. P. S. Paris, May 16, 1910. LIST OF LIBRARIES AND ARCHIVES USED IN THE PREPARATION OF THIS WORK ENGLAND London : British Museum, and Dr. Williams's Library. Oxford : Bodleian Library. GERMANY Berlin : Eonigliche Bibliothek, Universitatsbibliothek, and private library of Professor Gustav Kawerau. Leipsic : Universitatsbibliothek and Stadtbibliothek. Marburg : State Archives and Universitatsbibliothek. FRANCE Paris: Bibliotheque Nationale, Bibliotheque de Sainte-Genevieve, Bibliotheque Mazarine, Bibliotheque de la Sorbonne, Bibliotheque de la Faculty Frotestante. UNITED STATES Boston : Public Library. Cambridge : Harvard University Library. New York : Columbia University, Union Seminary, Astor and Lenox Libraries. Washington : Congressional Library. CONTENTS I. Childhood and Student Life. 1483-1505 1 II. The Monk. 1505-1512 8 III. The Journey to Rome. October, 1510-February, 1511 16 IV. The Professor. 1512-1517 20 V. The Indulgence Controversy. 1517-1519 36 VI. The Leifsic Debate. 1519 58 VII. The Patriot. 1519-1520 69 VIII. The Address to the German Nobility, The Babylon- ian Captivity of the Church, and The Freedom of a Christian Man. 1520 76 IX. The Burning of the Canon Law and of the Pope's Bull. 1520 95 X. The Diet of Worms. 1521 103 XI. The Wartburg. May 4, 1521-March 1, 1522 .... 121 XII. The Wittenberg Revolution and the Return from the Wartburg. 1521-1522 135 XIII. Carlstadt and Mdnzer. 1522-1525 147 *XIV. The Peasants' Revolt. 1525 .......... 157 XV. Catharine von Bora 168 XVI. Private Life. 1522-1531 182 XVII. Henry VIII 192 XVIII. Erasmus 199 XIX. German Politics. 1522-1529 214 XX. Church Building 229 XXI. Ulrich Zwingli ... 238 XXII. Festk Coburg and the Diet of Augsburg. 1530 . . 247 xxvi CONTENTS « XXIII. The German Bible 263 XXIV. The Religious Peace of Nuremberg. 1532 . , .271 XXV. The Church Militant 279 XXVI. The Wittenberg Agreement. 1536 288 XXVII. Relations with France, England, Mayence and Albertine Saxony 296 XXVIII. The League of Schmalkalden. 1535-1539 .... 303 XXIX. Character and Habits 316 XXX. At Wore 331 XXXI. Religion and Culture 336 XXXII. The Luther Family 351 'XXXIII. Domestic Economy 363 • XXXIV. The Bigamy of Philip of Hesse. 1540 373 XXXV. Catholic and Protestant. 1539-1546 387 XXXVI. Lutheran and Sacramentarian. 1539-1546 . . . 402 XXXVII. Death 409 EPILOGUE.. The Last Years and Death of Luther's Wife . 424 APPENDIX I. Chronological Tables 429 II. Bibliography, with References 433 III. Documents 471 INDEX 477 ILLUSTRATIONS Luther in 1526. Photogravure Frontispiece From the painting by Cranaeh, in possession of Frau Geheimregierungsrat Richard von Kauf maim, in Berlin. Autograph from a letter to George Spalatin, 1524. In possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. Frederic the Wise, Elector of Saxony, 1524 34 After an etching by Albrecht Diirer. Luther as Monk 64 After an etching by Cranaeh, 1520. Luther in March, 1521 , 118 After an etching by Cranaeh. The Wartburg 122 Luther as Junker Georg ( 136 From the painting by Cranaeh, December, 1521, in the Stadtbibliothek at Leipsic. Catharine Luther in 1526 176 From the painting by Cranaeh, in possession of Frau Geheimregierangsrat Richard von Kauf mann, in Berlin. Erasmus , 200 From a painting by Holbein, at Basle. Ulrich Zwingli 238 After a painting by Hans Asper, now at Zurich. Marburg 242 From a print of 1544. Facsimile Signatures of the Marburg Articles 244 Now in the archives at Marburg. Feste Coburg 248 Melanchthon 286 After an etching by Albrecht Diirer. xxvni ILLUSTRATIONS Luther's House at Wittenberg, the Black Cloister .... 364 Philip of Hesse 374 After the portrait by M. Muller, at Cassel. The Emperor Charles V 388 After the painting by Titian. Engraved by Rubens ; in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris. Castle Church at Wittenberg, where Luther is buried . , 422 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER CHAPTER I CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE. 1483-1505 The hills and forests of Thuringia, in the very heart of Germany, unite great natural loveliness with the romantic attractions of ancient historical association. If the traveller stopping at Eisenach, the tiny metropolis of this favored region, will walk south for about fifteen miles through the fairy forest, he may visit the hamlet of Mohra, famous as the home of the Luther family, still flourishing here in several branches. Here lived Martin Luther's great-grandfather and grandfather as peasants — for it is with them that the family pedigree begins. Attempts to connect the name with that of the Emperor Lo- thaire, as well as with other noble though less remote person- ages, have failed. In the old days when Columbus was meditating his moment- ous voyage, and Richard III was about to murder his nephews in the Tower, Hans Luther married Margaret Ziegler of Eise- nach. Following the ancient peasant custom, by which the older sons were sent out into the world to make their way, while the youngest inherited the farm, Hans was forced to take his wife away from home. He was attracted to the county of Mansfeld, about sixty miles northeast of Eisenach, then as now a mining district. The first stop of the young couple was at Eisleben, and here, on November 10, 1483, their oldest son was born, and the next day baptized by the parish priest, Bartholomew Rennebrecher, with the name Martin, after the saint whose day it was. The little room under the tower of the church of St. Peter and St. Paul where the baptism took place is shown, with part of the 2 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER antique font, exactly as it was then ; the house exhibited as the birthplace is not, on the other hand, well authenticated. While Martin was still a wee baby, the Luthers moved to the town of Mansfeld near by, where they were to spend the rest of their days. It is a pretty little village in the midst of its hills, on one of which stands the red sandstone castle of the Counts of Mansfeld. The boy's life here was one of grinding, squalid poverty. The comely little cottage going by the name bf the Luther house was bought or built by his father long after Martin had left home. Hans Luther was a sturdy, frugal, hardworking man ; that admirable type of character, who, having small natural gifts and no advantages, by sheer industry and will-power makes his way in the world. Starting as a stranger and a common miner, he gradually won a small competence and a place of honor among his fellow citizens, who eventually elected him to the highest office in the town. A man of natural shrewdness, his pointed and pithy sayings more than once made a lasting im- pression upon his son. He was ambitious to give this promising child the education he himself had lacked, and but for the wisdom and self-sacrifice with which he pursued this aim, Mar- tin's career would have been impossible. The mother, Margaret, was a quiet woman, bowed a little by poverty and toil. The son remembered seeing her carry on her back wood gathered from the forest. Both parents were strict, and even harsh. " My father," Luther said many years later, " once whipped me so severely that I fled from him, and it was hard for him to win me back. . . „ My mother once beat me until the blood flowed, for having stolen a miserable nut. It was this strict discipline which finally forced me into the mon- astery, although they meant heartily well by it." Martin had at least one brother and three sisters. He rarely saw them and never wrote to them after he left home, at the age of thirteen. Late in life his relations with them were disturbed by a quarrel about the division of his father's estate; but this was smoothed over, and the Reformer did his duty by the family nobly in caring for several of his orphan nephews and nieces. CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE 3 The natural question, "What were the first religious influences experienced by Martin Luther? can be briefly answered. He was taught a few simple prayers and hymns at his mother's knee. God the Father and Jesus were represented to him as stern, nay, cruel judges, to appease whose just wrath the inter- cession of the saints must be secured. No doubt was entertained by the humble peasants of the effectiveness of the ministrations of the Church; the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and especially the Pope, were regarded with reverent awe. One prominent element of the popular religion of the time was superstition. The gloomy old Northern mythology, full of witches and kobolds, good spirits and evil spirits, survived from heathen times. It is hard to imagine now how gross and vivid was the belief in the supernatural in Hans Luther's house. Martin never freed himself from it, and many are his reminis- cences of the witches who plagued his mother. Even his bare- legged rambles through the hills were haunted by the dread of surrounding demons. " In my native country," he once said, " there is a high hill called the Pubelsberg, on top of which is a lake ; if one throws a stone into the water a great tempest will arise over the whole region, for it is the habitation of captive devils. Prussia is full of them, and Lapland full of witches." The boy's education began very early in the village school, which may still be seen by the traveller. Latin was the prin- cipal subject taught ; the boys were required to speak as well as read it. Martin's recollections of the ignorance and brutality of his first teachers were very unhappy indeed. He was flogged repeatedly on the same morning for faltering in a declension. " Ah ! " he exclaims, " what a time we had with the lupus 1 and Donatus ! 2 My teachers made us parse everything, and made obscene jokes. The examination was like a trial for murder." When Luther was only thirteen years old, he was sent to the school of a religious brotherhood — the " Nullbriider " — at 1 The lupus, or wolf, was the monitor who punished the pupils for speaking German. 2 The Latin grammar then and long after in use ; Luther once said it was the best. 4 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER Magdeburg. Here he began to contribute to his own support by begging, in those days one of the recognized means by which a poor lad might get an education. No more stigma attached to it than attaches to the acceptance of a scholarship by a student nowadays. One of the few things known of this year is that the miserable life brought on a fever, which might have proved fatal had not the patient drunk some water in disobedience to the doctor's orders. It may have been at Magdeburg that Martin's thoughts first turned in the direction of the monastic life. Erasmus, who attended one of the schools of the same order, relates graphic- ally how hard the brothers tried to guide their pupils into the cloister. 1 One incident, at any rate, made so deep an impression on Luther's mind, that thirty-five years later he wrote of it thus : 2 When, in my fourteenth year, I went to school at Magdeburg, I saw with my own eyes a prince of Anhalt . . . who went in a friar's cowl on the highways to beg bread, and carried a sack like a donkey, so heavy that he bent under it, but his companion walked by him without a burden ; this prince alone might serve as an example of the grisly, shorn holiness of the world. They had so stunned him that he did all the works of the cloister like any other brother, and he had so fasted, 'watched, and mortified his flesh that he looked like a death's head, mere skin and bones ; indeed he soon after died, for he could not long bear such a severe life. In short, whoever looked at him had to gasp for pity and must needs be ashamed of his own worldly position. After one year at Magdeburg, Martin was transferred to Eis- enach to attend the school of St. George the dragon-killer. His mother had, in this her native town, a relative named Conrad Hutter 3 on whose help she counted for her son. Hutter was sex- ton of St. Nicholas' Church, and it may have been through him that Luther learned to know and love the parish priest, John Braun. It was not with his kinsman that he lodged, however, but with a certain family identified by most biographers with the Cottas. Luther sometimes speaks in later years of "his 1 Erasmi opera, ed. Clericus, Leyden, 1701, vol. Hi, col. 1822. 2 Defence before Duke George, 1533, Erlangen edition, xxxi, 239 ff. * O. Clemen : Beitrage zur BeformationsgescMchte, ii, 1. CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE 5 hostess of Eisenach," hut never by name, assuming her to have been well known to his audience. She took him in, according to tradition, " for his hearty singing," and under her charitable and pious roof the boy for the first time tasted modest comfort. Frau Cotta was by birth a Schalbe ; this wealthy family had founded a little Franciscan monastery at the foot of the Wart- burg, 1 with whose inmates young Luther, serious and pious beyond his years, became friendly. So priestly indeed was his circle of friends that he heard with astonishment from his host- ess a little verse to the effect that nothing was dearer on earth than the love of woman to him who could win it. The promise of the industrious, bright boy induced his father, whose circumstances, though not easy, were improving, to con- tinue his liberal education. Accordingly at the beginning of the summer semester (about May, 1501) "Martinus Ludher ex Mansfeld" matriculated at the old and famous University of Erfurt. It was the custom of students who did not board with one of the professors to live at a " Burse," a combination of dormitory and eating-club. Luther lived at the " Burse " of St. George, which once stood on Lehmann's bridge, but is now no longer in existence. The course of studies began with logic, dialectic, grammar, and rhetoric, followed by arithmetic, various natural sciences, ethics, and metaphysics. All the studies were sicklied o'er with a pale cast of scholasticism. Mediaeval thought had pro- gressed little, if at all, beyond Aristotle, who was regarded as an inerrant authority, but it had elaborated his rules of argu- mentation into fantastic extremes, at once dry and ridiculous. The two most celebrated professors at Erfurt in the early six- teenth century, Trutvetter and Usingen, were entirely under the sway of the Stagirite, and one may well believe Melanchthon's testimony " that a particularly thorny kind of dialectic " pre- vailed there. The natural sciences were studied absolutely without experiment or original research, in perfect reliance on Aristotle's ancient works. The philosophy, too, was founded 1 Not now preserved ; probably it was on or near the Barf iisser Strasse. The bouse shown as the Luther house, i. e., Fran Cotta's, is of very doubtful authen* ticity. fl THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER on his essays, though in this case some changes in his system had been made by the great thinkers of the Middle Ages in their endeavors to harmonize it with Christianity. The great question which agitated mediaeval thought was whether the in- dividual or the class was the reality ; e. g., in the word " horse," is the essential thing each particular horse, or the abstract of all the qualities which make up the conception ? The realists, who decided in favor of the latter, flourished in the heyday of scholasticism, but the nominalists, who maintained the former, had now supplanted them, and Erfurt philosophy was therefore of this school. The universities in the sixteenth century were undergoing a change somewhat similar to that which they are experiencing in the twentieth. The old mediaeval course, which has just been sketched, no longer prevailed without opposition. Some rays of the " new learning," the glorious rebirth of classical antiquity, had penetrated Erfurt. Indeed there were several courses in the classics, and a circle of students devoted to the humanities. The inclinations of the miner's son, however, did not lead him that way. His serious, religious mind preferred the rough road of scholasticism to the primrose path of poetry and oratory. He later regretted that he had read no more history and poems, and added that the study of scholastic philosophy prevented his reading any verse except Baptista Mantuan, 1 Ovid's Heroides, and Virgil. Of the student's life little is known. That it was pure and godly may be inferred from the fact that his enemies never found any reproach in it and because of the absence of self- accusation. He sometimes suffered from ill-health and depres- sion. One day he found a Bible in the library, and began to read the passage about Hannah and Samuel, but a lecture called him away, and he apparently did not pursue his reading farther at this time. 2 After taking, with high rank, the degrees of bachelor of arts 1 This late poet (1448-1516), Shakespeare's " good old Mantuan," was a great favorite of the Renaissance. 2 Kroker: Rbrers Tischreden, in Archiv. f. Reformationsgeschichte, no. 20 (1908), p. 346. CHILDHOOD AND STUDENT LIFE 7 in 1502 and of master in 1505, Luther just began the study of jurisprudence. This was in accordance with the wishes of his ambitious father, who bought him an expensive Corpus Juris. He had worked in law only two months, however, when he abruptly decided to enter the monastery. CHAPTER H THE MONK. 1508-1512 Various reasons have been assigned for the sudden decision of Luther to become a monk. The real cause lay in a torturing sense of sin and a longing for reconciliation with God, experi- enced by many deeply spiritual Christians at one time or an- other in their lives." The cloister had been the refuge of such persons for a thousand years; to it the Saxon student naturally turned to find rest for his soul. After all, the seemingly abrupt vow is only the natural culmination of previous experiences. The strict discipline of a stern and pious home, the terrible vision of the begging prince, the priestly circle of friends at Eisenach, had all pointed the boy to tbe career then regarded as the perfection of Christianity. The influences in the same direction at Erfurt were also very strong. This flourishing but by no means large town boasted twenty cloisters, twenty-three churches, thirty-fcix chapels, and in all more than one hundred buildings devoted to religious uses. Among the numerous orders represented by chapters at " little Rome," as the devout city was called, the strongest were those of the begging friars, the Franciscans, Dominicans, and Augustinians. This last order could not claim, like the others, a great saint as founder, for Augustine had not written their rule. Since their first incorporation by Innocent IV in 1243, confirmed by Alexander IV in 1256, the Augustinian Hermits, as they were officially called, flourished mightily. By the middle of the fifteenth century, there were two thousand chapters, and the order, like most of the older ones, had begun to show some signs of degeneracy. A reform had been carried through many of the chapters by Proles, for the last quarter of the fifteenth century Vicar of the German province. Erfurt had joined " the congregation of the observants," as the reform movement THE MONK 9 was called, in 1475. What made Luther choose this monastery cannot be certainly told ; perhaps some personal ties and the good fame of the Hermits attracted him. The spring and early summer of 1505 was a terrible time at Erfurt. The plague broke out, some of the students died of it, and most of the others left town in a panic. It is at such times that men's thoughts turn to the other world, and Luther, who had already been asking himself the question, " When will you be righteous and do enough to win a gracious God ? " seriously considered abandoning a worldly for a spiritual calling. The faculty of law began lecturing on May 19, but the young student had hardly attended their courses for a month before he became thoroughly disgusted with a profession which, to his mind, had no relish of salvation in it. Towards the last of June he returned to his father's house, perhaps to get permis- sion to drop his juristic studies. As he was coming back to the university, on July 2, he was overtaken at Stotterheim, near Erfurt, by a terrible thunder- storm, and, in a fright, vowed to St. Anna to be a monk. If it may seem strange that a young man of twenty-two should be panic-stricken by a clap of thunder, it must be remembered that the miner's son regarded such phenomena as frequently occasioned by the direct interposition of the devil. Moreover, it has been shown that he probably had the more than half- formed intention already in his mind. He later speaks of being warned to enter the cloister by a heavenly vision. What this was, whether connected with the storm or not, is entirely unknown. Old Hans Luther was bitterly opposed to his son's step, which he believed destroyed all chance of a successful career. Martin also cast some longing, lingering looks behind, but dared not turn back, and hastened the day of his entrance to shorten this temptation. On July 16 he invited some friends, including "honorable matrons and maidens," to a farewell supper. The evening was spent in music and good cheer ; the next day he entered the monastery. The reception of a would-be brother was a solemn occasion. The young man fell down before the feet of the prior and was 10 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER asked what he wanted, to which he replied, " God's mercy and yours." The superior instructed him in the hardships, the duties, the sacrifices, and also in the blessedness of the life he had chosen. He was then put under the care of an older brother, and obliged to fulfil a year of probation. During this period he not only learned the rules of the order — such as the prayers five times a day — but he was instructed in the higher spiritual life. At the same time he was obliged to do the hum- blest menial service, such as sweeping and cleaning. Luther's novitiate ended in September, 1506, when he took the irre- vocable vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, through which he was supposed to die to the world and be " rebaptized " to a higher life. Brother Martin was ordained priest in February, 1507. Thi celebration of the first mass was a great occasion, to which he invited his father, his kinsman Conrad Hutter of Eisenach, and the parish priest of that town, whom he had learned to love while at school. Luther's first extant letter is the invitation to this friend to attend the mass : — TO JOHN BKAUN AT EISENACH Erfurt, April 22, 1507. . . . God, glorious and holy in all his works, has deigned to exalt me, wretched and unworthy sinner, and to call me into his sublime ministry only for his mercy's sake. I ought to be thankful for the glory of such divine goodness (as much as dust may be) and to fulfil the duty laid upon me. Wherefore the fathers have set aside Sunday, May 2, for my first mass, God willing. That day I shall officiate before God for the first time, the day being chosen for the convenience of my father. . . . Dearest father, as you are in age and care forme, master in merit and brother in religion, if private business will permit you, deign to come and help me with your gracious presence and prayers, that my sacrifice may be acceptable in God's sight. . . . Whether Braun accepted the invitation is not known. Lu- ther's father, however, who seems to have been partially recon- ciled, came, bringing a number of friends, and gave his son a handsome present. The two had an earnest talk, the son urging THE MONK 11 that he was warned to become a monk by a terrible heavenly vision, to which his father replied that he hoped it was not an apparition of the devil. Again, when Martin tried to justify himself, and gently reproached his father for his anger, the old man replied, " Have you never heard that a man should honor his parents ? " Luther's studies were not long interrupted by his vow. On the contrary, he continued philosophy and took up divinity, a nearly allied science. He applied himself with such zeal and success that about eighteen months after his first mass he was called to the recently founded University of Wittenberg to teach Aristotle's Ethics. He spent a year in this position, at the same time continuing his own studies. He took his first theological degree (baccalaureus ad biblia) on March 9, 1509, about the same time writing his second extant letter to Braun, apologizing for leaving Erfurt without bidding him farewell. The letter, which is hastily written, and somewhat faltering, has one extremely interesting passage : — Now I am at Wittenberg, by God's command or permission. If you wish to know my condition I am well, thank God, but my studies are very severe, especially philosophy, which from the first I would will- ingly have changed for theology, I mean that theology which searches out the meat of the nut, the kernel of the grain and the marrow of the bones. But God is God ; man is often, if not always, at fault in his judgment. He is our God, he will sweetly govern us forever. In the fall of 1509 Luther was sent back to Erfurt " because he had not satisfied the Wittenberg faculty." This sentence in the Dean's book, with Luther's own later addition, "because he had no means : — Erfurt must pay," is usually taken to mean that he had not the money to pay the academic fees. It is also probable that there was some trouble about the lectures he was to give ; he wishing to discontinue philosophy and take up the Bible. It was the academic rule that before lecturing on the Scriptures a young professor should devote three semesters to expounding Peter Lombard's Sentences, the common textbook in theology. This Luther did at Erfurt, where he remained for about twenty-ope months, until he was called back to a perman- 12 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER ent position at Wittenberg in the summer of 1511. This stay at Erfurt was interrupted by the journey to Rome. Such is the bare history of the outward events of the seven years in the cloister. Far more interesting, though more difficult to trace, is the record of his inward life during the same time. What did the young monk experience which fitted him for the great duties which lay before him ? What, in short, was his development ? Instead of finding peace within the monastic cell, at first doubt and despair only increased. His table-talk, taken down late in life, is full of statements of the utter depth of the suffer- ings of the doubter of his own salvation. God appeared to him as a cruel judge ; he felt that he could never do enough to win his favor and deserve free pardon. Though there is some reason to believe that in looking back he painted his past even darker than it really was, there can be no doubt that he went through agonies before he attained strength and peace of mind. His course of thought can be followed by studying the books he read, with his own notes on them. The theologians he read belonged to what was then called " the modern " school — " the modernists " of the sixteenth century. Thomas Aquinas, perhaps the greatest of the school- men, was not much regarded ; he belonged to the old-fashioned, superseded faction. The philosopher most studied was William Occam ; next to him Gabriel Biel, the Parisian doctors Ailly and Gerson, Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventura, John Mau- burn, and Gerhard of Ziitphen. The fundamental thesis of the Occamists was that man can do anything he will — fulfil the Ten Commandments to the letter or persuade his reason that white is black. The cloister adopted this view and held that by a man's own acts, asceticism, prayer, and meditation, he could prepare his soul for union with God. Biel especially emphasized the possibility and duty of a man hating his own sins ; — fear, said he, is not enough to make repentance acceptable to God. Luther took this all in and tried to act accordingly. He fulfilled all the monastic duties with punctuality ; he buffeted his body with zeal to keep it under ; he froze in his unheated cell, he starved himself until he was a skeleton " so that one THE MONK 19 could almost count his bones," he underwent such austerities that he was found fainting by his brothers. But all this did not bring him peace. After each access of devotion came a fresh access of despair. A second doctrine that Luther imbibed from the theologians was that God is pure, arbitrary wil l. He had created the world solely for his own pleasure ; his will made right and wrong ; and finally his arbitrary choice alone conditioned man's salvation. But in this latter particular, having promised to consider certain actions as meritorious, he has put in each man's power to obtain his favor by performing these acts, and his acceptance of man is sealed by the sacraments of the Church. The young monk could not bring himself to love a God like that -, he feared, he even hated him. " When I looked for Christ," he said, " it seemed to me as if I saw the devil." Luther's development is largely a history of his enfranchise- ment from the Occamist theology^ But even after he had freed himself from the oppressive doctrines he bore lasting marks of the apprenticeship in Occam's school. In 1515 we find him call- ing these scholastics the " hog-doctors," but throughout life he carried certain of their teachings with him. Occam — the " modernist " — was the sharpest critic of the mediaeval Church, and especially of the hierarchy. He said flatly that popes and councils could err, and remembering this doubtless made the break with Borne easier for Luther. But taken as a whole the reading of scholastic philosophy only deepened his perplexity and anguish of soul. He had to win his own way to light, which came at last. Several of his fellow monks helped him with counsel and comfort, especially his spiritual director who sought to combat his doubts by giving him orthodox literature. Of this man Luther speaks long after- wards : — I remember with what ardor, and pleasure I read Atlianasius' dia- logue on the Trinity during my first year in the cloister when my monastic pedagogue at Erfurt, an excellent man and a true Christian under the cursed cowl, gave me a copy of it made by himself. This same wise old man pointed out to him that God was not 14 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER angry with him, but he with God, and emphasized the duty of believing in the forgiveness of sins. This was the first comfort he received. Most of all he was helped by John Staupitz, since 1503 the Vicar of the German province of Augustinians, and dean of the faculty of theology at Wittenberg. With statesmanlike breadth combining energy and tact, he constantly sought to purify, con- solidate, and enlarge his order, but while prosecuting these com- prehensive plans never forgot small chapters and young brothers in need of help. His relations with Luther were so special that some have proposed to regard his influence as the decisive factor in the Reformer's development, but this view is hardly justified by the known facts. With many expressions of grati- tude from the young man to the elder we have his own sorrow- ful statement that even Staupitz did not rightly understand him. His superior, a mystic in doctrine, helped him not so much by teaching as by loving him. The vicar was a man who under' stood men, and it was due to his recommendation that Luther- received the call to Wittenberg. The young monk was chiefly illumined by the perusal of the Bible. The book was a very common one, there having been no less than one hundred editions of the Latin Vulgate published before 1500, as well as a number of German translations. The rule of the Augustinians prescribed diligent reading of the Scriptures, and Luther obeyed this regulation with joyous zeal, in spite of the astonishment of Staupitz and discouragement on the part of Dr. Usingen. Next to the Bible, St. Augustine was the most helpful of all the writers read by Luther. He began to know him at latest in 1508 ; a recent find has given us the very copy of Augustine's works that he used, with the margins crammed full of notes. According to these indications what impressed him most was the saint's mysticism — his philosophy of God, the world, the soul, the worthlessness of earthly life and the blessedness of the life hid with God. These thoughts so cheered him that at times he felt as if he was " among choirs of angels." With all the helps that he received, it was years before he found even the key of his solution. The letter toBraun of 1507 THE MONK 15 witnesses the downcast, trembling posture of his soul. At the first mass he experienced torturing doubts: "When I came to the words ' thee, most merciful Father,' " he says, " the thought that I had to speak to God without a mediator almost made me flee like another Judas." It was one day at Wittenberg in 1508 01' 1509, as he was sit- ting in his cell in a little tower, that his life message came to him, and with it the first assurance of permanent comfort and peace. He was reading Paul's Epistle to the Romans, and came to the verse (i, 17) " The just shall live by faith." Ponder- ing this, it came to him that it was not, as he had been taught, by man's own works that he was redeemed, but by faith in God and the Saviour. Justification by faith has been rightly selected as the cardinal doctrine of the Lutheran theology ; he himself recognized in it the corner-stone of his whole life. Of course Luther's development was not completed at once. Even after the master-key had been found, the long struggle continued, and other factors entered in to modify and enrich his character. He entered the monastery to save his soul, and the struggle for peace took twelve long years before the monk was ripe for the great deeds he was called on to perform. No one can get even an idea of what the struggle cost him save by read- ing after him the folios and quartos he perused, and trying to fol- low him in all that tangled labyrinth. And yet his development was perfectly normal and even. That his health suffered some- what from asceticism is undoubtedly true, but there were no morbid symptoms in his conversion. Comparing it to that of other famous Christians, there were no visions such as Loyola saw, and no moral breakdown such as that of Augustine. In those years of hardship, meditation, study, and thought, he laid the foundations of that adamantine character which stood un- shaken amidst a tempest that rocked Europe to its base. CHAPTER III THE JOURNEY TO ROME. OCTOBER, 1510-FEBRUARY, 1511 Work at Erfurt was interrupted by one of the most import- ant and interesting events in Luther's early career, the journey to Rome. As nearly all known about this trip comes from re- miniscences, of many years afterwards, there is a good deal that is obscure. Scholars are divided on a number of points con- nected with the event, among others on the time at which it took place. The probability points to the date given at the head of this chapter, but this is far from certain ; many students think the trip to Rome was at the same season a year later, and a few find still other dates. The Reformer in his table-talk places it now in one year, now in another, though the majority of re- ferences give 1510. Many other points are also unsettled ; the account in this chapter follows what seems to me the greatest probability and the best authority. The cause of the trip is connected with the history of the Augustinian order. As previously stated, when Proles carried through his reform of 1473-1475 all the cloisters did not adhere to the movement. Staupitz was anxious to complete the work of his predecessor by uniting all the chapters again, and some years after he was elected vicar of the Augustinian Observants in 1503, the opportunity arrived. Securing the interest of the general of the order at Rome, and of the Curia, on June 26, 1510, he was appointed provincial of the whole Saxon province, with authority to force the non-observant clois- ters into the reformed congregation. Several of these chapters, who felt themselves aggrieved, decided to appeal to Rome, and their motion was supported by some of the cloisters under Staupitz's jurisdiction, including Erfurt. The disaffected chose as their agent John von Mecheln of Nuremberg, and with him went Martin Luther. It is probable that the latter had little or nothing to do with THE JOURNEY TO ROME 17 the business in hand. At any rate he never mentions it. More- over, his warm relations with Staupitz make it unlikely that he would be willing to take a decided part against him. The laws of the order required that the brothers should always travel ' two and two, and he was simply the socius itinerarius of John von Mecheln. He grasped eagerly at the opportunity to visit the Eternal City ; indeed, he once stated that the purpose of his going was to make a general confession of all his sins and to receive absolution. The brothers set out in October, not cheerfully talking side by side, but walking silently in single file. Their itinerary is not known ; there were various routes used by pilgrims, and it is impossible to judge much from Luther's own vague mention of places. When they arrived in Italy, they discovered the in- sidious quality of the climate, as the following incident re- lates : — On the journey to Rome the brother with whom I was travelling and I were very tired one night and slept with open windows until about six o'clock. When we awoke, our heads were full of vapors, so that we could only go four or five miles that day, tormented by thirst and yet sickened by the wine and desiring only the water which is deadly there. At length we were refreshed by two pomegranates with which excellent fruit God saved our lives. The journey took the brothers through Florence, rich then as now with the art treasures which are the delight and wonder of the world. It is characteristic of Luther, who says very little about the painting and sculpture he saw, that he should have carefully visited the hospitals. The principal one was the Spe- dale di Santa Maria Nuova, just back of the cathedral, founded by Portinari, the father of Dante's Beatrice. Not far from it is the foundling hospital, the Spedale degli Innocenti, founded in the fifteenth century and richly decorated with medallions by Andrea della Kobbia. The pilgrim related his experience thus : — The hospitals of the Italians are built like the palaces, supplied with the best food and drink, and tended by diligent servants and skilful physicians. The painted bedsteads are covered with clean linen. When 18 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER a patient is brought in, his clothes are taken off and given to a notary to keep honestly. Then they put a white bed-gown on him and lay him be- tween the clean sheets of the beautifully painted bed, and two physi- cians are brought at once. Servants fetch food and drink in clean glass vessels, and do not touch the food even with a finger, but offer it to the patient on a tray. Honorable matrons, veiled, serve the poor all day long without making their names known, and at evening re- turn home. These carefully tended hospitals I saw at Florence. They also have foundling asylums, where children are well sheltered and nourished and taught ; they are all dressed in uniform and most pater- nally provided for. Continuing the trip south, the brothers finally caught sight of Rome. The emotions of the young man were overpowering; he fell on his face and cried : " Hail, holy Rome ! " The month of December was spent here. While his com- panion did the business of the order, Luther spent the time seeing the sights. There was then a guide-book, the so-called Mirabilia Romae, which had been published as a block-book before the days of movable types. That Luther used it is prob- able from parallels found in the table-talk, and Professor Hausrath has constructed his whole visit from this hint, just as one might imagine what a modern tourist saw by consulting / Baedeker. What impressed him most of all the sights were the remains of classical antiquity, the Coliseum, the baths, the Pantheon. He also speaks of the catacombs of Calixtus and of some of the churches. " I was a foolish pilgrim," says he, " and believed all that I was told." He visited all the shrines to take advantage of the indulgences granted to pious worshippers, and even went so far as to wish that his parents were dead that he might get their souls out of purgatory, for which charitable work so many opportunities offered. One of the most celebrated shrines of the Holy City is the chapel Sancta Sanctorum at the eastern end of the Piazza di San Giovanni, in which was, and still is, the flight of twenty-eight steps, taken, as the Romans fabled, from the judgment hall of Pilate in Jerusalem. Leo IV had granted an indulgence of nine years for every step climbed by the pilgrim on his knees while saying the appointed prayers. THE JOURNEY TO ROME 19 If one may trust the story which Luther's son Paul remem- bered hearing his father tell, 1 he started climbing these stairs and praying, but suddenly remembered the verse in Romans, "The just shall live by faith," arose and descended. Luther could not fail to be shocked by many things he saw. At the time they did not shake his faith in the Church, nor his allegiance to the Pope, but when the breach came in after years his heart was hardened by the remembrance of the visit. He could never have attacked Rome so vigorously and suc-\ cessfully in 1520 had it not been for what he saw in 1510. He ' often refers to it in words like these : — Borne is a harlot. I would not take a thousand gulden not to have seen it, for I never would have believed the true state of affairs from what other people told me, had I not seen it myself. The Italians mocked us for being pious monks, for they hold Christians fools. They say six or seven masses in the time it takes me to say one, for they take money for it and I do not. The only crime in Italy is poverty. They still punish homicide and theft a little, for they have to, but no other sin is too gross for them. . . . So great and bold is Roman impiety that neither God nor man, neither sin nor shame, is feared. All good men who have seen Rome bear witness to this ; all bad ones come back worse than before. The return journey took about seven weeks. Passing through Milan, Luther was surprised to find priests who claimed not to acknowledge the supremacy of the Pope, for they followed St. Ambrose. His eyes were open to the beauty and fertility of the Lombard plains. He arrived at Erfurt in February. It is not without interest to note another trip, though one of infinitely less importance than the Italian journey, taken by Luther in his monastic days. This was to Cologne, where he saw the relics of the three kings. He never forgot the wine he d rank in this city, which he said was the best he ever tasted. 2 1 This celebrated story was first published in its original .form in 1903. Kost- lin-Kawerau, i, 749. Paul was only eleven years old when the story was told (in 1544) and he wrote it down thirty-eight years later. 3 Weimar edition, xzziv, i, 22, and note at end of volume. CHAPTER IV THE PROFESSOR. 1512-1517 Wittenberg is situated on the banks of the Elbe about halfway between Leipsic and Berlin. The broad and winding river is not at this point navigable. The country is flat, the soil sandy and poor. Toward the end of the fifteenth century Wittenberg was a mere hamlet, containing about three hun- dred and fifty low, ugly wooden houses, with an old church and a town hall. To explain its rise to prominence as a uni- versity town and military post a short digression on contem- porary history is necessary — an explanation which will also serve to clear up the matter of the two Saxonys, a standing puzzle to foreigners who read German history. The treaty of Leipsic, August, 1485, divided the lands of the house of Wettin forever into two parts. The so-called " Elect- oral District " (Kurkreis) of which Wittenberg was the centre, together with some territory to the southward including Eise- nach, Weimar, and Coburg, was given to the elder brother, Ernest, with the title of Elector of Saxony. The younger, Albert, who was called Duke of Saxony, obtained the smaller but better portion of the land, including the two cities of Leipsic and Dresden with the surrounding country. Frederic, surnamed the Wise, who became Elector of Saxony in 1486, at once started to replenish his diminished resources. He chose Wittenberg as a sort of capital of his northern terri- tory — usually himself residing at Altenburg in the south. He began immediately to ornament the town with public build- ings, including a castle and a church, for the decoration of which he employed Albert Diirer, the Nuremberg painter. In 1502 he founded a university, in order that his subjects might not have to go to Leipsic, belonging to his cousin, or to Erfurt, under the jurisdiction of the Elector of Mayence. He ap- pointed Staupitz first dean of the faculty of theology, intending THE PRbFESSOR 21 that most of the professors should be monks of the Augustinian order, which had a chapter at Wittenberg. Staupitz entered into the work with zeal ; he rebuilt and enlarged the Black Cloister (as the monastery was called, from the popular name of the Augustinians as Black Monks), began to lecture on the Bible, and gathered around him some young men whom he in- tended to train to fill positions as teachers. The one in whom he had most confidence was Martin Luther. It was at his recommendation that the young brother had been made instructor in philosophy during the year 1508-09, and it was also at his recommendation that Martin was again called in the summer of 1511 to be professor of divinity. The vicar was anxious to retire and wished the younger man to take his own place. In order to do this a degree of doctor was consid- ered necessary, to which, at first, Luther was averse. Many years later he told the following story, so characteristic of the vicar's gentle humor : — Dr. Staupitz said to me one day as we were sitting under the pear- tree still standing in the court, " You should take the degree of doctor so as to have something to do." ... I objected that my strength was already used up, and that I could not long survive the duties imposed on me by a professorship. He answered : " Do you not know that the Lord has a great deal of business to attend to, in which he needs the assistance of clever people ? If you should die, you might be his coun- sellor." Such argument could not be withstood, and accordingly October 18, 1512, was set aside for Luther to take the highest degree in theology, that of doctor in divinity. His invitation to his brothers at Erfurt to attend the ceremony is interesting, both because of the matter it contains, and because of its per- fect self-possession in contrast to the previous letters. TO THE PKIOR ANDREW LOHB AND THE CONVENT OF AUGUSTINIANS AT ERFURT Wittenberg, September 22, 1512. Greeting in the Lord ! Keverend, venerable and dear Fathers ! Be- hold the day of St. Luke is at hand, on which, in obedience to you and to our reverend Vicar Staupitz, I shall take my examination in 28 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER theology in the hall of the university. ... I do not now accuse my- self of un worthiness, lest I should seem to seek praise and honor by my humility; God and my conscience know how worthy and how grateful I am for this public honor. ... I beg that you will deign to come and be present at the celebration, if convenient, for the glory and honor of religion and especially of our chapter. . . . After taking the degree, to which he seems to have been thoroughly reconciled, Luther began to lecture on the Bible, a practice which he kept up all his life. The recent publication of the marginal notes (1509-10) in some of the books he used, and of his lectures on the Psalms (1513-15), on the Epistle to the Romans (1515-16), and on the Book of Judges (1516), together with the Commentary on Galatians, printed by Luther himself in 1519 (from lectures given in 1516-17), gives us a deep insight into his methods and results. Glancing first at the more external qualities, these lectures and notes evince extreme thoroughness — not a bad quality in a professor, and one for which German professors have ever been justly famous. He not only turned the pages of his books, he read, marked, learned, and inwardly digested them. He criticised his authors and with such acumen that two works attributed to Augustine, the genuineness of which he first disputed, have been proved by modern criticism to be spurious. He sought diligently for the best authorities and the most recent books. In his Commentary on the Psalms he used the edition of the French humanist LefSvre d'Etaples, published in 1509. This author, "a little Luther," as Michelet called him, is a chief guide in the exegesis of the text. Next to him, or perhaps one should say, ahead of him, the influence of Au- gustine, and through him of the Neoplatonic school, is the most important element. Comparing these lectures with the notes on Lombard (1509-10), a considerable advance in freedom and power is noticeable. The early work is stiff, formal, and timid ; in the later, though the text and authorities are still followed fairly closely, there is more freedom of treatment and more of the subjective element. The new religious ideas, especially that -of justification by faith, can be plainly made out, and several opinions which could find uo room in the Catholic Church come THE PROFESSOR 23 forward. In fact, as far as we can judge, it was in these lee- tures, his first on the Bible, that Luther began to formulate his peculiar theology. In the summer semester of 1515, about May, Luther began to lecture on Romans, continuing the course for about three semesters. His principal guide, at first, was again the humanist Lefdvre, whose text of St. Paul's epistles had appeared in 1512. While Luther was still lecturing, in March, 1516, Eras- mus' edition of the New Testament with a new Latin transla- tion and notes came out, and was immediately procured by the Wittenberg professor. From this time on, beginning, namely, with the ninth chapter of Romans, Erasmus took the lead as an exegetical authority. Not that the lecturer follows him slavishly; he balances authorities, and occasionally disagrees with all of them. Nevertheless we can hardly overestimate the importance of the Greek Testament on the Reformer's thought ; from this time on almost all of his important theological work is founded on it, and of course on the material supplied by its editor. The Commentary on Romans is a great human document, priceless for its biographical interest. So important is it in the history of the author's thought that Father Denifle, who first called attention to it, 1 was inclined to date the commencement of the Reformation from it. Though we cannot agree with him in this, for, according to our reading of the sources, Luther had attained his fundamental convictions in previous years, we must assign immense importance to these lectures for the develop- ment and perfection of these ideas. The care with which he prepared the lectures is plain ; he laboriously annotated almost every word of the text, and then wrote out, in a fair, legible copy, the whole discourse. There is still some remnant of medievalism in the manner in which he explains the text in two or three different ways, but through the old dress the modern spirit shines forth. Luther was one of the first to show what 1 He knew it in some notes taken by students now in the Vatican archives. The original manuscript, long supposed to be lost, was discovered but a few years ago in the show-cases of the Royal Library at Berlin, and first published in 1908. I hare read a portion of it in manuscript. 21 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER Paul really felt, thought, and taught, though some others, like jLefdvre and Colet, had preceded him by a few years in apply- I ing the new learning to the elucidation of Scripture. These commentaries were and are valuable contributions to exegesis. But they are far more ; they are living epistles from Brother Martin's heart. His lofty ideas are taking shape, and what an insight into his deep ponderings do such sentences as these give : " We are partly sinners and partly just, but nothing if not penitent, for repentance is the mean between sin and - righteousness " ; and again, " We are not called to ease but to labor against our passions." Throughout the whole, the theo- logical, practical, and moral interest is the dominant one. The lecturer is even more interested in his own day than in Paul's. With what solemn words does he arraign the princes and pre- lates who oppress the poor and live only for luxury and pride ! How often does he refer to the events of the day, the Eeuchlin trial, the wars of Pope Julius, or of Duke George, or of the Bishop of Brandenburg ! Again, in words which have a double meaning for us who know their sequel, he blames the sellers of indulgences who deceive the poor people, and " are cruel beyond all cruelty, not freeing souls for charity, though they do for money." ,In this commentary can first be seen how far Luther is from the doctrine taught him by his professors Trutvetter and Usin- gen, the old philosophy of Aristotle and the schoolmen. Of them he says : — Wherefore it is mere madness for them to say that a man of his own powers is able to love God above all things and to do the works ju-of tbe law in substance, if not literally, without grace. Fools ! Theo- logians for swine ! According to them grace would not be necessary save for a new requirement above the law. For if the law is fulfilled by our own powers, as they say, then grace would not be necessary for the fulfilment of the law, but only for a new exaction beyond the law. Who can bear these sacrilegious opinions ? It is from this high opinion of the function of grace that Luther deduced the doctrine of determinism, which he carried to the utmost lengths of logic. These lectures also give a vivid idea of the author's reading THF PROFESSOR 96 at the time. The humanists, especially Erasmus, are his favor- ites. He often quotes, however, from the Fathers, either directly or as he had learned to know them through textbooks and compendiums. Moreover, he is interesting. Similes, illustra- tions, examples from current events, apt translation into Ger- man, with careful summaries at the end of each subject, made the lectures a wide departure from the ordinary. The students flocked to them with enthusiasm. Luther's work at the university was so successful that within a few years he was able to carry through a complete reform of the whole curriculum. The bondage of the old-fashioned pro- fessors to Aristotle has already been described in connection with Martin's education at Erfurt. The humanists, eager for the cultivation of the classics, rebelled against the reign of the Stagirite, and had been partly successful in dethroning him. Luther was in thorough sympathy with them, but his motive was different ; he objected to the study of that " cursed heathen " (verdammter Heide), because his ethics were not Christian and his philosophy not Pauline. This dislike, noticeable as early as 1510, grew until, on September 4, 1517, Luther published ninety-seven theses calling into question the value of Aristotle's works as textbooks. Every one is familiar with the Ninety-five Theses against indulgences published the following month, but only specialists know of this Disputation against Scholastic Theology. And yet Luther, who did not think the theses on indulgences worth publishing, printed this protest against Aris- totle and his followers, and sent it around to numerous friends for opinions. Among the theses the forty-first calls Aristotle's Ethics bad and inimical to grace, the fifty-first expresses the well-founded suspicion that the Latin translations used in the university do not give his exact sense, and the fifty-second states that it would be a good thing if he who first started the question of nominalism and realism had never been born. Luther was especially anxious to have his opinions known to his old professors at Erfurt, who were strong adherents of the Greek philosopher, and accordingly sent the theses with this letter. 26 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER TO JOHN LANG AT EEFTJRT Wittenberg, February 8, 1517. Greeting. I enclose a letter, dear Father, for the excellent Trufc vetter, containing propositions directed against logic, philosophy, and theology, i. e., slander and malediction of Aristotle, Porphyry, 1 and the Sentences, the wretched studies of our age. The men who interpret them are bound to keep silence, not for five years, as did the Pythago- reans, but for ever and ever, like the dead ; 2 they must believe all, obey always ; nor may they ever, even for practice in argument, skir- mish with their master, nor mutter a syllable against him. What will they not believe who have credited that ridiculous and injurious blasphemer Aristotle ? His propositions are so absurd that an ass or a stone would cry out at them. . . . My soul longs for nothing so ardently as to expose and publicly shame that Greek buffoon, who like a spectre has befooled the Church. ... If Aristotle had not lived in the flesh I should not hesitate to call him a devil. The greatest part of my cross is to be forced to see brothers with brilliant minds, born for useful studies, compelled to spend their lives and waste their labor in these follies. The universities do not cease to condemn good books and publish bad ones, or rather talk in their sleep about those already published. . . . Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian. The professor's efforts to rid his own university of Aristotle were completely successful, as on May 18, 1517, he wrote Lang : — Our theology and St. Augustine prosper and reign here, by God's help. Aristotle is gradually tottering to a fall from which he will hardly rise again, and the lectures on the Sentences are wonderfully disrelished. No professor can hope for students unless he offers courses in the new theology, that is on the Bible or St. Augustine or some other ecclesiastical authority. While teaching, Luther continued his own studies. Hehrew be had already begun to learn at Erfurt, with the help of 1 Porphyry, born 233 a.d., started the debate on the reality of individuals and speeiea which divided the Middle Ages. Cf . p. 6. 2 An oath never to contradict Aristotle was actually administered in the Italian universities. P. Monnier : Le Quattrocento (Paris, 1908), ii, 76. THE PROFESSOR 27 Reuchlin's new grammar-dictionary. There were no courses in Greek at either Erfurt or Wittenberg, but he began to study it under the private tuition of his friend Lang, who taught at Wittenberg for three years from 1513 to 1516. Besides these linguistic pursuits he continued his reading in mediaeval theo- logians, — Bernard of Clairvaux, Bonaventura, Gerson, and Gerhard Zerbolt of Ziitphen. Toward the end of 1515 or early in 1516 he became ac- quainted with a school of German mystics which had an import- ant influence on his development. The leader of this movement had been Tauler, whose sermons, in an edition of 1508, Luther bought and annotated in his own careful way. He was still more impressed by a manuscript of one of this school known as " the Frankfurter," a work to which the young professor gave the name of " A German Theology," when he edited it in an incom- plete form in 1516 (his first publication) and fully in 1518. In the preface he says there is no better book, after the Bible and Augustine, and none in which one may better learn the nature of " God, Christ, man, and all things." He warns the reader not to be repelled by the archaic German, and the influence of this rough, but pure old speech, has been noted on his own style. What attracted Luther to the mystics was their doctrine of 1] the necessity of a spiritual rebirth of anguish and despair before W a man could approach the felicity of union with GodJTust as Christ had gone through pain to blessedness, so, they taught, man must experience woe before he can appreciate happiness. A person who seeks God with all his heart is left by him for a time in doubt and distraction, that God may thereby teach him his absolute dependence on him. This was balm to the soul of one who had been at a loss to explain the long period of suffer- ing through which he had just come ; now he felt sure that he had not gone astray, but that even in profundis God had loved and watched over him. The young professor's work was not confined to the class- room. Soon after his transfer to Wittenberg he began to preach, at first to the brothers in the convent, and then in the tiny, barn- like chapel at that time standing near the cloister. He was at first very timid about it, but gradually developed a wonderful 28 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER homiletic gift. Even his earliest addresses are full of fresh earnestness and have some touches of uncommon power. The first extant sermon, probably preached on Whitsunday, 1514, takes the text from the golden rule (Matthew vii, 12). The preacher begins by classifying goods as wholly external, — such as money, houses, and wives; partly external and partly in- ternal, — health and beauty; and wholly internal, — wisdom, virtue, charity, and faith. He then shows how a man may help or hurt his neighbor in any of these goods. He asks if it is enough to abstain from hurting our fellow men, and answers by inquiring if we should be satisfied if all that they ever did for us was to let us alone. We must give to others, teach them, incite them, and help them to do right even as we want them to do unto us. Christ judged the wicked servant, not for wasting his talent, but for letting it lie idle ; he condemned the persons at his tribunal, not for despoiling him, but because when he was hungry they gave him no meat. Thus it will be with us if we do not help each other to the utmost of our ability. So I might go on with other sermons, and show how simple, direct, interesting, moral, and saintly they are. They reveal the heart of young Luther striving with all his might to be the best and do the best that was in him. What flashes of revelation there are now and then, as in the comment on John iii, 16 (God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son) — " There is a wonderful emphasis and propriety in these words, as is the -wont of the Holy Spirit ! " \ In both sermons and lectures many a trenchant word against /'spiritual wickedness in high places remind one that the monk jwas already a reformer. Many of the abuses he later attacked are scored or glanced at in these early years. He says, for example, that the Canon Law needs a thorough cleansing; he speaks against fasts, ceremonies, and pilgrimages. He criticizes the hardness and tyranny of the princes, the coarseness of the priests, the arrogance of the monks, the ignorance of indulgence- preachers, the superstition of religious foundations, the laziness of workmen, and the irreligion and greed of lawyers. Sometimes he rebukes by name or clearly indicates persons in high stations, among them the late Pope Julius II, the Bishop of Strassburg, THE PROFESSOR 29 Duke George of Albertine Saxony, and his own sovereign, the Elector. Of more than common interest, as showing Luther's general attitude toward the Church, is his opinion on a cause celebre of that day, the trial for heresy of John Eeuchlin. This learned man's refusal to participate in the scheme of a converted Jew to burn all Hebrew books except the Old Testament was made the ground of an action against him by the Dominicans of Co- logne, among whom the most conspicuous was Hochstratten, aided by the humanist Ortuin Grratius. The trial, which lasted from 1510 to 1516, excited the interest of the whole of Europe. The monks and obscurantists sided with the inquisitors, the humanists, all but Ortuin, with Eeuchlin. The contest was car- ried on by a hundred pens, and gave rise to a great satire — the Epistles of Obscure Men. This work, most of which was written by Crotus Bubeanus, in the form of a series of letters addressed to Ortuin Gratius by poor monks, ridicules the bad Latin, ignorance, gullibility, and superstition of the theologians. Luther, though a monk, sided with the progressive party against the inquisitors. His letters on the subject are written to a man who was, throughout life, one of his best friends, George Burkhardt of Spalt. Spalatin, as he was always called, was of the same age as his friend, whom he probably came to know first in 1512, when he was tutor to some young princes at Wittenberg. About 1514 he was appointed chaplain and private secretary to Frederic the Wise, after which he was rarely at Wittenberg. Of the voluminous correspondence of the two friends about' four hundred and fifty of Luther's letters to him have survived. Among the first of these are two on the Eeuchlin trial : — TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBURG Wittenberg (February, 1514). Peace be with you, reverend Spalatin! Brother John Lang has asked me what I think of the innocent and learned Reuchlin and whether he is, as his prosecutors of Cologne allege, in danger of heresy. You know that I greatly esteem and like the man, and per- haps my judgment will therefore he suspected, but my opinion is that in all his writings there is absolutely nothing dangerous. 30 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER I greatly wonder at the men of Cologne ferreting out such an ob- scure point, worse tangled than the Gordian knot, though the case is really as plain as day. . . . What shall I say? That they are. trying to cast out Beelzebub but not by the finger of God. I often regret and deplore that we Christians are wise abroad and fools at home. A hundred times worse blasphemies than this exist in the very streets of Jerusalem, and the high places are filled with spiritual idols. We ought to show our superabundant zeal in removing these offences, which are our real, intestine enemies, instead of abandoning all that is really urgent and turning to foreign matters, under the inspiration of the devil, who intends that we shall neglect our own business without helping others. . . . Tour brother, Martin Luther. to geoege spalatin at altenburg Wittenberg, August 5, 1514. Greeting. Hitherto, most learned Spalatin, I considered that poet- aster of Cologne, Ortuin Gratius, simply an ass. But you see he has turned out a dog, or rather a ravening wolf in sheep's clothing, if not indeed a crocodile, as you quite properly suggest. I really believe he has felt his own' asininity (if you allow the word) since our Reuchlin has pointed it out, but that he thinks he can shake it off and put on the lion's majesty. The change is too much for him ; presto ! he remains a wolf or crocodile, for to turn into a lion is beyond his power. Good Heavens ! How can I express my feelings ? From the ex- ample of this fellow alone we may form the truest, sanest, and justest estimate possible of all who have ever written or now write, or will write from envy. The most insane of all passions is that envy which ardently desires to hurt but has not the power. ... This little Ortuin gets together a lot of ridiculous, contradictory, painful, pitiful propositions, twisting the words and meaning of in- nocent Reuchlin, only to increase the penalty of his own blindness and obstinacy of heart. . . . In addition to preaching and teaching, Luther had numerous duties connected with his order, in which he was rapidly rising to a leading position. In May, 1515, he was elected vicar of the district, a responsible position involving the superintend- ence of eleven cloisters. How seriously he took his duties is THE PROFESSOR 31 shown by his letters to priors of monasteries under his charge. Two of them especially reveal the writer's deep spiritual life at the time when he was most under the influence of the mys- tics. The first is conceived in the spirit of Paul's epistle to Philemon. TO JOHN BERCKENT, AUGUSTINIAN PEIOK AT MAYENCE Dresden, May 1, 1516. Greeting in the Lord ! Kevereiid and excellent Father Prior ! — I am grieved to learn that there is with your Reverence one of my brothers, a certain George Baumgartner, of our convent at Dresden, and that, alas ! he sought refuge with you in a shameful manner, and for a shameful cause. I thank your faith and duty for receiving him and thus bringing his shame to an end. That lost sheep is mine, he belongs to me ; it is mine to seek him, and, if it please the Lord Jesus, to bring him back. "Wherefore I pray your Reverence, by our com- mon faith in Christ and by our common Augustinian vow, to send him to me in dutiful charity either at Dresden or at Wittenberg, or rather to persuade him lovingly and gently to come of his own ac- cord. I shall receive him with open arms ; only let him come ; he has no cause to fear my displeasure. I know, I know that scandals must arise. It is no miracle that a man should fall, but it is a miracle that he should rise and stand. Peter fell, that he might know that he was a man ; to-day the cedars of Lebanon, touching the sky with their tops, fall down. Wonder of wonders, even an angel fell from heaven and man in paradise ! What wonder is it, then, that a reed be shaken by the wind and a smoking flax be quenched ? May the Lord Jesus teach you and use you and perfect you in every good work. Amen. Farewell. Brother Martin Luther, Professor of theology and Augustinian Vicar of the district of Meissen and Thuringia. TO MICHAEL DRESSEL, AUGUSTINIAN PRIOR AT NEUSTADT Wittenberg, June 22, 1516. . . . You seek peace and ensue it, but in the wrong way, for you look to what the world gives, not to what Christ gives. Know you not, dear Father, that God is so wonderful among his people that he has placed his peace in the midst of no peace, that is, in the midst of all trial, as 32 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER he says : Rule thou in the midst of thine enemies ? It is not that man, therefore, whom no one disturbs, who has peace, — which is, indeed, the peace of the world, — but he whom all men and all things harass and who yet bears all quietly with joy. You say with Israel : " Peace, peace," and there is no peace ; say rather with Christ, "Cross, cross," and there is no cross. For the cross ceases to be a cross as soon as you say joyfully : " Blessed cross, there is no tree like you." ..." Seek peace and you will find it, but seek only to bear trials with joy as if they were holy relics. . . . It may be imagined that such varied occupations kept Luther busy. Of his work he gives a lively account in a letter to his recent colleague and instructor in Greek : — TO JOHN LANG AT ERFURT (Wittenberg,) October 26, 1516. , Greeting. I need a couple of amanuenses or secretaries, as I do almost nothing the live-long day but write letters. I do not know whether on that account I am always repeating myself, but you can judge. I am convent preacher, the reader at meals, am asked to de- liver a sermon daily in the parish church, am district vicar (that is eleven times prior), business manager of our fish-farm at Litzkau, attorney in our case versus the Herzbergers now pending at Torgau, 1 lecturer on St. Paul, assistant lecturer on the Psalter, besides having my correspondence, which, as I said, occupies most of my time. I seldom have leisure to discharge the canonical services, to say nothing of attending to my own temptations with the world, the flesh and the devil. You see how idle I am ! I think you must already have my answer about Brother John Metzel, but I will see what I can do. How in the world do you think I can get places for your epicures and sybarites ? If you have brought them up in this pernicious way of life you ought to support them in the same pernicious style. I have enough useless brothers on all sides — if, indeed, any can be called useless to a patient soul. I have per- suaded myself that the useless are the most useful of all — so you can have them a while longer. . . . You write me that yesterday you began to lecture on the second 1 On the incorporation of the parish church at Heraberg with the local Augus- tinian chapter. THE PROFESSOR 83 book of Sentences. I begin to-morrow to lecture on Galatians, though I fear the plague will not allow me to finish the course. The plague takes off two or at most three in one day, and that not every day. A son of the smith who lives opposite was well yesterday and is buried to-day, and another son lies ill. The epidemic began rather severely and suddenly in the latter part of the summer. You would per- suade Bernhardi and me to flee to you, but shall I flee ? I hope the world will not come to an end when Brother Martin does. I shall send the brothers away if the plague gets worse ; I am stationed here and may not flee_ because of my vow of obedience, until the same authority which now commands me to stay shall command me to go. Not that I do not fear the plague (for I am not the Apostle Paul, but only a lecturer on him), but I hope the Lord will deliver me from my fear. How great is the contrast between this letter and that writ- ten ten years before ! The shy boy has become a man of un- usual power, universally respected and trusted. Indeed, he had already attracted the notice of his sovereign, the Elector Fred- eric. This prince, who enjoyed a great and deserved reputa- tion for wisdom, was a pious man according to mediaeval standards. He had made a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, and brought back a large collection of relics to which he kept adding from time to time. He built the Castle Church at Wittenberg, 1493-1499, to keep these sacred objects of which by 1505 he had accumulated 5005, graced •with enormous indulgences, reckoned, according to the scale of measurement adopted, as equivalent to 1443 years of purgatory. In addition to this pro- vision for his future life, Frederic had ten thousand masses said yearly in Saxon churches for the benefit of his soul. Luther had now come to regard such things as superfluous and wrong, and consequently judged his sovereign severely for superstition, as is shown in the next letter written to answer Spalatin's request for his advice about the proposed appoint- ment of Staupitz to a bishopric : — TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBURG Wittenberg, June 8, 1516. . . . I by no means wish that the reverend father should receive the appointment simply because it pleases the Elector to give it him. Many 34 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER things please your elector, and appear glorious in his eyes, which dis- please God and are base. I do not deny that the Prince is of all most wise in worldly matters, but in those which pertain to God and salva- tion I think he is seven times blind, as is your friend Pf effinger. 1 I do not say this privily as a slanderer, nor do I wish that you should in any way conceal it ; when the opportunity comes I am ready to say it to both of them. Dear Spalatin, these are not such happy times that it is blessed, or even not most miserable to be a bishop — that is to carouse and prac- tise the vices of Sodom and Eome. You will clearly understand this if you compare the bishops of our age with those of ancient times. The best of modern prelates wage foreign wars with all the power of artillery, or build up their private fortunes, a hell of avarice. And al- though Staupitz is most averse from such wickedness, yet would you, with your confidence in him, force him to become involved in the whirlpools and racking tempests of episcopal cares, when chance, or rather fate, urges him on any way ? . . . Staupitz did not get the appointment, and about a year later fell into such disfavor with his sovereign that Luther had to intercede for him. The letter in which he does so has an uncom- mon interest as indicating how free the Wittenberg professor felt to remonstrate with his prince on matters of state : — TO THE ELECTOR FREDERIC OF SAXONY AT ALTENBURG Wittenberg, November, 1517. Most gracious Lord and Prince ! As your Grace promised me a gown some time ago, I beg to remind your Grace of the same. Please let Pfeffinger settle it with a deed and not with promises — he can spin mighty good yarns but no cloth comes from them. I have learned that your Grace is offended at Dr. Staupitz, our dear and worthy father, for some reason or other. When he was here on the way to see your Grace atTorgau, I talked with him and showed him that I was sorry your Grace should take umbrage, and after a long conversation could only find that he held your Grace in his heart. . . . Wherefore, most gracious Lord, I beg you, as he several times asked me to do, that you would consider all the love and loyalty you have so often found in him. My gracious Lord, let me now show my devotion to you and deserve 1 State treasurer and receiver-general of taxes. CHRISTO • SACRVM. LLe -Dei verbo jvulgna. pietate • favebaT - •FERPETVA-DIGMVS-POSl'ERiTATE-r.OLL. • D • FRIDR- DVCI SAXON • S • R- JAVP • ARCHIM.- ELECTOR!- A LBERTVS ■ BVRER. • NvR- FAC] EBAT • • B'vW-F -V- V • : A\ ■ D • XXIIII • =J1 FREDERIC THE WISE, ELECTOR OF SAXONY, 1524 After an etching by Albrecht Dfirer THE PROFESSOR 35 my new gown. I have heard that at the expiration of the present im- post your Grace intends to collect another and perhaps a heavier one. Tf you will not despise the prayer of a poor beggar, I ask you for God's sake not to do this. For it heartily distresses me and many who love you, that this tax has of late robbed you of much good fame and favor. God has blessed you with high intelligence in these matters, to see further than I or perhaps any of your subjects, but it may well be that God ordains it so that at times a great mind may be directed by a lesser one, so that no one may trust himself but only God our Lord. May he keep your Grace in health to govern us well and afterwards may he grant your soul salvation. Amen. Your Grace's obedient chaplain, Da. Martin Luther. CHAPTER V THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY. 1517-1519 , Notwithstanding Luther's severe criticism of the Elector for venerating relics, and notwithstanding his despondent esti- mate of spiritual wickedness in high places, he was, as yet, a true son of the Church. In attacking a flagrant ecclesiastical .buse, the indulgence trade, he did not intend to raise the tandard of revolt, nor did he do so until forced, gradually if ■apidly, by the authorities of the Church herself, into irrecon- ilable opposition. In order to understand his protest against indulgences, it is necessary to glance at the history of this institution. According to the theory of the Roman Catholic Church, for- giveness is imparted to sinners in absolution after confession, by which the penitent is freed from guilt and eternal punish- ment in hell, but still remains liable to a milder punishment to be undergone in this life as penance, or in purgatory. The prac- tice had arisen in the early Church of commuting this penance (not the pains of purgatory) in consideration of a good work such as a pilgrimage or a contribution to pious purpose. This was the seed of the indulgence which would never have grown to its later enormous proportions had it not been for the cru- sades. Mohammed promised his followers paradise if they fell in battle against unbelievers, but Christian warriors were at first without this comforting assurance. Their faith was not long left in doubt, however, for as early as 855 Leo IV promised heaven to the Franks who died fighting the Moslems. A quarter of a century later John VIII proclaimed absolution for all sins and remission of all penalties to soldiers in the holy war, and from this time on the " crusade indulgence " became a regular means of recruiting, used, for example, by Leo IX in 1052 and by Urban II in 1095. By this time the practice had grown up of regarding an indulgence as a remission not only of penance THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 37 but of the pains of purgatory. The means which had proved successful in getting soldiers for the crusade were first used in 1145 or 1146 to get money for the same end — pardon being assured to those who gave enough to fit out one soldier on the same terms as if they had gone themselves. When the crusades ceased, in the thirteenth century, in- dulgences did not fall into desuetude. At the jubilee of Pope Boniface VIII in 1300 a plenary indulgence was granted to all who made a pilgrimage to Rome. The Pope reaped such an enormous harvest from the gifts of these pilgrims that he saw fit to employ similar means at frequent intervals, and soon ex- tended the same privileges as were granted to pilgrims to all who contributed for some pious purpose at their own homes. Agents were sent out to sell these pardons, and were given power to confess and absolve, so that by 1393 Boniface IX was able to announce complete remission of both guilt and penalty to the purchasers of his letters. Having assumed the right to free living men from future punishment, it was but a step for the popes to proclaim that they had the power to deliver the souls of the dead from purgatory. The existence of this power was an open question until decided by Calixtus III in 1457, but full use of the faculty was not made until twenty years later, after which it became of all branches of the indulgence trade the most profitable. r'The practice of the Church had become well established v bef ore a theory was framed to justify it. This was done most successfully by Alexander of Hales in the thirteenth century, who discovered the treasury of the Church (thesaurus meritorum or thesaurus indulgentiarum) consisting of the merits of Christ and the saints which the Pope, as head of the Church, could apply as a sort of a credit to whom he chose. This doctrine, so far as it applied to living men, received the sanction of Clem- ent VI in 1343 and became a part of the Canon Law, but the popes usually claimed to free the souls of the dead from purga- tory simply by prayer. The mere dictum of the Supreme Pontiff did not at that time absolutely establish a dogma. A powerful party in the Church held that a council was the su- preme authority in matters of faith, and it will be remembered 38 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER that the infallibility of the Pope was not made a dogma until 1870. Luther was therefore not accused of heresy for his asser- tions regarding indulgences for the dead. y It was not so much the theory of the Church that excited his indignation as it was the practices of some of her agents. They encouraged the common man to believe that the purchase of a papal pardon would assure him impunity without any real re- pentance on his part. Moreover, whatever the theoretical worth 'of indulgences, the motive of their sale was notoriously the .greed of unscrupulous ecclesiastics. The " holy trade " as it was called had become so thoroughly commercialized by 1500 that / a banking house, the Fuggers of Augsburg, were the direct \ agents of the Curia in Germany. In return for their services in forwarding the Pope's bulls, and in hiring sellers of pardons, this wealthy house made a secret agreement in 1507 by which it received one third of the total profits of the trade, and in 1514 formally took over the whole management of the business in return for the modest commission of one half the net receipts. Naturally not a word was said by the preachers to the people as to the destination of so large a portion of their money, but enough was known to make many men regard indulgences as an open scandal. The history of the particular trade attacked by Luther is one of special infamy. Albert of Brandenburg, a prince of the en^ terprising house of Hohenzollern, was bred to the Church and rapidly rose by political influence to the highest ecclesiastical position in Germany. In 1513 he was elected, at the age of twenty-three, Archbishop of Magdeburg and administrator of the bishopric of Halberstadt, — an uncanonical accumulation of sees confirmed by the Pope in return for a large payment. Hardly had Albert paid this before he was elected Archbishop and Elector of Mayence and Primate of Germany (March 9, 1514). Ashe was not yet of canonical age to possess even one bishopric, not to mention three of the greatest in the Empire, the Pope refused to confirm his nomination except for an enormous sum. The Curia at first demanded twelve thousand ducats for the twelve apostles, Albert offered seven for the seven deadly sins. The average between apostles and sins was struck THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 39 at ten thousand ducats, or fifty thousand dollars, a sum equal in purchasing power to near a million to-day. Albert borrowed this, too, from the Fuggers, and was accordingly confirmed on August 15, 1514. In order to allow the new prelate to recoup himself, Leo obligingly declared an indulgence for the benefit of St. Peter's Church, to run eight years from March 31, 1515. By this trans- action, one of the most disgraceful in the history of the papacy, as well as in that of the house of Brandenburg, the Curia made a vast sum. Albert did not come off so well. First, a number of princes, including the rulers of both Saxonys, forbade the trade in their dominions, and the profits of what remained were deeply cut by the unexpected attack of a young monk. / Albert did his best to put his holy wares in the most attract- ive light. A short quotation from his public advertisement will substantiate what has just been said about the popular repre- sentation of the indulgence as an easy road to atonement : — " The first grace is a plenary remission of all sins, than which one might say no grace could be greater, because a sinner deprived of grace through it achieves perfect remission of sin and the grace of God anew. By which grace . . . the pains of purgatory are completely- wiped out.'' The second grace for sale is a confessional letter allowing the penitent to choose his own confessor ; the third is the participation in the merits of the saints. The fourth grace is for the souls in purga- tory, a plenary remission of all sins. . . . Nor is it necessary for those who contribute to the fund for this purpose to be contrite or to con- fess. Albert's principal agent was a certain Dominican named Tetzel, a bold, popular preacher already expert in the business. He did alWri his power to impress the people with the value of his commodities. When he entered a town, there was a solemn procession, bells were rung, and everything possible done to attract attention. Some of his sermons have survived, painting in the most' lively colors the agonies of purgatory and the ease with which any one might free himself or his dead relatives from the torturing flames by the simple payment of a gulden. Though forbidden to enter Saxony, Tetzel approached suf- ficiently near her borders to attract a number of her people. In 40 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER January, 1517, he was at Eisleben, and in the spring came to Juterbog, so near Wittenberg that Luther could see the bad effects of indulgences in his own parish. After preaching against the abuse several times in 1516 and 1517, the earnest monk finally decided to bring matters to a head by holding a debate on the subject. He announced his intention in a rather dramatic way. On the Feast of All Saints (November 1), the Elector's relics kept in the Castle Church were solemnly displayed and the special graces attached to them publicly announced. This festival drew crowds to Wittenberg, both from curiosity and from desire to participate in the spiritual benefits then obtain- able. It was to give notice to these people that on October 31, 1517, Martin Luther posted up on the door of the church an announcement of his intention to hold a debate on the value of indulgences, " for the love and zeal for elucidating the truth," ninety-five theses or heads for debate being proposed. The Theses are a good specimen of much of Luther's work. Their chief defect is lack of perfect logical order. They evince a tolerably deep acquaintance with mediaeval theology, but their main interest is not theoretical but practical. Each proposition is a blow at some popular error or some flagrant abuse. Though occasionally qualifying, they deal trenchantly with the nature of repentance, the power of the Pope to release souls from purga- tory, the virtue of indulgences for living sinners, the outrageous practices of the preachers of pardons, the treasury of the Church, and other matters. The first thesis cannot be understood without a slight know- ledge of Latin. This language, singularly enough, has but one word (penitentia) for the two very distinct ideas of penance and penitence. Consequently the words of Christ translated in the Vulgate " Penitentiam agite " might equally well mean, " Repent ye," or " Do penance." They were taken in the latter sense by the average priest, but Erasmus in his Paraphrases to the New Testament had seen the real significance of the words, and so had some other doctors known to Luther. Accordingly, in the first two theses he says : — 1. Oar Lord and master Jesus Christ in saying " Penitentiam agite " meant that the whole life of the faithful should be repentance. THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 41 2. And these words cannot refer to penance that is confession and satisfaction. Among the other propositions the following are the most important : — 5. The Pope does not wish, nor is he able, to remit any penalty except what he or the Canon Law has imposed. 6. The Pope is not able to remit guilt except by declaring it for- given by God — or in cases reserved to himself. . . . 11. The erroneous opinion that canonical penance and punishment in purgatory are the same assuredly seems to be a tare sown while the bishops were asleep. 21. Therefore those preachers of indulgences err who say that a papal pardon frees a man from all penalty and assures his salvation. 22. The greater part of the people will be deceived by this undis- tinguishing and pretentious promise of pardon which cannot be ful- filled. 26. The Pope does well to say that he frees souls from purgatory not by the power of the keys (for he has no such power) but by the method of prayer. 28. It is certain that avarice is fostered by the money chinking in the chest, but to answer the prayers of the Church is in the power of God alone. 29. Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory want to be freed? . . . 30. None is sure of the sincerity of his contrition, much less of his full pardon. 31. They who believe themselves made sure of salvation by papal letters will be eternally damned along with their teachers. 33. One should beware of them who say that those pardons are an inestimable gift of the Pope by which man is reconciled to God. 36. Every Christian truly repentant has full remission of guilt and penalty even without letters of pardon. 37. Every true Christian, alive or dead, participates in all the goods of Christ and the Church without letters of pardon. . . . 38. Nevertheless papal pardons are not to be despised. 40. True contrition seeks and loves punishment, and makes relaxa- tions of it hateful, at least at times. - 43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to one in need does better than he who buys indulgences. 50. Christians are to be taught that if the Pope knew the exactions of 42 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER the preachers of indulgences he would rather have St. Peter's church in ashes than have it built with the flesh and bones of his sheep. ' 60. The treasury of the Church is the power of the keys given by Christ's merit. 62. The true treasure of the Church is the holy gospel of the glory and grace of God. 71. Who speaks against the apostolic truth of indulgences, let him be anathema. 72. But who opposes the lust and license of the preachers of par- dons, let him be blessed. The scandalous practices of those preachers will induce the laity to ask inconvenient questions, as : — 82. Why does not the Pope empty purgatory from charity ? 92. Let all those prophets depart who say to the people of Christ, Peace, peace, where there is no peace. 93. But all those prophets do well who say to the people of Christ, Cross, cross, and there is no cross. *C)n the same day that he posted his Theses Luther wrote a letter of remonstrance to the prelate under whose sanction the indulgences had appeared, which still further explains his position. TO ALBERT, AHCHBISHOP OF MATENCE Wittbnbbkg, October 31, 1517. Grace and the mercy of God and whatever else may be and is ! Forgive me, Very Reverend Father in Christ, and illustrious Lord, that I, the offscouring of men, have the temerity to think of a letter to your high mightiness. . . . Papal indulgences for the building of St. Peter's are hawked about under your illustrious sanction. I do not now accuse the sermons of the preachers who advertise them, for I have not seen the same, but I regret that the people have conceived about them the most erroneous ideas. Forsooth these unhappy souls believe that if they buy letters of pardon they are sure of their salvation ; likewise that souls fly out of purgatory as soon as money is cast into the chest ; in short, that the grace conferred is so great that there is no sin whatever which cannot be absolved thereby, even if, as they say, taking an impossible example, a man should violate the mother of God. They also believe that in- dulgences free them from all penalty and guilt. THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 43 My God ! thus are the souls committed, Father, to your charge, instructed unto death, for which you have a fearful and growing reck- oning to pay. . . . What else could I do, excellent Bishop and illustrious Prince, ex- cept pray your Reverence for the sake of the Lord Jesus Christ to take away your Instructions to the Commissioners altogether and im- pose some other form of preaching on the proclaimed of pardons, lest perchance some one should at length arise and confute them and their Instructions publicly, to the great blame of your Highness. This I vehemently deprecate, yet I fear it may happen unless the grievance is quickly redressed. . . . Your unworthy son, Maktin Luthek, Augustinian, Dr. Theol. On receipt of this letter, with the Theses enclosed, Albert be- gan an "inhibitory process " against the " presumptuous monk," which was soon dropped on account of the action taken at Rome. The archbishop promptly sent an account of the matter, with several of the Wittenberg professor's works, to the Curia. The attack on indulgences was like a match touched to gun- powder. Every one had been thinking what Luther alone was bold and clear-sighted enough to say, and almost every one applauded him to the echo. Certain persons wrote exhorting him to stand fast and congratulating him on what he had done. The Theses had an immediate and enormous popularity. Luther himself was astonished at their reception, and before he knew it they were printed at Nuremberg both in Latin and German. The circle of humanists in this wealthy town received them warmly, the famous painter, Albert Diirer, sending the author a present of his own wood-cuts as a token of appreciation. These were forwarded to him by his friend Scheurl, who enclosed copies of the printed Theses. The answer explains the writer's position: — TO CHRISTOPHER SCHEURL AT NUREMBERG Wittenberg, March 5, 1518. Greeting. I received both your German and Latin letters, good and learned Scheurl, together with the distinguished Albert Dttrer's gift, and my Theses in the original and in the vernacular. As you are sur- ii THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER prised that I did not send them to you, I reply that my purpose was not to publish them, but first to consult a few of my neighbors about them, that thus I might either destroy them if condemned or edit them with the approbation of others. But now that they are printed and circu- lated far beyond my expectation, I feel anxious about what they may bring forth ; not that I am unfavorable to spreading known truth abroad — rather this is what I seek — but because this method is not that best adapted to instruct the public. I have certain doubts about them my- self, and should have spoken far differently and more distinctly had I known what was going to happen. I have learned from their publica- tion what is the general opinion about indulgences entertained every, where by all, although they conceal it " for fear of the Jews." I have felt it necessary to write a defence of my Theses which I have not yet been able to print because my Lord Bishop of Brandenburg, to whom I referred it, has long kept me waiting for his opinion. If the Lord give me leisure I should like to publish a work in German on the virtue of indulgences to supersede my desultory Theses. For I have no doubt that people are deceived not by indulgences but by the use made of them. . . . The defence of which Luther has just spoken was returned to him by the Bishop of Brandenburg with the advice not to print it. He did so, however, but the slowness of the printers prevented the appearance of the Resolutions, as the book was called, until September. In this he takes up the Theses one by one, explains and supports them by argument — in the case of the first, for example, citing the Greek to prove his statement. He dedicated the work to Pope Leo X in a letter written about the last of May, in which, while speaking as a submissive son of the Church, he shows his opinions have only been confirmed by the attacks of enemies. The letter is well adapted to the man to whom it is addressed, a humanist, perhaps a freethinker, who would de- spise the writer more as an uncultured German than condemn him as a heretic. There is a fine irony in the words about the wonderful literary attainments of the age. TO POPE LEO x (Wittenberg, May 30?) 1518. I have heard a very evil report of myself, Most Blessed Father, by which I understand that certain persons have made my name loathsome THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 45 to you and yours, saying that I have tried to diminish the power of the keys and the authority of the Supreme Pontiff, and therefore accusing me of being a heretic, an apostate and a traitor, besides branding me with an hundred other calumnious epithets. My ears are horrified and my eyes amazed, but my conscience, sole bulwark of confidence, re- mains innocent and at peace. . . . In these latter days a jubilee of papal indulgences began to be preached, and the preachers, thinking everything allowed them under the protection of your name, dared to teach impiety and heresy openly, to the grave scandal and mockery of ecclesiastical powers, totally dis- regarding the provisions of the Canon Law about the misconduct of officials. . . . They met with great success, the people were sucked dry on false pretences . . . but the oppressors lived on the fat and sweetness of the land. They avoided scandals only by the terror of your name, the threat of the stake and the brand of heresy ... if, indeed, this can be called avoiding scandals and not rather exciting schisms and revolt by crass tyranny : . . . I privately warned some of the dignitaries of the Church. By some the admonition was well received, by others ridiculed, by others treated in various ways, for the terror of your name and the dread of censure are strong. At length, when I could do nothing else, I determined to stop their mad career if only for a moment ; I resolved to call their assertions in question. So I published some propositions for debate, inviting only the more learned to discuss them with me, as ought to be plain to my opponents from the preface to my Theses. Yet this is the flame with which they seek to set the world on fire ! . . . Now what shall I do ? I cannot recall my Theses and yet I see that great hatred is kindled against me by their popularity. I come unwill- ingly before the precarious and divided judgment of the public, I, who am untaught, stupid and destitute of learning, before an age so fertile in literary genius that it would force into a corner even Cicero, no mean follower of fame and popularity in his day. So in order to fulfil the desire of many and appease my opponents, I am now publishing a little treatise to explain my Theses. To pro- tect myself, I publish it under the guardianship of your name and the shadow of your protection. . . . And now, Most Blessed Father, I cast myself and all my posses- sions at your feet ; raise me up or slay me, summon me hither or thither, approve me or reprove me as you please. I shall recognize your words as the words of Christ, speaking in you. If I have de- served death, I shall not refuse to die. For the earth is the Lord's and 46 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER the fulness thereof ; blessed be he forever. Amen. May he always preserve you. Amen. Long before this letter was published, energetic steps had been taken against Luther in Home. As previously stated, the Archbishop of Mayence, early in December, 1517, had forwarded to the Pope the monk's Theses on Indulgences, those on schol- astic philosophy, with other documents. Leo read the Theses, which he judged clever though animated by envy. At another time he professed to think they had been composed by a drunken German who would see the error of his ways when sober. It was, therefore, with no great apprehension that he ordered Gabriel della Volta, General of the Augustinians, " to quiet that man, for newly kindled flames are easily quenched." Accordingly Volta instructed Staupitz to force the presumptu- ous brother to recant. The matter was brought before the gen- eral chapter of the Saxon province, held at Heidelberg, April and May, 1518. Luther refused to recant, but resigned his office of district vicar, to which his friend Lang was elected, Staupitz being again chosen provincial vicar. Far from recant- ing, the heretic expounded his fundamental ideas in a public debate on justification by faith and free will. " The doctors," he writes Spalatin on May 18, " willingly heard my disputation and rebutted it with such moderation that I felt much obliged to them. My theology, indeed, seemed foreign to them, yet they skirmished with it effectively and courteously, all except one young doctor who moved the laughter of the audience by say- ing, ' If the peasants heard you they would stone you to death.' " Among the converts won by the new leader at this time was Martin Bucer, later one of the most prominent of the Protestant divines. While at Heidelberg, Luther was received by the brother of the Elector Palatine in the splendid old castle, and shown all the armor and precious objects there collected. 1 1 The castle, which Luther describes as " almost royal," was imposing. Some authorities believe that it is reproduced, as it was about 1495, in the background of a picture of Frederic Count Palatine, sometimes attributed to Dttrer. Repro- duced in Mrs. H. Oust : Gentlemen Errant (London, 1909), p. 248. Klassiker der Kiirut, iv. Diirer (Stuttgart and Leipsic, 1908), p. 87. Cf. note, p. 396. THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 47 Soon after his return to Wittenberg, Luther wrote the letter to the Pope last translated, which may have been forwarded to his Holiness by Staupitz. In the mean time the Dominicans, wounded in the person of Tetzel, sent urgent denunciations of the Wittenberg monk for heresy to the fiscal procurator (we should say attorney-general) of the Curia. Leo waited to see what would be the result of the efforts of Volta, but when it was known that these had entirely failed, he empowered the procurator to begin a formal action " for suspicion of heresy." At the desire of this official, Perusco by name, the general auditor (supreme justice of the Curia), Jerome Ghinnucci, was charged with the conduct of the process, and Silvester Prierias, Master of the Sacred Palace, was re- quested to give an expert opinion on the Theses. As a Domini- can and a Thomist he discharged his task thoroughly. His memorial, which he proudly printed with the title The Dialogue, takes the strongest ground of papal supremacy, and asserts that whoever denies that/the infallible Church has a right to do what she actually does is a heretic. On this advice Ghinnucci summoned Luther to appear at Borne within sixty days, send- ing the citation together with the Dialogue, which were received by the professor early in August. He answered the latter by a pamphlet asserting that both popes and councils could err, and this he sent to Prierias with a scornful letter : — Your refutation seemed so trifling [he wrote] that I have answered it ex tempore, whatever came uppermost in my mind. If you wish to hit back, be careful to bring your Aquinas better armed into the arena, lest you be not treated so gently again. Before Luther had time to decide whether to obey the sum- mons to Rome or not, the Curia suddenly altered the method of procedure. On August 23 the Pope wrote his agent in Ger- many, Cardinal Thomas de Vio of Gaeta, thence called Caje- tan, to cite Luther to Augsburg at once, hear him, and if he did not recant, send him bound to Borne, or failing that to put him and his followers under the ban. This step was so surpris- ' ing that many Germans believed it a breach of the Canon Law, which provides a much slower process against a suspected 48 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER heretic. Such, however, was not the case. The Pope's action in expediting matters was due to Cajetan himself. This nuncio had been sent to Germany to attend the Diet of Augsburg (1518) and urge the cause of the Turkish war on the Empire. From this vantage-point he had observed the immense commo- tion caused by the Theses and Resolutions, and was still more unfavorably impressed by a sermon on the ban published by the Wittenberg professor. Bans, said he, flew about like bats, and were not much more to be regarded than those blind little pests. Cajetan thought he would teach the scoffing preacher what a terrible thing a ban really was, and wrote to Home warn- ing Leo of the danger of allowing Luther at large any longer, and pointing out the advantage of dealing with him at once at Augsburg. His letter was enforced by one from the Emperor Maximilian, — who disliked and feared the Elector Frederic, — promising his help in quelling the schismatic. These missives had their desired effect. Ghinnucci, especially shocked by the flippant reference to the apostolic thunders as "bats," concluded that Luther was already a notorious heretic, and that he was justified in using the summary process pro- vided by the Canon Law against criminals of this class. The moment seemed favorable for a decisive blow, for Maximilian had promised his help. Consequently the letter of August 23 written to Cajetan, and accompanied by one from Volta to the Augustinian Provincial of South Germany, Hecker, urging him to cooperate in securing the heretic's arrest. At this critical juncture Luther was not left in the lurch by his powerful friends. The Elector of SaxOny refused to allow him to appear without a safe-conduct from the Emperor, which was secured late and with difficulty. Staupitz and Link also went to Augsburg, where the interview was held, in order to use their influence against the employment of force. Fortified by this support, Luther went to Augsburg, where he arrived on October 7, but waited three days until the safe-conduct of Maximilian had reached him. During the interval he had a visit from an Italian, Urban de Serralonga, with whom he had the following conversation : — THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 49 Urban — Tour business here may be summed up in one word of six letters : Recant ! Luther — But may I not defend my position, or at least be in- structed on it ? Urban — Do you think this is a game of running in a ring ? Don't you know that it is all right to deceive the people a little — as you say the preachers of indulgence do — to get their money ? Do you think the Elector Frederic will take arms to protect you ? Luther — I hope not. Urban — If not, where will you live ? Luther — Under heaven. Urban — What would you do if you had the Pope and cardinals in your power ? Luther — I would show them all reverence and honor. Urban — (with a scornful gesture) Hem ! Luther had three separate interviews with Cajetan, on Octo- ber 12, 13, and 14 respectively. On the first day, having studied the etiquette of the occasion, he fell down on his face before his judge. Much pleased with this humility, the legate com- plimented him on his learning and bade him recant his errors. Asked what errors he meant, the prelate, who had been study- ing theology for two months, named two : first, the statement in the Theses that the treasury of the Church consisted not of the merits of Christ but of the power of the keys, and second, the assertion in the Resolutions that the efficacy of the sacrament depended on the faith of the recipient. The selection was a clever one, both because on these two points there was most unanimity at Rome, and also because it was supposed that the accused would more readily retract these purely speculative points than others of a more practical bearing. That Luther did not recant, however, and that the altercation with his judge at times became hot and furious, he himself tells, in his own vivid way, in a letter to a friend at court : — TO GEORGE SPALATIN Auqsbubg, October 14, 1518. Greeting. As I do not care to write directly to the Elector, dear Spalatin, do you, as his intimate friend, communicate the purport of 50 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER my letter to him. This is now the fourth day that my lord the legate negotiates with me, or rather against me. He fairly promises, indeed, that he will do all mercifully and paternally, for the sake of the most illustrious Elector, but in reality he wishes to carry all before him with mere stubborn brute force. He would neither allow me to answer him in a public debate nor would he dispute with me privately. The one thing which he repeated over and over was : " Recant. Admit your error ; the Pope wishes it so, and not otherwise ; you must willy, nilly," with other words to the same effect. He drew his most power- ful argument against me from the decretal of Clement VI Unigeni- tus. 1 " Here," said he, " here you see that the Pope decides that the merits of Christ are the treasury of the Church ; do you believe or do you not believe ? " He allowed no statement nor answer, but tried to carry his point with force of words and with clamor. At length he was with difficulty persuaded by the prayers of many to allow me to present a written argument. This I have done to-day, having taken with me Philip von Feilitzsch to represent the Elector, of whose request he again reminded the legate. After some time he threw aside my paper with contempt, and again clamored for recantation. With a long and wordy argument, drawn from the foolish books of Aquinas, he thought to have conquered and put me to silence. I tried to speak nine or ten times, but every time he thundered at me, and continued the monologue. At length I, too, began to shout, saying that if he could show me that that decretal asserted that the merits of Christ was the treasury of the Church, I would recant as he wished. Good Heavens, what gesticulation and rude laughter this remark caused ! He suddenly seized the book, read from it with breathless rapidity, until he came to the place where it is written that Christ by his passion acquired a treasure. Then I : " most reverend Father, consider this word ' acquire.' If Christ by his merits acquired a treasure, then his merits are not the treasure, but that which the merits merited, namely, the keys of the Church, are the treasure. Therefore my conclusion 8 was correct." At this he was suddenly confused, but not wishing to ap- pear so, suddenly jumped to another place, thinking it prudent not to notice what I had said. But I was hot and burst forth, certainly with- out much reverence : " Do not think, most reverend Father, that we Germans understand no grammar ; it is a different thing to acquire a 1 Canon Law, Extravagant, lib. 5, tit. 9, cap. 6. Not to be confused with the bull Unigenitus of Clement XI. 2 In the Fifty-eighth Thesis, to the effect that the power of the keys is the treasury of the Church. THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 51 treasure and to be a treasure." Having thus broken his self-confidence, as he still clamored for recantation, I went away. He said : " Do not return to me again unless you wish to recant." But lo ! as soon as he had finished dinner he called our reverend vicar, Father Staupitz, and used his blandishments on him to try to get him to persuade me to recant. The legate even asserted, as I was absent, that I had no better friend than he. When Staupitz answered that he had always advised me, and still did so, to submit humbly to the Church, and that I had declared publicly that I would do so, Cajetan even confessed that he was, in his own opinion, inferior to me in theological learning and in talent, but that, as the represent- ative of the Pope and of the prelates, it was his duty to persuade me to recant. At length they agreed that he should suggest articles for me to revoke. Thus the business stands. I have no hope nor confidence in him. I am preparing an appeal, resolved not to recant a syllable. If he proceeds as he has begun, by force, I shall publish my answer to him, that he may be confounded throughout the whole world. Farewell in haste, Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian. As indicated in this letter, Staupitz and Link were far more amenable to pressure than was Luther. They hoped that all might be settled peaceably, in a way which would satisfy the legate without compromising their brother. Finding that he was immovable, Staupitz absolved him from the vow of obedi- ence, partly to relieve himself from responsibility, and partly, no doubt, to guard him against molestation from Hecker and Volta. Staupitz and Link then judged it best to retire from the city without giving the nuncio notice of their intention. On October 16, Luther drew up an appeal from the Pope badly informed to the Pope to be better informed, and the next day wrote Cajetan a courteous but firm letter. Notwithstanding all precautions, the accused man stood in considerable danger, for safe-conducts to heretics had been broken before. The moment was almost as decisive as the later one at Worms, and here, as there, the heroic monk stood like iron against the threats of foes and the supplication of friends alike, resolved to do nothing against his conscience. 53 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER TO CARDINAL CAJETAN AT ATJGSBUKG (Augsbubo, October 17, 1518.) Very Reverend Father in Christ, I come again, not personally but in writing ; deign to hear me mercifully. My reverend and beloved father in Christ, our Vicar John Staupitz, has pleaded with me to think humbly of my own opinion and to sub- mit, and has persuaded me that your Reverence is favorably disposed towards me. . . . So that my fear has gradually passed away, or rather changed into a singular love and true, filial veneration for your Rever- ence. Now, Most Reverend Father in Christ, I confess, as I have before confessed, that I was assuredly unwise and too bitter, and too irrever- ent to the name of the Pope. And although I had the greatest provo- cation, I know I should have acted with more moderation and humility, and not have answered a fool according to his folly. For so doing I am most sincerely sorry, and ask pardon, and will say so from the pulpit, as I have already done several times, and I shall take care in future to act differently and speak otherwise by God's mercy. Moreover I am quite ready to promise never to speak of indulgences again and to main- tain silence, provided only the same rule, either of speaking or of keep- ing silence, be imposed on those men who have led me into this tragic business. For tbe rest, most reverend and now beloved Father in Christ, as to the truth of my opinion, I would most readily recant, both by your command and the advice of my vicar, if my conscience in any way allowed it. But I know that neither the command nor the advice nor the influence of any one ought to make me do anything against con- science or can do so. For the arguments [you cite] from Aquinas and others are not convincing to me, although I have read them over in preparation for my debates and have thoroughly understood them. I do not think their conclusions are drawn from correct premises. The only thing left is to overcome me with better reasons, in which I may hear the voice of the Bride which is also the voice of the Bridegroom. I humbly implore your Reverence to deign to refer this case to our Most Holy Lord Leo X, that these doubts may be settled by the Church, so that he may either compel a just withdrawal of my propo- sitions or else their just affirmation. I wish only to follow the Church, and I know not what effect my recantation of doubtful and unsettled opinions might hare, but I fear that I might be reproached, and with THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 63 reason, for not knowing either what I asserted or what I withdrew. May your Reverence deign to receive my humble and suppliant peti- tion, and to treat me with mercy as a son. Your Reverence's devoted son, Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian. After waiting in vain for three days for an answer, Luther left Augsburg secretly at night and returned to Wittenberg. The first thing he did there was to write out the account of the interview of which he had spoken to Spalatin, and to publish it as the Acta Augustana. In the preface to the reader he says : — They vexed Reuchlin a long time for some advice he gave them, now they vex me for proposing questions for debate. Who is safe from the teeth of this Behemoth ? . . . I see that books are published and various rumors scattered abroad about what I did at Augsburg, although truly I did nothing there but lose the time and expense of the journey . . . for I was instructed there that to teach the truth is the same as to disturb the Church, but to flatter men and deny Christ is considered the same as pacifying and exalting the Church of Christ. Foiled of his purpose, Cajetan wrote the Elector Frederic asking him to arrest Luther and send him to Rome. The peace- loving prince may have wavered for an instant. According to the story he summoned his counsellors and asked their advice. One of them, Fabian von Feilitzsch, related the fable of the sheep, who, at the advice of the wolves, sent away the watch- dogs. If we give up Luther, he concluded, we shall have no one to write in our defence, but they will accuse us all of being heretics. It is probable that Frederic never seriously considered the surrender of his subject, but he did ponder a plan to hide him in a castle, as he later did in the Wartburg. Early in De- cember Spalatin and Luther had a meeting at Lichtenberg to discuss this project, which was not adopted. On December 8 the Elector wrote a diplomatic letter to the cardinal, saying that he was not convinced that the accused was a heretic, but had rather been informed by learned men that his doctrines were only objectionable to those whose pecuniary interests were involved. He wished only to act as a Christian prince, but could not com- 54 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER promise his university by sending an uncondemned man to Rome. Cajetan had been convinced by his interview that it would be difficult to convict Luther of heresy. He therefore requested Leo to settle the points in dispute once for all by an ex cathedra declaration. This was done in a bull of November 9, which, without mentioning names, condemned the errors of certain monks on indulgences and other points. The claim could now no longer be made that the matters in question were not decided authoritatively. Immediately upon the failure of Cajetan to arrest the heretic, the Pope dispatched a special nuncio to Germany for this pur- pose, Charles von Miltitz. Hoping to win the Elector to his side, Leo sent him a long-coveted honor, the anointed golden rose, with flattering letters both to him and to his principal counsellors. On the other hand, Miltitz was furnished with a ban against Luther and power to declare the interdict (i. e., suspension of all ministrations of the Church except baptism and supreme unction) against Saxony. Cajetan had not thought it wise to excommunicate a man whom he had not been able to convict, but now it was felt that there would be no more excuse for delay, and that the disturber of the Church's peace would be brought to terms at once. The plan of Rome was wrecked partly by the resistance of Frederic, partly by the conduct of Miltitz, a Saxon by birth, and a vain, frivolous person, who forgot his instructions as soon as he arrived in Germany, hoping that instead of using force he could set everything right by gentle means. He ac- cordingly arranged for a personal interview with the Augustin- ian friar, whom he expected to cajole into recantation ; this took place at Altenburg, the capital of Electoral Saxony, early in January, 1519. The result of the first day's negotiations is thus related in a letter : — TO FREDERIC, ELECTOR OF SAXONY (Altbnbubs, January 5 or 6, 1519.) Most serene, highborn Prince, most gracious Lord ! It overwhelms me to think how far your Grace has been drawn into my affairs, but THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY «5 as necessity and God so dispose it, I beg your Grace to be favorable still. Charles von Miltitz yesterday pointed out with care the crimes I had committed against the Roman Church, and I humbly promised to make what amends I could. I beg your Grace to attend to the plan I proposed, for by it I meant to please your Grace. First, I agreed to let the matter alone henceforth, until it bleeds to death of itself, provided my opponents also keep silence. . . . Secondly, I agreed to write to his Holiness the Pope, humbly sub- mitting and recognizing that I had been too hot and hasty, though I never meant to do aught against the Holy Soman Church, but only as her true son to attack the scandalous preaching whereby she is made a mockery, a byword, a stumbling-block, and an offence to the people. Thirdly, I promised to send out a paper admonishing every one to follow the Roman Church, obey and honor her, and explaining that my writings were not to be understood in a sense damaging to her. . . . Fourthly, Spalatin proposed, on the recommendation of Fabian von Feilitzsch, to leave the case to the Archbishop of Salzburg. 1 I should abide by his judgment, with that of other learned and impartial men, or else return to my appeal. Or perhaps the matter might remain un- decided and things be allowed to take their natural course. But I fear the Pope will allow no other judge but himself, nor can I tolerate his judgment ; if the present plan fails, we shall have to go through the farce of the Pope writing a text and my writing the commentary. That would do no good. Miltitz thinks my propositions unsatisfactory, but does not demand recantation. . . . Your Grace's obedient chaplain, Doctor Maktin. In accordance with this plan Luther drew up a very humble letter to the Pope, but as it did not satisfy Miltitz he never sent it. On the second day of the conference for the agreement here proposed there was substituted a much simpler one. 1 Mathew Lang, at this time coadjutor, though soon after Archbishop of Salz- burg, is meant. He was a close friend of Staupitz. 56 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER TO FREDERIC, ELECTOR OF SAXONY (Altenburg, January 6 or 7, 1519.) Serene, highborn Prince, gracious Lord! Let me humbly inform your Grace that Charles von Miltitz and I have at last come to an agreement, and concluded our negotiations with two articles. 1. Both sides shall be inhibited from preaching, writing, and acting further in the matter. 2. Miltitz will write the Pope at once, informing him how things stand, and asking him to recommend the matter to some learned bishop, who will hear me and point out the errors I am to recant. For when I have learned my mistakes, I will gladly withdraw them, and do nothing to impair the honor and power of the Roman Church. The letter of Miltitz to the Pope was couched in somewhat too sanguine terms. He represented that Luther was ready to recant everything. Leo was so pleased to hear it that he dispatched a right friendly missive to the Wittenberg monk (March 29, 1519) inviting him to Rome to make his confession, and even offering him money for the journey. That he was able to take no further action for a time was clue to the political situation. In January, 1519, the Emperor Maximilian died. Among the candidates for the position were King Charles of Spain, King Francis of France, and the Elector Frederic. The interest of the papacy in this election overshadowed all other matters for a time, and the cautious policy necessary prevented too much pressure being brought to bear on Frederic. The process for heresy was consequently suspended during fourteen months. If Miltitz had been satisfied with his interview, Luther was not. When they parted with the kiss of peace he felt that it was a Judas kiss and that the envoy's tears were crocodile's tears. He tried, nevertheless, to live up to the spirit of the agreement. In fulfilment of the third proposition in the first day's inter- view, he published An Instruction on Certain Articles. In this he explains his position on a number of points. Prayers for the dead in purgatory he thinks are allowable. Of indulgences it is enough for the common man to know that indulgence is a relaxation of the satisfaction for sin, but is a much smaller thing THE INDULGENCE CONTROVERSY 57 than a work of charity, for it is free ; no one sins in not buying a papal pardon, but if he buys one instead of giving to the poor or helping his neighbor, he sins, mocking himself and God. The Church's commands, he says, are to be obeyed, yet one should place God's commands higher. " Of good works I have said, and still say, that no one is good nor can any one do right, unless God's grace first makes him just ; wherefore no one ia justified by works, but good works come naturally from him who is just." In conclusion he adds that there is no doubt that God has honored the Roman Church above all others. The first article of the agreement, that both sides should main- tain silence, came to nothing, for neither party observed the truce, and the whole controversy was soon given an even wider pub- licity than it had yet attained, by an event of the first import- ance, the great debate with John Eck at Leipsic. CHAPTEK VI THE LEIPSIC DEBATE. 1519. The ablest and most persistent opponent Luther ever bad was John Eck. From 1517 to 1543 this champion of the Church met him at every turn and did everything in his. power to foil the great heresiarch. Like the Wittenberger, Eck was a peasant by extraction and a monk by profession, a theologian of no mean ability and a man of energy and resource. Before 1517 he had distinguished himself in debates at Vienna and else- where, and burned to make himself still more famous in this line. Just before Luther crossed his path, he charged Erasmus — the foremost scholar of the day — with something very like heresy because the latter had said that the Grreek of the New Testament was not as good as that of Demosthenes. 1 The publication of the Ninety-five Theses gave him a more substantial object to attack, and he at once assailed them in a pamphlet called Obelisks (literally the small daggers with which notes are marked). Of it Luther wrote, on March 24, 1518, to his friend John Silvius Egranus of Zwickau : — A man of signal and talented learning and of learned talent has recently written a book against my Theses. I mean John Eck, doctor of theology, chancellor of the university of Ingolstadt, canon of Eich- statt and preacher at Augsburg, a man already famous and widely known as an author. What cuts me most is that we had recently formed a great friendship. Did I not already know the machinations of Satan, I should be astonished at the fury with which Eck has broken that sweet amity without warning or letter of farewell. In his Obelisks he calls me a fanatic Hussite, heretical, seditious, insolent and rash, not to mention such slight abuse as that I am dreaming, clumsy, unlearned, and a despiser of the Pope. In short the book is nothing but the foulest abuse, expressly mentioning my name and directed against my Theses. It is nothing less than the malice and 1 Erasmi opera. Leyden, 1703, vol. iii, no. 303, February 2, 1518, THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 59 envy of a maniac. I would have swallowed this sop for Cerberus, 1 but my friends compelled me to answer it. The answer was a pamphlet entitled Asterisks, circulated in manuscript. Before the altercation had progressed any further, it was taken out of Luther's hands by another Wittenberg professor, John Bod en stein of Carlstadt, a man destined to play an im- portant part in the Protestant revolt. Though careful to incur no great danger, he was by nature a revolutionary, and longed to out-Luther Luther. While the latter was away at Heidelberg in the spring of 1518, Carlstadt came forward with a set of theses against Eck on free will and the authority of Scripture. The Ingolstadt professor answered these with some counter- theses, in which an extreme view of the papal supremacy was maintained. Carlstadt, who held a benefice directly from the Pope, was not prepared to answer this point, but Luther had no such scruples, and towards the end of the year he published twelve propositions directed against Eck. Of these the most important was the twelfth : — The assertion that the Roman Church is superior to all other Churches is proved only by weak and vain (frigidis) papal decrees of the last four hundred years, against which militate the accredited history of eleven hundred years, the Bible, and the decree of the Nicene Council, the holiest of all councils. This unheard-of attack on the power of the Roman See made an immense sensation. Eck could not leave it unnoticed, nor did he wish to, and therefore arranged that he should debate with both Wittenberg professors. A letter — according to modern notions a very rude one — written during the course of negotiations, is illuminating : 2 — TO JOHN ECK AT INGOLSTADT Wittenbbbo, February 18, 1519. I wish you salutation and that you may stop seducing Christian souls. I regret, Eck, to find so many reasons to believe that your pro- 1 As Burke would have said, " this honeyed opiate compounded of treason and murder." 2 Enders, v, 6. 60 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER fessed friendship for me is hypocritical. You boast that you seek God's glory, the truth, the salvation of souls, the increase of the faith, and that you teach of indulgences and pardons for the same reasons. You have such a thick head and cloudy brain that, as the apostle says, you know not what you say. . . . I wish you would fix the date for the disputation or tell me if you wish me to fix it. More then. Farewell. Leipsic was finally chosen as the ground for the debate. The faculty of that university made some difficulties, fearing to become involved, but Duke George of Albertine Saxony, maintaining that the advancement of Christian truth was the chief end of the university, forced them to yield. During the next six months Luther's principal occupation was the prepara- tion for the battle, for which he plunged eagerly into the study of Church history and especially of the Canon Law. The re- sults of these researches, which left a lasting influence on his mind, are brilliantly portrayed in two letters written on the same day to his best friend : — TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBUEG (Wittenberg, about February 24, 1519. Letter no. 1.) Greeting. I beseech you, dear Spalatin, be not fearful nor let your heart be downcast with human cares. You know that if Christ did not rule me, I should have perished long ago, either at the first contro- versy about indulgences, or when my sermon on them was published, or when I promulgated my Resolutions, or when I answered Prierias, or recently in the interview at Augsburg, especially as I went thither. What mortal man was there who did not either fear or hope that I would cause my death by one of these things ? In fact Olsnitzer re- cently wrote from Rome to our honorary chancellor, the Duke of Po- merania, that my Resolutions and Answer to Prierias had so perturbed the Roman Church that they were at a loss how to suppress them, but that they intended to attack me not by law, but by Italian subtility — these were his very words. I understand this to mean poison or assassination. I repress much for the sake of the Elector and university which otherwise I should pour out against that spoiler of the Bible and the Church, Rome, or rather Babylon. For the truth of the Scripture and of the Church cannot be spoken, dear Spalatin, without offending that THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 61 beast. Do not therefore hope that I shall be quiet or safe in future unless you wish me to give up theology altogether. Let my friends think me mad. For the thing will not be ended (if it be of God) even should all my friends desert me as all Christ's disciples and friends deserted him, and the truth be left alone to save herself by her own might, not by mine nor by yours nor by any man's. I have expected this hour from the first. My twelfth proposition was extorted from me by Eck, but, as the Pope has defenders enough, I do not think they ought to take it ill unless they forget the freedom of debate. At all events, even should I perish, nothing will be lost to the world. For my friends at Wittenberg have now progressed so far, by God's grace, that they do not need me at all. What will you ? I fear I am not worthy to suffer and die for such a cause. That will be the blessed lot of better men, not of so foul a sinner. . . . TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBUKG (Wittenberg, about February 24, 1519. Letter no. 2.) Greeting. I had just finished my last letter, dear Spalatin, when Carlstadt gave me the letter which you sent him, full of such com- plaints that I was almost moved to anger. You urge me to tell my plan. I am not unwilling for you to know what I intend, but I know the best way to defeat a plan is to tell it, especially if the matter be of God, who does not like his plans to be laid bare before they are ful- filled. ... You know that I have to do with a crafty, arrogant, slippery, loud- mouthed sophist, whose one aim is to traduce me publicly and hand me over to the Pope devoted to all the furies. You will understand his iniquitous snares if you read his twelfth proposition. 1 Wherefore, considering his craft, and seeing that I was about to be ruined by his arts, I carefully prepared my twelfth proposition, that he may imagine that he has most certainly triumphed, and while singing a psean of joy, shall forthwith expose himself to the scorn of all, God willing. For I know that at this stage of the debate he will burst forth pas- sionately gesticulating and shouting that I cannot prove my assertion, but have made a mistake in reckoning time (as you also think), and that it is much more than four hundred years ago, more than a thou- sand, ever since the time of Pope Julius I, directly after the Nicene 1 Asserting the universal supremacy of the Pope, opposed to Luther's twelfth proposition quoted above. 68 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER Council, that the Roman Church published decrees asserting that she was the superior of all and that no council could be called without her assent. Relying on these statements he will even laugh, I hope, at my incredible folly and rashness. Then I shall say that these decrees were not then received, and that if Gregory IX, the first collector of the decretals (who in the time of Frederick II canonized St. Francis, St. Dominic, and our own St. Elizabeth, i. e., is not yet dead four hundred years), and if Boniface VIII, author of the sixth book of decretals, and Clement V, author of the Clementines, had not collected these decretals and published them, Germany would doubtless never have known them. 1 Therefore it is to be attributed to these three popes that the decretals of the Roman pontiffs were spread abroad and the Roman tyranny was established. To what conclusion do these arguments lead ? I deny that the Roman Church is superior to all Churches, but not that she is our superior, as she now is de facto. How will Eck prove that the Church of Constan- tinople, or any Greek Church, or that of Antioch or Alexandria or Africa or Egypt, was ever under the Roman Church or received bishops confirmed by her? . . . We Germans established the authority of the popes as much as we could when the Empire was transferred to us, and in return we have borne them as a punishment of the furies, headsmen and tormentors and blood-suckers of archbishoprics and bishoprics. I call the decretals " vain " because they twist scriptural texts to their own purposes, texts which speak nothing of government but only of spiritual food and faith. . . . I count the papal power as a thing indifferent, like wealth or health or other temporal goods, and am very sorry that so much is made of temporal matters, which are insisted on as if by the command of God, though he always teaches that they should be despised. How can I bear with equanimity this perverse interpretation of God's Word and that wrong opinion, even if I allow the power of the Roman Church as a thing con venient ? Farewell. Brother Martin Luther, Augustinian. 1 The Canon Law is composed of several parts. The first, the Vecretum of Gra- tian is a collection of ancient canons made in the twelfth century. To this Greg- ory IX added five books of decretals (literoe decretales 1243), and Boniface VIII a sixth hook (liber sextus, 1298) . Other additions, the Clementines and Exlravagantei, were made at various times later until 1484. Many of the decretals in the Canon Law are forgeries, as Luther says. THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 68 Of the sojourn in Leipsic (June 27-July 18), the reception there and the debate itself, the best account is given by Luther in the letter next translated. The encounter was held in a richly decorated hall of the Pleissenburg, a castle only recently torn down to make way for the new Rathaus. A large and dis- tinguished audience had gathered, including Duke George, later one of the most determined opponents of the new doctrine. An eye-witness has left us the first description of Luther as he appeared on this occasion, and one which agrees well with Cranach's earliest portrait of him, the wood-cut of 1520. He was of middle height, so emaciated that one could almost count his bones, yet he seemed in the vigor of manhood. His voice was clear and distinct. Polite and cheerful in society, he affected no stoicism, but gave each hour its due. His serene countenance was never disturbed. The richness and fluency of his Latin diction was noticed, as was his careful preparation of the ma- terial. Only contemporaries could appreciate the ability of the speak- 1 ers in this debate, full notes of which have been preserved. In learning and force of argument the honors seem to be about equal. Eck manoeuvred skilfully to make Luther's opinions appear identical with those of Huss. The latter took up the chal- lenge, and on the second day of the combat boldly asserted : " It is certain that among the articles of John Huss and the Bohemians there are many which are most Christian and evan- gelic, which the universal Church is not able to condemn." These words sent a thrill through the audience : Duke George put his arms akimbo, shook his head, and said loudly, "That's the plague." Eck had accomplished his point in driving Luther to a posi- tion of universally acknowledged heresy. He played his ad- vantage with great skill, taxing his opponent over and over with being a Hussite, Luther often interrupting him with " It is false," or, " He lies impudently." After the question of the papal supremacy was put aside for other points, the debate, which continued until July 14, was comparatively tame. Let us now hear what Luther has to say about it : — 64 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBUEG (WitteSbebg,) July 20, 1519. ... I should have written long ago about this famous debate of ours, but I had neither time nor place to do it. Certain men of Leipsic, neither candidly nor justly, triumph with Eck and babble of his fame, but you can judge of it from my account. Almost the instant that we came, before we had descended from our wagons, the Inhibition l of the Bishop of Merseburg was fixed to the doors of the churches, alleging against the debate some new points, declaratory and other. This was disregarded, and he who had posted the notice was thrown into chains by the Town Council because he had done it without their knowledge. Accomplishing nothing by this trick, they resorted to another. Hav- ing called Carlstadt aside, they urged him (at Eck's desire) to agree that the debate should not be reported in writing, for he hoped to get the better of us by shouting and gesticulating, in which points indeed he is our superior. Carlstadt said that the agreement had already been made and must be adhered to, and that the debate should be reported. At length, to obtain this point at all, he was forced to consent that the report of the debate should not be published prior to the decision of the judges. Then a new dispute arose about choosing them. At length they forced him to consent that the judges should be chosen after the disputation was finished, otherwise they would not debate at all. Thus they put us on the horns of a dilemma, so that in either case we should have the worst of it, whether we refused to debate on these terms, or recognized the necessity of submitting to unjust judges. See how plain is their guile by which they would filch the freedom we had agreed upon ! For we know that the universities and the Pope will either never decide or will decide against us, which is just what they desire. The next day they called me aside and proposed the same thing. I refused their conditions, fearing the Pope. Then they proposed the universities as judges without the Pope. I asked that the conditions agreed upon be observed, and when they refused I withdrew and de- clined to debate. At once an uncontradicted report went abroad that I dared not, and what was worse would allow no judges. The affair was bandied about and interpreted in the most odious and malignant light, so that they even won over our best friends and prepared a last- 1 The bishop thought the matter of the debate had already been decided by the bull of November 9, 1518, mentioned above, p. 54. AeTHERNA IPSE JVAE MENTIS SIMVLACHRA LVTHEFVS E>CPFLW1TATWXTVS CERA LVCAE OCCIDVOJ MDXX LUTHER AS MONK After an etching by Cranach, 1520 THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 66 ing shame for our university. So I went to them with conciliatory friends, and accepted their conditions, even though indignant at them. But I reserved my power of appeal and excluded the Roman Curia, so that there might he no prejudice to my case. Eck and Carlstadt debated a week on free will. Carlstadt with God's help advanced splendid and copious arguments and citations and brought books to prove his points. A chance was thus given Eck to oppose Carlstadt ; he refused to debate unless the books were left at home, because by them Carlstadt could prove the correctness of his own quotations from the Bible and the Fathers and the inaccuracy of Eck's. So another tumult arose. At length it was decided for Eck that the books should be left at home, but who cannot see that when a ques- tion of truth is at stake it is desirable to have the books at hand? Never did hatred and ambition show themselves more impudently than here. At last the man of guile conceded all that Carlstadt argued for, although he had violently opposed it, and agreed with him in all, boast- ing that he had brought Carlstadt over to his opinion. He abandoned Scotus and the Scotists, Capreolus and the Thomists, saying that the schoolmen had thought and taught the same as Carlstadt. Then and there fell Scotus and Capreolus with their respective schools ! The next week he debated with me — at first sharply about the primacy of the Pope. His strength lay in the words, " thou art Peter," " feed my sheep," " follow thou me," and " strengthen thy brethren," together with a lot of quotations from the Fathers. (You will soon see what I answered.) Then, resting his whole weight on the Council of Constance, which had condemned the assertion of Hoss that the papacy was dependent on the Emperor, he went to the extreme length of say- ing that it bore sway by divine right. Thereupon, as if entering the arena, he cast the Bohemians in my teeth, and charged me with being an open heretic and an ally of the Hussites. For the sophist is no less insolent than rash. These charges tickled the Leipsic audience more than the debate itself. In rebuttal I pointed to the Greeks for a thousand years, and to the ancient Fathers who had not been under the sway of the Roman pon- tiff to whom I did not deny a precedence in honor. Then I discussed the authority of a council. I said openly that some articles had been wrongly condemned [sc. by the Council of Constance], as they had been taught in the plainest words by Paul, Augustine, and even Christ him- self. At this point the reptile swelled up, painted my crime in the darkest colors, and almost drove the audience wild with his rhetoric. 66 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER At length I proved from the words of that council that not all the articles there condemned were heretical and erroneous, so that his mode of proof accomplished nothing. And thus the matter rested. The third week we debated penance, purgatory, indulgences, and the power of a priest to absolve. For he did not care about his dispute with Carlstadt, but only that with me. Indulgences fell through completely and he agreed to almost all I said, so that their use was turned to scorn and mockery. He hoped this would be the subject of a future debate with me, as he said in public, that people might understand that he made no great matter of indulgences. He is said to have granted that had I not disputed the power of the Pope he would have agreed with me easily on all points. He even confessed to Carlstadt : " If I could only agree with Luther as much as I do with you, I would go home with him at once." The man is fickle and subtle, ready to do anything. He who once said to Carlstadt that the schoolmen taught the same as he, said to me that Gregory of Rimini was the only one who supported me against all others. Thus he thinks it no fault to assert and deny the same thing at different times. Nor do the men of Leipsic grasp this, so great is their stupidity. And what is still more monstrous, he asserts one thing in the academy and another in the church to the people. Asked by Carlstadt why he did this, the man shamelessly replied that the people ought not to be taught points on which there was doubt. My part thus ended, he debated the last three days with Carlstadt, agreeing to and yielding all : that spontaneous action is sin ; that free will without grace can do nothing but sin ; that there is sin in every [natural] good work ; that it is only grace which enables a man to do what he can for the Disposer of grace ; — all of which the schoolmen deny. So in the whole debate he treated nothing as it deserved except my thirteenth 1 proposition. In the mean time he congratulates him- self, triumphs, and reigns, but only until we shall have published our side. As the debate turned out badly, I shall draw up additional pro- positions. The citizens of Leipsic never greeted us nor visited us, but acted like the bitterest enemies ; but Eck they followed and clung to and invited to dinners in their houses and gave him a robe and a chamois- hair gown. They escorted him around on horseback ; in fact they tried everything they could think of to insult us. Moreover, they per- suaded Csesar Pflug and Duke George to let these things pass. They 1 That about the supremacy of the Pope quoted above as the twelfth. The Dumber had been changed by the interpolation of an additional proposition, THE LEIPSIC DEBATE 67 did give ns one thing, the customary present of wine, which perhaps it would not have been safe for them to omit. The few who favored us came to us clandestinely, but Dr. Stromer of Auerbach, a man of up- right mind, invited us and so did Professor Pistorius. Duke George himself invited three of us together. Likewise the most illustrious Duke summoned me by myself and talked much with me about my writings, especially that on the Lord's Prayer, and mentioned that the Huss- ites expected much from me, and that I had raised doubts in many consciences about the Lord's Prayer, so that many complained that they would not be able to say one paternoster in four days if they thought they ought to believe me, and much else to the same effect. Nor was I so stupid as not to know the difference between a fife and a f — ; I regretted that the excellent and pious prinoe should represent and com- ply with the feelings of others when I saw he was so clever in speaking like a prince about his own. The last exhibition of hatred was this : when on the day of St. Peter and St. Paul [June 29] I was asked by our rector, the Duke of Pomer- ania, to read the gospel in the chapel of the castle, suddenly the report of my preaching filled the city, and such a vast concourse of men and women came to hear me that I was compelled to preach in the debating-hall, with all the professors and other hostile listeners sitting around. The gospel for the day [Matthew xvi, 13-19] clearly takes in the subject of both debates, and so I was forced to expound the substance of the disputations to all, to the great annoyance of Leipsic. Stirred up by this, Eck preached four times thereafter in different churches, reviling me and attacking all I had said. Thus those would- be theologians bade him do. But / was not allowed to preach again, although many asked it. I was only to be accused and criminated with- out a chance to defend myself. They acted on the same principle 'in the debate,' so that Eck, although in the negative, had the last word, which I could not refute. When Caesar Pflug heard that I had preached (for he was not then' present), he said, "I wish Dr. Luther would save his sermons for "Wittenberg." In short, I have known hatred before, but never more shameless nor more impudent. Here you have the whole tragedy. Dr. Plariitz will tell you the rest, for he was present in person. Because Eck and Leipsic sought their own glory and not the truth, it is no wonder that they began badly and ended worse. For whereas we hoped to make peace between "Witten- berg and Leipsic, they acted so odiously that I fear it will rather seem 68 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER /that discord and mutual dislike are now firstborn. I, who try to bridle my impetuosity, am not able to banish all dislike of them, because I am flesh and their impudent hatred and malignant injustice were over- shearing in so sacred and divine a cause. Farewell and commend me to the most illustrious Elector. . . . Yours, Martin Luther. It is plain from this letter that the writer was smarting under the sense of outrage. If he had not been defeated, he had been out-manoeuvred. Such debates, of course, decide nothing. Each party remained strengthened in its own opinion. In this case, too, the universities, to whom the decision was submitted, put off giving it for one reason or another. Yet the disputation at Leipsic was a turning-point. It showed that the Wittenberg monk was no longer in a position where reconciliation with the Church was possible. In the train of the combat followed a cloud of polemics, half the Germans who could write taking sides against the new leader, and the other half for him. As this bickering — for that is what most of it was — left little permanent result, it need not find a large place in the biography of Luther, even though he took an active part in the controversy. As he has spoken in a recent letter of the danger of assassina- tion, it is interesting to see what foundations his suspicions had. The peril was probably very slight, but was given some color by the visit of suspicious strangers, one of whom he de- scribed, many years later, as follows : — A man came to me in 1519, with whom I shook hands, and whom I took home with me. He said : " Dear Doctor, it surprises me that you so readily shake hands with strangers ; are you not afraid of being shot ? I am alone with you." I replied : " If you killed me, you would die, too." " In that case," said he, " the Pope would make me a saint and you a heretic." When I heard that, I called in Sieberger [the monastery servant], after which he soon left town. CHAPTER VII THE PATRIOT. 1519-20 The revolt from Rome was by no means a purely religious phenomenon. Its enormous and immediate success can only be , explained by the great variety of motives to which it appealed. It promised to the Christian a purer faith ; to the patriotic Ger- man a stronger country freed from the foreign yoke ; to the lower classes a millennium of universal brotherhood, equality and freedom. The hopes of all parties were not destined to be realized, some of them suffered a bitter disappointment ; but all were willing to join in the common movement for their special ends, and it was this union and interaction of forces which pro- duced that great revolution, usually known as the Reformation. And of these stirring times Luther was the heart and soul. During the years 1519-1523 especially, it almost seemed as if he were lifted above himself and transcended the limits of his own personality. Of this time Professor Harnack has well said : — For a period — it was only for a few years — it seemed as if his spirit would attract to itself and mould into a wonderful unity all that the time had of living vigor in it; as if to him, as to no one hefore, the power had been given to make his personality the spiritual centre of the nation, and to summon his century into the lists, armed with every weapon. Luther himself was astonished at the almost universal re- sponse to his appeal. The course of events reacted on him, hurrying him along from a position of humble protest to the leadership of all the revolutionary forces of the time. Every occurrence carried him on like a wave and left him far in ad- vance of his previous station. Each book he read, each friend he made, offered a powerful stimulus to his development. His progress, accurately traceable in his letters and other writings, is a study of absorbing interest. 70 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER His best friend and ablest lieutenant, at this time as later, was Philip Melanchthon, whom he first learned to know in the summer of 1518. When called in this year to teach Greek at the University of Wittenberg, Melanchthon was not yet twenty- one. The precocious youth, who had entered Heidelberg at thirteen and had taken the degree of bachelor at fifteen, and of master one year later, began at once to lecture on and to edit the classics. These studies were his passion, though he later won greater distinction in the field of divinity. He was a per- fect contrast to Luther, a scholar and pedagogue rather than a man of action, a peacemaker rather than a warrior. The rela- tions of the two men were always uncommonly close. Though the younger occasionally found the support given him by the elder and more robust irksome, he leaned upon it, and more than once found that when deprived of it he was unable to stand alone. Melanchthon was the disciple whom Luther loved, and, as can be seen from this extract of a letter to Spalatin written a few days after the young scholar's advent (August 31, 1518), loved at first sight : — Doubt not that we have done all and shall do all you recommend about Philip Melanchthon. He delivered an oration the fourth day after he came, in the purest and most learned style, by which he won the thanks and admiration of all, so that you need not worry about commending him to us. "We have quickly abandoned the opinion we formed from his small stature and homeliness, and now rejoice and wonder at his real worth, and thank our most illustrious Elector and your good offices, too, for giving him to us. Indeed, it is you who must rather study to put his merits in a proper light to our sover- eign. While Philip is alive, I desire no other Greek teacher. I only fear that perhaps his delicate health cannot well endure the life in our parts, and besides, I hear that his salary is so small that the boast- ful University of Leipsic hopes to get him away from us soon. Indeed he was called by them before he came to us. I suspect (and not I alone) that Pf effinger ' will prove true to his custom in this matter also, and be too faithful a guardian of the Elector's purse. And so, dear Spalatin, if I may speak frankly, as with a good friend, take care not to despise Melanchthon for his looks and his tender age, for the man is worthy of all honor. I would not have our university want- 1 The treasurer of Electoral Saxony : cf . supra, p. 34. THE PATRIOT 71 ing in those humane studies, the lack of which gives our rivals some excuse for making us a byword. From this time on Luther's letters are full of allusions to him " who has almost every virtue known to man and yet is my dear and intimate friend." Shortly after the Leipsic debate Melanchthon published some theses denying the doctrine of transubstantiation — an important contribution to the thought of Luther, who speaks of them and their author in a letter to Staupitz, October 3, 1519 : — You have seen Philip's theses by this time — somewhat bold, to be sure, but true. His solution of the problem naturally would excite our admiration as it has. If Christ please, Melanchthon will make many Luthers and a most powerful enemy of the devil and of scholasticism, for he knows both the trumpery of the world and the rock of Christ, therefore shall he be mighty. Melanchtbon's fundamental ideas were drawn from Luther's inexhaustible mine of thought, but he developed, clarified, and systematized them, and thus repaid the debt he had contracted. Another powerful influence towards the formation of the new system of theology in Luther's mind was found in the writings of John Huss. The German reformer had read one of them during the first years in the cloister, and had wondered how a heretic could speak so Christianly, but thinking that the par- ticular book must have been composed before the apostasy, he shut it up and forgot it. Later in preparing for the Leipsic debate, he had read enough of the history of the Council of Constance, where Huss was condemned, to believe that many of the latter's propositions were evangelic and orthodox, and he had flatly declared his conviction of this at the encounter with Eck. Several Hussites, having formed hopes in the new re- former destined to be realized, had gathered at this great event, and two of the most distinguished of them had written him and sent one of Huss's works. Luther did not have time to read it until early in 1520. He then first recognized that in many things the Bohemian had been his predecessor, and he did notj hesitate to proclaim himself the condemned heretic's disciple; How deep and fervent was his admiration can best be gathered from his own words : — 72 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER TO GEOKGB SPALATIN AT ALTENBUKG (Wittenberg, February, 1520. 1 ) . • • Having consulted with friends about the Elector's advice, I find I cannot, without peril to my conscience, offer peace of my own ac- cord. I have done enough that way hitherto, and met no response to my efforts ; I am always treated with force when it comes to negotia- tion, and cannot relax my whole strength as long as Eck is clamoring : I am obliged to commend the cause to God and follow him loyally, having committed my ship to the winds and waves. I can only pray for God's mercy. I have an idea that a revolution is about to take place unless God withhold Satan. I have seen the devil's artful plans for my perdition and for that of many. "What will you ? The Word of God can never be advanced without whirlwind, tumult, and danger. The Word is of infinite majesty, it is wonderful in the heights and in the depths ; as the prophet says : " It slew the fattest of them and smote down the chosen men of Israel." One must either despair of peace and tranquillity or else deny the Word. War is of the Lord who did not come to send peace. Take care not to hope that the cause of Christ can be advanced in the world peacefully and sweetly, since you see the battle has been waged with his own blood and that of the martyrs. I have hitherto taught and held all the opinions of John Huss unawares ; so did John Staupitz ; in short, we are all Hussites without knowing it. Paul and Augustine are Hussites to a word. Be- hold the horror which I have discovered without any Bohemian teacher or leader : I know not what to think for astonishment when I see such terrible judgments of God on mankind that the plain gospel truth has been publicly burned and considered damnable for a hundred years, and no one to assert it ! Woe to the land ! Farewell. Marten - Luther. Next to his studies in Huss and in the Canon Law, Luther's eyes were opened to the iniquities of Rome by a work of Lorenzo Valla, one of the most brilliant of the fifteenth cen- tury humanists, the proof that the Donation of Constantino was a forgery. This celebrated document, composed in the ninth century, purported to be a deed drawn up by the Emperor 1 For this date, cf . Enders, ii, 345. Kohler argues for a later date ; cf. Luther unci die Kirchengeschichte (Erlangen, 1900), i, 198. THE PATRIOT T3 Constantine in the fourth century, presenting the Pope with central Italy, and giving him a general overlordship of the Western world. The forgery had been received for six uncritical centuries as authentic and had become one of the corner-stones of the papal pretensions, and of the Canon Law. Luther wrote of it, February 24, 1520, to his friend Spalatin as follows : — I have at hand Lorenzo Valla's proof (edited by Hutten) that the Donation of Constantine is a forgery. Good heavens ! what darkness and wickedness is at Borne ! You wonder at the judgment of God that such unauthentic, crass, impudent lies not only lived but prevailed for so many centuries, that they were incorporated in the Canon Law, and (that no degree of horror might be wanting) that they became as articles of faith. I am in such a passion that I scarcely doubt that the Pope is the Antichrist expected by the world, so closely do their acts, lives, sayings, and laws, agree. But more of this when I see you. If you have not yet seen the book, I shall take care that you read it. Ulrich von Hutten, first mentioned by Luther in the last letter, was soon to become one of his strongest supporters and allies. A knight of old Franconian family, combining consid- erable literary ability with fiery ambition, he devoted his life to the cause of patriotism and the resistance of ecclesiastical oppression. He and his friend Franz von Sickingen, whose large resources and wide connections made him feared even by the greater princes, were the leaders of the party of the knights whose programme was the restoration of German national pre- stige under the leadership of their order. At first the national- ists regarded Luther merely as a squabbling monk, but by 1520 they read the sign of the times more plainly, and saw what an immense impulse would be given to the cause of Ger- man freedom by uniting it with the cause of spiritual emancipa- tion. Hutten had only one fear — that Luther would compromise with or else be crushed by the foreign oppressor, and wrote urging him to stand fast and promising support : — ULRICH VON HUTTEN TO LUTHER AT WITTENBERG Mayence, Jane 4, 1520. Long live liberty ! If anything hinders you from completing what you have begun I shall mourn as a spiritual kinsman and friend. 74 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER Christ be with us, as we bring his teachings again to light, you more happily, but I at least according to my powers. May all be like-minded with us or soon return to the right way. It is said that you are under the ban of the Church. If this is so, how great are you, Luther, how great ! . . . But beware ! You see that if you fall it will be a great injury to the State, but I know from your actions that you are resolved to die rather than merely live. ... Be strong ! But why should I admonish you when I have no need ? In any event you have a sup- porter in me and may confide your plans to me. Let us defend the common freedom and liberty of our long enslaved fatherland ! We have God on our side ; if he be for us, who can be against us ? . . . Your letters will reach me in Brabant. Write me there and farewell in Christ. Salute Melanchthon and Fach and all our friends, and fare- well again. Shortly after the arrival of this letter came one from an- other leader of the party, Sylvester von Schaumburg, offering protection in case of need. It seemed to Luther that this sup- port came in the nick of time. Hutten had been correctly in- formed that the bull against the heresiarch had been drawn up at Rome. Cardinal Riario, a friend of Erasmus and a moderate, had written the Elector from that city on May 20, urging him as he valued his safety to " make that man recant." The letter only reached the Elector on July 6, and was promptly forwarded to Wittenberg. Luther's answer is eloquent of his attitude : — TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBUKG Wittenberg, July 10, 1520. ... I almost wish that famous bull would come from Rome to rage against my doctrine. . . . I send the letter of the Franconian knight, Sylvester von Schaum- burg, and unless it is too much trouble I wish the Elector would com- municate its contents to Cardinal Riario, that they may know in Rome that even if they thrust me out of Wittenberg with their furies they will only make matters worse, since there are now some not only in Bohemia but in the heart of Germany who are able and willing to re- ceive me in spite of the thunders of the hostile Curia. In this lies their danger ; for were I saved by those protectors I should grow more terrible to the Romanists than I am now while publicly teaching under the Elector's government. Doubtless this will THE PATRIOT 75 happen unless God interpose. For hitherto I have given in on many points, even when enraged, out of respect to my sovereign, but then there would surely be no need to consult his wishes. So let them know that they owe it neither to my moderation nor to the success of their own tyranny, but to the name and authority of the Elector, and to my respect for the University of Wittenberg, that I have proceeded no further against them. My die is cast ; I despise the fury and favor of Rome ; I will never be reconciled to them nor commune with them. Let them condemn and burn my books. On my side, unless all the fire goes out, I will condemn and publicly burn the whole papal law, that slough of heresies. The humility I have hitherto shown all in vain shall have an end, lest it still further puff up the enemies of the Gospel. The more I think of Cardinal Riario's letter the more I despise it. I see they write with cowardly fear and a bad conscience, trying to put on a ferocious mien with the last gasp. They try to protect their folly by force, but they fear they will not succeed as happily as they have in times past. But I doubt not that the Lord will accomplish his purpose through me (though I am a foul sinner) or through an- other. Farewell. Mabtin Luther, Augustinian. CHAPTER VIII THE ADDRESS TO THE GERMAN NOBILITY, THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY OP THE CHURCH, AND THE FREEDOM OP A CHRISTIAN MAN. 1520. The art of printing with movable types was invented about 1450 at Mayence, and spread with such marvellous rapidity that before the end of the century every European country from Ireland to Turkey, east and west, and from Norway to Italy, north and south, had its own presses. The powerful stimulus to progress furnished by this discovery has often been pointed out ; this mighty engine for disseminating truth made accessible to almost all what had before been the property of comparatively few. The success of the Eeformation, as of all subsequent democratic and progressive movements, may be largely attributed to it. It is safe to say that Martin Luther was the first man to make full use of the press as an agent for appealing to public opinion. By means of it he won the support of a majority of his countrymen as well as of many foreigners who could read Latin. There were, of course, no newspapers, or other periodicals, but to supply their want quantities of short pamphlets, and even of letters, were poured forth from the printing-houses and eagerly bought and read. A vast number of these were written by Luther, a born pamphleteer, who may be said with some truth to have created the German book trade, for before he began to write, a majority of books printed in Germany were Latin, but soon afterwards the scale turned rapidly and. decisively in favor of German. The exact figures will bring home the vivifying effect of the new spirit. In 1518 there were only 150 German works published, in 1519 the number rose to 260, in 1520 to 570, in 1521 to 620, in 1522 to 680, in 1523 to 935, and in 1524 to 990. In five years the output increased more than sixfold. Luther was an extremely prolific author. His works, in num- LITERARY WORK 77 /ber more than four hundred, fill more than a hundred volumes. vHe was also an extremely popular author. On February 14, 1519, Froben, the great Basel publisher, wrote him that his works were already exported to France, Spain, Italy, the Low Countries, and England, as well as to all parts of the Empire. The number of the editions was legion. The letters of the time are full of references to the latest publications of the Keformer. On November 1, 1520, for example, Glarean writes Zwingli from Paris that no books are bought more quickly than Luther's, and that at the last Frankfort fair (the great book mart of Germany held in the spriEg of every year) fourteen hundred copies of his works had been sold. This was before Luther had written any of his greatest works. At first, as we have seen, the Wittenberg professor devoted himself chiefly to commentaries on Scriptures, of which the lectures on Romans and Galatians have already been noticed. During the years 1519-21 he again took up the Psalms and pub- lished in several parts a stout commentary on the first twenty- one. These Operationes in Psalmos, as they were called, won the admiration of Erasmus. They did not satisfy the author, however, who feared that being in Latin they would not edify the common people. While he was lecturing on them he wrote a letter on the subject, from which, as it is almost unknown, even to scholars, we will translate a portion, including the observations on Melanchthon's work : 1 — TO GEKAJRD LISTBIUS AT ZWOLLE Wittenberg, July 30 (1520). . . . Philip is theologizing most happily, lecturing, as a first attempt, and yet with incredible success to almost five hundred auditors on Paul's Epistle to the Romans. . . . I do not think that for a thousand years Holy Scripture has been treated with the same simplicity and clearness, for his talent is next that of the apostolic age. ... I lose these years of mine in unhappy wars and would like all my works to perish, lest they should become obstacles to pure theology and better geniuses, although to-day I expound my philosophy without slaughter and blood. It is my fate that all evil beasts attack me alone, all seek- 1 For text of this letter see Appendix hi. 78 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER ing to win the laurel and palm from me. God grant that I may be David pouring out blood, but that Melanchthon may be Solomon reign- ing in peace. Amen. ... I have completed my bulky commentary on the Psalms to the xvrnth, and have almost begun to be sorry for doing it, not on ac- count of the labor, but because these works are so little popular and do not capture many, nor have I yet decided whether to publish any more (for it is the food of the perfect), and not rather treatises more, easy to be understood. . . . Luther's sermons were often published shortly after their delivery, especially if they had to do with some question of the day. Such was the sermon on the ban already mentioned (1518), and such was the sermon on the Lord's Supper advocating the participation of the laity in the cup. This excited an outcry from the preacher's enemies, especially Duke George and the Bishop of Merseburg. Consequently Luther published an ex- planation, which was considerably more radical than the original homily : — I published a sermon on the venerable sacrament of the altar [he begins], in which I said that it seemed good that both bread and wine should be given to any one that desired it. Here upon my dear friends, who thirsted after my blood, thought they had me in a sack, and bawled out : " We have won ! " Another work of 1519 was the Tesseradecas, or Fourteen, written to console the sick elector. The author classifies all goods and ills in seven most original categories : those which are over, under, before, behind, on the right, on the left, and within one. Not many months after completing this, Luther set his hand to a little treatise on ethics, entitled Good Works. These are taken up in the order of the Ten Commandments, the first and greatest duty being faith. Of all Luther's works the most eminent, next to his transla- tion of the Bible, are three pamphlets written in the latter half of 1520 : To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation on the Improvement of the Christian Estate, A Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and The Freedom of a Christian. TO THE GERMAN NOBILITY 79 The first of these is a rousing appeal to his countrymen to right the many wrongs under which Germany suffers, especially such as she endures from Roman tyranny. It was written under the influence of the patriots, with whom the Reformer now made common cause. The inspiration to write came largely from them, and the sources of much in the work are found in the writings of Hutten and Crotus Rubeanus, as well as in Erasmus' Dia- logue of St. Peter and Julius II. 1 Many things were also taken from private letters and personal conversations with friends who had been in Rome, especially a Dr. John Ton Wick, who stopped at Wittenberg in June, 1520, on his way from Italy to Hamburg. A far more important source is found in the Griev- ances of the German Nation presented at the Diet of Augsburg in 1518. But what Luther borrowed he made his own. He did not need Hutten to make him a patriot nor the Grievances to tell him what was rotten in the Empire. The book, like its author's character, in which so many influences had been at work, was not a mere aggregate of certain external elements, but something new and original, fused by genius into a living organism. It is a work of world-wide importance, at once pro- phesying and moulding the future. Luther dedicated the book to his colleague in the university, Nicholas von Amsdorf, in a stirring preface dated June 23, 1520: — God's grace and peace. Honorable, worthy, dear friend ! The time to keep silence is past and the time to speak has come, as Ecclesiastes says. I have, according to our plan, brought together some proposi- tions on the improvement of the Christian estate, and have addressed them to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, to see whether God will help his Church through the laity, since the clergy, to whom such matters rather belong, has become entirely heedless of them. I am sending them to you, worthy sir, to correct, and, at need, to improve. I am well aware that people will not let me escape unblamed for hav- ing esteemed myself too highly, in that I, a poor, despised man, dare to address such great and noble persons on such important affairs, as though there were no one in the world except Dr. Luther who could 1 Mentioned as a source of Knaake (Weimar), vi, 393, but wrongly attributed to Fanstus Andrelinns. Cf . F. M. Nichols : The Epistles of Erasmus (London. 1901-1904), ii, 446. 80 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER take on himself the care of the Christian estate, and give counsel to such high and mighty persons. I do not excuse myself : let him blame me who will. Perhaps I owe my God and the world some folly, which I have now undertaken, as far as in me lies, to pay honestly, even if it be to become court fool. If I cannot pay it, at least no one will dare buy me a fool's cap or cut my comb, for he who fastens bells on his neighbor keeps some for himself. I must fulfil the proverb that when- ever the world has some work to be done, a monk must do it even if he be ground to pieces by it. In times past fools have often spoken wisely and the wise have often been great fools, as St. Paul says : If any man would be wise, let him become a fool. As I am not only a fool, but a doctor sworn to defend Holy Scripture, I am glad that I now have a chance to discharge my oath, even if I do it in a foolish way. Please excuse me to those who have moderate understanding, for I know not how to deserve the favor of those who are wise beyond measure : I have often tried to do it with great pains, but from henceforth will not try nor care what they think. God help us to seek not our own but his glory. Amen. After this dedication the author commences with a compli- ment to "the noble young blood Charles " and an appeal to him to reform the grievances which weigh so heavily on all men. He then goes on to show why it is that the laity have never been able to bring the clergy to account : — "The Romanists have built three walls about themselves with great dexterity, with which they have hitherto protected themselves so that no one has been able to reform them, and the whole of Christen- dom has consequently declined. The first wall is that if the civil au- thority presses them, they affirm that civil government has no rights over them, but contrariwise spiritual over temporal. Secondly, if one would punish them by the Bible, they oppose it by saying that no one has a right to interpret the Bible except the Pope. Thirdly, if they are threatened with a general council, they pretend that only the Pope has the right to summon a council. So they have privily stolen three rods from us, to remain unpunished, and they have entrenched themselves in these three walls to do all rascality and evil. . . . May God now give us one of the trumpets by which the walls of Jericho were thrown down. ... " The first wall consists in the discovery that the Pope, bishops, priests, and monks are the spiritual estate, whereas princes, lords, la- TO THE GERMAN NOBILITY 81 borers, and peasants are of the temporal estate. . . . But all Christians are really of the spiritual estate and there is no difference except of office, . . . for we were all made priests by baptism ... a higher consecration than any that Pope or bishop gives. But handling God's Word and the sacrament is simply the work of the priest, bishop and Pope, as bearing the sword and punishing evil is the work of the civil magistrate. Even so cobblers, smiths and peasants — though conse- crated priests and bishops — have their own work. Each one should help his neighbor's body and soul as the members of the body serve one another. " Now one may see how Christian is their law that the temporal au- thority has no right to punish the spiritual. That is as much as to say that when the eye is suffering, the hand should do nothing for it. . . . Wherefore the temporal powers of Christendom should freely exercise their office, not regarding whether it is Pope, bishop, or priest that they punish, but only that the guilty suffer. " The second wall is still frailer and poorer, the claim, namely, that they alone are masters of the Bible. Although their whole life long they learn nothing in it, yet they presume to say that they alone un- derstand it, and juggle with such words as that the Pope cannot err : be he bad or good, one cannot teach him a letter ! It is for this reason that so many heretical and unchristian, yes, unnatural laws stand in the Canon Law. . . . " The third wall falls of itself when the first two are down, for when the Pope acts against Scripture, we are bound by Scripture to punish and compel him." There is no Scriptural proof that the Pope only can call a council : to assert this is like saying " if a fire break out in a city every one should stand still and let it go on and burn as it pleases, because the private citizens have not the power of the mayor, or be- cause the fire started in the mayor's house. . . . No one in Christen- dom has the right to do harm." Now we will examine the articles which should properly be treated by a council. If the Pope and bishops loved Christ, they would busy themselves with them day and night, but as they do not love Christ, let the temporal power attend to them, not regarding the bans and thun- ders of the clergy, for one unjust ban is better than ten just absolu- tions and one unjust absolution worse than ten just bans. . . . 1. It is horrible and terrible that the Primate of all Christendom, who boasts he is Christ's Vicar and St. Peter's follower, should live in more worldly pomp than any king or emperor, and that he who is called "most holy and spiritual" is really more worldly than the. 82 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER world itself. The Pope should therefore be forced to lire more simply. " 2. What is the nse of that people in Christendom who are called cardinals ? I will tell you. Italy and Germany have many rich clois- ters, foundations, livings, and benefices which people do not know how ' to turn to the profit of Rome better than by making cardinals and giving them abbacies and bishoprics, though in so doing they trample God's service under foot. ... I advise that the cardinals be reduced in number, or else that the Pope support them from his own purse. Twelve would be enough, with one thousand gulden * a year." 3. The papal court should be reduced to one hundredth part of its present size. Germany gives more to the Pope than to the Emperor. The annates (one half the income of one year payable by all ap- pointees of benefices) should be abolished, as well as raising money by the Pope under pretext of the Turkish war. The numerous reserva- tions of the Pope to appointments in certain months and to certain livings should be curtailed. Falls should no longer be Bold to arch- bishops, and the habit of appointing old and sickly men to offices in order to have a fresh vacancy soon should be stopped. Another crying abuse is plurality ; Luther has heard of one man in Rome who holds twenty-two livings, seven provostships and forty-four canonries. Simony and the transfer of appointments under the fraudulent pretext of a " mental reservation " on the part of the Pope is a sin and a shame. In short, at Rome, " there is a buying and selling, a change and ex- change, a crying and lying, fraud, robbery, theft, luxury, whoredom, rascality, and despite of God in every way, so that it would not be possible for Antichrist to outdo Rome in iniquity." There all things are sold and all laws can be abrogated for money. " Let no one think I exaggerate : it is public ; they cannot deny it." If I want to fight the Turks, the worst Turks are those in Italy. " Now, though I am too little to propose articles for the reformation of such things, yet will I sing my fool's game to the end and say, as much as my reason is able, what might and should be done by the temporal power or a general council." 1. Each prince should forbid annates. 2. No foreigners should be allowed to take benefices. 3. An imperial law should be made that no ecclesiastic should go to Rome to get any dignity and that whoever appealed to Rome should lose his office. 1 Five hundred dollars; in purchasing power worth about twenty times as much. TO THE GERMAN NOBILITY 83 4. No legal cause should be appealed to Rome. 1 5. There should be no more papal reservations. 6. There should be no more " casus reservati." (Legal actions which could only be heard in Rome.) 7. The Pope should abolish most offices and support the rest himself. 8. Bishops should be invested by the civil magistrate as in France and not obliged to swear allegiance to the Pope. 9. The Pope should claim no authority over the Emperor, whom he should crown only as a bishop does a king. It is ridiculous for the Pope to claim that when the Empire is vacant he inherits it. The Donation of Gonstantine is an unexampled lie. 10. The Pope should give up his pretensions to Naples and Sicily. 11. Kissing the Pope's foot and other silly signs of respect should be abolished. 12. There should be no more pilgrimages to Rome, especially in the years of jubilee. No one should undertake any pilgrimage without the consent of his pastor. 13. The begging friars are a curse. Many monasteries should be suppressed and no more founded. It would be an excellent thing if the inmates were allowed to leave when they pleased " as in the time of the apostles and long after." " 14. We see how it has happened that many a poor priest is bur- dened with wife and child and wounded in his conscience and yet no one does aught to help him. ... I advise that it be left free to every man to marry or not as he chooses. . . . Those who live together as man and wife are surely married before God." 15. It is a shame that in the cloisters abbots and abbesses make their brothers and sisters confess their secret sins and then persuade them that they are going to hell. 16. Vigils and private masses should be abolished or reduced in number. " 17. Certain pains and penalties provided by the Canon Law must be done away, especially the interdict which was doubtless invented by the evil spirit. For is it not the devil's work to mend a sin by doing greater sin ? And is it not an enormous sin to stop all divine services ? " 18. All saints' days and holidays should be done away except Sun- days, for now they are only spent in drunkenness, gaming, and idle- ness. 19. Marriages between distant relations should be allowed, as their 1 Compare these provisions with the English statutes of Provisors and Prse- 84 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER prohibition is only a means of the Pope getting money. Fasts should be left free. 20. Shrines and chapels in fields and woods should be taken down. Pilgrimages to them cause all kinds of disorders. It makes no difference if miracles are performed at these shrines, " for were there no other sign that these are not of God, this would be enough, that men flock to them like cattle without reason." If the authorities refuse to abate these nuisances let every man resolve not to be deceived by them. 21. One of the greatest needs is that begging should be prohibited throughout Christendom. Each city should take care of its own poor, and nothing should be given to sturdy pilgrims, and friars. " There is no other trade in which there is so much rascality and cheating as mendicancy." 22. Foundations and canonries should be reduced to a small number in the cathedrals which would serve to support children of the nobility. Pluralities should be forbidden. 23. Religious brotherhoods and such things should be abolished. Papal commissaries ought to be chased out of the country. 24. It is high time that some effort be made to heal the Bohemian schism. It should be granted that Huss and Jerome of Prague were wrongly burned. " If I knew that the Beghards had no other error about the sacrament of the altar except the belief that it was natural bread and wine, though the flesh of Christ were in it, I would not cast them out, but let them live under the Bishop of Prague, for it is not an article of faith to believe that natural bread and wine are not in the sacrament — which is a delusion of Aquinas and the Pope — but merely to believe that true and natural flesh and blood are in the bread and wine. ..." " 25. The universities need a good, stiff reform ; I must say it, let it offend whom it may. ... It is my advice that the books of Aristotle, — Physics, Metaphysics, The Soul, and Ethics, — which have hitherto been esteemed the best, be entirely removed from the curriculum, together with all others which boast that they teach natural science, although from them one learns neither natural nor spiritual things. No one has ever understood Aristotle's meaning, and yet this study is kept up to waste time and burden the soul. I venture to think that a potter has more natural science than is contained in all those books. It is a sorrow to my heart that that cursed (verdammte), arrogant, rascally heathen has made fools of so many of the best Christians. God has plagued us thus for our sins. In his best book, On the Soul, Aris- totle teaches that the soul dies with the body. . . . There is no worse TO THE GERMAN NOBILITY 85 book than his Ethics, which goes directly counter to God's grace and Christian virtue. . . . But I would gladly allow Aristotle's books on Logic, Rhetoric, and Poetics to be kept, at least in an abbreviated form without elaborate commentaries. . . . Besides these studies I recom- mend Latin, Greek, Hebrew, mathematics, and history. . . . " The schools of medicine I will allow to reform themselves, but take the schools of law and theology to myself. To the former I say that it were good that the whole Canon Law, from the first to the last letter, especially the Decretals, were eradicated. More than enough law is to be found in the Bible. . . . And moreover the law of the Church nowadays is not what is written in the books, but whatever the Pope or his followers want. . , . God help us ! What a wilderness the Civil Law has become ! Although it is much better and wiser than the Canon Law — in which, except God's name, there is nothing good — yet there is far too much of it. . . . It seems to me that the laws of each State of the Empire should have precedence over the Imperial law, which should only be used in case of need. "Would to God that each land had its own short law as each has its special nature and gifts.;' In the schools of divinity the Bible should be supreme, and other works be duly subordinated. / Each city should have schools for boys and girls, where the gospel should be read to them either in Latin or German. 26. It should no more be taught that the Pope, having transferred the Empire to the Germans, has superiority over the Emperor. 1 27. It is now time to speak of some things amiss in the civil polity, having thoroughly treated the abuses of the Church. Sumptuary laws should be passed restraining extravagance in dress. " But the greatest misfortune to Germany is usury. ... A bridle should be put in the mouth of the Fuggers and such companies, who make from twenty to one hundred per cent on their money annu- ally." It would be better to increase agriculture and diminish com- merce. It is shameful that Christians should allow brothels. The chief sinners in these places are the clergy. No man should therefore be allowed to vow celibacy before thirty. This brief analysis of Luther's greatest work can give but \ a faint idea of the cause of its tremendous and immediate pop- ' 1 This article, which repeats the substance of the ninth, was not in the first edition. 86 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER ular success. This lay in the seasonableness of the strong words, which expressed what every one was thinking and what all desired. In timeliness and popularity it might be compared with Uncle Tom's Cabin, though in dignity of treatment and creative thought it is far above that excellent novel. Luther's vehemence offended some even of his best friends. Lang went so far as suggesting that the work be recalled a few days after its appearance, early in August. His letter met with the following response : — TO JOHN LANG AT EBFUKT Wittebberg, August 18, 1520. Greeting. Dear Father, is my pamphlet, which you term a trumpet- blast, really so fierce and cruel as you and all others seem to think ? I confess it is free and aggressive, and yet it pleases many and does not even much displease our court. I am not able to determine my own place in the present movement ; perhaps I am the harbinger of Melanchthon, for whom I shall, like Elias, prepare a way in spirit and in power, troubling Israel and the followers of Ahab.' But to return to my book — good or bad it is no longer in my power to recall it. Four thousand copies have already been printed and sent away, nor could I cause Lotther, the publisher, the loss he would sustain in recalling these. If I have sinned, we must remedy it by prayer. We are here persuaded that the papacy is the seat of the true and genuine Antichrist, against whose deceit and iniquity we think all things are lawful unto us for the salvation of souls. For myself, I do not admit that I owe any obedience to the Pope, unless I also owe it to the Antichrist. Think of these things, do not judge us rashly, for we have reason for our opinion. Melanchthon is going to marry Catharine Erapp, for which people blame me ; I do the best I can for the man, nothing moved by the clamor of all ; may God make all turn out well. From my heart I hate that man of sin and son of perdition, with all his kingdom, which is nothing but sin and hypocrisy. Yours, Brother Martin Luther. A letter, written the next day to another friend, is interest- ing, as giving Luther's justification for the vehemence of his TO THE GERMAN NOBILITY 87 language, which has given offence not only in his own day but later. 1 TO WENZEL LINK AT NUREMBERG (WlTTENBEKG,) August 19, 1520. Greeting. I do not do it [speak violently], dear Father, to get praise and honor by my books and writings, for almost all condemn my acri- mony ; but I agree with you that perhaps God exposes the impostures of men in this way. I see that whatever is treated mildly in our age soon falls into oblivion, for no one minds it. But the womb of Rebecca must bear strife and infants contending with each other. The present judges badly; posterity will judge better. Even Paul calls his ad- versaries now dogs, now the concision, now babblers, false workers of miracles, ministers of Satan, and things of that sort, and curses a whited wall to his face. What prophet does not use the bitterest invective ? Such language becomes so trite that it ceases to move. Our Reverend Father Vicar 8 wrote me yesterday from Erfurt asking me not to pub- lish my work on the Improvement of the Christian Estate ; I know not on what ground complaint was made to him, at any rate his letter came too late, after the book had appeared ; pray try and appease him when you see him. Who knows if it be not the Spirit who moves me with this ardor, since it is certain that I am not carried away by 1 It is instructive to compare Luther's defence with that made by Milton more than a century later, on the same charge. " If therefore the question were one of oratory, whether the vehement throwing out of scorn and indignation upon an object that merits it, were among the aptest ideas of speech to be allowed, it were my work, and that an easy one, to make clear both by the rales of the best rhet- oricians and the f amonsest examples of Greek and Roman orators. But since the religion of it is disputed and not the art ..." many examples of such language may be cited from the Bible. " Yet that ye may not think inspiration the only warrant thereof, but that it is as any other virtue, of moral and general observa- tion, the example of Luther may stand for all . . . who writ so vehemently against the chief defenders of the old untruths in the Romish Church, that his own friends and favorers were offended with the fierceness of his spirit." Milton goes on to show that when Luther betook himself to moderation he got only despite from Cajetan and Eck, " and herewithal how useful and available God made this tart rhetoric in the Church's cause, he often found by his own experi- ence. . . . And this I shall easily aver, though it may seem a hard saying, that the Spirit of God, who is purity itself, when he would reprove any fault severely, or bnt relate things said or done with indignation by others, abstains not from some words not civil at other times to be spoken." Various citations of indecent , expressions used by God are given, among others, 1 Kings xiv, 10. Cf. Apology for Smectymnuus. 1 Lang, who had been elected Vicar in Staupitz's place, 1520. 88 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER love of glory or of money or of pleasure, much less by vindictiveness ? I do not wish to stir up rebellion but only to assert the freedom of a general council. Farewell in the Lord. Your brother, Martin Lutheb. Luther's second great reforming pamphlet, The Prelude to the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, followed hard on the first, appearing early in October. The former tract had been directed against the practical abuses of the Church ; this was a blow at the base of her theology, the sacramental system. The thoughts expressed in i^were old ones to the writer, but were put with fresh force, energy, and comprehensiveness. The Address to the Nobility had been written in German as an ap- peal to the mass of that nation ; the Babylonian Captivity was composed in Latin, and translated against its author's will, for it was meant primarily for theologians and scholars. A brief analysis of its ninety pages, as nearly as possible in the original words, will give the best idea of its contents : — "Willy nilly, I am daily forced to become more learned, with so many and such able teachers pressing me on and giving me exercises. I wrote of indulgences two years ago, 1 but in such a way that I now greatly repent having published that book. For at that time I stuck in a sort of superstitious reverence for the tyranny of Rome, wherefore I did not think that indulgences should be altogether reprobated, since they were approved by the common opinion of mankind. It was no wonder that I thought so, for I alone rolled this rock away. But later, by the kindness of Prierias and his brothers, who strenuously defended indulgences, I understood that they were nothing but a mere imposture of the Pope's flatterers, alike destructive to men's faith and fortunes. "Would that I could persuade all booksellers and all who have read my books on them to burn what I then wrote and substitute this pro- position : — INDULGENCES ARE THE TNIQUITIES' OF THE POPE'S FLATTERERS After this, Eck and Emser with their allies forced me to learn the nature of the Pope's primacy. Not to be ungrateful to such learned men, I acknowledge that their books have moved me a great war 1 The Resolutions. THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY 89 forward. For previously, while denying that the papacy was of divine right, I admitted it as a thing of human law. But now that I have read the most subtle subtilties of those little coxcombs (Trossuli) by which they ingeniously forged their idol, not being unteachable in such matters I have learned and am certain that the papacy is the kingdom of Babylon and the power of Nimrod the mighty hunter. "Wherefore in this case also I beg all my booksellers and readers that having burned what I have hitherto written on this matter they should hold to this proposition : — THE PAPACY IS THE MIGHTY HUNTING OF THE EOMAN BISHOP Giving the cup to the laity at communion is enjoined by the Bible and forbidden by the Pope ; wherefore I shall proceed to show that they are wicked who deny the sacrament in both kinds to laymen. In order to do this more conveniently, I shall sing a prelude on the captivity of the Roman Church. In the first place I deny that the sacraments are seven in num- ber, and assert that there are only three, baptism, penance, and the Lord's Supper, and that all these three have been bound by the Roman Curia in a miserable captivity and that the Church has been deprived of all her freedom. Howbeit, should I wish to speak according to the usage of Scripture, I should say that there was only one sacrament and three sacramental signs. . . . Before summarizing Luther's criticisms of the Roman sacra- mental system, it may conduce to clearness to give the briefest possible account of that system. Sacramentum in Latin means a sacred thing and by the early fathers was applied to a num- ber of holy objects, for example, the cross of Christ. It soon came to have the more special meaning that it now bears, that of a rite of the Church to which a spiritual meaning is attached, the two distinguishing characteristics of a sacrament being an outward sign and a promise. Thus the rite of distributing the bread and wine, with the promise of forgiveness, constituted the eucharist, the immersion or sprinkling with water, with the promise of salvation (Mark xvi, 16), is baptism. In like manner confession and forgiveness (James v, 16) were made the sacrament of penance, and the anointing of the sick with oil for his recovery and forgiveness (James v, 14 and 15) be- came the sacrament of supreme unction. Confirmation and 80 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER orders had the same sign, the laying on of hands, but with a different purpose, the first to strengthen a layman in his faith, the other to impart the spiritual character to a priest (Acts vi, 6 ; xiii, 3 ; 1 Tim. iv, 14 ; 2 Tim. i, 6). Finally marriage was made a sacrament for two peculiar reasons. Peter Lombard, who first formulated the doctrine (circa 1100), was, like many ancient and mediaeval philosophers, much under the obsession of sacred numbers. Having as yet but six sacraments, he wished to complete the sacred seven by the addition of another, and , hit upon matrimony, which is not a specially Christian institu- tion at all, but one common to all mankind. St. Paul compares f the union of man and wife with that of Christ and the Church, r which, says he, is a great mystery (i. e., holy secret), a Greek word translated in the Latin Yulgate sacramentum (Eph. v, 31 and 32). It was this misunderstanding of Paul's meaning that induced Lombard to include wedlock among the holy rites of the Church. It is not necessary to go deeply into Luther's criticisms of this theology, but a brief summary of his most interesting remarks is valuable for the insight it gives into his doctrine : — Eucharist. The first " captivity " (i. e., abuse) of this sacra- ment is the denial of the cup to the laity. The second is the doctrine of transubstantiation. (On Luther's nearly allied theory " consubstantiation," compare above in the Address to the Nobility, article 24, and below, chapter XXI.) The third abuse is the theory that the mass is a good work, whereas it is really a commemoration. Baptism. God has preserved this rite from abuse, but the glory of the freedom whereunto we are baptized has been cap- tured by the Roman Church. All other vows are a disparage- ment of the baptismal vow. , Penance. The first and capital abuse of this sacrament is they have entirely abolished it (i. e., repentance), denying that faith is necessary. Luther adds that " strictly speaking " penance is not a sacra- ment, there being only two. The remaining four he thinks have no right to be considered sacraments in any sense. In discuss- ing matrimony he makes several digressions, some of which are THE LIBERTY OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 91 < rather shocking to our ears. For example, he proposes that a woman married to an impotent man be allowed, under certain conditions, to cohabit with another. Again : " I so detest di- vorce that I prefer bigamy, but whether divorce is ever allow- able or not I dare not say." More will be said of this peculiar view when on later occasions Luther advised two sovereigns to take second wives rather than put away their first ones. Such is the second of the three great pamphlets, which, like its predecessor, created an enormous stir. Erasmus judged that it precluded all possibility of peace, and Henry VIII of Eng- land, as well as a host of less distinguished persons, answered it. On the other hand, the mass of the people welcomed it eagerly, and the doctrines it taught have become fundamental to all the reformed systems of theology. The Address to the Nobility and the Babylonian Captivity had treated of external abuses, the one in the State, the other in the Church ; the third pamphlet, On the Liberty of a Christ- ian Man (or, in the first Latin edition, On Christian Liberty), went far deeper to the inner life of the spirit. The occasion for writing this work was an earnest request of the officious peace- maker, Charles von Miltitz, for Luther to send a letter to the Pope saying that " he had never meant to twit him personally." The Reformer complied ; a few extracts from this missive, com- posed in the latter half of October, are interesting : — Of your person, excellent Leo, I have heard only what is honorable and good . . . but of the Roman See, as you and all men must know, it is more scandalous and shameful than any Sodom or Babylon, and, as far as I can see, its wickedness is beyond all counsel and help, hav- ing become desperate and abysmal. It made me sick at heart to see that under your name and that of the Roman Church, the poor people in all the world are cheated and injured, against which thing I have set myself and will set myself as long as I have life, not that I hope to reform that horrible Roman Sodom, but that I know I am the debtor and servant of all Christians, and that it is my duty to counsel and warn them. . . . Finally, that I come not before your Holiness without a gift, I offer you this little treatise, dedicated to you as an augury of peace and good hope ; by this book you may see how fruitfully I might em 92 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER ploy my time, as I should prefer to, if only those impious flatterers of yours would let me. It is a little book as respects size, but if I mis- take not, the whole sum of a Christian life is set down therein, in respect to contents. I am poor and have nothing else to send you, nor do you stand in need of any but my spiritual gifts. The little pamphlet of thirty pages, published early in No- vember in both Latin and German, begins with a paradox : — " A Christian man is the most free lord of all, subject to none. " A Christian man is the dutiful servant of all, subject to every one. " These statements seem to conflict, but when they are found to agree they will edify us. For both are contained in that saying of Paul's (1 Cor. ix, 19), ' For though I be free from all men, yet have I made myself servant unto all.' You owe nothing but to love one an- other, for true love, by its nature, is dutiful and obedient to what it loves. Thus also Christ, although Lord of all, yet was made a man under the law, free and a servant, at the same time in the form of God and in that of a slave." A man consists of a double nature, spiritual and corporal ; and these two are contrary, the spirit fighting the flesh and the flesh the spirit. " But it is clear that external things have no effect on Christ- ian liberty. . . . For what can it profit the soul if the body is well, free and lively, eats, drinks, and does what it pleases, since even the wickedest slaves of all vice often have these advantages ? Again, how can ill health or captivity or hunger or thirst hurt the soul, since the best men and those of the purest conscience often suffer these things ? . . . Nor does it profit the soul to have the body clad in priestly gar- ments, nor hurt her to have it clothed as a layman. . . . '.' One thing onlyisnggdfuLia a good life and Christian liberty, the gospel of Christ?"? . . Perhaps you ask : What is this Word of God and how is it. to be used, since there are many words of God ? . . ." Faith is the sole salutary and efficacious use of God's Word, for the Word is not to be grasped or nourished with any works, but with faith only. One incomparable grace of faith is that it joins the soul to Christ as the bride to the bridegroom, by which mystery, as the apostle teaches, Christ and the soul are made one flesh. Who is able to prize this royal marriage enough, or comprehend the riches of this grace ? Not only are we most free kings of all, but we are priests forever, by which priesthood we can appear before God, pray for one another and teach one another. " Here you ask, ' If all Christians are priests, THE LIBERTY OF A CHRISTIAN MAN 93 by what name shall we distinguish those whom we call clergy from the laity ? ' I answer : By those words ' priest,' ' clergyman,' ' spiritual,' ' ecclesiastic ' an injury is done, since they are transferred from all Christians to a few. Scripture makes no distinction hut to call them ministers, servants, and stewards, who now boast that they are popes, bishops, and lords. But although it is true that all are priests, all are not equally able to teach publicly, nor ought all who are able so to do. . . ." Now let us turn to the second part and see how the master of all must become the ministering servant to all. "When the soul has been purified by faith, she greatly desires to purify all things and espe- cially her own body, and thus naturally brings forth the good works by which without faith she could not be justified. " Good works do not make a good man, but a good man produces good works, and so with bad works." Let us not despise good works, but rather teach and encourage them, only guarding against the false opinion that they make a man just. We conclude, therefore, that a Christian does not live to himself, but to Christ and his neighbor, to Christ by faith, to his neighbor by love. By faith he is snatched above himself to God ; by love he falls below himself to his neighbor, yet always dwelling in God and his love. This is properly the close of the work, but a postscript is added on the course a Christian should pursue in regard to cere- monies. The rule is first obedience to God's command and then charity to his neighbor. He should take a middle course, not tolerating any real abuse but not over-hasty to do away with ceremonies innocent in themselves. The three great reforming pamphlets not only had a great influence in their own day, rallying the whole of Germany to their author's side at the time of trial, but they have a lasting importance in literature and thought. In them the whole Lutheran movement is epitomized : the first in relation to the State, the second as bearing on the Church, and the third, the most fundamental of all, as laying down the new rule for the guidance of the individual. Before closing this chapter it is interesting to note an item in the Reformer's personal life, recalled long afterwards : — In 1520 our Lord God tore me forcibly from saying the canonical 94 THE LIFE ANt) LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER prayers, for I wrote so much that I often missed them for a week to- gether, and on Saturday frequently made up for lost time by saying them one after another, so that I could neither eat nor drink the whole day. Thus I weakened myself so that I could not sleep, and Dr. Esch had to give me a sleeping-powder, the effects of which I still feel in my head. CHAPTER IX THE BURNING OF THE CANON LAW AND OF THE POPE'S BULL. 1520 The action against Luther for heresy at Rome had been al- lowed to sleep since the beginning of 1519 on account of the \ exigencies of politics. The death of the Emperor Maximilian in January of that year made necessary the election of a suc- cessor. Of the three principal candidates Leo X preferred the Elector of Saxony, who, it was thought, would make both the weakest and most docile Emperor. Frederic was so highly esteemed for his personal qualities that he might have stood a good chance of the election, but feeling that the position would be too great for his resources, he did not press his own cause, but threw his great weight into the scale for the Hapsburg can- didate against the Yalois. It was, perhaps, largely due to his efforts that on June 28, 1519, Charles of Spain was chosen. After this event had wrecked the hopes of the Curia, and especially after the Leipsic debate had brought Luther's heresy into a stronger light than ever before, the process against the Saxon was renewed. Another effort was made to induce the Elector to give him up ; indeed Saxony was threatened with the interdict in case he did not comply, though later events showed that the Pope hardly dared to use such a drastic measure. The threat did not succeed ; Frederic replied in his usual courteous and procrastinating style that Miltitz had undertaken to bring Luther's case before the Archbishop of Trier for judgment, and that the Curia had no right to threaten the ban and interdict before the result of this attempt at reconciliation was known. This letter worked like a declaration of war. A consistory was held at Rome on January 9, 1520, in which Ghinnucci, who had charge of Luther's case, thundered against the peaceful, pious prince as a raging tyrant, the enemy not only of the clergy but of the whole Christian religion. 86 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER The Pope at once appointed a commission, consisting of Cajetan, Accolti, the general and procurators of the Dominican and Franciscan orders, and others, to draw up a bull against the heretic. Except the first two they were all but poor theo- logians, but making up in zeal what they lacked in knowledge, they proceeded in short order to damn all Luther's propositions as rank heresy. Leo, being advised by the wiser heads among; the cardinals that such a sweeping position would be untenable, - dissolved the first commission in February and appointed & second, consisting of Cajetan, Accolti, the generals of the orders, and some of the best theologians in Rome. This body, proceed- ing more cautiously, drew up a report carefully distinguishing a number of propositions as " partly heretical, partly scandalous, and partly offensive to pious ears." They recommended that a bull be drawn up condemning these propositions without men- tioning Luther's name, and that a final summons be sent him to come to Rome and recant. In other words, they held that a peaceful solution of the problem was still possible. Following their advice, Leo commanded Volta to write to Staupitz asking him to force his brother to recant. Whether Staupitz tried to obey this letter of March 15, 1520, is not known ; but in the following August he resigned his office in the order and shortly after secured a dispensation to become a Dominican. Towards the end of March a sudden and decisive change in the papal policy was caused by the arrival of Eck. Since the great debate this zealous Catholic had been busy going around to the universities trying to get them to decide in his favor and condemn Luther ; two of them, Cologne and Louvain, did so. Eck then turned his steps to Rome, where he painted his enemy's heresy in such black colors that Leo decided there was nothing left but to condemn him, and accordingly appointed a third commission, of Cajetan, Eck, Accolti, and the Spanish Augus- tinian Johannes, with orders to draft a bull for this purpose. Accolti was the draftsman for the committee; the theological material was largely supplied by Eck from the condemnation of Luther's doctrines by the University of Louvain. The bull was presented for ratification before a consistory held on May 21, which decided, before promulgating the docu- THE BURNING OF THE POPE'S BULL 07 ment, to hear the theologians who had drawn it up. This was done in three sittings of May 23, May 25, and June 1. No record of debates in these consistories has been published, but the fact is recorded that there were long arguments before the bull received the assent of the College of Cardinals. It is pos- sible that a peace party was against the use of force even at this late stage, but it is more probable that the opposition came from a Spanish cardinal, Carvajal, who belonged to the con- ciliar party in the Church and was offended by the designation of Luther's appeal to a council as heretical. Whatever opposi- tion there was, however, was finally overcome, the bull was ratified and signed by Leo at his hunting-lodge at Magliana on June 15. According to the provision of the Canon Law, that before a heretic is finally condemned he must be given a fatherly warn- ing, this bull, Exsurge Domine, does not excommunicate Luther, but only threatens this penalty in case he does not recant within sixty days after its publication in Germany. Beginning with the words : "Arise, Lord, plead thine own cause, arise and pro- tect the vineyard thou gavest Peter from the wild beast who is devouring it," the bull sets forth some of the professor's opinions, quoted apart from their context, designates them as "either heretical, or false, or scandalous, or offensive to pious ears, or misleading to the simple," and condemns them. If, after all the Pope's fatherly care and admonition, Luther does not recant within sixty days after the posting of the bull in Germany, he is to be declared a stiff-necked, notorious, damned heretic, and must expect the penalties due to his crime. Before this document was ratified, Cardinal Raphael Riario had written the Elector, May 20, urging him to force the heretic to recant or expect the consequences. The letter only arrived on July 6, and, as we have seen (p. 74), made a great impression upon the Wittenberg professor. Frederic answered it quite promptly, enclosing An Offer or Protestation (Oblatio sive Protestatio), drawn up by Luther, proposing to leave his doc- trine to the arbitrament of impartial judges. This arrived in Rome by the end of July. Eck, who had been so instrumental in drawing up the bull, OS THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER was commissioned to post it in Germany. Before he had done so, however, the document had been published there (August) by Ulrich von Hutten, who judged that it would injure the Church more than her enemy. Eck posted it officially at Meissen, Merseburg, and Brandenburg near the end of Septem- ber. He also tried to force it on the universities of Germany, many of whom declined to receive it on technical grounds. At Wittenberg the faculty would have nothing to do with it, and at Erfurt the students seized all the printed copies and threw them into the river. Having threatened the heretic with excommunication, Borne left no stone unturned to secure his condemnation by the Empire. Charles was coming from Spain to be crowned in October, 1520, and to hold his first diet at Worms early in 1521. To him and to the nation Leo dispatched two nuncios, Aleander and Caracciola. Leaving Borne on July 27, 1520, Aleander arrived in Cologne, where he published the bull on September 22. Four days later he was in Antwerp, and on September 28, he had an audience with Charles and secured from him the first decree against Luther and his followers in the Netherlands. On Octo- ber 8, the indefatigable legate published the bull at Louvain and solemnly burned the condemned books, at the same time making a speech violently attacking Erasmus, who lived there, for supporting the heretic. For this Aleander was scored in a bitter anonymous satire — the Acta Academise Lovaniensis — which may have come from the pen of the great humanist. On October 17, the nuncio did at LiSge what he had done at Louvain. Charles was crowned Emperor at Aix-la-Chapelle on Octo- ber 23. The plague breaking out in the overcrowded town, the royal suite, including the legate, was forced to leave soon after, and went to Cologne, where they arrived on October 28. Here they found the Elector Frederic, who, having started to attend the coronation, had been detained by an attack of gout. He had posted up Luther's Offer and Protestation, and had with him a letter from the monk to the Emperor, written abont August 31. It is a humble appeal : — THE BURNING OF THE POPE'S BULL 99 That I dare to approach your Most Serene Majesty with a letter, most excellent Emperor Charles, will rightly cause wonder to all. A single flea dares to address the king of kings. But the wonder will be less if the greatness of the cause is considered, for as truth is worthy to approach the cause of celestial Majesty, it cannot be un- worthy to appear before an earthly prince. It is a fair thing for earthly princes, as images of the heavenly Prince, to imitate him, as they also sit on high, but must have respect for the humble things of the earth and raise up the poor and needy from the mire. Therefore I, poor and needy, the unworthy representative of a most worthy cause, prostrate myself before the feet of your Most Serene Majesty. I have published certain books, which have kindled the hatred and in- dignation of great men against me, but I ought to be protected by you for two reasons : first, because I come unwillingly before the public, and only wrote when provoked by the violence and fraud of others, seeking nothing more earnestly than to hide in a corner, and secondly, be- cause, as my conscience and the judgment of excellent men will testify, I studied only to proclaim the gospel truth against the super- stitious traditions of men. Almost three years have elapsed, during which I have suffered infinite wrath, contumely, danger, and whatever injuries they can contrive against me. In vain I seek respite, in vain I offer silence, in vain propose conditions of peace, in vain beg to be better instructed ; the only thing that will satisfy them is for me to perish utterly with the whole gospel. "When I had attempted all in vain, I hoped to follow the precedent of Athanasius and appeal to the Emperor. ... So I commend my- self, so I trust, so I hope in your Most Sacred Majesty, whom may our Lord Jesus preserve to us and magnify for the eternal glory of his gospel. Amen. Again on October 3, 1520, Luther had written Spalatin : — Many think I should ask the Elector to obtain an imperial edict in my favor, declaring that I should not be condemned nor my books prohibited except by warrant of Scripture. Please find out what is in- tended ; I care little either way, because I rather dislike having my books so widely spread, and should prefer to have them all fall into oblivion together, for they are desultory and unpolished, and yet I do want the matters they treat of known to all. But not all can separate the gold from the dross in my works, nor is it necessary, since better books and Bibles are easily obtainable. 100 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER It was in accordance with the plan here indicated that on October 31 the Elector had a conference with the Emperor in the sacristy of the cathedral, and the latter promised that he would allow Luther the way of the law which the professor himself had proposed. On Sunday, November 4, the legates also obtained an audi- ence with Frederic. Aleander handed him a letter certifying that he was commissioned by the Pope, and demanded, first, that the heretic's books be burned, and second, that he be either punished by Frederic or delivered up bound. The next day the Elector sent for Erasmus, who happened to be in the city, and asked him if Luther had erred. For answer he re- ceived the winged word, which flew to the farthest ends of Germany : " Yes. He has erred in two points, in attacking the crown of the Pope and the bellies of the monks." The learned humanist drew up twenty-two short propositions which he called Axioms, stating the best solution of the difficulty would be for the Pope to recommend the decision of the matter to a tribunal of learned and impartial men. On a second interview with the nuncios on November 6, Frederic refused their re- quests and insisted on such a court as Erasmus had recom- mended. The time given Luther to recant expired on one of the last days of November. Instead of doing so, however, he hit back at his oppressors with his usual spirit. He first published two short manifestoes, Against the New Bull forged by Eck, — for like Erasmus he doubted the genuineness of the document, — and Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist. But his most dramatic answer was solemnly to burn the bull along with the whole Canon Law. The notice to the students, drawn up and posted by Melanchthon on the early morning of December 10, reads as follows : — Let whosoever adheres to the truth of the gospel be present at nine o'clock at the church of the Holy Cross outside the walls, where the impious books of papal decrees and scholastic theology will be burnt according to ancient and apostolic usage, inasmuch as the boldness of the enemies of the gospel has waxed so great that they daily burn the THE BURNING OF THE POPE'S BULL 101 evangelic books of Luther. Come, pious and zealous youth, to this pious and religious spectacle, for perchance now is the time when the Antichrist must be revealed ! At the set time a large crowd gathered just outside the Elstei gate, near the Black Cloister, but beyond the walls; the stud- ents built a pyre, a certain " master," probably Melanchthon, lighted it, and Luther threw on the whole Canon Law with the last bull of Leo X, whom he apostrophized in these solemn words: "Because thou hast brought down the truth of God, he also brings thee down unto this fire to-day. Amen." 1 Others threw on works of the schoolmen and some of Eck and Eraser. After the professors had gone home, the students sang funeral songs and disported themselves at the Pope's expense. Luther now justified his act by publishing an Assertion of All the Articles Condemned by the Last Bull of Antichrist, which appeared in Latin in December, 1520, and in German in March, 1521. In this he states that his positions have not been refuted by Scripture in the bull — whether that document is genuine or not. But if one cannot found his creed on the Bible now, he adds, why did Augustine have the right to do it eleven hundred years ago ? He then takes up, one by one, the forty-one articles condemned and proves that they are right. In view of later de- velopments the most interesting of these proofs is that of the 36th article, on free will. Since the fall of man, says the Wit-\ tenberg professor, free will is simply a name ; when a man does ' what is in him he sins mortally. He cites Augustine to the effect/ that free will without grace is able to do nothing but sin. He quotes many texts of the Bible to prove this point and argues it at length. Nothing was now left to the Church but to excommunicate the rebel and fulfil the threat of the Exsurge Domine. The " holy curse " was drawn up and signed at Rome on January 3, 1521, and sent to Aleandef to publish in Germany. It banned not only Luther but Hutten, Pirkheimer, and Spengler, and denounced the Elector Frederic. The wise legate received the terrible document at the Diet of Worms, and rightly fearing 1 Quonian tu conturbasti veritatem dei, contnrbat et te hodie in ignem istum, amen. — Cf . Joshua yii, 25. 102 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER that in this form " it would prove destructive to the cause of the Church," sent it back with a recommendation to modify it. This was done ; in its final form the bull Decet Pontifieem Komanum confined itself to excommunicating the heresiarch, and was then, May 6, published at Worms, three weeks after he had already been heard by the Diet. CHAPTER X THE DIET OF WORMS. 1521 From Cologne Charles V proceeded to Mayence and thence to Worms, where he was about to open his first diet. The varied programme of the national assembly included the drafting of a constitution for the Empire and the formulation of griev- ances against the tyranny of the Roman hierarchy. It could hardly hope to avoid the religious question then agitating the whole nation, but the unprecedented course of summoning the heretic to answer before the representatives of his nation was not decided on until after the estates had been sitting for a month. Luther himself, in appealing to the Emperor, did not expect to be called before the Diet ; he hoped to be allowed to defend ' his doctrines before a specially appointed tribunal of able and impartial theologians. This plan was pressed quietly but vigor- ously by Erasmus, the foremost living man of letters. Besides his action in urging Frederic to insist on such a trial for his sub- ject, the great humanist had, at Cologne, handed to the coun- sellors of the Emperor a short memorial, Advice of One heartily wishing the Peace of the Church, proposing the appointment of such a commission. He partly won over the Emperor's con- fessor, Glapion, but Chievres and Gattinara, the real powers be- hind the imperial throne, remained in opposition. A little later at Worms, John Faber, a Dominican friar, came forward with a similar plan, composed with the help of Erasmus. Such a solution of the difficulty would have been most dis- tasteful to the Curia. Regarding the Wittenberg professor's opinions as res adjudicatce, the Romanists saw no reason for giving him a chance to defend them, and wished only to punish the man already condemned. This course was urged by Alean- der, an extremely able and unscrupulous diplomat. His chief support was the young emperor, whose formal, backward mind 104 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER failed to comprehend and even detested any variation from the faith in which he had been brought up. Though by no means a fool, he was a dull man, slow to learn and slow to forget, but possessed of two extremely valuable qualities, moderation and persistence. Of the Lutheran affair he had no understanding whatever. Not being able to speak German, he was unable to sympathize with even the nationalist side of the formidable movement. On May 12, 1520, Manuel, his ambassador at Borne, suggested that he use Luther as a lever to wring concessions from the Pope, but the idea found no root in his mind ; from the first his opposition to the schismatic was a foregone con- clusion. Aleander worked with admirable diligence and consummate ability to win powerful supporters among the electors and great men of Germany. By skilful negotiation and concession he secured the adhesion of Joachim I of Brandenburg, for many years the leader of the Catholic party in Germany. He tried hard to get the unqualified backing of Albert of Mayence by the same means, but failed, partly because of the counter nego- tiations of Erasmus and his friend Capito. The Elector of Mayence therefore represented a mediating policy. Aleander's strongest opponent was Frederic of Saxony, "that fox and basilisk," as he called him, a crafty states- man who knew well how to protect his obnoxious subject without too deeply involving himself. Among the other mem- bers of the college, the Elector Palatine was not unfavorable to Luther. ^ The common people were strongly in favor of Luther. " Nine tenths of the Germans," wrote Aleander, " shout ' Long live Luther,' and the other tenth 'Death to Rome.'" Foremost among his adherents was Hutten, who with his followers hung like a cloud near Worms, threatening to burst and sweep away the Papists should any harm come to the bold monk of Saxony. When the alternative plan of Aleander to summon Luther, not before an impartial tribunal to discuss his doctrines, but before the estates to recant, was announced to him in Witten- berg he wrote as follows : — THE DIET OF WORMS 105 TO GEOBGE SPALATIN AT ALLSTEDT Wittenberg, December 21, 1520. Greeting. To-day I received copies of your letter from Allstedt and also of that from Kindelbriick asking me what I would do were I summoned before the Emperor Charles as my enemies wish, in case I could go without danger to the gospel and the public safety. If I am summoned I will go if I possibly can ; I will go ill if I cannot go well. For it is not right to doubt if I am summoned by the Emperor I am summoned by the Lord. He lives and reigns who saved the three Hebrew children in the furnace of the king of Babylon. If he does not wish to save me, my life is a little thing compared to that of Christ, who was slain in the most shameful way, to the scandal of all and the ruin of many. Here is no place to weigh risk and safety ; rather we should take care not to abandon the gospel which we have begun to preach to be mocked by the wicked, lest we give cause to our enemies of boasting that we dare not confess what we teach and shed our blood for it. May Christ the merciful prevent such cowardice on our part and such a triumph on theirs. Amen. . . . It is certainly not for us to determine how much danger to the gospel will accrue by my death. . . . One duty is left for us : to pray that the Empire be saved from impiety and that Charles may not stain the first year of his reign with my blood or with that of any other. I should prefer, as I have quite often said, to perish only at the hands of the Romanists so that the Emperor may not be involved in my cause. You know what nemesis dogged Sigismund after the execution of Huss ; he had no success after that and he died without heirs, for his daughter's son Ladislaus perished, so that his name was wiped out in one generation and moreover his queen Barbara became infamous as you know, to- gether with the other misfortunes which befel him. Yet if it be the Lord's will that I must perish at the hands not of the priests but of the civil authorities, may his will be done. Amen. Now you have my plan and purpose. You may expect me to do anything but flee or recant ; I will not flee, much less will I recant. May the Lord Jesus strengthen me in this. For I can do neither with- out peril to religion and to the salvation of many. . . . In similar tone Luther wrote a month later to his best patron. 106 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER TO THE ELECTOB FREDERIC OF SAXONY AT WORMS Wittenberg, January 25, 1521. Most serene, highborn Prince, most gracious Lord ! My poor prayers and humble obedience are always at your Grace's service. I have received with humble thankfulness and pleasure your Grace's information about his Imperial and Royal Majesty's intentions regard- ing my affair, and I humbly thank his Imperial Majesty and your Grace for your favor. I rejoice from my heart that his Imperial Maj- esty proposes to take up this business, which is rather God's, Christen- dom's, and the German Nation's than mine or that of any individual. I am humbly ready, as I always have been, and as I have often said I would be (especially in a pamphlet recently published of which I am sending your Grace a copy), to do and allow all that may be done with God and Christian honor, or all which I shall be convinced by honorable, Christian, and sufficient reasons of Holy Writ that I ought to do or allow. Therefore I humbly pray your Grace to pray his Imperial Majesty to provide me with sufficient protection and a free safe-conduct for all emergencies, and that his Imperial Majesty should command the busi- ness "to 'be >recommended to pious, learned, impartial Christian men, both clerical .and lay, who are well grounded in the Bible, and have understanding of the difference between human laws and ordinances. Let such men try me, and, for God's sake, use no force against me until I am proved unchristian and wrong. Let his Majesty, as the temporal head of Christendom, in the mean time restrain my adversa- ries, the papists, from accomplishing their raging, unchristian plans against me, such as burning my books and grimly laying snares for my body, honor, well-being, life, and Salvation, although I am unheard and unconvicted. And if I, more for the protection of the divine, evan- gelic truth, than for the sake of my own little and unworthy person, have done aught against them, or shall be compelled to do aught, may his Majesty graciously excuse my necessary means of protection, and keep me in his gracious care to save the Divine Word. I now con- fidently commit myself to the virtue and grace of his Majesty, and of ' your Grace and all Christian princes, as to my most gracious lords. And so I am, in humble obedience, ready, in case I obtain sufficient surety and a safe-conduct, to appear before the next Diet at Worms and before learned, pious, and impartial judges, to answer to them with the help of the Almighty, that all men may know in truth that I have hitherto THE DIET OF WORMS 10? done nothing from criminal, reckless, disordered motives, for the sake of worldly honor and profit, but that all which I have written and taught has been according to my conscience and sworn duty as a teacher of the Holy Bible, for the praise of God and for the profit and salvation of all Christendom and the advantage of the German nation, in order to extirpate dangerous abuses and superstitions and to free Christen- dom from so great, infinite, unchristian, damnable, tyrannical injury, molestation, and blasphemy. Your Grace and his Majesty will have an eye and a care to the much troubled state of all Christendom ; as your Grace's chaplain I am humbly and dutifully bound to pray God for bis mercy and favor on you and his Imperial Majesty at all times. Your Grace's obedient, humble chaplain, Martin Luther. / Now, if ever, Luther's plain heroism showed itself. Daily expecting an awful crisis not only in his own life but in all that he held dearer, he went quietly about his business, teaching, preaching, and doing whatever his hand found to do. While writing polemics " against ten hydras " his deeply untroubled spiritual life found expression in a tract on the Magnificat, in which Mary's canticle became again the song of the triumph of the lowly and the meek. His determination to stand fast never wavered ; he often quoted Christ's words that whoso denied his Lord before men would be denied by him before his Heavenly Father. While so firm himself, he was much saddened by the irresolution of some of his friends, especially of his still beloved and revered Staupitz. /After laying down his office as Vicar of the Augustinians, the old man had retired to distant Salzburg, where the learned and orthodox archbishop, Cardinal Lang, received him warmly. But even here he could not escape the tumult of the battle ; for Lang tried hard to get him to denounce Luther openly. On January 4, 1521, Staupitz wrote pathetic- ally to Link, acknowledging that " Martin has undertaken a hard task and acts with great courage illuminated by God ; I stammer and am a child needing milk." Nevertheless but a little later he wrote an open letter submitting himself to the judgment of the Pope, a document intended as a compromise and as non-committal, but one which was generally taken as a 108 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER renunciation of the reformed teaching. On seeing the declara- tion, Luther wrote Staupitz a letter equally solemn and gentle ; he does not judge his old friend, but it is impossible not to feel all the more strongly the contrast between the irresolution of the one man and the unyielding courage of the other. TO JOHN STAUPITZ AT SALZBURG Wittbhbbrg, February 9, 1521. Greeting. I wonder, reverend Father, that my letters and pamphlets have not reached you, as I gather from your letter to Link that they have not. Intercourse with men takes so much of my time that preach- ing unto others I have myself become a castaway. . . . At Worms they have as yet done nothing against me, although the papists contrive harm with extraordinary fury. Yet Spalatin writes the Evangelic cause has so much favor there that he does not expect I shall be condemned unheard. . . . I have heard with no great pain that you are attacked by Pope Leo, for thus the cross you have preached to others you may exemplify yourself. I hope that wolf, for you honor him too much to call him a Lion (Leo), will not be satisfied with your declaration, which will be interpreted to mean that you deny me and mine, inasmuch as you submit to the Pope's judgment. If Christ love you he will make you revoke that declaration, since the Pope's bull must condemn all you have hitherto taught and believed about the mercy of God. As you knew this would be the case, it seems to me that you offend Christ in proposing Leo for a judge, whom you see to be an enemy of Christ running wild (debacchari) against the Word of his grace. You should have stood up for Christ and have con- tradicted the Pope's impiety. This is not the time to tremble but to cry aloud, while our Lord Jesus is being condemned, burned, and blas- phemed. "Wherefore as much as you exhort me to humility I exhort you to pride. You are too yielding, I am too stiff-necked. Indeed it is a solemn matter. We see Christ suffer. Should we keep silence and humble ourselves ? Now that our dearest Saviour, who gave himself for us, is made a mock in the world, should we not fight and offer our lives for him ? Dear father, the present crisis is graver than many think. Now applies the gospel text : " Whosoever shall confess me before men, him shall the Son of man also confess before the angels of God, but whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words, of him shall the Son of man be ashamed when he shall come in his glory." THE DIET OF WORMS 109 May I be found guilty of pride, avarice, adultery, murder, opposition to the Pope, and all other sins rather than be silent when the Lord suffers and says : " I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man that would know me : refuge failed me ; no man cared for my soul." By confessing him I hope to be absolved from all my sins. Wherefore I have raised my horns with confidence against the Roman idol, and the true Antichrist. The word of Christ is not the word of peace but the word of the sword. But why should I, a fool, teach a wise man ? I write this more confidently because I fear you will take a middle course between Christ and the Pope, who are now, you see, in bitter strife. But let us pray that the Lord Jesus with the breath of his mouth will destroy this son of perdition. If you do not wish to, at least let me go and be bound. With Christ's aid I will not keep still about this monster's crimes before his face. Truly your submission has saddened me not a little, and has shown me that you are different from that Staupitz who was the herald of grace and of the cross. If you had said what you did, before you knew of the bull and of the shame of Christ, you would not have saddened me. Hutten and many others write strongly for me and daily those songs are sung which delight not that Babylon. Out elector acts as con- stantly as prudently and faithfully, and at his command I am publish- ing my Defence 1 in both languages. . . . In the mean time Luther's enemies were not idle. Aleander addressed the Diet on February 18, painting the new heresy in the blackest colors, touching lightly on the points with which the Germans would sympathize, but bearing his whole weight on certain opinions relative to the sacrament which would shock most of them, and demanding, in conclusion, that proper steps be taken to extirpate the impending schism and its author. After a stormy debate the Estates decided to summon Luther to recant the objectionable heresies, and to be questioned on cer- tain other points, those, namely, relative to the power of the Pope and the grievances of the German nation. The Emperor accordingly drew up a formal summons, addressing the excom- municated man as " honorable, dear, and pious," giving as the 1 The Articles Wrongly Condemned by the Bull appeared in Latin in January and in German in March. 110 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OR MARTIN LUTHER purpose of the citation " to obtain information about certain doctrines originating with you and certain books written by you," and assuring certain safe-conduct to and from the Diet. Charles also endeavored to get the Diet to pass a decree for the burning of the heretic's books, but failing in this, he issued a mandate on his own responsibility directing that they be delivered up to the magistrate and no more copies be printed. Even now an attempt was made by the party of mediation to obtain a declaration from Luther which would obviate the neces- sity of his appearance before the Diet. Glapion, the Emperor's confessor, possibly acting at the suggestion of Erasmus, held a friendly interview with Spalatin in which he pointed out that all might be amicably settled if Luther would repudiate a few articles. These he had drawn from the Assertion of all the Articles Wrongly Condemned, and from the Babylonian Captiv- ity ; the latter he thought might be the more easily given up, as the book had appeared anonymously. When these articles were forwarded by Spalatin, the Wittenberg professor replied as follows : — TO 6E0KGE SPALATIN AT WORMS Wittenberg, March 19, 1521. Greeting. I have received the articles they ask me to recant, with the list of things they want me to do. Doubt not that I shall recant nothing, as I see that they rely on no other argument than that I have written (as they pretend) against the usages and customs of the Church. I shall answer the Emperor Charles that if I am summoned solely for the sake of recantation I shall not come, seeing that it is all the same as if I had gone thither and returned here. For I can recant just as well here if that is their only business. But if he wishes to summon me to my death, holding me an enemy of the Empire, I shall offer to go. I will not flee, Christ helping me, nor abandon his Word in the battle. I am assuredly convinced that those bloody men will never rest until they slay me. I wish if it were possible that only the Pope's fol- lowers should be guilty of my blood. We are turned heathen again as we were before Christ, so firmly does Antichrist hold the kingdoms of this world captive in his hand. The Lord's will be done. Use your influence, where you can, not to take part in this council of the ungodly. . . . Martin Luther, Augustinian. THE DIET OF WORMS 111 The expected summons and safe-conduct reached Luther on March 26. After quietly finishing some literary work, he set out, on April 2, accompanied by his colleague Amsdorf, a bro- ther monk, and a talented young student named Swaven. Horses and wagon were provided by the town, and the university voted twenty gulden to cover the necessary expenses. The journey was a triumphal progress ; the people thronged to see the bold asserter of the rights of conscience. At Erfurt, where Luther preached, he was given a rousing reception by the students and their professor, the humanist Eoban Hess. Notwithstanding popular sympathy, there was considerable danger in going to Worms : in spite of an imperial safe-conduct, Huss had been burned. When Spalatin wrote reminding his friend of this pre- cedent, he received the following answer : — TO GEOBGE SPALATIN AT WOKMS Fhamkfobt on the Main (April 14), 1521. I am coming, dear Spalatin, even *if Satan tries to prevent me by a worse disease than that from which I am now suffering, for I have been ill all the way from Eisenach, and am yet ill, in a way I have not hitherto experienced. I know that the mandate of Charles has been published to terrify me. Truly Christ lives and I shall enter Worms in the face of the gates of hell and the princes of the air. I send copies of the Emperor's sum- mons. I think better not to write more until I can see on the spot what is to be done, lest perchance I should puff up Satan, whom I propose rather to terrify and despise. Therefore prepare a lodging. Martin Lutheb. 1 Finding that Luther was not to be intimidated, the CatlA olics, who were more frightened than he was, tried by a strata- gem to prevent his appearance or at least to delay it until the ) time granted had expired. The Emperor's confessor, Glapion,' 1 Spalatin says in his Annalen (edition of Cyprian, 1718, p. 38) that Luther wrote him from Oppenheim, where he arrived April 15, that he would enter Worms if there were as many devils there as tiles on the roofs. It is probable that Spalatin was thinking of this letter, or some expression used at another time (cf. Tischreden, ed. by Forstemann and Bindseil, iv, 348), as it is almost inconceivable that he, who preserved so many of his friend's letters, should have lost this im- portant one. 112 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER in an interview with Sickingen, Hutten, and Bucer, assumed a friendly attitude, and proposed that instead of exposing himself to the danger of an appearance the heretic should hold a private conference with himself in a neighboring castle. Bucer was dispatched with this proposition. Luther knew no way but the direct one, however, and proceeded. On the morning of April 16 he arrived at his destination, greeted by a vast concourse of people, and took up his abode in the hostel of the Knights of St. John. He was summoned to the Diet the next day at four o'clock, though he was not admitted until nearly six. Few moments in history have been at once so dramatic and so decisive as that in which Luther appeared before the Emperor and Diet at Worms. In the greatness of the tribunal, of the ac- cused, and of the issues involved, nothing is lacking to impress a thoughtful mind. In the foreground of the assembly sat the young Emperor, on whose brows were united the vast, if shad- owy, pretensions to Eoman dominion and the weight of actual sovereignty over a large congeries of powerful states. Around him were the great princes of the realm, spiritual and temporal, and the representatives of the Free Cities of Germany. The nuncios, representing the supreme power of the Church, were conspicuous by their absence ; the Pope would not even hear the rebel in his own defence. The son of peasants now stood before the son of Caesars : the poor and till lately obscure monk before a body professing to represent the official voice of united Christendom. To challenge an infamous death was the least part of his courage : to set up his own individual belief and conscience against the deliberate, ancient, almost universal opinion of mankind required an audac- ity no less than sublime. And how much depended on his answer ! The stake he played for was not his own life, nor even the triumph of this religion or of that : it was the cause of human progress. The system against which he protested had become the enemy of progress and of reason : the Church had become hopelessly corrupt and had sought to bind the human mind in fetters, stamping out in blood all struggles for freedom and light. Hitherto her efforts THE DIET OF WORMS 113 had been successful : the Waldenses had perished ; Wicliffe had spoken and Huss had died in vain. But now the times were ripe for a revolution ; men only needed the leader to show them the way. The proceedings were short and simple. An officer first warned the prisoner at the bar that he must say nothing except in answer to the questions asked him. Then John Eck, Official of Trier (not to be confounded with the debater of the same name), asked him if the books lying on the table were his and whether he wished to hold to all that he had said in them or to recant some part. At this point Jerome Schurf, a jurist friendly to the Wittenberg monk, cried out : "Let the titles of the books be read." When this had been done, Luther replied: — His Imperial Majesty asks me two things, first, whether these books are mine, and secondly, whether I will stand by them or recant part of what I have published. First, the books are mine, I deny none of them. The second question, whether I will reassert all or recant what is said to have been written without warrant of Scripture, concerns faith and the salvation of souls and the Divine Word, than which nothing is greater in heaven or on earth, and which we all ought to reverence ; therefore it would be rash and dangerous to say anything without due consideration, since I might say more than the thing demands or less than the truth, either of which would bring me in danger of the sentence of Christ. " Whoso shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father in heaven." Wherefore I humbly beg your Imperial Majesty to grant me time for deliberation, that I may answer without injury to the Divine Word or peril to my soul. After consulting the Emperor and his advisers, Eck replied : Although, Martin, you knew from the imperial mandate why you were summoned, and therefore do not deserve to have a longer time given you, yet his Imperial Majesty of his great clemency grants you one day more, commanding that you appear to-morrow at this time and deliver your answer orally and not in writing. Though Luther knew the general reason of his summons, he had been surprised by the form in which the question was put to him. He had expected that certain articles would be brought forward and that he would have an opportunity to state the 114 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER reasons why he held them and to defend them in debate. When he was required to recant point-blank, without any chance to present his case and without hearing what particular things he was to recant, he was taken unprepared. Seeing how necessary it was to have his answer in exact form, he had only done the wisest thing. Some, however, inferred from his request and from the low tone in which it was uttered, that his spirit was broken. How little this was the case may be seen by a letter written the same evening to an imperial counsellor and humanist at Vienna* John Cuspinian. After leaving the assembly hall, Luther went to his lodgings, where he was visited by nobles and others who wished him well. Among them was George Cuspinian, a canon of Wiirzburg, who had followed his bishop to the Diet. He gave such warm assurances of good-will from his cousin, the more noted John, that the Reformer found time to acknowledge them : — TO JOHN CUSPINIAN AT VIENNA 1 Wokms, April 17, 1521. Greeting. Your brother, 3 most famous Cuspinian, has easily per- suaded me to write to you from the midst of this tumult, since I have long wished to become personally acquainted with you on account of your celebrity. Take me, therefore, into the register of your friends, that I may prove the truth of what your brother, has so generously told me of you. This hour I have stood before the Emperor and Diet, asked whether I would revoke iny books. To which I answered that the books were indeed mine, but that I would give them my reply about recanting to-morrow, having asked and obtained no longer time for considera- tion. Truly, with Christ's aid, I shall never recant one jot or tittle. Farewell, my dear Cuspinian. 1 The text of this letter is full of mistakes in all the printed editions, includ- ing Enders, iii, 122. A facsimile of the original in the archives of Vienna was published by T. Haase in the Leipziger Iltustrierte Zeitung for August 31, 1889, and the text printed by me in American Journal of Theology, April, 1910. 2 Frater carnis tuae. I follow Haase in identifying this brother with Cus- pinian's cousin. Professor Q. Kawerau suggested to me in conversation that Luther's words would naturally mean ' ' brother-in-law." Cuspinian had a brother- in-law (brother of his first wife) named Ulrioh Putch, and a brother, Niklas Spiessheimer. Cf . H. Ankwicz : " Das Tagebuch Cuspinians," Archiv fur Baler- reichische Geschichtsforschung, xxx (1909), 304 and 325. THE DIET OF WORMS 115 The following day he appeared at the same hour before the august assembly. Eck addressed him in an oration of which the following summary is given by one present, probably Spalatin : — His Imperial Majesty has assigned this time to you, Martin Luther, to answer for the books which you yesterday openly acknow- ledged to be yours. You asked time to deliberate on the question whether you would take back part of what you had said or would stand by all of it. You did not deserve this respite, which has now come to an end, for you knew long before, why you were summoned. And every one — especially a professor of theology — ought to be so certain of his faith that whenever questioned about it he can give a sure and positive answer. Now at last reply to the demand of his Majesty, whose clemency you have experienced in obtaining time to deliberate. Do you wish to defend all of your books or to retract part of them ? Luther, now certain of what to say, made a great oration, at first in German and then in Latin, the substance of which, as written down by himself immediately afterwards, is here trans- lated : — Most Serene Emperor, Most Illustrious Princes, Most Clement Lords I At the time fixed yesterday I obediently appear, begging for th'e mercy of God, that your Most Serene Majesty and your Illustrious Lordships may deign to hear this cause,, which I hope may be called the cause of justice and truth, with clemency ; and if, by my inex- perience, I should fail to give any one the titles due him, or should sin against the etiquette of the court, please forgive me, as a man who has lived not in courts but in monastic nooks, one who can say nothing for himself but that he has hitherto tried to teach and to write with a sincere mind and single eye to the glory of God and the edification of Christians. Most Serene Emperor, Most Illustrious Princes! Two questions were asked me yesterday. To the first, whether I would recognize that the books published under my name were mine, I gave a plain answer, to which I hold and will hold forever, namely, that the books are mine, as I published them, unless perchance it may have happened that the guile or meddlesome wisdom of my opponents has changed something in them. For I only recognize what has been written by myself alone, and not the interpretation added by another. 116 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER In reply to the second question I beg your Most Sacred Majesty and your lordships to be pleased to consider that all my books are not of the same kind. In some I have treated piety, faith, and morals so simply and ev- angelically that my adversaries themselves are forced to confess that these books are useful, innocent, and worthy to be read by Christians. Even the bull, though fierce and cruel, states that some things in my books are harmless, although it condemns them by a judgment simply monstrous. If, therefore, I should undertake to recant these, would it not happen that I alone of all men should damn the truth which all, friends and enemies alike, confess ? The second class of my works inveighs against the papacy as against that which both by precept and example has laid waste all Christendom, body and soul. No one can deny or dissemble this fact, since general complaints witness that the consciences of all believers are snared, harassed, and tormented by the laws of the Pope and the doctrines of men, and especially that the goods of this famous Ger- man nation have been and are devoured in numerous and ignoble ways. Yet the Canon Law provides (e. g., distinctions ix and xxv, quaestiones 1 and 2) that the laws and doctrines of the Pope contrary to the Gospel and the Fathers are to be held erroneous and rejected. If, therefore, I should withdraw these books, I would add strength to tyranny and open windows and doors to their impiety, which would then flourish and burgeon more freely than it ever dared before. It would come to pass that their wickedness would go unpunished, and therefore would become more licentious on account of my recantation, and their government of the people, thus confirmed and established, would become intolerable, especially if they could boast that I had recanted with the full authority of your Sacred and Most Serene Majesty and of the whole Roman Empire. Good God ! In that case I would be the tool of iniquity and tyranny. In a third sort of books I have written against some private indi- viduals who tried to defend the Roman tyranny and tear down my pious doctrine. In these I confess I was more bitter than is becoming to a minister of religion. For I do not pose as a saint, nor do I dis- cuss my life but the doctrine of Christ. Yet neither is it right for me to recant what I have said in these, for then tyranny and impiety would rage and reign against the people of God more violently than ever by reason of my acquiescence. As I am a man and not God, I wish to claim no other defence for my doctrine than that which the Lord Jesus put forward when he was THE DIET OF WORMS 117 questioned before Annas and smitten by a servant : he then said : If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil. If the Lord himself, who knew that he could not err, did not scorn to hear testimony against his doctrine from a miserable servant, how much more should I, the dregs of men, who can do nothing but err, seek and hope that some one should bear witness against my doctrine. I therefore beg by ' God's mercy that if your Majesty or your illustrious Lordships, from the highest to the lowest, can do it, you should bear witness and con- vict me of error and conquer me by proofs drawn from the gospels or the prophets, for I am most ready to be instructed and when convinced will be the first to throw my books into the fire. From this I think it is sufficiently clear that I have carefully con- sidered and weighed the discords, perils, emulation, and dissension ex- cited by my teaching, concerning which I was gravely and urgently admonished yesterday. To me the happiest side of the whole affair is that the Word of God is made the object of emulation and dissent. For this is the course, the fate, and the result of the Word of God, as Christ says : " I am come not to send peace but a sword, to set a man against his father and a daughter against her mother." We must con- sider that our God is wonderful and terrible in his counsels. If we should begin to heal our dissensions by damning the Word of God, we should only turn loose an intolerable deluge of woes. Let us take care that the rule of this excellent youth, Prince Charles ( in whom, next God, there is much hope), does not begin inauspiciously. For I could show by many examples drawn from Scripture that when Pharaoh and the king of Babylon and the kings of Israel thought to pacify and strengthen their kingdoms by their own wisdom, they really only ruined themselves. For he taketh the wise in their own craftiness and removeth mountains and they know it not. We must fear God. I do not say this as though your lordships needed either my teaching or my admonition, but because I could not shirk the duty I owed Ger- many. With these words I commend myself to your Majesty and your Lordships, humbly begging that you will not let my enemies make me hateful to you without cause. I have spoken. Eck replied with threatening mien : — Luther, you have not answered to the point. You ought not to call in question what has been decided and condemned by councils. There- fore I beg you to give a simple, unsophisticated answer without horns (non cornutum). Will you recant or not ? 118 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER Luther retorted : — Since your Majesty and your Lordships ask for a plain answer, I will give you one without either horns or teeth. 1 Unless I am convicted by Scripture or by right reason ( for I trust neither in popes nor in councils, since they have often erred and contradicted them- selves) —(unless I am thus convinced, I am bound by the texts of the Bible, my conscience is captive to the Word of God, I neither can nor will recant anything, since it is neither right nor safe to act against conscience. God help me. Amen. J The Spaniards in the audience broke into groans and hisses, the Germans into applause, and Luther was conducted from the hall amid an incipient tumult. When he reached his lodg- ings, he joyfully exclaimed : " I am through ! I am through ! " He had indeed done the great deed he had set out to do and spoken the words which will ring through ages. But his business at Worms was not yet over. The moderate Catholics, hoping that something could yet be accomplished, held a series of conferences with him. Their representatives were Cochlseus, later one of the bitterest enemies of the Evan- gelic Church, Dr. Vehus, chancellor of the Margrave of Baden, and the Archbishop Elector of Trier. But nothing came of these negotiations. Luther hardened himself, as one of his opponents expressed it, like a rock. On April 26 he left Worms. Two days later he reached Frankfort where he wrote an interesting letter to Lucas Cranach, his warm friend, the Wittenberg artist. In 1520 the monk had stood godfather to the painter's little daughter, and in return Cranach made two woodcuts of him, the one in 1520, the other in March, 1521. 2 This last, giving so plain an impression of iron will and strength of character that all who run may read, is perhaps the best portrait of the Reformer in existence. 1 Neque cornutum neque dentatum. These words, which have puzzled historians from the day they were said till the present, have been the subject of a very thor- ough investigation by R. Meissner. He comes to the conclusion that the dentatum was suggested by the cornutum (without sophistry) of the official, but had no special sense, being merely an " overtrumping," or improvement on his meta- phor. 2 Referred to by Luther in a letter to Spalatin March 7. Enders, iii, 106. On Luther's portraits see Appendix, pp. 453, 454. TvCAE* OPNKo EFFIGIES' (HAEO ESTl' AVDBTTVRA I IVTHER.I ArTHERJiAA\« MENTIS. EXFPJMIT! 1RSE « iVA.d l A\ D XXI LUTHER IN MARCH, 1521 After an etching by Cranach THE DIET OF WORMS 119 TO LUCAS CRANACH AT WITTENBERG Frankfort on the Main, April 28, 1521. My service to you, dear friend Lucas. I bless and commend you to God. I am going somewhere to hide, though I myself do not yet know where. I should indeed suffer death at the hands of the tyrants, especially at those of furious Duke George, but I must not despise the advice of good men nor die before the Lord's time. They did not expect me to come to Worms, and what my safe-con- duct was worth you all know from the mandate that went out against me. I thought his Majesty the Emperor would have brought together some fifty doctors to refute the monk in argument, but in fact all they said was : " Are these books yours ? " — " Yes." — " Will you re- cant ? " — " No !" — " Then get out." O we blind Germans, we act so childishly and let ourselves be fooled by the Romanists. Give my friend your wife my greeting and say that I hope she is well. The Jews must needs sing at times in triumph, " Ho, ho, ho ! " But Easter will come to us, too, and then we shall sing Hallelujah. We must suffer and keep silence a little time. A little while and ye shall not see me, and again a little while and ye shall see me. At least I hope so, but God's will, which is best, be done, as in heaven, so on earth. Amen. Greet Christian Daring and his wife. Please thank the town council for providing the carriage. You must get Amsdorf to preach, as he would be glad to do, if John Doltsch is not enough. Good-bye ! God bless you and keep your mind and faith in Christ against the Roman wolves and serpents and their adherents. Amen. Dr. Martin Ltjther. On May 1 he reached Hersfeld, where he was royally wel- comed by the abbot of the Benedictine monastery and where he preached. On May 2 he entered his dear old Eisenach, where" he also delivered a sermon the next day. On the third he drove through the beautiful forests to Mohra, his father's early home, and visited his uncle Heinz Luther. On the morning of May 4 he preached in the open air, and after dinner set out in the direction of Schloss Altenstein with Amsdorf and a brother monk. In the heart of the forest, in a place now marked by a monument, according to a preconcerted plan some masked riders appeared, captured the banned heretic, and rode with him 120 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER back in the direction of Eisenach to the Wartburg, the castle in which the Elector had decided to keep him. In the mean time great events were happening at Worms. Charles had been sincerely shocked at the audacity of the rebel monk. The usually reserved young man immediately drew up a paper, perhaps the one frank and spontaneous action of his whole career, stating that he had resolved to stake life, lands, and all on the maintenance of the Catholic faith of his fathers. Aleander, thinking that all was settled, was delighted. After waiting until the Elector of Saxony and other supporters of the new leader had left Worms, Charles drafted an edict, submitted it for approval to four electors and a few remaining members of , the Diet, and signed it May 26 — although it was officially dated May 8. The Edict of Worms described Luther's doctrine in the strongest terms as a cesspool of heresies old and new, put him under the ban of the Empire, forbade any to shelter him and commanded all, under strong penalties, to give him up to the authorities. It was also forbidden to print, sell, or read his books. When the news of Luther's disappearance spread throughout Europe a cry of dismay arose from all who had his cause at heart. Albert Diirer, the painter of Nuremberg, an ardent admirer of the Reformer, then on a visit to Antwerp, heard the news on May 17. I know not whether he yet lives or is murdered [wrote he in his diary], but in any case he has suffered for the Christian truth. . . . If we lose this man who has written more clearly than any one who has lived for one hundred and forty years, may God grant his spirit to another. . . . His books are to be held in great honor and not burned as the Emperor commands, but rather the books of his ene- mies. O God, if Luther is dead, who will henceforth expound to us the gospel ? What might he not have written for us in the next ten or s twenty years i Another glimpse of the temper of the people is given in an obscure letter of Albert Burer, at Kemberg, near Wittenberg, to Basil Amorbach, written June 30, 1521. The rustics, he says, if they meet others on the road, inquire of them : " Bistu gutt Marteiniscb ? " and beat any one who answers in the negative. CHAPTER XI THE WARTBURG. MAY i, 1521 — MARCH 1, 1522 The Wartburg, about a mile south of Eisenach, is one of the finest old Gothic castles in Germany. Majestically crowning a steep hill, it commands a superb view of the lovely Thuringian forest. Surrounded by a moat and guarded by drawbridge and portcullis, the several buildings which unite to make up the pile are grouped around two courts. The largest hall, already old in Luther's day, is famous as having been, in the twelfth century, the meeting-place where the German bards, since immortalized in Wagner's opera, met to contend the palm. The fortress had been for generations the abode of the powerful, ostentatious landgraves of Thuringia, and was hallowed by the memory of St. Elizabeth of Marburg, the wife of one of them. In this charming spot Luther remained hidden almost a year, obeying the command of his wary sovereign. The room assigned him was not in the main building, but in a small one. It was reached by a narrow flight of stairs which led im- mediately from the entrance to the chamber. It has been pre- served as it was in his day, with the old stove, bedstead, table, and stump which served as a stool. As he sat by the leaded glass window, his eye swept the wild landscape for many miles towards the west. Shortly after his arrival, he wrote Spalatin a long and inter- esting letter describing his journey, his capture, and his life , and work. The two former have been related in the last chap- ter, but some other interesting items may well be given in his own words : — TO GEOKGE SPALATIN AT WORMS The Mountain, May 14, 1521. Greeting. I received your letter, dear Spalatin, and those of Gerbel and Sapidas last Sunday, but have not written before for fear lest the notoriety of my recent capture should cause some one to intercept the 122 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER letters. Various opinions of my disappearance are held in this region, the most popular being that I was captured by friends from Franconia. To-morrow the Emperor's safe-conduct expires. I regret what you write about their savage edict 1 for trying consciences, not so much for my own sake as because they are inviting evil on their own heads and will only succeed in making themselves odious. Such indecent violence will only arouse deep hatred. But let it pass, perhaps the time of their visitation is at hand. . . . We see that the people are neither able nor willing — as Erasmus also wrote in his Advice 2 — to bear the yoke of the Pope and the papists ; therefore let us not cease to press upon it and to pull it down, especially as we have already lost name and fame by so doing. Now the light reveals all things and their show of piety is no longer valuable and cannot rule as hitherto. We have grown by violence and driven them back by violence ; we must see if they can be driven back any more. I sit here lazy and drunken the whole day. I am reading the Greek and Hebrew Bible. . . . Now I have put off my old garments and dress like a knight, let- ting hair and beard grow so that you would not know me — indeed I have hardly become acquainted with myself. Now I am in Christian liberty, free from all tyrannical laws, though I should have preferred that that Dresden hog 8 had killed me publicly while preaching, had God pleased that I should suffer for his Word. The Lord's will be done ! Farewell and pray for me. Salute all the court. Maktin Luther. Life at the castle was indeed a change from the routine of Wittenberg. The disguised prisoner was attended by two pages of gentle blood and by an armed guard. The warden, John von Berlepsch, entertained him with distinguished courtesy. The strict incognito did not prevent constant intercourse with friends, not only by letters privately forwarded but by personal visits also. He strolled through the woods searching for strawberries and even hunted a little. Pity for the poor animals is an unex- 1 On April .30 the Emperor called the electors and princes together to consult about an edict against Luther, which was not, however, signed until May 26. 2 Luther is probably referring to the Consilium cujusdam ex ammo cupientis, etc., though such strong views as these ore hardly expressed therein. 8 Duke George of Albertine Saxony. Both here and in the letter to Cranach, Luther does him wrong, for he advised observing the safe-conduct. « & oq H M «! W H THE WARTBURG 123 pected and amiable trait in the sturdy peasant; it is a matter of course that St. Francis of Assisi should save a hare from the trap, 1 but it is almost surprising that Luther should do the same. Most of his time, however, was spent in the little cell studying the Bible and writing. His letters are full of his experiences, and it is perhaps some of those translated below of which Cole- ridge was thinking when he said he could hardly imagine a more delightful book than Luther's letters, especially those written from the Wartburg. 2 His metaphysical tastes, however, may have led him to prefer the discussions of knotty points in theo- logy. His references to "the hearty mother tongue of the orig- inal " and (in his table-talk) to " the racy old German " are hardly happy, as most of the epistles are written in Latin : — TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT COBUEG Isle of Patmos, June 10, 1521. . . . lam both very idle and very busy here, I study Hebrew and Greek and write without cessation. The warden treats me far better than I deserve. The trouble with which I suffered at Worms has not left me but increased, for I am more constipated than I ever was and despair of a remedy. The Lord thus visits me, that I may never be without a relic of the cross. Blessed be he. Amen. I wonder that the imperial edict is so delayed. In my retreat I have read the letters against me sent to the estates of the Empire, but I find them faulty. It is rumored that Ghievres 8 has died and left Charles a million gulden. How brave is Christ not to fear these mountains of gold ! Would that they might learn once for all that he is the Lord our God. I have not yet answered the young prince 4 for fear of revealing my hiding-place, nor, for the same reason, do I think it expedient to do so now. Pray for me diligently. This is all I need, as other things abound. Now that I am at rest I care not what they do with me in public. Farewell in the Lord and greet all those whom you think it safe to greet. Hekbicus Nesicus. 6 1 Sabatier: Vie de St. Franqoia d' Assise, 9th ed., Paris, 1894, p. 204. 2 S. T. Coleridge : The Friend. 8 Guillaume de Croy, Senor de Chievres, one of the Emperor's counsellors. * John Frederic, nephew of the Elector and later Elector. 6 This signature is an unexplained bit of humor. 124 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBUEG (Wartburg,) August 15, 1521. Greeting. Dear Spalatin, I have received the second and third parts of my Sermon on Confession from you and the first part from Me- lanchthon. I cannot say how sorry and disgusted I am with the print- ing. I wish I had sent nothing in German, because they print it so poorly, carelessly, and confusedly, to say. nothing of bad types and paper. John the printer is always the same old Johnny. Please do not let him print any of my German Homilies, but return them for me to send elsewhere. What is the use of my working so hard if the errors in the printed books give occasion to other publishers to make them still worse ? I would not sin so against the gospels and epistles ; better let them remain hidden than bring them out in such form. Therefore I send you nothing now, although I have a good deal of manuscript ready. I shall forward no more until I learn that these sordid mercenaries care less for their profits than for the public. Such printers seem to think : "It is enough for me to get the money ; let the readers look out for the matter." . . . Do not be anxious about my exile. It makes no difference to me where I am. But I fear I may at length become burdensome to the men here. I wish to cause expense to no one. I think I am living at the bounty of the Elector, and could not stay another hour if I thought I was consuming the substance of the warden, who serves me in all things cheerfully and freely. You know if any one's wealth must he wasted it should be that of a prince, for to be a prince and not a robber is hardly possible, and the greater the prince the harder it is. Please inform me on this point. I cannot understand this gentleman's liberality unless he supports me from the Elector's purse. It is my nature to be afraid of burdening people when perchance I do not, but such a scruple becomes an honorable man. Last week I hunted two days to see what that bitter-sweet * pleas- ure of heroes was like. We took two hares and a few poor partridges — a worthy occupation indeed for men with nothing to do. I even moralized among the snares and dogs, and the superficial pleasure I may have derived from the hunt was equalled by the pity and pain which are a necessary part of it. It is an image of the devil hunting innocent little creatures with his gins and his hounds, the impious 1 " y\vidwiKpoi> " one of the Greek words inserted as the author progressed in his study of that language. THE WARTBURG 125 magistrates, bishops and theologians. I deeply felt this parable of the simple and faithful soul. A still more cruel parable followed. With great pains I saved a little live rabbit, and rolled it up in the sleeve of my cloak, but when I left it and went a little way off the dogs found the poor rabbit and killed it by biting its right leg and throat through the cloth. Thus do the Pope and Satan rage to kill souls and are not stopped by my labor. I am sick of this kind of hunting and prefer to chase bears, wolves, foxes, and that sort of wicked magistrate with spear and arrow. It consoles me to think that the mystery of salva- tion is near, when hares and innocent creatures will be captured rather by men than by bears, wolves, and hawks, i. e., the bishops and theo- logians. I mean that now they are snared into hell, then they will be captured for heaven. Thus I joke with you. You know that your nobles would be beasts of prey even in paradise. Even Christ the greatest hunter conld hardly capture and keep them. I jest with you because I know you like hunting. I have changed my mind and have decided to send the rest of the Homilies, thinking that as they are begun they had better be fin- ished. . . . The writer's ill health was due partly to the rich fare and generally sedentary life, and partly, perhaps, to a reaction after the terrible strain of the preceding weeks. It caused the tempta- tions and especially the depression of which he often speaks. Some have thought that it was also at the bottom of those visions of the devil which are popularly supposed to have been frequent at the Wartburg. The fact is, however, that not only the legend of the inkstand hurled at the fiend, but every other story about such visions receives not a particle of support from contemporary sources. In all his letters from the Wartburg, Luther never once mentions any supernatural experience, nor even in his work On the Abuse of the Mass, where he makes special mention of such apparitions in general, does he say one word of his ever having seen any himself. That he occasionally spoke of them long afterwards is due rather to an hallucination of memory than of the senses at the time. He heard some noises in the old spooky castle, so slight that he hardly noticed them, but they gradually grew in memory, so that he could say, just ten years later: — 126 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER Satan has often vexed me with visions, especially at the Wartburg. One night while I was there he took some walnuts from the table and kept snapping them at the ceiling all night. As he told this story over and over, it gradually expanded with the years, until, in its final form, it assumed enormous proportions. It is a striking illustration of the fallibility of human memory and of the origin of ghost-stories, and demon- strates once for all the worthlessness of the table-talk as an historical source for events of long antecedent date. Indeed only as an illustration of these points the story has interest. It is so hopelessly confused, either by Luther or by the note- taker, that John von Berlepsch, a bachelor, is given a wife, and two rooms are spoken of, where there was, in reality, but one. This was at the head of one flight of stairs, with no other chamber near by. Thus it is that the story appears twenty-five years after the visions it records : — When I left Worms in 1521, 1 was captured near Eisenach, and dwelt in the Wartburg, my Patmos. I was far from people, in a room where no one could come to me but two boys of good family, who brought me food and drink twice a day. Once they brought me a sack of hazel nuts, which I ate from time to time. I kept them in a box. When it was bedtime, I undressed in my study, put out the light, went into my chamber, and lay down in bed. Then the hazel nuts began, rose up one after another, hit the rafters hard and rattled on the bed, but I did nothing. If I only began to drop off to sleep such a noise started on the steps as if some one were rolling sixty barrels down the stairs, yet I knew that the steps were closed with iron bars so that no one could get to them. I got up, went to the stairs to see what the matter was, and there they were locked up ! . . . Later the wife of John von Berlepsch, who had heard that I was in the castle, wanted to see me, came, but they would not let her see me. But they took me to another room and the lady slept in my chamber. There she heard such a racket in the room hard-by that she thought a thousand devils were in it. The best way to drive out the fiend is to despise him and call on Christ, for he cannot bear that. You should say to him : *' If you are lord over Christ, so be it ! " That is what I said at Eisenach. Whatever may have been at the base of this astonishing tale, THE WARTBURG 127 <\t is certain that at the Wartburg apparitions from the next world did not interfere with an active participation in the busi- ness of the present one. A lively interest in public affairs was maintained by means of letters forwarded by Spalatin. Luther did not feel called upon to set all the wrongs in the world right, but he was strongly inclined to intervene when he heard of the deeds of his old enemy, Albert of Mayence. During the summer following the Diet of Worms, Carlstadt had carried on reform measures at Wittenberg, especially insisting that the clergy should take wives. Luther soon wrote in favor of this, but even before his tract was published a number of priests accepted Carlstadt's invitation to marry. Some of them in the jurisdic- tion of Mayence were arrested by Archbishop Albert, though that notoriously immoral prelate did not scruple to derive an income from licenses to the clergy to keep concubines. At the same time, thinking that there was no longer any danger, he ventured to recommence the trade in indulgences in his capital, Halle. When the Reformer heard of these things he wrote a fierce and reckless tract, Against the Idol of Halle, which he sent Spalatin to have printed. The Elector refused to allow its publication for reasons of state, and after an angry protest, Luther was forced to agree to postpone printing the obnoxious tract until he had remonstrated privately with the offending prelate : — , TO ALBERT, ARCHBISHOP AND ELECTOR OF MAYENCE (Tee Wartburg,) December 1, 1521. My humble service to your Electoral Grace, my honorable and gra- cious Lord. Your Grace doubtless remembers vividly that I have written you twice before, the first time at the beginning of the indulg- ence fraud 1 protected by your Grace's name. In that letter I faith- fully warned your Grace and from Christian love set myself against those deceitful, seducing, greedy preachers thereof, and against their heretical, infidel books. Had I not preferred to act with moderation I might have driven the whole storm on your Grace as the one who aided and abetted the traders, and I might have written expressly against their heretical books, but instead I spared your Grace and the house of Brandenburg, thinking that your Grace might have acted 1 October 31, 1517, p. 42. 128 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER through ignorance, led astray by false whisperers, so I only attacked them, and with how much trouble and danger your Grace knows. But as this my true admonition was mocked by your Grace, ob- taining ingratitude instead of thanks, I wrote you a second time, 1 humbly asking for information. To this I got a hard, improper, un- episcopal, unchristian answer, 2 referring me to higher powers for information. As these two letters did no good, I am now sending your Grace a third warning, according to the gospel, this time in German, hoping that such admonition and prayer, which ought to be superfluous and unnecessary, may help. Your Grace has again erected at Halle that idol which robs poor simple Christians of their money and their souls. You have thus shown that the criminal blunder for which Tetzel was blamed was not due to him alone, but also to the Archbishop of Mayence, who, not regarding my gentleness to him, insists on taking all the blame on himself. Perhaps your Grace thinks I am no more to be reckoned with, but am looking out for my own safety, and that his Imperial Majesty has extinguished the poor monk. On the contrary, I wish your Grace to know that I will do what Christian love demands without fearing the gates of hell, much less unlearned popes, bishops, and cardinals. I will not suffer it nor keep silence when the Archbishop of Mayence gives out that it is none of his business to give information to a poor man who asks for it. The truth is that your ignorance is wilful, as long as the thing ignored brings you in money. I am not to blame, but your own conduct. I humbly pray your Grace, therefore, to leave poor people unde- ceived and unrobbed, and show yourself a bishop rather than a wolf. It has been made clear enough that indulgences are only knavery and fraud, and that only Christ should be preached to the people, so that your Grace has not the excuse of ignorance. Your Grace will please remember the beginning, and what a terrible fire was kindled from a little despised spark, and how all the world was surely of the opinion that a single poor beggar was immeasurably too weak for the Pope, and was undertaking an impossible task. But God willed to give the Pope and his followers more than enough to do, and to play a game contrary to the expectation of the world and in spite of it, so that the Pope will hardly recover, growing daily worse and one may see God's work therein. Let no one doubt that the, same God yet lives and knows how to withstand a cardinal of Mayence even if four emperors support him. . . . 1 February 4, 1520. " February 26, 1520. THE WARTBUKG 129 Wherefore I write to tell your Grace that if the idol is not taken down, my duty to godly doctrine and Christian salvation will abso- lutely force me to attack your Grace publicly as I did the Pope, and oppose your undertaking, and lay all the odium which Tetzel once had on the Archbishop of Mayence, and show all the world the difference between a bishop and a wolf. . . . Moreover I beg your Grace to leave in peace the priests who, to avoid unchastity, have betaken themselves to marriage. Do not deprive them of their God-given rights. Your Grace has no authority, reason, nor right to persecute them, and arbitrary crime does not become a bishop. ... So your Grace can see that if you do not take care, the Evangelic party will raise an outcry and point out that it would be- come a bishop first to cast the beam out of his own eye and put away his harlots before he separates pious wives from their husbands. . . . I will not keep silence, for, though I do not expect it, I hope to make the bishops leave off singing their lively little song. . . . I beg and expect a right speedy answer from your Grace within the next fortnight, for at the expiration of that time my pamphlet against the Idol of Halle will be published unless a proper answer comes. And if this letter is received by your Grace's secretaries and does not come into your own hands, I will not hold off for that reason. Secretaries should be true and a bishop should so order his court that that reaches him which should reach him. God give your Grace his grace unto a right mind and will. Your Grace's obedient, humble servant, Martin Luther. The desired answer came. It is a proof of the great power wielded by Luther, that, after the presentation of an ultima- tum, the primate of all Germany should reply with abject submission to the outlawed heretic. Albert was, indeed, in a difficult situation, for, notwithstanding a rather non-committal attitude at Worms he had been accused of having had Luther assassinated, and stood in mortal terror of popular vengeance. Both now and later, moreover, the Macchiavellian prelate sought to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. "While continu- ing to cultivate the friendship of Rome he anxiously avoided a breach with Wittenberg. He accordingly induced Capito, a humanist in his employ, to intercede with the Reformer, to whom he himself indited this astonishing missive : — ISO THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER TO MAKTIN LUTHEK, IN CARE OF SPALATIN Halle, December 21, 1521. My dear doctor, I have received your letter and I take it in good part and graciously, and will see to it that the thing that moved you so be done away, and I will act, God willing, as becomes a pious, spiritual, and Christian prince, as far as God gives me grace and strength, for which I earnestly pray and have prayers said for me, for I can do nothing of myself and know well that without God's grace there is no good in me, but that I am as much foul mud as any other, if not more.- I do not wish to conceal this, for I am more than willing to show you grace and favor for Christ's sake, and I can well bear fraternal and Christian punishment. I hope the merciful, kind God will give me herein more grace, strength and patience to live in this matter and in others by his will. Albert, with his own hand. No wonder that the recipient was nonplussed by this letter, doubting whether it showed more godly contrition or devilish hypocrisy. The soft answer turned away his wrath, or rather suspended it for a year, when the polemic against the Idol of Halle came out in a revised form under the title, Against the Estate of the Pope and Bishops falsely called Spiritual. This bitter pamphlet attacks the " idol-worship " and vices of the higher clergy without mercy. Luther accomplished an enormous amount of literary work during his year of hiding. One of his largest tasks was the composition of the Postilla, or homilies on the gospel and epistle for each Sunday. More important in abiding results was the work on the celi- bacy of the clergy. Wien Carlstadt, the Wittenberg radical, came forward as the champion of marriage of priests, monks, and nuns, Luther was by no means clear in his own mind about the expediency of this practice. On August 6, 1521, he wrote Spalatin : — I have received Carlstadt's pamphlets. Good Heavens ! will our Wittenbergers give wives even to monks ? They won't force one on me. . . . Farewell, pray for me and take care not to get married for fear of tribulation of the flesh. THE WARTBURG 131 And again on August 15 : — How I wish that Garlstadt in attacking sacerdotal celibacy would quote more applicable texts. I fear he will excite a prejudice against it. . . . It is a noble cause he has taken up, I wish he were more equal to it. For you see how clear and cogent we are forced to be on account of our enemies, who calumniate even what is most perspicuous and convincing in our arguments. Wherefore we, who are a spectacle to the world, must take care that our words be above reproach, as Paul teaches. Perhaps I am meddling with matters which are none of my business, and yet they are my business, especially if he succeeds. For what is more dangerous than to invite so many monks and nuns to marry and urge it with unconvincing texts of Scripture, by complying with which invitation the consciences of the parties may be burdened with an eternal cross worse than they now bear. I wish that celibacy might be left free, as the gospel requires, but how to add to that prin- ciple I know not. But my warnings are in vain ; Carlstadt's career will not be checked and therefore must be endured. Having convinced himself that the cause was noble, Luther undertook to find adequate arguments in support of it. His first essay in this direction was a mere sketch (Themata de votis), a series of propositions on vows sent to Wittenberg for debate. The thesis here presented is that all that is not done by faith is sin, and that monastic vows are taken in reliance on good works and not on faith, and therefore are wrong. Indeed it is tantamount to vowing a life of impiety, and moreover it destroys, Christian liberty. These thoughts took form in a treatise On Monastic Vows, which the author dedicated to his father in the following letter : — TO HANS LUTHER AT MANSFELD The Wilderness, November 21, 1521. This book, dear father, I wish to dedicate to you, not to make your name famous in the world, for fame puffeth up the flesh, according to the doctrine of St. Paul, but that I might have occasion in a short preface as it were between you and me to point out to the Christian reader the argument and contents of the book, together with an illus- trative example. . . . It is now sixteen years since I became a monk, having taken the 132 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER vow without your knowledge and against your will. You were anxious and fearful about my weakness, beeause I was a young blood of twenty-two, that is, to use St. Augustine's words, it was still hot youth with me, and you had learned from numerous examples that monkery made many unblessed and so were determined to marry me honorably and tie me down. This fear, this anxiety, this non-consent of yours were for a time simply irreconcilable And indeed, my vow was not worth a fig, since it was taken with- out the consent of the parents God gave me. Moreover it was a godless vow both because taken against your will and without my whole heart. In short, it was simple doctrine of men, that is of the spiritual estate of hypocrites, a doctrine not commanded by God. . . . Dear father, will you still take me out of the cloister ? If so, do not boast of it, for God has anticipated you and taken me out himself. What difference does it make whether I retain or lay aside the cowl and the tonsure. Do they make the monk? . . . My conscience is free and redeemed ; therefore I am still a monk but not a monk, and a new creature not of the Pope but of Christ, for the Pope also has creatures and is a creator of puppets and idols and masks and straw men, of which I was formerly one, but now have escaped by the Word. . . . The Pope may strangle me and condemn me and bid me go to hell, but he will not be able to rouse me after death to strangle me again. To be banned and damned is according to my own heart and will. May he never absolve me more ! I hope the great day is at hand when the kingdom of abomination and horror will be broken and thrust down. Would to God that I had been worthy to be burned by the Pope ! . . . The Lord bless you, dear father, with mother, your Margaret, and all our family. Farewell in the Lord Christ. The work itself is an elaborate inquiry into the nature of monasticism. Some vows are allowed, but one must distinguish between the good and the bad, for the more holy a thing is the more likely it is to be perverted. " What is more holy than worship which is the first commandment? But what is more common than superstition, that is, false and perverted wor- ship ? " No vow is to be taken except according to the Bible, — the very opposite of monastic rules. If the Bible allows vir- ginity it rather deters men from it than invites them to it. Sec- THE WARTBURG 1S3 ondly, vows are the enemies of faith, for monastic life is a good work, and hence outside of faith, without faith and sinful. Thirdly, vows are hostile to Christian liberty. Fourthly, they are repugnant to God's commands. If there have been saints in the cloister, it has not been because of the cloister. Monks forget that they are Christians in remembering that they are Dominicans, Franciscans, or Benedictines. Vows-are also hostile to charity. Finally, they are inimical to reason. This book, which the author himself judged to be among his most important, had an enormous sale and great influence in its own day. Needless to say, for us it has only an historical interest, though, indeed, an eminent Catholic scholar thought it necessary, only a few years ago, to refute it point by point. But most of us will concur in the judgment of Erasmus when it came out that "it is very garrulous." Far greater than this treatise was the work next undertaken by the Reformer, namely, the translation of the Bible, which from this time on was the constant labor of his life. He began with the New Testament, of which he speaks in the letter next given : — TO JOHN LANG AT EEFURT The Whdekness, December 18, 1521. I do not approve of that tumultuous exodus from the cloister, for the monks should have separated peaceably and in charity. At the next general chapter you must defend and cherish the Evangelic cause, for I shall lie hidden until Easter. In the mean time I shall continue to write my Homilies and shall translate the New Testament into German, a thing which my friends demand and at which I hear that you also labor. Would that every town had its interpreter, and that this book alone might be on the tongues and in the hands, the eyes, the ears, and the hearts of all men. Ask for other news at Wittenberg. I am well in body and well cared for, but am buffeted with sin and temptation. Pray for me and farewell. Martin Luther. The work, though carefully done, was prosecuted with such zeal that it was completed within three months. Of the methods, results, and peculiarities of this translation more will be said in a separate chapter. Suffice it here to note that Luther used the 134 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER Greek text edited by Erasmus in 1516 and supplied with a new Latin translation in parallel columns. It is possible that he also had by him one or more of the older German translations, of which there were at least fourteen, but the great originality of his work would suggest that he used them but little. CHAPTEE XII THE WITTENBERG REVOLUTION AND THE RETURN FROM THE WARTBURG. 1521-1522 While Luther was in retirement at the beautiful old castle near Eisenach, the movement started by him was carried on with accelerated velocity at Wittenberg. Carlstadt's attack on sacerdotal celibacy was only the first step in a revolution. In this movement two distinct factors combined, the one of con- structive reform, the other of popular tumult; the best ele- ments of the first were due to Luther, who, while absent, kept up a constant correspondence with Wittenberg ; for the second element other leaders were responsible, Carlstadt, Zwilling, and the Zwickau prophets. The constructive reform was embodied in two city ordinances 1 , the first of November, 1521, the second of January 24, 1522. The earlier bit of legislation provided for " a common purse," that is, for the public care of the worthy poor, on new prin- ciples, deduced from the Address to the Nobility and the larger Sermon on Usury. It will be remembered how in his great pamphlet the author proposes that begging be prohibited. This was now done by the town of Wittenberg, while the deserving poor, i. e., those who could not support themselves, were provided for from funds voluntarily contributed to the parish church. That not only the ideas but the form of this ordinance proceeded from Luther has been proved from a first draft of the docu- ment in his hand recently discovered. The second decree passed by the town council two months after the first was an extension of the other on more radical lines, doubtless due to the active influence of Zwilling and Carlstadt. It provided that to the common fund should be applied the income from the property of the twenty-one resident brother- hoods, and especially from endowed masses, now regarded as an abomination. The expenses of the common treasury were also 136 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER greatly enlarged ; orphans were to be cared for, students at the schools and university to be helped, poor girls to be supplied with dowries, and workmen loaned capital at four per cent. The laws against begging were reenaeted with additional penal- ties. A police charged with the surveillance of morals and espe- cially with the suppression of houses of ill fame was instituted. Finally, a new form of divine service was introduced, by which all pictures and superfluous altars were to be torn down, com- munion was to be administered in both kinds, and the govern, ment bound itself to see that ministers preached only the pure gospel. All the provisions of this comprehensive decree, except the last on public worship, were suggested by Luther. These reforms, for the most part salutary, were accompanied by others, which, even when unobjectionable in themselves, were carried through with mob violence. The riots began about the first of October, when Gabriel Zwilling, an Augns- tinian monk, began to preach against the mass and the canon- ical hours. At his instance these services were stopped by the monks on October 6 or 7 ; he then began a campaign against the monastic life itself, not only leaving it free to his brothers to quit the cloister, but forcing them to do so with insults and threats. Carlstadt now began to attack the mass and with such suc- cess that the priests celebrating it in the parish church on December 3 were stoned, and the day following an altar in the Franciscan convent was destroyed by the students. The arrest of the offenders was the occasion of a worse riot on December 12, when the mob went to the town officers and de- manded their release. The agitation spread. The monks at Erfurt left the cloister tumultuously. A plan was hatched to stop all masses, not only at Wittenberg, but throughout the surrounding country, on January 1, 1522. At Eilenberg a rectory was plundered. On All Saints' Day (November 1) the citizens of Wittenberg demonstrated in force against the Elector's relics in the Castle Church. Much disturbed by the progress of innovation, Luther made a secret visit to his city early in December, lodging with Me- LUTHER AS JUNKER GEORG From the painting by Cranach, December, 1521, in the Stadtbibliothek at Leipsic THE WITTENBERG REVOLUTION 137 lanchthon and privately interviewing other friends, among them Lucas Cranach, who painted his picture. He was rather reas » sured than otherwise by this visit, deciding not to take toe tragically a disturbance in the monastery and a few student riots. He accordingly contented himself with remaining a few days, leaving behind him a Warning to all Christians to keep from Uproar and Sedition. This manuscript he also sent to Spalatin, who, however, prudently refused to have it printed until three months later. In this year [says Luther] by God's grace the holy light of Christ- ian truth., formei"ly suppressed by the Pope and his followers, has been rekindled, by which their manifold and noxious corruption and tyranny has been laid bare and scotched. So that it looks as if tumults would arise, and parsons, monks, bishops, and the whole spiritual estate hunted out and smitten unless they apply themselves earnestly to their improvement. For the common man, agitated and disgusted with the harm done to his property, body and soul, means to do something, and vows that he will never suffer such things more, and has reasons at his tongue's end and threatens to smite with flail and cudgel. The author adds that though the intimidation of the clergy is a good thing, nevertheless tumult is the work of the devil, and all Christians should keep aloof from it and labor only by word of mouth. It may be doubted whether this pamphlet was expressed in really prudent terms, and whether it would not be more likely to excite discontent than to allay it. Nevertheless things might have quieted down had it not been for the pow- erful reenforcement received by the party of revolution on December 27 in the advent of the Zwickau prophets. Among the cloth weavers of this little Saxon town Thomas Miinzer, a fanatic, had formed a sect animated with the desire to renovate both State and Church by the readiest and roughest means. When the civil authorities, fearing the openly threat- ened revolt, imprisoned some of the agitators, Miinzer escaped to Bohemia, and three of his followers, Nicholas Storch, Mark Thomas Stiibner, and Thomae Drechsel, went to Wittenberg. They proclaimed themselves prophets who talked familiarly with God and foresaw the future, revelation coming to them directly from the Spirit. Their mystic quietism was strangely 138 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER mingled with an anarchist programme for overturning the civil government and extirpating the priests. The most harmless of the dogmas of the new sect, and the one from which they were to derive the name of Anabaptists, was opposition to infant baptism and insistence on rebaptizing their proselytes. At Wittenberg the prophets, or " ranters," as they were also «jalled, found a soil prepared for the seed of their doctrine. Ac- cording to their suggestions learning was discouraged, dreams were cultivated, and a systematic propaganda of anarchy organ- ized. The Wittenberg leaders either succumbed to the ascendancy of the prophets or actively joined them. Carlstadt met them more than halfway : he married, retired to a farm, affected to dress like a laborer, and courted popularity by extolling the revelation vouchsafed to babes and sucklings while disparaging the wisdom of the wise. Other Lutherans, like Amsdorf , though they heartily disapproved of the course things were taking, were powerless to stem the tide. The most responsible and gifted of all the professors left at Wittenberg was Philip Melanchthon. Luther's admiration for this pious and precociously learned young man was so great that he felt perfectly safe in leaving the guidance of the new cause in the latter's hands. " They will not need me, dear bro- ther," he said on departing for Worms, " while you still live." When he first heard of the new prophets he modestly opined that Melanchthon would be better able to deal with them than he would be. In this he was destined to disappointment. With much delicacy and refinement, Melanchthon possessed the de- fects of his qualities in a certain want of robustness. Both now, and still more later, at the crises when he was deprived of the other's strong influence, his life was made miserable and his fame tarnished by the exigencies of a situation too large for his powers. In the present instance he wavered, was inclined to believe the arguments against infant baptism, was impressed by the pretensions of the prophets, and hoped his friend Storch might meet his friend Luther. The latter's directions to him how to act, are interesting not only for their connection with the prophets, but also as a revelation of the writer's inner life : — THE WITTENBERG REVOLUTION 139 TO PHILIP MELANCHTHON AT WITTENBERG (Wabtbubq,) January IS, 1522. Greeting. Had the letter of the Archbishop of Mayence come alone it would have satisfied me, but now that Capito's letter is added it is evident that there is some plot. I am greatly disappointed in Capito. I wished to put a stop to that impious trade, but he pleads for it like an attorney, and by teaching the archbishop to confess his private sina thinks to impose on Luther beautifully. I shall restrain myself and not treat the man as he deserves, yet I shall show him that I am alive. Coming now to the " prophets " let me first say that I do not ap- prove your irresolution, especially as you are more richly endowed with the spirit and with learning than I am. In the first place, those who bear witness of themselves are not to be believed, but spirits must be proved. You act on Gamaliel's contrary advice. Hitherto I have heard of nothing said or done by them which Satan could not emulate. Do you, in my place, search out whether they approve their calling. For God never sent any one who was not either called by men or attested by miracles, not even his own son. . . . Do not receive them if they assert that they come by mere revelation. . . . Fray search their innermost spirit and see whether they have ex- perienced those spiritual straightenings, that divine birth, death and infernal torture. If you find their experiences have been smooth, bland, devout (as they say) and ceremonious, do not approve them, though they claim to have been snatched up to the third heaven. . . . Divine Majesty does not speak directly ; rather no man shall see him and live. Nature bears no small stars and no insignificant words of God. . . , Try not to see even Jesus in glory until you have seen him crucified. (Here follows a long argument in favor of infant baptism.) Keep my book against the Archbishop of Mayence to come out and rebuke others when they go mad. Prepare me a lodging because my translation of the Bible will require me to return to you, and pray the Lord that I may do so in accordance with his will. I wish to keep hid- den as long as may be ; in the mean time I shall proceed with what I have begun. Farewell. Yours, ^ Martin Luther. But Melanchthon was not the man to cope with the situation. Feeling his own weakness he besought the Elector to allow his friend to return and quiet the disturbances, but the cautious 1'40 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER prince, fearing openly to acknowledge the outlaw, positively refused to do so. The tumults continued. On January 11 the Augustinians solemnly burned all their pictures. On January 24 Carlstadt forced the town council against their will to pass the ordinance above mentioned. They disapproved in it especially of two things : first, the illegal appropriation of the endowments of masses, and secondly, the abolition of all images in the churches, though the innovators described the making of im- ages as worse than theft, murder, and adultery, because it was forbidden in the first commandment, while the other sins were relegated to the following ones. The disorders attracted the attention of neighboring princes. Duke George of Albertine Saxony made representations to his cousin and also laid a complaint before the Imperial Executive Council (Reichsregiment) at Nuremberg, on January 20. For a moment it looked as if not only sedition but civil war threatened Germany. On February 1 there was another riot. The government at last took action. Carlstadt was politely requested not to preach and Zwilling judged it best to leave town. The situation was still extremely delicate, however, and, fearing another outbreak, on February 20 the town council, without consulting the Elector, sent an urgent request directly to Luther imploring him to re- turn to his place at Wittenberg. This letter was probably the earliest intimation the Reformer had had of the continuation of rioting. His first idea was to send another warning to the people, but the more he thought about it the more certain he became that his presence was necessary. He intimated his intention of returning in a letter to his sovereign, ironically referring to the doings at Wittenberg as a cross which would be a valuable addition to Frederic's famous collection of relics. The mild and pious prince answered at once in a letter to John Oswald, one of his officers at Eisenach, bidding him have a personal interview with the Reformer and communicate the contents of the missive. This relates the course of events at Wittenberg, but also emphasizes the com- plaints already made against them by Duke George and the THE WITTENBERG REVOLUTION 141 danger of a new process against Luther, whom he advises to have patience and wait at least until after the next diet, to be called about the middle of Lent. The cross Frederic says he is willing to bear. This letter arrived on February 28 and its contents were communicated to the refugee just as he had made all preparations to depart. Unhindered by it, he did so the next day, making the dangerous journey alone on horseback Reaching Jena on March 3, he chanced to meet two Swiss students, John Kessler and Spengler, on their way to Wittenberg to study. One of them has left us, in an account of the evening at the Great Bear inn, a vivid picture of the Reformer and a little drama as well. The scene is the public room of the hostel, heated with the large German tile stove and lighted by candles. At a table sits a stalwart man, no longer thin and not yet stout ; his beard, red cap, jerkin and hose, and a long sword, proclaim him a knight. Before him is a glass of beer ; one hand rests on the hilt of his weapon, in the other he holds an open book. Enter two youths, who on account of their muddy boots sit down near the door. Luther — Good evening, friends. Draw nearer and have a drink to warm you up. I see you are Swiss ; from what part do you come and whither are you going ? Kessler — We come from St. Gall, sir, and we are going to Witten- herg. Luther — To Wittenberg ? Well, you will find good compatriots of yours there, the brothers Jerome and Augustine Schurf. Kessler — We have letters to them. Can you tell us, sir, whether Luther is now at Wittenberg, or where he may be ? Luther — I have authentic information that he is not at Witten- berg, but that he will soon return. But Philip Melanchthon is there to teach Greek, and Aurogallus to teach you Hebrew, both of which languages you should study if you wish to understand the Bible. Kessler — Thank God that Luther will soon be back ; if God grant us life we will not rest until we see and hear that man. For it is on account of him that we are going there. We have heard that he wishes to overturn the priesthood and the mass, and as our parents have brought us up to be priests, we want to hear what he can tell us and on what authority he acts. Luther Where have you studied formerly ? 142 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER Kessler — At Basel. Luther — How goes it at Basel ? Is Erasmus there and what is he loing ? Kessler — Erasmus is there, sir, but what he does no man knows, tor he keeps it a secret. (Aside to his companion as Luther takes a drink) I never knew a knight before who used so much Latin, nor one who understood Greek and Hebrew as this one seems to. Luther — Friends, what do they think of Luther in Switzerland ? Kessler — There are various opinions there, sir, as everywhere. Some cannot extol him enough, and thank God for having revealed truth and discovered error by him ; others, especially the clergy, con- demn him as an intolerable heretic. Luther — One might expect as much from the preachers. Spongier — (Raising book which he sees is a Hebrew Psalter) I would give a finger to understand this tongue. Luther — You must work hard to learn it. I also am learning it, and practise some every day. (It is getting dark. Host bustles up, lights more candles, stops before table.) Host — I overheard you, gentlemen, talking of Luther. Pity you were not all here two days ago ; he was here then at this table, sitting right there (points). Spengler — If this cursed weather had not hindered us we should have been here then and should have seen him. Is it not a pity ? Kessler — At least we ought to be thankful that we are in the same house that he was and at the very table where he sat. (Host laughs, goes toward door ; when out of sight of Luther turns and beckons Kessler, who rises anxiously thinking that he has done something amiss and goes to host.) Host (aside to Kessler) — Now that I see that you really want to hear and see Luther, I may tell you that the man at your table is he. Kessler — You're just gulling me because you think I want to see Luther. Host — No, it is positively he, but don't let on that you know him. (Kessler returns to table, where Luther has begun to read again.) Kessler (whispering to his companion) — The host tells me this man is Luther. Spengler — What on earth? Perhaps he said "Hutten"; the two names sound alike, and he certainly looks more like a knight than a monk. THE WITTENBERG REVOLUTION MS (Enter two merchants, who take off their cloaks. One of them lays a book on the table.) Luther — May I ask, friend, what you are reading ? Merchant — Doctor Luther's sermons, just out ; have you not seen them? Luther — I shall soon, at any Tate. Host — Sit down, gentlemen, sit down ; it is supper-time now. Luther — Come here, gentlemen ; I will stand treat. (The merchants sit down and supper is served.) These are bad times, gentlemen. I heard only recently of the princes and lords assembling at Nuremberg to settle the religious question and remedy the grievances of the German nation. "What do they do ? Nothing but waste their time in tournaments and all kinds of wicked diversions. They ought to pray earnestly to God. Fine princes they are ! Let us hope that our children and posterity will be less poisoned by papal errors and more given to the truth than their parents, in whom error is so firmly implanted that it is hard to root out. First Merchant — I am a plain, blunt man, look you, who understand little of this business, but I say to myself, as far as I can see, Luther must be either an angel from heaven or a devil from hell. I would give ten gulden to have the chance to confess to him ; I believe he could give me good counsel for my conscience. (The merchants get up and go out to feed their horses.) Host (to students) — You owe me nothing ; Luther has paid it all. Kessler — Thank you, sir, shall I say Hutten? Luther — No, I am not he; (to host) I am made a noble to-night, for these Switzers take me for Ulrich von Hutten. Host — You are not Hutten, but Martin Luther. Luther (laughing) — They think I am Hutten ; you that I am Luther; soon I'll be Prester John. (Raising his glass) Friends, I drink your health (putting down his glass), but wait a moment; host, bring us a measure of wine ; the beer is not so good for me, as I am more accustomed to wine. (They drink.) Luther (rising to say good-night and offering them his hand) — When you get to Wittenberg, remember me to Jerome Schurf . Kessler — Whom shall we remember, sir? Luther — Say only that he that will soon come sends his greetings. (Exit.) The next morning Luther departed early. At Borna, where he arrived on March 5, he wrote his sovereign to apologize for 144 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER his reference to the latter's hobby of relic-collecting, and to point out why he must go to Wittenberg even if Frederic could no longer protect him there : — TO FREDERIC, ELECTOR OP SAXONY, AT LOCHAU Boena, March 5, 1522. Favor and peace from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ, and my humble service. Most serene, highborn Prince, most gracious Lord ! Your Grace's kind letter reached me Friday evening as I was about to depart the next day. I need not say that I know your Grace meant the best for me, for I am certain of it as far as a man can be of anything. Indeed my conviction of it is almost superhuman, but that makes no difference. I take the liberty of supposing from your Grace's tone that my let- ter hurt you a little, but your Grace is wise enough to understand how I write. I have confidence that your Grace knows my heart better than to suppose I would insult your Grace's famous wisdom by unseemly words. I assure you with all my heart that I have always had a per- fect and unaffected love for your Grace above all other princes and rulers. What I wrote was from anxiety to reassure your Grace, not for my own sake (of that I had no thought), but for the sake of the untoward movement at Wittenberg carried on by our friends to the detriment of the Evangelic cause. I feared that your Grace would suffer great inconvenience from it. The calamity also bore hard on me, so that, had I not been certain we had the pure gospel, I should have despaired. To my sorrow the movement has made a mockery of all the good that has been done and has brought it to naught. I would willingly buy the good cause with my life could I do so. Things are now done for which we can answer neither to God nor to man. They hang around my neck and offend the gospel and sadden my heart. My letter, most gracious Lord, was for those men, and not for my- self, that your Grace might see the devil in the drama now enacting at Wittenberg. Although the admonition was unnecessary to your Grace, yet it was needful for me to write. As for myself, most gra- cious Lord, I answer thus : Your Grace knows (or, if you do not, I now inform you of the fact) that I have received my gospel not from men but from Heaven only, by our Lord Jesus Christ, so that I might well be able to boast and call myself a minister and evangel- ist, as I shall do in future. I offered to be tried and judged, not THE WITTENBERG REVOLUTION 145 because I had doubts myself, but to convince others and from sheer humility. But now I see that my too great humility abases the gospel, and that if I yield a span the devil will take all. So I am consci- entiously compelled to resist. I have obeyed your Grace this year [by staying at Wartburg] to please you. The devil knows I did not hide from cowardice, for he saw my heart when I entered Worms. Had I then believed that there were as many devils as tiles on the roof, I would have leaped into their midst with joy. Now Duke George is still far from being the equal of one devil. Since the Father of infinite mercy has by the gospel made us happy lords of all devils and of death, and has given us rich confidence to call him dearest Father, your Grace can see for yourself that it would be a deep insult to such a Father not to trust him, and that we are lords even of Duke George's wrath. I am fully persuaded that had I been called to Leipsic instead of Wittenberg, I should have gone there, even if (your Grace will ex- cuse my foolish words) it had rained Duke Georges nine days and every duke nine times as furious as this one. He esteems my Lord Christ a man of straw, but my Lord and I can suffer that for a while. I will not conceal from your Grace that I have more than once wept and prayed for Duke George that God might enlighten him. I will pray and weep once more and then cease for ever. Will your Grace please pray, and have prayers said by others, that we may turn from him the judgment that (God knows) is always in wait for him. I could slay him with a single word. I have written this to your Grace to inform you that I am going to Wittenberg under a far higher protection than that of the Elector. I do not intend to ask your Grace's protection. Indeed I think I shall protect you rather than you me. If I thought your Grace could and would defend me by force, I would not come. The sword ought not and cannot decide a matter of this kind. God alone must rule it with- out human care and cobperation. He who believes the most can protect the most, and as I see your Grace is yet weak in faith, I can by no means regard you as the man to protect and save me. As your Grace desires to know what to do in this matter, and thinks you have done too little, I humbly answer that you have done too much and should do nothing. God will not and cannot suffer your interference nor mine. He wishes it left to himself ; I say no more, your Grace can decide. If your Grace believes, you will be safe and have peace ; if you do not believe, I do, and must leave your Grace's unbelief to its own torturing anxiety such as all unbelievers have to suffer. As I do not follow your advice and remain hidden, your Grace 146 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER is excused before God if I am captured or put to death. Before men your Grace should act as a prince of the Empire and be obedient to your sovereign, and let his Imperial Majesty rule in your cities over both life and property, as is his right by the Imperial Constitution, and you should not offer any resistance in case be captures and puts me to death. No one should oppose authority save he who ordained it, otherwise it is rebellion and displeasing to God. But I hope they will have the good sense to recognize your Grace's lofty position and so not become my executioners themselves. If your Grace leaves them an open door and free passes, when they come you will have done enough for obedience. They can ask nothing more of your Grace than to in- quire if Luther be with you, which will not put your Grace in peril or trouble. Christ has not taught me to be a Christian to injure others. If they are so unreasonable as to ask your Grace to lay hands upon me, I shall then tell your Grace what to do, always keeping your Grace safe from injury and peril in body, soul, or estate, as far as in me is — your Grace may then act as I advise or not as you please. . . . Your Grace's humble subject, Martin Lutheb. Frederic answered this letter on March 7 with one to the Wittenberg jurist Schurf , bidding him request Luther to draw up a statement that he had only returned to quiet the tumults. The Reformer did as requested on March 9 j the Elector was not quite satisfied and a new memorial was accordingly drawn up by Luther on March 12, which the Prince might submit to the Diet soon to assemble at Nuremberg. The reasons here given, and above all the immediate subsidence of tumult, com- pletely satisfied that august body and prevented any measures being taken against the banned heretic or his protector. CHAPTER XIII CARLSTADT AND MtfNZKR. 1522-1525 Eveet revolution has its extremists against whose unwise fanaticism the true reformer has to guard as carefully as he resists the abuses of hopeless reactionaries. Some revolutions fall under the sway of the radical party — Jacobins and Com- munists — and thus plunge into excesses which every true friend of progress must regret. The Reformation was no exception to the general rule ; it had its extreme left, — Anabaptists and ranters as they were then called, — and had it not been for the master brain in control, any one of several revolutionary parties claiming alliance with the Reformation might have obtained the ascendancy and swept it along to the ruin which overtook each in turn. Luther's insight, courage, and genius shone brighter in steering his ship clear of these rocks and shoals than they had when he first cut the ropes and set sail. His task now was to restore order at Wittenberg. Arriv- ing late on the afternoon of Thursday, March 6, he spent two days looking about and getting his bearings. The im- pression he made is faithfully recorded in a contemporary letter from Albert Burer to Beatus Rhenanus, Wittenberg, March 29 : — Martin Luther returned to restore order clad as a knight and in the company of knights. . . . He is a man in whose face one may read benevolence, charity, and cheerfulness ; his voice is mild and mel- low ; his delivery very graceful. "Whoever has heard him once will desire to hear him again. Luther lost no time in starting a vigorous campaign against the agitation. In eight sermons, on eight successive days, from March 9 to 16, risking his popularity as freely as he had his life, he exhorted the people to good sense, moderation, and' above all to charity. In the first address, on the text, " All 148 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER things are lawful unto me but all things are not expedient," he shows how much better it is to tolerate some usages which we regard as superfluous and unnecessary, for the sake of our brothers who are not so far advanced. Reform must begin with! milk for babes, the pure doctrine of charity and faith, after which may come the strong meat of drastic law. True Christ- J ian liberty is not evinced by boasting how free we are from all law, but by showing how ready we are to serve our neighbors in love. On the second day he enunciated one of his fundamental principles with distinctness : — Compel or force any one with power I will not, for faith must be gentle and unforced. Take an example by me. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but not with force ; I only wrote, preached, and used God's Word, and nothing else. That Word, while I slept and drank beer with Melanchthon and Amsdorf , has broken the papacy more than any king or emperor ever broke it. Had I wished it, I might have brought Germany to civil war. Yes, at Worms I might have started a game which would not have been safe for the Emperor, but it would have been a fool's game. So I did nothing, but only let the Word act. Having laid down his general principles, that mob violence is not the way to reform the Church, that sedition, even when provoked, is always wrong, and that the people in presuming to regulate spiritual matters usurp an office which does not be- long to them, the preacher goes on in the following sermons to take up one by one the matters which have so much exercised the community — images, the monastic life, taking the sacra- ment in both kinds — and applies these principles to them. The eight sermons must be given a high place in the oratory not only of the pulpit but of the forum. They are filled with the spirit of the statesman as well as of the priest. They were completely successful. The lowering clouds before which his colleagues had stood gaping or which they had helped to raise vanished almost in a moment. Luther mentioned no names, but the leaders of the opposition were thoroughly discredited and left without a follower. Carlstadt sulked at home ; the prophets beat a hasty retreat. ^ On the day after his last sermon the Reformer wrote a letter CARLSTADT AND MUNZER 149 to the parish priest at Zwickau, one of his most devoted fol- lowers, expounding his method of action clearly and concisely. The epistle is conceived in the spirit of Paul's advice to the Corinthians (1 Corinthians, viii) : TO NICHOLAS HAUSMANN AT ZWICKAU Wittenberg, March 17, 1522. Greeting. Dear Nicholas, although I am variously occupied by our great disturbances, I cannot omit writing to you. Your Zwickau prophets were about to bring forth monsters, which if born would have done no little damage. Their spirit is fair-seeming and very wily, but the Lord be with you. Amen. Satan has attempted much evil here in my fold, and in such a man- ner that it is hard to oppose him without scandal. Be on your guard against all innovations made by public decree or popular agitation. What our friends attempt by force and violence must be resisted by word only, overcome by word and destroyed by word. It is Satan who urges us to extreme measures. I condemn masses held as sacrifices and good works, but I would not lay hands on those who are unwilling to give them up or on those who are doubtful about them, nor would I prevent them by force. I con- demn by word onlyl whoso believes, let him believe and follow, whoso does not believe, let him not believe and depart. No one is to be com- pelled to the faith or to the things that are of faith, but to be drawn by word that he may believe and come of his own accord. I condemn images, but only by word, saying not that they should be burned, but that faith should not be placed in them, as hitherto has been done and is yet done. They will fall of themselves when the instructed people learn that they are nothing before God. In like manner I condemn the Pope's laws about confession, communion, prayer and fasting, but by word, that I may free consciences from them. While their con- sciences are freed, they may use such things for the sake of the weaker brethren who are entangled in them, and then may cease to use them as they wax strong, so that charity may be the rule in external usages and laws. Nothing vexes me more than this multitude, which abandons Scrip- ture, faith, and charity, and boasts that it is Christian only because in the presence of weaker brethren it is able to eat flesh on Fridays, commune in both kinds, and stop fasting and prayer. . . . But all things are to be proved by Scripture and hearts are to be helped little 150 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER by little like Jacob's sheep, that they may first receive the word of their own accord and afterwards grow stronger. . . . Yours, Martin Luther. Early in April Luther consented to hear the prophets in their own defence, of which he later gave the following report : — In 1522 ' Mark Storch 2 came to me with sweet, seductive words to lay his doctrine before me. As he presumed to teach things not in Scripture I said to him : " I will not agree with that part of your doc- trine unsupported by Scripture unless you work miracles to prove it." . . . He said : " You shall see miracles in seven years." (These words were from Satan who soon after instigated the Feasants' Revolt.) He presumptuously continued : " God will not take away my power. I can tell whether a man will be saved or not." — But Satan cannot remain hidden: his speech bewrayeth him. Storch had wonderful phrases, "illu- mination, quietism," and the like. 8 I asked him what he meant by these words, but he said he would not preach to inept disciples. I asked him how he knew the inept from the apt. He replied : " I can tell what sort of a talent a man has." I asked : " My dear Mark, what sort of a talent have I ? " He answered : " You are in the first degree of mobil- ity, but you will soon be in the first degree of immobility," — in which I am. After pacifying Wittenberg, Luther visited Weimar, Erfurt, and other neighboring places, preaching with great success against fanaticism and sedition. But the battle was not to be so easily won. The ranters, driven from the neighborhood of Wittenberg, fled to other places, where they propagated the same doctrines. Thomas Miinzer, the great original agitator, after his expulsion from 1 Text 1521 (Bindseil, ii, 21). This is a mistake. The prophets did not arrive in Wittenberg until December 27, 1521. Cf. Endera, iii, 381. 2 The names of the prophets are confused : Nicholas Storch and Mark Thomae Stiibner. 8 Langweiligkeit, translated quietism, refers to the doctrine of the mystics that the way to know God was to wait for him in absolute vacancy of thought. These phrases of the mystics recall Sir Thomas Browne's description of the mystic doctrine in Urn-Burial : " Christian annihilation, extasis, ezolution, liquefaction, transformation, the kisse of the Spouse, gustation of God, and ingression into the divine shadow." CAKLSTADT AND MUNZER 151 Zwickau and visit to Bohemia, settled in the little Saxon town of Allstedt, where he soon won followers. Images were broken down, infant baptism abolished, dreams systematically culti- vated as a means of communication with God, laws reducing the interest and providing for the periodical repudiation of the principal of debt were passed and the right to hold private pro- perty was questioned. Worse yet, a campaign of fire and sword against the " godless," including papists and Lutherans alike, was preached with all the violence of fanaticism. The peasants streamed in from the surrounding country, armed and on the verge of rebellionySeeing that an appeal to reason could no longer be made, Lutjher wrote the following letter to the Elector and his brother, who were hesitating whether to attack the wolf of rebellion masquerading under the sheeps' clothing of relig- ious reform : — TO THE ELECTOR FREDERIC AND DUKE JOHN OF SAXONY (Wittenbekg, July,) 1524. Grace and peace in Christ Jesus our Saviour. God's holy Word, when it arises, always has the good fortune to excite Satan with all his might against itself. At first the devil rages with his fist and wicked power, then, if that does no good, he attacks with false tongues and ex- travagant spirits and doctrines, so that what he could not crush with power be may suffocate with venomous lies. . . . Now Satan knows that the rage of Pope and Emperor will accomplish nothing against us ; yea, he feels that, as is the way with God's Word, the more it is pressed down the more it spreads and grows, and therefore he now attacks it with false spirits and sects. We must therefore con- sider and not err, for it must be so, as Paul says to the Corinthians; "There must also be heresies among you that they which are ap- proved may be made manifest." And so, as Satan driven out has now wandered two or three years through dry places, seeking rest and find- ing none, he has at last settled in your Graces' electorate, and made himself a nest at Allstedt, and thinks under our peace, protection, and guardianship to fight against us. For Duke George's principal- ity, although it is our next neighbor, is, as they themselves boast, too favorable and gentle for such a bold and dauntless spirit, so that the sectaries cannot there show their courage and confidence, where- fore the bad spirit cries out and complains terribly that he must suffer 152 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER much, although no one has yet attacked him with sword or tongue or pen, and they only dream that they are bearing a cross. So frivol- ously and causelessly must Satan lie, though he can thereby deceive no one. Now it is an especial joy that our followers did not begin this heresy, as the sectaries themselves boast that they did not learn it from us, but directly from Heaven and that they hear God speak to them immediately as to the angels. It is a simple fact that at Wittenberg only faith, love, and the cross of Christ are taught. God's voice, they say, you must hear yourself, and suffer and feel God's work in you to know your own weight ; aye, they make nothing of the Scripture, which they call " Bible-bubble-Babel." To judge by what they say their cross and passion is greater than Christ's and more to be prized. . . . The sole reason for my inditing this letter to your Graces is that I have gathered from the writings of these people, that this same spirit will not be satisfied to make converts by word only, but intends to be- take himself to arms and set himself with power against the govern- ment, and forthwith raise a riot. Here Satan lets the cat out of the bag, that is, makes public too much. What will this spirit do, when he has won the support of the mob ? Truly here at Wittenberg I have heard from the same spirit that his business must be carried through with the sword. I then marked that their plans would come out, namely, to overturn the civil government and themselves become lords of the world. But Christ says his kingdom is not of this world, and teaches the apostles not to be as the rulers of the earth. So although I am aware that your Graces will understand how to act in this matter better than I can advise you, nevertheless it is my humble duty to do my part, and humbly to pray and warn your Graces to fulfil your duty as civil governors by preventing mischief and by forestalling rebellion. Your Graces may rest assured in your consciences that your power and rule was given and commended to you by God, that you might preserve the peace and punish those who break it, as St. Paul teaches in Romans. Therefore your Graces should neither sleep nor be idle, for God will demand an answer and reckoning from you for a care- less or spiritless use of the sword. Moreover your Graces could not excuse yourselves before the people and the world if you allowed re- bellion and crimes of violence to make headway. If they give out, as they are wont to do with their swelling words, that the spirit drives them on to attempt force, then I answer thus : It is a bad spirit which shows no other fruit than burning churches, cloisters, and images, for the worst rascals on earth can do as much. CARLSTADT AND MUNZER 153 . . . Secondly . . . that it is a bad spirit which dares not give an an- swer. . . . for I, poor, miserable man, did not so act in my doctrine. ... I went to Leipsic to debate before a hostile audience. At Augs- burg I appeared without safe-conduct before my worst enemy. I went to Worms to answer to the Emperor and Diet, although I well knew that they had broken my safe-conduct, and planned all manner of evil against me. . . . If they will do more than propagate their doctrines by word, if they attempt force, your Graces should say : "We gladly allow any one to teach by word, that the right doctrine may be preserved ; but draw not the sword, which is ours ; if you do, you must leave the country. . . . Now I will close for this time, having humbly prayed your Graces to act vigorously against their storming and ranting, that God's king- dom may be advanced by word only, as becomes Christians, and that all cause of sedition be taken from the multitude (Herr Omnes) which is more than enough inclined to it already. For they are not Christ- ians who would go beyond the word and appeal to force, even if they boast that they are full of holy spirits. God's mercy eternally strengthen and preserve your Graces. Amen. Yours Graces' obedient, Dr. Martin Luther. This letter " against the Satan of Allstedt," as Luther called him, was published, and Miinzer summoned by the Elector to a conference with its author at Weimar. The fanatic feared to obey, and fled to the city of Miihlhausen, continuing, always and everywhere, his revolutionary agitation, and breathing out slaughter and reviling against " that archheathen, archrascal, Wittenberg pope, snake, and basilisk." Carlstadt, too, continued his iconoclastic career. Unable to bear the peaceful atmosphere of Wittenberg, he had himself elected to the church at Orlamiinde. Here he advanced ideas similar to those of Miinzer, except that he refused to appeal to arms, thereby winning the opinion of that ranter that he was a coward and a reprobate. His reforms included the introduction of polygamy and the advocacy of a new doctrine of the sacra- ment. Luther, who was inclined to condone the former, as not forbidden by the Bible, vehemently objected to the latter as heretical. Discussion of this doctrine is reserved for a later chapter. 154 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER / Notwithstanding Carlstadt's errors, the Reformer was not \ ready to break with him as soon as he had with Miinzer. On August 22, 1524, the two had a conference at Jena, and parted with a friendly agreement to differ. "The more ably you attack me," said Luther, " the better I shall like it," and gave his old colleague a gold gulden as a sign that he was free to advance what opinions he liked so long as they were supported by argument only and not by violence. In accordance with this invitation, the pastor of Orlamiinde began a work on the sac- rament, but soon the order came to him, September 18, to leave Saxony. He went to Basel, and early in November published several pamphlets against Luther, defending his doctrine of the sacrament, denying the expediency of infant, baptism, asserting that he had direct communications from God, and charging his opponent with having been responsible for his exile. These tracts excited a good deal of attention. Zwingli, a far abler head than Carlstadt, adopted his doctrine of the eucharist, and Capito, a reformer of Strassburg, wrote a pam- phlet trying to harmonize the two opponents, which was the cause of Luther's letter to the Christians of that city, warning them against false doctrine. His animus against his old col- league was increased both by his pamphlets and by an experi- ence at Orlamiinde described in this epistle : — TO THE CHRISTIANS OF STRASSBURG (Wittenberg, December 14, 1524.) . . . Certain of your clergy have written about the outcry made by Dr. Carlstadt with his ranting about images and the sacrament and baptism, and that he reviles me with having driven him from Saxony. Now, dear friends, I am not your preacher and no one is bound to believe me . . . but I hope you have seen in my writings how simply and certainly I treat the gospel, the grace of Christ, the law, faith, love, the cross, doctrines of men, the Pope, and monastic vows. . . - Of these main articles of faith Carlstadt has not rightly set forth one, nor can he. Now that I look into his writings I am simply shocked to find out, what I did not before suspect, that the man is still in such deep darkness. It looks to me as if he thought the whole of Christ- ianity lay in breaking images and hindering the sacrament. ... I might stand his raging iconoclasm, for I have been more iconoclastic CARLSTADT AND MUNZER 155 by my writing than he by his raging, but what is not to be borne is his imputation that all who do not do as he bids are not Christians. . . . I can bear the charge of Garlstadt that I drove him out of the land. Were it true I could answer to God for it. . . . He himself persuaded me at Jena not to confound his spirit with the seditious, murderous spirit of Allstedt. But when, at the Elector's behest, I went to his " Christians " at Orlamttnde, I saw what seed he had sown and was glad to escape safe, being driven away with stones and mud, the inhabitants giving me their blessing with the words : " Go hence in the name of a thousand devils, lest you have your neck broken before you leave." . . . I beg your preachers, dear brethren, to leave Luther and Carlstadt and point only to Christ, and not as Carlstadt does only to the work of Christ, and the example of Christ, which was the least part of his mission, in which he was like other saints, but to Christ as the gift of God, or, as Paul says, the strength of God, wisdom, righteousness, sanc- tification, and redemption, given to us, which these " prophets " have not tasted nor understood. They juggle with " their living voice from Heaven," and their " ecstasy, illumination, mortification," and such bombastic words which they do not understand themselves, though by them they make consciences heavy while men wonder at their great art and forget Christ. . . . Shortly after writing this letter Luther published a compre- hensive work Against the Heavenly Prophets of Images and the Sacrament, the first part of which appeared late in Decem- ber, the second half early in January, 1525. In the first part he says : — We should be very careful to distinguish and widely to separate fundamentals concerning the conscience and things indifferent con- cerning outward works. . . . These ambitious prophets do nothing but smash images, break into churches, lord it over the sacrament, and seek new ways of mortification, that is, of self-inflicted death of the flesh. They have not yet learned nor preached the doctrine of faith and how to rule the conscience, which is the principal and most necessary Christian doctrine. Suppose that they succeeded in leaving no more images and no churches standing, and suppose that they per- suaded every one in all the world not to believe that Christ's flesh and blood were in the sacrament, and suppose all dressed in gray, peasants' clothes, what would they gain by all this ? . . . Would 156 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER they be Christians thereby ? Where would be faith and love ? — Pictures are defended as a help to the faith of the ignorant. Luther denies Carlstadt's charge that he has been at the bottom of the latter's exile. He brings against him the counter- charges, first, of neglecting the duties of a professor for which he was paid, and secondly, of exciting sedition, for either of which he might justly have been sent away .7" These prophets teach that the reform of Christendom should start with a slaughter of the godless, that they themselves may be lords of the earth. I myself have heard this from them, and Dr. Carl- stadt knows that they are ranting and murderous spirits. . . . 'Tor those who preach murder can have no other origin than the devil himself, even if they have all wisdom and know the Bible, for the devil also knows the Bible well. Is it not a plague that people should be moved by such spirits before the princes know aught of it, and that the populace is thereby made presumptuous and turbulent 1/ The second part is on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper, Carlstadt's arguments being answered one by one. The work had great notoriety but little success. The Strass- burgers were rather alienated by it and inclined to side with the exile. Public attention was soon drawn from the quarrel of Luther and the prophets to a far larger movement in which it was swallowed up, the Peasants' Revolt. Before describing that important event, let us glance at the latter end of Carlstadt. The death of Miinzer and other agitat- ors, in the defeat of the peasants, made him fear for his life. Not knowing where to turn, he went back to Wittenberg and besought a refuge with the Reformer. From near the first of July till late in September he was sheltered by his old col- league and opponent, who wrote a letter to the Elector, on Sep- tember 12, asking him to allow Carlstadt to live peaceably at Kemberg. This petition was refused ; the fanatic had to leave, and wandered long from place to place, until at last he became professor in the University of Basel. He had learned his lesson and never more was a political agitator. CHAPTER XIV THE PEASANTS' REVOLT. 1525 Peasant risings were not uncommon in Europe for more than a millennium. Such an insurrection had taken place in Gaul in Roman times. Such were the Jacquerie in France in 1358 and the gigantic strike of English laborers in 1381. The struggle for Swiss freedom also may be viewed as a social as well as a national conflict. The fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries saw many local revolts. To the old standing grievances of the lords' tyranny, the heavy taxes and tithes, the game laws, the corvee and serfdom, common causes of all these ris- ings alike, new motives were added to make this last the most terrible, among them the prevalent intellectual unrest and the powerful leaven of the new religious teaching. Luther, indeed, could honestly say that he had consistently preached the duty of obedience and the wickedness of sedition, nevertheless his democratic message of the brotherhood of man and the excellence of the humblest Christian worked in many ways undreamed of by himself. Moreover, he had mightily championed the cause of the oppressed commoner against his masters. " The people neither can nor will endure your tyranny any longer," said he to the nobles ; " God will not endure it ; the world is not what it once was when you drove and hunted men like wild beasts." Other preachers, among whom Carl- stadt and Miinzer were two conspicuous examples, took up the word and carried it to the wildest conclusions of communism and anarchy. Beginning in the autumn of 1524, in the highlands between the sources of the Rhine and the Danube, the rebellion swept north through Franconia and Swabia. The demands of the insurgents were embodied in the Twelve Articles, drawn up not later than February, 1525, by a Swabian, Sebastian Lotzer, and tacitly adopted as the official programme by most of the 158 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER bands of rustics. The fundamental principle of this document is the entire assimilation of civil and divine law ; all claims are supported by an appeal to the gospel, under which rule the insurgents declare their, intention to live. The articles propose the free election by each parish of its pastor, the reduction of taxes and tithes, the abolition of serfdom, freedom to hunt, fish, and cut wood in the forests, less forced labor, reopening of commons to the public, substitution of the old (German) for the new (Roman) law, and abolition of the heriot. Continuing to spread, the insurrection reached Thuringia and Saxony about April, 1525. In this region all eyes were turned to Luther, the man of the people. In one pamphlet, dated March 7, the peasants requested him, together with Melanchthon, Bugenhagen, and the Elector Frederic to act as arbitrators between them and the lords. As yet Luther had not heard of the atrocities committed by some of the rebels, But there was danger in the air. At the invitation of his old lord, Count Albert of Mansfeld, he journeyed to Eisleben to investigate the situation. Here, while the guest of Chancellor Diirr, on April 19 and 20, he composed An Exhortation to Peace on the Twelve Articles of the Swabian Peasants. By this warning, which he states is written in answer to the request of the insurgents for instruction, he hoped to bring both sides to reason and prevent the effusion of blood. He addresses each party by turns, the lords and the commoners. To the former he says : — " We need thank no one on earth for this foolish rebellion but you, my lords, and especially you blind bishops, parsons and monks, for yon, even yet hardened, cease not to rage against the holy gospel, although you know that our cause is right and you cannot controvert it. Besides this, in civil government you do nothing but oppress and tax to main- tain your pomp and pride, until the poor common man neither can nor will bear it any longer. The sword is at your throat, and yet you still think you sit so firm in the saddle that no one can hoist you out. You will find out that by such hardened presumption you will break your necks. ... If these peasants don't do it, others will ; God will appoint others, for he intends to smite you and will smite you." Some say the rebellion has been caused by Luther's doctrine, but he THE PEASANTS' REVOLT 1S9 avers that he has always taught obedience to the powers that be. " But the prophets of murder are hostile to you as to me, and they have gone among the people these three years and no one has with- stood them but I." Some of the peasants' articles are right, as the demand to choose their own pastors and the repudiation of the heriot. To the peasantry he says : — " It is my friendly and fraternal prayer, dearest brothers, to be very careful what you do. Believe not all spirits' and preachers." Those who take the sword shall perish by the sword and every soul should be subject to the powers that be, in fear and honor. " If the government is bad and intolerable, that is no excuse for riot and insur- rection, for to punish evil belongs not to every one, but to the civil authority which bears the sword.f' Suffering tyranny is a cross given by God. Luther will pray for them. Coming to a consideration of the Twelve Articles he says that even if they were all just, the peasants would have no right to put them through by force. The first article, for the right to elect pastors, is right. The second demand, that the tithes be divided between the priest and the poor, is simple robbery, for the tithes belong to the government. The third, for the aboli- tion of serfdom on the ground that Christ has freed all, makes Christian freedom a carnal thing and is therefore unjustified. The other eight articles (that on the heriot having been already approved) are referred to the lawyers. The pamphlet closes with a solemn charge to each side to strive not for its own gain, but for the right, and a warning to keep the peace. Excellent as were Luther's intentions, his exhortation was imprudently expressed. In any case, however, interference came too late. Already on April 16, the rebel bands had stormed Weinsberg and massacred the inhabitants; within the next two weeks cloisters and castles were burned to the ground, while violence, anarchy, and rapine followed with all the ferocity characteristic of class warfare. The nobles made what terms they could ; the towns either capitulated or joined the rising in full force. At Miihlhausen, Miinzer, thinking the 160 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER hour of triumph had come, urged the divine duty of ruthless slaughter. The princes were entirely unprepared. Old Frederic was lying mortally ill at his castle of Lochau. Without troops and unnerved by disease, he wrote his brother John that if it was God's will that the common man should rule he would not re- sist it. John,' too, was without hope : " There are thirty-five thousand men in the field against us," he wrote ; " we are but lost princes." For one awful moment it looked as if the insurgents would •carry all before them. Luther saw the whole of Germany threatened with anarchy, and the Evangelic cause with extinc- tion. Never found wanting in the hour of danger, he continued his journey through the disaffected districts, preaching against the rising. According to the somewhat unreliable table-talk he met with a hostile reception at some places ; at any rate his intervention did no good. He found himself, on May 4, at See- burg, in Mansfeld. Not a single blow had yet been struck in the cause of order. SLuther saw that the only means left to re- store peace was force\and accordingly wrote the following stern letter to one of the councillors of the Count of Mansfeld : — TO JOHN EUHEL AT MANSFELD Seeburg, May 4, 1525. Grace and peace in Christ. Honored and dear doctor and friend ! I have been intending to answer your last tidings, recently shown me, here on my journey. First of all I beg you not to make our gracious lord, Count Albert, weak in this matter, bat let him go on as he has begun, though it will only make the devil still angrier, so that he will rage more than ever through those limbs of Satan he has possessed. We have God's Word, which lies not but says, " He beareth not the sword in vain, etc.," so there is no doubt that his lordship has been ordained and commanded of God. His Grace will need the sword to punish the wicked as long as there are such sores in the body politic as now exist. Should the sword be struck out of his Grace's hand by force, we must suffer it, and give it back to God, who first gave it and can take it back how and when he will. May his Grace also have a good conscience in case he should have to die for God's Word, for God has so ordered it, if he permits it ; no THE PEASANTS' REVOLT 161 ' one should leave off the good work until he is prevented by force, just as in battle no one should forego an advantage or leave off fight- ing until he is overcome. If there were thousands more peasants than there are they would all be robbers and murderers, who take the sword with criminal in- tent to drive out lords, princes, and all else, and make a new order in the world for which they have from God neither command, right, power, nor injunction, as the lords now have to suppress them. They are faithless and perjured, and still worse they bring the Divine Word and gospel to shame and dishonor, a most horrible sin. If God in his wrath really lets them accomplish their purpose, for which he has given them no command nor right, we must suffer it as we do other wickedness, but not acquiesce in it as if they did right. I hope they will have no success nor staying power, although God at times plagues the world with desperate men as he has done and yet does with the Turks. It is the devil's mockery that the peasants give out that they will hurt no one and do no harm. No harm to drive out and kill their masters ? If they mean no harm, why do they gather in hordes and demand that others surrender to them ? To do no harm and yet to take all — that is what the devil, too, knows how to do. If we let him do what he likes, forsooth he harms no one. Their only reason for driving out their lords is pure wickedness. Look at the government they have set up, the worst that ever was, without order or discipline in it but only pillage. If God wishes to chastize us in his wrath, he can find no fitter instrument than these enemies of his, criminals, robbers, murderers, faithless, perjured peas- ants. If it be God's will, let us suffer it and call them lords as the Scrip- ture calls the devil prince and lord. May God keep all good Christians from honoring and worshipping them as the devil tried to make Christ worship him. Let us withstand them by word and deed as long as ever we can and then die for it in God's name. They purpose to hurt no one if only we yield to them ; and so we should yield to them, should we ? Must we indeed acknowledge as our rulers these faithless, perjured, blasphemous robbers, who have no right from God, but only the support of the prince of this world, as he boasts in Matthew, -chapter four, that he has dominion and honor over all the world to give it to whom he will ? That is true enough when God punishes and does not protect. This matter concerns me deeply, for the devil wishes to kill me. I see that he is angry that hitherto he has been able to accomplish nothing either by fraud or force ; he thinks that if he were only free of 162 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER me he could do as he liked and confound the whole world together, so I almost believe that I am the cause that the devil can do such things in the world, whereby God punishes it. "Well, if I ever get home I will meet my death with God's aid, and await my new masters, the mur- derers and robbers who tell me they will harm no one. Highway rob- bers always say the same : " I will do you no harm, but give me all you have or you shall die." Beautiful innocence ! How fairly the devil decks himself and his murderers ! Before I would yield and say what they want, I would lose my head a hundred times, God granting me his grace. If I can do it before I die, I will yet take my Katie to wife to spite the devil, when I hear that they are after me. I hope they will not take away my joy and good spirits. Some say the insurgents are not followers of Milnzer — that let their own god believe, for no one else will. I write to strengthen you to strengthen others, especially my gracious lord Count Albert. Encourage his Grace to go forth with good spirit, and may God grant him success, and let him fulfil the divine injunc- tion to bear the sword as long as ever he can ; conscience at least is safe in case he fall. If God permit the peasants to extirpate the princes to fulfil his wrath, he will give them hell fire for it as a reward. The just judge will come shortly to judge both them and us — us with grace, as we have suffered by their crimes of violence, them with wrath, for they who take the sword must perish by the sword as Christ said. Their work and success cannot long stand. Greet your dear wife for me. Db. Martin Lother. Very soon after writing this letter, Luther published a short tract Against the Thievish, Murderous Hordes of Peasants, expressed in much the same tone : — " In my former book " (Exhortation to Peace) he writes, " I dared not judge the peasants, since they asked" to be instructed, and Christ says Judge not. But before I could look around they forget their re- quest and betake themselves to violence, — rob, rage, and act like mad dogs, whereby one may see what they had in their false minds, and that their pretence to speak in the name of the gospel in the Twelve Articles was a simple lie. They do mere devil's work, especially that Satan of Mtihlhausen does nothing but rob, murder, and pour out blood." The peasants have deserved death for three reasons : (1) because they THE PEASANTS' REVOLT 168 have broken their oath of fealty ; (2) for rioting and plundering ; and (3) for having covered their terrible sins with the name of the gospel '• Wherefore, my lords, free, save, help, and pity the poor people ; stab, smite, and slay, all ye that can. If you die in battle you could never have a more blessed end, for you die obedient to God's Word in Bo- mans 13, and in the service of love to free your neighbor from the bands of hell and the devil. I implore every one who can to avoid the peasants as he would the devil himself. I pray God will enlighten them and turn their hearts. But if they do not turn, I wish them no happiness for ever more. . . . Let none think this too hard who con- siders how intolerable is rebellion." Almost as Luther was writing, steps were taken to suppress the insurgents. On May 5 the Count of Mansfeld, with a few personal retainers, scattered a small band near Osterhausen, a success insignificant in itself but important as the first blow struck for order in central Germany. The decisive battle followed not long after. Philip of Hesse, the ablest of the Evangelic princes after Frederic the Wise, having come to terms with his own peasants by negotiation, gathered an army and marched, in cooperation with other lords, against eight thousand rebels at Frankenhausen. Hoping to come to a peaceful agreement, Philip found the peasants ready to negotiate until on May 12 Miinzer arrived with rein- forcements from Miihlhausen and roused the poor men by his baleful eloquence to such a pitch of fanaticism, that, in reliance on divine help, they refused all terms. When the troops at- tacked them on May 15, the raw countrymen fled in the wildest panic, more than half of them perishing on the field. Miinzer was captured and put to death. Biihel sent the tidings to Luther on May 21, and received the following answer : — TO JOHN RUHEL AT MANSFELD Wittenberg, May 23, 1525. God's grace and peace. I thank you, honored and dear sir, for your news. I am especially pleased at the fall of Thomas Miinzer. Please let me have further details of his capture and of how he acted, for it is important to know how that proud spirit bore itself. 184 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER It is pitiful that we have to he so cruel to the poor people, but what can we do ? It is necessary and God wills it that fear may be brought on the people. Otherwise Satan brings forth mischief. God said : Who hath taken the sword shall perish by the sword. It is gratifying that their spirit be at last so plainly revealed, so that henceforth the peas- ants will know how wrong they were and perhaps leave off rioting, or at least do it less. Do not be troubled about the severity of their sup- pression, for it will profit many souls. . . . After the lords had the upper hand the insurrection was put down with the utmost cruelty. At Frankenhausen and else- where the soldiers far outdid the peasants in acts of violence and blood. It is estimated that one hundred thousand of the poor rustics perished, and the rest sank back into a more wretched state than before. The danger past and the pity of the public aroused, Luther's enemies raised a great outcry against him, accusing him of be- traying his allies and the men whom his teaching had mis- guided, and most of all for the cruelty of his pamphlet. What- ever foundation these charges may have, there is absolutely none in the accusation that he sided with the insurgents while they seemed likely to win and then turned to curry favor with the princes when they had triumphed. The direct opposite was the truth, and Luther, excited by these widespread charges, defends himself with spirit in a letter to an old colleague. TO NICHOLAS AMSDORF AT MAGDEBURG Wittenberg, May 30, 1525. Grace and peace. You write of a new honor for me, dear Amsdorf, namely that I am called the toady of the princes ; Satan has conferred many such honors upon me during the past years. . • . My opinion is that it is better that all the peasants be killed than that the princes and magistrates perish, because the rustics took the sword without divine authority. The only possible consequence of their satanic wickedness would be the diabolic devastation of the kingdom of God. Even if the princes abuse their power, yet they have it of God, and under their rule the kingdom of God at least has a chance to exist. Wherefore no pity, no tolerance should be shown to the peasants, but the fury and wrath of God should be visited upon those men who did not heed warning nor yield when just terms were THE PEASANTS' REVOLT 16B offered them, but continued with satanic fury to confound every- thing. ... To justify, pity, or favor them is to deny, blaspheme, and try to pull God from heaven. . . . Thus also, in a note inviting John Riihel to his wedding feast, the Reformer says (June 15, 1526) : " What an outcry of Harrow has been caused by my pamphlet against the peasants. All is now forgotten that God has done for the world through me. Now lords, priests, and peasants are all against me and threaten my death." ^ Riihel accepted the invitation and brought with him a letter from the Chancellor Caspar Miiller suggesting that the Reformer should defend himself against the attacks made upon him. In answer to this Luther published in July an open letter to Miiller, under the title: On the Hard Pamphlet against the Peasants. In this he has nothing to retract. "One cannot answer a rebel with reason," he argues, " but the best answer is to hit him with the fist until blood flows from his nose." (Mit der faust mus man solchen meulern antworten, das der scbweys zur nasen ausgehe.) He never meant to urge slaughter after battle, " but neither did I undertake to instruct those mad, rag- ing, insane tyrants, who even after combat cannot satiate their thirst for blood and never in their whole life long ask after Christ, for it is all the same to such bloodhounds whether they are guilty or innocent, or whether they please God or the devil. They use the sword to satisfy their passions, so I leave them to their master the devil." That Luther really pitied the poor people after their defeat is shown by an intercessory letter : — TO ALBERT, ARCHBISHOP AND ELECTOR OF MAYENCE (Wittenberg,) July 21, 1525. Grace and peace in Jesus Christ. Most venerable Father in God, most serene, highborn Prince, most gracious Lord. I am informed that one Asmus Giinthel, the son of a citizen of Eisleben, has been arrested by your Grace on the charge of having stormed a barricade. His father is sore distressed and tells me he did not take part in the storming, but only ate and drank there at the time, and as he begged me piteously to intercede for his life I could not refuse him. I humbly 166 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER pray your Grace to consider that this insurrection has been put down not by the hand of man but by the grace of God who pities us all, and especially those in authority, and that accordingly you treat the poor people graciously and mercifully as becomes a spiritual lord even more than a temporal one. . . . Alas ! there are too many who treat the people horribly and so act unthankfully to God as if they would recklessly awaken the wrath of Heaven and of the people again and provoke a new and worse rebel- lion. God has decreed that those who show no mercy should also perish without mercy. It is not good for a lord to raise displeasure, ill-will and hostility among his subjects, and it is likewise foolish to do so. It is right to show sternness when the commonalty are seditious and stubborn, but now that they are beaten down they are a different people, worthy that mercy be shown them in judgment. Putting too much in a bag bursts it. Moderation is good in all things, and, as St. James says, mercy rejoiceth against judgment. I hope your Grace will act as a Christian in this matter. God bless you. Amen. Your Grace's obedient servant, Mabtin Luthek. The Peasants' War was the hardest storm weathered by the new Church. Had not an iron hand been at the helm it might well have foundered the ship of reform and scattered all that was hopeful and good in it in a thousand fragments. As it was, the cause suffered heavily, and the reputation of its leader suffered still more. In steering too far from the dread whirlpool which would have engulfed all his cause, he sailed too close to the Scylla on the other side and lost men thereby. From his own day to the present he has been reproached with cruelty to the poor people who^vere partly misguided by what they believed to be his voice. And yet, much as the admirers of Luther must and do regret his terrible violence of expression, the impartial his- torian can hardly doubt that in substance he was right. No government in the world could have allowed rebellion to go unpunished; no sane man could believe that any argument but arms would have availed. Luther first tried the way of peace, he then risked his life preaching against the rising ; finally he urged the use of the sword as the ultima ratio. He was right to do so, though he put himself in the wrong by his immoderate THE PEASANTS' REVOLT 167 zeal. It would have been more becoming for Luther, the peas- ant and the hero of the peasants, had he shown greater sym- pathy with their cause and more mercy. Had he done so his name would have escaped the charge of cruelty with which it is now stained. CHAPTER XV CATHARINE VON BORA From fierce war Luther's thoughts were turned to faithful, if unromantic love. Although convinced while still at the Wart- burg of the nullity of vows of celibacy, it was a long time, as Erasmus sneered, before he made use of the liberty he preached to others. After all the brothers save one, Brisger, had departed to take up a worldly career, he continued to reside at the Black Cloister, as the Augustinian monastery was called, not from its own color, a brick red, but from the popular designation of its dark-robed inmates as black monks. Having laid aside their cowls and assumed the simple garb of laymen, the two like- minded men dwelt here with one servant, a student of theology named Sieberger. The building was large, but as the revenues had been dissipated by the custom of giving a handsome pre- sent to each departing brother, the two remaining inhabitants dwelt in poverty, for the professor had a salary of but one hun- dred gulden. One of his reminiscences of this period paints a speaking picture of his manner of life : — Before I was married, the bed was not made up for a whole year and became foul with sweat. But I worked all day and was so tired at night that I fell into bed without knowing that anything was amiss. When at last he decided to marry, it was something of an accident that his choice fell upon Catharine von Bora. She had been born, on January 29, 1499, at Lippendorf, a hamlet some twenty miles south of Leipsic. The name Bora (cognate in form and meaning with our word^/w-) is, like that of Staupitz and other aristocratic families of the region, of Wendish or Slavonic origin, but the family, deriving its name from the village of Bora, was Teutonic. Catharine's father, Hans von Bora, held modest estates, a portion of which, the farm of Zulsdorf, later passed by purchase to his famous son-in-law. The mother, CATHARINE VON BORA 169 Catharine von Haugwitz, died shortly after the birth of her little girl, and Hans, marrying again, sent his five-year-old daughter to the convent school of the Benedictine nuns near Brehna. About four years later he transferred her to a Cister- cian cloister at Nimbschen near Grimma, intending that in due time she should become a nun. Nimbschen was a wealthy foun- dation in which the education of the girls and their taking of the veil were gratuitous ; it was therefore largely patronized by gentlemen like Bora of more influence than means. At the time of her entrance, one of her relatives was abbess, and another, Auntie Lena, as she afterwards came to be known at Witten- berg, was a sister. The quiet years at Nimbschen, hardly broken by Catharine's consecration as a nun at the age of sixteen (October 8, 1515), were spent in the round of devotion, learning and teaching, prayer and charity, which form the routine of monastic life. ■^ The girl was well educated ; besides the elementary accomplish- ments of reading and writing her own tongue (not so common then as now), she knew some Latin. The cloister had large es- tates, tilled under the direct supervision of the nuns, so that she may have here gained that knowledge of practical farming which she later turned to good account. In almost any other age and country, Catharine would have finished her life in the convent as quietly as she had begun it. But she lived in stirring times. Luther's proclamation of mon- astic emancipation was promptly followed by a general evacua- tion of the cloisters, especially those of his own order, one of which was situated at Grimma. Inspired by the example of these monks several of the sisters at Nimbschen tried to follow it. One who was caught writing to Luther was severely disciplined. This did not prevent the others from doing the same, and it was at his advice that, after vainly applying to their relatives to re- ceive them, twelve of the younger nuns secured the aid of Leon- ard Coppe, a wealthy and honorable burger of Torgau who had long stood in business relations with Nimbschen. Though the attempt was not without danger, for the abduction of a nun was a capital offence, he, with the assistance of his nephew and another young man, helped them to escape on the night of April 170 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER 4-5, 1523. Three of them went to their own homes, the other nine were conveyed by Coppe first to Torgau and then to Wittenberg. The Reformer, who at once took up their cause, defending them in a publication, announces their arrival in these words : — TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBUEG Wittenberg, April 10, 1523. Grace and peace. Nine fugitive nuns, a wretched crowd, have been brought to me by honest citizens of Torgau. I mean Leonard Coppe and his nephew Wolf Tomitzsch ; there is therefore no cause for sus- picion. I pity them much, but most of all the others who are dying everywhere in such numbers in their cursed and impure celibacy. This sex so very, very weak, joined by nature or rather by God to the other, perishes when cruelly separated. tyrants ! O cruel parents and kins- men in Germany ! O Pope and bishops, who can curse you enough ? Who can sufficiently execrate the blind fury which has taught and en- forced such things ? But this is not the place to do it. You ask what I shall do with them ? First I shall inform their re- latives and ask them to support the girls ; if they will not I shall have the girls otherwise provided for. Some of the families have already promised me to take them ; for some I shall get husbands if I can. Their names are : Magdalene von Staupitz, 1 Elsa von Ganitz, Ave Gross, Ave von Schanfeld and her sister Margaret, Laneta von Goltz, Mar- garet and Catharine Zeschau and Catharine von Bora. Here are they, who serve Christ, in need of true pity. They have escaped from the cloister in miserable condition. I pray you also to do the work of charity and beg some money for me from your rich courtiers, by which I can support the girls a week or two until their kinsmen or others provide for them. For my Capernaans have no wealth but that of the Word, so that I myself could not find the loan of ten gulden, for a poor citizen the other day. The poor, who would willingly give, have nothing ; the rich either refuse or give so reluctantly that they lose the credit of the gift with God and take up my time begging from them. Nothing is too much for the world and its way. Of my annual salary I have only ten or fifteen gulden left, besides which not a penny has been given me by my brothers or by the city. But I ask them for nothing, to em- ulate the boast of Paul, despoiling other churches to serve my Corinth- ians free. . . . Farewell and pray for me. Martin Luthbk. 1 A sister of Luther's friend John von Staupitz, but much younger than her brother. CATHARINE VON BORA 171 Luther was as good as his word in providing for the fugi- tives. For Staupitz's sister he interceded so effectually with the clergy of Griuima that a little house was presented her in that town in remembrance of her brother. For another nun the Re- former secured the position of teacher, while most of the rest returned to their relatives or married. The three who remained longest at Wittenberg were Ave and Margaret von Schonfeld and Catharine von Bora. For Ave Luther felt a certain attrac- tion, even love, but she, too, as well as her sister, married, and of all the Nimbschen runaways, Catharine, whose father was now dead, was left alone. She had been taken into the house of the rich and honorable Reichenbach, who at times held the office of burgomaster at Wittenberg. Here the girl lived about two years, during which time she learned housekeeping, and a marvellously apt pupil she was, to judge by her later manage. What a contrast was Wittenberg to Nimbschen ! A good deal of the world could be seen in this little town, with its students from all parts of Germany and from foreign lands, too. Here Catharine learned to know many a great man, Lucas Cranach, the artist, and Philip Melanchthon, the preceptor of the fatherland. In October, 1523, she was presented to King Christian II of Denmark, on his visit to Wittenberg, and was given a gold ring by the lavish monarch. In all her new ex- periences the girl's piety and modesty, or perhaps something in her looks, won her the nickname of St. Catharine of Siena. Then she had an unhappy love-affair. Jerome Baumgartner, a promising youth who had graduated from the university in 1521, in the autumn of 1523 made a long visit to Melanchthon. When he returned to his native Nuremberg there was an un- derstanding, though not a formal engagement, that he should come back and marry Katie. The young man, though his later career was highly honorable, was unable in this case to fulfil his intentions, and his failure to return was so taken to heart by the poor girl that she actually became ill over it. About a year after Baumgartner's departure, Luther wrote him : " If you want your Katie you had best act quickly before she is given to some one else who wants her. She has not yet con- 172 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER quered her love for you and I would willingly see you married to each other." (October 12, 1524.) Jerome, however, stayed away and in January his betrothal to a rich girl was announced. The suitor who wanted Katie was a certain Dr. Glatz. The Reformer himself had no intention of marriage : " Not that I lack the feelings of a man," as he wrote Spalatin on November 30, " for I am neither wood nor stone, but my mind is averse to matrimony because I daily expect the death decreed to the heretic." But a little more than a month after this, Luther preached and published his sermon on marriage, highly extolling that estate as the one honored by all the patriarchs and prophets, and pointing out the duties both of those who wished to marry and of husbands and wives. A little later he issued a regular manifesto in the form of an open letter to a friend who was considering wedlock. One can easily see that the arguments here given apply equally well to the writer's position : — TO WOLFGANG EEISSENBUSCH AT LICHTENBEKG Wittenberg, March 27, 1525. God's grace and peace in Christ. Honored Sir ! I am moved by good friends and by the esteem I bear you to write you this epistle on the estate of matrimony, as I have noticed you would like to marry, or rather are forced to do so by God himself, who gave you a nature requiring it. I dp not think you should be hindered by the rule of the Order or by a vow, for no vow can bind or be valid except under two condi- tions. First, a vow must be possible of performance, for who would vow an impossible thing, or who would demand it ? . . . Now chastity is not in our power, as little as are God's other wonders and graces, but we are made for marriage as the Scripture says : It is not good for man to be alone : I will make an help meet for him. Who, therefore, considers himself a man, should hear what God decrees for him. . . . This is the Word of God, through whose power seed is created in man's body and the burning desire for the woman kindled and kept alight which cannot be restrained by vows nor laws. . . . Secondly, that a vow may be valid it must not be against God and CATHARINE VON BORA 173 the Christian faith, and everything is against that which relies on works and not on God's grace. . . . It would be a fine, noble example if you married, that would help many feeble ones and give them more scope, so that they might escape the dangers of the flesh. What harm is it if people say: "So the Lichtenberg professor has taken a wife, has he ? " Is it not a great glory that you should thereby become an example to others to do the same ? Christ was an example to us all how to bear reproach for con- science' sake. Do I say reproach ? Only fools and fanatics think mar- riage a reproach, men who do not mind fornication but forbid what God has commanded. If it is a shame to take a wife, why is it not a shame to eat and drink, for we have equal need of both and God wills both? ... Friend, let us not fly higher nor try to be better than Abraham, David, Isaiah, Peter, Paul, and all the patriarchs, prophets, and apos- tles, as well as many holy martyrs and bishops, who knew that God had made them men and were not ashamed to be and to be thought so and therefore considered that they should not remain alone. . . . Luther was evidently intending to marry. In casting about for an eligible wife, his first choice did not fall upon Katie but one of the other nuns. In 1538 he spoke of this inclination in rather a tasteless and rather a heartless way : — Had I wished to marry fourteen years ago, I should have chosen Ave von Sch6nfeld, now wife of Basil Axt. I never loved my wife but suspected her of being proud (as she is), but God willed me to take pity on the poor abandoned girl and he has made my marriage turn out most happily. For another girl, perhaps Ave Alemann of Magdeburg, Luther also had a certain liking, but this yielded to circum- stances and Katie became the sole object of his attentions. When he had tried to marry her to Dr. Glatz, Baumgartner's rival, she absolutely refused, saying that she would take Amsdorf or Luther himself but Glatz never. This naturally brought her to the Eeformer's attention. He speaks of his various love-affairs in a jocose letter to his confidant : — 174 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER TO GEOKGE SPALATIN AT LOCHAU 1 (Wittenbebq,) April 16, 1525. I have commended everything to friend Cranach and have asked him to be sure to send a hundred copies of my letter to Beissenbusch. You write me about my marriage. Do not be surprised if I, so fam- ous a lover, do not wed, though it is re'ally wonderful that I who write so much about marriage and have so much intercourse with women should not turn into a woman, let alone marry one. If you wish for my example you already have it. For I have had three wives at once and loved them so hard that I drove two away to get other husbands. On the third I have a precarious hold, but she, too, may soon be torn from me. It is really you who are the timid lover, not daring to marry even one. But take care, lest I, the old bachelor, should get ahead of lusty young bridegrooms like you, for God is accustomed to do what we least expect. I say this seriously to encourage you. Farewell, dear Spalatin. Maetdt Luthbk. On the same day on which he wrote this letter Luther started on his trip to Mansfeld to preach against the peasants' rising. His already half-formed purpose of taking the frank nun at her word was increased by his father, whom he saw at this time and who urged him to marry. His first announcement of his inten- tion is in the letter to Ruhel of May 4, where he says he will take "his Katie" to wife "to spite the devil." The formal be- trothal followed soon after, and the wedding, hastened on by malicious gossip about the pair, took place very privately at the Black Cloister on the evening of June 13. Owing to its sud- denness the customary festivities had to be put off until two weeks later, June 27. Among the invitations sent far and wide, the following have an especial interest: — TO JOHN RUHEL, JOHN THUR AND CASPAR MULLER AT MANSFEI.D Wittenberg, June 15, 1525. Grace and peace in Christ. What an outcry of Harrow, my dear sirs, has been caused by my pamphlet against the peasants ! All is now forgotten that God has done for the world through me. Now lords, parsons, and peasants are all against me and threaten my death. 1 Spalatin was now here with his dying master. CATHARINE VON BORA 175 Well, since they are so silly and foolish, I shall take care that at my end I shall he found in the state for which God created me with nothing of my previous papal life about me. I will do my part even if they act still more foolishly up to the last farewell. So now, according to the wish of my dear father, I have married. I did it quickly lest those praters should stop it. Thursday week, June 27, it is my intention to have a little celebration and house-warming, to which I beg that you will come and give your blessings. The land is in such a state that I hardly dare ask you to undertake the journey; however, if you can do so, pray come, along with my dear father and mother, for it would be a special pleasure to me. Bring any friends. If possible let me know beforehand, though I do' not ask this if incon- venient. I would have written my gracious lords Counts Gebhard and Albert - of Mansf eld, but did not risk it, knowing that their Graces have other things to attend to. Please let me know if you think I ought to invite them. God bless you. Amen. Martin Lxjthbb. TO GEOBGE SPALATTN Wittenbbbg, June 16, 1525. Grace and peace. Dear Spalatin, I have stopped the mouths of my calumniators with Catharine von Bora. If we have a banquet to cele- brate the wedding we wish you not only to be present but to help us in case we need game. Meantime give us your blessing and pray for us. I have made myself so cheap and despised by this marriage that I expect the angels laugh and the devils weep thereat. The world and its wise men have not yet seen how pious and sacred is marriage, but they consider it impious and devilish in me. It pleases me, however, to have my marriage condemned by those who are ignorant of God. Fare- well and pray for me. Martin Luther. To Katie's old acquaintance and rescuer he wrote, June 21: God has suddenly and unexpectedly caught me in the bond of holy matrimony. I intend to celebrate with a wedding breakfast on Thursday. That my parents and all good friends may be merry, my Lord Catharine and I kindly beg you to send us, at my cost and as quickly as possible, a barrel of the best Torgau beer. To Amsdorf the bridegroom confides that " I married to grat- fl7S THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER ify my father, who asked me to marry and leave him descend- \ ants. ... I was not carried away by passion, for I do not love my wife that way, but esteem her as a friend. (Non amo sed diligo)." The proudest of the many guests on the great day were assuredly old Hans and Margaret Luther. Among the wedding presents the most prized came from the town, the university, the Elector, and Cranach. Biihel brought a surprise in the way of twenty gulden from Albert of Mayence, who was thinking of becoming Lutheran in order to turn his electorate into a tem- poral fief as his cousin Albert had done with Prussia. The bridegroom wanted to return this gift, but the thrifty bride managed to keep it. At this time Martin and Katie sat for their pictures to the celebrated Lucas Cranach. The bridegroom is forty-two, well built and very pale. His face is at once good-humored and strong. And yet who can be satisfied with this picture ? Diirer's criticism that the Wittenberg artist could depict the features but not the soul is extremely just. The portrait of Katie does not bear out the conjecture of Erasmus that the monk had been led astray by a wonderfully charming girl (mire venusta). She was of a type not uncommon among Germans, in whose features shrewdness, good sense, and kindliness often give a pleasant expression to homely persons — though even this can hardly be seen in Cranach's picture. Her scant reddish hair is combed back over a high forehead ; the brows over her dark blue eyes slant up from a rather flat nose ; her ears and cheek-bones are prominent. Katie was sometimes reproached with pride and avarice. But that an orphan, without friends, money, or beauty should have any pride left is rather a subject for praise than blame, and what is sometimes called her greed of money was only the nec- essary parsimony of a housewife in narrow circumstances whose husband was uncommonly generous. Without marked spiritu- ality, she was a Martha busied with many things rather than a Mary sitting in devotion at her master's feet. If there was little passion and no romance in the courtship, there was deep devo- tion and friendship in the twenty years following marriage. Of CATHARINE LUTHER IN 1526 From the painting by Cranach in possession of Frau Geheimregierungsrat Richard von Kaufmann, in Berlin CATHARINE VON BORA 177 his own thoughts, and his wife's affection during their first year together, the Reformer once spoke thus : — In the first year of marriage one has strange thoughts. At table he thinks : " Formerly I was alone, now I am with some one. In bed when he wakes, he sees beside him a pair of pigtails which he did not see before. The first year after our marriage Katie sat beside me when I studied, and once, when she could think of nothing else to say, asked me : ' Doctor, is the Grand Master of Prussia the Margrave's brother ? ' " 1 A still more intimate view of the relations of man and wife is given in the next letter to Spalatin. Luther lived in a time when it was considered not at all indelicate to speak of what few refined men, not to say pious preachers, would mention in these days. Spalatin had now retired from his position at court, married, and taken the incumbency of the first church at Alten- burg. Here he remained the trusted counsellor of Frederic's successor, John the Steadfast. Though the new elector was an open convert to the Evangelic faith, as his brother had not been, nevertheless there was a party at court so hostile to Luther, whom they regarded as the real author of the peasants' rising, that when Spalatin invited the Wittenberg professor to attend his wedding, the latter felt unable to do it. TO GEORGE SPALATIN AT ALTENBUEG Wittenberg, December 6, 1525. I wish you grace and peace in the Lord, and also joy with your sweetest little wife, also in the Lord. Tour marriage is as pleasing to me as it is displeasing to those priests of Baal. 2 Indeed God has given me no greater happiness, except the Gospel, than to see you married, though this, too, is a gift of the Gospel, and no small fruit of our Evangelic teaching. Why I am absent, and wherefore I could not come to your most pleasing wedding, Brisger 8 will tell you. All things are changed under the new elector, who right nobly confesses the Evan- gelic faith. I am less safe on the road than I was under an elector who dissimulated his faith, but now where one hopes for citadels of refuge 1 The Grand Master was the Margrave ! 3 The canons of Altenburg, with whom Luther had had a hard fight. 8 The brother who had hitherto lived with Luther ; he was the bearer of this letter to Altenburg, where he was soon to become pastor. 178 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER one is forced to fear dens of robbers and traitors. I wish you great happiness and children, with Christ's blessing. Believe me, my mind exults in your marriage no less than yours did in mine. Poor as I am I would have sent you that Portuguese gold-piece x which you gave my wife, did I not fear that it would offend you. So I am sending you what is left over from my wedding, not knowing whether it will als, ■■■ EBflfitORfVffil WD WUWHHMliMS Ot^tUEA UtlWDtH-UlfflflW/t | '. tCDffJCVNb- ^-fff-% PHILIP OF HESSE After the portrait by M. Muller, at Cassel THE BIGAMY OF PHILIP OF HESSE 375 ordained monogamy and that Christ confirmed this rule, but ! that there may be some exceptions. The theologians decline Philip's invitation to publish something on the subject, for fear that they will be reproached with making polygamy a general rule, like the Anabaptists, and they exhort him to continence and patience, but finally state that if he finds this impossible, they will allow him privately to take another wife, considering that bigamy is better than adultery. Though unable to get the support of the Elector, Bucer re- turned with this dispensation to Hesse, and the Landgrave, with it, and especially by the promise of a public wedding, finally secured the consent of IVau von der Saal. The marriage took place on March 4, 1540, in the presence of Melanchthon, Eucer, and other " honorable men." The honeymoon was a happy time for Philip, who again felt able to take the sacrament. On April 5 he wrote Luther, whom he addressed as "brother-in-law" on account of the distant relationship between Margaret and Katie, thanking him for the dispensation, offering continued support to the Evangelic cause, and promising to keep the marriage secret and not act in any matter without asking his advice. Luther returned the follow- ing answer: x — TO PHILIP, LANDGRAVE OF HESSE, AT SCHMALKALDEN (Wittenberg,) April 10, 1540. Grace and peace. Most serene, noble Prince, gracious Lord! I have received your Grace's letter and note that you are pleased with our counsel, which we would willingly have kept secret. Melanchthon has written me nothing about your Grace, but will certainly do so, or tell me about it orally. But we want to keep the business a secret for the sake of the example, which every one would follow, even at last the coarse peasants. There are also other reasons as great or even greater why you should keep it to yourself and not avow it which would make us a lot of trouble. Wherefore your Grace will please be secret and improve your life as you promised. Our dear Lord be with your Grace. Amen. Your Grace's obedient servant, Maktin Luther. 1 Lenz : Briefwechsel des landgraf Philipps mit Bucer (1880), i, 362. 376 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER That Philip's act soon after this became generally known was largely his own fault. Notwithstanding his promise to keep the matter secret, he had celebrated an almost public wedding at the instance of Frau von der Saal, and after that he took less pains than his letters would lead one to suppose to conceal the "said person," as he called Margaret. A rumor of the bigamy reached Antony Lauterbach in May, and when he wrote Luther to inquire the truth of the matter he received the following an- swer : — TO ANTONY LAUTERBACH AT PIKNA (Wittenberg,) June 2, 1540. Grace and peace. In answer to your question about the Landgrave's second marriage, dear Antony, I can say nothing. I have only heard that the girl Von der Saal has given birth to a boy, 1 but I know not whether it was true. If it is true and he recognizes that he is the father and supports the mother and child, it seems that he will do right. Perhaps this is the cause of the rumor. I only know that no public proofs of the marriage have been shown me. There are heirs from the legitimate wife who will not permit — nor will the princes — that the children of another wife should become co-heirs, especially if the second wife be of inferior rank. Therefore let those rail who wish to do so until time show what the monster really is. One must not pronounce rashly on insufficient evidence about the doings of princes. I will instruct your assistant about the other things. Mabtin Luther. The public proofs of the marriage came shortly after this in a peculiarly forcible way. The Duchess of Bochlitz, Philip's sister, was beside herself when she heard of her brother's act, and wrote an account of it to both the Saxon courts, to Henry the Pious, Christina's uncle, and to John Frederic, whom she accused of abetting the Landgrave. The Elector forwarded the correspondence to Luther with a request for an explanation. The long answer of the Reformer is one of the most interesting letters he ever wrote. It shows that he had nothing to take back. It also shows that he was extremely angry with Philip for two 1 The rumor was false ; Margaret's first child was born March 12, 1541. She had a number of children. THE BIGAMY OF PHILIP OF HESSE 377 reasons ; first, because the marriage had been so open, and sec- ondly, because Philip had concealed from him that at the time he asked permission to marry Margaret he was living with a mistress, " her of Eschwege," and was therefore no longer free to choose. TO JOHN FREDERIC, ELECTOR OF SAXONY * (Wittehbekg, June 10, 1540.) Most serene, highborn Elector, most gracious Lord ! I am sorry to learn that your Grace is importuned by the court of Dresden about the Landgrave's business. Your Grace asks what answer to give the men of Meissen. 3 As the affair was one of the confessional, both Melanch- thon and I were unwilling to communicate it even to your Grace, for it is right to keep confessional matters secret, both the sin confessed and the counsel given, and had the Landgrave not revealed the matter and the confessional counsel, there would never need have been all this nauseating unpleasantness. I still say that if the matter was brought before me to-day, I should not be able to give counsel different from what I did. Setting apart the fact that I know I am not as wise as they think they are, I need conceal nothing, especially as it has already been made known. The state of affairs is as follows : Martin Bucer brought a letter and pointed out that, on account of certain faults in the Landgrave's wife the Landgrave was not able to keep himself chaste and that he had hitherto lived in a way which was not good, but that he would like to be at one with the principal heads of the Evangelic Church, and he declared solemnly before God and his conscience that he could not in future avoid such vices unless he were permitted to take another wife. We were deeply horrified at this tale and at the offence which must follow, and we begged his Grace not to do as he proposed, but we were told again that he could not abandon his project, and if he could not obtain what he wanted from us, he Would disregard us and turn to the Emperor and Pope. To prevent this we humbly begged that if his Grace would not, or, as he averred before God and his conscience, could not, do otherwise, yet that he could keep it a secret. Though necessity compelled him, yet he could not defend his act before the 1 Letter published, Seidemann : Lauterbach's Tagebuch auf das Jahr 1538, p. 196 ff. On dating see Rockwell, p. 137, note 3. 2 Meissen was the count; in which the capital of Alhertine Saxony, Dresden, was situated. 378 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER world and the imperial laws ; this he promised to do and we accord- ingly agreed to help him before God and cover it up as much as pos- sible with such examples as that of Abraham. This all happened as though in the confessional, and no one can accuse us of having acted as we did willingly or voluntarily or with pleasure or joy. It was hard enough for our hearts, but we could not prevent it ; we thought to give his conscience such counsel as we could. I have indeed learned several confessional secrets, both while I was still a papist and later, which, if they were revealed, I should have to deny or else publish the whole confession. Such things belong not to the secular courts nor are they to be published. God has here his own judgment and must counsel souls in matters where no worldly law nor wisdom can help. My preceptor in the cloister, a fine old man, had many such affairs, and once had to say of them, with a sigh : " Adas, alas, such things are so perplexed and desperate that no wisdom, law, nor reason can avail ; one mast commend them to divine goodness." So instructed, I have accordingly in this case also acted agreeably to divine goodness. But had I known that the Landgrave had long satisfied his desires, and could well satisfy them with others, as I have now just learned that he did with her of Eschwege, truly no angel would have induced me to give such counsel : I gave it only in consideration of his un- avoidable necessity and weakness, and to put his conscience out of peril, as Bucer represented the case to me. Much less would I ever have advised that there should be a public marriage, to which (though he told me nothing of this) a young princess and young countess should come, which is truly not to be borne and is insufferable to the whole Empire. But I understood and hoped, as long as he had to go the com-' mon way with sin and shame and weakness of the flesh, that he would take some honorable maiden or other in secret marriage, even if the relation did not have a legal look before the world. My concession was on account of the great need of his conscience — such as has hap- pened to other great lords. In like manner I advised certain priests in the Catholic lands of Duke George and the bishops secretly to marry their cooks. This was my confessional counsel about which I would much rather have kept silence, but it has been wrung from me and I could do no- thing but speak. But the men of Dresden speak as though I had taught the same for thirteen years, and yet they give us to understand what a friendly heart they have to us, and what great desire for love and unity, just as if there were no scandal nor sin in their lives which THE BIGAMY OF PHILIP OF HESSE 379 are ten times worse before God than anything I ever advised. But the • world must always smugly rail at the moat in its neighbor's eye and forget the beam in its own eye. If I must defend all I have said or done in former years, especially at the beginning, I must beg the Pope to do the same, for if they defend their former acts (let alone their present ones) they would belong to the devil more than to God. I am not ashamed of my counsel, even if it should be published in all the world, but for the sake of the unpleasantness which would then follow, I should prefer, if possible, to have it kept secret. Mabtin Ltjthek, with his own hand. A few days after writing this letter, Luther excused the bigamy to his table companions on much the same grounds : — We have suffered greater scandals than this, but the papists excuse all their lusts of Sodom by this bigamy. What can we do ? If they had only followed my advice ! 1 As it is done, we cannot abandon the Church. The scandal will be blamed on me. I believe that he will get some one to defend his deed publicly ! They cannot make a rule out of it ; it is no precedent. We are under our own jurisdiction and follow our own laws as Paul commands. They can't blame us. Well, such scandals drive philosophers from public affairs and monks from the Church. We must not and cannot yield, let our enemies be as impudent as they like ! After the conference at Schmalkalden, Melanchthon fell ill of a disease something like malaria, then called " tertian fever.'? He attributed it to the shame he felt over the Hessian scandal ; undoubtedly the worry tended to make him worse. On June 18 Luther received letters from .Chancellor Briick telling him of this, and of the conference at Hagenau, and also from the Elector, ordering him to come to Weimar to talk over tbje situation. When a letter from Chancellor Briick was brought, Luther read it and said : " Melanchthon is almost worn away with grief and is falling into a tertian fever. But why does the good man torment himself so with this matter? He cannot remedy it by worrying about it. I wish I were with him, for I know his frailty and the pain the scandal causes him. I have grown callous ; I am a peasant and a devilish hard Saxon ; I believe I am called to Melanchthon." Some one said : " Doctor, perhaps the conference will be interrupted." The doctor' 1 To keep the marriage secret. 880 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER "They must wait for us." Then he added with a serene counten. ance : " It is fine to have something to do. This gives us food for thought, otherwise we should only swill and gorge. How the papists will cry out ! But let them cry to their own confusion. For our cause is good and our lives are blameless, because they are earnest. If Philip of Hesse has sinned, it is not only a sin but a scandal. 1 We often give the best and holiest answers, but they will not see our in- nocence because they do not want to. Let them go to the devil ! . . . Our sins are venial, but those of the papists unforgivable, for they despise God and crucify Christ and deny their own blasphemies against better knowledge. "What do they expect ? They slay men ; we labor to have them born and thus marry several wives," This he said with a merry face and not without a great laugh. . . . Rising from the table with a happy visage, he said : " I won't pay the devil and the papists the compliment of bothering myself about them." If Luther cared little for the results of the bigamy, Philip soon found himself in a most unpleasant position. The court of Dresden arrested his new mother-in-law on June 2, and thus obtained most of the documents in the case. Such pressure was brought to bear upon the Landgrave that he felt the need of more advice, and accordingly invited Luther to Weimar, where the Reformer arrived on June 28. There he cheered up Melanchthon, whom he found in a desperate state. He himself attributed his friend's recovery to prayer, as he writes his wife on July 2. The letter is interesting as showing how little the scandal apparently weighed upon his mind. Among other things he wrote : — Dear maiden Katie, gracious lady of Zulsdorf, and whatever else you may be. I humbly beg your ladyship to know that I am well, eat like a Bohemian and drink like a German, thank God. Amen. It is because Melanchthon was dead and has risen again like Lazarus from the grave. God the dear Lord hears our prayers ; that we see and know, although we never believe it. May no one say Amen to our shameful unbelief ! . . . God willing, next Sunday we shall go from Weimar to Eisenach with Melanchthon. The journey to Eisenach was for the purpose of conferring with representatives of Hesse about the best way of managing 1 FoucW : " It is not only a crime but a blunder." THE BIGAMY OF PHILIP OF HESSE 381 the unfortunate affair. Philip was for publicly avowing his marriage, wishing above all things that it be not held for an illicit amour; this Luther strongly deprecated. On the first day of the Conference, July 15, he stated that a public acknow- ledgment of the bigamy would create a great scandal, and continued : 1 — Is it not a good plan to say that the bigamy had been discussed and should not Philip say that he had indeed debated the matter, but had not yet come to a decision ? All else must be kept quiet. What is it, if for the good and sake of the Christian Church, one should tell a good, strong lie ? . . . And before he, Luther, would reveal the confession which Bucer had made him in the Landgrave's name, or let people talk so about a pious prince whom he always wished to serve, he would rather say that Luther had gone mad, and take the blame on himself. Luther further declined to take any responsibility if the matter was published ; in that case he saw himself absolved, for he had never advised that bigamy be made a general prac- tice, and, therefore, he threatened to withdraw and disavow his permission completely. This enraged Philip, who wrote the professor that it was the most horrible thing he had heard for a long time, that such a brave man should threaten to recall the dispensation he had given to relieve a needy con- science. He added : " I will not lie, because lying is wrong and no apostle nor Christian ever taught it ; yea, Christ forbade it strictly and commanded people to stand by their yea and nay." Luther answered the letter as follows : — TO PHILIP, LANDGRAVE OF HESSE (Eisenach,) July 24, 1540. Grace and peace in Christ. Serene, highborn Prince, gracious Lord ! I have received your Grace's letter, which seems to me to have been written in a rather angry mood, although I am not aware that I have deserved your Grace's ire. For it seems to me that your Grace thinks we act in this matter to please ourselves and not, as is really the case, to serve your Grace and prevent future trouble for you. Wherefore I give your Grace to understand my real reason for 1 First protocol to the Eisenach conference, Lenz, op. cit., 373. 882 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER advising and warning against the publication of this confessional counsel. Let your Grace not doubt that if all the devils wanted to publish this counsel, I could, by God's grace, give them such an an- swer that they would not get any satisfaction out of me by doing so. For in case you publish it, I have this advantage over your Grace and all devils, too, that you must bear me witness, first, that it was a secret confessional counsel, and second, that I have always truly begged that it be not published, and thirdly, that it will never be published by me. As long as I have these three advantages I defy the devil himself to move my pen. By God's grace I know well how to distinguish between things that should be allowed to consciences privately by way of dispensation and those which should be publicly preached. I would be sorry to see your Grace get into a war of words over this matter, for you have enough else to do. . . . If your Grace should publish this marriage, you could not get the world to recognize its legality if a hundred Luthers and Melanchthons defended it. . . . And as to what you say about not wishing your second wife to pass for a whore, I do not see why your Grace should mind that, for she has had to pass for one hitherto, at least before the world, though we three persons and God know that she is a wedded concubine. . . . I write these things to your Grace to show you that it is not for my own sake that I wish this matter concealed ; for if it came to a war of pens, I well know how to draw myself out of it and leave your Grace sticking in it ; which, however, I would not do if I could avoid it. Nor do I think to abandon your Grace during the present crisis as long as my life lasts Your Grace should think what an offence it would be were it pub- lished, and . . . also whether you could answer for it to the Emperor, for the Bible says : " All men are liars," and, " Put not your trust in princes." . . . Wherefore I advise you to give an ambiguous answer by which you could remain. I commend you to God and assure you that I advise you to do exactly what I should advise my own soul. Your Grace's obedient, Dr. Martin Luther. Luther returned to Wittenberg early in August and straight- way wrote Justus Menius, his host in Eisenach, thanking him for the delightful entertainment his wife had given them, and adding: "We taught your son to steal nuts to amuse our- THE BIGAMY OF PHILIP OP HESSE 383 selves. It was great fun to watch him ; he was a comedy in himself." In spite of the attempt to hush the matter up, inquiries kept coming in. Luther still insisted that denial was the best an- swer : — TO PHILIP, LANDGRAVE OP HESSE * (Wittenberg,) September 17, 1540. Grace and peace. Most serene, highborn Prince, gracious Lord ! It pleases me right well that your Grace has given such a reserved an- swer to the unnecessary and dangerous questions of the Margrave J and Meissen, 8 for, as they wish to be so holy and so friendly, they should be before others in hushing up this hue and cry, as, thank God, every one else does. The Margrave has also tried to pump me, but I will answer him, as I have done others, though perhaps even more strongly, and I shall do it with good conscience, as Christ does when he says in the gospel, " The Son knoweth not the day," 4 or like a pious father confessor, who must say publicly in court that he knows nothing of what he has learned in secret confession ; for what one knows only in a private capacity one cannot know publicly. So that even if such a thing were said openly, one should not believe it. And since your Grace does not desire to defend your conduct as a public example, but only to use the grace for your conscientious need, it seems good that, should they trouble your Grace again, your Grace should be a little tart with them. ... I would be unwilling for the court of Dresden to get a full acknowledgment from your Grace, by which perhaps they might make things more unpleasant than they have yet done. It is better to leave them in uncertainty and let them stumble around for proof which they can never get, for a mere copy of a letter would not be proof and your Grace is not bound to give them the originals nor even to acknowledge such originals. God grant that they make no trouble with their copies and do not substitute other letters they have never had nor seen ! Why don't the coarse, incon- siderate people keep quiet when they know we want them to ? God bless you. Amen. I have written in haste and keep no copy. If I dare 1 Lenz, op. cit., p. 389. 1 The Margrave of Brandenburg. * Dnke Henry of Saxony, whose capital was in the county of Meissen. 4 Mark xiii, 32. Luther believed, as he explained more fully elsewhere, that as Christ was omniscient he must have known the day of the last judgment, but that be thought it right to avoid inconvenient questions by denying his knowledge. 384 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MAETIN LUTHER ask it, your Grace will return this letter, for I act in this matter as confidentially with your Grace as with my own heart. Luther's letters tell the truth but not the whole truth. Regret- table as is his connection with the bigamy, an impartial student can hardly doubt that he acted conscientiously, not out of desire to flatter a great prince, but in order to avoid what he believed to be a greater moral evil. His statement in the Babylonian Captivity that he preferred bigamy to divorce, and his advice to Henry VHI in 1531, both exculpate him in this case. More- over the careful study of Rockwell has shown that his opinion was shared by the great majority of his contemporaries, Catholic and Protestant alike. It is perhaps harder to justify his advice to get out of the difficulty by a lie. This, however, was certainly an inheritance from the scholastic doctrine of the sacredness of confession. A priest was bound by Church law to deny all that passed in the confessional. Moreover, many of the Church Fathers had allowed a lie to be on occasions the lesser of two evils. Nevertheless, though these considerations palliate Lu- ther's guilt, the incident will always remain, in popular imag- ination as well as in historic judgment, the greatest blot on his career. The last pretence of secrecy was given up when a Hessian clergyman under the pseudonym of Neobulus defended the bigamy of his sovereign in a pamphlet of 1541. When Luther heard of it his anger was aroused to an uncommon degree. Still maintaining that all he had allowed was exceptional and never intended to sanction bigamy as a common practice, he was able to say : — If any one shall follow the advice of that wretch, and take more than one wife, the devil will prepare him a bath in the abyss of hell. This is not the place to go into the political effects of Philip's act. In return for personal immunity he made concessions to the Emperor which greatly weakened the League of Schmal- kalden. In the pact he signed was included his son-in-law, Duke Maurice of Saxony, who had succeeded his father, Henry the Pious, in August, 1541. The young prince had hardly ascended the throne before he almost came to blows with his cousin John THE BIGAMY OF PHILIP OF HESSE 365 Frederic over the bishopric of Wiirzen in which both had rights. Philip was anxious to make peace between his allies, and asked Luther's cooperation in this. The letter in which the Reformer answers is doubly interesting for its opinion of Maurice and of Neobulus. TO PHILIP, LANDGRAVE OF HESSE 1 (Wittenberg,) April 10, 1542. Grace and peace in Christ our Lord. Serene, highborn Prince, gracious Lord. I am very glad to hear that your Grace has hopes of making peace in this deplorable and dangerous quarrel. May God grant more and sufficient grace, as we earnestly and confidently pray. I had not expected that Duke Maurice would act so un thankfully and unkindly towards the Elector, for all the world knows he would never have been horn, much less would have been so mighty a prince, had it not been for the late Elector Frederic. He is working for God's wrath, which will come upon him sooner than he thinks unless he solemnly repents of the crime he has done for the sake of a dunghill, though the misunderstanding could have been set right with one word. May God guard the people, that if a campaign is undertaken against the Turk, Duke Maurice may not go with them, lest not only the Turk but thunder and lightning smite them, on account of this im- penitent, stiff-necked bloodhound, cousin-killer, fratricide, friend- killer, patricide, and son-killer. I will speak against him to a Lord who will be able to cope with him and who sits securely on the right hand of God. As to the other matter on which your Grace writes, you know how loyal I have always been to your Grace, and have borne enough hard- ship in it to spare you. But this vile book of Neobulus has made it all in vain by stirring up with his silly prattle such noisome filth, an act not only unserviceable but also very harmful. It seems to me that every one has blamed and mocked your Grace. Otherwise I should not mind it. I pray for your Grace and must do so, as the times aTe very bad, so that it is necessary to pray for rulers. They act evilly and fall into trouble when they should administer justice. God bless you. Amen. Your Grace's obedient, Martin Luther. 1 M. Lenz : NaMese mm Briefwechsel des Landgrafen Philip mit Luther and Melanchthon. In Zeitschrifl f. Kirchengeschichte, iv (Gotha, 1881), 136 ff. The copy- in De Wette-Seidemann, vi, 312, is faulty. 386 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER j Luther feared the scandal that the division of the Protestants ivould cause, as he said to Melanchthon : — They will say at Rome that we are coming to blows and that we will root out our own doctrine. We must listen to such words, but God will do what is right. Only pray diligently without doubting and God will bring it to pass. I prayed Duke George to death ; we will laugh Carlowitz and Pistorius to death. God grant that these authors of the treachery end as Judas and Ahithophel did. . . . Duke Maurice is a young man with little intelligence ; he trusts his counsellors, but he will learn by experience, for no one will trust him in future. War was, however, averted hy the efforts of Hesse. Luther's estimate of Maurice as a man of little intelligence is hardly justified hy his later career. This prince was to rob his cousin of the electoral vote and of half his land. CHAPTER XXXV CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT. 1539-1516 JU 1 *'' The treaty of Frankfort, signed in April, 1539, stipulated for a truce of fifteen months between Catholic and Protestant ; * / before the expiration of which time it was hoped that a German * national assembly would meet and settle the religious differ- ences. Political exigencies forced the Emperor to deal cautiously with his heretical subjects, and so he arranged for a series of conferences, at Hagenau, at Worms, and finally and most im- portant, at Hatisbon in 1541. Charles V and Luther were for so long opponents that it is ' interesting to inquire what each thought of the other. The . monarch had first seen the " presumptuous monk " at Worms, and then felt nothing but horror for his stout defiance of the uni- versal Church. According to Charles's most recent biographer 2 the sincerest and most outspoken utterance of the usually reti- cent Hapsburg was his declaration, written by himself immedi- ately after hearing Luther, that on supporting the cause of the Church against this heretic he " staked all his dominions, his friends, his body and blood, his life and his soul." A few years later, thinking the heretic might be useful in curbing the Pope,' he had said, that " some day or other, perhaps, Luther may become a man of worth," 8 .but this cautious utterance never for an instant indicated that he entertained the slightest leaning to the new faith or the least liking for its leader. The Wittenberg professor, on his side, was long inclined to 1 The truce was to run in all circumstances for six months, till November 1, 1539 ; but in case the Emperor agreed to the provision that the league of Catholic States should receive no addition during fifteen months it was to be valid daring that time, :'. e., until August 1, 1540. In case it expired the old basis of the peace of Nuremberg (1532) was to be restored. 2 Edward Armstrong : The Emperor Charles V (London, 1902), i, 70 f. » Ibid., p. 162. 888 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER a much more favorable opinion. In the first stages he had hoped much " from the noble young blood Charles," to whom he had written an appeal. 1 Long after the Emperor showed his disposition by persecuting the Protestants, Luther maintained his opinion with an almost naive obstinacy. At the Diet of Augsburg in 1530, he had persisted in ascribing the hostilities of the Catholics to the counsellors of Charles, who was himself "like a sheep among wolves." 8 This reverence can only be ex- plained by the magic of the Imperial name. Long after the fall of the Latin world-state, Rome was a word to conjure with ; throughout the Middle Ages men were awed by the fortune of the Eternal City. To a poetical and pious mind like Luther's the Caesar of Virgil and of the New Testament was hedged with a more than royal divinity. At last, however, facts were too strong for him, and in 1540 he expressed the following un- favorable, though for him very mild, opinions : — Our adversaries are now convinced, and have nothing more on which to oppose us. Wherefore the Emperor simply alleges his faith as a pretext to confiscate bishoprics to his own profit. (For I am something of a prophet and understand the wiles of the devil.) He sees that whenever a prince falls away from the popish religion he seizes the bishoprics in his territory, as the Duke of Brunswick did Hildesheim. Wherefore he acts like a dog named Wimmar at Linz, who used to carry meat home from the butcher's. One day, when attacked by other dogs which wanted the meat, he at first defended it, and then, when he could do so no longer, began to eat it himself. The Emperor is a melancholy man and more of a voluptuary than a hero. He does not understand our position, although he sometimes hears our books read. If he were a Scipio or an Alexander or a Pyrr-hus he would burst the pontifical net and bind the Germans to himself. He begins much but carries little through. He took Tunis, now he has lost it ; he captured the French king and let him go, and the same with Borne. He does not persevere. He is remiss in business. Noble souls are not so. What shall I say ? Germany lacks a head. Melanch- thon has called it a blinded Polyphemus. We are a gigantic mass but lack direction. The Emperor's brother and successor Ferdinand was also a 1 Letter of August 31, 1520, p. 99. a Letter to Teutleben, June 19, 1530, p. 255. THE EMPEROR CHARLES V After the painting by Titian, engraved by Rubens ; in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT 389 staunch Catholic. His saying that he had had inclinations toward Lutheranism but had been deterred from it by the scandal of Philip of Hesse's bigamy, does not indicate that his leaning* were very strong. For him Luther had no superstitious revef ence ; his opinion is more unqualified : — Ferdinand is a monk ; he prays seven times a day and neglects the business of the state. Faber the Bishop of Vienna will have it so, for Ferdinand always listens to him. He neither understands our position nor reads our arguments, for the prelates take care not to allow that. They know that our theology is convincing. I believe if the King un- derstood it, he would boldly drive the Pope from Germany. His errors and weaknesses are not such grave wrongs as are the open blasphemies of Albert of Mayence and of Duke George, who said, " Their cause is just but is not approved by the Church." For this the impious blasphe- mer died and went to hell, living a life of groaning under the shades. 1 As he grew older the Reformer became more decided ; in 1542 he said : — Ferdinand is the plague of Germany. His father Maximilian 2 pre- dicted it. He was an astrologer, and when he saw the horoscope of his son is reported to have said, " The best ttyng for you will be to drown in your baptism." A father's sayings are prophecies. Erasmus judged Ferdinand and Charles well, when he said : " These two cubs will make Germany smart some day." Of the princes of the Empire he said, in 1532 : — I hate to see our princes have such an appetite for bishoprics. . . . The nobles seek their own profit and devour monasteries which will soon turn their stomachs as grass does a dog's. They all try to get rich from the monastery's purse, but let them beware lest it be a beggar's purse they get. These two parties — the Emperor and the princes — thus stood face to face in the beginning of 1540. As a general council, to which both sides had so long appealed, was no longer acceptable to the Protestants, the means chosen to reconcile them with the Catholics were the aforementioned religious 1 Lnther has in mind, "Vitaque cum gemitu fugit indignata sub umbras." Virgil, ^Eneid, 11, 831. •2 Maximilian was Ferdinand's grandfather; his father Philip was never Env peror. 890 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER conferences. The first of these, originally called at Spires, was prorogued to meet at Hagenau in June. In order to decide on the proper course of action, tho Protestant leaders held another congress at Schmalkalden in March. Luther, remembering his former almost fatal visit to that city, was excused from coming, but in common with other theologians sent a memorial to the effect that in all things his Church should stand by the Augs- burg Confession. Melanchthon attended the congress, on the way assisting at the Landgrave's second marriage. To him his chief wrote as follows : — TO PHILIP MELANCHTHON AT SCHMALKALDEN (Wittenberg,) April 8, 1540. You write, dear Philip, that the Emperor has promised a private audience ; I wonder what he wants. I believe he is uncertain as to the best course to pursue. He needs a secret heart, placed as he is among so many vipers, so that he cannot openly satisfy either them or us with certain promises. In his place it would puzzle me to know what to do, especially as I am not well versed in affairs. We must pray God for him. It is no small sign from God that he has withheld the Emperor's hands for so many years, while the cardinals and popes raged and stirred him up and pressed him forward and urged him on, but all in vain. Let us thank God for this. For whatever is or shall be, we shall effect all things by prayer, the only omnipotent empress of human affairs ; by her we shall overrule the decrees of fate, correct mistakes, take away what is too bad to mend, conquer all evils, preserve all that is good, as we have hitherto done, having proved the power of prayer of which the reprobate and baffled papists know nothing — for they neither will nor can be wise. The wrath of God has finally come upon them who have drenched their hands in the blood of Christ and Christians, who, indeed, are totally submerged in the blood of the saints. Although we, too, are miserable offenders, in the body of sin, yet are we pure from blood ; rather we hate the men of blood and the god of blood who possesses and animates them. I have only written this to answer your letter, that you may know I received it. Thus are we accustomed to talk in private when we touch upon such matters. I hope you will receive another letter before your return. All is well with us, by God's grace, except that we desire your re- turn as soon as possible, or rather at once. I am angry with Grickel, 1 1 Agricola ; cf . supra, p. 285. CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT S91 whom, with all his virtues, I hope to leave to you before I die. Fare- well in the Lord. Salute all friends and tell them their households are well. Yesterday there was an eclipse of the sun which we saw sadly laboring from five till seven. O Lord, turn the evil upon our enemies and save us by thy name ! Amen. My Katie is perfectly restored to health. She sends her greeting to you whom she esteems much and loves kindly. The meeting at Hagenau, June, 1540, came to nothing, and another conference was called at Worms in the autumn of the same year. Discussion did not actually begin until January 14, 1541, Melanchthon and Eck having the leading parts. That Luther despaired of any result may be gathered from the next letter : — TO FREDERIC MTCONIUS AT GOTHA (Wittenberg,) January 9, 1541. Grace and peace. I have received your letter saying that you are sick unto death, that is, if you interpret it rightly and blessedly» unto life. It is a singular joy to me that you are so unterrified by death, that sleep into whieh all good men fall, nay, that you are rather de- sirous of being freed and living with Christ. We should have this desire not only on the bed of sickness but in the full vigor of life, at all times and in all places and circumstances, seeing that we are Christians who have risen, revived and ascended into heaven with Christ, where we shall judge angels, and the veil and the dark glass will be removed. Although I am uncommonly glad that you feel thus, yet I pray and beseech the Lord Jesus, our life and salvation, that he may not add this calamity to my sorrows, that I should live to see you or any of my friends break through the veil to the rest beyond, while I am left without among devils, to suffer after your death, seeing that I have already suffered so much that I am most worthy of going before you. I pray that the Lord will take me in your place, and let me lay aside this useless, worn-out, exhausted tabernacle. I am no longer of any value. Wherefore please pray the Lord with us to preserve you the longer to profit the Church and to despise Satan. You see, and God our life sees, how much need his Church has of men and of gifts. At last we have received news from Worms, after having waited five weeks and almost given up hope ; George ROrer will send you some of the letters. Our friends act strongly and wisely in all things ; contrariwise our opponents act childishly, foolishly, and inanely, telling 892 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER gross and silly lies. You see that when the dawn appears Satan be- comes impatient of the light and seeks darkness in a thousand ways with subterfuge and indirection, but yet clumsily, for it is necessary that he who wishes to defend and furbish up an open lie against the manifest truth should fail in his impossible task. Why do we doubt ? Glory, power, victory, salvation, and honor are due to the Lamb who was slain and rose again, and with him to us also, who believe that he was slain and rose again. There is no doubt about this. I hope our friends will soon return. Farewell, dear Frederic, and may the Lord not let me hear that you have died, but may he make you survive me. This I pray, this I wish, my will be done (Amen), for it is not for my own pleasure but for God's glory that I wish it. Farewell again. I pray for you from my soul. My Katie and all my friends send their greetings, for they are deeply moved by your illness. Tours, Martin Luther. Before anything definite was accomplished at Worms the religious conference was adjourned to meet at Ratisbon where the Emperor opened a diet on April 5. Here the most deter- mined efforts were made to reunite the Catholics and Protest- ants. Bucer drew up a plan of comprehension, thus drawing down on himself the severest judgment of Luther, who could bear anything better than lukewarmness. That little wretch has lost all credit with me. I shall never trust him, for he has cheated me too often. He acted badly at the Diet of Ratisbon, wishing to be mediator between me and the Pope, saying, " It is a pity that so many souls should be lost for the sake of an article or two." They look at it from the political standpoint, for political matters are temporal and changeable. Another mediator was the Landgrave of Hesse, on whom Luther expresses a similarly severe judgment in the next letter to Melanchthon, written to strengthen the friend suspected of not being sufficiently firm himself : — TO PHILIP MELANCHTHON AT RATISBON (Wittenberg,) April 4, 1541. Grace and peace. Dear Philip, I write this second letter to you, hoping that your letter to me is already on the road. I pray the Lord CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT 393 to guide and preserve you from the wiles of Satan and especially from that Jason 1 and his ilk. Our good elector yesterday sent me through Chancellor Brttck that man's advice about making peace with the Emperor and our opponents. I see they think this is a comedy of men instead of a tragedy of God and Satan, as it is. Where Satan's power waxes that of God grows rusty. But the tragedy will have its catastrophe, as such always have had from the beginning, and the omnipotent author of the drama will free us at last. I write with rage and indignation against those who trifle in such matters. But thus it must be, for throughout history the Church has suffered, like St. Paul, the dangers of false brethren that the seal of God may be cer- tain in us. God knows who are his own. I would write more did I not know that you hate such men and measures as much as I. What do they mean by saying that we neglect the primary articles of faith to dispute about things indifferent ? Is the Word of God and the sacrament, in perverting which they tempt, slight, and insult God, a thing indifferent ? Peace will be easy " in things indifferent " if, by our impenitence, we relegate serious and important matters to this category. . . . About the time he was writing this, Luther was publishing one of his fiercest books: Against Jack Sausage {Hans Wurst). The person to whom this sobriquet was applied was Duke Henry II of Brunswick. Succeeding to the government in 1514, he at once put his brother William in prison and kept him there ten years. A little later, with the connivance of the Emperor, he seized Hildesheim. With his neighbors he lived in constant strife. When the League of Schmalkalden held its congress at Brunswick in 1538, he refused passage through his territory to the Elector John Frederic and Philip of Hesse, and when the latter passed through notwithstanding, he shot at him with cannon. He was accused of hiring agents to set fire to buildings in Saxony and Hesse, by which three hundred men lost their lives. His private life was also scandalous. Outwardly professing the Catholic religion, he ventured to mock one of its most sacred rites by pretending to have his mistress, Eva von Trott, buried, though for years afterwards he kept her privately in one of his castles. 1 Philip of Hesse ; Jason took to wife the daughter of the King of Corinth, while Medea, his first wife, was alive. 894 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER The constant strain between him and his Evangelic neigh- bors broke out in a war of pens about 1540. The titles of the books, unthinkable nowadays between crowned heads, suffi- ciently show the character of this conflict. They are : The true, wise, well founded, Christian and right Answer of the Serene Prince John Frederic, against the shameless, Calpurnian, mendacious Libel of that hard, godless, cursed, damnable Slanderer, that wicked Barrabas, Whore-master and Holo- phernes of Brunswick who calls himself Henry the Younger ; and : The considerable, well grounded, true, godly and Christ- ian Reply of the Serene Prince Henry the Younger to the false, lying, shameless Libel vomited forth against the said Duke by that godless, infamous, hard, heretical, sacrilegious, cursed, wicked Antiochus, JVbvatian, Severian, and Pander who calls himself John Frederic of Saxony. Luther was drawn into the controversy by the taunt of Henry that "Frederic's dear Martin Luther calls him Jack Sausage." Taking this name to designate his enemy of Bruns- wick, the Reformer published his book against him about April 1. The nickname, first found in Sebastian Brant's Ship of Fools (1494), refers to the custom of the fools at carnival time of wearing a huge leather sausage. "This name," says Luther, " was not invented by me, but is used by other people against coarse clowns who try to be wise, but speak and act without rime or reason." The tone of the book is the usual violent invective ; the substance is mainly concerned with Henry's charge that the Protestants are heretics and rebels. The author proves by a history of the schism, from the in- dulgence controversy on, that the Evangelic Church has been the true one and that the Romanists are the real heretics. He closes with a parody of a popular song, " Poor Judas," reviving the charge of arson against the Duke of Brunswick : " O wicked Heinz, what have you done to slay so many men by fire ? For this you will suffer great pain in hell and be Lucifer's com- panion forever. Fyrieleisonf" The book had an enormous success, three editions being called for before the year was ended. John Frederic, a rather coarse man, was especially pleased with it, and sent a number CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT 395 of copies around to his friends. Like "Warren Hastings, Luther was astonished at his own moderation. A contemporary letter alluding to it is also interesting as showing the sufferings which the Reformer underwent in his later years: — TO PHILIP MELANCHTHON AT KATISBON (Wittenberg,) April 12, 1541. ... I have re-read my book against that devil of Brunswick and wonder how I eould have been so moderate. I attribute it to the suf- ferings of my head, which did not permit my mind to display a more upright and stronger vehemence. But, if the Lord will, it profits the Church that I write thus. My illness has turned the corner. I am troubled with that tumor in the head which you predicted. So much phlegm, rheum, and matter flows from my neck and nostrils that I wonder how my head, broken down with age and labor, could bring forth such monsters, and that I was not suddenly taken off with apoplexy, vertigo, epilepsy, or something like them. On Palm Sunday the tumor reached my ear and attacked not only my head but my soul, so that the intolerable anguish forced tears from my eyes (though I do not easily nor often weep), and I said to the Lord: " May these pains cease or may I die." I could not have borne that terrible fight with nature two full days, but on the second day the tumor broke. . . . Now the winds of all the seas and of all the for- ests blow through my head, so that I can hear nothing unless it is shouted at me. . . . At least I have the advantage of being able to read and write even if I cannot sleep as I used to. . . . This letter reached Melanchthon still engaged in negotiations at Ratisbon. A committee of three Catholics and three Protest- ants, Eck, Pflug, and Grropper against Melanchthon, Bucer, and Pistorius, had reached a semblance of harmony on some of the chief points at issue. For example, justification by faith was conceded by the Catholics with the proviso that faith meant operati ve faith. Even on the articles where both sides agreed to the samefdrmula, it must be remembered that their interpreta- tion of the words was very different, and moreover there were some points, such as that on the primacy of the Pope, on which no harmony whatever could be found. The Emperor finally de- cided to publish the articles for which a common statement had been drawn up, reserving the others for the arbitrament of a 896 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER future council and forbidding the publication of polemic books. He also promised that adherence to the Augsburg Confession should not be made the ground of action against any prince. On the whole, the result of the conference, which terminated in July, was favorable to the Protestants. Their party continued to gain strength by the adhesion or conquest of new domains. One of these was Brunswick. Duke Henry, in spite of warnings both from the Scbmalkaldic League and from Ferdinand, attacked the city of Goslar. The Protest- ant princes promptly came to the help of the town and ex- pelled Henry not only from it but from his whole territory, which was at once converted to the Protestant faith (1542). Another acquisition was the bishopric of Naumburg. When the bishop died in 1541, the chapter chose Julius Pflug, a good Catholic who had been prominent at Eatisbon, but his instal- lation was prevented by John Frederic, who occupied the city with three hundred cavalry in January, 1542, and compelled the election of Nicholas von Amsdorf, Luther's old friend and colleague. The Keformer, pleased with the honor bestowed upon his faithful follower, went in person to consecrate him. This he did on January 20 and defended the act in a pamphlet entitled, How to Anoint a Eight Christian Bishop. " We poor here- tics," says he, " have committed a great sin against the hellish unchristian Church and against the most hellish father the Pope by anointing a bishop at Naumburg without ointment, butter, suet, bacon, grease, or smoke." Still another gain for the Evangelic party was the conversion of Halle, a small thing in itself, but particularly dear to the Reformer as a personal triumph over his old enemy Archbishop Albert of Mayence, whose capital and favorite residence this town was. As the Eeformation made way in Halle, Albert at first sold the town the right to hold Evangelic services in re- turn for a sum of money, but by 1542 his capital became too hot to hold him and he was obliged to retire to Mayence, taking with him a large collection of relics. As a song of triumph over the discomfiture of his opponent, Luther wrote the lampoon next translated. The superstitious objects ridiculed, among them being a piece of the clay from which Adam was formed CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT 897 and a bit of Noah's ark, had figured in the previous indulgence trade at Halle which had brought down Luther's wrath in 1517 and 1521. 1 In making fun of such relics he was not orig- inal ; they had been the butt of wits for centuries. 2 NEWS FROM THE EHIHE (Wittenberg, circa October, 1542.) An order has gone out from all the pulpits under the jurisdiction of the Archbishop of May ence on the Rhine, saying that the archbishop has, for good reasons and the prompting of the Holy Ghost, trans- ferred all relics, bless'd and endowed with great Roman indulgences, graces, and privileges, which his Reverence formerly had at Halle in Saxony to St. Martin's Church in Mayence. There they shall be honored with great solemnity every year on the Sunday after Bartholomew's day, with public proclamation of the same and of great forgiveness of sins, so that the beloved men of the Rhineland may help clothe the poor, bare bones with new garments. For the coats they had at Halle have been torn, and had they staid longer there they would have been frozen. There is a persistent rumor that the Elector of Mayence has added many new relics to the old ones, and secured a special indulgence for them from the Most Holy Father Pope Paul III. Among the new relics are : — I. A fair piece of Moses' left horn. II. Three flames from Moses' burning bush on Mount Sinai. III. Two feathers and an egg of the Holy Ghost. IV. A whole end of the banner with which Christ harried hell. V. A large wisp of Beelzebub's beard which remained' stuck to the same banner. VI. Half a feather of St. Gabriel the archangel. VII. A whole pound of the wind which blew for Elijah in the cave on Mount Horeb. VIII. Two yards of the tones of the sackbuts on Mount Sinai. IX. Thirty notes of the drum of Miriam, Moses' sister, heard on the Red Sea. 1 Cf. letter to Albert of Mayence, December 1, 1521, p. 127. 3 A similar, though in no particular identical list of relics in Boccaccio : De- camerone. Oiornata sesta, Novella decima. Cf. also, the old English play, The Four PP. The strangest of all relics, the foreskin of Jesus, is shown at Borne, Antwerp, Charost (Berry) and Hildesheim and works miracles in every place. Cf. O. Clemen in Archivfur Eulturgeschichte, vii, 2. 898 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER X. A great big piece of the shout of the children of Israel with which they cast down the walls of Jericho. XI. Five, fair, clear strings of the harp of David. XII. Three locks of Absalom's hair, by which he was caught on the oak. "We must remember that this is shown not for holiness but for curiosity, as Judas' cord is shown at St. Peter's in Borne. A special good friend has privately told me that the Elector of Mayence is going to bequeath by will a whole dram of his true, pious heart, and half an ounce of his veracious tongue. For these an indulg- ence will be secured from the Most Holy Father Pope, so that who- ever honors these relics with a gold gulden shall have all his sins forgiven up to date, and moreover all the sins he can possibly commit during the next ten years shall not be allowed to prejudice his salva- tion. This is a great rich grace, never before heard of, which must be the source of joy to many. The lampoon stung ; Luther rejoiced in the writhing of his enemy, " the bride of Mayence," as he now called Albert, and wrote this letter to the pastor of Halle, intending it for public inspection : — TO JUSTUS JONAS AT HALLE (Wittenberg,) November 6, 1542. Grace and peace in the Lord. My dear doctor, you know that the lampoon on his Holiness the Cardinal is mine. The printer knows it, so does the university and the town, so that it is quite public and no secret at all. The bride of Mayence will also know it well, for I made the style easy to be recognized. Whoever reads it and has ever known my manner of writing and thinking must say, " That is Luther ! " The bride herself will say : " That is the rascal Luther, whose heart, well known to me, is especially apparent." Had I wished to keep it secret I should have better disguised my style. The bride has no power to make me fear her arts, devilish as they are. And if it were a notorious libel, which it is not, yet would I have the right, authority, and power, against the cardinal, the Pope, the devil, and all their fol- lowers to have it not called a libel. Have the ass-ists — I mean jurists — not studied their law, that they are so ignorant of its purpose and subject ? If I have to teach the guttersnipes I will do it gratis. How has fair Moritzburg ' so suddenly become a stable for asses ! If they wish to pipe, I wish to dance, and if life is spared me, I will yet tread 1 Albert's castle, still to be seen at Halle. CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT 899 a measure with the bride of Mayence, for I have a few more sweet kisses to press on her rosy red mouth. Help ! jurist, or whatever you are that trouble God. Let her spleen boil and bubble, what matters it ? I will roast her again, if I live, so that she will wish, for her honor, she had never noticed the lampoon. For I do not fancy keep- ing silence before that desperate enemy of God, that blasphemer of Mayence, whose devilish tyranny does ever worse and worse against the blood of Christ. Let them come and go as they please. * I will teach them what right and might I have, even to publish a notorious libel (if that were possible !) without heeding their wrath and the dis- favor of the jurists. For they will sit under God's judgment, not over it. I write this letter of my own accord, rather than suffer them to let me, an old man, alone. If they will not do so they must take the risk. I will let them find me if God will. Dr. Martin Luther. The battle with Rome never ceased till the day of Luther's death. The occasion of his last and fiercest book against her was as follows : At the Diet of Spires, which closed June 10, 1544, the Emperor, anxious to secure the help of the Protestants in the war against France, promised that they should be recognized until a free German National Council was called to pass upon the religious question. When Pope Paul III heard of this he wrote the Emperor a sharp letter (August 24), forbidding him to meddle in the affairs of the Church, especially as an oecu- menic council had already been called to meet at Trent. The Imperial Chancellor Gattinara sent this brief to Luther, who also had knowledge of another letter from Pope to Emperor, denouncing the summons of a German synod. John Frederic asked Luther to write an answer to these epistles, which he did in ,the early months of 1545, publishing in March of that year, Against the Papacy at Rome, founded by the Devil. In the first part, considering the title of the Pope to be called head of the Church "over council, Emperor, angels, and all," he says : " The most hellish father, St. Paul III, as though he were a bishop of the Roman Church, has written two letters to our Lord Emperor, showing that he is very wroth, and snarls and rants as his predecessors have all done, and says no one has a right to call a council, even a national one." He then gives 400 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER the history of the Council of Constance, which deposed three popes, and says : — It would be a first-rate thing if the Holy Ghost, that poor heresiarch, should come to grace and be let into a holy, free, Christian council. If he were not stubborn he might humble himself before that holy virgin, St. Paula III, Lady Papess, fall on his knees, kiss her feet and recognize, repent, and recant his heresy. He would surely get a free indulgence both for himself and for his holy Church. " Alas," sighs Luther, after continuing in this jocular vein for some time, "I am infinitely too small to mock the Pope, who has mocked the world for six hundred years." In Part II the author considers the claim of the Pope that none can judge him. After painting his vices in lively colors, he goes on : — So this Sodomite Pope, founder and master of all sins, threatens the Emperor Charles with excommunication and accuses him of sin, although he knows that his villainous tongue lies herein. These damnable rascals persuade the world that they are the heads of the Church, the mother of all churches, and masters of faith, although even stones and stocks would know that they were desperately lost children of the devil, as well as gross, stupid, ignorant asses in the Bible. One would like to curse them, so that thunder and lightning would smite them, hell fire burn them, the plague, syphilis, epilepsy, scurvy, leprosy, carbuncles, and all diseases attack them; but they are simple slanderers, and God has anticipated us and cursed them with a greater plague, as he curses those who despise him, the plague mentioned in Romans i, 26, to wit, that they become so mad that they know not whether they are men or women. . . . In the third and last part of this violent book Luther again takes up the question as to whether the Pope gave the Empire to the Germans. If the Pope had done so, he says, it would be much like his, Luther's, giving the kingdom of Bohemia to Saxony. He proves, however, by relating the history of Charle- magne, that in reality the Pope did no such thing. A further effort was called forth by the action of the univer- sity of Louvain, in publishing, December, 1544, a condemna- tion of " the Lutheran, Zwinglian, and Anabaptist heresy." The Emperor gave his official approval to these articles in March, CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT 401 1545. When he heaid of this, Luthetf wrote the following letter to his sovereign, in which he speaks rather sceptically of the council which had at last really assembled at Trent : — TO JOHN FREDERIC, ELECTOR OF SAXONY (Wittenberg,) May 7, 1545. Grace and peace in the Lord and my poor paternoster. Most serene, highborn Prince, gracious Lord ! I return the articles pub- lished by Louvain, as I received a printed copy of them a week ago. unhappy Emperor, to be the father of such a great, shameful, hor- rible whore ! Truly the Pope is silly and foolish from top to toe ; the papists know not what they say nor do. No doubt if there is a council they will display wisdom superior or equal to that which they have just shown. But I think that they, and especially their Holy Ghost, Mayence, are wise enough to let the council remain like unripe barley in the sheaves, although they are not wise enough to let the "Word alone. As to the other bit of news, about the council at Trent, I con- sider it a Romish and Mayence-ish chatter and babble, which he of Mayence would be very sorry to have come true. God won't have it and it won't have itself, either. Let things go of themselves and they will come out all right. May our dear God bless, rule over, and guard your Grace in his good and perfect will. Amen. Your Grace's obedient subject, Db. Maktin Lutheb. CHAPTER XXXVI LUTHERAN AND SACEAMENTAKIAN. 1S39-1B46 It sometimes seems that Luther hated the other branches of the Protestant Church more than he did even Some, and his wrath against them, far from being healed with time, became more and more bitter until his death. In October, 1540, he speaks of his first opponents in the doctrine of the sacrament thus : — Verily CEcolampadius' curse has .come true, for he wrote, in his work against Pirkheimer : "If I act with evil intention, may Jesus Christ smite me ! " Good God ! how bold these men are ! And others are not frightened by Zwingli's fate ! Verily it is not good to joke with Christ ! John Calvin, Zwingli's great successor, was born too late (1509) to be well known to Luther. The Wittenberg professor read one of his books in 1539, liked it, and sent the author his greeting. On the other hand, when Calvin wrote him, in Febru- ary, 1545, Luther never answered, and in the saying next translated he gives a very dubious opinion of the great divine of Geneva : — (October or November, 1540.) When some one pointed out to Luther that Watt had written against Schwenkf eld, he said, " I have seen the book but not read it. These books written to refute others need refutation themselves. Thus Calvin hides his opinions on the sacrament. They are mad and cannot speak out, though the truth is simple. Don't read their books to me ! " (Spring, 1543.) Against the sacramentarians who complain that we sin against the law of charity he said : " They plague us with their charity in all their books, saying, ' You of Wittenberg have no char- ity.' If you say, ' What is charity ? ' they reply, ' To agree in doc- trine. Let us not strive about religion.' Well, what of that ? There are two laws, primary and secondary ; charity belongs to the second class, although she precedes all works. It is written : ' Fear God and LUTHERAN AND SACRAMENTARIAN 403 obey his Word.' They don't ask about that. ' Whoso has loved father or mother more than me,' says Christ, ' is not worthy of me.' You must have charity to parents and children ; love, love, be kind to your father and mother ! But, ' whoso hath loved them more than me.' Where ' me ' begins charity stops. I am willing to be called obstinate, proud, headstrong, what they will, but not their fellow. God keep me from that ! " The old animosity broke out again in the summer of 1544 on the occasion of the conversion of Cologne from the Catholic to the Protestant faith. Melanchthon and Bucer went to that im- portant city, and drew np for it a Plan of Reform, in which, to avoid altercation, they minimized the differences of the several bodies of reformers on the doctrine of the sacrament. This plan was sent to Nicholas von Amsdorf, now Bishop of Naum- burg, who forwarded his criticism of it, together with the orig- inal document, to Luther. The latter expresses himself on both papers as follows : — TO CHANCELLOR BEUCK (Wittenbekg, end of July or beginning of August, 1544.) Honorable, learned Sir, dear Friend. The bishop's ! articles please me right well. . . . But the Plan of Reform does not please me. It speaks at length about the use, fruit, and honor of the sacrament, but mumbles about the substance, so that one cannot gather what it be- lieves. ... In short, I am sick and disgusted with the book . . . which, besides other objections, is much, much too long, a great tedi- ous talk, in which I see traces of that chatterbox, Bucer. I will say more at another time. Your Honor's devoted, Martin Luther. The above letter did not make things any easier for Luther's friends, and when he announced definitely that he was going to write a book expressly against the sacramentarian heresy, Melanchthon feared the worst. The treatise, A Short Confes- sion on the Holy Sacrament, came out toward the end of Sep- tember. It contains these words : " As I am about to descend into the grave, I will take this testimony and boast before the 1 Amsdorf . 404 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER judgment seat of my Lord, that I have always damned and shunned the ranters and enemies of the sacrament, Carlstadt, Zwingli, (Ecolampadius, Stenkefeld, 1 and their disciples at Zurich and elsewhere, according to the command in Titus iii, 10." The book did not, however, attack Melanchthon,and caused no further schism in the Church ; that it was taken ill by the Swiss had been expected. Luther speaks of their answer to the work in a letter to Amsdorf : — TO NICHOLAS VON AMSDORF AT NAUMBUKG (WlTTElTBEBG,) April 14, 1545. Grace and peace in the Lord. I thank you, reverend father in Christ, for your strongly favorable opinion of my book against the papacy. 9 It does not please every one so much. Yet it so pleased the Elector that he sent around copies worth twenty gulden. Tou know it is not my habit to regard the dislike of the multitude, if what I write is only pious and useful and pleasing to a few good persons. Not that I think all who dislike this book are wicked, but they do not under- stand the substance, quantity, quality, and all the circumstances, kinds, manners, properties, differences, and attributes of the papal abomina- tion, in short, all its monstrous horrors. For the eloquence and genius of none is able to reach them, even though they do not fear the wrath of kings. The sacramentarians of Zurich have written in Latin and German against my Short Confession. As I have so often condemned them before, I have not decided whether to answer them. The men are fanatic, proud, and yet shirking ; in the beginning of the reformation, when I alone sweated to bear the fury of the Pope, they kept resolute silence and watched my dangers and my success, but as soon as the papacy was somewhat broken they burst forth in triumphant boast- ing, saying that they owed nothing to others but all to themselves. Thus, thus does one labor and another enjoy the fruit of his labor. Now at last they turn and attack me by whom they were freed. They are a cowardly swarm of drones, skilful only to filch the honey others have made. Their judgment will come upon them. If I see best to answer them I shall do it briefly, merely reiterating my condemnatory 1 That is, Schwenkf eld, on whom see just below. Luther's pun means " Stink- field." 2 Against the Papacy at Rome, the work condemned by Louvain. LUTHERAN AND SACRAMENTARIAN 405 opinion. But I am determined to finish the book against the papacy while I have strength. The Emperor in Belgium, the French King in France, rage cruelly against the Evangelic cause, and Ferdinand is just as bad in Hungary and Austria. It is as when Caiphas advised to slay the Son of God that the place and the nation might not perish ; they think they can- not conquer the Turk unless they drench their lands with the blood of the martyrs and brethren of Christ. The wrath of God has come upon them at last. May the Lord hasten the day of our redemption. Fare- well in him, reverend father. Yours, Martin Luther. In the next letter, written a month before his death, Luther expresses his final hatred of the sacramentarians : — TO JAMES PROBST AT BREMEN (Wittenberg,) January 17, 1546. Greeting and peace. Dear James, old, decrepit, sluggish, weary, worn out, and now one-eyed, I write to you. Now that I am dead — as I seem to myself — I expect the rest I have deserved to be given to me, but instead I am overwhelmed with writing, speaking, doing, transacting business, just as though I had never done, written, said, or accomplished anything. But Christ is all in all, able to do and do- ing, blessed world without end. Amen. I greatly rejoice at what you tell me about the Swiss writing against me so vehemently, condemning me as an unhappy man of unhappy genius. This is what I sought, this is what I wished my book, so offensive to them, to do, namely, to make them publicly testify that they are my enemies ; now I have attained this, and, as I have said, rejoice at it. The blessing of the Psalm is sufficient for me, the most unhappy of all men : " Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the sacramentarians, nor standeth in the way of the Zwing- lians, nor sitteth in the seat of the men of Zurich." x You have my opinion. . . . I have begun to write against Lonvain, according as God gives me power ; I am more angry at those brutes than is becoming to an old man and a theologian ; but we ought to resist the monsters of Satan, even if we expended our last breath in doing so. Farewell. You 1 Cf . Psalm i, 1. 406 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER know that you are most dear to me not only on account of our old and intimate friendship, but on account of Christ, whom you teach as I do. We are sinners, but he, who lives forever, is our righteous- ness. Amen. Greet your friends and ours in the name of us all. Yours, Dr. Martin Luther. Besides the Z winglians there wer.e the Anabaptists ; a sect de- tested still more, if possible, than the others. It is fair, however, to give Luther credit for standing out against the death penalty for their belief, contrary to the practice not only of the Catholics but of Zwingli and Calvin. Some one asked if the Anabaptists were to be put to death. Luther replied : " There are two kinds. Those who are openly seditious are rightly punished by the Elector with death ; the others who merely have fanatic opinions ought in general to be banished." One of the lesser religious leaders of the time, usually classed as an Anabaptist, though he aspired to found a new sect of his own, the "Middle Way," was acertain Silesian gentleman named Casper von Schwenkfeld. He had been known to Luther for a great many years and detested for his heresy concerning the nature of Christ. Submitting his opinions to the theologians who met in the Congress of Schmalkalden early in 1540, Schwenkfeld was warned of his errors by them, whereupon he had the poor judgment to appeal from them to Luther. The opinion of the latter, together with his terribly rude answer, are recorded by Besold, November 8, 1543 : — Schwenkfeld sent the doctor his book on the humanity of Christ, entitled Dominion. Luther said : " He is a poor man, without genius or talents, smitten like all the ranters. He knows not of what he babbles, but his meaning and sense is : ' Creatures are not to be adored, as it is written : " Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and him only shalt thou serve." ' Then he argues : ' Christ is created, therefore we should not pray to the man Christ.' He makes two Christs. He says the created Christ, after his resurrection and glori- fication, was transformed into a deity and is therefore to be adored, and he foully cheats the people with the lordly name of Christ, saying all the while that it is for Christ's glory ! Children go to the heart of the doctrine with : ' I believe in Jesus Christ our Lord, conceived LUTHERAN AND SACKAMENTARIAN 407 of the Holy Ghost, etc.,' but this fool will make two Christs, one who hung on the cross and the other who ascended into heaven, and says I must not pray to the Christ who hung on the cross and walked on earth. But he let himself be adored when one fell down before him, and he says : ' Whoso believeth in me, believeth in him who sent' me.' This maniac has stolen some words out of my book." . . . Katie said : " Dear husband, you are too rude." Luther answered : " They teach me to be rude." . . . To the messenger he answered : " My dear messenger ! Tell your master Schwenkfeld that I have received his letter and pamphlet. And would to God he would stop ! Formerly he kindled a fire in Silesia which is not yet quenched and which will burn him eternally. And he adds to that the heresy of Eutychianism on the creation of Christ, and makes the Church err, as God has not commanded him to do. The senseless fool, possessed of the devil, understands nothing and knows not whereof he babbles. But if he will not cease writing, at least let him leave me in peace, untroubled by the books of which the devil has purged him, and let him take this as my last judgment and answer : The Lord rebuke thee, Satan, and may the spirit which called you, and the race you run, and all your fellow sacramentarians and Eutychians, go with you and your blasphemies to perdition." . . . War with Home, war with Zurich, war with the innumerable lesser sects ! This is apt to be the thought with which one closes the history of Luther's public career. He was, indeed, a born fighter. His amazing strength and courage, animated by the strongest of all motives, devotion to conscience, and fortified by the intolerance of his age, found ample scope in the great load of wrong and superstition to be combated. However much some of the excesses of his passion may be regretted, it must be re- membered that they are the defects of his qualities ; that, had he not been such a man, he would not have been the leader of the great Revolt. And the wars, though the most conspicuous, are not the most enduring portion of Luther's work. If Napoleon wished to go down to history with his code in his hand, Luther gave posterity the German Bible and a great volume of poetry and prose which has permanently enriched the world. Luther was, indeed, — the point must be repeated, — the founder of a new culture. Like other such men, Voltaire for example, he has suffered by the 408 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER very effectiveness of his own work. Much that he was the first to make valid nas become commonplace now; in proportion as he raised the standard he is judged by the severer rule. In fable, Cadmus is less renowned for inventing the alphabet than for sowing the dragon's teeth. So it has been with Luther. The new culture, the fresh spirit, the glorious life he imparted to Europe has become as commonplace as the alphabet, whereas the fierce wars he waged are remembered to his discredit, and have made him, especially in recent years, the object of mis- understanding and dislike. CHAPTER XXXVII DEATH Increasing ill health made Luther's last years sad and hitter. Though he sometimes had cheerful days, they were sufficiently uncommon to be remarked, as for example : — On Sunday, October 3 (1540), he was happy in mind and joked with his friends and with me (Mathesius), and disparaged his own learning. "lama fool," said he ; " you are cunning and wiser than I in economy and politics. For I do not apply myself to such things, but only to the Church and to getting the best of the devil. I believe, however, if I did give myself to other business I could master it. But as I attend only to what is plain to view any one can overreach me, until, indeed, I see that he is a sharper, and then he can't cheat me. . . . Don't take it ill of me that I am happy and light-hearted, for I heard much bad news to-day, and since then have read a letter of the Archbishop of Mayence saying that he had released his subjects from prison. The devil makes it go hard with us, but we shall win, for God is with us." Again in 1542 he said : — Nothing is more hurtful than sadness. It eats the marrow of the bones, as it is written : " A broken spirit drieth up the bones." A young fellow should be merry. There I write for such an one, over the table : " sadness slayeth many." Such a tone was, however, very exceptional. Luther often wished and sometimes thought he was going to die. Once in the winter of 1542 to 1543 he felt a pain in his head for several days together, and said, at dinner : — " Katie, if I am not better to-morrow I will have our Hans brought from Torgau, for I would like him to be with me at my end." Katie : " Look ye, sir, you imagine it." Luther : " No, Katie, it is not imag- ination ; I shall not die suddenly, however, but be stricken down and become ill, though not for very long. I am tired of the world and it is tired of me, which I do not mind. It thinks if it were only rid of me, all would go well. But it is as I have often said. ■ . . We must part. 410 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER O God I thank thee that thou lettest me be of thy little flock, to suffer persecution for thy Word's sake, for I am not persecuted for impurity nor for usury, that I know well." Like some other old men, Luther was inclined to look back on his youth as a better period for the world. With increasing frequency and bitterness he judged the immorality of his age. His enemies have often taken his words as proof that the new teaching bad a disastrous moral effect. Periods of religious fer- mentation have often been accompanied by moral retrogression, a striking proof of it in the Reformation is the frequency with which polygamy was preached and practised by small sects. In general the change of standards, the revaluation of moral goods, may tend to upset not only bad but good customs, and in indi- vidual cases work with detrimental effect. On the other hand, evidence seems to show that in places the religious revival was accompanied by an ethical uplift, notably in the suppression of bouses of ill-fame. The basis of Luther's criticisms must be chiefly looked for in subjective conditions ; bow gloomy his out- look at times was, is shown by the following records : 1 — I (Mathesius) once stood with the doctor in the garden ; he said that he was so oppressed and borne down by his own followers that he must get the Elector to build a preachers' tower in which such wild and troublesome people might be imprisoned, for many of them would no longer bear the gospel ; all who had entered the cloister for the sake of their bellies and a good time burst out again for the sake of carnal freedom, and only a few of them, as far as he could see, had left their monasticism behind them in the cloister. Again, a little later : 2 — Now we have good books and bad scholars, formerly we had bad books and good scholars ; then there were golden preachers and wooden images, dark churches and bright hearts ; now there are wooden preachers and golden images, bright churches and dark hearts. The same tone is taken in the summer of 1542 : — 1 Losche : Mathesius Ausgewahlte WerJce, Luther Historien, p. 269. For dating see Kroker, Luther's Tischreden, no. 163. 2 The text of this saying is from Melanchthon's lectures above referred to, Corpus Refvrmatorum, xx, col. 575. On dating, see Kroker, op. tit., no. 194. DEATH 411 Paul Knoth once said to me that while a page at court he had asked an old priest how it was that there was so much arrogance among the nobles. The priest replied : " Don't ask such silly ques- tions. There is no noble who wishes well to the peasant, the burgher, or even to the prince ; they do not even wish each other well." It is true ! There are three kinds of devils : house-devils, court-devils, and church-devils. The last are the worst ; when they enter a priest the man does not wish another well, and each thinks he is more learned than another. Grickel 1 thinks he is more learned than I ; Jeckel * thinks he is more learned than Melanchthon. Ah, well-a-day ! A letter to the devoted Lauterbach expresses, as strongly as it is well-nigh possible, the writer's despair at the moral condi- tion of the people : — TO ANTONT LAUTERBACH AT PIENA (Wittenberg,) November 10, 1541. Grace and peace. Although I have nothing to write, dear Antony, yet I prefer to write that I have nothing to write rather than leave your letter unanswered. May God strengthen Duke Maurice " in the true faith and in sound policy. Perhaps you have heard all the news of the Turk. I almost despair of Germany since she has received within her walls those true Turks or rather those true devils, avarice, usury, tyranny, discord, and that whole cesspool of perfidy, malice, and iniquity, in the nobles, the palaces, the courts of justice, the towns and the villages ; worst of all is contempt of the "Word and unexampled ingratitude. With these Turks ruling us savagely and cruelly, what success can we hope against the human Turks ? May God have mercy upon us and make the light of his countenance to shine upon us. For while we pray against our enemies the Turks, it is to be feared that the Holy Ghost will understand us to pray against ourselves and yet for our good. For I see that it will come to pass that unless the tyranny of the Turk terrifies and humbles our nobles, we shall have to bear worse tyranny from them than from the Turks. Verily the nobles think to put chains on our princes and fetters on the burghers and peasants, and most of all on books and authors. Thus they avenge the papal slavery by subjecting the people to a new 1 Agricola, see above, p. 285. 2 James Schenk, see above, p. 285. 8 The new Duke of Albertine Saxony ; Luther was soon to form a very bad opinion of him. Cf . supra, p. 386. i 412 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER slavery under the nobles. But enough. My Katie sends her greetings to you and to your wife and daughter, as do we all, and we all pray and beseech the Lord together to give us the pestilence instead of the Turkish scourge, for without the special help of God our arms and armies can do nothing. Yours, Martin Luther. The complaints against the general immorality of the age sometimes became specific, as in the beginning of 1544, when certain students, including a son of Melanchthon and, probably, Luther's own nephew, contracted secret engagements to marry. One of these students, Caspar Beier, broke his engagement at his father's wish, but was condemned by the court of Witten- berg for breach of promise. Luther took the matter up with passion, seeing that the permission to make secret engagements was likely to lead to immorality, or at least to cast a bad name on the university. He accordingly wrote : — TO JOHN FKEDEKIC, ELECTOR OF SAXONY (Wittenberg,) January 22, 1544. Grace and peace and my poor paternoster. Most serene> highborn Prince, most gracious Lord ! I humbly give your Grace to know that the secret engagement is becoming prevalent again. "We have a great horde of young men from all countries and the race of girls is getting bold, and run after the fellows into their rooms and chambers and wherever they can, and offer them their free love ; and I hear that many parents have ordered their sons home and others are ordering them home now, saying that if they send their children to our univer- sity we hang wives around their necks and take their children from them, for which cause the university is getting a bad name. But I know what every one must know that your Grace has ordered that secret engagements are worth nothing, but are null and void. But while I remain quiet in this assurance, out goes a judgment from our law-court assuming the validity of a secret engagement, so that I was shocked and deeply moved and insisted on a stay in execution. The next Sunday I preached a strong sermon, telling men to follow the common road and manner which had been since the beginning of the world, both in the Bible and among all heathen and even in the papacy to the present day, namely, that parents should give their children to DEATH 418 each other with prudence and good will, without their own prelimin- ary engagement. Such engagements never have been in the world, but are an invention of the abominable Pope, suggested to him by the devil to destroy and tear down the power of parents given and com- mended to them earnestly by God, and to incite disobedience to God's command, and to bring consciences into unnumbered entanglements, and moreover to rob parents of their children, and give them great woe and sorrow of heart instead of the honor owed them by the chil- dren according to God's commandment. This would have happened to Melanchthon and his wife had it not been for my sermon, which was almost too late. They would have been put to scorn by their son, who was so led astray by bad fellows that he betrothed himself secretly and solemnly, and I had great trouble to turn him, or rather frighten him from it. . . . Such a thing almost happened to me in my own house. Therefore it is certain that secret vows are and can be nothing but the. affair of the Pope and the invention of the devil against the will of parents, that is against the command given parents by God, and they are simply great misery and sorrow of heart (as must be the fruit of the devil's acts), from which come all entanglements and dangers to consciences. But men can well and happily marry in a right and godly way. As the shepherd of the souls of the flock in this church, to which God has commended me and for which he will hold me to account, I simply neither could nor would bear it and take it on my conscience. I brought it up before the eyes of all in the pulpit and said : " I, Martin Luther, minister of this church of Christ, take you, secret vow, and the paternal consent given to you, together with the Pope, whose business you are and the devil who invented you, and throw you into the abyss of hell in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost. Amen." I said that children could not engage themselves, and if they did they were as good as not engaged, except that they had committed a great sin in becoming engaged. Likewise that no father could consent to such an engagement, and if he did his consent would be invalid, for we cannot consent to the business of the devil, but should know who is the master and in- ventor of such misery. Wherefore it is my most humble prayer to your Grace to turn your attention to this matter anew for the sake of God and the salvation of souls, and maintain the command of God against the Pope and the devil as you have hitherto done with great earnestness and zeal. For if we have the command of our sovereign, we can more solemnly iU THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER drive out and keep out this devil of the secret vow, that cursed, bias? phemous, damned business of the Antichrist, and then we can keep our children for their poor parents and bring them up and care for them safely. But if we allow an engagement in the form suggested by the court of justice, namely, " I betroth you subject to the ap- proval of my father," then we leave a hole for the devil, and instead of preventing secret engagements make them stronger than before. For how easily can a child talk over or stun a father into consent, 01 snatch a word out of his mouth by some hook or crook, although the father's heart is not inclined to his son ? . . . Your Grace's obedient subject, Martin Luther. The next letter to the Electress Sybilla of Saxony, during the absence of her husband at the Diet of Spires, sums up all the world-weariness and disgust with life which has come out indirectly in the last letter. TO SYBILLA, ELECTRESS OF SAXONY (Wittenberg,) March 10, 1544. Grace and peace in the Lord. Most serene, highborn Princess, most gracious Lady ! I have received your Grace's letter, and humbly thank your Grace for asking so particularly and carefully after my health, and how it goes with wife and children, and for your good wishes. "We are, thank God, well — better than we deserve of God. That my head is sometimes weak is no wonder, for it is old, and age is senile, frigid, impotent, sick, and weak. But the jug goes to the water until it is broken. I have lived long enoughs May God grant me a blessed hour before this sluggish, useless body be taken to its like under the earth to become a prey to worms. I think, indeed, that I have seen the best days I ever shall see on earth. Things look as if they were going to the bad. May God help his own. Amen. I can well believe what your Grace writes that it is tedious to you to have your husband, our gracious lord the Elector, absent. But since it is necessary, and his absence is for the advantage and good of Christendom and the German nation, we must bear it with patience according to the divine will. If the devil could keep peace we should have more peace, too, and less to do and especially less to suffer. But with it all we have the advantage of having the dear Word of God, which comforts and supports us in this life, and promises and DEATH 415 brings us salvation in the world to come. Moreover we have prayer, which, as your Grace also writes, we know pleases God and will be heard in time. Two such inexpressible treasures neither the devil nor the Turk nor the Pope nor their "followers can have, and are there- fore much poorer and more wretched than any beggar on earth. . . . My Katie humbly offers her poor prayers for your Grace and humbly thanks you for thinking of us so kindly. God bless you. Amen. Your Grace's obedient subject, Db. Mabtin Luther. Notwithstanding his bodily afflictions never once did Luther relax his enormous energy. The last year of his life saw the publication of eleven books or pamphlets, besides sermons and lectures at the university. For the same period there are extant more than seventy letters, only a part of his correspond- ence. Some idea of the variety of his occupations is given in an extract from a letter to Lauterbach, dated December 2, 1544 : — You often urge me to write a book on Christian discipline, but you do not say where I, a weary, worn old man, can get the leisure and health to do it. I am pressed by writing letters without end ; I have promised our young princes a sermon on drunkenness ; I have pro- mised certain other persons and myself a book on secret engage- ments ; to others one against the sacramentarians ; still others beg that I shall omit all to write a comprehensive and final commentary on the whole Bible. One thing hinders another so that I am able to accomplish nothing. Yet I believe that I ought to have rest, as an emeritus, to live and die in peace, and quietness, but I am forced to live in restless action. I shall do what I can and leave undone what I cannot do. Some six months after writing this, during his last summer, Luther's disgust with life reached a crisis. He had another disagreeable experience with a servant, which reminded him of that detested impostor Rosina. 1 Throughout the town he saw signs of moral corruption, objecting especially to the immodest, low-necked dresses of the women. When he could bear it no longer he left home, intending never to return, taking with him his son Hans and his boarder Ferdinand von Maugis. The party l Cf. letter to Goritz, January 29, 1544, p. 361. 416 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OP MARTIN LUTHER travelled the well-known road to Leipsic, and thence to Zeitz, to share, at Amsdorf's wish, in settling a dispute between two clergymen of the diocese of Naumburg. At Zeitz they found Cruciger on the point of returning to Wittenberg. With him Luther sent this letter : — TO CATHARINE LTJTHER AT WITTENBERG (Zeitz,) July 28, 1545. Dear Katie, Hans will tell you about our journey, unless, indeed, I decide to keep him with us, in which case Cruciger and Ferdinand will tell you about it. Ernest von Schonfeld entertained us well at Lobnitz, Henry Scherle still better at Leipsic. I should like to arrange not to have to go back to Wittenberg. My heart has grown cold so that I do not care to live there, but wish you would sell garden and the farm, house and buildings, except the big house, which I should like to give back to my gracious lord. Your best course would be to go to Zulsdorf ; while I am alive you could improve the little estate with my salary, for I hope my gracious lord will let my salary go on, at least during this last year of my life. After my death the four elements will not suffer you to live at Wittenberg, therefore it will be better for you to do during my lifetime what you will have to do after my death. It looks as if Wittenberg and her government would catch — not St. Vitus' dance or St. John's dance, but the beggar's dance and Beelzebub's dance ; the women and girls have begun to go bare before and behind and there is no one to punish or correct them and God's Word is mocked. Away with this Sodom. Our other Rosina x and de- ceiver is Leak's 2 dung, and yet not in prison ; do what you can to make the wretch stultify himself. I hear more of these scandals in the country than I did at Wittenberg, and am therefore tired of that city and do not wish to return, God helping me. Day after to-morrow I am going to Merseburg, for Prince George 8 has pressed me to do so. I will wander around here and eat the bread of charity before I will martyr and soil my poor old last days with the disordered life of Wittenberg, where I lose all my bitter, costly work. You may tell Melanchthon and Bugenhagen this, if you will, and ask the latter to 1 One MS. reads Rosinus ; at any rate the deceiver this time was a man, as the next clause shows. 2 Leak seems to have been Agricola, who had been at Wittenberg recently, particulars of this affair, and his part in it, if he had any, are unknown. 8 Of Anhalt, Canon of Merseburg. DEATH 417 give Wittenberg my blessing, for I can no longer bear its wrath and displeasure. God bless you. Amen. Martin Luther. When this news reached Wittenberg, consternation followed. Melanchthon said that if Luther left he would leave, too. The university sent him and Bugenhagen, and the town her burgo- master, to persuade Luther to return ; the Elector, too, when he heard of it, dispatched his physician to induce the old man to change his plan. They met him at Merseburg and found him so amenable to reason that by August 16 he was home again. Here he continued his usual activities, though feeling that his end was drawing near. On November 10 he celebrated his last birthday with his friends. On the 11th he gave his last lecture at the university, completing his course on the book of Genesis with the words : — This is dear Genesis ; God grant that others do better with it after me ; I can do no more, I am weak. Pray God to grant me a good, blessed hour. His labors were indeed near their end. Having accomplished a great work, he crowned it by dying like a brave man. When another call to danger came the worn old warrior went out to his last battle — his splendid courage undaunted to the end. It is characteristic of Luther that all his bravest and best acts were done in the simple course of every-day duty. He never seems to have had the thought of achieving fame, which inspired so many others — Loyola, for example, confesses to this motive. He simply saw the duty before him and did it. In the present case he well knew that he would get no advantage or reputation by leaving home. Nevertheless, when a dispute broke out between the brother counts of Mansfeld, to whom, as a native of their dominions, Luther always felt especially loyal, and when they asked the mediation of the Reformer, without hesitation, with broken health, in the bitterest winter weather, he twice left home to give them his services. The first journey was to the town of Mansfeld, in December, 1545. Christmas was celebrated here, but Melanchthon's fraii health forced the party to return home 415 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER with the work half done. Later it was decided to continue the arbitration without Melanchthon's assistance, and the older man again left home for Mansf eld — this time for the town of Eisleben — attended by his three sons, and his famulus John Aurifaber. The party set out on January 23, reaching Halle two days later. TO CATHARINE LUTHER AT WITTENBERG Halle, January 25, 1546. Grace and peace in the Lord. Dear Eatie, we arrived at Halle this morning at eight o'clock, but have not journeyed on to Eisleben be- cause a great lady of the Anabaptist persuasion met us, covering the land with waves of water and blocks of ice and threatening to baptize us. We could not return on account of the Mulda, and so lie here be- tween waters. Not that we venture to drink it, but we take good Tor- gau beer and Bbenish wine while the Saale is trying to make us angry. All the people, the postillions as well as we ourselves, are timid, and so we do not betake ourselves to the water and tempt God ; for the devil is furious against us and lives in the water, and is better guarded against before than repented of after, and it is unnecessary for us to add to the foolish joy of the Pope and his gang. I did not think the Saale could make such a broth, which has flooded the embankments. No more at present. Fray for us and be good. I think had you been here you would have advised me to do as I did, in which case I should have taken your advice for once. God bless you. Martin Luther. On the 28th the party crossed the Saale, and passed on to Eisleben with a cavalry guard of honor, through the little village of Rixdorf inhabited by the Jews. From Eisleben Luther wrote often to his wife, the most beautiful letters he ever penned, full of affection, trust, and gentle humor. In spite of his approach- ing end his good spirits seem to have come back to him. TO CATHARINE LUTHER AT WITTENBERG (Eisleben,) February 1, 1546. I wish you grace and peace in Christ, and send you my poor, old, infirm love. Dear Katie, I was weak on the road to Eisleben, but that was my own fault. Had you been with me you would have said it was DEATH 419 the fault of the Jews or of their God. For we had to pass through a village hard by Eisleben where many Jews live ; perhaps they blew on me too hard. (In the city of Eisleben there are at this hour fifty Jewish residents.) As I drove through the village such a cold wind blew from behind through my cap on my head that it was like to turn my brain to ice. This may have helped my vertigo, but now, thank God, I am so well that I am sore tempted by fair women and care not how gallant I am. When the chief matters are settled, I must devote myself to driving out the Jews. Count Albert is hostile to them, and has given them their deserts, but no one else has. God willing, I will help Count Albert from the pulpit. I drink Neunburger beer of just that flavor which you praised so much at Mansf eld. It pleases me well and acts as a laxative. Your little sons went to Mansfeld day before yesterday, after they had humbly begged Jack-an-apes l to take them. I don't know what they are doing ; if it were cold they might freeze, but as it is warm they may do or suffer what they like. God bless you with all my house- hold and remember me to my table companions. Your old lover, M. L. On the same day Luther wrote Melanchthon more fully of his ill health and of the progress of negotiations. The two dis- putants were the brothers Count Albert and Count Gebhard. Among the several questions at issue, the hardest was that of the legal rights of each brother in Neustadt Eisleben, recently founded by Count Albert. Luther urged mutual concession and brotherly love ; he made much progress and, in his own opinion, would have made more had it not been for the lawyers. 1 Hans von Jena ; at Jena under the clock on the tower of the Rathaus is a wooden head of a man, which, whenever the clock strikes, opens its mouth and snaps at an apple offered him by an angel, but which is always withdrawn before he gets it. This is Hans of Jena, though some think that the wooden head was made later than the Reformation. At any rate the expression was proverbial and is often used by Luther to signify a person who stands aronnd gaping and mind- ing other people's business. Cf . Endera, viii, 163. Whom he means here I cannot say ; the boys probably visited their uncle James. 420 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER TO PHILIP MELANCHTHON AT WITTENBERG Eislbben, February 1, 1546. Grace and peace in the Lord. I thank you, dear Philip, for praying for me and I ask you to keep on doing so. You know that I am an old man, and that some of the rough work even of my own calling should be spared me, whereas now I am involved in a quarrel alien to. my interests, beyond my power to cope with and distasteful to my age. I should wish that you were with me did not the argument of your health rather force me to think that we did well to leave you at home. To- day, by God's blessing, we stuck that supernaturally prickly porcupine Neustadt, though not without a hard struggle. We hope it will please God to make the remaining battles easier. I have offended Dr. Kling ' rather deeply, I think, because I am angry at the severity and sharp- ness of the law ; but he first offended me by his enormous and ill-con- sidered vice of proclaiming victory before the battle. A little learning makes lawyers mad. Almost all these men seem to be ignorant of the real use of the law, base and venal pettifoggers caring not at all for peace, the state of religion about which we care now as always. A fainting fit overtook me on the journey and also that disease which you are wont to call palpitation of the heart. I went on foot, overtaxed my strength and perspired ; later in driving my shirt became cold with sweat ; this made my left arm stiff. My age is to blame for the heart trouble and the shortness of breath. Now I am quite well again, though I do not know for how long. When even youth is not safe, age can little be trusted. God has hitherto granted that all the counts a of Mansf eld show won- derful good-will to each other. Pray that God may increase and con- tinue this. Now that we have conquered Enceladus and Typhoeus we will proceed to-morrow to pursue the rest among whom we suspect the citizen. 8 God lives ; may he conquer. Amen. Parewell in the Lord, dear Philip, and give my greetings to all — Pastor Bugenhagen, Cru- ciger, and the rest, whom we thank for their prayers, with no small faith that God will grant them. Dr. Martin Luther. Of the progress of negotiations and of his health Luther gives constant news. 1 Professor of law at Wittenberg and Mansf eld counsellor. 2 It will be remembered that on the continent of Europe all the children of a count bear that title. * Purherr. I am not sure of the meaning of the word, which I take to be Burger. The identity of the person is also unknown to me. DEATH 421 TO CATHARINE LUTHER AT WITTENBERG (Eisleben,) February 10, 1546. Grace and peace in Christ. Most holy lady doctoress ! I thank you kindly for your great anxiety which keeps you awake. Since you began to worry we have almost had a fire at the inn, just in front of my door, and yesterday, due to your anxiety no doubt, a stone nearly fell on my head which would have squeezed it up as a trap does a mouse. For in my bedroom lime and cement had dribbled down on my head for two days, until I called attention to it, and then the people of the inn just touched a stone as big as a bolster and two spans wide, which thereupon fell out of the ceiling. For this I thank your anxiety, but the dear angels protected me. I fear that unless you stop worrying the earth will swallow me up or the elements will persecute me. Do you not know the catechism and the creed ? Pray, and let God take thought as it is written : " Cast thy burden on the Lord and he shall sustain thee," both in Psalm 55 and other places. I am, thank God, well and sound, except that the business in hand disgusts me, and Jonas takes upon himself to have a bad leg, where he hit himself on a trunk ; people are so selfish that this envious man would not allow me to have the bad leg. God bless you. I would will- ingly be free of this place and return home if God will. Amen. Amen. Amen. Your holiness's obedient servant, Martin Luther. to catharine luther at wittenberg Eisleben, February 14, 1546. Grace and peace in the Lord. Dear Katie, we hope to come home this week if God will. God has shown great grace to the lords, who have been reconciled in all but two or three points. It still remains to make the brothers Count Albert and Count Gebhard real brothers ; this I shall undertake to-day and shall invite both to visit me, that they may see each other, for hitherto they have not spoken, but have embittered each other by writing. But the young lords and the young ladies, too, are happy and make parties for fools' bells and skating, and have masquerades and are all very jolly, even Count Gebhard's son. So we see that God hears prayer. I send you the trout given me by the Countess Albert. She is heartily happy at this union. 422 THE LIFE AND LETTERS OF MARTIN LUTHER Your little sons are still at Mansf eld. James Luther will take care of them. "We eat and drink like lords here and they wait on us so well — too well, indeed, for they might make us f oTget you at Witten- berg. Moreover I am no more troubled with the stone. Jonas's leg has become right bad ; it is looser on the shin-bone, but God will help it You may tell Melanchthon and Bugenhagen and Cruciger every- thing. A report has reached here that Dr. Martin Luther has left for Leipsic or Magdeburg. Such tales are invented by those silly wiseacres, your countrymen. Some say the Emperor is thirty miles from here, at Soest in Westphalia ; some that the French and the Landgrave of Hesse are raising troops. Let them say and sing ; we will wait on God. God bless you. Dr. Martin Luther. This was the last letter Luther ever wrote. A treaty between the brothers he had reconciled was drawn up on February 16 and signed by him the day following. On the same day he felt faintness and pressure around the breast, but was somewhat re- lieved by the application of warm towels and doses of brandy before he went to bed. He felt ill in the night, rose and went into the next room — the house and apartments may still be seen at Eisleben ; it was at that time an inn — where he lay down on the couch. This was about two o'clock on the morning of February 18. His friends were soon aroused, and with him, in this last hour, were Jonas, Aurifaber, and Colius, the Mans- feld priest, his two sons Martin and Paul (where Hans was is not known), and one of the countesses of Mansfeld. Among his last words the following were remembered : — Dr. Jonas and Colius and you others, pray for the Lord God and his Evangelic Church because the Council of Trent and the wretched Pope are wroth with him. O Lord God, I am sorrowful. O dear Jonas, I think I shall remain at Eisleben where I was born and baptized. my heavenly Father, one God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, thou God of all comfort, thou God of all comfort, I thank thee that thou hast given for me thy dear son Jesus Christ, in whom I be- lieve, whom I have preached and confessed, loved and praised, whom the wicked Pope and all the godless shame, persecute, and blaspheme. I pray thee, dear Lord Jesus Christ, let me commend my soul to thee. CASTLE CHURCH AT WITTEXBERG, WHERE LUTHER IS BURIED DEATH 423 D heavenly Father, if I leave this body and depart I am certain that I will be with thee for ever and can never, never tear myself out of thy hands. God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. (This he said thrice.) Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Thou hast redeemed me, thou true God. The immediate cause of Luther's death was apoplexy, which deprives the patient of power of speech instantly. The stroke, the proof of which was found by the apothecaries who exam- ined the body the next day, must have come during a fainting spell. As Luther was losing consciousness, Jonas and Colius had to speak loud to make him hear: "Reverend father, will you stand steadfast by Christ and the doctrine you have preached ? " The dying man answered " Yes," the last word he spoke distinctly, though the friends around him thought they made out one more murmur : " Who hath my word shall never see death." The body was taken back to Wittenberg, and buried, on February 22, in the church where he had long ago nailed his theses on indulgences — those words that shook the world. EPILOGUE THE LAST TEARS AND DEATH OF LUTHER'S WIFE When Luther's death hecame known a loud cry of sorrow went up from all who had known him. Great men are usually deeply loved, and the many letters still extant, mourning the death of a "father," prove that he was no exception to the rule. A biography may well pass over them all, even that of his son Hans to Jonas, hut one, that of his nearest and dearest, the wife whose last sad years can hardly fail to interest those who have a care for her husband. Several of her letters have been preserved, all of a formal kind save this, which rings truer and tells more of Katie than anything else. It makes us regret that her other letters to her husband and son Hans have all perished. The occasion of Katie's writing to her sister was to promise her help to her sister's son, Florian von Bora, who was enabled to continue his studies at Wittenberg by a pension given him by Henry Hilbrand von Einsiedel : — CATHARINE LUTHER TO CHRISTINA VON BORA Wittenberg, April 2,- 1546. Grace and peace in God the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Kind, dear sister ! I can easily believe that you have hearty sympathy with me and my poor children. "Who would not be sorrowful and mourn for so noble a man as was my dear lord, who much served not only one city or a single land but the whole world ? Truly I am so distressed that I cannot tell my great heart sorrow to any one, and hardly know what to think or how I feel. I cannot eat nor drink, neither can I sleep. If I had had a principality and an empire, it would never have cost me so much pain to lose them as I have now that our Lord God has taken from me, and not from me only, but from the whole world, this dear and precious man. When I think of it, God knows that for sorrow and weeping I can neither speak 'nor dictate this letter ; you yourself, dear sister, have experienced a similar EPILOGUE 42« As to your son, my dear nephew, I will gladly do what I can. If he only has the opportunity I fully expect that he will study with all diligence and not spend his precious, noble youth uselessly and in vain. But if he must spend a little more in his studies, or needs other and more books now that he has begun to study law, you must know yourself, dear sister, that I cannot buy him such books. And he should have a little greater consideration, so that he can return what he re- ceives to him, who, as you write, is going to give your son, my nephew, a yearly stipend. Thus he could remain at his studies and more easily obtain his object. But about what I can do for him I will further con- sult and decide when my brother Hans von Bora comes to see me. God bless you. Catharine von Bora, Dr. Martin Luther's widow. In the same year that Luther died the great storm which had so often blown over before, burst, and ruined his family, his sovereign, and for the moment almost appeared to sweep away the Church he had founded. In the Schmalkaldic war, Germany first experienced the horrors of a religious conflict. Duke Maurice of Saxony, lured on by the bait of the electoral hat worn by his cousin, promised him in case of victory, made an alliance with the Emperor and attacked the League of Schmal- kalden. John Frederic was defeated by Charles V in the battle of Miihlberg, April 24, 1547, wounded and captured. Philip of Hesse was soon after taken by treachery, and both princes were kept in painful durance for five years. The title of elector, with Wittenberg and half the lands of John Frederic, were trans- ferred to Maurice. Our present interest in the war is chiefly as it concerned Katie. She fled to Magdeburg in November, 1546, and had hardly returned before she was obliged to flee again to Bruns- wick, returning to Wittenberg in July, 1547. Although the town had been given to Maurice, the inhabitants were left undisturbed in their religion. Katie's property, much damaged by the war, was completely ruined by the lawsuits instituted by the unfriendly Chancellor Briick during the captivity of the Elector. Luther had left a considerable property, estimated by him at nine thousand gulden in real estate and one thousand in personal property, minus a 426 EPILOGUE few hundreds of debt, an estate roughly equivalent to one hun- dred thousand dollars to-day. The income from this estate was scarcely one hundred gulden per annum, besides which Katie might expect another hundred in pensions from the Elector and the King of Denmark. The former, however, was unable to pay the pension he had given, but even thus Katie might have lived well but for the fact that her husband's dislike of lawyers in- duced him to dispense with their services in drawing up his will. The chancellor was therefore able to break the will and have guardians appointed both for Katie and the children. Luther's widow was a woman of no common energy and gained all the contested points both as to the guardians appointed and as to the use made of the property. She did so, however, at the cost of what was left of her fortune, and was obliged to earn her own bread by taking boarders in the Black Cloister. Thus she lived until, in the autumn of 1552, she was again obliged to leave Wittenberg, this time on account of the plague. The horse shied, and in jumping out of the wagon Katie fell heavily in a pool of water. The mishap brought on an illness, of which she died, after three months of agony, on December 20. She was buried the next day in the church at Torgau far from her husband's side. APPENDIX APPENDIX I CHRONOLOGICAL TABLES I. Luther's Life 1483 November 10, born at Eisleben. 1484 to 1497 at Mansfeld where his father is a miner. 1497 to 1498 at school of the Nullbriider (Brothers of the Common Life) at Magdeburg. 1498-1501 at St. George's school at Eisenach ; with Frau Cotta. 1501 about May, matriculates at the University of Erfurt. 1502 takes the degree of bachelor of arts. 1505 takes the degree of master of arts. 1505 July 12, enters the Augustinian monastery at Erfurt. 1507 spring, ordained priest. First mass May 2. 1508 about November called to teach Aristotle's Ethics at the Uni- versity of Wittenberg (founded 1502). 1509 March 9, takes the degree of baccalaureus ad biblia. 1509 autumn, called to teach Lombard's Sentences at Erfurt. 1510 (or 1511) October to 1511 (or 1512) February, journey to Rome ; the month of December spent in the city. 1511, summer, returns to Wittenberg to lecture on the Bible. 1512 October 18 takes the degree of doctor of theology. 1515 May, elected district vicar of his order. 1517 October 31, posts the Ninety-five Theses on indulgences on the door of the Castle Church at Wittenberg. 1518 October 12, 13, and 14, interview with Cardinal Cajetan at Augsburg. 1519 January 4 and 5 (or 5 and 6) interview with Miltitz at Alten- burg. 1519 July 4-14, debate with John Eck at Leipsic. 1520 June 15, Leo X signs the bull Exsurge Domine threatening to excommunicate Luther within 60 days. 1520 August, publication of The Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation on the Improvement of the Christian Estate. 430 APPENDIX 1520 October, publication of the work On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. 1520 November, publication of the tract On the Freedom of a Christ- ian Man. 1520 December 10, Luther burns the Pope's bull and the Canon Law. 1521 April 17 and 18, Luther appears before the Emperor and Diet at "Worms. 1521 May 4 to 1522 March 1, at the Wartburg in hiding. 1525 May, writes Against the thievish murderous Hordes of Peasants. 1525 June 13 marries Catharine von Bora (born at Lippendorf, Jan- uary 29, 1499 ; enters Nimbschen Cistercian Cloister 1508 (or 1509) ; takes the veil October 8, 1515 ; leaves the cloister April 4-5, 1523). 1526 June 7, Hans Luther born. 1527 July, severe illness of Luther. 1527 (?) Ein Feste Burg. 1527 December 10, Elizabeth Luther born. 1528 August 3, Elizabeth Luther dies. 1529 May 4, Magdalene Luther born. 1529 October 2, conference at Marburg with Zwingli and other theologians. 1530 April 23 to October 4, at Feste Coburg during the Diet of Augsburg. 1530 May 29, Luther's father dies. 1531 June 30, Luther's mother dies. 1531 November 9, Martin Luther born. 1532 February 4, the Black Cloister deeded to Luther and his heirs. 1532 Completion of the translation of the Bible (begun 1521). 1533 January 28, Paul Luther born. 1534 December 17, Margaret Luther born. 1535 November 7, the papal legate Vergerio comes to Wittenberg and has a conference with Luther. 1536 May 29, the Wittenberg Concordia signed by Luther and the leaders of the German Zwinglians. 1537 February, Luther goes to the Congress of Schmalkalden, but becoming very ill with the stone, is forced to leave. 1537 February 27, Luther's First "Will. 1539 May, Luther goes to Leipsic to inaugurate the Reformation in Albertine Saxony. 1539 December 10, Luther signs the " Confessional Counsel " giving Philip of Hesse permission to take a second wife. APPENDIX 431 1540 January and February, Catharine Luther very ilL 1540 July, Luther at the conference at Eisenach. 1542 January 6, Luther's Second Will. 1542 September 20, Magdalene Luther dies. 1546 February 18, Luther dies at Eisleben. 1552 December 20, Catharine Luther dies. II. Popes 1503-1513 Julius EL 1513-1521 December 1, Leo X. 1522-1523 September 14, Adrian VI. 1523-1534 September, Clement VII. 1534-1549 Paul HI. III. Emperors 1493-1519 January 19, Maximilian. 1519-1555 Charles V (elected June, 1519 ; crowned October 23, 1520). IV. Electors of Saxony (Ernestine Branch) 1487-1525 May, Frederic the Wise. 1525-1532 August, John the Steadfast. 1532-1547 John Frederic the Magnanimous ; lived as Duke of Sax- ony till 1554. V. Dukes of Saxony (Albertine Branch) 1485-1500 Albert. 1500-1539 April 17, George the Bearded. 1539-1541 August, Henry the Pious. 1541-1546 Maurice, made Elector 1546, and lived till 1553. VI. Landgrave of Hesse 1508-1567 Philip the Magnanimous (born 1504, declared of age 1517). VH. Important Events in German History 1485 August 25, Treaty of Leipsic dividing Saxony into two parts, Electoral or Ernestine and Ducal or Albertine. 1521 Diet of Worms. May 26, Edict of Worms signed, dated May 8. 1523 Bevolt of the Knights under Sickingen, quelled at Landstuhl, May 7. 432 APPENDIX 1524 Diet of Nuremberg. 1524-1525 Peasants' War, suppressed in the north at Frankenhausen in May. 1525 Conversion of Prussia. 1525 Victory of Charles V over Francis I at Pavia, February 24. 1526 League of Torgau formed between Philip of Hesse and John of Saxony, May 4. 1526 Diet and Recess of Spires, June and July. 1527 Sack of Rome by imperial troops, May 6. 1529 Diet of Spires opened February 26. Recess of Spires April 12. Protest of the Lutheran princes, April 25. 1530 Diet of Augsburg. June 15, arrival of Emperor. June 25, " Augsburg Confession " read. November 19, publication of the Recess of Augsburg in an Imperial Edict. 1531 Election of Ferdinand as King of tbe Romans, January. 1531 Battle of Cappel, in which Zurich is defeated and Zwingli slain, October 11. 1532 Diet of Ratisbon. 1532 July, Peace of Nuremberg between Catholics and Protestants. 1534 Anabaptist rising in Mtinster. 1534 Restoration of Duke Ulrich of Wilrttemberg by Philip of Hesse. 1537 Congress of the allies at Schmalkalden, February. 1539 February to April, Congress of Frankfort, negotiations with the Emperor, and Treaty of Frankfort signed April 19. 1539 Reformation of Ducal Saxony under Henry the Pious, May. 1540 Religious conference of Hagenau, June. 1541 Religious conference of Worms, January. 1541 Diet and religious conference at Ratisbon, April to July. 1541 Reformation of Halle. 1542 Diets of Spires and Nuremberg. 1542 War of the Schmalkaldic League with Brunswick, whose duke, Henry, is expelled. 1543 Diet of Nuremberg. 1544 Diet of Spires. 1545 Diet of Worms. 1545 Opening of Council of Trent. 1546 Diet of Ratisbon. 1546 Outbreak of Schmalkaldic War. 1547 Battle of Mfihlberg April 24; John Frederic captured and Maurice of Albertine Saxony given the electorate and some of his lands. n BIBLIOGRAPHY General Bibliography A complete bibliography of books on Luther would include more than two thousand books and perhaps as many articles in periodicals. Most of these are now useless. The following bibliography does not pretend to anything like completeness. I intend to give only the sources in the best editions and the most valuable books on general phases of Luther's life and times. I. Bibliographies Fabritius : Centifolium Lutheranum. E. G. Vogel : Bibliotheca biographica Lutherana. 1851. British Museum Catalogue. Volume on Luther printed separately. 1894. Hinrich : Bilcherlexicon. Annual, 1750 ff. Jahresberichte der Geschichtswissenschaften. Annual. Zeitschrif t fur Kirchengeschichte. Gotha. Quarterly bibliographies to December, 1909. (With the number March 1910 the bibliographies are discontinued.) Cambridge Modern History. Vol. ii (London, 1904), pp. 728 ff. Catalogues of the Bibliotheca Theologica of the collection of Wm. Jackson, issued by Harrasowitz. Leipsic. 1910. E. Weller : Repertorium typographicum. Nordlingen. 1864. 1874. 1885. Bibliotheca Lindesiana. Catalogue of 1500 tracts by Luther and his contemporaries, 1511-1598. Privately printed. 1903. II. Unpublished Sources Very little of importance that is known is unpublished. The Col- loquia Serotina is a manuscript in the royal library at Gotha, con- taining table-talk from Lauterbach's notes, of the years 1536, 1537, and 1539. A diplomatically correct copy of this was made by J. K. Seidemann, who intended to print it, but died before he could do so. I have read his copy, now in the possession of Professor Kawerau of Berlin. As some extracts from it had been published by E. Kroker 434 APPENDIX (Luther's Tischreden in der Matliesischen Sammlung, p. 357 if.), and as some of the sayings had been taken into Lauterbach's table- talk (edited by Bindseil, 1863-66), there was very little new in this manuscript. But cf. p. 466. I have read a portion of the Commentary on Romans in Luther's manuscript ; this, however, has recently been published. I have obtained photographs of the original manuscripts of several letters (at the Berlin Royal Library and elsewhere). From these fac- similes corrections on the originals can often be made ; the most im- portant are on Luther's letter of April 17, 1521, for which see p. 472. Material on Luther from English libraries hitherto unpub- lished is published by me in Zeitschrift fttr Kirchengeschichte. February, 1911. On the yet unpublished material on Luther, which is coming out in the Weimar edition, see : Koffmane : Die handschrif tliche Ueberlief erung von "Werken D. M. Luthers. Liegnitz. 1907. Other documents follow in this Appendix. III. Ltjtheb's Works Luther's samtliche Werke, kritische Ausgabe. Weimar. 1883 ff. As yet have appeared volumes i-ix, x, part i, half i, parts ii and iii, xi-xvi, xvii, part i, xviii-xx, xxiii-xxx, xxxii-xxxiv, xxxvi, xxxvii, xli, and (unnumbered) Deutsche Bibel, volumes i and ii. This edition, with thorough critical work, good introductions, and much new material, surpasses all others. It is not, unfortunately, quite complete, even as far as it goes, that is to about 1532. The letters, to be edited by Professor Kawerau, may be expected to appear when the edition by Enders and Kawerau is finished ; the table-talk, which has been en- trusted to Dr. E. Kroker, will occupy six volumes, of which the first may be expected in 1911. Dr. M. Luthers Samtliche Werke. Erlangen. 1826-1886. German works, 67 volumes (i-xx and xxiv-xxvi in the second edition). Latin works, 33 volumes, numbered. Commentary on Galatians, 3 volumes. Opera latina varii argument!, 7 volumes. Luthers Samtliche Werke, herausgegeben von J. G. Walch. Halle. 1740-1753. The Latin works are here translated into German. A second edition of Walch, much improved, has been recently issued by the Concordia Verlag of St. Louis. APPENDIX 435 Luthers Werke. Berlin. 1903. 10 volumes. This is a selection ed> ited by the best scholars with good text and introductions. N. B. I cite from the Weimar edition as far as complete ; after that from the Berlin or Erlangen editions. Besides the collections of Luther's works, the following supple- ments must be used : — Drews : Disputationen Dr. M. Luther's. Gettingen. 2 vols. 1895-6. Ficker : Luthers Vorlesung liber den ROmerbrief. Strassburg. 1908. Buchwald : Ungedruckte Predigten D. M. Luthers, 1537-1540. Leipzig. 1906 (1905). Buchwald: Luthers Predigten zu Dessau, Juli 1534. Leipzig. 1909. Very many of Luther's works have been translated into English, as may be seen by the catalogue of the British Museum. The most im- portant are : — De libertate christian!. The Liberty of a Christian Man. Cum privilegio regali. Imprynted at the sonne by me John Byddell. (Lon- don. Between 1530 and 1544.) A Commentarie of Dr. Martin Luther upon the Epistle of S. Paul to the Galathians, first collected and gathered word for word out of his preaching (1535) and now out of Latine . . . faithfully trans- lated into English. T. Vautroullier. London. 1575 (often re- printed). M. Luther's Preface to the Epistle to the Romans. Translated by W. W. Woodcock. (1575-94.) Special and chosen sermons of D. M. Luther. Englished by W. G. (Gace) T. Vautroullier. London. 1578. (Thirty-four sermons, often reprinted.) A right comfortable Treatise conteining sundrye pointes of conso- lation for them that labour and are laden. . . . Englished by W. Gace. T. Vautroullier. London. 1580. (This is a translation of Luther's Tesseradecas.) Martin Luther's Colloquia Mensalia, or his last Divine Discourses at his table. . . . Translated out of the High Dutch by Captain Henry Bell. London. 1652 (often reprinted). On the Bondage of the Will, by Martin Luther. Translated by H. Cole. London. 1823. Select Works of Martin Luther, an offering to the Church of God in these " last days." Translated by H. Cole. London. 1826. (This contains, besides some minor works and selections, versions of The 4S6 APPENDIX Liberty of a Christian Man, The Tesseradecas, On Good Works, Commentary on the first Twenty-two Psalms.) Luther's Primary Works, together with his shorter and longer catechisms, translated by H. Wace and C. A. Buchheim. London. 1896. (Besides the catechisms this contains : The Ninety-five Theses, The Address to the German Nobility on the Improvement of the Christian Estate, On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and The Liberty of a Christian Man.) Standard edition of Luther's Works, translated by J. N. Lenker. Minneapolis. 1903 ff . As yet have appeared eight volumes containing the Church Postil, Epistle Sermons, Commentary on the first twenty- two Psalms, Commentary on Jude and Peter, and The Catechetical Writings. The Letters of Martin Luther. Selected and translated by Margaret A. Currie. London. 1908. IV. Letters (A) To February 1540 Dr. Martin Luther's Briefwechsel, bearbeitet von Dr. E. L. Enders und Dr. G. Kawerau. 12 volumes. 1884-1910. This edition of the letters is not complete, even as far as it goes. For supplements, see Appendix 11. The German letters are not printed, but only regis- tered by Enders and Kawerau, and for their text reference is made to the Erlangen edition of the Works (see above), volumes 53-56. (B) From February 15Jfi to February IBJfi W. M. L. de Wette : Luthers Brief e. 5 volumes. Berlin. 1825-8. De Wette-Seidemann : Sixth volume. Berlin. 1856. Seidemann: Lutherbriefe. Dresden. 1859. C. A. H. Burkhardt : Dr. Martin Luther's Briefwechsel. Leipzig. 1866. M. Lenz : Briefwechsel des Landgraf en Philipp mit Bucer. Vol. i. Leipzig. 1880. M. Lenz : Nachlese zum Briefwechsel des Landgrafen Philipp mit Luther und Melanchthon. Zeitschrif t f ilr Kirchengeschichte, iv (1881), 133 ff. T. Kolde : Analecta Lutherana. Gotha. 1883. Tschackert : Zum Luthers Briefwechsel. Zeitschrift f ur Kirchen- geschichte, xi (1889), 290 ff. F. Gundlach : Nachtrage zum Briefwechsel des Landgrafen Philipp mit Luther und Melanchthon. Schriften des Vereins far hessische Geschichte, xxviii. Cassel. 1904. APPENDIX 437 C. A. H. Burkhardt : Zum ungedruckten Briefwechsel der Reformat toren, besonders Lathers. Archiv fttr Reformationsgeschichte, no. xiv. 1907. V. Table-Talk H. Wrampelmeyer : Tagebuch liber Dr. Martin Luther gef uhret von Dr. Conrad Cordatus. Halle. 1885. H. Wrampelmeyer : Tischreden Dr. M. Luthers aus einer Samm- lung des C. Cordatus. In Festschrift des koniglichen Gymnasiums zu Clausthal. 1905. J. K. Seidemann, in Sachsische Kirchen- und Schulblatter 1876- 1877, publishes some of Dietrich's notes. "W. Preger : Luthers Tischreden aus den Jahren 1531 und 1532 nach den Aufzeichnungen von J. Schlaginhaufen. Leipzig. 1888. E. Kroker : Luthers Tischreden in der Hathesischen Sammlung. Leipzig. 1903. E. Kroker : Rorers Handschriftbande und Luthers Tischreden. In Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte. 1908, pp. 337 ff. ; 1910, pp. 56 ff. J. K. Seidemann : Lauterbach's Tagebuch auf das Jahr 1538. Dresden. 1872. H. E. Bindseil : D. Martini Lutheri Colloquia. . . . Lemgoviae et Detmoldiae. 3 vols. 1863-1866. K. E. Ferstemann und H. E. Bindseil : Luthers Tischreden. 4 vols. Berlin. 1844-1848. Losche : Analecta Lutherana et Melanthonia. Gotha. 1892. Corpus Reformatorum, xx, 519-608. (The Table-Talk will be published in six volumes in the "Weimar edition : the first volume, expected in 1911, will be devoted to Diet- rich's notes.) The Table-Talk has been twice translated, from Aurifaber. H. Bell : Dr. Martin Luther's Colloquia mensalia, or his last Di- vine Discourses at his Table. London. 1652. W. Hazlitt : Luther's Table Talk. London. 1848. VI. Collections of Sources Balan : Monumenta reformations Lutheranae. Regensburg. 1884. O. Clemen : Flugschriften aus der Ref ormationszeit. Halle. 1904 ff. O. Clemen : Brief e aus der Ref ormationszeit. Zeitschrif t f . Kirchen- geschichte, xxxi (1910), 1 and 2. P. S. Allen: Letters of 1500-1530. English Historical Review, xxii (1907), 740 ff. W. Friedensburg : Zum Briefwechsel der katholischen Gelehrter. 438 APPENDIX Zeitschrift f . Kirchengeschichte, xviii, 106 ff., 283 ff., 420 ft., 596 ff. ; xix, 231 ff., 473 ff . ; xx, 242 ff., 500 ff . ; xxi, 537 ff . ; xxiii, 110 ff., 438 ff. Piiper : Primitiae pontificiae. Theologorum neerlandicorum disputa- tiones contra Lutherum, ab 1519 usque ad 1526. Hagae-Com. 1905. O. Schade : Satiren uud Pasquille aus der Reformationszeit. 3 vols. 2ded. Hanover. 1863. Aleander, see Bibliography to Chapter x. Brief wechsel des Beatus Rhenanus, ed. A. Horawitz und K. Hart- felder. Leipzig. 1886. Brief wechsel der Bruder Ambrosius und Thomas Blaurer. 1509- 1548. Ed. T. Schiess. 2 vols. Frieburg i. Br. 1908, 1910. Briefwechsel Dr. J. Bugenhagen, ed. O. Vogt. 1888. Calvini opera, ed. G. Baum, E. Cunitz, E. Reuss, in Corpus Reform- atorum. Vols, xxi-lxxxvii. Brunswick and Berlin. 1861—1900. J. Cochlaeus : Commentaria de actis et scriptis M. Lutheri 1517-46. Apud St. Victorem prope Moguntiam. 1549. (I use copy in Biblio- theque Nationale, Paris, D 1447.) Albrecht Dttrer's schriftlicher Nachlass, ed. E. Heidrich. Berlin. 1908. Brief e von H. Emser, J. Cochlaeus, J. Mensing und P. Rauch an die Filrsten Johann und Georg und die Furstin Margarete von Anhalt. Ed. O. Clemen. Mttnster i. W. 1907. Erasmus, see bibliography to Chapter xviii. Epistolae obscurorum virorum, ed. Stokes. London. 1909. Georg Helt's Briefwechsel, ed. O. Clemen. Leipzig. 1907. Briefwechsel des Landgrafen Philipps mit Bucer, ed. M. Lenz. 3 vols. 1880-91. Hutten, see bibliography to Chapter VII. Briefwechsel des Justus Jonas, ed. G. Kawerau. 2 vols. Halle. 1884-5. J. Kessler : Sabbata. Chronik der Jahre 1523-39, ed. E. Egli und SchochSt. Gallen. 1902. Hartmuth von Kronbergs Schriften, ed. E. Kiick. Halle. 1899. J. Mathesius' Ausgewahlte "Werke, ed. G. LiJsche, Prague. 1896-8. Historien von des Ehrwirdigen. . . . M. Luthers Anf ang, Lehr, Leben und Sterben. Band iii. Melanchthon, see bibliography to Chapter VII. Melanchthon's Vita Lutheri, Corpus Reformatorum, vi, 155, and xx, 430. Der Briefwechsel des Mutianus Rufus, ed. C. Krause, Kassel. 1885. Der Briefwechsel des Conradus Mutianus, ed. K. Gillert. 2 vols. Halle. 1890: F. Myconius : Historia reformationis 1517-42, ed. Cyprian. Leip- zig. 1718. APPENDIX 489 Bilibaldi Pirckheimeri opera, ed. Goldast. Frankfort. 1610. K. Rtick : Pirckheimeri De Bello Elvetieo. Munich. 1895 (with Pirckheimer's autobiography). (Dr. Eeicke of Nuremberg and Dr. Reimann of Berlin are planning to edit Pirckheimer's correspondence.) Die Handschiftliche Geschichte M. Ratzebergers, ed. C. S. Neu- decker. Jena. 1850. Reuchlin, see bibliography to Chapters n and IV. Brief e an Stephan Roth, ed. Buchwald. Archiv fur Geschichte d. deut. Buchhandels. 1893. Akten und Briefe zur Kirchenpolitik Herzogs von Sachsen, ed. F. Gess. Tome i, 1517-1524. Leipzig. 1905. Schwenckfeld, see bibliography to Chapter xxxvil. G. Spalatin : Annales reformationis, ed. Cyprian. Leipzig. 1718. Spalatins historischer Nachlass, ed. Neudecker und Preller. Vol. i. Jena. 1851. Spalatiniana, ed. G. Bierbig. Theolog. St. und Kr. 1907, Heft iv ; 1908, Hefte i, ii. Staupitz, see bibliography to Chapters II and IV. Christoph Scheurl's Briefbuch, ed. von F. von Soden und J. K. F. Knaake. 2 vols. Potsdam. 1867, 1872. Vadianische Briefsammlung. 5 parts and 5 supplements, hg. von Arbenz und Wartmann. St. Gallen. 1890 ff. Zwingli, see bibliography to Chapters xxi and xxn. Die symbolichen Biicher der evangelischelutherischen Kirche. Be- sorgt von J. T. Miiller und T. Kolde. Guterloh. 1907. F. Ktich : Politisches Archiv des Landgrafen Philipps von Hessen. (Pablicationen aus k. preus. Staatsarchiven, vols. 78, 85.) Leipzig. 1904 ff. 2 vols. Deutche Reichstagsakten unter Karl V. Herausg. von A. Kluck- hohn und A. Wrede. Mttnchen. 1893 ff. Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland nebst erganzenden aktenstucken, herausg. durch die k. preus. hist. Institut zu Rom. Theil I, 1533-59. Gotha. 1892 ff. (As yet have appeared 12 volumes.) "VTI. Recent Lives of Luther J. Kostlin : Martin Luther. 5th edition by G. Kawerau. Berlin. 1903. T. Kolde : Martin Luther. Gotha. 2 vols. 1884-1893. A. Hausrath : Luthers Leben. 1904. A. E. Berger : Martin Luther in kulturgeschichtlicher Darstellung. Berlin. Vol.i (to 1525). 1895. Vol. ii (to 1532). 1898. M. Lenz : Martin Luther. 3d edition. Berlin. 1897. 440 APPENDIX: C. Beard : Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany until the close of the Diet of Worms. London. 1889. H. 'Denifle : Luther und Lutherthum in der ersten Entwickelung. I. Hauptband. I. Abteilung 2d edition. Mainz. 1904. (Concerned chiefly ■with Luther's work on Monastic Vows.) II. Abteilung. 2d edition by A. M. Weiss. 1906. (Concerned mainly with Luther's development till 1517.) I. Erganzungsband. Die abendlandischen Schriftausleger bis Luther liber Justitia Dei und Justiflcatio. 1905. A. M. Weiss : Luther und Lutherthum. II. Erganzungsband. Ltt- therpsychologie. 1906. II. Hauptband. 1909. A. C. McGiffert, in the Century Magazine, beginning December, 1910. VIII. Histories of the Time Cambridge Modern History. Vol. ii. The Reformation. London. 1904. T. M. Lindsay : A History of the Reformation. Edinburgh. Vol. i, Germany. 1906. Vol. ii, Lands beyond Germany. 1907. L. Pastor : Geschichte der Papste. Vol. iv (1513-1534), pt. i. ■ 1906. Pt. ii. 1907. Vol. v (1534-1549). 1909. English translation, edited by Ralph Kerr. London. 1908 ff. Vols, vii-x. T. Kolde : Friedrich der Weise. 1881. G. Mentz : Johann Friedrich. 3 vols. Jena. 1903-1909. J. Janssen : Geschichte des deutschen Volkes seit dem Ausgange des Mittelalters. Vols, i-iii. 17th and 18th editions by Pastor. 1897 ff. English translation. 14 volumes. London. L. Hausser : Geschichte des Zeitalters der Reformation. 1517- 1648. 3d edition. 1903. In Onken's series. L. von Ranke : Deutsche Geschichte im Zeitalter der Reformation. Vols. i-vi. Leipzig. 1894. F. von Bezold: Geschichte der deutschen Reformation. Berlin. 1890. M. Creighton : History of Papacy during period of Reformation. 5 vols. London. 1887-94 (vols, i, ii, in new ed. 1892). P. Schaff : History of the Christian Church. Vol. vi, The German Reformation (1517-1530). New York. 1888. F. Thudichum : Die deutsche Reformation (1517-1537). 2 vols. Leipsic. 1909. (Anabaptist point of view.) T. Brieger : Die Reformation. Weltgeschichte, ed. Pflug-Hartung. Neuzeit. Vol. i. 1909. W. Moller : Lehrbuch der Kirchengeschichte. Vol. iii. Reformation und Gegenreformation. 3d ed. Bearbeitet von G. Kawerau. Tubin- gen. 1907. English translation of the second edition by J. H. Freese. London and New York. 1900. 3 vols. APPENDIX 441 IX. Miscellaneous Works H. Bohmer : Luther im Liclite der neueren Forschung. 1st ed. Leipzig. 1906. 2d ed. Leipzig. 1910. (Each edition has material not in the other.) W. Braun : Lutherstudien und ihre Bedeutung fur die Gegenwart. Neue kirchliche Zeitung, xx (1909), v, p. 329. O. Clemen : Beitrage zur Ref ormationsgeschichte aus der Zwick- auer Ratschulbibliothek. 3 parts. Berlin. 1903. Eckhart : Luther im Urtheil beruhmter Manner. 1908. Hunziger : Lutherstudien. Leipzig. 1906. Horst Sephan : Luther in den Wandlungen seiner Kirche. Giessen. 1907. W. Walther : Lutherophilus. Halle. 1893. W. Walther: Fur Luther wider Rom. Halle. 1906. W. Walther : Zur Werthung der deutschen Reformation. Leipzig. 1909. D. Erdmann : Luther und die Hohenzollern. Breslau. 1883. P. Zimmermann : Der Streit Wolf Hornungs mit Kurfurst Joachim I von Brandenburg und Luthers Beteiligung an demselben. Ztsch. f. preussiche Geschichts- und Landeskunde, xx, 310. G. Bayer : Johann Brenz. Stuttgart. 1899. Baum : Capito und Butzer. Eberf eld. 1860. E. Armstrong: The Emperor Charles V. 2 vols. London. 2d ed. 1910. Flechsig : Cranachstudien, pt. i. Berlin. 1900. W. Reindell : Luther, Crotus und Hutten. Marburg. 1890. N. Paulus : Die deutschen Dominikaner im Kampf e gegen Luther. 1518-1563. (Erlauterungen und Erganzungen zu Janssens Ge- schichte d. deut. Volkes. hg. von L Pastor.) Freiburg i. B. 1903. P. Mosen : H. Emser. 1890. G. Kawerau : H. Emser. 1898. G. Kawerau : Caspar Guttel. Halle. 1882. W. Vogler : Hartmuth von Kronberg. Halle. 1897. N. Paulus : Der Augustiner Bartholomaus Arnoldi von Usingen, Luthers Lehrer und Gegner. Strassburgische Theolog. Studien. i, pt. iii. Strassburg and Freiburg. 1893. D. Erdmann : Luther und seine Beziehungen zu Schlesien. Bossert : Luther und Wittenberg. Ludwigsburg. 1883. X. Works of Reference Realencyclopadie filr protestantische Theologie und Kirche, ed. Herzog und Hauck. 3d ed. 22 vols. 1896-1909. (Supplementary volume announced for 1912.) 442 APPENDIX Kirchenlexicon, ed. Wetzer und Weltes. Freiburg i. B. 1883 ff. Dictionnaire de la Theologie Catholique. Paris. 1903 ff. Die Religion in Geschichte und Gegenwart. HandwOrterbuch in Gemeinverstandlicber Darstellung, ed. H. Gunkel, 0. Scheel und F. M. Scbiele. Tubingen. 1910 ff. Dictionnaire d'Histoire et de GeograpHe Eccl&iastique, ed. Baudril- lart. Vpgt et Ronzies. Paris. 1909 ff. The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopaedia of Religious Knowledge, ed. S. M. Jackson. New York and London. 1908 ff. Vols, i-viii. On Luther, vii, 69-79. Allgemeine deutsche Biographie. 1844 ff. Grimm : Deutsches Wsrterbuch. Complete to " Sprechen," 10 vols. D. Sanders : Deutsches Worterbuch. 3 vols. Dietz : Worterbuch zu Luthers Schriften, pt. i. 1876. Du Cange : Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis. Several ediT tions. SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHIES Chapter I. Childhood and Student Life. 1483-1505 Sources : Chiefly Luther's table-talk and other reminiscences in his works ; e. g., that about his spiritual director in the monastery. Weimar, xxx, iii, 530. Monographs : O. Clemen : Beitrage zu Reformationsgeschichte. Heft. ii. Berlin. 1903. Grossler : Luthers Taufort. Mansfelder Blatter, xvii, 179. Kampschulte : Die Universitat Erfurt. 2 vols. Trier. 1858-60. Krumhaar: Nullbrtider. Evangel. Kirchenzeitung. 1882. p. 442. G. Oergel : Vom jungen Luther. Erfurt. 1899. W. Mollenberg : Luthers Vater. Zts. des Harzvereins. xxxix, 169. 1907. E. Schaumkell : Der Kultus der heiligen Anna. Freiburg. 1893. Document : The following account of the plague at Erfurt in 1505 is taken from an excessively rare book in the British Museum Print Room. Cf. Panzer : Annales typographic!, vi, 495. De Recessu Studentum ex Erphordio tempore pestilentiae. Eobani Hessi Francobergii carmen heroicum. Erfurt. 1506. 4°. APPENDIX 448 Tempus eiat iam laeta Ceres adoleverat arris; Sole sub ardehti lunata falce Colonas Venerat agrestis segetes incidere, vites Frondebant, iam silva leves porrexerat umbras, Floruit omnis ager, campi sylvaeque potentes Et laeti arboreis cantum sparsere volueres Frondibus argutum ; repetunt arbusta Cicadae Et nova transpicuis arrident gramina rivis. Laeta per integrum radierunt gaudia mundum, Quidquid erat laetum fuit exultatque per orbem. Annus erat post quinque decern quoque saecula quintus Postque virginea deus exiit aeditus alvo; Tranquilla stetit infoelix Erphordia pace Tempore non illo foelix velut esse solebat Antea loetiferi quisquis infausta veneni Sparsit in egregios flammantia tela Minervae Cultores. Stygio pestis suffusa furore Iamiam Sesseo totam madefecerat urbem Sanguine mortif eras populus effudit et atrox Viroso vomit ore faces et corpora diris Suspicit hulceribus, virusque effudit in omnes Vipereum multi licuit sperare salutem Cum semel affixa est lateri laetalis harundo Una lege ruunt cuncti iuvenesque senesque Innocuam rabies adeo grassatur in urbem Laetiferae pestis, Danaos non tanta peremit Impietas altae vastantes moenia Troiae Dum pater abductam repetit Chriseida Calchas Urbs luget tetri sanie polluta veneni Ante suos obeunt nati nataeque parentes Et patris moriens spectat crudelia natus Funera, nee propriam cognoseit filia matrem. Exoritur miseranda lues, it rumor ad aedes Palladis, et quosdam rabies haec inficit ex hiis Quos miseri quondam ad studium misere parentes Inficit, et tristi languencia corda veterno Obtenebat, ferit incautos, volat ocyor Euro. Haec fera nunc illos iaculo nunc percutit illos Nee metuit quenquam quantumvi3 doctus ad arma Pallados exurgat, furit, aestuat, inficit, aufert Corpora, ut esuriens lupus inter ovilia plena Imbelles obtruncat oves nee exit ab illis, Nee praedae absistit donee non traxerit omnes Mortis ad exitium, fera non secus ilia cruentis Aestuat hulceribus. Magnae domus alta Minervae Moeret, et ingentes morientum sydera planctus Aecipiunt ; ipso sedet alti cnlmine Pallas Tegminis et peplo f aciem velatur. Nephandas 444 APPENDIX Conqueritur caedes ac tristia fata suorum. At Cytharam posuit moestam crinitus Apollo Calliopeque, fugit Nyniphis comitata latinis. Conquerimur cuncti quos docta Erpbordia quondam Fovit et eleotos gremio suscepit aperto, Vota precesque deo ferimus juvenesque senesque, Aerea vasa sonant; Sanctae qua virginis aedes Tres celebres Mariae tollunt ad sydera turres Atque aliis quibus hec urbs est celeberrima templis Atria clauduntur portae; nigris capita alta Cucullis 1 Velantur juvenum j superest spes nulla salutis, Iamque ubi desperata salus, ubi nulla precantes Vota juvant, ubi mors vitae dominatur et omnes Lege ruunt Pauli, nee erat mens certa moiandi, Effugimus dum quisque potest, dum vita superstes Cuique sua est quos preteriit furor ille cruentus; Effugimus; iuvat ire prooul, patriosque penates Visere, et externas studiis renovarier urbes Palladiis, multas quarum iam fama per annos Delituit, fugiunt una omnes mente magistri Quisque suos repetunt lares, unaque studentes Quisque suum sequimur per daevia longa magistrum Quorum aliquos memorare libet. (Here follows a passage on two of the dead, Laurence Usingen and a certain Lupambulus.) Paulatim tetros Erpbordia docta furores Post multas tandem caedes evasit et aestus. Candida mox iterum ventis dare vela paramus Assuetam fatis petituri hortantibus urbem. Urbs luget commota novae f ormidine famae. O quales gemitus nostri peperere recessus, Quas lacbrymas quales miserunt lumina fletus, Tristia quae nostros abitus odere. . . . This brilliant picture of the very plague which drove the students into the monastery and to distant parts is followed by another poem hardly less interesting : De Fugna Studentium Erphordiensium cum quibusdam conjuratis nebulonibus. Eobani Hessi Francobergii Car- men. 1506. This tells of a town and gown row which arose from a student drinking-bout. It was doubtless just such an affray as Luther says he sometimes saw in his student days. Cf . Buchwald : Unge- druckte Predigten, p. 521. 1 The poet got one too many feet in this verse. APPENDIX 443 Chapters II and IV. Luther's Development. 1505-1517 A. Sources of Luther's thought in the schoolmen and fathers, in various editions (For the editions used by Luther, cf. "Weimar, ix, 1) Augustine (works best known to Luther were : De Trinitate, De Civitate Dei). Migne : Patrologia latina, xxxii-xlvii. G. Biel : Collectorium super quattuor libris sententiarum. Tubin- gen. 1501. William of Occam : Super quattuor libris sententiarum annotatio- nes. Lyons. 1475. (Id. Ghent. 1495.) Id. Political works, ed. Goldast: Monarchia (13 vols. 1614). Vol. ii. Peter Lombard : Sententiae. Gerson et d'Ailli, ed. Ellis Dupin. Antwerp. 1706. Monographs : J. Altensteig : Lexicon Theologicum. Venice. 1583. Prantl : Geschichte der Logik im Abendlande, iii and iv. H. Hermelink: Die theologische Facultat in Tubingen vor der Reformation. Tubingen. 1906. De Wulf : Histoire de la philosophie me'die'vale. Paris. 1905. Rashdall : History of the Universities of the Middle Ages. Ox- ford. 1895. On Nominalism and Occam, ii, 535 ff.; on Erfurt, ii, 242 ff. B. Mysticism Sources : Theologia Deutsch. Hg. von L. Mandel (Quellensch. zur Geschichte des Protestantismus, Heft 7) . Leipzig. 1907. Theologia Teutsch. sine loco. 1526. (Bodleian Library. Tract. Luth. 46 (22).) Monographs : H. Hering: Die Mystik Luthers. Leipzig. 1879. Cohrs' articles Tauler and Theologia Deutsch in Realencyclopadie, xix. C. Luther's early writings Marginal notes on Augustine, Lombard's Sentences, Tauler, &c. Weimar, ix. Dictata super Psalterium, 1513-16. Weimar, iii and iv. Luthers Vorlesung tiber den Romerbrief . Hg. von Ficker. Leip- zig. 1908, 44,6 APPENDIX Lectures on Judges. Weimar, iv, 529. Lectures on Galatians. Weimar, ii, 436. Sermons. Weimar, iv, 587. Disputatio de theologia scolastica. Weimar, i, 221. Monographs : K. Benrath : Luther im Kloster 1505-25. Halle. 1905. H. Bahmer : Luther im Lichte der neueren Forschung. 2d ed. Leipzig. 1910. Chapter i. W. Braun : Die Bedeutung der Konkupizenz in Luthers Leben und Lehre. Berlin. 1908. H. DenifTe: Luther und Lutherthum. Vol. ii. 2d ed. Mainz. 1906. A. W. Hunzinger : Lutherstudien. Heft i. Leipzig. 1906. A. Jundt : La DeVeloppement de la pense"e religieuse de Luther jusqu'en 1517. Paris. 1907. K. Holl : Die Rechtf ertigungslehre in Luthers Vorlesung liber den Eamerbrief . Zts. fiir Theologie und Kirche. 1910. Heft iv. 245- 291. H. Mandel : Die scholastische Rechtf ertigungslehre, ihre Bedeutung fiir Luthers Entwickelung. Greifswald. 1906. W. Stange : Luthers Entwickelung. Neue kirchliche Zts. xvii (1906), 661. O. Scheel : Die Entwickelung Luthers bis zum Abschluss der Vor- lesung iiber den Ramerbrief . Schriften des Vereins f . Reformations- geschichte, no. 100. 1910. D. Wittenberg Sources: FBrstemann : Album Academiae Vitebergensis. Leipzig. 1841. Id. Liber Decanorum f acultatis theologiae Academiae Vitebergensis. 1850. J. Kastlin : Baccalaurei und Magistri der Wittenberg, phil. Facultat 4 Hefte. 1887-91. Muther : Die Wittenberger Universitats und Facultatsstatuten der Jahr 1508. Halle. 1867. Monographs : Haussleiter : Die Universitat Wittenberg vor dem Eiutritt Luthers. Leipzig. 1903. J. Kastlin : Friedrich der Weise und die Schlosskirche zu Witten- berg. 1892. K. Schmidt : Wittenberg unter Friedrich dem Weisen. 1877. APPENDIX 447 2£. The Beuchlin trial Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum ed. Becking. Leipzig. 1864-70. Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, ed. Stokes, with an English trans- lation. London. 1910. Johann Reuchlins Briefwechsel, ed. L. Geiger. Tubingen. 1875. Monographs : Becking and Stokes, introductions. F. The Augustinians and Staupitz Sources : Staupitzens samtliche Werke, ed. Knaake. Vol. i. 1867. Monographs : T. Kolde : Die deutschen Augustiner Congregationen und J. von Staupitz. Gotha. 1879. T. Kolde : Das religiose Leben in Erfurt beim Ausgang des Mittel- alters. Sch. d. Vereins fur Reformationgesch. xiv. 1908. O. Clemen, Staupitz, in Realencyclop. xviii. G. Spalatin. (See general bibliography for sources.) G. Bierbig : G. Spalatin und sein Verhaltnis zu Luther bis 1524. . . . Halle. 1906. Kolde, article on Spalatin in Realencyclop. xviii. Chapter III. Rome A. Hausrath : M. Luthers Romfahrt. Berlin. 1894. Turk : Luthers Romfahrt. Meissen. 1897. Th. Elze : Luthers Reise nach Rom. Berlin. 1899. N. Paulus, in Historisches Jahrbuch. 1891, 314 ff. ; 1901, p. 110 ff. ; 1904, p. 72 ff. In Historische-politische Blatter (1909), vol. cxlii, p. 738 ff. G. Kawerau, in Deutsch-evangel. Blatter. 1901, p. 79 ff. O. Clemen : Beitrage zur Reformationsgeschichte, iii, 89. K. Todt : in Preussische Jahrbttcher, 117, 479 ff. F. M. Nichols : Mirabilia Urbis Romae. London. 1905. On the Florentine Hospitals, Baedeker's Northern Italy, and P. Monnier : Le Quattrocento (Paris, 1908), ii, 170. 44S APPENDIX Chapters V and IX. The Indulgence Controversy. 1517-20 A. The Theory of Indulgences Sources : Alexander of Hales : Summa theologiae, cap. iv. Thomas Aquinas : Summa theologiae. Supplementum tertiae partis. Quaestiones 25-27. Kohler : Documente zum Ablassstreit von 1517. Tubingen. 1900. Albert, Archbishop of Mayence : Instructio summaria pro sub- commissariis. Enders : Luthers Briefwechsel, i, 116. (Extracts.) Monographs : Brieger : Das Wesen des Ablasses am Ausgange des Mittelalters. Leipzig. 1897. DieckhofE : Der Ablassstreit. Ootha. 1886. A. Gottlob : Ereuzablass und Almosenablass. Stuttgart. 1906. Id. Ablassentwickelung und Ablassinhalt im elften Jahrhundert. Stu]ttgart. 1907. G. Kawerau : " Sobald das Geld im Kasten klingt." Barmen, 1890. H. C. Lea : A History of Auricular Confession and Indulgence in the Latin Church. 3 vols. Philadelphia. 1896. Vol. iii, chapter iii, pp. 372-413. N. Paulus : Johann Tetzel, der Ablassprediger. Mainz. 1899. N. Paulus : Die Anfange des Ablasses. Zts. ftlr katolische Theologie 1909. Heftii. Id. id. Historische Jahrblicher. 1909. Heft i. B. Luther's attack on indulgences Sources. W. Kohler : Luther's 95 Thesen samt deinen Resolutionen, sowie die Gegenschriften von Wimpina-Tetzel, Eck und Prierias, und die Antworten Luthers darauf . Leipzig. 1903. The Ninety-five Theses (with facsimile). Weimar, i, 223. Resolutiones disputationis de virtute indulgentiarum. Weimar, i, 522. Acta Augustana. Weimar, ii, 6. Unterricht auf etliche Artikel. Weimar, ii, 69. A. Corsio : II Cardinale Caetano e la Rif orma. Cividale. 1902. Cajetan on Indulgences, p. 215 ; Luther at Augsburg, pp. 291-332. APPENDIX 449 C Process against Luther at Borne Sources and monographs: Bokmer : Luther im Lichte der neueren Forschung. 2d ed. Leip- zig. 1910. Chapter iii. B. Fritsche : Die papstliche Politik und die deutsche Kaiserwahl in 1519. Burg. 1909. P. Kalkoft' : Forschungen zu Luthers romischen Prozess. Bom. 1905. P. Kalkoff : Die Beziehungen der Hohenzollern zur Kurie unter dem Einfluss der lutherischen Frage. Rom. 1906. P. Kalkoff : Ablass und Reliquienverehrung an der Schlosskirche in Wittenberg. Gotha. 1907. P. Kalkoff : W. Capito im Dienste des Erzbischof Albrecht von Mainz. Berlin. 1907. P. Kalkoff: Cardinal Cajetan auf dem Augsburger Reichstage 1518. Quellen & Forschungen aus Ital. Archiven. x, 226-30. Rome, 1907. Moller-Kawerau : Kirchengeschichte (1907), iii, 15 ff. K. Mtiller : Luthers rSmischer Prozess. Zts. f. Kirchengeschichte. 1903. xxiv, 46. L. Pastor : Geschichte der Papste. iv, pt. i (1906), chapters vii and viii. A. Schulte : Luthers Prozess. Quellen und Forschungen . . . vi, pp. 32, 174, 374. A. Schulte : Die Fugger in Rom 1495-1523. 2 vols. Leipzig. 1904. P. Kalkoff : Zu Luthers rSmischen Prozess. Zeitsch. f. Kirchen- ges. xxxi (1910), pp. 48-65, pp. 368-114. W. Friedensburg : Eine ungedruckte Depesche Aleanders. (To Leo X, September 20-23, 1520.) Quellen und Forschungen aus Ital. Archiven, i, 150-3. In the Harvard Library there is a collection of Luther tracts of the years 1518-20, catalogue number Nor. 2100, # x 64-93. This is annotated in a sixteenth century hand, wrongly said to be Luther's, but which is really that of one of his contemporaries, as is proved by notes referring to the years 1552 and 1556, by two references to a jour- ney to Rome in 1516-17, and by many other allusions contradicting the known facts of Luther's life. One note, however, is of such interest that it may be given here as new evidence on Tetzel's sermons. In one of the tracts, Luther's Answer to Prierias, we read these words (p. E. iii) : " Dicunt praecones : Si haberes unam tunicam vendere deberes, ut venias redimeres, nee hoc potenti suadent, ubi quis neces- 450 APPENDIX sario primo modo non habuerit, turn alicunde mutuet, aut mendicet, etiam si sit uxor." In the margin is -written this note : " Verissima sunt ista. Namque et ego audivi tales praecones a Jolianni Tizel anno domini 1516." D. The Bull Exsurge Domine, and its burning. 1520. Burning of the bull. "Weimar, vii, 184. J. Agricolas neuer Bericht ilber Luthers Verbrennung der Bann- bulle. Sitzungsber. d. k. preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften. 1907. v, 1-8. (Cf . O. Clemen, Theolog. St. und Kritiken. 1908. 460-469, and 1909, p. 158, and G. Kawerau, ibid. 1908, p. 587 f.) Der Bericht des H. Scultetus ilber Luthers Verbrennung der Bann- bulle. Quellen und Forsehungen aus Italienischen Archiven, i, 320. Horn. 1898. Luther : Von den neuen Eckischen Bullen und Ltlgen. Weimar, vi, 579. Id. Adversus execrabilem Antichristi bullam. Weimar, vi, 595. Assertio omnium articulorum M. Lutheri per bullam Leonis X no- vissimam damnatorum. Weimar, vii, 94. Oblatio sive Protestatio. Weimar, vi, 474. Bulla decimi Leonis contra errores Martini Lutheri et sequacium, ed. IHrich von Hutten. s. 1. e. a. (1520). Bodleian Library Quarto B 9 Th. Seld. (The Bull Exsurge Domine.) Bull Exsurge Domine, also edited by J. D. Mansi ; Sacrorum Con- ciliorum Nova et Amplissima CoHectio, vol. xxxii (Paris, 1902), p. 1049. Chapter VI. The Leipsic Debate. 1519. The debate. Weimar, ii, 254, with historical introduction. O. Seitz : Der authentische Text des Leipziger Gesprachs zwischen A. Karlstadt, J. Eck und M. Luther. Berlin. 1903. Gess : Akten und Briefe zur Kirchenpolitik Herzog Georgs von Sachsen. Leipzig. 1905. Tom. i. T. Brieger : Einziges ilber die Leipziger Disputation. Leipzig. 1909. Die Leipziger Disputation, " Wartburg," viii, 30 (1908). E. Schaf er : Luther als Kirchenhistoriker. Giiterloh. 1897. W. Kehler : Luther und die Kirchengeschichte. (To 1521.) Er- langen. 1900. Mosellanus' account of the Leipsic debate, and of Luther's appear- ance, in a letter to J. Pflug, ed. Jortin : Life of Erasmus. 2 vols. Lon- don. 1758-1760. Vol. ii, pp. 353-8. L. Enders : Luther und Emser. 2 vols. Halle. 1890-92. Corpus Reformatorum, i, 87. APPENDIX 451 Chapter VII. The Patriot Melanchthon : Melanchthon's works and letters, mostly in Corpus Ref ormatorum, vols, i-xxviii, ed. by Bretschneider & Bindseil. Halle. 1834 ff. Bindseil : Ph. Melanchthonis epistolae &c. quae in Corpore Ref orm- atorum desiderantur. 1874. Supplementa Melanchthonis. Ed. Clemen, Mtlller & al. Leipzig. Vol. i. 1910. Vol. ii. 1911. G. Krilger : P. Melanchthon. Leipzig. 1906. Article "Melanchthon" in Realencyclopadie, xiii, with authorities. R. Seeburg : Die Stellung Melanchthons in der Geschichte der Kirche und Wissenschaft. Erlangen. 1897. F. Loofs, in Theolog. Stud. u. Kritik. 1897, p. 641. G. Kawerau, ibid., p. 668. G. Mix : Luther und Melanchthon in ihrer gegenseitigen Beurteil- ung. In Theol. Stud. u. Kritik. 1901, p. 449 ff. G. Kawerau : Luther und Melanchthon, in Deutsch-evangel. Blat- ter, 1903, p. 29, and 1906, p. 179. On the influence of Muss : Kohler : Luther und die Kirchengeschichte. Erlangen. 1900. On Hutten and the Nationalists : Meltzer : Luther als deutscher Mann. 1905. Strauss : Ulrich von Hutten. 2 vols. 2d edition. Leipzig. 1874. Hutten's works, ed. by Becking. 5 vols. Leipsic. 1859-64. Szamaltolski : Ulrich von Hutten. Quellen und Forschungen zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte der Germanischen Velker. Heft 67. 1891. Chapter VIII The Address to the German Nobility, The Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and The Freedom of a Christian Man Operationes in Psalmos, 1519-21. Weimar, v. Explanation of Dr. Martin Luther of certain articles in his sermon on the sacrament. Weimar, vi, 78. Tesseradecas consolatoria. Weimar, vi, 99. Of Good Works. Weimar, vi, 203. To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation on the Improve- ment of the Christian Estate. Weimar, vi, 405 (with historical intro- duction, ibid. 381). Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. Weimar, vi, 497 (with historical introduction, ibid.). 452 APPENDIX On the Liberty of a Christian Man. Weimar, vii, 49 (with introduc- tion, ibid. 1). Wace and Buchheim : Luther's Primary Works. London. 1896. W. E. Kehler : Luther's Schrift an den christlichen Adel deutscher Nation im Spiegel der Kultur- und Zeitgeschichte. Halle. 1895. Benrath : "' An den christlichen Adel " yon M. Luther. 1884. Chapter X. The Diet of Worms. 1521 Sources : A. Wrede : Deutsche Reichstagsakten unter Karl V. 1896. Luther's speeches at Worms, here ii, no. 79 ff., and Weimar, vii, 814 ff. Magnum Bullarium Romanum. Luxemburg. 1727. The Bull Decet Romanorum Fontificem (commonly called Decet Pontificem Ro- manum), i, 614 f. T. Brieger : Aleander und Luther, 1521. Gotha. 1884. P. Kalkoff : Die Depeschen des Nuntius Aleander vom Wormser Reichstage. 1521. 2d ed. Halle. 1897. P. Kalkoff : Nachtrag zur Korrespondenz Aleanders wahrend seiner ersten Nuntiatur in Deutschland 1520-22. Zt. ftir Kirchengesch. xxxv. 1904. " Dr. Martin Luther's Passion," ed. Schade : Satiren und Pasquille, i, no. 11. J. Paquier : Lettres f amilieres de Jer8me Aleandre 1510-40. Paris. 1909. P. Kalkoff : Depeschen und Berichte liber Luther vom Wormser Reichstage 1521. Halle. 1898. T. Haase : Ein Lutherbrief und ein Lutherbild. Leipziger illustri- erte Zeitung, August 31, 1889. P. 220. (Facsimile of Luther's letter to Cuspinian. Same printed by Preserved Smith : Notes on Luther's Letters, Amer. Journal of Theol. April, 1910.) E. Heidrich : Albrecht Dttrers schriftlicher Nachlass. Berlin. 1908. pp. 95 ff. Holzinger: Ein Uhner Bericht von Luther in Worms. Theolog. Stud. u. Kritiken. 1907. pp. 45 ff. Monographs : A. Hausrath : Aleander und Luther. Berlin. 1897. P. Kalkoff : Aleander gegen Luther. Leipzig. 1908. P. Kalkoff : W. Capito im Dienste Erzbischof Albrechts von Mainz. Berlin. 1907. T. Kolde : Der Reichsherold Kaspar Sturm. Ar. Ref-Ges. iv, 117. 1904. P. Meissner : " Ohne Horner und Zahne." Ibid, iii, 321. 1904. Schubert : Luther im Worms. Theolog. Rundschau, ii, 369. APPENDIX 453 E. Armstrong: The Emperor Charles V. 2 vols. London. 2d ed. 1910. B. Gebbhardt : Die Gravamina der deut. Nation gegen des rOmi- schen Hof. Breslau. 1884. E. Gossart : Charles V. Bruxelles. 1910. At Worms, pp. 175-199. A. Wrede : Das Datum des Wormser Edicts. Historische Zeit- gchrift, Ixxvi. 449. Note on the words : " Here I stand, I can do no other, God help me." These words, traditionally the close of Luther's speech on April 18, appear in this form and order first in the Wittenberg edition of Luther's works, published under his supervision 1545. In a different order they are given in an account printed at Wittenberg while Luther was at the Wartburg. In his own account the closing words are simply: " God help me. Amen"; and other narratives by eye-witneases give similar but not identical words. It is very possible that the tradi- tional words are the right ones, as the first account is confessedly simply a summary and not an exact reproduction of the speech. But after all, it makes little difference in an estimate of Luther whether he said them or not ; the fact remains that he did stand there and that he could do no other. Cf . Beichstagsakten, pp. 555 f , note, and K Muller, in Festschrift far Kleinert. 1908. Note on the condemnation of Luther's writings by the University of Paris. On July 17, 1520, the Sorbonne received a letter from the Elector Frederic asking for an opinion on Luther's doctrines. They referred the question to J. Berthelemi and Noel BeVla, who reported their judgment at sittings on September 15 and November 17. The formal condemnation of the university was dated April 15, 1521. (For first edition : Determinatio Facultatis Parisiensis super Doc- trina Lutheri, cf. Benouard: Bibliographie des oeuvres de Josse Bade Ascensius. 3 vols. Paris. 1908. ii, 402. Eeprinted by Du Boulay : Historia Universitatis Parisiensis (1665-73) vi. 116-127). On April 22 the Sorbonne considered what answer to give Frederic, and drafted letters to him and the Emperor, April 24. The latter was submitted to the King, whose adviser, William Petit, defended Luther. Cf. L. Delisle : La Facuite" de Theologie a Paris. Notices et Ex- traits des MSS de la Bibliotheque Nationale (1899) xxxvi, 325 ff., 354. Note on Luther's pictures. The only good ones are by Lucas Cranach; even the death-mask, now at Halle, being altered, and therefore unreliable. The only genuine pictures by Lucas Cranach the elder are the following : — 1. Copper engraving of 1520. Luther as monk. 454 APPENDIX 2. Copper engraving of March, 1521 (cf. Enders, iii,107). Luther as monk, profile. 3. Oil painting (somewhat damaged) in Leipsic City Library. Luther as Junker Jorg. December, 1521. This also in engraving. 4. Oil painting, original probably in Wittenberg, Luther house. Luther at his marriage, June, 1525. 5. Oil painting of 1526, in private gallery of Frau Richard von Kaufmann, Berlin. Probably taken from no. 4. The numerous portraits of later years in German and Italian gal- leries are by Lucas' son Hans, or the much inferior artists of Cranach's large studio. Something of the old, stout, embittered Luther may be in them, but they cannot be compared with the pic- tures by Lucas. Cf. Flechsig : Cranachstudien. Ft. 1. Berlin. 1900. pp. 257 fit. I have myself examined all the genuine Cranachs and many other portraits of Luther, and, as far as a layman may, con- firmed the expert opinion of Flechsig. An opinion has been advanced that Luther was the original of one figure in Giorgione's Concert, in which case Giorgione would have had to see him during the trip to Italy (1510). So P. Schaff : History of the Christian Church, vi, 130. The idea is far-fetched and un- tenable. It goes back a long way. The Duke of Shrewsbury wrote in his journal November 10, 1701, that in the Prince's apartments at Florence he saw " a picture of Calvin and Luther drawn by Giorgione ; they have a woman drawn between them, I suppose to laugh at them. But it is a good piece. Calvin especially seems to have a sensible, thinking countenance." MSS of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queens- bury. London. 1903. II, ii, p. 756. Giorgione died in 1511 ; Calvin was born 1509. Chapteb XL The Wabtbubg J. Luther : Die Beziehungen Dr. Martin Luthers zur Wartburg und Koburg. Berlin. 1900. Postilla. Weimar, x, pt. 1, half i. The continuation of these in 1525 and 1527 will appear in Weimar, xxi and xxii. Bossert in Theolog. Studien und Kritiken, 1897, pp. 271 ff., and W. Kohler, in Zeitschrift f. Wissenschaftliche Theologie, 1898, pp. 588 ff. Luther : Wider den f alsch genannten geistlichen Stand. Weimar, x, pt. ii, p. 93. De Votis Monasticis. Weimar, viii, 564. Scheel: "De votis monasticis," in Berlin edition (1903). Supple- mentary volumes 1 and 2. APPENDIX 455 Denifle: Luther und Lutherthum. 1 Hauptband, 1 Abteilung. Mainz. 1904, passim. N. Paulus : Zu Luthers Schrift tiber die Menchsgelttbde, in His- torische Jahrbttcher, 1906, p. 487 fE. On the New Testament, see chapter on Luther's Bible. W. Oncken: Martin Luther in the Wartburg. " Die Wartburg," English translation. Berlin. 1907. pp. 263-272. Chapters XII and XIII. The Wittenberg Revolution G. Kawerau : Luthers Rttckkehr von der Wartburg, Deutsche Litteratur-Zeitung. 1893. Col. 1582. Von Bezold, in Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte (1900), xx, 168 fE. G. Kawerau : Luthers Rttckkehr von der Wartburg. Halle. 1902. H. Barge: Andreas Bodenstein von Carlstadt. 2 vols. Leipsic. 1904, 1905. H. Barge, in Historische Zeitschrift, xcix, 256. (1907.) H. Barge, in Historische Yierteljahrsschrift, ii, 193 ff. and 296 ff. (1908.) H. Barge : Gemeindechristenthum in Wittenberg und Orlamiinde. Leipsic. 1909. K. Mailer : Luther und Karlstadt. Tubingen. 1907. N. Mfiller : Die Wittenberger Bewegung von 1521 und 1522. Seven articles in Archiv f . Reformationsgeschichte. 1909, pp. 161 ff., 261 ff., 385 ff. 1910, pp. 133 ff., 233 ff., 353 ff. 1911, pp. 1 ff. Luther and the Swiss students at Jena, from J. Kessler : Sabbata. Published by the Historische Yerein des St. Gallen. (St. Gallen, 1902.) pp. 76 ff. P. Wappler : Thomas Mttnzer in Zwickau und die Zwickauer Propheten. 1908. Luther's Warning to all Christians to keep themselves from Tumult Weimar, viii, 670. Against the Heavenly Prophets of Images and the Sacrament Weimar, xviii,37 ff. Eight Sermons in Lent (March 9-16, 1522). Weimar, x, pt. ii, 1 fE. H. Lietzmann : Kleine Text fur theologische. . . . Vorlesungen. . . . 1902 ff. Bonn. No. xxi. Die Wittenberger und Leisniger Kastenord- nungen 1522—23. Chapter XIV. The Peasants' Revolt. 1525 This is naturally not a bibliography of the Peasants' War (such may be found in Cambridge Modern History, ii (1904), pp. 752 fE. and Schapiro, 154 ff-)> but 0I ^7 °* Luther's relation to it. It may be men- 456 APPENDIX tioned, however, that a full collection of sources is to be edited by O. Mere in three volumes. (One chapter by this author has appeared in Festschrift zum Gedachtniss Philipps des Grossmtttigen. Kassel. 1904. pp. 259-333.) Besides the histories of Janssen, Bezold, Lamprecht, etc., may be mentioned the following special works : — E. B. Bax : Social Side of the Reformation in Germany. 3 vols. London. 1894. ' Gotze : Die Artikel der Bauern 1525, in Hist. Vierteljahrsschrif t, iv (1901) and v (1902). Stolze : Der deutsche Bauernkrieg. Halle. 1907. J. S. Schapiro : Social Reform and the Reformation (Columbia University Studies, xxxiv, no. ii). New York. 1909. Lietzmann : Kleine Texte. . . . Bonn. 1902 ff. nos. 1-li. Urkunden zur Geschichte des Bauernkrieges und der Wiedertaufer. Ed. . Bshmer. Exhortation to Peace on the Twelve Articles. Weimar, xviii, 279. Letter on the hard Pamphlet against the Peasants. Weimar, xviii, 375. Chapters XV, XXXII. The Luther Family Albrecht Thoma : Katharina von Bora. Berlin. 1900. E. Kroker : Katharina von Bora. Leipzig. 1906. Luther's Sermon on Marriage. Weimar, xvii, 12. Letter to Reissenbusch. Weimar, xviii, 270. P. A. Kirsch : Melanchthons Brief an Camerarius ttber Luthers Heirat vom 16 Juni. 1525 [with incorrect translation]. Mainz. 1900. W. Meyer : Lauterbachs und Aurifabers Sammlungen derTischre- den Luthers. Abhandlungen d. k. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften zu Gottingen. Phil. Hist. Klasse. N. F. Bd. i, no. ii. 1897. Preserved Smith : Luther's Table Talk, a Critical Study. Colum- bia University Studies, xxvi, no. ii. New York. 1907. Chapter XVI. Private Life. 1522-1530 On the University : G. Bauch: Die Einfflhrung des Hebraischen in Wittenberg, in Montaschrift fur Geschichte des Judenthums, Jahrgang 48. p. 22 ff. G. Bauch : Wittenberg und die Scholastik, in Neues Archiv fur Sachsische Geschichte. 1897. pp. 295 ff. E. Haupt : Was unsere Universitaten der Griindung der Universe tat Wittenberg danken. Halle. 1902. APPENDIX 457 On Luther's diseases, cf. below, Chapter On the Erection and Maintenance of Schools. Weimar, xv, 1 ff. Whether one may flee from the Plague. Weimar, xxiii, 323 ff. Sermons of 1527. Weimar, xxiii, passage quoted p. 689. Sermons of 1528. Weimar, xxvii. Sermons of 1528-9. Weimar, xxviii. Sermons of 1529-1530. Weimar, xxix. Sermons on Exodus. Weimar, xvi ; passage quoted p. 301. Sermons on Genesis 1527. Weimar, xxiv. Lectures on Titus, Philemon, and Isaiah. Sermons on Leviticus and Numbers. Weimar, xxv. Lectures on Ecclesiastes. Weimar, xx, 1 ff. Sermons of 1526. Weimar, xx, 204 ff. Lectures on 1 John. Weimar, xx, 592 ff. Lectures on Minor Prophets. Weimar, xiii. Lectures on 2 Peter, Jude, Genesis, Deuteronomy. Weimar, xiv. Sermons of 1530. Weimar, xxxii. Sermons on John 6-8 (October 1530-1532). Weimar, xxxiii. Sermons of 1531. Weimar, xxxiv. Chapter XVII. Luther and Henry VIII J. S. Brewer, J. Gairdner, It. H. Brodie : Letters and papers, foreign and domestic, of the reign of Henry VIII. London. 1862. . . . Bergenroth, Gayangos and Hume : Calendar of letters, dispatches and state papers preserved in the archives of Simancas. . . . London. 1862 B. Brown : State papers . . . preserved in the archives of Venica. . . . London. 1867. . . . Luther : Contra Henricum Angliae regem. Weimar, x, pt. ii, 175. Id. Auf den Titel des KSnigs zu Engelland Lasterschrif t. Weimar, xxiii, 17. Assertio Septem Sacramentorum. I have used an edition without year or place, in the Bibliotheque Nationale at Paris, catalogue num- ber D 5839. Epistola Martini Lutheri ad Henricum VIII . . . et Responsio dicti invictissimi Angliae et Franciae regis. . . . Dresden. 1527. A copy of the letters wherein the most redoubted . . . Henry VIII made answer unto a certain letter of Martin Luther, s. 1. et a. (Ap- pendix to More's Apology). Bodleian Library Crynes 863. W. W. Rockwell : Die Doppelehe des Landgraf Philip von Hessen. Marburg. 1904. pp. 202-309. 468 APPENDIX W. Walther : Heinrich VIII von England und Luther. Rostock. 1908. J. P. Collier : History of English Dramatic Poetry, i, 108 (on the revel of November 9, 1527). Cf. J. A. Froude : History of England (1875) i, 74-76. Preserved Smith : Luther and Henry VIII, English Historical Re- view, no. c. October, 1910. 6. Mentz : Johann Friedrich, ii. Jena. 1908. G. Mentz : Die "Wittenberger Artikel von 1536. Leipzig. 1905. Assertio Septem Sacramentorum . . . reedited by L. O'Donovan. New York. 1908. Henrici VIII contra Lutherum ejusque haeresim, epistola ad Saxoniae Duces. Spicilegium Romanum (1840), iii, 741-50. Cambridge History of English Literature, vol. v, part i (1910), p. 114, states that John Ritwise, master of St. Paul's School, was responsible for the play of November 9, 1527. Better readings of Luther's letter to Cromwell, 1536, together with a letter of Jonas to Cromwell of the same date, will be found in my article in the Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, February, 1911. An interesting unpublished source, is : Henrici VIII . . . contra Ger- manorum opiniones de utraque specie, de missa privata et de conjugio sacerdotorum. Collected by Cuthbert Tunstall and revised by Henry, apparently in 1536. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, England, MS 109,1. On the burning of Luther's works at St. Paul's, Sanuto's Diaries, xxx, 314 ff., 342. Edicts against Luther in England, Wilkins : Concilia Magnae Britanniae et Hiberniae (1737), iii, 689, 690, 693, 711, 720, 737. Chapter XVIII. Luther and Erasmus Erasmi opera omnia, ed. J. Clericus. Lugduni Batavorum. 1703-6. Erasmi Axiomata, in Luther's Werke, Erlangen, v, 238 ff . Acta Academiae Lovaniensis, ibid, iv, 308. Consilium cujusdam . . . , in Zwinglii opera, ed. Schuler & Schult- hess, i, 1. De libero arbitrio Diatribe sive collatio, Clericus, x, pt. i, 1215. Id. ed John von Walther. Quellenschriften zur Geschichte des Protestantismus. xxiii. 1909. Hyperaspistes . . . Clericus, x, pt. ii. 1249 ff. Luther : De servo arbitrio. Weimar, xviii, 551. Responsio Lutheriana ad condemnationem doctrinalem per magistros Lovanienses et Colonienses. Weimar, vi, 3. APPENDIX 459 Horawitz : Erasmus und Martin Lipsius. Wien. 1882. Opus epistolarum Erasmi. The most complete edition is that in Clericus, iii ; a better edition is now in course of publication : by P. S. Allen, 2 vols., Oxford 1906, 1910, which has as yet only the letters before July, 1517. Additional letters in : J. Forstemann und 0. Gunther : Brief e an Erasmus. Leipzig. 1904. L. K. Enthoven : Brief e an Erasmus. Strassburg. 1906. More light may also be expected from the Bibliotheca Erasmiana, now in course of publication at Ghent : Listes sommaires, 1893 ; Adagia, 1897 ; Annotationes &c, 1900 ; Apophtegmata, 1901 ; Collo- quia, 3 vols. 1903-7. An allusion to Erasmus in 1532, in the preface to Bugenhagen's edition of Athanasius against Idolatry. Weimar, xxx, iii, 531. Besides the lives of Erasmus by R. B. Drummond (1872), Durand de Laur (1872), J. A. Froude (1895) and E. Emerton (1900), I have consulted the following special treatises : — H. Hermelink : Die religiosen Beformbestrebungen des deutschen Humanismus. Tubingen. 1907. Humbertclaude : Erasme et Luther, leur polemique sur le libre arbitre. Paris. 1909. P. Kalkoff : W. Capito im Dienste des Erzbishof Albrecht von Mainz. Berlin. 1908. P. Kalkoff : Die Vermittlungspolitik des Erasmus und sein Anteil an den Flugschriften der ersten Beformatipnszeit. Archiv flir Refor- mationsgeschichte, i (1903). G. Kawerau: Luther und Erasmus. Deutsch-evangel. Blatter. 1906, p. 12. F. Lezius : Zur Characteristik des religiosen Standpunkts des Erasmus. Giltersloh. 1895. A. Meyer : Etude critique sur les relations d'Erasme et de Luther. Paris. 1909. M. Richter : Desiderius Erasmus und seine Stellung zu Luther. Leipzig. 1907. K. Zickendraht : Der Streit zwischen Erasmus und Luther tiber die Willensfreiheit. Leipzig. 1909. P. Kalkoff : Erasmus, W. Nesen und N. von Herzogenbusch im Kampfe mit den Lowener Theologen. Zwingli's Werke, ed. Egli, Finsler und Kehler, vol. vii (1910), pp. 402-420. Article " Erasmus," by Mark Pattison and P. S. Allen, in Ency- clopaedia Britannica, 11th edition (1910-11), ix, 727. 480 APPENDIX Chapters XIX, XXIV. German Politics A. Luther's Political Theory Sources : Luther : Of Civil Authority and how far it is to be obeyed. Weimar, xi, 229. Luther : Whether Soldiers can be in a state of Grace. Weimar, xix, 616. Monographs : N. Paulus: Luther und die Todesstrafe fflr Ketzer. Hist.-pol. Blatte. vol. cxlv, pp. 177-189, and 243-255. E. Brandenburg : Luthers Anschauen vom Staat und Gesellschaft, Schriften d. Vereins f. Ref ormationsgesch. Halle. 1901. L. Cardauns : Die Lehre vom Widerstandsrecht des Volkes. Bonn. 1903. (Page 125, remarks that Luther followed closely Augus- tine : Contra Faustum Manichaeum.) P. Drews : Entsprach das Staatskirchenthum dem Ideale Luthers ? Tubingen. 1908. W. A. Dunning : Political Theory from Luther to Montesquieu. New York. 1905. pp. Iff." P. Wappler : Inquisition und Ketzerprozess zu Zwickau. Leipzig. 1908. E. Ehrhardt : La notion du droit naturel chez Luther. (Etudes de theologie et d'histoire, pp. 285 ff.) Montauban. 1901. G. Jager : Politische Ideen Luthers und ihr Einfluss ajif die innere Entwickelung Deutschlands. Preussische Jahrbucher. 1903. F. G. Ward : Darstellung und Wurdigung der Ansichten Luthers vom Staat und seinen Wirtschaftlichen Aufgaben. Conrad's Samm- lung nationalokon. Abhandlungen, xxi. Jena. 1898. G. von Schulthess-Rechberg : Luther, Zwingli und Calvin in ihren Ansichten liber das Verhaltnis von Staat und Eirche. Aarau. 1910. L. H. Warren : The Political Theories of Martin Luther. New York. 1910. Max Weber : two articles in Archiv fflr sociale Gesetzgebung und Statistik. 1905. xx, xxi. K. Mailer : Eirche, Gemeinde und Obrigkeit nach Luther. Tubingen. 1910. B. Politics Sources : A. Wrede: Deutsche Beichstagsakten unter Karl Y. Vol. iii. 1901. APPENDIX 461 F. Gess : Akten mid Briefe zur Kirchenpolitik Herzog Georgs von Sachsen. Bd. i, 1517-24. Leipzig. 1905. Luther : Of Secret and Stolen Letters. Weimar, xxx, pt. ii, pp. Iff. Luther : On the Turkish War. Weimar, ibid., pp. 81 ff. Warning to his dear Germans. Weimar xxx, iii, 252. Commentary on the putative Imperial Edict. Weimar 321 ff. Cambridge Modern History, ii, chapters 5 and 6. Pastor : Geschichte der Papste, iv, pt. ii, pp. 76 ff. Monographs : R. Kabel: Ein Jahr aus Luthers Leben (1525). 1883. T. Brieger : Der Speirer Reichstag von 1526 und die religiose Frage der Zeit. Leipzig. 1909 (Review by W. Friedensburg, Arch. f. Reformationsgesch. 1910, pp. 93 ff.). T. Kolde : Friedrich der Weise und die Anf ange der Reformation. Erlangen. 1881. A. Krencker : Friedrich der Weise von Sachsen beim Beginn der Reformation. 1906. J. Becker : Kurf iirst Johann von Sachsen und seine Beziehungen zu Luther. Leipzig. 1890, 1905. 2 v. G. Mentz : Johann Friedrich der Grossmiltige. Jena. 3 v. 1903, 1908. (I refer especially to ii, 8 and 27.) H. Schwartz : Landgraf Philipp von Hessen und die Packischen Handel. 1884. Ehses : Landgraf Philipp von Hessen und Otto von Pack. 1886. O. Winkelmann : Der Schmalkaldische Band, 1530-2. 1892. P. Wappler : Die Stellung Eursachsens und des Landgraf Philipps von Hessen zur Tauferbewegung. Mtinster i. W. 1910. Chaftek XX. Chttbch Building 1. Church Building. German Mass. Weimar, xix, 44 ff. Deutsche Litaner und Latina Litania correcta (1529). Weimar, xxx, iii, 1 ff. Instruction for the Visitors of Saxony. Weimar, xxvi, 174 ff. The Abomination of Private Masses. Weimar, xviii, 8 ff. Ein Traublichlein fur die einfaltigen Pfarrherrn (1529). Weimar, xxx, iii, 43. 462 APPENDIX Lather: "Von Ordnung Gottesdiensts, Taufbilchlein, Formula Missae et communionis. Bonn. 1909. K. liieker : Die rechtliche Stellung d. Evangel. Kirche Deutsch- lands. Leipzig. 1893. E. Sehling : Die evangelischen Kirchenordnungen des 16. Jahrhun- derts. Leipzig. 1906 ff. As yet 3 volumes. 2. Songs. Songs, Erlangen, vol. Ivi. Better edited in Lietzmann: Kleine Teste, &c. 1902 £E. nos. xxiv, xxv. J. Wagener, in Monatschrift f. Gottesdienst und kirchliche Kunst. iv (1899), pp. 7 ff. J. Adam : Ein Feste Burg, ibid, xiv (1909), pp. 6-9. Zelle : Das alteste lutherische Hausgesangbuch. (Gbttingen. 1903.) E. Achelis : Die Entstehungszeit von Luthers geistlichen Lieder. Marburg. 1883. J. Linke: Wann wurde das Lutherlied "Ein Feste Burg" ver- fasst? Leipzig. 1886. F. Spitta : " Ein Feste Burg ist unser Gott." Gettingen. 1905. G. Kawerau : Neue Forschungen ttber Luther's Lieder, in Deutsch- evangelischen Blatter, 1906. Heft 5, pp. 314 ff. J. Baubenstrauch : Luther und die kirchliche Musik in Sachsen bis auf 1610. Leipzig. 1906. Dr. Zelle: Die Singweisen der altesten evangel. Lieder. Berlin. 1899, 1900. 3. Catechisms. Catechisms and catechistical writings. Weimar, xxx, pt. 1. F. Cohrs : Die evangelischen Eatechismusversuche vor Luthers Enchiridion. 3 Hefte. Berlin. 1901-1907. K. Knoke : D. M. Luthers kleiner Katechismus nach den altesten Ausgaben in hochdeutscher, niederdeutscher und lateinischer Sprachen. Halle. 1904. O. Albrecht: Neue Katechismusstudien. In Theolog. Stud. u. Kritik. 1909. pp. 592 ff. Dictionnaire de Theologie Catholique. (Paris, 1903 ff.) Article Catechismes, in vol. ii. Der kleine Katechismus D. Martin Luthers nach der Ausgabe von Jahre 1536. Facsimile Neudruck von O. Albrecht/ Halle. 1905. M. Savoye : Etude historique sur la formation des catechismes de Luther. Paris. 1901. APPENDIX 463 Chapters XXI, XXII. Zwingli and the Diet op Augsburg Ulrichi Zwinglii opera, ed. Schuler und Schulthess. 8 vols. Zurich 1528-42. Letters, vols, vii, viii. Ulrich Zwinglis Werke, ed. Egli, Finster und Kohler. (Corpus Reformatorum, vols. 88 ff.) Zurich. 1904 ff. Now out, vols, i, ii, iii. Vadianische Briefsammlung, part iv, and Briefwechsel der Blaurer, vol. i (see general bibliography). Oecolampadii et Zwinglii epistolarum Ubri quattuor. Basle. 1536. pp. 24 ff. E. Egli : Schweizerische Beformationsgeschichte. Band i. 1519- 25. Zurich 1910. Article on Zwingli by Egli and Stahelin. Realencyclopadie, xxi. Eight contemporary accounts of the Marburg Colloquy are pub- lished in Weimar, xxx, iii, 94 ff. Luther : Dass diese Worte Christi " Das ist mien Leib " noch fest- stehen. Weimar, xxiii, 38. Luther : Vom Abendmahl Christi (Grosses) Bekenntnis. Weimar, xxvi, 241. Ft. Grabke : Die Konstruktion der Abendmahlslehre Luthers. 1907. Article Abendmahlslehre, in Religion in Geschichte und Gegen- wart. i, 2092-2112. Schirrmacher : Briefe und Akten zur Geschichte des Religions- gespraches zu Marburg 1529 und des Beichstages zu Augsburg. 1530. Gotha. 1876. G. Berbig : Acta Comiciorum Augustae. Halle. 1907. H. von Schubert : Bekenntnisbildung und Religionspolitik 1529- 30. Gotha. 1910. Mttller : Die Bekenntnissschriften der reformierten Kirche. Leip- zig. 1903. Article on Marburg Colloquy by Kolde, Realencyclopadie, xii. Tschackert : Die Augsburgische Konfession. Leipzig. 1901. Luther : Warming zu den Geistlichen zu Augsburg. Weimar, xxx, pt. ii, 237. J. Luther : Dr. M. Luthers Beziehungen zur Wartburg und Feste Coburg. Berlin. 1900. Chapter XXILT. The German Bible Weimar edition : Deutsche Bibel, vols, i and ii. Preussische Hauptbibelgesellschaft : Luthers Vorrede zur heiligen Schrift. Berlin. 1883. 464 APPENDIX W. Walther: Luthers Bibeliibersetzung kein Flagiat. Erlangen and Leipsic. 1891. G. Keyssner : Die drei Fsalterarbeitungen Luthers von 1524, 1528, und 1531. Meiningen. 1890. Scheel: Luthers Stellung zur heiligen Schrift. Tubingen and Leipsic. 1902. Luther's Letter on Translation. Weimar, xxx, p. 632. Bealencyclopadie, article Bibeliibersetzung, Deutsch. vol. iii, pp. 59 £E. P. Fietsch : Martin Luther und die hochdeutsche Schrif tsprache. 1883. Das Neue Testament. Facsimile of 1st ed., Sept., 1522, ed. Kcistiin. Berlin. 1883. O. Bitsche : Dogmengeschichte des Frotestantismus. Vol. i. Leip- zig. 1908. Prolegomena. Biblicismus und Traditionalismus in der alt- protestantischen Theologie. Sir H. H. Howarth: The Biblical Canon according to Luther, Zwingli, Lefevre and Calvin. Journal of Theological Studies, ix (1908), 188-230. Luther's marginal notes on his Bible. Werke. Walch, ix, 1774- 1821. O. Beichert : Martin Luthers deutsche Bibel. Tubingen. 1910. Preserved Smith : The Methods of Beformation Interpreters of the Bible. In the Biblical World (Chicago). 1911. B. Kuhn : Verhaltnis der Decemberbibel zur Septemberbibel. Mit einem Anhange uber J. Langes Matthaeusilbersetzung. Dissertation. Greifswald. 1901. Note. It is impossible to credit the testimony of Carlstadt that Luther believed the epistle of James to be a forgery of St. Jerome. Barge : Carlstadt (1905), i, 197. Chapter XXV. The Church Militant E. Fabian : Der Streit Luther mit dem Zwickauer Bate im Jahre 1531. (Mitteilungen des Altertumsvereins fflr Zwickau, viii.) 1905. The Antinornian quarrel : G. Kawerau : J. Agricola von Eisleben. Berlin. 1881. Disputations against Antinomians, ed. Drews (Leipzig. 1895-96), pp. 246 ff., 334 ff., 611 ff. On Luther and Melanchthon, cf. supra, Chapter vn. APPENDIX m Chapter XXVI. The "Wittenberg Agreeement Wittenberger Konkordie, article in Realencyc. xxi, 384. Vadianische Brief sammlung Part iv and Briefwechsel der Blaurer, vol. i. (See general bibliography.) G. Anrich: Die Strassburger Reformation nach ihrer religiosen Eigenart und ihrer Bedeutung far die Gesamtprotestantismus. Die Chi-istliche "Welt. 1905. Nos. xxv, xxvi, xxvii. Chapter XXVII. Relations with France, England, etc. G. Mentz: Johann Friedrich. (Jena 1903-1908.) Vol. ii, chap- ter 4. Fr. Hiilsse : Der Streit Kardinal Albrechts mit dem Kuif tirst Johann Friedrich von Sachsen um die magdeburgische Burggraf. Magdeburg. 1887. L. Cardauns : Zur Kirchenpolitik Herzog Georgs von Sachsen. Rome. 1907. (Quellen und Forschungen ans Italienischen Archivens) Vol. x, pp. 101-51. Redlich: Kardinal Albrecht und das Neue Stift. 1900. Luther and Albert. Weimar, xxx, iii, 400-1. The Sermon against which Duke George's son complained. Wei- mar, xxxvii, 577. Nov. 1, 1534. Wider den Meuchler zu Dresden. "Weimar, xxx, part iii, pp. 413- 71. Chapter XXVIII. The League of Schmalkalden The visit of Vergerio : Bindseil : Lutheri Colloquia (Lemgovioe et Detmoldiae. 1863-66). Vol. iii, p. 89. W. Friedensburg : Nuntiaturberichte aus Deutschland, vol. i (Gotha, 1892), p. 538. Vergerio's letter to his friend Ricalcati. Corpus Reformatorum, vol. ii, col. 987. Luther's Articles on the Donation of Constantine, 1537. In Werke (Berlin, 1903), vol. i, p. 182. Pastor : Geschichte der Papste, v (1909), 49-50. Schmalkalden : Luther: Of the Council and Church. Werke (Berlin, 1903), vol. ii, p. 1 ff. Schmalkaldic Articles, ibid., vol. iii, p. 35 ff. K. Thieme : Luther's Testament wider Rom in seinen Schmalkald- ischen Artikeln. Leipzig. 1900. Pastor, v, 64-65. 466 APPENDIX Chapter XXIX. Character and Hasits G. Kawerau : Vom kranken Luther, in Deutsch-evangelische Blat- ter, vol. xxix (1904), p. 303 ff. W. Ebstein : Martin Luther's Krankheiten. Stuttgart. 1908. H. Bohmer : Luther im Lichte der neueren Forschung. 2d ed. Leipzig. 1910. Chapter iv. H. P. Denifle : Luther und Lutherthum. I. Hauptband. 2d ed. 2 parts. Mainz. 1905-1906. W. Walther : Fttr Luther wider Rom. Halle. 1906. H. Grisar : Der " gute Trunk " in den Lutheranklagen. In Histor. Jahrbticher, vol. xxvi (1905), p. 479 ff. The anecdote on Luther's mending his trousers is taken from the unpublished source, Colloquia Serotina, Blatt 103. See above, general bibliography. The section is found in somewhat similar form, though without the date, in Bindseil, vol. ii, p. 126. Chapter XXX. At Work Sermons (apart from the Fostilla). Erlangen, vols, xvi-xx. A se- lection of edifying passages from the sermons, Berlin, vols, vi and vii. Luther's Disputationen 1535-1546, edited by Drews. Gsttingen. 1895-96. Bohmer : Luther im Lichte der neueren Forschung. Leipzig. 1910. Chapters iv and v. Loofs : Luthers Stellung z. Mittelalter u. z. Neuzeit. Halle. 1907. P. Kleinert : Luthers Verhaltnis z. Wissenschaft und ihrer Lehre. Berlin. 1883. Sermons 1533-34. Weimar, xxxvii. Sermons 1535-36. Weimar, xli. G. Buchwald : M. Luthers Predigten im Juli 1534 zu Dessau, zum erstenmal herausgegeben. Leipsic. 1909. G. Buchwald: Luthers Predigten 1537-1540. Halle. 1906 (1905). Chapter XXXI. Religion and Culture O. G. Schmidt : Luthers Bekanntschaft mit den rOmischen Klassik- ern. 1883. Schafer : Luther als Kirchenhistoriker. 1897. W. Kohler : Luther und die Kirchengeschichte. Gtttersloh. 1900. Schmidt : Faust und Luther, in Sitzungsberichte d. k. Preuss. Akad. d. Wissenschaften zu Berlin. 1896. pp. 568 f£. APPENDIX 467 Xanthippus : Gate alte deutsche Sprtlche, in Preuss. JahrbUcher. Vol. lxxxv. July, August, September 1896. pp. 149 ff., 344 ff., 503 fE. P. Curtis : Luther's variations in sentence arrangement from the modern literary usage. . . . New Haven. 1910. A. Gstze : Yolkskundliches bei Luther. Weimar. 1909. Note on Luther's Theology. This biography does not aim to deal ■with Luther's theology per se, any more than a life of Darwin would necessarily involve a thorough investigation of evolution. The best works on the subject are : J. Kostlin : Luthers Theologie in Direr geschichtlichen Entwickelung und ihrem inneren Zusammenhang. 2d ed. Stuttgart. 1901. W. Herrmann : Der Verkehr des Christen mit Gott im Anschluss an Luther dargestellt. 3d ed. Stuttgart. 1896. J. Gottschick, articles in Zeitschrift f . Theologie und Kirche, 1897, p. 352 ; 1898, p. 406 ; 1903, p. 349 ff . K. Thieme : Die sittliche Triebkraft des Glaubens. Eine Untersu- chung zu Luthers Theologie. Leipsic. 1895. R. A. Lipsius : Luthers Lehre von der Busse. Brunswick. 1892. A. Galley: Die Busslehre Luthers. Gtitersloh. 1900. E. Fischer: Zur Geschichte der evangel. Beichte. (to 1523). 2 parts. Leipsic. 1902, 1903. K. Jager : Luthers religiOses Interesse an seiner Lehre von der Realprasenz. Giessen. 1900. Graebke : Die Construction der Abendmahlslehre Luthers. Leipsic. 1908. M. Staub: Das Verhaltnis der menschlichen Willensfreiheit zur Gotteslehre bei Luther und Zwingli. Zurich. 1894. J. Gettschick : Luthers Anschauungen vom christlichen Gottesdienst und seine tatsachliche Reform desselben. Giessen. 1887. J. Hans : Der protestantische Kultus. 1890. K. Eger : Die Anschauungen Luthers vom Beruf. Giessen. 1900. H. Stephan : Luther in den Wandlungen seiner Kirche. Giessen. 1907. O. Ritschl : Dogmengeschichte des Protestantismus. Vol. i. Leipzig. 1908. Loofs: Leitfaden zum Studium der Dogmengeschichte. 4th ed. 1906. A. Harnack : History of Dogma, translated from the third German edition by N. Buchanan. Boston. 1900. Vol. vii, pp. 168-274. A. Harnack : Dogmengeschichte. 4th edition. Tubingen. 1909-10. Vol. iii, chapter v. Die Ausgange des Dogmas in Protestantismus. pp. 808-902. H. Wace : Principles of the Reformation. London. 1910. m APPENDIX Paul Lehf eldt : Luthers Verh<nis zu Kunst und Kttnstlern. Berlin. 1892. On Luther's copy of Homer (Aldus. 1517) given to Melanchthon in 1519, cf. my article in Zeitschrift fur Kirchengeschichte, February, 1911. Chapter XXXIII. Domestic Economy Note on the price of wheat Luther's statements are so startling that they seem to require some support. The average price of wheat in England for the half century 1451-1500 was six shillings and two pence a quarter, or nine pence half-penny a bushel. (Rogers.) Cf. further : — Conrad, and Lexis, articles in Conrad's HandwSrterbuch der Staats- wissenschaften. Jena. 1900. iv, pp. 277, 323. Th. Rogers : A History of Agriculture and Prices in England. Ox- ford. 1882. Vol. iii, 1401-1582. K. Lamprecht : Deutsches Wirtsshaf tsleben im Mittelalter. 3 vols. Leipzig. 1885-86. L. Keller: Zur Geschichte der Preisbewegung in Deutschland wahrend 1466-1525. Jahrbucher filr Nationalekonomie und Statistik xxxiv. G. Wiebe : Zur Geschichte der Preisrevolution in xvi and xvir Jahrhunderten. Leipzig. 1895. J. A. Froude : History of England (1875), i, p. 21. Many inter- esting prices. Wheat is said to average 10 pence the bushel in the 16th century, the lowest price mentioned 2 pence 1 farthing. Froude reckons general purchasing power of money as twelve times as great then. Note on Luther's house. The Black Cloister is still shown at Wit- tenberg, the interior preserved as it was in Luther's day. The exterior has since been stuccoed ; it was formerly of brick. In front of the house, between it and the street, has been built the Augusteum, used as a theological seminary. ' Chapter XXXIV. The Bigamy of Philip op Hesse M. Lenz : Briefwechsel Philipps des Grossmtitigen mit Bucer. Vol. i. 1880. W. W. Rockwell: Die Doppelehe des Landgrafen Philipp von Hessen. Marburg. 1904. Brieger : Luther und die Nebenehe des Landgrafen Philipps von Hessen. In Preussische Jahrbiicher (1909), pp. 35 ff. Brieger : Luther und die Nebenehe des Landgrafen Philipp. Zeits. f. Kirchengeschichte, xxix (1908), p. 174 ff. APPENDIX 469 G. Sodeur : Luther und die Luge. Leipzig. 1904. F. Kttch: PolitischesArchiv des Landgrafen Philipp von Hessen. Vol. i. Leipzig. 1904. Vol. ii. 1910. Luthers Briefwechsel, ed. Enders undKawerau, xii, 319-328. Philipp der Grossmutige. Beitrage zur Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Zeit. Hg. von Hist Vereinf. d. Grossherzogthum Hessen. Marburg. 1904. Chapter XXXV. Protestant and Catholic Wider Hans Wurst. Berlin, iv, 257 ff. Against the Papacy at Eome. Ibid. 122 ff. C. Wendeler : M. Luthers Bilderpolemik gegen das Papsthum von 1545. In Archiv f . Lit.-Geschichte, xiv, p. 17 ff. Mitzschke: M. Luther, Naumburg a. S. und die Reformation. Naumburg. 1885. 0. Albrecht, in TheoL Stud. u. Kritiken. 1904. pp. 32 ff. F. Both ; Der offizielle Bericht der von den Evangelischen zum Regensburger Gesprach Verordneten (1542). A. R. G. Vol. xx, 1908, p.378ff. S. Cardanus : Zur Geschichte der kirchlichen Unions- u. Ref orm- bestrebungen 1538-1542. Rom. 1910. K. Bauer : Luther und der Papst. Schriften des Vereins fur Reformationsgeschichte, no. c (1910), pp. 231-273. Satires against Henry of Brunswick, Schade, op. cit. i, Nr. viii- jdii. A. Korte : Die Eonzilspolitik Earls V in den Jahren 1538-43. Schriften des Vereins fur Reformationsgeschichte, no. lxxxv. 1905. Pastor : Geschichte der Papste, v, 253-347. Chapter XXXVI. Lutheran and Sacramentarian J. Haussleiter : Die geschichtliche Grundlage der letzen Unterredung Luthers und Melanchthons im Abendmahlstreit. 1546. Leipsic. 1899. This, and the fact that Luther directed Rorer to omit some of his sharpest sayings against Zwingli in the first volume of his German works (1545), has been made the ground for supposing that he was ready to smooth over the old quarrel before his death. The letters quoted above disprove this. Other sources, Vadianische Brief sammlung, part v, and Briefwechsel der Blaurer, vol. ii. (See general bibliography.) Schwenckf eld's works are now being edited in the Corpus Schwenck- feldianorum, of which one volume has appeared. 470 APPENDIX Disputatio de divinitate et humanitate Christi (Against Schwenck- feld). Ed. Drews : Disputationen, p. 585 ff. On Luther's attitude to the Anabaptists in general : — P. "Wappler : Die Stellung Kursachsens und des Landgraf en Philipp von Hessen zur T&uferbewegung. Mflnster. 1910. (Refonna- tionsgeschichtliche Studien und Texte, no. xiii-xiv.) Chapter XXXVIJ. Death Kawerau : Briefwechsel des Justus Jonas (Halle, 1885), vol. ii, p. 177 ff. F. Roth : Der offizielle Bericht der von den Evangelischen zum Regensburger Gesprach Verordneten. In Archiv fur Reformations- geschichte, no. xx (1908), pp. 378 ff. Cochlaeus : Commentaria de actis et scriptis M. Lutheri. 1549. Appendix, account of John Landau, apothecary of Mansf eld. It is on this account that the proof of the stroke of apoplexy rests. It seems to me that the proof is somewhat doubtful. P. Majunke : Luthers Lebensende. Mainz. 1890. , M. Honef: Der Selbstmord Luthers geschichthch erwiesen. Mttnchen. (No year.) G. Claudin : La mort de Luther. Noisy-Le-Sec. 1895. N. Paulus : Luthers Lebensende. Freiburg. 1898. A contemporary account of Luther's death and burial, written in a copy of his Sommerpostille (1554) by an eye-witness, probably John Albrecht, in whose house be died, has just been discovered in the library of the Lutheran Theological Seminary at Mt. Airy, Penn- sylvania. It has been published by A. Spaet, in the Lutheran Church Review, April, 1910, vol. xxix, no. ii (Philadelphia, 1910), pp. 313- 325. ra DOCUMENTS The last edition of Luther's letters, that of Enders and Kawerau, complete at present to February, 1540, does not contain all the known letters. I have decided to print three which are not easily found, and to register the others, as far as known to me, which are missing in this edition. I. LUTHER TO GERARD LISTRIUS, AT ZWOLLE 1 Wittenberg, July 30 (1520). [H. C. Rogge : Een onuitgegeven Brief van Dr. Martin Luther. Archief voor Nederlandsche Kerkgeschiedenis, vii, ii (1898), p. 204.] Martinus Lutherus Augustmiensis Gerardo Listrio, rectori Swollis.- Salutem. Accepi literas tuas, vir eruditissime, magna cum volup- tate, placuitque pater hie Johannes et quidquid nobiscum contulit, atque tales invenisset nos quales et tua et illius opinio praesumpsit. Quod ad me attinet scio quam michi curta supellex. Flurimum su- perat fama virtutem. Fhilippus vero felicissime theologizat professus pro tyrocinio suo Paulum ad Ro. a quingentis fere auditoribus, vero incredibile successu. Deus proficiat quod incepit, et hoc vasculo suo quod futurum brevi confido, ut theologiam purissimam in fonte suo bibat orbis Christianus. Arbitror in mille annis sacras literas non ea sinceritate et luce fuisse tractatas proximumque esse donum eius apostolico seculo. Nostrum erit, ne ingrati simus, Deo rem suam acceptam referre et commendare. Ego meos hos annos infelicibus bellis perdidi mallemque meos labores in universum interire ne quid obessent puriori theologiae vel melioribus ingeniis, quanquam hodie sine cede et sanguine philos- ophor, ita me meum fatum rapit, quidquid enim est malarum besti- arum me unum petit, omnes ex me lauream querunt et palmam. 1 On Listrius, rector of the School of the Brethren of the Common Life at Zwolle from 1516 to 1521, see Rogge, op. cit. pp. 206-220. 2 Melanchthon was at this time lecturing on the Romans, the work which after- wards became the f onndation of his celebrated Loci Communes. Cf . 0. Clemen : Supplements Melanchthooiana, i (1910), 1 ff. 472 APPENDIX Utinam ego fuero David sanguinem fundens, Fhilippus autem Salo- mon pace regnans. Amen. Ceterum omnia ref eret hie, quern misisti, Johannes, qui si minus vestrae expectationi satisfaceret, culpa vestra esto, qui de nobis temere super id, quod non nobis est, cogitastis. Roma adhuc spirat minas et cedes in me ; sed contempno. Germania enim sapere coepit et hipocrisim papistarum intelligit. En queso nomine meo resaluta optimos viros omnes, qui per te me salutarunt. Psalterium ad psalmum XVIII deduxi virossimo 1 commentario cepitque me penitentia ex- plicandi eius non propter laborem, sed quod res iste minime sunt vulgares et paucissimorum captui accomode necdum statui ultrum mitti oporteat et faciliora tractantia; perfectorum enim cibus est. Vale mi Gerarde, in Domino. Wittenberge die 3 Kalendas Augusti. II. Lutheb to John Ccspinian, at Vienna Worms, April 17, 1521 (This letter is very badly printed in Enders, iii, 122. A facsimile of the orig- inal at Vienna was published by Haase in Leipziger IUustrierte Zeitnng, August 31, 1889, from which I print it here.) Salutem. 2 Frater carnis tuae, Cuspiniane celeberrime, facile mihi persuasit, ut e medio isto tumultu ad te auderem scribere, cum antea ob nominis tui celebritatem optarim tibi f amiliariter notus esse. Sus- cipe ergo me in tuorum album, ut vera esse comprobem quae frater tuus mihi de te * tam pleno ore cantavit. Hac hora coram Caesare et Senatu * Romano constiti interroga- tus, an libros meos revocare vehm. Ubi respondi, libros quidem esse meos, caeterum quid de revocatione sentiam, 5 eras dicturum, petita et data mihi non amplius spatii et temporis ad deliberandum parte. Verum ne apicem quidem revocabo in aeternum,* Christo quidem propitio. Vale mi Cuspiniane charissime. Wormatiae, f. 4. p. Quasi- modogeniti 7 1521. 1 Perhaps for " verbosissimo.'' Luther's Operationes in Psalmoa, being his lectures on Psalms i-rri, for the year 1519-21, appeared in 1521. Weimar Edi- tion, vol. v. " Instead of " Salutem. Frater carnis tuae," Enders has " Charitas tua." 8 Enders omits "de te." * Enders: "fratre." 6 Enders: "statuam." • Enders : " iterum." Luther writes the word here according to his custom " inaeternum.'' 7 In his haste Luther makes a mistake in the date. Cf . Enders, iii, 123. APPENDIX 473 III. John Feige, Chancellor of Hesse, to Luther (Worms ? April, 1521 ?) (This fragment is published by Dr. Gundlach, Festschrift mm Gedachtnis Philippe Ton Hessen, Cassel 1904, p. 64, -with the date "perhaps March 3, 1521." The concept is in Feige's hand. The date must be too early, as the book men- tioned, Ennarationes Epistolarum et Evangeliorum . . . D. M. Lntheri, appeared at Wittenberg March 7, 1521 (Enders, iii, 94), and it would have taken some time for the letter of Luther to have reached Feige after that. I suggest that Lather took some copies of the book with him to Worms, and while there, coming into communication with Philipp of Hesse (supra, p. 224), sent his old school friend Feige one of them.) Gratia domini nostri Jhesu Christ! com omnibus nobis amen. Accepi literulas tuas, Martine doctissime, verum qnas scribas te misisse enarrationes in S. evangelistas non accepi, interrogatusque tabellio se eas non habere respondit, tibi vero non minores habeo gratias quum si eas accepissem, tametsi me talibus tuis dignari lucu- brationibus opus non fuisset, quum propter laborum multitudinem eacris michi Uteris incumbere raro liceat. . . . IV. Lutheri Epistola qratulatoria super intentions et edi- TIONE LUCUBRATIONUM J. TAULEBI . . . (Edited by O. Clemen : Johann Pnpper von Goch. He places it in 1521, but it is probably later (1523-1529). Cf. Theolog. Stud, und Eritiken. 1900. p. 135.) V. Dr. John Ruhel, Councillor of Mansfeld, to Luther, Mat 21, 1525 (A fragment of this letter is in Enders, y, 177. The whole is published by Eawerau, Schriften des Yereins fur Reformationsgesoh, no. c, pp. 338-340.) Narrates the captivity of Milnzer, the execution of seven priests at Heldrungen, the spoils taken at Frankenhausen. Asks Luther for details of the death of Frederic the Wise. Begs him to write to Albert of Mayence to induce him to change his spiritual for a tem- poral estate. VI. Dr. John Euhel to Luther, Mat 26, 1525 (Fragment in Enders, v, 180; the whole published by Eawerau, ibid. pp. 340- 342.) Sends Mttnzer's recantation. Tells of the surrender of Mublhausen May 24, and of Munzer's conveyance thither, and the interview be- tween him and Philipp of Hesse. 474 APPENDIX VII. Luther to Lambertus Hemebtus, June 12, 1527 (Zeits. f. Kircbengescb. zviii, 231.) VIII. Phhjpp of Hesse to Chancellor Bruce, and Luther, Shortly before September 22, 1531 (Gundlach, loc. cit., No. 2, p. 64.) On the embassy from Henry VIII requesting the opinion of Luther on his divorce. (Answered, Enders, is, 105. Further see my article, Luther and Henry VIII, English Historical Review, no. c. 1910.) IX. Luther and others to John, Elector of Saxony. End of April or beginning of May, 1532 (Bttrkhardt : Zum Brief wechsel der Kef ormatoren, Archiv fur Reformations- gescb. no. xiv (1907), p. 184. Contents only given.) X. Luther, Jonas and Melanchthon to John Frederic, Elector of Saxony. Beginning of September, 1532 (Ibid. p. 185.) XI. Elector John Frederic to Luther and others. October 22, 1533 (Ibid. p. 186.) XII. Elector John Frederic to Luther. November 15, 1533 (Ibid. p. 186 ff.) XIII. Elector John Frederic to Luther. December 21, 1534 (Mentz: Johann Friedriob. Jena. 3 vols. 1903-1908. Vol. iii, Supplement, no. 1.) Inquires about a sermon of Luther's (against Duke George) de- livered on All Saints Day (November 1). XIV. B. Knor to Luther and Jonas. May 22, 1535 (Burkhardt, loe. cit., p. 188.) On Church visitation. XV. Luther, Jonas and Bugenhagen to John Frederic. April 5, 1536 (Ibid. p. 190.) APPENDIX *T« XVI. Luther's and Bugenhagen's cebtificate to J. Pooan. Junb 11, 1536 (Ibid. p. 191.) In the Boston Public Library there is a book with what is appar- ently an autograph of Luther. Epistolae sancti Hieronymi. (Colo- phon) Lugdunum-Jacobus Saccon. 1518. The autograph consists of a quotation from Gerson: "In floreno litis non est obolus caritatis. Gerson." It is well known that Luther had a low opinion of Jerome. INDEX INDEX Abraham, 173, 325. 362, 378. Absalom, 398. Acsolti, 96. Acta Academics Lovaniensis, 98. Acta Augustana, S3. Adam, 326, 396. Adolph, Bishop of Merseburg, 64, 78. Address to the German Nobility on the Improvement of the Christian Estate, 78-88, 91, 133, 215, 429, 451. Adler, 249. Adrian VI, Pope, 214, 219, 431. Adrian, Matthew, 184-5. Aeacus, 326. ^Esop, 233, 248, 252-3, 344-6. Africa, 62. Against the Assassin of Dresden, 300. Against the Estate of the Pope and Bish- ops falsely called Spiritual, 130. Against the Execrable Bull of Antichrist, 100. Against the Heavenly Prophets of Images and the Sacrament, 155-6, 239, 267. Against Jack Sausage, 393-5. Against the New Bull forged by Eck, 100. Against the Papacy at Rome founded by the Devil, 267, 399, 404. Against the Thievish, Murderous Hordes of Peasants, 162-3, 165, 430. Against the Title of the King of England's Libel, 195, 241. Agricola, John, 188, 249, 282-5, 320, 333, 390, 411, 416. Ailly, Peter d\ 12. Aix-la-Chapelle, 98. Alber, 294. Albert, Connt of Mansfeld, 158, 160, 162-3, 175, 319-20, 417-23. Albert, Elector and Archbishop of May- enoe, 38-8, 42-3, 46, 104, 127-9, 130, 139, 165, 176, 201-2, 243, 260, 275, 286- 7, 297-300, 342, 356, 389, 396-9, 401, 409, 465, 473. Albert, Grand Master and Margrave of Prussia, 176-7, 219, 290. Albert, Duke of Saxony, 20. Aleander, Jerome, 98, 100-4, 109, 120,202. Alemann, Are, 173. Alesins, Alexander, 198. Alexander the Great, 388. Alexander IV, Pope, 8. Alexander of Hales, 37. Alexandria, 62. Allstedt, 105, 151, 155. Altenburg, 20, 33-4, 54, 60-1, 170, 177, 220-1, 232, 313, 341, 369. Altenstein, 119. Ambrose, St., 19. Amorbach, Basil, 120. Amsdorf, Nicholas von, 79, 111, 119, 138, 148, 164, 173, 175, 211, 256, 275, 334, 396, 403-4, 416. Anabaptists, 138, 147, 226-7, 238, 375, 400,406. Anhalt, a prince of, 4. Anhalt, princes of (see George and Joa- chim), 281, 318. Anna, St., 9. Annates, 82. Anne Boleyn, Qneen of England, 198. Anne of Cleves, Queen of England, 198. Answer to the Condemnation of Louvain, 201-2. Antichrist, 73, 82, 86, 100-1, 109-10, 229, 313, 414. Antinomians, 282-5, 373, 464. Antioch, 62. Antwerp, 98, 120, 397. Apel, John, 178. Apocrypha, 264. Aquinas, Thomas, 12, 47, 52, 84, 342. Arabia, 213. Aristophanes, 342. Aristotle, 5, 11, 24-6, 84-5, 342, 429. Art, 348-9. Asperg, 278. Assertion of All the Articles Wrongly Con- demned by the Last Bull of Antichrist, 101, 106, 109-10, 204, 207. Asterisks, 59. Athanasins, 13, 99. Anerbach, Henry Stromer of, 67. Augsburg, 38, 47-53, 68, 60, 163, 289,293- 4, 333, 429. Augsburg Confession, 257-62, 273-4, 307' 8, 890, 396. 480 INDEX Augsburg, Diet of (1518), 48, 79. Augsburg, Diet of (1525), 221. Augsburg, Diet of (1530), 236, 247-62, 274, 285-6, 288, 297, 388, 430, 432, 463. August, Elector of Saxony, 355. Augusteum, 363. Augustine, St., 14, 22, 26, 65, 72, 101, 132, 218, 342. Augustinian Hermits, 8-9, 14-«, 21, 30-1, 136, 140, 168, 429, 447. Aurifaber, John, 357, 418, 422. Aurogallus, Matthew, 141, 263-4. Austria, 405. Azt, Basil, 173. Babylonian Captivity of the Church, 78, 88-91, 110, 192, 196, 202, 384, 430, 451. Baden, 118. Bamberg, 278. Ban, 48, 54, 74, 78, 81, 95, 252, 310. Baptism, 89-90, 138-9, 151, 154, 235, 314. Baptista Manutanus, 6, 342. Barbara, Empress, 105. Barnes, Robert, 180, 196-8, 297, 303-4, 307, 358. Barnim, Duke of Pomerania, 60, 67. Basel, 77, 142, 154, 156, 203-4, 211. Baumgartner, George, 31. Baumgartner, Jerome, 171-3. Begging, 4, 83-4, 135-6. Beghards, see Hussites. Beichling, John, 323. Beier, Caspar, 412. Beier, Leonard, 259. Belgern, 356. Belgium, 405. Bell, Henry, 359. Benedictines, 119, 133, 169, 182, 183. Bercken, 31. Berlepsch, John von, 122, 124, 126. Berlin, 20, 23, 303. Bernard of Clairvaux, 12, 27. Bernhardi, Bartholomew, 33. Besold, Jerome, 357, 406. Bible, 6, 11, 14, 21-4, 26, 59-60, 62, 65, 72, 77-8, 80-1, 85, 99, 101, 106-7, 113, 117-8, 122-3, 132-4, 139, 141, 148-52, 156, 179, 183, 185-7, 205, 207, 208, 210, 230, 236, 248, 252-4, 263-70, 314, 333, 337, 341, 407, 415, 429, 430, 463-4. Biel, Gabriel, 12. Bigamy (see Polygamy), 91, 196-7, 373- 85. Bildenhauer, Glaus, 369. Billiean, Theodore, 240, 253. Black Cloister, 21, 101, 168, 174, 280, 282, 293-5, 347, 355-6, 360, 362-5, 368- 71, 416, 426, 430, 468. Boccaccio, 397. Bohemia, 74, 151, 400. Bohemians, see Hussites. Bologna, 306. Bonaventura, 12, 27. Boniface VIII, Pope, 37, 62. Boniface IX, Pope, 37. Bora, Catharine von, see Luther, Cath- arine. Bora, Catharine von Haugwitz von, 169. Bora, Christina von, 424-5. Bora, Florian von, 424-5. Bora, John von (father-in-law), .68-9. Bora, John von (brother-in-law), 369, 425. Bora, Magdalene von, 169, 190, 312, 351-2. Borna, 143-4. Boswell, James, 251, 359. Brabant, 74, 229. Brandenburg (see Joachim), 38-9, 98, 127, 284. Brant, Sebastian, 344, 394. Braun, John, 4, 10-1, 14. Brehna, 169. Bremen, 405. Brent, 244. Brescia, 264. Brisger, John, 168, 177, 360, 366, 369. Brothels, 85, 136, 320-1. Brothers of the Common Life, 3-4, 429 Brown, Thomas, 150. Briick, Gregory, 259, 272-3, 299, 332 369, 379, 393, 403, 425, 474. Bruno, 369-70. Brunswick (see Henry), 329, 396, 425. Brussels, 229. Bncer, Martin, 46, 111, 286, 288-9, 292, 294-5, 374-5, 377-8, 381, 392, 395, 403. Bugenhagen, John, 158, 178, 187, 245, 250, 258, 264, 303-6, 310, 324, 326-7, 331, 341, 371, 416-7, 420, 422. Bollinger, Henry, 295. Burer, Albert, 120, 147. Burke, Edmund, 335. Burkhardt, Francis, 198, 319, 324. Cadan, 278. Cajetan, Thomas, 47-54, 87, 96, 429. Calais, 192. Calixtus IH, Pope, 37. Calvin, John, 218, 334, 402, 406, 454. Camerarius v Joachim, 178, 253, 258. Campeggio, Lorenzo, 219. INDEX 481 Canitz, Elsa von, 170. Canon Law, 28, 37, 41, 45, 47-8, 60, 62, 72-3, 75, 81, 83, 85, 97, 100-1, 116, 343, 430. Capito, Wolfgang, 104, 129, 139, 154, 200, 242,297,333. Cappel, battle of, 289-91. Capreolus, 65. Caracoiola, 98. Cards, 187. Cardinals, 49, 82, 96-7, 202. Carlowitz, 386. Carlstadt, Andrew Bodenstein yon, 59, 64-6, 127, 130-1, 135-6, 138, 140, 148, 153-7, 185, 230, 238, 239-40, 286, 290, 327,404. Caxlyle, Thomas, 335, 359. Cassel, 292. Cassiodorus, 343. Casus reservati, 83. Catacombs, 18. Catechisms, 234-6, 254, 284, 462. Catharine, Queen of England, 195-6, 328. Catholics, Roman Catholic Church, 3, 13, 19, 22, 29, 36-«, 40-1, 44-5, 49-50, 52- 3, 55-60, 62-3, 68, 74, 79, 87-8, 90-1, 97-8, 101-2, 110, 112, 192, 199-200, 212, 214, 217, 221, 224, 227, 233, 238, 247, 273, 275, 300, 303, 305, 308, 313, 338, 380, 387, 389-402,406. Cato, Dionysius, 233, 345-6. Celibacy of the clergy, see Marriage of the clergy. Cellini, Benvennto, 341. Chapuys, Eustach, 195. Charlemagne, 400. Charles V, Emperor, 56, 80, 95, 98-100, 103-7, 109-15, 117-20, 122, 128, 146, 148, 153, 189, 192, 202, 214-5, 217, 226-8, 247, 250, 252, 255-6, 258-60, 262, 271-5, 277, 296-7, 314, 318, 366, 374, 377, 382, 384, 387-90, 393, 395-6, 399-401, 405, 422, 425, 430-2. Charost, 397. Chievres, Gnillaume de Croy, Sire de, 103, 123. Christ, see Jesus. Christian II of Denmark, 171, 193. Christian III, King of Denmark, 367, 426. Christina, landgravine of Hesse, 224, 373-4. Chronicles, 268. Church (see Catholic, and Protestant), 291-2. Cicero, 45, 234, 342, 346. Cistercians, 169. Clement V, Pope, 62. Clement VI, Pope, 37, 50. Clement VII, Pope, 195, 219, 226, 255-6, 262, 271, 277, 303, 328, 431. Clergy, 80-1, 92-3, 137-8, 142, 188, 314. Cloister, see Black Cloister, and Monas- ticism. Coburg (see Feste Cobnrg), 20, 123, 247, 250, 262. Cochlaeus, John, 118, 209. Cognac, League of, 255. Coleridge, Samuel Taylor, 123, 359. Colet, John, 24. Coliseum, 18. Colius, Michael, 190, 422-3. Cologne, 19, 29, 30, 96, 98, 103, 202, 271, 286, 403. Commentary on the Putative Imperial Edict, 273, 300. Communion, 78, 89-90, 109, 148-9, 153-6, 220, 230, 235, 238-46, 252, 261, 288-95, 300-1, 314, 402-3. Confession, 124, 149, 235, 252, 281, 377-9, 381-4. Confession on Christ's Supper, 242. (See Short Confession.) Confirmation, 89. Constance, 260, 289. Constance, Council of, 63, 65-6, 71, 400. Constantine, Emperor, 72-3, 345. Constantinople, 62. Coppe, Leonard, 169-70, 175. Cordatus, Conrad, 259, 280-1, 285, 356, 358, 373. Corinthians, Paul's Epistles to the, 149, 151, 170. Corpus juris, 7. Corvinus, Antony, 211. Cotta, Ursula, 4-5, 429. Councils of the Church, 13, 37, 81, 82, 97, 118, 219, 271, 275, 277, 303, 305-8, 314-5. Councils and the Church, On, 314. Cranach, Lncas, 63, 118-9, 137, 171, 174, 176, 178, 263, 316, 349, 365, 453. Crodel, Mark, 326, 353. Cromwell, Thomas, 197-8. Crotus Bnbeanus, 29, 79. Crnciger, Caspar, 264, 312, 333, 354, 371, 416, 420, 422. Crnciger, Elizabeth, 354. Crusades, 36-7. Curia (see Papacy, and Home), 38, 43, 47, 65, 74, 95, 103, 219. Cuspinian, John, 114, 472. Dancing, 187, 350, 352. 482 INDEX Dante, 17, 266. Danube, 157. Da-rid, 173, 185, 335-6, 398. Decet Pontijlcem Romanum, 101-2. Decretals, see Canon Law. Demosthenes, 58, 342, 316. Denifle, Father Henry, 23, 133. Dessau, 277, 281. Determinism, see Free Will. Deuteronomy, 185, 187. Deril, 9, 11, 13, 71, 111, 125-6, 139, 145, 149-52, 156, 161-2, 174-5, 179, 188-9, 208, 221, 223, 232, 240, 248, 253, 255, 258, 279, 301, 310, 317-8, 324-6, 339-41, 347, 368, 397, 411-13. Dietrich, Veit, 248-9, 251, 253, 309, 356, 358. Dog, 338, 362. Doltsch, John, 119. Dominic, St., 62. Dominicans, 8, 29, 39, 47, 96, 133, 201. Donation of Constantine, 72-3, 83. Donatus, 3, 233, 346. Doring, Christian, 119, 250. Drechsel, Thomas, 137. Dresden, 20, 31, 222-3, 303, 377-8, 380, 383. Dressel, Michael, 31. Dunning, Professor William Archibald, 216. Duns Scotus, 65. Diirer, Albert, 20, 43, 120, 176, 202, 263, 349. Diirr, 168. Ecclesiastes, 79, 185, 268, 322. Eck, John, of Ingolstadt, 57-67, 71-2, 87-8, 96-7, 100-1, 223, 253, 260-1, 302, 391, 395, 429. Eck, John, of Trier, 113, 115, 117. Egranus, John Silvius, 58. Egypt, 62. Eichstatt, 58. Eilenberg, 136. Eisenach, 1, 4, 8, 20, 111, 119-21, 135, 140, 293, 380-2, 429. Eisleben, 1, 40, 158, 165, 282, 418-9, 429. Elbe, 20, 345, 363. Elijah, 397. Elizabeth, St., 62, 121. Elizabeth, Queen of England, 321. Elizabeth, Dnchess of Rochlitz, 374, 376-7. Empire, see Germany. Emser, Jerome, 88, 101. England, 77, 157, 192-8, 201, 217, 296-7, 305, 328. Eoban, see Hess. Ephesians, Paul's Epistle to the, 268. Epistles of Obscure Men, 29, 185, 344, Erasmus, Desiderius, 23, 25, 40, 58, 74, 77, 79, 91, 98, 100, 103, 104, 110, 122, 133-4, 142, 168, 176, 178, 189, 192-3, 199-213, 233, 239-41, 263-4, 267, 286, 290, 333, 343-4, 389, 458-60. Erfurt, town, 8, 9, 11, 19, 21, 32, HI, 150. Erfurt, University of, 5, 9, 16, 20, 24, 26-7, 98, 111, 133, 136, 188, 329, 429, 442-4. Ernest, Elector of Saxony, 20. Esch, Dr., 94. Esschen, John yon der, 229. Eulenspiegel, Till, 344. Eusebius, 342. Evangelic, see Protestant. Exhortation to Peace on the Twelve Ar- . tides of the Peasants, 158-9, 162. Exsurge Domine, 96-8, 100-1, 108, 116, 429, 450. Ezekiel, 253. Faber, John, Dominican monk, 103, 202. Faber, John, Bishop of Vienna, 389. Fach, 74. Faith, 15, 19, 57, 78, 92-3, 149, 152, 154, 187, 203-4, 208, 252, 261, 267, 275,, 282, 307, 336-8, 395. Fasting, 84. Faust, 334, 340. Feige, John, 473. Feilitzsch, Fabian Ton, 53, 55. Feilitzsch, Philip von, 50. Ferdinand, King of the Romans, 221, 224, 271, 273, 275, 277-8, 302, 388-9, 396, 405, 432. Feste Coburg, 190, 247-62, 264, 288-9, 324, 331, 345, 351, 430. Fisher, John, 193, 198, 204, 207, 209, 304. Flanders, 229, 349. Florence, 17-8, 256, 306, 349. Forster, Dr., 265. Fox, Edward, 197-8. France, 77, 83, 157, 179, 228, 247, 255, 296, 327, 334, 337, 349, 359, 405, 422. Francis of Assisi, St., 62, 123, 341. Francis, I, King of France, 56, 95, 197, 226, 255-6, 286, 296, 320, 388, 405, 431. Franciscans, 8, 96, 133. Franconia, 73, 122, 157, 361. Frankenhausen, 163-4. Frankfort on the Main, 77, 111, 118, 209, 283, 314-5, 340, 344, 387. Franks, 36. INDEX 483 Frederic II, Emperor, 62, 266. Frederic the Wise, Elector of Saxony, 20, 29, 33-6, 40, 48-50, 53-56, 60, 68, 70, 72, 74-5, 78, 95, 97-101, 103-4, 106-7, 109, 120, 124, 127, 139-41, 143-6, 151-3, 155-6, 158, 160, 163, 177, 183-4, 193-4, 201-2, 214-5, 218-20, 224, 232, 266, 276, 316, 363, 366, 385, 431, 473. Frederic, Duke of Saxony, 301. Free Will, 24, 59, 65, 66, 101, 174, 203-4, 206-8, 233, 252. Freedom of a Christian Man, see Libert;/ of a Christian Man. Freiberg in Albertine Saxony, 281, 284-5, 320-1, 348. Freiburg- in Bresgau, 211. Froben, John, 77. Frosch, John, 289. Fugger, banking-house of, 38-9, 85. Gabriel, 337, 397. Galatians, Paul's epistle to the, 22, 33, 77, 200, 268. Gattinara, 103, 399. Gebhard, Count of Mansfeld, 175, 418-22. Genesis, 185, 417. Geneva, 402. George, St., 4-5. George, Prince of Anhalt, 299, 323, 416. George the Bearded, Duke of Saxony, 24, 29, 60, 63, 66-7, 78, 119, 122, 140, 145, 151, 193, 195, 203, 209-10, 214, 221-5, 240, 272-3, 278, 300-2, 373, 378, 386, 389, 431, 465. Gerard of Ziitphen, 12, 27. Gerbel, Nicholas, 121, 245, 293. German, 27, 76, 123, 124, 231, 263-70, 345. Germans, 118-9, 334. German Theology, The, 27. Germany, 1, 38, 62, 73-4, 77, 79, 82, 83, 85, 97-8, 101, 103-7, 109, 112, 116-7, 121, 140, 148, 160, 171, 178, 186, 214, 217, 219, 225, 227, 241, 247, 248, 252,. 259, 266, 271, 274-5, 303, 316, 387-9, 400, 411, 414, 472. Gerson, John, 12, 27, 343, 475. Gerson, Ben Mosheh, 264. Ghinucci, Jerome, 47-8, 95. Giebichenstein, 297. Giorgione, 454. Glapion, John, 103, 110-2. Glarean, Henry, 77. Glatz, Dr, 172-3. Gloss on the Putative Imperial Edict, see Commentary on the, etc. God, 3, 10-5, 27-8, 31, 34-5, 41-2, 57, 60-2, 72, 80, 87, 93, 99, 105-7, 117, 132, 137, 139, 144, 151-2, 154, 161-2, 164, 166, 183, 186, 189, 207, 208, 228, 232, 248, 254, 258, 322, 326, 336-8, 352, 366, 422-3. Goethe, Johann Wolfgang von, 335. Goltz, Laneta von, 170. Good Works, 78. Goritz, John, 361. Goslar, 396. Gospel, 42, 85, 99, 105, 116, 120, 144, 154, 177, 224, 262. Gotha, 312, 391. Gcittingen, 279. Greek, 27, 32, 44, 70, 122-3, 141-2, 178, 183, 186-7, 244, 253, 341-2. Greek Church, 62, 65, 85. Graff, Joachim, 350. Gregory IX, Pope, 62. Gregory of Rimini, 66. Grievances of the German Nation, 79. Grimma, 169, 171. Gropper, 395. Gross, Ave, 170. Grumbach, Argula von, 250. Griine, Frederic von der, 364. Grynaeus, Simon, 195. Giinthel, Asmus, 165. Hagenau, 379, 387, 390-1. Halberstadt, 38. Halle, 127, 128-9, 130, 329, 371, 396-8, 418. Hamburg, 79. Hapsburg Emperors, 266. Harnack, Professor Adolph, 69. Hastings, Warren, 395. Hausmann, Nicholas, 149, 240, 277, 280-1, 322, 351, 358. Hausrath, Professor Adolph, 18. Hazlitt, William, 359. Heath, Nicholas, 197. Hebrew, 26, 29, 85, 122, 123, 141-2, 185, 187, 244, 264, 341. Hecker, 48, 51. Heidelberg, 46, 59, 70. Heine, Heinrich, 232. Held, George, 309, 350, 356. Hemertus, Lambertus, 474. Henry II, Duke of Brunswick-Wolfen- biittel, 388, 393-6. Henry VHI, King of England, 91, 178, 192-8, 202-4, 210, 218, 286-7,296-7, 304-5, 320, 367, 374, 384, 457-8, 474. Henry the Pious, Duke of Saxony, 301-2, 376-7, 383-4, 431. 484 INDEX Hersfeld, 119. Herzbergers, 32. Hess, Helius Eoban, 111, 346, 442-4. Hesse, 236-7, 289, 393. Heydenreich, Caspar, 357. Eildesheim, 388, 393, 397. Eochstraten, 29. Hohenzollern, 38. Holidays, 83. Holland, 229. Holy Ghost, 28, 87, 137, 215, 301, 326, 397, 400, 411. Homer, 329, 342, 468. Homilies, see Postilla. Honius, 238. Hospitals, 17-8, How to Anoint a Right Christian Bishop, 396. Humanism, 6, 25, 240. Hungary, 226, 405. Huss, John, 63, 65, 71-2, 84, 105, 111, 113, 224, 257, 343, 451. Hussites, 58, 65, 67, 71, 84, 223, 230, 238. Hutten, Ulrich von, 73, 79, 98, 101, 104, 109, 111, 142-3, 201, 203, 205, 344, 451. Hutter, Conrad, 4, 10. Hymns, 229-32, 462. Images, 136, 140, 148-9, 151, 154-6, 230. Indulgences, 18, 24, 28, 33, 36-57, 60, 66, 88, 127-9, 148, 239, 252, 298, 397-8, 423, 448. Ingolstadt, 58. Innocent IV, Pope, 8. Innsbruck, 250. Instruction on Certain Articles, 56-7. Interdict, 54, 83,95. Ireland, 76. Isabella of Hapsburg, 219. Isaiah, 173, 186, 186, 264. Islam, 213. Italy, 17, 19, 73, 76-7, 79, 82, 266, 316, 348-9, 454. James, St., 166, 268-70. Jena, 141, 154-5, 188, 328, 355, 419. Jericho, 80, 398. Jerome, St., 342-3, 475. Jerome of Prague, 84. Jerusalem, 18, 30. Jesus, 3, 13, 15, 28, 31-2, 40, 45, '49-50, 52-3, 61, 65, 71, 81, 90, 92-3, 105, 107- 10, 113, 116-7, 123, 125-6, 132, 139, 144, 146, 152, 155, 185-6, 188-9, 193, 212-3, 229, 237-8, 258-9, 262, 269, 310, 326, 336-8, 365, 383, 397, 403, 406-7. Jews, 29, 266, 418-9. Joachim, Prince of Anhalt, 319, 322-3. Joachim I, Elector of Brandenburg, 104. Joachim II, Elector of Brandenburg, 299, 306, 355, 383. Job, 188, 263, 268. Johannes, 96. John, St., 28, 185, 268-9. John VIII, Pope, 36. John the Steadfast, Elector of Saxony, 151-3, 160, 176-7, 184, 193, 209, 216-7, 220-1, 224-5 228, 233, 236, 242-3, 245, 247, 253-4, 259, 271-6, 316, 366, 431, 474. John Frederic the Magnanimous, Elector of Saxony, 123, 184, 197, 233, 273, 276-7, 282, 284, 293, 296-7, 299, 307-9, 311-2, 318, 332, 354, 364, 367-9, 372, 374-7, 379, 384^6, 393-4, 396, 399, 401, 404, 406, 410, 412, 414, 416-7, 425-6, 431, 474. Johnson, Samuel, 359. Jonah, 185, 268. Jonas, Catharine, 329, 371. Jonas, Justus, 181, 189, 210, 249, 258-9, 261, 264, 281, 306, 308, 312-3, 329, 331, 345, 354, 357, 371, 398, 421-3, 424, 474. Jonas, Justus, junior, 352. Jude, Epistle of, 185. Judges, Book of, 22. Julius I, Pope, 61. Julius II, Pope, 24, 28, 431. Jurisprudence, 7, 9, 85, 158. Justification, see Faith. Jiiterbog, 40. Karg, George, 180. Kaufmann, Cyriac, 248-9, 253. Kaufmann, Elsa, 331. Kaufmann, George, 355. Kawerau, Professor Gustav, 114, 433-4. Kegel, 328. Kemberg, 120, 156. Kessler, John, 141-3. Kings, Books of, 268. Kling, 420. Knor, B., 474. Knoth, Paul, 411. Kronberg, Hartmuth Ton, 221-3. Kunheim, George von, 355. Ladislaus, 105. Laelius, 342. Lang, John, 26-7, 29, 32, 46, 86, 87, 133. Lang, Matthew, 55, 107. Lapland, 3. Latin, 3, 40, 63, 76, 85, 123, 142, 169, 186, INDEX 485 1*}7, 230, 233, 245, 333, 342, 344-5, 353, 3E8. Lanterbach, Antony, 316, 356, 358, 376, 411, 415. Law see Jurisprudence, and Canon Lav. Lee, Edward, 193. Lefevre, d'Etaples, James, 22-4, 202, 344. Leipsie, 20, 60, 63-8, 70, 145, 153, 168, 182, 201, 209, 221, 300, 302, 342, 361, 363, 365, 369, 416, 422, 450. Leo IV, Pope, 18, 36. Leo IX, Pope, 36. LeoX, Pope, 38-9, 44-7, 51-2, 54-6, 91, 95-8, 100-1, 104, 107-9, 182, 192, 202, 214, 219, 429, 431. Lessing, Gotthold Ephraim, 335. Letter on Translation, 267. Leviticua, 195. Lewis, King of Hungary, 226. Lewis, Elector Palatine, 46, 104, 275. Liberty of a Christian Man, 78, 91-3, 281, 430, 451. Liehtenberg, 53, 172-3. Liege, 98. Lincoln, Abraham, 325. Lindemann, Caspar, 249. Link, Wenzel, 48, 51, 87, 107-8, 190, 218, 225, 242, 250, 264, 281, 302, 331, 344, 366. Lippendorf , 168. Listrras, Gerard, 77, 471. Litzkan, 32. Lobnitz, 416. Lochau, 144, 160, 174, 220, 284. Lohr, Andrew, 21. Lombardy, 19. London, 196-7, 297. Lord's Supper, see Communion. Loser, John, 309. Lothaire, Emperor, 1. Lotther, Melchior, 86. Lotzer, Sebastian, 157. Lonvain, 96-8, 185, 200, 202-3, 400, 405. Loyola, Ignatius, 15, 417. Liibeck, 196, 320. Lucian 211-12, 343. Luf t, John, 124. Lupus, 3. Luther, Catharine von Bora, 162, 168-81, 189-91, 195,245, 250-1,286, 305,307, 310- 13, 316, 319-20, 324, 328-9,348, 351, 355, 357-8, 360, 362, 365, 368-72, 375, 380, 391-2, 407, 409, 412, 415-26, 430, 456. Luther, Elizabeth, 351. Luther, Heinz, 119. Luther, James, 2, 190, 355, 419, 422. Luther, John (father), 1-3, 7, 9-11, 18, 131-2, 174-6, 190, 250-1, 355, 429-30. Luther, John (son), 189-90, 245, 251, 305, 309, 316, 320, 331, 337, 351-4, 409, 415- 16, 422, 424, 430. Luther, Magdalene, 190, 231, 245, 250-1, 331, 337, 351-4, 373, 430. Luther, Margaret (mother), 132, 175-6, 190-1, 353, 430. Luther, Margaret (daughter), 353-4, 430. Luther, Martin, passim, see table of con- tents. Appearance, 63, 118, 147, 176, 303-4, 316-17, 453-4. Assassination, danger of, 60, 68, 129. Health, 15, 46-8, 93-4, 123, 179, 188-9, 252-3, 308-13, 318, 327-30, 373, 395, 409, 420-3, 466. Letters, 32, 69, 123, 279, 325, 333, 336, 415, 434, 436, 471-4. Political theory, 215-8. Preaching, 27-8, 32, 67, 78, 187-8, 294, 317, 331. Process against, for heresy, 95-8. Table-talk, 12, 16; 126, 279, 281, 309, 325, 336, 356-9, 434, 437. Teaching, 11, 20-35, 185-7, 317, 331-2. Violence of language, 86-8, 205, 273-5. Will (First), 312-3, (Second) 369-71, 426. Writings, 76-7, 99, 332-6, 407, 415, 434. Luther, Martin, Junior, 329, 352,354, 422, 430. Luther, Paul, 19, 353-4, 422, 430. Luxemburg Emperors, 266. Lyra, Nicholas de, 185. Magdeburg, 4, 38, 164, 173, 196, 422, 425, 429. Magliana, 97. Magnificat, 107. Mansfeld, county, 1, 160, 174, 319, 326, 417-8. Mansfeld, town, 2, 131, 190-1, 328, 355, 417, 419, 422, 429. Mantua, 306-7. Manuel, 104. Manuscripts, 23, 319, 433-4, 449-50, 458, 466, 475. Marburg, 121, 243-6, 248, 288, 295, 342, 346, 430. Margaret, Queen of Navarre, 321. Marlowe, Christopher, 340. Marriage (see Luther, Catharine), 90, 172-3, 235. 486 INDEX Marriage of the clergy, 83, 85, 127, 129, 130-3, 135, 252, 261, 378. Mary, mother of Jesus, 42, 365. Mary, Queen of England, 328. Mass, 10, 83, 125, 135, 136, 140, 149, 184. 193, 230, 232-3, 239, 252, 261, 304, 307, 320. Mathesius, John, 264, 322-3, 357-8, 409- 10. Maugis, Ferdinand von, 415-6. Maurice, Dnke of Saxony, 384-6, 411, 425, 431. Maximilian I, Emperor, 48, 56, 95, 224, 256, 266, 389, 431. Mayence (seeAlbert), 20, 31, 38, 76, 103, 397. Mecheln, John Ton, 16-7. Meissen, 31, 98, 377. Meistersinger, 121, 345. Melanchthon, Catharine Krapp, 86, 286. Melanchthon, Philip, 5, 70-1, 74, 77, 86, 100-1, 136-9, 141, 148, 158, 171, 178, 181, 183, 195, 197-8, 200-2, 204, 207, 210, 219-20, 233, 243-4, 247-8, 253, 256- 64, 269, 277-8, 281-3, 285-7, 292, 294, 296-7, 302, 307-12, 314, 319, 322, 329, 331, 334, 336, 341, 356, 358, 365, 369, 371, 373-5, 379-80, 388, 390-2, 403-4, 411-13, 416-7, 419-20, 422, 451, 471-2. Melanchthon, Philip, junior, 352. Menius, Justus, 382. Merseburg (see Adolph), 98, 416-7. Metzel, John, 32. Metzsch, John von, 303, 332, 364. Metzsch, Joseph Levin, 218. Michelet, Jules, 22, 335, 359. Milan, 19, 349. Miltitz, Charles von, 54-6, 91,95, 429. Milton, John, 87, 233, 335, 341, 348. Minderstadt, 361. Minor Prophets, Commentary on the, 185. Minos, 326. Mirandola, Pico della, 202. Moch, Margaret, 189. Mohacs, 226. Mohammed, 36, 213, 248. Mobra, 1, 119. Monastic Vows, 151-3. Monasticism, 4, 8-15, 83-4, 132, 148, 169, 252, 325. Monks, 28. Monner, Basil, 286. Montanus, Philip, 211. More, Thomas, 193, 198, 304, 344. Moritzburg, 398. Mosellanus (Philip Schade), 63. Moses, 196, 236-7, 266, 268, 322, 335,/397. Moslems, 36. j Miihlberg, 425. j Muhlhausen, 153, 159, 163. Miihlpfort, 281. j Mulda, 418. / Miiller, Caspar, 165, 174, 319, 328.' Munich, 346. Mttnzer, Thomas, 137, 150, 153-7, 159-60, 162-3, 217, 223, 239, 241, 289-91, 473. Murner, Thomas, 193. Music, 9, 187, 233-4, 346-8. Mutian, Conrad, 333. Myconius, Frederic, 198, 310, 391. Mysticism, 14, 27, 31, 150, 343, 445. Naples, 83. Napoleon, 360, 407. Naumburg, 396, 403, 416. Neobulus (Ulrich Lening), 384-5. Neoplatonism, 22. Netherlands, 77, 98, 201-2, 229. Neustadt, 31. New Testament, 23, 40, 58, 132-4, 199, 212, 221, 240, 244, 263-5, 268, 343, 388. Nicene Council, 61-2. Nimbschen, 169, 171. Nimrod, 89. Ninety-Jive Theses, 40^5, 47, 58,200-1, 429. Noah, 397. Nordhausen, 340. Nordlingen, 240. Norway, 76. Nullbriider, see Brothers of the Common Life. Nuremberg, 16, 20, 43, 120, 143, 146, 171, 214, 219, 225, 227, 247, 250, 253, 257, 275, 277, 279, 281-2, 309, 315, 321, 344- 5, 366, 432. Obelisks, 58. Occam, William of, 12-3, 202. CEcolampadius, 203, 240, 242-5, 288, 290-1, 292, 295, 402, 404. Offer and Protestation, 97-8. Old Testament, 185, 263-4. Olsnitzer, 60. Oppenheim, 111. Orders, Priests', 90. Orlamiinde, 153-5. Ortuin Gratius, 29-30. Osiander, Andrew, 219, 244, 281-2. Osterhausen, 163. Oswald, John, 140. Ovid, 6, 234, 342. INDEX 487 Pace, Richard, 203. Pack, Otto von, 224-5, 278, 300. Padua, 306. Paget, 197. Palatinate, see Lewis. Palls, 82. Pantheon, 18. Papacy, Pope, 3, 13, 19, 37-8, 40-2, 45, 49, 52, 58-9, 61-5, 73, 80-5, 88-9, 109- 10, 116, 118,122, 125, 128, 129, 132, 137, 149, 151, 170, 181, 189, 201, 237, 239. 261, 275, 279, 289, 305, 307-10, 343, 350, 395, 399-400, 415. Paris (see Sorbonne), 77. Paul, St., 15, 23-5, 32-3, 65, 72, 80, 87, 90, 92, 131, 149-151, 155, 170, 173, 180, 206, 212, 240, 268-9, 305, 353, 367, 379, 393. Paul III, Pope, 303-4, 306-7, 377, 397- 400,431. Pauli, Benedict, 308. Pavia, 226, 255-6, 432. Peasants' Revolt, 150, 156-7, 174, 177, 184, 194, 195, 210, 217, 219, 227, 239, 279, 361, 432, 455-6. Pellican, 290. Penance, 36, 41, 89-90, 235, 252. Pentateuch, 268. Perusco, 47. Peter, St., 31, 65, 97, 173, 203, 263, 337, 362. Peter, Epistle of, 185. Peter Lombard, 11, 22, 90, 429. Pfeffinger, Degenhard, 34, 70. Pflug, Caesar, 66-7. Pflug, Julius, 395-6. Philemon. Paul's Epistle to, 185. Philip, Landgrave of Hesse, 163, 196, 219, 224-8, 236-7, 243-5, 253, 256, 260, 272, 276-8, 292, 309, 312, 320, 346, 373- 85, 389, 392-3, 422, 425, 430-1, 468-9, 473-4. Pilate, Pontius, 18. Pilgrimages, 28, 33, 37, 83, 84. Pirckheimer, Wilibald, 101, 402. Pirna, 376. Pistorins, Simon, 67, 386, 395. Planitz, John von, 67. Plague, 33, 188-9, 328, 426, 443-4. Plato, 334, 343. Plato, George, 357. Pleissenburg, 63. Polner, John, 355. Polygamy (see Bigamy), 153, 179-80, 373. Pomerania, see Barnim. Pope, see Papacy, Leo X, Adrian VI, Clement VII, Paul HI. Porphyry, 26. Postilla, 124, 130, 133, 143, 473. Prague, 326. Priapus, 212. Prierias, Sylvester, 47, 60, 88, 449. Printing, 76, 124, 367. Probst, James, 229, 405. Proles, Andrew, 8, 16. Protestants, 118, 166, 194-5, 212, 216, 219, 220, 226-7, 229-37, 238, 243, 254, 259- 62, 271, 273, 275, 277, 279-87, 300, 302- 3, 305, 307-8, 314-5, 336, 373-4, 377, 379, 381, 386-402, 422. Prussia, 3, 219, 432. Psalms, 22, 32, 77-8, 142, 201, 231, 248, 251-2, 268, 269, 346, 472. Pubelsberg, 3. Purgatory, 18, 33, 36-7, 39-42, 56, 66. Pyrrhus, 388. Pythagoreans, 26. Quakers, 226. Rabe, Lewis, 297-8, 356. Rabelais, Francois, 199, 335. Ranke, Leopold von, 186. Raphael, Angel, 337. Ratisbon, 275, 387, 392, 395-6. Rhadamanthus, 326. Reformation, 23, 69, 76, 93, 147, 199, 212-3, 226, 303, 410. Reichenbach, Philip, 171. Reinecke Fuchs, 344. Reinecke, John, 250-1. Reissenbusch, Wolfgang, 172-3, 174, 347. Relics, 19, 33, 36, 40, 136, 140, 144, 396-8. Rennebrecher, Bartholomew, 1. Resolutions, 44-5, 49, 60, 88. Reuchlin, John, 24, 20, 29, 30, 53, 202, 447. Revelation, 269. Rhenanus, Beatus, 147. Rhine, 157, 397. Riario, Raphael, 74, 97. Richard, Archbishop Elector of Trier, 95. Rischmann, 360. Robbia, Andrea della, 17. Rochlitz, see Elizabeth. Rockwell, Professor W. W., 196, 384. Romans, Paul's Epistle to the, 15, 22-3, 77, 185, 200, 268. Rome, 12, 16-9, 34, 37, 43, 47, 53-4, 56, 74- 5, 79, 82-3, 95-8, 101, 104, 109, 186, 189, 488 INDEX 204, 226, 234, 237, 238, 255-6, 304, 307, 308, 340, ,349, 355, 386, 388, 397, 402, 407, 432, 447, 449, 472. Bomer, George, 250. Borer, George, 188-9, 263-4, 326, 331, 333, 391. Both, Stephen, 280. Buhel, John, 160, 163, 165, 174, 176, 220, 299, 473. Saal, Frau von der, 374-6, 380. Saal, Margaret yon der, 374, 376-7, 382. Saale, 418. Saalfeld, 283. Sachs, Hans, 366. Sacramentarians, 189, 234, 256, 272, 402- 8,469. Sacraments (see Communion}, 13, 81, 88- 91, 192, 233. St. GaU, 141. St. Peter's Church at Borne, 39, 42, 398. Salzburg, 107, 183. Samuel, 6. Sancta Sanctorum, chapel of, 18. Sapidus, 121. Satan, see Devil. Saxony, Albertine or Ducal, 20, 39, 158, 221, 300, 302, 431. Saxony, Ernestine or Electoral, 20, , 33, 39, 54, 95, 221, 224, 233, 236, 254, 259, 295, 296, 300, 310-1, 431. Schalbe Foundation, 5. Schaumburg, Silvester von, 74. Schenitz, Antony, 297-8. Schenitz, John, 297-8, 356. Schenk, James, 284-5, 411. Soherle, Henry, 416. Scheurl, Christopher, 43. Schlaginhauffen, John, 310-1, 338, 356, 358. Schleitz, 245. Sohmalkalden, 228, 282, 285, 295, 307-11, 328, 379, 390, 406, Schmalkaldic League, 197-8, 271, 296, 303-12, 384, 393, 396. Scholasticism, 5-6, 13, 24-6, 66, 71, 101, 185, 240-1, 342. Schonfeld, Ave von, 170-1, 173. Schonfeld, Ernest von, 416. Schonfeld, Margaret von, 170-1. Sehools, 3, 85, 185-7, 233-4, 236. Schurf, Augustine, 141, 189. Schurf , Jerome, 113, 141-3, 146. Schwenkfeld, Caspar von, 402, 404, 406-7. Scipio, 342, 388. Sootus, see Duns. Scripture, see Bible. Scultetus, Jerome, 24. 44. Secret and Stolen Letters, 225. Seeburg, 160. Senf el, Lewis, 346. Sentences, 11, 26, 33. Sermon on the Lord's Prayer, 67. Sermon on Usury, 135. Serralonga, Urban de, 48-9. Seymour, Jane, 198. Shakespeare, William, 6, 321, 325, 334. Short Confession on the Holy Sacrament, 403-4. Sicily, 83. Sickingen, Franz von, 73, 112, 219, 431. Sieberger, Wolfgang, 68, 168, 360-1, 366, 369-70. Sigismund, Emperor, 105. Silesia, 406-7. Sindringer, 308. Socrates, 367. Sodom, 34, 91, 379. Soest, 422. Solomon, 185. Soranus, Lawrence, 279-80. Sorbonne (see Paris), 453. Spain, 77, 98. Spalatin, Catharine, 178. Spalatin, George, 29-30, 33-4, 46, 49, 53, 55, 60-1, 64, 70, 73, 99, 105, 108, 110-1, 121, 123-4, 127, 130, 137, 170, 172, 174-5. 177, 184, 194, 200, 217-8, 220-1, 249, 263, 276, 313, 367. Spaniards, 118. Spengler, Lazarus, 101, 217. Spengler, Swiss student, 141-3. Spies, 340. Spires, 219, 221, 226-8, 247, 314, 390, 399, 432. Starenberg, Bartholomew von, 232. Staupitz, John von, 14, 16, 17, 20, 33-4, 46-8, 51-2, 72, 87, 96, 107-8, 170, 182, 183, 229, 339, 343, 447. Staupitz, Magdalene von, 170-1. Storoh, Nicholas, 137-8, 150. Stotterheim, 9. Strassburg, 28, 164-6, 238, 245, 288, 290, 293. Stiibner, Mark Thomae, 150. Sturtz, 310. Suliman, Sultan, 226. Sulzer, Simon, 295. Sunday, 83, 254. Superstition, 3, 339-41. (See Devil.) Supreme unction, 89, 220. Sntel, John, 279. INDEX 489 Swabia, 157. Swabian League, 277. Swaven, Peter, 1H. Swiss, 195, 241, 260, 272, 295. (SeeZwin- glians.) Switzerland, 141-2, 157, 243. Sybilla, Eleetress of Saxony, 414. Tambaoh, 310-1. Taubenbeim, John von, 369. Tauler, John, 27, 343, 473. Terence, 342. Tesseradecas, 78. Tetzel, John, 39-40, 47, 128-9, 449-50. Tetzel, Lady, 345. Teutleben, Caspar von, 255. That these Words " This is my Body " stand fast against the Banting Spirits, 141-2. Theatre, 325, 350. Thur, John, 174. Thuringia, 1, 31, 121, 158. Titns, Paul's epistle to, 185. Tomitzsch, Wolf, 170. Torgau, 32, 34, 169-70, 181, 216, 224, 299, 353, 409, 426. Thomists, 65. Transubstantiation, 71, 84, 90, 238. Trent, Council of, 399, 401, 422. Trier, see Richard. Trott, Eva von, 393. Truchses, Eosina von, 361-2, 415-6. Trutvetter, Jodocus, 5, 24, 26. Tunis, 388. Turkey, 76, 346. Turkish, 253. Turkish War, On the, 226-7. Turks, 48, 82, 161, 226, 227-8, 247, 248, 255, 289, 310, 371, 385, 405, 411, 415. Twelve Articles of the Peasants, 157-9, 162. Ulrich, Duke of Wiirttemburg, 277, 309. Uncle Tom's Cabin, 86. Unfree Will, 207-3, 236, 240. Universities, 6, 84-5, 96, 98. Urban II, Pope, 36. Usingen, Bartholomew Arnoldi of, 5, 14, 24. Usury, 85. Vadian, 204, 242, 402. Valentine, St., 308. Valla Lorenzo, 72-3, 202, 204, 344. Vater, Conrad, 250. Vatican, 23, 319. Vehus, Dr., 118. Venice, 179, 256. Vergerio, Paolo, 303-7, 316-7, 328, 430, 465. Vienna, 58, 114, 226. Virgil, 6, 234, 388-9. Vogtland, 245. Volta, Gabriel della, 46, 48, 51, 96. Voltaire, 199, 407. Vos, Henry, 229. Vulgate, 14, 40, 90, 264. Wagner, Eiohard, 121. Waldenses, 113. Walther, John, 231. Warning to all Christians to keep from Uproar and Sedition, 137. Warning to his dear Germans, 273, 300. Warning to the Prelates at Augsburg, 252-3, 273. Wartburg, 5, 53, 120-35, 145, 168. 182, 188, 214, 218, 230, 238, 248, 252, 263. 285, 327, 430, 454-5. Watt, see Vadian. Weimar, 20, 150, 153, 278, 379-80. Weinsberg, 159. Weller, Jerome, 320-1, 324, 347-«, 353, 356-7, 358. Weller, Matthew, 348. Weller, Peter, 356, 358. Wesel, 202. Westphalia, 422. Wettin, see Saxony. Whether Soldiers can be in a State of Grace, 226. Wick, John von, 79. Wicliffe, John, 113. Wiclifites, 230. Will, see Free Will. William, Duke of Brunswick- Wolfen- buttel, 393. Wittenberg, town, 20-1, 31-3, 40, 47, 53. 61, 74, 79, 111, 120, 122, 133, 135-8, 140-1, 144, 147, 150, 152, 156, 170-1, 176, 182, 187-8, 196-8, 214, 222, 232, 247-9, 253, 255,257-8, 262-3, 275, 277, 280, 293, 295, 302, 306, 312, 319, 329, 331, 332-3, 340, 355-6, 360, 363, 369, 374, 382, 412, 415-7, 423, 425-6, 429. Wittenberg, University of, 11-2, 14-5, 27, 29, 54, 60, 65, 70, 75, 98, 100, 111, 141, 171, 176, 183-5, 188, 220, 303-4, 328-9, 332, 353, 355, 363, 412, 417, 429, 446,456. Witzel, George, 211. 480 INDEX Wolsey, Thomas, 192, 194, 197. Worms, Conference of (1540), 387, 391-2. Worms, Diet of (1521), 51, 98, 101-21, 123, 127, 145, 148, 153, 182, 202, 218, 224, 262, 255, 279, 297, 329, 343, 346, 387,430,431,452-3,472. Worms, Edict of, 120, 122-3, 215, 219, 226-7, 247, 431. Wiirttemhurg (see Ulrich), 277-8. Wiirzburg, Bishop of, 224, 278. Wiirzen, 385. Zeitz, 416. Zeschau, Catharine) 170. Zeschau, Margaret, 170. Ziegler, 265. Zulsdorf, 168, 369, 370, 372, 380, 416. Zurich, 239, 260, 272, 289, 295, 404-5, 407, 432. Zwickau, 149-51, 259, 279-81. Zwickau prophets, 135, 137-9, 148-9,214, 264, 267, 285, 373. Zwilling, Gabriel, 135-6, 140. Zwingli, Ulrich, tl, 154, 189, 203, 218, 227, 238-46, 264, 288-92, 295, 317, 402, 404-5, 406, 430, 432, 463. Zwinglians, 256, 295, 400. Zwolle, 77, 471.